Incumbent telecom operators slip after RIL’s surprise entry into spectrum battle

Shares of well-established telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications Ltd came under pressure after cash-rich Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced its decision to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction. Investors have concerns that RIL's entry into the field could cut into incumbent players' profits in the future.
RIL's decision to participate in the upcoming 2G spectrum auction has raised the prospect of fierce bidding and intensifying competition in a market, where margins are already low.
Mukesh Ambani-led RIL is sitting on a huge cash pile, which will give it an edge of over rivals at the auction. While RIL has nearly $15 billion on its hand, market leader Bharti Airtel has around $10 billion in debt.
Commenting on the development, Credit Suisse analysts Sunil Tirumalai and Chunky Shah said in a note, "The immediate impact is that of intense competition in auctions. The longer term impact could be increased competition and higher capex for incumbents."
The analysts also slashed their rating on Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular and cut their FY2015-16 earnings estimates for these telecom operators by 30-37 per cent.

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Shares of Bharti Airtel slipped 4.84 per cent, while Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices tanked 7.25 per cent, 4.18 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Delhi shamed again: Danish tourist gang-raped at knife-point, two arrested

New Delhi: In another incident that shamed the national capital, a 51-year-old Danish woman was allegedly gang-raped by a group of men near New Delhi Railway Station late on Tuesday.

Reports on Wednesday said that a Danish national, who was here on a tourist visa, had gone to visit a museum and while returning back to her hotel in Paharganj lost her way in the area when a group of men stopped her, robbed and gang-raped her.


The woman after returning to her hotel narrated her ordeal to her near ones, who further informed the police.

She was first looted at knife point, and then gang-raped by around six men, police said.

The Danish Embassy has also pitched in and asked the authorities for swift action in this case.

In the latest development, the Delhi Police have arrested two suspects in connection with the case. A senior Delhi Police official said that the two arrested suspects have been identified as Mahender alias Ganja, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur district and another one as Raja.

According to reports, the police have recovered an i-pod and a new mobile phone, which they believe was purchased out of the robbed cash, and Rs 800 cash from Mahender's possession and Rs 1,000 and a spectacle case from Raja.

The victim, who was supposed to leave for her country on Wednesday morning, has been asked by the police to stay back and assist in probe.

Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar dead, may be a case of suicide

New Delhi: Congress MP and Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor has been reportedly found dead in room number 345 of Leela hotel, Chanakyapuri here under mysterious circumstances on Friday night.


According to the initial reports, police have recovered the dead body from the hotel, yet the cause of Sunanda's death is not yet ascertained.

The body of 52-year-old Pushkar, a woman entrepreneur who married Tharoor in August 2010, was found in mysterious circumstances in luxury Leela Palace hotel in South Delhi, top police sources said.

However, Sunanda's death is being speculated as a suicide case.

“We have ordered inquiry to know the cause of death. No external injury found on her body,” Delhi Police Commissioner said.

Speaking to the media Abhinav Kumar, the private secretary of Shashi Tharoor, revealed that police investigation is on and further details will be out only after post-mortem is done.

Kumar told reporters at the hotel that Tharoor and Pushkar were staying in a suite since yesterday as some painting work was on at home. The Minister was away throughout the day in the AICC, he said.

When he came back around 8:30 PM, he found the door of her room inside the suite locked from the inside. She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found she was dead.

Kumar said there was no sign of foul play but whether it was natural death or not cannot be said now.

"The cause of death and the time of death, we cannot say now," he said.

Tharoor and his wife Sunanda on Thursday had issued a joint statement saying they are distressed by an 'unseemly controversy' over some "unauthorised tweets" posted from their Twitter accounts and that both are "happily married and intend to remain that way".

Over a Twitter controversy, Sunanda Tharoor on Wednesday had alleged that her husband was having an 'extra-marital affair' with a Pakistan-based journalist.

Talking to a daily, Sunanda had also said she would now 'seek divorce' from Tharoor.

Reacting to the above controversy, the journalist had threatened to sue Sunanda. Tharoor's wife had welcomed the scribe's move.

The furious wife's statement came shortly after the suave thrice-married human resources minister claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked. Notably, some controversial tweets were posted from his account last evening, leaving the followers utterly astonished. The tweets referred to Mehr Tarar, a Pakistani journalist.

Kejriwal meets Shinde, sets Monday deadline for action against Delhi Police

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to suspend four police officials for allegedly not conducting a raid without warrant ordered by Law Minister Somnath Bharti.

According to news report, Kejriwal has now set a deadline and have said if no action is being taken against the said personnel till Monday, 10 am, all Aam Aami Party (AAP) ministers will sit on a 'dharna' outside the Home Ministry.

Late Wednesday, Bharti had a heated tiff with Delhi police officials when he on his own initiative raided a house in south Delhi on suspicion that a narcotics and sex den was being run by some foreign nationals from the premises.


Kejriwal in a press conference had said, “Delhi Police is highly compromised. We are demanding... we are warning Delhi Police.”

Delhi CM had asked the Delhi police to suspend four officers who had refused to act on Bharti's instructions, against sex and drug gangs and in a case of burning a woman.

Meanwhile, Delhi Minister Manish Sisodoa said today that they will 'fix' the police even if the force did not come under their jurisdiction.

Observing that the crime rate in the national capital was 'very high', Kejriwal today demanded that Delhi Police be brought under Delhi government as Delhiites wanted answers from the force for every crime that took place in the city.

"People come to us demanding answers whenever a crime takes place. They do not look for the (Union) home minister. So, it is high time that Delhi Police was handed over to Delhi government," Kejriwal told reporters here following a meeting with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

He said that, if required, the security of the NDMC area and Lutyens' Zone may be controlled by the Centre, but stressed that the law and order duties for the rest of the city should be handed over to Delhi government.

Delhi Police is under the administrative control of the Home Ministry.

In an another case, Women and Child Development Minister Rakhi Birla had gone to Safdarjung Hospital on Wednesday night to meet a 24-year-old woman who was allegedly set on fire by her in-laws.

Birla alleged that when she went to meet the station house officer of Sagarpur police station in west Delhi, to find out details of the case, the officer was missing.

Both the AAP leaders, Birla and Bharti then had a bad verbal-spat with the Delhi police officers.

Following to both the incidents, Kejriwal on Thursday backed both of it's leaders and in a press conference in a very strong pitch asked the Centre to take action against the Delhi Police in both the cases.

Delhi CM held the press conference with Bharti and Birla sitting alongside him.

Speaking more like an activist he was, Kejriwal called the Delhi Police "highly compromised" and demanded the suspension of four officers for allegedly refusing to act against sex and drug gangs and the burning of a woman.

"We are demanding ... we are warning Delhi Police," Kejriwal told the media, using unusually harsh language for a chief minister. "Delhi Police is highly compromised."

He demanded the suspension of the station house officers (SHO) of Sagarpur and Malviya Nagar police stations and two assistant commissioners of police.

The comment followed the gang-rape of a Danish woman in Delhi. The woman was assaulted near the New Delhi railway station.

As Delhi is not a full-fledged state, Delhi Police does not report to the city government. It is controlled by the Union Home Ministry

Encounter in which 6 women Naxals died was fake

Gadchiroli: A human rights activist on Wednesday alleged that the encounter at Mendhri village in Etapalli tehsil of the district on July 7, in which six suspected women Naxals were killed, was fake.

Bela Bhatia, a professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, lodged a written complaint in this regard with the Superintendent of Police here today.

Bhatia headed a fact-finding team that visited the spot recently. Police, huge in number, could have captured women alive as they had indicated that they wanted to surrender, she alleged.

"We will produce ourselves before the Sub Divisional Magistrate of Etapalli who is conducting magisterial enquiry into the incident," Bhatia said, addressing a press conference here.

Police had claimed that they opened fire in retaliation. Gadchiroli, which borders on Chhattisgarh, is a hotbed of Naxal activities.

Modi tears into Nitish, says Bihar will never forgive him

BJP national campaign committee chairman and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by directly attacking  Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for snapping ties with the BJP. He said the people of Bihar would never forgive him for the move.
In his interaction with around 1500 party workers through teleconferencing on Saturday Modi not only discussed the poll strategy for the upcoming parliamentary election at length, but also explained how Bihar and Gujarat have historically been close to each other.
Taking on the Bihar CM on his own turf, the Gujarat CM even mentioned how Dr Rajendra Prasad, who hailed from Bihar, was close to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The latter played a key role in Prasad becoming the first President of the country, he said.He also mentioned that most politicians in his age group are products of the Jai Prakash Narayan movement that had it’s epicentre in Bihar.
“The relation of Bihar and Gujarat is very old and we also celebrate Bihar Diwas in Surat and Ahmedabad. We are made for each other” Modi said.
Modi has strategically started his campaign from the land of his political bête noir Nitish Kumar, who snapped the 17-year-old alliance of his party with the NDA because he was averse to Modi’s elevation within the party.
“The campaign would help in boosting the morale of the party workers who sacrificed party alliance on the issue of Modi and at the same time the political tips to grassroots workers would certainly raise their self esteem to work hard for coming parliamentary election.” BJP party sources said.
“This move was also planned to take direct feedback from workers, particularly after parting away from JD(U)in Bihar” the sources said.
Meanwhile, the JD(U) party in Bihar labelled the move by Modi a political drama. ”The use of a high-tech campaign is purely an urban phenomenon and nothing to do with the large rural mass of the country. How many people have TV and IT access in rural areas “asked Bihar JD(U) President Bashist Narayan Singh.
He further said that the BJP has not learnt a lesson from how its “feel good” campaign boomeranged in the 2004 parliamentary election

Badrinath and Uttarkashi areas in Uttarakhand....

Exactly 15 days after a cloudburst caused widespread flooding and devastation in Uttarakhand, the armed forces on Monday brought 600 pilgrims stranded in the flood-ravaged upper reaches of Badrinath in the hill State to safety. It effectively ends the fortnight-long rescue operations the nearly 10,000 defence personnel were engaged in.
It also means the armed forces will gradually withdraw from the relief work, though some of the troopers will be retained to reach food and other supplies to locals in interior parts of the flood-hit districts of the State.
In a related development, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna imposed a blanket ban on construction of houses and commercial establishments along the banks of rivers and announced setting up of a statutory body to look into planning and development of the flood-hit areas.
However, what has now become a major cause for concern for the Army personnel, deployed in Uttarakhand to defend the nation’s territory from Chinese threat, is that their own stock of monsoon food and other supplies has depleted after it was distributed to over one lakh stranded pilgrims.
There are nearly 25,000 Army troopers deployed in the six brigade-sized formations at Dehradun, Raiwala, Roorkee, Chaubatia and Pithoragarh in the Kumaoni and Garhwali hills and the three regimental centres at Lansdowne, Ranikhet and Roorkee. These forces are there to defend the Indian territory in the hill State that borders Tibet along the 545-km central sector of the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
In June, the Army formations in the State had monsoon supplies for its troopers until September. However, this stock has depleted after it was used to feed the pilgrims, who got isolated in important pilgrimage centres including Kedarnath, Badrinath, Joshimath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, in the aftermath of the flashfloods.
“In the last 24 hours, we rescued 628 persons from Badrinath and with this, all the rescue effort has been completed. As many as 500 locals are to be temporarily brought out from Badrinath, which will be done tomorrow. But rescue of visitors from outside the State is over,” a senior Defence Ministry official said here on Monday. “We will continue to deploy helicopters to drop supplies to the locals. Some troopers will be assisting in the relief work. But the rest will be sent back to their defence duties soon,” the official noted.