G.S tit bits

• Croma, the consumer durables and infotech chain of Tatas, is getting into a new retail format to offer best-selling products from its stores. It also plans to set up shop-in-shops inside Star Bazaar, the hypermarket chain of group company Trent.
• The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has got regulatory approval to launch futures contracts on benchmark US indices S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), paving the way for Indian investors to bet on world’s most influential stock market.
• A global conference on mango was held in Lucknow in June 2011. The main topic was the challenges facing the crop and its growers in backdrop of changing climatic conditions.
• China has become the world’s largest energy consumer, overtaking the USA. Chinese energy consumption grew by 11.2 per cent between 2009 and 2010, the highest for any country. India was not far behind, recording a high 9.2 per cent increase in energy consumption.
• IBM, also called the Big Blue, completed 100 years of operation on June 16, 2011. Over the last 100 years, it garnered over $100 billion in revenue, carved a global footprint in over 160 countries. Collected over 6000 patents worldwide (the highest fo any company in the world), developed a computer system called Watson which even out-smarted skilled ‘Jeopardy’ players and created smart grids and cities globally. IBM’s success can be traced back to history of inventions, including the punch card, electric typewriter, mainframe, scanning tunneling microscope, web server, hard drive and nanotubes.
• India is now ranked 12th in the world in terms of the number of millionaires, according to the Capgemini and Merrill Lynch’s World Wealth Report, 2011. It has moved one notch up in the ranks, pushing Spain behind.
• India’s performance on global environment index has improved, earning it the 123rd rank, primarily because of progress made in renewable
• On June 16, 2011, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the policy rates for the 10th time in 15 months by 25 basis points. The Repo rate was hiked to 7.5%, as a result the reverse repo rate and MSF go up to 6.5% and 8.5%, respectively
• The first India-US Higher Education Summit was held on July 15-16, 2011 in Washington. The summit was announced during the visit of President Obama to India in 2010.
• The global oil consumption grew by 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2009-10, or 3.1 per cent, the strongest growth since 2004. India’s percentage of world’s consumption of oil is 3.9%. China consumes 10.6% of world’s oil while USA consumes 21.1%. China consumes 48.2% of world’s coal consumption. USA consumes 14.8% and India 7.8%.
• Under the provision of the UNCLOS, a coastal country can seek extension of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) beyond the approved 200 nautical miles, if it can demonstrate through scientific documentation that the continental shelf of the country extends beyond that distance throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory. India submitted its claim for extension of its EEZ to the UN commission in August 2010, placing it among the few countries which have been able to give evidence to lay their claims over extended continental shelf around them. The claim if ratified by the UNCLOS would help India in exploring additional area and exploit mineral resources in those areas. However, this claim will not extend to the waters in the area. The Indian Continental Shelf Project was started in 1999 by a team of 60 scientists to collect data for extension of the Indian continental shelf.