India

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Madonna tours Mumbai slum during India holiday

arshadkpkl — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:30:30 -0600

MUMBAI (AFP) — Pop icon Madonna walked through narrow lanes in a slum and visited a flea market in India's financial capital during a holiday with her family.

Madonna, her film director husband Guy Ritchie and their three children arrived in Mumbai Tuesday morning by chartered plane from the historic city of Udaipur in western India, where they spent New Year's Eve.

Dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans and jacket, the pop star along with her husband and bodyguards ambled through Mumbai's crowded Ambedkar Nagar slums, an AFP photographer said Tuesday.

Slum residents showered rose petals on Madonna to welcome her, even though few knew who the celebrity was.

The 49-year-old singer was accompanied by Australian author Gregory Roberts, whose bestselling autobiographical novel "Shantaram" is set in Mumbai.

Madonna then stopped for a roadside meal of a local delicacy called Misal Pav -- bread and spicy white peas -- at a budget restaurant with Roberts, a convicted bank robber who has made Mumbai his home.

The pop star also stopped by at the well-known Chor Bazaar flea market, but did not buy anything.

Madonna and her family spent nearly a week in the desert state of Rajasthan, where they went for horse-riding trips and kite-flying

Captalism only way to industrialise Bengal - Buddhadeb

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:13:13 -0600

Capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal although socialism could have been a better alternative, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee said on Thursday.

"The reality has forced us to accept capitalism as the only way to get funds for industries. It is simply impossible for the state to mobilise funds for industries and we have to depend on capitalism if our economy is to progress," Bhattacherjee, a CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, said.

"We are aware of the filth that is inherent in capitalism but there is no other way at the moment. From where will the state get money for industries? Does the state government have money to set up steel plants?" he told a function to mark the 41st anniversary of CPI(M) mouthpiece 'Ganashakti' here.

He said the most important issue which was being debated in the state and the country was whether industrialisation would be carried out on the basis of progress in agriculture.

His comment came at a time when his government's industrial road map for West Bengal has come under fire from CPI(M)'s allies in the ruling Left Front and the opposition as well.

Allies like the Forward Bloc and RSP have publicly criticized the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government saying that the way in which big business houses from the Tatas to the Indonesian Salim Group were entering West Bengal, "is a blemish on the state's Left tradition".

Police announce cash reward for info in molestation case

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:06:13 -0600

A day after the alleged molestation of two NRI girls came to light, the city police today announced a cash reward for providing information about the suspects and also said that they were close to nabbing one of them.
"A woman has come forward with information of the suspect wearing white shirt saying he stays in a western suburb. Our teams in plain clothes are keeping a close watch and we hope to get him soon," Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K L Prasad said here.

The police today released the photographs of the incident clicked by two lensmen from a national daily outside a five-star hotel in the city which suggest that the two women who were accompanied by male companions were molested.

Prasad said the woman came forward after seeing the photographs in the media and added that he would recommend a "five-digit" cash reward for those coming up with leads.

"Once we get one person, it will be easier to go till the rest four or five," he said.

Accompanied by two males, the two women had gone to the hotel for a new year performance by actress Bipasha Basu. The incident occurred at around 0150 hours on January 1, when they came out of the hotel. The photographs were published in a daily yesterday leading to a furore.

The victims are natives of Gujarat residing in USA's California and have refused to file a complaint due to which a photographer who is witness to incident has filed a case.

Prasad said Additional Commissioner of Police (West Region) Archana Tyagi is supervising the probe and special teams have been formed to crack the case at the earliest.

ISRO, IIT launch tele-education

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:12:17 -0600

A major initiative to provide satellite- based tele-education facilities to engineering colleges in the country was launched today by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in association with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

EDUSAT network provides satellite-based tele-education facilities to students and teachers of the Engineering Colleges across the country.

The teaching-end was set up at IIT, Bombay by ISRO to provide satellite bandwidth and to install ground equipment at various Institutes across the country, while the institute would arrange to deliver full-fledged courses on various Engineering topics through its network, according to an ISRO release here.

IIT-B, had scheduled 13 full-fledged courses on the channel, as per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the ISRO.

About 50 colleges, including IITs, National Institute of Technology, VJTI, Mumbai, Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha, Sona College of Engineering and Technology, Salem and Delhi College of Engineering, would receive the programs from January 2.

In the EDUSAT Network, launched on September 20,2004, ISRO had set up more than 45 broadcast and interactive networks, covering 20 States, including North-East and Islands of the country.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair, Scientific Secretary A Bhaskaranarayana, Viveswaraya Technological University (VTU) Vice Chancellor H P Kincha and senior officials of the Department of Space participated in the inaugural function held simultaneously at ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore and IIT, Bombay.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Senior Executive F C Kohli, IIT, Bombay Director Ashok Mishra, Government of Gujarat Principal Secretary P Panneerval and Government of Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary Joyce Sankaran were, among others, present on the occasion in Mumbai.

Union Budget to focus on relief to sectors under stress

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:06:11 -0600

Next month's Union Budget will focus on maintaining high growth and give "relief" to sectors under "stress" such as those affected by the rupee appreciation, according to Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram.

In the minister's book, there is no such thing as an "election budget", although he acknowledges that his next budgetary exercise will be the last "full budget" of the UPA Government. If elections are held on time before May 2009, then there will be a vote-on-account next year.

As he prepares his fifth consecutive budget, Chidambaram says he has no worries other than about some sectors under "stress" which he would address.

Chidambaram admits that delivery of promised goods and services has not not been satisfactory. But he is of the view that there is enough time for improvement in this area.

He said, 16 months between now and the scheduled time of Lok sabha elections was a lot of time. "Delivery has not been satisfactory. Sixteen months is enough time to improve the delivery of goods and services."

Confident of a 9 per cent economic growth in the current fiscal, Chidambaram said that "the thrust of the budget (2008-09) will be to maintain high growth and ensure that the growth process endorses and includes larger and larger sections of people."

Growth, he emphasized, is an imperative. "Inclusive growth is what we must work for. It requires hard work. It requires better governance. It requires delivery of goods and services."

Chidambaram said "there is no sector which is worrying me. There are some sectors which are under stress. For example, one reason the rupee appreciation has caused some stress to some sectors. We will address these causes to the extent possible and give them some relief."

His remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the steady rise in the value of the rupee in the last year-and-a-half. From about Rs 46 a US dollar in July 2006, the Indian currency is now ruling at around Rs 39.40. The Commerce Ministry estimates that the appreciation could lead to a loss of Rs. 53,000 crore to exporters in 2007-08.

Otherwise, the minister felt, all sectors were doing reasonably-well in terms of production. "If there is a slow-down in demand in some sectors like housing and real estate, that is a result of a conscious policy to moderate the demand in these sectors.

Refusing to accept that the next budget will be an election-budget, the minister said he did not think that budget decide elections.

"What decides elections are our capacity to deliver what you say. Budgets only give outlays and budgets don't ensure outcomes. Between outlays and outcomes there is something called governance and delivery.

"We must deliver on the kilometres we promised, on the villages that we promised electricity and water, on the invest that we say will be made on the units of electricity will be generated," he said.

Chidambaram said budgets certainly raise expectations, and we support these expectations with financial outlays. It is the outcome of the budget that will decide whether we had delivered or not.

Sensex, Nifty end at new closing peaks

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:04:33 -0600

New Year celebrations are continuing in the stock markets with benchmark Sensex scaling a new high of 20,465.30 points at closing level on the Bombay Stock Exchange, led by blue-chip stocks HDFC, Tata Motors and Reliance Energy The 30-share BSE barometer added 164.59 points over its previous close of 20,300.71 points to set the new closing level record.

The index touched the day's high of 20,529.48 points and a low of 20,077.40 points. The Sensex also hit an all-time intra-trade high of 20,529.48.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also jumped 35.05 points to close at a new life-time high of 6,179.40 from previous close of 6,144.35.

The market surged in the late afternoon trade on sustained across-the-board value buying from investors after showing some pressure due to to weakness in Asian markets, which were down in the range of about 1.0 to 2.3 per cent at close.

The market breadth was strong following widespread gains in the small-cap and the mid-cap shares.

However, analysts said the market has reached the 20,500 resistance level and is expected to correct downwards.

Crediting the upsurge to technical factors, brokers said there was shortage of scrips while liquidity remained comfortable in the market.

Rally was led by banks and realty sector with their indices moving up by 3.13 per cent and 2.93 per cent respectively. Stocks of the country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank surged by 2.88 per cent. BSE Bankex rose to 11,870.49 while the realty index was up at 13,419.67 points.

Fuel price hike likely next month

jimmy elias — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:01:09 -0600

The Government is considering an increase of Rs 4 and 2 a litre in petrol and diesel prices respectively to moderate the impact of high international crude oil prices on state-run oil firms.

The Group of Ministers of fuel headed by External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, is expected to meet later this month. This will be followed by a meeting of the Cabinet and a hike is likely in first week of February.

"The GoM on food is meeting on January 8. The GoM on fuel is likely to meet very soon after that," Petroleum Secretary, M S Srinivasan, told reporters here.

He said a moderate increase in fuel prices was likely, but refused to speculate on the quantum of increase. The GoM has not met even once since its constitution in November.

Sources close to the Congress party, which is heading the UPA coalition government, said a hike of Rs 4 in petrol and Rs 2 in diesel was being considered.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are projected to lose Rs 69,753 crore on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and PDS kerosene as government has not allowed them to raise prices in line with the price of imported crude.

Petrol is being sold at a loss of Rs 8.74 a litre, diesel at Rs 9.92 per litre, kerosene Rs 20.53 a litre and LPG at a loss of Rs 256.35 per cylinder.

The current price of Indian basket of crude oil is higher by around 22-23 dollars a barrel over the international price prevailing at the time of last increase in petrol and diesel prices on June 6, 2006, officials said.

TN threatens to takeover pvt cement factories in state

jimmy elias — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:59:35 -0600

In the wake of soaring cement prices, the Tamil Nadu government threatened to take over private cement factories in the state, saying it had no other alternative but to go in for this step if the units did not come forward to reduce the price in public interest.

An official press release said a decision in this regard was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at the Secretariat.

The meeting, which reviewed the hike in the price of cement, also decided to import one lakh tonnes of cement by Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation through MMTC to tide over the shortage.

The imported cement would be distributed to the public through the state civil supplies corporation at the cost price without any profit, the release said.

It was also decided that the cement corporation would float global tenders for direct import of cement at the earliest.

The construction industry and political parties had flayed the state government for not taking steps to reduce the cement price. Shortage of cement had brought construction activities of the government and public to a grinding halt.