minimunch

With the assembly polls in major states concluding, the government may slash petrol price next week by Rs 10 a litre, diesel by Rs 3 per litre and domestic LPG by Rs 20 per cylinder in line with fall in global oil prices.

The Government can actually reduce the petrol price to Rs.20 per litre because the price of the crude oil per barrel has come down to that level. They are only cutting the petrol price by Rs.10 and am sure it is not enough at all with increased inflation and job cuts.

A day after they signed the Memorandum of Understanding with television producers, the workers’ union Federation of Western India Cine Employees has gone back on its word and renewed the strike. The new development took place because the workers felt that the union leaders signed the documents without taking them into confidence. If the strike continues, then re-runs will go on in the TV.

The government will consider a cut in fuel prices if crude oil prices stabilise at levels where losses of oil companies are lower, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said today.

“Prime Minister has said we cannot reduce prices now because the oil companies are losing heavily,” Deora said.

Deora wanted losses to come down further and crude prices to stabilise before considering a price cut.

On his way back from his maiden three-day visit to the Gulf, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had yesterday said that the government will wait till public sector oil companies break-even on fuel sales before considering slashing fuel prices.

The crude oil prices per barrel have drastically come down and it is high time that the fuel prices to down to somewhere around INR Rs.40. Why is the Government so silent without reacting to the situation? Politicians may want to look for a gain in this situation too. It is a real shame.

The Indian markets were the most volatile in the world after China and Hong Kong in 2007-08, according to market regulator Sebi.

“Equity markets witnessed unprecedented buoyancy as well as steep corrections in 2007-08. Towards the end of the year, there was steep correction in the indices on account of concerns over domestic inflation and impending global recession,” Sebi said in its annual report.

This is not a great news. India’s market needs to be stable like Singapore and other countries.

India (58.92) are now the second best team playing Test cricket. Australia (85.93), in spite of the 2-0 away loss to India, continue to be the overwhelming leader in the Rediff Test Rankings. It is definitely a good news for us. I have always wanted India to scale up on other sports too like Hockey, swimming, etc. I am sure you will also have the same opinion as mine.

Sehwag scored a 50 in the forenoon session with the debutant Vijay scoring 37. Currently there is a lunch break and after lunch let us hope that Vijay also will hit a half century. Vijay is from TamilNadu, India and has been performing very well. The highest scoring batsman in the entire series so far is Gautam Gambhir. He could have gotten more if he had played for this test. Unfortunately he was penalized and banned from playing one test.

In a case of political espionage, an unknown “foreign entity” had hacked the entire computer systems of the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain this summer, triggering a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.

In midsummer, the Obama campaign’s computers were attacked by a virus. The Democratic campaign’s technical experts spotted it and took standard precautions, such as putting in a firewall.

This is the height of it as I cannot imagine how unsafe all the other computers are!

India has done pretty decent today in the match against the Kangaroos. They could restrict the score to 355 all out. Tomorrow India can pick up on their batting and accumulate more runs. If India loses this match then the entire series becomes a draw which must be definitely avoided. If India gets the match to draw, then they win. Also, if India wins the match which is what I want, then we win the entire series. Let keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.

I just read a news on security threat for Sachin Tendulkar. Is being a star a big problem? I just cannot understand why are the stars being aimed at. What has Sachin got to do with terrorism? Why is he being the target? what is the police force going to do? They always say that they will tighten the security. Will that solve the problem? Last month I read another news on the threat that Saurav Ganguly’s daughter will be abducted. Let us hope that the police force does something about it.

Violence broke out during the dawn-to-dusk Bihar bandh called on Saturday by various student organisations to protest against the attacks on Biharis by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Mumbai, police sources said. Students ransacked Shekhpura railway station and delinked the engine of a passenger train on Saturday morning. I saw some video clips on the same and it was such an unreasonable act by the attackers and they stole many things in the name of riots.