Current Affairs 09/10/2009
Politics & the Nation
- Indian embassy in Kabul attacked yet again
- The Indian embassy in Kabul was the target of yet another terror attack early Thursday morning after a suicide bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into the embassy building, killing 17 people and injuring 80, including three ITBP personnel. Twelve Afghan nationals were killed and three ITBP personnel suffered slight injuries in the blast, but the embassy staff was safe.
- The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
- This blast was more or less similar to the July 7, 2008, bombing, in which two Indian diplomats were killed.
- A DAY after Union home minister P Chidambaram appealed for peace, Maoists in Vidarbha launched a massive attack on the state police, killing at least 17 and injuring half a dozen security personnel. One of the most daring attacks on security forces came just four days before the state goes to polls on October 13.
- A police team of 45 personnel was reportedly on patrolling duty near Laheri in the farflung region of Gadchiroli district when it was ambushed by the Maoists at around 1 pm on Thursday. The incident sparked a gunbattle between the two sides which lasted for more than four hours.
- 17 policemen, including sub inspector CS Deshmukh, were killed in the ambush by more than 150 Naxals, they said. The Naxals were in police uniform. According to the police, Naxals also suffered some casualties, but the exact number of casualties is not known.
- PEs queue up to wind up India operations
- EUROPEAN buyout specialist Candover and the UK firm Strategic Value Partners (SVP) are the latest in a growing list of private equity (PE) funds leaving the country without making any significant investment.
- While Candover has already shut down its operations in India, Strategic Value Partners (SVP) is close to winding up operations, said two industry insiders.
- A number of private equity players, who came into the country in the past couple of years, are leaving now, after failing to make any deal, as the global recession hit them hard with values of many of their investments crashing, affecting their fund base and making them extremely cautious
- about investments.
- Panel of watchdogs to tally ICAI's auditing guidelines
- In the wake of the Satyam fiasco, the government appears to be learning some quick lessons. Now it is going to see to it that the auditing norms prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) are vetted by an umbrella body consisting of various regulators.
- The National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (Nacas), has representations from the Reserve Bank of India, Securities Exchange Board of India and Comptroller & Auditor General of India, besides the three professional institutes of accounting, company secretaries and cost accounting.
- Nacas was established in 2001 and functions under the ministry of corporate affairs.
- Auditing standards are independent of accounting standards and are currently used as a best practices directive to be followed. While non-conformity with accounting standards makes a company liable for regulatory action in accordance with the Companies Act, non-adherence with auditing standards does not entail regulatory action.
- Takaful
- It is the insurance equivalent of Shariah-compliant Islamic banking.
- LIC and SBI are reported to be looking at this for introduction in India, as they don't want to miss out on the 142 mn strong Muslim community's potential.
- But it is interesting to note that a working group that was recently constituted by RBI under the chairmanship of Anand Sinha, an executive director, concluded that Shariah-complaiant instruments are not feasible in the current regulatory framework.
- A device to check fake drugs?
- Surprising but true. Read this news report in full. It is interesting.
- Analysts estimate fake drugs to have penetrated up to 30% of the domestic market. Globally, the turnover of counterfeit drugs is expected to reach $75 billion the end of 2010, up 90% from 2005 levels, as per estimates by World Health Organisation (WHO).
- Another technology-led innovation to check counterfeiting of drugs, is multi-colour tablet coating. It is easy for counterfeiters to duplicate both packaging and colour of an original product. Multi-colour coating is reportedly more complex to copy.
- Is it any wonder Indians have to flee India to win a Nobel? (An excerpt from today's ET editorial.)
- A sharp cleavage exists between teaching, done in universities, and research, housed in specialised state research outfits. Universities and research organisations do not interact. Faculty pay is at a steep discount to what comparable skills would fetch in industry, ensuring that very few of those who fill academic posts embody first rate talent. Those who do, migrate to a few centres of excellence, leaving the bulk of Indian students to the tender mercies of mediocrity.
- candid: Adjective
- Characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion; Informal or natural; especially caught off guard or unprepared; Openly straightforward and direct without reserve or secretiveness
- eg: "I gave them my candid opinion"
- mirth: Noun
- Great merriment
- eg: Sometimes the sniping that can attend the media war between conflicting zones lets slip a little gem of unforeseen mirth.
Current Affairs, 08.10.2009
Politics & the Nation Smart phones not only keep you connected with business, they also disconnect you from life! Nobel Prizes For Chemistry Finance & Economy Credit growth shows upswing Three reasons why banking by telcos makes lot of sense in a country like India:
- On migration
- The UNDP estimates that one in seven persons is a migrant, meaning about one billion of the world's estimated 6.7 billion people have migrated. Most of the movement happens within the borders of a country, only 214 million are international migrants.
- Further, contrary to popular perception fewer than 70 million (just about 7% of all the migrants and 33% of the international migrants) move from developing to developed countries.
- Smartphone related divorces are reportedly on the rise.
- Research firm Ascendia estimates that the smartphone market in India stood at around 5 million units in 2008. Gartner expects such devices to have a 4-4.5% share in total mobile phone sales in India in 2009.
- The total internet audience in the country in August 2009 was 35,432,000, up 17% on year-ago levels. Social networking audience in the same period grew 21% to 22,259,000. The number of Facebook users grew 220% to 81,54,000, while those for Orkut grew 34% to 152,76,000. Twitter users grew 2435% to 1,098,000.
- For Literature
- Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Romanian was hailed by the Swedish Academy as a person "who with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
- The 56-year-old author, who emigrated to Germany from then-Communist Romania in 1987, made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen." This was followed by "Oppressive Tango."
- Indian-American Venkataraman Ramakrishnan was among this year's Nobel laureates in Chemistry. He shares the prize with two others -- Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath's -- for their work on ribosomes which has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotics.
- Dr. Ramakrishnan, 57, is the senior scientist and group leader at the Structural Studies Division of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
- Dr. Yonath, 70, is the fourth woman to win the Nobel Chemistry prize and the first since 1964, when Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin of Britain received the award.
- You can read more about this story here.
- Reliance announces 1:1 bonus
- This is the fourth time since it went public in 1978 that it has announced a bonus issue. The earlier three times were in 1980, 1983 & 1997.
- RIL reportedly controls 25% of the world's refining capacity and it has reached a production of 40 mmscmd of natural gas from the famous KG D-6 fields on the east coast.
- BANKS have ended the second quarter with a total loan growth of Rs 1,08,885 crore, against a dip of over Rs 7,000 crore in the previous quarter, with almost half the growth coming in the last fortnight.
- According to the latest figures released by the Reserve Bank of India, total loans, including food credit—loans to Food Corporation of India for foodgrain procurement—and non-food credit (all other loans) amounted to Rs 28,73,155 crore as on September 26. While food credit amounted to Rs 42,717 crore, nonfood credit amounted to Rs 28,30,737.34 crore. This represents net disbursements of Rs 1,08,855.34 crore during July-September'09, against a dip of Rs 7,456 crore in the previous quarter.
- One, it is already taking deposits from people, storing the amount in a card and running it down over time for the depositor's use and, besides, has the capacity to move these deposits around the country.
- Two, a mobile phone operator has the technological capability and the commercial acumen needed to handle small ticket credits and debits by the million; and,
- three, commercial banks lack precisely this ability badly needed to extend banking to the entire populace.
- Are there any other countries where banking by telcos is allowed?
- In Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, such use of mobile phones for elementary banking is widespread. So is the case in the Philippines as well.
- About the potential of banking by telcos:
- The latest UN Human Development Report puts the number of internal migrants in India at 42 million. According to another estimate, 307 million people work in a place different from where they were born. A sizeable proportion of these migrants would require to send money home. The Post Office is the most reliable form of sending money. But the money order costs a bomb: 5% of the amount sent, not taking into account the postman's baksheesh at the delivery end.
- Annual employment survey
- The only official data on employment comes from the quinquennial Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). The latest employment numbers that we have, for instance, relate to 2004-05 when the last survey was conducted.
- The Centre has reportedly decided to undertake an annual employment survey soon.
- Shakib is Wisden cricketer of the year
- Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has outshone Indian opener Gautam Gambhir and South African captain Graeme Smith to become Wisden Cricketer's World Test Player of the Year.
- The 22-year-old Shakib topped the performance table of all Test match players based on marks awarded by Wisden Cricketer correspondents, who reported on every Test played during the period.
- Shakib averaged 7.94 out of 10 for each of the eight Tests he played between the beginning of September 2008 and the end of August 2009.
- Shakib took 45 wickets at 23 with his left-arm spin, in addition to scoring 498 runs at an average of 35.57.
- This performance placed him ahead of more-established Gambhir, Smith, Sachin Tendulkar, Jaques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Dale Steyn and Andrew Strauss.
- apercu: Noun
- A short synopsis
Current Affairs, 07.10.2009
Politics & the Nation Supreme Court moves Delhi High Court over RTI case We have noted about Dolphin being declared as national aquatic animal yesterday. More on it... Finance & Economy India fares poorly on Human Development Index Portfolio inflows into the country Are there any ceilings on managerial remuneration a.k.a corporate salaries? Sport
- Are BSNL and MTNL being pressured into doing something that they can't like in the interest of their business?
- Read this news report. That's the impression you will get. Couple this with the political gyan that you would have gained in the last few years; we are sure that you will get a hazy picture of what is brewing.
- BSNL chairman and managing director: Kuldip Goyal
- You might as well remember what we noted about this issue in our blog earlier on 03.09.2009.
- Last month, Justice R Ravindra Bhatt of Delhi High Court in a landmark verdict had said, "The CJI is a public authority under the RTI Act and the CJI holds the information pertaining to assets declaration in his capacity as Chief Justice. That office is a public authority under the Act and is covered by its provisions".
- Now the issue is in the news again because the Supreme Court of India has gone in appeal against this order. The appeal against the single bench verdict would be heard by a division bench of the high court.
- The main line of argument taken by the Supreme Court registry before the Delhi High Court now is that the registry is separate from the Court. Both of them are not one single public authority.
- The CJI has all along been maintaining that the office of CJI does not fall within the purview of the RTI Act.
- Dolphin is considered a flagship species. It means that their strength in river system would indicate its health.
- The freshwater dolphin, a blind species, is mainly found in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems in India. Construction of dams and barrages, increase in pollution-levels, indiscriminate fishing, the dreadful prospect of the mammal getting entangled in nets — all these factors have contributed to a reduction in their numbers in two river systems.
- With the Centre declaring it as a national animal, hopes that more steps would be taken to protect them have soared.
- Trai to unveil pay per second regime
- TELECOM regulator Trai has unveiled plans for a radical overhaul in the way India's mobile phone industry bills customers, a welcome tone for the country's 450 million cellphone users, but a jarring note for telcos that could see their revenues fall by up to 15%.
- Trai did not specify the timeframe for implementing the per-second billing plan.
- Under the 'per second' model — already being followed by Tata DoCoMo — if a telco were to offer a tariff plan that provided calls at 60 paise per minute, a customer speaking for 20 seconds would only be charged 20 paise for the call rather than the full 60 paise charged currently.
- At present, all operators, except Tata DoCoMo, Shyam Sistema and Aircel (in a few circles), follow a per-minute-billing system. Here, the customer is charged for the full minute, irrespective of whether the call lasts the whole minute.
- TRAI Chairman: JS Sarma
- India's new-found position as an economic superpower doesn't find reflection in the quality of life enjoyed by its 1.2 billion people, showed the human development index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which ranked the country at a lowly 134 among 182 countries.
- Neighbouring states China (92), Sri Lanka (102) and Bhutan (132) were ranked higher than India while Pakistan (141), Nepal (144) and Bangladesh (146) were ranked lower.
- Norway continued to top the chart, with Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan making the top 10. The US is ranked 13, while Britain and Germany are further down at 21 and 22, respectively.
- The index takes into account a host of parameters including poverty levels, literacy and gender-related issues to measure the quality of life. The index is being published from 1990.
- Take a look at this picture which gives some highlights from the report.
- Portfolio investments by FIIs in the Indian equity market amounted to $13.6 billion between April 1-September 18, 2009 as against outflows of $5.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2008 reflecting a turnaround of almost $19 billion.
- Yes, the Companies Act 1956 (Section 198) does lay down a ceiling on managerial remuneration (not more than 11% of the net profits of that company for that financial year) and on the salaries of top company officials (not more than 5% of the net profits for a whole-time/managing director and not more than 10% if there is more than one).
- But these limits serve largely on paper. Since they often proved an obstacle in tapping and retaining the right talent, companies invariably found ways to get around them. Increasingly they began to pay in kind rather than in cash, defeating both the purpose of the legislation and giving rise to the infamous fringe-benefit tax.
- ICC Champions Trophy
- Australia beat NewZealand to retain the trophy.
- whopper: Noun
- A gross untruth; a blatant lie; Something especially big or impressive of its kind
- snooty: Adjective
- (used colloquially) overly conceited or arrogant
- griddle: Noun
- Cooking utensil consisting of a flat heated surface (as on top of a stove) on which food is cooked
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with warm regards
Harish Sati
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068
(M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com
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