Current Affairs Banking

  Introduction  

• The strategies for enhancement in food production aim at

-   increasing the amount of food obtained from animals. -   increasing the yield of agricultural crops.  

• Animal Husbandry
• Animal husbandry deals with the care, breeding & management of domesticated animals that are useful to humans.

 

• Poultry Farming
• Poultry is a rearing of domesticated fowls (chickens), ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowls and pigeons.
• Poultry birds exclusively grown for meat are called broilers, layers are for egg production, and cockerel for young male fowls and rooster are mature male fowls.

 

• Fisheries
• Pisciculture is the rearing, breeding and catching of fishes.
• Aquaculture is rearing and management of useful aquatic plants and animals like fishes, oysters, mussels and prawns, etc.

 

• Bee keeping or Apiculture
• Apiculture is rearing and breeding of honeybees for the production of honey.
• The commonest species of honeybee is Apis indica.

 

• Animal Breeding
• Animal breeding is the production of new breeds of domesticated animals with improved traits.

-   Inbreeding: Mating between the closely related animals of same breed. -   Out-breeding: Mating between the animals which are not closely related. -   Out-crossing: Mating between the animals of the same breed which do not have a common ancestor. -   Cross-breeding: Mating between the superior animals of different breeds of the same species.

• MOET (Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer) technique is a programme which improves the chances of successful production of hybrids.

 

• Plant Breeding
• Plant breeding refers to the modification and improvement of genetic material of plants resulting in the development of crops which are more beneficial to human beings.

	Crop	Variety	Resistance to diseases
1.	Wheat	Himgiri	Hill bunt & leaf and stripe rust
2.	Cauliflower	Pusa snowball K-l Pusa shubra	Blight black rot Black rot and curl
3.	Brassica	Pusa Swarnim (Karan rai)	White rust
4.	Cowpea	Pusa Komal	Bacterial blight
5.	Chilli	Pusa Sadabahar	Chilly mosaic vims, Tobacco mosaic virus and leaf curl.

  Table: Crop varieties bred by hybridization and selection for disease resistance to fungi, bacterial and viral disease.

• Examples of insect pest resistance crops bred by hybridization are

(i)  Pusa Gaurav variety of Brassica is resistant to aphids. (ii) Pusa Sawani and Pusa A-4 varieties of Okra (Bhindi) are resistant to shoot and more...

  Introduction  

• Health is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• Disease is any condition which interferes with the normal structure and function of the body that is manifested by a characteristics sets of symptoms and sign.

   

• Bacteriol Diseases
• Typhoid: Typhoid is caused by Salmonella typhi. Typhoid spreads through food, milk and water contaminated with intestinal discharges either directly or through flies and personal hygiene. Typhoid is diagonsed with widal test.
• Pneumonia: It is caused by Streptococcus pneumonia or Haemophilus influenza. It infects alveoli of lungs and spread by coughs, sneezes, by sharing drinking glasses and eating utensils with an infected person and contact with used tissue or handkerchiefs.

 

• Viral Diseases
• Rhinoviruses causes one of the most infectious disease called common cold. Rhinovirus is spread from one person to another by hand to hand contact or from one person sneezing close by another person.

 

• Protozoan Diseases

Malaria: It is caused by Plasmodium species & spread through female Anopheles mosquito. Primary host are female mosquito of genus Anopheles and humans acts as intermediate host.

• Malaria result in anaemia, toxaemia and splenomegaly (enlarged spleen).
• Plasmodium enters the human body as sporozoites (infectious form) through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquito. Plasmodium sporozoites enters the bloodstream and travel to liver where they divide repeatedly & other attack the red blood cells resulting in their rupture.

 

• Amoebic Dysentery or Amoebiasis
• It is caused by Entamoeba histolytica. It is a protozoan parasite in the large intestine of human.

  Helminthic Diseases ²

• Filariasis
• Filariasis is caused by Wuchereria bancrofti.

 

• Fungal Diseases
• Fungi cause’s diseases and these are known as mycosis.
• Microsporum, Trichophyton and Epidermo-phyton are responsible for ringworms, which is characterized by appearance of dry scaly lesions of the skin, nails and scalps.

 

• Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a group of communicable diseases that are transmitted mainly by sexual contact. STDs are caused by a wide range of bacterial, viral, protozoal and fungal agents.

STDs	Pathogen
Syphilis	Treponema pallidum (bacterium)
Gonorrhoea	Neisseria gonorrhoeae (bacterium)
Vaginitis	Candida albicans (fungus)
AIDS	Human immunodeficiency virus (virus)

 

• Diabetes mellitus
• It is caused by the deficiency of insulin hormone and is characterized more...

  Introduction  

• The idea about ecology was first started by Reiter.
• The term ecology was given and defined by Haeckel as Ecology is the study of the interactions between the organism and their environment.
• Population: The collection of individuals of a given species is called population.
• Community: The interacting groups of populations of various species constitute a community.
• Ecosystem: A biological community and the physical environment associated with its constitute ecosystem.
• Biome: A major ecological community or complex of communities that extends over a large geographical area.
• Species is a group of organisms that resembles each other more than they resemble to any other organism, and that can breed among themselves and produces fertile offspring.
• Habitat: It is a specific place or locality where an organism lives.
• Ecotone: It is the marginal vegetation present in between two well established habitat.
• Environment: It is the sum total of physical and biotic conditions influencing the behaviour of the organism.
• Atmosphere: The multilayered gaseous envelope. It is divided into 5 distinct layers troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere & exosphere.

 

• Water Resource: It is the major component of the hydrosphere and covers about 374th of the earth's surface.
• Out of this 97% is sea water which cannot be used directly. Only 3% is fresh water.
• Out of 3% about 77% is stored in ice caps, about 22.5% is ground water. Only about 0.5% is present in river & lakes which is available for direct use.
• Aquatic animals which can tolerate only a narrow range of salinity are called stenohaline.
• Aquatic organisms having wide range of salt tolerance are called euryhaline.

                                                          

• Soil: Soil is a mixture of inorganic mineral particles derived from weathering of rock and organic matter consisting of humus.
• On the basis of the size of particles, soil is of following types:

(i) Clay-upto.062mm                         (ii) Silt-.002to.02mm (iii) Fine sand - .02 to .2 mm             (iv) Coarse sand - .2 to 2 mm (v) Fine gravel - 2 to 5 mm                 (vi) Coarse gravel - 5 and more

• Population: It is the total number of individual of a particular species inhabiting a particular area at a particular time.
• Demography: Study of population.

 

• Population Characteristics

(1) Population density: It is number of individuals per unit area of environment. (2) Natality: This is addition of individuals in a population due to birth. (3) Mortality: It is the rate of death of individuals in a given population. (4) Population Dispersion (i)   Emigration - One way outward movement. (ii)   Immigration - One way inward movement. (iii) Migration: It is a cyclical movement with respect to and weather that during life history of an animal at definite intervals, and always includes a return trip from where it began. (5) more...

  Advertising is the most commonly used tool of promotion. It is a form of marketing communication used to encourage, persuade or manipulate the audience i.e., viewers, readers, listeners or a specific group to take or continue to take some action. The word 'advertisement' comes from the Latin word adventure which means 'to turn toward'. Advertising that promotes organizational images, ideas and political issues is institutional advertising.   Characteristics of Advertising   The characteristics of advertising may be stated as follows

• Impersonal

It involves sending messages through one or more media such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, etc. It is called impersonal because the Message is conveyed through some media rather than a person.

• The Idea is to Promote Goods or Services

Advertising is done with a specific objective of promoting a product or service and increase their sale. The message generally, contains information regarding products characteristics, prices, uses and important needs that may be satisfied by use of the product.

• Sponsorship

            The message is sent by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers who are called sponsors of the advertisement.

• Paid From of Communication

Advertisements appearing in the newspapers, television, cinema halls, etc. are duly paid for. The sponsors pay huge amounts for use of space in newspaper or time slot in television and radio, etc.

• Facilitates Consumer Choice

            It helps the consumer to purchase the right product as per their requirement and budget.

• Element of Creativity

A good advertising campaign involves lot of creativity and imagination. A campaign becomes successful only when the message satisfies the expectation of the consumer. Thus, creativity plays a big role here.   Objectives of Advertising   An advertising objective is a specific communication task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of time. The main objectives of advertising are

• Introduction of New Product

Companies keep on introducing new products in the market and need to inform the prospective customers about its features, price, usage, availability, etc. Advertising not only attracts their attention but also helps them in making an opinion about the product and taking the best purchase decisions.

• Increase in Sale

Advertising helps in increasing the sale of company's products. It also helps in turning non-users of products to users of products and also in attracting the users of competitors products.  

• Maintain Existing Buyer

Now-a-days new products keep on entering the market at a fast pace and consumers tend to switch over to the new products. Advertising is used to remind the consumers about how good their products or services are and that they are still in the market as old and reliable ones.

• Create and Enhance Goodwill of the Firm

more...

  Introduction   Personal selling is an ancient art. It is a two way communication between seller and buyer. Personal selling occurs when an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution directly to a customer. Now, companies are spending large amount of money each year to train the sales representatives.   Steps in Personal Selling   Personal selling takes place in the following ways

• Prospecting and Qualifying

Before planning a sale, a salesperson conducts research to identify the people or companies that might be interested in the product. A prospect is a lead that is qualified or determined to be ready, willing and able to buy.

• Pre-Approach

The pre-approach is the 'doing your homework   art of the process. A good salesperson researches his prospect, familiarising himself with the customer s needs and learning all the relevant background information.

• Approach

The first impressions (e.g., the first few minutes of a sales call) are crucial to build the client's trust. This usually involves introductions, making some small talk, asking a few warm-up questions and then explaining who you are and whom you represent. This is known as approach.

• Presentation

The presentation should be tailored to the   customer, explaining how the product meets that person or company's needs.

• Handling Objections

After the sales presentation by the sales representative, it is quite natural for the customer to have some hesitations or concerns which are known as objections. Good salespersons look at objections as opportunities to further understand and respond to customers need.

• Closing the Sale

Eventually, if the customer is convinced that the product will meet his demand, he closes by agreeing on the terms of the sale and finish up the transaction.

• Follow Up

Post sales activities that often determine whether an individual who has made a recent purchase will become a repeat customer. It helps to build mutually beneficial long-term relationships.   Characteristics of Personal Selling  

• It is a creative activity.
• It involves personal relationship between customer and salesman.
• It is a two way communication of marketing.

            \[Customer\rightleftharpoons Seller\]

• It is an oral presentation.
• It is based on social and individual activity.
• It is a tool to sell the product or service.
• It is a relationship marketing.

            An effectively trained company sales force can make four important contributions

Increase Stock Position

Build Enthusiasm

Conduct Missionary Selling

Manage Key Accounts

  Significance of Personal Selling   Following benefits of personal selling show its significance

• Benefits the Consumers

By making conversation with salesperson, the customer gets help in identifying the product of his need and the price range that suits him and by giving the requisite information about the company more...

  Promotion   Promotion is one of the primary elements used in the marketing mix. As a key marketing element, promotion comprises communication tactics used to educate consumers, increase demand and differentiate brands. "Promotion is the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers-directly or indirectly about the products and brands they sell."                       - Kotler and Keller

• Objectives of Promotion
• To inform people about particular issues.
• To introduce new products to the market.
• To compete with competitors products.
• To improve the company/brand image.
• To increase sales.
• Importance of Promotion
• It can boost sales during the year when sales are traditionally low (encourage off season purchases).
• It encourages people to try a product.
• It encourages people to buy a product or the product in greater quantities.
• It encourages people to buy a product instead of competitor s products.

  Promotion Mix   Promotion mix is a specific combination of promotional methods used for one product or a family of products. In other words, promotion mix refers to combination of promotional tools used by an organization to achieve its communication objectives

• Elements of Promotion Mix

The main elements of promotion mix are

• Advertising

Advertising communicates a message to a targeted a audience and generates feedback in the form of a sale.

• Personal Selling

Marketing impacts personal selling and improves the selling environment by increasing exposure   to potential customers.

• Sales Promotion

It stimulates market demand, product availability and coordinates public selling, advertising and public relations.

• Public Relations

It is the management of a message between an individual or organization and the public.

• Social Media

It is versatile, far-reaching, fast, inexpensive, fosters brand awareness and can improve customer service.

• Direct Marketing

It goes direct to customer via telephone, mail, fax, etc.  

• Factors Affecting Promotion Mix
• Budget available
• Stages in product life cycle
• Type of product
• Type of purchase decision
• Target market characteristics
• Consumer's readiness to purchase
• Consumer's preferences for media
• Regulations
• Competitors
• Availability of media
• Push vs Pull strategy

  Sales Promotion   Sales promotion is one level or type of marketing, aimed either at the consumer or at the distribution channel (in the form to sales-incentives). It is used to introduce new product, clear out inventories, and attract traffic and to increase sales temporarily. The sales promotion targeted at the consumer is called consumer sales promotion, the sales promotion targeted at the retailers and wholesalers is called trade sales promotion.  

• Objective of sales Promotion

Some more...

  Branding   Branding is the management process by which a product is branded. It is a general term covering various activities like giving a brand name to a product, designing a brand mark and enforcing it.

• Importance of Branding
• Brand is a perceptual entity rooted in reality which ultimately resides in the minds of consumers.
• Branding is all about creating difference between products.
• Branding creates mental structures that help consumers to organize their knowledge about products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making which also provides value to the firm.
• Brand difference often relate to attributes or benefits of the product itself.
• Marketers can apply branding virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand a physical good (Maggi noodles, Lux soap) a service, (ICICIs banking service) a store, (Big bazar, West side) a person (celebrities, like Amir Khan, MS Dhoni) a place (Goa, Kerala) an organization (UNICEF) or an Idea (Family planning).
• Functions of Branding
• It helps in product identification and gives 'distinctiveness’ to a product.
• Indirectly it denotes the quality or standard of a product.
• It eliminates imitation of products.
• It ensures legal right on the product.
• It helps in advertising and packaging activities.
• It helps to create and sustain brand loyalty to particular products.
• It helps in price differentiation of products.

   Advantage of Branding   The advantages of using brand names could be easily recognized for each group   of participants   in the marketing   viz    manufacturers, consumers, distributors, as follows

• To the Manufacturers
• It identifies the product and distinguishes it from  other competing products. Thus, it protects the interests of the manufacturers.
• It saves advertising cost if the brand name is popular.
• If properly promoted, brand name creates confidence and goodwill for the products.
• To the Consumers
• It provides an easy way for purchase by easy identification of a product.
• The brand name indirectly assures certain   quality   by identifying the manufacturer with the product.
• To the Distributors
• Widely popular brands ease the selling process and lead to large sales.
• It helps in advertising and sales promotion programmes.
• The distributor can easily find out the quick moving products.
• Branding reduces price flexibility. Thus, in turn, reduces the risk in business.
• Special selling efforts need not be undertaken. This reduces the cost of distribution and thus, the final price.

  Different Terms Related to Branding   There are some important terms related to branding.

• Brand

A brand is the identification of a product e.g., Nike, Reebok, LG, etc.

• Types of Brand

We can classify the brand into following two more...

  Introduction   Marketing research has two words viz marketing and research. Marketing means buying and selling activities and research means a systematic and complete study of a problem done by experts. Thus, we can say that marketing research is a systematic method of collecting, recording and analysing of data, which is used to solve marketing problems. It is a special branch and soul of marketing management. It is widely used by manufacturers, exporters, distributors and service organizations.  

• Characteristics of Marketing Research
• Marketing research has a very wide scope which includes product research, packaging research, sales research, etc.
• It is a scientific method of solving the marketing problems.
• It is an important tool for decision-making.
• It is a commercial intelligence-gathering activity.
• It is a component of Marketing Information System (MIS).
• It reduces the gap between the producers and the consumers.
• It gives much importance to accurate data collection and its critical analysis.

 

• Elements of Marketing Research
• Market research
• Sales research
• Product research
• Packaging research
• Advertising research
• Business economic research
• Export marketing research

 

• Types of Marketing Research
• Product analysis
• Market analysis
• Distribution analysis
• Competition analysis
• Consumer research
• Sales analysis
• Motivational research
• Advertisement research

  Methods of Marketing Research   Methods of marketing research used to collect data regarding marketing are as follows

• Questionnaire Method

This method is frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals often referred to as respondents.

• Experimental Method

It is a research technique in which a researcher observes the results of changing on or more marketing variables,   while keeping other variables. Experimentation involves establishing a controlled experiment or model that stimulates the real world marketing situation being investigated.

• Observation Method

Through this method, marketing specialists are able to identify actions and watch our subjects respond to various stimuli. For a small business, observational marketing research is one of the most simple ways that one can find out many things about their customers and clients.  

• Steps in Marketing Research
• Define the problem and research objective.
• Analysis of the problems.
• Determine the information needed.
• Determine the sources of information.
• Decide the research methodology to be adopted.
• Tabulate, analyses and interpret data.
• Prepare the research report.
• Follow up the study.

 

• Needs of Marketing Research
• Marketing research provides an opportunity to the enterprise to start the production of new product.
• It explores new uses of the products of the enterprise.
• It provides important information which help the enterprise in deciding its marketing policies, strategies and programme.
• It helps the enterprise in the selection of particular channel of distribution for distributing its products.
• It collects and analyses more...

  Introduction   Consumer protection means safeguarding the interests and rights of consumers. In other words, it refers to the measures adopted for the protection of consumers from unscrupulous and unethical malpractices by the business and to provide them speedy redressal of their grievances. The most common business malpractices leading to consumer exploitation are given below

• Sale of duplicate goods.
• Sale of sub-standard goods.
• Sale of spurious goods.
• Sale of adulterated goods.
• Use of false weights and measures leading to underweight.
• Hoarding and black-marketing, leading to scarcity and rise in price.
• Charging more than the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) fixed for the product.
• Misleading advertisements, i.e., advertisements falsely claiming an inferior product or service to be of superior quality, grade or standard.
• Supply of inferior services, i.e., quality of service lower than the quality agreed upon.

  Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 1986   This Consumer Protection Act was passed in 1986 and it came into force from 1st July, 1987. The main objectives of the Act are to provide better and all round protection to consumers and effective safeguards against different types of exploitation such as defective goods, deficient services and unfair trade practices. It also makes provisions for a simple, speedy and inexpensive machinery for redressal of consumer s grievances.  

• Salient Features of CPA, 1986
• It applies to all goods, services and unfair trade practices unless specifically exempted by the central government.
• It covers all sectors-private, public or co- operative.
• It provides for establishment of consumer protection councils at the central, state and district levels to promote and protect the rights of consumers.
• It provides a statutory recognition to the six rights of consumers.

 

• Goods and Services Covered Under CPA, 1986

The term 'goods' under this Act has the same meaning as under the Sale of Goods Act. Accordingly, it covers all types of movable property other than money and includes stocks and shares. Growing crops, etc. The term 'service' means service of any description made available to potential users and includes banking, financing, housing construction, insurance. entertainment, transport, supply of electrical and other energy, boarding and lodging, amusement, etc. The services of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, etc. are also to be included under the Provisions of Consumer Protection Act.  

• Some Acts Related to Consumer Protection
• The Sale of Goods Act, 1930
• Agricultural Products (grading and marketing) Act, 1937
• Drug Control Act, 1950
• Industries Development and Regulation Act, 951
• Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
• Essential Commodities Act, 1955
• Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act)
• The Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Essential Supplies Act, 1980
• Bureau of Indian Standard Act, 1986
• Consumer Protection Act, 1986
• Trademark Act, 1999
• Competition Act, 2002

 

• Rights of Consumers

            The Consumer Protection Act provides more...

  Introduction   This technique understands the needs and desires of the customer and product is designed accordingly. Its main motive is customer satisfaction that is building a relationship with customer and is achieved through an integrated, corporate wide set of marketing activities. Modern marketing can be explained as getting the right goods, at the right time, at the right place, with the right communication, to the right people, at the right price.  

• Fields of Modern Marketing System

            Following fields are involved in modern marketing system

• Traditional Fields

Public welfare services like electricity and water supply, transport, education, hotel, entertainment, banking, hospital, accounting, etc.

• Modern Fields

Travel agency, real estate, advertisement, public relations, market research, courier services, credit card services, etc.

• Newly Developing Fields

Computer training, vocational service, Internet, recruitment services, video conferencing, E-commerce, etc. It is clear that newly developing service fields are not person centred now-a-days but involved with modern technology and is going to become sophisticated and complex.  

• Functions of Modern Marketing System
• To understand the nature of service
• To understand the customer and his expectations
• Sizing services
• Promotion
• To decide prices
• Organise delivery system
• To observe carefully customer satisfaction
• Pay attention to the variation of achievement

 

• Ways of Modern Marketing Field
• Export
• Technology and information licensing
• Multinational business
• Joint venture
• Fully global operations

 

• Various Modes of Modern Marketing System

            Various modes of modern marketing system are  

• Mobile Banking

It is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant.  

• Cyber Marketing

It simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through websites, E-mails and banners. A number of activities are involved in cyber marketing such as online marketing, fax direct marketing, canvassing, etc.  

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

It entails all aspects of interaction that a company has with its customer, whether it is sales or service-related. CRM systems are used in the same way to manage business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads.  

• Green Marketing

It refers to the promotional activities aimed at taking advantage of the changing consumers attitude toward a brand. These changes are increasingly being influenced by a firms policies and practices that affect the quality of the environment and reflect the level of its concern for the community.            

• E-Commerce

E-commerce or electronic commerce, ‘a subset of E-business, is the purchasing, selling and exchanging of goods and services over computer networks (such as the internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically.  

• Types of E-commerce

            more...