5 reasons rupee may be back at 50/$ by March

 After posting its biggest percentage jump against the dollar in three years on Friday, the Indian currency was on Monday trading marginally higher at 55.57 to the dollar.

The rupee has lost 24.64 per cent against the dollar over the past year, and is on course to log its worst quarter in at least 17 years, Reuters data showed.

A ballooning current account deficit and the ongoing euro zone crisis is weighing heavily on the currency.

Rating agency Crisil, however, says there is a 66 per cent chance that the rupee will appreciate to around 50 per dollar by March-end 2013.

Here are five reasons it gives:

1. The key underlying assumptions, Crisil says, include the initiation of some domestic policy measures to revive growth, no further worsening of expectations of growth and inflation, and an easing of current account deficit due to softening of crude and commodity prices– all of which would improve investor appetite.

2. On the global front, some improvement in the Euro zone situation towards the first quarter of 2013 is assumed, Crisil says. These factors should improve investor sentiments and stimulate the return of capital inflows.
3. Crisil says an improved risk appetite of the foreign investors would lead them to consider the opportunity India offers, with assets in India being cheaper due to correction in prices and a sharply depreciated rupee.

4. The difference in growth rate that India maintains with the West and the other emerging markets, along with the new measures announced by the Reserve Bank on June 25 aimed at attracting foreign capital inflows will improve India’s chances.

5. The agency, however, has also warned that there was a 33 per cent chance that the local currency may settle at 55-57 levels by March 2013, assuming a status quo in domestic policy setting and no change in the euro zone problems, with the ongoing global turbulence continuing

Power slowly returns as US heat wave drags on

Washington: Utility crews made slow progress on Monday in restoring electricity to millions of households amid a record-setting heat wave in the eastern United States that showed no sign of abating soon.

Temperatures shot back into the 100-degree Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) range in many areas on Sunday, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of the prospect of severe thunderstorms including large hail and damaging winds.

"Cities from St. Louis, Missouri, to Washington DC are forecast to approach or break daily record high temperatures for yet another day and there may be more all-time records broken," said AccuWeather, a private weather service.
Several million households made do without electricity two days after powerful thunderstorms knocked out power lines in nine states, notably in the mid-Atlantic region.

At least 14 people died in Friday's storms, according to US news media, in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky and the District of Columbia.

Pepco, the utility that serves Washington and some of its suburbs, said it may be a full week before service is restored to all its customers by teams of linemen that included reinforcements from as far as Oklahoma and Florida.

"The devastation is extensive and while we expect to have the vast majority of customers restored by the end of day Friday, restoration for some customers may extend into the weekend," said Pepco regional president Thomas Graham.

The situation got so bad that neighbouring Canada has offered its helping hand, saying it was sending about 200 power restoration specialists to the Washington metropolitan area.

Canadian public utility Hydro One said the Canadians will start in the Washington, Baltimore and Virginia areas as early as Tuesday.

"Hydro One crews have a long standing history of assisting neighbouring utilities when help is needed the most, and this time is no exception," company vice president Len McMillan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, authorities in Washington put out a hyperthermia alert, saying the heat index -- which is the thermometer reading adjusted to take humidity into account -- in the afternoon was 101 F degrees.

"Cooling centers" remained opened in many urban areas as refuges for those -- notably the elderly -- unable to cope without air conditioning, and at least one major supermarket chain gave away free ice to all comers.

The District of Columbia's emergency management agency suggested going to a movie or a museum in order to beat the heat. "Bottom line is, stay (as) hydrated and cool as possible," it said on its Twitter feed.
In Baltimore, Maryland, the local Baltimore Gas and Electric utility said it had deployed 1,000 trucks to restore power to 306,000 customers in and around the major port city.

Storm debris was gone from major highways in the region, but downed branches and trees still littered secondary routes.

Responsible for the extreme early-summer weather has been a high pressure area parked over the southeastern United States -- the same slow-moving weather system blamed for a fatal wildfire in Colorado earlier in the week.

Firefighters supported by water bombers managed over the weekend to contain much of the Waldo Canyon inferno that killed three people, destroyed nearly 350 residences and left many hundreds homeless.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, speaking on Sunday on CNN, said it felt as if the worst was over. "But we also know that Mother Nature will be fickle out here," he added. "We're keeping ourselves very alert."

President Barack Obama visited Colorado on Friday to see the devastation firsthand and to praise "the courage and determination and professionalism" of those fighting the flames.

life at munnar

Munnar is a hill station in Kerala and in southern India. Munnar is located on the Western Ghats, situated in the Idukki.
The name Munnar is believed to mean "three rivers", referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Madhurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers. The town has shared a strong cultural link with Tamil Nadu.


The Munnar town is in Kannan Devan Hills ( KDH ) Village in Devikulam taluk and is the largest panchayat in the Idukki district having an area measuring nearly 557 km².
The nearest major railway stations are at Ernakulam and Aluva (approximately 120 km by road). The nearest airport is Cochin International Airport, which is 140 km away.     



  
   
 

Alternative route for Sethusamudram project not feasible: Government tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The government today told the Supreme Court that a high-level committee in its report has suggested that an alternative alignment other than the mythological Ram Sethu for the Sethusamudram project was not economically and ecologically feasible.

However, Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman submitted before a bench comprising justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad that the Union Cabinet was yet to consider and take a decision on the report prepared by the committee headed by eminent environmentalist R K Pachauri.

The bench gave the government eight weeks' time to apprise it about the future development of the project.

Nariman said that the Pachauri committee considered the issue of alternative alignment but concluded that it was not "economically and ecologically feasible".

In its report, the committee dealt with the issue of risk management and arrived at a finding that an oil spill would cause risk to the ecosystem.

The case relating to Ram Sethu came under judicial scrutiny due to a batch of petitions filed in the apex court against the ambitious Sethusamudram project, whose execution allegedly could damage the mythological bridge.

The Sethusamudram project is aimed at constructing a shorter navigational route around India's southern tip by breaching the mythological Ram Sethu, said to have been built by Lord Rama's army of monkeys and bears to the demon king Ravana's kingdom of Lanka.

As per the Sethusamudram project, the shipping channel is proposed to be 30 metres wide, 12 metres deep and 167 kilometres long.

UN designates Western Ghats as world heritage site

New York: India's 1600-km long Western Ghats mountain chain, which has forests older than the Himalaya mountains, has been added to list of world heritage sites by the United Nations.

The Western Ghats mountain chain is recognised as one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity. The chain's forests, which are older than the Himalaya mountains influence the Indian monsoon weather pattern.

The mountain chain, which starts at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and runs through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, was added to the World Heritage list by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

A historic opera house in Germany, a border town and its fortifications in Portugal, and 18 interconnected lakes in Chad are some other sites that have been added to the list.

The Margravial Opera House Bayreuth in Germany, which was built in the 18th century, is considered a masterpiece of Baroque theatre architecture. It is the only entirely preserved example of its type where an audience of 500 can experience Baroque court opera culture and acoustics authentically, as its auditorium retains its original materials.

The border town of Elvas and its fortifications in Portugal, was also added to the list, as the site represents the largest bulwarked dry ditch system in the world. While Elvas contains remains dating back to the 10th century, its fortification began when Portugal regained independence in 1640.

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and is responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List.

Pakistan says Mumbai attackers were helped by 40 Indians: Report

Islamabad: Days after terror suspect Zabiuddin Ansari's revelations about the Mumbai attacks being controlled and facilitated from Karachi, Pakistani authorities have claimed 40 Indian nationals were involved in the terrorist incident.

"Our information is that there were at least 40 Indian nationals who helped the attackers. We want India to come clean on this," an unnamed official of Pakistan's Foreign Office was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

Pakistan will "push" India to share details of the recent arrest of Ansari alias Abu Jundal when the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries meet in Delhi this week, the report said.

The two-day talks between the Foreign Secretaries, beginning on July 4, are expected to be dominated by Ansari's arrest and subsequent claims by Indian authorities, the report further said.

The Foreign Office official said Pakistan will ask India to share details of Ansari's arrest.

"India has yet not shared anything with us about this arrest," the official said.

Pakistan had been saying that the Mumbai attacks would not have been possible without help from Indian nationals, he claimed.

The official further claimed Indian authorities had "always been reluctant to give us the full picture" of the investigation into the Mumbai attacks.

"When a Pakistani judicial commission visited India to collect evidence, it was stopped from cross-examining the witnesses," he claimed.

Pakistan could take "decisive action" if it is provided details of the investigation, the official claimed.

"We cannot act on hearsay," he said.

Indian officials have maintained that an agreement finalised between Delhi and Islamabad before the commission's visit made it very clear that the panel would not be allowed to cross-examine witnesses.

Ansari, an Indian national, was arrested after being deported from Saudi Arabia.

Indian officials have said that Ansari was travelling on a Pakistani passport.

Ansari has confessed to investigators that he was in a control room in Karachi from where the 10 terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks were controlled, Home Minister P Chidambaram has said.

Pakistani authorities arrested seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, after the Mumbai attacks but their trial has stalled for over a year now.
 

Revolt in Japan ruling party, government keeps majority

Tokyo: Japanese political heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, one of the key figures behind the ruling party's rise to power, led dozens of lawmakers out of the party on Monday, but the government will retain its majority in the powerful lower house of parliament.

Indeed, the departure of Mr Ozawa, 70, and his followers could put Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in a better position to consolidate control on his fractious party and cut deals with the opposition, whose help he needs to pass laws since they control the upper house, which can block bills.

"I'm sure Noda has the champagne on ice. He'll be happy to see the back of Ozawa," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asia studies at Temple University's Japan campus.

"Ozawa has a lot of baggage and has just been a headache for the party and Noda in particular."

Mr Ozawa, known as the "Shadow Shogun" for his backroom deals, and his followers quit over a plan to double the sales tax to 10 per cent in three years.
The proposal, aimed at curbing ballooning public debt, was passed by parliament's lower house last week with the help of the opposition. But 57 lawmakers in Mr Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) voted against it, with 15 others abstaining or absent.

Forty lower house members and 12 in the upper chamber - many of them rookies - will resign from the DPJ, an aide told reporters. That would bring down the ruling party's numbers in the 480-member lower house to 249 from 289.

However, Kyodo news agency said later the number had been revised to 50 in total after two lower house MPs said they would not leave the party.

Mr Ozawa, whose smaller party merged with the then-opposition Democrats in 2003, has argued the planned tax hike violates campaign pledges made when the Democrats swept to power three years ago, promising to curb the powerful bureaucracy and cut wasteful spending before raising taxes.

Many people are also wary of raising the tax at a time when Japan's recovery from last year's triple blow of a big earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis is not yet assured.

But Mr Noda, a former finance minister, has insisted it is vital to get Japan's fiscal house in order and find ways to fund the bulging social welfare costs of a fast-ageing population.

"Noda said he risked his political career to raise the sales tax hike, so he did. His message was that he didn't really care about the party more than he cared about raising the sales tax," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.

"I think the (main opposition) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will cooperate in passing through the sales tax hike bills and other budget-related bills through parliament," he added. "This is a positive step forward."

OZAWA'S CLOUT FADING

Japan has suffered a string of credit downgrades in the past two years largely because of its failure to make progress in tackling its debt, already twice its annual economic output and the worst among advanced industrialised countries.

So the tax plan's approval in the lower house marks a milestone for a nation long trapped in a cycle of revolving-door governments and policy gridlock.

Mr Ozawa's defection could well make it easier for Mr Noda to cooperate with the LDP and its one-time partner, the New Komeito party, in getting the legislation through the upper house.

"We can keep the main scenario that tax and social security reform bills will be cleared at the upper house as well," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Securities Japan.

Mr Ozawa, a strategist and master of backroom deals during his four-decade political career, has long been a paradox.

Fans have seen him as a reformer for advocating a bigger global role for Japan and the reduction of bureaucrats' control over policies. Critics paint him as an old-style schemer.

Mr Ozawa was a rising star in the LDP before he bolted in 1993, setting off a chain reaction that briefly ousted the conservative party. He then devoted the next two decades to creating a viable alternative.

But he has suffered setbacks in recent years, including being forced to resign as DPJ leader over a funding scandal before its historic victory in 2009, a win some credited him with orchestrating. He then lost a party leadership race in 2010 and last year, his favoured candidate was defeated by Mr Noda.

Many analysts see his influence now waning, one reason being a generational shift in political circles and voter distaste for the old style politics he came to symbolise.

"Ozawa knows what people want to hear ... (but) it's a popular message by an unpopular man," Mr Kingston said.

Exclusive excerpts from Arjun Singh's autobiography

New Delhi: These are excerpts from the new autobiography by Congress leader Arjun Singh, A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time. The book (Hay House Publishers, India) will be available in bookstore in India starting next week for Rs. 599.

THE DEMOLITION IN AYODHYA AND ITS IMPACT

When I realized that my letters addressed to the prime minister were not even being acknowledged, I felt as if I was banging my head against a wall. A Congress member, who was privileged to become the prime minister of the Indian Republic on the basis of the party's support, seemed to be totally oblivious to all the high principles and ideals that had guided (and continued to guide) the great organization. I then decided that the time had come to speak my mind, whatever be the risk involved.  I sent a letter to Jitendra Prasada (from Uttar Pradesh), political secretary to the prime minister and his 'conscience keeper'. Copies of this letter were circulated to the AICC members, all Congress MPs/MLAs (members of legislative assemblies), all PCCs presidents and CLP leaders. I am not aware of precisely what was the impact of this letter on the Congress top brass, but I do know for certain that it sent ripples through the rank and file of the party. Had such a letter made the rounds in the pre-independence period, the entire party would have focused attention on it. In the present times, when the culture of sycophancy was prevalent and power was all that mattered, there was no apparent reaction, but ultimately the party suffered a serious setback in that its image among the people was besmirched.

• Having reached a dead end with the prime minister, I decided to go to Ayodhya on the night of 3 December 1992 to see the ground realities myself. I was scheduled to board the Lucknow Mail (which was to leave late in the night) to reach the capital of Uttar Pradesh and then take another train to Ayodhya after a break in journey. Mine was not a secret visit, but it was not a publicized one either. I was surprised when, at the New Delhi Railway Station, I received an urgent message from the prime minister that I should call him immediately. This development came as a surprise to me because all my letters had not been even acknowledged and my suggestions and warnings had not been taken seriously by him and now he was suddenly reaching out to me, of all places, on a railway platform! My first reaction was that I would politely inform him that I was going to Ayodhya and would meet him on my return to Delhi. On second thoughts, I felt there was no harm in listening to what he had to say. It was quite a scene at the railway station because the news had already been leaked that the prime minister was trying to get in touch with me. I quickly went to the station master's room and rang up the prime minister (this was the pre-mobile phone era). He was in a very agitated mood and wanted to know why I was going to Ayodhya without his permission or directions from him. I replied that as a minister I was free to travel to any part of the country and I was going to Ayodhya to see for myself what exactly was happening there. He could not straightaway tell me not to go, but wanted to imply this nonetheless. I then told him that my train was about to leave and if there was anything urgent, he should tell me now and that I would come back after two days. He then asked me that to meet the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Kalyan Singh (belonging to the BJP), during my stopover at Lucknow to find out what he was planning to do. I told him that, personally, I had no intention of meeting Kalyan Singh, but if the prime minister so desired, I would meet him and ascertain his plans. He then said: 'Yes, at least on this occasion you be my emissary.'
  
• I reached Delhi on 4 December evening. The next morning I met Narasimha Rao and reported verbatim the details of my conversation with Kalyan Singh. Rao pretended to be listening attentively, but I got the impression that he was not taking the entire issue very seriously. It appeared as if I were describing an inconsequential meeting with some minor functionary. When I had finished, the prime minister asked me: 'What is your own assessment of the situation?' I replied: 'You did not allow me to move out of Lucknow, so what assessment can I give you?' He then tried to probe further: 'No, no, I know you have your sources and I want to know what is the shape of things to come.' I then told him very frankly that the Babri mosque was going to be demolished. This news definitely shook him and he wanted to dispute my claim, but, on second thoughts, he kept quiet. In a somewhat agitated frame of mind, he started thinking aloud about the repercussions if the mosque were to be brought down. He then suddenly exclaimed that this would have 'a very bad impact on the Congress Party', which was stating the obvious. At that point, I could not contain myself and told him bluntly that 'we have turned a blind eye' to the machinations of the BJP and the other pro-Hindutva outfits. He then queried: 'When could this [demolition] happen?' I responded: 'This could happen any day.' Even I did not realize that the Babri mosque would be demolished the very next day (6 December 1992).
  
• On the night of 6 December 1992, the prime minister addressed the nation over national TV and radio. The underlying theme of his speech was that Kalyan Singh did not honour his commitment (to the Supreme Court) to protect the Babri Masjid. I could not ascertain the extent to which he was able to convince the people regarding the Central Government's stand. The demolition came as a great shock to millions of Indians, especially to those belonging to the largest minority community, i.e., Muslims, who had reposed their faith and trust in the party that once had leaders of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, hailed as votaries of secularism. The fact remained that we, as Congressmen, had failed the nation and had to pay a heavy price for our ineptitude in the next general elections held in April-May 1996 when the Congress was voted out of power.

President polls: Team Sangma challenges Pranab Mukherjee's nomination

New Delhi: PA Sangma's team has formally objected to Pranab Mukherjee's nomination as a candidate for President of India. Mr Sangma takes on the former Finance Minister in the election scheduled for July 19.

Bhartrihari Mahatab, a member of Parliament who is serving as Mr Sangma's election agent, has said that Mr Mukherjee holds an office of profit and hence cannot run for President. The post he is referring to is Mr Mukherjee's status as head of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).  Mr Mahatab is a member of Navin Patnaik's BJD party, which has nominated Mr Sangma for President along with Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and the BJP.

The former Finance Minister is the candidate of the ruling UPA; he has also won the endorsement of two Left parties and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which partners with the BJP in Bihar.

The scrutiny of nomination papers has been delayed to tomorrow. Mr Mukherjee is likely to be asked to reply to Team Sangma's complaint.

Mr Mukherjee's election agent is Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal.