Petrol Prices Burn Rs. 1.82 per litre from midnight

State-run oil companies today hiked petrol prices by Rs 1.80 per litre to offset the fall in rupee that has made imports of crude costlier.

This is the second hike in petrol prices in less than two months and it came on a day when the food inflation rose “dangerously” to 12.21 percent for the week ended 22 October.

Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum this Govt. companies had earlier hiked petrol prices by Rs 3.14 a litre on 16 September when the rupee was ruling at about 48 to a US dollar. The local currency has depreciated further. The rupee today closed at 49.14/15 against the American currency. So they are in loss near about 1 lack 30 thousand crore that's why petrol prices increase.

Pointed out that this hike of Rs 1.82 per litre of petrol has come at a time when the country is already reeling under a whopping food inflation which has remained untamed for the last three years and overall inflation remains unabated.

Basu said that the hike has also come at a time when the petroleum ministry has already announced moves to hike diesel and cooking prices. The CPI-M leader said that it will lead to rise in prices of essential commodities.

Indian Oil will increase prices like?

Mumbai-

Before - 71.62 Rs

Now  -  73.42 Rs.

Pune -

Before - 71.83 Rs.

Now  -  73.63 Rs.

Nashik-

Before - 71.54 Rs.

Now  -  73.34 Rs.

Kolhapur-

Before - 73.75 Rs.

Now  -  75.55 Rs.

Nagpur-

Before - 73.96 Rs.

Now  -  75.76 Rs.

Aurangabad-

Before - 71.80 Rs.

Now  -  73.60 Rs.

Google offers free 500,000 Indian SMBs online

New Delhi, Nov 2 - Indian Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh speaks during the launch of 'India get your Business Online' in New Delhi on November 2, 2011. Google India announced the launch of a nationwide initiative to help small medium businesses in India to get online with a free website.

(IBNS) Popular search engine Google India on Wednesday announced the launch of a nationwide initiative to help small medium businesses (SMBs) in India to get online with a free website, personalized domain and hosting.Called 'India Get Your Business Online,' this initiative aims to break down the barriers that stop small businesses from getting online -- by offering a quick, easy and free tool to set up and host a website.

Google's goal is to help 500,000 small medium businesses in India to get online in next three years through this program, working with web hosting provider HostGator.

Small business owners in India can logon to www.indiagetonline.in and use the tool to get a get a free, easy-to-build website and web hosting for one year powered by HostGator. Businesses also get a customized domain .in name and free tools, training and resources to succeed online.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, said, "SMEs are the future business leaders of India and their growth is a priority for the UPA government and its policies. We want to see India´s SMEs grow to become recognized Indian brands, and a presence on the Internet is absolutely essential for this.

"I therefore welcome Google´s initiative in launching India Get Your Business Online for SMEs. This will help SMEs modernize their operations and reach out to more customers in India and abroad. Indian SMEs should make the most of such opportunities to establish their presence on the Internet. I wish this initiative all success."

Highlighting Google's commitment to India, Nikesh Arora SVP & Chief Business Officer of Google Inc. said, "Google has always believed in the power of the Internet to help small businesses thrive and to make people´s lives easier by making information more accessible and useful.

"We recognize India as a high growth and high potential Internet market in the world and we're committed to play the role of a catalyst to bring the benefits of the internet economy to small and medium businesses in India. We have received tremendous response to this initiative in other countries and we're very excited to bring this initiative to India and empower local businesses as more and more Indian users get online."

While India is home to an estimated 8 million small and medium businesses, only about 400,000 have a website.

The initiative is designed to bridge the information gap that exists online due to the lack of presence of local Indian businesses on the Internet. Businesses often believe that getting online is too complex, costly and time-consuming; this perception prevents many SMBs from taking the first step towards building an online presence. Google India and HostGator plan to change that through this initiative.

In addition, HostGator will also offer free support in creating, hosting and managing the website for a period of one year without any cost through it.

"Small and medium businesses have been an important focus area for us and we have launched a number of initiatives in India to support SMB's who are already online. By partnering with HostGator we're changing the game - our consumers will benefit from having access to better information of local businesses, business owners will benefit as their customers will be able to find them easily - so it's a win-win proposition for both.

"We're investing major resources in this campaign to help as many businesses as possible to get online. We aim to get at least 500,000 businesses online in the next three years." said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director and VP Sales & Operations for Google India.

"SMBs form a very substantial part of our global customer base and we are committed to offer world class service to Indian SMBs. With Google, we have the perfect partner and we are very excited about the opportunity this represents for small and medium businesses in India. We will do our best to help out business in India build their online presence and also offer 24/7 support through our call center." said Taylor Hawes, Marketing head of HostGator.com.

India get your business online program is also supported by Federation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), popularly known as FISME. FISME, the non-profit organization will work with Google India to help SMBs get online through direct customer outreach and events.

V.K. Agarwal, President, FISME said, "With Google search being the most preferred search service on both the desktop and mobiles in India, this initiative of offering free domain, dynamic website and promotional tools, brings unparalleled advantage for small businesses in India. FISME with its network of 730 MSME associations will help the Indian Small businesses to make the most of this opportunity and benefit from this program. It is going to be a game changer."

Against Pen Urban Co-op Bank Citizens March

Thousands of citizens along with employees of Pen Urban Cooperative Bank from Raigad district started a march to chief minister’s bungalow in Mumbai on Sunday to press for their demands.

As a part of the ‘Save Pen’s Bank’ movement, depositors, employees and account holders of the bank from Pen town of the district started the 72-hour march to Mumbai. The movement was supported by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and the Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September last year imposed stringent restrictions and passed an order for the closure of 18 branches of the bank. Despite this, the bank was said to have released loans for over Rs.500 crore to non-existing account holders without verification of documents.

The RBI, in October last year, imposed a penalty of Rs.1 lakh as the bank failed to satisfactorily respond to a show cause notice.

“The march will culminate at the CM’s residence, where a delegation  will apprise him of the situation,” said Vishwas Utagi, general secretary of AIBEA.

“Many employees have lost their jobs and thousands have lost their money due to scams by the bank’s chairman and directors,” he added. 

Shishir Dharkar, a jewellery exporter and the former chairman of the Pen Co-operative Urban Bank, was last month arrested by the CBI - along with officials from five other companies - for cheating the government’s Mineral Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) of Rs 1,080 crore over a two-year period. This money was then hoarded in foreign banks through hawala transactions.

Three boys in mumbai drown at waterfall Rungareshwar

Three Mumbai youths drowned while bathing in the waterfall at Rungareshwar near Vasai on Sunday. All the eight youths who had gone there for a picnic had return after taking bath, but the unfortunate three decided to go for a bath a second time.

One of them Sonu Kanaujia (19) slipped and fell, and in a bid to rescue Sonu,  the other two Mayur Waghmare (19) and Abhishek More (21) also lost their lives.

All the youths were in the age group of 19 to 22 years.  They had gone there for picnic from Khar and Bandra East.

The autopsy reports of  the three revealed the cause of death due to suffocation and cerebral bleeding. All the three were college students.

The autopsy was conducted at the Navghar post-mortem centre and the reports were received on Monday afternoon and confirmed that the deceased were not drunk. None of the boys knew how to swim.

They hadn't informed their families about their exact location either.

"After the victims' bodies of Mayur, Abhishek and Sonu were fished out, their friends didn't know which hospital to take them to as they had never visited rural Thane before," said an official.

The friends of the deceased are planning to upload a video of the incident on the internet to caution others against swimming in waterfalls.

Atul Pawar, who was part of the group, and witnessed the drownings, said they had taken a digicam and were shooting portions of the visit. Eight of the 10 youths dived into the waterfall. "When the boys saw Sonu gasping, and waving, they thought he was pulling a prank. Most of them were splashing around in the water and having fun.

But they realized the seriousness of the situation  when Sonu started sinking. Abhishek and Mayur tried to rescue him. The others left the camera running on the shore and started shouting for help," said Atul's cousin Kiran.

Abhishek and Mayur waded towards Sonu, but drowned while attempting to rescue him.
The statements of the survivors have been recorded by the Manikpur police.

Petorl prise rise again!

Car owners, brace yourselves, because oil marketing companies are planning to raise petrol prices by about Rs 1.50 soon. Why? Because their poor financial situation demands an increase in prices, they say. Both Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation posted net losses for the quarter ending September.

The proposed hike comes just after petrol prices were increased by about Rs 3.14 per litre in mid-September.7 basis points to inflation (100 basis points make 1 percentage point). A similar increase in diesel prices, in contrast, would have added about 42 basis points to inflation, according to experts. Seven basis points might seem like nothing when inflation is at 5 percent, but it can still have a troubling impact when the wholesale price index is at 9.7 percent.

Let’s also not forget that this may not be the only price hike in store. It’s becoming clear that power tariffs will also need to be hiked, and significantly at that. Incremental hikes in different areas will add to one large chunk of inflationary pressure. That does not make the Reserve Bank of India’s job of bringing down inflation through interest rate hikes any easier.

Chao Phraya River could burst its banks due to high tides :Thailand

Traffic clogged roads out of Bangkok Friday as tens of thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide expected to worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn their citizens to stay away.

The main concern is that Bangkok's Chao Phraya River will burst its banks over the weekend during the unusually high tide that begins Friday. Buildings across Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some vulnerable streets were nearly deserted.

Thailand's worst flooding in half a century, caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain, has killed 377 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.2 million, until now mostly in the north and central provinces.

Television footage showed cars and trucks bumper-to-bumper leaving the city and the main airport's departure lounges packed, but the traffic department said it could not put an exact figure on the size of the Bangkok exodus because much of its monitoring equipment was under water.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she was considering a proposal to dig channels into some roads in eastern Bangkok to drain water into the Gulf of Thailand, an idea backed by the chairman of the Thailand unit of Toyota Motor Corp whose factories have been badly flooded.

The Meteorological Department warned residents living along the Chao Phraya they could face rising waters. Roads around the Grand Palace, a top tourist attraction, are partially flooded along with some streets in densely populated Chinatown.

Friday morning, on a street in front of the Grand Palace normally bustling with tourists, a two-meter (6 1/2-ft) snake was caught by a motorcycle taxi driver. Residents have also had to contend with crocodiles escaping from flooded farms.

While many of the inner-city streets of Bangkok remained dry, the suburbs continued to struggle.

In the riverside shantytown of Bang Phlad, small wooden homes were knee-deep in foul-smelling water with rubbish floating on the surface. Residents carried belongings above their heads, struggling against the current of water pumped back out to the river.

Azim Premji Foundation Open Two Schools Per District

Azim Premji to Revolutionize Indian Education System – To Open Two Schools Per District

Azim Premji foundation (Mr. Premji’s self-funded foundation) plans to start 1,300 schools across the country- two per district – which will be free, impart education in the local language and be affiliated to the state board

Well, fret not! Azim Premji is setting about on a plan to revolutionize the Indian Education system. Mr. Premji has decided to take matter into his own hands and decided to walk the talk when it comes to developing and nurturing talent in India

The project has an estimated capital outlay of Rs. 9000 crore and the estimated timeline for completion of 1300 schools is by 2025.

A phased-wise approach will see seven schools being opened within the next 1.5 years in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand and Chattisgarh. Audacious plans but Mr. Premji is not just another guy in the park.

The interesting concept here is that the AFP foundation schools are not going to impart free education, the onus is to provide real quality education which can hopefully be replicated by other public and private schools over time.

While a majority of corporate initiatives around education are focused on partnering with technical universities and training young graduates, Mr.Premji plans to cover pre-school to class 12 education in the schools that the APF opens.

Personally speaking, this is a welcome change and a great move. I firmly believe that the education system at the primary and secondary levels needs to improve and if that happens, the quality of talent when it comes to pursuing graduate courses will go up drastically.

The private sector has benefited the education sector to a certain extent but a for-free initiative managed with a private establishment type rigorousness and I think APF could do the nation’s education system a world of good.

One can only hope that Mr. Premji’s plans see execution because the scale of the project can really shake the education system in India from the ground-up and for the better.

One good thing about the initiative here is that, this is not a part of the CSR initiative of Wipro which then could have made me wary of the whole initiative. Mr. Premji intends to use his own funds and further the cause of education in India which makes me believe in the project even more.