23.10.2006

Private companies in coal mining soon
Both Indian and Foreign companies to get exclusive rights; boost for power sector.

The Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973 made coal mining an exclusive preserve of public sector activity.

The government is planning to permit coal mining by stand alone mining companies that have tied up firm supply contracts with power, steel and cement companies. This scheme is set to be operational from next month.

The Planning Commission has estimated that coal demand-supply gap would be to the tune of over 60 mln tonnes by 2011-12.

New patent regime sets off pharma fights
Since India’s commitment to WTO’s intellectual property regime in January 2005, domestic pharma companies have filed 148 pre-grant oppositions to patent applications in India.

India’s new patent regime allows anyone to oppose a patent application by bringing to the patent examiner’s notice, information which would show that the patent is deficient. Pre-grant oppositions give domestic pharma companies a chance to provide the patent examiner with information, that he might otherwise be unaware of.

It take over 12 years on an average for a new drug to travel from the lab to the patient, and costs an estimated $802 mln in the process.

Hyderabad is famous for Haleem
The recipe was brought from Iran. In the Caucasus region it was called Keshket or Harisa. Though it came from there, it is the Indian version which has gained more global palates.

The word Haleem means patience as it takes many hours to prepare. As it is cooked for many hours it takes the form of a paste.

Judges bill to be introduced in parliament next month
The Judges (Inquiry) Bill provides for setting up a National Judicial Council (NJC) to probe any misconduct by a judge of the Supreme Court or High courts.

Any person can make a complaint to the NJC against judges except the Chief Justice of India.

North Korea, key Middle East states resist weapon stock destruction: OPCW
UN affiliated Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) seeks to eliminate chemical weapons.

Currently it has 180 member states. Countries automatically become member of OPCW when they accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention that came into force in 1997.

India’s population details
Currently there are 124 old dependents per 1000 working people in 2006. The figure is expected to go up to 192 in 2026.

Competition Panel wary of airline cartel
Industry bodies taking up issues like taxes, infrastructure and security on pricing amounts to cartelization

Cartelization reduces efficiency and hurts the consumers’ interest.

Competition Commission is looking at capacity deployment to see if airlines are keeping supply on leash

Civil Aviation ministry has been talking about careful scrutiny of the business plans of new airlines to prevent overcapacity from addition to losses

It is estimated that airlines would make losses to the tune of Rs. 2200 cr this year.

Mumbai-Delhi is the busiest airline sector. It has almost 35 service a day in each direction.

SaaS gains ground among security software firms
Software as a Service (Saas) to make up 30% of the software market by 2007 worth $10.7 bn.

Module provides comprehensive PC protection solution as a service to home users

Day-to-day application maintenance, which can be very time-consuming and expensive, is done on-demand by service providers

Companies can focus on their core competencies and software deployment costs are also cut drastically

CPWRR mantra of Merom Klein and Rod Napier
Candour – means the quality of speaking out in a constructive and contributing way.
Purpose – is about pursuing lofty and ambitious goals.
Will – is the ability to inspire optimism.
Rigour – means the discipline to put a process in place.
Risk – is the willingness to trust others to do their bit.

The Peter Principle
It states that in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Gift tax
It was abolished in October 1998. Before that gifts were taxed in the hands of the donor.

The Finance Act 2004 introduced taxation of gifts in the hands of the recipient.

MNES (Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources) is now renamed as Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.