Culture is myth. Layoffs are reality.

When things are going good and as expected, companies broach culture and are compassionate towards their workers. When the bottomline is in trouble on the balance sheet, people become statistics on payroll. I sympathize with so many layoffs going on and who become microbody in an ecosystem.. No one is evil. Everyone is rational. Truth is absolute. Here are few stories. There are many on social networks. Story one Story two/ Third story

Additional overtime pay for farm work with AB 1066

 Here is good intended legislation that is both beneficial and punishing for some farm workers.

Agriculture workers are typically paid less despite they work overtime. California bill 1066 is gradually bringing them under regular labor laws. They will gradually receive overtime pay on the same basis as workers in most other industries.

It has time table from 2019 to 2025 with phased launches with overtime payment. It started with treating 9.5 hours as business hours with eventual target of 8 hours per day. If some one works for more than 8 hours a day or more than 40 hours a week, they will be paid one and half times the regular wage. After twelve hours workday, the wages are doubled. It completed for farms with more than 26 or more farm workers. It is yet to complete for small famrs employing 25 or less people.

The bill however made farmers to make some changes in their practices. Some farmers limited their business time to regular forty hours a week instead of completing the work in fewer weeks. Some hired more people to complete the work. Their wages are already low enough and some workers are forced to look for side gig because of loss of salary.

The bill is historic and the California became the first state in nation that made farm workers like regular workers. Other states followed it and legislated similarly.

References and sources

• B1066 
• Northbay Business Journal
• Providence Journal
• Baltimore Sun

Credit score factors

 35% Payment History

 30% Amounts Owed
 15% Length of Credit
 10% New Credit
 10% Credit Mix

Credit Mix

Creditors want to know how you can responsibly manage a mix of credit types. That's why the credit mix makes up about 10% of the FICO score. 

The score considers the types of credit being used and reported such as installment loans and revolving accounts and the number and types of credit accounts reported on the credit report. This has a relatively low impact on score, but it will be more important if the credit report doesn’t include much information.

Length of Credit

In general, the longer the credit history, the better. How long the accounts have been opened determines the length of credit history, which typically makes up 15% of the FICO Score.

The score also considers the age of the oldest credit account, how long credit accounts have been open, the age of the newest credit account and the average age of all credit accounts.

Inquiries

Lenders do a hard inquiry when one applies for a new credit card or loan. These inquiries are a good indicator of credit seeking activity, which makes up about 10% of the FICO Score.

In general, one does n't want too much credit seeking activity or inquiries in a short period of time. The score considers the amount of new credit, including how many new accounts were recently opened, and number of recent inquiries. Opening several new credit accounts in a short period of time indicates greater credit risk.

Revolving Utilization

Revolving utilization is one indicator of how much one owes on all accounts. The amount one owes lenders is one of the most important factors that impacts thr credit and makes up about 30% of the FICO Score.

The revolving utilization is determined by the total balance owed on revolving accounts and the total credit limit.

Scores consider how much of the available credit one is using and how much one owes on specific accounts. This has a high impact on the credit score.

Missed payments

Consistently paying creditors on time is the most important factor. That's why the payment history makes up about 35% of the FICO Score.

The score considers the number of accounts with missed payments over the last 7 years, amounts owed on delinquent accounts, collections and negative public record information.

The score looks at the payment history to see how one has paid bills in the past whether that's on time or missed. This has the highest impact on the credit score.

British economy

Economy is at an important stage in Britian. Here is what I learnt from this news and what I am fascinated about this news. We see governments offering subsidies for everyone regardless of their income now a days. This appears fair. This will face less resistance from opponents. See how it impacts an economy under the surface. Watch the video https://youtu.be/OqKu8Lxnzro for details. You also learn about bond yield curve and currency carry crisis. What is more fascinating to me is the analytical skill of an indian social media channel about a country under whom they were subjects few decades ago. He understands much more than the people in uk do. That is power of education in free world.

Inflation

Getting a pinch from inflation. Stations are updating prices frequently. Some say it is supply chain. Some say it is ukraine driven. Some say it is because of biden pensions. Some say it is wage based builtin inflation. Whatever it may be, we are paying twice of what was five years ago.

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Rule of Seventy Two

"Rule of 72"  is an approximate formula to find how much time it takes for an investment to double with compound interest.  It can also be used in other things that grow similar to interest.

Some scenarios are below. 

• If you invest 100$ with annual percentage of 6%, it takes approximately 72/6 or twelve years to double the original investment. 
• If you invest 100% with annual percentage of 9%, it takes approximately 72/9 or eight years to double the investment value. 
• If the inflation year over year is 4%, the money will lose half of the current value in eighteen years.
• If bacteria grows 3% every hour, it will double in size in twenty four hours or a day.
• As the population of India is growing at 1.2% from 1B people, the population if India will become 2B people in 72/1.2 or sixty years from now.
• If the trend of the GDP growing at 6% annually continues, it will become twice the current GDP in 72/6 or twelve years.
• Suppose an exponential program on n inputs runs for 10 seconds and the increasing input by one takes 11.2 seconds or 12% over 10 seconds, then increasing the number of inputs by six more inputs requires 20 seconds to run the program.

Seventy two is chosen so that it has several divisors and can be convenient for computation. Choosing sixty nine or seventy improves accuracy.  The formula is correct between 6% and 10%, The accuracy for every 3% away from 8% can be improved by adding additional 1 to the value of 72. If you invest 100$ with annual percentage of 25%, it takes 75.66/25 or little more than three years to double the investment value.

Verification from the basic mathematics

S = Sum, P = principal, R = interest rate percentage, r = interest rate fraction = R/100.
The sum after one periodic interval: S = P  + PR/100 =  P(1 + R/100).
The sum after two periodic intervals:  S = P(1+r)(1+r).
The sum after n periodic intervals:  S  = P(1+r)^N

When S = two times the value of P,   2   =  (1+r)^N
Number of periods can be calculated by taking logarithm on both sides.

log(1 + r) = r for small values between 5 to 10%.
N = log(2)/log(1 + r)  = 0.6933/r = 69.33/R

References:
Wikipedia - Rule of 72
Investopedia - Rule of 72
Exponential double time  - Rule of 72
Better Explained - Rule of 72

PSU companies

Public Sector Undertaking(PSU) companies where the central or state governments have more control than other private entities. They are classified as three kinds.

• CPSE(Central Public Sector Enterprises)
• PSB(Public Sector Banks)
• SLPE(State level public enterprise)

There are around 280 central public sector companies in India. Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises control around 50 or majority of public sector enterprises. (CCI) Cement Corporation Of India) or BHEL(Bharat Heavy Electoricals Limited) are some examples. Other ministries own the rest of them. Air India Limited is administered by civil aviation ministry. Coal India Limited is administered by coal ministry. Steel Authority of India Limited is controlled by steel ministry. Many PSEs are listed on stock exchange like other private companies are.

They are divided into several kinds based on their performance. Maharatnas, navratnas and miniratnas.  Navratnas are companies that have competitive advantage and potential to become global players. Nav in Navratnas means not nine but new. They can invest up to 1000 crores without taking government permission. Miniratnas are also profit making companies or have potential to profit making but are not ready to perform at global level. Miniratnas are again divided into two subcategories. The high rank ones make 30 crores profit at least in one of the three past years and can make investment up to 500 crores without taking government permission. The miniratnas second category can make up to 300 crores investment without taking government permission.

Maharatnas are large Navratnas that have real power to excel in domestic and global market and government can give more autonomy for them to expand. They have annual profit of 2500 crores. They have around 25000 crores turnover and net worth of 10,000 crores. They can make investment up to 5000 crores without taking government permission. Currently seven companies, BHEL, SAIL, Coal India Ltd, GAIL(Gas authority of India Limited), IOCL(India Oil Corporation Limited), ONGC(Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited) and NTPC (National Thermal Power Plant) qualify for this category. Their performance will be reviewed annually by inter ministry committee to make decision on whether to continue the status.

References

Public Sector Undertaking in India

List of PSEs in India

BSE PSUs disinvestment information

Department of Public Enterprises

Unicorns

Unicorn is legendary and mythical animal with single pointed horn. It was depicted as a creature in arts and crafts of all civilizations.

Uniforns or narwhals are startup companies whose evaluation exceeds one billion dollars. Unicorns are supposed to be rare animals, however there are around two hundred. Top unicorns are uber, xioami, airbnb, palantir and snapchat. Uber is worth sixty two billion dollars now. Decacorns are companies whose evaluation exceeds ten billion dollars and they include dropbox and pinterest.

References
Unicorn
Unicorns

World and India rice production

World produced 425 million tonnes of rice and consumed 424 million tonnes in 2008. Total world exports are around 27 million tonnes. India produced 92 million tonnes in crop year 2007 and 96 million tonnes in 2008. It consumed 85 million tonnes in 2005, 88 million tonnes in 2007 and 90 million tonnes in 2008. India exported 4.5 million tonnes in 2006, 5 million tonnes in 20007 and only 3 million tonnes in 2008.

China produced 129 million tonnes, consumed 128 million tonnes in 2007. It consumed 135 million tonnes in 2006, and the reason for decrease in consumption is because people started eating other food.

It is expected that India needs 128 million tonnes for domestic consumption by 2012. Indians consume 80 kg per year per person. In china, consumption is 90 kg per person per year.

In addition to India and china, U.S. exports 3.5 million tonnes, Thailand, the largest exporter exports 9 million tonnes of its 18 million tonnes production and Pakistan exports 2.9 million tonnes of its 5.5 million tonnes. India and China will not be able to export as their population is growing and their production is not increasing rapidly. India and china maintained carryover stock of 50 million tonnes for future use and the total world stock of rice is around 90 million tonnes.

India uses 5.6 million hectares or 13.8 acres of land for rice production, where as U.S. uses 2.6 million acres of land.

India banned export of rice since March' 2008 to mitigate effect of global food crisis on it. However this can contribute little more to global food crisis and price rises in rest of the countries.

Sources:
Bangladesh rice prices effected by India
Good forecast and rice export ban
India may lift ban on rice export in four to five months
India rice productivity analysis
Rice production by state wise in India
Rice production by country.
The truth of trade about rice

Gas price per day is more expensive than car rent

I spent 30$ for rental car, but paid 34$ for refilling gas for a small trip to city. I did little search/research on Google.

Possible reasons for increase:
* Production is sligtly lesser than consumption. Production in venuzula and Iraq reduced world production by a slight margin. Consumption in Asia and Africa slightly increased.
* Weak economy and dollar got devalued.
* Speculation and arbitration compounding with war and political instabilities.

Present price decomposition:
Gas price per gallon: 4 dollors.
Crude oil: 3 dollars.
State and federal taxes: 27 cents.
Refining costs: 40 cents.
Transportation, distribution and marketing costs: 24 cents.
Station Markup: 10 cents.

Consumption: US consumes 20 million barrels of total oil per day, that is 420 million gallons of oil, and uses around 200 million gallons of that total for motor gasoline. Assuming average vehicle mileage is 20 mpg, it is used to drive 4 billion miles per day. There are around 200 million total vehicles in use. So each car drives 20 miles a day, which is reasonable. World consumes 85 million barrels per day, and china, Japan, India and Brazil consume 20 million barrels per day. These countries are growth rate per year is 8 percent and is expected to grow.

Supply: US produces around 8 million barrles per day of its need. It imports around 4 million barrels from Arab counties, around 4 million barrles from Canada and approximately 4 million barrels from Mexico. Arab countries produces around 9 million barrles per day and all countries together produce around 82 million barrles per day. Supply is lesser than the demand, but oil reserves compensate it. There is no shortage of oil for half decade or so, and infact countries started investing in producing more oil.

Refinaries: Important factors adding to cost are operating cost, distance to refinaries, fedaral and state laws for minimal quality of oil and cleaner burning standards add to cost.

References:
* How gas prices work.
* The future of oil.
* vechicle statistics in US.
* Oil supply and consumption
* Oil production statistics
* Oil reserves in world
* Fundamentals of gas price increase.

Salt production in India

Salt is not only a need for human body and tongue, but also is one of the reasons for human advancement. Salt seasoning made us independent of seasonal availability of food. It is used in textile, glass, soap, fertilizers, medicine, leather,  and many food industries. Accidents after snowstorms will be decreased because of the salt.

Saltpetre was only next bigger item to cotton and spices in East India company's business in India. There were times salt played role in politics and wars and even people are payed in salt instead of money. The word for salt comes from Latin word for salary. See salt history page at wikipedia.

India is the fourth largest country in salt production, with China and US contending for the first place and Germany being the second. [ update Jan 10th 2014: China is topper and produces 22% of the world production, US is second and produces 14%, India with 8% crossed Germany's 6%. ]

India produces 16 million tonnes yearly [update jan 10th 2014: India produces 24 million tonnes]. Households consume 8 million tonnes and the Industry consumption is 6 million tonnes and the rest is exported earning 2000 crores. Among the 11 salt making states, only three states, Gujarat, Tamilnadu(mainly because of Tuticorin) and Rajasthan(mainly because of Sambhar Lake) produce surplus salt than they consume. Gujarat produces 11 million tonnes or 71% , Tamilnadu makes 16%, Rajasthan makes 9% and the rest of other states make 4%.

Environmentalists say now that salt production will be in problems again. See video about pollution in Gandidham salt and news about salt going black. Gandhidham, salt capital of India, alone produces 5 million tonnes of salt every year. We do have Salt Institute and I do not know what their reaction is to the situation. I wish they publish annual statistics at least on their website.