07.10.2007

• Government announces more sops for exporters
• In a bid to help the exporters in the context of the rising rupee the government has announced the following three additional measures:
• Refund of service tax on three additional services
• Provision to pay interest on the EEFC accounts.
• An additional Rs. 300 crores earmarked for Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana
• BTW want to know more about EEFC accounts? Do so from RBI’s site here.
• Kumaraswamy becomes the lame duck CM
• We have noted earlier that the political developments will be worth watching. As it turned out, the JD(S) is in no mood to relinquish the CM’s seat and is even prepared to face mid-term elections. This is what has been expected; but as they say that anything can happen in politics, we preferred not to forecast anything. So now, it is clear that Kumaraswamy has become a lame duck CM. What exactly is meant by lame duck? A lame duck is an elected official who loses political power or is no longer responsive to the electorate as a result of
• a term limit which keeps him from running for that particular office again,
• losing an election, or
• the elimination of the official's office, but who continues to hold office until the end of the official's term.
• Whenever we learn or recap a language term, some other word/phrase crops up in my mind. One such word that peeps out while learning about lame duck is ‘slam dunk’. Know what it is? A slam dunk (or simply a dunk) is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball through the basket with one or both of his hands, then grabs the rim shortly after the ball passes through the hoop.
• Something about PMT field
• It is Panna Mukta Tapti oil and gas fields. These are jointly operated by RIL, ONGC and British Gas.
• They account for 8% of India’s hydrocarbon production. Gas output from these fields has been increased to 17 MMSCMD to cater to the nations growing natural gas needs.
• You can’t get a better tutorial on futures and options and derivatives than this one that appeared in today’s ET. Take a look.
• What is the difference between a permanent High Court Judge and an Additional High Court judge?
• The Additional Judges are appointed for a tenure not exceeding two years. The permanent judges once appointed function till they retire at the age of 62 years.
• The Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956 provided for the appointment of Additional Judges through the introduction of Article 224.
• Why is it news now? The Madras High Court has held that the appointment of Additional Judges does not contravene the basic structure of the Constitution.
• Marian Jones – from grace to disgrace
• In a shocking revelation, Marian Jones, the US athlete has admitted to lying when she denied taking performance enhancing drugs. She broke down outside a courthouse in US while apologizing for her actions. She faces the risk of losing all her gold medals at the Olympics.
• How does it look like for you? Do you feel cheated? I feel that she should be forgiven after taking her medals back and awarding them to the rightful winners. But she will remain a hero in my eyes. Admitting to guilt calls for lot of guts. She has guts. I applaud her. All the best to her in her life.
• Is appendix a real vestige?
• Is the appendix in our body a real vestige? Researches are finding that it may be having a function after all.
• It is thought to be producing and protecting good germs for the intestines.
• Some interesting questions answered in today’s Open Space column of TOI:
• How is a country’s GDP measured?
• What is the difference between Marxism and Socialism?
• Which is the oldest civilization in the world?