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Mineral mines are the assets of every Indian citizen
A recent issue that came up referred to the allocation of coalfields to private and public sector companies without being auctioned. While doing this, the government may have extended "undue benefits" to the companies totalling an amount of Rs 10.67 lakh crore by giving 155 coal acreages without being auctioned between 2004-2009 periods.
Desperate syria: A member of the Free Syrian Army eats foliage as
supplies run short at a mountain outpost near the village of Janudieh in
the northern province of Idlib. The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army,
Riad al-Asaad, announced on March 24 the formation of a military
council grouping all rebel chiefs, including Syria's most senior army
deserter General Mustafa al-Sheikh
Using the data from the geological reports, 90 per cent of coal reserves, the auditors have reached a figure of 33169 million tones, which would be enough to fuel over 150000 mw of generation capacity. 150000 mw is just a little less than the country's current levels for the next 50 years. The CAG came out with a clarification that they won't disown the findings. The leaked report is not the final draft and it will not form the pre-final draft also. The final report will be placed in the parliament. The ghosts of 2G scam haunted investors, Adarsh scam, Antrix-devas deal and now the issues related to the allocation of coalmines.
Coal
They also clarified that unintended benefit in coal sales is not necessarily a loss to the government. Real numbers should actually do the talking. If this is the case then all the minerals and national assets including oil blocks and metal mines allocation etc will have to be scrutinized to check the manner in which they were allocated. Companies that use coal as their fuel and those which own coalmines include, power, steel and cement and it is almost certain that they have got the mines at cheap rates. It is high time that we realise that the metal and other mineral mines are the assets of each and every citizen of the country. The ruling government is the custodian and so these assets should be auctioned in a transparent manner hereafter.
Gold
On the domestic front, the retail inflation for February was at 8.83 per cent against 7.65 per cent in January, due to price rise of protein based items and edible oil products. The poverty estimate from the planning commission claimed that the number of poor has declined by approximately 7.3 per cent to 29.8 per cent of the nearly 1.2 billion population from 2004-2005 to 2009-2010. As against 40.72 crore in 2004-05, the total number of poor in the country has been estimated at 34.47 crore in 2009-10.
This figure attracted stiff resistance from the opposition and the Prime Minister was forced to say that a fresh group would devise a new method for poverty estimates. As a blow to gold loan companies like Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance, the RBI has put forward a stricter norm for lending against gold. RBI has put a cap on the loan to value ratio on lending against gold jewellery at 60 per cent, against the current rate of 75 per cent and also has mandated a Tier 1 capital adequacy of 12 per cent. This will increase the margin of safety of the company, but will definitely affect the revenue of these companies.
Syria
On the global front, the Syrian unrest took a turn for the worse. The European Union has put sanctions on Asma al Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al Assad including a travel ban and asset freeze. Europe is still wary with its PMI data showing that manufacturing has declined. Greece has made plans to sell major listed companies like OPAP and Hellenic Petroleum by May. On the other hand, Spain's borrowing costs have risen above 5.5 per cent, for the first time since January showing fear among the investors.
Shares
Huge buying interest was witnessed in Tech Mahindra after the merger announcement, investors holding 17 Mahindra Satyam will be allotted two shares of the Tech Mahindra, the stock has firm support at Rs.725 and Rs. 710 and the stock has target above Rs. 800. Investors can buy Rural Electrification Corporation, Wockhardt, Deep Industry, Reliance Industrial Infra etcetera for short term trading. Call option of March contract can be bought at the counters of Axis Bank and Hindalco.
The minor resistance for the Nifty will be at 5315, if Nifty breaks this level with volumes, then it may test 5469. As long as Nifty is above 5205 and 5160 one can expect sharp recoveries before the March contract expiration. | 
