Info corner... July'06

General Tit-Bits:

• Maruti comes out with a new version of Wagon-R with dual fuel injection system. It can operate, both, on petrol as well as LPG.
• Tata Steel Ranked World’s Best Steel Maker for the third time - Study by World Steel Dynamics. The WSD report of February 2006 covers the study of all the leading steel manufacturing companies across the globe including POSCO, Arcelor, Nippon Steel, Bao Steel, Thyssen Krupp on 20 different parameters. Emerging out of the study, Tata Steel has been ranked first with a weighted average score of 8.51 as against a score of 8.11 last year. POSCO of South Korea followed in the second place with 8.41. The production capability of Tata Steel at the end of the Financial Year, 2005-2006 stands at around 5 mn tonnes. NatSteel, acquired by Tata Steel has a capacity of around 2mn tonnes.
• Infosys will be the first Indian company to remotely ring the Monday bell to open trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York - reports CNN-IBN on July, 29, 2006. Infosys was India's first global company, with more than 90 per cent of its US$ 2.1 billion in annual revenues coming from overseas.

National & International News:

• Mumbai rocked by seven serial blasts in local trains on July 11, 2006..
• Israel launches offensives in Gaza and Lebanon over the capture of Israeli soldiers.
• The United States House of Representatives on 27th July, '06 overwhelmingly voted for a legislation providing greater access of sensitive nuclear technology to India after defeating potential deal breaker amendments. The legislation, cleared by the 435-member House by a 359-68 vote nearly four hours after taking it up for debate, must now be approved by the Senate before being signed into law by President George Bush. Besides the Senate, the deal, which was reached during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the U.S. in July 2005, needs the clearance from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an assembly of nations that export nuclear material.
• Srilankan army launches air-offensive against LTTE.
• The Affirmative Action Committee, set up under the chairmanship of J J Irani by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), has given the thumbs down to the government’s suggestion of reservations in the private sector. It has proposed several benefits for disadvantaged groups of society, including SC/STs, but not OBCs. These sops aimed at helping create employment includes help to create 100 SC/ST entrepreneurs by large firms, setting up of coaching centres in 10 universities for 10,000 students belonging to the lower strata of society apart from the setting up of 10 coaching centres that will cater to 5,000 students preparing for professional and technical courses.
• Eminent cardiologist and executive director of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, N Trehan is planning to expand his MediCity project beyond Gurgaon. "Discussions have been initiated to set up MediCity in Kolkata similar to the one coming up in Gurgaon and the proposal is likely to be finalised within the next three-four months," he said.

Economics & Business:

• WTO talks fail in Geneva with US refusing to budge on the issue of Farm-subsidies. EU had agreed to reduce farm subsidies by 75%. Meet attended by G-6: U.S., the EU, Australia, Brazil, Japan and India.
• The RBI raised the reverse repo rate (the rate at which the RBI sucks out liquidity from the system ) from 5.75 per cent to 6 per cent and the repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends its short term funds or the process of injecting funds into the system) to 7 per cent with immediate effect. Dr. Reddy expressed concern in particular over the fact that the credit growth of banks was much higher than deposit mobilisation. This would also help keep the inflation in check.
• Tatas, Fiat team up to make cars. Tata Motors and Fiat have scaled up their alliance that was forged last year. The two companies will now undertake joint production of passenger cars, engines and transmission systems in India.
• Mittal on 26th July,'06 stated that he had acquired 92% control of Arcelor. Ever since Mittal made the offer to Arcelor, the combined market capitalisation of the two companies has gone up by 8 billion USD. The merged entity, to be christened Arcelor-Mittal, would control 10 per cent of the world's steel making capacity that is currently estimated at 1,000 million tonnes a year.

Telecom Sector:

• In April 2006, the number of mobile subscribers in India reached 96.92mn while fixed line telephone subscribers stood at 47.50mn. Total telephony subscribers in the country crossed 144mn. Gross tele-density reached around 13.16. Total broadband connections in the country in April,'06 stands at 1.4mn. In the last two years, the number of telephone connections have doubled.
• DoT is augmenting the spectrum availability for 3G roll-out in India. A Rs.1000 crore project initiated for release 45MHz from defence.
• After the Alcatel-Lucent mega merger, it was the turn of the the Nokia-Siemens big ticket merger in the Telecom circles. The 50:50 joint venture isvalued @$30bn. It will start with 60K employees with revenue of 15.8bn euros. Siemens has a strong fixed-line network equipment, Nokia specialises in the wireless equipment side. Before the merger, Nokia had sales of 6.56bn euros and operating profit of855mn euros. Siemens had sales of 13.1bn euros and operating profit of 45mn euros.
• Stockholm based Erricson is valued at $61.8bn (last Oct, it acquired fixed line gear maker Marconi Corporation's broadband internet and telecommunication assets for $2.2bn. The Paris based Alcatel-Lucent entity is valued at $36bn and the Nokia(FIN) - Siemens(GER) entity is valued at $30bn. Motorola has been pushed to fourth position among 'Network Equipment Makers'.

Sports:

• Italy wins Football WC'06 by defeating France in the Finals on 9th July,'06. Golden Ball awarded to: Zinedin Zidane(FRA). Golden Boot awarded to Miroslav Klose(GER).
• Roger Federer moves closer to making tennis history by winning the Wimbledon for the fourth time. Andre Agassi also announced his retirement during this year's Wimbledon Championship. Amelie Mauresmo of France became the Ladies' Wimbledon Champion in 2006 following her win at the Australian Open a few months back.
• Abhinav Bindra won the air rifle gold at the World shooting championship, India's first-ever in the sport, on 24th July,'06. He is a 23 year old lad from Delhi.
• Manavjit Singh Sandhu’s explosive performance at the shooting ranges in Zagreb enabled not only got him an individual gold but also helped India clinch the team silver at the ISSF World Championships. Indian team totalled 360/375
• ICC launches 2007 World Cup logo, mascot in India on 27th July, 2006.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Life is boring; "Kuchh naya ho jaye..."

Of-late, life has become very monotonous. Nothing new to look forward to:-(

On professional front, stuck up with the same Nokia project although 'woh din ab dur nahin jab main kisi naye project mein jaaunga', "hopefully". But still some time to go and not too sure what the project will be. So keeping my fingers crossed.

On personal front, I am still a rolling stone, 'which according to the proverb', will gather no moss. The problem is that I come up with some very good plans but over a period of time, it fizzes out because of lack of motivation or lethargy, whatever you might call it. So got to change my mind-set (don't know how many times I have said this to myself). Unless I do so, I will continue to be a perennial under-achiever.
With some friends returning back from abroad next month, August will probably be jam packed with parties. My mother, brother, mashi & mesho are also scheduled to visit my place early August. But that too is short time excitement.
I am thinking about taking up CFA course. At least that will keep me engaged with something more productive. I will get to know more about Finance and it will keep my grey cells ticking.

No major sports tournaments are coming up as well. There is the ICC champions trophy in October though. But who cares about cricket!!! Its the same old story with India performing well in the sub-continent and then flattering to deceive when they are abroad. My school and college mates may be surprised by this statement of mine since I always used to be an eternal optimist on this issue. But, its just that probably with time, I have grown more matured to be able to look through the things.
By the end of September, Durga Puja will be round the corner. Some more fun, some more excitement. Well, by then, it will soon be time for the closing phase of the current project. So, may be I will have something new to look up to.

Shifting back to Kolkata does not seem to be a viable option as of now. But soon, I will be forced to take a call. NCR is getting more and more expensive and room-rents and realty prices are going off the roof. So, may be Kolkata will be a viable option given that I have my own house out there. Even if that means sacrificing a few bucks in the compensation package, I might be game for it.

I have always been an arduous reader and there are lots of interesting facts and figures and little bits of info that keeps coming my way. I have thought up of an idea to keep a month-wise blog maintaining all these pieces of information. Sounds exciting but it needs some meticulous updation every day or at least, every second day. Lets see if I can maintain it.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

"When GOD makes a mistake..."

Its been quite sometime since the Football World Cup 2006 finals but the realization that the GOD of WC'06 made such a disgraceful exit has yet not sunk in. Well, the subject under discussion is pretty unambiguous, I guess!!!

It was an all European final, the first one since 1982, where neither of the Latin-American giants could find a place. Both Italy and France had peaked gradually as the tournament progressed and they out-witted their opponents when it mattered most.

On the 9th of July, the highly charged up finals started with a bang - a 6th minute penalty against the Italians, cheekily converted by Zizou. With Italians better known for their defensive approach, the game was thrown wide open. Italy responded in style though a Materazzi header in the 19th minute, drawing the scores level. From then on, the rejuvenated Italians played some really attractive soccer with substantial ball possession in the mid-field. Pirlo's accuracy in dead ball situations and the height of the tall Materazzi and Luca Toni posed a substantial threat to their opponents. However, at the end of the first-half, the score line remained unchanged.

The second-half saw the French displaying some of the tricks in their bag and the entire half was by-and-large dominated by them. Despite the skills of Riberi, Henry and Zidane, they failed to bulge the net a second time. Buffon made some excellent saves as well to keep Italy in the race. Meanwhile, the second half saw Henry and Riberi being replaced in the latter stages. With the game still level at the end of 90 minutes, it went on to extra time to find a decider to the World Cup.

In the extra time, the French pushed harder but the un-flinching defence of the Italians, with Cannavaro at the helm of affairs, left little room for the Frenchmen to drive the ball home. As the game dragged on, penalties seemed inevitable. And, as per records, Italians had never won a match that went on to be decided through penalties. But in Buffon, Italians had a superior goal-keeper than the French who had to rely on the services of the cranky Barthez.

While the spectators all over the world were speculating whether the odds were stacked against the Italians, suddenly something strange happened - 10 minutes from the end of extra-time, the referee blew the whistle in the middle of the game, indicating a foul. The Italians had a player down and they were vehemently drawing the referee's attention towards Materazzi. Replays told a shocking story. Right in the middle of the game, Zidane had lost his cool in response to some instigation by Materazzi and he head-butted Materazzi on the chest. And with that, probably, the French had lost their chances of winning the World Cup. Zidane was shown a RED CARD. That meant an ignominious end to a magnificent career.

The game eventually went to penalties and the Italians won the shoot out by meticulously converting all their 5 shots at goal. The Italians had won the World Cup for a fourth time, next only to the 5 time world champions, Brazil. The French had not only lost the World Cup final but the Zidane incident had left a bad taste at the end of the high-profile final. Perhaps their only solace was that despite the incident, Zidane went on to win the Golden Ball award tipping Cannavaro and Pirlo who finished second and third respectively in the race.

The FIFA disciplinary committee announced match suspensions to Zidane for his un-ruly act. However, since Zidane had already announced his retirement, the gentle-man as he is, he has himself volunteered for some community service as penitence towards that act. Zidane, however, made himself clear that given Materazzi's instigations, he provided an appropriate response to his adversary. Well!!!, if the Frenchmen have forgiven Zidane, what has the world got to rue for?

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Surprise!!! Surprise!!! Its FRA vs ITA

In my previous post, I had stated that probably its a GER vs BRA final in the offing. But the campaigns of both teams came to a pre-mature end and we now have a FRA vs ITA final this coming Sunday. What a surprise!!!

After GER had beaten ARG, it seemed pretty much a GER participation in the finals. But ITA played out of their skin to win the semis. It was a wonderful match and the standout player of the day was un-doubtedly Cannavaro.

Brazil had a poor game against the French and with Zidane finally displaying his fangs, Brazil soon found themselves kicked out of the tournament, failing to reach even the semi-final stage.

However, the French had a pretty ordinary performance against the Portuguese and beat them by a solitary goal scored of a controversial penalty. The second half of the match saw as high as 70% ball possession by the Portuguese who had their chances but could not convert in the end.

Going by the performances of late, I would say that ITA start favourites in the final. But one who discounts Zidane can do so at his own peril!!!.

So lets wait and hope to witness some attacking football in this final.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

On the expected lines - "Pekerman quits after Argentina's exit"

Extracts of his statements:

"I think the cycle is over. I'm sure I'm not going to continue (as coach)," Pekerman told the post-match news conference at the Olympiastadion.
"I always believed in this team, these players, this squad and they did not let me down" Pekerman

Goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri had to come off with a rib injury and was replaced by his deputy Leo Franco, but Pekerman also brought off playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme and sent on defensive midfielder Esteban Cambiasso.
"Riquelme looked a bit tired," Pekerman said.

Asked why he had opted minutes later to replace Hernan Crespo with Julio Cruz instead of sending on teenage ball wizard Lionel Messi, Pekerman said: "We always had that option in mind...but it wasn't the right moment."

And thus ends Pekerman's story....

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."

Argentina have themselves to blame!!!

Pooooh!!!

What a game and what a shame. It was an excellent game of football of the highest standards. The ARG-GER quarter-final stretched to the penalty-kicks and finally the Argentines did not have the nerves to clear the last hurdle. And I really cannot understand what the Argentine coach Jose Pekerman did!!! In such a high profile play-off, there was no Lionel Messi, no Saviola. It was a real shocker and the Argentines had to pay for it in the end.
1 goal up in the second half, with 60-40% ball possession in favour of Argentina, what was the coach afraid of? He adopted a defensive approach; replaced a striker for a mid-fielder and in the end, he was left with no alternatives by the time the game moved into the closing stages. Things came to such a pass that during the penalties, they did not have their front-line strikers for penalties.
Neither of the teams had lost till date in the WC on penalty shoot-out. And today it had to be Argentina's black day.
Anyways, it was wasted talent and I see a Germany-Brazil final in the offing. Wouldn't it have been great if the two Latin-American giants had met in the finals. But that was not to be:-(
Adios Argentina...

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind...."