Power point presentation Essay

A slide show is a es of still images on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. Each image is usually displayed for at least a few seconds, and sometimes for several minutes, before it is replaced by the next image. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manually controlled by a presenter or the viewer. Slide shows originally consisted of a series of individual photographic slides projected onto a screen with a slide projector. When referring to the video or computer-based visual equivalent, in which the slides are not individual physical objects, the term is often written as one word, slideshow. A slide show may be a presentation of images purely for their own visual interest or artistic value, sometimes unaccompanied by description or text, or it may be used to clarify or reinforce information, ideas, comments, solutions or suggestions which are presented verbally. Slide shows are sometimes still conducted by a presenter using an apparatus such as a carousel slide projector or an overhead projector, but now the use of an electronic video display device and a computer running presentation software is typical. Animation Animation is the process of creating a continuous motion and shape change illusion by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon. Animations can be recorded on either analogue media, such as a flip book, motion picture film, video tape, or on digital media, including formats such as animated GIF ,Flash animation or digital video. To display it, a digital camera, computer, or projector are used. Presentation Presentation is the rehearsal of performance and the explanation of the content of a theme to viewers or students. In the business world, we have sales presentation, informational and motivational presentation, first encounters, interviews, briefings, status report, image building and training sessions. presentation of a seri

bpo management system Essay

1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document describes the high level design for the CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping Application and the CHART Internet Mapping Application. The purpose of this design is to show the high-level technical approach to meeting the requirements defined in system requirements specification. This serves to identify the architecture of the system and high-level interactions between major system components. 1.2 Objectives Identify and describe the software architecture for the system. Provide  high-level approaches to various technical challenges. Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1.3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2.1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications.  The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: 1. Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. 2. When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML  data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2.2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. ArcSDE provides a set of API and administrative utilities that help manage the spatial data storage. For the CHART mapping systems, the combination of ArcSDE and SQL Server manages the spatial information in the relational database. ArcSDE adds spatial functionalities without disrupting standard SQL database capabilities. 2.3 Map Server (ArcIMS) ArcIMS includes a few components that will play important roles in the CHART mapping application. The workhorse component that processes the data and generates maps is the spatial server. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP.Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP.Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2.4 Web Server (IIS) .Net Framework and ASP.Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP.Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP.Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the .Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP.Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The .Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP.Net modules. The ASP.Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. 2.5 Security 2.5.1 Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2.5.2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc., the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2.5.3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i.e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it  against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2.5.4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2.5.5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3.1.1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still  utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3.1.2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3.1.3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the  Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. 5. Technical Challenges 5.1 Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5.1.1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For  CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5.1.2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5.1.2.1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5.1.2.2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5.1.3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5.1.4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5.1.5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display  based on the updated information. 5.2 Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the data in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display.   The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5.3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5.4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5.5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP.Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP.Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. 5.6 Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be  recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. 5.7 Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP.Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP.Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP.Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP.Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6.1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the  CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. 3. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. 5. PromptFrame will display the current tool selected and instructions for user activities. Here is a screen shot of the preliminary user interface design: 6.2 Internet Map Site User Interface The overall CHART Internet mapping web site design will stay the same as current web site. The site will stay as part of the overall CHART web site by including the CHART navigation menus into the site. The site will not be using frames; instead, all elements will be laid out as HTML tables. 7. References 1. CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification 2. CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification 3. Security and ArcIMS – ESRI White Paper 4. ArcSDE Configuration and Tuning Guide for Microsoft SQL Server – ESRI White Paper 5. ArcIMS 4.0 High-Availability Configuration Testing Using Network Load Balancing –ESRI White Paper 6. Vector Markup Language (VML) Specification – W3C 8. Terms and Glossary ArcXML – ESRI’s map request/response specification in XML format CORBA – Common Object Request Broker Architecture CSS – Cascading Style Sheets DOM – Document Object Model ESRI – Environment System Research Institute GIS – Geographic Information System GML – Geography Markup Language NLB – Network Load Balancing SSL – Secure Socket Layer SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics VML – Vector Markup Language XML – Extensible Markup Language

Analyzing the Central Theme of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain Essay Example for Free

Analyzing the Central Theme of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain Essay Cold Mountain is a tragic yet a very profound story of love, searching, and intuition which happens in an environment terrorized by war in 1864 (Buchanan). The story is set on the troubled plains and mountains of nineteenth century America where Inman, the main character, decided to leave the battlefield as he yearned and searched for his lover. In a nutshell, the story basically revolves around a tale of love which bound two people together amidst distance, chaos, and isolation. This debut novel of Charles Frazier has definitely redefined love in ways, portrayed as a powerful force which enables people to overcome dangers and even life threatening situations just to reunite with a loved one. In several ways, the novel reflects the importance of faith as well as love despite isolation, distress, and confusion that an individual faces. Central Theme of the Novel The main feature of the novel which an average reader may notice would be the war of the 19th century America. It tells the story of how distressing and miserable life during war is and how hopeless it gets most of the time. Inman, identified as the main protagonist of the story, was a part of the confederate army before he went on to his venture of coming back to his long lost lover, Ada. His life in the confederate army made him realize that it is indeed a lot worse to lose something a person already has than fail to get what that person currently wants. The war made the character feel all the isolation and alienation any person would never want to experience. Through this isolation, Inman felt the need to come back home. However, amidst the distress and pains brought by the war, Inman’s spirit was kept alive by his love and yearning for Ada. The epic describes how more painful Inman’s longing is for Ada compared to the pains he felt because of his wounds. The author illustrated Inman’s longing as miserable as if, â€Å"his wounds gave hi, just reason to doubt that he would ever heal up and feel whole of a piece again† (Frazier 25). Although the epic was largely about battles, what Inman felt because of his separation from Ada gave the story a soft, emotional, and sentimental effect. This aspect of the story depicts a reality that no matter how harsh a person’s environment may seem, there will always be some spark of compassion and love inside his or her heart to encourage him or her to live. The story also illustrates that compassion and love will always be strong forces that will bind two people regardless of how far they are from each other and irrespective of how tough and immovable the barricade between them may be. Ada’s love, on the other hand, is illustrated in her patience and faith in Inman. Despite their distance, she never stopped waiting for Inman and believing in him. Her faith and belief that everything between them will be alright is reflected in her notes as a response to Inman’s letter which said: â€Å"This you must know: that despite your long absence, such is the light in which I view the happy relation existing between us, that I will never conceal a single thought from you† (Frazier27). The story was basically split between Inman and Ada’s life events which proved that beyond borders, their love will always unite and hold them together. Incorporating such a sentimental theme in a distressing genre such as war was an amazing feat that Frazier was able o successfully portray in his novel. However, upon further analysis of the novel, one may realize that it is from these painful and trying times that the need for love and compassion emerges, since this is the time when people are more likely to feel alienated and lost. It is also from these hard times when the need for someone to love and to be loved back is stronger. Thus, it may appear understandable and explicable why Inman had such a strong desire to come back home and turn his back from the grueling and miserable face of war. Nevertheless, Frazier was also able to present the realities of war in a very compelling manner. The alienation which Inman felt was also very believable which made it possible for the readers to empathize with the main character. Conclusion Cold Mountain is a realistic and compelling epic of a warrior who did not only fight for his state but also for him to come home to the one he loved. In this novel, Frazier was able to blend well the very different concepts of hostility, isolation, alienation, faith, and love. Yet, the author was able to present these ideas in a very realistic manner through the characters of the story. The epic can be considered as a good representation of how powerful love can be inside a person’s heart in times of desolation and loneliness. As reflected in the story, it can indeed be the driving force which can help a person to survive the harsh elements in his environments just to come home to the arms of his or her lover. Similarly, the story also portrays well the impacts of alienation and isolation to an individual and what alterations these impacts can cause to a person’s life and points of view. Thus, if there is anything that this epic would send the readers as a message, it would be that, amidst isolation, distress, and chaos, faith and love can help a person survive the odds and the tough challenges. Works Cited Buchanan, Catherine. â€Å"Cold Mountain: Context. † Spark Notes. 2009. 15 Apr. 2009. . Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: Grove Pres Analyzing the Central Theme of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. (2016, Dec 10). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Acceptance Under Contract Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Acceptance Under Contract Law - Essay Example Consideration is an added benefit that is bargained for and may also include a promise to compromise upon a dispute, but the important factor is that it must be a new obligation, over and above what has already been agreed to in the original contract. The principle of consideration determines whether an oral promise may be enforceable since an implicit contract is formed if the person making the promise is receiving something in return – some consideration [www.abanet.org, pp 22]. This involves the exchange of â€Å"something of value† or the promise to do something in future.[www.bplans.co.uk, 2003]. The basic premise of a contract is the concept of Offer and Acceptance. When one party makes an offer and another party accepts it – either orally or in writing – then a contract is said to exist [www.bplans.co.uk, 2003]. In order for a contract to be valid, both the parties need to exchange something of value. If one party promises orally to give something to the other but does not follow through with it, his promise is not enforceable, unless the other party agreed to do something in return for the promised gift, in which case a contract does exist and may be enforceable. Once an agreement has been made and a contract entered into, any agreement to vary the contract is likely to be based upon some consideration, especially if the pacts is increased under the doctrine of economic duress. The doctrine of consideration has however been argued as being too â€Å"blunt an instrument† since its â€Å"reasoning was such that it could make a promise invalid even thoug h no pressure had been exerted by the promisee at all.† [Trietel, 2002, pp 14]. In this connection, there is already in existence a written contract between the two parties, which lays out the terms of payment for services rendered, ie, three installment payments of 10,000 pounds each to be made by Roger.

Nuclear Weapons in Asia Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Nuclear Weapons in Asia - Coursework Example After Khan had been arrested, the secrets concerning the nuclear black market that he used to operate were still uncoiling. They revealed that the fast spread of these weapons was as a result of a global enterprise that was very vast. Before Khan got arrested, he had visited around eighteen counties among them being Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. It is believed that they were business trips where he was either selling the atomic goods or buying the materials to make these weapons. It is therefore; evident that globalization is a great hindrance in bringing to an end the spread of these weapons since they get to be smuggled to many countries all over the world (Richardson, 2004). The nuclear summit hoped to tackle the problem of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the nuclear material’s security was to be governed by the law. President Obama congratulated the team that had come up with the summit. He also insisted that nations should come together in bringing to an end the spreading of these weapons. The summit came up with some ways in which the nuclear weapons could be dealt with appropriately. Among them was coming up with a way in which trafficking the weapons to different places could be

Trust and Customer Service Performance 312 wk 6 forum Assignment

Trust and Customer Service Performance 312 wk 6 forum - Assignment Example Reliability-based trust is based in the company’s discernments of a prospective partner’s real behavior and operating performance. It engrosses a notion that a partner is disposed to execute and capable of acting as promised. Efforts to create collaborative associations fail when supply chain partners cannot rely on their performance as promised. In simple terms, an organization that is alleged to be unable to act as guaranteed will be perceived as unreliable and thus not fit for the trust in the association. On the other hand, character-based trust is grounded on a company’s culture, philosophy and leadership. Principally, it originates from discernments that supply chain partners are interested in each other’s wellbeing and not work without putting into account the effect of their actions on the other partner. Character-based trust is critical in collaborative relationships because the partners in the relationship act in confidence that the other party will deliver up to anticipations because of the developed character of the association. In this case, the partners in a relationship do not feel susceptible to the deeds of one another. Needless to say, the partners believe that each will safeguard the other’s interest. For example, a manufacturer who shares ideas on new product launches with a merchant trusts that he or she will not give the idea to a

International Relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Relation - Essay Example For the Non governmental organizations to be able to impact their influence, they need the support of larger multinational organizations as well (Palmer 2006). One such relationship has been in existence with the United Nations for over 50 years now. This relationship is not adequately recorded as it has experienced a lot of metamorphoses over time (Palmer 2006). However the most important thing is the common goals each of these organizations have; a world that is clean, healthy, and has opportunity for all to live their lives in justice and without fear. The UN and the NGOs both support this (Ishkanian 2008). The role of Non governmental organizations in bringing the world to its senses (consciousness) is basically consultative though recently the involvement of the NGOs has become more intensive just like governments and political organizations. The most influential NGOs are the international ones and this increased participation of the International NGOs is what has come to be commonly described as the "Civil Society" (Palmer 2006). The UN describes this as the world where social movements systematize themselves focused on certain goals, constituencies, and thematic interests (UN secretary) NGOs' Promotion of Democracy Its has been the goal of the non governmental organization and the united nations to achieve a 100 percent democratic world over the next 25 years and this can only be achieved by radical reinforcement of the principal freedom fighters (Ishkanian 2008). The NGOs have an advantage of a strong foundation of success and experience over the past decades. The freedom house has been very active in fighting fascism as an effort to create a democratic world since 1940 while the league of women voters took up the initiative to fight for democracy in the period after the World War II in Germany and Europe at large helping Spain and Portugal achieve democracy (Gagnon Jr 1995). Even America in the 1980s experienced a lot of NGO contribution to promoting democratic activities such as expansion of freedoms. The freedom house has indicated that over the past 33 years, the number of non free nations in terms of democracy has reduced by 50%. The AFL-CIO has played a very important role in the achievement and strengthening cohesion in Poland while the National Democratic Institute has been involved in teaching democrats in Hungary about communism and benefits of democracy. NGOs are very effective as they can operate even in dangerous nations where dictators are still in power and where dictatorship is no longer in existence. This fact can be the mother of all strategies of initiating and maintaining democracies (Donald 1994). Dictatorship is the moist challenging issue in the achievement of democracy, paradoxically, with international NGOs in place, these fact is often very string as there is immense knowledge of how dictators in the past have left power and long lasting democracies implemented. Recently, a research by the freedom house indicated that so far over 67 transitions of freedom have been won

Data Presentations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Data Presentations - Essay Example The economy, the social life and the satisfaction with life can be estimated using the statistical analysis of the corresponding data. The analysis permits to find the mean value of the parameter and to estimate whether the difference between the mean value and the particular measurement is due to the effect of the certain factor or whether it is within the confidence limit for the estimated parameter. The statistical analysis permits also to estimate the hidden trends and relationship between the parameters (Mendenhall, Beaver and Beaver, 2013). The aim of this analysis is to estimate the parameters related to the economy, demography and social life of the countries. The data from 100 counties represents the information about the following indices: average lifespan, average number of people per household, median household income and average number of people per household. The provided data permits to estimate each parameter, as well as the relationship between them. The analysis is started from the estimation of each variable. The Data Toolkit in Excel is used for this purpose. To obtain the descriptive statistics for each parameter the option â€Å"Descriptive Statistics† is chosen in the Data Toolkit. The obtained table provides information about the mean, median, mode, range and other main parameters of the descriptive statistics (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Camm and Cochrane, 2015). The information and its analysis are given below. The descriptive statistics for the median household income shows that there is a significant difference between maximum and minimum value of this index. The minimum value is more the two times less from the maximum value. The data is distributed symmetrically because the mean and the median are very close and the skewness is comparatively small. It can be assumed that the data is normally distributed (Mendenhall, Beaver and Beaver, 2013). The main feature of the data is the large difference

Discussion a solution to the problem of the abortion Essay

Discussion a solution to the problem of the abortion - Essay Example However, some among them approve of abortions in cases of incest and rape, taking into account the psychological trauma and future inconveniences that the victims have to face. But many of them think that abortion cannot a real solution to such situations, and can only increase the difficulties for those who feel guilty and paranoid after abortion. According to them, life is the most valuable element that we have to take into account in such situations, and not the ever-changing psychological states of people. The group that argues that abortions should be legalized believes that it must ultimately be the choice of the woman to have abortion or not. The idea that abortion becomes a necessity to only those who are sex assault victims is contested by them, with data that proves that in most cases, failed contraceptives and other personal choices related to the maturity of the woman and family structure are the strongest reasons for abortion. If a woman is determines that she could not manage to raise a child, she should be given the basic human freedom to get rid of the fetus before it grows to a child. There may be risks involved in repeated abortions, which could be discouraged with proper counseling from health professionals. Legalization of abortion with strict guidelines which would determine the genuineness of the person who requests it could be the only solution to the problem. Hasty and uninformed abortions could be discouraged. There could be a team of people who explain for the psychological aspected involved o the concerned person. Moreover, health professionals could be given an opportunity to research the valid reasons for an abortion before it is done. They may ask the person who needs it to give valid reasons, and prove that she would be able to handle it psychologically. Denying a woman the right to choose when she could or could not have a child will violate human

Should Israel be viewed as a state for Jews or a Jewish State Essay Example for Free

Should Israel be viewed as a state for Jews or a Jewish State Essay What do you think are the key issues at stake in the discussion within the Jewish world over whether the modern State of Israel should be understood as a state for Jews or a Jewish state? Is it posbbile for it both to be a ‘Jewish and Democratic state’. The two main viewpoints are split between those of the secular Zionists that believe the Jews have a right to self determination, and therefore need a safe haven to be protected from damaging anti semitic attacks that can cause many attrocities, such as the holocaust. The religious zionists agree with the secular zionists, but go further and believe that religious be-liefs should be encorporated in the state. They do not believe Israel should simply be a state for jews, but should have a mandate to promote Judaism to their jews. opinions on the issue: Professor Ariel Rosen Zvi, an observant jews, believes that reli- gion should not be imposed by force as the whole beauty of religion is that it is one that people choose out of their own intellect. He does however believe that both sides should compromise to find a common solution. Aviezer Ravitsky is a liberal minded professor and believes that the sexcular jew re- quires the country to be free and that the religious jew must go along with that, but the secular jew must cooperate in keeping the nation jewish. He believes the govern- ment should sway more to the side of Jewish law. Rabbi Zvi Weinman â€Å"if we dont believe in religion, what are we doing in this land? Hashem promised it to our ancestors on condition that we observe the Torah. If we do not, then we are here as conquerors. We were united over the ages not by common ethnic descent nor by a common history but by a common faith† Contriversial topics: Contriversy lies in specific topics such as busses on the Jewish day of rest (Shabbat). Many religious people do not want to pay for ireleigous people to break the special commandment of the Sabbath, through taxes. it’s not necesarily the money aspect, but more the fact that they are invariably causing another fellow jew to disobey a commandment. However, ithis method may cause many ireleghious jews to resent the torah. another contribersial topic is the Kosher commandment. whether or not israel should promote the sale of non kosher food within its borders, for example pork. there are over a million non jews in israel, it seems almost discriminatory to disallow these peo- ple the leisure of favourite foods. there is a major rift over the secular and hareidim arguments. Reasons for this is due to the fact that many hareidis want to eradicate women in public billboards due to the immodest representation that influences many religious men. they want to detatch is- rael from typical western civilization that has made many people very vulnerable to the unconcious influences that advertisement induces on the physical attitudes of the population. Benjamin Netanyahu wants the arabs to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. A Jewish state sounds like a theocracy, and theocracys are conviversial in respects to democratic states run by accountable people. it seems discrimonatory and racist the idea of having a state with one religion. it is governmed by a democraticalted parliament, yet still holds jewish values and religous customs. but this is just like the ones made in the UK with the recognition of Christmas and Easter as holidayhs. i believe that it is just attacked for its jewish character which emblems zionism. Is Israel a state of the Jews, united by shared histrocial traditions and experience , or is it a Jewish state, whose essence is integrally related to religious faith? We can stem this right from the root of Israel, the declaration of independence does not mention god. Troen believes that if ISrael is a jew- ish state, then democracy cannot exist; but israel does have Jewish elements, and still resides to be the only democratic country in the middle east. Israel’s essentially can be originated back to many sources of importance. The very fact that it can be originated all the way back to the foundation of Judaism is signifi- cant: the first words uttered by G-d to the first jew, Abraham was to leave his home- land and go to Israel. G-d then promised Abraham that he would have a multitude of nations and many descendants of whom would make a nation and a ‘Eretz Yisrael’ which translates as Israel- to be a land to live in. Abrahams response was to keep the land forever. This laid the basis for zionism in the Jewish religion. The importance of Israel even remains the focus of every day life. Each day, the focus of prayer is the land of Israel. It is the conscious direction of Israel that a jew faces whilst praying, regardless of where the Jew is in the world. The land of Israeel is clearly the focus of Judaism and without a belief in Judaism as a religion, all validity of Israel as a land for the people is gone.. The holiness of the land is at such an extent due to the biblical events that happened there. Jewish history is based on Israel. The hard- ships experiences by pharoh and other perseuctions were all legistimised by the even- tual redemption of gaining the land of Israel. The Shema which is a prayer recited twice a day states that if the jewish people observe the commandments and behave morally, the land will respond by having enough rain and produce enough crops in Is- rael. However, if the jews stray from the land, they will loose it . thus , the quality and quantity of crops in Israel depends on the behavior of its inhabitants. Every jew agrees that the land is holy and it is promised. However, the concept of the state and modern day zionism is argued.the stories of the patriachs (Gen. , chs. 12 to 50) form the first chapter in that great theological history of Is- rael’s origins which we find in the first six books of the Bible. Religious Zionists believe that the establishment of national sovereignty in Israel will hasten the messiah. They believe that if settling in the land of Israel hastens the mes- siah, how much more so would enticing all jews to settle in Israel. Thus they focus on the similarities between secular Zionists to try minimise the differences. Just like ignaz maybaum, they focus on the correlation between the Nazi holocaust and the establish-ment of Israel. They believe that the principle message of the holocaust to be there is now a clear signal from g-d that it s time for the exile to end. They believe that the STATE IS AN OPPORTUNITY BY G-D TO STATE THAT THE MESSIAH IS CLOSER. CLASSICAL RAB- BINICAL LITERATURE TEACHES THAT BEFORE SOMETHING MAGNIFICENT OR GREAT OCCURS, THERE MUST BE A GREAT TRAGEDY. IN THIS CASE, THE HOLO- CAUST HAD TO OCCUR IN ORDER FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL TO BE FOUNDED. THIS THEORY SUPPORTS THE ACTUAL EVENTS, AS MANY HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT WITHOUT THE HOLOCAUST, ISRAEL WOULD NEVER HAVE COME INTO EXIS- TENCE. (NETEUREI KARTA WONT LIVE IN ISRAEL BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELIEVE A JEWISH STATE SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED WITHOUT MESSIAH) The rebirth of the state of Israel is contemporary revelation; I is the voice of g-d speaking forth from history, and for some evokes the essence of G-d even stronger in relation to the holococaust. The return to zion is the ultimate vindication of G-ds presence in history and his providential gov- ernance of man and the world. The Jew witnessed Auschwitz as ‘the hiding of the face of g-d’, yet the rebirth of the state of Israel allows the same jew to witness the smile on the face of G-d which is proof of his quintessence. Eliezer Berkowitz. statehood is the repudiation of powerlessness in exile,†1 The history of Israel would continue in the history of the Jewish people, a people claimed by the God of Israel to live under his law to the last generation of mankind. 2 When the second world war ended, contact between the Yishuv in Palestine and the remnants of European Jewry, which imme- diately created a fateful mutual relationship. The institutions of the Zionist movement and the Yishuv made every effort to bring the survivors of the death camps back to life and hope, while the latter became an active factor in the determination of Jewish policy, with the unequivocal objective for the entire Jew- ish people of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. After the capitulation of the Nazi’s, thousands of Jews assembled in the Displaced Persons camps of Germany. But the borders were not yet closed, and a movement westwards began from Eatern Eu- ope. Survivors returned to their home in the hope of findings those members of their families from whom they had been seperated during the Holocaust. The non Jewish population generally did not welcome the Jews. and the problem of restor- ing houses, apartments or property that had been confiscated arose. Some 150,000 Jews returned to Poland in 1946 from Rus- sia alone. And swiftly consequences followed as in June 1946, a terrible pogrom broke out in Kielce in which docens of Jews were murdered. It had become apparent that the Holocast had not only failed to soften the traditional anti-semitism of the pol- ish people, but had even intensified it. Even in Kiev, riots broke out over the question of restoring apartments to their rightful owners. In Bratislava there were actual pogroms. As a result, Jews began to flee Westords. Some 200,000 Jewish refugees were assembled in the DP camps in Germany by the end of 1946, most of them looking forward to the one thing- peace and security among their bretheren, that could be only attained through emigration to Palestine. But the gates were closed. 1 Berkovits, Faith After the Holocaust, 4-5. 2 Old Testament Library. John Bright. A history of Israel. Second Edition. SCM Press LTD Bloomsbury St Loindon. Hugh Dalton 1945 announced at the LAbour partt conference ‘it was morally wrong to restrict entry of Palestine of Jews. it was indispensble tht steps be taken to get common support for the policy of giving facilities for the crreation of a free, happy and prosperous Jewish State of Palestine. Truman of the US declared in mid august 1945 of his support for the right to free Jewish immigration and on 2 september he sent a missive to Clement Attlee demanding 100,000 Jewish refugees be granted immediate entry. The labour government ignoredthese demands. AS a result, ha’apalah (illegal immigration) was beginning to be carried out. As early as August and September 1945, small boats from Italian ports began to arrive to Palestine with sur- vivors. On the night of 2 November 1945 an attack on railway lines was launched to demonstrate to the British that they could not rule the country against the wishes of the Jewish. Yishuve. In the meantime, illegal immigration was increasing. The british began to apprehend immigration ships at Sea. The Hagana reacredby blowing up radar installations and policy cars. Two basic facts have determined the development of the young State of Israel: mass immi- gration, which flooded the country immediately after its establishment and brought hun- dreds of thousands of Jews from different countries, united in religion, historical origin and emotional identity, but seperated in language and social values. immigration served as a diversifying factor, creating tensions and undermining the stability of israel society. The mass immigation in the first years of statehood was the result of pressure exerted by Jews waiting in DP camps in Germany and Cyprus and of refugees from Eastern Europe. It was aimed at fulfilling the Basle Programme, the central aim of Zionism. The very establish- ment of the State of Israel and international support for this act came from the recognition that there was no other place for Jewish Refugees, and the disturbing realization that had such a refuge existed in the 1930s at least part of European Jewry might have been saved. By the end of 1950, some 45,000 Yemenite Jews had arrived- gathered from their places of residence to Aden whence they were flown to Israel in ‘Operation Magic Carpet’. In 1950 some 122,000 Iraqi Jews immigrated. 30,000 from Libya, 37,000 from Bulgaria. By the end of 1951, 104,000 from Poland and 119,000 from Romania. All in all immigrants in the first three and a half years of statehood totalled 685,000 of whom 304,000 from East- ern Europe. The new arribals were greeted as part of the biblical narrative of ‘Ingathering of the Exiles’ . 3 3 a hist of j p sasson Zionism is distinct from Biblical return to Israel. It represented a transfoermation of this tra-ditional form of self understanding. it fundamental message was: if you wish to change your exilic condition, you must learn how nations emerge and survive. Don’t wait for the miracle but act on instinct. Secular Zionism demythologized the Jewish people’s sense of who they were. It contradicted accepted patterns of thought by asserting that exile was not necessarily gorounded in sin or Torah commandments , but the result of a failure to explpi- ot the political, social and eocnomic conditions required for nation building. In the period following the establishment of Israel, the Bible served as a foundaitonal text for Israeli society. Although religious and secular Zionists had different attitudes toward it, they shared a common passion for it. The bible opened the seculsar Zionists to a broader vision of community efined by social justice and ethics. It anchored them to the land and energied them to discover the beauty of the Hebrew language. The bible was a light that illuminated new ways of living in the world as Jews. For secular zionists, the Bible was the basis for new anthropology, how to live ones life in the prescence of G-d. For religious Zionists, the bible supported their con-viction that there was religious significance to their return to the promised land. Just as the bible had provided observant Jews iwht a frame of reference to make sense of exile, it now gave meaning to their return. After the 6 Day war, the feeling of the religious Zionists towards the Bible depened when the land of the bible, the promised Land, suddenly opened up before them. the Greater Land of Israel movement which opposes yielfindg soverignty over the entire Land of IS- rael, began in response to the feeling that Jewish peoples long history of wairing was now being vindicated by God through an open miracle. The footsteps towards the Messiah were approaching and God had retuened the land through SIraels democratic vistory through the asserted theme that god was returning his kingdom in victory. The older generations of Israelis loved the Bible. Today, that generation is dying, and what had once been the national literature of the country is slowly being discarded as irrelevant. For the religious Zionist community, the current peace process has destroyed a fundamen- tal part of their religious appreciation of the state of ISrael. Giving up the Promised land that the government are willing to do means that you are turning back on what was sup-posed to be a redemptive biblical drama. For the Ultra Orthodox Jewish continuiity entails the repudiation of modernity. Our survival in the apst was due to seperation and insulation from the world. ‘The weakeneing of Jewish histrocial solidarity among Israeli youth is due to the loss of the bible as the foundational text of Israeli society. Israelis concerned about the assimilation facing diaspora Jewry are losing their faith that the state of Israel willl provide a viable sec- ular alternative to the traditional religious forms of Jewish identity the 1950 law of return codified this mission to gather Jews from around the world by grant-ing them the right to settle in Israel, gain automatic citizenship. Official israeli policy re- garding the law of return is explicit: no commitments of faith as long as no alternative faith is adopted. A Jew is adopted whether he or she is athiest, secularist, or unitnterested in Judaism. (shows that it’s a state for Jews) popwer point: Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni 2008 reaffirmed the fact that ‘a jewish state is not a mo- nopoly of Rabbis, it is about the nature of the state of Israel. it is about Jewish tradition and history, regardless of religion. ‘ Avigdor Liberman feb 2014.the term Jewish State refers primiarily to nationality. isnce their emergence in antiquity, the jewish people have constituted a nation, a people and a civilization, anchored in basic aspcts of their identity, such as Judaism and the hebrew lan- guage. israel is to the jewish people what france is to the french. israel defines itself as the Jewish state. the jewish affinity for the land of israel has its roots in continuous jewish presence over the past 3500 years. while the desire to re establish a jewish state in the land of israel was intensified by harsh persecution and repeated massacres, it mostly de-rived from the belief that only in a soveingty jewish state could the jewish poeple epress it- self commpletely. Even in the declaration of Israel’s indepedence 1948, it begins with the claim that ISrael is the birthplace of the Jewish people. ‘Here their spiritual, relgiious and national identity was formed; here they wrote and gave the bible to the world’ persecering until the restoration of their national freedom. The ‘Jewish’ nature is first defined within the Declaration of indepe- dence and influenced by its affinity towards Jewish heritage and tradition (as cosidied in the Emblem of Israel, the flag and certain official instrirtutions) The deomcratic character was only added in 1985 ecause of the need to legallly define the Jewish nature and demo- cratic character of the State of Israel arose because of attempts to cancel the democratic nature o Israel. 1994 question whether the israel government is permitted to limit hte import of non kosher meat, despite the basic law: freedom of occupation, arose. initially, the high court of justice ruled that the government cannot limit such imports; however after the knesset past some amendments to the basic laws, the limit was incldued. Similarly, ultra orthodox are exempted from taking part in the military on grounds of reli- gious admission to yeshivot. It is thought that just as the military provides the physical strength of ISrael, the ones in yeshiva provide the spiritual guarding of G-d. The State for Jews was acknowledge by the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 and reaffirmed by the mandate of the LON, giving explicit international recognition to the his- toric connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, and their right to reconsitute their Na- tional Home. The nai holocaust proved the urgency for a soloution to Jewish homeless- ness. Hertlzs speach from Der Judenstaat 1896 asserted that the JEwish question is ‘neither a social, nor a religious one’ but instead a ‘national question’ in response to mass anti semitism. ‘we are still decried as aliens. oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. no nation has endured such struggles. ‘ but he claims that Palestine is our unforget- table historic homeland. however during operation margic carpet in 1948, a jew in yemen Sliman Jaradi stated that ‘we hate israel because it is a ionist state, not a jewish state. Jaradi claimed to have refused to immigrate to Israel because he believed the state had lost its jewish character. ISrael has no religion, Torah or morals. Modernity granted them citizenship from the ghetto but also led to the holo- caust. For many Jews. For the first time, your position in life wasn’t fate- decided by G-d, but decided by yourself. Jewish population thought how quickly can we assimilate and cast off these tired Jewish rituals- many thought that modernity would promise that much lib- eration and that if you were a Jewish German, you could be German before Jew- ish. The rise of socialism emerged; Jews thought that the suffering they are current- ly enduring can ultimately be drawn back to class warfare. Their peoples suffer-ing was just an issue of class warfare. People had the freedom to decide who to rule them. Moses Hess wrote the first book on Zionism in 1962. He would differ from the socialist camp by saying history is a racial struggle. They belong in a homeland of their own. Assimilation was a false sense of security that would lead to dead Jews. He rejected the idea that Judaism could be a cultural tradition Those things can be bent and moulded. They were ethnically distinct. Any idea that you could convert away was just illusionary. This was no longer adequate be- cause Germany stuck by the mantra that you cannot change your blood. Hertzl. Even during Hertzl’s life- the idea of a Jewish state was a fantasy. He thought the idea of assimilation was great, then the Dreyfus Affair happened. The Dreyfus affair set him straight. Anti Semitism was eternal, it was a joke to act like the Jews could pledge allegiance to their nation. He was in favor of a secular Jewish state, not religious. In terms of potential places to go, Argentina was still high on the list. So long as the Jewish question is not solved on the po- litical level. He’s saying because racial struggle is eternal, the natural and justi- fied logical response of those people is hostility. So, when the Jews go to Eng-land, it’s logical that they would encounter Anti Sem. To consolidate Ottoman debt if they were offered ottoman support. While the Pope met him respectful- ly, he told Hertzl that ‘he couldn’t support the people that killed Jesus. ’ Hertzl was charismatic but he wasn’t that fanatical compared with the other nationalists of that era. His rhetoric was flaming but it was exactly what you needed to start a worldwide movement. Unfortunately, the first generation of Zionist farmers were unprepared and unskilled but more came, learnt and were traded up. Hertzl made a public journey to TLV to meet Kaiser Wilhem of Ger- many 1870. Another reason why Jews supported Israel was due to pogroms- This stiumlated the first round of immigration to Palestine between 1881-85. Most of them were litterally fleeing hteir home as opposed to due to a zionist mantra. 1897 First great Zionist congress. He preached the doctrine of racial distinc- tion and the need for Jews to have their own distinctiveness, he insisted that everyone wore their finest Top and Tails that set the standard very high for the zionist world. The Uganda Offer 1903 The zionist sent a research team in Uganda, the locals were not willing to accept europeans moving it, but also the animals were scary. Uganda still has a Jewish population. Tel Aviv founded in 1909. Jewish settlers buy plots of land from local bedouins. Balfour declaration 1917; James Robert Balfour was influenced by Christian Zionism, compelled by his ideology to support the Zionists. He had been lobbeyd into this position for at least a decade. A national home, as distinct from a Jewish state. Interested in a national home, not a Jewish state necessari- ly. The Ottoman position on Israel was good compared to the British people. Chaim Weizmann talking Christian Zionism= The zionism by Christians. Essential for Jews to have a state so as for the apoc-oplyse to come about. New reading of the bible saw the apololypse as immi- nent and the Jews seeking a homeland as a sign that a new world was coming. Many of the most powerful people, like Lloyd George. Vast majority of Zionist entrance into Palestine was financial, they would buy their way into owning the land. Much of that land while it was ‘palestinian land’, it was not really being used. To this day, The vast majority of Israel purchases is because no one else will buy it. For the Zionist back home, it was only a tiny portion of them that would maybe have a problem. Palestinian society was not united and it would take them up until maybe the 60s for them to be fully unit- ed and it meant that it took the Palestinians a long time to mobilize and ocme to terms with there being this massive population moving in. Major arab protests and strikes which were too late. The White Paper, 1922. Churchill issued a torn resonponsibility between Arab and Jewish sides. The British government taking their Balfour declaration back. On the one hand you had the genuine British desire for a homeland, yet there was also a desire to unite the arabs. The white paper did not satisfy anyone, the arabs still end up siding up with Hitler. In 1922, Britain took over. 1929- Massacre in Hebron, both the Sephardic Jewish population had generally lived in peace with Arab nations, but with the ever growing prescience of Zion- ist immigrants, things finally peaked and led to bloody murder. Hagannah, zionist military force. They claimed to help the Zionist movement, didn’t engage in warfare. The Irgun led by Zev Jabotinsky he was in favour of the annihilation of Palestines Arab population and would carry on until the formation of the state. His group was responsible for the KD hotel bombings killing a significant amount of British forces. 36-39 the Arab revolt. Took a v long time to mobilize the group. 21st Zionist Congress 1939 in Geneva.. Following the Second WHITE Paper ab- solved Britain of responsibility to the jewish people. all forthe purposees of a vain attempt to regain arab loyalty so that they didnt side with hitler. Chaim Weizzman was Hertzls right hand man. At this point the world didnt real- ize that the holocaust was going on, and saw the eradication of european Ger- many as a goal because in 1939 Macdonald white paper was published. In it it said that the Balfour declaration has been fulfilled. It is now obselete. Even at this point when Jews were being killed, the British made it clear that immigra- tion to Palestine was limited. The most effective way of gaining land for the Zionists was to buy it- they were not permitted to do so either. This provoked many of the zionist leaders to establish a legal immigration, to hide the immi- grants in boats and smuggle. Zev Jabotinsky was involved. Churchill was outraged. The new white paper was a step too far. he voted against his own party. They thought if they supported Hitler, that this region could be theirs. Haj Amin Al Husseini, responsible for Hitler to go through with the final solution. Roosevelt during WW2 he fought anti semitism by conflating anti semitism with nazism, as an american, u do not want to do what nazis do. this campaign was successful. amogn much of american soiety, non jews started supporting the jewish state en masse. powerpoint: reasons why israel must be recognized as a jewish state former mossad chief meir dagan thinks the demand to recognize isrtael as a jewish state is nonsnse. but it is not nonsense- itis the most natural and justi- fied demand imaginable. 1) for decades Zionism refused to see the palestinian people, and the palestini-an national movement refuses to see the jewish people and recognize in this way its right to a jewish state. the souble and continuing lindness is what ig- nites the ongoing tension. peace will be possible when both realize the need for recognition for eachother 2) the camp david epace summit and oslo ocurds saw a new vision in israel, with many israelis opening up new modern acceptance to the other people in the land. 3) palestinians will not give up on the demand for the right of return. the trau- ma of the nakba is their foundational trauma the jewish people is a poeople of this land and it did not arrive from mars. It is neesary to demand of them to admit that the jewish people has a history of its own and a tragedy of its own and its own justification. the jews are not colonialists but legal neough- bours. there will not be eace until thechildren growing in deheisheh refusee camp will knwo that the country accross the borderis a legitimate jewish state of a jewish people whom they are to live side by side. 4) an israeli palestinain pece agreement is to an extent a one sided agreement in which israel gives and palestinainsrecieve. only te recognition of israel as a jewish state would turn the longed for agreement into a two sidedone.while israel will transfer concrete assets to its neighbours, the palestinians will give the only give they can: legitimacy. Toren pointed out that most Zionists in the generation that prceded Herzl were Rabbis, but many founders of the state of Israel were in rebellion against the religious tradition because, they felt, if G-d was omnipresent in the lives of Jews, how was Jewish suffering accounted for. The founders were people who said we cant wait for G-d for salvation, we can’t wait for the end of history, we must take our fate in our own hands. it was a secular humanist revoloution that understood that this would be a state for the jews, a refuge. But it also under- stood that this would be a Jewish state, a state where the language would be Hebrew, a state that would draw on the traditions that had been formed over the centuries. Asher Susser, a senior fellow at Brandeis Crown Centre for Strategic Studies said he sees Israel as the state of Jews rather than a Jewish state. However, he claims that in terms of Arab affairs, it doesn’t really matter whether Israel is considered the state of the Jews or a Jewish state. The religious thesis for Arabs is considered to be irelevant, it is the Zionist elements that causes the rift. However, this contradicts with Meir Kahunas point that ISrael cannot be a democratic state and Jewish state at the same time as Jewish state conflicts with the Arabs and other religions that reside in ISrael while democratic con- flicts with the whole point of the need for Israel, if it became focused on a democratic state for Jews, then the Law of Return should have to include Arabs too, and the whole point of having a safety haven for Jews would be dimin- ished. Susser however agrees with this by ctizieing Arabs who are calling for Is- rael to change in fundamental ways so that they can feel it is a state for all citi-zens. This is a euphemism for the destruction of Israel as the sate of the Jewish people. ‘one of these Arab intellectuals said ISrael should be as Jewish as Swe- den is Christian. that is a complete rejection of my national identity israel is as jewish as sweden is swidish. our jewishness is parallel to swdenishness, not to swedens christianity’. Salman Masalha there is a fundamental misunderstanding that underlies his concluding declaration: ‘There is no such thing as a Jewish democratic state, just as there is no Muslim democratic state’ At the root of this sentence lies a deep, tragic misunderstanding that characterizes many Arab positions on Is- raels identity. in the standard arab view, ‘Jews’ are comparable to ‘Christians’ or ‘Muslims’ in other words, they are a religous group, not a nation. And it is not only arabs who thinks that way. there is no dobut that for hundreds of years, Jewish identity was percieved by Jews and non jews alike primarily as a reli- gious identity. This is where they contradict with the Zionist revoloution that the Jews are a nation, and as such, they have the right to national self determination in a po-litical framework as accepted by the UN on Nov 29 1947, in its decision to parti- tution British Mandatory Palestine into two states- Jewish and Arab. Israel views itself as a Jewish nation state; jewish identity has a religious component, histor- ically. AND THIS IS THE PROBLEM THAT COMPLICATES ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THE ISRAELI PALESTINIAN CONFLICT the fact that the arab side has difficulty in recognizing that Jews view themselves as a nation. identtity is a matter of self definition, not external definition. Just as jews are not the ones who will de- termine whether the palestinians are a people or not, Masalha cannot deter- mine whether the jews are a people or not. It is a question of self determina- tion. Arabs refusal to accept Israel as a jewish state attests to an unwillingness to accept the jewish people right to self determination. because what is at is- sue is national identtity, not religious identity, there can indeed by a jewish democratic state, just as there can be an arab democratic state, just like Lebanon and Egypt, an arab stte that maintains a political system with demo- cratic principals. Yair Lapid claims that ‘the problem is that israel is defined. both by law and by a decisive major.

Online Travel Industry And Online Travel Agency Tourism Essay

Online Travel Industry And Online Travel Agency Tourism Essay In Europe, consumers typically have at least 4 weeks of vacation time annually compared to just 1 or 2 weeks for the average American; that spells multiple trips booked every year. It should come as no surprise then that online travel growth rates remain far higher overseas And then theres Asia. Fifteen years ago, few consumers in India and China could afford to travel outside their home nations. But thanks to a rising middle-class consumer, Asians are increasingly traveling both domestically and abroad. In fact, according to the China Daily newspaper, international travel has grown more than 50-fold in the past two decades. Rapid growth in the online travel business has helped fuel impressive sales gains for a handful of online travel companies. But thats only half the story online travel websites are also far more profitable than traditional offline travel agency operations. The reason is simple: scalability. Specifically, when a traditional travel agency wishes to expand, it has to hire more agents. Meanwhile, expanding abroad requires setting up a local office with agents speaking the local language, and that type of infrastructure can get expensive. But in the online world, once a website is designed and set up, it can handle a tremendous number of users. Growth in sales does not necessarily require commensurate growth in the labor force a handful of website designers and technicians can maintain the site regardless of the number of customers served. This scalability is behind the fat profit margins enjoyed by online travel firms. Travel and tourism are among the biggest industries worldwide, and more than 80 percent of the travel sold in the United States is now purchased online. With more consumers using the Internet to plan their vacation getaways, online travel agencies have been growing in popularity, helping to increase business in the travel industry overall. Aside from booking travel packages, many travelers go online in search of travel reviews before making a final decision about their choices. Reports show that more travelers who have traditionally booked trips offline are checking out vacation destinations, as well as travel and hotel rates, online. India Context The Indian Scenario The online travel market in India has witnessed tremendous growth and is attracting large number of national and international players. Private equity players have made huge investments in the online travel agency (OTA) segment in the past few years. Some facts : Total tickets available for sale (Only Domestic) per day are : 275,680 Total Ticket Sold by all OTAs per day =   51,690 Market size for Indian OTA Industry in Domestic Flights:   9000 crores   approximately Nearly 40% of the tickets sold are through OTA. On an average, every aircraft in India does 5.6 flights per day If airlines could further manage route optimization and do 1 more flight per day, at 6.6 flights per day, OTA Industry Sales will be up by 15% The first online portal for India was Indiatimes.com launched in the year 2002. Subsequently the following companies joined the bandwagon. Indiatimes 2002 Make my Trip.com 2005 Yatra.com 2006 Travel Guru 2006 In the pages that follow we will research on one of the most successful company in India in this Industry which is Make my trip.com. About the company and the respective concepts, impact, future Nurtured from the seed of a single great idea to empower the traveller MakeMyTrip went on to pioneer the entire online travel industry in India. MakeMyTrip has revolutionised the travel industry over the years. This is the story of MakeMyTrip, Indias Online Travel Leader. MakeMyTrip.com, Indias leading online travel company was founded in the year 2000 by Deep Kalra. Created to empower the Indian traveller with instant booking and comprehensive choices, the company began its journey in the US-India travel market. It aimed to offer a range of best-value products and services along with cutting-edge technology and dedicated round-the-clock customer support. After consolidating its position in the market as a brand recognised for its reliability and transparency, MakeMyTrip followed its success in the US by launching its India operations in 2005. With the foresight to seize the opportunities in the domestic travel market, brought on by a slew of new airlines, MakeMyTrip offered travellers the convenience of online travel bookings at rock-bottom prices. Rapidly, MakeMyTrip became the preferred choice of millions of travellers who were delighted to be empowered by a few mouse clicks! MakeMyTrips rise has been lead by the vision and the spirit of each one of its employees, for whom no idea was too big and no problem too difficult. With untiring innovation and determination, MakeMyTrip proactively began to diversify its product offering, adding a variety of online and offline products and services. MakeMyTrip also stayed ahead of the curve by continually evolving its technology to meet the ever changing demands of the rapidly developing global travel market. Steadily establishing itself across India and the world, MakeMyTrip simultaneously nurtured the growth of its offline businesses like its franchises and affiliates simultaneously, augmenting the brands already strong retail presence further. Today, MakeMyTrip is much more than just a travel portal or a famous pioneering brand it is a one-stop-travel-shop that offers the broadest selection of travel products and services in India. MakeMyTrip is the undisputed online leader, with its share of the travel market extending to more than 50% of all online sales, a fact evinced by the trust placed in it by millions of happy customers. Remaining reliable, efficient and at the forefront of technology, MakeMyTrips commitment and customer-centricity allows it to better understand and provide for its customers diverse needs and wants, and deliver consistently. With dedicated 247 customer support and offices in 20 cities across India and 2 international offices in New York and San Francisco (in addition to several franchise locations), MakeMyTrip is there for you, whenever and wherever. MakeMyTrip Limited, the parent company of MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited and MakeMyTrip.com Inc., Indias largest online travel company1, today announced that it has priced its initial public offering of 5,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of USD14per share. The companys ordinary shares will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on 12 Aug 2010 under the symbol MMYT. The companys services and products include air tickets, customized holiday packages, hotel booking, railway tickets, bus tickets, car hire and facilitating access to travel insurance. Through its primary website, www.makemytrip.com, and other technology-enhanced platforms, the company provides access to all major domestic full-service and low-cost airlines operating in India, all major airlines operating to and from India, over 4,000 hotels in India and a wide selection of hotels outside India, Indian Railways and several major Indian bus operator Makemytrip.coms three-month global Alexa traffic rank is 1,823. Visitors to the site spend roughly 51 seconds on each pageview and a total of three minutes on the site during each visit. It is located in India. Approximately 43% of visits to the site are bounces (one pageview only). Makemytrip.com has been online for more than ten years. MakeMyTrips Products: International and Domestic Air Tickets, Holiday Packages and Hotels Domestic Bus and Rail Tickets Private Car and Taxi Rentals MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences Exhibitions) B2B and Affiliate Services Management: A young company that has quickly become the leading travel service provider in India and the most trusted name in the industry, MakeMyTrips spectacular success is in no small part due to the unblinking vision of its senior management team and the dedication of its employees. MakeMyTrip employs over 700 Trippers from the travel, tourism, hospitality and technology industries. Deep KalraFounder Chief Executive Officer Mohit GuptaChief Marketing Officer Rajnish KapurChief Innovation Officer Mukesh SinghSenior Vice President Technology Development Anand KandadaiSenior Vice President Outbound Tours Keyur JoshiCo-Founder Chief Operating Officer Rajesh MagowCo-Founder Chief Financial Officer Amit SomaniChief Products Officer Amit SaberwalSenior Vice President Retail and Business Development Rohit HasteerVice President Human Resources Summary Name Age Since Current Position Kalra, Deep 41 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer Magow, Rajesh 41 Group Chief Financial Officer Singh, Mukesh 34 2009 Senior Vice President Technology Department Joshi, Keyur 37 Group Chief Operating Officer Gupta, Mohit 36 Group Chief Marketing Officer Somani, Amit 38 2010 Group Chief Products Officer Adusumalli, Ravi 34 2005 Director Aggarwal, Sanjeev 50 2006 Director Guleri, Aditya 45 2007 Director Wolf, Philip 54 2005 Director Gowrea, Gyaneshwarnath 44 2009 Director Janally, Mohammad 27 2009 Director Gour, Vivek 47 2010 Independent Director Lalonde, Frederic 37 2006 Independent Director MakeMyTrip Values We, at MakeMyTrip, abide by our companys core values in our every endeavour. It is these values that have taken us where we have been and will take us where we are going! Excellence: We must strive for excellence in whatever we do. Focus on continuous improvement in interactions with people, efficiency of processes, and the wellbeing of the organization. Customer Centricity: We must maintain focus on our customers, both internal external, by giving them priority. Strive to exceed their expectations in terms of the value and quality delivered. Integrity: We must ensure consistency between our words and actions, always delivering what we commit. We can thereby maintain transparency, trust and accountability. Accountability: We must feel responsible and accountable for the commitments we make and the quality of the results we deliver to all our stakeholders. Innovation: We must continually apply intelligence, reason and technology to our work and environment. This will allow us to take informed risks and champion new ideas to improve our business as well as the community. Teamwork:  We must foster an environment wherein we can efficiently utilise the abilities of all team members to achieve goals. We should work on the premise that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. [emailprotected]: We must create and maintain an atmosphere of fun while at work, making work a happy place we can all look forward to. Empowerment:  We must give fellow colleagues the opportunity and freedom to think and act in ways that will allow them to get the job done, and yet be consistent with the processes laid down. Passion for Winning: We must have a can do attitude, not take no for an answer and believe that nothing is impossible. This will allow us to work relentlessly toward achieving our goals and honouring our commitments. Respect for People: We must give everyone, with whom we interact, respect and consideration. Awards Recognition Not without reason, MakeMyTrip has garnered the trust of over two million satisfied customers as well as the respect and acclaim of the entire travel industry and business world. Travel Business : Great Places To Work 2010 2nd Best Company to Work for #1 in Professional Services Superbrand India 2009-10 Great Places To Work 2009 #2 in Professional Services Best Travel Website CNBC Awaaz 2008-09 Most Visited Travel Website comScore 2005-09 Most Preferred Online Travel Agency Travel Biz Monitor Survey 2008 Number One Online Travel Agency JuxtConsult 2008 Gold and Silver Abby Award 2007-08 Among the Top Ten Websites visited by Indians comScore 2007 Nominated World Travel Awards WTA 2007 Among 100 IT Innovators NASSCOM 2007 Best Online Travel Company Galileo Express Travel World 2007 Emerging India Award ICICI Bank CNBC TV18 2006 Asias Hottest Technology Startup Red Herring 2006 Airline : Air Canada Outstanding Performance 2008 Singapore Airlines Top Passenger Agent 2007-08 British Airways Outstanding Revenue Contribution 2007-08 Air Mauritius All India Top Ten Agent//Top North India Sales Award 2006-07//2007-08 Cathay Pacific Outstanding Performance 2007 Malaysia Airlines Top Agent Award 2007 Lufthansa Outstanding Performance 2006-07 Kingfisher Airlines Outstanding Performance 2006-07 Indian Airlines Achieving Highest Domestic Passenger Sales 2006-07 Air India Outstanding Contribution to Passenger Sales 2005-06 Jet Airways Award of Excellence 2005-06 Gulf Air Continuous Support Impact There was a time when Indian families would plan their annual trip six months in advance, after spending long, sweaty hours queuing up in front of ticket booths. It sure wasnt easy. But in 2005, Deep Kalra, CEO and founder of MakeMyTrip.com, changed all that. He brought the concept of Online Travel Agents (OTA) to India and revolutionized the way the Indian middle class travels and plans their vacation. Today, the rise of Internet credibility coupled with falling rates of air travel has helped OTAs catapult to glorious success. And with a turnover of Rs 2,200 crore, MakeMyTrip.com has been a pioneer in the OTA success story. With over 50 percent market share, its the single most recognized and trusted player in the OTA industry. Future FUTURE : Focus on Advertising Strategy: Aim of MMT is to establish the brand. The focus is not just to provide cheap tickets. Advertising helps in getting your message across to the target audience more effectively. And with more and more players entering the segment, it is necessary to advertise to ensure you have captured sufficient mind-share. Again, the product basket that MMT offer is growing and our customers have to be updated accordingly. Expansion of Capacity : MMT is trying to expand capacity with caution, especially because the sector is capex hungry for the suppliers. We, at MakeMyTrip, have learnt that our suppliers are very important. Unless we make sure our suppliers business is profitable, we wont be profitable. Revenue breakup between MMT businesses: Between hotel and air, air captures a much higher percentage two-thirds of MMT business. But other product lines are growing fast, especially hotels and buses. The effort is to reduce reliance on a single line of business. While MMT lead the sector in terms of air tickets, MMT are continuously focusing on non-air products to increase their share of revenue as well. competing players Travelguru: A revolutionary online travel solutions destination, Travel Guru India has set the benchmark in the industry. With our affordable plane tickets and air tickets reservations, our travel gurus offer the most economical solution for every travel need. The travel guru mantra is based on the concept of making air tickets reservations an easy and quick process for every traveller. With the help of travel gurus, travellers can access the best fares for Travel Guru India and Travel Guru international holidays, business trips and corporate travel. The Travel Guru signature services guarantee a trip of a lifetime to any destination in India or across the globe! A trendsetter in the travel industry travel guru com offers the benefits of safe, comfortable and convenient travel at affordable fares. At travel guru com travellers can book affordable plane tickets and make domestic and international air tickets reservations. The travel gurus can also assist you with selecting a luxurious hotel to complement the travel guru air booking service. Just log on to travel guru com to book affordable plane tickets and hotel rooms for worldwide destinations. Get all the benefits of the travel guru services with just the click of a mouse! With Travel Guru India and Travel Guru international have a range of unmatched services at your fingertips. The Travel Guru services include: Air ticket Booking: Travellers can search for, compare prices and book affordable plane tickets for their chosen sectors of travel at the website. You have a comprehensive choice of airlines for low-cost, affordable plane tickets as well as for full-service airlines. Once youve made your selection just click for any air tickets reservations. Leave the rest to the travel gurus and get set to take off into the skies. Hotel Reservations: While on holiday come home to a luxurious hotel, at affordable rates. Travel Guru offers include domestic and international hotels at discounted rates with no compromise on quality, services and comfort. Take your pick from the wide selection of premium hotels that include Travel Guru India and Travel Guru International options and get your Travel Guru booking in an instant! Yatra:- Yatra Holiday Lounge is a premium, one-stop-shop for all your travel needs. Located at a convenient point within your city, the Yatra Lounge is where customers can walk in and plan their travel in privacy and comfort. When you visit a Lounge, a trained Yatra Travel Experts assists you with all aspects of your travel: booking flight tickets, hotels, cars, buses or holidays. We can even assist you with travel insurance and visa processing. The Yatra Travel Experts can also help you create customized holiday packages. The Holiday Lounges are open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Monday to Saturday. Cleartrip:- MyTripYatra is dedicated to help customers to build their clear trip and cruise along with their Yatra to nirvana. As our name suggests Yatra we extend our services to provide facility for convenience of our clients to choose gamut of services like cheap air tickets on air Deccan, jet airways, Indian airlines, spice jet airlines, and air India. My Trip Yatra is a unique concept of taking offers from various online travel agents like makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com, yatra.com, travelguru.com to their customers. There are online discounts with cheap flights and hotels across the globe. Here you are free to see cheap fares, discount on airlines, offers on hotel bookings, holidays, at affordable prices for your yatra. For Cheap Air travel trip or planning Goa holidays, or looking a hotel in Goa, our way of make my trip endows you the chance to make your own cleartrip. We will add cheap hotels across the country and keep on adding different destinations like cheap flights from Delhi to Mumb ai, cheap flights from Mumbai to Delhi starting from 500 Indian Rupees.Coimbtaore FlightsAizawl FlightsColombo flights In order to spread wings of My Trip Yatra, we have affiliated ourselves with Yatra.com, one of the leading travel agents of India. Yatra.com provides cheap flights of Air Deccan, Indigo airlines, Spicejet airlines, Jet airways, Kingfisher airlines, paramount airways, go air, jetlite airline (formerly known as air Sahara airlines). Yatra.com provides unique features of At Yatra, we pay for your flights delay offers, thank you coupon code worth RS 250 if you book again with Yatra.com, various cash back offers with ICICI bank, Master Card, etc. Yatra.com also provides Yatra miles a proprietary product to redeem those miles against discount on cheap flights, cheap hotels, holidays and other packages such as Honeymoon packages, adventure packages. Yatra.com has been funded by Network 18 group that operates online websites like Moneycontrol.com, storeguru.com, buzz18.com, josh18.com, ibnlive.com, indiwo.com etc. It has also been funded by Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group. We are proud to be an affiliate of Yatra online Pvt. Ltd. Yatra online has given us platform to promote their products online. Yatra online makes seamless transaction of products like flights, hotels, holidays, Buses, and cars. Yatra online thru its website Yatra.com makes a perfect partner to any online travel agent. Cleartrip is premier travel company of India that offers exclusive facility to travelers in planning of your trip. You can plan your holiday or business trips with Cleartrip and you will get many advantages over other travel planners. Cleartrip provides many benefits to travelers such as expediency, various options for booking, great competitive prices and in-depth details of many travel options, destinations and support. You can book flights, hotels, train tickets, complete holiday packages, travel insurance and much more from Cleartrip. Cleartrip provides booking facility for over 5,500 domestic hotels and around 109,000 international hotels. Clear Trip was launched on 4 July, 2006 and within a span of 4 years it has established itself as a premier travel planner company. Cleartrip start providing SMS based ticketing service that allows you to book tickets using mobile phones. From 2008, clear trip also started providing rail tickets in India with cooperation with IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation). Clear Trip has won many awards for its great services. It was given best travel website award in 2006 and 2007 consecutively. Clear trip is known as Google of Travel Websites as it provides tons of useful information about travel sector. In 2007 it also won the prize of most user friendly website of travel sector. Since its inception in 2006, Cleartrip has become a market leader in travel sector for providing simplest and most diverse travel planning options and best deals. You can get higher discounts on flight tickets if you choose Clear trip as your travel planner. Getting travel and tourism information had never been so easy before Cleartrip. You can find every specific detail about all cities in India along with travel options available, hotel available in that city, flight services, car rental services and main tourist attractions in that city. Online flight ticket booking is very easy with Clear trip services. You can just feed the departure and arrival destinations and timings and its internal search engine will provide you a detailed list of all flights available for your journey. You can easily compare flights of different service providers such as Jet Airways, GoAir, kingfisher, Air India and many more. If you are booking your tickets well in advance then you can also get many Cleartrip offers that will help you to save huge money on your travel. Cleartrip started its operation with a goal of making journey planning easier and hassle free and with its state of the art services it has surely achieved its goal and continue to growing with a fast pace. use the company balance sheet 3 years for the references and figures figures could be sales volume, business volume, market penetration, product mix, pricing of the product over the years v/s competition Customer Profile end users who are they- customer opinion In a cut-throat industry like OTA, how do you maintain competitive advantage? Deep Kalra, Founder CEO: Creating an experience for the customer is very important. Every OTA player today is focusing on providing more value for the customers time and money. The focus this year for MakeMyTrip is to move beyond customer satisfaction and towards creating customer delight. Also, we take pride in our customer relations; we have customer testimonials that speak very highly of our customer care executives. Being ahead on the technology curve is what gives us an edge. Its very important to keep on upgrading and reinventing new processes to enhance customer experience. Whats behind your advertising strategy? Deep Kalra, Founder CEO: Its very important to establish the brand. For us, the focus is not just to provide cheap tickets. Advertising helps in getting your message across to the target audience more effectively. And with more and more players entering the segment, it is necessary to advertise to ensure you have captured sufficient mind-share. Again, the product basket that we offer is growing and our customers have to be updated accordingly. Whats the revenue breakup between your businesses? Deep Kalra, Founder CEO: Between hotel and air, air captures a much higher percentage two-thirds of our business. But other product lines are growing fast, especially hotels and buses. The effort is to reduce reliance on a single line of business. While we lead the sector in terms of air tickets, we are continuously focusing on non-air products to increase their share of revenue as well. Criticism Some customers complain about Makemytrip not giving the complete terms of ticket (baggage allowed, flexibility to change date of travel or cancel the ticket) before booking the ticket. Some complain about false promises before booking the ticket. They warn potential customers to get the terms of the ticket in writing or email before going ahead with the phone booking. Refunds to credit cards are sometimes delayed. It is believed that calls to customer care in case of booked tickets is low priority in call queues compared to calls to buy tickets. There is undue delay in getting service in case of getting help on already booked ticket. The escalation process in case of complaints is not published on their website. Estimated waiting period or the position in the call queue is not announced. Other customers have warned that the websites Believe It Or Not promotion is indeed too good to be true. While MakeMyTrip promises you free domestic air travel once youve arrived in Inda, all such ai r travel must be booked 21 days in advance of the trip. And even if you attempt to arrange it that far in advance,  Make My Trip  makes this process very difficult, if not impossible. You will be booked on overnight flights, trips that should take three hours will wind up taking two days, and in some cases you will wind up paying taxes and fees that exceed the actual cost of the ticket, had you booked it yourself.   Customer Opinion As per various feeback posted on the website following is the broad feeback given : The call centre agents are well trained and they know their job Phone / Voice Menu is customer friendly Quick Customer responses where required on email