27.01.2007

• More to Corus than steel
• In a Dutch hamlet called ‘Wijk aan Zee’, Corus Chess Tournament is played every year.
• Originally called Hoogovens Tournament, named after Hoogovens steel plant in the Netherlands, it was started in 1938.
• In 2000, it was renamed Corus Chess Tournament to reflect the new corporate identity.
• With Tatas and CSN now vying for acquiring Corus, there is lot of interest generated on the fate of this tournament.
• DNC registry to be in place from April, 2007
• The Do Not Call registry will come into effect from April 2007.
• This means that telemarketers cannot make calls to people who list out their phone numbers in this registry.
• About Republic Day Parade
• The first foreigner to take part in the Republic Day Parade of India
• Captain Tunku Ismail Ibrahim, the Malaysian Prince who led the mounted columns of the 61^st Cavalry in the parade.
• Military world games will be hosted in India later this year. The mascot for this games is ‘Bravo’, the great India bison.
• 2007 Civilian awards
• Padma Vibhushan
• Raja Chellaiah, noted economist
• Kushwant Singh, noted journalist for literature and education
• Padma Bushan
• Indra Nooyi, India born CEO of Pepsico
• Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Telecom
• JJ Irani
• Padmashri
• Vikram Seth
• Amitav Ghosh
• Foreign awardees
• O Suzuki, chief of Suzuki Motor Corporation
• Jeffry D Sachs, American economist
• Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister
• Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
• Indian retail scene
• There are about 15 mn mom and pop stores giving employment to about 22 mn people.
• Phishing
• Worldwide, phishing induced resulted in losses of about $2.8 bn in 2006.
• Indian Social Science Congress
• The 31^st session is to be held in Mumbai during December 2007
• The theme of this year’s event is ‘Peoples Struggles and Movements for Equitable Global Society’.
• The Indian Academy of Social Sciences organizes the event every year with a view to discovering, developing and disseminating newer science of nature-man-society.
• Total deposits mobilized by banking system as at the end of March 31, 2006
• Rs. 21,94,900 crores
• Recorded yields on various types of investment during the last year
• Gold 18.8%
• Fixed deposits 8 to 8.5%
• Equities 33%
• Viability gap funding
• This refers to the gap arising out of the difference in projected expenditure and revenues of a proposed project, rendering the project commercially unviable. In infrastructure projects especially, the capital expenditure is enormous as a result of which private players find it unviable to invest in the sector. The scheme was launched after the government decided to step in by giving upfront grant to fill the ‘viability gap’ and encourage private participation in the sector.
• Budgetary allocation for infrastructure projects under the viability gap funding scheme was first made in 2005-06 budget, when an SPV (special purpose vehicle) was established for providing long-term debt to infrastructure projects undertaken on a PPP (Public Private Partnership) basis.
• Indo-Lankan CEPA set to go live soon
• India and Sri Lanka are entering into a CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement). This provides for liberalization of services and investment. This will also enlarge the scope of the existing free trade agreement between the two countries by including more commodities within the purview of the agreement.
• Balmer Lawrie is given category I miniratna status
• The company which is already a category II miniratna and is into various businesses including logistics, leather chemicals and tourism, is given the category I status now.
• A category II miniratna can make a capital expenditure of Rs. 250 crore or 50% of its networth, whichever is less, without seeking permission from the government.
• A category I miniratna can make a capital expenditure of Rs. 500 crore or 100% of its networth, whichever is less, on its own.
• India takes to GM crops in a big way
• During 2006, the total area under GM (Genetically Modified) crops has reached 3.8 mn hectares.
• India grew more Bt cotton than China and is the 5^th largest Bt cotton grower worldwide.
• Cotton yield has increased from 308 kg per hectare in 2001 to 450 kg per hectare in 2005-06.
• India has 9 mn hectares of area under cotton cultivation; the largest by any country in the world.
• Cooperative banks
• There are three types of memberships in cooperative banks
• Approved member
• Nominal member
• Sympathiser member
• There are 1,08,746 cooperative banks and banking institutions in the country.
• Third party insurance
• If you are hit by a speeding car for no fault of the driver, the vehicle’s insurer pays you compensation under the third-party motor insurance.
• The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal hears all the third-party related insurance claims.
• Third-party cover is a loss-making portfolio for every general insurance company.
• There are about 1.2 mn cases pending at different courts and the total amount involved is roughly Rs. 20,000 crore.
• Predatory pricing
• Is the practice in which a firm first lowers its price till it is below the average cost of its competitors to drive them out and later entrenching itself in the market in a dominant/monopolistic position.
• India’s PC penetration levels
• Currently at about 18 per thousand.
• The government plans to increase it to about 60 per thousand by 2011-12.
• Indian trade
• The growth of trade in the GDP – it went up from 11.9% in 1993-94 to about 14.5% in 2004-05.
• Tariff jumping
• It is the practice of establishing a production facility within a foreign country, through FDI or licensing, in order to avoid a tariff.
• Our distorted tariff regime in petroleum products is causing foreign firms to establish presence in India to take advantage of this convoluted tariff regime.
• To avoid this, the tariff differential between crude and finished products needs to be removed. Crude suffers duty at 5%, products suffer duty between 7.5% to 10%.