WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE WEEK ENDED 23rd JANUARY 10
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE WEEK ENDED 23rd JANUARY 10 1) India's longest serving CM , who ruled West Bengal for 23 years and the CPM icon Jyoti Basu died in Calcutta at the age 95. He had also narrowly missed being the PM in 1996. 2) In a blow to Rajendra Pachouri , IPCC I has expressed regrets over for their incorrect prediction that Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035 due to global warming. 3) 4 more banks closed down in USA in January 2010. Close to 200 banks , mostly small and medium scale banks had bit the dust in 2009. 4) 3 D film ' Avatar , won the Golden Globe award for the best film and best directed while ' Hangover' won the award for the best comedy. 5) Cinematographer VK Murhty has won Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2009 . He had made India's first cinemascope film " Kagaz Ke Phool ". 6) Japan Airlines ( JAL) went bankrupt with a staggering US $ 26 billion in debt in one of the biggest corporate collapses in Japan . Kazumao Inamori , a 77 year old Japanese industrialist and an ordained Budhist monk has been appointed by the Govt to oversee the turnaround of the airline . About 16000 job losses are expected to occur. 7) Sivsankar Menon who retired as India's foreign Secretary last year will be the next NSA He replaces MK Narayan who has been appointed Governor of Bengal. 8) The almost 2 1/2 months ban on pre-paid mobiles imposed in J & K due to security reasons has been lifted by GOI after imposing stringent procedures on service providers for verification of 38 lac existing customers. . 9) India's public limited company with the largest market capitalization, RIL , recorded its first quarterly net profit jump in a year by posting a net of Rs. 4008 crores for the quarter ended December 09 up from Rs. 3501 crores for the same period last year. There was , however , a marginal drop in the net profit for April-December 09 at Rs.11526 crores compared to Rs.11682 cores for the corresponding period last year. 10) Lt.Gen VK Singh will be India's next Army chief He is an infantry officer and is GOC , Eastern Command. He takes over on 31st March 31 when the current incumbent Gen. Deepak Kapoor retires. 11) Number Resource Organization ( NRO ) , the Amsterdam based official representative of the 5 regional registries that oversee allocation of internet IP address has stated that Internet has only about 10 % addresses available in the system being currently used. NRO has stated that it was vital that Internet community shift to a new system with global acceptance to enjoy uninterrupted internet communication. 12) Just a year after recording their worst decline in GDP growth in decades, China recorded a 8.9 % GDP growth rate in 2009. China is , thus , all set to overtake Japan , the second largest economy in the world although a confirmation will have to await till March 10 when Japan's figures will be released.. 13) Food inflation has eased to 16.81 % for the week ended 9th Jan 10. 14) The " Aal izz well " man of the film ' 3 idiots ' has signed the biggest endorsement deal in advertising history in India for Rs. 35 crores for 3 years for promoting new the telecom entrant Etisalat. 15) Department of Telecom has ruled that foreign companies who bid for 3 G spectrum will be last in queue of 434 companies for 2 G spectrum allocation . This will give an advantage to local players who bid for 3 G spectrum. While 3G spectrum is required for providing value added services like videoconferencing and ultra fast internet access in mobile , 2 G spectrum is required for new entrants to India to enable them to offer the entire range of mobile services. This , by default , rules out foreign bidders in 3 G bidding and can certainly impact Govt revenue as new foreign players would have made the bidding process intensely aggressive and competitive. 16) The world's second largest processed foods company , the US based Kraft Foods Inc has finalized a US $ 18.9 billion deal to takeover UK based Cadbury PLC .This marks the culmination of a protracted battle by Kraft to takeover Cadburys which also included an unsuccessful hostile takeover bid. With this buy out , Kraft gets an entry into India , the only emerging market it did not have a presence and which it had been unsuccessfully trying to enter for the past decade. Kraft is famous for its brands like Kraft cheese , Tang powder drink amongst others. 17) AR Rehman's Tamil song " Na Na " for his first Hollywood movie " Couples Retreat "has won him an Oscar nomination again for the best original song. 18) West Indian all-rounder Karren Pollards and Kiwi pacer Shane Bond fetched the highest price amount of US $ 750,000 /- in the IPL 3 players auction. The auction kicked up a row as no team bid for Pak players raising a storm of protest from Pak authorities 19) Australia has completed a 3 0 whitewash of Pakistan in the 3 test series played in Australia.
