Facebook goes free for Airtel users

NEW DELHI: Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel has made access to online social networking site Facebook free for its over 130 million subscribers, the company said.

The offer will, however, be available only for two months till August 31.

The Facebook site will be available in English, Hindi and five more Indian languages -- Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam.

"For the two-month period, the partnership enables Airtel customers to access Facebook’s full mobile site faster and at no data cost from their Airtel mobiles via m.facebook.com," said an Airtel statement.

Customers, accessing mobile Internet for the first time need to SMS ‘FACEBOOK’ to 54321 to take advantage of this offer.

Sensex down on selling pressure

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex dipped by 20.86 points in early trade on Monday on fresh selling in banking sector stocks after a hike in interest rates.

The Sensex, which had lost 48.38 points in the previous session, fell by 20.86 points to 17,440.09 points in the first five minutes of trading as some of the leading banking stocks declined.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty declined by 11.25 points to 5,225.85 points.

On Friday, the RBI raised short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.

Volatile trade in Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stocks after the merger of Reliance Natural Resources Ltd with Reliance Power influenced the trading sentiment as well. While Reliance Natural Resources' scrip fell by 25.92 per cent to Rs 47.15, Reliance Power gained 4.68 per cent to Rs 183.35.

TOI