Indian Current Affairs: 03.02.2007

When an investor sells a capital asset – for instance an immovable property – after 36 months from the date of acquisition, the gains from such sale are treated as long-term capital gains and taxed at 20%.
In respect of shares in stock market, they will be treated as long term capital gains after 1 year.

Its Chief is Sir Terry Leahy
Tesco is in talks with Tatas and Bangalore based Landmark group for a possible retail foray in India.

At present 51% FDI is allowed in single brand retail. 100% FDI is allowed in wholesale cash-and-carry.

The value added service (VAS) market in India has the potential to grow to a $10 bn market by 2009 from about $500 mn in 2006.

The government and the SEBI are drafting liberal norms on corporate debt to allow firms to issue bonds on tap.
The proposal is to allow all listed corporate issuers to file a shelf prospectus with SEBI and then raise funds throughout the year, obviating the need to approach the regulatory for each issue.
In the past, the Indian financial institutions were allowed by the regulator to raise money round the year through what was knwn as ‘umbrella bonds’.
The world over, corporate bonds market is three times that of equities. In India, it is minuscule compared to equities.

Over two-thirds of the present fleet of about 240 civilian aircraft operating in India are on short or long term lease. The remaining one-third are owned by domestic carriers.
The average monthly lease rent of an Airbus 320 type aircraft is about 1% of the price value, which works out to be about $400,000 per month per plane.

The renowned soprano Kiri Te Kanawa (she sang Handel’s “Let the bright seraphim” at the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana) is in news because she is being sued for breach of contract for not performing in a planned concert.
How does that it make it great or funny news? She cancelled it because the female fans of the person (Austrian pop star John Farnham) with whom she is to appear in that performance, are stated to be having a reputation of taking off their panties and hurling them on stage to express their appreciation of his singing!!!

Today’s article on ‘winning the peace’ in war torn places around the world by Jeffry D Sachs. He explains how insurgency in war torn regions of the world keeps spreading thus:

A war ends. An international donors’ conference is called. Pledges of billions of dollars are announced. A smiling new head of state graciously thanks the international community, including the occupying power. Months pass. World Bank teams from Washington start to arrive.
But actual reconstruction and recovery are delayed, perhaps for years. Crony businesses from the US and Europe which are utterly unfamiliar with local conditions squander time, aid funds, and opportunities. Two or three years pass. The grand pronouncements become a pile of out-of-date World Bank studies. Recriminations fly, the occupying army remains, and a new insurgency spreads.
There are four distinct phases of outside help to end a conflict:

In the first phase, during the war itself, aid is for humanitarian relief, focusing on food, water, emergency medicine, and refugee camps.
In the second phase, at the war’s end, aid remains mainly humanitarian relief, but now directed towards displaced people returning home, and to decommissioned soldiers.
In the third phase, lasting three to five years, aid supports the first phase of post-war economic development, including restoration of schools, clinics, farms, factories and ports.
In the fourth phase, which can last a generation or more, assistance is directed to long-term investments and the strengthening of institutions such as courts.

A few interesting factoids and observations surround claims to legacy of 1857 revolt.

INC started in 1885; CPI in 1924 and CPI(M) in 1964
Ideological lineage is all about recalling the past in order to invent the present from the point of view of the future.
It was V.D. Savarkar who first called the 1857 revolt as the First War of Indian Independence. He was an atheist. He refused to belong to the RSS. It is strange that today the Hindutva brigade would like to portray Savarkar as their own.
The RSS notion of nationalism, as formulated by M.S. Golwalkar, traces India’s subjugation to Mohammed Ghazni vandalizing Somnath. The struggle for freedom, for the Sangh, began with every bit of resistance since then through the battles fought by Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Those who romanticize the past and resist modernity are dismissed as Narodniks by the officials in the CPI(M).

India is the leading producer-processor. Vietnam is second and Brazil occupies the third position.
India accounts for 65% of the world’s total processed cashew.

Scientists have found that ‘melatonin’, a naturally occurring harmone in grapes protect cells from age-related damage. This harmone also occurs in other foods such as onions, bananas, rice and cherries.

Indian Current Affairs