03.06.2009

Politics & the Nation

• UN talks on global climate change at Bonn
• With these talks scheduled to be held in Germany this week, the focus again is on what policy stand should India be taking at these talks.
• In this connection, an official paper on the subject is worth our attention. Take a look at it here; coming as it does straight from our PM's web site.
• Also read yesterday's ET editorial on the subject, which does a good job of putting forth the concerns that our policy stance should be addressing.
• Fallacies about voter turnout
• The range of voting turnout across states, and variations in the same state in different elections, is so large that it defeats any quick analysis, says Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar in his article in ET today.
• By way of explanation, he proffers that completely local phenomena, unrelated to any grand theories of class or caste behaviour, can create enormous variations in turnout.
• Have the patience to delve more? Read his piece here.

Finance & Economy

• If you are a serious watcher of the global economic developments, you just can't afford to miss this interview. ET did it. From Jim Rogers, one of the highly celebrated global investors, whose investment decisions / bets look outlandish to many of us.
• It provides answers to some of the questions that have left us clueless for quite some time now. When the economy is not performing well, how come stock markets are rising? Have the economic stimulus packages really worked? If there was no downside to the fiscal stimulus packages announced the world over, what prevented governments from acting the way they did even while the crisis was unfolding? Were they not aware that these solutions / choices were available even then? Is there an ultimate cost that is yet to be paid by the world for these stimulus packages? etc., etc.,
• If you were troubled by these questions ever, take a look at this interview.
• April brings good news on economy front
• In the very first month of the current fiscal, six core industries together clocked the fastest growth rate in 10 months.
• Power, crude oil, refinery products, coal, cement and finished steel reportedly grew 4.3% year-on-year, recovering from the low of 1.1% in December 2008.
• These figures have raised hopes of a brighter industrial output, as these six industries have a combined weightage of 26.7% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• Government to rope in merchant bankers to advise on disinvestment
• THE government may rope in merchant banker NM Rothschild to put in place a detailed roadmap for selling stakes in state-owned companies. In addition there will be an advisory panel on disinvestment, which could include Accenture, McKinsey and Ernst & Young, among others.
• NM Rothschild, will draw from its experience of assisting the UK government in its privatisation drive of the 1980s, to advise the Indian administration, among other things, on arriving at reasonable valuation figures for the state-owned companies.
• Is there something wrong with the ECB auction proposals?
• Remember the recently announced government proposals to auction ECB entitlements? Is there something wrong with them? Yes, argues an ET editorial today. Take a look.
• Local cheques to be credited the very same day, rules RBI
• The power of the RBI to lay down such rules flows from the Payments and Settlements Act.
• Four years after it said banks could frame their own cheque-clearing policies, RBI has issued fresh directives to banks stating that, for local cheques, credit and debit will be given on the same day or, at most, on the next day of their presentation for clearing.
• The central bank has fixed a time-frame for collection of outstation cheques as well. The time-frame for collection of cheques drawn on state capitals and major cities has been capped at seven days and ten days respectively. For all other locations, banks have to clear the cheque within 14 days.
• ATM usage goes up from April 1, 2009
• That's the date from when the RBI mandated facility of any bank customer using any other banks' ATM for withdrawal of cash came into force. Ever since, banks have seen a multi-fold increase in the usage of ATMs.
• Despite the glee, there is some difference of opinion between bankers over fees paid for inter-bank transfers.
• Banks still have to pay one another a standard fee (up to Rs 18) for their customers using the other’s ATMs. The change since April 1 is that they cannot pass this on to the customers.
• But did you ever try and fail to withdraw money from another bank's ATM? Did you get the "transaction declined" message? Look at the transaction slip closely and if you find a 072 code, it could mean that you should use the ATM for withdrawing Rs. 10,000 and less at a time.

Personality: KC Chakrabarty

• He is named a Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India. He is presently the CMD of Punjab National Bank. Take a look at his career graph.

International / Neighbours

• Pakistani court frees Hafeez Mohammad Saeed
• The man India believes is the mastermind behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks is freed by a Pakistani court in spite of his name figuring on the UNSC terror list.
• Pakistan detained Saeed on December 21, 2001 in connection with December 13, 2001 attack on Indian Parliament. He was held till March 31, 2002, arrested again on May 15, and was placed under house arrest on October 31 of the same year. After the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train blasts, the provincial government of Punjab, Pakistan, arrested him on August 9, 2006 and kept him under house arrest but he was released on August 28, 2006 after a Lahore high court order. He was arrested again on the same day by the provincial government and was kept in the Canal Rest House in Sheikhupura. He was finally released after the Lahore high court order on October 17, 2006. Saeed was last detained by the Pakistani authorities along with two other top LeT leaders on December 11, 2008, and put under house arrest.
• Both LeT and its front organisation JuD have been listed by United Nations under UNSC Resolution 1267, as affiliates of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
• After LeT was banned in 2002, he started JuD and continued to make inflammatory statements against India.
• Saeed, the key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, also allegedly orchestrated the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, the 2001 Parliament attack (together with Jaish e Mohammed) as well as several recent terror acts.
• Saeed plunge into jehad came in the 1980s while he was pursuing higher studies in Saudi Arabia. He met Saudi sheikhs who were taking part in the Afghan jihad, and inspired by their fanatic ideology, founded the Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, which later developed its militant arm called Lashker-e-Taiba (meaning “army of the pure”) for perpetrating jehad in India, particular in Jammu & Kashmir.
• Air France crash
• Reports now say that possibly the debris of the Air France plane that crashed in Atlantic is located.
• The crash is believed to be the worst disaster in Air France’s 75-year history and the deadliest since one of the company’s supersonic Concorde planes crashed in 2000.
• Time of utmost importance in locating and identifying the debris and to know the possible causes of crash. Because the black boxes, or flight recorders, are programmed to emit signals for only up to 30 days.