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Sarosh Kapadia
1May
President Pratibha Patil has appointed
senior-most judge of the Supreme Court
Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia the 38th Chief
Justice of India (CJI).
He will take charge on May 12, succeeding
Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, who retires on
May 11.
Justice Kapadia, who will be the first CJI
born after Independence, will have a tenure
of 2 years and 4 months.
He was initially appointed an additional
judge of the Bombay High Court in October
1991 and made a permanent judge in March
1993. For more than three years, he was the
special judge of the special court under the
Securities Transaction Act.
On August 5, 2003, he was appointed the
Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court.
On December 18, 2003, he was elevated to
the Supreme Court.
Nitin Nohria
5May
Professor Nitin Nohria, an alumnus of the
Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai,
has been named the first Indian-American
dean of the prestigious Harvard Business
School, a role he will take up from July 1
Currently the Richard P. Chapman Professor
of Business Administration at the centuryold institution and co-chair of its Leadership
Initiative, Nohria will serve as the 10th dean
of Harvard Business School.
Nohria received his degree in chemical
engineering in 1984 from the Indian Institute
of Technology in Mumbai, which also
awarded him with its distinguished alumnus
medal in 2007.
He then received his doctoral degree in
management from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Sloan School of
Management in 1988 where he earned an
outstanding doctoral thesis award in
behavioral and policy sciences.
Following that, he joined the Harvard
faculty as an assistant professor in 1988,
became an associate professor five years
later and then served as the Richard P.
Chapman Professor of Business
Administration since 1999.
His current academic interests include the
theory and practice of leadership, the study
of human motivation, the analysis of
management practices critical to corporate
success, and the strategic and organizational
challenges of globalization.
Among his 16 books, the latest -"Handbook of Leadership Theory and
Practice" - has been co-edited with his
Harvard colleague Rakesh Khurana and
reflects a colloquium he organised as part of
Harvard's centennial in 2008 to stimulate
serious scholarly research on leadership.
M.M. Joshi
7May
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has
been appointed chairman of the Public
Accounts Committee for 2010-11. Congress
MP from Goa Francisco Sardinha will head
the Committee on Estimates.
The Lok Sabha Speaker also appointed V.
Kishore Chandra S. Deo chairman of the
Committee on Public Undertakings and
Gobinda Chandra Naskar, head of the
Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The other members of the reconstituted
Estimates Committee are: Harsimrat Kaur
Badal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Bhakta
Charan Das, Milind Deora, T.K.S.
Elangovan, Sanjay Jaiswal, Ramesh
Jigajinagi, P. Karunakaran, Chandrakant
Khaire, M. Krishnaswamy, Vikrambhai
Arjanbhai Madan, Sanjeev Ganesh Naik,
Ranee Narah, Prabodh Panda, Ravindra
Kumar Pandey, Kavindra Purkayastha,
Jagdish Singh Rana, K.J.S.P. Reddy, M.
Sreenivasulu Reddy, Yashodhara Raje
Scindia, S. Semmalai, Arjun Charan Sethi,
Madan Lal Sharma, Brijbhushan Sharan
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Singh, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Lalji
Tandon, Manish Tewari and K.C.
Venugopal.
Goodluck Jonathan
7May
Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in
President of the oil-rich African nation raven
by religious and political divisions, after the
death of incumbent Umaru Yar'Adua.
Jonathan took the oath in the presidential
palace, where Yar'Adua passed away after a
long illness.
P.R.Karanth
7May
P.R. Karanth, General Manager, Financial
Management division of Corporation Bank,
has been designated Chief Financial Officer.
The Audit Committee of the board of the
bank approved the appointment on April 23.
David Cameron
12May
Conservative leader David Cameron took
over as Britain's new prime minister after
Queen Elizabeth II invited him to form the
new government following the resignation
of incumbent Gordon Brown.
The Conservatives emerged as the largest
single party in the May 6 election that
triggered the ending of the Labour party's
record 13 years in office.
Hari S.Bhartia
14May
Hari S Bhartia has taken over charge as the
President of CII from TVS Chairman Venu
Srinivasan. Agriculture and the private
sector account for the bulk of the jobs
created in the Indian economy and Bhartia
sees the private sector emerging as the
primary driver for job creation.
Mahindra Rajapaksa
16May
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
will take over the chairmanship of the Group
of 15 countries (G15) from his Iranian
counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the
G15summit in Tehran.
Rajapaksa will serve as the chairman of the
grouping, of which India is also a member,
for a two-year term.
The G-15 Summit to be held in Tehran will
focus on co-operation among developing
countries in the areas of investment, trade
and technology.
The grouping accounts for one-third of the
global population and consists of some of
the biggest economies of the world.
Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico,
Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and
Zimbabwe are members of the group.
Ratan Kumar Sinha
17May
Ratan Kumar Sinha, who is closely
associated with the design and development
of the country's first thorium-based
Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, will be the
new director of the Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC).
Dr. Sinha's appointment has been cleared by
the Union government. Dr. Sinha will take
over from S. Banerjee, who was holding the
post of BARC director and chairman of the
Atomic Energy Commission.
Christiana Figueres
19May
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has
appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica
to be the next head of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).
Ms Figueres is an international leader on
strategies to address global climate change
and brings to this position a passion for the
issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders
and valuable hands-on experience with the
public sector, non-profit sector and private
sector.
Figueres, who has served as Costa Rica's
lead climate negotiator since 1995, was
short-listed along with former South African
environment minister Marthinus van
Schalkwyk to be interviewed by Ban for the
post.
In July, Figueres will take over from the
current director of the UNFCCC, Yvo de
Boer of the Netherlands who resigned in
February shortly after the unsuccessful
climate change conference in December
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2009 that yielded the contentious and nonbinding Copenhagen Accord.
The Accord was produced by 29 countries,
but principally drafted by the US, China,
India, Brazil and South Africa, in the last
few hours of the Conference, and was
slammed by certain countries including
Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba for
having left the majority of the nations out of
the negotiating process.
New DGMs
19May
The Corporation Bank has promoted 15
Assistant General Managers as Deputy
General Managers. R. Natarajan, Shrikant,
Lakshminatha Reddy, C.K. Gopal, Prakash
Hebbar D., G. Guruharinadha Rao,
Purnachandra Rao D., Gopalakrishna Bhat
K., Prabhakar Shenoy, Col K.G.R. Kumar,
K. Kamalaksha Nayak, H.S. Srinath,
Augustine K.J., Prabodh Kumar Datta and
Alok Kumar Gupta.
Kamla Persad Bissessar
25May
Kamla Persad-Bissessar has become the first
female Prime Minister of Trinidad and
Tobago as her five-party coalition headed
for a strong victory in snap elections.
The 58-year-old has promised to increase
pensions and create a multi-million-dollar
fund for sick children in a campaign focused
on change.
Neeraj Patil
28May
Neeraj Patil, a leading NRI doctor, has been
elected Mayor of the Borough of Lambeth.
Dr. Patil succeeded councillor Christopher
Wellbelove.
Omar Hasan al-Bashir
28May
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir,
the sole sitting head of state wanted for war
crimes by the International Criminal Court
(ICC), was sworn in as President after his
re-election in voting marred by boycotts.
Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, was
last sworn in after a north-south peace deal
in 2005 that ended Africa's longest civil war,
a conflict that claimed some 2 million lives
and destabilised much of the region.
Kshemendra Paul
29May
The Obama administration has appointed
Indian-American Kshemendra Paul to a key
IT position, making him head of an agency
that facilitates the sharing and access of
terrorism-related information within various
wings of the U.S. government.
Paul, whose parents migrated from Punjab
in 1950s, has been appointed as Programme
Manager for the Information Sharing
Environment (PM-ISE), which now has
assumed a major role as the Administration
is focused on organising and streamlining
terrorism related date available with various
agencies and departments of the
government. At present, he is the Federal
Chief Architect at the Office of Management
and Budget.
His appointment comes following a recent
review by the National Security Staff which
identified that PM-ISE must be closely
linked to the White House in order to make
meaningful progress in developing the ISE.
Paul will co-chair interagency meetings with
the National Security Staff, to better
aligning and integrating the office of the
PM-ISE with the White House.
Sydney Peace Prize
11May
Distinguished Indian physicist and
environmentalist Vandana Shiva has been
awarded the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize
this year, in recognition of her works in the
field of social justice.
57-year-old Vandana - a philosopher,
environmentalist, women's activist and
author, has won the award for her work on
the empowerment of women in developing
countries, her advocacy of the human rights
of small farming communities, and her
scientific analysis of environmental
sustainability.
Shiva will give the City of Sydney Peace
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Prize lecture at Sydney Opera House on 3rd
November, and will be presented with the
prize the next evening.
Dehradun-born Vandana is one of the
leaders at the International Forum on
Globalisation and the Third World Network.
She has earlier received the Global 500
Award of the United Nations Environment
Programme and the Right Livelihood
Award, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel
Prize'.
Shiva is the founder of Navdanya, an
environmental NGO that promotes organic
farming and food security.
She was also associated with the Chipko
Movement of the 1970s.
Niwano Peace Prize
14May
Social activist Ela Bhatt received the
Niwano Peace Prize for 2010 for her
contribution to the uplift of poor women in
India.
My story and philosophy can be said in three
words – women, work and peace, she said
after receiving the award, which included a
certificate, a medal and prize money worth
about $2,15,390.
She established the Self-Employed Women's
Association (SEWA) in 1972.
Best Parliamentarian Award
19May
BJP stalwart Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi and
Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh have
been selected for best parliamentarian
award.
Dr. Joshi will be conferred with this honour
for the year 2009 andMohan Singh for 2008.
The decision to confer the awards was taken
by the Award Committee led by the Lok
Sabha speaker Meera Kumar.
Lost Booker prize
21May
Forty years after it was first published,
Troubles, by late J G Farrell has been
announced as the winner of the Lost Man
Booker Prize - a one-off prize to honour the
books published in 1970, but not considered
for the prize when its rules were changed.
It won by a clear majority, winning 38 per
cent of the votes by the international reading
public, more than double the votes cast for
any other book on the shortlist.
J G Farrell died in 1979. ‘Troubles’ is the
first in Farrell's Empire Trilogy, which was
followed by The Siege of Krishnapur (1973)
and The Singapore Grip (1978).
The Siege of Krishnapur won the Booker
Prize in 1973 and was shortlisted for the
Best of the Booker, a special award created
to mark the 40th anniversary of the prize in
2008.
Set in Ireland in 1919, just after the First
World War, Troubles tells the tragic-comic
story of Major Brendan Archer who has
gone to visit Angela, a woman he believes
may be his fiancé.
The winning book was voted for via the
Man Booker Prize website, chosen from a
shortlist of six selected by a panel of three
judges, all of whom were born in or around
1970.
The shortlist included The Birds on the
Trees by Nina Bawden (Virago); The Bay of
Noon by Shirley Hazzard (Virago); Fire
From Heaven by Mary Renault (Arrow);
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
(Penguin); The Vivisector by Patrick White
(Vintage).
Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Man
Booker Prizes, said: Troubles is a novel of
such lasting quality that it has never been
out of print in the 40 years since it was first
published. Had this been the winning novel
in 1970, JG Farrell would have gone on to
become the first author to win the Booker
Prize twice.
The Lost Man Booker Prize created to
honour the books of 1970 which missed out
on the chance to win the prize.
Umaru Yar’Adua
7May
The Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has
died at his presidential villa following a long
illness.
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Yar'Adua, 58, came to power in 2007
promising many reforms. Analysts say he
made the most progress in tackling unrest in
the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
16May
The former Vice-President and three-time
Chief Minister of Rajasthan in the past,
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died following
cardiac arrest.
Shekhawat, who often set the political
agenda in the State for half a century and
headed the first non-Congress government
in Rajasthan in 1977.
After the completion of his tenure as the 11
Vice-President (August 2002-July 2007), he
had been mostly shuttling between Delhi
and Jaipur.
Shekhawat, born in a farmer's family in
Kachariawas village of Sikar district in the
semi-arid Shekhawati region on October 23,
1923, could not complete his college studies
due to family constraints but he had kept the
quest for learning alive throughout life.
He first entered the Rajasthan Assembly as
an MLA from Sikar district's Datta Ramgarh
in 1952 and thereafter continued to be its
member till 2002 except for the period
between 1974 and 1977 when he was a
Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh
and for two years from 1972 to 1974 after
losing the election in the fifth Assembly. He
was Chief Minister from 1977 to 1980, 1990
to 1992 and from 1993 to 1998.
John Shepherd-Barron
20May
India-born Scot John Shepherd-Barron, the
man who invented the ATM, has died. The
businessman, who worked for the printing
firm De La Rue Instruments at the time,
came up with the concept of a self-service
cash dispenser in 1965 while lying in a bath
after getting to his bank too late to withdraw
money.
The first automated teller machine was
installed at a bank in London in 1967. And,
Reg Varney, one of the stars of popular TV
show 'On the Buses', became the first person
to withdraw cash.
The first ATM was operated by inserting a
special cheque that was matched against a
PIN number, and paved the way for
machines using plastic cards. There are now
nearly two million machines worldwide.
Tapen Chattopadhyay
25May
Tapen Chattopadhyay, famous for his role as
Goopi in Satyajit Ray's classic Goopi Gayen
Bagha Bayen (Goopi the singer Bagha the
drummer), died.
Chattopadhyay started his career in the
advertising department of a children's
magazine, Sandesh, before being cast by
Ray as Goopi.
The actor became famous overnight and
went on to play the same character in two
more films one directed by Ray and another
by Ray's son Sandip Ray.
Airborne BrahMos
1May
Pilot production of the air-launched version
of the India-Russia BrahMos missile has
started in Russia in line with plans to fit it in
the IAF's Su-30MKI fighter aircraft by
2012.
The first few missiles for factory tests have
been manufactured at the Strela production
association in the Orenburg Region, the
Regnum news agency reported quoting
regional government head Sergei Grachyov.
Once the ground tests were completed, the
plant would launch series production of the
airborne missile.
The 2.55-tonne BrahMos supersonic antiship missile has been modified, shedding
500 kg and getting a new ignition engine to
fire the missile at high altitudes.
The Su-30MKI also required modifications
to fit the missile under its belly and integrate
it into the plane's fire control system. The
Sukhoi Corporation is working to strengthen
the wings so that two more missiles can be
fitted in the flanks.
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Flight tests
BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture
between India and Russia, has started
designing a hypersonic version of the
BrahMos missile, BrahMos–II.
India, Japan
1May
India and Japan signed four memorandum of
understanding for building future cities of
India.
The eco friendly cities will be built in the
Delhi Mumbai industrial corridor, at a cost
of 90 billion dollars.
Following the signing of agreements, Union
Commerce and Industry minister Anand
Sharma said the largest ever project in the
world, will be completed within nine years.
The Minister said that the initial face will
comprise eleven investment jones and
thirteen industrial parks.
Sharma exuded confidence that this
development cum investment Project will
boost India's export up to four times.
The visiting Japanese Minister of Economy,
Trade and Industry, Naoshima, said that the
Smart Community Initiative, has the
potential to revolutionize infrastructure
development and emerge as a role model
that can be taken to other parts of the world.
Under the agreements Japanese consultants
will launch fesibility studies to set up the
first set of Smart Communities in Manesar
Bawal region in Haryana, Dahej and
Changodar in Gujarat and Shendra industrial
region in Maharashtra.
Labour Welfare Bill
4May
The Lok Sabha has passed a slew of labour
welfare measures, including a Bill to raise
the ceiling of gratuity for employees in
private sector to Rs.10 lakh from Rs.3.5
lakh.
The House has adopted without discussion
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill,
2010.
A corollary benefit of the gratuity ceiling
enhancement is that the amount will also
qualify for exemption from income tax.
Based on the representations and wide
consultation with all stakeholders, it was
proposed to enhance the ceiling of Rs.3.5
lakh on the maximum amount of gratuity
under the act.
The Lok Sabha also passed the Employees'
State Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2009, to
provide for medicare to workers in the
unorganised sector, especially those below
the poverty line (BPL).
The Bill proposes that the Employees' State
Insurance Corporation should participate in
the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to
cover BPL workers in the unorganised
sector.
The Statement of Objects and Reasons of
the Bill said it also proposed to increase the
age limit of dependents from 18 to 21 years
and provide for claims for accidents
occurring at work or while going to work.
The legislation was brought to the House in
2008 to replace an ordinance and was then
sent to the concerned parliamentary standing
committee.
Clinical Establishments Bill passed
The Lok Sabha has passed the Clinical
Establishments Bill to regulate private
hospitals and clinics.
It would also ensure that no clinic runs
unless it has been duly registered in
accordance with the prescribed procedure.
According to the Bill, every establishment
will have to follow minimum standards of
facilities and services for registration and
continuation of operation.
Rehabilitation Programme
4May
The World Bank has cleared Rs 4,000 crore
against the state's demand for Rs 14,000
crore for undertaking rehabilitation
programme for the Kosi river belt,
devastated by floods in 2008,
While Rs 3200 crore would be used for
reconstruction activities, Rs 800 crore would
be used for rehabilitation.
A majority of the amount would be extended
in soft loans, whereas a marginal sum would
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be provided as a grant-in-aid.
The exact modalities of the loan would be
worked out when the representatives of the
Centre, state government and the World
Bank would meet in June.
Wind Energy
5May
According to the Indian Wind Turbine
Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) wind
energy sector in India is all set to add over
5,000 MW generation capacity per annum
by 2015.
India has potential of generating about
48,000 mw power through wind energy.
With the availability of new technology
through powerful and taller masts, the total
potential can be pegged at about 1.2 lakh
mw.
He said the cost of production of a MW
power would be Rs 5 to 6.5 crore which is
much cheaper than the solar energy.
According to the data supplied by the
association, the country today has about
11,000 MW of installed wind energy
capacity and the utilisation (plant load
factor) is between 15 to 20 per cent.
The association with 13 wind turbine and
related equipment manufacturers has also
been lobbying for policy reforms in
expanding the wind energy generation.
According to it, 1,485 MW capacity was
added to the sector in 2008-09, and in 200910, it was about 1,576 MW.
During the current year, the industry hopes
to see an addition of about 2,000-2,200 MW
capacity in this year.
Green Benches Bill
6May
Parliament has approved the setting up of
specialised “green benches'' with the Rajya
Sabha approving the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) Bill to quickly dispose of
environmental protection cases. The Lok
Sabha had passed the Bill last month.
The Tribunal, with its headquarters at
Bhopal and five benches in the rest of the
country, will be headed by a sitting or
retired Supreme Court judge or the Chief
Justice of a High Court, and will
immediately take up 5,600 cases pending in
different courts.
Anybody can approach the National Green
Tribunal. It can be any individual, media
organisation or NGO. We are not choking
the access.
Compensation can be claimed in case of
death, disability, damage to property and
loss of business or employment.
Though no limit has been fixed for the
compensation, the tribunal may provide
relief and compensation to the victims as it
may think fit.
HR Council
6May
The health ministry has decided to speed up
its plans to form a National Council for
Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) to
take away the powers of statutory bodies
like Medical Council of India (MCI) to
recommend approvals for medical colleges.
The push for NCHRH comes against the
backdrop of the alleged corruption charges
raised against MCI President Ketan Desai.
Under the current MCI rules, the health
ministry does not have powers to remove an
MCI president elected by its members.
Desai, in CBI custody for allegedly
accepting Rs 2 crore as bribe for sanctioning
a medical college in Punjab, has indirectly
fast-tracked the move to introduce a new
law that overrides Medical Council Act
1956.
The draft NCHRH Bill, which was being
circulated among the states for their
feedback, talked about repealing MCI Act
and replacing it by a new Act that would
redefine MCI’s and other councils’ roles in
approval of medical and health institutions.
The Bill would soon undergo some
finetuning before it was introduced in
Parliament.
In addition to the Medical Council Act, the
Pharmacy Act, 1948, The Dentists Act,
1948, The Indian Nursing Council Act,
1947, and the Rehabilitation Council of
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India Act, 1992, stand to be repealed by the
proposed new Act.
The draft Bill makes it clear that in case of a
dispute between the central government and
NCHRH, the decision of the central
government will prevail.
NCHRH will maintain a national live
electronic register of health professionals to
be known as the “National Register of
Human Resources in Health”, which shall
contain the names of all persons who are for
the time being enrolled on any board and
who possess any of the recognised
qualifications.
Reservation to Gurjar
7May
The Rajasthan government has approved
one percent reservation to Gurjar and three
other communities in government jobs.
The government has conceptually agreed for
five percent reservation under OBC for these
communities and will plead in the High
Court in this matter.
The Chief Minister said that recruitment
process for 80,000 posts in the state will
continue and four percent post would be
reserved for these communities.
Scholarships Scheme
8May
The government has decided to wind up the
Rs 1,000-crore corpus parked with the State
Bank for the national scholarship scheme
and replace it with budgetary provisions.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
The CCEA approved modification in the
National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship
Scheme so as to wind up the corpus of Rs
1,000 crore with State Bank of India.
The annual provision will be made in the
budget towards the scholarship amount and
the reimbursement of the cost of conducting
the selection tests as well as other
administrative costs.
In 2007 the government had announced a
National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship
Scheme to award 1,00,000 scholarships
annually, under which each student would
be given Rs 6,000 per annum for studying
IX to XII classes and the scheme was
launched in 2008-09.
The government had also announced that an
initial corpus fund of Rs 750 crore would be
created in the State Bank, the yield of which
is to be utilised to disburse the scholarships.
The Rs 750 crore was to be added every
year to the corpus for the next three financial
years raising it to Rs 3,000 crore.
Accordingly, a corpus fund of Rs 750 crore
was created with SBI in 2008-09.
However, in 2009-10, only Rs 250 crore was
added to the corpus fund raising it to Rs
1,000 crore.
India& Bangladesh
8May
India and Bangladesh have signed a
Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate
operation of border haats and also agreed on
the modalities for trade through these haats.
The MoU was finalised at the end of the two
day meeting of the India -Bangladesh Joint
Working Group on Trade in Dhaka.
The border haats will initially be set up on a
pilot basis at two places along the IndiaBangladesh border in Meghalaya. The two
day meeting also discussed ways and means
to promote bilateral investments by
organising trade fairs and exhibitions.
Bangladesh has also provided a list of 61
items to be removed from the negative list to
enable increase in exports to India.
Lander for Chandrayaan-II
10May
Russia will develop a lander that will ferry a
rover to explore the moon's surface as part
of the Chandrayaan-II mission, slated for
launch in 2013. The GSLV will be the
launch vehicle for Chandrayaan-II and the
prime responsibility of realising the lander is
Russia's. The rover, to be realised by us
[Indian Space Research Organisation], will
carry out in situ probe on the moon's
surface. We will also develop the scientific
instruments to go around with it.
Unlike Chandrayaan-I, whose moon-impact
probe did a hard-landing on the moon, the
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lander ferried by the Chandrayaan-II orbiter
to soft-land on the moon's surface would be
about 1,200 kg. While the rover interface
would be done by us, the lander interface
with the rover would be developed by
Russia.
India & Japan
10 May
India and Japan are quietly working on an
inter-governmental agreement on civilian
nuclear energy so that the 123 Agreement
between India and the US, currently in the
last lap of political negotiation before the
US Congress, can be fully implemented on
the ground in India.
According to the broad contours of this
agreement, New Delhi will promise not to
conduct any more nuclear tests in exchange
for Japanese permission to its companies,
Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi to go ahead
and partner with US and French companies
seeking to build civilian nuclear plants in
India.
The India-Japan agreement, in fact, very
much mirrors the 123 Agreement between
India and the US. New Delhi’s promise not
to conduct any nuclear tests in the Indo-US
nuclear deal is also accompanied by the vow
that it will return all material and equipment
to the US in case that happens.
India has already committed to Areva to
build a nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in
Maharashtra, the US has got two sites in
Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and the
Russians, besides expanding the site at
Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu will also set up
another plant in Haripur, West Bengal. Each
country has been allotted the manufacture of
approximately 10,000 Mw of nuclear energy
so that India can meet its target of 40,000
Mw by 2032.
Healthcare Project
10May
The World Bank has approved a $117.70
million (around Rs 517 crore) IDA credit to
improve the quality of and access to health
services in Tamil Nadu.
This comes as additional financing to the
Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project which
was approved on December 16, 2004, with
an IDA credit of $110.83 million (around Rs
485 crore).
The loan from the International
Development Association (IDA) has a 35year maturity, including a 10-year grace
period. “Tamil Nadu has made significant
strides in improving the health status and
increasing access to healthcare services in
the last decade.
According to the recent National Family
Health Survey (2005-2006), the state’s
infant mortality rate has dropped 35 per cent
since the previous survey (1998-1999).
These improvements are in part due to a
significant increase in the overall
vaccination coverage of children between 12
and 23 months. The overall nutrition status
of children under three has also improved,
with an 18 per cent reduction in underweight
children. The state’s maternal mortality ratio
fell from 167 deaths per 100,000 live births
in 1999 to 111 deaths per 100,000 live births
in 2006.
India& Singapore
12May
India and Singapore decided to double their
trade in the next five years from $16 billion
to $32 billion.
India also asked Singapore to recognise its
professionals, such as doctors, nurses,
accountants and architects in Singapore.
Both the countries also launched the second
review of the India-Singapore free trade and
services agreement officially known as the
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation
Agreement (CECA).
India also signed a pact with Singapore for
greater market access for its generic (offpatent) drugs in the Southeast Asian nation.
The two countries also set new targets for
their economic engagement in terms of
further removing trade barriers and
encouraging the flow of people from one
country to the other.
Both signed a ‘Special scheme for
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registration of generic medicinal products
from India' that seeks to fast-track the
registration process for domestic off-patent
medicines in that country.
The pact would help create new
opportunities for the $25-billion Indian
generic medicine market in Singapore. With
the arrival of Indian generic drugs in the
global market, the cost of life-saving
medicines had come down significantly and
helped people in African and Latin
American nations.
Technical & Agri Colleges
12May
Bihar cabinet has decided to set up an
engineering college at Begusarai and an
agriculture university at Purnia with an
investment of Rs 139.72 crore.
Cabinet and Co-ordination Secretary, Afazal
Amanullah told that a sum of Rs 62.22 crore
was sanctioned for establishing an
engineering college at Begusarai.
The institution would be named after poet
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar who hailed from the
area.
He said that the government also decided to
establish an agriculture university at Purnia
at a cost of Rs 77.50 crore.
The agriculture university would be named
after Bhola Paswan Shashtri, a three time
former Bihar chief minister.
The cabinet also sanctioned a sum of Rs
8.15 crore for constructing the building and
hostel premises for constructing the building
to house the students of civil engineering
and information techonolgy (IT) at Birla
Institute of Technology of Bihar chapter.
Unbanked Villages
12May
State Bank of India (SBI) wants to extend its
footprint to 11,943 unbanked villages, with a
population of at least 2,000, this financial
year.
The country’s largest lender recently
submitted its plan to the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI).
RBI had asked all Indian banks to submit
their plans on financial inclusion, duly
approved by their respective boards. The
central bank also wanted to know the
coverage plan for unbanked villages.
Out of 6,00,000 villages in the country,
about 64,000 villages with a population of
more than 2,000 are deprived of a formal
banking channel. The proposed target for
SBI shouldn’t be difficult as the bank has
already extended banking facilities to
1,00,000 villages, that were unbanked
before.
According to the plan submitted to the
central bank, SBI will open branches in 512
villages, while the rest will be covered by
business correspondents (BCs).
The state-run lender will start charging
customers who are accessing banking
facilities in the unbanked villages through
the BC model.
Other public sector banks are also gearing
up for the expanded financial inclusion
project and have submitted their plans to
RBI. Bank of India is planning to extend
banking services to 7,000 such villages in
the next three years, of which 2,100 will be
covered before March 31, 2011.
Bank of Baroda will be extending services
to 3,000 unbanked villages, with a
population of more than 2,000 in the current
year.
Union Bank of India also aims to provide
banking facilities at least once a week to
4,500 villages having more than 2,000
populations. In addition, Union Bank will
spread banking services to 2,500 unbanked
villages, over and above the plan that has
been submitted to RBI.
India & Finland
12May
India and Finland have signed a
Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) for the
development of road infrastructure. Under
the MoC, an Indo-Finnish Joint Working
Group (JWG) has been established to
promote and activate institutional
cooperation.
The Memorandum signed between the Road
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Transport and Highways Minister, Kamal
Nath and his Finnish counterpart in
Helsinki, envisages exchange of information
between road transport and road
construction experts of the two countries,
especially in the field of Public Private
Partnership for infrastructure development.
N-deal with Kazakhstan
13May
India and Kazakhstan inched closer to
inking two crucial bilateral agreements,
including a key civil nuclear deal, as they
agreed to deepen cooperation in the
hydrocarbon sector.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who
is on a three-day visit to Kazakhstan, held
discussions on a deal for civilian nuclear
cooperation with his counterpart Kanat B
Saudavayeb.
India has already signed an umbrella
agreement for this purpose during President
Nazarbayev's visit to New Delhi in January
2009.
India & Venezuela
14May
In a big-ticket investment aimed at giving a
boost to its holding of oil and gas assets
abroad, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
Videsh Limited (OVL), along with its
partners, entered into an agreement with the
Venezuelan government to develop a $20billion oil project in that country.
The project is expected to give India 3.6
million tonnes of crude a year. OVL and its
partners signed the agreement with Petroleos
de Venezuela SA (PdV) for development
and production of hydrocarbons from the
Carabobo project in the Orinoco region.
Spain's Repsol-YPF SA, Petroliam Nasional
Bhd (Petronas) of Malaysia and OVL each
hold a 11 per cent stake in the consortium
that will produce 400,000 barrels of oil a
day. IOC and Oil India Limited will each
have 3.5 per cent interest in the joint venture
to develop the Carabobo 1 Norte and
Carabobo 1 Centro blocks, located in the
Orino Heavy Oil Belt. Corporacion
Venezolana del Petroleo, a unit of PdV, will
hold the remaining equity. About half of the
production from the joint venture, called
PetroCarabobo SA, will be upgraded light
crude oil for export. The project cost has
been pegged at $15–20 billion.
National Defence Varsity
14May
The Union Cabinet has accorded inprinciple approval for the setting up of an
autonomous defence university that is
expected to provide inputs to strategic policy
making. It will be set up under an Act of
Parliament.
The proposed university, one of the
suggestions made to tone up national
security by a post-Kargil War review
committee, will come up in Gurgaon district
of Haryana at a cost of about Rs. 300 crore
on a 200-acre campus.
NDU will undertake long-term defence and
strategic studies and create synergy between
the academic community and government
functionaries.
It will promote policy oriented research on
all aspects relating to national security as an
input to strategic national policy making.
15 May 2010
NATGRID
15May
The ambitious Union Home Ministry project
NATGRID will undergo independent audit
by the Cabinet Committee on Security
headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The move to have an independent audit was
taken by the government to prevent any
misuse of inter-linked data or any privacy
issues that might arise.
The project, which will help law
enforcement and spy agencies to get quick
access to desired information by integrating
present data with various departments, is
likely to be operational by mid next year.
The NATRGRID will have independent
audit by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
To enter the data, one needs to have an
authorisation code.
They said fears expressed on issues related
to privacy raised by certain stakeholders
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initially have been addressed and work is on.
The NATGRID will give access to about 21
categories of database like railway and air
travel, income tax, bank account details,
credit card transactions, visa and
immigration records in the country.
The NATGRID is expected to facilitate
robust information sharing by security
agencies and law enforcement agencies to
combat terror threat at home and abroad.
Defence Commission
15May
Government has set up of a new Defence
Technology Commission to provide a major
boost to research and development and
decided to go for the second generation of
main battle tank 'Arjun' and 'Akash' surfaceto-air missile.
The decision to set up the Commission with
Defence Minister A K Antony as its chief
forms part of a series of measures aimed at
transforming and revitalising the Defence
Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) in form and substance.
A new Defence Technology Commission
will now be established with the Defence
Minister as its Chairman and supported by a
Secretariat located at DRDO Headquarters,
Antony, who approved the
recommendations of a committee under
former Science and Technology Secretary P
Rama Rao that was set up in February 2007
to restructure DRDO.
After the committee had submitted its report
to Antony a year later, another team headed
by Defence Secretary was formed to study
the report and submit recommendations for
implementation.
The government has also given its nod to
development of second generation of main
battle tank 'Arjun' and 'Akash' surface-to-air
missile by DRDO.
Ordinance on MCI
16May
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has
signed an ordinance empowering the
government to dissolve the Medical Council
of India, a regulatory body responsible for
maintaining standards of medical education.
With the promulgation of the ordinance, the
government created a seven-member Board
of Governors that took over the functioning
of the 30-member executive council, the
highest decision-making body of the MCI
that stands dissolved. The remaining council
has been kept in “abeyance.”
While there is a provision for a board of
seven members, the Centre announced six
members including the chairperson. The
Board of Governors will be chaired by Dr.
S.K. Sarin, Department of Gastroenterology,
G.B. Pant Hospital. The other members are:
Dr. Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya in
Bangalore; Dr. Gautam Sen, former Dean of
the J.J. Hospital Mumbai; Dr. Sita Nayik of
Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Medical
Institute in Lucknow; Dr. Ranjit Roy
Chowdhury, clinical pharmacologist and
Emeritus Scientist at the National Institute
of Immunology, and Dr. S.M. Salhan, Dean
of Sikkim-Manipal University.
Act amended
Amending the Indian Medical Council Act,
1956, the government has inserted Article 3
(a) through the ordinance that authorises the
government to intervene in matters of
“national policy.”
In case of a dispute over “national policy,”
the view of the government will prevail.
The ordinance will be in effect for one year.
The original executive body will become
functional again, if the government does not
dissolve the MCI.
However, in all probability the government
will split the MCI with medical education
falling within the purview of the National
Commission for Higher Education and
Research as proposed by the Ministry of
Human Resource Development and the
licensing part going with the National
Council for Human Resources in Health
being piloted by the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare.
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Boeing with ISRO
17May
To expand cooperation with the Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its
moon mission, the United States is offering
assistance through Boeing, which partners
with the National Aeronautics Space
Administration (NASA) on its space
exploration programme.
Having worked with NASA on the
Chandryaan mission, the ISRO is in talks
with Boeing, which has a commercial crew
development contract with NASA, as a key
teammate to initiate the design and
development architecture of a commercial
transport to and from the International Space
Station.
On commercial crew transportation, the
Boeing says it has the expertise to offer the
Launch Escape System (LES), Vehicle
Health Monitoring System and Abort
Triggers (VHMSAT), Life Support System,
Crew Accommodations and other areas such
as reusable space systems and composite
cryogenic tanks.
Although it has had the LES, aimed at
providing a means for the crew to escape
unharmed from a catastrophic failure during
ascent, since the maiden Apollo-11 mission,
it has been upgraded. The Pad Abort –1 test
was carried out successfully on May 6.
The five-stage launch abort system has an
adaptor cone attached to the crew module,
followed by an abort motor, jettison motor,
forward inter stage, attitude control motor
(ACM) and the nose cone. The ACM steers
the launch abort system and the crew
module away from the launch vehicle and
then orients the crew module for parachute
deployment.
The crew module takes about 90 seconds to
touch down from the time when the abort
execute command is issued.
In the run-up to the launch, the VHMSAT is
designed to constantly monitor the system
and command the escape system in case a
failure is detected while the Life Support
System removes the carbon dioxide and
controls humidity.
With India showing more interest in
reusable space systems, Boeing is putting
that on offer, while the crew accommodation
includes seats, pressure suits and other
control systems.
In August last, ISRO invited Boeing to a
technology conference on robotic space
mission. India carried NASA and other
international sensors on the Chandrayaan-1
lunar orbiter and partners with Russia in the
development of Chandrayaan-II, planned for
launch in the 2013-15.
Power
17May
The Planning Commission has set targets to
augment the country's infrastructure this
fiscal, including adding 20,359 MW of
power generation capacity and 2,500 km of
highways.
The goal for at least the power sector is
ambitious given the failure to meet even last
year's subdued target.
The plan panel had set 14,507 MW power
generation capacity target in 2009-10, but
actual addition was just 9,585 MW.
Similarly, the target for highway last fiscal
was 3,165 km, while the actual completion
was 2,008 km.
The investment target for roads has been
pegged at Rs 35,680 crore in 2010-11,
higher than Rs 29,934 crore in the last fiscal.
Again, the actual investments that came in
into the sector last fiscal were Rs 11,608
crore.
Agni II
17May
India has test fired the nuclear-capable
intermediate range Agni II missile from the
Wheelers Island off the Orissa coast.
India test fired the missile with a range of
over 2,000 km, from a launch site in Orissa.
The user trial of the missile was conducted
by the Special Strategic Command Force
(SSC) raised by Army with necessary
logistic support provided by various
laboratories of the ITR and Defence
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Research and Development Organisation
scientists.
A DRDO scientist said it was a training
exercise to familiarise the end-users with
different operational conditions.
The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked
by a battery of sophisticated radars,
telemetry observation stations, electro-optic
instruments and a naval ship located near the
impact point in the down range of Bay of
Bengal.
The 20-metre long Agni-II is a two stage,
solid-propelled ballistic missile. It has a
launch weight of 17 tonnes and can carry a
payload of 1000 kg over a distance of 2000
km.
Agni-II was developed by Advanced
Systems Laboratory along with other DRDO
laboratories and integrated by the Bharat
Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad.
The missile is part of the Agni series which
includes Agni-I with a 700 km range and
Agni-III with a 3,500 km range, Agni-I has
already been inducted and Agni-III is in the
process of induction.
The first trial of Agni-II was carried out on
April 11, 1999. Though some of the
subsequent trials were successful, the user
trial conducted on May 19, 2009 and the
first night trial on November 23, 2009 from
Wheelers Island could not meet all the
parameters.
Military Drill
17May
India and Russia will hold a joint military
drill nicknamed Indra-2010 with the
involvement of more than 150 Russian
servicemen from the motorised mountain
infantry brigade.
India and Russia have been holding joint
war games for several years now with the
involvement of all the three services of their
armed forces.
In 2007 and 2008, the paratroopers from the
two nations had carried out joint anti-terror
war games in Agra and Russia's Pskov
region bordering on NATO-member
Estonia.
Russia, which has raised independent
motorised (mountain) brigade in the wake of
militancy and its frontiers rolling back to
North Caucasus following the Soviet
collapse, is keen to learn from India's
experience of mountain warfare and training
expertise.
Arjun Tanks
17May
The Indian Army will buy an additional 124
indigenous Arjun main battle tanks (MBT),
after the armoured platform proved its
worthiness against the Russian-built T-90
MBT in a gruelling trial of strength in the
Thar desert.
The army had already placed orders for 124
Arjun tanks, of which about 50 tanks were
handed over to it in 2009.
This is over and above the existing order of
124 tanks. The development follows the
success of the indigenous MBT Arjun.
During six months of trials, the DRDO,
along with tank crews from the Army''s 43
Armoured Regiment, proved not only the
Arjun's endurance, but also the ability of its
computer-controlled gun to consistently
blow away small-sized targets placed a
kilometre away, during the trials conducted
at the Mahajan Ranges near Bikaner in
Rajasthan.
After many years of trial and tribulation, it
has now proved its worth by its superb
performance under various circumstances,
such as driving cross-country over rugged
sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly
engaging targets and accurately hitting
targets - both stationary and moving -with
pin-point accuracy.
Its superior fire power is based on accurate
and quick target acquisition capability
during day and night in all types of weather
and shortest possible reaction time during
combat engagements.
The MBT Arjun, remains a contemporary
battle tank and far superior than the T-54, T55, and T-72 tanks that the Army has been
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using over the years.
The T-90S and the MBT Arjun have their
special features. The MBT Arjun has more
power to weight ratio, hydro-pneumatic
suspension for better ride comfort and a
stable platform to fire on the move, better
quality class of Gun Control System and
Fire Control System etc.
The Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in
Avadi, near Chennai, is producing the 60tonne tank.
FDI in Defence
17May
The govt has proposed to raise FDI in
defence production to 74 pc, saying it would
help ensure technology transfer and funds to
effectively replace imports, estimated at
over USD 8 billion.
Mooting a discussion for raising FDI from
26 percent in defence production to the same
level as telecom sector, the Industry
Ministry also sought to allay security
concerns and impact on domestic players,
saying effective checks could be put to
tackle any "suspect" company.
Leading industry chamber CII, which had
earlier asked the government to limit FDI to
49 percent only, declined comments while
no reaction could be obtained from FICCI.
Another industry chamber Assocham said it
is a strategic and sensitive sector and
opening up FDI from 26 percent to 74
percent straightaway "will not be a prudent
step.
Cyclone Laila
19May
Coastal areas of north Tamil Nadu and
Andhra Pradesh are expected to witness
heavy rains and very strong winds as
cyclone 'Laila' intensified in the Bay of
Bengal about 700 km south-east of Chennai.
The current environmental conditions and
weather models suggest that the system is
likely to intensify further and move in a
west-northwesterly direction towards
Andhra Pradesh coast.
India& Oman
19May
India and Oman agreed to accelerate their
cooperation in maritime security and
discussed piracy in the Gulf of Aden and
terrorism. Visiting Indian Defence Minister
A.K. Antony, who is on a two-day visit to
the Gulf nation called on Sultan of Oman
Qaboos bin Said bin Thaimour Al Said, who
is also the supreme commander of the armed
forces of the country.
Raising their concerns in maritime security
which has emerged as a major aspect of
India's security concerns in the aftermath of
the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Antony said Maritime security has also
become a global concern due to the pirate
attacks in the Gulf of Aden. Piracy off the
coast of Somalia has been growing over the
years and has now assumed alarming
proportions.
Antony said 16 Indian Navy vessels have
been deployed in the Gulf of Aden at
various time to protect Indian-flagged ships
and Indian citizens employed on seafaring
duties.
In addition to escorting Indian ships, vessels
of other nations have also been escorted.
India said its economic and development
activities in Afghanistan would continue,
despite terrorist attacks on Indians there, till
peace returns to the war-ravaged nation.
Globemaster
21May
The Indian Air Force's quest to acquire a
tactical heavy lift transport aircraft from the
United States will get under way with user
trials scheduled for next month in India.
In the last week of April, the U.S.
Department of Defense notified Congress of
a letter of request from the Indian
government for acquiring 10 of Boeing
Globemaster III.
The trials would be one part of a possible
$5.8-billion deal, negotiations for which will
begin only after Congress approves the sale.
The product Boeing offers is the latest Block
18 aircraft, and much will depend on the
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configuration the IAF will want.
It is for India to decide whether it wants to
join the worldwide virtual fleet Boeing has
set up with other countries Australia,
Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, the
UAE and the European Union consortium of
12 nations that have bought these planes.
The IAF plans to base these tactical aircraft
at Agra. They can carry 73,616 kg of
payload and can be operated by a crew of
just three.
Delivery will begin 24 months after the
contract is signed. At present, Boeing is
producing one plane every three-and-a-half
weeks, or up to 15 a year. Its current order
book, including some 30-odd pieces for the
U.S. Air Force, will run on till 2011.
N-submarine
21May
The navy is firing on all cylinders to get a
headstart on operating nuclear submarines,
the most complex machines to be ever built.
Indian submariners will get a chance to get
into the belly of HMS Talent when the
British nuclear submarine pulls into Indian
waters off the western coast in June.
The British hunter-killer submarine is armed
with the world’s most advanced sonar gear
and weaponry. Our crews are looking
forward to getting hands-on experience in
operating nuclear submarines. The 280-foot
long Talent carries a crew of 122.
The navy hopes to induct its first
indigenously-built nuclear submarine, INS
Arihant, by the end of 2011. Arihant will
complete the sea-leg of India’s nuclear triad
and give it enduring nuclear strike and
counter-strike capabilities. India can carry
out nuclear strikes with fighter planes and
land-launched missiles.
The navy is also on the verge of
commissioning the K152 Nerpa Akula-II
nuclear submarine being leased from Russia
for 10 years. The US, Russia, the UK,
France and China are the only countries that
can deliver nuclear warheads from a
submarine.
India & Turkmenistan
25May
India and Turkmenistan signed five
agreements to enhance bilateral trade and
cooperation.
These include, agreement on economic and
trade cooperation, agreement on scientific
and technological cooperation, education
exchange programme, cooperation in the
fields of culture, art, tourism, science,
education, mass media and sports besides
inter governmental agreement on mutual
exemption of visas for diplomatic passport
holders.
The agreements were signed in New Delhi
following delegation level talks between the
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and
the visiting President of Turkmenistan
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
Agni-5
26May
Indigineously developed Inter-Continental
Ballistic Missile Agni-5 is expected to
become a reality by next year. DRDO chief
V K Saraswat said ,with this capability of
the over 5,000 km range missile, DRDO
would have given India a comprehensive
indigenous strategic capability, available
with only a few nations of the world .
Agni-5 will be the first considered ballistic
missile with range of over 5,000 km into
Indian inventory, bringing possible military
targets in the whole of China and Pakistan
within striking range.
The missile is likely to be tested early next
year.
Missiles which are capable of being
launched from canisters can be fired from
multiple platforms and are easily
transportable.
Online Permits
26May
Punjab has become the first state in country
to launch online National Permits for trucks
and heavy vehicles as Deputy Chief Minister
Sukhbir Singh Badal handed over permits to
truck operators within minutes of their filing
applications at Patiala.
He said that obtaining national permit was a
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cumbersome as well as costly process with
transporters being forced to shell out Rs
3000 per state every year for the permit.
He said that he believed in the principal of
‘one country one permit’ and this national
permit at a meager cost of Rs 15,000 would
give freedom to the truck operator to operate
his truck from Kashmir to Kanyakumari
without any additional tax.
India & Japan
27May
India has opened talks on civil nuclear
energy with Japan and both sides have
decided to set up a working group to
examine the possibility of cooperation
during an extended interaction between
Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and
Industry Masayuki Naoshima and Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Montek
Singh Ahluwalia.
Japan is the most reluctant among countries
with either uranium reserves or nuclear
reactors to enter into cooperation with
countries reluctant to accede to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
The working group was formed under the
rubric of the energy dialogue between the
two countries.
Civilian Aircraft
28May
The high-powered committee for building
the first indigenous civilian aircraft in India
has decided to configure a 90-seater civilian
aircraft and is expected to give its report
within the next year to the government.
India is going ahead with the project despite
the two decade-old experimentation with
Saras, a 14-seater passenger aircraft, yet to
get into commercial production.
The committee, chaired by former Indian
Space Research Organisation Chairman G
Madhavan Nair has members from the
National Aerospace Laboratory, Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian
Space Research Organisation and other
industry experts.
Indo-Sino
28May
India and China inked an agreement on
streamlining the visa system for airline staff
and two Memorandums of Understanding
(MoU) for extending cooperation in the
areas of sports and civil administration.
The airline staff of India and China will
henceforth enjoy visa free travel between
their countries following an agreement
signed during the visit of Indian President
Pratibha Patil. The agreement on
streamlining airline staff visas was signed by
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu
Zhengyue.
"Streamlining the visas would now mean
that the airlines staff of the two countries
will now enjoy visa free entry and exit.
The second document that was signed was
between the Indian Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pension and the
Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and
Social Security on cooperation in the field of
civil services, personnel management and
public administration. The third MoU was
on sports cooperation between the two
countries. The MoU was between the Indian
sports ministry and the Chinese General
Administration of Sports.
NE Development
29May
The Centre has lined up "massive
investments" to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore
for infrastructure development of NorthEastern Region in the 11th plan.
In the current plan, massive investments
have been lined up for infrastructure
development of North-Eastern Region. We
would be investing Rs 31,000 crore in these
five years which will bring a change in the
infrastructure scenario of the region.
Passport Seva Project
29May
With a motive to improve the quality of
passport services to Indian citizens, External
Affairs Minister S. M Krishna has launched
the Passport Seva Project in Bangalore.
This is an ambitious e-governance
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programme.
Krishna said that launch of Passport Seva
Project marks a red letter day in the quest of
his ministry.
As part of the pilot project, four PSKs were
opened in Karnataka - two in Bangalore and
one each in Hubli and Mangalore. Three
more centres will be opened in Punjab in the
first week of June.
If the pilot project is certified as a success at
the end of three months, then 77 more such
kendras will be rolled out in three phases.
Besides, there will be 14 mini-PSKs most of
them in the northeastern region.
In October 2008, IT major Tata Consultancy
Service (TCS) signed an agreement with the
ministry of external affairs to be the service
provider for the project that is reported to be
around Rs.1,000 crore.
The Passport Seva Project is a path breaker
in more than one way. It involves several
innovations. It is the first national level
project capturing biometrics and has set up
the first government call centre in 18
languages.
Syria & Russia
12May
Syria and Russia have agreed to enhance
bilateral cooperation on economic and
energy-related areas at a meeting between
President Bashar-AL-Assad and his visiting
Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in
Damascus.
Addressing a joint news conference with
Medvedev in Damascus, President Assad
said visit of Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev to Syria reflects the extent to
which the relations between Syria and
Russia have reached over the past decades.
Exporting Countries
17May
India, China, US and Japan have topped the
list of exporting counties to the UAE in
March 2010 with a total export value of 24.6
billion dirhams-- 60 per cent of the total
value of the country's imports.
Germany, UK, Italy, Switzerland, France
and Malaysia were the other countries in the
list. According to preliminary statistics
released by the Federal Customs Authority,
the UAE's non-oil foreign trade was about
63 billion dirhams by the end of March
2010.
This is made of 40.8 billion dirhams of
imports, 6.8 billion dirhams of exports and
15.4 billion dirhams worth of re-exports.
Meanwhile, the weight of the UAE's total
foreign trade during the same period was 5.8
million tonnes, including 3. 7 million tonnes
for imports 1.4 million tonnes for exports
and 0.7 million tonnes for e-exports.
India, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Belgium, Switzerland and
Germany represented 70 per cent of the total
re-export value at 10.8 billion dirhams.
The Authority said that the total value of
non-oil trade with GCC states, according to
preliminary figures of March 2010,
amounted to 4.7 billion dirhams.
The shares of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman,
Bahrain and Kuwait were 1.8 billion
dirhams, 813 million, 769 million, 800
million and 542 million, respectively.
Synthetic Cell
22May
Three Indian American scientists Sanjay
Vashee, Radha Krishnakumar and Prashanth
P. Parmar were part of the 24 member team
led by Genomic scientist Craig Venter who
spearheaded the creation of the first ever
synthetic cell. The team has been succesful
in creating an artificial life form using a
genetic code written on a computer. This
excercise in genetic engineering can create a
living bacterial cell by artificially induced
man made gentic instructions and
transferring this into a bacterium to alter its
natural code. Consequently the man made
genome can result in the bacterial cell
replicating and make new set of proteins.
Venus Probe
22May
A Japanese rocket blasted off early carrying
a Venus probe and a kite-shaped "space
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yacht" designed to float through the cosmos
using only the power of the sun.
The launch vehicle, the H-2A rocket, took
off from the Tanegashima space centre in
southern Japan.
Live footage on the website of Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
showed the rocket disappears into the sky.
It carried with it the experimental "Ikaros"
an acronym for Interplanetary Kite-craft
Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun
designed to be propelled by the pressure of
sunlight particles.
Similar to an ocean yacht pushed by wind,
the device has a square, ultra-thin and
flexible sail, measuring 14 by 14 metres,
that will be driven through space as it is
pelted by solar particles.
The name of the spacecraft alludes to Icarus,
the figure from Greek mythology who flew
too close to the sun. The space yacht,
however, is headed in the direction of
Venus.
China, U.S.A.
28May
China and the U.S. have signed eight green
energy deals to enhance cooperation in the
sector, which experts believe will open
doors for imports of high-end technology so
far blocked by Washington.
The eight deals include aviation bio fuel,
distributed energy systems using natural gas
as fuel, smart meters and cellulosic ethanol.
Neither side disclosed the financial details of
the deals.
The agreements followed conclusion of
high-level strategic and economic dialogue
between the two countries attended by
among others U.S. Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke.
As the world’s two largest energy
consumers, China and the US will also join
hands for renewable energy development.
ADB Meet
2May
Asian Development Bank opens its annual
meeting in Uzbekistan.
The four day meeting is expected to bring in
some three thousand participants including
heads of state, central bank governors and
finance ministers from among sixty-seven
member nations.
Finance Ministers Meet
2May
Eurozone finance ministers will meet in
Brussels to thrash out details of a multibillion euro rescue deal designed to help
Greece tackle its massive public debt.
The meeting will also be attended by
representatives from the European Central
Bank and the European Commission.
NPPA's Overpricing List
3May
Cipla, Ranbaxy, Pfizer, Dr Reddy's are
among the firms pulled up by the drug price
regulator National Pharmaceuticals Pricing
Authority (NPPA) for overcharging.
According to the information available on
the NPPA website, as on March 31, 2010,
the total estimated overcharged amount,
including interest, by various
pharmaceutical firms since the inception of
the NPPA in 1997 stood at a whopping Rs
2,150.38 crore. But so far, the Authority
could recover a paltry Rs 191.45 crore from
this and is fighting litigations in various
courts to recover the rest of the sum.
According to the Authority, the country's top
two firms Cipla and Ranbaxy, accounted for
over 50 per cent of the total overcharged
amount-- Rs 2,150.38 crore. While Cipla's
overcharged amount stood at Rs 1,382 crore,
that of Ranbaxy's it was at Rs 136.2 crore
during the period.
Though the NPPA has been in litigation
with Cipla over the issue it could not recover
any amount from the Mumbai- based
drugmaker, while the regulator has
recovered around Rs 30 crore from the
Delhi-based Ranbaxy.
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The NPPA was established on August 29,
1997 as an independent body of experts with
the task of fixing and revising drug prices,
both bulk drugs and formulations, to ensure
the availability.
Under the Drugs Prices Control Order of
1995, the NPPA is empowered to fix and
regulate the prices of medicines produced by
using 74 out of about 500 commonly used
bulk drugs, kept under statutory price
control. Under this provision, the Authority
can prosecute any drugmaker found
overcharging under the Essential
Commodities Act and can recover the
amount along with interest.
GDP Growth
3May
India Inc expects the economy to grow by
7.5 to 8.5 percent during the current fiscal
fuelled mainly by rising capital investment
and expanding exports, a CII survey has
said.
"Majority (of respondents) expects
economic growth to be in the 7.5-8.5 per
cent range," said the CII Business Outlook
Survey based on response from 458
companies.
The economy, according to RBI, is
estimated to grow by 8 per cent in the
current fiscal, up from 7.2 per cent in 200809. However, the government and Planning
Commission expect 8.5 per cent GDP
growth in 2010-11.
The industry optimism was also expressed in
the Business Confidence Index that rose to
67.6 points for April-September 2010-11,
compared to 66.1 points during the second
half of 2009-10, according to the survey.
Arcelor Mittal with Sail
3May
Unperturbed by its rival Posco's steel joint
venture with state-run Sail, world's number
one steel maker ArcelorMittal said it too
was in talks with the public sector company
but only that it was not in a race.
We will continue to look at various
opportunities in India or anywhere. We are
also in dialogue with SAIL. We are here to
establish a sustainable system. We can
create values for our company and for SAIL
and ultimately we can create value for the
country," ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO
L N Mittal said.
India's per capita steel consumption hovers
at around Rs 46 kg as against the global
average of 198 kg. Sail with an annual
production capacity of 14 million tonnes at
present is in process of enhancing its
capabilities to produce 60 million tonnes by
2020.
Norms for Credit Agencies
4May
The Securities and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI) has issued transparency and
disclosure norms for credit rating agencies
(CRAs) order to impart higher credibility to
the processes and procedures associated
with credit rating.
Recent events in the global financial system
have underlined the pivotal role that credit
ratings play. Effective use of credit ratings
by the users is crucially dependent upon
quality and quantity of disclosures made by
the credit rating agencies (CRAs.
The CRAs were asked to take necessary
steps to implement this circular immediately
and ensure its full compliance at the latest
by June 30.
The half-yearly disclosures, stipulated by the
regulator, would be made by the CRAs
within days from the end of the half-year
(March/September). The yearly disclosures
stipulated would be made by the CRAs
within 30 days from the end of the financial
year. However for 2009-10 only, the half
yearly and yearly disclosures stipulated
would be made by the CRAs by June 30.
SEBI stated that a CRA can make additional
disclosures other than those stipulated with
the prior approval of its board. The CRAs
were asked to communicate to SEBI the
status of the implementation of the
provisions of this circular by July 15. “They
shall also place the compliance status of this
circular before their boards. The CRA shall
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disclose its shareholding pattern as
prescribed by stock exchanges for a listed
company under clause 35 of the Listing
Agreement.
A CRA would be formulating policies and
internal codes for dealing with the conflict
of interests: A CRA shall ensure: that its
analysts do not participate in any kind of
marketing and business development
including negotiations of fees with the issuer
whose securities are being rated; that the
employees' involved in the credit rating
process and their dependants do not have
ownership of the shares of the issuer;
prompt review of the credit ratings of the
securities as and when any of its employees
joins the respective issuer.
The CRAs were asked to keep all records in
support of each credit rating and
review/surveillance thereof: The important
factors underlying the credit rating and
sensitivity of such credit rating to changes in
these factors; summary of discussions with
the issuer, its management, auditors and
bankers which have a bearing on the credit
rating; decisions of the rating committee(s),
including voting details and notes of dissent,
if any, by any member of the rating
committee.
If a quantitative model is a substantial
component of the credit rating process, the
rationale for any material difference
between the credit rating implied by the
model and the credit rating actually
assigned. These records should be
maintained till five years after maturity of
instruments and be made available to
auditors and regulatory bodies when sought
by them.
ULIP Features
4May
The Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority (IRDA) has issued further
modifications on guidelines related to unit
linked products, while reiterating that the
minimum policy term would be five years in
the case of individual products and group
products would continue to be on annually
renewable basis.
These modifications will come into effect
from July 1. These guidelines were issued
by the IRDA based on the insurance related
data as on year ending March 31, 2010, and
as a continuation of the ULIP guidelines
“Guidelines on Unit Linked Products”,
which had issued on December 21, 2005.
All linked products including
pension/annuity products must have a
minimum sum assured payable on death.
“All top-up premiums made during the
currency of contracts must have insurance
cover, treating it as single premium.”
In case of unit linked products providing
health insurance cover, the provision of
death benefit is not mandatory.
Oil Company
4May
India has acquired a Russian oil company
and bought equity stake in an oil field
project in Venezuela through consortium
route.
India has recently acquired a Russian oil
company named Imperial Energy through
ONGC Videsh (OVL). Apart from this, we
have acquired 18 per cent equity share in a
Venezuelan field project through consortium
mode.
Oil India Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and
OVL are the shareholders in the 18 per cent
stake.
DIFC Branch
4May
The Dubai International Financial Center
(DFIC) branch of the Punjab National Bank
was inaugurated by India's minister of state
for finance Namo Narain Meena.
The bank will offer an array of financial
services to corporate and professional
clients.
Through this branch, the bank nurtures
bigger ambitions for the UAE, Punjab
National Bank Chairman and Managing
Director K R Kamath said.
We are open to the idea of entering the
country's banking market through a joint
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venture or acquisition. We have to assess
how much capital will be required and what
sort of returns we can expect before a
decision on the same is made.
DIFC is the ideal gateway for Punjab
National Bank to launch its operations in the
MENA region, particularly as India–GCC
trade volumes continue to grow positively.
The bank runs branches in Hong Kong and
the United Kingdom and is also finalising its
entry into a few other markets, including
Canada and Australia.
PNB plans to establish 100,000 touch points
within three years from now as part of the
Vision 2013.
Fund for Fuel
5May
Finance Ministry agrees to give Rs 14,000
crore more to fuel retailers to make up for
losses on sale of LPG and kerosene.
Off-site ATMs
5May
The Reserve Bank has allowed urban
cooperative banks (UCBs) to open ATMs at
places other than their branches without its
prior approval.
It has been decided to allow well-managed
UCBs to set up off-site ATMs without
seeking approval through the annual
business plans.
For this such banks have to meet criteria like
continuous net profit for the last three years
and net non- performing assets should be
under 5 per cent.
Besides, the central bank said those UCBs
which want to set up ATMs should also
maintain minimum capital adequacy ratio of
10 per cent on a continuous basis with
minimum owned funds commensurate with
entry point capital norms for the centre
where the off-site ATM is proposed. That
apart, UCBs should not be defaulters in
terms of maintenance of statutory policy
reserves during the preceding financial year.
The annual monetary policy for 2010-11
unveiled last month said, well-managed
UCBs were required to submit annual
business plans, based on which centres were
allotted to them according to their choice of
opening of branches.
Centres where UCBs desire to open off-site
ATMs are also required to be included in
their annual business plan, the central bank
had said in the monetary policy.
Fund for Oil Firms
6May
The Finance Ministry has agreed to give an
additional Rs.14,000 crore to oil marketing
companies (OMCs) Indian Oil Corporation,
Bharat Petroleum Corporation and
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation to make
up for the losses incurred on sale of fuel and
cooking gas at subsidised rates.
The OMCs have lost Rs.31,621 crore on
selling domestic LPG and kerosene below
cost in 2009-10. Of this, the Finance
Ministry had previously released Rs.12,000
crore in cash and agreed to give an
additional Rs.14,000 crore.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli
Deora said we had sought Rs.19,620 crore in
compensation but the Finance Ministry has
agreed to give Rs.14,000 crore'.
The three OMCs lost Rs.46,051 crore on
selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and
PDS kerosene below imported cost in 200910.
SBI’s Terminals Deal
6May
State Bank of India has zeroed-in on two
US-based companies - Visa International
and Elavon Inc - as joint venture partners for
setting up a network of point-of-sale (POS)
terminals across the country.
The two foreign partners will help India's
biggest lender with payments technology
solutions for its ambitious plan to roll out six
lakh POS terminals at merchant
establishments over the next five years.
POS terminals are devices seen in retail and
hospitality establishments for processing
credit cards, debit cards, smart cards and
other electronically submitted transactions in
a traditional retail environment.
A retail POS system includes a computer,
monitor, cash drawer, receipt printer,
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customer display, barcode scanner,
integrated card processing system, a
signature capture device and a customer pinpad device. The merchant swipes the
customer's card at the terminal or keys-in
payment information and the terminal does
the rest.
Currently, merchant establishments in India
pay merchant acquiring banks between 1.5
and 2.5 per cent of the transaction value.
SBI is in the process of firming up the
details of the joint venture, including signing
of the memorandum of understanding,
shareholders' agreement, capital structure
and Foreign Investment Promotion Board
approval for capital infusion, with its
partners.
The joint venture partners will be inducted
into SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a wholly
owned company floated by the bank in
January 2010 for conducting merchant
acquiring business.
SBI will have majority shareholding (over
51 per cent stake) even after the wholly
owned subsidiary is converted into a joint
venture. The new entity will be a good
source of noninterest income.
Besides being a tool for acquiring and
retaining merchant establishments as
customers, the POS terminal will also
further the cause of financial inclusion as it
could be used as an alternative delivery
channel in areas where it is not feasible to
set up a branch or an ATM. As a further step
towards enhancing customer convenience in
using the plastic money, the RBI has
permitted cash withdrawals up to Rs 1,000 a
day per debit card issued in India at POS
terminals.
A merchant establishment's account gets
credited by about Rs 5 for every Rs 1,000
disbursed through the swiping of the card.
SBI has issued seven crore debit cards so far
and the POS terminal would help increase
their usage.
In the future, the bank is also envisaging use
of POS for mobile top-ups, utility bill
payments, booking of railway and movie
tickets.
Finance Bill
6May
Parliament has passed the finance bill for
2010-11, keeping the hike in duties on fuels
intact. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee
said in the Rajya Sabha that the present
fiscal situation did not permit a roll-back.
After this, the Upper House returned the Bill
to the Lok Sabha, thus completing the nineweek Budget exercise. Mukherjee had in the
Budget for 2010-11, raised excise and
customs duty on auto fuels to garner 26,000
crore rupees. The hike in duties had resulted
in petrol price being increased by 2.71
rupees a litre and diesel by 2.55 rupees per
litre.
GDP Grpwth
7May
According to United Nations report India is
likely to post economic growth of 8.3% in
2010.
The report - `Economic and Social Survey
of Asia and the Pacific 2010' - an annual
publication of the United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP) said the outlook for 2010
had improved significantly, with the AsiaPacific region's developing economies
forecast to grow by 7%, led by China at
9.5% and followed by India at 8.3%.
The report, however, urged the Asia-Pacific
region to increase social spending to
consolidate the region's stronger than
anticipated economic rebound and to spur a
fairer, more balanced and sustained
economic recovery over the long term.
Governments must embrace this opportunity
to secure the gains of economic rebound by
investing in social programmes that directly
benefit people hardest hit by the crisis, act to
reduce poverty and create a more sustainable
economy.
According to the report, even at the height
of this crisis, Asia and the Pacific was still
the fastest-growing region in the world,
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supported in large part by fiscal stimulus
packages adopted by the region's biggest
economies.
The survey, however, warned that rising
inflationary pressures, especially of food
products, and asset price bubbles, in a
number of countries would make 2010 a
complex year for policy makers who will
have to balance sustaining the momentum of
growth with financial stability.
Cash Limit
7May
People travelling abroad can now carry
foreign exchange up to $3,000 or its
equivalent amount in other currencies
without the Reserve Bank of India's consent.
In a circular, the RBI said it has increased
the cash limit for foreign travel from $2,000
to $3,000 with immediate effect. The
existing limit have been reviewed and it has
been decided to increase this ceiling, with
immediate effect.
This ceiling was last reviewed in November
2001.
However, for an amount of more than
$3,000, the travellers will have to seek the
central bank's permission.
The RBI also said these provisions would
not apply to those travelling to Iraq, Libya,
Iran, Russia and the CIS (former Soviet
central Asian republics) countries.
Those travelling to Iraq and Libya would
continue to get $5,000, adding that the
provisions for travellers to Iran, Russia and
CIS countries had not been altered.
Stake in IM Global
8May
Reliance Big Entertainment Limited
purchased an unrevealed majority
shareholding in 3-year-old film
sales/financing banner IM Global.
IM Global is the Los Angeles and Londonbased international film sales company,
which was founded by Stuart Ford in 2007.
In February 2010, the two companies
formed a sales alliance after which IM
Global began distributing Reliance's Hindi
film output internationally.
The successful sales alliance has now
progressed to Reliance acquiring a majority
stake in the company.
Carbon Fibre Factory
10May
India's first carbon fibre manufacturing
facility to produce light weight material for
use in sectors as diverse as aerospace to
infrastructure was commissioned.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam
inaugurated the carbon fibre plant set up by
Kemrock Industries at their sprawling
premises on the outskirts of this bustling
industrial township.
The Rs 250 crore facility begins
manufacture of carbon fibre under
technology transfer from the National
Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) that had
developed the ultra-light material for the
Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
The NAL, a constituent of the Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
will get upto five per cent of the turnover of
this facility as royalty for the next seven
years.
Help to Greece
10May
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has
approved a three-year, 30-billion-euro ($38billion) loan to Greece.
The loan is part of a 110-billion-euro,
European Union-IMF aid package to help
Greece out of its financial woes.
The IMF will make 5.5 billion euros
immediately available to Athens, with 10
billion over the course of the rest of the year
from the IMF and 30 billion from the EU
this year.
IMF Managing Director Dominique StraussKahn said the step would "contribute to the
broad international effort underway to help
bring stability to the euro area and secure
recovery in the global economy".
ECB Norms
12May
The Reserve Bank of India has allowed
infrastructure finance companies (IFCs) to
raise funds through external commercial
borrowings without obtaining its prior
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approval. IFCs can now raise funds through
ECBs up to 50 per cent of their owned funds
under the automatic route.
As a measure of liberalisation of the existing
procedures, it has been decided to permit the
IFCs to avail themselves of ECBs, including
the outstanding ECBs, up to 50 per cent of
their owned funds under the automatic route,
subject to their compliance with the
prudential guidelines already in place.
Companies raising more than 50 per cent of
their owned funds through the ECB window
would continue to require approval from
RBI.
Earlier, IFCs were permitted to raise funds
for on-lending to the infrastructure sector
only under the approval route. This move is
part of RBI's effort to ensure preferential
lines of credit to companies lending to the
infrastructure sector.
God Vending Machine
14May
The world's first gold vending machine
unveiled in a hotel in Abu Dhabi in the UAE
began attracting customers minutes after it
was opened.
Apparently unveiled to cater to Asians'
obsession with the yellow metal, the 'Gold
To Go' machine gives out one, five and 10
gram gold bars as well as gold coins.
The gold vending machine which was
formally opened is the creation of German
company and gives an instant display of
gold rates. It has been placed in Abu Dhabi's
super luxury Emirates' Palace Hotel.
The hotel is calling it its "Golden service".
Six gold coins of varied weights and
engraved with symbols of gold-producing
nations Canada, Australia and South Africa,
are also dispensed by the machine. A one
gram gold bar costs Rs 2,141.36, while a
five-gram bar goes for Rs 9,298.54 and Rs
56,832.41 for an ounce bar.
The machine is protected by a range of
security measures, including anti-money
laundering software. It also tracks the gold
price on fluctuating markets with an inbuilt
website that transmits the information every
10 seconds, and updates the price every 10
minutes.
G-15 Meeting
16May
Foreign ministers of the Group of 15 (G15)
developing countries, including India, began
their three-day meeting , with Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
expressing the hope they would be able to
find solutions to the global economic
crisis.G15 is considered as a base for
developing economic cooperation among
developing countries and promoting
dialogue among them.
Reliance
18May
Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries
(RIL) has joined hands with leading Russian
petrochemical firm, SIBUR to form a joint
venture in India to produce butyl rubber.
RIL said the butyl rubber would be
produced at its integrated petrochemical site
in Jamnagar. SIBUR will provide
proprietary technology for butyl rubber
polymerisation and its finishing while RIL
will supply monomers and its world class
infrastructure and utilities.
Edison Awards
19May
The world's cheapest car, Tata Nano, has
won gold prize in the best new product
segment under the transportation category at
the 2010 Edison Awards.
Recognised as America's innovation award,
the Edison Awards symbolise the
persistence and excellence personified by
Thomas Alva Edison.
The companies are judged on marketplace
innovation, marketplace success,
technological innovation, market structure
innovation, societal impact and design
innovation.
ICICI Bank
19May
Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) is set to merge
with ICICI Bank, the country’s largest
private sector lender. Under the deal, ICICI
Bank would give 25 shares for 118 shares
(1:4.72) of BoR.
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The proposal was approved in-principle by
the boards of the two banks. ICICI Bank
said it had entered into an agreement with
certain shareholders of BoR.
The swap indicates that ICICI bank is
paying a 90 per cent premium over BoR
stock’s closing price of Rs 99.50 on the
Bombay Stock Exchange.
The move to merge BoR with ICICI Bank
comes in the wake of regulatory pressure
mounted on the Tayals, who according to
Sebi, hold nearly 55 per cent stake in the
bank. At the end of 2009, the promoters held
a 28.6 per cent stake in the bank, according
to stock exchange data. Nearly 100 entities
related to the Tayals were barred from
dealing in securities.
ICICI BANK’S MERGER RECORD
1997: Takeover of ITC Classic Finance
1998: Takeover of Anagram Finance
2000: Merger with Bank of Madura
2002: ICICI and ICICI Bank Merge
2005: Acquires Russia’s Ivestitsionno
Kreditny Bank
2007: Amalgamation of Sangli Bank
BoR has a market capitalisation of Rs 1,600
crore compared with ICICI Bank’s Rs
99,000 crore. It reported a net loss of Rs
44.7 crore for the quarter ended December
2009 on a revenue of Rs 344.83 crore.
In terms of assets, ICICI Bank is around 25
times as large as BoR. In terms of branch
network, BoR with 463 branches is less than
one-fourth of ICICI Bank’s network.
Analysts said the takeover would help ICICI
Bank in expanding its footprint further,
which is in line with its new-found branchfocused strategy. As most of BoR branches
are concentrated in northern India, ICICI
Bank would gain deeper access in these
markets.
Since 1997, when it acquired ITC Classic,
ICICI Bank has periodically merged banks
with itself to increase its reach.
In February, RBI also slapped a fine of Rs
25 lakh on the bank following violations
related to know-your customer (KYC)
guidelines, acquisition of immovable
property, deletion of records in the bank’s IT
system, irregularities in the conduct of
accounts for certain companies and for
failure to present documents to the regulator.
It has also ordered a special audit of the
books of the bank, after it found lapses in
corporate governance and disclosure norms.
EEPC Export Award
20May
NALCO has bagged EEPC (Engineering
Export Promotion Council, Eastern Region)
Gold Trophy, as Top Exporter in the Large
Enterprise Category for outstanding export
performance during 2007-08.
During 2007-08, the Navaratna PSU had
achieved sales turnover of Rs 5474 crore,
including the export earning of Rs 2235
crore. The net profit was Rs 1632 crore
during the fiscal.
NALCO enjoys Premier Trading House
status, and it is the first Indian aluminium
company to be registered with London
Metal Exchange, for its high quality
products.
Jindal Steel
20May
Jindal Steel and Power said it has acquired
Oman-based Shadeed Iron & Steel for USD
464 million.
Jindal has acquired Shadeed Iron & Steel
(Shadeed) which has 1.5 MT Hot Briquetted
Iron (HBI) facility located in Sohar, Oman.
The acquisition is part of the domestic firm's
plans to expand its operations overseas.
It is a gas-based unit.
Asian Banker Award
20May
The State Bank has won the prestigious
Asian Banker Achievement Award for being
the strongest bank in Asia Pacific region,
instituted by the Qatar Financial Centre
Authority and the Asian Banker magazine.
The award is in recognition to SBI’s
combination of financial performance and
key business improvements, making it the
region’s strongest bank with strong and
steady income growth rates of 29 per cent,
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14 per cent and 28 per cent for the past three
years.
Already the largest bank in a the second
fastest growing large economy, the stateowned lender has attracted customers and
talent from the private sector and other stateowned banks, as well as market share in
deposits and loans.
The award looks at the long-term
performance of banks by assessing them
over a three-year period, and plays an
important role in cultivating a culture of
excellence among leaders and senior
management in the banking industry in Asia
and the Gulf Region.
The SBI has also won the Asian Banker
transaction banking award: Winner of
achievement award for trade finance in
India. In the past two years, SBI became the
largest bank by market capitalisation.
Hindujas Group
22May
The Hinduja Group has announced that it
would acquire European private bank KBL
epb for euro 1.35 billion (about Rs.8,770
crore).
KBL epb, a subsidiary of Belgium-based
KBC Group, is one of the largest onshore
private banking groups with affiliated local
banks in 55 locations across ten European
countries.
Private banking refers to customised service,
including wealth management, provided to
high net worth individuals.
As part of the deal, the Hinduja Group will
acquire KBC's entire interest in the
subsidiary including all the private banking
subsidiaries and life insurance businesses.
KBL epb had assets under management of
euro 47 billion. The closing of the
transaction is subject to regulatory approvals
and is expected to be completed in the third
quarter of 2010.
The group's banking business includes
Hinduja Bank Switzerland, a private bank
active across Europe, the Middle East and
India in wealth management, private
banking, trade finance and corporate
advisory services.
Besides, the Hinduja Group is the promoter
of IndusInd Bank which commenced its
operations in 1994.
Indian economy
26May
A grouping of developed nations the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has projected 8.3 per
cent economic growth rate for India in 2010
and a slightly better 8.5 per cent expansion
next year.
Calling for further tightening of monetary
policy to tackle rising inflationary pressures
and avert "asset-price bubbles", OECD said
the country needs to guard against the
overheating of the economy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said
that the economy would grow at 8.5 per cent
rate for the current fiscal ending March 31,
2011.
According to the OECD’s Economic
Outlook report there is a boom-bust scenario
cannot be ruled out, requiring a much
stronger tightening of monetary policy in
some non-OECD countries, including China
and India, to counter inflationary pressures
and reduce the risk of asset-price bubbles.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is already
embracing a tight monetary policy and
recently hiked its key rates.
Inflation for April stood at 9.59 per cent
while the food inflation is hovering at over
16 per cent.
Timely policy action to limit the scope for
second-round price increases is therefore
required. Monetary policy normalisation is
also important in light of relatively modest
fiscal consolidation.
According to the report, the expected
rebound in agricultural activity should help
limit further increases in food prices, which
have been a major contributor to recent high
inflation.
However, underlying inflationary pressures
are likely to persist given the strong outlook
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for demand.
With agricultural output expected to
rebound sharply, economic growth should
be strong in the near term before moderating
to around trend rates.
In April, the RBI hiked repo and reverse
repo rates (the rates at which it lends to and
borrows short-term funds from banks) by 25
basis points each to 5.25 per cent and 3.75
per cent, respectively. These rates were
hiked by an identical margin on March 19.
Economic Wing
26May
The Cabinet has approved setting up an
Economic Wing in the Indian embassy in
Beijing in China. The Economic wing in
Beijing is expected to substantially enhance
the negotiating capability of India and
strengthen bi-lateral cooperation. The
decision was taken in a meeting chaired by
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
It is also expected to work towards
promotion of exports of Indian goods in
China as well as financial and technical
collaboration between Chinese and Indian
firms.
The move comes at a time when trade
between the two countries has touched 43
billion dollars last year indicating towards a
strong commercial and economic
relationship between the two countries.
Coordination of efforts to facilitate trade and
investment flows between the two countries
is expected to create a demand for related
infrastructure and other supporting services
apart from generating fresh opportunities for
cooperation in a wide spectrum of socioeconomic services.
In order to turn this potential into business
opportunities for the enterprises in the two
countries, it is necessary for the
governments to cooperate and coordinate
their efforts. Besides, this is the high time to
build on Copenhagen positives.
In another important decision, government is
to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to take
a view on the demand for a caste-based
census. The GoM is likely to be headed by
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The cabinet also has approved the extension
of Ex-servicemen contributory health
scheme facilities to Nepal domiciled
Gorkhas.
The government also approved
establishment of 199 additional new
polyclinic including 17 mobile medical
facilities along with 15 new regional centers
to expand ex servicemen contributory health
scheme.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs
has approved the appointment of merchant
bankers and other intermediaries to
disinvestment transactions.
BRIC Economies
26May
China, India, Brazil and Russia are powering
ahead, the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development said, revising
upwards its growth outlook for all four
largest emerging economies.
The Paris-based OECD said overheating
was becoming a problem in China and
called for some increase in interest rates and
"ideally" greater exchange rate flexibility.
With the expected rebound of agricultural
output in India, growth should be strong in
the near term while inflationary pressures
would also remain high amid strong outlook
for demand.
Russia should use windfall oil revenues to
eliminate fiscal deficits more quickly but if
oil prices and capital inflows continue to
increase rapidly the country would face
another boom-and-bust cycle.
In Brazil, infrastructure investment will help
lift growth again despite tighter monetary
policies and the beginning of spending cuts.
Following is a summary of what the OECD
said about non-members Brazil, India, China
and Russia in its latest Economic Outlook.
CHINA
2008 2009 2010 2011
GDP 9.6 8.7 11.1 9.7
INFLATION (CPI) 5.9 -0.7 2.5 2.5
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CURRENT ACCOUNT (pct of GDP) 9.4
6.1 2.8 3.4
FISCAL BALANCE (pct of GDP) 1.0 -0.9
1.0 1.6
In its previous forecast in November, the
OECD had projected GDP growth of 10.2
percent this year and 9.3 percent in 2011
It said growth would slow slightly next year
as the impact of the stimulus package
diminishes.
With the terms of trade deteriorating and
domestic demand remaining strong, the
current account surplus may continue to fall
sharply in 2010... With food prices easing,
inflationary pressures are likely to remain
subdued.
Overheating has recently started to become
more of a risk. Measures have been taken to
cool the property market but it is important
to continue to move towards a more neutral
monetary policy stance.
This would involve some increase in interest
rates and, ideally, greater flexibility in the
exchange rate regime in order to allow a
gradual appreciation of remember against a
basket of currencies.
INDIA
2008 2009 2010 2011
GDP (calendar year basis) 6.2 5.6 8.2 8.5
INFLATION (WPI) 8.4 4.0 8.1 6.3
CURRENT ACCOUNT (pct of GDP) -2.4
-3.0 -2.3 -2.8
FISCAL BALANCE (pct of GDP) -7.3 11.4 -10.8 -9.5
The OECD had forecast growth of 7.3
percent this year and 7.6 percent in 2011 in
its previous report.
With agricultural output expected to
rebound sharply, economic growth should
be strong in the near term before moderating
to around trend rates.
The expected rebound in agricultural
activity should help limit further increases in
food prices, which have been a major
contributor to recent high inflation.
But it said that underlying inflationary
pressures are likely to persist given the
strong outlook for demand.
BRAZIL
2008 2009 2010 2011
GDP 5.1 -0.2 6.5 5.0
INFLATION (WPI) 5.9 4.3 6.2 5.0
CURRENT ACCOUNT (pct of GDP) -1.7
-1.5 -2.8 -2.6
FISCAL BALANCE (pct of GDP) -1.9 -3.3
-0.8 -0.9
The OECD had been forecasting GDP
growth of 4.8 percent in 2010 and 4.5
percent for 2011 for Brazil in its previous
report.
Domestic demand could slow somewhat in
coming quarters given a tighter monetary
stance. Subsequently, infrastructure
investment will help lift growth anew."
The remaining monetary stimulus injected
during the global crisis should now be
rapidly withdrawn.
Withdrawal of fiscal stimulus as soon as
possible would be advisable, the recent
announcement of spending cuts to the 2010
budget is a welcome move in this direction.
RUSSIA
2008 2009 2010 2011
GDP 5.6 -7.9 5.5 5.1
INFLATION (WPI) 14.1 11.7 6.5 7.1
CURRENT ACCOUNT (pct of GDP) 6.0
3.8 7.0 5.3
FISCAL BALANCE (pct of GDP) 4.8 -6.2
-5.1 -2.2
The OECD had forecast Russia's GDP
growth at 4.9 percent in 2010 and 4.2 in
2011 and said the growth had been aided by
the rise in oil prices since early 2009.
The unexpectedly strong recovery should be
used to eliminate the fiscal deficit more
quickly than previously planned.
Windfall revenues should be saved and
fiscal measures to support demand phased
out more quickly. As the effects of the crisis
fade, longer-term policy priorities should be
brought to the fore.
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Rubber Growers
26May
The Commerce and Industry Ministry has
announced financial assistance of Rs 95 lakh
for about 19,000 rubber growers in the
country during the current financial year.
Under the Price Stabilisation Fund scheme,
the ministry provided financial relief to
growers when the prices of tea, coffee and
rubber fall below a specified level.
On the basis of price spectrum band 2009,
18,915 rubber growers would receive
financial assistance of Rs 95 lakh during
2010-11.
The average domestic price for rubber was
Rs 97.56 a kg during 2009 and it was a
'normal year' for the commodity.
Tea and coffee growers did not get the
assistance as it was a 'boom year' for them
(based on a price analysis of the
commodities during the past seven years).
The annual average domestic price for tea
was Rs 102.83 per kg during 2009, while the
average price for 'coffee arabica' was Rs
175.32 per kg. This led to the year being
categorised as a 'boom year' for these
products.
The Rubber Board has projected natural
rubber production at 8.93 lakh tonnes in
2010-11 fiscal against 8.31 lakh tonnes in
the previous fiscal, while consumption is
expected to rise to 9.78 lakh tonnes from 9.3
lakh tonnes last year. Rubber is mainly
grown in southern India.
Allahabad Bank
28May
Reserve Bank of India has conferred upon
Allahabad Bank the first prize for its inhouse magazine Triveni Dhara. The bank
got this award among all public sector banks
and financial institutions in the bilingual
house magazine competition held for the
year 2008-09. The bank also received
Rajbhasa Award for achieving excellence in
implementation of official language policy.
The awards were received by the CMD of
the bank, Mr J.P. Dua, from the RBI
Governor, Dr D. Subbarao.
Global Indian
17May
India's top industrialist and Chairman of the
Tata Group, Ratan Tata has received the
2010 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award
for his outstanding global leadership, vision
and professional excellence.
The award which carries USD 225,000 (Rs
One Crore) and citation was presented at the
Annual Award Gala of Canada India
Foundation held in Vancouver, Barj
Dhahan, Gala Chair and Co-Chair of Canada
India Foundation.
Tata joined India's largest business
conglomerate in 1962 and in 1991 replaced
his predecessor JRD Tata, as Chairman of
Tata Sons.
Since then, the Group's revenues have
increased 12-fold.
Recent acquisitions under Tata's guidance
include Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford
Motor Company and Corus Group, an
Anglo-Dutch steel producer.
Tata was honoured with the Padma
Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian
award in 2008.
Dawood
17May
Dawood Ibrahim, India's most wanted man
suspected of having organized the 1993
Mumbai bombings, figures third on the
Forbes' Most Wanted Fugitives list topped
by Osama bin Laden, followed by Joaquin
Guzman, Mexico's most notorious drug
trafficker.
Not a single one of the world's most
notorious criminals has been brought to
justice since the list first appeared in April
2008, the US business magazine noted.
Dawood Ibrahim, who heads the organized
crime group D-Company appears to have
consolidated control of his organizations,
Forbes noted. His 5,000-member criminal
syndicate has engaged in everything from
narcotics to contract killing, working mostly
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in Pakistan, India and the United Arab
Emirates.
Women's T20 WC
9May
Opener Poonam Raut cracked a patient halfcentury as India inflicted a crushing ninewicket defeat over Pakistan in their Group B
ICC Women's Twenty20 cricket World Cup
at Warner Park in St Kitts.
The Indians then returned with a clinical
batting performance with Poonam leading
from the front with a run-a-ball 54 and
added an unbeaten 79 runs along with
Mithali Raj (33) to overhaul the target with
20 balls to spare.
Poonam slammed six fours in her 54-ball
innings, while Mithali's 28-ball innings was
studded with just two fours as India scored
106 in 16.4 overs to complete the muchdeserving victory.
Earlier, skipper Sana Mir top-scored with a
41-ball 35, which was bejewelled with three
fours, to anchor the Pakistan innings after
their decision to bat first backfired as the top
and middle order crumbled.
Opener Nain Abidi (20 off 14 balls) and
Urooj Mumtaz (26 off 31 balls) were the
other contributors in Pakistan's innings.
For India, Gouher Sultana, Rumeli Dhar and
Diana David captured one wicket apiece to
contribute to their team's win.
World Chess Championship 12May
Viswanathan Anand retained the FIDE
World Chess Championship, defeating
Bulgarian Veselin Topalov with black
pieces in the final classic game of the series
in Sofia.
Anand won the 12-game match with a score
of 6.5-5.5 to defend the title he claimed in
2007.
Wrestling Championship
14May
Sushil Kumar clinched Gold medal in the 66
kg category of Senior Asian Wrestling
Championship held at Indira Gandhi Sports
Complex in New Delhi. He beat Kim Dae
Sung of Korea 5-0 in the final.
National Open Athletics
20May
Railways topped the medal tally with 18
gold, 14 silver and 18 bronze medals in the
50th National Open Athletics meet which
concluded at the Maharaja's College Ground
in Kochi. Kerala with 5 gold, 6 silver and 2
bronze emerged as the runner-up.
The third place went to Services with 4 gold,
6 silver and 5 bronze medals. Ranjit
Maheshwari of the Railways and Tintu Luka
of Kerala were selected as the best athletes
in the men and women category
respectively.
Olympic and World Championship bronze
medal winner Vijender Singh continued his
reign at the top, while Asian silver medalist
Thokchom Nanao Singh rose a couple of
rungs to fourth in the latest AIBA rankings.
National Games
26May
The Indian Olympic Association said that
the 34th National Games will be held from
9th-22nd December in Jharkhand.
The Games, originally scheduled to be held
in 2007, were first postponed due to delay in
infrastructure construction.
State capital Ranchi will host 24 disciplines,
including athletics, badminton, shooting and
aquatics. Dhanbad and Jamshedpur will
stage six and four disciplines respectively.
Time’s list
1May
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cricketing
legend Sachin Tendulkar and Nobel-winning
economist Amartya Sen are among nine
Indians who figure in the annual Time
magazine list of 100 most influential people.
The alumnae chart is topped by Bollywood
beauty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
The magazine recognised Prime Minister
Singh's contribution towards liberalising the
economy and guiding India into the ranks of
the great powers.
The magazine said, the long history of India
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boasts many great leaders but the much
shorter history of Indian democracy is
already creating its own heroes, and
Manmohan Singh, 77, is one of them.
Other Indians on the list of most influential
people are:
Eye specialist Perumalsamy
Namperumalsam, humanitarian worker
Sanjit Buker Roy, writer Chetan Bhagat,
Indian-America doctor and Harvard
professor Atul Gwande, paramedic from
Toronto Rahul Singh and entrepreneur Kiran
Mazumdar-Shaw.
About Tendulkar, the magazine writes that
to millions of Indians and countless fans
around the world, Tendulkar's double
century - 200 runs - in a One Day
International match, which caps a career of
record-breaking feats, arouses a sense of
awe.
Tendulkar, 37, stands for national dignity in
a way that perhaps only a postcolonial
nation can understand.
Azim Premji
2May
India's software tycoon Azim Premji plans
to set up a world-class university to train
teachers who will fan out to the teacher
training institutes in India's 600 districts.
It will be a world-class university with a
large endowment, Premji told Forbes
magazine noting, "Most of these institutes
are a complete mess with the teachers
leading the classes worse than the teachers
that come to get trained."
The proposed university to upgrade teaching
methods will be the latest venture of Azim
Premji Foundation that focuses on
education, improving standards in India by
training teachers and, among other things,
funding model schools.
Started nine years ago and funded solely by
Premji, the foundation was given stock
valued at "much more than" Rs 450 crore or
roughly $101 million estimated by a
newspaper.
Non-smiling Nations
3May
Croatia, Pakistan and Russia have topped a
list of countries where people sitting behind
shop and office counters have a surly
attitude and find it difficult to smile.
Only 34% of shopowners and officials in
Croatia and Pakistan smile at people, while
Russia came second with 65%, a poll
conducted by Nextep agency.
Russia has many stereotypes of the "surly
babushka" behind the counter, who scowl at
potential customers. The agency asked
shoppers to look for hints of happiness as
they bought their daily bread across 14
countries, the report said.
Sweden offered the happiest shops, with
87% of staff flashing a grin, followed by
Latvia with 86% and Estonia with 84%.
"Russia's apparent misery is a reflection of
working conditions, particularly in the hardpressed tourism sector and fast-food
restaurants," the report said.
500 top-paid CEOs
3May
As many as three India-origin people
including PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi have
been named among the highest paid CEOs
of the 500 biggest American companies,
according to a list compiled by the Forbes.
With a total compensation of USD 141.36
million, H Lawrence Culp Jr, the chief of the
diversified manufacturing and technology
firm Danaher, is at the top of the list.
The list of the 500 CEOs of the biggest
American companies features as many as
three India-origin people -- Nooyi (93rd
position), diagnostics entity Quest
Diagnostics' Surya N Mohapatra (96) and
software major Adobe Systems' Shantanu
Narayen at 425th slot.
While Nooyi had a compensation of USD
10.66 million, that of Mohapatra was USD
10.29 million and Narayen had a pay packet
of USD 1.88 million.
According to the Forbes, for the third
consecutive year, the chief executives of the
500 biggest companies in the US (as
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measured by a composite ranking of sales,
profits, assets and market value) took a cut
in total compensation. The latest collective
pay cut, 30 per cent, was the biggest of the
past three years (11 per cent and 15 per cent
declines in the previous two years).
According to the magazine, in total, these
500 CEOs earned USD 4 billion in 2009,
which averages out to USD 8 million apiece.
Although down from last year (49 per cent),
the value realised from exercised stock
options again account for the main
component of pay, 30 per cent this year, the
Forbes noted.
At the second spot is Oracle's Lawrence J
Ellison with a pay packet of USD 130.23
million, followed at the third place by
Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey K McClendon
with USD 114.29 million in annual package.
Occidental Petroleum's Ray R Irani has
cornered the fourth position with a
compensation of USD 103.07 million and
Yum Brands's David C Novak is placed at
the fifth with USD76.49 million.
Others in the list include Hewlett-Packard's
Mark V Hurd (26th rank with USD 24.74
million), News Corp's Rupert Murdoch
(53rd with USD 15.55 million), General
Electric's Jeffrey R Immelt (237rd with USD
5.08 million) and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd C
Blankfein (472rd slot with USD 1.13 million
in annual pay package).
Child Labourers
10May
Child labourers may be declining in sheer
numbers yet more children are at work in the
Asia-Pacific region than the rest of the
world combined.
A global report has noted that while there
was a 26% decline in the number of children
employed (between the age group of 5-14
years) from 122.3 million to 96.4 million
across the world, but in absolute terms,
Asia-Pacific region had the most child
labourers at 113.6 million (aged 5-17 years)
compared to sub-Saharan Africa (65.1
million) and Latin America and Caribbean
(14.1 million).
The International Labour Organisation’s
‘Accelerating action against child labour’
report said that 42% of these children were
employed in hazardous work. The global
estimate for child labourers according to
ILO is about 215 million in 2008, down
from 222 million in 2004. India has 445
million children, Bangladesh 64 million, and
Pakistan 70 million, as compared to, for
example, China’s 348 million. In sheer
numbers, India and Pakistan have by far the
largest out-of-school child population in the
world.
The study said there was a ‘‘stark contrast in
political commitment’’ to universal
education and poverty reduction. While
China took more people out of poverty than
any other country since 1979, and put most
of its children into basic education, this goal
had often proved elusive in South Asia.
For one, India still devotes about the same
proportion of national income to education
(about 3.5%) that it did in the mid-1980s.
The report also pointed out that institutional
capacity to implement policies and
programmes and enforce legislation
remained a major challenge with rural
indebtedness and poverty crippling the
economy.
Of India’s 370 million informal economy
workers, 236 million are found in
agriculture. According to official data,
nearly 25% of the rural population is
reported to be below the poverty line. By
World Bank definitions of poverty, over
75% of Indians are probably below the
poverty line. As a consequence, there is a
huge problem of rural indebtedness affecting
82% of farmers in Andhra, and around 50%
of farmers nationwide.
Malaysia's 40 Richest
28May
The Forbes list of Malaysia's 40 richest
persons has two names who have Indian
roots. It is also in the context of Malaysian
economy's highest growth rate in a decade
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CURRENTAFFAIRSMASTER.COM
of 10 percent in the first quarter that this
achievement becomes prominent.
Malaysia's 40 wealthiest are worth a total of
$51 billion, up from $36 billion a year ago
and even higher than the $46 billion they
were collectively worth in 2008, the US
business magazine noted.
Indian origin Ananda Krishnan with a net
worth of $8.1 billion retained his second
place after Malaysian Chinese Robert Kuok.
They are worth a combined $20.1 billion, or
40 percent of the top 40's wealth. The
country's 10 billionaires are worth $30
billion, accounting for 59 percent of the
total.
The 72-year-old former oil trader Krishnan's
most valuable asset is Maxis
Communications, Malaysia's largest
cellphone service provider, which went
public in November, raising $3.4 billion in
Malaysia's largest-ever IPO.
Krishnan's telecom interests in Indonesia
and India are still privately held and he plans
to take his satellite TV broadcaster, Astro
All Asia Networks, private.
Newcomers include another person of
Indian origin self-made building contractor
A.K. Nathan, 54, placed 24th with a net
worth of $250 million.
He owns and runs Eversendai, a Kuala
Lumpur contractor that fabricates, designs
and erects the steel frames for buildings.
Nathan grew up in Malaysia, aside from
some years of schooling in India.
Among the five drop-offs is yet another
person of Indian origin, Vinod Sekhar, who
runs Green Rubber, which recycles used
tires.
The company had previously been valued
based on what private investors had paid for
shares in anticipation of a public offering;
that IPO still hasn't happened.
SEWA-Self Employed Women’s
Association
NGT- National Green Tribunal
IDA –International Development
Association
SSC –Special Strategic Command Force
JAXA- Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency
ESCAP- Economic and Social
Commission for Asia
1May- International Labour Day
3May- International Energy Day
8May-International Red Cross Day
11May-National Technology Day
15May- International Family Day
17May- World Telecom Day
24May-Commonwealth Day
31May- World No Tobacco Day
Siddon Rock
–
Rendition of the
20th Century
Glenda Guest
Amitav Gosh
-
& Margaret
Aywood
Troubles
Copyright © 2010 Current Affairs Master. All Rights Reserved.
-
J.G. Farrell