But there definitely was a lot to talk about! The things that didn’t quite make it to my Blog List were aplenty:
January 2008:
· The Sensex touching its highest ever peak of 21K
· 'Nano' is born. The world's cheapest car costing Rs 100,000 unveiled at 9th Auto Expo in Delhi by Ratan Tata.
· India's largest IPO by Reliance Power to raise Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) opens. The issue closed on Jan 18 but was hammered in the market on debut. The company issued bonus shares to retain investor confidence.
March 2008:
· Tata Motors announces agreement with Ford Motor to acquire Jaguar Land Rover for $2.3 billion.
May 2008:
· Premier League champions Manchester United win the Champions League by beating Chelsea 6-5 on penalties in Moscow after the two sides were level as 1-1 following extra time.
June 2008:
· The hike in Fuel Prices: In the highest ever price raise, the government announced a Rs 5 a litre increase in petrol, Rs 3 on diesel and Rs 50 per LPG cylinder together with customs and excise duty cuts to combat spurt in global oil prices.
· Tiger Woods, battling crippling pain in his left knee, defeats fellow American Rocco Mediate in the first sudden-death hole of a US Open play-off. He takes the remainder of the year off after undergoing reconstructive surgery.
· Spain claim their first major football title for 44 years with a 1-0 win over Germany in the European championship final in Vienna. Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (pictured) scores the only goal of the match in the 33rd minute.
July 2008:
· The most-watched Wimbledon final in eight years (Federer vs Nadal: 5.2 million viewers): Rafael Nadal defeats Roger Federer in an epic, rain-interrupted, five-set Wimbledon singles final to become the first man since Bjorn Borg to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles in the same year. Federer was bidding to surpass Borg and become only the second man to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles.
August 2008:
· Rising prices of food items like fruits, vegetables and milk pushed up inflation to 12.63 per cent.This was a 13-year high for the inflation numbers in India. Inflation was 4.24 per cent during the corresponding week in 2007.
· August 8th – August 24th: The most-watched global event ever (2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: 4.7 billion viewers). 43 world records and 132 Olympic records were broken during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. A spectacular opening ceremony in the futuristic Bird's Nest stadium precedes an immaculately organised Beijing Olympics. In the pool, Michael Phelps wins an unprecedented eight gold medals, including seven world records, to better the record set by fellow American Mark Spitz 36 years earlier. On the track, Bolt breaks the world 100 and 200 metres marks in the greatest exhibition of sprinting witnessed at an Olympics. China head the medals table, with 51 golds, ahead of the United States.
· Apple's iPhone makes India debut.
September 2008:
· Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong announces he is coming out of retirement and plans to race in the 2009 Tour.
· Lehman Brothers collapses, marking the savage financial tsunami which led to dozens of banks across going bankrupt, and pushed the entire global economy into a tizzy from which it will take at least two years to come out. Many business have shut shop, millions of jobs are being lost even now, and the stock markets across the globe have plummeted like never before.
· Global Financial Meltdown begins.
October 2008:
· Sachin Tendulkar overtakes West Indian Brian Lara's world-record Test-runs tally of 11,953 on the opening day of India's second Test against Australia at Mohali.
· Tata Motors pulls out of Singur, where it planned to set up the mother plant for Nano at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion).
· Tata Motors announces new Nano plant will come up at Sanand in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).
· TCS acquires 96.3 per cent stake in Citigroup Global Services Ltd, the BPO outfit of the American bank, for $505 million. Tatas bid to buy Jaguar LandRover
· Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines form operational alliance to cut costs.
· Jet Airways lays off 1900 of its employees in various work profiles. Two days later, company Chairman Naresh Goyal orders reinstatement of all the sacked employees.
· ICICI Bank was the target of some major rumours. Following some reports, investors feared that their deposits in the bank were no longer safe.
November 2008:
· History is created, Change Comes to America: The Democratic Candidate, Barack Obama had been voted America's 1st Black President.
· The crash of the Rupee against the Dollar the lowest ever on November 24th . The bankruptcy, sale, restructuring and merger of some of the world's largest financial institutions has caused cataclysmic disruptions in the international stocks and money markets.
· Terror Trails across Mumbai: The November 26th 2008 Mumbai attacks were a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks across Mumbai, India's financial capital and its largest city.
December 2008:
· Negative Growth - The Indian industry saw its output shrink for the first time in 15 years with a 0.4 per cent year-on-year decline in October, as the impact of the global economic downturn deepened in the country. From a dazzling 12.2 per cent growth in October last year, industry recorded a negative growth of 0.4 per cent in October this year, partly due to a dip of over 12 per cent in India's exports.
· State-owned telecom operator MTNL launches third generation (3G) services.
· India's fourth largest IT firm Satyam Computer announces acquisition of Maytas Properties and Mytas Infra for $1.6 billion.
· Satyam calls off acquisition after angry shareholders response. Since then, four of the company's independent directors have quit.
· Country's third-largest software services provider Wipro agrees to buy Citi Technology Services Ltd from Citigroup for about $127 million.
· World Bank says Satyam barred from doing business with it for eight years.
· Reliance Petroleum commissions its 580,000 barrels per day refinery at Jamnagar.
· Economy and markets under tremendous strain - Stock market benchmark Sensex closes trading for the year down 69 points at 9,647.31. It had peaked to 21,206.77 points in January 2008.
January 2009:
. India’s Biggest Corporate Fraud: Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju, accused of committing a Rs40 billion fraud that threaten to shake the very foundation of Satyam Computers, are in jail There are fears over the adverse fallouts of the Satyam fraud on the international reputation of the exports-driven Indian IT industry.
. "Slumdog Millionaire": A Mumbai underdog's rags-to-riches story, 'Slumdog Millionaire', swept all the four categories it was nominated for, winning the best director award for Boyle, the best music score for Rahman, best screenplay for Simon Beaufoy and also in the category of best drama. Rahman, who the coveted prize for his music score 'Jai Ho' in the film.
This time around hopefully I will pen down a lot more than I did in 2008 and celebrate yet another Anniversary next year on Jan 17th ! :) Till then keep visiting ! :)
