28.10.2006

Football investing
Roman Abramovich, the Russian business tycoon, is an example of this species; he owns the Chelsea Football Club.

Top companies in India by market cap:
Companies which have crossed the figure of rupees one lakh in market cap include: ONGC, RIL, Infosys, TCS and NTPC.

Bharti Airtel is about to join this club soon. Its subscriber base is currently at 28.7 mln.

Betting in Indian cricket
The domestic cricket betting industry has been estimated to be worth Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 cr.

The issue in the Taj Corridor project case:
Forest land diversion to private parties.

Cargo shipping services with Pakistan restored
The Indian government restored the cargo shipping services with Pakistan after a gap of nearly 35 years to substantially bolster sea trade.

Maritime trade between India and Pakistan is governed by the 1974 protocol which does not allow third-country vessels to lift cargo bound for India or Pakistan, from Pakistan and India respectively.

Russian Parliament:
Federation Council is the Upper chamber
Duma is the Lower house.

Conditional Access System and differential tariff
TRAI has defended its stand before the Supreme Court that in order to ensure an orderly growth of the telecom sector in the country, it is necessary to adopt differential tariffs for commercial and non-commercial subscribers of CAS.

Industrial disputes post decline
The number of disputes has come down from 552 in 2003 to 458 in 2005.
The number of man-days lost has come down from 30.26 mln man-days in 2003 to 23.27 mln man-days in 2005.

Munich Re to enter India
The world’s 2nd largest reinsurance company is about to enter Indian market as insurer.

However, under the present guidelines foreign reinsurers can have a presence in India only by having a joint venture company with a domestic partner holding 74%.

Sugar production figures
In the season ended September 2006, 19.3 mln tonnes of sugar produced.

For 2006-07, estimates are put at 22 to 23 mln tonnes.

Stocks from previous year are at 4 mln tonnes.

Government may allow sugar exports from November; to be capped at 1 mln tonnes; basically to facilitate the export of refined sugar, which was imported earlier as raw sugar under the Advance License Scheme.

World’s largest oil company
ExxonMobil

Global carbon market
Estimated at $21.5 bn in the first nine months of 2006.