10.07.2007

• Today I noted something about LLP – Limited Liability Partnerships in the Discover It blog. I did so in the context of taxation policy on those entities. Take a look.
• ICHR Chairman
• Indian Council of Historical Research. Chairman is Sabyasachi Bhattacharya.
• What does the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board do?
• You would imagine that fixing petroleum and natural gas price would naturally be one of its jobs; right? WRONG.
• It is not empowered to have any say in fixing of gas prices. The board can only intervene in case of restrictive trade practices which could impact the government’s share of profit petroleum.
• Why is there potential for global chains to source fruits and vegetables from India?
• Indian exports of these enjoy a huge cost advantage. The advantage is estimated to be up to 35% since farm gate prices are cheaper here.
• It is cheaper to ship from India to the US when compared to shipping from one US coast to another. (Remember a similar situation when we imported wheat from abroad?)
• So the government is in talks with retail biggies to develop cold chains to facilitate product supply.
• Sugar output pegged at 28 mn tonnes
• For 2006-07 crop year (October-September) it is expected to be 28 mn tonnes. Previous year figure: 19.2 mn tonnes.
• Sugar exports during the current season: 1 to 1.2 mn tonnes. Previous figure: 6.5 to 7 lk tonnes.
• What is an EEFC account?
• It is a non-interest bearing bank account (current account) maintained by exporters in foreign currency.
• In view of the strengthening of the rupee, the IT sector is now demanding that the account holders be allowed a put option. This allows the exporters to exchange the depreciating US dollar for some other currency like the Euro if it falls beyond a particular level within a specified time period.
• Can you list out the problems that lead to non-commercialization of breakthrough discoveries of R&D labs?
• Information on many mission critical nuances of the invention is never documented and is stored in tacit form. This necessitates initial participation of the concerned researcher in the industrial application process. If this doesn’t happen, that is a problem.
• Others problems include: organizational rigidities, lack of entrepreneurship at the executive level and financial constraints.
• Macaroni defence
• This is a term that relates to the M&A field.
• It is one of the strategies that a target company can adopt to thwart a hostile takeover attempt. It involves issuing a large number of bonds, with the guarantee that the bonds will be redeemed at a much higher price if the company is acquired.
• It is so called because, the debt of the company will expand like Macaroni in a heated pot. This is similar to the poison pill approach, where the target company issues a large amount of equity to make it unattractive for a hostile bidder.
• What is the other name for Islamic bonds?
• Susuk.
• Chess
• Viswanathan Anand won the Magistral Ciudad de Leon tournament for a record 7^th time. He beat Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov in the finals.
• Tennis
• Pete Sampras holds a record 7 Wimbledon titles in all. He also holds the maximum number of Grandslam titles to his credit, with 14.