NEW DELHI, May 11: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain Air India’s plea for initiating contempt proceedings against Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) for allegedly obstructing implementation of its order on training of pilots for Dreamliner aircraft.
A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said that they (pilots) have done nothing which amounts to contempt of court and suggested the airlines to speak with them to sort out the differences.
“They have done nothing for obstruction of justice or to bring disrepute to the court. Your problem is with them. You sit with them and sort out the differences. Don’t resort to contempt proceedings,” the bench said.
It further said that if the strike is illegal, then the airlines can take action against them.
“Rest assured that if there is slightest contempt of court, then we would ourselves initiate proceedings against them,” the bench further said.
Air India had yesterday moved the apex court seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against the office bearers of the Guild by resorting to protest action, which, it said, disrupted international flight operations of the airline and amounted to contempt of the apex court orders.
Air India had said the action of the IPG was in violation of the April 23 and May 2 orders of the apex court by which it was made clear that the training programme will be imparted in equal ratio to the pilots of pre-merger Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines.
The IPG, whose members have been reporting sick, are protesting the national carrier’s move to send pilots from both Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines in equal numbers to get trained for flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the first of which is likely to be inducted later this month.
The training programme is going on from May 8 in Singapore.
Air India’s counsel Lalit Bhasin had said the “armtwisting” act by the IPG was coming in the way of administration of justice.
The matter reached the Supreme Court after Air India had appealed against March 13 order of the Bombay High Court which had restrained the national carrier from sending any pilot from Indian Airlines for training to fly Boeing 787.
Later, on April 23, the High Court order was stayed by the apex court which had made it clear “that the training imparted to the members of the IPG shall remain subject to the final outcome of the writ petition and shall not prejudice the rights and contentions of the writ petitioners before the High Court in any manner”.
The apex court had asked the High Court to expeditiously deal with the matter and dispose it of within six months.
However, the IPG had filed an application in the apex court.
During the hearing of the application, Air India had submitted that “an equal number of pilots, as have been deputed from the erstwhile Air India, shall be deputed for training from out of the erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots also with effect from May 8, 2012 on a Boeing facility”.
The court had noted that “in the light of the statement the apprehension expressed by the petitioner/applicant (IPG) that only Air India pilots are being or may be deputed for such training is misplaced”.
The May 2 order also recorded the statement of IPG’s counsel that the statement Air India’s lawyer was “indeed sufficient to allay the apprehension expressed in the application”. (PTI)
SC refuses to entertain AI’s plea against Indian Pilots Guild
Order reserved on charge framing against Essar, Loop promoters
NEW DELHI, May 11: A Delhi Court today reserved for May 25 its order on framing of charges against Essar group and Loop Telecom promoters for allegedly committing offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy for obtaining the 2G spectrum licences from government.
“Put up for order on May 25. All the five accused person shall remain present in the court in person (on May 25),” Special CBI Judge O P Saini said after the CBI concluded its arguments on framing of charges.
The five persons who face the CBI charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy in the case are Essar group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and Loop Telecom promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan, besides Essar group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf as accused in the case.
Besides the five, the CBI has also named in its charge sheet, filed on December 12, three companies—Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Teleholdings Ltd also as accused in the case.
Advancing arguments on framing of charges, CBI counsel A K Singh said Loop Telecom played “hide and seek” with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and concealed information from it regarding their relationship with Essar Group.
Referring to the conduct of Loop Telecom, he said, “first the company had not filed the clause 8 (of the Unified Access Services Licences guidelines) certificate which was mandatory to be submitted at the time of filing of the application (for spectrum) and secondly, when it gave the certificate on the asking of DoT, it submitted the same with incomplete information.”
He said this shows that Loop Telecom was “concealing vital information about its relation with Essar group which is the subject matter of the case.”
The CBI, in its charge sheet, has alleged that the accused had committed offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy for obtaining 2G licences in 2008.
During the arguments earlier, promoters of Essar Group and Loop Telecom had opposed the framing of charges against them, contending that no criminality could be attached to them and no offence of cheating is made out against them as the government had not found any irregularity and illegality in granting the 2G licences to Loop Telecom, as alleged by the CBI. (PTI)
I am dating Siddharth Roy Kapoor: Vidya Balan
MELBOURNE, May 11: National award winning actress Vidya Balan has finally come out about her relationship with UTV head Siddharth Roy Kapoor but says she is in no hurry to get married to him.
“I don’t have any plans yet… And there is no engagement ring yet. It’s a while away and I am in no hurry. But it’s on my mind and there is a plan at some point. There is someone in my life,” Vidya told.
When asked whether she is dating the UTV movies honcho, Vidya said, “I will admit that I am dating him but not beyond that.”
The “Dirty Picture” star, 34, who has been recently appointed as a Bollywood Ambassador of Victoria, was here to promote the Indian Film Festival in Melbourne commencing from June 11.
Asked about her take on Rakhi Sawant’s claim to appear as a better lead role in a Bengali version of “The Dirty Picture”, Vidya said, “I did my best and I am sure if she (Rakhi) brings her own originality to the portrayal of Silk, it will be great and I will be more than happy to watch her.”
Clad in beautiful white saree with black embroidered border, Vidya admitted that she was a bit apprehensive about how her parents would react to her portrayal of South siren Silk Smitha in the film.
“I was finally relieved after my father came during the interval and said that he could only see Silk rather than Vidya. There is no bigger compliment for me than that,” she said.
“’Dirty Picture’ was a life time opportunity for me as an actress. It was an opportunity not to be missed also because it was completely out of my comfort zone. But it did take lot of time for me decide about the role,” she added.
“The most encouraging part of doing this role has been that people now think that I am capable of doing this kind of a film,” she said, adding that she was highly satisfied after knowing that her performance in the film was seen as everything but “sleazy”.
Vidya, who was brought up in Mumbai in a middle class south Indian family, said she always dreamt of becoming an actress and do various roles.
“I don’t want to be the kind of girl I am on screen, because off screen I am Vidya Balan and on screen I want to play different people.” (PTI)
HC notice to CBI on former Samata Party chief’s plea
NEW DELHI, May 11: The CBI was today directed by the Delhi High Court to file its response on former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly’s plea seeking a reduction in the surety amount to be deposited by her to visit abroad.
Justice Mukta Gupta issued notice to the CBI and asked the probe agency to file its reply by May 14 besides filing a status report by the next date of hearing.
The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Abhijat appearing for Jaitly, who is facing trial for allegedly taking a bribe 11 years ago to recommend to the then NDA government a fake defence deal.
A CBI court had on May 1 allowed Jaitly to visit Singapore from May 30 to June 8 to attend a panel debate, but on furnishing a surety bond of Rs 3 lakh in the form of fixed deposit receipts (FDR) of a bank and instructed her not to extend her stay.
Challenging the trial court’s order, Jaitly has sought a reduction in the surety amount, saying she is 65 years old and is not engaged in any monetarily gainful employment.
Claiming that even her entire savings collectively would not amount to Rs 3 lakh, Jaitly has said that earlier she had applied for and was duly granted permission to travel abroad as many as 5 times and always had to deposit Rs 25,000 as FDR.
She has alleged even though her application was allowed, the trial court has indirectly fettered her right to travel abroad by imposing the “onerous” condition of Rs 3 lakh.
The case of bribe against Jaitly was lodged on the basis of a sting ‘Operation Westend,’ conducted by news portal tehelka.Com in 2001, exposing alleged corruption in defence deals.
George Fernandes, founder of Samata party, was the Defence Minister at that time.
The court had framed charges against three persons for offences of criminal conspiracy under IPC and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) dealing with ‘taking gratification for exercise of personal influence with public servant’.
Special CBI Judge Kawal Jeet Arora had put Jaitly, her erstwhile party colleague Gopal Pacherwal and retired Major General S P Murgai on trial after they pleaded “not guilty” to the charges framed by the court against them.
The trial court had said the three accused, along with one Surender Kumar Surekha who has turned approver, hatched a conspiracy to accept bribe from Mathew Samuel, representative of Westend International for inducing officials of Ministry of Defence for obtaining supply orders for hand-held thermal imagers from the Army headquarters in favour of the firm.
The trial court had said that being the national president of Samata Party, Jaitly had on December 28, 2000, allegedly accepted Rs two lakh as “gratification” from Samuel at the official residence of Fernandes. (PTI)
Nissan sees 10 pct rise in 2012/13 global unit sales
YOKOHAMA, May 11: Nissan Motor Co said on Friday it expects its global retail sales to rise 10.4 percent to 5.35 million vehicles in the business year to next March.
Japan’s No.2 automaker also said it is assuming an average dollar rate of 82 yen in the 2012/13 business year and a euro rate of 105 yen.
(agencies)
Panasonic to acquire 76.2 pc shares of Firepro Systems
NEW DELHI, May 11: Japanese electronics products maker Panasonic Corporation today said its Board has approved to acquire 76.2 per cent share of unlisted safety and security products firm Firepro Systems Private Ltd.
“Panasonic will acquire a portion of Firepro’s ordinary shares previously owned by investment companies…With this acquisition Panasonic shall hold 76.2 per cent of Firepro’s shares,” it said in a statement.
However, the company did not disclose the financial details.
Post acquisition, Firepro’s management will own 10.8 per cent shares, while the investment companies will hold 13 per cent.
Panasonic Corporation’s shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York stock exchanges.
Firepro, a player in infrastructure protection and security space, is headquarted at Bengaluru and has an employee strength of about 800.
(UNI)
Baidu says to launch new smartphone next week
BEIJING, May 11: Baidu Inc, China’s largest search engine, will launch a new smartphone partnership next week, that will see the smartphone use an upgraded version of its mobile operating system, a senior company executive said on Friday.
Baidu will announce the tie-up next week for new mobile devices, similar to Baidu’s partnership with Dell Inc last December when Dell launched a smartphone running on Baidu’s Yi platform. However, the new smartphones will run an upgraded version of Baidu Yi and will be called Baidu Cloud.
‘We have a few partnerships coming up and will announce it in a week,’ Wang Jing, Baidu’s vice president of engineering and head of mobile, told Reuters.
Wang said the firm was in talks with ‘global’ handset manufacturers to make smartphones with Baidu’s mobile operating system, for the Chinese market.
Wang also said Baidu was moving towards becoming a platform company that offered products across a spectrum of devices, from being a products company.
The focus on cloud computing comes as more people access the Internet from their mobile phones rather than desktop, putting pressure on Internet companies, such as Google and Facebook Inc , to develop robust mobile platforms from which people can still use their services.
Last year, Baidu launched its mobile platform, Yi, in China to compete with Google Inc’s Android mobile operating system and Apple Inc’s iOS.
At the end of 2011, China had 356 million mobile Internet users, government statistics showed. (AGENCIES)
Beijing unlikely to release its reserves
BEIJING, May 11: China, the world’s top cotton consumer, will soon issue about 1 million tonnes of extra cotton import quotas to help textile mills buy cheaper overseas cotton to cut costs, traders said on Friday.
The extra quotas, which would allow imports at sliding tariffs between 5 and 40 percent, would bring total import quotas issued so far this year to about 2.4 million tonnes, they said.
Traders had expected government authorities to issue the extra quotas and had stockpiled a large volume of cheap cotton at the country’s bonded warehouses.
‘Some textile mills made some new purchases last week while others are still waiting as domestic cotton prices are falling,’ said one trading manager at an international trading house.
‘Demand from textile mills is sluggish, some are running at only 30 to 40 percent of production capacity due to fewer export orders,’ said the manager.
Expectation of a large increase in imports has pressured local futures prices, with the most-traded September price trading at its lowest levels since November. Even so, domestic cotton is still more than 10 percent higher than the same quality international cotton supplies.
‘There are not many high-quality cotton supplies available from the U.S. Market and premiums are high as well. Indian cotton is of low quality, we expect new sales from Brazil will pick up,’ said another cotton executive.
The International Cotton Advisory Committee said early this month that the boost in Chinese imports will more than double China’s cotton stocks to 5 million tonnes in 2011/12, and shipments from India, Brazil and Australia could reach record levels.
China imported about 1 million tonnes of cotton last year to replenish depleted state cotton reserves.
Traders also believe Beijing is unlikely to release cotton from its state reserves, after it stockpiled 3.13 million tonnes from last year’s domestic harvest.
‘The government cotton prices are very high, given that domestic cotton is weakening and we suspect the government would not sell its reserves now,’ said the executive.
Some textile mills reached by Reuters said they expect more quotas to be issued and will source cheap cotton from bonded warehouses.
‘Imported cotton is much cheaper and we are still interested in buying either Indian or Pakistan cotton from bonded warehouses,’ said one manager with a textile mill in the northern province of Shandong.
Traders estimated more than 300,000 tonnes of cotton are stockpiled at bonded warehouses in Shandong, a major cotton consuming area.
China imported 3.36 million tonnes of the fibre last year, of which one third came from India, with the United States being the second biggest provider.
Analysts expect domestic cotton consumption in the year ending August will fall to between 7-9 million tonnes, compared with 10 million tonnes in the previous year.
China’s textile exports have been hurt by weakening global demand, with exports in the first four months of the year declining 0.3 percent from a year ago. (AGENCIES)
Prospects for coalition govt in Greece remain in Doubt
SINGAPORE, May 11: The euro hit a 3-1/2-month low on Friday as news of JPMorgan’s trading losses from a failed hedging strategy spooked investors and lent support to the safe haven dollar, with stop-loss selling adding to the euro’s drop.
The euro also remained vulnerable due to a political deadlock in Greece, which has left investors fretting over the risk of Greece exiting the euro zone and fanned worries that the region’s debt crisis may worsen.
‘The issue is no longer whether Greece will default or not, but whether or not it will leave (the euro zone),’ said Daisuke Karakama, market economist for Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.
‘If that were to happen, investor confidence in euro-zone denominated assets in general may waver, and it could cause market players to wonder whether such assets are suitable to be held as foreign reserves,’ he added.
The euro may stay stuck below $1.30 for a while, Karakama said, adding that the single currency could also be headed for a drop below 100 yen over the next month.
The euro fell to $1.2905 on trading platform EBS, its lowest level since late January. After trimming some losses, the euro stood at $1.2926, down 0.1 percent on the day.
Traders said stop-loss selling added to the euro’s drop, with the focus now on whether a euro option barrier said to be at $1.2900 would hold or not.
Both the dollar and the yen, safe haven currencies that tend to strengthen in times of market stress, rose against the euro, which slipped 0.1 percent to 103.27 yen, closing in on a three-month low of 102.76 yen hit earlier this week.
Traders said the euro came under renewed pressure as investors shunned risky assets and currencies after JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Thursday that it suffered a trading loss of at least $2 billion from a failed hedging strategy.
‘The question is how many other banks will follow,’ said a trader for a major Japanese bank in Singapore. ‘I personally don’t think the issue ends here with JPMorgan,’ he said.
The dollar dipped 0.1 percent against the yen to 79.89 yen.
BEARISH ON THE EURO
The euro has come under pressure this week after Greece’s two main pro-bailout parties failed to win a majority in weekend elections, leaving questions over the country’s ability to avert bankruptcy and stay in the euro.
Greek Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos meets conservative Antonis Samaras on Friday in a possibly doomed attempt to form a government and avoid a repeat election, while EU leaders are warning that Greece’s membership of the euro is at stake.
Market players see the euro getting little respite for now.
Adam Gilmour, head of FX and derivatives sales, Asia-Pacific, for Citigroup in Singapore, pointed to further political risks for the euro in the months ahead.
‘I’m bearish. This is the right direction for it to go,’ Gilmour said.
‘There is a very real risk that over the next year or so, more and more countries will eject the current politicians and vote in pro-growth parties, and the austerity measures and trying to fix the budget blowouts will be thrown out the window,’ he said.
With the latest troubles in the euro zone adding to concerns about tepid growth in the United States and China, traders have recently shunned risk-sensitive currencies such as the Australian dollar.
The Australian dollar inched up 0.1 percent to $1.0066, hovering near a low of $1.0021 hit earlier this week, its lowest level in more than four months.
(AGENCIES)
Sony shares slide 7 pct to 32-yr low, results disappoint
TOKYO, May 11: Sony Corp shed more than 7 percent to hit a near 32-year low on Friday, a day after it posted a record annual loss of $5.7 billion and failed to convince investors that it has a sound strategy to turn around its loss-making TV business and boost smartphone sales.
The Walkman and PlayStation maker has lost its innovative edge, falling behind Apple and Samsung Electronics, and guidance for the current financial year has failed to impress.
‘I didn’t see anything positive in there,’ a trader at a U.S. Bank said. ‘There is really nothing in there that can justify buying the stock.’
‘You see the loss narrowing in the TV business. That’s fine, but I don’t see any future in the TV business, so it doesn’t matter what they do.’
He said Sony’s forecast of 33 million smartphone shipments this business year looked optimistic because its supplier Qualcomm faced capacity constraints and Qualcomm’s main priority was to supply Apple Inc, which means Sony may not secure enough chips for its smartphones to meet its target.
Sony shares were at their lowest since September 1980, said the company citing Nikkei Quick data.
(AGENCIES)