04.06.2007

• Today I gave you a brief about the construction of stock indices in BSE and NSE. Take a look at it here in our Discover It blog.
• SSN made mandatory for PF subscribers
• Social Security Number, which is a 14 digit identification number allotted by EPFO to all employees, is now made mandatory for settlement of PF claims and transfers.
• Genetic make-up of the Aedes aegypti done
• The genome sequencing of this mosquito was done successfully. This mosquito causes yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya.
• This is very significant and has opened up unprecedented opportunities and brought humanity one step closer to finding a strategy to successfully fight the mosquito.
• In an excellent article written in today’s Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan outlines the important role than can be played by the emerging powers viz., the BRIC countries. He says that the lack of focus at present that characterizes these emerging economies can be overcome by emphasizing shared values and interests that find no space in the global discourse dominated by the G8’s agenda. These shared values and interests can be identified as:
• 1. Inclusive growth. These BRIC countries have a political culture that can provide more space for the kind of equitable and balanced growth that the world’s poor badly need, than the political culture in the G8 block.
• 2. Emphasis on pacific settlements of disputes, rather than the use of sanctions and force.
• 3. Importance of the BRIC countries in the evolution of a rational energy future for the world, because they are straddling both the hydrocarbon and biofuel sectors.
• 4. Rational and humane treatment of migrant labour. As these are the big contributors to global migration, they have a huge stake in it. This is an issue which never merits a place in the agenda of a G8 meet.
• 5. Health status of the world’s poor and the need for more accessible drugs, can be brought on to the world’s agenda only by the BRIC countries.
• GCC members
• Gulf Cooperation Council: It comprises of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait.
• Global M&As to be under our CCI’s scanner
• Global mergers and acquisitions may need to seek the blessings of Competition Commission of India if the merged entity has assets exceeding Rs. 500 crore or turnover of more than Rs. 1500 crore in India.
• This ministry of company affairs is planning to make it mandatory, if the combined entity meets the criteria of ‘territorial nexus.’
• Gujjar agitation leader
• Col (Retd.) Kirori Singh Bhainsala is the leader of the agitating Gujjars in Rajsthan. Gujjars, who are OBCs are demanding that they be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes.
• Mobile payments or M-payments are becoming the ‘in-thing’
• M-payments operate on a very simple mechanism globally. The details of the credit card or debit are stored in the user’s phone and the transactions are done by SMS.
• When a user wants to pay for goods or services, what all needs to be done is share his mobile number with the merchant. Instantly he receives an SMS asking him to authorize the payment. The customer can do this by confirming an alphanumeric code that is sent to him, as well as the amount. Within a few seconds, the bank will authenticate the details and debit the amount.
• Benefits:
• Favoured for small value payments.
• Reduces the chances of credit card frauds.
• Concerns:
• SMS is unreliable.
• Less security as SMS is not encrypted.
• Encouragement to higher education
• The government is about to constitute a Higher Educational Refinance Corporation which would provide loans at low interest rate. A fund of Rs. 2,500 crore would be provided to the corporation through the 11^th Five year plan.
• The government hopes to increase the gross enrollment ratio at the higher education level from 9.7% to 15% by 2012.
• A regulator for coal
• This will oversee issues pertaining to pricing and supply of coal.
• Why judicial reform cannot wait any longer?
• Estimates by a reputed organization – Transparency International – have it that our lower judicial officers are paid an amount of Rs. 2,630 crores as graft during 2006. This is attributed largely to the huge backlog of cases.
• The judges-population ratio of 12 to 13 per million is at the root of the backlog. Therefore government must go ahead with a recruitment overdrive.
• As transformational politics (the need of the hour), which would level the inequitable social ground can only take root when the legal system can deliver justice.
• As justice delivery can be done only when the opacity and economically prohibitive nature of the judicial process are removed, institutionalizing a sort of legal aid system for needy is immanent.
• The NJC would have to have senior-most members of the judiciary as well as the executive and legislature to render the judiciary more accountable.
• A shining India story
• I strongly recommend reading today’s article on our economy by Mythili Bhusnurmath. If ever you were asked to explain how the growth seen in our economy is attributable to structural rather than cyclical reasons, you can’t have a better answer than this piece. Read it here.