28.04.2008

• The dispute about Maaza between Bisleri and Coke
• Maaza was launched in 1976 by Ramesh Chauhan of the Thums Up fame. He sold it to Coke in 1993, along with Thums Up, Citra, Goldspot, Rim-Zim and Limca.
• In June 2007, the Bisleri Group promoted Maaza Beverages sold the trademark rights of Maaza for international markets to its bottlers in Europe and US.
• Coke, which owns the trademark in India, is said to be keen on buying the rights for overseas markets.
• Chauhan claims Maaza trademark was sold to Coke only within India and Bisleri was the registered proprietor for it outside India.
• Coke, however claims that there was no non-compete agreement to restrain it in relation to any country where the Maaza trademark was not registered by a Chauhan entity.
• Forbes forecasts that India will top super-rich list by 2017
• Currently, India is the fourth largest in terms of the number of billionaires making to its annual list.
• Four Indians – Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and KP Singh – are among the world’s 10 richest. No other country is having as many on the top 10 list.
• Three countries are ahead of India in the list – the US, Russia and Germany. India has 53 billionaires in the list.
• IGBC to unveil green construction code for residential buildings too
• The proposed new code is the first to address residential construction in India. The country has had a green building standard since 2001, the year IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) set up the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) committee that rates commercial buildings.
• Today India boasts of a staggering 70 mn sft with 183 registered commercial buildings. IGBC hopes to see a similar success story for residential buildings.
• Financial inclusion and FINO
• We have been noting about financial inclusion quite frequently in our blogs. The subject cannot be complete without FINO.
• FINO stands for Financial Information Network and Operations Limited. It is an ICICI promoted company where ICICI still holds a stake. It was established in 2004 with the objective of reaching the unbanked. It appears to have notched up quite a bit of success.
• It has about 700 agents working for various client banks. The agents,
  along with bank representatives, visit certain areas and spread awareness about the system and its processes. These agents are trained to work with micro-customers in urban as well as rural areas and help them use smart cards to conduct transactions. One agent typically services a thousand customers, or 2-3 villages, and makes regular visits to each area at predetermined times.
• With about 60 mn unbanked households still remaining in the country, FINO has its work cut out. Let’s hope it will see greater success.
• AP’s massive land record initiative – Bhoo Bharati
• It is planning to invest about Rs. 2000 crore to digitize the land records. The project is called ‘Bhoo Bharati.’
• A thorough survey of the entire land in the state is envisaged over a period of five years.
• The surveyed land records will be made available online.
• Land survey, it appears has been done about 100 years back in the country. There have been many changes since then in the borders due to sales, agreements and natural calamities such as earthquakes. Many of these changes have not been recorded by the governments.
• A different take on CRR hike
• This is the first time that I am reading an article from Ashok Khemka, an IAS officer. His idea appears to be innovative.
• We all know that the RBI keeps sterilizing the forex inflows by issuing the MSS bonds. At present the outstanding MSS bonds are about Rs. 1,60,000 crores. At about 7.5% interest rate on them, this entails an additional burden of Rs. 1000 crores per month on the nation on account of sterilization operations. We can say that this roughly translates to about 0.25 paise per unit of dollar per month in terms of interest outgo which will have to be borne by the country in terms of greater fiscal deficits of the central government incurring opportunity costs of foregoing more productive government expenditure on investments in physical and human infrastructure. Hence there is a need for revamping the CRR policy.
• A differential CRR policy can be put in place in times of such excess liquidity for forex inflows of hot nature such as NRI deposits, portfolio investments in stock markets, hot inflows of private equity, hedge and pension funds, etc., without corresponding increase in the productive capacity of the economy. The banking system may be mandated to a differential CRR regime in which such foreign inflows are levied CRR at higher rates and in the designated currency itself. By absorbing a part of such forex inflows in the designated foreign currency, there would be no need for sterilisation since no additional liquidity is being injected into the domestic economy since such CRR deposits would not form part of the domestic money supply system.
• A very good idea know? Sure, the people bringing in money will then start reclassifying their inflows under categories which attract a lower CRR. Looks like handling such finer detail will be far easier in times like these – especially when we are facing a huge current account deficit, but having large inflows of foreign money. Such a differential CRR can be in place till at least we turn current account surplus on trade front.
• Have any further ideas? Shoot them up in the shout-box.
• A re-look at the definition of derivatives
• Derivatives are financial contracts whose value “derives” from some underlying asset, such as stocks, bonds, currencies, or commodities. The instruments are now an integral part of modern financial systems, but have been only rather recently introduced in domestic markets.
• They provide three key market functions: risk allocation, price discovery and what’s termed “transactional efficiency”.
• Derivative securities allow for mechanisms through which investors, corporates, and even governments can efficiently hedge, (read purchase insurance), to manage financial risks. Also, the ability of derivatives markets to furnish information about “market-clearing” prices can boost market efficiency. Futures and option exchanges do reveal equilibrium prices that reflect demand and supply conditions in the offing, and so are essential for informed decision-making. Further, derivative contracts offer greater liquidity and lower transaction costs than underlying cash markets. Interest rate and currency swaps, for example, are widely used by corporates to lower costs of capital.
• Usually articles written by Jeffrey Sachs, appear to be anti-US.
• But not this time. While impressing on the need for global cooperation in energy technologies, he says that developing alternative energy technologies is not the responsibility of US alone.
• Can we afford to miss reinforcing our recently learnt concept of “The Tragedy of the Commons”?
• The total solar radiation hitting the planet is about 1000 times the world’s commercial energy use. This means that a small part of the world’s regions – say deserts – can be new sources of energy supply by tapping the solar radiation.
• Then why not keep on establishing more polysilicon factories all over the globe? It is a technology that is tried and tested. Why not have as many factories producing it so that we all can have plenty of solar energy!!
• Ever heard of urban mining?
• Scavenging through the scrap metal in old electronic products in search of costly metals such as iridium and gold.
• A tonne of ore from a gold mine produces just 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of gold on average, whereas a tonne of discarded mobile phones can yield 150 grams (5.3 ounce) or more, according to a study.
• The same volume of discarded mobile phones also contains around 100 kg (220 lb) of copper and 3 kg (6.6 lb) of silver, among other metals.
• Couldn't resist giving you this YouTube video. This is her latest hit called '4 Minutes.' Does she look like a woman approaching 50? Now you know why I am a humble fan for this great lady. Don't know her name? Then you are surely having your head in sand!