Indian Current Affairs: 07.05.2007

Do you know that the departure-side duty-free outlets in our airports account for over Rs. 180 crores of business every year?
This is about 60% of the Rs. 300 crore per annum duty-free business in India.
The purchases at our duty-free shops (which are 15 to 20% cheaper than duty-free shops abroad) are being discouraged in the name of security restrictions.

A determinate trust is one where the beneficiaries are known and their shares are clearly spelt out.
Domestic venture capital funds set up as determinate trusts and investing in unlisted firms overseas will enjoy tax exemption on their income.
In such a structure the tax benefit will be in the form of a pass-through status under the IT law. In other words, the trust will be exempt from paying tax. The tax will have to be paid by the beneficiary when the income is distributed by the trust.

At present this status is not extended by India to China.
Once this status is given, it means that India will compulsorily have to accept numbers supplied by China in all anti-dumping cases initiated by it against China. Accepting their figures could result in a situation where India will not be able to establish dumping at all and hence will not be able to take action against dumping.
As per China’s accession agreement with the WTO (World Trade Organization), members are not obligated to recognize China as a market economy till 2016.

The Electricity Act 2003 is being amended to make power theft a cognizable offence.
But what exactly is a ‘cognizable’ offence?

When an offence is recognized as cognizable, the police can arrest a deemed offender without a warrant. Murder, robberty, theft, rioting and counterfeiting are examples of cognizable offences. Usually bail is more difficult for cognizable offences than for non-cognizable offences.

In today’s ET, we have an excellent article by Mythili Bhusnurmath on Basel II norms. It is a must read. Do so here.
Some concepts worth noting in this context are:

Basel II is a set of internationally accepted rules that specify how much capital banks must keep to comply with prudential requirements laid down by the banking regulator – that is RBI in case of India.
Credit risk: The risk that borrowers might not repay the loans advanced by banks to them.
Market risk: Investments made by banks in various securities may be susceptible to price fluctuations because of interest rate changes or other reasons. This is what is called ‘market risk.’
Operational risk: Banks undertake a number of operations like collection of cheques, bills and so on. Risks posed by these operations are called ‘operational risk.’
Banks need capital to protect them from all these risks. While Basel II actually laid down a requirement of 8% on risk weighted assets, the RBI as a measure of caution has prescribed a minimum of 9%. What this means is that for every Rs. 100 of money invested by the bank, it needs to have a capital of Rs. 9. Risk weighted assets mean that for an investment of Rs. 100, if a risk weight of 50% is given, it means that the risk involved is Rs. 100+ Rs. 50. So the capital requirement would be taken as 9% of Rs. 150.

Borrowing cheaply in low-yielding currencies such as Yen to fund purchases of higher-yielding currencies and assets.

Is the newly elected French President. He (Conservative) defeated Segolene Royal (Socialist) in the elections.

Was celebrated on yesterday.
“World Laughter Day” was created in 1998 by Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The celebration of World Laughter Day is a positive manifestation for world peace and is intended to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter. Its popularity has grown exponentially with that of the Laughter Yoga movement (now counting over 5000 Laughter Clubs worldwide on all 5 continents).

The first “World Laughter Day” gathering took place in Mumbai, India, on 11th of January 1998. 12,000 members from local and international Laughter Clubs joined together in a mega laughter session.

“HAPPY-DEMIC” was the first World Laughter Day gathering outside India. It took place on 9th January 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark and more than 10,000 people gathered at Town Hall Square. The event went into Guinness Book of World records.

“World Laughter Day” is now organized on the first Sunday of May every year. Hundreds of people (oftentimes thousands) gather worldwide on that day to laugh together. Such an enthusiastic participation is proof that Laughter Clubs are not a laughing matter.

The 2005 US Open grand slam winner announced the retirement from first class tennis.
Other than the US Open in 2005, she did not have any other grand slam title to her credit.
In a career that spanned a decade, she was finalist and semi-finalist a number of times in the grand slam title duels.

About 55 12^th century paintings depicting the life of Buddha were found in a partly collapsed cave in Mustang, Nepal.

Indian Current Affairs