Indian Current Affairs: 11.01.2007

What are the various ways in which a limited company can return capital or cash to its shareholders?

This is optional. There are two routes: market and tender. In market, shares are sold through the stock exchange. Tender buyback is directly to the company. Tender buyback price is fixed. Market buyback is at a cap i.e., company will buy up to a certain price.

Once requisite shareholder / creditor and court approval is received, all shareholders will compulsorily be part of it. Could be done various forms. Reduction of share capital by buying back a portion is one option. Issuing bonus debentures created out of reserves, and then re-deeming them after some time, is another. Both have the effect of returning cash to shareholders.

He is the 2005 Nobel Laureate in economics. He was awarded this for his contribution to game theory.
“Game theory needn’t predict outcomes, it can be used for motivating other players to act in ways we want to, even in international stand-offs.”
“It is important to make a distinction between two types of applications of game theory – one in situations like auctions where game theory can be used as a precise science to give advice on final outcomes and the other in strategic situations like takeover battles and international relations, where game theory is more useful as a tool to get deeper insights into behaviours of other parties and kind of payoffs involved. In fact as an insight provider, game theory finds much broader usage.”
He used game theory to analyse Talmudic dilemmas, which refers to tackling ethical conundrums using the precepts of Talmud, the book of Judaic jurisprudence.
Some other areas where he says game theory can be applied include:

Air guns are weapons that propel a bullet using compressed air or another gas, possibly liquefied. They are also called pneumatic guns, pellet guns, or BB guns.
In some countries, air guns are still classified as firearms, and as such it may be illegal to discharge them in residential areas. Air guns can be highly accurate and are used in target shooting events at the Olympic Games, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).

In its first ever judgement on the power of Parliament to expel its members, the Court said that it is empowered to expel MPs to maintain propriety of the house. It further held that this power of Parliament was not immune from judicial scrutiny.
In all about 11 MPs – 10 from Lok Sabha and 1 from Rajya Sabha were involved in a “cash for questions” scandal that rocked the country.
In a sting operation named ‘Operation Duryodhana’ by cobrapost.com and Aaj Tak spread over eight months — April to November, 2005 — the ‘investigation’ logged more than 56 video and 70 audiotapes besides recording more than 900 phone calls.
The MPs shown on TV taking bribes were BJP Lok Sabha members M.K. Anna Patil (Erandol-Maharashtra) Y.G. Mahajan (Jalgoan-Maharashtra), Pradip Gandhi (Rajnandgao-Chattisgarh) and Suresh Chandel (Hamirpur-Himachal Pradesh). Congress MP Ram Sevak Singh (Gwalior), Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Kumar (Palamau-Jharkhand) and Bahujan Samaj Party MPs Narendra Kumar Kushwaha (Mirzapur-UP) and Lal Chandra (Robertsganj-UP), Raja Ram Pal (Balhour-UP) and BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Orissa Chatra Pal Singh Lodha were also shown accepting money.

INS Tarangini.
It set sail for Lokayan 07 – a ten month long voyage to take part in the Tall Ships Challenge Series 2007, held by American Sail Training Association on North American coast.

India launched four satellites yesterday, through its workhorse PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). This mission has a couple of firsts to its credit.
It is the first in which 4 satellites were sent. Cartosat -2 and SRE -1 (Space Recovery Experiment) of India. Lapan Tubsat of Indonesia and Pehuensat -1 of Argentina.
It is the first in which India is experimenting bringing back a satellite from space. The SRE -1 would be brought back to earth in 13 days, in a move that could take the country close to developing reusable launch vehicles and to manned space missions.

It will be called KBC-SRK and will be aired from January 22^nd to April 22^nd. It will have 52 episodes in all.
Synergy Communications of Sidhartha Basu is associated with this show.

Hong Kong, Tokyo (Central 5 wards), Seoul, Mumbai, Sydney, Tokyo (Outer wards), New Delhi, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland.
London (West End), Hong Kong and Paris occupy the top three positions globally.

Repetitive Strain Injury. Hours of staring at a computer screen, of being in the same posture, and same painful chair are the perfect recipes for getting this.
Ergonomics: is the study of designing objects that are better adapted to the human body and corrects the users’ posture.

Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme which was launched in 1999, enables the lenders to give an interest subsidy of up to 5% for modernization and technological upgradation to textile companies.
Financial institutions have disbursed Rs. 12,763 crores under the scheme for projects with total investment of Rs. 47,217 crores.
This scheme, which was envisaged to be wound up, is likely to get a one year extension. The NMCC also appears to have favoured its extension.

This is best explained with a real example.
The FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with Thailand allows duty free import of CTVs (Colour TVs) and colour picture tubes. However, the glass parts such as funnels and panels that are used in the manufacture of these goods are subject to a 12.5% customs duty.
This is when the inputs of the colour TV sets are stated to suffer an inverted duty structure.
A panel headed by Anwarul Hoda, constituted by the PMO was looking into the problem of inverted duty structure arising out of various trade pacts.

Increasingly the Indian companies are moving up the semiconductor design value chain. It is stated to be a case of “migration from credibility to competence” and from “competence to leadership”.
Estimates put that 60 to 65% of chip design is happening in India.
Total product design revenues in India were pegged at $3.3 bn in 2005 and estimated to touch $43 bn by 2015.

One of Italy’s best known film producers and the husband of actress Sophia Loren, has died at the age of 94. In his 50 year career, he produced more than 260 films, including “La Strada” and “Dr. Zhivago” in 1965. He was famous for discovering Sophia Loren as a teenager and turning her into one of the world’s most glamorous film stars. They married in 1957.

Indian Current Affairs