31.03.2008

• APDP of Kashmir
• It stands for the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons.
• It believes that many of their wards, who went missing in custody in the last 20 years, might be buried in countless graves lacking epitaphs and identities. These graves – some of them having more than one corpse – are located in dozens of villages in Baramulla and Kupwara districts.
• The EU-US transatlantic ‘open skies’ pact
• So far there were about 21 bilateral aviation agreements between Washington and individual European nations. But this is set to change with the replacement of all these agreements by a single accord that will allow any EU carrier to fly from anywhere in the bloc to any point in the US, and then on to a third country, and vice versa. This was previously not possible.
• This is expected to boost aviation between the EU and US and also help consumers a lot.
• This interview with Martin Feldstein in today’s ET is a must read for everyone. Very interesting and insightful:
• Read it here.
• Normally we don’t get a chance to hear Harvard Professors. It is a distant dream; for many of us, still. Don’t miss this.
• Similarly, today’s ET editorial on the choices that we have for tackling inflation is a very good piece. Recommend a strong read. But some excerpts:
• It is widely believed that there are too few policy options available for the government to tackle inflation at the present juncture. How?
• With global prices of food and oil showing little sign of cooling, the pressure on the wholesale price index from both primary articles and energy prices is likely to continue.
• Add to that the recent increase in metal prices that has spilled over into higher prices for manufactured products (up 0.9% during the week ended 15 March) and the outlook on the price front is distinctly bleak.
• More so as price pressures are likely to intensify over the coming months as inflationary expectations (post the Sixth Pay Commission Report and government’s increased spending on social schemes) get more firmly entrenched.
• But then, what all did the government do so far?
• It has tried a number of fiscal steps, cutting tariffs, as well as administrative steps like banning exports of selective food items. And though the full impact is yet to be felt, it is unlikely to be significant.
• Then what is the outlook?
• Monetary tightening is unlikely to be of much help either given that monetary policy acts with a lag and has a broad-brush impact that is inadvisable at a time of slowing growth.
• In this scenario, the best bet for the government would be to reduce tariffs further (wherever possible), cut back on wasteful spending and refrain from fuelling inflationary expectations (read, pay part of the dues on account of the SPC recommendations into provident funds rather than as cash). Last, but not least, improve delivery for those priced out of the market.
• India’s petro potential
• About 10 bn tonnes of crude and a trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
• It is the Tatas’ Jaguar deal that is occupying more of the media space nowadays. What are the issues that this deal (or shall we say Tatas) have to face to be successful?
• The 9 Ps of process, patience, people, passion, pressure, policy, pride, performance and profit.
• Remember anything about the 4 P’s of marketing in this context?
• In the early 1960's, Professor Neil Borden at Harvard Business School identified a number of company performance actions that can influence the consumer decision to purchase goods or services. Borden suggested that all those actions of the company represented a “Marketing Mix”. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy, also at the Harvard Business School in the early 1960s, suggested that the Marketing Mix contained 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.
• Now Tarun Das has come out with his 9 P’s theory for the success of the Tatas-JLR deal. Worth a read. Do so here.
• Looks like today, I am going to ask all of you not to miss the original stuff from the ET. It is very rare to have a paper with so many important articles. Today is one such rare day.
• I am referring to Jeffrey Sachs’s column on “Roots of America’s financial crisis.” Can’t help but recommend a strong read of this piece.
• I find his articles very intuitive, informative and very enlightening because they make highly complex concepts look like simple issues.
• Even if you are put off by the word ‘Economics’, my recommendation is that you should go through this at least once.