Negocios bancarios en el límite: la crisis de las hipotecas basura y la novela de R. K. Narayan, The Financial Expert

According to Umberto Eco, «every story tells a story that has already been told» (Eco, 1985: 19). In this context, The Financial Expert, a novel written by R. K. Narayan in 1952 shares interesting analogies with significant events and persons in the postmodern world of finance during the last twenty years or so. Narayan’s understanding of the world of finance echoes recent phenomena like the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, a swindler during the 1990s, the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis, etc. This paper traces analogies among them and thus opens up a fascinating world of intersections and cross-references. In this intricate world, the present and the past, the real and the fictional, the existing and the evolving – all interact with each other; and the pathways thus created invite our attention to the recurring economic phenomenon of bubble formation and its eventual burst. This paper rests on the premise that the exploration of the deeply-rooted analogical relationship between various texts can make the understanding of the world of finance more comprehensible.Según Umberto Eco (1985: 19), «todas las historias cuentan una historia que ya ha sido contada». The Financial Expert, escrita en 1952 por R. K. Narayan, presenta interesantes analogías con acontecimientos y personas significativas en el mundo financiero posmoderno de los últimos veinte años. El conocimiento del mundo financiero por parte de Narayan resuena con los recientes fenómenos de la bancarrota de Lehman Brothers el 15 de septiembre de 2008, el esquema Ponzi del estafador durante los años 1990, Bernard Madoff, la crisis de las hipotecas basura, etc. Este artículo explora las analogías entre tales hechos para descubrir un fascinante mundo de intersecciones y referencias cruzadas. En ese complejo mundo, el presente y el pasado, lo real y lo ficticio, lo existente y lo emergente, interactúan, invitándonos a reflexionar sobre el fenómeno recurrente de la formación y estallido de las burbujas financieras. El análisis de la profunda relación entre textos diferentes puede ayudar en la comprensión del mundo financier

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Performance Assessment of Six Public Health Programs in Katsina State, Nigeria

This research aimed to evaluate the performance of six ongoing public health programs through core performance indicators in Katsina State, Nigeria. The healthcare delivery in Africa is mostly program-based. This requires that such programs need to be evaluated which may in turn help to identify any existing gaps towards the improvement of patients' access and coverage to their given service. We identified all active health facilities where our programs on malaria, Routine Immunization (RI), Family Planning (FP), Tuberculosis and Leprosy (TBL), HIV/AIDS, and Free Medicare (FMC) were being carried out. After that, a representative sample was derived to obtain data regarding five key performance indicators by using a Logistics Indicators Assessment Tool. Of 1,718 facilities, a total of 983 (57.22%) were visited, In other words, by assuming a normal distribution; each facility expectedly covers only 3,371 individuals. All programs provided different and diverse results on each indicator; however, the most obvious challenge was in the stock-out and demand vs. receipt of required medications. These are particularly for malaria, FMC, FP, and HIV. For instance, the stock-out lasted 222 days for malaria and 135 days for FP. Despite this, none of the programs had a lower than gold-standard near-term availability of required products. Program-based healthcare delivery is inadequate and ineffective unless the local system gets simultaneously developed. If required medications are not becoming available, optimal access, coverage, and benefits cannot be expected to be obtained. Clearly, Nigeria experiences a push system of meeting term supplies. Nigeria needs to strengthen its pharmaceutical system

Measures for Assessing the Readiness of Back-office Staff

Purpose—Public organizations deploy state-of-the-art technological advancements to facilitate sophisticated services to the citizens, businesses, and employees. The maturity of backoffice staff to adapt, use, and utilize these technological changes at the organizational level is a prerequisite to introduce cutting-edge services. This paper investigates the maturity of backoffice staff and proposes a conceptual framework, measurement constructs, and subsequent measures for the assessment.Methodology/Design/Research—Design methodology focuses on combining research with practice. An initial framework and measurement constructs are developed based on the literature review, which are further investigated by conducting a case study at Inland Revenue, Karachi to test the usability in practice using the directive content analysis qualitative method.Findings—the outcome of measurement reveals that though the proposed framework and measurement constructs i.e. roles; responsibilities; trainings; capacity building; capabilities; and attitude are relevant and useful to assess the back-office staff readiness, the measures to assess the constructs may vary in practice depending on the size, scope, and type of the public organizations.Research limitations/implications—although the proposed measurement constructs and measures proved to be useful for assessing the back-office staff maturity, the relationships among different measures and constructs affecting the staff readiness require further research.Practical implications—the case study was conducted at single public organization, which will be extended to multiple public organizations in practice. The extension will not to allow effective testing of the usability of the proposed conceptual framework and constructs, but will also broaden the benchmarking scope.Originality/Value—back-office staff education is discussed and described in the literature as well practice, but there is hardly any existing framework for the assessment and benchmarking of staff maturity. Often viewed in isolation, the practitioners hardly realize the long term intangible objectives to understand how research (literature) can help improve the maturity. Similarly, the academics also describe staff education at generic level, which may or may not be applicable to the different types of organizations. Therefore, we propose a conceptual measurement framework with constructs and subsequent measures and show that combining the research (literature) and practice (Inland Revenue, Karachi) provides deeper insights.Research type: Conceptual paper, Case study, Literature revie

Mode of Operation and Performance of Contract Farming of Cottonseed in Haryana

The quality of cottonseed matters most for the successful product development. The quality cottonseed production is monitored by the Haryana State Seed Certification Agency in the state. The study has reviewed the prevailing contract cotton farming models; has studied mode of operation of cotton contractual arrangements; has analyzed the production matrix, growth and contributions; and has discerned and quantified variations in intensive structure of public and private seed firms. It has used both primary and secondary data. Appropriate statistical tools, viz. exponential growth model, index, etc., have been used to study the data. All categories of farmers have been brought together under the management of private seed agency for production of cottonseed of a single variety on a large homogeneous block. Contract cotton farming has fully vetted the legal agreements with their growers. The public and private agencies pay incentive price to farmers which is higher than the prevailing market price. Farmers of private agency are free from the intricacies of input and output markets, receive all technology and technical know-how and have facilities for production and consumption loans, whereas farmers of public agency are trailed far behind in terms of these benefits. Private agency has flourished at the expanse of public agency since contract cotton is incentivised by private contractors under flexible and farmerfriendly production regime. The latest production technology, strong capital and management base of private seed agency have left the public agency behind in the competitive race. The study has concluded that favourable changes in socio-economic and legal framework of government policies have to be encouraged for the active participation of private sector in cottonseed business and contract cottonseed farming has emerged as a viable alternative farming in the post-WTO regime.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

Review on Bioburden Studies on Medical Devices

Producing safe products is a core goal of all medical device manufacturers and sterility assurance is a key component in achieving that goal.  Many single use medical devices are terminally sterilized by ethylene oxide or radiation methods such as gamma or e-beam.  The FDA and other regulatory bodies requiring that the sterilization process be validated and these validations typically require a bioburden and sterility testing.  Sterility testing and bioburden testing are also performed on devices as part of routine quality control. By conducting this test on medical device we can assure the in-house sterility; during production, packaging (primary and secondary) and dispatch. To avoid the any error or contamination attacks on the product. Keywords: Bioburden, Medical Device, IUD, Sterilit