06.01.2007

• The global market for set top boxes is over $7 billion a year.
• The global market for iPod is estimated at $4 billion.
• World Cup and vocabulary
• Today’s paper said “A heady mix of cricket, steel drums and angosturas wilk keep travel buffs and cricket fans in good spirits…”
• What is angosturas? Angostura is an aromatic bitters which takes its name from the town of Angostura, Venezuela, the original place of manufacture. It is used as a digestive tonic and for flavoring beverages, etc. It is now made in Trinidad, British West Indies.
• We have Hutchison sell off also teaching us a bit of vocabulary. Today’s reports read “.. the Ruias seem to be playing their variation of Ruy Lopez defence by offering to buy out Mr. Li’s stake.” What is this Ruy Lopez defence?
• In the game of chess this is a particular method of opening the game; also popularly called the Spanish game. It is difficult for me to explain this in worlds. Instead take a look at this page which explains various chess openings.
• Air Deccan’s business model revolves around 80% load factor.
• Biggest ad spenders in the country by sector
• Realtors – spent around Rs. 510 crores between January and November 2006
• Automobile
• Educational institutions
• Mumbai local train traffic
• As many as 62 lakh commuters use these trains everyday.
• Government to discuss lifting sugar export ban
• As against a domestic consumption of 185 lakh tonnes, sugar production is expected to touch 240 lakh tonnes this year and the total available stocks could be around 270 lakh tonnes if carry-over stocks are included.
• Hence the government is likely to consider lifting the export ban on sugar.
• What are HSN codes?
• Harmonized System of Nomenclature, is a tariff classification system of the World Customs Organisation. It allows merchandise to be identified across nations without error, assigning an eight-digit number for each commodity.
• It updates the HSN every five years and countries which are members of the body have to adopt the new system. Indian customs departments follows the HSN system.
• Low crude oil recoveries in India
• Our recovery rate for crude oil is reported to be at 28%. Experts feel that the recovery factors of public sector oil companies could easily be raised to 40% through technology intervention. In fact ONGC has plans to this effect.
• The Ministry of Petroleum has almost warned ONGC that either it should improve its recovery rates or allow the foreign partners to bring in advanced technology.
• Steel sector contribution to improve usage of steel
• Every steel company in India – both private and public sector decided to contribute Rs. 5 per tonne of steel sold in the country. The monies would go into a fund that would be managed by INSDAG (Institute for Steel Development and Growth), a body under the steel ministry set up to promote steel usage.
• The money would be used to launch a nationwide campaign aimed at building awareness about the usage of steel.
• Average annual per capita incomes of developed countries
• Countries like US and Japan, and many countries in the Western Europe have an average per capita income of $40,000.
• The same figure for poorer half of the world’s population is about $6000.
• When did NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) make an entry into the WTO in a formal way?
• At the Marrakesh Agreement.
• Wah Taj!!!
• Indian Hotels which operates the Taj group of hotels in India and abroad, has acquired the Ritz-Carlton of Boston. Henceforth this hotel will be called the Taj Boston.
• Some other notable properties that the Taj group has acquired include – Pierre in New York and Bluy Sydney in Australia.
• Competition Commission of India
• It is expected to be operational fully from September 2007.
• The Commission will have 6 members instead of the originally proposed 10 members. In addition, it will have a chairman.
• It was constituted in 2002 and has currently only one member.
• It could not become fully operational as there were some legal challenges on the selection of members.