Testing Card type and number

MasterCard: 5431111111111111
MasterCard: 5399 9999 9999 9999 (ogone)
Amex: 341111111111111
Discover: 6011601160116611
American Express (15 digits) 378282246310005
American Express (15 digits) 371449635398431
American Express Corporate (15 digits) 378734493671000
Diners Club (14 digits) 30569309025904
Diners Club (14 digits) 38520000023237
Discover (16 digits) 6011111111111117
Discover (16 digits) 6011000990139424
JCB (16 digits) 3530111333300000
JCB (16 digits) 3566002020360505
MasterCard (16 digits) 5555555555554444
MasterCard (16 digits) 5105105105105100
Visa (16 digits) 4111111111111111
Visa (16 digits) 4012888888881881
Visa (13 digits) 4222222222222

Card Format

Visa: 13 or 16 numbers starting with 4
MasterCard: 16 numbers starting with 5
Discover:16 numbers starting with 6011
AMEX:15 numbers starting with 34 or 37

Academic presentation at AIM

I have found another easy and free way to integrate file upload, it is called FileManager. So, here is how I integrated file upload in CKEditor.

1. Download FileManger from here http://labs.corefive.com/Projects/FileManager/. Or from here https://github.com/simogeo/Filemanager
2. Follow instruction in readme.md file. of instruction in above link to configure FileManger and connector.
3. Now, all you to do is change config.js (full pate ckeditor/config.js) file of your CKEditor.  Below is sample configuration I kept:

Note: This is a paragraph from “Business Climate in Nepal”, work at AIM.

Since a month, whichever website I visit, I see same banner-ad of DirectI, domain and hosting server selling company. First week, it just displayed banner with hosting and domain information. From second week, it started showing banner with discount offer. I really did not care until a friend told me about Google’s Ad Remarketing. I was surprised, when I know that google was following me since a month asking to buy service of its client. Is not it amazing that Google can follow one person among 2 billion. There are many stories in news that people has been followed by online shoe store, fashion shop and so on. For example New York Times posted stories of a woman who was being followed by online shoe store, Zappo. This is called Ad Re-targeted. In latest days, e-commerce stores, other online merchandise use this technique for push selling (a selling concept). It is the part of behavioral marketing. An Advertiser determines interest/behavior of consumers based on the website he/she visits. For example, if a consumer surf online shoe store and compare price, the advertiser understand that the visitor is interested in buying the shoe. Another way is profiling interest category. An advertiser determines the interest category and places banner-ad on websites that are related to those category. For example, banners of hotel are placed in travel related websites considering ‘travel’ is as an interest category.

Ad Re-targeting is one of the niche practices of online advertising. Online advertising is the form of promotion for delivering marketing messages to attract customers using internet. Basically, it is different delivery media of marketing. Other examples of online advertising includes contextual ads on search engine, results pages, banner ads (non-targeted), Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing. There are companies that offer technology which can deliver Ads in millions of websites. For example, Google, Yahoo, AOL can publish an Ads in hundreds of thousands websites at once. One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. Another benefit is the efficiency of advertiser’s investment. Online advertising allows the customization of advertisements including content and posted websites.

Google provides online adverting service called AdWords. With this service any advertiser can place banner in hundreds of websites across multiple geographic location. In AdWord Google offers Ads Re-target feature which that has been considerably effective. A case study run by Global Digital Marketers , found that retargeted Ad conversion rate is 17%, up from 1.73% non-retarget banner ad. This means 17% customers who come from Re-targeting Add buy service/product whereas 1.73% customers who come from non-retargeting add purchase product. This calculation is done based on those customers who see online banner-ad and visits advertisers’ website, but not physical store.

From 1.73% to 17% is a huge increment. Back in 2004, I ran online advertising campaign (non-retargeted banner ad), for a Nepalese travel agency. Campaign cost for a year was Rs 0.1 million, they have seen 50% growth in travel booking. Yearly revenue reached to Rs. 31 million, where Rs. 15.5 million (50% increment) was the effect of that campaign. ROI is 155x.

Internet is new medium of advertising. It has now been adopted by advertiser in an increasing rate. In 2010, MagnaGlobal estimated online advertising worth of $63 billion, where TV and Print Advertising were $159.5 and $115.1 billion respectively. This figure for 2001 was $96.6, $9.6, $143.3 for TV, Online, Print Advertising respectively. This unprecedented growth indicates changing face of media. Unlike other promotional channel, advertiser can start its campaign with as less as $1 budget. Advertiser can control its daily, monthly budget. When I run a campaign for the travel agency, I had set a daily budget of $1, monthly limit that is not exceeding $100. This is the beauty of online advertising unlike other channels (TV or Print media) where you need to risk huge amount of money. Google, leader of online advertising, covers more than 60% of market share , publish banner-ad in different websites based on semantic analysis. For example, your business provides travel service in Nepal; you have to select keyword that describe your service e.g. ‘Hotel in Nepal’. Google will publish your banner in hundreds of various websites which are travel related. Your banner will be visible to only those people who are searching ‘Hotel in Nepal’. Moreover, Google allows you to control banner so that you can target certain geographic location and certain language speakers.

With introduction of behavioral marketing, Ad re-targeting, advertiser can stay in touch with existing customers, following potential new customer. Wide reach, highly flexible control over budget, effective segmentation, and strategies manipulation based on consumer behavior and interest are key points that marketers can benefit from online advertisement.

Everything has negative aspect; online advertisement cannot be an exception. Individuals are complaining for personal privacy violation by advertisers. Advertisers place banner in web server and tracks user with help of technology called cookies. Cookies are snippet of text, automatically downloaded and saved in internet consumers’ computer. With help of such cookies, advertiser can analyze consumers’ behavior, spot their geographical location, get much more information about computer users’ and computer system. Based on this information, advertisers keep on tracking consumers. Cyber criminals are increasing their activities by sending external application in form of malware and installing in internet users’ computer. Those programs alter computer system setting, works for their indented purpose, and impossible for removal. However technology experts suggest that one can be safe from those kinds of threats. One simply has to stop accepting such cookies and external application to be installed in computer system. Almost all browsers already provide such blocking features.

Internet is the biggest place for promotional activities that have wide coverage, global accessibility, reasonable costing, and control over targeted group/person. It is no doubt, that new advertising platform, has been increasing in multiple folds year by year. Advertisers and marketers have immense opportunities on online advertisement.

Note: This is party of my EMBA work at AIM

Above code is copied from Mukesh’s blog.

Another way to convert currency is:

Above code automatically convert the base currency to current currency.

Uses of social media have brought significant growth in online traffic to company’s website. Social media has played significant role in bringing people in the website. Website is one of the important customer touch point because it is primary entry point of potential customer. My personal blog, not travel related, receives almost 20 percent traffic through Facebook. Travel companies who use social media saw 69 percent traffic growth on their Facebook profile, and 46 percent on Twitterii. Southwest Airlines, American Airlines Company, is the leader in taking benefit of social media. As of 21st July 2011, it has 1.66 million Facebook likes and 1.15 million followers on Twitter. This means Southeast Airlines is always connected with 2.81 million people. Any new product or service the Southeast Airlines announce will be reach to 2.81 million people instantly and easily. The company can keep synchronous communication like hearing feedback, critics and responding back to them through their Facebook and Twitter.

Social media is internet-based application that allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. User generated content can be in different forms including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. In simple term, social media is website that facilitated content creation and exchange. But social media is not just website, it includes wide range essay like chat applications and many mobile based software. According to Kaplan and Haenlein there are six different types of social media: social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), blogs and microblogs (e.g. Bloger, Twitter), collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia, Travelwiki), content communities (e.g. Youtube, Flickr) , virtual game worlds (e.g. Farm Ville), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life). Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, Video Blogging, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms.

The travel industry, by nature, is slower in movement in terms of information flow. It has historically been an industry dominated by a group of “experts” (the travel agents) who controls the information that gets around. However this has been challenged by social media. Gary Arndt , travel blogger, claims that he is one man National Geographic. It is hard to deny his claim. As a fact, he has visited ninety nine countries and writes all his travelling experiences in his blog. More than 100 thousand followers in his Twitter account is a proof that many individuals and travelers relies on his information. Today, behavior of travelers has also been changed significantly. Unlike previous days, now most of travelers read reviews before deciding hotels and travel service booking. Suresh Manandhar told that he and his wife used TripAdvisor to find the hotel. He further explained, “We searched the hotel in TripAdvisor and booked one that is rated by more number of the travelers”. This is how social media is changing the way information is exchanged/shared in travel industry.

Newly entered players have been changing industry drastically. A collaborative project called Wikitravel was found in 2003 and by now it has user generated information of 50 thousand cities. The content in Wikitravel is updated every other minute and is considered to be reliable since it is edited by group of passionate travel writers. Review site called TripAdvisor has 50 million reviews for 500 thousand hotels. Those reviews are posted by individual who have stayed in the hotel. Travelers like Suresh Manandhar take help of TripAdvisor’s reviews to make decision. Among all social networking tools, Facebook has been quite dominant. According to Tripl , 72 percent of social media users access their social networking site while they are travelling. Tripl has conducted a survey among Facebook users to identify how their travel plan has been influenced by Facebook. 52 percent of user said that their friends’ photos inspired their next trip, 46% user has been invited by their friends to join their trip and 45% user said that Facebook made them visit their friends abroad. Airbnb has introduced completely new paradigm in travel industry, which allows booking short term accommodation in private house and apartments, not hotels. With Airbnb service, now travelers actually can stay in house of a local while they are travelling. In July 2011, the company had over 100 thousand listings of private homes, apartment and rooms in 16 thousand cities and 186 countries. Now Airbnb allows booking entire village, which is very innovative call.

Most of online travelers now cite traveler reviews as influential when planning their leisure trips. Knowing how travelers operate in the social web has become a prerequisite for success in the online travel space. A clear understanding of how to measure, manipulate and improve social media performance gives travel companies power to expand the business beyond conventional market. Travel companies need to understand the how the social travel sentiment and the underlying social graph increasingly impact the behavior of online travelers.

Note: This is part of EMBA work at AIM.

9th plan is considered to be most successful in history of development where as 10th Plan is a dismal failure.

What are the reasons behind grand failure of 10th Plan? Among various reasons, Maoist insurgency is one of the main reasons. The civil war begun in 13 February 1996, reached to its peak in 2000, and ended in 2006. The period of 10th plan (2002/07) was in the peak time of the civil war. During the war, government was limited to urban areas and Maoist had dominated most of the rural parts of the country. Due to lack of security of projects side, many hydropower projects couldn’t be executed at that time. With the peace agreement, the Maoist insurgency ended in 2006, and the Interim Plan achieved 78.09% success. If we look at 9th plan, before civil war, it had achieved 89.07% of its target.

Ratna Sansar, hydro-expert, said that main reason of failure of hydropower projects is due to weak financial engineering. One of worst example is Middle Marshyangdi that had 4 years of time overrun and 5 folds cost overrun (from Rs. 10⁹ to Rs. 52⁹). And the most hyped success project is Chilime, which, however also has a 40 month time overrun and Rs. 800 million cost overruns. Historically, hydropower projects have never been completed within estimated time and budget. Some more projects which faced time overrun are showed in table below:

There are numerous reasons behind the failure of financial engineering. At macro level, unstable tax and duties imposed by government is main. Hydropower projects are investment sensitive and requires consistent policies. Under the electricity act, there was a Tax Holiday for15 years, and only 10% tax was applicable from the 16th year. This facility was withdrawn by Income Tax Act 2001 and again reinstated by Finance Act 2009 with some modifications. This kind of unpredictable policy frightened away investors. To be noted, the 10th plan started in 2002, Government changed the tax policy in 2001. For the import of electro-mechanical equipments, the VAT policy was not consistent. It was exempted till 2005/06, and in between it is required to be paid and finally exempted again from 2008/09.

Some economists and hydro experts claim that many potential projects have not been initiated due to lack of domestic capital. This is not true. The truth that is many potential projects have not been initiated due to lack of policy, guidelines and environment. Financial institutions in Nepal have a reserve of Rs. 700 billion. 1/10 of total reserve is sufficient for projects of upto 700WM. As per the official data, Nepal receives Rs. 300 billion remittance per annum. Ten percent of remittance is adequate for a 300MW project. But most of money has been wasted in non-productive sectors like real estates. With the lack of long term clear direction and unambiguous policies, the hydro sector has not been able to attract investment from the private sector.

Lack of efficient generation and distribution are also reason for the electricity power crises. Electricity sector is mainly divided into three sectors – generation, transmission, and distribution. Around 30% of generated electricity is lost during transmission. This is a really a high amount of loss compared with other countries. During dry season many power house generates less amount of electricity than their capacity, which is natural because of reduction in water level. However, there are been criticism that sometimes powerhouses are not generating at optimum level despite of sufficient water flow. A group of engineering students witnessed such a situation at the Marsyangdi Power plant during their visit. The Plant with capacity to generate 69MW was producing only 36 MW due to coordination problem between NEA headquarter.

There are various reasons behind the extreme electricity crisis in the country. Almost all Hydro-Projects were not successful in terms of estimated time and budget. Maoist insurgency, and inconsistent tax/custom regulations remains major reasons for project failures. No proper policy to attract private sectors is main reason for low or no private financing. Therefore, to develop hydro sector in the country a long term consistent holistic approach is required. Financial engineering and project contract should be standardized to ensure that rate of project success will be high. To attract project capital, private-public sector partnership should be encouraged. Last but not least efficient generation and distribution of power is also very important.

————

Note: This writing is part of my EMBA work at AIM.

Constitution Assembly (CA) members have taken sum of Rs. 1.189 billion as wages. It is one among three types of costs – pre-cost, present-cost, and post-cost.

Constitution Assembly (CA) members have taken sum of Rs. 1.189 billion as wages. They have already extended the CA tenure two times, and total 14 months time overrun. Other non-monetary costs cannot be ignored that is much higher than monitory in values. Despite such a huge cost, the CA is inefficient. Main job of the CA members is to write a new constitution, which they had promised citizens. In the period of three years two months, four different prime minister changed and there have approximately been 132 ministers. It is not only proof of inability, but also symptoms of unwillingness to write constitution because they seemed focused on their own interest. Clearly, nation is paying a huge cost in terms of monetary as well as non-monitory values.

Let’s look at pre-cost, cost which is already liability for the CA. The CA has come in existence in higher cost of citizens and it holds important meaning than any other CA. Transitioning political changes is one major responsibility of the CA. When there was civil war, many people were worrying for different things. Some are worried for survival; I was worried about my future in Nepal. Everyday news used to be about classes and death of hundreds people. Three households, who left their home and are living in Kathmandu, are my neighbor. There are lots other from different parts of the country. They left their home because of security and threat for their life. With the same fear, I even didn’t return to village for four years. When I returned village after peace-agreement, their beautiful home was in worse condition, walls were dirty and broken, half-roof fall-down, and yard was damaged. I believe there are lots of similar stories – rural people were leaving for urban areas, and urban people were leaving for abroad. There are, no doubt, lot of stories of youth, who spent many un-slept night thinking about future and career. Many bright young people left country for foreign job or in permanent residency abroad. It had been a big trend in the country and is still happening. These costs which people and country is facing are liability for CA. CA has to create values which can wipe out pain of losses, fear and tension. Only a successful transition of current political scenario and a new constitution can wipe out such tension and losses, but nothing else.

Some costs are unrecoverable. Loss of family members remains highest among them, other are destruction of development infrastructure like bridges and hydropower. Development activities have been stuck for several years. All major development tasks were stopped. Let’s look into scenario of hydropower development. Till 1992, the electricity generating capacity was total 239MW. In ten years period, 1992-2002, additional 261MW added; target was 293Mw. In 8 years period, 2002-2010, only 123MW was added; target was 419MW. Look at development in period of 2002-2010, significantly lower achievement. This was period when civil war was in its high. During period of civil war target achievement is only 29%, where previous record was 89%. Now we can imagine how development has been affected by civil war. We are already eight years behind. But we can not travel back and bring time which is already gone. However, considering such long idle period, CA should come up with constitution immediately and let door open for development.

Another cost to consider is present-cost, monitory and non-monitory both. Total sum of Rs. 1.189 billion is spent as salary and wages to CA members. That is very huge amount for country like Nepal. Each of CA members gets Rs. 51,148 monthly as wages. This covers facilities like accommodations, telephone, transportation and their personal staffing. Chairman and Vice-Chairman have higher overhead expenses. Nation has to pay sum of Rs. 375.5 million as wages every year. Total tenure of CA has been 3 years 2 months as of this day (Today is July 12, 2011). Therefore, total expense of CA is Rs. 1.189 billion till this date. Actual expenses can be more than this because each CA members are paid additional Rs. 200 as allowance for each meeting.

When peace has been restored in the country, there has been lot of expectations. Everyone is speaking slogans of New Nepal. So as new hope rises – hope of getting their left home and better future. Saroj Shrestha, living in Tokyo since 10 years, tells that he wants to come back to Nepal and do his own business. One of my neighbors returned to village. Some people, despite getting permanent residency offer from countries like Canada, UK, and Australia, still thinking to stay in Nepal. People want to forget everything and want fresh start. This is sign of new hope. Hari Sharma, political analyst, told us, “Nepalese political is in transition phase now. Basically transition is swing state. It can go forward or backward. When political situation is in transition, we really cannot predict.” He has asked not to worry about political situation which is in transition. But there is reason to worry. It is uncertain situation and CA members are losing trust of citizens. They are busy on their own problems – problem of making prime minister or to be minister, but not focused on main task. They are not serious about New Nepal, new constitution. Saroj Shrestha worries and further expresses his doubt, “will political situation really be good?’. Sometimes I also fear with current situation. We have every reason to doubt. Doubt and uncertainty is creating bigger cost to Nation. Is not CA responsible for this?

From prospective of a general public, current political situation is in stage between fear and doubt. Before peace agreement, we lived with fear because of civil war. Now, we have lot of doubt about current political and future consequences because CA is not been able to carry out its main responsibility. Consequence of this will cost country a huge sum. We can assume this as post-cost. When peace-agreement happened, people raise their hope. Now, their priority shifted to better life. Everyone dreams about New Nepal, better Nepal and better life. 601 CAs were given mandate to write new constitutions. All of sudden, it was like sunny day after rain and everyone were happy. But then, agency (political parties) problem appeared. CA members are busy on self. Government is unstable and weak, law and order are less effective, top government official are involved in corruptions. Even some of CA members found to be involved in red-passport scandal. It is signal of negativity which is the biggest thing to worry. No one can imagine how corrupt government will be in future. So, who is going to be responsible this consequences? Obliviously, one who is seeding it now. On failure of transiting current political scenario, the nation has to face a huge cost.

CA has three types of cost – pre-cost, present-cost, and post-cost. Pre cost includes losses beard by citizens before peace agreement. Current cost that is required to pay wages for CA members, and other costs are that which could result from doubt, uncertainty etc. Post-cost includes future consequences of government system because of the present carelessness of CA.