You don’t have to have an MBA to know the value of basic business skills. Just ask Greg Shaw, 22, and the 54 other recent graduates of the Carolina Business Institute at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

These new biologists, psychologists and arts majors added the business course to their resumes before stepping out into the real world. Many think it will give them a competitive edge in the workplace. Some think such skills are necessary if they want to one day run their own businesses. And others want the confidence of knowing how to manage personal finances.

UNC’s Friday Center has offered a 4-week business boot camp to non-business students for 16 years. The intense course covers basic business practices including marketing, accounting, finance and operations management.

Its latest class graduated in June.

Among them was Shaw, who received a bachelor’s degree in biology at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Shaw said that in addition to helping with his personal budget, the class gave him the skills to one day manage his own medical practice. “Running a clinic is a business,” he said. “You have to know what to pay people and how to buy equipment and machines.”

Other schools across the nation offer similar programs, including the Tuck Business Bridge program at Dartmouth College and the Summer Institute for General Management at Stanford University.

At North Carolina State University, nonbusiness students are offered four business minors, in accounting, business administration, economics and entrepreneurship, said Steve Barr, a professor who heads the department of management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In the past, students took such classes mainly to bolster their resumes. But the curriculums have been enhanced to help with a variety of business practices, and students are gleaning practical use from such programs.

Will Aldridge, 28, a UNC psychology graduate who completed the institute in 2006, said the courses give him a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Aldridge was working as an intern at a workplace consulting firm in Atlanta when a client needed advice about the benefits of Six Sigma. It’s a management program that identifies and replaces the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes.

“I told them, ‘Hey, I just had a class on that,’ ” Aldridge said. His boss was not familiar with Six Sigma, so Aldridge used what he had learned to help the client.

More : courant.com

The second golf outing to benefit Fairmont State University’s MBA program will be held next Sunday at White Day Golf Course.

Organizers Jeff Jacobs, Dan Everly and Terri Markle are hoping for a full field of 36 participants, compared to the 18 golfers at the first tournament.

“Our last one was on a football Saturday with WVU playing a home game, so I think we were as successful as we could hope with 18,” Jacobs said.

The format of the tournament is a two-person scramble. Registration starts at 7 a.m., with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.

Markle recommended registering early for the tournament at the course or by phoning Jacobs at 816-6370 or Everly at 838-3075.

Cost is $35 per golfer, which includes 18 holes of golf, cart and sandwiches provided by East Side Subway. Mulligans are also available to purchase.

“We are very pleased with the results to date,” Jacobs said. “We locked down quite a few sponsors and some great prizes as well.”

Some of those prizes include a new driver from Allegheny Power and putter from Pets Plus. Golf USA has offered some door prizes as well as two rounds of simulation golf, free rounds of golf at White Day and various other golf supplies.

Each player will also receive a gift bag of accessories for the tournament.

“It’s running smoothly,” Jacobs said. “We were a little nervous about the sponsors, but it looks like we will get what we needed.”

The tournament is more than just a fundraiser.

It is also the MBA program’s project management course, and Jacobs said they hope the program can continue after he graduates this year.

“We are compiling some documentation for future students to keep this up,” he said. “Eventually we’d like to grow it into something a little larger, but White Day and Marty Morgan have been a big help to us.”

The school is also looking to continue fundraising in the future for the MBA program, Jacobs and Markle said.

That means the golf outing could become a permanent fixture of the summer season.

“The fact that we got enough sponsors will help future golf outings for the program,” Jacobs said.

More : timeswv.com

Samford University’s Brock School of Business is changing the schedule of its evening MBA program.

The graduate program - taken often by working professionals - is being revamped into two semesters that are nine weeks each with a 10-week summer semester, the school reported Thursday.

The program used to have five, nine-week terms in a year.

Under the new schedule, each course will meet for a two-hour class each week, giving students more time to study and learn the material, school officials said.

“We have retained the flexibility and convenience for working professionals through the option of attending one evening a week,” said Larry Harper, director of Graduate and Executive Education Programs at the Brock School of Business in a news release. “In addition, students can complete the degree in as little as 12 months by attending full-time or 22 months by attending part-time.”

The new curriculum covers all business functions and is designed to offer a more complete general management experience. Students also learn to exercise ethical business practices.

“Managers need comprehensive skills and sound values in order to achieve the disparate goals of their investors, customers, employees and the public at large,” said Beck A. Taylor, dean of the Brock School of Business. “At the Brock School, our charge is to help current and aspiring managers to discover solutions that meet these goals.”

The evening MBA program is the oldest in the state of Alabama and takes applications year round. Students can enter the program in January, June and August.

More : bizjournals.com

The Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management (IITM) provides a short duration of course, after which the candidates can be empanelled as a guide. Guide license has been granted both at the state and central level by the Department of Tourism. They hold examination according to their needs and advertise in leading newspapers. The test consists of Erlangen in general knowledge, history and culture, etc.. For further details contact directly to the tourism department of your choice.

In recent years, employment opportunities is increasing dramatically in this industry in the country. All travel services, including travel operators, travel agents, hoteliers, restaurateurs, adventure tourism and leisure providers, the manufacture and sale of craft items, etc.. require professionalism.

The Government of India Tourist Office and the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), New Delhi, Gwalior and Kurukshetra University offer training tourist guides. These are short term (3-4 months) courses for graduates with a background in art / archaeology / history. Tourism and Travel Administration / Management Course is supported by several institutions, including DU, Delhi, Vikarm University, University Utakl, Sri Venkateswara University, Kurukshetra University, Garhwal University, Annamalai University, Lucknow University, SNDT Mumbai, and so on.

State governments still harbouring a legacy of the control and licence raj will have some tough questions to answer now.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is set to scrutinise the liquor and passenger transport polices of state governments to see if there are any practices that blunt free market competition.

Sources told ET, the commission is also looking at sectors such as pharmaceuticals, telecom, transport in western India, retail food and food grains for anti-competition practices.

Vijay Kelkar, advisor to former FM Jaswant Singh, has been appointed to oversee this analyses outsourced to professional institutes like the Delhi School of Economics and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

The commission, empowered to penalise a corporate or government body for anti-competition practices, will, however, restrict its action to ‘competition advocacy’ till it gets fully operational. At present, the commission is not adjudicating any matter as the issue of appointing a chairman is entangled in litigation at the Supreme Court.

“Many state governments exercise strict controls on liquor and passenger transport business through permits, while controls remain minimum for setting up bigger industries. We are going to look into such practices adversely impacting competition,” said sources.

The challenge now facing the commission is to get fully operational. The appointment of a chairman has been embroiled in a tussle between the executive and the judiciary.

While the government believes adjudication in cases involving complex economic analyses requires an economics expert, the judiciary feels arbitration in such matters is its domain.

The commission in the meanwhile is doing preparatory work. Sources said CCI is also contemplating to establish a ‘Centre for Competition Law and Policy’.

It has set up taskforces in areas like competition advocacy, predatory pricing and determination of costs and research projects.

Looking merely at direct taxes, it is often suggested that India is an under-taxed nation. This, says R. Vaidyanathan, does not take into account the speed money paid for government service. This rent-seeking makes the nation high-taxed.

THERE is a view among some experts that India is an under-taxed economy. Many a time Finance Ministers believe in this and exhort people to pay their dues.

Advertisements are issued to induce people to pay taxes and novel schemes are suggested before every Budget to augment government revenues. One of the common arguments is based on the share of taxes to GDP and it is suggested that it can be much higher. Another is in terms of the composition of the taxes - direct and indirect - and it is suggested that the latter, which are regressive, are larger share of the pool.

Table 1 gives the share of taxes to GDP for select years from 1991. The share of taxes, both direct and indirect, has been around 15 per cent of GDP in the last decade and half. The share of indirect taxes was of the order of 11.5 per cent and that of direct taxes 3.6 per cent.

Based on this data of direct taxes to GDP of nearly 4 per cent, many experts, particularly of the Left persuasion, argue that we are a under-taxed nation from the view of the direct taxes. But, as we will show, they do not take in to account the payment to be made to government employees (variously called bribe, rent seeking, speed money, lubrication, etc.) for carrying on any activity and to that extent the total taxes are much higher than reflected.

Table 2 gives the level and composition of taxes of both Central and State governments in the last decade. A slight shift in the proportion of direct taxes from 1991 to 2003 is seen. It has gone up from 14 per cent of all taxes to nearly 24 per cent during this period when the proportion of the indirect taxes came down from 86 per cent to 76 per cent.

A substantial drop is seen in the Customs duties due to our international commitments. Excise duties declined from 28 per cent to 23 per cent during 1991 to 1996 and by a similar magnitude later. The share of personal income-tax showed an increase from 6.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent. As personal income-taxes and excise duties are shared with State governments, there is no enthusiasm for the Centre to reform them.

The aggregate taxes do not reveal the full picture of evasion and coverage. Table 3 provides the number of returns filed by salaried and non-salaried persons in 1999-2000 according to the I-T Department.

It says that there were no salaried persons earning more than Rs 1 crore annually and in all only 200 persons above Rs 25-lakh. In the case of self-employed, the number is around 900 in the Rs 25-lakh category with none in the Rs 50-100-lakh category.

From Table-3, it looks as if a relief fund should be created for all our top film-stars, cricket players, surgeons, lawyers, chartered accountants, architects, tax consultants and other self-employed persons. They all seem to be in distress!

Table 4 provides the number of returns from some categories of services as published by the I-T Department. The numbers speak volumes about the coverage and the nature of underlying collections.

The whole country there are apparently only 10,539 utensil and 5477 furniture shops in the taxable category. Pinch yourself.

Immediately the argument will be to strengthen, enhance, improve and network the I-T Department. The issue is not that. It is much more serious and cancerous. If you visit the Postal Department officers’ quarters in, say, Mumbai you will find mostly cycles and scooters.

But if you visit the residential quarters of the staff of Direct or Indirect Tax Department, you may find expensive cars parked there. That should provide clues to the issues facing us.

At the same time we find that the income of government employees rising faster than the inflation rate in the last thirty years.

Table 5 provides the increase in salaries of public sector employees in relation to inflation. The emoluments have risen 3610 per cent from 1971-72 to 2000-01 when the Consumer Price Index climbed 1440 per cent. This implies the public sector employees are net gainers with their real income well protected.

Hence decline in the real income cannot be a reason, if at all it is justifiable, for rent seeking from ordinary citizens.

There are signs indicating that the budget for increased spending on health, education, Mid-day meal, the use of state guarantee schemes and other emergency aid for the common people. This is a continuation of the policy over the past 50 years. He was the municipal development and the cooperative movement in the sixties, garibi hatao in the seventies and human development in the eighties. But the man in the situation has not changed much. This is because the Government is temperamentally proximity of the rich. Route Jawahar Rozgar Yojana place before sarpanch home. The house under Indira AWAS Yojana is built for his brother.

Health care medicines meant for primary health centre are sold on the black market. Thus, Rajiv Gandhi had said that only 15 paise out of a rupee sent from New Delhi reached the addressee. IMF, the first deputy director Anne Krueger warned, “The Indian government is a wide variety of subsidies for the poor, benefits non-poor, as many groups. These subsidies should be reviewed because they seek only to the growing budget deficit. ” There is no pressure inside the system, this would be money to versickern on small people. The government links, west Bengal, it has succeeded in building a pressure group of the Communist Party at the grassroots level. The failure of these systems is almost certain, in the absence of a portion of these frameworks. We need better opportunities to achieve the common man. The root of the problem lies in the nature of the market. We must make the free market, so that Indian companies to reach out globally, effectiveness and India in the world, No. 1 economic power. But the market follows the diktat of purchasing power is concentrated among the rich. There is no place for the common voice of men on the market. There is thus a contradiction between the two objectives that we have before us. The government wants uPA manage this contradiction by an increase in corporate and income tax such as the introduction of a process of education in the last budget. This approach is probably cancelled because only 15 paise of every rupee spent will probably reach the poor. In addition, taxes as the education process of our businesses are not competitive in the global marketplace. Sub-contracting provision of NGOs, the rate of delivery of 15 to 25 or even 50 paise, but companies still need to impose not made the world more competitive. How should we less interference in the market and, at the same time, support for sharing the man? Wild Horse Finance Minister should think otherwise. The market is like a wild horse. This may be the driver to his destination, if they can prove the reins. The Minister of Finance should be a tax system for enterprises to create jobs. It can do so by a reduction in tax rates of consumption labour intensive units. At present, our businesspeople prefer to avoid automatic that the problems of labour laws and trade union militancy. The intensity of the use of Indian industry is declining. The Minister of Finance could, for example, that a device pay wages and salaries of more than 40 per cent of its turnover will be entitled to 25 per cent reduction of excise duty. The businessman is offset, where the problems of employment of large numbers. In addition, lower rates of duty that can be imposed on sectors such as handlooms labour, agro-processing and garment manufacturing. On the reverse, capital-intensive industries, in a relationship of eating can be heavily taxed. The growth of bottles Soft-Drink industry has resulted in the closure of the street corner fruit juice manufacturers and providers of tenders coconuts. Textiles handlooms pressure are similar to those of large companies in the textile and discard the work of Weber. These offers should be heavily taxed to eat, so that work units can survive intense. The government in both policy areas. Establishment of an educational process leads to greater burden of taxation and entrepreneurs zerfrisst able to invest, vis-a-vis its foreign competitors. The introduction of higher excise duties on alcoholic beverages and major textile mills increased production costs and has the same effect. Both taxes have a negative impact on global competitiveness. But the introduction of an increase in excise is preferable, because this range to avoid leaks, tax and spend approach. Employment is generated, net of taxes to be collected and without the participation of sarpanch and the village-level workers. A similar policy must be implemented in regard to small industries. The Reserve Bank of India has a policy of 40 per cent of the credit should go to priority sectors. But the share of priority sectors, despite the continued decline in broadening the definition of this sector. The reason is that bank managers, earn profits from its branch. The Bank has contributed to huge administrative burden in managing large numbers of small accounts. There is a contradiction between two objectives, there is the director of the institution. On the one hand, he must show to win, on the other hand, he worked in the service sector priorities. Grand loans finance ministers have for the industry profitability on loans to SSIs. A tax of one per cent should be imposed on large loan and the amount spent on cross-subsidies to its branches, the SSIs credits to cover rising administrative costs. The branch loan on SSIs obtain grants and benefits. Such cross-subsidisation of taxing large SSIs is ready not to be confused with the fiscal subsidies such as life and fertilizers, general tax revenue. Like the government high rates of air conditioning to Class II, Class subsidize, it should tax similar to large borrowers and to subsidize small borrowers, without an increase in the average cost of credit in the economy . The high level of taxes on large units to do so, they are no longer competitive in the global economy. The India can not approve the machine flooded with fabric from abroad to the closure of the two Handwebstühlen and the local textile mill. This problem should be solved by a parallel increase in import duties. So, both imported and manufactured mechanically national substance is expensive in the domestic market and hence the handgewebten to survive. Consumers should be asked to bear the high cost of this substance as a taxpayer, for the generation of employment. Indeed, the tax burden as a whole must not go down when the government closed the welfare programs are in tandem and reduce taxes in proportion. The challenge is the budget is intended to ensure common prosperity of mankind, without resorting to government machinery. The market must be in the right direction, incentives for employment generation. The author is a former professor of economics, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

After dumping taxes in the six IIMS, the HRD ministry has its eyes on other B-schools in the country.

The ministry is governed by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to follow the recommendations of the UR Rao Committee and the state fee committees, once their reports, Slash and costs of all schools B.

Among the prominent institutes, which is perhaps in the line of fire of the line Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (New Delhi), Jamnalal Bajaj Institute (Mumbai), Symbosis (Pune) and XLRI (Jamshedpur). There are over 600 institutions managing the AICTE, all may have to reduce their costs, less than Rs 40,000 per year, ministry officials sources said. Currently, fees range from 60000 to R RS 1.5 lakh.

The UR Rao Committee has already, with its recommendations, which were used by the ministry to justify its decision to reduce taxes on IIMS 80 per cent. A Ministry said government sources charges committees its recommendations to the AICTE within two months.

Information Technology (IT) holds the key to kick-starting a revolution in banking, said Radha Unni, chief general manager, State Bank of India, here.

She was inaugurating a national conference on `Braving new frontiers in banking,’ organised by the ICFAI Business School, here.

She called for standardisation across banks and appealed to them to take the services to the doorsteps of the customers for financial inclusion.

Anoop Narayanan, security consultant, First Legion Consulting, said human fraud, incompetence and errors made the implementation of new technologies difficult. He also spoke on information leaks and the cultural factors involved.

Punjab National Bank senior manager Guru Murthy spoke on the implementation of core banking solution. He provided an overview of the technologies used in mid-level interactions, in the back offices and in internal monitoring and reports.

K.A. Joseph, managing director, Kerala Venture Capital, summarised the session on IT in banking by providing an overview of mobile Internet banking. He said that IT should equip bankers to convert future threats into opportunities.

A.K. Basu, general manager, State Bank of Travancore, spoke on private banking. He highlighted the various challenges faced in private banking.

Ommen Jacob, regional sales manager, ICICI Bank, said the challenge before private bankers was to provide their customers with the best service in the industry. He spoke about the four R’s of private banking: reach, relationship, research and resource. It was only by investing in them in favour of customer needs could the banks achieve their goals.

A.V. Anil, branch manager, Kotak Mahindra Bank, focussed on the services provided by private banking and also gave a brief picture of the challenges faced such as high client expectations, higher fixed costs and so on. Padma Kumar, former chairman and managing director of Federal Bank, stressed the need for private banking. He said that as the interest rates had reduced, people did not just invest in banks; they had more options.

Private banking should aim at providing products for wealth management to all sections of society for financial inclusion.

Cherian Varghese, former chairman and managing director, Union Bank of India, spoke on retail banking and the various norms issued by RBI regarding it.

V.P. Roshan, branch head, IDBI Bank, gave an overview of how banks operated, the importance of retail banking.

Katherine Rose Novak, a director at Arthur Young & Co. in New York yesterday, was married to James Stockard Vick International Treasury Manager of American Standard Inc. in New York. The Rev. Thomas Buckley, the ceremony of the Saint Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church in Medford, Mass.

The bride, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Novak of Medford, is a graduate of Newton (Massachusetts) College and Sacred heart of the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. His father, retired, he was a professor of science at Framingham, Massachusetts, and her mother, Claire Hassett Novak, a second career teachers to school in Medford Davenport. My maternal grandfather, the late George P. Hassel was a Democratic state legislator Massachuetts and City Clerk of Medford.

Mr. Vick is a son of Mr. and Mrs. William L. Vick of Penfield, NY He was graduated from Ridley College in St. Catharines, Ontario, Hamilton College and the NYU Graduate School of Business Administration. His father is an industrial management consultant and his mother, Louise Stockard Vick, founded the farm school for children in pre-Penfield. His Ur-Ur-grandfather, the late James Vick, James founded Vick Seed Company in Rochester.