07.07.2007

• You would have seen me noting/excerpting Bradford Delong’s articles. I have noted for you from an article that appeared yesterday. It was very good. I strongly recommend reading it. Read it here.
• We have been following about SEZs quite vigorously in our blogs. If you want to know the SEZ Act and the Rules made under the Act, you can see them here: http://www.sezindia.nic.in/
• Today I came across a good site which can throw some light on issues that we usually grapple with. It is countercurrents.org. Take a look at it here: http://www.countercurrents.org/index.htm.
• The sensex touched the 15K mark. It is a historic moment for Indian economy.
• African Union backs India’s quest for a permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
• The 53 member union’s support came during the ongoing visit of India’s external affairs minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.
• The evolving advertising business in India
• It is an article worth a read to stay tuned to the developing scenario. Take a look at it here.
• Some things worthy of note:
• India has:
• 70 mn cable & satellite homes
• 200 mn newspaper readers
• 40 mn Internet users
• 180 mn mobile users
• India’s ad spends
• Print media Rs. 7,000 crore
• TV Rs. 6,000 crore
• Internet Rs. 200 crore
• Mobile Rs. 6 to 8 crore
• India’s internet users
• 31.3 mn users access the internet through mobile
• 9.27 mn use the PC to access the internet
• Global ad spend on mobiles is expected to touch $11 bn by 2011.
• Who is Damien Hirst
• He is world’s highest priced living artist.
• Death is a central theme in his work. He is best known for his “Natural History” series, in which dead animals (such as a shark, a sheep or a cow) are preserved, sometimes cut-up, in formaldehyde. His iconic work is “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, a 14-foot tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde in a vitrine. Its sale in 2004 made him the second most expensive living artist after Jasper Johns. In June 2007, Hirst became the most expensive living artist with the sale of a medicine chest, “Lullaby Spring”, for £9.65 million at Sotheby's in London.
• Teen Olympics
• The IOC has approved a proposal to create a mini Olympic Games for athletes between the ages of 14 and 18. The competition is expected to begin in 2010 and will be held every two years.
• On inclusive growth
• Today a very good article appeared in ET on this subject. It is very tough to write a précis of this. But it is one which cannot be missed to get a picture of the problem of non-inclusiveness of our economic growth.
• Read it here.
• And it is Saturday and weekend. Time for some video worth watching. Heard of live earth? Didn’t see it on VH1? Look at this Madonna’s video. You will understand what it is about. And don’t forget to take a look at Wikipedia page on the subject at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Earth