05.07.2008

• Kingfisher hooks SpiceJet?
• This is one more merger that adds to the consolidation phase in the domestic airline industry. Vijay Mallya is reported to be in talks with Gulf-based fund Istithmar and UK-based Bhulo Kansagra family, who together hold 26.33% in the low-cost airline. If the deal goes through then Mr. Mallya will be controlling about 40% of the domestic aviation market. Though consolidation does make sense; isn’t it time that no monopoly is allowed to come up? While such reservations should not be allowed to stop consolidations per se, all care should be taken to ensure that no monopolistic practices are allowed to sneak in.
• Look at this graphic which gives a good picture about the deal.
• Inflation shoots up to 11.63%
• On the back of costlier food & manufactured items.
• The rise in price of food items like tea, cooking oil, vegetables and manufactured products like textiles, medicines, metals and chemicals fanned the unabated rise in wholesale price index (WPI) during the week.
• China Taiwan agree to restore flights between them
• On June 13, China and Taiwan signed landmark agreements paving the way for weekend chartered flights between the two sides and visit of more tourists from the mainland to the island.
• The step restores transport links snapped 59 years ago when China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949, in a major sign of easing of decades of hostilities.
• The World is Flat
• I am sure you would have heard about this book, if not read it already. Written by Thomas Friedman, this is considered one of the best books in recent times.
• What does he mean by ‘flat’? Look at this interpretation that appeared in today’s ET. It means that goods and services could be easily produced in one place and sold across the globe.
• Wimbledon
• It is Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal final yet again.
• And in women’s tennis, it is the Williams sister family affair.
• In the double’s section, India’s Leander Paes and his Czech Republican partner Lukas Dlouhy, went down 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1, 4-6, 8-6 to Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in a thriller lasting 3 hours and 16 minutes in the semifinals of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon.