- Prabhdeep Kaur Batra, a resident of Model Town Extension, who has become the first Gursikh girl from Punjab to become a pilot with Indian Coast Guard and be awarded "Wings of Gold" sees her success as a fitting answer to all those who practice female foeticide. On Sunday, she will be honoured by Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee for the achievement.
- India’s Gayatri Spivak, a literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the prize for arts and philosophy; America’s Ivan Sutherland has won Japan’s annual Kyoto Prize for his contributions to computer graphics technology and interactive interfaces that allow people to use computers without the need for complicated programming.; Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was awarded for his work in the basic sciences. - The Kyoto Prize is awarded each year by the Inamori Foundation, a charitable body established by the founder of Japanese electronic component maker Kyocera Corp. It is Japan’s highest private award for global achievement
- Radha Vinod Raju, founding Director-General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and key member of the special investigation team which probed Rajiv Gandhi assassination, died in Kochi on Thursday. He was 62. - The high point of Mr. Raju’s career was his central role in investigating the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Later, he co-authored a book, Triumph of Justice, with SIT chief and former CBI director D.R. Kaarthikeyan. It described how investigators, starting with almost no leads, established that a hit-team from the now-decimated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam had carried out the killing.
- More than 6.6 million tonnes of wheat meant for the public distribution system, is lying in the open, running the risk of damage from rain, Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas admitted here on Thursday. - For now, the government has stocks to the tune of 82.3 million tonnes, against a storage capacity of 64 million tonnes. Of the 50 million tonnes of wheat, 27 million tonnes are kept in the open under the Covered and Plinth (CAP) method, of which 6.6 million tonnes are stored in an “unscientific way.’’; The Minister pointed out that although the storage capacity of the FCI had increased by 40 per cent in last five years, there was storage deficit, as the government procurement reached an all-time high following a record output of wheat and rice for the last two consecutive years.; It is expected that an additional storage capacity of 4 million tonnes will be made available this year.
- Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL’s) minority partner Niko Resources of Canada has stated that the flagship KG-D6 block holds 80 per cent less natural gas reserves than earlier estimated.
- Standard and Poor’s Rating Services fears that out of the 48 companies it has rated, over half may default.; Fifty-six companies, including Tata Motors and JSW Steel, will possibly have to pay $700 million in additional interest if they restructure the $5-billion foreign debt that is due for redemption this year, according to a recent report released by global rating agency Standard and Poor’s.
*Restructuring options:
- India’s Gayatri Spivak, a literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the prize for arts and philosophy; America’s Ivan Sutherland has won Japan’s annual Kyoto Prize for his contributions to computer graphics technology and interactive interfaces that allow people to use computers without the need for complicated programming.; Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was awarded for his work in the basic sciences. - The Kyoto Prize is awarded each year by the Inamori Foundation, a charitable body established by the founder of Japanese electronic component maker Kyocera Corp. It is Japan’s highest private award for global achievement
- Radha Vinod Raju, founding Director-General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and key member of the special investigation team which probed Rajiv Gandhi assassination, died in Kochi on Thursday. He was 62. - The high point of Mr. Raju’s career was his central role in investigating the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Later, he co-authored a book, Triumph of Justice, with SIT chief and former CBI director D.R. Kaarthikeyan. It described how investigators, starting with almost no leads, established that a hit-team from the now-decimated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam had carried out the killing.
- More than 6.6 million tonnes of wheat meant for the public distribution system, is lying in the open, running the risk of damage from rain, Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas admitted here on Thursday. - For now, the government has stocks to the tune of 82.3 million tonnes, against a storage capacity of 64 million tonnes. Of the 50 million tonnes of wheat, 27 million tonnes are kept in the open under the Covered and Plinth (CAP) method, of which 6.6 million tonnes are stored in an “unscientific way.’’; The Minister pointed out that although the storage capacity of the FCI had increased by 40 per cent in last five years, there was storage deficit, as the government procurement reached an all-time high following a record output of wheat and rice for the last two consecutive years.; It is expected that an additional storage capacity of 4 million tonnes will be made available this year.
- Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL’s) minority partner Niko Resources of Canada has stated that the flagship KG-D6 block holds 80 per cent less natural gas reserves than earlier estimated.
- Standard and Poor’s Rating Services fears that out of the 48 companies it has rated, over half may default.; Fifty-six companies, including Tata Motors and JSW Steel, will possibly have to pay $700 million in additional interest if they restructure the $5-billion foreign debt that is due for redemption this year, according to a recent report released by global rating agency Standard and Poor’s.
*Restructuring options:
The depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, a 30 per cent drop over the last two years, has added a redemption amount of about Rs. 100 crore. According to the report, companies can restructure the bonds in three different ways; rolling over the bonds with later maturity dates and higher coupons, lowering the conversion-to equity price or convincing the bondholders to accept partial repayment of the principal. Of the rated entities, Tata Motors is likely to redeem its FCCBs at manageable costs this year and Tata Steel has already rolled over the maturity of its bonds.
- This refers to the report “Lessons on how not to pitch a quota” (June 21). The Andhra Pradesh High Court declared the executive order giving 4.5 per cent sub-quota to the minorities void for various reasons. It is a fact that the order was promulgated in undue haste — the government did not do proper homework and did not follow the due process of law — but to say that the whole exercise was unconstitutional would amount to a superficial understanding of the working of the Constitution. Who constitutes the backward class is for the executive to determine. The judiciary does not have the right or the expertise to analyse it.; The Supreme Court has only refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict; it has not upheld it. It is a matter of interpretation of the Constitution and therefore difficult to predict what the apex court’s thinking is.
- Greece named a new cabinet to end two months of political deadlock on Thursday and said it would aim to revise the terms of an unpopular EU-IMF bailout deal but without risking its eurozone membership. ; A joint statement by the conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties in the coalition said the aim was “to revise the terms of the loan agreement without endangering the country’s European course and its place in the euro”.; The most closely-watched appointment was that of Vassilis Rapanos, chairman of Greece’s biggest lender National Bank of Greece, who will spearhead efforts to aid an economy now in a fifth year of recession as the new finance minister.; The new foreign minister will be New Democracy’s Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former diplomat and ex-Athens mayor who was previously defence minister.
- Coming at a time when its been raining brickbats from pretty much all quarters — including global firms, rating agencies and the domestic industry — the government today came out with a ‘fact book’ enlisting the strength of India as an “incredible investment destination”. --
* Despite the brouhaha, created by the retrospective amendments in the Budget, the ‘fact book’ titled ‘India: The Incredible Investment Destination’ tom-toms the country’s “favourable tax regime” and the “strong financial regulatory framework”. The book says India’s real GDP is 60 per cent higher than what it was five years ago, while FDI soared by 414 per cent to $46.8 billion in 2011-12. The report highlights the country’s good growth prospects fuelled by ongoing economic liberalisation and strong domestic demand.
* Emphasising on the country’s strong economic fundamentals, the book claims that India has a “favourable tax regime” along with a stable financial system, strong external liquidity position, high degree of political stability, low susceptibility to event risk and strong financial regulatory framework.
* The book comes at a time when rating agencies, including S&P and Fitch have indicated a possible downgraded of India’s investment rating. In recent weeks, many global financial services firms such as Morgan Stanley also lowered India’s growth forecast.
- Reform UN to reflect change of time, situation: Germany -- Global financial crisis, reform of United Nations, terrorism threats and other issues of mutual interest were today discussed in a meeting between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle. On Afghanistan, Westerwelle said Germany would not stop at the end of 2014, when it will withdraw international combat troops from the nation but "in the interest of long-term stability in Afghanistan and in the region, we will continue to support Afghanistan with civil assistance and by training".
- Despite weakening fundamentals and a depreciating rupee, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) hiked their combined stake in top Indian companies marginally during the quarter ended March 2012, when compared with their holdings at the end of quarter ended December 2011. ;
* on account of the strong domestic consumption, thrust on infrastructure development and a strong banking system quoted as reasons
* 12.3% combined stake in BSE 500 companies as of December 2011, FIIs were holding 12.6% three months later
- Hari Harilela, one of the most known Indian origin entrepreneurs in Hong Kong who founded a billion-dollar enterprise, has been honoured with a honorary doctorate in Business Administration by the Edinburgh Napier University.; He has been previously honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman from India as well as the Order of the British Empire (OBE).;
- A joint team of American and Singapore scientists announced recently that they had found the origin of cervical cancer, raising hopes of its early detection and treatment. ; They found that the human papilloma virus, the main cause for cervical cancer, initially infects only a tiny colony of cells in the woman's cervix. ; It is the number one cancer killer of Indian women, but in metro cities it lags behind breast cancer. ; Barely 5-6% of women in India undergo pap smear test. In slums, the corresponding figure is much lower;
- Declaration of the First Ministerial Conference on Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES): http://www.rimes.int/key_services.php
- Air India Ltd. has constituted a Committee to implement the recommendations of Justice Dharmadhikari Committee report in a time bound manner. ; The Committee has already started functioning and had its first meeting on 21st June, 2012 to prepare a roadmap for timely implementation of Justice Dharmadhikari Committee report. It will interact with various associations and employees of the Company to resolve any issue arising in the wake of the implementation of Justice Dharmadhikari Committee report. ; Simultaneously the Ministry of Civil Aviation is approaching the Union Cabinet to seek certain dispensations required to give incentives on the basis of industry standards to certain class of employees like pilots, engineers and cabin crew, as such incentives fall beyond the guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises, The whole process of fixation of pay, level mapping and inter-se seniority is expected to be completed within 6-8 weeks.
- At a launch function in the capital today, Mr. S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, dedicated a unique initiative - the ‘LPG Portal’ - that will host data on the last mile delivery of domestic LPG cylinders, supplied by PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to nearly 14 crorehouseholds in the country.
* The LPG Transparency portal can be accessed through the official website of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas : www.petroleum.nic.in. Access is also available through respective OMC websites, www.indane.co.in;www.ebharatgas.com and www.hindustanpetroleum.com. Through a single click, consumers can now know their individual pattern of LPG usage, LPG booking status, LPG refill history or request for surrender of their connection, highest consumption consumers, subsidy availed etc. The information on the portal can also be sorted by consumer number, consumer name and by distributors’ name easily.
* This initiative is expected to emerge as a powerful tool for social audit for all domestic LPG supplies. This portal not only benefits consumers but is also a unique resource for civil society to access LPG distribution information, report discrepancies and register their feedback on the anomalies in supply, if any.
* To enable the OMCs to improve their services, the portal also gives opportunity to consumers to rate the services of their LPG distributor, thus helping the oil companies to focus on areas of improvement and enhance consumer satisfaction.
