Indian Current Affairs: 16.08.2008

We hope you win another medal – Yes, we are looking for Gold and nothing else – at the Olympics and make us all proud.
Let’s all wish him the best. Hope this 29^th Olympics will be the watershed Olympics for India in times to come.
Though he still has a lot of ground to cover before he can claim a medal – this was only a pre-quarter final match – let’s hope he will do well.

It has made an application to the DGCA – Director General of Civil Aviation – to offer onboard mobile services.
Every mobile emits about 100 watts of power when it is switched on. The system that is kept on its aircraft will allow the cell phones to emit only about 1 watt in contrast. This is what makes mobile communications possible, as such low power emission will not interfere with the onboard navigation systems.
A recap about energy BTW:

1 watt = the capacity to transfer 1 joule per second
1 joule = the energy required to exert a force of one newton for a distance of one metre
1 newton = the force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram by one metre per second per second. (Note the per second per second business here.)

Understanding the concepts of capacity, energy and force remained elusive for me. When reading things like this, they all appear so easy to comprehend. But ask me to explain them to a kid suddenly, I will come a cropper. Hope that is not the case with you.

But this is possible in Finland. Nokia named former Finnish prime minister Esko Aho to head corporate relations and responsibility. Aho will join Nokia in November and become member of its executive board in January.

Economists generally define global recession as growth in world gross domestic product that runs below a long-term trend as estimated by the International Monetary Fund. In other words, the global economy does not have to contract to be in a recession.
The IMF in its April world economic outlook said growth of 3% or less would be enough to be considered a recession.
But Stephen Roach, the Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia defined a global recession as growth in world gross domestic product of 2.5% or less.
Recession or not, possibly the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has already lopped off about $10 trillion from world equity market capitalisation, Morgan Stanley data showed.

If you think that a degree from Harvard Business School will give you a passport to the high street of the job market, read this piece that starts with Jessica Walter’s career:

Foreign investment in the country’s industrial and other firms has surged to nearly $22 billion during the first six months of the year, with the momentum of flows continuing in the first quarter of 2008-09.
In 2007-08, inflows touched $32 billion.

This is one more very good piece on the subject, coming as it does from a banker herself. A must read.
If you are asked to state some of the benefits of financial inclusion, the following will be a good answer:

Access to credit and savings promotes livelihood opportunities; access to insurance products enables the poor to face financial shocks. Access to a bank account opens the way to many more services. It can be used for receiving or sending remittances, by government to provide benefits under its various schemes or pension to the old. In other words, a bank account provides the account holder with a formal identity.

Do you know that Md. Yunus, the famous Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate (2006) authored a book?

In rural interiors, hilly areas, lack of infrastructure is the biggest hurdle that makes these areas inaccessible and hence costly to reach.
Further, documentation, KYC norms, non-usage of vernacular knowledge, unsuitable products and staff attitude are reasons that deter the unreached from approaching banks.
Illiteracy, social exclusion, lack of awareness are other reasons that lead to financial exclusion.

Indian Current Affairs