Month: July 2011

Hyderabad, July 28: In order to plug the loopholes in the system, all eligible weaker section students claiming fee reimbursement and post-matric scholarships will be issued E-pass cards to ensure only eligible candidates received the scholarships etc from the next academic year.

The issue of E-cards will be through a ‘Mela’ in all districts under the aegis of the public representatives and sarpanches.

The idea has been mooted to halt misuse of the facility in the colleges by the respective managements.

New York, July 28: Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies are indulging in “enforced disappearances” of individuals in the restive Balochistan, which the civilian government has not been able to stop, Human Rights Watch has said in a scathing attack.

The 132-page report, “‘We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years’: Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan”, documents dozens of enforced disappearances, in which the authorities take people into custody and then deny all responsibility or knowledge of their fate or whereabouts.

Banglore, July 28: Karnataka Chief Minister Yedurappa has resigned to his post on Thursday evening after having a meeting with his followers at his home in Bangalore.

The severe allegations made against him by Lokayukta for his involvement in illegal land mining cases has forced him to step down from his chair. Although, he has refused to step down from his chair, his party high command has forced him to quit. BJP is expected to announce the name of his successor tonight.

Colombo, July 28: Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated Jaffna district will have its parliamentary seats slashed from nine to six as the Election Commission said the region had witnessed number of voters dropping to half the previous figure of 700,000.

The officials said the fall in number of parliamentarians was due to the country’s complicated proportional representation system of elections.

kerala, July 28: Kerala beauty Meera Jasmine had a good number of films in Tollywood and Kollywood. But, somehow she failed to grab the limelight in both places. Hence, she is confined to Mollywood and occasionally doing some Tamil movies. But, back at home she lands in legal problems. She has received court summons in a cheating case.

New Delhi, July 28: Apex realty body CREDAI has said the RBI’s decision to hike key policy rates will hurt both home buyers and developers badly, as the cost of borrowing will go up, leading to an increase in housing prices.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) said the RBI’s move to tighten liquidity to control inflation was “not appropriate” and the apex bank should rather take measures to address supply side constraints.

Boston, July 28: Apple Inc has plugged a hole in the software that runs iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch music players that could allow hackers to take remote control of those devices.

The security flaw came to light nine days ago as the website www.jailbreakme.com released code that Apple customers can use to modify the iOS operating system that runs those devices through a process known as “jail breaking.”

Toronto, July 28: BlackBerry Company Research In Motion (RIM) is rumoured to be toying with the idea of entering the home entertainment business.

If it is true, this will be the second major departure for the Waterloo-based RIM from its core business of smart phones where it ruled the market till last year. Last April, RIM unveiled its PlayBook tablet – the first non-BlackBerry product – to challenge Apple’s iPad.

Now it is rumoured to be working on a media box to match Apple TV.

Seoul, July 28: South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co launched an upgraded version of its Galaxy tablet in its lucrative home market on Wednesday, seeking to stem the runaway success of Apple Inc’s iPad.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1, the sequel of the 7-inch Tab introduced in October, is the latest push by the company to challenge the iPad. Apple’s iPad sold 14 million units in the first half of this year, compared with analysts’ sales estimates of about 7.5 million for the Tab for 2011, the iPad’s biggest competitor.

New Delhi, July 28: Mobile handset maker G’Five Friday said it plans to introduce a tablet computer in India in the next two months to capture a share in the burgeoning market in the country.

It also launched four new mobile handsets, priced between Rs 2,500-3,000 in the multimedia and gaming category.

Tablet computer, though similar in size, works like a normal computer. The company had earlier announced that it would introduce its Android and Windows software based tablet computers, priced below Rs 10,000, by the end of June.

Hyderabad, July 28: It is little wonder that education standards at lower levels have fallen. About 900 out of the total 1,100 mandal education officer (MEO) posts are lying vacant for the last several years. The reason? A tussle between government teachers and panchayat raj teachers over promotions.

New York, July 28: Motorola has lost a bid to dismiss a class-action lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors about prospects for its 3G phone business.

In a decision on Monday, US District Judge Amy St. Eve in Chicago said there is a “genuine dispute” as to whether Motorola in 2006 and early 2007 withheld key information from investors about its ability to compete with rivals including Nokia Oyj and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Helsinki, July 28: Tablet computers running Google’s Android software will catch up with Apple’s iPad and surpass it in 2016, research firm Informa said on Wednesday.

Informa said it expects Apple’s current 75 percent market share to fall to 39 percent in 2015, when Android market share will grow to 38 percent.

“From 2013, as cheaper and more advanced Android tablets enter the market, we forecast that sales will pick up considerably, eventually surpassing iPad sales in 2016,” analyst David McQueen said in a statement.

New Delhi, July 28: Car-maker General Motors Monday launched the diesel version of its small car, Beat, in India, priced between Rs 4.29 lakh and Rs 5.45 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

“Offering a diesel engine developed for Indian consumers in our most popular model is a momentous achievement for the company,” General Motors India President & MD Karl Slym told reporters here.

The company launched the diesel car with a 1.0-litre engine, which has been developed specifically for India by GM’s Technical Centre in Bangalore, in collaboration with GM Powertrain, Europe.

Mumbai, July 28: Heralding a new set of rules for takeover of companies, SEBI Thursday said an entity buying 25 percent stake in a listed firm will have to mandatorily make an offer to buy additional 26 percent from public shareholders.

The new norms mark an increase in the open offer size for public shareholders from 20 percent currently, while the trigger for such offer has also been raised from 15 percent in the existing regulations.

New Delhi, July 28: Diversified business firm ITC Thursday posted a 24.51 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 1,332.72 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2011.

The company had registered a net profit of Rs 1,070.31 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, ITC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

During the period under review, the company’s net sales surged by 19.56 percent to Rs 5,767.47 crore from Rs 4,823.59 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Mumbai, July 28: The deaths in July 13 serial blasts in Mumbai rose to 25 Thursday as another injured died of his injuries at a hospital here, officials said.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Disaster Control Centre, Vallabhbhai Gadhiya, 48, died at Saifee Hospital.

Injured in the blast at Opera House in south Mumbai, Gadhiya had suffered a deep wound in his left leg. “Gadhiya suffered a deep wound on his left leg, which eventually became gangrene,” said S.J. Bapai, assistant director, Saifee Hospital.

New Delhi, July 28: Just over a month after they called off a 13-day-long stir that resulted in a loss of about Rs 630 crore, workers at Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant went on strike again this afternoon.

The workers resorted to a strike when five of them were suspended for “allegedly assaulting a supervisor” Wednesday.

Tokyo, July 28: Sony Corp reported a 59 percent drop in quarterly operating profit, as it struggled with production woes following the devastating March earthquake in Japan.

April-June profit fell to 27.5 billion yen from 67.0 billion yen a year earlier. The result compared with market estimates of 15.2 billion yen, based on the average of forecasts by five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Hong Kong, July 28: HSBC Plc is close to announcing that it will cut thousands of jobs as it embarks on a cost-cutting drive, Sky News reported, citing people close to Europe’s biggest bank.

The plans have not yet been finalised, but could see more than 10,000 jobs being cut, Sky News added, citing an insider at the bank.

An HSBC spokeswoman in Hong Kong declined to comment.

Kuwait City, July 28: A Kuwaiti man returned home after a booze night with a friend, staggered inside and immediately started singing and dancing for his children. Instead of applauding, one of them phoned the police.

“Please come now…my father is drunk,” the little girl told police by phone, according to the Kuwaiti Arabic language daily Alwatan.

“Police rushed to the house and arrested the 42-year-old man, who has become aggressive by then,” it said in a report from the capital Kuwait City.

–Agencies

New Delhi, July 28: State-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp reported a 12 percent rise in quarterly profit, missing street estimates as higher subsidy payments offset gains from a rise in crude oil and gas prices.

ONGC said net profit for its fiscal first quarter rose to Rs 4,095 crore (USD 929 million), compared with Rs 3,661 crore a year earlier.

A Reuters’ poll of ten brokerages had on average expected net profit of Rs 4,260 crore for the quarter.

Net sales rose to Rs 16,268 crore from Rs 13,710 crore a year ago.

Washington, July 28: Top Republicans and Democrats worked behind the scenes on Wednesday on a compromise to avert a crippling US default, looking to salvage a last-minute deal from rival debt plans that have little chance of winning congressional approval on their own.

With financial markets increasingly on edge, the White House said it saw no alternative to striking a deal to raise the government’s borrowing limit by an Aug 2 deadline to allow the world’s largest economy to keep paying all of its bills.

Washington, July 28: The US Treasury will lay out a plan in the next few days about how the government will operate if it appears Congress may miss an Aug 2 deadline to raise the US debt ceiling, US officials said on Wednesday.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers are rushing to rework competing plans to lift the USD 14.3 trillion debt limit and cut the deficit as time runs out to secure a deal by Tuesday, when the federal government loses its authority to borrow.

New York, July 28: Wall Street suffered its worst day in eight weeks on Wednesday, hit by weak earnings, lackluster economic data and no movement in Washington talks as the deadline for a US default looms.

The debt ceiling debate has grabbed much of investors’ attention this week as the August 2 deadline approaches, but it took a back seat for much of the day as the market reacted to earnings disappointments in industrial and technology sectors.