06.08.2008

• What a sad day?
• A Supreme Court bench said “Even God cannot save this country.” What a pity? Even the Supreme Court is reduced to saying so. Read the report here.
• This was a comment in exasperation when the Union government has informed the Court that it decided not to amend Section 441 IPC (criminal trespass) for prosecuting squatters of government accommodation in the country. Reportedly there are about 300 squatters in all the 99,100 government houses.
• There is an act which goes by the name “The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971” (PPE Act for short) which has provisions to deal with squatters.
• India’s air traffic projections
• Air traffic in the country is expected to be anywhere between 242 to 313 mn people by 2012, up from the current 116 mn.
• India’s projected performance at the Olympics
• India is expected to win about 6 medals this time according the PwC - PricewaterhouseCoopers. It goes on to say that China will best US this time in the medals tally. It predicts China to top the tally with a total of 88 medals, 25 more than the Athens Olympics and one more than the USA’s predicted total for this edition of the games.
• In a report titled “Economic Briefing Paper: Modelling Olympics Performance” it notes the following:
• Countries’ performance at the biggest sporting stage is linked to, among other factors, the average income level (measured by GDP per capita at purchasing power parity exchange rates) and population.
• The number of medals won by countries increases with its population and wealth, but less proportionately.
• Look at this graphic for predictions about other countries’ performance.
• BTW what is the version of this Olympics? 29^th.
• A microscope for just $10?
• California Institute of Technology (popularly called Caltech) researchers have come up with a new version of microscope that can be mass produced for just $10.
• The way it operates/produces magnified images is quite complicated. Read this piece.
• VAS players get ready for 3G
• Mobile value added service players, currently account for just 9% of a telco’s revenues. Once 3G is heralded, their contribution may go up considerably.
• What are the services that will make an appearance in the 3G regime? Mobile TV, Video ring back tone, Video SMS, Mobile Games and M-Commerce. I hope you can figure out what they mean.
• Cooling oil prices
• Crude prices went below $118 a barrel yesterday. From about $147 a barrel less than a month ago, the barrel has shed lot of weight on concerns of a slumping US economy weakening the demand for gasoline.
• Get a feel of the volatility in oil markets?
• Recap on India’s financial inclusion figures
• Only 34% of India’s population has access to banking services.
• It has the second largest number of unbanked households at 13.5 mn.
• Among those who have an account, nearly 40% do not even access the account once a month.
• Want to sound erudite in a gathering?
• Borrow these words from the Moody’s rating report:
• “Higher oil prices and lack of fiscal policy reactions amidst high pent-up price pressures are putting the burden of macro-economic adjustment on monetary authorities.”
• For those of us, the lesser mortals, what this means is that the government is doing nothing about high oil prices and that the burden of tackling the consequences that are flowing out of high oil prices has fallen on the RBI.
• A bit about interest payments burden
• They account for about 35% of government’s revenue.
• In a rising interest rate scenario (as it obtains now), this ratio is bound to increase and result in pre-empting productive investments.
• Why are we a software powerhouse?
• Our software and services segment exports have grown by 29% to touch $40.4 bn in 2007-08, up from $31.4 bn in 2006-07. In contrast look at the other BRIC countries. They have not crossed the $10 bn mark individually.
• Was India recalcitrant at the recent WTO talks?
• There is a very good debate worth a read that appeared in today’s ET. Look at it here.
• I would like you to debate on this in our shout-box. I believe that the posturing we have adopted is fine. But we should be flexible enough when it comes to letting go on some conditions while gaining in some other areas. After all negotiations are about give and take.
• The negotiators should never paint themselves into a corner by statements like “what is at stake is the sustenance of 1 bn farmers” etc. Statements like these have a tendency to get hard coded into public memory. Once that happens taking the negotiations forward would be difficult.
• Olympics on YouTube
• It is a welcome announcement from the International Olympic Committee. It said that 3 hours of action on each day would be made available on Google’s YouTube for digital freaks like us.
• Let us wait, watch and enjoy.