03.09.2009

Politics & the Nation

• With our beloved Chief Minister YSR being no more, we are in a state of mourning.
• All of you might have read news reports about YSR missing from yesterday morning onwards. Initial reports of his missing were seen as pranks or some minor mishaps. It is only by late afternoon yesterday that the gravity of the situation has dawned on everyone.
• Today morning, even as we are writing this, TV channels have confirmed that YSR is no more and that the chopper in which he was travelling has crash landed killing all the occupants. He was accompanied by a Principal Secretary - Subramanyam, his Chief Security Officer ASC Wesley and two seasoned pilots.
• We join all the people of the State of Andhra Pradesh and the country in mourning our beloved Chief Minister. May his soul rest in peace.
• Chief Justice's office falls under RTI: HC
• In a judgment that has far reaching implications for the higher judiciary, the Delhi Court held as above. It is interesting. Do read the news report here.
• AR Rahman wins Grassroot Grammy
• The Oscar-winning musician A. R. Rahman has won the 'Grassroot Grammy' award held in the U.S.
• The 'Mozart of Madras' bagged the top prize for the soundtrack in the Tamil film "Godfather" in the 'Best Indian album' category at the 'Just Plain Folks 2009 Music Awards' held recently.

Finance & Economy

• Banks park Rs 1L crore with MFs in April-July
• According to latest RBI figures, incremental investment by banks in mutual fund schemes rose Rs 1,02,838 crore between April and July 2009, taking their outstanding exposure to Rs 1,39,619 crore as on July 31. This is in addition to Rs 1,69,000 crore parked in government bonds. Total bank credit, on the other hand, rose only Rs 31,483 crore during the same period. Banks have mobilised deposits worth Rs 2,35,281 crore during the same period. On a year-on-year basis, loans grew by around 15% until end-July while deposits have risen by 22%.
• TCS contributes Rs. 2000 crores to the dividend kitty of Tata Sons
• TATA Sons, the unlisted holding company of the Tatas, received a dividend of Rs. 2000 crores from the country’s biggest software developer, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
• The rest of the Tata group’s listed companies contributed only Rs 700 crore of the total dividend income of Tata Sons.
• Tata Sons stake in TCS is now at 73.75% compared with the 75% holding it had as of March 2008.

International

• G20 to push for curbs on financial institutions with cross-border operations
• The G20 meeting is expected to discuss how to closely monitor the behaviour of systematically important multinational financial institutions. For monitoring the global risk of financial institutions, risk regulators called ‘supervisory colleges’ are being established.
• Finance ministers and central bank governors would also discuss how to better regulate credit rating agencies and how to get more countries to follow transparent and globally accepted governance principles (reducing regulatory arbitrage). After the G20 meet in London, heads of states and a few from outside this group are expected to meet at Pittsburgh in the US to take forward the commitments on stimulus measures and regulation of financial sector.
• British Petroleum reports massive oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico
• BP said in a statement on Wednesday that it had made the find at its Tiber Prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The well was drilled in Keathley Canyon block 102.
• Further appraisal will be required to ascertain the volumes of oil present, BP said, but a spokesman said the find could be bigger than its Kaskida discovery which has over 3 billion barrels of oil in place.

Medicine

• What do H1 and N1 in the H1N1 virus name stand for?
• In an interesting article about this, we come to know that they stand for Haemagglutinin and Neuraminidase. Read this article in full which gives some decent details about the virus.