Toyota Recall close to 4 lac hybrid vehicles + 27 other news items….Read on: Weekly Newsletter for the week ended-13th FEBRUARY 2010!
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE WEEK ENDED 13th FEBRUARY 2010
1) In a severe blow to Japan’s reputation as manufacturers of quality products, Toyota is recalling close to 4 lac hybrid vehicles it sold globally in the face of growing complaints regarding unintended acceleration and brake failure. The product recall involves their newest petrol-electric Prius, plug in Prius, the Sai sedan and Lexus HS250h and will mean that they will recall more cars than they sold in 2009. It was only towards the end of 2009 that Toyota had overtaken General Motors as the world’s biggest automaker and there are apprehensions that in their drive to do so , safety standards were given the ‘go-by’
2) Costa Rica brought into power its first woman president by electing Laura Chinchilla, a 50 year old social conservative. Costa Rica is one of the most politically and economically stable countries in Latin America.
3) Ukranian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych beat the incumbent Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the Presidential election run?off. If she ultimately wins one may see a policy tilt in favour of Russia.
4) In a landmark decision, the AP High Court has quashed a AP Govt order to give 4 % reservation to selected sections of the Muslim community in education and employment This judgment can have national ramifications.
5) Bank aspirants , pl. note that the RBI directive of Dec 2008 allowing banks to restructure NPA’s as a one time measure has led to an increase in NPA’s in 39 listed banks by Rs. 15000 crores in the last 12 months. SBI leads the flock with an increase of Rs. 6000 crores.
6) Again bank aspirants pl. note that banks can heave a sigh of relief now. RBI has decided that banks can include technical write-offs while calculating provision coverage ratio (PCR). PCR is the ratio of provisions to total non performing assets and will show the amount a lender keeps aside to cover loan losses. Technical write-offs are NPA’s written off in the Branch books but not in the main Head Office Books. ( Pl. check individual bank websites if you want to know more ))
7) BSE and NSE are at each others throat again. The bone of contention is a circular issued by SEBI last year which required the clearing and settlement of trades in Corporate bonds to be effected only through clearing corporations from December 2009. The three clearing corporations are NSE’s National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited (NSCCL), BSE’s Indian Clearing Corporation Limited (ICCL) and Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India (FIMMDA) which is hosted by NSE. BSE feels that it gives an unfair marketing advantage to NSE in terms of access to customers. Let us wait and see how this pans out.
Amidst a rising controversy about the safety of Bt Brinjal , Jairam Ramesh , the Union Environment Ministry has imposed a moratorium on commercial introduction of transgenic brinjal developed by Mahyco , a subsidiary of the global seed giant Monsanto. Genetic Engineering Approvals Committee (GEAC) had recommended approval of Bt brinjal in October 2009 which led to widespread national as well as international protests. As part of the effort to make the working of GEAC more transparent, the Minister has mooted a name change for GEAC to Genetic Engineering Appraisals Committee.
9) The re-elected President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse has dissolved the Parliament and ordered fresh elections. In another development, his opponent in the Presidential election retired General Sarat Fonesko has been arrested for suspected involvement in a plot to overthrow the Govt shortly after Gen Fonesko led the armed forces to a decisive victory over LTTE last year.
10) Chadrayaan’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), a NASA instrument which discovered water on the moon’s surface last year has now discovered a new type of lunar rock rich in a mineral called magnesium spinel.
11) Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray has been charged with manslaughter in a Los Angeles court to which he has pleaded not guilty.
12) RBI has deregulated approval norms for sanctioning External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) and delegated the authority to designated commercial banks to approve/alter/restructure repayment schedule etc.
13) SAP has appointed Peter Gartenberg as its new MD for India. He was previously the COO.
14) Airports Authority of India has decided to hive off Air Traffic Control operations into separate subsidiary to streamline operations and improve air safety. It hopes to complete the restructuring exercise within a year.
15) As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the industry recorded the highest ever domestic sales in January 10 at 1.11 million vehicles. The previous highest was in October 2006 at 1.01 million vehicles.
16) Defying world opinion and ignoring threats of ‘sanctions ‘, Iran announced on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution celebrated on the 11th , that it has produced 20 % enriched uranium. The apprehension in the mind of world governments is that once Iran produces 20% enriched Uranium , it is then an easy task to move on to 93 % level required for nuclear weapons. While USA has rubbished their claim, Russia has stated that Iran is capable of producing a nuclear weapon within one year even if sanctions are applied.
17) In reciprocal move to improve mutual ties Pakistan has accepted India‘s offer of bilateral talks. They have proposed 25th February as the date.
18) In a move aimed at attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), GOI has authorized the Ministry of Finance to approve FDI proposals up to Rs 1200 crores recommended by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) from the current Rs.600 crores. With this change only proposals above the revised limit will now go to FIPB and Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Another change that has been introduced is that only the foreign component of the investment will considered for calculating the applicability of the revised criteria and not the entire project cost as was the practice hitherto.
19) Indian exports registered an increase for the 3rd consecutive month in January as well by clocking an increase of 11.5 %.
20) SC Sinha has replaced Radha Vinod (A Kerala IPS officer) as the new NIA chief.
21) India and UK have formally signed a nuclear cooperation pact to enable British Companies to participate Indian nuclear power programme.
22) GOI has announced a 7 point terms of reference for the commission headed by Justice BN Srikrishna. To look into the Telangana issue. The main points are :
· Report to be submitted by 31st December 2010.
· Creation of Telangana State or maintaining present status of AP as a single state.
· Review developments in the state since the formation of the state and impact on different sections of the society
Telangana Rashtra Samithi has criticized the terms of reference as a betrayal of the people. One can expect more political turmoil in AP in the days to come.
23) The beleaguered environment scientist Sitaram Prechouri has turned writer with his book ” Return to Almora ” which is now on the stands.
24) Crompton Greaves MD, Sudhir Trehan was chosen as the Business Standard CEO of the year 2008-09.
25) In a first ever show of defiance, Mumbai citizens gave the thumbs down sign to Shiv Sena by defying their diktat not to watch Shah Rukh Khan film “My name is Khan”.
26) In a first ever defeat for MD Dhoni as a captain, India succumbed to the South African pace attack and lost the first test played at Nagpur. by an innings and six runs despite the 46th test hundred by Sachin in the second innings.
27) India led the medals tally with 95 gold, 55 silver and 30 bronze in the recently concluded 11th South Asian Games held at Dhaka.
28) Indian Golf started 2010 on a victorious note with Gaganjeet Bhullar wining the season opening Asian Tour International at Bangkok with a course record of 8 under par (64)
