Should we say “I Don't Know” ?

Suppose you are in a meeting and one of your Superior is throwing a observation to all , “The details in RPG report shows we are on the right path”  If you have no clue on what a RPG report is , chances are you may keep quiet , keeping your head steady and hope the leader changes the topic soon. Why should you do that? What if you just raised your hand and asked “I don't know what a RPG report is, Can you please tell us?”
If you have done that the superior will explain it and you will start to see lots of relived faces around.

In to-days world people want to have knowledge about anything and everything about the things around them. I have a friend who is very frank in this regard. Even he notice that all people around him knows about the subject, he will simply ask “What is it? I don't have a clue” Even though he is risking to be a idiot , he is gaining lots of information there. Then only we can improve. Googling for everything will give you answer's, but not the right one.

The problem of faking the knowledge is more risky in the corporate world. Imagine a marketing guy meeting one of the prospective clients for the company and agrees to every thing the client asks. “yes we can do it” , “we will deliver it” etc The company may get the contract , but the end result will be a tot-tally dis satisfied customer and a frustrated company management.

This happens in smallest of matters also, that too among thick friends. I have a friend who bought a new mobile which is the same model as mine. A few months later i happened to check his mobile to call some one, as my phone was low on battery. What i saw in his contact list is, that full off Abbreviated names. Most of them just 3 or of characters, which are very hard to understand, even for him. I first thought all were his girlfriends names which he want to kept secret, but when i asked about it he said that there is some problem with the phone keypad, he cant type non dictionary words, which will come as non readable abbreviations.  The only issue was the T9 dictionary was on, he just need to switch it off while typing.
Why he didn't ask this to me? yes I am sarcastic at times which will keep him at the receiving end. But still it could have helped him a lot in his daily phone usage.

To conclude i will say Truth Doesnt Hurt. You are not expected to know every answer to the world. You should say “I dont know” as a sign of strength. And always remember there are questions in this world which Google cant answer, but a normal human can.

To Berry or Bury it

These days media is been full of news regarding tug of war between black berry and governments across the globe. Issues started when Saudi raised concerns about the security issues regarding usage of blackberry services from  RIM (Research In Motion). This was then taken up by countries like Oman and India. When thinking about terrorists using these devices and create problems in our country we will be very much concerned and a quick solution is to Ban it completely. 


Question is whether it is okay for the government to spy on legal and  confidential communication between law abiding citizens? And, will this move to monitor secure BlackBerry conversations in real-time actually stop terrorism ? And how about the rights to privacy in a democracy where all have constitutional rights?

Why Company's insist on BlackBerry ?


BlackBerry system is designed in such a way that, mail is encrypted at the BES (

BlackBerry Enterprise Server

) located in your organisation's data centre and decrypted only at your user's BlackBerry device--at no other point does encryption or decryption happen. The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is based on a symmetric key system whereby your organisation creates its own key and only your organisation ever possesses a copy of the encryption key. RIM says it does not possess a 'master key', nor does any 'back door' exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access to the key or your valuable corporate data. The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances. BlackBerry's information governance capabilities are a huge part of the reason why organisations insist on BlackBerry.

Terrorists have also used extremely simple methods of communication. Example in some simply save an e-mail as a draft, and since the password for the e-mail account is known to both sender and receiver, the recipient views the draft too. Even they have used images to hide data inside it. So banning this may not be a solution for all  dangerous communications.


I have nothing against Islam, but still  the only countries that have problems with BlackBerry are Islamic ones, which you'll agree are not exactly admired for their open societies or mature, democratic systems of governance. 


The Telecom department on other hand have lot of other issues to solve first. First the ever awaited 3G, second our Number portability system, third our still not perfect 'Do Not Call Registry'. Also as per latest reports coming not Saudi and Oman has issued statement saying that they are now against the Ban. So  our media and telecom department should make sure not to make this issue just a controversy but to find a solution to the problem all are facing.

Is this Lady luck, Mr Dhoni ?

If there is some one who dont know what Lady Luck is,  should ask our MS Dhoni. Just after a week he tyed knote with his fiancee Sakshi Rawat, Dhoni signed a RS 210 crore ($46 million) deal with talent manaement company Rhithi Sports Management. They will be managing his endorsements from now onwards. This made him overtake ‘God’. Yes our cricket god Sachin Tendulkar is now behind MSD.

Now MS Dhoni is at par with NBA legends Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. The one who leads the endorsement pack is still the one and only Tiger Woods ($110 million), but beware Tiger, the gap is getting narrower yearly.

Today at the time of writing India scripted a win in the last and final test against Srilanka to level the series. Another feather in Dhoni’s cap. No one predicted this turn around after India’s historic loss in the first test which also turn out to be the last Test for legendary lanakan spinner Muralidharan who retired in style after taking 800 wickets in Tests.

Keep riding on lady luck “Captain Marvel”, we expect a lot more from you.

Should you invest in ULIPS?

Recently there were several changes to the ULIP’s.But one should keep in mind that it’s core has not changed. They still remains as a long term investment cum insurance plans which always miss sells to customers. I always heard people talking that their investments are mainly in equity's which even give them insurance coverage for free. Yes they were being told like that by the agents. Final result will be that these huge entry loads ranging from 30 to 40% makes their investment un viable and this leads to false education regarding the entire equity investment. Let’s try to see who all and when all and what all things we should consider before investing in ULIPS.

Who should choose ULIPS?

A person who invests in ULIPS should be willing to invest in Equity’s. Choosing debt funds in ULIPS will be a tragedy as despite the high charges of ULIPS the returns from debt instruments will be too low, which may always result in a loss of your investments. The advantage of ULIPS is on the switching feature. So for the one who know the dynamics of markets he can switch from equity and debt as the BULL and BEAR side of market comes in to play.

Which type of plan is good for you?

The main problem of ULIPS is that the insurance converge is too low. Imagine getting 2 Lakh coverage when the total premium for first 3 years is 2 Lakhs and more. So to get the most of it, one should try to choose the plans which will give enough coverage as required for a longer period. Some even cover till 90 yeras of age.
Another problem is with the amount getting after the death of the insurer. Some ULIPs give either the fund value or the some assured..choosing which one is higher. Here a normal user should choose the fund which will give both the fund value and Sum Assured.

Conclusion

To enjoy the benefits of ULIPS, one should invest for at-least 10 years. Coz for the first 3 years the load charge are huge and negligible there after. Also should opt for plans which will have a good coverage as per your requirement. So if you are an investor who want a plan to save for your childrens college education in 10 years time...ULIPS are for you. For others please choose Mutual Funds or direct investments in Stocks.