News covers:

• Mining Blast, Organ Harvesting Practice from Prisoners in China is likely to be abolished soon, under constant allegations that young prisoners are killed for their organs.
• Upcoming Hong Kong Chief Executive Election update, China wants full democracy in Hong Kong (though we are not sure how long the one country two systems in Hong Kong will continue). Only 1200 people will be voting from 12 million people in Hong Kong.
• President of Indonesia visits China to strengthen bilateal ties.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had an explosion today after the nuclear core could not cool down due to lack of cooling system, which went down due to the earthquake damage. Though the plant crew tried to bring the reactor’s temperature down during the last 24 hours, the manual effort was not enough compared to the coolant requirements for the nuclear reactor. And the explosion of the reactor building is an indication that manual cooling was not successful, and now radiation leakage is on. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant plan to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor’s temperature down to safe levels, which may take two days. Radiation levels are said to have fallen since the explosion but authorities have expanded the evacuation to include a radius of 20 km.

This accident is the worst case scenario in nuclear power plant design, because two natural disasters have struck in quick succession: massive 8.9 richter scale earthquake, and then a tsunami. Even the back up systems failed. There will be many important lessons from this accident on improving design of nuclear power plants. The reporter from Russia Today asks a valid question: how safe is it to have a nuclear power plant in an earthquake prone area? Each country will make its own decisions based on their energy requirements, still its worth discussing this aspect in the near future.

It is being estimated that about $15 billion loss is covered by insurance in the current earthquake plus tsunami in Japan. But that does not consider any damage from nuclear radiation consequence, which in healthcare costs could be 5-10x more spread over many years. So as long as nuclear radiation is contained in this case, all other losses can be recouped in a short time, except the loss of people.

Wishing rapid recovery to the people of Japan.

While we may not speak about it, but a poor girl child in India has a tough life. And if such a girl child is abandoned/orphaned, plus blind/disabled, that’s like worst case scenario with abuse waiting to happen amidst a difficult life. However, one person I know is helping such girls. She is Prashantha, the founder of Prerana Resource Centre at Bangalore.

“Prerana” means inspiration in Hindi, and Prerana Resource Centre offers that plus more to blind/disabled girls many of whom are also orphans, by giving them a safe shelter, training them, providing employment and instilling confidence in them to lead a normal life in spite of their handicap.

I have known Prerana Resource Centre since 2003, and have been at the centre; one of the most humbling moments of my life, to receive warm welcome by blind/disabled girls who live one day at a time in a bare minimum shelter, but they have hope. And that hope is because of Prashantha. She has put everything she owns behind her cause, and her commitment to help these girls is deep. Even at very difficult moments, she maintains her smile and positive outlook – that somehow things will fall in place despite the constant shortage of resources to help the girls.

Please see if it you can contribute; every bit counts. I personally guarantee Prashantha’s sincerity and hard work, and through this post, I want to bring her cause in front of more people. You can help in a variety of ways: buy food, clothes, or just give money, which they put in fixed deposit and use the interest every month. And if you are in Bangalore, you can visit the Centre, which will make everyone there happy. Their website is: www.prc.co.in

Thanks,
Shankar

In an interview with ET Now, Jim Rogers, Chairman, Rogers Holding, talks about the correction in global markets besides giving his views on commodities and India. Excerpts:

Q1: Global markets are correcting and everyone is saying it is because of Korea. Would you endorse that thought?

First of all, global markets should be correcting about this time because they have been pretty strong recently and there is always some reason to correct. This time, it looks like it might be Korea. Whenever you have threat of war, usually everything goes down at first, then you have to figure out what to invest in after the initial collapse. In my view, the thing to invest in is commodities because if there is going to be war, it is always good for commodities and if there is no war, then commodities will rally like everything else.

Q2: So what did you make of today’s sell off and the news coming out of Korea? Do you think it was just a trigger point for people to unwind positions in the market and do you think stepping into December from a near term perspective, there would still be some selling pressure that will continue?

Yes, we have had very strong markets in the past 2 or 3 months in the West anyway and whenever you have strong markets, something always comes along to call for correction. There is always some surprise and again, I have no idea what is going on in Korea, but just that nothing else is the reason for the correction, it could have been rain in Spain that could have caused the correction and the markets always find a reason to correct after they have been strong for a while and this is certainly a good reason to correct. If suddenly World War III is about to breakout, a good reason for the market to correct. I do not expect World War III to breakout by the way.

Q3: Buy on rumors and sell on news and we have seen that happening once again. Immediately after the QE2, blueprint was out, commodity has corrected and dollar actually has reversed. Do you think this is a short term phenomenon? Everyone took Mr. Bernanke for granted that he will continue to print money, there was too much of forward buying which happened before the QE2 final announcement and now the excesses are getting flushed out?

Yes. No matter what happens, America is going to continue to print money. Unfortunately that is all America knows to do, it is not the right thing to do, it is not good for the world, but that is all America knows to do.

If there is war, they are going to print money. If there is not war, they are going to print money and so whenever there has been money printing, the result has been that you should have your money in real assets. It has been a pretty clear thing throughout history. The real assets are the only way to protect yourself. Real assets are basically the only way to protect yourself in time of war.

Read the rest of the interview here.

This is an Insurance marketplace where insurance buyers can get quotes from various insurance sellers. Till now, there was no such website to provide this service in India. Based on feedback so far, the site offers a very useful service.

Many buyers of insurance products today want reliable services that be purchased online, or using phone plus email. The site is currently registering insurance sellers (agents/ brokers/ companies) for the sell side, and expects to have 100+ insurance sellers by December 2009, which will enable competitive offers to insurance buyers coming to the site. IndiaInsuranceMart.com

The research has come out with some interesting facts:
(a) For low income earners over 45 years age and medium income earners under 45 years, the research found that home ownership actually fell by 15 percent over the two decades to 2006.

(b) Unrealistic property price increases have taken away a large chunk of the national income gain from the resources boom.

The research has also revealed concerns that many lower income earners in the 25-44 age group might never be able to own a home because the property prices continue to remain inflated. Overall, the research stops short of saying that Australian property prices are over-inflated and are deserve a correction.

Now, such a research, even if true, would naturally not go well with current property owners, who would see this research as a threat to their property prices, and some of the initial reaction from people has been along these lines. Nobody wants to upset the cart.

However, one fact of real estate industry remains the same across the world: property prices will be in line with liquidity in the economy, and rising interest rates would be an indication of tightening liquidity, which will put pressure of property prices. And like we saw in the US, once a few people in an area are willing to take a lower price for their financial reasons, a price correction can set in quite rapidly.

Whether Australian property prices actually correct or not is anyone’s guess, but given the bullish trend in global economy, it is unlikely that any property price correction will be deep or prolonged, unless the global economy stalls on its way to recovery.

Reference: www.news.com.au

For people exposed to infectious viruses like influenza (swine flu virus or avian flu virus) anywhere in the world,  the US CDC (Center of Disease Control) recommends an N95 face mask with a good tight fit around the edge where it contacts the face.

The N95 Face Mask offers the best respiratory protection, even though it can be difficult to wear for long periods because it makes breathing harder, but its does offer real protection. It is fluid resistant and at least 95% efficient against solid and liquid particles that are larger than .03 microns, excluding those containing oil. In fact, the “N” stands for “Not oil proof”.

Therefore, very clearly, the N-95 Face Mask is the best choice if you expect to be exposed to influenza  (swine flu or avian flu).  Ordinary masks can’t prevent the flu virus.

The fit of the face mask is important so that there are no leaks between the mask and face. The “Duck-Billed” shape variation of the N-95 face mask allows extra breathing room for the face and nose.

Recommended Specification for N95 Face Mask to be used as Swine Flu Masks:

*N95 NIOSH approved particulate respirators
*Lightweight construction includes an adjustable nose piece and foam seal to reduce the potential for eye wear fogging.
*Round masks fits over mouth and nose
*Two durable, latex-free head straps
*Compliant with 42 CFR Part 84
*Provides a minimum of 95% filter efficiency against certain solid and non-oil based particles for excellent worker protection.
*Can be used in labs, for painting, for doing household projects, and for general protection against respiratory viruses

You can consider smaller sizes for children, if they are available, otherwise a regular N95 mask is still the best alternative.

If you don’t have N95 Face Mask at your local pharmacy store, please contact us, and we will try to arrange it for you.

Read the entire article by GMO expert Jeffrey Smith in the PPNF Journal. Join the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation at http://www.ppnf.org .

Also, visit http://www.responsibletechnology.org for more GMO information.

This is a new strain of the flu virus and currently there is no tested/proven Swine Flu vaccine, though Tamiflu, which was tested for Bird Flu, could be used to strengthen the immunity. Learn more here: Swine Flu Vaccine- Tamiflu

U.S. scientists hope to have a key ingredient for a swine flu vaccine ready in early May, though commercial production can only happen by September.

Kiran Karnik, the interim chairman of the Indian government appointed board of Satyam, said that it is up to Tech Mahindra to decide the way forward for Satyam. And of course, it shouldn’t be any other way. Tech Mahindra now has a wide array of restructuring projects as it tries to merge/rationalize Satyam’s services into its overall IT services portfolio.