Today's Hot Stories - February 25, 2013 - PT education

Today's Hot Stories - February 25, 2013

10 Headlines for Today

(1) Hyderabad among 5 cities alerted ahead of blasts
(2) Hyderabad blasts could be a reaction to executions of Afzal, Kasab: Shinde
(3) UN says Mali crisis disrupts education of 700,000 children
(4) Now, CAG discovers Rs 1,336 crore gap in EPFO books
(5) Tata likely to drive in mini-SUV to take on Quanto
(6) Garment exporters see hope in EU pact
(7) 1st Test: Australia 34/1 at lunch on Day 4
(8) Beckham shines as PSG beat Marseille
(9) NBA: Bryant silences Cuban with 38 points
(10) 'Argo' wins best film award, 'Life of Pi' leads Oscars

5 Stories for Today

(1) PSLV to blast off today with 7 satellites
(2) Europe holds its breath as Italy votes
(3) Nearly 16,700 posts lying vacant in Income Tax dept: Government
(4) A first in 35 years: Moody’s strips UK of top credit rating
(5) Greater purchasing power, investor confidence need of the hour, says India Inc.

(1) PSLV to blast off today with 7 satellites


Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan on Sunday offered prayers at Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirupati for the successful launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C 20) scheduled to lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 5.56pm on Monday.

If things go as he'd like, the 23rd mission of PSLV will blast off safely and put seven satellites in space. These include an Indo-French satellite, SARAL, and NEOSSAT from Canada which will detect and track either near-earth asteroids or satellites in the geostationary orbit. Scientists are stepping up efforts to detect such asteroids. The 229.7-tonne, 44.4-metre tall, four-stage rocket will carry a primary pay load of Indo-French satellite SARAL along with six commercial payloads from Austria, Britain, Canada and Denmark. The 59-hour countdown for the launch began on Saturday.

Officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that with fine weather, the vehicle would lift off on schedule. The mission will put the satellites in an orbit of 781km and will have a life of five years.

With a lift-off mass of 407kg, SARAL is the 56th satellite to be launched by PSLV. The six commercial payloads from abroad have a combined lift-off mass of 259.5kg.

The SARAL mission is a result of the common interest of ISRO and CNES, France, to study the ocean from space using altimetry system and Argos data collecting system. It will be useful for operational as well as research communities in fields like marine meteorology and sea state forecasting, operational oceanography, seasonal forecasting, climate monitoring, ocean, earth system and climate research, continental ice studies, protection of biodiversity, management and protection of marine eco system, environmental monitoring, improvement of maritime security, animal migration, locating buoys and fishing vessels, tracking animals, birds and seals.

ISRO has launched four student satellites and 29 satellites for foreign countries. If successful, PSLV-C20 will be India's 39th satellite launch vehicle to lift off from Sriharikota. India has so far put in orbit 62 Indian satellites.

Source: The Times of India

(2) Europe holds its breath as Italy votes


Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election on Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe’s biggest economies.

Fellow E.U. countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece’s troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece’s, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.

Leading the electoral pack is Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist who has shown a pragmatic streak in supporting tough economic reforms spearheaded by incumbent Mario Monti. On Mr. Bersani’s heels is Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul seeking an unlikely political comeback after being forced from the premiership by Italy’s debt crisis. Mr. Monti, while widely credited with saving Italy from financial ruin, is trailing badly as he pays the price for the suffering caused by austerity measures.

Then there’s the wild card: comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, whose protest movement against the entrenched political class has been drawing tens of thousands to rallies in piazzas across Italy. If his self-styled political “tsunami” sweeps into Parliament with a big chunk of seats, Italy could be in store for a prolonged period of political confusion that would spook the markets.

While a man of the left, Mr. Bersani has shown himself to have a surprising amount in common with the centre-right Mr. Monti and the two have hinted at the possibility of teaming up in a coalition. Mr. Bersani was Mr. Monti’s most loyal backer in Parliament during the respected economist’s tenure at the head of a technocratic government. And in ministerial posts in previous centre-left governments, Mr. Bersani fought hard to free up such areas of the economy as energy, insurance and banking services.

But it’s uncertain that Mr. Monti will be able muster the votes needed to give Mr. Bersani’s Democratic Party a stable majority in both houses of Parliament.

Another factor is turnout. Usually some 80 per cent of the 50 million eligible voters go to the polls but experts are predicting many will stay away in anger, hurting mainstream parties.

When Mr. Berlusconi stepped down in November 2011, newspapers were writing his political obituary. At 76, blamed for mismanaging the economy and disgraced by criminal allegations of sex with an underage prostitute, the billionaire media baron appeared finished as a political force.

But Mr. Berlusconi has proven time and again over 20 years at the centre of Italian politics that he should never be counted out.

The campaign strategy that has allowed him to become a contender in these elections is a simple one- please the masses by throwing around cash.

Mr. Berlusconi has promised to give back an unpopular property tax imposed by Mr. Monti as part of austerity measures. Even his purchase of start striker Mario Balotelli for his AC Milan soccer team was widely seen as a ploy to buy votes. Berlusconi has also appealed to Italy’s right-wing by praising Italy’s former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during a ceremony commemorating Holocaust victims.

The most recent polls show Mr. Bersani in the lead with 33 per cent of the vote, against 28 per cent for Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition with the populist Northern League. Mr. Grillo’s 5 Star movement was in a surprise third place, with 17 per cent support, while Mr. Monti’s centrist coalition was notching 13 per cent. The COESIS poll of 6,212 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 per cent.

Pollster Renato Mannheimer said among his biggest clients heading into the elections were foreign banks seeking to gauge whether to hold or sell Italian bonds.

“They are worried mostly about the return of Berlusconi,” Mr. Mannheimer said.

Uncertainty over the outcome of the vote has pushed the Milan stock exchange down in the days running up to the vote and bumped up borrowing costs, as investors express concern that Italy may back down from a reform course to pull the country out of recession.

Mr. Mannheimer said many undecided voters who comprise around one-third of the total electorate identify with the centre-right, and that may help Mr. Berlusconi. He said that the undecided vote may also tilt heavily toward Mr. Grillo’s protest movement.

The professorial Mr. Monti looked uncomfortable at first as a candidate but has recently warmed to the role. Like the others, he has not shied away from name calling, warning that Mr. Berlusconi is a “charlatan” and saying his return would be “horrific”.

Bond analyst Nicholas Spiro said the election “will deliver the most important verdict on the eurozone’s three-year-old austerity focused policies”.

But he is betting on a period of political instability after the vote.

“An upset victory by Mr. Berlusconi may be markets’ nightmare scenario,” he said, “but the prospects for a stable and harmonious Bersani-Monti coalition government still the mostly likely outcome in our view are bleak.”

Source: The Hindu

(3) Nearly 16,700 posts lying vacant in Income Tax dept: Government


The Income Tax department has as many as 16,696 posts lying vacant but they are manned by existing employees by holding additional charge so that work is not affected, Parliament was informed today.

Vacancies arise on account of retirement/VRS, promotion, deputation and officers proceeding on leave, among others. Group C category has 15,002 vacancies, followed by 1,137 in Group A and 557 in Group 8.

"These vacancies are filled up on a regular basis by promotion and prescribed procedure which is a time consuming process. In the meantime, vacancies are manned by the existing incumbents by holding additional charge so that work is not affected," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He said action has been initiated for holding Departmental Promotion Committee for promotion to the grade of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for the next panel year.

"As regard holding of Department Promotion Committee for promotion to the grade of Joint Commissioner of Income Tax and Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, the matter is subjudice," he said.

Source: The Economic Times

(4) A first in 35 years: Moody’s strips UK of top credit rating


UK has been stripped off the top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 predicting a sluggish growth. The ratings of the Bank of England has also been downgraded to Aa1 from Aaa.

Days after British primeminister David Cameron made his second visit to India within two years of taking office , hard selling 'Brand UK' to Indian businessmen, the world's most trusted credit rating agency Moody's downgraded the domestic and foreign currency government bond ratings of the UK by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa.

It added that the outlook on the ratings is now stable and hence will remain Aa1 over the next 12-18 months.

According too Moody's , UK's current economic recovery has already proven to be significantly slower — and believes that it will likely remain so — compared with the recovery observed after previous recessions, such as those of the 1970s, early 1980s and early 1990s.

Moreover, while the government's recent Funding for Lending Scheme has the potential to support a surge in growth, Moody's believes the risks to the growth outlook remain skewed to the downside. But at the same time, it said that the UK's creditworthiness remains extremely high, even at Aa1, because of the country's significant credit strengths.

The main driver underpinning Moody's decision to downgrade UK is the increasing clarity that, despite considerable structural economic strengths, its economic growth will remain sluggish over the next few years due to the anticipated slow growth of the global economy.

Source: The Times of India

(5) Greater purchasing power, investor confidence need of the hour, says India Inc.


The industries call for improving tax structure and eschewing progressive taxation

With the picture from across the boundaries not boding well, a self-propelling economy may well be the solution for regenerating the growth trajectory and staving off the global bad tidings threatening to wallop our shores.

For reviving the investment cycle, the first precondition would appear to be arming consumers with sufficient purchasing power, improving agricultural productivity and executing the proposed reforms and infrastructure projects.

According to India Inc., the multiplier impact of these measures will be essential for tackling the problem of declining exports and kick-starting the sluggish manufacturing sector, which has been bearing the brunt of the prevailing supply-side food inflation.

Warning that the current situation was worse than that of 2008-09 and pointing to the United States fiscal cliff problem, the industrial bodies will urge the UPA government not to further damage the prevailing sentiments when presenting the general budget on February 28.

The next few months would be critical and a close watch on the situation by the PMO was the need of the hour.

Moreover, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Adi Godrej expects better coordination between fiscal and monetary instruments to boost investment and growth in the coming months. All policy actions have to be taken to keep sentiments positive, across the spectrum.

Cautioning that this was not the time to further damage the confidence of investors, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) president Naina Lal Kidwai said it was necessary — as a first policy direction to improve the economic sentiment — to improve the income tax structure and not impose a higher rate of taxes on high-income-group taxpayers. Amid a dampened global demand, it was of paramount importance to boost domestic consumer expenditure through a further relaxation in income tax rates. Like all major industry and chamber bodies, Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) president Raj Kumar Dhoot said the consumer need to be provided with greater purchasing power, scope to save and demand produced commodities.

The demand is to apply the peak 30 per cent rate on income above Rs. 20 lakh as its imposition on income above Rs. 10 lakh affected the middle class, leaving little surplus in their hands for spending. The other suggestions include reintroduction of standard deductions, hiking the income tax exemption limit to at least Rs. 3 lakh, and increasing deductions such as medical and educational allowances, besides increasing investment limits under tax benefit schemes and providing greater subsidy on home-loan interest.

Source: The Hindu

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