Cutting the credit card into pieces does not cancel the credit card. One has to follow the bank’s cancellation procedure.

   The customer has to inform the bank well in advance of the due date for renewal. Once the card is renewed, even if it is not used, banks will compel the customers to pay the annual fees.

   The common customer complaint is that even after canceling the credit card, banks continue to ask for payment on dead credit cards. What could be the reason?

   There will be transactions in the pipeline, such as interest, late fees, charge back etc. Customers are liable to pay these charges to the bank even if they were not outstanding on the cards at the time of cancellation.

   Cutting up the card might ensure that the card  is not used for transactions, where it has to be physically produced. But there could be transactions where the card need not be physically produced. Or where a standing instruction has been placed for periodic charges to the card or for virtual shopping. So cutting up the card does not terminate the card account. The card holders have to ensure that the card account is deactivated from the bank’s side.

   Bill Gates, the world’s richest person, who dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft, collected an honorary law degree.

   “We recognise the most illustrious member of the Harvard college class of 1977, never to have graduated from Harvard,” said Steven Hyman, Harvard University Provost.

   “I’ll be changing my job next year and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume,” said Bill Gates referring to his plan to change full-time into philanthropy.

   “Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequality,” Gates said.

   The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2000, support projects to improve health, reduce poverty and increase public access to technology.

   Finland, the land of Nokia mobile phones will soon be importing Nokia mobile phones from India.

   Nokia has set up a mobile phone manufacturing unit near the south Indian city of Chennai at the cost of 150 million dollars.” Nokia will soon be importing expensive models from its Indian plant for its European and US markets,” said Mr.Pietarinen, Deputy Director General in Finnish ministry of trade and industry.

   At present more than 70 Finnish companies operate in India dealing with textiles, organic chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

   In the reverse direction, many Indian companies have started operations in Finland. Tata Consultancy Services is one of the oldest Indian companies that has been operating in Finland. Infosys Technologies has been operating in Finland since 2006.Wipro Technologies has established its presence in Finland by acquiring a Finnish mobile software company.

   Fish consumption is growing by about 10 percent a year, as nutritionists and doctors praise the health benefits of consuming fish.

At present, fish farming (aquaculture) provides nearly half of the world’s fish demand, cultivating shrimps, oysters, clams, mussels, salmon and catfish. The US and other fish-farming countries such as China, India, Thailand and Indonesia are now focusing on increasing the share of aquaculture.

   What are the negative impacts of aquaculture? Fish from the farms can escape into wild and could spread diseases; Fish farms might adopt harmful techniques such as overuse of hormones and antibiotics; It could lead to a glut in the marketing, crashing fish prices.

Despite all the criticism against fish farming, many countries encourage aquaculture as a means to export earnings as well as feeding its own population.

   Dell computers announced that it will cut 8800 jobs over the next 12 months.

   “While reductions in headcount are always difficult for a company, we know these actions are critical to our ability to deliver unprecedented value to our customers now and in the future,” Michael Dell, CEO of Dell computers said in a statement.

   Dell has lost its No.1 position as the world’s top PC maker to Hewlett-Packard. Dell’s share price has gone down by more than 30 percent in the past two years. Dell is now trying to regain its lost glory by new ways of reaching the customer and cost cutting exercises.

   New sales avenues to boost profits are commendable. But reduction in headcount to reduce costs is not the right decision, as it might demoralise the employees. Implementing ways and means to boost the productivity of the employees would have been a better decision.