Indian Current Affairs: 25.06.2007

Polls for it are scheduled to be held on November 22.
Apart from re-writing the constitution, the special assembly is also to decide on the fate of the 238 year old monarchy.

Under this, the SHGs (Self Help Groups) have tied up with LIC to provide life and accident cover to villagers by eliminating insurance agents as middlemen.
The SHGs themselves are working as insurance agents and are also collecting claims.

There would be a danger of the existing rules being flouted or broken.
A diminution of the credibility of the institution of WTO.
Small and vulnerable economies would also lose out if the Doha round dies, as few powers would seek them out in bilateral trade alliances.
Development goals attached to the Doha agenda would also fall by the wayside in such a piecemeal system.

While less than 1% of US population is dependent on agriculture, for India about 60% of the population is dependent on it. US is unwilling to cut its farm subsidies and prefers to keep the farm products artificially cheap.

But I am also beginning to wonder, whether we should confine our vision only to the farmers of the US and India and lose sight of the remaining global population that is dependent on agriculture.

Israeli researchers have genetically engineered tomatoes to give hints of lemon and rose aromas.
The GM (Genetically Modified) tomatoes have only a light red colour, because they have only half as much lycopene as conventional tomatoes.

Government removed the excise duty on these products in 2005.
But for the period prior to 2005, the oil companies have to pay about Rs. 1000 crore as excise duty on these products. This is now likely to be waived off by the Government.
The logic behind such a waiver is that the excise duty leviable on them is effectively being paid by the government. As the duty is leviable at the factory gate price, which is higher than the market price because of government subsidies, levying excise duty on the factory gate price, doesn’t make sense.

The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natual Gas, Murli Deora is quoted as saying that the agreement among the three nations on this is almost finalized.
This $7.4 bn, 1035 km pipleine project from Iran to India through Pakistan has been beset with problems relating to pricing, transportation and transit fee fixation issues.
I am at times left to wonder whether it is worth pursuing at all. Iran, which has originally agreed for a certain price for the natural gas has reneged on that commitment. A pipeline that acquires strategic significance when laid, passing through an openly hostile country like Pakistan doesn’t give much confidence in so far as reliability of supplies is concerned.

Only a small percentage of household savings goes into equities and debentures – 0.8% of GDP and 4.9% of gross financial savings at the end of March 2006.
48% of US households have exposure to Mutual Funds against about 5% for India!

Indian Current Affairs