20.11.2007

• I gave answers to a couple of your shout-box queries in today's Discover It. Look at them here.
  
• FDI in cable TV set to touch 74%
• The government is set to allow FDI up to 74% FDI in cable TV services and the HITS satellite-based platform to distribute television signals. This move is expected to intensify competition between telecom companies and cable operators.
• NHRC equates Nandigram with Godhra
• Look at a quote attributed to the NHRC Chairman, S. Rajendra Babu:
• Both the incidents were a severe assault on the face of democracy and inflicted the worst scars on the face of the nation. The state human rights commission is actively involved in taking the case to its logical end.
• What should be India’s stand be at Bali climate meet?
• This is a very important debate that appeared in today’s ET. Take a look at it. You may be aware that he UN conference on global warming is to be held in Bali, Indonesia in December. Some important points out of this excerpted below:
• The vital question that hangs like a Damocles’ sword over India’s head is whether India will be forced to accept legally binding emission targets by developed countries of the west. Such targets would be at the cost of growth of India’s GDP and at the cost of employment. There is no free lunch in reducing carbon emission and mitigating pollution.
• No wonder the United States introduced air and water pollution control laws after a 100 years of rapid industrialisation. The effective amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act came as late as 1972 and Clean Air Act was given teeth in 1970. The per capita income of the US had already reached $5,000 by then.
• A glaring case of this trade-off between reducing pollution and extinguishing livelihoods of people comes from the action taken to preserve the Taj, resulting in the closure of metal foundries, glass factories and brick kilns in Agra. Each small unit was asked to shift from coal to natural gas, which meant an expenditure of Rs 30 lakh to 40 lakh per unit. Obviously, the small units closed and 100,000 workers lost their jobs.
• Greenpeace recently released a survey based report named “Hiding behind the poor” which revealed that the highest income group in India, constitution merely 1% of the population, emits 4.5 times as much CO2 as the lowest income group consisting of 38% of the population.
• India’s Uranium mining scene
• India recently commenced work at Tummalapalle mine and processing mill in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh. It is being set up by the state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) at a cost of Rs. 1106 crores.
• With a capacity to process 3,000 tonne of ore daily, the plant will be the third in India and the first in Andhra Pradesh. Two other mills with a total capacity of 5,090 tonnes per day operate in Jharkhand. A crippling shortage of fuel has resulted in India’s nuclear power generating stations operating at about 50% of their capacity.
• The country’s 17 nuclear power plants have a total generating capacity of 4,000 MW. India aims to increase this to 20,000 MW by 2020.
• PFC mulls overseas arm to power infrastructure needs
• The Power Finance Corporation is set to establish an overseas financial company for the development of infrastructure needs of the power sector in India.
• This overseas firm will borrow foreign exchange to the tune of about $5 bn a year from RBI. The forex money would then go into the corpus of PFC arm for providing foreign currency loans to Indian power companies for meeting their requirement of raw material machinery imports.
• Financing is expected to be a big problem for the growing power sector in coming years. The sector needs investment of about Rs. 10.30 lakh crores in the 11^th Plan. A shortfall of over Rs. 4.5 lakh crores is expected. PFC’s efforts are expected to make good some of this shortfall.
• Woman in news
• Micheline Calmy-Rey
• She is the President of Swiss Confederation, who was on a recent visit to our country.
• India seems to have become the breeding ground for international chess Grandmasters!
• With the Kochi boy G.N. Gopal having officially become the 16^th Grandmaster of the country, this feeling is not incorrect.
• India also added two more players to its list of International Masters. Tamilnadu’s P. Sethuraman and Aswin Jayaram received confirmation of their titles.
• Did Jesus visit India?
• It appears that according to the Bible, the life of Jesus between the ages of 13 and 30 remains untouched by gospels.
• “The Aquarian Gospel” is a movie being made that portrays Jesus as a holy man and teacher inspired by a myriad of eastern religions in India. The movie takes its name from a century old book that examined Christianity’s eastern roots.
• Diplomatic gaffes too can be money spinners
• The Spanish King Juan Carlos recently turned to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez at a public event and was reported to have said to him, a bit irritably, “Why don’t you shut up?”
• This breach of diplomatic protocol became a smash hit across Spain today. A multi-million euro business selling ringtones, mugs, T-shirts and websites has resulted from this dialogue.