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Harbhajan should be given one more chance: Nanavati

Mumbai, May 13: Coming fresh from his submission of the Harbhajan-Sreesanth row report’s submission, Nanavati told reporters that Harbhajan Singh had already been punished severely and should be given one more chance. His views were echoed by Farookh Engineer and Nanavati further said that the spinner hadn’t argued at all. According to the on-field umpire Ameesh Sahiba, Sreesanth had provoked Harbhajan. Sreesanth on the other hand said that he had forgiven Bhajji and had already forgotten about the incident.

BCCI appointed commissioner, Sudhir Nanavati, probing the slapgate row between Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth submitted the 14 page report to BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty on Tuesday. Talking to reporters here, Shetty said that he will be forwarding the report to BCCI President Sharad Pawar soon and the contents of the report will be disclosed only then, “The report will be opened by BCCI President Sharad Pawar”.

“No date for the verdict has been finalized as yet,” Shetty added.

"I have come to submit my report to the BCCI. It`s a 14-page report. Whatever conclusion I intended to reach I have reached. It`s for the BCCI to take appropriate action," Nanavati said before going in to hand over his report.

Shetty will forward the report to board president Sharad Pawar for the matter to be taken up at the three-member disciplinary committee headed by the BCCI chief and comprising present-elect Shashank Manohar and vice president Chirayu Amin.

It is still not known when the disciplinary committee will meet but there was widespread speculation that the temperamental spinner could be banned for 5 tests or 10 ODIs or for a period of one year. It was also speculated that he could be downgraded from category B to C in the players` contract.

Earlier, Nanavati after completing his report had said he was under tension while preparing it.

"I was under tension not because of the subject, but because the issue that I was investigating was very sensitive. So many eyes were on me. I can`t afford to make any mistakes," said Nanavati.

Nanavati has prepared a 14-page report with ten pages of annexures.

The committee will decide on the quantum of punishment to be given to the person found guilty.

"I was very cautious while drafting the report. I have written each and every word carefully and I can justify every sentence in the report," said the Ahmedabad-based lawyer.

The senior advocate had on Friday wrapped up the investigation in the slapping row after hearing Harbhajan and Sreesanth in Ahmedabad.

Thomas Cook`s open offer from May 16

Mumbai, May 13: The UK-based Thomas Cook Group Plc`s open offer for 20 percent stake in the domestic travel firm for about Rs 351 crore will now start on May 16.

The company on Tuesday said it has revised the schedule of the open offer, as per which the offer would now remain open from May 16 to June 5, Thomas Cook said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The other terms and conditions of the offer remained unchanged, the company added.

As per the original schedule, the offer was expected to remain open from April 22 to May 12.

Thomas Cook UK has made an offer to acquire 32,795,996 equity shares representing around 20.4 percent of the current voting capital of Thomas Cook India Ltd (TCIL) for Rs 107 per share, TCIL said in a filing to the BSE.

Shares of the company were trading at Rs 100.75, up 0.45 percent on the BSE in afternoon trade.

IT sector attracts USD 87mn VC investments in Q1`08

New Delhi, May 13: IT and IT-enabled services sector has emerged as the preferred space for venture capital investments in the country in the first three months this year, attracting over two-third of the total deals worth USD 144 million, a latest report says.

"With 14 deals worth about USD 87 million, the information technology and IT-enabled services (IT & ITES) industry retained its status as the overwhelming favourite among VC investors during Q1`08," according to a latest report by research firm Venture Intelligence Service.

During the quarter, venture capital firms have invested USD 144 million through 21 deals, a sharp decline compared to the corresponding period previous year which had recorded 28 deals worth USD 173 million.

The maximum VC investment was attracted by online travel portal Cleartrip.com of about USD 18.5 million from DAG Ventures.

Further, Deeya Energy attracted (USD 15 million) investment from New Enterprise Association, Soham Renewable Energy (USD 15 million) from D E Shaw and Ikya Human Capital (USD 8 million) from India Equity Partners.

However, there has been a significant growth in terms of the deal size of the investments.

"Online services companies dominated the quarter accounting for a 75 percent share of the invested capital," Venture Intelligence CEO Arun Natarajan said.

"About 10 out of 21 deals during the quarter came within the range of USD 5-10 million," Natarajan said. The same stood at six out of 28 deals within the range of USD 2-5 million.

Clinton trounces Obama in West Virginia
16 minutes ago



Hillary Rodham Clinton coasted to a large but largely symbolic victory in working-class West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Barack Obama one of the worst defeats of the campaign yet scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

"The White House is won in the swing states. And I am winning the swing states," Clinton told cheering supporters at a victory rally.

She coupled praise for Obama with a pledge to persevere in a campaign in which she has become the decided underdog. "This race isn't over yet," she said. "Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win."

Obama looked ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and to the general election campaign against Republican John McCain, but the West Virginia defeat underscored his weakness among blue collar voters who will be pivotal in the fall.

"This is our chance to build a new majority of Democrats and independents and Republicans who know that four more years of George Bush just won't do," Obama said in Missouri, which looms as a battleground state in November.

"This is our moment to turn the page on the divisions and distractions that pass for politics in Washington," added the man seeking to become the first black presidential nominee of a major party.

With votes from 69 percent of West Virginia's precincts counted, Clinton was winning 66 percent of the vote, to 27 percent for Obama.

Clinton's triumph approached the 70 percent of the vote she gained in Arkansas, her best state to date. It came courtesy of an overwhelmingly white electorate comprised of the kinds of voters who have favored her throughout the primaries. Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was wining a whopping 69 percent of their votes.

Clinton won at least 16 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia, to seven for Obama, with 5 more to be allocated.

That left Obama with 1,875.5 delegates to 1,712 for Clinton. It takes 2,026 to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer, a total raised by one to reflect the election of Democrat Travis Childers to Congress in a special election in Mississippi during the evening.

Clinton's aides contended that her strength with blue-collar voters — already demonstrated in primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana — makes her the more electable candidate in the fall.

In her remarks, Clinton said, "I deeply admire Sen. Obama," but she added, "our case is stronger." She said she had won roughly 17 million votes in the primaries and caucuses to date.

The two rivals also vied in a close, nonbinding primary in Nebraska. Obama won the state's caucuses earlier in the year, and with them, a majority of its delegates.

Clinton arranged a meeting with superdelegates for Wednesday. About 250 of them remain publicly uncommitted.

The delegate tally aside, the former first lady struggled to overcome an emerging Democratic consensus that Obama effectively wrapped up the nomination last week with a victory in the North Carolina primary and a narrow loss in Indiana.

He picked up four superdelegates during the day, including Roy Romer, former Democratic Party chairman.

"This race, I believe, is over," Romer told reporters on a conference call. He said only Clinton can decide when to withdraw, but he added: "There is a time we need to end it and direct ourselves to the general election. I think that time is now."

Only five more primaries remain on the calendar, beginning next week in Kentucky and Oregon, then Puerto Rico on June 1 and Montana and South Dakota two days later.

There's another important date on the calendar, though, the May 31 meeting of a convention committee that will hear Clinton's appeal to seat the delegations from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan.

Clinton has long argued to have the delegates seated — a decision that would cut into Obama's delegate advantage — even though the primaries were held so early in the year that they violated Democratic party rules.

In recent weeks, Obama has signaled a willingness to compromise on the issue as he has become more confident of his ultimate victory in the fight for the nomination.

Clinton and Obama briefly shook hands on the Senate floor Tuesday after interrupting their campaigns for a few hours to vote on energy-related bills.

In the days since, close to 30 superdelegates have swung behind Obama, evidence that party officials are beginning to coalesce around the first-term Illinois senator who is seeking to become the first black to win a major party presidential nomination. Three of his new supporters formerly backed Clinton, who surrendered her lead in superdelegates late last week for the first time since the campaign began.

In his appearance in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama sketched the case against McCain. "For two decades, he has supported policies that have shifted the burden onto working people. And his only answer to the problems created by George Bush's policies is to give them another four years to fail," he said.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain, said in response that Obama's rhetoric showed "more of the same negative, partisan politics that have paralyzed Washington for too long. Barack Obama talks about change and bipartisanship, but he has never showed the leadership needed to bridge party divides."

Clinton had spent parts of several days campaigning in West Virginia in search of victory.

She refrained from criticizing Obama directly, but had a cautionary word nonetheless for party leaders who seemed eager to pivot to the fall campaign. "I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia," she said at Tudor's Biscuit World in the state's capital city.

Obama was in the state on Monday, but it was clear he was looking beyond the primary.

He said several days ago he expected Clinton to win by significant margins in West Virginia and then in Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. He devoted more time to Oregon, which also holds a primary next week, and announced plans to campaign in several other states that loom as battlegrounds in the fall against McCain.

Among them are Florida and Michigan, two states that held early primaries in defiance of national Democratic Party rules. The two combined have 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and Obama has not yet campaigned in either.

Obama also broke from his usual practice by wearing a flag pin on his suit jacket. He told several thousand people at the Charleston Civic Center that patriotism means more than saluting flags and holding parades.

HP in talks to buy EDS to compete with IBM

New York, May 13: Hewlett-Packard Co is in talks to buy technology outsourcing company Electronic Data Systems Corp for USD 12 to 13 billion in a deal which would vault it to a close second to IBM in technology services.

The acquisition would be HP`s biggest since its USD 19 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002. Shares of EDS rose nearly 28 percent, taking its market value to about USD 12 billion.

HP shares fell nearly 5 percent amid some skepticism that slow-growing EDS, still considered in turnaround mode, would provide more than a one-time boost, and might not be worth a premium of as much as 37 percent.

A source briefed on the matter said about the talks and that the plan was to announce a deal by the close of Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions, and later HP and EDS both said they were in talks about a business combination but gave no details.

"While Hewlett-Packard has over time built up its own outsourcing practice, this clearly is a move by Mark Hurd to challenge IBM in the services area," said David Garrity, director of research at Dinosaur Securities, referring to HP`s chief executive.

A bigger HP could compete better against International Business Machines Corp in going after large clients and help it keep costs in line, analysts said. If HP completes the acquisition, it would be by far the largest under CEO Hurd.

"It would put Hewlett-Packard in the sweet spot of an IT spending trend. It would definitely improve their position against IBM," said CRT Capital Group analyst Ashok Kumar.

Govt considering steel makers` plea to remove export duty

New Delhi, May 13: The government is "seriously considering" doing away with export duty after steel makers lowered prices to help contain inflation.

"The demand of the steel producers on rolling back the export duty is under consideration and a decision is expected soon," Steel Secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey said.

Inter-ministerial consultations are on in this connection.

During their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, steel producers pledged to lower prices of flat products by Rs 4,000 a tonne and prices of reinforcement bars and structural steel by Rs 2,000 and hold the price line for the next 2-3 months.

"The notification by the Finance Ministry was absolutely imperative as in its absence the duty payable would have been 20 per cent," Pandey said and pointed out that export duties on certain products has been imposed in pursuance of the finance bill, which was approved in the last session of Parliament and received the President`s assent.

Denying reports that certain steel makers were planning to roll back their price cuts, the Secretary said that none of the seven major producers have expressed such an opinion to the ministry.

They have suggested that in view of their self restrain on exports, the government should not impose duties. "This is being seriously considered and as part of the process certain information has even sought from the major producers," he added.

Pandey said that the meeting with secondary steel producers has been organised tomorrow to discuss various issues with them, including prices.

The Secretary also denied a report that the Steel Ministry has sent notices to certain companies for resorting to opaque pricing, saying that all steel producers have been instead advised to display the price cuts as announced by them on their websites.

During their meeting with Singh, the steel makers had reportedly sought withholding of the notification on export duty, which finally was issued and made effective from Sunday.

Tata Steel yesterday renewed its commitment to freeze prices for up to three months, despite the duty notification.

Much to the respite of the government, iron and steel prices declined by 0.1 per cent, according to official inflation data released last week.

The price cut by steel makers is expected to soften the prices of the alloy that might be reflected in the data in the coming weeks.

The producers have said that rising input costs was the main reason behind the recent spate of price rise and sought the government`s intervention in ensuring assured raw material linkage at mutually-agreed rates.

Yamaha introduces G5 bike with electric start

New Delhi, May 13: India Yamaha Motor on Tuesday announced the launch of Yamaha G5 106 cc motorcycle with an electric start engine priced at Rs 39,380 (ex-showroom-all India).

"We plan to continue gearing up our existing product line and marketing initiatives...We are paying attention at the customer who always looks for more. The new G5 is equipped with electric start as a convenient feature. With this launch, we are ready to extend our products and services," Yamaha Motor Executive Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Takahiro Maeda said in a statement.

The G5 will be available nationally through the company's existing wide network of dealers and Bike Station. The G5 will be offered in 2 colours, including Deep Red Metallic K and Yamaha Black.

The bike is priced at Rs 39,380 (ex-showroom-all India).

SEBI gives nod to alternative payment for public offers

Mumbai, May 13: Market regulator SEBI on Tuesday approved in-principle an alternative mode of payment for public and rights issues, which will enable applicants to keep money in banks till allotment of shares and thus eliminate the need for refunds.

"The board approved, in-principle, the concept of marking lien on bank account as an alternative mode of payment in public/rights issues," SEBI said after its board meeting here.

The new method of payment, it said, will enable the application money to remain in the bank account of the applicant till allotment of the shares.

This will eliminate the process of giving refunds by companies to the applicants in case of non-allotment of shares, SEBI said, adding that the modalities would be announced later.

Presently, applicants have to wait for quite some time to get refunds on non-allotment of shares.

SEBI also decided to raise the minimum net worth criteria for portfolio managers from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore.

Icahn may run ***** proxy campaign
14 May, 2008, 0834 hrs IST, REUTERS

NEW YORK: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is considering mounting a proxy campaign to replace ***** Inc board members after the company failed to reach a deal to merge with Microsoft Corp, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

The veteran investor has built up a stake in ***** in the last week and would run a slate in an effort to force the company back to the negotiating table with Microsoft, the source said, asking for anonymity because the decision to go ahead with the move has not yet been made.

It is unlikely that Icahn, a veteran of numerous proxy battles, will join with other hedge funds in the campaign, the source said. A decision to run a proxy slate this year must be made by Thursday to qualify for the July 3 annual meeting.

Still, other activist hedge fund managers may try to get involved, including Scott Galloway and his investment firm Firebrand Partners LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday evening, citing people close to the matter.

Galloway won a seat on the New York Times Co board last month after hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners spent half a billion dollars to bankroll his campaign to try to force change at the newspaper publisher.

Galloway, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

A Harbinger representative was not immediately available for comment on whether it would back Galloway if he were to wage a campaign against *****.

Microsoft walked away from its ***** bid this month after the Internet company turned down its offer to raise it to $47.5 billion, or $33 per share.

***** demanded $37 per share. A ***** spokesman declined to comment on Icahn's potential moves. Microsoft executives have said they were done with their pursuit of *****, and one person close to Microsoft on Tuesday said that remained the case.

The size of the stake Icahn has built could not immediately be determined. He had no ***** shares as of early last week, the source said. The Wall Street Journal said Icahn has amassed a stake of roughly 50 million shares, or less than 4 per cent of the company's roughly 1.44 billion shares outstanding.


One lawyer who has worked with Icahn in previous campaigns said such a campaign could have good odds of success, providing Microsoft is willing to come back to the bargaining table, which he said is probable.

"The odds are pretty decent," said Marc Weingarten, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel, who said he is not involved in any plans for a ***** proxy campaign. "***** has a lot of unhappy shareholders. And if someone could press the company in getting something done, I would think there is a decent chance at a transaction."

One hedge fund manager who heads a large activist fund said it is "a likely possibility" that Icahn would run a ***** campaign. The manager, who has worked with Icahn on previous campaigns, asked to remain unidentified.

Should he decide to get involved, Icahn could be in a position to force the companies to restart the talks. Not only does he have the resources to spend the millions of dollars needed for a successful proxy campaign, he also has experience in pressuring companies back to the bargaining table.

Last year, for instance, Icahn was successful in getting Oracle Corp to return to the bargaining table to buy BEA Systems after those talks collapsed.

***** shares surged 5.1 per cent after news of a possible Icahn move on ***** was reported by CNBC on Tuesday afternoon. The stock closed up $1.30 at $26.56 on Nasdaq.

The possibility of a proxy battle has loomed since ***** rejected Microsoft's offer, sending ***** shares tumbling.

One ***** shareholder, Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital, said last week he was working to line up support to run a dissident director slate. Jackson said on Tuesday he could not line up financing for a proxy campaign that he said could cost at least $1 million.

He told Fox Business Channel he would likely support an Icahn slate, depending on who Icahn proposes. "It basically came down to dollars and cents," Jackson said in an interview. "The SEC hasn't enacted some sort of open proxy access and that makes it difficult for a shareholder like me to belly up to the bar and put up $1 million. That's the bind I'm in."

Jackson said he still plans to run a "no vote" campaign against current directors, which basically entails reaching out to shareholders and asking them not to endorse the company-sponsored slate. Jackson was instrumental last year in a campaign to have former ***** Chief Executive Terry Semel replaced.