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How to Read Economic Times Newspaper?




I always been asked by my friends how to read ET(The Economic Times). Reading ET is easy but understanding what exactly meant is difficult. Reading ET or another Business Newspaper /Daily itself can gain you so much knowledge to keep you updated from latest happenings in Business, Current Affairs and ofcourse could need make you ready  for an Business Quiz.  So thought to write an blog on it. May be this will help you out. 

Most common problem, How to understand the news in Economic Times?
As you know, ET consists of mostly all news related to Money, Finance, Markets, etc. which is difficult to understand by a Layman, or someone who is not familiar with the Business Economic terms, so the first step is learn and brush up your Economic terms Vocabulary. There are few basic words one has to know[Basic Economic Terms list with explanation. Alphabets - I], no need to learn all the terms, just got to know simple words like Economy, GDP, Inflation, Deficit, Fiscal Year, Depreciation, Turmoil, etc.  Refer to these terms when you get it in you articles.  This will allow you to understand it very well.


What to read in a Business Daily? Which News to read?
Very often, people don't read newspapers because they have no interest in the topic that appear in the paper. The title itself is so uninteresting that one doesn't even like go to the next pages. Don't Do That!


At the beginning, put an habit of reading the column which your interest lies in. At least one article in the newspaper will attract you, either the Title, or a Image published in the paper.  Start reading that article, and try to know daily 2-3 words which you don't know earlier.  This will lead to read more doubts, and one get an interest to further know about it.


There is a news even in the Advertisement published in the Newspaper. One often can see Advertisements of Company's Financial Statement(Balance Sheet), usually at the end of every quarter.  Try to learn something out of that advertisement, what the advt emphasized on? How advertisement is different from other general Newspapers. Now comes the Marketing Concepts(Target the right media for communicating). 


How to Gain/Increase your knowledge from Economic Times?
My friend asked me, how will reading some boring stuff will lead in increasing your knowledge. Certainly one can improve.
The paper covers information on changes in Latest Technology?, Who has been involved in any scams and how it impacts the economy?, Which company is beating/surpassing another company?, Any new products are being introduced?, etc.  These all information will very certainly improve one knowledge and further will helps in analyzing even.


Now comes the big deal, you often must have thought,  Why is this Editorial Page published?
Most of the active reader don't read Editorial page, because the difficulty level of understanding the editorial page is High. But its one the important page one has to read, because it gives the views of current affairs by the famous and well versed peoples, which will help you to take the right path in analyzing the affairs. 


A layman has came to me and asked what is it published in this article. (Budget 2011: Think long-term & take bold steps to avoid transitional pain, says Gita Gopinath, Professor, Harvard University).


I read and found it very simple, and of course very informative. But not with the case for a layman. So here I will put it up and example of How to read and understand a Editorial article published in Economic Times.

The article as the title itself says basically emphasis on What to expect from coming Budget and how to Control it.  So an article has to be broken down into parts to understand it in better way.The writer says, that there are three concerns for the growth in the country. 

i) Fiscal Deficit ii) Inflation and iii) Current Account.

Under Fiscal Deficit: How to reduce the government deficit is given.
Inflation: Policy and Structural Imbalances are the reason.
Current Account: FDI issues.

In such way the Editorial Page has to be broken and understand.
Any other questions? Shoot below

13 comments:

  1. I find this pst really informative and helpful, well done!

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  2. Informative.. I have just started reading ET and will try to follow the tips you've given. A general question.Approx. how long should i follow ET before i get a grip of things happening in the biz world currently? Thanks in advance.

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  3. Thanks Aspen,

    To be very frank, Information about business market is very vast. But you will get to know the details and the impact of such happenings. So you can predict and understand what has happened earlier.

    But if you continuously reading the ET for 6 months also you can have a good grip of things, which will further help you in analyzing to an great extent.

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  4. Well, I'm a student of 12th std Commerce stream & planning to attempt CA. How will reading ET help me? How much time should I daily spend on ET (as there are other commitments too)? And which articles in particular to read? Next year I'll be 18 & would like to open a demat account as they say the earlier you begin to invest, the better.. So what self-study on my part is required before I start trading? What is better for me-- Intraday or long-term?
    Thanks

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  5. Very nice to see young people like you who are planning their careers so well to excel better.

    Well, let me answer your questions.

    How will reading ET help me?
    > ET is just an newspaper which mainly cover Business Related news. So the question may arise, what is that i can do with ET when I'm no where involved in any business? You are involved in business daily(eg., you purchase any goods/groceries etc).

    It covers all the news which will impact an business house and ultimately common people like you and me. As you want to pursue an Chartered Accounting, you should have an strong grip on Country's policies(just for an example) and many more(General awareness), which you find abundant information in Economic times.

    How much time should I daily spend on ET?
    > Thats right you will have other priorities, but I would recommend you to give a glance daily for just 10-15 minutes atleast.

    And which articles in particular to read?
    > The Title of the topics published in ET itself looks boring (atleast for majority of people I observed) but select those articles which grabs your attention and read it completely. Usually General news, Technology news are covered so you can start your reading with those which interests you. You will be attracted to read the other automatically in long run..

    Since you want to involve yourself in trading activities you should have good knowledge on how to select an particular stock and all (ET is an perfect place to know why a stock price falls and rises and many more) so based on that you can make an judgement along with other statistical analysis/calculation like PE Ratio, Dividends payout ratio which trader will keep these as one of the parameters to select. Its difficult to say whether Intraday or Long term, you will burn your fingers if you don't know which to choose(completely depends on current market conditions). Once you participate the race you get to know.

    I hope i answered all your doubts. Feel free to ask if you got any more questions.

    Thanks,
    RMI

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  6. I was trying to read economic times but i was not able to understand the terms and was not relate the articles with the present scenarios but now this article made it clear....

    Thanks
    Naveen Tuppad

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  7. Sakshi and Naveen: Thanks, and welcome. If you have any other things to share, or article you want to see here on any topois, let me know.

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  8. i m doing CA course and need to read ET everyday. but its not possible to cover the whole in a span of 15 min .. is it that i should only read the headlines but only headlines doesnt gives the perfect knowledge....

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  9. In 15 minutes you can easily cover 3-4 columns. And when ever you have any doubts or want to learn more on it, start your investigation on those topic.

    A regular read of 15 minutes can give you a vague picture, what is going on, and your other external knowledge (TV News channels, discussions) with give you a grip on those happenings.

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  10. Hey really nice post and thanks for this innovation to guide novice readers.

    Just wanna ask you some thing- the ET comes as a huge material ,so generally we dont have tym to go through the whole newspaper..so can u guide me I mean which articles or category news will be more beneficial for one in being updated to the fullest...

    thanks in advance!!

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  11. Hi RajaMani Iyer,

    Its nice to get such informative help from an erudite personality like you.Thanks !!

    Can u plz help me in guiding me in what should I do or read so that I can start understanding the stocks market or indias economy.I have tried reading ET and wikipedia but unable to comprehend and also such consolidated information is not given at one go.so Can u please refer me some blogs which u personally lyk or some other websites.I am preparing for MBA but am now in a mess as I feel these things are going ovr my head.

    Please help!!
    Thanks in advance and may God Bless you for guiding youths lyk us!!

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  12. I m a mba marketing student. My campus interviewe will start in few months. I am targeting some good package. How should and most importantly what should I read in ET

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