Taking on the UPA government, Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK on Saturday demanded an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram on former Telecom Minister A Raja's charges in 2G spectrum scam of "Himalayan proportions".
"The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have not given any reply even days after the former Telecom Minister had named them in connection with the scam of Himalayan proportions," said a resolution adopted at AIADMK Executive Council meeting chaired by party General Secretary Jayalalithaa in Chennai.
It said the "Congress President and UPA Chairperson has not expressed her opinion," on the issue so far.
"People have a right to know the truth in this matter. The Executive insists that in deference to people's views, the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Congress President should immediately reply to Raja's charges," the resolution said.
In his deposition before the court early this week, Raja had dragged the Prime Minister and Chidamabaram, the then Finance Minister, in 2G case, saying the issue of sale of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them.
The resolution comes close on the heels of Jayalalithaa asking her party MPs to take on Congress on a host of issues, including 2G spectrum and spiralling prices of commodities, in Parliament session beginning Monday.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Ind vs Eng Live: Raina Departs Post Dravid's 50
India opener Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh are at the crease against England on the second day of the second Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Saturday. Earlier James Anderson scalped Suresh Raina. Live Score
India started the day with an overnight score of 24/1 in reply to England's first innings total of 221. There was some bad news in store for India as paceman Praveen Kumar was fined for showing dissent during the first day's play.
The two got busy eating into a scanty first innings total that England had posted on Day 1. England were clearly frustrated as on Saturday their review against Laxman in James Anderson's over got turned down. With this they have utilised both their reviews and that to unsuccessfully.
Post the drinks breaks Laxman went on to complete his half-century even as England bowlers were struggling to get a wicket. But Laxman's delight was short lived as England paceman saclped him on 54 with an away moving ball that took an edge ofhis bat to land in keeper Matt Prior's gloves when India's total was 93.
Then it was the turn of the Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar, to make an appearence in the middle. And Tendulkar, who is still one short of his 100th international ton, started his innings in style, hitting a four off Bresnan on the fifth ball that he faced during the day.
Tendulkar and Dravid were at the crease and India were on 117/2 when lunch was taken on the second day.
Minutes into the second session Sachin Tendulkar was seesn walking back on a scanty 16 on board. And once again it was Stuart Broad who managed to disappoint his fans just like he did during the first innings of the Lord's Test. An away moving ball was edged by Tendulkar and England captain Andrew Strauss made no mistake in the slips. India lost their third wicket on 119.
Rahul Dravid, who has been playing the role of the opener with elan in the absence of regular openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, reached his half-century with precision.
However, his partner in he middle Suresh Raina didn't last long and fell to a James Anderson ball, which would have been better left than played as it was wide outside off. He prodded it and there was virtually no foot movement and Eoin Morgan did the rest at gully. India lost their fourth wicket on 139/4.
India started the day with an overnight score of 24/1 in reply to England's first innings total of 221. There was some bad news in store for India as paceman Praveen Kumar was fined for showing dissent during the first day's play.
The two got busy eating into a scanty first innings total that England had posted on Day 1. England were clearly frustrated as on Saturday their review against Laxman in James Anderson's over got turned down. With this they have utilised both their reviews and that to unsuccessfully.
Post the drinks breaks Laxman went on to complete his half-century even as England bowlers were struggling to get a wicket. But Laxman's delight was short lived as England paceman saclped him on 54 with an away moving ball that took an edge ofhis bat to land in keeper Matt Prior's gloves when India's total was 93.
Then it was the turn of the Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar, to make an appearence in the middle. And Tendulkar, who is still one short of his 100th international ton, started his innings in style, hitting a four off Bresnan on the fifth ball that he faced during the day.
Tendulkar and Dravid were at the crease and India were on 117/2 when lunch was taken on the second day.
Minutes into the second session Sachin Tendulkar was seesn walking back on a scanty 16 on board. And once again it was Stuart Broad who managed to disappoint his fans just like he did during the first innings of the Lord's Test. An away moving ball was edged by Tendulkar and England captain Andrew Strauss made no mistake in the slips. India lost their third wicket on 119.
Rahul Dravid, who has been playing the role of the opener with elan in the absence of regular openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, reached his half-century with precision.
However, his partner in he middle Suresh Raina didn't last long and fell to a James Anderson ball, which would have been better left than played as it was wide outside off. He prodded it and there was virtually no foot movement and Eoin Morgan did the rest at gully. India lost their fourth wicket on 139/4.
Yeddyurappa Falls In Line, says Will Quit On Sunday
In signs that he might be relenting after a tense standoff, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday said he would tender his resignation tomorrow, falling in line with the directive of the party leadership which took a tough stand.
As the fresh affirmation by the 68-year-old Yeddyurappa somewhat eased the crisis for the BJP in the first state ruled by it in the South, the party's central observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh were locked in hectic consultations in choosing his successor.
According to party sources, Yeddyurappa will have a say in the selection of the new chief minister but he may not get the post of the state BJP president for which he is pushing hard. He is understood to have given three choices for the leadership to consider. (Read: Who is B.S. Yeddyurappa?)
The names doing the rounds to succeed Yeddyurappa are State BJP president K S Eshwarappa, Lok Sabha MP Sadanand Gowda, Ministers Jagadish Shettar, Shoba Karandlaje, V S Acharya and Suresh Kumar S and party national general secretary and MP Ananth Kumar.
In an effort to end the speculation on whether or not he would step down from his post, Yeddyurappa released a press statement that he would quit office on July 31.
In the signed statement that was read out to the media outside the Chief Minister's residence by loyalist Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Yeddyurappa said he had already issued a statement on Thursday that he would tender his resignation on July 31 following the decision of the party's parliamentary board and instruction from BJP central leaders.
But, he said, despite the statement, "even now, some media are misleading the public that I am not resigning".
"I, hereby, again clarify that I am submitting my resignation on the afternoon of 31-3-2011", he said.
Asked if Yeddyurappa's demands were accepted by the party high command, Water Resources Minister Bommai said the Chief Minister had a closed-door meeting with Jaitley and Rajnath and he does not know what transpired between them.
"..but certainly talks are going on in right way...positive way. Every thing will be solved", Bommai said in his comments, which are seen as softening of his stand by the Chief Minister.
As the fresh affirmation by the 68-year-old Yeddyurappa somewhat eased the crisis for the BJP in the first state ruled by it in the South, the party's central observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh were locked in hectic consultations in choosing his successor.
According to party sources, Yeddyurappa will have a say in the selection of the new chief minister but he may not get the post of the state BJP president for which he is pushing hard. He is understood to have given three choices for the leadership to consider. (Read: Who is B.S. Yeddyurappa?)
The names doing the rounds to succeed Yeddyurappa are State BJP president K S Eshwarappa, Lok Sabha MP Sadanand Gowda, Ministers Jagadish Shettar, Shoba Karandlaje, V S Acharya and Suresh Kumar S and party national general secretary and MP Ananth Kumar.
In an effort to end the speculation on whether or not he would step down from his post, Yeddyurappa released a press statement that he would quit office on July 31.
In the signed statement that was read out to the media outside the Chief Minister's residence by loyalist Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Yeddyurappa said he had already issued a statement on Thursday that he would tender his resignation on July 31 following the decision of the party's parliamentary board and instruction from BJP central leaders.
But, he said, despite the statement, "even now, some media are misleading the public that I am not resigning".
"I, hereby, again clarify that I am submitting my resignation on the afternoon of 31-3-2011", he said.
Asked if Yeddyurappa's demands were accepted by the party high command, Water Resources Minister Bommai said the Chief Minister had a closed-door meeting with Jaitley and Rajnath and he does not know what transpired between them.
"..but certainly talks are going on in right way...positive way. Every thing will be solved", Bommai said in his comments, which are seen as softening of his stand by the Chief Minister.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
China Premier Vows To Punish Those To Blame For Train Crash
BEIJING: China's premier Wen Jiabao pledged on Thursday to "severely punish" those responsible for a deadly train crash that has sparked public fury and triggered fears over the safety of high-speed rail.
At least 39 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in Saturday's collision on the outskirts of the eastern city of Wenzhou, the worst accident ever to hit China's rapidly expanding high-speed network.
Wen, a popular figure with China's masses, visited the scene of the crash as the government tries to assuage mounting anger which has dominated the media and the blogosphere in recent days.
"We will severely punish those responsible for the accident and those who hold responsibilities of leadership in accordance with the country's laws," he told reporters at the accident site.
"The high-speed railway construction of China should integrate speed, quality, efficiency and safety. And safety should be put in the first place," said Wen, who has ordered an "open and transparent" probe into the incident.
The accident has raised questions over whether safety concerns may have been overlooked in China's rush to build the world's biggest high-speed rail system, a feat it has achieved in just four years.
China's state-controlled media has been unusually outspoken in its coverage of the accident, defying directives not to question the official line.
A comment piece on the front page of the People's Daily, the Communist party mouthpiece, said Thursday that China "needs development, but does not need blood-smeared GDP."
"Development is of overriding importance. But development should not be pursued at all cost," said the article, which was attributed to "the newspaper's commentator".
"While developing, (we) must... put human safety as the top priority and... balance speed, quality and benefits. We must never solely pursue speed or sacrifice life for money."
Wen, who typically makes highly publicised visits to disaster sites, will meet with the injured as well as relatives of the victims during his trip to Wenzhou, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
He also urged efforts to "make China's high-speed railway exports really safe" -- after observers said that the accident could scuttle Beijing's ambitions to sell the technology overseas.
Officials with the Shanghai Railway Bureau told investigators that "design flaws" in signalling equipment were to blame for Saturday's crash, Xinhua said Thursday, the first public admission that the Chinese-made system was at fault.
The system "failed to turn the green light into red" after being struck by lightning, it quoted Shanghai Railway Bureau head An Lusheng as saying.
Three senior railway officials have already been fired over the disaster, and Beijing has ordered an "urgent overhaul" of national rail safety.
But that has done little to calm the furious response from the public and the media.
Anger has been compounded by allegations that authorities tried to cover up evidence by burying the wreckage, although officials said this was to help rescuers access the crash site.
Thousands of people have posted on China's hugely popular micro-blogs, demanding to know why the driver of the second train, who was killed in the accident, was not told to stop in time.
China has ploughed huge sums of money into its high-speed rail network, which covered 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles) by the end of 2010 and is expected to exceed 13,000 kilometres by 2012 and 16,000 kilometres by 2020.
A new $33 billion high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai opened to passengers amid much fanfare on June 30 -- a year ahead of schedule -- but has suffered power cuts and delays.
The high cost of the network has sparked fears over corruption, and China's state auditor has said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan ($29 million) from the Beijing-Shanghai project.
The revelation followed the sacking of former railway minister Liu Zhijun in February, who allegedly took more than 800 million yuan in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to China's high-speed network.
Shortly after his sacking, the railway ministry said trains would run between 250 and 300 kilometres per hour on the new Beijing-Shanghai link, which is designed for a maximum speed of 380 kph, for safety reasons.
At least 39 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in Saturday's collision on the outskirts of the eastern city of Wenzhou, the worst accident ever to hit China's rapidly expanding high-speed network.
Wen, a popular figure with China's masses, visited the scene of the crash as the government tries to assuage mounting anger which has dominated the media and the blogosphere in recent days.
"We will severely punish those responsible for the accident and those who hold responsibilities of leadership in accordance with the country's laws," he told reporters at the accident site.
"The high-speed railway construction of China should integrate speed, quality, efficiency and safety. And safety should be put in the first place," said Wen, who has ordered an "open and transparent" probe into the incident.
The accident has raised questions over whether safety concerns may have been overlooked in China's rush to build the world's biggest high-speed rail system, a feat it has achieved in just four years.
China's state-controlled media has been unusually outspoken in its coverage of the accident, defying directives not to question the official line.
A comment piece on the front page of the People's Daily, the Communist party mouthpiece, said Thursday that China "needs development, but does not need blood-smeared GDP."
"Development is of overriding importance. But development should not be pursued at all cost," said the article, which was attributed to "the newspaper's commentator".
"While developing, (we) must... put human safety as the top priority and... balance speed, quality and benefits. We must never solely pursue speed or sacrifice life for money."
Wen, who typically makes highly publicised visits to disaster sites, will meet with the injured as well as relatives of the victims during his trip to Wenzhou, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
He also urged efforts to "make China's high-speed railway exports really safe" -- after observers said that the accident could scuttle Beijing's ambitions to sell the technology overseas.
Officials with the Shanghai Railway Bureau told investigators that "design flaws" in signalling equipment were to blame for Saturday's crash, Xinhua said Thursday, the first public admission that the Chinese-made system was at fault.
The system "failed to turn the green light into red" after being struck by lightning, it quoted Shanghai Railway Bureau head An Lusheng as saying.
Three senior railway officials have already been fired over the disaster, and Beijing has ordered an "urgent overhaul" of national rail safety.
But that has done little to calm the furious response from the public and the media.
Anger has been compounded by allegations that authorities tried to cover up evidence by burying the wreckage, although officials said this was to help rescuers access the crash site.
Thousands of people have posted on China's hugely popular micro-blogs, demanding to know why the driver of the second train, who was killed in the accident, was not told to stop in time.
China has ploughed huge sums of money into its high-speed rail network, which covered 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles) by the end of 2010 and is expected to exceed 13,000 kilometres by 2012 and 16,000 kilometres by 2020.
A new $33 billion high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai opened to passengers amid much fanfare on June 30 -- a year ahead of schedule -- but has suffered power cuts and delays.
The high cost of the network has sparked fears over corruption, and China's state auditor has said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan ($29 million) from the Beijing-Shanghai project.
The revelation followed the sacking of former railway minister Liu Zhijun in February, who allegedly took more than 800 million yuan in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to China's high-speed network.
Shortly after his sacking, the railway ministry said trains would run between 250 and 300 kilometres per hour on the new Beijing-Shanghai link, which is designed for a maximum speed of 380 kph, for safety reasons.
Indian Couple Challenges British Immigration Law
LONDON: An Indian woman who lives in Britain and wants her husband to join her there cannot do so because a new immigration law requires him to speak English. The couple have now challenged the law in court.
British citizen Rashida Chapti, 54, applied for her husband Vali Chapti, 57, to join her in Britain.
The couple have been married for 37 years and have six children together. Vali Chapti is an Indian national and does not speak, read or write English.
They have now challenged the rule at a court in Birmingham. They said the law "contravenes their rights to a family life, their right to marry and constitutes discrimination", according to the Daily Mail.
Rashida Chapti has been travelling between India and Leicester for 15 years.
The rule came into force in November 2010. It says English language is a primary requirement for migrants applying to come or stay in Britain as a spouse.
Manjit Gill, representing the couple, told the Birmingham court the requirement was a breach of their human rights.
He said it contravenes several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights - including the right to family life, the right to marry, and to be free of discrimination.
British citizen Rashida Chapti, 54, applied for her husband Vali Chapti, 57, to join her in Britain.
The couple have been married for 37 years and have six children together. Vali Chapti is an Indian national and does not speak, read or write English.
They have now challenged the rule at a court in Birmingham. They said the law "contravenes their rights to a family life, their right to marry and constitutes discrimination", according to the Daily Mail.
Rashida Chapti has been travelling between India and Leicester for 15 years.
The rule came into force in November 2010. It says English language is a primary requirement for migrants applying to come or stay in Britain as a spouse.
Manjit Gill, representing the couple, told the Birmingham court the requirement was a breach of their human rights.
He said it contravenes several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights - including the right to family life, the right to marry, and to be free of discrimination.
Maruti's Manesar Plant Workers Go On Strike Again
NEW DELHI: Just over a month after they called off a 13-day-long stir that resulted in a loss of about Rs 630 crore, workers at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant went on strike again this afternoon.
The workers resorted to a strike when five of them were suspended for "allegedly assaulting a supervisor" yesterday.
When contacted, a company spokesperson said: "One of the supervisors was assaulted by workers yesterday and when disciplinary action was being taken by way of suspension today, they have struck works at the plant. The number of workers on strike are much less this time."
It is understood that the five suspended workers had been issued a showcause notice by the management.
The workers, however, insisted it is not a full-scale strike.
"We observed a one-hour tool-down strike protesting against forcible eviction of four colleagues by police," a worker at the plant said.
Out of them, three are office bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU), including General Secretary Shiv Kumar, he added.
A production loss of about 50 units was suffered on account of the one-hour tool-down strike, a worker said.
Earlier, on June 4, workers at the plant had gone on a 13-day-long strike demanding the recognition of a new union, the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU).
The workers resorted to a strike when five of them were suspended for "allegedly assaulting a supervisor" yesterday.
When contacted, a company spokesperson said: "One of the supervisors was assaulted by workers yesterday and when disciplinary action was being taken by way of suspension today, they have struck works at the plant. The number of workers on strike are much less this time."
It is understood that the five suspended workers had been issued a showcause notice by the management.
The workers, however, insisted it is not a full-scale strike.
"We observed a one-hour tool-down strike protesting against forcible eviction of four colleagues by police," a worker at the plant said.
Out of them, three are office bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU), including General Secretary Shiv Kumar, he added.
A production loss of about 50 units was suffered on account of the one-hour tool-down strike, a worker said.
Earlier, on June 4, workers at the plant had gone on a 13-day-long strike demanding the recognition of a new union, the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU).
Toronto Girl Is Miss India-Canada, Lisa Ray Honoured
TORONTO: Nineteen-year-old Akhina Mooken has been crowned as Miss India-Canada 2011.
The Toronto-area girl defeated 15 contenders from across Canada to win the crown at the 21st annual Miss India-Canada Pageant here.
Actress Lisa Ray, who was the guest of honour at this year's event, was presented with the Special Achievement Award for her contribution to cinema. Toronto-born Ray, who has just recovered from a cancer of white blood cells, thanked the organizers for the award.
One of the major cultural events of the Indo-Canadian community across Canada, the annual beauty pageant draws a huge response as it features high-voltage musical performances, songs, catwalks and quizzing of the contestants.
Many of the past winners, including Kamal Sidhu, Ruby Bhatia and Gita Bali , went on to make a name for themselves in Bollywood, music and television.
During more than four hours which involves cocktails, dinner, dances and music, contestants were first put through three segments of the pageant - Indian Dress, Evening Gown, and Talent.
They were then shortlisted to five. After intervals of music and dance, the five finalists were put though the final question-and-answer session.
Nineteen-year-old Akhina Mooken, who was finally crowned Miss India-Canada, will have a free trip to India, apart from various awards.
Bestowing the crown on her, event organizer Sanjay Agnihotri said Mooken will work with with various social organizations in Canada and India.
Started by the late Punjabi businessman Kush Agnihotri, the Miss India-Canada pageant is the biggest and oldest Indian beauty show in North America.
The Toronto-area girl defeated 15 contenders from across Canada to win the crown at the 21st annual Miss India-Canada Pageant here.
Actress Lisa Ray, who was the guest of honour at this year's event, was presented with the Special Achievement Award for her contribution to cinema. Toronto-born Ray, who has just recovered from a cancer of white blood cells, thanked the organizers for the award.
One of the major cultural events of the Indo-Canadian community across Canada, the annual beauty pageant draws a huge response as it features high-voltage musical performances, songs, catwalks and quizzing of the contestants.
Many of the past winners, including Kamal Sidhu, Ruby Bhatia and Gita Bali , went on to make a name for themselves in Bollywood, music and television.
During more than four hours which involves cocktails, dinner, dances and music, contestants were first put through three segments of the pageant - Indian Dress, Evening Gown, and Talent.
They were then shortlisted to five. After intervals of music and dance, the five finalists were put though the final question-and-answer session.
Nineteen-year-old Akhina Mooken, who was finally crowned Miss India-Canada, will have a free trip to India, apart from various awards.
Bestowing the crown on her, event organizer Sanjay Agnihotri said Mooken will work with with various social organizations in Canada and India.
Started by the late Punjabi businessman Kush Agnihotri, the Miss India-Canada pageant is the biggest and oldest Indian beauty show in North America.
Implications Of RBI Move Positive For Markets Over Long Term: Nilesh Shah, Envision Capital
ET Now: How have you been reading into the RBI's move because market clearly has not digested it too well. What according to you could be the implications both in the short as well as the long term?
Nilesh Shah : Well, the RBI's move is structurally very positive. The implications of this in the long run will be very very good. However, in the short term it will open up several challenges for the Indian consumer as well as corporate India. Basically the intention of an aggressive rate hike is to slow down demand. And we clearly believe that this will have implications in terms of demand, may be slowdown the line and so to that extent while companies have seen de-rating in terms of valuations and margin compression, we think that these rate hikes will have implications in terms of demand slowdown and so to that extent you could basically see a muted earnings growth for this fiscal.
ET Now: What has been your portfolio strategy of late, are you buying defensives or are you now thinking out of the box and you are revisiting infra/real estate and machinery space?
Nilesh Shah : Well, it is a simultaneous strategy. We continue to look out for growth-oriented businesses. We will continue to kind of explore opportunities which would be disproportionate beneficiaries of the India growth story. Clearly, financials and consumers and have been proven to be extremely defensive in this environment because these are the kind of companies which are demonstrating visible growth for the last few quarters, and I think that has really been an extremely good place to be in. On the other hand, the entire infrastructure pack and the engineering pack has been beaten down. We have begun a process now very closely examining companies in the space, be it companies which are either asset plays or material plays or component plays or services plays. And while we have not begun to invest in the segment in a big way, but we have basically commence starting in terms of what can be really the long term potential of these companies. And which are the companies which will turn out to be winners in the long term despite the kind of macro headwinds which they are currently facing today.
ET Now: Let us talk about the index levels. Are you convinced that perhaps 5200 to 5300 is a strong support base for the Nifty?
Nilesh Shah : In the current environment we believe that 5200 is an extremely good support base. At those kind of levels themarkets basically begun to trade at 15 times which is in line with the long term averages or below the long term averages. So barring anything catastrophic which could happen at the global level, we clearly believe that the level of 5200 should act as a good support for the market.
ET Now: Bankers are still feeling that they will be able to pass on the price hike as well as bank stocks have not really cracked much up until now what is your thought on that?
Nilesh Shah : I think that there are two or three things which we need to look at in the backdrop. First of all is that banking stocks have been reasonable outperformers, most of the private sector bank. And particularly in the last leg, a lot of private sector banks did rally significantly from the lows which they had in February, March. I clearly believe that the success of rate hikes have been an important trigger for price corrections, but purely from a fundamental point of view we are beginning to see slippages in NIMs for the banks. Clearly a lot of the private sector banks have seen slippages of anywhere between 25 to 50 bps reduction in their NIMs over the last one to two quarters. And we think that there could be further slippages over the next two quarters. Second is that there would definitely be stress in terms of the asset quality. I think clearly what we are basically going to see is margin compression happen for banks. In terms of demand for credit clearly the Reserve Bank of India itself has basically tone down or brought down its estimate for credit growth for the current financial year. To that extent we are clearly going to see that while banks have a pricing power, but what they do not have control over is basically the demand for credit. I think that is going to be a challenge for banks in the current financial year.
Nilesh Shah : Well, the RBI's move is structurally very positive. The implications of this in the long run will be very very good. However, in the short term it will open up several challenges for the Indian consumer as well as corporate India. Basically the intention of an aggressive rate hike is to slow down demand. And we clearly believe that this will have implications in terms of demand, may be slowdown the line and so to that extent while companies have seen de-rating in terms of valuations and margin compression, we think that these rate hikes will have implications in terms of demand slowdown and so to that extent you could basically see a muted earnings growth for this fiscal.
ET Now: What has been your portfolio strategy of late, are you buying defensives or are you now thinking out of the box and you are revisiting infra/real estate and machinery space?
Nilesh Shah : Well, it is a simultaneous strategy. We continue to look out for growth-oriented businesses. We will continue to kind of explore opportunities which would be disproportionate beneficiaries of the India growth story. Clearly, financials and consumers and have been proven to be extremely defensive in this environment because these are the kind of companies which are demonstrating visible growth for the last few quarters, and I think that has really been an extremely good place to be in. On the other hand, the entire infrastructure pack and the engineering pack has been beaten down. We have begun a process now very closely examining companies in the space, be it companies which are either asset plays or material plays or component plays or services plays. And while we have not begun to invest in the segment in a big way, but we have basically commence starting in terms of what can be really the long term potential of these companies. And which are the companies which will turn out to be winners in the long term despite the kind of macro headwinds which they are currently facing today.
ET Now: Let us talk about the index levels. Are you convinced that perhaps 5200 to 5300 is a strong support base for the Nifty?
Nilesh Shah : In the current environment we believe that 5200 is an extremely good support base. At those kind of levels themarkets basically begun to trade at 15 times which is in line with the long term averages or below the long term averages. So barring anything catastrophic which could happen at the global level, we clearly believe that the level of 5200 should act as a good support for the market.
ET Now: Bankers are still feeling that they will be able to pass on the price hike as well as bank stocks have not really cracked much up until now what is your thought on that?
Nilesh Shah : I think that there are two or three things which we need to look at in the backdrop. First of all is that banking stocks have been reasonable outperformers, most of the private sector bank. And particularly in the last leg, a lot of private sector banks did rally significantly from the lows which they had in February, March. I clearly believe that the success of rate hikes have been an important trigger for price corrections, but purely from a fundamental point of view we are beginning to see slippages in NIMs for the banks. Clearly a lot of the private sector banks have seen slippages of anywhere between 25 to 50 bps reduction in their NIMs over the last one to two quarters. And we think that there could be further slippages over the next two quarters. Second is that there would definitely be stress in terms of the asset quality. I think clearly what we are basically going to see is margin compression happen for banks. In terms of demand for credit clearly the Reserve Bank of India itself has basically tone down or brought down its estimate for credit growth for the current financial year. To that extent we are clearly going to see that while banks have a pricing power, but what they do not have control over is basically the demand for credit. I think that is going to be a challenge for banks in the current financial year.
BBC Reporter Killed In Afghan Suicide Strikes
KANDAHAR: Triple suicide blasts and shootings killed 19 people including a local BBC reporter in an ongoing attack Thursday that was the deadliest to hit Afghanistan in more than a month.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated assault in Uruzgan province, that began with suicide bombings on official buildings in the local capital Trinkot and the base of a militia commander who provides security to NATO convoys heading towards the country's besieged south.
The latest unrest comes at a critical juncture in the nearly 10-year war on Taliban-led insurgents, as thousands of US surge troops prepare to go home and other Western nations announce limited withdrawals of soldiers.
All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and last week a first tranche of handovers from NATO to Afghan forces took place in seven parts of the country.
"The fighting is still continuing, 19 people have been killed so far," said provincial governor spokesman Milad Modaser, warning that the toll may rise.
Provincial health director Khan Agha Miakhail said 37 people had been wounded and that there were children among the dead.
The BBC said that one of its Afghan reporters, Omid Khpalwak, was among those killed, apparently while he was inside radio and television offices next to the militia commander's compound.
Khpalwak also worked for Afghan news agency Pajhwok and its regional editor Javid Hamim Kakar confirmed his death.
"His brother confirmed that he died and his body is in the Uruzgan central hospital," said Kakar.
The deadly attacks began at noon with one explosion just outside the gates of the deputy governor's office, which is next to the main hospital for Trinkot.
"There were two blasts at the deputy governor's office. One was detonated by a suicide bomber and the other was caused by an ANA (Afghan army) soldier shooting another suicide attacker," said army spokesman Hekmatullah Kuchi.
"The second suicide blast took place at Matiullah Khan's base, who is not wounded," said Kuchi, referring to a well-known militia commander in the area whose duties include protecting NATO convoys along the highway that runs from Uruzgan to Kandahar city further south.
Public health ministry spokesman Kargar Noorughli said that a policeman and a child had been among those killed in the suicide blast at the deputy governor's office.
An eyewitness who asked not to be named told that five explosions were heard in the area.
"I saw two myself from our roof. One near Matiullah's (place) and the other by the government compound. There was shooting in the streets," she said.
The militia commander's base and the deputy governor's offices are about one kilometre (less than one mile) apart, said Kuchi. Earlier reports said the police chief's office had been targeted.
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it had sent reinforcements to the scene, including helicopters, to assist in quelling the assault.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the attackers were from the insurgent group, but denied killing the reporter, saying the police were responsible for his death.
"Seven of our volunteers have attacked the deputy governor's office and Matiullah's base," said Ahmadi.
Matiullah Khan commands around 2,000 fighters. His uncle Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Uruzgan and a close ally of President Hamid Karzai, was killed in a gun attack on his Kabul home nearly two weeks ago, five days after the president's half-brother was shot dead in Kandahar.
Matiullah Khan told AFP that the insurgents had attacked just outside his base, launching the assault from the neighbouring television station building.
He said two of his men had been wounded.
"I'm sitting right here in my base. I'm fine and healthy," said Khan.
Khan inherited his militia from his uncle when the latter left his role as governor after being forced out over alleged ties to the drugs trade.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated assault in Uruzgan province, that began with suicide bombings on official buildings in the local capital Trinkot and the base of a militia commander who provides security to NATO convoys heading towards the country's besieged south.
The latest unrest comes at a critical juncture in the nearly 10-year war on Taliban-led insurgents, as thousands of US surge troops prepare to go home and other Western nations announce limited withdrawals of soldiers.
All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and last week a first tranche of handovers from NATO to Afghan forces took place in seven parts of the country.
"The fighting is still continuing, 19 people have been killed so far," said provincial governor spokesman Milad Modaser, warning that the toll may rise.
Provincial health director Khan Agha Miakhail said 37 people had been wounded and that there were children among the dead.
The BBC said that one of its Afghan reporters, Omid Khpalwak, was among those killed, apparently while he was inside radio and television offices next to the militia commander's compound.
Khpalwak also worked for Afghan news agency Pajhwok and its regional editor Javid Hamim Kakar confirmed his death.
"His brother confirmed that he died and his body is in the Uruzgan central hospital," said Kakar.
The deadly attacks began at noon with one explosion just outside the gates of the deputy governor's office, which is next to the main hospital for Trinkot.
"There were two blasts at the deputy governor's office. One was detonated by a suicide bomber and the other was caused by an ANA (Afghan army) soldier shooting another suicide attacker," said army spokesman Hekmatullah Kuchi.
"The second suicide blast took place at Matiullah Khan's base, who is not wounded," said Kuchi, referring to a well-known militia commander in the area whose duties include protecting NATO convoys along the highway that runs from Uruzgan to Kandahar city further south.
Public health ministry spokesman Kargar Noorughli said that a policeman and a child had been among those killed in the suicide blast at the deputy governor's office.
An eyewitness who asked not to be named told that five explosions were heard in the area.
"I saw two myself from our roof. One near Matiullah's (place) and the other by the government compound. There was shooting in the streets," she said.
The militia commander's base and the deputy governor's offices are about one kilometre (less than one mile) apart, said Kuchi. Earlier reports said the police chief's office had been targeted.
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it had sent reinforcements to the scene, including helicopters, to assist in quelling the assault.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the attackers were from the insurgent group, but denied killing the reporter, saying the police were responsible for his death.
"Seven of our volunteers have attacked the deputy governor's office and Matiullah's base," said Ahmadi.
Matiullah Khan commands around 2,000 fighters. His uncle Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Uruzgan and a close ally of President Hamid Karzai, was killed in a gun attack on his Kabul home nearly two weeks ago, five days after the president's half-brother was shot dead in Kandahar.
Matiullah Khan told AFP that the insurgents had attacked just outside his base, launching the assault from the neighbouring television station building.
He said two of his men had been wounded.
"I'm sitting right here in my base. I'm fine and healthy," said Khan.
Khan inherited his militia from his uncle when the latter left his role as governor after being forced out over alleged ties to the drugs trade.
I'm Perfectly OK, Says Kalmadi
NEW DELHI: Dismissing reports that he was suffering from dementia, former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi Thursday underwent a brain scan at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and said that he was "perfectly all right".
"I am perfectly all right, all that you reading outside is wrong... I've come for my routine check-up," Kalmadi, who has been lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with corruption in the preparation for the Games, told a news channel.
"I'll be answering all questions at the right time," he added.
Kalmadi, 67, had complained of dizziness, depression and anxiety. He was taken to the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital July 19 where he underwent an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan.
"I am perfectly all right, all that you reading outside is wrong... I've come for my routine check-up," Kalmadi, who has been lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with corruption in the preparation for the Games, told a news channel.
"I'll be answering all questions at the right time," he added.
Kalmadi, 67, had complained of dizziness, depression and anxiety. He was taken to the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital July 19 where he underwent an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan.
We Have The Potential To Bounce Back: Laxman
NOTTINGHAM: India's middle-order batsman VVS Laxman insists the world No.1 Test side will bounce back in the four-match Test series against England.
As India head into the second Test starting on Friday at Trent Bridge, Laxman said India, who are known as slow starters, have always done well despite losing the first Test in the past series.
"We have the potential to bounce back and we have done that in the past," Laxman was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. "We lost badly against South Africa in Centurion but came back strongly to draw the Test series for the first time on South African soil," he said.
India suffered a humiliating innings and 25 runs defeat in the first Test at the Centurion but came strongly back to win the second Test in Durban by 87 runs while the third and the final Test in Cape Town ended in a draw.
Laxman hoped that India would put up a good show at Trent Bridge, where they won the second Test match in 2007 to win the 2007 series.
The stylish Hyderabadi batsman does not want to think too much about England bowlers, who played a crucial role in the team's 196-run win over India in the Lord's Test.
"I would not put much importance on the way English bowlers bowled. They just bowled at good areas, they got their wickets and rewards. It was not an exceptional bowling attack where they ran through our batting. Had they got us within 150 in both the innings, then I would have accepted that they ran through our batting attack," he said.
Laxman insists that England benefited from injuries to key Indian players, especially pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who could bowl just 13.3 overs in the match after pulling up his hamstring in the first session on the opening day.
"The difference was the 150-120 runs extra that we gave to England and it was due to the absence of Zaheer Khan. If we had a third regular seamer or someone like Zaheer, who would have run through their batting, the results would have been different."
"We had them at 65 for five and if we had one more fresh bowler, we would have probably bowled them out and then we had to chase something around 260-280 which we would have done easily," said Laxman, whose majestic 281 in the second Test against Steve Waugh's Australia at Eden Gardens in the 2001 is now a folklore in Indian cricket.
India won the match following-on and a Daily Telegraph panel comprising Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Vaughan and Waugh chose the match as the best Test match of all time.
Recalling the match, Laxman said: "To be very honest, when we went into third day's afternoon, when Steve put us in following on, the opening partnership between (Sadagopan) Ramesh and (Shiv Sundar) Das laid the foundation for us."
"And when I walked in on third day evening, I never thought about a turnaround in the Test match. We went out with mind-set to play each ball to its merit and prolong the game as long as possible."
Laxman said he was disappointed missing out on a triple century, but he would cherish the dismissal of Glenn McGrath the last wicket to fall.
"I was disappointed at not getting 300 but saying that McGrath's lbw moment is something we all cherish in our career," he said.
As India head into the second Test starting on Friday at Trent Bridge, Laxman said India, who are known as slow starters, have always done well despite losing the first Test in the past series.
"We have the potential to bounce back and we have done that in the past," Laxman was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. "We lost badly against South Africa in Centurion but came back strongly to draw the Test series for the first time on South African soil," he said.
India suffered a humiliating innings and 25 runs defeat in the first Test at the Centurion but came strongly back to win the second Test in Durban by 87 runs while the third and the final Test in Cape Town ended in a draw.
Laxman hoped that India would put up a good show at Trent Bridge, where they won the second Test match in 2007 to win the 2007 series.
The stylish Hyderabadi batsman does not want to think too much about England bowlers, who played a crucial role in the team's 196-run win over India in the Lord's Test.
"I would not put much importance on the way English bowlers bowled. They just bowled at good areas, they got their wickets and rewards. It was not an exceptional bowling attack where they ran through our batting. Had they got us within 150 in both the innings, then I would have accepted that they ran through our batting attack," he said.
Laxman insists that England benefited from injuries to key Indian players, especially pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who could bowl just 13.3 overs in the match after pulling up his hamstring in the first session on the opening day.
"The difference was the 150-120 runs extra that we gave to England and it was due to the absence of Zaheer Khan. If we had a third regular seamer or someone like Zaheer, who would have run through their batting, the results would have been different."
"We had them at 65 for five and if we had one more fresh bowler, we would have probably bowled them out and then we had to chase something around 260-280 which we would have done easily," said Laxman, whose majestic 281 in the second Test against Steve Waugh's Australia at Eden Gardens in the 2001 is now a folklore in Indian cricket.
India won the match following-on and a Daily Telegraph panel comprising Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Vaughan and Waugh chose the match as the best Test match of all time.
Recalling the match, Laxman said: "To be very honest, when we went into third day's afternoon, when Steve put us in following on, the opening partnership between (Sadagopan) Ramesh and (Shiv Sundar) Das laid the foundation for us."
"And when I walked in on third day evening, I never thought about a turnaround in the Test match. We went out with mind-set to play each ball to its merit and prolong the game as long as possible."
Laxman said he was disappointed missing out on a triple century, but he would cherish the dismissal of Glenn McGrath the last wicket to fall.
"I was disappointed at not getting 300 but saying that McGrath's lbw moment is something we all cherish in our career," he said.
Injured Zaheer Out Of Second Test Against England
NOTTINGHAM: India fast bowler Zaheer Khan has been ruled out of the second Test against England at Trent Bridge with a hamstring injury, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Thursday.
Left-arm quick Zaheer broke down in the first Test at Lord's, which India lost by 196 runs, after taking two wickets for 18 runs in 13.3 first innings overs and didn't bowl again in the match.
The 32-year-old was instrumental in India's seven-wicket win in the corresponding Trent Bridge Test against England four years ago, taking nine wickets for 134 runs in the match.
Now his place is set to go to either fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth or seamer Munaf Patel.
"I think he is ruled out of this game," Dhoni speaking to reporters at Trent Bridge on Thursday, the day before the second Test starts, said of Zaheer.
"It's always good to have him in the side because he is our most experienced bowler, especially when it comes to England, he has played a lot of cricket over here for counties and the last time India were here (in 2007) he bowled really well.
"It's a bit disappointing not to have him for selection in the first XI but it is something that is beyond our control and it gives a chance to the other bowlers to prove their mettle when it comes to international cricket."
Dhoni added: "Overall it's a win-win situation for the Indian team because we can't really sit and say Zaheer is not there. We have to look at the positive, which is some of the other bowlers will get to have a look at international cricket."
Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni, who refused to divulge the identity of Zaheer's replacement at Trent Bridge, said he hoped India's spearhead would be fit in time for the third Test of this four-match series, starting at Edgbaston on August 10.
"We are expecting that. He started light training yesterday (Wednesday) but again it is something we can't 100 percent be sure about but most likely it seems he will."
India also have a doubt over opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who suffered an elbow injury when hit fielding at short leg at Lord's.
"We'll give him some time, and see how he goes through the net sessions today (Thursday)," Dhoni said of Gambhir.
"He's the only person who can judge the right amount of pain he can go through and still be able to perform."
Dhoni, asked if Gambhir was doubtful for the second Test, replied: "As of now, yes."
If he were ruled out Rahul Dravid, as happened in the second innings at Lord's, would be promoted to open the innings with Yuvraj Singh in line to take Gambhir's place in the team.
Left-arm quick Zaheer broke down in the first Test at Lord's, which India lost by 196 runs, after taking two wickets for 18 runs in 13.3 first innings overs and didn't bowl again in the match.
The 32-year-old was instrumental in India's seven-wicket win in the corresponding Trent Bridge Test against England four years ago, taking nine wickets for 134 runs in the match.
Now his place is set to go to either fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth or seamer Munaf Patel.
"I think he is ruled out of this game," Dhoni speaking to reporters at Trent Bridge on Thursday, the day before the second Test starts, said of Zaheer.
"It's always good to have him in the side because he is our most experienced bowler, especially when it comes to England, he has played a lot of cricket over here for counties and the last time India were here (in 2007) he bowled really well.
"It's a bit disappointing not to have him for selection in the first XI but it is something that is beyond our control and it gives a chance to the other bowlers to prove their mettle when it comes to international cricket."
Dhoni added: "Overall it's a win-win situation for the Indian team because we can't really sit and say Zaheer is not there. We have to look at the positive, which is some of the other bowlers will get to have a look at international cricket."
Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni, who refused to divulge the identity of Zaheer's replacement at Trent Bridge, said he hoped India's spearhead would be fit in time for the third Test of this four-match series, starting at Edgbaston on August 10.
"We are expecting that. He started light training yesterday (Wednesday) but again it is something we can't 100 percent be sure about but most likely it seems he will."
India also have a doubt over opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who suffered an elbow injury when hit fielding at short leg at Lord's.
"We'll give him some time, and see how he goes through the net sessions today (Thursday)," Dhoni said of Gambhir.
"He's the only person who can judge the right amount of pain he can go through and still be able to perform."
Dhoni, asked if Gambhir was doubtful for the second Test, replied: "As of now, yes."
If he were ruled out Rahul Dravid, as happened in the second innings at Lord's, would be promoted to open the innings with Yuvraj Singh in line to take Gambhir's place in the team.
Cabinet Approves Draft Of Lokpal Bill; PM, judiciary Kept Out
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the draft of the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill that is to be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming monsoon session.
The Prime Minister and the judiciary have been excluded from the ambit of the Lokpal Bill.
According to this draft, the body will have a chairperson and eight members, including four judicial members.
Information minister Ambika Soni said the chairperson would be a serving or retired Supreme Court judge. She said the Cabinet had approved the draft with minor changes.
Civil society members have expressed their unhappiness with the draft. Kiran Bedi said, the current government draft was fractured and unhealthy. She said the bill was not in favour of the common man.
The decision to review the Lokpal Bill comes as social activist Anna Hazare continues to pitch for a stronger version of the law to be presented for consideration of Parliament, contending that the official version falls "far short" of people's expectations.
"Congress claims 'Congress ka haath, aam admi ke saath (Congress hand is with common man). We sincerely hope that aam admi's corruption will also be addressed through Lokpal Bill," the Times Now television channel quoted Hazare, as saying on Wednesday.
He said that the government is being given a rare opportunity to change the history of India and the nation would be indebted to it if they present a strong Lokpal Bill.
He reiterated that the current Lokpal Bill "falls far short" of the expectations of the people, and added that it was "too weak and ineffective and had a very narrow jurisdiction."
Arvind Kejriwal, another activist opposed to the current Lokpal Bill, said there was "nothing for a common man and added that the issue of corruption has been completely left out of it.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said: "The government claims that it first wants to tackle high-level corruption."
However, none of the large scams of recent times like the Adarsh Housing scam, the Commonwealth Games scam, the Reddy brothers scam, mining scam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scam, Cash for vote scam, fodder scam, Taj corridor scam none of these scams are covered by government's Lokpal. So, what is covered under Government's Lokpal?"
Kejriwal argued if the government presents a Bill with faulty structures, then even the Standing Committee will not be able to do much.
"Parliament and the Standing Committee have their limitations. The Standing Committee may negate a law or it may suggest some amendments, but the standing committee does not have the jurisdiction to rewrite a law. It cannot completely replace a law. It cannot change the basic structure of a law," said Kejriwal.
The Prime Minister and the judiciary have been excluded from the ambit of the Lokpal Bill.
According to this draft, the body will have a chairperson and eight members, including four judicial members.
Information minister Ambika Soni said the chairperson would be a serving or retired Supreme Court judge. She said the Cabinet had approved the draft with minor changes.
Civil society members have expressed their unhappiness with the draft. Kiran Bedi said, the current government draft was fractured and unhealthy. She said the bill was not in favour of the common man.
The decision to review the Lokpal Bill comes as social activist Anna Hazare continues to pitch for a stronger version of the law to be presented for consideration of Parliament, contending that the official version falls "far short" of people's expectations.
"Congress claims 'Congress ka haath, aam admi ke saath (Congress hand is with common man). We sincerely hope that aam admi's corruption will also be addressed through Lokpal Bill," the Times Now television channel quoted Hazare, as saying on Wednesday.
He said that the government is being given a rare opportunity to change the history of India and the nation would be indebted to it if they present a strong Lokpal Bill.
He reiterated that the current Lokpal Bill "falls far short" of the expectations of the people, and added that it was "too weak and ineffective and had a very narrow jurisdiction."
Arvind Kejriwal, another activist opposed to the current Lokpal Bill, said there was "nothing for a common man and added that the issue of corruption has been completely left out of it.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said: "The government claims that it first wants to tackle high-level corruption."
However, none of the large scams of recent times like the Adarsh Housing scam, the Commonwealth Games scam, the Reddy brothers scam, mining scam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scam, Cash for vote scam, fodder scam, Taj corridor scam none of these scams are covered by government's Lokpal. So, what is covered under Government's Lokpal?"
Kejriwal argued if the government presents a Bill with faulty structures, then even the Standing Committee will not be able to do much.
"Parliament and the Standing Committee have their limitations. The Standing Committee may negate a law or it may suggest some amendments, but the standing committee does not have the jurisdiction to rewrite a law. It cannot completely replace a law. It cannot change the basic structure of a law," said Kejriwal.
Karnataka CM Yeddyurappa Sends Resignation To BJP Chief
BANGALORE: Tainted Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa tendered his resignation on Thursday, following his indictment by the Lokayukta over illegal mining in the state.
The chief minister, however, has sent his resignation letter to the BJP national president Nitin Gadkari instead of the governor. According to sources close to him, Yeddyurappa would officially resign on July 31.
A strong believer of astrology, Yeddyurappa has been advised by a known astrologer to resign on July 31 as it could "bring him bright chances to return to power some time later."
Earlier, briefing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that the party decided that it was time for a change in the Karnataka BJP leadership. He also said that Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will go to Bangalore on Friday to choose an alternative leader.
The BJP top leadership LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu who met in New Delhi rushed its troubleshooter and party's general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan to convince Yeddyurappa to step down gracefully.
His intervention succeeded, however, the chief minister
is expected to put forth his demands before the party observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh when they arrive here on Friday.
Though the news of CM's resignation spread like wild fire, excise minister M P Renukacharya, a close aide of Yeddyurappa, maintained that the CM had not resigned and would not do so. Since he returned from Delhi this morning, Yeddyurappa was busy meeting his close associates and garnering support. He had also announced he would go ahead with scheduled plans of his cabinet meeting.
Therefore, submitting his resignation to Gadkari is seen as his ploy to buy some more time before tendering it to the governor.
The party still has not finalized an alternative name to succeed Yeddyurappa. State BJP president KS Eshwarappa, rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) minister Jagadish Shettar and party's national general secretary Ananth Kumar are the front-runners for the post. Former president D V Sadananada Gowda, Yeddyurappa's favourite, is seen as a dark horse.
The chief minister, however, has sent his resignation letter to the BJP national president Nitin Gadkari instead of the governor. According to sources close to him, Yeddyurappa would officially resign on July 31.
A strong believer of astrology, Yeddyurappa has been advised by a known astrologer to resign on July 31 as it could "bring him bright chances to return to power some time later."
Earlier, briefing mediapersons, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said that the party decided that it was time for a change in the Karnataka BJP leadership. He also said that Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will go to Bangalore on Friday to choose an alternative leader.
The BJP top leadership LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu who met in New Delhi rushed its troubleshooter and party's general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan to convince Yeddyurappa to step down gracefully.
His intervention succeeded, however, the chief minister
is expected to put forth his demands before the party observers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh when they arrive here on Friday.
Though the news of CM's resignation spread like wild fire, excise minister M P Renukacharya, a close aide of Yeddyurappa, maintained that the CM had not resigned and would not do so. Since he returned from Delhi this morning, Yeddyurappa was busy meeting his close associates and garnering support. He had also announced he would go ahead with scheduled plans of his cabinet meeting.
Therefore, submitting his resignation to Gadkari is seen as his ploy to buy some more time before tendering it to the governor.
The party still has not finalized an alternative name to succeed Yeddyurappa. State BJP president KS Eshwarappa, rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) minister Jagadish Shettar and party's national general secretary Ananth Kumar are the front-runners for the post. Former president D V Sadananada Gowda, Yeddyurappa's favourite, is seen as a dark horse.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Broad Breaks A Million Hearts, Snatches Away Tendulkar's 100
It didn't come by today and batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar walked back without scoring his 100th international century. Photos
For many cricket crazy fans Stuart Broad would be the bowler they would love to hate.
Broad broke a million hearts when he sent Sachin Tendulkar back on the second day of the historic Lord's Test in London on Saturday.
His fans waited with bated breath even as a nick from his bat off Broad's ball took a short aerial route and Graeme Swann cupped his palm low and close to the grass.
They waited and wanted the ball to slip off his cup, but did not and landed perfectly in his open hands which clasped the ball at ease.
Soon the Master Blaster was seen walking off the hallowed greens of Lord's back to the majestic pavilion which has seen many a great cricketing stalwarts take refuge.
The crowds heaved a sigh and Sachin, who could only manage to score 34 on the day, will have to wait for another time, another day, another moment for his perfect 100.
For many cricket crazy fans Stuart Broad would be the bowler they would love to hate.
Broad broke a million hearts when he sent Sachin Tendulkar back on the second day of the historic Lord's Test in London on Saturday.
His fans waited with bated breath even as a nick from his bat off Broad's ball took a short aerial route and Graeme Swann cupped his palm low and close to the grass.
They waited and wanted the ball to slip off his cup, but did not and landed perfectly in his open hands which clasped the ball at ease.
Soon the Master Blaster was seen walking off the hallowed greens of Lord's back to the majestic pavilion which has seen many a great cricketing stalwarts take refuge.
The crowds heaved a sigh and Sachin, who could only manage to score 34 on the day, will have to wait for another time, another day, another moment for his perfect 100.
Ind vs Eng: Centurion Dravid Saves The Day For India
Sachin Tendulkar may have disappointed by not scoring his 100th ton, but Rahul Dravid did not. Score | Photos
The Wall stood tall scoring his 33rd Test, also his first at Lord's, to help India put on 286 in reply to England's first innings total of 474/8 declared, during the third day of the first Test at Lord's in London on Saturday.
In the process Dravid saved India from following on. But England still enjoyed the edge as their openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook came down to bat and put on five runs. At stumps on Day 3 England were leading by 193 runs with 10 wickets in hand.
However, all eyes were on Sachin Tendulkar, who came out into the hallowed greens of Lord's, looked skywards and then gradually and steadily his numbers on the scoreboard started increasing, but Stuart Broad had other plans. He dismissed the Master Blaster on 34 putting an end to his hopes of a 100th ton.
This was after Stuart Broad scalped openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund with his swingers in the first session.
An overnight score of 17/0 was as good as a speck of dust in front of Kevin Pietersen's double ton propelled 474. And India openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund had their task cut out - to stay in the middle for as long as possible.
But that didn't happen as Gambhir ended up losing his wicket cheaply. A swinging ball from Stuart Board crashed into his off stump and the southpaw was walking back on 15 when the team total was 63.
Mukund, on the other hand, seemed to be playing well against the England bolwers. He was effectively countering James Anderson and Stuart Broad's swing and Chris Tremlett's rising balls. Keeping the bat as straight as possible is key against such bowlers and that's what he was doing.
Later Mukund was joined by another batsman, who enjoys keeping the bat straight, it was Rahul Dravid. But their partnership too didn't last long as once again it was Broad who broke their stand.
And the delivery too was a similar to the one that took away Gambhir's wicket. The ball kept low and came in swinging to crash into Mukund's wicket when he was just one run away from his half-century. India lost their second wicket on 77.
Then the moment arrived that that every cricket aficionado was waiting for. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar stepped in and took guard, even as the world waited for him to complete his 100th international century.
Tendulkar was batting 10 and Dravid on 15 and India score was 102/2 when lunch was called in.
In the second session Tendulkar could be seen batting seamlessly even the England pacers were trying options for the Master Blaster. But his innings came to an abrupt end when he edged Stuart Broad towards the second slip where Graeme Swann made no mistake and Sachin Tendulkar was walked back on 34 and India were down to 158/3.
Broad, who had taken India's top three batsmen, could have scalped VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in his next over, but skipper Andrew Strauss and later Graeme Swann dropped sitters in the slips cordon.
Soon Dravid went on to score a half-century. But no sooner had he reached there that his partner Laxman hooled out to Jonathan Trott in the deep off Chris Tremlett's ball and India were down to 182/4.
New man Suresh Raina, walked back as soon as he came in with Graeme Swann trapping him leg-before on a duck and India were down to 183/5.
At tea, India were 193/5 with Rahul Dravid and skipper MS Dhoni in the middle.
Dravid and Dhoni put on 57 runs for the sixth wicket before Tremlett stuck again to send the India skipper back and then a ball later he got rid of Turbanator Harbhajn Singh to reduce the visitors to 241/7.
Dravid scored a ton as India were bowled out for 286
The Wall stood tall scoring his 33rd Test, also his first at Lord's, to help India put on 286 in reply to England's first innings total of 474/8 declared, during the third day of the first Test at Lord's in London on Saturday.
In the process Dravid saved India from following on. But England still enjoyed the edge as their openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook came down to bat and put on five runs. At stumps on Day 3 England were leading by 193 runs with 10 wickets in hand.
However, all eyes were on Sachin Tendulkar, who came out into the hallowed greens of Lord's, looked skywards and then gradually and steadily his numbers on the scoreboard started increasing, but Stuart Broad had other plans. He dismissed the Master Blaster on 34 putting an end to his hopes of a 100th ton.
This was after Stuart Broad scalped openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund with his swingers in the first session.
An overnight score of 17/0 was as good as a speck of dust in front of Kevin Pietersen's double ton propelled 474. And India openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund had their task cut out - to stay in the middle for as long as possible.
But that didn't happen as Gambhir ended up losing his wicket cheaply. A swinging ball from Stuart Board crashed into his off stump and the southpaw was walking back on 15 when the team total was 63.
Mukund, on the other hand, seemed to be playing well against the England bolwers. He was effectively countering James Anderson and Stuart Broad's swing and Chris Tremlett's rising balls. Keeping the bat as straight as possible is key against such bowlers and that's what he was doing.
Later Mukund was joined by another batsman, who enjoys keeping the bat straight, it was Rahul Dravid. But their partnership too didn't last long as once again it was Broad who broke their stand.
And the delivery too was a similar to the one that took away Gambhir's wicket. The ball kept low and came in swinging to crash into Mukund's wicket when he was just one run away from his half-century. India lost their second wicket on 77.
Then the moment arrived that that every cricket aficionado was waiting for. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar stepped in and took guard, even as the world waited for him to complete his 100th international century.
Tendulkar was batting 10 and Dravid on 15 and India score was 102/2 when lunch was called in.
In the second session Tendulkar could be seen batting seamlessly even the England pacers were trying options for the Master Blaster. But his innings came to an abrupt end when he edged Stuart Broad towards the second slip where Graeme Swann made no mistake and Sachin Tendulkar was walked back on 34 and India were down to 158/3.
Broad, who had taken India's top three batsmen, could have scalped VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in his next over, but skipper Andrew Strauss and later Graeme Swann dropped sitters in the slips cordon.
Soon Dravid went on to score a half-century. But no sooner had he reached there that his partner Laxman hooled out to Jonathan Trott in the deep off Chris Tremlett's ball and India were down to 182/4.
New man Suresh Raina, walked back as soon as he came in with Graeme Swann trapping him leg-before on a duck and India were down to 183/5.
At tea, India were 193/5 with Rahul Dravid and skipper MS Dhoni in the middle.
Dravid and Dhoni put on 57 runs for the sixth wicket before Tremlett stuck again to send the India skipper back and then a ball later he got rid of Turbanator Harbhajn Singh to reduce the visitors to 241/7.
Dravid scored a ton as India were bowled out for 286
Rahul Dravid Scores His Maiden Lord's Ton
Rahul Dravid scored his 33rd Test hundred, which was also his maiden at Lord's on Saturday.
Coming in to bat after India opener Gautam Gambhir fell cheaply when the team total was 63, Dravid once again lived up to his nick-name "The Wall" by staying at the crease even as the rest of the batsmen including Sachin Tendulkar got out cheaply.
This century would be all the more precious for the former India skipper as once he had missed his ton at the prestigious Lord's by five runs.
The man had scored 95 on his Test debut at Lord's way back in 1996.
"This place always brings back some very special memories," Dravid told reporters at Lord's ahead of the Test.
"I always feel in some strange way at home, I feel this is a place of cricket, I feel this is a place that understands cricket. I even come here when I am not playing," added Dravid, a member of the world cricket committee of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord's.
"That first innings, meant a lot to me. I had played five years of first-class cricket. I had some good fortune to be able to play that Test match, there were a few injuries and I was lucky to get an opportunity.
"I knew it might be my only chance and I'd have to go back to India and start again -- and a lot of batsmen score first-class runs in India.
"I never expected that I'd be here 15 years later talking about it."
Dravid, recalling his debut innings in what turned out to be a drawn match, added: "I knew when I was 50 not out I had a bit more breathing space. It gave me a lot of confidence."
Coming in to bat after India opener Gautam Gambhir fell cheaply when the team total was 63, Dravid once again lived up to his nick-name "The Wall" by staying at the crease even as the rest of the batsmen including Sachin Tendulkar got out cheaply.
This century would be all the more precious for the former India skipper as once he had missed his ton at the prestigious Lord's by five runs.
The man had scored 95 on his Test debut at Lord's way back in 1996.
"This place always brings back some very special memories," Dravid told reporters at Lord's ahead of the Test.
"I always feel in some strange way at home, I feel this is a place of cricket, I feel this is a place that understands cricket. I even come here when I am not playing," added Dravid, a member of the world cricket committee of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord's.
"That first innings, meant a lot to me. I had played five years of first-class cricket. I had some good fortune to be able to play that Test match, there were a few injuries and I was lucky to get an opportunity.
"I knew it might be my only chance and I'd have to go back to India and start again -- and a lot of batsmen score first-class runs in India.
"I never expected that I'd be here 15 years later talking about it."
Dravid, recalling his debut innings in what turned out to be a drawn match, added: "I knew when I was 50 not out I had a bit more breathing space. It gave me a lot of confidence."
Lightning Derails Bullet Train In China, 35 Dead
A bullet train crashed into another high-speed train that had stalled after being struck by lightning in eastern China, causing four carriages to fall off a viaduct and killing at least 35 people and injuring 191 others, state media and an official said Sunday.
It was the first derailment on China's high-speed rail network since the country launched bullet trains in 2007 with a top speed of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour, the China Daily reported.
The first train was traveling south from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when it lost power in the lightning strike and was hit from behind by the second train in Wenzhou city at 8:27 p.m. (1230 GMT) Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The second train had left Beijing and both trains were destined for Fuzhou in eastern Fujian province.
The Ministry of Railways said in a statement that the first four carriages of the moving train and the last two carriages of the stalled train derailed.
An official in the Zhejiang provincial emergency office told The Associated Press that 35 people had died, including one foreign female. He said her nationality was not clear. A further 191 people were being treated at hospitals, said the official, who gave only his surname, Hua, as is common with Chinese officials.
Early Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for an all-out effort to rescue passengers still trapped in the wreckage hours after the collision, Xinhua said. China Central Television later said the search-and-rescue operation had ended by 4 a.m. Sunday.
A preliminary investigation by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that four coaches of the moving train fell off the viaduct, Xinhua said. The cars plunged about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from the elevated section of track, it said.
Photos taken at the scene showed one badly damaged car lying on its side by the viaduct and another car leaning against the viaduct after landing on its end.
Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying, "Rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."
The Wenzhou city government said more than 1,000 people participated in the rescue operation.
About 1,500 passengers were taken to a middle school, and more than 500 residents had given blood by 9 a.m. Sunday after appeals from the local blood bank, which said many of the injured needed transfusions, CCTV reported.
It was China's worst train accident since April 2008, when a train traveling from Beijing to the eastern coastal city of Qingdao derailed and crashed into another train, leaving 72 people dead and another 416 injured.
Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu, who rushed to the scene, ordered an in-depth investigation of Saturday's accident.
The trains involved are "D'' trains - first-generation bullet trains with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast as the new Beijing-Shanghai line.
China has spent billions of dollars and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened June 30.
Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.
The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.
No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.
It was the first derailment on China's high-speed rail network since the country launched bullet trains in 2007 with a top speed of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour, the China Daily reported.
The first train was traveling south from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when it lost power in the lightning strike and was hit from behind by the second train in Wenzhou city at 8:27 p.m. (1230 GMT) Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The second train had left Beijing and both trains were destined for Fuzhou in eastern Fujian province.
The Ministry of Railways said in a statement that the first four carriages of the moving train and the last two carriages of the stalled train derailed.
An official in the Zhejiang provincial emergency office told The Associated Press that 35 people had died, including one foreign female. He said her nationality was not clear. A further 191 people were being treated at hospitals, said the official, who gave only his surname, Hua, as is common with Chinese officials.
Early Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for an all-out effort to rescue passengers still trapped in the wreckage hours after the collision, Xinhua said. China Central Television later said the search-and-rescue operation had ended by 4 a.m. Sunday.
A preliminary investigation by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that four coaches of the moving train fell off the viaduct, Xinhua said. The cars plunged about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from the elevated section of track, it said.
Photos taken at the scene showed one badly damaged car lying on its side by the viaduct and another car leaning against the viaduct after landing on its end.
Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying, "Rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."
The Wenzhou city government said more than 1,000 people participated in the rescue operation.
About 1,500 passengers were taken to a middle school, and more than 500 residents had given blood by 9 a.m. Sunday after appeals from the local blood bank, which said many of the injured needed transfusions, CCTV reported.
It was China's worst train accident since April 2008, when a train traveling from Beijing to the eastern coastal city of Qingdao derailed and crashed into another train, leaving 72 people dead and another 416 injured.
Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu, who rushed to the scene, ordered an in-depth investigation of Saturday's accident.
The trains involved are "D'' trains - first-generation bullet trains with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast as the new Beijing-Shanghai line.
China has spent billions of dollars and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened June 30.
Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.
The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.
No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.
Empire On The Run
Place Judge O.P. Saini's trial court in Delhi's Patiala House courts. Prime accused in the 2G spectrum case A. Raja, clad in crisp white trousers and shirt, is in conversation with dmk chief M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, wearing a blue salwar kameez.
Time It is only days before Dayanidhi Maran's fall from grace, which ultimately resulted in his exit from the UPA Cabinet for the second time in seven years. A visitor known to Raja enters the courtroom, catches his eye and greets him. Raja asks a direct question: What is happening? When told that Dayanidhi is set to follow him and Kanimozhi to Tihar Jail, the former Union telecommunications minister is delighted. Raja then leans over and tells Kanimozhi in Tamil that Maran is next. Kanimozhi, serious till then, beams. Then Raja blurts out: "He has been making a fool of thatha (grandfather, a term of endearment for Karunanidhi) for so long. It's high time the law caught up with him."
A short drive from the Patiala House courts, from his corner office on the 11th floor of cbi's spanking new headquarters, Director A.P. Singh is giving shape to the final push in the ever-enlarging 2G investigation. The probe now covers all telecom irregularities between 2001 and 2007 but the focus is clearly on Dayanidhi's role in the Aircel-Maxis deal and how Loop was merely a front company for Essar.
Based on the report of the Justice Shivraj Patil one-man committee (OMC), formed in December 2010 to go into the issuance of telecom licences and allocation of spectrum between 2001 and 2009, CBI is now coming around to the view that Dayanidhi in his tenure as telecom minister between May 2004 and May 2007 caused a loss of approximately Rs 10,505 crore to the exchequer.
The OMC says a principal beneficiary of Dayanidhi's largesse was Maxis-owned Aircel, which saved about Rs 1,400 crore on account of award of licences in 14 service areas at 2001 prices and another Rs 750 crore through allotment of excess spectrum in Tamil Nadu. Former Aircel owner C. Sivasankaran's deposition to the CBI on the fire sale of his company to Maxis at Dayanidhi's behest, along with evidence provided by two Department of Telecom (DoT) officials of the time-P.K. Mittal and RJS Kushwha, senior deputy director-general and joint wireless adviser, respectively-has helped the CBI build a strong case in nailing Maran's other misdemeanors:
Twenty-five Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were granted at prices set in 2001, which according to the CAG was in violation of a 2003 Cabinet decision. They cost the government Rs 1,650 crore.
Spectrum was allotted to operators up to 10 Mhz without any policy guidelines or fees. Allotment of excess spectrum helped operators save about Rs 3,000 crore while the government lost around Rs 980 crore.
Concessions were granted to National Long Distance (NLD) operators without seeking trai input or approval from the Telecom Commission and the Cabinet.
Concessions were also granted to International Long Distance (ILD) operators without seekingTRAI, Telecom Commission and Cabinet approval. All in all, the Government lost Rs 2,865 crore due to the reduction of the entry fees for grant of NLD and ILD licenses. In addition, it lost about Rs 5,000 crore during 2004-2010 due to the reduction in licence fees.
Pursuing the Aircel-Maxis deal, CBI called in top Standard Chartered executive Prahlad Shantigram. The bank structured Maxis's acquisition of Aircel. Shantigram was asked to corroborate Sivasankaran's version that he was coerced into selling the company to Malaysian firm Maxis Communications Berhad. The CBI is also looking at the entire transaction in greater detail because it believes that FDI regulations may also have been breached. Moreover, Sindhya Securities & Investments, owned ostensibly by P. Dwarkanath, son-in-law of Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap Reddy (he's married to Suneeta Reddy, Joint MD of Apollo Hospitals), is also under scrutiny. It holds 26 per cent stake in Aircel.
RS 48 LAKH IN STAMP DUTY NOT PAID
There is more trouble in store for the Marans. India Today is in possession of documents that show that the Rs 5,000-crore Sun Group evaded stamp duty to the tune of Rs 48 lakh while purchasing land for its headquarters in 1999.
Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Group Kalanithi Maran had bought 1.65 acres belonging to the Madras Stock Exchange, in the name of Sumangali Publications, on August 23, 1999, for Rs 11.70 crore in Chennai's posh MRC Nagar. The guideline value (the base rate fixed by the Government) on that date was Rs 2,346 per sq ft. The property should therefore have been registered for Rs 16.87 crore. But it was purchased for only Rs 11.70 crore,way below the guideline value.
Also, Sumangali Publications was supposed to pay 13 per cent as stamp duty to the government in 1999, which comes to Rs 2.19 crore as per the guideline value. But it paid only Rs 1.71 crore, thus causing a revenue loss of Rs 48.26 lakh to the government. A 10-storey building called Murasoli Maran Towers housing the entire Sun Group office has been raised on the land.
- By Lakshmi Subramanian
Meanwhile in Chennai, yet another front has opened against the Marans. On July 13, the police summoned Sun Network Chairman Kalanidhi Maran, Dayanidhi's elder brother, after distributors accused him of criminal intimidation and cheating. Kalanidhi refused to appear before the police and asked for time till July 26. Between a persistent CBI and a tough Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, the Maran brothers are caught in an unrelenting pincer. A string of cases has been filed against Sun Pictures with high-profile CEO Hansraj Saxena being sent to jail.
This is not Dayanidhi's first brush with trouble. He was dumped from the Cabinet on May 17, 2007, after an internecine feud broke out over Maran-owned newspaper Dinakaran running a survey that placed Dayanidhi ahead of M.K. Alagiri, Karunanidhi's elder son, in the DMK pecking order. All hell broke loose and goons ransacked the Dinakaran office, resulting in three deaths. There was also talk that the Tatas were unhappy with Dayanidhi as telecommunications minister, a fact borne out by Niira Radia's tapped telephone conversations. In May 2009, when UPA II's Cabinet was under discussion, Raja was preferred for telecommunications over Dayanidhi who, after being a outcast for two years, made the cut for textiles by endearing himself to the party patriarch once again. The campaign against Dayanidhi helming telecom is clear from the Radia-Ratan Tata conversations. An excerpt:
Radia Our good friend Dayanidhi is in the running for a Cabinet post.
Tata Oh God.
Radia He has asked for nothing less than railways or agriculture.
Tata Because if he gets telecom, it will really be a disaster.
Radia It will be a disaster Ratan, telecom or power.
Tata Raja one can live with…because then Maran will settle scores.
Dayanidhi did not just armtwist Sivasankaran into selling his company to Maxis, he also manipulated policy by getting the prime minister to modify the terms of reference (ToR) of the GoM (see box on next page) on the issue of spectrum pricing and include within it vacation of spectrum for digital terrestrial broadcasting. Digital terrestrial broadcasting was not a part of the original tor of the GoM issued on February 23, 2006. Dayanidhi got it included in the final tor cleared by the prime minister on December 7, 2006. This benefited Sun TV's cable business under Sumangali Cable Vision, in a clear conflict of interest.
Maxis's takeover of Aircel, which Dayanidhi is accused of engineering, falls afoul of the rules of foreign direct investment in telecom, which cap FDI at 74 per cent. The T. Anand Krishnan-owned Malaysian company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, invested Rs 7,880.82 crore in Aircel.
By CAG's calculation, Maxis holds an aggregate stake of 97.5 per cent in Aircel, of which 96.7 per cent is held directly and 0.8 per cent through its holding in Deccan Digital. Sindhya Securities & Investments holds 74 per cent in Deccan Digital which, in turn, holds 35 per cent stake in Aircel. While Maxis paid Rs 7,880 crore for its 74 per cent stake, Sindhya paid a meagre Rs 34 crore for its 26 per cent.
So, how did the Marans benefit? In April 2007, just four months after Aircel was issued telecom licences, Anand Krishnan, through one of his group companies, South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd (SAEHL), a subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks Plc, announced an investment of $166 million in Sun Direct. Accordingly, SAEHL acquired 7,84,22,964 equity shares representing a 20 per cent stake for Rs 625 crore. Further, Maxis also invested Rs 100 crore in the Sun FM Radio Network. This time, the vehicle was different. Maxis used South Asia Multi-Media Technologies Ltd, which invested Rs 50.07 crore for a 20 per cent stake. Maxis also invested over Rs 46.70 crore in preference shares.
This is the worst crisis that the Marans have faced. Their dream run, from the time their father Murasoli Maran became a Central minister in 1989, may be coming to an end. It remains to be seen how the siblings bounce back.
Time It is only days before Dayanidhi Maran's fall from grace, which ultimately resulted in his exit from the UPA Cabinet for the second time in seven years. A visitor known to Raja enters the courtroom, catches his eye and greets him. Raja asks a direct question: What is happening? When told that Dayanidhi is set to follow him and Kanimozhi to Tihar Jail, the former Union telecommunications minister is delighted. Raja then leans over and tells Kanimozhi in Tamil that Maran is next. Kanimozhi, serious till then, beams. Then Raja blurts out: "He has been making a fool of thatha (grandfather, a term of endearment for Karunanidhi) for so long. It's high time the law caught up with him."
A short drive from the Patiala House courts, from his corner office on the 11th floor of cbi's spanking new headquarters, Director A.P. Singh is giving shape to the final push in the ever-enlarging 2G investigation. The probe now covers all telecom irregularities between 2001 and 2007 but the focus is clearly on Dayanidhi's role in the Aircel-Maxis deal and how Loop was merely a front company for Essar.
Based on the report of the Justice Shivraj Patil one-man committee (OMC), formed in December 2010 to go into the issuance of telecom licences and allocation of spectrum between 2001 and 2009, CBI is now coming around to the view that Dayanidhi in his tenure as telecom minister between May 2004 and May 2007 caused a loss of approximately Rs 10,505 crore to the exchequer.
The OMC says a principal beneficiary of Dayanidhi's largesse was Maxis-owned Aircel, which saved about Rs 1,400 crore on account of award of licences in 14 service areas at 2001 prices and another Rs 750 crore through allotment of excess spectrum in Tamil Nadu. Former Aircel owner C. Sivasankaran's deposition to the CBI on the fire sale of his company to Maxis at Dayanidhi's behest, along with evidence provided by two Department of Telecom (DoT) officials of the time-P.K. Mittal and RJS Kushwha, senior deputy director-general and joint wireless adviser, respectively-has helped the CBI build a strong case in nailing Maran's other misdemeanors:
Twenty-five Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were granted at prices set in 2001, which according to the CAG was in violation of a 2003 Cabinet decision. They cost the government Rs 1,650 crore.
Spectrum was allotted to operators up to 10 Mhz without any policy guidelines or fees. Allotment of excess spectrum helped operators save about Rs 3,000 crore while the government lost around Rs 980 crore.
Concessions were granted to National Long Distance (NLD) operators without seeking trai input or approval from the Telecom Commission and the Cabinet.
Concessions were also granted to International Long Distance (ILD) operators without seekingTRAI, Telecom Commission and Cabinet approval. All in all, the Government lost Rs 2,865 crore due to the reduction of the entry fees for grant of NLD and ILD licenses. In addition, it lost about Rs 5,000 crore during 2004-2010 due to the reduction in licence fees.
Pursuing the Aircel-Maxis deal, CBI called in top Standard Chartered executive Prahlad Shantigram. The bank structured Maxis's acquisition of Aircel. Shantigram was asked to corroborate Sivasankaran's version that he was coerced into selling the company to Malaysian firm Maxis Communications Berhad. The CBI is also looking at the entire transaction in greater detail because it believes that FDI regulations may also have been breached. Moreover, Sindhya Securities & Investments, owned ostensibly by P. Dwarkanath, son-in-law of Apollo Hospitals Group Chairman Prathap Reddy (he's married to Suneeta Reddy, Joint MD of Apollo Hospitals), is also under scrutiny. It holds 26 per cent stake in Aircel.
RS 48 LAKH IN STAMP DUTY NOT PAID
There is more trouble in store for the Marans. India Today is in possession of documents that show that the Rs 5,000-crore Sun Group evaded stamp duty to the tune of Rs 48 lakh while purchasing land for its headquarters in 1999.
Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Group Kalanithi Maran had bought 1.65 acres belonging to the Madras Stock Exchange, in the name of Sumangali Publications, on August 23, 1999, for Rs 11.70 crore in Chennai's posh MRC Nagar. The guideline value (the base rate fixed by the Government) on that date was Rs 2,346 per sq ft. The property should therefore have been registered for Rs 16.87 crore. But it was purchased for only Rs 11.70 crore,way below the guideline value.
Also, Sumangali Publications was supposed to pay 13 per cent as stamp duty to the government in 1999, which comes to Rs 2.19 crore as per the guideline value. But it paid only Rs 1.71 crore, thus causing a revenue loss of Rs 48.26 lakh to the government. A 10-storey building called Murasoli Maran Towers housing the entire Sun Group office has been raised on the land.
- By Lakshmi Subramanian
Meanwhile in Chennai, yet another front has opened against the Marans. On July 13, the police summoned Sun Network Chairman Kalanidhi Maran, Dayanidhi's elder brother, after distributors accused him of criminal intimidation and cheating. Kalanidhi refused to appear before the police and asked for time till July 26. Between a persistent CBI and a tough Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, the Maran brothers are caught in an unrelenting pincer. A string of cases has been filed against Sun Pictures with high-profile CEO Hansraj Saxena being sent to jail.
This is not Dayanidhi's first brush with trouble. He was dumped from the Cabinet on May 17, 2007, after an internecine feud broke out over Maran-owned newspaper Dinakaran running a survey that placed Dayanidhi ahead of M.K. Alagiri, Karunanidhi's elder son, in the DMK pecking order. All hell broke loose and goons ransacked the Dinakaran office, resulting in three deaths. There was also talk that the Tatas were unhappy with Dayanidhi as telecommunications minister, a fact borne out by Niira Radia's tapped telephone conversations. In May 2009, when UPA II's Cabinet was under discussion, Raja was preferred for telecommunications over Dayanidhi who, after being a outcast for two years, made the cut for textiles by endearing himself to the party patriarch once again. The campaign against Dayanidhi helming telecom is clear from the Radia-Ratan Tata conversations. An excerpt:
Radia Our good friend Dayanidhi is in the running for a Cabinet post.
Tata Oh God.
Radia He has asked for nothing less than railways or agriculture.
Tata Because if he gets telecom, it will really be a disaster.
Radia It will be a disaster Ratan, telecom or power.
Tata Raja one can live with…because then Maran will settle scores.
Dayanidhi did not just armtwist Sivasankaran into selling his company to Maxis, he also manipulated policy by getting the prime minister to modify the terms of reference (ToR) of the GoM (see box on next page) on the issue of spectrum pricing and include within it vacation of spectrum for digital terrestrial broadcasting. Digital terrestrial broadcasting was not a part of the original tor of the GoM issued on February 23, 2006. Dayanidhi got it included in the final tor cleared by the prime minister on December 7, 2006. This benefited Sun TV's cable business under Sumangali Cable Vision, in a clear conflict of interest.
Maxis's takeover of Aircel, which Dayanidhi is accused of engineering, falls afoul of the rules of foreign direct investment in telecom, which cap FDI at 74 per cent. The T. Anand Krishnan-owned Malaysian company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, invested Rs 7,880.82 crore in Aircel.
By CAG's calculation, Maxis holds an aggregate stake of 97.5 per cent in Aircel, of which 96.7 per cent is held directly and 0.8 per cent through its holding in Deccan Digital. Sindhya Securities & Investments holds 74 per cent in Deccan Digital which, in turn, holds 35 per cent stake in Aircel. While Maxis paid Rs 7,880 crore for its 74 per cent stake, Sindhya paid a meagre Rs 34 crore for its 26 per cent.
So, how did the Marans benefit? In April 2007, just four months after Aircel was issued telecom licences, Anand Krishnan, through one of his group companies, South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd (SAEHL), a subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks Plc, announced an investment of $166 million in Sun Direct. Accordingly, SAEHL acquired 7,84,22,964 equity shares representing a 20 per cent stake for Rs 625 crore. Further, Maxis also invested Rs 100 crore in the Sun FM Radio Network. This time, the vehicle was different. Maxis used South Asia Multi-Media Technologies Ltd, which invested Rs 50.07 crore for a 20 per cent stake. Maxis also invested over Rs 46.70 crore in preference shares.
This is the worst crisis that the Marans have faced. Their dream run, from the time their father Murasoli Maran became a Central minister in 1989, may be coming to an end. It remains to be seen how the siblings bounce back.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Ind vs Eng: When Dhoni Took To Bowling
India are missing Zaheer Khan dearly against England in the first Test at Lord's.
No wonder India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was seen pulling off his gloves and taking the ball on the second day of the 100th Test between the two countries at the prestigious Lord's cricket ground.
It was during the session that the India skipper took to bowling when a few overs were left for the new ball to be taken. And Rahul Dravid was seen taking Dhoni's place behind the wicket.
The move was seen by many as a means of saving the Test and has surprised the former cricketers.
Kapil Dev told Headlines Today that he was "surprised to see Dhoni bowl".
"Dhoni has made mockery of Test cricket by bowling (himself). This is not acceptable that on the second day of the Test match, you can't do this," Kapil added.
Kapil who never minces words was also scathing about Zaheer Khan suffering from hamstring injury.
"Zaheer is responsible for this. He has put the team in trouble. He should have known his fitness and tested his fitness levels before returning to test cricket," he fumed.
"It's really tough to bowl 20 overs a day in Test cricket. Zaheer is responsible for this. He has killed the possibility of India winning this Test match," he added. Zaheer suffered a hamstring strain in his right thigh on the first day of the Lord's Test.
However, former captain Sourav Ganguly favoured of Dhoni using himself as a bowler. He said, "Dhoni is playing with five bowlers. He made the most of his resources."
Dhoni had to give rest to his regular bowlers and his bowling worked as breather for others and created chances as well, Sourav said.
An odd decision it maybe but it certainly will go down the history as an interesting one as it featured during the 2000th Test in the history of cricket.
No wonder India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was seen pulling off his gloves and taking the ball on the second day of the 100th Test between the two countries at the prestigious Lord's cricket ground.
It was during the session that the India skipper took to bowling when a few overs were left for the new ball to be taken. And Rahul Dravid was seen taking Dhoni's place behind the wicket.
The move was seen by many as a means of saving the Test and has surprised the former cricketers.
Kapil Dev told Headlines Today that he was "surprised to see Dhoni bowl".
"Dhoni has made mockery of Test cricket by bowling (himself). This is not acceptable that on the second day of the Test match, you can't do this," Kapil added.
Kapil who never minces words was also scathing about Zaheer Khan suffering from hamstring injury.
"Zaheer is responsible for this. He has put the team in trouble. He should have known his fitness and tested his fitness levels before returning to test cricket," he fumed.
"It's really tough to bowl 20 overs a day in Test cricket. Zaheer is responsible for this. He has killed the possibility of India winning this Test match," he added. Zaheer suffered a hamstring strain in his right thigh on the first day of the Lord's Test.
However, former captain Sourav Ganguly favoured of Dhoni using himself as a bowler. He said, "Dhoni is playing with five bowlers. He made the most of his resources."
Dhoni had to give rest to his regular bowlers and his bowling worked as breather for others and created chances as well, Sourav said.
An odd decision it maybe but it certainly will go down the history as an interesting one as it featured during the 2000th Test in the history of cricket.
Ind Vs Eng: India Openers Bat Post Pietersen's Double Ton
Kevin Pietersen scored a double ton helping England to a commanding 474/8 despite Praveen Kumar's fiver on the second day of the first Test against India at Lord's on Friday. Watch KP's 200 and MSD bowl | Score
At stumps, India were 17/0 in 6 overs with openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund at the crease.
Though KP's ton and Praveen Kumar's five-wicket haul were the highlight of the day, it was India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who managed to grab the maximum eyeballs.
And it wasn't his keeping, but his bowling that hit the limelight - yes, the India skipper, and one of the most successful wicketkeepers that India has produced, bowled on the day.
Soon after the lunch when a few overs were left for the new ball to be taken, Dhoni pulled off his gloves and took to bowling to fill the void left by Zaheer Khan, who pulled his hamstring on Thursday.
The change also saw Rahul Dravid keeping wickets. And Dhoni could have sent Pietersen back into the pavilion if the DRS hadn't ruled otherwise. On-field umpire Billy Bowden had given him out when the ball seemed to have nicked off his bat on to the keeper Rahul Dravid. But the reviews ruled against it and Pietersen went on to complete his ton.
England started with the overnight score of 127/2 with Pietersen and Jonathan Trott in the middle.
The clear and sunny sky aided the batsmen as the ball seemed to come on to the bat unlike Day 1 when the ball was swinging a lot more with the nip in the air following the morning showers.
Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were going strongly against India and the duo had put on 98 runs for the third wicket when Praveen Kumar struck.
And it was the swing, albeit only a little, that did the trick. The ball kept low moved in and struck against Trott's pads. He fell for 70 and India got the crucial third wicket on 160.
Post Trott's dismissal, Pietersen took up the challenge and went ahead consolidating the innings. At lunch England were cruising at 217/3 with Pietersen and Ian Bell in the middle.
The second session saw Kumar strike again and this was post Dhoni's cameo with the ball and Pietersen's 18th Test ton.
Kumar couldn't get Pietersen, but he got rid of his partner Ian Bell with a ball that took the edge of his bat to land in keeper Dhoni's gloves behind the stumps at 270/4. Bell scored 45.
But Kumar's over was far from over and two balls later he got England's fifth wicket with new man Eoin Morgan walking back on a duck. From 270/3 England were down to 270/5, but they still had a good batsman in Matt Prior.
At tea, England were sitting pretty on 305/5 with Pietersen and Matt Prior at the crease.
The third session too was dominated by Pietersen even though Prior scored a fine 71 before going down to Kumar, who finished with a five-wicket haul with Stuart Broad being his last victim on the day.
Kumar did take up the challenge in the absence of senior pro Zaheer Khan and claimed his maiden five-wicket haul at Lord's, yet the Indians were missing their pace-spearhead.
No wonder it had prompted 'Captain Courageous' to shun his gloves and take to bowling.
At stumps, India were 17/0 in 6 overs with openers Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund at the crease.
Though KP's ton and Praveen Kumar's five-wicket haul were the highlight of the day, it was India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who managed to grab the maximum eyeballs.
And it wasn't his keeping, but his bowling that hit the limelight - yes, the India skipper, and one of the most successful wicketkeepers that India has produced, bowled on the day.
Soon after the lunch when a few overs were left for the new ball to be taken, Dhoni pulled off his gloves and took to bowling to fill the void left by Zaheer Khan, who pulled his hamstring on Thursday.
The change also saw Rahul Dravid keeping wickets. And Dhoni could have sent Pietersen back into the pavilion if the DRS hadn't ruled otherwise. On-field umpire Billy Bowden had given him out when the ball seemed to have nicked off his bat on to the keeper Rahul Dravid. But the reviews ruled against it and Pietersen went on to complete his ton.
England started with the overnight score of 127/2 with Pietersen and Jonathan Trott in the middle.
The clear and sunny sky aided the batsmen as the ball seemed to come on to the bat unlike Day 1 when the ball was swinging a lot more with the nip in the air following the morning showers.
Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were going strongly against India and the duo had put on 98 runs for the third wicket when Praveen Kumar struck.
And it was the swing, albeit only a little, that did the trick. The ball kept low moved in and struck against Trott's pads. He fell for 70 and India got the crucial third wicket on 160.
Post Trott's dismissal, Pietersen took up the challenge and went ahead consolidating the innings. At lunch England were cruising at 217/3 with Pietersen and Ian Bell in the middle.
The second session saw Kumar strike again and this was post Dhoni's cameo with the ball and Pietersen's 18th Test ton.
Kumar couldn't get Pietersen, but he got rid of his partner Ian Bell with a ball that took the edge of his bat to land in keeper Dhoni's gloves behind the stumps at 270/4. Bell scored 45.
But Kumar's over was far from over and two balls later he got England's fifth wicket with new man Eoin Morgan walking back on a duck. From 270/3 England were down to 270/5, but they still had a good batsman in Matt Prior.
At tea, England were sitting pretty on 305/5 with Pietersen and Matt Prior at the crease.
The third session too was dominated by Pietersen even though Prior scored a fine 71 before going down to Kumar, who finished with a five-wicket haul with Stuart Broad being his last victim on the day.
Kumar did take up the challenge in the absence of senior pro Zaheer Khan and claimed his maiden five-wicket haul at Lord's, yet the Indians were missing their pace-spearhead.
No wonder it had prompted 'Captain Courageous' to shun his gloves and take to bowling.
Norway Blast And shooting: 87 Killed In Bomb Blast, Youth Camp Shooting
A Norwegian who dressed as a police officer to gun down summer campers killed at least 80 people at an island retreat, horrified police said early Saturday. It took investigators several hours to begin the realise the full scope of Friday's massacre, which followed an explosion in Oslo that killed seven and that police say was set off by the same suspect.
The mass shootings are among the worst in history. With the blast outside the prime minister's office, they formed the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings killed 191.
Police initially said about 10 were killed at the forested camp on the island of Utoya, but some survivors said they thought the toll was much higher. Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims.
"It's taken time to search the area. What we know now is that we can say that there are at least 80 killed at Utoya," Maeland said. "It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional."
Maeland said the death toll could rise even more. He said others were severely injured, but police didn't know how many were hurt.
slo explosion was arrested. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian.
National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told NRK that the suspected gunman's Internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen."
A police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.
It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."
The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The official added, however, "it's still just hours since the incident happened. And the investigation is going on with all available resources."
The motive was unknown, but both attacks were in areas connected to the ruling Labor Party government. The youth camp, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Oslo, is organized by the party's youth wing, and the prime minister had been scheduled to speak there Saturday.
A 15-year-old camper named Elise said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.
"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."
Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.
She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.
At a hotel in the village of Sundvollen, where survivors of the shooting were taken, 21-year-old Dana Berzingi wore pants stained with blood. He said the fake police officer ordered people to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.
Several victims "had pretended as if they were dead to survive," Berzingi said. But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.
"I lost several friends," said Berzingi, who used the cell phone of one of those friends to call police.
The blast in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings. Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered. Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.
The dust-fogged scene after the blast reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11.
Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said people "just covered in rubble" were walking through "a fog of debris."
"It wasn't any sort of a panic," he said, "It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway. You don't even think something like that is possible."
Police said the Oslo explosion was caused by "one or more" bombs.
The police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Oslo bombing occurred at 3:26 p.m. local time (1:26 p.m. GMT), and the camp shootings began one to two hours later. The official said the gunman used both automatic weapons and handguns, and that there was at least one unexploded device at the youth camp that a police bomb disposal team and military experts were working on disarming.
The suspect had only a minor criminal record, the official said.
Sponheim said seven people were killed by the blast in downtown Oslo, four of whom have been identified, and that nine or 10 people were seriously injured.
Sponheim said a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there.
Sponheim said the camp shooter "wore a sweater with a police sign on it. I can confirm that he wasn't a police employee and never has been."
Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. Behind them, people who stripped down to their underwear swam away from the island toward shore, some using flotation devices.
Sponheim said police were still trying to get an overview of the camp shooting and could not say whether there was more than one shooter. He would not give any details about the identity or nationality of the suspect, who was being interrogated by police.
Oslo University Hospital said 12 people were admitted for treatment following the Utoya shooting, and 11 people were taken there from the explosion in Oslo. The hospital asked people to donate blood.
Stoltenberg, who was home when the blast occurred and was not harmed, visited injured people at the hospital late Friday. Earlier he decried what he called "a cowardly attack on young innocent civilians."
"I have message to those who attacked us," he said. "It's a message from all of Norway: You will not destroy our democracy and our commitment to a better world."
NRK showed video in Oslo of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris. An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees were evacuated. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
An AP reporter headed to Utoya was turned away by police before reaching the lake that surrounds the island, as eight ambulances with sirens blaring entered the area. Police blocked off roads leading to the lake.
The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."
"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.
Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
Nobel Peace Prize Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said it appeared the camp attack "was intended to hurt young citizens who actively engage in our democratic and political society. But we must not be intimidated. We need to work for freedom and democracy every day."
A U.S. counterterrorism official said the United States knew of no links to terrorist groups and early indications were the attack was domestic. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was being handled by Norway.
At least two Islamic extremist groups had tried to take credit for the attacks. Many intelligence analysts said they had never heard of Helpers of Global Jihad, which took initial credit. The Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam also took credit on some jihadist web sites.
Norway has been grappling with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar - the founder of Ansar al-Islam - made to various news media, including American network NBC.
Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago.
The mass shootings are among the worst in history. With the blast outside the prime minister's office, they formed the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings killed 191.
Police initially said about 10 were killed at the forested camp on the island of Utoya, but some survivors said they thought the toll was much higher. Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims.
"It's taken time to search the area. What we know now is that we can say that there are at least 80 killed at Utoya," Maeland said. "It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional."
Maeland said the death toll could rise even more. He said others were severely injured, but police didn't know how many were hurt.
slo explosion was arrested. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian.
National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told NRK that the suspected gunman's Internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen."
A police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.
It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."
The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The official added, however, "it's still just hours since the incident happened. And the investigation is going on with all available resources."
The motive was unknown, but both attacks were in areas connected to the ruling Labor Party government. The youth camp, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Oslo, is organized by the party's youth wing, and the prime minister had been scheduled to speak there Saturday.
A 15-year-old camper named Elise said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.
"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."
Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.
She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.
At a hotel in the village of Sundvollen, where survivors of the shooting were taken, 21-year-old Dana Berzingi wore pants stained with blood. He said the fake police officer ordered people to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.
Several victims "had pretended as if they were dead to survive," Berzingi said. But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.
"I lost several friends," said Berzingi, who used the cell phone of one of those friends to call police.
The blast in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings. Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered. Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.
The dust-fogged scene after the blast reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11.
Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said people "just covered in rubble" were walking through "a fog of debris."
"It wasn't any sort of a panic," he said, "It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway. You don't even think something like that is possible."
Police said the Oslo explosion was caused by "one or more" bombs.
The police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Oslo bombing occurred at 3:26 p.m. local time (1:26 p.m. GMT), and the camp shootings began one to two hours later. The official said the gunman used both automatic weapons and handguns, and that there was at least one unexploded device at the youth camp that a police bomb disposal team and military experts were working on disarming.
The suspect had only a minor criminal record, the official said.
Sponheim said seven people were killed by the blast in downtown Oslo, four of whom have been identified, and that nine or 10 people were seriously injured.
Sponheim said a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there.
Sponheim said the camp shooter "wore a sweater with a police sign on it. I can confirm that he wasn't a police employee and never has been."
Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. Behind them, people who stripped down to their underwear swam away from the island toward shore, some using flotation devices.
Sponheim said police were still trying to get an overview of the camp shooting and could not say whether there was more than one shooter. He would not give any details about the identity or nationality of the suspect, who was being interrogated by police.
Oslo University Hospital said 12 people were admitted for treatment following the Utoya shooting, and 11 people were taken there from the explosion in Oslo. The hospital asked people to donate blood.
Stoltenberg, who was home when the blast occurred and was not harmed, visited injured people at the hospital late Friday. Earlier he decried what he called "a cowardly attack on young innocent civilians."
"I have message to those who attacked us," he said. "It's a message from all of Norway: You will not destroy our democracy and our commitment to a better world."
NRK showed video in Oslo of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris. An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees were evacuated. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
An AP reporter headed to Utoya was turned away by police before reaching the lake that surrounds the island, as eight ambulances with sirens blaring entered the area. Police blocked off roads leading to the lake.
The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."
"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.
Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
Nobel Peace Prize Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said it appeared the camp attack "was intended to hurt young citizens who actively engage in our democratic and political society. But we must not be intimidated. We need to work for freedom and democracy every day."
A U.S. counterterrorism official said the United States knew of no links to terrorist groups and early indications were the attack was domestic. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was being handled by Norway.
At least two Islamic extremist groups had tried to take credit for the attacks. Many intelligence analysts said they had never heard of Helpers of Global Jihad, which took initial credit. The Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam also took credit on some jihadist web sites.
Norway has been grappling with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar - the founder of Ansar al-Islam - made to various news media, including American network NBC.
Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
US Busts Kashmir Racket: Fai Is Foul And Foul Is Fai
WASHINGTON: In a city where lobbyists represent scores of interests, issues, and causes from across the world, Ghulam Nabi Fai was a familiar figure on Capitol Hill as the principal representative of the Kashmiri separatist movement. A stocky man 62-year old man with a scraggly beard sans mustache, he spoke the language of engagement and claimed to seek a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
But Kashmiris, of whom he claimed to be one, were not who he was serving. An FBI affidavit charging him with "conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign principle," shows that Fai was a frontman for Pakistani – and not Kashmiri – interests in the US. He took dictation from his masters in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and according to the FBI count, was funded to the tune of at least $4 million to manipulate the debate about Kashmir. The FBI recorded 4000 email and telephone exchanges with his Pakistan handlers.
Fai's career as a Pakistani ISI bagman began as far back as 1989, according to a Confidential Witness (identified as CW-2 in the FBI affidavit) who turned US informant. The ISI, CW-2 says, "created the KAC to propagandize on behalf of the government of Pakistan" and selected Fai "because he had no overt ties to Pakistan."
Indeed, Fai did come originally from India. According to community sources, Fai hails from the Kashmir Valley and came to the US in the 1980s after an MA degree from Aligarh Muslim University. He earned a PhD in mass communication from Temple University in Pennsylvania and began working as a Kashmiri and Muslim activist in the late 1980s before the ISI ensnared him.
Soon he was singing the Pakistani tune churning out exaggerated accounts of Indian atrocities in J&K and organizing conferences and seminars bankrolled by the Pakistani government through ISI. Almost contemptuously, CW-s is quoted in the FBI affidavit as saying, "of the statements Fai makes, 80 per cent are provided by the ISI for Fai to repeat and disseminate verbatim. The other 20 per cent of the KAC's messaging consists of Fai's own ideas, which have been pre-approved by the ISI."
Fai was at once clever and stupid in his service to the Pakistani agenda, the affidavit shows. For instance, early in his lobbying stint, one of his backers who turned informant for the FBI said he gave him thousands of dollars in cash from his business in the form of $50 and $100 bills in a brown paper bag. Fai told him that he preferred checks to cash because checks appeared more "legitimate" and "safe."
But Fai also left a massive paper and electronic trail that the FBI diligently collected and intercepted under court-sanctioned surveillance (the FBI had been on to him for many years, the affidavit shows). He made massive cash collections. He was stopped by the police in New York once and found to have $ 35,000 in cash which he tried to explain away as donations for the Kashmir cause from a Brooklyn mosque, but which the FBI determined was slush money from a straw donor in the US. The unnamed straw donor, one of several cited in the FBI affidavit, would eventually be reimbursed by the ISI in Pakistan in what was a state-sponsored hawala transaction.
It wasn't always good going among the pro-Pakistani crowd; they argued, they fell out, and filched money for their personal use. Fai himself used some of the money from straw donors to pay his personal home mortgage. He had regular budgetary and accounting dust-ups with his handlers although they bankrolled him lately to the tune of more than $ 500,000 every year.
Another time, one of his ISI handlers demanded he get a laptop bag and adaptor for his boss. The wrangles finally got to one of his associates, identified as "John" in the FBI affidavit. John had a problem with Nazir Shawl, Fai's counterpart in UK as the ISI bagman, and he threatened to expose "everything and everybody."
"He ended by saying he was prepared to go to the Indian Embassy to beg forgiveness for his previous activities, even of doing so displeased his Pakistani bosses," the FBI affidavit records
But Kashmiris, of whom he claimed to be one, were not who he was serving. An FBI affidavit charging him with "conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign principle," shows that Fai was a frontman for Pakistani – and not Kashmiri – interests in the US. He took dictation from his masters in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and according to the FBI count, was funded to the tune of at least $4 million to manipulate the debate about Kashmir. The FBI recorded 4000 email and telephone exchanges with his Pakistan handlers.
Fai's career as a Pakistani ISI bagman began as far back as 1989, according to a Confidential Witness (identified as CW-2 in the FBI affidavit) who turned US informant. The ISI, CW-2 says, "created the KAC to propagandize on behalf of the government of Pakistan" and selected Fai "because he had no overt ties to Pakistan."
Indeed, Fai did come originally from India. According to community sources, Fai hails from the Kashmir Valley and came to the US in the 1980s after an MA degree from Aligarh Muslim University. He earned a PhD in mass communication from Temple University in Pennsylvania and began working as a Kashmiri and Muslim activist in the late 1980s before the ISI ensnared him.
Soon he was singing the Pakistani tune churning out exaggerated accounts of Indian atrocities in J&K and organizing conferences and seminars bankrolled by the Pakistani government through ISI. Almost contemptuously, CW-s is quoted in the FBI affidavit as saying, "of the statements Fai makes, 80 per cent are provided by the ISI for Fai to repeat and disseminate verbatim. The other 20 per cent of the KAC's messaging consists of Fai's own ideas, which have been pre-approved by the ISI."
Fai was at once clever and stupid in his service to the Pakistani agenda, the affidavit shows. For instance, early in his lobbying stint, one of his backers who turned informant for the FBI said he gave him thousands of dollars in cash from his business in the form of $50 and $100 bills in a brown paper bag. Fai told him that he preferred checks to cash because checks appeared more "legitimate" and "safe."
But Fai also left a massive paper and electronic trail that the FBI diligently collected and intercepted under court-sanctioned surveillance (the FBI had been on to him for many years, the affidavit shows). He made massive cash collections. He was stopped by the police in New York once and found to have $ 35,000 in cash which he tried to explain away as donations for the Kashmir cause from a Brooklyn mosque, but which the FBI determined was slush money from a straw donor in the US. The unnamed straw donor, one of several cited in the FBI affidavit, would eventually be reimbursed by the ISI in Pakistan in what was a state-sponsored hawala transaction.
It wasn't always good going among the pro-Pakistani crowd; they argued, they fell out, and filched money for their personal use. Fai himself used some of the money from straw donors to pay his personal home mortgage. He had regular budgetary and accounting dust-ups with his handlers although they bankrolled him lately to the tune of more than $ 500,000 every year.
Another time, one of his ISI handlers demanded he get a laptop bag and adaptor for his boss. The wrangles finally got to one of his associates, identified as "John" in the FBI affidavit. John had a problem with Nazir Shawl, Fai's counterpart in UK as the ISI bagman, and he threatened to expose "everything and everybody."
"He ended by saying he was prepared to go to the Indian Embassy to beg forgiveness for his previous activities, even of doing so displeased his Pakistani bosses," the FBI affidavit records
Texas Man Set For Execution For Killing Indian In Spree Of 'Patriotic' Attacks After 9/11
LONDON: A man in Texas will face execution for killing an Indian man in a string of hate crimes in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
Mark Anthony Stroman said the spree, in which he also shot dead a Pakistani man and severely wounded a Bangladeshi man, was fuelled by 'patriotism'.
Stroman said his sister was in the top floors of the World Trade Center's North tower when it collapsed after being hit by an airplane, although this claim has never been substantiated.
He said that he believed the US government 'hadn't done their job after 9/11, so he was going to do it for them'.
Stroman began plotting what he believed were 'revenge attacks' in the days after September 11, the Daily Mail reports.
On September 15, he shot Waqar Hasan, a 46-year-old Pakistani man, in the head while he was grilling hamburgers in a convenience store in Dallas. He had only recently moved to the area to start a new life with his family.
Six days later, he shot Raisuddin Bhuiyan, in the face while he worked at a gas station. The Bangladeshi man survived but was blinded in one eye.
Then, on October 4, he attempted to rob a gas station run by an Indian Vasudev Patel.
But, his only surviving victim, Bhuiyan, is suing the governor, Rick Perry, in an effort to save the life of the man who tried to take his.
"Please do the right thing, save a human life, please," said Bhuiyan.
"Please, listen to my request and lower Mark's punishment from death to life in prison,' he said," he said.
Stroman, who is being held at the Polunsky Correctional Unit in Livingston, has a criminal history of burglary, armed robbery and theft.
He will be killed by lethal injection on July 20, 2011.
Mark Anthony Stroman said the spree, in which he also shot dead a Pakistani man and severely wounded a Bangladeshi man, was fuelled by 'patriotism'.
Stroman said his sister was in the top floors of the World Trade Center's North tower when it collapsed after being hit by an airplane, although this claim has never been substantiated.
He said that he believed the US government 'hadn't done their job after 9/11, so he was going to do it for them'.
Stroman began plotting what he believed were 'revenge attacks' in the days after September 11, the Daily Mail reports.
On September 15, he shot Waqar Hasan, a 46-year-old Pakistani man, in the head while he was grilling hamburgers in a convenience store in Dallas. He had only recently moved to the area to start a new life with his family.
Six days later, he shot Raisuddin Bhuiyan, in the face while he worked at a gas station. The Bangladeshi man survived but was blinded in one eye.
Then, on October 4, he attempted to rob a gas station run by an Indian Vasudev Patel.
But, his only surviving victim, Bhuiyan, is suing the governor, Rick Perry, in an effort to save the life of the man who tried to take his.
"Please do the right thing, save a human life, please," said Bhuiyan.
"Please, listen to my request and lower Mark's punishment from death to life in prison,' he said," he said.
Stroman, who is being held at the Polunsky Correctional Unit in Livingston, has a criminal history of burglary, armed robbery and theft.
He will be killed by lethal injection on July 20, 2011.
Wipro Q1 Net Up 1.2%, Beats Estimates
BANGALORE: Wipro Ltd, India's No. 3 software services exporter, on Wednesday said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 1.2 per cent beating estimates as western clients increased spending on outsourced services to cut costs and boost efficiency.
Wipro, which develops software applications, integrates IT systems and manages call centres, said consolidated net profit rose to Rs 13.35 billion ($300 million) under international accounting standards, from Rs 13.19 billion a year ago.
This compares with a Reuters poll forecast of Rs 13.16 billion for Mumbai and New York-listed Wipro , which counts Citigroup, Cisco and Credit Suisse among its clients. The company reported standalone net profit at Rs 12.19 billion in the quarter.
Earlier this month, larger rival Tata Consultancy Services beat estimates but flagged concerns about global economic uncertainty.
No. 2 software services provider Infosys reported quarterly profit that missed expectations and warned it could face slow client spending.
Wipro, which develops software applications, integrates IT systems and manages call centres, said consolidated net profit rose to Rs 13.35 billion ($300 million) under international accounting standards, from Rs 13.19 billion a year ago.
This compares with a Reuters poll forecast of Rs 13.16 billion for Mumbai and New York-listed Wipro , which counts Citigroup, Cisco and Credit Suisse among its clients. The company reported standalone net profit at Rs 12.19 billion in the quarter.
Earlier this month, larger rival Tata Consultancy Services beat estimates but flagged concerns about global economic uncertainty.
No. 2 software services provider Infosys reported quarterly profit that missed expectations and warned it could face slow client spending.
13 Reported Killed By Earthquake In Uzbekistan
ALMATY: Thirteen people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit Uzbekistan's heavily populated Ferghana Valley region early Wednesday, emergency officials said.
A magnitude-6.2 temblor centered in neighboring Kyrgyzstan hit shortly after midnight in a mountainous area some 22 miles (35 kilometers) away from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana, which has a population of more than 200,000.
Uzbekistan's Emergency Services Ministry said in a statement that of the 86 people being treated for injuries, 35 have been hospitalized.
Officials said a number of residential buildings in several towns in the Ferghana Province have been damaged, but they did not specify the extent of the earthquake's impact.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has given instructions for emergency workers to take prompt action to mitigate the fallout from the quake and provide assistance to victims, a government statement said.
``Local authorities are carrying out the work needed to assist the population affected by the earthquake and have take on the burden of the costs of organizing and carrying out the burial of victims,'' the Emergency Services Ministry said.
A statement on the Foreign Ministry website said the country's leadership had expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake.
Although the epicenter was in Kyrgyzstan, there have so far been no reports of any deaths there.
Kanat Abdrakhmatov, head of the National Academy of Science's seismology institute, said the epicenter was in a sparsely inhabited area of Kyrgyzstan and that only a few buildings appear to have been damaged.
Quakes are a relatively frequent occurrence in this region of former Soviet Central Asia. A 6.6-magnitude quake near Kyrgyzstan's borders with Tajikistan and China flattened the remote mountain village of Nura in July 2008, killing at least 74 people.
A magnitude-6.2 temblor centered in neighboring Kyrgyzstan hit shortly after midnight in a mountainous area some 22 miles (35 kilometers) away from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana, which has a population of more than 200,000.
Uzbekistan's Emergency Services Ministry said in a statement that of the 86 people being treated for injuries, 35 have been hospitalized.
Officials said a number of residential buildings in several towns in the Ferghana Province have been damaged, but they did not specify the extent of the earthquake's impact.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has given instructions for emergency workers to take prompt action to mitigate the fallout from the quake and provide assistance to victims, a government statement said.
``Local authorities are carrying out the work needed to assist the population affected by the earthquake and have take on the burden of the costs of organizing and carrying out the burial of victims,'' the Emergency Services Ministry said.
A statement on the Foreign Ministry website said the country's leadership had expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake.
Although the epicenter was in Kyrgyzstan, there have so far been no reports of any deaths there.
Kanat Abdrakhmatov, head of the National Academy of Science's seismology institute, said the epicenter was in a sparsely inhabited area of Kyrgyzstan and that only a few buildings appear to have been damaged.
Quakes are a relatively frequent occurrence in this region of former Soviet Central Asia. A 6.6-magnitude quake near Kyrgyzstan's borders with Tajikistan and China flattened the remote mountain village of Nura in July 2008, killing at least 74 people.
Alagiri Visits Arrested DMK Functionaries In Tamil Nadu
TIRUNELVELI: Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers and DMK leader MK Alagiri on Wednesday visited Central prison at Palayamkottai here and met four party functionaries who had been arrested and remanded in a land grabbing case.
The four are G Thalapathi, N Suresh Babu (DMK executive committee member) KrishnaPandi and Kodi Chandrasekharan.
Speaking to reporters after meeting them, Alagiri said they are his close friends and he had come to see them. He also referred to his father and DMK chief M Karunanidhi's remark that false cases had been foisted against them. "I only called on my friends. Nothing else," he said.
Suresh babu was also Alagiri's political Personal Assistant. Former ministers I Periasamy and K K S S R Ramachandran were among party leaders who accompanied Alagiri.
The four were arrested yesterday on a land grabbing complaint filed against them by a woman of nearby Sengulam village.
The complainant said the four had threatened and forced her to sell their 5.14 acres for a cheap rate. She was paid only Rs 40 lakh for the land costing Rs 4.36 crore and forced to sign a power of attorney in July last year when DMK was in power.
The four are G Thalapathi, N Suresh Babu (DMK executive committee member) KrishnaPandi and Kodi Chandrasekharan.
Speaking to reporters after meeting them, Alagiri said they are his close friends and he had come to see them. He also referred to his father and DMK chief M Karunanidhi's remark that false cases had been foisted against them. "I only called on my friends. Nothing else," he said.
Suresh babu was also Alagiri's political Personal Assistant. Former ministers I Periasamy and K K S S R Ramachandran were among party leaders who accompanied Alagiri.
The four were arrested yesterday on a land grabbing complaint filed against them by a woman of nearby Sengulam village.
The complainant said the four had threatened and forced her to sell their 5.14 acres for a cheap rate. She was paid only Rs 40 lakh for the land costing Rs 4.36 crore and forced to sign a power of attorney in July last year when DMK was in power.
India Face England In battle For Test Supremacy
LONDON: Strong contenders India and England go into a high-voltage Test series at the Lord's on Thursday with the spotlight on Sachin Tendulkar who aims to achieve an incredible milestone of 100 international centuries in a match which has historic significance.
The first Test between number one team India and third ranked England at the hallowed Lord's can be termed as a statistician's delight for the sheer milestones in waiting. The series opener happens to be the 100th Test between the two sides and also the 2000th in the history of the game.
If that was not enough, the historic venue could also become a witness to Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century in his 22nd year in Test cricket as the champion batsman is just a ton away from achieving the feat.
But leaving aside all the historical importance associated with the Test, the four-match series is also touted as a fight between two best teams of the world for Test cricket's top position.
The fickle English weather, however, could play spoilsport as rain is predicted on all the five days of the match which has generated a lot of interest.
While India would be desperate to do whatever it takes to hold on to its numero uno Test status, a series win by a two game margin will see England topple Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men from the pinnacle.
But against a formidable side like England, who have been unbeaten in the last five series at home, it won't be easy for the Indians, who did very little to impress in the drawn practice match against Somerset at Taunton.
Barring Suresh Raina, who hit a ton, the stars of India's famed batting line-up, including Tendulkar, did little justice to their reputations, while the bowling department came a cropper accounting for just five Somerset batsmen in two innings.
But what would worry Dhoni more would be the failure of his experienced batting line up, which includes the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Tendulkar would be pivotal to India's batting in the absence of Virender Sehwag. Together with Dravid and Laxman, the champion batsman has shared over 35,000 runs in Test cricket and India's fate in the series would largely depend on the trio's performance against a potent English attack. Since December 6, 2009 when India became number one Test team, Tendulkar has scored 1722 runs from 15 Tests. But the great man's record at Lord's is far from rosy with 37 being his highest at the 'Mecca' of cricket.
And Tendulkar, who did not play a Test since January this year, would have do much better to not only help his but also his side's cause.
But against a fiery English pace attack what India need is a strong star from their openers -- inexperienced Abhinav Mukund and Gambhir, who returned to the team after missing the West Indies tour due to a shoulder injury.
Dravid, who failed against Somerset but looked in form in the Caribbean, is expected to hold on to one end, while Laxman's is high on confidence after three half centuries against the West Indies.
Skipper Dhoni might have come under the weather on the Caribbean tour and would be itching to contribute with the bat against England.
The first Test between number one team India and third ranked England at the hallowed Lord's can be termed as a statistician's delight for the sheer milestones in waiting. The series opener happens to be the 100th Test between the two sides and also the 2000th in the history of the game.
If that was not enough, the historic venue could also become a witness to Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century in his 22nd year in Test cricket as the champion batsman is just a ton away from achieving the feat.
But leaving aside all the historical importance associated with the Test, the four-match series is also touted as a fight between two best teams of the world for Test cricket's top position.
The fickle English weather, however, could play spoilsport as rain is predicted on all the five days of the match which has generated a lot of interest.
While India would be desperate to do whatever it takes to hold on to its numero uno Test status, a series win by a two game margin will see England topple Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men from the pinnacle.
But against a formidable side like England, who have been unbeaten in the last five series at home, it won't be easy for the Indians, who did very little to impress in the drawn practice match against Somerset at Taunton.
Barring Suresh Raina, who hit a ton, the stars of India's famed batting line-up, including Tendulkar, did little justice to their reputations, while the bowling department came a cropper accounting for just five Somerset batsmen in two innings.
But what would worry Dhoni more would be the failure of his experienced batting line up, which includes the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Tendulkar would be pivotal to India's batting in the absence of Virender Sehwag. Together with Dravid and Laxman, the champion batsman has shared over 35,000 runs in Test cricket and India's fate in the series would largely depend on the trio's performance against a potent English attack. Since December 6, 2009 when India became number one Test team, Tendulkar has scored 1722 runs from 15 Tests. But the great man's record at Lord's is far from rosy with 37 being his highest at the 'Mecca' of cricket.
And Tendulkar, who did not play a Test since January this year, would have do much better to not only help his but also his side's cause.
But against a fiery English pace attack what India need is a strong star from their openers -- inexperienced Abhinav Mukund and Gambhir, who returned to the team after missing the West Indies tour due to a shoulder injury.
Dravid, who failed against Somerset but looked in form in the Caribbean, is expected to hold on to one end, while Laxman's is high on confidence after three half centuries against the West Indies.
Skipper Dhoni might have come under the weather on the Caribbean tour and would be itching to contribute with the bat against England.
Hillary Clinton Urges India To Be More Assertive In Asia
CHENNAI: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged India on Wednesday to be more assertive in Asia, saying the country should play more of a leadership role.
"India's leadership has the potential to positively shape the future of the Asia-Pacific... and we encourage you not just to look east, but continue to engage and act east as well," she said in Chennai.
Clinton said India should play a role as a US ally in regional forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a planned East Asia Summit later this year.
New Delhi could also help promote trade links in violence-wracked South Asia, which would bring prosperity and peace to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clinton said.
"This is not a time when any of us can afford to look inward at the expense of looking outward," she added. "This is a time to seize the emerging opportunities of the 21st century. This is a time to lead."
Clinton's encouragement for India reflects US policy of promoting the country as a potential counter-balance to an increasingly assertive China in Asia.
As well as praise and advocacy for India, Clinton returned to the issue of New Delhi's stance on human rights abuses in Asia, which was also highlighted by US President Barack Obama in his visit to the country last year.
"As India takes on a larger role throughout the Asia-Pacific, it is also taking on new responsibilities including the duty to speak out against violations of universal human rights," she said.
Obama had chided India for failing to criticise the record of military-run Myanmar.
"India's leadership has the potential to positively shape the future of the Asia-Pacific... and we encourage you not just to look east, but continue to engage and act east as well," she said in Chennai.
Clinton said India should play a role as a US ally in regional forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a planned East Asia Summit later this year.
New Delhi could also help promote trade links in violence-wracked South Asia, which would bring prosperity and peace to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clinton said.
"This is not a time when any of us can afford to look inward at the expense of looking outward," she added. "This is a time to seize the emerging opportunities of the 21st century. This is a time to lead."
Clinton's encouragement for India reflects US policy of promoting the country as a potential counter-balance to an increasingly assertive China in Asia.
As well as praise and advocacy for India, Clinton returned to the issue of New Delhi's stance on human rights abuses in Asia, which was also highlighted by US President Barack Obama in his visit to the country last year.
"As India takes on a larger role throughout the Asia-Pacific, it is also taking on new responsibilities including the duty to speak out against violations of universal human rights," she said.
Obama had chided India for failing to criticise the record of military-run Myanmar.
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