29.12.2007

• DNC directory a failure?
• The do-not-call (DNC) registry reportedly attracted only about 2 mn enrollments, as against the 5 mn that appeared to have shown an inclination for registering in it.
• Initial predictions were that about 50 to 100 mn cellular phone users would register. The slow registrations are reportedly due to:
• The non-effectiveness of the DNC which has resulted in even registered users continuing to be troubled by telemarketers. (I can personally vouch for it.)
• Lackadaisical attitude of the service providers for this service. (I second this too. Personally I had to call up my service provider four times to register my number with the service.)
• To the above reported reasons I would like to add my own: the general apathy of the Indian consumer for such services. Registering the number is seen as a hassle. And then quite many amongst us would be content to howl at the tele-marketer when disturbed, rather than taking the trouble of registering the number with the DNC registry.
• Nevertheless I think it is too early to write the epitaph of the DNC registry.
• When did decimalization of Indian rupee occur?
• It is an interesting story that appeared in today’s ET. A must read for those with an eye on history. Look at it here.
• It was 10 years after Independence that our currency came to be decimalized. Before that it was 1 rupee = 16 annas = 64 paise. This system was perhaps based on the pebble based system of valuation (prevalent in Indus Valley Civilisation) in which pebbles were chosen to be weights in the pattern of 1,1,2,4,8, and 16. The new weights are a sum of all the previous weights.
• What is a salami attack?
• It is a type of online fraud in which the criminal deducts small sums of money from the accounts of various victims in a way that doesn’t get detected. The hacker uses it as the safest tool for earning large sums of money without getting even noticed.
• Polio eradication failure
• It was over a year ago that we noted about this subject. Even after a year, we seem to have not made any progress on this front. Look at what we noted earlier here.
• Polio is decisively back and India is only one of the four countries in the world where the disease is endemic. This year an estimated 500 children in the country have been diagnosed with paralytic polio.
• The rise of polio has much to do with the prevalence of the virus in two states – UP and Bihar.
• The failure is largely attributed to the wrong choice of immunization made by India. Experts argue that the OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) immunization choice was not suitable for India and that this was known even at the time the choice was made. India made this choice in 1978 following an advice from WHO (World Health Organization). In contrast, the other choice was the IPV (Injectable Polio Vaccine), which was 50 times more expensive than the OPV.
• There are three types of polio virus: P1, P2 and P3. Of these, the P2 type is reportedly eradicated. P1 is reportedly more contagious of the three varieties. While the earlier OPV drops were designed to immunize against all the three varieties, switching to a monovalent form (which targets only the more contagious P1 form) of the drops in UP and Bihar in February 2005 proved to be a mistake. Because the recent outbreak is of the P3 variety.
• Why the apparent all-round welcome of the SEBI’s guidelines on REITs?
• Real Estate Investment Trusts (or REMFs – Real Estate Mutual Funds) offer individuals a wider choice of investment, especially in the booming realty sector. But the complication, unlike in the equity mutual fund market for the small investor, is that the NAV (Net Asset Value) of an REMF will not vary on a daily basis. This is because the underlying asset is direct ownership of land and built-up property, whose values will not fluctuate on a daily basis. So the investor would have a reduced choice of exit. Hence it calls for a slightly different rigour in monitoring the operation and performance of these REITs. The valuation of the assets should be on acceptable standards for all the stakeholders. The ICAI and AMFI have done well to firm up on these standards. Secondly, the SEBI guidelines have now mandated that 90% of the post tax profit of these REITs should be distributed as dividends.
• What is wrong with our agrarian model?
• Watching his writings over the last couple of years, I began to appreciate the off-tangent thinking of V. Raghunathan.
• Many of us would be wracking our brains on finding measures to improve the lot of our farmers. Here is one radically different way of looking at the solution.
• As India has many small and marginal land holdings, which do not allow any scale economies to come into play, he suggests that corporate leasing of farm lands from these small and marginal farmers should be allowed. This will have two more added benefits:
• One, the farmer never loses his ownership of the land, where lot of sentiment is attached to it.
• Secondly, he can leverage the only profession that he knows best – farming, by finding employment in these corporate farms. This would supplement his income from the lease rental. A win-win situation both for the corporate and the farmer.
• Is the political class ready for it?