Monday 3 October 2011

Source of Finance : Long-Term Source




A business requires funds to purchase fixed assets like land and building,
plant and machinery, furniture etc. These assets may be regarded as the
foundation of a business. The capital required for these assets is called
fixed capital. A part of the working capital is also of a permanent nature.
Funds required for this part of the working capital and for fixed capital
is called long term finance.
Purpose of long term finance:
Long term finance is required for the following purposes:
1. To Finance fixed assets :
Business requires fixed assets like machines, Building, furniture
etc. Finance required to buy these assets is for a long period,
because such assets can be used for a long period and are not for
resale.

2. To finance the permanent part of working capital:
Business is a continuing activity. It must have a certain amount of
working capital which would be needed again and again. This part
of working capital is of a fixed or permanent nature. This
requirement is also met from long term funds.
3. To finance growth and expansion of business:
Expansion of business requires investment of a huge amount of
capital permanently or for a long period.

The main sources of long term finance are as follows:

1. Shares:
These are issued to the general public. These may be of two types:
(i) Equity and (ii) Preference. The holders of shares are the owners
of the business.
2. Debentures:
These are also issued to the general public. The holders of
debentures are the creditors of the company.
3. Public Deposits :
General public also like to deposit their savings with a popular
and well established company which can pay interest periodically
and pay-back the deposit when due.
4. Retained earnings:
The company may not distribute the whole of its profits among its
shareholders. It may retain a part of the profits and utilize it as
capital.
5. Term loans from banks:
Many industrial development banks, cooperative banks and
commercial banks grant medium term loans for a period of three
to five years.
6. Loan from financial institutions:
There are many specialised financial institutions established by
the Central and State governments which give long term loans at
reasonable rate of interest. Some of these institutions are:
Industrial Finance Corporation of India ( IFCI), Industrial
Development Bank of India (IDBI), Industrial Credit and Investment
Corporation of India (ICICI), Unit Trust of India ( UTI ), State
Finance Corporations etc. These sources of long term finance will
be discussed in the next lesson.




Sunday 2 October 2011

Normalization Process



I'll refer to the following tables when explaining some concepts
Tbl_Staff_Branch
Tbl_Staff_Branch
Tbl_Staff
Tbl_Staff
Tbl_Branch
Tbl_Branch

What are update Anomalies

The Problems resulting from data redundancy in an un-normalized database table are collectively known as update anomalies. So any database insertion, deletion or modification that leaves the database in an inconsistent state is said to have caused an update anomaly. They are classified as

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What is Functional Dependency? what are the different types of Functional Dependencies?

Functional Dependencies are fundamental to the process of Normalization Functional Dependency describes the relationship between attributes(columns) in a table. 
For example, if A and B are attributes of a table, B is functionally dependent on A, if each value of A is associated with exactly one value of B (so, you can say, 'A functionally determines B').

Functional Dependency diagram
Functional dependency between A and B

Attribute or group of attributes on the left hand side of the arrow of a functional dependency is refered to as 'determinant'
Simple example would be StaffID functionally determines Position in the above tables.

Functional Dependency can be classified as follows:

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What is Database Normalization?

Database Normalization is a step wise formal process that allows us to decompose Database Tables in such a way that both Data Redundancy and Update Anomalies(see above for more info on update anomalies) are minimised. 
It makes use of Functional Dependencies that exist in a table (relation, more formally) and the primary key or Candidate Keys in analysing the tables. 
Three normal forms were initially proposed called First normal Form (1NF), Second normal Form (2NF), and Third normal Form (3NF).
Subsequently R.Boyce and E.F.Codd introduced a stronger definition of 3NF called Boyce-Codd Normal Form(BCNF).
With the exception of 1NF, all these normal forms are based on Functional dependencies among the attributes of a table. Higher normal forms that go beyond BCNF were introduced later such as Fourth Normal Form (4NF) and Fifth Normal Form (5NF). However these later normal forms deal with situations that are very rare.

Normalization diagramNormalization Process