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Showing posts from September, 2008

Oil and Hormuz Strait pt..........II

The importency of Hormuz Strait is understandable in the following statement – practically the entire oil from Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are transported through this. About two fifth of all globally traded oil are transported through it. About 80 per cent of all Japanese oil imports transit through it and the same is applicable for 12 per cent of total American oil imports & 25per cent of total Western European oil imports. A reliable estimate predicts that by 2020 the amount is likely to double than what is transported currently, i.e 35 million barrels per day. That will require about 30 tankers each day. Though the strait is 95 km wide, but only to two 3 km wide channels are available for navigation. Each used exclusively for inbound and outbound traffic. If the prediction comes anywhere near to reality then the traffic will be hazardous and extremely slow. Congestion and prolong delay will be a matter of fact. It may be difficult to h...

Oil and Hormuz Strait

Do you have any idea what in the terminology of transport geography `CHOKEPOINTS’ are? Straights are called `Chokepoints’ because they limit the capacity of sea passage that cannot be easily bypassed. Two thirds of world`s oil production are transported by sea routes. This has been in continuance since 1878, when the first oil tanker began shipping oil in the Caspian sea. Ever since the world`s maritime tanker fleet has grown substantially to become a specialized segment of the maritime industry. Like seven wonders, seven seas, seven days; the seven `Chokepoints’ through which oil is transported play a very crucial role, maintaining the global oil demand- supply equation and obviously the price! The seven `Chokepoints’ or straights are, Hormuz, Malacca, Bab el-Mandab, Boshphorus, Gibraltar, Panama and Suez. While the last two are manmade, rest all are gifts of nature. The world`s most important chokepoint is the Strait of Hormuz. This is the most important sea passage from the Persia...

THE FACTS OF DARJEELING

“DARJEELING”, the very name of this hill station in India reminds you the colonial days and tea. Because it was the British colonizers; who were constantly on look out for cooler places, obviously in India it uses to be in hills what would remind them their home. The temperature in tropical countries, particularly in summer months use to be unbearable for them for mercury touching anywhere between 35 to 44 degree Celsius! In India Shimla and Darjeeling earned their reputation for hosting the colonial administrators with their staffs with families during summer months for running colonial administration for years. Though with English rulers, gone are the colonial days and prestige of Darjeeling, but it still holds name in world for its tea. It still the producer of world number one flavored tea and sold at a price, unthinkable for we ordinary mortals! Off late, a new hue for Gorkhaland is raised time and again. It stared in the decades of 90s, lot of agitations, number of strikes call...

MONEY MATTERS

Taking the global queue, the Indian Stock indexes have plunged and everyday finding new low. Informed experts opine that the bear phase is ushering. Everybody is busy with all their wisdom, calculations how long the bear phase will last. No doubt it is pertinent question. The investors have deserted the market, without a sign of returning early. The day traders are trying hard to recover their loses. The general feelings of payment crises under existing circumstances is not ruled out. News are there as brokers committing suicides. Obviously it transpires that they did so apprehending trouble due to non payment of their dues. The Finance Minister assured neither Indian Banks nor Indian burses are under any sort of threat. Let us trust him and raise no question. Whenever the bear phase users in the market , you know, people start guessing the bottom. Because the bottom offers ideal time to enter the market. But most of us, keep guessing but can never identify the true bottom. Better not...

Young would be investors

The Stock Market is going tumble tosser all over the world due to US economy. The sub prime crisis is finally taking heavy tolls. Many old bankers are getting bankrupt. The Indian banks are safe but the withdrawal of funds by FIIs is taking toll on its burses. The budding young investors should take the steps carefully and stage wise. Better they follow the simple rule of saving first. Few tips I am giving here. First of all budgeting is most important factor in young professional’s life. Unless you do that you wonder where your money goes! Writing a budget shows actually how do spend and shows the area and how you can control them. You can identify the area needs to be controlled. Never forget to add the expenses you do on shopping and entertainment and include your savings too. Keep a track on your utility bills and keep comparing them. Mind you the plastic money or credit cards are major boosters to spending. Not that they do not have any role to play. At an odd hours, god forbid,...

THE OIL GAME

The world oil price rebounded above $100 per barrel after touching recent low to $99 per barrel. On September the 10th the member of OPEC countries met to discuss the oil price which dramatically declined from their peak $147 per barrel in July amid a global economic slowdown. All over the world the rate of inflation rose high and they are still hovering around their recent peak level. However a surprise decision to cut production by 520000 barrels a day taken by member of OPEC cartel. It is reported that OPEC president and Algerian energy minister, Mr Chakib Khelil said the output cut would start immediately. He further added "if you do your own calculations, it is a cut of 520000 barrels per day"; announcing a new OPEC output quota of 28.8 million barrels per day. The International Energy Agency (IEA) meanwhile cut its estimate for global oil demand this year and next, saying consumers mainly in the United States are changing their lifestyles in response to high prices. T...

The Wayward Children

Lack of parental care harms to the full blown growth of their child to what extent, one has to see to believe it. The orphans do not have their parents. Whether are they are raised in a orphanage or on the streets, they grow like their alike amidst of them. So at orphanage, the only difference is under supervision of nurses and teachers they grow better, disciplined and balanced. But the children who are growing under the most uncaring and negligent parents are the worst suffers. Because of presence of their parents prevents others to interfere. Neither have they belonged to streets nor to home. At school most of these children are worst performers and keep very low profile. They are introverts. In the initial stages it is very difficult to separate them from others of their age group. Problems become visible in at their teens and it aggravates fast. If the care is taken even at the initial stages, it results better in reforming. Later it becomes almost impossible, most of them turn ps...

The Lingering Wish

A Blogger keeps posting because he wants his blog to remain alive and read as widely as possible. Most of the blogs are dedicated to a specific subject. There are professional bloggers who for the obvious reason to attract more traffics insist on covering those subjects which are current market craze. Like life-style, traveling and making money in as many ways as possible. Though I am not a professional blogger, it was just out of freak I started once blogging with my childhood memories. It began with the famous Google’s social network site: Orkut. I kept postings few in a series till my childhood days at my hometown where I was born and brought up was covered. It was a industrial town, where my father served and I was born, schooled. It was a industrial town, where we lived in a quarter, that I used to consider as our home, without realizing what a home meant. This I realized in my late teens, when I joined Air Force and understood that town I belonged to, never belonged to me. With ...

RESERVATION AND POLITICS IN INDIA (PART -II)

In a recent move, Indian human resource minister, Mr, Arjun Singh promulgated a fresh bill that reservation should apply to the member of faculty in all government educational institutions even in premium institutions like IITs or IIMs! Here the ruling parties’ president, being self form a European country advocates the applications of reservations in corporate or private jobs as well. The vehement opposition by different industry leaders on any such move and a threat to move out elsewhere, if they are forced to recruit substandard staffs; for time being it is sent to cold store. All the chambers of commerce declared in unison that Indian government should take care of backwards in macro level for improving their lots, instead of pushing and absorbing them in government organization and educational institution, resulting poor quality and demoralizing the deserving lots. This hampers all the way national interest. It is well known that such policy is not sustainable in national interest...

RESERVATION AND POLITICS IN INDIA

I remember in my school days, we were asked to write a passage justifying an adage or moral. One of them was “Public opinion is humbug”. This still holds good, when we watch the political developments around the world based on public opinion thrives despite of being wrong. Like US and its cartel`s invasion on Iraq, on the plea of elimination of WMD (weapon of mass destruction) and its creator. After all democracy is “government of the people, by the people , for the people”, so all actions taken by government are supported by the majority . Now the term “majority” is critical. Different country adopted different terms for judging the opinion of major portion of mass. Even in most advanced democracy like France, till recent years women had not voting rights! Just think where they constituted no less than 50 per cent of total population, and during French revolution they took part along with their male counterparts. This gender bias plays its role elsewhere too. However, while justif...