New Zealand’s Corey Anderson smashes quickest ODI century
January 5, 2014 No comments
New Zealand’s cricket player Corey Anderson created a record by hitting the fastest century in One-Day International (ODI), reaching 100 in just 36 balls against the West Indies. Prior to Anderson, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi had this record who took 37 deliveries to hit century against Sri Lanka in 1996.
In his unbeaten 131, Anderson hit 14 sixes, the third highest number of sixes in an ODI innings. India’s Rohit Sharma smashed 16 sixes against Australia two months ago and Australia’s Shane Watson hit 15 against Bangladesh in 2011.
FDI in high speed trains expected soon
The Government is expected to permit Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in high speed trains and other projects including development of rail lines between project sites and existing network. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has proposed 100% FDI through automatic route along with the proposal to de-license and de-reserve few areas of the cash-deficient railway sector. However, FDI will not be permitted in train operations and safety. At present, (FDI) in the railways sector is completely forbidden except mass rapid transport systems.
What are the key points in the proposal for allowing FDI in Indian Railways?
As per the proposal, government should:
Allow 100% FDI through automatic route
De-license and de-reserve few areas
Allow FDI in railways sub-urban corridor, high speed train systems and dedicated freight line projects implemented in PPP mode.
Expand the definition of ‘infrastructure’ by including railway line and railway sidings.
Allow foreign companies to control 100% stake in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will build and maintain rail lines linking ports, mines and industrial centers with the existing rail network.
Why do we need FDI in Railways?
Indian Railways are facing a cash problem. This requirement of cash can be met to a great extent by allowing FDI in the sector. When foreign firms would be allowed to control SPVs that will construct rail lines linking ports, mines and industrial centers with the existing rail network it would facilitate smooth movement of raw materials from mines to ports. Industrial development and exports have been suffering due to poor infrastructure which hinders output and increases the cost of production. Railways can play a significant role in providing a reliable transport facility needed for industrial growth.
RBI to review banks’ single, group borrowing exposure limit norms
Considering the serious risks from ever enlarging pool of corporate stressed loans – bad loans and restructured advances, the Reserve Bank of India is likely to revise its extant single and group borrower limits. RBI’s Financial Stability report (FSR) released in December 2013 has suggested review of current limits to improve stability of the banking sector. As per existing norms, a bank can take single borrower exposure upto 25% of bank total capital and upto 55% for group exposure.
If we compare India’s existing exposure norms with global norms, we find India to be on the higher side. As per the proposal made by the Basel committee in March 2013, threshold defining large exposure should be set at 5% of banks eligible capital. The large exposure limit may be pegged at 25% of common equity tier I (as against the currently used total capital). As per World Bank’s financial sector assessment program of India in 2011-12, the large group exposure limit (upto 50%) in India is considerably higher than 25% norm which is healthy international practice.
According to RBI’s impact study, the contagion losses are significant and could exceed the direct loses caused by failed group. The failure of large corporate group could result in a total loss of over 60% of the banking system’s capital. The performance of the corporate sector in the present economic condition has been a matter of concern. The defaults by corporate or business makes two impact on a bank:
Direct loss in tune with exposure
Loss on account of the effect of contagion.
The share of corporate loans is quite big in gross Non-Performing Assets (NPA). Besides, pool of restructured advances, which is preponderantly corporate loans, has also grown considerably.
CPI rose by 2 points in November 2013
The Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers or CPI-IW increased slightly by 2 points to 11.47% and pegged at 243 in November 2013 compared to 11.06% in October and 9.55% in the same month last year on account of higher prices of food items.
On one month percentage change, it rose by 0.83% between October and November compared with 0.46% between the same two months in 2012. Food inflation was estimated at 16.175 against 15.02% of the previous month and 10.85% during the same month of year 2012. As per official data, inflation in food items was the largest contributor to the upward movement of the current index contributing 2.23% points to the total change.
Among food commodities the main contributors to the rise in index were rice, wheat, wheat atta, milk, pure ghee, garlic, potato, tomato, other vegetable items and Tea readymade. However, the rise in index was moderated to some extent by groundnut oil, fresh fish, poultry, onion, ginger, electric charges, medicine (allopathic), petrol putting downward force on the index. At centre level, Bokaro registered the highest surge of 11 points followed by Giridih, Kodarma, and Angul—Talcher (9 points each), Munger—Jamalpur (8 points) and Rourkela, Sholapur and Raniganj (7 points each).
On the other hand, Surat reported a fall of 6 points followed by Amritsar, Bhavnagar and Vadodara (4 points each), Coonoor and Nagpur (2 points each) and Ahmedabad centre one point. At national level, the indices of 40 centres are above the all India Index and other 38 centres’ indices are below national average.
What is CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers)?
The CPI-IW or Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers is an economic indicator used by the government in India to gauge inflation for a particular segment of the consumer market. To do this, it sets up a baseline for the purchasing power of industrial workers at a particular point in time and comparing what the same amount of money can purchase in following years. If purchasing power falls, inflation has rendered the prices of consumer goods to increase. The percentage rise in prices over the baseline is considered the country’s rate of inflation.
Estimating CPI is part of the economic policy of most countries. Developed nations such as the US and the UK, track CPI for the whole population. Developing nations, like India, find it less useful to track the purchasing habits of the entire population as a whole, because there is great extent of inequality in the standard of living between urban and rural workers. To track CPI, India classifies its population into four classes, these are:
Urban non-manual employees
Agricultural Laborer
Rural Laborer
Industrial Worker
Google ties up with Election Commission for voters’ registration
The Election Commission of India (EC) has tied-up with US-based internet heavyweight, Google, to assist it manage online voter registration and facilitation services ahead of the India’s General Election 2014. Google will provide EC its resources, including its search engine, to facilitate voters to check their enrolment status online and locate their polling station, complete with directions using Google Maps. In this exercise, Google will put its global network and resources at the EC’s disposal until June 2014 to help it manage online registration of new voters and enable the enrolled ones to check the address at which they are registered, and get directions to the polling station. With the new rolls with reference to January 1, 2014, slated to be out by January 6, 2014, the voters’ queries on the Commission website are expected to be managed by Google for the next 6 months.
How much would Google charge for these services?
Zero. Google will not charge the EC for these services, estimated to cost $50,000 (over Rs 30 lakh), and fund the same from its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budget.
How would Google’s services to EC help voters?
The EC intends to use Google’s technological expertise to manage online enrolment of voters and help voters search their name in electoral rolls along with the polling station. If any voter wants to know about his enrolment and poll station, he will only have to type his/her name/EPIC no and address on the Google Search engine, which will quickly generate results matching the voters’ name with his assembly/Lok Sabha constituency, and pinpointing the location of his polling station. Besides, Google Maps will show exact directions to the voter on how to reach the right polling station on the polling day.
EC is also considering the option of using the global network and servers of Google for airing of results for the 2014 general election expected to be held in May 2014. In the recently held Assembly Polls in the five states also, EC had joined hands with US-based IT company Akamai for putting out results.
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