Rupee gains tracking Euro strength, at 54.97/$

The rupee rose on Wednesday, extending gains for a second successive session, tracking the euro's strength after the Federal Reserve chief said that the central bank would support the US economy if needed. At 9.01 a.m., the rupee was at 54.97/99 to a dollar as against 55.1250/1450 last close.

Guwahati victim's photo was office mistake, why should I apologise, asks Chief Minister

Guwahati: The chief minister of Assam has said that he accepts the blame and responsibility for a press statement sent out on Monday evening that shared the photo of a young woman who was molested on camera outside a pub in Guwahati a week ago. Tarun Gogoi said the photograph was a mistake, but that his office had not shared the name of the victim in the email sent to reporters.  

Mr Gogoi also made another point - "You cannot go on rolling your camera and shooting for more than 20 minutes on the hapless victim for TRP without informing the police," he said, wading into one of the numerous grey areas that shroud the case. While the woman was being attacked, groped, pulled back from the road that she tried to race down, a TV camera and reporter kept recording. The news channel says this was the best it could do while confronting an unstoppable mob- record the attack so the police would have evidence. 

Atanu Bhuyan, the editor-in-chief of NewsLive, the TV channel that recorded and broadcast the mob attack, resigned today. He said his channel acted correctly in filming the incident to help the police track down the guilty, and that his resignation was an attempt to help ensure a fair and independent inquiry. A reporter, Gaurav Jyoti Neog, who was at the pub when the attack began, quit on Saturday after local activist Akhil Gogoi accused him of instigating the mob. Mr Neog says those allegations are baseless. But the police have told the Ministry of Home Affairs that it will interrogate Mr Neog, who appears to be a close friend of the main accused, Mr Kalita. 
(Read: Did no wrong, says editor of channel)

News Live officials have said repeatedly that were it not for their footage, no arrests would have been made. It took 48 hours to find the first of 12 men clearly identifiable in the video. Nine days later, 11 of the 30 people who fell upon the woman have been arrested.  

The man who led the mob - seen in a red shirt, the same he wears in his Facebook profile photo where he announces himself as James Bond - remains on the loose. His photograph runs every day on national news channels. For the cameras, on that Monday night a week ago, he smiled as he went about his brutal act, trying to rip off the victim's shirt.

The exploitation of the victim continued far beyond that night. After his meeting with her last evening, the chief minister's office, in what many see as a grotesque attempt to convert a tragedy into a PR instalment, sent a press statement and photo of her to reporters, then caught itself and asked reporters to ensure her identity was not disclosed. Details of what the victim wanted - her concern about living in a neighbourhood where she could be easily tracked down by those assaulters who have not been caught, her request for funds to set up a beauty salon that was agreed to by the chief minister - all this was hung out to dry. The statement said Mr Gogoi had promised her Rs.50,000 from the chief minister's relief fund. The disclosure of what should have been a private conversation remains unexplained.

Hours before the chief minister's office sent out its look-what-we-did message, Alka Lamba was removed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) for revealing the victim's name at a press conference during the weekend. Ms Lamba defended her actions on Monday afternoon, saying the victim's identity was already in public domain. "I have done nothing wrong," she told a TV news channel.

एशेज से बड़ी है भारत-पाक सीरीज : अफरीदी

कराची: पाकिस्तानी क्रिकेट टीम के पूर्व कप्तान और हरफनमौला खिलाड़ी शाहिद अफरीदी ने भारत-पाक सीरीज को ऑस्ट्रेलिया और इंग्लैंड की टीमों के साथ खेली जाने वाली एशेज सीरीज से तुलना की है। अफरीदी ने कहा है कि भारत और पाकिस्तान की टीमों के बीच होने वाली सीरीज एशेज से भी बड़ी है।

पाकिस्तानी खिलाड़ियों ने दिसम्बर-जनवरी में भारत में तीन एकदिवसीय और दो ट्वेंटी-20 अंतरराष्ट्रीय मैचों की सीरीज खेलने का स्वागत किया है। भारतीय क्रिकेट कंट्रोल बोर्ड (बीसीसीआई) की कार्यकारी समिति ने दोनों देशों के बीच तीन एकदिवसीय और दो ट्वेंटी-20 अंतरराष्ट्रीय मैचों की सीरीज खेले जाने की मंजूरी सोमवार को दी।

एक समाचार पत्र ने अफरीदी के हवाले से लिखा है, पाकिस्तान और भारत के बीच खेली जाने वाली सीरीज की लोकप्रियता ऑस्ट्रेलिया और इंग्लैंड के बीच खेली जाने वाली एशेज से अधिक है। पाकिस्तान और भारत के बीच खेले जाने वाले मुकाबलों को व्यापक रूप से पालन किया जाता है और समूचे विश्व के लोग उनके मैच में रुचि रखते हैं।

भारत-पाक के बीच आखिरी द्विपक्षीय सीरीज नवम्बर, 2007 में हुई थी। उस समय भारतीय टीम ने 3-2 से सीरीज अपने नाम की थी। पत्र के मुताबिक अफरीदी ने कहा, जब हम भारत के खिलाफ खेलते हैं तो दबाव होता है, लेकिन यह अधिक रोमांचक भी होता है। उल्लेखनीय है कि 26 नवम्बर, 2008 को मुम्बई पर हुए आतंकवादी हमले के बाद भारत ने पाकिस्तान से द्विपक्षीय क्रिकेट रिश्ते खत्म कर लिए थे।

India, Pakistan to play ODI series in December?

New Delhi: India and Pakistan may play cricket again after five years. The cricket boards of the two countries have agreed in principal to play three One-Day International matches in December this year, and the BCCI says, only the approval of the Indian government is now needed.

The series, if it's on, will be played during the Christmas break and in India. Mohali, New Delhi and Dharamsala are the venues tentatively picked, say sources.

India has a packed cricket schedule this year and the Indo-Pak matches will be accommodated in the middle of England's tour to India. England will finish the Tests series and the team will fly back for Christmas. They will be back in the New Year to play ODIs. 


An India-Pakistan encounter on the cricket field will be manna for fans; the two countries last played a Test and ODI series way back in 2007. Then came 
the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 plunging bilateral ties between the two countries to an all-time low. Cricket suffered. India were scheduled to tour Pakistan in January 2009, but most players said they were reluctant to go.

Sri Lanka stepped in and agreed to tour Pakistan instead, but a terror attack on the visiting team in Lahore on March 3, 2009, saw an end to international cricket in Pakistan. Since then, no international team has toured Pakistan. Even World Cup 2011 matches scheduled to be played in Pakistan were shifted to other venues in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.  

On the sidelines of efforts to revive bilateral ties between the two nations, the Pakistan Cricket Board has been pushing hard to resume cricketing ties with India and also bring back international cricket to Pakistan. Earlier this month, the foreign secretaries of both the countries had talked about resuming sporting contact and last week, PCB chief Zaka Ashraf made three offers  - that India could tour Pakistan, or play them at a neutral venue, or then it could allow PCB to host their home series in India.

The PCB chief has held several meetings with BCCI president N Srinivasan. Later this year, the BCCI has invited Pakistan's domestic champion outfit the 
Sialkot Stallions to participate in the qualifying Tournament of Champions League Twenty20 to be held in South Africa later this year.

For the last five years, India and Pakistan have only played each other in multi-team series and in the famous semi-final of the 2010 World Cup when India defeated Pakistan at Mohali.

UK daily headline on PM dithers between 'poodle', 'puppet' and 'under-achiever'

A UK daily has been dithering online with its headline on the Indian Prime Minister. The Independent's story on Dr Manmohan Singh fluctuated this morning between asking if he is Sonia Gandhi's "poodle" or her "puppet." It's now settled on  asking if the PM is, as Time magazine suggested last week, 'the underachiever'.

This morning, The Independent's website carried this headline - "Manmohan Singh: Saviour or Sonia's Poodle?" A few hours later, the headline had been amended to "Manmohan Singh: Saviour or Sonia's Puppet?" A few minutes late, it was back to "Poodle." (Read the article) And then, by 12.10 pm, it had taken refuge in Time magazine's headline last week to settle on "Mamnohan Singh: Saviour or the 'Under-Achiever'?"

The article offers few observations that go beyond what Time magazine made last week.


The Independent says "Observers say one of Mr Singh's problems is that he has no genuine political power. Rather, he owes his position to Sonia Gandhi... this has meant he has sometimes been unable to even control his Cabinet" and "From within his ruling Congress Party there are repeated, if oblique, demands for him to step aside ahead in favour of his presumed successor, Rahul Gandhi."

The Independent says that as far as India's liberalization goes, "In something of an air-brushing of history, Mr Singh received the lion's share of the credit, while the role of the prime minister of the day, PV Narasimha Rao, was omitted." The reporter, Andrew Buncombe, goes on to say that the PM is a "man whose reputation is at risk of being permanently damaged." 

The piece acknowledges that "While he may unfairly have become the target for criticism of an entire administration, it is he who needs to do something if he wants to secure a favourable place in history."

The Prime Minister's Congress party has begun its week defending the PM against President Obama's criticism that the investment climate in India is deteriorating. Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily said that the US leader appears to be misinformed. "Certain international lobbies like Vodafone are spreading this kind of a story and Obama was not properly informed about the things that are happening, particularly when India's economic fundamentals are strong," he said.

In April, ratings agency Standard and Poor's also said that the PM appeared to have little hold over his Cabinet.

For the Congress, facing general elections in two years at the very outside, the growing wave of PM-bashing in the international media is a PR nightmare. Last week, Law Minister Salman Khurshid ran into trouble when he said that the party is waiting for Rahul Gandhi to accept more responsibility. "Until now, we have only seen cameos of his thoughts and ideas...but he has not weaved all of this into a grand announcement. This is a period of waiting," he said in a newspaper interview. But a day later, he said his remarks had been taken out of context and that from now on, he would ensure that discussions about the Congress' leadership would be confined to the party.