Statement of Purpose Essay Example for Free

Statement of Purpose Essay As a small child I remember trying to make a pyramid of cards and failing repeatedly. What I had always been missing those days was the need to focus on creating a strong base rather than abruptly rushing on to reach the top. With my undergraduate study at an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the best technological institutes in India with inarguably the toughest selection ratio (~2%) in the world I am sure that the strong base required to build the pyramid is laid and the next level to reach my goals would be to do my graduate studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. Born in an era of technological revolutions, witnessing the advent of cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras, computers, laptops, internet, DVDs to name a few, I developed a strong liking for technology from my childhood. It was clear that Mathematics and Science were the subjects which fascinated me and my accomplishments in various quizzes and competitions in school fuelled my exploration of these subjects. It was in my eleventh standard when I got 12th rank in the Regional Mathematics Olympiad, conducted by NHBM, Govt. f India that I got exposed to elements of Discrete Mathematics, particularly Combinatory and Graph Theory, outside the regular school curriculum at an early stage. The intensive training programs we were put through for the Olympiads gave me a lot of confidence in dealing with abstract mathematical problems. I represented my region among around 200 students from all over India in the National Mathematics Olympiad. Next year my dedication towards my work got rewarded when I cleared the various prestigious national level examinations of India which made it further clear what I was meant to do in life. It began when I cleared the KVPY Examination, which is one of the highest valued and most competitive scholarship examinations conducted by Govt. of India and received a call letter from IISER Pune (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) for admission to their BSc course with the KVPY Fellowship. Next I secured a rank of 290 in National Entrance Screening Test making me eligible for admissions to NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) whereby the selection rate is only 0. 325 %. But finally I choose to pursue Electrical Engineering from IIT Bhubaneswar after envisaging the broad range of research areas this field would provide me like control and automation, telecommunications, signal processing, analogue and digital electronics and Power systems. The undergraduate study at IIT Bhubaneswar has been a defining step in giving shape to my dreams. The cut throat competition among the best of students in India demanded sincere efforts and meticulous planning. I honed my analytical skills, technical prowess and aptitude for innovation. Moreover, I learnt the significance of proper planning and resilience to prevail over hard times, thus helping me mature as an individual. It was just a few months in my undergraduate studies, that I realized that the true charm of engineering existed in its application and to gain an insight into the wider domains of Electrical Engineering I pursued internships every year during the summer vacations. The excitement to explore new things and learn new concepts kept me busy during the off college hours. At the end of first year I choose to explore the area of embedded systems and took an internship in DOEACC, a Govt. of India Center, which not only offered me an insight to microcontrollers but made me realize the grandness of the field, motivating me to explore even more. I developed a snake game using 8051 series of controller as a small project in the internship. Returning back to college after the vacations my first task became to join the Robotics Society of the Institute and to share my experiences and to motivate juniors and fellow students to enjoy and discover the aspects this field had to offer. I became the core member of the Robotics Team and offered various seminars and made various robots including line follower, glider etc. as a part of the team. This fascination for robotics was widened in next semester when I learnt new topics in class and in topics like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digital Signal Processing (DSP) I found my particular interest. Thereby I choose to do my second internship in IIT Delhi where I did work on Artificial Intelligence based Biometric Authentication. This period of 3 months led me to get insights into topics which I haven’t explored till then . Here I not only got the idea of various image processing techniques but also about various classifiers and soft computing techniques like Neural Networks and Evolutionary Algorithms which proved handy throughout my undergraduate studies. Here I coauthored my first research paper which was published in Springer LNCS as a part of proceedings of international conference SEMCCO11. Unable to resist my immaculate desire to learn even new things and filled with the inspiration to make something useful for the people I kept researching and this time speech processing caught my eye. I was selected for internship in Deutsche Telekom laboratories- TU Berlin (The RD Center of the largest telecommunications company in Europe). These 3 months of internship in a technologically advanced country gave me an international exposure. My continued interaction with scientists, professors and students from all around the world working in the lab filled me with extreme motivation and broadened my thinking. I worked on emotion recognition from speech and we extracted a new set of features which helped in improvement of accuracy and my paper got accepted in International conference ICECIT 2012, India and will be published by Elsevier. The interest in speech processing I developed in Berlin was to be further intensified as I choose to work on making a novel speaker and emotion recognition system in my final year B. Tech project under the supervision of an eminent professor in the field of Digital Signal Processing Prof. Ganapati Panda, Deputy Director and Head of school of Electrical Sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar. Realizing the fact that Indian languages have not been studied much with the aspects of emotional speech, my first task became to create an Indian language database for the study. I experimented and found out that the traditional speaker recognition system failed in an emotional environment and needed to be modified to take emotions into account and I am working on it. To supplement and strengthen my domain knowledge, I am taking up course on Biomedical Signal Processing in my final year at IIT. Looking back and introspecting I have figured out the true meaning of the quote late Mr. Steve Jobs said in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech: â€Å"You cant connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. Connecting the dots I have realized my true ambition to do research work oriented towards the areas of machine learning, signal processing and pattern recognition aiming towards development of something useful for the mankind and a Masters course in Electrical Engineering would provide me an excellent platform for achieving the same. From the development of Intelligent Robots with the ability to learn natural language, understand emotions, having an improved vision system to the use of signal processing in medical applications all these have considerably motivated me to choose my future in this field. With the Mars Rover Curiosity marking a technological triumph, imagining a world in future where robots would be assisting humans in their daily work, where technology would be providing the cure for the differently abled people, where there will be an ceaseless growth of automation and where human computer interaction will reach to newer domains has not just remained a dream. I believe that my ambitions, academic excellence, research work are all in unison with what UCSB MS program in Electrical Engineering expects. In the research activities going on in various labs and research groups like Advanced Graphics Lab, Vision Research Lab, System Bio Imaging Lab I have found a marvelous synchronization of my ongoing research work. The amazing research work by Prof. Pradeep Sen in the field of computer graphics such as development of augmented reality based systems, the work by Prof Manjunath on image processing, the work by Prof. L. Rabiner on speech processing and many other works going on in an interdisciplinary environment such as in IGERT program have not only motivated me to join UCSB Electrical Engineering Dept. ut has left a deep influence on my mind to be a part of the change towards a better future. The intellectually rich, vibrant and multi-cultural student community at UCSB will manifold my process of learning and exploring the unexplored. It is said – â€Å"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan†. Here I am standing at an important path of my career and connecting all the dots I am sure about my goal, my future and sure about the perfect master’s program which will help me achieve my dreams.

Solvothermal Preparation of CaTiO3 Prism and CaTi2O4(OH)2

Solvothermal Preparation of CaTiO3 Prism and CaTi2O4(OH)2 Solvothermal preparation of CaTiO3 prism and CaTi2O4(OH)2 nanosheet by a facile surfactantfree method Weixia Dong, Gaoling Zhao, Bao Qifu, Gu Xingyong, Gaorong Han Abstract: Calcium titanate (CaTiO3) with prism-like-shaped morphology were synthesized by a simple solvorthermal process without any surfactants. It is found that NaOH concentration plays an important role in the formation of CaTiO3 prisms. A rational mechanism is proposed to illustrate the growth of CaTiO3 prisms. And the CaTi2O4(OH)2 interlaminar structure is illustrated. Keywords: solvorthermal preparation, surfactant-free, CaTiO3 prism, CaTi2O4(OH)2 interlaminar structure Introduction Due to its widespread potential applications in a lot fields, calcium titanium oxides have been considered as one of the most important inorganic materials. The most classic model for shape control is the Wulff facets argument or Gibbs-Curie-Wulff theorem, which suggests that the shape of a crystal depends on the relative specific surface energy of each face or facet of the crystal 1. However, our experiment results show that this pure thermodynamic can not explain well. It can be the concentration of existing monomers by tuning NaOH concentration plays a key role for the evolution of the shapes and phases of the calcium titanium oxide crystals 2. If the pH values can be well-controlled, the growth of crystals with different morphologies should be possible. As a result, the concentration of the remaining monomers after the nucleation process is dependent on the number of nuclei formed. To maintain the correct pH of the solvorthermal system, it is necessary to use alkaline or acidity mineralizers (i.e. pH adjusting agents). NaOH or HNO3 are most convenient for this purpose. However, intermediates are often observed during the preparation of CaTiO3. The presence of this impurity phase significantly affects the material’s properties and, thus, it should be avoided. Therefore, it is worthwhile to compare NaOH concentration that are necessary to obtain phase-pure caltium oxides 3. In the present work, calcium tantium oxides was prepared by a solvorthermal method by tuning NaOH concentration. A rational mechanism is proposed to illustrate the growth of CaTiO3 prisms. And the CaTi2O4(OH)2 interlaminar structure is analysised by XRD, SEM and FT-IR . Experimental procedure Synthesis The CaTiO3 crystals were synthesized in an aqueous medium by a solvothermal route. In a typical synthesis, 0.01mol Ti(OC4H9)4 (Sigma Aldrich, 99%) were mixed with molar ratio of water/enthonal=10/10. In particular, pH value of deionized water was adjusted 1 by adding HNO3. Then added to 10 ml of a 1 M CaCl2 ·5H2O solution under vigorous stirring at room temperature. After the solution was stirred for 5 min, various NaOH concentration (0.005 M, 0.01 M, 1 M, 3 M, 5 M, 7 M) was added to adjust the pH. Subsequently, the autoclave was sealed and maintained at180  °C for 36 h, followed by natural cooling to room temperature. Afterward, the final products were centrifuged, washed with deionized water and absolute ethanol several times, and then dried at 80  °C for 15 h in air. Characterization The morphologies of the powders were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi S-4800, Japan). The crystal phases of the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD, PANalytical X’Pert Pro, Holland), in a 2ÃŽ ¸ range from 100 to 800, using Cu-Ka radiation. UV–Vis absorption was measured by a TU-1901 spectrophotometer equipped with a reflectance attachment and BaSO4 was used as the reference material. Infrared spectra of the samples were obtained using a Nicolet Nexus 470 Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer in the 400-4000 cm1 region by KBr pellet. Results and discussion We have systematically investigated the system in various NaOH concentrations while keeping the other reaction conditions unchanged, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Fig. 1 XRD patterns of samples synthesized at different NaOH concentrations: (a) 0.005 M, (b) 0.01 M, (c) 1 M, (d) 3 M, (e) 5 M, (f) 7 M. Fig. 1 shows the XRD patterns of the samples synthesized in various NaOH concentrations. When NaOH concentrations is 0.005 M, the sample is CaTi2O5 (JCPDS card 25-1450) phase. When NaOH concentrations is 0.01 M, the sample is pure CaTi2O4(OH)2 (JCPDS card 39-0357) phase (Fig. 1(b)). When NaOH concentrations increases to 1 M, intensity of CaTi2O4(OH)2 phase increases. Further increasing NaOH concentration to 3 M, CaTi2O4(OH)2 phase disappears and CaTiO3 (JCPDS card 42-0423) appears with a little trace of Ti3O5 and Ti4O7. When NaOH concentrations is above 5 M, pure CaTiO3 is obtained and peak intenisity of CaTiO3 further increases, which indicates well crystallized. Fig. 2 FESEM images of the samples synthesized at different NaOH concentrations: (a) 0.005M, (b) 0.01M, (c) 1M, (d) 3M, (e) 5 M, (f) 7 M. When NaOH concentrations is 0.005 M, CaTi2O5 aggregated particles are obtained (Fig. 2(a)). When NaOH concentrations is 0.01 M, CaTi2O4(OH)2 porous needlelike and floating irregular clouds-like particles are obtained (Fig. 2(b)). When the NaOH concentrations are 1 M, CaTi2O4(OH)2 morpholgy is mainly composed of overlap leaves (Fig. 2(c)). When the NaOH concentrations are 3 M, nanosheets disspeared, and a lot of aggregated particles with a little trace of prisms(Fig. 2(d)). Whereas above 5 M, CaTiO3 rectangular prisms were formed (Fig. 2 (e)-(f)). On the basis of all the above observations, it is indicated that the presence of NaOH concentrtion in the solution is necessary for the formation of calcium titanium oxides. From the viewpoint of the chemical composition effect, the NaOH concentration may influence the combination of free Ca2+ and release Ti4+ ions of TiO2 in the solvothermal process [4]. Due to forming a lower amounts of active OH ions and small amounts of TiO2 soluble species in low NaOH concentration (0.005M, 0.01M), reactive Ca2+ and TiO2 causes the reaction to be controlled by the transport of TiO2 soluble species from hydroxide crystals to an interface bearing reactive Ca species. A shortage of TiO2 soluble species near Ca2+ will halt the reaction to form CaTiO3. Instead, owing to the small solubility of titanium dioxide in the acid conditions, CaTi2O5 forms. Increasing NaOH to 0.01M, the solvothermal processing accelerate the TiO2 formation and promote TiO2 to transform small amounts of Ti4+ ions [4-5], which are involved in a reaction with Ca2+à ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’leading to the formation of CaTi2O4(OH)2 crystallites. However, a large amount of Ti(OH)4 was formed when NaOH concentration was increased to 1M, O-H group of TiO6 octahedron free end decreases, the probability of Ca2+ into the lattice of the increase, the formation of tetragonal CaTiO3 particles. With the increase of NaOH concentration to 5 M, i. e. in the high OH ion concentration, because of solvothermal synthesis of CaTiO3 crystal defects and grain size effect, CaTiO3 particles are formed. For the cubic phase CaTiO3, (110) and (100) surfaces can exist at the same time, gamma (110) is slightly larger than the gamma (100) crystal[3-4], which makes the tetragonal CaTiO3 nanocrystals along (110) plane and (100) surface growth, so CaTiO3 particles will give priority to the relatively low surface energy (100) surface growth, resulting in the formation of prism. Further increasing NaOH concentration, prism further Ostwald ripening, formi ng distinct edges and corners of CaTiO3 prisms [3-4]. A detailed time study is obvious for the growth process of the CaTiO3 prism in the case of 7 M NaOH. Unfortunately the experiments show the CaTiO3 prism are quickly fromed due to the fast growth rate, which prevents the direct observations of its detailed growth process. Howerver, based on the morphology evolution (Fig. 2(a)-(f)) , the growth process of CaTiO3 prism by the solvothermal process with 7 M NaOH is simply illustrated in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 Schematic representation of the growing process of CaTiO3 prism-like structures. In previous researches, our work found that CaTi2O4(OH)2 may have photocatalytic and electrochemical properties [5-6]. On view of the potential application, the structure of CaTi2O4(OH)2 is what we want. Fig. 4 shows FT-IR spectra in the range of 400-4000 cm–1 of CaTi2O4(OH)2 sample. The peaks at 3425 cm1 can be attributed to the O-H stretching. Compared with free –OH ( 3600 cm-1 )à ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’the absorption peak shifts to low wavelength, which is due to the coordinated water molecules via hydrogen bonding interaction to the CO32- of the interlamination [5]. The broad absorption band observed at 3200 cm-1 is originated from the presence of hydroxyl groups of water 7. The absorption peak at 1538 cm-1 attributes to H-O-H bending of the lattice water 8. The sharp absorption peak at 1357 cm-1 attributes to C-O-C bending of carbonate ion. A band centered at 750 cm-1, which is attributed to isolated tetrahedron TiO4 stretching vibration. The absorption bands below 500 cm-1, i . e. bands centered at 495 and 425 cm-1 can be ascribed to Ca-Ti-O bending vibrations 8. From XRD and FT-IR results, the interlamination contains CO32-, H2O, isolated tetrahedron TiO4 and –OH ions, Fig. 5 shows diagrammatic sketch of CaTi2O4(OH) 2 sample. Fig. 4 FT-IR spectra in the range of 400-4000 cm–1 of CaTi2O4(OH)2 sample. Fig. 5 Diagrammatic sketch of CaTi2O4(OH)2 sample. Conclusion In summary, we report here a simple solvothermal process for the formation of pure calcium tantium oxides without any surfactants. It is also found that the appropriate concentration of NaOH is vital for the formation of CaTiO3 prism. A possible mechanism has been proposed to explain the formation of CaTiO3 prism. And the CaTi2O4(OH) 2 interlaminar structure is illustrated. Acknowledgement The present work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 51262014 and 51172201). References H. Hosono, Y. Mishima, H. Takezoe and K. J. D. MacKenzie. ‘Nanomaterials: From Research to Applications’ Elsevier Ltd., Oxford, 2006, pp. 206 W. Dong, B. Song, G. Zhao and G. Han. ‘Effects of pH on morphosynthesis and properties of calcium titanium oxides via a facile aqueous strategy’, Mater. Res. Bull., 2013,11, 4633-4640 Y. J. Huang, H. T. Chiu, C.Y. Lee, Growth of CaTiO3 dendrites and rectangular prisms through a wet chemical method, CrystEngComm, 11 (2009)1904–1909. W. Dong, G. Zhao, B. Song, G. Xu, J. Zhou and G. Han. ‘Surfactant-free fabrication of CaTiO3 butterfly-like dendrite via a simple one-step solvothermal route’, CrystEngComm, 2012, 14, 6990 6997. W. Dong, B. Song, G. Zhao, and G. Han. ‘Controllable synthesis of CaTi2O4(OH) 2 nanoflakes by a facile template-free process and its properties’, Ceram. Int., 2013, 39, 6795-6803. W. Dong, B. Song, G. Zhao, and G. Han. ‘Synthesis and Characterization of CaTi2O4(OH) 2 Nanosheets for Lithium-Ion Battery’. INT. J. ELECTR. SCI., 2013, 8, 4551-4559 G. M. Duffy, S. C. Pillai and D. E. McCormack, J. Mater. Chem. 2007, 17, 181-184. K. Nakamoto. ‘Infrared and Raman Spectra of Inorganic and Coordination Compounds’, Fifth edn, Wiley, Toronto, 1997, pp.67-78.

Free College Admissions Essays: Mathematics :: College Admissions Essays

Mathematics    I have always enjoyed mathematics from an early age. As I progressed through A-level, I began to appreciate the importance of mathematics in other science and in commercial life. I believe that a degree in mathematics will leave me very versatile in terms of a future career choice. From 1992 onwards, I was selected every year to represent the school for Hans Woyda Mathematics competition between Home Counties schools. In 1997/98, I was captain of the team. Previously, we have reached the semi-finals of the competition. I have also attained three gold awards in the Sharp UK Mathematical Challenge on the occasions I entered. I have also gained a Merit award in the British Physics Olympiad competition.    I enjoy computer programming and am fluent in Basic and Visual Basic. In 1997, I gained experience work with Cable & Wireless at their Mercury One 2 One division. This involved using a Unix based system running in real time with the company's other offices. During this time, I learnt to set-up spreadsheets for the company, requiring macro programming. The aim was to generate weekly forecasts.    The school participated in the Young Enterprise scheme, sponsored by major UK companies. The scheme entails setting up a business organisation with a board of directors comprising of members from various schools. As financial director of Avanti, which manufactured and sold celebratory cards, I was responsible for the company's financial health. The company made a considerable profit (67% net), leading to second position in the local competition. This experience gave me the opportunity to develop my organisational and communication skills. I was also an active member of the 6th form council with responsibility for ordering and monitoring stock for the vending machine.    Since 1994, I have played rugby for the school's 1st XV. I have competed for the school at 200m and recently took part in the 'Tough Guy' competition, an endurance course entailing several months of rigorous training and raising money for charity. I have recently gained my 1st Dan Black belt in Karate.

The Comedy of Hamlet Essay -- Character Analysis, Polonius,Gertrude, C

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naà ¯ve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to increase the ultimate tragic nature of the play. Polonius is a comic relief because of his self-absorbed, dull personality. Polonius is over-eager and tries to give unwanted advice, during the play he is tactless and often rude. For instance, Polonius is a comic relief during his conversation with Gertrude and Claudius regarding Hamlet’s madness. Polonius rambling through his conversation contrasts with Gertrude’s seriousness of wanting to find out the reason to Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius begins to deliver to the king and queen the results of his investigation, he makes this statement, â€Å"My liege, and madam, to expostulate/ What majesty should be, what duty is,/ What day is day, night is night, and time is time,/ Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;/ Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,/ And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,/ I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .†(IIii,86-92) . Polonius’ speech is windy and nonsensical he wastes ti... ...d that he's been insulted for being stupid. Hamlet uses his intelligence and morbid sense of humor to portray the show how sad the play really is. In conclusion, a comic relief is used to relieve tension and to contrast serious scenes to increase the ultimate tragic nature of the play. Polonius uses his self absorbed dull personality to create humor in his scenes. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act as the fool by their tactless actions and dialogue, their lightheartedness makes the tragic parts of the play seem all the more tragic. And finally Hamlet uses his morbid humor to intensify scenes of sorrow while he also bitterly teases others to relieve tensions at times. The comic relief in Shakespeare’s Hamlet contrasts intense scenes as to make them more intense. work Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. London: Methuen, 1982. Print.

International Failures Essays -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

International Failures Companies around the world are seeking to expand overseas, driven by many different reasons whether to lower labor costs, technological innovation or the almighty dollar. No matter what the reason, without the proper knowledge and financial funding the company will fail. There have been numerous companies that have experienced this first hand. If they would have noticed the warning signs they may have been able to salvage the company. Fast-food companies have been one of the fastest to globally expand. They also experience some of the hardest down falls. An often quoted example is the failure of Prague's first Pizza Hut which closed down because too many ingredients had to be imported in for the one existing restaurant. The added expense for importing ingredients made operating expenses too high. Fortunately, most fast-food chains are large enough to overcome closure to a couple stores. But what would happen if an entire country was rejecting the company. This is the problem that McDonald's is facing. McDonald's is one of most successful fast food chains with 29,000 stores in 119 countries and sales of 38.5 billion dollars. But now, with growth slowing worldwide, McDonald's will add just 1,400 new restaurants, the lowest numbers since 1994. International sales already represent 51% of the global sales. They arrived in Brazil in 1979; many of the franchisees had a strong business selling big macs. After many years of growth, from 175 restaurants in 1995 to 563 this year, Brazil is McDonald's eighth most important market worldwide(Smith 1). Their sales in Brazil went from 620 million Reais in 1995 to 1.3 billion last year. Until recently, the company was still planning to double its current number of restaurants here by 2003. Behind the lines of customers eager for a burger, the Brazilian franchisees are having a hard time financially. According to an estimate made by franchisees that are in judicial litigation against the fast food chain, around 80% of the 152 franchisees that own half of the stores in Brazil are having difficulty to make ends meet at the end of the month(McDonald's 1). Some decided to sell their business. Others decided to fight. The first main concern of the franchisees is the rapid growth of new stores. The expansion program that increased the fast food chain in the last two years is crea... ... can succeed globally if they know what they are doing and have the financial funding WORK CITIED AT&T, BT pull Concert plug. CNN Money. October 2001. http://money.cnn.com/2001/10/16/international/bt Capell, Kerry and Heidi Dawley. Commentary: How British Telecom blew it. Business Week Online. April 2001. http://www.businessweek.com Gomoloski, Barb. Going global: Some lessons from eToys and Yahoo that might help You. InfoWorld. February 2001. http://staging.infoworld.com McDonald's Problems in Brazil. 2000. http://mcdonalds-problems-in-brazil.com Monti, Joseph A. Taking the high road when going international. Business Horizons. July 2000. http://www.findarticles.com Smith, Tony. Brazil franchisees sue McDonald's. AP Business Writer. December 2001. http://www.washingtonpost.com Pappalardo, Denise. Sprints ION, AT&T-BT's Concert reach end of the line. Network World. October 2001. Weber, Joseph. AT&T-BT: A big Telecom deal up north. August 1999. Weintraub, Arlene. How eToys could have made it. Business Week Online. February 2001. http://businessweek.com Zwaig, Melvin and Michelle Pickett. Early warning signs. MSI Network. http://msi-network.com

India & Mexico: the two stories Essay

By the end of 20th century, the world had realized that the next century is going to be driven by developing nations from South America, Central America and Asia on economic ground. The role of the economically developed nation will get reduced to that of investor and consumer while the developing nations will be converted into producers with foreign direct investment will bring capital and technology for that production. Looking into Asia, the nations which is supporting the above mentioned view are neither Japan nor the South East Asian tigers comprising ASEAN; but the world’s two most populated nations namely China and India. Many economists called this advent of the two nations as the arrival of Chindia. The China has now become the factory of the world while India is a service sector giant while leading in the sectors like software development and BPO industry (Perkovich, 2003). And in case of Central America and South America, the countries which are expected to match the growth of other developing nations are Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. These nations have a very different past if things like political stability and economic policies are taken into consideration. India and its late rise   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though both China and India have now become a very successful case of FDI channeled development model but the structure of economy of these two nations are at the two ends of any of the economic theory. In China, being a one party communist state and very strong central government economic decisions are taken irrespective of what is actually the people at ground wish while in India, being a secular democratic nation with multi-party political system decisions related to economy are often taken while considering the compulsions like electoral promises and is very much populist in nature.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The governments which includes both central and states are always under pressure from both opposition parties and popular public demand and many a times the decisions get affected due to this factor. At the same time, India’s economic stand for more than forty years of its independence had been protective and least connected with the world (Bromley, Mackintosh, Brown &   Wuyts, 2004, p. 196). Its neutral stand during the cold war and strategic military relationship with USSR caused very less interaction with western world led by USA. The country continued to pursue its independent political stand and entered 21st century, its economic structure saw extreme changes and the country now boasts of having the USA as its largest trading partner and at the same time, US has also found great interest in world’s largest democracy and the recently signed nuclear treaty between the US president George Bush and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh clearly underlines the growing interest between the two.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So the new India or better to say the liberalized India post reforms presents a beautiful case where Kenneth Waltz’s theory of International Relations which states that the action of a state can often get affected due to pressures being exerted by international forces and thereby limiting the options available to them(1979). The neorealist or structured model has been developed with the aim to explain the repeating patterns of state behavior and power and its extent which is the combination of its capacity to resist external influence while influencing others to behave according to its wishes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The liberalization process in India began in early 1990s in the tenure of the Prime Minister P. V. Narashimha Rao under the leadership of then Finance Minister Dr. Manamohan Singh. The reform process and India’s integration into world economy was widely appreciated with International Monetary Fund or the IMF calling it a long term corrective measure. The reform process which began with India signing GATT and becoming a part of WTO was widely appreciated by almost all economic quarters (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 173). The Narashimha Rao govt. continued with his reforms though slowly despite stiff resistance from major opposition parties by destroying the opposition unity (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 167).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After entering into a new economic fold, the Indian State’s decision showed the signs of getting influenced through external international forces which includes IMF, World Bank and other trade partners including US and EU. On economic issues, the Indian government for obtaining loans from IMF and World Bank had to observe their demands. Some of the demands that IMF made were import liberalization, tariff reduction, decontrolling the food grains market, decreasing subsidies in food and agricultural sector, PSU privatizations, enabling law for attracting FDI in manufacturing and infrastructure projects and opening the domestic banking and insurance sector i.e., financial liberalization (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 199).. The Indian government reacted cautiously but in a considerably long period, opened some of the sectors with foreign players holding majority stakes while in most of the sectors FDI was promoted to some percentage that may be 26 percent or up to 49 percent (Govt. of India, 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The economic reforms of Indian economy went into super fast mode during the regime of new political party. The BJP government was found to be pro-reformist with measures taken by continued to follow the path initiated by the Narashimha Rao Government. This stand of BJP was in sharp contrast to what it had observed during the beginning of the reform movement (Bromley et. al., 2004, p. 168). Under the BJP government, India tested five nuclear weapons and was widely criticized by most of the countries (Perkovich, 2003). The US government imposed a series of economic sanctions and the relationship between the two nations started showing down turn. But the Indian economy showed resilience and even the US congress and other western nations realized this fact and the sanctions were removed in a number of phases. The terrorist attack of September 11 2001 changed the scenario and the world under US leadership started considering terrorism as an international threat and India being a victim of Pakistan sponsored terrorism gave unequivocal support to US led war against terror (Perkovich, 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But the real success of India has been observed in form of the success of software giants like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and many smaller ones (Bromley et. al., 2004, p. 209). These companies opened new era of business through outsourcing of jobs from US and this led to the advent of many of the US based MNCs like Accenture, IBM, GE and others investing a lot in India. The condition has become so different that the growth of Indian firms is dependent on US. Now the other sectors like retail, automobile, telecommunication etc. are getting large input through FDI channel (Perkovich, 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Now this US supported growth of economy has made the government to follow foreign policies with extra care so that the interests of US must be taken into account and the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries should remain intact. These things are clearly showing that the country’s stand on different international issues have started getting affected by economic policies of developed nations especially USA (Kapila, 2006). Mexico & Economic Liberalization   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Now when we think of the continent of North America, we normally have the picture two economically very developed countries namely United States of America and Canada. But Mexico is another major economy of the region but with a different structure and status. Basically a developing country with a very unusual past when compared with other major countries of the region mentioned above, the country’s economic policy in the major part of 20th century had been without any vision. The political establishment has always supported various ideologies at the same time. The left centered administration and economic policy of Cuba and other left economies of the world got support from most of the Mexican government over the past 50 years but the same governments had reacted sharply against any move to any communist movement in the nation. Before 1970, the economy policy of Mexico was that of Private Public supported and investment by foreign companies had been given high priority. But after the massacre in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, the newly elected government started following an economic policy leaned more towards left philosophy of collective ownership. And despite flagging economic condition of the nation, populist policies for earning political mileage became a national policy. With every new government the country followed comparatively different policies creating more economic and monetary instability instead of any straight forward economic growth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The year 1994 saw the beginning of a new era in trade relations among three major countries of North America. With the launch of North America Free Trade Agreement i.e., NAFTA, comprising of world’s two most powerful economies USA and Canada and Mexico, the whole economic situation of the region has become a matter of close observation. If the case of Canada and USA is looked upon, there already exist a number of bilateral agreements on issues from defense, border security to trade and commerce. But from Mexican point of view, NAFTA has been much more than a simple regional trade agreement. Despite being a platform for boosting trade, participation of Mexico in NAFTA has been seen as the most effective tool to achieve two important missions. The first one has been for the purpose of directing the Mexican economy to an export-led growth path on a non-inflationary note. With USA as the major economic partner, NAFTA has been seen by the Mexican government as a platform to initiate large scale export to its much superior economic partner. Internal structure of the Mexican economy has also been made available on a platter to get a change with new set policies ensuring free trade initiative and drastic reduction in terms of tariff and quota issues to promote intra-regional trade (Moreno-Brid, Validiva & Santamaria, 2005). The second objective of the above mentioned reform process was to make the nature of this process very much irreversible. Though NAFTA accord has made sufficient provision so that any attempt to be made by the governments of future would cause the imposition of international legal and extra-legal constraints thereby deterring any attempt of returning back to the days of trade protectionism but the Salinas administration along with other supporters blunted all attack by its opponents to ensure the path of reform unruffled. The whole purpose of this treaty for Mexico was to make the nation a very lucrative region for the manufacture of products that can easily be exported to USA (Moreno-Brid et. al., 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Now it’s been more than a decade that NAFTA came into existence and if the economic condition of Mexico is viewed then the expectations that was raised by the Salinas govt. has actually been partially satisfied. The country has made considerable economic advancements and these things are visible through the era of small budget deficit, low inflation that followed the treaty. Also the export of non-oil products has reached a very high level with surge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). But euphoria associated with the treaty loses its charm when the number of jobs being created in the liberated economy is taken into account. The rate of growth of the GDP is still below the level which the economy had attained in days much prior to liberalization (Moreno-Brid et. al., 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So, for Mexico, the outcome of being a part of NAFTA has been very limited. If the limited gains are compared with what had been expected before, the NAFTA will appear more as a failure than a success. In 1994 only, the possibility of this sort of result was predicted by eminent US political scientist Stephan Krasner. While depending on realist model Krasnar had clearly stated that though NAFTA is an excellent attempt to have a very beneficial regional agreement but from Mexico point of view it’s not going to yield any golden egg (Bromley, Mackintosh, Brown &   Wuyts, 2004, p. 264). The extreme differences in the business culture and size of the economies of US and Mexico will be a very important reason behind the limited success of the agreement and expecting a broad result of something like the one between US and Canada can never be achieved (Extra Material, p. 10). The economic policy of US has been more of imperialistic in nature. This very US policy gives rise to anti-Americanism. The actually reduces the extent up to which both US and Mexico could have cooperated. This is very much in agreement to Waltz theory, which has clearly mentioned that the international condition is very much anarchic due to the lack of any common controlling authority giving rise to the issues like national threat and rise of conflicts of both military and economic nature (1979). As a result the apprehensions with rich nations fearing the rise of issues of illegal migration and human trafficking, the extent of cooperation between the two states will be very limited (Hollifield, 2006). The states would be found more concerned towards maintaining their relative power in relation one another and at the same time will avoid any permanent loss to existing relationship (Bromley et. al, 2004, p. 278).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The much analyzed theory of Waltz on International Relations valid in almost every case can be successfully used in understanding the case of NAFTA and Mexico. The history is full of differences and conflicts between the US and Mexico with Mexico in constant fear of losing its sovereignty. This fear and the bitterness of past has always been a very important reason the success of any pact between Mexico and US. Even the economic policy of US has widely been considered as imperialistic and Mexico had become a part of NAFTA for increasing its exports especially to US, hence the Mexican establishment will always be under the influence of US economic policies and decisions and may have to modify its international economic and business policies to suit US and the economic benefits Mexico is having with the trade with such a large neighbor (Bromley et. al, 2004, p 264).    So the fear of the past was the invasion over geographical boundary with Mexico preferring Latin culture rather the pro-US North American trend. Now becoming a very important part of North American economic group, Mexico is under continuous fear of losing is control over its economy and currency and might have to face economic colonialism.   References Hollifield, J. F. (2006). Trade, Migration and Economic Development: The Risks and   Ã‚  Ã‚   Rewards of Openness. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.dallasfed.org/news/research/2006/06migr/hollifield.pdf Moreno-Brid, J. Validiva, J. C. R. & Santamaria, J. (2005). Mexico: Economic growth    exports and industrial performance after NAFTA, Economic Development Unit.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.wilsoncenter.org/news/docs/Mexico_after_NAFTA_ECLAC.pdf Bromley, M. Mackintosh, W. Brown & M. Wuyts (2004).  Making the International: Economic Interdependence and political Order. Pluto Press Waltz, K. N. (1979).Realist Thought and Neorealist Thesis 1979. Journal of International   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Affairs.   Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide Web:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/PSC783/Waltz44.pdf Govt. of India (2005). Investing in India Foreign Direct Investment -Policy & Procedures   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Government of India, New Delhi Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Web:  Ã‚   http://dipp.nic.in/manual/manual_03_05.pdf Kapila, S. (2006). Iran’s nuclear issue: India well advised to be objective. South Asia   Ã‚  Ã‚   Analysis Group  Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the World Wide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Web:http://www.saag.org/%5Cpapers17%5Cpaper1694.html Perkovich, G. (2003).The measure of India: what makes greatness? 2003 Annual   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fellows’ Lecture, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved June 01, 2007, from the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   World Wide Web:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   www.sas.upenn.edu/casi/publications/Papers/Perkovich_2003.pdf   

The Role of Corruption and Virtue in “A Man for All Seasons”

â€Å"A Man for All Seasons† is a play written by Robert Bolt. It is inspired by true events and revolves around Saint Sir Thomas More, the Chancellor of England during the 16th century.King Henry VIII’s wife, Catherine of Aragon (of Spain), is unable to bear a child and provide an heir for the throne. Owing to this reason, he wishes to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn, the sister of his former mistress.However, Saint Sir Thomas More is against this idea and refuses to approve of the King’s desire. The Pope too is against this notion as he had previously disregarded a biblical law in order to allow Henry VIII to marry his wife. What follows is the test of a man’s ability to abstain from falling prey to the temptation of bribery and corruption, even if it means having to give up wealth, luxury and power.Thesis: A major theme in â€Å"A Man for All Seasons† is the delineation between virtue and corruption in all its aspects, political, mental, moral and spiritual, depicted primarily through the leading characters.Robert Bolt, through the medium of the main characters in the play, has elucidates the differences between the corrupt and the conscience-driven; the immoral and the principled. The play itself is a depiction of society and its many facets.Sir Thomas More characterizes morality. He is â€Å"a hero of selfhood†, meaning that he will not compromise on his â€Å"self† or his values simply in order to please or gratify someone. He is the antithesis of the corrupt.The Common Man represents common individuals and society in general. He performs various roles to portray conventional characters that one would encounter in everyday life. Ultimately he begins to forfeit his moral standards and concedes to the audience that in life, a man must do what is required in order to subsist.The character of Richard Rich is symbolic of greed and avarice. He is a man that willingly sacrifices his ethics and principles for wea lth and position. He is the epitome of corruption and depravity. Through this representation of morality and its antithesis, the writer has aptly described to the audience the elements of corruption, in all its forms.Thomas More is the kind of man that would rather sacrifice his life than his ethics. Not only the audience but the other characters too view More as a man of morals. It is due to this fact that the King wishes to attain More’s acceptance before divorcing his wife and marrying another woman.More’s acquiescence would endow the King’s decision with morality and people would approve of it more readily. The various characters attempt to sway More’s resolution of disapproval of the King’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. His steadfastness in resisting bribes demonstrates the strength of his principles.For instance, when the Duke of Norfolk tries to convince More to sign an oath of allegiance, trying to reform England and the Church, More responds by stating, â€Å"†And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Heaven for doing according to your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing according to mine, will you come along with me—for fellowship?†The audience will notice that there exists not an ounce of corruption in the character of Thomas More. He is the representative of a noble and virtuous human being. He is beheaded because of lie told by Richard Rich and till the very end More remains a man of conscience who will not submit to bribery even if his life were to depend on it, literally. He remains a man â€Å"anchored to his principles† (36).The Common Man illustrates a middle path between the virtuous and the unscrupulous. He depicts the base nature of an average man. The choices of an average man are governed primarily by his need to survive, whether by hook or crook, and that is exactly what the Common Man portrays through his various images.His declaration â€Å"Better a live rat than a dead lion† in Act II Scene vii, is a perfect example of this attitude of his. Here he is playing the jailer and affirms that he’d rather live by taking bribes or resorting to corruption, than die as an honorable man who will not give up upon his morals. His actions are not guided by his conscience but by his will to live, no matter what the price.Richard Rich is a superficial and insincere individual who epitomizes the height of corruption. He, along with other characters that include Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey and Chapuys has been used by the author to embody the corruption existing in society. Rich is willing to sacrifice anything to advance himself politically.He yearns for position and affluence at any cost. The opening scene itself gives us a glimpse into Rich’s personality when he tells More that he should be a teacher and disregards More’s advice saying that he should not be chasing after wealth and power and must surrender his corrupt ways.In Act I Scene viii it is insinuated that Rich has sold his soul to the devil when he divulges information about the gilded cup to Cromwell in exchange for a job. The decisive illustration of his corrupt nature is when he lies, under oath in court, and gets his friend, More beheaded for his own selfish needs.