Obama Health Care

For many perennial businesses, managing the administration of seasonal employees is a problem for when it comes to staffing-up for peak business. Managers are often hit hard with the extra tasks involved hiring and screening new employees. Even if you are lucky enough to have an HR department, running a business with seasonal hires gets tricky when it comes to payroll and benefits administration.

This year, not only are you faced with the extra work involved with seasonal hires, but there may be some significant changes with the Obama administration that will affect payroll departments across the country. According to Americanpayroll.org, here are just a few that if enacted into a law would have a big impact on businesses’ payroll departments.

? Increase the minimum wage

? Making Work Pay tax cut

? Tax cut for seniors

? Earned Income Tax Credit expansion

? Family and Medical Leave Act expansion

? Extend paid sick time benefits

? Encourage states to adopt paid leave

? Small Business Health Tax Credit

? Coverage of catastrophic health costs

? American Jobs Tax Credit

? Penalty-free hardship withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k) plans

? Retirement savings incentives

? Increase immigration quotas

? Remove incentives to enter the U.S. illegally

These proposed tax changes will affect you as an employer, your automated payroll systems, and your employees’ paychecks.

If your busy season is just around the corner, you should start thinking about how you can efficiently manage your employee screening, hiring, payroll, and benefits administration efficiently for a smooth transition. Like many other budget-conscious businesses in Atlanta, you need to handle the seasonal hires quickly, correctly, and hopefully avoid the expense of employing additional HR staff. It’s important to advise a payroll professional to make sure that your company is maximizing benefits to taxpayers while minimizing costs to you.

April lentini
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/is-your-hr-department-ready-for-the-busy-season-747707.html

The art of fly catching was just brought to the attention of the American public by Obama’s show of force in the Oval Office when he killed a fly during a news interview.

I have had a note on my desk for several months about doing an article on how to catch a fly, but have put it off as being too trivial. But now with all the attention and concern over the killing of bugs, I believe that it is time everyone found out how to properly catch a fly.

I have been catching flies most of my life and releasing them back into the outdoors. Not because I care about the fly but because I don’t care for the mess they cause when you smash them. Even a fly swatter leaves that bloody mark on the wall!

My dad used to catch flies and use the larva for fish bait. He would place two buckets in the woods, one with scraps of fish remains, tilted at a 45 degree angle and the other up right under the lip of the tilted bucket. As the maggots would get their fill they would climb up the edge of the bucket and drop into the waiting container. Dad would then collect the fish bait, bag them and place them in the freezer for future use. He fished for a living for a while on a lake in Florida, and baited the fish lines with soap, maggots and anything else catfish loved to eat.

While in the service, I learned the art of catching flies. At first I caught them the hard way, out on maneuvers in Germany while breathing hard, I ran through a swarm of flies and inhaled a large number of them. I was coughing up flies for a long time. And then there was all the stories about flies leaving larva in peoples heads and causing sores, gross!

It is hard to believe the things that we become preoccupied with. I have always been impressed with the person who could nail a bug at ten feet with a knife or rubber band, but again there is always the mess to clean up or worse yet the hole in the wall to patch.

So Obama has the right ideal, but he needs to improve his technique in order to avoid upsetting Peta and getting blood on his hands.

What everyone needs to know about flies:

Flies always began their flight by taking off backwards. Knowing this fact makes it easy to catch or kill flies. Fly swatters should have this information printer on the instructions on how to use. If you approach the fly from the back and about two inches high, with your palm open then close your hand about one inch before reaching the fly, it will fly right into your fist every time. You may wonder if you have him, but don’t be tempted to look until you are ready to release him.

I have impressed many with my art of catching flies and they never believe that you have actually caught it until you open your hand and it flies off.

To kill a fly, approach the fly with the swatter from the back and you will get him every time.

Hubert Crowell
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/how-to-catch-a-fly-982153.html

Last Monday I sought and secured an apt with an acupuncturist seeking relief from excruciating leg and back pain.  I’ve had some pain these past months, but Sunday it flared up in a new way–uber pain–and I needed relief.  The highly trained and expert acupuncturist explained to me that in a perfectly healthy body oxygen and blood flow freely through our veins and arteries to feed our organs and muscles.  Yet when blockages occur in our arteries and veins, the potential for disease erupts, often followed by symptoms; i.e., pain.  Well, yes, I was definitely in the pain category!

After pressing on various locations on my leg, ankle and hip he nearly had to scrape me from the ceiling where I rocketed to from the pain.  He deduced that I had obstructed circulation.  Basically a narrowing of the all important arteries & veins was causing poor circulation and the pain was symptomatic of that.  Always curious I asked, “What are the principal causes of these narrowed arteries?”   He replied, “Well genetics is #1, followed by a couple other potential causes.”  I leaned forward, “what’s #2?”  He answered, “Stress.”  I didn’t feel any need to ask about #3; the conversation turned another direction from there.

He warned me that one treatment wouldn’t be viable.  I would need to commit to at least 3 treatments, to which I readily agreed.  He inserted several needles and immediately I felt relief.  He chattered about the different treatments-pain relief or symptom cure-listed on his intake form.  Not being an acupuncture specialist, I had checked the box stating, “Whichever the doctor recommends” so we agreed on both pain relief and addressing and curing the cause of the blockage(s).

One day later as I luxuriated in all the TV coverage of the inauguration of our 44th United States’ President, it dawned on me.  Of course!  We, in the United States of America were in pain of one sort or another-lost job, foreclosed home, inability to afford health care, failure to sell our homes, battered investment portfolios, general depression or dismay at our downward slide as a nation on so many fronts.

We had managed to obstruct the healthy circulation of money in our banking systems and on Wall Street.  We had also managed to obstruct the healthy circulation of truth and honor in our government such that we were as a nation suffering from VERY poor circulation indeed.  Our collective organs were suffering and our muscles weakened.

The powerful Wall Street executives had blocked the flow of capital; lies had obstructed and narrowed the flow of truth, such that we were plenty diseased, and plenty pained.  No longer is that pain reserved primarily for ENRON, WorldCom, Lucent or Lehman employees.  I hearken back to April 13, 1958 when Harry Truman stated in the Observer, “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.” Ouch!  Indeed our nation and many of her people are pained amidst disease; the perfect storm of the confluence of our financial, regulatory and government impotency and failures.

Yet on this day, this 20th day of January, we gathered together-amidst our pain-in spirit and flesh to witness the swearing in of Barack Obama, the people’s president.

Over a million (maybe 2) people-some famous, most commoners–somehow planned ahead, fought traffic and security check points, and reassured their bodies of their warmth amidst freezing cold temperatures, to attend.  No, they weren’t crazy; they were committed.  They exchanged emails and texts and formed community in a few short hours.

I digress to the analogy that we rally behind our athletic teams or sport stars because it interests us, and it focuses us/joins us together, we share a common bond.  We’ll not be “in their league” yet we find ways to relate.  I, for one, bought a #10 NY Giants Official NFL blue jersey after watching Eli Manning deftly dodge that sea of New England Patriots’ defenders last Super Bowl and I don it when I need or want a confidence boost.

Somehow however I felt differently about an Obama jersey…kinda like it wasn’t adequately “befitting” to honor my President by wearing his image on a jersey.  Mind you, I don’t begrudge anyone’s buying Obama paraphernalia-God knows the economy sorely needs consumer spending-and moreover it certainly did seem to unite people, allowing folks to display their unwavering support.

Yes he is; President that is.  Yes, this President IS different.  In the past weeks, we’ve seen a man who despite his polish and cloak of calm, chattered freely about the verdict on what breed of dog that he and Michelle will give to Malia and Sasha, to fulfill their campaign promise.  We’ve seen a man who despite the continued swirl of economic ills and world unrest since his resounding victory on November 4th reminded us respectfully that we have only “One president at a time.”  We’ve seen a President-Elect that has been uncharacteristically committed to bi-partisanship within his cabinet.  And on the eve of the Inauguration President-Elect Obama graciously hosted a dinner honoring his general election rival, John McCain.

This time we see a President who more than tapped into young people’s social networking-he actually evoked and enlisted the interest of our youth and they responded….VOILA!  Mutuality at work.  I’m jumping ahead of myself here, yet as President Barack & Michele Obama danced at the Inauguration Youth Ball-wasn’t that a 1st?-he paid a very gracious and more-than-fitting thank you to those under age 35 in his speech.  Apparently his new interactive White House website (another first) was up before he even uttered the oath.

Yes, this Inauguration was different.  While millions watched what otherwise was an expertly choreographed MEGA event (during which not 1 arrest was made) it was the brilliant Chief Justice John Roberts who flubbed” his once-memorized 35 word President’s oath of office.  Wasn’t that graceful how Barack stopped, allowing the Chief Justice to correct himself?  I think Barack’s rolling with Roberts’ colossal misstep bodes confidence for his handling future “mistakes”.

The speech was crafted with Kennedy, Lincoln and FDR overtones and was delivered with a masterful balance of force and feeling.  It was a speech that expertly addressed both the pain and the proposed symptom cures.  Forget the nation’s expectations.  Forget Black American’s expectations.  Forget non-black American’s expectations.  Malia’s words delivered to her father atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last weekend were, “First African-American President.  Better be good!”

The media nearly immediately fed us the line, “not a Home Run acceptance speech” which I will comment on in a separate blog.  “He got millions there,” one commentator aptly retorted.  Malia beamed.  Even my father, a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, who surely has voted Republican every election including this one, uttered “good job” immediately after Obama uttered, “God bless the United States of America.”  I was so moved and relieved—THAT gave me hope right there in my own living room!  A `Morrison microcosm’ of hope over fear that regardless of whomever we campaigned or voted for, we can indeed put aside our differences and come together as one nation under God.

Debra L. Morrison
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/inauguration-provided-much-needed-pain-relief-745923.html

There’s a lot of attention to weight and having a great body these days. Most of us, no matter what we weigh, probably think we could stand to lose a few pounds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has found that two-thirds of adults, and almost one-fifth of teens, are overweight or obese. If you’ve ever tried to diet, you know how frustrating it can be in adding or getting rid of a few pounds. In truth, most diets don’t work because they don’t get to the root of the problem – poor habits and compromised health.

Since the day we were born, our bodies have been accumulating toxins. And in today’s world, we are bombarded with them. Not only are we overwhelmed by fast food and processed meals, our environment is burdened by air and water pollution and a range of modern chemicals. And more recently, genetic engineering of foods has made keeping healthy an even greater mystery.

But the number one offender is diet. Our bodies are designed to eliminate toxins and maintain health balances of temperature, pH level, and biological processes. There are three main ways we eliminate toxins naturally: through a more alkaline (than acidic) diet, through biologic processes that restore health balance internally, and through elimination of wastes through the digestive process. When our diets are overly acidic, the normal processes are over-stressed, and we begin to suffer symptoms like exhaustion, muscle and tissue pain, weight gain, and eventually more serious diseases (even cancer).

If you’re experiencing these symptoms, or if you are generally feeling less that healthy, you may need to detoxify your body. Many scientists and health-care workers think home body detox is a practical, rational solution for restoring healthy chemical balances within the body.

A successful detox program can help you lose weight, restore your energy, reduce symptoms of asthma and diabetes, and slow down the aging process. Home body detox is an attractive alternative to popular diets because it focuses first on you health and, second, on your weight. Improving your health is the best way to achieve long-term weight loss, and it may be less expensive that the diets you see advertised in the market today. And while you’re losing weight, the home body detox program is enhancing your body’s natural ability to cleanse itself, bringing it back to a healthy balance.

It’s easy to practice your body detox program at home, since most of its aspects involve food choices and personal habits. You can detoxify your body without special prescriptions or medications, though you may want to add some alkalizing water or vitamin/mineral supplements to speed the detox process. Effective home body detox programs can be accomplished in as little as two to three weeks.

The goals of a home body detox program is to help you lose weight, improve circulation, increase toxin elimination, cleanse the colon, and provide nutrients to the liver. Your liver is the primary organ for natural detoxification, and liver health should be one of your top priorities.

People who’ve followed home body detox programs report they there were able to lose weight faster than they had with other diets and weight-loss products. They also reported clearer skin, better digestion, more energy, and more regular bowel movements.

By practicing home body detox, you’ll learn what foods support your health. Fresh fruit and vegetables are highly recommended for both weight loss and bringing your pH level to a more normal, healthy alkaline state. Fresh low-sugar fruit, leafy green vegetables, alkalized water, virgin oils, stone-ground whole wheat products, lemon water, and non-caffeinated, non-carbonated drinks should replace the old processed meals, canned goods, meat- and dairy-heavy meals, and alcohol. And be sure to drink more water. During a home body detox program, experts recommend at least 4 quarts of water each day. After detox, you should still be sure to drink at least two quarts a day. Short one- and two-day fasts will also speed up the body detox process.

Another reason to undertake a home body detox program is that you will learn new, healthy habits that will extend well belong your weight-loss period. It’s important to know that, if you return to your old eating habits, your body will begin to retain toxins, and you’ll eventually find yourself with unwanted symptoms, including weight gain. Maintaining a proper diet will help your body process and eliminate toxins naturally and effectively without supplements or medications. It’s your choice. Live healthy and have a healthy life. Live unhealthy and make unhealthy lifestyle choices, and you’ll be back to the home body detox program.

You don’t have to embark on all these changes at once. You can start slowly by changing some eating habits now and others later. Begin getting more and more regular exercise by taking short walks, leading up eventually to a more aggressive exercise program. Detox your mind, too. Schedule private time each day to maintain a healthy psychological and emotional balance to reduce the stresses that add to ill health.

One last word of advice: before you start any diet or home body detox program, visit your doctor to be sure you don’t have a more serious problem that should be treated medically before undertaking home body detox. Your doctor may be able to give you additional advice that will enhance body detox and help lead you to a new healthy, happy lifestyle.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/body-detox-at-home-your-solution-to-weightloss-issues-708974.html

Health is not all, but without it, everything else soon becomes nothing. If we fail to take care of ourselves (low cost healthcare with proper diet, exercise and avoidance of negative habits), we need high cost medical care that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of disease. True healthcare has an inverse relationship with medical care; and we tend to move toward one or the other.

Though medical care is costly, many doctors are altruistic and they also struggle with rising costs. Our high cost is not primarily due to greedy insurance companies, though greed is a factor in the denial of some claims. Surgery is a high ticket item, and many of its benefits are short-lived. But these are not the core of the problem. The real villain in this scenario is the pharmaceutical industry.

Why? Because drugs generally do not cure disease. They give us relief, and create an illusion of controlling the condition, but health is recovered in spite of the drug. And in most cases, the underlying cause is not addressed so the condition continues to progress while the person seems better with relief of symptoms. Tests don’t usually find a cause for headache, joint ache, stomach ache, insomnia or nervous disorders.

Let’s say we get a stomach ache, but instead of changing how we eat, we “ask the doctor” for a purple pill and it works fine—we can eat what we like. Everything is okay until we get a headache. After more tests that show no stroke or tumor, we get another prescription, and it works for the headaches. But, sooner or later, we get seriously ill. We could even die suddenly. How? Because the drug ad said, “headache, diarrhea or abdominal pain.” They don’t tell you the other 120 conditions listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference or package insert for the purple pill. Ask your pharmacist so you can watch for symptoms you may develop.  Most drugs have a long list of side effects.

When you got the headache, you needed to stop the first prescription, not add a second one to mask the signs of toxicity. Adverse Drug Reactions have become a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. (Journal of AMA, 4-15-1998; Archives of Internal Medicine, 9-10-2007).  This is from drugs “properly prescribed and administered.” And for every person who dies, there are more than 100 who are made ill by a prescription.

The  result is 116 million extra doctor visits, 17 million emergency department visits, 8 million hospital admissions, and 3 million long-term care admissions (these people are messed up for life).  And the $76.6 billion cost rivals the aggregate cost of diabetic patients in US. (Western Journal of Medicine, June, 2000)

All of this from something we call “healthcare.” We are becoming ill from TV commercials that tell us we have “generalized anxiety disorder,” “erectile dysfunction,” “PMDD,” or “GERD” as Dr.Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Jour. of Med. says. (The Truth About the Drug Companies, subtitled, How They Deceive Us).

The frequency of death and serious adverse drug events went up 2.7 fold from 1998 to 2005 after congress allowed drug companies to advertise on TV. Congress likes drug money donations for their re-election campaigns.

A priest who killed someone while he was under the influences of alcohol said, “Tobacco is just a pimple on the rear end of a giant, alcohol.” For perspective in this discussion we could say, Alcohol is just a pimple on the rear end of a giant, the drug industry, and we are being drugged to death!

Medical textbooks are filled with conditions of “unknown etiology.” And if doctors don’t know the cause, they don’t know the cure, so how can the drug address the cure? Ask your doctor what he would do in your situation and if it wouldn’t be better to Google your symptoms for an alternative natural remedy rather than load your system with a chemical that becomes toxic in time. Pharmacology used to be called toxicology. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said, “Nature cures, not the physician … let your food be your medicine.” What we put in our mouths affects our life and health more than anything else.  It seems elementary, but most people need motivational help.

Dr. Richard Ruhling
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/the-low-cost-of-healthcare-691674.html

ISSUE ANALYSIES

Introduction

Telecom was identified as key priority for development after India got independence. But bureaucracy red-tape, ambiguities, lack of transparency along with weak independent regulator, jeopardized India’s development.  But Under pressure from domestic and foreign capital, international lending agencies, and foreign governments, India began to open its markets and divest its public sector enterprises in the 1980s and now Indian economy is on the path of resurgence. Progressive reforms such as industrial delicensing, removal of restrictions on foreign investments are the reasons for such economic growth. Such changes have had a positive impact on the telecommunication sector.

This report analysis telecommunication law dimensions influences, interpretations and implications. Then demonstrate how these regulations should use competition law to balance stake holders it also emphasis that introduction of transparent competition policies to India’s telecommunications sector is vital to the development and health of India’s economy.

Evolution of the Regulatory Framework

Industry structure before reform

Under the Indian constitution, only the central government can legislate on telecommunications. The central government has been the monopoly provider of telecommunications services through the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which is under the jurisdiction of the central government’s Ministry of Communications.

Regulatory reform

Indian telecom regulatory reform can be divided in to 3 phase

Phase 1 ­- 1980s

India began the process of telecommunications reform during the 1980s, but until the 1990s it struggled to find reforms that would cause the performance of the industry to improve at a satisfactory rate. Reform started in 1986, when telecommunications was separated from postal services and some telephone services were corporatized. In 1986, telecommunications services were divided into three parts. Local service in Delhi and Mumbai was given to a corporatized state-owned enterprise, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). The rest of local service and domestic long-distance service went to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which remained a part of the Department of Telecommunications. Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) was created as a government-owned corporation to operate international telephone service.

Phase 2 – 1990 – 1998

The second phase started with liberalization of economy in early 1990’s and announcement of New Policy 1994 (NTP 94).

Phase 3 – 1999 – 2001

The NTP’94 failed because it did not address the fundamental causes. In addition to some of the objectives of NTP 1994 not being fulfilled, there was also far reaching developments in the recent past in the telecom, IT, consumer electronics and media industries world-wide. The Government of India recognizes that provision of world class telecommunications infrastructure and information is the key to rapid economic and social development of the country. As a result New Telecom Policy 1999 was introduced.

DIMENSIONS & INFLUENCES

Players in Regulation

India’s telecommunications sector is regulated by the Ministry of Communications through three government bodies — the Telecom Commission, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The Telecom Commission performs the executive and policy-making function, the DoT is the policy-implementing body while the TRAI performs the function of an independent regulator.

Telecom Policies

New Telecom Policy 1999

The New Telecom Policy 1999 (NTP99) was developed at the backdrop of two major events witnessed by the Indian economy after the reform process began in 1991. First, although NTP94 was a right step to bring reform in the telecommunications industry, it failed to achieve a desired goal until 1997. Second, immediately after assuming power, the BJP-led government was keen on bringing further reform in telecommunications to attain an effective and efficient communications sector.

NTP99 is a comprehensive and progressive telecom policy framework. It addresses the outstanding issues of telecommunications development and the challenges of modern telecommunications technology. NTP 99 recognises the crucial role of private sector investment in the development process of the sector and to bridge the much-needed financial resources gap. The NTP99 has endorsed policies under 5 policy frameworks:

• Framework for Services Deployment

• Framework for Licensing of Telecom Services

• Framework for Restructuring of Telecom Organisations

• Framework for Further Liberalisation of Services

Communications Convergence Bill-2001.

To facilitate development of national infrastructure for information based society. To provide a choice of services to the people and to address the recent technological developments and emerging convergence, it became necessary to bring in a comprehensive legislation based on convergence. Accordingly, the government of India in August, 2001 introduced ‘The Communications Convergence Bill-2001’.

The new proposed law seeks to establish the Communications Commission of India (CCI) as the super-regulator in India in the context of convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting, data communication, multimedia and other related technologies and services.  The objectives of the proposed CCI range from developing communications sector in a competitive environment and in consumer interests to making the communication services available at affordable costs to all.  It further aims to increase access to information for greater empowerment of citizens and hopes to make strides in the direction of establishing a modern and effective communication infrastructure taking into account the convergence of Information technology, media, telecommunications and consumer electronics. The Communications Commission of India (CCI) seeks to establish an open licensing policy and ensure a level playing field for all operators and to promote equitable, non- discriminatory interconnection across various networks.

Telecom and Competition Policy

License Regime

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is responsible for Policy, Licensing and Coordination matters relating to telegraphs, telephones, wireless, data, services and other like forms of communications. A telecom company is required to obtain a license from the DoT and comply with the guidelines and license conditions.

Competition

New Telecom Policy 1999 has shifted the focus of telecom industry towards competition, with spectrum fees being converted into revenue sharing agreement and additional entrants being licensed. From 2001, private players were allowed to provide national long distance services and in 2002, the international long distance market too was liberalized. Foreign Direct Investment limit was increased from 49 per cent to 74 percent in telecom services. India now like most countries employs telecommunications regulators or a combination of both telecommunications regulators and competition authorities to implement competition policy in telecommunications. Another step taken by the government to promote fair competition was formation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with the objective of providing an effective regulatory framework and adequate safeguards to ensure fair competition.

With a view to further strengthen the regulator the TRAI Act, 1997 was amended in the year 2000 and a separate body, ‘The telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal’ (TDSAT) was constituted for resolution of disputes in telecom  sector.

Competition Act, 2002 (“Competition Act”)

The Competition Act was recently enacted to introduce further measures for facilitating a competitive environment. It plays an important role in telecommunication industries in India; the main areas of competition which the act focuses and governs with respect to telecommunication are.

 Anti Competitive Agreements

According to Section 3 No enterprise or association of enterprises or person or association of persons shall enter into any agreement in respect of 

production, supply, distribution, storage, acquisition or control of goods or provision of services, which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

 

Prohibition of abuse of dominant position

According to Section 4 entity having dominant position is not per se bad or illegal, but abuse of such dominance is illegal. Dominance is said to be abused when there is an appreciable adverse effect on competition due to the actions of a dominant undertaking.

 Regulation of Combination

The Act is also designed to regulate the operation and activities of Combinations, a term which contemplates acquisition, mergers, joint ventures, take over or amalgamations. Section 5 of the Act mandates that No person or enterprise shall enter into a combination which causes or is likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within the relevant market in India and such a combination shall be void.

Under Section 7 of the act Competition Commission of India (CCI) is established which has been vested with the responsibility of eliminating practices having adverse effect on competition, promoting and sustaining competition, protecting the interest of the consumers, and ensuring freedom of trade carried on by other participants in India.

 

Telecom Regulation, Policies and its Impact

Significant progress has been achieved in the area of telecommunications in the last ten years of economic liberalisation followed by the Government of India. One of the important features of the liberalisation process in India was that the entire spectrum of telecom services was thrown open for the private sector and the operation of market dynamics. The fixed line subscriber’s number has increased every passing year. Perhaps the most dramatic development in this decade has been the introduction of cellular mobile telephone services by the private sector. In 1999, both mobile phones and private sector separately accounted for 5 per cent of total number of phones. In October 2004, mobile phones accounted for 50 per cent of total phones and the private sector accounted for 44 per cent of total phones.

The mobile sector has grown from around 10 million subscribers in 2002 to reach 150 million by early 2007 registering an average growth of over 90%. The other reason that has tremendously helped the telecom Industry is the regulatory changes and reforms that have been pushed for last 10 years by successive Indian governments. Even though the fixed line market share has been dropping consistently, the overall (fixed and mobile) subscribers have risen to more than 200 million by first quarter of 2007. The telecom reforms have allowed the foreign telecommunication companies to enter Indian market which has still got huge potential. International telecom companies like Vodafone have made entry into Indian market in a big way.

 

The table below shows the subscribers numbers for both GSM and CDMA.

GSM and CDMA subscription numbers: Year

GSM Subscribers (millions)

GSM Annual growth

CDMA Subscribers (millions)

CDMA Annual growth

2000

3.1

94%

-

-

2001

5.05

76%

-

-

2002

10.5

91%

0.8

-

2003

22.0

110%

6.4

700%

2004

37.4

70%

10.9

70%

2005

58.5

57%

19.1

75%

2006

105.4

80%

44.2

131%

2007

180.0

71%

85.0

92%

 

Regulations Policies and Consumers Interest

One of the main objectives of all the telecom policy and regulations was to achieve universal service covering all villages as early as possible. By the expression universal service was the provision of access to all people for certain basic telecom services at affordable and reasonable prices. Policies also aimed at widest permissible range of services to meet the customer’s demand at reasonable prices.

The process of liberalization and opening up the sector for competition gave way for cheaper call charges to consumers. International long distance (ILD) call prices have fallen from a peak of Rs90/Minute to less than Rs9.0/Minute. National long distance (NLD) tariffs have fallen from Rs40 to Rs1.0 in. Local calls on Landlines have just halved, Figure 1 shows the clear picture of fall in tariff.  While that on Mobiles have fallen from Rs14.0/Minute in 1996-97 to Rs0.5/Minute depending on the scheme now.

The Telephone Regulatory Authority of India is committed to protect the interest of consumers and for the purpose of this the authority has issued regulations directions and orders under the TRAI Act 1997. Some of the important directions and regulations are

·         Telecom Consumer’s Protection and Redressal of Grievances Regulations 2007.

·         Regulation on Quality of Services of Basic and Cellular Mobile Services 2005

·         Quality of Services on Broadband Services Regulation 2006.

·         Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communication Regulation 2007

 

The full details of all these regulations and other policies can be found in TRAI website under “A Hand book for Consumer from the Telecom Regulator”.

 

CONCLUSION  

Indian telecommunications today benefits from among the most enlightened regulation in the region, and arguably in the world. The different regulations and policies have created an impressive forward-momentum in Indian telecommunications, resulting in a vigorously competitive and fast-growing sector.

Although India’s 88.62 million strong telephone network, including mobile phones, is one of the largest in the world, with the low telephone penetration rate of about 8.20 phones per hundred populations, the country offers vast scope for growth. While tele-density has risen sharply, India continues to lag far behind countries like Brazil and China, The rural market of India is very large, 70% of the population lives there.  We need to create a competitive market if want see some changes. The telecom scenario in India is victim to a fundamental conflict of interests among the diverse roles that the government is attempting to play. Telecom growth in the country has been hampered by the authoritarian attitude of the DoT with regard to choice of technology.

In order to catch up with other developing countries there is a need to maintain vigorous procompetitive efforts in terms of public policy, rapidly shift to new technologies, encourage entry of new players, and drive prices down through competition.

 

Swaroop Kolatala
http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/how-regulation-of-electronic-communications-can-and-should-use-competition-law-to-balance-divergent-stakeholder-interests-718345.html

President Barack Obama stressed the importance of health care reform and worker protection to preserve the United States’ future in an address he gave yesterday at a convention Downtown.

Obama spoke for less than half an hour in front of several thousand people at the David Lawrence Convention Center for the AFL-CIO, a national and international network of labor unions. Its annual convention also featured Sens. Bob Casey,D-Pa., and Arlen Specter, D-Pa.

Health care was a major issue in the speech, during which Obama reiterated the main points of his plan for reform.

“It will offer insurance to Americans who don’t. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses and our government,” Obama said.

The plan requires all U.S. citizens to have health insurance, and all employers would be required to provide insurance for their employees. People with lower incomes and most businesses that are too small to provide insurance would be exempted.

Uninsured Americans would be able to buy a “public option” health insurance program that would be government-subsidized or shop among the various insurance companies, Obama said.

The proposed plan will cost $900 billion over the next 10 years, and the money would come from portions of Medicare spending that are wasteful, Obama said.

“I will not sign a bill that adds a dime to our deficits, either now or in the future,” he said.

Obama said he wants to strengthen the labor movement in the United States in order to protect and further the middle class.
“Labor is not part of the problem, labor is part of the solution,” he said.

Older anti-labor union executive orders have been reversed and have been replaced by newer ones meant to reintroduce protection for unions, Obama said.

He wants to introduce economic reform that revitalizes the U.S. middle class and expressed support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act allows for faster certification of unions, changes laws that govern union-employer negotiation and makes punishments for employers that break labor laws tougher.

A recent census report stated that, before the economic downturn, family income in 2008 was the lowest in the past 10 years, Obama said.

“That’s unacceptable. And I refuse to let America go back to the culture of irresponsibility that made it possible — back to an economy with soaring CEO salaries and shrinking middle class incomes, back to the days when banks made reckless decisions that hurt Wall Street and Main Street alike,” Obama said.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney introduced Obama with soaring praise.

“Today the White House is the people’s house. Our labor movement is proud of our president,” Sweeney said.

Applause thundered through the cavernous convention center when the president first appeared on the two jumbo screens that winged the stage.

Delegates waved signs reading “Jobs Now” and “Health care now” as the audience rose to give its first of several standing ovations.

One woman in the crowd shouted to the president, “I love you, Obama!”

The majority of the AFL-CIO has voted to support a single-payer system of economic reform.

Richard Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO said, “We’d all love to see a single-payer system. The problem is what is politically possible at this time.”

In a single-payer system, all medical expenses are paid by a government or government-related source.

Specter, who spoke before Obama, mentioned a plan to build a high-speed train to run between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for which Congress recently earmarked $25 million. The train is part of a larger plan to revitalize Pennsylvania, said Specter.

“We’re looking to create jobs at every turn and get Pennsylvania moving again,” Specter said.

Chad
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/obama-addresses-health-care-at-downtown-convention-michael-macagnone-1242322.html

  

The global recession now underway is the result not only of a financial panic, but also of more basic uncertainty about he future direction of the world economy.

 Consumers are pulling back from home and automobile purchases not only because they have suffered a low to their wealth with declining stock prices and housing values but also because they don’t know where to turn.

 Should they risk buying  a new car when gasoline prices might Soar again? Will they e able to put food on the table after this year’s terrifying rise in food prices?

Decisions about business investment are even starker. Businesses are reluctant to invest at a time when consumer demand is plummeting and they face unprecedented risk penalties on their borrowing costs.

They are also facing huge uncertainties. What kinds of power plants will be acceptable in the future? Will they be allowed to emit carbon dioxide as in the past?

 Can the United States still afford a suburban lifestyle, with sprawling homes in far-flung communities that require long-distance automobile commutes?

To a large extent, economic recovery will depend on a much clearer sense of the direction of future economic change. That is largely the job of government.

After the confused and misguided leadership of the bush administration, which failed to give any clear path to energy, health, climate and financial policies,

president-elect Barack Obama will have to start charting a course that defines the American economy’s future direction.

The united states is not the only economy in this equation.

We need global vision of sustainable recovery that includes leadership from china, India, Europe, Latin America, and yes, even Africa, long marginalized from the world economy, but very much part of it now.

There are few clear points to have come additional income in these days. First one is,

Gagan Kainth
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/easy-work-from-home-jobs-today-everyone-needs-some-decent-information-to-overcome-into-these-crises-669911.html

Almost everyone has heard the phrase or principle that a “house divided will fall”. The problem is not everyone agrees with it and some could care less if the house (name it) does fall. Barack Obama though has the opportunity that no president I know of since John F. Kennedy (yes that also includes Ronald Reagan) to UNITE our nation and even beyond our borders, the world.  <!–more–>

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I said more than a year ago that Obama has the opportunity to bring racial reconciliation to our nation (not that he solves all problems!) and healing internationally (by virtue of his name if nothing else). Don’t hear that I am saying that he will, but that we have a WINDOW- an opportunity in spite of those who spread divisiveness, discord, and outright antagonisms as their daily menu.

Can you say Hannity & Rush?  

“He’s a man of the people,” said Vicki Starcher, who traveled from Norfolk, Virginia, to help set up the temporary store during the inauguration. “I think the difference is with Obama, he has so much of the younger backing, BET … and the hip-hop community,” co-worker Jasmine Robinson chimed in. Ebony said Obama was one of the Top 25 Coolest Brothers of All Time, alongside Tupac Shakur, Muhammad Ali, Jay-Z and Marvin Gaye. I’m not cool with all of those comparisons, but whatever! 

Two days from the White House, President-elect Barack Obama joined a vast throng Sunday at a joyous pre-inauguration celebration staged among marble monuments to past heroes. “Anything is possible in America,” declared the man who will confront economic crisis and two wars when he takes office. Anything is possible!

And within “anything” is a UNITED nation- for however long it lasts, we’ll take it. At least I will.

Ernie Fitzpatrick
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/united-we-stand-727298.html

After the election, I wrote about the ineffective pastel blue ties that currently permeate Washington. Both President-elect Obama and VP-elect Biden wore pastel blue ties for their first press conference after winning the election. The blog was entitled “Barack Obama States that CHANGE IS COMING. If Only He Meant That Blue Tie!” Two weeks later, Wendy Donahue wrote an article for The Chicago Tribune entitled “Obama’s Call for Change Doesn’t Extend to His Blue Ties.” Hmm…Although I don’t mind the apparent parallels in our choice of words, I am troubled when she deems “powder blue as the new power red”.

While there may be an art to style, there is a definite science to color, and to color psychology. It’s time to face up to the fact that the baby blue tie Bush made popular is not a good choice for a strong world leader. It is a pastel, and pastels suggest passiveness. It is wimpy! It might be an appropriate tie to wear if you were an insurance salesman calling on the widow of your client, hoping that she would choose you to invest the money she received from your insurance company.  So a power tie would make you look too “businesslike” and less compassionate for her situation.  

What President-elect Obama needs to project is strength to guide this nation through the tough times ahead. Just as young teens don’t really want their teachers to dress like they do for “identification,” neither do we need a president to dress sweet and kind given America‘s current situation. Teachers need to look big and strong so they can challenge bullies. Presidents need to do the same.

The darker the color, the higher the authority, so a better “blue tie” would be a striped version with a small navy blue or black stripe alongside a wider stripe with a Chinese blue, for example, instead of the pastel blue that pervades the scene today. Chinese blue is super-friendly but not wimpy, and the dark blue stripe would give the blue greater substance and authority. I would also suggest Obama continue to wear navy blue suits; that would provide plenty of “blue for trust.” I salute his choice of a dark red tie, but true red ties are still appropriate for the Commander in Chief. Purple ties in classy shades are also a good choice, since purple is a regal color. Other good choices are the newer shades in the raspberry family, particularly those that are close to maroon.

Red needn’t be an aggressive color. Donahue’s article quotes several people saying red is bad, “bullish” and belligerent. One even said “I seriously doubt that he will need to drag out the red tie too often going forward, and hope that he chooses not to.” Red is not evil, the notion that it should be banished is impractical; colors have both positive and negative connotations. Obama is our President-elect, and so should look presidential. While pastel blue ties may be “in fashion”, they do not convey the authority, courage and assertiveness – traits we sorely need in our leaders right now – that are positively associated with red.

A tie is the only place where a man can make a statement. Pastel colors do not make statements, and are best kept for the country club or Palm Beach. Barack Obama has probably the most difficult agenda ever handed to an incoming president. He has already shown his self-confidence in his Cabinet choices: strong-willed, brilliant individuals that he must inspire with loyalty and conviction for his vision. Although a powder blue tie won’t doom those prospects, I guarantee it won’t help either.

Sandy Dumont
http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/washington-needs-to-give-up-the-blue-tie-affair-674460.html