Importance the Binary Gender System for People Essay

Importance the Binary Gender System for People - Essay Example That was the point when I began noticing that the society had different expectations for males and females. This was reinforced in different ways. With my parents ever warning me not to copy the behaviors of my twin brother, she kept emphasizing that I had to do things like a girl and not like a boy. Although I was well aware of the different expectations, I did not understand why such expectations existed. This means that the binary gender system began to influence my life long before I knew anything about it. This essay will describe my personal experience in a gendered world. I have so many memories of my childhood. I remember when I was three years old, I developed a weird obsession for car toys. My mother did not approve of my growing interest in car toys. She kept insisting that only my brother was allowed to play with them. She encouraged me to keep playing with my baby dolls because that was the expected conduct of girls at that age. As I grew older, my mother would invite me to the kitchen to help her with the little chores I could handle. Rarely did she call my brother to the kitchen. I always wondered why my mother did not want my brother to participate in the kitchen activities. In the evenings when my father came home, my brother would spend time with him and they would occasionally watch football together. This explains why at the age of 10 years, I could comfortably wash utensils while my brother did not have any idea of how utensils are washed. At that age, I was interested in dressing like a boy. There were many times when my mother had to i nsist that I have to dress like a girl. My brother seemed to be very comfortable with meeting my mother’s expectations of him as a boy (Ember 34). At the age of 10, my brother literary felt older than me, although we were twins as mentioned above. Without the doubt, he had begun to adopt the patriarchal thinking exhibited by many males in the society. Â  

Information System Management & Quality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Information System Management & Quality - Essay Example In an effort to improve service delivery, NHS decided to employ information technology in its structure. This project is known as The National Project for Information Technology NPfIT and is run by the NHS Connecting for Health (CfH); this is a department that is tasked with the duty of providing information when and where it is needed. NPfIT is meant to bring new computer systems and services to the NHS to help improve the care and services patients receive. These systems are expected to community services and GPS systems to hospitals; hence, make it easy for hospitals to reach patients. In addition, the services provided, such as EPR, would make it possible for staff to access information vital to their patients’ treatment easily, securely, and quickly. The service ventured, in a project, to digitize its operations by developing an Electronic Patient Record, hereafter referred to as EPR. Some of the other services provided under NPfIT include a Patient Administration System, PAS, and a Picture Archiving and Communications System, PACS. All these systems work together to enhance service delivery in public hospitals. However, only 1.07% of facilities that were expected to use the EPR were using it as of January 2010 (Savage, 2010). This paper circumvents around NPfIT’s provision of Electronic Patient Records at Bexley Hospital. Management and Quality Issues Raised by NPfIT Managers were under pressure to deliver the massive project within a very limited time span. This forced managers to compromise quality by rushing the project at the hospital. The financial difficulties that managers face compromise their performance (Anon., n.d.). This is because such difficulties shift managers’ attention from project implementation to seeking extra finances and ways to cope. Managers are preoccupied with the need to meet strict deadlines while avoiding incurring extra costs. NHS split some units, making it difficult to prioritize activities and attain performance ratings; this compromised the quality of individual services and products. The result is that the project implementation at Bexley failed. This was as a result of numerous factors discussed below: Rushing the Project The NPfIT pushed for the speedy completion of tasks during development at Bexley Hospital. The hospital’s management had no option but to comply with his requirement so that Bexley is not delisted from the project. This is despite drawbacks brought about by stringent government procurement rules that delay the delivery of equipment and other resources (Comptroller and Auditor General, 2011, p.14). These delays make the supplies required irrelevant or valueless to the project by the time they are delivered, compromising

Density and Salinity of Seawater †Comparison of Methods

Density and Salinity of Seawater – Comparison of Methods Sergian Murtanu, Lab partner: Sammy Chaaban Abstract: The goal of this experiment was to compare the salinity of seawater from different methods. The average salinity in seawater is around 35 parts per thousand. 3 The BOD bottles were used to find the density of seawater, the equation to state was then applied, using density to determine the salinity. The salinity of seawater from the BOD method was 33.37 ppt  ± 0.08737 with a relative standard deviation of 0.2618 percent. Using the same equation of state, the salinity was determined from the readings recorded by the density meter. The density meter produced salinity values of 34.75 ppt  ± 1.403, with an RSD% of 4.038. The conductivity probe measured the ability of the solution to pass current. The Unesco equation is used to convert the measured conductivity of seawater to salinity, which was calculated to be 42.71 ppt  ± 0.04359 with a RSD% of 0.1021. The refractometer measured the extent of which is bent, giving the refractive index. The average salinity through refra ctive index was 36.14 ppm  ± 2.56, with an RSD% of 0.1884. Introduction: The purpose of this experiment was to determine the salinity of seawater through two different methods: BOD bottles (volume) and density meter. Salinity, temperature, and density are related to each other through the equation of state. Physical properties of seawater are related through ‘state functions’. Salinity is defined as a measure of the total dissolved salts in a solution. As density increases, the amount of salt in seawater is expected to increase as well. Thus, density and salinity have a positive relationship with each other. As temperature increases, the area between each water molecule increases, which lowers the density.5 Density has an inverse relationship with temperature. An increase in the salts dissolved in seawater also causes the physical properties of: refractive index, electrical conductivity, transmission of sound, and surface tension to increase. On the contrary, increased salinity in seawater will cause the physical property of: freezing point, compressibility, solubility, and specific heat to decrease instead. Using the methods of electrical conductivity, BOD bottles, density meter, and refractometer, the salinity of seawater will be calculated and compared for the most accurate results. 3 Experimental: Apparatus: BOD Bottles Conductivity probe Density meter Refractometer Analytical balances Procedure: The density of seawater through the BOD method was discovered by finding the volume of both DI water and seawater. The BOD bottle is weighed dry, and filled with DI water. The temperature of each BOD bottle with DI is taken, and gives a corresponding density value through a chart. Using the equation: Volume=Mass/Density, the volume of DI water can be calculated. This process is repeated with seawater, with density of seawater being the weight of seawater divided by the mean volume of DI water. The density meter method uses a magnet to measure the period oscillation within the U-shaped tube. Seawater is put in the U-shaped tube. This gives the period of oscillation, T, which is then used in the equation: Ï =AT2 + B , to give the density of seawater(A, B are calibration coefficients). The equation of state given in the spreadsheet, Millero Density Spreadsheet is then used to calculate the salinity at the given density and temperature. 4 The conductivity probe is used to compare the trend between salinity and density. A conductivity probe is first calibrated, then put in a beaker of DI water, standard solution, and seawater. The reading is measured, with the probe cleaned between every new trial. Conductivity is the ability for a solution to pass current, so it is expected that salinity and density have a positive relationship. Using the formula given in the Unesco Equation Spreadsheet, the conductivity ratio is used to calculate the salinity. 1 The refractometer is a tool that measures the extent in which light is bent. Drop a sample of seawater to the measuring prism and use the hand wheel to adjust the sight. The illuminating prism should be put at the halfway point of the sample, this then gives the refractive index. Using given slope and intercept â€Å"Salinity vs. Refractive Index and Salinity vs. Specific Gravity Curves, the salinity and specific gravity is then calculated. 2 Results: Table 1 – Seawater salinity in BOD Bottle Trial Temperature (C) Salinity 1 21.5 33.35 2 21.6 33.47 3 21.7 33.30 Mean Salinity 33.37 Standard Deviation 0.08737 Relative Standard Deviation % 0.2618 Table 2 – Salinity of seawater by density meter Data obtained by Jessica Oregon Trial Temperature (C) Salinity 1 20 33.53 2 20 35.95 3 20 33.53 4 20 35.97 Mean Salinity 34.75 Standard Deviation 1.403 Relative Standard Deviation % 4.038 Table 3 – Salinity of seawater by refractive index Trial Seawater Salinity 1 1.3400 38.37 2 1.3391 33.34 3 1.3397 36.69 Mean Salinity 36.14 Standard Deviation 2.560 Relative Standard Deviation % 7.083 Table 4 – Salinity of seawater by conductivity probe (22.6 C) Trial Seawater (mS/cm) Standard (mS/cm) Salinity 1 49.6 49.4 42.76 2 49.6 49.5 42.68 3 49.7 49.6 42.68 4 49.6 49.4 42.76 5 49.7 49.6 42.68 Mean 49.6 49.5 42.71 Standard Deviation 0.0548 0.100 0.0436 Relative Standard Deviation % 0.110 0.202 0.102 Discussion: The results seem to imply that the salinity in seawater varies depending on the method, as some methods have a lesser chance of error than others. Using the average seawater salinity of 35 ppt as a comparison, most of the results seem to fall between the ranges of 33 to 37. However, the most notable difference is the salinity of seawater by conductivity probe. The conductivity probe method produced a mean salinity of 42.71 ppt  ± 0.0436, with a relative standard deviation of 0.102 percent. The results for the conductivity probe were quite far in comparison to the other method. However, the conductivity method had an RSD% of 0.1021. This indicated that the results while somewhat inaccurate, were very precise. This inaccuracy may have been caused due to systematic errors in our instrument. The conductivity probe might have been calibrated incorrectly, or in the wrong solution. If the calibration was just slightly off, it is possible that this difference might have contributed to the inaccurate salinity results. The solutions measured on the probe might have gotten contaminated without prior knowledge, or it might have simply been a human error in calculations. The result with the highest relative standard deviation was the salinity of seawater by refractive index with 7.083 %. This indicates that there was a lot of variation in salinity for each trial. The salinity ranges from 33.34 to 38.37 ppt. The mean salinity of seawater by refractive index was 36.14 ppt  ± 2.560, which is close to the average seawater salinity of 35. These slightly imprecise results may be due to random and systematic errors. The use of the eyepiece when trying to go to the halfway point might change due to different perception between people. Likewise, reading the refractometer varies between each individual and might change with angle due to parallax. This can really change the data measured and can result in imprecise data. There can also be human errors done during the conversion between refractive index and salinity. The BOD bottle method has a salinity of 33.37 ppt  ± 0.08737 with an RSD% of 0.2618. The very low relative standard deviation indicates that there isn’t much spread within the data. When compared to the average seawater salinity of 35 ppt, it falls a little bit short. This was because there are a lot of possible errors for this method due to the long process of balancing and rebalancing. Possible systematic errors might have occurred on the analytical balances, such as calibration. Random errors, such as the fluctuation of weight in our seawater sample might also have impacted the accuracy. This method was also very time consuming, so it was not the most efficient way of determining the salinity. But, based on the results, it was the most dependable with good accuracy and great precision. The most accurate method when compared to the average value of seawater salinity is the density meter. The density meter has a salinity of 34.75  ± 1.403, with an RSD% of 4.038. The RSD% of 4.038 indicated that there was some variation in the data. However, when compared to the average seawater salinity, this was the closest by far. This method was the most efficient overall because it allowed the opportunity to obtain the density, and salinity value the quickest. However, it’s not perfect because the instrument can calibrated or used incorrectly. While the most precise method goes to the BOD method, the most accurate would go to the density meter. The density meter is also quick and efficient, which make it an excellent tool to calculate the value for salinity. In comparison, the BOD method took far too long and was not nearly as efficient as the density meter method. If there was one thing that should be changed in a repeat of this experiment, it would be giving an extended time for the density meter method. There was not enough time in the assigned lab period, so data from a peer was borrowed and used. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Sam and George for helping us with calculations. I would also like to thank fellow peer, Jessica Oregon for the data set on seawater density by meter. References: Anderson, George, and Michael Tauber.Unesco Density Spreadsheet. University of California, San Diego: Ted.ucsd.edu, n.d. Xlsx. Tauber, Michael, and George Anderson.Salinity vs Refractive Index and Salinity vs Specific Gravity Curves. University of California, San Diego: Ted.ucsd.edu, n.d. Xlsx. Tauber, Michael, and Robert Pomeroy. 3.5 Density and Salinity lecture.Ted.ucsd.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. Tauber, Michael, and Robert Pomeroy.Milero Density Spreadsheet. University of California, San Diego: Ted.ucsd.edu, n.d. Xlsx. The Ocean and Temperature.The Ocean and Temperature. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

Animal Farm: Importance of the Seven Commandments Essay -- George Orwe

Animal Farm: Seven Commandments Without law and order, it is nearly proven that civilization will fail. Because of this, Snowball saw it necessary to create a set of rules for the animals on the newly evolving farm, so came about the 7 Commandments. Unfortunately, but undoubtedly in the pigs’ advantage, most of the other animals did not know how to read or write. Because of this the other members of the farm had to bestow their trust and goodwill in the more educated of the animals. Little did they know that their innocence and their devotion to the farm as a whole would in the end lead to their demise. â€Å"The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new maxim by heart. â€Å" As the story of Animal Farm progresses, the pigs take a leading role and find themselves hungry for power and suffering from a chronic case of ruthless greed. In due time, the once staple and communal 7 Commandments start to change to ‘accommodate’ the selfishness of the pigs, most prominently Napoleon. Shall we say Napoleon has a bit of a complex? Although all of the commandments originally acted as a bible, their importance is gone now and they have been modified to allow the pigs to be heartless in their ways. Three of these commandments jump out as to being the most important of the bunch. â€Å"Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.† This commandment is crucial in demonstrating the betrayal that the other farm animals experienced. This commandment it basically making the point that the animals are good and the humans are evil. In the end, the pigs did what they said they would never do, follow in the evil footsteps of the humans. As the changes on t... ...s and the story has come full circle. Unfortunately this is not uncommon in history. Once one person or group is given a small privilege, the power hunger is inevitable. Political corruption is defined as the use of governmental powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. By completely altering and depleting the once almost sacred 7 Commandments, the pigs (Napoleon) have done a spotless job of creating and leading a politically corrupt society. The justice of all of the hardworking, devoted animals on the farm has been obstructed. In this case, the law and order of Animal Farm has been changed to the pig’s advantage and tragically, the other animals are oblivious to the fact until it’s too late. â€Å"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to saw which was which.†

The venture capital and private equity industry

Journal of Indian Business Research Emerald Article: Venture capital and private equity in India: an analysis of investments and exits Thillai Rajan Annamalai, Ashish Deshmukh Article information: To cite this document: Thillai Rajan Annamalai, Ashish Deshmukh, (2011),†Venture capital and private equity in India: an analysis of investments and exits†, Journal of Indian Business Research, Vol. 3 Iss: 1 pp. 6 – 21 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/17554191111112442 Downloaded on: 24-09-2012References: This document contains references to 25 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 365 times since 2011. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Vedran Vuk, (2008),†Taking advantage of disaster: misrepresentation of housing shortage for political gain†, International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 35 Iss: 8 pp. 603 – 614 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/03 068290810889224 Doru Tsaganea, (2011),†Tension reduction by military power equalization: the USA-USSR case†, Kybernetes, Vol. 0 Iss: 5 pp. 778 788 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/03684921111142313 Guihe Wang, Ligang Qu, Limin Fan, Tianbiao Yu, Wanshan Wang, (2009),†Web-based system for industry using information and communication technologies†, Kybernetes, Vol. 38 Iss: 3 pp. 533 – 541 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/03684920910944254 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of globa l research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant.The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/1755-4195. htm JIBR 3,1 Venture capital and private equity in India: an analysis of investments and exits 6 Thillai Rajan Annamalai and Ashish Deshmukh Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India AbstractPurpose – The venture capital and private equity (VCPE) industry in India has grown signi? cantly in recent years. During ? ve-year period 2004-200 8, the industry growth rate in India was the fastest globally and it rose to occupy the number three slot worldwide in terms of quantum of investments. However, academic research on the Indian VCPE industry has been limited. This paper seeks to ? ll the gap in research on the recent trends in the Indian VCPE industry. Design/methodology/approach – Studies on the VCPE transactions have traditionally focused on one of the components of the investment lifecycle, i. e. nvestments, monitoring, or exit. This study is based on analyzing the investment life cycle in its entirety, from the time of investment by the VCPE fund till the time of exit. The analysis was based on a total of 1,912 VCPE transactions involving 1,503 ? rms during the years 2004-2008. Findings – Most VCPE investments were in late stage ? nancing and took place many years after the incorporation of the investee ? rm. The industry was also characterized by the short duration of the investments. The type of e xit was well predicted by the type of industry, ? nancing stage, region of investment, and type of VCPE fund.Originality/value – This paper highlights some of the key areas to ensure sustainable growth of the industry. Early stage funding opportunities should be increased to ensure that there is a strong pipeline of investment opportunities for late stage investors. VCPE investments should be seen as long-term investments and not as â€Å"quick ? ips†. To achieve this, it is important to have a strong domestic VCPE industry which can stay invested in the portfolio company for a longer term. Keywords Venture capital, Equity capital, India, Investments, Financing Paper type Research paper . Growth of the Indian VCPE industry Over the last few years, India has become one of the leading destinations for venture capital and private equity (VCPE) investments. Though the concept of VCPE investment prevailed in the country in one form or another since the 1960s, the growth in the industry was mainly after the economic reforms in 1991. Prior to that, most of the VCPE funding was from public sector ? nancial institutions, and was characterized by low levels of investment activity. In recent years, VCPE commitments and investments in India have grown at a rapid pace.Venture economics data indicate that during the period 1990-1999, India’s ranking was 25th out of 64 and various VCPE funds raised $945. 9 million for investments in India; however, during the next decade, 2000-2009, India’s ranking rose to 13th out of 90 countries and the funds raised $16,682. 5 million for investments in India. Journal of Indian Business Research Vol. 3 No. 1, 2011 pp. 6-21 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1755-4195 DOI 10. 1108/17554191111112442 The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the ? nancial support provided by the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and IIT Madras for this research.They would also like to acknowledge the support of M. B . Raghupathy and V. Vasupradha for this research. This represents a growth of 1,664 percent over the previous decade. The trend is even more encouraging for the most recent ? ve-year period 2005-2009, during which India’s ranking was 10th out of 77 countries, and various funds raised $15,073. 6 million for VCPE investments in India. Funds raised during 2005-2009, represented a growth rate of 837 percent as compared to funds raised over the previous ? ve-year period 2000-2004. The growth rate in investments made by various VCPE funds has been equally strong.During the ? ve-year period 2004-2008, the industry growth rate in India was the fastest globally and it rose to occupy the number three slot worldwide in terms of quantum of investments[1]. The amount invested by VCPE funds grew from US$ 1. 8 billion in 2004 to US$ 22 billion in 2007 before tapering off to US$ 8. 1 billion in 2008[2]. During the ? ve-year period ending 2008, VCPE investments in India grew from 0. 4 percent of GDP in 2004 to more than 1. 5 percent of GDP in 2008 (Annamalai and Deshmukh, 2009). The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 indicates the objective of the paper.Section 3 provides details on the data set used for analysis and the sources of data. Section 4, which covers the results and discussion, is divided into six sub-sections. The sub-sections are in the following order: round wise analysis of investments, time of incorporation and ? nancing stage, intervals between funding rounds, investment exits, duration of investment, and a statistical analysis of investment duration and type of exit. Section 5 provides a summary of the paper. 2. Objective of the paper Research on VCPE has not been in tune with the growth seen in the industry.Past research on the Indian VCPE industry can be broadly classi? ed into the following categories: studies that examined the evolution and the current status of the industry (Pandey, 1996, 1998; Verma, 1997; Dossani and Kenney, 2 002; Singh et al. , 2005); multi country studies which also included India (Lockett et al. , 1992; Subhash, 2006; Ippolito, 2007); survey studies of VCPE industry practices in India (Mitra, 1997; Vinay Kumar, 2002, 2005; Vinay Kumar and Kaura, 2003; Mishra, 2004); and studies which can be considered as case studies of VCPE investments (Kulkarni and Prusty, 2007).The objectives of this paper are as follows: ? rst, research that has focused on the recent growth phase of the VCPE industry in India has been limited. Most of the papers that have studied the Indian industry were either before the growth phase (pre-2004) or did not cover the growth phase in full, starting from the onset of growth in 2004 until the slowdown in 2008, caused by the global ? nancial crisis. This paper is an attempt to meet the gap in research on the recent trends in the Indian VCPE industry. Second, there have been very limited studies that looked at the lifecycle of investments, i. . from the time of investme nt in the company until their exit from the investment. There have been several studies that have looked at areas related to investments such as investment decision making, structure of investments, and valuation. Similarly, there have been studies that have looked at topics related to venture exits. However, there have been limited studies that looked at the entire investment life cycle. The main contribution of this paper is to look at the investment lifecycle in its entirety.Third, this paper aims to highlight some of the lesser known features of the Indian VCPE industry such as the characteristics of the investee ? rm at the time of VCPE investment, the duration of VCPE investments in the ? rm, and the timing and mode of exit by the investors. The objective of this paper is to provide an holistic understanding of the Indian VCPE industry to enable the creation of a policy environment to sustain the growth of the industry. VCPE in India 7 JIBR 3,1 8 3. Data set used and sources T his study uses VCPE investment transaction data during the years 2004-2008.The choice for the period of analysis was driven by two considerations. First, it was during this period that the industry witnessed signi? cant growth and India emerged as one of the leading destinations for VCPE investments. Therefore, a detailed study of this industry growth would be of general research interest. Second, the choice of period was also governed by practical considerations. Data on VCPE investments in India before 2004 were not available in a form that can be used for a research study. Therefore, it was decided to begin the starting period of the study at year 2004, the year from which we had access to data.It was felt that a ? ve-year study of transactions would be a reasonable time frame to overcome the yearly ? uctuations. This ? ve-year period also coincided with a full ? nancial cycle in the global ? nancial markets, a period marked by dramatic growth and equally dramatic fall. The data for the study were obtained from multiple sources. To start with, deal data on the various investments and exits were obtained from two database sources: Venture Intelligence India[3] and Asian Venture Capital Journal[4] database. The data from both these databases were combined to form a comprehensive data set.The data set was then suitably checked for data repetition and duplicate data points were removed ? rst. Second, whenever there was a difference in the information given for the same deal, the correctness and accuracy was checked by independent veri? cation from other sources, such as newspaper reports and company web sites. Information that was not available in these databases was then separately sourced from the web sites of the independent companies. Admittedly, with the lack of a strong database on Indian investments, developing such a data set involved a lot of effort.The comprehensive data set that was developed provided various details on the VCPE investments and exits that happened in India during 2004-2008. It consisted of a total of 1,912 VCPE transactions involving 1,503 ? rms during the period 2004-2008. From these 1,503 ? rms, 1,276 ? rms had only investment transactions while another 129 ? rms had only exit transactions during the ? ve-year period. The remaining 98 ? rms had both VCPE investment and exit transactions. To facilitate a more detailed analysis, the investments were classi? ed into ten industry categories and four ? ancing stages based on the lifecycle stage of the investee ? rm and the objectives of the investment. Exits were classi? ed into two categories, namely initial public offer (IPO) and merger and acquisition (M) or trade sale. 4. Results and discussion 4. 1 Round-wise analysis of investments Firms seeking to raise VCPE investments normally receive the investment in multiple rounds (Sahlman, 1990); earlier works have provided several explanations for this trend. Gompers (1995) indicates that the staging of capital infu sions allows venture capitalists to gather information and monitor the progress of ? ms, while retaining the option to periodically abandon projects. Admati and P? eiderer (1994) indicate that such an option to abandon is essential because an entrepreneur will almost never quit a failing project as long as others are providing capital and the threat to abandon creates incentives for the entrepreneur to maximize value and meet goals. Neher (1999) indicates that multiple rounds of ? nancing overcome the potential agency con? icts between the entrepreneur and investor as previous rounds create the collateral to support the later rounds. While the stage of ? ancing is determined by the objectives and timing of investment, the round of ? nancing simply indicates the number of instances of VCPE investments in the ? rm. Thus, for example, Round 1 ? nancing is the ?rst instance of the ? rm getting VCPE investment, but it need not be always early stage ? nancing. Depending on the ? rm lifecy cle and the objectives of investment, Round 1 ? nancing can happen in any of the four ? nancing stages. Similarly, there could be multiple rounds of investment happening in the same stage. In a particular round of funding, there may be many investors jointly investing in the company.For example, when there is a co-investment by more than one VCPE investor at the same time, it is considered as a single round of investment. By the same token, when the same investor makes investments in the ? rm at different times at different valuations, each investment is considered a separate round of funding. Funding rounds are considered to be different when there has been a substantial time gap from the previous round of ? nancing and/or the investment happens at a different valuation from the previous round of funding. Figure 1 shows the results from the round wise analysis of VCPE investments.The results indicate that 82 percent of the total VCPE investments were in Round 1, i. e. ?rst time VCP E investments in the company. Out of the total amount of investment, follow on investments account for only 18 percent. It can be observed that investments decrease sharply with subsequent funding rounds. One possible reason behind this could be because of the nature of data: most of the investment has happened during the later years of the study period[5], indicating that suf? cient time might not have elapsed for the next round of investment.However, these results indicate the possibility that VCPE investments are happening at a much later stage in the ? rm lifecycle and the ? rm is not in need of an additional funding round for reaching a critical size that is needed for an IPO or for ? nding a buyer. This might also be explained by the grandstanding theory (Gompers, 1996), where VCs are keen to exit more quickly from their investments. Second, this trend can also indicate that the companies that have received the ? rst round might not have been able to achieve a strong enough pe rformance to attract the next round of investment from investors.Further studies are needed to understand this pattern in detail. Table I indicates that the number of rounds of funding received by companies in different industries was 1,912 from a total of 1,503 companies. This indicates that the average number of rounds in a company was 1. 27. As can be seen from Table I, a large majority of the ? rms have received only one round of VCPE investment. This result accompanies the results in Figure 1 well, which indicate that 82 percent of the total Round 3 1,061. 85 (2. 6%) Round 2 5,394. 11 (14%) VCPE in India 9 Round 4 391. 25 (1%) Round 5 170. 6 (0. 4%) Round 1 2,961. 47 (82%) Figure 1. Round-wise VCPE investments (in US$mn) during 2004-2008 JIBR 3,1 Industry 10 Table I. Count of companies for different funding rounds Computer hardware Engineering and construction Financial services Healthcare IT and ITES Manufacturing Non-? nancial services Others Telecom and media Transportation and logistics Grand total Count of companies for different funding rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 36 137 110 92 295 214 133 65 93 51 1,226 5 21 30 19 53 25 12 10 15 8 198 1 6 5 6 12 6 5 3 4 3 51 1 1 3 2 3 3 2 1 1 17 1 2 8 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 2 2 Total companies 43 167 151 120 364 250 153 9 112 64 1,503 investments were Round 1 investments. Only 13 percent of companies have obtained two rounds of funding, and approximately 5 percent of the total companies that have received VCPE investments during the period have obtained more than two rounds. The proportion of companies that have received the second round of funding in different industries is more or less the same as what we saw for Round 1 investments, except in the ? nancial services category. The phenomenon of some industries being more successful in getting Round 2 investments could not be clearly observed in our analysis.In a way, this is a surprising trend. For example, information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled servic es (ITES) companies constitute 24 percent of the total number of companies that have received funding, 24 percent of the companies that have received the ? rst round of funding, and 25 percent of the companies that have received more than one round of funding. This indicates that IT and ITES companies, seen as one of the engines of growth in India, have not had higher proportional success than companies in other industries in attracting multiple rounds of funding.The ? nancial services companies constitute 10 percent of the total companies that have received funding, 9 percent of the companies that have received one round of funding, and 15 percent of the companies that have received more than one round of funding. This indicates that ? nancial services companies have a better track record of getting additional investment rounds. The reasons could be numerous – the larger funding requirements created the need for funding to happen in multiple rounds and companies that had obt ained the ? st round of funding would have been able to showcase a strong performance track record to attract the subsequent rounds of funding. The industry itself was in an upswing in India during the study period and this might have contributed to investor interest in investing in subsequent rounds. It could also be due to the institutional and regulatory features of private equity (PE) investing in India. For example, funding could be done in multiple rounds because of the procedural issues in foreign investments in certain sectors. Further studies are needed to identify the determinants of funding rounds.One would reasonably expect that multiple rounds of funding would be observed in more capital intensive industries. Among the ten industry categories, engineering and construction and manufacturing sectors are very capital and asset intensive. However, it can be seen that the proportion of companies receiving additional rounds of funding in these sectors is not more than the pro portion of companies that have received ? rst-round funding. On the contrary, the proportion of companies receiving additional rounds of funding in manufacturing is less than that of their proportion in Round 1 ? ancing. Several explanations are possible for this trend, which needs to be substantiated with further research. Companies are receiving VCPE funding at a much later stage in the lifecycle and they do not need additional rounds of funding before providing an exit to the investor. It is possible that, because of their asset intensive nature, they are able to get access to debt funding thereby limiting the possibility of additional rounds of VCPE ? nancing. VCPE in India 11 4. 2 Time of incorporation and ? nancing stage It is well known that VC investments happen early in a ? rm’s life.It is during the early stage that companies have limited means to raise money from conventional sources and look to sources like VC for meeting the funding requirements. Table II provide s the results from our analysis of the interval between the year of incorporation of the company and the ? nancing stage. The results indicate some interesting trends. Early stage funding should normally happen within the ? rst couple of years after the incorporation of the ? rm. But in our analysis, we ? nd that 17 percent of the ? rms have received their early stage funding as much as ten years after they were incorporated.While the highest frequency of early stage funding can be seen in the one- to three-year category, a large proportion of companies get their early stage funding even until the ? fth year from the time of incorporation. This indicates the disinclination of the VCPE investors in India to make investments in very early stages. A majority of the growth stage investment happens between ? ve and eight years from incorporation. However, the second highest percentage of growth stage funding happens after 15 years after incorporation. While growth stage ? nancing during the ? e- to eight-year period seems reasonable (though it is still more than that which is normally associated with growth ? nancing), growth ? nancing happening after 15 years from incorporation needs to be studied in detail. It could either be a question of willingness or readiness. Either the investors are not willing to invest earlier or the companies are not ready to receive VCPE funding in their early years. The companies might have explored funding from family, banks, or friends before taking investment from VCPE investors. Financing stage Early Growth Late Pre-IPO Time since incorporation (in years) ,1 20 13. 6% ,3 22 9. 3% 7 2. 3% 7. 7% 1-3 51 34. 7% 3-5 26 11. 0% 15 5. 0% 0 0. 0% 3-5 37 25. 2% 5-8 68 28. 8% 25 8. 3% 6 15. 4% 5-8 13 8. 8% 8-10 36 15. 3% 19 6. 3% 3 7. 7% 8-10 1 0. 7% 10-15 31 13. 1% 61 20. 3% 13 33. 3% Total . 10 25 17. 0% . 15 53 22. 5% 173 57. 7% 14 35. 9% 147 236 300 39 Table II. Number of VCPE deals for different ? nancing stages vs time since incorporat ion of investee companies JIBR 3,1 12 Analysis of late stage investment deals, as can be expected, show an increasing trend with time from incorporation. However, more than half of the late stage deals that have been studied are seen in companies more than 15 years after their incorporation.This again re-con? rms the earlier ?ndings that VCPE investors have been more inclined to invest in companies that have a longer track record and operating history, and have a suf? cient size. From the perspective of companies that are receiving VCPE funding, such late stage funding, could indicate that these companies might have been part of a larger business group, which provided the ? nancial support in their early years. Further studies need to be done to understand the antecedents of ? rms that receive late stage investment.But one of the most compelling observations which attracts immediate attention is that about 75 percent (541 out of 722[6]) deals are in companies that are more than ? ve years old. Almost 60 percent (429 out of 722) VCPE deal investments are made in ? rms that are eight years old or more. This supports the earlier inferences that VCPE funds in India are more inclined to invest in ? rms that have a track record of performance. While this investment trend might not be very different from that which is seen in other emerging economies such as Brazil (Ribiero and de Carvalho, 2008), it is much more marked in India.Therefore, it is felt that most of the VCPE investments in India are in the nature of PE investments rather than VC investments, which are typically investments made in early stage companies. 4. 3 Intervals between funding rounds Table III presents average time intervals in months between different rounds of PE funding (for Rounds 1-3)[7] across industries. The average time interval across industries between Round 1 and Round 2 funding is 13. 69 months, which is just slightly more than year. The average time interval between Round 2 and Round 3 funding is 10. 1 months, which is less than a year. The median values for the above intervals are 12. 17 and 11. 17 months, respectively. The closeness of the mean to median values indicates that there is no signi? cant skew in the time interval between different funding rounds. Figures 2 and 3 show the distribution of time intervals between rounds. These indicate that the deals are well distributed in the initial periods, with a slightly higher frequency around the mean value, and tapering down in the later periods. Since it takes about three to six months from the date of the ? rst signi? ant meeting with the investors to realize an investment, the low time interval between successive Industry Table III. Average time interval between successive rounds of VCPE funding (in months) R2-R1 R3-R2 Computer hardware Engineering and construction Financial services Healthcare IT and ITES Manufacturing Non-? nancial services Others Telecom and media Transportation and logistics Total 14. 43 17. 13 12. 28 14. 89 15. 64 11. 58 13. 93 8. 46 11. 16 9. 54 13. 69 16. 72 4. 88 7. 44 14. 22 12. 43 10. 14 16. 57 6. 03 15. 23 9. 63 10. 91 VCPE in India 50 45 Number of deals 40 35 30 13 25 20 15 10 5 0 3 3 to 6 6 to 9 9 to 12 12 to 18 18 to 24 24 to 36 ? 36 Duration (months) Figure 2. Time between Round 2 and Round 1 investments 14 12 Number of deals 10 8 6 4 2 0 ?3 3 to 6 6 to 9 9 to 12 12 to 18 18 to 24 24 to 36 Duration (months) ? 36 ?nancing rounds indicates that the top management of the company might be continuously devoting their energies in raising capital. This might not be good for business, as spending more time on raising ? nancing is likely to affect their attention to business operations. Our results also indicate that in the Indian context the pace of ? nancing increases with time.This result is somewhat surprising as, under normal circumstances, the size of funding increases with every additional round of funding and is expected to meet the needs of the company for a longer duration even after accounting for the higher cash burn rates due to the increase in company size. Analysis of time intervals for different industry categories indicates that the engineering and construction sector had the largest time interval between the ? rst and second round of funding. Some explanations, which need to be followed with further research, for this trend include being capital intensive.They raise large sums which Figure 3. Time between Round 3 and Round 2 investments JIBR 3,1 help the companies to sustain the operations for a longer period. They are able to get additional funding from other sources such as debt. Cash ? ows from operations would also contribute towards the ? nancing requirements. However, the time interval between second and third round is the lowest for this sector, which indicates that this could be due to the pre-IPO nature of funding. 14 4. 4 Investment exits Venture exit has been an area where there has been limited research (Gomp ers and Lerner, 2004).The VCPE investor after a certain period has to exit the investment to recover the same as well as to earn a return on it. The different possible exit routes play a major role in VCPE ? nancing and the likely availability of favorable exit opportunities in lesser time is one of the key criterions used by investors while evaluating investment opportunities. Though there are several exit routes for the VCPE funds such as IPO, secondary sale of shares, M, management buy outs, and liquidation. Exit by IPOs and trade sale through M are the more prevalent methods of exit in Indian VCPE markets.Of the total 252 exit events that were recorded during the ? ve-year period ending 2008, 84 events were IPOs and the remaining 168 were M. Thus, the ratio of exits of IPOs and M is exactly 0. 5, indicating that an exit by M is twice as likely as that by IPO. However, an analysis of this ratio across different industries provides an interesting picture. The ratio is less than 1 for all but two of the industry categories – engineering and construction, and transportation and logistics. Companies in this sector tend to be capital intensive industries with a large asset base and largely dependent on the Indian market.Since companies in this sector are much larger in terms of revenues or assets, it becomes comparatively easier to achieve an exit by means of an IPO. For sectors, that are not so asset intensive, M seem to be a common form of exit for VCPE investors. Computer-hardware, IT and ITES, and healthcare – all traditionally attractive industries for VCPE investments – show a strong inclination towards M exit routes with the ratio of IPO-M exits being less than 0. 4 (Figure 4). The choice of exit route is also in? uenced by the state of the capital markets. The ratio of IPO-M exits in each of the ? e years during the study period is shown in Figure 5. Figure 4. Ratio of exits by IPO to M across industries Co En m gi pu ne te er r-h in g ar an dw d ar co e ns tru Fi na ct io nc n ia ls er vi ce s H ea lth ca IT re an d IT M ES an N uf on ac -fi tu na rin ci g al se rv ic es Te O le Tr th co er an m s sp an or d ta m tio ed n ia an d lo gi tic s 1. 6 1. 4 1. 2 1 0. 8 0. 6 0. 4 0. 2 0 VCPE in India 0. 9 0. 8 0. 7 0. 6 0. 5 0. 4 15 0. 3 0. 2 0. 1 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Figure 5. Ratio of exits by IPO to M during 2004-2008 While the overall ratio of IPO-M exits is 0. 5 for the ? e-year period ending 2008, the ratio varies in line with the state of the capital markets. The ratio ranges from 0. 3 to 0. 6 for all years, except 2006, when it is signi? cantly high (. 0. 8). This can probably be attributed to the ? ourish in the IPO market in India during 2006. This is consistent with the ? nding that IPOs are more likely to occur when equity values are high (Lerner, 1994). In addition to the type of exit, the capital markets also in? uence the time taken for an investor to exit. The pattern of variation in an average number of rounds for the two exit methods over the years is shown in Figure 6.It can be noted that there are large variations for those companies that provided exits through IPOs. The number of rounds of VCPE funding before the IPOs are lower during the years 2006 and 2007, when the capital markets were active. Such variations could not be seen in those cases where the exits were from M. The number of rounds of funding before an M has been gradually increasing over the years, indicating that the size needed before an exit from an M has also been increasing over the years. But a more interesting inference could be for companies that exit from anM; the circumstances in the capital markets do not have a signi? cant effect. On the other hand, if the conditions are favorable, companies tend to make their IPOs in a shorter period to take advantage of the momentum in the capital markets. This is also supported by the fact that the average numbers of funding rounds are nearly equal for both the exit types during 2006 and 2007. 3. 5 Average number of rounds 3 2. 5 2 IPO 1. 5 Trade sale – M 1 0. 5 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Figure 6. Average number of funding rounds before exit during the ? ve years JIBR 3,1 16 4. 5 Investment durationThe duration of a VCPE investment is de? ned as the interval between the time of investment and exit[8]. It is generally considered that VCPE funds are not short-term investors, and stay invested in the ? rm between three and ? ve years; however, our analysis tells a different story. Table IV provides the investment duration for investments in different ? nancing stages. To make our analysis more accurate, this exercise was done only for those companies for which complete data on both investments and exits were available. A total of 110 transactions in 98 companies were included in this analysis.The main ? nding from Table IV is the overall short-term duration of VCPE investments in India. For 63 percent of the investment transactio ns, the average investment duration is less than one year. Even in those investments which can be classi? ed as growth stage, 75 percent of the investments have less than two years’ duration. For late stage investments, the proportion of exits within two years increases to 87 percent. Overall, the average duration of investment stands at just 17 months. In comparison, the investment duration for an IPO exit in the USA and Canada is 4. 7 and 5. 86 years, respectively.The investment duration for an exit through the acquisition route for the USA and Canada is 5. 17 and 6. 94 years, respectively, (Cumming and MacIntosh, 2001). For VCPE investments, which are generally considered medium to long-term investments, the observed duration in India is very low, indicating that most of the investments are late stage or pre-IPO types of investments. While Indian VCPE investors would generally indicate that they are long-term investors, the data corroborates that which many entrepreneurs h ave always felt: that VCPE funds need to be invested in the long term and not focused on quickly exiting from the investment.While these results are interesting, they also suffer from two limitations: the sample size and the ? ve-year time frame for analysis. Further con? rmatory studies that cover a longer time frame with more deals are needed. 4. 6 Statistical analysis of investment duration and type of exit As a part of this study, statistical analysis was done to determine whether any of the variables were able to explain the duration of VCPE investment and the type of exit. For this analysis, Investment duration and type of exit were taken as the dependent variables. Independent variables used in the study were industry, ? ancing stage, region, and type of VCPE fund. Bivariate regressions (Table V) indicate the relative in? uence of each independent variable on the dependent variables. As it can be expected, duration of investment can be best explained by ? nancing stage. The h igh f-ratio and the Financing stage Early Growth Late Table IV. Duration of VCPE investments Pre-IPO ,1 0 0. 0% 14 48. 3% 35 61. 4% 20 90. 9% Duration of investment (in years) 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 2 100. 0% 8 27. 6% 15 26. 3% 2 9. 1% 0 0. 0% 6 20. 7% 6 10. 5% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 1 3. 4% 1 1. 8% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% .5 Total 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 0 0. 0% 2 29 57 22 R S. no. Dependent variable Independent variable(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Duration of Industry investment Financing stage Region Type of VCPE fund Exit mode Industry Stage Region Type of VCPE fund R2 Adjusted R2 SE of the estimate 0. 318 0. 387 0. 159 0. 278 0. 544 0. 429 0. 221 0. 115 0. 101 0. 150 0. 025 0. 077 0. 296 0. 184 0. 049 0. 013 0. 007 0. 118 0. 011 0. 066 0. 212 0. 154 0. 014 0. 001 10. 853 10. 157 10. 876 10. 453 0. 423 0. 439 0. 474 0. 477 ANOVA p-value F-ratio (Sig. ) 0. 938 4. 755 0. 696 6. 952 3. 506 6. 093 1. 389 1. 105 0. 498 0. 004 . 557 0. 010 0. 001 0. 001 0. 252 0. 296 VCPE in India 17 Table V. Results from bivariate regression analysis low p-value indicate the signi? cance of the regression. This can be easily explained as those investing in the early stage would remain invested for a longer duration and those investing in late stages would remain invested for a shorter duration. High f-ratio and low p-values are also noted for the bivariate regression that had a type of VCPE fund as the independent variable. In this study, VCPE funds were categorized into two: domestic and foreign. The fact that this has an in? ence supports the argument that domestic VCPE funds stay invested for a longer duration as compared to foreign funds. It was also noted that industry and stage of ? nancing have more in? uence on the exit mode as compared to other variables. These results can also be explained. Some industries could be more suited for exiting with IPOs because of the market bias. Similarly, many of the late stage and pre-IPO investments are made just before the company goes for an IPO. When these investments are being made, the investee company has a clear road map for going for an IPO.Therefore, the exit route in such late stage and pre-IPO investments are more or less clear at the time of the investment itself, unless there is an adverse change in market conditions. We performed a discriminant analysis in SPSS (Table VI) to predict the probable exit route for an investment, given the independent variables. Discriminant analysis Dependent variable (Y), i. e. exit method Original Count % Cross-validatedb Count % Predicted group membershipa 1 (IPO) 2 (M) Total 1 (IPO) 2 (M) 1 (IPO) 2 (M) 49 5 87. 5 17. 2 7 24 12. 5 82. 8 56 29 100. 0 100. 0 1 (IPO) 2 (M) 1 (IPO) 2 (M) 5 6 80. 4 20. 7 11 23 19. 6 79. 3 56 29 100. 0 100. 0 Notes: a85. 9 percent of original grouped cases correctly classi? ed and 80. 0 percent of cross-validated grouped cases correctly classi? ed; bcross-validation is done only for those cases in the analysis; in cross-validation, each case is cl assi? ed by the functions derived from all cases other than that case Table VI. Results from the discriminant analysis on exit method classi? cation JIBR 3,1 18 is typically used for the prediction of categorical or non-metric variable being classi? ed into two or more mutually exclusive categories.The independent variables used in the discriminant analysis were industry, ? nancing stage, region, and type of VCPE fund. The proportion of cases correctly classi? ed indicates the ef? cacy and relevance of the application of discriminant analysis for predicting the dependent variable, which in this case is the type of exit. Discriminant analysis was done on the investment and exit data for 85 out of 98 companies (for which all necessary details were available). Out of the 85 companies, IPO exits were observed for 56 companies and M for 29 companies. Table VI indicates the results from the discriminant analysis.It can be seen that 49 out of 56 IPO exits and 24 out of 29 M exits were corr ectly classi? ed, thus leaving an error of 12 out of 85 cases. Overall, 85. 9 percent cases are correctly classi? ed. To augment the validity and reliability of the ? ndings, a cross validation was done. In a cross validation, each case is classi? ed using a discriminant function derived from all cases other than the case being classi? ed. The cross validation results indicate that 45 out of 56 IPO exits were correctly classi? ed and 23 out of 29 M exits were correctly classi? ed. Overall, 80 percent of the cases were correctly classi? d. Both these results points towards the good predictive power of the available data in prediction of exit method choice. The results also indicate that it is possible to predict the type of exit based on the information available at the time of making an investment, i. e. industry, ? nancing stage, region of investment, and type of VCPE fund. This could indicate that investors are reasonably clear about the type of exit that they might get from a giv en investment. While the timing of exit might be uncertain, the type of exit seems more or less evident at the time of investment.More research needs to be done to determine whether the variables identi? ed in this paper are a good predictor for exit type or not, even in other markets. 5. Summary The growth and vibrancy in the Indian VCPE industry has attracted global attention. This paper highlights some areas of concern that need to be addressed for the long-term growth in the country. First, there has to be a creation of an ecosystem that encourages early stage investments. It would be such early stage investments that would spur innovation and provide the pipeline for growth and late stage investments.Venture economics data indicate that of the total PE commitments made to India, VC commitments[9] accounted for 90 percent during 1990-1999, 55 percent during 2000-2009, and 51 percent during 2005-2009. This indicates that though there has been an overall growth in funds committed to India, the proportion of VC commitments that primarily fund early stage investments have been gradually decreasing. In the absence of early stage investments, many PE funds would ? nd it dif? cult to ? nd new opportunities for follow on investments. The result would be a funneling of investments in established companies with increasing valuations.In the long run, the industry would fall apart under the burden of such high valuations leading to an exit of investors from India. To prevent this from happening, it is important to ensure that there is adequate early stage investing. Since domestic VCPE investors invest more actively in early stages[10], this points to the need for creating a more stronger and active community of domestic VCPE investors in India. Second, the short duration of VCPE investment does not bode well. A recent World Economic Forum report indicates that PE investors have a long-term ownership bias nd 58 percent of the PE investments are exited more than ? ve y ears after the initial transaction. So-called â€Å"quick ? ips† (i. e. exits within two years of investment by PE funds) account for only 12 percent of deals and have decreased in the last few years (Lerner and Gurung, 2008). Seen from this perspective, most of the VCPE investments in India could come under the category of â€Å"quick ? ips†. This trend, if it continues, would be a cause of real concern. It is expected that VCPE investors would do a lot of hand holding and participate in value-adding activities in their portfolio companies.However, contributing to the investment in such ways would happen only if the investors remain invested for a long term. Short-term investments deny the portfolio companies the opportunity to leverage the management expertise of the VCPE investors. Since the investment duration is also in? uenced by the source of VCPE funds, there is a strong need to promote the domestic VCPE industry in India[11]. The domestic investors would stay invested for a longer duration and this would give more opportunities to the investor to add value in the portfolio companies.Third, the time intervals between successive funding rounds should increase. Frequently, approaching the investors means that the top management attention gets diverted from the business operations. It would be bene? cial if the entrepreneurs and companies raise capital in such a way that the portfolio company can sustain the operations for at least two years. While they might feel that raising a large round would deprive them the bene? ts of valuation increases if funding is raised in multiple rounds, it would de? nitely help to keep the transaction costs lower.The issues of valuation increases can be addressed by incorporating suitable incentive structures in the shareholders’ agreement. The investors too should support the idea of a larger funding round for the companies and engage in co-investing with other VCPE investors if required. Given the exp loratory nature of this study, further research and con? rmatory studies are needed to corroborate the ? ndings of this paper. It is felt that many of the results in this paper are suf? ciently interesting to warrant further studies. Notes 1.Based on Subhash (2006) and PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Private Equity Reports 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. 2. Investment data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Private Equity Reports might not match with that of the funds committed data from venture economics as we feel that many investments might have been made outside of a formal VCPE fund structure. In addition, several funds locally set up in India might not have been captured in the venture economics database. However, both the reports indicate the strong growth in funds committed to various VCPE funds and actual investments made in companies. . Venture Intelligence can be accessed at: www. ventureintelligence. in 4. Asian Venture Capital Journal database can be accessed at: ww w. avcj. com 5. Out of the 1,503 companies that received funding from VCPE investors, 866 companies, i. e. 58 percent of the companies received their funding during the last two years of the study period. 6. Information on time of incorporation was readily available only for 722 out of the 1,503 companies. 7. Since there are very few companies that have received more than three rounds of ? nancing, Round 4 and above have not been included for this analysis.VCPE in India 19 JIBR 3,1 20 8. Strictly speaking, it would dif? cult to determine when the investor actually exited from the investment, either partially or completely. One could ? nd that information by studying the annual reports as well as stock exchange ? lings of the company, which was not done in this study. Exit in this paper is meant to be understood as the time of occurrence of an exit event, which may or may not be the time of actual exit. 9. A distinction can be made between VC and PE commitments. VC commitments are ma inly targeted at the early stage and growth stage investment opportunities.PE commitments are primarily targeted at the late stage opportunities. Average investment in deals by PE funds is usually larger than those made by VC funds. 10. As per the India Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2009, 70 percent of the early stage investments are by domestic VCPE investors during 2004-2008. 11. India Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2009 indicates that foreign investors have contributed nearly 73 percent of the total amount invested in VCPE transactions during 2004-2008. References Admati, A. and P? eiderer, P. (1994), â€Å"Robust ? ancial contracting and the role of venture capitalists†, Journal of Finance, Vol. 49, pp. 371-402. Annamalai, T. R. and Deshmukh, A. (2009), â€Å"India venture capital and private equity report 2009†, unpublished report, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. Cumming, D. J. and MacIntosh, J. G. (2001), â€Å"Venture capi tal investment duration in Canada and the United States†, Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Vol. 11, pp. 445-63. Dossani, R. and Kenney, M. (2002), â€Å"Creating an environment: developing venture capital in India†, BRIE Working Paper 143, The Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, Berkeley, CA.Gompers, P. A. (1995), â€Å"Optimal investment, monitoring, and the staging of venture capital†, Journal of Finance, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 1461-89. Gompers, P. A. (1996), â€Å"Grandstanding in the venture capital industry†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 42, pp. 133-56. Gompers, P. A. and Lerner, J. (2004), The Venture Capital Cycle, 2nd ed. , MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Ippolito, R. (2007), â€Å"Private equity in China and India†, Journal of Private Equity, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 36-41. Kulkarni, N. and Prusty, A. (2007), â€Å"Private equity investment strategy in India’s port sector†, Journal of Private Equity, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 71-83. Lerner, J. (1994), â€Å"Venture capitalists and the decision to go public†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 35, pp. 293-316. Lerner, J. and Gurung, A. (2008), The Global Impact of Private Equity Report 2008, World Economic Forum, Geneva. Lockett, A. , Wright, M. , Sapienza, H. and Pruthi, S. (1992), â€Å"Venture capital investors, valuation and information: a comparative study of the US, Hong Kong, India and Singapore†, Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 237-52. Mishra, A. K. 2004), â€Å"Indian venture capitalists (VCs) investment evaluation criteria†, ICFAI Journal of Applied Finance, Vol. 10 No. 7, pp. 71-93. Mitra, D. (1997), â€Å"The venture capital industry in India†, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 67-79. Neher, D. V. (1999), â€Å"Staged ? nancing: an agency perspective†, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 66, pp. 255-74. Pandey, I. M. (19 96), Venture Capital: The Indian Experience, Prentice-Hall, New Delhi. Pandey, I. M. (1998), â€Å"The process of developing venture capital in India†, Technovation, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 253-61. Ribeiro, L.L. and de Carvalho, A. G. (2008), â€Å"Private equity and venture capital in an emerging economy: evidence from Brazil†, Venture Capital, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 111-26. Sahlman, W. (1990), â€Å"The structure and governance of venture capital organizations†, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 27, pp. 473-524. Singh, S. , Singh, S. J. and Jadeja, A. D. (2005), â€Å"Venture investing in India? Think twice†, Journal of Private Equity, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 35-40. Subhash, K. B. (2006), â€Å"How to teach the big baby to walk: case of the Indian venture capital industry†, Journal of Private Equity, Vol. No. 4, pp. 76-91. Verma, J. C. (1997), Venture Capital Financing in India, Sage, London. Vinay Kumar, A. (2002), â€Å"Venture capital ? nance in India: p ractices, perspectives and issues†, Finance India, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 247-52. Vinay Kumar, A. (2005), â€Å"Indian VCs’ involvement with investee ? rms: an empirical analysis of board composition, expectations and contribution†, ICFAI Journal of Applied Finance, July, pp. 28-39. Vinay Kumar, A. and Kaura, M. N. (2003), â€Å"Venture capitalists’ screening criteria†, Vikalpa, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 49-59. About the authorsThillai Rajan Annamalai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras. His research interest includes VC, PE, infrastructure, and corporate ? nance. Thillai Rajan Annamalai is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email  protected] ac. in Ashish Deshmukh was an MBA student at the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras. To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email  protected] com Or visit our web site for further details: www. emeraldinsight. com/reprints VCPE in In dia 21

Environmental Studies Essays – Environmental Management Systems

Will Environmental Management Systems and associates Environmental Reporting enterprises aid the construct ofSustainable Development in application?The International Organization forStandardization ( ISO ) is a federation of non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) created to lucubrate and better international criterions. The ISO initiallycreated general direction criterions ( the ISO 9000 Series ) for organizationsand industries that acknowledged the value of a systematic attack tomanagement. However, as economic growing and the environment have frequently been inconflict with one and other ( and industries today face many political, socialand economic force per unit areas to better their environmental public presentation – Gale, 1996 ) the ISO further developed the 14000 Series, which applied the same managementsystem as the 9000 Series to companies ‘ environmental issues ( The LexingtonGroup, 2005: 5 ) . The rules behind the ISO 14000 Series apply to any organisation, public or private, whose activities, merchandises or services interact straight or indirectly with the environment ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) . The ISO 14000 Series rapidly becametheenvironmental policy criterion for companies to follow, and since its constitution in 1996 1000s of organisations have adopted the Environmental Management Systems ( EMSs ) . EMSs are used in the public and private spheres, at all graduated tables, from national to local authorities, and from big multi-national corporations to little in private owned concerns. This essay will discourse if, and towhat extent, EMSs ( and specifically the Environmental Reporting subordinate ) will help the construct of sustainable development in application. This essay isstructured as follows: foremost, it discusses the most of import of the ISO 14000standards, the EMS ; 2nd, it considers another ISO 14000 constituent, Environmental Reporting ; 3rd, it analyses and considers the variables andapplication of sustainable development ; 4th, it turns to a few instance studiesto exemplify how EMSs work in pattern ; and eventually, it draws some conclusionsabout how effectual these criterions are in helping the construct of sustainabledevelopment. Environmental Management Systems As discussed in the Introduction, the ISO 14000 Series was developed to use the ISO ‘s widely recognizedmanagement systems to a company ‘s environmental issues ( The Lexington Group,2005 ) . The EMS, or ISO standard 14001, rapidly became the internationallyrecognized model for environmental direction, measuring, rating andauditing ( GreenBiz, 2005: 1 ) . To name a few illustrations, the duties ofthe EMS include: making a elaborate environmental policy for an organisation, analyzing the environmental impact of its merchandises, activities and services, set uping environmental aims, helping the organisation in meetingits legal and regulative demands, supplying preparation to employees, andoverseeing the company ‘s auditing process. The EMS meets international criterions, but is tailored to specific operations, leting companies to command the environmental impact of their activities, merchandises, and services ( GreenBiz, 2005: 1 ) . Though an organisation could, ofcourse, set up these really guidelines and parametric quantities themselves, companiesoften find that ISO 14001 adherencehelps to run into the ever-increasingenvironmental criterions and concerns of the planetary market place ( GreenBiz,2005:1 ) . Other likely benefits for a company efficaciously implementing an EMSare legion and include, among others: . a more effectual and systematic attack to pull offing itsinteractions with the environment ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) ; . bettering cost-effectiveness ( by salvaging the money and staff timenecessary to pull off environmental personal businesss independently – The Lexington Group,2005, every bit good as by bettering efficiency and in bend cut downing the costs ofenergy, stuffs, all right and punishments – Morrow and Rondinelli, 2002:162 ) ; . leting companies to convey their environmental policies moreeffectively to neighboring communities and other stakeholders ( The LexingtonGroup, 2005 ) ; . and bettering their image and pulling clients through theestablishment of a strong image of corporate duty ( Morrow andRondinelli, 2002: 163 ) . All of these benefits, of class, increase the likeliness that companies will assist lend to sustainabledevelopment. However, the cost and benefits of an EMS ( and in bend, theprobability that the EMS will play a function in sustainable development ) fluctuateconsiderably depending on a scope of standards. These might include: the type oforganization, its bingeco-efficiency, the organisation ‘s possible environmental impacts or hazards, the extent towhich a company antecedently implemented facets of environmental sustainability, and the premium placed on sustainability by the organisation ‘s stakeholders andcustomers ( The Lexington Group, 2005 ) . Whilst this subdivision has outlined EMSs and their possible beneifts, the undermentioned subdivision will discourse Environmental Reporting, its association and influence on EMS, and its part to the sustainable development of organisations. Environmental Coverage Corporate coverage is an essentialcomponent of concern direction. It is defined as the voluntary publicpresentation of information about an organisation ‘s non-financial public presentation -environmental, societal and economic – over a specified period, normally afinancial twelvemonth ( Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005: 1 ) . These can bemade public in a assortment of ways, including as a stand-alone papers, on a companywebsite, or as a constituent of an Annual Report ( Department of Environment andHeritage, 2005 ) . An Environmental Report is a cardinal constituent of the ISO 14000 Series, and an indispensable measure to increasing transparence and, as a consequence, answerability in a company ‘s environmental patterns ( Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005 ) . The pattern of Environmental Reporting is going more common because of force per unit area from stakeholders, every bit good as a general public demand for increased openness on environmental issues ( Kolk, 1999 ) . Further, some states have now begun to enforce legal duties on houses to bring forth Environmental Reports ( Kolk, 1999 ) . A Corporate Environmental Report ( CER ) is, in kernel, a agencies to leaving a company ‘s environmental performance.Arguably, the most of import map of the CER is to let the organizationto evaluate its observation of the environmental policies, ends and objectivesset out in its EMS ( United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 ) . It is alsoused to: exhibit a company ‘s EMS and corporate duty ; show tokey stakeholders, every bit good as to clients, that it is following with theirdemands ; assist a company path its ain advancement and place internal strengthand failings ( United Nations Environment Programme, 2005 ) ; and measure itscurrent public presentation and put farther hereafter ends. The general social demand for increased transparence on environmental issues, and in bend environmental coverage, is exemplified by the fact that the most complete studies are published by industries with hapless or controversial public images, i.e. , the chemical or lumber industries ( Davis-Walling and Batterman, 1997 ) . In so long as there is objectivityand honestness, environmental coverage can be conducted either internally orexternally ( Rice, 2005 ) . Undeniably, for environmental coverage to beworthwhile, it must be believable, and there is increasing force per unit area from twospecific waies to verify environmental studies: foremost, there is asignificant move from environmental statements and purposes to quantified, comparable, verifiable, and even verified information ( Kolk, 1999: 225 ) ; andsecond, the demand of independent, third-party confirmation andcertification as an about expected component of every worthwhile attempt ( Rice, 2005: 1 ) . Though Environmental Reporting hasa large function to play in helping the long-run sustainability of an organisation, it is however a procedure plagued with jobs. Research seems to indicatethat environmental coverage is typically lacking and non of a standard tosatisfy the information demands of assorted categories of study readers ( Deegan andRankin, 1999 ) . An independent survey of the environmental studies of the Fortune50 houses found that none provided information that was sufficient forcomprehensive or comparative analyses of environmental public presentation ( Davis-Walling and Batterman, 1997: 1432 ) . Research suggests that one of thebiggest jobs is that a company can get down its environmental reportingwhenever it wants, and that this frequently leads to dissatisfactory consequences. Environmental Reporting, so, typically comes before the EMS, and could therefore merely act as a statement ofobjectives, and non the researched and analysed study on the achievement ofenvironmental aims under an EMS that it ‘s meant to be. To be practicaland effective ( and non merely a statement of environmental policies ) environmental coverage should truly be developed farther along theimplementation of the ISO 14000 Series. Additionally, it should be a continuousprocess, and referred back to once more and once more in an effort to consolidate theEMS and efficaciously analyze the companies ‘ advancement. This chronology supports the ISOspecification that organisations seekuninterruptedbetterment: bycontinually describing, as opposed to supplying a one-off initial study, organisations can repeatedly measure and accommodate their EMS. In kernel, it isimportant to underscore that the CER is a agency to environmental betterment andgreater answerability, non an terminal in itself ( United Nations EnvironmentProgramme, 2005: 1 ) . Consideration of the variables and application of Sustainable Development The term ‘Sustainable Development'was foremost used in 1987 inOur Common Future, besides known as theBrundtland Report of the United Nations ‘ Commission on Environment andDevelopment ( WCED ) . The definition offered by the Brundtland Report is stillthe most normally used today, and describes Sustainable Development merely, andarguably mistily, as development that meets the demands of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future coevalss to run into their demands ( WCED, 1987:43 ) . Sustainability is frequently regarded as the ‘buzz-word ‘ of development policy in the 21stCentury. Indeed, as The Economist competently stated: No 1 in their right head is against ‘sustainable development ‘ . Everyone thinks it would be terrific if there were less poorness, less pollution, less disease, less war, less corruptness ( 2002 ) . As an umbrella-term, its WCED definition has been instrumental in making a consensus, but less helpful in making and sketching a model for its accomplishment. Presently, there are in the part of 70 different definitions for Sustainable Development, and each allows organisations to construe the term in whatever manner they see fit. For that ground, EMS and Environmental Reporting are particularly of import for giving public and private administrations likewise, from a national to a local degree, the standardized model necessary non merely for showing their committedness to the pattern of sustainability, but for doing progress towards its existent accomplishment. As mentioned in the Introduction, economic growing and the environment are frequently regarded as being at odds, andthe ISO 14000 Standards are peculiarly of import for assisting organizationsand industry to make their coveted degree of sustainability, and to incorporatethe environment into their general model. Determining an EMS is anorganization ‘s first, and most critical measure in set uping what itsenvironmental facets are, and how it is traveling to cover with them. That said, any organisation can develop an EMS, and though it is an of import startingpoint, it proves small about an organisation ‘s sustainability in and ofitself. Environmental Reporting is hence indispensable non merely to move as the company ‘s ain environmental audit, but to show to stakeholders and society that they are so carry oning themselves in a sustainable mode. Furthermore, accomplishing sustainability is a complicated and long-run ( if non lasting ) procedure ; Environmental Reporting allows a company non merely to measure its achievements, but besides the chance to re-evaluate its mark. The undermentioned subdivision outlines some instance surveies of how organisations have used EMS and Environmental Reporting to minimise their environmental impact. Case Studies This subdivision will show a fewcase surveies to exemplify the value of EMSs and Environmental Reporting. Eachcase survey has been selected to demo scope in the pertinence of thestandards every bit good as to show their usage in both the populace and privatesectors. Solid Waste Management Division, Department of Public Works. Berkeley, California, USA. Description The Solid Waste Management Divisionis Berkeley ‘s municipal waste aggregation and disposal installation. It collectsplant dust, garbage and recycling from about 40,000 residential andcommercial belongingss, every bit good as runing a transportation station, anoil-recycling terminal, and a slump and buy-back recycling Centre. The SolidWaste Management System decided to implement an EMS ( affecting approximately 25 per centum of their 102 employees ) for a assortment of grounds, including: improving thefacility ‘s environmental public presentation, every bit good as employees participation inthis betterment ; doing the peculiar division consistent with the City'soverall environmental rules ; the EMS ‘ value as a marketing/publicrelations tool ; the decrease of costs ; and eventually, an increased competitiveadvantage. Decisions Through implementing an EMS, theSolid Waste Management Division was able to jointly find whatenvironmental impacts the installation had, or might hold in the hereafter. These werethen ranked and ends set to decrease the environmental impact of the facility.These included: extinguishing 98 per cent of dust atoms, cut downing theelectricity used by 250Kwh yearly, bettering the control of hazardousmaterials brought into the site by 75 per cent, adding three mailings per yearto enhance consumer engagement in recycling aggregation, cut downing waterconsumption by 25 per cent, and cut downing figure of pickups scheduled to reducefuel ingestion and emanations. Some of the direct benefits andcontributions to Sustainable Development have been: a decrease in airpollution for the full City of Berkeley ; deriving regard and bettercooperation from the Department of Public Works, including budget alterations ; andconsultation by other City of Berkeley Departments and other Solid Wastepractices all over the United States. Additionally, carry oning an EnvironmentalReport to find the effects of the EMS allowed the installation non merely to hum betterments that it had already made, but to analyze them and put newtargets such as: revising the occupation descriptions, rerouting to cut down the numberof stat mis covered each twenty-four hours, and implementing a new dust suppression system. Beacon Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, United Kingdom. Description One facet of the Beacon Council'sEnvironmental Reporting System is a to the full computerised monitoring andtargeting ( M & A ; T ) system for measuring public presentation at all 600 of theirbuildings. Datas from all public-service corporation suppliers ( including electricity, gas, coal, oil, biomass, and H2O ) are recorded in the specializer system. These are thenmonitored and benchmarked against national public presentation, and make the abilityto instigate disciplinary action to better public presentation. Decisions As reported by the Beacon Council, the M & A ; T system carries out the undermentioned maps: sets energy marks andmonitors public presentation ; sets energy budgets and controls expenditure ; validatesand verifies measures and recovers overcharges ; and proctors and reduces CO2emissions. The continual coverage of the M & A ; T system has been critical in itsconstant monitoring and improving of the Beacon Council ‘s environmentalsustainability. Gillepsie Decals, Inc. Wilsonville, Oregon, USA. Description Gillepsie Decals, Inc. is a40-employee screen-printing company in Oregon. To develop an EMS, the companytook the undermentioned stairss: foremost, it developed its environmental policy ; 2nd, it identified the company ‘s environmental facets and so ranked them in orderof importance ; and 3rd, it set out environmental ends and developed programsto achieve them. Decisions The company made a figure ofimprovements and took important stairss towards accomplishing environmentalsustainability. Two notable illustrations are: one, they reduced the sum ofwaste ink by developing criterions for ink commixture, and a computing machine record ofcolours and mixes for repetition occupations ; and two, they reduced their H2O use by requestinginformation from other companies on their H2O recycling systems, bypurchasing bottled imbibing H2O for employees ( and thereby bettering employeespirits ) ; and by put ining low-flush lavatory theoretical accounts. Gillespie ‘s have stated their committedness to uninterrupted environmental betterment, and have decided to develop other environmental facets in the hereafter. It is ill-defined whether Gillespie ‘s carried out Environmental Reporting, but it is evident that this procedure would be utile for both corroborating the environmental betterments already made, and finding what remains to be done to accomplish the coveted degree of sustainability. Decision EMS and Environmental Reportingwill so assistance in the construct of Sustainable Development in application. TheCase Studies in the old subdivision demonstrated some of the positive resultsof an organisation ‘s execution of an EMS. All three illustrations illustratedhow an EMS, and Environmental Reporting, contribute to the improvedenvironmental public presentation of the establishments in inquiry. The Gillespie CaseStudy was a really small-scale illustration of EMS that demonstrated how the systemcould work even for a little company. Furthermore, the first two instance surveies surely are a presentation of how the EMS and Environmental Reporting can lend to more than merely their establishments environmental public presentation. In the Berkeley illustration, it showed non merely how an EMS can lend to Sustainable Development for the individual establishment, but besides how this affects the metropolis as a whole, and can act upon similar establishments nation- ( or even world- ) broad. The Beacon Council Case Study is a utile illustration of how EMS can do non merely environmental sense, but fiscal sense as good. The first two illustrations besides servedto exemplify what a critical constituent Environmental Reporting truly is. Theyvalidated Rice ‘s line of concluding that for an EMS to be effectual, theEnvironmental Reporting non merely has to happen, but occur continuously.Environmental Reporting demands to be pushed farther down the time-line of theISO 14000 Series, and be something that occurs after the EMS has beenimplemented ( so it acts non merely as a statement of aims but as an actualreport ) , and on a continual footing because sustainability it non a one-off andsimple accomplishment. The Gillespie illustration is hence a utile illustration of how EMS can be effectual, but without consistent re-evaluation and uninterrupted coverage, the first set of alterations are improbable to be followed by another set. If this is the instance, an organisation ‘s environmental public presentation will at best remain dead, but more likely diminution, alternatively of continuously bettering. This will surely non help the construct of Sustainable Development in application. EMS and Environmental Reporting arenot, nevertheless, the Panacea for Sustainable Development. Reviews of thestandards that are proffered merely because they do non vouch SustainableDevelopment are contrary, and hazard throwing out the babe with the bathwater, or rejecting the indispensable with the unessential. EMS and EnvironmentalReporting are instead two individual parts of a possible solution with an infinitenumber of constituents. They should be seen, and valued, as such. Plants Cited Berkeley, City of ( 2005 )Solid Waste Management Division, Department of Public WorksCase Study, available from Eco-efficiency is the primary manner in which concerns can lend to theconcept of sustainable developmentThe vision of eco-efficiency is merely toproduce more from less. Reducing waste and pollution, and utilizing fewer energyand natural stuffs is evidently good for the environment. It is alsoself-evidently good for concern because it cuts companies ‘ costs, excerptsfrom the Bulleting of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development ( The Lexington Group, 2005: 6 ) .

Journal of Child Psychology Review Sample

Journal of Child Psychology Review Sample Journal of Child Psychology Review Sample Journal of Child Psychology Review Sample According to research conducted in Brigham Young University, which performed memory tests on the 5 month old babies, babies actually remembered the shapes, which were introduced to them through happy voices and faces! Studies had also indicated that young babies were highly tuned to several emotions which even included animals’ emotions. The researchers thought that the positive impacts heightened the attention arousal and system of the babies. It was wondered as to whether the parents who were fond of talking and playing with their five month old babies knew if their children remembered such memories a day later. They, therefore, believed that through using such system, the ability of such children to not only process but also remember the geometric patterns was improved (Ross, et al, 2014). Babies Remember Nothing but a Good Time A new study conducted by BYU further asserts that, indeed, the children were capable of remembering such good times. Babies were more easily capable of remembering something especially if it was attached to positive emotions or the affect which accompanied it. It can further be revealed that despite the fact that people have done lots of studies regarding the memory in infants through studying the discrimination that was prevalent in the emotional affect, it was prudent for new studies to focus on how such emotions were capable of influencing the memory of young people (Dunstan, et al, 2012). It should be noted that despite the fact that young children do not talk, there are various ways that researchers can use in order to analyze the way through which babies respond to different types of testing. For instance, the researchers are able to monitor the movements of the eyes and even ascertain how long the young babies looked at test images. In some of the experiments, the young babies were set in front of the large panel monitor located in a closed off partition where they were exposed to an individual on a screen. The individual on the screen then spoke to them using different emotions, for instance, a neutral, angry or happy voice. After the emotional exposure, the children were then shown geometric shapes. In order to test the children’s memory, the researchers in the study conducted a 5 minute follow up test which was also done in one day. During the follow up test, the children in the study were shown 2 side by side geometric sets in which one was a brand new one, while the original one came from the study. Based on that, researchers in the study recorded the number of times that the baby was able to look from one specific image to another one and the duration that was spent by the baby on observing each specific image. It was revealed that the memory of the babies did not improve if the shapes had been attached or paired with negative voices. But it was ascertained that the children performed better in remembering the shapes which were associated with the positive voices (Katzmarzky, et al, 2009). Based on experiments and research studies done, it was clear that indeed, the positive impact was capable of heightening or rising both the arousal and attention system of the young children and by using such systems, researchers were able to raise their ability of both processing and remembering the â€Å"geometric patterns† (Clark, et al, 2012). Eating Disorders Despite of what is thought by most people, it should be noted that a feeling of guilt does not in any manner or way help in the processes of â€Å"goal setting or dieting†. Indeed, it should be realized that the inclusion or composition of exercise of â€Å"a feeling of guilt† after the binge in the â€Å"cheating routines† of people is prone to work against people thus leading them to the â€Å"cheating spree† in a short duration. It is quite a genuine fact that parents in the contemporary society are faced with numerous challenges associated with fostering of both healthy food habits and attitudes. At most times, this will normally comprise of a tricky balance of firmness and relaxation. It has further been known that those parents who usually regulate and restricte the food choices normally do not foster a confident and relaxed approach towards food. There is, therefore, a dire need for role modelling and guidance in order to help the young people on th e issues that have to do with diets and eating disorders (Thorp, et al, 2011). Eating Issues in the Adolescent Girls Parents encounter numerous new challenges especially when it comes to the â€Å"slippery-slope time† for the adolescent girls even if the childhood eating disorders or issues have either been non-existent or minimal. Parents have been in dilemma as to whether to freak out or encourage in cases where their normal weight teens are in need of dieting. They therefore fail to decide if they should call therapists when their daughters say they are fat or whether they should just have a talk with them. Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something! Thanks to new technologies, it has been determined that most of the young people as well as adults spend a lot of their time just sitting in cars, in schools and even at home either playing computer games or watching television as opposed to active pastime. However, what young people fail to understand is the fact that such labor-saving devices actually come at high cost. This is because before the advent of such technology, the human population lived in both agrarian and hunter-gatherer cultures and as a result, the regular movements were capable of supporting their natural metabolic processes. Young people have failed to comprehend that their bodies are not able to function well if they just sit around. Recent studies have indicated that prolonged sitting was closely related to depression, anxiety, inflammation, anxiety, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, type 2 Diabetes and cancer. It will be prudent for young people to note that prolonged â€Å"sedentary behaviour† cannot be compensated through regular work outs. This is attributed to the fact that indeed, if the individual sits at the computer for a long period of time while working, and then goes to the gym to carry out high intensity workouts for approximately three to four days a week, he will still suffer as a result of the adverse impacts of prolonged sedentary hours (Karen, et al, 2014). What Ought to Be Done There are various measures that can be taken to ensure that â€Å"too many sedentary hours† are avoided by all. This includes taking short breaks of about 5 minutes to stand up and have a walk around. Studies have indicated that these can greatly help in the restoration of the body’s normal functioning, thus, reducing chances of cardiovascular risk occurrences as well as enhancing glucose metabolism. Despite the fact that more research is required in order to fully comprehend the process, it should be noted that health psychologists are continually establishing interventions aimed at the reduction of this problem. For instance, the use of sitting on the exercise balls ss opposed to the use of standing desks. Changes can therefore be made to improve the lives of not only children but all people through: Ensuring that children take good active exercises on a regular basis Taking of regular stretch breaks while watching TV or playing computer games. Encouraging children to take short breaths and releasing them slowly. Can Reading Fictional Stories Make One Become More Empathetic? There are various reasons that neuroscience has put forward in order to explain why reading fiction stories can make an individual’s brain become more empathetic. After mapping of the brains by the Neuroscientists, it was discovered that through reading fiction, a person is able to tap into the brain networks of the characters and make their experiences become one’s own. It is strongly believed that when one becomes fully engaged in reading a story that is fictional, then the brains â€Å"literally lives vicariously† through the neurological levels of the characters. For instance, according to researchers based at the Carnegie Mellon University, when one reads a chapter of either the â€Å"Sorcerer’s Stone Lights Up† or â€Å"Harry Potter†, one’s brain regions will be as involved as if one was watching somebody move or even see the flying of a broom in the actual world. Indeed, neuroscientists across the worlds have been using the â€Å"brain imaging technology† in order to hone upon the specific neural networks and brain regions, which are activated when an individual reads fiction. Conclusively, it seemed that through reading fiction, the readers’ ability of putting themselves in the shoes of other people and flexing imagination easily occurred. In addition to that, it was ascertained that reading fiction was capable of enhancing the theory of mind. The theory refers to the ability of attributing the mental states, for instance, intents, beliefs, pretending, desires and knowledge not only to oneself, but also to other people, and to comprehend that other people have desires, beliefs and intentions which are different as opposed to one’s own. Why Over Scheduling Kids Is Bad Children, just like adults, become stressed because of having too much to do. Excessive workloads for children can have a negative impact on their lives and therefore there is more that needs to be done to ensure a conducive environment for the children is created. Children should be helped to learn how their time can be managed more efficiently and effectively. While some of parenting experts argued that over scheduling the children did not cause them any harm, others were of the opposite opinion. Some of them, therefore, argued that too many activities for the young people was a great problem (Feiler, 2013). Parents were blamed for being interested in their children’s lives too much, thus making them participate in numerous activities aimed at competing with other children. It was further argued that there were higher risks of distracting the young people out of their natural development through engaging them in lots of activities before reaching 11 or 12 years old, because it is during such a period of their lives that self-consciousness is developed. There is, therefore, a dire need for the children to get enough time for free play time, lying around and even having activities that are non-goal oriented with their parents. On the other hand, psychologists have argued that there is nothing wrong with having children indulge in too many activities, especially those dealing with enrichment, so long as the parents ensure that their children have ample time free from activities as well. They, therefore, assert that it is good for children to be scheduled to have musical activities or even sports and other activities that should be organized and supervised by mature people. Indeed, it was established that outside activities are capable of making the children become all rounded people. However, they further noted that problems arise when parents become interested in putting too much scrutiny on the performance of the children in their activities, since doing so makes children lack the fun that they initially intended to have (Wedge, 2014). It is prudent to note that scheduling can either be termed as being too bad or good for the children, if first of all, it is determined whether the motivation for the activities that the children are engaged in is coming from the child or from their parents. If the motivation for the activities that the child is engaged in comes from the child, then over scheduling in that case will be quite constructive. However, if the motivation to engage in such activities arises from the pressure of the parents, then such over scheduling is not only punitive for the young children but also harmful for their growth. Parents should always be careful when dealing with young people, especially those aged between 13 and 19, because this is a transitional stage that marks the end of childhood to adulthood. This is also due to the fact that the transition period brings a lot of independence issues as well as self identity. The Impact of Marketing and Advertising on Children or Young People as Consumers The United States’ economy is supported by both advertising and marketing, which are known for the promotion of the sale of both goods and services to the final consumers. Both children and adults are included into this category. Despite the fact that most of the marketing in the contemporary world has for a long period of time been targeting the children, there are two major trends which have significantly increased the interest of such marketers in child consumers. One of the major trends is children’s discretionary income coupled with their own power or ability to influences the purchases that are made by their parents. The second trend lies in the fact that the significant increase in the number of the available television channels has also resulted in a smaller audience for the channels. As a result, the digital interactive technologies have also opened new avenues or routes that have narrowed the cast to the young children and therefore led to the enlargement of t he children’s media space, as well as the children’s products (Calvert, 2008). At most times, it has been ascertained that paid advertising for the young people or specifically the children has primarily involved the television sports, which usually feature food products and toys that are high in sugar and fat, but very low in nutritional values. However, new marketing strategies have now been developed, which have led to stealth marketing methods as well as online advertisements. For instance, such methods are the embedding of various products in the contents of programs, such as, video games, online programs and films. Such marketing strategies are known to make younger children, especially those who are less than 8 years old, become more vulnerable, since they do not have cognitive skills of comprehending the persuasive intents of online and television advertisements. However, it should be ascertained that there are various government regulations, which have been implemented by both the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission with an aim of providing some form of protection for the children or young people from both the marketing and advertising practices. It has further been determined that regulators have been known to exert more control on the content of the scarce media, and most specifically, television airwaves that are known to belong to the public, as opposed to the content they put on online spaces which are more open. Calvert (2008) further asserts that children in the contemporary society are growing up in a marketing environment, which is highly sophisticated and which is capable of influencing both their behaviours as well as their preferences. The dominance in the use of television sets in most of the homes in the United States, as well as in other places around the world, made advertisers quickly discover that they could use such a medium in order to bring their products and services to the attention of a larger or mass audience comprising of both the old and young people, and therefore deliver a hefty supply of adults and children to business. The contemporary advertising and marketing has permeated the daily lives of the children and in addition to that, most of the products which are marketed to the young children are not only ,unhealthy but they are also known to promote the occurrence of obesity. It is quite unfortunate that most of the children do not comprehend the intention of such persuasive advertisements and even the older children find it difficult to understand the new marketing methods that have now become notorious for blurring the line between the program and commercial content (Media Research, 2007).