- Maoists ready for talks, demand withdrawal of security forces
- Faced with an impending security force operation, a top leader of the Maoists on Thursday said they were ready for talks with the Centre provided some of their conditions were met, including withdrawal of paramilitary forces deployed in Naxal-hit States.
- Read more on it here.
- Bold moves from government on divestment?
- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday put an end to the dillydallying on divestment in public sector companies by approving a plan to partsell shares in them that may help the cashstrapped government raise at least Rs 60,000 crore and reduce its dependence on market borrowings to fund the building of roads, hospitals and schools.
- Investors cheered the decision, interpreting it as a sign the government was returning to the path of bold economic reforms that could help contain the strain on its finances, after it cut taxes and raised spending in the last year to contain the damage arising out of the global credit crisis.
- A subtle change in the way the divestment proceeds are to be used?
- Although government-owned companies such as NTPC and Power-Grid have sold shares in the past few years under Mr Singh, they could not be used to fund government expenditure as they were kept aside in the National Investment Fund for welfare schemes and to bail out public sector companies.
- The government has reportedly now decided against parking the divestment proceeds in the NIF.
- Close to Rs 5,000 crore that the government raised through divestment of its stake in NHPC and Oil India will now be going into capital expenditure on social sector schemes determined by Planning Commission and the department of expenditure.
- Use of disinvestment proceeds would free up government resources to that extent or bring down its fiscal deficit in line with the targets set in Budget 2009-10. The government targets fiscal deficit at 5.5% in 2010-11 and 4% in 2011-12.
- But Trinamool and DMK are obviously unhappy with the decision. Their stated position is very well known. Both of them oppose divestment in PSUs. Whether Congress can weather this opposition this time remains to be seen.
- This revolution is about investing in mutual funds. This report says that SEBI is toying with the idea of doing away with entry loads in mutual fund investing for investors. If can bring that about, that would be a real revolutionary effort.
- Do read the story in full.
- If you do not, then it is time for you to read this article that appeared in ET today and get a lowdown on it.
- Carry trade is considered very risky. Why?
- Firstly, history shows that carry trade is risky. Remember the LTCM debacle of 1998? Such events lead to very wild fluctuations in currencies which makes carry trade highly risky.
- Secondly, carry trades can go from profit to loss with almost no warning.
- Thirdly, if there is no forex intervention and foreign currencies appreciate, the negative borrowing cost of the carry trade becomes more negative. If intervention or open market operations control currency appreciation, the ensuing domestic monetary easing feeds an asset bubble in these destination economies. So the perfectly correlated bubble across all global asset classes gets bigger and frothier by the day.
- Fourthly, many asset prices now seem to be extremely dependent on the glut of cheap liquidity that comes from the dollar carry trade. The implication is that if the dollar rises and carry traders bail out of their assets again, we'll probably see another sharp global sell-off in all assets.
- Globally, India is the largest recipient of inward remittances which is effected through money transfer agents and banks. Banks take around a day to a month, depending on the choice of service.
- New therapy eradicates cancer cells without targeting healthy ones
- Researchers are close to developing a cancer treatment that kills malignant cells whilst leaving healthy cells untouched.
- Led by Professor Cohen-Armon of Tel-Aviv University, the researchers found that potent phenanthridine derived polyADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors efficiently eradicate MCF-7 and MDA231 breast cancer cells without impairing normal proliferating cells, such as human epithelial cells (MCF-10A), nor normal non-proliferating cells, such as neurons and cardiomyocytes.
- PARP inhibitors were originally designed to protect cells from cell-death under stress conditions (e.g. stroke or inflammation).
- Read more about it here.
- What a loss?
- It was a sad day for India. In spite of a brilliant knock by Tendulkar, the team somehow couldn't just manage to win. It loses by a paltry 4 runs!!
- Let us wish them well for their next match.
- apothecary: Noun
- A health professional trained in the art of preparing and dispensing drugs
- vicissitude: Noun
- A variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something; Mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another)
- explicate: Verb
- Make plain and comprehensible; Elaborate, as of theories and hypotheses
- panoply: Noun
- A complete and impressive array
- eg: ...So proactive policy for the latter would have beneficial effects and spillovers across a panoply of sectors as varied as energy systems, value-added plastics and information technology.
Politics & the Nation Indian tea bushes in for rejuvenation Why is divestment in PSUs good? It is often said that the government should not own non-strategic enterprises. What does 'strategic' mean in the context of government's investments in commercial enterprises? Medicine Ganguly back as KKR captain, Whatmore appointed coach Language lessons pussyfoot: Verb bawl: Verb
- India signs fusion energy research pact with European Union
- India and the 27-nation European Union (EU) have signed an agreement for cooperation in the field of Fusion Energy Research and agreed over the free trade treaty by next year to boost trade and investment.
- SC stays HC order on job reservation for disabled
- The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Delhi High Court order directing the Centre to provide three per cent job reservation for persons with disabilities mandated under a special legislation which includes one per cent for visually-impaired candidates.
- However, the Bench clarified it was not staying the Disabilities Act under which three per cent jobs should be reserved for disabled persons, including one per cent for visually-impaired candidates.
- The apex court had directed the Centre to file a detailed status report regarding the extent to which the posts had been identified and filled up and also what steps had been taken to fill up the vacancies that had arisen since the Act has gone into force in 1996.
- FBT burden on employees to be spread out in the next four months
- The July 2009 Budget dropped FBT and returned the earlier system of taxing perks in the hands of the employee. But the CBDT has not yet given the guidelines for computation of perks. In the absence of the guidelines, employers were not deducting any tax from employees. Once the guidelines are made available the entire tax will have to be recovered in one go.
- Employees of those companies that had already started deducting tax on these benefits as per the old rules, which were in effect before the controversial FBT was introduced in 2005, would not be hit so hard as they would have paid some tax. However, as the overall liability is likely to be more due to the government's plan of bringing more benefits under the tax net, they too will have to shell out additional amounts.
- In the perks taxation regime before FBT, perquisites that were taxed included rent-free accommodation, car, chauffeur, services of personal attendants, concessional education, concessional journeys, credit card, interest-free loans, gift vouchers, hotel stay exceeding 15 days and medical facilities. The value of these services was the actual cost to the employer.
- The Finance Act 2009-10 also made employee stock options and employers' contribution to the superannuation fund taxable, if the amount exceeded Rs 1 lakh per annum. Total FBT collections in 2008-09 stood at Rs 7,997 crore.
- Many of India's tea bushes are reportedly very old; some even as old as a hundred years. This is what makes the tea less tasty. Therefore, the tea gardens are on a replanting spree.
- Replantation cost in North Indian gardens is Rs 3.03 lakh per hectare, compared to Rs 5 lakh per hectare in South India. The productive life of a tea bush is 50 years. Assam has 3,00,000 hectares under tea plantation. The Dooars, Terai and Darjeeling tea estates together cover an area of 1,14,000 hectares. South Indian gardens are spread over some 1,22,000 hectares.
- Of the total 5,36,000 hectares that is under tea, nearly 2,12,000 hectares are planted with bushes well over 50 years of age. In comparison, Sri Lankan tea bushes are a little over 30 years old, while Kenyan tea bushes are much younger.
- Some big names in Indian tea business: McLeod Russel, Goodricke, Warren Tea, Dhunseri Tea, Rossell Tea, Gillanders Arbuthnot, Amalgamated Plantations.
- Indian tea, sells some 210 million kgs in the export market, besides some 740 million kg locally.
- This is good for the stock market (increases depth, absorbs more capital with less asset price inflation); good for public enterprises (make their accounts more transparent and available to the public at large rather than only to Parliament as at present); and for the spread of shareholding culture among Indians.
- Strategic, here, should be understood as providing long-term competitive advantage to the economy, apart from being vital for national security, but not coming forth except for investment by the government, which can take risks that purely commercial calculations cannot. Which sector is strategic would change over time, depending on circumstance and the economy's degree of maturity. Steel was strategic once, but no longer. Satellites, however, continue to be.
- Scientists map body bacteria
- American scientists have identified over 4,200 species of bacteria that live in various parts of a human body and mapped them into an atlas.
- The researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, also found unexpectedly wide variations in bacterial communities from person to person.
- "The goal is to find out what is normal for a healthy person, which will provide a baseline for further studies to look at people with diseased states," the research team said.
- The study was based on an intensive analysis of the bacteria found at 27 separate sites on the bodies of nine healthy volunteers.
- There are an estimated 100 trillion microbes living on or inside the human body and they are thought to play a key role in many physiological functions, including development of the immune system.
- India to meet China in the final of Asia Cup women hockey
- India will lock horns with China, who beat Japan by a solitary goal.
- It was a double delight for the Indian women's hockey team as they edged out Korea 3-2 to sail into the Asia Cup final, which also assured them a berth in the 2010 World Cup in Argentina.
- Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Friday returned as the Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper for next year's Indian Premier League, replacing New Zealand's Brendon McCullum.
- The controversy-ridden IPL outfit, which finished at the bottom of the table this year, also named Dav Whatmore as its new coach with Delhi Ranji coach Vijay Dahiya as his deputy.
- Pakistani pace legend Wasim Akram was appointed the mentor of the side.
- gainsay: Verb
- Take exception to
- eg: ...Yet, it cannot be gainsaid that it makes no sense to stall and put on the back-burner vital infrastructure projects simply due to unrealistic conditions.
- To go stealthily or furtively
- eg: ...It would surely be transformative pan-India, after much policy pussy-footing.
- Shout loudly and without restraint; Make a raucous noise; cry loudly
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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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