may 31

Politics & the Nation

• An interesting debate on whether or not the accused should be jailed before trial and conviction
• Take a look at this debate by two eminent personalities on the issue.  Worth our attention.

Finance & Economy

• Credit default swaps to be allowed in India
• Credit default swaps, an insurance instrument partly blamed for the credit
  crisis and the near sinking of US insurer AIG, will be permitted in
  India from October with banks, primary dealers and non-banking financial
  companies’ participation and some strict rules to prevent abuse.
• The instrument, popularly known as CDS, which promises the holder payment
  of money to the insured amount of bond holding in case of a default, is
  aimed at developing the domestic corporate bond market.
• The new guidelines that will come to force from October 24, is framed with
  safeguards to prevent abuse of position by financial intermediaries to
  boost their revenues as it happened with currency derivatives that sank
  many small companies.
• Only the market makers or commercial banks will be allowed to buy and sell
  credit default swaps while the ‘users’ can only buy credit protection,
  but will not be allowed to sell them. Users may be insurance companies,
  housing finance companies, provident funds, listed corporates and
  foreign institutional investors. RBI, which received comments from
  public, has built-in protection for naive and put the onus on the
  sellers of CDS to ensure that they educate the buyer on what they are
  getting into.
• The users cannot hold these contracts without having eligible underlying
  bonds, though the market makers can buy protection without having the
  underlying bond. The users cannot buy CDS for amounts higher than the
  face value of the corporate bonds held by them.
• Though credit default swaps is only allowed on listed corporate bonds, the
  central bank has made an exception for rated but unlisted bonds of
  infrastructure companies.
• Some titbits relating to retail in India
• It is estimated that about 40% of all farm products in India rot by the time they reach the final point of sale.  
• India today allows 51% FDI in single brand retail and 100% for wholesale.
• The share of organised retail in India is a tiny 4% of the total, opposed
  to 20% in China, 30% in Indonesia and 55% in Malaysia.
• India is facing a problem of plenty in respect of foodgrains
• As of May 1, India’s food stocks stand at 27.8 million tonnes of rice,
  31.4 million tonnes of wheat and 0.1 million tonnes of coarse grains,
  adding up to a food mountain twice as large as is required by official
  buffer stocking norms.

International

• What is becoming of the Pakistan state?
• Take a look at this assessment from Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear Physics at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad:
• Now, while it is true that the al Qaeda is losing support in Pakistan, this
  country has become a battleground in which there are several contending
  jihadi groups. Some are pro-Saudi and pro-Pakistan, like the
  Lashkare-Toiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and Hizbul Mujahideen. Others, like
  the Tehreek-e-Taliban and the Al-Qaida, are fully engaged in fighting
  the Pakistani and Saudi establishments. Still others, like the
  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba, are largely focused upon killing
  Shias. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, there are many more
  groups, some of which are more criminal than ideological. It is a
  terrible mess. Clearly, Pakistan is becoming a dangerous place for many
  groups. It is most dangerous for Ahmadis, followed by Hindus and
  Christians. But even for Shias, who had initially been enthusiastic
  about Islamisation of Pakistan, things have become very difficult.
  Pakistan has slowly turned into a religious extremist country, although
  there are still islands of tolerance left here and there. This is the
  direct consequence of the Pakistani state's desire in earlier decades to
  breed militancy within its borders.

Language Lessons

• hoity-toity: Adjective
• Affectedly genteel
• eg: The staff found it difficult to deal with the hoity-toity snooty clients.
• hoi polloi: Noun
• The common people generally