04.07.07

• A seemingly funny judgment given by ITAT, Pune is bound to give the corporates a bonanza. Can a company set off its losses against profits twice? This appears possible in view of the judgment. For lay people like you and me it may look silly; but experts are saying that it is the correct legal position. Take a look the details in our Discover It blog of today.
• How much does the RBI earn on its deployment of forex reserves?
• For the year ended June 2006, it earned 3.9%.
• Two points need to be noted here:
• The RBI follows the July-June financial year.
• As I have been noting in our blog, it is security which is more important than yield. Hence such low returns are acceptable.
• SIR policy
• The government is set to announce a new Special Investment Regions policy. According to this, the Centre will provide national highways, railway connections, telecom and airports. The states will have to identify sites and make available local infrastructure like power, bulk water supply, facilities for health and education and sewage facilities.
• Indian chilly trade
• It is likely to be hit by the glut in China’s production. Though China’s production is pegged at a mere 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes, its flooding our markets starting this August and the prospects of another harvest soon thereafter in December, are expected to adversely affect our local farmers.
• India had a bumper crop and produced about 10 lakh tonnes in 2007.
• AP produces almost 90% of the country’s production.
• Some excellent comments on reform and liberalization
• Reforms are meant to draw from the libertarian principle of the free market so that society, polity and economy become more amenable to the control of individual citizens than they have been; in the era of the all-knowing and distant state.
• What are invisible in our import-export trade?
• One of you were asking me this question in the shout-box.
• The invisible receipts are those relating to non-merchandise exports like software exports. Others in this category include insurance and financial services. And of course the ubiquitous BPO income. BPO here includes various engineering and consultancy services; not mere voice and data processing services.
• How many deposit accounts are there with the scheduled commercial banks in India?
• 48.5 crores.
• Though we cannot say that each such account represents an individual, just look at the figure and you will start wondering where we stand in our banking penetration!
• For a population of over 112 crores, we have only about 48.5 crores deposit accounts. Isn’t this giving you some perspective when it comes to thinking about developing the country?
• Tennis @Wimbledon
• Hope you have all been watching Wimbledon. Because in a blog like ours, we are only interested in the ultimate result, we tend to not cover the rest of the story. But one thing that you should watch is the grit and determination displayed by Serena Williams in continuing the play in spite of her calf pull in her 4^th round match against Hantuchova. Have the patience to watch the video? You will find the link at: http://wimbledon.mediazone.com/other/featured.html