Day not far for Rahul to be PM, says Pranab

CHENNAI/DELHI: Congress stalwart, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday said that Rahul Gandhi may soon take over as the country's prime minister, giving fresh fillip to speculation about the party's timeframe for the young party general secretary's elevation to the top job.

"The days are not far off when Rahul Gandhi may follow his father's footsteps," Mukherjee said at a conference of overseas Indians, adding that the late Rajiv Gandhi had become PM at the age of 40.

Mukherjee's remark came in response to a question and the foreign minister also mentioned other young leaders — just-elected J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, for instance. Yet, the timing of the remark, during the lead-up to Lok Sabha polls, and the fact that the foreign minister is not given to casual talk, invested it with far greater significance.

As a matter of fact, last year, the party leadership had censured HRD minister Arjun Singh when he said that Rahul should take over the reins from Manmohan Singh.

This time on, however, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh came up with a full-scale endorsement of Mukherjee, arguably the most seasoned voice in the party.

The Congress spokesman also pitched in with praise. "He has all the qualities to lead the nation," party spokesman Shakil Ahmed said. "The new generation sees him as its representative," he added. Ahmed, however, pointed out that the timing and decision would be of Rahul's choice.

The foreign minister's comment ties in well with a conspicuous effort by the party to set the stage for the imminent ascension. Congress PR machine has seized upon a young Omar Abdullah's taking over as J&K chief minister to buttress its own credentials as the party of youth. The party even suggested that it had nudged Farooq Abdullah to step aside for his son.

Simultaneously, the party had mocked the BJP for projecting octogenarian L K Advani as its choice for prime minister, in what appeared to be an attempt to appeal to the young as well as to frame the coming election as a contest between old and youth. Clearly, a septuagenarian Manmohan Singh would not fit in this gameplan.

Congress settled on Manmohan Singh because of his high trust quotient. And while the PM has retained the trust, sources say that his continuation beyond 2009 will depend not just on whether Congress stitches up another coalition but also on when Rahul, assuming a favourable verdict, is ready to take the baton.

Congress has declared that Manmohan Singh would lead the party into the polls, but that has not undercut the growing estimate in the party that from now, he could be just keeping the chair warm for Rahul.

Rahul is 38 and can wait for a while before moving into the office. The interregnum, however, will be used to do the spadework for his arrival in the Prime Minister's Office.

Putting his question to the foreign minister at the conference of overseas Indians, a young delegate based in the US had wanted to know why there were no young chief ministers in India. He referred to Tamil Nadu, which is ruled by M Karunanidhi, who is running 85.

Mukherjee, in his reply, gave the example of Prafulla Mahanta going straight from the university campus to the Assam government secretariat at the age of 33.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

OIL PSU Officers' strike enters third day

NEW DELHI: A large number of petrol pumps across the country went dry as the indefinite strike by oil PSU executives entered the third day today, with possibility of a major fuel supply crisis looming large.

About two-third of the 425 petrol pumps in the national capital did not open because of lack of stocks, while 60% outlets in Mumbai hung 'No Stock' signs boards.

Mumbai also ran out of compressed natural gas (CNG) that runs some two lakh buses, taxis and autos but Delhi had enough CNG and piped natural gas stocks to last 7 to 10 days.

While Hindustan Petroleum pumps across the country were operating normally, Bharat Petroleum senior management officials were ensuring that there were dispatches of petrol and diesel to the company's outlets. However, Indian Oil, the nation's largest retailer, had almost nil dispatches of products.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora late yesterday evening drove to Noida on the outskirts of the national capital, to meet the striking Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) leaders but the talks to resolve the imbroglio failed.

OSOA kept harping on Government conceding on its demand for higher increase in their wages than those approved in November but Deora said he did not have powers to approve anything that would also have ramifications on other PSUs.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already appointed a committee of ministers headed by home minister P Chidambaram to look into their demands within 30 days.

At the airports, absence of officers led to delay in refuelling of airplanes and some flight were delayed.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) chairman R S Sharma failed to convince his company officials to resume gas production from the country's largest field in Western Offshore, affecting power generation and fertilizer production.

Crude oil production from Mumbai offshore was almost half at 1,80,000 barrels and four key refineries of Indian Oil operated at 25 to 30 per cent of their capacity.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Fuel_supplies_running_out_as_strike_enters_third_day/articleshow/3955228.cms

Pressure on Andhra govt to arrest Satyam's Raju

HYDERABAD: Pressure is mounting on Andhra Pradesh government to arrest Satyam Computer’s disgraced former chief Ramalinga Raju.

Sources say that police may file a suo motu case in Hyderabad and is likely to arrest Raju today.

The final decision to arrest Raju lies in the hands of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S R Reddy.

The IT firm plunged into a deep crisis on January 7 when its promoter-chairman B Ramalinga Raju resigned after admitting to major financial wrong-doings and saying his last-ditch efforts to fill the "fictitious assets with real ones" through Maytas acquisition failed.

The beleaguered IT giant, already under scanner over the aborted acquisition of firms promoted by the chairman's family, received a rude shock days ahead of its January 10 board meeting, with Raju stepping down along with his brother and Managing Director B Rama Raju.

"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," Ramalinga Raju said in a letter to Satyam's Board of directors, wherein he listed major financial wrong-doings over the years to inflate the profits.

On Thursday, interim CEO Ram Mynampati announced in a press conference, Satyam’s CFO Srinivas Vadlamani had also tendered his resignation, and said the board would take a decision in its meeting on January 10.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pressure_on_Andhra_govt_to_arrest_Raju/articleshow/3955175.cms

Mutual funds in selling mode

Date : Jan-08-2009
On 6 January 2009, mutual funds (MFs) sold shares worth a net Rs 49.70 crore as against an inflow of Rs 185.80 crore on 5 January 2009. MFs' net outflow of Rs 49.70 crore on 6 January 2009 was a result of gross purchases Rs 541.80 crore and gross sales Rs 591.50 crore. The BSE Sensex gained 60.33 points, or 0.59%, to 10,335.93 on that day. MFs were net buyers of shares worth Rs 253.60 crore in this month, till 6 January 2009.

Fortis MF introduces additional plan under Interval Fund

Date : Jan-08-2009
Fortis Mutual Fund has introduces the additional plan- Institutional plan under the Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan K and Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan L with effect from January 13, 2009 and January 20, 2009, respectively. However, the institutional plan under Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan K shall open and close for subscription on January 13, 2009 while on the other hand the institutional plan under Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan L will open and close for subscription on January 20, 2009.
In line with this, the institutional plan will offer growth as well as the dividend options with two facilities- automatic renewal and automatic redemption facility with the default facility as automatic renewal.

Under the institutional plan, the minimum application amount is Rs 1 crore and thereafter-in multiples of Re 1. There will be not any entry load but there may be an exit load 4% at all time, except the interval periods.

Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan K & Fortis Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan L are debt oriented interval funds with an objective to generate steady returns through investments made in a basket of fixed income securities, with a provision to offer liquidity at periodic interval.

Great Eastern Energy files DRHP for IPO

Date : Jan-07-2009
Great Eastern Energy Corporation has recently filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi for an IPO of 9.13 crore equity shares of Re 1 each for cash at a price to be determined through a 100% book-building process. The equity shares would then be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. The book running lead managers to the Issue are Enam, ABN AMRO Asia Equities (India) and SBI Capital Markets. As per the company's release, the issue would constitute approximately 15.45% of the fully diluted post issue paid up capital of the company. Further its GDRs are also listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. The company is engaged in exploration, development, production, distribution and sale of natural gas from coal seams, commonly known as CBM. It produces CBM from its Block in Raniganj, West Bengal that spans an aggregate area of 210 square kilometers and has an estimated 1.92 tcf of gas-in-place (according to a report issued by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. on June 1, 2007). After the completion of its pipelines, the company believes that it will be a fully vertically-integrated CBM company capable of exploring, producing, distributing and selling natural gas to end users through an integrated network consisting of drilling, production, compression, transportation and logistics services. To bring the plan into reality, the company has already signed a franchisee agreement for supply and retail of CBM-based CNG through Indian Oil Corporation's petrol pumps in Asansol, Durgapur, Raniganj and other cities across the state of West Bengal.