Microfinance Monitor NEWS WITH GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

The death certificate of Steve Jobs said that he died of respiratory arrest caused by five-year-old pancreatic cancer that he was battling. It said he died at home in Palo Alto, according to reports. Bloomberg said the Santa Clara County Public Health Department has issued the certificate stating that Jobs had a metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor that killed him aged ...

Food price volatility, often with high prices, is likely to increase, making poor farmers and consumers in developing countries, especially in Africa, more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity, said the United Nations’ three Rome-based agencies in the Global Hunger Report published on Monday. Small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially at risk. Many of them still face severe ...

With baseball’s post-season in full swing, Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer, Harris Private Bank, today released an economic analysis of Major League Baseball’s winners and losers. “While money has historically bought success in baseball, recent trends linking payrolls to winning percentages have weakened,” said Ablin. “This reflects varying skill in team management; it’s certainly easy to win games with a ...

California Governor Jerry Brown finally signed a bill to ban alcohol sales through self-serve checkout machines in California. The bill, AB 183, authored by Assembly Member Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), was approved by the legislature in September and had been sitting on the Governor’s desk for nearly a month. “Until he did it, we really weren’t sure what the Governor ...

The first Chevrolet was built in 1911 in a rented garage near downtown Detroit. A hundred years later, more than 209 million cars and trucks have been produced making Chevrolet one of the world’s-largest car brands, with a presence in 140 countries. “For Chevrolet, the journey is just beginning,” said Chris Perry, vice president, global marketing and strategy for Chevrolet. ...

Indian Mathematician Rohit Gupta has announced an online workshop to “conclude by attacking an important problem in public view” and the problem is the Riemann Hypothesis, first proposed in 1859. For more than two thousand years since Euclid, it has been known that there is an infinite number of prime numbers among the integers. In precisely what pattern these primes ...

Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal has announced the government panel’s decision to scrap all engineering entrance exams from 2013-14 and follow a single entrance exam with a merit list to be followed by all IITs and other engineering colleges in the country. The system already on anvil for medical entrance from next year, will be implemented for all engineering colleges. ...

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in September 2011 was 4.01 lakh compared to 3.69 lakh during the month in 2010 and 3.31 lakh in August, 2009. There has been a growth of 8.7% in September, 2011 over September, 2010 as compared to a growth of 11.6 % registered in September 2010 over September, 2009. The growth of 8.7% in September 2011 ...

Ghazal Maestro Jagjit Singh passed away on Monday after suffering brain haemorrheage on Sept. 23. He was in coma in Leelavati Hospital before his death. He is survived by his wife and ghazal singer Chitra singh. Their only son died 11 years ago. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni has condoled the death of Ghazal maestro saying, “The untimely ...

A map of the Moon combining observations in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths shows a treasure trove of areas rich in Titanium ores. Not only is Titanium a valuable mineral, it is key to helping scientists unravel the mysteries of the Moon’s interior.  Mark Robinson and Brett Denevi will be presenting the results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission today at ...

Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences has gone to Thomas J. Sargent of the New York University and Christopher A. Sims of the Princeton University, for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.   They have studied how are GDP and inflation affected by a temporary increase in the interest rate or a tax cut? What happens if ...

  For those who have missed Draconid meteor shower on Saturday, here are some links and vidoes to watch. On Saturday, October 8, 2011, Earth enountered several trails of dust between 16h00m and 21h00m Universal Time (UTC) produced by comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner, which witnessed a peak of up to 10 shooting stars per minute. Visible only in the United States west ...

Kaspersky Lab has announced the launch of new security software Endpoint 8 for Windows, designed to protect companies introducing new software. The online security software Endpoint 8 constitutes a protection suite that is centrally managed and incorporates a comprehensive, unified protection management system. The “business product full testing” was conducted in July and August of 2011, during which the beta ...

India has unveiled its $35 tablet computer called “Aakash” after two years of combined efforts by the education ministry in collaboration with the tablet PC makers in Canada and the United Kingdom. At a time when similar tablet PCs are available nowhere for less than $200 unless they are sold like HP touchpad as a last means to exit the ...

MOIL (Manganese Ore (India) Limited) has earned a rare honour of entering into the list of FORTUNE 500 companies in India. It has been ranked 486th position among the 500 top companies in India and 9th in the Mines and Metals Sector. MOIL’s (earlier known as Manganese Ore (India) Limited) shares have been formally listed in Mumbai Stock Exchange and ...

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs through a clarification on the Allotment of Director’s Identification Number (DIN) under Companies Act, 1956 has extended the time for filing DIN-4 by DIN holders for furnishing the PAN and to update PAN details upto 15.12.2011. It amends a General Circular issued by the ministry on May 31, 2011 that said with effect from June ...

India’s gross direct tax collection during the first half of the current fiscal (April-September 2011) was up by 23 percent at Rs 257,042 crore as against Rs 208,971 crore (Rs 2 billion) in the same period last fiscal. While gross collection of corporate taxes was up 23.17 percent (Rs.175,360 crore against Rs 142,368 crore last year), gross collection of personal ...

The government of India has announced Haj 2011 Operations, as is the case every year. It includes: i) Number of Haj Pilgrims to be covered under the government subsidy this year will be 1,25,000. ii) Fare to be charged from each of the pilgrims for Haj 2011 is Rs.16,000. iii) Haj flights would be operated from 21 embarkation points during ...

Cisco is experimenting its remote education system in government schools using the Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED) platform under its Inclusive Growth initiative. The pilot will deploy specialized remote supplementary teaching for five government schools in Hoskote Taluk, Bangalore Rural District in the state of Karnataka. AN MoU has been signed with the government of Karnataka. “Using the CEED platform, ...

AT&T said it has seen extraordinary demand for iPhone 4S with more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone, the most successful iPhone launch it has ever had. The mobile service carrier AT&T provides wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services, with broadband and 4G capabilities.