...Election year is always a difficult time for those who expect politicians and pundits to remain rational. The political maneuvering started a while ago and clean energy became another point of contention between various political factions. “ONE YEAR AGO TODAY, THE SOLAR MANUFACTURER SOLYNDRA FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY AFTER RECEIVING A $527 MILLION LOAN GUARANTEE. THE BANKRUPTCY SET OFF A POLITICAL FIRESTORM IN CONGRESS, AND EVENTUALLY WORKED ITS WAY INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. TODAY, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS USING SOLYNDRA AS A KEY TOOL IN ITS CAMPAIGN AGAINST OBAMA — SMEARING THE ENTIRE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY IN THE PROCESS.” (Lacey, 2012) Campaigns of this magnitude have a significant impact on the international political scene, and economic decisions. Considering that currently China has a very large and inexpensive manufacturing capabilities, as comparing to those in the U.S.; it should not come as a surprise that they can outperform Western (U.S.) manufactures. “PRICES OF SOLAR PANELS HAVE PLUMMETED, CAUSING A SUPPLY GLUT AND SLICING COMPANY REVENUES. SOLYNDRA'S COLLAPSE MARKED THE THIRD TIME IN AS MANY WEEKS THAT A SOLAR COMPANY DECLARED BANKRUPTCY. EVERGREEN SOLAR INC. OF MASSACHUSETTS AND SPECTRAWATT OF NEW YORK ALSO FILED FOR PROTECTION. (Mulkern, 2011). Clean energy is not only appealing to the United States, “THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS [also] INVESTING IN SOLAR PRODUCTION, WHICH HAS LED TO A BURST IN PRODUCTION THAT HAS BOOSTED SUPPLIES AND FORCED DOWN PRODUCT PRICES...
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...Assignment 4 Political Geography and International Economics Oct 18,2012 Question 1 answer： According the theory of external scale economic, it means when abundant companies in the same industry cluster within a small-scale location or specific geographic area, the average cost of their production will decrease, at the same time, the productivity will increase. External scale economic not only reduce the cost, but also force these companies to become more specialization under a competitive environment. Furthermore industry clustering also will attract numerous skilled and unskilled labours, and the transfer of labour in different firms also will promote the whole industry’s technology and knowledge. In addition, clustering helps to promote the development of peripheral industries. When 1898, the first U.S vehicle company Olds has been establish in Detroit. After that, with the development of modern automotive industry, amount of auto companies have been set up there. At the present time, Detroit gradually formed an external scale economic focus mainly on GM, Ford, Chrysler as center, supplemented with peripheral industries, such as auto accessory, auto Research and development. And because of the location of Detroit, which includes the Great Lakes, railways and three international airport terminals, efficient logistic system accelerates the development of external scale economic. In spite of the...
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...Political Ties and its Effect on National Airlines of India By Shree Neve. 1. Introduction A company is politically connected with a politician if one of the company’s large shareholder or its top officer is: (a) a member of parliament (MP), (b) a minister or the head of state, or (c) closely related to a top official (Faccio, 2006). A company can have a politically connected individual in various scenarios: (a) either at a top most position of the company, (b) either as a large stakeholder, or (c) national ministry in-charge of a national company. The state owned enterprises (SOE’s) have direct political connections as they are completely governed and controlled by the ruling state party. SOE’s are an integral part of the nation’s economy, its welfare and social responsibility. SOE’s can raise the nation’s economy to humongous levels if managed efficiently by the responsible politicians and individuals handling the SOE. However, using SOE’s for individual benefits and not for national economy can have adverse effects on the SOE leading to huge losses of nation’s economy. Consequently, in some cases a politically connected firm can use its political ties for increase a firm’s performance and overall productivity but in some scenarios a politically connected firm can support a politician connected to gain personal benefits. 2. Downfall of the great Red Indian Maharaja, Air India A typical case of India’s national airline carrier Air India during the regime of Mr....
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...“Integrity: Panacea for Socio-Economic and Political Challenges in Nigeria” Nigeria is a nation blessed with vast human and mineral resources. Ironically, her economy is struggling to leverage the country’s vast wealth to displace the economic and political challenges that affects its population.1 Beyond the recent impressive financial projections, a good number of Nigerians still live on less than $1.00 (One dollar) a day, which is about N160.00 (One Hundred and Sixty Naira), and more Nigerians have resorted to a life of crime with some becoming ready tools in the hands of some politicians. Poverty reduction and job creation, as promised by our political leaders, have not kept pace with population growth, implying social distress for an increasing number of Nigerians. Integrity and moral values have been jettisoned to few people, who have little or no impact in the system of government and corruption has been embraced as a tool of inordinate wealth accumulation. Social vices are committed with high level of impunity and the epidemic of the ‘get rich at all cost syndrome’ has infiltrated all age levels in our society, most especially the youths; future leaders of tomorrow. Undermining, “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right; it will leave him in the midst of his days, and at the end he will be a fool” (Jeremiah 17:11 NKJV). In ascribing reasons for these socio-economic imbalance and political instabilities in Nigeria, it...
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...Discuss the political and economic effects of different types on transnational organizations. SAN3508 Aravinth Raj Palpandian 1 Introduction This essay has the topic of how political and economic factors of different types affect a transnational organization. It is a theory and concept based essay using frameworks from the course literature. The main body of our essay will contain answers to below queries: What is globalization and how it gave rise to Global firms (stimuli). How Economic factor leads to certain advantages and attributes of Global firms / Transnational Corporations / Multi National Enterprises. How does country related political factors affect these firms and their policies. Then, we conclude our essay based on the finer details derived from our extensive discussion. Concepts and examples that are used to answer our queries in main body fall under the following topics: Globalization and global firms. Stimuli for becoming transnational: which in short is to prove that market-economy driven industries eventual step for growth is to go global. Economic Attributes and Advantages. Political factor and Conclusion. Globalization and Global Firms According to Hall (2011), a change has been occurring steadily over a span of last three decades where we have been moving away from a world in which national economies were a singularity and remained largely self-contained due to varying differences between them. We are working towards a...
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...Economic Feasibility The first step to analyzing the economic feasibility of our proposed project is to determine the Project Benefits. Some of the main tangible benefits that will be realized from the project include error reduction leading to cost reduction and increased productivity due to user-friendliness. Intangible benefits arising from this project will include increase in user confidence as they know there is no chance of major information loss. The next step is to determine Project Costs. Some of our tangible costs will of course include any costs associated with acquiring additional Hardware or Hardware upgrades such as new or upgraded storage servers (physical or virtualised), Software Costs (in this case, the software we will be purchasing), labor costs for our constructor/programmers and of course costs associated with training users how to use the new system. One Intangible cost may include a drop in employee morale initially as there is often a resistance to change, especially in employees who have been using the old system for some time. Another intangible cost that could possibly occur should the project not be executed carefully would be operational efficiency. Costs mentioned above that would fall into the One-time cost category would include the Hardware and Software components required, user training, and potentially data conversion costs should the system purchased not be directly transferable. Contrarily, costs such as incremental data storage...
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...at the heavy cost of internal suppression of dissent. This suppression of dissent robbed Indonesia’s economy of the vitality and incentives associated with a free-market economy in which individual property owners, who in the process of seeking to accumulate wealth enrich the entire economy and create economic growth. While Indonesia has since overthrown the dictatorial government, corruption and red tape remain rife at almost all levels of government in Indonesia. A World Bank study revealed how excessive red tape in Indonesia hurts business activities: An entrepreneur in Indonesia must wait an average of 151 days to complete the necessary paperwork to start a business, compared to 30 days in Malaysia and a mere 8 days in Singapore, severely hampering the Indonesian entrepreneur’s speed and desire to participate in the economy. In turn, the excessive red tape translates into long lines of government bureaucrats, whose low salaries make it attractive for them to seek a bribe at every step of the business transaction, further distracting and detracting the entrepreneur from legitimate business pursuits. In addition to these political factors, Indonesia also suffers from economics factors that hinder growth. Indonesia’s poor infrastructure makes it difficult to conduct business: A poor infrastructure in roads signifies that it is difficult to transport goods and services to the consumers, and may even hinder export-related businesses if companies cannot ship the finished intermediary...
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...RUNNING HEADER: Social, Political and Economic Forces Explain how social, political and economic forces have influenced organization and the practice of management Maxine Williams Portmore Community College, Old Harbour 3 December 2009 Introduction The social, political and economic forces do indeed influence how organizations operate as well as the practice of management. When an organization plans to conduct marketing activities or expand its market, it is recommended that they conduct SWOT analysis to find out its strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats in order to move forward. They do this by evaluating the social, political and economic forces in the environment. In addition, the practice of management is influenced by the social environment e.g. cultural climate in a country and an organization. It is further influenced by the political environment such as trade regulations, wage legislation, political instability et al. The economic factors will also influence the practice of management by the economic growth rate, labour costs, the skill level of workers et al. The author will discuss these factors in greater detail throughout the body of the paper. Defining the Social, Political and Economic Forces The social environmental factors include the demographic and cultural aspects of the external macro-environment. These factors affect customer needs and the size of potential markets. Political factors include government regulations...
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...Q3: Assess the general direction of the political and economic policies being followed in order to develop the country. Rapid growth since 1980 has transformed India from the world’s 50th ranked economy in nominal U.S. dollars to the 10th largest in 2005. When income is measured with regard to purchasing power parity, the Indian economy occupies fourth place, after the United States, Japan, and China. Along with growing incomes, India’s increasingly outward orientation makes it an important player in the global economy and the growing optimism about India’s economy has led to a surge in international investors’ interest. Further growth acceleration since 2003 has shifted the debate from a concern about the ability to sustain an annual growth rate of 6 percent to the prospects for increasing this growth rate to 8 percent (Ahmed 2007, Commission on growth and development, Battles Half Won: The Political Economy of India’s Growth and Economic Policy since Independence). The down turn in the economy that appears to have begun in the USA in September, 2008 has had some negative impact on the Indian economy. The most immediate effect of this global financial crisis on India is an out flow of foreign institutional investment (FII) from the equity market. This withdrawal by the FIIs led to a steep depreciation of the rupee. The banking and non-banking financial institutions have been suffering losses. The recession that generated the financial crisis in USA and other developed economies...
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...Develop the argument that certain kinds of cultures, political and economic systems are, by their nature, resistant to economic development through international trade. In this modern age of globalization, where capital can cross the national borders so easily and the investment funds can be pulled from one country to another in order to respond to new business opportunities, economic development is attainable in the most of the countries. However, the economic development depends on the certain kinds of cultures, political and economic systems. In general for any country to reach an economic development there are few conditions to be met such as stable government, no corruption and friendly culture. In other words, economic development is “affected by those intangibles that are collectively known as culture” (Francis & Hezel). Max Weber in the early 20th century offered a different view on how cultural and even religious values impact the economic output. “He argued that the Protestant work ethic, supported by Reformation teachings that the pursuit of wealth was a duty, inculcated the virtues needed for maximum economic productivity. For this reason, Protestants were more productive than Catholics throughout Europe-just think of Germany and Great Britain, for instance, compared to Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy in his day.” (Francis & Hezel). The question is why some countries do very well, while others fail to develop, even when there are help to support their development...
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...perspective Too Many Too Little Debtanu Dutta Surbhi Verma EPS Co-ordinators (Batch 2012-14) eps@iimk.ac.in Manjunatha Belgere Ajinkya Lokare Faculty Advisory Board Prof. Kausik Gangopadhyay Prof. Subhasis Dey Prof. A. F. Mathew Prof. Sthanu Nair Prof. Venkat Raman Prof. Rudra Sensarma Editorial Board Biswa Prateem Das Debtanu Dutta Manjunatha Belgere Presented by Economics Politics & Social Sciences Interest Group Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Editorial After an inspiring success of the inaugural edition, we are very happy to present you the second volume of “Pragati”, magazine from Economics, Politics and Social sciences (EPS) Interest Group of IIM Kozhikode. This time it is much inclusive and much bigger. We received articles from students of the esteemed colleges of India and published the best among them. This is a result of tireless effort and dedication from the student members of the group and endless inspiration and help from the faculty members of our “Faculty Advisory Board”. EPS Interest Group is a cohort of enthusiasts on economic, political and social issues. Main aim of this group is to create awareness about recent related issues and sensitize the community on the importance of human initiatives. As a group we facilitate debate, discussion, article writing, social live projects and other activities. Our teachers always say that creating awareness is the first step of mobilizing people. EPS strives to engage people in various...
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...Assignment 2: Explain the fundamental differences in political, social, and economic ideas which separated the American colonies and Great Britain after 1763. In the years following 1763 the American Colonists were looking for separation from Great Britain due to political, social, and economic differences. Politically the American Colonists wanted freedom to govern their colonies without influence from Great Britain. Socially the American Colonists sought to build a set of ideals based upon individual rights while the Englishmen wanted them to conform to British principals, traditions and authority. Economically the Englishmen thought that the American Colonists should pay the same taxes to the King and the Americans wanted to keep their money in America. The American Colonists had the idea that all white men should participate in government and they did not believe in having an aristocracy that had a part in politics, such as the Englishmen did. Rather the Americans answer to the King, they felt they should create their own governments and handle all matters themselves. The Englishmen wanted the same traditions performed in America as Great Britain. This meant answering to the King and the aristocrats. The American Colonists did not want to do that, they believed in individualism, freedom and equality of white men. They wanted to create their own laws and govern them, not abide by the rules and old traditions that Great Britain set forth and abided by. The...
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...Unit 5 – Socio-Political and Economic Environment March 11, 2012 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify a cultural artifact that best represents the society in which we live today. This paper will analyze in detail the jazz saxophone. This paper will examine its origin, it development, and its roots in American jazz. This paper will also explore the changes this artifact will have on future generations. Socio-Political Economic Environment If there were a single cultural artifact that this represents the culture in which we live, today that artifact would be the saxophone or as it is known to most musicians as the jazz sax. The saxophone and jazz are synonymous with a culture that was developed in the United States in the early 20th century. Although this instrument is enjoyed by people all over the world and is used in all forms of music today, it is best known as an integral part of jazz music (The-Saxophone, 2012). Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1838 in Belgium. Sax was the son of an instrument maker and by the age of six, was an expert musical instrument maker (The-Saxophone, 2012). He produced such instruments as the flute and clarinet and learns to play them by testing the ones he made. Sax studied both instruments at the Brussels Conservatory. As a skilled musician, Sax was aware of a tonal disparity between certain instruments. He noticed that there was a disparity between the strings and wind instruments and the...
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...Political: Corruption India is ranked 85th out of 175 countries (China is ranked 100th) which is an improvement of 2 places compared to 2010 where India was ranked 87th. The new Modi government has also vowed to clamp down on corruption which will definitely improve rankings. (e.V., 2015) Policies encourage manufacturing especially automobiles Under the Modi government, the Make in India initiative was launched in September 2015 to promote manufacturing in India. This initiative introduced new tax cuts, streamlined administrative processes and liberalised FDI. (Makeinindia.com, n.d.) * Streamlined regulations (easier to do business) * Manufacturing and imports in this sector are exempt from licensing and approvals. * Unified online portal for: * Registration of Labour Identification Number (LIN) * Submission of returns * Grievance redressal * Combined returns under 8 labour laws * Online portals: * Real-time registration * Payments through 56 accredited banks * Online application process for environmental and forest clearances * 14 government services delivered via eBiz, a single-window online portal * Investor Facilitation Cell established * Dedicated Japan+ Cell established * Consent to Establish/NOC no longer required for new electricity connections * Documents reduced from 7 to 3 for exports and imports * Option...
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...Weimar Germany; however this idea has been challenged my many historians. During this period there was an element of political calm but it was mainly typified by political inaction and a failure of coalition governments to agree on any important issues. Economic development did occur but was minimal, and the period was one of slow economic growth and “relative stagnation”. Similarly, there were several signs of social progress and cultural development, but the years were significantly characterised by cultural polarisation. Therefore the blanket statement: “Germany experienced a period of political calm, economic development and social progress in the mid 1920s” ignores the problems in Weimar Germany at this time and is therefore not entirely correct, each clause contains some validity. In politics, there was a clear reduction in extra-parliamentary attempts opposing the government and political system. This was particularly significant as the preceding 1919-23 period was characterised by such threats from the Left and Right of the political spectrum, for example the Spartacist uprising, the Kapp Putsch and the Beer Hall Putsch. However, the mid 1920s cannot be said to have been years of political stability. Despite the reduction in threats to the Weimar state, the parliamentary system failed to mature and develop - a political stagnation developed, not a political calm. Seven governments were formed and dissolved during the 1924-29 years, and only two of these claimed a working...
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