April-2009

• Pramod Bhasin, Presiden and CEO of Genpact, took over as the new Chairman
of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) for
2009-10, succeeding Ganesh Natarajan.
• The former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, is
appointed Special Senior Adviser to the president of the 192-member General
Assembly on the world financial and economic crisis.
• Naina Lal Kidwal is appointed as the country head of HSBC group companies
in India.
• Balwinder Singh, a 1976 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, took over
as Additional Director in the Central Bureau of Investigation.
• Marris Zare music director of the movies A Passage to India and Lawrence of
Arabia died in Los Angeles.
• Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was appointed as the new
NATO chief.
• Israel's Likud party Chief Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as the new prime
minister of the Jewish state.
• Senior Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla took over as the 16th chief
Election Commissioner of India in New Delhi.
• The Government removes Raghu Menon from the post of Chairman and
Managing Director of Air India and appoints EK Bharat Bhushan as the interim
chairman and managing director.
• President Barack Obama has appointed Indian American management
consultant Anju Bhargava, who is also an ordained ‘pujari’ (priest), as the
member of a faith-based advisory council of the White House.
• V.S. Sampath is new Election Commissioner
Union Power Secretary Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath, a 1973 batch IAS
officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, will be the new Election Commissioner.
• Sonal Shah joins Obama administration
Indian-American Sonal Shah, who formerly led the philanthropic arm of
Google, has been appointed head of the new Office of Social Innovation and
Civic Participation in the Obama administration.
• Senior advocate Ghulam E.Vahanvati was appointed as the new Attorney
General of India.He was the Solicitor General during the previous UPA
Government.

May-2009

• The famous director , producer died in Mumabai. He directed fasmous movies

like Zanjeer, Lavarees etc.
• President Obama Nominated Gen. Charles Bolden to be NASA Administrator.
• Robert Furchgott who developed Viagra died at the age of 92. He won the
Noble Prize in Pharmacology. He proved that Nitric Oxide gas is useful for
various reactions taking place in the body which lead to the invention of
Viagra.
• Eminent Historian, A R Kulkarni was dead at the age of 84. He is credited with
the setting up the History Department at the University of Pune in 1969.
• Prasara Bharati Chairman, Arun Bhatnagar has resigned to his job.
• Justice Pasayat was appointed as the chairman of the Competition Appellate
Tribunal.

June-2009

• Nandan Nilekani of Infosys has been appointed as the Chairperson of

Unique Identification Scheme (UID), a project by the union central
Government. This newly created position will be equivalent to a Cabinet Rank
minister.

• Obama administration has appointed Farah Pandith as Special

Representative to Muslim Communities under the aegis of the State
Department and Secretary Hillary Clinton.

• Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, a retired judge of the Supreme Court has
been appointed as Chairperson of the Armed Forces Tribunal.

• Lord Swaraj Paul was appointed by the British Queen as a member of her
Privy Council, the British monarch|s advisory group whose members include
the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and other eminent personalities.

• Ramesh Pokhariyal is the new Uttarakhand CM

 • Senior associate editor and bureau chief of The Hindu Harish Khare will be
the media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

• Nirupama Rao to be next Foreign Secretary :

she was High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Her other diplomatic jobs included
being Ambassador to Peru, deputy head of the Indian embassy in Moscow,
and Minister (Press) at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC.

• Karia Munda was elected as deputy speaker.

• Habib Tanvir, one of the greatest stalwarts of Indian theatre, died due to a
brief illness.

July-2009

• Nirupama Rao is the new foreign secretary.

• AP state’s 1st woman High Court Judge, Justice Amareswari was dead.

• Legendary Hindustani vocalist Gangubai Hangal died in Hubli. She was 97.

• Padmanathan takes over as new LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam) chief.

• Indira Jaisingh was appointed as the first woman Additional Solicitor General.

• Sri Vatsava is the new Director General of BSF.

•

August-2009

 The Medal of Freedom Awardee Edward Kennedy, brother of John F Kennedy died
at the age of 75.
 Hind Samachar Group Editor in chief, Vijaykumar Chopra was appointed as the
Board Chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI).
 Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma was elected as the
Chancellor of UK’s Queen’s University Belfast.
 VijayKumar Saraswat is the new chief of Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO).
 Sonia Gandhi was ranked the 13th most influential women in the world by Forbes
magazine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was ranked 1st. Sheela Beyer, America
Federal Deposit Insurance Chairperson was ranked 2nd. Pepsi Co CEO, Indra Nooyi
-3rd , ICICI bank CEO Chanda Kochar – 20th and Biocon chairman, Kiran Mozumdar
Shah – 91st.
 Jaswant Singh has released his controversial book ‘Jinnah: India-Partition-
Independence’.
 The 13 Militant groups association, Therik-e-taliban announced Hakimullah
Mehsud as the new Pak Taliban Chief.
 A postal stamp, in commemoration of Pingali Venkaiah, designer of the Indian
Tricolor, was released by the CM of AP.
 Guitar legend Les Paul has died at 94. He invented the solid-body electric guitar.
 Rangarajan Was reappointed Economic advisor to PM.

September 2009

 Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the father of the "Green Revolution" who
is widely credited with saving millions of lives by breeding wheat, rice and other
crops that brought agricultural self-sufficiency to developing countries around the
world, died in Texas. He was also conferred with Padmavibushan by India.
 Former BCCI chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur died in Mumbai.
 Jack Kramer, a tennis champion in the 1940’s and 50’s died in Las Angeles.
 Retired IAS officer JM Girglani passed away. He was the chairman of the One-
Man Commission on Six Point Formula. Girglani was instrumental in implementation
of the popular GO 610 pertaining to repatriation of non-locals to their native zones.
 Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General P. K. Bhardwaj will be the new
Vice-Chief of Army Staff.
 General Deepak Kapoor, took over as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff
Committee from outgoing Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
 Vice Admiral Nirmal Kumar Verma took over as the new Navy Chief.

October 2009

• Indian – American Mr. Suresh Kumar, president and managing partner of

KaiZen Innovation, known for his expertise of public-private partnership, has
been nominated Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director-General of the
United States and Foreign Commercial Service in the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
 • Global rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Asia-Pacific Chief Economist
Subir Gokarn will be the new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI).

• The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday elected Chhagan Bhujbal

as the leader of its legislature party, thereby making him the Deputy Chief
Minister of Maharashtra.

• Dr. K. Radhakrishnan was appointed as the new Chairman of ISRO. He is

the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center.

• Admiral Suresh Mehta was appointed the new High Commissioner to New
Zealand. He is the 1st to be appointed to such post after retirement.

• Joseph Wiseman, the actor who played the sinister scientist and title
character of Dr. No in the first James Bond feature film, has died.

• G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, has

been appointed President of the International Academy of Astronautics
(IAA).

• Sujatha Koirala was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal.

• The US-based food and beverages giant PepsiCo has named Indian-born
senior executive Jaya Kumar as president of its two billion dollar Quaker
Foods and Snacks division
• A veteran freedom fighter and disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Chote Singh
Rathore, died. Rathore had played an active role in the Satyagrah and Quit
India Movement.

• C.B. Muthamma, India’s first woman career diplomat and first woman
Ambassador, died in Bangalore.

• Noted civil rights activist and Lawyer K Balagopal died of cardiac arrest. He
worked as a Professor in Kakatiya University. He wrote books like Naxalbari
Udyamam, Gamyam Gamanam, Chikati Konam.

Sam Pitroda was appointed as the PM’s advisor. Pitroda, who is also the chairman of
National Knowledge Commission, will advise Singh on integrating information
communication technology in the sectors of infrastructure, health, justice and
information.

November-2009

• U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American Rajiv Shah to

head the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

• Oxford fellowship has been given a philosophy student of Indian origin, Amia
Srinivasan. With this fellowship she joined the band of scholars that includes the
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

• Asok Chavan sworn as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

• P.S. Veeraraghavan, a rocket technologist, took over as Director of Vikram

Sarabahi Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, from K. Radhakrishnan.
Mr. Veeraraghavan was till now Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU),
Thiruvananthapuram.

• Srikumar Banerjee, a leading expert in Materials and Technology in the country

and director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has been appointed as
chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary Department of Atomic
Energy (DAE)

• Vinita Kamte wrote a book titled “TO THE LAST BULLET” in search of truth
behind her husband, 26/11 martyr Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok
Kamte’s death. It was co-authored by senior journalist Vinita Deshmukh.?

• Veteran journalist Naresh Chandra Rajkhowa, who broke the news about the
Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet through Tawang in March 1959, passed away.

• International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato has appointed

Siddharth Tiwari as Director of the IMF's Office of Budget and Planning (OBP).

• Carnatic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and playback singer Mangalampalli

Balamuralikrishna has been appointed as the ''Asthana Vidwan'' of the Tirumala
Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for the third time. Dr Balamuralikrishna, who
performed in more than 25,000 concerts worldwide and made over 400
compositions in various languages including Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, has now
become the official singer in the Lord's court.

• Belgium PM Herman Van Rompuy was elected as the first President of EU.
Ashton was appointed the EU's first High Representative of the Union for
Foreign Affairs and security policy.

• Ameed Karzai sworn in as the president of Afghanistan.

 December-2009

• Eminent Marathi and English literature, poet and filmmaker Dilip Chitre died.
His well-known works include "Ekun Kavita", a collection of poems in Marathi,
and "Travelling in the Cage" in English. Chitre's renowned work was "Says
Tuka", the English translation of the poems by famous 17th century saint-poet of
Maharashtra Sant Tukaram, and "Anubhavamrut", the works of the 12th century
saint-poet Sant Dnyaneshwar.

• Traian Basescu has won the elections with a margin of less than 1% to become
the President of Rumania for the second time.

• Nitin Gadkari was elected as the President of BJP. He was the president of
Maharashtra BJP.

• Kenyan born green campaigner and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai has been
selected the UN peace messenger for climate change.

• Time Magazine picked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as Person of

the Year for 2009. He was selected for his work to improve US Economy after
economic crisis.

• UGC Chairman, Sukhdev Thorat has been appointed as the chairman of Indian
Economic Association.

• Kannada actor Vishnuvardan died of heart arrest. He acted in 200 films.

• Well-known Kannada composer-singer C. Aswath died after a prolonged illness.

• Kalyani Kaul, a prominent barrister of Indian-origin, has been appointed as

Recorder by Queen Elizabeth.

• Reena Kaushal became first Indian woman who skied to South Pole. She
travelled 900km for 40 days along with 8 women from different countries.

• C Ramakanth Reddy took over as Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh.

He retired from the post of Chief Secretary. S V Prasad was appointed as the
Chief Secretary in place of him.

January-2010
• President Pratibha Patel presented the Ashok Chakra to
1. Major Rishima Sharma, wife of Major Mohit Sharma (Posthumous).
2. MS Beeta, Wife of havildar Rajesh Kumar (Posthumous)
3. Major D. Sreeram Kumar of 39 Assam Rifles.
• Six Padma Vibhushans, 43 Padma Bhushans and 81 Padma Shris are being
awarded for the year 2010. The following are some of the names of the people
chosen for the Padma awards:

Padma Vibhushan
Ebrahim Alkazi (Art), Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman (Art), Zohra Segal (Art),
Yaga Venugopal Reddy (Public Affairs), Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
(Science and Engineering), Prathap Chandra Reddy (Trade and Industry)

Padma Bhushan
Ilaiyaraaja (Art), Aamir Khan (Art), Fareed Zakaria (Journalism), Mallika
Sarabhai (Art), Prof. (Dr.) Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana (Art), Prof. Bipan
Chandra (Literature and Education), S.P. Oswal etc.

Padma Shri
Resul Pokutty (Art), Rekha (Art), Deep Joshi (Social Work), Saina Nehwal
(Sports), Vijender Singh (Sports), Virendra Sehwag (Sports), Ram Narain
Karthikeyan (Sports) etc.
• According to defence ministry announcement, lieutenant General V.K.Singh
will replace the current chief of the Army Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, who
retires from service on March 31, 2010.
• Jyoti Basu, Veteran Marxist leader, who set a record as the nation's longest
serving chief minister and one of the tallest figures in the country's political life,
died of septicemia due to pneumonia that led to multi-organ failure. He was 95
and is survived by his son and three grand children.
• An Iraqi court sentensed Ali Hassan al-Majeed, the Saddam Hussain henchman
widely known as "Chemical Ali" to death by hanging for a 1988 gas attack that
killed about 5,000 kurds.
• Fitness trainer Dinaz Vervatwala enters Guinness book of world records for
completing 26-hour-long aerobics marathon.
• President Pratibha patil has approved the Sarvottham Jeevan Raksha Padak for
Jammu gril Rukhsana Kosser, who killed one of the L.E.T terrorist and injuring
another in Kalsian village about 217 km from Jammu on the night of Sep 27,
2009.
• Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has appointed Gopinath Munde as chairman of
the Public Accounts Committee.

February-2010

• M.F. Hussain, India's most celebrated artist has been conferred Qatar nationality.
• Justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru was sworn in Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh
High court by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.
• Indian - Origin lawyer Rashad Hussain will be U.S.’ new special envoy to the
organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 35 - member board of governors
elected Malaysian envoy Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob by consensus as
its new chairman.
• Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia will
represent India in a high level panel to be set up by UN Secretary General Ban ki
- Moon on financing climate change action globally. The panel will be co -
chaired by British PM Gordon Brown and Ethopian PM meles Zenawi.
• K.N.Raj, widely respected development economist, who was the economic
adviser to Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to P.V.Narasimha Rao and one
of the architects of the Indian plan edifice, passed away. He was 85.
• Lawra Chinchilla became Costa Rica's first woman president
• Indian - American Pulitzer Prize - winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has been
appointed as a member of U.S. President Barak Obama's Committee on the Arts
and Humanities, along with five others.
• Nepal’s first Vice-President appointee Paramananda Jha, whose post has been
inactive for the last five months over an oath-taking controversy, sworn in a
second time.
• For the first time, an India-born businessman Vim Kochhar (73) has been
nominated to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

March-2010

• The government of India appointed Congress President Sonia Gandhi

chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC was set up after
the UPA came to power in 2004 as an interface with civil society on
implementation of the government's National Common Minimum Programme
(NCMP), including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the
Forests Right Act.

• Eminent Bhoodan leader Biswanath Patnaik, 94, a close associate of Vinoba

Bhave, and was popularly known as the “Koraputia Gandhi” passed away at
Baliguda in Orissa's Kandhamal district.

• A commemorative stamp on former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy is

being issued by the Postal Department on September 2 to coincide with his first
death anniversary.

• Chennai-born Shankar Balasubramanian of Cambridge University has been

named Innovator of the Year by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC), Britain's leading agency for academic research and
training in non-clinical life sciences.
• The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has
recommended the elevation of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Gyan
Sudha Misra as a Supreme Court Judge. Justice Misra, who hails from Bihar will
be the fourth woman judge of the Supreme Court, after Fatima Beevi, Sujata
Manohar, and Ruma Paul, who retired in June 2006.

• The 31-year-old Tejdeep Singh Rattan became the first Sikh in a generation who
had continued wearing a traditional turban and yet joined the United States
Military, a feat not achieved since 1981.

• Kanu Sanyal, one of the architects of the naxalite movement and who, in more
recent times, was critical of the Maoists, was found dead at his residence in the
Naxalbari area of West Bengal's Darjeeling district.

• C.V. Midhun, a second semester B.Sc. Physics student of the Majlis Arts and
Science College at Puramannur in Valanchery, Kerala ,who had disputed the
famous black hole theory of noted scientist Stephen Hawking, has become part of
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. The LHC, a gigantic instrument
placed near Geneva, is studying the impact of particle collision.

• The Centre has appointed Justice P. Venkatarama Reddy, a retired judge of the
Supreme Court as chairperson of the 19th Law Commission, which will have
tenure up to August 31, 2012.

• Girija Prasad Koirala(86), the Nepali Congress president, who served as Prime
Minister four times and as head of state once, passed away. Koirala, popularly
known as Girija babu, was considered a ‘national guardian.'

• Former Deputy Chief Minister and Veteran Dalit leader Koneru Ranga Rao (74)
died after prolonged illness. Rao held various port folios, including housing and
social welfare in the congress governments that were in power from 1978-88 and
1989-94 and went on to become the Deputy Chief Minister in Kotla Vijaya
Bhaskar Reddy cabinet.

• Noted Marathi poet and Jnanpith award winner, Govind Vinayak

Karandikar(91) - known by his literary name Vinda, passed away in Mumbai.

• Senior journalist T. Surender has been selected as the new Chairman of Press
Academy of Andhra Pradesh (PAAP).

• Iron Sharmila, who has been on a fast - onto - death since November 4, 2000
demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA)
in Manipur, was rearrested, as she continued her fast despite being released by the
court.

• Eminent industrialist G.P. Birla (87) passed away. Son of B.M. Birla, who had
helped to set up units such as Orient Paper and Industries, Hyderabad Industries
and Nigeria Engineering Works. He was also involved in setting up the Birla
 Institute of Technology in Ranchi, Birla Science and Technological Museum and
Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute.

April-2010

 Major General C.S. Nair is appointed as the 14th Judge Advocate General (JAG) of
the Army
 President Pratibha Patil has appointed senior-most judge of the Supreme Court
Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia the 38th Chief Justice of India (CJI). He will replace
Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, who retires on May 11.Justice Kapadia will be the first CJI
born after Independence.
 Oh Eun-sun (44), a South Korean mountaineer became the first woman to scale the
world's 14 highest mountains.
 Madhuri Gupta, a junior diplomat in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad has
been arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police on the charge of leaking sensitive
national secrets to Pakistani intelligence agencies.
 Rajasthan Governor Prabha Rau died in Delhi following a heart attack.
 John Wakefield(95), fondly known as ‘Papa,'the torchbearer of Karnataka's first eco-
tourism project — the Kabini River Lodge on the banks of the Kabini at Karapur in
Mysore district, passed away.
 An ethnic Indian P.Kamalanathan won a prestigious parliamentary by-election for the
Hulu Selangor seat in Malaysia.
 President Pratibha Patil cleared the appointment of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand
High Court Gyan Sudha Misra as Supreme Court judge. The President has also cleared
the appointment of Chief Justices of the Madras and Bombay High Courts H.L. Gokhale
and Anil Ramesh Dave as judges of the Supreme Court.
 Juan Antonio Samaranch(89), giant of the Olympic movement heading the IOC from
1896 to 1925,died in Barcelona(Spain).
 IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies
(NASSCOM) announced that Harsh Manglik will take over as the Chairman of its
Executive Council for 2010-11, effective from April 20. Mr. Manglik, replaces Pramod
Bhasin.
 Activist Dorothy Height, described by President Obama as the “the godmother of the
civil rights movement” passed away at the age of 98 years. Ms. Height, a pioneer of the
1960s movement, had joined historic marches with Martin Luther King Jr. and led the
National Council of Negro Women for 40 years
 Mukul Sangma was sworn in Chief Minister of Meghalaya. Dr. Sangma replaces
D.D. Lapang, who resigned as Chief Minister, bringing the curtains down on nearly
month-long dissidence in the Congress. Twenty-one of the 28 Congress legislators had
demanded his removal.
 Vijay Gandhi was sworn in Magistrate Judge for the District Court of the Central
District of California (U.S). Mr. Gandhi is the first Indian-American federal judge in
California and only the second ever Indian-American federal judge in the history of the
United States. The first was Judge Amul Thapar, who was appointed to the U.S. District
Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky on December 13, 2007.
 Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, 68, Distinguished Professor in the Ross School of
Business at the University of Michigan, and a world authority on management thought,
passed away in San Diego after a brief illness. He was known for his work specialising in
corporate strategy focusing on top management in large, diversified, multinational
corporations.
 Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya made his debut as a lawmaker, with a
runaway victory from a parliamentary constituency in Matara district in the south.
Jayasuriya won on the ticket of the ruling United People's Freedom Party alliance of the
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
 President Pratibha Patil has nominated M. Natarajan, former Scientific Advisor to
the Defence Minister, as Chairman, Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of
Technology - Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.
 The former Director-General of the Border Security Force (BSF), E. N. Rammohan,
was appointed by the Central government to probe the circumstances leading to the
massacre of 76 CRPF personnel in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
 Eminent Telugu storywriter and Sahitya Academy winner, Bhamidipati
Ramagopalam(78) passed away in visakhapatnam.
 Chandigarh-born Srinija Srinivasan (40), one of the three co-founders of Yahoo!
was appointed as a member of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars by
the U.S President Barack Obama.
 Ramana Murthy has been appointed as Chairman of A P State Cultural Council.
 ~Famous mountaineer of Nepal, Apa Sherpa, who broke his own world record by
climbing the Everest 19th time last year, is all set to climb Mt Everest again on April 6th
for his 20th climb.
 Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill
Gates to found Microsoft, died in Georgia. He was 68.
 General Vijay Kumar Singh took charge as the Chief of Army Staff from General
Deepak Kapoor, who retired from service.
 The 13-year-old Jordan Romero, the teenager from Big Bear, California will attempt
to reach the summit of Mount Everest. If he succeeds, will be the youngest person ever to
stand on top of the world's highest peak.
 Solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam was elected as chairperson of Bar Council of
India (BCI).

 President Pratibha Patil had appointed Justice Barin Ghosh as Chief Justice of the
Sikkim High Court.

May-2010
• Germany's President Horst Koehler resigned after criticism of comments he
made about the country's mission in Afghanistan.
• S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,
Thiruvananthapuram, has been appointed Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems
Centre (LPSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• Person of Indian Origin Dolar Amarshi Popat has been nominated by U.K Prime
Minister David Cameron to the House of Lords.
• The U.S government appointed Indian-American Kshemendra Paul to a key IT
position, making him head of the Programme Manager for the Information
Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) agency that facilitates the sharing and access of
terrorism-related information within various wings of the U.S. government.
• Neeraj Patil, a leading NRI doctor, has been elected Mayor of the Borough of
Lambeth in London.
• The 13-year-old Jordan Romero became the youngest climber of the tallest
mountain in the world,Mount Everest.
• Film personality Tapen Chattopadhyay(72), famous for his role as Goopi in
Satyajit Ray's classic Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen (Goopi the singer Bagha the
drummer), died of chronic pulmonary ailment in Kolkata.
• Commander Dilip Donde became the first Indian to circumnavigate the world
solo in the boat INSV (Indian Naval Sailing Vessel) Mhadei, covering about
21,600 nautical miles (38,880 km) under sail.
• India-born Scot John Shepherd-Barron(84), inventor of the Automated Teller
Machine (ATM), died after a short illness in London.
• Ratan Kumar Sinha, who is closely associated with the design and development
of the country's first thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, will be the
new director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
• The former Vice-President and three-time Chief Minister of Rajasthan in the past,
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat died in Jaipur following cardiac arrest.
• Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, was
sworn in as the 38th Chief Justice of India.
• The Centre decided to appoint Shantha Sinha as chairperson of the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for the second term.
• Veteran actor Mac Mohan(71) who was part of blockbusters like Sholay,
Zanjeer, Don, Majboor died of cancer .
• Shabana Mahmood, the Labour candidate for Birmingham Ladywood, in central
England, and Yasmin Qureshi, Labour candidate for Bolton South East, in the
north-west, became Britain's first women Muslim MPs.
• The former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, was elected president of the
Supreme Court Bar Association.
• Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as the President of Nigeria, hours after the
death of incumbent Umaru Yar'Adua.
• Dr. Shah Faesal became the first from Kashmir to top the civil services
examination 2009 conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.
• Indian-origin professor Nitin Nohria has been appointed as the 10th Dean of the
Harvard Business School (HBS) making him the first member from the
community to occupy the post.
• Indian scientist Goverdhan Mehta has been selected to be part of the 12-member
committee to review the procedures of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).
• U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has appointed Atul Khare of India as
Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

JUNE-2010

• Veteran Constitutional expert and noted advocate B. M. Masani passed away in

Mumbai.
• P. Obul Reddy, industrialist, philanthropist and patron of the arts, passed away.
He was one of the first industrialists from the South to enter into the television
business, was the proprietor of the firm that sold the popular Dyanora TV sets. He
was also the former managing director and founder of Nippo Batteries.
• One of the towering figures of Indian wrestling, Chandgi Ram, passed away. He
was an Asian Games gold medallist in 1970.
• According to Defence Ministry, Sachin Tendulkar will be conferred with the
honorary rank of Group Captain of the Indian Air Force.
• Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group of Companies has been honoured with
Doctor of Law by the University of Cambridge in recognition of his business
achievements and philanthropic work.
• A.K. Antony became the first Defence Minister to land on the Advanced Landing
Ground (ALG) of Nyoma in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.The ALG,
activated in September,2009 for fixed-wing aircraft, is 23 km from the Line of
Actual Control and close to the Sino-Indian border.
• International law expert Kishore Singh has been nominated as the U.N. Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Education.
• Yogendra Pratap Singh has been appointed the first Ambassador to the Republic
of Niger.
• Woman Justice Rekha Manharlal Doshit was appointed as the Chief Justice of
the Patna High Court by President Pratibha Patil.
• As part of Election Commission's ongoing diamond jubilee celebrations, 93-year-
old Shyam Saran of Kalpa village of Kinnaur district (Himachal Pradesh), one of
the first few voters of Independent India, was honoured by Chief Election
Commissioner Navin Chawla.
• Naoto Kan was elected Japan's Prime Minister by the House of Representatives
and the House of Councillors of Japan separately.
• The government of India announced the appointment of the former Chief Justice
of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, as the sixth chairperson of the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
• Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama from the ruling Democratic Party of
Japan (DPJ) resigned citing his failure to stay attuned to the people's wishes.
 July-2010

• Gururaj ‘Desh' Deshpande, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Chairman of Tejas

Networks, USA, had been appointed Co-Chairman of the U.S. National Advisory
Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) by the Obama
administration.
• Milon Kumar Banerjee(80), the former Attorney-General of India, passed away.
Mr. Banerjee, as Attorney-General, had the rare honour of being called upon to
address the Parliament regarding the powers of the Election Commission on
August 5, 1993, a request that had not been made to the Attorney-General for
decades, and the Padma Awards case, where he argued before the Supreme Court
that these awards were not titles and as such were not violative of Article 18 of
the Constitution.
• The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) appointed D.R.S. Chaudhary,
Additional Secretary, IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh as its official
spokesperson.
• Noted academician Gita Gopinath has been named professor of economics at the
prestigious Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor
in the institution's history.
• Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has signed a marketing deal with
an Indian sports management company Rhiti worth $42 million over two years.
The deal, the richest in Indian cricket history, surpasses batting superstar Sachin
Tendulkar's $40million three-year contract with sports management firm Iconix in
2006.
• The 22-year-old Patna-born Tathagat Avtar Tulsi is all set to become the country's
youngest faculty at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Powai in
Mumbai. In 2003,Tulsi was named as one of the world's “seven most gifted
youngsters” by Time magazine.
• Lieutenant General Chander Prakash has been appointed the Force Commander
for the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(MONUSCO) by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
• The U.S. government had appointed Preeta D. Bansal to serve as the Vice-Chair
of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the U.S. (ACUS).
• Indian-American, Nisha Desai Biswal has been nominated by the U.S
government to the post of Assistant Administrator for Asia in the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).
 April-2009 Economy

Union Commerce Ministry announced that India’s exports continued the

downtrend with a fall of 21.7 per cent in February, the lowest in 13 years.
Imports too dropped by 23.3 per cent during the month.
• Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) enters into a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with the Steel Ministry to produce around 12
million tones of salable steel during 2009-10 despite the current
economic slowdown.
• Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) commenced production of gas from
Dhirubhai 1 and 3 discoveries of D6 block in Krishna-Godavari basin,
located off the coast in the Bay of Bengal.
• Four Central public sector undertakings – National Thermal Power
Corporation (NTPC), National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), Power
Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC)
– signed an agreement to set up a high power testing laboratory for
testing equipment as per world standards.

May-2009 Economy

• Indian Economy managed at 6.7% growth in 2008-09. Per capita Income,

for the first time crossed Rs.3000/month at current prices.
• The Industrial growth for the whole of 2008-09 plunged to 2.4% from a
high of 8.5% in 2007-08.
• According to Reputation Institute (RI), Tata Group, SBI and Infosys were
among the 17 Indian companies listed in the World’s Most Reputable
Companies in 2009. The top company was Italian Chocolate maker Ferrero
followed by Swedish Creative design firm Ikea and US based Johnson &
Johnson.
• Daiiichi Sankyo has acquired Ranbaxy. It bought 64% stake in Ranbaxy.
• National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) has bagged the Engineering
Export Promotion Council Eastern Region’s Gold Trophy, as top exporter in
the large Enterprises category, for its outstanding export performance during
the year 206-07.
• The World Bank has approved a $400-million additional financing loan to
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) forecasts GDP growth at 6.1% in
2009-10, agriculture expected to grow by 2.8-3%, industry by 5-5.5% and
services by 7.5 – 8%.
• The Sensex, at the opening bell, surged 1306 points to 13479 and Nifty was
532 points up at 4203 and hit the first circuit for the day on May 18th and
also for the first time in the history of the Indian stock exchanges and the
markets were closed for two hours. At 11.55 a.m. when the market opened
again, the Sensex gained another 700 points and Nifty 150 points and hit the
second circuit of the day and the market was closed for the day.

June-2009 Economy

• The largest automobile manufacturer, General Motors filed for bankruptcy

court protection.
• Indian Economy has, for the first time after 32 years touched negative
inflation of -1.6 at the end of the week on June 6th.
• According to Hong Kong’s Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, Singapore
bureaucracy is the best in Asia followed by Hong Kong, Thailand and South
Korea.
• The US Census Bureau has said that India's older population is projected to
quadruple by 2050 while that of the world is expected to triple.
In its latest report, the Census Bureau said the world's 65-and-older
population is projected to increase from 516 million in 2009 to 1.53 billion in
2050. The older population of the US is projected to double by that time.

July 2009 Economy

• The RBI has revised base year to 2004-05 from the current base year of
1993-94.
• China has emerged as India's largest trading partner, replacing US in
2008-09. Bilateral trade engagement between India and China stood at Rs
1,63,202 crore (nearly $ 36 billion) in April to February 2008-09, an increase
of nearly 7% over Rs 1,52,713 crore in the year ago period. In the same
period under consideration, bilateral trade between India and the US dipped
7.5% and stood at Rs 1,55,353 crore (approximately $ 34 billion).

• Infosys became the first private company to get protection from the Central
Industrial Security Force (CISF).

• RBI Policy for the year 2009-10.

GDP growth rate is estimated to be 6%.

No change in interest rates.

4.75% repo rate, 3.25% reverse repo rate and 5% (CRR) cash reserve ratio.

Inflation is estimated at 5% by the end of the financial year.

• AP State’s Budget for the year 2009-10. For the financial year 2009-10, it
is programmed for

An expenditure of Rs.1,03,485.33crores out of which

Rs.63,301.22crores under non-plan and

Rs.40,184.11crores under Plan

Revenue surplus would be Rs.2, 406crores.

The fiscal deficit is estimated to be Rs.16, 162crores, which would be 3.96

percent of GSDP.

Sector wise budget allocations :

Irrigation – 17,800crores.

Panchayat raj and rural development – 3, 330crores.

Education – 1850crores

Building Houses – 1800crores

Healthcare, agriculture – 1470crores

Others – 1223crores.
• Budget 2009-10 Highlights :

Govt plans to bring back economy to high growth of 9%.

GDP growth dipped to 6.7% in FY|09

Fiscal deficit up from 2.7% to 6.8% of GDP

IT exemption limit raised; Rs 15,000 for Sr.citizens

Limit raised by Rs 10,000 for tax payers, including women

10% surcharge on personal income tax scrapped

Fringe Benefit Tax abolished

No change in corporate tax

Defence gets Rs 1,41,703 cr, up 34%

Total fiscal stimulus in 2008-09 amounts to Rs 1,86,000 cr

Funds for housing, amenities for urban poor up Rs 3,973 cr

Funds for JN Urban Renewal Mission up 87% to Rs 12,887 cr

Assistance for storm-water drainage project up by Rs 300 cr

Farm credit target up at Rs 3,25,000 cr from Rs 2,87,000 cr

Additional Rs 1,000 crore for accelerated irrigation scheme

Commodity Transaction Tax abolished

New pension system trust exempted from STT; DDT

Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 15% from 10%

Tax holiday on petro sector extended to natural gas

100% tax deduction on political donation

Fertiliser subsidy to be nutrient-based, not price

Banks and insurance firms to remain in public sector

Rs 100 cr one-time grant to expand banks in unbanked areas

Allocation of Rs 39,100 cr to be made for NREGA

NREGA coverage increased to 4.74 crore households in FY|09

Work National Food Security scheme has begun

Allocation for Bharat Nirman being raised by 45 per cent

Rs 2,000 cr rural housing fund under National Housing Bank

Mission for female literacy with focus on minorities, SC/ST

 50% of all rural women to be brought into SHG programmes

Action for social security to unorganised sector workers

New pension benefits for 12 lakh jawans and JCOs from July

One lakh dwelling units for paramilitary forces personnel

Unique Identification Card to citizens in 12-18 months

Provision of Rs 120 crore for UIC project

Rs 2,113 crore allocated for IITs and new IITs

Rs 3472 cr for Commonwealth Games from Rs 2112 cr

Customs, excise and service tax base rates unchanged

For Indira Awas Yojana, allocation increased 63%

8 missions being launched under Plan on climate change

Allocation for market development assistance scheme up 148%

Allocation for Rural Health Mission raised by Rs 257 cr above interim budget

Rs 500 cr for rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils

Rs 1,000 cr for infrastructure in cyclone-hit area in WB

Total expenditure crosses Rs 10 lakh cr for first time

Share of direct taxes in revenue increased to 56% in FY|09

• AP Govt announced agriculture action plan.

Increasing cultivation land to 124.06lakh hectares from 121.46 hectares

Increasing production of food grains to a target of 214.87lakh metric tons

from 204.27lakh metric tons.

Fertilizer supply to a target of 71.75lakh metric tons.

Seeds supply to a target of 59.50lakh quintals.

Rs.500crores to modernize agriculture techniques.

• 2009-10 Railway Budget :

Plan outlay of Rs.40, 745crores.

57 new trains, 12 nonstop duronto trains.

 August-2009 Economy

 Following are the highlights of the new Foreign Trade Policy that was unveiled
by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma

• Duty entitlement passbook scheme extended till December 2010

• Extension of sops for export-oriented units till March 2011
• Export target of $200 billion set for 2010-11
• Growth target of 15 per cent for next two years, 25 per cent thereafter
• Inter-ministerial group to address issues raised by exporters
• Obligation under export promotion capital goods scheme relaxed
• Permission for tax refund scheme for jewellery sector
• No fee on grant of incentives to cut transaction costs
• Steps to help exporters reduce transaction costs
• Plan for diamond bourses in the country
• Single-window scheme for farm exports
• Re-export of unused leather allowed subject to 50 per cent duty
• Minimum value addition for tea reduced to 50 per cent from 100 per cent
• Export units allowed to sell 90 per cent of goods in domestic market
• Provision for state-run banks to provide dollar credits
• Twenty-six new markets added to focus market scheme
• Sops under focus market scheme hiked from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent
• Number of duty-free samples for exporters raised to 50 pieces from 15
• New directorate of trade remedy measures to be set up
• Zero duty under technology upgrade scheme

 Reader’s Digest Association Inc., owned by the New York private equity firm
Ripplewood Holdings decided to file for bankruptcy protection.
 New Income Tax Slab under New Direct Tax Code 2009

Income Tax Slab Under New Direct

Tax Code 2009 applicable for A.Y.
2011-12
Individual Male
Up to Rs. 1,60,000 NIL
Rs.1,60,001 – Rs.10,00,000 10%
Rs.10,00,001 -Rs. 25,00,000 20%
Above Rs. 25,00,001 30%
Individual Female
Up to Rs. 1,90,000 NIL
Rs.1,90,001 – Rs.10,00,000 10%
Rs.10,00,001 -Rs. 25,00,000 20%
Above Rs. 25,00,001 30%
 Individual Senior Citizens
Up to Rs. 2,40,000 NIL
Rs.2,40,001 to Rs. 10,00,000 10%
Rs.10,00,001 to Rs. 25,00,000 20%
Above Rs. 25,00,001 30%

 Aurobindo Pharma to buy Trident Life Sciences.It would acquire 100% stake of
Trident Life Sciences subject to suitable agreements between the parties.

September 2009 Economy

 35 Trade Ministers met in New Delhi. WTO Director General, Pascal

Lamy also participated in the meeting.

 The Center has approved “India Invest” to attract foreign investments.

Central government, State governments and Federation of Indian Chambers and
Industry will start this institute.

October 2009 Economy

• NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Pvt. Ltd. (NBPPL), a 50:50 joint venture

between NTPC and BHEL, would set up its first power equipment
manufacturing plant with an outlay of Rs. 6,000 crore at Mannavaram in
Andhra Pradesh.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) preferred to keep long-term as well as

short-term indicative rates at the current level despite rising inflation and
inflationary pressure.

The RBI raised the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) — the portion of deposits
that banks are required to keep in government securities — by 100 basis
points to 25 per cent with effect from November 7.
• The Union Cabinet decided to include three more schemes in the Prime
Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the welfare of minorities.

The additional schemes are the National Rural Drinking Water Programme,
the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns
and the Urban Infrastructure and Governance Scheme.

• A Reserve Bank of India committee suggested that the Benchmark Prime

Lending Rate (BPLR) system should be replaced with a base rate
mechanism to introduce greater transparency in pricing of loans given by
banks.

• Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee launched the National Skill

Development Corporation (NSDC), a unique PPP (public-private
partnership) enterprise which has been mandated to skill 30 per cent of the
overall target of 500 million people by the year 2022

• Merger talks between emerging markets giants Bharti and MTN have been
called off, after the two firms failed to convince the South African government
– MTN’s biggest shareholder on the benefits of the deal.

• Reliance Communications introduced a new plan whereby customers can

make all calls at 50 paisa a minute.

• The Center and AP Govt. has made agreement to start Petroleum, Chemical
and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) between Kakinada and
Visakhapatnam.

• The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) projected a GDP

(gross domestic product) growth of around 6.5 per cent for the current
fiscal. At this level, it would be lower than the 6.7 per cent growth in 2008-09
and this would be mainly owing to a likely decline in farm output.

• Industrial growth touched to a 22-month high at 10.4 percent in August

this year. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) figures showed that while
the manufacturing sector grew by 10.2 per cent during August 2009, the
growth in electricity generation was even higher at 10.6 per cent, and the
mining sector topped them both with a growth of 12.9 per cent.
 November 2009 Economy

• According to the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data released by the Central
Statistical Organisation (CSO), all the three major sectors, namely,
manufacturing, mining and electricity generation witnessed markedly higher
growth during the month as compared to September 2008.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has bought 200 tonnes of gold from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) at an estimated price of around Rs. 31,490
crore ($6.70 billion), under the IMF’s limited gold sales programme.

• The Indian Oil Corporation has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU)

with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) to set up Rs. 10,000-
crore nuclear power plant.

• The Union Finance Ministry has constituted a working group to recommend

changes in the existing policies on FII (foreign institutional investor) inflows
and participatory notes (PNs), with a view to attracting more foreign portfolio
investments.

• Mukesh Ambani has topped the Forbes Rich list of Indian billionaires with a net
worth of $32 billion. Steel baron Lakshi Mittal is next with a net worth of $30
billion. Others in the top 10 include Azim Premji of Wipro, steelmakers Ruia
brothers, real estate baron KP Singh and telecom tycoon, Sunil Mittal.

• 6 women have made to top 100 richest Indians. Ms. Jindal has retained the richest
woman in India. She is ranked seventh in the list and she is followed by Bennett,
Coleman & Co’s Chairperson Indu Jain, who is ranked 19th. Anu Aga of
Thermax group and Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw have been ranked 55th and
73rd

December 2009 Economy

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the new rules, called the
‘Income-tax (13th Amendment) Rules, 2009’ will come into force on April 1,
2009 which shall replace the already abolished Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT). Apart
from conventional perks such as accommodation and conveyance, other benefits
such as holiday/vacation travelling, free food and non-alcoholic beverages
provided by the employer, gift or vouchers received by the employee on
ceremonial occasions, reimbursements for club membership and tour allowances
would also come under the ambit of the new income tax valuation norms.
• The Harvard Business Review recently ranked CEOs of large public traded
companies in a study conducted over 2000 CEOs worldwide. Mukesh Ambani,
who heads Reliance Industries Limited, is the only Indian to be ranked among the
100 best performing CEOs in the world. He was ranked 5 in the world. Apple
Inc’s CEO Steve Jobs was ranked 1 and Yun Jong-Yong, CEO, Samsung was
ranked 2nd. Mukesh was ranked 2nd top Emerging Market CEO in the world and
K.V. Kamath of ICICI Bank was ranked 9th Emerging Market CEOs.

• The Board of Approval for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) gave formal
approvals to six new SEZs: a solar PV (photovoltaic) SEZ of Lanco Solar Pvt.
Ltd. at Ramdaspur in Cuttack district (Orissa); three information technology (IT)
SEZs by the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation at
Baprola village (Delhi); the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society
Limited at Nellikode village in Kozhikode (Kerala) and Empire Industries at
Ambernath in Thane district (Maharashtra). Similarly, a bio-tech SEZ by Veritas
Infrastructure Development at Alibaug in Raigad district (Maharashtra), and a
gems and jewellery SEZ by the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure
Development Corporation at Baprola village in Delhi were approved.

• The Central Government is implementing the generation-based incentive (GBI)

scheme for grid-interactive wind power producers and gives incentives worth
Rs.380 crore to promote wind power generation. The government has launched a
special programme to generate more wind power and attract investments,
domestically as well as globally, to give boost to cleaner and renewable energy
sector.

The scheme would be scaled up after a review of its performance in the remaining
period of the XI Plan (2007-12).

• Of 18 Navaratna mega public sector undertakings, ONGC, SAIL and NTPC got
greater financial and operational autonomy after the government accorded the
Maharatna status to these firms to help them emerge as global giants. The
company has to get a three-year track record of annual net profit of over Rs 5,000
crore, net worth of Rs 15,000 crore and turnover of Rs 25,000 crore to get
Maharatna status.

• Vijay Kelkar, Chairman of the 13th Finance Commission submitted its report to
President Pratibha Patil on sharing of Central taxes between the Union and State
governments.
 January 2010 Economy

• Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh received the report of the task force on micro,
small and medium enterprises (MSME) headed by T.K.A.Nair.

Recommendations of the task force are:

1. Changes in polices to help growth of the sector
2. Roadmap for the development and promotion of the sector
3. In setting up of appropriate legal and regulatory structures to create a
conducive environment for entrepreneurship and growth of MSMEs.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) — the
portion of deposits that commercial banks are required to keep with the central
bank — by 75 basis points from 5 per cent to 5.75 per cent.

The CRR increase would be in two stages: the first stage of increase of 50 basis
points will be effective the fortnight beginning February 13, 2010 followed by the
next stage of increase of 25 basis points effective the fortnight beginning February
27, 2010.
• National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) announced its plan to setup
mines and refinery project in visakhapatnam, AndhraPradesh at a cost of $1.2
billion and the smelter and a captive power plant with a cost of 16,350 crore in
Brajrajnagar in Tharsiguda district, Orissa.
• Country's largest iron ore miner NMDC and the world's premier diamond
producer De Beers found traces of diamond deposits in kalahandi, Nawaranpur,
Nuapada and Bolangir dists of Orissa and in kurnool, Prakasam and Anantpur
districts of Andhrapradesh.
• The Union Cabinet approved ONGC Videsh Limited's (OVL) proposal to invest
$359 million (Rs. 1,651 crore) for oil exploration in two deep-sea blocks in
Nigeria over the next five years. OVL is the over seas investment arm of state-run
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
• The Union Finance Ministry agreed to release over 12,000 crore in cash to loss
making state-run oil companies to cover for losses in the current fiscal. The
projected loss of IOC, BPCL and HPCL on the sale of domestic LPG and
kerosene below cost is Rs. 29,405 crore. Another 12,000 crore loss is projected on
petrol and diesel.
• National Textile Corporation Limited (NTC) inaugurated three "revival-cum-
modernisation" textile mills, Tata Mills, Podar mills and the India United Mill
no.5 with a capital outlay of Rs. 130 crore.
• The Asian development Bank (ADB) had Sanctioned $150 million aid for the
Khadi and village Industries commission (KVIC).
• ONGC petro - Additions, a joint venture firm promoted by ONGC, plans to set
up a grassroots Integrated Petro Chemical Complex at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore
at Dahej in Gujarat.
• Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom services provider said it had agreed to
acquire a 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh, currently a wholly-owned

subsidiary of the Dhabi Group and will make a fresh investment of $ 300 million
to expand the operations of Warid Telecom.
• The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the U.S-based soft drinks major,
Pepsico Holdings Pvt. Ltd to inject additional equity of $ 200 million (around Rs.
930 crore) into its Indian arm within three years. With this Pepsico's total FDI into
the country reaches $ 655 million.

February 2010 Economy

• Highlights of 2010/11 budget

Need to review stimulus
Challenge to return to 9% growth, then double-digit
Final FY10 GDP figure maybe higher than estimate of 7.2%
Need to move towards fiscal consolidation
Fiscal deficit seen at 6.9 pct of GDP in 2009/10
Fiscal deficit seen at 5.5 pct of GDP in 2010/11 (Reuters poll 5.6 pct)
Fiscal deficit seen at 4.8 pct of GDP in 2011/12; 4.1 pct in 2012/13
Total expenditure in 2010/11 11.87 trillion rupees (USD 256.75 billion)
2009/10 revised estimate for tax collection 7.47 trillion rupees (USD 161.58
billion) Need to review public spending
Roadmap within six months to cut public debt
Government will be in a position to implement direct tax code from April 2011
Aims to introduce GST in April 2011
Since December have been signs food prices pressures transmitting to non-food
items.
Government to simplify FDI policy
• In one of the biggest recalls recorded in the Indian automobile industry, leading
car maker Maruti Suzuki India announced that it had recalled nearly one lakh 'A -
Star' cars, the company's flagship export model, to replace a faulty fuel pump
gasket.
• The recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission, headed by
Vijay Kelkar are:
Asked the government to extend specific grants such as Rs. 24,000 crore for
elementary education and 15,000 crore for environment.
Suggested the government earmark 87,000 crore exclusively for local bodies.
Targeted the fiscal deficit at 3 percent by 2013 - 14 for the current level of 6.8
percent and the elimination of revenue deficit b y 2013 - 14 from the current level
of 4.8 percent this fiscal.
The States would get 32 percent of its tax revenue along with Rs 3.19 lakh crore
as grant for the next five fiscal years (2010 - 15)
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cleared a proposal made by the state
Government of Andhra Pradesh to give loans upto Rs 1 crore to SC/ST
entrepreneurs with out collateral security to encourage them as industrialists.
• 13th Finance commission recommendations for the state of Andhra Pradesh:
The State was likely to get Rs 1 lakh crore as its share in Central taxes and
another Rs. 13,802 crore as grants - in - aid over the next five year period.
The divisible pool of Central taxes had been increased from 30.5 percent to 32
percent of which the state's share was 6.93 percent.
• Economic survey 2009-10 tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in
the Lok Sabha: -
Projection of GDP expansion - 8.75 Percent growth in 2010–11
- 9 Percent growth in 2011-11
2008-09 2009-10
GDP Growth 6.7* 7.2**
Industrial Growth 2.6 8.6*
Forex Reserves $ 252 billion $ 283.5 billion
Food grains
Production 230.8 Million tonnes 233.9* Million tonnes
Gross Fiscal
Deficit 5.9* percent of GDP 6.58 percent GDP
* - Quick estimates ** - Advance Estimates
•
• Andhra Pradesh was the first state to get the centre's approval for setting up the
Petroleum, Chemicals and Petro Chemicals Investment Region (PCPIR)
proposed between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, as said by the Chief Minister of
Andhra Pradesh.
• Economic Advisory council to the Prime Minister under the Chairmanship of C.
Rangarajan released the ''Review of the Economy 2009-10''. It suggested that
the Government have to initiate fiscal consolidation in the coming fiscal year
(2010 - 11) to ensure fiscal sustainability, enable greater flexibility in monetary
policy calibration, contain interest in payments and to avoid upward pressure on
interest rates and to curtail the expansion of the base of service tax in
Government's expenditure.
• A World Class Seed Vault has been established on the Siachen Glacier to
preserve India's biological wealth for future generations. The vault, which has a
natural temperature between –20 and –40 Celsius, will hold samples of rice,
pulses, peas and beans and can be used for building food programmes across the
nation.
• Tata Sons and Italian defence major Agusta Westland signed an agreement for
formation of a joint venture company, which will establish a final assembly line
for AW-119 helicopters for the Indian army and the global market. The AW-119
has been offered to India by Agusta for army's requirement for 197 choppers to
replace its ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak light helicopters.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification introducing a new
category of Non - Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) as "Infrastructure
Finance Companies (IFCs)'' with a view to encouraging larger flow of funds to
infrastructure. The existing categories of NBFCs are Asset Finance Companies
(AFCs), Loan Companies (LCs) and Investment Companies (ICs)
• India's IT - BPO market (including exports) could touch $285 billion in 2020,
said the report prepared by KPMG and ASOCIO (Asian Oceanian Computing
Industry Organisation).
• The Union Cabinet liberalised the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy
further by allowing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to clear
proposals from overseas entities worth up to Rs.1,200 Crore, against the existing
limit of Rs.600Crore.
• World's largest manufacturer and marketer of fertilizers in the cooperative sector,
Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) announced a strategic alliance
with Canadian Company Grow Max Agri Corp to make its foray into Potash
Project and Oil and gas exploration.
• East India company, the trading company with a 400 - year history will soon
open outlets to sell tea, coffee, spices and fabrics. It was bought in 2004 by Indian
- Origin businessman Sanjiv Mehta.
• The Central Statistical Organisation in its advance estimates pegged economic
growth at 7.2 percent in 2009-10. It was higher than 6.7 percent recorded a year
ago.
• The Securities and exchange board of India (SEBI) has constituted a committee
headed by former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan to review the
structures of the stock exchanges as their role as self - regulatory bodies and
functions as profit entities are sometimes conflicting in nature. The committee
may also look into the listing-related matters of the stock exchanges.
• GAIL (India) has been shortlisted as one of the 15 companies having qualified
for the ambitions $30 billion National Gas Master Development Plan and its
implementation in Nigeria.
• The National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency would soon be launched
to unlock the $15 - billion energy efficiency market. The initiate would reduce
carbon emissions by almost 99 million tonnes.
• A Report of the Export Group on "A Viable and sustainble system of pricing of
petroleum products'' headed by Kirit.S.Parikh was submitted. The
recommendations of the committee are

1. Complete decontrol of the petrol and diesel prices.

2. Hike of Rs. 100 per domestic LPG cylinder and an increase of Rs. 6 for
liter kerosene

March 2010 Economy

• AP’s per capita income for the financial year 2009-10 was Rs. 43, 556. It is
6.49% more when compared to 2008-09 (Rs. 40, 902.). The GSDP was 7.76% for
the financial year 2009-10.

• Vizag steel plant was given Navaratna stature by the central government. The
company authorities need not take permission from the government up to Rs.
1000 crore investment.

• The Seed processing plant under the Seed Business Incubation (SBI) initiative
run by the farmers in partnership with International Crops Research Station for
Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Aakruthi Agricultural Associates of India
(AAAI) is launched at Uravakonda in Anantapur district. This is first-of-its-
kind in the country where ICRIST and a private organisation came forward for
establishing an innovative Public Private Partnership-based seed system.

• Coal India Ltd (CIL) is keen to join a consortium of companies comprising

GAIL (India) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) to launch a coal
gasification project at the now closed Talcher unit of the Fertilizer Corporation
of India (FCI), which will enable CIL to source one-third of its requirement of an
explosive it now has to procure from outside. A mine with a reserve of 5.5 million
tonnes has been earmarked for this venture. The output of this mine would yield
3.7 million tonnes of coal annually which would have 30 per cent less ash content
and could be gasified.

• Having set an export target of $200 billion in 2008-09, India ended the fiscal year
with $185 billion on account of the shrinking markets following the global
meltdown.

• The Planning Commission scaled down the 11th Plan growth target to 8.1 per
cent from an average annual growth of 9 per cent pegged earlier.

• Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, investment

in the infrastructure sector in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12) would be
very close to the target of $500 billion, primarily due to better show by the
telecom sector. On growth prospects during the Eleventh Plan, he said it was
likely to be 8.5% in the 2010-11 fiscal and 9% during 2011-12.

• State Bank of India (SBI) opened the 1,000th branch and 10,000th ATM in
Mumbai. With this, SBI now has 12,448 branches and over 21,000 ATMs.

• The Reserve Bank of India has raised the repo and reverse repo rates (short -
term rates at which the RBI lends and borrows from banks) by 25 basis points to 5
percent and 3.5 percent respectively.

• Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S & P) pegged India's overall growth
rate at 8 percent for 2011 - 12. S&P raised India's sovereign rating outlook to
 'stable' from 'negative' even as it cautioned that the high rate of inflation at nearly
10 percent could upset the country's stable macro economic and interest rate
environment.

• The Central Government will set up a Central Food Security Fund to

compensate the Below poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries of the Targeted Public
Distribution system (TPDS) who fail to get the proposed mandatory 25 kg of
wheat or rice per family a month at a subsidised rate of Rs. 3 a kg.

• National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MOU) with the Department of Fertilizers where the company has set a
production target of 32.31 lakh tonnes of urea for 2010-11.

• The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange (CME) Group entered into a memorandum of understanding with
respect to cross-listing arrangements, development and distribution of financial
products and services.

• Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moved the State Bank of India

(Amendment) Bill, 2010 in the Lok Sabha which reduces Centre's shareholding
in State Bank of India (SBI) from 55 percent to 51 percent and allows the bank to
raise more capital from the market through preference shares.

• Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee with RBI Governor D. Subba Rao
unveiled a plaque at RBI head quarters to mark the Central Bank's Platinum
Jubilee celebrations in Mumbai.

• The Reserve Bank of India deferred the implementation of the Base Rate
regime by three months to July 1 and also exempted three categories of loans
from the new system. The RBI decided to replace the current benchmark prime
lending rate system with the Base Rate to increase transparency in lending at
much lower rates than their benchmark lending rates to new customers.

• Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta Westland and Tata Motors which

recently signed joint venture for setting up a final assembly unit of AW 119 have
finalised Hyderabad as location for the proposed unit.

• Kobelco Group of Japan is setting up an equipment machinery facility at the

multi - product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Sri City at Tada in Andhra
Pradesh.

• Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan launched the 3G mobile services of Bharat Sanchar

Nigam Limited (BSNL) covering 29 cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh.

• Eurocopter, world's leading helicopter manufactures announced that it would

form ventures with Pawan Hans Helicopters for maintenance repair and
overhaul (MRO) and training facilities either in Mumbai or Delhi. The MOUs for
 the two proposals would be signed during the three - day, 'India Aviation - 2010'
beginning at the Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.

April 2010 Economy

The Central Government said that ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank could not be called
Indian-owned banks. According to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
(DIPP) Secretary R. P. Singh,”At best, the two can be called Indian-controlled banks.”
ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have over 74 per cent foreign holding, including that of
foreign banks and overseas institutional investors.
 According to the 13th Finance Commission report, the Transmission &
Distribution losses were about Rs.40,000 crore in 2009-10 which would swell to
Rs.68,000 in the current fiscal. The Planning Commission was trying to set up an expert
committee to find out the causes for such losses and to know the financial status of the
distribution companies.
 Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and NTPC entered into a
joint venture agreement (JVA) to set up nuclear power projects in the country.
 The Planning Commission announced the setting up of an 18-member expert
committee headed by Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C.
Rangarajan to recommend measures for efficient management of public expenditure.
 The Union Cabinet approved a capital infusion of Rs.15,000 crore in Tier I capital
instruments of the public sector banks (PSBs) during the current fiscal to facilitate an
increase in their lending capacity by about Rs.1.85 lakh crore.
 NTPC announced that it was exploring the possibility of setting up two coal-based
thermal power plants in Kazakhstan,which has huge coal reserves of about 33 billion
tonnes. NTPC's total coal requirement for the current financial year (2010-11) is about
145-150 million tonnes, of which the company is planning to import 14 million tonnes.
 The government would earn up to Rs. 45,000 crore from the auction of 3G and
broadband spectrum.
 As said by Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, the
Telecom Commission, the policy-making arm of the Department of Telecommunications,
will soon take up the issue of disinvestment in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. The
Sam Pitroda Committee had recommended 30 per cent disinvestment in BSNL, besides
offering voluntary retirement scheme to 1 lakh employees, to improve the financial health
of the organisation.
 The Reserve Bank of India hiked the short-term indicative borrowing and lending
rates — repo and reverse repo and the mandatory Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of banks by
25 basis points each.
 The Government has accepted the Tendulkar Committee Report to adopt a new
poverty line to identify poor. The new standards of the Planning Commission would
consider more parameters than only the sufficient food basket for assessing poverty.
Earlier a family was called poor if did not have the required income to buy sufficient food
containing a minimum number of calories (2100 for urban areas and 2400 for rural areas)
per day. Now, the minimum income required to rise above the poverty line, apart from
food, would also depend on expenditure on education and health. The new poverty
estimate would not change the urban poverty figure but for rural India, the number of
poor would increase from 28.3 per cent to 41.8 per cent. As many as 372 million Indians
will be categorized as poor.
 BGR Energy Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the
Orissa Government for setting up a 1,320 MW (2 × 660) power plant at Bhapur in
Nayagarh district, Orissa, at an investment of about Rs. 6,287 crore.
 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved financial support of Rs.
282.25 crore to the Indian Maritime University (IMU), Chennai, to meet capital
expenditure and recurring deficit.
 Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) banned Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in cigarette manufacturing.
 The UN Agency UNFC & CC (UNFCCC) issued the first set of certified emission
reduction (CER) to the ONGC from its first registered CDM (clean development
mechanism) project,the waste heat recovery project at Mumbai High. With this, ONGC is
to earn green revenue from CDM projects.
 Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma released the final document
of FDI Policy Framework that would comprise the single document on FDI policy and
mark the inception of a whole new chapter on FDI policy.
 The government of India is drawing up ambitious plans to set up a ‘Sovereign Fund'
that would help its state-run companies pursue acquisition of oil, gas, coal, LNG and
other raw material in other countries in order to compete with China which has $2.4
trillion of reserves and a $300-billion sovereign fund. It has outpaced India in the global
quest for resources. Chinese companies spent a record $32 billion last year buying oil,
coal and metal assets abroad, while a $2.1-billion investment by OVL was India's sole
energy acquisition.
 Four major public sector undertaking (PSU) companies — Indian Oil Corporation
(IOC), NTPC, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) — are aiming for the ‘Maharatna' status and have made
presentations before the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) making a claim for the status
seeking more autonomy in decision-making and financial investments.

 The government of India indicated that it would soon put in place the Financial
Stability and Development Council (FSDC) to plug the regulatory gaps and loopholes
generated recently by the controversy surrounding the Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA)
over administration of unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs). y

May 2010 Economy

• During the first meeting of the newly constituted Prime Minister's Council on
Trade and Industry Dr. Manmohan Singh reviewed the state of economy with
Mr. Tata, Mr. Ambani, Azim Premji, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Swati Piramal, Chanda
Kocchar, Deepak Parekh, Kesab Mahindra and Kiran Majumdar Shaw and asked
them to form sub-groups on food security, public-private- partnership, backward
area development and corporate social responsibility.
• The Central Government has granted ‘Maharatna' status to four giant public
sector undertakings (PSUs) — NTPC, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
(ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Steel Authority of India Limited
(SAIL).
• The Bank of Rajasthan, one of the oldest private sector banks in the country
announced that it would merge with the ICICI Bank.
• According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the 3G mobile
license spectrum auction generated Rs. 67,710 crore for the government.
Reliance Communications bagged the highest number of 13 circles followed by
Bharti Airtel 12, Idea 11 and Tata and Vodafone nine each.
• The government decided to set up a Pharmacopoeia Commission in Ghaziabad
at a cost of Rs. 14.08 crore for developing indigenous medicines with the aim of
raising the country's share in the $62-billion global herbal drug market.
• The Reserve Bank of India allowed infrastructure finance companies (IFCs) to
raise money from overseas markets up to 50 per cent of their owned funds
automatically.
• NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Ltd. (NBPPL) signed an agreement with its equal
joint venture partners NTPC and BHEL to meet the target of order bookings
worth Rs.7,000-crore in the current financial year. NBPPL has been jointly set up
by NTPC and BHEL for capacity building in manufacturing of power plant
equipment.

June 2010 Economy

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended that the

foreign investment limit for broadcast carriage services such as DTH, IPTV,
Mobile TV, HITS, Teleport and MSOs, which are upgrading to digital and
addressable environment, may be raised to 74 per cent. The existing limit for most
of these services is 49 per cent.
• The Reliance Communications (RCom) and its subsidiary, Reliance Infratel,
have entered into a Rs.50,000-crore deal with GTL Infrastructure to create the
world's largest independent telecom infrastructure company.
• The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Anil Ambani-led
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) signed a revised gas supply agreement
as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
 • According to a United Nations report on the Millennium Development Goals
for 2010, India is expected to reduce its poverty rate from 51 per cent in 1990 to
24 per cent in 2015.
• The Central Government made it clear that unit linked insurance products
(ULIPs) will be regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority (IRDA). This puts an end to a two-month-long turf war between the
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh approved for the disinvestment of 10 per cent each in Coal
India Ltd. (CIL) and Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL). The move would likely to
generate about Rs.16,000 crore for the government.
• During the two-day Global Investors Meet in Bangalore, the Karnataka
Government has signed as many as 361 memorandums of understanding (MoUs)
with investors for a total investment of Rs. 4 lakh crore.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while releasing the UPA government's Report
to the People 2009-10, said that the govt had decided to set up a National Social
Security Fund for workers in the unorganised sector which would cover
weavers, toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers and bidi workers with an initial
allocation of Rs. 1000 crore.
• The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has given freedom to the state-run Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) to price the
natural gas produced by them at market rates.

July 2010 Economy

 The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said India
would emerge as the third largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the
three-year period ending 2012.
 Three Indian projects KG-D6, an integrated gas infrastructure projects , the 4,000
MW Mundra plant and Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi have been featured in
Global consultancy firm KPMG's infrastructure 100 global project report.
 The Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee, constituted under the
Chairmanship of C. Achuthan, submitted its report to C. B. Bhave, Chairman, Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
 The Union Cabinet approved a unique symbol designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate
D. Udaya Kumar with a blend of the Devanagari ‘Ra' and Roman ‘R' to give a
distinctive character and identity to the Indian currency .
 The State Bank of India and the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman
signed an agreement to set up a joint investment fund with an initial corpus of $100
million. The India Oman Joint Investment Fund shall aim at making equity investments
in various sectors of the Indian economy.
 Eight Indian companies have made into the list of the world's 500 largest companies
compiled by Fortune magazine. IOC has the highest rank of 125 among the featured
Indian companies, followed by RIL at the 175th spot, SBI (282), BPCL (307), HPCL
(354), Tata Steel (410), ONGC (413) and Tata Motors (442).
 According to a business survey conducted by Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry of India (Assocham).Tamil Nadu Gujarat and Maharashtra are the top three
preferred investment destinations in India.

Do Multinationals Really Understand

Globalization?
The ability of global companies to leverage global
opportunities is surprisingly shallow
By Navi Radjou and Prasad Kaipa

Asia
• Jennifer Yu Leads Rothschild's China Push
• China's Citic Bank Earnings Rise 45%
• Alibaba Targets More U.S. Deals
• Report Bolsters Toyota
• Honda to Fix Software in Hybrids

Story Tools
• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• suggest a story
• digg this
• add to Business Exchange
• linkedin connections

IBM (IBM) recently released two important reports on the rapidly changing global
business environment: the 2010 CEO Study, which is based on interviews conducted with
more than 1,500 chief executive officers worldwide; and the Global Student Study 2010,
which is based on a survey of more than 3,600 graduate and undergraduate students
worldwide.

Taken together, the studies compare side by side the value system, mindset, and
management style of current-generation CEOs with those of the Millennials (aka
Generation Y) who are poised to become future leaders. As we studied them carefully,
we found a big discrepancy between the Millennials' view of globalization and its impact
on organizations and that of present CEOs.

Most CEOs surveyed by IBM expect their business environment to get increasingly
complex in coming years, driven by tectonic shifts in the macroeconomic environment:
76 percent of CEOs foresee a swift shift of economic power from the West to developing
markets. We can't agree more: The Organization for Economic Cooperation &
Development (OECD) forecasts that the global share of gross domestic product (GDP)
for developed economies will drop from 60 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2030. As a
result, businesses will soon be operating in what we call a polycentric world—where
Western centers of economic and geopolitical power will be interconnected with new
centers of growth and influence in Asia, Africa, and South America.

The Task at Hand

A polycentric world is inherently complex due to its extreme diversity. Consider this: The
already 250 million-strong Chinese middle class is expected to double in size in the
coming decade and one global worker in four will be an Indian by 2020. The result? A
massive increase in the diversity of the customer base and workforce of multinationals on
a scale they have never experienced before. To effectively serve such a highly
heterogeneous customer base and manage a highly multicultural employee base, CEOs of
many multinationals will need to fundamentally redesign their monocultural (read:
Western) and ethnocentric organizations. They will need to learn to juggle multiple
business models, organizational practices, management structures, and even leadership
styles in order to harness the growing diversity in the unpredictable global business
environment.

Unfortunately, CEOs seem to underestimate the task at hand. Only 23 percent of CEOs
surveyed believe that globalization will have a big impact on their organization in the
next five years. Worse: While many Western CEOs claim that 50 percent to 60 percent of
their future growth will come from emerging economies like India and China, another
study shows that only 2 percent of their senior leadership currently hails from those fast-
growing regions. This means that 98 out of 100 senior execs in Fortune 500 firms are
defending obsolete business models in the old monocentric world (read: the U.S.),
whereas only two of them are trying to restructure their organization for growth and
success in the new polycentric world!

On the other hand, 55 percent of the Millennials that IBM surveyed expect globalization
to massively change organizations in the future—and seem eager to contribute to those
changes. After all, Millennials already live in a polycentric world and are fully aware of
its extreme diversity—with their friends on Facebook and online gaming sites spanning
multiple continents. As such, these culturally malleable Millennials welcome and
celebrate the growing diversity in the globally interconnected business environment and
are confident they can navigate through its complexity by leveraging their social
networking skills and by focusing on continual learning.

Polycentric Organizations
The onus is on existing CEOs to redesign their organizations to leverage global diversity
and the creative potential of Millennials (who will soon swell their employee base) in
order to find innovative solutions for dealing with complexity in the postrecession global
economy. To effectively compete and win in the emerging polycentric world, we believe,
monolithic and ethnocentric multinationals must evolve into what we call polycentric
organizations that reflect internally the growing external diversity and are able to learn
and adapt continuously. Polycentric organizations not only tame but even capitalize on
global complexity because of three noteworthy attributes:

1. They operate as a network. Polycentric organizations eschew hierarchical structures

and silos —the death knell for developing empathy and harnessing diversity. Rather, they
operate in a networked configuration, integrating creative talent and ideas from
employees, suppliers, and customers across regions to meet the global demand for
innovative products and services.

2. They are highly adaptive. Flexibility is key to learning dynamically and succeeding
in extreme diversity. Polycentric organizations aren't wedded to a single European or
U.S.-centric business model or organizational practice, but employ a diverse portfolio of
strategies and approaches that allow them to quickly learn and adapt to new opportunities
and threats in different regional markets.

3. They boast a global mindset. Polycentric organizations don't believe in a single

"corporate culture," and allow multiple perspectives and value systems to co-exist within
the same enterprise. They are also open to external ideas and actively collaborate with a
rich network of partners. This diversity in thinking and action is reflected in the
heterogeneity of their leadership team and how they make and execute their decisions.

Our research shows that a few visionary multinationals—some Western, some Eastern—
have begun to embody and manifest the three key attributes of polycentric organizations.

For instance, both General Electric (GE) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) are de-Westernizing
their firms and creating networked organizations by giving leaders in emerging markets
global R&D remit and global profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibilities. John Chambers,
Cisco's CEO, dispatched his top lieutenant, Wim Elfrink, to Bangalore to launch and run
Cisco's Globalization Center East, which now works closely with the U.S.-based research
and development teams to co-create affordable and sustainable solutions for both
emerging and developed markets. Likewise, GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt has made John
Flannery, till recently the president and CEO for GE Capital in Asia, the head of GE's
India operations, reporting directly to GE Vice-Chairman John Krenicki. For the first
time in its history, GE now has a senior vice-president heading India, which from now on
will be treated as one single, integrated business with its own P&L on par with any other
global business unit of GE.

Globalization Strategies
Best Buy (BBY) has made adaptability the cornerstone of its globalization strategy. For
example, Best Buy's astounding growth in China is due to the fact that it designed its
local stores to be less transactional (as in the U.S.) and more experiential, giving Chinese
customers plenty of space to browse and try out products before actually buying them.

Not to be undone by their Western rivals, next-gen multinationals from emerging markets
like Tata Motors (TTM) and Lenovo (LNVGY) are diligently cultivating a global
mindset by increasing the diversity of their leadership teams. For instance, Lenovo's chief
marketing officer, chief operating officer, and many senior vice-presidents are all non-
Chinese. Similarly, Ravi Kant, vice-chairman of Tata Motors, told us that the leadership
team of recently acquired Jaguar Land Rover continues to make decisions and operate
pretty much as before, and together with other Tata Motors units they are learning to
operate with a global mindset. Finally, Suzlon Energy (SUEL:IN), India's wind energy
pioneer, is tapping into globally distributed creativity thanks to its global innovation
network with R&D hubs in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The monocentric global economic order is rapidly being eclipsed by a polycentric world.
Rather than keeping their enterprise locked into 20th century organizational structures
and processes, CEOs of multinationals must leverage the Millennials to accelerate their
firms' evolution into polycentric organizations that harness the diversity and capitalize on
the complexity of the 21st century.

Navi Radjou is executive director of the Center for India & Global Business at Judge
Business School at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Prasad Kaipa is a CEO coach and
adviser; he has worked with more than 100 top executives and 30 Fortune 500 companies
in the areas of leadership development and innovation.