01.07.2007

• India Inc to raise funds in Japan through JDRs
• Japan is set to allow Indian companies to raise money in Japanese markets through the JDR (Japan Depository Receipts) route.
• This will obviate the need for Indian companies to list in the Japanese stock exchanges to raise funds.
• Japanese household finance assets are currently pegged at about $12.5 trillion. This is a tad less than the whole of the US economy size!!!
• Indian airlines eye global tie-ups
• There are reportedly three major global airline alliances. They are:
• Star Alliance with about 16,930 daily flights and 842 airports in 152 countries
• Skyteam, with 10 member airlines and 14,625 daily flights in 149 countries.
• One World, with about 600 destinations in over 135 countries.
• US withdraws the GSP for gold trade with India
• Under this GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) system, the US has been allowing Indian gold jewellery exports duty free access to the US markets.
• Now with this decision, the Indian exports of gold jewellery will be subject an import duty of 6.7%. This is expected to make Indian exports less competitive over Chinese exports.
• Around 50% of the total jewellery exports from India are destined to the US. The total exports of gold jewellery to the US are placed at about Rs. 9,500 crores.
• Former Delhi CM, Sahib Singh Verma dies in road accident
• He was CM of Delhi between 1996-98.
• Indian contact lens market
• Its penetration is just about 1% (84 mn users).
• Internationally this penetration is about 5%.
• INTACH Chairman
• SK Misra
• Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
• What is Conde Nast list?
• India figures among the top five of this list. This has moved up from the 11^th position to this position. This means that it has become a hot destination for tourists.
• Condé Nast Traveler is an American magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, started in 1987, specializing in travel, principally recreational tourism, but also for business travellers.
• In addition to writing about various exotic locales, so that readers may consider them for destinations, it also rates travel facilities such as hotels and airlines.
• World’s top three commodity futures indices
• S&P GSCI Index
• Rueters-Jefferies CRB Index
• Dow-Jones AIG Commodity Index
• Trans-Asian railway accord – India signs the accord
• This network will cover about 80,900 km and cover 28 nations across the world.
• 18 countries signed it in November, 2006 in Busan, Korea. India signed it in UN at New York.
• The southern corridor of this network starts at Kunming in China and Bangkok in Thailand and ends in Kapikule in Bulgaria.
• The Indian connections:
• Enters India at Tamu, bordering Myanmar. It will then run towards Bangladesh at Mahisasan or Shabajpur and again enter India at Gede. A 315 km missing link on this route is between India and Myanmar; of this 180 km, in India is between Jiribam and Tamu in Manipur.
• On the west side, the route enters Pakistan at Attari.
• Sport – The invincibles
• In today’s TOI there is an excellent article about this. It is a must read.
• For those of you who have the time to read it in full, read the print edition. I am not able to find the web link for it.
• And for those of you like me, note this:
• Wilt Chamberlain aka The Big Dipper: Basketball. Scored a stunning 100 points in a single game against New York Knicks on March 2, 1962.
• Pele: Football. Most prolific goal scorer? 100^th goal on November 1969. Why did I put a question mark? Read the original article.
• Rocky Marciano: Boxing. 49-0 retired on April 27, 1956. The first heavyweight boxer to go undefeated in his entire career. Can you connect why Sylvester Stallone named his movies ‘Rockie’?
• Roger Bannister: Runner. A mile in less than 4 minutes.
• Jahangir Khan: Squash. 555 consecutive wins between 1981-86. Finally he lost to Ross Norman in World Open.
• Byron Nelson: Golf. 11 consecutive PGA wins in 1945.
• Mark Spitz: Swimming. 7 gold medals at the Munich Olympics in 1972. He won every single event he participated in with a world record. He is the only Olympian to have achieved this feat.
• Steffi Graf: Tennis. Grand slam and Olympic gold in 1988.
• Don Bradman: Cricket. Batting average of 99.94 between 1928-48.
• Nadia Comaneci: Gymnastics. Perfect 10 at Montreal Olympics, 1976.
• I like Mika Brzezinski
• She is a newsreader working for US cable channel, MSNBC. She refused to read a bulletin about Paris Hilton’s release from jail and attempted to burn the script. When that did not succeed, she put it in paper shredder. She was protesting against the obsession with celebrities’ lives. Let’s watch the YouTube video.