Month: September 2009

Six of top-10 companies lose Rs 19k cr in m-cap

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Mumbai, September 27: As many as six out of the top-10 most valued companies lost over Rs 19,000 crore from their market capitalisation last week.

However, state-run companies ONGC, NTPC, SBI and private outsourcing firm TCS together added Rs 15,623 crore in their market cap for the week ended September 26.

The country’s most valued firm, Reliance Industries saw the highest erosion in value losing Rs 7,924.44 crore from its market cap, taking the total loss to Rs 3,35,202.83 crore at the end of the week.

IPO funds to repay loan from promoters: Reliance Infratel

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New Delhi, September 27: Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Infratel, which has proposed an Initial Public Offer of its shares, will utilise bulk of the IPO proceeds for repayment of loans totalling Rs 4,000 crore to its promoters.

The company is awaiting regulatory clearance for the Initial Public Offer, estimated to raise close to Rs 5,000 crore for the company, and has filed a draft Initial Public Offer (IPO) prospectus with Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Roadblocks in GST: some states oppose giving up local taxes

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New Delhi, September 27: The Centre’s efforts to introduce the proposed Goods and Services Tax from April 1 next year has hit roadbolocks as some states do not want local levies like purchase tax and octroi merged in the new indirect tax.

The GST is expected to subsume most of the taxes levied by the Centre like central excise and service tax, and those charged by the states such as VAT, purchase tax, octroi and others.

Rupee likely to depreciate in coming week

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Mumbai, September 27: In the coming week, the rupee may feel pressure and depreciate as month-end demand from oil importers for dollars could limit the upside, Angel Commodities Analyst, Amar Singh, said in a report here.

The Rupee hovered around the 48-mark last week and could breach this level in the coming week taking cues from the equity markets and higher dollar demand from domestic buyers, Singh said.

Concerns over the economic front may also lead to choppy equity markets and lead to worries over capital inflows in the country.

Swiss banks offer to tax Indian, other foreign clients

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New Delhi, September 27: Pressed hard for giving access to details of money stashed away by Indians and other overseas clients with them, Swiss banks have offered to tax this wealth on behalf of the respective foreign governments.

India, where there have been long-running demand for concrete actions to bring back the black money lying in highly secretive Swiss banks, will begin talks in December for a new tax treaty with Switzerland so that it could get details about the defaulters.

Signs of life stir Zimbabwe’s stock market

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Harare, September 27: Zimbabwe’s moribund economy is slowly stirring, with signs of life in once-shuttered businesses helping to revive a stock market that was closed amid scandal last year, analysts said.

Hammered by world-record hyperinflation, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange was shut down last November as the central bank sought to curb traders using dud cheques as well as activities of market speculators.

OECD warns G20 over banking reform plans

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Paris, September 27: Banks, bonuses, tax havens and under-regulation caused the financial crisis and are the keys to reform. Not so, the OECD warns as the G20 takes steps in such areas.

Compromises on action to deal with symptoms, such as bonuses, rather than action on real causes could even end up doing more harm than good, the OECD said in a report and remarks to an agency.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says that progress on new rules to strengthen the capital base of finance companies and related regulations does go in the right direction.

Insulin booster restores muscle growth in elderly

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Washington, September 27: People tend to link insulin with diabetes, but it has other lesser known uses too. A study has shown that loss of response to insulin plays a major role in decrease of physical strength that occurs as people grow older.

Insulin is necessary for muscle growth, increasing blood flow through muscle tissue, encouraging nutrients to disperse from blood vessels and itself serving as a biochemical signal to boost muscle protein synthesis.

Miss Gay Nepal now eyes the world

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Kathmandu, September 27: They became the first sexual minority in South Asia to wrest the right to same-sex marriage and have a say in the new constitution.

Now Nepal’s transgender community is aiming to conquer the world outside by taking part in the international pageant for transgenders to be held in Thailand next month.

Recipe: Gujarati Kadhi

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Fasts cease to be difficult once you master the art of cooking delicacies like this one.

Ingredients: 2 cups yoghurt
2 tbsp singhare ka atta
4 cups water
1 tbsp rock salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon-powdered
2-3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 sprig curry leaf
3-4 whole red chillies
2 tbsp coriander leaves-chopped

Pak wants ‘legally tenable’ proof against Saeed: Qureshi

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New York, September 27: Pakistan does not want to take to court a “half-baked” case against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, blamed by India for masterminding Mumbai attacks, and needs “legally tenable” evidence against him, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, hours ahead of crucial talks with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna.

‘Iran plays by IAEA rules, West fails to gain’

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Tehran, September 27: The head of Iran’s nuclear program says the US and its allies labeled Tehran’s newly-announced under-construction nuclear plant secretive while the themselves admit they knew about the plan.

“The Americans say that they knew of the new plant prior to Iran’s announcement and have presented aerial pictures of the location, so why are they claiming that the project was clandestine?”

Bahrain Shelter Inmates Allege Abuse

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Manama, September 27: Women inmates of Dar Al Aman shelter have alleged the abuse and torture at the hands of the administrative officials at a special gathering organised by the Batelco Care Centre for Family Violence on Friday night. They complained that the shelter administration harassed them by providing expired food, restricting their movement, no allowances and threatened to kick them out of the premises.

Some of the inmates claimed to be kicked out while others said that theyvoluntarily walked out due to alleged ill-treatment.

UN chief, Europeans chide Iran’s new atom plant

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United Nations, September 27: Iran’s sudden revelation of a formerly secret uranium enrichment plant brought more condemnation Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly, with the Netherlands calling Tehran’s presumed weapons program “a major challenge to international peace and security.”

Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak joined the chorus of outrage, rebuking “Iran’s continued defiance of its international obligations, including the Security Council’s demands to suspend its nuclear activities.”

Arabs and Israelis tell clashing tales of the land

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Gaza, September 27: Israeli and Palestinian hikers are taking to the hills in the footsteps of their ancestors deploying maps, holy texts and walking boots in the long-running battle for control of the Holy Land.

In Israel and the West Bank, bands of enthusiasts trek over the same paths mentioned in antiquity and past villages abandoned to wars. But Israeli and Palestinian hikers mostly emphasize their attachment to the land and ignore each other’s historical footprints.

Bollywood wishes melody queen on 80th birthday

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New Delhi, September 27: Eight decades and 30,000 songs later her voice continues to inspire a nation. As Lata Mangeshkar turns 80 on Monday, Sep 28, everyone in Bollywood queued up to wish her.

The Bharat Ratna awardee, who has lent her voice to songs in over 20 Indian languages, is known for her quest for perfection and undying spirit.

Obama accuses Iran of evasion

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Washington, September 27: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday the discovery of a secret nuclear plant in Iran showed a “disturbing pattern” of evasion by Tehran that added urgency to its talks on Thursday with world powers.

Iran’s ambassador to the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Tehran was arranging for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections at the site “in the very near future,” although other Iranian officials struck a defiant note.

Some US lawmakers pull double duty as soldiers

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Honolulu, September 27: As mortar fire and rockets bombarded 1st Lt. Jonathan Paton’s Iraq camp, he got an urgent call on his cell phone: He had won re-election.

“There’s all this drama going on outside, and this stupid thing started ringing right by me. It was the chair of our county party, and she said, ‘You won, you won!”’ said Paton, a Republican Arizona state senator who has since been promoted to captain. “I had to pretend everything was fine. I didn’t want to sound like I was going to die.”

Three face trial over the death of Anna Nicole

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Los Angeles, September 27: A celebrity is dead, in bizarre and appalling circumstances. An array of personal advisers and doctors are held responsible, amid claims they fuelled a dangerous prescription drug addiction. Police investigate. The media scents blood. Sound familiar?

Michael Jackson may be stealing the headlines, but as investigators continue to probe his final hours, LA’s courts are about to consider the eerily-similar case of another eccentric public figure who met with a sticky end: Anna Nicole Smith.

Harbhajan should have bowled earlier – Malik

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Centurion, September 27: Shoaib Malik, the Man of the Match for his 126-ball 128, expressed his surprise at MS Dhoni’s decision to bring on Harbhajan Singh to bowl only by the 26th over, by which time he and Mohammad Yousuf had nearly built a half-century partnership.

Kannada singer Hemant held for harassing wife

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Banglore, September 27: Well-known Kannada playback singer Hemant has been arrested for allegedly harassing his estranged wife for dowry, police said here.

Hemant was taken into custody Saturday evening after his wife, Priyadharshini, filed a complaint at the Basavanagudi police station here, alleging that he was troubling her for dowry.

Inspector Sathyavathi of the women’s wing of the police station said Priyadharshini had complained that her in-laws and Hemant’s sister had also harassed her.

‘The onus of disproving Priyadharshini’s charges rests on Hemant,’ said Sathyavathi.

Communal tension in Faizabad-Ayodhya defused, police on alert

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Lucknow, September 27: Communal tension in the twin towns of Faizabad-Ayodhya over the location of two Durga Puja marquees and a religious procession was defused Saturday, a police official said, but the Uttar Pradesh administration remained on alert.

Uprooting of Durga Puja pandals at two sites in Faizabad, where there is no history of such events, led to tension over the past 24 hours, police said. Organisers maintained they were armed with a high court order granting them permission to put up a puja at those particular sites.

US drone crashes into Iraqi party offices

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Baghdad, September 27: An American aerial surveillance drone crashed into the offices of an Iraqi political party in the northern city of Mosul, the US military said on Sunday.

“We can confirm that an unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle crashed” on Saturday, a military statement said, adding that there had been no reported injuries.

It said there was currently no indication that the aircraft, which hit the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, had crashed as a result of “enemy action,” but added that the incident was under investigation.

Cultural Beliefs Hinder Spacing of Child Births

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Dubai, September 27: An all-out reproductive health campaign to allay the fears and misconceptions prevalent in women with regard to child-rearing and raising big families, highlighted the World Contraception Day function in the UAE on Saturday, at Monarch Hotel 
in Dubai.

The campaign focuses on the centuries-old cultural beliefs of raising a large family, which hinder UAE women from doing regular check-ups and spacing their children.

Ministry Stresses on Eco-preservation

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Abu Dhabi, September 27: The Ministry of Environment and Water has stressed the country’s deep commitment to the preservation of biodiversity.

Saif Mohammed Al Shara’a, the Executive Director for Water Resources 
and Conservation at the Ministry 
said that the concept of biodiversity reflects the diversity of all living 
organisms and the interaction among micro-organisms that range from what we can only see with a microscope in one end, and the big trees and large whales in the other.