28.08.2007

• I noted something on the Hyderabad Bomb Blasts in our Discover It blog. Take a look at it here.
• National Commission for SCs and
• Its Chairman is Mr. Buta Singh
• CAS rollout halted
• The rollout of the Conditional Access System, which was made operational throughout Chennai and in select notified zones in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, has been put on hold.
• The I&B ministry has decided to conduct a detailed technical and consumer account audit across cities before notifying the date for the CAS rollout.
• This means that the earlier plan of rolling out CAS in 19 other major cities in the country from 2008, will not be implemented for now.
• Karnataka’s answer to Palace on Wheels
• We all know that Palace on Wheels is a luxury tourist train that operates in Rajasthan.
• Karnataka has come out with its version – the Golden Chariot. It covers two world heritage sites – Hampi and Pattadakal. It is expected to hit the tracks in November 2007.
• What is account evergreening in loan (or NBFC) parlance?
• What happens in this is, as borrowers miss personal loan EMIs, some of the finance companies extend a fat fee to the collection agent, with the understanding that the agent will return a large part of the amount. When the agent returns the money over a period of time, it is shown as loan EMIs. While for the company the net cash flow is nil – since money that goes out comes back – it’s way out to dress up the account. Even though there is a default, the loan account will be shown as a perfectly regular one.
• What are the benefits? Why should the NBFC indulge in this?
• The company need not provide for the bad loan. When a loan turns bad (i.e., default of 90 days or more), it has to be fully provided; in other words, earnings have to be lowered by the outstanding amount. This immediately impact profitability.
• The income given to the agent is a tax deductibe expenditure.
• The delinquency levels or the volumes of NPAs will appear well below the actuals.
• Efforts made by the government to make business life easier in India.
• As we took a drubbing in the 2007 World Bank rankings of “Doing Business”, the government has taken the following measures to improve our rankings. The World Bank rankings have kept us at 134^th position among 175 nations.
• The government ministries are working on a new system to reduce the time taken for registering a new business and getting all the procedural approvals from the current 302 days to 166 days.
• Subprime lessons for India
• Remember the article that we clipped in our 20^th August notes on Indian Current Affairs about subprime myths and realities?
• You shouldn’t miss today’s article by Rajrishi Singhal in the centre page. I am not able to find the web link. You are on your own there.
• What are the components of the international licence-permit raj for the nuclear industry?
• The NSG, IAEA, Zangger committee, Australia Group, Wassennar Arragement, MCTR and PSI.
• I will give short notes about each of them shortly in our upcoming Discover It.
• What is fair value accounting?
• Fair value is the price at which an asset or liability could be echanged in a current transaction between knowledgeable, unrelated willing parties.
• The objective is to estimate an exchange price for the asset or liability being measured in the absence of an actual transaction for that asset or liability.
• Fastest woman in the world
• Veronica Campbell. She clocked 11.01 seconds to finish 100 meters dash in the World Athletics Championships going on at Osaka.