Having finalised the 26:22 seat sharing formula, Congress and NCP in
Maharashtra are likely to swap Raigad and Amravati Lok Sabha
constituencies in the coming general elections.
NCP will most
probably field Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare, a close aide of
Ajit Pawar, from Raigad, while PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal will test
waters from Nashik parliamentary seat, replacing his nephew Sameer. NCP
will give the Amravati seat to Congress in return for Raigad.
NCP
had proposed that as Congress was unable to wrest the Raigad seat from
Shiv Sena for the three consecutive terms, it should be given a chance,
sources said. Similarly, NCP could not win Amravati seat, which was
unsuccessfully contested by Rajendra Gavai of RPI last time with its's
support.
LS polls: Congress, NCP may swap Raigad and Amravati seats in Maharashtra
However, Congress sources said that the swap was not yet finalised.
NCP sources said party supremo and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad
Pawar will meet ministers and office-bearers deputed to tour the 22
constituencies on Tuesday. "He will take stock of the political
situation in the 22 constituencies and discuss finalisation of
candidates. It is likely that both Congress and NCP will announce their
list of candidates after February 21," party sources added.
Home
Minister R R Patil has toured the Maadha constituency and interacted
with the local party leaders to discuss who would replace Sharad Pawar.
Pawar has been elected to the Rajya Sabha and has announced quitting
electoral politics. "The local unit of NCP is divided between senior
leader Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil and Suresh Shinde, brother of local MLA
Baban Shinde," sources informed.
Despite the local unit in Satara
demanding that senior leader Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar be given the ticket,
it is likely that sitting MP Udayanraje Bhosale will be fielded again,
sources added. After some delay, Congress and NCP decided to continue
with 26:22 formula (26 for Congress and 22 for NCP) for the 48 seats in
Maharashtra.
NCP has already said that it will not part with
Kolhapur seat, and has decided to field Dhananjay Mahadik. The sitting
MP, Sadashiv Mandlik, had contested as an independent after being denied
ticket by NCP in 2009, and has since joined Congress.
Sources
said Congress was not demanding Hingoli for Indian Youth Congress chief
Rajiv Satav, as he had decided not to contest. Sitting NCP MPs Supriya
Sule (Baramati), Padamsinh Patil (Osmanabad), Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai
North East), Sanjeev Naik (Thane), Praful Patel (Gondia) will get
tickets again.
Laxman Jagtap (Maval), Anand Paranjpye (Kalyan),
Suryakanta Patil (HIngoli) have been finalised. Ministers Jaidutt
Kshirsagar and Suresh Dhas are vying for the Beed Lok Sabha seat,
against BJP leader Gopinath Munde.
The fate of three death row convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination
case will be sealed on Tuesday when the Supreme Court will pronounce its
verdict on their plea for commutation of their sentence to life
imprisonment on ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea.
The
judgement will be delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice P
Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on the plea of three
convicts--Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan- on February 4.
Their
plea was strongly opposed by the Centre which had said that it was not a
fit case for the apex court to commute death sentence on the ground of
delay in deciding mercy plea. Admitting that there has been delay in
deciding the mercy petitions, the government, however, had contended
that the delay was not unreasonable, unexplainable and unconscionable to
commute death penalty.
Verdict on plea of convicts in Rajiv Gandhi case tomorrow
The counsel, appearing for the convicts, had contested the Centre's
arguments, saying that they have suffered due to the delay by the
government in deciding the mercy petitions and the apex court should
intervene and commute their death sentence to life term.
The
convicts had submitted that mercy plea of other condemned prisoners,
which were filed after them, were decided but their petitions were kept
pending by the government.
The apex court had in May 2012 decided
to adjudicate the petitions of Rajiv Gandhi killers against their death
penalty and had directed that their plea, pending with the Madras High
Court, be sent to it.
The court had passed the order on a petition
by one L K Venkat, seeking transfer of their plea out of Tamil Nadu on
the ground that free and fair hearing would not be possible in the state
due to the surcharged atmosphere in favour of the convicts.
Bowlers win you Test matches because you need 20 wickets to win one.
India were once again taught that lesson by New Zealand on Monday when
Brendon McCullum's second consecutive double century, BJ Watling's 124
and a world-record partnership of 352 for the sixth wicket between those
two pushed the visitors out of the driver's seat on the penultimate day
of the second Test in Wellington.
India could take just one wicket in the entire fourth day's play
that was dominated by New Zealand who began proceedings six runs ahead
and ended up adding 319 more to it to build a lead of 325 - largely due
to the record-breaking partnership between McCullum and Watling.
Shami
was the only bowler to take a wicket in three session on Monday when he
removed Watling with the third new ball of the Kiwi second innings. But
it had no effect on McCullum who continued to make India pay heavily
for dropping him twice on Sunday. He was batting on 281 and debutant
Jimmy Neesham on 66 when stumps were drawn with NZ 571 for 6.
McCullum (281*) struck his second
double ton of the series in a world record stand with Watling (124) as
India could take just one wicket on Day 4 of the 2nd Test.
India had New Zealand in a spot of bother at 94 for 5 after taking a
246-run lead in the first innings on day three but to their frustration
are now facing the prospect of even losing the match.
McCullum's
marathon knock has now extended to six sessions at the crease, facing
525 balls and hitting 28 fours and 4 sixes. After Watling departed,
Neesham came out playing strokes and had a debut half-century under his
belt with the help of 9 fours.
For India, Zaheer Khan (3 for 129), Mohammad Shami (2 for 136)
and Ishant Sharma (0 for 124) toiled hard on an unresponsive pitch,
particularly with the third new ball. Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 108) was
rendered ineffective as well. Part-timers Rohit Sharma (0 for 40) and
Virat Kohli (0 for 13) were given a go to try something different, while
skipper MS Dhoni (0 for 5) also bowled after the tea-break.
New
Zealand started day four at 252 for 5 but McCullum and Watling didn't
allow the Indians to take advantage of any early morning help on offer.
And once they had re-settled after a good night's sleep, runs started
flowing from the Kiwi bats.
The first hour of play on Monday accrued 56 runs in 13 overs and
the 200 of the partnership was on the board. Dhoni made use of Jadeja
with an attacking field, but the Kiwis had spent enough time on the
crease by now to handle those tactics.
McCullum
raised his 150 and with that shifted his target to another double
hundred in the series. India had half a chance of dismissing the Kiwi
skipper when, after being give two lives on Monday, he edged Zaheer past
the slip cordon wherein Shikhar Dhawan was standing at third slip.
Watling though was solid as ever at the other end, and the 250-run
partnership came up in the 126th over, just before the break.
Starting at 440 for 5 after tea, the set batsmen had another
string of batting records coming their way, with the pitch playing
perfect foil to them. As Dhoni bowled his gentle medium-pace first up,
McCullum and Watling crossed the 350-mark for their partnership in the
159th over.
An over later, they brought up the highest ever sixth-wicket
partnership in Test cricket breaking the 351-mark by Mahela and Prasanna
Jayawardene, also set against India at Ahmedabad in 2009. NZ lead also
swelled to 200 in the meantime.
Dhoni then took the third new ball and Shami brought relief
straight away by trapping Watling in front, but not before he had done
enough damage to India's chance of a first win in 2014.
Neesham had no intentions of holding himself back and came out in
a free-flowing mode to easily collect boundaries while also rotating
strike appreciably with his senior partner.
McCullum, in the the meantime, brought up his 250 - raising the
possibility of another piece of history by becoming the first Test
trip-centurion from New Zealand on the final day of India's forgettable
tour.
Finance minister P Chidambaram - attempting to be heard above the
sloganeering of lawmakers protesting against the Telangana Bill as he
presented his interim budget for 2014 - today said the government has
managed to contain both the fiscal deficit and the current account
deficits and has kept them below target.
He called out to all political parties to "pledge that we will do nothing that will affect the stability of the Indian economy."
With
general elections only months away, Mr Chidambaram cannot announce big
bang reforms or tax changes, but can list the achievements of his
government in his report card on the economy over the last year.
Following are the highlights of his speech:
Global cues not to overly hit India, India held its head above water during global crisis Fiscal deficit for 2013-14 will be contained at 4.6% Export seen at $326 billion showing 6.3 per cent year-on-year growth Growth for FY14 estimated at 4.9%; Q3, Q4 growth seen at 5.2% I reject the argument of policy paralysis Let history be the judge of last 10 years Economy in much better shape now than it was two years ago 10-year trend growth rate at 6.2 per cent, UPA I and II delivered above trend rate Fiscal deficit down, CAD down, inflation moderated and growth picking up Merchandise export to grow by 6.8% to USD 326 billion 3 more industrial corridors - Chennai-Bangalore, Bangalore-Mumbai, Amritsar-Kolkata - under various stages of implementation GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 2013-14 will be at least 5.2% Power capacity rises to 234,600 MW in 10 years Expenditure on education has risen from Rs 10,145 crore 10 years ago to Rs 79,251 crore this year Sugar
decontrol, gradual correction of diesel prices, application for new
bank licenses, sick electricity distribution companies restructured Plan expenditure to remain unchanged at 5.55 lakh crore in 2014-15 Government fully committed to Aadhaar project. Even critics of the project will realise it's a tool of empowerment Budgetary support to Railways increased PSUs to achieve record capex of Rs 2,57,645 crore in 2013-14 500 MW fast breeder nuclear reaction in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly; 7 nuclear power reactors under construction National Solar Mission to undertake 4 ultra mega solar power projects in 2014-15 Rs 1,200 crore additional assistance to N-E states to be released before end of the year Rs 1,000 crore grant for Nirbhaya Fund will be non-lapsable; another Rs 1,000 crore to be given next fiscal Non planned expenditure at 12.7 lakh crore Fuel subsidy pegged at Rs 65,000 crore, food subsidy at Rs 1.15 lakh crore in 2014-15 Fuel subsidy worth Rs 35,000 crore to be rolled over in 2014-15 Rs
3,370 crore to transferred to 2.1 crore LPG users; Government committed
to Aadhaar-based LPG transfer but scheme on hold temporarily Defence allocation up 10% at Rs 2.24 lakh crore Government
has accepted principle of one rank, one pay for defence forces. Rs 500
crore estimated requirement for implementing one-rank-one-pay scheme for
armed forces in 2014-15 Food subsidy will be Rs 1,15,000 crore for implementation of National Food Security Act Budgetary support to Railways increased from Rs 26,000 crore to Rs 29,000 crore 2014-15 Rs 2,46,397 crore allocated for food, fertilizer and fuel subsidy I have kept Rs 5,55,322 crore for plan expenditure Re-capitalise public sector banks Fortunes of China and India has an impact on the whole world UPA government has clear line of sight to the goals we have set for ourselves Fiscal consolidation - achieve target of 3% deficit In a developing economy, we must accept that when our aim is high growth there will be moderate inflation In next three decades, India's nominal will be on third rank after US and China RBI must strike a balance between price stability and growth States have the fiscal space to bear a reasonable proportion for allocation of flagship programmes Disappointed that we have not been able to implement GST (goods and services tax) To place DTC Bill for public comments Minority bank accounts have swelled to 43,53,000 by 2013-14 from 14,15,000 bank accounts 10 years ago Rs 6000 crore to rural housing fund, Rs 2000 crore for urban housing fund Moratorium on interest on student loans taken before March 31, 2009; to benefit 9 lakh borrowers Excise duty on small cars, motorcycles, scooters reduced from 12 to 8 per cent till 30.06.2014. Excise duty on consumer durables cut from 12 to 10 per cent till 30.6.2014. Cut excise duty on mid segment cars to 20% from 24% Duty cut on SUV cars from 30% to 24%
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The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant, which
predicted on Thursday that it would lose 110 billion yen, or about $1.1
billion, in its current fiscal year, said it would sell its unprofitable
personal computer unit. It also announced plans to turn its equally troubled
television manufacturing business into a separate, wholly owned subsidiary. And
it said it would cut 5,000 jobs.
The overhaul marks the fourth round of large-scale job cuts
over the past decade. Sony announced 10,000 reductions in 2005, 8,000 more in
2008 and a further 10,000 two years ago, bringing its head count down to
145,000 as of September.
“Sony has had bigger cuts,” said Damian Thong, an analyst at
Macquarie Securities “But these are, in some ways, the most meaningful
cuts.”While previous divestitures have involved peripheral operations in areas
like chemicals, now Sony is ridding itself of a brand and a business: Vaio
computers, which it once considered central to its ambitions of keeping pace
with global technology powers like Apple and Samsung Electronics. And it is
positioning itself at arm’s length from television, a sector in which its
Trinitron and Bravia TVs once set the standards in picture quality and brand
image.
While Sony’s problems reflect a broader crisis in the
Japanese electronics industry, other companies, like Panasonic, have moved more
aggressively to restructure. Panasonic, which has been pulling out of certain
consumer electronics markets, like smartphones, and focusing more on behind-
the-scenes businesses like batteries for electric cars, this week reported that
its quarterly earnings more than tripled.
While some investors and analysts have urged Sony to get out
of consumer electronics entirely, the chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, reiterated
on Thursday that he wanted to rebuild around promising areas like game consoles
and smartphones.
Those businesses showed progress in the quarter ended in
December. Sony reported a “significant increase in sales of smartphones” as
well as a big jump in operating income in its game division because of the
introduction of the PS4 console.
Over all, the company reported net income of ¥27 billion, or
$267 million, after a loss of ¥10.8 billion a year earlier. Sales rose to ¥2.41
trillion from ¥1.95 trillion, though the main factor was a weaker yen, which
increases the value of overseas sales when converted into the Japanese
currency.
But investors have gotten used to a dose of bad news
following any sign of improvement from Sony, and Thursday brought no exception,
with the new estimate of a ¥110 billion loss for the current fiscal year, which
ends in March, after a previous forecast of a profit of ¥30 billion. While much
of the expected loss will come from restructuring costs, Sony also lowered its
full-year sales forecast for smartphones to 40 million devices from 42 million.At
a news conference in Tokyo, Mr. Hirai described the agreement to sell the PC
unit — to the investment fund Japan Industrial Partners — as an “agonizing
decision.” Sony said it planned to keep a 5 percent stake in the new PC company
to be formed from the sale. Other terms, including the price, remain subject to
negotiation, Sony said.
Japan Industrial Partners specializes in buying unwanted
assets from Japanese electronics giants, including companies like NEC and
Olympus.
Japan Industrial Partners “believes that with its support,
the new company that will operate the Vaio-branded PC business will be able to
achieve future growth and profitability and meet the expectations of Vaio
customers by leveraging the wealth of innovative design expertise and
operational know- how accumulated by Sony within the PC business,” the
companies said in a statement.
Along with televisions, PCs have been a particular drag on
Sony. PC shipments from all makers worldwide fell 10 percent last year, to 316
million, according to Gartner, a research firm, as more consumers turned to tablet
computers or smartphones to connect to the Internet. Sony’s share of that total
slipped to 1.9 percent worldwide in 2013 from 2.1 percent in 2012, Gartner
said, making it the ninth-largest maker of PCs worldwide.
With profit margins under pressure in the PC sector, only a
handful of the biggest companies, including the market leader, Lenovo, make
money in the business.
“Somebody has to exit from the market because there are
still too many competitors,” said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner. “This
is an extremely difficult market in which to survive. That is not going to
change.”
After splitting off its television business into a
subsidiary, Sony said, the new unit will focus on expensive sets, including
ultra-high-resolution 4K TVs, while scaling back output of cheaper models.
While Sony is retaining ownership, the new structure could
also make it easier to open the TV business to outside investment, analysts
said. The changes could also make it easier for the company to cut costs by
outsourcing more manufacturing and other operations, while retaining the Sony
brand.
Sony has adopted such structures for other business lines,
including mobile phones, with mixed results.
In 2001, Sony set up a joint venture with Ericsson of
Sweden, but the partnership struggled and Sony bought out Ericsson’s stake in
2012.
Mr. Hirai, the Sony chief, said that while the company had
no immediate plans to sell the TV arm, it was keeping its options open.
“There are many possibilities, not just for our TV
business,” he said.
