25.09.2006

Foreign VC cos may get access to Indian realty
The present policy provides (as per Press Note 2 of 2005) for 100% FDI in the realty sector including housing, commercial facilities, resorts city and regional level infrastructure. This is subject to a minimum capitalization of $10 mn for fully-owned subsidiaries and on the condition that the minimum area to be developed under each project is 10 hectares for development for serviced housing plots and a built-up area of 50000 sq. mtrs for construction development projects.

Finance Ministry rejects sops for fab city project in AP
The Information Technology Department had asked for many incentives for the chip makers, including equity participation, interest-free loan and income-tax holiday. Sops at par with SEZs were also proposed. But the finance ministry objected fearing revenue loss.

RDX seizure in Kashmir
11,000 Kg of RDX was seized in the state of Kashmir during the last six years (i.e., 2000-2006).

DGSE of France
General Directorate for External Security, is an espionage organization like CIA of US or RAW of Inida

Desi retailers gain as MNCs fear to knead
60% of the grocery basket is still unbranded; hence the opportunity for brand creation is huge.
Indian foods industry size is pegged at Rs. 27,258 cr. and is growing at 9%.

Cell retail market in India
The market size is pegged at Rs. 75,000 cr. and is growing at 20%.
In comparison, the consumer electronics and appliance market looks paltry, at just Rs. 25,000 cr.

BSNL comes up with bundled offer – ‘docking’
BSNL prepaid cellular users with existing landline connenctions will be able to recharge their cell phones and pass on the reacharge cost to their landline bills. BSNL calls this ‘docking’.

Mobiel value added services
The Indian market for VAS currently stands at Rs. 400 cr and is expected to grow to Rs. 4000 cr by 2010.
It is expected that from the current 7-10%, VAS could account for 25% of the Indian cellular revenues by 2010.

Life Insurance Corporation of India
Was nationalized in 1956.
Private players were allowed into insurance in 1999, six years after the Malhotra Committee called for private entry.

NDSSP – National Data Survey on Savings Patterns
According to it, 45% of the total household savings are with the top 10% income earners.

Abhijit Mahalanobis
Indian American scientist (working for Lockheed Martin) is a recognized and respected leader in pattern recognition, signal and image processing with specific emphasis on automatic target recognition (ATR).

Sethu channel project
Envisages dredging a ship channel across the Palk straits between India and Sri Lanka. Once operational, the channel could be used by ships to sail between the east and west coasts of India without circum-navigating Sri Lanka.
It is estimated that ships will savae up to 424 nautical miles (780 km) and up to 30 hours in sailing time.

Ports in India
There are 185 non-major ports in India.

India ranks 5th globally in ethanol production
India’s ethanol production is currently at 1.75 bn litres.
India’s total annual consumption of petrol is 10 bn litres. Of this about 5% (0.5 bn litres) will have to be doped with ethanol from November 1st 2006 as per directions of GoI.

Viceroy of India
Is the name of the luxury train, run by the Britain based GW Travel between Mumbai and Darjeeling. The trip costs between Rs. 4.96 lakh to Rs. 11.5 lakh
The other well known luxury train is the ‘Palace on Wheels’, running between Rajasthan and Delhi.

Air cargo market in India
Is growing rapidly; risen from Rs. 4.9 lk tonnes in 2000-01 to over 14 lk tonnes in 2004-05.