27.03.2007

• Issues in the 123 Agreement with the US
• The main contentious issue is the reprocessing of spent fuel. India wants access to reprocessing technology and material. US laws ban export of reprocessing technology but exception was made to Japan, Euratom and Switzerland. India wants to be included in that category.
• Manjunath killer gets death sentence
• Manjunath Shanmugam, the IIM graduate and employee of IOC was shot dead at a petrol bunk in Gola in Lakhimpur Kheri district on November 19, 2005 after he threatened to cancel the licence of the petrol bunk for selling spurious fuel.
• The petrol bunk owner Pawan Kumar Mittal was awarded the death sentence buy the district judge. It has to be confirmed by the High Court.
• Seven other accused were given life sentences.
• What is a tiara?
• When you read something like this – “Sushmita Sen handed over her tiara to xxx” – what does this ‘tiara’ stand for?
• It means the crown that a beauty pageant winner holds.
• It is generally a semi-circular band, often metal-made and decorated with jewels. It is worn by women around their head or on the forehead as a circlet. They are frequently used to "crown" the winners of beauty pageants. In western countries, a bride often wears a tiara as part of her wedding outfit.
• Chocolates pep up blood flow
• Studies showed that dark chocolates improve the function of blood vessels.
• World’s oldest camera
• Daguerreotype, a wooden sliding box camera produced by the Paris company Susse Freres in 1839 is believed to be the world’s oldest camera. It is about to be auctioned.
• Invented by French chemist Lois Daguerre, a Daguerreotype is an early type of photograph. It produces a direct image on a polished silver surface that bears a coating of silver halide particles, deposited by iodine bromide or chlorine vapours. As there was no negative original like in modern photography, no copies of pictures could be made. The process was widespread in Europe and the US for about one decade after it was supplanted by different techniques.
• Egmont Group and India’s joining it
• The Egmont Group (a collection of financial intelligence units of various countries) which now has 101 countries was established in 1995. It came about as a result of efforts by intelligence agencies in a few countries which decided to establish an informal group for cooperation between specialized agencies called FIUs (Financial Intelligence Units) on money laundering.
• Since the decision was taken at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, the group came to be known by that name.
• India established an FIU in 2004. It collects data on suspicious or unusual financial transactions.
• Despite the establishment of an FIU, Indian authorities find themselves on a weak footing for eliciting information on money laundering activities from other countries because of lack of MOU with its counterparts in most countries.
• Hence India is set to join this group.
• Capitalist China?
• Do you know that China has passed a law that would make right to private property legally enforceable for the first time since the 1949 revolution?
• I am surprised!!!
• What is Junker capitalism?
• It is a 19^th century Prussian (Now Germany) model. In this landlords and companies expropriated the peasantry from above and legalized property so acquired as their own.
• NPAs of Indian banks
• Net NPAs (Non Performing Assets) of India’s commercial banks have declined to less than 1.5% of net advances at the end of March 2006. Gross NPAs still remain high at 3.34% of the gross advances.
• India’s scheduled commercial banks have Rs. 51,815 crores of NPAs on their books as on March 31, 2006.
• CA Championship for Golf
• Won by Tiger Woods for sixth time.