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D. Murali

MOST customers of banks have little knowledge of where their deposits get deployed, or how the mangers measure risks in lending. Bank Financial Management, from the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (www.iibf.org.in) and Taxmann (www.taxmann.com), explains the broad areas such as strategic planning for 3-5 years; performance planning as a progress report; management of credit, market and operating risks; treasury operations to control liquidity, handle off-balance-sheet risk, and help price loans; profitability measurement at branch, product and customer levels; financial, cost and management accounting; tax planning and compliance; and internal control systems.

An interesting exhibit is of the bank profitability model, depicting a bunch of ratios. The last chapter is on `valuation of bank stocks', something that you'd find as necessary input when many banks are in the IPO queue.

Useful read to answer the very questions you always wanted to ask but were afraid of asking your banker.

PURA futura!

PROVIDING Urban Amenities in Rural Areas is the subject matter of Dr Kalam's PURA Model and Societal Transformation, edited by P. Jegadish Gandhi, from Deep and Deep Publications (ddpbooks@yahoo.co.in). PURA is a multiple-connectivity approach, explains the First Citizen in one of the papers included in the book. As against conventional city that is rectangular in shape, he visualises a ring shaped town integrating a minimum of 10-15 villages. It would need one transportation route, half as long as that needed for the old design, he explains. Also, frequency gets doubled, waiting time halved, costs reduce and convenience increased. A triad of physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity brings forth economic connectivity too "through small-scale industries, agro and food processing, warehouses, micro power plants, renewable energy and village markets."

No fantasy, because there're already success stories that have the PURA aura!

Beauty is but skin deep

SUDHA Murty's Mahashwetha, from EastWest Books (ewb@touchtelindia.net) is dedicated to all those women "who suppress their emotions and suffer silently because they have leukoderma, which is just a `cosmetic' disease." Here's a snatch from the book, where Anupama asks suddenly, "Doctor, how do you define beauty?" And Vasant manages to answer: "Look at these flowers. They come in so many different colours, sizes and fragrances. Look at the sky. It has so many shades of blue. Look at the birds. They are so different from one another. No artist can paint such colour combinations. But humans think they know all about beauty. They don't understand that external beauty is short-lived. Even the most beautiful people change so much as they grow older." Good read.

16 kg sugar and 500 gm tea

AT nearly 100 million tonnes, vegetables are twice as much as fruits in production. Tourist arrivals to India add to 0.34 of world share. There are 71 government approved five-star deluxe hotels with 16,240 rooms. Mauritius ranks top in FDI inflows, followed by the US. There are 18.71 lakh employees in Central Government enterprises, and average emolument is Rs 2.24 lakh. Size of the insurance market is Rs 77,424 crore. There are 4.3 lakh ayurveda practitioners, while homoeopaths are less than half that number. We consume 16.3 kg sugar per annum, but tea is just about half a kilo. Top on India's software export destinations, in terms of export revenue, is the US, accounting for more than two-thirds. At Rs 90 crore, Hong Kong has but 0.2 per cent of the total.

Can you guess wherefrom I'm reeling out all these numbers? Answer: Statistical Outline of India 2004-05 from the Department of Economics and Statistics of Tata Services Ltd (jjmore@tata.com).

The weak can never forgive

IF YOU don't mind a vampire slayer as your spiritual guide, here's Jana Riess's What Would Buffy Do? from Jossey-Bass (www.josseybass.com). A chapter is on how humour helps. G. K. Chesterton said that the only subjects worth joking about are serious ones, such as "being married or being hanged." Another chapter is on `the higher way', where the author discusses choosing forgiveness over revenge. It starts with a quote from the Dhammapada, "For someone who is noble, not needing to retaliate is a great gift." Forgiveness is an expression not of weakness, but of spiritual power, writes Riess, quoting Gandhiji: "The weak can never forgive." An enlightening Chinese proverb is that whoever opts for revenge should dig two graves.

Worthwhile lessons.

Singapore cases to learn from

THE Asian Business Case Centre (www.asiacase.com) of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore has brought out a new book titled, Government-Linked Companies and Other Organisations in Singapore, edited by Wee Beng Geok. Included in it are nine cases on management practices of Singapore Airlines, Inland Revenue, SingTel, National Archives and so on.

An excerpt from the `metamorphosis' at Singapore's Alexandra Hospital: "Before embarking on major changes, the hospital arranged a few sessions to meet ex-patients who defined what they perceived as `value' for the hospital management. Their complaints and suggestions gathered from various feedback channels were documented and processed, and many suggestions were later adopted and institutionalised."

Five things that show up on "patients' definition of a good hospital" are: Respect patient's dignity, provide information, facilitate access to integrated care and services, deliver consistent and good quality care and services, and provide cost-effective care.

Useful read.

Tailpiece

Patient: "Doctor, I feel tired before I begin to work!"

Doctor: "(Yawn)... Let me first collect the fee before I begin to advise you!"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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