Indian Current Affairs: 24.02.2007

The company has a total market cap of $4375 crores ($43.75 bn) on Indian bourses. It is about 5.5% of India’s total market cap.
In a move, which can see the Mukesh Ambani & his associates stake raise to 55%, the company is issuing a preferential offer of Rs. 15,000 crores. This is being done through a warrant issue, as a warrant issue has the advantage of making staggered payments over a long period.

Train No. 5645 UP/NTT Guwahati: It belongs to Hindustan Unilever Limited and is run by Indian Railways. It runs from Nagpur to Tinsukhia.
It is freight that brings in 60% of revenues to Indian Railways and passenger trains lose Rs. 7,000 cr every year.
Road transport is 33% more expensive thatn Railways.
Experts opine that road transport is inefficient beyond 300 km and that transport of goods by train is more economical.

Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian businessman who is wanted by India in connection with the Bofors scandal investigations is arrested in Argentina at its Iguazu International Airport.
He was arrested consequent to the Interpol’s red corner notice.
As India is not having an extradition treaty with Argentina, it will quite some time before the legal formalities are completed and India can get him for trial.

The court was critical of the government’s decision to provide only the stipulated compensation to farmers who had not consented to the acquisition of their land, and to offer a 10% bonus to those who had. The bench observed that every paisa of the exchequer was public money and should not be given away.

Reliance Industries is toying with the idea of developing hydrogen fuel cars as part of its CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) project.
It intends to use natural gas for air-conditioning and hydrogen will be sequestered (extracted) from the condensed vapours. Hydrogen is meant to fuel cars. A prototype car is being developed by RIL.
CDM projects are implemented under the Kyoto Protocol of the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) that curtails the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by developed countries. To meet the cap, developed countries buy carbon credits from developing countries like India. One carbon credit is equivalent to reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide.

Experts opine that the merger of the two entities will be a success, if it is able to extract synergies in network and fleet management. They cite the example of the merger of Air France-KLM. Air France had a strong network in south-Europe and serviced 200 destinations, while KLM had 119. The merged entity had the advantage of reduced station handling costs and sharing of airport lounges.
It is finding such synergies between the two entities in India that will be key to the success of the proposed merger. In this context it will be interesting to know the details of their fleet strength.

Administration, marketing and selling operations can be brought under one roof, yielding significant savings.
The merged entity will have the advantage of complementary network, overseas for AI and predominantly local for Indian.
The route management is expected to improve, as there is some overlap with Indian flying to many overseas destinations apart from serving domestic market.

A billion Euro, European comet chasing spacecraft ‘Rosetta’ will come within 250 kms of the red planet’s surface. It was launched in March 2004.
It is destined for its rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, after traveling 710 crore (7.1 bn) kms.

Number of people pursuing doctorates and the number of people passing out with a doctoral degree every year, is an indication of a country’s growing intellectual and innovative strength. Look at how India compares with China and the US in this regard.
Number of PhDs enrolled: China (1,20,000), India (5,000)
Number of PhDs turned out: US (50,000), India (375)

In a couple of years, state-owned banks will be entering their 40^th year of nationalization. Prior to actually taking over banks, the Congress government with Morarji Desai as finance minister sought to put in place policies to ensure social justice through a national credit council. However, barely four months after the third meeting of the NCC on July 9, 1969 Indira Gandhi sent a note to the Congress Working Committee through the minister of industries suggesting nationalization of major banks. This came as a surprise, for the prevalent belief in Congress circles was that the issue had been settled in favour of social control. But, Indira Gandhi had by then decided to confront the Syndicate in what was a bid to wrest control of the party. She needed a dramatic issue and bank nationalization fit the bill.

Indian Current Affairs