DONT COMPARE YOUR CHILDREN

It’s natural for parents to notice that one child is more cooperative or

better behaved in some ways than another child in the same family.

Comparing siblings, however, does not encourage better behavior, but

intensifies jealousy and envy. It also is likely that the child you compare

unfavorably may want to get even with the child you praise.

Instead of comparing one child unfavorably to another, comment

only on the behavior that displeases you. (“I see a brand new jacket on

the floor. That bothers me. This?  jacket belongs in the closet.” instead

of “Why can’t you hang up your clothes like your brother?”)

Also, avoid praising one child at the other's expense. (“You’re sure

better at picking up your toys than your brother.”) The child you're

praising may feel sorry for the sibling you are criticizing or the

child may feel superior and look down on the other child.

Sherry and John have 3 children —

Mark, 6, Julie, 4, and Todd, 1. Sherry,in her concern for Julie as “the middle

child,” got in the habit of pointing out Julie’s good behavior to Mark. For

instance, she would say, “Mark, look how Julie is cleaning up her plate. See if you

can finish your dinner, too.” One day when Sherry asked the kids to pick up

toys, she heard Mark say to Julie, “I’m not going to pick up anything

.You’re  the one who does everything right.” ?  Sherry then made a commitment to

stop comparing Mark to Julie. The next day when she saw Julie hanging up her

jacket and Mark dropping his on the floor, she resisted the urge to compare

the children and said to Mark, “I see a coat on the floor that needs hanging up?.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Mergers and acquisitions are the most popular means of corporate 

restructuring or business combinations in comparison to amalgamation, 

takeovers, spin-offs, leverage buy-outs, buy-back of shares,

 capital reorganisation, sale of business units and assets etc. Corporate 

restructuring refers to the changes in ownership, business mix, assets 

mix and alliances with a motive to increase the value of shareholders. To 

achieve the objective of wealth maximisation, a company should ?

 continuously evaluate its portfolio of business, capital mix, ownership

and assets arrangements to find out opportunities for increasing the

wealth of shareholders. There is a great deal of confusion and

disagreement regarding the precise meaning of terms relating to the

business combinations, i.e. mergers, acquisition, take-over,

amalgamation and consolidation. Although the economic considerations

in terms of motives and effect of business combinations are similar but

the legal procedures involved are different. The mergers/amalgamations

of corporates constitute a subject-matter of the Companies Act and the

acquisition/takeover fall under the purview of the Security and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI) and the stock exchange listing agreements.

A merger/amalgamation refers to a combination of two or more

companies into one company. One or more companies may merge with

an existing company or they may merge to form a new company. Laws in

India use the term amalgamation for merger for example, Section 2 (IA) of

the Income Tax Act, 1961 defines amalgamation as the merger of one or

more companies (called amalgamating company or companies) with

another company (called amalgamated company) or the merger of two or

more companies to form a new company in such a way that all assets

and liabilities of the amalgamating company or companies become assets 

and liabilities of the amalgamated company and shareholders holding not

less than nine-tenths in value of the shares in the amalgamating

company or companies become shareholders of the amalgamated

company. After this, the term merger and acquisition will be used

interchangeably. Merger or amalgamation may take two forms: merger

through absorption, merger through consolidation. Absorption is a

combination of two or more companies into an existing company. All

companies except one lose their identity in a merger through absorption.

For example, absorption of Tata Fertilisers Ltd. (TFL) by Tata Chemical

Limited (TCL). Consolidation is a combination of two or more companies

Into a new company. In this form of merger, all companies are legally ?.

dissolved and new company is created for example Hindustan Computers

Ltd., Hindustan Instruments Limited, Indian Software Company Limited

and Indian Reprographics Ltd. Lost their existence and create a new

entity HCL Limited.

Types of Mergers

Mergers may be classified into the following three types- (i)

horizontal, (ii) vertical and (iii) conglomerate.

Horizontal Merger

Horizontal merger takes place when two or more corporate firms

dealing in similar lines of activities combine together. For example,

merger of two publishers or two luggage manufacturing companies.

Elimination or reduction in competition, putting an end to price cutting,

economies of scale in production, research and development, marketing

and management are the often cited motives underlying such mergers.

Vertical Merger

Vertical merger is a combination of two or more firms involved in 

different stages of production or distribution. For example, joining of a

spinning company and weaving company. Vertical merger may be

forward or backward merger. When a company combines with the

supplier of material, it is called backward merger and when it combines

with the customer, it is known as forward merger. The main advantages

of such mergers are lower buying cost of materials, lower distribution

costs, assured supplies and market, increasing or creating barriers to

entry for competitors etc.

Conglomerate merger :

Conglomerate merger is a combination in which a firm in one 

industry combines with a firm from an unrelated industry. A typical 

example is merging of different businesses like manufacturing of cement 

products, fertilisers products, electronic products, insurance investment 

and advertising agencies. Voltas Ltd. is an example of a conglomerate 

company. Diversification of risk constitutes the rationale for such 

mergers. 

MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Qualification of a measurement system for use by quantifying its accuracy, precision, and stability

–Understand the quality characteristics of measurement

–Understand the method for establishing measurement capability

–Define the requirements of the measurement system

The Qualities of Measurement

Resolution

•Accuracy (Bias)

•Linearity

•Repeatability

•Reproducibility

•Stability

Resolution is the incremental ability of a measurement system to discriminate between measurement values. The measurement system should have a minimum of 20 measurement increments within the product tolerance (e.g, for a full tolerance of 1, minimum resolution is .05)

Accuracy—or bias—is a measure of the distance between the average value of the measurement of a part and the True, certified, or assigned value of a part.

Linearity   is the consistency of accuracy (bias)over the range of measurement; a slope of one (unity) between measured and true value is perfect.

Repeatability   is the consistency of a single appraiser to measure the same part multiple times with the same measurement system; it is related to the standard deviation of the measured values.

Reproducibility is the consistency of different appraisers in measuring the same part with the same measurement system; it is related to standard deviation of the distribution of appraiser averages.Stability is the ability of a measurement system to produce the same values over time when measuring the same sample As with statistical process control charts, stability means the absence of “Special Cause Variation” which is indicated by an “in control” condition, leaving only "Common Cause” or random variation.

   Generally, precision is the principle concern; inaccuracy due to linearity or constant            bias can typically be corrected through calibration•

  Measurement Error is the statistical summing of the error generated by Repeatability(the     variation within an appraiser) and Reproducibility (the variation between appraisers)–            σerror= √(σ repeability)2+ (σ reproducibility)2

•Total Measurement Error spans the interval that contains 99% of probable  measurement values from a measurement system, using a single part–Total  Measurement Error = 5.15 * σerror• Measurement system precision is defined by  the Precision/Tolerance Ratio, the ratio between Total Measurement Error and    the part tolerance–P/T Ratio = 5.15 * σerror/ (Upper Spec Limit –Lower Spec Limit)

Error Independence is defined by the lack of a relationship between measurement error and the measurement value; error generated by the measurement process should be independent of the measured value

•Stability is defined by the randomness of the measurement error; purely random measurement error is evidence of good stability

•Linearity is defined by the slope of measured value vs. true value; a slope of 1 (a 1:1 relationship) is perfect

•Bias Offset is defined by the average difference between the measured value and the true value at the specification target; a value of zero is perfect

–The combination Bias Offset and Linearity define the amount of systematic measurement error across the entire measurement range; they are typically corrected through calibration

THE FISH

ALTHOUGH you hide in the ebb and flow

Of the pale tide when the moon has set,

The people of coming days will know

About the casting out of my net,

And how you have leaped times out of mind

Over the little silver cords,

And think that you were hard and unkind,

And blame you with many bitter words.?

THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS

At the coming of night-tide, And dreamed of the long dim hair Of Bridget his bride. He heard while he sang and dreamed A piper piping away,And never was piping so sad,And never was piping so gay.And he saw young men and young girls Who danced on a level place,And Bridget his bride among them,With a sad and a gay face.The dancers crowded about him And many a sweet thing said,And a young man brought him red wine And a young girl white bread.But Bridget drew him by the sleeve Away from the merry bands,To old men playing at cards With a twinkling of ancient hands.The bread and the wine had a doom,For these were the host of the air;He sat and played in a dream Of her long dim hair.He played with the merry old men Of her long dim hair.He played with the merry old men Of her long dim hair.He played with the merry old men,The handsomest young man there,And his neck and his breast and his arms Were drowned in her long dim hair.O’Driscoll scattered the cardsAnd out of his dream awoke:Were drowned in her long dim hair.O’Driscoll scattered the cardsAnd out of his dream awoke:But he heard high up in the air A piper piping away, And never was piping so sad?

ARUNDHATI ROY (Writer & Social Activist)

Susanna Arundhati Roy the first Indian woman to have won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, was born on 24th November 1961 in Bengal and grew up in Aymanam village, Kottayam, Kerala. She was born to parents Mary Roy a well known social activist who won a landmark Supreme Court verdict that granted Christian women in Kerala the right to their parent's property and father a Bengali Hindu tea planter. Arundhati's parents separated when she was small and she did her formal education in Corpus Christi school run by her mother in Kottayam District, Kerala. When she was just 16, she left her home and settled in Delhi. There she did her degree in Architecture at the Delhi School of Architecture. During this period she met Gerard Da Cunha a fellow architecture student and married him but their marriage lasted only four years. After a brief stint in the field of architecture, she found that it was not for her. She left for Goa, making a  life out at the beach, got tired of it after a few months, came back to Delhi. She took a job at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, met Pradeep Krishen, a film director now her husband who offered her a small role in 'Massey Saab'. She went to Italy on a scholarship for eight months to study the restoration of monuments. She realised she was a writer during those months in Italy. After she returned from Italy she worked with Pradeep Krishen and they planned an episode television for Doordarshan called the 'Banyan Tree' which didn't materialise and was shelved by the producers after shooting 2-3 episodes. She wrote and starred in 'In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones', a film on college life in India, based on her experiences in the University of Delhi, and wrote the screenplay for Pradip Krishen's film 'Electric Moon' (1992). She quickly became known for her work as screenwriter.

Then she wrote a series of essays called 'The Great Indian Rape Trick' which attracted media attention, in defense of former dacoit Phoolan Devi, who she felt had been exploited by Shekhar Kapur's film 'Bandit Queen'. Then came her debut novel 'The God of Small Things' which shot her into prominence in 1997, by winning the prestigious British Booker prize in London and becoming an international best seller. The book, which took almost five years to complete, gives an insight to the social and political life in a village in South India through the eyes of seven year old twins and how it effects/disrupts their small lives. The book won £20,000 as prize and sold nearly 400,000 copies globally by October that year. In the years following her success, she has turned to activism, writing 'The Cost of Living' a book comprising two essays 'The Greater Common Good'(1999) and 'The End of Imagination'(1998); the former against Indian Governments massive dam projects which displaced millions of poor people and the latter; its testing of Nuclear weapons. She has been an active participant in public demonstrations against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in Western India and has donated a substantial amount around 1.5million rupees, equivalent to her Booker  Prize money, for the cause. She was even arrested along with other protestors for campaigning for the cause. 'Power Politics' her latest book published, takes on Enron the power corporation based in Houston trying to take over Maharashtra's energy sector. She has also spoken on and published several articles such as 'Promotion of equal rights' supporting equal rights for lower caste in India and 'War on Terrorism' (2001)against the Iraq war. ? 

THE EVERLASTING VOICES

O SWEET everlasting Voices, be still;

Go to the guards of the heavenly fold

And bid them wander obeying your will,

Flame under flame, till Time be no more;

Have you not heard that our hearts are old,

That you call in birds, in wind on the hill,

In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?

O sweet everlasting Voices, be still.?