30.09.2006

ITDC (India Tourism Development Corporation) scouts for overseas partner to battle rivals
Current it operates 6 duty-free-outlets in international airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Calicut and Goa.

Azim Premji Foundation
Today it reaches out 16,600 plus schools, nearly 3 lk children and about 60,000 teachers with a team of 250 professionals and over 1000 paid field volunteers.

Indian primary education scenario
India has 200 mln kids below the age of 14.
20 mln of these children are not in school at all.
35% of the kids in Standard V cannot read and write.
25% of the teachers don’t put in an attendance but collect full pay.
According a survey by Azim Premjo Foundation, 75% of the teachers want to do good work.

Monica Bedi sentenced to 5 years in prison in a passport forgery case.

Selection process of UN Secretary General
A candidate has to be recommended by the Security Council to the General Assembly.
This recommendation can be made only when a candidate secure at least 9 votes in the 15 member Security Council without any vetos.
Only one candidate can be recommended by the council to the General Assembly.

Veraval, the frozen fish trading capital of India
It is a small town barely 10 km away from the Hindu pilgrimate town of Somnath in Gujarat. It currently exports about 1,22,000 tonnes (worth Rs. 934 cr) of frozen fish to various parts of the world.

Indian Housing scenario
A recent report has estimated that by 2030 India will need up to 10 mln new housing units per year.
Currently there is a housing shortage of 20 mln units.

Urban joblessness in India (2004-05)
The unemployment rate in urban areas is at 45%.
In the rural areas it is at 17%.
Labour Force Participation Rate (LPFR) is defined as the number of persons/person-days of labour force per 1000 persons/person-days. It has increased by nearly 2% for males and about 3% for females in the rural areas during the period 1999-2000 to 20004-05.

Drought relief package announced by the Government of India
The Union cabinet cleared a Rs. 16,978.69 cr comprehensive rehabilitation package for the 31 perennial drought-struck districts countrywide, spread across AP, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharshtra.
Of this 10,579.43 cr would be subsidies and Rs. 6399.26 cr would in the form of loans to farmers in the highly suicide-prone districts.

Oil industry development cess
The annual amount collected under the Oil Industry Development Act exceeds Rs. 5000 cr.
So far under the Act an amount of Rs. 55,966 cr had been collected (till March end 2005).
These funds are likely to be used for minimizing oil marketing companies’ losses on account of selling cooking gas and kerosene below the cost price.
The Oil Industry Development Board was constituted in 1975 to provide financial assistance for the development of the oil sector in the country.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) figures
GDP data is released periodically by the Central Statistical Organization.
GDP rate is inching up to 9% now. The economy grew at a rate of 8.9% in Q1 (First Quarter April-July of this financial year)
The headline inflation rate is also stabilizing at 4.56%.
The growth is spurred by basically manufacturing growing at 11.3%. The performance of the other secotors is:

• Trade & transport 13.2%
• Agriculture 3.4%
• Construction 9.5%
• Finance, Insurance 8.9%
• Mining 3.4%
  

Current account in BoP (Balance of Payments) dips into deficit in Q1
Currently the current account deficit is at $6.2 bn against as surplus of $1.8 bn in previous quarter and a deficit of $3.6 bn last year.
Capital account surplus is at $11.9 bn
Hence the BoP ended with a surplus of $6.4 bn
What are invisibles in the BoP parlance?

• Income from software exports and remittances by NRIs
• Exports during the quarter were at $28 bn ($23 bn)

Imports were at $46 bn ($38 bn)
Trade deficit at $18.5 bn ($13.6 bn)
Inflows throu FDI were higher than inflows through FIIs during the quarter.

Foreign nations may not get home remedies sans royalty
The Government in association with Ayush, has prepared a database of 1,06,000 traditional medicines and will soon put them in the public domain to pre-empt any kind of international patents on Indian medicine.

Uncle Sam to enter Indian realty
The housing sector contributed to $2 trillion to the US economy last year, accounting for 16% of growth.

Delhi’s power problems
Peak power demand is presently hovering around 3,500 mw and is expected to increase to 5,900 mw by 2010 when Commonwealth Games would be held.
At present the peak shortage is varying around 500 mw to 800 mw.
Delhi generates less than 25% of what it consumes. Hence increase in generation is what is badly needed.

Post offices may retail on behalf of banks
80% of post offices are in rural areas (approx 1,25,200 in number)

Bimstec countries
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand

The first Hedge Fund
As early as 1920s Benjamin Graham has managed a hedge fund, according to Warren Buffet
He was differing with the view expressed in the magazine “Financial History” which stated that the first hedge fund was started in 1949 by Alfred Winslow Jones.

Dr. Ivo Pitanguy
He is the world’s plastic surgery guru. He slams beauty fads.