10.09.2008

• US President signs the enabling legislation on Nuclear deal with India
• The United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Non-proliferation Enhancement Act was finally signed by the US President George Bush, giving lot of comfort for India for signing the 123 agreement with that country. He went further and did his best to take care of India’s key concerns on fuel supply guarantees and reprocessing.
• With the US internal process now completed, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will sign the 123 Agreement on Friday in Washington ending the process that started three years ago with the 2005 joint statement between Mr Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
• In the meantime pressure mounts on Australian government from within to sell uranium to India
• You might remember that Australia, very rich in Uranium resources, has been consistently opposing sale of uranium to India so long as the latter remained a non-signatory to the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty).
• But pressure on the Australian government is mounting from their own opposition which fears that not supplying Uranium to India is detrimental to Australia's domestic interests in so far as losing an opportunity of job creation and containing mounting losses in the mining sector are concerned.
• Further they charged that the supplies that can be made under the 123 agreement to India, are no different from the supplies being made to China by Australia.
• TDP plumps for Telangana state
• Finally the main opposition party in the State of Andhra Pradesh has bitten the bullet - a separate Telangana state.
• Read this small piece; as a repeat of the same is not warranted.
• A different perspective of the current financial crisis and its impact on India
• It is a very good article from Manoj Pant. Recommend a read. It is here.
• Look at how he articulates that it is the real estate which has been the villain in all the three major financial crises that we have witnessed in the last 100 years.
• His analysis that India need not worry strengthens my belief that in the medium to longer term our currency will gain in strength vis a vis the dollar. Current fluctuations are only temporary and technical in nature; they are not backed by fundamentals. Fundamentals are in India's favour.
• Another concomitant development that is as yet remaining largely unnoticed; but taken note of by the IMF is the role of SWFs (Sovereign Wealth Funds). The total global financial assets are reportedly about $190 trillion. Sovereign Wealth Fund assets are expected to be anywhere between $7 to $11 trillion by 2013. In the run up to this buildup they will be looking not necessarily at the US dollar (US T bills) as a source of stable investment. Instead they will be looking at emerging economies like the BRIC countries and others. This will drive the dollar down. The way these countries will manage the strengthening of their currencies is by looking at satiating the domestic demand; instead of depending on the US economy; which in any case will not be able to support the kind of import levels that it is now supporting with the fall in its currency value.
• Here is your chance to stay current with the financial terminology in the ongoing financial crisis.
  
• IMF activates its emergency financing mechanism for countries
• Created in 1995 and first used in the 1997 East Asian Crisis to shore up their currencies, it is activated again to help countries seeking emergency loans.
  
• The case against large supply chains. Large global supply chains create economic efficiencies. But what are their downsides? Look at how Arun Maira analyses. An interesting read.
  
• Food is grown in large farms across the world, each specialising in different vegetables and fruits. However these large global chains consume more energy, cause more damage to the environment, and create more risk than local networks. The average morsel of food eaten by an American travels about 1,500 miles from these large farms to reach his fork. On the way, large quantities of oil are burnt for refrigeration and transportation and lots of carbon is spewed into the atmosphere. Such global chains increase other risks too. When bad tomatoes were suspected to be the cause of a salmonella problem in the US recently, it was impossible for retailers to pin-point their source. So supplier farms had to be shut down in many places across the world. The on-going ‘subprime’ financial crisis is another example of risks in large interconnected supply chains. The theory was that the financial system would be safer by spreading risky loans across a wider system. However, when things began to go wrong there was panic because it was not clear where the bad bits were hidden!
• And why is local better than global?
• SEVERAL recent studies suggest that we should look for local solutions to what have become global problems. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute explains, in Winning the Oil Endgame, how ‘a legion of small, fast and simple microgeneration and efficiency projects’ can be the answer to the world’s energy problems. In Deep Economy, Bill McKibben makes a compelling case for local food networks. There are many examples from India and elsewhere that show that local community solutions for water are more effective and sustainable than gigantic storage and long distance transportation schemes. And micro-credit to local women’s self-help groups has become a success story of micro-empowerment.
• We do need an Arun Maira and several others to buttress our belief in Gandhi; because we are living in a different (flat?) world know? We have long forgotten what the Mahatma said about the village being a self-sufficient unit in economy.
• Look at the collateral damage caused by the global financial crisis
• The cumulative market capitalisation of Indian companies stood at $1.8 trillion on January 10. It came down to $760 billion dollars on Thursday, as rupee fell to near 48-level.
• Look at the Rajasthan model of spreading senior secondary education; it found favour with the Finance ministry
  
• Rajasthan govt suggested public private partnership for setting up 139 senior secondary schools
  
• Schools to be owned by a trust, infrastructure to be created by the private firm that will be responsible for management of schools
  
• Education would be subsidised for poor students. Govt to provide vouchers to half of the students
• Long live-in relationships to get legalized?
• The Maharashtra government's move to legalize long live-in relationships is based on the recommendations of the Justice (retd) S Mallimath committee formed by the Centre which said if a man and a woman are living together as husband and wife for a reasonably long period, the man shall be deemed to have married the woman according to customary rights of either party.
• I think this will result in lot of avoidable litigation and perhaps legalize and promote bigamy in the country. In any case, this is one topic that will remain for a long time in the domain of discussions and debates. Worthy topic for an essay. Shoot out your opinions.
• Global competitiveness ranking by World Economic Forum
  
• In the annual Global Competitiveness 2008-09 Report, India has dropped two places from last year’s 48th spot. Even as the financial turmoil is ravaging the economy, the US has topped the league of 134 countries. In last year’s list, China was at the 34th place, while India was ranked at the 48th position.
• What are the existing restrictions on corporate pay?
• As per the present dispensation under the Companies Act, 1956, it is mandatory for a company to seek the approval of the central government if the remuneration to a director exceeds 5% of the net profit.
  
• In case of more than one directors, the compensation cannot exceed exceed 10% of the profit without the permission of the central government.
• Nobel prizes. We somehow missed the action on this front.
• Follow this link to see this year's winners.