Recycling of biological waste for local production of vegetables in Research Paper

Recycling of biological waste for local production of vegetables in Nairobi, Kenya - Research Paper Example These foci include: identifying locally relevant options; optimization of composting processes; organization of any waste handling that occurs; the homogeneity and safety of the generated products; and acceptance of the generated products by end users. Here it will be analyzed what roles soil, plants, and oxygen play in composting in rural communities such as the one described here. Usually, what happens with soil is that the moisture in composting tends to have various gases that are eliminated into the air due to organic elements having been introduced into the soil. â€Å"The moisture content of casts is an important driving force controlling the direction of nitrification–denitrification process, thus in dry– wet cycles, increases and decreases in ammonium and nitrate contents, respectively, may occur. Therefore, the decreases in water content of casts over time may favour the predomination of nitrification processes† (Aira, Monroy, & Dominguez, 2005, pp. 470 ). Additionally, plant life is especially important to composting organic elements within the soil. â€Å"The root basis of plants with an age of more than three years are places of ‘retreat’ for earthworms during the dry season when the soil completely dries out up to a depth of 1 meter and more†¦Within this rotting material, small numbers of epigeic living earthworms can be found† (Bierwirth, 2001, pp. 3). Oxygen is also a very important element in the composting process. â€Å"The results [of this study] are relevant to the supply of oxygen†¦to sediments for the phytopurification of waste waters, to the efflux of methane and carbon dioxide from wetlands, and to rice cultivation† (Armstrong & Armstrong, 2001, Abstract). II. Objectives (100 words) The main focus of the research proposal is much in the direction of safe handling of urban wastes, the processing and the quality of the end product as a soil amendment. As mentioned, the work is plann ed to take place in Nairobi. Some of the recent work on urban agriculture and waste recycling will be analyzed. This includes knowing what steps are necessary to take in composting, and how current research has helped inform the approach that will be taken. It is hoped that, with this research, third-world composting in rural Africa will become more widely-accepted and widely-adopted all over. III. Research Questions (1,250 words) Research Questions (50 words) Research questions include the following: a) What are locally relevant options? B) How can composting processes be optimized? c) How is waste handling organized? How homogenous and safe are the generated products? and d) What is the acceptance of the end products by the public? a. Locally Relevant Options for Vegetable Production in Nairobi (300 words) Locally relevant options include trying to control pests. Pests can affect crops, which can then make the problem of yield losses worse, when trying to produce cash crops. †Å"[P]ests may affect yield loss independently in natural farming, but in conventional paddies, multiple pest injury may interact synergistically, compounding yield loss† (Andow & Hidaka, 1998, Abstract). Another locally relevant option for vegetable production in Nairobi might be testing the soil. It is important to know what type of soil is being used for which

Brand plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Brand plan - Essay Example ark of international quality, a brand that can be used as a yard-stick in daily jargon to compare excellence in product through flawless craftsmanship. Every Rolex watch tells the tale of an instrument that passes through a series of stringent tests in the manufacturing units supplemented by individual care in making sure it truly represents this undisputed royal watch brand. â€Å"Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols† (Khurana, 2010) There are many reasons why Rolex is positioned in the market the way it is. It was a pioneer in the invention of wrist watches through the skill of its co-founder Wildorf in innovating Oyster waterproof case and screw crown. Rolex has many â€Å"first† which account for its â€Å"father-figure†, aristocratic and near-Godly stature. Rolex manufactured watches were the first to come with Kew â€Å"A† test, a prestigious achievement in the early 1900s that deemed it to be perfect in time keeping. Again, Rolex watches were the first to have â€Å"perpetual self winding rotor mechanism† that kept the watch at optimal tension and wound on its own at the slightest movement of the wrist. (Rolex.com, 2012) The watch and jewellery market is huge at the global level with international brands like Rado, Tag Heuger, Citizen, Gucci, Jaeger-LeCoulture, Schwarzkopf, Breitling, Victorinox (Swiss Army), Cartlier, Omega, Tissot, Movado, ESQ, Edward Mirell, marahlago, David Vurman, John Hardy, Roberto Coin, Ammolite, Llardo, Marco Bicego, Honora, Yvel, Tudor etc. Even though these watches make up for them mid-range watch and jewellery market they compete to a certain extent with Rolex to get a share of the larger customer base who are not Rolex loyalists. Rolex has numerous competitors in the 43.6 billion USD watch and jewellery industry. Rolex has released its Tudor in 1946 to eliminate stiff competition faced from mid-range wrist-watch brand like Tag Heuger and Rado. Its model categories: Prince, Princess, Monarch and Sport entered

Disability Definitions Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Disability Definitions Analysis - Research Paper Example IDEA defines what these disabilities are, and who is eligible to receive education based on their unique needs. This paper will look into some of the descriptions of the disabilities under the IDEA, and what characteristics and features are in place to identify these individual needs. Learning disability: Under the IDEA, this is a disorder where normal psychological processes involved in the using of language, or understanding are able to manifest in a manner that fosters an imperfect inability to either think or listen. In the IDEA definition, there is the inclusion of conditions that count as learning disabilities. These include: brain injury the student may have, brain dysfunction, dyslexia (reading disability), and/or perceptual disabilities (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2001). However, learning difficulties, for example, emotional disturbance and economic disadvantages, do not fall under this definition. Mental retardation: Under IDEA, this is the lack of cognitive abilities. This means that these individuals face limitations when it comes to social skills, taking care of themselves, and issues with communication. Students with mental retardation are typically slower than the rest of the students. These cognitive disabilities render the student much slower when it comes to speech. They also have problems taking care of their personal needs while in school (Burns, 2006). Emotional behavioural disturbance: Under the IDEA’s definition, it is a condition that renders a child with sub average intellectual functioning. This is a disability that cannot be explained by health or intellectual factors. The presence of some factors over a long period might indicate that a student is incapable of maintaining a steady educational environment. Deficits in adaptive behaviour, according to the act, affect the child, hence affecting their educational environment (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2007). In learning disabilities, there are no factors that affect the student from the

Brand plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Brand plan - Essay Example ark of international quality, a brand that can be used as a yard-stick in daily jargon to compare excellence in product through flawless craftsmanship. Every Rolex watch tells the tale of an instrument that passes through a series of stringent tests in the manufacturing units supplemented by individual care in making sure it truly represents this undisputed royal watch brand. â€Å"Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols† (Khurana, 2010) There are many reasons why Rolex is positioned in the market the way it is. It was a pioneer in the invention of wrist watches through the skill of its co-founder Wildorf in innovating Oyster waterproof case and screw crown. Rolex has many â€Å"first† which account for its â€Å"father-figure†, aristocratic and near-Godly stature. Rolex manufactured watches were the first to come with Kew â€Å"A† test, a prestigious achievement in the early 1900s that deemed it to be perfect in time keeping. Again, Rolex watches were the first to have â€Å"perpetual self winding rotor mechanism† that kept the watch at optimal tension and wound on its own at the slightest movement of the wrist. (Rolex.com, 2012) The watch and jewellery market is huge at the global level with international brands like Rado, Tag Heuger, Citizen, Gucci, Jaeger-LeCoulture, Schwarzkopf, Breitling, Victorinox (Swiss Army), Cartlier, Omega, Tissot, Movado, ESQ, Edward Mirell, marahlago, David Vurman, John Hardy, Roberto Coin, Ammolite, Llardo, Marco Bicego, Honora, Yvel, Tudor etc. Even though these watches make up for them mid-range watch and jewellery market they compete to a certain extent with Rolex to get a share of the larger customer base who are not Rolex loyalists. Rolex has numerous competitors in the 43.6 billion USD watch and jewellery industry. Rolex has released its Tudor in 1946 to eliminate stiff competition faced from mid-range wrist-watch brand like Tag Heuger and Rado. Its model categories: Prince, Princess, Monarch and Sport entered

Why poverty was re-discovered in Britain in the late 1950s and early Essay

Why poverty was re-discovered in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960 - Essay Example Britain’s share of world trade fell from 13.9% to 10.8% during this time. Taxation increased from 32% of GDP to 43% of GDP. Economic planning had failed and this failure precluded major social planning despite the fact that some social reforms such as the launch of comprehensive education, reorganization of public transport, development in health and local government. Abel-Smith and Townsend are credited with the "rediscovery of poverty" in the 1960’s: noticed that certain categories such as, families with children on low incomes and retired couples often lived in difficult circumstances. The definition of poverty adopted by Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend in their 1965 study, was the concept of â€Å"The Poor and the Poorest†. They concluded that "poverty was entirely a relative concept," and defined households to be in, or at the margins of, poverty if their income was less than "140 percent of the then current National Assistance scale plus rent". In 1960, 17.9% of households lived below this relative poverty standard. An unknown, but significantly smaller, share of the population had incomes below the "physical efficiency" or "human needs" poverty lines. (Ian Gazeley, Poverty in Britain 1900-1965) There was a strong case for saying that socially deprived families are frequently found in confined geographical areas identifiable by certain physical and social characteristics. Examples of these characteristics: geographical location, "twilight zones" near a city’s business area; areas populated by immigrants; overcrowded and poor amenities, Victorian housing stock; areas with a high percentage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers; higher than average proportions of families on State benefits; higher than normal percentage of large families; large number of fatherless families; areas with little play space and recreational facilities; areas with poorer health; high percentage of child deprivation and delinquency.

Electronic Signatures Essay Example for Free

Electronic Signatures Essay As compared to paper based signatures there is an increased dependability on electronic signatures for an increased protection of documents and patient records in healthcare facilities. Thereby this paper will discuss an importance of electronic signatures in addition to the advantages that they have in order to be implemented in healthcare, business and e-commerce. Introduction Signature is more known as a script that has been designed by an individual and is associated with that very individual. Signatures in some cases have been associated with seals used for protection. In general, signatures are an evidence of the fact that all intentions made in a certain document have been approved by the individual signing it. Purposes of signatures are the same as that of normal and usual signatures as all intentions made in an electronic document are approved by an individual who undersigns a document with an electronic signature (Brazell, 2004, p. 23). Many definitions have been given in relation to the electronic signature. All in all these definitions highlight the fact that as compared to hand written signatures, electronic signatures are more protective and sealed thereby there is an increased reliability associated with electronic signatures. Defining Electronic Signatures First definition that needs a mention here is given by US Code. It defines an electronic signature as an electronic sound, or a symbol that represents documents in a unique way as these symbols are associated with these documents in a legal manner. According to this definition symbols are adopted and chosen by an individual who wishes to sign, seal and protect a document thereby making sure that all intentions are accepted by that very individual. The US code argues that the signatures can be embedded in transmissions of electronic documents observed during transmission of facsimiles. The electronic signature can also take the form of Morse code in case of electronic message transmission as the signs are embedded inside the message. Realizing an importance of the protective and sealing protection offered by electronic signatures, there is an increased use of encrypted electronic messages in fields that are more sensitive about integrity of documents thereby e-commerce, healthcare, government office are observed to frequently adopt the technology of electronic signatures (Schellekens, 2004, p. 56). Legal standing of these electronic signatures has been well established thereby the laws of EU and US recognize electronic signatures holding the same legal importance as ordinary signatures on documents. Legal issues and consequences that are associated with electronic signatures are same as normal and usual signatures. Historical Perspective of Electronic Signatures Electronic signatures have been known to exist since before the American Civil War. Electronic signatures date back to 1860s when electronically encrypted messages were being used by the help of Morse codes in telegraphy. Telegraphy in those days was used to send messages that were more secret and in agreements to terms that were presented in certain kinds of enforceable contracts. Legal standing of these electronic messages dates back to 1869 when an importance of these telegraphically encrypted documents was enforced by the New Hampshire Supreme Court (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, 2002, p. 78). In order to ensure protection, and time sensitive delivery of protected documents to safer places, in 1980s, many organizations started working on electronic signatures in order to encrypt documents. For encrypting highly sensitive documents, fax machines were used. Nevertheless in this case it has been seen that although original signatures used to be on the paper, but images of signatures and transmission used to be in an electronic format thereby ensuring increased protection. Recently it has been seen that various legal interventions have been made in order to enhance protection offered by electronic signatures. It has been added by the US courts that documents that can be protected and sealed by electronic signatures can include emails, PIN codes that are used for ATM transactions in banks, credit or debit sllip that needs to be protected by signing it with a digital pen pad device, installing kinds of software that comes with a clickwrap software license agreement along with documents that are often signed online that need enhanced protection. It has been recorded that the first document signed in an electronic way was between two sovereign nations, United States and Ireland in a communique that jointly recognized an importance of electronic signatures in trading and e-commerce (Katsikas, Lopez, and Pernul, 2005, p. 78). Enforcing Electronic Signatures United States has defined electronic signatures in legal ways and a set of requirements have been set that help in qualifying an electronic signatures as authentic. These requirements and qualifications of electronic signatures were designed by National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999 when this US based government organization released Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). UETA has defined electronic signatures as electronic symbols that are associated with a certain document in relation to which all intention have been accepted by the individual who owns and signs the particular document. There are many laws that echo core concepts of electronic signatures and these are also observed to be the same in U. S. ESign Act that was presented and implemented in the year of 2000. Many states in United States have been working on the laws and jurisdiction in relation to the electronic signatures and more than 47 states in United States along with the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands have enacted and have been using UETA in an active manner. Only three states as New York, Illinois and Washington have not enacted UETA. New York has designed its own rule that recognizes electronic signatures as legal and the law that represents these signatures is Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA) (Boss, and Kilian, 2008, p. 67). Other countries that have started assigning legal values to electronic signatures include Canada. The definition of electronic signatures given by Canadian legal authorities is generic and different from the one given by the US authorities. Generic definition of signature given by the Canadian Department Of Justice says that an electronic signature contains a chain of letters, symbols, and numbers encrypted in a digital format associated with a certain electronic document that belongs to an individual or a certain organization (Snijders, and Weatherill, 2003, p. 45). After this Canadian Department Of Justice has defined an electronic signature by arguing that electronic signature in contrast to normal signatures possess some distinct properties that define these signatures. Canadian law that talks about the digital signatures in accordance to the protection of electronic documents is PIPEDA. PIPEDAs secure electronic signature regulations argue that electronic signatures are those that are designed, applied and verified in a specific manner. European Union has also given its rules and regulations in accordance to the use of electronic signatures in document protection systems. These laws have been published in the EC Official Journal. These laws are referred to as the Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council while officially these are more often referred as the EU Directive on Electronic Signatures or the EU Electronic Signatures Directive. These were published on 13th December 1999 (Adams, and Lloyd, 2003, p. 78). Maintaining Legal Nature of Electronic Signatures Various laws and jurisdictions have been defined that help e-commerce and trade to incorporate the advantages of electronic signatures in daily business deals that can help in increased document protection. It has been realized that at a local and an international level there is a need to incorporate certain document protection systems that can help in easy working and trustworthy document sharing within different parties. 1. Definitions of PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) An electronic signature can be defined as being safe when a. It is unique to an individual b. Technology that is being used in order to generate signatures are under the control and only being used by the person who creates the signature thereby adding to the level of uniqueness. c. The technology being used to create signatures should be able to represent an individual who has created the signatures. d. The electronic signatures are to be linked with an electronic document in various ways. One way that has been defined by Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act argues that the electronic document should be able to identify, by the help of electronic signatures associated with it, if any changes have been made to this document after signatures were associated with the document originally (Kehal, and Singh, 2005, p. 78). 2. The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act This law was passed by the US congress in relation to the electronic signatures and this law has defined and authorized the electronic signatures in three steps. a. The term ‘electronic’ in electronic signatures has been highlighted as something that possesses digital, symbolic, magnetic, wireless, electromagnetic, electric properties. b. Electronic record on the other hand has been defined as a document, contract that has been generated, created, shared, discussed, and sent by using electronic means. c. Electronic signatures have been defined by The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act as an electronic sound, symbol or a process that is legally and authoritatively associated with a document created by an individual holding rights to create, sign and decrypt the document in any manner thereby ‘patenting’ the document (Pathak, 2007, p. 34). Other similar definitions have been given by the following acts that relate to the use of electronic signatures. a. Government Paperwork Elimination Act, US b. Federal Reserve 12 CFR 202 c. UETA d. Commodity Futures Trading Commission 17 CFR Part 1 Sec. 1. 3. Creation of Electronic Signatures: Public Key Infrastructures (PKI) Importance of electronic signatures has been realized since long as it has been seen that these are more important in protecting the legal status of documents in a comparative manner. Thereby secure and much complex ways have been identified that can define electronic signatures in ways that ensure their legal status in order to protect records. Creation of electronic signatures depends on asymmetrical cryptographic method. This method ensures that the kinds of protection status being encrypted in the document are only approachable by the person who creates the signatures on the document. Thereby two kinds of keys are used in this case and these are referred to as public and private cryptographic keys. The theoretical fundamentals and practicalities of the asymmetric cryptographic key were laid down in 1976 (Doukidis, Mylonopoulos, and Pouloudi, 2004, p. 79). In accordance to the theory and recent ways that have been developed for electronically signing a document, a number is calculated that represents the length of a document and this number is referred to as the checksum of a particular document. This checksum is calculated by using a hash function. This is the case where a private key is used which is more representative of the person signing the document. Thereby signature is represented by private key which in the end is attached to a document. This private key is thereby a signature of the document. Role of Public Key Another key that plays an important role in this case is a public key. An important that is played by a public key is that the signature’s and relevant document can be checked by the public key. Public key as the name indicates is freely and easily available to any individual within the public. Decryption of the electronic key is performed by the help of an electronic signature. Integrity Check An integrity check is an important part of electronic signature allocation. It has been seen that integrity of a document can be checked by recalculating the checksum number that was allocated to the document originally. As was done during the calculation of checksum, the recalculation of checksum is also done with the help of hash functions. Integrity of the document can be validated if the checksums are identical ensuring that the integrity of the document is intact (Rice, and American Bar Association, Section of Litigation, 2005, p. 78). Role of Certificates Public keys and cryptographic keys are the most important part of the electronic signature creation thereby there is a need of a system that can authorize the genuine nature of these keys. Both of these keys are authorized by a certificate. Certificates are specially created electronic documents that associate and connect the public key with the key holder’s identification data that in this case has to be unique. On the other hand in order to provide increased protection it has been observed that to ensure increased protection, certificates are also electronically signed by the certification providers that are also authorized. All these links and methodologies designed to sign the documents make sure that document is signed, encrypted and decrypted by using the public key only by the person who has created the document. Certification service providers play important roles as Trusted Third Party offering services other than certificates for protection of electronic documents. Certification service providers are known to provide a set of directory services that are also related to electronic documents. These are the services that bring the protection provided by the electronic signatures a step ahead. Directory services provide additional measures by which the certificates can be checked for authentication time by time. Advantages of Electronic Signatures These days there is a need to exchange business in a fast manner that requires and demands exchange of information including documents in a secure manner. It has been realized that exchanging information on a regular basis is more secure in an electronic manner rather on paper. 1. Electronic information takes lesser time to travel as compared to the paper based information thereby there is no time wasted (Mann, Eckert, and Knight, 2000, p. 67). 2. The cost of electronic signature based documents is only needed in the beginning of this setup and there are no additional costs required after its implementation. 3. Because of the electronic nature of documents, there is lesser involvement of human beings other than the ones that are directly involved ensuring security in case of these documents. 4. Because of an electronic nature of these documents there is a lesser chance of interruption and interference in electronic documents that increasingly ensures the protection of these documents. In terms of protection it has been observed that electronic signature based documents are more secure and protected as compared to paper based signatures. 1. In this case it has been argued that the electronic signatures are not able to be copied as compared to the normal paper based signatures and electronic signatures are implemented on the complete document rather than the last page. 2. In this case it has been observed that as electronic signatures are implemented on whole document thereby there are no chances of any text being maliciously changed in any part of the document. 3. Time stamping is the proof of transmission time of the document thereby transmission dates can be cross checked in order to check the legal status of the document. 4. Additional restrictions can be imposed on the message content in electronically signed documents. It has been observed that with the consent of the document holder and creator, reader can read and verify the contents of the document (Katsikas, Lopez, and Pernul, 2005, p. 45). Other than these, additional advantages that are offered by the electronically signed documents include streamlining businesses and trade globally and on a local scale. Business chains are better connected when paper documents are removed having a much better control on business with the help of electronic documents. 1. Increased cost are associated with typing documents and sending these through courier and these costs are reduced in case of electronic documents that take lesser time to be emailed and fixed. 2. In case of signing the contracts an important issue used to deal with signing the contracts which is resolved by electronic signature based reinforce bale contracts that are signed anywhere. Electronic Signatures Usage in Medial Healthcare Records Healthcare in the modern days is recognized by an increase in the specialization of medical specialization. In order to ensure that patient care process is optimized there is an increased cooperation and data exchange between different healthcare institutions. Thereby it has been observed that in order to ensure timely, cost effective and economic patient care, often known as shared care, there is a need to increasingly exchange information with healthcare institutions and medical facilities. The kinds of patient record systems that are adopted these days are increasingly dependent upon the data exchange. On the other hand it has been realized that there are many shortcomings associated with paper based documents that have been also held responsible for a decreased efficiency of healthcare institutions, thereby there is an increased adoption of electronic signatures on the documents (Boss, and Kilian, 2008, p. 38). In order to ensure that all heath care operations undergo in a proper, streamlined and a secure manner there is a need to implement the technology of electronic signatures to the field of healthcare. Paper based signatures are time consuming and are less protecting as compared to electronic signatures thereby in the field of healthcare, document authenticity is a critical business operation. There is a set of documents that are in a need to be protected in face of infringements and these documents include patient records, physician diagnosis, order, bills and payments. Thereby based on the set of advantages that have been highlighted in the previous sections healthcare facilities in different countries have started to implement electronic signatures. Recently there are many changes in United States health departments in order to implement electronic signatures based documents. It has been recently reported that regulations have been passed and implemented by the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to implement electronic signatures on medical prescriptions that are of electronic nature in order to ensure that original prescriptions are checked on the counters of pharmacies rather than cooked ones. Another law that has been passed by the Veteran’s Health Administration relates to the consent forms that are signed by the patients. In order to protect these forms, protection is being ensured by the implementation of electronic signatures on these forms. In healthcare administration various standards have been defined that link important records and documents with encrypted signatures. Recently a standard has been defined that helps in an authentication of medical records of the patients, an ASTM standard. In order to electronically sign the radiological images, DICOM standard have been used and are in practice. Most of the documents in medical centers and healthcare institutions are related to signatures, including signatures from families, patients and physicians. Thereby after the creation of these documents it is important that these documents are protected and sealed by the help of electronic signatures. Successes of document security solution lies in the fact of creating documents that are electronically signed thereby are digitally protected. These protection measures have also been considered important in the case of offline and online business, e-commerce (Adams, and Lloyd, 2003, p. 24). Conclusion Internationally accepted standards have been defined that can help in securing the documents in a better manner. In case of healthcare it has been seen that there is an increased dependency on a long term archiving of patient records as soon as these are created and passed on to the other facilities. International standards have been used to define the signatures in accordance to the advantages that they ensure, as DICOM, XML, and HL7. In addition to this it has been argued that there is an increased integration of PKIs in healthcare services as these are designed in accordance to the legislations that have been designed in order to ensure document protection. References Adams, C. , and Lloyd, S. (2003). Understanding PKI: concepts, standards, and deployment; considerations, Technology series. Edition 2. Addison-Wesley. Boss, H. A. , and Kilian, W. (2008). The United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. Kluwer Law International. Brazell, L. (2004). Electronic signatures law and regulation. Sweet Maxwell. Doukidis, I. G. , Mylonopoulos, N. , and Pouloudi, N. (2004). Social and economic transformation in the digital era. Idea Group Inc (IGI). Katsikas, K. S. , Lopez, J. ,and Pernul, G. (2005). Trust, privacy, and security in digital business: second international conference, TrustBus 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 22-26, 2005:proceedings, Lecture notes in computer science, Springer eBook collection. Birkhauser. Kehal, S. H. , and Singh, P. V. (2005). Digital economy: impacts, influences, and challenges. Idea Group Inc (IGI). Mann, L. C. , Eckert, E. S. , and Knight, C. S. (2000). Global electronic commerce: a policy primer. Peterson Institute. Pathak. (2007). Legal Aspects Of Business. Edition 3. Tata McGraw-Hill. Rice, R. P. , and American Bar Association. Section of Litigation. (2005). Electronic evidence: law and practice. American Bar Association. Schellekens, M. (2004). Electronic signatures: authentication technology fro

The Elevator And Escalator Industry In Sri Lanka Economics Essay

The Elevator And Escalator Industry In Sri Lanka Economics Essay I am employed at ETA MELCO ENGINEERING (PTE) LTD for the past one year and Im currently working as the Human Resource Executive. My company is a fully owned subsidiary of ETE MELCO Elevator Co. L.L.C. and has its head office in Dubai, U.A.E. which belongs to the ETA STAR GROUP OF COMPANIES. We represent Mitsubishi Elevators and Escalators in Sri Lanka and our activities cover the marketing, supply, installation and maintenance of all types of Mitsubishi Elevators, Escalators, Moving Walks and Vertical transportation equipment. Mitsubishi Escalators and Elevators has earned a reputation as one of the most advanced Elevator and Escalator manufactures in the world, offering firsts in technology. Let analyze in detail the Elevator and Escalator Industry in Sri Lanka and the market my company belongs in relation to the economic context. About the Group Company ETA STAR Group was established in the early 1973 and is involved with expertise ranging from Civil Construction to Electro Mechanical, Facilities Management and Elevator Engineering. Today the ETA STAR group involves in activities that cover 16 broad industry verticals. Namely: Construction and Engineering, Trading, Shipping, Manufacturing and Assembly, Facilities Management, Auto Mobile, Real Estate, Retail, Services, Travel and Leisure, Health Care, Aviation, Learning and Education, Insurance, Hospitality, Oil and Natural Gas. The group has a network of 140 entities and offices in 22 countries. As a group we provide employment to over 72000 people. All group companies are guided through the group companys vision, Quality is our single-minded pursuit in the application of new technologies. In our wide ranging diversity, we innovate continuously as we strive to provide complete satisfaction to our customers and shareholders. We have emerged as one of the largest corporate houses duri ng the last 37 years of operations achieving excellence. A look at the Industry The Elevator and Escalator industry in Sri Lanka is highly depended on the construction industry. The construction industry in Sri Lanka comprises of building, highway, bridge, water supply and drainage, irrigation and land drainage, dredging and reclamation and other constructions. According to the annual survey carried out by construction industries, the total value of estimated work done by all types of construction activities in Sri Lanka was Rs. 56,496 million in 2007. The building construction sector was the highest contributor to the total value of work done contributing 64.1%. This contribution to the building construction sector was made by the private and public sector. The second largest contributor to the total value of work done in the construction industry was the highway construction amounting to 25.2% of the total value of work done. The highest value of work done was reported from Colombo district amounting to 37.2% of the total output. Hambanthota and Kaluthara Dist ricts contributed 11.3% and 6.2% accordingly. Jafna District reported the lowest value of work done amounting to 0.3% of the total output. A detail breakup constriction industry for the year 2007 is as follows: Source: Annual Survey of Construction Industries 2008 To evaluate on the industry of Elevator and Escalator lets analyze the detail break up of the building construction industry. Source: Annual Survey of Construction Industries 2008 Elevators and Escalators are mainly used in Sri Lanka for high and medium rise buildings that has being developed for residential apartments, hotels, shopping complexes and hospital buildings. The demand for elevator is based on the infra structure development in the above mentioned areas. Based on the interview I had with the Sales Manager he told me that the demand for elevators and escalators have being 238, 243, 219 and 171 for the years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. This clearly helps us to understand the sudden drop in the demand for elevators was due to the economic crisis that affected the constriction industry in our country in the mid 2008 and 2009. The estimated annual demand for elevators for the year 2010 is predicted to be 260 units. However the rapid development in the northern and southern province in the country after the 30 years of civil was is contributing favorably to the elevator and escalator market in Sri Lanka as many infra structure development programmes are presently taking place. Many of these projects are government owned. Population growth on the other hand too contributes immensely to the building construction industries. Due to scare resources such as land developers are compelled to put up high rise apartment buildings and complexes. Today even in the rural sector there are plans to up such building. Tourist industry too positively contributes to the elevator and escalator market as we need to develop many hotels and hotel apartments to keep up to the demand. Sri Lanka tourist board is presently focusing on areas such as Trincomalee and Puthalam in order to promote Dolphin, Wale watching and Surfing. Also areas such as Hambanthota, Jaffna, Baticalo are given preference. The Health care sector too in Sri Lanka gives high priority to the elevators and this is seeing as a sector that has been having a continual growth over the last decade. Overview of the Organization Taking into account the initial success achieved in the U.A.E. market in the early 1980s the ETA MELCO Elevator Co. L.L.C. set up branch office in Sri Lanka in the name ETA MELCO ENGINEERING (PTE) LTD and 20 other countries. The Sri Lankan construction industry proved to be during very well in the early 1980s and this influenced the management to set up operations in Sri Lanka to provide vertical transportation facilities as there was a huge demand for products such as elevators, escalators and moving walks and other related products for high rising buildings, hotels, hospitals, commercial buildings, residential apartments etc. These products are supplied by Mitsubishi Corporation. Popularly known as the Elevator People of Sri Lanka we have grown to be the biggest elevator specialist in the region enjoying a very high market share. We as a company are singularly focus on growth by keeping up with modern technological changes and advances. We have a fully fledge research and development team in Japan that keeps us updated with trends that suites the industry tomorrow. The phrase that brands our products, Quality in Motion is not just a catchy slogan but a statement of fact. We are driven by the continual evolution of technological improvement. The professionals of our company and through out the worlds practice Quality in Motion everyday. We not only pay emphasis to operational efficiency but also safety and comfort. We are embodied by our mantra Number one for Quality to ensure we exceed out customer requirements. The policies of Mitsubishi Electric has made all these possible while fostering the values necessary to harmonize our products and activities with the environment and local communities. These will vary based on customers requirement for capacity, speed, purpose, number of persons, number of stops (floors) etc. Refer appendix for more details on our product range. Market Share The industry leader in the Sri Lankan Elevator market is ETA MELCO ENGINEERING (PTE) LTD the agent for Mitsubishi Elevators in the country. We import Mitsubishi Elevators and Escalators under the HS code 84281010 Lifts and skip hoists. According to the import statistics details obtained from Data One Company our sales team analyzed the market share for the year 2009 based on the number of units ETA MELCO (Mitsubishi) secured as against its competitors. The data is as follows: With reference to the analysis carried out it could be said with much certainly that this industry belongs to the Oligopoly (Imperfect) Market Structure as it has a relatively small number of large firms. They sell differentiated products and comprise of significant entry barriers. Thus we have a few key industry players like Otis, Sanyo, Sigma, Dipra, Schindler, Johnson, Kone and Local Fabrications who deal with Elevators and Escalators in Sri Lanka. Hence we export only three types of products Elevators, Escalators and Moving Walks. We are the only local company that exports these products from Mitsubishi we have better access to architects, clients, contractors, government authorities and other developers due to the good name we maintain in safety, comfort, efficiency and superior quality. Nevertheless this industry is highly competitive as all the few players on average have to meet a demand of 175 200 elevators for a year. This leads to sever competition. We have to keep a breast of the ever changing technological advances and we need to convince our customer base on the modern products and modifications needed to existing products from time to time to avoid our products being modernized or serviced by out competitor companies. Taking in to account the over all market in to consideration ETA MELCO has grown from strength to strength enjoying the highest market share in this segment when compared to its competitors. The company has to now focus on promoting vertical transportation products such as Elevators, Escalators and Moving walkers by moving in to the northern and southern geographical areas of the country to remain as the market leader as many developments are taking place. The product alone is a luxury item and today the demand for Home elevators our becoming popular. The company also has it focus in coming up with more customized products to cater to the market. In Sri Lanka alone we have Home Elevators. Market Structures My findings indicate that this organization belongs to the Oligopoly (Imperfect) market structure since it highlights the following characteristics; Major industry players amounts to 9 competitors while there are few other mushroom companies that deals with maintenance of elevators and escalators. The firm is relatively large compared to the overall market and has a substantial degree of market control. In short there are small numbers of large firms. Firms in oligopolistic industries produce either identical or differentiated products. Identical product oligopolies also knows as perfect oligopolies produce tend to process raw materials or intermediate goods that are used as inputs in other industries. Notable examples are petroleum, steel and aluminum. On the other hand elevator and escalator falls into differentiated product oligopolies also knows as imperfect oligopolies focuses on consumer goods (mostly luxury) to satisfy the wide variety of consumer needs and wants. Barriers to entry prevail as the firm attain and retain market control. Patents, brand names, recognition, resource ownership, start-up cost, decreasing average cost are the most common barriers and the make it extremely difficult or impossible for potential firms to enter the industry. Oligopolistic firms are diverse and they posses several behavioral tendencies. The following behavioral characteristics were highlighted in my findings: Interdependency among firms as it takes in to account relative size and market control. This means that the actions of one firm will depend and make an influence on the actions of another firm. The firm keeps a close eye on the activities of the other firms in the industry. As a result the decisions made by one firm invariably affect others and are invariably affected by others. Thus a firms success will not only depend on its own action but also those of the competitor. A Rigid price strategy is followed by the firm that helps to keep the price relatively constant as the firm prefers to compete in other ways that does not involve changing the price. This is mainly because if price decreases the competitor will try to match the same and will not take in to consideration the increases in prices as the firms do not gain much from price changes. As the firm does not gain much from price competition they tend to follow non-price methods of competition which includes entry barriers, product differentiation and advertising, continuous improvement in quality, after sale services, effective distribution, guarantees as the firms objective is to get more buyers and simultaneously increase the market share while holding the line on price. Taking all firms in the industry I wish to emphasize that the firms operate in cooperation through collusion in an oligopoly market. The factories of the companies that manufacture elevator and escalators secretly agree on prices, production and other aspects in the market and behave like they are operating as one firm a monopoly. A formal method of collusion is cartel which is found among international produces. Operating in an Oligopoly (imperfect) market brings in two important advantages to the firm. It could be elaborated as follows: The firm tends to be a prime source for innovations that promotes advances in technology and economic growth. This leads to higher living standards. These firms have the motive and opportunity for innovation. Interdependent competition results in motive and access to abundant resuorses bring about opportunity. The firm is in a position to enjoy economies of scale as it leads to a reduction in the cost of production and prices. The firm can mass produce at a low average cost. Elevators and escalators will be more significantly expensive if they were produced by a large number of small firms that small number of large firms. Graphical Illustration of the Market Equilibrium A kinked demand curve is used to illustrate the short run production activity of an oligopolistic firm. To explain the price rigidity in an oligopolistic firm the kinked demand curve is used. The kink of the demand curve exists at the current quantity (Qpm) and current price (Ppm). This is because competitor firms will not match the increases in price as it will loose its customer base and market share. It is evident that a small increase in price will lead to a relatively large decrease in quantity demanded. Similarly any price decreases will be matched by competitor firms and the firms is unlikely to gain customers or market share. If a firm is to gain a small increase in quantity demanded a large decrease in price needs to take place. (This is not feasible to many firms) Conclusion With reference to my study on my organization ETA MELCO ENGINEERING (PTE) LTD I could state that we fall into Imperfect Oligopoly Market Structure. Hence I will use the following findings to justify my answer; There are small numbers of large firms (09 major industry players) in the elevator and escalator industry. The company sells a range of differentiated products to suit customer, client, architect, developers requirements and specifications taking in to account type of building, type of elevator/escalator, number of stops (floors), travel speed, capacity, and usage thus falling in to imperfect oligopoly without any doubt. Significant barriers to entry prevail due to brand name, recognition, start up cost, decreasing average cost, patent and resource ownership. Interdependency among firms exists. A rigid price structure is followed to keep price relatively constant. As any decrease in price will lead towards the same action from competitor thus affecting the companies customer base and market share. Also any price increases will lead to a reduction in quantity demanded thus affecting the customer base and market share. Due to the above reason the company follows non-price methods of competitions by promoting its brand image and reputation, quality products, customized products, guarantees, cost effective after sales services and product differentiation. The firm balances competition among others through cooperation. We can identify collusion as a method used in the elevator/escalator industry. Price cartels are experienced in the factories that produce elevator/ escalators. The company is heavily involved in innovations that promote advances in technology and economic growth. The main factory of the company enjoys economies of scale through mass production thus leading to low average cost. Finally giving all reasons, arguments and justification above like to conclude that ETA MELCO ENGINEERIN (PTE) LTD is operating in an Imperfect Oligopolistic Market Structure.