|
             |
Last fortnight, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) mid-term review of monetary policy announced a major increase in banks' exposure to the capital market. The new guidelines allow banks to invest up to 5 per cent of their outstanding advances in equity shares, convertible debentures, and units of mutual funds (other than debt funds). Earlier banks were only allowed to invest 5 per cent of their incremental deposits in the capital market. The move, in one shot, will free Rs 22,000 crore worth of bank funds for the capital market as opposed to Rs 5,000 crore under the present norms. But the expectations of stockbrokers, merchant bankers, and mutual funds, that the four-fold increase in bank's investment limit will rejuvenate the slack capital market is premature. The banking industry is unlikely to increase its capital market exposure in the near future. The reasons? First of all, the fundamentals of most banks in terms of asset quality, earnings, and capital adequacy are weak. Secondly, banks aren't stockmarket savvy, as estimates show that barely half the earlier limit of Rs 5,000 crore has been invested in capital market. Unlike mutual funds and financial institutions, most banks do not have any investment research cell. Says Santosh Kamath, 32, Head (Capital Market), CRISIL: ''Equity investment is a totally different ball-game which the banks are yet to learn.'' The RBI guidelines require all investments in the equity market (or mutual funds) to be marked-to-market, and fully disclosed in the annual report. Since equity investment is risky and can lead to huge losses, it is likely that the risk-averse banks will not want to add to their already swelling non-performing assets (NPAs). A blanket permission to invest larger quantity of funds in the capital market can also be dangerous for many small banks. This is because the lure of high return from stockmarkets can be too tempting, and this, coupled with weak internal guidelines on investments, can lead many banks to take equity exposures beyond prudential levels. That's why the RBI has suggested that the boards of banks with small exposures should come up with internal guidelines and fix annual ceilings on investments. Ergo, barring a few foreign and new private sector banks, most others will take a while before they descend on Dalal Street. -Dilip Maitra P
E R S O N A L T E C H N O L O G Y
A caveat before we begin. The word frag you encounter in the copy that follows has, as you can see, four letters and starts with f, but it doesn't mean what you think it does. In gaming circles it means 'kill' temporarily. The impermanence of a state of existence once thought terminal will make itself clear as you read on. Microsoft's Dual Strike (MDS from now on) gamepad was actually released late last year. However, it wasn't till last month that one found its way into my hands. Fortunately, this was also a time when multi-player games (Quake III being the most popular of the lot) were becoming the in-thing in games. Unlike single-player action games like Doom (I still have a copy on my office desktop and use it to vent whatever quantum of spleen I may have to when the people I work with give me trouble, and boy, do they!) a multi-player game pits you against not some dumb computer-controlled monsters you can kill, but keen gamers like yourself (if you are connected to the Net). If you're playing one of these games on-line, then, you can't kill fellow-players, but merely frag them; for the minute they're fragged, they can log on under another name and start bothering you again. My own experience in multi-player hasn't been too good. One, the other gamers logged on seem far too quick (and far too violent) for me. And two, with a dial-up connection, the act of playing the game itself achieves far more painful dimensions than what players with names like Eaturgore threaten to do to you. Still, it's in multi-player situations like this that the MDS comes in handy. The right-hand grip of this H-shaped pad rotates and controls where you look and aim. A finger trigger helps you waste the competition with no effort at all. And four programmable buttons help you choose advanced weapons (or whatever). The other handgrip has a thumb pad that controls movement, two more programmable buttons (plus one that essentially acts like the shift key on a keyboard, helping you double the programming of the buttons), and another trigger that you can use for a range of functions depending on the game you're playing. Now I no longer hunt around the keyboard for hot keys; nor do I have issues controlling movement through the keyboard and firing through the mouse. And most importantly, the rotating grip helps me move and aim almost as freely as a contortionist with neck muscles made of elastic. The only downside: you can use the MDS only for certain action games. But what the heck, action is what it is all about. Happy fragging. -R. Sukumar S U R
V E Y
They may be the darling denizens of the New Economy, but in Asia's job market, not too many honchos seem willing to start an affair with them. That, in essence, is the finding of a Korn/Ferry International survey on 'Attracting and Retaining Executive Talent in the New Economy'. The survey, of 98 leaders from companies in Hong Kong and across the Asia-Pacific region, reveals that just 24 per cent of the respondents have lost top executives to dotcoms in the last two years. And, guess what, 6 per cent say these executives have returned. Is Asia-Pacific another world? Almost, going by what the respondents had to say. There seemed to be two reasons for passing up on dotcom jobs. One, the executives were happy with their current jobs and felt that it was challenging enough. Two, the recent shakeout in the dotcom universe apparently brought back memories of Asia's recent economic crisis. Or they simply had no desire to take the kind of risks involved in jumping ship to a dotcom. Whatever the reason, it has heated up the 'war for talent' between the bricks-and-mortar companies and the dotcoms in Asia. When asked if the internet has had a significant impact on retaining top talent in their organisations, 53 per cent of the business leaders surveyed say yes. In fact, 35 per cent of respondents have had offers from start-ups themselves over the last six months. What is important to note, however, is that leadership in many companies in Asia has been taking a serious approach to implementing initiatives that keep their top people happy. The sops include creating a more entrepreneurial environment at work and offering stock options. According to respondents, the top measurement of leadership effectiveness in their organisations-today and five years from now-is employee satisfaction. The top five things their companies are doing to achieve this and attract and retain top management talent are: trying to empower and provide flexibility to executives; offering stock options; offering salary, and other financial rewards; giving executives more career options; and providing executives with creative challenges. According to 54 per cent of the respondents, the current perception of leadership in their company is still the command-and-control style, with authority emanating from the top. But three-fourths of the respondents feel that, five years from now, a more entrepreneurial style would have taken hold. ''The entrepreneurial style of New-Economy companies is helping put employee empowerment and flexibility issues at the top of the list of many executives in Asia,'' says Alan Choi, Managing Director of Korn/Ferry's e-business practice in Asia-Pacific. ''This finding appears to be on target with what we are seeing in the daily business of recruiting executives for positions in the e-business space. Although, we are seeing stock options rapidly gain in importance.'' And when it comes to retention priority, it is the CIO who has emerged as the most prized possession followed by the it security head and the CTO. As for the Web developers and WAP business developers-they are at the fag end of the list with even the regional pr outscoring them (no offence intended). -Seema Shukla
|
|
Issue Contents Write to us Subscriptions Syndication INDIA TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | COMPUTERS TODAY © Living Media India Ltd |
 |
 |
