Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Criminal Prosecution and Competencies

Through movies, we get the impression that police officers have all the right to arrest someone and bring him to court. But the underlying fact in this is that there are some things that must be done before a trial can be reached. For instance, an offender is arrested for committing a crime. There are steps in a criminal prosecution which leads to sentencing. During the arrest, the offender is handcuffed and taken to jail. The offender is then taken for booking wherein his photograph and fingerprints will be taken and he will be searched. A strip-search may be necessary at some point.Then, the police will ask about the offender’s personal information such as name, address, date of birth and social security number (American Hunt Saboteurs Association, n. d. ). The next step would be arraignment, which signals the court appearance for a felony or misdemeanor. During this process, the charges to be filed and the penalty applicable once convicted, and the Constitutional rights are recited to the defendant (Nichols, n. d. ). The offender also pleads guilty or not guilty during arraignment, after which the pretrial, readiness hearing and trial dates are set.If the offender does not plead guilty, the next step would be the pretrial hearing. This is the time for both parties to file pretrial motions or issues. Then there would be the discovery. Discovery refers to the information needed for the parties to prepare the case. The next step is motions, wherein both parties can present testimonies or arguments. The readiness hearing will follow. This hearing is mainly held to find out if both parties are ready to proceed (City of Oak, 2003). After these steps, the trial follows.For an offender who pleads not guilty, he will be tried and convicted by either a judge or a jury (American Hunt Saboteurs Association, n. d. ). The judge or the jury decides upon the verdict. This leads to the final step, which is the sentencing. In some areas in the United States, sentencing can be delivered in an expedite manner, or the defendant can return to be sentenced. Before a judge or a jury can put down a sentence, the judge must first hear the sides of the prosecution, victims or their representatives, the defendant and the defense attorney (City of Oak, 2003).Foundational and Decisional Competencies Foundational competencies, which are sometimes called Work Readiness Competencies, refer to competencies which serve as foundation for success whether in the workplace or school. Having foundational skills is very essential especially for workers to be able to learn new industry-specific skills. Foundational competencies are considered fundamental in occupations and industries (State of Minnesota, 2009). Foundational competencies transcend many other forms of competencies, such as ethical competencies, personal effectiveness, work place competencies and so on.Individual and cultural diversity and professional development are also classified as foundational. Take academic competencies as example. The critical competencies that people have learned in an academic setting such as communication, reading and writing, and basic computer skills are necessary in order to succeed in one’s chosen career. Academic competencies are the foundation for other competencies such as occupation and industry specific competencies. Decisional competencies, on the other hand, are categorized under workplace competencies. Possessing excellent decision-making skills is critical in both work place and school.Decisional competencies aid an individual in functioning â€Å"in an organizational setting† (Long Island University, n. d. ). Foundational and decisional competencies can be related in criminal cases, especially ones wherein the defendant suffers from a mental disorder. Foundational competencies can include the defendant’s basic knowledge of the charges and the adversary system as a whole. They also include the ability to â€Å"disclose re levant information to counsel. † Decisional competencies, on the other hand, would include one’s ability to understand legal alternatives and choose among these when necessary (Skeem, et.al, 2004). References American Hunt Saboteurs Association. (n. d. ). Arrest. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. huntsab. org/arrest. htm City of Oak. (2003). Steps in a criminal case. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. oakharbor. org/subcategory. cfm? id=12&sid=19 Long Island University. (n. d. ). The practitioner scholar model: Program competencies, goals and objectives. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. cwpost. liu. edu/cwis/cwp/clas/psych/doctoral/forms/PractitionerScholarModel. pdf Nichols, W. P. (n. d. ). Steps in a criminal case.Office of Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. co. monroe. mi. us/Monroe/default. aspx? PageId=387 Skeem, J. , Golding, S.. L. & Emke-Francis,P. (2004). Assessing adjudicative competency: Using l egal and empirical principles to inform practice. In Donohue, W. T. & Levensky, E. R. (Eds. ). Forensic psychology: A handbook for mental health and legal professionals. New York: Academic Press. State of Minnesota. (2009). â€Å"Building blocks† for competency models. Retrieved February 4, 2009, from http://www. careeronestop. org/CompetencyModel/pyramid_definition. aspx

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Tata Corus

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENT PROJECT TATA- CORUS ACQUISITION SUBMITTED TO: Dean Dr. Badrinath Prof. K. Govindarajan SUBMITTED BY BADRI NARAYANAN – 112071013 TABLE OF CONTENTS SR NO 1. PARTICULARS PART 1 †¢ Global steel industry †¢ About TATA Steel †¢ About Corus PART 2 †¢ Legal form †¢ Mergers and Acquisition †¢ Method †¢ Terms of transaction †¢ Valuation Matters 2. 3. PART -3 †¢ Reasons for the merger †¢ Objectives for a merger †¢ Culture differences †¢ Post – Acquisition 4. PART 4 †¢ Outcome of the merger – success or failure †¢ Financial indicators †¢ Milestones of the TATA Corus deal 5.CONCLUSION 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY PART – 1 GLOBAL STEEL INDUSTRY Steel was an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2 per cent carbon and 1per cent manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen. Steel was the most important engineering and construction material in the world. It was used in every aspect of our lives, from automotive manufacture to construction products, from steel toecaps for protective footwear to refrigerators and washing machines and from cargo ships to the finest scalpel for hospital surgery. Most steel was made via one of two basic routes: 1.Integrated (blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace). 2. Electric arc furnace (EAF). The integrated route used raw materials (that is, iron ore, limestone and coke) and scrap to create steel. The EAF method used scrap as its principal input. The EAF method was much easier and faster since it only required scrap steel. Recycled steel was introduced into a furnace and re-melted along with some other additions to produce the end product. Steel could be produced by other methods such as open hearth. However, the amount of steel produced by these methods decreased every year.Of the steel produced in 2005, 65. 4per cent was produced via the integrated route, 31. 7percent via EAF and 2. 9 percen t via the open hearth and other methods. At a steel mill, the crude steel production process turned molten steel into ingots, blooms, billets or slabs. These were called semi-finished products. Semi-finished products were solid blocks of steel, usually with a square or rectangular cross section. A flat steel product was typically made by rolling steel through sets of rollers to produce the final thickness. There were two types of flat steel products- Plate products and Strip products.Supply of raw materials was a key issue for the world steel industry. IISI managed projects which looked at the availability of raw materials such as iron ore, coking coal, freight and scrap. Scrap iron was mainly used in electric arc furnace steelmaking. Apart from scrap arising in the making and using of steel, obsolete scrap from demolished structures and end-of life vehicles and machinery was recycled to make new steel. About 500 million tons of scrap was melted each year. Iron ore and coking coal w ere used mainly in the blast furnace process of iron making. For this process, coking coal was turned into coke, an lmost pure form of carbon which was used as the main fuel and reductant in a blast furnace. Typically, it took 1. 5 tons of iron ore and about 450kg of coke to produce a ton of pig iron, the raw iron that came out of a blast furnace. Some of the coke could be replaced by injecting pulverized coal into the blast furnace. Iron was a common mineral on the earth‘s surface. Most iron ore was extracted in opencast mines in Australia and Brazil, carried to dedicated ports by rail, and then shipped to steel plants in Asia and Europe. Iron ore and coking coal were primarily shipped in capsize essels, huge bulk carriers that could hold a cargo of 140,000 ton or more. Since the World War II, the steel industry had experienced three distinct phases- growth (195073), stagnation (1974-2001) and boom (2002-2006)3. The demand for steel grew at an annual rate of 5. 8per cent duri ng 1950-73 as the industrializing nations were building their civil infrastructure. The oil shocks of 1973 through 1979 slowed consumption in the second phase. The production of crude steel grew at 0. 6per cent p. a. over the entire period. Steel prices declined by 2-3 per cent p. a.During 1999-2001 the industry‘s overcapacity hovered near 25per cent globally. Only a few companies were able to sustain. Since 2002 the annual steel production had grown at 7-8per cent driven almost entirely by the double digit growth in China. The huge demand from China had caused a commensurate leap in steel prices. The industry had experienced a drop in the over capacity from 23per cent in 2001 to about 17per cent from 2003-2005. But the demand from China had also witnessed a structural change. From 2002-2004 China‘s capacity for producing crude steel increased on average by 55per cent. By 2005 China became a net exporter of steel.In the first half of 2006 China overtook Japan, Russia and the EU 25 to become the world‘s largest steel exporting country. In June 2006 that winning companies in the steel industry would have somewhere between 150m-200m tons of annual capacity by 2015 and that scale was crucial in the pursuit of value. Shanghai Baosteel, which, although founded in 1998, had already become the world‘s fifth largest steel maker producing 22. 7 m tons in 2005. The potential acquisition of Corus by Tata Steel would create a new entity with a production volume close to Baosteel‘s. CONTRIBUTION OF COUNTRIES TO GLOBAL STEEL INDUSTRYThe countries like China, Japan, India and South Korea are in the top of the above in steel production in Asian countries. China accounts for one third of total production i. e. 419m ton, Japan accounts for 9% i. e. 118m ton, India accounts for 53m ton and South Korea is accounted for 49m ton, which all totally becomes more than 50% of global production. Apart from this USA, BRAZIL, UK accounts for the major chunk of the whole growth. The steel industry has been witnessing robust growth in both domestic as well as international markets. In this article, let us have a look at how has the steel industry performed globally in 2007.ABOUT TATA & CORUS â€Å"Tata Steel has always believed that the principle of mutual benefit – between countries, corporations, customers, employees and communities – is the most effective route to profitable and sustainable growth. † Tata Steel Limited is a multinational steel company headquartered in Mumbai. It was established by Jamsetji Tata in year 1907 and changed its name TISCO to Tata Steel in 2005. It is the tenth-largest steel producing company in the world and the largest private-sector steel company in India measured by domestic production with an annual crude steel capacity of over 28 million tonnes per annum.It is now one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial pre sence in over 50 countries. They were world's 56th largest and India's 2nd largest steel company with an annual crude steel capacity of 3. 8 million tonnes. Based in Jamshedpur, India, it was part of the Tata group of companies. Tata Steel’s larger production facilities include those in India, the UK, the Netherlands, Thailand, Singapore, China and Australia.Operating companies within the Group include Tata Steel Limited (India), Tata Steel Europe Limited (formerly Corus), NatSteel, and Tata Steel Thailand (formerly Millennium Steel). Tata Steel’s vision is to be the world’s steel industry benchmark through the excellence of its people, its innovative approach and overall conduct. Underpinning this vision is a performance culture committed to aspiration targets, safety and social responsibility, continuous improvement, openness and transparency. Corus Group is a multinational steel-making company headquartered in London.It is the world's seventh largest and seco nd-largest steel-maker in Europe and now a subsidiary of Tata Steel. Corus Group was formed through the merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens and British Steel in 1999 forming the third largest producer of steel behind POSCO of South Korea and Nippon Steel of Japan and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Tata in 2007. In 2010 Corus announced it was changing its name to Tata Steel Europe and adopting the Tata corporate identity. British Steel Corporation was a large British steel producer, consisting of the assets of former private companies which had been nationalized.In 1988 the company was privatized as a result of the British Steel. Koninklijke Hoogovens was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918, located in Ijmuiden. The Corus was having leading market position in construction and packaging in Europe with leading R&D. The Corus was the 9th largest steel producer in the world. PART 2 LEGAL FORM Generally, there are many forms of combination of two companies , such as acquisition, merger, takeover and hostile takeover etc.. They are different terminologies used under different situations.Though there is a thin line difference between them but the impact of each kind are completely different. Merger: A merger is when two companies which are about the same size or strength come together to form a single company. They combine their respective resources for mutual gains or to reduce competition. In such a case, the deal gets finalized on a friendly terms and both the companies share equal profits in the newly created entity. Acquisition: When one company acquires the other and rules all its business operations, it is known as acquisitions. In this process of restructuring, one company overpowers the other company.Among the two companies, the one that is financially stronger and bigger in all ways establishes it power. Then we can know that acquisition is usually happen when the company is different in size, and both the acquiring company an d subsidiary want the combination in the meantime, in another word, the subsidiary company is not resisted to the combination. It is frequently used to describe more friendly acquisition, or used in conjunction with the word merger, where the both companies are willing to join together. Takeover: Takeover also occurs when one company purchases another, it is the similar with acquisition, but takeover enerally happens when a company buys another company which is not doing well or has gone bankrupt, and when the transaction is done in an unfriendly manner in more or less a forceful way in which the company being acquired is resisting. The acquiring company usually initials the combination. Accounting Method: Pooling of interests: This is generally accomplished by a common stock swap at a specified ratio. For example: When M&I Bank merged with National City Bank Corporation, the common stock of the two companies were swapped at a ratio between . 55 and . 5363 shares of M&I for every sh are of National City. Such mergers are only allowed if they meet certain legal requirements. Purchase acquisition: This involves one company (the acquirer) purchasing the common stock or assets of the target company. The acquiring company offers to purchase the target company‘s stock at a given price in cash, securities or both. This offer is called a tender offer because the acquiring company offers to pay a certain price if the target‘s shareholders will surrender or tender their shares of stock.Generally, this offer is higher than the stock‘s current price to encourage the shareholders to tender their stocks. The difference between the share price and the tender offer is called the acquisition premium. Consolidation: The existing companies are dissolved and a new company is formed to combine the assets of the existing companies. Both companies’ stocks are surrendered and new stock is issued in its place. E. g. both Daimler-Benz and Chrysler ceased to exis t when the two firms merged and a new firm DaimlerChrysler was created. Some other related terms are horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers.Horizontal mergers happen when a company merges with another company which is a direct competitor in the same product lines and markets. A vertical merger occurs when the company merges with the suppliers or customers. Conglomerate mergers occur when the companies combined have no relationship to one another. It’s a friendly takeover and 100% acquisition was done by TATA steel. For the consolidation, TATA used acquisition method. TERMS: Following are some key terms of the transaction: 1. Tata Steel purchased a 100% stake in the Corus Group at 608 pence per share in an all cash deal cumulatively valued at $12. 4 billion. The deal was the largest Indian takeover of a foreign company and made Tata Steel the world’s fifth-largest steel group. And a wholly owned subsidiary, called Tata Steel UK would be set up by Tata Steel. 2. T ATA financed its acquisition not only through its own equity contribution but a package of market securities: a) Equity Capital from Tata Steel Ltd USD4. 10 billion. b) The non-recourse debt from a consortium of banks USD6. 14 billion from. c) Quasi–Equity funding at Tata Steel Asia Singapore USD1. 25 billion. d) Long term Capital funding at Tata Steel Asia Singapore USD1. 1 billion. 3. A new board for the new entity after acquisition: This consists Ratan N. Tata, chairman of Tata Steel, Jim Leng of the Corus group, Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel, Ishaat Hussain and Arun Gandhi, directors of Tata Sons was formulated to develop and execute the integration and further growth plans. It is the group of top managers from both companies; it can help the new entity fit in much quickly with different culture. Investors in a company that is aiming to take over another one must determine whether the purchase will be beneficial to them.In order to do so, they must ask thems elves how much the company being acquired is really worth. Naturally, both sides of an M&A deal will have different ideas about the worth of a target company: its seller will tend to value the company at as high of a price as possible, while the buyer will try to get the lowest price that he can. There are, however, many legitimate ways to value companies. The most common method is to look at comparable companies in an industry, but deal makers employ a variety of other methods and tools when assessing a target company. Here are just a few of them: 1.Comparative Ratios – The following are two examples of the many comparative metrics on which acquiring companies may base their offers: Price-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio) – With the use of this ratio, an acquiring company makes an offer that is a multiple of the earnings of the target company. Looking at the P/E for all the stocks within the same industry group will give the acquiring company good guidance for what the targe t's P/E multiple should be. ? Enterprise-Value-to-Sales Ratio (EV/Sales) – With this ratio, the acquiring company makes an offer as a multiple of the revenues, again, while being aware of the price-to-sales ratio of other ompanies in the industry. ? 2. Replacement Cost In a few cases, acquisitions are based on the cost of replacing the target company. For simplicity's sake, suppose the value of a company is simply the sum of all its equipment and staffing costs. The acquiring company can literally order the target to sell at that price, or it will create a competitor for the same cost. Naturally, it takes a long time to assemble good management, acquire property and get the right equipment.This method of establishing a price certainly wouldn't make much sense in a service industry where the key assets – people and ideas – are hard to value and develop. 3. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) A key valuation tool in M, discounted cash flow analysis determines a company's c urrent value according to its estimated future cash flows. Forecasted free cash flows (operating profit + depreciation + amortization of goodwill – capital expenditures – cash taxes – change in working capital) are discounted to a present value using the company's weighted average costs of capital (WACC).Admittedly, DCF is tricky to get right, but few tools can rival this valuation method. Synergy: The Premium for Potential Success For the most part, acquiring companies nearly always pay a substantial premium on the stock market value of the companies they buy. The justification for doing so nearly always boils down to the notion of synergy; a merger benefits shareholders when a company's post-merger share price increases by the value of potential synergy. Let's face it, it would be highly unlikely for rational owners to sell if they would benefit more by not selling.That means buyers will need to pay a premium if they hope to acquire the company, regardless of what pre-merger valuation tells them. For sellers, that premium represents their company's future prospects. For buyers, the premium represents part of the post-merger synergy they expect can be achieved. The equation solves for the minimum required synergy: In other words, the success of a merger is measured by whether the value of the buyer is enhanced by the action. However, the practical constraints of mergers, which discussed often, prevent the expected benefits from being fully achieved.Alas, the synergy promised by deal makers might just fall short. PART 3 REASONS FOR MERGER Synergies from the TATA-CORUS Deal I. Tata Steel would get an access to the European market. Corus has already a welldefined network in European Market. If Tata Steel had independently entered the European market, it would have taken a considerable time to develop a wellestablished network. In the post deal scenario it will become a global player with the balanced presence in developed European market and fast growing Asian Market. II.Tata Steel will have a strong position in construction, automotive and packaging market sector. III. It will have a low cost position in Europe and South East Asia. IV. It can double the size and profitability V. The deal has expanded scale from 7 MTPA to 25 MTPA and reaps significant economies of scale. VI. The merged entity would become world’s 6th largest steel company with 25. 6 MTPA of crude steel production. VII. The combined entity will have more efficient operations through enhanced optionality to optimize asset base and material flow, including sourcing of raw materials, and semi-finished steel.VIII. Better equipped to race intensifying competition arising from consolidation in the industry globally. IX. Both Tata Steel and Corus are a strong cultural fit. X. Tata Steel would benefit from Corus’s pan-European distribution network. XI. The acquisition gets with Tata Steel’s stated objective of having a global distribution n etwork. XII. There a strong cultural fit both the two companies. Both Tata Steel and Corus have strong commercial relationship. OBJECTIVES OF THE MERGER Tata’s objectives for buying Corus 1. Tata is looking to manufacture finished products in mature markets of Europe. . At present manufactures low value long and flat steel products while Corus produces high value stripped products 3. A diversified product mix will reduce risks while higher end products will add to bottom line. 4. Corus holds a number of patents and R & D facility. 5. Cost of acquisition is lower than setting up a green field plant and marketing and distribution channels 6. Tata is known for efficient handling of labour and it aims at reducing employee cost and improving productivity at Corus 7. It had already expanded its capacities in India. . It will move from 55th in world to 5th in production of steel globally. 9. Corus, being the second largest steelmaker in Europe, would provide Tata Steel access to som e of the largest steel buyers open new markets and product segments for Tata Steel, which would help the company to de-risk its businesses through wider geographical reach. 10. A presence in mature markets would also provide Tata Steel an opportunity to go further up the value chain as demand for specialized and high value-added products in these markets is high. 11.Corus is also very strong in research and technology development, which would add to the competitive strength for Tata Steel in future. 12. As stated by Tata, the initial motive behind the completion of the deal was not Corus’ revenue size, but rather its market value. Even though Corus is larger in size compared to Tata, the company was valued less than Tata (at approximately $6 billion) at the time when the deal negotiations started. Corus’ objectives for selling 1. Corus needs supply of raw material at lower cost 2. Total debt of Corus is 1. 6bn GBP 3.Though Corus has revenues of $18. 06bn, its profit wa s just $626mn (Tata’s revenue was $4. 84 bn & profit $ 824mn) 4. Corus facilities were relatively old with high cost of production 5. Employee cost is 15 %( Tata steel- 9%) 6. From Corus’ point of view, the basic reason for supporting this deal were the expected synergies between the two entities. Corus has supported the Tata acquisition due to different motives. With the Tata acquisition Corus has gained a great and profitable opportunity to make an exit as the company has been looking out for a potential buyer for quite some time.Benefit for the Tata’s stakeholders: Any advantage and profits from this deal will merge only when Tata Steel would be in a position to export low-cost slabs toCorus. †¢ There may be restraints to exports as Tata Steel will need to heed the requirements of its other acquired companies in South East Asia of NatSteel and Millennium Steel. †¢ This effect may change if the Tatas can acquire businesses in the low-cost regions suc h as Latin America, opening up an assured source of slab-making that can be exported to Corus’s plants in the UK. †¢ Iron ore policy in India undergoes a major change in the coming years. If global consolidation becomes possible with the merger of Thyssen Krupp with Nucor or Severstal with Gerdau or any the top five players. The possibility of pricing stability may ease the performance pressures on Tata-Corus and moderate the risks of restructuring at high cost plants in UK. †¢ If Tata considers global listing say in London it may help the group commands a much higher price-earning multiple and give it more flexibility in managing its finances. Objectives – Achieved or not: Going by the stock market reaction initially, the acquisition was a big blunder.The stock tanked 10. 5 per cent after the deal was announced and another 1. 6 per cent. Investors were worried about the financial risks of such a costly deal. But after successfully acquiring Corus, Tata Steel became the fifth largest producer of steel in the world, up from fifty-sixth position. There were many likely synergies between Tata Steel, the lowest-cost producer of steel in the world, and Corus, a large player with a significant presence in value-added steel segment and a strong distribution network in Europe.Among the benefits to Tata Steel was the fact that it would be able to supply semi-finished steel to Corus for finishing at its plants, which were located closer to the high-value markets. Managing the obstacles: Coping with a merger can create many problems, some of which are, i. Can make top managers spread their time too thinly and neglect their core business, spelling doom. ii. Potential difficulties seem trivial to managers caught up in the thrill of the big deal. iii. The chances for success are further hampered if the corporate cultures of the companies are very different. iv.The companies often focus too intently on cutting costs following mergers, while revenues, and ultimately, profits, suffer. Merging companies can focus on integration and cost-cutting so much that they neglect day-to-day business, thereby prompting nervous customers to flee. In view of the Tata- Corus acquisition, the main obstacles were, 1. The acquisition was not cheap for Tata. The price that they paid represents a very high 49% premium over the closing mid market share price of Corus on 4 October, 2006 and a premium of over 68% over the average closing market share price over the twelve month period.Moreover, since the deal was paid for in cash automatically makes it more expensive, implying a cash outflow from Tata Steel in the amount of ? 1. 84 billion. 2. Tata has reportedly financed only $4 billion of the Corus purchase from internal company resources, meaning that more than two – thirds of the deal has had to be financed through loans from major banks. 3. The day after the acquisition was officially announced, Tata Steel’s share fell by 10. 7 percen t on the Bombay stock market. 4.Tata’s new debt amounting to $8 billion due to the acquisition, financed with Corus’ cash flows, is expected to generate up to $640 million in annual interest charges (8% annual interest cost). 5. Corus had existing interest debt charges of $400 million on an annual basis which implies that the combined entity’s interest obligation will amount to approximately $725 million after the acquisition. 6. Corus, being the second largest steelmaker in Europe, would provide Tata Steel access to some of the largest steel buyers. The acquisition would open new arkets and product segments for Tata Steel, which would help the company to de-risk its businesses through wider geographical reach. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES There has been a great deal of suspicion on how well the two entities, Tata Steel and Corus would integrate post acquisition. This concern has been expressed since the culture and perspectives of the two companies and the people are s eemingly very different from each other. Ratan Tata however, has been confident that the post-acquisition management will not be too difficult as the two organizational cultures will be effectively integrated.Ratan Tata has said he is confident the two companies will have â€Å"a cultural fit and similar work practices. † Tata Corus has made developed some management structure to deal with the smooth operation of the two entities. It has also adopted several system integrations in both the entities to smoothen the transactions between the two entities. Tata Steel has formed a seven- member integration committee to spearhead its union with Corus group. While Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, heads the committee, three of the members are from Tata Steel and the other three are from Corus group.Members of the integration committee from Tata Steel include Managing Director B Muthuraman, Deputy Managing Director (steel) T Mukherjee, and chief financial officer Kaushik Chatte rjee. The Corus group is represented in the committee by CEO Phillipe Varin, executive director(finance) David Lloyd, and division director (strip products) Rauke Henstra. The company has also created several Taskforce Teams to ensure integration of specific set of activities in the two entities for smoother transaction. For instance, the company has created a task force to integrate the UK/EU model in construction to the Indian market.To achieve, a taskforce comprising of following executives from both the entities was formed. Members from Corus Mr. Matthew Poole (Director Strategy Long Products Corus) Mr. Colin Ostler (GM Corus Construction Centre) Mr. Darayus Shroff (Corus International) Members from Tata Steel: Mr. Sangeeta Prasad (CSM South, Flat Products) Mr. Pritish Kumar Sen (Market Research Group) Mr. Rajeev Sahay (Head Planning & Scheduling, TGS) The scope of the taskforce will be to: 1. Ensure smooth market knowledge exchange between Tata Corus and Tata Bluescope and iden tify Knowledge gaps. . Complete mapping of construction sector for Indian market using external resource if necessary. 3. Understand key drivers for construction through knowledge gained from stakeholders of the construction community. 4. Map key competencies of Tata Corus against market drivers/ requirements. 5. Develop a five- year strategy. The reasons why cultural integration is a huge challenge are: 1. Corporate culture is an amalgamation of: National culture, Religious culture, and professional culture. These cultural dimensions are often invisible – but ever present & relevant. 2.Need to balance the local needs and the global needs during the post-acquisition period. These needs may be the local community demands, business demands, investor’s demands etc. 3. Need to meet the high expectations of the shareholders post-acquisition. Often times these acquisitions are financed through LBO or debt, and this needs good cash flows to sustain. In addition, the managemen t will be under pressure to show the benefits of acquisition as promised before the acquisition 4. Lack of Experience in dealing with a different culture. This applies equally to Indian & foreign company managers.Most managers lack the cross-cultural skills needed during the post-acquisition integration. POST ACQUISITION TATA †¢ Tata Steel has formed a seven-member integration committee to spearhead its union with Corus group. While Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, heads the committee, three of the members are from Tata Steel and the other three are from Corus group. The acquisition by Tata amounted to a total of 608 pence per ordinary share or ? 6. 2 billion (US $12 billion) which was paid in cash. First of all, the general assumption is that the acquisition was not cheap for Tata.The price that they paid represents a very high 49% premium over the closing midmarket share price of Corus on 4 October, 2006 and a premium of over 68% over the average closing market share p rice over the twelve month period. Moreover, since the deal was paid for in cash automatically makes it more expensive, implying a cash outflow from Tata Steel in the amount of ? 1. 84 billion. Tata has reportedly financed only $4 billion of the Corus purchase from internal company resources, meaning that more than two-thirds of the deal has had to be financed through loans from major banks.The day after the acquisition was officially announced, Tata Steel’s share fell by 10. 7% on the Bombay stock market. Despite its four times smaller size and smaller capacity, Tata Steel’s operating profit for 2006, earning $840 million on sales of 5. 3 million tonnes, were very close in amount to those generated by Corus ($860 million in profits on sales of 18. 6 million tons). Tata’s new debt amounting to $8 billion due to the acquisition, financed with Corus’ cash flows, is expected to generate up to $640 million in annual interest charges (8% †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ annual interest cost). This amount combined with Corus’ existing interest debt charges of $400 million on an annual basis implies that the combined entity’s interest obligation will amount to approximately $725 million after the acquisition. The debate whether Tata Steel has overpaid for acquiring Corus is most likely to be certain, since just based on the numbers alone it turns out that at the end of the bidding conflict with CSN Tata ended up paying approximately 68% above the average price of Corus’ shares.Another pressing issue resulting for this deal that has created a dilemma between experts and analysts opinions is whether this acquisition for the right move for Tata Steel in the first place. The fact that Tata has managed to acquire a British steel maker that has been a symbol of Britain’s industrial power and at the same time its dominion over India has been perceived as quite ironic. Only time will show whether Tata wil l be able to truly benefit from the many expected synergies for the deal and not make the typical mistakes made in many large M&A deal during this beginning period.PART 4 OUTCOME OF THE MERGER – SUCCESS OR FAILURE Many financial analysts felt that Tata Steel overpaid for the Corus acquisition. Immediately after the acquisition announcement, Tata Steel‘s share price fell by 10. 7 percent to Rs. 463. 95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. According to Martin Stanley, London based head of spread betting at the brokerage firm of GFT Global Markets, ? The consensus view seems to be that Tata have probably overpaid, but if further consolidation in this sector occurs going forward then this will look like very fair value? International Herald Tribune, 1/30/07). Additional concerns were raised about the debt liability of Tata Steel which borrowed more money to fund the acquisition. According to Standard & Poor‘s analyst Anushkant Taneja, ? The size of the Tata acquisition and t he potential cash outflow in Tata Steel‘s offer for Corus could have an adverse impact on its financial risk profile. Standard & Poor‘s rating service in India, Crisil, placed Tata Steel on the ? negative implications watch list after its Corus acquisition.The contention was that Tata Steel had overstretched itself due to execution risk and lack of experience by Indian companies in acquiring international businesses (Range, 2007, April 26). Moody‘s Investor Services downgraded Tata Steel‘s rating from Baa2 (investment grade) to Ba1 (speculative grade). The primary reason cited was Tata Steel‘s weakened balance sheet liquidity and financial profile resulting from its largely debt-funded acquisition of Corus. Moody‘s Senior V. P. Alan Greene stated Tata Steel‘s current high leverage constrains its financial strength and flexibility and ? he main challenge facing management is to de-risk the large capital structure while not neglecting existing operations and opportunities for rapid growth in Asia.? He further stated that ? Tata Steel‘s ambitious capacity expansion plan will lead to higher project execution risk over several years and materially elevate financial leverage unless it is deferred.? (Businessline, 2007, July 7). According to Sreesankar, head of research at Il&Fs investments in Mumbai, ? They (Tata Steel) wanted the company and they have got it. But we have to see how the finding happens and how the integration progresses.One distinction is that EBITDA (earning before income taxes and depreciation allowance) margins for Tatas are about 40 percent and for Corus is about 7 percent.? Clearly, the financial industry analysts were skeptical about the long-term financial viability of this acquisition. According to Shriram Iyer, head of research at Edelweiss in mumbai, ? †¦the time horizons of investors and of the company may not be aligned MANAGEMENT’S POINT OF VIEW This proposed acquisition repres ents a defining moment for Tata Steel and is entirely consistent with our strategy of growth through international expansion.This creates a well balanced company, strategically well placed to compete in an increasingly competitive global environment. (Ratan Tata quoted in Financial Express; 2007, February 13) The Tata Steel board of directors approved the project to acquire Corus, as it was consistent with stated objectives of growth and globalization. Although Tata Steel ended up paying more for Corus than its original bid, its management felt that there were many favorable strategic and financial outcomes to be realized. To begin with, this acquisition would position the combined group as the fifth largest steel company in the world by production output.The new entity would have a meaningful market presence in both Europe (where Corus was a well established brand name) and Asia (where Tata was a well established brand name). Combining the low cost upstream production in India FINA NCIAL INDICATORS: KEY MILESTONES OF THE TATA CORUS DEAL September 20, 2006:-Corus Steel has decided to acquire a strategic partnership with a Company that is a low cost producer October 5, 2006:- The Indian steel giant, Tata Steel wants to fulfill its ambition to Expand its business further. October 6, 2006:- The initial offer from Tata Steel is considered to be too low both by Corus and analysts.October 17, 2006:- Tata Steel has kept its offer to 455p per share. October 18, 2006:- Tata still doesn’t react to Corus and its bid price remains the same. October 20, 2006:- Corus accepts terms of ? 4. 3 billion takeover bid from Tata Steel. October 23, 2006:- The Brazilian Steel Group CSN recruits a leading investment bank to offer advice on possible counter- offer to Tata Steel’s bid. October 27, 2006:- Corus is criticized by the chairman of JCB, Sir Anthony Bamford, for its decision to accept an offer from Tata. November 3, 2006:- The Russian steel giant Severstal announc es officially that it will not make a bid for Corus.November 18, 2006:- The battle over Corus intensifies when Brazilian group CSN approached the board of the company with a bid of 475p per share. November 27, 2006:- The board of Corus decides that it is in the best interest of its will shareholders to give more time to CSN to satisfy the pre- conditions and decide whether it issue forward a formal offer December 18, 2006:- Within hours of Tata Steel increasing its original bid for Corus to500 pence per share, Brazil's CSN made its formal counter bid for Corus at 515 pence per share in cash, 3% more than Tata Steel's Offer.January 31, 2007:- Britain's Takeover Panel announces in an e- mailed statement that after an auction Tata Steel had agreed to offer Corus investors 608 pence per share in cash April 2, 2007:- Tata Steel manages to win the acquisition to CSN and has the full voting support form Corus’ shareholders CONCLUSION Steel prices, raw material supplies and interest costs on the $8-billion debt have been raised to fund the deal. Soon they may also have to deal with the sensitive issue of possible job There is no doubt that Tata has pulled off a coup — Corus makes nearly four times more steel than Tata Steel.Together, the combine becomes the fifth largest producer in the world and the second in Europe. But to make the most of the deal, Tata has to manage several variables including cuts in Corus’s manufacturing plants. There are also the usual sets of integration challenges that come with such large buyouts. The deal may be done, but the hard work is just beginning. In the run up to the auction, Tata had maintained a low profile despite CSN’s aggressive stance. They underestimated our firepower,† says Gandhi, who admits that even bankers to the transaction — ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank — were in the dark as to how far Ratan Tata was willing to go. The only blip, though, was the way the stock markets reacte d. Tata Steel has lost a billion dollars in market capitalization since it first announced its intention to buy Corus in October last year. (The BSE Sensex rose 18 per cent during the same period. ) The market perception is that the Tata Group paid too much for this acquisition.Several brokerage houses have pointed out that the deal implies a high enterprise value/ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA) multiple of 9 for Corus versus 4. 6 for Tata Steel. (L. N. Mittal paid 5. 8 times EBITDA for Arcelor. ) Ratan Tata disagrees: â€Å"We believe that, looking back in time, the price today will prove to be one that was worthwhile because the price of steel companies is likely to be even higher in the coming year. † But tying up the funding is the immediate priority. The Corus acquisition is being routed through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Tata Steel, UK. A similar structure was used for the Tetley buy in 2000. ) So far, the Tatas ha ve indicated that group holding company Tata Sons will pump in $4. 1 billion as equity into the SPV. The balance $8 billion will be raised by junk bonds and senior term loans (part of it has been tied up with banks like ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and CSFB). These loans will be serviced out of Corus’s profits; Tata Steel need not repay this. This has effectively ring-fenced Tata Steel shareholders. Few will disagree. The Tata Steel managing director is likely to look for more acquisitions as he aims to increase the company’s total capacity to 100 mt by 2015.To reach that destination, a lot will depend on whether the group can make Corus fly. BIBILIOGRAPHY http://www. worldsteel. org/? action=programs=53 http://www. bseindia. com/bseplus/StockReach/AdvanceStockReach. aspx? scripcode=500470 http://www. motilaloswal. com/Research/ http://74. 125. 155. 132/scholar? q=cache:1p4SLlOZDcQJ:scholar. google. com/ +tata+corus+acquisition=en=2000 http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=1358681 http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=1431588 http://papers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm? abstract_id=1118306 http://www. nvestopedia. com/university/mergers/mergers1. asp#axzz1zwZQv0dz http://www. mergersandacquisitions. in/index. htm http://www. tatasteel. com/default. asp . http://www. equitymaster. com/detail. asp? date=11/13/2006=1=Tata-Steel-Corus-AWin-Win-Situation http://tejas-iimb. org/articles/04. php? print=true http://arunkottolli. blogspot. ca/2007/11/cultural-integration-post-m. html http://www. scribd. com/doc/22947163/Merger-of-Tata-Steel-and-Corus http://bcgindia. com http://www. worldsteel. org/ http://www. tatasteel. co. in http://www. tatasteel. com http://www. bseindia. com

Monday, July 29, 2019

Advantages and disadvantages of nationalising mines

Advantages and disadvantages of nationalising mines The Freedom Charter signed and preserved in June 1955 affirmed that the people shall share in the country’s wealth and more significantly ‘the mineral wealth below the soil, the banks, and monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole†. There has been a lot of debate for the nationalisation of South African mines by members of the ANC who deem that it is now the ideal time to cement this item onto the ANC’s agenda for the 2012 Centenary Conference and for this to at last become government policy. According to a variety of reports, it is not the ANC’s national executive committee’s concern and as things stand today it is not government policy. Not everyone is as keen as Julius Malema to have mines nationalised (Mpho, 2011). Foreign investment has already declined due to Malema’s uncertain statements regarding the nationalisation of the South African mines. Advantages of nationalising mines A sector th at is nationalised, allows the government to have direct control over that sector. If the mining sector is nationalised, this would entice the government to sell more minerals within the South African borders rather than export these minerals to foreign countries. If mines were to be nationalised, then the revenue generated would be part of national revenue, and thus would benefit the entire country. Economic development and the total well being of the individual will be improved. South Africa has an unequal distribution of income, this extra revenue will allow government to redistribute income more equally, thus reducing poverty as well as lowering the unemployment rate. There will, however, be a substantial amount of legal and economic costs as well as costs which the government would have to face from the transferring of funds. All of these costs would occur in the short term, increasing government debt. However, in the long run, if the government flourishes, nationailasion of th e mines will benefit the entire nation. Disadvantages of nationailsation Nationalisation would create panic among foreign investors. South Africa has a history of state owned enterprises that haven’t been very successful, this would place more doubt in the mind of the foreign invertor. The mining sector, after nationalisation, could take a very long time to boast a profit. Resources are scarce, therefore during this time, resources may become depleted, resulting in huge losses for the South African economy. There are very large and vast costs that government would have to encounter if the mines of the country are nationalised. Some of these costs include the general operation and running of the mines, possible shutting down of the mines as well as developing the mines. If the government has not shown any signs of profit, these costs will still have to be incurred which could be detrimental to the economy and the well being of the individual South Afrrican. Debt of the governm ent would increase at tremendous rates and this will spill over and result in great fiscal deficits. Clive Coetzee, Kwazulu-Natal Treasury economist stated that the mining industry supports the four macroeconomic goals, economic growth, employment, a low inflation rate and a surplus in the balance of payments. He further states that in 2008 around 500 000 people were employed in the mining sector which contributes to 6, 1% of total non-agricultural formal employment. This is without the indirect effects of mining, if these effects are taken into account another 500 000 jobs are likely to exist. I believe that the private sector already has the necessary capital as well as human resource proficiency to maintain and sustain this sector. Therefore there is no reason to nationalize the mines in South Africa. Nationalisation has been tried in many countries. By looking at countries like Botswana, Zambia and Venezuela, one can clearly see that the nationalisation attempts of these countri es have failed.

Ethical and Moral Philosophies Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical and Moral Philosophies - Research Paper Example There are moral philosophies that come in handy when business decisions are made by business people to ensure it falls within the realms of their morals and achieve business goals (Forsyth, 1992). These include teleology, egoism, utilitarianism, relativist, virtue ethics, and justice but this study will elaborate on idealism and relativism. One of the moral philosophies applied in business decision-making include idealism where a decision-maker considers the welfare of others in choosing the decision to make. Highly idealistic individual’s belief in the presence of measures to avoid harming others and will not decide to chose a lesser evil between two evils that will negatively affect other people. Lowly idealistic people belief in the assumption that little harm may be necessary for good to be produced, hence if their decision will harm less people they would chose it among two harmful evils (Forsyth, 1992). Relativism is the other example of moral philosophy applied in business decision-making where a decision maker uses their selves or the people around them as a basis for defining ethical standards (Ferrell et al., 2013). High relativist individuals make a decision depending on the individuals and that the nature of the situation and circumstances are weighed more than ethical principles. Low relativist individuals base their decisions on ensuring they are consistent with moral principles, norms, and practices. Moral philosophies influence behavior and decision-making because when a person takes on a given moral philosophy either consciously or unconsciously, the moral philosophy becomes his/her guiding principle. The person carries out the moral philosophy relentlessly through each obstacle in his way. He/she will strategize and make ways through which the given moral philosophy will be beneficial to them as an

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Democracy - Essay Example The original America.gov site offered a window on the structures and processes of American government. It had extensive links to government departments, and was used by researchers and interested observers both within and outside the United States to locate official documents, and a host of news and debate. From the perspective of the government it provided an opportunity to explain controversial issues and decisions, such as foreign policy moves and legal developments. American democracy was laid out for the world to see, and the site provided a uniquely detailed exposition of the mechanics of government. Different ornganizations, their committee structures, funding , role descriptions and agendas were openly available for all to see. Users could inform themselves about emerging issues, and track back the history of any government decision through the website. A system of tabs and links made navigating the original America.gov site very intuitive. In contrast to this the current Ame rica.gov website is a simple headline title with a search function. This means that users can still search the original content, but only via a keyword search. There is no visual structure any more, and this vastly changes the function of the site. Information is now fragmented and much more difficult to locate.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 30

Philosophy - Essay Example In many countries global warming and climate changes are considered as a political issue rather than an ethical or moral issue. It is difficult to blame such countries beyond certain limits. The sincerity of the countries in tackling with global warming problems is questioned by many countries. For example, America usually speaks volumes about the importance of protecting the environment. However, they do less to reduce greenhouse gas emission or CFC emission. Developed countries such as America have more industrial units and automobiles compared to developing or underdeveloped countries. Such countries are causing more environmental problems than other countries. Instead of taking necessary steps to reduce environmental problems, these countries have the habit of forcing developing countries to contribute more towards environmental protection. These countries do believe that developed countries have some privileges over developing countries and they can continue with the environment damaging activities. Developed countries like America are asking underdeveloped and developing countries to control greenhouse gas emission. This is because of the fact that pollution and global warming problems in one country can affect other countries as well. America and other developed countries argue that developing world has more responsibility to protect the environment whereas the developed world has less responsibility in doing so. It should be noted that economic progress in developing countries will be reduced considerably if these countries implement strict environment protection activities. Therefore, they are not much interested in protecting the environment very much. They see political and economic reasons behind the demands of American and other developed countries. They believe that America and its allies are trying to prevent developing countries from achieving

Friday, July 26, 2019

Importance of Business Ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Importance of Business Ethics - Research Paper Example The researcher states that several ethical theories exist defining what ethical and otherwise. Business ethics is derived from the ethical theories as for the behavior and conduct that any business entity adheres to in their daily interaction with their environment. Business ethics involves the application of ethical values such as integrity, fairness, respect, and transparency in business interactions. Business ethics also relates to how the business develops its structures produces and delivers its products and services to its clientele. Interaction with consumers, suppliers, employees and the wider society should align with ethical practice. Business ethics is very important due to the moral reasons which come with it. According to deontological theory, an action is considered to be ethical if it complies with the duties allocated either formally or moral duties. The utilitarian perspective of ethical actions is those that yield greater good for the majority. Personal and communit y conduct should comply to set rules and regulations for it to qualify classification as ethical. Actions that undermine the rights of other people are unethical especially exploitative behavior even if the victim is not informed of their rights. At the same time, some ethical theory as suggested by Plato and others in his school of thoughts indicates that the end justifies the means. Provided the end results are considered to be positive and acceptable then the process is ethical. Being ethical in a business is the right thing to do and business should ensure all the business behavior is governed by ethics. Business ethics and corporate governance work together to ensure accountability of the business to all stakeholders. Business ethics brings about the cooperation required for a company and the business environment to survive.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Slavery and the Making of America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Slavery and the Making of America - Essay Example Americans hoped to join the Union in order to restore America’s lost pride and to reduce the danger of competing free slave labor in the development of the West. Following the Emancipation Declaration, the need to rebuild the South and the absorption of African Americans required the American nation to soften its stance on racial bias (PBS, 2014). Additionally, the need for cheap labor required the American nation to be more tolerant towards the African Americans. The shifting attitude of the American nation, namely the white population between 1863 and 1877, helped the African Americans win their fight for freedom on a recognized scale. However, the fight for individual freedom for African Americans for hampered for around a century to come. Although the black man had been freed through legislation, namely the Emancipation Proclamation, but he was still in chains everywhere due to social and economic pressures. The average African American, especially in the newly liberated South, was still at the mercy of an overwhelmingly dominant white population. The standard of living for the average slave on the plantation had still yet to register a significant increase. Since the African Americans were socially isolated and unable to assimilate into mainstream society, their individual character could not fully emerge. In order to resist the bulwark of an unforgiving society, the African Americans had to move within society as a group rather than as

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Comparative methodological critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Comparative methodological critique - Essay Example apply the principles of scientific research and avoid proceeding to any initiative that will affect the study’s credibility, for instance the failure in appropriately citing the texts quoted from another study, the failure to inform the participants on the study’s scopes and its ethics – a fact that can lead even to the rejection of a particular study. This paper explores the various aspects of two studies that are based on different research methods: a qualitative and a quantitative one. As a sample of quantitative research, the study of Krishnan et al. (2005) under the title ‘A few good women – on top management teams’ has been chosen; the context of the qualitative research has been also examined through the study of Liff et al. (2001) under the title ‘Distorted views through the glass ceiling: the construction of women’s understandings of promotion and senior management positions’; it is proved that the two studies have been developed in the context of scientific research and therefore they’ve managed to meet their scope despite the delays caused because of failures in different phases of research in the context described below. Krishnan et al. (2005) have tried to examine the potential influence of gender diversity on organizational performance; a series of additional issues have been examined in the context of the study, like the level of gender diversity in modern organization, the environmental characteristics (which in this case refer to the demographic characteristics of the participants) and the role of women managers in changing the internal organizational environment. The reasons that Krishnan et al. (2005) chose the specific subject is the fact that gender has been proved in the literature to influence the performance of employees – as a result of the organization; the aspects of this problem need to be highlighted; despite the development of social and cultural values worldwide there are still factors, like the gender, that

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Insurance - Essay Example r and further step was to expand the consultation procedure to other difficult areas of insurance law, for example post contractual good faith, insurable concern and compensations for the delayed payment of claims, with the publication of a different discussion paper in 2008.The objective of the Law Commissions is to put up a final Bill to Parliament for endorsement in 2010. Though, the Law Commission’s intended legislative improvement did not materialize as the insurance industry persuaded the administration that the case for legislation was prevailed over by the benefits of self-regulation. It is a fact that customers find it complicated to know their lawful rights and responsibilities under insurance agreements in isolation contracts are regulated by an intricate patchwork of rule, policies and plans. Consumer protection is one of important agenda among the European Communities and there is a likelihood that the Community may proceed to harmonize the law across Europe or perhaps make a European rule of insurance contracts. Several have the opinion that the law does not defend rational prospects of business patrons disheartening confidence in the market place. Bearing in mind the fast evolving of fresh financial centres, if not attended to, endanger the level of London Market as a most important global insurance centre. The intention of this paper is to study the improvement suggestions prepared by the Law Commissions on re-contractual responsibility of utmost good faith when considering various fiscal hypotheses those have been powerful over the years in the progress of different values in insurance law. It is thought that fiscal hypotheses have lot to give not merely in offering particular insight regarding potential outcomes of planned modifications while as well in foreseeing unplanned consequences that could effect from such suggestions. Suppose the recommendations of the Law Commissions accepted, in terms of pre-contractual responsibility of utmost

Loneliness in the modern age Essay Example for Free

Loneliness in the modern age Essay Loneliness is inevitable; it is crafted out of the modern world and thus is inseparable from it. It is so pervasive that to be human is to be lonely (as cited in Rokach, 2004). Humankind is continually struggling to escape the solipsistic prison of painful alienation, the agonizing pain of loneliness, and its gnawing, saddening, and terrifying effects (as cited in Rokach). This everlasting battle drives peoples lives the fear motivates people to attend to and connect with others but in a self-protective and paradoxically self-defeating fashion (Cacioppo, Hughes, Waite, Hawkley, Thisted, 2006). Social isolation is a more tangible seclusion as opposed to the subjective experience of feeling lonely which is the longing to fit in and the resultant experience when one cannot. However, both experiences are particularly prevalent in North American culture. Individuals of the contemporary Western society are subject to comparatively high levels of loneliness and social isolation a result of increasing reliance on technology, selfish ideals, and the pressure culture places to develop relationships. This culminates in poor psychological health and quality of life, creating a cycle of further alienation. Western culture is to blame for the increasing levels of social isolation among the population. North Americans have significantly higher levels of loneliness compared to other cultures (Rokach Neto, 2005). Though humans inherently desire closeness, it is the mechanized society to which they belong that is forcing them apart by way of more leisure, either through affluence or unemployment, [living] longer, [increasing] our interaction with computerized equipment, and [continuing] to respond to various financial and corporate demands by frequent mobility (Rokach). It is the lifestyle of the modern world rather than a single source that sustains loneliness: normality is associated with such conditions as spiritual and emotional emptiness, Type A personality, and workaholism (as cited in Rokach Neto). Society is structured in such a way so that to eliminate loneliness is to eliminate all that Western culture thrives and is supported on. Without society as a supplement, people cannot survive either; and so, they are caught in the painful experience of loneliness. As Western society becomes more technologically advanced, social isolation is magnified proportionally. Increased reliance technology and the Internet has negative effects on psychological well-being, such as depression and loneliness (Junghyun, LaRose Wei, 2009). High school students with greater hours of engagement on the Internet have higher loneliness levels than the average users (Deniz, 2010). Increased internet usage is both the cause and effect of loneliness; the lonely turn to the virtual world for a sense of connection they cannot achieve in the real world. However, electronic connections cannot take the place of real relationships increased Internet use can increase social isolation as well as depression when it replaces more tangible forms of human contact. (Cacioppo Patrick, 2008, p. 260). As well, North American culture promotes traits such as individualistic success and competitiveness every man for himself. These values are the model for success and are only more pronounced in the modern era; thus, relationships on the whole have become superficial and exist primarily by necessity. Loneliness is a defining factor in the technologically-advanced and selfish Western world. Loneliness is a predominantly Western phenomenon yet the very same society illogically emphasizes the necessity of social connection. Not only does the modern age provide an environment where loneliness and social isolation thrives, it also heightens awareness of such conditions. Social connection involves feeling part of society and not alienated. Society itself encourages connectedness and meaningful relationships an ideal that the population shares. An overwhelming majority [of people rated] love, intimacy, and social affiliation above wealth or fame, even above physical health (Cacioppo Patrick, p. 5) when asked what gave them most happiness. However, loneliness is so prevalent that it is very difficult to attain these goals. As such, when harsh expectations are not met, the feeling of isolation is intensified. Loneliness in itself already causes suffering, but not meeting social requirements unduly worsens the experience. The individual greatly relies on the community for support, a sense of belonging, reciprocal sharing with others and ones sense of identity (Seepersad, Mi-Kyung Nana, 2008) thus, the perceived failure to society greatly weakens self-worth. The inherent need for closeness, amplified by the social expectation of having a romantic partner (Seepersad, Mi-Kyung Nana), prompts people to enter relationships simply to eliminate feelings of social inadequacy and emptiness. In Western countries, individuals view romantic relationships as possibly the most important and central source of love and intimacy (and thus as very needed and desired) (Seepersad, Mi-Kyung Nana). As a result, it appears, for instance, that a good number of marriages start as a panacea to loneliness (Rokach). However, expectations to have suffering eliminated by these artificial relationships are often not met hence the high divorce rate. These unfulfilled expectations resulting in a lack of real, meaningful relationships constitutes an inability to connect with others. This notion in turn is consistently associated with issues of self-esteem [and] perceptions of social competence. (Hall-Lande, Eisenberg, Christenson Neumark-Sztainer, 2007). Western cultures paradoxical expectations of close relationships in a lonely world only causes more suffering and further loneliness.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Self-healing Operating Systems Essay Example for Free

Self-healing Operating Systems Essay The dependability of computer systems is one of the key issues in the technological era. Our daily lives are currently governed by complex computer systems (Haugk, Lax, Royer and Williams, 1985). Operating systems capable of managing key application on computer systems should be in a position to cope with the increasing rate of software problems, malicious attacks and hardware flaws (Parhami, 2005 and Lohr, 2001). One of the most significant requirements for operating systems is resilience to errors. Most of the operating systems stop operating once they encounter a problem with the hardware or software. This results to loss of applications and data running in the system. Some common examples of such issues are Windows blue screen errors and kernel panics in UNIX (David and Campbell, n. d). This is unfortunate since the main concern of the users is with the applications and data. They are afraid of losing data out of a fault that it not of their making. Even after a fault is encountered in the software or hardware, the users would want to have their data intact and recoverable. This problem has been taken care of by the invention of Self-healing operating systems. Self-healing operating systems refer to systems that automatically detect, diagnose and repair software and hardware problems that are localized. There are various techniques that are used by the operating system in recovery, once an error has been detected (Andrzejak, Geihs, Shehory and Wilkes, 2009). Code reloading Temporary memory errors or memory corruption as a result of an erroneous code can lead to errors like illogical instructions to the software code. Despite the fact that the ECC memory is capable of detecting and fixing some temporary memory faults, it is not capable of handling corruption faults that result from invalid instructions. The simplest most effective technique to handle such a problem is code reloading. This recovery technique reloads the flawed memory work from permanent memory. In case the fault is permanent, a case that can be identified through testing, there is a possibility of recovering through remapping of the faulty hardware page utilizing virtual memory support. In case the processing unit points to an undefined command exception, the command is reloaded by the handler from a copy of the system code in memory-mapped permanent memory and the command that is reloaded is executed. This recovery procedure is the simplest in implementation. However; the procedure is not capable of detecting memory corruption resulting from an opcode transforming into another legal opcode (David and Campbell, n. d). Regular checking of the operating system code is important to better detection of flaws in the memory. Hashing and checksums are simple methods of verifying of running system code. If a fault is detected a reload is triggered very fast. This is a preventive strategy that is capable of detecting flaws before they cause errors. The preventive strategy is also capable of detecting faults that make an opcode to result to another legitimate opcode (Demsky, and Rinard, 2002). CRC-32 checksum of critical kernel code is computed periodically by choices. This is makes sure that the memory where the instruction is stored has not been corrupted. In case the checksum changes as a result of corrupted memory, the block of the memory that is corrupted is reloaded from the permanent memory. Flushing of the instruction cache is carried out to ensure that all the affected commands are disposed of. The checksum can also be computed as soon as an operating system error is detected. This is done to make sure that the system and recovery code is not affected (Liedtke, 1995). Modern ARM-based processor designs consist of Run Time Integrity Checker (RTIC) hardware. This hardware is capable of being configured by the operating system for computation and verification of SHA-1 hashes of specific code areas. Once an error is identified, a communication is made to the processor via an interrupt. The same kind of checksum verification can be utilized in checking the integrity of fixed data. Checking the integrity of changing data is hard. One weakness of this recovery procedure is that it cannot be clearly used for codes that are created at run-time or for self-modifying code. This means that care must be taken to make sure that a replica of the created code is stored in a permanent memory (Shapiro, 2004). Component micro-rebooting This technique has been proven to be effective for application programs. Application of this technique to OS is also practicable (Voas and McGraw, 1998). The technique can help in recovery from temporary hardware flaws and some system bugs. For the Nooks project, this technique as extension restarts was utilized for recovery of the Linux Kernel. The technique involves reinitialising the corrupted part or destroying and recreating it and then re-requesting the component. While in code reloading errors are fixed only in processor commands, in this technique errors are fixed in kernel data structures. The technique works in collaboration with isolated components. The wrapper elements that offer isolation of the components are also utilised in the management of the recovery. The fault model that is addressed in micro-reboot is component-level flaw repression. This can be partly implemented by component isolation (Tanenbaum, Herder and Bos, 2006). Automatic service restarts In case crucial operating system service, like the paging daemon, stops working, it brings the entire system to a stop. Once the failure of such a crucial process is realised, a restart of the process can solve the problem and continue the operation of the operating system. The flaw model that is handled by automatic service restart is single-process failure. In this case there is usually no external state corruption. In micro-kernel OS, this basically involves detection and restarting of the affected system services that are run as application processes (David, Carlyle and Campbell, 2007). For instance, in Minix3, this operation is carried out by reincarnation server. A system process could be developed such that it is mechanically restarted once it encounters an exception. There is a particular system process that loops constantly awaiting a prepared process and acquiesces to the new process. This special system process is the process dispatcher. The system becomes completely useless once the process dispatcher crashes. This is the reason why in some systems the system dispatcher is executed as a restartable process that can be recovered once it crashes (Demsky and Rinard, n. d). Process restarts may fail to work where the process utilizes locks for accessing shared data structures. Such cases are common where the process dies while holding a single or more locks. Even in case the shared data structures are not affected or they can be corrected, recovery will not happen unless there is releasing of all the locks held by processes. This is why the system should be such that it can track all the locks help by processes and forcefully release any that is help once a process is halted. It is possible to implement lock tracking and force unlocking to ensure that the process runs once a fault has been identified and fixed (Tanenbaum, Herder and Bos, 2006). Watch-dog based recovery This technique utilises external hardware watchdog timers. They are utilised in error detection where the operating system is not doing any useful work. This is such a case where the OS is in an infinite loop. There is need for regular resetting of the timer by the operating systems. A signal is sent to the processor once the timer expires. The processor has a reset pin where the timers are usually cabled. They lead to a complete reboot of the system in case of failure. This process has a weakness for a complete reboot results to the loss of user data and applications that are currently in the volatile memory. However, since the memory is conserved after a process reset, reconstruction of both the operating systems and user state is possible. This makes it possible to continue operating after the reset. This way the user data is recovered resulting to higher reliability (Andrzejak, Geihs, Shehory and Wilkes, 2009). This technique has been successfully implemented in Linux and Choices. Once there is resetting of the memory management unit (MMU), interrupt subsystem, watchdog bites, and the processor, the system continues to operate effectively. To be able to avoid loosing the user data, the reset handler passes the usual boot procedure when the reset is instigated by the timer. The reset handler turns the memory management unit back on, there is deactivation of the running processes, reinitialising of the interrupts and skips to the OS’s process dispatch loop. After this the system runs the next ready process (Shapiro, 2004). All that is lost is the process state of the one that was running during the resetting of the processor. The process whose state is lost cannot be scheduled once more. As a result, it is eliminated from the process queue. A solution to the lock-up state is delivering of exception to the thread that is locked up. In this case, the thread is free to try local recovery rather than being forced to terminate. Watch-dog based recovery uses single process crash as a fault model without external state corruption. The technique utilises the lock tracking code in the release of pooled resources that are in a process that is terminated. Another kind of lockup that can initiate a watchdog timeout is a deadlock. Recovery in this case can be tried by restarting some parts so as to break cycles (Andrzejak, Geihs, Shehory and Wilkes, 2009). Transactional roll-back Once an error results to an exception during an operation, there could be a roll back of the state of the part. This can be achieved through the abortion of the operation. After abortion, the operation is then retried. In Choices, management of a transaction is carried out by the same wrapper elements that offer isolation. The transaction is aborted by the wrapper. Where there is unhandled exception, the state of the part is rolled back. It is also possible to use multi-threaded and non-blocking execution offered by RSTM for better performance (Brown and Patterson, 2001). Support of transactional model on parts results to expenses in terms of space and time. Expenses in terms of space are as a result of storage of backup copies of states prior to transactions. In terms of time, it is due to performance of memory copies and management of the memory during the set up and committing of a transaction (Marathe et al. 2006). Transactional roll-back differ from component micro-booting since the roll back is only on the current process, while the latter re-initialises the entire internal state of the process. Based on the kind of the component, either of the two techniques can be employed. Particularly, in case the component has crucial state information that can be lost if component micro-booting is used, then transactional roll-back can be utilised to retain the state. Component micro-booting is useful when the component can withstand state reinitialisation and has few overheads (Demsky and Rinard, n. d). Process-level recovery Where clear recovery cannot work, or in case the recovery process becomes erroneous, specific process states can be stored to permanent memory. This is carried out as the last option is all the others cannot work. Once the user states are stored, the system can attempt full reboot. The state of the processes can then be saved selectively into the computer. Every operating system state is reinitialised after the reboot probably removing fleeting errors. Process-level recovery ensures that user applications are not lost when the fault affects only a few system applications or immaterial operating system state. The technique can be used in collaboration with file system snapshots to make sure that the file integrity is not affected after the recovery process by going on to run erroneous processes. This procedure needs minimal support from the operating system. All it requires is an operational permanent memory drive and user process state management code. The stored processes can be restored selectively after the healing process (Ghosha, Sharman, Rao and Upadhyaya, 2007). Conclusion The reliability of computer systems is one of the key issues in the modern society. This is because computers have become central to our lives and we depend on them for many of our operations. A reliable computer system is one that can recover from a fault or an error effectively and without loss of either user applications or data. This is the reason why operating systems have been developed such that they are self-healing. This means that they can automatically detect, diagnose and repair software and hardware problems that are localized. The recovery techniques discussed on the paper include: Code reloading; Component micro-rebooting; Automatic service restarts; Watch-dog based recovery; Transactional roll-back; and Process-level recovery. Annotated Bibliography: Andrzejak, A. , Geihs, K. , Shehory, O. Wilkes, J. (2009). Self-Healing and Self-Adaptive Systems, Dagstuhl Seminar 09201, May 10-15, 2009. This paper presented in Dagstuhl Seminar tackles various aspects of self-healing and self-adaptive systems. Among the issues discussed in the paper include fault detection and diagnosis, recovery and repair techniques, frameworks and architectures for self-adaptive systems, self-healing solutions in IT infrastructures, and fault management for application systems. The discussion on recovery and repair techniques makes the paper an important resource for the project. Brown, A. , and Patterson, D. (2001). Embracing failure: A case for recovery-oriented computing (ROC). High Performance Transaction Processing Symposium, Asilomar, CA (October 2001). This paper is generally on recovery-oriented technology. Brown and Patterson discus various aspects related to recovery from faults and errors in computing. In their work, they have not left out the role of operating systems in recovery, which is the focus of this research. As a result, this paper provides very important information for the project. The authors are experts in data recovery and therefore the information provided is reliable in understanding recovery in computing. David, F. Campbell, R. (n. d). Building a Self-Healing Operating System, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. This paper by David, F. Campbell, R. discusses the rationale behind development of Self-healing Operating Systems. They go further to discus the recovery techniques that ensure user applications and data in temporary storage are not lost when an operating system crashes. The techniques discussed include: Code reloading; Component micro-rebooting; Automatic service restarts; Watch-dog based recovery; Transactional roll-back; and Process-level recovery. This makes the paper an important resource for this project. David, F. Carlyle, J. Campbell, R. (2007). Exploring Recovery from Operating System Lockups. In USENIX Annual Technical Conference, Santa Clara, CA. In the recovery process, process restarts may be impossible where the process has locks. This mostly happens where the process terminates while holding a single or more locks. This resource provides crucial information on how to deal with these lock-ups for recovery to be effective. The paper introduces what lock-ups and how to handle them when using different recovery methods. This is what makes it important as an information source for this paper. Demsky, B. and Rinard, M. (2002). Automatic detection and repair of errors in data structures. Technical Report MIT-LCS-TR-875, MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This paper is on mechanical detection and repair of errors in computer systems. The idea of automatic detection and repair reveals the fact that the operation system is involved in the detection and recovery. The paper provides details on how the self-healing operating system detects and repairs errors in data structures. These are the techniques that are used for detection and recovery which are the main focus of the essay. Demsky, B. Rinard, M. (n. d). Automatic Data Structure Repair for SelfHealing Systems. Retrieved on August 3, 2010 from http://people. csail. mit. edu/rinard/paper/sms03. pdf The authors of this paper, Demsky, B. Rinard, M. talk about a system that they came up with that that accepts specifications of key data structure constraints, detects and repairs breaches of these constraints, making it possible for the program to recover from errors and continue working effectively. The paper offers the procedures that the authors use in detection and recovery of their system from the errors. This is what makes the paper significant for the research. Ghosha, D. , Sharman, R. , Rao, R. Upadhyaya, S. (2007). Self-healing systems: survey and synthesis, Decision Support Systems Volume 42, Issue 4. Ghosha, Sharman, Rao and Upadhyaya give a detailed analysis of Self-healing systems. Theirs is a contemporary software-based systems and applications analysis in a world where this has gained significance importance. They discus the ability of Self-healing systems in to manage conflicting resources and service different user needs. They go ahead to discus the need and how to discover and rectify system faults and recovery from errors. They have argued that these systems attempt to â€Å"heal† themselves by recovering from faults and regaining normal performance rates. Haugk, G. , Lax, F. , Royer, R. and Williams, J. (1985). The 5ESS(TM) switching system: Maintenance capabilities. ATT Technical Journal, 64(6 part2). This paper discusses maintenance capabilities of operating systems. It is a useful recourse for the essay that discusses self-healing of operating systems from an historic point of view. Computer systems have been affected by software bugs and hardware faults since the beginning. This article discusses how these bugs and faults that result to errors have been handled since the invention of computer hardware and software. Liedtke, J. (1995). On micro-kernel construction. In SOSP ’95: Proceedings of the fifteenth ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, New York: ACM Press. This book includes the proceedings of ACM symposium on Operating systems principles in 1995. The book contains a discussion of the component micro-rebooting that has been proven to be effective for application programs. The author also argues that the application of this technique to operating system is also practicable. For the Nooks project, this technique as extension restarts was utilized for recovery of the Linux Kernel. This book contains important information on component micro-rebooting as recovery technique for self-healing operating systems. Lohr, S. (2001). Go to: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists, and Iconoclasts, the Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution. New York: Basic Books. This book provides important information on the evolution and working of software. The book offers reliable information on software management. Software bugs are some of the problems that cause errors on processes. The book offers a clear understanding of these bugs and ways of dealing with them. Marathe, V. et al. (2006). Lowering the Overhead of Software Transactional Memory. Technical Report TR 893, Computer Science Department, University of Rochester, Mar 2006. According to this paper, support of transactional model on parts results to overheads in terms of space and time. Expenses in terms of space are as a result of storage of backup copies of states prior to transactions. In terms of time, it is due to performance of memory copies and management of the memory during the set up and committing of a transaction. After providing this fact, the authors goes on to discuss ways of eliminating these overheads. Parhami, B. (2005). Computer Architecture: From Microprocessors to Supercomputers, New York: Oxford University Press. As the technology has been advancing, so are the changes and needs to have systems that are more reliable. This book has a section that discusses computer operations and it is the section that has significant information for the paper. Faults in computer hardware are as crucial in error detection and recovery as software. This makes the book important for the research. The research would not be complete without the understanding of computer hardware. Shapiro, M. ( 2004). Self-Healing in Modern Operating Systems. Retrieved on August 3, 2010 http://queue. acm. org/detail. cfm? id=1039537 Shapiro gives an introduction to the topic of self-healing operating systems by first discussing the role played by the operating system in a computer system. It is not possible to understand the concept of self-healing operating systems, without understanding operating systems in general. This is the strength of this article for this research. He goes on to discuss the self-healing system model, which leads to the self-healing operating systems, which is the center of this research. Tanenbaum, A. S. , Herder, J. N. and Bos, H. (2006). Can We Make Operating Systems Reliable and Secure? Computer, 39(5):44–51, The reliability of computer systems is one of the key issues in the modern society. This article provides the reasons why computer systems need to be made reliable and dependable. The authors go on to explain ways by which operating systems can be made more reliable in a computing environment prone to hardware faults and software bugs. This book is an important resource for the essay since it provides the solutions to the problem. Voas J. M. and McGraw G. (1998). Software Fault Injection. New York: Wiley, 1998. Software Fault Injection is a book that identifies the fact that software bugs can result to unreliability in computer systems. The book discusses ways in which these bugs and errors in computer systems can be identified and what should be done. The solution suggested by Voas J. M. and McGraw G. is related to the operating systems, leading us to what is referred to as self-healing Operating Systems. This section on how the system can solve the problems with the software is the one that offers important information for the research.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Shehri Language In Southern Oman English Language Essay

The Shehri Language In Southern Oman English Language Essay The UNESCO atlas of endangered languages has listed that Shehri Language is at risk of disappearing, based on Johnston (1982). The aim of this paper is to investigate at which level of endangerment the language is. This study has been conducted based on interviews with representatives from each part of the country, and distribution of a questionnaire to females and males Shehri speakers. Basically, the research has discovered that the Shehri language is a very rich language [linguistically] and need to be studied to discover all those issues as a part of the Omani culture diversity. Moreover, the results had shown that the Shehri language face a remarkable threatened starting from the next door culture, and ends with the educational philosophy. Support and encouragement need to be done by the government to support such studies to revive the language. The Shehri speakers are and still proud of their language and next generation should continue with those manners. Key words Language death, language revive, language revilaitaztion, language change, language and culture. Chapter One Introduction This dissertation is about the Shehri language in Dhofar. It aims to investigate the language form a sociolinguistics prospectives. As it is considered as severely endangers by the UNESCO we are going to investigate it by looking the language relationship with culture and surrounding variability. Although, the UNESCO records are clear and fact such a topic is changeable and it could be varied if the language is being recorded over a time and updated. In addition, since this language is not being studied before as endangered, we shall present the history of language and country to make the image clear, because it seems that the name of the language means a lot to the Shehri speakers, and there is a remarkable debate about it. Thus, it might draw the light on what are the reasons for the language death in Southern Oman. Moreover, a short survey on what have been discussed about the language in previous studies before the research body is introduced to address the following questions: Is the shehri language is going to extinct? If so, What are the reasons for this reduction in the number of speakers? What is the best solution to revive the language? After that, the analysis of data and findings will reveal what the study accomplished. Finally, this paper will discuss what might be done and how the revive the Shehri language. The language A Sheharat is a language that is spoken is south of Oman. It is known is the mother-tongue of the people who live in the mountain of Dhofar southern Oman. Moreover, since this language was and still the language of the people in the mountains of Dhofar , people from Salalah the capital of Dhofar call it Jabbali or Jabblat which comes from Jabbal in Arabic which means mountain. Moreover, Higgins (2010: 3) stated that the communist-backed tribal guerrillas controlled the whole of the Jebel Dhofar region (jebel [English spellings vary] is the Arabic word for mountain, hill, or slope). None-Shehri speakers describe the language of its speaker as Jabbalies or Gabbalies. When they say that this language is Jabbali it is due to translating the word Shehar (the origin name of the language which is mountain) into Arabic Jabbal, therefore, they call it Jabbali. According to Hetzron (1997:2) The Jabbali language received many names in the scientific literature, the most common of which being Ã…Â  xauri, Ehkili, Qarawi, Ã…Â  heri. In context, if any person is going to the mountain and he would name it he would say Im going to the mountain Im going to Shehar and in the city language Arabic it is going to be something like Im going to Jabbal. A Shehri (2000) has described his tribe to be the ancient tribe in the South the South Arabian Peninsula claiming that the language is named according to his tribal name, but this study revealed that the name Shehri coming from the name of the mountain in the language itself. In addition, Johnstone (1982) in his introduction was clarifying all those issues as a message from him for the important impact on the language. He stated that Tribal origins mean much less in modern Oman, and the large scale re-settlement has tended to blur these ancient distinctions. The name Jibbali, however, has the advantage that it avoids the mention of the term Shehri, with its tendency to stress old social differences between Dhofar tribes. In this view, This tells us that the different names that we have for the same language are common, because each person is describing it from his culture and language. But there is no doubt that the ancients speakers call it Shehrat or Shehri language. There are some people in Dhofar who do not believe that this is a language. According to them it is an accent or a dialect and the term language is something cannot be describing it. Their assumption comes from the idea that if the language is not written it is an accent, while if we look at the Shehri it is a language that contains it is own phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. At the same time it is not a part from any other language until now so they can call it an accent for X language. In fact, the Shehri have three different accents in Dhofar. This is due to the geographical variation in South of Oman. The most known part is the central part since it is closer to the city Salalah Johnstone (1981). Moreover Peterson (2004:256) and also Johnstone (1981) divided the mountains of Dhofar into three main areas; Jabal al-Qara overlooks Salalah at the centre, while the remote and largely inaccessible Jabal Samhan dominates the east, and the equally forbidding and barren Jabal Qamar commands the west. This might lead us the Shehri variant is based on those main inhabited places in Dhofar came from. The number of Shehri speakers is 5,000 according to Johnstone (1975, 94). This is taken during a war in Dhofar which force many people from the mountains to deported to Yemen as the closest country to Dhofar as looking for refuge from the war and a better place to lead their war since the government controlled the whole area in Dhofar. After that, in 1993 according to Omani national census the number of people who are living in the mountain is 25,000. At that time, the Shehri language was the first language in the mountains of Dhofar. On the other hand, Al Aghbari (2011) reported that the number of Shehri speakers are more than 147,000 people. Since the Omani Census are not counting the number of speakers of each language in the country; the number of Shehri speakers are not being officially known yet. AL-Shehri (2008) claim that the Shehri language consists of 33 letters with 6 extra phonemic sounds which leave the language with 39 phonemes. On the other hand, if we look at the letter and how they sound we might feel that they are similar to Arabic. Because it is not a written language [yet] people from other tribes and places in Dhofar tries to speak Shehri and at the same time they are using the same Arabic letters that they are used to. At this stage, the Shehri language starts to change and nowadays people hardly use the 6 extra sounds and replacing them with the normal Arabic phonemes. This doesnt mean that the Shehri language is a partial form Arabic. The vocabulary and language structures in Shehri are totally different, but the sounds might be the same since they are sharing the same area. The history of the country Dhofar was a very rich country in the trading market with other ancient nations. According to Zarins (1997:51) Dhofar province is the Atlantis of the Sand and speculated that it might have a trading center in southern of Oman. Moreover, he continues saying that Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, and other ancient authors, though not specifically mentioning Ubar, gave brief accounts of cities in southern Arabia that market resins of frankincense and myrrh trees. While it is certain that the people of the Dhofar area grew rich trading these commodities, it would appear that the city of Ubar was an Arabian Nights fantasy. Furthermore, Dharmananda, (2003) confirms that the Myrrh and frankincense trading market reached china before 973 A.D as a medicine and also, in Egypt for embalming the bodies of the Pharaohs. Besides, Dharmananda (2003) believed that Myrrh and frankincense, traded throughout the Middle East at least since 1500 B.C. Therefore, it might be seen now clearly that the his tory of the area south of Oman was famous and strong enough to contend the Egyptian and the Chains empires. Such a nation must have a language, power, economic and financial system to compete such nations,otherwise the south Arabian Peninsula is going to be a an Egyptian or Chinese colony. After those glory days in southern the Arabian Peninsula lots of changes happen to ancient people. In terms of the economy and their statues worldwide as well. Recently, before the 1970, Oman was ruled by Sultan Said Bin Taimor (1932-1970) in which many people do not have the right to be educated, receiving medical care or even travel from Oman without his direct permission. This was the Sultans policy that results in Rebellion in Dhofar from 1968-1975. Dhofar was the capital of the south and the modern part of it. The Sultan of Oman, Said bin Tamur, ruled like a feudal lord: No Omani was allowed to leave the country, or even his home village, without the Sultans explicit permission. He banned all symbols of the decadent twentieth century From medical drugs and spectacles to book and radios and he flogged his subjects for adopting Western dress Ladwig (2008:66). Moreover, Higgins (2010:3) stated there were no roads, no schools, no hospitals, and no development of water resources for home or agricultural use. This was the situation all over Oman but with some emphasizes on Dhofar as the special place for the Sultan Said bin Taimor. According to Ladwig (2008:66) Dhofar was the Sultans personal domain, where he resided in seclusion year round, despite the fact that the nations capital was 500 miles north of Muscat. Although he took a Dhofari wife, who was the mother of his son, the Sultan disliked and distrusted his Dhofari subjects, the Jebelis most of all. It is clearly seen that all those issues happened since Sultan Said Bin Taimor taken the rule of the country made the situation in Oman and especially in Dhofar difficult to be controlled. Therefore, the Rebellion movement started from Dhofar (1968) with the help of the Soviets and China. Until, 1970 when the Sultan Qaboos the Only son of Sultan Said bin Taimor take the rule of the country and start to fight the counterinsurgency in southern of Oman, and make the promises to rebuild the country again. My people, my brothers, yesterday it was complete darkness and with the help of God, tomorrow will be a new dawn in Muscat, Oman and its people (Sultan Qaboos first speech 1970). According to Gulvady (2009) The Sultan Qaboos government has focused on economic development. He first addressed infrastructure needs, such as building roads and highways, as well as education. He is now focusing on sustainable development, diversification, industrialization, and privatization. The schools were built with a great care; hospitals, Universities and colleges to ensure that each person in Oman get the chance to be learnt and to be educated. Certainly, according the Ministry of Education (2012) the number of schools rose from 3 schools in 1970 teaching the Holy Quran and Arabic language only, to 1053 schools by 2010 teaching modern subjects as Mathematics, Sciences, Arabic, English, History, and Religion. In addition, Universities and colleges were established all over Oman. The main University is the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. Also, the biggest cities in Oman were provided with an applied sciences college and a technical college as well. Therefore, the use of Arabic language gets greater; while the Shehri language got a few chances to be practiced without being taught. To conclude, the past of Oman was dark and full of blood from the Rebellion movement against Sultan Qabooss father Said bin Taimor. All those promises by the Sultan Qaboos has been achieved in 40 years is something difficult and almost impossible. Thank to God and the hands of the Omani generations who learnt and trained under the government of Oman this path was easier.Now Omani students can be found in the world famous Universities studying and learning to continuing what the Sultan Qaboos has begun. The new regime, though undoubtedly good for the people, did lead to the decline of the Shehri language. Therefore, it might be worth to reorganize the Educational Philosophy in Oman. Chapter Two Literature review: During the last decades lots of changes happened to Oman, precisely Dhofari people and their language. The changes appear in the vocabulary choice, pronunciation, structure, words are disappearing and not being used. Marshall (2004:1) claims that investigators have shown renewed interest in the loss of non-standard varieties and the process of standardization. This has given important insights into the types of geographical area, social network, and social group in which language changes originate and mechanism involves in the process of diffusion. In addition, McMahon (1994:8) assured that we should never lose sight of the fact that language are spoken by people for purposes of communication; consequently, speakers change languages, although that is not to say that they are necessarily conscious of doing so, or that they intend to make changes. Perhaps speakers of any language hold the responsibility toward the changes happened at their time, but also the political decisions made by the country could play a positive or negative role. Moreover, considering the fact that the Shehri language is not a written language this risk gets greater. McCabe (2011:262) explains that There is no clear reason why languages change as extensively as they do; there are several explanations which cover various aspects of change, in the case of sound change we have seen that ease of articulation has historically been a motivator. With respect to sound change, it is important to mention the impact that the written language has had on language change. Moreover, a tremendous change took place during the last 40 years in Oman , generally, and Dhofar region result in having a new generation which differs from the elderly people in the way of thinking, learning, speaking and everything. McCabe (2011:263) assured that often young people use language differently than their parents, in the same way that they dress differently and listen to different music, in order to create an identity which sets them apart from their parents generation. Taking into account that any changes might be referred back to it after a time if it is written, but if it was only a spoken language in the community this means that there is no source for the language except those young generations. Besides, Beard (2004) believes that studying a language change consists of two parts, internal and external approach. According to him an internal approach to studying language change looks at such areas as vocabulary, spelling, meaning of words, grammar and compares usag e in old text with stage found todayBut if we look at the external aspects of this text, viewing it more as a social document, it seems to belong to different age Bread (2004:4). The Shehri language has been discussed in some books, Journals, TV interviews, and dissertations. According many people in this study lots of this information was presented wrongly. Many of them might be a personal believe or just a way to relate this language to their own purposes. For example, Ali AL Shehri books where he claims that this language is related to them as a tribe was totally unacceptable for people from other tribes in Dhofar. According to Al Shehri (2000:42) the Shahara tribes have preserved the most ancient Arab language (the Shehri), the traditions, folklore, proverbs, names of ancient tribes, ancient God names and much other ancient Arab culture. This assumption made by Ali made other people argue with him as relating the language to his tribe. At the same time, as other tribes and the government did not agree with what Ali mention in his books; none of his books were published in Oman to ovoid sedition between the people in Dhofar. Then, in (2005) Mohammed Al Mashani studied the language comparing it to languages such as the Arabic, the Old Yemeni language (Saba), and the modern dialects in Yemen, claiming that the Shehri language is the language of Hamyer the old kingdom southern the Arab Peninsula. Mohammed also brings a new name for the language and named with The Modern Hamyer Dhofari Tongue. It is clearly seen that the name of the language became the main issue for scholars and the people in Dhofar. Other studies such as Hayward et. Al. (1988), Johnstone (1972) (1980a) (1980a) (1981), Al Hakli (2008), Al-Shahri (1994), Hayward, Al-TabÃ…Â «ki (1988), Hofstede (1998) Makhashen (2009) focused their studies on the origin of the language and its people, and the grammatical aspects of the language only. This will provide a foundation for any research in the future to be built and based on them, if they were true and still have the same findings which is a topic need to be investigated again. However, moving from the battle of the name of the Shehri language and taking the UNESCOs records about languages that are in danger of disappearing; the Shehri language might not transform fully from the elderly generation to the younger ones. According to the UNESCO atlas of the most endangered languages (table 1) this stage is severely endangered. In other words, it means that language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves UNESCO (2010). This leaves the language with only two stages from being extinct. Degree of endangerment Intergenerational Language Transmission Safe The language is spoken by all generations; intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted >> not included in the Atlas Vulnerable Vulnerable Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., Home) Definitely endangered Definitely endangered Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home Severely endangered Severely endangered The language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves Critically endangered Critically endangered The youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently Extinct Extinct There are no speakers left >> included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s Table Degree of endangerment Adapted from Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Moreover, Al Hakli (2008) made a mini-dictionary for Shehri language joining the Shehri words to their meaning in Arabic. But until now the number of speakers is still declining. Which means writing a dictionary was not the solution to revive the language at this stage. Therefore, the questions pointed out to look for the solution and to investigate why the number of the speakers is declined. According to Romine and Nettle (2000:7) language shift and death occur as a response to pressures of various types-social, cultural, economic, and even military-on a community. Furthermore, Harrison (2007: 8) stresses that language death typically begins with political or social discrimination against a language or its speakers. This may take the form of official state politics to suppress speech, or it may be benign neglect. Therefore, it might be the reason that there are other variables controlling the number of speakers of this language. Mufwene (2006:2) stated that language death starts when speakers consulted with each other and decided collectively to shift suddenly to another language. This leads us to the beginning and taking in our consideration that Dhofar region has been benediction with the revolutionary movement by the Sultan Qaboos and many schools, Hospitals, Airports were built in a short time. Therefore, the Arabic language takes place in their houses and daily life. The new generation was introduced to schools that delivers everything to them in Arabic. However, many families had migrated from the mountain to the city to look for a better way of living and a job that helps them to overcome the hardship of life in their villages. Peoples language might be affected by the surrounding environment. Also, the language that is nearby lots of variables that might influence it such as economy, geography, the power of the next door language are at more risk of being disappeared. Moreover, language shift and dea th can begin by start learning the next door language. For example: The Kwegu language in southwest Ethiopia is spoken by 500 people only Lydall (1982:22). In addition, according to the UNSECO world atlas the number of Kwegu speakers declines in 1998 to reach 103 speaker only. Furthermore, Dimmendaal (1989:17) mention some of the daily activities practiced by the Kwegu ancient as they exchange honey with the overlord groups in the same area so they will be able to liveKwegu speak both their own language and the language of the Musri and Bodi while the latter tend not to speak Kwegu. So, learning other groups language was the effect of such discrimination in the society, therefore, their first language [Kwegu] will have less chances to be used. On this view, the Shehri speakers are shifting from their language to Arabic and this is due to many facts already mentioned above. When the next generation does not believe in their language and start to shift toward a new language which is stronger than their language, obviously, no one will speak with it and it is only a matter of years until the Shehri speakers reduction end with it is extinct. Dimmendaal (1989:18) points out that it is only when they start interacting with neighbouring groups whose cultures are viewed as more prestigious that their own language became particularly threatened The Weyto probably gave up their earlier language this way. Darmon (2010:2) argued that the Weyto Because the Weyto people do not own lands, they are living in extremely precarious conditions. They build their huts wherever the government allows them to, knowing that they can be asked to move at any time Without professing to be Muslim, they are usually not recognized as true Muslims by oth ers, maybe because some of them keep on believing in spirits associated with paganism. Therefore, Darmon thinks that such feelings towards your own language might lead you to give up using it and shift it to a stronger language in the society. Eventually, this language shift will result in language death within years. The language death is when a language disappears and becomes extinct. In other words, when people stop using their language or forced to do so. There are types for language death cited by Tsitsipis (1989:182) first, sudden death: the language disappears because almost all of its speakers die or killed (example: Tasmanian). Secondly, Radical Death when language loses is rapid and usually due to severe political repression, often with genocide, to the extent that speakers stop speaking the language out of self defense, a survival strategy for example: Languages of El Salvador. Then, Gradual Death which is due to a gradual shift to the dominant language in language-contact situations. Finally, the Bottom-to-top Death, where that language is lost in small steps first like homes and families and then moved when the government stop using it, it is the opposite on the Top-Bottom language death. Regardless to the reason for the language shift it is clearly seen that it is only a matter of ti me until language shift become language extinction. To conclude, it might be more beneficial for reviving endangered languages that writers and scholars studying the Shehri language should keep their focus first at the language itself rather than fighting against each other in bringing a new name each time. Since the Shehri language is not documented yet, it only exists in the peoples mind, therefore, we are losing a huge amount of the language and country heritage and culture each time a person dies. As what Harrison describes when we lose a language, we lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art Harrison (2007:7). Chapter Three Methodology This part of the paper presents the methodology and how it had been designed to accomplish the aims and goals. First, this section will clarify the problem clearly. Then, the types of data, participants, questionnaires and interviews are going to be discussed separately. The problem Since the Shehri language is being listed officially by the UNESCO as [severely endangered] this research will be conducted to investigate if the Shehri language speakers are really under the risk of abandoning speaking their own language are not. Firstly, by looking at the number of speakers of the language and to see how it varies from the past. Then, through looking at the changes that happened to the language. According to Professor Miyaoka the director of The Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project Particularly in case of moribund and isolated languages with speakers rapidly diminishing in number, of which there are quite a few in the Pacific Rim, we are obliged to emphasize documentation with good and minute analyses which could be achieved only with the help of speakers having deep linguistic insights. The Shehri is a language that is not written yet or documented officially. Therefore, when each person of the Shehri speakers dies an amount of the language goes with him. Similarly, the Arabic language was not written until people start to write it after the death of Prophet Mohammed in order to preserve the holy Quran from being changed and distorts. Before this stage the Arabic language was only exist in their minds and transformed from a generation to another by communication with each other. In the Shehri context, the Shehri language is not written, not fully transformed from a generation to another, people start to avoid using it and preferred to use English or Arabic to show how they are educated. Nettle and Romaine (2000:5) insist that language might be regarded as an activity, system of communication between human beings. A language is not a self-sustaining entity. It can only exist where there is a community to speak and transmit it. In addition, immigration from the mountain to the city provides a space for the two cultures to merge. Thus, some of the young speakers of the language are not able to speak or even understand it. This will result in having a new generation of Shehri speakers that are not able to speak their language. Nettle and Romaine (2000:4) assured that languages not passed on to the younger generation will eventually die out. Since the Shehri newer generation are not able to speak the language, therefore, the language is not going to transmit and will extinct. Types of data The Data collection part was separated into two main parts; the first part was to update the information about the language. Moreover, to explore and discover why this language is not being studied yet. Also, the main part of this section was to see if such a kind of researches is going to be accepted by the Shehri speakers and tribe leader or not. Since, there has been an assumption that the reduction of speakers outstanding for not having a written form of the language; this assumption is being abandoned with the Halkis basic dictionary were a space is being provided for the Arabic speakers in Dhofar and Oman to learn some vocabulary and sentence in Shehri. Therefore, this result leads us to wonder about this continues reduction in the Sheahri speakers. Through meetings with scholars such as Dr. Ali AL Shehri and Khalid AL Maashani, both are Sahehari native speakers, they ensure that the abstention of the new generation is clearly seen these days in their daily life conversation and usage. This leads us to the second assumption of this study. Second part, was the main data collection in which the aim was: First, to see the what extend the Shehri speakers use their language?. Then, do they find any difficulty in understanding old peoples language? Finally, are they aware that their language is at risk of extinction? At the same time to see what they might recommend for their language. To make the aim of this paper more achievable the questions were made easier to the Shehries to answer by shortening the questions and translate them into Arabic. As what Harrison discovers in dealing with endangered languages in Australia Charlie was not a talkative man, and most of our questions got monosyllabic answers: yeah or no. But once he got to talking, Charlie also shared stories of this place -learned from his father- of the Turkey Dreaming and of the Rainbow Serpent (Harrison: 2010:98). Therefore, involving their language could provide a better communication environment in this research. Since they are not used to such studies which was one of the obstacles of gathering the information from them. Moreover, such a research must consider respecting the traditional rules in the Dhofar were females are not allowed to have a face to face conversation with strangers. Therefore, some volunteers from various tribes in Dhofar helped by giving the permission to distribute the questionnaire among their families as a part of their wish to revive the language. This issue but this research at risk of having unreliable data. So, the research methodology needs to look for a strategy to make the data more valid and reliable. This research conducted using both methods of data quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data are represented in the questionnaire answers and responds, while the qualitative data is taken from interviewing the participant and the answers from the open-ended questionnaire answers in this study. Such kind of data collection has been described by (Jick 1979) in which he looks at using two or more methods of data collection can be called triangulation. According to Jick (1979:1) It is largely a vehicle for cross validation when two or more distinct methods are found to be congruent and yield comparable data. In other words, using such methods might be the reason to accomplish the validity of the research. In addition, the research will get the chance to look at each part of his study from more than one point. In addition, Olsen (2004) assured that triangulation is defined as the mixing of data or methods so that diverse viewpoints or standpoints cast light upon a topic. Considering the advantages and it is drawbacks combining the two methods might help the researcher as to make his own conclusions about a topic especially if we are talking about sociological issues. In addition, Spicer (2012:484) stated that it is an approach to combining two or more quantitative and/or qualitative methods in addressing a research question in order to cross-check results for consistency and to offset any bias of single research method. In this context, this research tries to use the triangulation method so it could reach the best, real, and representative data by using both quantitative qualitative data and making use of previous studies about the Shehri l