The Indian government last Friday made a decision that sent shock waves around the world markets.
At the outset, it looks trivial – just a quarter of a percentage rise in key interest rates by a developing country.
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, raised the so-called the repo rate – which is the rate at which the bank lends to financial institutions – to five percent, and similarly increased the reverse repo – the borrowing rate – to 3.5 percent.
As Iran readies for another round of talks with western powers over its controversial nuclear programme, there is debate within the international non-proliferation circles about the best strategy or strategies to prevent another Iran-type situation from developing.
The debate has been necessitated by a number of developments, ranging from the availability of once confidential technology information through the Internet and the emergence of non-state actors such as Pakistan’s Abdul Qadir Khan, who act in the interest of state actors but involve in illicit activities often using governmental resources to transfer sensitive technology, to the open seeking of nuclear power and its technology in a world where the need to look beyond the fossil fuel sources for power is ever growing.
A recent UN report sheds some interesting, and disturbing, light into affects of radiation.
In the first development, the United Nations Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) finds a link between the colourless, odourless noble gas radon and lung cancer.
The Vienna based agency says the link between radon and lung cancer risk came about as a result of 20 studies done in thousands of homes in Europe, North America and China, as well as lung cancer victims. The risk is small, but it exists, says a UNSCEAR official.
The radioactive radon comes from decaying uranium and can seep through cracks and accumulate in buildings, particularly in basements.
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