06.08.2010

Politics & the Nation

• Heads start rolling at CWG
• But it is Suresh Kalmadi's that the aam junta wants to see roll.
• The Suresh Kalmadi-led Organising Committee, which has been forced to cleanse the Commonwealth Games stables, on Thursday suspended joint director TS Darbari, former deputy director-general Sanjay Mahendroo, and head of the accounting department M Jeychandran. The executive board also terminated the contract of Melbourne-based Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) for “non-performance”.
• These actions came on a day when the government was forced by the Opposition in Parliament to promise speedy investigation into the allegations of corruption
• Raja of Mahmudabad to be richer by thousands of crores
• It’s a king’s tale with many twists and turns but a happy ending. Thanks to an intervention by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad will get back his properties across Uttaranchal and UP, together worth thousands of crores, in deference to a 2005 apex court order that had followed a prolonged 32-year litigation over ownership.
• The properties had originally belonged to Amir Mohammad Khan’s father, a founding member of the Muslim League who migrated to Pakistan during Partition. His wife, Begum Kaneez Abdi, stayed back in India. The property was identified as evacuee property after Partition and thereafter declared ‘enemy property’ in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.
• This spawned a legal battle with Amir Mohammad Khan approaching the courts claiming ancestral rights over the multi-million properties. A 32-year litigation ensued, with tenants too filing counter cases, but ended on a victorious note for the erstwhile Raja in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour and asked the government to hand him all his properties back.
• Caste may be included in 3rd stage of census
• Look at this story. All the political parties appear to be coming to the conclusion that including caste in Census is a desirable thing.

Finance & Economy

• Ratan Tata’s successor search will keep making news for quite some time.
• Take a look at some of the potential candidates.
• While on the subject, we can’t miss these titbits relating to Mr. Ratan Tata’s career.
• RIL to buy 3rd shale gas asset for $392 m
• Reliance Industries (RIL) has agreed to buy 60% stake in the Marcellus shale acreage in the US for $392 million, or around 1,810 crore, its third investment in four months in the promising new energy resource.
• Carrizo will hold 40% of the gas acreage after the transaction is over, which is likely to happen by mid-September. The acquisition will provide RIL access to 104,400 acres of underdeveloped land with estimated net resources of 3.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.
• In April, it had acquired a 40% stake in Atlas Energy's Marcellus shale acreage in the US, gaining access to approximately 343,000 acres of undeveloped land with estimated gross resources of over 13 trillion cubic feet of gas. It paid $1.7 billion for this. In June, RIL bought a 45% stake in Pioneer Natural Resources for $1.15 billion, gaining access to 210,000 acres of land.
• RIL, which owns the world's biggest refinery complex and India's largest gas field in the KG basin, has cash and cash equivalent of more than $6 billion. Its projected annual cash flow is pegged at $7-8 billion.
• Shale gas is extracted from a common rock formation found in most parts of the world. The emergence of new drilling technologies has made the extraction of gas viable and has led to sudden an increase in the production of shale gas in the US, forcing gas prices to drop in that country.
• Cable cos must go digital by ’13
• Telecom and broadcasting sector regulator has recommended that all cable operators need to switch to digital systems by December 2013 that would provide consumers with better quality audio and video television signals.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), that also oversees regulations for broadcasters, in its recommendations to the Information & Broadcasting ministry, has said digitalisation should be implemented in four phases starting with cable operators in the four metro cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai switching to digital systems as early as March, 2011.
• In the second phase, all cities with population of over one million should turn digital by December next year. This should be followed by digitalisation of television systems in all the urban areas by December 2012. Trai said in the statement that all cable operators in the country should switch from analogue to digital systems by December 2013.
• Figuratively speaking on forest cover
• Take a look at the country’s forest cover in this graphic.
• Foreign individuals may get direct access to equity mkts
• Individual foreign investors should be allowed to buy shares directly in Indian companies, a panel has recommended, opening the possibility of increased portfolio flows into India.
• The recommendation is contained in a report that has suggested a more liberal framework for foreign investment in India but strict disclosure rules for investors. The report of the working group headed by UTI AMC chairman U K Sinha was submitted recently to the finance ministry.
• A 16-member working group with Mr Sinha as its head was set up in November 2009 to review the existing policy on foreign portfolio inflows and suggest measures to reduce policy hurdles while ensuring adequate disclosure from investors.
• India is seen as a promising investment destination given its strong economic growth at a time when the developed world is struggling. Foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, have already pumped in over $ 11 billion into the Indian stock market since January.
• Direct equity market access to foreign individual investors will create demand for domestic brokerages and banks to expand overseas, besides increasing the volumes on stock exchanges.
• Direct tax collections soar 15.8%
• Net direct tax collections grew a strong 15.8% in the first four months of the current fiscal over the same period last year, underlying the strong recovery in the economy and also increasing the chances of government raising more than the 4.2 lakh crore it has budgeted for the year.
• Corporate tax collections were up 21% to 85,647 crore in April-July from a year ago, an indication of a strong rebound in corporate profits in the current fiscal even though the first quarter results show input cost pressures.
• The government has budgeted for an 18% increase in corporate tax collections for the current year. Even personal income tax collections were up 11.1%.
• The overall tax collections are pegged at 7.47 lakh crore in the current year against 6.33 lakh crore last year, an increase of 18%.
• Banks lose more than Rs. 1000 cr in dacoities and thefts
• Commercial banks have lost over 1,000 crore in the last six months alone to dacoities, thefts and robberies, an amount the banks feel could increase if they were pushed into providing banking in the remote areas.
• The government and the banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India, are concerned over the increase in cases of thefts and dacoities with around 270 cases reported in the last six months alone.
• The highest number of dacoities have been reported from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, costing the banks about 320 crore.
• As per government’s report, out of the 129 unbanked blocks in the country 91 are in the North-East Region, some part of which have security issues.
• The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, has seen 62 such cases so far amounting to 150 crore. In 2009-10, SBI had lost over 400 crore in 117 cases of thefts or dacoities.
• Out of the total 86,777 branches in the country, 32,301 are in rural areas. The number of branches in rural and semi-urban areas constitute 61% of the total bank branches in the country.
• Since when did RBI become the banker to the Government of India?
• Look at this “Slice of history” column. It is very interesting.

Technology

• New imaging methods discovered by IISc
• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore have developed new imaging methods to diagnose cancers affecting breast, lung, ovary and skin. The findings released this week is the result of a collaborative project with technology major Apple to develop a near infrared imaging solution for fast and flexible cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
• Typically, imaging data available at present can identify a tumour, but cannot reveal its physiology. Equipment used now is too unwieldy and ionising for monitoring the patient in the clinic has side effects. IISc hopes to change that picture along with Apple.