31.07.2007

• In today’s Discover It blog, I reproduced for you the opinion of Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia as it appeared in ET about India’s economic reform path. It is a must read for getting a bird’s eye view of the progress over the decades. Take a look at it here.
• CCDs – what are they and why are they in the news?
• Compulsory Convertible Debentures. It has become a fashion for companies to issue CCDs to foreign funds and agree to buy them back after 2 or 3 years at a price fixed today. Such CCDs are shown as FDI, even though the underlying structure is no different from a pure loan. This allows companies to overcome restrictions on partly and optionally convertible debentures and preference shares.
• LPO business
• Legal Process Outsourcing. It includes functions like legal research, litigation support, contract drafting & review and paralegal services.
• The margins in this business are higher at about 30 to 40%, against 12 to 15% in the BPO industry.
• Law is turning a hot career pick
• India is currently producing about 70,000 lawyers a year.
• India’s civilian aircraft needs and some pointers
• An estimate by Boeing, a leading manufacturer of aircraft puts the requirement of India for aircraft at 911 planes over the next 20 years.
• What a number? Do you see any connect? 9 – 11? This should be enough for US to start investigating into all matters connected with India and Boeing :) I am just kidding.
• Boeing says that to make an MRO operation successful, it needs to service about 200 aircraft. MRO by the way stands for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul.
• An estimate puts that about 21000 aircraft would be needed by the world in the next two decades.
• Plans for Prasar Bharati bifurcation
• One proposal that is doing rounds is that it will be split into two corporations – an Asset Corporation and Programming and Broadcasting Corporation. While the former will hold all the assets, the latter will oversee programming and other operations.
• Director General of Foreign Trade
• Mr. RS Gujral
• No tax on reverse mortgage
• You know what is reverse mortgage; don’t you? If you want to have a recap, take a look at it here.
• CBDT has now clarified that the payments made in reverse mortgage whether in lump sum or in installments will not be treated as income and that no tax would be payable on such payments.
• Credit to GDP ratios
• India – 40%
• US – 250%
• UK – 150%
• China – 150%
• Thailand – 75%
• This is the ratio of total credit advanced by the banks in the country to its GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The higher this ratio, the greater is the economic activity induced by the banking system. Some see it as a measure of banking efficiency.
• Damdupat
• An interesting term to learn today, from the ‘First Principle’ column of ET.
• A technical group to review the legislation on money-lending that was set up by the RBI has recommended that the rule of damdupat should be incorporated in the legislation by all the states. What this principle says is that the maximum amount of interest chargeable by the lender should be restricted to maximum of twice the outstanding principal, irrespective of the amount of interest accumulation.