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CPI-M fails to pull down Govt, sacks Somnath

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader, Somnath Chatterjee, has been expelled from his party.


The CPI-M expelled Chatterjee on Wednesday from the primary membership of the party - a post that he has been in for almost half a century - for violating party discipline after a Politburo meeting held at the party headquarters in New Delhi.


The meeting was attended by party General Secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, MK Pandhe, SR Pillai and Brinda Karat.


A CPI-M press release said, "The Politburo of the Communist Party of India-Marxist has unanimously decided to expel Somnath Chatterjee from the membership of the party with immediate effect. This action has been taken under Article XIX, clause 13 of the Party Constitution for seriously compromising the position of the party."


Secretary of the West Bengal State Committee and Politburo member Biman Bose justified Somnath's expulsion.


"He may abide by the country's Constitution but the party has its own Constitution with which he has to abide. We waited till today because he had committed before the party that he would resign first thing after the trust vote," Bose said.


However, former Attorney General and noted jurist, Soli Sorabjee clarified that despite the expulsion, Chatterjee still remained the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.


"The Speaker was elected by the House, he was not elected as a nominee of any particular political party. His expulsion from the party has nothing to do with his continuation as the Speaker. He can be removed only if he wants to resign himself or has to be voted out," Sorabjee said.


Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan says Somnath Chatterjee did the right thing in continuing as the speaker.


"Speaker doesn't have any party affiliation. He was an exceptionally good Speaker," she said.


Chatterjee had been under intense pressure from the CPI-M to resign as the Lok Sabha Speaker after the party withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and even listed him as among the party Members of Parliament (MPs) when it submitted a withdrawal letter to President Pratibha Patil.


The CPI-M wanted him to toe the party line, but he insisted on remaining in the post of the Speaker, maintaining that he was above party politics.


CPI-M General Secretary, Prakash Karat had earlier said that the Politburo had been directed by the party's Central Committee to decide on what would be the appropriate action against the Speaker.


Lately, there had been reports that Chatterjee planned to resign after conducting the confidence motion. However, on Tuesday evening Chatterjee kept on the suspense over whether he would quit or not by saying that he would "decide when the time comes".

Hotel Leela Palace, promoted by Hotel Leelaventure has entered into a sales and marketing agreement with US-based Preferred Hotel Group in a bid to increase brand awareness, reservations via the American firm's 29 global sales offices.

According to reports, with this tie-up, Hotel Leela seeks to lure more business customers from the US corporate world. The tie-up will also give the company acces to Preferred Hotel's travel managers in the US, Singapore and Australia.

Preferred Hotel plans to take the total number of hotels under its sales and marketing agreement in India from the present seven to 25 by the end of this year, making India its third largest market after the US and Europe.

Mahindra Finance Q1 net up 25% at Rs 26.76 cr

Mumbai, July 23: Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services on Wednesday announced a profit after tax of Rs 26.76 crore for the first quarter ended June 31, a 24.8 per cent growth over the corresponding period previous fiscal.

The company had PAT of Rs 21.44 crore in Q1 of FY'08, the financial services provider said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange.

The total income of the company rose to Rs 299.43 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 249.61 crore in the year-ago period.

During the quarter, the company's broking business Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd reported a net profit of Rs 1.92 crore, while the total income was at Rs 6.23 crore.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services is the non-banking finance arm of USD 6.7 billion Mahindra Group. It provides finance for utility vehicles, tractors and cars.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 256, up 0.37 per cent on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Bombay HC for regular hearing in RIL-RNRL gas case

Mumbai, July 23: The hearing of the dispute between Ambani brothers over the supply of gas from the KG basin will be held on a day to day basis from tomorrow by the Bombay High Court.

This was decided today by a division bench comprising Justice J N Patel and Justice K K Tated who will be hearing the case.

The Court had earlier restrained Mukesh's Reliance Industries from entering into gas sales contracts with parties other than Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Natural Resources and state-run NTPC, but had agreed with the Government set price of USD 4.20 per million British thermal unit of KG-D6 gas.

Reliance Industries is set to begin gas production from KG-D6 from September, at an initial rate of 25 million standard cubic meters per day, climbing up to 40 mmscmd by March 2009, but with the court restraint it has not been able to enter into sale contracts.

RNRL claims right over 28 mmscmd of gas from KG-D6 at USD 2.34 per mmBtu, the price at which RIL had bid in a tender floated by NTPC for sourcing gas. The NTPC contract was not honoured as the two firms are in courts over certain clauses in the contract.

The Anil Ambani Group, citing family demerger agreement, claims right over the 12 mmscmd gas RIL had committed to NTPC if its deal with the state-run firm falls.

Reliance, which sees peak output from KG-D6 at 80 mmscmd, wants the initial 40 mmscmd freed for sale to customers other than RNRL and NTPC.

The High Court earlier had asked the two brothers to settle the dispute within themselves but they failed to reach any agreement. Meanwhile, the government has impleaded in the case saying natural gas was a national resource and it cannot be locked in a family dispute.

Rupee breaches 42-mark against dollar

Mumbai, July 24: The Indian rupee surged strongly for the second consecutive day after the government won the trust vote and breached 42-level in more than two months amid rising stock markets and easing global oil prices.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the local currency resumed firm at 41.92/93 a dollar from its last close of 42.09/10 a dollar and later appreciated further to 41.84/85 a dollar in late morning deals.

Forex dealers said the rupee continued to draw support from expectations of capital inflows after the government has indicated that it would now focus on greater economic reforms, including relaxing FDI limit in sectors like insurance.

The rupee also benefited from consistent surge in stock prices resulting in fairly good inflows.

Foreign Institutional Investors bought shares worth about 300 million dollars on July 23, as per provisional data.

The Indian benchmark Sensex was up 155 points at 1015 hrs today.

RIL records 13% rise in net profit at 4,110 cr

Mumbai, July 24: Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday recorded 13% rise in net profit at Rs 4,110 crore of the current fiscal as against the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal also went up by 38 % during the quarter at 43,050 crore over the corresponding period last fiscal.

Reliance Industries' turnover increased 38 % to Rs 43,050 crore for the quarter ended June 30, from Rs 31,290 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Revenue of the company grew 36% due to increase in prices and 2 % growth in volumes. Exports were higher by 112 % at Rs 28,357 crore in the first quarter this year, compared to the previous fiscal, the company release said.

"At Reliance we continued to scale new peaks in financial performance despite challenging business environment including domestic inflation and weakening of the leading economies of the world. The sterling performance was made possible by our quality manufacturing assets and experienced, highly skilled people, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said.

"We will play a major role in India's energy security as we are focusing to be among the top leaders in the world in the oil and gas sphere. We are confident that the new growth drivers Oil and Gas, Organised retailing and Agro-Retail will take Reliance to a higher growth trajectory in the medium term," Ambani added.

Besides, the Panna-Mukta fields of the produced 321,600 tonnes of crude oil and 353 MMSCM of natural gas, a decrease of 30 % and 27 % respectively, compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Revenue for the refining and marketing segment increased by 46 % to Rs 32,587 crore in the first quarter this fiscal from Rs 22,328 crore in the same period previous year, mainly due to high product prices driven by high crude oil prices.

Increase in prices accounted for 41 % of growth in revenue while higher volumes accounted for five %.

Zee News net up 48 % at Rs 9.5 cr

Mumbai, July 24: Subhas Chandra-led Zee News on Thursday announced a standalone net profit of Rs 9.50 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, a 48.44 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year ago.

The firm had a net profit of Rs 6.4 crore in the first quarter of FY'08, Zee News said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The revenue rose 47 per cent to Rs 109.60 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 74.45 crore in the year-ago period.

"Going forward with our regional expansion, we will be launching Zee Tamil and Zee Telegu News by the second quarter of FY'09. With the launch of these two channels, Zee News Ltd will further strengthen its position in the news and regional entertainment genres," Zee News Chairman Subhash Chandra said.

The subscription revenue stood at Rs 21.20 crore in the June quarter, a growth of 55 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.

The channel's advertisement revenue increased 55 per cent to Rs 85.80 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

"We continued to deliver strong results and recorded a 47 per cent growth in EBIDTA of Rs 17.50 crore, against Rs 11.90 crore in the corresponding period last year," Chandra said.

"The re-launch of Zee News has started showing positive results. To further drive the performance of our Hindi channel, we are planning a re-launch of Zee Business in the coming months," Zee News CEO Barun Das said.

Shares of Zee News closed at Rs 48.05, up 1.16 per cent on the BSE.

Idea Q1 net dips 17%

Mumbai, July 24: Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Thursday posted a 17.26 per cent decline in the net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 at Rs 263.10 crore, due to the expiry of concessions in the licence fee in seven circles.

The firm had a net profit of Rs 308.50 crore in Q1 of FY 2008.

The company, which just announced its decision to merge with regional operator Spice Communications, said its EBIDTA, profit before tax and PAT were negatively impacted by Rs 29 crore due to the expiry of the period of 2 per cent concession in license fee for seven areas, Idea Cellular said in filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

During the quarter, the company also witnessed a forex loss of Rs 15.20 crore, against a gain of Rs 32.90 crore in the corresponding period a year-ago.

The total revenue rose to Rs 2,178.10 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 1,477.50 crore in the same period a year-ago.

Idea ended the quarter with a subscriber base of 27.19 million in its operations in 11 circles and a market share of 9.6 per cent.

Shares of Idea Cellular closed at Rs 87.65, down 3.84 per cent on the BSE.

JSW to foray into nuclear power generation

Mumbai, July 24: Days after the trust vote in the Parliament which has paved the way for the Manmohan Singh Government to push ahead the Indo-US Nuclear deal, Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Group on Thursday announced its intention to foray into the nuclear power sector.

"Nuclear power would be a very good thing. We want to foray into the area. We are talking to global majors," Jindal told agencies here on Thursday.

The Group, through its power generation subsidiary JSW Energy, would either enter into a joint venture or may ink a technological tie-up with a global major for this purpose.

Jindal declined to name its foreign partners saying, "These are confidential issues".

In early stages of negotiation, JSW has not yet firmed up plans of its proposed power generation protfolio from nuclear energy sources.

"Each turbine normally generates 1,000 MW and we are yet to decide how many turbine we will put up. It is still early days and we don't know how many turbines we will build," Jindal said. Jindal, the newly elected President of the industry body Assocham, would lead a delegation to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week urging him to formulate strategy to allow private sector enter into the sector.

Industry sources said that at least 30 companies are eager to enter into nuclear power sector and related areas aiming to generate a minimum of 20,000 MW in the next 10 years involving investments of USD 40 billion.

This includes almost all the big names of the power industry, including Reliance Power and a handful of new entrants into the field that includes a major real estate player as well, they said.

State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) generates 3,900 MW power. India projects to have a total capacity of 14,080 MW by the end of the current plant period ending 2012 of which reactors having a total capacity of 3,380 MW are under construction. By 2020, India plans to generate 20,000 MW nuclear energy.

JSW Energy was the first to set up an IPP at Vijaynagar with a capacity of 260 MW where the capacity is being increased to 600 MW. It is also executing 600 MW power plant at Bellary in Karnataka.

Raj West Power, a subsidiary of the company, is investing Rs 5,000 crore to put up a 1,080 MW power at Barmer in Rajasthan.

In Maharashtra, a 1,200 MW power project is under implementation. The company has also forayed into the hydro- power sector with plans to generate 260 MW power at an investment of Rs 1,700 crore.

NINE LOW INTENSITY BLASTS ROCK BANGALORE

Zeenews Bureau

Bangalore, July 25: Terror hit Bangalore Friday afternoon as nine low intensity blasts ripped through different parts of the IT city. Seven explosions took place within a span of half an hour, starting at 1:45 pm. The sites that were targetted were Madiwala, Adugodi area, Koramangla, Hosur Road, Nayandahalli and Shivaji Nagar on Mysore Road and Langford Town. However, after a lull two more blasts have been reported. The first one near Gopalan Mall also on Mysore Road at around 5:30 pm and another in north Bangalore near a flyover.

Helpline No: 080-40312706

Karnataka DGP Sri Kumar has also warned that there may be another 12 live bombs planted in others parts of the city. The Police is trying to trace them so that the bomb disposal squad can defuse the explosives.

All the sites are located in the southern part of the city, with some hosting several upmarket malls. These are fairly congested with Madiwala being one of the biggest markets of the city. The blast here took place at the bus stand.

The strech from Brigade Road to the Hosur Road National Highway leading to Chennai bore the brunt in today's attack.

Speaking to the media, Police Commissioner Shankar Bidri said that one woman was killed in Madiwala, while there have been injuries in the other blasts. There are reports of yet another person having succumbed to his injuries.

All the wounded have been rushed to nearby hospitals for medical aid. Some have been admitted to St John’s and Mallya hospitals.

Elaborating on the modus operandi, the Police Commissioner said that crude bombs with timer devices were used. Iron bolts had been fixed to them and each explosion had the intensity of 1-2 hand grenades.

The blasts are thought to be of low-intensity using gelatin sticks. Traces of ammonium nitrate has also been found.

One blast took place near tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi’s house. However, barring shattering some window panes, there was no other major damage.

Forensic experts and bomb disposal squads have reached the targetted sites.

The authorities have cordoned off the entire locality and sniffer dogs are being used for further clues. Mobile networks in certain areas have jammed and major artery roads have clogged due people rushing back home.

Bidri said that the incident looked pre-planned. He also appealed to Bangaloreans not to panic as the situation was fully under control now. Meanwhile, the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has convened an emergency meeting.

The pattern and intensity of blasts indicate the explosions were meant to cause panic rather than claim casualties.

Union Home Ministry closely monitoring situation

The Union Home Ministry is closely monitoring the situation in Bangalore in the wake of today's serial blasts, which killed one person and injured some others.

Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and other senior officials are in constant touch with Karnataka government officials, a ministry spokesman said.

"A senior Home Ministry official is closely monitoring the situation," he said.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Shivraj Patil condemned the blasts in eastern parts of Bangalore and offered all assistance to the Karnataka government to deal with the situation.