DEEWALI IN MARKETS A DAY BEFORE

Diwali sparkles came to stock markets a day early today as the BSE benchmark Sensex closed at an all-time high of 20,893.57 points by gaining almost 428 points on robust buying of blue chips like RIL, SBI and HDFC.
This leaves just 107 points to go for the Sensex to breach the landmark 21,000 points level. The Sensex today closed at 20,893.57 points, supassing the previous record of 20,873.33 achieved on January 8, 2008.
During the session, the index today touched an intra-day high of 20,917.03 points.
Another benchmark index, the NSE Nifty, closed at 6,281.80 points, just six points shy of its record close at 6,287.85 on January 8, 2008.
Following today's rally, the Sensex is just 313 points away from its all-time intra-day peak of 21,206.77 points, scaled on January 10, 2008. Equity analysts were enthusiastic the Sensex will surpass this level tomorrow during Muhurat trading.
Marketmen said the investor sentiment is upbeat after state-run Coal India's stellar debut on the domestic bourses today and the US Federal Reserve's announcement of a new stimulus package for the American economy.
"Markets across the globe gained on account of the second round of quantitative easing by the US. Firm listing of Coal India and a fall in weekly food inflation further boosted the investment sentiment," Global Securities Research Head (Retail) Saurabh Jain said.

ROTTING FOODGRAINS...NOT EXCUSABLE...

Oct 18 : Ticking off the Centre for the rotting of huge quantities of foodgrains when people are dying of hunger, the Supreme Court today asked what action has been taken against officials responsible for it. Terming the matter as "extremely serious", the apex asked the Centre to ensure no further wastage and gear up to meet the storage required for the ensuing kharif crops. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mohan Parasaran drew flak for his argument that only 7000 tonnes of grains had got rotten in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns and that 67,539 tonnes were wasted in the godowns owned by States of Haryana and Punjab. "Even if it is 7,000 tonnes how can it happen? Then there is the wastage in two States. It is an extremely serious matter. You compare the wastage world over. The damage done in two States is very high. What action you have taken against the officials? "You are admitting 7000 tonnes have been damaged. People are dying of hunger. You are not providing them grain. This litigation has been going on for the past 10 years. Some evaluation should have been done by you by this time to prevent wastage and ensure proper distribution," a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma told the ASG. The apex court made the observation while dealing with the public interest litigation moved by Peoples Union for Civil Liberties's(PUCL) complaining about large scale corruption the country's public distribution system (PDS) and rotting of food grains in government godowns. The Bench had earlier ordered the Government to distribute food grains free of cost to the hungry poor, but the Centre had not given any commitment on the issue though Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Paward had orally assured that Government would implement the direction. However, subsequently the Prime Minister joined the issue saying courts should not interfere in policy matters. 

THAT'S CHINA...

China which has been operating bullet trains is now developing a new high-speed locomotive that could travel like smaller air planes, logging about 500 km per hour, a top railway official has said. "We want to lead the world in high-speed railway construction," He Huawu, chief engineer of Chinese Ministry of Railways said. China created a world record on June 24, 2008, when the Beijing-Tianjin CRH3 high-speed train hit 394.3 kilometres per hour. Experts however said the 500 km super fast train is still in the research phase. The newer high-speed technology is in its final phase of development. "As long as we can prove that the train can run without slipping at such a high speed, we have achieved our goal. It is just an experiment," Wang Mengshu, a professor at the Tunnel and Underground Engineering Research Centre at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the Global Times. "Our aim is to tell the world that China has the ability to achieve this goal," he added. As of September, there were 7,055 kilometres of high-speed tracks in China and construction is underway to build another 10,000 KM. The China-made CRH380A train hit 416.6 km per hour - a world record - during a trip from Shanghai and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province last month. The train was designed to run as fast as 350 km per hour to cover the 202-km distance between the two cities. It will make its debut operation officially at the end of this month. Some 80 million passengers are expected to travel the route every year. Travel time between the two cities was slashed to less than 40 minutes from more than two hours after the train was put into service. By 2012, a 110,000-kilometre network of rails will include 13,000 kilometres of high-speed rails, the ministry said earlier. The 1,318-kilometre Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed railway, which cost about 220.9 billion yuan (USD32.5 billion), is scheduled to open in 2012. The train will cut travel time between Beijing and Shanghai by half to less than five hours. He, the engineer, estimated the length of high-speed rails would hit 50,000 kilometres in the near future, connecting all cities with a population of more than five lakh.

HP's Kinnauri shawls get GI tag

The famous Kinnauri shawl of Himachal Pradesh has joined the club of intellectual property right (IPR) protected goods as it has been granted Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the government.
Kinnauri shawl has been registered under the Geographical Indication Act, a spokesman for the Himachal Pradesh Patent Information Centre (HPPIC)--which comes under State Council for Science, Technology and Environment--said today.
Kinnauri shawl is the fourth traditional product of Himachal Pradesh that has been granted GI tag. Kullu shawl, Kangra tea and Chamba Rumal are already in the club of protected goods.
The Registration of Kinnaur shawl under GI would prevent the unauthorised production as well as misuse of the brand name of Kinnauri shawl originating from a place, other than the place of origin.
Any unauthorised use and infringement of the registered Geographical Indication, by producers, other than from the place of origin of these products could attract imprisonment upto three years and maximum fine of Rs 2 lakh.

India's higher growth not translated in reducing hunger

Unlike China, higher economic growth is not translated into a more rapid reduction of hunger in India, which has more hungry people than its neighbouring countries, a US-based policy think-tank said today.
"It is ironic that out of 84 countries, India ranks 67th for having alarming scale of hunger. Higher growth rates in India has not been translated into hunger reduction,"Ashok Gulati,International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director Asia, told reporters after the release of the 2010 Global Hunger Index (GHI) here.
China's economy, which is four times bigger than India, has made remarkable progress in reducing hunger. As a result, the country has been ranked at the ninth place, he said.
India's economy grew at 7.4 per cent in 2009-10 fiscal and is expected to touch 8.5 per cent this financial year.
Gulati pointed out China has been successful in expanding its economy fast, with reforms in agriculture followed by manufacturing and services sectors.
"On the contrary, India's growth story is more focused on services sector, especially IT and telecom. Agriculture sector is still waiting for reforms," he noted.
However, despite lower economic growth, even neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been successful in reducing hunger, he added.
Gulati further explained that one per cent farm growth is 2-3 times more effective in tackling hunger. But presently, there are not enough reform packages to boost farm growth, as we have for services and manufacturing sector. Agriculture in India is most controlled sector, he added.
India's agricultural growth in 2009-10 fiscal fell to 0.2 per cent, while it was 1.6 per cent last year.
According to the 2010 GHI, which is jointly prepared by the IFPRI and German group Concern Worldwide and Welthunger Hilfe, the high index scores in India are driven by high levels of child underweight, resulting from the low nutritional and social status of women in the country.

Rare Praise

Aug 5 (PTI) The Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) received a rare compliment from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on 5th August when he praised the BJP-led front for its decision to deregulate petroleum prices during its six-year rule. "And I must thank the NDA government, who came to power in 1998 and who took this decision (to free the pricing)," Mukherjee said while replying to a debate on the inflationary pressure on the economy.
Mukherjee said the NDA government's pricing policy, which was later discontinued, helped the country to increase its refining capacity.
The BJP-led NDA government had in 2002 freed petrol and diesel prices, resulting in a revision in rates on the 1st and 16th of every month. The deregulation that began from April 1, 2002, was discontinued in January, 2004, on the eve of the General Election. The deregulation was done as per a roadmap decided in 1998. All other petroleum products other than petrol, diesel, domestic LPG, kerosene and ATF were deregulated in 1998. ATF was deregulated in 2002 and continues to be free from government interference. "With the change of the pricing policy implemented between 1998 and 2002, there has been a boom in investments in the refining sector from about 62 million metric tonnes per year in 1998 to refining capacity today going up to 183 million metric tonnes per year and is expected to reach 255 million metric tonnes per year by 2012," he said.
The Finance Minister said the NDA government's decision brought a vibrancy to the petroleum sector. "It was a correct decision to change the import parity concession to bring the better income, which brought our refineries dynamic expertise and they are (now) working in a competitive mood to the world," Mukherjee said. The Congress-led UPA Government in June this year again deregulated the prices of petrol.

IRCTC Record

Aug 5 : IRCTC, which could lose its monopoly in the e-ticketing business after a recent decision by Railways, has registered the highest ticket sale on a single day on Tuesday with the figure touching Rs 25.16 crore.
About 5.49 lakh passengers booked 3,16,412 tickets on August 3 through its website which was the highest booking achieved so far since the organisation came into being eight years back, an IRCTC official said today.
Ironically, this comes against the backdrop of Railways deciding to start an e-portal which would also sell rail tickets apart from providing other services. The move could end IRCTC's monopoly in this business.
The official said on August 3, IRCTC also registered another record by selling 27,782 e-tickets in a single hour between 12 pm and 1 pm. It also marked booking of 42 per cent of all railway tickets. The feat also comes in the backdrop of the organisation banning IRCTC's web-based agents from selling e-tickets from 8 am to 9 am after complaints of irregularities.
The organisation, considered the largest e-commerce site in Asia Pacific, had earned a revenue of Rs 122 crore from the e-ticketing business during the last financial year. IRCTC also stands to lose its catering business as the new catering policy unveiled recently has asked zonal railways to take up the responsibility.