18 April 2014 News Update
1 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate whose intoxicating novels and short stories exposed millions outside Latin America to its passions, superstition, violence and social inequality, has died.
2 Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra, Banmali Agrawala, president & ceo, South Asia, General Electric and Ellen Lord, president & ceo, Textron Systems have been appointed directors of US India Business Council.
3 French power equipment maker Alstom has bagged a 30 million euro contract from state-owned firm Bhel.
4 India Ratings has revised its outlook on the cotton sector upwards, from negative to 'negative-to-stable' this fiscal.
5 The US India Business Council (USIBC), an advocacy group representing American companies doing business in India, has called for lifting cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance and defence, but surprisingly made no mention of FDI in multi-brand retail.
6 Facebook users in the US will soon be able to see which of their friends are nearby using a new feature launched by the company.
7 India and the US are positioned to embark on a more closely collaborative path and much more work are required to set the relationship in stone, according to Indian Ambassador S Jaishanka
8 Investments into Indian shares through participatory notes (P-Notes), a preferred route for HNIs and hedge funds from abroad, surged to the highest level in nearly three years at Rs 2.07 lakh crore (over USD 34 billion) in March.
9 Star Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been given clearance by his home board to play a shortened stint with Worcestershire in the English season.
10 Vietnam had decided against hosting the 2019 Asian Games for financial reasons, and was exploring procedures to withdraw from staging the region's largest sporting event.
4 JAN, 2013 News Update
1 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate whose intoxicating novels and short stories exposed millions outside Latin America to its passions, superstition, violence and social inequality, has died.
2 Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra, Banmali Agrawala, president & ceo, South Asia, General Electric and Ellen Lord, president & ceo, Textron Systems have been appointed directors of US India Business Council.
3 French power equipment maker Alstom has bagged a 30 million euro contract from state-owned firm Bhel.
4 India Ratings has revised its outlook on the cotton sector upwards, from negative to 'negative-to-stable' this fiscal.
5 The US India Business Council (USIBC), an advocacy group representing American companies doing business in India, has called for lifting cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance and defence, but surprisingly made no mention of FDI in multi-brand retail.
6 Facebook users in the US will soon be able to see which of their friends are nearby using a new feature launched by the company.
7 India and the US are positioned to embark on a more closely collaborative path and much more work are required to set the relationship in stone, according to Indian Ambassador S Jaishanka
8 Investments into Indian shares through participatory notes (P-Notes), a preferred route for HNIs and hedge funds from abroad, surged to the highest level in nearly three years at Rs 2.07 lakh crore (over USD 34 billion) in March.
9 Star Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been given clearance by his home board to play a shortened stint with Worcestershire in the English season.
10 Vietnam had decided against hosting the 2019 Asian Games for financial reasons, and was exploring procedures to withdraw from staging the region's largest sporting event.
4 JAN, 2013 News Update
PM unveils new science policy
India has
unveiled a new science policy that lays greater thrust on innovation,
establishing research institutes
and encourage
women scientists with an aim to position itself among the top five scientific
powers in the
world by 2020.
The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy, 2013 also speaks of
modifying the
intellectual
property regime to provide for marching rights for social good when supported
by public funds
and co-sharing of
patents generated in the public private partnership mode. India first unveiled
its Scientific
Policy Resolution
in 1958 which resolved to "foster, promote and sustain" the
cultivation of science and
scientific
research in all its aspects. The Technology Policy Statement of 1983 focused on
the need to attain
technological
competence and self reliance.
Health Secretary should monitor drug trials
The Supreme Court
has directed that until further orders all clinical trials on drugs will have
to be conducted
under the direct
supervision of the Union Health Secretary to prevent illegal trials by
pharmaceutical
companies. A
Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and Anil R. Dave expressed serious concern over
the menace
caused by
uncontrolled clinical trial of drugs on humans by multinational companies and
pulled up the Centre
for failing in
its duty to control this menace and putting in place an effective mechanism.
The Bench said the
Central Drugs
Standard Control Organisation under the Directorate General of Health Services
(DGHS)
failed to monitor
the clinical trials and ensure that they were conducted ethically. The DGHS
should be kept
away from
monitoring the trials.
International:
Peace award for Malala
Malala Yousafzai,
Pakistani schoolgirl shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012, is to be given Ireland’s
prestigious
Tipperary
International Peace Prize for 2012 for her courage and determination to speak
out in support of
equal access to
education for every child. She was one of the five nominees, including Congress
president
Sonia Gandhi and
outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Malala is the second
Pakistani to get the
award. In 2007,
it was given to Benazir Bhutto. Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, has been
appointed
education attaché
at the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham, paving the way for her to continue to
stay on in
Britain after her
medical treatment.
Depardieu, in tax fight, gets Russian citizenship
Gerard Depardieu,
the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on
millionaires in
his native
country, has been granted Russian citizenship. President Vladimir Putin has
signed the citizenship
grant. The former
Oscar nominee and star of the movie 'Green Card' has been vocal in his
opposition to
French President
Francois Hollande’s plans to raise the tax on earned income above €1 million
($1.33
million) to 75
per cent from the current high of 41 per cent. Mr. Depardieu is not the only
high-profile
Frenchman to
object to the super-tax. Bernard Arnault, chief of the luxury goods and fashion
giant LVMH and
worth an
estimated $41 billion, has also said he would leave for Belgium.
South Korea is the first country in Asia to adopt chemical castration
South Korean
court has sentenced a 31-year-old pedophile to 15 years in jail and ordered the
country's first
ever chemical
castration. The ruling is the first since the country passed a law in 2011 that
allows hormonal
treatment or
chemical castration for convicted child molesters, who are at risk of repeating
their crimes.
South Korea was
the first country in Asia to adopt this type of treatment, although Germany,
Denmark,
Sweden, Poland
and the US state of California have used it for years.
Business & Economy:
Panel set up to suggest steps for AI turnaround
A committee was
set up to suggest measures to lower the high costs of Air India’s operations
and improve
utilisation of
resources in line with best global practices to help the state-run carrier
achieve the goals of its
turnaround and
financial restructuring plans. A five-member committee, headed by IIM-Ahmedabad’s
Prof
Ravindra H.
Dholakia, was set up by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh. Though the panel
has been given two
months to submit
its report, it has been asked to give interim recommendations without waiting
for its final
report so that
these could be implemented by Air India immediately. Other members of the
committee are:
Prabhat Kumar,
Rajesh Agrawal, S Mukherjee, and Nasir Ali.
Bharti Airtel launches Airtel mEducation services
Bharti Airtel has
launched mEducation services that will enable its customers to access courses
for English
learning,
competitive exam preparation and career counselling on their mobile phones.
Airtel mEducation
service uses
technology-enabled platforms to address the challenging issues of education
with an endeavour
to enrich the
lives of our customers. The charges for these services range from Rs 1.5 to Rs
10 per day.
Based on both
voice (IVR) and SMS format, the courses offer interactive learning in the
native language of
the customers.
The company is also offering mock tests for entrance and competitive exams such
as UPSC,
MBA for Rs 99 for
12 mock tests.
Cos must disclose price-sensitive info to bourses first
Listed companies
will now have to necessarily disclose all price-sensitive information,
including monthly
sales figures, to
bourses first, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
said. All the
events or
material information which will have a bearing on the performance / operations
of the company as
well as
price-sensitive information shall be first disseminated to the bourse as
required under Clause 36 of
the Listing
Agreement. As per Clause 36 of the Agreement, listed firms are required to
inform the bourses
concerned
immediately of events such as strikes, lock-outs, closure on account of power
cuts and all events
which would have
a bearing on the performance as well as prices.
Infosys prize winners honoured
The Infosys
Science Foundation has honoured winners of the Infosys Prize-2012 for their outstanding
achievements and
contributions to science and humanities. The former Prime Minister of Norway,
Gro
Harlem
Brundtland, felicitated the seven laureates across the six categories-
Engineering and Computer
Science,
Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences
in New Delhi. The
seven winners
were drawn from a total of 220 nominees.
Nestle wins trademark battle over KitKat bar
Nestle has won a
trademark lawsuit against Cadbury over their rights to KitKat chocolate bar’s
four-fingered
and
three-dimensional shape. KitKat’s shape was registered by Nestle in 2006.
Cadbury applied to invalidate
the registration
shortly thereafter, claiming that a trait as general as a product’s shape could
not be
trademarked.
Cadbury’s famous Creme Eggs, the company sells KitKat-like products, such as
Crispello, a
chocolate bar
with a “creamy centre, wrapped in a delicate crispy shell, covered with a
delicious layer of
Cadbury
chocolate.
IBM appoints Vanitha Narayanan as IBM India MD
IBM has appointed
Vanitha Narayanan as managing director of IBM India. She takes over from
Shanker
Annaswamy who
will continue to remain in IBM as the senior advisor to the corporation on
India Enterprise.
Both Narayanan
and Annaswamy will report to Jim Bramante, senior VP in IBM growth markets
unit.
Narayanan will be
responsible for all of IBM's sales, marketing, services and global delivery
operations in the
India/South Asia
(ISA) region, including operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Sport:
India lose ODI series to Pakistan
Team Pakistan,
having had to live the life of gypsies since March 2009, at the Eden Gardens,
Misbah's men
clinched an
85-run victory over India in the second ODI to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in
the three-match
series. Pakistan
had last won an ODI series in India in 2005 when they came back from being 0-2
down to
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