Economic Definitions - SLR

The Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) is a measure under which all Scheduled Commercial Banks in India must maintain an amount in one of the following forms as a percentage of their total Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL)

[i] Cash.
[ii] Gold; or
[iii] Investments in un-encumbered Instruments that include;

(a) Treasury-Bills of the Government of India.
(b) Dated securities including those issued by the Government of India from time to time under the market borrowings programme and the Market Stabilization Scheme (MSS).
(c) State Development Loans (SDLs) issued by State Governments under their market borrowings programme.
(d) Other instruments as notified by the RBI.

Traditionally the amount to be held thus was stipulated to be no lower than 25 percent and not exceeding 40 percent of the bank’s total DTL. However, effective from January, 2007 the floor of 25 percent on the SLR was removed following an amendment of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

As of August, 2011 the SLR stands at 24 percent.

Committees and Commissions

Plantation Sector – N Rangachary Committee

NK Singh Committee – FDI limit in Insurance sector

Tarapore Committee – Fuller Capital Account Convertiblity

RA Mashelkar panel – Patent Laws

Deepak Parekh committee – Long term investment in Infrastructure

R Radhakrishnan Committee – Appointed on Farmers Indebtedness

The Saxena committee – One of its mandates was to investigate the proposed diversion of nearly 660 ha of forest land (Niyamgiri Hills, Lanjigarh) in the Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa for bauxite mining

Baseline - III

Baseline: Just lagao. Kuch bhi khao.
Brand: Kissan Tom Tom
Creative Agency: Lowe Lintas India

Baseline: Inspired Living
Brand: Haier Refrigerator
Creative Agency: Grey Worldwide (India) Pvt Ltd

Baseline: Spirit of Australia
Brand: Qantas Airlines
Creative Agency: Publicis India Communications Pvt Ltd

Baseline: The Fountain of Youth
Brand: Bailey Aqua
Creative Agency: Creativeland Asia

Baseline: When you know
Brand: Arrow
Creative Agency: Rediffusion - Y&R

Baselines - II

Baseline: The purest part of you.
Brand: Aquafina
Creative Agency: JWT India

Baseline: Enjoy the difference!
Brand: Maggi Hot & Sweet
Creative Agency: Publicis Capital

Baseline: Real Milk. Real Ice Cream.
Brand: Amul Ice Cream
Creative Agency: Draftfcb Ulka

Baseline: There's no better way to fly.
Brand: Lufthansa
Creative Agency: Rediffusion - Y&R

Baseline: All you desire
Brand: Toyota Innova
Creative Agency: Percept H

Baseline - I

Baseline: Upper class.
Brand: Virgin Atlantic
Creative Agency: Everest Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd

Baseline: Enjoy the freshness.
Brand: Electrolux Refrigerator
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Baseline: Two luxury cars in one.
Brand: Maruti Suzuki Versa
Creative Agency: Lowe Lintas India

Baseline: Ho jaaye dil ka connection.
Brand: Kwality Wall's Sundae
Creative Agency: McCann Erickson (India) Ltd

Baseline: The sweet taste of purity
Brand: Bisleri
Creative Agency: Publicis Ambience Advertising Pvt Ltd

Gone in 16 seconds

Here is a link from the other blog that I maintain at The India Story.

This article is about Rajat Gupta.

The Stuxnet Virus

Reports of a complicated virus that hit Iran's nuclear facilities surfaced in 2010. It was so complicated that a team at Symantec spent a month analysing it and still felt that it might be missing something. The usual time for the team was a couple of days!!!

This virus, soon dubbed the Stuxnet Virus, used a “zero-day” exploit to spread. Zero-days are the most dangerous of weapons in a Hacker's arsenal. They exploit vulnerabilities in software that are yet unknown to the software maker or antivirus vendors. And they are not easy to put together. Not only does it require a high level of programming skill but it takes a lot of patience to find the weakenesses and exploit them. Because of this out of more than 12 million pieces of malware that antivirus researchers discover each year, fewer than a dozen use a zero-day exploit.

This article takes an in-depth look at the episode. And here is the Timeline.
Why talk about this event that is almost a year old now? Well, there are reports of a New Stuxnet worm that is targetting companies in Europe. This could get interesting.

Rooted Maps

Pankaj Ghemawat is currently a Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School and Between 1983 and 2008, was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School where, in 1991, he became the youngest person in the school's history to be appointed a full professor.

In this article he writes of how we can shake up our thinking by looking at the world from the perspective of a particular country, industry, or company. He introduces the concept of “Rooted” maps and how they can help one unearth hidden opportunities and threats.

Maize: A wonder crop?

Maize is being given importance, both by farmers and seed companies with overt support of some state governments. An interesting plug is that it is the crop of the future.

A lot of farmers are turning to it entranced by the higher productivity of hybrid varieties. While it may be good for individual farmers, the question is whether it is good for our food security. The reason Food Security comes into play is because Maize is a commercial crop that is not used all that much as a food crop. Now with the shrinking acreage of millets and other staple foods of small farmers on account of the generous subsidies given to maize this issue is definitely one that has to be debated.

Lurking behind this issue is the issue of GM Maize being introduced in India once farmers are sufficiently enamoured of Maize. Here is a detailed report on these issues. And another one on the maize issue in Mexico.

Burgernomics

Burgernomics is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries.

THE Big Mac index "invented" by The Economist in 1986 is a fun way of checking whether currencies are at their “correct” level and is a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible.

For the first time, they have included India in their survey. Since McDonald’s does not sell Big Macs here in India, The Economist has taken the price of a Maharaja Mac for its calculation. It indicates that the rupee is 53% undervalued and therefore the Implied PPP of the US dollar would be Rs 20.70 only.