Voice of India Ishmeet Singh drowns in Maldives

‘Voice of India’ singing contest winner Ishmeet Singh Tuesday died under mysterious circumstances by “drowning” in a swimming pool in Male, the capital of the Maldives.

The 19-year-old singer hailing from a middle-class of this industrial city of Punjab had gone to Maldives for a promotional event with the music company with which he had a contract.

Relatives at his residence here said the family was informed telephonically by the music company officials that Ishmeet died while swimming in a hotel pool in the Maldives.

“We are too shocked to react. We have no other information so far,” a shocked relative told IANS here while confirming the tragic news.

Relatives, friends and admirers of the singer made a beeline to his house even as his shocked parents tried to come to terms with the untimely tragedy. A pall of gloom descended on the locality.

The singer left here Tuesday morning for Maldives from Mumbai.

Ishmeet had Nov 26 last year won the ‘Voice of India’ singing contest, pipping his closest rival Harshit from Uttar Pradesh in a keen contest. He was given the winner’s trophy by melody queen Lata Mangeshkar.

Supporters of the singer voted heavily for him from Punjab during the finals of the contest. Even though Harshit led the votes tally in most regions of the country, the final count went in Ishmeet’s favour due to heavy voting from Punjab.

“He was like a brother to me. I cannot even comment on what has happened. I cannot believe that he is no longer with us,” fellow contestant Harshit told a TV news channel. Avdhoot Investment

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Home loans get costlier; repayment to rise by over 12%

New Delhi: Home loans just got costlier with the lending institutions on Thursday announcing a hike in their interest rates by an average of 0.75 per cent a move that would increase repayments by a minimum of about Rs 2.5 lakh for a Rs 20-lakh loan.

Consumers would have to fork out over Rs 1,000 more every month as EMI for a loan of Rs 20 lakh, whose repayment is spread over 20 years.

Market leader HDFC today announced a hike of 0.75 per cent in its retail prime lending rate, on which its adjustable home loans are benchmarked, with effect from August 1.

While a few banks already announced rate hikes yesterday, others are expected to soon follow suit.

HDFC said that for new home loan customers, the adjustable rate loans would now be priced at a minimum of 11.75 per cent. Fixed rate remains unchanged at 14 per cent.

On a 11.75 per cent floating rate, the EMI is estimated to work out to around Rs 21,675 per month, up Rs 1,031 from Rs 20,644 at a rate of 11 per cent.

This would result in an overall additional burden of close to Rs 2,50,000 over the 20-year period.

The rates are being revised in the wake of tight monetary measures announced by RBI on Tuesday, when it asked the banks to maintain higher mandatory cash reserves with it and also increased its short-term key lending rates for them. Avdhoot Investment

Simplex Infra net up 94%

Simplex Infrastructures has recorded a 94% increase in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008 at Rs 38.3 crore compared to Rs 19.7 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Turnover increased to Rs 1,017 crore (Rs 594 crore).
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Govt to give Rs 1,000 cr more to LIC for Aam Admi Bima Yojana

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday decided to provide an additional Rs 1,000 crore to Life Insurance Corporation to cover another one crore rural landless households under the social security scheme ‘Aam Admi Bima Yojana’. The scheme will cover an additional one crore landless households by September 30, 2009 under the AABY to provide death and disability benefits to the head of the family or earning members of the family, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The scheme, which is being implemented through the LIC, was launched on October 2 last year. The union government bears 50 per cent of the premium of Rs 200 per year per person and the state governments pays the rest of the premium on behalf of the beneficiaries.

Besides, the Cabinet also approved giving Rs 500 crore towards Social Security Fund maintained by LIC to provide 50 per cent share of premium Janshree Bima Yojana for all women self help groups credit linked to banks. Dasmunsi said the decision will facilitate providing life and permanent disability cover to 2.5 lakh women SHGs under the scheme by March 31, 2009.

Janshree Bima Yojana was launched in August 2000 to provide life insurance protection to the rural and urban poor under various vocational groups. The premium under the scheme is Rs 200 per member per annum, of which 50 per cent premium is paid by beneficiaries of the scheme and the rest pitched in by the government through the fund maintained by LIC. At present, there are 45 vocational or occupational groups covered under the scheme. Avdhoot Investment

Bharti DTH service launched in Gurgaon

More choice to the consumers at competitive price points is in the offing in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment as Bharti Telemedia, the DTH licence holder company of Bharti Airtel, has entered the space with a ‘test-launch’ of its services.
According to sources, Bharti has seeded about 80-100 set top boxes of its DTH services to select homes across Gurgaon for the test-phase, which will be followed by the nationwide commercial launch sometime in August-September.

The entry, according to experts, is likely to lower the entry-level price for DTH subscription, currently Rs 2,490 (for Dish TV) and Rs 2,674 (for Tata Sky).

Between the two existing DTH players—Dish TV and Tata Sky—the market has over 5.3 million subscribers. Both the companies continue to add about 100,000 subscribers on a monthly basis.

To avail the DTH services, the consumers have to shell out for the set top box (basic hardware required to access the DTH services) and then opt for the monthly subscriptions (differ from each DTH subscribers). The monthly subscription starts with Rs 160 and Rs 175 for Dish TV and Tata Sky respectievly.

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18 live bombs found in Surat

Even as Ahmedabad crawled back to normalcy, life in the glittering diamond city of Surat came to a grinding halt after police recovered as many as 18 live bombs from different areas on Tuesday.

In a significant development, Surat administration has advised malls, schools and colleges, theatres as well as textile and diamond units to shut shop on Wednesday. The police will intensify combing and patrol in the city. The commissioner of police RMS Brar has also advised people of Surat to avoid venturing out.

A large number of bombs were found in the Varachha Road area of Surat, considered to be a diamond cutting and trading hub.

Six bombs were found in Varaccha’s mini diamond bazaar, one from Mahidharpura, also known as Mota Heera Bazaar’, three from Katargaam, two from AK Road, three from four-km long Varaccha flyover, two near Labheshwar Police station and one from Patel Bhavan.

It may be recalled that on Monday, one bomb was found and defused and on Sunday two explosive laden WagonR’s were also found in the city. Explosives, shrapnels and timing devices were found in the cars bearing fake number plates.

Police had yesterday released a sketch of a suspect who might have parked the car in the Heerabaugh area. The sketch was based on the description given by a watchman of a near-by building who had seen the man parking the vehicle.

Meanwhile, diamond trading activity in diamond city of Surat today came to a grinding halt especially in Varachha and Mahidharpura areas where majority of diamond trading houses and cutting and polishing units are located.

Though diamond and cutting polishing units continued with their work, diamond trading houses in Varachha and Mahidharpura remained closed for the day following dozens of live bombs recovered by the policy today in Surat.

“It could be possible that diamond industry is being targeted,” said C P Vanani, president, Surat Diamond Association (SDA).

Considering the increased threat to business activity in the city, industry players have demanded more police force for the city. “The population in Surat has increased ferom 25 lakh to 40 lakh as compared to this there has not been any substantial rise in the police force available in the city. We have already intimated our demand of more police force to states home ministry. Soon, we will be approaching Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Centre government asking for more security forces,” said Pravin Nanavati, former president of Surat Diamond Association.
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Parliamentary probe into cash-for-vote scam to begin tomorrow

The Parliamentary probe into the alleged ‘cash-for-vote’ scam would begin tomorrow but it would not be able to seek evidence from members of the Rajya Sabha who have been named in the complaint.

The Enquiry Committee headed by senior Congress member V Kishore Chandra Deo will have its first meeting tomorrow.

Constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee last week, the seven-member committee is expected to decide on the procedure and modalities to be followed for the task which has to be completed by August 11.

Though it would be a preliminary meeting, the committee is expected collect evidence from the three BJP MPs — Ashok Argal, Fagan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora — as also the television channel which conducted the sting operation, Lok Sabha sources said.

The Committee could also look into the original video footage and make transcript as part of its enquiry, they said.

In their petition seeking a probe into the charge that attempt was made to bribe them to get their support in the trust vote, the three MPs are believed to have named SP General Secretary Amar Singh and Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to Congress President. Both members of Rajya Sabha had denied the charge.

However, sources said that the committee would not be able to collect evidence from members who belonged to the Rajya Sabha and if such a scenario, then the complaint would be referred to an appropriate committee of the Upper House.

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Highlights of RBI Monetary Policy review

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor today presented the first quarter review of annual statement on Monetary Policy for the Year 2008-09.

Some of the key highlights are as follows:

- The RBI hiked repo rate by 50 basis points from 8.5 per cent to 9.00 per cent.

- Cash Reserve Ratio to be raised by 25 basis points to 9.0 per cent with effect from the fortnight beginning August 30, 2008.

- Bank Rate kept unchanged.

- Reverse Repo Rate under LAF kept unchanged.

- GDP growth projection for 2008-09 revised from the range of 8.0-8.5 per cent to around 8.0 per cent, barring domestic or external shocks.

- While the policy actions would aim to bring down the current intolerable level of inflation to a tolerable level of below 5.0 per cent as soon as possible and around 3.0 per cent over the medium-term, at this juncture a realistic policy endeavour would be to bring down inflation from the current level of about 11.0-12.0 per cent to a level close to 7.0 per cent by March 31, 2009.

- While there are early signs of some moderation in money supply and deposit growth, they continue to expand above the indicative projections warranting continuous vigilance and appropriate and timely policy responses.

- In view of the evolving environment of heightened uncertainty in global markets and the dangers of potential spillovers to domestic markets, liquidity management will continue to receive priority in the hierarchy of policy objectives over the period ahead.

- Barring the emergence of any adverse and unexpected developments in various sectors of the economy, assuming that capital flows are effectively managed, and keeping in view the current assessment of the economy including the outlook for growth and inflation, the overall stance of monetary policy in 2008-09 will broadly continue to be:

- To ensure a monetary and interest rate environment that accords high priority to price stability, well-anchored inflation expectations and orderly conditions in financial markets while being conducive to continuation of the growth momentum.

- To respond swiftly on a continuing basis to the evolving constellation of adverse international developments and to the domestic situation impinging on inflation expectations, financial stability and growth momentum, with both conventional and unconventional measures, as appropriate.

- To emphasise credit quality as well as credit delivery, in particular, for employment-intensive sectors, while pursuing financial inclusion.
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RBI measure signals banks to moderate credit growth: FinMin

The Finance Ministry today said the hike in repo rate and cash reserve requirement is a signal to banks to moderate credit growth to contain inflation.

“The government expects that the measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India today, in continuation of the measures already taken over the last two months, will help in moderating and containing inflation,” the Ministry said in a statement today.

The RBI’s decision to increase repo rate by 50 basis points and cash reserve requirement by 25 basis points will put pressure on margins of banks, who may pass on the cost to borrowers. The increase in cash reserve requirement impounds funds available with the banks. The repo rate is the rate at which banks are allowed to access funds from the RBI for liquidity adjustment.

“The increase in the CRR and the Repo rate is a signal to the banks that credit growth must be moderated, having regard to the need to moderate aggregate demand,” the statement added.

It advised the banks to carefully appraise loan requests and ensure that adequate credit is available to the productive sectors.

Yesterday, in its first quarter review, the RBI had noted that “potential inflationary pressure from international food and energy prices are likely to remain so for some time.”

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