No New Worlds By Dr. Adrian Forsyth - 2080 Words

The world is in a constant state of change, today’s decisions will affect the future of all species large and small, defining the ways in which society will continue to live. The essay â€Å"No New Worlds† written by Dr. Adrian Forsyth explores ideas associated with ever changing populations and states of the world. The essay describes the existence of humankind by their impacts on the surrounding environments. The reader is then introduced to the implications our world faces if these problems are not solved and additionally steps to solving these issues. Thus, both men and women need to take action to help or pay the consequences and protect the only world we have, planet Earth. Dr. Adrian Forsyth’s essay â€Å"No New Worlds† features the†¦show more content†¦Dr. Forsyth implements plenty of evidence as well as proven statistics to back up his outlook on these issues. The growth of human population is happening at an exponential rate, implying that in a short period of time population growth will double. â€Å"We find it difficult to comprehend exponential growth, but it may prove to be our fatal blind spot† [3]. When analysing the world’s population over a long period of time, it took roughly 19,000 years for the world’s population to go from 5million people to 500 million people in 1500 A.D. [4] With an estimated population of 7.5 billion people [5], for a period less than 1000 years, population increased more than 1500 times its size than it was in the 1500’s. In addition, on a more minute scale of time, in 1950 the world’s population was roughly 2.5 billion people [6] in merely 50 years the worldà ¢â‚¬â„¢s population has tripled. With these statics, it is evident that the world’s population is increasing at an incomprehensive rate. With populations at their peak, overconsumption is another problem this world faces, as Dr. Forsyth affirms â€Å"humans consume far more than their fair share of the Earth’s natural productivity.†[7] Due to this over consumption of resources, there is a vast demand for cheap food which results in the clear cutting of large forest to generate room for new plantations of food. When doing so, humans destroy habitats that

Essay about Out of Many, One - 1727 Words

Pain seared across his face, pulsing in synch with waves of heat roiling from the magma hole. An odd, tiny movement pushed into a corner of his vision. A blister, swelling slowly, a last-ditch defense against the relentless heat. He locked his gaze back on the glowing lava, mes ¬merized by the undulations of color and heat: radiant shades of red, touches of blue, an occasional yellow flare, weaving together in a hypnotic blend. He tried to flex his fingers, but they wouldn’t obey. His hands were foreign objects, no longer under his control. Skin and synth-dermal sleeve melted into each other, colors of both lost into a grayness slowly spread ¬ing. He dragged his left leg forward; some of the melted overboot pulled away and remained behind,†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Lincoln Jones, Cradle NA21O,† a neutral voice called out. â€Å"Live comm. Accept?† â€Å"Quasi Alham, Cradle NA21O.† â€Å"Accept.† â€Å"Please drink fluid in red cup on table. Discharge denied until substance ingested.† Lincoln picked up the cup and looked at the greenish stuff. It smelled like too-sweet guava juice and had the consistency of tomato paste he had seen once in an Out-World restaurant. Plus, there was a lot of it. â€Å"So, my sib, Pele won, didn’t she?† Quasi’s voice, this time using a young-man old American Midwest flat accent, came out of a speaker on the wall. Lincoln swallowed some of the substance, gri ¬maced. â€Å"She lost. I’m still alive.† â€Å"But for the miracle of modem medicine. You know, most ‘zekes sample Hawaii for surf and sea, soft breezes under swaying palms, and the gentle caresses of shapely synth-Polynesians steeped in datalore of an-dent sexual rites. Not Lincoln Jones, the sensualist. Damage?† Lincoln got half of the liquid down. â€Å"I’ll check.† He tapped a button on the table; words formed on the wall. â€Å"Near-collapse of cardiopulmonary system from in ¬gestion of gases. Reproductive system damaged to nonfunctionality—hnim, didn’t notice that one—nose tissue burned to nonfunctionality. Epidermal layers down to muscle fiber of right hand and fingers fused, ten percent of left hand had sloughed off. Eighty per ¬cent skin burned to second degree; twenty percent to third degree.Show MoreRelatedVodafone: Out of Many, One1207 Words   |  5 PagesVodafones Vision Statement Our vision is to be the worlds mobile communication leader - enriching customers lives, helping individuals, business and communities be more connected in a mobile world. Executive Summary Vodafone Group, PLC is the worlds largest cell phone provider with 150 million customers and operations in 16 countries and minority stakes in companies in 10 other countries. 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Nurse Practitioners free essay sample

Examines changing roles duties of specialized nurses in context of managed care alternative health delivery systems. Nevertheless, implementing NPs into the current health care system is facing some difficulties. The biggest sets backs have been from the opposition of general practitioners (physicians). General practitioners are nervous that nurse practitioners will be taking employment opportunities away that were previously dedicated to only doctors. And some doctors are even going to the extreme as of saying that nurse practitioners are so under qualified that they are dangerous. One doctor, Dr. Scott Stern, was reported saying, in most situations, patients are compromising their care and settling for less when they see someone other then a doctor. To assume that somebody who has much less training is going to do as good a job just doesnt make any sense (Perez, 2006). But, the role of the NP is not designed to replace any other member of the health care system, but rather is intended to work in relationships to improve timely access to care with a slightly different approach to care. We will write a custom essay sample on Nurse Practitioners or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page

Social Determinants of Health and Development

Question: Write an essay on social determinants of health and development. Answer: In this report, the author will discuss social determinants of health and development. The essay will specifically focus on early life influences on the health of Native Americans. The author will present public health framework to critically evaluate the impact of social, economic, cultural and political factors on the population and develop strategies to address these factors. According to Alastalo et al., (2013) the conditions, environment in which people live, and resources such as food supply, transportation, education, social relationships that enhance the quality of life constitutes social determinants of health. This is a contemporary approach for action on health inequalities. Different social determinants include race, gender, socioeconomic status, early life experiences and place of residence. In this report, the author will mainly highlight early life influences as a social determinant and its impact on midstream and downstream determinants of health. In this report, the impact of this social health determinant on Native Americans will be demonstrated. Further, the author will discuss how to address the influence of this determinant. A thorough literature review will be performed to support the ideas and theories used in the study. Several researchers have worked on the subject of social determinants and explained the three factors associated with it. (Jensen et al., 2013) identified these factors to be income inequality, social connectedness and sense of personal or collective efficacy. (Braveman Gottlieb, 2014) believes that the unequal distributions of health and well-being of the nations relate to the uneven distribution of economic and social factors. Health disparities occur in the population with poor living conditions, race, with Native Americans suffering from less than optimal health outcomes. People with low economic levels have the limited connectedness with their family, friends, social groups and communities. They are less able to control their lives and circumstances. These people are more likely to suffer health problems. Hence, it is not always that biology is responsible for all the individuals health outcomes. According to Currie et al., (2012) due to the current development of effective med ication and treatment and rising political focus, these determinants are not in the forefront to influence and enhance health Why EARLY LIFE INFLUENCE' is a social determinant of health Early life influences mainly refer to experiences in childhood and its impact on later life. These early experiences leave their impact for years and substantially show the outcome in adulthood. According to Currie et al., (2012), behavior related to health such as sedentary lifestyle, smoking, low educational attainment increases health degradation in later life. However, this decline in health is not only manifested by environmental and biological factors but due to historical experiences as well. According to Kendall-Tackett, (2014) early childhood lays the foundation of the adult health. Jensen et al., (2013) reports that slow growth with toxic stress during early life are biologically incorporated during the development process. Eventually, it leads to poor emotional health and significantly reduces cognitive skills in addition to a decrease of emotional and physical functions during adulthood. Sachser et al., (2013) identified that poor development of fetus results from illicit drug use, malnutrition, excessive smoking, and lack of appropriate prenatal care during pregnancy. It is reflected in adverse health issues in later life. A study by Doucet Rovers, (2010) shows that experiences in childhood such as child abuse, maltreatment, a death of near one's parental separation, are termed as traumatic experiences and are factors for Early Life Stress (ELS). Throughout the life, these serve as a template for health decline. Several types of research have shown that the low socioeconomic situations in early life also hamper the physical function and general health in later life. According to Jensen, et al., (2013), it is due to sensitive periods of growth and development in early life that the mental and physical health in adulthood and at old age is detoriated. The Australian researchers working on public health has developed the framework of socioeconomic health determinants. It is based on researched evidence and classifies the determinants as upstream, midstream and downstream factors. From left to right the framework depicts the effect of macro factors on the intermediate factors and the combined impact of th e micro factors (Figure 1). In this public health framework, the upstream determinants identify the physical, economic, social and environmental factors as key determinants of socioeconomic variability in health. The factors such as housing, income, employment, domestic and international policies constitute the upstream determinants. On the other hand, the psychosocial processes and health behaviors are outlined by the midstream factors which are known to result from the upstream factors. Finally, the downstream factor reflects the overall impact of the above two factors. It refers to the biological health model that is it shows the illnesses and diseases. These ultimately create disparities in life expectancy, mortality, and morbidity. To solve a problem permanently one has to address the root causes for long term benefits. Understanding the concept of the early life influences may help develop strategies to prevent or develop measures to resolve the issue. It will also assist in answering the myriad questionsassociated with it. Such studies allow researchers in clinical and academic medicine towards the challenge of developing "interventions to mitigate" the health effects related to traumatic life experiences. Early life influences of Native Americans (Goodkind et al., 2012) asserts that due to the violent colonization of the indigenous Americans, psychological risks have increased as it damaged the protective factors that are culture based, disrupted the community system as well as the knowledge of parenting. It is the major contributing factor of the health disparities in this group of people. Doucet Rovers, (2010) Contends that the link between early life influences and its effect in later life can be established only if it complies with three theories based perspectives, which includes: psychosocial, economic theory and ecological systems theory. The impact of European activities on the aboriginals of America includes infliction with various infections, loss of lives and violent experiences termed as American Indian Holocaust. Dickerson Johnson, (2012) argues that explicit policies intended to assimilate indigenous people forcefully and suppress of culture lead to cultural genocide. The majority of the Native Americans underwent loss of lands and was devoid of agricultural activities. According to Alastalo et al., (2013) they were forced to relocate to urban areas thereby leading to poor socioeconomic conditions. Barnes et al., (2010) observed and applied the theory of attachment to describe the existence of insecure attachment in children of Holocaust survivors". Currie et al., (2012) supported the concept of Barnes et al., (2010) while researching on this group of individuals and his findings show the predisposition of stress-related disorders. These studies proved that such traumatic experiences leave a permanent impact on the health of Native Americans as well as on the well-being of other communities. Bonanno, (2004) in his article Stress, trauma, and coronary heart disease among Native Americans highlighted the fact that disproportional amount of trauma is the contributing factor of accelerated cardiovascular diseases and death. In the comparative study conducted by Dickerson Johnson, (2012) adverse childhood experiences of 7 American tribes and compared to that of the study of Shonkoff et al., (2012) on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). The results showed that the majority of the selected subjects were exposed to trauma, and the experiences were of more than four categories. Epigenetic studies by (Shalev Belsky, 2016) reveal, genes have the ability to store memories of trauma experienced by our ancestors. He also says it can impac how we react to stress and trauma. It explains further that the early traumatic experiences influence the gene structure, which becomes more prone to activating negative responses to toxic stress. The studies are considered to be scientific proof of intergenerational trauma being real. Therefore, historical trauma is the contributing factor of diabetes and depression. According to Gray et al., (2012) increased addiction, sexual abuse, suicide and mental illness and other similar vices among Native Americans might be an influence of historical trauma. Goodkind et al., (2012), reported that the epigenetic studies helped track present help disparities to the colonial health deficits which have resulted from the consequences of colonization. The same was reported by American Indian and Alaska Native Genetics Research Guide created by "National Congress of American Indians." Which midstream and downstream determinants do it influence and how? In this section, the author will discuss the midstream and downstream determinants are influenced by early life stress. According to May Previte, (2016) early life influences affect the downstream factors. Traumatic stress leads to damage of physiological functioning. Sachseret al., 2013) Recognized this determinant as post-traumatic stress disorder because of European conquest. Adverse experiences in early life result in damaged homeostasis. Shonkoff et al., (2012) recognized that such people suffer from severe gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular problems and diabetes. (Shalev Belsky, 2016) believes that these ultimately create disparities in life expectancy, mortality and morbidity. These relate to downstream factors. According to Lovallo, (2015) adolescents of Native America were found with compromised immune system and hypertension. Stress in early life influenced their body mass index which falls under the category of downstream determinants. A survey conducted by Currie et al., (2012) on 76 school teenagers in Washington of age range 15-16 years. Results showed 14 children with the high rate of absenteeism in schools, poor academic performance, and lack of friends, low self-esteem, and negative perceptions. Four of the children left school. Further studies by Lovallo, (2015) traced back these factors to toxic stress in early life and poor socioeconomic conditions. According to Gray Montgomery, (2012) Native Americans of any ethnic group showed highest alcohol consumption per week. Dickerson Johnson, (2012) adds that they rank high on the list of binge drinking, and illicit druguse. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2010, further confirms these reports. These details are in line with the midstream factors. Doucet Rovers, (2010) confirmed that alcohol consumption correlates with lack of positive role models, loss of cultural identity, history of neglect, low self-esteem, self-medication due to hopelessness, and lo ss of connections with family and tribal. Capezza et al., (2012) identified that trauma is associated with the damage of endocrine and sympathetic nervous system. During stress, the body consumes oxygen and glucose, and a brain is stimulated to activate adrenal glands for a release of epinephrine. It further results in increased blood pressure, heart rate, cortical released from pituitary gland. Cortical and epinephrine are increased at the higher rate at the time of stress. These determinants fall under the category of midstream factors. Statistical reports reveal that the Native Americans have high suicide rate even three folds greater than the national average (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). It was stated in reports of Currie et al., (2012) that the Native American suicide rates were found to be 33 per 100,000, when compared to Black (7.4), Hispanic (9.9), non-Hispanic White (14.2), and Asian or Pacific Islander (8.5). Sachser et al., (2013) analysis confirms the absence of the link to the cultural past and inability to relate to the present circumstances is the contributing factor of suicides. This gives the evidence of how early life influenced the midstream and downstream determinants. How does this determinant interact with other determinants in this culture to impact health? In this section, the author will discuss the other determinants influenced by early life influences. According to Carlson Everett, (2013) in Native Americans domestic violence, sexual abuse is three-fold higher than the average. Braveman Gottlieb, (2014) reports that there is a high rate of childhood abuse and assault due to their forced removal from native American families making them vulnerable to adverse experiences. According to Capezza et al., (2012), these children are highly represented in child protective services. In his reports Braveman Gottlieb, (2014) showed that a very smaller group of individuals has high education attainment in Native American community which is 10% out of 23% of the total population. Around 26% of the total population live in poverty and have two fold more unemployment rate and low income. They are subjected to high taxation. Consequently, they were forced to live in poor housing conditions with inadequate sanitation and drinking facilities. These are the upstream determinants influenced by the early life experiences. According to Goodkind et al., (2012) parents who are the victims of historical trauma are less attached to their children due to lack of trust and intimacy. In some cases, parents adapt violent nature in dealing with their children. Currie et al., (2012) identified that breakdown of families due to the removal of children by force is the other primary factor for detachment. As parents entered this cycle of violence, they lost social connection. They are isolated from their neighbors and mainly stay on the outskirts of the city with compromised transportation system. It consequently deprives them of medical facilities and affects their general health. These upstream factors together with midstream factors have a cumulative effect on the downstream determinants. The same is clearly depicted in figure 1. What can be done to address this determinant in this culture? In this assignment, the author discusses the ways to address the selected social determinant in this culture. Hartmann et al., (2012) suggested that the mental health interventions should include both the motivational and the intervention phases. The former phase deals with the historical perspective related to present health issues and the later deals with the use of evidence-based practices and patient centered approach. Rehabilitation programs should be more efficient and oriented towards decrease of readmissions of patients. Lovallo, (2015) said that intervention for the clinicians is the necessary step to validate the existence initial historical losses that happened along with the continued discrimination which impacted the Native American people. A collaborative effort is necessary from researchers, clinicians, psychologists, nurses, to develop innovative, methods to address this issue. Some legislation already in use includes Mental Health America. It collaborates with the managers and leaders of the hospitals for recommendation of policies related to improvement of quality and safet y of mental health services. It aims to decrease the overrepresentation of children in mental care hospitals. Gray et al., (2012) suggested that palliative care should be provided to this community to assist in reaching the medical facilities; to aware, them of stress-associated diseases and preventive measures. I personally believe the government must frame policies and regulations to safeguard the health of children and adults suffering from early life influences. There must be regular programs for people to educate them of adverse health consequences of stress. Yoga, meditation and spiritual programs must be mandatory across the nation. Hartmann et al., (2012) believes that these activities have immense health benefits and are evident through bout of literature available. Shonkoff et al., (2012) suggests the use of tribal healing for addressing this issue. In other countries such as Australia, this approach was successful in some communities. Community healing decreased alcohol consumption and adolescent addiction of drugs. It includes the involvement of parents and relatives, which is highly preferred by indigenous people compared to strange hospital environment. The other advantage it offers is that patients do not have to travel distant and expensive hospitals. Tribal healing is cost effective and strictly maintains its traditions. People included for healing must comply with the rules and are punished if failed. It disallows substance abuse being in a community and considered sin. Therefore, it helps people recover easily. Further researches in this area are needed, as it is evident from the literature research that there is underrepresentation of Native Americans in mental health services. Doucet Rovers, (2010) found the same in his literature review on Native Americans' mental treatment conditions that six nonrandomized outcome studies, three randomized studies, seven clinical case studies, 16 studies related to intervention descriptions, and 24 intervention approaches. However, the article did not show the validity of the treatment process or any empirical treatment modalities to address mental health requirements of the Native Americans. The health disparities will continue without the required interventions and provision of evidence-based care and patient centered approaches. Conclusion The social determinants of health and development are the agents influencing the issues. These mainly fall into three categories of social connectedness, economic inequality, and sense of efficacy. Addressing these issues is advantageous in eliminating the root causes. A participatory approach is useful to assess and address the social determinants of health and development issues. It is easy to get a clear concept on the subject by being inclusive of peoples ideas, perspectives, their knowledge of history and context of the issues and analyzing the data. Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that early life influences indeed have psychological, physiological, behavioral effects in later life. A Large number of individuals from Native American population continue to experience social, economic, environmental and physical distress. The public health framework provides an opportunity to understand the causes of the current mental health issues of Native Americans. It showed the interrelatedness between the upstream and midstream and its cumulative effect on the downstream determinants. The report depicts how adverse experiences of early life and that of ancestors affect the adulthood and subsequent generations. The health disparities will continue without the required interventions and provision of evidence-based care services. Also, tribal healing, community participation, counseling sessions are the approaches needed to validate depression related to historical trauma. The literature review has clear the concepts of these subjects and was enthralling to prepare this report. References Alastalo, H., von Bonsdorff, M. B., Rikknen, K., Pesonen, A. K., Osmond, C., Barker, D. J., ... Eriksson, J. G. (2013). Early life stress and physical and psychosocial functioning in late adulthood.PloS one,8(7), e69011. Barnes, P. M., Adams, P. F., Powell-Griner, E. (2010). Health characteristics of the American Indian or Alaska Native adult population: United States, 20042008.National Health Statistics Reports,No. 20. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?.American psychologist,59(1), 20. Brave Heart, M., Chase, J., Elkins, J., Altschul, D. B. (2011). Historical trauma among indigenous peoples of the Americas: Concepts, research, and clinical considerations.Journal of Psychoactive Drugs,43(4), 282290. doi:10.1080/02791072.2011.628913 Braveman, P., Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes.Public health reports,129. Capezza, N. M., Zlotnick, C., Kohn, R., Vicente, B., Saldivia, S. (2012). Perceived discrimination is a potential contributing factor to substance use and mental health problems among primary care patients in Chile.Journal of Addiction Medicine,6(4), Carlson, M., Everett, M. (2013). Social Sustainability and the Social Determinants of Health: Understanding the Connection. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of Minority Health Health Equity. (2010).American Indian Alaska Native populations.Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/omhd/populations/aian/aian.htm#Disparities Currie, C., Zanotti, C., Morgan, A., Currie, D., de Looze, M., Roberts, C., Barnekow, V. (2012). Social determinants of health and well-being among young people. Social determinants of health and well-being among young people. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: international report from the 2009/2010 survey. Dickerson, D. L., Johnson, C. L. (2012). Mental health and substance abuse characteristics among a clinical sample of urban American Indian/Alaska Native youths in a large California Metropolitan area: A descriptive study.Community Mental Health Journal, 48(1), 5662. Doucet, M., Rovers, M. (2010). Generational trauma, attachment, and spiritual/religious interventions.Journal of Loss Trauma, 15, 93105. doi: 10.1080/15325 020903373078 Goodkind, J. R., Hess, J. M., Gorman, B., Parker, D. P. (2012). Were still in a struggle: Din resilience, survival, historical trauma, and healing.Qualitative Health Research,22(8), 1019 Goodkind, J., LaNoue, M., Lee, C., Freeland, L., Freund, R. (2012). Involving parents in a community-based, culturally grounded mental health intervention for American Indian youth: Parent perspectives, challenges, and results.Journal of Community Psychology,40(4), 468 Gray, C. M., Montgomery, M. J. (2012). Links between alcohol and other drug problems and maltreatment among adolescent girls: Perceived discrimination, ethnic identity, and ethnic orientation as moderators.Child Abuse Neglect,36(5), 449460. Hartmann, W. E., Gone, J. P. (2012). Incorporating traditional healing into an urban American Indian health organization: A case study of community member perspectives.Journal of Counseling Psychology,59(4), 542554. doi:10.1037/a0029067 Jensen, B. B., Currie, C., Dyson, A., Eisenstadt, N., Melhuish, E. C. (2013). Review of social determinants and the health divide in the WHO European Region: final report. Kendall-Tackett, K. (2014). The Effects of Childhood Maltreatment and of Exposure to Early Toxic Stress.Child Abuse and Neglect Worldwide, 155. Lovallo, W. R. (2015).Stress and health: Biological and psychological interactions. Sage publications. May, C., Previte, J. (2016). Understanding the midstream environment within a social change systems continuum.Journal of Social Marketing,6(3). Morgan III, C. A., Hazlett, G., Wang, S., Richardson Jr, E. G., Schnurr, P., Southwick, S. M. (2015). Symptoms of dissociation in humans experiencing acute, uncontrollable stress: a prospective investigation.American Journal of Psychiatry. Sachser, N., Kaiser, S., Hennessy, M. B. (2013). Behavioural profiles are shaped by social experience: when, how and why.Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B,368(1618), 20120344. Shalev, I., Belsky, J. (2016). Early-life stress and reproductive cost: A two-hit developmental model of accelerated aging?.Medical hypotheses,90, 41-47. Shonkoff, J. P., Garner, A. S., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., Earls, M. F., McGuinn, L., ... Wood, D. L. (2012). The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress.Pediatrics,129(1), e232-e246. Woolf, S. H., Aron, L. (2013). Social Factors.

Overstock.com E-Business Essay Example

Overstock.com E-Business Essay The e-commerce system chosen is the Overstock. com. Overstock. com is an online retailer offering a broad variety of high-quality, branded name goods at discount prices, including bedding, home decor, appliances, watches, jewellery, electronics, sporting goods, clothing and shoes. At the beginning, Overstock. com sold surplus and returned merchandise on an online E-commerce marketplace and liquidating the inventories of the failed dot-com companies at below-wholesale prices (Drummond, 2006). Recently, it has expanded to sell new merchandise and also offering manufacturers, distributors and other retailers an alternative sales channel for liquidating their inventory. In addition to its direct retail sales, Overstock. com has also offered online auctions on its website. The company’s major competitors are eBay and Amazon. com (Mann, 2005). b. The e-Marketplace. Overstock. com is considered as a private e-marketplace that is owned by a single company. In a sell-side e-marketplace, such as Overstock. om will sell either standard or customised products to individuals (B2C) or to business (B2B), this type of selling is considered to be one-to-many (Turban, King, Lee, Liang amp; Turban, 2010). Overstock. com uses the Internet to create a more efficient market for liquidation, closeout and other discount merchandise by providing consumers and businesses with quick and convenient access to high-quality, brand-name merchandise at discount prices. Besides that, Overstock. om operates the part of their website as an online auctions business, a marketplace for the buying and selling of goods and services-as well as online sites for listing cars and real estate for sale (Mann, 2005). Overstock. com is an example of virtual e-tailers that sell directly to consumers over the Internet without maintaining a physical sales channel. Virtual e-tailers have the advantage of low overhead costs and streamlined process (Turban et al. , 2010). General e-tailers, such as Overstock. om, selling a vast range of goods and services online, capitalize on the internet to offer such variety to a diverse group of customers geographically without the need to maintain a large physical storefront network (Mincedmedia, 2008). 2. Research into the e-business components. a. Organization. i. Possible internal organization functions involved the system. The internal organization of the Overstock. com is formed by few different departments. The sales and marketing department will find and retain customers by building effective customers relationships to increase the sales of the firm. We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Marketers of the Overstock. com uses several types of online advertising methods such as banner ads, e-mail advertising and video ads (Turban et al. , 2010). The engineering department will be in charge of the firm’s e-commerce system, online security, payment systems, IT compliance, application software, website design and maintenances and also data management. The firm’s IT engineer will be responsible to use technology expertise such as the defence and e-commerce security strategy, e-commerce payment systems, application of software and the knowledge in the web 2. to facilitate the online business of Overstock. com (Kelly, 2005). The accounting and finance department will be responsible in partnering with other county departments to leverage resources that are essential toward achieving related objectives and also ensuring that quality financial services and information is provided. In addition, the operations department does the day to day operation of the business. The operations department of the Overstock. com consist of the merchandise operational coordinator, co-op manager and system administrative. They handle all the clerical functions having to do with clearance, settlement, and execution of trades (Mincedmedia, 2008). This department keeps customer records and handles the day-to-day monitoring of margin positions. ii. Possible firms, suppliers and business partners. Part of Overstock. coms merchandise is purchased by or manufactured specifically for Overstock. com. Merchandise is obtained either by buying excess inventory, referred to as the companys direct business, or by selling the merchandise of other retailers, catalogue companies, and manufacturers on a commission basis (Mann, 2005). Among their products are handmade goods produced for Overstock by workers in developing nations. The shopping business of the Overstock. com includes both a direct business and a fulfilment partner business. Products from the fulfilment partner segment are from various industry verticals, such as florist supplies, restaurant supplies, and office supplies (Wang, Liu Koong amp; Bai, 2009). Overstock. com form partnerships with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Kenneth Cole, Simon amp; Schuster, Samsonite, and Cuisinart. These fulfillment partners, constituting the former commission side of Overstock. coms business, drove the companys revenue growth high and following its IPO. iii. Possible business process associated with the system. The shopping business of the Overstock. com includes both a direct business and a fulfilment partner business (Overstock. com). The fulfilment partner business is one of the business process associated with the system, Overstock. com sell merchandise of other retailers, cataloguers or manufacturers ) through their Website. Overstock. om currently has fulfilment partner relationships with approximately 1,250 third parties on their website (Ferguson amp; Hlavinkha, 2007). Overstock. com also provides an online auction service on the Website. The Auctions business allows sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest, and users to browse through listed items online. The revenue for the merchandise returned to the Company that we sell at auction is recor ded on a gross basis. Revenue from the auctions business will be included in the fulfilment partner segment. Besides that, an online site for listing cars for sale was provided as a part of the Website. The cars listing service allows dealers to list vehicles for sale and allows buyers to review vehicle descriptions, and allows purchasers to contact sellers for further information and negotiations on the purchase of an advertised vehicle. Revenue from the cars listing business is recorded net and is included in the fulfilment partner segment. In addition, an online site for listing real estate for sale was provided as a part of the Website. The real estate listing service allows customers to search for active listings across the country. Listing categories include foreclosures, live and on-line auctions, for sale by owner listings and also broker or agent listings. Revenue from the real estate listing business is recorded net and is included in the fulfilment partner segment (PR Newswire, 2010). b. Possible technologies. i. Hardware, Software and Network telecommunications technology. Overstock. com needed equipment that would perform consistently and handle the traffic peaks that occur in the fourth quarter of the year without service degradation therefore, they chosen Foundry’s BigIron MG8 high-performance 10-Gigabit switches to power the backbones at its headquarters. Foundry is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Web traffic management solutions and also an application service provider for Overstock. com, Inc. Foundry has helped them achieve the level of performance with a solution that will accommodate future growth and the payoff can be enormous in terms of customer experience and cost savings (Foundry Network, n. d. ). Overstock. com is using the OptiMine Software, a provider of intelligence software for advertising optimization. Their flagship product, OptiMine Paid Search Bid Management Application, forecasts the performance of each paid search ad placement each day and automatically sets optimal bids. Overstock. com also uses many other software such as Breach Security’s web defend and VPNs for website security purpose. Besides that, software like EDIs are used for online data interchange via emails and chat rooms; EFTs are used for the purpose of e-payment systems (â€Å"Breach†, 2009). Overstock. om uses the internet and extranet, private network that uses Internet protocols and network connectivity (VeriSign, 2008). Overstock. com uses these network and telecommunications technology to operate the online shopping, online auctions and online listing cars and real estates. It has been described as a state of mind in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with a selected set of other companies, the fulfillment partner companies to sell their products online (â€Å"Success St ory†, 2009). ii. Payment systems and security technologies. The payment system used by Overstock. com is majorly based on online credit card payment. In the United States, credit card holders of the American Express, Discover Card, MasterCard and Visa card are able to purchase goods online directly from Overstock. com website. ‘Bill Me Later’ is a payment method offered on the websites of many well-known merchants, including Overstock. com. The site offers credit through CIT Bank, allows purchases to be made online without using a credit card. Besides that, the payment systems of Overstock. om also have many special features, such as secure ordering/Payment system, on-line ordering shopping cart system, on-line order tracking system, customers info is confidential, gift services available and also live customer representative (Steiner, 2006). Lately, Overstock. com has integrated Auction Checkouts payment service into its auction platform. Third-party sellers on Overstock. com Auctions can now accept credit card payments for auct ion sales without having a credit-card merchant account (McDonald amp; Dunbar, 1998). One of the most important issues for a desirable e-payment system is the system should be based on well-established security principles (Turban et al. , 2010). Overstock. com uses the methods of address verification, manual review and fraud screens and automated decision models in preventing financial frauds in the payment system. For securing the networks of Overstock. com, the company uses firewalls, VPNs and IDSs and also teaming with some leading provider of application security assessment to optimize their Web security systems (Overstock. com, 2010). For example, Overstock. om chose Breach Security’s WebDefend web application firewall (WAF) to provide immediate compliance with the latest Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) (VeriSign, 2008). The system ensures that all web-facing application be protected against known attacks via web application firewall vulnerability scans or code review. c. Value of the e-business system. i. Tangible benefits. The ef fect of e-business in Overstock. com has brought several tangible benefits to the firm itself. The sales of Overstock. com have increased due to the some of the factors. Revenue has increased by having new customers from new markets, from existing customers due to the repeat-selling and also cross-selling (Turban et al. , 2010). By using the e-business technology, costs can be reduced as the efficiency of search and transaction costs have been improved. Marketing cost also can be reduced as we reduce time for customer service, reduce printing and distribution costs of marketing communications. Besides that, Overstock. com’s supply chain cost also can be reduced by reducing the levels of inventory and having a shorter cycle time in ordering. In addition, administrative cost also can be reduced from more efficient routine business processes such as recruitment, invoice payment and holiday authorization (Schwartz, 2002). E-commerce system allows Overstock. com to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or distance and therefore people can save time and cost. Customers can log on to the Internet at any point of time, be it day or night and purchase or sell anything one desires at a single click of the mouse. The relationship between the customers and Overstock. om also can be improved because the website also includes a support home page where the customer support, customer care contacts and also some frequently asked questions. Overstock. com also provides personalization services whereby the firm will notify customers by e-mail when there are new products, according to the specific user’s preferences (Deeter-Schmelz, amp; Kennedy, 2004). ii. Intangible benefits. The use of e-business system by the Oversto ck. com also brings a lot of intangible benefits to the organizations, individual customers and society. One of the benefits is the enhancement of products, with the e-business system Overstock. om get to expand its business by selling their own product and also selling some ‘fulfilment partnership’ products, and further on manages an online auction site and provides car and real estate listings. Besides that, the e-business system brings more rapid, more responsive marketing communications including public relations to the firm (Turban et al. , 2010). A faster product development lifecycle will also enabling faster response to market needs (Ferguson amp; Hlavinkha, 2007). A better customer service will be served as well because of the customer service home page on the Overstock. com web page. Customers can solve their problems quickly by searching the web page. The firm can also easily collect feedback from customers on products. This can assist the firm in meeting customer’s expectations (Drummond, 2006). The strategic position of the company can be improved as the Overstock. com includes value propositions such as complementarities and novelty. Overstock. com provides complementarities such as the bundling of products and services, for example, the website offers a wide variety of products and after purchasing these products, shipping services from will be also included by the company. The novelty of what Overstock. om introducing is about using innovative ways for structuring, connecting partners and fostering new market. For example, Overstock. com helps some firms to liquidate their inventories and also sell their products on the website under the â€Å"fulfilment partner† category. Besides that, Overstock. com also provides online auction, listing car and real estate for sale which encourages the fostering of new market. Overstock. com also can make out new partners and supporting existing partners more efficiently and effectively with a better management of marketing information, customer information and business partners’ information (Schwartz, 2002). ii. Alignment with company vision, mission and objectives. By using the e-business system, Overstock. com has significantly cut down the cost associated with marketing, customer care, processing and information storage. It also reduces the time period involved with business process re-engineering and customization of products to meet the demand of particular customers, increasing productivity and customer care services. Electronic commerce reduces the burden of transportation to conduct businesses and thereby raises the amount of funds available for profitable investment. It also enables efficient customer care services. Alternatively, it collects and manages information related to customer behaviour, which in turn helps develop and adopt an efficient marketing and promotional strategy (Deeter-Schmelz, amp; Kennedy, 2004). In fact all these benefits will help out Overstock. com to achieve their vision, missions and objectives. Overstock. com’s vision is to provide online shoppers with the best price and a superior customer experience with the values of honest, helpful, efficient, accountable, and trustworthy, and committed to profitability and service. The value and benefits of e-business systems in Overstock. om can help to reach its vision as the cost reduction of firms and the improved customer service and relationship will allow customers to buy products with a cheaper price and enjoy a superior customer experience (Wang, Liu Koong amp; Bai, 2009). Overstock. com’s main mission is to save consumers’ money (Overstock. com). With the e-business system in the Overstock. com, con sumers can compare and shop online for the lowest prices and also get information easily with details and demos. The standard of living of the consumers also can be improved as consumer can afford to buy cheaper goods and services. The e-business system also helps Overstock. com to achieve its mission. The objective of the Overstock. com is to become the dominant internet-based closeout solution for holders of brand-name merchandise, allowing them to dispose of that merchandise discreetly and with high recovery values, and to ultimately become a one-stop Internet-based discount shopping destination. 3. Possible e-business issues a. Security and privacy issues The lack of trust in Internet commerce applications may result in cautious business operators and clients to abstain from using the Internet for now and revert back to traditional ways of doing business. This eradication of trust being fuelled by continued stories of hacker attacks on e-commerce sites and intrusion of consumer data privacy (Marchany amp; Tront, 2002). There are two major threats faced by Overstock. com: Denial of Service (DOS) and financial fraud. DOS is still an attack in which many major e-commerce sites suffer whereby hackers rely on software and zombie PCs to launch the attacks. DOS attacks can be difficult to stop; a series of steps could be costly to combat these attacks. Overstock. com consumers use credit cards for online purchases where security and fraud are the major issues in making e-payments. Due to this issue, wide variety of tools such as address verification and other authentication services are employed to reduce the problems while considering the ease of use and the fit within the overall business context. However, it is impossible to totally overcome security and fraud issues as the victimized industries, users, and organizations are still vulnerable due to the failure of taking necessary precautions to avoid becoming a victim (Turban et al. , 2010). Consumer privacy is becoming the most common security issue following theft and fraud as top concerns in e-commerce. For example, selling consumer data without the customer knowledge or permission is the major internal threat to consumer privacy. This type of issue will be a resistance for people to participate in certain types of e-commerce transactions if the assurance of privacy is low or non-existent. If the majority of businesses are not considered to be secure, the confidentiality and integrity of the customer information will be in doubt (â€Å"Breach†, 2009). Hence, e-commerce security needs to be addressed not only at the business site with its servers/network ut also on the client side, which includes direct connected home computers. Despite of all the security and privacy issues flooding the society, security architecture of e-commerce sites has to be tailored to ensure consumer data privacy and company resources are not used to attack other Internet sites. There are guidelines for securing systems and networks to educate the consumer on these e-commerce security issues. Consumers playing their part in solving these issues are the most critical element of the e-commerce security architecture (Turban et al. , 2010). Besides that, training and orientation programs are critical to increase the general public awareness of security on the Internet. IT and financial control groups within the e-commerce site should form an alliance to overcome the general resistance to implementing security practices at the business level while industry self-regulation of consumer privacy should make recommendations to congress in order to introduce legislation on privacy issues. b. Marketing issues. One of the marketing issues faced by Overstock. com is competition. Two major competitors of Overstock. com are eBay and Amazon. om (Overstock. com, 2010). These two competitors are well known e-marketplace for the internet surfers (Mann, 2005). Overstock. com has an oligopoly market structure in which a small number of firms supply most of the market. There are only a few firms dominating the market such as big firms with large share of market sales. Firms in an oligopoly market structure are interdependent whereby they watch each other closely because of the competitive strategy. Oligopoly firms such as the Overstock. com normally use non-price competition accrue greater revenue and market share. It has a high barrier to enter the market and large existing firms enjoy economies of scale. However, new entrants tend to face higher production and set up costs. Overstock. com has to spend enormous amount of money on advertising to win and retain their customers and brand loyalty. Consumer behaviour is also one of the marketing issues faced by Overstock. com. It is difficult to create customer loyalty as it is very fast and easy for consumers to switch loyalty online. Hence, enhancing loyalty through methods such as e-loyalty programs is a must. Besides that, building trust is very difficult since people do not know or see each other. Amazon. com is using one-to-one marketing which can increase the degree of loyalty. This one-to-one marketing strategy is not exercised by Overstock. com which leaves them in the losing end if compared to its competitors (Mincedmedia, 2008). In order for Overstock. com to survive in this competitive market, their possible market strategy and segmentation is to set up their e-business system as their storefront and gain new market target and new market opportunities on online selling sites of car and real estate listing (Overstock. com, 2010). Overstock.com E-Business Essay Example Overstock.com E-Business Essay The e-commerce system chosen is the Overstock. com. Overstock. com is an online retailer offering a broad variety of high-quality, branded name goods at discount prices, including bedding, home decor, appliances, watches, jewellery, electronics, sporting goods, clothing and shoes. At the beginning, Overstock. com sold surplus and returned merchandise on an online E-commerce marketplace and liquidating the inventories of the failed dot-com companies at below-wholesale prices (Drummond, 2006). Recently, it has expanded to sell new merchandise and also offering manufacturers, distributors and other retailers an alternative sales channel for liquidating their inventory. In addition to its direct retail sales, Overstock. com has also offered online auctions on its website. The company’s major competitors are eBay and Amazon. com (Mann, 2005). b. The e-Marketplace. Overstock. com is considered as a private e-marketplace that is owned by a single company. In a sell-side e-marketplace, such as Overstock. om will sell either standard or customised products to individuals (B2C) or to business (B2B), this type of selling is considered to be one-to-many (Turban, King, Lee, Liang amp; Turban, 2010). Overstock. com uses the Internet to create a more efficient market for liquidation, closeout and other discount merchandise by providing consumers and businesses with quick and convenient access to high-quality, brand-name merchandise at discount prices. Besides that, Overstock. om operates the part of their website as an online auctions business, a marketplace for the buying and selling of goods and services-as well as online sites for listing cars and real estate for sale (Mann, 2005). Overstock. com is an example of virtual e-tailers that sell directly to consumers over the Internet without maintaining a physical sales channel. Virtual e-tailers have the advantage of low overhead costs and streamlined process (Turban et al. , 2010). General e-tailers, such as Overstock. om, selling a vast range of goods and services online, capitalize on the internet to offer such variety to a diverse group of customers geographically without the need to maintain a large physical storefront network (Mincedmedia, 2008). 2. Research into the e-business components. a. Organization. i. Possible internal organization functions involved the system. The internal organization of the Overstock. com is formed by few different departments. The sales and marketing department will find and retain customers by building effective customers relationships to increase the sales of the firm. We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Overstock.com E-Business specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Marketers of the Overstock. com uses several types of online advertising methods such as banner ads, e-mail advertising and video ads (Turban et al. , 2010). The engineering department will be in charge of the firm’s e-commerce system, online security, payment systems, IT compliance, application software, website design and maintenances and also data management. The firm’s IT engineer will be responsible to use technology expertise such as the defence and e-commerce security strategy, e-commerce payment systems, application of software and the knowledge in the web 2. to facilitate the online business of Overstock. com (Kelly, 2005). The accounting and finance department will be responsible in partnering with other county departments to leverage resources that are essential toward achieving related objectives and also ensuring that quality financial services and information is provided. In addition, the operations department does the day to day operation of the business. The operations department of the Overstock. com consist of the merchandise operational coordinator, co-op manager and system administrative. They handle all the clerical functions having to do with clearance, settlement, and execution of trades (Mincedmedia, 2008). This department keeps customer records and handles the day-to-day monitoring of margin positions. ii. Possible firms, suppliers and business partners. Part of Overstock. coms merchandise is purchased by or manufactured specifically for Overstock. com. Merchandise is obtained either by buying excess inventory, referred to as the companys direct business, or by selling the merchandise of other retailers, catalogue companies, and manufacturers on a commission basis (Mann, 2005). Among their products are handmade goods produced for Overstock by workers in developing nations. The shopping business of the Overstock. com includes both a direct business and a fulfilment partner business. Products from the fulfilment partner segment are from various industry verticals, such as florist supplies, restaurant supplies, and office supplies (Wang, Liu Koong amp; Bai, 2009). Overstock. com form partnerships with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Kenneth Cole, Simon amp; Schuster, Samsonite, and Cuisinart. These fulfillment partners, constituting the former commission side of Overstock. coms business, drove the companys revenue growth high and following its IPO. iii. Possible business process associated with the system. The shopping business of the Overstock. com includes both a direct business and a fulfilment partner business (Overstock. com). The fulfilment partner business is one of the business process associated with the system, Overstock. com sell merchandise of other retailers, cataloguers or manufacturers ) through their Website. Overstock. om currently has fulfilment partner relationships with approximately 1,250 third parties on their website (Ferguson amp; Hlavinkha, 2007). Overstock. com also provides an online auction service on the Website. The Auctions business allows sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest, and users to browse through listed items online. The revenue for the merchandise returned to the Company that we sell at auction is recor ded on a gross basis. Revenue from the auctions business will be included in the fulfilment partner segment. Besides that, an online site for listing cars for sale was provided as a part of the Website. The cars listing service allows dealers to list vehicles for sale and allows buyers to review vehicle descriptions, and allows purchasers to contact sellers for further information and negotiations on the purchase of an advertised vehicle. Revenue from the cars listing business is recorded net and is included in the fulfilment partner segment. In addition, an online site for listing real estate for sale was provided as a part of the Website. The real estate listing service allows customers to search for active listings across the country. Listing categories include foreclosures, live and on-line auctions, for sale by owner listings and also broker or agent listings. Revenue from the real estate listing business is recorded net and is included in the fulfilment partner segment (PR Newswire, 2010). b. Possible technologies. i. Hardware, Software and Network telecommunications technology. Overstock. com needed equipment that would perform consistently and handle the traffic peaks that occur in the fourth quarter of the year without service degradation therefore, they chosen Foundry’s BigIron MG8 high-performance 10-Gigabit switches to power the backbones at its headquarters. Foundry is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Web traffic management solutions and also an application service provider for Overstock. com, Inc. Foundry has helped them achieve the level of performance with a solution that will accommodate future growth and the payoff can be enormous in terms of customer experience and cost savings (Foundry Network, n. d. ). Overstock. com is using the OptiMine Software, a provider of intelligence software for advertising optimization. Their flagship product, OptiMine Paid Search Bid Management Application, forecasts the performance of each paid search ad placement each day and automatically sets optimal bids. Overstock. com also uses many other software such as Breach Security’s web defend and VPNs for website security purpose. Besides that, software like EDIs are used for online data interchange via emails and chat rooms; EFTs are used for the purpose of e-payment systems (â€Å"Breach†, 2009). Overstock. om uses the internet and extranet, private network that uses Internet protocols and network connectivity (VeriSign, 2008). Overstock. com uses these network and telecommunications technology to operate the online shopping, online auctions and online listing cars and real estates. It has been described as a state of mind in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with a selected set of other companies, the fulfillment partner companies to sell their products online (â€Å"Success St ory†, 2009). ii. Payment systems and security technologies. The payment system used by Overstock. com is majorly based on online credit card payment. In the United States, credit card holders of the American Express, Discover Card, MasterCard and Visa card are able to purchase goods online directly from Overstock. com website. ‘Bill Me Later’ is a payment method offered on the websites of many well-known merchants, including Overstock. com. The site offers credit through CIT Bank, allows purchases to be made online without using a credit card. Besides that, the payment systems of Overstock. om also have many special features, such as secure ordering/Payment system, on-line ordering shopping cart system, on-line order tracking system, customers info is confidential, gift services available and also live customer representative (Steiner, 2006). Lately, Overstock. com has integrated Auction Checkouts payment service into its auction platform. Third-party sellers on Overstock. com Auctions can now accept credit card payments for auct ion sales without having a credit-card merchant account (McDonald amp; Dunbar, 1998). One of the most important issues for a desirable e-payment system is the system should be based on well-established security principles (Turban et al. , 2010). Overstock. com uses the methods of address verification, manual review and fraud screens and automated decision models in preventing financial frauds in the payment system. For securing the networks of Overstock. com, the company uses firewalls, VPNs and IDSs and also teaming with some leading provider of application security assessment to optimize their Web security systems (Overstock. com, 2010). For example, Overstock. om chose Breach Security’s WebDefend web application firewall (WAF) to provide immediate compliance with the latest Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) (VeriSign, 2008). The system ensures that all web-facing application be protected against known attacks via web application firewall vulnerability scans or code review. c. Value of the e-business system. i. Tangible benefits. The ef fect of e-business in Overstock. com has brought several tangible benefits to the firm itself. The sales of Overstock. com have increased due to the some of the factors. Revenue has increased by having new customers from new markets, from existing customers due to the repeat-selling and also cross-selling (Turban et al. , 2010). By using the e-business technology, costs can be reduced as the efficiency of search and transaction costs have been improved. Marketing cost also can be reduced as we reduce time for customer service, reduce printing and distribution costs of marketing communications. Besides that, Overstock. com’s supply chain cost also can be reduced by reducing the levels of inventory and having a shorter cycle time in ordering. In addition, administrative cost also can be reduced from more efficient routine business processes such as recruitment, invoice payment and holiday authorization (Schwartz, 2002). E-commerce system allows Overstock. com to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or distance and therefore people can save time and cost. Customers can log on to the Internet at any point of time, be it day or night and purchase or sell anything one desires at a single click of the mouse. The relationship between the customers and Overstock. om also can be improved because the website also includes a support home page where the customer support, customer care contacts and also some frequently asked questions. Overstock. com also provides personalization services whereby the firm will notify customers by e-mail when there are new products, according to the specific user’s preferences (Deeter-Schmelz, amp; Kennedy, 2004). ii. Intangible benefits. The use of e-business system by the Oversto ck. com also brings a lot of intangible benefits to the organizations, individual customers and society. One of the benefits is the enhancement of products, with the e-business system Overstock. om get to expand its business by selling their own product and also selling some ‘fulfilment partnership’ products, and further on manages an online auction site and provides car and real estate listings. Besides that, the e-business system brings more rapid, more responsive marketing communications including public relations to the firm (Turban et al. , 2010). A faster product development lifecycle will also enabling faster response to market needs (Ferguson amp; Hlavinkha, 2007). A better customer service will be served as well because of the customer service home page on the Overstock. com web page. Customers can solve their problems quickly by searching the web page. The firm can also easily collect feedback from customers on products. This can assist the firm in meeting customer’s expectations (Drummond, 2006). The strategic position of the company can be improved as the Overstock. com includes value propositions such as complementarities and novelty. Overstock. com provides complementarities such as the bundling of products and services, for example, the website offers a wide variety of products and after purchasing these products, shipping services from will be also included by the company. The novelty of what Overstock. om introducing is about using innovative ways for structuring, connecting partners and fostering new market. For example, Overstock. com helps some firms to liquidate their inventories and also sell their products on the website under the â€Å"fulfilment partner† category. Besides that, Overstock. com also provides online auction, listing car and real estate for sale which encourages the fostering of new market. Overstock. com also can make out new partners and supporting existing partners more efficiently and effectively with a better management of marketing information, customer information and business partners’ information (Schwartz, 2002). ii. Alignment with company vision, mission and objectives. By using the e-business system, Overstock. com has significantly cut down the cost associated with marketing, customer care, processing and information storage. It also reduces the time period involved with business process re-engineering and customization of products to meet the demand of particular customers, increasing productivity and customer care services. Electronic commerce reduces the burden of transportation to conduct businesses and thereby raises the amount of funds available for profitable investment. It also enables efficient customer care services. Alternatively, it collects and manages information related to customer behaviour, which in turn helps develop and adopt an efficient marketing and promotional strategy (Deeter-Schmelz, amp; Kennedy, 2004). In fact all these benefits will help out Overstock. com to achieve their vision, missions and objectives. Overstock. com’s vision is to provide online shoppers with the best price and a superior customer experience with the values of honest, helpful, efficient, accountable, and trustworthy, and committed to profitability and service. The value and benefits of e-business systems in Overstock. om can help to reach its vision as the cost reduction of firms and the improved customer service and relationship will allow customers to buy products with a cheaper price and enjoy a superior customer experience (Wang, Liu Koong amp; Bai, 2009). Overstock. com’s main mission is to save consumers’ money (Overstock. com). With the e-business system in the Overstock. com, con sumers can compare and shop online for the lowest prices and also get information easily with details and demos. The standard of living of the consumers also can be improved as consumer can afford to buy cheaper goods and services. The e-business system also helps Overstock. com to achieve its mission. The objective of the Overstock. com is to become the dominant internet-based closeout solution for holders of brand-name merchandise, allowing them to dispose of that merchandise discreetly and with high recovery values, and to ultimately become a one-stop Internet-based discount shopping destination. 3. Possible e-business issues a. Security and privacy issues The lack of trust in Internet commerce applications may result in cautious business operators and clients to abstain from using the Internet for now and revert back to traditional ways of doing business. This eradication of trust being fuelled by continued stories of hacker attacks on e-commerce sites and intrusion of consumer data privacy (Marchany amp; Tront, 2002). There are two major threats faced by Overstock. com: Denial of Service (DOS) and financial fraud. DOS is still an attack in which many major e-commerce sites suffer whereby hackers rely on software and zombie PCs to launch the attacks. DOS attacks can be difficult to stop; a series of steps could be costly to combat these attacks. Overstock. com consumers use credit cards for online purchases where security and fraud are the major issues in making e-payments. Due to this issue, wide variety of tools such as address verification and other authentication services are employed to reduce the problems while considering the ease of use and the fit within the overall business context. However, it is impossible to totally overcome security and fraud issues as the victimized industries, users, and organizations are still vulnerable due to the failure of taking necessary precautions to avoid becoming a victim (Turban et al. , 2010). Consumer privacy is becoming the most common security issue following theft and fraud as top concerns in e-commerce. For example, selling consumer data without the customer knowledge or permission is the major internal threat to consumer privacy. This type of issue will be a resistance for people to participate in certain types of e-commerce transactions if the assurance of privacy is low or non-existent. If the majority of businesses are not considered to be secure, the confidentiality and integrity of the customer information will be in doubt (â€Å"Breach†, 2009). Hence, e-commerce security needs to be addressed not only at the business site with its servers/network ut also on the client side, which includes direct connected home computers. Despite of all the security and privacy issues flooding the society, security architecture of e-commerce sites has to be tailored to ensure consumer data privacy and company resources are not used to attack other Internet sites. There are guidelines for securing systems and networks to educate the consumer on these e-commerce security issues. Consumers playing their part in solving these issues are the most critical element of the e-commerce security architecture (Turban et al. , 2010). Besides that, training and orientation programs are critical to increase the general public awareness of security on the Internet. IT and financial control groups within the e-commerce site should form an alliance to overcome the general resistance to implementing security practices at the business level while industry self-regulation of consumer privacy should make recommendations to congress in order to introduce legislation on privacy issues. b. Marketing issues. One of the marketing issues faced by Overstock. com is competition. Two major competitors of Overstock. com are eBay and Amazon. om (Overstock. com, 2010). These two competitors are well known e-marketplace for the internet surfers (Mann, 2005). Overstock. com has an oligopoly market structure in which a small number of firms supply most of the market. There are only a few firms dominating the market such as big firms with large share of market sales. Firms in an oligopoly market structure are interdependent whereby they watch each other closely because of the competitive strategy. Oligopoly firms such as the Overstock. com normally use non-price competition accrue greater revenue and market share. It has a high barrier to enter the market and large existing firms enjoy economies of scale. However, new entrants tend to face higher production and set up costs. Overstock. com has to spend enormous amount of money on advertising to win and retain their customers and brand loyalty. Consumer behaviour is also one of the marketing issues faced by Overstock. com. It is difficult to create customer loyalty as it is very fast and easy for consumers to switch loyalty online. Hence, enhancing loyalty through methods such as e-loyalty programs is a must. Besides that, building trust is very difficult since people do not know or see each other. Amazon. com is using one-to-one marketing which can increase the degree of loyalty. This one-to-one marketing strategy is not exercised by Overstock. com which leaves them in the losing end if compared to its competitors (Mincedmedia, 2008). In order for Overstock. com to survive in this competitive market, their possible market strategy and segmentation is to set up their e-business system as their storefront and gain new market target and new market opportunities on online selling sites of car and real estate listing (Overstock. com, 2010).

A chance of emergence Essays

A chance of emergence Essays A chance of emergence Essay A chance of emergence Essay Culture in organisation frequently reflects norm, value, tradition, and expectation from its people. Each organisation has its own unique internal environment. For example, in theory, all applicants are required to show their self-confidence and their extroversion. These cannot go well with the traditional or conservative organisation which requires a modest person rather than an aggressive one. A working environment which comprises structure or flexible style can affect the applicant when they have an interview, for instance, casual clothes are accepted in some companies but not others. Ideal working environment was quoted in theory but in practical it is far beyond that. The continual innovation and improvement of science and technology have been changing social economy environment and competitive methods between companies to a great extent (Ref). This kind of transformation enhances the difficulty of companies and organisations to make an appropriate policy of HRM. They need to achieve a balance of catching up with new challenges and avoiding the risk of inaccurate decision-making. In recruitment and selection, technology has adapted new content in practice, the flourish of traditional public media let organisations place their recruiting adverts at a reasonable price, the development of public transport and the car industry has made it possible for companies to recruit from a larger region, the Internet has given them a good chance to go further. A giant in computer soft industry claims that The only constant in Microsoft is change (Ref). However, not all players are winners in this game. It is universal for managers to make inaccurate decisions because of deficient cognition of new methods. For instance, although E-recruitment can bring us quick, low-cost, efficient methods of finding qualified candidates, it still has unavoidable shortcomings. (www. arinso. com/downloads/recruitment. pdf, accessed 11/11/03) Online recruitment and the use of new emerging technologies have many advantages for the modern recruiter. The one drawback, however, is that online recruitment can appear to be a daunting subject? (Michael Stamp, E-recruitment is revolutionising the Recruitment Industry)The worldwide trend of incorporation and internationalisation has promoted companies to expand into huge organisations. Recruitment and selection have become extremely difficult to deal with in such enormous employee scale. When each step of Recruitment is made, HRM department need to classify complicated relationships and deal with huge information. Once an inaccurate decision is made, the influence is fatal and far-reaching. Take Balin Bank of UK as an example, (Ref) which had a history as long as 233 years and finally became bankruptcy. Besides the unsound operation system, the essential reason was the using of wrong people in fatal positions. Again, Ericsson announced that they would lay off another 1,700 employees in Sweden as an important step of the final object to be at 47,000 employees next year from 107,000 at the start of 2001. Maybe it will help the company to a profit during 2003. However, they could get more benefits if they had taken appropriate action in their recruitment and selection phases, from planning to testing. (Ref/Why? )Every theory has a particular environment of society and economy to exist in. When HRM theories were concluded, they all had been proved as effective to solve specific problems in practice. Nevertheless, these specific problems have different representations in different cultures and political environments. When business is put in a variable environment, HRM does not always work as well as it does in theory. Sometimes it is such a long and costly term for a company to adapt their HRM methods to new region which they are trying to expand to, no matter how successful these methods had been in the original system. The growth process of Microsoft China is a good case in point. In this August, Microsoft continued the contract with Jun Tan, who was assigned as the chairman of their subsidiary in China one year ago (Ref). It seems that Microsoft have found a suitable method of recruitment and selection for this important subsidiary now. However, they had been bothered for 5 years before the commission of Jun Tan. Each predecessor of Jun Tan survived in the hard and fast test of Microsoft, which proved effective in recruitment of their subsidiaries in western countries. These experts in both management and technology, had not arrived as far as they were expected in China market. Fortunately, Microsoft realised what they needed was a manager familiar with Chinese culture and the particular situation of China. After the commission of Jun Tan, Microsoft designed a new position CEO of Microsoft in big China area for an advanced manager recruited from another company, who has a strong background of working with Chinese government. Cultural shock is not the only thing that can beat companies HRM methods and strategies, every change of business environment could be fatal. There has been a gradual decline in the importance of recruitment and selection theories because of their validity and reliability. In the changing circumstances of a competitive business environment, it seems that every factor such as people, technology and so forth is changing all the time; on the other hand, the theories development are steady in the way of realistic applied. Generally speaking, individuals are different in terms of attitude and belief which affects their behaviour. It is implausible that the theories can be matched up perfectly with each individual. Each organisation has its own organisational culture which can be distinguished from the others. Moreover, currently, businesses have to be able to compete internationally. Nevertheless, the theories have limitations for worldwide use. Some theories can be appropriate for one country but not another. The big change of recruitment and selection method was brought by the impact of technology, the emergence of online recruitment or E-recruitment. As far as E-recruitment is concerned, it is believed that it could reduce operating expenditure and time spent on advertising and selecting the right candidate, for example. This phenomenon is not only about technology but also cultural and behavioural change both within HRM and people in organisation. It is a barrier-free procedure which means that everybody has the same rights to approach an organisation. No matter who you are, disabled person, mother of two children, black or white, man or woman. The process of E-recruitment will eliminate bias occurring from the recruiter. These will bring equal opportunities for people in society. E-recruitment is going to be the next important step of recruitment and selection without any doubt if the organisation strictly manage and deploy it in the constructive way. In the end, modern theory will definitely be waiting for a chance of emergence.

Chapter 1- What is Geomorphology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Chapter 1- What is Geomorphology - Essay Example â€Å"The word geomorphology is a composition of three Greek words; ‘geo’ means earth, ‘morph’ means form and ‘-ology’ means discourse† (Hugget, 2011). So the study of earth forms is called geomorphology. Some people only include the forms of earth’s surface while others also include surfaces of other planets such as Moon, Venus etc. â€Å"There are three components of geomorphology; constitution (the chemical composition of the surface), mass flow (the rate of flow of the material; rate of evaporation) and configuration (the shape and size; geometry of the surface)† (Hugget, 2011). Ancient Greek philosophers wondered about mountains and plains, and how they took up the shape they appear in. Greats like Aristotle and Seneca have long pondered how valleys and rivers came about, and how come sea shells end up at the beaches, and how come deltas of the earth are â€Å"as they appear to be† (Hugget, 2011). Landforms leave a history behind them. Ripples on a beach or a river that stopped flowing, all have history but many might pass by unnoticed because of leaving no footprint (stratigraphic record). This way it becomes easier to study landforms, data collection regarding this also becomes easier. In the past, geomorphologists used to map morphological forms based on the principle of â€Å"the present is the key to the past† (Hugget, 2011). This made it the perfect assumption that the present form of the landscape has evolved from the past and correctly tracing back would lead to the past form of earth morphology. William Morris Davis, the morphologist who expounded on the term ‘geographical cycle’. To describe Morris’s theory on Geomorphology in small number of words; the uplift takes place quickly, while landscapes slopes decline through time. The surface, like humans and other living beings has stages of life; youth, maturity and old age. Times have

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin Essay

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin - Essay Example The sense of originality has lost by use of pictures as compared to paintings. According to Benjamin, the reproducible film represents a historical shift that many audiences might fail to notice. Benjamin noted that the work of art reproduced mechanically has intervened to fill the void left by loss of aura. For instance, the loss of authority by the original work of art has been compensated by the use of a camera. Cameraman can direct the viewers eyes towards specific places and stories, as a result of being radical, revolutionary and totalitarian. Mechanical reproduction has introduced distraction as a new way of reception. There is a shift in the location of work of art that can be referred to as an aura to the mythological space. People are now capable of visiting places like museums, theaters, galleries and cinemas to see the work of art. Benjamin, however, complements the loss of aura. He notes that the loss has opened up politicization of the work of art put into use in different ways. He observes that a mechanical reproduction has managed to change contemplation regarding the screen as well as the films

Is management remuneration too excessive Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Is management remuneration too excessive - Essay Example In an article published in Business Week, In 1980 it was established that the a Chief Executive Officer working at a any foremost organization, on average, makes approximately 42 times compared to what a worker works on a normal hourly pay. In the next decade, i.e. 1990, this rate had crossed the doubled mark as it was up to 85 times compared to a normal hourly pay of a worker and in the next decade i.e. the twentieth century, the average salary of a Chief Executive Office has climbed to an incredible 531 times of the regular workers’ hourly pay. (Management 2000) This has been always an argument regarding the fact that the management, especially the top management, such as the Chief Executive Officers, Directors, Chief Financial Officers and the Heads of Departments etc are paid extensively more that the normal employee even though their job is limited to the decision making part while the workers have to put in extra impetus from the planning to the implementation stage. Let us go research in this respect whether the management remuneration is justified. Shleifer and Vishny (1997) in their research have described the corporate governance as the means where the providers of funding guarantee a return on their investments for themselves. Since, the profits of the investors largely depend upon the contracts incurred between themselves and the company so a variety of markets operations and the performance of players of finance has developed into various sub-literatures. literatures. need for the growth in pay of executies Lucian Bebchuk in his article â€Å"The Growth of Executive Pay’, discussed the reasons and the need for the substantial increase and the growth of the pay of executives and the top management personnel. He has justified the growth in the pay scale by the comparison of the size of the organization where the executive is employed. He mentioned â€Å"Remuneration level is predictable to augment due to the increase in the size of the firm and performance of the management, which may vary from industry to industry† He has researched over the average size of the S&P 500 firms from 1993 to 2003 and has expressed the fact that with the relevant increase in the size of the organization or the performance of the company, the compensation of the executives has increased side by side showing a very linear trend. Kaplan and Rauh (2009) inspected the query regarding if increase in the management remuneration can imitate the forc es of the market. The idea was that if a top management personnel’s pay imitates the market forces; in that case its increase should be in line with that of other extensively paid occupations. Kaplan and Rauh also assembled some information on the compensation of high yielding professions such as the employees from the financial service sector, banks, and funds and compared them to the compensation received by the business lawyers, professional athletes, doctors and celebrities. Murphy and Zabojnik (2007) proposed the thought that the escalation in management remuneration embodies the move in the significance of the ability of the managerial staff i.e. the talent and ability which is capable of being transferred through several companies related to the human capital which is specific to the firm i.e. precious only to the extent of the organization, which functioned to support the bargaining point of the top executives through improving their options of working at another orga nization. different views of executive compensation Holmstom (1979) in his article published in the Bell Journal of Economics has discussed several views of the executive compensation of which he has highlighted two of those views. He discusses that one of the view which he highlighted as the

The Politics Of Secularism In India

The Politics Of Secularism In India Secularism in India has always been more of a political than a philosophical phenomenon. Secularism may be one of the basic features of the Preamble but its validity as one of the basic features of the Constitution and its practicability in Indian society is questionable. There is an increasing use of religion in the social construction of ethnic and communal identity which is made the basis for the articulation of common economic interests and political mobilization. There is also the construction of a pan Indian Hindu consciousness that cuts across caste and regional divisions. While secularism has been integral to Indias democracy for more than 50 years, its limitations implementations are indeed matters of acrimonious debate even to this day. Discussions on the place of religious community in Indian society have turned on the opposition of secularism communalism and of modernity tradition. Secularism is unalterably linked with modernity, but the ideal of equal respect for all religions has not been translated into social reality, and the end result is something termed as pseudo-secularism. Modernity was characterized by the emergence of public, civic and privatized religious entities, concepts of a liberal democracy and a nation state, and the secularized individual who is unfettered by ascriptive identities. But such a trajectory of human development and social transformation required an understanding of humanity that was fundamentally ahistorical. Both the Round Table Conferences as well as the Constituent Assembly Debates struggled with the dilemma of formulating a liberal democracy for people who had historically been represented, and in turn came to represent themselves, as determined by the ascriptive identities of sect and caste.  [1]  Whenever critiquing secularism, the question of caste has always been sidelined by the preoccupation with religion. But the politics of secularism in India is integrally reliant and revolves around the co-optation of untouchables into an upper caste Hindu identity. The crucial fact that needs to be clarified is that, rather th an being distinct from the categories of community and caste, nationalism and communalism, liberalism and democracy, Indian secularism emerged as the nexus of all of these.  [2]   The Indian Constitution has spelt out several provisions regarding the secular state even before the term secularism was introduced into the Preamble of the Constitution in 1976. Articles 14, 15, 16, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 325 all incorporate the principles of 1. Freedom of religion to individuals as well as to religions. 2. Equality of citizenship and no discrimination on grounds of religion. 3. Separation of State from religion. It is evident that the intention of the Constitution is neither to oppose religion nor to promote a rationalization of culture, but merely to maintain the neutrality and impartiality of the state in matters of religion. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 stated that Secular means a republic in which there is equal respect for all religions, but the Supreme Court of India has been interpreting secularism in the Constitution differently over the years in its various judgments. To examine the vicissitudes of the Indian experiment with secularism, one needs to understand that there is a dichotomy in Indian society- Firstly, the political society comprising parties, movements, non party political formations which channelise popular demands through a form of mobilization termed as democracy- and secondly the civil society for whom the affirmation of secularism has been through the state and its institutions, schools, universities and the English media. In Indian society, the merits of secularism have been familiarized only by the academy and intellectual circles (civil society) whereas Hindu communal history has pervaded the streets and common sense (political society).  [3]   The relations between state, society and religion are not well defined, personal laws vary with religious communities, the precarious position of religious minorities, the affiliations of political formations with religious fundamentalists, increasing importance of the Hindu and more importantly the Hindutva philosophies pose severe challenges to the success and future of secularism in India.  [4]  It must be conceded that secularism in India today is too politicized and statist acting as an ideology of the state and an instrument of power. It is necessary to find ways to depoliticize secularism and to move it further into the domain of civil society. The project will put forward and comparatively analyze both the Gandhian and Nehruvian approaches to understanding secularism, the way secularism has been interpreted by the judiciary at times even contravening constitutional provisions, and finally the researcher will attempt to discuss whether a coexistence of democracy and secularism can be successful in a diverse and plural society like that of ours. Through the research paper, the researcher attempts to advocate the following: Secular means a Republic in which there is equal respect for all religions In the light of this remark, comparatively analyze the Nehruvian and the Gandhian understanding of the concept of secularism? Referring to the Constituent Assembly Debates 1946-1950, and landmark Supreme Court Cases, discuss the changing perceptions to the concept of secularism and whether such decisions have been a reflection of the Nehruvian or the Gandhian understanding? Can Secularism in India survive the functioning of democracy where the will of the majority is imposed on the minority and their consent is gained by a mere strength in numbers? Chapter 1. Secularism: Nehruvian Understanding Vs. Gandhian Understanding. Religion, Nehru wrote to Gandhi in 1933, is not familiar ground for me, as I have grown older I have definitely drifted away from it. I have something else in its place, something older than just intellect and reason, which gives me strength and hope. Apart from this indefinable and indefinite urge, which may just have a tinge of religion in it yet is wholly different from it, I have grown entirely to rely on the workings of the mind. Perhaps they are weak supports to rely upon, but, search as I will, I can see no better ones  [5]   Gandhis use of the term secular in relation to the state is such as may, in contemporary political discourse, be described as Nehruvian.Likewise, Nehrus positions on the definition of the Indian nation are the same as Gandhis.  [6]  That is, Gandhi does not attach any meaning to the term secular that would have been unacceptable to or unintelligible to Nehru.  [7]  Both possessed a remarkable steadfastness of faith. Even though they had strong mutual synergies on vital issues, nonetheless there was a creative tension in the Gandhi-Nehru relationship.  [8]  Gandhi and Nehru had differences. Gandhis religiosity and non violent principles was not shared by Nehru. Although he opposed the concept of theocratic statehood, Gandhi strongly advocated the importance of religious ethics in political practice. Perhaps no single leader has succeeded to the same extent as Gandhi in terms of effectively appealing to the Indian masses from all walks of life.  [9]   Gandhi expressed the opinion that the state should undoubtedly be secular.  [10]  It could never promote denominational education out of public funds. Everyone living in it should be entitled to profess his religion without hindrance, so long as the citizen obeyed the common law of the land. There should be no interference with missionary effort, but no mission could enjoy the patronage of the state as it did during the foreign regime.  [11]  This understanding came subsequently to be reflected in Articles 25, 26 and 27 of the Constitution. . In the last years of Gandhis life, a withdrawal from the political sphere to that of private moral experimentation is evident. . Unlike Gandhi, Nehru was hurled into the ruckus of politics, in command of a state, the most powerful structured concentration of modern instrumental reason that exists. He subjected Gandhis principle to scrutiny could the principle of non-violence make sense in politics, where governments are notoriously based on violence which is indeed the very lifeblood of the modern state. Nehruvian secularism was characterized by an equal contempt for all religions. Secularism as an element of modernity, required therefore a non-discriminatory rejection of all religions and all religiosity from public, as distinct from private, affirmation. Nehru was neither irreligious nor antireligious but his approach to religion was influenced by 3 basic assumptions of humanist liberal tradition- individualism, rationalism and universalism. Nehrus secularism meant freedom of religion and conscience, including freedom for those who have no religion, subject only to their not interfering with the basic con ceptions of our state. Nehru envisaged for India a secularist programme that gave religion little role in national affairs. Nehrus political wisdom was based on a theory of democracy, socialism, secularism and non-alignment. His strategy lay in an all-out attack on those forces that threatened disunity: provincialism, separatism, communalism and above all casteism. He could claim credit for making democratic secularism Indias pathway to the modern world. In his opinion Indias encounter with the Wests humanism, skepticism, and its ascendant science and technology, demanded a radical evaluation of all that India knew and was, and in that effort Indias outstanding religious heritage must correspondingly bear the strain of the encounter because in the final analysis the encounter of civilizations is a matter of spiritual discernment and active exchange.  [12]  Nehru was acutely aware and reflected expansively on the meaning of religion in the history of Indian civilization, but interestingly he was far from attempting a philosophy of religion but talked about religion in an anecdotal fashion, allowing others to distil from his remarks a refined Nehruvian theory of religion.  [13]   To summarise, analogous to post modernitys concern with immediacy and the present-Gandhi was a relentless explorer of immediacy- immediate needs, immediate means, immediate ends. In a very short span of time Gandhi introduced new themes in Indian politics with mass effect. But throughout his long career as a political thinker and activist, Gandhi encountered the dilemma of either remaining faithful to his non-violent principles and risking the failure of the Indian nationalist movement, or focusing at the seizure of political power at the expense of his moral message. Nehrus writings reveal full awareness on his part of the need to strengthen nationalism and democracy in a multireligious society characterized by arrested development while his style of functioning is an acknowledgement of the limitations under which he had to work.  [14]  A point that deserves mention is that Nehru did not intervene even once in the discussions on the clauses related to religious freedom in the constitution assembly debates. An in depth analysis of Nehruvian philosophy reflects his strong belief that the crucial choice for society is not between a fixed present and a proposed innovation, but more importantly it is concerned with an uncritical abandonment and structural engagement. The essence of Nehruvian philosophy lies in his intellectual and political understanding, in his struggles trying to base public life on a reasoned morality.  [15]  When dwelling on the thought provoking question of whether secularism has a future in India or not, the Nehruvian analysis regarding the parallel streams of the material and the spiritual which he identified as the fundamental matrix of life, for persons and civilizations alike, seems particularly relevant even to this day. Chapter 2. Secularism: Constituent Assembly Debates Landmark Cases. Constituent Assembly Debates [1946-50]: A look into the Constituent Assemblys debates clearly reveals that the general understanding amongst members of the assembly was that India was to be a secular state. They have emphasized the secular foundation of the Indian state. They also declare that secularism as adopted in the Indian constitution is not an anti-religious concept; rather it prevents discrimination against the citizens on the basis of religion. According to H V Kamath, When I say that a state should not identify itself with any particular religion, I do not mean that a state should be anti-religious or irreligious. India would be a secular state but according to me a secular state is neither a godless state nor an irreligious nor an anti-religious state. During the debate in the Constituent Assembly, Prime Minister Nehru declared that secularism was an ideal to be achieved and that the establishment of a secular state was an act of faith  [16]  . It is unfortunate that he failed to identify what faith the faith that he was referring to actually meant and in an unfortunate turn of events and circumstances it has been progressively interpreted by the courts to mean the Hindu faith. The dominant position on secularism that a democratic Constitution find place for religion as a way of life for most Indians triumphed over those who wished for the Assembly to grant only a narrow right to religious freedom, or to make the uniform civil code a fundamental right.  [17]   The crucial questions that arose by way of discussions in these debates were: Was a state secular only when it stayed strictly away from religion, and could such a secular state survive only if society was secularised as well? Did a state that equally respected all religions best capture the meaning of secularism in the Indian context? How could a democratic state represent a religious majority at the expense of the rights and liberties of a minority? The issue of religious freedom and secularism was discussed in the light of three alternative theoretical positions: The no-concern theory of secularism saw a definite line of separation between religion and state. Given the principles of religious liberty and freedom of expression, it was up to the individual to decide whether to be a believer or not, or to adhere to this religion or that.  [18]  Based on a doctrine of intolerance it confined religion to the private realm. This approach led to a conception of a secular state as one that stays away from religion per se. India was engaged in creating a modern nation state and in this enterprise, religion which seemed to be an obscurantist and divisive force, had no place. The second position was that no links between the state and religion should be permitted, not because it would weaken the state, but it would demean religion. Religion could not be made subject to the whims of changing majorities by allowing the democratic state to intervene in religious affairs.  [19]   The third position termed as the equal respect theory began with the principle of religious liberty, but held that in a society like India where religion is integrally related to the lives of the people, the state should not stay away from all religions equally but that it respects all religions alike. Thus it is evident the in these Constituent Assembly Debates the main issues of contention were: Whether the right to religious freedom should be the right to religious worship or to religious practice; Whether the state should recognise only linguistic minorities or religious minorities as well; The dispute over the Uniform Civil Code, over political reservation of religious minorities; Whether there should be religious instruction in state-aided schools. What is finally reflected in the articles of the constitution is a broad definition of the right to religion as the right to religious practice, but nonetheless there were no political safeguards for the religious minorities. Landmark Cases In Sardar Taheruddin Syedna Sahib v. State of Bombay  [20]  , the apex court claimed that Art. 25 26 serve to emphasize the secular nature of the Indian democracy which the founding fathers considered to be the very basis of the Constitution. Although in Kesavananda Bharati case, it was declared that secularism was a part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution, but interestingly a year later in St. Xaviers College Society v. State of Gujarat  [21]  , Supreme Court ruled that it was only by implication that the Constitution envisaged a Secular State.  [22]  For the first time there seemed to be an apparent contradiction between the judicially constructed concept of secularism and that in the text of the Constitution. In 1976 the court adopted a more philosophical and utilitarian approach in the Ziyauddin Bukhari  [23]  case. In the S.R. Bommai  [24]  case it was reasserted that secularism was a part of the Basic Structure and that it was based on principles of accommodation and tolerance. Herein what is evident is a euphemistic approach an espousal of a soft secularism.  [25]  In this case it was ruled that The State has the duty to ensure secularism by duty or by executive order. It is the duty of the court to bring every errant political party in line if it goes against secular ideals like casteism and religious antagonisms Jus. Ramaswamy. The State has the power to legislate on religion including personal laws under Art.44 and secular affairs of places of worship Jus. Jeevan Reddy. If a political party indirectly espouses a religious cause, it will be considered unconstitutional Jus. Agrawal. It is interesting to note that the Court withdrew from most of these commitments in the subsequent years. In the Ramjanmabhoomi case, the court went on to elaborate on secularism in terms of Indian scriptures thereby going back to the Gandhian Sarva Dharma Sambhava tolerance of all religions. In resorting to religious scriptures the court seems to have rejected the western concept of secularism of separation of church and state as propounded in S.R. Bommai case and has gone back to initial approach of equating secularism with tolerance and the fact that state has the power to take over any religious place.  [26]   Lastly with reference to the latest Hindutva judgements  [27]  the court enunciated, contrary to the Bommai decision that a speech with a secular stance alleging discrimination against any particular religion cannot be treated as an appeal on the ground of religion . Moreover the court seemed to have conveniently shifted its stance to uphold the constitutional duty to get political parties in line with secularism and most importantly it equated Hinduism and Hindutva with Indianisation and are not to be construed in a narrow sense. Thus what is clearly evident is the lack of consistency in these abovementioned Court decisions. The court has mostly stuck to secularism not being a wall between the church and the state but a sense of toleration between people of different religions. There have been frequent deviations from the Bommai decision, but it seems that the Ramjanmabhoomi case encapsulates the essence of Indian secularism toleration based on tradition. The Hindutva judgements reassert the recognition and increasing importance of the essential Hindu identity of tradition.  [28]   Clearly the judiciary in India is a significant site where contests under the banner of secularism have been taking place over the last sixty odd years. Though landmark judgements of the apex court of the nation has been interpreting secularism in the Constitution differently over the years in its various judgments  [29]  reiterating the fact that secularism is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and that secularism involves liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, even though secularism as a term appears in very few Supreme Court judgements yet it is evident that a crisis of secularism indeed exists in the worlds largest and most fractious democracy. With reference to the Constituent Assembly debates and the landmark cases the following interesting observations can be deduced: When discussing the concept of religious freedom in the Debates, there arose a paradox- it is precisely some of the advocates of a broad right to religious freedom who were also the most vociferous opponents of any political rights for religious minorities. The no-concern and equal-respect positions on secularism clashed constantly during the debates in the Constituent Assembly as the question of secularism cropped up in discussions about innumerable articles. The distinction between tolerance and secularism has never been made by the Indian judiciary. The apex court conveniently avoids exact direct mention of the word secular in its various prior judgements eg. Kesavananda Bharati case. A valid argument could be that the Supreme Court has not directly addressed the issue of secularism for the simple adjectival reason that it is a thorny issue with also the Constitution being suitably ambiguous would never permit a justifiable interpretation. The interpretation by the court reflects the interpretation of the Constitution which society is more likely to accept. As opposed to the prior cases such as Kesavananda Bharati and S.R.Bommai , post the Hindutva cases, the line of thinking of the Court has gradually been inclined towards secularism being tolerance based on tradition but the interpretation of tolerance is more in terms of grudging accommodation than wholehearted notions of acceptance. What is most extraordinary about the courts reasoning, from a strictly legal point of view, is that it can draw such an unequivocal conclusion as to the meaning of Hindutva without having cited virtually any authorities-judicial or otherwise in its support. Even when the apex court has addressed the issue of secularism it has not been uniform in its judgements. On the one hand it has effectively legitimized the Hindu Rights understanding of secularism and supported its nonsecular agenda, but on the other hand it has also in no uncertain terms condemned the practices of several members of the Hindu Right. Thus the decision given by the court in the Hindutva cases is a contradictory one, wherein it has both condemned as well as condemned the Hindu Right. Chapter 3. Secularism Democracy: A Misunderstood Relation. Sixty years ago, 565 princely states and 13 British-ruled states became united into one sovereign nation, with a secular democracy as its Constitutions primary guiding principle. In our country, eight major religious communities co-exist ,namely the Hindus(82%), Muslims(12.12%), Christians(2.6%), Sikhs(2%), Buddhists(0.7%), Jains(0.4%), Parsis(0.3%) and Jews(0.1%). The single-most defining element of the Indian democracy is the acceptance of all religions in the nations Constitution, granting explicit freedom to all its citizens and residents to practice their faiths without violating the others right to do so. It is from this explicit freedom that citizens experience other freedoms necessary to realize their lives. In stark contrast to some 90 percent of Asian nations, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, India guarantees that right. A state that arises from democracy need not be strictly secular. Democracies are perfectly capable of giving an important role to religion in the affairs of the state. It is the problem of aggregation that is of utmost importance. A democratic state will tend to reflect in its own makeup the complexity of the individuals it represents.  [30]   The challenge facing the theorists of Indian secularism is therefore to devise an answer to the problem of intolerant religions. If one or more religions in a pluralistic society preach their unwillingness to co-exist with the others, and insist on religion as the unitary framework for individual, society, and state, how do we define a secular regime for such societies? No viable model of secularism can be built on terms defined by any one religious group even if it is the majority community, especially so since its mode of toleration has historically included absorption, subjugation and marginalisation of religious minorities. The Indian democracy provides mechanisms, available in a secular democracy, to temper extremism and intolerance inherent in most religions; it leads diverse religious communities, especially the Hindu majority, to accept that the well being of all human beings consists in respecting the others religious and civil rights, particularly that of minorities. Many critics  [31]  reject secularism as radically alien to Indian culture and tradition and advocate a return to genuine religion and the indigenous traditions of religious tolerance as the best means to preserve a pluralist and multireligious Indian society. On the contrary Nehruvian theory suggests that democracy would have never been possible in a non-secular India. Nehru claims that if democracy requires a minimum consensus about the basic values and institutions of society and the rules of the political game, then such a consensus could not have been built on a religious basis in a pluralist nation like India.  [32]  This fact is clearly reflected in the failure and subsequent removal of the communal electorate system in the wake of Indias independence. Whether India is a sufficiently secular state and whether circumstances are favourable for the survival of secularism depends ultimately upon the readiness and ability of its people to maintain an autonomous political community. The challenges of casteism, communalism and religious fundamentalism involving separatism in India are the major threats to our Secular state. They weaken the working and stability of our democratic secular Federal state and militate against the basic principles governing our national life and providing means to our new identity. Communal riots and caste carnage has to stop if India has to emerge as a secular and democratic polity. Large-scale communal riots broke out in India after the demolition of Babri Masjid by the Sangh Parivar in Ayodhya . Both Hindus and Muslims were killed in the communal backlash that followed. The attacks on Christians in Orissa and Gujarat made headlines in electronic and print media. The grouse of the Sangh Parivar is that the Muslims had demolished their temples, humiliated Hindus during Muslim rule and partitioned India and thus justified their animosity and attacks on Muslims. The Godhra and Post-Godhra incidents pointed to the absence of political sanity in Gujarat. Nothing could represent a more provocative insult to the national commitment to communal harmony and pluralist co-existence than Narendra Modis repeated taunts of the Muslim minority people of his own state, his insinuations that they are susceptible to the supposedly adventurous designs of Pakistan and his final desperate suggestion that if the opposition Congress wins the election, it would represent a victory for Pakistan. The terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on December 13,2001, was unprecedented not only in the history of India but also in the annals of democracy in the world. It manifests utter disregard and contempt for parliamentary democracy by Pakistan which only can boast of a military democracy. Thus it is evident that during the last 60 years of independence, India has witnessed both successes and failures in running the secular democratic processes. It has evolved a lasting secular constitution, a viable political system and a functional federal secular polity and with strong democratic traditions on the one hand, but on the other hand it has also garnered several communal riots and caste wars. However, it is politics, which proved to be divisive and not religion. It is not religious leaders by and large (with few exceptions) who divide but politicians who seek to mobilise votes on grounds of primordial identities like relig