17.11.2007

• Currency futures soon?
• Indians may soon be allowed to participate in exchange traded currency futures.
• These are instruments that allow them to take positions in future value of the rupee. A currency futures contract is one where two parties agree to buy and sell the currency at a future date at a pre-determined price.
• This follows the recommendation made by an internal panel of the RBI on this.
• But these recommendations also could possibly spark a turf war between the RBI and SEBI. The recommendation is that the RBI should retain the regulatory aspects of the trade even though securities exchanges are the domain of SEBI.
• See what we noted about this topic earlier on 30^th June and 7^th June.
• When is a book considered a best seller?
• When it sells 3000 copies.
• Heard about Chetan Bhagat’s “Five Point Someone”? It seems to be making waves.
• It sold over 50,000 copies.
• Finally the government gets the go ahead for talks with the IAEA
• The Left parties gave a conditional go ahead to the government to approach the IAEA to discuss draft safeguards agreement.
• India’s cryogenic engine test successful
• These engines are used in launching the GSLVs. This technology was so far confined to Russia, Europe and the US.
• Sometime earlier on 29^th October,2006 to be precise, papers reported this fact a little differently. But do take a look at the details about what exactly a cryogenic engine is capable of here.
• Forex reserves at $270 bn mark
• At the current level the reserves are close to a third of the size of the country’s economy.
• SBI’s Janata depositors issue
• The scheme was launched way back in 1971 to inculcate the habit of savings, especially among middle and low income groups.
• This began running losses due to the hefty commission paid to the deposit collectors (3.5%) and also due to the heavy expenses attributable to the scheme. Hence SBI decided to discontinue the scheme.
• The deposit holders have approached the Supreme Court against the discontinuance.
• How many varieties of CPI (Consumer Price Index) are there?
• Four:
• UNME: Urban Non Manual Employees
• IW: Industrial Workers
• AL: Agricultural Labour
• RL: Rural Labour
• Strike by WGA – Writers Guild of America
• The 12000 members of the WGA are on a war path. They are demanding that the residual payments for re-use movies and shows on DVDs and newer channels like Internet and mobiles be hiked from 5 cents to 8 cents.
• The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers is not willing for it.
• A look at the write-downs by global companies in the aftermath of the subprime crisis
• A write down (reducing the recorded value of an asset in an account) represents the decline in the value of assets related to the house mortgages held as assets by these firms:
• Citigroup: $8 to $11 bn
• Merril Lynch: $7.9 bn
• Morgan Stanley: $3.7 bn
• UBS and HSBC: $3.4 bn each
• Bank of America: #3 bn
• I think we should wait for figures from the ensuing quarters also before we realize the full impact of the crisis.