Indian Current Affairs: 19.08.2008

· Musharraf bids adieu

He announced his stepping down in an internationally televised address.
But questions arose about whether Mr Musharraf would remain in the country or go to some safe haven abroad —Saudi Arabia or Turkey.
There was also speculation whether he was being given immunity by the coalition for his actions.
Some experts are labelling the evolving situation in Pakistan as the emergence of a political vacuum. Why does that feeling come? The civilian establishment in that country is seen as not having any control over its military and especially the ISI. There is a growing realisation that the Indian government is in discussion with people who don’t have control over the ground situation. With the departure of Musharraf, any semblance of the President (ostensibly civilian hitherto) or the PM having control over the army and its dirty tricks department, the ISI, is far fetched.
Now that Mush is gone, the old rivals – PPP and the Nawaz Shariff can be at each other’s throats again – leaving the army and its ISI as powerful as ever in that country.

· Flooded with calls from your credit card company offering you unsolicited deals?

It could be that they are trying to protect their money. It is an interesting story worth a read.
As credit card usage and outstandings are soaring year after year, banks are trying to convert their credit card outstandings into personal loans with lesser interest rates to ensure that defaults are kept at a minimum.
For the year May 2007 to May 2008, amounts settled through credit cards stood at about Rs. 60,000 crores. About a fifth of this amount was rolled over. That is 12,000 crores. This is what is making the banks go week in their knees.

· TRAI heralds yet another telephony revolution

It has removed all restrictions on internet telephony in the country, allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to terminate internet telephony calls on phones, including mobile phones.
Till now, a call from a computer could legally be made only to another computer within the country and not to a phone. The policy regime allowed domestic users to make international calls to a phone from their computer.
One may wonder that with a PC penetration of just 3.6% in the country, will it make any big difference. But my feeling is that this move will help increase the PC penetration.
Not sure about how this internet telephony operates? Look at this graphic.

Hope you know that IDRs are like GDRs and ADRs. Holders of these IDRs are entitled to shares of the issuing company.
IDR norms were first introduced in 2004 and then considerably relaxed in 2006 when the pre-issue paid-up capital was reduced to $50 million.
Having seen that the IDR market has not taken off the way it was envisaged, SEBI and RBI are recommending to the Government that FIIs be allowed to invest in IDRs. FIIs were barred from investing in IDRs since Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) specifies that IDRs are to be purchased only by persons resident in India.

The government plans to launch special drug stores that will sell generic medicines as part of its efforts to provide affordable medicines to poorer sections of the society.
The plan envisages using the PPP model to sell generic medicines at half the price of branded drugs.
Chemist associations to play major role in managing and promoting these shops.
Govt plans to start pilot project covering 15 states in first phase of the programme.
Rs 3 lakh/ per shop would be provided to build the infrastructure on govt land.
Good idea; know? Any comments?

The US government after all, may have to pick up the tab of recapitalizing these two housing behemoths.
After accounting for deferred tax assets and generous asset marks, Fannie and Freddie each may have a negative $50 billion in asset value, and little prospect of digging themselves out of the hole.
Fannie and Freddie “are being jawboned” by the Treasury Department and their new regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to raise more equity. But the two are not likely to succeed in their efforts. That leaves the US government to pick up the tab.

This is one piece that neatly explains the rise of regional political parties on the national political firmament. One excerpt from this is worth our note:
It is apparent that established national parties have not been able to provide a political agency for those outside the market framework to articulate their social and economic aspirations. For decades after Independence, Indian people accepted the modern development vision articulated by leaders like Nehru and to some extent Indira Gandhi. But it appears the mainstream political parties are somewhat losing their touch in grabbing the attention of the wider masses.
The question that begs an answer is - whether regional satraps will be able to provide political agency and allow articulation of social and economic aspirations of all those that they say they are championing. When they fail to do so, an electoral vacuum gets created and awaits the arrival another messiah.

Though crude prices have since come down from their peaks, they are still a cause for worry. This piece offers an excellent analysis of the recently witnessed oil price fluctuations globally. Worth a read.
The author cautions, very meritoriously:

With prices falling, the imperative to act inevitably tends to recede. That is the nature of the behavioural response to crisis and why a bad status quo can persist. But leaving the system unchanged will maintain the global economy’s vulnerability to future bouts of speculation that we cannot afford. Just consider how the current bout has raised global inflation, lowered incomes of the poor, weakened the dollar, deepened the US trade deficit, aggravated global financial instability, and increased the likelihood of a global recession. That is an indictment that merits an urgent policy action.

Economist Suresh Tendulkar, who is currently a member of the Council, is taking over as the new chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Primer Minister.
An interview with the intellectual cannot be missed by us. Look at it here.

Should I say the sport she belongs to? Pole vaulting would have her name permanently etched in its memory for a long, long time to come.
Having an assured gold with a 4.85 meters jump; she goes on to clear 5.05 meters! I would like to see many of you soar like that in your competitive exams.

He is the current pole vault record holder for men. He cleared 6.14 meters; way back in 1994.

The less said the better about our unofficial national sport – cricket. Hope you would have noted the disappointing performance of our squad in Srilanka.

Indian Current Affairs