Author: Biz India

BJP Rules Out Mukherjee and Ansari As Presidential Candidates

[sam id=”4″][sam_ad id=”” codes=”true”] NEW DELHI, April 30 – Giving a new turn to the Presidential race, the Bharatiya Janata Party today ruled out supporting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari or any other candidate who may be put up by the Congress Party but is open to supporting anyone chosen by the non-Congress parties. “We will not accept any Congress candidate, including Pranab Mukherjee, for the President’s post,” BJP leader Sushma Swaraj she told reporters here today. The names of Mukherjee and Ansari have been doing the round as being among the probables in the Presidential election. Asked about Ansari, Swaraj said he does not have the stature to be President and hence BJP will not support him. She also categorically said there will be no understanding with the Congress under which NDA would support UPA’s Presidential candidate and get their support in return for the vice-president’s post. “We are looking at the 2014 elections and do not want to give the impression that we have any truck with the Congress,” Swaraj said. She said BJP was gauging the mood of the UPA allies on the Presidential elections. On whether a non-Congress candidate like A P J Abdul Kalam, Swaraj said the BJP is open to the idea. “We can have an understanding with non-Congress parties where we support their Presidential candidate and they support our vice-presidential...

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Kolkata Vs. Pune Clash: It’s Ganguly’s First

Kolkata: Eden Gardens may be the official home venue for the Kolkata Knight Riders, but come May 5, a majority of the Kolkatans — from celebrities to the man on the street — seem to be gearing up emotionally to back their eternal favorite ‘Dada’ Sourav Ganguly, who will lead the Pune Warriors India out on the historic ground. The much-awaited Indian Premier League clash, which many are saying would be a ‘home’ tie for Pune, has already generated tremendous interest. The entire quota of tickets set aside for online booking has been sold, and police had to baton-charge sports buffs, who had gone on a rampage after failing to procure tickets on Sunday despite standing in the queue for hours. The match is being variously touted as “Dada vs SRK” (KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan) and as a derby, with Ganguly set to use for the first time ever the visiting team dressing room and dug out on a ground where he honed his cricketing skills from a young age. Ganguly, who led Kolkata in the early editions of the tournament, was shown the door last year after a controversy-laden three-year association. The prince of Kolkata has done his bit to further electrify the atmosphere. “Eden is my ground. Eden is always a home match for me,” he said. Passion for Ganguly is at its peak, especially after...

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The 800-Lb Gorilla in the Room

By Martin Weiss, PhD It is THE story of the day. It is THE event that will impact every investment decision you make. If you ignore it, it will cost you. If you harness it, it can make you substantially richer. I’m talking about the end of austerity programs and so-called “fiscal pacts” all over the world. Last year, for example, Congress debated endlessly about budget cutting but never actually DID anything of substance. Nor are they likely to do a darn thing during this election season. Also last year, after months of agonizing debate, the Europeans finally managed to cobble together an agreement to cut their deficits. But just in the last couple of weeks, the entire agreement has started to collapse. Sarkozi in France, who was a major linchpin of the pact, has fallen from grace. The government of the Netherlands, another major supporter of the pact, has collapsed. The upcoming elections in Greece could be another game changer. And now, May Day in Europe will launch new street protests against austerity all across the continent. Suddenly and without warning, the pressure is building for MORE spending, BIGGER deficits, and a bigger pile-up of DEBT. Plus, I’m talking about an enormous amount of money that’s already being created by the world’s central banks right now. From Tokyo to Brussels and from London to Washington, the world’s governments...

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Nalsar Hyderabad’s Academic Revolution

By Prachi Shrivastava Nalsar Hyderabad’s newly appointed vice chancellor Prof. Faizan Mustafa plans to make  drastic changes to the undergraduate law degree syllabus and credit system, introduce new courses designed by practicing lawyers, and target alumni for faculty recruitment. Mustafa said that 20 out of the 50 courses of Nalsar’s five year LLB degree would become optional, as 17 new papers would be added to the current list of three elective courses. “I am going to give a huge choice to my students in terms of electives,” he said. In the present scheme, there are 47 compulsory papers out of a total of 50, despite the Bar Council of India (BCI) rules requiring only 30 compulsory papers, which Mustafa said was “not a healthy state of affairs”. “I feel a university which does not offer too many courses cannot truly be claiming to be a university in the real sense of the term.” The number of lecture hours allotted to every course would also change under the proposal. One credit would be awarded for every 16 hours of taking a course, and hours for each course would be re-allocated based on the number of credits required. “In the best universities of the world credit is given on the basis of the number of lectures which you take for the course,” said Mustafa, explaining that the new system envisaged a...

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U.P. CM Yadav Says He Will Supply 470,000 Tablets and Laptops to Students

Lucknow – Taking a step towards providing free laptops and tablets to students who have passed class X and XII, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has formed a committee to oversee their purchase and distribution to students, as implementation of his Samajwadi Party’s poll promise. The committee, headed by chief secretary Jawwed Usmani, would be entering into detailed negotiations with Information Technology (IT) major companies and try to “get the best deal” for the state. The high-powered committee, other than the chief secretary, would have nine principal secretaries, including those for Information, Finance, IT, Planning, Higher Education and Secondary Education. The committee would first be inviting proposals for the supply of some 470,000 tablets and laptops and would then hold discussions to scale down the prices, since the poll promise of the Samajwadi Party (SP) is likely to bear a price tag of Rs.4,555 crore (about $876 million). The number of class XII students in the state is pegged at 181,900 while the number of class X students is 281,400, for a total of 463,300 students qualified to receive them. The government, at the highest level, has already explored the possibility of procurement of laptops and tablets with IT major HCL whose chairman Shiv Nadar and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav have already held “preliminary parleys” on the matter, an official said. While the IT giant has expressed its...

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