Taking oath in the name of Allah is constitutional: HC

KOCHI, July 21: The Kerala High Court today held that taking oath in the name of Allah is constitutional as the word is the synonym of "God".

Dismissing a public interest litigation seeking a declaration that 11 MLAs, who had taken the oath in the name of Allah be disqualified, a division bench comprising Justices J B Koshy and V Ramkumar held that Allah means God and taking oath in the name of Allah is constitutional.

Taking oath in the name of Allah is taking oath in the name of God, they said.

The bench observed that the MLAs had taken the oath in their personal capacity and not on behalf of voters of their constituencies.

If taking oath in the name of Allah is prevented, it will defeat the secular character of the nation, they said.

The PIL was filed by Madhu Parumala, vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. (PTI)

Govt allows free import of GM soyabean oil till March 2007

NEW DELHI, July 21: Prices of edible oil in the country are expected to stabilise further following the easing of norms for the import of soyabean oil by the Government.

Out of the demand for 30 lakh tonnes of soyabean oil, 20 lakhs are imported from countries like Argentina and Brazil.

"The government is concerned about the prices of edible oil. We are grateful to them for taking our suggestion in the right spirit by allowing us to import soyabean oil without clearance upto March 2007," Solvent Extractors' Association Executive President B V Mehta told PTI.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification issued yesterday decided to extend the last date for import of soyabean oil without the clearance of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee till the end of this financial year.

"We had requested that a notification be issued by the DGFT to keep in abeyance the stipulation for GEAC clearance to ensure that supplies into India are not disrupted," he said.

According to the norms, import of genetically modified foods soyabean oil requires a one-time clearance from GEAC.

Mehta expressed concern that consignments of soyabean oil had not reached the country for the last two months due to the stipulation of GEAC approval which had affected the crushing process.

The Government decision, he said, would help in further stabilising the edible oil prices as soya oil constitutes a major percentage of total edible oil consumed in the country.

The Cabinet Committee on Prices in its meeting yesterday had reviewed the prices of essential commodities including edible oil and observed that they were under control.

Import of edible oil during November 2005 to June 2006 stood at 25.89 lakh tonnes as against 30.62 lakh tonnes during the corresponding period of the last year.

The import of edible oil during June stood at 3.88 lakh tonnes as against 2.82 lakh tonnes during the same month last year.

Palm oil import during November-June 2006 stood at 14.76 lakh tonnes, which was substantially less than 20.08 lakh tonnes imported during the same period of the previous year.

Import of non-edible oil from November 2005 to June 2006 jumped to 4.24 lakh tonnes compared to 2.30 lakh tonnes during the same period of last year. (PTI)

Reports about me becoming Governor are rumours: Alva

PANAJI, July 21: Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva has termed reports appearing in a section of media about her being nominated for the post of governor of a state as "rumours".

"I have not received any such communication from the president. News about me being selected as the Governor of some state has been published in the newspapers. If the media wants me to be a Governor, it is fine," she told PTI here last evening.

"Till now, the media has made me the Governor of six states," Alva, the Congress general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Goa, said in a lighter vein.

Alva, on a two-day visit to Goa, has begun meetings with coalition partners in the state government and will meet the state Congress committee and party MLAs. She will also attend a special dinner tonight with the state ministers.

She said she had been meeting the coalition partners and her party members to know their opinion about various issues.

"These are not serious issues. I met them just to know what they are feeling about certain issues like language and a recent strike by engineers," she said.

Alva said both alliance partners, NCP and Maharashtrawadi Gomanatak Party (MGP), were fully supportive of the Government and playing positive roles in the state. (PTI)

Tyeb Mehta outshines Big B at Osian's auction

NEW DELHI, July 21: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan may be ruling Bollywood but when it comes to auctions, there's no beating octogenarian artist Tyeb Mehta.

Mehta's 1968 painting 'Falling Figure' attracted a winning bid of Rs 3.45 crore at the Osian's auction here last night, easily the highest price quoted for any of the lots on sale.

In contrast, posters of Bachchan's early films 'Bombay to Goa' and 'Abhimaan' found no takers, with connoisseurs unwilling to match pre-sale estimates of up to Rs 25,000 for the two items.

The Mumbai-based painter and other modern Indian artists like M F Hussain, V S Gaitonde and Amrita Sher-Gil were the only ones to cross the Rs one crore mark in bids.

An untitled painting by Gaitonde sold for Rs 2.76 crore, a Hussain oil-on-canvas went for Rs 1.5 crore while a Sher-Gil creation was snapped up for Rs 1.38 crore.

The 1960 classic 'Mughal-E-Azam' fared better, notching up almost Rs 15 lakh for a set of photographic stills and posters from the movie.

Osian's Founder-Chairman Neville Tuli wasn't too disappointed by the results. In fact, he was happy to note the presence of filmmaker Ketan Mehta and his actress-wife Deepa Sahi at the auction.

"If the Hindi film fraternity comes forward and takes more interest, things would only get better," he said.

"It's true that at an international auction, film memorabilia would sell for at least 100,000 dollars. But we have given ourselves a 20-year timeframe. We'll certainly get better," Tuli added.

Of the 161 lots that went under the hammer yesterday, 114 were sold, helping organisers rack up a sum of Rs 16.87 crore - an average price of Rs 14 lakh per lot.

Many National Art treasures and film memorabilia like books, handbills, lobby cards and song synopsis booklets were showcased in the three-hour auction under the deft handling of actor Rajat Kapoor.

The auction, organised as part of the Osian's Cinefan Film Festival in the capital, envisages Tuli's vision of "building Indian culture." (PTI)

Bankers see 25 bps rate hike by RBI

NEW DELHI, July 21: Bankers today said they expected Reserve Bank to hike key short-term interest rates in its quarterly monetary policy review on Tuesday as pressure on interest rate continues.

However, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) are likely to be left untouched, they said.

"I expect RBI to raise repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points during credit policy review on July 25," Oriental Bank of Commerce chairman K N Prithviraj told PTI.

Repo and reverse repo rate are those that RBI lends and buys bonds to commercial banks to park their excess liquidity overnight.

Interest rates are hardening as deposit growth is low but loan growth is high, Prithviraj said, speaking on the sidelines of PSU bankers meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram here.

"With the cost of funds increasing, the margins of the banks are udner pressure," he said, adding that the bank will review lending rates after RBI policy review.

Canara Bank chairman M B N Rao said market expects 25 basis points increase in repo rate.

"But, RBI may not change the Cash Reserve Ratio and Statutory liquidity Ratio," Rao said.

RBI should ensure enough credit to the productive sectors and take measures to contain inflation, he said.

Interest rates are under pressure and the future rate revision will depend on deposit growth, world oil prices and economic growth, Rao said.

Indian Bank chairman K C Chakrabarty said interest rates tightly placed and much will depend on global interest rates, oil prices and RBI policy review.

Chakraborty said that the central bank is likely to raise the short-term rates by 0.25 per cent.

Chairmen of Bank of Maharashtra and Vijaya Bank also concurred that RBI may hike interest rates during the policy review.

"RBI may hike repo and reverse repo by 25 basis points, but may not change the CRR and SLR," BOM chairman M D Mallya said.

However, Mallya said the bank is not planning to change interest rates at the moment and will wait and watch the moves of other banks.

"With interset rates hardening, I expect RBI to hike repo and reverse repo by 25 basis points (0.25 per cent)," Vijaya Bank chairman Prakash P Mallya said.

In a surprise move, RBI had raised repo and reverse repo rates by 0.25 per cent in the first week of June to contain inflation.

Higher fuel prices are creating inflationary concerns, leading to global interest rate hardening in the recent past.

Recently, US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan raised interest rates by 0.25 per cent. (PTI)

Phone subscriber base to touch about
400 mn by 2010: Mittal

NEW DELHI, July 21: The telephonic subscribers in the country is expected to reach 300-400 million by 2010 from 100 million currently, Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said.

"As far as the number of subscribers are concerned, we have reached 100 million mark in 2006 and if this pace is maintained then by 2010 we could reach 300-400 million and if we go aggressively then reaching 500 million mark would not be a long dream," Mittal said after receiving the "Telecom Man of the Year 2006" by communications magazine Voice and Data here.

Despite the availability of telecom services at an affordable price, about half of the population, specially in rural areas is out of its ambit, he said.

He said, the companies should now address this challenge and provide basic telephonic services in the rural areas.

"Our company has clocked about 10 billion minutes of usage per month and our target is to take this figure to 25 billion minutes," Mittal said.

About 27 top telecom companies were also felicitated with "Voice and Data100 Awards" for excellence in business performance in FY 2005-06 yesterday.

` LG CDMA bagged the top company award in fixed wireless phone and CDMA handset category, BSNL received the award for best service provider (overall), in fixed line services, internet and broadband and as top NLD operator, Nokia got the award in best equipment vendor, wireless infrastructure and mobile handsets category.

VSNL got the award for best ILD operator, Bharti Airtel as top mobile operator and Wipro as top telecom software company. (PTI)

Two Mumbai blasts suspects arrested

MADHUBANI, BIHAR, July 21: Two suspects of the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts were arrested from Bihar's Madhubani district by a joint team of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), police said today.

Bihar police sources said on condition of anonymity that while one Khalid Aziz was arrested from Malmal village under Kaluahi police station, Mohd Kalam was arrested from Basopatti bazaar locality under Basopatti police station yesterday.

The two were taken to Mumbai by a special aircraft from Patna, the sources said, adding the two were believed to have fled Mumbai after the blasts.

Meanwhile, Gaya district police yesterday held a youth Mohammad Akram from Dangra village under Mohanpur police station in connection with the Mumbai blasts.

The youth was taken into custody on the basis of sketches shown on TV. A team of Mohanpur police station held Akram whose face resembled the sketch of one of the suspects, Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar Jain told reporters.

The man is being interrogated, the SP said. (PTI)

Code for bloggers gains currency

NEW DELHI, July 21: Hurt by a ban on blogopshere post-Mumbai blasts, cyber scribes have mooted incorporating a code of ethics for bloggers in the IT Act to check posting of messages that incite hatred.

"I will tell the truth... Will write deliberately and accurately, will never delete a post (and importantly) disagree with other opinions respectfully," says one set of code circulated by a global research firm Forrester Research (India).

Such code for blogging should be included in the IT Act, suggested Forrester's India Head Sudin Apte.

Bloggers across sites also felt that the Government's decision clearly shows how the existing IT Act and overall law and order machinery fell short of meeting the rapidly changing social computing and emerging technologies.

While questioning the Government's ban on over a dozen blogsites after hate messages pertaining to the Mumbai blasts surfaced, netizens seemed to generally agree on the need for self restraint.

"Minimise harm... Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief... Use special sensitivity when dealing with inexperienced sources or subjects," said another post on possible codes for the weblog community.

After the July 11 Mumbai blasts that left over 200 dead, some messages appeared on popular blog sites justifying the attack, which prompted the Government to pull the plug on them.

The Government has already asked Internet Service Providers to allow "unhindered access" to net users except for some specified webpages. (PTI)

India, Russia to make 1,000 BrahMos missiles in 10 years

BANGALORE, July 21: India and Russia intend to make 1,000 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles over the next 10 years through their joint venture company, with nearly 50 per cent of them expected to be sold in third countries, defence sources said today.

"We already have a capacity to produce 100 missiles a year. One thousand missiles in 10 years is a reasonable target. Nearly 50 per cent will go to exports," a source told PTI.

India and Russia have so far invested 300 million dollars in BrahMos Aerospace, which was established to design, develop, produce and market the missile by using the technological skills and capabilities of both countries.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced last month that BrahMos (named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers) has been inducted into the Indian Navy.

Speaking to PTI here, BrahMos Aerospace CEO A Sivathanu Pillai said the missile's land-based version is expected to be inducted into the Army next year.

Pillai, also chief controller of research and development in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said the company is undertaking a project to instal BrahMos missiles on the Sukhoi-30MKI combat jets of the Indian Air Force.

"Now, we are fitting one BrahMos in the belly (of the Su-30) to start with. With certain reinforcement of the wings, we can fit up to three," he said.

Pillai said the joint venture company, established in India in 1998, is now looking at an upgraded version of BrahMos but added that no final decision has been taken. He, however, hinted that one area of focus could be increasing the speed of the missile. "It can be speed," he said.

Noting that BrahMos is the world's only supersonic cruise missile -- others are subsonic -- and that there is no competition for it, he stressed the need for retaining the competitive edge.

"Having reached this stage, it's necessary that we keep that edge. We are definitely working on that (upgraded version of BrahMos)."

The 2.5-tonne BrahMos has a strike range of 290 km and has a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 (one km per second).

Pillai said BrahMos would be sold in third countries "very soon" but did not name the nations or give any timeframe.

He said the price of BrahMos depends on several variables like "country-to-country (relations), political situation and credit line".

"There is no competition for BrahMos. Our prices are competitive. We are not greedy about making money out of it. We are not greedy people," he commented. (PTI)

Punjab CM flags off super deluxe AC bus

AMRITSAR, July 21: Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Singh today said that the State Government was all set to revolutionise the State Transport system and would soon start Air Conditioned (Integral Coach) buses from various District Headquarters in the state.

Talking to the media persons after flagging off the first Super Deluxe AC Bus from Amritsar to Chandigarh, he said that the State Transport department had already purchased new eight such buses which would be soon pressed in service on Chandigarh-Abohar via Patiala, Chandigarh-Katra and Amritsar-Delhi route.

He said that the fare of the direct bus service from Amritsar to Lahore and Nanakana Sahib was too high for a common man and should be reduced considerably.

"Moreover, the procedure to obtain Visa from Delhi was also too cumbersome and we have taken up this issue to ease out the visa norms with the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh", he said.

He said that once we succeed in opening a visa office at Amritsar and slashing the fare, this bus service would evoke an encouraging response in the near future.

To another question about the plying off illegal deluxe buses by the private operators, Singh said that the buses being operated by the private operators presently were mostly illegal as these were contract carriage buses and not meant to carry regular passengers and this was the first bus service that would operate from Chandigarh Bus Stand and Amritsar Bus Stand.

The chief Minister said that the State Government had added 900 new buses in the fleet of Punjab Roadways and Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation, besides PUNBUS was also introducing 300 more ordinary buses in its existing fleet in the coming months. "On the contrary, the Akali Government did not even add a single ordinary bus to the fleet what to talk of such luxury coaches", he said.

Referring to the salient features of the bus after inspecting the bus from inside, he said the bus had fully reclining luxury seats fitted with table tops, mobile charging points and was fitted with all weather air conditioners. Besides, the bus had been provided with double TFT screen television, DVD and music system. (PTI)

ASSOCHAM seeks creations of Rs 5,000 cr
consortium for KCCs

NEW DELHI, July 21: Industry body ASSOCHAM today suggested the creation of a Rs 5000 crore consortium by state financial corporations, NBFCs, state cooperatives under the State Bank of India to set up chains of Kisan Call Centres (KCCs).

These KCCs would help in establishing linkages among farmers, villages and within the country, ASSOCHAM said in its paper on Kisan Call Centres -- Proliferation of IT Revolution to Masses.

The suggested KCCs would harness state-of-the-art knowledge in the field of agriculture, horticulture and fisheries to bring farmers, fishermen and other artisan higher yields for their produce and advanced technology to save their crops from being damaged, it said.

"The financial institutions should work in close collaboration with district and local administration for providing land, telecom linkages, assured power supplies and other necessary accessories in the suggested call centres for their linkages across the country," ASSOCHAM president Anil K Agarwal said.

He said the proposed centres should be established in all headquarters of the district with the help of about six lakh Panchayati Raj institutions in the country.

Besides providing benefit to farmers for their agricultural extension services, the centres would also help about 80 per cent of the fishermen.

The paper would be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Panchayati Raj and all State Governments by the industry body. (PTI)

Delhi HC expresses concern over illegal constructions

NEW DELHI, July 21: The Delhi High Court today expressed concern that unauthorised constructions have once again sprouted in the capital after the enactment of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act 2006 which granted a moratorium on all illegal constructions made prior to December 31, 2005.

"After the enactment of the so-called Act, it has become a period of festivity, a jumboree for all unauthorised constructions in the city," a division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Vijendar Jain and Justice Kailash Ghambhir observed.

The bench passed the observations on a writ petition filed by Advocate Kuldeep Kumar who alleged that several unauthorised constructions were surfacing in the Lajpat Nagar area with the alleged connivance of the local Junior Engineer.

The petition alleged the JE and the staff had de-sealed several unauthorised constructions in the area while at the same time demolishing the petitioner's and others' properties. (PTI)