The Daily Business Digest

Around 12 paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are missing. The original oil paintings of Ravi Varma are worth several millions of Dollars. The paintings were missing from the government owned gallery in India. The art gallery of the paintings is situated in Kerala in Thiruvanthapuram. The great grand daughter of Raja Ravi Varma Archana Narayan found this.

Archana has asked for a investigation from CBI for this reason. The paintings are always exhibited in the different parts of the country often. The palace and gallery of paintings were owned by Travancore royal family to which Raja belongs. Raja Ravi Varma died in 1906 and his paintings are very famous. After the independence of India the gallery was handed over to the Kerala government.

Around 63 original paintings of Ravi Varma are left out in India. Archana feels the loss of paintings is not just a family matter but also a loss to the nation. Some paintings are being smuggled across the country and further investigation is going on. The paintings of Raja Ravi Varma describe the Indian mythology.

Saudi Arabia will be the most affected country in case of any trouble from Iran. Being a neighboring country it is prone to all the problems Iran might pose. So the Prince of Saudi Arabia has told US to work on some immediate term solution for getting Iran out of the Nuclear issue.
Whether he was referring to a military attack on all nuclear and military installations inside Iran, it could not be confirmed.

The natural history museum wild life conducted a contest for the photographer of the year. The prize money was $10,000 and around 43,000 entries were received from 94 countries. A person named JOSE LUISRODRIGUEZ won the prize and later found guilty.

The person had hired a tame Iberian wolf to capture photos of wildlife for him. The species rarely found in the wild were wonderfully captured by the wolf. The wolf was hired from the Madrid wildlife park and was called as Ossian. The judges fond out when the man guilty and claimed that he has tracking the dwindling species wit the help of the wolf.

The competition had already mentioned in its rules the use of animals is prohibited for photography. Rodriguez’s images are banned at the London museum and the judges are saddened. Rodriguez’s is prohibited from entering the contest and is disqualified. The name of Rodriguez’s images is named as “the storybook wolf”.

US President Barack Obama has said the “entire nation” is grieving after a shooting that killed 13 people at a Texas army base. He said he had ordered all flags at the White House and other Federal buildings to be flown at half mast until Veterans Day on 11 November. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a US-born Muslim and army psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood on Thursday. He was due to be deployed soon to Afghanistan, a military official said. Family members said Mr Hasan was strongly opposed to the deployment and had wanted to leave the army. Mr Obama cautioned against “jumping to conclusions” and said the motives for the shooting were being investigated.

Right from the day Obama administration took charge, they have been only getting more and more bad news. First it was the forced spending of nearly one trillion of taxpayer’s money to save the failing big companies in the banking and insurance sector.

Then it was the continuing housing crisis which forced the Obama administration to work out a special scheme costing billions of dollars to bail out the housing sector. That was followed by the automobile biggies tumbling one after the other due to the crash in automobile sales.
All these things pushed down the popularity rating of Obama and team to all time low last month.
Now after a gap of nearly nine months since taking charge, the first good news for Obama administration has come in a big way. The US GDP has grown by an unexpected 3.5% in July – September 2009 quarter, which is the first positive growth after being in negative growth for the last four quarters.
The Obama administration has sincerely taken full credit for the upswing in the GDP numbers, but has warned that the economic recovery is going to be slow and also a long drawn process. The administration will be releasing the October unemployment numbers next week, which might top 10% level as per experts. And that is not good news for Obama and team.
And that could really play a decisive role in defeating Obama candidates in the midterm elections.

The advent of internet has been changing the way people seeking and accessing data , in the last decade. And things got aggravated in the last few years further with the enabling of access to internet through mobile phones.
Now people are able to search and read through any news, be it global or national or local, in just few clicks through their laptops or mobile phones.
This has been the key reason behind the continuing decline in the sale of printed newspaper sales. The circulation of the top 400 newspapers in US has dropped further by 10% in the April to September 2009 period, versus a year ago number.
The newspaper companies have been forced to raise the prices in order to make up for the lost volumes, and that has also been one of the reasons behind the sharp fall in the circulation numbers. Experts are expecting the circulation numbers in the coming quarters to continue falling, albeit at a lower pace.

The United States has only seven percent of the world’s population, but it contributes a massive 25% of the global gas emissions that is spoiling the ozone layer. Therefore, US needs to take the lead role in global gas emission reduction, which in fact involves stricter control on the factories and homes.
US is currently going through one of the worst economic recession , for which it has already spilled out over one trillion US dollars in the last one year.
It is already running on over 1.3 trillion dollars of budget deficit this year, which cannot be bloated further. So US is badly in need for cutting down on budget deficit, so it is not possible for US to accept on any gas emission reduction plan which will cost billions of dollars.
At best US might give some futuristic plans indicating the need to take a global view on the issue and move forward. And such a futuristic plan by the lead player US could be enough for other countries to wash off their hands for the time being. So gas emission reduction plans have to wait for some more time.

The actual US government deficit in the year 2008 was at 455 billion dollars and everyone was blaming it on mismanagement by George Bush administration. And that was a record high which everybody felt would never be breached again.
But the slow and steady sub-prime crisis started eating into jobs and also started killing banks and companies every month. And the new Obama administration which took charge in January 2009 is creating record of sorts on the deficit front.
The US trade deficit in 2009 is all set to touch 1.6 trillion dollars, dwarfing the 455 billion dollars deficit last year. The continuing fall in tax revenues for the government due to increasing unemployment and also reduced corporate profitability is only adding to the problem.
The 800 billion dollars stimulus plan is the key reason behind the record deficit which could not be avoided by the Obama administration due to failing banking system. The entire US banking industry came under severe stress and they needed billions of dollars of financial aid which has been funded by the government in the last one year.
The government pumped in tax payers money and borrowed money worth nearly half a billion dollars into insurance companies, banks, mortgage companies and also automobile companies.

The US economy is a consumption driven economy which in turn depends on optimal employment of all eligible citizens. But the global economic crisis has pulled down millions of job in the last one year, and the rate of unemployment has hit a 26 year high last month.
The rate of 9.7% unemployment has not been seen after 1983. Just two years back the unemployment rate was at 3% and it has climbed up sharply in the last two years due to increased job losses across automobile / finance / insurance / export oriented sectors.
The increase in unemployment would have been more pronounced, had the government not started pumping up billions of dollars on stimulus plans. The Obama administration has so far spent over 800 billion dollars for revival of banking / insurance and automobile industry. Obama administration has gone ahead with the first home buying incentive of up to 10% or 8000 dollars whichever is lower.
In spite of that scheme, the housing sector has not been able to see a reversal in the fortunes. Had the scheme not been in place, the housing sector might have faced a massive collapse which has since been averted.
The Obama administration still expects the unemployment rate to reach 10% plus in the coming months, due to further trimming of jobs in the private sector.

India has over one billion people and it is the largest or second largest producer of many food items in the world, including sugar and wheat and rice. And over 50% of the country’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood.
And agriculture in turn depends on yearly monsoon , since India has lesser water resources than what it wants for daily consumption. This year the monsoon has really played villain and has been lower by 25% over the long term average.
The government has declared drought in 200 of the 550 districts in the country, and has also warned that there could be a significant drop in the production of grains, pulses and oilseeds. The sugar prices have already shot up by 40% in the last three months, and even in the global markets they are ruling at 30 year high levels.
The government might be forced to go for further debt raising , which in turn could prove to be a big drag on the economy in the years to come. Also the spiraling of food prices is already pushing the inflation from minus two percent levels to near zero.
Overall Foreign investors may find this a strong reason to review their investments in the country.