A toast to sophisticated palates

Japan's "special, strategic and global partnership" with India reached a new level on Saturday — not only on the investment side, but on the trade front too. If all goes well, Indian "Surimi", a widely available fish and its fish paste, will get exported to Japan in coming days. Surimi is a minced fish paste made from fish that is said to be abundantly available in India. Not only 'Surimi', both sides have also agreed for India to import Japanese apples and Japan to import mangoes from India.

Meshiagare (Bon appetit) to our Japanese friends, as one Japan-India partnership observer eloquently put it after the bilateral Summit level talks!

Where is the discounted Russian oil?

“Can you please tell me who is supplying heavily discounted Russian oil, even we would like to buy it,” quipped a senior executive of a domestic oil refining company.

But aren’t Indian refiners buying crude oil from Russia at a hefty discount? Well not really it seems and here is why, according to industry trackers and oil traders.

Urals oil, also known as REBCO (Russian Export Blend Crude Oil), is a mix of heavy and high-grade oil of the Urals and the Volga region with light oil of Western Siberia — and is used as a basis for pricing of the Russian oil. Much like Brent it is also used as a benchmark. Urals has always sold at a price lower than Brent. For example, while Brent has been on the other side of $100 a barrel, Urals has been selling under $90 a barrel.

So, is Russia actually selling at a heavy discount?

So says Panchang 

Recently during a discussion on the Russia-Ukraine war between a group of friends on WhatsApp, one sent the prediction of Panchang from Delhi. The Panchang had correctly predicted that there will be unrest in Europe from February 26 and will likely end around April 7.

That brought to light an incident that took place in Odisha in the 1960s. During a State Cabinet meeting on plans for the fiscal year, the Commissioner of relief told the ministers that they would have to account for heavy rains later that year. He quoted the Panchang to justify his statement, but the ministers did not take him seriously.

But as predicted that year saw Odisha experiencing one of its worst floods. Since then, the Odisha government began taking notice of the predictions in Panchang.

Full steam against ‘semi-high’ 

Not too long after he was engaged in a tit-for-tat with the State administration, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan seems at it again — this time for ‘riding roughshod’ over people and showing undue haste’ with laying survey stones for an ambitious semi-high speed railway project worth ten of thousands of crores. He faulted the government for forcing its intent on the people.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court allowed the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Front government to go ahead with the survey. Both Opposition Congress and the BJP have made known strong reservations in the matter, and stood by the public cause. Metroman E Sreedharan of the BJP questioned the techno-feasibility of an ‘idiotic’ project which entails huge finances and could potentially derail the fragile economy.

But for now the Left Front government seems resolute in its intent of implementing the project.

Motivational mantra

Not watching television and avoiding social media is how Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech International, keeps himself motivated. Just believe in what you do. It is a do or die, and there is no middle path. Just jump in and move on, were some of nuggets shared by him at a CII seminar. Our Bureaus

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