Religion versus Atheism

Religion the force for GOOD or the force for evil 
This is one of the best debates I have seen.

Introduction :-

In a world of globalization and rapid social change does religion provide the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to thrive in the 21st century?  Or, do deeply held religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions, and impede social progress in developing and developed nations alike? To encourage a far-ranging discussion on one of human kind’s most vexing questions, the 6th semi-annual Munk Debate will tackle the resolution: Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world. 

The debate :-

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Some lesser known facts about Adolf Hitler

Hitler : Some unknown facts

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BANKING & FINANCIAL TERMS FOR BANK PO AND BANK CLERICAL EXAMS

For all those preparing for Bank PO and Bank Clerical exams these terms are of utmost importance. We suggest you read , re-read and learn these terms by heart as a good number of times direct questions have been asked in interviews as well as in exams.

If we have missed any important term we suggest our very dear readers to please mention it in the comments so that we may create a best free web archive for all bank aspirants.

Accrued interest: Interest due from issue date or from the last coupon payment date to the settlement date. Accrued interest on bonds must be added to their purchase price.

Arbitrage: Buying a financial instrument in one market in order to sell the same instrument at a higher price in another market.

Ask Price: The lowest price at which a dealer is willing to sell a given security.

Asset-Backed Securities (ABS): A type of security that is backed by a pool of bank loans, leases, and other assets. Most ABS are backed by auto loans and credit cards – these issues are very similar to mortgage-backed securities.

At-the-money: The exercise price of a derivative that is closest to the market price of the underlying instrument.

Basis Point: One hundredth of 1%. A measure normally used in the statement of interest rate e.g., a change from 5.75% to 5.81% is a change of 6 basis points.

Bear Markets: Unfavorable markets associated with falling prices and investor pessimism.

Bid-ask Spread: The difference between a dealer’s bid and ask price.

Bid Price: The highest price offered by a dealer to purchase a given security.

Blue Chips: Blue chips are unsurpassed in quality and have a long and stable record of earnings and dividends. They are issued by large and well-established firms that have impeccable financial credentials.

Bond: Publicly traded long-term debt securities, issued by corporations and governments, whereby the issuer agrees to pay a fixed amount of interest over a specified period of time and to repay a fixed amount of principal at maturity.

Book Value: The amount of stockholders’ equity in a firm equals the amount of the firm’s assets minus the firm’s liabilities and preferred stock. /p>

Broker: Individuals licensed by stock exchanges to enable investors to buy and sell securities.

Brokerage Fee: The commission charged by a broker.

Bull Markets: Favorable markets associated with rising prices and investor optimism.

Call Option: The right to buy the underlying securities at a specified exercise price on or before a specified expiration date.

Callable Bonds: Bonds that give the issuer the right to redeem the bonds before their stated maturity.

Capital Gain: The amount by which the proceeds from the sale of a capital asset exceed its original purchase price.

Capital Markets: The market in which long-term securities such as stocks and bonds are bought and sold.

Certificate of Deposits (CDs): Savings instrument in which funds must remain on deposit for a specified period, and premature withdrawals incur interest penalties.

Closed-end (Mutual) Fund: A fund with a fixed number of shares issued, and all trading is done between investors in the open market. The share prices are determined by market prices instead of their net asset value.

Collateral: A specific asset pledged against possible default on a bond. Mortgage bonds are backed by claims on property. Collateral trusts bonds are backed by claims on other securities. Equipment obligation bonds are backed by claims on equipment.

Commercial Paper: Short-term and unsecured promissory notes issued by corporations with very high credit standings.

Common Stock: Equity investment representing ownership in a corporation; each share represents a fractional ownership interest in the firm.

Compound Interest: Interest paid not only on the initial deposit but also on any interest accumulated from one period to the next.

Contract Note: A note which must accompany every security transaction which contains information such as the dealer’s name (whether he is acting as principal or agent) and the date of contract.

Controlling Shareholder: Any person who is, or group of persons who together are, entitled to exercise or control the exercise of a certain amount of shares in a company at a level (which differs by jurisdiction) that triggers a mandatory general offer, or more of the voting power at general meetings of the issuer, or who is or are in a position to control the composition of a majority of the board of directors of the issuer.

Convertible Bond: A bond with an option, allowing the bondholder to exchange the bond for a specified number of shares of common stock in the firm. A conversion price is the specified value of the shares for which the bond may be exchanged. The conversion premium is the excess of the bond’s value over the conversion price.

Corporate Bond: Long-term debt issued by private corporations.

Coupon: The feature on a bond that defines the amount of annual interest income.

Coupon Frequency: The number of coupon payments per year.

Coupon Rate: The annual rate of interest on the bond’s face value that a bond’s issuer promises to pay the bondholder. It is the bond’s interest payment per dollar of par value.

Covered Warrants: Derivative call warrants on shares which have been separately deposited by the issuer so that they are available for delivery upon exercise.

Credit Rating: An assessment of the likelihood of an individual or business being able to meet its financial obligations. Credit ratings are provided by credit agencies or rating agencies to verify the financial strength of the issuer for investors.

Currency Board: A monetary system in which the monetary base is fully backed by foreign reserves. Any changes in the size of the monetary base has to be fully matched by corresponding changes in the foreign reserves.

Current Yield: A return measure that indicates the amount of current income a bond provides relative to its market price. It is shown as: Coupon Rate divided by Price multiplied by 100%.

Custody of Securities: Registration of securities in the name of the person to whom a bank is accountable, or in the name of the bank’s nominee; plus deposition of securities in a designated account with the bank’s bankers or with any other institution providing custodial services.


Find more terms

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Personality of the Week - Adolf Hitler (World's most ruthless dictator)

                                                             Adolf Hitler

Born : April 20, 1889
Died : April 30, 1945 (56 years)
Birthplace : Braunau am Inn, Austria

Young Hitler

The worst dictator world has ever seen, Hitler was born to a fifty-two-year-old Austrian customs official, Alois Schickelgruber Hitler, and his third wife, a young peasant girl, Klara Poelzl, both from the backwoods of lower Austria.

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Daily Reading -- The problem with democracy is that Leaders wear earplugs when citizens shout in disdain

When streets erupt in a democracy, it is nearly always because institutions are not delivering as they had promised to. It is never a good idea to barricade popular voices by institutional walls

Like it or hate it, but hand it to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for forcing us to think democracy. Contrast this moment with the Emergency and one thing stands out clearly; we need both order and dissent to stay alive. Take one of them out of the equation and democracy has a hard time hanging in: it first flips and then flops.

From every angle, the Emergency was all about control; but then is today all about protests, no holds barred? From Anna’s rally to the anti-rape agitations to Chief Minister Kejriwal’s sit in and sleep-in earlier this month, discussions on this subject are only getting louder. Even the President of India sounded the bugle in his speech on the eve of Republic Day when he warned against anarchy taking over constitutionalism.

Across time

If a Chief Minister is anarchist because he took to the streets, how then would we label the late French President François Mitterrand? After all, in 1983 he gave a hero’s welcome in the Élysée Palace, no less, to anti-racist protesters who were angry with his own government. In fact, in 1980, as leader of the Socialist Party, he joined a widely popularised street march against attacks on Jewish people, along with Pierre Chevènement and Michel Rocard. Were they all anarchists? Or think of Bertrand Russell and his activism against nuclear bombs. Another anarchist or a well-meaning democrat?

Clearly one person’s anarchist could well be another person’s activist. Go back a little in time and consider the demonstrations that brought in universal franchise or racial equality or the establishment of gay rights. Had these movements been banned, or dubbed as anarchist, our democracies would have been that much poorer. It is with the help of these protests that democracy grew and grew to give us this splendid shade under which most of us sit. It took decades of activism before women got the right to vote and before Blacks became legally equal to the rest in America; but who is complaining today?

Or, consider what is going on right now in Bangkok. The Thais want their government to go, but the leader refuses to budge till her corrupt brother is reinstated with full honours. Is the protest then anarchic? Or take Kiev, Ukraine — another real time uprising. This one is against the government’s anti-protest laws [which the Ukrainian President has now agreed to scrap] and its inexplicable decision to pull out of the race for an EU membership. Should the democratic opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, be called an anarchist for turning down the position of Prime Minister that might have brought peace to the country? Instead, he prefers to be with the agitators in the bitter cold, with not much more than a muffler for comfort. Was Tahrir Square a waste of time and another anarchic explosion? What indeed of Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began?

We have not mentioned Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, or any of the other freedom fighters of the past who were also once called anarchists. This is because times have changed and we are no longer battling colonialism, dictatorships or apartheid. Today, democracies are troubled because their leaders wear earplugs and citizens shout in vain. The singular thing about democracy is that political rulers must earn their respect and not demand it, just because they are in office. This is what separates this form of governance from monarchy, racism and fascism.

When streets erupt in a democracy it is nearly always because institutions are not delivering as they had promised to. It is never a good idea to barricade popular voices by institutional walls. Is this why our President in his latest speech on the eve of Republic Day warned politicians not to make false promises for that would generate both heat and noise? Was he lamenting both the United Progressive Alliance’s performance as much as cautioning politicians about their immediate future?

Disdain for democratic procedure

It is not as if democracies have never been challenged by genuine anarchism in the past, nor is it that they can easily protect themselves from such assaults in the future. The ones who stormed the Babri Masjid were anarchists, and so are the Maoists and religious/ethnic activists of today. What unites them all is their disdain for democratic procedure whose hallmark is non-violence. Anarchism, be warned, is not just about physical violence; it is as much about verbal violence as well. People tend to forget this, but that is how Gandhiji understood non-violence; it had to be both in word and in deed.

Gandhiji argued, as did Bertrand Russell, and scores of other believers of liberal democracy, that the moment voices are raised it is clear that violence has struck. Anger reveals a weak hand, for if the argument is a winning one, why be abusive? Supporters of the AAP demonstrated this spirit through the 2013 election in Delhi. Since then, it has compromised and condoned, at least, verbal instances of anarchy. Mr. Somnath Bharti, Delhi’s Law Minister, may be in over his head with his new assignment, but that does not excuse his disgraceful choice of language. He has not just let the side down repeatedly, but has also given credence to the charge that the AAP borders on anarchism. Perhaps Mr. Kejriwal should hold a night school in good manners for his band.

Neither street demonstrations nor working from a makeshift office under a tent amounts to anarchism. It is violence, both physical and verbal, that invites anarchy more than anything else, whether or not such acts happen in the killing fields or in parliaments. Remember also, some of the most ruthless leaders in modern times were elected to power. This is why liberal democracy is not just about votes, but more about non-violence. If there is a striking family resemblance between anarchists and dictators it is because violence was mother’s milk for both of them.

Nor is it anarchy to change one’s political opinion. Liberal democracy would hardly be worth upholding if the freedom to absorb new information is not accompanied by the freedom to alter one’s position. To bind people to a point of view in perpetuity can only happen when knowledge flow is restricted and when political opposition is banned. In a liberal democracy, people must have the option to move and grow, but under one condition. They must, on each occasion, publicly justify the reasons for the switch. Once that is done, freely and openly, liberal democracy has nothing to complain about.

True, Mr. Kumar Vishwas was wrong in his remarks on Kerala’s nurses, but that was done in his pre-AAP days and for which he has apologised anyway. Why should then his past haunt him now? Much worse things have happened. For example, Mr. Sanjay Nirupam and Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal left the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress/NCP without explaining what they found wrong with their earlier affiliations. Only Rangarajan Kumaramangalam attempted to provide a rationale for his move away from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party, but not Ms Najma Heptullah. What also of Ms Renuka Chowdhury who has travelled from party to party before settling down in the Congress? Nobody has ever heard her explain why she first chose and then dumped the Telugu Desam Party. Liberal democracy is violated by opportunistic alliances of this kind and not when people give reasons for changing their minds.

The AAP has forced us to discuss all these issues again and that can only be good for democracy. In the fitness of things, Mr. Kejriwal and his followers must know that it is hard to be just a little bit anarchic. It is like catching the flu in the hallway. Once this strain enters the system it spreads itself all over. As bad practices push out the good, not only should the AAP sit up and take notice of anarchic elements within, but we too should acknowledge how non-violent protests enrich democracies.

A little anarchy is a dangerous thing, but a good protest is a joy forever!

(Dipankar Gupta is distinguished professor and director, Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory, Shiv Nadar University.)

Courtesy : The Hindu

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