10.04.2007

• Gas cartel on the anvil?
• Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was formed in 2001. It is an informal grouping of 15 countries.
• The forum includes Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria which together control 72% of the world reserves.
• Femina Miss India World
• Pooja Gupta was crowned the Femina Miss India World.
• I can’t stop laughing at myself while making this noting; look at the depths to which the competitive atmosphere drives us to? We need to remember the name of some Femina Miss India winner!!! Can’t take chances which way the question will come know?
• Equator principles
• Most banks follow these principles. These are guidelines that use environment sensitive parameters – apart from financial, to fund projects.
• Want to know more about them? Follow this.
• Press Note 2 of 2005
• This allowed 100% FDI in housing, built-up infrastructure and construction development projects.
• Problems in education and some solutions
• From a good article written today by Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM, let’s note the following snippets:
• The key problem facing the IT industry is employability: only about 30% of graduating engineers fit the needs of the IT industry; it is even smaller in the case of ‘ordinary graduates’ sought by the BPO industry.
• There is urgent need to not only reconnect societal needs with educational institutions, but to considerably shorten the response time of the universities. Some of the ways in which a responsive and need based system can be established are:
• Decentralisation: Establish more autonomous colleges and institutions and ‘deemed universities’.
• Voucher system: Give the subsidies and grants not to the institutions; but to the student. Let him to decide on the institution where he wants to pursue his studies.
• Corporatisation of education: Run educational institutions like ‘for profit’ companies. They would compete with each other, and with traditional universities, on the basis of quality of education provided, placement of graduating students and overall value-for-money. The key element being competition, not corporatisation or privatization. Competition has delivered better results for us in telecom, airline, banking and automobile sectors. It will surely deliver results here also.
• The ideas are very good; but will there be guts for anybody in the political establishment to chew on them?
• On education, I also have some ideas and I have penned them in a nationwide contest on a web site called TechTribe. Incidentally it won the first prize in its category. Take a look at it here and let me know your comments on that.
• Overheating in economy
• An economy is said to be overheated when it is operating almost at full level of its capacity. Actual output generated in the economy is higher than the potential output. And the economy shows signs of higher inflation. In an overheating economy goods cannot be produced quickly and cheaply enough to meet the demand; so the prices go up. In addition, it will be accompanied by a rise in current account deficit.
• Right now the pundits are debating whether India is witnessing an overheating of the economy.