26.09.2006

Land for SEZs: Farmers’ interest gains ground
The Board of Approval had taken a decision that not more than 10% of the land acquired for building SEZs can be double-cropping land.

Shipping business families in India
Sheths of GE Shipping
Ruias of Essar Shipping
Khataus of Varun Shipping
HK Mittal of Mercator Lines

CDMA handset market
The market size is estimated to be at Rs. 5000 cr.
CDMA operators are adding close to 1.5 mln new subscribers per month.

Indian Cricket
An investment of Rs. 750 cr is being made over four years for giving a thorough make-over to Indian cricket by BCCI and Nibus’s upcoming sports channel.

MRO business in civil aviation in India
The business is expected to grow over the next five years to generate $400 mln in revenues.

Market research in India
India is the fastest growing market in the world for market research. It is growing at 31% (2005); but the size is still small at Rs. 492 cr.

SSA, mid-day meals come under PM’s lens
The number of out of school children has been reduced from 2.5 cr to 96 lakh since the commencement of the SSA (Sarva Siksha Abhiyan) programme.
For the year ended March 2005, the CAG has pointed that out of the 3.4 cr children in the country 1.36 cr aged between six and 14 years remained out of schools.

LIBOR
Currently libor is hovering around 5.4%

Police reform
The Government has reportedly been pondering on enacting and enforcing the Soli Sorabjee Committee’s draft Police Bill.
Replacing the antiquated Police Act of 1867 with a new omnibus law that is consistent with the demands of a modern democracy would bring about a paradigm shift.

Advantage India
India and the RDEs (Rapidly Developing Economies) offer the manufacturing companies located in them better capital productivity by about 40% to 50% higher when compared with similar plants in more developed economies.

Indian aviation boom
In the first five months of this fiscal year domestic air traffic has grown by as much as 49% over the same period of the previous year.
Domestic prices of aviation fuel are hovering at Rs. 46,000 per kl.
The price of ATF for flights leaving India costs only Rs. 33,400 per kl.
Of India’s population of 1080 mln, only 8 mln Indians are flying today.
74% FDI is allowed in telecom sector, but in aviation it is only 49%.

Commercial credit in India
According to a McKinsey study, in FY 2005 corporates only had a share of 43% of commercial credit given out by banks in India.

Russia has 88,000 millionaires

Raising money by SMEs
SMEs currently contribute to around 40% of the domestic exports.
Borrowers end up having a net gain of up to 2% by resorting to ECBs.
Cost of raising ECBs works out to around 10% for a 3-5 year loan. The post-hedge cost works out to 0.5 to 0.75%.
Loans to SMEs have grown 15-20% annually, while SMEs account for around 10% of the $10 bn odd of ECBs raised by Indian companies.

Padmini passes away
A popular actress of yesteryears. She along with her elder sister Lalitha and younger sister Ragini were called the Travancore sisters.
Her role as a dancer in ‘Thillana Mohanambal’ pairing with Shivaji Ganesan had won critical acclaim.
She was nicknamed ‘Natiyaperoli’ -- a great light of dance.
Singapore pushes for more Temasek stake in ICICI Bank
Read about the issue of mutual bank recognition with Singapore.