President confers Padma awards

Updated on : 31-03-2014 04:16 PM

Eminent scientist R A Mashelkar was on Monday conferred the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, while acclaimed artiste Kamal Haasan and ace shuttler P Gopichand were among the 12 personalities conferred the Padma Bhushan by President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

Award winning actor Vidya Balan, coach of Indian women kabaddi team Sunil Dabas, sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik and activist Jawahar Lal Kaul were among the 53 personalities conferred the Padma Shri award at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan's Durbar Hall. . The award ceremony was attended, among others, by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his wife Gursharan Kaur, Union ministers Sushuilkumar Shinde, P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar and Sriprakash Jaiswal, and Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and leaders from opposition and other political parties were not present. Mashelkar (71) is well known globally for his path breaking research in polymer science and engineering. He has chaired 12 high powered national level committees to look into diverse issues of higher education, national auto fuel policy and measures to deal with the menace of spurious drugs. Anumolu Ramakrishna, who pioneered the use of precast concrete technology, was conferred the Padma Bhushan posthumously. He passed away last year at the age of 73. Kaul (69), known for his voluntary services for the blind, had lost his eyesight due to smallpox at the age of five. The President climbed down from the podium to confer the Padma Shri on him.

AAP to replace three candidates in UP Updated on : 31-03-2014 05:14 PM Problems for AAP in Uttar Pradesh do not seem to end as it has now decided to replace at least three candidates in the state owing to different reasons.  "We are planning to change the candidates in 2-3 constituencies which include Farrukhabad and Etah," said party spokesperson Deep Bajpai. "This is being done because of different reasons ranging from lack of interest shown in campaigning by the individual to some of them not meeting the guidelines set by the party.  We will put up strong candidates by replacing them," he said.  The party had announced candidature of scribe Mukul Tripathi in Farrukhabad to take on Union Minister Salman Khurshid in its first list of candidates. He will now be replaced. The party had given ticket to Dilip Yadav from Etah and he will also be replaced.  In UP alone, Khalid Parvez was asked not to contest from Moradabad after a case of defaulting cropped up.  Similarly, the party also replaced the candidate in Shahjahanpur. In Delhi, AAP fielded Rakhi Birla in place of Mahendar Singh from North-west Delhi after a case of his arrest in a case came to light.  The party fielded Gul Panag after Savita Bhatti, who was initially given ticket refused to contest in Chandigarh owing to opposition to her candidature by local party workers.

February core infra grows at 4.5%

The core infrastructure grows to 4.5% (Y-O-Y) in February 2014 as compared to 1.6% (Y-O-Y) in January 2014. The combined index of Eight Core Industries stands at 156.7 in February 2014 with a growth rate of 4.5% as compared to 1.3% in February 2013. Crude oil and Natural gas registered a growth rate of 1.9% and (-) 4.4% respectively in the month of February 2014.

   Sector wise trend in monthly production                                          (% growth)

Sector	Weight in IIP	Feb’14	Jan’14
Crude Oil	5.22	1.9	3.0
Natural Gas	1.71	(-)4.4	(-)5.2
Petroleum Refinery Products	5.94	3.2	(-) 4.5
Coal	4.38	0.1	(-) 0.7
Fertilizer	1.25	(-)0.7	1.2
Electricity	10.32	10.4	5.7
Cement	2.41	2.3	1.5
Steel	6. 6 8	4.8	3.4
Overall	37.90	4.5	1. 6

  Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the economic advisor to the Govt. of India

In cumulative terms, core infrastructure industries registered a growth of 2.6% during Apr-Feb 2013-14 as against 6.4% during the corresponding period of previous year.

     Sector wise trend in production                                                                         (% growth)  

Sector	Weight	Apr-Feb 2013-14	Apr-Feb 2012-2013
Crude Oil	5.22	(-)0.1	(-)0.7
Natural Gas	1.71	(-)13.3	(-)14.2
Petroleum Refinery Products	5.94	1.6	29.4
Coal	4.38	0.9	5.0
Fertilizer	1.25	2.2	(-)4.0
Electricity	10.32	5.7	4.1
Cement	2.41	3.3	7.6
Steel	6. 6 8	4.2	3.4
Overall	37.90	2.6	6.4

      Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the economic advisor to the Govt. of India

Electricity generation grew by 5.7% during Apr–Feb 2013-14 as against 4.1% growth during Apr–Feb 2012-13, while steel production grew by 4.2% during Apr– Feb 2013-14 as against 3.4% during Apr- Feb 2012-13. The production in crude oil grew by (-) 0.1% during Apr– Feb 2013-14 as compared to its growth at (-) 0.7% during Apr– Feb 2012-13, whereas petroleum refinery production registered a growth of 1.6% during Apr– Feb 2013-14 as compared to 29.4% during Apr– Feb 2012-13. Fertilizer production grew by 2.2% during Apr– Feb 2013-14 compared to its growth at (-) 4% during Apr– Feb 2012-13 and cement production grew by 3.3% during Apr–Feb 2013-14 compared to its growth at 7.6% during Apr– Feb 2012-13.

 Trend in growth of steel, cement, electricity, coal and overall                                                   (%)

 Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the economic advisor to the Govt. of India

Warm regards,

Dr. S P Sharma

Chief Economist

BJP and Congress campaign in its crescendo

By sagarmedia on March 31, 2014 | Edit

 BJP and Congress addressing election rallies on Monday as Narendra Modi holds rally in Arunachal and Assam while Sonia Gandhi addresses rally in Mewat and Rahul Gandhi too addressed rally in Odisha and Chhattisgarh reached its crescendo with multiple verbal  attacks   each scoring point of nationalism, welfare for the people,taking dig onto each other past and other parties leaders too join in this historical electorate battle of one of the biggest democracy to exercise their voting rights,

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday said this election is not just about development and her party is fighting for safeguarding the secular values enshrined in the Constitution.”This election is not only about the development of country. This election is to safeguard the constitutional framework which our freedom fighters, our forefathers have bestowed on us after much struggle and sufferings”.

“This Constitution recognises our secular values and teaches us how to respect them,” she said addressing a rally in Mewat, in a veiled attack on BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Gandhi went on to say that Congress will fight for a country which is not just for a few but a country which belongs to everyone and where everyone enjoys equal rights.

“We will fight for a country where it is not imporant what is our religion, language, place of birth or in which caste we were born, but we will fight for a country which is secular and where it is important that we all are Indian,” she said.

The UPA chairperson said no other government has undertaken as much developmental activities during the last 10 years as done by the Manmohan Singh government, including in the backward region of Mewat.

“You can see the changes which have taken place here (Mewat) if you compare the development with the previous government here, be it giving backward region status, providing drinking water facilities or developing a separate cadres for teachers and doctors,”, she said.

She said Congress manifesto also promises right to health for everyone, even as it has fulfilled its promises on rural job scheme, implementation of Right to Education and RTI, besides stringent law to stop violence against women.

The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Modi while addressing an election rally in Chariali in Assam said people of the country were unaware of the punishment meted out to the marines.

“Two Italian marines had killed innocent fishermen in Kerala but instead of being in jail in India, they were sent back to Italy. They were innocent fishermen fishing in Indian water”.

“I want to ask: who or what power sent them back to Italy and asking them not to be brought back. Should they (marines) not be in jail in India,” he asked.

He said it was only after the Supreme Court intervened and ordered that they be brought back, that the “powers were forced to ensure the return of the marines”.

The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said, “The nation now wants to know the address of the jail where the marines have been lodged. Just because they are from Italy, they cannot be subjected to different treatment”.

Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone shot dead two fishermen off the Kerala coast in February 2012, sparking diplomatic tensions between India and Italy.

The marines, deployed on the Italian-flagged oil tanker ‘MT Enrica Lexie’, had said they mistook the fishermen for pirates and were allowed to leave the country.

They are now staying in the Italian Embassy in New Delhi awaiting trial as India has insisted that the marines would be prosecuted under the anti-piracy law and face up to 10 years in prison as the victims were Indians on board an Indian fishing boat.

Accusing the BJD government in Odisha of hijacking the credit for the work done through the welfare programmes of UPA government, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today claimed the state is ruled by “mine mafia” and not by the people’s representatives.

“The state government is run by the mine mafia and not by leaders. Valuable minerals worth thousands of crore rupees are looted and state government is aware about it,” Gandhi alleged at a public meeting at Semiliguda in the tribal-dominated Koraput district.

“Though the Centre sends thousands of crores for the welfare of tribals, the amount is not reaching the beneficiaries at the village level. The state government is diverting central funds and taking credit without any justification,” he said.

While a handful of mafia loot mineral resources of Odisha and become rich, the poor and tribal people do not get any benefit, Gandhi said.

In contrast, the Centre has set up a large number of institutes, medical colleges and hospitals for the betterment of the people, he said.

Highlighting the Congress party’s concern for the poor and tribal people, Rahul Gandhi said his family had long-standing bond with the tribals and “I love to be in the midst of tribal people.”

Recalling that Rajiv Gandhi had also visited the area, Gandhi said he would continue to fight for the cause of tribals The Congress vice president claimed that it was he who stood by the agitating tribals of Kalahandi and saved Niyamgiri Hills.

Strongly opposing displacement of people for various projects without offering adequate compensation, Gandhi said Congress would strive for safeguarding the interests of the poor and underprivileged.

Hitting out at the state government, Rahul accused it of being insensitive towards the poor and said it was unfortunate that Food Security Act was not implemented in the state.

He also raised corruption issues like chit fund scam and alleged that the ruling BJD leaders were behind the ponzi companies which duped the poor and innocent investors in the state.

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