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Headlines
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News:
Bill on delimitation gets parliamentary nod
Arafat, Vajpayee discuss West Asia situation
Pak national sentenced to jail term under TADA by Jammu court
Financial grant for TIFR students announced
Tehelka chief justifies use of prostitutes in investigation
Poor Indo-Pak trade crippling SAARC regional market
Basmati issue illustrates inequity in WTO agreement
United's Web glitch: U.S.-to-India round trip for $120
BSE: Sensex opens better, moves narrowly at early stages
Sri Lanka ahead by 94 with 9 wickets in hand
"I will move heaven and earth to make AAG a success," says Uma
Mou signed on broadcast of Afro-Asian Games
No rift between IOA and Sports Ministry: Randhir Singh
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Sensex: 3308.79, +11.36
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Bill on delimitation gets parliamentary nod
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: Parliament today gave its approval to a Constitution Amendment Bill extending the current freeze on the number of seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies till 2026 with the Rajya Sabha passing the legislation with 166 votes to nil.
The Bill, already passed by the Lok Sabha on August 21, provides for fresh delimitation to alter the size of constituencies and proposes to refix the number of seats reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies on the basis of the population ascertained at the 1991 census.
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Arafat, Vajpayee discuss West Asia situation
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: Palestine leader Yasser Arafat today sought India's intervention in resumption of the Middle East peace process and its support for the convening of a special session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the issue.
Arafat, who arrived early this morning from Cairo for a short visit, briefed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the prevailing situation in West Asia and sought India's help to back Palestinians' case in UN and other international fora.
During the 40-minute meeting at the Prime Minister's Race Course Road residence, Arafat thanked India for its help to the Palestinian cause, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters.
He informed Vajpayee of the various aspects of the evolving situation in West Asia and the moves being initiated to restore peace.
"We have come here for consultations because we have to carry on in the international field, specially the UN, Security Council and NAM. We are in need, no doubt, of help of the Indian leadership," Arafat said on arrival.
The Prime Minister reiterated India's support for the Palestinian cause and its belief that there was no military solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict.
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Pak national sentenced to jail term under TADA by Jammu court
Jammu,Thursday, August 23, 2001: A special court here today sentenced a Pakistan national to imprisonment ranging between five and seven years in three separate TADA cases and imposed a total fine of Rs 10,000 on him.
Convicting Meharban Sethi alias Nadeem after finding him guilty under various provisions of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, the court said all the sentences will run concurrently, a spokesman of Crime and Railways of Jammu and Kahsmir government said.
Cases against Nadeem, a resident of Kahuta of Kota tehsil in Rawalpindi, were registered at Srinagar police station in 1993 for his involvement in terrorist activities in the state.
In the first case, he was awarded jail term of seven years and a fine of Rs 5,000 while in the two other cases, he was sentenced to a five-year term each besides a fine of Rs 3,000 and 2,000 respectively.
On failure to pay the fines imposed on him in the three cases, the convict will have to undergo further simple imprisonment ranging from two months to three years, the court said.
This is the 16th conviction under TADA in the state, the spokesman said.
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Financial grant for TIFR students announced
Indus Entrepreneurs founder Kanwal Rekhi announced that a corpus of $45,000 would be given to the research students of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
He announced this while addressing the TIFR research students on Tuesday.
Rekhi's funds for the research students will be in addition to the funds received from the central government through the department of atomic energy, TIFR sources said.
They said this was the first time the institute was getting funds from a non-governmental source for their scholars.
'This fund would increase the scholarship and thus attract more brilliant students to TIFR', sources added.
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Tehelka chief justifies use of prostitutes in investigation
: In a well-attended press conference here on Wednesday, news website tehelka.com’s editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal defended the use of sex to get information for its sting operation that exposed corruption in defence deals.
Tejpal said that the website had acted “honourably” by handing over the information to the Army and also to the Venkatswami Commission. “We neither suppressed nor exploited the tapes,” he told reporters. Tejpal also revealed that the Army had informally told the website not to expose these parts of the investigation, which had been recorded on videotape.
When asked about the moral dimension of supplying prostitutes for Army officers who were being investigated for corruption, Tejpal said that his reporters were fulfilling the demand made by the officers.
“Despite their discomfiture, the reporters had to work around this to avoid being caught out,” Tejpal said. He said that this issue had to be taken in the context of the situation.
“The issue is corruption and we did not want to dilute that,” he asserted.
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Poor Indo-Pak trade crippling SAARC regional market
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: SAARC countries have asked both India and Pakistan to seriously explore ways to ''activate'' bilateral trade to prevent further crippling of trading opportunities amongst the member countries.
''We have asked both India and Pakistan to agree on a process to convert their informal trade into official trade which would immediately open up prospects for an additional 2 billion dollars of trade in the SAARC region'', officials of the SAARC secretariate told PTI after the two-day Commerce Ministers meet of the member countries ended here today.
''IF the two countries are against any direct methods there are opportunties in various group meetings to make a start in this direction'', the officials said.
India and Pakistan along with 20 other countries are slated to attend the meeting of the 'Like Minded Group of Countries' in Geneva on September 17.
''We felt the two countries would have greater opportunities to clear nagging doubts during senior level meetings and both countries should also hold frequent bilateral talks'', the officials said.
''The problem that we are facing due to Indo-Pak impasse is that if we buy one item from one of the countries and try to procure the same kind from the other, it leads to lots of suspicions and alarm among both countries'', the officials pointed out.
''They should not bring in the Kashmir problem or other area of differences into the smooth flow of bilateral trade as it is severly affecting trade in other neighbouring countries in the region'', the officials pointed out.
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Basmati issue illustrates inequity in WTO agreement
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: Experts in the academic and political circles feel that amidst all the brouhaha over the Basmati patent and cases with US Federal Trade Commission the real issues of inequity in the WTO agreement have been lost.
They feel preventing encroachment of India's traditional medicinal plants and agricultural products including Basmati is possible only if they are accomodated as "Geographically Indicated ones" in WTO's Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
"At present only wines and spirits like Champagne and Scotch are protected as Geographically Indicated products under the TRIPS agreement which needs to be renegotiated," Union Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, told PTI.
Agrees an NGO, Gene Campaign's President Suman Sahai who describing the recent patenting in US as an act of biopiracy said, "India must insist that protection under Article 22 and 23 is extended to products like rice and tea, otherwise chasing such patents will become a norm in future."
But Agricultural Task Force's Madan Diwan felt now it was extremely difficult to get the TRIPS agreement reopened, having failed to get rice and agri-products included in the original agreement in 1995 when WTO was an infant.
This, Sahai said, was not surprising as India does not have the back-up to buttress its case. No records exist listing the characteristics of our highly-prized Basmati strains.
Despite the patent being awarded to RiceTec in September 1997, a challenge was filed only in June 2000 and during the intervening period, no information was collected on Indian Basmati varieties.
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United's Web glitch: U.S.-to-India round trip for $120
Late Monday and early Tuesday, United Airlines' Web site (www.united.com) was offering round-trip tickets from Chicago to New Delhi and Mumbai for $120 to $180 -- seats that normally cost as much as $2,500.
A e-mail network of Asian Indian engineers quickly spread word of the bargains, and 120 passengers snapped up the fares before airline officials discovered the unintended deals and raised fares back up.
``A software glitch on our Web site allowed a small number of customers to purchase Chicago-to-India tickets for well below the normal price,'' said United spokeswoman Chris Nardella. ``We have fixed it to be sure it doesn't happen again, and we are going to honor the tickets.''
United and other air carriers have made similar technological gaffes on the Internet before. While the Web helps airlines cut the cost of selling tickets, it also makes it easier for customers to take advantage of mistakes.
In this case, a Kansas City engineer who was searching late Monday for air fares to Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, chanced on the too-good-to-be-accurate air fare. He bought a ticket and then spread the word Tuesday to his Asian Indian co-workers at Sprint.
One of those colleagues, Naresh Boga, went one step further: After buying his ticket, he sent more than 100 e-mails to his friends scattered throughout the United States, including Silicon Valley.
Now Chinnappa Pasam of Sunnyvale is taking his family of three to Hyderabad to visit relatives for a grand total of $360.
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BSE: Sensex opens better, moves narrowly at early stages
Mumbai,Thursday, August 23, 2001: The Sensex opened better and later continued to move in a narrow range in a mixed trend at the initial stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on buying support alternated by small selling by operators.
The BSE Sensitive Index opened up at 3307.29 over last Tuesday's close of 3297.47 and improved further to a high of 3316.33. However, it failed to maintain higher levels and dipped to a low of 3293.07 before being quoted at 3299.68 at 10.30 am.
Operators were seen making small transactions and market sources attributed lack of confidence among investors to the weak sentiment in the global markets.
Though stocks on Wall Street staged a smart recovery lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by about 100 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index by about 18 points last night, the BSE did not witness any major change in the trend in the light of investors' hesitancy to make aggressive commitments.
Investors on Wall Street had interpreted fresh rate cut by 25 basis points by the Federal Reserve as a signal that the US economic trends were still weak, making operator pessimistic about the investment opportunities, sources added.
Among the top gainers, HCL Info shot up by 8.40 per cent, Silverline by 5.64 per cent, Dr Reddy by 4.05 per cent, Tata Elxsi by 3.38 per cent, Satyam Computer by 1.98 per cent and Telco by 1.97 per cent.
However, HLL dipped by 2.10 per cent, Infosys Tech by 1.14 per cent, Max India by 4.05 per cent, Hughes Software by 2.86 per cent and Sterlite Optical by 2.67 per cent.
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Sri Lanka ahead by 94 with 9 wickets in hand
Kandy,Thursday, August 23, 2001: After taking a first innings lead of 42 runs, Sri Lanka were 52 for one in their second knock at stumps on the second day of the second cricket Test against India here today.
Earlier, India were all out in their first inings for 232 in reply to Sri Lanka's total of 274. Brief scores: Sri Lanka: 274 and 52 for one in 18 overs (M Atapattu batting 30, K Sangakkara batting 13; Zaheer Khan 1-29). India: 232.
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"I will move heaven and earth to make AAG a success," says Uma
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: Dismissing all speculations about postponement of the prestigious Afro-Asian Games as the handiwork of "vested interests', Sports Minister Uma Bharti today said she would make all possible efforts to make the first edition of the Games a grand success.
"I will move heaven and earth (rpt earth) to make the inaugural Afro-Asian Games a success," Bharti told PTI here. "There is no question of calling off the Games and such reports are being spread by vested interests whose motives would be hurt by the successful staging of AAG," she said. There was no scope for postponement of AAG even for a year. If it was postponed it would have to be held years later as the Commonwealth Games were scheduled for the next year followed by the Asian Games, Bharti said. About reports that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has expressed concern over the timely holding of the Games due to alleged wranglings between Sports Ministry and Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Bharti said, "The Prime Minister has not told me anything about it. "I am his Sports Minister. If he has any apprehension about the Games he will definitely talk to me first. I speak to him almost daily over phone and meet him often in Parliament but he has never spoken to me about any such apprehension".
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Mou signed on broadcast of Afro-Asian Games
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: The Prasar Bharati Corporation and the Afro-Asian Games Organising Committee today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), under which, Doordarshan and AIR get exclusive rights to broadcast the Afro-Asian Games to be held here from November 3 to 11.
The deal has been struck for Rs Two crores. In addition, Prasar Bharati is expected to spend over Rs two crores on coverage and production. Under the MOU Doordarshan and AIR get exclusive rights for terrestrial and satellite broadcast, multi-media and internet, Prasar Bharati's Chief Executive Officer Anil Baijal told reporters after he signed the MOU with Shekhar Dutt, Director General of the Sports Authority of India. Modalities of coverage of the Games and their marketing were being worked out, Baijal said. Prasar Bharati will negotiate with the Asian Broadcasting Union and the television networks in Africa, to beam the Games in the two continents. It also has the rights to sub-licence the broadcast to other channels.
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No rift between IOA and Sports Ministry: Randhir Singh
New Delhi,Thursday, August 23, 2001: Indian Olympic Association today denied there was any rift with the Sports Ministry and said both were working in close co-operation to make the Afro-Asian Games a success.
"There is no rift betwen the IOA and Sports Ministry. Some minor differences of opinion are there but we hope to sort out those amicably and move ahead," IOA secreatry general Randhir Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised here to release the book 'India's Highest Awards and Those Who Won Them' authored by S S Gandhi.
He also denied there was any move to postpone the Afro-Asian Games. "The Games are on and there is no question of postponing it", he said.
Randhir Singh, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, refuted allegations that the IOA was backing out of the promise to provide 50 per cent of funds for the games.
"We do not raise the funds directly", he said adding "it is the organising committee of the Games that raise the money".
On Milkha Singh's refusal to accept the Arjuna Award, Randhir singh, himself an Arjuna Awardee, said he did not wish to get into any controversy but added "Had it been me, I would have accepted it".
However, he said, he was writing to the government requesting it to re-constitute the Award selection committee with the Sports Minister as Chairman and representatives of the IOA and Arjuna Awardees Association besides four former international sportspersons.
Randhir Singh also denied the timing of the launch of the book had anything to do with the awards controversy.
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Markets
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Sensex: 3308.79, +11.36
The sensex closed at 3308.79, up 11.36
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Forex
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1 U.S. $ = 47.09 INR
1 Japanese Yen = 0.39 INR
1 British Pound = 68.10 INR
1 Canadian $ = 30.55 INR
1 Singapore $ = 26.82 INR
1 UAE Dirham = 12.82 INR
1 Saudi Arabian Riyal = 12.56 INR
1 Euro = 42.91 INR
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Metals
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No data |
Weather
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Temperature: 82 F / 28 C
HeatIndex: 87 F / 31 C
Humidity: 74%
Dewpoint: 73 F / 23 C
Wind
SSW at 9 mph / 14.5 km/h
Pressure
N/A
Conditions
Haze
Clouds
Scattered Clouds (SCT): 2000 ft / 611 m
Towering Culmulus,FEW: 2500 ft / 764 m
Mostly Cloudy (BKN): 10000 ft / 3050 m
Sunrise : 06:22 AM (IST)
Sunset : 07:01 PM (IST)
Moon Rise : 10:29 AM (IST)
Moon Set : 10:31 PM (IST)
Tonight : Low: 73 F / 23 C Thunderstorm
Friday : High: 82 F / 28 C Thunderstorm
Friday Night : Low: 73 F / 23 C Thunderstorm
Saturday : High: 82 F / 28 C Thunderstorm
Saturday Night : Low: 71 F / 22 C Rain
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