20.08.2009

Politics & the Nation

• Eulogizing Jinnah claims Jaswant's scalp!
• The ghost of Jinnah has claimed its second victim in the BJP. Four years after LK Advani was forced to step down from the party president’s post for bestowing a ‘secular’ tag on the father of Pakistan, former Union minister Jaswant Singh was on Wednesday expelled from the party for eulogising Jinnah and for holding Sardar Patel jointly responsible for Partition.
• He is reported to have eulogised Jinnah in his book ‘Jinnah: India, Partition Independence’.
• Today's ET has given some excerpts / quotes from Jinnah's speeches in this regard to put the 'versions' of history that 'pundits' and politicians often propound every now and then. Take a look.
• Rajiv Gandhi Awards: 12th version
• Instituted in the memory of the late prime minister, the awards are presented to those who have achieved excellence in their respective fields, to encourage youth to innovation, and strive for success. The winners of the 12th Rajiv Gandhi Awards are:
• Vineet Jain, MD of The Times Group, for Industry,
• Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra for Sports,
• Actors Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif for Entertainment,
• Narendra Jadhav for Education,
• Ramesh Chandra Agarwal for Journalism,
• Sam Pitroda for the Global Indian category,
• Rohit Kochhar for Young Entrepreneur,
• Rajashree Birla in the Social Field,
• G Madhavan Nair as Superachiever,
• Avika Gor as Child Prodigy and
• Krushnaa Patil for Woman Achiever.
• Instituted in 1996 with just three categories, the scope of the Awards has grown over the years. This year, they honoured 12 categories of winners.

• Spouse clause takes sheen off India posting
• For many expatriates, an India posting has, of late, become a much sought after experience to get reflected in their resumes.
• But for working expatriate couples this is leaving a bitter taste. Indian embassies are refusing to let spouses work in India.
• Currently, foreign nationals coming to India on an employment visa may obtain an “X visa” meant for dependents such as spouses. If the spouse decides to take up employment in India, the person will be required to go back to the port of origin and obtain an employment visa, which could take a long time.
• Work permit-related restrictions often depend on reciprocal arrangements between two countries.
• For instance, there are a large number of Indians in the US on H1B visas and their spouses are not allowed to work there. Besides, the mandatory payment of social security is also an issue with the H1B visa holders. Sorting out such reciprocal issues would help in easing work permit issues for spouses of expats working in India.

Personality

• Who is the Chief of RSS?
• Mohan Bhagwat

Finance & Economy

• Jet fuel imports may be kept on OGL
• In a move that could provide some respite to ailing airline companies, the government is looking at allowing them to import jet fuel on their own. Freeing up jet fuel imports would allow airlines to avoid high sales tax, ranging from 12% to 34%, levied by state governments.
• The fuel could be imported under the government’s open general licence (OGL) policy and is the most liberalised form of import licence that does not place any export obligation on the importer.
• The airline industry, which suffered an estimated loss of Rs 10,000 crore in 2008-09 mainly on account of high fuel prices, excess capacity and weak demand, has sought the government’s support to tide over the tough times.
• Will the states see reason at least now and reduce the exorbitant rates they are charging on the ATF?
• Had all the state governments agreed to levy only a rate of 4% on ATF sales, the airline industry could have got a relief of close to Rs. 2,500 crores, it is reported.
• The move to put ATF imports under the OGL regime may not come as an easy solution.
• One, this may only help marginally, operators in coastal cities like Mumbai and Chennai among others where jet fuel is not required to be transported. But since the airline companies do not have storage or transportation facilities, they would incur costs on these counts.
• Also, airline companies would have to deal with inventory issues and foreign exchange variables.
• But most importantly, it would be the oil companies (current jet fuel providers) that would throw the spanner in the works of such a move. ATF is a high-margin petroleum product and the oil companies would lose a sizeable revenue if airline companies were to start importing jet fuel.
• In India, jet fuel prices for domestic airline companies are linked to Dubai benchmark prices while international airlines pay jet fuel prices linked to Platt, an international index.
• India is a large country yet its annual per capita air trips amount to a lowly 0.02, compared to 0.1 for China and as high as 2.2 trips for the US. So there’s huge potential for air traffic growth here.
• Additionally, our population in million per aircraft is way too high at 2.89. The figure is 1.14 for China, 0.63 for Brazil, and as low as 0.05 for the US.
• Here is an excellent piece on what ails the growth of small scale sector in India. Take a look. An excerpt:
• The total number (registered and unregistered) of micro and small units increased from 10.9 million in 2002-03 to 12.8 million in 2006-07 (Economic Survey, 2007-08), a growth of about 3% or 4% a year. And the total employment they provided went up from 26.4 million to 31.2 million, in the same period. That’s less than 10% of total employment, and a far cry from the millions of more jobs we need.

• No extra airwaves for WiMax, says ISRO
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G Madhavan Nair has told the nine-member empowered group of ministers (EGoM) — headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee — that the department of space (DoS) could not spare any further airwaves for WiMax services. The EGoM was constituted to settle all outstanding issues associated with the auction of third-generation (3G) airwaves.
• The DoS has already parted with 40 MHz of airwaves for WiMax services in the 2.5 GHz band.
• WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), is a telecom technology that allows the user to access high speed internet and other data applications wirelessly. As per global industry experience, WiMAX offers data speeds that are 10-30 times faster than 3G. To put this in perspective, the data speeds of 3G networks are over five times faster than those offered by 2G cellular networks that telcos in India currently use.
• Per-second billing seen hitting telco revenues by 15%
• The per-second billing system for calls, pioneered by Tata DoCoMo, has the potential to bring down the sector’s revenues by 10-15% if other operators follow suit, according to analysts.
• Infy, Cognizant among world's 100 fastest growing companies
• IT bellwether Infosys Technologies, along with internet major Google and software giant Apple, has been named among the world’s 100 fastest growing companies by American publication Fortune. The league of 100 is topped by Canada-based RIM, the maker of Black-Berry phones. The list also features Cognizant Technology Solutions, headed by India-origin CEO Francisco D’Souza.
• It is the first time that Fortune has opened its list of the top 100 fastest growing companies to businesses from around the world.

International

• Warren Buffet cautious on US budget deficit and debt
• The US budget deficit is forecast to reach a record $1.841 trillion in the year that ends September 30. This is about 13% of its GDP.
• Debt is slated to increase to 56% of its GDP.

Language lessons

• compunction: Noun
• A feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed)
• nondescript: Adjective
• Lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting
• eg: "women dressed in nondescript clothes"; "a nondescript novel"
• commiserate: Verb
• To feel or express sympathy or compassion
• eg: They could commiserate with each other too about having to face the travails of having their every move dissected by avid fans and opponents alike.
• transmogrify: Verb
• Change completely the nature or appearance of
• aphorism: Noun
• A short pithy instructive saying
• An example of an aphorism: "invest only in businesses that an idiot can run because sooner or later an idiot will." This aphorism is attributed to the famous investor Warren Buffet.
• cop-out
• Noun: A failure to face some difficulty squarely
• Verb: Choose not to do something, as out of fear of failing