Gold at home makes us rich

India is glittering.

Indians have grown richer by $50 billion in the past two months even as the world witnessed a stock market meltdown across bourses, leaving many on the Forbes list poorer by billions of dollars. Over the past four years, Indians have seen their net worth soar by $320 billion - a return that would do Warren Buffet or George Soros proud.

The secret to this new-found prosperity when investors worldwide are ruing their falling fortunes is India's craving for gold.

The yellow metal is the most democratically held asset in the country, while company stocks are the most thinly held. There are just under six million shareholders in the Indian capital market; at least half the country's billion-plus population hoard gold. Since antiquity, Indians have lusted


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Red light law divides UPA

Minister of women and child development Ms Renuka Chowdhury's move to make radical amendments to the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act has seen the entire UPA government divided over this contentious issue.

Several male ministers, led by the law minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, the health minister, Mr Anbumani Ramadoss, and the sports minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, are strongly opposed to the amendment, which will punish men for visiting prostitutes.

The amendment will make the client of a sex worker a criminal liable to a jail term of up to seven years. Under the present law, while the women in the trade are punished for "seduction", her clients and all others involved go virtually scot-free.

The amendment has now been referred for re-examination to the group of ministers comprising the home minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, Mr Sibal, Mr Ramadoss and Mr Aiyar amongst others. Ms Chowdhury is stepping up pressure to table the amendment in the current session of Parliament.

Mr Sibal and his other male colleagues believe this amendment could force the entire trade to go underground and create more problems than


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Lalu on track, slashes fares, India Inc upbeat

Commuters across the country breathed a sigh of relief as the railway minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, did not raise passenger fares and instead lowered the AC fares for all classes of travel, announced 53 new passenger trains and 10 new "garib raths" and promised a host of conveniences that would be made available through information technology. He talked of the four Cs: comfort and convenience for passengers, and commitment and connectivity for the freight business, which is the mainstay of the Indian Railways.

A closer reading of Mr Lalu Yadav's budget proposals for 2008-09 brings out the minister in a new avatar: Lalu the Businessman. If the budget reveals sparklers it is in the explosion of business opportunities for public-private partnership - a total of Rs 25,000 crore.

Indian industry hailed the Railway Budget 2008-09 as pragmatic and futuristic, saying the ongoing rationalisation of freight rates and lowering of fares would boost the growth momentum.

The Ficci chief, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said the announcement to cut fares "is RAIL BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS 2,500 Old signals to be replaced ?? 10GaribTrains 53New Trains 250Kcr for Technical Modernisation 50% Concession for AIDS patients, Senior Citizens 30 Major stations to have multi-level platforms. 25Kcr Profits in 2007-08 ??



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Prez: Government hopes for nuclear deal

As political differences continue on the civilian nuclear deal with the US, the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, said here on Monday that her government hopes that the agreement "becomes possible".

In her maiden address to a joint sitting of Parliament, President Patil said, "It is our hope that civil nuclear cooperation with the USA and other friendly countries will become possible."

"Our relations with the US have improved in the past few years and now span a wide spectrum, including high technology, space, agriculture, education and trade and other linkages," Ms Patil noted.

Terming the measures taken by the government as the architecture of inclusive growth, President Patil said it has accelerated economic growth. She said government programmes like Bharat Nirman, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the National Rural Health Mission and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission have promoted socially inclusive and economically manageable urban development.

However, the CPI(M) said President Patil's address missed out on

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Women to handle rural micro banks

Villages in the state will soon have mini banks run by women.

The state government is implementing this innovative idea to expand the banking system in the state. At present, banks have opened branches only in about 4,000 of the 22,341 villages in Andhra Pradesh.

"Since it is not a viable proposition to have a bank branch in each village, the state government has proposed an alternative banking system named point of transaction or mini bank," said a senior official.

The mini bank, to be run by women, will have all facilities such as savings account and cash transfer. They will even give out small loans.

Every village will be defined as service area of a particular nationalised bank and the mini banks will be attached to them.

Women running the bank will be given a computer that will be connected to the main server of the bank.

"All the transactions will get registered in the main server as soon as it is entered in the computer," said Mr K. Raju, principal secretary of the rural development department.

He added that pilot projects were already being run in Warangal and Karimnagar districts. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme payments and pensions are being availed through them.

"Points of transactions will be opened in East Godavari, Mahbubnagar, Chittor,


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PPP, SHARIF SIGN DEAL

The late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the former prime minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) will form the new government in Pakistan, the two parties announced after late-night talks by their chiefs here on Thursday.

"We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form the government at the Centre and in the provinces," Mr Sharif, a two time prime minister, announced at a press conference after talks with the PPP co-chairman, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, Ms Bhutto's husband.

The alliance between the two parties is seen as a direct threat to the President, Mr Pervez Musharraf, who has ruled the country singlehandedly for over eight years, ever since he overthrew Prime Minister Sharif in a coup on October 12, 1999. Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif held a lengthy meeting before meeting the press to announce their joining of hands. Mr Sharif's younger brother Mr Shahbaz Sharif, who is the PML(N) president, was also present.

The PPP leads in the National Assembly with 88 seats, followed by the PML(N) with 66. Together the two have an overwhelming majority in the House.

The Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement have won 19 seats each, while other political groups and Independents won 27 seats. The ANP is also set to


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Nooyi wants to join US government

Indra Nooyi, the India-born chief of global giant PepsiCo, sees a role for herself in the US government, possibly after the next presidential term, as the tactical battle for market share (versus Coke) may not engage her for long, says a report in US business magazine Fortune.

"After PepsiCo, I do want to go to Washington," Fortune quoted Ms Nooyi as saying in a report published in its latest issue, when asked whether she had ever more than just thought about a role in the government.

"I want to give back - to work for no money for four or five years," said Ms Nooyi, who has already been lauded as the world's most powerful business woman. The PepsiCo chairperson and CEO has, however,



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Zardari-Sharif rift on the way to power Pak

The top leaders of the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will meet in Islamabad on Thursday to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government. The decision was announced by the PML-N leader, Mr Nawaz Sharif, flushed with unexpected victory, at a press conference in Lahore on Tuesday. The PPP went into a long huddle and emerged with the situation still unclear. After playing cat and mouse with the media for the entire day, the PPP co-chairman, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, held a thoroughly disorganised press conference where he did not take a position on the restoration of the judiciary or the exit of the President, Mr Pervez Musharraf, despite repeated questioning. He said that Parliament was sovereign and all these issues would be taken to Parliament. And although he pledged that all restrictions on the media would be removed in a manner that would not allow these to be imposed "ever again", it was a highly agitated group of Pakistani journalists who came out from the press conference. "He has said nothing,

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Benazir's party set for victory

Assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party appears set to win the 2008 general election, as the counting of votes began across the country on Monday night, official sources said.

The erstwhile ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-eAzam) and arch-rival PML (Nawaz) are mainly competing in Punjab. In Sindh, as per tradition, the PPP is doing well and is set to take the province. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) too will take its share in Karachi and Hyderabad.

The Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat Ulemae-Islam (Fazal) are in competition in the North-West Frontier Province ahead of the other parties; while the PMLQ, PPP, PML-N and other parties along with Independent candidates are likely to get their share in Balochistan province.

"The trend shows that the PPP will win (a majority in the National Assembly)," an election official privy to the vote count told this newspaper.

He added: "I have visited several polling stations myself and the feedback that we are getting from around the country is in favour of the PPP. The results will come by late night (early Tuesday)."

Another official said: "While the PPP is most likely to get a simple majority in the National Assembly, (the powerful) Punjab (provincial assembly)

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36 towns to get RIL gas

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the state government have decided to go ahead with the first phase of the city gas network and identified 36 towns to be supplied by the East-West pipeline.

The pipeline from the KG Basin to Bharoch will supply natural gas to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Starting from Kakinada in East Godavari district, the pipeline will pass through West Godavari, Krishna, Khammam, Nalgonda, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medak.

All the major towns in these districts will be connected to the main pipeline, a senior RIL official said. "We will soon finalise the city gas distribution project with a delivery capacity of 5 million standard cubic metres per day," said Mr P.M.S. Prasad, president and CEO of RIL (oil and gas).

Though formal clearance for the project has to come from the regulatory authorities concerned, it is likely to be approved as RIL is the only player with gas reserves and existing distribution network.

Newly formed Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd is investing nearly $4 billion (Rs 16,000 crore) on the 1,400-km pipeline.

RIL is learnt to have agreed to a request by the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to

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CM calls TRS, Left for tie-up

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, on Thursday warned that the Telugu Desam could take advantage of the rift between the Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Left parties, which had allied to fight the 2004 elections.

He was speaking during a debate on Telangana in the Assembly following the Speaker, Mr K.R. Suresh Reddy's suspension of TRS legislators from the House. The suspension was withdrawn within a few hours.

The Chief Minister made an open invitation to the TRS and the Left to regroup with his party. His move gains significance in the wake of a survey indicating that the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, had a lead over him in the Telangana region.

Dr Reddy reminded the TRS and the Left that the TD bagged two zilla parishads in Telangana only because of a split in the anti-Desam vote. He urged the TRS to work with his party for the development of Telangana and leave the issue of separate statehood to the UPA government at the Centre to decide.

Maintaining that the UPA owed its existence to support from the Left, the Chief Minister said both the Congress and the Left should continue their fight to protect the secular fabric of the country. Praising the CPI for being "wiser" in taking decisions, he said the CPI(M) was also a

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Hyderabad to become South Asia cargo hub

Hyderabad is likely to emerge as the cargo hub of Southeast Asia with the new international airport at Shamshabad, 30 km from here, handling a bulk of express cargo and courier services from the region.

The greenfield airport, which will become operational on March 16, will have a world class cargo handling facility. The cargo handling and courier services have been planned and executed after studying similar facilities at leading international airports around the world, in Japan, the UK, the US and Malaysia.

"We have asked DHL Express, who were planning to go to Sri Lanka, to come to Hyderabad. We offered them land and they accepted Hyderabad as the centre of the their Southeast Asia operations,"

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Tsunami hits Sensex, down by 833 points

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index saw its third largest fall on Monday, pulled down by the Reliance Power IPO that tanked on listing.

The stock closed down 77.70 points at Rs 377.30 against its issue price of Rs 450.

Market sources say that the group tried to support its share, but when the selling grew into a mini-tsunami, they realised they were running into a trap. It was the largest traded stock in the futures and options segment.

The market opened in the midst of weak cues from the Asian markets, which opened in the red after the Chinese New Year holiday, and the US markets, which closed in the red on Friday. The Reliance Power IPO was the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back, in this case the Sensex and the Nifty.

The Sensex plunged below the

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AUSTRALIA VS INDIA - India LAY MCG GHOST TO REST

India finally put their Melbourne demons to rest as they beat Australia by five wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to go on top of the table in the CB Series trination tournament here on Sunday. It was India's first victory against Australia at the venue for 22 years.

After Ishant Sharma turned in a splendid spell of 4/38 to bundle the Australians out for 159, Sachin Tendulkar scored a forceful 44 to set up the Indian win. There were some tense moments though when the side slipped to 102/5 in the 29th over but captain M.S. Dhoni and Rohit Sharma curbed their attacking instincts to ensure India was home with an unbroken 58-run partnership.

India began shakily as Virender Sehwag picked up edges that flew past the fielders to the fence before being felled by a Nathan Bracken delivery that rapped him on the pads. Television replays showed it would have gone over the stumps. India 18/1 in the fourth over.

Next over, Sachin Tendulkar played three stunning drives, one through the covers and two straight down the ground off Brett Lee to rattle the Aussies, whose shoulders slumped thereafter. There was very little chance for recovery.

Tendulkar got a reprieve though, in the 11th over, when he charged down the track and tried to whack Stuart Clark out of the ground, only to manage an edge that landed in Gilchrist's gloves. But umpire Rudi Koertzen remained still. India were 52/1 and the batsman on 24 then.

Earlier, pacemen Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan contributed their mite with the ball, delivering superb stuff to scuttle the Aussies. With a comfortable cushion, Harbhajan Singh then tightened the screws to dry up runs in the middle overs with figures of 8-2-19-1.

Mike Hussey put on a brilliant stand of 54 for the seventh wicket with Brett Lee (10) to rescue Australia from the pits. He played sensibly, putting his head down to concentrate and pick singles as he rotated the strike with the tailender and waited patiently for the loose deliveries to launch into them and pick boundaries. The lefthander remained unbeaten on a steady 65.

The Australians began on a sour note as Adam Gilchrist was given out third ball, courtesy umpire Koertzen's error. He was adjudged leg before wicket even as the ball had hit the bat before it crashed on to his pads. Gentleman Gilchrist simply put his head down and walked.

Next over, it could have been disastrous for Australia as Matthew Hayden was let off by an inert Rohit Sharma, who failed to get his arms around a thick edge off Ishant Sharma at catchable height.

Hayden soon made it count, smashing Sreesanth through the covers and sending Sharma straight down the ground for scorching boundaries. But the big opener pushed his luck a lit tle too far and finally edged Ishant to Dhoni behind the stumps as he attempted an expansive drive when he had made 25.

Bowling an accurate line, Ishant once again proved that Ricky Ponting is his bunny. After causing much discomfort to the Australian captain, the pace bowler got one to rise from good length which he edged to slips.

Pathan started badly, being turned around the corner for a boundary by Michael Clarke first ball but

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U.S. POLLS - Hillary, Obama in close race

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dug in on Wednesday for an extended battle for the Democratic presidential nomination after splitting wins in the biggest primary day in US history, while Republican John McCain cemented his front-runner status after a slew of big victories.

Ms Clinton won in eight key Super Tuesday races, including the most valuable, California and New York. She also maintains a lead in the all-important tally of delegates. But Mr Obama is close behind with wins in at least 13 of the 22 states that held Democratic contests, and he has fresh momentum as the race moves into territory where he would seem to have an edge.

Either Democrat will likely face a formidable opponent in Mr John McCain, who scored cross-country victories.

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Bhupathi manages Sania's pull-out

Tennis sensation Sania Mirza, dogged by controversies, has pulled out of the Bangalore Open to be held from March 3.

"I have opted out of the Bangalore Open on the advice of my manager. He has told me not to play in Bangalore because a lot has been happening in the past few months," Sania told the media on arrival from Bangkok here on Monday. "Every time, I played in India, there has been some problem or the other. So we decided it would be better not to play this time. It is difficult to handle these things," she added.

Controversies have chased the 21year-old in the recent past, leading her to contemplate giving up the sport prior to the Australian Open last month. "The thought of quitting did cross my mind. After having played with pride for the country, it is really difficult to stay focused on your game and give your best when these petty controversies keep cropping up," the Hyderabadi said.

"However, I will continue to play," she added. "Let's forget all that talk about me

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‘I should not have trusted Malik'

"I hate him. I don't want to see his face anymore. I don't want to continue the marriage with him," said Ayesha Siddiqui, wife of the Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik who has denied that a marriage ever took place.

Talking exclusively to this newspaper she said, "It is very unfortunate that I trusted Shoaib. I never imagined that he would betray me and even refuse to recognise the holy relationship."

According to Ayesha, Shoaib started ignoring her after he became captain of the Pakistan cricket team. She used to get his calls once in a while but it stopped during the past few months.

"Now, I cannot even reach Malik because he is not using the old numbers," Ayesha said.

"I would have freed him from the relationship if he had expressed the desire to me. But I am badly hurt at the way he chosen to leave me," she said...

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Image and Article source: Deccan Chronicle
Article taken from the issue: 4 Feb 2008