endeavor careers – dream … endeavor… achieve 1 genesis-may 2011...rajkot: 3rd floor, kings,...

Endeavor Careers – Dream … Endeavor… Achieve

www.endeavorcareers.com May 2011 - Issue I THE GENESIS

1

The Genesis May 2011-Issue I

Osama: End of the evil: Pg. 2

For several years people have speculated that Osama Bin Laden was dead, whether from a chronic kidney ailment, or blown to pieces in his Tora Bora redoubt in late 2001 as the US responded to 9/11. The mystery was solved when a US Special …

Cover Story

Osama: End of the evil 2

Current Affairs

Current Affairs: India 5

Current Affairs: World 9

Current Affairs: Business & Economy 14

Current Affairs: Sports 20

Book Review

‘Civilization: The West And The Rest’ by Niall Ferguson 22

People

FACES: Sri Satya Sai Baba 25

FACES: Aruna Roy 26

BUSINESS BIOGRAPHY: Walt Disney 31

Knowledge Corners

Brand watch: PVR Cinemas: 24

Data Mine: Census‐Crucial indicators 27, 28

Economy Concept: Subsidies 29

Crossword 32

General Knowledge Quiz 33

Sudoku 36

Do you remember? 37

Book Review ‘Civilization’: Pg. 22

Niall Ferguson is one of the few writers who have made reading of history interesting. His books appeal to the scholar as well as the layman and improve the reader’s understanding of the world around ……

Ahmedabad CO & Centre: 101, Suyojan Towers, Nr. Hotel President, Off. C.G. Road, Ph: 079 – 2646 4053 / 2642 0509 Vallabh Vidya Nagar: 3rd Floor, Diwaliba Chambers, Near ICICI Bank, Bhaikaka Statue, Ph: 02692-326065 / 230826 Baroda: Third Floor, Blanca, Opp ABS Towers, OP Road, Ph: 0265 - 664 3888 Mumbai: Saamna Press Building, 6th Floor Sector - 30A, Near Vashi Railway, Navi Mumbai, Ph: 61589999 / 40844600 / 46 Rajkot: 3rd floor, Kings, Opp Punjab Honda, Near G T Seth School, Kalawad road, Rajkot, Ph: 02813051475 Gandhi Nagar: 302, Swagat Rain Forest - I, Block A ,Nr. City Pulse, Gandhinagar, Ph: 079 - 23600050 / 3244 9313 Surat: UL/45-48, Pooja Abhishek, Opp S.P.B. College, Athwa Lines, Ph: 0261 - 313 4418 Nagpur: 196, 2nd Floor, Booty building, Jhansi Rani Square, Sitabuldi Nagpur, Ph: 0712-3278375 Jaipur: 302, Ganga Heights, Opp. Apex Mall, Lal Kothi, Tonk Road, Jaipur, Ph: 01414044315

“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” – Mark Twain



2

Cover Story Osama: End of the evil

The death of Osama is a global victory against the scourge of terrorism but the increasingly decentralised nature of terrorist groups means they retain the potential to carry out attacks on any number of targets.

For several years people have speculated that Osama Bin Laden was dead, whether from a chronic kidney ailment, or blown to pieces in his Tora Bora redoubt in late 2001 as the US responded to 9/11. The mystery was solved when a US Special Forces soldier shot a startled Bin Laden in the forehead during a raid on his Abbotabad residential compound. In order to pre-empt any grave becoming an Islamist shrine, Bin Laden’s corpse was buried at sea. This act highlights the importance of myths and symbols in any war. Many have argued that whether alive or dead, Bin Laden would retain his aura as the mythic poster boy of global militant Islam. But since 9/11 Bin Laden has been of symbolic, rather than operational, significance to al-Qaeda. Although he has communicated via couriers, like those the US used to trace him back to Abbotabad, in reality, day-to-day operational control would require the internet and satellite telephones, all of which would have invited a Predator drone strike within minutes. Although Bin Laden prided himself on his strategic genius, and did undoubtedly succeed in inspiring many angry young Muslims to heed him, in reality the US deposition of the Afghan Taliban government was a disaster for him and his organisation, forcing them to rely on affiliated actors whose priorities were often more local than al-Qaeda’s. Over the last nine years, core al-Qaeda has been progressively marginalised - to the point where it did not overly matter if Bin Laden was captured or killed - while

relentless warfare has inclined sections of the Taliban to find an accommodation with the Kabul government. Bin Laden’s death is likely to accelerate that process. But his longer term legacy is more imponderable. No one is likely to forget the 3,000 people murdered on 9/11 any time soon, a massacre which puts most terrorist actions in the shade. His terrorist career clearly eclipses that of most earlier terrorists, whose victims number in single digits or low hundreds. More important is the question whether in a few years

Bin Laden sinks into relative obscurity among young Muslims around the world - apparently his visage disappeared from T-shirts in Pakistan and Palestine long ago. Young Arabs want an end to corruption and tyranny, jobs, and freedoms enjoyed in the West rather than the retrograde imaginings of a stateless madman who thought that life for Muslims was perfect in the 13th Century. BIOGRAPHY

Laden’s Life Born in 1957, apparently the 17th of 52 children by

a multimillionaire builder Encountered conservative Islam while studying civil

engineering in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Fought in Afghanistan for a decade after the Soviet

invasion in 1979 Shifted focus to US, appearing on the FBI’s “most

wanted” list after two bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania

Attacks on the US soil on 11 September 2001 led to the American-led operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan

In May 2011, President Barack Obama announces Bin Laden has been killed by US ground forces in Afghanistan

Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957, apparently the 17th of 52 children of Mohamed Bin Laden, a multimillionaire builder responsible for 80% of Saudi Arabia’s roads. His father’s death in a helicopter crash in 1968 brought the young man a fortune running into many millions of dollars.



3

While studying civil engineering at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden came into contact with teachers and students of the more conservative brand of Islam. Through theological debate and study, he came to embrace fundamentalist Islam as a bulwark against what he saw as the decadence of the West. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 changed Bin Laden’s life forever. He took up the anti-communist cause with a will, moving to Afghanistan where, for a decade, he fought an ultimately victorious campaign. Intelligence experts believe that the US Central Intelligence Agency played an active role in arming and training the anti-Soviet Islamists called ‘mujahideen’, including Bin Laden. The end of the war saw a sea change in his views. His hatred of Moscow shifted to Washington after 300,000 US troops, women among them, were based in Saudi Arabia, home of two of Islam’s holiest places, during the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Bin Laden vowed to avenge what he saw as blasphemy. Along with many of his mujahideen comrades, he brought his mix of fighting skills and Islamic zeal to many anti-US factions within the Middle East. American pressure ended brief sojourns in Saudi Arabia - which removed his citizenship in 1994 - and then Sudan, and Bin Laden moved back to Afghanistan in January 1996. The country, in a state of anarchy, was home to a diverse range of Islamic groups, including the fundamentalist Taliban militia, which captured the capital, Kabul, nine months later. Though geographically limited, Bin Laden’s wealth, increasing all the time through lucrative worldwide investments, enabled him to finance and control a continuously shifting series of transnational militant alliances through his al-Qaeda network. Sometimes he worked as a broker, organising logistics and providing financial support. At other times, he would run his own violent campaigns. In February 1998, he issued a fatwa - or religious edict - on behalf of the World Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, stating that killing Americans and their allies was a Muslim duty.

Six months later, two bombs rocked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Some 224 people died and nearly 5,000 were wounded. He was indicted as chief suspect, along with 16 of his colleagues. Almost overnight, Bin Laden became a major thorn in the side of America. A byword for fundamentalist Islamic resistance to Washington, he soon appeared on the FBI’s “most wanted” list, with a reward of up to $25m on his head. Then came the events of 11 September 2001. Two hijacked aircraft smashed into, and destroyed, the twin

towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another aircraft ploughed into the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Altogether more than 3,000 people died in the attacks, which led to the US-led operation against the Taliban. Allied forces moved into

Afghanistan late in 2001. At the time, it was believed that Bin Laden might have been killed during the battle for the Tora Bora cave complex. In reality, he had slipped across the border into Pakistan, a country in which he enjoyed a cult status of sorts. In Pakistan, he was given hospitality and shelter by some local Pashtun tribesmen loyal to the Taliban and opposed to their own government then led by President Pervez Musharraf. To his supporters, Bin Laden was a fighter for freedom against the US and Israel, not, as he was to many in the West, a terrorist with the blood of thousands of people on his hands. Impact on India

Laden’s killing has sent a warning to al-Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan, but it will have little impact on terrorism and insurgency in South Asia. Osama bin Laden may have lumped India together with the West and Israel in recent statements, but the fact is there have been no terror attacks on India by al-Qaeda. India’s top concern is the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is linked to al-Qaeda ideologically and occasionally for logistics. This Pakistani group has its own leadership network and operations. Responsible for 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, it has been gaining notoriety as a threat to the West as well.



4

With the home ministry’s statement that Laden’s killing emphasised its “concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan”, India could put additional pressure on the West to seek the disruption and dismantlement of the LeT. But this is unlikely to have much impact as long as Pakistan’s strategic importance to the West vis-a-vis Afghanistan remains and the need to disrupt terror plots emanating from Pakistan continues. Al-Qaeda and its allies may find this the right moment to create major divisions between India and Pakistan by launching another Mumbai-style attack on Indian territory. India will need to be on a state of alert against another terror attack by the LeT at this juncture as the terror group will be keen to underline that it has not been impacted by Laden’s killing. Pakistan: Questions to answer

Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, has said it is embarrassed by its failures on al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The compound had been raided by the ISI in 2003. But the compound “was not on their radar” since then. It is just a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy.

The CIA is already said to be going through a large number of hard drives and storage devices seized in the raid. Residents near the compound are said to have been

asked by Pakistani soldiers to switch off their lights an hour before the attack, but the ISI says it had no advance knowledge of the raid. For Pakistan, the fact that bin Laden was killed in the Punjabi city of Abbotabad, some 60 miles from Islamabad, is embarrassing and worrying. For long, it was believed that he was hiding in the country’s lawless’ tribal areas. While it is not clear when bin Laden moved to Abbotabad, his refuge, reportedly within 700 metres from a military academy, either indicates that Pakistani intelligence was remarkably inept at a time standard operating procedures against terror attacks by the local Pakistan Taliban demanded that areas in proximity to military camps are regularly vetted, or, as many people suspect, elements in Pakistan’s security establishment are likely to be complicit in his residence. Whatever the truth, this is undoubtedly Pakistan’s biggest intelligence failure. It is not surprising that he was killed in Pakistan. Top al-Qaeda operatives have also been arrested or killed there. Top Afghan Taliban leaders are also believed to be based in Pakistan. Osama’s killing will bring to the fore the ‘double game’ or ‘hedging strategy’ that elements of the Pakistani security establishment have been engaged in for some time - publicly supporting the campaign against the Afghan Taliban in its tribal areas, while providing support and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan.

Opinions

“For over two decades, Bin Laden has been al-Qaeda’s leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. The death of Bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda.” – Barack Obama, President of USA

“US and their allies have no more excuse to deploy forces in the Middle East under pretext of fighting terrorism”. – Ramin Mehmanparast, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson

“This is a resounding triumph for justice, freedom and the values shared by all democratic nations fighting shoulder-to-shoulder in determination against terrorism”. – Benjamin Netanyahu, PM of Israel

“We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood”. – Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas administration in Gaza Strip



5

Current Affairs: India

PSLV-C16 launch successful

The Indian Space Resource Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch

Vehicle) C16, carrying three satellites, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota recently. The three satellites put into orbit by the PSLVC16 are – India’s 1,206-kg Resourcesat-2, the Indo-Russian 93-kg Youthsat and the 106-kg X-Sat from the Nangyang Technological University of Singapore.

ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said that the mission cost Rs 250 crore, including around Rs 135 crore on developing the Resourcesat–2 satellite and another Rs 90 crore for the launching vehicle. Resourcesat-2 The Resourcesat-2 would send data and images that would be useful in monitoring the earth’s resources, including crop yield before harvest, the snow-cover in mountains, the glaciers advancing or the changes in the coastal zones and the urban landscape; locating groundwater; and realigning roads in rural areas.

It also carries Automatic Identification System (AIS) from COMDEV, Canada, as an experimental payload for ship surveillance in VHF band to derive position, speed and other information about ships.

With the successful launch of Resourcesat-2, India now has nine remote sensing satellites in service. They are the Technology Experiment Satellite, the Resourcesat-2, the Cartosat-1, 2, 2A and 2B, the Indian Mini Satellite-1, the Radar Imaging Satellite-2 and the Oceansat-2. They make the IRS system the largest civilian remote-sensing satellite constellation in the world.

Youthsat Youthsat, second in the Indian Mini Satellite series, carries three payloads, of which two are Indian and one Russian. They would be useful in studying the solar X-ray and gamma ray fluxes, and the influence of the activities in the sun on the upper layers of the earth’s atmosphere.

X-Sat X-Sat, also Singapore’s first satellite, is a mini-version with a multispectral camera as its primary payload. The mission is to demonstrate technologies related to satellite-based remote sending and onboard image processing. PSLV record

Successful PSLV launches over the years have enabled India to maintain one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation, supplying data to users at home and across the globe. The PSLV was conceived as a rocket that would put 1,000-kg remote sensing satellites into orbit. After the failure of its first flight in 1993, the rocket was successfully flown a year later and has maintained its 100 per cent success record since then. In the course of 17 successful launches, it has put 47 satellites into orbit, 21 of them Indian. Through a variety of weight-reducing measures and increased propellant loading, the rocket’s performance has been steadily enhanced. The PSLV has also demonstrated its versatility in carrying out a range of missions. Apart from launching remote sensing satellites into polar orbit, it put the Kalpana meteorological satellite into a near-equatorial orbit and took the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on the first leg of its journey to the Moon. Three more launches of the PSLV are scheduled this year. ISRO yet to master GSLV In recent times, ISRO has suffered setbacks such as the consecutive failures of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and the scandal that erupted over a deal to provide S-band spectrum to a private company. Success in GSLV is crucial for ISRO as it helps put heavier satellites in higher orbits. The multi-billion dollar global satellite launch market has become the exclusive domain of NASA and the European Space Agency. The forthcoming Chandrayaan-2 mission would be put in an orbit around the moon by a Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in 2013. Indeed, a key challenge for ISRO will be to transform trouble-prone GSLV, equipped with an indigenous cryogenic stage, into as reliable a rocket as the PSLV.



6

India Briefs: Leela Samson is new Chairperson of CBFC:

Leela Samson, a noted Bharatnatyam dancer, choreographer, instructor and writer has been appointed as Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification for a period of three years. Meanwhile, Lalit Bhasin, a renowned lawyer has been appointed as Chairperson of the

Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. The appointment is for a period of three years. The FCAT hears the appeals filed under Section 5C of the Act under which any applicant for a Certificate in respect of a film who is aggrieved by an order of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), can file an Appeal before the Tribunal. Thorat is new Chairperson of ICSSR: The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has appointed Sukhadeo Thorat as its chairperson for three years. Established in 1969 by the Government of India to promote research in social sciences in the country, the ICSSR sponsors social science research programmes & projects and administer grants to institutions and individuals for research in social sciences and advises the government on matters pertaining to social science research as may be referred to it from time to time. Kanishtha is Miss India World: The winners of the Pantaloons Femina Miss India (PFMI) 2011 pageant were declared in Mumbai recently. Mumbai’s Kanishtha Dhankhar won the PFMI World while Ankita Shorey was PFMI International. Delhi’s Hasleen Kaur was crowned PFMI Earth. Hugh Jackman wins FICCI Frames award: Hollywood star Hugh Jackman, known for his role as ‘Wolverine’ in the popular X Men series, won the FICCI Frames Excellence International Honour while Aishwarya Rai got the Decade of Global Achievement Honour for her achievements in Hindi cinema at the FICCI Frames Awards organised in Mumbai recently. Nitish Kumar wins Jehangir Ghandy Medal: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been awarded the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace 2011 by XLRI (Xavier Labour Relations Institute)-Jamshedpur “for his role in effecting Bihar’s turnaround within a short span.”

AERB committee to review nuclear plant safety: The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has set up a 10-member committee headed by AERB’s former chairman, S K Sharma to examine whether the country’s 20 nuclear plants can withstand earthquakes and other external events such as tsunamis, cyclones, floods, etc. During the 2004 tsunami, nuclear plants in south India were able to withstand the effects. Indian plants are located in seismic zones II, III and IV at less risk than Fukushima of Japan which is in seismic zone VI. FTII Society reconstituted: The government has reconstituted Society of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune for a period of three years recently. Saeed Mirza has been nominated as the President of the FTII Society and Chairman of its Governing Council. The FTII is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. Its policies are determined by a Governing Council. Alumni of FTII include Subhash Ghai, Nasiruddin Shah, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Raj Kumar Hirani and Resul Pookutty. IMD forecasts normal South-West monsoon: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted normal rainfall this year. IMD said rainfall in the southwest monsoon was expected to be 98 per cent of the long-period average (LPA). This means the monsoon will be normal for the second consecutive year. Large parts of the country were hit by a drought in 2009. The southwest monsoon is important as 60 per cent of the country’s area under agriculture depends on rain. Almost 70 per cent of the total annual rainfall occurs during the monsoon months (June-September). The output of major crops such as paddy, pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane depends on the quantum, timeliness and distribution of the southwest monsoon. ICMR to promote R&D on drug resistant bacteria: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited research proposals from scientists across the country to study the superbug or the drug resistant bacteria. The announcement comes soon after the government announced a national anti-microbial policy to help address the issue of superbug, which became international news after the presence of such bacteria (NDM-1) was reported in British medical journal ‘The Lancet’. The research is vital to understand the unknown mechanisms of drug resistance in various micro-organisms. The journal recently claimed the presence of antibiotic-resistant superbug NDM-I in the public water supply of the National Capital. The claim was denied by the government.



7

INS Talwar to battle pirates off Somali coast: The Navy has sent a warship towards the Somali coast to keep a vigil on the hijacked merchant vessel on which seven Indian sailors are being held as hostages, despite payment of ransom by the owners of the ship. INS Talwar, currently deployed on an anti-piracy patrol mission off the Gulf of Aden, was diverted towards the Somali coast recently. After releasing eight other Indian sailors of the cargo ship MV Asphalt Venture, the pirates who were holding them hostage since last September have sought to hold the other seven back. It is understood that they are seeking release of 120 pirates held in Indian prisons. Court prohibits employment of kids in circuses: The Supreme Court has disallowed the employment of children in circuses and directed the government to rescue those engaged in such employment. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik, passing orders on a petition filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: “To implement the fundamental right of children under Article 21A [right to education], it is imperative that the Central government issue suitable notifications prohibiting the employment of children in circuses within two months.” Double fortified salt in midday meals: The government has decided to use iron fortified iodised salt (double fortified salt-DFS) to battle anaemia, one of the major causes of malnutrition, particularly among women and children. The use of DFS will be made mandatory in government run food and nutrition programmes such as the Integrated Child Development Services and midday meals for school children. Anaemia is caused by inadequate intake and poor absorption of iron. It can be prevented and cured by promoting consumption of iron rich foods and iron supplements. Cabinet approves Academic Depository Bill: The Union Cabinet has approved the National Academic Depository Bill 2011 that seeks to create a national database of academic qualifications in demat format for authentication and reissuing of school and college certificates. The database will be established in an electronic format by an identified registered depository, with all educational institutions (school boards, colleges and universities) having linkages to the depository. The database will help the administration effectively deal with forged certificates and fake degree rackets, and enable online verification and easy retrieval of particulars of academic qualifications. The will now be introduced in Parliament.

India enters Kazakhstan oil sector: ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has signed definitive agreements with KazMunaiGas (KMG), the national oil company of Kazakhstan, for acquiring a 25 per cent participating interest in the Satpayev exploration block. With this, the company has marked its entry in the Kazakhstan hydrocarbon sector. The agreement was one of the seven initialed between India and Kazakhstan in Astana during the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit recently. The other agreements include cooperation in the civil nuclear field, agriculture, cyber security and healthcare. India, Thailand to boost bilateral relations: India and Thailand have agreed to intensify Defence and security cooperation as well as double bilateral trade over the next three years. Bilateral trade between the two countries has grown 6 fold in the last decade and touched US $ 6 billion last year, growing at over 30% from the previous year. A joint statement, which was released after the summit meeting between PM Manmohan Singh and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva in New Delhi, announced the establishment of a regular High-Level Dialogue on Defence Cooperation that would consider widening the scope of cooperation in the sector. Delhi Lt Governor in dock for CWG violations: The V K Shunglu committee has reported procedural violations in the construction of over 1,000 flats inside the Commonwealth Games Village by real estate developer Emmar MGF and indicted Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna for alleged inadequacies. The Committee, appointed by PM Manmohan Singh to probe into charges of corruption in various projects related to the 2010 CWG, blamed a host of officials led by the Lt Governor for alleged acts of omission and commission which brought undue gains to the project developer and estimates that DDA suffered a loss of Rs 134-220 crore due to purchase of 333 flats at a higher rate. DGCA ends careers of 14 pilots for fraud: The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has revoked a total of 14 commercial pilot licences (CPL), ending the career of those pilots who submitted fake flying training records from Rajasthan State Flying School to procure their licences.

Gates Foundation to finance vaccine development: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will fund two Indian companies, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, to develop and sell vaccines for pneumonia and diarrhea, at less than half the current market price. Both Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech are privately held local firms and will separately develop their vaccines. While both the local



8

firms will work on developing cost rotavirus vaccines, Serum will also be involved in the vaccine for pneumonia. Population Development Committee meets: The 17th Executive Committee of the Partners in Population and Development (PPD) met in New Delhi recently. Launched at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, PPD is an intergovernmental initiative created for facilitating South-to-South collaboration in the fields of Reproductive Health (RH) and Family Planning (FP). The PPD also seeks to promote partnerships among the governments, NGOs, research institutions and the private sector in pursuit of its objectives. India is currently the Chairman of PPD and China is the Vice-Chair. The Secretariat of PPD is situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The 2011 Annual Meeting of PPD will be held in South Africa in Nov 2011. MCI recommends eligibility test for doctors: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has proposed major changes in the undergraduate curriculum and training programme that would create an “Indian Medical Graduate,” who will have necessary competence to assume his or her role as a healthcare provider. The “Indian Medical Graduate” will have to pass an exit exam after an internship to get licence to practise anywhere in the country. The national-level exit exam is expected to set a standard for doctors. The MCI also proposes to introduce the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test from 2012. World Wide Web conference organised: The 20th International World Wide Web conference was organised in Hyderabad recently. The next conference will be organised at Lyons, France in April 2012. The WWW Conference series aims to provide the world a premier forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the impact of those technologies on society and culture Indian language translation software launched: The Machine translation (MT) systems for Indian languages were launched at the 20th International World Wide Web conference in Hyderabad. Based on the Computational Paninian Grammar (CPG), MT systems are available in three modules — Sampark (Indian to Indian), AnglaMT (English to Bengali, Malayalam, Punjabi and Urdu) and Anuvadaksh (English to Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Urdu and Tamil). These have

been developed by a consortium of 11 Indian academic and research institutes, led by IIIT Hyderabad (IIIT-H). National Maritime Day celebrated: April 5, 2011 was observed as the National Maritime Day. The 48th National Maritime Week was observed from March 29 to April 5. The National Maritime Day is celebrated every year on 5th April to commemorate the voyage of the first Indian Ship “S.S. Loyalty” from Mumbai to London on 5th April, 1919. The theme for this year is “Indian Coast Line-A New Opportunity”. The objective of celebrating the Day is to facilitate better public understanding of the activities of the Indian Shipping Industry and the important role it plays in the economy of the country. 1st anniversary of Right to Education Act: 8.1 million children are still out of school, 21 per cent of the

teachers at the primary level are without adequate qualification and as many as 9 per cent schools have only the one teacher, according to the findings of the HRD Ministry on the completion of the first year of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 on April 1. As many as 15 states had notified the Rules under the Right to Education (RTE) Act while 11 had constituted State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights.

Teachers who did not possess qualification were given five years to equip themselves. Hyderabad to host National Statistics Museum: Foundation stone for ‘Sankhya’ – the National Museum of Statistics – was laid at the University of Hyderabad recently. Sankhya is designed to showcase the history of statistics and data relating to people and the country. It would serve as a repository of current information on issues related to health, education and economy for the public. Indo-Pak Secretary level talks held: Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan were organised in New Delhi recently. The Indian delegation was led by G. K. Pillai, Home Secretary of India, while the Pakistan delegation was headed by Qamar Zaman Chaudhary, Interior Secretary of Pakistan. In the joint statement issued after the talks, both sides agreed to set up a Hotline between Home Secretary of India and Interior Secretary of Pakistan to facilitate real time information sharing with respect to terrorist threats. Pakistan conveyed its readiness, in principle, based upon the principle of comity and reciprocity, to entertain a Commission from India with respect to Mumbai Terror Attack investigations. India provided information on the on-going Samjhautha Express blast case investigation.



9

Current Affairs: World Cancer specialist wins Pulitzer Prize

Indian-American physician Siddhartha Mukherjee’s critically acclaimed book on cancer, ‘The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer’, has won the

prestigious 2011 Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction category. According to the Pulitzer citation, the book by the New York-based cancer physician and researcher is “an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious

disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science.” The Pulitzer for general non-fiction is awarded to a “distinguished and appropriately documented book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.” India-born Dr. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician at the Columbia University Medical Centre. In his book, Dr. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories and deaths, told through the “eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out war against cancer.” An award-winning science writer, Dr. Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective and a biographer’s passion. Other winners

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was

established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. Pulitzers are awarded in 13 journalism categories and seven arts categories. In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category of the

journalism competition is awarded a gold medal. Complete list of winners for 2011 is as follows: I. Journalism

Public Service: Los Angeles Times Breaking News Reporting: No award Investigative Reporting: Paige St. John of Sarasota

Herald-Tribune Explanatory Reporting: Mark Johnson, Kathleen

Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar and Alison Sherwood of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Local Reporting: Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim of Chicago Sun-Times

National Reporting: Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica

International Reporting: Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry of The New York Times

Feature Writing: Amy Ellis Nutt of The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ

Commentary: David Leonhardt of The New York Times

Criticism: Sebastian Smee of The Boston Globe Editorial Writing: Joseph Rago of The Wall Street

Journal Editorial Cartooning: Mike Keefe of The Denver Post Breaking News Photography: Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn

and Ricky Carioti of The Washington Post Feature Photography: Barbara Davidson of Los

Angeles Times II. Letters, Drama and Music

Fiction: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A. Knopf)

Drama: Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris History: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and

American Slavery by Eric Foner (W.W. Norton & Company)

Biography or Autobiography: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press)

Poetry: The Best of It– New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan (Grove/Atlantic)

General Nonfiction: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)

Music: Madame White Snake by Zhou Long (Oxford University Press)

Special Citations: There are no special citations this year



10

BRICS Summit organised in Sanya

BRICS leaders discussed the global economic situation hoping to build up a new era of prosperity at their third Summit organised at Sanya, China recently. This is the third BRIC Summit after the summits at Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2009 and Brasilia, Brazil in 2010. This year South Africa was formally admitted to the Forum. All the five BRICS nations are members of the UN Security Council and G-20. The BRICS leaders – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Presidents of China (Hun Jintao), Russia (Dmitry Medvedev), Brazil (Dilma Rousseff) and South Africa (Jacob Zuma) – conducted a review of the global economic and political situation. The BRICS countries are the most representative countries among emerging markets. The combined population of the five countries is close to three billion, accounting for 43 per cent of the world total. Their combined GDP at $11 trillion is 16 per cent of the world’s total GDP. The participants agreed to facilitate and expand the system of settling in local currencies trade transactions among members of the BRICS countries. At $4.6 trillion, the five BRICS countries account for almost 15 per cent of global trade volume, but trade among them is only about $230 billion a year. The expanded system of settling trade in local currencies could boost intra-BRICS trade.

India secured a significant endorsement of its aspirations for a permanent place in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The endorsement came in the form of the Sanya Declaration that affirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including the Security Council. India, Brazil and South Africa at present are non-permanent members of the UNSC for 2011-12.

The Sanya Declaration is significant also for the stance it has adopted on major international economic issues. It has stepped up the pressure on the developed world to expedite necessary reforms in the international financial and monetary system, so that they can remove the inadequacies and deficiencies brought to light by the

financial crisis in 2008. The leaders endorsed the need to resist protectionist policies, conclude the Doha round of trade talks under the World Trade Organisation without further delay and strengthen the institution of the Group of 20, already in place as the primary instrument for settling all international economic issues On the developments in Libya, the leaders have affirmed to continue the BRICS solidarity and co-operation in the UN Security Council, in addition to supporting the African Union High-Level Panel Initiative on Libya. Singh, Jintao meet at Sanya

Indian PM Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to establish a working mechanism to handle border-related problems during their bilateral talks in Sanya. The mechanism would be in addition to the existing dialogue that the special representatives of the two countries were holding to settle boundary disputes. On trade, while the Indian PM called for deepening India’s strategic and economic partnership with China, the Chinese President offered to find a solution to India’s ballooning trade deficit with China. In 2010, China’s exports to India were $40 billion, while India’s exports to China were only $20 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $20 billion. PM Singh also raised the issue of greater market access for Indian pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, engineering goods and information technology services. Year of the India-China Exchange in 2011 was also launched on the occasion. China will invite 500 young Indians from all walks of life and support teaching of Chinese in Indian schools. Golden jubilee of world’s 1st space flight observed April 12 marked a half century since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. 27-year old Gagarin created space history when he blasted off in a Vostok spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan on the morning of April 12, 1961. After a voyage lasting just 108 minutes, Gagarin exited from his capsule and parachuted down into a field in Central Russia. April 12 is marked in Russia every year as Day of Cosmonautics. The U.N. General Assembly recently



11

adopted a Russia-moved resolution declaring April 12 “International Day of Human Space Flight.” The space race begins

With Gagarin’s flight, the Soviet Union scored its greatest propaganda victory over the United States, spurring its Cold War foe to take up the challenge in the space race. Just a month after Gagarin’s historic space voyage, President John F. Kennedy declared that the U.S. would put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. The space race was on — and it was a race that America won hands down. In July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon with the success of their Apollo mission. The U.S. space agency then turned to building the world’s first reusable spacecraft that could take humans and cargo into orbit. The first space shuttle, Columbia, flew in 1981, followed by four of its siblings, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Cooperation replaces Competition

In contrast to the tense battle of the 1960s, space is increasingly a matter of international cooperation with the orbiting International Space Station a joint effort between Russia, the United States and other partners. Many major space initiatives are now joint endeavours involving many countries. The launch of the Hubble space telescope in 1990, a joint venture between the U.S.’s and the European Space Agency was the first such initiative. The International Space Station (ISS) involving 16 countries, including the U.S. and Russia, is another example. NASA has announced the shut-down of its shuttle programme by the end of this year. Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft will now be the only way that astronauts can travel to the ISS. Marked decline in world military spending growth – SIPRI

Growth in global military spending slowed to its lowest level since 2001 in 2010, the

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest report on

international military

expenditures. World military spending rose only 1.3 per cent in 2010 to $ 1.63 trillion after average annual growth of 5.1 percent between 2001 and 2009.

The United States significantly slowed its military investments last year but remained by far the biggest defence spender in the world. US defence spending went up by only 2.8 per cent in 2010 to $ 698 billion, after averaging growth of 7.4 per cent between 2001, when SIPRI began publishing its reports, and 2009. Despite the slowdown, the United States’ spending increase of $ 19.6 billion still accounted for nearly all of the $ 20.6 billion global increase last year. The USA has increased its military spending by 81 per cent since 2001, and now accounts for 43 per cent of the global total. At 4.8 per cent of GDP, US military spending in 2010 represents the largest economic burden outside the Middle East. USA was followed by China ($119 billion), UK ($59.6 bn), France ($59.3 bn), Russia ($58.7 bn), Japan ($54.5 bn), Saudi Arabia ($45.2 bn), Germany ($45.2 bn), India ($41.3 bn, 2.7% of GDP, decline of -2.8% over 2009-10) and Italy ($37 bn). India, Kazakhstan sign civilian nuclear agreement India and Kazakhstan have signed an inter-governmental framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation following bilateral talks between PM Manmohan Singh and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev at capital Astana recently. The agreement will broad-base the cooperation and is expected to cover aspects like research, technology transfer and exploration of uranium in Kazakhstan, which is known to have one of the richest reserves of the nuclear fuel that India needs in increasing quantity. India and Kazakhstan already have civil nuclear cooperation since January 2009 when Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) and Kazakh nuclear company KazAtomProm signed an MoU during the visit of Nazarbaev to Delhi. Under the contract, KazAtomProm supplies uranium for use by Indian reactors. Ever since the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) ended India’s 34-year-old isolation in 2008 by giving a one-time waiver to have cooperation in civil nuclear field, it has signed such civil nuclear agreements with a number of countries including the US, France, Russia, Canada, Argentina and Mongolia.



12

World Briefs: 5 Indians in ‘Time’ 100 list Five Indians including cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have found place in the Time magazine’s list of

100 most influential people in the world for the year 2010 released recently. Dhoni, 52nd, is the highest ranked Indian in the list followed by “Titan of Industry” Mukesh Ambani (61), “Brain Mapper” V.S. Ramachandran (79), “Philanthropist” Azim Premji (88) and “Change Agent” Aruna Roy (89). Dhoni is only the second Indian

sportsperson after Tendulkar to find place in Time list till date. Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who became the “Spokesman for a Revolution” in Egypt is ranked No. 1 followed by US economist and 2001 Nobel Economics Laureate Joseph Stiglitz (2nd), Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings (3rd), US actress Amy Poehler (4th), US social activist and educator Geoffrey Canada (5th). Facebook founder Zuckerberg is 6th followed by creator of ‘Angry Birds’ video game, Peter Vesterbacka (7th), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (8th), WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (9th) and US real estate developer and founder of Middle-East based Education for Employment Foundation (EFE) Ron Bruder (10th).

Others in the list include President Barack Obama (86th), US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (43rd) and Pakistan’s ISI Chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha (17th).

Jonathan wins presidential election in Nigeria: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won the presidential election with 58.89% of the votes polled recently. His main challenger, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change, got 31.98% votes. Jonathan had become President of the country following the demise of President Umaru Yar’Adua in May 2010.

Binayak Sen wins human rights prize: Civil rights activist Binayak Sen, freed on bail by the Apex Court in a sedition case recently, has been honoured with the 2011 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, South Korea’s most prestigious award for those working on peace, democracy and justice in Asia.

Bradley Manning shifted to new prison: Bradley Manning, a US Army serviceman accused of passing classified information to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, is being transferred to a new prison, the Pentagon said recently. Manning was arrested last year in Iraq. He has been charged with transferring classified data onto his personal computer, and communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source. Former British PM Brown joins WEF: Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been appointed unpaid chairman of a new policy group at the World Economic Forum. The WEF, which organises the annual meeting of global business and political elites in Davos, said Brown had “valuable insights into the global agenda” from his ten years as British finance minister and three years as premier. Brown will chair a new “policy and initiatives coordination board,” an informal group of heads of international organisations and government representatives. John Milnor wins Abel Prize: The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has selected John Willard Milnor of the US for its prestigious Abel Prize for the year 2011. The award carries 6 million Norwegian Kroner (approx. €750,000) and is given in recognition of contributions of extraordinary depth and influence to mathematical sciences and has been awarded annually since 2003. The Prize is named after the great Norwegian mathematical genius, Niels Henrik Abel (1802-29). Ghonim wins JFK Courage Award: Google executive Wael Ghonim, who became the face of the Egyptian revolution, has been named the winner of the annual John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in recognition of his work for democratic reform that inspired similar movements across the Middle East. Ghonim is being given the honour along with “the people of Egypt. Chinese writer wins Man Asian Literary Prize: Chinese author Bi Feiyu has won Asia’s top literary prize for his “Three Sisters”, set during the Cultural Revolution. Bi beat four other shortlisted authors to secure the USD 30,000 Man Asian Literary Prize with the story of three women who “strive to change the course of their destinies” in one of China’s most chaotic political periods. His book edged out four other shortlisted submissions, from India and Japan, to take the award.



13

Elizabeth Taylor passes away: Legendary Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, who had a glittering career that spanned five decades, passed away at the age of 79 recently. She won two Academy Awards as best actress, for her performances in ‘Butterfield 8’ in 1960 and in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ in 1966. Born in London in 1932, Taylor shifted to California with her American parents in 1939, where she debuted in 1942 in There’s One Born Every Minute, and by 1944 had become a child star with National Velvet. Shantanu Narayen in Obama’s Advisory Board: US President Barack Obama has appointed Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe Systems, as a member of his President’s Management Advisory Board (PMAB). The PMAB advices the US President on how to implement best business practices on matters related to Federal Government management and operations. Pakistan test-fires Hatf: Pakistan has conducted the first test of Hatf-9 or Nasr missile, a newly developed short-range surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The Pak military said the launch was aimed at boosting the “deterrence value” of the country’s strategic weapons programme. Earth Day celebrated: The Earth Day was observed worldwide on April 22 to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment. Started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970, Earth Day is now is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. World Heritage Day observed: The International Day for Monuments and Sites also known as the World Heritage Day was celebrated on April 18. Started on 18th April, 1982, by ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and later approved at the UNESCO General Conference in 1983, this day offers an opportunity to raise public’s awareness concerning the diversity of the world’s heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as to draw attention to its vulnerability. World Book Day observed: World Book Day and Copyright Day was observed April 23. The Day is organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

India is 71st in well-being survey: With only 17 per cent people describing themselves as “thriving”, India ranked 71, in a new Gallup study on overall well-being conducted in 124 countries recently. Denmark topped as

the most contented country as almost two-thirds of its residents described themselves as thriving. India ranked low in Global Risks Atlas 2011: The Global Risks Atlas 2011 published by UK-based consultancy Maplecroft has described India as the 16th riskiest country to invest in for the security hazards it poses. The evaluation is based on seven key global risks including macroeconomic risk and threats around security, governance, resource security, climate change, social resilience and illicit economies. Norway has claimed the overall crown as the safest place. The four countries flagged red as extreme risks are Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. China’s share of world GDP is 9.5% in 2010: China’s gross domestic product accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total in 2010, according to recent estimates by Chinese government. China’s total value of goods and services produced in an economy (GDP) was $5.88 trillion in 2010, compared with $14.6 trillion for the US. China’s per capita GDP reached $3,400 by the end of 2010 while the US per capita GDP is estimated at $47,400. Meanwhile, China’s overseas direct investment reached $59 billion in 2010, an increase of 380 per cent from a year earlier. Egypt referendum for constitutional changes: A massive turnout and a vote overwhelmingly in favour of constitutional changes that eliminate restrictions on political rights and civil liberties was the outcome of a referendum held in Egypt recently. Among other changes, the constitutional amendments would open elections to independent candidates, allowing parliamentary and presidential elections to replace the caretaker military government by early 2012. Japan estimates quake, tsunami loss at $309 bn: Japanese government has estimated that the cost of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast this month could reach $309 billion due to extensive damage to housing, infrastructure and businesses. Messenger enters Mercury’s orbit: A NASA spacecraft named ‘MESSENGER’ began orbiting Mercury recently, becoming the first to fly around the solar system’s innermost planet. The spacecraft began its journey more than six years ago, travelling through the inner solar system and embarking on flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury.



14

Current Affairs – Business & Economy Cash subsidies for better targetting Cash-transfers’ to fund entitlements for the poor have found favour with development economists and governments around the world in recent times. The idea has found takers in policy makers in the government in India as well. The latest sign of such favour came in the Union Budget for 2011-12. In his budget speech this February, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a preliminary programme to give cash instead of subsidies on various goods to below-poverty-line (BPL) sections of the population. Explaining the motives for this move, he stated, “A significant proportion of subsidised fuel does not reach the targeted beneficiaries and there is large scale diversion of subsidised kerosene oil... To ensure greater efficiency, cost effectiveness and better delivery of cooking gas, kerosene and fertilisers, the government will move towards direct transfer of cash subsidy to people living below poverty line in a phased manner.” The finance minister has proposed that a mechanism to provide direct cash subsidies for fertilisers and household fuels (kerosene and LPG) would be adopted from March 2012 onwards. Its initial form would be a pilot-project based on the recommendations of a task force formed for this purpose, and headed by Nandan Nilekani, who heads the Unique Identification Authority of India. The task-force is due to submit its report by June this year. The key considerations behind the move for cash transfers are to make central subsidies on fuels, fertilisers and food more effective and direct. The overall bill for subsidies has stayed within 1.5-2 per cent of the GDP; but has been ballooning in absolute terms. Direct subsidies listed in the Union Budget have gone up from around Rs.48,000 crore in 2004-05 to an estimate of Rs.1,43,000 crore for 2011-12. Much of it misses the intended target groups. Why cash subsidies?

The most glaring example of misdirection and inefficiency in central subsidies is provided by the fertiliser sector, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the overall bill for such sops. In this case, the government fixes a reduced selling price for producers, and compensates them by paying them the difference from the actual production cost and a defined profit margin.

However, most of these subsidised fertiliser sales go to rich farmers who control some 65 per cent of the agricultural land in the country. Medium and small farmers, with lesser land resources, benefit correspondingly less from the current scheme of fertiliser subsidies.

A similar malady affects the system of food subsidies as well, which are offered through the country’s Public

Distribution System (PDS). The management sloth in the PDS, which leads to the annual degradation of food items worth thousands of crores, is well known. Unscrupulous ration shop owners are known to sell PDS foodgrains in open markets depriving the poor.

Proponents of cash transfers argue that the approach facilitates the beneficiary to buy the required goods or services directly from the market, instead of the government being saddled with such responsibility. The major assumption behind the philosophy of cash transfers is that beneficiaries are the best decision makers for what good or service is an immediate and fundamental necessity and the most required by them, and to most effectively spend money to acquire these. The conviction is backed by some of the stories of stellar success of cash transfers in Latin American nations.

Issues & concerns

Of course there is the flip side too, as well as a fair number of critics who urge caution. There are some specific problems related to India. How will cash be actually transferred to poor families, the vast majority of whom are still not covered by the country’s financial and banking system? And would the poor prefer cash subsidies to foodgrains? A recent survey shows that a vast majority of ration card holders living in Delhi slums do not want cash transfers instead of rations. Worried over the way inflation is going, almost 84 per cent respondents said that cash would anyway be so devalued that buying foodgrain with it would not be possible.

The poor also worry that cash would end up being used for purposes other than ration. In all, 99 per cent said they would rather have an improved public distribution service (PDS). When asked how the PDS system could be improved, some respondents suggested that the license of ration shops should be renewed every year and the community should be consulted at the time of renewal. In coming days, it will be Nandan Nilekani burden to provide answers to such questions.



15

National Telecom Policy 2011 unveiled

Highlights Mergers, acquisitions should be further liberalised;

but each circle should have at least six firms Spectrum to be delinked from licence Regular audit of spectrum should be conducted Licence to be renewed after 10 years, not 20 years

like earlier Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has announced the basic framework of the National Telecom Policy 2011 (NTP-2011), which will include for the first time, audit of spectrum held by telecom players, spectrum sharing, reduction in the tenure of renewed telecom licences from 20 years to 10 years, and liberalising of merger and acquisition norms. The NTP will replace the 1999 policy that many regard as being at the root of the 2G scam. The details are likely to take a year to finalise to take all stakeholder opinion on board. Issues & concerns Spectrum: The telecom ministry has announced that in future 2G spectrum will not come bundled with telecom licences and that operators would have to pay market-driven prices for spectrum. The government will decide soon if TRAI, the telecom regulator, or the CAG will be entrusted with the task of auditing spectrum usage by telecom companies. Rival companies have in the past accused each other of spectrum hoarding and not using this scarce resource in an efficient manner. The ministry will review the existing criteria under which additional spectrum is granted after a mobile operator acquires a specific number of subscribers. M&A: The government is also considering a relaxation in merger and acquisition (M&A) rules for telecom companies. The objective is to drive consolidation in the industry, which is facing intense pressure on margins due to tough competition and low tariffs. At present, there are 10-12 operators per circle. The telecom minister said that while the M&A guidelines need to be liberal, the number of competitors (including state-run BSNL/MTNL) in a circle should not be allowed to fall below six. At present, a telecom service provider cannot hold more than 10 per cent stake in another operator in the circle where it operates. There is also a lock-in period of three years for companies which got licences in 2008. This means they cannot exit the venture before the end of this period. License period: In a setback to old telecom companies like Airtel and Vodafone, whose licence in some circles is coming up for renewal in 2014, Sibal said such licences

will now be renewed only for 10 years, instead of the existing 20 years. These firms are likely to pay a high market rate for spectrum when they renew their licences. Roll-out obligations: The department of telecom will also review the existing “rollout” obligations of new telecom companies. Under the current norms, mobile operators are required to cover at least 10 per cent of the district headquarters in each circle within 12 months of the date of award of the licence.

GoM to decide fate of Cairn-Vedanta deal

Cairn Energy’s proposal to sell majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources suffered a setback recently after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) referred the deal to a Group of Ministers (GoM). Points of discord The deal has been delayed cue to a dispute over

royalty payments by Cairn’s JV partner - ONGC ONGC, which has a 30% stake in the Cairn operated

Rajasthan fields, pays 100% of the royalties ONGC is unwilling to foot 100% royalty after the

proposed sale of Cairn’s stake to Vedanta Cairn Energy Plc proposes to sell a maximum 51 per cent stake in Cairn India Ltd to Vedanta Resources for up to $8.48 billion. Issues of royalty and cess have continued to plague the deal.

The CCEA was to take a decision on issues relating to royalty, being borne by ONGC for the pre-NELP (New Exploration Licensing Policy) Rajasthan oil fields. Foreign companies were provided incentives such as 100% royalty waiver on their share of oil produced in the pre-NELP era to encourage them to form JVs in India. So even though ONGC’s share in the oil produced from its JV is 30%, it pays the entire royalty while Cairn pays nothing for its 70% share.

Meanwhile, Anil Aggarwal promoted Vedanta cleared a major roadblock in his $9.6 billion (around Rs 43,200 crore) takeover of Cairn India when the market regulator SEBI gave its green signal to the deal recently. In August 2010, Vedanta agreed to buy 51 per cent in Cairn India in what was till then the biggest deal in India’s oil and gas industry. Any deal involving acquisition of 15 per cent or more in a listed company requires the acquirer to make an open offer for buying 20 per cent stake from public shareholders. The deal is yet to get the government’s approval on account of royalty differences.



16

Milk: From plenty to scarcity

Despite being the largest producer of milk in the world, India is likely to witness a sudden spurt in milk prices. According to the National Economic Survey 2011-12, if the country fails to take strict measures to increase its milk productivity, India may need to import from the world market in order to bridge the growing gap between demand and production. Though the country’s milk production has grown more than six times since Independence, the average annual growth rate in output in recent years has been close to 4 per cent. The country’s milk production, currently 112 million tonnes, has been increasing steadily by about 3.5 million tonnes a year, while the demand for milk in India is growing by about 6 million tonnes a year, leading to an ever-widening gap. Milk prices have increased by around 20 per cent in retail markets in 2010 and it has been a major contributor, along with vegetables, in pushing up food inflation.

The only solution is to increase milk productivity. India needs to increase milk production by about 5.5 per cent per year to meet its requirement of 180 million tonnes in 2021-22, as projected under the National Dairy Plan of the National Economic Survey. The trigger points behind the problem are plenty. The economic survey identifies outdated marketing systems, ineffective breeding programmes, limited availability and affordability of quality feed and fodder, improper veterinary structure, lack of vaccinations, inadequate research, and processing transport facilities as key problems facing the sector. The processing and transport facilities for the final production of milk are especially inadequately maintained. The report also noted that despite appreciable growth in milk production in the last six decades, the productivity of animals is still low and that India’s per capita milk availability, at 263 gm per day in 2009-10 fell short of the world average of 279.4 gm per day.

Rising consumer incomes and the willingness to spend on milk, a basic household requirement, is the main cause for the rising demand. And this is likely to persist for several years. Credit Rating and Information Services of India (CRISIL) states that with milk products exported forming around 5 per cent of India’s total milk production, and domestic demand for dairy products remaining strong, the demand-supply gap is expected to widen over the medium term. This, along with increasing input (fodder and transportation) costs, will push milk prices up over the next three to five years. Milk prices are expected to continue their upward trend over the next three to five years, as domestic demand for

milk and dairy products is expected to outpace supply. Despite the government’s plans to double the country’s milk products by 2024 through various initiatives, supply will continue to lag behind demand. Recipe for better urban infra & services

Highlights Needs of urban poor must be addressed for better

management of urbanisation Creation of urban infra and its proper maintenance

is crucial for better delivery of urban services Municipal entities need to be empowered to levy

taxes and user charges for funding A unified command under a mayor for improving

governance India’s economic growth momentum can be sustained only if urbanisation is actively facilitated, according to a report prepared by the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure which submitted its report to the government recently. The Committee chaired by economist Dr Isher Ahluwalia has emphasized that urban poverty will persist if the needs of the urban poor are isolated from the broader challenges of managing urbanisation. The Committee has stated that cities will have to become the engines of national development. The fortunes of the agricultural sector are also crucially linked to the development of markets for agriculture which will be enhanced by urban expansion. The urban population is expected to increase from about 350 million in 2010 to 600 million in 2031. Urban infrastructure will require a total investment of Rs 39.2 lakh crore over the next 20 years, with Rs 17.3 lakh crore for urban roads, Rs 8 lakh crore for sectors delivering urban services such as water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, and storm water drains, Rs 4 lakh crore for renewal and redevelopment including slums, etc. It is important to maintain these assets well if the investments are to make a durable impact on service delivery. The committee has recommended increasing the investment in urban infrastructure from 0.7 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011-12 to 1.1 per cent by 2031-32. Financing the large sums required to meet the investment needs of urban infrastructure is crucially dependent on the reform of institutions and the capacity of those who run the institutions for service delivery and revenue



17

generation. Municipal entities need to be strengthened as local governments with their ‛own’ sources of revenue and predictable formula-based transfers from state governments. The committee called for better governance structures, strong political and administrative will to collect taxes and user charges, and improved capacity to deliver. A unified command under a mayor has been recommended for improving the governance of cities and towns. Committee on agri-marketing calls for contract farming, direct sale of grains

Major suggestions: Agri markets should not be the monopoly of APMCs Private parties should be allowed to set up agri

markets. Farmers should be given the freedom to sell outside

the APMC markets States should be empowered to exempt any produce

from market fee during shortages Contract farming should be allowed APMCs should widen their purview to provide

market-led extension services Futures trading should be allowed in non-essential

commodities only The government should allow direct marketing, contract farming and dispense with the requirement of routing every farm produce to be sold to consumers through agriculture produce marketing committees (APMCs). The suggestions were made by a committee on consumer affairs chaired by Gujarat CM Narendra Modi recently. The objective is to lower retail prices by bridging their gap with farmgate prices. The committee, co-chaired by chief ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, is also tasked with suggesting amendments to the Essential Commodities Act. The final report will be submitted to the prime minister soon. The committee has called for allowing private parties — including private persons, companies, farmers and consumers — to set up agriculture markets. At present, these are built at the initiative of the state governments. To promote a specific commodity during shortages, the committee has also proposed the setting up of special markets. The proposals include giving farmers the freedom to sell outside the APMC markets. This means direct sale to retailers and consumers. The committee has also backed contract farming. The contract farmer may be an individual agriculturist or a co-operative. The sponsor

may be a village panchayat, a corporate body or a local authority. The contract farmer may be allowed to sell directly to the sponsor without routing it through the notified APMC market. Rather than being just a marketing body, APMCs should be required to set up a separate marketing extension cell to develop other markets. It should provide market-led extension services to farmers, besides developing quality testing and communication infrastructure and conducting market survey and research. APMC should also ensure payment to farmers on the day of sale. The committee is against futures trading in essential commodities and is likely to recommend restricting futures trading to only non-essential commodities. At present, sugar and wheat are the only essential commodities traded on the exchanges. PAT scheme for energy intensive sectors introduced

Several energy-intensive industries with energy consumption more than specified limit have been included in the PAT (perform, achieve, trade) scheme under the provisions of the ‘Energy Conservation Act, 2001’. The scheme, being implemented by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for energy-intensive large industries, will help reduce energy consumption in these industries. Companies consuming less energy will now be able to sell the efficiency certificates to the non-efficient ones. The PAT mechanism will allow industries who use less energy than the norm set for them to earn Energy Saving Certificates (ESCerts) for the excess savings. These ESCerts can be used by other industries (who may find it expensive to meet their norms) for compliance. They will be denominated in tonnes of oil-equivalent (ToE) and exchanged on special trading platforms. BEE will set a specific energy consumption target for each manufacturing plant, depending on level of energy intensity of that plant. The target will specify by which percentage a plant has to improve its energy intensity from the base line value in a period of three years. Further, certificates would be given for energy efficiency, so the industry will be able to trade these with under-performers.



18

Economy Briefs: Minimum wage increased by Rs. 15: The Central government has revised the minimum wages, payable for any work, coming under the schedule of employment, by Rs.15 per day and fixed the new National Floor Level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) at Rs. 115 instead of Rs. 100/- per day effective from April 1. The new rate has been fixed on the basis of ‘All – India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers’. The NFLMW is a non-statutory measure. State governments and the Union Territories have been directed to revise minimum wages in such a way that in none of the scheduled employments, the minimum wage is less than the new NFLMW. Poverty rate down to 32%: The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty has declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago. The preliminary estimates are based on the formula suggested by the Tendulkar Committee for computing the number of poor. The Tendulkar Committee had suggested that poverty be estimated on the basis of consumption based on the cost of living index instead of caloric intake. It said that the basket of goods should also include services such as health and education. New simpler forms for IT returns introduced: The Finance ministry has introduced simpler income tax return forms ‘Sahaj’ and ‘Sugam’ aimed at reducing compliance burden on salaried persons and small businessmen. While Sahaj is for salaried people, the Sugam return form is applicable to small businessmen and professionals covered under presumptive taxation. Under presumptive taxation, person carrying on business are not required to get accounts audited if the annual total sales, turnover or gross receipts is less than Rs. 60 lakh. SEBI nod for higher ceiling for Sovereign Funds: Stock market regulator SEBI has introduced a proposal to allow sovereign wealth funds to pick up a 20 per cent stake in an entity without invoking an open offer. The stake buy should not lead to a change in management control. Sovereign wealth funds are state-owned investment funds that consist of all kinds of asset classes — debt, equity, commodities, and the like. Refining capacity to reach 240 MTPA by 2012: India’s petroleum refining capacities is expected to rise to 240 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by March 2012 from the current 188 MTPA, attracting an estimated investment of Rs 60,000-65,000 crore, according to

recent estimates released by the Petroleum Ministry. The capacity addition is believed to boost country’s exports of petroleum products. Currently, India’s total demand for the petroleum products is estimated at 140 MTPA. Navigation to be separated from AAI tasks: The government has decided to demarcate the functional responsibility of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as an ‘aerodrome operator’ and air navigation service (ANS) and announced separation of the air navigation wing from the airport operator. The decision follows recommendations of the Ajay Prasad Committee for formulation of next generation futuristic Air Navigation Services Master Plan. Consultant appointed to set up modern silos: The Planning Commission has appointed a consultant to prepare a feasibility report for creating 20 lakh tonnes capacity of modern foodgrains storage facilities like silos in the country. Consultant Matt Macdonald’s terms of reference includes cost comparison between modern silos and conventional storage, identification of location and setting parameters for tender process. CMIE forecasts 8.8% GDP growth in ‘11-12: India’s GDP is projected to grow at a brisk pace of 8.8 per cent in 2011-12, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its latest monthly review of the country’s economy. In 2011-12, the agricultural and allied sector is projected to grow by 3.1% on top of the 5.1% growth estimated in 2010-11. The industrial sector, including construction, is likely to grow by 9.4% during 2011-12, as compared to 8.5% estimated in 2010-11. Registry to detect loan defaulters launched: The government has launched the Central Registry to prevent frauds in loan cases involving multiple lending from different banks on the same immovable property under the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act). FSLRC Commission established: The government has set up an 11-member Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), headed by Justice (retired) B.N. Srikrishna. The objective is to simplify and rewrite financial sector legislations, rules and regulations and bring them in harmony with the requirements of India’s fast growing financial sector.



19

Business Briefs:

People in news Rakesh Kapoor is global CEO of Reckitt: 52-year

old Rakesh Kapoor, a 25-year veteran of household, health and personal-care company Reckitt Benckiser, will take over as its Chief Executive Officer, on September 1. Kapoor joins a select list of Indian-born CEOs of global corporations, a list that includes Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO, PepsiCo; Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup; and, Ajay

Banga, CEO, MasterCard Worldwide. The UK-headquartered Reckitt Benckiser owns brands such as Dettol, Lysol, Clearasil and Durex. Sarthak Behuria joins K.K. Modi group: Sarthak Behuria, former IOC Chairman, has been appointed Group President of the K.K. Modi group, which has restructured the management into a Corporate Centre and a Family Council. Bina Modi, wife of KK Modi, will be the Chairperson of the family council. The K. K. Modi group has a diversified portfolio of businesses, including tobacco giant Godfrey Phillips, agri-chemicals and speciality chemical company Indofil, ‘24x7 retail’, Colorbar Cosmetics and in sectors such as education, entertainment and restaurants. Nair to step down as head of Hotel Leelaventure: Captain CP Krishnan Nair said he will step down as the chairman of luxury hospitality firm Hotel Leelaventure by June this year, handing over the active management of the hotel company to his two sons. Zuckerberg wins case against Winklevoss twins: Mark Zuckerberg won a legal battle against former Harvard classmates who accuse him of stealing their idea for Facebook. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss must accept a cash and stock settlement with Facebook that had been valued at $65 million, a US appeals court ruled recently. The Winklevoss brothers argued their settlement with Facebook was unfair because the company hid information from them during talks. The twins, along with Divya Narendra, started a company called ConnectU while at Harvard. They say Zuckerberg stole their idea. Dorsey is new Twitter chairman: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has taken over as the new executive chairman and head of product development of the

company. Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter’s chief executive officer and became chairman in 2008, will now play a more hands-on role at the San Francisco-based provider of microblogging.

CD pioneer Norio Ohga passes away: The former president and chairman of Sony, Norio Ohga, who was credited with developing the compact disc, passed away at the age of 81 recently. From the start, he recognised the potential of the compact disc, and personally drove Sony’s initiatives to introduce the format. During the development of the CD, it was Ohga who pushed for a disc that was 12cm in diameter, because it provided sufficient capacity at 75 minutes to store all of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Sony sold the world’s first CD in 1982 and Ohga’s specifications are still used today, and have shaped formats developed since, including MiniDisc and DVD. Retail veteran Raghu Pillai passes away: Raghu Pillai, chief executive officer (CEO) and executive board member, Future Group, passed away at the age of 54. Pillai had over 20 years’ experience in the consumer goods and retail sector, the last 15 with RPG Retail, the Future Group and Reliance Retail, where he was board member and chief executive. In October last year, he joined Future Group after quitting Reliance Retail. Pillai built RPG’s retail formats such as Food World, Music World, Health & Glow and Spencer’s from scratch. Chocolate tycoon Ferrero passes away: Italian chocolate tycoon Pietro Ferrero passed away at the age of 48 recently. He was joint CEO of the Ferrero group, which owns Nutella and Kinder. Ferrero’s grandfather, also Pietro, started the company in 1942 in the northern Italian town of Alba. Because of wartime shortages, chocolate was difficult to obtain. The elder Pietro Ferrero hit upon a recipe which combined cocoa with locally abundant hazelnuts. That concoction - Nutella spread - became an international success. Akshay Kumar to endorse Eveready batteries: The Eveready brand has signed up Akshay Kumar to endorse the brand for an undisclosed timeframe. The company primarily promotes dry cell batteries under the Eveready brand umbrella. John Abraham is VIP brand ambassador: VIP Industries has roped in Bollywood actor John Abraham as brand ambassador to re-launch Skybags. The 1993-born brand’s re-launch is targeting a defined 25-35-year-old target group of professionals with an eye for style.



20

Current Affairs-Sports Wisden selects 4 in ‘Cricketers of the Year’ list: The 2011 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack will feature only four Cricketers of the Year, instead of the usual five, after one of the chosen Five Cricketers was

eliminated following because of his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal which broke during the Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan in August 2010. Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir had earlier been chosen for his 19 wickets at 18.36 in four Tests

against England followed by a further 11 in the two-match series against Australia last year. The other four nominees include Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal, Ireland’s Eoin Morgan who plays for England and Jonathan Trott & Chris Read of England.

Tendulkar named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer: Sachin Tendulkar has been named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World for the year 2010. The Indian batsman is the seventh recipient of the Wisden award. Unlike the winners of Wisden’s coveted five cricketers of the year, it is possible to be named the world’s best in the almanack more than once. Tendulkar is making it an Indian hat-trick, after Test opener Virender Sehwag took the honour in each of the last two years. Dilshan appointed Sri Lanka captain: The 34-year-old Tillakaratne Dilshan has been appointed the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for the tour of England. Sri

Lanka will play three Tests, a one-off Twenty20 international and five ODIs. Dilshan takes over from Kumar Sangakkara, who led Sri Lanka to the ICC ODI World Cup final. Dilshan was the highest scorer in the World Cup with 500 runs at an average of 62.50. In 66 Tests, he has 3990 runs at 42.44 with 11 centuries. The right-

hander has an aggregate of 5456 runs in 203 ODIs at 36.61 (strike rate 87.54).

Malinga retires from Test cricket: Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga has announced retirement from Test cricket in a bid to prolong his career in One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 matches. Malinga made his Test debut in July 2004 against Australia and has taken 101 wickets in 30 tests at an average of 33.15. Currently playing for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, Malinga is the only bowler with two World Cup

hat tricks, against SA in the 2007 and the other against Kenya in the 2011. He is also the only bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive deliveries (against SA in an ODI in 2007) in international Cricket. India gets $175,000 for No. 1 in Tests: India will get $175,000 for finishing as the number one Test side and another $ 75,000 for finishing as second-ranked ODI team this season from the ICC. Indian team (128 points) has been sitting on top of the Test Championship table since December 2009. South Africa (127 points) will get $75,000 for ending in second position in the Test Championship table at the cut-off date of April 1. Australia will get $ 175,000 for finishing on top of the ODI table with 128 points. Former WI captain F. Alexander departs: Former West Indies captain and wicketkeeper Franz ‘Gerry’ Alexander, who represented the team in 25 Test matches, passed away at the age of 82 at Kingston, Jamaica. Alexander, who made his debut against England in 1957, scored 961 runs at an average of 30.03, including a top score of 108 against Australia. Nadal wins Monte Carlo Masters: Rafael Nadal beat his Spanish compatriot David Ferrer 6-4, 7-5 on April 17, 2011 to win his seventh straight Monte Carlo Masters tennis title. It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. Doubles title was won by Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan who beat Juan Ignacio Chela & Bruno Soares 6-3, 6-2 in final. Czechs to meet Russia in Fed Cup final: Czech Republic beat hosts Belgium in the semi-final 3-2 at Charleroi, Belgium to meet Russia in the final of the Fed Cup tennis tournament in November. Russia had entered the final by beating Italy 5-0 in the semi-final played at Moscow. Wimbledon prize money hiked: Wimbledon organizers have increased the prize money for the winners of this year’s tournament to £1.1m, which amounts to a rise of 10 per cent. The total prize fund for the 125th edition of the tournament has also been increased by 6.4% from last year and is £14.6m. The singles runners-up will earn £ 550,000, the beaten semi-finalists will get £ 275,000 and even a first-round loser will get £ 11,500. Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams triumphed last year. Nadal had defeated Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, while Williams got past Vera Zvonareva of Russia.



21

Sania-Vesnina win Family Circle Cup: Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina won the WTA Family Circle Cup doubles trophy with a straight-set triumph over Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy with a score of 6-4, 6-4 at Charleston (USA). Real Madrid wins Spanish Cup: Real Madrid

defeated archrivals Barcelona 1-0 after extra time in a pulsating finale at Valencia to win the ‘Copa Del Rey’ or the Spanish Cup for the first time since 1993. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal of the match delivering coach Jose

Mourinho’s first trophy since joining the club last May. Spain remains world’s No. 1 soccer team: Brazil climbed to third place in the latest FIFA world rankings issued recently, knocking Germany off the podium and dropping South American rival Argentina one place to fifth. Latest FIFA rankings (Top ten): 1. Spain; 2. the Netherlands; 3. Brazil; 4. Germany; 5. Argentina; 6. England; 7. Uruguay; 8. Portugal; 9. Italy; 10. Croatia. Abhijeet Gupta wins Dubai Open chess: Former World junior champion and Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta defeated Parimarjan Negi to clinch the Dubai International Open chess title in Dubai. Abhijeet finished the tournament on 7.5 points out of a possible nine and took the winner’s prize of $8000. Hamilton wins F1 Chinese Grand Prix: McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix followed by Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in second and third positions respectively at Shanghai.

Vettel wins F1 Malaysian GP: World champion Red Bull driver Sebastien Vettel won the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld of Renault in second and third places respectively. Force India drivers Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil finished 10th and 11th respectively. Academy to spot F1 racing talent launched: Force India, the racing sports venture of Vijay Mallya has launched ‘Force India F1 Team Academy’ to identify racing talent in the country, along with providing vocational and academic training to young Indians for pursuing a professional career in motor sports. Force

India’s ‘Hunt for One from a Billion’ will select 14 participants from all over the country for training at the National level. ‘Come And Play’ for CWG venues launched: In order to ensure optimum utilisation of the newly-built and renovated Commonwealth Games venues, the Sports Ministry has launched a new scheme — Come And Play (CAP). Under this scheme, the stadia owned by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in the capital would be opened for school children, sportspersons and common people. Centres of Excellence in sports to be set up: The government has announced the setting up of two Centres of Excellence dedicated to football and swimming in the national capital to raise the standard of the two sports to international level. The two Centres will be set up at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Talkatora Swimming Pool Complex. New Badminton clothing regulations postponed:

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has decided to push back the date of implementation of its new clothing regulations, which require female players to wear skirts or dresses for Level 1 to 3 tournaments, to June 1, 2011

Charl Schwartzel wins 75th U.S. Masters: South African Charl Schwartzel birdied the last four holes to win the 75th U.S. Masters at Augusta by two strokes over Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day. Schwartzel captured a $1.44 million top prize and the green jacket symbolic of Masters Supremacy. Anirban Lahiri wins Panasonic Open: India’s Anirban Lahiri beat Mardan Mamat of Singapore to win the inaugural $300,000 Panasonic Open in New Delhi. The 23-year-old Lahiri got the top prize of $47,000. Mamat was followed by Manav Jaini, Prom Meesawat (Thailand), Ali Sher and Jyoti Randhawa. Marathon legend Waitz passes away: Norwegian race legend Grete Waitz, who won nine New York marathons and a world title, passed away at the age of 57. In addition to her nine New York marathon wins between 1979 and 1988, she became marathon world champion in Helsinki 1983 and won the silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics the following year. Waitz also broke the 3000 metres world record twice in 1975 and 1977.



22

Book Review ‘Civilization: The West And The Rest’ by Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson is one of the few writers who have made reading of history interesting. His books appeal to the scholar as well as the layman and improve the reader’s understanding of the world around him in historical as well as the present context. His ‘The Ascent of Money’ was a masterpiece that was equally popular in its television adaptation. The gamut of his book ‘Civilization’ is all encompassing covering a range of issues – history, economics, finance, trade, politics, etc. It is about how the world reached where it is now and where is it headed in the future. It is about how the west became the engine of industrial development and world economy and why is it likely to cede this position to emerging powers such as India and China. The book is a crystal gazing of the sort that is thought provoking. It leaves the reader awestruck by the depth of Ferguson’s grasp of the subject and his ability to present facts and analysis in an easy to comprehend manner. Critics have questioned his approach in addressing history, likening it to entertainment. He is certainly making no bones about his approach, which in ‘Civilization’ means the use of what he terms ‘killer apps’ - the six key differentiators: competition, science, the rule of law, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic, that he says propelled the West to dominating the world for close to 500 years. In ‘Civilisation’, Ferguson looks at global history for the better part of the past five centuries, as he explains why the West’s primacy is now under threat. He believes that the West may lose its numero uno position in the world economy and geopolitics to rising powers like China, India and Brazil. At the same time, he is optimistic about the West’s ability to regain its prominence because the factors that made it dominant are still there. China occupies centrestage in ‘Civilisation’ and Ferguson sees the Middle Kingdom with its opaque system of political governance combined with Western style capitalism as the pre-eminent force shaping the 21st century. About India, the book says it is too early to celebrate as the world’s most populous democracy has a lot of ground to cover before it can challenge the

dominance of the west in the manner China is doing. The author also cautions India on risking reversal of the gains it has made in the decades following independence if it does not get its act together in improving governance of the country.

The author firmly believes this will be China’s century but remains optimistic about India’s chances of catching up with its giant neighbour. He sees China’s selective acceptance of the West’s recipe for success as damaging in the long term. China does not want to experiment with the West’s political institutions like democracy and freedom of speech, whereas India has them. The challenge in India is about cleaning up. India has the software but a couple of viruses are making it run slowly. The author is more pessimistic about the future of China in the next 20-30 years than India. He says that in China, there will come a moment when the incompatibility between

what is happening economically and in the political realm will become impossible to ignore. Any move in the direction of political representation will involve a huge structural shift for China’s leadership. India does not require revolutionary changes. India’s problems are not camouflaged. They are in the public realm. We know what is wrong with the country. It is on the front pages of media - infrastructure, red tape, corruption, and will get addressed. There is a growing body of Indian voices that want change, who are frustrated with their government. China’s problems 20 years hence will be much bigger. The big question is what Internet penetration will do to China. The current generation in China feels it is the lucky’ generation. Their grandparents and parents suffered hardships and toiled to transform their country into one of world’s most formidable powers. It is the next generation that is the one to watch. They will take the economic freedom for granted, and they will ask questions that their parents haven’t asked. How the Chinese leadership responds to their non-economic demands and aspirations in the 21st century remains to be seen. Ferguson does not believe that India can be a balancing force in Asia, as some Americans had hoped. The risk of



23

conflict with China is high for India. In his view, it is probably a more rational strategy for New Delhi to accept Chinese dominance. On religion, the author says change is the only constant. At times, Islam has been associated with progress and, at times, Christianity has been associated with terrible destructive violence. In that sense, religion does not tell us all we need to know about what is happening to society. But in the near term, radical Islam is not going to go away. Pakistan is one of the most unstable countries in the world. He is not optimistic about the outcome of the current turmoil in North Africa and West Asia and fears fundamentalist regimes coming to power using the power of ballot once the longstanding dictators are booted out by kind of popular protests we are seeing in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. In Ferguson’s view, radical Islam is intent on a world revolution and will use violence to achieve that end. He compares it with Russian revolution that saw capitalism as an evil and communism as its most worthy replacement. The spread of communism worldwide became a matter of faith for the Russians and a number of countries in Eastern and Central Europe became communist dictatorships. The communist dream ended only with the break-up of the USSR in the 1990s. Similarly fundamentalists may replace secular and moderate leaderships in Islamic nations and militant Islam may continue to confront the west in decades to come.

About the US and the EU, the author does not rule out a downward shift of American power or a sudden disintegration of the European Union. He comments on the deteriorating public finance in the US. The crisis of confidence in the US’ economic power is starkly evident. The EU also faces imminent decline. Some countries have been doing well economically such as Germany, France and the UK but some others like Greece, Portugal and Spain have been a big drain on the EU’s resources. Ferguson believes that Germany’s leadership in the world economy has sustained EU. It is only a matter of time, the Germans stop financing the deficits of their poorly

performing EU member states. The EU has worked so far because the Germans have been generous enough to write cheques for their less productive neighbours. About demographics, the author says in the next 40 years, the West will shrink rather dramatically. The most important society in the West, US, is becoming a Latin American country. By 2050, the non-Hispanic white will be a minority which, in California, is already the case. However, civilisation is not about the colour of one’s skin; so,

ultimately, it does not matter who lives in the US. If the institutions work, the country will retain its leadership in innovation, trade and military strength. It will be institutions rather than demographics that will determine the future course of nations in the 21st century and beyond.

Behind the corporate name

Nike: The American sports equipment company is named after the Greek goddess of victory.

Pepsi: Brad’s Drink, a concoction formulated by Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist, was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 after the kola nuts used in the recipe and possibly to incorporate pepsin, an enzyme produced in the stomach that helps digestion.

Royal Dutch Shell: Its origins go back to the Shell Transport and Trading Company. It was established by Samuel & Co as a business that sold sea shells to Victorian natural-history enthusiasts. Later, the company thought that there could be a market for oil, which it began to trade.

Saab: Svenska Aeroplane Aktiebolaget, a Swedish plane manufacturer, launched its first car in 1949.

Samsung: The South Korean electronics firm’s name means “three stars” in Korean.

Skype: Founded in 2003, the company that enables free phone calls over the internet was originally named Sky peer-to-peer. This was subsequently shortened to Skyper and then Skype.

Sony: The Japanese electronics firm’s name is taken both from a Latin word, sonus, which is the root of the word sonic, and from the expression “sonny boy”, popular in post-war Japan when the firm was founded. The words were meant to show that the firm was a group of young people with energy and passion.

Starbucks: Named after Starbuck, the mate of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s whaling novel, Moby Dick.

Subaru: The Japanese car co. takes its name from the Japanese for the star constellation called the pleiades or “Seven Sisters”. The firm, with a logo incorporating seven stars, was formed by the merger of 7 companies.



24

Brand watch

PVR Cinemas: Lights, camera, action PVR, a pioneer and a trend-setter in the multiplex business in India, is the largest cinema exhibition player in the country today The multiplex pioneer

PVR Cinemas is a name that is tantamount with state-of-the-art multiplex cinema experience in the country. It commenced its operations in June 1997 as a joint venture between Priya Exhibitors and Village Road Show Pictures, one of the biggest media distribution conglomerates in the world. PVR specialises in developing and operating world-class multiplexes and pioneered multiplex development by setting up the country’s first - PVR Anupam at Saket in Delhi. PVR Cinemas, over the last three years, has emerged as a very strong brand which is associated with movies, quality exhibition, food and youth-targeted promotions. At present it has 116 screens all across the country delivering entertainment solutions to millions. The founder

Ajay Bijli, 41 years, is the Chairman Cum Managing Director of PVR. It is interesting to know that the man who changed the way we now watch movies in India had very little to do with the business of cinema while growing up. His family was in the transport business and he had no aspirations to be a movie star. Also he did not even live in cinema capital, Mumbai. The only connection was that his family has owned a popular theatre in New Delhi since 1978. Bijli’s first big move was at 23, when he convinced his father, Krishan Mohan Bijli, to let him revamp Priya. His father was very passionate about the family business, the Amritsar Transport Co., and had no real interest in cinema. Ajay’s idea was to remodel Priya along the lines of Sterling cinema in Mumbai and show only Hollywood films. The revamp list was long—Dolby sound system, new projector, carpets, comfortable seats, and better air conditioning. After much persuasion, Ajay managed to convince his father to invest money in his cinema business. Something for everyone

One size does not fit all. PVR realised audience from all spectrums of the society enjoy the multiplex experience, hence they launched two new brands to cater to the top

end and the bottom end of the spectrum, - PVR Premiere & Gold Class for the elite audience and PVR Talkies, the people’s cinema. This demarcation of brands at the top end and the bottom end helped in clearly refining their focus. This helped the organisation create a hugely loyal consumer base.

They then moved on from mere screening to the next and the most important step of film production. PVR signed a two-film deal with Aamir Khan Productions Pvt. Ltd, and the first film, Taare Zameen Par released in December 2007. This film broke all records and won both critical as well as popular

awards. Having tasted success, the company headed towards a bigger and better image, that of an entertainment

company. This growth came through Joint Venture and SPV’s in non-core areas like food courts by a joint venture with Lite Bite Concepts, in bowling & karaoke by a joint venture with Blu-O of Thailand and in Ice skating by a joint venture with ‘Sub-Zero’ of Thailand. Brand values

Generally the Indian consumer was not used to the kind of experience that PVR gave them as most cinemas till then were

projectors in the wall with basic amenities. PVR pioneered the use of technology in the film entertainment business, thereby revolutionising the whole sight and sound experience of the moviegoer. PVR Cinema offers the benefit of an aesthetic ambience, hygiene, good service, parking along with world class movie experience. The PVR experience is a five star movie watching experience with world class seats, amazing ambience, wall-to-wall carpeting and uniformed employees. The brand has had and still continues to have an enviable market position. It has managed to convince the customers that their movie tickets are worth the price they are paying.



25

Faces Sri Satya Sai Baba: In service of humanity

One of India’s most well-known spiritual figures, Sai Baba was worshipped by millions and served millions.

Sri Satya Sai Baba, the revered spiritual figure who had amongst his millions of followers around the world, ordinary people as well as the high and mighty passed away at the age of 84. Until the very end, he was a man who stirred fervently opposing emotions. To his followers, Sathya Sai Baba was an incarnation of God in flesh and blood who emerged on earth to preach his message of selfless service to the humanity. To his critics, he was a trickster who mesmerised the gullible by his sleight of hand and charisma. His detractors alleged that despite serious allegations of wrongdoing, Baba was protected from prosecution by virtue of his influential political disciples. Whatever he was, few doubted the spirit of devotion he invoked in his followers. A short, soft-spoken man attired in saffron robes and always sporting a trademark afro hairstyle, Sai Baba’s appeal cut across social barriers. His followers came from lower as well as the top-most echelons of the Indian society and in many other countries beyond. Satya Sai Baba was born Sathyanarayana Raju in November 1926 in Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. When he was 13 years old, the young boy announced to his family that he was the incarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. Changing his name was a key spiritual transformation. The teenage Sai Baba soon began to attract followers and by 1950, had constructed an ashram called Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of Peace) near his village to accommodate them. It heralded the start of the transformation of Puttaparthi into a vast complex of hotels, resorts, university buildings, speciality hospital, airport and enormous ashram thronged with devotees. Most people irrespective of whether or not they believed in his mystical powers agreed that Sai Baba was an extraordinary human being. His achievements in social welfare are a living testimony of his service to humanity. Puttaparthi was a nondescript village in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district when he was born there. He has left it with a world-class university, a super-speciality hospital, an airport, a railway station and several other such facilities. In 1995, the Sai Baba Trust took up the task of supplying drinking water to the entire district, laying

pipelines and executing a mandate that should have been fulfilled by the state. The mission was so successful that it

is cited as a model by water and sanitation specialists. Many religious gurus either acquire land and set up massive ashram complexes or do good works or both. Very few institutionalise their legacy and ensure it will live on after they are gone. Years ago he understood one man could not run this network and do justice to the millions of rupees his followers were donating to his ashram. He put together a trust that

included India’s most capable administrators, jurists and industrialists. This vast empire of hospitals, educational institutions and temples that has been created has a lot to do with Sai Baba’s vision. As far back as three decades back, he realised that the riches that had been placed as offerings by his devotees and the social welfare work he had started was too large to be run by simple followers and family members. He sought out and brought in the best administrative talent and ceded day-to-day management to it. One of the drawbacks of conventional Hinduism has been the hold of caste identities on particular locations and monasteries. Sai Baba was the first modern Hindu preacher to break free of traditional caste and related allegiances. He demolished this glass ceiling. In a society ruled by a rigid caste hierarchy, his family’s origins as a cowherd people of the Bhattaraju community were never an issue. Neither did he believe in shielding his disciples from other influences. You could worship Christ or Krishna or Allah, he said, and still believe in him. He was not wedded to abstruse scriptures. While addressing a mass audience, he had the ability to talk in simple language the masses understood. One small example: “Help ever, hurt never”. This obviously widened his appeal. Today, many Hindu religious leaders use the same template, and reach out to a broader, pan-Indian audience. They make adroit use of television and the jet plane. In contrast, Baba built his “empire of the soul” in an age before the communication revolution, before satellite television, the Internet and social media.



26

Faces Aruna Roy

Many social activists berate the government for not doing enough for the dispossessed. A former civil servant, Roy doesn’t just condemn a broken system; she changes it. In Time Top 100

Aruna Roy is a social activist who is best known as a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement, which led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005. She is among the 5 Indians in ‘Time’ list of 100 most influential people in 2011 announced recently. In 2000, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.

In 2010 she received the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academia and Management. She is also a member of the Sonia-Gandhi led National Advisory Council (NAC) that keeps a watch on social development agenda of the government at the centre. IAS & marriage

After college in 1965, Aruna (born 1946) went to the University of Delhi for two years of post-graduate work. One of her classmates there was Sanjit “Bunker” Roy whom she would later marry. After earning her master’s degree, Aruna took the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) exam in 1967. She was twenty-one. Of the one hundred people who qualified for the IAS that year, Aruna was one of only ten women. In 1970, Aruna and Bunker were married. Upon graduation from the university in 1967, Bunker had committed himself to doing something for country’s hungry poor. As a sub-divisional magistrate in Delhi, Aruna had jurisdiction over six police stations. Since New Delhi was the seat of the national government, Aruna now saw for herself the extent of corruption and kowtowing that went on in the country’s center of power. She was becoming deeply disillusioned. She had entered the IAS feeling that “the government will provide the framework for working effectively for social justice within a strictly legal framework.” What she saw instead was senior civil servants currying favour with powerful politicians in order to advance in their careers; the feudal trappings of a civil service that posed obstacles to any meaningful change; and the aloofness of the bureaucracy to the poor, who lacked access to officials.

Exiting IAS, entering social activism

Aruna realized that the problem resided partly with the people, because they had not learned how to speak up for themselves. But it also resided in the system, because the officials had been trained to think of themselves as above the people. Aruna decided to leave the IAS and joined her husband Bunker’s NGO Social Work and Research Center (SWRC) in Rajasthan in 1974. Stripped of her IAS status, she relearned how to interact with villagers and, in time, she found her dialogues with them more honest than those she had had as a civil servant. Without a badge, she now shared their circumstances and, in more than one instance, found herself waiting outside local government offices to see officials and chafing at the long delays. The SWRC was among the first organizations in India to focus on professionalizing rural development work and to introduce community-based, participatory research and technology. It broke new ground in other areas as well. It introduced the concept of the barefoot health worker in Rajasthan and experimented with a primary education program with day and night shifts to enable all the children to go to school. The SWRC also sponsored in 1975 the very first “development bazaar” in India, bringing together traditional artisans to convey development messages. The agitation for minimum wages

Aruna later founded the Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), or Organization for the Empowerment of Workers and Peasants. From the start, the members decided that they would tackle one or two specific issues every year. Their first major issue was the minimum wage. There is a common definition of “minimum wage” throughout India but, says Aruna, there are different rates for different kinds of labour, skilled and unskilled. A federal law on the minimum wage exists in the country, but every state government can prescribe its own rates. For years now, the MKSS has been fighting for a federal law that would correlate wages with the consumer price index. The minimum-wage protests gained the MKSS a strong following not only among peasants and landless workers but also from the rural middle class. In many states, including Rajasthan, MKSS-led agitations have forced contractors and government officials to pay minimum wages to the workers.



27

The RTI campaign

In the winter of 1994, the work of the MKSS entered a new and groundbreaking phase when the activists initiated the concept of ‘jan-sunwais’, or public hearings, as a means of fighting corruption and asserting the people’s right to information. In the public hearings, people learned that their villages and districts were supposed to possess schoolhouses, toilets, health clinics, roads, and wells-all of which had been paid for with government funds. None of these buildings or improvements, however, existed in a finished state, if indeed they existed at all. Moreover, despite records to the contrary, relief services in times of drought and famine had never arrived. The people began to ask questions, calling for audits and legal action. Several guilty officials found themselves compelled to return money they had embezzled and to apologize to the people. Soon after Aruna’s success, the Press Council of India, decided to launch a national campaign around the nucleus

of the local MKSS campaign. The council took it upon itself to draft and push for the enactment of “right to know” legislation at the national level and also to support local peoples’ struggles for the right to information. MKSS’s impact has been felt far beyond Rajasthan. In the years following its initial foray into the struggle for the people’s right to know, several Indian states passed right-to-information laws, including Rajasthan itself in 2000. And, more significantly, after many trials and false starts, and after many attempts by politicians to derail or defang the proposed legislation, in October 2005 the Right to Information Act took effect in all of India. Road ahead

Her crusade against corruption has inspired thousands of RTI activists, who have exposed everything from land scams to bank embezzlement to the misuse of public funds meant for the poor. Since then, Roy, 64, as a member of the NAC has helped shape an ambitious new rural jobs program and a food-security bill that will come before Parliament this year.

Data Mine

CENSUS: Literacy rates by gender and male-female gap in literacy rates: 1951-2011

Literates constitute 74 percent of the total population aged seven and above. A decline of 31,196,847 among illiterates is noted in Census 2011, a significant milestone! Out of 217,700,941 literates added during the decade, females (110,069,001) out number males (107,631,940). Literacy rates for males and females work out to be 82.14 percent (+ 6.88) and 65.46 percent (+11.79) has increased

compared to 2001. The gender gap in literacy rate has reduced.



28

Data Mine Census 2011: Crucial Indicators

Growth rates of India, EAG States and non- EAG States and Union Territories, 1951-2011

The percentage decadal growth rates of the six most populous States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have all fallen during 2001-2011 compared to 1991-2001, the fall being the lowest for Andhra Pradesh (3.5 percentage points) and highest for Maharashtra (6.7 percentage points).

EAG States: In order to facilitate the preparation of area-specific programmes, with special emphasis on eight states that have been lagging behind in containing population growth (contribute 45% of the population of the country), the government constituted an Empowered Action Group (EAG) in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2001. EAG states are: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa

For the first time, there is a significant fall in growth rate of population in the EAG States after decades of stagnation.

Child sex ratio 0-6 years and overall sex ratio India: 1961-2011

The sex ratio of India is 940, the highest since 1971. The sex ratio has risen by seven points since Census 2001. Majority of the States identified as gender critical have shown increasing trend in the sex ratio. Sex ratio has arisen in all major States, except two, Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. The fall in child sex ratio has been unabated since 1961. As per Census 2011, it has declined to reach an all time low

of 914.



29

Economy Concept Subsidies

Bringing subsidy bill under control and better targeting to ensure that it reaches the intended beneficiaries is a challenge for governments the world over. Here is an understanding of the concept in detail. Subsidies

A subsidy is a grant of money from an outside third party to either the buyer or the seller of a commodity. Subsidies allow a buyer to procure a commodity/service at a lower price than would otherwise have been necessary. Similarly, a business firm will not stay in operation unless revenue is sufficient enough to cover cost plus some return on investment. If revenue from buyers is insufficient, a subsidy from an outside agency may keep the firm in operation. The effect of a subsidy is opposite of the effect of a tax. A cash subsidy is the opposite of a direct tax while a subsidised commodity is the opposite of a taxed commodity. Hence, subsidies are sometimes called negative taxation. Targeting of Subsidies

Subsidies may be categorised in terms of the target in view: Subsidies for a Product: Such subsidies are used to promote a product in various ways as, for example, product development including research for quality improvement, sales promotion, product storage and export Subsidies to a Person: Subsidies targeted to a person are specific subsidies. These are provided to a person under special circumstances. Thus, monetary assistance received by widows, handicapped and other needy persons from the social welfare departments of governments falls under this category. Subsidies to a Group of Persons: These are provided to a group or category of persons such as landless labourers, freedom fighters and displaced persons. Subsidies for a Region: To ensure regional balanced development, governments generally provide extra funds for special problem regions of a country. These regions may include desert lands, drought prone areas, hilly terrains and tribal areas. Classification of Subsidies:

Subsidies are financed either from tax or non-tax revenue, or result in a deficit. Since some subsidies are less

justifiable than others, it is important to categorise services in terms of their desirability vis-a-vis subsidisation. Subsidies are generally classified into the following three categories (a) public goods, (b) merit goods and (c) non-merit goods. Public Goods: The best examples of public goods are defence, internal security and general administration. These services are characterised by non-rivalry and non-excludability in consumption. Such services are available to all citizens and cannot be priced. Hence, they are not included in the calculation of subsidies. Merit Goods: These goods encompass a large variety of services like anti-pollution measures, malaria eradication programme, primary education and health, roads and bridges, scientific research, flood control, and soil and water conservation. The social benefits resulting from these services are much greater than the sum of private benefits to individual consumers. This is so because these services contain elements of externality beneficial to the society as a whole. Subsidies on these services are justified because of availability of benefits in the form of externality. Non-merit Goods: These include, inter alia, food, fertilisers, higher education. The element of externality is either absent or limited. Social and equity objectives are generally the ground for subsidising these services. Considerable controversy exists about such subsidies. Role of Subsidies

Subsidies play a vital role in the economy of a country. A country has various resources which are to be gainfully deployed for the benefit of the population of the whole country. Subsidies are provided to ensure equitable utilization of the resources for the people. The developed, developing and underdeveloped countries have different kinds of subsidies. Developed countries provide subsidies to their population for improving standard of living, the underdeveloped countries provide subsidies for meeting bare minimum needs of the vast majority of population. Subsidies are the converse of indirect taxes and are specific to goods and services. Subsidies are different from transfer payments, which are straight income



30

supplements to individuals, who are normally the poor and the vulnerable. Effects of Subsidies

Subsidies generate various types of effects on the functioning of an economy. Positive Effects of Subsidies: Providing minimum consumption entitlement to the poor by subsidizing the items consumed by them is an extremely important welfare dimension of fiscal policy. Subsidies can correct for the under-consumption of goods with positive externalities. With the social benefits of a particular service or commodity exceeding the aggregate of private benefits to individual consumers, market solutions result in under-consumption and subsidies can make the necessary correction. However, the benefits can be maximised only when the subsidies are transparent, well targeted, and suitably designed for effective implementation without any leakages. Negative Effects of Subsidies: Subsidies can generate negative effects also. Once received, people become dependent on the subsidies. Hence, subsidies are sometimes termed as sweet poison. Misuse of subsidies for political purpose is known worldwide. Subsidies support one industry at the expense of the other. When a person is given subsidy benefit, it imposes burden on some other person in the country. Subsidies interfere in the free working of the economy in the following ways. 1. Through subsidies, free money circulates in the economy without increase in actual income/production. 2. Subsidies make the beneficiaries lethargic. 3. Subsidies lead to misallocation of resources. 4. Malpractices have often been noticed in the administration of subsidies. 5. Subsidies are often misused by politicians. Measures for Effective Utilisation of Subsidies:

Operational inefficiency in the case of provision of any public good or service leads to higher cost of production and greater subsidies. There is a wedge between subsidies that are actually received by the users of the service and subsidies that are borne by the Government. Several types of inefficiencies may accompany the public provision of services. Apart from direct costs like overstaffing, poor maintenance of assets, procedural delays, and delays in taking critical decisions, there are systemic inefficiencies. Subsidies can prove effective to achieve the desired goals if they have the following components:

1. The focus should be on physical achievements and not on financial disbursements. 2. The effects of subsidies should be monitorable and measurable in terms of quality or quantity. 3. Subsidies should be given as a one-time help or for a short period. Subsidies on continuing basis should be avoided. 4. The parameters fixed for the subsidy should be transparent. 5. Subsidies should be cost-effective. Most of the assistance should reach the intended beneficiary and very small amount should be spent on administrative arrangements. 6. Subsidies should be properly targeted, i.e. benefit should go to the really deserving. 7. Timing of subsidies should be made proper. For example, free seed distribution should be just before sowing. Subsidies in 2010-11:

India’s subsidy bill will jump by more than 100 per cent during the four-year period ending 2011-12 to Rs. 1.435 lakh crore mainly on account of rising outgo towards petroleum and food items. As per the Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 28, 2011, the expenditure on subsidies for the next fiscal is projected at Rs. 1,43,570 crore, which is over 102 per cent more than the actual expenditure of Rs. 70,926 crore during 2007-08. The expenditure on subsidy has been constantly showing an upward trend. It was Rs. 1,29,708 crore in 2008-09 and Rs. 1,41,351 crore in 2009-10. It reached a high of Rs. 1,64,153 crore estimate for 2010-11. The greatest share of subsidy allocation is for the three segments - food, fertiliser and petroleum. While the projected subsidy for food in 2011-12 is Rs. 60,573 crore, for fertiliser and petroleum it is Rs. 49,998 crore and Rs. 23,640 crore, respectively. In 2007-08, the subsidy on food was Rs. 31,328 crore, for fertiliser it was Rs. 32,490 crore and for petroleum only Rs. 2,820 crore. Thus petroleum products saw the biggest jump in subsidies during the four year period, while food subsidy bill has almost doubled.

The government had recently set up a task-force headed by Nandan Nilekani to work out the modalities for the proposed system of direct transfer of subsidy for kerosene, LPG and fertilisers to ensure greater efficiency, cost effectiveness and better delivery.



31

Business Biography Walt Disney: The ultimate showman

Famous as a pioneer of animation films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, ‘The Disney Company’ he founded has become one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates. Walt Disney Studios opened in 1923 as an animation studio. The studio pioneered commercial applications of the art form (and has been its most successful practitioner ever since). Disney has continually expanded in more recent years and is now the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. The firm’s rise is as interesting as the stories that it peddles. Walter Elias Disney, the founder of the multi-billion dollar entertainment conglomerate named after him, kicked off his career as a professional artist at the age of seven when he first offered his drawings for sale to neighbours in Marceline, Missouri. He launched his legend as a visionary some 15 years later when in 1923 he left for Los Angeles with just $40 and his art supplies. On the West Coast, he and older brother Roy borrowed $500 from an uncle and opened their own animation studio. Walt concentrated on the drawing and Roy handled the finances. Within a few short years they had created Mickey Mouse (who is still the world’s most famous cartoon character) along with a film to introduce him. When ‘Steamboat Willie’ debuted in 1928 as the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, Mickey’s falsetto was provided by Walt himself. Innovations continually sprang from Disney’s bountiful imagination and his unwavering willingness to take risks. He was the first to use Technicolor in animation. He also invented a system that added stunning three-dimensional depth to his drawings. His first feature film to utilize these advances, the revolutionary ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, was also Hollywood’s first full-length animated musical. It cost an astonishing $1.5 million to produce. But the movie paid its creators back handsomely with huge box-office receipts and widespread public acclaim. Disney used proceeds to build a new state-of-the-art animation studio in Burbank, and a remarkable series followed that was both stylistically revolutionary and commercially popular. Pinocchio, Bambi, Cinderella, and Peter Pan are among those instant classics that remain popular to this day. But Disney was not content. His drive to develop even more trailblazing forms of family entertainment took him first to live action films such as ‘Treasure Island’, ‘20,000

Leagues Under the Sea’, and ‘Davy Crockett’, and then to youth-oriented comedies such as ‘The Shaggy Dog’, ‘The Absent-Minded Professor’, and ‘The Parent Trap’. In 1954, he moved to the fledgling medium of television, where he initially presented ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’

and ‘Zorro’. He later hosted one of the first weekly shows not broadcast in standard black-and-white, the aptly named ‘Wonderful World of Color’. In 1955, he opened Disneyland in California, and this real-life magic kingdom immediately lifted his name and empire to previously unimaginable heights. It also unwittingly launched the ongoing theme park craze—which took a giant step forward in 1971 when his successors introduced Florida’s

Walt Disney World, which is still being tinkered with by them and others in various forms—from Paris to Tokyo to Las Vegas. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention to the problems of urban life in America. He personally began directing the design of his “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow,” or EPCOT, which would serve as “a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.” As a businessman, Disney also was an original. Disney was a man who publicly carried the image of a genial uncle, but was never satisfied with anything but the best from his growing workforce. To deliver the extraordinarily high level of customer service that he demanded throughout his organization, he implemented extensive training programs and strict employee guidelines. This drive for perceived perfection occasionally brought public ridicule—as when facial hair was totally banned from all male theme park workers. But it also helped establish the Disney brand as a purveyor of dependable products that parents could invariably trust and kids would consistently enjoy. When Disney died in 1966, his efforts had garnered 48 Oscars, seven Emmys, thousands of other accolades, and unlimited global recognition. His two theme parks became the most popular attractions of their kind in the world, drawing millions each year who came to play out their fantasies and snatch up licensed merchandise emblazoned with Mickey and his animated cronies.



32

Mind Games: Crossword (Answers on page No: 38)

ACROSS

2. Examine unknown values (11) 7. Defending champions who could not get past the group stage at the 2010 FIFA World Cup (5) 8. Passenger vehicles (5) 9. Unsettle (7) 13. Financial institution which gives loans to developing countries? (5.4) 15. Indian goddess of wisdom (9) 18. The brother of one’s parent (5) 20. Referred, ascribed or attributed (7) 21. ___ a Stiff upper lip; faces misfortune bravely and resolutely? (5) 22. Hate very much (7) 25. ____ Holyfield: he had his ear-bitten by Mike Tyson? (7) 27. Passing through (7) 28. Famous French sculptor? (5) 32. Rice dish - “it pal” changed? (5) 35. Given medical attention (7) 40. Founder of Servants of India Society in 1905 (7)

ACROSS 41. Joining or blending gradually (7) 42. Ring near the bull on the target? (5) 43. Pressing to remove the creases? (7) 44. Tree of Canada (5) 45. What an optimist is more likely to see, as compared to a pessimist? (3, 2, .4)

ACROSS 49. Dictionary of synonyms and antonyms (9) 53. Causing harm or death (7) 54. Belly button (5) 55. ___at: made it ones target? (5) 56. He holds the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs portfolio in the current cabinet (6, 5)

DOWN 1. __cost: free? (2.2)

2. Wide - _ : surprised; naive? (4)

3. Precipitation of the clouds (4)

4. Pre-Euro Italian currency (4)

5. Declines; retreats (4)

6. Saucy and impertinent (4) 9. Injures; harms (7) 10. Snow mountain machine, in a manner of speaking? (3-4)

11. It is sold by a second-hand automobile dealer? (4, 3) 12. ____ the gap: narrowed the distance, in a way? (7) 13. Bruises, injuries or gashes (6) 14. Anti-Semite or anti-black, e.g. (6) 16. Make_: atone for? (6) 17. Place into position (6) 19. _ Kazan: famous Hollywood director? (4) 21. Third “K” in the notorious group K.K.K.”? (4) 23. Pulse Repetition Frequency (3) 24. Gastropod mollusc (5)

DOWN

26. Taedium_: weariness of life with tendency to commit suicide? (5) 29. Another word for a young sheep (3) 30. More hideous in appearance (6) 31. Very very thin? (6) 32. Duo or couple (4) 33. Word-book, or dictionary (7) 34. ____ Cables Limited: Indian PLC — “I no flex” anagram? (7) 35 Gain access to or become friendly with? (3, 4) 36 Political refugees (7) 37. Old fashioned road transport still used in Calcutta (4) 38. Capital of Assam (6) 39. Concurs or complies with (6) 46. Far and ______: beyond all doubt? (4) 47. Currency of Yemen? (4) 48. Opposite of “rich” (4) 50. Swaying dance (4) 51. Partly, but not fully, open (4) 52. Maui guitars (4)



33

General Knowledge Quiz

Directions for Qs. 1 – 50: Choose the correct answer from the four options (Answers on page No: 38)

1. Which bank publishes the monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) that is based on a survey of top 500 companies in India and measures the health of manufacturing sector? a) HSBC b) Stanchart Bank c) HDFC Bank d) Bank of America 2. Which is the second most popular browser after Microsoft’s Internet Explorer with a 22% share of the global market? a) Opera b) Firefox c) Chrome d) Safari 3. The proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at the village of Diu near Mumbai of which corporate group was denotified by the Maharashtra government recently? a) Videocon Group b) Mukesh Ambani Group (RIL) c) Tata Group d) AV Birla Group 4. Which of the following pairs of bankers and their banks is/are not matched correctly? a) Aditya Puri – HDFC Bank b) Rana Kapoor – YES Bank c) Shikha Sharma – Axis Bank d) None of the above 5. Which MNC life insurance company has acquired 26% stake in Reliance Life recently? a) Prudential b) Standard Life c) Liberty Mutual d) Nippon Life 6. Vishal Retail was acquired by which corporate group recently? a) Murugappa Group b) RP Goenka Group c) Avantha Group d) Shriram Group 7. Sam Palmisano is the Chairman of which of the following? a) Intel b) Oracle

c) Cisco d) IBM 8. Which private sector bank got a trademark registration for its corporate jingle – “Dhin Chik Dhin Chik” recently? a) HDFC Bank b) IndusInd Bank c) Axis Bank d) ICICI Bank 9. Which book on Mahatma Gandhi has been authored by Joseph Lelyveld? a) ‘Gandhi: Practical Idealism And Strategies Of

Inclusion’ b) ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With

India’ c) ‘The Man Who Killed Gandhi’ d) ‘Timeless Inspirator –Reliving Gandhi’

10. Ronald K Noble is the Secretary General of: a) WHO b) NATO c) INTERPOL d) UNESCO 11. Birla Kerala Vaidyashala belongs to which of the following? a) Chandra Kant Birla Group b) Aditya Vikram Birla Group c) Basant Kumar Birla Group d) Yash Birla Group

12. The no-fly zone in Libya is being imposed by: a) Arab League b) African Union c) NATO d) United Nations 13. Craig Venter is associated with which of the following organisations? a) Doctors Without Borders b) Celera Genomics c) Caparo Group d) World Wide Web Consortium

14. Which of the following is not matched correctly? a) PM of Australia – Julia Gillard b) PM of New Zealand – John Key c) PM of France – Nicholas Sarkozy d) PM of Spain – José Luis Zapatero



34

15. Which of the following has launched the premium paint range ‘Lady Effects’, in India recently? a) Asian Paints b) Kansai Nerolac c) AkzoNobel d) Jotun Paints 16. ‘FLAME — Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment’ is a financial education and awareness initiative launched by: a) Bloomberg UTV b) Reserve Bank of India c) India Infoline Group d) Moneycontrol.com

17. ‘A Step Ahead’ is the punchline of which mobile service company? a) Uninor b) Idea Cellular c) Bharti Airtel d) MTS 18. Which state was India’s largest producer of sugar in 2010-11? a) Uttar Pradesh b) Karnataka c) Maharashtra d) Tamil Nadu 19. ‘The Golden Chariot’ is the luxury train run by Tourism Department of which state? a) Maharashtra b) Rajasthan c) Karnataka d) Gujarat 20. Which Indian pharma company has launched ‘Risorine’ – a low-cost drug for treatment of TB, in association with CSIR on the World TB day? a) Torrent Pharma b) Aurobindo Pharma c) Cadila d) Alembic

21. Who among the following was associated with MindTree before his resignation recently? a) Harsh Manglik b) T V Mohandas Pai c) Subroto Bagchi d) Ashok Soota 22. Areva is one of world’s leading companies in which business? a) Cement b) Fertilsers & Chemicals

c) Shipping d) Nuclear power 23. What is the ceiling on Foreign Direct Investment in in the insurance sector in India? a) 26% b) 49% c) 51% d) 74% 24. Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Munaf Patel are employed with which government owned company/organisation? a) Indian Railways b) India Post c) ONGC d) Air India 25. Which newspaper in association with the WWF started the practice of observing ‘Earth Hour’ in 2007? a) The Dawn b) Washington Post c) Sydney Morning Herald d) Los Angeles Times 26. Who were the highest run-getter and wicket-taker in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup? a) Yuvraj Singh & Harbhajan Singh b) Kumara Sangakkara & Shahid Afridi c) Sachin Tendulkar & Lasith Malinga d) Tillakaratne Dilshan & Zaheer Khan 27. Which of the following is not matched correctly? a) Ajit Balakrishnan – Chairman and CEO of Rediff.com b) Gulu Mirchandani – CMD of Videocon Industries c) Cyrus Poonawalla – CMD of Serum Institute of India d) None of the above 28. Who among the following is not associated with the Tata Group? a) V. Sumantran b) Ravi Kant c) S. Ramadorai d) B Muthuraman 29. Which of the following is the official news agency of Libya? a) Antara b) Bernama c) Jamahiriya d) Fars 30. Stephen Elop is the CEO of which of the following? a) Philips



35

b) Nokia c) Research In Motion d) Sony 31. Leela Samson is known for expertise in which dance form? a) Kathak b) Manipuri c) Bharatnatyam d) Odissi 32. Which of the following combinations of people and their industries is not matched correctly? a) GVK Reddy – Infrastructure industry b) K. Anji Reddy – Pharmaceutical industry c) Rajendra Singh Pawar – Cement industry d) S. S. Tarapore – Banking industry 33. Which of the following is coming up at Hyderabad? a) National Museum of Astrology b) National Museum of Statistics c) National Museum of Palmistry d) National Museum of Astronomy 34. Which of the following was sent by the India to assist in rescue and relief efforts in quake-hit Japan? a) Rapid Action Force b) National Disaster Response Team c) Indian Red Cross d) National Disaster Rescue Force 35. What is SIMBEX? a) Operating system for mobile devices by Intel b) India’s first 4G mobile phone launched by Samsung c) Naval exercise conducted by India and Singapore d) Asia’s largest trade fair organised in Shanghai 36. Maruti Suzuki recently became India’s first automobile company to produce its _____ car in March 2011. a) 10-millionth b) 20-millionth c) 30-millionth d) 40-millionth 37. Sudhir Kakar is a well known: a) Vocalist b) Economist c) Archaeologist d) Psychoanalyst 38. Which is the only Indian company included by New York’s Ethisphere Institute in its list of the world’s most ethical companies recently?

a) Tata Steel b) HDFC c) ONGC d) ICICI Bank 39. Rajat Gupta, who was in news for his alleged involvement in an insider trading scam, was the first Indian Managing Director of which consulting firm? a) Ernst & Young b) PricewaterhouseCoopers c) KPMG d) McKinsey 40. Which construction firm has been found to have committed violations in the construction of flats inside the Commonwealth Games Village by the V K Shunglu committee? a) DLF b) Emmar MGF c) HCC d) Unitech 41. Which was the largest selling medicine in India in 2010? a) Corex b) Voveran c) Phensedyl Cough d) Augmentin 42. Chetan Maini is associated with which of the following industries? a) Automobiles b) Banking c) Aviation d) Information technology 43. Who is the Chairman of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission? a) Vijay Kelkar b) Amit Mitra c) B. N. Srikrishna d) Rakesh Mohan 44. US billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is a company in which sector? a) Shipping b) Banking c) Retailing d) Insurance 45. Noted Kathak dancer Birju Maharaj was appointed as brand ambassador of which of the following? a) Moov b) Amrutanjan



36

c) Tiger Balm d) Zandu Balm

46. Which of the following is not an Information Technology company? a) Zensar b) Polaris c) Subex d) Asahi

47. Which well-known US bank has appointed Mukesh Ambani as the first non-American citizen to join its Board of Directors recently? a) Wells Fargo b) JPMorgan Chase c) Bank of America d) Citigroup

48. Valmik Thapar is a well-known:

a) Astronomer b) Physicist c) Wildlife conservationist d) Industrialist 49. Which company is ranked No. 1 in Fortune Magazine’s list of World’s 50 Most Admired Companies? a) Facebook b) Apple c) Amazon.com d) Google 50. Pawan Goenka is associated with which vehicles company? a) Maruti Suzuki b) Tata Motors c) Ashok Leyland d) Mahindra & Mahindra

Mind Games: Sudoku (Answers on page No: 38)

SUDOKU I

SUDOKU II



37

Do you remember? (Answers on page No: 38)

1. Who is the Secretary General at Amnesty International?

2. Who is the founder and CEO of WPP – the world’s largest advertising and marketing services group?

3. Which is the first state to announce a monthly allowance to unemployed under-graduates?

4. In which country had the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occur in 1979?

5. In which country had the Chernobyl nuclear accident occur in 1986?

6. Which NATO country has abolished compulsory military service in 2011?

7. Who has been appointed Chairman of Public Accounts Committee of Parliament for 2011-12?

8. Which country is the largest importer of conventional arms in 2006-2010 according to SIPRI?

9. Which country was the source of the highest share of India’s arms imports in 2006-2010?

10. Which country was the world’s largest exporter of arms in 2006-2010 according to SIPRI?

11. Which political party was derecognised after more than three decades in power in Egypt in 2011?

12. Which country had the highest generation of nuclear electricity (in billion kilowatt hour) in 2009, according to information given by World Nuclear Energy Association in 2011?

13. Which country had the highest share of its electricity coming from nuclear power plants?

14. Which UNESCO World Heritage Site in India has won the UNESCO Asia Pacific Merit award for cultural heritage conservation?

15. Which sector is most prone to corruption according to a survey by consulting firm KPMG in 2011?

16. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is given in which form of Cricket?

17. Which of the three titles – Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles & Men’s Doubles was won by China in the 2011 All England Open Badminton tournament?

18. Kolkata based Leisure Sports has launched a league similar to the Indian Premier League in which sport?

19. Which state is ranked No. 1 on ‘Economic Freedom’ in the Economic Freedom of the States of India 2011 report of the Cato Institute and Indicus Analytics?

20. Fukushima nuclear plant is on which Island of Japan? 21. Who is the Emperor of Japan? 22. Which well-known architect established the ‘Centre

of Science and Technology for Rural Development” ? 23. Who has won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011? 24. Who has authored a recent book on Indian cinema

titled ‘50 Indian Film Classics-An Eclectic Collection’?

25. What is the first Hindi literary journal started in Lok Sabha in 2011 named?

26. What is the FDI limit in airline ventures in India? 27. What is the FDI limit for NRIs in domestic airline

ventures in India? 28. What should be minimum Scheduled Caste (SC)

population for a village to be selected for development under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)?

29. What is the United Nations approved US led military operation in Libya code-named?

30. Which university is ranked No. 1 in list of world’s 100 most reputed universities rated by the Times Higher Education (THE) of Britain in 2011?

31. Which is the highest ranked Indian University in the list of world’s 100 most reputed universities rated by the Times Higher Education of Britain in 2011?

32. Which Indian social activist has won the Radcliffe Institute Medal of the Harvard University for 2011?

33. Who is the Director-General of the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)?

34. Kishwar Desai has won Britain’s prestigious Costa prize for which novel?

35. The Shillong Declaration is about which Act? 36. Who is the first woman appointed as Additional

Solicitor General of India in 2009? 37. Who were selected as brand ambassadors by Election

Commission for assembly elections in West Bengal? 38. Which is the most recent book authored by well

known historian Ramchandra Guha? 39. Which Day was celebrated on March 21, 2011? 40. Which Gulf country is ruled by Sultan Qaboos? 41. Why has the government set up the ‘Traditional

Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)’? 42. Which NASA spacecraft has entered the orbit of

planet Mercury? 43. What has replaced the image of the monarch of Nepal

on its currency notes in 2011? 44. Which country has tested its rocket named

Kavoshgar? 45. Which decade has been declared as the Water for

Life Decade by the United Nations? 46. What is March 22 observed as around the world

every year? 47. Who is the Chairperson of the committee set up to

formulate ‘a low carbon development strategy’? 48. Article 72 of the Indian Constitution is about what? 49. Who owns Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.? 50. Which country is hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup

and the 2016 Olympic Games?



38

Do you remember? : Answers

1. Salil Shetty 2. Sir Martin Sorrell 3. Goa 4. USA 5. Ukraine 6. Germany 7. Murli Manohar Joshi 8. India 9. Russia 10. USA 11. National Democratic Party 12. USA 13. France 14. Hyderabad’s Chowmahalla

Palace 15. Real estate and construction 16. Twenty20 17. Women’s singles 18. Wrestling

19. Tamil Nadu 20. Honshu 21. Akihito 22. Laurie Baker 23. Chinese author Bi Feiyu for

his novel ‘Three Sisters’ 24. M.K. Raghavendra 25. Sansadiya Manjusha 26. 49% 27. 100% 28. 50% 29. Operation Odyssey Dawn 30. Harvard University 31. Indian Institute of Science

(IISc), Bangalore 32. Ela Bhatt of SEWA 33. William Dar 34. ‘Witness the Night’ 35. Right to Information Act

36. Indira Jaising 37. Sourav Ganguly and Tabla

player Bickram Ghosh 38. ‘Makers of Modern India’

(2010) 39. World Forestry Day 40. Oman 41. To stop the award of wrong

patents based on ancient Indian knowledge

42. Messenger 43. Mount Everest 44. Iran 45. 2005-2015 46. World Water Day 47. Kirit Parikh 48. Mercy petitions 49. Tata Group 50. Brazil

Mind Games: Answers

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU I

SUDOKU II

General Knowledge quiz: Answer Key

1. a 2. b 3. b 4. d 5. d 6. d 7. d 8. d 9. b 10. c

11. d 12. c 13. b 14. c 15. d 16. c 17. d 18. c 19. c 20. c

21. d 22. d 23. a 24. c 25. c 26. d 27. b 28. a 29. c 30. b

31. c 32. c 33. b 34. d 35. c 36. a 37. d 38. b 39. d 40. b

41. d 42. a 43. c 44. d 45. d 46. d 47. c 48. c 49. b 50. d

endeavor careers – dream … endeavor… achieve 1 genesis-may 2011...rajkot: 3rd floor, kings,...

Documents