21.05.2008

• The state of our health
• To be considered not below the poverty line, one should be taking in about that much food which gives 2400 calories per day.
• Tamil Nadu's average at 1,842 calories per head per day has the lowest rural calorie intake of any state in India!
• Why do people tend to have less intake of calories as their economic status improves?
• One explanation is that as incomes rise, poor people switch from eating cereals alone — which add up to a lot of calories — to smaller quantities of superior foods (including fruits and vegetables). This fall in calorie intake is sustainable because, with the mechanisation of farming, much less manual labour is needed.
• Recently, the Arjun Sengupta Committee on unorganised labour calculated that, while 27.5% of people were below the poverty line, another 50% were only just above that line, so that 77% of Indians lived on Rs 20 per day or less.
• A recent National Family Health Survey showed that 46% of children under three years were underweight, three-quarters of children in the age-group 6-35 months were anaemic, and most married and pregnant women were anaemic.
• Why is risk management so important in banking?
• If you were asked to recount a couple of incidents that had shaken the banking industry world-wide, what could be your answer?
• Take a look at this article. It is worth a read. Some suggestions it throws up on handling risk management include:
• Functional separation of front office (which takes positions) and back office (which does the settlement and reconciliations)
• Strict adherence to various risk limits laid down, such limits include stop-loss limits, counter-party limits, open position limits, value at risk (VaR) limits, etc.
• Robust system of reporting limit excesses and transactions of an exceptional nature to higher authorities
• Clear and unambiguous reporting lines,
• Clear understanding of products (especially derivative products) at all levels, particularly at senior levels,
• Appropriately skilled and truly independent internal audit system.
• The problem of lapsed policies for insurance companies
• Insurance firms are losing over Rs 9,000 crore in annual premia, because of lapsing or non-renewal of policies.
• Insurance firms across the board are losing out on a large amount of business, as their clients fail to renew policies after a year or two. Though insurance firms do not release their exact lapse ratios, industry estimates peg the figure at 25-30%. The problem of lapsed policies is a serious concern for insurance regulator IRDA also, which feels certain amendments need to be made to the commission structure which agents get. Typically, commission agents get from new policies are much higher than what they get for renewals.
• Why are our inflation figures not reliable?
• While the official inflation figure stands at 7.83% for the week-ended May 3, 2008, actual inflation could be closer to 9%. This is according to the RBI Governor.
• The Indian government sets retail prices of petrol and diesel and has raised them only once this year, by 3.3 to 4.6% in February, even though international crude prices have risen about 27% since the start of the year. This is what distorts the inflation figures.
• Imagine the kind of offerings being made by the IT biggies of the world!
• Goolge has launched its online medical records service called Google Health. It gives users instant electronic access to their health histories.
• If you think that Goolge is the first to do so, you are wrong. Similar offerings include Microsoft’s HealthVault and Revolution Health, which is backed by AOL cofounder Steve Case.
• Google Health differentiates itself from the pack through its user interface and things like the public availability of its application programme interface, or API.
• Just for the record. How much money did the owners of the IPL teams pay for their teams?
• In January this year, the teams were bagged by Vijay Mallya of UB Group for $ 111.6 million for Bangalore, followed closely by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries for Mumbai at $111.9 million and Deccan Chronicle for Hyderabad at $107 million. India Cements bagged Chennai at $91 million, GMR group took away Delhi at $ 84 million, Emerging Media became the franchisee of Jaipur at $67 million, Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment got Kolkata at $75.09 million and Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia bagged Mohali at $76 million.
• The younger Reliance brother Anil Ambani is reported to be on the prowl for acquiring a team or two, so as not to miss the action.
• Take a look at how Indians are taking to buying products and services online:
• Follow this link.
• Intel plans to launch a sub$300 laptop
• The price barrier for entry-level notebook PCs might be lowered again, with Intel planning to launch a device which sells for less than $300 (about Rs 12,000). Called a Netbook, the sub-$300 notebook PC will be powered by the Atom processor which the world’s biggest chipmaker plans to launch at the Computex fair in Taiwan on June 3.
• Intel would not be positioning the Netbook as just an affordable machine but as a fully functional PC for all sections of the society.