Indian Current Affairs: 15.10.2007

In today’s Discover It, we take a look at the subprime crisis again. What prompted this are two developments – the formation of a $80 bn fund by Citigroup and others to tackle the fallout and Joseph Stiglitz’s comments on the crisis. Take a look at it here.
Independent directors in companies’ boards

SEBI rules state that if the chairman of the board is a non-executive director, at least a third of the board of directors should be independent directors. If the board is headed by an executive chairman, then half of the board should be made up of independent directors. This is for companies with a paid up capital of Rs. 3 crores.
Now SEBI’s Chairman Damodaran has aired the view that the independent directors should meet at least an hour or so before the scheduled board meetings to give reasonable inputs to the decision making process.

Remember our noting on various alliances in the airline industry? Recap here.
Airline alliances are formed to offer their passengers connecting flights to their destinations and also to enable them to avail of frequent flier programmes seamlessly across the alliance members.
No airline can fly to every airport in the world. So airlines flying to various destinations come together to offer their passengers seamless ticketing, transit, baggage handling, frequent flier miles etc.

Just a while ago we looked at the wheat scenario in the country. Today we look at sugar as reported in ET:
Sugar season year is October to September. The sugar industry has about 10 mn tonnes of leftover stocks from the previous year. An estimated 30 mn tonnes will be added during 2007-08 year. Consumption is expected to be about 19.5 mn tonnes. Exports are pegged at 3.5 to 4 mn tonnes. That would leave about 16 mn tonnes of closing stocks for 2007-08.
The recent government decision on ethanol doping is expected to come to the sugar industry’s rescue. Ethanol can be produced either from molasses or from sugar directly. But still there are concerns being expressed because petrol, with which ethanol is proposed to be blended accounts for only 20% of the fuel consumption basket. And as mixing of ethanol with diesel requires an emulsifier, the country is not yet geared for this. Work is still going on.

Government seems to be coming out with a comprehensive policy on wine making and its consumption.
It would be interesting to know that in 1975 the Cabinet has decided to ban the creation of additional capacity for distillation and brewing alcoholic drinks, except in 100% export oriented units. In 1997 the Supreme Court ruled that industries engaged in manufacturing alcohol for potable purposes will be under the executive control of state governments.
In the above context, how far will the government’s efforts be viable?

After about 2 years of embarrassing delays the first ever A380 is being delivered to Singapore Airlines. It is a double decker jet and the world’s largest passenger plane with a carrying capacity of 471 seats in three classes: first, business and economy.

An expert’s view is that the rupee-dollar exchange rate and the stock market indices are having a strong negative correlation. When the rupee is low against the dollar (eg., in 2003 it was trading at Rs. 48 per dollar) the Nifty was around 1100. Now when the rupee is operating at sub-40 levels the equity markets are at all time high. Nifty is more than 5000 now.

Russian Sultan Ibragimov defeated Evander Holyfield to retain the WBO World Champion title in Moscow.

As expected the Aussies walked away with the ODI series with a 4-1 lead over India.

Indian Current Affairs