22.04.2007

• Caribbean nations plan a common visa
• Introduced to facilitate the tourists visiting for the ongoing World Cup, a common visa for all the Caribbean nations may become a reality.
• Already the EU has a similar visa called Schengen. The 1985 Schengen Agreement is an agreement among European states which allows for the abolition of systematic border controls between the participating countries. It also includes provisions on common policy on the temporary entry of persons (including the Schengen Visa), the harmonisation of external border controls and cross-border police co-operation. If interested, read more about it here.
• Very competitive healthcare costs in India
• Industry pundits put the healthcare costs at one-fifth to one-tenth of the costs in the West.
• Something about our monastery culture
• This being a Sunday, we get to see some leisure stories, through which we get a chance to learn a bit about our culture. Today’s piece is about Leh, in J&K.
• June and July is the time when the Hemis festival is celebrated there. It is the biggest and most famous of the monastic festivals. It is dedicated to Sage Padmasambhava. The main attraction during this festival is the dance performed by Cham dancers.
• Ladakhis follow the Tibetan tantric Buddhism.
• Ladakh sees wild fluctuations in daily temperatures. Normally we expect that this Himalayan region will be very cool throughout; know? But it appears that the heat during day time can be scorching and in ten minutes flat we be left sun-burnt!!! That’s why the people there keep carrying an umbrella.
• “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” -- Kafka.
• Ever heard of Kafka? Or Kafkaesque? Kafkaesque is an adjective which is used to describe concepts, situations and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of Franz Kafka, in particular his novel “The Trial” and his short story “The Metamorphosis”.
• VI Pay Commission
• It is scheduled to submit its report by April 5, 2008.
• The recommendations of this pay commission report are likely to entail an expenditure of about Rs. 25,000 crores per annum to the Centre. The States will have an equally huge burden. But my gut feeling is that nobody will have the courage to not implement them in view of the impending elections.
• IIMA is examining the issue of variable pay for government employees and is likely to submit its report this Pay Commission.
• Attorney General of India
• Milon Kumar Banerji has been reappointed to this position. He is already serving a three year term which is set to expire by June 5, 2007.
• He has been appointed four time as the Attorney General during the term of Primer Minsiters Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh.
• About Hedge Funds
• Some of you were asking me about Hedge Funds along with a couple of other concepts. While I have queued that request, I found a very interesting piece on hedge funds in today’s paper. Don’t miss it out. It is very good. Read it here.
• It gives you an excellent account of how Amaranth, one of the leading hedge funds, has bottomed out recently.
• Surely you would have heard of paragliding; don’t you?
• India’s most sought after paragliding spots include – Billing in Himachal Pradesh, Kamshet and Pune and Maharashtra and Rishikesh and Mussorie in Uttarkhand.
• If you haven’t heard of this sport; look at the web or wikipedia.
• Why are coloured fruits or vegetables good for health?
• They are rich in anti-oxidants, which are chemicals that can cancel out the cell-damaging effects of compounds called free radicals.
• Berries, for instance, contain compounds known as polyphenols and anthocyanins. People who eat more of these fruits and vegetables have a documented lower risk of cancer, heart disease and some neurological diseases.
• Recent research has shown that adding a bit of ethanol (an alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila etc.) boosted the anti-oxidant nutrients in strawberries and blackberries.
• So, if you enjoy a drink – go ahead and add berries to it. And if you enjoy fruits – go ahead and add a bit of alcohol to them. Kafkaesque? Just kidding.
• Hyderabad becomes the third largest urban conglomeration in India
• After Delhi and Bangalore, Hyderabad (HMDA – Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority) with about 6,876 sqkm of area is the third largest in India.
• Indian Civil Service Day celebrated on 21^st April
• The PM gave away the awards for Excellence in Public Administration to Rajiv Chawla (Secretary, e-governance, Karnataka) and R. S. Pandey (Secretary, Ministry of Steel, GoI)
• The Telgi scam
• We all have read about the stamp paper scam perpetrated by Abdul Karim Telgi; right? How may of us know the actual event that led to the unearthing of this scam?
• A complaint was lodged by Deccan Structural Systems Private Limited in Bangalore. The company approached Unique Services for registering 425 square meters of land worth Rs. 38 lakh. The latter prepared registration document using stamps worth Rs. 4.94 lakhs in January 1999. When the company wanted to postpone the registration and approached the Treasury for refund of the face value of the stamps, it found that the stamps given by Unique Services were fake. This led to investigation and unearthing of the scam.
• The special judge Vishwanath Virupax Angadi looking into the case has convicted Telgi along with a few others in the case. Punishment is not yet spelt out.
• Interesting printing technology from HP
• Called “Edgeline” technology, it makes use of a print head that is as wide as the carriage. As there is no movement of the print head from one end of the carriage to the other end, it brings tremendous speed to the printing process. It enables printing at the speed of 60 to 70 pages per minute.
• Rome is 2,760 years old!!!
• Legend has it that Romulus founded this city in 753 BC before killing his rebellious twin brother Remus. Both these brothers were raised by a she-wolf.
• Bhutan goes democratic
• Former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck decided to hand over power to an elected government, against the will of his advisers and many subjects, before passing his crown to his 26 year old Oxford educated son last December. He took the throne as a 16 year old boy in 1972. He devolved power to elected local bodies in the 1980’s and to a Council of Ministers in 1998.
• Prime Minsiter of the Kingdom is Khandu Wangchuk.
• A 2006 study by a British scientist ranked Bhutan the 8^th happiest country in the world.