26.06.2007

• For quite some time I have kept pending a piece on East Asian Currency crisis. It will be a longish piece. It will appear in two parts in our Discover It blog. Take a look at the first piece today there.
• Water cess on industries
• At present pollution control boards of states levy a cess on the basis of prescribed optimal use of water per unit of production and do not give weightage to overall quantum of water consumption.
• The water cess varies between 20 paise and 25 paise (per kilolitre) from state to state.
• Now the government is planning to levy a use-based cess on them. This could possibly hit the soft drink maker very hard.
• Chattisgarh village shows the way to clean sanitation
• Dabena village in Chattisgarh, led by its sarpanch Dinesh Kaushik has set an example of sorts to bring in sanitation sense to the masses.
• Read this compelling story about how to single-handedly bring large mass of people to shame and make them act on fighting it. I am not able to find the web link for it. Go through it in the physical edition.
• Prime Minister of Thailand
• Surayud Chulanont
• India’s biggest uranium processing unit opened
• At Turamdih on the outskirts of Jamshedpur.
• Capping iron ore exports
• In a bid to avoid putting in place export controls for iron ore, the government is moving in the direction of initiating control measures that would kick off once the export growth in iron ore crosses a certain limit – say of 10 or 15%.
• Only when export growth crosses the set limit will there be any cap on the exports of the ore.
• Inflation – one is low while the other is high
• Though the WPI based inflation is down for the third successive week, the CPI (UNME) is remaining high at 6.8%.
• This is attributed to the fact that the CPI basket has a higher composition of food items (60%) than the WPI basket (26%). Hence it is more sensitive to a rise in food prices.
• India at the receiving end from the EU on counterfeit drugs issue
• A report by EU has alleged large scale supply of ‘counterfeit’ drugs by India to the region. India has taken these allegations seriously and has sought details from the EU on these.
• India is the 4^th largest producer of pharmaceuticals by volume. Nearly half of its revenue is coming from exports to the EU and the US.
• Global industry estimates put the counterfeit drugs sale at 10% of the global market.
• India’s retail story
• A McKinsey report puts India as the fifth largest market in 2025 from its 12^th position today.
• The middle class from India is expected to touch 550 mn by that year with about very wealthy being over 20 mn.
• Chinese forex power
• China holds $414 bn of the $4.4 trillion of all marketable US treasury securities as of April, 2007!!!
• What is the largest foreign bank operating in India?
• It is Citibank now. It has displaced Standard Chartered from the number one position.
• This is based on the assets position.
• Beggar-thy-neighbour policy
• Any policy measure employed by a country to improve domestic productivity that has an impact on rival economies is termed as one.
• These policies are so defined because they are usually at the cost of some other economy which suffers in terms of lower exports or higher imports. It is largely used in the context of exchange rate management where the government deliberately devalues its currency to keep its exports competitive.
• Other means through which such a policy can be put in place include – high tariffs or quotas on imports and providing direct subsidies to exports.
• Time for Tennis at Wimbledon
• In the last 100 years, Bjorn Borg is the only man who has won the Wimbledon title five times in a row.
• Pete Sampras won the title four times in a row.
• Do you know who serves the fastest in Tennis at present?
• Andy Roddick was recorded serving at 155 mph!!!