Tej Kohli Business Blog

Another Big Business Merger is underway, a Tej Kohli business Blog report:

Movie studio DreamWorks SKG is close to a deal with India’s Reliance ADA Group to form a new movie venture, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the talks.

The Journal said a deal with Reliance would give movie director Steven Spielberg the cash to finance his DreamWorks team’s departure from Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures later this year.

Reliance would provide Spielberg and company with $500-$600 million in equity and would also give Reliance a large stake in the new company.

On May Day, when people all over the world celebrated ‘work culture’, Punjab government employees holidayed on Thursday even as their counterparts in neighbouring Haryana attended offices, enhancing the state’s productivity.

If that does not explain Punjab’s slipping position on the national growth chart, then this simple back-of-the-envelope calculation would - on an average, a Punjab government employee is entitled to enjoy nearly 200 off days in a year, including 104 Saturdays and Sundays, 31 gazetted holidays, two restricted holidays out of the 17 offered days, 20 earned leaves, 10-20 casual leaves and another 20 medical leaves. Add another six-and-a-half days on account of nagar kirtans, and the number tots up to 200 holidays, out of 365 days in a year.

This effectively means that for every one working day, a Punjab government employee can enjoy almost 1.8 days as holidays!

Haryana, too, is liberal with holidays, but not as much as Punjab, as its employees get 28 gazetted holidays and two out of nine restricted holidays, 10 medical leaves (with full pay) or 20 (with half-pay), one to 20 CLs and 22 ELs. There are no half days. So, while Punjab has slipped from number one to seven on the national development scene, Haryana is steadily building up its position.

”On an average, we have 160-180 working days in a year whereas European countries maintain 220 government work days in a year, which should explain why we don’t have a work culture,” observes a senior Punjab government official, who has worked with organizations like UN and World Bank.

Notably, the previous Congress government had tried to correct the position by bringing down the gazetted holidays to just about 17.

Additional resources by Tej Kohli

Tej Kohli business blog brings some amusing business facts, the kinds of which you have not heard before.

Do you know?

• Bill Bowerman, the co-founder of the shoe company Nike, got his first shoe idea after staring at a waffle iron. This gave him the idea of using squared spikes to make the shoes lighter.
• Bill Gates house was partially designed using a Macintosh computer.
• In the late 1960’s, Mountain Dew bottles featured a hillbilly on them. These are now collector items worth five to ten dollars.
• In 1949 UNICEF produced the first charity Christmas card. The picture shown on the card was painted by a seven year old girl.
• 18% of an Americans income is spent on transportation.
• 7-Eleven is the largest retail chain in the world.
• According to research, the most productive workday is Tuesday and the least productive is Friday.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
• Americans write approximately 50 billion checks a year making it the second most frequent payment method used after cash.
• Americans write approximately 50 billion checks a year making it the second most frequent payment method used after cash.
• Approximately 7.5% of all office documents get lost.
• Bill Gates began programming computers at age 13.
• Bill Gates donated close to $100 million to fight AIDS in India. As a percent of his total wealth, this would be comparable to him donating ten cents if he only had $60.
• Coupons were introduced in 1894 when Asa Candler bought the Coca-Cola formula for $2,300 and gave people coupons that he had written out to receive a free glass of coke.
• Duracell, the battery-maker, built parts of its new international headquarters using materials from its own waste.

According to a survey released Monday, the ailing mortgage market and and the debt burden being carried by tens of millions of households in US, has become a major concern for US economists.

They are majorly concerned over the short-term risks associated with subprime mortgages and other forms of indebtness, while they continue to cast a wary eye on inflation, says President of National Association for Business Economics, last week.

About 34 percent of the members of the National Association for Business Economics ranked the financial market turmoil from those loan defaults as the No. 1 threat to the economy over the next two years.

Concerns about mounting inflationary pressures and slowing job growth have persuaded many economists that the world’s largest economy is going into a recession although other economists and experts believe a recession will be avoided.

Tej Kohli quotes an InternetNews article on Stocks.

Stocks soared Monday on news that bond insurers will hold onto their top credit ratings, at least for now.

The major indexes shot higher in the afternoon and finished with gains of more 1% after Standard & Poors reaffirmed the credit ratings of MBIA and Ambac Financial, removing a big cloud hanging over financial markets. Credit downgrades for the companies could have touched off another round of losses for troubled credit markets.

Dell gained 3% ahead of its results, which are due out after the close on Thursday.

Take-Two Interactive soared more than 50% after Electronic Arts made a hostile bid for the company, and Getty Images gained 29% on a private equity buyout.

Google was a notable laggard, falling 4%, possibly on reports that Microsoft is testing a new online ad effectiveness tool.

Apple managed to finish with a small gain despite a BMO downgrade on slowing iPod and iPhone demand. Juniper was up 5% on an RBC upgrade. Smith Micro fell 12% on a JP Morgan downgrade.

Marvell was up 6% on a positive Barron’s piece.

The Nasdaq rose 24 to 2347, the S&P gained 18 to 1371, and the Dow soared 189 to 12,570. Volume rose to 3.87 billion shares on the NYSE, and declined to 2.16 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 25-7 margin on the NYSE, and 20-9 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 84% on the NYSE, and 81% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 83-84 on the NYSE, and 58-124 on the Nasdaq.

Grafix founder Tej Kohli, a well known e-commerce expert trained his employees on mobile Internet. Tej Kohli explained all the ins and outs of how to use the wireless Internet as a mobile marketplace. If you’re also confused by that concept, then you’re exactly the type of person Tej Kohli loves to help. 

“There’s lots of big words involved with this that many old-school business minds don’t know how to grasp, but I think our success speaks for itself as a great place to go to for advice, support and implementation of online sales plans,” says Kohli. “We help people with everything from strategic planning and impact analysis through solution design and implementing those solutions.” Having more than 150 highly trained colleagues, Tej Kohli is proud of the bustling atmosphere within the Grafix headquarters. And he’s even prouder of the fact that the company has grown so big it maintains another branch all the way over in the Central American nation of Costa Rica. “We’re really expanding because we’re now seen as one of the go-to companies for quick and easily  understandable answers,” says Kohli. “It’s a big world out there and we feel confident that we’re ready to conquer the market.”