Indian Banking System: Payment and Settlement Systems

In recent years, alternate money transmission avenues, especially the development of electronic money schemes, have been gaining currency. While electronic money has the potential to take over from cash for making small-value payments, making such transactions are becoming easier and cheaper for both consumers and merchants. This raises policy issues for central banks in its role as the guardian of the payment network and implementer of the monetary policy. The emergence of peer-to-peer money transmission mechanisms poses a challenge to current role of banks as gatekeepers to traditional payment systems. Robust payment systems, therefore, are a key requirement in maintaining and promoting financial stability with technology playing both a facilitating and disruptive role in them. Reserve Bank’s initiatives for electronic payments and banking As part of its public policy objective of promoting a safe, secure, sound and efficient payment system, the Reserve Bank has taken several initiatives to develop and Continue reading

Change Kaleidoscope – Change Management Models

Due to growing of globalization, advance technology, and organizational consolidation, change is nowadays become a crucial part of every organization in order to survive in changing business environment. To handle the change, change management is required in transitioning for both organizational and individual level to attain future desired change. Change at organizational level is related to strategy which will indicate organizational direction and activities. In developing effective organization strategy, both internal and external environments have to be taken into consideration. When the strategy has been changed as adapting to changing internal and external environments, strategic change is necessity to be utilized in change management in order to align change with developed strategy. As individual change is pivotal part of organization change, change management need to be adopted at individual level in order to initiate the change and consequently obtain successful organization change. Change Kaleidoscope was produced by Hope Hailey & Continue reading

Advantages of Budgetary Control

The following are some of the most significant advantages of budgetary control. Budgeting compels management to plan for the future, the budgeting forces management to look ahead and become more-effective and efficient in administering business operations. It instills into managers the habit of evaluating carefully their problems and related variables before making any decisions. Budgeting helps to coordinate, integrate, and balance the efforts of various departments in the light of the overall objectives of the enterprise. This results in goal congruency and harmony among the departments. Budgeting facilitates control by providing definite expectation on the planning phase that can be used as a frame of reference for judging subsequent performance. Undoubtedly, budgeted performance is a more important standard for comparison than past performance, since past performance is historical factors, which are constantly changing. Budgeting improves the quality of communication. The enterprise’s objectives, budget goals, plans, authority and responsibility and procedures Continue reading

Pigovian Tax – Meaning and Definition

Neo-classicals uphold perfect competition as the ideal state of the market. But in truth, the economy is fraught with market failures. Therefore, we need government interference to correct many of these market failures. Pigovian Tax (also spelled  Pigouvian tax) imposed by the government is one such course of intervention. It helps to curb negative externalities (e.g. pollution) and reduce the burden on the society caused by the externalities (social costs of production and consumption). Moreover, it attacks over-consumption, bringing it closer to the socially optimal level of production and/or consumption. What is Pigovian Tax? Pigovian tax is a kind of tax, which is levied to correct a negative cost that is created by the actions of any business firm, but that is not considered in a firm’s private costs or profits. Also known as ‘sin tax’, it is a tax placed on an action with a negative externality, to correct Continue reading

Trends in Retail Formats

Retail industry is continuously going through changes on account of liberalization, globalization and consumer preferences. While multinational retail chains are looking for new markets, manufacturers are identifying, redefining, or evolving new retail formats. The existing retail houses are also gearing up to face the emerging competition from the organized sector and the changing outlook of the consumers. For example, consumer spending is shifting from goods to services. Accordingly the retailers too are fast adjusting to the changing consumer preferences. Consumers are not only looking for the core products or functional benefits from the retailers but also the non-functional benefits, which need to be compatible with their lifestyles. For example, most of the traditional eating joints in India such as Haldiram, Bikaner and Sagar Ratna have revised their product offerings and atmospherics on the lines of the multinational chains to compete with them and to serve changed expectations of the consumers. Continue reading

Golden Rules for Building Retail Displays

It goes without saying that the displays play very significant role in retailing and retail outlet. An attractive and informative displays can help in large volume of sales in terms of goods and services. In building a retail display, some fundamental rules should be followed to get best out of these where good deal of treasure, talent and time is involved on the part of retailer. This  golden rules are: 1. Achieve Balance It is important to make sure that the display appears balanced to the viewer, in building display. This is achieved by arranging products and props in a particular way. A display may have formal or informal balance. “Formal” balance is achieved by balancing on each side of the center one more or more similar items. “Informal” balance is achieved by balancing on opposite sides of the  center  dissimilar items. The effects produced by informal balance are less Continue reading