31.01.2008

• I noted for you from a very good article on regional trade agreements. Take a look at it here in today’s Discover It.
• FDI liberalization in various sectors
• The government liberalized the FDI limits in various sectors. Take a look at the liberalized sectors:
• 100% allowed in: Titanium mining, MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) operations, Flying training institutes, Technical training institutes, Helicopter/sea plane services.
• 74% allowed in: Non-scheduled airlines.
• 49% allowed in: Commodity exchanges (FDI up to 26% FII up to 23% with a 5% cap on a single entity), credit information companies (24% cap on FIIs), Petroleum refining by PSUs (with prior FIPB approval)
• Navin Chawla issue
• He is one of the most controversial Election Commissioners that we have seen in recent times. The post itself is a hot one. He found himself in the midst of a controversy. Let us see how.
• The Shah Commission (which looked into the excesses committed during the Emergency) is reported to have recorded a detailed account of his negative conduct during emergency. But one major issue that appears to have put him in defensive is that a Jaipur based trust run by his wife is reported to have received donations siphoned from the MPLAD funds by a section of Congress MPs.
• About 200 MPs led by BJP have petitioned the then President Dr. Abdul Kalam seeking his dismissal. The President forwarded the petition to the PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The PM refused to pass it on to the CEC. The BJP then approached the Supreme Court. The Centre took the stand that it is not bound to forward the petition to the CEC. The CEC took the stand that if a petition came before him, he had the powers to consider it. Thereupon the Supreme Court left it to the BJP to approach the CEC.
• So now the BJP has approached the CEC with a petition signed by about 180 MPs seeking his removal.
• According to Article 324(5) of the Constitution, the CEC has the powers to secure an Election Commissioner’s removal. If the CEC makes a recommendation to the President, the EC can be removed. What this means is that the CEC should first give a finding that the EC deserves to be removed. Then he should make a recommendation to the President through the Central Government. Once the government forwards it to the President and the President accepts CEC’s recommendation, the EC stands removed.
• What is the news item about Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes being immersed in the Arabian sea with State honours?
• Why so late? He died 60 years ago know?
• It appears that after he was killed, his ashes were sent to villages and towns across India for memorial services by his followers. It is not known how many or if any urns containing his ashes still exist. The last time an urn of Mahatma’s ashes was found was in 1997 in a bank vault in Bhubaneshwar. The ashes were later immersed at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers in Allahabad.
• This time an urn preserved by one Bharat Narayan, a businessman was sent by him to Mani Bhavan in Mumbai last year. Mani Bhavan is a house that Gandhi lived in when he visited Mumbai. It is now a museum.
• These ashes were immersed by the Mahatma’s great grand daughter, the 75 year old Nilamben Parekh. The immersion was carried out in the Arabian sea in the presence of 15 of the Mahatma’s descendants.
• Is India slowly finding its place in the football map of the world?
• If news reports are to be believed, this seems to be the case.
• The world’s richest football clubs are: Arsenal, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, in that order.
• Arsenal and Liverpool FC (FC stands for football club) came to the country on a reconnaissance mission recently. Now FC Barcelona, the club for which Ronaldinho plays, has announced plans to explore opportunities in India. Two other premier clubs that have announced business tie ups with Indian businesses include Manchester United (ManU) and Chelsea.
• Is Sunil Mittal happy? I am sure he will be. Is it not after all he who came out with a grand vision of bringing football to glory in India?
• Wipro’s TINA
• TINA here doesn’t stand for “There Is No Alternative” that we are so accustomed to listening to from psephologists during election time.
• It stands for “The Intelligent NextGen Associate”, a name given to the service oriented architecture by Wipro.
• Gibberish? I know for some of you, it will be. Imagine this scene. You enter a huge retail store. Then instead of a human sales associate, if you are accosted / accompanied by a robot to help you out, what you are experiencing is TINA from wipro.
• Remember the tiff with Singapore on bank licensing issue? It refuses to die down.
• India and Singapore have signed a CECA – Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Under this, both countries have agreed to grant QFB (Qualified Full Banking) status to three of each other’s banks. This enables the banks to open up to 15 branches and ATM centres in the country.
• It appears Singapore is not willing to give QFB status to ICICI Bank. So, India is retaliating by not giving it to UOB (United Overseas Bank) of Singapore.
• There are about 8 Indian banks operating in Singapore. Four of them -- Indian Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank – have full bank licenses and can access retail market in Singapore. The other four – SBI, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and UTI Bank – operate in the wholesale segment as merchant banks and offshore banks. In contrast Singapore has only one bank viz., DBS with two branches in India.
• Why does budgetary support need a rethink?
• Like father like son. Rahul Gandhi is credited with having said that only 5 paise out of every rupee reaches the intended beneficiaries as against 15 piase during his father’s time. So can you conjure up some solution for this problem? Take a look what ET says:
• One, the Planning Commission must go through the demands with a fine-toothed comb, throw out/prune all demands where there is the slightest doubt regarding efficacy in delivery and then go to the finance ministry with a reasonable wish list. For this to succeed, the plan panel must revert to the practice (followed till the Eighth Five Year Plan) of taking stock of all on-going projects and re-categorising expenditures of a continuous nature as ‘non-plan’. This will automatically give a correct indication of the Plan size (unlike at present where close to 30-35% of expenditure actually goes for wages and salaries/operation and maintenance). It will lead to more informed discussion/negotiation between the finance ministry and other ministries and not degenerate into a test of the clout of various ministries (read ministers).
• Two, money saved in the process must not be used for some ingenious scheme thought up by some bureaucrat seeking to extend his tenure at the Centre. Instead, it must be transferred by way of direct cash grants to well-targeted beneficiaries. Yes, of course, there will still be some leakage but we will do away with the costly and wasteful super-structure.