This kind of an entrance examination will be in place from 2011 onwards.

The MCI’s decision has been accepted by the Union Health Ministry. Currently, students who wish to pursue a course in medicine need to appear for approximately five or six entrance examinations for different colleges that they are interested in attending. To compound matters there are usually issues like exam dates at different colleges clashing or coming in too close together for candidates who wish to appear for both, to be able to do so. Students also are highly inconvenienced due to the travel that is required to distant locations for counseling and allotment of seats.

The new MCI decision means that all of these hassles will be done away with. One entrance test for the MBBS course and one for the MD course will be held for all the 271 medical colleges in the country. Of these 138 colleges are run by the government and 133 are functioning under private management. Altogether a total of 31,000 seats are offered for the MBBS course, and for the post graduate course, there are a total of 11,000 seats.

The Maharashtra state government has been favourable to the MCI decision. The managements of the private colleges, however, say that the MCI decision is against the spirit of a Supreme Court judgment – that was ruled in the TMA Pai case. This ruling had recognised and safeguarded the freedom of private and unaided institutions on several issues, which include the right to admission. They say that educational institutions must be allowed to take their own decisions without any form of government control. The private colleges have a separate common entrance test that determines the right to admission in 11 medical and 21 dental colleges in Maharashtra.

The guidelines for the single entrance exam are yet to be finalised and it remains to be seen how much of the decision will go through following this much opposition from private establishments.

The main port of Mumbai will remain closed till Wednesday, in order to avert any navigational complications, said sources at the defense ministry.

The MSC Chitra, registered in Panama, collided with the MV-Khalijia-II near Jawahar Lal Nehru port. The MSC Chitra was moving out of the port and the Khalija-III was navigating towards the Mumbai Port Trust for repairs when the collision happened. The scene of the crash was around five kilometers from Mumbai port. The collision caused the MSC Chitra to heavily, thereby spilling its oil and lubricants into the water. The leak was plugged by late Monday and the Minister for Environment, Jairam Ramesh, confirmed this news in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The information released by the defense ministry says that the oil slick that was caused by the accident is spread over an area of three miles around the ship. The cause of the accident has been accepted to be a failure in radio communications between the two ships and no information has been given regarding the cargo they were carrying. Officials suspect that human error on one or both ships could have caused the collision. Since Saturday, Indian coast guard ships and helicopters have been working relentlessly to get the situation under control.

It is estimated that 300 containers that the ship was carrying have fallen into the sea, and that approximately 2,000 liters of oil have been spilt into the Arabian Sea over the three days that passed since the collision. Although the ship is still listing heavily, officials confirm that there is no danger of it sinking, since it has run aground on a rock, and the water levels are not deep enough in that area for submersion. No details were given on the damage incurred by the Khalijia-II. A detailed investigation has been instituted by the Director General of Shipping to ascertain the details of the collision.

Photo: Ratan Tata

With markets and markets watchers all agog in anticipation to see who Ratan Tata’s heir will be, the man himself refuses to be drawn into making it a big deal. In a TV news report, Tata reiterated that all the speculation was quite needless. He spoke on the succession plan that was put in place, that the selection committee had been formed ten years ago and that certain parameters in the selection criteria were set by him.

The final decision on the successor will be taken by the committee, which he will be totally uninvolved in, said Ratan Tata. Tata Sons will only be carrying out the task of announcing the name of the person that the committee picks out as the successor.

He made it clear that regional or community politics would not have any role in the selection process. Basically, the chosen person would be one who displayed all the capabilities that were required to take the company forward on the same levels of excellence and accomplishment that was its hallmark. He has made it clear that he would be open to someone outside the group taking over as well, if he was considered to be the perfect candidate.

According to reports, Ratan Tata’s successor will be named by March 2011. The group had its beginnings in 1887, with four partners. Ratan Tata will retire as the sixth Chairman of the Tata Group on December 29, 2012. One of the candidates rumored to be a hot favourite is Noel Tata, who has been in Nestle, Tata International, Lakme and Tomco in the past, and served as managing director of Trent, where he is still Vice-Chairman.

According to a study conducted by a management-consulting firm Booz and Company, it has been revealed that when most industrialized countries are on their initial stages of recovering from the crisis, emerging markets have already reached the pre-crisis growth rates.

The global wealth distribution is shifting toward  the East and it is expected that the present rates of recovery will continue to lead the graph for next few years. The study also says that countries that boast of an abundance of natural resources are likely to reach its high peaks of growth rates even before the global economy completely improve. Though China, India and the Middle East are emerging as the leading areas of wealth, the fundamental private banking in these areas are not properly looked into and it is the duty of the wealth managers to break through these markets.

Most high net worth individuals (HNWIs) are likely to emerge in the Asia-Pacific region, led by China and India. This is due to the strength of the underlying economies and a strong entrepreneurial spirits. This HNWI population would increase in the coming years with the emerging government-led infrastructure projects.

Many rich HNWIs will flourish in these regions in the next few years through family businesses, small enterprises or by indirectly inheriting wealth form older generation. In 2008, the number of HNWIs in the Asia-Pacific region stood at 2.6 million. But it is expected that, by 2011, the number of HNWIs in China and India will lead those in Europe and North America. China would lead the UK in the number of HNWIs. By the end of 2011, the percentage of HNWIs living in these countries will reach up 33 percent that is nearly 3.6 million of the global HNWIs. China, India and Middle East, the emerging markets in the industry will be the leading areas where wealth would be generated in the upcoming years.

BP Oil Gulf of Mexico oil spill NASA photo from space

There are those who believe that the ocean will take care of this on its own. Like Rush Limbaugh. Perhaps. But nature can take a few centuries to deal with things, and sometimes a few millenia. For people with shorter lifespans, the possible impact – mild, bad, horrible – of an oil spill that is worse than the Enron Valdez oil spill is worth discussing. Related story: Gulf of Mexico BP Oil spill photos.

We are not experts in this, so we researched a bit to find out exactly what would happen. The quick answer is,  no one knows for sure yet. But it could become really bad.

First, let us see what Greenpeace has to say. We along with many think that sometimes the Greenpeace eco-warriors could get a little alarmist. But they are still a good starting point.

According to them, the environmental impact of the BP oil spill could affect a variety of birds and marine life. The critically endangered bluefin tuna could get hit, as this is their spawning season. The oil could possibly kill the bluefin tuna larvae.

Sea turtles have their nesting season soon, a fish species called menhaden (used for fish meals and oil), fin whales, oysters and a bunch of birds could be really badly affected according to Greenpeace. This is the breeding season for alligators, pelicans, shrimp… large scale deaths are a clear possibility. Read more here.

Impact of oil spill on the fishing industry

If the spread of oil is not limited quickly, fishing could get seriously affected. The state of Louisiana has a fishing industry worth $265 million at dockside and has a total economic impact of $2.3 million.

John Sackton, editor and publisher of seafood.com, told the media that if the oil slick reaches Louisiana’s shrimp beds, it could have far-reaching economic consequences. The short-term effct would be that fishing for shrimp would become impossible” once waters are polluted. Fishing would have to stop wherever there is an oil problem, he said. In the long term, shrimp might not survive.

Beaches, sea shore and wetlands: Environmental impact of the Oil spill

If the oil from the burning BP oil rig reaches the sea shores, there goes your beaches. Tourism could get seriously hit. If the oil flows into the wetlands, it would be practically impossible to get rid of it afterwards, and there will be environmental effects for several years. There is a lot of effort already going into making sure that the oil slick does not reach the shores or enter the wetlands anywhere. More.

According to a report in FoxNews, George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said that he was worried about the potential long term impact on coastal marsh lands. If the oil from the Guld of Mexico oil spill comes into the passes, cleaning it would be impossible and there wold be long term economic consequences.

“It’s an accepted fact that the marshes of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — the Fertile Crescent — produce 90 percent of the seafood in the Gulf of Mexico,” Crozier told the Mississippi Press. “If you were to pave that over with an oil spill, you’d see a dramatic drop in seafood recruitment, possibly for years to come.”

According to a report in wmur.com, commercial shellfish operations in the Guld of Mexico would be impacted, with the result that dinners would get more expensive. “If they eat shrimp, much of the U.S.-based shrimp production is down there,” said UNH professor Nancy Kinner. “Much of the oyster production is down there. Much of the crab fishing is down there — commercial, big-scale stuff.”

The committee for Ethics and Corporate Governance, chaired by Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy, said that IT companies sometimes use poaching as a means to meet human resource needs for short term projects. The practice can hurt other companies as whole teams working on a project may leave the firm to join another firm. Around 2.3 billion employees are directly employed in the IT-BPO sector.

The committee suggested adopting methods such as asking a prospective employee for a relieving letter from the previous employer, as a best practice in HR. Employees in IT companies should also serve the company for the entire period of their notice.
Companies often refrain from asking prospective employees for documents of their previous work experience as they hurry to meet manpower needs for short-term projects. Employees from other companies are hired by offering attractive salaries. Companies also attempt to increase their bench strengths by providing high commissions to HR consultants.

The Nasscom committee advised companies to hire employees through unbiased mediums like newspapers, radio, television and websites. President of Nasscom Som Mittal said that such means were proper for companies as they had sufficient time for recruitment before starting a new project.

Other suggestions made by the committee included informing employees headed overseas for assignments about their visa and compensation rights, adopting and following a whistleblower policy and appointment of an ombudsman to look into ethics concerns. It also advised companies to pay its directors a fixed contractual remuneration amount or 3 percent of the net profit as mentioned in the Companies Act, 1956.

The committee which was formed last year following the Satyam scandal, comprised of industry leaders such as CEO and President of GenPact Pramod Bhasin, member of Mastek board Ashank Desai, CEO of Zensar Ganesh Natarajan, former CVC Chairman N Mittal and TCS Vice-Chairman S Ramadorai. ?

Thanks to the reports of several instances rape – the most famous of them was of Scarlett Keeling - and other crimes being reported in the national and international media. As if in an attempt to revive the flagging fortunes of the tourism scene in the beach state, the administration is looking at the e-route to make things work to its advantage.

According to sources, Goa is set to log on to social networking websites in its bid to restore lost glory. The Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) has plans to get on to Twitter and Facebook in an attempt at image building initiatives.

Officials at GTFC have been quoted as saying that social networking has the potential to help Goa reach out to new clients and also keep in touch with existing guests who have Goa on their annual holiday itinerary. If this works out, GTDC would be the first state-run agency to have its presence on Twitter.

Goa has been battered by bad press and travel advisories of late. The state, known for its sunny beaches, has been struggling to maintain its foreign tourist inflow after crimes against foreigners were reported extensively.

Though bad media coverage had been bane to the tourist destination, some amount of relief had come from  a steady inflow of tourists from Russia. Visitors from Russia almost saved the industry from disaster with around 40,000 arrivals recorded. The numbers are expected to go up with the state set to log on to the social networking websites.  On Twitter and Facebook, Goa will be trying to paint a positive picture of the state so that tourists from far and wide take note.

Our take is that Goa is messed up for a long, long time. Goa’s politicians are in the news, always, for corruption, assault, rape or sundry criminal charges. There is a strong stream of thought in Goa that foreign tourists – at least, the hippies – are ruining local culture. Even the state government is not immune to it – often suggesting that tourists cover up, and that local customs need to be followed – and trivialising crimes against tourists. Then there is the flourishing mafia and drug trade – but at least, drugs have always been part of any tourist hotspot in the world.

Social networking on Facebook or Twitter can boomerang if serious changes are not made in the way Goa is being run. When you have something to hide or are embarrassed about, going out into conversational media is not always safe. Clean up your house first, Goa!

An obviously irked Coca Cola has rejected the allegation in a very strong manner.

As per the report, it has been found that Coca Cola has been responsible for around  Rs 84.16 crore worth of damage to agriculture, Rs 62.10 crore cost to pollution of water sources, Rs.20 crore each for cost of water provided and wage loss and opportunity cost and Rs 30 crore loss on account of various health problems. The report was submitted to Kerala’s Water Resources Minister N K Premachandran by a nine-member committee with Additional Chief Secretary K Jayakumar at the helm. The panel has also called upon the government to take steps to set up a tribunal and compensate the loss suffered by the villagers of Plachimada.

In response to the report and the alleged findings, Coca Cola has said that the panel was set up based on the unproven assumption that the company had caused damage in the Plachimada area. Minister Premachandran has said that the report would now be examined by the government and suitable action would be taken.

The K Jayakumar panel had been set up by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government led by VS Achuthanandan last year. The panel members had visited the areas around the Plachimada plant at least four times and sat with the villagers to know of their woes. Significantly, not once did a panel-Coke officials meeting happen, and the reason being said is that the Coke officials never appeared before the committee.

The content of the report now out in the open, many are a happy lot on Plachimada. The Adivasi Samrakshana Sanghom (ASS), which had been fighting against the Coca Cola company, has welcomed the panel’s report and has subsequently urged the Kerala government to recover the damages from the soft drink giant. ASS has, in fact, demanded Rs 4,500 crore, taking into account the loss incurred by this operation on the future generations too.

The Plachimada plant of Coca Cola was set up in 1999 with the blessings of the then Left Chief Minister and Communist veteran E K Nayanar. However, things went out of control for the company after a sustained campaign against the plant gained momentum. The plant had to be closed down in 2004.

The technology for the genetically modified version of brinjal is owned by the United States-based firm Monsanto.

The representatives of the 10 states, ruled by different political parties, held a conference held in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, called by the Kerala government, and described their united stand as “the second war of Indian independence.”

The conference was convened by the Department of Agriculture and the Biodiversity Board of the government of Kerala.

The states, the representatives of which participated in the conference against Bt brinjal, included Mizoram in the far-east, Tamil Nadu, the next-door neighbour of Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Apart from the representatives of the of the CPM-led coalition government in Kerala, the conference was attended by the Agriculture Minister of the Congress-led government of Andhra Pradesh; ministers from the BJP-led governments of Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh; ministers from the BJP-Akali coalition government of Punjab, the JD(U) government in Bihar, the BJD government in Orissa, as well as ministers from Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

The participants declared that they “will not rest” until Bt brinjal and all genetically food stuff ‘Quit India.’

All these states, except Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, have officially banned genetically modified food material.

According to V S Vijayan, chairman of the Biodiversity Board of Kerala, the motive of the conference was to send to the Central Government a message of opposition to Bt brinjal.

The companies had allegedly lent money to the company founder Ramalinga Raju, who is currently in jail.

The receipt of the notices is supposed to be a major setback for Mahindra Satyam and its efforts to salvage the lose pride of the company.

As per the notices received from the 37 companies, the money was given to Satyam Computer as temporary advance. The notices have claimed the return of money to “repay creditors,” some of whom include Maytas Properties Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd.

Satyam Computer has replied to the legal notices and according to its reply on November 14, 2009, the claims were not legally tenable. Apparently, Ramalinga Raju’s confession letter had also contained information related to the money received from the 37 companies.

The money Raju received from the 37 companies remained an understated liability and was never on the books of Satyam. Recently, companies such as IL&FS, have asked Mahindra Satyam to show them the money they owed to the company as debts on the company’s account sheets.

It will be tough for the lenders to get their money back, since  the transaction was not carried out in the public domain and, therefore, the circumstances under which lent money was lent to Raju is unclear.

IL&FS, the new owner of Maytas Infra, had recently written to Mahindra Satyam showing the company proof of a transfer of Rs 20 crore through two front companies — Angeerasa Greenfields and Saptaswara AgroFarm — on July 31, 2008, into Satyam accounts through the Hyderabad branch of Axis Bank.