India, in real time: 29th June 2011

India is a country on the go; at any given moment in time, there is much happening in the fields of politics and governance, of finance, of development; there is constant churning in society, considerable activity in sports and in the arts... It's almost too much to keep track of. And hence, this effort: a real-time, constantly updated look at the events that matter. Refresh this page for latest updates
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Pranab Mukherjee sign a joint statement on the U.S.-India Economic and …-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLING READERS: On this live blog, we curate in real time the goings on in the world around us. Come be a part of the project: If you see an interesting story, send us the link to indiaeditors@yahoo.in and we'll publish it in this space. Got an interesting photo to share? Same email link applies. Got suggestions on how we can improve this further? Ditto.
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9: 30 pm: Firearm used in Dey murder may have been smuggled from Nepal

Police probing the killing of senior crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey suspect that the weapon and bullets used in the murder might have been smuggled from Nepal by a middle man, who handed them over to one of the gunmen at Nainital in Uttarakhand.

"The 0.32 US-made revolver and 20 live rounds along with five empty cartridges had been seized from the arrested seven accused and we suspect they were brought from Nepal by a middle man, who handed them over to the gunman Rohee Joseph alias Satish Kalya," said a senior Crime Branch official. More

9: 00 pm: CWG scam: CBI grills BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal

CBI questioned BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal in connection with the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) overlays scam.

The Income Tax officials had raided the houses of Sudhanshu Mittal and his nephew Vinay Mittal in connection with the CWG probe in October last year. More

8: 30 pm: TRS warns Telangana will burn if statehood promise unfulfilled

Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao warned that Telangana would burn if the Centre chose to constitute a regional development council and did not keep its promise of carving out a separate state.

"I would like to humbly submit to the Prime Minister... it was you who made the promise on December 9, 2009 on creating Telangana state. If you do any ''hera pheri'', Telangana will not tolerate you. You will see a burning Telangana. The hearts of four crore Telangana people will burn and you alone will be responsible for what happens," he said. More

8: 00 pm: Danish court verdict on arms drop accused tomorrow

The Central Bureau of Investigation is expecting the Danish High Court's verdict tomorrow on the extradition of Niels Holck alias Kim Davy to India in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, an agency official said here.

'Davy is contesting the order of his extradition to India, which was issued by the government of Denmark in April last year. Davy has not been contesting evidences or the investigation done by the CBI,' said the official. More here

7: 30 pm: US ambassador to bid farewell from India Gate

US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer will bid goodbye to India Thursday by making his farewell remarks at the India Gate memorial to the Unknown Soldier.

Roemer, who had resigned from the post in April, will highlight his two years in the US embassy here and also the strategic, global partnership between India and the US during his farewell remarks.

Prior to his farewell remarks, the ambassador is scheduled to interact with Indian students, 'who represent the enthusiasm and optimism of India's future,' according to the US embassy invite for the event. Read more

7: 00 pm: Lokpal Bill row: Anna Hazare to meet Sonia Gandhi tomorrow

Gandhian Anna Hazare is expected to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi tomorrow to seek her support on the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Reacting to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's comments that he is ready to come under the purview of the Lokpal, Hazare today said Dr. Manmohan Singh should try to convince his Cabinet colleagues on the including the office of the Prime Minister under the Lokpal Bill ambit. Details here

6: 30 pm: TISS gangrape case: Bombay HC upholds acquittal of six accused

The Bombay High Court upheld the acquittal of six students charged with gang raping a US national by dismissing an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging a trial court verdict.

A division bench of justices N H Patil and Mridula Bhatkar observed that there is no evidence to prove sexual intercourse by force. More

6: 00 pm: Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief to be shifted to Srinagar jail

Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the state government to shift radical women's outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Indrabi from Jammu jail to Central jail here within three days.

The state government had pleaded that since there was no facility for lodging women detenues in Baramulla, she had been lodged at Kotbhalwal jail in Jammu. More

5: 30 pm: Cabinet reshuffle exercise 'a work in progress': PM

Responding to a question on the possibility of a reshuffle in his Cabinet, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said it was a work in progress, but refused to divulge the details.

"I cannot predict," said Dr. Singh when asked whether a Cabinet reshuffle would take place soon. More

5: 00 pm:  Pakistan unaware of Mullah Omar's whereabouts: Defence Minister

Pakistan is not aware of where Taliban's spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is currently hiding, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has said.

On Tuesday, senior US military commanders had told Congress that Pakistanis knew that Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and were ignoring US requests to find him. More

4: 30 pm: PM has failed to control prices and check corruption : BJP

Refusing to buy Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's argument that his government is not "lameduck and comatose", BJP said the economist PM had failed to control prices, check corruption and take the opposition along on issues like the Lokpal Bill.

"The Prime Minister tried to argue against his failures... On price rise, he said the prices are going up around the world. But to claim that inflation is increasing globally is wrong. In India, it is due to bad governance and wrong and corrupt policies of this government," BJP President Nitin Gadkari said. Full story here

4: 00 pm: Telangana legislators give privilege notice against MP

Cutting across party lines, legislators from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh Wednesday gave notice for a privilege motion against Congress MP L. Rajagaopal for allegedly belittling the house through his remarks.

Angry over the Vijayawada MP's remark that clause 14F that treats Hyderabad a free zone for police recruitment cannot be deleted from the Presidential Order, the legislators met assembly Speaker N. Manohar and gave him the breach of privilege motion notice. Details here

3: 00 pm: Ready to be under Lokpal, but cabinet must agree: PM

Manmohan Singh was ready to be within the ambit of the Lokpal but a final decision on the issue would be taken by his cabinet colleagues, said one of the editors who attended a media interaction with the prime minister Wednesday.

'The prime minister said he was ready to be under Lokpal ambit. But cabinet colleagues would take the final decision,' Alok Mehta, editor of Nai Duniya, told reporters. More

2: 00 pm: Team Anna meets Left leaders 

Former top cop Kiran Bedi and activist Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday met leaders of the Left in an ongoing effort to garner support for the civil society's draft of the Lokpal bill.

'Arvind and I met Mr. Karat (Prakash Karat) of Left parties. They are for inclusion of prime minister and bureaucracy below JS (joint secretary) ranks (in the Lokpal bill) and to cover the common man bribery issues,' Bedi tweeted Wednesday morning. More

1:05 pm: India plugs trillion dollar opportunity in infrastructure

As India and the United States set a 'robust agenda' to deepen their economic ties, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has plugged trillion dollar opportunities for US investors in infrastructure financing.

There is new opportunity for US investors 'for work in this area', Mukherjee told a joint new conference Tuesday as fast-developing India is planning to raise $1 trillion in infrastructure financing by 2017, half of it from the private sector.

Calling the discussions with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at the just concluded second meeting of the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership 'fruitful', Mukherjee said the level of interaction between US and Indian officials had 'increased substantially' since the last round of talks.

'The single most important takeaway is the commitment of both governments to work very hard to expand and deepen this relationship and make sure that Indian companies and American companies are benefiting even more than they already are from these tremendous opportunities ahead,' said Geithner.

12:45 pm: Supreme Court stays return of Singur land to displaced farmers on Tata petition

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the return of Singur land to the farmers by the West Bengal government.

The apex court said the state government would hold the land and maintain status quo till further orders from Calcutta High Court. The apex court, in its interim order, directed the parties to argue the merits of the case before the High Court.

Tata Motors had filed two special leave petitions requesting the Supreme Court to stay the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act passed by Bengal Assembly after Trinamool Congress came to power.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced an ordinance to reclaim land at Singur.

12:30 pm: BJP accuses PM of betraying nation on Indo-US nuke deal

Claiming that the Nuclear Suppliers Group had "reneged" on its waiver on nuclear fuel supply to India, BJP today accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of betraying the nation on the Indo-US nuke deal and asked him to clarify how it is beneficial to the country.

"This is an important issue which also has a historic background. We believe that the historic waiver given to India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group now stands punctured.... We want a clarification from the Prime Minister on the Indo-US Civil nuclear deal which he had gone on his knees to sign," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

He maintained that the NSG has "reneged" on its promise made after the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Deal was signed and is now insisting that for any ENR- Enrichment and Nuclear Reprocessing- the beneficiary country has to be a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

12:20 pm: BJP, BJYM hold protests against price hike

BJP and its youth wing BJYM held protest demonstrations against the UPA government for increase in prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG, and demanded immediate rollback of the hike.

As part of its agitational programme launched against the price rise throughout the country, activists of state BJP and BJYM oganised demonstrations in Jammu west and Tallab Tiloo areas.

President Jammu Mahanagar Rajesh Gupta said the "wrong policies" of the Congress have not only broken the back of the common man due to price rise but also have slowed down the progress of the country.

12:15 pm: Second batch of 2185 pilgrims leave for Amarnath from Jammu

Amid tight security, the second batch of 2185 pilgrims today left Jammu base camp for pilgrimage to the 13500-feet high cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir Himalayas.

As many as 2185 pilgrims, including 1328 males, 441 females, 66 children and 350 sadhus, left in 66 vehicles from Bagwatinagar base camp in Jammu at around 5:00 AM, a Police Control Room (PCR) official said.

The pilgrims'' convoy, escorted by CRPF personnel, has reached Patnitop area in Ramban district, he said.

The annual Amarnath yatra began yesterday amid tight security with the first batch of 2,096 devotees leaving for the cave shrine from Jammu.

11:30 am: SC asks WB govt not to return land to farmers in Singur

The Supreme Court today directed the West Bengal government not to go ahead with distribution and return of land in Singur to farmers which was acquired for Tata Motors'' small car project Nano.

"As an interim order we direct state government not to hand over or return land to farmers concerned until further order passed by the Calcutta High Court," a vacation bench comprising justices P Sathasivam an A K Patnaik said.

The bench said it was making it clear that this was an "interim arrangement" and it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case.

The judges said they were passing a limited interim order and asking the high court to proceed with the main matter in which the Tatas have challenged the new law enacted by the Mamata Banerjee government for taking possession of land and distributing it to farmers who were the original owners.

11:00 am: Cellars of Padmanabhaswamy temple reveal priceless treasure

The process of making an inventory of the priceless articles locked up in underground cellars of the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram has revealed gold ornaments, vessels, jewels and precious stones worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

The examination of three of the six inner chambers in the sprawling temple complex in the city, completed last evening, showed that they contained gold chains, gold, a large number of silver and brass platters, ornaments, a stone-studded crown and glittering gold coated parasols and may other objects of great intrinsic and antique value, temple sources said.

The magnificent temple, built in 18th century by King of erstwhile Travancore princely state Marthanda Varma, is run by a trust under the control of the royal family.

The Supreme Court recently appointed a seven-member panel, comprising two former judges of Kerala High Court as observers, to draw up a list of valuable articles stashed away in the cellars, said to have been remaining locked up for long.

10:45 am: 50 flights delayed by half an hour due to technical problem

Over 50 flights were delayed by around 30 minutes after server of the check-in system at the IGI airport developed some technical problem this morning.

Due to some technical problem in the check-in system, which started around 4 am, airlines had to check-in manually, airport sources said.

As a result, around 50 flights got delayed by upto 30 minutes, causing inconvenience to the passengers.

Passengers had to stand for hours in long queues at all the airlines counters, they said.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates and manages the airport, said that there was a problem in the check-in system due to which some flights were delayed by half an hour.

10:15 am: Indians spent Rs 5.8L crore extra due to inflation in last 3 years

For long inflation has been known to be a tax on poor. A new study shows just how much of a tax it has been in the last three years — Rs 5.8 lakh crore. That's the additional amount Indian consumers have had to spend between 2008-09 and 2010-11 just because of the spike in prices of most commodities, particularly essential items such as milk and eggs.

This translates into an annual additional outgo from household budgets of Rs 1.9 lakh crore, 35% higher than the Rs 1.4 lakh crore the government has provided for subsidies — food, fertilizer, oil and interest — for the current financial year. It's even Rs 15,000 crore higher than the Comptroller & Auditor General`s estimate of the revenue lost thanks to the 2G spectrum scam. The TOI story

9:30 am: Cases against netas seldom probed properly, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has moved to plug loopholes in the judicial administration system that are exploited to undermine probe into criminal cases involving important political figures and inordinately delay their trial.

Terming the problem a 'grave and serious' danger to justice delivery system, the apex court has sought a report from the Law Commission on the issue.

The initiative came in response to a PIL filed recently by V K Ohri which stated that criminal cases against influential persons seldom got properly investigated and tried fairly, expeditiously and in accordance with law.  Read more

9:00 am: Singur land: Tata, Mamata battle resumes

The Supreme Court will start hearing the Tata motors petition on Wednesday but back in Singur the Mamata Banerjee government is desperate to start returning land.

Bengal government officials have earmarked plots inside the Tata Motors premises for handover to Singur farmers and have identified 12 farmers to whom 3.8 acres land would be returned.

MLA and Member of High Powered Committee for Singur Land Return Becharam Manna said, "We have given them possession for equivalent quantity and quality of land they had lost and in a short while we'll hand them over the land deeds."  More

8:45 am: CCTV evidence in Dey case, killers caught on camera

CNN-IBN has accessed CCTV footage that shows the alleged four of the seven accused involved in the daylight murder of senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.

The video shows four of them closely trailing J Dey on a bike before gunning him down. But this footage might not have much evidentiary value in the court of law, as the faces of the accused are not visible due to rain.

The Mumbai Crime Branch has cracked the J Dey murder case. CNN-IBN has accessed a video that captures the moments before the June 11 shootout in which the veteran crime reporter was killed. The video reveals how underworld don Chhota Rajan's sharpshooters tailed Dey before gunning him down. The IBN story

8:35 am: Madhur depressed, Aishwarya furious

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar’s decision to shelve his film rather than work with a pregnant actor has caused ripples in Bollywood. On Tuesday, Bhandarkar and production house UTV announced that they have decided to shelve their film, Heroine, out of concern for the lead actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s

Sources reveal that ever since the announcement, Bhandarkar is depressed. “Madhur has just locked himself up in the room and refuses to talk. He has already spent four crore on the film and is worried about losses. Basically, he feels betrayed that Ash kept him in the dark. If the baby is due in November, Ash must already be pregnant when she began shooting. She should have been honest and upfront about it.” More on Y! India Movies

8:30 am: Finally, PM enters No-Silence zone

It's almost certain to be the most closely-watched makeover in India. 

After criticism from the Opposition and apparently from a section from within his own party, Dr Manmohan Singh will start sharing his opinions on the stands that he and the government hold on issues of national importance. His mode of communication will be through meetings with news editors, the first of which is scheduled for today. NDTV has the report

8:15 am: 2G: Ruias get ex-Chief Justice to make their case

It’s a pre-emptive strike of sorts. The Ruias, who own Essar, have made a presentation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) amid reports that their company is being investigated in connection with the 2G Telecom Scam.

The Ruias had sought legal opinion from former Solicitor General Harish Salve and former Chief Justice of India VN Khare who have reportedly said that there was no association between Essar and Loop Telecom. The allegation against the Ruias is that they used a company named Loop Telecom as a front to acquire more licenses and spectrum than legally permitted in 2008. Read more

8:00 am: MM Joshi not allowed to table 2G scam report before new PAC

An attempt by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to make the Committee take up his controversial report on the 2G scam prepared during the tenure of the last committee was today strongly opposed by Congress members. However, the NDA along with DMK and the BSP supported its consideration.

In view of the divisions in the PAC, it was decided that Constitutional experts would be consulted on whether the report, which was recently returned by Speaker Meira Kumar, can be considered by it.

Kumar had returned the report to Joshi, who was reappointed as Chairman in May, suggesting that it was an "unfinished work" as it was not supported by the entire PAC, whose term ended on April 30. Full story

India, in real time: 28th June 2011