Month: April 2011

Kolkata, April 03: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today congratulated the Indian cricket team for their victory in the World Cup yesterday and even praised the Sri Lankans for displaying “exemplary sportsmanship” during the match.

“Both the teams did exceedingly well. My congratulation to the Indian team. My congratulation equally to Sri Lankan team who fought bravely and everyone displayed exemplary sportsmanship which should be emulated in other spheres,” Mukherjee told reporters.

Kolkata, April 03: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today congratulated the Indian cricket team for their triumph in the World Cup and said the men in blue have proved that if one had the will, any goal can be accomplished.

In a letter to World Cup winning skipper Dhoni, Banerjee said, “It was Swami Vivekananda who said that if one had the will, one could do anything…even drink an ocean. You and your team have done just that.”

Banerjee said the Indian Railways was always passionate about sport and the triumph had reaffirmed their commitment.

Jammu, April 03: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was greeted with black flags in Rajasthan’s Ajmer city where he had gone to pay obeisance at Dargah of Hazrat Khwaja Moin-Ud-Din Chisti.

Omar was shown black flags by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supporters, according to his tweets.

After landing in Ajmer, he tweeted that he was in Ajmer to offer prayers at the “Ziarat” or the shrine. Immediately thereafter, was another tweet by him, saying: “Yeyyyy, I got black flagged by 20 ‘nikkar wallas’ (men in shorts) in Ajmer. I feel really important now.”

Mumbai, April 03: Foreign funds were a key to the March rally of key benchmark indices at Indian equities markets as they lapped up stocks worth over $1.5 billion during the month, compared to a paltry $18.97 million in February.

According to the data available with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of equities to the tune of $1,540.36 million (Rs.6,897.80 crore), fuelling an over 9 percent increase in the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex).

Srinagar, April 03: A militant hideout was busted by the security forces and a huge cache of arms and ammunition was also recovered in it in Reasi district here, defence officials said on Sunday.

In a joint operation, troops of Counter Insurgency Force (Uniform) and J&K Police busted a natural cave hideout near Nala in vicinity of Malhas village in the district last night, they said.

The forces recovered a huge cache of arms hidden by terrorists, which were very potent, lethal and capable of causing lot of damage of life and property, the officials said.

New Delhi, April 03: Government auditor CAG has started comprehensive audit into the role of armed forces, Coast Guard and Colaba administration in land allotment to the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society.

The land allotment to 31-storey highrise in Colaba, Mumbai, has come under scrutiny of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which would look into the land management by the defence department, official sources said.

New Delhi, April 03: India’s World Cup triumph against Sri Lanka has created ripples in the virtual world as well, with ‘World Cup 2011 photos’, ‘India world champions’, and ‘Dhoni family’ being the top three most searched terms in India Sunday morning, according to data by Google Trends.

The web facility, that ranks the most searched topics on the Internet, showed the cricket-related terms as the top three searches between Saturday 10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.

Mumbai, April 03: The Mumbai Police Sunday earned praise from union Minister of State for Home Gurudas Kamat for keeping the city safe and ensuring an incident-free World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka.

In a statement here, Kamat congratulated Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik, all the police officers and other security forces involved with the policing of the grand finale.