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Bombay High rig fire claims eight lives
New Delhi: About eight people are believed to have died at the devastating fire at an oil platform off the Mumbai coast. Of these six are ONGC employees and two are contract workers.

About 20 to 25 people are missing and navy and coast guard are assisting ONGC's relief teams to locate them.

Six more employees have been located trapped under the debris of the oil platform and rescue teams are trying to get them out. Rescue teams have rescued 348 employees. The company has put up the names of the rescued employees and the dead on its website.

The fire broke out at around 16:30 hours on Wednesday at a platform about 160 kilometres from the Mumbai coast. At the time there were 385 people on the platform when the incident took place, apparently due to collision of a vessel docked.

ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha said the platform, which gathered oil from up to 20 wells and supplied 80,000 barrels per day, would take several months to return to normal production.

This is the second major fire in four years at the Mumbai High fields.
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Mumbai limps back to normalcy
Mumbai: Mumbai is slowly limping back to normalcy after being hit by the century's heaviest rainfall. Rail and road links have been partially restored on Thursday morning while rescue operations in landslide-affected Jui in Raigad district and other parts of Maharashtra continued on a large scale as the death toll in the State crossed 200.

Long distance train services have not yet resumed though suburban locals on Western Railway route were running between Churchgate and Virar and between Thane and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the Central Railway route. The Harbour Railway route was operational only between CST and Kurla.

Mumbai Santa Cruz airport was 'partially operational' and four aircraft, including three with relief material, landed today.

On an ominous note, rains continued to lash Konkan and other parts of the State and the weather bureau has forecast heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours.
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Casualties cross 100 in rain-related incidents
Mumbai: The death toll crossed 100 in rain hit Maharashtra and the army, navy and air force were called for relief and rescue efforts in Mumbai, Raigad and parts of Maharashtra's Konkan region.

According to Maharashtra chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, 99 people were killed in rains in the state. Mumbai and parts of Konkan region remained cut off from rest of the country.

45 people were killed in Raigad district, 22 in Mumbai, 16 in Navi Mumbai, six in Ratnagiri, eight in Thane and two in Beed.

Mumbai remained totally paralysed with rail and air traffic coming to a halt.

Statisticians said the quantum of rainfall that hit Maharashtra on Tuesday and Wednesday has not been seen in the last hundred years. The State government has deployed 5,000 personnel of the army, navy and air force for rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas and pressed four naval helicopters into service in Raigad and Thane districts. In Mumbai a special navy helicopter was deployed for carrying diving teams with inflatable boats and rescue equipment in suburban Santa Cruz.
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Government succumbs to Left pressure, trashes sell-off plans
New Delhi: The government has decided to abandon its plans for the strategic sale of 13 more public sector undertakings (PSUs) including Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), Engineers India (EIL), National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and State Trading Corporation of India (STCI).

According to a cabinet note prepared by the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) the proposed strategic sale of 13 companies has been "terminated." Government sources said, the decision was taken on the basis of the White Paper on disinvestment, expected to be tabled in the current session of Parliament.

The 13 companies were part of the list of PSUs prepared by the NDA government for strategic disinvestment. Other companies taken off the block include Manganese Ore India, Sponge Iron India, National Fertilizers, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, Balmer Lawrie, Engineering Projects (India) and Hindustan Paper Corporation, sources said. A Cabinet approval is required to reverse the previous NDA government's decision.
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NCAER lowers GDP forecast
New Delhi: The National Council of Applied Economic Research (Ncaer) has revised downward its forecast of the growth rate for the economy during the current fiscal from its earlier 7.2 per cent in April to 7.1 per cent now.

In its quarterly review, released recently NCAER said the marginal revision was due to four factors, viz., the monsoon, rising oil pries, a dampening of the world economy and the domestic investment climate.

The Council said agricultural production is now set to rise by 2.5 per cent against 3.5 per cent assumed in April and agricultural prices to rise by 6 per cent (5.5 per cent). World GDP growth of is now 3.1 per cent as against 4.3 per cent assumed earlier. The Council said the decline in agricultural production causes demand to contract, resulting in a deceleration in GDP growth. Though there has been a revival of the monsoon, there have also been delays and erratic rainfall. According to the Council flooding in different parts of the country caused difficulties in transportation, leading to a shortfall of supplies in different mandies and causing inflationary tendencies in agro-products.
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Infrastructure sector growth at 10.2 pc in June
New Delhi: The growth rate in the six infrastructure industries stood at 10.2 per cent for June 2005 - up 2.4 per cent compared to the same period last fiscal on the back of buoyancy in steel, cement, and power sectors. The performance of these three sectors was able to offset the slowdown in crude oil, refining, and coal sectors.

Finished steel output improved by 21.9 per cent during the month compared to a decline of 1.8 per cent in June last year; cement production jumped 13.3 per cent against a negative growth of 3.9 per cent earlier. Simultaneously, power generation rose 9.3 per cent compared to 4.6 per cent a year back.
Petroleum refining production went down by 1.1 per cent while production of crude petroleum increased by a marginal 0.4 per cent during the month against growth of 9.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively in June 2004.

Coal sector growth also slowed down during the month to 3.2 per cent from 6.6 per cent. Cumulative growth of the six infrastructure industries during the first quarter stood at 5.5 per cent (8.1 per cent), according to an official release.
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