Health

Washington: Researchers have found how environmental irritants, such as air pollution and cigarette smoke, trigger coughing.
In a study conducted by experts from Imperial College London and the University of Hull, it was found that irritants activate receptor proteins called TRPA1 on the surface of nerve endings in the lungs.
Subsequently, sensory nerves trigger a cough reflex.
The researchers insisted that blocking TRPA1 receptors could treat coughing.
Professor Maria Belvisi, co-author of the study from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, said, "For some people, chronic coughing can be annoying and uncomfortable, but for others it can be distressing and can have a severe impact on their quality of life.

Business news

New Delhi, Nov. 24 With many automakers planning to launch eco-friendly vehicles for the domestic market, Tata Motors said on Tuesday that it may launch the electric version of the small car Indica in early 2011.
The company has been developing the car with Norway-based Miljøbil Grenland/Innovasjon, in which it has a 50.3 per cent stake. It plans to start a feasibility study for this in the next year and may launch the car simultaneously with the European launch.
“It will be available for India at around the same time as the global launch. It will be launched in Norway, Denmark and the UK in 12-14 months. We’re evaluating the option of an Indian launch, but are still not sure if the electric vehicles (EVs) are the best option for the country,” said Mr Prakash M Telang, Managing Director, India Operations, Tata Motors.
He further added that the main problem is the high cost attached to EVs, which is mainly because of the expensive batteries. “It will be 70-150 per cent more expensive depending on batteries. While lead acid batteries are not good enough, lithium-ion is too expensive. We have to look into the cost equation,” he said.

Business news

Rolls Royce, the luxury car manufacturer, is expected to reveal its most awaiting model ‘Ghost’ in Indian Market on December 5, 2009.
Ghost, which is considered an essence of Rolls-Royce in its simplest and purest form, was showcased at the Frankfurt motor show, held on 15 September 2009. The car is the first in a new Rolls-Royce model series, separate from the Phantom family.
Rolls Royce Ghost is powered by a new twin turbo 6.6-litre V12 engine, and coupled with the 8-speed ZF gearbox, which accelerates from 0-62 mph in just 4.9 seconds and has a governed top-speed of 155 mph.
The car is built around a steel monococque chassis and suspension system including Dynamic Stability Control and Anti-Roll Stabilisation to create a more dynamic drive and the Rolls-Royce ‘magic carpet ride’.
In addition, Rolls Royce’s Ghost comes with an optional panorama sunroof, picnic tables, four-zone automatic air-conditioning and air recirculation, along with two 9.2-inch LCD screens.
The company aims to sell 50 to 60 Ghosts in the domestic market each year. The car is expected to available at a price of Rs 2.5 crore.

international taxation

The integration of world capital markets carries important implications for the design and impact of tax policies. This paper evaluates research findings on international taxation, drawing attention to connections and inconsistencies between theoretical and empirical observations. Diamond and Mirrlees (1971) note that small open economies incur very high costs in attempting to tax the returns to local capital investment, since local factors bear the burden of such taxes in the form of productive inefficiencies. Richman (1963) argues that countries may simultaneously want to tax the worldwide capital income of domestic residents, implying that any taxes paid to foreign governments should be merely deductible from domestic taxable income. Governments do not adopt policies that are consistent with these forecasts. Corporate income is taxed at high rates by wealthy countries, and most countries either exempt foreign-source income of domestic multinationals from tax provide credits rather than deductions for taxes paid abroad. Furthermore, individual investors can use various methods to avoid domestic taxes on their foreign-source incomes, in the process also avoiding taxes on their domestic-source incomes. Individual and firm behavior also differs from that forecast by simple theories. Observed portfolios are not fully diversified worldwide. Foreign direct investment is common even when it faces tax penalties relative to other investment in host countries. While economic activity, and tax avoidance activity, is highly responsive to tax rates and tax structure, there are many aspects of tax-motivated behavior that are difficult to reconcile with simple microeconomic incentives. There are promising recent efforts to reconcile observations with theory. To the extent that multinational firms possess intangible capital on which they earn returns with foreign direct investment, even small countries may have a degree of market power, leading to fiscal externalities. Tax avoidance is pervasive, generating further fiscal externalities.

what is international business?

What is international business?
International business is mainly concerned with the doing business activities beyond the nations boundary. Internationalbusiness
has a great scope but there is a lot of internal and the external pressure from the whole world. There is a lot of political and social pressure exists there, exchanging currency is a serious problem in international business. When commodities comes across a nations boundary its becomes a issue to focuses on it.
IB is doing business across national political boundaries.
Business can be in form of importing, exporting, transfer of process knowledge, managerial inputs, capital investments and consultancy.

business news

State Bank of India has snipped interest rates by 25-50 basis points on deposits up to five years duration.

This is the second time in as many months that India’s biggest bank has cut term deposit rates.

Last month, the bank had reduced term deposit rates by 25 basis points across all maturities.

The latest round of interest rate-cuts on term deposits is effective from November 9. SBI, however, has left interest rates on long-term deposits in two maturity buckets — 5 years to less than 8 years (7.25 per cent) and 8 years and up to 10 years (7.50 per cent) — unchanged. Even as it cut term deposit rates, the bank announced extension of its 8 per cent home loans campaign up to March 31, 2010 following good response to the scheme.

The bank has grown its home loans portfolio by 15 per cent from Rs 54,063 crore as of March-end 2009 to Rs 62,338 crore as of September-end 2009.

According to analysts, SBI may have pared term deposit rates to protect its net interest margin in the face of sluggish credit pick-up and liquidity glut arising from heavy inflow of retail term deposits, which on an average increased by Rs 8,075 crore a month in the first six months of the fiscal.

active management

Active management (also called active investing) refers to a portfolio management strategy where the manager makes specific investments with the goal of outperforming an investment benchmark index. Investors or mutual funds that do not aspire to create a return in excess of a benchmark index will often invest in an index fund that replicates as closely as possible the investment weighting and returns of that index; this is called passive management. Active management is the opposite of passive management, because in passive management the manager does not seek to outperform the benchmark index.