New Delhi:After being involved in days of negotiations over the allotment of ministerial berths in the next UPA Govt, Congress-DMK talks broke down in New Delhi on Thursday.
DMK’s senior leader TR Balu came out of the Cong ‘war room’ after day long negotiations with top Cong leaders and announced to the waiting media that DMK has decided to offer support to the Cong from outside. According to sources, Cong' refusal to hand over the crucial Telecom and infrastructure related portfolios to the DMK was the stumbling block.
Earlier, stuck by 'berth' pangs, the Congress was grappling with other allies like Trinamool Congress who were doing hard negotiations to get plum portfolios as Manmohan Singh gets ready to be sworn in on Friday for a second consecutive term as Prime Minister.
On a day of conflicting reports, the DMK with 18 MPs, the third largest constituent in the UPA coalition, was said to be demanding three Cabinet portfolios, two Ministers of State with independent charge and two at the Ministers of State level.
However, among the 'big four' portfolios Finance is likely to go to Pranab Mukherjee, while Home and Defence would be retained by P Chidambaram and A K Antony. There is no finality about who will bag External Affairs for which names of Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal are doing the rounds.
DMK chief Karunanidhi's son M K Azhagiri, his grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and T R Baalu are among the Cabinet probable from the party while his daughter Kanimozhi is among the likely candidates for the MOS slot.
Will join cabinet only if I get Railways: Mamata to Cong
New Delhi:Trinamool Congress party sources said that party Chief Mamata Banerjee may join the government at the centre if her party gets Railways even as TC is locked in hard negotiations with the Congress over ministerial berths.
Accompanied by senior party leaders Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy, Banerjee visited the Congress 'War Room', where negotiations are being held with the UPA allies on the portfolio distribution.
They remained closeted with Congress leaders A K Antony and Ahmed Patel for almost an hour. "There is no talk of bargaining (for ministerial posts). ... We have not discussed this. What they (Congress) want, they will do. Even if they don't give us anything, we don't mind," Banerjee told reporters after her meeting.
This was the third round of negotiations Banerjee had with top Congress leaders on the matter but she has been publicly maintaining that Trinamool Congress had no demands.
However, sources said the party is keen on Railways, Coal and Mines and Steel portfolios which, it feels, are critical to West Bengal economy. It was also eyeing the portfolios of Health and Home Affairs at the Minister of State level.
Both Trivedi and Roy, who accompanied her to the Congress office, are the front-runners for Cabinet positions from the Trinamool Congress. The party is understood to be expecting at least two berths in Union Cabinet and three Ministers of State.
The Trinamool supremo said she wanted her party's relations with Congress to "remain good. .... More important than ministerial positions is to have stable government."
DMK to offer outside support to UPA govt
NEW DELHI: Congress-DMK talks on the issue of Cabinet berths have broken down. Unhappy with Congress formula on distribution of Cabinet berths,DMK has decided not to join the UPA government and will only support it from outside.
"The Congress formula is not acceptable to us", DMK leader T R Baalu told reporters after talks between the two sides, PTI reported.
Baalu announced the breakdown of talks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up DMK chief M Karunanidhi who conveyed his rejection of the Congress proposal.
DMK had been demanding seven ministerial berths, including three Cabinet, while Congress was ready to concede only six berths.
The DMK executive council will meet in Chennai on Friday to discuss future course of action. Baalu said there was no formula for government formation in 2004.
On a day of conflicting reports, the DMK with 18 MPs, the third largest constituent in the UPA coalition, was said to be demanding key ministerial berths, which the Congress was reluctant to accept.
DMK chief Karunanidhi's son M K Azhagiri, his grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and party leader T R Baalu were among those for whom Cabinet berths were being demanded and the chief’s daughter Kanimozhi was among the likely candidates for the minister of state slot.
Reports said the Congress was keen to give two Cabinet berths, four MOS slots including two with independent charge. Mediators were trying to work out the final modalities of an agreement.
16 policemen killed in Naxal attack in Maharashtra
NAGPUR: Sixteen policemen, including an inspector and a sub-inspector, were on Thursday killed in a Naxal attack at Tawitola in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, police said.
The attack took place when a police party was on routine patrolling near Dhanora.
Inspector Avinash Iyer from Nagpur and Sub Inspector Shantaram Ghorpade from Satara along with five to six women constables were killed in the attack, the police said.
The incident occurred around 4.30pm., sending shockwaves in the state security set-up.
Senior officials, including state Anti-Naxalite Squad (ANS) chief Pankaj Gupta, superintendent of police Rajesh Pradhan and others rushed to scene of the tragedy.
Deputy superintendent of police Srihari Munde said extra security forces were being summoned from neighbouring areas.
This is the most brutal Maoist attack in the state and second in the year so far. Earlier, on Feb 1, at least 15 security personnel were killed by Maoists in an ambush in the same Dhanora sub-district.
Indian Business News
Premji takes pay cut, but hike for others in Wipro top brass
NEW YORK: As the global economic downturn takes toll on pay packets, Indian IT major Wipro's chief Azim Premji seems to be leading by example as he has taken a cut of about 10% in his annual compensation.
The total remuneration paid to Premji dipped by $32,414 (about Rs 14 lakh) in the fiscal year 2008-09 to $2,96,142 (about Rs 1.37 crore).
India's third largest IT exporter, listed at New York Stock Exchange, had paid a total remuneration of $3,28,556 to its Chairman in the previous fiscal.
However, the company has paid higher remuneration to many of its other executive directors and senior management personnel in 2008-09, according to its annual report filing with the US market regulator SEC. The compensation paid to the non-executive directors also increased.
For its non-employee directors, Wipro said, the attendance fee was raised to Rs 20,000 per meeting with effect from August 1, 2008, from Rs 10,000 previously. Besides, the company paid a total of Rs 1.46 crore as commission to them in 2008-09, up from about Rs 86.02 lakh in the previous year.
The pay package for executive directors like Suresh Senapaty, Pratik Kumar, Suresh Vaswani and Girish S Paranjape also rose in 2008-09.
Wipro drops Satyam from rival list
New York:Scam-hit Satyam seems to be losing its status as a noteworthy rival for the top Indian IT firms, as Wipro has become the second major player in this space after Infosys to drop its name from the list of competitors.
Satyam used to be a regular in the list of competitors mentioned by its larger peers like Infosys and Wipro in their annual report filings with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission.
However, Satyam's name is conspicuously absent in Wipro's latest annual report filing for the financial year ended March 31, 2009. Prior to this, Infosys also dropped Satyam's name from its list of noteworthy rivals in its latest annual report filing, filed with SEC earlier this month.
All the three Indian IT firms, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam are listed in the US -- Infosys on Nasdaq and the rest two on the New York Stock Exchange.
Before it was hit by the country's biggest-ever fraud admitted to by its founder and then chairman Ramalinga Raju in January, Satyam was known as the fourth-biggest software exporter from the country after TCS, Infosys and Wipro.
Satyam Computer has already embarked upon a revival path after its government-appointed board finalised a deal to sell controlling stake of 51 per cent in the company to domestic conglomerate Mahindra Group.
Satyam is said to have retained a large number of its clients, although some of them have reportedly cancelled or not renewed their contracts with the Indian IT firm.
In its latest annual report filing with SEC, Wipro has said that "the market for IT services is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Our competitors in this market include consulting firms, big four accounting firms, global IT services companies, such as Accenture, IBM Global Services and India based IT services companies such as Cognizant, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services."
Economic crisis: India better placed than US
New Delhi:The US may have a few economic lessons to learn from India, with the emerging economy being better rated than the world's largest economy in terms of their capabilities to tackle the raging financial turmoil.
India has been ranked at the 13th position among 57 countries by Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) for being better equipped to tide over the crisis and emerge more competitive in near term.
The rankings based on 'Stress Test' also takes into account the future scenario along with individual nations' readiness and resilience in a period of global recession.
Denmark has clocked the top position, followed by Singapore, Qatar, Norway and Hong Kong. The US is placed far below at the 28th spot.
Moreover, at the 13th place, India is ahead of neighboring China (18th rank) and the world's second-largest economy, Japan (26).
"The Stress Test shows that smaller nations, which are export-oriented, resilient and with stable socio-political environments are better equipped to benefit immediately from the recovery," IMD World Competitiveness Center Director Professor Stephane Garelli said.
Going by the rankings, India is better placed than Brazil (22), the UK (34), Russia (51).
IPL News|IPL Cricket News
Delhi Daredevils beat Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets
NEW DELHI: Delhi Daredevils beat Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets to win the 55th match of the second edition of the Indian Premier League at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday.
Delhi chased down the victory target of 166 runs with 2.3 overs to spare as captain Virender Sehwag was adjudged the Man of the Match.
Blogs: Do Bollywood stars jinx IPL teams? | Is IPL2 hurting India's World Cup chance?
Delhi were on the rampage till Harbhajan Singh almost turned the match on his head and was on a hat-trick twice in the match.
Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir hit 7 fours in his 38-ball 47 before he was dismissed by Lasith Malinga.
It was then that Harbhajan wreked havoc in the Delhi camp. He first dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan (24) by a 'doosra' and on the very next delivery Delhi captain Virender Sehwag missed the fast off-break that knocked back the off-stump.
Dilshan hit 2 fours and 2 sixes in his 14-ball 24, while Sehwag reached his 4th IPL 50 off 26 balls with the help of 2 sixes and 5 fours.
Harbhajan then dismissed AB de Villiers (6) and Rajat Bhatia (2) off consecutive deliveries in his fourth over till Amit Mishra hit a four and a six off Jean Paul Duminy to seal the match for Delhi.
Harbhajan finished with match figures of 4/17.
Delhi Daredevils were 93/1 in 10 overs.
Delhi lost David Warner when he miscued a hit high up in the air for Mohammad Ashraful to take a well-judged catch at mid-off. Warner hit a six and a four in his 15-run knock that came off 9 balls.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians scored 165/8 in 20 overs.
Sent in to bat, Mumbai got off to a poor start losing opener Sanath Jayasuriya on the first legal delivery of the match. After bowling two wides outside the off-stump, Dirk Nannes got a delivery to come back and trapped Jayasuriya plumb in front of the wicket.
Nannes struck again in his next over having Jean Paul Duminy (9) caught behind by Dinesh Karthik.
Pradeep Sangwan then struck in his first over when Mohammad Ashraful (2) edged an outswinger to keeper Karthik.
Captain Sachin Tendulkar hit 8 fours in his 41-ball 46 before he was clean bowled by Rajat Bhatia. The 73-run partnership between Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane revived the Mumbai innings.
Rahane hit 2 sixes and 5 fours in his 56-run knock that came off 41 balls before he was caught in the covers by AB de Villiers off Sangwan.
Mumbai have brought in Mohammad Ashraful for Dwayne Bravo, Rahil Shaikh for Chetanya Nanda and Pinal Shah for Yogesh Takawale. Delhi have replaced Ashish Nehra, Farveez Maharoof, Daniel Vettori and Andrew McDonald with Pradeep Sangwan, David Warner, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dirk Nannes.
No comments:
Post a Comment