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Learnovate Ecommerce - Finance Intern
Learnovate Ecommerce - Finance Intern
Households are buyers and firms are sellers in the product market. In particular, households buy
the output of goods and services that firms produce.
Households are sellers, and firms are buyers in the factor market. In this market households
provide the inputs that firms use to produce goods and services.
There are several factors that determine the demand for a product. These are:
1. Price of the Product: The price of a product is the most important determinant of market
demand in the long-run and the only determinant in the short-run. As per the law of demand, the
price of a product and its quantity demanded are inversely related, i.e. the quantity demanded
increases when the price falls and decreases when the price rises, other things remaining the
same.
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2. Price of the Related Goods: The market demand for a commodity is also affected by the
changes in the price of the related goods. The related goods may be
the substitute or complementary goods. Two commodities are said to be a substitute for one
another if they satisfy the same want of an individual and the change in the price of one
commodity affects the demand for another in the same direction.
3. Consumer’s Income: The income is the basic determinant of the quantity demanded of a
product as it decides the purchasing power of the consumers. Thus, people with higher disposable
income spend a larger amount of income on consumer goods and services as compared to those
with lower disposable income. Consumer goods and services can be grouped under four
categories: essential goods, inferior goods, normal goods, and prestige or luxury goods. The
relationship between the consumer’s income and these goods is explained below:
Essential Consumer Goods: The essential goods are the basic necessities of the life and are
consumed by all the persons of the society. Such as food grains, salt, cooking oil, clothing,
housing, etc., the demand for such commodities increases with the increase in consumer’s income
but only up to a certain limit, although the total expenditure may increase with respect to the
quality of goods consumed, other things remaining the same.
Inferior Goods: A commodity is deemed to be inferior if its demand decreases with the
increases in the consumer’s income beyond a certain level of income and vice-versa. For
example, Bajra, millet, bidi are the inferior goods.
Normal Goods: The normal goods are those goods whose demand increases with the
increase in the consumer’s income, such as clothing, household furniture, automobiles, etc. It is
to be noted that, demand for the normal goods increases rapidly with the increase in the
consumer’s income but slows down with a further increase in the income.
Luxury Goods: The luxury goods are those goods which add to the prestige and pleasure
of the consumer without enhancing the earnings. For example, jewelry, stone, gem, luxury cars,
etc. The demand for such goods increases with the increase in the consumer’s income.
4. Consumers’ tastes and preferences: Consumer’s Tastes and preferences play a vital role
in determining a demand for a product. Tastes and preferences often depend on the lifestyle,
culture, social customs, hobbies, age and sex of the consumers and the religious sentiments
attached to a commodity. The change in any of these factors results in the change in the
consumer’s tastes and preferences, thereby resulting in either increase or decrease in the demand
for a product.
5. Advertisement Expenditure: Advertisement is done to promote sales of a product. It helps
in stimulating demand for a product in four ways; by informing the prospective consumers about
the availability of a product, by showing its superiority over the competitor’s brand, by
influencing the consumer’s choice against the rival product and by setting new fashion and
changing tastes of the consumers. The effect of advertisement is said to be fruitful if it leads to
the upward shift in the demand curve, i.e. the demand increases with the increase in the
advertisement expenditure, other things remaining constant.
6. Consumers’ Expectations: In the short run, the consumer’s expectation with respect to
the income, future prices of the product and its supply position plays a vital role in determining
the demand for a commodity. If the consumer expects a high rise in the price of the commodity,
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shall purchase it today at a high current price so as to avoid the pinch of the high price in the
future. On the contrary, if the prices are expected to fall in the future the consumer will postpone
their purchase with a view to avail benefits of lower prices in the future, especially in case of
nonessential goods.
Likewise, an expected increase in the income increases the demand for a product and vice-versa.
Also, in the case of scarce goods, if its production is expected to fall short in the future, the
consumer will buy it at current higher prices.
7. Demonstration Effect: Often, the new commodities or new models of an existing product
are bought by the rich people. Some people buy goods due to their genuine need for them or have
excess purchasing power. While some others do so because they want to exhibit their affluence.
Once the commodity is in very much fashion, many households buy them not because they have
a genuine need for them but their neighbors have purchased it. Thus, the purchase made by such
people arises out of feelings as jealousy, equality in society, competition, social inferiority, status
consciousness. The purchases made on the account of these factors results in the demonstration
effect, also called as Bandwagon Effect.
8. Consumer-Credit Facility: The availability of credit to the consumer also determines the
demand for a product. The credit extended by sellers, banks, friends, relatives or from other
sources induces a consumer to buy more than what would have not been possible in the absence
of the credit. Thus, the consumers with more borrowing capacity consumes more than the ones
who borrow less.
9. Population of the Country: The population of the country also determines the total
domestic demand for a product of mass consumption. For a given level of per capita income,
tastes and preferences, price, income, etc., the larger the size of the population the larger the
demand for a product and vice-versa.
10. Distribution of National Income: The national income is one of the basic determinants of
the market demand for a product, such as the higher the national income, the higher the demand
for all the normal goods. Apart from its level, the distribution pattern of the national income also
determines the overall demand for a product. Such as, if the national income is unevenly
distributed, i.e., the majority of the population falls under the low-income groups, then the market
demand for the inferior goods will be more than the other category goods.
2. B) write a detailed note on price output decisions in multi plant firms
When the firm produces the homogeneous product in two different plants each with different
costs, the multi plant monopolist has to decide also how to allocate the profit maximizing output
between two plants. Firm must determine how to distribute production between both plants 1.
Production should be split so that the MC in the plants is the same 2. Output is chosen here
MR=MC. Profit is therefore maximized when MR=MC at each plant. Q1 and C1 is output and
cost of production for Plant 1 –Q2 and C2 is output and cost of production for Plant 2 –QT = Q1
+ Q2 is total output –Profit is then 𝝅 = PQT – C1(Q1) – C2(Q2) Firm should increase output
from each plant until the additional profit from last unit produced at Plant 1 equals 0 In the long
run, a monopoly organisation with a number of plants may increase (or decrease) the number of
its plants with a view to obtain the profit-maximising solution. Now, each plant of the monopolist
may be of a different size, and in the long run the size of each plant is a variable.
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3. A) Elaborate the meaning and various types of cost in detail.
Definition Of Cost
Cost is the monetary value that a company has spent to produce something. The cost denotes the
amount of money that a company spends on the creation or production of goods or services. It
does not include the mark-up for profit. Cost is a measurement in monetary terms of the number
of resources used for the production of goods or rendering services.
Types Of Cost
1. Actual Costs
These are the costs which the firm incurs while producing or acquiring a good or a service. The
actual costs are also known as acquisition cost or outlay costs. The ex-amples of such costs are
material costs, labour costs, rent etc.
2. Opportunity Cost:
Opportunity cost represents the benefits or revenue forgone by pur-suing one course of action
rather than other. This means, when best alternative is adopted, it is obvious that second best
alternative cannot be implemented and its benefits are forgone.
3. Marginal Cost:
Marginal cost is the increase in cost as a result a unit change in output. Marginal cost can also be
defined as, the additional costs incurred when there is a unit change in the existing output of
goods and services.
4. Incremental Costs:
(а) The difference in total costs resulting from a contemplated change in policy.
(b) The addition to costs resulting from a change in the nature and the level of business activity.
5. Sunk Costs:
Sunk costs are the costs that are not altered by a change in quantity and cannot be recovered e.g.,
depreciation. This may also be defined as the cost for which the expen-diture has been incurred
in the past and which will not be affected by the particular decision. These are the parts of the
outlay (actual) costs.
4. B) Discuss meaning of risk. Explain the decision making under risk in detail.
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty
about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such
as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environment), often focusing on negative,
undesirable consequences. Many different definitions have been proposed. The international
standard definition of risk for common understanding in different applications is “effect of
uncertainty on objectives”.
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Decision-Making Under Risk
There are times when you need to make decisions even when you don’t have adequate or credible
information or when the information obtained from different sources doesn’t match up.
This happens when you don’t know for sure how each of the alternatives will pan out and whether
you will be able to achieve the goal by taking a particular decision. However, you have enough
understanding to know how likely each option is to be successful.
It is this likelihood or probability of each of the options that a manager needs to take into account
and apply experience, expertise, and gut feeling to the process of decision-making.
Money markets are the markets for short-term, highly liquid debt securities. Examples of these
include bankers’ acceptances, repos, negotiable certificates of deposit, and Treasury Bills with
maturity of one year or less and often 30 days or less. Money market securities are generally very
safe investments, which return relatively; low interest rate that is most appropriate for temporary
cash storage or short-term time needs.
The major functions of such market instrument are to cater to the short term financial needs of
the economy. Some other functions are as following:
1. It helps in effective implementation of the RBI’s monetary policy.
2. This market helps to maintain demand and supply equilibrium with regard to short-term funds.
3. It also meets the need for short-term fund requirement of the government.
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4. B) Discuss the role of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in monitoring
regulating capital market in India.
SEBI is a regulating body for the capital market in India. It is set up by the government of India
and act as a watchdog for the capital market. It issues guidelines for the functioning of stock
exchanges and aims at reducing all malpractices from the trading world. It avoids all speculative
activities and insider trading from securities trading business.
2. Functions of SEBI
Let us now discuss about the functions performed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
The key functions of SEBI include:
4. Regulating the functioning of Stockbrokers and transfer agents, merchant bankers etc.
5. Registration of Brokers, Investment Advisors and other entities
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SEBI is the regulatory body for the Indian capital markets and has adopted various steps and
functions to ensure smooth and healthy functioning of the capital markets. Let us take a look at
some of them.
• Determination of Premium and Share Prices: As per the latest announcement of SEBI, all listed
Indian companies have been given a free hand in determining their stock prices and premium on
those prices. However, SEBI ensures that the determined pricing and premium is equally
applicable for all without any sort of discrimination.
• Eligibility Criteria for Under Writers: SEBI has fixed the minimum asset limit at 20 lakhs INR
to work as an under writer. Also, SEBI looks after the functioning if under writers as well and
holds the full authority to cancel their registration if any irregularity is found in the purchase of
unsubscribed part of the share issue.
• Abolishing Insider Trading: Insider Trading was one of the biggest loopholes of the Indian
Capital Markets. A recent web series has also portrayed, how insider trading was used for making
huge profits. SEBI introduced the SEBI regulation 1992 which ensures honesty and transparency
in the Capital Markets.
• The control on Mutual Funds: SEBI announced the SEBI Mutual Funds Regulation in 1993
which gave the authority to take over the direct control of all mutual funds of private sector and
government. As per the announcement, any company which floats a mutual fund should
necessarily have net assets worth over INR 5 Crores and should consist a contribution of at least
40% from the promoter.
• Control on FIIs: Foreign Institutional Investors or FIIs, now need to be registered with SEBI
before they step in the Indian Capital Markets. The directives issued by SEBI in this regard state
that every FII who is investing in Indian Capital Markets needs to have a SEBI registration.These
are some of the major directives and decisions which are undertaken by SEBI to ensure smooth
and healthy functioning of the Indian Capital Markets.
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Institution It does not have any It has permanent
institutional existence institution along with a
but have a small secretariat.
secretariat.
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II) Capital Account
A capital account is an account that includes the capital receipts and the payments. It basically
includes assets as well as liabilities of the government. Capital receipts comprise of the loans or
capital that are raised by governments by different means.