U.S. election procedure...for those who think Obama has won the election !!

TYPES OF ELECTION:

1. A primary election is a nominating election in which the field of candidates who will run in the general election is chosen. Victory in a primary usually results in a candidate being nominated or endorsed by a political party for the general election.

Barrack Obama won the primary election among Democrats.
John McCaine won the primary among Republicans.

**For those of you who thought Obama won the U.S. election, the real action hasn't even
started.**

1. A general election is an election held to choose among candidates nominated in a primary (or by convention, caucus or petition) for federal, state and/or local office. The purpose of a general election is to make a final choice among the various candidates who have been nominated by parties or who are running as independents (not affiliated with a major political party) or, in some cases, write-in candidates. Measures such as proposed legislation (referendums), bond issues (approving the borrowing of money for public projects) and other mandates on government also can be placed on the ballot.
2. In addition, many states provide for special elections, which can be called at any time, to serve a specific purpose, such as filling an unexpected vacancy in an elected office.

What is a convention?

Conventions are meetings sponsored by political parties for members of the party to discuss issues, candidates and campaign strategies. These meetings can last several days.In presidential elections, after state primaries are concluded, each party holds a national convention to formally select the presidential nominee – usually the candidate who secured the support of the most convention delegates, based on victories in primary elections. Typically, the presidential nominee then chooses a running mate to be the party's candidate for vice president.

The Democratic National Convention will be in Denver on August 25-28, 2008.
The Republican National Convention will be in St. Paul, Minnesota, September 1-4, 2008.


What is a caucus?

A caucus is a meeting at the local level in which registered members of a political party in a city, town or county gather to express support for a candidate. For statewide or national offices, those recommendations are combined to determine the state party nominee. Caucuses, unlike conventions, involve many separate meetings held simultaneously at multiple locations. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have their own rules governing caucuses. Those rules vary from state to state.


SCHEDULING ELECTIONS

When are general elections held?

They are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. The 2008 general election will be held on November 4.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is the group of citizens designated by the states to cast votes for the president and vice president on behalf of state citizens. The process for selecting electors varies from state to state, but usually the political parties nominate electors at state party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee. The voters in each state, by casting votes for president and vice president, choose the electors on the day of the general election. The Electoral College, not the popular vote, elects the president, but the two votes are tied closely.

How does the Electoral College elect the president?

The Electoral College system gives each state the same number of electoral votes as it has members of Congress. The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electoral votes. There are a total of 538 votes in the Electoral College; a candidate for president must get 270 to win (a simple majority). All but two states have a winner-take-all system, in which the candidate who gets the most popular votes in the state is allocated all of the state's electoral votes.

Let me explain....

popular votes...the vote count of citizens of the state.

electoral votes...no. of representatives from that state in congress...District of Columbia has 3

Now, the candidate winning more popular votes is awarded all the electoral votes of that state i.e. whoever gets more popular votes in D.C. is awarded 3 votes.

All over the country there are 538 electoral votes and 270 are needed for simple majority.

If no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution provides for the presidential election to be decided by the House of Representatives. In such situations, the House selects the president by majority vote, choosing from the three candidates who received the greatest number of electoral votes. Each state would cast one vote.

For more....

http://uspolitics.america.gov/uspolitics/elections/index.html?gclid=CJTw4JrtqZECFRsgewodfEOxfQ

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GSM vs CDMA

GSM

Advantages of 2G GSM

* GSM has more stable network with robust features.
* Less signal deterioration inside buildings.
* Ability to use repeaters.
* Higher talktime in GSM phones due to the pulse nature of transmission.
* The availability of Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) allows users to switch networks
and handsets.
* GSM covers virtually all parts of the world so international roaming is not a problem.
* Much bigger number of subscribers globally creates a better network effect for GSM
handset makers, carriers and end users.

Disadvantages of 2G GSM

* Pulse nature of TDMA transmission used in 2G interferes with some electronics, especially
certain audio amplifiers. 3G uses W-CDMA now.
* Intellectual property is concentrated among a few industry participants, creating barriers to
entry for new entrants and limiting competition among phone manufacturers.
* GSM has a fixed maximum cell site range of 35 km, which is imposed by technical limitations

CDMA

Advantages of CDMA

* Capacity is CDMA's biggest asset; it can accommodate more users per MHz of bandwidth
than any other technology.
* Has no built-in limit to the number of concurrent users.
* Uses precise clocks that do not limit the distance a tower can cover.
* Consumes less power and covers large areas so cell size in CDMA is larger.
* Able to produce a reasonable call with lower signal (cell phone reception) levels.
* Uses soft handoff, reducing the likelihood of dropped calls.
* CDMA's variable rate voice coders reduce the rate being transmitted when speaker is not
talking, which allows the channel to be packed more efficiently.
* Has a well-defined path to higher data rates.

Disadvantages of CDMA

* Most technologies are patented and must be licensed.
* Breathing of base stations, where coverage area shrinks under load. As the number of
subscribers using a particular site goes up, the range of that site goes down.
* Because CDMA towers interfere with each other, they are normally installed on much
shorter towers. Because of this, IS-95 may not perform well in hilly terrain.
* CDMA covers a smaller portion of the world, and CDMA phones are generally unable to
roam internationally.
* Manufacturers are often hesitant to release CDMA devices due to the smaller market, so
features are sometimes late in coming to CDMA devices.
* Even barring subsidy locks, CDMA phones are linked by ESN to a specific network, thus
phones are typically not portable across providers.

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CDMA....alternative to GSM

• Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), is the first CDMA-based digital cellular standard pioneered by Qualcomm. The brand name for IS-95 is cdmaOne.
• CDMA or "code division multiple access" is a digital radio system that transmits streams of bits (PN Sequences). On the other hand GSM uses TDMA "time division multiple access"
• CDMA permits several radios to share the same frequencies. Unlike TDMA "time division multiple access", a competing system used in 2G GSM, all radios can be active all the time, because network capacity does not directly limit the number of active radios.
• Since larger numbers of phones can be served by smaller numbers of cell-sites, CDMA-based standards have a significant economic advantage over TDMA-based standards, or the oldest cellular standards that used frequency-division multiplexing.

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mobile communication…understand the standards..

GSM / UMTS (3GPP) Family

GSM (2G) GPRS EDGE (EGPRS) EDGE Evolution CSD HSCSD

UMTS (3G) HSPA HSDPA HSUPA HSPA+ UMTS-TDD TD-CDMA TD-SCDMA FOMA

UMTS Rev. 8 (Pre-4G) LTE HSOPA (Super 3G)

CDMA (3GPP2) Family

cdmaOne (2G)

CDMA2000 (3G) EV-DO

UMB (Pre-4G)

AMPS Family

AMPS (1G) TACS / ETACS

D-AMPS (2G)

Other Technologies

Pre Cellular PTT MTS IMTS AMTS OLT MTD Autotel / PALM ARP

1G NMT Hicap CDPD Mobitex DataTAC

2G iDEN PDC CSD PHS WiDEN

Pre-4G iBurst HIPERMAN WiMAX WiBro GAN (UMA)

Channel Access Methods FDMA OFDMA TDMA SSMA CDMA

Frequency bands Cellular GSM UMTS PCS SMR

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GSM…we all use it 24×7....

Global System for Mobile communications (GSM: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world.

• Its ubiquity makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world.
• GSM differs from its predecessors in that both signalling and speech channels are digital, and thus is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.
• This has also meant that data communication was easy to build into the system.
• GSM standard has been an advantage to both consumers (who benefit from the ability to roam and switch carriers without switching phones) and also to network operators (who can choose equipment from any of the many vendors implementing GSM^[4]
• GSM also pioneered a low-cost alternative to voice calls, the Short message service (SMS, also called “text messaging”).
• Release ‘97 of the standard added packet data capabilities, by means of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).
• Release ‘99 introduced higher speed data transmission using Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).
• Now the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications are being evolved based on (GSM) specifications. 3GPP standardization encompasses Radio, Core Network and Service architecture.
• CDMA is an alternative technology to GSM. 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) specifications are based on CDMA specifications.

GSM association’s website…http://www.gsmworld.com/index.shtml

More in future posts.

Plzz comment and discuss.

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GDP…indian economy

The economy of India, measured in USD exchange-rate terms, is the twelfth largest in the world, with a GDP in excess of $1 trillion (2008). It recorded a GDP growth rate of 9.0% for the fiscal year 2007–2008 which makes it the second fastest big emerging economy, after China, in the world. At this rate of sustained growth many economists forecast that India would, over the coming decades, have a more pronounced economic effect on the world stage. Despite this phenomenal rate of growth, India’s large population has a per capita income of $4,542, measured by PPP, and $1,089, measured in nominal terms (revised 2007 estimate). The World Bank classifies India as a low-income economy.

GDP (PPP)	$5.21 trillion (PPP) (2008 est.)
GDP growth	9.6% (2006/07)
GDP per capita	$1,089 (nominal); $4,543 (PPP)
GDP by sector	agriculture: 19.9%, industry: 19.3%, services: 60.7% (2006 est.)

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Nominal/Real GDP

Alternative Approaches to Calculating GDP

There are three approaches to calculating GDP:

• expenditure approach - described above; calculates the final spending on goods and services.
• product approach - calculates the market value of goods and services produced.
• income approach - sums the income received by all producers in the country.

These three approaches are equivalent, with each rendering the same result.

Final Sales as a GDP Predictor

Note that an increase in inventory will increase the GDP but possibly result in a lower future GDP as the excess inventory is depleted. To eliminate this effect, the final sales can be calculated by subtracting the increase in inventory from GDP. The final sales can be either larger or smaller than GDP. The change in inventory is an important signal of the next period’s GDP.

Nominal GDP and Real GDP

Without any adjustment, the GDP calculation is distorted by inflation. This unadjusted GDP is known as the nominal GDP. In practice, GDP is adjusted by dividing the nominal GDP by a price deflator to arrive at the real GDP.

In an inflationary environment, the nominal GDP is greater than the real GDP. If the price deflator is not known, an implicit price deflator can be calculated by dividing the nominal GDP by the real GDP:

Implicit Price Deflator = Nominal GDP / Real GDP

The composition of this deflator is different from that of the consumer price index in that the GDP deflator includes government goods, investment goods, and exports rather than the traditional consumer-oriented basket of goods.

GDP usually is reported each quarter on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.

GDP Growth

Countries seek to increase their GDP in order to increase their standard of living. Note that growth in GDP does not result in increased purchasing power if the growth is due to inflation or population increase. For purchasing power, it is the real, per capita GDP that is important.

While investment is an important factor in a nation’s GDP growth, even more important is greater respect for laws and contracts.

GDP versus GNP

GDP measures the output of goods and services within the borders of the country. Gross National Product (GNP) measures the output of a nation’s factors of production, regardless of whether the factors are located within the country’s borders. For example, the output of workers located in another country would be included in the workers’ home country GNP but not its GDP. The Gross National Product can be either larger or smaller than the country’s GDP depending on the number of its citizens working outside its borders and the number of other country’s citizens working within its borders.

In the United States, the Gross National Product (GNP) was used until the early 1990’s, when it was changed to GDP in order to be consistent with other nations.

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GDP…expenditure approach....calculation

The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is one of the measures of national income and output for a given country’s economy. GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year). It is also considered the sum of value added at every stage of production (the intermediate stages) of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, and it is given a money value.

Expenditure approach

The most common approach to measuring and understanding GDP is the expenditure method:

GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports), or,
GDP = C + I + G + (X-M)

“Gross” means depreciation of capital stock is not subtracted. If net investment (which is gross investment minus depreciation) is substituted for gross investment in the equation above, then the formula for net domestic product is obtained.

The components of GDP

Each of the variables C, I, G and XM (where GDP = C + I + G + (X-M) as above)

• C is private consumption in the economy. This includes most personal expenditures of households such as food, rent, medical expenses and so on but does not include new housing.
• I is defined as investments by business or households in capital. Examples of investment by a business include construction of a new mine, purchase of software, or purchase of machinery and equipment for a factory. Spending by households on new houses is also included in Investment. In contrast to its colloquial meaning, ‘Investment’ in GDP does not mean purchases of financial products. Buying financial products is classed as ’saving’, as opposed to investment. The distinction is (in theory) clear: if money is converted into goods or services, it is investment; but, if you buy a bond or a share of stock, this transfer payment is excluded from the GDP sum. That is because the stocks and bonds affect the financial capital which in turn affects the production and sales which in turn affects the investments. So stocks and bonds indirectly affect the GDP. Although such purchases would be called investments in normal speech, from the total-economy point of view, this is simply swapping of deeds, and not part of real production or the GDP formula.
• G is the sum of government expenditures on final goods and services. It includes salaries of public servants, purchase of weapons for the military, and any investment expenditure by a government. It does not include any transfer payments, such as social security or unemployment benefits.
• X is gross exports. GDP captures the amount a country produces, including goods and services produced for other nations’ consumption, therefore exports are added.
• M is gross imports. Imports are subtracted since imported goods will be included in the terms G, I, or C, and must be deducted to avoid counting foreign supply as domestic.

* source of this article is wikipedia

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How India calculates Inflation….

Before rising inflation causes the downfall of the incumbent government, let’s have a look at the Indian system of calculating inflation.

Is inflation rising because of price rise in essential commodities? Or is it because of the erroneous method of calculating inflation?

Some economists assert that India’s method of calculating inflation is wrong as there are serious flaws in the methodologies used by the government.

So how does India calculate inflation? And how is it calculated in developed countries?

• India uses the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to calculate and then decide the inflation rate in the economy.
• Most developed countries use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate inflation.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

WPI was first published in 1902, and was one of the more economic indicators available to policy makers until it was replaced by most developed countries by the Consumer Price Index in the 1970s.

WPI is the index that is used to measure the change in the average price level of goods traded in wholesale market. In India, a total of 435 commodities data on price level is tracked through WPI which is an indicator of movement in prices of commodities in all trade and transactions. It is also the price index which is available on a weekly basis with the shortest possible time lag only two weeks. The Indian government has taken WPI as an indicator of the rate of inflation in the economy.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

CPI is a statistical time-series measure of a weighted average of prices of a specified set of goods and services purchased by consumers. It is a price index that tracks the prices of a specified basket of consumer goods and services, providing a measure of inflation.

CPI is a fixed quantity price index and considered by some a cost of living index. Under CPI, an index is scaled so that it is equal to 100 at a chosen point in time, so that all other values of the index are a percentage relative to this one.

India is the only major country that uses a wholesale index to measure inflation. Most countries use the CPI as a measure of inflation, as this actually measures the increase in price that a consumer will ultimately have to pay for.

CPI is the official barometer of inflation in many countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Canada, Singapore and China. The governments there review the commodity basket of CPI every 4-5 years to factor in changes in consumption pattern.

WPI does not properly measure the exact price rise an end-consumer will experience because, as the same suggests, it is at the wholesale level.

he main problem with WPI calculation is that more than 100 out of the 435 commodities included in the Index have ceased to be important from the consumption point of view.

India constituted the last WPI series of commodities in 1993-94; but has not updated it till now that economists argue the Index has lost relevance and can not be the barometer to calculate inflation.

But why is India not switching over to the CPI method of calculating inflation?

Finance ministry officials point out that there are many intricate problems from shifting from WPI to CPI model.

First of all, they say, in India, there are four different types of CPI indices, and that makes switching over to the Index from WPI fairly ‘risky and unwieldy.’ The four CPI series are: CPI Industrial Workers; CPI Urban Non-Manual Employees; CPI Agricultural labourers; and CPI Rural labour.

Secondly, officials say the CPI cannot be used in India because there is too much of a lag in reporting CPI numbers. In fact, as of May 21, the latest CPI number reported is for March 2006.

The WPI is published on a weekly basis and the CPI, on a monthly basis.

And in India, inflation is calculated on a weekly basis.

The credit for this research goes to economists V Shunmugam and D G Prasad working with India’s largest commodity bourse — the Multi Commodity Exchange .

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Inflation and its calculation !!

Inflation is an upward movement in the average level of prices. Its opposite is deflation, a downward movement in the average level of prices. The boundary between inflation and deflation is price stability.

- Parkin & Bade

Inflation is caused by a combination of four factors:

1. The supply of money goes up.
2. The supply of other goods goes down.
3. Demand for money goes down.
4. Demand for other goods goes up.

Calculation…

The formula for calculating the Inflation Rate looks like this:

((B - A)/A)*100

So if exactly one year ago the Consumer Price Index was 178 and today the CPI is 185, then the calculations would look like this:

((185-178)/178)*100
or
(7/178)*100
or
0.0393*100

which equals 3.93% inflation over the sample year.

Consider the U.S. system…..

The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) is compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is based upon a 1982 Base of 100. A Consumer Price Index of 158 indicates 58% inflation since 1982, the commonly quoted inflation rate of say 3% is actually the change in the Consumer Price Index from a year earlier.

For more..keep checking the blog.

Some related links..

http://www.inflationdata.com/Inflation/

http://www.bls.gov/CPI/ /* homepage of U.S. CONSUMER PRICE INDEX */

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_rate

For inflation in India wait for my next post….

Plzz comment and discuss….

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