Accounting for Leaders ( Case study analysis) Essay

Accounting for Leaders ( Case study analysis) - Essay Example As a result a number of car owners would pass by Bob’s shop which facilitated in increasing the popularity of the shop. However since this parking system was stopped, Bob felt that his business was losing popularity. Bob also noticed that the general sales of children’s bicycles had dropped considerably. Bob suspects that a large amount of sales of his shop has shifted to the bicycle and car maintenance retailing chain located at the town’s main shopping centre. The Christmas sale of the shop was also much lower than expected. The shop was clammed with cheaper bikes clearly depicting that the shops had declining number of customers. The recent recession also had a negative impact upon the business (Cowen and Hoffer, 1985). Bob’s cafà © is run by Bob’s wife Sophie. Apart from providing internet services, the shop also provides services such as computer and software upgrade, computer repair, software installation, cleaning and configuration of computers. Sophie is concerned regarding the cash flow of the business rather than profitability. The bank overdraft of the business has been continuously rising since the last two years. Sophie could not understand the reasons behind such an increase. Sophie although provides services on credit in order to increase her sales, but she has not come across any bad debts (Brigham and Houston, 2011). The information required for taking decision in respect of Bob’s Bikes is obtained through the different rations computed from the business’s annual financial statements. The financial ratios of 2012 and 2013 were taken into consideration for taking the required decisions. Bob’s main issue is to analyze the profitability of the business. Financial ratios are considered as a suitable measure for analyzing business performance. Evaluating the progress of any business is vital and financial ratios are a suitable tool in examining the same. Financial ratios facilitate comparison of the performance

Real Estate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Real Estate - Essay Example In this case, the client claims to have using the neighbors land for the last 15 years. According to the client, for the last 15 years he has heavily invested in farming on the land that belongs to the neighbor. Additionally, he claims that out of that farming activity he has managed to harvest various crops throughout the 15 years period. In order to establish whether the client can claim ownership of the piece of land, it is good to assess whether he meets the requirements provided for in the law in order to claim ownership. According to the state of Alabama adverse possession laws, a trespasser needs to meet the following requirements: the trespasser must have occupied the property for at least 15 years, he/she must occupy the property with or without the knowledge of the owner, he/she must be physically present on the land, he/she must be open in trespassing, and must be exclusive and continuous possession. Having considered the above requirements, the client is under legally entitled to own the land that belongs to his

Employee commitment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employee commitment - Essay Example Interestingly enough, some of the more recent literature on leadership does reflect at least an implicit recognition of employee commitment in a multidimensional sense. For example, the concepts of developmental leadership and transformational leadership emphasize the importance of employee empowerment, team building, and overall company vision-sharing (Knights and Wilmott, 2007). These approaches all recognize the importance of commitment, as opposed to compliance, as the most effective route to productivity. A simple way to think about these changes is that pressures from both the product market and the labor market are now taken inside the company and brought to bear on individual employees (Knights and Wilmott, 2007). The more traditional employee relationship buffered employees from market forces, the new relationship is mediated much more powerfully by the market. For workers, these developments represent a new psychological contract at work, a new set of implicit expectations between employer and employee. Perhaps the most important part of the traditional psychological contract at work was employee commitment to the organization, which developed in part in return for employer offerings such as job security and other protections from the variability of employment associated with outside markets (D

A History of Melody Essay Example for Free

A History of Melody Essay The violin emerged from a primitive musical bow, usually an arched stick with a string stretched taut between the two ends (Hughes, 2008). The string is divided by a loop or a bridge (Thinkquest, 1999). The first bridge was used to add to the instruments resonance when the string was vibrated, and strings were attached across suitable receptacles (Hughes, 2008). These resonance enhancers took many forms-tortoise shells, coconut, calabash, wooden boxes and even pig bladders (Thinkquest, 1999), thrust tightly between the strings and the bow (Thinkquest, 1999). Also to enhance the resonance of the bow, the instrument was held before the mouth (Thinkquest, 1999). The violin probably came to Europe around the 9th century, mostly originating from Asia (Thinkquest, 1999). It took the evolutionary process of the violin about 450 years to bring the violin to its present form. This only shows the long years of experience needed by the makers of the stringed instrument (Thinkquest, 1999). The use of a bow to draw across the strings followed, probably imported into Europe from Asia by Arab travellers (Hughes, 2008). The evolution of the violin was slow. It took until the middle Ages for a version of the zither, a popular and older instrument, to evolve into the vielle, which saw the instrument being held against the shoulder. This differentiated it from the zither, as the latter was held across the knees (Hughes, 2008). As time went on, the original one string grew to four, and for a time, five strings (Hughes, 2008). Fashionable until the 16th century, the vielle was changed with the small wooden ribs used in similar wooden plucked instruments replaced by the tailpiece and bridge (Hughes, 2008). Violin 2 By the time of the Renaissance, the viol (a bowed stringed instrument chiefly of the 16th and 17th centuries made in treble, alto, tenor, and bass sizes and distinguished from members of the violin family especially in having a deep body, a flat back, sloping shoulders, usually six strings, a fretted fingerboard, and a low-arched bridge (Merriam-Webster, 2008), was being used, the first having a hole adding resonance and tone to the instrument (Hughes, 2008). It was a short time that the viol evolved into the viola da gamba (a bass member of the viol family having a range approximating the cello (Merriam-Webster, 2008), which was played between the knees of the musician, and the viola de braccio held against the shoulder. The modern shape of the violin was evolved from the second version of the instrument (Hughes, 2008). The Violin evolved form many different instruments, including the Rebob, the Rebec, Lira da Braccio and the Renaissance fiddle. The violin today, the â€Å"new violin† was not used until 1630 in Italy (Berkeley, 2008). The evolution of the modern violin appears to have been completed in Italy with the most famous violin maker Andrea Amati at Cremona, providing 24 violins, six violas and eight cellos for the French King Charles IX in 1560 (Hughes, 2008). Another famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivarius, joined the Amati school in the latter half of the 6th century (Hughes, 2008). The violins refinery As stated earlier in the paper, that apart from the Arab travellers influence had an on the violin, there is no certain fact on who invented the violin or a stringed instrument that is played with a bow (Hughes, 2008). Some of the theories place the invention of the violin at around 1520 A. D. wherein the violin is included in the Gaudenzio Ferrari painting The Madonna of the Orange Trees (cited in Berkeley, 2008). Violin 3 But the violin emerged in Italy in the early 1500s and seems to have developed from two medieval bowed instruments-the fiddle, also called the viele or fiedel, and the rebec-and from the Renaissance lira de braccio (a violin-like instrument with off the finger drone strings (Rosenblum, 2007). Also related to the violin, but not direct ancestors, is the six-string fretted viol. The viol appeared in Europe before the violin and existed with it side by side for about 200 hundred years (Rosenblum, 2007). In the early 1600s, however, the violin gained prestige through its use in operas such as Orfeo(1607) by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, and through the French King Louis XIII band of musicians, the 24 violons de roi (the â€Å"Kings 24 violins†, formed in 1626). This growth in stature continued throughout the Baroque period (1600-1750) in the works of many notable composer-performers. Among them were the Italians Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Tartini and the Germanys Heinrich Biber, Georg Philipp Teleman and Johann Sebastian Bach (Rosenblum, 2007). The Craftsmen The earliest important violin makers were from Northern Italy, Gasparo da Salo (1540-1609) and Giovanni Maggini (1579-1630) from Brescia and Andrea Amati (1525-1611) from Cremona. The craft of violin making reached its height in the 17th and 18th centuries in the workshops of the Italians Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1737) and Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) from Cremona and the Austrian Jacob Stainer (1617-1638) (Rosenblum, 2007). Violin 4 Gasparo da Salo (1542-1609) The founder of the Brescian school of violin makers, Gasparo Bertlotti, or Gasparo da Salo, was a dedicated craftsman and instrument maker. He was formerly credited with the claim of having developed the violin in the shape we know today. Although his claims have been disproved, his instruments are nevertheless admired and venerated (Smithsonian, 2008). Gasparos violas are considered finer than his violins and probably were more numerous (Smithsonian, 2008). His viola da gambas were converted to violincellos and are much esteemed, and some of his six-stringed bass viols have been remounted as three and four stringed double basses. Twenty instruments have been recorded (Smithsonian, 2008). Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1579-1630) An apprentice of Gasparo da Salo, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the woods available to him (Smithsonian, 2008). Maggini made his own mark and as a master, his own techniques of craftsmanship. He frequently experimented to improve tone quality for his pieces and perfect his construction methods (Smithsonian, 2008). Many of the instruments made by Maggini at the twilight of his career are considered his finest work. These works are known for the quality of the woods and unusually large sound holes as well as for their unusually mellow tones (Smithsonian, 2008). Andrea Amati (1525-1611) The founder of the great Cremona school of violin making, Amati focused on violins and was making viols and rebecs. Instruments dated after 1584 are said to be the works of his sons Antonio and Hieronymus (Smithsonian, 2008). Violin 5 It is claimed that he made 24 violins, 6 violas and 8 cellos for the French king Charles IX for use at the court at Versailles (Smithsonian, 2008). A few of these instruments survive to this day (Smithsonian, 2008). Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1734) Stradivarius interpretation of geometry and design served as a conceptual model for violin makers for more than 200 years (Smithsonian, 2008). Stradivarius also made harps, guitars, violas and cellos- more than 1,100 instruments by current estimate (Smithsonian, 2008). About 650 of these instruments survive today (Smithsonian, 2008). Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) Guarneri is considered the most illustrious member of this violin making family. The fifth and last member of the family, he is known more as Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu. Guarnerius is the Latin form of the family name and Joseph the Hebrew form of Giuseppe (Smithsonian, 2008). The estimate of his total production is not more than 250 violins; no evidence suggests that he made more (Smithsonian, 2008). But at least one violoncello and some violas are attributed to him. The outline of his violins, with slight modifications, is founded on instruments of Stradivarius (Smithsonian, 2008). Stradivarius and Guarnerius are ranked as among the greatest violin makers, but fine violinists prefer Guarnerius over Stradivarius (Smithsonian, 2008). Whatever the history or whoever the maker of the violin, we all must appreciate the efforts of these individuals who in one way or another contributed to the making of the violin. All these men have given much by way of continuously honing the instrument as it is known and enjoyed today by scores of people. Violin 6 Personal Reflection The violin represents probably on of the more versatile, elegant and mysterious of the instruments that we have today. The seeming smallness of the instrument somewhat does not tell of the long and painstaking process that went into its refinement and development. The reason that I centred the paper on this instrument is just for those following reasons. The instrument for me seems to just waft its notes and sounds over the listeners ears at just the right moments. They are, I believe, different from the wind pieces such as the trumpet and the saxophone. These pieces produce these shrill notes that sometimes tend to be irritable if you are not an admirer for the kind of music. But the violin just seems to play its notes in a mellow and smooth sound. It sometimes will want to lull to sleep at times. Im a fan of the violin. For me, there is just no instrument just like it in sound and depth and quality of sound. Yes, there are many pieces out there that seem to sound alike, but cant seem to touch the position of the violin. I cant imagine an orchestra without a violin in the strings section. It would be incomplete without it. The sound would be really different than the violins in it. And the violin can cross over to different genres of music, from classical to country to pop to jazz and to others, without a tad of difficulty. Thats another thing I like about this instrument, its very versatile. It can just blend in with the various styles of music that you put it with and it will perform handsomely, a trait not all instruments can boast of. What we can do now is just relax at every playing of the violin, just to enjoy the elegant sound of the instrument as the musician begins to play and begins to once again weave its magic over its listeners. Reference Berkeley. (2008). The origins and history of the violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Berkeley website. http://www-atdp. berkeley. edu/2030/jmoriuchi/violin-title. html Hughes, A. (2008). Where did the violin originate? Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Answer Bank database http://www. theanswerbank. co. uk/Article1910. html Merriam-Webster. (2008). Viola. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Merriam-Webster website http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/viol Rosenblum, M. (2007). Violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia database. http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761576364/Violin. html Smithsonian Institution. (2008). Violin makers. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Encyclopaedia Smithsonian website. http://www. si. edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/violdasa. htm ThinkQuest. (1999). The violin. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Oracle Education Foundation database. http://library. thinkquest. org/27178/en/section/1/index. html

Strategies to Implement Ethical Practices in India

Strategies to Implement Ethical Practices in India INTRODUCTION What is ethics? Ethics is a branch of Philosophy which addresses questions about morale; i.e about concepts morally what is good or bad ,right or wrong etc. An ethical statement can assert that some particular thing or action is right or may be wrong. Ethics can bring about the difference between good and bad characters or dispositions. It may propound few principles which help in more detailed judgments of these sorts, might be inferred for example that we ought always aim at the general happiness or try to minimize the total suffering of all sentient beings. That it is correct for everyone to look after themselves. Every such statement expresses ethical judgments of different degrees of generality. [J L Mackie 1977] Business ethics Business ethics is that which examines ethical principles, morala or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and business organizations as a whole. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics,nd) Origin of Ethics: The systematic study of what is morally right or wrong can determine that ethics might have originated when humans started to lead the best way of life. This reflective stage emerged once morality creeped into the human society, usually in the form of customary standards of right and wrong conduct. Such customs lead this process of reflection, even if it found them waiting. Ethics also began to come into the picture with the invent of moral codes. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/194023/ethics] The history of Business ethics can vary depending on the situation or the object under discussion. The history also depends a lot on the historian, the way he or she conceives the subject, what facts he or she seeks to discover or has at hand, and the relative importance the historian gives to those facts. The term business ethics is used in a lot of different ways. In this broad sense the application of everyday moral or ethical norms to business can be considered as Business ethics. ( De George, nd), Many business persons are strongly influenced by their religious beliefs and the ethical norms that they have been taught as part of their religion, and apply these norms in their business activities. Business ethics focuses on the moral or ethical actions of individuals. Many people discussing business ethics, immediately resort to examples of immoral or unethical activity by individuals or by an organization. It also includes the criticism of multinational corporations which make use of child labor or pay very low wages to employees in less developed countries or who utilize suppliers that run sweat shops. Chandra and Pai (2009) explain that for every individual there are certain factors that affect the way an individual take decisions. They feel that power, centralization of workflow, substitutability of activities, uncertainty of inputs and routinization are the various factors are responsible for controlling the ethical contingencies of any individual. A general framework was being produced by Flanagan (2009) regarding the ethical decision making process. He believes that the characteristics of the decision maker which includes motivation, locus of control, ego strength, knowledge, experience, risk taking abilities, Machiavellianism, etc. and the significant influences such as the organization, work, law, economics, professionalism, technology, family, friends or other opinion leaders are responsible for any decision outcome. These outcomes can be in the form of rewards, performance, satisfaction, feedback, promotion or learning. Aims and objectives of the Research Find out the level of ethical awareness amongst the employees in private and public sector companies. Comparison of ethical behaviour between private and public sector employees Role of management in improving ethical behaviours. To what extent the employees in the public and private sector organisation understand the intensity of corruption. How can an employee define corruption in his own terms? what are the measures taken by the management to educate the employees about the unethical behaviour? BACKGROUND The Indian industrial sector opened up in late 1990s when the various developed countries entered India through modes like FDI etc ,with the relaxation of rules and modifications made in the foreign policies along with the age of outsourcing and boom in IT and BPO sectors , lot of foreign companies outsourced their processes to the developing countries especially to India and China .private sector banks were allowed to enter into India. when the banking space in India was already overcrowded with a number of public sector banks, private sector banks, and co-operative banks. Foreign multinational banks, which were growth-constrained, were also waiting eagerly for the sector to open up further in 2009 to make a major foray into this emerging market. now there was scenario where in loans were available at a very less interest rates. The spending ability of the people increased and the spent more than what they actually earned ,by availing the easily available loans now they bought cars and pent houses which, prior to the Banking boom was just a dream for them. This at a micro level increased the corruption in the private sector banks as the executives who sanctioned the loans to these people actually amplified the income of the people on papers through fake documents who asked for loans and inturn expected a percentage of loan as kickback for themselves .this was very common at the micro level in the developing nations but as we go to the macro level there has been an absolute devastation of ethics and higher levels of corruption. There have been many a books which have been written on ethics and corruption , everyday we read in news papers articles, journals about companies and government agencies who are found guilty in scams. With respect to literature on ethics and corruption its a sea out there. Where the data from which can be inculcated here in the research is very less, as there are several life experiences which can just be an eye opener, which cannot be found in books or have references. Ethical Theories: Different ethical theories involve differing procedures, implications, and justifications. Ethical theories are based on ethical principles, they emphasize on different aspects of an ethical dilemma. They also lead to ethically correct resolution staying within the guidelines of ethical theories. Deontology In this theory emphasizing ones main duty is what is considered ethically correct. This theory illustrates that, while analyzing an ethical dilemma, people should strictly follow their obligations and duties.(Rainbow C,1996,pp372) For instance, a deontologist will always keep his promises to a friend and will follow the law. A person who follows this theory will produce very consistent decisions since they will be based on the individuals set duties. Specific people are provided with a basis for special duties and obligations in this theory. For example, an older brother may have an obligation to protect his little sister when they cross a busy road together. (http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/Indep/carainbow/Theories.htm ] Utilitarianism The utilitarian ethical theory was based on the capability of predicting the consequences of an action. To an utilitarian, the choice that is ethically correct is the option that provides the greatest benefit to the most people. (Mill S 1963)One benefit of this ethical theory is that the utilitarian can compare similar predicted solutions and use a point system to determine which choice is more beneficial for more people. This point system provides a logical and rationale argument for each decision and allows a person to use it on a case-by-case context. (Mill S 1963) There are two types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism adheres exactly to the definition of utilitarianism as described in the above section. In act utilitarianism, a person performs the acts that benefit the most people, regardless of personal feelings or the societal constraints such as laws. Rule utilitarianism, however, takes into account the law and is concerned with f airness. Rule utilitarianism benefits are that it values justice and also includes the beneficence at the same time. Most people are benefitted through the fairest and most just means in rule utilitarian. Ethical theories in private and public sector companies : Different ethical perceptions, principles and judgments developed as a result of the differences between public and private-sector organizations. (Sampford C,1998) Unified ethic is instructional and makes possible careful analysis of the proper place of public sector ethics in the context of business, higher education, health care, and law. The public administrators are well-suited to serve as moral exemplars for other professions and for all citizens. . (Sampford C,1998) The notion that public service ought to be the model for ethical conduct in the professions (rather than the other way around) is supportable and provokes new thinking about moral agency and ethics. (Preston N,2002)They provide the necessary foundation for studying public sector ethics by focusing on traditional models arising from moral philosophy. The unified ethic illuminates ethical implications of public administration. It also constructs and culminates by offering an alternative framework for studying ethics. Reay (2009) defines ethics as a set of principles concerning proper conduct. But many authors believe that the definition of ethics changes from one individual to another or from one business to another and everyone has his own definition of ethics depending upon their own set of moral conducts. It is believed that the moral code is essentially ones own sense of what is right and what is wrong, or what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. There are those who think that this moral code should be the same for everyone but it simply cannot be, because all think differently, and all have different upbringings, backgrounds, and experiences. But ethical code of conduct matters to us in every field of life in todays world. The salient features of established ethics models: deontological, teleological, intuitionism and virtue theory are combined to make public administration a moral enterprise. It is a moral enterprise because its sole purpose is to serve public values and public purposes. Moral agency is a part of the profession of public administration. In other words, public administrators must strive always to do that which is morally right. This becomes more important since public administrators are under greater public scrutiny than their private sector counterparts and are more than likely to be held accountable for the decisions they make. (Preston N,2002)Both political and administrative practice are embedded with ethical theories and so are inseparable from governance. (Anne Bois C,2000) says The prime importance of Citizens and public servants are to work towards the promotion, co-operative and meaningful relationships that involve moral examination, theoretical practice, Different Ethical de cision-making models prompted differing ethical perceptions and different judgments. Better communication between factions of varying types is created by awareness of the comparative difference in the moral reasoning of public- and private-sector personnel. [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-20583851/do-public-sector-and.html]. For example, one might expect oath-bound public administrators to be more deontological than other groups that are less constrained by oath and more motivated by collective interest, such as special interest groups or business representatives. One also might expect career officials to be more oriented to duty and principle than are elected officials who must keep consequences in mind for the sake of their own re election. Or it might mean that such personnel will administer both public and private policy with greater consistency and less capriciousness and will remain impartial in circumstances where general fairness frequently is challenged. It seek s to determine whether public- and private-sector personnel differ in their dispositions to exhibit consequentiality or deontological tendencies and, if so, the ways in which those dispositions might be manifest. To understand the nature of public administration these possibilities prove to be the decisive factors. Understanding the ethical decision-making process and its moderating factors helps to incorporate ethics in private and public institutions. Ethical Leadership: Ethical leadership is characterized by having good characters, getting to know ones core values and having the courage to live them in all parts life. [http://www.businessballs.com/ethical_management_leadership.htm] Foundations for various modern concepts for work, business and organizations are provided by Ethical principles. The modern concept of ethical organizations encompasses many related issues like corporate social responsibility (CSR) or simply social responsibility, fair-trade, sustainability, social enterprise, well-being at work and life balance and many more aspects of good modern leadership. There are no clear cut definitions or rules of ethics that can define them. The 4-V Model of Ethical Leadership explains the relationship between beliefs and values and behaviors and actions. The main purpose is the advancement of the common good. The (Grace B,1999) model based on his formal leadership research and personal passions around faith and ethics. Leaders work to create an open, two-way conversation, thereby maintaining a charitable understanding of different views, values, and constituents opinions. They are open to others opinions and ideas because they know those ideas make the organization they are leading better. By having à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the right valuesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? or being a person of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“strong character,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? the ethical leader can set the example for others and withstand any temptations that may occur along the way. Without denying the importance of good character and the right values, the reality of ethical leadership is far more complex and the stakes are much higher. In every field of business, the ethical behavior is very important. But in the field of business services, the role of ethics is even greater as it is directly related to humans life. But Murthy (2007) reveals that for the economic and business benefits, some businessmen are neglecting their code of ethics. Although, Nundy (2000) argues that it is only a small portion of the businessmen who do not follow the code of ethics and are bringing a disgrace to the whole community of corporates but still unethical practices are going on in different sectors in various forms. Carroll and Buchholtz (2008) explains that ethics is basically a discipline that deals with what is good and bad with moral duty and obligation and these sets of moral conducts are even true for the business systems in any part of the world. They divide the ethics into two key branches of moral philosophy as descriptive and normative ethics. They further explained descriptive ethics is a branch that is concerned with describing, characterizing and studying the morality of a people, an organization, a culture or a society. It also compares and contrasts different moral codes, systems, practices, beliefs and values. Therefore, in descriptive ethics, the key focus remains on learning. But on the other hand, the normative ethics is concerned with supplying and justifying a coherent moral system of thinking and judging. This type of ethics seeks to uncover, develop and justify basic moral principles that are intended to guide behavior, actions and decisions. It is here that the business s ystem, particularly in the developing countries, go wrong at following the normative ethics and they violate the ethical code of conduct for their individual benefits. Carroll and Buchholtz (2008) has explained three approaches to ethics as conventional approach (based on how normal society views ethics in todays environment), principles approach (based upon the use of ethics principles or guidelines to direct behavior, action and policies) and ethical tests approach (based on short practical questions to guide ethical decisions guiding the behavior). But seeing the business practices as a concern, the conventional approach to ethics is essentially an approach where one can compare a decision, practice or policy with prevailing norms of acceptability and say whether the practice followed is ethical or unethical. The conventional approach defines some of the sources of norms that come to bear on the individual and that might give an idea for the unethical behavior of the businessmen around the world today. The various sources that may influence a businessman to follow up an unethical practice may include family, friends, law, religious beliefs, society, employer, profession, culture and fellow workers. Each of these attributes contributes in one or the other way to force the business Enterprises to follow the unethical practices for their individual benefits either business or economic. One of possible example for motivating a professionals to follow unethical practices can be an urge to earn more money to satisfy the needs of the family members. This urge of getting more money leads him to follow unethical practices to earn quick money. But there exists a reason for the unethical behavior of the business Enterprises because whenever he or she makes a decision about what is being ethical (right, just, fair), the conventional approach comes into picture. The decision being taken consists of three elements where in the first step, the observation is of the decision, action and the existing practice in the workplace. After that the practice is compared with the prevailing norms of acceptability and then the recognition of the value judgments with the prevailing norms of acceptability. This means for the same set of actions, the two persons have different ways of looking it as they have different et of prevailing norms of acceptability The diagram for ethical decision making gives a wider view for an individual decision regarding ethics. The diagrams depicts the business Enterprises following the unethical practices can be put in the area . This is an area where the corporates get a profit following the unethical practices but they need to be very cautious while doing the unethical work. The various business enterprises in the developing countries are ready to take such a risk because of the inefficient legal system in these countries. They take benefit of the existing lenient laws in these countries and follow the unethical practices to make quick money. The business enterprises usually follow the principle of Smiths Market Ethic which says that take selfish actions and be motivated by personal gains in business dealings. But as the reason of their actions for unethical behavior, they follow the Bentham/Mills Utilization Ethic Principle which asks an individual to determine whether the harm in an action is outweighed by the good. So, these parctioners have numerous reasons which can outweigh the unethical action by a good cause. Weaver (2009) reveals that a recent survey conducted by the American Management Association and the Human Resource Institute identified the top three factors that would cause people to break the ethical standards. The factors included the pressure to meet unrealistic objectives or deadlines, career advancement and protecting their livelihood. In case of the business Enterprises the later two reasons play a very important role for encouraging following the unethical practices. For establishing their practice in a very short span of time and for increasing the volumes of clients coming to visit them, these business Feiglstok (2009) supports the ethics in an organization by revealing that the benefits of being ethical greatly outweigh being non-ethical in business. There are plenty of reasons why being honest and truthful is the better decision to make. This includes the honesty towards work and various humanitarian reasons. He also believes that working for an organization in an ethica l manner or working as individual for the profession in an ethical manner gives self satisfaction to an individual which cannot be obtained even if one earns good money by following the unethical practices. Unethical Practices in Industry Decades back, business was considered as a good profession and almost all corporates were not money minded people. But the time has changed and all wants to be established in their life very quickly and for that they will choose the short cut. (Theyyunni, 2008). So, young and inexperienced business Enterprises have started following the path of short cut by taking the unethical path which is beneficial in terms of business as well as economics. Although Watts (2008) criticizes the unethical behavior of the business Enterprises by quoting Not All Money is Good Money but still it depends upon business Enterprises to take their own ethical decisions. In many of the developing countries, the staff employed in the public sector may also practice privately, either on their own account or working for owners of private facilities. This may be legal or may not be strictly legal or controlled. Public offices may operate their own private offices and manage the income from them, or may allow work for private gain on their premises, as when corporates admit private clients and are paid directly by them. (Mills, Bennett, McPake, 1997) This overlapping of the private and public sectors gives birth to the existence of certain unethical practices for the personal benefits by certain individuals. Garretts principle of proportionality supports the view of the business Enterprises in developing countries around the world by saying these Enterprises have a proportional reason for the unethical practices which are very much needed along with the ethical practices that are followed. It believes one such proportionate reason is the low wage to business sector. Smith (1999) says that with reference to NHS in UK, the professional bodies and the government departments have a very little to say on these unethical practices. Nundy (2000) believes that to see how the public can be safeguarded from an inefficient and often corrupt business system and receive comprehensive health care of a reasonable quality is paramount. Unethical Practices in India India has been ranked a lowly 74, two steps down since last year, among 180 countries of the world on the worldwide Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), prepared by independent international agency Transparency International. However, corruption is much higher in Pakistan which occupies 140th place, a little below Iran, Libya and Nepal which are ranked 133, 134 and 135 respectively. Meanwhile, China which was ranked a joint 72 with India in 2007, slided a step down to occupy a place above its neighbour this year. Among other Asian countries, Russia is placed still lower on 145, while Sri Lanka occupies the 96th position and Maldives is ranked 90. ((http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Corruption-index-India-ranked-74/327777/ With the fast development of various sectors in India, the unethical practices are also increasing in the business sector in India. Sharma (2004) has clearly stated that there in an urgent need to overhaul and strengthen the public sector in India. Apart from quacks and outright fakes, even qualified business practitioners know that they can get away with malpractice because clients do not know their rights. With the exponential growth of the private sector, there is an urgent need for regulation to protect users. (Sharma, 2004) Dev and Rao (2009) support the allegations of Sharma by quoting that the recent expansion of the private sector and the increased investment in the field of the curative services and the various sophisticated business equipments have increased the corruption in the private practices in the business sector in India. They explain that the payment to touts who get the clients for offices and to the corporates who refer clients has become a common practice in India Colclough (1997) explains commission to corporates who prescribe expensive investigations and procedures which are often unnecessary as another form of unethical practice and corruption in business sector in India. Dev and Rao (2009) criticize the unethical Indian corporates in the private sector putting them responsible for kickbacks, overbilling and expensive procedures. Phadke (2009) reveals though the client knows about the malpractice but he is afraid to bargain or to show lack of trust because of the fear that this might adversely affect the persons attitude towards the client and in turn, may affect the quality of the service provided. The picture of the business sector gets more clear while having a look at the PEST Analysis done by Holtz (2008) who alleges the lower annual per capita ($ 20) spending of the Indian government on of the public sector i.e the healthcare and the under-developed private health insurance in India which spends only 1% of the total spending on healthcare as major political reasons for the unethical practices in India Sharma (2004) critically argues the claims made by the other authors and says that majority of the population in the various developing countries is uneducated about the governmental structure of business sector and moreover, the inaccessibility of the services in a rural area with densely populated areas can be treated as primary reasons for the increased importance of the business Enterprises which further leads to following up of unethical practices by few individuals. Holtz (2008) shares a different view and feels that low wages to employees and staff in government services are the primary reasons responsible for the existence of the unethical practices in the business sector. Cygnus Business Consulting Research Pvt. Ltd. (2008) criticizes the governments for having access to less high-tech equipments with them as compared to private organizations. One of the other important factors responsible for the unethical practice is due to lack of job satisfaction as claimed by Wells (20 07). Hertzberg (1959) has formulated a two-factor theory, which proposes motivators and hygienes as the two factors responsible for job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The presence of motivators in the workplace caused enduring states of motivation in employees but their absence did not lead to dissatisfaction. Wells (2007) establishes that the factors that are included as the Motivators are responsibility, recognition, promotion, achievement and intrinsic aspects of job while the factors the form the Hygienes are supervision, salary, work environment, company policies and the relationship with colleagues. The lack of the government motivation to the corporates and the parabusiness staff in the business sector can be considered as one of the most important factors for the use of unethical factors in treatment of clients in India. (Dev Rao, 2009) . To what extent the business Enterprises are following unethical practices and what are reasons for their unethical behavior is still the subject of research. So, this dissertation will try to find the answer of these questions. Moreover, in the existing research, it is still unclear whether which particular specialty is more unethical and demands for maximum commission. This dissertation will also try to establish such a relationship which can explain about the extent of commission practice existing in the business sector. Corruption The most disquieting aspect of the widespread corruption in India is the fact that it is not anymore confined to politicians or the government machinery alone. It is prevalent amongst almost every section of the society at every level.( N.S. Venkataraman, 2002). the fact is that most of the Indians are involved in corrupt practices in one way or the other, either due to greed or due to so called compulsion. In any case, the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of not getting involved in corrupt dealings is conspicuous by its absence amongst the most. Indian IT majors Satyam and Wipro , who were barred from World Bank projects for offering their stock to Bank officials, represent a miniscule problem compared to the kickbacks and commissions that go to government officials for approval of Bank projects. (Steve Berkman, 2009). Emergence of political elite who believe in interest-oriented rather than nation-oriented programmes and policies. Artificial scarcity created by the people with malevolent intentions wrecks the fabric of the economy. ( KOHLI, SURESH, 1975) say that Corruption is caused as well as increased because of the change in the value system and ethical qualities of men who administer. The old ideals of morality, service and honesty are regarded as an achronistic. Tolerance of people towards corruption, complete lack of intense public outcry against corruption and the absence of strong public forum to oppose corruption allow corruption to reign over people. (John B, 1966) say that Vast size of population coupled with wi despread illiteracy and the poor economic infrastructure lead to endemic corruption in public life. In a highly inflationary economy, low salaries of government officials compel them to resort to the road of corruption. Graduates from IIMs with no experience draw a far handsome salary than what government secretaries draw. Measures to combat corruption ( John B, 1966) suggests that Foolproof laws should be made so that there is no room for discretion for politicians and bureaucrats. The role of the politician should be minimized. Application of the evolved policies should be left in the hands of independent commission or authority in each area of public interest. Decision of the commission or authority should be challengeable only in the courts. Cooperation of the people has to be obtained for successfully containing corruption. ( KIMBERLY ANNED, 1997) People should have a right to recall the elected representatives if they see them becoming indifferent to the electorate. Funding of elections is at the core of political corruption. Electoral reforms are crucial in this regard. (SUSAN, 1999)Several reforms like: State funding of election expenses for candidates; strict enforcement of statutory requirements like holding in-party elections, making political parties get their accounts audited regularly and filing income-tax returns; denying persons with criminal records a chance to contest elections, should be brought in.Responsiveness, accountability and transparency are a must for a clean system. (BRIAN E,1995) points at Bureaucracy, the backbone of good governance, should be made more citizen friendly, accountable, ethical and transparent. More and more courts should be opened for speedy inexpensive justice so that cases linger in courts for years and justice is delivered on time. (HEATHER ,2003) Local bodie s, Independent of the government, like Lokpals, Lokadalats, CVCs and Vigilance Commissions should be formed to provide speedy justice with low expenses. (MARIANNE M ,2003) shows us A new Fundamental Right viz. Right to Information should be introduced, which will empower the citizens to ask for the information they want. Barring some confidential information, which concerns national and international security, other information should be made available to general public as and when required. Stringent actions against corrupt officials will certainly have a deterrent impact. Scams and Scandals A typical case of Aes corporation ,shell ,e

Comprehensive Study on Big Data Technologies and Challenges

Comprehensive Study on Big Data Technologies and Challenges Abstract: Big Data is at the heart of modern science and business. Big Data has recently emerged as a new paradigm for hosting and delivering services over the Internet. It offers huge opportunities to the IT industry. Big Data has become a valuable source and mechanism for researchers to explore the value of data sets in all kinds of business scenarios and scientific investigations. New computing platforms such as Mobile Internet, Social Networks and Cloud Computing are driving the innovations of Big Data. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the concept Big Data and it tries to address various Big Data technologies, challenges ahead and possible. It also explored certain services of Big Data over traditional IT service environment including data collection, management, integration and communication Keywords— Big Data, Cloud Computing, Distributed System, Volume I. INTRODUCTION Big Data has recently reached popularity and developed into a major trend in IT. Big Data are formed on a daily bases from Earth observations, social networks, model simulations, scientific research, application analyses, and many other ways. Big Data is a data analysis methodology enabled by a new generation of technologies and architecture which support high-velocity data capture, storage, and analysis. Data sources extend beyond the traditional corporate database to include email, mobile device output, sensor-generated data, and social media output. Data are no longer restricted to structured database records but include unstructured data. Big Data requires huge amounts of storage space. A typical big data storage and analysis infrastructure will be based on clustered network-attached storage. This paper firstly defines the Big Data concept and describes its services and main characteristics. â€Å"Big Data† is a term encompassing the use of techniques to capture, process, analyze and visualize potentially large datasets in a reasonable timeframe not accessible to standard IT technologies. II. Background Need of Big Data Big Data refers to large datasets that are challenging to store, search, share, visualize, and analyze the data. In Internet the volume of data we deal with has grown to terabytes and peta bytes. As the volume of data keeps growing, the types of data generated by applications become richer than before. As a result, traditional relational databases are challenged to capture, share, analyze, and visualize data. Many IT companies attempt to manage big data challenges using a NoSQL database, such as Cassandra or HBase, and may employ a distributed computing system such as Hadoop. NoSQL databases are typically key-value stores that are non-relational, distributed, horizontally scalable, and schema-free. We need a new methodology to manage big data for maximum business value. Data storage scalability was one of the major technical issues data owners were facing. Nevertheless, a new brand of efficient and scalable technology has been incorporated and data management and storage is no longer the problem it used to be. In addition, data is constantly being generated, not only by use of internet, but also by companies generating big amounts of information coming from sensors, computers and automated processes. This phenomenon has recently accelerated further thanks to the increase of connected devices and the worldwide success of the social platforms. Significant Internet players like Google, Amazon, Face Book and Twitter were the first facing these increasing data volumes and designed ad-hoc solutions to be able to cope with the situation. Those solutions have since, partly migrated into the open source software communities and have been made publicly available. This was the starting point of the current Big Data trend as it was a relatively cheap solution f or businesses confronted with similar problems. Dimensions of Big Data Fig. 1 shows the four dimensions of Big Data. They are discussed below. Fig. 1 Dimensions of Big Data Volume refers that Big Data involves analyze huge amounts of information, typically starting at tens of terabytes. It ranges from terabytes to peta bytes and up. The noSQL database approach is a response to store and query huge volumes of data heavily distributed. Velocity refers the speed rate in collecting or acquiring or generating or processing of data. Real-time data processing platforms are now considered by global companies as a requirement to get a competitive edge. For example, the data associated with a particular hash tag on Twitter often has a high velocity. Variety describes the fact that Big Data can come from many different sources, in various formats and structures. For example, social media sites and networks of sensors generate a stream of ever-changing data. As well as text, this might include geographical information, images, videos and audio. Veracity includesknown data quality, type of data, data management maturity so that we can understand how much the data is right and accurate 000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes Big Data Model The big data model is an abstract layer used to manage the data stored in physical devices. Today we have large volumes of data with different formats stored in global devices. The big data model provides a visual way to manage data resources, and creates fundamental data architecture so that we can have more applications to optimize data reuse and reduce computing costs. Types of data The data typically categorized into three differ ­ent types – structured, unstructured and semi-structured. A structured data is well organized, there are several choices for abstract data types, and references such as relations, links and pointers are identifiable. An unstructured data may be incomplete and/or heterogeneous, and often originates from multiple sources. It is not organized in an identifiable way, and typically includes bitmap images or objects, text and other data types that are not part of a database. Semi-structured data is orga ­nized, containing tags or other markers to separate semantic elements, III. Big Data Services Big Data provides enormous number of services. This paper explained some of the important services. They are given below. Data Management and Integration An enormous volume of data in different formats, constantly being collected from sensors, is efficiently accumulated and managed through the use of technology that automatically categorizes the data for archive storage. Communication and Control This comprises three functions for exchanging data with various types of equipment over networks: communications control, equipment control and gateway management. Data Collection and Detection By applying rules to the data that is streaming in from sensors, it is possible to conduct an analysis of the current status. Based on the results, decisions can be made with navigation or other required procedures performed in real time. Data Analysis The huge volume of accumulated data is quickly analyzed using a parallel distributed processing engine to create value through the analysis of past data or through future projections or simulations. IV. BIG DATA TECHNOLOGIES Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Face book have been pioneers in the use of Big Data technologies and routinely store hundreds of terabytes and even peta bytes of data on their systems. There are a growing number of technologies used to aggregate, manipulate, manage, and analyze big data. This paper described some of the more prominent technologies but this list is not exhaustive, especially as more technologies continue to be developed to support Big Data techniques. They are listed below. Big Table: Proprietary distributed database system built on the Google File System. This technique is an inspiration for HBase. Business intelligence (BI): A type of application software designed to report, analyze, and present data. BI tools are often used to read data that have been previously stored in a data warehouse or data mart. BI tools can also be used to create standard reports that are generated on a periodic basis, or to display information on real-time management dashboards, i.e., integrated displays of metrics that measure the performance of a system. Cassandra: An open source database management system designed to handle huge amounts of data on a distributed system. This system was originally developed at Face book and is now managed as a project of the Apache. Cloud computing: A computing paradigm in which highly scalable computing resources, often configured as a distributed system provided as a service through a network. Data Mart: Subset of a data warehouse, used to provide data to users usually through business intelligence tools. Data Warehouse: Specialized database optimized for reporting, often used for storing large amounts of structured data. Data is uploaded using ETL (extract, transform, and load) tools from operational data stores, and reports are often generated using business intelligence tools. Distributed system: Distributed file system or network file system allows client nodes to access files through a computer network. This way a number of users working on multiple machines will be able to share files and storage resources. The client nodes will not be able to access the block storage but can interact through a network protocol. This enables a restricted access to the file system depending on the access lists or capabilities on both servers and clients which is again dependent on the protocol. Dynamo: Proprietary distributed data storage system developed by Amazon. Google File System: Proprietary distributed file system developed by Google; part of the inspiration for Hadoop3.1 Hadoop: Apache Hadoop is used to handle Big Data and Stream Computing. Its development was inspired by Google’s MapReduce and Google File System. It was originally developed at Yahoo and is now managed as a project of the Apache Software Foundation. Apache Hadoop is an open source software that enables the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of commodity servers. It can be scaled up from a single server to thousands of clients and with a very high degree of fault tolerance. HBase: An open source, free, distributed, non-relational database modeled on Google’s Big Table. It was originally developed by Powerset and is now managed as a project of the Apache Software foundation as part of the Hadoop. MapReduce: A software framework introduced by Google for processing huge datasets on certain kinds of problems on a distributed system also implemented in Hadoop. Mashup: An application that uses and combines data presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services. These applications are often made available on the Web, and frequently use data accessed through open application programming interfaces or from open data sources. Data Intensive Computing is a type of parallel computing application which uses a data parallel approach to process Big Data. This works based on the principle of collection of data and programs used to perform computation. Parallel and Distributed system that work together as a single integrated computing resource is used to process and analyze Big Data. IV. BIG DATA USING CLOUD COMPUTING The Big Data journey can lead to new markets, new opportunities and new ways of applying old ideas, products and technologies. Cloud Computing and Big Data share similar features such as distribution, parallelization, space-time, and being geographically dispersed. Utilizing these intrinsic features would help to provide Cloud Computing solutions for Big Data to process and obtain unique information. At the same time, Big Data create grand challenges as opportunities to advance Cloud Computing. In the geospatial information science domain, many scientists conducted active research to address urban, environment, social, climate, population, and other problems related to Big Data using Cloud Computing. V. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES Many of Big Data’s technical challenges also apply to data it general. However, Big Data makes some of these more complex, as well as creating several fresh issues. They are given below. Data Integration Organizations might also need to decide if textual data is to be handled in its native language or translated. Translation introduces considerable complexity — for example, the need to handle multiple character sets and alphabets. Further integration challenges arise when a business attempts to transfer external data to its system. Whether this is migrated as a batch or streamed, the infrastructure must be able to keep up with the speed or size of the incoming data. The IT organization must be able to estimate capacity requirements effectively. Companies such as Twitter and Face book regularly make changes to their application programming interfaces which may not necessarily be published in advance. This can result in the need to make changes quickly to ensure the data can still be accessed. Data Transformation Another challenge is data transformation .Transformation rules will be more complex between different types of system records. Organizations also need to consider which data source is primary when records conflict, or whether to maintain multiple records. Handling duplicate records from disparate systems also requires a focus on data quality. Historical Analysis Historical analysis could be concerned with data from any point in the past. That is not necessarily last week or last month — it could equally be data from 10 seconds ago. While IT professionals may be familiar with such an application its meaning can sometimes be misinterpreted by non-technical personnel encountering it. Search Searching unstructured data might return a large number of irrelevant or unrelated results. Sometimes, users need to conduct more complicated searches containing multiple options and fields. IT organizations need to ensure their solution provides the right type and variety of search interfaces to meet the business’s differing needs. And once the system starts to make inferences from data, there must also be a way to determine the value and accuracy of its choices. Data Storage As data volumes increase storage systems are becoming ever more critical. Big Data requires reliable, fast-access storage. This will hasten the demise of older technologies such as magnetic tape, but it also has implications for the management of storage systems. Internal IT may increasingly need to take a similar, commodity-based approach to storage as third-party cloud storage suppliers do today. It means removing rather than replacing individual failed components until they need to refresh the entire infrastructure. There are also challenges around how to store the data whether in a structured database or within an unstructured system or how to integrate multiple data sources. Data Integrity For any analysis to be truly meaningful it is important that the data being analyzed is as accurate, complete and up to date as possible. Erroneous data will produce misleading results and potentially incorrect insights. Since data is increasingly used to make business-critical decisions, consumers of data services need to have confidence in the integrity of the information those services are providing. Data Replication Generally, data is stored in multiple locations in case one copy becomes corrupted or unavailable. This is known as data replication. The volumes involved in a Big Data solution raise questions about the scalability of such an approach. However, Big Data technologies may take alternative approaches. For example, Big Data frameworks such as Hadoop are inherently resilient, which may mean it is not necessary to introduce another layer of replication. Data Migration When moving data in and out of a Big Data system, or migrating from one platform to another, organizations should consider the impact that the size of the data may have. To deal with data in a variety of formats, the volumes of data will often mean that it is not possible to operate on the data during a migration. Visualisation While it is important to present data in a visually meaningful form, organizations need to consider the most appropriate way to display the results of Big Data analytics so that the data does not mislead. IT should take into account the impact of visualisations on the various target devices, on network bandwidth and on data storage systems. Data Access The final technical challenge relates to controlling who can access the data, what they can access, and when. Data security and access control is vital in order to ensure data is protected. Access controls should be fine-grained, allowing organizations not only to limit access, but also to limit knowledge of its existence. Enterprises therefore need to pay attention to the classification of data. This should be designed to ensure that data is not locked away unnecessarily, but equally that it doesn’t present a security or privacy risk to any individual or company. VI. CONCLUSION This paper reviewed the technical challenges, various technologies and services of Big Data. Big Data describes a new generation of technologies and architectures, designed to economically extract value from very large volumes of a wide variety of data by enabling high-velocity capture. Linked Data databases will become more popular and could potentially push traditional relational databases to one side due to their increased speed and flexibility. This means businesses will be able to change to develop and evolve applications at a much faster rate. Data security will always be a concern, and in future data will be protected at a much more granular level than it is today. Currently Big Data is seen predominantly as a business tool. Increasingly, though, consumers will also have access to powerful Big Data applications. In a sense, they already do Google and various social media search tools. But as the number of public data sources grows and processing power becomes ever faster and c heaper, increasingly easy-to-use tools will emerge that put the power of Big Data analysis into everyone’s hands.

Buenos Aries Essays -- essays research papers fc

The capital of the country, Buenos Aires is also Argentina's leading city in population, commerce, and industry. It is located near the Atlantic Ocean coast, on the broad Rà ­o de la Plata, an estuary at the mouth of the Paranà ¡ and Paraguay rivers. The early Spanish colonists named the city for the "good winds" that brought them to the port. Today about 10 million people live in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world. The city proper makes up a federal district, and its mayor is appointed by the nation's president. The city is not a part of Buenos Aires province, which surrounds it. The City--Its People and CommerceGreater Buenos Aires is made up of many settlements that grew together. The oldest European center lay in the neighborhood of the present Plaza de Mayo, a large plaza in the downtown area. Streets in the city were laid out according to a grid pattern described in the Cà ³digo de las Indias, a legal document followed by the Spaniards in settling the Western Hemisphere. The original grid is today surrounded by Balcarce, 25 de Mayo, Viamonte, Libertad, Salta, and Estados Unidos streets. Growth of the city first followed the high elevations, along which ox- and horse-drawn two-wheeled carretas carried freight and which the modern main avenues and the rail lines also follow. The most recent developments in the city are the industrial sectors that extend from the old center southward, such as Dock Sud, La Boca, Barracas, Pinero, and Lanà ºs. The Paranà ¡ River plays an important role in the life of Buenos Aires. Oranges, grapefruit, cherries, plums, and vegetables are raised in its delta area. Vacation housing is widespread, and on weekends thousands of people fill the area to engage in recreational activities. The Paranà ¡ not only provides recreation, but also links the hinterlands with Buenos Aires and supplies water to the population. The central business district has high-rise office buildings and retail stores. Automobiles are not allowed on the Calle Florida, and shoppers roam its elegant stores, coffee houses, and hotels. The nearby Calle Reconquista is the financial center. Outside the central business district much of the surrounding city has attractive cobblestone streets bordered by large, elegant houses and small shops. Many parks and local shopping districts blend in with the residential areas. Various... ...ce of hostile Indians. It was not until 1580 that Juan de Garay, a colonist from Asuncià ³n, established what became the first permanent community at Buenos Aires. The city did not really begin to develop, however, until the late 1700s. In response to British and Portuguese expansion in the area and increased smuggling, Buenos Aires was made the seat of a Spanish viceroyalty in 1776. In the early 19th century Buenos Aires was a major center for the movement to free the country from Spain. The city leaders had foreseen great economic advantages from the free trade that independence would bring. After independence the city grew rapidly as the center of Argentine political power. In 1880 it was made the permanent capital of the republic. Through World War I the city benefited from a stable economy and substantial foreign immigration. During and after World War II heavy industrial growth contributed to the city's expansion and reinforced its political and economic dominance of the country. Population (1986 estimate), federal district, 2,924,000. BibliographyComptons Encylcopedia Online - Aol Keyword: ComptonsThe Learning Company - Aol.Keyword: LearnMagellan Maps - Yahoo.com: maps