24.09.2007

• Blame the Twenty20 cricket for this delayed posting. Got somehow glued to the TV set watching the final. What a thrilling finish!! Don’t remember having such thrill in recent times. Congrats to Dhoni and his team.
• About Cricket and betting
• See, what a change does one critical win bring for India!! Today’s big bang match between India and Pakistan is inviting lot of betting. The betting volume is expected to be of the order of Rs. 1200 to 1500 crores!!
• So what are the odds? India 1:1.55 and Pakistan 1:1.8. So what does this mean? If you bet a rupee that India wins, you gain Rs. 1.55 if India wins. Of course you lose your one rupee, if India loses. Such betting also implies that more people are betting that India will win. Hence the less money you get on your bet.
• Yasuo Fukuda is the next Japanese PM
• The ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) has chosen him as the Prime Minister.
• If you are a person aspiring to be an MBA from a foreign university, then you must read this article that appeared in today’s ET:
• Hallmarking of gold to be made mandatory?
• The government is firming up plans to make hallmarking of gold compulsory from next year.
• Hallmark is an indication of the metal content and a guarantee of purity or quality.
• Besides purity hallmark, all jewellery sold in the country should have four other marks –
• the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) logo
• the jeweller’s identification code
• year of making and
• common control mark testifying to fineness
• Interest rate regime on ECBs
• The RBI fixes the maximum interest rate that companies can pay on ECBs being raised by them. In May this year, it has brought this ceiling down from 200 basis points above LIBOR to 150 basis points above LIBOR. This is for loans with 3 to 5 year maturity.
• For debt with a maturity exceeding 5 years, the ceiling was lowered from 350 basis points above LIBOR to 250 basis points above LIBOR.
• Vehicular traffic statistics
• In India about 40% of the time taken by a goods vehicle to reach its destination is spent at various check-posts.
• The average distance travelled by such a vehicle in India is at 300 km, while in most of the developed countries, it is between 1000 km and 1200 km.
• Case for revamping the IIP basket
• Many of the goods in the Index of Industrial Production basket are not relevant any more. They impart a downward bias to production numbers. Items like tape recorders and typewriters don’t deserve any weightage that they are having right now in the index. Many new products like microwaves, vacuum cleaners and TFT computer screens have to find a place.
• Marina beach in Chennai
• We all know about it; or at least have heard about it. But what exactly is a marina?
• It is a station prepared with every kind of facility for a sailing holiday.
• A marina is a small to medium-sized harbor used by mostly private, recreational yachts. Marinas normally have pontoons (a floating structure that serves as a dock or to support a bridge) and finger pontoons allowing access to all the craft berthed there. They often have re-fuelling, washing and repair facilities at hand.
• The third wave approach of creating value in an increasingly globalized world
• While looking at globalization, industries in emerging economies are typically perceived as going through three waves of evolution.
• In the first wave, companies typically act as component supplier to developed countries that manufacture a complete product.
• In the second wave, the local industry gains enough expertise to provide contract manufacturing services – of either the entire product or major sub-assemblies.
• The third wave is when a set of firms start marketing these products under their own brand – initially in their own countries and then abroad.
• China mulls fourth space launch centre
• The proposed site is close to the equator which makes it well suited for launches because lower latitudes have stronger centrifugal forces, reducing the amount of energy required to launch rockets.
• Marcel Marceau dies
• The mime legend, aged 84, is no more.
• He is largely credited with reviving mime.
• Mime is the art of communicating entirely by gesture and facial expression.
• Tamang is Indian Idol
• Prashant Tamang, a West Bengal constable is the new Indian Idol. Remember the American Idol Kelly Clarkson? And her memorable single “Walk Away”? Let’s hope Tamang also will have such an excellent career in singing.
• The issues raised by the recent Delhi High Court ruling holding the Mid Day journalists guilty of contempt of court for making gross judicial misconduct against the former Chief Justice of India, YK Sabharwal:
• It draws pointed attention to the absence of an effective and credible institutional mechanism to deal with allegations of misconduct made against higher judiciary.
• Represents an improper use of contempt power to bar any attempt to raise the issue of judicial misconduct.
• Underlines the danger to freedom of expression that the judiciary’s virtually untrammeled contempt jurisdiction poses.