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
