11.02.2007

• Internet users in India
• Have increased from 55 lakhs (5.5 mn) in 2001 to 4 crores (40 mn) in 2006.
• Broadband users in India are expected to touch the 2 crore (20 mn) mark by 2010.
• International Boat Show
• Mumbai is set to the join the select class of cities which will be hosting an international boat show.
• Miami, Cannes and Sydney host such shows.
• What are provisioning norms for banks?
• Banks are forced to park a certain amount of funds to provision for bad loans.
• Stricter provisioning norms (higher percentages of provisioning) ensure that credit off-take is slowed down.
• Betting in cricket
• The recently concluded India-West Indies series is plagued by scam controversies. Nagpur Police claimed that they have recorded conversations between Samuels and international bookie Mukesh Kochar, a key associate of Dawood Ibrahim.
• Head of Cartoon Network resigns
• Mr. Jim Samples has resigned following a botched advertising campaign. Turner Broadcasting (the company which owns Cartoon Network channel) and an advertising agency have planted blinking electronic devices around the Boston area in a publicity stunt. This stunt has set off a terrorism scare. Following this they have agreed to pay $20 lakhs ($2 mn) in compensation.
• Design Week
• International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) held a Design Week at IIT-Mumbai’s Industrial Design Centre recently.
• Icograda is a very prestigious association and holding this event is considered as India’s coming of age in Design scene.
• India’s design industry is considered fledgling at about Rs. 500 cr in annual revenues.
• There are only about 2000 design students graduating in India every year.
• India’s fashion industry is clocks revenues of about Rs. 34,000 to 35,000 crores. Of this about Rs. 16,000 crores is from apparels.
• Railway Land
• Nearly 44,000 hectares of railway land is lying unutilized. Over 5% of railway land is already encroached upon.
• India’s natural gas production
• India currently produces about 95 mmscmd (Million Metric Standard Cubic Meters) of natural gas.
• By March 2009, this is set to touch 190 mmscmd as stated by our Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.
• In 2007-08, India may be joining the select list countries that produce CBM (Coal Bed Methane) on commercial scale.
• Mobilizing deposits from non-resident Indians
• It is done through two schemes
• FCNR-B Foreign Currency Non Resident Bank deposits
• NRE Non-Resident External rupee deposits
• Rural India’s potential and challenges in retail
• Total number of rural households are expected to rise from 13.5 crores (135 mn) in 2001-02 to 15.3 crores (153) mn in 2009-10.
• According to the 2001 census, only 24% of rural households had access to tap water.
• As far as the road connectivity is concerned, as many as 62.5% of the smaller villages with population of less than 1000, were unconnected by approach roads.
• According to estimates by NCAER, it would require a total investment of over Rs. 1.58 lakh crores (at 2002-03 prices) for new asset creation in rural India.
• In the telecom and power sectors, the investment required for full coverage are estimated at Rs. 92,690 crores and Rs. 55,243 crores, respectively.
• The corresponding expected investment requirements for roads and transport, water and sanitation sectors are Rs. 5,892 crores and Rs. 4,488 crores.
• Looking at the above scenario, the retail experts feel that the strategy of waiting for rural customer to raise to the economic level of availing the retail services is not going to help the retail revolution. It should be the other way round; the retail revolution has to find a way to address the needs of this bottom of the pyramid.
• This is borne out by the fact that in consumption spending, rural-urban split stands at 11:9. That is rural India accounts for 55% of the private consumption. Considering that the Indian retail market is of the estimated size of $30,000 crores ($300 bn), this is a substantial chunk of the market which cannot be ignored by the market.
• India and Birds
• There are approximately 8000 species of birds in the world, of which India is home to 1300 species.
• Salim Ali is the famous ornithologist from India. He was known as “The Birdman of India”.
• Golf and Vijay Singh
• The name actually makes us feel that he is from India; isn’t it? But he is from Fiji. He is of Indian racial descent though.
• He recently won the USPGA Tour’s Mercedes Championships in Kaplua, Hawaii.
• Personalized romance novels
• Canada based “Books By You” is a company which has about 8 pre-formatted novels. If you can answer some 20 or 30 questions about youself that the company asks, it will deliver you a personalized novel with you and your love as main characters in the novels.
• It will ofcourse cost you something like $35 plus shipping and handling.