faheem New Delhi, July 06: Seeking to address what he described as triple challenges, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today presented a revival-oriented budget with more funds for welfare schemes and infrastructure, a promise to restore India’s high economic growth and better delivery mechanisms to reach the fruits of development to the poorest.
New Delhi, July 06: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves on a visit to Italy tomorrow for attending a Summit of G-8 leaders with five Outreach countries in which global economic downturn and steps to correct will dominate.
During the four-day visit to Coppito, Singh will also hold bilateral meetings with US President Barack Obama and some other world leaders who would be assembling there.
This will be the third meeting of the leaders of the eight developed countries and five major developing nations since the outbreak of global financial crisis last year.
Dubai, July 06: A UAE newspaper linked to the ruler of Dubai was off the stands today after a court ruling over a 2006 story alleging doping of racing horses.
Arabic daily newspaper Emarat Al Youm and its website will be suspended as of today for 20 days for a story that alleged that the Warsan Stables, owned by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, gave steroids to horses during a race.
The ruling was issued by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal and upheld by the Supreme Federal Court in a defamation case against the Arabic daily.
Islamabad, July 06: Pakistan has turned down an offer from Bangladesh Cricket Board to play the postponed one-day series between the two countries in October.
Bangladesh were to host Pakistan for five one-dayers and a Twenty20 international in March but the series had to be postponed due to security concerns.
“Bangladesh could not host us in March due to non clearance from their government but now they invited us to schedule the series in October which is not possible for us,” a senior official of the Pakistan board said today.
New Delhi, July 06: The Congress today condemned the killing of an MBA graduate Ranbir Singh at the hands of Uttarakhand police and called for concrete and robust action against those involved in the incident.
“It reflects brutalisation of democracy, something which is and should be an anathema to democracy. We call for an immediate short enquiry and robust action,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.
“A full-fledged comprehensive enquiry is the starting point, bare minimum that has to begin…,” he added.
New Delhi, July 06: Pakistan is yet to clear a pre- partition debt of Rs 300 crore to India, which has been carrying forward year after year in its Budget account as a “liability”.
The Budget books refer to this Rs 300 crore as “amount due from Pakistan on account of share of pre-partition debt.”
The amount was entered as a liability in the first Budget of independent India in 1950-51 and has been there ever since.
But this a measly amount compared to the union government’s total liabilities that total Rs 34,95,452 crore and accounts for just 0.008 per cent of the total liabilities.
New Delhi, July 06: Hailing the Union Budget as “development-oriented and pro-poor”, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said the qunatum jump for urban infrastructure projects and social welfare schemes would take the country forward.
“It reflects commitment of the Union Government to fulfil promises made to the ‘Aam Aadmi’,” she said.
Dikshit said in a statement that the budget would result in inclusive growth as an adequate provision has been made for housing and road sectors.
London, July 06: Andrew Flintoff admits he found being England captain a struggle.
The Lancashire all-rounder first skippered England in India in 2006 when he stepped into the breach because neither Michael Vaughan nor Marcus Trescothick were available.
–Agenices
London, July 06: Andrew Strauss will emphasise the need for England to remain calm amid the excitement and intensity of the Ashes as they prepare for the start of the first npower Test on Wednesday.
The England captain is eager for his side to hit the ground running with an aggressive brand of cricket which will lift the crowd in Cardiff and set them on course to emulate the 2005 triumph over Australia.
–Agencies
New Delhi, July 06: Dubbing the general budget as “trepid” and “unimpressive”, the BJP today said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has “run out of ideas” and shown no boldness in tackling huge fiscal deficit and promoting key areas like infrastructure.
The Left parties too described the budget as “inconsequential”, saying it “fails” to address the economic challenges facing the country.
“I do not see any great message in the budget. It is timid, trepid and unimpressive,” senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said.
Patna, July 06: The Bihar government today said it has not received any tip-off about LeT operative Omar Madni, a resident of the state, from the central intelligence agencies.
“No tip-off was provided by the central intelligence agencies about Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Madni, who was arrested by the Delhi Police recently,” state Home Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav told the assembly.
Washington, July 06: Despite President Asif Ali Zardari’s assertion that a Taliban insurgency, not India, was the biggest threat to Islamabad, the Pakistani Army still considers India a “threat,” US’ top Army official indicated.
In an interview to CBS “Face the Nation”, Chairman of America’s Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is focused on both – the threat from India and that from internal insurgency.
Karachi, July 06: Senior Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has rated his comeback century against Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle as the most memorable and important innings of his career.
Yousuf, who made a triumphant return to the Pakistan team with his 24th career century, said he rated his hundred very high as he was under lot of pressure to perform and prove himself.
New Delhi, July 06: Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has criticised the Indian cricket board for showing reluctance to schedule a bilateral series.
The Future Tours Programme draft does not include a single bilateral series between the archrivals, even though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had promised earlier that the two nations would meet at least once a year.
New Delhi, July 06: Syed Kirmani is not ready to call the current crop the best Indian team ever but the former stumper believes Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads the best national side since the 1990s.
Kirmani hailed Dhoni and his men, who beat the West Indies 2-1 to win their fifth ODI series on the trot. Asked if he would be tempted to call it the best Indian side ever, Kirmani refused to oblige.
“I won’t say this is the best India team ever,” said the stumper-batsman.
Chennai, July 06: Dubbing the Union budget as “weak and tentative”, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa today dismissed it as a “clerical exercise reflecting the continuity of a visionless government”.
“The budget proposals are not having the qualities that will take India out of the current economic morass on to the path of resurgence,” she said.
Dubai, July 06: It was India one-two in the ICC ODI Rankings as dashing left-hander Yuvraj Singh zoomed to a career best second place, topped by his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Despite winning the four-match series against the West Indies, there was, however, no such good news for India as Dhoni’s men missed a chance to reclaim the second spot in the ICC ODI Championship and remained third.
India needed to win all their matches against the West Indies but they went down in the second tie at Sabina Park even though it could not deny them a 2-1 series win in the Caribbeans.
New Delhi, July 06: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that he has taken tremendous risk to return to higher growth rates by opting for higher deficit and hoped to achieve nine per cent growth next fiscal.
“I have taken the tremendous risk to create the fiscal space of having higher deficit. I could have gone for the more conservative way of reducing the deficit and spent myself with six or less than that percentage of growth,” he told Lok Sabha television soon after presenting the Union Budget in Parliament.
Abu Dhabi, July 06: Paleontologists on Sunday announced that they had discovered the 8-million-year-old fossilized remains of an elephant, a hippo and a giant ostrich in western Abu Dhabi.
Archaeologists from Yale University and Abu Dhabi’s Authority on Culture and Heritage (AUCH) have been studying fossilized remains from the Miocene Era, some 6-8 million years ago, the AUCH said in a statement.
Berlin, July 06: German Chancellor Angela Merkel affirmed through a spokesman Monday her support for nuclear power, despite an electrical fault that shut down one of Germany’s 12 nuclear power stations two days earlier. A short-circuit knocked out the Kruemmel plant near Hamburg on Saturday. It had been under repair after its main transformer had caught fire two years ago.
With a general election less than 12 weeks away, Merkel, who was a physicist before entering politics, has been calling for existing nuclear plants to be kept in service for rather than be prematurely shut down.
Lahore, July 06: Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh will file a mercy petition before Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, his lawyer said Monday.
“I will file the mercy petition on Wednesday. I have also sought a meeting with the president so I can take up the matter with him personally,” lawyer Owais Qureshi told reporters after meeting Sarabjit at the high security Kot Lakhpat jail here.
Melbourne, July 06: A change in lifestyle has been the fallout of the attacks against Indian students in the southern winter of 2009 in Australia. They have learnt an important lesson – get home early.
Mir Qasim Ali Khan, 24, the student of a two-year programme in hospitality at the Victoria Institute of Technology, was one unlucky victim.
A fortnight back, while returning home after a haircut near the eastern suburb of Box Hill where he stays with two other Muslim friends, the student from Andhra Pradesh was accosted by two beefy white teenagers.
Harare, July 06: Johnnie Carson, the United States’ most senior official focused on Africa, has been labelled “an idiot” by Zimbabwean President Mugabe, following an angry exchange between the two in Libya last week, state media reported Monday. US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Carson met Mugabe on the sidelines of the annual African Union summit in Sirte on Thursday last week. Diplomats in Harare reported that Mugabe stormed out of the meeting.
Johannesburg, July 06: Tens of thousands of construction workers at the sites of several 2010 World Cup stadiums and related building projects in South Africa are set to down tools over pay beginning on Wednesday, their union said Monday. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the union to which construction workers belong, said the threatened strike by around 70,000 workers would go ahead after the Labour Court granted them the right to strike Monday.
Mumbai, July 06: Investors in Indian equity markets were disappointed with the 2009-10 budget, resulting in a key index plummeting by more than 700 points even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was presenting the document.
Soon after 2 p.m., the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened at 14,962.12 points, fell 770.69 points or 5.17 percent to 14,196.01 points.