Dec 162012
 

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Dec 17, 2012, 10.19AM IST

MUMBAI: The rupee on Monday fell by 10 paise to trade at 54.58 against the US dollar in early trade, extending its slide for the fourth day, at the Interbank Foreign Exchange as the American currency firmed against euro and other currencies in the overseas market.

Dealers said besides strengthening of dollar against the major currencies including yen, which plunged to a year-and-a-half low overseas, a lower opening the domestic equity market mainly put pressure on the local unit.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex fell by 33.22 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 19,284.03 in early trade.

The rupee had lost just two paisa to close at 54.48 against the US currency on Friday.

Dec 162012
 

The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage was carrying an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of especially deadly ammunition â?? enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time, authorities said Sunday, raising the specter that the bloodbath could have been far worse.

Adam Lanza shot himself in the head just as he heard police drawing near to the classroom where he was slaughtering helpless children, but he had more ammunition at the ready in the form of multiple, high-capacity clips each capable of holding 30 bullets.

The disclosure on Sunday sent chills throughout this picturesque New England community as families sought to comfort each other during church services and vigils devoted to impossible questions like that of a 6-year-old girl who asked her mother: “The little children, are they with the angels?”

With so much grieving left to do, many of Newtown’s 27,000 people wondered whether life could ever return to normal. And as the workweek was set to begin, parents pondered whether to send their own children back to school.

Gov. Dannel Malloy said the shooter decided to kill himself when he heard police closing in about 10 minutes into the attack.

“We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that decided to take his own life,” Malloy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Authorities said they found multiple 30-round magazines and hundreds of unused bullets at the school, which enrolled about 670 students.

“There was a lot of ammo, a lot of clips,” said state police Lt. Paul Vance. “Certainly a lot of lives were potentially saved.”

The chief medical examiner said the ammunition was the type designed to break up inside a victim’s body and inflict the maximum amount of damage, tearing apart bone and tissue.

Shop owners

Shop owners Tamara Doherty, left, and Jackie Gaudet, right, meet outside their stores for the first time since being neighbours, just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday.

Newtown officials couldn’t say whether Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the shooter killed 20 children and six adults, would ever reopen.

“We’re just now getting ready to talk to our son about who was killed,” said Robert Licata, the father of a boy who was at the school during the shooting but escaped harm. “He’s not even there yet.”

Jim Agostine, superintendent of schools in nearby Monroe, said plans were being made for students from Sandy Hook to attend classes in his town this week.

The road ahead for Newtown was clouded with grief.

“I feel like we have to get back to normal, but I don’t know if there is normal anymore,” said Kim Camputo, mother of two children, ages 5 and 10, who attend a different school. “I’ll definitely be dropping them off and picking them up myself for a while.”

Also Sunday, a Connecticut official said the gunman’s mother was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a .22 caliber rifle. The killer then went to the school with guns he took from his mother, got inside by breaking a window and began blasting his way through the building.

As President Barack Obama prepared to visit later Sunday and churches opened their doors, federal agents checked out dozens of gun stores and shooting ranges across Connecticut, chasing leads they hoped would cast light on Lanza’s life.

Malloy offered no possible motive for the shooting, and police have found no letters or diaries that could shed light on it.

Adam Lanza

Authorities have identified Adam Lanza as the gunman who killed his mother at their home and then opened fire on Friday.

School officials were discussing how to send survivors back to class, but Newtown police Lt. George Sinko said he “would find it very difficult” for students to return to the school. But, he added: “We want to keep these kids together. They need to support each other.”

Jennifer Waters, who at 6 is the same age as many of the dead but attends another school, came to Mass at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church with lots of questions.

“The little children â?? are they with the angels?” she asked her mother.

Joan Waters assured her daughter that they were, then hushed the child as services continued with boxes of tissues placed in each pew and window sill.

An overflow crowd of more than 800 people packed the church where eight children will be buried this week. Lanza and his mother also attended the church. Spokesman Brian Wallace said the diocese has yet to be asked to provide funerals for either.

In his homily, the Rev. Jerald Doyle tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow.

Adam Lanza

Adam Lanza, third from the right, poses for a group photo of the technology club which appeared in the Newtown High School yearbook.

“You won’t remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”

Amid the confusion and sorrow, stories of heroism emerged, including an account of Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, who rushed toward Lanza in an attempt to stop him. Both were killed.

There was also 27-year-old teacher Victoria Soto, whose name has been invoked as a portrait of selflessness. Investigators told relatives she was killed while shielding her first-graders. She hid some students in a bathroom or closet, ensuring they were safe, a cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

“She put those children first. That’s all she ever talked about,” a friend, Andrea Crowell, told The Associated Press. “She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day.”

The rifle used was a Bushmaster .223-caliber, a civilian version of the military’s M-16 and a model commonly seen at marksmanship competitions. It’s similar to the weapon used in the 2002 sniper killings in the Washington, D.C., area and in a recent shopping mall shooting in Oregon.

US shooting horror

Victims’ family and friends attend a candlelight vigil held behind Stratford High School on the Town Hall Green in Stratford.

Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the United States under the 1994 assault weapons ban. That law expired in 2004, and Congress, in a nod to the political clout of the gun-rights lobby, did not renew it.

Investigators have said they believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook many years ago, but they couldn’t explain why he went there Friday.

Authorities said Lanza had no criminal history, and it was not clear whether he had a job.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation, has said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger’s, a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.

People with the disorder are often highly intelligent. While they can become frustrated more easily, there is no evidence of a link between Asperger’s and violent behavior, experts say.

Dec 162012
 

The author has posted comments on this articleAgencies | Dec 17, 2012, 06.47AM IST
WASHINGTON: According to the quarterly lobbying disclosure reports filed with the US Senate and the House of Representatives , at least three organizations— Financial Services Forum, Business Roundtable and Financial Executives International—have lobbied on issues related to taxation and other proposals of the finance bill presented in Parliament early this year. ` Giants like Boeing, AT&T, Starbucks, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly and GE have also lobbied earlier with US lawmakers on “specific lobbying issues” related to India, which include discussions on market opening initiatives and support for their sales and business opportunities in the country.

Besides, Qualcomm has lobbied on issues related to spectrum licences, Alcatel-Lucent on preferential market access regulations and Pfizer on “issues related to a Supreme Court decision on generic medicine pricing” and certain patent cancellation matter in India.

One of the most active entities with India-related lobbying issues this year has been the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers with its opposition to the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions in the US until India along with China and Russia implement similar reductions.

Besides, insurance major Prudential Financial has been lobbying for “Indian financial market access and equity ownership issues”. Like the government decision to open FDI in retail, a proposal to increase FDI cap in insurance sector is also being vehemently opposed by various political parties.

So far in 2012, Prudential Financial has spent more than $6 million on various lobbying issues in the US, including those related to India, while the lobbying bill for Morgan Stanley has crossed $2 million.

Among others, Business Roundtable has spent $6.6 million , Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers about $8 million , Dell close to $2 million, HP about $1.5 million, Cargill $1 million and Aerospace Industries Association of America around $2 million.

The disclosure about Walmart having spent $25 million on its lobbying activities in the US since 2008 on various issues including those related to opening of retail FDI in India generated a high-decibel political debate last week and the government finally agreed for an enquiry into the matter.

Lobbying is a legal activity in the US, but the lobby firms hired by the corporate entities need to make quarterly disclosures about their activities and payments. However, there are no specific regulations about lobbying in India.

The Indian government itself has a lobby firm presenting its case with the American lawmakers, while a number of Indian companies and entities also indulge in lobbying activities in the US through their respective lobbyists.

The Congressional records show that a number of other global giants have also paid their lobbyists in 2011 or prior years to present their issues related to India before the US lawmakers.

These include telecom major AT&T, whose specific lobbying issues in the past have included “telecom trade in India ,”, while the lobbyists for the world’s largest coffee retail chain operator Starbucks have discussed “market opening initiatives in India” with the US lawmakers.

After years of waiting on the wings, Starbucks recently opened its first retail outlet in India through a partnership with Tata group.

Dec 162012
 

The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage shot his mother four times in the head before going to the school and gunning down 26, authorities said on Sunday as details emerged suggesting that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre but was stopped short.

Lanza blasted his way into the building and used a high-power rifle to kill 20 children and six adults, including the principal who tried to stop him, authorities said.

The unthinkable bloodshed might even have been worse. Gov. Dannel Malloy said Lanza shot himself as first responders entered the building and a law enforcement official said Lanza had “lots of ammo” on him when he died, enough to carry out significant additional carnage. The official he was not authorized to release details of the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that, decided to take his own life,” Malloy said on ABC’s “This Week.”

As President Barack Obama prepared a visit and churches opened their doors to comfort a grieving town Sunday, federal agents fanned out to dozens of gun stores and shooting ranges across Connecticut, chasing leads they hoped would cast light on Lanza’s life.

Shop owners

Shop owners Tamara Doherty, left, and Jackie Gaudet, right, meet outside their stores for the first time since being neighbours, just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday.

Among the questions: Why did his mother, a well-to-do suburban divorcee, keep a cache of high-power weapons in the house? What experience did Lanza have with those guns? And, above all, what set him on a path to go classroom-by-classroom, massacring 6- and 7-year-olds?

Malloy offered no possible motive for the shooting and a law enforcement official has said police have found no letters or diaries left behind that could shed light on it.

Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, to death at the home they shared Friday. She was shot four times in the head and found in her bed wearing pajamas, said a state official who was not authorized to disclose details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lanza then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in her car with at least three of his mother’s guns, forced his way in by breaking a window and opened fire, authorities said. Within minutes, he killed the children, six adults and himself.

All the victims at the school were shot with a rifle, at least some of them up close, and all were apparently shot more than once, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver said. There were as many as 11 shots on the bodies he examined. Lanza died of a gunshot wound to the head from a 10 mm gun, and the bullet was recovered in a classroom wall, said the same official who described the scene at his mother’s house.

All six adults killed at the school were women. Of the 20 children, eight were boys and 12 were girls.

Asked whether the children suffered, Carver said, “If so, not for very long.” Asked how many bullets were fired, Carver said, “I’m lucky if I can tell you how many I found.”

Adam Lanza

Authorities have identified Adam Lanza as the gunman who killed his mother at their home and then opened fire on Friday.

Parents identified the children through photos to spare them some shock, Carver said.

The terrible details about the last moments of young innocents emerged as authorities released their names and ages – the youngest 6 and 7, the oldest 56. They included Ana Marquez-Greene, a little girl who had just moved to Newtown from Canada; Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher who apparently died while trying to hide her pupils; and principal Dawn Hochsprung, who authorities said lunged at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.

The tragedy has plunged Newtown into mourning and added the picturesque New England community of 27,000 people to the grim map of towns where mass shootings in recent years have periodically reignited the national debate over gun control but led to little change.

School officials were trying to determine what to do about sending the survivors back to class, Newtown police Lt. George Sinko said at a news conference Sunday.

Sinko said he “would find it very difficult” for students to return to the school. But, he added, “we want to keep these kids together. They need to support each other,” he said.

Plans were being made for some students to attend classes in nearby Monroe, said Jim Agostine, superintendent of schools there.

Residents and faith leaders reflected Sunday on the mass shooting and what meaning, if any, to find in it. Obama planned to attend an interfaith vigil – the fourth time he will have traveled to a city after a mass shooting.

At Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church, Jennifer Waters, who at 6 is the same age as many of the victims and attends a different school, came to Mass on Sunday in Newtown with a lot of questions.

“The little children – are they with the angels?” she asked her mother while fiddling with a small plastic figurine on a pew near the back of the church. “Are they going to live with the angels?”

Her mother, Joan, 45, assured her they were, then put a finger to her daughter’s lips, urging her to be quiet.

An overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service at the church, where eight children will be buried later this week. The gunman, Adam Lanza, and his mother also attended church here. Spokesman Brian Wallace said the diocese has yet to be asked to provide funerals for either.

Adam Lanza

Adam Lanza, third from the right, poses for a group photo of the technology club which appeared in the Newtown High School yearbook.

Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on each window sill. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one shaped as a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.

In his homily, the Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.

“You won’t remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”

After the Mass, Joan and Jennifer stopped by a makeshift memorial outside the church, which was filled with votive candles and had a pile of bouquets and stuffed animals underneath, to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Jennifer asked whether she could take one.

“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.

“Who died?” her daughter asked.

“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.

Amid the confusion and sorrow, stories of heroism emerged, including an account of Hochsprung, 47, and the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56, rushing toward Lanza in an attempt to stop him. Both died.

There was also 27-year-old teacher Victoria Soto, whose name has been invoked as a portrait of selflessness. Investigators told relatives she was killed while shielding her first-graders from danger. She reportedly hid some students in a bathroom or closet, ensuring they were safe, a cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

“She put those children first. That’s all she ever talked about,” a friend, Andrea Crowell, told The Associated Press. “She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day.”

There was also 6-year-old Emilie Parker, whose grieving father, Robbie, talked to reporters not long after police released the names of the victims but expressed no animosity, offering sympathy for Lanza’s family.

“I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you,” he said.

The gunman’s father, Peter Lanza, issued a statement relating his own family’s anguish in the aftermath.

“Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy. No words can truly express how heartbroken we are,” he said. “We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why. … Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.”

The rifle used was a Bushmaster .223-caliber, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak about it and talked on condition of anonymity. The gun is commonly seen at competitions and was the type used in the 2002 sniper killings in the Washington, D.C., area. Also found in the school were two handguns, a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9 mm.

A law enforcement official said Saturday that authorities were investigating fresh leads that could reveal more about the lead-up to the shooting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Ginger Colbrun, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said earlier there was no evidence Lanza was involved in gun clubs or had trained for the shooting. When reached later in the day and asked whether that was still true, she said, “We’re following any and all leads related to this individual and firearms.”

US shooting horror

Victims’ family and friends attend a candlelight vigil held behind Stratford High School on the Town Hall Green in Stratford.

Law enforcement officials have said they have found no note or manifesto from Lanza of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampages such as the Virginia Tech bloodbath in 2007 that left 33 people dead.

Education officials said they had found no link between Lanza’s mother and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there. Investigators said they believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there Friday.

Authorities said Adam Lanza had no criminal history, and it was not clear whether he had a job. Lanza was believed to have suffered from a personality disorder, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lanza also had been diagnosed with Asperger’s, a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.

People with the disorder are often highly intelligent. While they can become frustrated more easily, there is no evidence of a link between Asperger’s and violent behavior, experts say.

The law enforcement officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.

Richard Novia, the school district’s head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser for the high school technology club, of which Lanza was a member, said he clearly “had some disabilities.”

“If that boy would’ve burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically,” Novia said in a phone interview. “It was my job to pay close attention to that.”

Dec 162012
 

Against the backdrop of the Walmart lobbying issue, union I&B Minister Manish Tewari on Sunday said time has come for India to have a law modelled on the lines of Lobbying Disclosures Act in the US.

Tewari said any such regulation should make it compulsory for political lobbyists to be registered and make periodic disclosures of amount spent.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister said he was making the suggestion in an “individual capacity.”

“Time has come. We need to put in place a statutory architecture, which makes these declarations essentials, even legislators, MPs and people in the executive, if they have in the past or continue to represent a particular company or a group of company, that interest must be declared even before they participate in a debate,” Tewari told Karan Thapar’s ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme on CNN-IBN.

Tewari made these remarks in response to questions on the Walmart lobbying issue.

At the same time, he sought to make a difference between lobbying and illegal gratification.

“How can you be certain that lobbying automatically translates into illegal gratification? There is nothing to suggest either in jurisprudence or otherwise that the term lobbying is synonymous with illegal gratification. It could it equally couldn’t be. Therefore, an inquiry will bring out the facts and Govt has agreed to inquiry,” Tewari said.

Tewari said that law will take its own course if investigations establish that there has been any violation by the US global retail giant in its attempts to gain entry into the Indian market.

He also said it was not proper to make any judgement one way or the either before probe is completed.

“If at all any investigation does conclusively establish that there has been a violation of the Indian laws….law will take its own course,” he added.

Tewari at the same time repeatedly cautioned against “innuendos and insinuations” till an inquiry is completed.

He said Government has already announced a probe by a former judge into the allegations of Walmart spending money on lobbying to get entry into Indian market and that now “the inquiry commission should be allowed to come to its independent conclusion.

The minister also hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party over the issue alleging that the opposition party has “reversed criminal jurisprudence on its head”.

Dec 152012
 

FDI will push country towards economic slavery: Baba Ramdev Lucknow: Firing a fresh salvo on Congress, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday alleged that the decision of Centre to allow FDI in multi-brand retail will ruin the future of country’s farmers and push India towards economic slavery.

“They are playing with the future of five crore retail traders, 25 crore people associated with them and around 75 crore farmers.

They are not even ashamed,” he alleged while speaking at a function here.

FDI will push country towards economic slavery: Baba Ramdev

Alleging that FDI was brought under US pressure, Ramdev accused Congress of taking the country towards economic slavery.

“Earlier Congress used to give slogans that ‘Congress ka haath aam aadmi ke saath’, Now I say Congress ka haath Walmart ke saath, with foreign companies. They have no love for country and are taking it towards economic slavery,” he alleged.

“US expressed happiness the moment FDI came here. They will, because their people are sitting here,” he said.

FDI will push country towards economic slavery: Baba Ramdev

He claimed voting in favour of FDI in both Houses of Parliament was not the victory of FDI, but “the victory of CBI”.

On the issue of black money, Ramdev said the huge sum lying in foreign banks can bridge country’s financial deficits if brought back to the country.

He also praised CAG Vinod Rai for “exposing scams”. On his future strategy, Ramdev said he will tell about it “when time comes”, and insisted that they are “fully prepared” to play an “important role”.

He urged people to ensure that not a single Congress candidate wins in Lok Sabha elections.

“This time vote where Baba says,” he said. On quota issue, Ramdev said time has come when emphasis should be given on representation instead of reservation.

PTI

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First Published: Saturday, December 15, 2012, 21:29

Dec 152012
 

Bollywood Buzz | DestinyKuri | December 15, 2012 at 1:49 pm

Salman Khan has expressed deep concern about his Khamoshi co-star Manisha Koirala’s health.

The actress underwent surgery in the US on Monday for ovarian cancer.

Salman is keeping in touch with her folks and has offered assistance to her. Meanwhile Govinda and his wife Sunita are also in touch with her family and were with her till Manisha left for the US.

Tags: Manisha Koirala, Salman Khan

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Dec 152012
 

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Dec 15, 2012, 03.24PM IST
NEW DELHI: Gold today gained Rs 30 to Rs 31,430 per 10 grams on retail buying, while silver fell sharply by Rs 600 to Rs 60,600 on sluggish industrial demand and a weak global trend.

Marketmen said silver remained under pressure on fall in demand from industrial units and coin makers following ending of current marriage season today.

They said gold gained marginally as previous day’s losses made the precious metal cheaper attracting retail customers.

A weak global trend had a mixed impact on the markets as traders awaited some positive outcome from the US fed meeting on stimulus package to boost economy, they added.

Gold in overseas markets, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, was little changed and hovered around a psychological $1,700 an ounce.

On the domestic front, the gold of 99.9 and 99.5% purity added Rs 30 to Rs 31,430 and Rs 31,230 per 10 grams, respectively. The metal had lost Rs 10 yesterday.

Sovereigns held steady at Rs 25,500 per piece of eight grams.

On the other hand, silver ready dropped by Rs 600 to Rs 60,600 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 470 to Rs 61,320 per kg. Silver coins plunged by Rs 2,000 to Rs 78,000 for buying and Rs 79,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

Dec 142012
 

The author has posted comments on this articleSujit John, TNN | Dec 15, 2012, 04.32AM IST

Bazmi Husain points to what looks like a third rail on the Metro track at Bangalore’s MG Road station and says that’s what’s powering the Metro train. The ‘third rail’ has a yellow-coloured casing, without which it can instantly kill someone who may accidentally step on the 750-volt power line. “We are the only ones in India providing both third rail and overhead power systems,” says the India managing director of ABB, the $40-billion, Zurich-based power and automation technologies company. For the Delhi Metro, ABB used the overhead technology. “That’s cheaper over the long term because it’s simpler, but the overhead wires are visually less appealing,” he says.

As we get on a Metro train that comes by – to go to the sub-station that powers the Metro rail system and where ABB has its control office – Husain talks excitedly about the urbanization progress that India has made. “Our Metro rail systems are as good as anywhere in the world,” he says. “The tickets use near-field communication technology and are reusable. In Zurich, they still use paper tickets because it’s infrastructure that was built decades ago. We have redundancy built in every step of the way, so the train will not stop even if there is a problem in one part of the power system.”

Husain says some cities are investing heavily in compact sub-stations, getting rid of the old, ugly systems on poles. Some are beginning to do underground electric cabling, and getting rid of the unsightly overhead wires. Karnataka, he says, is implementing one of the world’s biggest electricity automation systems. The system allows a central location to monitor the thousands of substations in the state, and understand all information about them. “It’s very empowering. You can plan your electricity distribution strategy better. You can quickly plan your restoration strategy if something goes wrong somewhere. The system even allows introduction of technologies to automate some of the fault correction,” he says.

We point out the blackouts in north India earlier this year. Husain declines to speculate on what caused it, but says such blackouts were more common earlier. “Our electricity systems have become a lot more robust. China’s and India’s power infrastructure is today far more modern than those in the US and Europe,” he says.

Husain has been an ABB lifer, barring his early years. He grew up in the Aligarh Muslim University campus where his parents taught. He graduated from BITS Pilani in 1981 with an electrical and electronics engineering degree, and joined ABB in its R&D division. He worked with ABB in the US, UK, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Singapore. In 2002, he returned to India to start an R&D centre, which has now become the largest in ABB. From 2005 through 2011, he was in Europe, including as director of ABB’s corporate research centre in Sweden. Last year, he was back in India as the country managing director.

Husain says India’s problem in power is the 12% shortage at peak hours, a figure that’s expected to rise to 19% even after the 80 gigawatts of power capacity that is under construction becomes operational. Reduction in transmission losses (mostly power theft) is part of the solution, and over the past few years that has come down by about 6 percentage points to 24% (the best in the world is 6%).

But the bigger solution, Husain says, lies on the consumption side. India’s factories are 30% less energy efficient than the best in the world. In a factory, motors consume more than 60% of the energy. “Motors here run like cars with their accelerators always floored. But if you fit devices that can control the motor speed based on requirement, there’s huge energy saving,” he says.

Air-conditioning is the other big power consumer. In parts of Europe, buildings must mandatorily use triple-paned glass that provides good insulation from external climate conditions and reduces internal air-conditioning requirements. “In India, we still use single-paned glass, not even double-paned. With office spaces and malls mushrooming, consumption-side measures are critical,” Husain says.

Dec 132012
 

LONDON: World shares were largely flat and commodities slipped on Thursday as investors looked past the Federal Reserve’s latest measures to stimulate the US economy to the country’s approaching fiscal crisis.

Stock index futures signalled that Wall Street would take a similar view when trading resumes, although data due on producer prices, retail sales and claims for unemployment benefits could have a big influence. .N

The Fed said on Wednesday it would begin buying $45 billion of Treasuries a month from January, on top of the $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed bonds it started purchasing in September to keep the U.S. recovery on track.

Such a big stimulus would normally have been greeted by a sharp rally in riskier asset markets, but many had already priced in the policy decision and other were more worried about the impact on growth of upcoming fiscal policy changes.

The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which had seen seven straight days of gains, was unchanged at 337.80 points,

“What the Fed announced yesterday was more or less expected, so I think we’ve had people selling the news,” Ioan Smith, strategist at Knight Capital, said.

The Fed did surprise many in the markets with its decision to hold interest rates near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent and as long as inflation remained low.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke warned that monetary policy could not offset the damage to growth from automatic spending cuts and tax rises due if talks in Washington on narrowing the budget deficit fail, adding to the cautious reaction to the announcement.

Analysts said investors were right to be cautious. “If the talks fail and we get 3 or 4 percent of GDP of fiscal tightening, that’s going to be a massive, massive drag on economic growth,” said Alan Clarke, economist at Scotia Capital.

“Even if we get a compromise and it’s just 1 percent of GDP of fiscal tightening … that would make it very hard for growth to be anywhere near this sort of 2 percent that the consensus is assuming over the coming year.”

These concerns caused a marked drop in European share markets, where the FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 0.4 percent to 1,135.46 points, ending a three-week-long rally that has sent prices to 18-month highs. .EU

London’s FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris’s CAC-40 .FCHI and Frankfurt’s DAX .GDAXI were all 0.1 to 0.4 percent lower.

Dollar choppy

In the foreign exchange markets, the dollar initially slipped to a one-week low of 79.71 against a basket of other major currencies .DXY after the Fed decision, but recovered as investors closed positions before the year-end.

“The Fed announcement has had a fairly limited impact on most of the majors,” said Adam Cole, global head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

The dollar index .DXY settled to be unchanged at 79.86, while against the euro the greenback was little changed at

$1.3080.

Sentiment toward the euro was helped by a deal clinched early on Thursday to give the European Central Bank new powers to supervise euro zone banks, the first step in a new phase of closer integration to help underpin the single currency.

The euro found some support after former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, who had abruptly withdrawn support for Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government last week, offered to stand back and suggested Monti could become the candidate of a centre-right coalition in elections expected in February.

Yen pressure

The Japanese yen came under renewed pressure as markets took the view that the Fed’s move made it more likely that the Bank of Japan would further ease monetary policy next week to support its weak economy.

The dollar rose to near its 2012 high of 84.187 yen to trade around 83.47 yen.

Japan holds an election on Sunday, with opinion polls showing conservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which favours more stimulus measures, is heading for a resounding victory.

Oil prices retreated on widespread concerns about the growth outlook, with U.S. crude futures down 34 cents at $86.44 a barrel and Brent falling 33 cents to $109.14.

“People are worried about the economy, the fiscal cliff in the U.S., and the European economy still remains a tricky one,” said Richard Langkemper, analyst at Argos North Sea Group in Rotterdam.

Gold tumbled by just under 1 percent on stop-loss selling after touching its highest in nearly two weeks on Wednesday to trade around $1,693.80 an ounce.