Daily Times India

Mumbai, July 4 (IANS) Indian equities markets went up and down in volatile trading last week, but ended close to where they were a week ago, as investors waited anxiously for the budget to be unveiled Monday. A key index moved up from its previous weekly close, but only 1.01 percent.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rose 148.41 points (1.01 percent) over previous Friday’s close and ended trade at 14,913.05 points.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) followed the Sensex, gaining 1.1 percent from its last weekly close to end at 4,424.25 points.

Sensex hit an intra-week high of 14,955.5 and a low of 14,355.5 points, while the Nifty touched an intra-week high of 4,439.9 and a low of 4,249.7 points.

Volatility was rife in lesser market capitalised scrips as well, with the BSE’s midcap index closing just 0.32 percent higher than its previous weekly close, while the BSE smallcap index was up 0.42 percent.

Data with markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) showed that foreign funds were net sellers during the week, having sold scrips worth $387 million. They had bought $518.5 million worth of shares the previous week.

The week for the Sensex began on a flat note - a trend that was prevalent through most of the week.

On Monday, consolidation set in at Indian equities markets, with the Sensex falling after rising 191 points to close just 21 points above its last closing figure. It ended trade at 14,785.74 points.

Similarly, the Nifty ended the day 0.35 percent up at 4,390.95 points.

Profit booking ensued Tuesday, with the Sensex falling sharply in the last session to close 291 points lower. At end of trade, it stood at 14,493.84 points - 1.97 percent lower than Monday’s close.

The Nifty aped the Sensex to end the day 2.27 percent down at 4,291.1 points.

Traders bought realty, energy and banking stocks Wednesday, pushing the Sensex 151.63 points or 1.05 percent higher to 14,645.47 points.

The Nifty too ended the day 1.16 percent up at 4,340.9 points.

Markets ignored the reformist tone of the Economic Survey for 2008-09 presented Thursday, and closed flat, rising only 13 points to 14,694.31.

The Nifty ended 0.18 percent up at 4,348 points.

The top gainers in the Sensex were Tata Steel (up 12.7 percent), ONGC (up 8.8 percent), HDFC (up 6.2 percent), NTPC (up 4.8 percent) and DLF (up 3.5 percent).

Among top losers were Tata Motors (down 11.6 percent), ACC (down 3.8 percent), Hindalco (down 3.3 percent), Hero Honda (down 2.6 percent) and ITC (down 2.5 percent).

Dhaka, July 4 (IANS) The Bangladesh government is coming under increasing pressures from its own ministers and ruling Awami League lawmakers to hold urgent bilateral talks with India, which is planning to build a dam on the Barak river the two neighbours share, a media report here said Saturday.

Pressures are mounting as the government prepares to send a delegation of parliamentarians and experts to visit the project site. No date for the visit has been announced.

Many Awami League lawmakers and cabinet ministers believe that the proposed dam at Tipaimukh across the Barak river might cause ecological disaster in downstream Bangladesh, the New Age newspaper reported.

They want bilateral talks with India even as the opposition parties have joined protesting environmentalists, NGOs and other opinion makers, some of whom have taken to the streets.

A number of lawmakers and ministers of the Awami League-led coalition government said Friday that the government would uphold the country’s interest in any bilateral dialogue on the dam and equitable sharing of the common rivers’ waters.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith opined that the project, if implemented, would be harmful for the lower riparian country.

“The proposed dam is not good for our nation as it is against the environment and nature,” said the minister.

The issue has generated a blame-game between the ruling party and the opposition, each charging the other with “silence” instead of lodging protests with India.

Muhith said the Awami League’s protests against the project were “ignored” by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

India had completed the design of the dam and floated an international tender when Bangladesh was ruled by the BNP and its Islamist ally the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Muhith, however, urged all concerned to wait until the Bangladesh delegation submits its report after visiting the project site.

“As India has invited us to send a delegation to visit the site, we should make our decision after it submits its report,” he added.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told the New Age that the problems raised by the Tipaimukh dam should be resolved through consultation.

“It won’t be good neighbourly behaviour if India constructs the dam without consulting Bangladesh,” said Textile and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui.

Hyderabad, July 4 (IANS) A panel constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government has recommended that private schools in urban areas should not charge more than Rs.24,000 per annum as tuition fee up to Class 5 and Rs.30,000 up to Class 10.

The six-member panel was constituted last month following public complaints that several schools effected a steep hike in tuition fees from the academic year 2009-10.

The five-member expert panel headed by commissioner of intermediate education Luv Agarwal has asked the managements of all such schools to roll back the fee hike. The new fee structure recommended by the panel will come into effect from the next academic year.

The tuition fee for private schools in rural areas has been fixed at Rs.15,000 per annum up to Class 10. The fee excludes transport, food, books, uniform and hostel charges.

The panel fixed a maximum registration fee of Rs.100 for all schools. It also prescribed that schools should not collect more than Rs.5,000 as caution deposit and it should be refundable.

The panel, which submitted its 14-page report to the government Friday, clarified that the upper fee limit does not mean that all schools can collect it. The fee would be decided after taking into account the expenditure incurred by the school. It also laid down that the fee structure should be revised only once in three years.

All private schools in the state will also have to take permission from the district-level fee regulatory committee for increasing the fee. The committee will be headed by the district collector.

The panel recommended that all schools set up a governing council by including representatives of the management, teachers and parents. It also asked schools to set up a parent teacher association, which should be consulted by the management on the fee hike.

It also suggested that buying books, stationery and uniform from the school should be optional and that transport charges be collected on the basis of distance.

The committee also directed schools to do away with tags like international, talent, techno, model and e-school.

“The schools should be named as primary, upper primary and high schools,” it said.

This direction is significant as schools with tags like international and techno were found collecting huge fees.

The panel also clarified that the tuition fee includes charges for all extracurricular activity and the schools can’t collect the fee under different heads. It also made clear that schools should not collect development fee or recover advertising expenditure from students.

The panel’s recommendations have come as a major relief for parents, who had taken to the streets last month to protest the steep hike in fees by several schools. Some schools were collecting anywhere between Rs.30,000 to Rs.100,000 as tuition fees.

London, July 4 (IANS) Pop diva Madonna has upset dignitaries in St. Petersburg, Russia, by using foul language.

The 50-year-old singer said “It’s (the show) f**king great” at the beginning of an online audio teaser for her “Sticky and Sweet” concert in Palace Square which will take place Aug 2.

Reports suggest members of the legislative assembly in St. Petersburg have addressed Governor Valentina Matvienko with a proposal to sue Madonna for her comments, reported contactmusic.com.

It’s not the first time Madonna’s Palace Square show has come under fire. Many city officials fear the concert could offend the moral and religious sensibilities of the citizens of St. Petersburg.

Raipur, July 4 (IANS) A man in a Chhattisgarh village allegedly murdered his wife and two young sons before killing himself, police said Saturday.

Vishwanath Rathia, a resident of Samarsigha village in Raigarh district, killed his wife Uma Bai, 28, and his two sons - eight-year-old Devnath and six-year-old Jainath - with a sharp-edged weapon Friday night, a police official said.

Rathia, 30, then hanged himself in his house minutes after he killed his wife and sons.

Raigarh is some 220 km from state capital Raipur. The village is in the middle of a forest.

“Preliminary probe reveals that Rathia was addicted to alcohol and he had fights with his wife over the issue every day. It looks like the couple had a heated argument on Friday night also and it led to the killings,” police officer S.S. Raj, who is investigating the case, told IANS over phone.

He said relatives of the family had been questioned.

Los Angeles, July 4 (IANS) Hollywood star Zac Efron and model-turned-actress Megan Fox were seen enjoying a romantic dinner date at Pace, an upscale restaurant here.

“They were very friendly and their faces were close when they talked,” aceshowbiz.com quoted a source as saying.

The report suggests that both were embarking on a love relationship despite the fact that Efron is still dating actress girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens.

In November 2008, Fox had publicly expressed that she was obsessed with Efron and in January this year, Zac and Megan were reported flirting at a Golden Globe Awards after-party.

London, July 4 (IANS) Actors and close friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck played poker at an event in Las Vegas to raise money for charity.

The Oscar winners joined event host Don Cheadle and actors Brad Garrett and Danny Masterson and retired boxing champ Mike Tyson Thursday night for the charity event, reported femalefirst.co.uk.

The proceeds will be used to help survivors of war-torn Darfur in Sudan.

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which is holding a special politburo meeting here, is expected to announce measures to curb the infighting in its Kerala unit - between Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan - that was seen as a major reason for the party’s debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The two-day politburo meet is being held at the party headquarters here.

“All politburo members except West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are attending the meeting,” a party source told IANS.

Achuthanandan, who arrived in the capital Friday night, told reporters that he has left the issue of his continuing in the chief minister’s post to “the party and the people”.

“The party and people will decide on whether I should continue as chief minister,” Achuthanandan said Friday.

He has been under attack by the party cadre for seeking the removal of Vijayan - an accused in the multi-crore SNC-Lavlin scam - as party state secretary. On the other hand, Vijayan wants Achuthanandan to quit as chief minister for violating party discipline.

The CPI-M central committee election review meeting earlier had held the state leaders guilty for the party’s rout in the Lok Sabha polls.

According to the central committee document: “The disunity in the LDF (Left Democratic Front) led by the CPI-M was one of the factors for the defeat. The disunity in the party and LDF had an adverse impact on the people. Some of the statements of Comrade V.S. Achuthanandan during the campaign had an adverse effect and helped the opposition campaign.”

Toronto, July 4 (IANS) Two prestigious universities - Oxford in Britain and McGill in Canada - have joined hands for research on the human brain. The two universities are among world leaders in neuroscience research.

Montreal-based McGill University said Friday that it is partnering with Oxford “to broaden understanding of the human brain and take research to new heights”.

Under the collaborations in training and research in neuroscience, the two universities will have regular exchanges of students and professors.

“I am absolutely delighted to formalise this historic collaboration between our two great centres of learning in this important field,” McGill principal and vice-chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum was quoted as saying in a joint statement by the two universities.

“Our respective distinguished records in neuroscience research on both sides of the Atlantic suggest that, in joining forces, we can have a powerful impact. Together, we will attract new funding, accelerate the pace of research and, most important, the delivery of results,” he said.

Oxford vice-chancellor John Hood said: “The partnership will bring together the world-class research expertise of Oxford and McGill universities in one of the great challenges of this century: understanding how the brain works.

“By working together, we can increase the scope of our research and teaching and look forward to new advances in a wide range of conditions, from autism to Alzheimer’s.”

McGill University, which has 34,000 students from 160 countries on its rolls, runs one of the largest integrated programmes in neurosciences, aided by its Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute.

Oxford University has over 130 principal investigators conducting brain research. It also has about 250 research assistants and more than 200 postgraduate research students.

Its Centre for Functional MRI for the Brain offers the latest developments in brain imaging.

Jahangeerabad (Uttar Pradesh), July 4 (IANS) We’re seriously not horsing around. In an Uttar Pradesh village, the groom sits and waits for his bride who, dressed in fine bridal wear and a pagri, comes riding on a white mare to marry her man.

In Jahangeerabad village of Rae Bareli district, some 80 km from state capital Lucknow, it’s the bride and not the groom who sits on a decorated white mare and heads towards the wedding venue.

“It’s a unique custom that is being practised by the villagers, irrespective of the castes,” Shiv Kumar, a Jahangeerabad resident who recently performed the wedding of his daughter Manju as per the age-old custom, told IANS.

“With a sparkling turban (pagri) on her head, my 21-year-old daughter Manju last week sat on a white mare in her bridal attire and proceeded to the groom’s place in nearby village Umrai,” said Kumar, 58, a farmer who has been living in Jahangeerabad for several years.

Like Manju, other brides of the village have been performing the unique ritual for ages. No one in the village knows when it actually started.

However, locals believe that if the tradition is not followed, the marriage of their girls will not last long or can create chronic health disorders for the couple.

“There have been occasions in which the village girls did not follow the tradition. In all such cases, either the marriages did not last for long due to some marital problem, or the couples got afflicted with serious health disorders soon after their wedding,” said Bindai, a septuagenarian resident.

In order to adhere to the tradition, locals have had to persuade the groom and his family on several occasions.

“Normally there is no problem when the girl’s marriage is fixed with a boy residing in Jahangeerabad village or its nearby villages as the people are aware of the tradition,” said Nimbar, a farmer in the village.

However, when the marriage is fixed in a distant village, where the locals are not aware of the tradition, the girl’s family faces a tough time convincing the boy and his parents to perform the wedding as per the tradition, he added.

As a part of the custom, after the bride sits on the mare she has to pray in different temples in the village, before leaving for the groom’s place.

“During the process, prayers are specially offered to Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati,” said Pooran, another resident.

Most of the over 3,500 residents of the village are farmers.

(Asit Srivastava can be contacted at asit.s@ians.in)