Freeing auto fuel pricing may raise petrol by Rs 5, diesel by Rs 2

New Delhi: Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Monday said that decision on giving oil companies freedom to fix price of Petrol and diesel will be taken after an expert committee’s report this week. Freeing auto fuel pricing would mean a hike of Rs 4.72 a litre on petrol rates and Rs 2.33 per litre on diesel prices.

“We are trying our best to see that prices are not raised,” Deora told reporters in New Delhi.

“But a rate hike may become inevitable as government’s limited financial resources are not enough to meet the revenue lost on selling petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene below cost.”

“The Cabinet had in July 2009 decided that government will meet all of the under-recovery (revenue loss) on domestic LPG and kerosene either through bonds or in cash and the same on petrol and diesel was to be met by upstream companies like ONGC ,” he said.

While Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India and GAIL borne the entire Rs 8,364 crore (Rs 83.64 billion) under-recovery on petrol and diesel in first three quarters of current fiscal, the government has agreed to give only Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) in cash against the Rs 20,989 crore (Rs 209.89 billion)revenue loss on cooking fuel in April-December.

“We will be meeting finance minister tomorrow to see how this under-recovery is to be met,” Deora said adding a decision on fuel pricing was likely only after the Kirit Parikh committee submits its report this week.

Freeing auto fuel pricing would mean a hike of Rs 4.72 a litre on petrol rates and Rs 2.33 per litre on diesel prices as Indian Oil Corporation , Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum sell them at rates lower than the imported cost.

Deora said there were some people who were advocating freeing petrol and diesel prices while the government and upstream companies together subsidised LPG and kerosene.

“We will decide on the pricing after due consultations on the Parikh committee report,” he said. “Petroleum ministry is not a private company that can decide on such issue by itself.

“Government is extremely conscious of the effect any increase in fuel prices. . . the cascading effect of a Rs 2 per litre increase indiesel prices, for example, would be felt on prices of food items,” he said.

“But there was an urgent need to find a permanent solution to this recurring problem of under-recoveries.”

Petroleum secretary S Sunderashan said it was estimated that the total revenue loss on the four products this fiscal would be over Rs 45,500 crore (Rs 455 billion).

Deora said the report of Parikh committee, the third panel on the issue, is expected this week.

“There are suggestions that petrol prices should be freed immediately while there can be dual prices for diesel — market rates for bulk consumers like Railways and subsidised rates for fuel sold from petrol pumps,” he said adding, the issue would be decided after getting the committee report.

HC stays ‘askme.in’ functioning for copyright violation

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today restrained an online portal ‘www.askme.in’ from carrying out its business following allegations that it had infringed the copyright of another portal ‘Just Dial.com’.

Justice Indermeet Kaur Kocchar, while restraining `www.askme.com’ from carrying out its business, appointed two lawyers as court commissioners and asked them to visit the Mumbai and Delhi-based offices of the portal to verify the allegations levelled against it.

The court also directed the court commissioners to conduct a thorough survey of the offices and collect all database and floppies to be placed before it.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the portal, ‘Just Dial.com’, which alleged that the rival portal was using its database and was violating itscopyright.

“It is evident from the copied database which contain a large number of identical spelling mistakes,” the petitioners alleged.

Rising prices, wage deflation, joblessness burn the poor, Govt and RBI fail

New Delhi: Rising prices of essential commodities coupled with wage deflation and increasing joblessness are pushing the poor households in India to a point of distress. Cosmetic measures of the government are unable to address the situation.

The government of the day is harping upon the idea that an annual GDP growth rate in the range of 7% to 9% would be able to address the situation. The country has already experienced a GDP growth rate of 7.9% in the second quarter of the current fiscal 2009-10, but the situation has not improved. This is enough to prove that the GDP growth rate alone would not solve the problem.

Government’s heavy dose of fiscal stimulus can give a big push to the corporate performance and post a good industrial growth which has already been possible in the second quarter of the current fiscal year. The services sector, which accounts for 64.5% of the GDP, has also performed well registering a growth of 9%, partly due to the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission award.

The state governments and the public sector companies are likely to align their pay scales with the Sixth Pay Commission award and hence a further push to the services sector is expected. But this would certainly not address the wage deflation in the private sector and the shrinkage in job opportunities caused due to the impact of the global financial crisis.

However, the government’s spending for some social and welfare schemes has given some relief to the common man, particularly the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment scheme.

In this existing growth model, the magic figure of 7% to 9% GDP growth rate is achievable but this would not solve the real problems of the common man as long as the price inflationary pressure persists alongwith wage deflation and increasedjoblessness.

The retail prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing. In Delhi retail market the prices of common rice varieties are ranging between Rs 22 to Rs 32 a kg, that of sugar at Rs 44 a kg, that of different varieties of pulses are ranging between Rs 40 to Rs 100 a kg, that of cooking oils are ranging between Rs 64 to Rs 80 a kg, that of common salt is Rs 12 a kg, that of garlic is Rs 140 a kg, that of ginger is Rs 60 a kg, that of turmeric is Rs 160 a kg – to cite a few instances. Similar is thesituation all over the country.

The price inflation measured in terms of the movement of wholesale price index (WPI) and that of four consumer price indices (CPIs) became divergent soon after the impact of global financial crisis was being felt in the country. The headline WPI inflation which was 1.2% in March, 2009, declined to 0.83% in April 4, 2009 and after increasing to a maximum of 1.75% moved to negative zone from June 6, 2009. It remained negative for 11 consecutive weeks till August 15, 2009. It turned positive in September 2009, accelerated to 4.8% in November 2009 and further to 7.3% in December 2009.

But in the periods of decline in the WPI, the CPIs remained consistently higher almost at double digit levels. The decline in WPI can be explained as due to the high statistical base of the previous year caused by the impact of rising global commodityprices . But the pertinent question is why it did not happen to the CPIs when the WPI subsequently declined. The so-called experts explanation about the composition of the baskets and weightage in the CPIs does not hold good.

The deceleration in agricultural growth due to poor monsoon rains is not much a cause for price rise as there are enough stock of foodgrains withthe government. There is ample sugar stock in the country also.

It is high time to address this tragedy of errors – the cause of huge divergences in wholesale and retail prices – if the policymakers really want to address the problem of the price inflationary pressure on the economy. The disease in the supply chain from wholesaler to retailer and to the consumer needs to identified and addressed, instead just talking about shortfall in production

Moving towards a high-cost economy of a liberalized market is no solution. It would rather aggravate the problem. The UN Report on the World Social Situation-2010 with the theme – Rethinking Poverty – has already sounded a warning bell and has said that economic liberalization across the world since 1980s has slowed down growth and poverty reduction and increased inequality and vulnerability in most countries. The growth slowdown was market in all the years except the period 2003-08

No viable yardstick exists to estimate poverty. The world is not on the track to meet the Millennium Development Goals 1 of bringing down extreme global poverty by half by 2015.

The impact of the current financial crisis which began from later half of 2008 has only added to the worsening situation. Economic liberalization has reduced the policy space of the government and decreased revenue collection, both of which are necessary tools of the state to combat poverty and hunger, the UN report said.

It is high time that the government pursue an alternative model for development and heed to the UN report which observed that “poverty magic bullets” like micro-finance, property rights, including land titling and “Bottom of the Pyramid” marketing have not worked well to eradicate poverty.

According to the UN report as market failures are likely to occur, good governance with social objective is necessary for poverty alleviation. Focus should be on alternative growth-enhancing governance capabilities to address key development bottlenecks.

Growth process needs to be more stable by maintaining consistently counter-cyclical macroeconomic stance. Measures should be aimed at reducing inequality. Targeting poor is often expensive and politically unsustainable, while missing out many deserving and therefore the social measures ofthe government, particularly for food, healthcare and education, should be universal in nature.

The country’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has done a tightrope walking with a view to rein in the mounting price inflationary pressure on the economy

In its third quarter review for the fiscal 2009-10 it has announced a hike in cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks by 75 basis points from 5% to 5.75% of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL). The hike in CRR will be in two phases – one by an increase of 50 basis points from February 13 and the other by an increase of 25 basis points from February 27.

The RBI has kept the bank rate unchanged at 6%. Also the repo rate under liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) will remain unchanged at 4.75% and the reverse repo rate under LAF will be retained at 3.25%.

Under circumstances the central bank has very little role in reining in the price inflationary pressure. The effective role in controlling the price inflation lies in the pragmatic policies ofthe government.

The RBI’s compulsion of following the pattern of the existing model is evident when it suggests for shifting the policy focus from ‘managing the crisis (due to the impact of globalfinancial crisis )’ to ‘managing the recovery’ and at the same time cites several risk factor for the emerging scenario and expresses concerns over the price inflationary pressure on the economy, in which it has a very limited role to play

The RBI has projected an annual GDP growth rate for the country in 2009-10 at 7.5%  and the baseline WPI inflation rate by end-March 2010 at 8.5%. Thus the WPI inflation rate would be higher than the annual GDP growth rate. Then where is the relief for the common man?

It is strange that the RBI instead of suggesting an alternative development model is trying its best to sustain this existing model. While keeping hopes on the revival of the global economy and it also says “there is still uncertainty about the pace and shape of global recovery.”  This paradox is evidently due to the fact that it has become both helpless and hopeless.

The RBI maintains “the conduct of monetary policy will continue to condition and contain perception of inflation in the range of 4% to 4.5%. This will be in line with the medium-term objective of 3% inflation consistent with India’s broader integration with the global economy.” This can only be possible if the country follows a people-centric development model instead of the existing corporate-centric development model.

Nishant prototype did not crash land: DRDO

Bangalore: ‘Nishant,’ the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which veered off from the airstrip and landed a few kilometers away at Kolar, about 70 km from the city, on January 29 did not crash land, the DRDO said today.

The UAV developed by the city-based Aeronautical Development Establishment took off from a launcher at DRDO’s Kolar Airfield, flew through the designated way points using a guidance system based on onboard navigation system which used GPS, a DRDO release said here today.

The light was on from 1130 hrs to 1530 hrs as per plan and Nishant was returning towards recovery area near launcher when an ”onboard malfunction occurred” five km away from Bangarpet, about 85 km from here.

However, it was recovered safely after the ground control deployed the onboard parachute to land the UAV as per design.

To absorb the shock of recovery, the landing bag in the aerial vehicle also was deployed and it was recovered fully intact except for very minor damage.

After investigating the cause of malfunction during the flight and incorporating corrections to the standard operating procedures the same Nishant was flown successfully for more than four hours today, the ADE said.

Rahul attacks Sena, MNS for tirade against north Indians

BODHGAYA (BIHAR): AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Mondy attacked Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and the MNS for their tirade against peopl from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

“In Maharashtra, MNS leader Raj Thackeray keeps on saying throw out people of Bihar and UP. But, who killed the terrorists who had attacked Mumbai? They were the NSG guys from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and from the rest of the country. At that time they did not say throw away Biharis,” he said.

Gandhi made the remarks at an interactive session with workers of Youth Congress and NSUI here and while addressing a conference on Dalit youth leadership development in Bihar.

The Congress leader said in lighter vein “if terrorists have to be fought with, let Biharis remain there.”

Asking the youth to change Bihar, Gandhi lamented lack of development in the state. “Bihar has to be changed and it is the youth that will bring this change by joining politics. There is no problem with people of Bihar,” he said.

Gandhi is on a two day visit to the state to boost NSUI and Youth Congress membership drive at a time when Bihar is preparing for assembly elections later this year.

The Congress leader took potshots at the BJP-JD(U) government in the state, saying funds sent by the Centre for development schemes in Bihar were not utilised properly.

“We can send money but we cannot implement schemes. It is the state government’s responsibility and in Bihar the government is not of Congress. We can send money and we are sending it more and more, but if the money is eaten away, we (the Centre) cannot do anything,” Gandhi said.

Vaishnavi kidnap: Cops fail to make headway

VIJAYAWADA: Police seemed to have achieved little progress even after 36 hours in the Vaishnavi kidnap case. The 10-year-old daughter of a

liquor baron was abducted on her way to school in Vijayawada on Saturday morning. Sources said police have zeroed in on two gangs settled in Tadepalli in Guntur and suspect that at least six persons were part of the whole operation.While three of them abducted the girl, after killing the car driver, the others are said to have extended them the logistical support by staying back in Seethanagaram.

Sources said the police strongly believe rowdy sheeter Madhu’s involvement in the episode and have reportedly taken his brother Ramu into custody in the late hours of Sunday. Police reportedly seized the mobile phone from the possession of Ramu, who too is a history sheeter, in which the police found pictures of the car driver Lakshman Rao who was murdered.

However, no confirmation was forthcoming from police officials involved in the investigation saying that any disclosure at this point would severely hamper the safety of the girl.

Meanwhile, rumours spread that the police have also picked up liquor baron Prabhakar Rao’s brothers Sudhakar and Prasad and are questioning them. Since the police still suspect that family feud might be a reason for the abduction, they are not leaving anything to chance.

Police also released the sketch of one of the kidnappers late on Sunday night.

10-year old abducted girl killed brutally in Vijayawada

The 10-year-old girl, who was kidnapped in Vijayawada three days ago while going to her school in a car along with her brother was found brutally killed at Auto Nagar of Guntur, 30 kms away form Vijayawada. The girl was killed by pushing her into a blazing boiler in a work shed in Auto Nagar.

The police found that she was killed by brothers of her father’s first wife. Vaishnavi is studying fourth class.

Vaishnavi, youngest daughter of Prabhakara Rao, businessmen in Vijayawada was kidnapped by some unidentified people on Saturday morning, when she was going to her school in their car along with her elder brother Sai Teja.

Some miscreants stopped car by damaging its car, stabbed the driver and kidnapped her along with the car. During the time when they were stabbing the driver, Sai Teja escaped from the car and taken shelter in a near-by house and informed the same to his parents.

Later police found the abanded car on the outskirts of Vijayawada towards Guntur. Since then police started investigation with out any clue.

Prabhakara Rao has deserted his first wife, who has a son some 15 years ago and married another woman. These two are children from the second wife. First wife has two brothers, who were said to be involved in this kidnap and murder drama. Prabhakara Rao was locked with property-related disputes with his first wife.

Knowing about these disputes, Vijayawada police picked up first wife’s two brothers on Sunday night and with the clue given by her second brother Srinivasa Rao, police located the dead body’s place on Monday evening.

According to police, they killed Vaishnavi by pushing into blowing boiler in a work shop in the Auto Nagar, owned by close relative of first wife. Her dead body was found in most depleted conditions.

Vijayawada girl found dead

HYDERABAD: A nine-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from Vijayawada two days ago was found dead in Guntur today.The burnt body of Vyshnavi, daughter of businessman P Prabhakar, was found at Autonagar in Guntur, Vijayawada Commissioner of Police, K V Rajendranath Reddy told PTI.”She must have been killed on the day she was kidnapped,” he said.Vyshnavi was abducted on the BRTS Road in Vijayawada on January 30 when she was going to school along with her brother in a car.The abductors killed the car driver who resisted the kidnappers, while her elder brother managed to escape safely.Vijayawada police had formed eight special teams to solve the case.

Vaishnavi kidnap: Cops fail to make headway

Police seemed to have achieved little progress even after 36 hours in the Vaishnavi kidnap case. The 10-year-old daughter of a

liquor baron was abducted on her way to school in Vijayawada on Saturday morning.

Sources said police have zeroed in on two gangs settled in Tadepalli in Guntur and suspect that at least six persons were part of the whole operation.While three of them abducted the girl, after killing the car driver, the others are said to have extended them the logistical support by staying back in Seethanagaram.

Sources said the police strongly believe rowdy sheeter Madhu’s involvement in the episode and have reportedly taken his brother Ramu into custody in the late hours of Sunday. Police reportedly seized the mobile phone from the possession of Ramu, who too is a history sheeter, in which the police found pictures of the car driver Lakshman Rao who was murdered.

However, no confirmation was forthcoming from police officials involved in the investigation saying that any disclosure at this point would severely hamper the safety of the girl.

Meanwhile, rumours spread that the police have also picked up liquor baron Prabhakar Rao’s brothers Sudhakar and Prasad and are questioning them. Since the police still suspect that family feud might be a reason for the abduction, they are not leaving anything to chance.

Police also released the sketch of one of the kidnappers late on Sunday night.

Vaishnavi, the child kidnapped from Vijayawada found dead

Vaishnavi, the young child who was kidnapped in Vijayawada couple of days back has been killed. Her dead body has been found in plot no 445 in Autonagar area in the city of Guntur. Her body has been fully charred. Since the past couple of days there have been frenzied investigations to search her. The government should arrest the culprits and hang them say most people.

Incidentally the relatives of the slain victim have been arrested on suspicious grounds. Prabhakar Rao’s brother in law (1st wife’s brother) is suspected in the killing. After Prabhakar Rao married his second wife, his first brother in law used to threaten Prabhakar Rao at regular intervals. Prabhakar Rao has a male child by name Durgaprasad from the earlier marriage. Around 10 days back the child picked up a fight with his father. The police believe that this may have been the trigger for the present incident.

The entire family is left in a state of shock. After hearing about the news the girls parents fainted and were admitted into the hospital. Prabhakar Rao’s health condition is said to be serious.

Police say that the kidnappers may have killed Vaisnavi, as they must have thought that she might recognize them at a later time.

Vaishnavi is the daughter of BC leader and liquor trader P Prabhakar Rao.

Flash News: Vaishnavi dead

Ten-year-old schoolgirl Naga Vaishnavi, who was kidnapped two days ago in Vijayawada, was found dead in the most tragic conditions on Monday evening.

Her completely charred body was found in a boiler at the Autonagar industrial estate near Pedakakani in Guntur district. Vijayawada Police Commissioner K V Rajendranath Reddy, who confirmed that the body was that of Vaishnavi, declared that Vaishnavi was killed on the same day of kidnap and her body was dumped in the boiler.

Vaishnavi was the only daughter of Polagani Prabhakar, who is running liquor, real estate and finance business. The family plunged into grief as the electronic media flashed the news of Vaishnavi’s death. The police arrested two suspects in the morning and during the interrogation, they had admitted that they had killed Vaishnavi. The suspects are said to be brothers of Prabhakar’s first wife who is living separately.

Vaishnavi found dead

What appeared to be a ghastly act of brutality, nine-year-old Naga vaishnavi, the daughter of businessman Palagani Prabhakara Rao, who was kidnapped on Saturday was found dead in Guntur on Monday.Vaishanvi’s body was spotted at Plot No. 445 at the far-end of the Autonagar Colony in  Guntur, exactly 60 hours after her kidnap. Her body was believed to have been burnt in a boiler at a car breaking shed. She was charred beyond recognition. However, the police identified the body as that of vaishnavi’s. The gory incident sent shock waves among the citizens who were anxiously following the developments of the case. A pall of gloom descended on the house of Prabhakar Rao who was shocked and was not in a  position to respond to people’s sympathies.As reported earlier, vaishnavi was kidnapped after killing her driver when she was being taken to her school on BRTS Road in Satyanarayanapuram on Saturday morning.Despite the police efforts to achieve a breakthrough, the child could not be saved.

‘Govt. may hike natural gas price by 30 per cent’

The government may in ‘weeks’ decide on raising the price of natural gas produced by state-owned ONGC and Oil India by 30 per cent, Petroleum Secretary S. Sundareshan said on Monday.

“(It is) matter of weeks (that a decision on raising prices would be taken),” he told reporters here.

The Oil Ministry has circulated a Cabinet note for raising price of gas under Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) from Rs 3,200 per thousand cubic meters (USD 1.79 per mmBtu) to Rs 4,142 per thousand cubic meters (USD 2.32 per mmBtu).

Price of the gas produced from fields given to ONGC and OIL on nomination basis is proposed to be raised in stages to Rs 7,500 per thousand cubic meters or USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit by 2013.

Mr. Sundareshan said the government was weighing policy options to end differential pricing of natural gas that ranges from under USD 2 per mmBtu (APM gas) to USD 5.73 per mmBtu (for gas produced by BG Group-operated Panna/Mukta and Tapti fields).

Options for uniform pricing of gas from various sources to consumers by way of pooling of prices was being studied, he said.

Under pooling of prices, the producers will get the price as per the production sharing contract between them and the government. But the consumer prices will be uniform irrespective of the source of gas.

Naga Vaishnavi brutally murdered in Guntur.

The wait hasn’t been fruitful for this Prabhakar Rao family. Guntur Police have found a burnt dead body in Plot No 445 of Autonagar, Guntur and Vijayawada police have declared that body belongs to none other than naga vaishnavi. Sources say that this little girl has been burnt alive in a car shed by throwing her into a boiler. Naga Vaishnavai, the little girl aged 8 years has been kidnapped by some offenders three days ago by killing their car driver in Vijayawada. The police in Vijayawada were investigating the case on kidnap terms and were unable to find out any substantial clues. When police have released a sketch of the alleged kidnapper, everybody expected that this girl would return safe. Police have even arrested few relatives of girl based on some personal and professional rivalries with the girl’s father P Prabhakar Rao. naga vaishnavi’s father, mother and relatives requested the kidnappers through the media to leave her child and give her a new life. But their requests and prayers haven’t been successful as their baby is no more. Same kind of kidnap was faced by this family and naga vaishnavi in 2005 but she was released after huge negotiations. This time, luck hasn’t given her side. Police are investigating this case further and many interpret that, this brutal, inhuman murder was done by some of their close relatives. All of the sudden, entire state went into tears.

Now, book train tickets from post offices

Passengers will now be able to book train tickets from post offices with around 5,000 railway reservation counters being set up across the country.

The facility was launched on Monday at five post offices in the city.

“An MoU has already been signed between Indian Railways and India Post for providing Passenger Reservation Systems (PRS) through nearly 5,000 post offices across the country,” Union Minister of State for Communication and IT Gurudas Kamat said here.

Mr. Kamat, who was here to inaugurate the new system at Girgaum post office in south Mumbai, said four more PRS facilities have been opened at Chembur head post office, Dadar head post office, Mandvi post office and General Post Office at CST.

Around 500 post offices have been identified in Maharashtra while Mumbai would have around 103 post offices with a PRS set-up, the Lok Sabha MP from North Central Mumbai said.

“The PRS will ease burden on railway counters and will enable the local people to use the facility at their doorstep. It will also generate revenue for India Post,” Mr. Kamat said

A R Rahman Wins Grammy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire

By now, you must have got to know about A R Rahman’s awards spree – for your info, he has won two Grammy awards for Slumdog Millionaire (SM) music.

AR_Rahman Wins Grammy Awards

Mozart of Madras has already won a Golden Globe and two Academy awards earlier for SM music and won the Grammy awards under “Best Compilation Soundtrack” and “Best Song” categories.

This article is not about Rahman’s musical talent, but why product packaging is such an important factor in one’s success.

Answer this : Was SM’s music really the best of A R Rahman? Anybody who has been listening to Rahman’s music will surely argue that the hype around music wasn’t justified and Rahman has produced much better music than Slumdog Millionaire.

So why get awarded for something that wasn’t the best of one’s ability? Why not bring the better compositions to jury’s table and have them judge for themselves?

Simple.

Because talent/product needs to be packaged in a way that it appeals to the mass, to the ‘people who matter’ (hey geeks! and you thought marketing is boring?). And that’s what SM did perfectly.

Be it the story or the marketing push around the movie, or the lobbying that one needs to do, they walked the ‘extra’ mile where it’s not just one’s talent, but something morethat makes the cut (is it right to say that talent is just 20% of the entire deal?)

What’s the lesson for Entrepreneurs?

As I said earlier, Product vs Business (Running a Startup is Sexy, Building Business is Boring. You Decide) are completely different beast and having a great product doesn’t translate to great business (by the way, is it true the other way round? i.e. do you really need a great product for great business?).

Moreover, Product Packaging is what makes the cut between an average product and a great kickass solution – Rahman has produced much better music than SM, but ‘Jai Ho’ being part of a better package (i.e. a well marketed movie) stands a much better chance than a better music being part of a mediocre movie.

So build a better packaged solution that just a good product.

What do you think?

Indian composer Rahman wins two Grammy Awards

Indian composer AR Rahman has won two Grammy Awards at the prestigious US music ceremony in Los Angeles.

A.R. Rahman accepts the award for best song written for motion picture, television or other visual media at the Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles

Rahman received awards for best film song and best soundtrack, both compositions for the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

Rahman won two Oscars, a Bafta and a Golden Globe last year for his soundtrack to the multi award-winning Slumdog Millionaire.

The composer is often called the Mozart of Madras, the city where he works.

Rahman won in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture. His Jai Ho song in the film also won in the best motion picture song.

“This is insane, god is great again,” Rahman said as he accepted as he accepted his award.

Rahman beat such rivals as Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds and rock star Bruce Springsteen in the soundtrack and best song categories respectively.

Last month, Rahman was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for his Tamil song NaNa from the Hollywood film, Couples Retreat.

The song is vying with 62 others for the nominations which will be revealed on 2 February.

The Grammy awards are further recognition of Rahman’s enormous talents, says the BBC’s Soutik Biswas in Delhi.

The 44-year-old composer is a musician with a staggering range – from raga to reggae to hip hop to Indian folk to jungle rhythms to western classical, our correspondent says.

Seventeen years after he began writing music and songs for films, the jingle maker-turned-musician finally got recognition as India’s first truly global film music composer with his score for Danny Boyle’s sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.

Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and tabla player Zakir Hussain are the other Indian musicians who have won Grammy Awards

 -BBC

Grammy winners of 2010

Beyonce led the Grammys with five trophies including song of the year early in Sunday night’s award programme, where she was the favourite with 10 nominations. While Taylor Swift nabbed four and Lady Gaga scored two. See who else — from Bruce Springsteen to the Black Eyed Peas — won on music’s biggest night:

Album of the Year: Fearless — Taylor Swift

Song of the Year: Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) — Thaddis Harrell, Beyonce Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Beyonce)

Best Solo Rock Performance: Working on a Dream — Bruce Springsteen

Record of the Year: Use Somebody — Kings of Leon

Best Country Album: Fearless — Taylor Swift

Best Rock Album: 21st Century Breakdown — ,Green Day

Best Hard Rock Performance: War Machine — AC/DC

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: Run This Town — Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West

Best Dance Recording: Poker Face — Lady Gaga

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: Halo — Beyonce

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Use Somebody — Kings of Leon

Best New Artist: Zac Brown Band

Best Electronic/Dance Album: The Fame — Lady Gaga

Best Alternative Music Album: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix — Phoenix

Best Contemporary R&B Album: I Am… Sasha Fierce — Beyonce

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) — Beyoncr

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: I Gotta Feeling — The Black Eyed Peas

Best Rock Song: Use Somebody — Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill & Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings Of Leon)

Best Pop Vocal Album: The E.N.D — The Black Eyed Peas

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: Pretty Wings — Maxwell

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Blame It — Jamie Foxx & T-Pain

Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: At Last — Beyonce

Best Rock Instrumental Performance: A Day in the Life — Jeff Beck

Best Urban/Alternative Performance: Pearls — India.Arie & Dobet Gnahore

Best R&B Song: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) — Thaddis Harrell, Beyoncé Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Beyoncé)

Best Rap Solo Performance: D.O.A (Death Of Auto-Tune) — Jay-Z

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group: Crack a Bottle — Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent

Best Rap Song: Run This Town — Jeff Bhasker, Shawn Carter, Robyn Fenty, Kanye West & Ernest Wilson, songwriters (Athanasios Alatas, songwriter) (Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West)

Best Rap Album: Relapse — Eminem

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: Make It Mine — Jason Mraz

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals: Lucky — Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat

Best Female Country Vocal Performance: White Horse — Taylor Swift

Best Male Country Vocal Performance: Sweet Thing — Keith Urban

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:— Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden — Michael Buble

Best Metal Performance: Dissident Aggressor — Judas Priest

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: I Run to You — Lady Antebellum

Best Country Collaboration With Vocals: I Told You So — Carrie Underwood & Randy Travis

Best Country Song: White Horse — Liz Rose & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)

Best Americana Album:Electric Dirt — Levon Helm

Best Contemporary Blues Album: Already Free — The Derek Trucks Band

Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media: Slumdog Millionaire — Various Artists, A R Rahman, producer

Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media: Jai Ho (From Slumdog Millionaire) — Gulzar, A R Rahman & Tanvi Shah, songwriters (A R Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer & Vijay Prakash)

Best Recording Package: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today — Stefan Sagmeister, art director (David Byrne & Brian Eno)

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package: Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963-1972) — Gary Burden, Jenice Heo & Neil Young, art directors (Neil Young)

Best Short Form Music Video: Boom Boom Pow — The Black Eyed Peas

Best Long Form Music Video: The Beatles Love – All Together Now — (Various Artists)

Best Comedy Album: A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All! — Stephen Colbert

Girl kidnapped from Vijaywada found dead in Guntur

Hyderabad: A nine-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from Vijayawada two days ago, was found dead in Guntur on Monday.

The burnt body of Vyshnavi, daughter of businessman, Mr P. Prabhakar, was found at Autonagar in Guntur, Vijayawada Commissioner of Police, Mr K.V. Rajendranath Reddy, said.

“She must have been killed on the day she was kidnapped,” he said.

Vyshnavi was abducted on the BRTS Road in Vijayawada on January 30 when she was going to school along with her brother in a car.

The abductors killed the car driver who resisted the kidnappers, while her elder brother managed to escape safely.

Vijayawada police had formed eight special teams to solve the case.(PTI)

Vaishnavi found dead in a tragic condition

Naga Vaishnavi, who was kidnapped by her relatives two days ago  was found dead in the most tragic conditions today evening. Her completely charred body was found in a boiler at the Autonagar industrial estate.  K V Rajendranath Reddy, Vijayawada Police Commissioner, confirmed that the body was that of Vaishnavi and declared that Vaishnavi was killed on the same day of kidnap and her body was dumped in the boiler. The police arrested two suspects in the morning and during the interrogation, they had admitted that they had killed Vaishnavi. The suspects are said to be brothers of Prabhakar’s first wife who is living separately. Same kind of kidnap was faced by this family and naga vaishnavi in 2005 but she was released after huge negotiations. This time, luck hasn’t given her side. Police are investigating this case further and many interpret that, this brutal, inhuman murder was done by some of their close relatives. All of the sudden, entire state went into tears.