Indian Current Affairs: 28.05.2007

ANNOUNCEMENT: Now that the Prelims are over, I presume there is no need for the whole database of quiz questions to be available for now. So, starting today, I have reverted back to asking you 5 questions per day in our “Today’s Quiz” link. Take a look at it everyday. It is accessible from both the blogs. Look for the link on the side bar.
An interesting debate about investing our burgeoning forex reserves in foreign equities appeared in today’s ET. I wrote a piece on this issue in today’s Discover It blog. Take a look at here.
I often wondered as to who said famously about death and taxes being certain. Today I came to know that it was Benjamin Franklin.
Biggest grosser – Hollywood Movie

Spiderman 3 broke all records for a Hollywood movie in India. It collected about Rs. 57 crores, surpassing the record set by Titanic.

Just yesterday or so I wrote a piece on carbon trading in Discover It blog. Today I came across a good article in ET on the same subject. Couldn’t find the web link for it. Read it in hard copy. It is titled “Be Greener To Get The Greenback.”

The mines ministry feels that the cap on ore exports would be unjustified as core reserves have shot up by nearly 2 bn tonnes from the current 23 bn tonnes and fines and low grade lumps have no market in the country.
The steel ministry wants the cap on export of iron ore, besides seeking a tariff barrier on export of ore lumps with iron content of 62% and above.

The government has launched this for the construction sector with the aim to increase the energy efficiency of new buildings.
This was launched in pursuance of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 which empowers the Centre to prescribe ECBC for commercial buildings and building complexes.

The government is considering an overhaul of the route dispersal guidelines (RDG) that mandate airlines to fly unviable routes connecting cities in the north-eastern region, J&K, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
The basic guidelines were framed sometime in 1994 and have been tweaked every 2 to 3 years by adding more stations or routes to the list.
The RDG makes it mandatory for airlines to operate certain number of flights in a particular region. For instance, airlines must operate at least 10% of their deployment of capacity on trunk routes – which includes six top metros – in category II routes which are meant to connect the remote regions.

While there is no dearth of buyers in power-deficit India, and while the policy laid down by the Electricity Act 2003 allows for Open Access (which enables customers to source power from wherever they want, in addition to or substituting the entrenched State utilities) the state owned networks often are dragging their feet to wheel the power to intended customers, often citing flimsy technical grounds.
Of the 72 bn units generated by captive power plants, only a small portion of 4.2 bn units had been fed to the grid.

In the context of the sermonizing made by our Prime Minister about corporate salaries being vulgar, some facts and figures worth noting are:

Currently Directors’ salaries are capped at 5% of the net profit and the salaries of all the Directors cannot go beyond 10% of the net profit of the company. If any company wants to pay over above this, it has to seek government’s permission for doing so.

In an interesting and related article Rama Bijapurkar argues that the poor do not have the mind space to be concerned with how much the ‘haves’ have, or how they spend it, but are concerned with their own quality of life and whether or not amenities are improving. More than demanding social justice, they are seeking economic opportunity. And to say to them that we will not give it to you but we will remove temptation from your way so that you don’t know what is possible is insulting.

Indian Current Affairs