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New Delhi: With Trinamool Congress turning on the heat on the issue of rail fare hike, the Samajwadi Party has offered solace to the Congress, saying its outside support to the coalition will continue.
"If Trinamool pulls out, our outside support will continue to the government," Samajwadi Party MP Shailendra Kumar told reporters today.
He dismissed speculation that the Samajwadi Party will be part of the Union Cabinet, saying, "There is no such thing."
Asked if the Congress and the SP were in talks on the issue, he said, "No talks are going on."
Mr Kumar's reaction came a day after Congress President Sonia Gandhi sent Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal to the swearing-in of Akhilesh Yadav as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
It was a subtle signal from Gandhi that the Congress would like to bank on the support of the SP which has 22 members in the Lok Sabha.
The Trinamool Congress, which is the second-largest ally of the Congress, has 19 members in the Lower House.
Commenting on the Union Budget for 2012-13, Kumar said, "They have not done much for students and farmers and have not given much attention on the commodities used by poor people... It is a mixed budget".
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Mumbai: The Pakistani Judicial Commission on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks arrived in Mumbai today to find more evidence against the seven accused being tried in Pakistan. Speaking exclusively to NDTV, commission member Fawad Sher said that they will request the Indian judge presiding over the hearing to allow them to cross examine the four witnesses.
The Indian government has, however, made it clear to Pakistan that the commission is here to only record the statements and not cross-examine the Indian officials. Pakistan's contention is that since charges against the seven accused are based on the lone surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab's statement in Mumbai, it is necessary to submit critical versions of four people: The policemen who conducted the initial probe and the doctors who performed autopsies on the nine accomplices of Kasab who were killed. The Pakistani team says these statements may help quicken the trial.
India had been pressing for the conviction of the seven men of the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistani custody, alleging they masterminded the 26/11 attacks, but Pakistan has taken a long time to bring them to trial.
166 people were killed in Mumbai in the attack on November 26, 2008.
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Pranab Mukherjee presented his seventh Budget amid lots of hopes. Here are the five best and worst announcements in this year's Budget according to NDTV experts.
Five best: 1) Negative list for services: The budget has introduced a negative list of services, which will not be subject to service tax. All the rest will be taxed. Currently, only 107 specified services are taxed.
2) Subsidies at 2% of GDP: Fiscal deficit overshot the projected 4.6 percent of GDP mainly on account of higher subsidy burden. Reducing subsidies will help contain fiscal deficit.
Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman of Prime Minister's economic advisory panel told NDTV: The subsidy had gone up very high in the current year and according to the detailed number, subsidy under petroleum is Rs 43,000 crore and that means some policy decision would be taken during the year to control petroleum subsidy.
3) Tax free infra bonds: The finance minister has proposed to allow tax free bonds of Rs 60,000 crore to be issued by various government undertakings, which is double the Rs 30,000 crore assigned in the year 2011-2012. This will give a boost to the infrastructure sector that has been reeling under high interest rates and policy paralysis.
4) Foreign borrowings for low-cost housing: External commercial borrowings permitted to low-cost housing sector. External commercial borrowing of up to $1 billion permitted for airline sector.
TCA Srinivasa Raghavan, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Business Line says: The ECB for power and housing is a positive move... These guys need money and if you cannot give them from inside let them have from outside... it’s an option for these sectors.
Omkar Goswami, Chairman, CERG Advisory: I know of several companies who are happy to borrow even at a 3-5% premium if the ECB allows them to borrow.
5) Expansion of venture capital:
Five worst:
1) Fiscal deficit at 5.1% of the GDP: Fiscal deficit for 2011-12 rose to 5.9 percent, much higher than 4.6 per cent promised last year. Next year’s projection is 5.1 percent. There is no roadmap for this ambitious target. Analysts had expected the deficit to be below 5%.
B Muthuraman, President, CII & Vice Chairman says: I don't know how will this happen.
2) Allocation of divestment proceeds:
3) Growth projection at 7.6%: Analysts said this is an ambitious target considering that the Indian economy is likely to grow by only 6.9% this year.
Tarun Kataria, chief executive office of Religare Capital Markets said: The 7.6% GDP figure is not realistic. The sub-2% subsidy figure is also very hard to crystallize. So, 5.1% deficit may reach 6%.
4) Subsidy payment by cash vouchers: 5) Increase in agricultural credit:
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New Delhi: As part of his union budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has committed to tabling a white paper on black money in this session of Parliament. The document will share information on undeclared income held by Indians in foreign bank accounts to avoid taxes. A white paper explains the government policy on a particular subject, and allows the government to collect feedback before a Bill is prepared.
CBI Director A P Singh whipped up a storm last month when he said that 500 billion dollars or nearly 25 lakhs crores has been moved illegally by India to tax havens abroad. "Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians," he had said.
However, the government has denied this. Minister of State for Finance SS Palanimanickam told the Rajya Sabha this week, "There is no authentic estimate of quantum of Indian money stashed in foreign banks".
The BJP and its leader LK Advani have attacked the government recently for shielding those whose foreign bank account details have been shared by other countries. However, the Finance Minister has repeatedly stressed that going public with this information will violate treaties with those countries. In December, Mr Advani said in Parliament, "Reveal the names you have. It will be a humiliation if we do not get to know them from our Prime Minister or our Finance Minister and come to know from Julian Assange of WikiLeaks as he has said that he would reveal them in 2012."
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New Delhi: Today's Budget is one of the biggest challenges of Pranab Mukherjee's long political career and the Finance Minister set the tone for it when he described the year gone by as a "year of recovery interrupted." He began with listing grim ground realities - the global economic scenario, the battle with double digit inflation and said it was time for tough decisions. Here is the full speech delivered by Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament today while presenting the financial budget.
Union Budget 2012: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's full speech Budget 2012 Pranab Mukherjee Speech
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Lucknow: New Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be hoping hard this is not a portent. Barely had the 38-year-old been sworn in as the state's youngest Chief Minister, that his biggest challenge was demonstrated by his party workers who shoved their way onto the stage and were seen climbing on sofas.
So shortly after being sworn in, the young SP leader assured the people of his state that his government "will not tolerate lawlessness and will tackle it with an iron hand." "Samajwadi Party will fulfill promises made in the manifesto. Law and order will be our responsibility from today," he said. During extensive campaigning in Uttar Pradesh during the recently held polls, Mr Yadav had vowed to cleanse his party of "goonda-giri" or hooliganism; he had also said that his top priority would be to deliver law and order to a state besieged by crime.
Earlier in the day, Mr Yadav, dressed in white kurta pyjama and black sleeveless jacket and looking uncannily like his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, took oath at 11.34 am at the La Martiniere College grounds in Lucknow. He firmly shook hands with Governor BL Joshi, and then, a picture of calm, reached into his left breast pocket for a pen, signed and waved to the hundreds of SP supporters who had gathered at the venue since early morning. Nineteen Cabinet ministers and 29 ministers of state also took oath, among them the controversial independent MLA with criminal antecedents, Raghuraj Pratap Singh or Raja Bhaiyya, who expectedly thrown his lot with the SP. After taking over as the CM, Akhilesh defended Raja Bhaiyya, who has been a minister before in a Mulayam Singh government, and accused his predecessor Mayawati of filing false cases against him. "We all know how cases against Raja Bhaiyya were filed," he said. "Organised corruption as happened in the previous regime never took place in the state. There were restrictions during the previous government and UP is now celebrating democracy," he added.
In the star-studded audience cheering Mr Yadav at the swearing-in ceremony were Sitaram Yechury, Biman Bose and industrialist Anil Ambani.
His unruly cadres are already proving to be the new UP Chief Minister's Achilles Heel. He has the advantage of having come to power with an unambiguous majority with 224 seats in the 403-seat UP Assembly. He scripted that Samajwadi Party win with a forward-looking agenda that has promised the people of UP freedom from goonda raj and good law and order, jobs and education, and good economics. He now has his task cut out - he has vowed to implement his election manifesto to the full.
Rival parties wager that law and order will deteriorate in a Samajwadi Party regime, as has happened before. Even before Akhilesh was sworn in, he has been called upon to explain violent conduct of SP workers in several places. He had so far pleaded that officials of the old dispensation were to blame. Now, having taken charge, he has to prove that those were not empty words. Among other things he promised in that document were sops like laptops students who passed class 10, tablet computers to those who passed class 12, allowance to unemployed youths, free treatment to patients suffering from serious ailments and loan waivers for farmers.
Akhilesh will also have to take a call on constituting a commission for taking legal opinion on providing reservation to Muslims and implementing recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission and the Sachar Committee.
The SP leader has also said that rooting out corruption in the state is among his top priorities. And has promised to remove the ban on student politics in the state.
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Colombo: Sri Lanka on Thursday rejected a new video aired on Britain's Channel 4 which levelled fresh allegations of war crimes against the country's leadership and military.
In response to the video "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished", the defence ministry re-released several videos and documents to counter the claims, reported Xinhua.
"The ministry categorically rejects the video as baseless and unacceptable," a defence ministry statement said.
The new video has former British foreign secretary David Miliband and the former head of UN Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes speaking on some of the incidents which took place during the final stages of the war in 2009.
The video blames both the government and the military over some of the incidents, including the failure to send adequate humanitarian aid to the thousands of civilians trapped in the final battle zone.
Sri Lanka says the video has been released with the intention of defaming the government at the ongoing UN summit for Human Rights in Geneva.
"The defence ministry rejects all allegations of human rights violation, stating that it is able to prove with valid evidence that it was the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) that committed gross violation of human rights over the past three decades," it said.
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Mirpur:While India and the world continues to wait for Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century, the master blaster on Friday reached another milestone when he struck the 2000th boundary of his ODI career.
Live Scorecard
In the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, Tendulkar smashed the boundary when he slapped a Mashrafe Mortaza delievry to wide of short cover in the 3rd over.
As is the case with most of his records, Sachin is the first batsman to cross this mark in boundaries in ODIs. The cricketer with the maximum fours behind Tendulkar is retired Sri Lanka legend Sanath Jayasuriya who, with 1500 boundaries to his name, is way behind Sachin.
However, when it comes to hitting sixes in the 50-over format, it is not Tendulkar but Shahid Afridi who is on top of the list. The Pakistan all-rounder is only three short of 300 sixes and is followed by Jayasuriya who slammed 270 shots over the boundary. Tendulkar, with 193 sixes, is third on the list.
London: Responding to concerns of British citizens holding the status of 'Overseas Citizen of India' (OCI), the UK Foreign Office has clarified that when such citizens are in India, they will continue to be treated as British citizens and offered consular assistance if required.
A large number of people of Indian-origin have acquired OCI status after being naturalized as British citizens in the UK. The scheme launched by the Indian government in December 2005 has been welcomed by the Indian diaspora.
The Foreign Office has confirmed in a letter to a London-based solicitors company, Freemans Solicitors, that when OCI holders are in India, they will continue to be treated as British citizens and will be entitled to consular assistance. The letter by Louse Edwards from the Consulate Directorate of the Foreign Office says that the OCI status does not affect a person's nationality under international law.
"Our understanding is that the Indian authorities would not consider a British citizen holding OCI to be a dual national, although this is a matter for the Indian authorities.
Therefore, for the purposes of consular assistance, they would be treated as a British national and would be eligible for the consular assistance," Edwards writes in the letter available online.
Registration as OCI entitles them to several benefits, such as multipurpose lifelong visa, exemption from registration with the police and parity with non-resident Indians in financial and economic matters.
However, many OCI holders were not clear about their status while in India, and were concerned whether they would be treated as British citizens in India and extended consular assistance if required.
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The BSE Sensex ended 210 points or 1.2% lower at 17,466 while the broader Nifty index declined 63 points at 5,318 on the Budget day.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's proposals to hike excise duty and service tax did not go down well with corporates, though the Street had already factored in the hike. The FM's announcements on the fiscal front sounded ambitious to economists and analysts in the absence of a credible roadmap.
"Overall an uneventful budget though a little more credible than what we saw this time last year. The 7.6% GDP figure is not realistic. The sub-2% subsidy figure is also very hard to crystallize. So, 5.1% deficit may reach 6%," Tarun Kataria, chief executive office of Religare Capital Markets told NDTV Profit.
Market analysts dismissed the Budget as a non-event.
"The Budget was expected to be tough and it is tough on the corporate world... There are no surprises on the down side and upside and it's business as usual for markets," Raamdeo Agrawal , Joint Managing Director of Motilal Oswal said.
Meanwhile, a Budget proposal to tax offshore transfers in India (if the shares derive its value substantially from assets in India) from retrospective effect did not go down with analysts.
"This will be very negative from FDI and FII perspective. I would like to think this would not happen because this is something that should not be done," Kataria said.
Madhav Dhar, Managing Partner of Traxis Partners LLC told NDTV Profit the Budget was a big yawn for the most part and ended with a violent scream.
Read: The biggest gainers and losers in markets today
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: Finance Minister has been able to address twin tasks of checking inflation and accelarating growth. The Budget aims at faster, equitable, sustainable and more inclusive growth.
Rahul Gandhi, Congress: It's a good Budget.
Pawan Bansal, Congress: At least the Trinamool Congress is calling it a tolerable Budget. In the given situation, this type of budget is a good Budget.
Sudip Bandopadhyay, Trinamool: In one word, it's a tolerable Budget.
TR Baalu, DMK: We're happy. It's a pro- development Budget.
Jayalalithaa, AIADMK: Budget is anti-people. It demonstrates continued policy paralysis gripping Centre
Nitish Kumar, JD(U): It's a disappointing Budget, as it has nothing for Bihar in it
Gurudas Dasgupta, Left: The Budget is completely ineffective. The tax system is regressive.
Sultan Ahmed, Trinamool Congress: Na khushi na gham.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP: Dada's Budget presented amidst revolt from Didi will herald the farewell of the UPA government. Instead of leading the nation on the path of reform, it will lead it to indebtedness.
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the Aircel-Maxis deal, has summoned DMK leader and former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran.
The ED has asked Mr Maran to be present before it on March 20.
The controversial deal is also being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The case filed by the CBI against Mr Maran explains in detail how he allegedly misused his office when he was Telecom Minister to ensure mobile operator Aircel was sold to an entrepreneur who returned the favour with Rs. 549-crore kickback.
The FIR or First Information Report filed by the CBI, explains how. "An illegal gratification of Rs. 549 crore was accepted as quid pro quo through his (Maran's) brother, Kalanithi, in the garb of share premium invested in Sun TV."
Mr Maran was Telecom Minister between 2004 and 2007. In 2006, C Sivasankaran who owned Aircel sold the company to the Maxis group. Within months, the owner of Maxis, T Ananda Krishnan, who is based in Malaysia, made a whopping investment in Sun Networks, owned by the minister's brother.
The money was routed through Astro, a subsidiary of Maxis. Like Mr Ananda Krsihnan, the CEO of Astro, Ralph Marshall, has been named in the FIR.
Mr Sivasankaran says that he sold Aircel after Mr Maran deliberately delayed sanctioning 14 licenses critical to his business. After two years of being kept on hold, Mr Sivasankaran finally gave in to the pressure that the CBI agrees Mr Maran applied. The FIR states that the conspiracy behind the Aircel-Maxis transaction was "hatched in Delhi, Chennai, Mauritius and Malaysia."
The document explains how Mr Maran allegedly engineered the sale to help Maxis - in the CBI's opinion. It states that in October 2005, Mr Marshal met Mr Sivasankaran and told him that Mr Maran had told him he cleared the sale of Aircel to Maxis. A month later, Mr Maran's brother, Kalanithi met Mr Sivasankaran at the Taj Coromandel Hotel in Chennai; immediately after that meeting, Mr Maran allegedly called the Aircel owner and instructed him to sell 100% stake in Aircel to Maxis. Hours after that meeting, Mr Sivasankaran received formal offers for the takeover from Maxis.
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Actor-producer Saif Ali Khan, who’s gearing up to perform at producer Ekta Kapoor’s award show, Global Indian Film and TV Honors, tonight, says he’s choreographed a couple of dance steps for his chartbuster Pyaar ki pungi… from Agent Vinod. “The audience will witness the other side of Agent Vinod’s character in this song,” he says.
When asked what kind of reactions have come his way for his ‘performance’ in the song, the 41-year-old says, “Lot of people have told me it’s unlike what they think and it’s not what I usually do. I made up a couple of steps. It was spontaneous. When I heard the beats, I came up with a few moves and the choreographers liked them. So we have kept the moves in the actual video.”
The father of two adds that he’s extremely happy with the way it has finally turned out. “It was something really new for me,” says Saif, who plans to run the full song when the end credits roll.
At the moment, the actor is excited about his stage performance, though not too many people would be aware that it’s not his first. He performed at a popular award show a couple of years ago.
“I can’t remember the exact number of years since I performed last. Earlier, there were loads of world tours that were a lot of fun to be part of. I’ve done a couple of live performances and I enjoy them,” says Saif, adding, “It peps up the act if the songs chosen for your act are great.”
Saif’s last film as a producer came a couple of years ago. Given the gap between the two productions, and the genre he’s ventured into this time, is he nervous about the reactions for Agent Vinod? “There’s positive buzz about the film.
So I’m hoping the opening will be great,” says the actor. “If this film works to the audience’s and my satisfaction, then I would love to produce a sequel.”
Islamabad: A Swiss couple held by the Taliban in north-western Pakistan for eight months turned up at a military checkpoint early on Thursday and were flown by helicopter to Peshawar and then Islamabad, where they were handed over to the Swiss Embassy, officials said.
It was unclear how the two obtained their freedom. A Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said they had escaped. But in a video released last week, another Taliban hostage, Ajmal Khan, the head of a university in Peshawar, said that the government had agreed to pay "millions of rupees" and to free 100 prisoners in exchange for the Swiss hostages.
Kidnapping has become a major source of revenue and propaganda for the Pakistani Taliban and associated militant factions based in North and South Waziristan, the tribal agencies at the heart of militant operations that have borne the brunt of American drone strikes in recent years. Hostages captured by various groups around the country, or in Afghanistan, are often sold to the Taliban or Al Qaeda and transferred to the tribal belt.
Along with high-profile kidnappings of foreigners, the Taliban have targeted dozens of wealthy and prominent Pakistanis, some of whom have spent years in captivity. On Thursday night, the local news media reported that Amir Malik, 41, a wealthy jeweller kidnapped from Lahore in August 2010, had been freed in Waziristan.
Mr Malik's father-in-law, General Tariq Majid, is a retired four-star general and former chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Overjoyed relatives said the army had promised to bring Mr Malik home soon.
"We have been counting every day and hour since he disappeared," his father, Aftab Malik, said by telephone.
The two Swiss hostages, Daniela Widmer, 29, and Olivier David Och, 32, were taken from their vehicle in the western province of Baluchistan on July 2, five days after crossing into Pakistan by road from India. They had been following an overland route to Europe once favored by adventurous tourists but that has in recent years been plagued by kidnappings. Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province, has been racked by a separatist insurgency for seven years.
Months after the abduction, the Taliban released a video of the couple, saying they were being held in a stronghold in Waziristan. The Taliban demanded $3.3 million in ransom, the release of 100 imprisoned Taliban fighters and the return of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman serving 86 years in prison in the United States for attempting to shoot an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2008.
A security official in Peshawar, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue, said: "This could be the result of some deal. You can't just walk away from the militants' den like this."
A reporter for The New York Times, David Rohde, who was captured in Afghanistan, fled captivity in North Waziristan with an Afghan colleague in 2009, but otherwise successful escapes are rare. Others currently in captivity include Mr Khan, who went missing in September 2010; Warren Weinstein, an American consultant whose kidnapping has been claimed by Al Qaeda; Shahbaz Taseer, a son of the former Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated in January 2011; and an Italian and a German aid worker abducted in the southern city of Multan in January.
Last week, the Taliban made their first public claim of responsibility for Mr Taseer, who was seized from his Mercedes sports car in a wealthy district of Lahore in August. "Shahbaz is in good health but will only be released after our demands are met," Abu Omar, a deputy to the local commander, Wali ur-Rehman, said in a telephone interview from a North Waziristan number.
In the video released last month, Mr Khan, the vice chancellor of Islamia College University, Peshawar, pleaded for the government to save his life.
"I am old and suffering from a heart ailment; I am left helpless, so please release four Taliban prisoners," he said.
Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Islamabad.
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New Delhi: A day after he proposed a fare hike in the rail budget which has threatened his job, a defiant Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi today said he would repeat the same if he was asked to present the budget again.
Mr Trivedi, who Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has demanded to be sacked, also said that neither has he been contacted by Ms Banerjee nor he has spoken to her yet.
"I would do the same if I am asked to present the budget again," Mr Trivedi told reporters in New Delhi.
Mr Trivedi has in his budget proposed up to 20 per cent passenger fare hike in the rail budget for 2012-13, inviting the wrath of the Trinamool Congress chief who has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack him.
When it was pointed out that the fare hike proposals were contrary to his party's policy, he said "I have done it for the Railways and the country...not for party. If I have to please my party, then I am not doing my work."
On the possibility of a rollback of the hike in fares, Mr Trivedi said "the budget is in Parliament and I will be guided by Parliament. Parliament will be guided by the wisdom of people."
Referring to Lokpal, he said "why Lokpal has come? Because of the wisdom of the people. If Parliament tells me to cut down, then I will say okay I am cutting down on safety. But then do not blame me if something happens on safety."
Mr Trivedi said he is inspired by the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, one of whose poems reads "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high. It is all symbolic."
In an apparent dig at Ms Banerjee without naming her, Mr Trivedi said "what is the point of having Tagore's music at traffic junctions and not following him?"
Ms Banerjee, after becoming Chief Minister, has ensured playing of Tagore's songs at key traffic intersections in Kolkata.
"I want to carry myself with dignity. I follow the teachings of Tagore. That is why I invoke Tagore. My mind is without fear and head is held high", said the Railway Minister.
"I am receiving congratulatory messages from people from every walk of life across the country for the rail budget", Mr Trivedi claimed.
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The Economic Survey for 2011-12 has pegged GDP growth at 6.9 per cent for the entire fiscal and predicted a promising outlook for both growth and stability
It projected real GDP to grow at 7.6 per cent in fiscal 2012-13 and 8.6 per cent for fiscal 2014.
The outlook for growth and price stability at this juncture looks more promising, the Economic Survey for 2011-12 said on Thursday. According the survey, indicators shows that weakness in economic activity has bottomed out and a gradual upswing is imminent.
The survey projected 2.5 per cent growth in agriculture for the current fiscal and said Industrial growth pegged at 4-5 per cent, but expected to improve as economic recovery resumes.
The services sector continued to grow, risng 9.4 %, and taking its share in GDP to 59%.
In fiscal 2012, although a large part of the reason for the slowing of the economy were because of global factors, domestic factors such as monetary tightening to curb high inflation, and slowing investment and industrial activity also played a role.
The growth rate of investment in the economy likely declined significantly in fiscal 2011-12. Sharp increase in interest rates resulted in higher costs of borrowings; and other rising costs took their toll on profitability and, thereby, internal accruals that could be have been used to fund investment.
Foreign trade performance will remain a key driver of growth, the Rurvey said, adding that forex reserves enhanced, covering nearly the entire external debt stock.
However, it did acknowledge that the Indian economy has slowed, attributing it almost entirely to weakening industrial growth. The manufacturing sector grew by 2.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2011-12, the latest periods for which data is available.
Inflation as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI) was high during most of the current fiscal year, though by the year’s end there was a clear slowdown. Food inflation, in particular,, has come down to around zero, with most of the remaining WPI inflation being driven by non-food manufacturing products.
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New Delhi/Kolkata: Like much of the country, an aggressive opposition today asked in Parliament if Dinesh Trivedi is still the country's Railways Minister. Yes, says the government, acknowledging that Mr Trivedi has not resigned yet. But the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also acknowledged that the Prime Minister has received a letter from Mr Trivedi's boss, Mamata Banerjee, asking for his removal. Dr Manmohan Singh was non-committal despite the opposition's demands for an explanation. "If the situation arises, we will consider it," he told reporters. Mr Trivedi was in the House, and was seen smiling. He has reportedly defied Ms Banerjee's instructions to attend Parliament today. Mr Trivedi has provoked the wrath of Ms Banerjee because he allegedly did not consult her about the hike in passenger fares that he announced in his Railways Budget yesterday- the first in nine years. Ms Banerjee wants a rollback in those fares, at least for the cheap tickets that are normally bought by the aam admi or common man. Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is a key member of the government with 19 Lok Sabha MPs. Its leaders today said in Parliament that they remain committed to the ruling coalition, the lone piece of good news this morning for the Congress. Trinamool leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay also told the Lok Sabha, "We have not asked for Dinesh Trivedi's resignation." Sources say this was meant to indicate that the party will not be content with Mr Trivedi resigning, it wants him to be fired. But the opposition pointed out that the drama over Mr Trivedi is an unprecedented political crisis. "Is he the Railways Minister and is the budget he presented yesterday alive or dead?" asked the BJP's Sushma Swaraj. Other leaders pointed out that even as Parliament was discussing Mr Trivedi's status, MPs from his party were on a dharna outside against the minister and the new fares he announced in his Railways Budget yesterday. This is a theatre of the absurd," said the BJP's Arun Jaitley This morning, sources said that the Congress had given in to Ms Banerjee's two big demands: that Mr Trivedi would be replaced by her close confidante Mukul Roy as Railways Minister, and that the increased fares would be rolled back, at least for the cheaper tickets. However, Mr Mukherjee has urged Ms Banerjee to wait for these changes till after the union budget is presented tomorrow. But Ms Banerjee is not known for compromises. So her party members have begun a protest at parliament, demanding that the hike in passenger fares be reversed. They also want a financial package from the centre for West Bengal, which is seeped in debt. Among the Trinamool Congress leaders on "strike" at Parliament is the man tipped to be the next Railways Minister, Mr Roy. Even as that drama continues, Ms Banerjee is needling the Congress on another front. A group of MPs from her party will meet the Prime Minister today. "We will convey we are upset with the NCTC," said Sudip Bandhopadhyay, who will be among them. He is also a minister from Ms Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress. The NCTC refers to the new National Counter Terror Centre. Ms Banerjee, who heads the Trinamool Congress and the Bengal government, has captained a group of ten chief ministers who have objected to the NCTC, forcing a delay in its commissioning. Non-Congress states say the anti-terror hub has powers that over-ride those of state governments on law and order, and that violates the federal structure of the country.
Ms Banerjee amplified her opposition to the NCTC by moving amendments to the vote of thank to the President's address. Earlier this week, President Pratibha Patil outlined for parliament the agenda of the government. Ms Banerjee wants the term "NCTC" to be deleted from that address. The BJP has filed similar amendments. What that means is that the BJP will push for a vote. And Ms Banerjee's MPs may find themselves voting alongside the opposition and against the government that they belong to. When asked if that's likely, Mr Bandhopadhyay said, "We will talk when the cup of tea comes to my lip."
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New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee might have cried wolf once too often and a weary Congress is said to be looking at other options to include in the UPA coalition that it leads. Mamata Banerjee has precipitated crisis after embarrassing crisis for the central government, based entirely on the certitude that her 19 MPs are crucial for the survival of the Congress-led coalition which has a very thin majority in the Lok Sabha. The Congress is now looking at the 22 MPs of the Samajwadi Party to possibly offset the loss of Mamata's 19 if it comes to a parting of ways. The SP already offers unsolicited support from the outside to the Congress. As does Mayawati's BSP. The Congress will count on that support continuing formally. There has also been speculation about the Congress attempting to woo the SP into government with a Cabinet berth for SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Then there is Lalu Yadav who too has helped the UPA government in sticky situations. (Read: Will Congress re-boot the UPA with Mulayam Singh Yadav and without Mamata Banerjee?) The UPA needs to be sure of its numbers as it attempts to push important legislations and reform measures in this Budget Session and later this year. Its math will take into account the following numbers: Total number of seats in the Lok Sabha: 543 Simple majority at halfway: 272 UPA has at present (Including Trinamool): 276 Numbers that matter: Trinamool: 19 Samajwadi Party: 22 Bahujan Samaj Party: 21 Rashtriya Janata Dal: 4 Possible calculations: UPA without Trinamool: 257 UPA without Trinamool, but with SP: 279 UPA with support from SP and BSP: 300 UPA with support from SP, RJD and BSP: 304 UPA break-up: 276 Congress: 206 Trinamool: 19 DMK: 18 Nationalist Congress Party: 9 National Conference: 3 Smaller parties or individuals together: 21
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Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed trimming the government's subsidy burden and called for speeding the pace of economic reforms, which have been stalled by political gridlock, in his budget speech on Friday.
High oil prices have swelled India's subsidy burden to roughly 2.5 per cent of GDP and Mukherjee called for reducing that to less than 2 per cent in the fiscal year that starts on April 1.
"We have to accelerate the pace of reforms," he told parliament.
India is under pressure to trim the country's fiscal deficit amid cooling economic growth and a crisis of stability for the coalition government.
Mukherjee set a target of selling Rs 300 billion worth of stakes in state companies in the next fiscal year, roughly in line with forecasts. India has raised just Rs 139 billion in the current fiscal year from stake sales, far below its budget target of Rs 400 billion.
The government's move on Wednesday to raise railway fares for the first time in eight years sparked an intense backlash from the Trinamool Congress, further eroding its ability to make politically tough decisions such as raising diesel prices in order to ease its fiscal deficit.
Mukherjee said he expects the economy to grow by 7.6 per cent in the fiscal year starting in April, up from an expected 6.9 per cent in the current year but below the 8.4 per cent growth of the previous fiscal year.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government was already reeling from a dismal showing in recent state elections and more than a year of corruption scandals that have resulted in policy gridlock.
With general elections set for 2014, the budget a year from now is expected to be laden with populist spending measures. Friday's budget is thus viewed as a last opportunity for Singh's government to roll back a yawning fiscal gap.
India's fiscal deficit for the year that ends this month is expected to exceed the target of 4.6 per cent of GDP by more than a percentage point after economic growth slowed, the subsidy bill ballooned on higher oil and commodity prices and weak markets undermined efforts to sell state assets.
High inflation forced the RBI to continue raising interest rates even as its counterparts elsewhere turned their focus towards reviving growth. While inflation is no longer near double digits, it rose to 6.95 per cent annually in February.
On Thursday, the central bank disappointed market hopes that it would begin cutting interest rates after 13 increases between March 2010 and October 2011, and warned of renewed inflationary risks from high oil prices, a depreciation of the rupee and "fiscal slippage", a reference to the government's deficit.
Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2012
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When Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha reached Purulia in West Bengal to shoot for their upcoming film Lootera a few days ago, they had no idea that a completely different task, besides acting, was in store for them. The two actors eventually ended up playing peacemakers. The trouble began when the unit of Vikramaditya Motwane’s film first reached the location. On day one, about 1.5 kms away from the town, a huge crowd had assembled. While the crew thought that the news of the shoot had caused the initial curiosity and chaos, they noticed that the group began turning up almost everyday.
Apparently the locals had no idea of what the shoot was about — some even believed that a foreign news crew was at work — which was why they would regularly visit the spot in droves.
Since part of the schedule involved filming in an open field, the crew began finding it hard to maintain discipline during the shots as the crowd became openly disruptive. “People were pouring in from all corners. We had crew members from all departments working hard to lock vehicles, request motorcyclists and fans to stay away or keep quiet. But someone or the other would keep making noise,” says a unit member.
Finally, when the crew couldn’t control the matter, Ranveer and Sonakshi stepped in.
The duo addressed the crowds themselves.
Confirms co-producer Vikas Bahl, “For the initial part of the schedule, it was a little difficult. It was only after Ranveer and Sonakshi took charge and explained the situation to the crowd that they began cooperating.”
The classic love story, which is apparently set in the 1950s, is set to release on Bakri Eid (October 26).
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted conditional permission to Pakistani-born Canadian Islamic scholar Maulana Tahirul Qadri to hold public meetings in the city, an official said Thursday.
Justice VM Kanade and Justice PD Kode directed that the maulana must restrict his speeches only to spiritual and religious matters and not digress to any other controversial issue, said Imtiyaz Patel, counsel for Raza Academy, a group of Muslim scholars.
Raza Academy filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the court on Wednesday challenging Qadri's plans to address two major public meetings in Mumbai, contending that his speeches could pose law and order situation.
"The court has further directed the police to submit tape records, written and translated copies of Qadri's speech to the court tomorrow," Patel told IANS.
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When Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rises to present the Union Budget tomorrow, he might as well be performing with the Cirque du Soleil.
Until now the United Progressive Alliance government’s go-to man for crises of all sorts, Mukherjee faces his most challenging balancing act tomorrow, hemmed in by a truculent ally, a fiscal situation that seems as broken as Humpty Dumpty, a central bank – headed, ironically, by a former finance secretary – that has just decided to wait and watch for a sign from Mukherjee, and an Economic Survey, released today, that only makes a half-hearted attempt to hide the warts.
Not to mention a newly-emboldened Opposition that has smelt blood after the Congress' poor showing in the recent Assembly elections in five states.
It is truly Mukherjee’s perfect storm. And to weather it, he must, as the Economic Survey put it, “anchor fiscal consolidation on structural reforms in expenditure”.
Mukherjee’s troubles really started on Wednesday, when Dinesh Trivedi, Railway-Minister-in-limbo as it were, presented a portfolio budget that by most accounts was well-meaning. Instead, he was veering on the edge of political history only minutes later, when his own party disavowed his vision and demanded a rollback of the nominal fare hikes he had announced, and stoking speculation of an imminent collapse of the government.
On Thursday, Mukherjee faced two minor rumblings in the ground under his feet. First, the Reserve Bank of India decided that it would rather wait and watch Mukherjee before making any move to inject much-needed liquidity in the system.
Having cut the cash reserve ration only a week ago, the central bank left key policy rates untouched, meaning that industry will have to wait until April for any easing of the high interest rate regime. To be sure, the cycle has turned with the cuts in the cash reserve ratio, but advance tax payments mean that the liquidity crunch facing corporates will continue awhile.
This means that there will be no major investments by corporates until some time after April, depending on the quantum of the cut.
The worrying part for Mukherjee is that he can’t easily promise any tax hikes, given that corporates are already strapped for funds. Any tax increase will only hurt profitability, and the ability of corporates to make big-ticket investments or expansion that could boost growth and employment.
The lack of such initiatives will inevitably drag the larger economy down, since the public sector is ill-equipped, or funded, to provide any more sops or jobs. Any increase in social welfare spending to offset slow private sector slowdown is fraught with danger – it could send the government’s finances over the edge of the cliff. Already, Mukherjee is headed for a catastrophic increase in the fiscal deficit that has shot up by almost a full percentage point of the gross domestic product.
With gross fixed capital formation, or the value of assets acquired or sold in the fiscal, declining as a percentage of GDP from last year, there is little the government has to show by way of performance.
The Economic Survey, for all practical purposes, gave the government a clean report card, largely blaming global factors for the current situation, as it noted, “While a large part of the reason for the slowing of the Indian economy can be attributed to global factors, domestic factors also played role.” These, not surprisingly, were a tight monetary position due to high inflation. And slowing investment and industrial activity.
The link is clear – a loose monetary policy means higher spending and investment but also higher inflation , often in the form of food prices, the proverbial third rail of Indian politics.
And despite an above-7 per cent GDP growth projection for next year, the Survey doesn’t mince its words about the past fiscal's numbers: “... compared to how India has fared since 2003 and, especially, since 2005, they are disappointing."
Can Mukherjee do better?
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New Delhi: Injecting a note of levity in his sombre Budget presentation, a smiling Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha on Friday that he had no problem in a "rollback of the speech".
Mr Mukherjee, who had to interrupt his reading of the Budget because some members of the House could not hear it properly, offered to read some paragraphs again. "Rollback of the speech, no problem," Mr Mukherjee said, smiling broadly, as the house interrupted in laughter.
The reference was, of course, to the rail budget where United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ally Trinamool Congress has asked for a rollback of the hike in passenger tariff.
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New Delhi: The Sri Lankan High Commissioner has apologised for recent remarks which suggested that MPs from Tamil Nadu had been lobbied by members of the LTTE to object to the alleged war crimes of the Sri Lankan government. "If they are sympathetic to the LTTE cause, the Indian authorities should investigate into the matter," he had said in an interview.
Prasad Kariyawasam issued his apology after he was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs to explain his interview. Mr Kariyawasam said the Indian foreign ministry official who met him "expressed very clearly the concerns of the Indian government" over his reported remarks. "I would like to apologise to the MPs of Tamil Nadu if I have caused any discontent or concern or distress in their minds," the High Commissioner said. "What I meant was LTTE lobby groups, abroad and elsewhere in the region as well, are carrying on a campaign of mis-information ." In the Rajya Sabha, Mr Kariyawasam's remarks created a storm today. D Raja of the Left along with members of the AIADM K and DMK said that the envoy had violated diplomatic norms. Trichy Siva of the DMK moved a privilege motion against him which basically means that the High Commissioner has disregarded the rights and immunities of MPs and could be held punishable by law. MPs of parties from Tamil Nadu have been demanding that India vote against Sri Lanka at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
America, Norway and France have moved the resolution which asks for a detailed investigation into alleged war crimes and human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government against the island 's Tamils, as well as LTTE members.
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New Delhi: Baby Falak, the two-year-old who had India watching her in hospital and praying for her recovery, will be cremated by her mother. The baby died of a heart attack yesterday - her third in two months. Doctors at Delhi's AIIMS hospital, where Falak went through multiple surgeries, today handed her over to her mother, Munni.
"Her mother had come over and was handed over the body at around 4.30 PM. They then left the premises for the cremation," Deepak Agrawal, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, who has been attending on Falak from the day she was admitted there, said.
Falak was being monitored by the Child Welfare Committee, and the officials had asked for an inquiry on her death. That could take till tomorrow to complete.
Falak was introduced to India under circumstances that made the country sick with anger. She was brought to AIIMS by a young teen who had been looking after her. Her face had been bitten, her head had repeatedly been smashed into a wall, and her chest showed burn marks from a hot clothes iron. The nurses who tended to her at the Intensive Care Unit named her Falak meaning "the sky." In recent weeks, doctors had said Falak was showing healthy signs of recovery and was strong enough to leave hospital. But because nobody requested them for her custody, she was moved to the general ward. Yesterday, her heart beat fluctuated all day. Then last evening, she had a heart attack. "It happened all of a sudden. She was sleeping in her bed when the cardiac arrest occurred," Dr Agrawal said.
Two earlier cardiac arrests had weakened her heart greatly. For 40 minutes, doctors tried to revive her. Finally, they gave up. "Since hers (Falak) was a medico-legal case, a post-morterm was conducted. The cardiac arrest happened due to due cardiac arrhythmia, a disorder of the heart rate when the heart beats too quickly," he said.
Till Falak met the doctors and nurses who devoted their days and nights to her, the baby had known only a world of unimaginable neglect and horror. Her mother's story is one that shames India repeatedly - she couldn't afford to look after her three children. So after being passed from one disinterested adult to another, Falak's last few weeks before being admitted to hospital were with a teen living with a married man. The young girl abused her after the man she had eloped with took off to see his wife and children.
A long police search located Falak's mother, named Munni, in Rajasthan. Munni originally lived in Bihar with her husband and three children, including Falak. Then her husband left her. Munni was lured to Delhi by a gang who trafficked sex workers. She refused to prostitute herself, so the women in the gang arranged a marriage for her to a man in Rajasthan. They brokered the deal, unknown to Munni, for two lakhs. They said she should leave her children behind, and that once she settled into her new life, her husband would be persuaded to accept them. The women then divided up the children. Falak's sister was sent home to Bihar. Her brother is five-years-old. And Falak was passed from one adult to another, all known to the gang of traffickers, till she ended up with the teen who brought her to AIIMS.
Falak's mother visited her once in hospital. She broke down after she saw her baby. She has been staying at a shelter for women run by an NGO.
The Child Welfare Committee was to decide whose custody Falak would be placed in once she left AIIMS.
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Munni Badnaam Hui… topped the charts in 2010. And since last Friday, which is when Dabangg 2 went on the floors, rumours have suggested that Salman Khan and sister-in-law Malaika Arora Khan can soon be expected to come together for another item number called Pandeyji Maare Seeti….
Quiz composer Wajid on the subject and he says that both the stars will do item songs, but he doesn’t confirm whether they will be dancing to any track together.
“You can’t leave Munni out of Dabangg 2, but where and when she comes in is a surprise,” he says, adding that he and his partner Sajid have almost finished composing the score. “We’ve locked on three songs. Arbaaz bhai is not a confused debutant director, he knows what he wants. Salman bhai and he are happy with the songs.”
The duo flagged off their career with the track Teri Jawaani… from the Salman Khan-starrer Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya in 1998. Since then, they’ve worked with him in 15 films. “He’s like an older brother. Having observed him over the years, we know his personality traits that subconsciously get incorporated into our tracks.”
Wajid has also composed a third song, which will apparently star a top actor. Incidentally, there was also some speculation about Kareena Kapoor doing an item number in Dabangg 2. But Wajid is unaware: “We’ve also heard that Kareena could be coming on board, she would rock it! Salman, Malaika and Kareena are so convincing on screen that any song can seem tailor-made for them.”
Ask him whether the Dabangg 2 track will outperform RA.One’s Chammak Challo… and Wajid retorts, “Every song has its own charm. All I can say is that after our song, everyone will want one like it.”
In a move that will have far-reaching impact on foreign investment and the Vodafone tax case, the government has proposed an amendment to the Income tax act from April 1, 1962 that would allow it to tax transactions like Vodafone's acquisition of Hutch.
The government has quietly inserted an amendment to provisions of the Income Tax Act to tax overseas transfer of shares that hold underlying assets in India like in the Vodafone situation. The government plans enforce the amendment with retrospective effect from 1962.
According to R S Gujral, finance secretary, transactions like Vodafone are subject to taxes in India.
“The new amendment is only a clarification reiterating the point that such transactions are to be taxed in India,” he said.
He also said that the 10 per cent withholding tax should have been levied on Vodafone.
He said that the government expects to recover Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 crore from cases similar to Vodafone and that the figure included Vodafone.
This means the government has changed laws with retrospective effect (1962).
Experts have expressed an outrage over the decision.
“The government has challenged the Supreme Court,” Surjit Bhalla, chairman Ox(u)s Investment.
“The decision will affect investor sentiment,” Ketan Dalal of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy firm said.
The BSE Sensex shed 1.3 per cent at 3.30 pm on Friday.
On 20 January 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that Vodafone, the British telecom giant does not have to pay taxes and penalties for the transaction that saw the company acquire 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar, a mobile phone operator in India in 2007. The deal was for 55,000 crore or $11.5 billion.
The Supreme Court had said that Indian tax officials do not have jurisdiction over a deal between two global companies, even if the assets involved in that deal are located in India.
The Supreme Court had said that the Vodafone tax case was an "eye-opener" for Indian legislature to take measures to meet such unprecedented situations which arise due to "what we lack in our regulatory laws".
"Case in hand is an eye-opener of what we lack in our regulatory laws and what measures we have to take to meet the various unprecedented situations, that too without sacrificing national interest," Justice K S Radhakrishnan, who wrote a separate judgment concurring with the findings of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar had said.
The court said insufficient legislation might give opportunities for money laundering and tax evasion adding "it is imperative that Indian Parliament would address all these issues with utmost urgency".
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The first official trailer of Yash Raj Films' much-awaited Ishaqzaade is finally out. The film, which marks the debut of filmmaker Boney Kapoor's son Arjun opposite actor Priyanka Chopra's cousin Parineeti, has already generated a great deal of buzz on Twitter.
The film narrates the story of two people, "born to hate, but destined to love", and follows how their "turbulent journey unfolds in the often unrealistic and daunting political confines of rural India", a statement from YRF said on Sunday.
IshaqzaadeThe film is written and directed by Habib Faisal of Do Dooni Chaar fame. He has also written films like Band Baaja Baaraat.
Amit Trivedi will compose the music for the film, while Rekha and Chinni Prakash will choreograph it.
Celeb Tweets Sonam Kapoor "@yrfmovies: Guys... We present to you the OFFICIAL TRAILER of @Ishaqzaade"
Riteish Deshmukh Blown away by Arjun Kapoor & @ParineetiChopra just saw da promo of Issakzade - way to go guys-
Uday Chopra One of the awesomest trailers from YRF, even if I say so myself check out Arjun Kapoor @ParineetiChopra in Ishaqzaade
Kamaal R Khan All the very best to Arjun Kapoor and Ishaqzade team. Mind blowing promo.
Twitterati buzz @DrDang: I like the #Ishaqzaade trailer. I like Arjun Kapoor. I like that Parineeti is as much of a gun-toter.
@JD__Naik: Theatrical Trailer - Ishaqzaade Arjun Kapoor & Parineeti Chopra in trailer look amazing.. wait for movie
@DevNakshi: Not sure about Arjun Kapoor. But Parineeti Chopra looks promising in 'Ishaqzaade' trailer.
@sweeetstarr1: Amazinggg Theatrical Trailer of Ishaqzaade, jus by seeing the promo I've become fan of Arjun Kapoor !! Your Son is toooo Good
@Ishaqzaade: The @Ishaqzaade trailer is going viral, Arjun Kapoor is trending. Thankyou guys for the awesome response to the trailer.
India's benchmark Sensex plunged as corporates said the higher excise duty and service tax proposed in the Budget would hurt growth. At 1440 hours, the Sensex was down 226 points or 1.3% at 17,450 while the broader Nifty index traded 66 points lower at 5,314.
The finance minister has also proposed to retrospectively change the tax law as far as the Vodafone case is concerned and this will not go down well with foreign investors, analysts told NDTV Profit.
According to the Budget proposal, offshore transfers will be taxed in India if the shares derive its value substantially from assets in India.
"This will be very negative from FDI and FII perspective. I would like to think this would not happen because this is something that should not be done," Tarun Kataria, chief executive office of Religare Capital Markets said.
Here are 10 stocks that have seen strong movement post the Budget announcement:
1) Sun Pharma: down over 7%, biggest Nifty loser Why: MAT to be levied on limited liability model. Sun Pharma works on limited liability model.
2) Cairn India: down over 5% Why: Cess raised from 2500/mt to 4500/mt (from $7/bbl to $12/bbl). Brokerage firm CLSA says raising cess is negative. Other stocks affected: ONGC, OIL and RIL.
3) Standard Chartered IDR: up 20% Two-way fungibility on IDRs have been allowed.
4) Motilal Oswal: up 2.5%
Why: STT has been cut. Other stocks affected: Geogit BNP Paribas, Prime Securities, JM Financial.
5) Coal India: up 1.5% Why: Coal duty abolished
6) Atlas Cycle: up over 15% Why: Import duty on cycles and parts cut
7) Jet Airways: down 2.5% Why: No progress on FDI in aviation.
8) M&M: up 2% No additional hike in excise duty
9) ITC: up 3% The stock has gone up despite hike in excise duty.
10) Petronet LNG: Import duty cut.
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Industry is struggling to see some positive in it. Allies have nothing to crib about. The Opposition sounds stretched to slam it with much enthusiasm. The biggest criticism of Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2012-13 comes from Dalal Street. India's benchmark Sensex closed 210 points lower as corporates said the higher excise duty and service tax proposed in the Budget would hurt growth. The Nifty too closed lower.
The finance minister has also proposed to retrospectively change the tax law as far as the Vodafone case is concerned and this will not go down well with foreign investors, analysts say.
A disappointed India Inc, which had been looking to Pranab Mukherjee to set things right, says the budget is a "missed opportunity", would have a cascading impact on inflation and consumer demand and is unlikely to boost growth.
NDTV’s experts have a quick list of the best and worst of Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget 2012-13:
Five best:
Negative list for services; Subsidies at 2% of GDP; Tax free infra bonds; Foreign borrowings for low-cost housing; Expansion of venture capital
Five worst:
Fiscal deficit at 5.1% of the GDP; Allocation of divestment proceeds; Growth projection at 7.6%; Subsidy payment by cash vouchers; Increase in agricultural credit
The government says that in a tough year it has put its best foot forward. The budget, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was about inclusive growth. “When the time comes, we have to bite the bullet on controlling subsidies,” he said after his finance minster Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget 2012-13, his seventh.
At the very beginning of his speech Mr Mukherjee said that a “year of recovery interrupted” meant that it was time to take tough decisions. He pegged GDP growth for the next year at 7.6 %, promised that inflation would be down and said fiscal consolidation called for big efforts. The idea ahead of the budget was that fiscal deficit needed to be controlled by cutting subsidies and raising taxes. The finance minister has raised taxes and promised cuts in subsidies. He said central subsidies would be kept under 2% of the GDP in the next financial year. And brought lower to 1.7 per cent thereafter.
After the Budget had been read, many lauded the announcement but also wanted to see the roadmap for how the government intended to do this. The past performance of the government does not really say much on this front. Last year’s budget estimates said the subsidies bill would be Rs 1,34,209 crore. The revised estimates say it would be Rs 2,08,502 crore, way beyond the target set. The finance minister has set the target for this year at Rs 1,79,554 crore.
Government borrowing too is expected to be Rs 4,80,000 crore against the market expectation of Rs 4,30,000 crore. According to bankers like Uday Kotak, this does not leave any significant room for interest rate cuts. “Rate cuts would not be too many as many expect,” he said.
The industry has expressed disappointment.
"Not a great budget as I hoped it to be," B Muthuraman, vice chairman Tata Steel said. Pawan Goenka of Mahindra & Mahindra said that he was disappointed and did not see the finance minister announce things he said at the beginning of his speech.
Pranab Mukherjee has not chosen to not make many tall promises. The government missed its disinvestment target and also did not meet the deadline for implementation of tax reforms like direct tax code and goods and services tax or GST.
The government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore through disinvestment, assuring the House that at least 51 per cent control remains with the government. He has not made any significant announcement on the implementation schedule of both DTC and GST. The idea of introducing the two was to widen the tax base and boost growth.
On black money, the government has not been able to unearth any significant wealth. But Mr Mukherjee has promised a white paper on black money.
Aam Aadmi
For the ‘aam aadmi’, there is some reason to smile with personal tax exemptions, but in the raising of service tax and excise duty there lurk higher prices. Mr Mukherjee has raised the income tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakhs for all individual tax payers. This will result in savings of a minimum Rs 22,000 for all tax payers. Also, the upper limit for the 20% tax slab has been raised - from incomes up to 8 lakhs to incomes up to 10 lakhs.
The tax slabs proposed by Mr Mukherjee today are: • Income up to Rs 2 lakh-- nil • Income between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh - 10% • Rs 5-10 lakh - 20% • Above Rs 10 lakh - 30 %
Also interest of up to Rs 10,000 from saving accounts will be tax-deductible. And deduction of up to Rs 5,000 has been allowed for health checkups.
At the outset, Mr Mukherjee outlined five objectives of his budget:
• Focus on domestic demand driven growth recovery • Creating conditions for growth • Addressing supply bottlenecks, energy transport, road, power and civil aviation • Decisively tackling malnutrition • And expediting decision-making for better governance and address black money problem
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New Delhi: The budgetary allocation for the President's household establishment this year has seen a nominal increase of Rs eight lakh from Rs 19.04 crore to Rs 19.12 crore.
Compared to Rs 19.04 crore allocated last year for expenditure on "other expenditure", this year Rs 19.12 crore have been earmarked for the same.
Other expenditure provides for amount spent on household establishment of the President on account of salaries of the staff and officers, office expenses, purchase and maintenance of vehicles, etc.
The budgetary allocation for President's Secretariat has seen a marginal increase of Rs 35 lakh this fiscal. The expenses include establishment related expenses in respect of the staff and officers of the secretariat including office expenses, the budget document says.
The salary and allowances of the President have been left unchanged at Rs 18 lakh.
The total budgetary allocation for the President has been increased by Rs 43 lakh from Rs 29.81 crore last fiscal to Rs 30.24 crore, an increase of about 1.4 per cent.
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Telephone use, eat-outs and other activities will cost more as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today proposed increasing the service tax rate to 12 per cent from 10 per cent and introducing a negative list aimed at bringing more services under the tax net.
"I propose to raise the service tax rate from 10 per cent to 12 per cent ... My proposals from service tax are expected to yield an additional revenue of Rs 18,660 crore," Mukherjee said while presenting the Budget for 2012-13.
The government has estimated to collect Rs 95,000 crore from service tax in the current fiscal and has pegged the next year's target at Rs 1.24 lakh crore.
"I propose to tax all services except those in the negative list. The list comprises 17 heads and has been drawn up, keeping in view the federal nature of our polity, the best international practices and our socio-economic requirements," Mukherjee said.
The services not under the negative list will attract 12 per cent service tax.
Last year, the Centre had proposed a negative list containing 22 services. Tax at the rate of 10 per cent is currently levied on 119 services.
The services that comprise the negative list include those provided by the government or local authorities, except a few specified services where they compete with private sector.
The list also includes pre-school and school education, recognized education at higher levels and approved vocational education, renting of residential dwellings, entertainment and amusement services and a large part of public transportation including metered cabs, and agriculture and animal husbandry.
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New Delhi: Amid signs of a fraying relationship between the Congress and its allies, the former has some relief. The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has so far not provoked any criticism from either the DMK of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, both senior partners in the ruling coalition.
"In one word, it's a tolerable Budget," said the Trinamool's Sudip Bandopadhyay. The DMK was more positive. "We're happy. It's a pro- development Budget," said its TR Baalu. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed trimming the government's subsidy burden. High oil prices have swelled India's subsidy burden to roughly 2.5 per cent of GDP and Ms Mukherjee called for reducing that to less than 2 per cent in the fiscal year that starts on April. Ms Banerjee has told the government repeatedly that she will not tolerate any rise in petrol or diesel prices since that will affect the common man or aam admi. "These are compulsions of managing a coalition," said the Prime Minister when asked about whether he expected Opposition from Ms Banerjee about reducing subsidies. "There will be differences, he said, but "if the government has to govern, it must have sustainable strategy for managing the economy." Adding that all allies would be consulted, he asserted, "When the time comes, we have to bite the bullet on controlling subsidies. " Congress leader Rahul Gandhi offered only this short assessment: "It's a good Budget."
Gurudas Dasgupta of the Left said, "The Budget is completely ineffective. The tax system is regressive."
"Dada's Budget presented amidst revolt from Didi will herald the farewell of the UPA government," said the BJP's vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, adding that "instead of leading the nation on the path of reform, it will lead it to indebtedness." Ms Banerjee and the Congress are believed to be on the shakiest ground their partnership has seen so far after she ordered that Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi be removed by the end of today. Mr Trivedi, who presented the Rail Budget earlier this week, belongs to Ms Banerjee's party. But his decision to hike passenger fares has, in Ms Banerjee's view, made him Public Enemy No 1. The Congress says that Ms Banerjee has the right to reallocate the Railways Portfolio to another member of her party. But it wanted her to wait till March 30 when Parliament takes a break. That would save the government from a blistering attack by the Opposition, which will target its inability to refuse Ms Banerjee any demand, because of its reliance on her MPs for its survival. Ms Banerjee's party last night told the Congress that it will not wait beyond tonight for Mr Trivedi's exit to be announced. Sources also say that the Trinamool wants Mr Trivedi to be sacked, and has rejected a suggestion from the Congress to allow the minister to resign - a move that would lend some dignity to his exit.
In the Union Budget today, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed trimming the government's subsidy burden and called for speeding the pace of economic reforms, which have been stalled by political gridlock. High oil prices have swelled India's subsidy burden to roughly 2.5 per cent of GDP and Mukherjee called for reducing that to less than 2 per cent in the fiscal year that starts on April. Ms Banerjee has told the government repeatedly that she will not tolerate any rise in petrol or diesel prices since that will affect the common man or aam aadmi.
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Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore from divesting its stake in public sector undertakings (PSUs) in 2012-13 .
The Centre’s divestment plans have been marred by market volatility this fiscal, which is likely to fetch the government Rs 14,000 crore against the target of Rs 40,000 crore in 2011-2012, the FM said in his Budget speech in Parliament on Friday .
Against a Rs 40,000 crore disinvestment target, the government is eyeing Rs 14, 000 crore with the latest being the ONGC share auction. Follow-on issues of Sail, Bhel and Oil India Ltd have been held back due to adverse market conditions.
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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned employees not to seek advantage from competitors' "alleged issues" after a former Goldman Sachs banker sparked a firestorm by charging that Goldman managing directors viewed clients as "muppets".
Dimon's memo, awaiting Asia employees in their e-mail inboxes on Thursday morning and a copy of which was seen by Reuters, also implored staff to focus on their own bank's standards amid the furore stirred after ex-Goldman banker Greg Smith published a scorn-filled resignation letter.
"Today's New York Times Op-Ed by a Goldman Sachs executive is generating a lot of discussion around the street," Dimon said.
"I want to be clear that I don't want anyone here to seek advantage from a competitor's alleged issues or hearsay - ever. It's not the way we do business."
The Dimon message was sent to the bank's global operating committee and later forwarded to wider parts of JP Morgan, sources who have seen the memo said.
JP Morgan declined to comment on the memo.
Goldman faced an unprecedented assault from one of its own on Wednesday when the London-based Smith published his resignation letter in the opinion section of the New York Times, calling the Wall Street bank a "toxic and destructive" place.
"It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,'" said the letter by Smith, who worked in equity derivatives.
Goldman said in its official response on Wednesday that the bank disagreed with the views expressed, "which we don't think reflect the way we run our business."
Malcontents
Sources at banks including Citi, Credit Suisse and Nomura said they were not aware of any memo similar to Dimon's circulating at their respective firms.
The kerfuffle that followed Smith's letter, however, has sparked worries at rival institutions over disgruntled bankers in their ranks and, according to a banker at a leading US bank, consideration of improvements to internal systems that can address grievances before malcontents go public.
While Goldman Sachs is attempting to play down the Smith letter, the firm's shares fell 3.4 per cent in trading in New York on Wednesday and its impact has become a topic of discussion among its employees.
"It's definitely got people talking in the office," said an Asia-based trader inside Goldman Sachs who did not want to be named.
"It's amusing honestly because perceptions depend on the individual. For every one person who has something malicious to say about the company, you'll find 10 others who have a 180 view on that," the trader said.
Several former Goldman Sachs employees who worked at the company before its initial public offering said the firm's culture did change after the IPO, as Smith alleges, with bankers increasingly under the gun to boost profit.
"The culture definitely has changed since I was there," said property developer SOHO China CEO Zhang Xin, who worked at Goldman Sachs some 20 years ago and now is a client of the firm.
"Since the company went public there's this pressure on earnings."
One former banker, who worked in derivatives sales at the time of his post-IPO departure from the firm, said however that Smith's singling out of senior management struck him as unfair.
"When Goldman Sachs was preparing for the IPO we all knew the culture would change, so to single out Lloyd (Blankfein) and Gary (Cohn) and say they wrecked the firm is a bit ridiculous," said the banker.
Two Goldman Sachs clients who work at different hedge funds both said the criticisms that Smith levels at the US investment bank's corporate culture could equally apply to its rivals.
"I don't think that the article is a shock at all. It's probably true at most places, not just Goldman. If you work in a bank, if you don't produce you are gone. That's the culture pretty much everywhere," said one of the hedge fund managers.
Added the other: "From a trading perspective, the coverage is good, the execution is good, and that's what matters to us. We go into a relationship with eyes wide open."
(Copyright Thompson Reuters 2012)
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Shy, reserved and hugely talented musician Hitesh Sonik has revealed that he will be marrying singer Sunidhi Chauhan next month.
"First I was her fan. Now, I am going to be her husband," Sonik told IANS.
He has known Sunidhi for 15 years. "She was a little more than a child when she won the Meri Awaz Suno music contest on television. That is when when we became friends. Gradually, over the years as she grew into a fine singer, our friendship blossomed into love," says Hitesh softly.
He is the grand-nephew of the well-known music composer Sonik of the Sonik-Omi pair of the 1960s and 1970s.
Says Hitesh proudly: "My grand-uncle Sonik was blind by birth. He first struggled to establish himself as a singer. Then, when he lost his voice, he got together with his nephew to form the successful Sonik-Omi composing duo who gave us such evergreen hits as Kanha Re Kanha (Truck Driver), Kaan Mein Jhumka Chaal Mein Thumka (Sawan Bhadon) and Raaz Ki Baat Keh Doon To (Dharma)."
Hitesh who served as an assistant musician to Vishal Bhardwaj in 11 films is now trying to establish himself as an independent composer. "I have done songs in Luv Ranjan's Pyaar Ka Punchnaama and Raghav Dhar's My Friend Pinto. Now I'm working on the songs of Luv Ranjan's new film Akaash Vani."
And yes, Hitesh lets out shyly that Sunidhi has sung for him. "She has so far sung my composition only once, in My Friend Pinto. Just because she is the woman in my life doesn't mean I would want to use a voice as powerful as hers until it is needed for one of my compositions."
Hitesh intends to keep the professional and personal spheres apart. "That Sunidhi is a wonderful singer is only a part of her personality. I love her first and foremost for the person she is. She has blended so well into my family. My folks dote on her. And I am also very comfortable with her family."
Hitesh says there is very little time and so much to do before the wedding. "We thought the wedding would be an intimate affair. But when we went through her and my invitation lists, we discovered we had to invite a lot more people than we thought. We are working on the preparations. April is not far off. She is a very busy singer and I have my assignments. We made sure we both had time to prepare for the wedding."
Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines will have a full recovery plan in place in 2-3 days, chairman Vijay Mallya said on Thursday.
One foreign airline and two non-airline foreign investors are interested in buying stake in the carrier, Mallya told reporters after a meeting with the debt-laden airline's pilots, who have been protesting against delayed salaries.
Mallya today met with striking pilots to end a row over unpaid wages that has led to cancellation of scores of flights.
Mallya did not disclose details of the meeting, but said it was a "productive" one.
"The pilots are extremely supportive to the company," Mallya said while addressing the media after his meeting.
Mallya said his top priority now would be to pay the pilots their salary. He also assured the press that KFA's flights would be on time.
The pilots' strike has forced the cash-strapped carrier to cancel more flights on top of those it scrapped last month to reduce expenses.
Kingfisher, which earlier this week announced it was curtailing its overseas flights in order to lower costs, had initially announced it was cutting its daily flight schedule to 175 from around 250.
The pilots' strike has further reduced the number of flights to around 100 a day.
At least 60 pilots have already left the airline to fly with rivals according to PTI.
The carrier has never turned a profit since its launch in 2005 and owes millions of dollars to suppliers, lenders and staff.
Its bank accounts have been frozen by authorities due to the non-payment of taxes and it has been dropped from a vital global payments and booking system run by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The airline's net loss widened sharply to Rs 4.44 billion ($88 million) in the three months to December from a loss of Rs 2.54 billion a year earlier, while its debt totals at least $1.3 billion.
India's airline industry - once a symbol of the country's economic progress - is now plagued by high fuel prices, fierce competition, price wars and inadequate airport infrastructure, with Kingfisher one of the worst-hit firms.
The airline has said "positive and immediate action is being taken on all fronts to cut costs".
Kingfisher's market share has slid to fifth position at 11.3 per cent, from second earlier, according to data on the civil aviation regulator's website.
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Indian car makers heaved a sigh of relief and saw their shares soar after the federal budget did not hike taxes on diesel cars, in a boost for diesel-focused manufacturers such as Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors.
Carmakers in India had feared a tax on diesel vehicles or a reduction in the fuel's generous subsidy , which has boosted sales as overall demand slows on high interest rates and rising petrol prices in Asia's third-largest economy.
"This budget was very, very good for the auto industry," said Vineet Hetamasaria, auto analyst at PINC Research in Mumbai. "Everyone was expecting taxes, and they didn't come."
Shares in Tata Motors jumped as much as 2.6 per cent to their highest-ever price after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's budget speech in parliament on Friday.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki's stock rose as much as 4.6 per cent to its highest level since January 2011.
Mukherjee also announced a hike in import duty to 75 per cent from 60 per cent for assembled SUVs and multi-utility cars costing more than $40,000. An announced increase in excise tax for cars made in India to 27 per cent would only have a small impact on car costs, analysts said.
Shares in Mahindra & Mahindra, India's leading SUV manufacturer, whose entire model range runs on diesel, rose as much as 6.1 per cent.
Diesel car sales have accelerated to account for about 40 per cent of new purchases in India, compared with less than 20 per cent a few years ago. The diesel model of Maruti Suzuki's popular new Swift hatchback has a waiting list longer than six months.
A rush to buy vehicles before the budget drove car sales in February to their highest-ever total.
Cutting the subsidy, which makes the fuel about 50 per cent cheaper than petrol, is a political hot potato due to diesel's extensive use in India's vast agricultural industry.
Fuel retailers and environmental groups had instead called for an extra excise duty of 81,000 rupees on diesel cars, asserting that they account for 15 per cent of the fuel's consumption. Industry groups say the amount is less than 5 per cent.
Clarity in the government's stance on the fuel should kickstart investment plans by India's car makers, who were unwilling to splurge on new plants to meet the surging demand until the ambiguity over diesel was resolved.
Overall car sales in India will likely only post marginal growth in the fiscal year that ends this month, but are expected to grow by more than 10 per cent in the coming fiscal year, driven by increased salaries and a rapidly growing middle class.
Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2012
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Mirpur:After a year of hype and expectation, it was destined that Sachin Tendulkar would get his hundredth international century against and in the country where he had equalled Sunil Gavaskar's then-record 34 Test centuries in 2004 on way to his highest Test score. It wasn't one of Tendulkar's better hundreds and will be remembered only for being the one that brought up the unprecedented landmark. In fact, it was his second-slowest innings of 100-plus in ODIs.
Live Scorecard
India ended up on 289 for 5, an underwhelming outcome considering their power-packed batting line-up had had a platform of 173 for 1 in the 36th over.
Bangladesh's attack was persevering but limited. Tendulkar duly milked them to finally go past a landmark that hardly anyone knew existed before he got close to it, but put tremendous pressure on the player himself in a frenzied build-up that lasted a year.
Tendulkar had motored to 80 off 102 deliveries but took another 36 before he took his hundredth run, off Shakib Al Hasan. The celebration after the achievement was understated, with Tendulkar gazing at his bat for some time before looking up towards the sky.
The monkey off his back, he belatedly took charge, hitting consecutive boundaries off Shahadat Hossain before a slog ended up in the keeper's hands. Tendulkar's departure came immediately after Suresh Raina's brisk innings had ended after having kept India going amid his senior partner's quest for the century. Raina hit 51 off 38, his knock evidence of his stroke-making abilities as also of his inability to tackle the short delivery effectively.
Raina built on a 147-run second-wicket partnership between Tendulkar and Kohli, who looked set to become the first Indian batsman to score three consecutive ODI hundreds until he played on for a breezy 66.
The hosts should have had Kohli first ball in the sixth over, when Shafiul Islam struck him on the back leg in front of middle stump with an incoming delivery, but umpire Paul Reiffel remained unmoved. Kohli's form took over after that, and with Tendulkar batting as safely as he does during some of his long Test innings, India motored along without giving Bangladesh half a chance more.
Bangladesh had themselves to blame for allowing Tendulkar to settle with a generous sprinkling of wide deliveries from their fast bowlers. His first four scoring shots were all boundaries, as he cashed in on width to drive and punch through the off side.
Shafiul did have Gautam Gambhir playing on early off a forcing flat-footed drive, but Kohli did not take long to get going after his reprieve. The field hardly moved as he flicked and cover-drove for fours in consecutive overs.
Spin was expected to be a major factor on a dry-looking pitch but Tendulkar and Kohli negotiated Bangladesh's slow army without any problems. The scoring rate did take a slight beating as singles dominated but Tendulkar soon found the freedom to slog-sweep Shakib Al Hasan over wide long-on. With his feet moving precisely now, he made room to cart Shakib inside-out over extra cover to reach his first international fifty in 13 innings.
As Kohli pummelled Nasir Hossain past extra cover, Bangladesh would surely have had memories of the mammoth chase that India set them during their last meeting, on this ground in the opening game of the 2011 World Cup.
But India were to end up well short of the 370 they scored in that game, Tendulkar taking his time amid some nerves as he passed 80. After having contemptuously worked his way to another fifty, Kohli inside-edged Abdur Razzak on to his stumps.
Raina arrived and soon, a three-ball passage summed up his game. He swivelled, hopped and awkwardly pulled a short Shahadat delivery to fine leg, cracked the next delivery, a full one, between extra cover and mid-off for four, and then again swivelled awkwardly and missed a pull to another short ball. His slog-sweeps and lofted shots over extra cover kept the runs coming, though, but Tendulkar was clearly feeling the pressure at the other end.
He played out a maiden to Mashrafe Mortaza on 83, and on several occasions, took off for non-existent singles before being sent back. The century arrived in the 44th over, and Tendulkar's relief was evident.
With the innings in need of a final burst, MS Dhoni slammed 16 off the 50th over to get India to a score that should still prove difficult for Bangladesh on a slow pitch.
Actor Aamir Khan has pushed the release of his upcoming film, Talaash, to concentrate on his maiden TV show, Satyamev Jayate, after a fire broke out on the latter’s sets in January this year. The psychological thriller directed by Reema Kagti is now likely to hit theatres only towards the end of the year.
Aamir’s initial plan was to launch his show around May before getting involved with the promotions and subsequent release of the film. “We faced a major setback when the fire broke out on the sets in Madh Island. We had to rebuild the entire set. As a result, Satyamev Jayate has been delayed,” says Aamir, adding that the show will now start around June.
If the makers of Talaash had stuck to the original plan of releasing the film on June 1, the projects would have clashed, which is something Aamir didn’t want.
“Talaash is a special film for all of us including Farhan (Akhtar), Ritesh (Sidhwani) and Reema (Kagti). After my TV show’s delay, we discussed the matter and felt that we should give the film the clear window that it deserves. Now, we might release Talaash on November 30 or December 7,” explains Aamir, who turned 47 on Wednesday.
This year, the actor, who is usually known to spend his birthday away from the limelight, didn’t get too much time for himself. “Since I am shooting for the TV show today, unfortunately, I won’t be able to celebrate it with the family,” the actor said on Wednesday.
As for progress on his TV show, Aamir just returned from a week-long tour of India. He had travelled to Rajasthan, Kashmir, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab and several North-Eastern states among other places, over the past few days. “I’m really excited about both my show and Talaash,” says Aamir, who is currently canning the episodes at Yash Raj studios. Satyamev Jayate will be telecast on Star Plus over a period of 13 weeks.
His unruly cadres are already proving to be the new UP Chief Minister's Achilles Heel. He has the advantage of having come to power with an unambiguous majority with 224 seats in the 403-seat UP Assembly. He scripted that Samajwadi Party win with a forward-looking agenda that has promised the people of UP freedom from goonda raj and good law and order, jobs and education, and good economics. He now has his task cut out - he has vowed to implement his election manifesto to the full.
Among other things he promised in that document were sops like laptops students who passed class 10, tablet computers to those who passed class 12, allowance to unemployed youths, free treatment to patients suffering from serious ailments and loan waivers for farmers.
While India and the world continues to wait for Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century, the master blaster on Friday reached another milestone when he struck the 2000th boundary of his ODI career.
After a year of hype and expectation, it was destined that Sachin Tendulkar would get his hundredth international century against and in the country where he had equalled Sunil Gavaskar's then-record 34 Test centuries in 2004 on way to his highest Test score. It wasn't one of Tendulkar's better hundreds and will be remembered only for being the one that brought up the unprecedented landmark. In fact, it was his second-slowest innings of 100-plus in ODIs.
