Newly-released aerial photos of the World Trade Centre terror attack capture the towers’ dramatic collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the apocalyptic dust clouds that spread over lower Manhattan and its harbour. Photos: AP/NYPD via ABC News, Det. Greg Semendinger
Police and personnel from the Bomb Disposal Squad cordoned the area on the platform at Howrah Station where a unidentified bag with suspected explosives was found on Thursday
There was panic at the Howrah station, the gateway to Kolkata, following the discovery of explosives in a bag on a platform Thursday, an official said.
“Some railway hawkers felt suspicious when they found the bag lying unattended on platform number 2 for a long time. They informed the police,” Additional Director General of Police (Railways) Dilip Mitra said.
Personnel of the bomb squad of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and sniffer dogs were rushed to the spot, and the area was cordoned off.
“When the sniffer dogs confirmed that there were explosives inside, the bag was taken by our bomb disposal experts to the nearby Hooghly riverbank for defusing,” Mitra said.
The nature of the explosives and the quantity were yet to be ascertained, he said.
Security at all important stations have been beefed up following the incident.
Ten students died and seven others were injured today in a fire at a private hostel in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kurung Kumey district, bordering China, Home Ministry officials said.
Ten students of Holy Angel Don Bosco School were killed in the fire at Palin in the district. Of them, only nine bodies could be identified, they said.
The fire broke out in the hostel, made of bamboo, run by a lady next to the school, the officials said.
According to DIG (West) T.T. Lama, of the 10 students, seven were male and three female. Seven students were injured in the fire.
“The fire broke out at 2:30 am. There were about 56-60 students in the hostel when the mishap took place,” DIG (Crime) Tashi Lama said.
The cause of the blaze is yet to be ascertained, he said.
According to government officials, CRPF personnel were deployed in the area after locals clashed with the school authorities following the incident. A police team from neighbouring Upper Subansiri district was also rushed to the area
South Africans gather to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of former president Nelson Mandela from what was known in 1990 as Victor Verster Prison in Drakenstein, near Cape Town on Thursday
South Africans on Thursday celebrated the 20th anniversary of former president Nelson Mandela’s release from prison by sharing their memories of his triumphant walk to freedom after 27 years behind bars for resisting apartheid.
Veterans of South Africa’s struggle to end racist rule, of which Mr. Mandela became the emblem during his imprisonment, converged on Groot Drakenstein prison near Cape Town from early morning to commemorate the historic event, which laid the ground for the country’s peaceful transition to democracy in 1994.
Groot Drakenstein jail, formerly known as Victor Verster prison, was where Mr. Mandela spent the last year of his imprisonment for sabotage.
A number of Mr. Mandela’s fellow Rivonia trialists — as the eight men, including Mr. Mandela, who were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 were known — his ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela joined scores of ANC leaders for a breakfast at the prison.
Later in the morning, Madikizela-Mandela, who was by his side as he took his first steps to freedom on February 11, 1990, was due to lead a crowd in a commemorative 500-metre walk through the prison gates.
Mr. Mandela, who is 91 and frail, will not be participating in the walk but will attend the opening of parliament later on Thursday in Cape Town, where President Jacob Zuma will deliver the annual State of the Nation speech.
Mr. Zuma was scheduled to first address a mini-rally at the prison, which houses medium – and maximum -security prisoners as well as juvenile offenders.
The inmates would not be joining in the celebrations but would be allowed to watch the proceedings on television, a spokesman for the provincial department of correctional services told DPA.
South African and international broadcasters devoted their morning shows to memories of Mr. Mandela’s release, with politicians, journalists, activists and wellwishers recalling their excitement at seeing the man whose image had been banned from publication by the apartheid regime for three decades.
“I expected to see someone who looked like a boxer!,” former telecommunications minister Jay Naidoo said. Instead, he saw a slender, silver-haired statesman.
Speaking to Johannesburg-based The Star newspaper, Madikizela-Mandela spoke of a bitter-sweet moment, when the nation gained a father but the Mandela family lost a spouse and a father to politics.
“Tragically, history marked the end of our lives as a family,” she said, sentiments echoed by her daughters Zenani and Zindzi to the paper in its Thursday edition.
Mr. Mandela, who became the country’s first black president after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, began marking the anniversary last week with a dinner at his home in Johannesburg for a group of ANC veterans
In this Sept. 11, 2001 photo made by the New York City Police Department and provided by ABC News, the first World Trade Centre tower begins to implode in New York, after terrorists flew two airliners into the towers.
A trove of aerial photographs of the collapsing World Trade Centre was widely released this week, offering a rare and chilling view from the heavens of the burning twin towers and the apocalyptic shroud of smoke and dust that settled over the city.
The images were taken from a police helicopter – the only photographers allowed in the airspace near the skyscrapers on September 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that investigated the collapse.
The chief curator of the planned September 11 museum pronounced the pictures “a phenomenal body of work.”
The photos are “absolutely core to understanding the visual phenomena of what was happening,” said Jan Ramirez of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. They are “some of the most exceptional images in the world, I think, of this event.”
In some of the pictures, the tops of the nearby Woolworth Building and other skyscrapers can just be seen above the enormous cloud of debris, gray against a clear blue sky. Gray clouds billow through the streets of the financial district and shroud the 16 acres (6.5 hectares) where the towers had stood just moments before.
Buildings can hardly be seen at all in one image – just dust clouds hanging over the Hudson River at the southern tip of Manhattan. One close-up shows orange flames and black smoke pouring from the upper floors of the north tower, the first hit by a hijacked plane.
“I almost didn’t realise what I was seeing that day,” Greg Semendinger, the former New York Police Department detective who took the pictures posted on ABC’s site, told AP. “Looking at it now it’s amazing I took those pictures. The images are … stunning.”
The attack and the collapse of the World Trade Centre were well documented on live TV and amateur video. But more than eight years after the nation’s deadliest terror attack, the images still had the power to shock and disturb. They were an instant sensation on the Internet.
“Some survivors may find these pictures too painful to look at,” said Richard Zimbler, president of the WTC Survivors Network. “But they are an important part of the historical record.”
ABC said NIST gave the network 2,779 pictures on nine CDs. The network posted 12 pictures on its website on Monday and an additional 12 on Wednesday, including another close-up of the burning north tower and photos of rescue boats and commuter ferries docking in the Hudson River to pick up survivors.
ABC initially said some of the photographs posted had never been seen before, but later backed off that assertion.
Semendinger – who took all the photos posted by ABC – said that he had previously e-mailed some of the pictures to friends who later posted them on the Internet. Also, nine of the images were published in a book called Above Hallowed Ground: A Photographic Record of Sept. 11 without his consent. The book was a tribute to the officers who were killed that day.
Semendinger was first in the air in a search for survivors on the rooftop. He said he and his pilot watched the second plane hit the south tower from the helicopter.
“We didn’t find one single person. It was surreal,” he said. “There was no sound. No sound whatsoever, but the noise of the radio and the helicopter. I just kept taking pictures.”
He took three rolls of film with his Minolta camera, plus 245 digital shots. Semendinger said that he gave the digital images to the 9/11 Commission that investigated the attack, and that the commission evidently released the pictures to NIST.
Glenn Corbett, a fire science expert who sat on an advisory committee during the NIST probe, said the photos did not yield any new information for investigators.
“I don’t see anything here that’s new,” he said. “These are common photos. … It just reinforces things we know, that debris spread over a large area and the resultant dispersion of toxins and human remains.”
Ramirez said the museum, slated to open in 2012, saw a selection of the photos at police headquarters several years ago. They are extremely important because the NYPD helicopter had the clearance to be up in the air in lower Manhattan only moments after the first tower was hit, and stayed in the area for the remainder of the day, she said.
The museum hopes to get a complete set of the photos. “We’ve had our sights set on this body of visual evidence for several years,” Ramirez said.
To View the Photos just click here
Inclement weather was the main reason for the helicopter crash that killed former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a two-member expert committee appointed by the Andhra Pradesh government to probe into the incident said, dismissing theories of a conspiracy involved in the crash.
“There are other factors as well that led to the crash which we have explained in our report. But there was no failure of the helicopter (Bell-430) engine. Similarly, the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) contained no clues about the alleged conspiracy theory in the crash,” committee members H.S. Khola and M.R. Reddy said.
Inclement weather was the main reason for the crash in dense jungles of Nalamalla hills in September last year, said the report submitted to Chief Minister K. Rosaiah today.
“The conspiracy angle is being probed by the CBI,” they said, adding that they recommended a system where crucial decisions related to VIP flights could be decided by more than one person or agency.
“This system is being followed for the Prime Minister. As a matter of precaution, we recommended something more.”
Earlier, on January 20, a report by a four-member DGCA inquiry committee said the crash was caused by pilots’ error, when he lost the chopper’s control and were engrossed for vital six minutes in trying to locate a flight manual.
Reddy, his special secretary P. Subramaniam, Chief Security Officer A.S.C. Weseley, and the two pilots Capt S.K. Bhatia and Captain M.S. Reddy were killed when the Bell-430 helicopter of the State government went down in the jungles.
Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh held on to the top spot in the middlewight category in the latest International Boxing Association (AIBA) rankings.
Vijender, who clinched a silver medal at the Champion of Champions tournament in China earlier this month, has 2513 points.
The Indian is followed by Olympic silver medallist Emilio Correa Bayeux, who has been out of action because of a wrist injury. Bayeux has 2300 points and is followed by Uzbek Abbos Atoev (1875) to whom Vijender lost in the World Championship semifinals last year.
Among other Indians, Asian Championship silver medallist Thokchom Nanao Singh rose two rungs to sixth in the light fly weight (48kg) division with 1400 points.
Fellow Manipuri Suranjoy Singh, who won gold medals at the Asian Championships and the season-ending President’s Cup last year, also jumped a couple of places to 16th in the fly weight (51kg) rankings with 800 points.
Injury-hit Jitender Kumar, who won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships, dropped four spots to 18th with 753 points in the bantam weight (54kg) division.
Three-time Olympian Akhil Kumar remained static at the 10th spot in the feather weight (57kg) with 900 points. Asian Championship silver medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) was 23rd in the latest list, which is an improvement of three places. He has 675 points to his credit.
Olympian Dinesh Kumar, who also won a silver at the Champion of Champions, dropped a rung to seventh with 1413 points in the light heavy weight (81kg) division. The next official AIBA world rankings would be released at the end of the Youth World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan this April.
Heavy security arrangements have been made at city cinema theatres ahead of Friday’s release of Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan which is facing the Shiv Sena’s ire.
Over 1,600 Sena activists, including functionaries, have been arrested in the last two days to thwart protests by the Sena, who has been demanding that Mr. Khan apologise for his remarks favouring Pakistani players in IPL-3.
“Elaborate security measures have been adopted to ensure no untoward incident happens (before and after the release of the movie). Nobody would be spared for taking law into their hands,” said Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil.
The theatre owners have been asked to install night vision cameras that would enable police to identify troublemakers in case of any untoward incident. They have also been advised to keep the first three rows vacant and deploy at least two security guards inside the hall so that incidents such as ripping off screens with sharp instruments by troublemakers can be averted.
Notices warning Sena party leaders not to create law and order problems have been issued by the police. Police Commissioner D. Sivanandan has issued guidelines to all the police stations regarding security arrangements.
Constables stationed at halls have been told to frisk ticket-holders and check their bags. However, it is not must for cine-goers to show identity cards.
Each single-screen cinema hall will be manned by a sub-inspector, three constables, two of them women, and five plainclothes policemen. In the wake of the Sena intensifying protests, leaves of the policemen have been cancelled to ensure their full presence.
To further strengthen the security, personnel from State Reserve Police Force and Home Guards will be deployed at the theatres across the metropolis.
Meanwhile, Mr. Khan, along with co-actor Kajol and the film’s director Karan Johar, left for Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to attend a special premiere of the movie.
On Tuesday, Mr. Johar, who is also co-producer of the film, met Mr. Sivanandhan to discuss security issues ahead of the movie’s release.
Infosys Technologies on Thursday said it hopes to recruit 15,000 people in the days ahead and have already begun the process by visiting campuses, even as it looks for acquisitions in Europe and some non-English speaking countries.
“We are looking for acquisitions,” Infosys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Kris Gopalakrishnan told reporters here on the sidelines of the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum on Thursday.
The company is looking at acquisitions across Europe, and non-English speaking countries and even in the U.S., Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, adding, “we are open to acquisitions everywhere…and across verticals.”
He said the company has plans to recruit from campuses for the next year. “We are already recruiting in the campuses.
In the campuses, we hope to recruit 15,000 people.”
“We already gave a raise (in salary) in October, about 8 per cent on an average in India. And what we will do in April, we will wait and see because the next cycle for increment is in April,” Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.
On pricing, he said at the moment there was no upside pricing and it would continue to be flat. “There is no upside pricing now. It will continue to be flat.
On clients shifting out of output-based pricing, he said, “that has been happening over the last several years. We are probably seeing an acceleration to try out new business models, new engagement models and I think this is a good sign because it shows that the model had become the mainstream and you will find interesting business opportunities to engage with clients in different business models.”
“Discretionary spending is happening now. But we will have to wait and see how fast it will rise, how much it will be, etc…but definitely, we are seeing signs (discretionary spending). We are seeing opportunities in transmission areas and like that,” he added.
On a query on the Chinese market, the official said that “we will have to do a lot more to take advantage of the Chinese market. We have to be there for the long-term and that is what we are doing right now. We are investing today and planning to leverage that for the long-term.”
EXPENSIVE VEGETABLES: The wholesale price-based food inflation rose to 17.94 per cent in the last week of January.
Food inflation rose for three successive weeks, moving closer to 18 per cent for the week ended January 30, on account of rising prices of potato and pulses.
The wholesale price-based food inflation rose to 17.94 per cent in the last week of January from 17.56 per cent in the previous week.
Potato prices jumped 40.57 per cent over the last year, while pulses became dearer by 41.24 per cent.
The inflation for primary articles, which include food and non-food items in raw form, increased to 15.75 per cent during the week from 14.56 per cent a week earlier.
The price index for food articles, on the weekly basis, moved up 0.3 per cent on account of higher rates of fruits and vegetables (2 per cent), while rates of fish marine, spices, condiments and bajra increased by one per cent each.
Last week, however, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said the worst of food inflation was over and the situation will ease soon.
”… the worst is over as far as food inflation is concerned. I am confident that we will soon be able to stabilise food prices,” he had said while addressing the Chief Ministers’ conference on food prices here.
Britain’s Justice Minister says Facebook has deleted the pages of 30 UK prisoners after they used the Internet to taunt their victims.
The move follows several incidents in which British criminals have reportedly used the social networking site to communicate with conspirators and act against victims.
Outrage over inmates’ online activities prompted Straw to contact Facebook, he told the BBC.
In an interview posted online on Thursday, Mr. Straw said he hoped Facebook would soon “press the delete button” whenever the government asked to have an offending profile removed.
Information technology services corporation Wipro Infotech has claimed to be the first Indian company to build a 100 percent recyclable and toxin-free computer, and joins a small group of manufacturers worldwide who have developed toxic-free electronics.
According to the company, the eco-friendly Wipro Greenware desktops are completely free from harmful chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).
The company’s range of Greenware Intel Core 2 Duo processor PCs can be easily recycled once their technology becomes obsolete and they pass their ‘shelf life’.
“Wipro Infotech has taken significant strides and strong leadership in Green Computing, providing responsible and environment-sensitive computing solutions to our customers,” The Independent quoted Anand Sankaran, Senior Vice President and Business Head of Wipro, as saying.
E-waste is fast becoming an environmental hazard in Asia, as expanding stockpiles of obsolete electronics and computer products have been amassing in poor neighborhoods forcing governments to discuss measures to deal with the expanding problem.
Wipro joins larger, global consumer electronics manufactures like Apple, HP and Nokia in the struggle to develop toxin-free electronics.
The Iranian government plans to permanently suspend Google Inc’s email service in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Wednesday.
Google said it experienced a sharp drop in email traffic in Iran, and that some users in the country were having trouble accessing Gmail, but said its networks were working properly.
The report comes as Iran braces for new opposition protests on Thursday during rallies marking the 1979 Islamic revolution. Protesters made use of modern networking tools such as Twitter and Gmail instant messaging last June after a disputed election plunged Iran into crisis.
Google is already at loggerheads with China’s government after it threatened to withdraw from the country last month over claims of online attacks and issues over censorship.
Iran’s telecommunications agency announced the suspension and said a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Google reported a drop in email traffic, but did not confirm the Journal report.
“We have heard from users in Iran that they are having trouble accessing Gmail,” a Google spokesman wrote in an e-mail to Reuters. “We can confirm a sharp drop in traffic, and we have looked at our own networks and found that they are working properly.”
He added that Google supported free online communication, but “sometimes it is not within our control.”
There was no immediate comment from Tehran, where it was after midnight when the news broke. Opposition leaders have called on supporters to take to the streets on Thursday, raising the risk of renewed violence.
The U.S. State Department could not confirm the report, but said any efforts to keep information from Iranians would fail.
“While information technologies are enabling people around the world to communicate … like never before, the Iranian government seems determined to deny its citizens access to information, the ability to express themselves freely, network and share ideas,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
“Virtual walls won’t work in the 21st century any better than physical walls worked in the 20th century.”
New Delhi, February 11: The Centre is committed to providing reservations in jobs and educational institutions to the backward sections among Muslims despite Andhra Pradesh High Court having struck down on Monday the provision introduced by the Andhra government.
Confirming this to HT in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid added: “In the Constitution, there is a clear promise of reservation on the basis of backwardness. “My understanding is that the Andhra court order has not questioned the OBC route for giving reservation to Muslim backwards.
It has questioned flaws in the process,” Khurshid said. “The Andhra order is not a setback and will be challenged,” added Imran Kidwai, the head of the Congress’s minority department.
The Sachar committee, which probed the disadvantages faced by Muslims, found that 40.7 per cent of all Muslims could be categorised as OBCs. Muslims comprise 15.7 per cent of the total OBC population.
But their share in the OBC quota is just 8.3 per cent. Muslims seek quota An alliance of more than 50 Muslim leaders gave a renewed call for reservation for Muslims on the grounds of backwardness at the end of a “strategic meet” in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court order overturning the state’s 4 per cent reservation for certain backward Muslims and West Bengal’s promise of 10 per cent quota for them have stirred the debate. “There is a need to evolve a consensus for Muslim reservation in light of several high-level recommendations for it,” Syed Shahabuddin, a former diplomat and leader of the National Movement for Muslim Reservation, said.
New delhi, February 11: The Centre on Thursday expressed readiness to facilitate return of all Kashmiri youths who had gone to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and wish to come back denouncing militancy and said all of them are welcome.
“Those Indians who had crossed over to PoK and now wish to return to India are certainly welcome,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters here.
He was responding to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s proposal that a new surrender and rehabilitation policy should be formulated for such youths.
Mr. Abdullah had said, “To encourage more militants to return to the state and manage their transition to civilian life, a new surrender and rehabilitation policy of militants is under active consideration of my government.”
After a meeting of the Union Cabinet, Mr. Chidambaram said, “PoK is actually an Indian territory and we should facilitate their return.”
Following Omar’s statement at the conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security here on Sunday, the Centre was contemplating formulating the new rehabilitation policy in consultation with the state government which may include a general amnesty.
The formulation of the surrender policy for nearly 800 youths willing to return from PoK and join the mainstream came after several feelers were received by the state government about their pathetic condition.
Mumbai, February 11: Heavy security arrangements have been made at city cinema theatres ahead of Friday’s release of Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan which is facing the Shiv Sena’s ire.
Over 1,600 Sena activists, including functionaries, have been arrested in the last two days to thwart protests by the Sena, who has been demanding that Mr. Khan apologise for his remarks favouring Pakistani players in IPL-3.
“Elaborate security measures have been adopted to ensure no untoward incident happens (before and after the release of the movie). Nobody would be spared for taking law into their hands,” said Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil.
The theatre owners have been asked to install night vision cameras that would enable police to identify troublemakers in case of any untoward incident. They have also been advised to keep the first three rows vacant and deploy at least two security guards inside the hall so that incidents such as ripping off screens with sharp instruments by troublemakers can be averted.
Notices warning Sena party leaders not to create law and order problems have been issued by the police. Police Commissioner D. Sivanandan has issued guidelines to all the police stations regarding security arrangements.
Constables stationed at halls have been told to frisk ticket-holders and check their bags. However, it is not must for cine-goers to show identity cards.
Each single-screen cinema hall will be manned by a sub-inspector, three constables, two of them women, and five plainclothes policemen. In the wake of the Sena intensifying protests, leaves of the policemen have been cancelled to ensure their full presence.
To further strengthen the security, personnel from State Reserve Police Force and Home Guards will be deployed at the theatres across the metropolis.
Meanwhile, Mr. Khan, along with co-actor Kajol and the film’s director Karan Johar, left for Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to attend a special premiere of the movie.
On Tuesday, Mr. Johar, who is also co-producer of the film, met Mr. Sivanandhan to discuss security issues ahead of the movie’s release.
New Delhi, February 11: An Indian lobby group has launched a novel anti-corruption tool: the zero-rupee note that can be handed over to any crooked bureaucrat who seeks a little extra payment.
The protest note — literally worth only the paper it is printed on — is being promoted by 5th Pillar, a group that campaigns on behalf of ordinary Indians who are forced to grease the palms of millions of civil servants.
Vijay Anand, head of 5th Pillar, said the bill, which looks similar to a real 50-rupee note, was first distributed to students in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to encourage them to reject India’s “baksheesh” culture.
“The corruption prevailing in the common man’s life is painful and it can be dealt with by the zero-rupee note,” said Anand.
Many Indians are resigned to having to pay extra for government services and to smooth daily transactions such as registering a birth, getting a driving licence or avoiding the attentions of an unscrupulous traffic officer.
But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has often spoken out against the damaging effect that bribes, extortion and fraud have on all levels of life, and said the problem threatens India’s future economic prospects.
Campaign group Transparency International, in its latest annual report, stated that each year almost four million poor Indian families had to bribe officials for access to basic public services.
In the same report, India slipped further in its corruption index from 72nd to 85th in a list of 180 countries.
Anand said the zero-rupee note, which was conceived by an Indian professor living in the United States, gave people the chance to register a grassroots protest against low-level corruption.
“We are confident it will change the way people think and act in the coming years,” he said.
The bill, which like all Indian notes is graced with a picture of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, carries 5th Pillar’s email address and phone number and the solemn vow “I promise to neither accept nor give a bribe.”
Volunteers hand them out them near places where officials are often on the look-out for a backhander, such as railway stations and government hospitals.
Though questions remain over whether it is legal to print the fake — if worthless — money, more than one million bills in five languages have been distributed.
Anand said they have even had a practical effect, often shaming officials into getting business done efficiently without using real cash.
“There has not been one incident where a zero-rupee note has created a more serious situation,” said Anand.
Ravi Sundar, an IT recruiter in the southern city of Coimbatore, said he used the notes whenever he had government business to sort out.
He gave one example where a tax official refused to process documents unless he paid her 500 rupees.
“I handed over the zero-rupee note which I always keep in my pocket,” said Sundar.
“She was afraid and didn’t want to take it.
Mumbai, February 11: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Thursday issued draft guidelines to replace the current method of calculating lending rates by banks with a new model, which is expected to help credit growth to small borrowers.
The current method followed by banks is to use the benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) as the norm to calculate customer segment specific rates.
‘The base rate system will replace the BPLR system with effect from April 1. Banks may determine their actual lending rates on loans and advances with reference to the base rate,’ said the central bank in a statement on its website.
‘Since the base rate will be the minimum rate for all commercial loans, banks are not permitted to resort to any lending below the base rate,’ it added.
The base rate system would be applicable for all new loans and for those old loans that come up for renewal. For existing borrowers who want to switch to the new system, a revised rate can be agreed upon mutually by the bank and the customer.
The RBI had set up a committee under the chairmanship of its deputy governor Deepak Mohanty to review the BPLR system of fixing lending rates after criticism that banks were lending to corporate customers at rates below the BPLR.
‘It is expected that deregulation of lending rates will increase the credit flow to small borrowers at reasonable rate. Thus, direct bank finance will provide effective competition to other forms of high cost credit,’ said the RBI statement.
New Delhi, February 11: Sri Lanka will seek “step-by-step reconciliation” with the Tamil minority and will never hurt India’s strategic interests, Colombo’s envoy said amid concerns about China’s growing influence in the island nation.
Stressing that the end of the Tamil Tiger insurgency had presented a “historic opportunity” to build permanent peace, Prasad Kariyawasam unveiled an ambitious bilateral agenda of engagement with India that includes starting talks on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) and a ferry between Colombo and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
“China is an old friend, but India is an older friend. Our relations with India go back 2,000 years. Our political and economic friendship with China will not be at the expense of India,” Kariyawasam told IANS in an interview here.
“We will not be a party to any mechanism or effort to harm India’s strategic interests. Harming India’s interests will be like harming our interests,” he said, when asked to comment about concerns in New Delhi over Beijing’s growing presence in Colombo.
China has pledged $350 million as post-war financial aid to Sri Lanka and has bagged a large chunk of development projects which are estimated to be worth over $6 billion. India has pledged Rs.500 crore (around $100 million) for rehabilitation of around 300,000 internally displaced people and is also involved in a wide array of infrastructure projects.
Stressing that Sri Lanka needs all international partners to spur its development, the envoy underlined that Colombo’s ties with New Delhi were set to acquire more economic and strategic weight in the days to come.
“We expect to widen an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) and negotiate a comprehensive economic partnership agreement,” he said. “We have a conceptual understanding on this. We plan to start formal negotiations this year.”
India’s FTA with Sri Lanka was the first such pact India has signed with any country. It has boosted bilateral trade, now estimated to be over $3 billion. “We hope to multiply it to $15-20 billion in another 10 years,” he said.
Lauding India’s assistance in reconstruction of the war-hit areas, the envoy said New Delhi was involved in many infrastructure projects that included railway lines in the country’s north as well as building the Palali airport and the Kankesanthurai port in the Jaffna peninsula.
The envoy said the promised devolution of powers to the Tamils would take place step by step and emphasised that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was waiting for the moderate democratic leadership to emerge before fast-tracking the process.
“In the last 25-30 years, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) had eliminated the moderate Tamil leadership. We now have a historic opportunity for the emergence of the moderate Tamil leadership and to create conditions for reconciliation,” he said.
New Delhi, February 11: A 61-year-old American national was detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport here last night minutes before he was to board a Qatar-bound flight after a knife was found in his hand baggage.
Reminiscent of the case of terror suspect David Headley, arrested in Chicago in October last for allegedly plotting terror strikes in India, Kensinghton Carmichael is a convert from Christianity to Islam.
The New York resident changed his religion some 40 years ago. Carmichael, who was flying to Doha in a Qatar Airways flight, is being questioned by security agencies and the American Mission had been informed about the same, sources said.
The New York resident had arrived in India for the first time a fortnight ago on a tourist visa and travelled to various parts of the national capital.
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