Rupee weakens by 9 paise against US dollar in morning trade

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee fell by 9 paise to Rs 45.40 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on Tuesday, weighed down by dollar gains against other currencies.

Forex dealers said dollar gains against the euro and other currencies mainly put pressure on the Indian rupee, but a higher opening in the stock market restricted the losses.

The Indian rupee ended 19 paise higher at 45.49/50 against the US currency yesterday on the back of a sharp surge in local equities amid sustained dollar-selling by exporters.

Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by 72.06 points, or 0.40% to 18,274.26 in opening trade today.

TOI

Fertilizers up 15%, farm worry for govt

NEW DELHI: Just when UPA is under the hammer over food inflation, Union minister M K Alagiri has sounded alarm over shooting fertiliser prices under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS), saying the policy introduced last budget was hurting the poor farmer.

He said the experience of NBS in the fertiliser sector should halt the proposed price decontrol in the urea sector.

The DMK minister argued that urea was the most used fertiliser and decontrol of urea prices and a resultant spike would hurt 75% farmers who were small and marginal.

Alagiri had opposed the switch to NBS, but was disregarded. However, his red flag against urea decontrol may get more attention because of the rising food prices. A jump in urea prices will hurt farmers who helped Congress in the last Lok Sabha elections, and can add to the rising food prices.

In his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week on urea decontrol, Alagiri had reminded him of his failed opposition to introduction of nutrient-linked subsidy for fertilisers.

An expert committee under Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri is examining the urea issue, but the final decision will be shaped more by the coalition leadership's political assessment.

The NBS regime which frees the fertiliser price and fixes the subsidy based on constituents of phospatic and potassic fertilisers kicked in after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee plumped in its favour. Five of the seven ministers including Alagiri in the Mukherjee-chaired Group of Ministers had opposed it. Even the cabinet meeting just before the budget 2010 which cleared the policy saw an extended debate with widespread concerns.

The government had dismissed fears of price rise by citing a commitment from the fertiliser industry that it would freeze the MRP for one year.

Ten months later, as Centre mulls extension of NBS to the urea sector, Alagiri has pressed the alarm button by writing to the PM and finance minister Mukherjee.

He told the PM that farmgate prices of P&K fertilisers have shot up by 15% or Rs 75 per bag of DAP fertiliser. His concern is while farmers have not benefitted, government too is losing with increasing subsidy bill. Holding up a warning sign, he said the departmental feedback indicated that fertilisers prices would increase further in the coming Kharif season.

For the son of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi with leadership stakes in April polls, the concern revolves around DMK's rivals blaming him for the policy under his charge in the Union fertilisers ministry.

While NBS for fertilisers seems unshakeable now, Alagiri has trained his guns on the regime's extension to urea. The Department of Fertilisers has demanded that New Pricing Scheme which expired in March should be extended for three years to give time for transition. Sources said Alagiri told the PM that the vacuum on pricing policy following expiry of the current one has triggered financial crunch in urea units, specially in southern states, and new investments over Rs 50,000 crore were on hold.

The alarm from the fertiliser minister over shooting prices may not be comfortable for Congress which is under attack for sustained food inflation. If the opposition makes it an issue, it can turn the tables on the party in rural areas, pockets that DMK is looking to gain in riding on the welfare schemes of the Karunanidhi regime.

TOI

Sensex rises 72 points in opening trade

MUMBAI: The BSE benchmark Sensex extended its gains by adding 72 points in opening trade today on continued buying by foreign funds and retail investors.

The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, which rallied by nearly 740 points in the previous two sessions, rose by another 72.06 points, or 0.40% to 18,274.26 points in the first few minutes of trade today.

Likewise, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index moved up by 18.45 points, or 0.33%, to 5,474.45.

Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retail investors in stocks with strong fundamentals and covering-up of pending short positions by speculators mainly influenced the trading sentiment.

Capital goods, consumer durables and power stocks were in keen demand and accounted for most of the gains on the Sensex.

Stocks of ADA Group company, Rcom, however, were under some pressure and fell by 1.80% to Rs 95.65 in early trade. The firm had posted a 54.84% decline in net profit for the quarter ended December 31.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei index was up 0.05%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.48% in morning trade today.

TOI

Over 1 lakh phones are tapped every year

NEW DELHI: Some startling figures tumbled out on rampant phone tapping in the country when telecom service provider Reliance Communications told the Supreme Court on Monday that the authorities had asked it to tap 1.51 lakh phone numbers in a five-year span between 2006 and 2010.

This works out to an average of over 30,000 telephone interceptions every year by a single service provider on the orders of various law enforcing agencies. Or, over 82 telephones were intercepted every day by a single service provider.

Reliance is the second-largest service provider with a subscriber base of 12.57 crore as in 2010. The biggest service provider, Bharti Airtel, had 15.25 crore subscribers in 2010, while Vodafone's subscriber base was just a shade lower than Reliance's at 12.43 crore. State-owned BSNL came fourth with 8.67 crore subscribers.

If Reliance's ratio of phones tapped to the number of its subscribers were to be taken as representative and applied to other service providers, it is a fair assumption that government agencies were tapping more than one lakh phones every year.

In Delhi alone, Reliance tapped a total of 3,588 phones in 2005 when the teledensity was low compared to today. It also included Amar Singh's number which was put under surveillance — allegedly on a forged letter from Delhi Police.

Four days back, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly had expressed concern over the large number of interceptions being ordered by the agencies and the "grave danger" this posed to the citizen's right to privacy.

In an affidavit tendered by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani before the bench, Reliance Communications said: "The total number of interceptions in 2005 in respect of Delhi Service Area were 3,588. There were about 1.51 lakh number of cases for monitoring/interception during the period 2006-10 in all India."

Responding to the court's observation that no service provider worth its salt would intercept a phone based on a purported communication full of grammatical and spelling mistakes, Reliance said most of the genuine interception orders were identical to the now known forged letter as far as spelling and grammatical mistakes were concerned. It cited a genuine interception order of February 1, 2011, received from the Delhi Police to make its point.

After detailing the precautions it had taken, including writing to the authorities to authenticate the letter asking for interception of Amar Singh's phone, Reliance said it received no response, yet it was duty bound under a bona fide perception of the letter to continue interception for 15 days.

"A bare perusal of various letters sent by Ranjit Narayan (then Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police) and R Narayanswami (then Delhi home secretary) show that the letters dated October 22, 2005 and November 9, 2005 (both purportedly forged ones) were similar to other letters received from them," Reliance said while claiming its innocence in the interception controversy.

It said request for surveillance of a telephone from the law enforcement agencies could not be postponed based on spelling mistakes in the communication from agencies as it called for immediate action "for safety of general public at large and in the interest of the nation." It added: "Postponing compliance on the ground of inconsequential mistakes like spelling errors may conceivably lead to a serious terrorist attack and the blame may fall on us."

"The service providers are also required to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies as per the licence condition. Any violation of it can lead to a penalty of Rs 50 crore," Reliance said.

It said service providers do not keep a record of conversations taped from a phone under surveillance. Reliance Communication said it did not have the technology to record the conversations and that there was no law mandating the service provider to record the conversations and submit it to the law enforcement agencies.

TOI

Diwan Chand Satyapal Aggarwal Imaging Research Centre in Connaught Place, Delhi

Diwan Chand Satyapal Aggarwal Imaging Research Centre in Connaught Place, New Delhi



General Physicians
Address:
#10 B
Kasturba Gandhi Marg
Connaught Place
New Delhi -110001

Landmark: Near Hindustan Times Office



Phone: 011-43707700, 011-43707777
Email-id: info@dcaimaging.org

Surajkund Crafts Mela 2011

Surajkund is the annual fair to find the finest handlooms, handicrafts, authentic fragrances and flavours of the Indian cuisines. More than 400 national and State awardee craftpersons from across India and SAARC nations participate in this crafts mela. A few stills from the ongoing 25th Surajkund Crafts Mela in Faridabad, Haryana:

The Hindu

Day after detention, Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan arrested

NEW DELHI: Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was arrested by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday, a day after he was detained at the international airport in New Delhi for carrying undisclosed foreign currency worth more than $100,000, an official said. ( Read: Pakistan seeks release of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan )

"He has been arrested and will be produced in Patiala House court later today (Monday)," a DRI official said. Rahat had been taken to the DRI office at the CGO Complex on Sunday after he was detained at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the singer was extensively questioned by revenue intelligence officials. ( Read: Pak seeks info about Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's detention in India )

He was on his way back to Pakistan after attending concerts and award functions in India. More than $100,000 were recovered from the 15-member troupe. Any amount in excess of $10,000 has to be declared by a traveller to the customs. ( Read: Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan detained at IGI with $1.24lakh )

According to officials, Rahat was questioned by senior DRI officials till late Sunday night.

Rahat is the nephew of legendary singer late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and is popular both in India and Pakistan. His numerous hit songs from Indian films are a rage on both sides of the border, for which he has won several awards, including the recent Filmfare award for "Dil to Bacha Hai Jee". He was also a judge on the Indian music reality show "Chhote Ustad".

Pakistan has begun frantic efforts to secure the release of the singer. Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir called Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Sharat Sabharwal and discussed the matter around midnight on Sunday. He requested the Indian envoy to ensure that "no official should misbehave with Rahat during interrogation".

TOI

CBI to question Unitech MD on 2G scam

NEW DELHI: After the arrest of Shahid Balwa, managing director of real estate house DB group, another real estate house has come under the CBI scanner in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, reports said.

The CBI on Monday summoned Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra as authorities probe whether some companies received favourable treatment in the granting of licences from former telecom minister A Raja.

Unitech declined to comment and the CBI was not immediately available for comment. Unitech has a mobile telecoms joint venture in India with Norway's Telenor.

The charges against Unitech, according to the CBI's FIR, was that it offlaoded 60 per cent of its shares to Telenor, a Norway-based telecom company and earned a profit of 267 per cent even before the roll out.

"M/s Unitech was alloted UAS licences for 22 cricles for Rs 1658 crore. It offloaded its 60 per cent of shares in the licences to Telenor of Norway for Rs 6100 crore even before the roll-out," the FIR said.

Earlier, some of the officials of the Unitech have already been questioned by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Unitech has in the past denied any wrongdoing.

According to the FIR, "the estimated loss to the governemnt by grant of licences to these two companies (Swan and Unitech) alone comes to Rs 7,105 crore. On pro-rata basis, the estimated loss for all the 122 circles is more than Rs 22,000 crore."

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie too will appear before the CBI next week in connection with the agency's probe into possible criminal aspects in the telecom policy since 2001.

The CBI approached Shourie last week asking him to appear before the agency in connection with the preliminary enquiry registered by the agency following a direction from the Supreme Court.


TOI

Samsung launches Galaxy S II

BARCELONA: Samsung has launched a second tablet computer with a bigger screen and more processing power than the original Galaxy Tab that is seen as the only real rival to Apple's iPad.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is intended to be a multimedia hub for afficionados of games, electronic books and social media, with a 10.1 inch (25.7 centimetre) screen, dual surround-sound speakers, and front- and rear-facing cameras.

The tablet, with two core processors to better handle media, is based on the latest Google Android platform, Honeycomb -- which has been optimised for tablets.

It will be sold by Vodafone in more than 20 countries before being released to other carriers.

Samsung, now the world's second-biggest phone maker after Nokia, also launched a new premium smartphone, the ultra-slim Galaxy S II, designed around hubs for social networking, reading, games and music.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung, whose telecoms division accounted for nearly half its profit last quarter, has sold around 10 million Galaxy S smartphones since its June 2010 debut, and 2 million Galaxy tablets.

"If I were (chief executive) Stephen Elop heading up Nokia, I would be looking over my shoulder at Samsung and feeling extremely nervous," said Ben Wood, lead analyst at telecoms research firm CCS Insight.

Samsung also announced a range of enterprise services compatible with its two new devices, to address some of the security concerns that have held Android phones back from a serious challenge to Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

TOI

Samsung launches Galaxy S II

BARCELONA: Samsung has launched a second tablet computer with a bigger screen and more processing power than the original Galaxy Tab that is seen as the only real rival to Apple's iPad.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is intended to be a multimedia hub for afficionados of games, electronic books and social media, with a 10.1 inch (25.7 centimetre) screen, dual surround-sound speakers, and front- and rear-facing cameras.

The tablet, with two core processors to better handle media, is based on the latest Google Android platform, Honeycomb -- which has been optimised for tablets.

It will be sold by Vodafone in more than 20 countries before being released to other carriers.

Samsung, now the world's second-biggest phone maker after Nokia, also launched a new premium smartphone, the ultra-slim Galaxy S II, designed around hubs for social networking, reading, games and music.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung, whose telecoms division accounted for nearly half its profit last quarter, has sold around 10 million Galaxy S smartphones since its June 2010 debut, and 2 million Galaxy tablets.

"If I were (chief executive) Stephen Elop heading up Nokia, I would be looking over my shoulder at Samsung and feeling extremely nervous," said Ben Wood, lead analyst at telecoms research firm CCS Insight.

Samsung also announced a range of enterprise services compatible with its two new devices, to address some of the security concerns that have held Android phones back from a serious challenge to Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

TOI

Sensex closes 488 points higher

MUMBAI: A benchmark index for Indian equities markets closed 488 points higher on Monday amid buoyant buying sentiments across the market breadth.

The 30-scrip sensitive index ( Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,940.16 points, closed at 18,217.47 points (provisional), up 488.86 points or 2.76% from its previous close at 17,728.61 points.

The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange shut shop 2.86% higher at 5,462 points.

Broader market indices also shot up, with the BSE midcap index closing 3.57% higher and the BSE smallcap index ending 3.99% up.

TOI

Inflation falls to 8.23% in Jan as prices of sugar, wheat ease

NEW DELHI: Inflation declined marginally to 8.23% in January from 8.43% in the previous month, as prices of certain commodities like wheat, pulses and sugar eased, although essential items like onion and other vegetables continue to remain dearer.

The headline inflation, based on wholesale prices, has remained above 8% mark since January 2010.

The fall in inflation has been mainly on account of declining prices of sugar (down 14.99%), pulses (12.78%), wheat (4.94%) and potato (1.21%).

However, vegetable and fruits continued to remain expensive. On an annual basis, vegetable prices rose by 65%, and onion prices nearly doubled. Also, fruits became costly by 15.01% and egg, meat and fish by 15.09%.

Overall, primary articles became costly by 17.28% with food articles rising 15.65%.

In the non-food articles category, fibre prices rose by 48% on an annual basis.

Prices of fuel and power shot up by 11.41%, with petrol rising 27.37% on an year-on-year basis.

However, among manufactured items, sugar prices fell by 15%, while edible oils turned costlier by 7.16%.

The inflation number for November has also been revised upwards to 8.08% from 7.48%, according to government data released today.

The easing of inflation is expected to come as a morale booster for the government which have been under pressure due to high prices of food items in recent months.

It also shows that Reserve Bank of India's action of raising rates seven times since March 2010 has started showing some result.

It may be recalled, the food inflation, which accounts for over 14% in the overall Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation, has remained high since December scaling up to 18.32%.

At its third quarterly review last month, the RBI revised its inflation estimate to 7% by March-end, from the earlier 5.5%.

TOI

Somali pirates hijack ship with 23 crew, including 10 Indians

NAIROBI: Somali pirates hijacked a ship with 23 crew, including 10 Indians and a Danish warship freed a hijacked Yemeni fishing vessel that had been held for nearly a year, maritime authorities said on Sunday.

The Maltese-flagged bulk carrier MV Sinin had 13 Iranians and 10 Indians onboard when it came under attack Saturday, the European Union Naval Force said.

The ship subsequently lost communications and a maritime patrol aircraft photographed two skiffs onboard the vessel. The MV Sinin was taken about 560 kilometers east of Masirah in Oman.

In a separate incident, a Danish warship freed a hijacked fishing vessel and arrested 16 suspected Somali pirates, NATO said.

The HDMS Esbern Snare stopped a suspicious vessel with two skiffs on deck. The warship fired warning shots and sent a boarding party to the hijacked Yemeni vessel. NATO said there were 16 suspected pirates and two Yemeni hostages onboard.

The original fishing crew of nine people had been held for a year but most of them had been released. Sometimes owners of small vessels without insurance are unable to raise the ransoms demanded by the pirates. Somalia has not had a functioning government in two decades, and piracy has flourished off its coast.

TOI