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If the govt falls, so be it; I support the PM 100%’

Amethi, July 16: Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday extended his full support to the nuke deal and reiterated his faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “If something is in the interest of the nation then the numbers don’t matter. They (UPA leadership) are taking a risk, but if it is for the good of the country then I would tell them to take the risk again, and again and again. That’s leadership.”

Speaking to media persons here, the Congress Party general secretary said that the nuclear deal was an exceptional deal and was good for the country.

“I support the PM 100% on the nuke deal,” he said “We are going to win the trust vote, but even if the government falls, so be it. The PM is being an upright leader. He has shown vision, tenacity and leadership over the deal.”

“Once the Prime Minister, the Congress president and senior leaders have decided that this is good for the country, then it is the right thing to do,” he said.

Questioning opposition to the deal, Gandhi said it was similar to the criticism his late father Rajiv Gandhi faced when he introduced computers in the late 80s.

"At that time all thought it (decision to introduce computers) was ridiculous. The argument given that time was how it will benefit farmers," he said at a press conference here.

Gandhi said the Prime Minister has shown "vision, tenacity and leadership" by deciding to go ahead with the nuclear deal.

"If the nuclear deal involves risk, I will tell the Prime Minister to take this risk again and again," he said.

Observing that in life one had to take risk some times, Gandhi said the deal was beneficial for the country and risky for the government. "If the government falls, it falls," he said.

On chances of government's survival in the confidence vote on July 22, Gandhi said he was not into making predictions.

"I do not make predictions. Let the voting be over. Then we will see," he said.

The Congress leader said the opposition to the deal was on the basis of party ideology or political reasons. But Congress feels, the decision to go ahead with the accord is correct, he said.

"Our position is that the deal is good for the country," he said, adding that it would ensure availability of more energy.

After computer and information technology, the Indo-US nuke deal is an opportunity for India to usher in nuclear revolution, he added.

He also attacked the opposition for opposing the nuclear agreement saying that they were divided over the nuke deal. “There are people in the BJP who support the deal and do not know why their party is opposing it.” he said. The youth of the opposition also supports the deal he said.

"The youth knows that the deal is good for employment and power. Even the youth belonging to the Opposition parties understand the significance of the nuclear deal. If we think of long term, then nobody will oppose it. Some decisions are to be taken on a long term basis," he said.

"Within the Opposition also, parties opposing the deal when they talk to us they say we know that this deal is good for the country," the Congress leader said.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha said that his party was united over the nuclear deal, adding the young members of the party had no difference of opinion on the issue.

He also hit out at the Congress and the PMO for spreading misinformation on the issue.

Power Finance Q1 down 4% at Rs 296.30 cr

Mumbai, July 16: State run Power Finance Corp Wednesday announced a net profit of Rs 296.30 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, a 4 percent decline over the corresponding period a year-ago.

The firm had a net profit of Rs 308.65 crore in the first quarter of FY ‘08, PFC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The total income of the company rose to Rs 1,441.60 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 1,145.81 crore in the same period a year ago.

Shares of PFC were trading at Rs 110.70, up 2.93 percent in the late afternoon trade on the BSE.

French inflation reaches 3.6%, near 18-year high

Paris, July 16: French 12-month inflation reached 3.6 percent in June, the highest level since October 1990 marking a near 18-year peak, the official statistics institute INSEE told AFP on Wednesday.

Earlier INSEE had reported that prices rose by 0.4 percent in June from the May level, owing to increased prices for oil-based goods and fresh produce.

In May, prices had risen by 0.5 percent, taking 12-month inflation to 3.3 percent, the highest since 1991.

France is a member of the eurozone for which the European Central Bank has set a medium-term target ceiling for inflation of just under 2.0 percent.

Dow jumps 276 points as drop in oil prices eases some concern about rising inflation

NEW YORK -- Wall Street at least temporarily shrugged off some of its many concerns Wednesday and bounded higher thanks to a drop in oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 276 points, or 2.5 percent, posting its best daily gain in three months.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index also gained 2.5 percent, while the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index surged 3.1 percent. Investors exited government bonds and back into stocks as it appeared that the slowing economy will curtail demand for fuel and, in turn, energy costs.

Light, sweet crude fell $4.14 to settle at $134.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, bringing its two-day decline to $10.58.

Cong can't count on 4 of its own in number game
New Delhi: Congress leaders are smiling for the camera and say the Government would win the vote of confidence in Parliament on July 22 but deep within they know it’s going to be no cakewalk.


The UPA combine along with others had the support of 260 MPs on July 15 but the situation changed on July 16 when the number of MPs of whose support the Government was sure of came down to 256. And no it was not the Opposition which pulled the MPs away—the UPA’s own number of MPs reduced from 218 to 214.


The Government senses trouble from four rebel Congress MPs who could vote against the party whip. Kuldeep Bishnoi, suspended Congress MP from Bhiwani in Haryana, on Wednesday said he would vote against the Government. "I am against Sonia Gandhi. So I will vote against the UPA. I strongly oppose the India-US civil nuclear deal also," said Bishnoi, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.


A F Golam Osmani, Congress MP from Barpeta in Assam, is against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s leadership and he too could vote against the Government on July 22. Osmani voted according to the party’s wishes during election for the Vice-President but he had abstained during the Presidential election.


Former union minister R L Jalappa, who represents Karnataka’s Chikballapur constituency in Parliament, is the third troublesome MP for Congress. The BJP has promised to give Jalappa’s son a ticket in the in the Lok Sabha elections and so he may rebel against the Congress on July 22.


Finally, there is M H Ambareesh, the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Congress MP from Mandya in Karnataka. Ambareesh, a film actor, is also reportedly considering switching sides.


The UPA’s second biggest worry is that whether Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav will be able to keep his entire flock of 37 MPs on July 22. Two party MPs have already declared that they would defy the party whip and so the Government may get the support of 37 SP MPs came, not 39.


The UPA’s third biggest worry is that it needs 16 out of the 20 MPs in the undecided block to vote for the Government, but these fence sitters have not committed their support yet.

Tata Tele Q1 net loss at Rs 34.72 cr

Mumbai, July 16: Telecom services provider Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Wednesday announced a net loss of Rs 34.72 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, against a net loss of Rs 28.42 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The total Income rose to Rs 504.89 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 409.60 crore in the same quarter in the year-ago period, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

However, the company registered a cash profit of Rs 79.57 crore in the first quarter, while its foreign exchange loss stood at Rs 20.69 crore.

Further, the company's subscriber base increased 62 per cent year-on-year at 5.6 million during the said period.

Share of the company were trading at Rs 22.75, down 4.21 percent in the late afternoon trade on the BSE.

AOL talks with MS, ***** heat up

New York, July 16: Time Warner Inc's discussions to merge or sell its AOL Internet division with Microsoft Corp or ***** Inc have taken on new urgency ahead of *****'s Aug 1 shareholders meeting, a source familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday.

The structure of any deal is not immediately clear, though a combination of any of the parties is expected to redraw the landscape for advertising on the Internet.

Sources had said earlier that a deal with ***** would likely involve merging AOL with the Web pioneer, with Time Warner taking a minority stake in the combined company. A deal with Microsoft would likely be a sale of AOL, the sources said.

Time Warner and Microsoft declined comment. A representative of ***** was not immediately available.

Time Warner's talks come after Microsoft's buyout talks with ***** fell apart, with Microsoft withdrawing its USD 47.5 billion bid in May. Since then the two have waged a public war of words.

Discussions with Time Warner have accelerated as both ***** and Microsoft view AOL as potentially beneficial to leverage their positions in the Internet marketplace, where Google Inc dominates.

AOL plans to split its dial-up Internet business and has focused on building a one-stop online advertising shop over the past two years.

*****'s interest in AOL is designed to show shareholders that it could grow without Microsoft.

***** needs to be convincing because it faces a proxy battle against activist investor Carl Icahn on Aug 1. Icahn, who owns about 5 percent of ***** shares, has aligned himself with Microsoft, and seeks to replace *****'s board and oust CEO Jerry Yang.

Icahn this week said he and Microsoft had structured a deal to buy out *****'s search advertising business that would have guaranteed ***** USD 2.3 billion in search revenue annually for up to 10 years assuming *****'s audience remained intact and the parties renewed after five years.

Microsoft's interest in acquiring AOL would serve to bulk up its display advertising business as well as gain more traffic to weaken *****'s and Google's position. The software company also needs to convince shareholders it has an Internet strategy independent of its so far unsuccessful pursuit of a ***** takeover.

***** rejected the Icahn/Microsoft deal over the weekend and has said it remained open to a full buyout of the company at USD 33 per share, Microsoft's last offer before walking away.

Microsoft has said it would only strike a deal to buy *****'s search business or the entire company if *****'s board was replaced.

Since Microsoft walked away from it initial bid to buy *****, ***** has separately struck a nonexclusive search advertising deal with Google Inc, which is currently under review by US regulators.

Meanwhile, Time Warner is shopping AOL as part of a strategy to realign its business to focus on content, not distribution. It plans to complete a deal to separate from its Time Warner Cable by the end of the year.

Inflation at 13-year high of 11.91%

New Delhi, July 17: Pushed by higher prices of jet fuels and essential commodities the rate of inflation on Thursday soared to 11.91% for the week ending July 5, 2008. According to latest figures released by the government, the rate of inflation has risen by 0.2% as compared to inflation figures, which were recorded at 11.89% on the week ending June 28.

At 11.91% the rate of inflation is at a 13-year high. Despite several damage control measure taken by the Centre to rein in the spiraling inflation, the prices of essential commodities like tea, milk, edible oil, salt and pulses is on the boil. The prices of tea have gone up by three percent, milk by one percent, sunflower oil by four percent, vanaspati by two percent and imported edible oil, salt mustard oil by one percent each. At the same time, items of daily use like soap became expensive by eight percent, detergents by nine percent, hair oil by one percent. Meanwhile, the prices of vegetables and fruits are down by 1%, whereas jet fuel prices are up by 5%. In the recent weeks, the prices of steel products like wire ropes and steel wire shot up by 36 and 25 percent respectively. Galloping inflation is likely to spell more troubles for the UPA govt, which faces a vote of trust on July 22 to be in power. Just recently Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, "It (inflation) will remain in double digits for some more weeks." The government and the RBI have already taken measures to control inflation, he said, adding, "If necessary we will not hesitate to take more fiscal and monetary measures." In a bid to contain inflation, RBI earlier in the week increased the short term lending rate to banks and the mandatory deposits which banks are required to park with the Central Bank by 0.5 percent each. The Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Yaga Venugopal Reddy has recently told a Parliamentary Committee that the situation on the price front is unlikely to improve dramatically anytime soon. Yaga Venugopal Reddy told the committee the central bank's recent steps had drained a large quantum of liquidity from the banking system and more measures were needed to check inflation.

Friday July 18, 07:04 AM STOCKS NEWS ASIA - Financials, tech firms may weigh on share

SYDNEY - Asian shares are set for a cautious start on on Friday, with sentiment in the financial and technology sector likely to be dampened by disappointing results from Merrill Lynch, Google and Microsoft.

Merrill Lynch, the third-largest U.S. investment bank, posted a much bigger-than-expected $4.89 billion quarterly loss after the closing bell on Wall Street, and unveiled plans to sell billions of dollars of assets to shore up capital.

Technology shares are likely to fall after Google Inc and Microsoft Corp both reported earnings that missed Wall Street's estimates after the bell.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell following the lacklustre earnings, pointing to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday.

U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday, lifted by another steep fall in oil prices, and after JPMorgan Chase & Co, the third-largest U.S. bank, posted better-than-expected results.

Asian stocks listed on Wall Street edged up 0.1 percent overnight, while the MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan rose 1.8 percent on Thursday.

RBI likely to hike rates further, retail NPAs to go up: Crisil

Mumbai, July 17: The Reserve Bank may go for another set of rate hikes in its quarterly review, to be announced on July 29, on back of soaring inflation, primarily fuelled by costly crude and commodity prices, rating agency Crisil said on Thursday.

"I expect a further hike in the repo rate and CRR on July 29...given present conditions, we see the GDP growth this fiscal at 7.8 per cent," Crisil's Managing Director & CEO, Roopa Kudva told reporters here.

He added that while higher interest rates have already hurt the profitability of small and medium-sized corporates, companies have not shelved their investment plans despite a visible liquidity crunch.

In order to check inflation, which is inching towards a 13-year peak of 12 per cent, RBI had effected a series of hikes in its key rates the repo (short term lending rate) now at 8.5 per cent and Cash Reserve Ratio (the mandatory fund that banks must to keep with the apex lender) at 8.75 per cent), thus forcing banks to jack-up their lending rates.

A high-interest rate regime coupled with economic slow- down are likely to push-up the retail bad loans of Indian banks in the coming months, Kudava added.

"We have seen retail NPAs at 2.4 per cent so far but this may go up to 4-4.1 per cent on account of higher interest rates and increased exposure to high-risk customers," she said.

Steps taken both on the monetary and fiscal side to contain inflation may help to cool it by the fourth quarter FY 09, he said, adding, "the average inflation rate is likely to be 8.5-9 per cent in FY 09."