26.10.2006

Indian youth
Youth will form 55% of India’s population in the next 10 years.

China’s ‘string of pearls’ strategy:
The strategy is followed by China in the Indian Ocean Region by clinching defence and security agreements to secure its mounting energy requirements, enhance its military profile from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea and significantly expand its presence and visibility in the area.

India and US view this strategy with lot of concern.

British politics:
There are three major political parties viz., the ruling Labour Party, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Labour Party is led by Prime Minister Tony Blair. He is likely to be succeeded by the Treasury Chief Gordon Brown shortly.

Conservatives are led by David Cameron

Liberal Democrats are led by Ming Campbell

Derivatives demand has ballooned in the recent past
The over the counter derivatives market – estimated to be over $1 bn and around 0.1% of the average daily global turnover – has ballooned in the recent past.

Therefore the RBI is putting in place a new policy to regulate the market.

Kids market in India
It is Rs. 20,000 cr in size and is expected to grow at 25% per annum.

India is the largest kids market in the world.

Toys market is about Rs. 2500 cr in size and 90% of it is in unorganized sector.


Number of PCOs in the country
Total number of public call offices has crossed the 4.5 mln mark.

Of this BSNL commands a share of 46.92%.

City gas monopoly determinants:
Size, market to decide city gas monopoly.

The new gas pipeline policy which is set to be announced shortly , well require the regulator to fix the monopoly time caps for each city.

The oil and gas exploration policy implemented by the Government has resulted in yielding large quantities of gas as the blocks are becoming operational. The gas available will be to the tune of 100 mln cubic meters initially. After meeting the primary demands from the fertilizer, power and other industries, gas will be provided to the urban household sector as cheaper and cleaner fuel for domestic purposes.

Contrast this with the statement of R.V. Shahi, Union Power Secretary on non-availability of natural gas.

In the spot market the landed cost of LNG works out to over $10 per mmbtu resulting in the cost of generation exceeding Rs. 4 per unit.

Gas based power plants account for 12,700 MW of installed capacity, of which about 5000 MW is stranded for want of gas. These are typically operating at a PLF of 55% despite using naphtha for augmenting generation during periods of shortages.

WorldCom debacle
It was a $11 bn accounting fraud.

Its the then CEO was Bernie Ebbers. He was handed over a prison term of 25 years in June 2005.

Logistics management
It includes supply chain management, distribution management, transportation management and technology services.

Telecom as failure of enterprise
It is perfectly viable to see Indian telecom as a case study in failure of entrepreneurial imagination and ambition.

This failure is of two kinds: absence of a major Indian telecom equipment maker and the failure of telecom operators to engineer the sort of networks that would prevent them from being drowned by the coming deluge of convergence – of mobile and fixed line telephony, the internet and television.

E-ticketing advantages
While a paper ticket costs over Rs. 400 to process (for airlines), e-ticket reduces the cost to less than Rs. 50.

In India e-ticketing penetration is estimated to be less than 15%.

Credit cards in India
India has 2.08 cr credit cards and 5.37 cr debit cards as of March 2006.

There are more than 1.9 lk merchant establishments with POS terminals in the country in 150 towns and citites.

Nano-manufacturing
It requires control and modification of individual atomic layers to bring about important changes in the properties of a material.

By manipulating the fundamental building blocks of nature, we can fabricate a new generation of products that are faster, more power efficient, cleaner, stronger, lighter and more precise.

This will revolutionize many industries including computing, consumer electronics, flat panel displays and energy generation and storage.

Outsourcing
The value of outsourced work is seen to be growing from $582 bn in 2004 to $760 bn in 2009.

Modernization of non-metro airports
AAI(Airports Authority of India) will look into the airside modernization while the private players are expected to look into the city-side modernization.

The airside modernization is estimated to cost about Rs. 5,500 cr for the 35 non-metro airports.

The investment by private sector is expected to be around Rs. 7000 cr.

What is enterprise value?
Simply put, it is the total value of a firm or a company.

To calculate enterprise value, one needs to add the total debt on the books of the company to the market capitalization of the company. The amount of cash held is subsequently subtracted from this total to arrive the enterprise value.

Employment figures in India: NSSO figures
Share of manufacturing sector in total urban employment rose from 227 per 1000 in 1999-00 to 246 in 2004-05. In rural sector the figure has increased from 71 to 84 during the same period.

There is a fall in share of agriculture and allied activities in the total employment. Number of workers employed in agriculture has declined to 727 per 1000 in 2004-05 from 763 per 1000 in 1999-00.

Stamp duty
Centre mulls 0.5% uniform stamp duty on mortgages by banks and financial institutions for loans against houses and land.

Currently the rates are varying between 1% and 4% across states.

The move is meant to incetivise more borrowers to actually register loans taken against mortgage.