CHINA SET TO OVERTAKE INDIA AS WORLD’S BIGGEST GOLD CONSUMER

China, the world’s largest producer of gold, is set to overtake India as the metal’s biggest consumer for the first time in history.
China’s gold consumption in 2009 has now been estimated at 450 tonnes, according to data released this week. This exceeds estimates for India’s net consumption last year, which is forecast at around 380 tonne.
According to recently released statistics by the China Gold Association, the estimated demand for gold touched 450 tonnes last year, up from 395.6 tonnes in 2008. China has been the world’s largest gold producer since 2007, when the country overtook South Africa.
ALL IT RETURNS OPEN TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY  Are income-tax returns filed by individual citizens open to public scrutiny under the Right to Information? Yes, says the Central Information Commission.  In a controversial December 14 ruling with far-reaching implications, the CIC held that individual assessees could not invoke privacy concerns to prevent an unrelated "third party" from inspecting returns filed with the Income-Tax Department. Sources in the Commission said the ruling must be seen as a trendsetter that could eventually lead to the tax returns of all citizens being put up on the department’s website.  The ruling by Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi came on a specific application filed under the RTI Act, 2005  He held that filing tax returns was a statutory obligation and must be treated as a public activity open to scrutiny. As a tax assessee had already provided information to the state as part of his or her legal duties, its disclosure to "another person cannot be construed as an unwarranted invasion of privacy of the individual."  Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consulting firm, will soon begin consultations aimed at restructuring the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).  BCG will prepare the restructuring plan for NABARD to make it a commercially viable entity. 
CABINET NOD FOR ONGC VIDESH INVESTMENT IN NIGERIAN VENTURE The Union Cabinet approved ONGC Videsh Limited’s (OVL) proposal to invest $359 million (Rs. 1,651 crore) for oil exploration in two deep-sea blocks in Nigeria over the next five years. INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION (IIP) Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in simplest terms is an index which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy. E.g. Indian IIP will focus on sectors like mining, electricity, Manufacturing & General. Also base year needs to be decided on the basis of which all the index figures would be arrived at. In case of India the base year has been fixed at 1993-94 hence the same would be equivalent to 100 Points.Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an abstract number, the magnitude of which represents the status of production in the industrial sector for a given period of time as compared to a reference period of time. On the implementation of the Vaidyanathan Committee report on cooperatives, 7,400 crore had been disbursed for strengthening cooperatives. Twenty-five States had signed agreements and 13 States had amended the relevant legislation to make Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) financially viable. BOSTON CONSULTING TO RESTRUCTURE NABARD