15.12.2006

• ATF prices in India
• ATF prices in India are almost 70% higher than in most other countries.
• Various states of living. A person is stated to be
• Wasted: when he is too thin for height
• Stunted: when he is too short for weight
• Underweight: when he is too thin for age
• What is meant by reverse pedaling in politics
• Economist magazine uses this phrase to describe situations wherein people while saying one thing keep doing just the opposite.
• An example of Winston Churchill’s strageic sense and gift of the gab
• Toward the end of the II world war when the nations under the Nazi occupation were being liberated by the UK-US-USSR allies he was credited with saying the following:
• “We must shake hands with the Russians as far east as possible!”
• India’s rural population
• Is 700 mln strong
• Some thoughts on land acquisition for SEZ or other purposes aired by Narender Pani in today’s ET
• The process of removing people from agriculture must recognize not just the economic role of agriculture but also its social influence. One way of ensuring the changing social structures are relatively less tense would be to ensure that people choose to come out of agriculture. This would involve providing them economic opportunities that are consistent with a modern economy. This would require a string of initiatives ranging from education to incubators that allow entrepreneurship to mature. As the protests over land acquisition grow across the country state governments that want to avoid social turmoil will have to recognize that people have to be drawn out of agriculture before their land is acquired and not the other way round.
• Information about India’s petroleum refining
• India’s refining capacity will cross 150 mln tonnes per annum (mtpa) this year.
• Domestic consumption is likely to be around 115 mtpa.
• World demand for petroleum products is expected to increase to 90 mbpd (million barrels per day) by 2010. This is currently at 84 mbpd. This is expected to touch 105 mbpd by 2020.
• IOC is India’s largest refiner with 60 mt (million tonnes) capacity
• International trade in petroleum products was 576 mt in 2005.
• US and Europe were the largest importers, followed by Japan and China. These four put together account for 2/3^rd of worldwide imports of petro-products.
• Information about nuclear energy
• In 2005, the global uranium consumption was about 45,595 tonnes.
• The actual global requirement of uranium is about 66,000 tonnes. This is calculated at a rate of about 180 tonnes per year for each Gwe capacity. Against this requirement production is only 45,000 tonnes; the rest being met through inventories as well as warheads and recycling.
• World’s nuclear energy installed capacity is 370 Gwe from about 442 plants.
• In nuclear energy operations, the cost of uranium accounts for only 45-50% of the total fuel cost, the rest being the cost of enrichment and fuel fabrication.
• Global uranium reserves are estimated to be at 4.7 mln tonnes.
• India has a current installed capacity of 3,900 MW and this requires about 600 to 650 tonnes per year of fuel for full capacity utilization.