Critical Success Factors of Mobile Telephony Companies

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF THE MOBILE TELEPHONY COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE EASTERN REGION BY : AMARTYA DHAR(08BS0000240) ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL 10. 12. 09 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF MOBILE TELEPHONY COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE EASTERN REGION SUBMITTED BY : AMARTYA DHAR(08BS0000240) SUBMITTED TO :PROF BHASKAR BASU 2 ABSTRACT: India, the world’s fastest-growing mobile services market, has added a record 16. 02 million new wireless subscribers in March 2009, which are the highest ever additions in a single month till now. As the country continues to add around 10-11 million new connections each month, the target of 500 million telephone subscribers by 2010 is expected to be met in advance. 3 INTRODUCTION: The Indian mobile telephony industry is highly competitive with increasing number of players the companies are on the lookout for factors differentiating their service from the competitors. When a business takes a product to market, whether it is a basic product like corn or a highly engineered offering like the digital camera the company must make the product itself compelling (Frances X. Frei HBR April 2008). With price cuts and attractive rental schemes being offered by each and every service provider the two above mentioned factors are no longer the factors which can guarantee a large consumer base . That is why the mobile telephony companies are continuously on the lookout for factors which can give them a competitive edge. This project is an effort to find out the critical success factors which are necessary for the success of a mobile telephony company in the present scenario. The data have been collected through secondary research , primary research with the help of questionnaires was also done. CURRENT INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR SCENARIO: India’s telecom sector has made rapid progress since the announcement of the National Telecom Policy – 1999 (NTP-1999). Since 2000, the telecom sector has been a key contributor to the Indian economy’s impressive performance registering sustained high growth rates. Predominantly, over the last three years, the telecom sector has gr own remarkably in the range of 29% – 47%. Growth in mobile phones was the principal driver for telecom growth in the country as they have been in other parts of the world. Currently, India continues to be one of the fastest growing telecommunication markets in the world. A progressive regulatory regime, network expansion by operators, reduction in tariffs and cost of handsets, which essentially make the service affordable for the common users, all acted as demand booster to the growth of the telecom sector. Growth of the Telecom Sector in India: Year (End March) 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Mobile Fixed Total Additions (during calendar year) 21. 84 (28. 5) 41. 96 (42. 4) 65. 54 (46. 7) 94. 65 (46. 0) 129. 21 (43. 0) 35. 61 56. 5 98. 78 165. 11 261. 09 391. 76 40. 92 41. 42 41. 54 40. 75 39. 42 37. 96 76. 53 98. 37 140. 32 205. 86 300. 51 429. 72 5 The mobile sector has grown from around 10 million subscribers in 2002 to around 35. 61million in 2003-04. The year 2004 was a watershed year for the fixed-line services in India, as mobile subscribers outnumbered fixed phone subscribers. In October 2004, the number of mobile phone users in India has crossed the number of fixed-line subscribers for the first time. So the year 2004 can be viewed upon as a landmark year in the history of Indian mobile telephony. Today, the mobile subscribers are not only much more than the land-line subscriber in the country, but their number is also increasing at a much faster pace. This was along the expected lines as, for the past few years, mobile phone subscriptions are growing at much faster rate than fixed phone subscriptions with almost all leading operators focusing more on wireless. Consequently, between March 2005 and March 2009, the country has added around 335 million new wireless subscribers to reach a total of 391. 76 million; however, the fixed line subscriptions have declined by 3. 46 million, down to 37. 6 million over the same period, partly reflecting the substitution effect. During the year 2008-09 around 0. 13 million average subscribers per month surrendered their land-line phone services except in the month of March which witnessed net additions of0. 23 million new subscribers. However, the telecom analysts opine that the fixed line telephony segment is definitely poised for growth in the coming years as the telephone operators are increasingly focusing on enhancing broadband penetration levels in the country and looking at introducing new value added services to enhance the experience of customers. BSNL is planning to use new technologies such as internet protocol television (IPTV) for tapping the fixed-line market. Tele-density: Tele-density (the number of telephone subscribers per 100 people)grew initially slowly from 7. 2 in March2004 to 12. 8 in March 2006, but thereafter galloped to a level of 36. 9 in March 2009 . Notwithstanding such remarkable achievement, it is necessary to note that India still lags far behind countries like Brazil and China, where the tele-density is over 50. China’s subscriber base is whopping. According to the China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII), by the end of calendar 2007, China’s gross subscriber base consisting of fixed and mobile users had touched 912 million. Of the gross subscribers’ base, mobile subscribers have numbered 547 million and 6 fixed-line subscribers about 365 million at the end of December 2007. However, India’s tele-density is much higher compared to the neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The telecom subscriber base in the fiscal year 2008-09 has reached a new milestone, as more than 129. 1 million telephone subscribers have been added during April 2008 – March2009 registering a growth of 43%. As indicated in the Table , the growth of mobile phone subscribers during the fiscal year 2008-09 has been phenomenal at 50%. Total subscribers & Teledensity In India 7 Monthly Growth Rate Of India’s Telephone subscribers 2008-09 The mobile subscriber base in the country is growing at su ch a fast pace that mobile operators are breaking the record for net additions almost every second month. India, the world’s fastest-growing mobile services market, has added a record 16. 2 million new wireless subscribers in March 2009, which are the highest ever additions in a single month till now. As per telecom analysts, this was the highest growth recorded within a 30-day period in any country. The previous best was 15. 41 million in January 2009. Consequently, the total number of mobile subscribers [(GSM, CDMA & WLL (F)] at the end of March 2009 has touched 391. 76 million as compared to 315. 31 million in September 2008 and 261. 09 million in March 2008. In recent years, smaller towns have fuelled further growth in mobile telephony . An interesting revelation is that currently, the cellular subscriber base is growing at a faster rate in Circles B and C as compared to Circle A and metropolitan cities. Interestingly, the bulk of the new mobile users are from the rural areas. As the country continues to add about 10-11 million new connections each month, the target of 500 million telephone subscribers by 2010 is expected to be met in advance. 8 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: Acquisitions: Sahara India Investment Corporation has acquired 11. 7% stake in Chennai-based telecom company STel Ltd, for an undisclosed amount. STel has licences to operate in several northern and eastern states. As per telecom analysts the deal can be worth around Rs 250 crore, if STel’s stake sale in Bahrain Telecommunications earlier this year is taken as the benchmark. Cell Phone for Rural Areas: A mobile phone that can be charged by a common pencil battery cell will be launched by next year. Techtium, the Israeli hybrid battery manufacturer is having discussions with various cellular phone manufacturing companies to make and market these low-cost handsets. This technology will be revolutionary, especially for rural areas in countries where availability of power is a major problem. The company has already launched a mobile phone in collaboration with Philips, which not only runs on the lithium battery, but also uses a single AAA battery as aback-up option. Investments Telecom player Aircel Ltd will be investing Rs 1,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh (AP) by 9 December 2009, as part of its $5 billion pan-India expansion plan spread over the next 3 to 5 years. The amount will be used to build base stations, install switches, create a data centre and enhance retail presence in AP. New Ventures India’s fifth largest telecom service provider, Aircel has launched its GSM mobile services in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company is the seventh service provider in Mumbai’s saturated market and has to compete with six well established telecomcompanies – Airtel, MTNL, Vodafone Essar, Idea, Reliance, Tata Teleservices and Loop Mobile. Aircel has around 1,000 cell sites in Mumbai and will be increasing it to around 2,000 sites by the year-end. The company has presence in 17 circles among 22 circles in the country. Maxis Communications (Malaysia) holds a majority stake of 74% in Aircel. The company commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu within 18 months. Aircel began its outward expansion in 2005 and met with unprecedented success in the Eastern frontier circles. Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) an Rs 800 crore data and communications service provider company, has announced its participation in the $600 million new West AfricanCable System (WACS). The consortium includes Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable &Wireless, MTN, Telecom Nambia, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom. The operators have recently signed a construction and maintenance agreement and supply contract for the implementation of the WACS. ZTE Chinese telecom equipment provider, which has provided infrastructure to Indian telecom companies like Reliance Communication, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Loop Telecom, has found a novel way to expand business in India. Recently, ZTE has tied up with China Development Bank for financing mobile operators in India for upgradation of the telecom infrastructure. The new strategy adopted by ZTE is not only to compete with existing, well established players like Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, but also to increase its market share in India’s fastest growing telecom sector. 10 With 35. 53 Million net additions during the Quarter, Total Wireless (GSM + CDMA) subscriber base increased to 427. 28 Million at the end of June-09, and wireless Tele-density reached 36. 64. 4. Wireline subscriber base declined to 37. 54 Million at the end ofJune-09, taking the wireline teledensity to 3. 22. 5. Internet subscribers increased to 14. 5 million at the end of June2009 registering a quarterly growth rate of 3. 80%. However, this growth rate is lower than the growth rate seen in the previous quarter (5. 3%). 6. Share of Broadband subscription in total Internet subscription increased from 46% in Mar-09 to 47% in June-09. 86. 66% of the Broadband subscribers are using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. 7. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for GSM-Full Mobil ity service declined by 10% from Rs. 205 in QE Mar-09 to Rs. 185 in QE Jun-09. 11 8. ARPU for CDMA – Full mobility service declined by 7. 2% from Rs. 99 in QE Mar-09 to Rs. 2 in QE June-09 9. ARPU for dialup Internet usage increased by 2. 97% from Rs. 236. 47 in QE March 2009 to Rs 243. 50 for the quarter endingJune 2009 10. MOU per subscriber for GSM – Full mobility service continued to show a declining trend. It declined by 6. 19% from 484 in QE Mar-09 to 454 in QE Jun-09. The outgoing MOUs declined by 5. 30% and incoming by 7. 04%. 11. MOU per subscriber for CDMA-full mobility service declined by 4% from 357 (Q. E March 2009) to 342 (Q. E June 2009). The Outgoing MOUs declined by 2. 7% and Incoming MOUs declined by 5. 2%. 12. Gross Revenue (GR) nd Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Sector for the QE June-09 has been Rs 39,108. 33 Crore and Rs. 29,732. 52 Crore respectively. There has been a reduction of 3. 3% in GR as compared to previous quarter. AGR has shown slight increase of 0. 02% vis-a-vis previous quarter. 13. Average licence fee as percentage of AGR is 8. 43% in June-09 as against 8. 4% in previous quarter. 14. The wireline Service Providers met the QoS parameters of Customer Care Service (Closures)and Response time to the customer for assistance [%age of calls answered (electronically)within 20 sec] 15. The performance of wireline servce providers improved as compared to the previous quarter, in respect of parameters Provision of Telephones, Faults repaired by next working day,Mean Time to Repair, Call Completion Rate, Customer Care Services (Shifts and Additional Facilities) and Time taken for refund of deposits 16. The wireline service performance has deteriorated in this quarter, as compared to the previous quarter, in respect of Faults incidences, Metering & billing credibility, Response time to the customer for assistance [%age of calls answered (electronically) within 40 sec & %age of calls answered by operator (voice to voice)]. 2 Market Share – Rural & Urban 25. 225. 6% 74. 4% 13 Service Area wise Access (Wireless +Wireline) Subscribers 14 Subscribers (Rural & Urban) & Market share: 15 List of Cellular Mobile (GSM & CDMA) Service Providers currently providing service [As on 30th June 2009]: The operators currently operating in Kolkata are Airtel,Vodafone ,Tata Teleser vices,Idea, Reliance telecom, Aircel group, BSNL etc. Bharti is the leading service provider in this region . 16 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR: Critical Success Factors (CSF’s) are the critical factors or activities required for ensuring the success your business. The term was initially used in the world of data analysis, and business analysis. Critical Success Factors have been used significantly to present or identify a few key factors that organizations should focus on to be successful. critical success factors refer to â€Å"the limited number of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful competitive performance for the individual, department, or organization†. Identifying CSF's is important as it allows firms to focus their efforts on building their capabilities to meet the CSF's, or even allow firms to decide if they have the capability to build the requirements necessary to meet Critical Success Factors (CSF's). Types of Critical Success Factor There are four basic types of CSF's They are: 1. Industry CSF's resulting from specific industry characteristics; 2. Strategy CSF's resulting from the chosen competitive strategy of the business; 3. Environmental CSF's resulting from economic or technological changes; and 4. Temporal CSF's resulting from internal organizational needs and changes. Five key sources of Critical Success Factors MAIN ASPECTS OF Critical Success Factors and their use in analysis CSF's are tailored to a firm's or manager's particular situation as different 17 situations (e. g. industry, division, individual) lead to different critical success factors. Rockart and Bullen presented five key sources of CSF's: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The industry, Competitive strategy and industry position, Environmental factors, Temporal factors, and Managerial position (if considered from an individual's point of view). Each of these factors is explained in greater detail below. The Industry Critical success factor Industry: There are some CSF's common to all companies operating within the same industry. Different industries will have unique, industryspecific CSF's An industry's set of characteristics define its own CSF's Different industries will thus have different CSF's, for example research into the CSF's for the Call centre, manufacturing, retail, business services, health care and education sectors showed each to be different after starting with a hypothesis of all sectors having their CSF's as market orientation, learning orientation, entrepreneurial management style and organizational flexibility. In reality each organization has its own unique goals so while these may be some industry standard – not all firms in one industry will have identical CSF's. Some trade associations offer benchmarking across possible common CSF's. Competitive strategy and Competitive position or strategy: The nature of position in the marketplace or the adopted 18 industry position Critical success factor strategy to gain market share gives rise to CSF's Differing strategies and positions have different CSF's Not all firms in an industry will have the same CSF's in a particular industry. A firm's current position in the industry (where it is relative to other competitors in the industry and also the market leader), its strategy, and its resources and capabilities will define its CSF's The values of an organization, its target market etc will all impact the CSF's that are appropriate for it at a given point in time. Environmental Factors Critical success factor Environmental changes: Economic, regulatory, political, and demographic changes create CSF's for an organization. These relate to environmental actors that are not in the control of the organization but which an organization must consider in developing CSF's Examples for these are the industry regulation, political development and economic performance of a country, and population trends. An example of environmental factors affecting an organization could be a de-merger. Temporal Factors Temporal factors: These relate to short-term situations, often crises. These CSF's may be important, but are usually short-liv ed. Temporal factors are temporary or one-off CSF's resulting from a specific event necessitating their inclusion. Theoretically these would include a firm which â€Å"lost executives as a result of a plane crash requiring a critical success factor of rebuilding the executive Critical success factor Critical success factor Critical success factor 19 group†. Practically, with the evolution and integration of markets globally, one could argue that temporal factors are not temporal anymore as they could exist regularly in organizations. For example, a firm aggressively building its business internationally would have a need for a core group of executives in its new markets. Thus, it would have the CSF of â€Å"building the executive group in a specific market† and it could have this every year for different markets. Managerial Position Critical success factor Critical success factor Managerial role: An individual role may generate CSF's as performance in a specific manager's area of responsibility may be deemed critical to the success of an organization. Managerial position. This is important if CSF's are considered from an individual's point of view. For example, manufacturing managers who would typically have the following CSF's: product quality, inventory control and cash control. In organizations with departments focused on customer relationships, a CSF for managers in these departments may be customer relationship management. INFORMATION FOR WRITING CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS: (CSF's) For the organization following the CSF method, the foundation for writing good CSF's is a good understanding of the environment, the industry and the organization In order to do so, this requires the use of information that is readily available in the public domain. Externally, industry information can be sourced from industry associations, news articles, trade associations, prospectuses of competitors, and equity/analyst reports to name some sources. These would all be helpful in building knowledge of the 20 environment, the industry and competitors. Internally, there should be enough sources available to management from which to build on their knowledge of the organization. In most cases, these won't even have to be anything published as managers are expected to have a good understanding of their organization Together, the external and internal information already provides the basis from which discussion on CSF's could begin. USING CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR STRATEGIC AND BUSINESS PLANNING: I have considered t following factors to be the critical success factors for the mobile service providers of the eastern region. 1) CONCEIVE AND DESIGN: a)GSM b)CDMA 21 c)3G 2) HUMAN RESOURCE: 3) MARKET: a) Advertising b) Sales offers c) Network Coverage. ) Customer Service e) Value Added Service. 4) MANAGEMENT: a) Planning. b) Organizational Structure. 5) FINANCE: a) Budget System. 22 FINDINGS: The cellular subscriber base is growing at a faster rate in West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala,Himachal Pradesh, Punjab as compared to Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Andra Pradesh and metropolitan cities. The number of subscribers for the urban sector is more for every service provider in comparison with the rural sector, the monthly addition of new subscribers for the urban sector is also more than the rural sector . The period april 2008-march2009 has saw a phenomenonal addition of 129. 1 million telephone subscribers, an increase of 43%. Total wireless (GSM + CDMA) subscriber base increased from 391. 76 million in march -09 to 427. 29 million at the end of june-09, showing a growth of 9. 07%. Airtel and Vodafone was found out to be leading service providers of Kolkata. 23 REFERENCES: 1)www. trai. gov. in 2)Harvard Business Review (Article by Frances X. Frei—April 2008) 3)Harvard Business Review(Article by Christopher W. Hart—March 2007) 4)www. hindu. com 5)Competitive strategy by Michael E. Porter 6)Competitive Advantage by Michael E. Porter 24

Is Torture Ever Ok? Essay

A lot of times in these scenarios there are no other options and torturing someone is the only way to get fast results before it is too late. I am a utilitarian thinker and I believe in the greatest good for the most people. If a lot of people’s lives are at stake in a situation and can be saved because of one criminal’s pain then torturing is the way to go. I believe that torture can be morally justified in many extreme circumstances and by regulating torture by law then it could benefit our society. My first argument will show how torture can be used to help stop a bank robber who has many hostages. Suppose, the authorities arrested one of the conspirators of the bank robber and they weren’t getting anything out of him. The bank robber told the authorities that if they didn’t get him a plane out of the country then he would start killing hostages. The authorities don’t know where the bank robber is or the hostages. The bank robber says they only have fifteen minutes to arrange him a plane before he starts killing the hostages. The authorities could torture the conspirators and get the information they need to save the hostages and arrest the bank robber or they could let the hostages die. This is why in my opinion torture is morally justified in this situation. The first argument I used shows a real example of how torturing can save people lives, arrest a criminal, and prevent more people from dying in the short and long run. A stakeholder from my last paper, Mirko Bagaric, agree with me. Bagaric is a professor of law at Deakin University and according to him, â€Å"torture is justifiable when used as an information gathering technique to avert great risk† (Bagaric, p. 264). In my example, it obviously agrees with Bagaric’s statement. There are many variables that go into whether or not torturing someone in a severe situation is permissible. Bagaric wrote a list of these variables: â€Å"1. the number of lives at risk; 2. the immediacy of the harm; 3. the availability of other means to acquire the information; 4. the level of wrongdoing of the agent; and 5. the likelihood that the agent actually does process the relevant information. † I believe that if these were the five rules in a law that regulated torture so we could set a compromise with people who think torture should never happen. The biggest reason I believe torturing is ok in harm-based situations is because it is our moral duty to save other people’s lives. In my opinion, some moral duties override others. The moral duty to save thousands of people overrides the moral duty to respect someone’s physical body, who is holding information from you because they want all those people to die. Everyone must agree that the most basic and important human right is the right to life. If you have a chance to save thousands of lives and torturing is your only option then the choice is obvious. Torturing must be ok in some circumstances, in order to save lives. I am not saying that people should torture a person to death because that violates their right to live. But, if the torture only causes some physical pain to one person to save many lives then torture should be morally and legally permissible. In Heinz site, whenever torturing someone there should always be a doctor there to make sure the person being tortured isn’t killed. I do not think torturing is always ok and it should always should be the last option, but when worse comes to worse saving thousands of people is worth torturing a person who is ok with those people dying. People who oppose torture at all times are deontologists. Deontologists believe that general rules and values must be respected regardless of the outcome. According to them even a savage terrorist who wants to kill their family and friends should not be harmed because it is immoral to inflict physical pain on someone. They believe that you should never bend the rules even if it causes death. Some of them believe that if you allow torturing that you will start down a slippery slope. For example, this slippery slope could lead up to killing a prisoner to avoid a bomb going off and killing thousands. And, what if, you killed the prisoner and he or she didn’t give up any information. The slippery slope of sinning leads to more sinning according to deontologists. For them, torture promotes violence and sin. Although, I do agree with some of the components from the other side’s argument it doesn’t change the fact the torture is needed in some malicious cases. I agree that you should not cause another person physical harm, but if harming this person can saves lives I believe it is morally ok. People have a greater moral obligation to preserve our species and defend our family and country. If physically harming one person can help us do this then torturing should be acceptable. Opponents to torture also stated that we will go down a slippery road to sin and killing people being tortured, but I disagree. I believe that we are rational enough to be able to torture someone and keep them alive. When torturing someone I think it would only be acceptable if a doctor was present to make sure the person be tortured didn’t die. Also, I believe we have to be one-hundred-percent positive the prisoner has the information we want, otherwise; torturing them would be wrong. I know that torturing is wrong in most cases but in should be acceptable in others. Bagaric states that â€Å"A legal framework should be established to properly accommodate these situations,† (Bagaric 274). If torture were to be regulated instead of prohibited, it would bring out greater good then it would harm. Torture happens whether it is prohibited or not. If we create the idea of a torture warrant at least we are stating what we are doing instead of hiding it. The only way to get a torture warrant would be to meet the five variables Bagaric wrote. Doctors being present when a prisoner is being tortured also insures that his or her life is being watched over carefully. In this example it shows that torture can be regulated to insure we don’t fall down a slippery slope and that it will help save many people in the future. My second argument shows that regulation of torture is better than prohibiting it. In my opinion, admitting what you do is better than lying about it. â€Å"Torture is outlawed in Israel yet they have been criticized all over the world for torturing people,† (Dershowitz). They are being hypocritical. It is a known fact that the United States tortures people secretly to find vital information. Although they try to be secretive about it, they usually get caught. It would be better if everyone knew that torture does happen and has to sometimes. I agree and wish that we never had to do it, but sometimes to save lives you have. By regulating torture, people will not be hypocritical about it and there will be rules pertaining to the issue. An obvious objection to this argument is again, the slippery slope. People against torture believe if you open the door to torture, even if you regulate it, you will lead to more and more torture. They say even if you torture is needed in extreme situations that making it legal will allow torture in less desperate situations. Again, I can rebuttal this objection of the slippery slope for regulating torture. First off, torture is already used even though it is legally prohibited. I believe making regulating torture will actually decrease it. People will have to get torture warrant and we should make very sure those are hard to get. Second, Bagaric and Clarke say, that â€Å"there is no evidence to suggest that the lawful violation of fundamental human interests will necessarily lead to a violation of fundamental rights where the per-conditions for the activity are clearly delineated and controlled. † For example, we use the death penalty in the U. S. , but we still value life and haven’t been putting people to death unless it was for a legitimate reason. Religions such as the Muslim-American religion state, â€Å"It is irreligious, immoral, and unethical†(Rashid 1). They state their religious history is full of stories demanding that we condemn abuse and torture. The Muslim-American’s say that, â€Å"The Prophet Moses sacrificed his royal position to stop an act of torture† (Rashid1). They state, the Prophet Muhammad forbade the mistreatment of prisoners. Torture offends Muslim-Americans because it is immoral nature. They state that the torture of human beings at the behest of the American government must be condemned. They say that, â€Å"Simply because another country allows torture does not mean we should encourage and utilize the moral weakness of others† (Rashid 1). They explain that when we ratified the Convention Against Torture President Ronald Reagan said, â€Å"[We] clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today. † They also applaud President Obama for shining light on these shameful practices. Finally they said, â€Å"We cannot be deaf to the voice of justice, but must establish it. Torture is not just† (Rashid 2). The Muslim Religion has many valid points, but I disagree that torture is always wrong and immoral. Sometimes bad things can be used for the greater good. My father who was a veteran of the Air Force knows how important it is to get vital information out of enemies. My father believes, like Bagaric, â€Å"when many lives are at risk and the only way to save someone is torture them then you should do what is necessary. † My dad has been through torture training. My dad states that, â€Å"if the other side is going to torture us then we have to have to learn the same tactics. † My father said in the interview, â€Å"that torture should always be the last option, but when things are turning for the worst then sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I agree with my father and I think that even torture may be immoral by itself it can be used to help people who are going to be killed which makes it moral. In conclusion, I believe prohibition of torture is wrong and that there needs to be a regulating law that allows torture so we can gather vital information. If there are more instances where thousands of peopleâ₠¬â„¢s lives are at risk and there is no other way of saving their lives then to torture someone then we most allow it. It should be morally acceptable to save people’s lives and I believe a people’s lives are worth more than an evil person’s physical pain.

Education Industry in China Essay

In Chinese education industry, China is playing a role of follower when comparing with most of the western countries. Although the increasing speed is very fast, there is still a long distance. Studying abroad is the most popular way for Chinese to have a higher education. However, large sums of families are not able to afford such high tuition fee and living cost for their children being abroad. As a result of it, online courses and distance education tend to be developed as a substitute product. Some of the universities have already opened distance education towards public. Besides that, there are more and more videos of open classes which are given by famous professors who had been posted online. The internet provides people a wider channel which is more convenient and covers a huge amount of education resources. To be educated through internet is becoming a mainstream of education industry in the future. The pie chart above shows that 10.22% of newly-added application is education related. It is only 6% behind game segment in the second place. The online education segment grew more than 20.7% only in one year in 2007 from 14.5 billion CNY to RMB17.5 billion CNY. China had about 12.2 million people using online education 5 years ago. (Global, 2010) The total number of computer and portable devices users are more than 550 million at the end of 2012. It has surpassed the entire population of US. Information technology has become a invisible engine of education industry both in private sectors and public educations. Social A Blue Book of global talent (South China Global Talent Insititute, 2013) was released in last September. It reported that there were accumulated 2.2 million students who are studied abroad in last 25 years. The amount of oversea students reached a record high which is more than 400 thousands in 2012. China becomes the biggest oversea students exporting country. 90% of those students pay at their own expenses instead of government funded. The Blue Book indicates that since 21st century more than 60% of oversea students are studying or studied in America and Europe. Italy, the Netherland, Korean, Spain are new hot spots which attracting Chinese students. Through the economic growth, to be educated abroad is no longer rare. The increasing mid-class families are willing to afford expensive cost on education for the next generation. Based upon the background of globalization, internalization is one of the most important issues for ambitious Chinese entrepreneurs. As a result of it, the society has a demand on people who have international study background gradually. English has become one of the most recruitment criteria for most of the big companies and state owned corporations. For some branch of multinational companies, English has replaced mandarin as a working language. Graduates of regular higher education since 2000 (in ten thousands) (Yongchun, 2013) There are 6.9 million graduates in 2013. (Yongchun, 2013) It is the record highest year since the establishment of the nation. Additionally, the economy growth is slowing down since the 2008 global crisis. The job vacancies are limit and the demand for graduate is decreasing. The employment situation is extremely grim. As a consequence, the depreciation of bachelor diploma becomes an inevitable truth. Some of students choose to continuing study master program or studying abroad.

Development or environmental injustice Essay

What does it really take to experience development? What are the defining criteria for development? Is development quantitatively measured or qualitatively evaluated? What are the key indicators of a developing or developed country? The answers depend on the person’s priority and preference. The expansion of metropolitan areas has been referred to as urban development by those who are after the material indicators of development- high rise buildings, wider highways, more cars and more parks. For those who are concerned with the long-term environmental and health effects of urbanization, they call it urban sprawl. For the purpose of having a common point of reference, let me use 1Dr. Howard Frumkin’s definition of urban sprawl: â€Å"the complex pattern of land use, transportation and social and economic development. † This complex pattern requires the extension of urban areas to rural areas, and thus converting the latter to urbanized locality. Urbanization implies vast forest and agricultural lands to be converted to different land uses. Sad to say, the list includes recreational facilities and parks which, for investment and environmental considerations are to be of least priority. Extensive roads construction which provides spaces for suburban dwellers to drive a car just to buy a pack of cigarette in the next block, is not suppose to be of immediate consideration. Besides this qualitative indicators of poor urban sprawl considerations, there are environmental threats of urban sprawl that are needed to be evaluated and be given high priority by the development advocates, as it concerns life of the present and future generations. 2â€Å"Automobile has been a prerequisite to urban sprawl. † (J. E. Anderson) The most adverse effect of heavy reliance to automobiles is obviously air pollution. In the United States, 3about 25% of all trips are shorter than one mile of these, 75% are by car. Another related 4study revealed that only 1% of trips in the US are on bicycle and 9% by foot. Do these figures present impressive urban development rates for the US? I am afraid not because the Netherlands has 30% accounting for transportation on bicycle. These facts rather provide proofs that vehicles are the leading source of air pollution. Despite modern environmental standards, urban air quality remains to be greatly affected by the emission of air pollutants from transport. In the 5US alone, 30% of nitrogen oxide and 30% of hydrocarbon emissions are brought about by mobile sources. In addition, 5carbon dioxide emission, which is the end product of burning fuel such as gas, accounts for 80% emissions. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas, with global warming potential. Needless to explain, development should no be measured quantitatively, that is by the number of cars that are going to and fro the streets of the cities. Rather, development should be measured qualitatively, that how much does it contribute to the quality of life the residents are to experience when programs relative to urban sprawl are push through. Housing development is a part of urban sprawl, which requires forest fragmentation. 6Chet Arnold of the Center for Land-use and Research at the University of Connecticut said forest fragmentation occurs when â€Å"large, continuous forests are divided into smaller blocks, either by roads, clearing for agriculture, urbanization, or other human development. † This means that housing development requires animal populations in the cleared forests to be thrown out of their natural habitats. Destruction of natural habitats accounts for great loss of biodiversity, which results to ecological imbalance. I agree that man deserve to have decent life and part of it is having a more comfortable living. But humans are not the only residents of the earth. We also have to take into consideration the floras and faunas as part of biodiversity. Let us remember that earth creatures are dependent on each other. Humans, being given the capacity to think and understand over the lower forms of life should see things beyond material and short-term comforts that development brings. Urban sprawl in this context alone is clearly an environmental injustice. Water resources are not exempted from the list of natural resources that are directly affected by urban sprawl. As requisite of urban sprawl deforestation brings forth water pollution. This is besides the effects of pollutants that directly come from factories, sewage treatment plants and local wastes, which are typical to urbanized cities. Rainwater that runs through the deforested lands are not effectively absorbed and thus flows downstream. This process results to lesser groundwater recharge, then water supply shortage follows. Added to the list of negative effects of urban sprawl to natural resources are noise pollution, the heat island effect, soil erosion and the declining fertility rates of soils. The main point of all these is that urban sprawl is the root of many environmental injustices. Air pollution, deforestation, water pollution, soil degradation and the destruction of biodiversity are results of a chain reaction from a single step to what others refer to as urban development. What humans failed to do and still refuse to consider is the future. Development projects, of which urban sprawl is a major player, are focused on comforts and pleasures of today and shortly after tomorrow. The next generation should be taken into serious consideration. There are things that still can be undone, but there are things that cannot. Natural resources that were destroyed can still be replaced, but it takes a century to bring them back to where they used to be. By itself, there’s nothing wrong with development. What makes it undesirable is its planner to consider the future. REFERENCES 1. Frumkin, Howard. Urban Sprawl and Public Health. Public Health Reports. May-June 2002 issue. Volume 117. page 201 2. Anderson, J. Edward. Personal Rapid Transit and Urban Development. Retrieved from http://faculty. washington. edu/jbs/itrans/sprawl. htm on December 19, 2006 3. Koplan, JP, Dietz. Caloric Imbalance and Public Health Policy. JAMA 1999. 282. pages 1579-81 4. Pucher, J. Bicycling Boom in Germany: A Revival Engineered by Public Policy. Transportation Q 1997:51. pages 31-46 5. US Environmental Agency. National Emission Inventory. Air Pollutant Emission Trends. Current Emission Trend Summaries. Retrieved from http://www. epa. gov/ttn/chief/trends/index. html on December 19, 2006 6. NASA. Urban Sprawl: The Big Picture. Retrieved from http://science. nasa. gov/headlines/y2002/11oct_sprawl. htm on December 19, 2006

List and describe the 10 best uses of internet in Teaching and Essay

List and describe the 10 best uses of internet in Teaching and Learning - Essay Example the comfort of one’s home being now possible with online learning on the internet, the utopian concept of the physical need of sitting in a classroom to learn is no longer mandatory. With barriers of distance and financial status demolished, learning has becoming feasible through sites like (http://www.troy.edu/), (http://www.khanacademy.org/) and (http://www.nixty.com/), including access to pertinent information of specific interest and curriculum needs. 2. Unlike the drab static notice boards of yore, school websites like (www.mail.tro.edu), (http://lifelongeducationalopps.com /), (www.eduscapes.com), (http://www.kidzworld.com /), (www.lessonplans4teachers.com), (http://www.teacherligo.com), (www.troy.blackboard.com) et al, allow creating and sharing of information regarding school calendar, lesson plans, rubrics, course- specific particulars, teacher and administration contacts in attractive and novel ways. 3. Online worksheets have obviated the need of purchase of expensive workbooks and substitute them by free storage space; some of the reasonably priced member web sites are (http://edhelper.com/), (http://qldscienceteachers.tripod.com/), (www.teachers.net), (www.teacherweb.com), (http://www.homeschoolmath.net/) et al. 4. Blending gaming constituents within educational materials has made it possible for students to be better engaged through educational games and social networking in web sites like (http://www.pbskids.org/),(http://www.funbrain.com/) et al; while social networking web sites like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, Google Plus etc. allow the user to establish instant, need-based personal and professional connections, Groups within the Yahoo, MSN Live, Skype, and Google networks permit individuals, classrooms and organizations to meet and collaborate on topics of mutual interest with the options for public or private access through web conferences and webinars. 5. File sharing feature available in Google, MSN Live etc. permits

Factors that Motive and Demotivate Young Males in the U.K. to Purchase Dissertation

Factors that Motive and Demotivate Young Males in the U.K. to Purchase Luxury Clothes Online - Dissertation Example The growth of the luxury market is attributed mainly to the emotional attachments consumers have with certain luxury brands. The growth has particularly been witnessed in the luxury clothing market that has experienced rising sales volumes. Online shopping which involves buying of goods or services directly over the Internet has grown in popularity over the past couple of years. The growing popularity of online stores or electronic shops is evident in the fact that they have increased in number. While there are countless online stores, a few of the popular ones include eBay and Amazon.com. Online shopping has several advantages to shoppers and marketers alike. Their main advantage is their convenience and capacity to link buyers and sellers who are separated by great distance. 1.2 Statement of the Problem The number of people performing online shopping in the U.K. and indeed across the globe is rising by the day. While this is a general trend, there are people who do not like to enga ge in online shopping for various reasons or as a result of various barriers. Young males in the U.K. love to own luxury clothes, especially if finance is not a limiting factor. While some of the males prefer to purchase luxury clothes online, a significant portion of the population would rather go to brick and mortar shops to make similar purchases. This study is dedicated to establishing the factors that motivate and demotivate young males in the UK to purchase or avoid purchasing luxury clothing online. This study is necessary since there is no such study that has been conducted in the U.K. before.The study will therefore fill the knowledge gap that currently exists in this respect. 1.3 Research... Traditionally, people have been used to purchasing products directly from physical stores. This method demands the physical presence of consumers at the store when selecting the products. However, the trend has changed tremendously over the last few decades because of technological advancements. According to Hasan, the developments witnessed in new media technologies ranging from the Internet, CD-ROMS, interactive kiosks, to digital TV and radio have ushered in a new era. The new media have not only changed marketing communication but have also influenced consumers’ behavior. Hasan argues that the advent of new technologies such as theInternet has changed the way consumers behave.According to Arens, online shopping enables consumers to place orders by giving a description of the product or service over the Internet. Once the order is received, the product is delivered to the consumer at the closest point of collection. Apart from offering consumers, a better way of viewing pro ducts and services offered at the store, it also builds a close relationship between consumers and marketers.

Death penalty Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Death penalty - Research Paper Example The criminal justice system is implemented under imperfect conditions. Risks of convicting innocent individuals within the system have been seen all too often. These risks are some of the primary considerations in the opposition of the death penalty – that innocent individuals may be put to death because of this imperfect system. For which reason, this paper now seeks to discuss the abolition of the death penalty. It presents arguments and supporting theories and discussions on the abolition of the death penalty within the criminal justice system. Discussion I believe that death penalty should be abolished because it is an inhumane punishment. â€Å"Death destroys an individual’s status and his or her very existence in organized society† (Chenwi, p. 97). In effect, the death penalty is a form of punishment which practically strips a person of his rights and his rightful place in an orderly and peaceful society. The severity of the death penalty as a punishment de grades human beings and strips them of honor. It summarizes and defines their life into one act of violence and deems such life to be unworthy of continuance. And such summary judgment is something which should not be supported The imposition of the death penalty must be prevented because of the criminal justice system is basically imperfect. No matter what evidence is often unearthed from any criminal investigation, to some degree, such evidence cannot often completely prove a person’s commission of a crime. The possibility of convicting a person of a crime he did not commit has been proven true time and again (Cole and Smith, p. 405). The possibility therefore of sending someone to his death for a crime he did not commit is also a strong likelihood. This is a risk we cannot prevent and manage with the death penalty because, unlike imprisonment sentence which can be carried out in jail, carrying out the death sentence is irreversible. On the off chance that a person is indee d later proven innocent, imprisonment affords a person freedom. But death? Death is a one-way ticket. Lang also set forth these same arguments. He argues that there is a distinct possibility that a person who is wrongly convicted of a crime would be sentenced to death. This is a strong possibility which is too grim for me to consider. It would be wrong for us to close our eyes to this grim possibility. Lang discusses the injustices suffered by Michael Blair as a basis for his opposition to the death penalty. He discusses how evidence eventually presented in court successfully proved that Blair was innocent of the crime being charged against him. However, this was after fourteen years spent in death row. This was after fourteen years of emotional trauma – waiting for the possibility of having his head next to the proverbial chopping block. Blair also lost fourteen years of his life – a life which could have been productive in terms of career, family, and social life. Un til and unless we can absolutely avoid more ‘Michael Blair’ incidents can we safely consider the possibility of imposing the death penalty as a means of deterring crime and rendering punishment to criminals. It would be difficult to gauge and decide that things would have been better off for people like Michael Blair, but in considering the cases on mentally retarded individuals, being