05.06.2008

• Today is World Environment Day
• World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
• The World Environment Day slogan for 2008 is Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy.
• The main international celebrations of World Environment Day 2008 will be held in Wellington, New Zealand.
• The main celebrations for the previous years were held at:
• 2007 Tromsø, Norway
• 2006 Algiers, Algeria
• 2005 San Francisco, USA
• 2004 Barcelona, Spain
• 2003 Beirut, Lebanon
• 2002 Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
• 2001 Torino, Italy and Havana, Cuba
• 2000 Adelaide, Australia
• Interested in knowing more about it? Follow this UN link.
• Some excellent thoughts on environment issues that I have come across in recent times are from this article by Sarthak Behuria. Worth a read. A couple of sentences that I found worth excerpting:
• Evidently, humanity is living beyond its environmental means and running up ecological debts that future generations will be unable to pay. Our generation has the means and the responsibility to avert that outcome. Climate change challenges us to think about human inter-dependence. The battle against climate change can be won, but only if people across the world demand action and governments develop collective solutions to a shared threat. At the same time, we believe that collectively we are all part of the solution and individually, all of us can contribute our mite to reduce the carbon footprint.
• One of Mahatma Gandhi’s sayings retains a powerful resonance in a world that has to redefine the relation between development and Earth’s ecology: “Earth provides enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed.”
• Can Mahatma Gandhi ever fail to surprise us? I am amazed at his thoughts on various issues. That’s why he is a leader par excellence.
• US Presidential elections
• Barrack Obama finally wins the Democrat nomination.
• It is quite likely that Mrs. Clinton will be his running mate.
• The 46-yearold Harvard-educated first-time Senator from Illinois is the son of a father who travelled from a small Kenyan village to pursue University education in Hawaii and went on to marry a white woman from Kansas. Obama started his political career as a low-paid community organiser. He served for eight years in the Illinois state Senate.
• He has two best-selling books to his name. He is the father of two young daughters with his wife Michelle.
• Now we all know that the Centre has finally increased retail prices of petrol and diesel.
• Petrol prices will increase by Rs 5 a litre (11%), diesel by Rs 3 a litre (9.5%) and cooking gas by Rs 50 a cylinder (17%). Kerosene prices have been left alone.
• To understand the impact of this increase which is coupled with a reduction in duties look at this excellent graphic that is given in today’s ET.
• Some editorial comments worth our attention in this regard:
• The only silver lining is that the oil marketing companies would have some breathing space. They would get an additional Rs 44,000 crore — through product price hike and reduction in various duties — and the oil bonds that they receive from the government would be more liquid. Clearly, some sort of institutional arrangement is required to depoliticise the oil economy. The government could make price revision legally mandatory, should global crude prices move up by a certain percentage. It should also address the issue of off-budget funding of consumer subsidies that have made a mockery of fiscal responsibility legislation.
• RBI acts against the Sahara group
• One of the country's largest finance companies, Sahara India Financial Corporation (SIFCL) — known for the political connections and proximity to Bollywood stars of its somewhat enigmatic supremo Subrata Roy — has been banned from raising money through public deposits with immediate effect.
• The central bank, which had long been building a case against the residuary non-banking company (RNBC), said that Sahara “had continuously violated directions/guidelines” related to directed investments, payment of minimum interest rates to depositors, anti-money laundering norms and intimating depositors in time of maturity of their deposits.
• SIFCL said the RBI order is “legally unsound” and is “wanting in prudence and application of mind”. The company said that it will initiate legal proceedings very soon, and said that it was “sanguine” about its chances of success.
• What is a satellite radio service?
• Satellite radio service refers to distribution of single or multi-channel radio programmes by using a satellite system that provides encrypted digital radio signals direct to the subscribers’ receiver sets.
• Government has recently accepted the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to give its comments on the draft policy guidelines. These guidelines make a distinction between provision of satellite radio service (i.e. carriage of radio channels) and provision of content (radio channels) to such satellite radio service providers.
• Anil Ambani meets Azmi Mikati to talk likely reverse merger
• So reads a headline in today's ET. What is meant by a reverse merger?
• Simply stated, a reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company.
• Both the parties are learnt to have asked for ‘control premium.’ RCom is asking for control premium as it will eventually become a subsidiary of MTN while the foreign company’s demand for it is based on the argument that it will cede control to Mr Ambani.
• Air India institute gets TRTO approval
• Hyderabad based Central Training Institute (CTE) has become the first institute in the country to obtain the approval as a type rating training organisation (TRTO) for pilot training courses on the A320 aircraft.
• The grant of approval as TRTO by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) means the CTE, Air India’s premier civil aviation related training institution, which conducts technical training classes for pilots, can also hold evaluation tests for pilots of A320 on its own.
• Why should Tolkowsky diamond entering Indian market make news?
• IN 1919, a young mathematician Marcel Tolkowsky, wrote a Master’s thesis on the proportions for round brilliant cut diamonds. This became the basis for what is now known as the ‘Ideal Cut’.
• This highest grade of diamond cut, which the Gemological Institute of America calls the ‘Ideal Triple Excellent’, will soon be available in India.
• India’s objections to SSMs (Special Safeguard Measures) at WTO talks
• India’s main objection to the latest draft circulated is its content on SSM. SSMs give developing countries the authority to increase import duties on specific farm products beyond the levels at which they have been bound at the WTO if there is a sudden increase in volume of imports or a fall in domestic prices. These are known as triggers. India’s contention is that the triggers listed in the draft are set at extremely high levels and should be lowered.
• The country is so serious about making changes in the SSM provision that it has officially stated that the negotiations on agriculture could get derailed if the concerns on SSM are not addressed.
• Can’t miss a grand slam event; can we?
• Gael Monfils became the first Frenchman in seven years to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals when he flamboyantly dismissed Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-1 on Wednesday. Look at the pic.
• Look at the women’s semi-final line-up at Roland Garros
• Similarly with just two days to go for the Euro 2008 football championships we can’t afford to ignore the line up.
• Look at it here.
• SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) cup
• An India-Pakistan football clash in distant Maldives may not be a box office hit of the cricketing kind, but a duel between the two rivals on any pitch always sparks off enough interest to kick up a storm.
• Look at the results of last three meets here.
• Milky Way and its arms
• Astronomers have long believed that our galaxy possesses four spiral arms – Sagittarius, Norma, Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus.
• But now, two of the Milky Way’s arms have failed to turn up in a sensitive new survey that used the Spitzer Space Telescope to map the distribution of millions of stars.
• Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin has determined that these two arms, called Sagittarius and Norma, may be mostly concentrations of gas, perhaps sprinkled with pockets of young stars. By contrast, the other two arms, called Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus, appear rich not only in gas, but in stars both young and old.