Comic Books As History Essay

Comic books have long been regarded as a genre of literature for the immature and the trivial. The graphic representation of a story at first glance provides a lightweight medium to carry a serious message. The utilization of two types of media, the written word and the graphic portrayal, serves as a conflict of messages, a breach in the unity of form. However, in Joseph Witek’s book entitled Comic Books as History, he provides case points and works where comic books have both the authority as well as the authenticity to suitably serve as a medium for portraying history. Who has the right to speak? When does the gap between art and life become so wide that fiction becomes a blasphemous lie? Witken p.38 These are the questions put forth by Author Joseph Witek in chapters 4 &5 of his Comic Books as History. The first, â€Å"who has the right to speak?† denotes an active search for a medium with authority to portray dark parts of history. And few events could be much darker than the Holocaust. The era of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and their atrocities to the Jewish people beg the question of how to portray it. The revulsion of providing aesthetic description to an evil event stems from authors’ reticence in taking another people’s suffering as their own. And yet, if the alternative is silence, then future generations will be unable to see a representation of those dark days. If the silence were to endure, then no condemnation, sympathy, no regret, no emotion whatsoever would be imparted to those unaware.   Therefore, as Witek asserts, the alternative to silence is to speak out with a medium that resonates with both the authority to speak, and the authenticity to do so, which he implies in the second question â€Å"When does the gap between art and life become so wide that fiction becomes a blasphemous lie?†. In Art Spiegelman’s autobiographical comic Maus, the subject of the Holocaust and its survivors was taken up. To Witken, Spiegelman’s work is a credible medium to tackle the holocaust because he has the necessary authority and authenticity to do so.   The authority, Witken claims, comes from a â€Å"personal psychological necessity†. Maus for Spiegelman is a kind of therapy, a way to comprehend his own history, both as a person and as a Jew. The comic becomes a way to breach a gap produced by the Holocaust, a distance between the Jews who experienced, and those who did not. This is evident in the portrayal of the interactions between Art and his Father Vladek, most noticeably in the scene showing making of Maus. The interactions show transference of the pain, the pain of the Holocaust to the father, and as a result, shaping the father to a being that brings emotional pain to the son. In a scene in the Prisoner on the Hell Planet, the story of Spiegelman’s mental anguish as a result of his mother is portrayed. Spiegelman feels that the emotion he feels from his parents is caused by their experiences in the holocaust and yet, he is unable to understand how those experiences shaped their person. Thus, in a way, the Maus was written to provide an understanding of knowledge just present at the back of the minds of the generation of Jews after the Holocaust. A generation, who like Spiegelman, won’t be content with just silence. To successfully portray history, the accuracy of the details is not enough to attain authenticity. The inclusion of every emotion felt, and every though, as well as their representation. And it is in this representation that Spiegelman defends his use of animals instead of people. In order to pass through the authentic message, the use of people would inevitably show a false image, but in using animals, Spiegelman portrayed the emotions as they are, not as people show them to be. This is evident in the dialogue of Art trying to draw his wife. The use of animals is limited to just portraying the themes, bestiality, extermination, but the humanity of each character is still there. Another case point in Witek’s book is the American Splendour series of comics made by Harvey Pekar in collaboration with various artists. This series is hailed by Witek as a comic genre separate from others, as it tries to make the reader experience the life and times of the author. This â€Å"autobiographical’ comic book portrays various events in Harvey Pekar’s life, from the exceptional to the more occurring dull moments. The reader sees what Harvey Pekar experiences in various situations, through various styles and viewpoints. The authority of the comic to tell an existing person’s story is exemplified by American Splendor.   Pekar states his reason for the theme of American Splendor by saying I want to write literature that pushes people into their lives rather than helping them escape from them. Most comic books are vehicles for escapism, which I think is unfortunate. I think the so-called average person often exhibits a great deal of heroism in getting through a normal day, and yet the reading public takes this heroism for granted. They’d rather read about Superman than themselves American Splendor does exactly that. It let’s the readers face the reality of Harvey Pekar’s hum drum existence, and in doing so, makes the readers see the parallelism of it with their own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So what right does Harvey Pekar have to exhibit such unbiased realism in comic book form? His authority, as Witek implies is in his persona. Pekar is a full-time employee, and just a part time comic book creator; in essence, he lives the life that his comic books portray. All the vulgarities, emotions, thoughts and experiences found in the comics are essentially his to share.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Witek focuses on Pekar’s use of various forms and styles within the comic to show the authenticity of the work. American Splendor has no underlying consistent narration or view point. The persona may shift from the Harvey talking, and then to his wife reminiscing, and then coming back to a past event shared by both. This, instead of confusing reality with various viewpoints, lets the reader fully grasp the Harvey Pekar experience. Every detail from every role is portrayed accurately just as the author experienced it, thus we may see strips of stories simply heard by Pekar, as well experiences seen from Pekar’s view point, or the viewpoint of others towards Pekar. This adds a dimension of realism that successfully conveys the feeling of experiencing a day in the life of Harvey Pekar.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The success of the American Splendor series comes from its realism. We see Harvey Pekar as a person, full of foibles, emotion, errors and triumphs. We see and yet we do not judge, for in seeing those things in him, we also recognize that we as persons are guilty of the exact same reactions. Harvey Pekar does not portray himself, but the experience he has in the run of a normal day. Thus, no overtones of glorification or damnation can be evidently found within the text, for Pekar describes it as it is, without thought for shame, pride and ego. He focuses on the situation, making it, not Harvey Pekar, the real protagonist of his comics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Robert Harvey, the comic book is just the sum of its parts. The unity of form that is achieved when the written word and the visual depiction merges makes the comic an ideal medium for expressing mood and tone. To fully utilize the comic as this medium, all of the graphic elements, the page layout, style, the narrative and composition must meld with the written caption. This in effect highlights the authenticity of the comic in bringing across the message of the author.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Using these elements, we can find key scenes in both Maus and American Splendor which serve to support Witek’s argument of the comic as history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On page 83 of chapter 4 of Maus, we see an example of the effect when the caption fits in perfectly with the visual depiction. Due to the nature of the characterization, the visual element depends on the caption to identify which animal is which. The first words of the page set the whole tone, a somber realization. The following scene further reinforces the message, the interplay showing the noticeable distress of Vladek when he comes home and recounts the news. The boxed captions showing Vladek’s thoughts serves to highlight the underlying tone that it could be him hanging on the streets instead of the people he deals with. The final emphasis comes from the use of shaded lines to color the masses witnessing the hanging, giving them an aura of unimportance due to their impotence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     In American Splendor- A Marriage Album, we can see examples that illustrates how the factors mentioned by Harvey colluded to heighten the experience of the reader.The story starts with Pekar seeing his wife Joyce off, then it shifts to a reverie of Herschel/Harvey about the marriage. The scene then shifts to Joyce’s recounting of their then budding relationship, with highlights on the difficulties. Both accounts fuse together in the end, and the final scene shows perfect timing in summarizing the totality of the story, the interplay of how other people see their actions, Joyce’s joy in telling Harvey, and Harvey’s discomfort, which he tries to hide by throwing the box he was loading into the truck.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two stories justify Witek’s premise of comic as history. The Maus focuses on the interplay of Jewish generations and the gap between the Holocaust and post-holocaust jews. American Splendor on the other hand emphasizes the scenes found in real, normal life, showing a reality as experienced by the author, Harvey Pekar. Both the authors of Maus and American Splendor exhibit the authority to tell their story in the comic medium. And in analyzing the different factors they use in telling the story, we see that they have the authenticity to do so as well. References Witek, J. (1990). Comic Books As History (The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar).

Internet activities 5.2 and 6.2 Essay

Exercise 5. 2 1: 1 Based on the website of Ford Motor Company the following is its SWOT analysis. Strengths: The company is a well-recognised name in the automobile business. Since it is a well-established company with premium priced products, the consumer don’t really have to go through its website to confirm of its high quality but to know more about its upgraded features. They know it is one of the best. Its brand name is very strong and that is why the website attracts immediate attention. Weakness: The price of the cars is its weakness, though people believe in its quality, they look out for other alternatives. Since this company spends a lot on manufacturing, distribution, advertising and sales, it has to price it high to make an acceptable profit. The consumers have lots of option today and they turn to products, which fulfil the same need in low price. Opportunities: The increase in purchasing power of the consumers and the growing international market. Threats: Since a lot of companies that promise same benefits and product features at lower prices, the competition has become tougher. So the company needs to pay attention on its opportunities and threats in order to excel in its future marketing strategies and combat its competitors. 2:2 In order to create competitive advantages it should do its positioning in the minds of the consumers in such a way that they start seeing it not as a luxury but a necessity. If a brand achieves the status of a necessity, the consumers might make some comprises in their budget, especially when their purchasing power has increased due to high paid jobs and double income families. Since Ford is recognised internationally, the international market should be explored more vigorously. Exercise 6. 2 1:1 It is evident from the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble that both have different target markets. Amazon caters to more young and techno savvy target audience who are in search of a variety of lifestyle products while Barnes and Noble caters to book lovers. But both cater to a target market that is willing to pay for a good product sitting at the comfort of their homes. The marketing mix of Amazon is a little more complex than that of Barnes and Noble. This can be attributed to different target audience that they cater to. Since Barnes and Noble sells books and related products the different P’s of the marketing mix are positioned accordingly. Whereas the P’s of the marketing mix of Amazon are positioned differently because it sells different kinds of products. There is always a feeling with Barnes and Noble that in case of any problem with the product, a nearby bookstore can be contacted for clarifications. Amazon lacks this touch of comfort. The price of the same product varies in both the websites. It takes more time to understand the marketing mix of Amazon when compared to Barnes and Noble. 2. 2 Both these companies have used their websites to do the positioning of their products in such a way that the product attributes, packaging, shipping information and the time required to get the purchased item is clearly engraved in the consumers minds. They have designed the websites well so that the consumers are able to easily access the product information. The bright colors appeal to the senses and make the search more interesting. Barnes and Noble has indulged in company and product differentiation by focussing on the time of delivery and the author profiles that promises best quality products in lesser time while Amazon has focussed on how fast the products are selling out and what are the hot choices of its consumers in order to influence the prospective buyers. References Arens, W. F. and Bovee, C. L. (5 Ed. ). (1994). Contemporary Advertising. USA: IRWIN.

Questions For Financial Quiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Questions For Financial Quiz - Essay Example The essay "Questions For Financial Quiz" presents a set of questions on a financial theme with the provided information about company's income and balance. One of the tasks in this quiz is to calculate firm’s ROA, ROE, Net Profit Margin, and TIE (Times Interest Earned) ratio for both 1999 and 2000. Also, the following questions are present in this quiz: Some executives, including CEO, are not quite happy with firm’s performance on profitability, especially when they look back last year. However, you believe that the company has improved its profitability during the period. Can you explain why you believe so? Calculate firm’s Current and Quick ratio for both 1999 and 2000. Why do investors want to find out firm’s current and quick ratio before they purchase its stocks? Calculate firm’s Debt ratio for both 1999 and 2000. Use firm’s long-term debt for the calculation. Explain how a firm can save its taxes through depreciation and calculate firm’s EPS and P/E ratio. Some financial analysts argue that Panther Corporation is now highly overvalued in the stock market. They, therefore, recommend selling all the shares if you have any. However, you have a totally different opinion. You believe the stock is greatly undervalued and thus, it may be a good time to buy. Please explain why you believe so? You can assume that Panther Corporation is financially and operationally as good as most of its competitors in the industry. Compute Total Financing Needed. Assume that the plant is operated at full capacity.

Assignment (Microeconomics) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

(Microeconomics) - Assignment Example The fall in the prices of butter could also be due to the changes in the supply and demand as when the prices started to increase, more and more producers will be willing to supply the butter in the market thus driving down the prices and restoring the equilibrium in the market. Another possible explanation of the same can be found in the substitute goods as when the price of butter is increasing, the demand for the substitute product i.e. margarine may also be increasing. However, when the demand for margarine has started to decrease, the price of butter also fell. In perfectly competitive markets there are large number of sellers and buyers selling homogenous products. Further, everyone has the complete information about the market. In such a situation, the economic profit will eventually disappear because when marginal cost equals marginal revenue (equilibrium condition in the perfect markets) the economic profits will be zero. Further, since there are large number of sellers and buyers therefore if one producer charges higher, more sellers will come into the market and drive the profits down and eventually economic profit will disappear. Marginal principle states that profits will be maximized when marginal cost is equal to the marginal revenue. When marginal revenue is higher than the marginal cost, the producer will produce more units of goods and will eventually force the prices to come down to the level of marginal cost. Thus producer will decide the production of any good based on the marginal cost i.e. as long as it is lower than marginal revenue, firm will adjust its production to achieve until both are equal. Since average variable cost is greater than price, firm should shut down its production because it is not even recovering its average variable cost. The accountant’s statement is flawed in the sense that she is equating total

The Role of Nurses in Recovery Efforts after Wildfire Disaster Assignment

The Role of Nurses in Recovery Efforts after Wildfire Disaster - Assignment Example Since Wayne is a member of the community, it will prove easier for him to interact with the people and carry out a positive assessment. The recovery priorities should depend on the needs of the community members, without any bias regarding friends and family members. Victims that Require a Crisis Intervention According to previous research, it is evident that children and adolescents define the most the vulnerable groups that require crisis intervention. Children who face wildfires are likely to exhibit behavioral aspects such as anxiety, fear, nightmares, depression, acting out and guilt. Therefore, they require immediate intervention so that the trauma does not affect their development. Since children do not understand the factors that trigger disasters, they are less likely to cope easily. Whereas adults are able to cope with the disaster in a short while, children and adolescents need expertise intervention and guidance (Maurer & Smith, 2013). Major Health Concerns after the Wild fire A wildfire results in smoker from trees exposing people to particulate matter and different toxins. These contaminants in smoke are likely to cause respiratory diseases. Wayne should identify this as a major health concern. In addition, the contaminants from wildfires may also cause cardiovascular, psychiatric, and ophthalmic complications. Different levels of burns may also pose the risk of organ failure. Victims may face direct or indirect burns, which may affect various organs, compelling them to seek treatment.

Human Resources- Result PartThe relationship between supervisors Essay

Human Resources- Result PartThe relationship between supervisors leadership style and subordinate perceptions of job satisfaction paper - Essay Example is, these hierarchical models will allow us to assess the extent to which regression coefficients vary across the different groups while taking up strength from the full model. A hierarchical regression is used because the independent variables are extremely correlated. When these correlated variables are simultaneously included in the regression model, multi-co linearity comes up. Data presentation was done under different aggregation variables. The variables include age, gender, work experience, position held and the level of education. The data analysis has a constant of 1.065 in column B and a constant standard deviation of 0.411 in model 1, a constant of 0.404 in B column and a constant standard error of 0.353 in model 2. Model 3 has a constant B column of 4.53 and a constant standard error of 0.367. To complete this data, the three sets of data from the models have been evaluated. The evaluation focused on the reliability of information from the variables from the different questionnaires, the representativeness of the population of the dependent variables and the bearing of substantial differences between the models. Communication competence and working hours t-test figure arrived at is zero (0.00). This shows they have a low effect on the employee job satisfaction from the analysis of the data. The first two variables, age and gender, show negative unstandardized coefficients in model 1. The fourth variable, ORG tenure, also has a negative unstandardized coefficient in B column in model 1. Education level has a negative figure in model 2 and 3. The leadership style in model 3 is portrayed as a negative. The negative figures are indicated in the unstandardized and standardized coefficients and the t-test result figure. The negative figure indicates that the variable has an insignificant effect on job satisfaction and stress. From the data collected from different individuals of different ages, education levels, employment nature and different employment

Leading in emergent and changed environment Case Study

Leading in emergent and changed environment - Case Study Example This was facilitated by high demand levels that existed in other counties that were not producers of the dairy products. The amount of exports made by Bega cheese is as much as the sales made in the domestic market. Bega cheese has been able to keep their customers and suppliers updated using national and international media. It has also been able to make a contribution to career development opportunities to a large number of people and has been able to employ more than 1700 people from different regions. The model that is applicable in Bega Cheese Company is Kotter’s eight-step change model. This model is efficient in planning and sustaining any change implementation (Bridgeland and Zahavi, 2009). The eight steps involved in the model are establishment if a sense of urgency, creation of a guiding coalition, development of a change strategy, communication of the change strategy, empowerment of employees for action and generation of short term wins. The next step is consolidation of the gains and production of more change, and anchoring the new changes into the culture of the company (Kaplan, 2012).The first step is identifying the sense of urgency. This is usually a situation in the company that will need to be attended to urgently. In the case of Bega cheese, the urgency might be seen as the situation whereby the suppliers of the dairy products discovered that the marketing for their products was not so successful and they discovered the urgency for chance, which enabled them to focus on forming a cooperative society. Another urgency for change in the company may be observed in the situation whereby Bega cheese discovered the demand for cheese in the other countries and made changes from basically selling to the domestic market to extending to the export market (Sabri et al, 2007). Development of a change strategy is another step in the model that will involve coming up with a strategy for the change that is designed for the company. Designing the

Students must demonstrate the ability to identify, assemble, and Research Paper

Students must demonstrate the ability to identify, assemble, and disseminate extant information relating to a topic in - Research Paper Example 205). Majority of Americans, whether supporters of the Republicans, the Democrats or Independent candidates, have repeatedly put into perspective the religious beliefs, values, and principles of political contenders in the run up to the country’s elections. For instance, religious affiliations of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, George Bush, John F. Kennedy, William Howard, Ronald Reagan, and Barrack Obama among others played significant part in view of their chances to clinch the presidency. While most of these candidates were purportedly Christians going by the official membership, American electorates also considered a number of them Muslims, deists, or even atheists (Newport, p. 205). In essence, religious affiliations always became subject of scrutiny and criticism during political campaigns and had significant impact in the candidate’s ability to articulate his plans and schema for the country and citizens. Controversies that surrounded Mitt Romney ’s religious affiliations played a role in his shocking loss to President Obama. Review of Literature Religious affiliations of political candidates have boosted or narrowed down their chances to clinch the presidency and other political positions in the United States. ... Even political parties have been subject of scrutiny as far as religion is concerned. In essence, most allegations lack substantial proof and attestation. Various scholars have attested to the issue of religious belief and affiliation especially during campaign periods in America. According to Fisher and Koch (2004, p. 62), Roman Catholics emerged as the most preferred religious affiliation by most presidents. However, their book The Entrepreneurial College President, indicate a huge disparity in terms of the chances that a Roman Catholic presidential candidate has to become an effective president of the Unites States. Hence, there is serious underrepresentation of the Roman Catholics by considering the number of effective presidents they ever produced since the country attained its political independence. In their analysis, a meager 24.5 percent indicated preference for a Roman Catholic president (Fisher & Koch, p. 62). The trend is more shocking when one considers the Baptist presi dential representation. Apparently, Americans who subscribe to the Baptist denomination constitute a skimpy 16.3 percent of the entire population. The mainstream Protestant denominations such as the Lutheran, the Methodist, and Presbyterian are surprisingly overrepresented despite their minimal frequency in the entire country’s population. According to Fischer and James, the Presbyterian Church constitutes less than 3 percent (precisely 2.7 percent) yet it enjoys massive representation in the overall presidency outlook (Fisher & Koch, p. 62). However, the study indicated no preference for a Muslim president notwithstanding realism of the religion constituting a significant percentage of the

Choose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Choose - Essay Example Rawls and Nozick have different conceptions of justice and liberty because of their divergences on deserts, government’s role in ensuring justice, and whether justice or liberty is more important than the other. The paper asserts that Rawls has a more superior theory of justice than Nozick because he relates his theory of justice to liberty and rights and justifies the importance of justice to liberty, while Nozick’s framework of justice may improve liberty’s basis for individual rights, but his theory can lead to gross inequalities that can be justified as moral. Rawls says that we do not deserve the talents and natural gifts we are born with and the products we get from them because we are all born with some form of social advantage/disadvantage in one way or another, but such social inequality can be fixed to promote justice. He asserts that people start from biased positions in life that impact their social status, which, in turn, shapes his conception of jus tice. Rawls says that a man is not born equal with another because â€Å"[h]is character depends in large part upon fortunate family and social circumstances for which he can claim no credit† (Rawls 219). People are not born equal if they are born with varying levels of social advantage or disadvantage. ... He argues that people with more social and wealth endowments should sacrifice for the poor to reduce injustice in the world. Rawls underlines the role of the government and institutions in addressing inequality: â€Å"What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts [of injustice through inequality]† (Rawls 218). In particular, Rawls stresses that what is just is to redistribute wealth to benefit the most worst off: â€Å"Those who have been favored by nature†¦may gain from their good fortune only on terms that improve the situation of those who have lost out† (Rawls 218). In other words, Rawls is saying that people do not deserve what they get from their talents and natural gifts, if others in society are worse off than they are, and to correct this, the government must step in to redistribute wealth that can lead to greater equality. To do this is to just, according to Rawls. Nozick disagrees with Rawls and argues for private property ri ghts where we deserve our talents and natural gifts and the products we get from them. Nozick asserts that a particular distribution of goods is just depending on how it came about (110), where people are seen as ends, not means to an end, whatever that end may be. He states: â€Å"An end-state view†¦would express the view that people are ends and not merely means† (104). The paper interprets that, if people are ends, then the state should not see them as means of improving justice. In addition, Nozick offers three kinds of justice to argue that people deserve the talents and natural gifts they have and the products from them. He asserts the first form of justice, where a person who acquires property â€Å"in accordance with the

Leadership "Persuade five or more people to do some note-worthy Essay

Leadership "Persuade five or more people to do some note-worthy activity together for at least two hours that they would not otherwise do without your intervention" - Essay Example Moreover, different external and internal factors call these challenges (Recognizing the Challenges of Leadership, n.d.). The external challenges can be one’s inability to take advantage of the opportunities and inability to resolve conflict situations connected with the lack of financing or the presence of interpersonal problems. The internal challenges can be lack of confidence, impatience or intolerance. Depending on the leadership style, according to Wall Street Journal (n.d.), those democratic, pacesetting, visionary or commanding styles influence leaders in their reaction on such challenges and decisions-making in a completely different manner. Recently I got acquainted with the volunteers at the shelter for homeless people and they told me how great it would be if more people took cared of homeless and could contribute to the collecting of certain things for poor people or those disabled that have no possibility to leave their homes. For that reason, I have decided to organize an informal meeting of my friends, former colleagues, in order to help in the shelter and in particular to gather clothes and food for homeless and poor people. Due to the inability to meet everyone personally and the busy way of life of each of the team member, I have arranged meeting with my friends for further discussion of the problem. We agreed to meet at the same cafà © and I have prepared a short informative speech so everyone would know about the purpose of our further help. Sofia, John, Rachel and Lisa were my former colleagues with the experience of administrative work and dealing with many people, while Ana used to organize different corporate events. Therefore, their professional experience would help volunteering at shelter. However, the idea of helping to collect clothes and then deliver them to the shelter was not welcomed much. My idea of helping people inside shelter was also challenged. Sofia and Rachel were

Affirmative Action Essay Example for Free

Affirmative Action Essay In the past, minority rights such as racial equality were limited due to race and gender discrimination. Minority advocates such as Martin Luther King, Jr. strived for this basic necessity of equality. In Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s speech, â€Å"I Have A Dream,† he states â€Å"I have a dream that my future little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. † His dream of racial equality has become a reality, but only to an extent. The statistics mentioned in any of the research or surveys do not signify the treatment any of the group receives within the society. There are various factors that affect social life of people and there can be other ways to promote ethnic diversity in the society. People receiving benefits of the affirmative actions develop different mind sets. They are perceived differently and some kinds of stereotypes are developed for them. These are some of the negative and identified consequences of the affirmative program. These programs have become more political issue than a solution of social problem. The use of Affirmative Action to promote racial and gender equality have negative consequences in our society. Affirmative Action was expected to be the solution to correct the unfair practices of the past that has continued in the mindsets of people. Affirmative Action is the practice of giving preference to racial minorities, people with disabilities or women in the education or profession. This practice was to bring minority groups and women into institutions and professions that had been dominated by Caucasian males. The use of Affirmative Action has impacted our educational institutions. Proponents of Affirmative Action insist that the use of this practice is advantageous for students. Supporters of Affirmative Action dismiss the negative effects of this initiative. Yet, Affirmative Action in higher education has created problems such as reverse discrimination and social stigmatism in our learning institutions. My family and I moved to the United States fifteen years ago hoping to have a better life. Most Asian parents moved here so their kids can have a better education and better future, my parents were no different. The experience as a minority student has not been bad for me. In fact I enjoyed it to a certain extent, where I had been treated specially. However, sooner I realized the other aspects of being minority. Why does every minority student like to have this treatment? I personally disliked this type of treatment due to various reasons. One of these reasons is that I do not want to be labeled as an Affirmative Action recipient. I think I am capable enough to make through the pharmacy school. I would require funding and would apply for the loans and scholarships. If I ever made it into pharmacy school, I definitely do not want my classmates and professors to think that I used the Affirmative Action policies to get into the program. However in the present scenario, it seems to be impossible. People will think I am one of the recipients even if I am not. In a couple months, I will be applying to pharmacy school and the Affirmative Action practice will present me with a dilemma. This practice will affect my admission process one way or another. It will offer me, a minority student, some form of preferential treatment in getting into it. But I am not sure how this is going to help me to deal with the day to day challenges of my educational life. Will this help me to change the mindsets of my classmates to be that I belong to a minority group? Will this change what they think about my background and how they stereotype me with that? I am proud of myself and my background. I do not want to carry the social stigma of being from minority class there. I want to get recognized by what I am, an individual and my character as Martin Luther King told in his speech. Affirmative Action was created to help all students learn to take different viewpoints into account and to learn to live with people of different races and cultures. However, in my view the purpose of Affirmative Action has been reversed. Instead of promoting minority groups in higher education, Affirmative Action serves as a reverse discrimination tool against male Caucasians. If society can not accept discrimination among minorities, then there is no excuse for discrimination against male Caucasians. Proponents suggest that Affirmative Action has contributed to the increase of diversity in our public higher education. For example, many children come from families whose native language is not English. Language barriers create a stigma for non-English speaking students. Supporters of acknowledge that Affirmative Action helps students overcome difficulties. However, does this practice make college easier to get in? Many colleges and universities base their admissions on the factors of grades and academics. Through the use of Affirmative Action, it is the individual’s background that mostly justifies entrance. Yet, how does a students’ background justify how well he or she is going to succeed? For example, many students apply to medical schools or pharmacy schools which are highly competitive. Factors such as academic affect how a student is going to be admitted. In cases where schools apply methods of Affirmative Action, minority students who are unlikely to be admitted, are accepted. Affirmative Action has also placed a social stigma on students who benefit from Affirmative Action. Many students who benefit from Affirmative Action may be labeled as unintelligent. This can create a form of stereotyping among minorities which Affirmative Action is trying to eliminate. An example of social stigmatism is shown at North Carolina Colleges. Many Black students state that â€Å"they were treated like Affirmative Action cases even if they were not. Professors, seeking to help, asked them if they needed tutoring or other assistance, already assuming the Black students’ lack of qualifications. † In some cases, people’s race does not necessarily determine their beliefs on the issue of Affirmative Action. I am one of them. The use of Affirmative Action has been built on historical precedents. Many proponent of Affirmative Action believe that society should repay back to minorities for what they did in the past. Yet, how much should society give back for the mistakes of the past? I do not believe that we should compensate for the things we did in history. We can not change what happened in the past. Through proper implementation of cultural and diversity awareness, we can stop the new forms of discrimination that is occurring today. People are less likely to discriminate against each other if they have a better understanding of the person. I am one of the prospective recipients of the Affirmative Action benefits. I had developed my viewpoints towards this particular aspect on the basis of my personal experiences and social responses I had received on this particular aspect. I did my own research in order to develop more understanding towards the issue. The objectives of any affirmative programs are as follows: 1. To provide equal opportunity in education and employment 2. To increase ethnic diversity in all levels of society 3. To redress perceived disadvantages of racial, ethnic, physically disabled or other minority classes and gender based discriminations. There are various types of affirmative actions taken across the world in order to encourage or promote the equal treatment to all the diverse classes. In most of the countries the affirmative action programs intend to benefit historically disadvantaged ethnic minorities, women, disable people, veterans, aboriginal people and others. All the affirmative programs have similar objectives. However the major outcomes even after decades of implementing such programs are as follows: 1. None of the program across the world has been able to achieve its objectives in the desired time frame. 2. All the programs had to be extended due to the failure of achieving the desired responses, oppose from the minority groups to terminate the program or raised political interest for the political benefits. 3. The beneficiaries of these programs are majorly from the upper section of the minority groups. Some of the respondents receive the benefits of affirmative programs more than one time in their life. Those people for whom these programs are developed and implemented are left behind and there is no change in their education, social and economic status. Affirmative Action is good in nature but there are still flaws that can be changed. Race should not be the deciding factor if a person gets admitted to a college or university. It has always been the person’s socioeconomic status that has been an obstacle to higher education. For example, when a student of high socioeconomic status is raised in a community where education and teacher quality is high, the probability of the student going to succeed is high. Yet, when a poor student is offered inferior education, it is not because of the student race, it is one’s socioeconomic status is an obstacle. Each student should have the same opportunity to have an equal education, no matter what race one is. Therefore, government agencies should stop focusing on race related issues. They should try to increase the quality of our public schools through proper funding. In doing so, it will allow anyone of any race/gender to succeed in school and life. There are some other ways that can be adopted to ensure social change in the society. A diverse society requires everyone to be treated equally and respectfully. These aspects can not be forced by adopting these measures for prolonged period. These benefits should be interlinked with other aspects of the social life of beneficiary. Those people who really do not have means and measures to afford good education and are eligible for the same should be encouraged and supported. If it is must to have affirmative program, than it should be given once in the lifetime and it should be linked with other aspects of the social life. There should be various opportunities in the social, educational and professional lives of people to interact more with diverse backgrounds of people. Churches, religious organizations, social organizations should be encouraged to promote diversification of the society. People should be given equal opportunity and any case of unfair treatment should be handled with strict legal framework. The consequences of mistreatment to anyone on any ground should be taken seriously. The focus of the policy makers should be to encourage the diverse environments and fair treatment at all the levels of the society without providing special benefits to any group but by promoting the respect and fear of consequences of unfair treatments. Sometimes I get these kinds of comments from the people advocating affirmative actions, ‘When you will face actual situation, you will understand by your own. † I might be very young to understand the dept of these actions, but I do believe that majority of people taking these benefits are not the actual people for whom these policies has been developed. In someway, we are repeating the mistakes of the history. Admissions or professional growth on merit basis provides a positive environment to study and grow, where one will not have the feeling that they have been granted something they do not deserve nor some have the feelings that they could not get the opportunity due to the reservations given to the minority class. Affirmative actions gives preference to one on the same ground they were not given opportunities in the past, their historic background. To a certain extent affirmative action can be justified for the physically challenged people as they have to deal with tough and complex living situations than the normal and healthy person. Being physically challenged does not make them less capable for certain tasks or abnormal but it increases the complexity of their lives. This is due to the fact that everything from the bus terminal or classes in an institution is designed with the view of a physically normal person. There are constant efforts done in order to make the life easier for physically challenged people. Nevertheless these aspects are not applicable to the people receiving benefits on the basis of their race or gender. Racial and gender equality is a basic necessity that millions of people have been fighting for the past decades. Through the use of Affirmative Action, how can we justify this practice if it contradicts what we have been looking for? Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s perception of society is a reality that is changing. If we continue to endorse the use of Affirmative Action, then we will be going back to our unenlightened ideology of race and gender superiority. To conclude I would like to quotes of actor Jon Stewart, â€Å"Heres the point youre looking at affirmative action, and youre looking at marijuana. You legalize marijuana, no need for quotas, because really, whos gonna wanna work? † Affirmative actions are injuring the scholars and capable people of the recipient groups by stereotyping them to be belonging to a class of less capable group receiving benefits. It will institutionalize the demerits of the discrimination on any ground. I do not want myself to be in the same stream. As an individual I want to be treated as I am as a person and on the grounds of my eligibility and capabilities in my social and professional group. My background should be the factor for anyone to decide what kind of treatment I should be given.

Impact of Social Media on Youth and their Relations

Impact of Social Media on Youth and their Relations Introduction In todays modern era, complete with digitization and technological advancements, social media such as online networking sites have been successfully integrated into the everyday lives of almost every individual on the planet. Social media has embedded itself in the foreground of this digitized age and has defined its place by attracting people, both laymen and researchers, due to their increased affordability and reach. Since the introduction of these sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, these online worlds have become so popular among the newer generations that they have been completely integrated as a basic part of their everyday lives. This warrants the need that is commonly seen in todays youth, where checking the notifications or news on online social platforms has become as necessary and integral as buying groceries or going to school. To understand the way in which social networking sites affect personal relationships and offline social life of the youth in todays generation, we first need to understand the core aspect and defining features of social networking sites and online social media in general. According to Ellison Danah (211), social networking sites can be defined as online platforms that help individulas by allowing them to create a profile, which may be public or semi-public. This profile can then be used to construct a list of other users with whom they share some kind of relation or connection. They can further traverse through numerous lists and build their social profile by creating more connections and strengthening their network of interconnected profiles. Social networking sites can also be differentiated on the basis of some subtle nuances that separate one particular site from another. The most basic difference is on the basis of the social culture that a particular site creates among its use rs. Some sites encourage and enable the strengthening of pre-existing connections by empowering people to connect with their loved ones, such as friends and family, on a social platform. Other sites encourage interaction between strangers on the basis of common interests and influences. These sites provide a platform for discussion and sharing of points of similar interests between total strangers. On the other hand, social networking sites also differ on the basis of the audience that the site caters to. Some sites cater to a wid and diverse population of audiences, while others are restricted to individuals belonging to a certain cultural or racial background (Ellison and Danah 210). By listing the basic aspects that make up online social platforms, we can now proceed to analyze the various means by which these sites affect the interpersonal relations of youth in an offline scenario. This area of analysis can be approached by dwelling into the basic reasons due to which the youth join social networking sites in the first place. Areas of Impact Of Social Networking Sites There have been numerous questions which have been raised in terms of the adverse and detrimental effects which social networking sites have on interpersonal relationships of the youth in today’s world. The major question that has been gnawing at the conscience of researchers, scholars and laymen is whether social media is becoming more of a tool for limiting and degrading the lives of the youth instead of just being a public forum or platform of discussion. Some of the areas in which social media has a high degree of impact are enumerated below. Privacy of the Individual Since the advent of the age of social media and social networking sites, there is only a fine line of difference between the public and the private life of an individual. According to Das and Sahoo (223), following the upload of any type of image, video or any other type of information, an individual is not at the liberty to control the distribution and reach of hat particular piece of information. On one hand, the person can fine-tune the privacy settings of his/her profile in order to ensure unwanted exposure, but nevertheless, any piece of information that is shared on social media is shared with an unknown web administrator. In today’s modern era, any aspect of your personal information may be accessible to your employer, teacher, parents, friends, marketing firms and cyber criminals. According to a research conducted by Gross and Acquisti (7), A thorough analysis of the facebook profiles of 4000 students belonging to the Carnegie Mellon University found several loopholes and threats which had stemmed from the result of extensive posting of personal information on the social networking site. The study found that only a meagre 1.2 percent of students made the effort to change the default privacy settings if their online profiles on social networking sites. It has been seen that there is a vast array of personal information, such as first name and last name of the individual, personal image, date of birth, ZIP code etc, which can be easily used for estimating an individual’s social security number and other types of sensitive information such as medical history and so on. This vast reservoir of personal information is now being used as a tool to determine an individual’s eligibility for jobs by several employers. According to Mooney (120), assessment of the facebook profile of one of its potential employees by a consulting company in Chicago led to the revelation of several aspects of the candidate’s personal life, with increasingly noticeable references to marijuana, obsessive sex and misanthropic disposition. This assessment proved to be dear for the candidate as it resulted in complete rejection by the company. Psychological Dependence Due to increased usage of social networking sites and other forms of social media, there are several risks related to dependence and addiction that can arise due to the same. Extensive usage of social networking profiles cosiderably reduces everyday face to face interactions between people and draws people them towards the virtual world of relationships. Due to easy accessibility and the need for instant gratification that becomes inherent in an individual once he/she joins a social networking site, there is very high potential for addiction. The ease and convenience associated with approaching people on nline platforms is something which cannot be replicated in real life interactions between individuals. Due to this , more and more youth are drawn towards the idea of forming virtual relationships on online platforms. According to the The Economic Times, 53 percent of the people in US check their profiles on facebook immediately after getting out of bed. They have been reported sayin g that checking their respective social profiles and news feed on social netwroking sites is one of the most essential ways for them to know the morning news. Further surveys also reveal that about 35 percent of people in the US check their social networking profiles or accounts several times a day. It has been said that the advent of social media and social networking sites has made accessibility much more simpler and convenient in today’s world, making it much easier for people to connect with friends, families and strangers on an online platform, in order to discuss similar interests and several issues that plague the world today. On the other hand, the advent of digitization and the boom of social media prevalence has also become the cause of some of the major instances of social isolation ever recorded in the history of mankind. Due to the ease and convenience that social networking offers in terms of social relationships and the responsibilities associated with it, people are finding it more and more difficult to keep up social relationships in an offline mode of life. Individuals are more attracted towards the life and relationships which are prevalent on social online platforms and prefer to interact on these social networks than on a face to face basis with peopl e in everyday life. This can have several problems for people who may be faced with several anti-social feelings when asked to interact on an offline basis of life. It has been observed repeatedly that electronic media has been detrimental to the aspect of social interactions in everyday life, which has seen a huge fall since the advent of the former. Addiction to Social Networking Sites The phenomenon of addiction to social media and social networking sites is widespread and surpasses boundaries, race, ethnicity and cultural background. This aspect proves the fact that social media has in turn contributed to a large scale social isolation in all parts of the world. The addiction caused due to social media is directly related to the psychological dependence that people feel towards social online platforms. This widespread addiction disorder has been the cause of several discrepancies in terms of social relationships and responsibilities. It has in fact been the cause of a scenario where people are so immersed in their online and virtual social life that they do not have the time and patience to appreciate and introspect on the physical world around them. In certain advanced cases of addiction to social networking sites, chronic users of social networking sites loose all perspective about the physical world around them, making it increasingly difficult for them to pur sue social relationships in an offline scenario on a daily basis. An article in The Economic Times gives several references to the degrees of addiction which people exhibit towards social networking sites. As study found that individuals under the age of 25 were most likely to loose sleep over a particular post or discussion that is facilitated over a social online platform. Other interesting statistics which were garnered by the study include the finding that 17 percent would willingly check their social profiles during acts of sexual intimacy while 63 percent would do so in the toilet. Day to Day Relationships Social media and social networking sites were once thought to be the epitome of unity and integrity. The basic ideals behind social and electronic media was that these easily accessible forms of communication and information were a perfect way in which people around the world could connect to each other on the basis of similar interests and thought processes. Though most of the aforementioned principles and ideals have been implemented to a great extent due to the subsequent rise of social media, there have been several factors related to the same that have been the cause of social isolation and have resulted in the severing of numerous relationships all over the world. A survey was conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), whose major finding revealed that Facebook was one of the major reasons behind one out of five divorces in the US. The survey further accentuated the fact that approximately 80 percent of divorce lawyers use the social networking profiles an d accounts of their clients and the other party in order to gather substantial evidence in case of infidelity. Extensive analysis of personal messages, images and online relationships which a person shares on an online networking site can be used as potential evidence in order to prove infidelity in a case. According to Grohol (1), there was an extensive survey conducted on 308 participants and their social networking profiles. The results of the survey estimated that a majority of the candidates, which amounted to about 74.6 percent of the total candidates present in the survey, were likely to add previous sexual partners or individuals with whom they shared personal and intimate relationships with as friends on social networking sites. This reinforces the fact that social media is being used as a platform to facilitate illicit sexual relationships and has become a sort of online dating portal or platform. This can be further lead to several complications and misunderstanding betwe en married partners if one (or both) of their friend lists contains their previous sexual partner or friend. Conclusion There is a good as well as a bad side to every aspect of our lives. The only thing that matters is how we choose to utilize these aspects and in what way we choose to approach them. Instead of being psychologically dependent on social networking sites and other forms of social media, we can limit our usage of online platforms in order to strengthen social bonds and to connect with people with similar interests and passions. There should be enough awareness among people in order to understand the various effects that psychological dependence on social media can have on interpersonal relationships on an everyday basis. People should strive to appreciate the physical world around them and give as much importance (if not more) to relationships and social responsibilities in an offline and face to face scenario. After all, it is not our Facebook profiles or status that defines us, it is the personality which we exhibit on an everyday basis in the physical world that gives us substance. Works Cited Das, B and J, S. Sahoo. Social Networking Sites- A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life. International Journal of Business and Social Science (2011): 222-228. Ellison, N, B and M, B. Danah. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (2007): 210-230. Grohol, J, M. Facebook reinforces relationship jealousy. 2014. psychcentral.com. Document. 15 August 2014. Gross, R and A. Acquisti. Information revelation and privacy in online social networks (the facebook case). Proceedings of the Acm workshop on privacy in the electronic society (wpes) (2005). Mooney, C. Online Social Networking. Gale Cengage Learning, 2009. The Economic Times. Peoples addiction to networking sites on rise: study. The Economic Times 25 March 2010.

Cost Overrun in Construction Projects

Cost Overrun in Construction Projects Aim The aim of the dissertation is to identify and explore the various causes of cost overrun associated with construction projects. Objectives Identifying the main causes of the cost overrun in the construction projects through literature review. To identify the various measures of cost overrun in construction projects. To examine the affects of the cost overrun by analysing the case of a construction industry. Analysing the information from the literature review and case studies to provide further recommendation and suggestions to overcome the cost overrun effect. Research Methodology To achieve the above aims discussed above it is very important to do extensive research by studying books, journals, articles on internet. Qualitative method is the research method that will be the main research method used incorporating Observations Questionnaire Case studies Present dissertation the author has used two main research methods questionnaire survey, case studies. The author has prepared questionnaire with 18 questions and forwarded to 10 companies. The questionnaire survey provided valuable data that can analyse, useful for outcome of the research. The author has studied different case studies from India to identify various causes for failure of the project. Analysis on the case studies gives the idea of various measures to overcome cost overrun. Introduction Constructions are full of risks and include those that may relate to cost overrun, external commercial factors, design, construction and operation. In any construction projects the three primary factors that is time, cost and quality will be likely to subject to risk and uncertainty. This cost overrun can be minimised by the realistic estimation which can be anticipated from the experience and foresight. Managing project costs accurately and responsively is a challenging task for the design team, construction manager, builders and consultant. Effective cost management is dependent on following a consistent methodology, utilizing appropriate standards, concentrating efforts for maximum effectiveness and utilizing all the tools available. The major problem that arises in construction projects is that projects often overrun their cost estimate. This risk of the overrun of cost estimate occurs even with the projects where carefully constructed bottom up cost estimates completed to a very detailed level. In every construction projects the main problem where cost of the entire project is not getting most likely, is because of the usual way of constructing a project estimate at completion is that adding the estimates for all work breakdown structure components (WBS). By conducting a cost risk analysis provides a more accurate and realistic estimates of project costs. Chapter-2 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definition: The process of project of an infrastructure project when planned is the sponsoring department prepares estimates of time and costs or funds needed to complete the project. The expected date of the completion is also announced. But there will arise some different between the actual date of completion from the expected date. We define â€Å"time overrun† as the time difference between the initially planned i.e. expected dates of completion. Therefore, for each project we can define percentage time overrun as the ratio of time overrun and the implementation phase of the project. The implementation of the project is defined as the duration in which project is completed, i.e. the time between the date of approval of the project and the expected date of completion of the project. Similarly cost overrun is defined as the difference between the actual cost and the expected cost of the project. The actual cost is the cost that can be calculated only at the end of the project and the es timated cost is the estimated when the project is planned. The percentage of cost overrun is defined as the ratio of the cost overrun and the initially anticipated cost of the project (Ram Singh, 2009). According to Lewis and Atherly 1996 a delay may have the direct cost implications in terms of an extended construction period. In other words delay leads to the cost overrun and the extended time will have extra expenses or loses by both parties of the project. When a delay can increase cost and reduce profits then organizations will have more considerations on bottom line (Lewis and Atherly 1996) 2.2 Causes of Construction Cost Overrun The survey conducted by Iyer and Jha (2005), on the factors affecting the cost performance of Indian construction projects, including the extent of adverse climatic and economic conditions; unfavorable project specific attributes; top management support; monitoring; feedback, coordination, conflict and knowledge of the project participants; and reluctance to make timely decisions. Of these, coordination among project participants was found to be the most significant of all factors, having a maximum positive influence on the cost performance. Semple et al. (1994), examined causes of claims, delays and cost overrun on twenty four projects in western Canada. The study identified the following as critical factors that lead to cost overruns are (1) contract variations and extras, (2) disputes, (3) soil and site conditions, and (4) delays. The author stressed the need by the industry practitioners (clients, contractors, professionals) to pay maximum attention to the critical factors in order to minimize cost overrun risks. Chan et al. (1997), examined the principal and common causes of delays which leads to cost overrun in Hong Kong construction projects. The study identified the following factors (1) Poor site management and supervision, (2) unforeseen ground conditions, (3) low speed of decision making by project teams, (4) client-initiated variations and (5)necessary variations of work, as major cause of delay. Flybjerg et.al. (2003), pointed out to cost estimates as highly, systematically and significantly misleading. According to Flybjerg et al. (2004), the causes for the cost overrun in the construction projects is as follows (1) The length of the project in the implementation phase, (2) the size of the project and (3) the type of project ownership. According investigation carried by Assaf et al. (1995), on causes of delay in high rise building construction projects in Saudi Arabia, the most important causes are found to be as follows (1) Inadequate designs, (2) slow work progress on site, (3) late payment for completed works and (5) design changes by owners. Here from the above investigation it is proven that all these factors are caused by the lapses in human input factor. N R Mansfield et al. (1994), investigated and examined the causes of delay and cost overrun in Nigerian projects. The investigation identified the following factors that are attributed to the overrun are finance and payments arrangements, poor or in experience contracting management, material shortages or excess of the materials, inaccurate estimating, and overall price fluctuations The analysis according to Ram Singh (2009), has shown that there has been significant decline in the time and cost since from early 1980s in India. The investigation shows that major causes for the delays and cost overruns observed in India are deficient project planning process, use of inappropriate procurement contracts and faulty contract management. In regards to project type, the bigger projects are much more vulnerable to cost overruns. Ram Singh also stated that several kinds of organisational-cum-institutional failure also affect greatly to time and cost overruns. The studies conducted by Elinwa et al. (2001) on the relative contribution of human personnel parties to the projects time overruns and cost overruns in Nigerian Construction industry states that the contribution of clients, contractors and others were 62%, 32% and 6%. The study stated that on the government or private sector projects the delays were at 89% with irrespective of project size. The study also identified the important factors of cost overrun and time overrun are mode of financing, payment delays for the completed works, improper planning and project time and cost underestimation. Kaming et al. (1997), examined factors influencing constriction delays (time overrun) and cost escalations, in Indonesian cities. They identified project cost underestimation and project complexity as the main causes of project delays and cost overruns. Chan and KumaraSwamy had conducted a survey on the factors causing the delays in Hong Kong construction projects and had classified them into two groups: (1) the role of the parties in the local construction industry (whether client, consultant or contractor) and (2) the type of projects. The result shows that five major causes for the delays and cost overrun were poor site management and supervision, unforeseen ground condition, low speed of decision making involving all project teams, client initiated variations and necessary variation of work. Cost underestimation is the one of the main factors for the cost overrun in construction projects. According to the Flyvbjerg, (2003), the cost underestimation exists across 2 nations and 5 continents and it is global phenomenon. The explanation for the cost underestimation is in four types. Technical Psychological Economic Political Technical Explanation: Most studies in infrastructure projects that compare actual cost at the completion of the project and estimated cost at the initial contract explain as Forecasting Error in technical terms such as imperfect techniques, inadequate data, honest mistakes, inherent problems in predicting the future, lack of experience on the part of forecast, etc,. [Flyvbjerg, 2003]. Psychological Explanation: Psychological explanations attempts to explain biases in forecasts by a bias in the mental makeup of the project promoters and forecasters. Politicians may have a Monument Complex engineers like build things, and local transportation officials sometimes have the mentality of empire builders in building roads, railways and bridges. The most common psychological explanation is probably â€Å"appraisal optimism†. According to this explanation, promoters and forecasters are held to be overly optimistic about the project outcomes in the appraisal phase, when the projects are planned and decided. [coated in Flyvbjerg, 2003]. Political Explanation: Political explanations construe cost underestimation in terms of interests and power (Flyvbjerg, 1998). According to Flyvbjerg, 2003, one of the key questions for political explanations is whether forecasts are intentionally biased to serve the interests of project promoters in getting projects started. Cost estimation cannot be explained by the errors and seems to best explained by strategic misrepresentation i.e., lying. These questions of lying are notoriously hard to answer. For legal, economic, moral and other reasons, if promoters and forecasters have intentionally fabricated a deceptive cost estimate for a project to get it started, they are unlikely to tell the researchers and others that this is the case. Economical Explanation: Economic explanations say that cost underestimation in terms of economic rationality. Flyvbjerg, 2003, in his journal stated that there exist two types of economic explanation. One explains in terms of economic self-interest, the other in terms of public interest. In case of the economic self -interest, during the process of the project it creates the work for the engineers and construction firms, and many stakeholders who are directly or indirectly attached with the project make money. These stakeholders in directly involved in would influence the forecasting process of the project, which in turn influence the outcomes the ways that make it more likely that the project will be built. Stakeholders would likely increase in their revenues and profit by having the cost underestimation and benefits over estimation which would be economically rational for such type of stake holders. In case of the second term public interest, project promoters and forecasters may intensively underestimate cost in order to provide public officials with an incentive to cut costs and thereby to save the publics money. According to this type of explanation, the more cost estimate is the incentive of the wasteful contracts to spend more of the tax payers money. Hence the both types of the economic explanation account well for the systematic underestimation of the costs. Several researchers on the subject of construction cost overruns have come out with significant findings that factors that leads to time overrun (construction delays), will eventually leads to cost overrun. From the above literature it is also found that the size of the construction project is also one of the main reasons which influence the cost overrun. The researchers stated that the main factor leading to delays have been always studied alongside those leading to cost overrun. 2.3 Cost overrun in India Background Cost overrun is becoming common in infrastructure projects. Through the various analyses it is found that the time delay and the cost overrun are the main reasons for the poor project performance. Morris and Hough found 63% of 1778 different types of projects funded by the World Bank between 1974 and 1988, experienced significant cost overrun. kamrul Ahsan and Indra Gunawan, (2008), in studies conducted on the time and cost performances in Asian countries had found out only few projects i.e. 13% are completed within time and budgeted cost. In contrast more projects are time delay and cost over run on an average amount of over spending U.S. $73million, i.e. 22% average planned cost. The case study conducted by the Standish group (2004) for IT projects the has found that the average cost overrun was 43%, 71% of projects were over budget, over time and under scope and the total waste was estimated at U.S. $5 billion per year in U.S.A alone. In-accuracy in cost estimates is also one of t he main factors for the cost overrun in the construction projects. According Flyvbjerg (2002), the under estimation of costs in construction were almost 9 out 10 projects. For randomly selected projects, the likelihood of actual costs being larger than estimated cost is 86%. The likelihood of the actual costs for the construction projects is being lower than or equal to estimated cost is 14%. The actual cost of the projects on average is 28% higher than the estimated cost. The best example for the above case is Suez Canal was constructed at costs three times of the estimated cost with 1,900 percent (Flyvbjerg et al, 2002). The Kakkad hydro -electric projct could be commissioned in time in 1986 itself, 8 years after its construction started. Accounting for general price inflation during this period , thecapital cost of this project by 1986 would be atmost only rs 39.66 crores, savings as much as Rs. 113.86 crores, almost enough to construct 3 more similar plant, or to add to the syst em capacity y another 140 MW at the nominal cost of Kakkad project in Kerala (Kannan and pillai 2001). The ultimate motive in undertaking the project is to make profit. These profits may be measured in different ways and the most familiar profit is money. The goals of the others in making the project may be to make work, to improve living standards, in produce of the products to the others who require it or in scarce, to obtain votes for the political carrier and many others. The ultimate result should be the positive outcome during the construction of the project or in the life of the project. Every project has to undergo several stages starting from the planning of the project, approval, awarding the project to the actual construction and so on. The project life cycle has been divided into three phases they are development phase, construction phase, and operation and maintenance phase. For every project during the development phase the project authority will approves the time and funds needed for the completion of the project. Then after the approval of the project the construction phase will start with the signing of a contract between the sponsoring department and the contractor. Generally the contractor of the project will be selected through the tender or bidding process. For some projects contractor will be for only procurement process. During the construction phase it is very important for the timely completion of the project, so there should be the active cooperation between the sponsoring authority, the contractor and other departments. The project success i.e. wh ether the project can be delivered on time and on cost depends on how well all the activities of the projects, departments of the projects and individuals concerned are coordinated. The failures among the contractor activities will cause delays in the project and cost overruns. For the ease of exposition, it is helpful to divide the set of possible causes in the following subgroups (Ram Sing, 2009). 2.3.1. Technical and Natural Factors: It is a complex problem for the estimation of the time and cost for an infrastructure projects, though the techniques for the estimation have been sophisticated there are many imperfect estimations. The contractors and the authorities of the project will better understand about the materials requirement and the necessary changes in the project as the work on the project starts. For example, during the construction phase of the road project, an unexpectedly poor quality of soil may make the changes in the design and quality of the bitumen, from what was initially planned. Because such changes the project may require extra time as well as funds. But in some cases the sudden changes may turn in favor of the project and the parties may find the excessive funds and time. Similarly natural factors like floods and so on also impact the cost and time and as well as destroy the project assets. The natural factors also make favorable conditions in saving the construction time and cost. However , one would expect the effects of the technical and natural factors to be random without any bias. Also form the above discussions the time delay and cost overrun is expected to come down over the years. Therefore if the decline in the time delay and cost overrun is expected to be statistically significant, we attribute the decline to the technical and natural constraints. Time and cost overrun. Hence, the Design changes, unforeseen geological and weather condition during the construction phase are the major causes of the cost overrun. (Ram Singh, 2009) 2.3.2 The Contractual Failures. As explained earlier the contractor enters the project mostly through bidding in implementation or construction phase by signing the contract with the sponsoring department. Thus for a project to be successful, mostly depends on the implementation of the activities by contractor and the joint and timely efforts of the sponsoring authority and the contractor(s). The actual initial construction or procurement contract is signed between the employer and the contractor is on a particular date. The contract agreement specifies the activities that are performed and delivery of the goods at the project execution by the contractor. In general, contract known as â€Å"complete-contingent-contracts which can ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget. These types of contracts are assumed to give the each and every detail of the activities that are performed by the contractor in each possible case during the construction phase. But in real case scenario, however, this is di fficult to explain the every work which unfolds in construction phase during the initial phase of the contract. Moreover it does not explain the complete every relevant aspect of the project activities. The bounded relationship of the parties along with the technological constraints makes the contract very difficult in specifying the every aspect of the project till last detail, this is because of the nature of different states require different modifications in the assets to be built. This happens commonly for the contracts of the infrastructure projects because of its complex nature of the activities. Therefore the procurement contracts of the infrastructure projects will be incomplete nature. The need for the future works arises once when the contractors starts the work. For example, on a railway project it may be necessary to have more of manned-crossings or railway-over-bridges than were planned initially. These unplanned additional works requires more funds and also in some ca ses it takes more time. Therefore, from the above discussion the contract incompleteness is also a cause of the cost overrun in some cases. This contractual incompleteness increases with the increase in the project size. Bigger the project size the complexity also increases. As the complexity of the project increases it is very difficult to provide the each every detail in the initial contract. However the initial contract should be kept with less incomplete. A proper planning for the technical, materials and the activities aspects of the project can enable the parties involved in the project to make the detail initial contract properly and once the proper detailed initial contract is made the contractor may have the scope to make some allowance for the future works by keeping the initial contract with less incomplete. In contrast, the poor planning may lead to the bad estimation of the time and cost and so will be the initial contract. The process of project planning in India is in famous for its ad-hoc and lackadaisical approach. The detailed project reports and feasibility are prepared for the formality purpose and hence they are sloppy. This leads to the incomplete initial contract for the infrastructure projects. Thus this leads to sever problems for the complex projects, because, a lackadaisical planning will produces only sketchy estimates of time and cost. So, in these cases the initial contracts for the complex projects will inevitably omit many more detailed works of the project, which leads in cost overrun in the construction phase of the project. Neither the contractors nor the officials find these contracts are lack of details. From this the major cause which is leading to cost overrun in India is because of the contractual failures caused by the poor contracting processes and inferior project planning (Ram Singh, 2009). The example for the faulty planning techniques and construction made the cost and time overrun of the project in the Kerala state hydro project in kakkad where the leakage in the tunnel had costs the project extra 15 Lacks to repair the damage.( Kannan and pillai 2001). 2.3.3 Organizational failures: As discussed from the above literature, for the successful completion of the infrastructure i.e. timely and efficient execution the project should have active participation of the all parties involved in the projects and as well as among various ministries. However, the government sector projects are inherently weak in the desired efforts from the people involved in the projects. There will be conflicts at each and every stage of the project with the individual and the social objectives. The wages and rewards given by the government for the working organization are not as effective from the view point as a motivation. Therefore, the government infrastructure projects have to face many sources of failures within the organization. These projects mostly in need of the several other organizations joint effort. In India different departments are responsible for different projects. For example, project implementation of power lines, water lines, sewer lines and environmental clearances and other such activities are performed by the different departments. Execution of the activities is highly dependent on the timely and joint efforts of the department. However the interdependence of efforts is that it will be easy for one department to pass the blame on others. So the infrastructure projects particularly India is vulnerable to these inter-organizational failures. In the project implementation stage as explained earlier several departments were involved in performing there concerned role. After all, the activities like land acquisition, shifting of utilities, etc., are performed by the state government. This says that if the project is span across more than one state, the project has deal with particular department in each state. Therefore the project which is spanning more than one state will have more chances to inter-organizational failures. If these projects are statistically causes the delay in time and cost overrun, then the project which are spanning across mult iple states should experience the cost overrun and time delay. Most construction projects in government sector are Roads, Rail ways and urban development sector. The projects should need permission from the central and state government for the environmental clearance. When compared other sectors, these projects require more active cooperation of the several departments such as land acquisition, shifting of power lines, water lines, sewer lines etc. Hence the projects in these sectors are having more chances of the organizational failure. Thus projects in road, rail ways and urban development sectors will exhibits more time delays and cost overrun (Ram Singh, 2009). Kannan and Pillai 2001, in their studies on the cost and time overrun in Kerala Projects suggested that main cause of the cost overrun is due to the human resource management and labours strike. According to the Auti, et,al. (2008), there has been several changes which should be made to the quality and standards, personal interests, low transparency and corruption . This also suggests that changes should be made in government policy and the way public sector projects are carried out. 2.3.4 Economic Factors: In India the projects are located in some states and the economy of the state also impacts the cost overrun of the projects. That is the states having the good transportation facilities, power and telecommunication infrastructure to easily execute the project. This shows that project with more economic factors like good infrastructure will face less cost overrun and time delays and vice versa. The income level of the state will also affect the project cost and time (Ram Singh, 2009). 2.3.5 Inflation: The inflation is defined as the rate of increase in the price level of the materials than they are in an economy (Adamson, 1996). Thus because of the inflation the materials cost will be increased than they during the initial contract, thus increases the estimated cost of the project. The affect inflation may cause the loss in profit to the contractor and project overrun cost to the project sponsor by the nature of process and the return of the work undertaken during the construction process. For example the kakkad(Kerala, India), hydro electric plant which has the time overrun 13 years as in 1999, when it was finally commissioned, the cost escalation of this project was 725 percent over the above estimates i.e. 8 times more than the actual cost the author says the cost escalation of this project is because of the price inflation(Kannan and pillai 2001 ). 2.3.6 Quality of the materials The low quality materials cause higher construction costs than expected because of lack of standards in the materials. This results in the loss of materials and poor management system (Thungphanich, 1997). 2.3.7. Shortage in materials Shortages in basic materials like sand, cement, stones, iron and brick causes major delay in the construction. The non availability of the machinery at the right of the construction process is also major cause for the delay in the construction. The following table shows that the various sectors which went the time overrun and cost overrun in India. These are the delays and the cost overrun during the years April 1992- September 208 S. No. 2 SECTORS 3 Total no. of projects completed 4 % of projects with Time overrun 5 % Time overrun (as % of implementation phase) 6 % of projects with Cost overrun 7 Cost overrun as a %age of initial cost of all projects 8 % Projects with cost but not time overrun 1 Atomic Energy 11 90.91 84 27.27 84 09 2 Civil Aviation 43 90.70 60 41.86 -01 00 3 Coal 92 60.87 28 22.83 -17 03 4 Finance 1 100.00 303 100.00 133 00 5 Fertilizers 16 62.50 25 25.00 00 13 6 I B 7 100.00 190 42.86 09 00 7 Mines 5 80.00 45 0.00 -26 00 8 Steel 41 80.49 51 19.51 49 05 9 Petrochemicals 3 100.00 74 33.33 14 00 10 Petroleum 119 78.99 33 20.17 -11 03 11 Power 101 62.38 41 47.52 26 05 12 Health and Family Welfare 2 100.00 228 100.00 265 00 13 Railways 120 98.33 83 83.33 84 00 14 Road Transport 147 86.39 47 53.74 08 05 15 Shipping and ports 60 95.00 78 30.00 01 02 16 Telecommunication 60 90.00 109 16.67 -55 00 17 Urban Development 22 100.00 54 40.91 99 00 Total/Overall projects 850 82.35 56 41.06 21 03 Source: Ram Singh, 2009. 2.4. Measures for the cost overrun 2.4.1. Cost Estimates: For any project the most important aspect in order to meet the funds of the project is the cost estimation. Small misleading in the cost estimation will lead to the project cost overrun or under run. Kerzer (2006) have explained about the factors which are affecting the process of the estimation and which results in the faulty estimation for the construction. The factors such as Misinterpretation of statement of the works, Omission or improperly defined scope, poorly defined or overly optimistic schedule, inaccurate work break down structure, applying improper skill levels to tasks, failure to account of risks, failure to understand or account for cost escalation and inflation, failure to use correct estimating technique. The important aspect to be considered is that many of the above factors which are affecting the cost estimation of the construction cannot be found until and unless the cost control system is implemented within the project. Kerzer (2006) also explained various types of measures in estimating and their accuracy in the cost overrun, they are as follows. (1) Order -of-magnitude estimates: There is no necessary of any engineering data for these types of estimates. Hence they are prepared without any engineering data and mostly they are based on the past experience. The accuracy Cost Overrun in Construction Projects Cost Overrun in Construction Projects Aim The aim of the dissertation is to identify and explore the various causes of cost overrun associated with construction projects. Objectives Identifying the main causes of the cost overrun in the construction projects through literature review. To identify the various measures of cost overrun in construction projects. To examine the affects of the cost overrun by analysing the case of a construction industry. Analysing the information from the literature review and case studies to provide further recommendation and suggestions to overcome the cost overrun effect. Research Methodology To achieve the above aims discussed above it is very important to do extensive research by studying books, journals, articles on internet. Qualitative method is the research method that will be the main research method used incorporating Observations Questionnaire Case studies Present dissertation the author has used two main research methods questionnaire survey, case studies. The author has prepared questionnaire with 18 questions and forwarded to 10 companies. The questionnaire survey provided valuable data that can analyse, useful for outcome of the research. The author has studied different case studies from India to identify various causes for failure of the project. Analysis on the case studies gives the idea of various measures to overcome cost overrun. Introduction Constructions are full of risks and include those that may relate to cost overrun, external commercial factors, design, construction and operation. In any construction projects the three primary factors that is time, cost and quality will be likely to subject to risk and uncertainty. This cost overrun can be minimised by the realistic estimation which can be anticipated from the experience and foresight. Managing project costs accurately and responsively is a challenging task for the design team, construction manager, builders and consultant. Effective cost management is dependent on following a consistent methodology, utilizing appropriate standards, concentrating efforts for maximum effectiveness and utilizing all the tools available. The major problem that arises in construction projects is that projects often overrun their cost estimate. This risk of the overrun of cost estimate occurs even with the projects where carefully constructed bottom up cost estimates completed to a very detailed level. In every construction projects the main problem where cost of the entire project is not getting most likely, is because of the usual way of constructing a project estimate at completion is that adding the estimates for all work breakdown structure components (WBS). By conducting a cost risk analysis provides a more accurate and realistic estimates of project costs. Chapter-2 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definition: The process of project of an infrastructure project when planned is the sponsoring department prepares estimates of time and costs or funds needed to complete the project. The expected date of the completion is also announced. But there will arise some different between the actual date of completion from the expected date. We define â€Å"time overrun† as the time difference between the initially planned i.e. expected dates of completion. Therefore, for each project we can define percentage time overrun as the ratio of time overrun and the implementation phase of the project. The implementation of the project is defined as the duration in which project is completed, i.e. the time between the date of approval of the project and the expected date of completion of the project. Similarly cost overrun is defined as the difference between the actual cost and the expected cost of the project. The actual cost is the cost that can be calculated only at the end of the project and the es timated cost is the estimated when the project is planned. The percentage of cost overrun is defined as the ratio of the cost overrun and the initially anticipated cost of the project (Ram Singh, 2009). According to Lewis and Atherly 1996 a delay may have the direct cost implications in terms of an extended construction period. In other words delay leads to the cost overrun and the extended time will have extra expenses or loses by both parties of the project. When a delay can increase cost and reduce profits then organizations will have more considerations on bottom line (Lewis and Atherly 1996) 2.2 Causes of Construction Cost Overrun The survey conducted by Iyer and Jha (2005), on the factors affecting the cost performance of Indian construction projects, including the extent of adverse climatic and economic conditions; unfavorable project specific attributes; top management support; monitoring; feedback, coordination, conflict and knowledge of the project participants; and reluctance to make timely decisions. Of these, coordination among project participants was found to be the most significant of all factors, having a maximum positive influence on the cost performance. Semple et al. (1994), examined causes of claims, delays and cost overrun on twenty four projects in western Canada. The study identified the following as critical factors that lead to cost overruns are (1) contract variations and extras, (2) disputes, (3) soil and site conditions, and (4) delays. The author stressed the need by the industry practitioners (clients, contractors, professionals) to pay maximum attention to the critical factors in order to minimize cost overrun risks. Chan et al. (1997), examined the principal and common causes of delays which leads to cost overrun in Hong Kong construction projects. The study identified the following factors (1) Poor site management and supervision, (2) unforeseen ground conditions, (3) low speed of decision making by project teams, (4) client-initiated variations and (5)necessary variations of work, as major cause of delay. Flybjerg et.al. (2003), pointed out to cost estimates as highly, systematically and significantly misleading. According to Flybjerg et al. (2004), the causes for the cost overrun in the construction projects is as follows (1) The length of the project in the implementation phase, (2) the size of the project and (3) the type of project ownership. According investigation carried by Assaf et al. (1995), on causes of delay in high rise building construction projects in Saudi Arabia, the most important causes are found to be as follows (1) Inadequate designs, (2) slow work progress on site, (3) late payment for completed works and (5) design changes by owners. Here from the above investigation it is proven that all these factors are caused by the lapses in human input factor. N R Mansfield et al. (1994), investigated and examined the causes of delay and cost overrun in Nigerian projects. The investigation identified the following factors that are attributed to the overrun are finance and payments arrangements, poor or in experience contracting management, material shortages or excess of the materials, inaccurate estimating, and overall price fluctuations The analysis according to Ram Singh (2009), has shown that there has been significant decline in the time and cost since from early 1980s in India. The investigation shows that major causes for the delays and cost overruns observed in India are deficient project planning process, use of inappropriate procurement contracts and faulty contract management. In regards to project type, the bigger projects are much more vulnerable to cost overruns. Ram Singh also stated that several kinds of organisational-cum-institutional failure also affect greatly to time and cost overruns. The studies conducted by Elinwa et al. (2001) on the relative contribution of human personnel parties to the projects time overruns and cost overruns in Nigerian Construction industry states that the contribution of clients, contractors and others were 62%, 32% and 6%. The study stated that on the government or private sector projects the delays were at 89% with irrespective of project size. The study also identified the important factors of cost overrun and time overrun are mode of financing, payment delays for the completed works, improper planning and project time and cost underestimation. Kaming et al. (1997), examined factors influencing constriction delays (time overrun) and cost escalations, in Indonesian cities. They identified project cost underestimation and project complexity as the main causes of project delays and cost overruns. Chan and KumaraSwamy had conducted a survey on the factors causing the delays in Hong Kong construction projects and had classified them into two groups: (1) the role of the parties in the local construction industry (whether client, consultant or contractor) and (2) the type of projects. The result shows that five major causes for the delays and cost overrun were poor site management and supervision, unforeseen ground condition, low speed of decision making involving all project teams, client initiated variations and necessary variation of work. Cost underestimation is the one of the main factors for the cost overrun in construction projects. According to the Flyvbjerg, (2003), the cost underestimation exists across 2 nations and 5 continents and it is global phenomenon. The explanation for the cost underestimation is in four types. Technical Psychological Economic Political Technical Explanation: Most studies in infrastructure projects that compare actual cost at the completion of the project and estimated cost at the initial contract explain as Forecasting Error in technical terms such as imperfect techniques, inadequate data, honest mistakes, inherent problems in predicting the future, lack of experience on the part of forecast, etc,. [Flyvbjerg, 2003]. Psychological Explanation: Psychological explanations attempts to explain biases in forecasts by a bias in the mental makeup of the project promoters and forecasters. Politicians may have a Monument Complex engineers like build things, and local transportation officials sometimes have the mentality of empire builders in building roads, railways and bridges. The most common psychological explanation is probably â€Å"appraisal optimism†. According to this explanation, promoters and forecasters are held to be overly optimistic about the project outcomes in the appraisal phase, when the projects are planned and decided. [coated in Flyvbjerg, 2003]. Political Explanation: Political explanations construe cost underestimation in terms of interests and power (Flyvbjerg, 1998). According to Flyvbjerg, 2003, one of the key questions for political explanations is whether forecasts are intentionally biased to serve the interests of project promoters in getting projects started. Cost estimation cannot be explained by the errors and seems to best explained by strategic misrepresentation i.e., lying. These questions of lying are notoriously hard to answer. For legal, economic, moral and other reasons, if promoters and forecasters have intentionally fabricated a deceptive cost estimate for a project to get it started, they are unlikely to tell the researchers and others that this is the case. Economical Explanation: Economic explanations say that cost underestimation in terms of economic rationality. Flyvbjerg, 2003, in his journal stated that there exist two types of economic explanation. One explains in terms of economic self-interest, the other in terms of public interest. In case of the economic self -interest, during the process of the project it creates the work for the engineers and construction firms, and many stakeholders who are directly or indirectly attached with the project make money. These stakeholders in directly involved in would influence the forecasting process of the project, which in turn influence the outcomes the ways that make it more likely that the project will be built. Stakeholders would likely increase in their revenues and profit by having the cost underestimation and benefits over estimation which would be economically rational for such type of stake holders. In case of the second term public interest, project promoters and forecasters may intensively underestimate cost in order to provide public officials with an incentive to cut costs and thereby to save the publics money. According to this type of explanation, the more cost estimate is the incentive of the wasteful contracts to spend more of the tax payers money. Hence the both types of the economic explanation account well for the systematic underestimation of the costs. Several researchers on the subject of construction cost overruns have come out with significant findings that factors that leads to time overrun (construction delays), will eventually leads to cost overrun. From the above literature it is also found that the size of the construction project is also one of the main reasons which influence the cost overrun. The researchers stated that the main factor leading to delays have been always studied alongside those leading to cost overrun. 2.3 Cost overrun in India Background Cost overrun is becoming common in infrastructure projects. Through the various analyses it is found that the time delay and the cost overrun are the main reasons for the poor project performance. Morris and Hough found 63% of 1778 different types of projects funded by the World Bank between 1974 and 1988, experienced significant cost overrun. kamrul Ahsan and Indra Gunawan, (2008), in studies conducted on the time and cost performances in Asian countries had found out only few projects i.e. 13% are completed within time and budgeted cost. In contrast more projects are time delay and cost over run on an average amount of over spending U.S. $73million, i.e. 22% average planned cost. The case study conducted by the Standish group (2004) for IT projects the has found that the average cost overrun was 43%, 71% of projects were over budget, over time and under scope and the total waste was estimated at U.S. $5 billion per year in U.S.A alone. In-accuracy in cost estimates is also one of t he main factors for the cost overrun in the construction projects. According Flyvbjerg (2002), the under estimation of costs in construction were almost 9 out 10 projects. For randomly selected projects, the likelihood of actual costs being larger than estimated cost is 86%. The likelihood of the actual costs for the construction projects is being lower than or equal to estimated cost is 14%. The actual cost of the projects on average is 28% higher than the estimated cost. The best example for the above case is Suez Canal was constructed at costs three times of the estimated cost with 1,900 percent (Flyvbjerg et al, 2002). The Kakkad hydro -electric projct could be commissioned in time in 1986 itself, 8 years after its construction started. Accounting for general price inflation during this period , thecapital cost of this project by 1986 would be atmost only rs 39.66 crores, savings as much as Rs. 113.86 crores, almost enough to construct 3 more similar plant, or to add to the syst em capacity y another 140 MW at the nominal cost of Kakkad project in Kerala (Kannan and pillai 2001). The ultimate motive in undertaking the project is to make profit. These profits may be measured in different ways and the most familiar profit is money. The goals of the others in making the project may be to make work, to improve living standards, in produce of the products to the others who require it or in scarce, to obtain votes for the political carrier and many others. The ultimate result should be the positive outcome during the construction of the project or in the life of the project. Every project has to undergo several stages starting from the planning of the project, approval, awarding the project to the actual construction and so on. The project life cycle has been divided into three phases they are development phase, construction phase, and operation and maintenance phase. For every project during the development phase the project authority will approves the time and funds needed for the completion of the project. Then after the approval of the project the construction phase will start with the signing of a contract between the sponsoring department and the contractor. Generally the contractor of the project will be selected through the tender or bidding process. For some projects contractor will be for only procurement process. During the construction phase it is very important for the timely completion of the project, so there should be the active cooperation between the sponsoring authority, the contractor and other departments. The project success i.e. wh ether the project can be delivered on time and on cost depends on how well all the activities of the projects, departments of the projects and individuals concerned are coordinated. The failures among the contractor activities will cause delays in the project and cost overruns. For the ease of exposition, it is helpful to divide the set of possible causes in the following subgroups (Ram Sing, 2009). 2.3.1. Technical and Natural Factors: It is a complex problem for the estimation of the time and cost for an infrastructure projects, though the techniques for the estimation have been sophisticated there are many imperfect estimations. The contractors and the authorities of the project will better understand about the materials requirement and the necessary changes in the project as the work on the project starts. For example, during the construction phase of the road project, an unexpectedly poor quality of soil may make the changes in the design and quality of the bitumen, from what was initially planned. Because such changes the project may require extra time as well as funds. But in some cases the sudden changes may turn in favor of the project and the parties may find the excessive funds and time. Similarly natural factors like floods and so on also impact the cost and time and as well as destroy the project assets. The natural factors also make favorable conditions in saving the construction time and cost. However , one would expect the effects of the technical and natural factors to be random without any bias. Also form the above discussions the time delay and cost overrun is expected to come down over the years. Therefore if the decline in the time delay and cost overrun is expected to be statistically significant, we attribute the decline to the technical and natural constraints. Time and cost overrun. Hence, the Design changes, unforeseen geological and weather condition during the construction phase are the major causes of the cost overrun. (Ram Singh, 2009) 2.3.2 The Contractual Failures. As explained earlier the contractor enters the project mostly through bidding in implementation or construction phase by signing the contract with the sponsoring department. Thus for a project to be successful, mostly depends on the implementation of the activities by contractor and the joint and timely efforts of the sponsoring authority and the contractor(s). The actual initial construction or procurement contract is signed between the employer and the contractor is on a particular date. The contract agreement specifies the activities that are performed and delivery of the goods at the project execution by the contractor. In general, contract known as â€Å"complete-contingent-contracts which can ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget. These types of contracts are assumed to give the each and every detail of the activities that are performed by the contractor in each possible case during the construction phase. But in real case scenario, however, this is di fficult to explain the every work which unfolds in construction phase during the initial phase of the contract. Moreover it does not explain the complete every relevant aspect of the project activities. The bounded relationship of the parties along with the technological constraints makes the contract very difficult in specifying the every aspect of the project till last detail, this is because of the nature of different states require different modifications in the assets to be built. This happens commonly for the contracts of the infrastructure projects because of its complex nature of the activities. Therefore the procurement contracts of the infrastructure projects will be incomplete nature. The need for the future works arises once when the contractors starts the work. For example, on a railway project it may be necessary to have more of manned-crossings or railway-over-bridges than were planned initially. These unplanned additional works requires more funds and also in some ca ses it takes more time. Therefore, from the above discussion the contract incompleteness is also a cause of the cost overrun in some cases. This contractual incompleteness increases with the increase in the project size. Bigger the project size the complexity also increases. As the complexity of the project increases it is very difficult to provide the each every detail in the initial contract. However the initial contract should be kept with less incomplete. A proper planning for the technical, materials and the activities aspects of the project can enable the parties involved in the project to make the detail initial contract properly and once the proper detailed initial contract is made the contractor may have the scope to make some allowance for the future works by keeping the initial contract with less incomplete. In contrast, the poor planning may lead to the bad estimation of the time and cost and so will be the initial contract. The process of project planning in India is in famous for its ad-hoc and lackadaisical approach. The detailed project reports and feasibility are prepared for the formality purpose and hence they are sloppy. This leads to the incomplete initial contract for the infrastructure projects. Thus this leads to sever problems for the complex projects, because, a lackadaisical planning will produces only sketchy estimates of time and cost. So, in these cases the initial contracts for the complex projects will inevitably omit many more detailed works of the project, which leads in cost overrun in the construction phase of the project. Neither the contractors nor the officials find these contracts are lack of details. From this the major cause which is leading to cost overrun in India is because of the contractual failures caused by the poor contracting processes and inferior project planning (Ram Singh, 2009). The example for the faulty planning techniques and construction made the cost and time overrun of the project in the Kerala state hydro project in kakkad where the leakage in the tunnel had costs the project extra 15 Lacks to repair the damage.( Kannan and pillai 2001). 2.3.3 Organizational failures: As discussed from the above literature, for the successful completion of the infrastructure i.e. timely and efficient execution the project should have active participation of the all parties involved in the projects and as well as among various ministries. However, the government sector projects are inherently weak in the desired efforts from the people involved in the projects. There will be conflicts at each and every stage of the project with the individual and the social objectives. The wages and rewards given by the government for the working organization are not as effective from the view point as a motivation. Therefore, the government infrastructure projects have to face many sources of failures within the organization. These projects mostly in need of the several other organizations joint effort. In India different departments are responsible for different projects. For example, project implementation of power lines, water lines, sewer lines and environmental clearances and other such activities are performed by the different departments. Execution of the activities is highly dependent on the timely and joint efforts of the department. However the interdependence of efforts is that it will be easy for one department to pass the blame on others. So the infrastructure projects particularly India is vulnerable to these inter-organizational failures. In the project implementation stage as explained earlier several departments were involved in performing there concerned role. After all, the activities like land acquisition, shifting of utilities, etc., are performed by the state government. This says that if the project is span across more than one state, the project has deal with particular department in each state. Therefore the project which is spanning more than one state will have more chances to inter-organizational failures. If these projects are statistically causes the delay in time and cost overrun, then the project which are spanning across mult iple states should experience the cost overrun and time delay. Most construction projects in government sector are Roads, Rail ways and urban development sector. The projects should need permission from the central and state government for the environmental clearance. When compared other sectors, these projects require more active cooperation of the several departments such as land acquisition, shifting of power lines, water lines, sewer lines etc. Hence the projects in these sectors are having more chances of the organizational failure. Thus projects in road, rail ways and urban development sectors will exhibits more time delays and cost overrun (Ram Singh, 2009). Kannan and Pillai 2001, in their studies on the cost and time overrun in Kerala Projects suggested that main cause of the cost overrun is due to the human resource management and labours strike. According to the Auti, et,al. (2008), there has been several changes which should be made to the quality and standards, personal interests, low transparency and corruption . This also suggests that changes should be made in government policy and the way public sector projects are carried out. 2.3.4 Economic Factors: In India the projects are located in some states and the economy of the state also impacts the cost overrun of the projects. That is the states having the good transportation facilities, power and telecommunication infrastructure to easily execute the project. This shows that project with more economic factors like good infrastructure will face less cost overrun and time delays and vice versa. The income level of the state will also affect the project cost and time (Ram Singh, 2009). 2.3.5 Inflation: The inflation is defined as the rate of increase in the price level of the materials than they are in an economy (Adamson, 1996). Thus because of the inflation the materials cost will be increased than they during the initial contract, thus increases the estimated cost of the project. The affect inflation may cause the loss in profit to the contractor and project overrun cost to the project sponsor by the nature of process and the return of the work undertaken during the construction process. For example the kakkad(Kerala, India), hydro electric plant which has the time overrun 13 years as in 1999, when it was finally commissioned, the cost escalation of this project was 725 percent over the above estimates i.e. 8 times more than the actual cost the author says the cost escalation of this project is because of the price inflation(Kannan and pillai 2001 ). 2.3.6 Quality of the materials The low quality materials cause higher construction costs than expected because of lack of standards in the materials. This results in the loss of materials and poor management system (Thungphanich, 1997). 2.3.7. Shortage in materials Shortages in basic materials like sand, cement, stones, iron and brick causes major delay in the construction. The non availability of the machinery at the right of the construction process is also major cause for the delay in the construction. The following table shows that the various sectors which went the time overrun and cost overrun in India. These are the delays and the cost overrun during the years April 1992- September 208 S. No. 2 SECTORS 3 Total no. of projects completed 4 % of projects with Time overrun 5 % Time overrun (as % of implementation phase) 6 % of projects with Cost overrun 7 Cost overrun as a %age of initial cost of all projects 8 % Projects with cost but not time overrun 1 Atomic Energy 11 90.91 84 27.27 84 09 2 Civil Aviation 43 90.70 60 41.86 -01 00 3 Coal 92 60.87 28 22.83 -17 03 4 Finance 1 100.00 303 100.00 133 00 5 Fertilizers 16 62.50 25 25.00 00 13 6 I B 7 100.00 190 42.86 09 00 7 Mines 5 80.00 45 0.00 -26 00 8 Steel 41 80.49 51 19.51 49 05 9 Petrochemicals 3 100.00 74 33.33 14 00 10 Petroleum 119 78.99 33 20.17 -11 03 11 Power 101 62.38 41 47.52 26 05 12 Health and Family Welfare 2 100.00 228 100.00 265 00 13 Railways 120 98.33 83 83.33 84 00 14 Road Transport 147 86.39 47 53.74 08 05 15 Shipping and ports 60 95.00 78 30.00 01 02 16 Telecommunication 60 90.00 109 16.67 -55 00 17 Urban Development 22 100.00 54 40.91 99 00 Total/Overall projects 850 82.35 56 41.06 21 03 Source: Ram Singh, 2009. 2.4. Measures for the cost overrun 2.4.1. Cost Estimates: For any project the most important aspect in order to meet the funds of the project is the cost estimation. Small misleading in the cost estimation will lead to the project cost overrun or under run. Kerzer (2006) have explained about the factors which are affecting the process of the estimation and which results in the faulty estimation for the construction. The factors such as Misinterpretation of statement of the works, Omission or improperly defined scope, poorly defined or overly optimistic schedule, inaccurate work break down structure, applying improper skill levels to tasks, failure to account of risks, failure to understand or account for cost escalation and inflation, failure to use correct estimating technique. The important aspect to be considered is that many of the above factors which are affecting the cost estimation of the construction cannot be found until and unless the cost control system is implemented within the project. Kerzer (2006) also explained various types of measures in estimating and their accuracy in the cost overrun, they are as follows. (1) Order -of-magnitude estimates: There is no necessary of any engineering data for these types of estimates. Hence they are prepared without any engineering data and mostly they are based on the past experience. The accuracy