Protecting Interest Of The Minority Shareholders

In Asian countries including Bangladesh, the controlling ownership of public listed companies are dominated by some families. The problem of minority exploitation may arise when the ownership is highly concentrated in any specific group, especially family ownership. One of the consequences of this is the expropriation of minority shareholder rights. Apart from family control another limitation of principles of corporate law is the principle of majority rule, sometimes called the â€Å"supremacy of majority† rule.Those who invested more in the company bear a greater risk in the event of a business failure, but simultaneously they have a greater degree of control over the company. There is certainly a risk that the majority will take advantage of the minority and that a company will be run at the expense of the minority shareholders. Any decision of Annual general meeting (AGM) adapted by majority vote and directors are appointed and may be removed from the office at any time by a simple majority at the general meeting.Thus, the directors are motivated to act in the best interests of the majority who appointed them and who may remove them. Minority shareholder rights expropriation occurred when family ownership directed cash to their own benefit, inefficient projects and connected lending to relatives and friends rather than return it in dividends to minority shareholders. Other expropriation can take the form of profit reallocation, assets misuse, transfer pricing, sell below the market price departments or parts of the firm to other firms that major shareholders own, or acquisition of other firms that major shareholders own at a premium.The majority shareholders treats the company as his own, and acts accordingly, to the detriment of the other shareholders, or where there is a breakdown in the relationship of the shareholders or any of their number, which gives rise to questions about the future ownership and control of the Company. On the other hand, wh ere a single or small number of shareholders hold a substantial block of shares in the company, say, in excess of 25% of the voting rights, securing managerial accountability to the shareholders or at least to the controlling shareholders through the traditional governance mechanisms of company law can dominate the company.In some situation, the ‘non-controlling’ shareholders may collectively hold more voting shares than the ‘controlling’ shareholders. However, if the non-controlling shares are widely dispersed, effective control of the company will lie in the hands of the block-holder, even if that block consists of less than 50% of the voting shares. The shareholder providing the majority of the capital may sometimes not control the company.In such a case the majority shareholder is effectively in a minority position with regard to the exercising of controlling rights. The emergence of such a situations are the principal/agent problem between the controll ing shareholders and the non-controlling ‘minority’ shareholders. The corporate management law and policy must have protection of interest of the minority shareholders. The general purpose of minority protection instruments is to prevent the abuse of power by the major shareholders.There is not an easy solution, to the problem, since the principle of majority rule, in company law and other rules of regulators. It is a long established principle of corporate law that the regulators and courts should not intervene in business decisions due to the nonintervention policy or internal management principle. There is no statutory law of anywhere contains a definition of the minority or majority shareholder. The distinguishing factor between the two is the degree of control over the corporation.The number of shares owned is not  decisive, even a shareholder owning a majority of shares may be a minority shareholder, if other shareholders are well organized and, thus, control th e company. The company must follow the principles ‘partnership’ and consultation aims at balancing the interest between major and minor shareholders, and usually do not infringe minorities rights through guaranteeing at least the following minority rights such as respect of opinion of major shareholders toward minorities, the right of minorities to be heard on regard of business matters and exit rights.The limited Liability Companies, which are, in practical terms, run, as if they were a partnership, between the persons who are shareholders of same, might be regarded by the law, as â€Å"quasi partnership†. The OECD principles on Corporate Governance (2004) provide that: Shareholders, including institutional shareholders, should be allowed to consult with each other on issues concerning their basic shareholder rights as defined in the Principles, subject to exceptions to prevent abuse.The protection comes from better legal protection, stronger structure of the in ternal control mechanisms and more efficient capital markets and market for corporate control. One of the methods to ensure the minority rights is to follow good Corporate Governance principles because there exists a relation between the level of protection of minority shareholders and incorporation of good practices of Corporate Governance. The separation of ownership and control in corporations with dispersed ownership structure highlights the agency issue due to conflict between agents (directors) and principals (shareholders).Due to a different agency problem that arises on account of the conflict between dominant and minority shareholders. The minority shareholders can be empowered by ensuring control over the management and board of directors. The board of directors are accountable to the shareholders as a class is to make it easy for the shareholders to convene meetings to consider the removal of directors, evaluate the board’s performance and remove directors of whom they disapprove.The minority shareholders are afforded the remedies if the majority shareholders, violate a personal right of a minority shareholder, then he can file a personal action against the wrongdoers to rectify such a violation of the articles of association of the Company or of the terms of any shareholder agreement etc. With increasing instances of corporate fraud around the world, another remedy is provisions for class action suits. Class action is a law suit brought by one or more individuals on behalf of a large group of people who have the same complaint.In certain circumstances, minority shareholders may bring a common law derivative action, on behalf of the company, against the wrongdoers, who committed a wrong to the company. Wrongdoers can be shareholders and directors of the company, as well as third parties. In order to be able to proceed with a derivative action at common law, the minority shareholders must have legal options to persuade the courts, that the com pany’s decisions by majority shareholders are not to pursue a remedy for the wrong done to the company which amounts to a â€Å"fraud on the minority† .Another Statutory remedy is of petition to winding up of the company on a just and equitable ground. There is hearsay that few sponsors / families are responsible for share scams causing huge loss of small investors. Security exchange commission (SEC) has such views with perceived experiences of two share market debacles and issued a notification on November 22, 2011 imposing conditions that all sponsors / promoters and directors of a listed company shall jointly hold minimum 30% share of paid up capital of the company. Moreover, each director shall hold minimum 2% of the paid up capital.In case of vacancy of anyone holding 5% share shall be entitled to be directors. The publicly listed companies have usually 15 directors and they will hold 75% of the share and voting rights of the company. This means the companies will gradually go under control of few limited persons who have capacity of investment of sufficient amount. SEC has in mind that, mandatory provision of higher shares will prevent such future stock market debacle. But as per investigation report of Mr Khondaker Ibrahim Khaled, accepted by all, there are many organizations including SEC are jointly responsible for disaster in stock market.The public companies are controlled by few families and the directors are ‘elected’ from same family by rotation and under full control of families. They retire due to compulsion of retirements as per law. Small shareholders are awarded a gift pack and nominal dividends in AGM and have no say against the decision of these controlling families. Companies go for public share to generate fund for investments but shall fail to generate fund with higher investments of sponsors and directors.The over investment of sponsors / directors will not bring sufficient share in the market and the market will remain at the present status of low investment. India has totally different legal framework to safeguard interest of small investors. Indian Companies Act 2013 under section -151. A listed company may have one director elected by such small shareholders in such manner and with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed. For the purposes of this section â€Å"small shareholders† means a shareholder holding shares of nominal value of not more than twenty thousand rupees or such other sum as may be prescribed.There is no policy of a designated directorship of choice of minority shareholder nor there do any provision to control, appoint or remove any director. The global law and policy is to protect the rights of minority shareholders but in contrary Bangladesh SEC make legal provision of make the minority shareholder marginalized and have no option to exercise their rights due to majority rule and lose their voice. The decision of higher investment of directors is not g ood for stock market and should be amended to find way out to safeguard interest of minor shareholders from the proven experience of other markets. Protecting interest of the minority Shareholders In Asian countries including Bangladesh, the controlling ownership of public listed companies are dominated by some families. The problem of minority exploitation may arise when the ownership is highly concentrated in any specific group, especially family ownership. One of the consequences of this is the expropriation of minority shareholder rights.Apart from family control another limitation of principles of corporate law is the principle of majority rule, sometimes called the â€Å"supremacy of majority† rule. Those who invested more in the company bear a greater risk in the event of a business failure, but simultaneously they have a greater degree of control over the company. There is certainly a risk that the majority will take advantage of the minority and that a company will be run at the expense of the minority shareholders.Any decision of Annual general meeting (AGM) adapted by majority vote and directors are appointed and may be removed from the office at any time by a simple majority at the general meeting. Thus, the directors are motivated to act in the best interests of the majority who appointed them and who may remove them.Minority shareholder rights expropriation occurred when family ownership directed cash to their own benefit, inefficient projects and connected lending to relatives and friends rather than return it in dividends to minority shareholders. Other expropriation can take the form of profit  reallocation, assets misuse, transfer pricing, sell below the market price departments or parts of the firm to other firms that major shareholders own, or acquisition of other firms that major shareholders own at a premium. The majority shareholders treats the company as his own, and acts accordingly, to the detriment of the other shareholders, or where there is a breakdown in the relationship of the shareholders or any of their number, which gives rise to questions about the future ownership and control of the Company.On the other hand, where a single or small number of shareholders hold a substantial block of shares in the company, say, in excess of 25% of the voting rights, securing managerial accountability to the shareholders or at least to the controlling shareholders through the traditional governance mechanisms of company law can dominate the company. In some situation, the ‘non-controlling’ shareholders may collectively hold more voting shares than the ‘controlling’ shareholders. However, if the non-controlling shares are widely dispersed, effective control of the company will lie in the hands of the block-holder, even if that block consists of less than 50% of the voting shares.The shareholder providing the majority of the capital may sometimes not control the company. In such a case the majority shareholder is effectively in a minority position with regard to the exercising of controlling rights. The emergence of such a situations are the principal/agent problem between the contr olling shareholders and the non-controlling ‘minority’ shareholders.The corporate management law and policy must have protection of interest of the minority shareholders. The general purpose of minority protection instruments is to prevent the abuse of power by the major shareholders. There is not an easy solution, to the problem, since the principle of majority rule, in company law and other rules of regulators. It is a long established principle of corporate law that the regulators and courts should not intervene in business decisions due to the nonintervention policy or internal management principle.There is no statutory law of anywhere contains a definition of the minority or majority shareholder. The distinguishing factor between the two is the degree of control over the corporation. The number of shares owned is not  decisive, even a shareholder owning a majority of shares may be a minority shareholder, if other shareholders are well organized and, thus, control the company.The company must follow the principles ‘partnership’ and consultation aims at balancing the interest between major and minor shareholders, and usually do not infringe minorities rights through guaranteeing at least the following minority rights such as respect of opinion of major shareholders toward minorities, the right of minorities to be heard on regard of business matters and exit rights. The limited Liability Companies, which are, in practical terms, run, as if they were a partnership, between the persons who are shareholders of same, might be regarded by the law, as â€Å"quasi partnership†.The OECD principles on Corporate Governance (2004) provide that: Shareholders, including institutional shareholders, should be allowed to consult with each other on issues concerning their basic shareholder rights as defined in the Principles, subject to exceptions to prevent abuse.The protection comes from better legal protection, stronger structure of the internal control mechanisms and more efficient capital markets and market for corporate control. One of the methods to ensure the minority rights is to follow good Corporate Governance principles because there exists a relation between the level of protection of minority shareholders and incorporation of good practices of Corporate Governance.The separation of ownership and control in corporations with dispersed ownership structure highlights the agency issue due to conflict between agents (directors) and principals (shareholders). Due to a different agency problem that arises on account of the conflict between dominant and minority shareholders. The minority shareholders can be empowered by ensuring control over the management and board of directors. The board of directors are accountable to the shareholders as a class is to make it easy for the shareholders to convene meetings to consider the removal of directors, evaluate the board’s performance and remove directors of who m they  disapprove.The minority shareholders are afforded the remedies if the majority shareholders, violate a personal right of a minority shareholder, then he can file a personal action against the wrongdoers to rectify such a violation of the articles of association of the Company or of the terms of any shareholder agreement etc. With increasing instances of corporate fraud around the world, another remedy is provisions for class action suits. Class action is a law suit brought by one or more individuals on behalf of a large group of people who have the same complaint. In certain circumstances, minority shareholders may bring a common law derivative action, on behalf of the company, against the wrongdoers, who committed a wrong to the company.Wrongdoers can be shareholders and directors of the company, as well as third parties. In order to be able to proceed with a derivative action at common law, the minority shareholders must have legal options to persuade the courts, that th e company’s decisions by majority shareholders are not to pursue a remedy for the wrong done to the company which amounts to a â€Å"fraud on the minority† . Another Statutory remedy is of petition to winding up of the company on a just and equitable ground. There is hearsay that few sponsors / families are responsible for share scams causing huge loss of small investors.Security exchange commission (SEC) has such views with perceived experiences of two share market debacles and issued a notification on November 22, 2011 imposing conditions that all sponsors / promoters and directors of a listed company shall jointly hold minimum 30% share of paid up capital of the company. Moreover, each director shall hold minimum 2% of the paid up capital. In case of vacancy of anyone holding 5% share shall be entitled to be directors. The publicly listed companies have usually 15 directors and they will hold 75% of the share and voting rights of the company.This means the companies will gradually go under control of few limited persons who have capacity of investment of sufficient amount. SEC has in mind that, mandatory provision of higher shares will prevent such future stock market debacle. But as per investigation report of Mr Khondaker Ibrahim Khaled, accepted by all, there are many organizations including SEC are jointly responsible for disaster in stock market.The public companies are controlled by few families and the directors are ‘elected’ from same family by rotation and under full control of families. They retire due to compulsion of retirements as per law. Small shareholders are awarded a gift pack and nominal dividends in AGM and have no say against the decision of these controlling families. Companies go for public share to generate fund for investments but shall fail to generate fund with higher investments of sponsors and directors. The over investment of sponsors / directors will not bring sufficient share in the market and the m arket will remain at the present status of low investment.India has totally different legal framework to safeguard interest of small investors. Indian Companies Act 2013 under section -151. A listed company may have one director elected by such small shareholders in such manner and with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed. For the purposes of this section â€Å"small shareholders† means a shareholder holding shares of nominal value of not more than twenty thousand rupees or such other sum as may be prescribed.There is no policy of a designated directorship of choice of minority shareholder nor there do any provision to control, appoint or remove any director. The global law and policy is to protect the rights of minority shareholders but in contrary Bangladesh SEC make legal provision of make the minority shareholder marginalized and have no option to exercise their rights due to majority rule and lose their voice.The decision of higher investment of directors is n ot good for stock market and should be amended to find way out to safeguard interest of minor shareholders from the proven experience of other markets.

Three Forms Of Financial Market Efficiency Essay

Three Forms Of Financial Market Efficiency - Essay Example Operational Efficiency: One of the main preconditions for attaining allocational efficiency is the operational efficiency. An operationally efficient financial market is the one in which sellers and buyers are able to purchase the products and services at a price which is as low as possible considering the costs of providing the services (Hasenpusch, 2009). In such a market transaction costs as well as the administrative costs are minimized. Furthermore, lenders and borrowers are subjected to maximum convenience at the time of mobilizing the resources (Bhole, 2004). Â  Failure to attain operational efficiency means transaction costs are quite high and as a result number of financial transactions will be lowered. This, in turn, would make the companies delay their investment plans which may make the society worse off. The study on operational efficiency actually inspects whether the financial services that are offered by various organizations are provided without violating criteria r egarding industrial efficiency. In other words, any study on this concept examines the competition among various financial service providers as well as among various financial markets. Furthermore, it also examines the commission fees (Bailey, 2005).Informational Efficiency: ‘Information' has been one of the key aspects of the process of making financial markets efficient. Informational efficiency is referred to the degree to which prices of the assets reflect the information that is available to the investors.

Competition, Monopoly, and Oligopoly & Monopolistic Competitive Market Term Paper

Competition, Monopoly, and Oligopoly & Monopolistic Competitive Market Structure - Term Paper Example The research explained briefly on the perfect competitive market structure and revealed some features of this market structure. It described the way firms maximize profits with the help of diagrams, the researcher revealed the way they maximize profit at the equilibrium point in both short and long run. Lastly, the conclusion summed up the discussion, and the researcher provided some significant areas for further research study. The market is structured depending on varied factors and variation that determine the market structure of a particular firm in an economy. Competition is one of the factors or conditions that determines the structure of a firm. The economists assume that there are many buyers and sellers in the marketplace; hence, they compete favorably for the available products in the market. Therefore, competition in the market contributes to changes of prices for commodities; thus creating a shift in demand and supply curve. Furthermore, there are substitute products in t he marketplace; thus, when one product increases the prices, consumers chose the alternative of consuming substitute products. The buyers and sellers have the ability to influence prices for commodities, and this contributes to increased competition in the market. ... The buyers and sellers may exchange property rights and everyone in the market interacts voluntarily in order to achieve self-interest. The buyers and sellers interact; thus, they signal much information about the product through product prices. Successful sellers reduce prices in order to influence buyers and out-compete their competitor (Mankiw 2011, 36). The sellers can maximize profits in case the price exceeds the products costs. Monopoly A monopoly refers to a market structure whereby only a single producer or buyer for a commodity exists. The monopoly firms are the price makers because they are single sellers in the market. Monopoly is a single business firm and it is characterized by varied features including market restrictions because of high costs and production of homogenous products. The government has powers to control or restrict entries into the market by creating barriers. The barrier to market entry may result because the firm may have exclusive rights of accessing the natural resources. For instance, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company is a monopolistic firm because the government takes control over the resources. The same case applies to Saudi Arabia oil industry because the Saudi government is the sole control of the natural oil reserves. The market also have a patent right that impede other competitors from entering into the market. The monopoly firm is classified into numerous features including perfect monopoly whereby the single seller does not have substitute products. Therefore, there is no perfect competition, but such firms are extremely rare. Another one is imperfect monopoly whereby the single seller does not have close substitute products meaning that the

Nursing Education System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nursing Education System - Assignment Example According to Chen (1996, pp. 129-149), the first collegiate nursing program was started by Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). This was a five-year program established in 1920. The first secondary level nursing school was established in 1930. The PUMC program remained the only tertiary program in Chinese education until 1952 when the communist government restructured the education system to accommodate the higher education system. However, the political upheavals delayed the implementation of the higher education program until 1980s (Xu et al., 2000, p. 208). Nursing education in Poland was established later than in China, i.e. 1911 (Sztembis, 2006, p. 102). However, the development rate of nursing education in Poland was faster compared to that of China. Polish nursing education ceased in 1914 with the rise of the First World War (Sztembis, 2006, p. 102). According to Wolska-Lipiec (1987, p. 42), most of the teachers and graduates of the school joined the military to train the soci ety on the modalities of caring for the wounded and participating in the civil sanitation. Secondary education in nursing was introduced in 1960s, while the university-based programs were introduced in 1980s (Sztembis, 2006, p. 104). Government and Nursing Organizations Influencing Nursing Education: Comparison of Poland and China. Nursing education in China was predominantly influenced by the missionaries (Xu et al, 2000, p. 207). The horizon for the Chinese health care has been expanded by programs such as the WHO collaborating center in Nursing and Midwifery, Heart to Heart and the Project Hope which have been sponsored by the government and other non-governmental organizations (Xu et al, 2000, p. 208). The prominent source of financial support is China’s Medical Board (CMB), which is an offshoot of Rockefeller Foundation (Xu et al., 2000, p. 212). CMB provides resources for faculty training, purchasing the reading materials and capacity building. In Poland, the programs a imed at preparing women for care of patients were funded by the collaboration of the American Red Cross and Rockefeller Foundation (Sztembis, 2006, p. 103). The Polish Nursing Association undertook the process of redesigning nursing through seeking support from the politicians and leaders. The 1990s witnessed the establishment of the Independent Nursing Section in the Ministry of Health which later culminated into the Department of Nursing. The self-governing body of Polish nurses, i.e. Nursing Chambers, acts as the formal representation of the nurses at the national level. Current System of Nursing Education: Comparison of Poland and China The Chinese system requires a candidate to go through the secondary nursing programs; Zhuake programs, which are equivalent to the associate degree programs in the U.S., and Baccalaureate programs for them to be registered nurses (Xu et al., 2000, p. 209). The secondary nursing program acts as a basic academic unit of a nursing school. The second ary nursing programs occur in two forms; the first, which enrolls high school graduates and a second that admits the middle and junior high school graduates. Post secondary nursing program in China has three levels: Baccalaureate, Zhuanke and Graduate (Xu et al., 2000,

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 11

English - Essay Example Undoubtedly, the internet is increasingly one of the irreplaceable means of communication, for instance, it enables individuals to keep in touch and bring different people together, allows arrangement of meetings over the net among others. Truly, the internet has transformed various aspects of our lives over the past few years, and it has also transformed the whole world into a global village. In the contemporary world, life without the internet is impossible and unimaginable because almost every individual in the world depends on it either directly or indirectly. Despite the diversity that the internet creates, the internet does not create a freer and equal world. This paper discusses this claim with reference to culture, politics and the society at large. The internet has positively influenced culture and the spread cultural values, for instance, it play a leading role in promoting a better understanding between cultures and cultural identities to emerge and communicate with each other. It promotes uniformity and homogeneity more than diversity (Porter 2013, p.62). The internet forms a common background for cultural exchange and individuals from diverse cultures are able to interact via the internet and share idea, values as well as their cultural practices. Societal members are able to easily access any information from the internet and learn about anything they desire. In addition, the internet allows cultural exploration, that is, different cultures can easily explore other cultures and understand other cultural perspectives using the internet. Actually, a person can learn about any culture by using search engine to have an access to available information about the desired culture. Before the invention of the internet, individuals used to travel to a particular society in order to learn about their culture or look for a book that has information about that

Evolution of Life in Prisons Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evolution of Life in Prisons - Research Paper Example However, the male and female prisoners were kept in the same area, although housed in different dorms. The women were normally kept in attics and were subject to sexual abuse. Historical studies done by Johnson, Dobrzanska, Palla (2005), show that due to shortcomings of the Congregate System in terms of rehabilitating the prisoners, the format was discontinued in order to try out the Reformatory era of prisons. During this era, men were taught skills and educated in classes which would help them become better citizens upon leaving prison. Military drills were part of their daily training in an effort to create gentlemen out of the convicts. While women were educated in decorum and housework in preparation of what was then deemed to be the proper role of women in society. (p. 6) The 20th century saw the advent of the so called â€Å"Big-House†, a place where the punishment or work assigned to the prisoners did nothing to help redeem their soul or place in society. Instead, it w as a place where men were made to do empty jobs just to show that their spirits had been broken and that they were now submissive to those running the prison. This was the era when â€Å"Chain Gangs† became known as the term for prisoners and they were used mostly in the government construction field. This type of prison became the norm in the 1930's. Any prisoner who found himself out of line was given Corporal Punishment. Although much stricter than a penitentiary, the Big House was seen as more lenient and effective in reforming the prisoners since they had a wider sense of freedom in the Big House set up. (p.9) In the modern times, prisons came to be known as Correctional Institutions and function far differently from their early counterparts. According to Pearson (2009) , modern prisons are actually mini communities that function by their own set of rules and regulations independent of the prison laws. Male and female prisoners now exhibit a distinct lifestyle and values system which helps them adapt to life outside of the world they once knew. (p.2) It was only 30 years ago when the penal system of America came to the realization that the old way of treating prisoners was not effective in any way due to the disconnect between the prisoners, the prison administration, and the outside world. Mark Saunders, the warden of the Southeast Correctional Institution in Ohio wrote (2006), that the modern prison system works with the prisoners in order to help them become educated, trained, and motivated to change their ways. No longer are prisons expected to simply be the holding place for societies problem members. These days, prisons are expected to impact the lives of the male and female prisoners positively. Prisoners need to adjust psychologically to their prison lives. according to psychologist Robert Morgan, PhD (2003), requires the help of prison psychologists to overcome. He explains that â€Å""There's a great need for these folks to receive psych ological services ...†. According to Pearson (2006), they now need to â€Å"learn convict values, roles, attitude, and language in order to survive the prison subculture† (p.4) Prisoners quickly learn that in order to to evolve and survive in their new atomosphere they must abide by the 5 Elements of the Prison Code namely: 1. Don't interfere with the interests of other inmates - don't rat on others 2. Play it cool - do your own time 3. Don't whine - be a man / woman 4. Don't exploit inmates - don't break your word 5.

Behavior and personality development Essay Example for Free

Behavior and personality development Essay A person’s behavior and attitude at any point of time is the resultant effect of all factors acting on the individual. The factors, each contribute in its own way and at varying levels, having a positive effect, a negative effect, a soothening effect or even a precipitating effect. The individual then reacts as a consequence of all combined effects. There are several parameters involved in the development of behavioral patterns including cognitive-social, biological, emotions, gender, person-situation, culture, ethnicity etc. These factors effect differently, for each individual since the level of perception and understanding is varied. It should be noted here that there may be several other factors too that influence behavior patterns, that have not yet been recognized. The cognition-social perception of an individual plays an important role in the building up of the individual’s personality. Although there is a debate of whether cognition gives rise to emotions or emotions give rise to cognition, the resultant reaction has wide social perceptions. The term ‘cognition’ in emotion elicitation includes all simple sensory information processing to very complex processing. The emotion cognition interaction is the study on the integrative aspects of research in emotion, cognition and the interaction between the two. The complex association between emotion and cognition is analyzed using knowledge and methods from the separate fields of research. Emotions are not always associated with facial expressions. Face recognition and object recognition are performed through different functions by different areas within the brain. Several disorders like alexia, prosopagnosia and visual agnosia develop when recognition process is impaired. Social cognition attempts to relate personal-social development with intellectual development. The process of cognitive development occurs through four universal stages of infancy; toddler and early childhood; elementary and early adolescence; and, adolescence and adulthood. The development in each stage is associated with an increased level of thinking. Cognition is an important aspect of behavior development. An individual perceives a situation based on his cognitive inputs and responds appropriately. Thus feelings of sadness, happiness, anger, guilt etc. , are produced as a result of cognition. As for me, I don’t tolerate anyone talking to me in a high pitch or commanding tone. In such cases, I deliberately don’t cooperate, even if the speaker wants to help or oblige me. Gender too plays an important role in social developments. Women have been traditionally expected to perform their domestic family roles as obedient wives and daughters. They were mainly more perceived to be sexual objects in a male dominated society, with primary interests in homemaking and caring, till the end of the century. This indifference in sociology can be mainly attributed to men’s identity as the dominant social player associated with force of character while women are associated with their weaknesses and passive role. The relationship between crime and gender has been immense throughout the long period of offence observation. Men and women have differing offence rates and offence patterns, both as offenders and as victims. The opportunities and capabilities of men and women for crime are different, which is reflected in their crime pattern. The sex of offenders has always been recorded throughout the history of criminal record keeping. Lady police officers and corrections officers are also needed to tune in, to fit into the gendered criminal justice system, although their lives are very different from that of women offenders or victims. Women were allowed to take up positions of police patrol officers and corrections officers only in the 1970s. This too was achieved through several legislative changes and civil rights movements. While positions have been opened for women in the male dominated fields like policing and corrections, women are faced with challenges as to what are appropriate or not appropriate women activities, given their traditional attitude on such activities. The social role of women had been had been largely restricted, although the situation has changed considerably. However gender based perception, attitude and reaction to situations persist. I am particularly careful in my dealings with women, because I find it difficult to convince them compared to men, although they don’t argue or threaten like men. It has been established by biocriminology that heredity and body organ dysfunctions can induce an inclination in social interaction. Modern researches indicate that chromosomal abnormalities, hormonal and brain chemical imbalances, diet, drugs and alcohol are factors that contribute to aggressive and criminal behavior. The hormone ‘testosterone’ in men has been identified as the main cause of aggression and crime committed by most men. Several case studies indicate that certain foods or food constituents induce neuropsychological disorders in the form of allergic or pharmacologic reactions which may even lead to chemical imbalances in the brain, resulting in behavioral disorders. Adoption and twin studies too indicate that genetic influences play a major role in development of criminal behavior. Molecular genetic investigations and epidemiological studies suggest that criminal activity may be genetically linked to mental abnormality. Prenatal disturbances or altered normal fetal development due to maternal smoking in pregnancy period is linked to violent offsprings. Reading deficits are sometimes developed in impulsive aggressive people, which could be attributed to their early school experiences. Here, impulsive and aggressive acts are caused due to inability in discriminating visual information during social situations. Biology is an important determinant of behavior and social response. Although I don’t perceive any behavior type as due to any specific food pattern, I do believe that group behavior or specific instincts of groups has to do with their biological response. Cultural differences and its influence on behavior have been extensively studied by behavioral scientists mainly during the 1940s and the 1960s. Cross-cultural psychology is very important in understanding the psychological framework of inter personal behavior. Interpersonal behavior is a vital aspect of human daily activity and is greatly influenced by culture. In recent times, this relationship between culture and individual behavior is more explored through empirical studies rather than historical or philosophical enquiries. Findings of such studies indicate that culture moulds and defines individual attitude as much as it determines our values, our ways of thinking and our social relationships. Culture is in fact a major criteria in the determination of human behavior. Culture together with the physical environment represent one of the two important external factors that mould human behavior. These factors in combination with internal influential factors of biological and psychological aspects constitute the main determinants of human behavior. Culture is inhibited by both internal and external representations. External representation of culture is seen in institutions of education, politics, religion and economy while it is internally represented through values, worldviews, beliefs etc. All these forces act simultaneously on an individual at any given point of time. Perhaps most of the conflict and confrontation in today’s world may be attributed to cultural differences. Clash of cultures and adherence to rigid cultural beliefs, keeps up tension between communities. A mutual respect and understanding of each others culture and values is essential for the upliftment of any society. I find it difficult to live a normal life where cultural tolerance is not practiced. I personally feel that culture intolerance is a sign of undeveloped cultures. The individual at any point of time is also subject to a given situation. It is this simultaneous interaction of the person and the situation, which ultimately derives the behavior. Therefore, behavior can be described as a person-situation interaction, which is under continuous adjustment. Normal or abnormal behavior is a continuous response to the person-situation forces. The attitude and behavior of mankind is influenced by several factors, which cannot be predicted or explained using any particular theory. These include cognition, biological, behaviorist, cognitive-social, existential-humanistic, person-situation, and gender, cultural and ethnicity. It must also be understood that similar factors cannot influence everyone to the same level. A combination of several such factors may perhaps explain a particular behavior pattern. Although the role of the parameters in the development of the behavior pattern is known, we cannot conclude that all factors contributing to the same have been identified, nor the level of contribution of each factor. Newer research needs to be done on the subject, to determine further influences, given the fact that technology and lifestyle are constantly evolving.