02.11.2007

• Crude is testing $100 per barrel
• Crude oil futures on Nymex have begun trading at $125 per barrel and beyond.
• This is a strong indication that the spot prices will breach the $100 mark in the near future.
• The Indian crude basket, calculated as a mixture of Dubai/Oman and Brent is above $85 per barrel. The present fuel prices in India are frozen when the basket was at $55 per barrel.
• PMC – new technology for had disk storage
• It stands for Programmable Metallization Cell.
• Likely to hit the markets in the next 18 months, if successful, this will probably replace hard drives, flash memory and RAM used in PCs.
• The technology uses nanowires created from copper atoms to record binary data. It stores information by rearranging atoms to form stable and extremely small memory cells. Each cell can potentially store multiple bits of information.
• Dinosaur extinction linked to volcanic eruptions in India?
• Recent research suggests this possibility. Huge volcanic eruptions in the Deccan plateau might have killed the dinosaurs about 65 mn years ago. The eruptions are believed to have released more climate altering gases into the atmosphere than the widely believed cause hitherto.
• So far, researchers believed that the Chicxulub meteor impact in the Gulf of Mexico would have killed all the dinosaurs.
• India is becoming a hot destination for CDM investments
• About $4.2 bn are expected in the country over the next few years for development of technologies that reduce GHG emissions.
• Several western countries are looking for opportunities of investing in cleaner technologies in developing countries.
• Out of a total 819 projects registered by the CDM executive board, 283 are from India, the highest by any country.
• ARCIL
• Asset Reconstruction Company India Limited. It is company sponsored by leading players in the Indian financial sector – SBI, ICICI Bank, IDBI and Punjab National Bank.
• It is an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC). ARCs act as debt aggregators and engage in acquisition of NPAs. Thus ARCs take away the distraction by isolating NPAs from the banking system and act as "bad bank". This leaves rest of the banking system free to act as "good bank" and return to equity markets and normal banking business. Governments encourage transfer of assets to ARCs through creation of supportive environment. Governments may also provide special powers to ARCs that are not otherwise available to banking system.
• Indian banking system has NPAs of over Rs. 4 lakh crores.
• Insurance schemes for the downtrodden in India
• Today’s article in ET “Government targets one crore poor for insurance” gives out details of the government sponsored insurance schemes for the poor. A must read. Look at it here.
• What is ‘market risk’ for banks?
• The BIS (Bank of International Settlements) defines this as risk that the value of ‘on’ or ‘off’ balance sheet positions will be adversely affected by movements in equity and interest rate markets, currency exchange rates and commodity prices.
• HHI and ‘contestable markets’
• Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI) is a commonly accepted measure of market concentration. It is used to determine the extent of competition in an industry. It takes into account the relative size and distribution of the firms in a market and approaches zero when a market consists of a large number of firms of relatively equal size. It increases as the number of firms in the market decreases and/or the disparity in size between these firms increases.
• Another measure used as a benchmark of competition in markets is the contestability of markets espoused by William Boumal. A contestable market is one in which entry and exit of firms are free. It never offers more than a normal rate of profit and is characterized by the absence of any sort of inefficiency in production.
• Can the states levy tax on Central government’s properties?
• Article 285 of the Constitution prohibits tax on Central government properties by any state government.
• But this does not include charges for services rendered. For eg., when water is supplied, sewerage facilities are provided etc.
• What is meant by parole?
• A convict in a murder case can be released on parole, if he finishes serving three years sentence. Parole is like leave earned; but it is not a leave/remission from the sentence. For every six months of sentence served, it appears that about 15 days’ parole can be given. Parole for a month (if accumulated balance is available) can be granted by the Government on a case to case basis.
• But the prisoner will have to serve the period of parole availed in addition to the sentence period.
• Pilot of Hiroshima bomber dead
• Paul Tibbets died at the age of 92.
• He was the pilot for the B-29 bomber (Enola Gay) that dropped “Little Boy” nuclear bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and injured countless others.
• Martina Hingis quits tennis
• The five time Grand Slam champion was reported to have tested positive for cocaine usage at Wimbledon. She denied using cocaine. The 27 year old Swiss player lost in the third round of Wimbledon this year.
• She announced retirement from competitive tennis.