04.11.2007

• Emergency in Pakistan
• President Parvez Musharraf has declared emergency in Pakistan citing a rapid deterioration in the security situation amid growing uncertainty over his position in the face of legal challenge to his re-election in uniform.
• Subprime’s second casualty
• The turmoil in the subprime mortgages and credit markets has claimed its second casualty. Charles Prince, the Chairman and CEO of the Citigroup is reported to be planning to resign at a board meeting in the face of fresh losses from distressed mortgage assets leading to a $5 bn write-down and sharp drop in profits.
• You might remember that the CEO of Merril Lynch, Stan O’Neil was the first to lose his job in the wake of the subprime crisis.
• Why Jodhpur is called the “Blue City”?
• Most of the houses that can be seen from the top of the fort have a blue tinge to them and that’s why it is called the Blue City.
• It is home to the famous Mehrangarh fort and the Umaid Bhawan Palace.
• Duty-free industry’s problems being taken up by government with ICAO now?
• The government is likely to take up the issue of the EU ban on LAGs from India with the International Civil Aviation Organization.
• EU has banned the carriage of Liquid, Aerosols and Gels (LAGs) from India as it has not yet signed a security agreement with the union. The move is an attempt to curb any nefarious plans on-board the flights.
• This move has adversely affected the Rs. 300 crore Indian duty-free industry. Currently around 50% of the sales at duty free shops in India fall under the LAG category.
• Subsidy to boost orthodox tea plantation
• The government has cleared a subsidy programme of Rs. 3 for every kg of orthodox tea produced. If the tea maker produces any extra orthodox tea from his current production level, he will get an additional Rs. 2 per kg as subsidy. The scheme will be operational during the 11^th Plan from 2007 to 2012.
• India produces 80 mn kg of orthodox tea. The total production of tea is expected to be about 950 mn kgs in the current year.
• Orthodox tea is consumed by European Union markets – especially Germany, the Middle East and the CIS bloc.
• What is meant by orthodox tea? And what is the un-orthodox variety of tea?
• India is the favourite of donor agencies and banks
• India has been the largest recipient of Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance), UK’s official grants and the largest cumulative IBRD/IDA borrower in fiscal 2007 accounting for about 15% of the Bank’s new commitments worldwide.
• From Japan we got yen loans worth Rs. 7,000 crores over the last three years at an interest rate of 1.3% for periods ranging up to 30 years.
• More on Toilet statistics
• 63% of households do not have access to a toilet. The position is worse in rural areas where 80% do not have access.
• Look at what we noted about the World Toilet Summit currently going on in New Delhi.
• Want to know details about ETFs?
• Don’t miss today’s article titled “All that glitters is not gold…” in the ET. It is an excellent primer on Exchange Traded Funds.
• Look at it here.
• Indonesia’s Mount Kelud volcano erupts
• Seismographic signals picked up the eruption; but no signs of ash or lava are seen.
• When it erupted in 1990 at least 30 people were killed. In 1919, about 5,000 died when it erupted.
• Incidentally Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes, sitting as it is on a belt of intense seismic activity known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”.
• Indian space developments – reusable launch vehicles and Chandrayaan
• ISRO plans to flight test Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator in December 2008. A successful reusable launch vehicle is expected to bring down the costs of access to space from around $20,000 a kg to about $200 to $500 a kg.
• Air breathing engines play a vital role in such a demonstrator. They do way with the need to carry oxygen onboard the rockets and provide far greater propulsion efficiencies.
• India plans to develop operational reusable launch vehicles by 2025.
• Chandrayaan I is slated for launch on April 9, 2008.
• Onboard this mission is a 20 kg Moon Impact Probe. Once ejected from the spacecraft from the space, it will head towards the moon. Video-cameras on board the probe will take pictures of the moon’s surface. A mass spectrometer will ‘sniff’ the tenuous atmosphere above the moon to find out what it is made of.
• Charndrayaan II could take place around 2011-12.
• Moon is at a distance of 3.84 lk km from earth.
• Navy looks for alternatives to Dhruv
• Unhappy with the indigenously developed Dhruv helicopters, Indian Navy is looking for alternatives. It is badly in need of replacements for various helicopters – Sea Kings, Chetaks, Dhruvs and Kamov-25s.
• IMSA honorary fellowship to Justice K. Narayana Kurup
• The International Medical Sciences Academy has conferred this fellowship on him. He is the second non-medical person to get this fellowship. The first one was the inventor of CT scan Dr. G.N. Hunsfield.
• Justice Narayana Kurup’s contribution to the field of medicine was from a classic judgment on banning smoking in public places. It has been hailed by the international community as a unique contribution by the Indian judiciary to protect human rights to health.
• Tidbits from Open Space column of Times of India
• South Africa is known as a Rainbow Nation to describe the unity of various cultural, racial or ethnic groups in the country. This phrase was coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
• The first Asian to win a Nobel for literature is Rabindranath Tagore in 1913. The second is Shmuel Yosef Agnon of Israel in 1966, when he shared the honor with Nelly Leonie Sachs, a German-Swedish poet.
• Difference between an alligator and a crocodile
• Crocodile has a very long, narrow, V-shaped snout, while the alligator has a U-shaped snout.
• Crocodile’s upper and lower jaws are nearly the same width. Alligator has a wider upper jaw; so when the mouth is closed the teeth in the lower jaw fit into the sockets of the upper jaw. This hides them from view.
• Alligators prefer fresh water while crocodiles like brackish water.