Sir,
Your innovative idea of publishing MLAs’ Report Card in the esteemed paper will go a long way in the development of J&K State. You deserve congratulations and thanks from the crore of heart of the people. It is quite natural that a man performs better when he is in competition and under evaluation. The MLAs will try their level best to develop their constituencies if the reporting is done on yearly basis.
On similar pattern Department wise performance of Ministers can also be evaluated.
However, while evaluating the performance of an MLA, some set procedure need to be adopted. For instance Report Card of MLA Kathua constituency published on 24-7-2014 has not covered all the achievements made by the MLA. The Heading was not in consonance with the material published in the paper. Out of 10 persons interviewed, eight spoke in favour, one mixed and one against. Then how can we say that the MLA was not upto the expectations. Moreover, out of 10 persons, six belonged to Kathua city, two were college students and two belonged to Palli area.
About 2/3 of the constituency remained unrepresented during evaluation. Hence, a few of the achievements made by the MLA Kathua constituency are given below :-
Road connectivity, digging of tubewells, establishment of infrastructure in health care sector, upgradation of schools, distribution of electric polls etc was done purely on merit basis. Denotification of Jasrota wild life century for road, Khokyal checkdam, bridge over Kathua Khad connecting Khokyal with Narolian thus reducing distance from 15 Km to one Km of some of the villages, Ghatti Industrial estate, 3000 kanals which will provide employment to local youths.
Yours etc…
Hem Raj
Kharote, Kathua
MLAs’ Report Card
Gaza conflict Other side of the coin
K.N. Pandita
As expected, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge — essentially a component of defensive strategy— has evoked vigorous protest rallies in some of the western countries with sizeable Muslim emigrants from Semitic and non-Semitic world.
Sections of western media, tactically empathetic to Muslim community cause, have given Israel’s retaliation in Gaza more than expected hype when compared with inhuman atrocities perpetrated by players in different parts of the world. BBC, with its unquestioned worldwide reach, does not fail to give a touch of victimization to events like these on global level. After all, oil diplomacy works in somewhat puzzling manner.
In a bid to demonize Israel, some of the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are known for dichotomy that serves their political interests. Anti-Israel demonstrators, mostly Muslim emigrants, jam packing streets in western and eastern capitals, refuse to analyze and evaluate circumstances leading to outbreak of hostilities in the region. They are led more by emotions than care for human lives.
No sooner had Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to prevent sustained rocket and missile attacks on its civilian population by the Gaza-based Hamas than it came under a barrage of international criticism, with tens of thousands of violent demonstrators flocking into the streets of London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Sydney, Buenos Aires and New York, among other places, to demand an end to the “Gaza slaughter.” This section of lop-sided press was effusive in demonizing Israel.
Nearer home in the Indian part of predominantly Sunni Muslim Kashmir, as elsewhere, anti-Israel public demonstrations, outbursts by ambivalent political leaders and local media blitz compounded with anger and choler of civil society reverberated with full-throated resentment of the Muslim ummah.
It is unfair to overlook that Hamas refused Israel’s offer of “calm for calm” as also Egypt’s cease fire proposal. Biased media forgets that it refused humanitarian cease fire initiated by the United Nations; it forgets that Hamas continually fired for ten days more than 1500 missiles towards Israeli cities with tacit purpose of killing civilians. It also forgets that Hamas dug secret tunnels to facilitate their lethal squads acting against Israel.
Hamas began current round of violence by firing hundreds of rockets at Israel, expanding the range of fire, introducing terrorists and aerial drones and attempting to launch multiple tunnel attacks. 30 Israeli soldiers were killed in these clashes.
Why did not the myopic media raise alarm on dire consequences likely to engulf the entire region when cease fire initiatives were spurned and rockets and missiles fired?
Israel’s compulsions are underestimated. Better understanding would have helped cool down surcharged emotions. For certain, this particular section of international media has done disservice to the contesting parties and the humanity at large.
Even at the height of surcharged emotions and contentious discourse, it has to be understood that Israel should not and does not count its counteraction a political solution of the long-standing conflict. As a matter of fact, hostile ‘non-state groups’ are far less bound by state policy paradigms because “to Hamas, Islamic jihadists and Salafis, Israel is “theological aberration”. Well, if Palestine is convinced it will rectify the “aberration” through force of arms, then there is no justification for the sympathizers of Palestine to bring out large scale protest rallies in some world capitals and project Palestinians as victims.
Whenever fighting flares up, political punditry gives expression to clichés like “restraint on both sides” and “vandalizing of human lives and human rights” etc. Their argument is that destruction and demise of Hamas rule in Gaza is not attainable. But this is not something which Israel refuses to recognize. According to an estimate 35 per cent of Palestinians look at Hamas in a positive way and certainly level of support for them is considerable. It is why, while they may accept temporary cease fire, they are not reconcilable to any diplomatic course leading to the solution of the conflict.
Destruction of human lives is abominable. But that has to have universal and not selective application. What the protesting crowds need to know is the treatment meted out by the Arabs to the Palestinians at various places and at various times. What is the condition of 500.000 Palestinian populations in Lebanon where Shia dominated Hezbollah rules the roost? They are deprived of basic human rights, right to property ownership and right to employment or even the right to freedom of movement.
Reports made by dependable sources say that in Jordan more Palestinians were killed in one month than in Gaza fighting despite King Husain’s peacenik claim. What was the Kuwait slaughter of 1991 about, and why did the expulsion of most of the 400,000 Palestinians from Emirates go unnoticed by Islamists? About the peril of Palestinians in ongoing Syrian civil war, the less said the better.
No religion permits killing of human beings. But we did not find an eyelid batting among Muslim population when Pakistani army massacred a million people, most of them their co-religionists, in the Bangladesh war of 1971, and an equal number of women, again mostly Muslim, raped, a la Humudu’r-Rahman Report. We did not find a single eyelid batting in wider Muslim communities when hundreds and thousands of Palestinian Muslims were killed, segregated, expelled or illegally debilitated by Muslim States in the Gulf or in the Middle East. Why did not any one of the 53 member-strong OIC, the self-proclaimed watchdog of Muslim interests, talk about atrocities on Palestinians or Bangladeshis? Human rights have to be universal and the voice against their abuse has to be universal.
In any case, cease fire in Gaza will come into operation sooner than later. But like all previous cease fires, it will be a temporary measure. Only when Arab world ceases to hang on to advertent dichotomy, Palestinian juggernaut will be unlocked. As long as Hamas builds secret tunnels across the border with Israel for subversive activities, and as long as anti-Israel jihadists reach as far as Argentine to attack and kill the Jews, guns will boom and bombs will rain. Building tunnels is the new war tactics taught by late Osama to the jihadis wherever they are. Muslims are fighting their internecine war by proxy, and to what end, one cannot predict. We would only tell them, friends! look at the other side of the coin also.
(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University.)
Hexaware appoints R Srikrishna as CEO
NEW DELHI, July 28: Mid-sized IT services firm Hexaware Technologies today said it has appointed R Srikrishna as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective today.
Srikrishna will take over the role from Vice Chairman and CEO P R Chandrasekar, Hexaware said in a statement.
Prior to this Srikrishna was President of Infrastructure and Life Sciences Businesses at HCL Technologies, it added.
“After a thorough succession planning exercise and a comprehensive search process, the board is pleased to have found an exceptional individual to assume leadership of this growing organisation,” Hexaware Technologies Chairman Atul Nishar said.
Srikrishna is credited with establishing Infrastructure Services business and growing the Lifesciences & Healthcare business for HCL Technologies.
Chandrasekar will retire from the CEO role today but continue as Vice Chairman, Nishar added.
Hexaware Technologies posted a 21.8 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 76.57 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, against Rs 97.90 crore in the same quarter last year.
Consolidated income, however, rose by 13.7 per cent to Rs 610.38 crore in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal as against Rs 536.60 crore in Q2, 2013.
The Mumbai-based firm said it expects revenues in the July-September quarter to be in the range of USD 98.1-100 million, a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.5-5.5 per cent. (PTI)
Renegotiate the Bali Accord
Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
India had won a substantial victory at Bali. The developed countries had agreed that developing countries may continue to pay high prices for food procured under the Minimum Support Price mechanism and provide subsidized food to the poor for the next four years. In was provided that in this period a permanent solution to the problem of food subsidies will be found. In return, developing countries have agreed to implement Trade Facilitation measures such as computerization of customs systems and improvement of foreign trade infrastructure such as roads and ports. The developed countries led by the United States were much interested in Trade Facilitation. They believed that these measures would help them increase their exports to the developing countries. Thus, these were often called ‘Import Facilitation Measures’ by the developing countries. The Bali agreement, therefore, was projected as a happy give-and-take.
Actually, the Bali agreement was mainly in our favour except for the caveat of finding a permanent solution to the food subsidies. The principle hitherto was that food security of the people should be secured through foreign trade; and not through domestic production. That was good as long as the global prices were low. But this became a curse when global prices spiked. Many developing countries found themselves in trouble. They had allowed their domestic production systems such as canals to fall into disrepair as they were getting cheaper food via imports. But food prices have spiked in the last 2-3 years. Now they had to continue to import expensive food because their domestic production systems had since become dilapidated. This has led to food riots in many countries. This principle was diluted at Bali. Developing countries were permitted both to pay higher price to their farmers and also supply subsidized food to the poor-thanks to the strong stance taken by our then Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.
We must accept though that this principle will be equally applicable to the developed countries. They will now have a moral anchor to continue to pay subsidies to their farmers. In turn, this will cancel the possible gains to our farmers that may have occurred from the dismantling of subsidies given by the developed countries to their farmers. We should accept this potential loss. Be that as it may, this agreement spelled a death of global trade in essential food products which is as it should be. The developed countries are providing huge subsidies to their farmers to ensure their food security. We should demand and get the same.
In return the developing countries had agreed to implement Trade Facilitation measures. Immediately, this will be more beneficial for the developed countries because the standards are likely to follow the practices followed by them. But the picture in the long run will be exactly the opposite. Harmonization of our customs procedures with global standards will equally benefit our exporters. Our domestic quality standards will become consistent with global standards. Presently our producers face much difficulty in exports because our quality is not at par with the requirements of the global market. They will get adjusted to these global standards. This will help the developing countries push their exports. However, Trade Facilitation will not help the developed countries reduce their trade deficit. The US’ trade deficit has risen from USD 166 billion in 1995 to 741 billion in 2012 despite the many measures implemented by the WTO to facilitate global trade. Fact is that the developed countries are losing their competitiveness. Developing countries can produce at low cost because wage rates are low and they also have access to frontline technologies. Trade facilitation will only worsen the plight of the developed countries.
The Bali accord was, therefore, a win-win proposition for us subject the continuation of food subsidies beyond the four years peace clause. Trade Facilitation will create some problems in the short run but our domestic economy will soon upgrade to global standards and that will help us push our exports.
The Modi Government appears to have made a fundamental change in its stance recently. India, along with 45 other developing countries, is now demanding that a permanent solution to the problem of food subsidies be found before the trade facilitation agreement would be signed by them. We are effectively backtracking from the Bali accord. This is wholly welcome. The problem with Bali accord was that the Trade Facilitation Agreement was a permanent agreement to be signed upfront while the peace clause on food subsidies was provided only for four years. There was no guarantee that an acceptable solution to the food subsidy problem would actually be found. We would be in trouble if such an agreement was not reached. We would have given away our bargaining clout in relation to Trade Facilitation measures and we would also be deprived of the permission to give food subsidies. Therefore, it is good that the Government has decided to break the Bali accord if permanent solution to food subsidies is not found upfront. Let us not forget that while signing the original WTO Agreement in 1995 the developed countries had agreed to work towards phasing out the subsidies being given by them to their farmers. No progress is made on that front. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the developed countries will backtrack on the food subsidies and a permanent solution will not be found within the stipulated four years.
Backtracking from Bali Agreement comes along with the risk of the developed countries also backtracking from the four year peace clause. In other words, the food subsidies being given in India will become contra the WTO agreement and in retaliation the developed countries will be entitled to impose punitive import duties on our imports. This is a risk we must take. It is better to face the problem of food subsidies without a Trade Facilitation Agreement by rubbishing the Bali Agreement; than facing the problem of food subsidies with a Trade Facilitation Agreement by honouring the Bali Agreement. We shall get some additional bargaining space by denying the developed countries of the Trade Facilitation Agreement.
That said we must not forget that the main issues for making a better world are easing movement of natural persons and loosening of the TRIPS agreement. We should make it clear that if developed countries do not concede to a permanent solution to the problem of food subsidies then we will raise these issues and seek a fundamental realignment of the WTO. We should immediately launch an offensive against the developed countries on these issues and make efforts to carry other developing countries with us. The breakup of the Bali accord can be a welcome step towards renegotiation of the WTO treaty.
Crude oil futures decline on weak Asian cues
NEW DELHI, July 28: Crude oil futures fell 0.52 per cent to Rs 6,118 per barrel today as speculators reduced their positions amid a weakening trend in Asian trade.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for delivery in August shed Rs 32, or 0.52 per cent, to Rs 6,118 per barrel in 1,025 lots.
In a similar manner, the oil for September delivery moved down by Rs 21, or 0.34 per cent, to Rs 6,088 per barrel in 32 lots.
The trading sentiment eased at futures trade after crude oil prices fell in Asian trade ahead of the release of US economic growth and jobs data later in the week, while investors track events in Ukraine and the crude-rich Middle East, analysts.
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September delivery dipped 51 cents to USD 101.58 while Brent crude for September declined 43 cents to USD 107.96 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange in late morning trade today. (PTI)
&&&&
Copper softens in futures trade on overseas cues
NEW DELHI, July 28: Copper futures traded a shade lower at Rs 439.20 per kg as speculators trimmed positions amidst a weak trend in global markets.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, copper for delivery in far-month November eased by 40 paise, or 0.09 per cent, to Rs 439.20 per kg in a business turnover of 7 lots.
The metal for delivery in August shed 10 paise, or 0.02 per cent, to Rs 431.85 per kg in a business volume of 401 lots.
Analysts said apart subdued domestic demand, the metal’s weakness at the London Metal Exchange (LME) after Freeport-McMoRan Inc received approval from Indonnesia to resume exporters from its Grasberg mine, weighed on prices at futures trade here.
Globally, copper for delivery in three-months traded 0.05 per cent lower at USD 7,090 per tonne at the LME. (PTI)
Other side of the coin
K.N. Pandita
As expected, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge — essentially a component of defensive strategy— has evoked vigorous protest rallies in some of the western countries with sizeable Muslim emigrants from Semitic and non-Semitic world.
Sections of western media, tactically empathetic to Muslim community cause, have given Israel’s retaliation in Gaza more than expected hype when compared with inhuman atrocities perpetrated by players in different parts of the world. BBC, with its unquestioned worldwide reach, does not fail to give a touch of victimization to events like these on global level. After all, oil diplomacy works in somewhat puzzling manner.
In a bid to demonize Israel, some of the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are known for dichotomy that serves their political interests. Anti-Israel demonstrators, mostly Muslim emigrants, jam packing streets in western and eastern capitals, refuse to analyze and evaluate circumstances leading to outbreak of hostilities in the region. They are led more by emotions than care for human lives.
No sooner had Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to prevent sustained rocket and missile attacks on its civilian population by the Gaza-based Hamas than it came under a barrage of international criticism, with tens of thousands of violent demonstrators flocking into the streets of London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Sydney, Buenos Aires and New York, among other places, to demand an end to the “Gaza slaughter.” This section of lop-sided press was effusive in demonizing Israel.
Nearer home in the Indian part of predominantly Sunni Muslim Kashmir, as elsewhere, anti-Israel public demonstrations, outbursts by ambivalent political leaders and local media blitz compounded with anger and choler of civil society reverberated with full-throated resentment of the Muslim ummah.
It is unfair to overlook that Hamas refused Israel’s offer of “calm for calm” as also Egypt’s cease fire proposal. Biased media forgets that it refused humanitarian cease fire initiated by the United Nations; it forgets that Hamas continually fired for ten days more than 1500 missiles towards Israeli cities with tacit purpose of killing civilians. It also forgets that Hamas dug secret tunnels to facilitate their lethal squads acting against Israel.
Hamas began current round of violence by firing hundreds of rockets at Israel, expanding the range of fire, introducing terrorists and aerial drones and attempting to launch multiple tunnel attacks. 30 Israeli soldiers were killed in these clashes.
Why did not the myopic media raise alarm on dire consequences likely to engulf the entire region when cease fire initiatives were spurned and rockets and missiles fired?
Israel’s compulsions are underestimated. Better understanding would have helped cool down surcharged emotions. For certain, this particular section of international media has done disservice to the contesting parties and the humanity at large.
Even at the height of surcharged emotions and contentious discourse, it has to be understood that Israel should not and does not count its counteraction a political solution of the long-standing conflict. As a matter of fact, hostile ‘non-state groups’ are far less bound by state policy paradigms because “to Hamas, Islamic jihadists and Salafis, Israel is “theological aberration”. Well, if Palestine is convinced it will rectify the “aberration” through force of arms, then there is no justification for the sympathizers of Palestine to bring out large scale protest rallies in some world capitals and project Palestinians as victims.
Whenever fighting flares up, political punditry gives expression to clichés like “restraint on both sides” and “vandalizing of human lives and human rights” etc. Their argument is that destruction and demise of Hamas rule in Gaza is not attainable. But this is not something which Israel refuses to recognize. According to an estimate 35 per cent of Palestinians look at Hamas in a positive way and certainly level of support for them is considerable. It is why, while they may accept temporary cease fire, they are not reconcilable to any diplomatic course leading to the solution of the conflict.
Destruction of human lives is abominable. But that has to have universal and not selective application. What the protesting crowds need to know is the treatment meted out by the Arabs to the Palestinians at various places and at various times. What is the condition of 500.000 Palestinian populations in Lebanon where Shia dominated Hezbollah rules the roost? They are deprived of basic human rights, right to property ownership and right to employment or even the right to freedom of movement.
Reports made by dependable sources say that in Jordan more Palestinians were killed in one month than in Gaza fighting despite King Husain’s peacenik claim. What was the Kuwait slaughter of 1991 about, and why did the expulsion of most of the 400,000 Palestinians from Emirates go unnoticed by Islamists? About the peril of Palestinians in ongoing Syrian civil war, the less said the better.
No religion permits killing of human beings. But we did not find an eyelid batting among Muslim population when Pakistani army massacred a million people, most of them their co-religionists, in the Bangladesh war of 1971, and an equal number of women, again mostly Muslim, raped, a la Humudu’r-Rahman Report. We did not find a single eyelid batting in wider Muslim communities when hundreds and thousands of Palestinian Muslims were killed, segregated, expelled or illegally debilitated by Muslim States in the Gulf or in the Middle East. Why did not any one of the 53 member-strong OIC, the self-proclaimed watchdog of Muslim interests, talk about atrocities on Palestinians or Bangladeshis? Human rights have to be universal and the voice against their abuse has to be universal.
In any case, cease fire in Gaza will come into operation sooner than later. But like all previous cease fires, it will be a temporary measure. Only when Arab world ceases to hang on to advertent dichotomy, Palestinian juggernaut will be unlocked. As long as Hamas builds secret tunnels across the border with Israel for subversive activities, and as long as anti-Israel jihadists reach as far as Argentine to attack and kill the Jews, guns will boom and bombs will rain. Building tunnels is the new war tactics taught by late Osama to the jihadis wherever they are. Muslims are fighting their internecine war by proxy, and to what end, one cannot predict. We would only tell them, friends! look at the other side of the coin also.
(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, India)
Lead futures gain 0.26% on spot demand, global cues
NEW DELHI, July 28: Lead futures strengthened by 0.26 per cent to Rs 136.80 per kg today amid demand in the domestic spot market and a firming global trend.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, lead for delivery in August traded higher by 35 paise, or 0.26 per cent, to Rs 136.80 per kg, with a turnover of 31 lots.
The metal for delivery in July gained 25 paise, or 0.18 per cent, to Rs 136.20 per kg in a business volume of 258 lots.
Marketmen said apart from domestic demand, particularly from battery-makers, the metal’s gain in overseas market, supported the upside in lead prices at futures trade. (PTI)
Ghastly rural sanitation
People in the State have recurrent complaints that some of the most useful schemes floated by the Centre for rural uplift are not properly and completely implemented by the State. In these columns we have talked about central schemes on education, rural roads, water supply, sanitation and the rest of them. People repeatedly ask why our State is always a victim of shortfall. The Government has not been taking the question seriously and the result is that our development pace has slowed down. A shortfall may be tolerable in some areas to a limited period of time but in other areas that can have detrimental impact on other aspects of life cannot be left to take natural course.
A foreign tourist happened to visit India for the first time. He took a pre-dawn train to travel to some rural areas. To his great surprise, he found that on both sides of the rail track people sat in row after row defecating in open. In utter delusion he uttered “This country is a vast latrine”. Not a joke in any case; he said what he understood. Now go through the report of the National Level Monitors appointed by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation on the progress of its prestigious Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan project in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Monitors are non-ministerial cadres who have been assigned the task of making on spot study and then report on the status of implementation of the scheme. The team comprises retired defence and civil servants with expertise in social work. It also includes academia that has specialized in rural developmental schemes and environmental preservation. The purpose of appointing the expert team is not only to submit a status report but also make constructive suggestions of improving the scheme and making it operational in given circumstances. Therefore impartiality of this team is assured.
The report submitted by them after visiting various districts and villages of all the three regions of the State is sickening and most depressing. It says that 50 per cent of people in the villages of Jammu and Kashmir have no private toilets and they defecate in open fields. Imagine the quantum of air and water and environment pollution where half of the population’s human excreta is spread out in open. What diseases polluted air and water can spread is horrendous to imagine. This is one of the causes of large scale fatalities among the children in our rural areas. In some villages community toilets have been provided but the survey shows that only 2 per cent of the local population uses these community toilets. The main reason is that these are not kept clean and there are no paid safai karamcharis to look after these community toilets. We would like to ask whether the much trumpeted Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan scheme has been successful or is defeated? Shockingly, the Monitoring team after visiting some of the villages that have been awarded Nirmal Gram Puruskar found that 30 per cent of such villagers practiced open air toilet.
A part of the scheme is to provide cost effective sanitary material to the rural population. Thus cost effective Sanitary Marts were opened for this purpose. But the monitoring team found that only four such Marts were operational and the rest of them were dysfunctional, which means even this part of the scheme could not be implemented fully. The condition of schools and Anganwadi institutions in respect of sanitation and pure drinking water is sordid. The criminal part is that these elementary educational institutions which are co-ed institutions are dismally bereft of proper toilets and sanitation. Report says that only 79 per cent of rural schools and only 39 per cent of Anganwadi institutions in rural areas were having toilets and clean drinking water.
Pertinent to reiterate that under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan for the State, funds are provided by the centre and guidelines and other consultative support is also promised. Still the apathy of the authorities is of the extent that neither funds are utilized in full nor are the projects implemented and made functional. There appears total breakdown in the rural development area in our State. In such circumstances, the Union Ministries are left with no alternative but to warn the State administration that funds would not be released if the schemes are not implemented.
We strongly recommended again, as has been done in the past, that the State administrative authorities should take up the question why central schemes remain half implemented in the State despite funds and guidelines made available. A team of administrative bureaucrats should be constituted to examine this strange and inexplicable phenomenon that is arresting rapid development of the State. In such schemes of social works, it is understood that the important factor is of educating the masses of people. If the authorities come to the conclusion that mass education is necessary, for example in the case of stopping open air defecating, why not make mass education programme part of the scheme? We are lagging behind other states in many schemes and it is to our detriment. This has to be stopped.
Crude oil futures decline on weak Asian cues
NEW DELHI, July 28: Crude oil futures fell 0.52 per cent to Rs 6,118 per barrel today as speculators reduced their positions amid a weakening trend in Asian trade.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for delivery in August shed Rs 32, or 0.52 per cent, to Rs 6,118 per barrel in 1,025 lots.
In a similar manner, the oil for September delivery moved down by Rs 21, or 0.34 per cent, to Rs 6,088 per barrel in 32 lots.
The trading sentiment eased at futures trade after crude oil prices fell in Asian trade ahead of the release of US economic growth and jobs data later in the week, while investors track events in Ukraine and the crude-rich Middle East, analysts.
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September delivery dipped 51 cents to USD 101.58 while Brent crude for September declined 43 cents to USD 107.96 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange in late morning trade today. (PTI)