23.05.2007

• Take a look at Manmohan Sing’s take on the causes for the inflation:
• In the last year, the growth processes we unleashed have put some pressure on prices. We have been faced with galloping demand for many products. This has resulted in inflation becoming a cause for concern, particularly in the case of essential commodities. This has been compounded by a shortfall in production of these commodities.
• Government he says, has recognized that high national income growth alone did not address the challenge of employment promotion, poverty reduction and balanced regional development or improving human development.
• Inflation and foreign exchange inflows
• We have been looking at this topic for the last couple of days. Some more comments made in this regard by the Hindu editorial are worth our attention. Take a look:
• The RBI has had to moderate its interventionist approach that involved, in the first instance, purchase of dollars by following it up with an operation to mop up the rupees released into the system. The costs involved in this two-way operation have no doubt mattered but the consequences of its earlier inaction are being felt across the macro-economy.
• One of the signs of the consequences for the macro-economy is a strengthening of the rupee against the dollar. This adversely affects the exporters.
• Abel Prize awarded
• To Prof. SRS Varadan, a mathematician of Indian origin working in the US. He is working at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
• He was awarded the prize by Norway’s King Harald V at a formal ceremony in Oslo.
• The Abel Prize was created by the Norwegian government in 2002 to mark the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the great Norwegian mathematician, Niels Henrik Abel. It carries an award of $988,000.
• 7 more services under tax net from June 1
• Renting of property for use in commerce or business
• Works contracts
• Telecom related services: telephone connection, pager, leased circuit, telex, telegraph and fax communication
• Small service providers with a turnover of less than Rs. 8 lakh are however, exempted from this levy.
• Cricket – our favourite whipping boy
• Not at all enthused with the draw by India against Bangladesh in the first test match.
• IIMs’ financial freedom being clipped!!
• The Union HRD ministry is about to table a bill in Parliament making the IIMs accountable to Parliament.
• At present the IIMs are being allowed to retain all their earnings from fees, consultancy, donations and grants. They were allowed to do this through a Cabinet decision of the early 1990’s.
• If the bill is passed, any investments by IIMs will have to be approved by the central government.
• A new twist to the J&K imbroglio
• Sajjad Gani Lone has come out with a demand that Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state should be separated from Kashmir.
• I think this is the first ever time that such a demand has emanated from the State.
• What is PFDF?
• It stands for Pooled Finance Development Fund
• It is established by the central government to enable smaller urban local bodies to raise funds from the market for financing urban infrastructure projects.