07.12.2006

• Indian cola sales
• Surprise surprise! It is not Coke which sells more in India. It is our own Indian brand Thums Up. It is followed by Sprite and then Coke.
• Truck insurance
• Due to the detariffing, transporters are set to see their insurance bill jump by about 150% because of hike in third party premium.
• Truck business seems to be having very low margins varying between 5 and 10%.
• United Breweries group of Vijay Mallya may be holding about 10% share in global spirits consumption by this year end.
• Landmark Supreme Court judgment
• In a far reaching judgment, the Supreme Court held today that politicians and public servants, including the Chief Minister, MPs and MLAs and others can be prosecuted without any prior sanction, if they are involved in bribery and corruption charges.
• It accepted the argument that taking a bribe while in office would not form part of discharge of official duties.
• India’s home video market
• It is of the size of about Rs. 400 cr.
• It comprises DVD and CD rental business for home viewing of the movies.
• India’s packaged water market size
• Is pegged at Rs. 1200 cr. and is stated to be growing at 15 to 20% per annum.
• Telephone billing figures
• India generates about 136 mln mobile bills and 40 mln landline bills per month!!!
• Largest cement producer in the world
• Holcim of Switzerland.
• Direct tax exemptions
• Were estimated to have cost the government exchequer around Rs. 70,000 cr in 2004-05.
• Of this tax concessions to corporate tax payers topped Rs. 57,852 cr.
• Railway zones in the country
• There 16 railway zones at present in the whole of the country.
• Some noteworthy comments in the context of the stock market breaching the 14K mark
• The market is a creature of moods as much as fundamentals.
• Keynes’ famous dictum: Markets can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent.
• Commentary on the practice of identity politics
• If leaders who emerged as messiahs of marginal social groups in their struggle against the oppressive and exclusivist mainstream, take recourse to the same kind of cruel violence to perpetuate their political supremacy, it is highly disturbing trend.
• Subaltern political movements in India have been unable to expressly articulate the politics of social development. This is responsible for their failure to break with the traditional, identity-based structures of power. They have, in the end, thrown up a new elite that is as iniquitous as the traditional upper-caste oppressors.
• “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce” – Marx.
• Some noteworthy facts about Indian economy
• India’s organized retail is expected to grow to $64 bn by 2015.
• The agriculture related supply chain management suffers from maximum inefficiency. Cumulative wastage in this supply chain is estimated to be about $11 bn or 9.8% of agiculture component of GDP.
• 13 states and Union Territories have amended the laws allowing private sector participation in direct purchases of farm produce.
• SME manufacturing accounts for 13% of GDP. A similar share is taken by retail and wholesale trade. The retail and wholesale trade accounts for employment for about 40 mln people i.e., roughly 9% of the workforce.
• Land requirement for SEZ projects
• The government has said that about 2 lk hectares of land would be needed for seeing all the proposed 400 SEZ projects through.
• National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
• Chairman is Justice M.B. Shah