News Round-up: 5 October 2014

1. 10th Jubilee edition of Zurich Festival: Started on September 25 and ended today. Its "New World view" section focuses on a country. This year the focus was on India and 12 feature films were screened in it. These films are: Court (directed by Chaitanya Tamhane), Gulabi Gang (Nistha Jain), Titli (Kanu Behl), Katiyabaaz (Deepti Kakkar & Fahad Mustafa), Fandry (Marathi director Nagraj Manjule), Lucia (Kannada film by Pawan Kumar), Soodhu Kavvum (Tamil Film by Nalan Kumaraswamy), Liar's Dice (by Geetu Mohandas).
2. Indian Super League - A football league with inaugral season starting on October 12. The format draws from the cricket league and the Major league soccer of the US. Many celebrities have owned several teams - Sachin Tendulkar with PVP Ventures (Kochi Franchise), Sourav Ganguly along with a group of Indian businessmen and La Liga side Atletico Madrid (Kolkata Franchise), John Abraham (Guwahati Franchise), Ranbir Kapoor (Mumbai Franchise), Salman Khan (Pune Franchise). There are eight teams this season - Atletico Kolkata, Chennaiyin FC, Delhi Dynamos FC, FC Goa, FC Pune City, Kerala Blasters FC, Mumbai City FC and Northeast United FC. The finals will be in November & December. Every team has 14 domestic  players & 7 international players along with a big name in football as a marquee player. The marquee players this season are Freddie Ljungberg (Mumbai City FC), Robert Pires (FC Goa), Alessandro Del Piero (Delhi Dynamos FC), Joan Capdevila (Northeast United FC), David Trezeguet (FC Pune City), David James (Kerala Blasters FC), Luis Garcia (Atletico de Kolkata) & Elano Blumer (Chennaiyin FC).
3. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Samsung demanding $6.9m in unpaid interest. 
4. Yahoo! is looking to invest in Snapchat and has valued it at $10bn. VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has also invested in Snapchat. Yahoo has also bought MessageMe for less than $12m.
5. GM has asked its dealers to stop selling 2015 Chevrolet Colorado & GMC Canyon  midsized pickups until air bags are fixed in these trucks.
6. Cipla is setting up manufacturing facility in Iran in collaboration with its Iranian distributor.
7. Indian American professor Thomas Kailath won National Medal of Science, the highest honor in the fields of science and engineering in USA.
8. GAIL India and its US partners - Carrizo Oil & Gas, Cheniere Energy and Dominion Cove Point LNG were honored at the 15th Annual IACCGH (Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston) gala for its pioneering efforts in securing India's energy future.
9. As per World Gold Council, India should aim for $40 b gold jewellery export by 2020. An estimate puts household stocks at 22,000 tonnes. Government should aim at monetising this stock. The Turkey model can be utilised for the same. Right now, one has to bring atleast 500 gm gold to deposit under gold deposit scheme whereas in turkey even 1gm can be deposited. This deposit is then converted into bars and coins. MMTC PAMP is the largest gold refiner in the country. India has imported $53.80bn in 2012-13 and exported $18.28 bn. In 2013-14, the imports declined to $30 bn & exports $ 11.04 bn. WGC Vision 2020 includes hallmarking & standardisation of 75% of jewellery and mandatory hallmarking of pieces above a designated selling price. It also is looking at "gold tourism" circuits to showcase handcrafted Indian jewellery.
10. Sport's Authority of India has taken over Thiruvanathapuram Golf Club and set up SAI National Golf Academy. Thiruvanathapuram Golf Club was set up in 1850 and is among the world's oldest. It covers an area of 25 acres and is a nine-hole golf course. The new Cochin International Airport in Kochi is the largest in India. This is set to give boost to tourism industry in Kerala and offset some of the losses after the alcohol prohibition. Tourism in Kerala is estimated at Rs.27,000 crore.
11. Miscellaneous:
1. 5/20 rule: To fly overseas, an airline has to be operational for 5 years and should have atleast 20 aircrafts.
2. 80:20 rule: Atleast one-fifth of imported gold must be reserved for re-exports after value addition.