Category «Features»

Universities should not only provide knowledge and skills but also inculcate values of humanity and virtue, access to knowledge is fundamental to our bid to empower people, says President

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee addressed the Conference of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (February 5, 2013). Such a Conference is being held after a gap of nearly 10 years. Speaking on the occasion the President said that a university is a seat of learning “which recognizes no frontiers …

Molten Metal: Indian steel scenario looks promising as construction sector is growing and demand for long products from the real estate and industrial construction is stable – Sushim Banerjee, DG, INSDAG

Q.1 With Queensland flooded – Xstrata has invoked force majeure – how do you expect Coking Coal prices to move in the near future? A. The flooding of coking coal mines in Australia has been a regular phenomenon for the last few years and the coking coal mines have periodically invoked force majeure in their …

Corporate Storm Troopers, embrace green tea : the new stress buster! Chawm Ganguly

Stress. Stress is the single biggest threat facing the middle and the increasingly lower middle management segments. (Here, I am deliberately not delving into the stress related ailments of the top management as much has already been written about the matter.) Young men and women are today taking an incredible, and in cases unbearable, amount …

Loss of momentum in Nifty needs to be noted for now – Umesh Shanmugam

S&P CNX Nifty (5,998.90): The Nifty is still trading within the confines of the bullish and bearish trigger levels of 6,150 and 5,940 respectively. The index drifted lower in the trading week ended 1 February, and closed below the psychological support of 6,000. Taking into account the recent price action, there is enough …

Why you should be betting against the rupee now…Umesh Shanmugam

If the Reserve Bank Governor made a bigger song-and-dance about the current account deficit (CAD) than inflation in his monetary policy of 29 January, there is a reason for it. The rupee is simply overvalued, given current inflation rate differentials between India and its main trading partners. And in a scenario where exports have been …

Mai-baap! China is choking – Chawm Ganguly

“Mai” is a Chinese word for smog. A word that is literally choking Beijing and other major cities in Eastern China, thanks to the overwhelming burning of coal for power generation. Visibility is severely hampered on the ground level as a shroud of toxic fumes seems to have engulfed the cities. Children are restricted indoors, …

Ball State Economist: American businesses not creating enough jobs to bring down unemployment

Ball State economist Michael Hicks says that while the economy added 157,000 new jobs last month, it’s still too few to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate. The U.S. Department of Labor announced this morning that the unemployment rate edged higher to 7.9 percent. The organization also revised recent hiring trends, estimating an …

2013 Could Be An Ugly Year for BRICs: Umesh Shanmugam

As the global economy shows little sign of growth or improvement in 2013, it’s only natural for investors and economists alike to take a closer look at emerging countries, traditional sources of potential (if not extraordinarily risky) growth and profitability. Perhaps the most well-known of these emerging markets are the BRIC nations – Brazil, …

Crude oil Update: Umesh Shanmugam

Crude oil has been trading ways for the past year between the 2011 high and low. The trading range through 2012 has been contracting with a series of lower highs and higher lows. This pennant formation because it is taking place after an uptrend is a bullish pattern with $110 and possibly even $140+ per …

Conference on Economic Transformation and Inclusive Growth in Frontier Asia: Naoyuki Shinohara

It is my honor and pleasure to welcome the Ministers, Governors, and other participants who have traveled to Bangkok to join the Second Joint IMF-JICA Conference on Frontier Asia. The term “frontier” is used for the group of less-developed countries that have experienced prolonged periods of growth. Indeed, the countries represented at this conference have …