DynaMix of 80's - Don Bosco Irinjalakuda past pupils gather to honour Sri P R Lonappan Master

DynaMix of 80's - Don Bosco Irinjalakuda past pupils gather to honour Sri P R Lonappan Master



Don Bosco Past Pupils Irinjalakuda, India, Middle East Chapter is organising DynaMix of 80’s to honour Sri P. R. Lonappan Master, a veteran teacher of the school, who studied and served his entire career as teacher with the institution till he retired recently.

The event will be held on Friday, 11th December 2009 at Sheraton Deira from 5:00 pm onwards.

All patrons and past-pupils of Don Bosco School Irinjalakuda are kindly requested to contact Mr. Franson Michael (Ph: 050 875 13 16) for participating in this event and make it a success.

Canadian banking world's soundest

Canadian banking world's soundest
Mathrubhumi English Edition

In the backdrop of a global financial crisis, the World Economic Forum survey has ranked Canada to have the world's soundest banking system

Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets. India is ranked 51st in the survey.
But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.

The United States, where some of Wall Street's biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.
The United States was considering buying a slice of debt-laden banks to inject trust back into lending between financial institutions now too wary of one another to lend.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).
Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).

UK banks collectively scored 6.0, narrowly behind the United States, Germany and Botswana, all with 6.1. France, in 19th place, scored 6.5 for soundness, while Switzerland's banking system scored the same in 16th place, as did Singapore (13th).
The ranking index was released as central banks in Europe, the United States, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland slashed interest rates in a bid to end to panic selling on markets and restore trust in the shaken banking system.

The Netherlands (6.7), Belgium (6.6), New Zealand (6.6), Malta (6.6) rounded out the WEF's banking top 10 with Ireland, whose government unilaterally pledged last week to guarantee personal and corporate deposits at its six major banks.

Also scoring well were Chile (6.5, 18th) and Spain, South Africa, Norway, Hong Kong and Finland all ending up in the top 20.
At the bottom of the list was Algeria in 134th place, with its banks scoring 3.9 to be just below Libya (4.0), Lesotho (4.1), the Kyrgyz Republic (4.1) and both Argentina and East Timor (4.2).

Big Bang: the world's biggest experiment starts

Big Bang: the world's biggest experiment starts

IANS 10 Sep 2008 02:35:00 PM ISTGENEVA: The world's most ambitious yet historic scientific project, undertaken by CERN, is about to fathom the mysteries of creation, besides finding extremely elusive 'Godlike' particles known as the Higgs boson.

The $10-billion Geneva based CERN project, an acronym for European Organisation for Nuclear Research, involves over 8,000 scientists from 85 countries, including 200 from India, which has contributed $41 million worth of resources and precision equipment.

The Higgs boson particle is perhaps the most sought-after prize of the project. The standard model of particle physics theorises that it gives mass to other particles.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, lies at the heart of the experiment, that started Wednesday in a circular tunnel 27 km long around the collider, some 35 floors below the surface of the earth.

Scientists controlling the experiment started it by sending the first proton beam zipping through the LHC's 27-km circular tunnel. The collider will accelerate the protons to nearly the speed of light and crash them together, a process that will take four to eight weeks. Scientists anticipate the first collisions between Oct 8 and Nov 5.

Protons, along with neutrons, form the nucleus of every atom.

Detectors will collect data about the paths, energies and identities of the particles that fly from the collisions.

The LHC is anchored on Indian made jacks, weighing 32 tonnes each, which have to be located with extreme precision. Sukalyan Chattopadhyay of Saha Institute Of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata said that one of the detectors, part of the di-muon spectrometer of the project, was made entirely in India.

The chips used in the detectors are called MANAS chips. They are being utilised not only by the scientists from India but also from France, Germany, Italy and Russia, Chattopadhyay said.

India has presented CERN with a huge bronze statue of Nataraja, Lord Shiva performing his dance of creation and destruction.

The world's largest collider will recreate conditions of the earliest universe. It will tear apart particles so physicists can study their components and observe as the particles put themselves back together, said Homer Neal, University of Michigan's institutional representative for the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC.

"Many of us who have been eager to search for the Higgs boson and to explore other particles have been waiting not just during the period we've been working on the CERN LHC, but even before," Neal said.

Researchers hope the experiments answer some basic questions about how the universe works: How do the particles that make up atoms acquire mass? What happened to antimatter? What was it like just after the Big Bang and so on.

Oman bars hiring foreigners in some sectors

Oman bars hiring foreigners in some sectors
Reuters Published: July 27, 2008, 15:58

Muscat: Oman said on Sunday a number of jobs have been put off limits to foreign workers under new rules aiming to provide more employment opportunities to Omanis.

The ministry of manpower has begun implementing the restriction by not issuing permits for private sector companies operating businesses such as import and export and clothing to hire foreign workers.

"These jobs are reserved for Omanis to give job opportunities to nationals and reduce reliance on foreign labour," Minister of Manpower Juma Bin Ali Bin Juma told Reuters.

The ban does not apply to banks or oil companies. Like other Gulf Arab oil-exporting nations, non-OPEC Oman relies on foreign workers mainly from Asia and other Arab countries.

According to official statistics, about 25 per cent of Oman's total population of 2.8 million people are foreign workers.

The economy ministry has allocated 275 million rials ($714.3 million) in the 2008 budget as a grant to the private sector to train nationals.

Obama and The Man

Obama and The Man

By Sachidananda Murthy for THE WEEK

As Barack Obama won the nomination of the Democratic Party, an excited reader of THE WEEK called me, recalling a book he had read more than three decades ago, which had foreseen an African American in the White House. It was The Man written by Irving Wallace, a journalist-turned novelist who spoke of the convulsions caused by a non-white man becoming the president of the most powerful country. Wallace picked up controversial subjects for his novels, like the debate over pornography (Seven Minutes) and the intrigues and joys of the annual Nobel Prize business (The Prize), which pushed him into the bestseller lists of the 1960s and 1970s.

Even Wallace could not foresee that a black man would come up through the electoral office. His hero Douglas Dilman comes into the office by accident as a series of deaths makes a senator become president, under the succession rules. But the United States and the world have moved from that era when the civil rights had to be won through hard battles by leaders like Martin Luther King, and enforced by an activist Supreme Court led by the legendary Chief Justice Earl Warren. Now Obama has come through affirmation of his party, getting endorsed by delegates in state after state.

He still has a difficult contest against Republican nominee John McCain that has to be won, if Obama has to be sworn in on January 20, 2009. King had led the Civil Rights March in Washington on August 28, 1963 and made his epochal "I have a dream..." speech. One such dream was "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." Obama's character has shown throughout a campaign where, more than his detractors, it was his old friends who caused some embarrassment.

The United States broke a smaller, but at that time formidable, barrier when it chose a Catholic in John F. Kennedy in 1960 as president, during the period Black Power was making its presence. This time's Democratic contest also had a woman who fought until the last but failed to get the endorsement. America will have to wait for another woman to break the glass ceiling. The much younger Indian democracy, too, has seen a series of wonders in the last six decades. Eyebrows had been raised in 1998 when a columnist asked whether Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the last Brahmin Prime Minister of India. But then Vajpayee was succeeded by Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh Prime Minister. Just before that, Sonia Gandhi had made global headlines by being elected by the Congress and UPA as their nominee for the Prime Minister's post, the then President was ready to appoint her to the topmost executive post , but she declined the job as advised by her "inner voice"!

When K.R. Narayanan was elected President in 1997, a journalist asked how he felt as the country's first Dalit President. The scholar-diplomat replied "I am the President" and that was the most fitting answer, with neither caste, religion nor region defining the custodian of the Constitution. Statesmanship demands that an elected leader has to break out of narrow stockades.

The constant social churn in the country is seeing more and more barriers being broken, even while newer conflicts on the divisive issues of religion, caste and region are coming up. Amid the backdrop of violence over the agitation for reservations in Rajasthan, the Gujjars celebrated that a candidate from their social group cleared the All India Civil Services Examination with a high rank and would now be eligible to become an IAS officer. V.S. Naipaul saw a million mutinies in India, in his third book of the India trilogy. And 17 years of economic liberalisation has triggered newer kinds of mutinies, even as it smothered the older eruptions.

As Obama girdles up for the last mile to the White House, there is excitement not only in his own land, but around the globe, too. The Indian fascination for this contest would zoom if Bobby Jindal, the Indian American governor of Louisiana becomes the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Jindal is yet another American success story, but he has avoided any identification with the Indian American cause in a big way, as he wants to be a total American.
sachi@the-week.com

Kochiite backs Obama, his classmate

Kochiite backs Obama, his classmate
Wednesday June 11 2008 10:43 IST Manu Bharat

KOCHI: Good Luck Barry, you are sure to win. The message is from an old classmate of Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate in the US presidential elections. What’s so special about a greeting? It’s from Kochi. Advocate M Ajay is all prayers for his classmate at the Harvard Law School.

"We are overwhelmingly thrilled, no one can be otherwise when his classmate is almost sure to assume the powerful post of the US President,"said Ajay, a student of the Law School during 1990-91.

The Kochi lawyer, who had specialised in corporate law, remembers how Barry came to Harvard as an ordinary student. Within no time he won the admiration of the whole crowd at Harvard and became popular.

He was the first African-American to win the president’s post of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, Ajay said. From basketball court to the dais of serious academic debates, Barry was a crowdpuller.

The Harvard website makes Ajay travel back to the memorable times of his student life. "The days in Harvad were hectic. Barry hardly got time to meet Michelle, his wife who was also a student of the Law School," he said.

Harvard was known for its conservatism and in Boston the elite White Anglo- Saxon Protestants had dominance. But Barry was a unifying force and his calibre transcended racial barriers. Ajay is fully excited while speaking of Obama.

The Harvard alumni is now running a ‘Vote for Obama’ campaign on the Internet. "I will suggest to him to bring in Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F Kennedy, into the campaign as that would increase his chance of winning. The Kennedy family has mass support in US," he pointed out.

Referring to his other popular classmates, Ajay said, "United States Solicitor- General Paul Clement was also part of Harvard during our times. Rahul Gandhi joined the Law School at that time, but discontinued his studies immediately."

Weather bureau warns of repeat of Cyclone Gonu in Oman

Weather bureau warns of repeat of Cyclone Gonu in Oman
By Sunil K. Vaidya, Bureau Chief GULF NEWS
Last updated: May 20, 2008, 18:01

Muscat: Less than a year after Cyclone Gonu devastated the coast of Oman, a UK-based international weather bureau has predicted that another tropical storm could hit Oman and Yemen at the end of May.

This time the forecast of landfall of the cyclone is on May 29 around Oman/Yemen coast.

A senior official at the Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation (DGMAN) confirmed that they have initial reports about the possibility of a storm.

“We are in preparedness,” Badr Al Rumhi of DGMAN told Gulf News on Tuesday. He, however, did not elaborate.

According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the onset phase of this year’s monsoon could feature a cyclone in the west Arabian Sea.

However, when contacted in London, Manfred Kloeppel, Assistant to Director, ECMWF, said: “We do not issue any warnings ourselves to any states in the world but make our products available in particular to our Member and Co-operating States.”

Kloeppel further added that the forecast last Monday (May 19) showed a system developing and hitting Oman on 28 May. “This not so prominent in Tuesday’s forecast,” he added.

He also clarified that ECMWF do not forecast a cyclone to hit the Gulf states, although "there clearly is still some potential for this to happen."

He added that the message from the forecast was that such a development might happen, but one must wait and see what happens in the next forecasts, a task, he stressed, was with the National Meteorological Services.

The forecast states that “the system is forecast to develop in the west central Arabian Sea and is expected to make a landfall over the Yemen/Oman coast around May 29.”

It further states that the timing of the ‘cyclogenesis’ (birth of a cyclone) and the path for onward movement would resemble those of tropical Cyclone Gonu, which killed 48 people when it struck Oman on June 6 last year.

The only redeeming feature, according to ECMWF, would be that this time the storm would be comparatively at a reduced strength.

However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) says that unlike tropical cyclone Gonu, the intensity of this impending storm would be low.

The ECMWF forecasts say that the rogue circulation spin up in the west-central Arabian Sea about the same time as the westerly winds are predicted to accelerate in the run-up to monsoon.

The circulation is shown to move in a west-northwest direction, away from the Indian coast, during the two days from May 27 for which forecasts are available.

“This is more or less the track pursued by tropical cyclone Gonu last year,” says ECMWF.

Oman residents 'will be warned if cyclone imminent'

Oman residents 'will be warned if cyclone imminent'
By Sunil K. Vaidya, Bureau Chief GULF NEWS Published: May 22, 2008

Muscat: A senior member of the National Committee for Civil Defence (NCCD) in Oman yesterday told Gulf News that the local authorities would forewarn residents about any impending cyclone.

Reacting to a Gulf News report, based on a forecast on Monday by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), on the possibility of a storm hitting the Oman/UAE coast on May 29, Lieutenant Colonel Azhar Al Kindi, a senior NCCD member, said: "None of the reports or forecasts are talking about 'it' coming but have only raised the possibility of it."

He stressed that the local Meteorological Department and other relevant authorities had handled the last Tropical Cyclone Gonu well.

"We had concrete proof of the cyclone coming last time and we gave enough warning to residents and subsequently we also handled the disaster well."
He did not deny nor agree with reports of another cyclone.

"We will act as and when we know it is happening," he said, urging people to keep full faith in the local weather bureau.

Last year, the local authorities forewarned residents in the country well in advance of cyclone Gonu striking Oman on June 6. This action saved a lot of lives as people moved out of low-lying areas as well as places under threat from the storm.

"We handled the situation well at that time [Gonu] and any time in the future we are capable of handling any situation well," he added.

The possibility of a storm at the end of this month has become the talk of the town - so much so that some of the expatriate community schools have floated the idea of an early summer vacation.

"Some teachers as well as students were keen to know if the vacation would be advanced slightly," a official at an expatriate school said.

Govt employees in Saudi Arabia get 30pc pay rise

Govt employees in Saudi Arabia get 30pc pay rise
BY HABIB SHAIKH KHALEEJ TIMES 23 April 2008

JEDDAH — Following an increase in salary of their employees declared by some private companies, government employees in Saudi Arabia are expected to receive a 30-per cent pay rise.

Some private companies had declared pay hikes of up to 40 per cent as part of efforts to confront an unprecedented rise in consumer prices.

According to a recent report carried by Al-Arabiya satellite channel, a decision on the salary increase for public sector employees would be issued shortly. But there was no official confirmation of the report.

Abdullah Dahlan, a member of the Shoura Council, emphasised the need for urgently discussing the issue in the Shoura in order to present its recommendations to the Council of Ministers.

“I am very happy to learn this news and hope the government would take a quick decision on this matter,” said Mohammed Shaker Al-Dahlawi, director of compensations at the ministry of transport.

He urged the ministry of commerce and industry to prevent businessmen from increasing prices of essential commodities further after the new salary raise as they did last time.

In August 2005, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz issued an order raising the salaries of public employees, including military officers, by 15 per cent. Businessmen exploited the increased purchasing power of consumers and hiked prices.

Al Dahlawi called on the government to take steps for bolstering the value of the Saudi riyal against other currencies as part of efforts to control growing inflation in the country. The riyals peg to a weakening US dollar has made imports more expensive.

“I believe that the large number of loans received by people is another reason for inflation,” he said, proposing a 25 per cent cut in such loans. An increase in salaries and reeling in inflation would reduce the demand for consumer loans.

41 countries are tax havens according to OECD criteria

41 countries are tax havens according to OECD criteria

AGENCIES

PARIS: Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development points to 41 countries as having tax-haven status according to four criteria.

The four criteria are: insignificant or non-existent tax levels, absence of transparency in tax matters, absence of fiscal data exchange with other countries and attractiveness for straw companies with fictitious activities.

Some jurisdictions have taken steps to boost transparency in their dealings with the OECD, which seeks to coordinate economic policies among the world's leading industrialised nations.

Others, notably Liechtenstein, Andora and Monaco, exchange no information with other states.

However, of the total, 38 countries have made commitments to the OECD to ensure transparency and to exchange data:

Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Dutch Antilles Aruba The Bahamas Bahreïn Barbados Belize Bermuda Cyprus Dominica Gibraltar Grenada Guernesey Cayman Islands Cook Islands Isle of Man Marshall Islands Mauritious British Virgin Islands US Virgin Islands Jersey Liberia Maldives Malta Montserrat Nauru Niue Panama Samoa Saint Kitts et Nevis Sainta Lucia Saint Martin Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Seychelles Tonga Turks et Caicos Vanuatu

The OECD has labelled three states as non-cooperative Andorra Liechtenstein Monaco

Oxford University introduces MSc in Contemporary India

Oxford University introduces MSc in Contemporary India
Press Trust Of India London, February 12, 2008

The University of Oxford has introduced a new degree, MSc in Contemporary India, in response to the growing interest among students about India and its burgeoning economy.

The first batch of students for the new degree launched by the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies will be enrolled from October this year.

The course would provide students with the opportunity to learn both about India's achievements and persistent problems and will provide high-quality training in research methods and in the critical analysis theory in the main social science disciplines.

The degree has been designed for the students from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly the Social Sciences and History, a university statement said.

The course will provide stand-alone training for those wishing to specialise in India, either out of academic interest or as preparation for work in the private sector, international organisations, government, NGOs, multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid and development agencies and media organisations.

The course will also serve as first stage preparation for subsequent doctoral research on India.

"India is a fascinating country to study: it is the largest democracy in the world, a regional superpower and has had great IT business success," Barbara Harris-White, Professor of Development Studies, said.

Several Indians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have studied at the university.

Fraud costs bank $7 bn in France

Fraud costs bank $7 bn in France
25 Jan 2008, 0233 hrs IST,AGENCIES

PARIS: France's central bank and government scrambled to shore up confidence in the banking system after Societe Generale, the country's second-biggest bank, said on Thursday it had been the victim of a massive and "exceptional” fraud by a junior rogue trader resulting in losses of 4.9 billion euros (over $7 billion).

Anxious to rebuild its shattered capital, the bank announced an immediate capital increase of 5.5 billion euros, already underwritten by rival banks.

SocGen, one of France's oldest banks and a world leader in free-wheeling modern financial derivatives, said the losses came to light at the weekend and blamed a backroom trader, who it said had tried to cover up bad bets on the stock market.

Bank sources named the trader as Jerome Kerviel, who is in his thirties and who joined the investment bank division in 2000, moving from the middle office which checked deals to the front office or trading desk in 2005. He earned less than 100,000 euros a year, added the sources. "It was an extremely sophisticated fraud in the way it was concealed," said Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton, who offered to resign but has been asked to stay on. Shares in the bank fell more than 6% to 74 euros. "It's a serious case, but at the same time it has nothing to do with the situation on the financial markets," said Prime Minister Francois Fillon, speaking in Davos, Switzerland.

If fraud is proved, the loss will be the biggest caused by a single trader, dwarfing the $1.4 billion loss by trader Nick Leeson that brought down British bank Barings in the 1990s.

Like Leeson before him, the trader apparently benefited from knowledge of the bank's control systems. SocGen said he had used a "scheme of elaborate fictitious transactions" to try to cover up his mistakes, but did not accuse him of profiting personally from his actions. "He was not one of our stars," said a senior board member who declined to be named. The announcement sent a shiver through the world banking industry, which is suffering a credit crunch as high-risk US mortgage borrowers default on their loans.

Sarkozy says visit would help boost Indo-French partnership

Sarkozy says visit would help boost Indo-French partnership
French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Friday said his visit to India would help further boost the partnership between the two countries.

"I would like to express my delight to be here in India, having been invited as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day," he told reporters after being accorded an impressive ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the capital.

"I have expressed to the president and to the prime minister my warmest thanks for the magnificent welcome that has been extended to us. And to say just how delighted I am to be here to further boost our partnership with the great, great country...The great civilisation that is India," he said.

Welcoming Sarkozy, President Pratibha Patil said, "We heartily welcome the President of France. It is our honour that he is the Chief Guest at the time of the Republic Day of India. He has been a very great friend and I am sure the visit will strengthen our bilateral ties".

She said India would like to ink bilateral MoUs in the fields of science and technology and education with France.

"I propose that we have cultural ties also. France is the home of civilisation and India is also a great civilisation," she added.

The two sides are expected to discuss ways to enhance trade and business ties during Sarkozy's two-day maiden visit in India.

France, UAE sign military, nuclear agreements(Reuters)
15 January 2008

ABU DHABI - France and the United Arab Emirates signed deals on Tuesday granting French troops their first permanent base in the Gulf and agreeing to cooperate on a peaceful nuclear programme.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a Gulf tour aimed at securing billions of dollars worth of contracts for French firms, has already offered Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, help in developing civilian nuclear energy.

On Monday, French power giant EDF signed a memorandum with Qatar ‘to engage discussions on cooperation in the areas of nuclear power production and renewable energy generation’, according to a document made available to Reuters.

Sarkozy, who has already signed civilian nuclear deals with Arab oil producers Algeria and Libya, has made no secret of his view that Muslim and Arab states have a right to atomic power.

Tuesday’s agreements set a framework for future cooperation on nuclear energy and allow France to establish a military base with an official capacity of 400-500 people in the UAE, which lies across a short stretch of Gulf waters from Iran, a document distributed by Sarkozy’s office said.

France’s Total confirmed on Monday it would develop two third-generation nuclear reactors in the UAE with Suez as its main partner and state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva.

‘This is the first time an inter-governmental nuclear accord of this importance has been signed in the Gulf and it is a very big development,’ Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon told reporters in Qatar on Monday.


Regional arms race?

The Gulf Cooperation Council—a loose economic and political alliance of six Gulf Arab states—has said it was studying a joint nuclear energy programme and has already been in touch with the UN atomic energy watchdog.

But a UAE official said his country was talking to the International Atomic Energy Agency on its own account too.

‘We are talking to France, several other countries and the (IAEA),’ the official, who declined to be identified, said on Monday. ‘We are talking about how best to develop a safe, clean, peaceful and transparent nuclear programme.’

The US-allied UAE, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, needs nuclear energy to meet rapidly rising demand for power and desalinated water, the official said. Electricity demand in the Gulf Arab state has rocketed, straining the country’s power grid, as record oil revenues fuel economic expansion.

The GCC’s plans raised concern of a regional arms race, with analysts saying the bloc wanted to match Iran’s atomic programme. The United States suspects Iran is secretly aiming to develop nuclear arms, a charge Teheran denies.

The UAE lies near the sensitive Strait of Hormuz waterway, a major oil-shipping route where US ships had a close brush with Iran earlier this month.

Washington, whose Fifth Fleet is based in the Gulf Arab island of Bahrain, says Iranian boats aggressively approached three US naval ships and that the incident almost led to an exchange of fire. Teheran has dismissed the incident as routine.

UAE and France sign landmark nuclear cooperation agreement

UAE and France sign landmark nuclear cooperation agreement
WAM Last updated: January 15, 2008, 18:55

Abu Dhabi: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Tuesday witnessed the signing of a landmark nuclear cooperation agreement between the United Arab Emirates and France.

The agreement - which was signed by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Bernard Kouchner, French Foreign and European Affairs Minister - provides a framework of cooperation between the two countries in the evaluation and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Under the agreement, the UAE and France will form a high-level joint committee to oversee cooperation in the areas of nuclear power generation, water desalination, basic and applied research, as well as in the fields of agronomy, earth sciences, medicine and industry.

Commenting after signing the deal, Shaikh Abdullah said: "The UAE is conducting wide consultations to create a responsible framework for the evaluation and possible implementation of a peaceful nuclear programme, ensuring compliance with the highest standards of non-proliferation, safety and security."

Towards this end, he said, the UAE is undertaking high-level government-to-government consultations with the governments of the United States, Germany, France, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea, specifically with regard to draft UAE policy on the evaluation and possible implementation of a peaceful nuclear programme in the UAE.

Shaikh Abdullah said similar direct consultations are also being sought with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), indicating that "it is the UAE government’s hope that the final policy may also serve as a replicable model for non-nuclear countries to evaluate and potentially implement a peaceful domestic nuclear programme with full support and backing of the international community."

He said in a statement that the announced initiatives are in addition and complimentary to the UAE’s commitment to be part of the GCC-wide initiative to explore the potential for peaceful nuclear power generation in the GCC.

The signing of the agreement between the UAE and France follows numerous official statements expressing the interest of the UAE in the peaceful use of nuclear energy to meet its growing internal demand for electricity and desalinated water.

World's cheapest car unveiled in India

World's cheapest car unveiled in India
Agencies Published: January 10, 2008, 13:25

New Delhi: India’s India's Tata Motors Ltd unveiled the world's cheapest car on Thursday, bringing car ownership closer to millions of consumers.

The four-seater Nano will have a dealer price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500), and will go on sale later this year. It costs less than half of India's cheapest car, the Maruti 800.

"Let me assure you and our critics the car we have designed will meet all safety norms and all foreign environmental criteria," Chairman Ratan Tata said at the unveiling.

The car has a rear-wheel drive, an all-aluminium body, a 623cc engine, a multi-point fuel injection system. It has a roomy passenger compartment with generous legroom.

"It's a dream come true," Ashok Singh, a constable with the Delhi Police. "I look forward to buying that car. My wife will be really happy."

Tata said the car would have a rear-mounted engine and travel 20 kilometres per litre of petrol. It would be offered in a basic model and two deluxe variants.

Tata said it would focus on the home market for up to three years before considering exporting the Nano to countries in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

SHASHI ON SUNDAY: Democracy won't die with Benazir in Pak

SHASHI ON SUNDAY: Democracy won't die with Benazir in Pak
6 Jan 2008, 0000 hrs IST

Benazir Bhutto has never looked this good. This week has seen the international press posthumously apotheosising the telegenic Pakistani politician. But the widely-expressed view that Benazir epitomised Pakistan’s hopes for democracy, which have now perished with her, seriously overstates both what she represented and the implications of her demise.

The principal consequence of Benazir Bhutto’s death is the setback it has dealt to the US-inspired plan to anoint her, after not-quite free-and-fair elections, as the acceptable civilian face of continuing Musharraf rule. The calculations were clear: Musharraf was a valuable ally of the West against the Islamist threat in the region, but his continuing indefinitely to rule Pakistan as a military dictator was becoming an embarrassment.

The former chief martial law administrator had to doff his uniform - long overdue, since he was three years past the retirement age for any general - and find a credible civilian partner to help make a plausible case for democratisation. Benazir - well-spoken, well-networked in Washington and London, and passionate in her avowals of secular moderation, however self-serving - was the chosen one.

The other exiled civilian ex-prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was none of these things, and having been the victim of General Musharraf’s coup, was considerably less inclined to co-operate with his defenestrator. So, Nawaz was returned to exile in Saudi Arabia when he attempted to come home, and when that ploy did not work (the Saudis having no particular desire to take Benazir’s side over his), was disqualified from running for office on the risible grounds that his attempts as an elected prime minister to prevent a coup against himself amounted to hijacking and terrorism. This left the field free for Benazir to do sufficiently well in the elections to become prime minister of Pakistan for a third time.

Her first two stints had, however, been inglorious. From 1988-90 she had been overawed by the military, whose appointed president duly dismissed her from office on plausible charges of corruption, mainly involving her husband, who had acquired the nickname ‘Mr 10 per cent’.

Her second innings (1993-96) was, if anything, worse: charges of rampant peculation (and administrative adhockery) mounted, even as her avowedly moderate government orchestrated the creation of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. This time it was a president of Pakistan from her own party who felt obliged to dismiss her. To assume that a third stint would have been any different requires a leap of faith explicable only by the mounting international anxiety over Musharraf’s fraying rule.

But Benazir’s true merit lay in the absence of plausible alternatives. She was no great democrat - as her will, appointing her husband Asif Zardari to inherit her party, confirms. The Bhuttoist ethos is a uniquely Pakistani combination of aristocratic feudalism and secular populism. To her, democracy was a means to power, not a philosophy of politics.

But the same was true of the other contenders in Pakistan’s political space - the conservative Punjabi bourgeoisie represented by Nawaz Sharif, the moderate pro-militarists grouped around Musharraf, the deeply intolerant Islamists, and the assorted regionalist and particularist parties whose appeal is limited to specific provinces. Musharraf knew that all that elections would ensure was a temporary rearrangement of the balance of forces amongst these diverse elements. But it would enable him to remain in charge as a "civilian" President while portraying his Pakistan - more credibly than heretofore - as the last bastion of democratic moderation in the face of the Islamist menace.

Democrats in India may well believe that the Pakistani people deserve better, but it is difficult to imagine a viable alternative to such a scenario. The central fact of Pakistani politics has always been the power of the military, which has ruled the country for 32 of its 60 years of existence. In other countries, the state has an Army; in Pakistan, the Army has a state.

The military can be found not only in all the key offices of government, but running real estate and import-export ventures, petrol pumps and factories; retired generals head most of the country’s universities and think-tanks. The proportion of national resources devoted to the military is perhaps the highest in the world. Every once in a while a great surge of disillusionment with the generals pours out into the streets and a "democratic" leader is voted into office, but the civilian experiment always ends badly, and the military returns to power, to general relief.

The British political scientist W H Morris-Jones once famously observed that the only political institutions in Pakistan are the coup and the mob. Neither offers propitious grounds for believing that an enduring democracy is around the corner.

The elections that Benazir might have won have now been postponed, but they will take place eventually, because they represent the only safety-valve in the pressure-cooker that Pakistan is today. Her party will benefit from a sympathy vote, but in the absence of a charismatic leader, it will be obliged to come to an accommodation with the generals. Despite widespread anger at Musharraf’s failure to protect Benazir, this may actually be the best outcome for Pakistan.

The Islamists, who have never won more than 10% of the popular vote nationally, may fare even worse in the aftermath of Benazir’s killing; most people assume her killers were religious fundamentalists. The other suspects - Islamist sympathisers in the Pakistani military, of whom there are many in key positions (notably in the Inter-Services Intelligence) - will also be on the defensive in the face of popular fury at Benazir’s murder. The great danger in Pakistan has always lain in the risk of a mullah-military coalition. The death of Benazir has made that less likely for now, and that may remain her most significant legacy.

A to Z of 2007

A to Z of 2007
TNN

A
Ajmer Sharif, the mecca of secularism, bombed, two killed. Abhi-Ash are married, media kept out. Alistair Pereira gets three years from HC for mowing down seven labourers while driving drunk. Adam Air Flight disappears over Indonesia, 102 die. Atlantic crossed by youngest sailor, Michael Perham, 14. Australia beat England 5-0 in Ashes, lift World Cup third time running. Anand Jon, designer, indicted for rape. AIIMS' P Venugopal, and health minister Ramadoss fight on.

B
Beyonce seduces Mumbai. Brian Lara, 37, announces retirement from ODIs after West Indies defeat in World Cup. Bachchans are highest tax-paying family with returns of Rs 25 crore. Black Friday releases, finally, to acclaim. Bombs on Samjauta Express kill 68. Britney Spears in rehab shaves head, tries to hang herself. Tony Blair steps down as Britain's PM. Bangladesh cyclone kills 3000. Bob Woolmer, Pak cricket coach, found dead in Kingston. Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Rawalpindi. Burma burns for democracy.

C
Cristina Kirchner becomes first wife in history to succeed husband as Argentinean president. China oil field in Ethiopia attacked, 74 killed. Chiranjeevi's daughter Srija elopes with Sirish Bharadwaj, asks for police protection from father. Columbia Univ President Lee Bollinger calls guest speaker Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad “a petty and cruel dictator”. India wins ODI series against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Chennai court rejects Novartis patent plea in a landmark cancer drug case, boosts India's generic drug industry

D
Dhoni becomes captain at 26, leads team to T20 win against Pakistan. Team gets unprecendeted reception in Mumbai. Dumbledore, the beloved Hogwarts Headmaster, is outed from closet by J K Rowling. The Departed, Martin Scorsese's gritty film on the mafia wins four Oscars. Dow Jones plummets wildly after Chinese market drop. Do-not-call service activated, but pesky telemarketers continue. Delhi's former CM dies on Rajasthan's killer roads. Delhi model Gitanjali Nagpal found living on the street, rescued.

E
Emergency declared in Pakistan. Emergency declared in Bangladesh, Iajuddin Ahmed steps down. European Commission announces proposals for the European Union to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050. Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayyar marry, after years of courtship, in a 15th-century palace in Cotswold, England with lavish receptions in Mumbai and Jodhpur. ET, please call, says Arthur Clarke on his ninetieth birthday.

F
Fake encounter of businessmen leads to arrest of 10 Delhi cops. Forest Whitaker gets Oscar for his turn as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. French government bans smoking in public places. Flamingos killed for meat in Mumbai. French President Jacques Chirac makes a gaffe, says that Iran's nuclear ability is so dodgy that a weapon would explode over Tehran before Tel Aviv; retracts after furore. Force India is Vijay Mallya's name for racing team, after he buys Spyker F1 for $109 million. Fidel Castro keeps on going.

G
Gordon Brown is new Brit PM. Gaekwads of Baroda's pearl necklace sold for $1.7 million. Golfer Gaurav Ghei wins Bejing Open. Greg Chappell resigns as India's cricket coach. Glasgow airport bombed by Bangalore doctor Kafeel Ahmed; cousin Mohammed Haneef cleared. Arun Gawli pays guests to dress for his daughter's wedding. G8, India approve Washington Declaration on carbon trading. Gujjars burn Rajasthan to demand ST tag. Ganga is one of the world's 10 dying rivers. GDP in India rises to 9.3%.

H
Hardwar court issues non-bailable warrant to M F Husain for ‘obscene' Bharat Mata painting. Husain's works vandalised in Delhi. Hyderabad blasts claims 42, Huji and LeT blamed. Half of Britain's millionaires are women. Hindalco, headed by Kumarmangalam Birla, buys Novelis for 6 billion dollars. Hitachi crosses the 1 terabyte hard disk capacity. Harry Potter final instalment published. He survives. Hugh Grant arrested for hitting lens man with a can of beans.

I
Indonesia landslides kill 81. iPhone, Apple's hippest new gizmo, storms market. India's first school shootout in Gurgaon, boy shot for being a bully. Indian rupee reaches eight-year high against US dollar. India loses Rs 2500 crore in betting on World Cup. India loses to Bangladesh. India has largest number of billionaires in Asia, 36. India, Pakistan exchange nuclear installations lists under 1998 agreement. India marks 150 years of the 1857 Uprising. Iranian President says herbal treatment will be the answer to AIDS. Iraq war death toll touches 11 lakh.

J
Jet and Sahara tie up to form Jetlite. James Laine's book Shivaji-Hindu King in Islamic India un-banned by court; Shiv Sainiks attack Oxford bookstore thinking it to be the same as Oxford University Press. John Abraham has a year of flops, called Box Office Turkey. J K Rowling announces eighth Harry Potter book, giving details on Hogwarts. Japan records a trade surplus of 4.4 billion in January due to lower oil prices and strong exports. Jayalalithaa becomes the first leader from the South to address a rally in Hindi, at Bareilly in UP.

K
Kausarbi and husband Sohrabuddin were killed and burnt by police, admits Gujarat government. Keith Richards of Rolling Stones says he snorts his dad's ashes, later says it was a joke. Kingfisher buys Air Deccan. Kerala boat with children capsizes, 22 drown. Santosh George Kulangara is first Indian to book Rs 90 lakh seat on Virgin Galactic for 2008 space trip. K P Singh of DLF, at $35 billion, is world's richest realtor. Richest Indian crown retained by Lakshmi Mittal ($51 billion). Karnataka put under President's rule.

L
Lal Masjid storming by Pak military, 160 killed. Doris Lessing wins Nobel for literature. Lina Sinha, a Manhattanite, gets 14 years' for sexual relations with a 13-year-old student. Loganathan, a prof at Virginia Tech, is shot by a gunman; Minal Panchal, a Mumbai girl, also dies. Lakshmana Kailash K spends 50 days in jail for being wrongly accused of posting obscene Shivaji pictures on the net. London mayor Ken Livingstone tells Mumbai planners to put their money in mass transport. Jay Leno badly hit by writers' strike.

M
Maoists kill 55 cops in Chhatisgarh. Monu Mittal gets death for whistle-blower Manjunath's murder. Madrid 2004 train bombing trial opens. Mattel recalls millions of ‘toxic lead' toys. Muttiah Muralidharan becomes highest wicket taker in Test matches with 709 wickets. Mayawati bans Aaja Nachle for caste slur against mochis. Malaysian Indians complain of ethnic violence, petition India. Narendra Modi is Gujarat chief minister for the third time.

N
New 7 wonders declared, India votes in the Taj. Nandigram shakes Kolkata's conscience after CPM cadres kill 14 villagers resisting land sale. Narayana Murthy courts controversy by not playing national anthem before foreign guests. Nariman Point flat sells for record Rs 97,842 per sq ft. Number mobility across mobile service providers gives consumers greater choice. Nilofer Bakhtiar, Pak minister, gets fatwa for hugging French paraglider. Nawaz Sharif returns. NCERT to ban ‘fail' word.

O
Osama Bin Laden turns 50 on March 11; a 51-year-old UK granny weds Osama's son. Oldest living person in the world is Japan's Yone Minagawa at 114 years. Orissa churches attacked at Christmas on conversion charge. Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to slug it out for President; former New York mayor Rudy Giulhany is strong Republican contender. Om Shanti Om released, becomes biggest grosser in Hindi cinema history, raking in Rs 94 crore and counting. Rival film Saawariya's director christened Sanjay Neela Bhansali for shooting through blue filter. Film is a damp squib.

P
Pooja Chauhan, 22, walks through Rajkot in her underwear to protest in-law abuse for delivering girl.Padma Lakshmi and Rushdie split, he hooks up with Star Wars' Carrie Fisher. Parkash Singh Badal is Punjab CM. Pratibha Patil is first woman President of India. Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar fails dope test, out of World Cup. Pavarotti dies. Priyanka Todi marries Rizwan, Rizwan found dead. Prakash Karat hogs news with anti-US nuclear deal stand. Pravin Mahajan gets life for killing brother Pramod. PlayStation comes to India.

Q
Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian Bofors accused, walks free from Argentinean jail. Queen Elizabeth II, 81, reaches new milestone as the longest-living British monarch; overtakes record set by great-great grandmother Queen Victoria. Sky's royal correspondent Sarah Hughes says, “For her, retirement is not an option.” She celebrates Christmas on YouTube. The Queen wins Helen Mirren an Oscar for Best Actress. More importantly, the real-time Queen is pleased and invites her to tea.

R
Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer for third time in French Open. Renault's Logan comes to India. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's wife gets $9 billion, the largest-ever alimony settlement. Ram Sethu is not man-made, no proof that Ramayana events took place, says government affidavit. M Karunanidhi calls Ram a drunkard. Richard Gere issued warrant for kissing Shilpa Shetty in public. Rahul Dravid quits as captain. Ribbed-vibrating condoms banned by BJP in MP. Rahul Gandhi named AICC general secretary.

S
Sidney Sheldon dies. Shakira raises temperature in Mumbai. Sunita Williams spends a record 195 days in space. Sanjay Dutt gets six years' for owning AK-56. SBI is highest corporate tax payer. Shilpa Shetty cries racism in UK reality show, but carries away Rs 3 crore prize. SEZ becomes most hated word in village India. Nicholas Sarkozy is French prez. Sandip Soparrkar becomes first single male to adopt in Mumbai. Sachin is out in the 90s, for the seventh time in 5 months. Six-pack in demand.

T
Teri chief R K Pachauri's panel on climate change and Al Gore win Nobel Peace Prize. Tax's highest payer is Akshay Kumar, Rs 26 crore. Taslima attacked in Hyderabad. Thirty-three pairs of twins found in Bamrauli, a UP village. Telgi convicted in stamp scam. Tata Steel buys Corus for $ 6.7 billion. Trial for Mumbai 7/11 blasts begins, deferred when accused say they don't trust judiciary.

U
UP stormed by Mayawati and her winning Dalit-Brahmin electoral axis. US House of Representatives gets first woman speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Uma Khurana, Delhi school teacher, framed by spurious sting operation. Uttarakhand, new name of Uttaranchal, won by BJP. Uphaar cinema's owners, the Ansals, found guilty. Ulcra land ceiling act repealed in Maharashtra, builders cheer, Uddhav Thackeray protests.

V
Vodafone buys 67 % stake in Hutch Essar for $11.1 billion. Vengsarkar spats with the BCCI after latter bans him from writing columns which earn him Rs 40 lakh a year. Vishy Anand wins in Mexico, is world champion for first time in his career. Victoria Beckham and the Spice Girls reuinte to empty stadium in Canada. Vick's husband David Beckham leaves Real Madrid for LA Galaxy on a $250 million contract. Vladimir Putin named Time's Person of the Year.

W
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz resigns on charges of favouring his girlfriend-he helped her get a whopping $60,000 raise. Wadias announce setting up of 40 malls in India. West Bengal police admits its men raped two women in Nandigram. World Bank permits construction of Baghliar dam in Kashmir. WMD still not found in Iraq. West Bengal government asks Taslima to leave Kolkata. Narendra Modi offers her asylum in Gujarat.

X
XP's successor Windows Vista launch marred by security glitches. To counter this, X Leopard, a new operating system, is launched by Apple for its Macs. X Men-The Last Stand, began the season of trilogies from Hollywood and was followed by Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, The Bourne Ultimatum and Spiderman 3. X-rated Santa bot (or icon) from Microsoft's Live Messenger leaves firm red-faced with its risque conversation.

Y
Y K Sabharwal, former chief justice, accused of aiding his son's money-laundering business. Yuvraj-Deepika-Dhoni love affair gives television enough grist for days on end. Former Russian President Boris Yelstin dead. Yakub Memon gets death for 1993 Mumbai blasts, passionately protests his innocence. Three other Memons get life. Total of 100 convicted in country's longest-running trial. Yasuo Fukuda, a moderate, replaces Shinzo Abe as Japan's prime minister.

Z
Zee's Subhash Chandra launches parallel cricket team ICL on Rs 100 crore fund. Kapil Dev is named executive chairman of the board, Lara, Chris Cairns play in inaugural Twenty-20 Championship; BCCI strikes back in court and with cash incentives. Zune launched by Microsoft as its answer to Apple's iPod fails to take off. Zaheera of the Best Bakery case, released; disappears, plays no role in Gujarat polls.

Six new airports planned

Six new airports planned
By Sunil K. Vaidya, Bureau Chief GULF NEWS Published: January 01, 2008, 23:09

Muscat: Oman will have six more regional airports, Minister of National Economy and Supervisor of the Ministry of Finance Ahmad Bin Abdul Nabi Makki announced while releasing Oman's 2008 budget yesterday.

"Work is underway on the designs for construction of six regional airports in Sohar, Al Duqm, Ras Al Had, Adam, Haima and Shaleem," he said, adding that the expansion plans for the Muscat and Salalah international airports were also on course.

"The Ministry of Transport and Communication and the ministerial committee commissioned for improving the two airports are now reviewing the designs and the detailed maps," he added.

"It is expected during the first half of the current year the tenders for the new runway will be invited," he revealed, adding that the drawing up of the designs for the airport's new building were also underway.

Justifying airports at smaller towns in the interior, Darwish Bin Esmail Al Balushi, secretary-general in the Ministry of Finance, said the move was to support the development of tourism as these places were major tourist attractions.

2008: Difficult but not depressing

2008: Difficult but not depressing
28 Dec, 2007, 0312 hrs IST,Saumitra Chaudhuri,

Managing high oil and food prices will be the challenge, even as modest growth in the developed world eliminates concerns that would have arisen had the slowdown resembled recessionary conditions.

There are two opinions about what may be happening in the US economy, and by extension to the rest of the developed world and then to the emerging economies of the world. There is widespread consensus that the US economy will slow in 2008.

The difference is about by how much? In both 2004 and 2005, the world’s largest economy had been running a bit ahead of the long-term trend value of 3%, though it had scaled back to 2.9% in 2006. In any case, this was nowhere as far out as in the closing years of the last decade when it had exceeded 4%. The idea that growth would be slower still in 2007 had preceded (or had quietly subsumed) the outbreak of the subprime crisis in August 2007.

Since August 2007, the world’s financial markets and US and European lenders have taken a beating as the subprime mortgage asset and the Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDO) structures imprudently built on weak ground started to give way.

This compounded the uncertainty about the extent of the adverse economic implications for the US economy and the rest of the world in 2008. First, the difficulties of banks and other intermediaries, as also the increase in risk pricing, suggested that credit delivery would slow and in any case happen be at higher interest rates, suggesting that US consumer spending would slow more than expected.


Second, the decline in home prices (through the wealth effect) was set to further compress consumer expenditure. Why Europe should follow suit was much unclear, except the premise that given the surprisingly large exposures to US subprime assets by many European banks, a generalised outbreak of credit flu would sweep the Euro-zone.
There is no home-grown problem in either the mortgage or consumer lending markets in Europe. The only place in Europe that there is a problem is in the United Kingdom. Where aggressive lending and ill-advised means adopted to fund balance sheets, have worked in tandem with a very long house price boom, to land many deposit and non-deposit taking financial companies into rather hot water, as both regulators and government have seemingly been caught flat on both feet.

The extreme view is that the US is headed for a recession in 2008, defined as two successive quarters of negative growth. This is however something of an undercurrent, whispered but not quite said out aloud in polite company: A product of the general sense of gloom that has pervaded the world’s financial capital, as not only has a nice big business gone out of the window, but the pride of the market have taken big losses and seen the top men leave — albeit in gilded parachutes.

Thus the gloomy end of the spectrum is the argument of a strong likelihood of “near recessionary” conditions emerging in the US economy in 2008. That is, conditions where growth would be close to, or even below 1%, rather than the recent 3% growth trend. It must be noted that most big banks maintain growth forecasts of 1.5%. Those, with a penchant for seeing code and subliminal images in public communications, may not be wrong in this case, to read it as 1% plus a readiness to take it further down on the receipt of the bad news, widely believed to be on the way.

That the particulars of our immediate circumstance distorts our view of the rest of the world, is a common human failing — no stranger even to the cerebrally over-endowed and chronic over-achievers who populate the world of high finance.

The other viewpoint is that while US growth will slip, it will not do so by much. This conclusion derives from the fact that the US economy has recorded strong growth even as late as the third quarter of 2007, and anecdotal information on the December shopping season do not suggest a squealing of the brakes. In fact, except for the home-building sector, all other sectors are doing well, with GDP growth excluding the problem-stricken sector at 2% in the third quarter of 2007.

In fact, this economy grew more strongly in the third quarter of 2007, than it had in the first and second. This conclusion is also supported by the employment figures. Unemployment in November 2007 was 4.7%, broadly unchanged from earlier in the year and low by historical standards. The data on non-farm employment creation has also continued to be healthy through 2007 including in October and November.


The Euro-zone has had a revival of strong growth since 2006. In the third quarter of 2007 the region grew by 2.8%, with none of the major economies of the region showing signs of weakness. From all of this the only conclusion that emerges is that while 2008 will be a slower year, it will not be depressing. That has implications for inflation and on the extent of monetary accommodation possible in the US and elsewhere.


Recessionary conditions in the developed world would have compressed export demand of emerging economies, creating possible slumps in the prices of some manufactured commodities, which price signals passed through to home markets, would have squeezed operating margins and acted as potential disincentives for investment. That these things will not come to pass in 2008 is good news. However, the flip side is that the demand for crude oil, industrial raw materials and grain will not fall.


The main lesson of the past months is that the world can live with $80 to $90 per barrel oil. Between November 2005 and 2007, wheat prices doubled and though more acreage is coming under the crop, it is unlikely that augmented output will soften wheat prices by much in 2008-09 — though over the medium-term it is a possibility. India is both an importer of oil and of wheat.

Managing the inflationary burden of high oil and food pries will be the big challenge through 2008-09, even as modest economic growth in the developed world eliminates concerns that would have arisen had the slowdown resembled recessionary conditions.
(The author is economic advisor, ICRA)