Olympiad: The Blues begin to move
Rathore brings India its first individual silver after 1900
Athens: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has won India's first medal at the Olympic games being held in Athens. The 24-year-old army Major scored a total of 179 points to finish second in the double-trap shooting event at the Markopoulo Shooting Centre.

Rathore, who was fifth going into the six-man final, kept his nerves to pip his closest competitor, Wang Zhang of China, by one point in a tense 25-round medal decide.

Rathore, a double gold medallist from the Commonwealth Games was beaten to the gold by UAE's Sheikh Al Almaktoum. Rathore finished 10 points behind him and just 1 point ahead of the bronze medallist. Rathore is the first Indian to win an individual silver medal at the Olympics since athlete Norman Pritchard won silver in the year 1900.

India beat South Africa 4-2
Athens: India came from behind to record a 4-2 win against South Africa. Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh Dhillon and Dilip Tirkey, all scored a goal apiece before Gagan Ajit Singh's last minute goal brought the emphatic win for the side.

Leander and Bhupati move on to the quarterfinals
Athens: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi beat Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Yves Allegro to advance to the quarterfinals of the men's doubles tennis at the Olympic Games. In between Leander needed almost 10 minutes of attention for a nosebleed.

But the multiple Grand Slam champion quickly recovered to power their way to 6-2 7-6 (9/7) victory in the second round. Paes and Bhupathi now play fourth seeds Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe in the last-eight round.

Diwakar Prasad fights his way into the second round
Athens: Indian light flyweight boxer Akhil Kumar went down in the first round, while bantamweight Diwakar Prasad sailed into the second round on Tuesday night.

Kumar lost the bout 16-37 to former world champion and Sydney Games bronze medallist Jerome Thomas of France, while Prasad showed good technique to outfox Moroccon Hamid Ait Bighrade 25-17 in the 54 kg bout.

Prasad, who was adjudged as having been ahead of his rival in the first three rounds, would now face Nigerian Bolum Nestor in the round of 16.
Back to News Review index page  

Red in the face: Not against reforms, says Bardhan
New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary, A.B. Bardhan, has said that the Left parties are not against economic reforms. On the contrary, they want reforms, but their sole objective is to ensure that they were based on socio-economic realities.

Speaking at a seminar on 'Employment and economic growth' organised by the Observer Research Foundation Bardhan sought to make it clear that the Left parties were not obsessed with public sector undertakings (PSUs) as was being made out to be — it was against the indiscriminate privatisation of all PSUs, he said.

Attacking the lobbies, which painted the Left as anti-reform parties, Bardhan said that although growth was absolutely essential for the progress of the country, "we are against jobless growth, which is anti-national."

Clarifying further Bardhan said that they were not against either foreign direct investment (FDI) or high technologies as was being made out by the media. But, he said, the Left parties were very clear that FDI should be allowed only in certain sectors and under certain conditions.

Noting that unemployment was growing in the country, Bardhan warned that joblessness among the youth was giving rise to militancy, terrorism and other anti-national movements. The CPI General Secretary criticised the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, for removing nearly 90 items from the reserved list of the small sector in this year's Union Budget.
Back to News Review index page  

FM to announce petro-product duty cuts today
New Delhi: The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, will announce the excise and customs duty reductions on petro products to mitigate the impact of soaring global crude prices on the domestic consumers and public sector oil companies in Parliament on Wednesday.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, stated this following a meeting of the Union Cabinet held on Tuesday. The Cabinet also gave its approval for introduction of six new Bills in the current session of Parliament. These include the enactment of the Government Securities Act to replace the existing Public Debt Act, 1944 and the repeal of the Indian Securities Act, 1920; the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Bill, 2004; and the Seeds Act, 2004, in place of the existing Seeds Act, 1966 and Seed Control Order, 1983.
Back to News Review index page  

GAIL acquires 15 pc stake in Natgas of Egypt
Mumbai: GAIL (India) Ltd has informed the BSE that it has acquired a 15 per cent participating interest in National Gas Company (Natgas) of Egypt at a price of $19 million. Natgas is the largest private local distribution company for natural gas in Egypt with participating interests by Egypt Kuwait Holding, Shell Gas B.V. Petrogas, Jaicorp, and now GAIL.

GAIL made an investment of $22 million in Egypt, the largest investment made by the company in any country until today. GAIL is also looking at other African and West Asian countries and is keen to associate with Egypt Kuwait Holding and other players in cross-country gas pipeline projects in countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. GAIL is currently pursuing opportunities in Iran, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Turkey and the Philippines.
Back to News Review index page  

Exports up 18.81 per cent in July
New Delhi: The country's exports during July have grown by 18.81 per cent in dollar terms over the corresponding month in 2003, with cumulative exports during the first four months of the current fiscal registering a handsome 25.57 per cent growth, way ahead of the target of 16 per cent set for the current fiscal.

According to provisional foreign trade figures provided by the Directorate of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S), Kolkata, the country's exports during July are valued at $5,433.04 million, which is 18.81 per cent higher than the level of $4,572.89 million during July 2003. Cumulatively, exports during April to July, 2004 at $21,931.10 million is 25.57 per cent higher than the level of $17,465.80 million during April to July 2003. This is over and above the 4.82 per cent export growth in April-July 2003-04 over April-July 2002-03.

The country's imports during July are valued at $7,437.27 million, representing an increase of 31.60 per cent over the level of $5,651.62 million in July 2003. Cumulatively, the country's imports during April-July 2004-05 are valued at $3,0457.28 million, representing an increase of 33.48 per cent over the level of imports valued at $22,818.03 million in April-July 2003-04.

Oil imports during the period under review are estimated at $9,900.03 million which is 61.90 per cent higher than oil imports valued at $6,114.92 million in April-July 2003, reflecting the sudden spurt in international crude prices in recent months. The National Council of Applied Economic Research has said that relentless rise in crude prices might cause the import bill to escalate as India imports over two-thirds of its nearly 111 million tonnes of oil requirement.

As a result of relatively high import growth and a reasonably salutary export growth, the country's trade deficit zoomed to a level of $8,526.18 million during the first four months of the current fiscal, against $5,352.33 million during April-July 2003-04. Trade analysts, however, contend that unlike 2002-03 when the export surge could be ascribed to higher volumes, exports in 2003-04 mainly rode on a spurt in dollar prices of goods. This growth continues to be robust in the current fiscal too, rising 25.57 per cent in April-July 2004.
Back to News Review index page