New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to meet this evening in the backdrop of opposition demand for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the IPL controversy.
A meeting of the Congress Core Group headed by Gandhi is likely to take stock of the situation following the row involving Indian Premier League which has seen the exit of Shashi Tharoor from Union Ministry and allegations of involvement of two other Ministers.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Lok Sabha, "It (a decision on JPC) is to be taken after due diligence and consideration. It cannot be like instant coffee or instant consideration".
Observing that the government will have to ponder over the demand, Mukherjee, who is also the Leader of the Lok Sabha, said, "I will communicate your sentiments to the Prime Minister. As and when the government takes a decision, we will come to Parliament. Let us wait for some time."
IPL teams involved in match-fixing in South Africa: I-T report
TIMES NOW on Friday accessed the I-T investigation report into match-fixing angle in the IPL controversy. The report says investigations revealed Lalit Modi has interests in three teams. The report goes on to name Samir Thakral as front for Lalit Modi whose phone records show conversations with bookies.
TIMES NOW has learnt that serious investigations are on into possible match-fixing and betting in IPL Season 2 which took place in South Africa. The entire investigation now seems to be honing in on IPL 2. In fact, the Income Tax investigation wing has filed a confidential report to the finance ministry.
Sources said that several IPL players could have been involved. Sources have also indicated that phone conversations have also been recorded and that possible questioning of IPL players could happen in this regard.
BJP to raise phone tapping of political leaders in Parliament
NEW DELHI: The phones of some prominent political leaders including Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Digvijay Singh have been tapped, a prominent English news weekly has claimed.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat have also been tapped by National Technical Research Organisation, an intelligence agency created in the aftermath of the Kargil war to cover all aspects of technical intelligence gathering, "Outlook" magazine said in its latest issue.
While the phones of Singh and Kumar were tapped in 2007 and that of Karat in 2008 at the height of his opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal leading to the no-confidence motion against the government, the telephone of Pawar was tapped and taped last fortnight in the wake of the scandal in the IPL.
"Discussions between the minister and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi were tapped and taped last fortnight in the wake of the scandal in the cricket league. The recorded conversations allegedly threw up inside details of the deals that were stuck in the bidding process for the various teams," the magazine said.
The magazine's Editor Vinod Mehta said while he appreciated concerns of national security he wondered why telephone tapping was being resorted to against leaders for "political opportunism".
He said tapping could now now be done by modern gadgets within a radius of two km and there was no no need for any authorisation for the purpose. It could be misused against common public, he added.
Political parties criticised the government for the alleged resort to snooping on leaders.
BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia said his party would raise the issue in Parliament on Monday. He contended this was in violation of Art 21 of the Constitution which assures protection of life and liberty to every citizen.
His party colleague and spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman said she was not not surprised or shocked by the Congress party-led government's "return" to emergency days.
CPI leader D Raja said India was a democracy and not not a military-state where personal freedoms are barred. government should explain why it was doing this, he said adding he would raise the issue in Rajya Sabha.
Pawar, Patel in line of Opposition fire
New Delhi: Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel came in the line of fire of the Opposition which demanded their resignation in the wake of IPL controversy and constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe it, a plea government has promised to consider.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned after lunch without transacting any business with BJP members insisting on a JPC probe.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj raked up the issue saying it was getting "more serious by the day" and demanded a JPC probe to save the dignity of the House and to throw light on the issue.
CPI leader in Lok Sabha described it as the "most serious fraud unparallelled in the history of independent India". He held that "unpardonable violation of law has taken place for the last two years under the nose of the government.
The two ministers, who belong to NCP, an important ally of the Congress at the Centre and in Maharashtra, were targeted in both the Houses but their names were not taken.
The Opposition members described the alleged financial wrongdoings in the IPL as a huge scam and wanted to know "how many more Tharoors were there".
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor was forced to resign on Sunday following allegations of misuse of power by him to get sweat equity of the value of Rs 70 crore for his friend Sunanda Pushkar.
The Opposition leaders also targeted Patel in the wake of reports that his daughter Poorna allegedly pulled out an aircraft from a scheduled flight for operating a chartered flight for an IPL team. Air India, however, denied the charge.
Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters outside Parliament that "propriety demands that in order to ensure an impartial probe, the ministers should not be in their position.
"It will be in order that those in the circle of suspicion quit so that the an impartial probe could be carried out."
With ally in trouble and the government having important financial business ahead in Parliament, the Congress top brass is expected to meet in the Core Group to discuss the demand for constituting a JPC.
Business News
Maruti relaunches WagonR @ Rs 3.28-3.81 lakh
New Delhi: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India launched a new version of its compact car WagonR priced between Rs 3.28 lakh and Rs 3.81 lakh.
"This new launch of WagonR is important to Maruti Suzuki for many reasons. It demonstrates the growing research and development capability of the company," Maruti Suzuki India MD and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said.
The new WagonR is developed from the latest platform of the vehicle that is available in Japan. The car is powered by BS-IV compliant 998cc K-series engine.
With this launch the existing WagonR will be phased out that was launched in 1999 and sold a total of 8.8 lakh units.
Wipro Q4 net rises 21 pct to Rs 1,209 cr
IT major Wipro reported 20.77 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,209 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, compared to the same period last year.
Net income from sales rose to Rs 6,982 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, from Rs 6,451.4 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal, Wipro said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The company announced a bonus issue in 2:3 ratio, or 2 equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each for every 3 held. The proposal is subject to shareholders' approval.
In addition, a dividend of Rs 6 per share on the face value of Rs 2 each to shareholders has also been announced.
"We have seen another strong quarter of broad based, volume led growth. We saw good recovery in our challenged verticals of technology and telecom. The business environment is returning to normal," Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said.
For the year ended March 31, 2010, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 4,593 crore, up 18.49 from a year ago.
On the outlook front, Premji added that for the quarter ending June 30, 2010, the company expects revenues from IT services business to be in the range of USD 1,190 million to USD 1,215 million.
"We had a satisfying quarter. We delivered close to the upper end of our guidance with revenues of USD 1,180 million in constant currency. We have driven up margins by 60 basis points despite headwinds of wage increases, rupee appreciation and the impact of cross currency," Wipro Executive Director & CFO Suresh Senapaty said.
On a standalone basis, the company reported a growth of 46.85 per cent in net profit at Rs 1,236 crore for the fourth quarter.
Revenues from IT services in constant currency was USD 1,180 million, with a sequential increase of 4.7 per cent. On a year-on-year basis, the constant currency revenue increase was 7.8 per cent.
The company's IT services during the quarter added 27 new clients and for the whole year, the company added 121 new clients.
The company during the quarter made a net addition of 5,325 employees, taking its headcount to 1,08,071.
Shares of Wipro were trading at Rs 724 on BSE, up 2.99 per cent from previous close.
Microsoft profit rises 35 pct
Microsoft Corp beat analysts' estimates with a 35 per cent jump in quarterly profit, lifted by sales of Windows 7, but its shares fell more than 3 per cent as investors expected the company to benefit more from a recovering technology sector.
Sales, pegged back by revenue deferred from its Office software unit before a big upgrade next month, narrowly beat analysts' average estimate, suggesting that the recovery is not yet in full swing for the world's largest software firm.
"Maybe people's expectations were a little bit higher than Microsoft's numbers," said Toan Tran, analyst at Morningstar. "Tech earnings have been pretty strong, and with lots of strength in the PC market, the stock has come up quite a bit recently, so it might be people having too high expectations."
The company's stock has risen 14 per cent since the market's dip in early February, hitting a two-year high in intraday trading on Thursday, compared to a 20 per cent rise in the Nasdaq.
Tech leaders Intel Corp and Apple Inc smashed Wall Street estimates in recent weeks, elevating expectations that Microsoft would do the same.
However, Oracle Corp, IBM and Google Inc posted strong results only to see their stocks fall.
Worldwide PC spending is projected to recover from recent doldrums and rise 12 per cent to $245 billion in 2010, according to tech research firm Gartner. That promises to be a huge -- if not immediate -- boost to Microsoft, which provides the operating system for more than 90 per cent of the world's computers.
"The real benefit for Microsoft will be not necessarily when consumers buy PCs but when businesses step up to the plate and start buying PCs, 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 at a time," said Andrew Miedler, an analyst at Edward Jones. "That's when it really starts helping Microsoft more, because business PC purchases typically bring more profitability for Microsoft, because they get a more professional version of the product."
Microsoft reported a net profit of $4.01 billion, or 45 cents per share, for its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, compared with $2.98 billion, or 33 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts were expecting 42 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Quarterly net revenue rose 6 per cent to $14.5 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $14.39 billion.
"In the third quarter, we saw a return to growth in business's hardware spending -- both PCs and servers, which was different than what we've seen over the last three or four quarters," Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said in a telephone interview.
The growth in profit was powered by the unit which makes Windows, posting a 35 per cent increase in profit to $3.06 billion in the quarter, boosted by the hot-selling Windows 7, released last October.
Its business division, which makes the Office suite of software, saw profit fall 5 per cent to $2.62 billion. The company deferred $305 million in revenue from sales of Office as it has guaranteed free upgrades to the new version of Office which is due out in May.
The amount of deferred revenue was within Microsoft's estimated $300 million to $350 million, but some were disappointed that the number was not higher, perhaps indicating a lack of excitement over the new release.
Microsoft's online business, which includes the new Bing search engine, saw its quarterly loss widen 73 per cent to $713 million, as the company continues to invest in ways to challenge Google.
Klein said he expects business tech spending to recover in the latter half of 2010 and into 2011. "I'm not calling a boomerang, but I think this kind of growth that we are seeing probably sustains through the next couple of years."
He did not offer specific revenue or profit forecasts. Microsoft stopped making them in January 2009, citing market volatility.
Microsoft, which cut more than 5,000 jobs last year as it reined in spending, forecast $26.1 billion to $26.3 billion in operating costs for its fiscal year ending June 30. That is a lower range than its last forecast of $26.2 billion to $26.5 billion.
Microsoft said in March it is targeting $27 billion to $27.5 billion in operating expenses for fiscal 2011, which starts in July.
The stock fell 3.3 per cent in after-hours trading to $30.34 from its close at $31.39 on Nasdaq.
Sports News
I-T issues notices to Knight Riders, Gameplan
The income tax department has issued notices to Knight Riders Sports Private Limited and Gameplan Sports to appear before it in connection with the recent search operations at the offices of the two entities.
He said the two entities had asked for time till Monday for appearing before the IT department.
Asked whether the IT sleuths had stumbled across any irregularities so far, Khurana said that the officials were still examining papers.
He said the Kolkata IT office would only look into details like corporate endorsements, ticket receipts and the various heads under which expenditure was incurred and reflected in the books of the two companies.
Khurana said that the IT office would also investigate whether TDS was made on payment made to CAB by KR Sports, which owns the KKR team.
The official said that since KR Sports was based in Mumbai, IT Mumbai would look into the funding and shareholding pattern of KR Sports.
He said that it was not necessary that officials of the two companies would have to appear in person. "They can send their legal counsel also."
IT officials had conducted a search and survey operation in the city offices of KR Sports and Gameplan on Wednesday.
BCCI bigwigs may shun IPL Awards
Mumbai: BCCI bigwigs are set to give it a miss in the wake of the spat with Lalit Modi but the inaugural Indian Premier League awards still promise to be a glitzy affair here tonight.
The Awards Night, to honour the best-performing players in the IPL over the last month and a half, is planned to be a Bollywood-style entertainment extravaganza in which Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar are to be the co-hosts.
Invitations for the awards function have been sent to all the BCCI and IPL's Governing Council members, all the franchise owners, players and support staff, along with the owners of the two new teams - Kochi and Pune -- which are to make their debut in the league in 2011.
But if the BCCI officials, notably President Shashank Manohar, secretary N Srinivasan and his predecessor Niranjan Shah also the current vice chairman of its sub-committee IPL choose to give it a short shrift, it would come as a bit of dampener.
"We can't take a roll call and find out who all would be attending it. Whoever wants would be at the function," BCCI sources told PTI yesterday but according to latest indications none of them would grace the occasion.
The awards function could also be the last time IPL Commissioner Modi, whose tenure at the helm of affairs is hanging by a thin thread, will be calling the shots at the Board's precincts as a strong lobby is working towards removing him from the post in the wake of the huge controvers surrounding it.
Among the jury panel is former India captain Sunil Gavaskar who is also a GC member while Modi is its convener.
There are two other ex-cricketers in the Council former captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Ravi Shastri.
If the top bosses of BCCI skip the awards ceremony, as is expected in some quarters, it would amount to an indirect slap on the cricketers who have sweated it out for close to six weeks.
A total of 22 categories of awards, including nine jury awards, would be given away, but the suspense remains as to the persons who would attend it from the cricket administration.
Reporters from the print and electronic media have been excluded from the function while photographers and TV camera crew would be able to shoot the proceedings.
A further embarrassment awaits Modi who is considering moving the court to stop the April 26 governing council meeting which has been convened by BCCI secretary Srinivasan.
The BCCI top brass might also not attend the grand final of the Twenty20 tournament between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, which is owned by Srinivasan's India Cements Group, according to sources.
