crayonlead2-blog

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US asks to extradite Julian Assange over leaked state secrets after he was arrested and forcibly removed from Ecuador's London embassy

Video footage from the Russian state video agency Ruptly showing a bearded Julian Assange being escorted out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday.Ruptly

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday morning.

The US requested his extradition and charged him with conspiracy to hack classified US government computers, in a document naming US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

He was taken to court and convicted of breaching bail conditions in the UK. Extradition proceedings related to the US charges are expected to follow.

Assange avoided arrest for almost seven years while Ecuador granted him asylum and housed him in its London embassy.

On Thursday, Ecuador revoked his asylum. The country said its patience with him "reached its limit" and alleged a litany of bad behavior.

After the court hearing Thursday, Assange's lawyer said he had long warned he would be extradited over WikiLeaks. She said Assange's comment is: "I told you so."

Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has been charged with conspiracy to hack classified US government information after a dramatic arrest in London on Thursday morning.

The Department of Justice laid out charges against Assange linked to his activities with former US soldier Chelsea Manning, with whom he leaked a huge trove of state secrets in 2010.

US authorities issued a provisional extradition request for Assange on Thursday, hours after British police officers entered Ecuador's embassy in London, where Assange had been sheltered for almost seven years.

The arrest took place after Ecuador revoked Assange's political asylum, alleging a litany of bad behavior during his long stay.

Assange was taken to court in London shortly after the arrest, and convicted of breaching bail conditions dating back to 2012. Further hearings and extradition proceedings are expected to follow.

A screengrab from Sky News showing a prison van carrying Assange out of London's Westminster Magistrates Court on April 11.Sky News

In a press conference outside the courthouse, his lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Assange has long warned he would be extradited for the US over Wikileaks. She said his comment on the day's events is: "I told you so."

The Department of Justice on Thursday alleged that Assange "engaged in a conspiracy" with Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, to hack into Department of Defense computers. He faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.

WikiLeaks was involved in publishing sensitive US military documents from Chelsea Manning in 2010 and Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Read more: Justice Department charges WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiracy to hack a government computer

Assange seen inside a police vehicle outside Westminster Magistrates Court, London, on Thursday.REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

The London Metropolitan Police entered Ecuador's diplomatic base in West London on Thursday morning and took Assange into custody after 9 a.m. local time.

Robinson, Assange's lawyer, said Ecuador's ambassador to the UK told Assange just before the arrest that his asylum had been revoked.

Assange "barged past" police officers who tried to detain Assange at the embassy, and yelled "this is unlawful" while other officers were required to handcuff him, BuzzFeed reported, citing an unnamed US government lawyer.

Video footage later showed a heavily bearded Assange being forcibly removed from the embassy and placed into a police van.

Read more: Video shows Julian Assange being forcibly removed from Ecuadorian embassy after arrest by UK police

He appeared at Westminster Magistrate's Court a few hours later, where he was convicted of breaching bail conditions in 2012.

His case was referred to a higher court, which could sentence him to as long as 12 months in prison. Robinson said Assange will appear in court again in less than a month's time.

A litany of bad behavior

There had been a warrant issued for Assange's arrest in the UK since June 29, 2012, after he failed to appear in court to face charges of sexual misconduct in Sweden, which he denies. European countries operate a system which allows them to execute warrants on one another's behalf.

Though Swedish prosecutors dropped the investigation against him in 2017, he was also wanted for breaching his prior bail conditions in the UK.

Assange, an Australian national, had been able to avoid arrest because Ecuador granted him asylum in June 2012. He had been living in its embassy in west London since then.

Ecuador announced the removal of Assange's asylum in a video posted on Twitter, in which the country's president said the country's patience had "reached its limit."

"The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit on the behavior of Mr Assange," President Lenín Moreno said in the video.

He said Assange installed electronic equipment prohibited in the embassy, mistreated security guards, and accessed the embassy's security files during his stay, which lasted six years and nine months.

The Ecuadorian embassy has also complained about Assange's living habits in the past. It said he was unhygienic and that his skateboarding ruined their floors. Last year it also issued a nine-page memo telling him to clean up after his cat.

Read more: The weirdest-ever anecdote about Julian Assange claims that he doesn't like cutlery, and eats hot food like jam pudding with his hands

The DOJ could bring Espionage Act charges against Assange

Over the past year, prosecutors are said to have discussed a variety of charges they could bring against Assange, and are reportedly optimistic that they could get Assange into a US court.

The US push came as Assange's relationship with Ecuador was in decline.

The Department of Justice has been investigating Assange since 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The exact charges prosecutors want to bring against him are unclear, they may involve the Espionage Act.

At the courthouse press conference, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks said the US deliberately picked a lesser charge in the hope of getting Assange to the US, where it can pursue tougher punishments.

Kristinn Hrafnsson told reporters: "It is quite obvious the US authorities have picked just one element of what they have been working on for a long time, including the Espionage Act."

"There is no assurance there would not be additional charges when he is on US soil, and I think and I believe that this was an angle in the approach to increase the likelihood of him being extradited. That is obvious."

Robert Mueller.Win McNamee/Getty Images

Assange and WikiLeaks are at the center of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

In an indictment charging 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and disseminating stolen emails, Mueller's office mentioned WikiLeaks — though not by name — as the Russians' conduit to release hacked documents via the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0, who is believed to be a front for Russian military intelligence.

WikiLeaks touts itself as an independent organization, but US intelligence believes the group to be a propaganda tool for the Kremlin. While still serving as CIA director, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo characterized WikiLeaks as a "nonstate hostile intelligence service."

The Journal reported that prosecutors were weighing whether to publicly charge Assange, as they did with the Russian nationals who have been indicted as part of the Russia investigation, to force the Ecuador Embassy to turn him over to the US.

Read more: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort forcefully denies explosive report that he secretly met with Julian Assange at the height of the 2016 campaign

A police van outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Assange's arrest.Peter Nicholls/Reuters

WikiLeaks said last week that a "high level source within the Ecuadorian state" had said Assange would be expelled within "hours to days," and that Ecuador had already agreed to let the UK arrest Assange. A senior official in Ecuador denied the claim at the time.

Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower, tweeted that the WikiLeaks founder's arrest was a "dark moment for press freedom."

The former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson, who is a high-profile supporter and confidante of Assange, tweeted that she was "in shock," and she slammed Ecuador and Britain for facilitating his arrest.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/julian-assange-arrested-by-uk-police-ecuador-revokes-asylum-2019-4?r=US&IR=T

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Former UBS Trader Faces Deportation

Kweku Adoboli, who cost his former employer $2.3 billion through reckless trades, now faces being sent to Ghana, a country he left at the age of four. That's because the UK Home Office automatically considers any foreign national sentenced to more than four years in jail for deportation. Adoboli was convicted of fraud in 2012 after the largest loss in British trading history. His local member of parliament, Hannah Bardell, has been pushing the UK government to let him stay.

So is the high stakes gambling culture of the trading world all in the past? We hear from Peter Hahn, former Wall Street banking executive and Henry Grunfeld Professor of Banking at The London Institute of Banking & Finance.

(Picture: Kewku Adoboli. Credit: BBC)

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswgvy

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Snap Shares Tumble Over News of Top Executive’s Departure

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Source: http://fortune.com/2018/09/10/snapchat-imran-khan-departure/

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Which one is better - aggressive hybrid or dynamic asset allocation funds?

How do you compare an aggressive hybrid fund with a dynamic asset allocation fund? Which one is better? - Arangya

Get updates from Value Research in your inbox

I like aggressive hybrid funds simply because I like discipline. I believe that it is hard to guess the market. However, dynamic asset allocation funds try and time the market by investing more in equity when they think it is appropriate to do so. In some funds, fund managers decide suitable asset allocations, while others follow a model-based approach to achieve the same.

However, I am a firm believer in defined allocation, which aggressive hybrids provide. These funds invest between 65 per cent and 80 per cent in equity and the remaining in fixed income. They do their rebalancing intensely and that does the job. Also, this category is suitable for conservative investors. On the other hand, dynamic asset allocation, as a category, has not been able to build a great case for itself.

Source: https://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyview.asp?str=47019

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Twitter Is Struggling but Jack Dorsey’s Other Company Is Nearing an All-Time High

Sept. 10, 2018 1:00 p.m. ET

While Twitter (TWTR) shares wilt under the threat of government regulation, Jack Dorsey's other company is on the precipice of an all-time high stock price.

Square (SQ) stock, which was trading at $89.65 per share Monday afternoon, is up an eye-popping 158% this year, and 228% over the past 12 months. Since Aug. 1, the stock has improved 34%.

And Square’s all-time of $91.64 may just be a stop on the way bigger and better things, according to Wall Street firm Guggenheim. It recently raised its price target on Square to $100 from $75, and named Square its “new best idea” and “highest conviction name” in fintech.

“We expect a strong rate of revenue growth for SQ which should drive further share price appreciation,” Guggenheim analyst Jeff Cantwell said in a note to clients late last month.

Read more: Our recent cover story on how Jack Dorsey is a double-duty CEO for Twitter and Square

The payments company’s ascent has come thanks to a combination of an expansion into multiple financial services and a pivot into cryptocurrency. It has established a footprint in lending for small businesses, most recently with a partnership with eBay in July, and its peer-to-peer Cash App is growing faster than PayPal Holdings’ (PYPL) Venmo, according to a recent report from Nomura.

Last month, Square reported second-quarter earnings of 13 cents a share on a 60% jump in year-over-year adjusted revenue, to $385 million. It was the San Francisco-based company's fifth straight quarter of revenue growth. It offered third-quarter revenue guidance of $407 million to $412 million, above the $350.1 million to $408.2 million forecast from Wall Street.

If only things were so good for Twitter. The company's shares have slumped 13%, to $30.34 midday Monday, since Dorsey gave blunt testimony to Congress on the company's progress in extinguishing misinformation and hate speech.

Sign up to Review & Preview, a new daily email from Barron’s. Every evening we’ll review the news that moved markets during the day and look ahead to what it means for your portfolio in the morning.

Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/twitter-is-struggling-but-jack-dorseys-other-company-is-nearing-an-all-time-high-1536598816

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Weekly Roundup: March 15-21, 2019

This roundup contains a collection of the posts published on the Forum during the week of March 15-21, 2019.

Posted by Margarita Tsoutsoura (Cornell University), on Friday, March 15, 2019

Posted by John F. Savarese, David A. Katz, and Wayne M. Carlin, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Saturday, March 16, 2019

Posted by William H. Hinman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on Saturday, March 16, 2019

Posted by Cydney Posner, Cooley LLP, on Sunday, March 17, 2019

Posted by Catherine M. Clarkin, Robert W. Downes, and James M. Shea Jr., on Monday, March 18, 2019

Posted by David F. Larcker (Stanford University) and Edward M. Watts (Stanford University), on Monday, March 18, 2019

Posted by Charles Nathan and Kal Goldberg, Finsbury LLC, on Monday, March 18, 2019

Posted by Michal Berkner, Josh Kaufman, and James Foster, Cooley LLP, on Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Posted by Graeme Acheson (University of Stirling), Gareth Campbell (Queen’s University Belfast), and John Turner (Queen’s University Belfast), on Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Posted by Elad L. Roisman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Posted by Steve Kline, Chris Kozlowski, Paige Patton, Willis Towers Watson, on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Posted by Christie Hayne (University of Illinois) and Marshall D. Vance (Virginia Tech), on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Posted by Alyson Clabaugh and Rob Peters, Intelligize, Inc., on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Posted by Brian Lutz, Monica Loseman and Jefferson Bell, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, on Thursday, March 21, 2019

Posted by Rui A. Albuquerque (Boston College), Luis M. B. Cabral (New York University), and José Corrêa Guedes (Catholic University of Portugal), on Thursday, March 21, 2019

Posted by Nimit Agarwal and Yannick Ouaknine, Société Générale S.A., on Thursday, March 21, 2019

Source: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/03/22/weekly-roundup-march-15-21-2019/

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Passman Stands Up For Swift

“Scott Borchetta never gave Taylor Swift an opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, outright with a check in the way he is now apparently doing for others.”

Don Passman Taylor Swift’s Attorney Says Singer Never Had a Chance to ‘Outright’ Buy Back Her Masters From Big Machine

Horseshit. EVERYTHING’S FOR SALE!

That’s like saying you couldn’t go on a date because the girl didn’t ask you. Make an offer, see what they say!

I’m sick and tired of Taylor Swift playing the aggrieved party. It’s like Bill Gates complaining he was ripped-off, or Mark Zuckerberg. What’s the end game here? How can you win?

Then again, who are Swift and her team playing to? Insiders or outsiders?

The publicity was just dying down, and now Passman threw some gasoline on the fire, keeping it burning longer than it should, embedding this fracas in people’s brains. Some of this is Star 101. Where’s the manager? Oh, that’s right, Taylor manages herself, to her detriment, she needs an outside opinion, because she certainly can’t see the forest for the trees.

It’s about long term, not short. It’s about being likable. The last thing you want to do is piss people off, then it’s a press story, and the press lives for kerfuffles, it sells ads!

Insiders are ignoring Passman’s statement. Because they can see right through it. Suddenly knowledgeable enough to not respond, Taylor sent in her second. Come on, if Passman wanted to weigh in he would have days ago. As for Scooter’s seconds, they made statements nearly instantaneously. And the truth is Braun has more credibility than Swift. She’s gonna fade, he seems to always be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Hell, if you’re a young act, he’s one of the first you call, because he’s closer to your age and has had success. That’s the truth, too many of the great managers are long in the tooth, and the best and the brightest of the youth have shied away from the music business because it doesn’t generate enough cash. And do you really want to sign with a conglomerate like Red Light or Artist Nation, where you get lost in the shuffle working for the man? They call it PERSONAL management, and that’s what an artist wants most, personal treatment, if they don’t believe they’re number one in your stable, they move on, especially if they’re superstars.

Insiders know the score. With internet success you can make any deal you want. Labels don’t sign anything unless you prove it first online, and this gives you leverage. You can license the music, whatever your lawyer can negotiate. Sure, some people take the cash, some people think long term, but it’s the artist’s call. The artist has gained power in the twenty first century. Sure, recording revenue may have gone down, but not only is it now going up, you can make the music and put it online for essentially nothing! Of course, the landscape is littered with the work of wannabes, but that’s what happens with democratization.

And if you’ve got enough money and make an offer, you’ll find you can buy nearly anything. If you play in this game, especially in L.A., you know someone who had no intention of selling their house and then a buyer came along and asked for the owner’s fantasy price and the buyer met it!

Furthermore, EVERYBODY on the inside knew Big Machine was for sale. But Swift didn’t want to pay for it, she felt she was owed the masters emotionally, she’d paid her dues. But that’s like being the best customer at Tiffany and walking in and insisting you own the store, with no additional money paid. Or that everyone who ever made a bad deal gets a do-over. No, that’s why you have a team, a manager and a lawyer, so you don’t get screwed!

And irrelevant of the sale, Taylor should have stayed at Big Machine anyway. Never underestimate the power of being a big fish in a little pond. Swift’s music had to be successful at Big Machine, it’s their crown jewel. But Monty’s got a bunch of superstars, from the Weeknd to Ariana Grande to Shawn Mendes, and a bunch of stars too, like Florence and the Machine and the Jonas Brothers. Republic doesn’t need Swift to hit, as long as something hits, Monty comes up to bat regularly.

But not Borchetta, who built Taylor. And irrelevant of how the money was split, Borchetta did break her, never underestimate his efforts.

So Passman speaks and the Swifties are satiated. But these are the same people who will never abandon Team Swift. Then again, Team Swift is leaking members. As any act does after it’s past its peak. You can’t dominate forever. Own it. Or reinvent yourself.

This is what the music business has come to. There’s not an act out there with this kind of mindshare. The story has been covered everywhere, from the “New York Times” to “Billboard” to social media. We’re hungry for something to sink our teeth into. And we know it won’t be Swift’s new album “Lover.” Madonna was always a sly manipulator, it’s not like one day she said she’d let men take advantage of her. She was consistent. Swift was the hater, reacting to every perceived insult to the point where her thin skin was a joke, to the point where she couldn’t let anything roll off her back. And it’s not like Howard Stern, who went to therapy and changed his outlook, it’s just the same b.s. again and again. Swift a lover? What’s next, Trump best friends with Nancy Pelosi?

Leopards don’t change their spots, and it appears Taylor Swift doesn’t either.

The truth is most people just don’t care. And by keeping the story alive Swift is burning out many more, by appearing the narcissist who always plays the victim.

You want to make it about the music.

But suddenly it’s about Swift’s antics. Kinda like Charlie Sheen. Who lost his mind and was the train-wreck of all time for a few months, he even did live dates, but woke up one day and discovered he’d lost his television gig and couldn’t get another that paid anywhere near as much. Now Charlie is just a footnote. Keep acting this way Taylor, and you’ll be one too.

Source: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2019/07/02/passman-stands-up-for-swift/

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17 East Coast Companies Hiring Right Now

We get it, job searching can be tough. Whether you’ve been looking for months or are just starting to think about your next step, finding the company with the perfect culture and job opening for you—and in the right location—is no small feat.

That’s why we wanted to give you a little boost with 17 companies that are hiring now on the East Coast. Take a peek inside their offices, browse job openings, and see if your perfect “next thing” just landed in your lap.

The Washington Post is a historic pillar of American journalism, renowned for in-depth political reporting and investigative journalism—with over a dozen foreign bureaus committed to excellence.

Through unique, direct lending practices, Bankers Healthcare Group provides life-changing loans straight to physicians, dentists, physical therapists, and pharmacists.

Offering solutions for every phase of the business lifecycle, CSC is a recognized leader for business, legal, tax and digital brand services worldwide.

TRIOSE is a nationwide logistics management firm that specializes in delivering smart, full-service inbound and outbound freight management solutions to clients in the healthcare industry.

Viventium creates customized, easy-to-use human capital management solutions—including payroll, HR, TA, and time and attendance—that bring clients unbeatable analytics and timely business insights.

World 50 hosts in-person and online conversations in a community made for executives from globally renowned organizations, fostering a collaborative environment to solve problems and share ideas.

Newsela helps students around the world build reading comprehension through hundreds of daily, engaging news articles at five different learning levels in various languages.

Earnest Research is a VC-backed data innovation startup driven to change the way professionals understand consumer and business behavior.

Convene coordinates full-service event and meeting spaces that integrate technology, catering, design, and production to simplify planning processes and eliminate cost overruns for clients.

Index Exchange equips enterprise sellers with custom architected solutions, fully transparent sell-side management technology, and access to programmatic demand organized and certified by humans.

Curalate is an innovative visual commerce platform that provides its clients with an enhanced digital experience that consists of tools to increase brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.

Stephen Gould sets the standard for commercial packaging, providing a suite of services that include package design, prototyping, and production for companies of all sizes around the country.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies, connecting people around the country with quality news, sports, and entertainment content.

iVision is a team of creators, planners, and innovators who aim to "Engineer the Future Today"®. These risk-takers are pushing technological boundaries, embracing all sorts of technical challenges.

FiscalNote is building the world’s most powerful platform for analyzing government risk, transforming how global organizations work with data.

Persado takes marketing to the next level with algorithms that craft language for businesses around the world. The platform generates copy that drives consumer action without traditional copywriting.

Amplify is a new kind of educational company, dedicated to reimagining the K-12 learning process through the creation of digital products and services that empower teachers, students, and parents.

Here at The Muse, we partner with a lot of great companies to bring you insider looks at their offices and awesome job listings. These employers pay us to be featured on the site, but these Muse-worthy brands made this list not just because they want to be included, but because their culture, policies, and employee feedback showed us that they deserve to be.

Think your company should be on a list like this? Learn more and get in touch!

Source: https://www.themuse.com/advice/17-east-coast-companies-hiring-right-now

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Former Sony Executive Michael Lynton Joins WMG Board as Chairman

Former Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton has been elected non-executive chairman of the board of Warner Music Group, it was announced Tuesday. Currently the chairman of Snap Inc, Lynton's election brings WMG's board of directors to 11 members, including 2017 additions economist Noreena Hertz and the label group's CEO of recorded music Max Lousada.

"Michael's global expertise will make him a tremendous asset as we explore new business opportunities and pioneer a new definition of what a music company can achieve," said WMG CEO Steve Cooper. "I'm looking forward to working with him and the entire Board to continue the company’s evolution."

Lynton became chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures in 2004, overseeing all operations for the motion picture and television studio giant. In 2012 he became chief executive of all Sony Entertainment, including the company's recorded music (Sony Music Entertainment) and music publishing (Sony/ATV Music) companies.

In 2017, Lynton left Sony to become chairman of Snap Inc. He also serves on the boards of Pearson plc., and Ares Management, L.P.

"Michael’s accomplished career across music, film, TV, publishing, and social media brings a valuable perspective to the WMG Board," said Len Blavatnik, chairman & founder of WMG parent Access Industries. "He joins a group of experienced advisors who together will help chart the future of the company."

Lynton added: "I'm honored to be joining the WMG Board at this transformational time in the music and entertainment world. WMG has a reputation as an agile, independent-minded, and artist-friendly company, and it will be a pleasure to work with Len, Steve and the rest of my new colleagues on the Board."

Source: https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8498091/michael-lynton-warner-music-group-chairman-board

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Bring on the biryani, basmati rice is cheaper by 12%

With satisfactory progress of monsoon rainfalls prompting farmers to bring in additional area under basmati sowing, prices are set to fall lower going forward.

  IMAGE: Rice bags being loaded in a mandi in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. Photograph: ANI Photo

In some relief for consumers, basmati rice has become cheaper 12 per cent during the past one month due to an increase in the area under cultivation and cessation of fresh payments from US sanction-hit Iran, the largest buyer of India’s aromatic rice.

The fair average quality (FAQ) variety is currently quoting at Rs 72 a kg in the benchmark physical Delhi wholesale market, as compared to Rs 82 about a month ago.

With satisfactory progress of monsoon rainfalls prompting farmers to bring in additional area under basmati sowing, prices are set to fall lower going forward.

The ongoing payment stoppage by Iranian importers may pare India’s basmati exports to that country, which is facing economic sanctions from the United States.

“Indian exporters are currently executing old orders. Hence, there is no export problem as of now. But, importers in Iran have stopped fresh payments for the past one month, bringing new orders to a complete halt. As long as advance payments to their accounts continue, exporters would face no issues. But, fresh exports would be difficult. Indian markets have already started responding to Iran’s payment stoppage, and basmati prices shed Rs 10 a kg or 12 per cent the past one month,” said Sushil Jain, vice president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA).

Informed sources said advance amounts of Rs 1,800 crore received from Iranian importers are lying in various banks accounts held by the Iranians in India. India’s basmati rice exporters would continue till payments from these accounts are exhausted.

“Basmati prices have declined in the last one month. But, future price movement would depend upon the progress of this year’s monsoon rain and farmers’ interest in sowing of basmati paddy,” said Anand Goyal, owner, Akash Rice Mills, a Delhi-based basmati rice miller, trader and exporter.

Meanwhile, India’s two commodity exchanges, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) and Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), have started futures trading in 1,121 varieties of basmati. The ongoing uncertainty and price volatility offer immense opportunities for traders, exporters and rice mills to hedge their price risk in futures.

Being a compulsory delivery contract with small trading unit of 10 tonnes and basic delivery centres in Karnal and Haryana, basmati paddy is trading at about Rs 42 a kg in the futures market.

“Apart from the Iran issue, Indian basmati rice exporters are also facing phytosanitary issues with the European Union, which poses a threat to ongoing exports. While there arr negotiations with the European Union on pesticide residue issues, overall basmati exports may decline this year,” said Gurnam Arora, joint managing director, Kohinoor Foods Ltd, the producer of Kohinoor brand basmati rice.

Basmati prices have been volatile the past few months. Prices fell when the US withdrew the waiver on India's dealings with Iran, then rose and are falling again.

Sanjit Prasad, MD & CEO, ICEX, said, “Basmati exhibits large price volatility, and could impact market participants to the point of business closure. The futures contracts in 1,121 varieties will help them deal with price uncertainty.”

India produces some 6.5 million tonnes of basmati rice, two-thirds of which are exported. Iran is the largest buyer of basmati rice, contributing nearly 25 per cent of India’s annual basmati exports.

Source: https://www.rediff.com/business/report/bring-on-the-biryani-basmati-rice-is-cheaper-by-12-/20190716.htm

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Links 3/18/19

Patient readers, we just this instant switched on the codes for a new advertising vendor. A very much unintended and unexpected side effect is that some of you may be seeing video and other pop-ups. We were very clear in that these types of ads were not allowed. We are working to make them go away as fast as we can, because we know how much you hate them (and we do too)! –lambert

Update by Yves: The site seems to load faster with the new ads (the ads were what would slow down loading times), so once we get the popups sorted out (which thank God are appearing only on the landing page and so aren’t interfering with reading articles), this should be a net plus to readers once we get past transition issues.

Stonehenge-like monuments were home to giant pig feasts. Now, we know who was on the guest list Science

What’s the cost (in fish) between 1.5 and 3 degrees of warming? Anthropocene

Home Of Strategic Command And Some Of The USAF’s Most Prized Aircraft Is Flooding (Updated) The Drive

Radical plan to artificially cool Earth’s climate could be safe, study finds Grist

Fire Breaks Out At a Houston-Area Petrochemicals Terminal Bloomberg. Second in a week. Video:

The heat is deforming this metal storage tank. Some of the first responders are worried it will collapse. pic.twitter.com/Y3ZsjJ96zj

— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) March 18, 2019

Leave the oil in the ground, and this doesn’t happen…

The Fed has exacerbated America’s new housing bubble FT

Churches are opening their doors to businesses in order to survive CBS

Some county treasurers have flouted Iowa gift law for years Bleeding Heartland

Corporations Are Co-Opting Right-To-Repair Wired

Brexit

What will it take to push May’s Brexit deal over the line FT. The arithmetic: “To overturn her 149-vote deficit, she would have to win over at least 75 MPs. The most plausible route starts with the DUP’s 10 MPs. If they backed her deal, then some 50 of the nearly 70 Tory Eurosceptics who voted against it last week may change sides. Then Mrs May would need a further 15 Labour MPs, in addition to the five Labour and former Labour MPs who backed her last week.”

Northern Ireland’s farmers urge DUP to back Brexit deal FT

Around 40 Tory Rebels Told Theresa May: We’ll Vote For Your Brexit Deal If You Quit Buzzfeed

Labour likely to back public vote on UK PM’s deal, says Corbyn Reuters

Brexit by July 1 unless UK votes in EU election: Document Politico

The Irish Backstop: Nothing has changed? It has actually (PDF) Lord Bew and Lord Trimble, Policy Exchange. Bew is a Professor of Irish Politics. Trimble is a former First Minister of Northern Ireland and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Well worth the clickthrough to read the entire PDF. Here is the final paragraph:

All of this suggests that a backstop that functions for more than a short period of time – and the DUP has indicated in Parliament that it could live with a short backstop – is likely to be an extremely unstable affair. If it does not negotiate a trade deal with the UK in the next year or so, the EU is also likely to become increasingly aware that the Protocol will give it nothing but grief as it gets sucked into the Northern Ireland quagmire. In this quagmire, the UK Government (which has the support of the majority of the population in Northern Ireland and which pays the subvention which subsidises the entire society), holds most of the cards.

Politico’s London Playbook calls their report “a ringing endorsement of the tweaks to the backstop agreed by Theresa May in Strasbourg this month.” Readers?

NORMAN LAMONT: History will never understand Tory MPs if they kill off Brexit Daily Mail

Brexit will mark the end of Britain’s role as a great power WaPo. Surely Suez did that?

Macron calls for ‘strong decisions’ after violent Yellow Jacket protests Politico

Among the Gilets Jaunes LRB

Syraqistan

Months after saying US will withdraw, now 1,000 troops in Syria to stay Jerusalem Post but US denies report it is leaving up to 1,000 troops in Syria Channel News Asia. And what about the mercs?

Saudi Crown Prince’s Brutal Drive to Crush Dissent Began Before Khashoggi NYT

A Palestinian Farmer Finds Dead Lambs in His Well. He Knows Who’s to Blame Haaretz

Algeria After Bouteflika Jacobin

North Korea

Investing in resource-rich North Korea seems like a good idea — but businesses find there’s a catch Los Angeles Times

Picking Up the Pieces After Hanoi Richard Haass, Project Syndicate

New Cold War

How ordinary Crimeans helped Russia annex their home Open Democracy

How Russia Gets To Build Its Most Controversial Pipeline Riddle

Trump Transition

The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone. How are they gonna pay for it?

Government withholds 84-year-old woman’s social security, claims she owes thousands for college WISH-TV

737 Max

Flawed analysis, failed oversight: How Boeing, FAA certified the suspect 737 MAX flight control system Seattle Times

737 MAX disaster pushes Boeing into crisis mode Phys.org

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

All the Crime, All the Time: How Citizen Works NYT

Global Mass Surveillance And How Facebook’s Private Army Is Militarizing Our Data Forbes

More Than a Data Dump Harpers. Why Julian Assange deserves First Amendment protection.

Democrats in Disarray

Establishment Democrats Are Undermining Medicare for All Truthout. As I kept saying with my midterms worksheets, the liberal Democrat leadership’s #1 priority is to prevent #MedicareForAll, and to that end they shifted the center of gravity of the electeds against it. Now we see this strategy born out in falling sponsorship numbers.

Even a Vacuous Mueller Report Won’t End ‘Russiagate’ Stephen Cohen, The Nation. “[T]he Democrats and their media are now operating on the Liberty Valance principle: When the facts are murky or nonexistent, ‘print the legend‘.”

Venture capitalist Steve Case spreading funding to Middle America with “Rise of the Rest” CBS

Class Warfare

What’s Wrong with Contemporary Capitalism? Angus Deaton, Project Syndicate

Bill McGlashan’s firing exposes hypocrisy in impact investing Felix Salmon, Axios

The College Admissions Ring Tells Us How Much Schoolwork Is Worth New York Magazine

How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood NYT

‘Filth, mold, abuse’: report condemns state of California homeless shelters Guardian

Wall Street Has Been Unscathed by MeToo. Until Now. NYT

What the Hell Actually Happens to Money You Put in A Flexible Spending Account? Splinter

‘Super bloom’ shutdown: Lake Elsinore shuts access after crowds descend on poppy fields Los Angeles Times. “Desperate for social media attention, some visitors have trampled through the orange poppy fields, despite official signs warning against doing so.” Thanks, influencers!

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on March 18, 2019 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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← Electronic Health Records: Death By A Thousand Clicks Report from the Ground in Paris: The Most Recent Gilets Jaunes Protests →

Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/03/links-3-18-19.html

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Once-sleepy corner of housing market bets big on mortgages

A once-sleepy corner of American housing finance is increasingly buying up mortgages, and it stands to grow further as the government’s role in the market shrinks.

Real-estate investment trusts that buy residential home loans increased their mortgage-bond portfolios by almost 28% to $308 billion over the 12 months through March. It was the largest stockpile in a half-dozen years, according to an analysis of 15 REITs by industry research group Inside Mortgage Finance. Annaly Capital Management Inc. and AGNC Investment Corp., the two biggest companies in the sector, drove the majority of the growth.

REITs are publicly traded entities that invest in all types of real estate and pass most of their profits along to shareholders via dividends. They typically fund investments by raising capital in the equity and debt markets, including through short-term financing, and they use leverage to amplify their bets.

The REITs focused on home loans are small relative to the $11 trillion mortgage market. But they have become a key source of capital in the housing market, particularly as the Federal Reserve trims its portfolio of mortgage bonds accumulated through stimulus measures. Additionally, government efforts to overhaul the housing-finance system could benefit REITs if policy makers clear the way for more private capital to enter.

Yet some analysts worry these vehicles are putting more of the mortgage market into the hands of leveraged firms with minimal oversight. Some of the more risky mortgage REITs went bust during the last financial crisis. The last boom time for this sector, in 2013, prompted calls for increased regulatory supervision, but they didn’t result in any new regulations.

“To get the returns they needed, they were leveraged pretty dramatically,” said Ted Tozer, a fellow at the Milken Institute and former president of government mortgage corporation Ginnie Mae, speaking of REITs during the 2013 boom. Still, he said he believes the presence of mortgage REITs in the current market is welcome.

REITs have gone in and out of style over the years, but recently they have been on the upswing. REITs focused on mortgages raised $6.2 billion in equity to increase their investment portfolios last year, the most since 2013, according to data provider Dealogic. They are on pace to have a bigger 2019.

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Some traders and former bankers have migrated to REITs. David Finkelstein, once a trader at Barclays PLC and Citigroup Inc., is now chief investment officer at Annaly. William Roth, once in sales and trading at Citigroup Inc., is now chief investment officer at Two Harbors Investment Corp. Michael Nierenberg, who oversaw securitized products at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and then Bank of America Corp., is now chief executive at New Residential Investment Corp.

REITs and banks maintain a somewhat interdependent relationship. Banks are taking a less active role in the mortgage market than they did before the financial crisis, people in the industry say. But banks provide short-term financing to REITs that are making these same investments.

“We’re doing the things they don’t want to do,” said Kevin Keyes, the chief executive officer at Annaly, and a veteran of Bank of America and Credit Suisse Group AG.

For investors, mortgage REITs have produced mixed results in recent years, despite their large dividend payouts. Annaly’s stock returned 37% over the past five years, including dividends, while Two Harbors returned 31%. New Residential returned 148%, one of the few mortgage REITs to beat the S&P 500’s 65% return over the past five years.

Related video: Salvaging Risky Mortgages

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Proponents of REITs say the structure makes them an optimal backbone for the mortgage market. They are able to quickly raise and deploy money when they see an opportunity. They also employ less leverage than in earlier eras and manage risks carefully, industry representatives say.

Home-financing mortgage REITs had a median leverage ratio of almost 12 times before the financial crisis but were more recently at five times, according to Nareit, a trade group.

“If you want to have more private capital in the market, you need to manage the risks,” said Calvin Schnure, senior vice president for research and economic analysis at Nareit. “Mortgage REITs hedge all of those risks.”

Aside from vanilla mortgage bonds, some mortgage REITs are looking farther afield for investments. New Residential, which is managed by the private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, owns the servicing rights on more than half a trillion dollars of mortgages, the result of a buying spree in recent years. That asset entitles the firm to a stream of income from tasks such as collecting mortgage payments, dealing with taxes and handling delinquencies.

Annaly and other firms have been buying up mortgages that have traditionally been the domain of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and putting them into private mortgage bonds. It is an area of the market that could grow if the government tries to shrink the two mortgage giants. Mortgage REITs also have structured and invested in deals made up of jumbo and unconventional mortgages that Fannie or Freddie don’t purchase.

REITs are big buyers of securities sold by Fannie and Freddie that transfer default risk associated with the mortgages they back. In a sign that traditional players are making room for REITs, Fannie and Freddie recently tweaked these investment vehicles to make them easier for REITs to buy.

“If the goal is to disburse more and more risk, you have to get more investors involved,” said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Source: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/reits-bet-big-on-the-mortgage-market/ar-AAC1Dee?srcref=rss

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5 Steps To Complete A Low-Spend Month Without Feeling Deprived

New year, new budget. Do you want to take control of your money this year? Start off strong by doing a low-spend January! I’m sure you’ve heard of Dry January, where you commit to not drinking any alcohol for 30 days. Well, there are also “no-spend” months, but I prefer to call them “low-spend” months, because it’s impossible to spend NO money at all.

What does a low-spend month look like? You only spend money on the necessities: rent, utilities, transportation, subscriptions, loans, groceries, etc. Anything that is not essential or required, like going out to eat or going shopping, is not allowed.

What is the point of this exercise? Not only will it help you spend much less this month (and hopefully you’ll put that extra cash into savings or toward debt), but it will also show you what you really don’t need to be spending money on. It will also show you that you’re capable of cutting back on spending if you put your mind to it.

So how does it work?

1. Make a List of All the Essentials That You Must Pay For

If you’ve already made a budget, you’ll have this list ready. If not, this is also a great exercise to get you halfway to having a budget! List out all of the things that you know you have to pay for every month. This could be obvious things like rent, utilities, your student loan payment, etc. But it could also be co-pays for a prescription, metro fare, gas, groceries, and more. These should be things that you know you can’t avoid paying for. It’s helpful to have this list because you know you don’t have to feel guilty for spending on these things while cutting back in other areas.

2. Make a List of All the Non-Essentials That You Will Be Giving Up

Now that you know what’s essential, it’s time to write out what isn’t. Get clear on the things that you know you want to give up or cut way back on during your low-spend month. This could be going out to eat, shopping, Uber, coffee, etc. It’s especially helpful if it’s something that you know you overspend on during a typical month. Challenge yourself.

3. Check In At Least Once a Week to See How You’re Doing

Just like with budgeting and tracking your spending, it’s important to check in regularly when you’re challenging yourself to spend much less than usual. Set time aside at least once a week to review your bank statements or receipts and see where your money is going. If you notice that you’re having a hard time giving something up, think hard about it. Why is it hard to give up? Is it something that brings you joy, and therefore should be programmed into your basic budget? Or are there other things going on, like taking Uber because you hit snooze too many times in the morning?

4. Write Down How You’re Feeling About the Challenge

Cutting back on something and changing a habit is hard work. It takes time, and it doesn’t always feel good. So you shouldn’t expect this to be easy, and you should check in with yourself regularly. Keep track of how you’re feeling as you go along. You can do this while you’re tracking your spending. It can be just one line like, “this sucks” or “this is easier than I expected.” This will be a cathartic way to check in with yourself, give yourself a moment to complain, and then motivate yourself to keep going. It will also be a great way to look back later and see that you were able to get through it!

If you don’t think checking in with yourself will be motivating enough, try to find an accountability buddy. If you don’t already have a friend doing this challenge with you, find one! Check in with them once a week and tell them how you’re doing and how you’re feeling about it. It always helps to have a buddy. If none of your friends are doing this with you, join the Money Circle group and post in there!

5. Make a List of What Was Easy to Give Up and What Was Hard

At the end of this, you’ll have a good idea of what you can go without from now on! Make a list of the things that you actually didn’t mind giving up, and cut back on those in your normal day-to-day. You can decide if you can now make room in your budget to pay down debt or build up savings, or put your money towards other things that you really care about.

If you need moral support, join the Money Circle Facebook group! We’ll be sharing tips and stories all throughout January, and we’re always here to help!

Maggie is a Certified Financial Education Instructor and financial coach for women. She founded Maggie Germano Financial Coaching with the mission to provide women with the support and tools they need to take control of their money and achieve their goals. She does this through one-on-one coaching, monthly Money Circle gatherings, writing, and workshops. Follow Maggie on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and join her Money Circle group! For more information, or to contact Maggie directly, visit her website.

Image via Unsplash

Source: https://thefinancialdiet.com/5-steps-to-complete-a-low-spend-month-without-feeling-deprived/

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CEO Pay Mix Changes Following Say on Pay Failures

Ran Bi is a Research Analyst at Equilar Inc. This post is based on her Equilar memorandum. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The CEO Pay Slice by Lucian Bebchuk, Martijn Cremers and Urs Peyer (discussed on the Forum here) and Paying for Long-Term Performance by Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried (discussed on the Forum here).

In response to the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. legislation was passed in the form of the Dodd-Frank Act to bring some changes in the corporate environment. Say on Pay, which gives shareholders the right to vote on the remuneration of executives, addressed the issue of excessive CEO pay and was meant to give shareholders a voice and reduce CEO pay to a reasonable level.

Say on Pay has been in effect for almost eight years, but the question of how long it takes for Say on Pay votes to exert a noticeable impact on CEO pay is difficult to address. Intuitively, it seems possible that CEO pay should decrease since it is under the scrutiny of a large number of shareholders. However, the data reveals a different story. CEO pay, instead of declining, actually experienced a small degree of growth after Say on Pay was put into law.

This post focuses on CEO total compensation data among Equilar 500 companies in order to reach a conclusion. The median CEO compensation after the initiation of Say on Pay was $9.5 million, while the median pay before Say on Pay was signed into law was $6.6 million. The economy has been strong after the financial crisis, and the 43.9% increase in median CEO pay around the enactment of Say on Pay reflects that. Moreover, both the 25th and 75th percentile figures rose over that same time frame, at 74.3% and 32.6%, respectively. It appears that CEO compensation in the 25th percentile grew the fastest among three groups—a trend that may be attributed to the fact that companies are seeking to align with general industry pay trends.

Since Say on Pay is merely an advisory vote and does not have a direct influence on executive compensation, in general, trends at companies that failed Say on Pay can help to determine the cause. Though it does make sense and is widely commonplace that companies revise executive pay structures and policy after a majority of shareholders do not agree with the current executive compensation strategy, there are exceptions. The average CEO total compensation at companies that failed Say on Pay decreased significantly from 2011 to 2017, a total of 44.9% over that time frame. It seems as if Say on Pay did not have quite a major influence on the pay amounts in the early stages, but did after companies settled into the routine.

Regardless, breaking down the average pay mix of companies that failed Say on Pay depicts a trend that could be a major player in a failed vote: options. According to the 2018 Equilar CEO Pay Trends report (discussed on the Forum here), options made up an average of 11.8% of CEO pay mix in 2017. However, of the companies that failed Say on Pay in 2017, options made up 23.2% of pay mix, almost double the amount. Over time, compensation professionals realize the power of Say on Pay and take appropriate actions.

Diving into the details on a per-company basis allows for a highlight of an example among companies that have failed Say on Pay proposals. Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBBY) is particularly illustrative of the trend in CEO compensation. After its first time failing Say on Pay in 2014, rather than reducing CEO Steven Temares’ pay, BBBY increased the option and stock awards granted to Temares. Perhaps not surprisingly, after this increase in options and stock, BBBY then failed its Say on Pay vote in 2015. As a result, option award values decreased by 52.4% in 2016 and then were decreased by about $850,000 the following year. Though the company failed Say on Pay in both 2016 and 2017, the total compensation of the chief executive decreased by 20.9% from 2014 to 2017. This shows that the company made a concerted effort to gain approval in the eyes of its shareholders. Additionally, it seems as if companies that fail Say on Pay consecutively make a greater point of altering their CEO pay plans, especially when it comes to options.

Despite the provisions of Say on Pay and the ability of shareholders to express opinions on the executive compensation of a company, CEO pay has continued to rise. However, recent trends have shown that pay mix is moving towards the norm at companies that have failed Say on Pay, especially when it comes to options. Additionally, if a company fails Say on Pay multiple times, these failures seem to have a moderating effect over time, as shown in the case of Bed, Bath and Beyond. While Say on Pay votes may not have a direct influence, the continuity of attention by shareholders and proxy advisors over the executive pay issue is an increasingly significant feature of the corporate governance and executive compensation landscape, and will likely continue to be so.

Source: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/02/23/ceo-pay-mix-changes-following-say-on-pay-failures/

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Nitin Gadkari's ambitious 5-year roadmap

The minister said that the priority for him will be "rolling out all stuck highway projects that include many of the IL&FS projects within 100 days".

A go getter in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, Union Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari in his second innings has lined up big plans -- from infusing Rs 15 lakh crore in highways to propelling GDP growth by globalising khadi and MSME products.

After taking charge of Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) ministry, Gadkari in his first interview to PTI, said the mission ahead was to further propel country's economic growth through concerted efforts be it in highways or MSME.

"The blue print for highways is already in place.

“We plan to take up work worth at least Rs 15 lakh crore in highways that includes building 22 green expressways, rolling out all stuck projects in the next 100 days and creating a 'grid of roads' at par with power grid," Gadkari told PTI in an interview on Wednesday.

The minister said during his previous tenure, his ministries -- Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, Ganga Rejuvenation and River development -- in a cumulative basis, had seen a spend of Rs 17 lakh crore that included Rs 11 lakh crore in highways sector alone.

Referring to the momentous victory of Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gadkari said the resounding mandate by the people rising above petty party-politics, caste-creed or communalism has reaffirmed that people need "development" which will remain a priority area.

Through demonetisation, the message has gone clear to the people that Modi-led government is against corruption and blackmoney and all initiatives whether welfare schemes, houses, gas, electricity or health insurance have benefitted the poor, he said.

The minister said that the priority for him will be "rolling out all stuck highway projects that include many of the IL&FS projects within 100 days".

"I reviewed projects yesterday and found out about 225 projects were pending for financial closure etc, which has been resolved and now only about 20-25 projects are left.

“This is a priority area and the pending projects will be zero within 100 days," the minister said.

He said credit goes to his Ministry for saving Indian banks a whopping sum of over Rs 3 lakh crore from turning NPAs during his earlier tenure, as there were 403 stuck projects when he had taken charge in 2014.

"The bidders were shying away from highways projects... Highways sector had collapsed... Now that it has been brought on track the aim is to further strengthen this.

"Around 13 out of 17 highways stretches in the border areas that will double up as air strips are nearing completion.

“Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be completed in the next two months and work is in full swing on the new Delhi-Mumbai expressway," the minister said.

Gadkari said he was "satisfied" with the work done in highways in the last five years with "no instance of corruption" and added that the roadmap ahead was to take the highway building target to 40 km a day as it was nearing 32 km per day now.

Despite a huge Rs 11 lakh crore work done by the ministry, "not a single penny was involved in corruption", as the tender and all award processes were placed online, he said.

Gadkari said, task ahead was minimising accidents and in addition to about 704 black spots another 8,000 have been identified and will be rectified soon.

The ministry is also striving to get the entire toll income which at present goes to the government kitty, so that it could be pumped in highway building, he said.

Build, operate and toll (BOT) mode of highways building was being revived and projects worth 3,000 km would be bid out.

The minister said, there was significant development in the Kailash Mansarovar route through Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand which is likely to be completed early next year.

Besides, Chardham project linking Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri will be completed by the year-end as all green clearances were in place, he said.

About his new Ministry MSME, the senior BJP leader said his endeavour would be to globalise MSME and Khadi products through joint ventures and he was specially keen on mass-scale honey production besides promoting products like Moringa which are globally much in demand.

The focus will be rural areas, and forming clusters of potters, people dependent on leather industries and giving them assistance with new technology aimed at promoting export of these products, he said.

Citing the example of coir, he said small scale industries will be promoted, and noted that the plan is to make coir industry a Rs 20,000 crore economy from the present Rs 10,000 crore.

"I am confident that these are going to create huge employment and propel GDP growth which will apparently be visible in next two to three years," he said.

Khadi will be another thriving area, he said.

Gadkari is known for his penchant for out of box solutions to economic governance issues and the allotment of the MSME to him is significant in view of its potential not yet being realised.

MSMEs contributes around 45 per cent in the country's exports, about 25 per cent to the GDP from service activities and over 33 per cent to the manufacturing output of India.

Photograph: PTI Photo

© Copyright 2019 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

Source: https://www.rediff.com/business/report/interview-nitin-gadkaris-ambitious-5-year-roadmap/20190605.htm

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5 Key Skills for Business Analysis in Any Industry

During an interview, a candidate asked me “What’s a typical day for a Business Analyst?” My first response was there is no typical day.

Every day is different – and for that I’m thankful. One reason why I enjoy working on projects and being a consultant is because every day and every year I work on something different. If the candidate had asked me what skills does a successful Business Analyst possess – well, for that I have an answer.

The following are important skills to have when performing an analysis in any industry, for any purpose.

Key Skill 1: Communication

In person, on the phone, email, instant messaging and within software applications for documenting things like stories and bug tracking and requirements. All modes are important to exchange information, get questions answered, and arrive at understandings.

This includes communicating with stakeholders, users, clients, and project team members. Only with excellent communication skills may an Analyst excel in their role.

Key Skill 2: Facilitation

There are many ways to gather requirements and information from our stakeholders. Understanding which facilitation method to use at each moment for the type of project being done is key. The most common techniques are brainstorming, story-boarding/story-telling, interviewing and prototyping.

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Key Skill 3: Requirements

A requirement in the context of Business Analysis is a statement provided by a stakeholder about what they believe is needed to solve a specific business problem or respond to a specific business need. Different types of requirements are needed to define the scope’s depth. Some of these include: Business (high level), Stakeholder (specific wants and needs), and Solution (the ‘how’) – split between functional and non-functional types.

Key Skill 4: Prioritization

Requirements must be prioritized because a stakeholder never has enough money or time to get everything they want. Prioritizing ensures we focus on the most important and rewarding functionality. More common techniques include: Ranking, Priority grouping (critical, moderate, optional), MoScoW technique, Bubble sort, Hundred dollar method, and my favorite – Five Whys strategy to ask why a requirement is necessary.

Key Skill 5: Stakeholder Management

It’s absolutely vital to understand the people that are working on your project, and no matter how good your analytical skills are – if you aren’t able to understand, connect and engage with stakeholders, you will have a difficult time. Understanding our stakeholders allows us to foresee issues and understand problems early. Additionally, we’ll know who the real players are on a project and who to engage with during the project, which reduces the risk of late changes or missed requirements. Finally, engaging stakeholders ensures they feel heard, that their opinion counts, expectations will be met, and the solution works for everyone invested in the project’s outcome.

These definitions and examples only skim the surface of each of the key areas where an analyst may excel.

Source: https://www.batimes.com/articles/5-key-skills-for-business-analysis-in-any-industry.html

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Are engineers more creative than designers?

On Tuesdays, I write about the top voted question on Ask Berkun (see the lovely archive). This week’s question came via email from Pavel Pavia [43 votes]:

Are engineers more creative than designers?

Both answers (“Yes they are!” and  “No they are not!”) are naive. It’s foolish to compare massive groups of people against each other especially around a sloppy word like creativity. Assuming you work in the making of products of some kind, we all likely know some engineers who are very creative and some who are not. We also know some designers who are very creative and some who are not. I can’t even imagine trying to average them out into two neat little piles and have the resulting comparison be of much use. But what then? Why can’t we have some fun? ok – FINE. Here we go.

Let’s start by ditching the word creative. It’s a romantic word and the wrong one. When someone hires an engineer or a designer they want a problem to be solved. The creative ability we’re talking about is to develop ideas that solve problems into working solutions. Do good engineers and designers both do this? YES. They might be different kinds of problems, and they may use different tools, but both show up at work with the intent to problem solve, not “problem create’ or “problem multiply” (although such people do seem to exist, unfortunately).

The first argument is usually an anecdote about how “all the designers/engineers I’ve worked with suck” and to that I say you might be right. You’ve probably never worked in a healthy, successful organization that respected both roles and hired talented people to play them. But they’ve always existed – look at the teams that made the best products you admire and I bet there was a team of both excellent engineers and designers working together. Until recently it was only in elite companies that these investments were made, but that’s changing.

The next argument is often someone pointing out that designers are really just planners, since they can’t actually build their plans themselves. They need an engineer to go and built them. But so what? Why is the ability to build something necessarily superior to the ability to conceive the plan? It might be superior, but it might be inferior. I don’t think Beethoven could play the trombone, but he could write the plan for what they (and dozens of other instruments) should do, and that’s why we know his name and not his trombone player.

But I’m not taking sides here. Not really. To succeed at solving problems you need both the plan and the ability to build it.  The hard part is that depending on what the problem is, it can be either conceiving the plan or the ability to build it that is more difficult. And people are bad at recognizing when the most important challenge is in a domain that isn’t theirs (“If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”). Engineers are notorious for dismissing designers because of their own ignorance of what the customer’s true situation is (and the related potency of the designer’s plans), and designers are notorious for dismissing engineers because of their own ignorance of what the engineering constraints truly are.

The running sardonic joke in all this is designers and engineers tend to share more personality traits than not. Which include:

Passion for aesthetics (debates on visual style mirror debates on code style)

Preference for control (engineers love their control over bits similarly to how designers love control over pixels)

Reverence/Arrogance for idea purity (that there is a right way to do certain things)

A desire to make great things that help people

Which means many of the conflicts between designers and engineers are about bad management, the lack of a leader providing shared goals that unify these traits towards a common cause. Both trades are about problem-solving and when motivated can help each other with their individual tasks. Framed properly, and properly motivated, designers can have insights that help solve engineering problems and vice versa. All that’s required is some respect, shared goals and a curiosity to discover other ways to approach solving problems.

It’s useful to go back to a time when the distinction between designing something and engineering something didn’t exist. For most of the history of invention, people did it all themselves. When Archimedes or Archytas  invented the screw (which is a mind-boggling act of genius), was he designing or engineering? Would anyone at the time have cared in the slightest what label was given? John Roebling, the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, knew that to make something great required both great engineering and great design. He couldn’t build a beautiful, functional, enduring bridge without them both. He and his team would switch between thinking more like designers and more like engineers whenever necessary, as they were unconstrained by the strict delineations we’ve created for ourselves in modern times, and we should all consider doing the same.

Related:

Programmers, designers and the Brooklyn Bridge

[Note: Pavel’s actual question was “What is the reason for which we believe that the people who dedicate to the arts are more creative than the engineers?” but as I wrote an answer it morphed into a simpler question.]

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