Monsoon covers country, 10 days early

PUNE: Making rapid progress, monsoon covered the entire country on Tuesday — 10 days earlier than usual. Last year too, monsoon had covered the whole country in advance — on July 3. India Meteorological Department said monsoon had been advancing rapidly for the last five days.

Weather conditions have been ‘‘very favourable’’ for the progress of monsoon, especially in the northern regions, A B Mazumdar, deputy director general, meteorology, told TOI. He said these conditions, including a strong wind flow, led to good showers in parts of north India for the last two days.

This year, monsoon had reached Bay of Bengal three days earlier than normal and had set in over Kerala on May 31 and over Mumbai on June 11 (both close to normal date). Although it covered north-eastern states slightly before usual, it reached Kolkata on June 13, a week later than usual.

South-west monsoon normally sets in over Bay of Bengal on May 20 and over Kerala on June 1. It covers most parts of peninsular India up to Mumbai and north-eastern states by June 10 and most parts of central and east India by June 15. It reaches Delhi around June 29 and covers the entire country by July 15.

IMD data for the last 30 years revealed the arrival of monsoon in Kerala was advanced by 14 days to May 18 in 2004 and delayed by 11 days to June 12 in 1983.

TOI

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

NDA, Left bandh today against oil price rise

NEW DELHI: Life in many parts of the country may be disrupted on Monday with non-Congress political parties set to enforce a nationwide bandh against the increase in fuel prices.

"This may be the first time in the history of India's politics that almost all political parties will participate in the Bharat bandh," NDA working chairperson L K Advani said after a meeting of top NDA leaders on Sunday to chalk out the strategy for the strike.

The government was unfazed, with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ruling out a relook at the decision to increase prices and Congress slamming what it called "cheap and opportunistic politics at the cost of the nation".

The assertion seemed to reflect the confidence of a regime which has won a series of elections despite continued
rise in prices, defying estimates and leading many to wonder whether inflation has ceased to be the issue which would in the past tilt electoral outcomes against the incumbent.

What can provide edge to the protest this time is that both the BJP-led NDA and Left are going to be part of the action on Monday, raising the possibility of serious disruptions in states where non-Congress governments are in power.

The BJP and the Left have worked hard to pre-empt any perception of a collaboration, to deny Congress an opportunity to accuse CPM of a partnership with "communal forces".

But the competition among Opposition parties to emerge as the main vehicle of the popular unease over price rise is likely to lead them to put their best agitational foot forward on Monday.

"It's not Bharat bandh but virodhi pakhand (it's not an all-India strike but Opposition play-acting)," party spokesman Manish Tiwari retorted. He recalled that the BJP had supported the government move in Parliament in 2006 when the petroleum and natural gas regulatory Act was passed. The purpose of the legislation was to institute an independent regulator in the oil sector. "The BJP supported in both Houses of Parliament," he said.

Attacking the Left for making common cause with the BJP on the issue, he said, "Secularism has never been an issue with the Left." He said the Left had often 'colluded' with communal forces if it served their political purpose.
Advani credited NDA convenor and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav with bringing together non-NDA political parties for the strike. Though the Left parties have given a call for a 'Bharat bandh' separately on Monday, RJD, SP, LJP and some smaller parties will not be part of the strike.

Advani claimed the government had become "insensitive" to price rise and said that though UPA had been espousing the cause of the common man since 2004, prices were on the rise. "Despite so much increase in food prices, the government has increased prices of petroleum products," he said.

Price rise will figure in the forthcoming monsoon session, Advani said, adding that even if prices were not rolled back, it was the responsibility of the Opposition to voice the people's protest.

Yadav said Monday's agitation would be "extraordinary and unprecedented" as people were "completely fed up" with price rise.

Yadav gave figures of prices of petrol in different countries to argue that its cost in India was very high. He claimed that the cost of petrol was only Rs 16.50 but after several taxes, it was sold for Rs 53.05.

Emergency services will not be disrupted during the strike. Advani appealed to all NDA members participating in the strike to ensure that it was conducted peacefully.

TOI