Indian Current Affairs: 26.06.2008

You can’t get a better picture of a complicated M&A deal from any piece other than this. Here it is reproduced verbatim:
HOW DOES THE DEAL CHANGE THE TELECOM LANDSCAPE?

India will now have 11 telecom operators instead of 12 & the pecking order will change. Idea set to become the fifth-largest operator with over 31 million users. It is now just 5 million subscribers away from BSNL

AV Birla Group co gets a foothold in Punjab and Karnataka, 4.4 million subscribers, a strategic investor in Telekom Malaysia (TM) and a net income of Rs 4,500 crore. Idea turns a debt-free company

Modis made a cool Rs 2,720 crore by selling stake in the loss-making venture. This includes a non-compete fee of Rs 544 crore. Spice shareholders get 49 shares in Idea for every 100 shares held

It becomes a strategic investor in the 5th-largest operator in the world’s fastest-growing telecom market. TMI has 44 m users across 10 countries; Idea adds 31m to that. TMI will have one member on the new Idea board

Will the present bout of inflation augur the end of the high growth phase of the past five years?

I am sure you can predict the answer to such a question from an eternal optimist like TT Ram Mohan. Look at his reasons as to why it won't affect the high growth phase.
1. Base effect. In May-August 2007, the wholesale price index remained virtually unchanged going by monthly averages. At a time of rising food, oil and metal prices, this is bound to result in a spike in the inflation rates in the corresponding months this year.
2. Food prices are seeing some moderation. Rabi crop has been good; kharif is expected to be so. There is enough room for end-user industries to absorb the increase in prices of intermediate products. Oil prices are going to ease to below $100 per barrel before the end of the year.
3. Investment banks may be getting badly hit because of the turmoil in financial markets. But what is bad for investment banking is not necessarily bad for the Indian economy.
4. The Indian economy has become investment-led since 2002-03. The surge in investment may be expected to underpin growth this year as well.
5. A slowdown in earnings is built into the present forecasts; further downward revisions and the jitters in the stock market appear unwarranted.
6. Prospects for the world economy look better in the second half of the year compared to those in the first half. This means that we can expect Indian economic growth to accelerate in the second half.

Individual human genomes change throughout a person’s life influenced by environmental or nutritional factors, which may explain why illnesses such as cancer come with age, a study has claimed. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that the so called epigenetic marks on the sequence of a person’s DNA modify over the course of their life and the extent of such changes is similar among family members.
What are epigenetic marks? (The search for an answer to this doubt led me to this useful glossary. Stash it away for future reference.)

These are features not directly governed by the genetic code and influence the way genes are expressed.

The studies of heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the sequence of nuclear DNA and the processes involved in the unfolding development of an organism.

The high-level committee constituted by the prime minister (headed by former cabinet secretary B K Chaturvedi) to examine fuel pricing in the country is of the view that state governments should follow the Centre’s footsteps and adopt a specific duty regime for petro-products to remove the impact of spiral in prices.
States earned a whopping Rs 65,000 crore as tax revenues from the oil sector in 2007-08.

We all know that airlines are facing humungous losses this year -- estimated to be in the region of Rs. 8,000 crores. Airport charges contribute about 12% of the airlines’ total input cost, with fuel sharing 40% followed by wage bill of nearly 22%.
While the government has taken some steps to reduce the fuel charges for airlines, efforts in the direction of reducing airport handling charges appear to have come to a naught. AAI (Airports Authority of India) which manages 126 airports in the country is the largest airport operator. It refused to lower its charges saying that it has not increased them since 2001. Even the private operators like GMR, GVK etc., which operate the new airports at Delhi and Mumbai also refused to lower their charges.
As per an estimate, airport charges in India are 50-60% higher than global airport charges.

Power distribution companies will now have to mandatory buy a minimum quantum of green power while purchasing power for their consumers. The government is working on a new set of regulations by which distribution companies will have to have a mix of conventional and nonconventional power in their kitty. Distribution companies normally have to buy power from generating companies within and outside the state to meet the electricity requirements of the state.
The idea behind the move is to see that every state includes some green power (power generated from nonconventional sources like wind power, solar power, biogas) in their total power consumption green (power from unconventional sources) for its consumers.

We have seen that recently the RBI has increased the repo rate by 50 basis points to 8.5%.

The use of bluetooth technology for marketing.
It is enjoying much improved standing as it now gets a small share of the ad budget as a learning cost. At one time it was largely ignored by most brands because of a lack of awareness and resistance to work with the technology.
Bluecasting enables cost-effective, targeted ads with rich-media content to be transmitted over short distances of about 10 metre.

Indian Current Affairs