Today's GK

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its first quarter review of monetary policy kept both the repo rate and Cash Reserve Ratio ( CRR) unchanged. This is in line with market expectations.

Maintaining an extremely hawkish stance, RBI also cut the GDP growth forecast for FY14 to 5.5% from 5.7% earlier. RBI Governor Subbarao cited various risks that are likely to hamper economic growth. Both domestic and global uncertainty were admitted to be a deterrent for economic recovery.

On inflation, while Subbarao acknowledged the ongoing rupee depreciation would create trouble for the price rise scenario, he stressed that the RBI will use all instruments at its disposal to contain it to 5 per cent by March.

Inflation as measured by wholesale prices increased marginally to 4.86 per cent in June.

Tata tops the list in the first edition of Interbrand's 'Best Indian Brands' study, with a valuation of $10.9 billion. It is followed by Reliance at $6.24 billion and AirtelBSE -2.74 % at $6.22 billion. Tata also happens to be the brand that Jez Frampton, the global chief executive of Interbrand, is most familiar with, given that Tetley is his preferred brand of tea and he drives a Range Rover. "Technically, I drive an Indian car," he says.Frampton believes Indian firms - even those like Tata, known best overseas for global acquisitions like Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley - would do well to focus on building their master brands. This will help Indian companies when they decide to roll out other products and services, or when they choose to become global brands. "A strong master brand creates awareness that you exist, mean something and add value to a purchase," he says.

'Best Indian Brands' is the first local iteration of Interbrand's 'Best Global Brands' study, a highly anticipated measure of brand valuation. Frampton and Interbrand India's MD Ashish Mishra intend to make it a benchmark to track the health and finances of India's leading brands.

Till some months ago, they were termed 'over the hill' in job market parlance. Today, companies are rushing to hire 50-plus CEOs to steer their ships in a tough market characterised by slowing consumer demand and rising prices.

 

The green surge that crushed Bengal's 34-year-old Red citadel in 2011 continues to swamp the countryside, but is just short of a clean sweep.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress decimated the Left in south Bengal, but met with hurdles in the north, where the Congress and the Left were ahead of the ruling party in Jalpaiguri, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad. The projected Lok Sabha tally extrapolated from the grassroots would put Trinamool's seats at 27 out of 42, a prospect that would give Mamata bargaining power in national politics.

Polling started on Tuesday in Pakistan's National Assembly and four other provincial centres to elect a new president who will replace incumbent Asif Ali Zardari in September.

The polling started at 10am amidst strict security arrangements at the National Assembly, the four provincial assemblies and the Senate.

The voting will continue without any break till 3pm. Mamnoon Hussain, the India-born nominee of ruling PML-N, is likely to win the elections for the 12th president in the one-on-one contest with ex-judge Wajihuddin Ahmad of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.

The Leander Paes-led Washington Kastles won their third World Team Tennis (WTT) title in a row — and their fourth in five years — after overwhelming Springfield Lasers 25-12 in the grand finale on Sunday.

Playing in front of their home fans at Kastles Stadium in Washington DC, the champions won all five matches with five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis and doubles ace Paes playing stellar roles.

Hingis, who will make a comeback to the WTA Tour this week when she plays doubles with Daniela Hantuchova at the Southern California Open in Carlsbad, won her women's singles, women's doubles (with Anastasia Rodionova) and mixed doubles (with Paes) matches comfortably.

Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan was chosen for the 21st Rajiv Gandhi National Sadhbhavna Award for his contribution towards promotion of communal harmony and peace. It will be conferred on Amjad Ali Khan on 20 August 2013, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award (Rajiv Gandhi National Communal Harmony Award) is an award given for outstanding contribution towards promotion of communal harmony, national integration and peace. The award was instituted by All India Congress Committee of the Indian National Congress Party (INC), in 1992 to commemorate the lasting contribution made by the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The award carries a citation and a cash award of five lakh rupees.

The award is given on 20 August evry year, the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, which is celebrated as Sadbhavna Diwas (Harmony Day).The former recipients of the award comprise Mother Teresa, Bismillah Khan, Teesta Setalvad, Swami Agnivesh, Harsh Mander, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mohammed Yunus, Maulana Wahiuddin Khan and K R Narayanan.

A trial court on 30 July 2013 awarded life term to Batla House encounter convict Shahzad Ahmed for killing MC Sharma and injuring two others. Batla House encounter had taken place in 2008. Shahzad was also fined 95000 rupees of which 40000 rupees would be paid to family of slain inspector MC Sharma and 20000 rupees to injured cop Balwant. Additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri pronounced the judgment after listening to the arguments of the prosecution and the defence.

Batla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on 19 September 2008, against Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi. Encounter specialist and Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action was also killed during the incident.

British Airways on 30 July 2013 announced that it intends to increase its flight frequency from Hyderabad to London by having daily flights. The daily flights will be operated by a Boeing 777.

British airways is the UK-based premium airline. For British Airways, Hyderabad is truly a key market in their South Asian network. It has shown tremendous growth in the market since 2008, which resulted in concerted growth in the outbound business and leisure tourism.

India as a nation is amongst the fastest growing markets for British Airways and is the second largest market for the airlines after USA. As per international tourism board’s estimate, India emerged as the world’s fastest growing outbound market recently and in terms of numbers it is second only to China.

The number of Indians travelling overseas is set to rise from around 15 million to 50 million by 2020. India’s middle class is likely to grow to 50 per cent by 2030 as against the current 5 per cent. British Airways has been flying to India for the last 84 years. At present, it operates 46 flights a week from London Heathrow to five  following cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The Government of Saudi Arabia, on 28 July 2013, announced that it awarded over 22 billion US dollar in contract for the development of metro line in the capital, Riyadh. This is said to be the largest public transport initiative of the world and will help in boosting the economy of Saudi Arabia considerably.

The metro line will join Dubai as well as Qatar in the expansion of the public transport networks. The contracts were awarded to Bechtel Group Inc. (9.4 billion US dollar), Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (7.8 billion US dollar) and Ansaldo STS SpA (STS) (5.2 billion US dollar).

US department of energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory invented the fastest electrical switching in magnetite- a naturally magnetic mineral. This scientific finding will enable faster, more powerful computing devices. Scientists used SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser to find that it takes only 1 trillionth of a second to flip the on-off electrical switch in samples of magnetite, which is thousands of times faster than the electrical switch used in transistors.

This scientific finding will throw new light on the electronic properties of magnetite. We already know the basic magnetic properties of magnetite. In fact, for the first time the speed limit for electrical switching in magnetite was revealed by this scientific breakthrough.

Scientists hit magnetite with a visiblelight laser, which resulted into the fragmentation of the material's electronic structure at an atomic scale, rearranging it to form the islands. The laser blast was followed by an ultra bright, ultra short X-ray pulse. It allowed researchers to study the timing and details of changes in the sample excited by the initial laser strike.

After adjusting the interval of the X-ray pulses, the scientists measured the time duration of the material to shift from a non-conducting to an electrically conducting state and observed the structural changes during this switch. The magnetite was needed to be cooled to minus 190 degrees Celsius to lock its electrical charges in place.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on 29 July 2013 cleared the proposal of Jet Airways to sell 24 percent stake to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. With this clearance, Jet-Etihad deal has become the first one after the Union Government of India relaxed the FDI rules for aviation sector in the year 2012. The deal will now have to cross the hurdle of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for final approval.

The Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram announced that the Jet-Etihad deal was approved after the FIPB meeting, but with certain conditions.

Conditions Imposed

• According to the first condition, both Jet Airways as well as Etihad need to settle any dispute between them under the Indian law and not under the English common law as it was proposed originally.
• Apart from this condition, both the companies also need to get the prior FIPB approval for the purpose of change in the shareholding structure.

The approval for Jet-Etihad deal was stuck at FIPB on the grounds of various concerns such as whether Jet Airways would retain its effective control, including the retain of Indian owner or now. Also, it was a matter of concern whether Jet Airways would change the place of its business or not.

According to the revised agreement, it was agreed upon that all the committees formed by these two airlines for the operational as well as administrative functions would remain advisory in nature. The agreement also made it clear that Etihad would only make recommendations of the Senior Executives for appointments at Jet Airways.

Now, Etihad will have two directors on the Board which includes 12 members. Jet Airways would have four, which would in turn give more authority to the Indian promoters. The resolutions of the Board will be passed by a simple majority. The Veto power as well as the voting powers will vest in the Chairman, Naresh Goyal.

Impact of the Jet-Etihad Deal

• The deal is said to be very important for Jet Airways, which at present, is facing significant challenges in terms of finance.
• The deal will enable the Indian civil aviation industry because there will be an enhanced capacity, bringing down of airfares as well as increased competition.
• The deal, after the final approval, will instill more confidence on a global level in the airline industry of India.
• The deal will primarily benefit the partners, while at the same time, improving the prevailing investment climate of India.
• The deal is also very good for the civil aviation sector as well as passengers in India. There is a need of foreign investment in the infrastructure side of India. The deal will therefore reaffirm the confidence of the investors in India’s growth.
• The Jet-Etihad would garner approximately 2058 crore Rupees or 379 million US dollar for the Jet Airways, which in turn, will be used by it for paying off the debts as well as providing better passenger connectivity.
• The deal will enable the passengers from 23 cities of India to get direct international flights.
• The deal will also enable the passengers in India to avail the frequent flyer programmes of Jet Airways and Etihad.

RBI released the First Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 30 July 2013. The highlights are as following:
• The repo rate was kept unchanged at 7.25 percent.
• Reverse repo remains at 6.25 percent.
• Cash reserve ratio unchanged at 4.00 percent
• Keeps Marginal Standing Facility rate at 10.25 percent.
• Bank rate stands at 10.25 percent.

Considerations behind the Policy Move
• The policy stance in this review was informed by two considerations.
• First, the need for continuous vigil and preparedness to pro-actively respond to risks to the economy from external developments, especially those stemming from global financial markets.
• Second, managing the trade-off posed by increased downside risks to growth and continuing risks to inflation and inflation expectations.

Monetary Policy Stance
Accordingly, the four broad contours of RBI’s monetary policy stance are as following:
•    First, to address the risks to macroeconomic stability from external shocks;
•    Second, to continue to address the heightened risks to growth;
•    Third, to guard against re-emergence of inflation pressures; and
•    Fourth, to manage liquidity conditions to ensure adequate credit flow to the productive sectors of the economy.

RBI Cut GDP growth forecast for 2013-14 to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent earlier.