Share market freezes again Sensex Down

Banking and Monitory regulation tightening in US and China has caused global panic in the share market. The markets all over has reacted sharply to the news.

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Nifty slipped below 5,000 as the market opened today in morning. The selling pressure which had started based on statements on banking and economy from the China and US. In the early hours the sensex lost 344 points and Nifty 105 Points. The China may further tighten its monetary policy after the double-digit growth in the last quarter. President Obama proposed new limits on the size and trading practices of big banks.

All 30 Sensex counters closed in reds on Thursday. Overall market breadth being extremely negative with 2,357 declines against only 557 gainers on the BSE. The volumes were high at Rs6,354.78 crore from Rs6,185.95 crore from previous day signifying rush to offload the stocks as early as possible.

FIIs are booking profit to pull out money from market ahead of the budget and may reinvest in upcoming mega follow-on-public offer (FPO) by the largest power generation firm, NTPC, which opens on February 3. Another factor is of the strengthening dollar and euro which acted as a dampener on the already weak sentiment.

Analysts said China, after its stupendous 10.7% GDP growth in the fourth quarter, will have to cool down its overheated economy through monetary and fiscal policy measures. This led to FIIs resorting to panic selling. Selling was across-the-board as all sectoral indices ended in the red between 5.15% and 1.42%.

Poor results of engineering giant L&T added to the negative sentiments.L&T is the top loser among the Sensex stocks, having shed 4.2% at Rs 1460. The engineering giant had lost 6% on Thursday. ONGC also disappointed market with its numbers and lost 2% of its value

Suzlon, JP Associates, Tata Power, ABB, Siemens, DLF, IDFC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Power, Tata Motors, SAIL, Jindal Steel and Hindalco were the other losers. The shares of FACT, NMDC, ITI and STC India fell 5% each. They had become favourite on the ce of dis-investment news.

The US markets earlier witnessed biggest second-day drop since June reacting to the statement of the President on increased bank regulation in US & tighter monetary policy in China. The Dow Jones lost 213 points or 2% at 10,390. The NASDAQ was down 25.5 points or 1.12% at 2,265 and the S&P 500 was down 21.5 points or 1.9% at 1,117.

Merinews.com

Adani Power becomes first CDM certified Project by UNFCCC

India’s private power projects are committed to Clean Development. Adani Power project has achieved a certification of its first super critical technology based upcoming project at Mundra from United Nations body authorized under Kyoto Protocol .

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Adani Power Ltd.(APL) has become the first mega power project to get registered as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project by the United Nations body authorized under Kyoto Protocol to register such projects after elaborate and stringent scrutiny.

This certification is awarded for two power plants of 660 mw each are being set up by APL at Mundra in Gujarat with super-critical technology. With this technology, coal consumption is lower and 10% more power is generated compared to the conventional technology. This criteria qualified the project to get the CDM certificate. The plant is expected to be commissioned during 2010-11.

APL got the certificate during the 51st executive board meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held at Copenhagen, Denmark in the first week of December 2009. The committee members reviewed the replies and various documents submitted by Adani Power during the meeting and approved this project as a CDM project.

Under the guidelines of the UNFCCC under the ACM013 methodology applicable to this project, the two units at Mundra will be eligible to generate 18,39,560 carbon emission reduction (CER) per annum for 10 years from the first year of generation. The current trading price of CER is at 12 Euro per CER. Thus APL will be able to generate revenues of Rs140 crore to Rs150 crore annually out of it.

The process of awarding CDM certificate is multistage evaluation process involving approvals from the Ministry of Environment & Forest in India, evaluation by Independent Validator of the Project Concept Note and Project Design Document, followed by review of Independent Validator’s report by Committee Members of UNFCCC with final queries being raised by UNFCCC committee members.

The super-critical coal fired power plants attract high capital investment compared to the sub-critical coal fired power generation. But the enhanced plant efficiency reduces emissions of CO2 and all other pollutants by consuming less fuel per unit of electricity generated. The efficiency improvements and thereby reduction in CO2 Green House Gas (GHG) using super-critical technology leads to registration of such Thermal Power Project as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project and earning of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) through the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol.

APL is setting-up 9,240 MW thermal power generation capacity; 4,620 MW at Mundra, Gujarat, 3300 MW at Tiroda, Maharashtra and 1320 MW at Kawai, Rajasthan. Out of this 8,000 MW capacity is based on environment friendly Super-critical technology.

The Adani Power stock has been trading in the range of 100 – 104 below the offer price. But the investment advisors have been rating this share above RPL. The volume of trading increased on Wednesday. The total traded quantity was 801528 compared to 2 week average of 937850.

Merinews 

SIT inching to Question Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

The Special Investing Team constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the post-Godhra communal mayhem in Gujarat is moving close to investigate the Chief Minister Narendra Modi. One of his ministers Maya Kodnani had to resign earlier when her name came up in Naroda Patiya Case.

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Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into 2002 riot cases appears to be moving closer to investigating the actions of chief minister Narendra Modi during the period of violence. The SIT had lodged a complaint on Tuesday with the Supreme Court that certain relevant documents relating to probe were not being given by the state government.

A bench of justices DK Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam directed Gujarat government to hand over all records of post Godhra riots including the transcripts of an allegedly inflammatory speech made by Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the Godhra train carnage.

The court rejected the state government's argument that the documents sought by SIT may not have relevance to investigations. "If SIT thinks Modi’s speeches were relevant for the purpose of the probe, why wouldn’t you give those to it?’’ the court asked.

The SIT headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan was constituted under the directives of the Supreme court on March 26, 2008. The other members of the team were former DG of UP Police C D Satpathy and three IPS officers from Gujarat- Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia. The nine cases SIT is investigating include incidents of Gulbarg Society, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya and Sardarpura.

SIT on 1st May, 2009 had filed a chargesheet in a local court here in Naroda Gam case in which BJP leader and former state minister Maya Kodnani is one of the prime accused.

The charges had been framed under IPC Sections 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy, 302 for murder, 307 for attempt to murder, 395 and 397 for loot and 143 to 147 for rioting. Maya Kodnani, State Minister for Women and Child Welfare had to resign from the ministry.

In November, 2009 a key witness Imtiyaz Saeedkhan Pathan in the Gulbarg massacre case had told a special court that chief minister Narendra Modi had abused former MP Ahsan Jafri when he called him for help on February 28, 2002. Sixty-nine people were killed in Gulbarg Society including Jafri. A young Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, also went missing from his house, the story of which became a Bollywood film Parzania. This film was banned in Gujarat.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam said the apex court could also examine the idea of reconstituting SIT in the wake of a recent judgement of the court in Sheikh Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which it had passed certain adverse remarks against Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri. She is one of the members of SIT.

The bench also declined to grant five months time sought by SIT to submit its reports and asked the probe team to come out with its report to the court by April 30. Earlier the team had to submit its finding report by 31st December 2009.

Merinews

UK to be tough on Marriage for Visa

British government is worried to check on the people opting bogus marriage route in UK for visa. The present government has taken several measures to curb undesired work force entering the country.

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Immigration via marriage is once again under scanner in Britain after the British Broadcasting Corporation aired the bogus marriage registration films last week. With the general election due next spring and the rise in unemployment to the government may try to revoke similar plans of 2005 where foreigners needed permission to get married in the UK.

Thursday night the BBC aired an undercover investigation on violation of the system on prime time. The film showed the registrar’s office in the London where a Pakistani man was applying to marry a Lithuanian woman. Neither spoke much English, let alone each other’s language. The former disappeared the moment the superintendent registrar confronted the couple. The film also exhibited a gang in Birmingham with a significant number of people of sub-continental origin.

In 2005 the Home office had made mandatory for the foreigners to take permission to get married in the UK. The stand was to deny the permission if the person did not enjoy right of residence. But later the House of the Lords ruled against this calling it a breach of human rights.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas said the government regretted the Lords’ ruling and was looking at the law once again. The reduction in the cases of bogus marriages after stipulation of the act in 2005 till 2008 is a strong reason for reconsideration.

More than 3,500 such cases were registered in 2004. It dropped down to below 500 in 2005. In 2008, 344 cases were reported by marriage registrars. In the 11 months up to November 2009, the figure had increased to 529.

Number of unemployed have crossed 2.4 million due to slow down and global recession. Worried on economic front the Labour government has been taking steps to discourage the immigration of less skilled workers from non EU countries.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Home Office has been suggestions to filter the non required workers entering via various channels. Revision of post study work route was one such step. The list of skill requirement was also revised in September 2008 by MAC.

The list mentions occupations and skills that are in short supply in UK, which enables employers to recruit skilled workers from India and other countries outside the European Union in 2008.

The revised list included skilled chefs, secondary school teachers of Maths and Sciences, consultants and senior specialist nurses, some engineering occupations, including civil and chemical engineers. but was harsh on the IT sector the strong hold of the Indian talent. Non-EU workers can only be allowed to work in the shortage occupations

The government earlier had also introduced qualifying conditions for granting Post Study work route under part of Tier 1 of the points-based scheme to attract and retain highly-qualified and skilled workers. In the last academic year, 42,000 students from outside the European Economic Area obtained the visas to stay on after obtaining a degree.

A survey for the UK Border Agency of 1,564 graduates given the visas found about half worked in professional occupations, and "significant" numbers were in less skilled employment. The argument was that they might be taking away the job opportunities of British nationals.

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Merinews.Com

Giving notice to marry at a Register Office

Following are the excerpts from the registrar's site to provide information to those seeking marriage in U.K.

http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/community_and_living/marriage/getting_married_in_the_united_kingdom/giving_notice_to_marry_at_a_register_office.htm

If you are subject to immigration control, you and the person you plan to marry will need to give notice to marry at a designated Register Office.

All the Registration Offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland are designated Registration Offices. 76 Register Offices in England and Wales have been selected as designated Register offices. A list of these 76 offices is available on the General Register Office website and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate website.

In England and Wales, both of you must have at least seven days residence in a registration district before you can give your notices to marry. These notices can be given at any designated Register Office, but both of you must attend together. You will need to bring evidence of your names, addresses, ages, nationalities, and if either of you has been married before, your marital status.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, notice to marry can be given by post, so you will not normally have to attend in person.

You must surrender your certificate of approval to the Registrar when you given your notice to marry.

In England and Wales, once your notice to marry has been accepted, the wedding can take place at any Register Office or approved premises, or at any church or religious building registered for marriage in the district of residence where you or the person you plan to marry live.

After you have given notice to marry, you have to wait 15 full days before your wedding can take place (14 days in Scotland and Northern Ireland).

You will need to make an appointment to give notice at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Register Office,

1 Spring Terrace

    Richmond

       Surrey

           TW9 1LW.

Please telephone for an appointment on 020 8940 2853 or 020 8940 2651, or email: registeroffice@richmond.gov.uk

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ALBA Collectives of Finland joins SEWA to promote HANSIBA

Self-Employed Women's Association based in Ahmedabad and Alba Collective, a global circle of prominent professional women have teamed up to launch the traditional craft work of Gujarat's rural women, in the world of high fashion.

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'Fashion Human Rights’ is all set to give a jet start to the craft work of the women artisans of Banskantha district in Gujarat in the international market. This project to launch the the traditional craft work of Gujarat's rural women, in the world of high fashion is in Collaboration of Alba Collective Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a women's trade union based in Ahmedabad .

The Alba Collective is a Finland based organisation that aims to promote the autonomy and financial stability of poor women craft workers around the world. They have been working along with SEWA in India. Alba is working to persuade fashion houses and established designers to work with rural women artisans so that they can fetch higher returns for their work.

A two day long workshop at Radhanpur was attended by 10 Alba members from Finland and around 70 women artisans from Banaskantha district. These artisans aged from mid twenties till the nineties. These participants exchanged their skills and understanding of the global fashion market. The objective of the workshop was to familiarise the women artisans with ideas from the world of high fashion, and train them in incorporating those ideas into their own craft work.

The rural artisans with different classic types of craft work or traditional embroidery were taught about quality, design and colour combinations popular in the international fashion market. Alba Collective would come up with a 'swatch book' to preserve and show case the exquisite craft work.

Creative Design and Business Development Consultant of Alba come here to understand the strengths of these women artisans and to educate them about the trends and colours of the fashion market. These artisans get trained in their family through hands on work. Most of them have never gone to school. Alba is building various business models to cater innovative design engagement in the social sector, involving design houses and web–based marketing tools in the luxury goods industry to promote the products in affluent classes.

Merinews.Com

Gujarat IAS officer arrested in earthquake rehabilitation land scam case.

The arrest of senior IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, municipal commissioner of Bhavnagar, in a Rs70 crore land scam in land allotment scam to earthquake affected people of Kutch has shocked the state bureaucracy

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Gujarat cadre IAS officer Pradip Sharma  was arrested in a Rs 70 Crore land scam involving irregularities in Kutch earthquake rehabilitation after the natural disaster of 2001. He is brother Additional DGP Kuldeep Sharma

The officer was arrested in connection with a case registered against him in Bhuj, CID crime chief VV Rabari said. The wholesale grain market building in Bhuj had collapsed after the earthquake on January 26, 2001. To rehabilitate the victims state government had allotted 17 acres of land on the foothills of Bhujiya hillock to the traders of Bheed Bazaar.

To get this land victims were asked to procure a G-5 certificate from the district collector of Kutch before they could lay claim to the land. The scam took place between May 2003 to June 2008 when Sharma was Kutch Collector.

But many traders, who were not even affected by the calamity, managed to get land by presenting fake certificates. A complaint in this regard was filed by Henry Chako, Kutch secretary of an NGOAll India Anti Corruption and Crime Prevention council in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhuj in August 2007. The NGO filed another complaint in Gujarat High Court in January 2008.

Following this, the court had ordered the CID Crime of Bhuj to probe the matter.In the complaint filed by the NGO nobody's name was mentioned. But the CID, in its prime facie inquiry, identified the then collector Sharma, and three office bearers of the Nav Nirman Trust -its president Arvind Thackar, joint general secretary Prabodh Thackar and executive committee member Shambhu Popat as the offender.
Arvind Thaker is a former president of Bhuj Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Pravin Kothari and Shambhu Popat are office bearers of the Bhuj Wholesale Market Association 

The CID investigation revealed that while many beneficiaries had certificates that did not have the signatures and stamp of the collector, there were others who were not even traders. According to the findings of the NGO only 11 of the 400 people who had the certificates were genuine beneficiaries.

Pradeep Sharma was promoted from the state civil service (SCS) to IAS in 1994.

He has served as the deputy commissioner of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, municipal commissioner of Jamnagar, collector of Bhuj, collector Rajkot and was at present posted as the municipal commissioner of Bhavnagar.

Sharma's efforts in removing encroachments and beautifying the city were appreciated by the common people of Bhavnagar. Sharma is known among his IAS brethrens as an aggressive but innovative officer. His aggressiveness was not liked by many of the staff members in Bhavnagar Municiple Corporation. That is why when the news of his arresst brokeout some of the BMC staff distributed sweets. His most unpopular advise was for the aging less efficient staff to take VRS. 

Merinews Link

 

Ranji's Legendary Bat Stolen from Jamnagar Palace

The cricket bat of Maharaja Ranjitsinhji which mesmerised cricket fans across the world from 1890 till the early years of 20th century has been stolen. He was the legendary cricketer after whom India's famous domestic first-class cricket championship, the Ranji Trophy, is named.
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The cricket bat of the legendary cricketer Maharaja Ranjitinhji of Jamnagar after whom India's famous domestic first-class cricket championship, the Ranji Trophy, is named has been stolen along with other antiques from the Jam Bungalow Palace in Jamnagar


K.S. Ranjitsinhji (1872-1933) was the ruler or Jam Saheb of princely state Jamnagar. He played test cricket for England, and is considered to be the inventor of the leg glance. He was called to be one of the greatest batsman of cricket from 1890s and 1900s

According to the report filed with police by the care taker of the place exact details of the items stolen is not known, but antiques worth Rs. four to five crores are missing.

The palace was unused for years so the exact time of crime is not known. Ex royals live in Pilot Bunglow, near the palace.

The present owner of the bungalow -- Shatrushalyasinhji, who is the great-grandson of Ranjitsinhji and is a descendant of Ranjitsinji, lives in Mumbai. He is aged 70 years. Police said most of the things stolen by the thieves belonged to Ranjitsinhji and have antique value. Some of the treasured paintings from the royal collection included the works of Rembrandt and Picasso. These could also be among the list of stolen artefacts.

The theft was discovered on Monday when one Jyotiben a resident of ‘Pilot Bunglow’ informed palace care taker Krishnasinh Jadeja about the broken windows. The police says that the palace lacked proper security and its precious artworks were poorly preserved.

The robbers broke into the palace through the glass windows and carefully took away things. "They broke the locks of the palace in such a manner that the security guards, too, did not notice it," the care taker said. The police suspects that there could have been 3-4 thieves involved in the incident, as food packets and snacks were also found inside the bungalow during inspection of crime scene.

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3 Idiots Recognize Small Innovators

Chetan Bhagat tried to create a controversy over credit in 3 Iditos, but the small contributors to the film from the remote araes of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are thrilled because of the recognition given to them by the producer.

The producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra of the film '3 Idiots' did not forget to recognise Mohammad Idris of Hasanpur Kalan near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and Sheikh Jahangir, a painter from Jalgaon, Maharashtra whose grass root innovations are used in the film. They both were given cheques of Rs 10,000 each. These innovations were introduced by National Innovation Foundation to the film producers.

The team of '3 idiots' is currently on a tour to celebrate the overwhelming success of the film and were in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on Sunday. Amir's relations with Gujarat were tense earlier because of his stand on Narmada and Godhra issue. But with time all seems to have been forgotten, however, while talking to media the entire team refused to take any question on the controversial matters.

Idris had developed a 'cycle operated horse shaver' in 2005 and Jahangir had developed a 'Scooter mounted flour mill & washing machine'. Both the innovations have been shown in the film as a part of the innovations. Both the machines have been patented by these innovators with the help of the National Innovation Foundation.

Mohammad Idris had studied up to fifth standard and then started his career as a barber, his family profession. He later shifted to the horse clipping profession, as it was better paying. Now, this has brought a national fame to him.

He is clipping horses for 20 years now. Earlier he was using clippers which were expensive to maintain. He learnt to maintain them and gradually developed to idea of upgrading it to an automatic mode. He has developed two models motor operated bicycle operated.

He has got it patented through NIF and is selling his products in areas like Pilibhit and Bareilly.

Merinews Link :
http://www.merinews.com/article/3-idiots-recognises-innovation-pays-inventors/15793121.shtml