Financial Engineering

Finance, as a field, had always fascinated me right from my

undergraduate college days. I believe my penchant for this field stems from
the fact that Finance runs in my family. My father is a chartered accountant
and my mother is a banker. During my days at Engineering College I used to
go to my father's office and help him manage his portfolio of equities and
other financial instruments. This was the time I learnt the first lesson of
finance from my father i.e. risk and return are proportionate. In 1994 when I
was in the second year the Indian stock market crashed. But fortunately, my
father had a well-diversified portfolio because of which our returns were
protected from the downside risk.

This was when I learnt the second principle of finance from my father
i.e. diversification reduces risk. While I understood these two principles
intuitively, it produced in me a strong urge to learn and understand the
complex theory behind the working of Finance. This, I believe, was a
turning point in my career. I made up my mind to pursue a career in Finance
and hence decided to do a Masters program in Business Administration.
Hence I took admission in Post Graduate Diploma in Business
Administration (PGDBA) at AB Institute of Management Studies (ABIMS),
New Delhi, which is one of the prominent Business schools in India. During
PGDBA, I developed a strong penchant for quantitative-oriented subjects
like Portfolio theory, Derivatives and International Finance.

During the first year of PGDBA I learnt how Derivatives can play an
important role in optimizing a Portfolio's performance and in managing risk.
This exposure left me wanting for more knowledge in the area of Risk
Management. Because of my penchant for the rigor in Derivatives and Risk
Management I took my summer internship at LTCM-securities, one of the
leading investment banks in India. During my project I learnt about various
risks associated with Infrastructure Projects and how they were mitigated
using different risk models and structured finance products. It was at this
time that I realized the importance of mathematics and programming as
invaluable tools in Finance. I had always felt that applying my technical
knowledge to the field of Finance would be highly satisfying.
 In India with the onset of liberalization since 1991 and deregulation of
the interest rates, the Indian corporations and financial institutions are
exposed to various kinds of risks. The Government and the Reserve Bank of
India have initiated appropriate reforms to develop derivatives markets and
financial markets on the whole. This has suddenly increased the demand for
professionals who can not only understand but also develop new financial
instruments to evaluate and hedge the risk. I believe that in order to use
financial engineering pro-actively and dynamically for optimum hedging a
finance professional should be well versed with the mathematics that
underlie the financial theory.

In the future I see myself, as a Finance professional, designing

structured financial products by incorporating cutting edge methodologies
and sophisticated tools in order to cater to the above mentioned
requirements. To achieve this I would like to gain exposure to the latest
practices adopted in the field of Financial Engineering and Risk
Management. To this end I would want to work with a leading investment
bank or in the treasury of a commercial bank, which would enable me to
help corporations manage their risks. I would like to bring this acquired
expertise back to India and use it to help companies thrive in a dynamic
environment.

I believe that my educational background has instilled in me the

qualities required to meet the rigor of this demanding profession. Graduation
in Engineering has provided a strong foundation in Mathematics and
Computer Programming. Mathematics was one subject in which I had
always excelled right from my school days. During the course of my
Engineering education I took up a project with MH Electronics, a firm which
is a vendor of Indian Ocean Research Organisation (IORO). This was
because the project, which I was offered, required extensive use of C
programming language and MATLAB. This project of developing the
software for a video-processing card (Frame Grabber) for the first time gave
me a real world experience of programming. This association helped a lot in
consolidating my programming skills, especially in C-language. Thus, it
inculcated in me problem solving and analytical abilities.
 Thereafter the two-year program in Business Administration has not
only given me a sound and firm grounding in finance but also taught me the
invaluable skills to manage, lead and collaborate effectively with people. It
also developed in me the ability to analyse problems from a business
perspective keeping in mind the constraints and limitations of the real world.
I strongly feel that M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston
University is a highly structured program because it provides the right
balance between theory and practice. The annual workshops at the Centre
for Applied Probability and Computational Optimization Research Centre
would give me ample of opportunities to apply my knowledge to real world
problems.

I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Finance and

Engineering, an insider's experience of an emerging financial market, a
penchant for teamwork and leadership and a zest for challenges. I would like
to take with me in addition to the knowledge of the latest theory and
practices in the field of Financial Engineering, a network of strong and
lasting relationships with my teachers and fellow-students. Measurement of
attitudes toward globalization were sought after in a 2003 worldwide
globalization study. The study focused on teenagers' perceptions towards
globalization and globalism, because soon they will be the adults living out
the results of today's policy. The study examined the thesis of: Teenagers are
natural globalists & Teenagers are afraid of globalization. The sample for
this study included two hundred teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18,
from New York, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, and the Philippines. The locations
were urban. There was a survey administered with input from Gene Ellis, a
professor (Wirtschaftswissenschaft Seminar) at the Eberhard Karls
University of Tuebingen, and global consulting principal, economist, and
former World Bank employee Andrew Mack.

Topics of globalization and globalism were grouped into sub-

categories. Globalization categories included immigration, trade, and
diplomatic relations. Globalism included consumption, personal freedoms,
technology, and culture.The results of the research suggested that both
American teenagers and international teenagers are natural globalists and are
largely in favor of globalization.
 The study suggested that the future of international technology, trade,
and culture will depend on bringing the concepts of globalization and
globalism together. More so, the Internet seems to be one of the most
important tools in linking teenagers globally and this suggests that this sort
of communication should be developed around the world at a faster rate.
Finally, it was suggested that the future of culture and trade will depend on
the rate of technological progress.

Supporters of free trade point out that economic theories of

comparative advantage suggest that free trade leads to a more efficient
allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In
general, this leads to lower prices, more employment and higher
output.Libertarians and other proponents of laissez-faire capitalism say
higher degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy
and capitalism in the developed world are both ends in themselves and also
produce higher levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the
beneficial spread of liberty and capitalism.

Supporters of democratic globalization are sometimes called pro-

globalists. They consider that the first phase of globalization, which was
market-oriented, should be completed by a phase of building global political
institutions representing the will of world citizens. The difference with other
globalists is that they do not define in advance any ideology to orient this
will, which should be left to the free choice of those citizens via a
democratic process[citation needed].

Supporters of globalization argue that the anti-globalization

movement uses anecdotal evidence to support their protectionist view;
whereas worldwide statistics strongly supports globalization:However, some
of these improvements may not be due to globalization, or may be possible
without the current form of globalization or its perceived negative
consequences, to which the self-styled 'global justice movement' objects.
 Some pro-capitalists[citation needed] are also critical of the World
Bank and the IMF, arguing that they are corrupt bureaucracies controlled
and financed by states, not corporations. Many loans have been given to
dictators who never carried out promised reforms, instead leaving the
common people to pay the debts later. They thus see too little capitalism, not
too much. They[citation needed] also note that some of the resistance to
globalization comes from special interest groups with conflicting interests,
like Western world unions. José Bové, one of the leaders of the movement,
also represent French farmers, who are protected from competition from the
developing world by high tariffs and receive very large subsidies from the
European Union.