18.05.2008

• India's regional response policy and CDERA
• In the face of natural disasters, India responds to the humanitarian needs of its neighbours with grace and swiftness. However, tts regional disaster response policy remains unclear to its own citizens as well as the neighbouring countries.
• The Delhi Declaration of the second Asian Ministerial conference, held in New Delhi on November 7-8, 2007, recommended a regional policy: “Encourage the national governments to enhance regional and sub-regional cooperation for disaster risk reduction, including early warning, capacity building, networking and sharing of information and good practices among stakeholders.”
• In this connection India may take leaf out of CDERA, which has developed contingency planning to handle humanitarian crises. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) is an example of an efficient way to address regional humanitarian needs. When receiving a request for assistance, CDERA is responsible for coordinating that assistance from governments in the region and others that can provide the resources and expertise needed.
• Contingency planning, as defined by the Inter Agency Standing Committee and World Food Programme, is the process of establishing programmes, objectives, approaches and procedures to respond to situations or crises that are likely to occur, including identifying those events and developing likely scenarios.
• Sovereign guarantee for students availing education loans?
• The government is actively considering to come forward as a sovereign guarantor against those loans incurred for higher and professional studies as banks and financial institutions continue to insist on a collateral.
• Microsoft and Cloud computing
• Cloud computing is the trend by Internet powerhouses to array huge numbers of computers in centralised data centres to deliver Web-based applications to far-flung users.
• Microsoft built its business selling software to run on local machines, both computer servers and personal computers, but, in recent years, it has invested billions of dollars in massive data centres, which are the basic infrastructure for a wide range of Web services.
• Microsoft said it continues to build up its infrastructure, adding roughly 10,000 powerful computer servers a month to its data centres.
• Tough anti-terror law, the need of the hour?
• In the wake of the recent Jaipur blasts, advocating the need for tough anti-terror laws by the Chief Justice of India, has brought to the fore the debate on them yet again.
• The BJP has been demanding that tough laws like POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Activities), which have not been favoured by the ruling UPA regime, to be on the statute book to effectively counter terrorism activities.
• The laws in Western democracies and even countries such as Indonesia have provisions for treating intercepts as admissible evidence (telephone wiretaps and listening devices have captured conversations about bombings and other attacks in Europe); confiscation of profits from terror crimes; and provision for serious punishment to those providing logistical support for murderous jehadis. This is not the case with our CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) and IPC (Indian Penal Code). Hence the demand for special laws which provide for such features.
• BJP in for its own telephone network
• The party plans to roll out its own telephony network using Internet Protocol (IP) technology. This will not only reduce its monthly phone bills drastically, but will ensure a more personalised system with follow me features such as receipt of fax, video phone etc., anywhere in the country.
• Is it time for Chartered Accounts to move over, in so as filing of IT returns is concerned?
• A Delhi based company has come up with a solution wherein users can (for the payment of a small fee) log into their site, fill and file IT returns without even making a visit to the CA.
• India, a country of 1,100-plus million, is said to have some 31.5 million tax payers. This number grew by nearly 11 percent between March 2002 and March 2006, official figures reveal. With the government tightening income tax leakages and ensuring more citizens file their returns, the demand for help in filing returns is growing too.
• There was a total of 54 million PAN or Permanent Account Numbers allotted to taxpayers by July 5, 2007.
• I think it's time we learned something about the IPL's contracts with its players
• This follows the reported unhappiness of the team owners (especially Vijay Mallya) with their teams' performances. But what can a team owner do and what could be his costs? Look at the following and you will get a glimpse.
• The total fee for a player is the money for which he is bought at the auction. If a team ‘releases’ a player, it will have to honour the contract and pay the player for term contracted.
• If a team has bid for a player and he is not available for that season, the franchisee will only have to pay a 10% retainer for having the player on squad and player gets paid on a per match basis.
• The window for trading players will open from February 2009, when franchisees can buy and sell players.
• If a player gets injured during the tournament, and the injury requires treatment, it is for the team owner to provide cover.
• The players are obliged to perform to the best of their ability and if they are in breach, then termination is possible.
• Remember what a Light Year means? How long or far is it?
• A light year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.