Thursday, October 29, 2009

Indian Economy

India's trade with China during 2008-09 amounted to US$ 40.61 billion, up 7.01 per cent over the 2007-08 bilateral trade level of US$ 37.95 billion.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Development Report 2009 - HDI rankings

The HDI – human development index – is a summary composite index that measures a country's average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: health, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Health is measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and standard of living by GDP per capita (PPP US$).
HOW IS HDI USED?
A) To capture the attention of policy makers, media and NGOs and to draw their attention away from the more usual economic statistics to focus instead on human outcomes. The HDI was created to re-emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth.
B) To question national policy choices - asking how two countries with the same level of income per person can end up with such different human development outcomes (HDI levels). For example, Costa Rica and Iran have similar levels of income per person, but life expectancy and literacy differ greatly between the two countries, with Costa Rica having a much higher HDI value than Iran. These striking contrasts immediately stimulate debate on government policies on health and education, asking why what is achieved in one country is far from the reach of another.
C) To highlight wide differences within countries, between provinces or states, across gender, ethnicity, and other socioeconomic groupings. Highlighting internal disparities along these lines has raised national debate in many countries.
The Human Development Index (HDI) launched by UNDP(United Nations Development Programme) in 1990 has published its 2009 reports in which India slipped to 134th position.once again Norway has topped the list followed by
2. Australia
3. Iceland
4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Japan
13. United States
21. United Kingdom
22. Germany
92. China
134. India
141. Pakistan
146. Bangladesh
and the last three are following in this ranking
180. Sierra Leone
181. Afghanistan
182. Niger

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The World's Top-Earning Cricketers

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Earnings: $10 million
Primary Club Team: Chennai Super Kings
National Team: India
Major Sponsors: Reebok, GE Money, Pepsi
M.S. Dhoni's $8 million of endorsement income over the last year is more than baseball's Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard, combined.

2. Sachin Tendulkar
Earnings: $8 million
Primary Club Team: Mumbai Indians
National Team: India
Major Sponsors: Adidas, Canon, Royal Bank of Scotland
Tendulkar, widely considered one of the greatest batsman in cricket history, is one of five IPL cricketers with "icon" status, meaning he's exempt from the league's player auction and instead automatically receives a paycheck 15% larger than his highest paid Mumbai teammate.

3. Yuvraj Singh
Earnings: $5.5 million
Primary Club Team: Kings XI Punjab
National Team: India
Major Sponsors: Fiat, Reebok, Microsoft
Singh earned $4 million over the last 12 months from endorsements and other commercial ventures off the field, including providing a voice in the animated film Jumbo, his Bollywood debut.

4. Rahul Dravid
Earnings: $5 million
Primary Club Team: Royal Challengers Bangalore
National Team: India
Major Sponsors: Castrol, Reebok
A former International Cricket Council Player of the Year, Dravid earns slightly over $1 million annually from Bangalore as one of the IPL's five icon players.

5. Andrew Flintoff
Earnings: $4 million
Primary Club Team: Chennai Super Kings
National Team: England
Major Sponsors: Puma, Volkswagen, Barclays
Flintoff will retire from five-day national team competition next month and is doing his best to go out on top: In July he bowled England to its first Test victory in 75 years over Australia at Lord's, cricket's most storied venue.

6. Sourav Ganguly
Earnings: $3.5 million
Primary Club Team: Kolkata Knight Riders
National Team: India*
Major Sponsors: Puma, Pepsi
Ganguly, captain of the IPL's Knight Riders, ranks fourth all-time in runs on India's national team, a squad he used to also captain.
*Retired from national team play in 2008.

7. Ricky Ponting
Earnings: $3.5 million
Primary Club Team: Kolkata Knight Riders*
National Team: Australia
Major Sponsors: Valvoline, KFC, Adidas
Ponting has slowly shed his bad boy image to become one of Australia's most marketable athletes, earning more than $2 million in commercial endorsements over the last 12 months.
*Did not play in the IPL in 2009

8. Brett Lee
Earnings: $3 million
Primary Club Team: Kings XI Punjab
National Team: Australia
Major Sponsors: Gatorade, Volkswagen
One of the fastest bowlers in cricket history, Lee was once clocked at 99.9 miles per hour on the radar gun, just shy of Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar's record of 100 mph.

9. Kevin Pietersen
Earnings: $3 million
Primary Club Team: Royal Challengers Bangalore
National Team: England
Major Sponsors: Red Bull, Vodafone, Adidas
Bangalore purchased the rights to Pietersen at auction for a record $1.55 million annual salary--a sum that's tied with Chennai's Flintoff as the highest auction price in the IPL's two year history.

10. Michael Clarke
Earnings: $2.5 million
Primary Club Team: New South Wales Blues*
National Team: Australia
Major Sponsors: Gillette, Slazenger
Clarke is the highest-profile cricketer who has yet to join the IPL, instead preferring to leave money on the table and play club matches in his native Australia.
*Australian first-class cricket team, also known as RTA SpeedBlitz Blues.

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS


Friday, July 31, 2009

America's Top ten paid CEO

Sanjay Jha,Motorola's co-CEO is US highest paid CEO
America's top earning business head, Motorola's co-CEO is India-born Sanjay Jha, who got a package of $104 million in 2008.

In comparison, India's top-paid business chief, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, got a total remuneration of Rs 44.02 crore (Rs 440.2 million) in 2007-08, the last fiscal year for which the salary data is available.

Ambani's package is just about one-fifth of the same for even Vikram Pandit, also and India-born person and CEO of banking behemoth Citigroup, which had to seek the US government's support to keep running. With a total payout of over $104 million in 2008, Jha is the only CEO to get a compensation package exceeding $100 million. Jha joined Motorola in 2008 and serves as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. and chief executive officer of Motorola's Mobile Devices business.

He is also a member of Motorola's board of directors. Prior to joining Motorola, Jha served as chief operating officer of Qualcomm Incorporated where he oversaw corporate research and development. Jha began his career at Qualcomm in 1994 as a senior engineer.

Ray Irani comes second among the top paid CEOs

Ray Irani comes second among the top paid CEOs. Irani has been chairman and CEO of Occidental since 1990.

He was chief operating officer from 1984 to 1990.

He was chairman of the Board of Directors of Nexen Inc. from 1987 to 1999.

He is also a director of Wynn Resorts, Limited and TCW Group.

Walt Disney's CEO Robert Iger

Walt Disney's CEO Robert Iger ($49.7 million) at the third position. Iger is the sixth CEO in The Walt Disney Company's 82-year history.

Iger has also served as president and chief operating officer of The Walt Disney Company since June 2000. Iger is also became a member of Disney's board of directors at this time.

He began his career at ABC in 1974. He officially joined the Disney senior management team in 1996 as chairman of the Disney-owned ABC Group and in 1999, was given the additional responsibility of president, Walt Disney International.

Vikram Pandit, Citigroup is 4th highest paid CEO

India-born Vikram Pandit is the 4th highest paid CEO with a total compensation of $38.22 million.

He has now vowed to take just $1 as salary till Citigroup returns to profitability.

Pandit was named Citigroup CEO in December 2007 and received three million stock options and almost 1.1 million shares of restricted stock in January 2008 as a signing bonus.

Louis C Camilleri 5th highest paid CEO

With a total salary package of $36.36 million, Louis C Camilleri is the 6th highest paid CEO in the US.

Camilleri became chairman and chief executive officer of Philip Morris International on 28 March 2008, following the spin-off of Philip Morris International from Altria Group, Inc.

Prior to this, he had been chairman and chief executive officer of Altria since 2002.

He has also served as Altria's senior vice president and chief financial officer since November 1996.

Jack A Fusco 6th highest paid CEO

Jack A Fusco is the president and chief executive officer of Calpine Corporation and as a member of its Board of Directors since August 10, 2008.

From July 2004 to February 2006, Fusco served as the chairman and CEO of Texas Genco LLC. From 2002 through July 2004, Fusco was an exclusive energy investment advisor for Texas Pacific Group.

He started his career as an operator at power plants in California and has 25 years of experience in the power industry.

Kenneth I Chenault, CEO, American Express; 7th highest paid CEO

Kenneth I Chenault, CEO, American Express is the 7th highest paid CEO with a salary package of $28.56 million.

He joined American Express in 1981 as a strategy planner.

He became the president and COO in 1997. In 2001, he became the third black CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history

Gregory Q Brown co-CEO of Motorola
Gregory Q Brown, co-CEO of Motorola comes next in the list with a package of $27.49 million.

Brown joined Motorola in 2003 and was elected to the company's board of directors in 2007.

Brown oversees the strategic and operational direction of the Illinois based, $30.1 billion telecommunications and enterprise company.

John J Donahoe 9th highest paid CEO
John J Donahoe with a compensation of $24.41 is the 9th highest paid CEO.

Donahoe became the president and CEO of eBay Inc on March 31, 2008. He has the global responsibility for growing each of the company's business units, which include eBay Marketplaces, PayPal and Skype.

John came to eBay in February 2005 as president of eBay Marketplaces, responsible eBay's global ecommerce businesses.

Prior to eBay, John worked with Bain & Company, a worldwide consulting firm for 20 years.

James Hackett 10th top paid CEO

James Hackett with a total compensation $21.62 million, is the 10th top paid CEO in the US.

Hackett was named president and chief executive officer of Anadarko Petroleum in December 2003, and chairman of the board of the company in January 2006.

Prior to joining the company, Hackett was the chief operating officer of Devon Energy Corporation from April 2003 to December 2003.

India ranks 75th in world’s best nations for business: Forbes

India has slipped 11 positions to be ranked 75th in a list of world’s best countries for business, compiled by US publication Forbes, as the country lost ground in areas like trade freedom, technology, corporate tax rate and corruption.
The list has been topped for the second year in a row by Denmark, while India has moved down from its 64th position in Forbes’ annual list, which ranks 127 nations on the basis of business climate in a country for entrepreneurs, investors and workers.
The US has moved up two position to be ranked second on the list. Besides, Canada and Singapore have moved up four spots each to number three and four respectively. Other countries in the top 10 this year include New Zealand, UK, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong and Norway.
Three countries -- New Zealand, Australia and Norway -- are new to the top-ten this year, while three others -- Finland, Ireland and Switzerland -- have fallen out of this league.
“Sliding the most this year was Ireland (No. 14, down 12), which even saw plans for a Guinness mega-brewery shelved by parent Diageo as exports slowed,” Forbes said, adding Uruguay, Armenia, Paraguay and Latvia also moved down considerably