There will be no arbitrariness in tax matters: PM

Against the backdrop of the controversy over Vodafone tax issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent out clear signals to foreign investors saying there will be "no arbitrariness" in tax matters.

"We want the world to know that India treats everyone fairly and reasonably and there will be no arbitrariness in tax matters," he told Hindustan Times in an interview.

The statement assumes significance in the context of a raging controversy over the Income Tax amendment to re-open tax demands with retrospective effect from companies like Vodafone over acquisition of companies having operations in India but registered abroad to avoid taxes.

The amendment and another provision GAAR (General Anti Tax Avoidance Rules) have been blamed for the reluctance of foreign investors to invest in India.

"The India Growth Story is in tact. We will continue to work, as we have been doing for eight years, to keep the story going," he said.

Singh said he wanted to show his government would be fair and that he was keen to cut the red tape.

"We will work towards improving the response time of government to business proposals, cut down infructuous procedures and make India a more business-friendly place," he said," he said.

Singh said "it is necessary that we change the discourse from a critique of an open economy to a critique of what is needed to make an open economy work better for the welfare of the people."

The Prime Minister also called for a "political consensus" on some policies acknowledging  that there are "genuine differences in opinion".

"More important is that we need political consensus in the government on some policies. These are genuine differences in opinion. So, in a democracy, consensus building is the key to long-term economic success and we are steadily moving ahead in doing that," he said.

Virus may knock millions off the Internet on Monday

About a quarter-million computer users around the world are at risk of losing Internet access on Monday because of malicious software at the heart of a hacking scam that the US authorities shut down in November, 2011.

Some blogs and news reports hyped the risk of an outage, warning of a potential "blackout" and describing the Alureon malware as the "Internet Doomsday" virus.

Yet experts said only a tiny fraction of computer users were at risk, and Internet providers would be on call to quickly restore service. They said they considered the threat to be small compared with more-prevalent viruses such as Zeus and SpyEye, which infect millions of PCs and are used to commit financial fraud.

As of this week, about 245,000 computers worldwide were still infected by Alureon and its brethren, according to security firm Deteque. That included 45,355 computers in the United States.

The viruses were designed to redirect Internet traffic through rogue DNS servers controlled by criminals, according to the FBI. DNS servers are computer switchboards that direct Web traffic.

When authorities took down the rogue servers, a federal judge in New York ordered that temporary servers be kept in place while the victims' machines were repaired. The temporary servers will shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Monday, which means the infected PCs that have not been fixed will no longer be able to connect to the Internet.

Some US Internet providers, including AT&T Inc and Time Warner Cable, have made temporary arrangements so that their customers will be able to access the Internet using the address of the rogue DNS servers.

Information on how to identify and clean up infections can be found on a website that a group of security firms and other experts set up: www.dcwg.org.

"It's a very easy one to fix," said Gunter Ollmann, vice president of research for security company Damballa. "There are plenty of tools available."

Many of the machines that remain infected are probably not in active use since most victims were notified of the problem, said security expert Johannes Ullrich, who runs the Internet Storm Center, which monitors Web threats.

The United States has charged seven people for orchestrating the worldwide Internet fraud. Six were arrested in Estonia, while the seventh, who was living in Russia, is still at large. Tallinn has so far extradited two of the men to New York where they appeared in Manhattan federal court.

Delhi wakes up to pre-monsoon showers

New Delhi: The much awaited rain has brought some relief to the national capital that has been reeling under high temperatures. Parts of Delhi woke up to pre-monsoon showers this morning and the Met department has predicted rain and thundershowers over the weekend. 

The rains could bring down the temperatures to a minimum of 29 and 28 degree Celsius.

The delayed southwest monsoon also finally reached Himachal Pradesh. Showers lashed capital Shimla, Dharamsala, Manali and other towns, leading to a sharp fall in temperature across the state. The Met department has warned of heavy rains in next 48 hours.


However down south, the past month has been traumatic for farmers in north and central Karnataka. Many parts of the state have not recorded any rainfall during the first half of the monsoon. The state and the central governments have released over Rs. 300cr rupees as relief fund towards drought affected farmers.

Assamese poet Hiren Bhattacharyya passes away

Guwahati: Award-winning Assamese poet Hiren Bhattacharyya, 80, died of lung infection at a private hospital in Guwahati on Wednesday.

Bhattacharyya, popularly known as Hiruda, was undergoing treatment at Dispur Hospital since June 14. 

He breathed his last breath at 11.20 a.m. on Wednesday.

Known as the "Poet of Love and Sunshine", Bhattacharyya was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 and Assam Valley Literary Award in 2000.

He penned at least 11 collections of poetry and books on nursery rhymes.

Many of his poems have been turned into songs by renowned Assamese singers.

His most popular collection, "Sugandhi Pokhila" ("Fragrant Butterflies"), has been translated into English.

ATM for blind launched in Sharjah

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: In a first in the Middle East as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a teller machine for blind and visually impaired people has been launched in Sharjah by the Sharjah Islamic Bank.

The ATM features a large Braille keypad, high resolution screen, wide keys, headphone and external speaker to ensure the user's privacy.

The user needs to choose fewer options than in a normal ATM.

Though the machine is designed for the visually impaired, it can also be used by others.

The ATM is located at the Emirates Association for the Blind headquarters in Sharjah, where visually impaired people will be trained to use the machine by a team from the bank.

The ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, had recently ordered banks in the emirate to offer facilities to the blind in response to a telephone call made by Manar Al Hamadi, a blind lawyer.

The Sharjah Islamic Bank later opened a bank account for the lawyer.