L A T E S T      N E W S

TMC stages dharna outside Parliament  

  New Delhi/Kolkata:  Mamata Banerjee is forcing the Prime Minister to drop Dinesh Trivedi, who is from her own party, as the Railways Minister. The PM has reportedly accepted her demand. But according to the Press Trust of India, Mr Trivedi has said that so far, neither Ms Banerjee nor the PM have instructed him to resign.  Mr Trivedi made it clear to NDTV yesterday that if Ms Banerjee asks him to quit, he will not object. Mr Trivedi is facing the wrath of his party chief for hiking passenger fares in the Railways Budget he presented yesterday in Parliament. Last night, Ms Banerjee wrote to the PM asking that Mr Trivedi be dismissed and replaced with her close confidante and current Minister of State for Shipping, Mukul Roy.   
 
The Congress has reportedly agreed to this and to her demand that the increased fares be rolled back, at least for the cheaper tickets that the aam admi or common man buys.  However, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged Ms Banerjee to wait for these changes till after the union budget is presented tomorrow.  But Ms Banerjee is not known for compromises.  So her party members have begun a protest at Parliament, demanding that the hike in passenger fares be reversed.  They also want a financial package from the Centre for West Bengal, which is seeped in debt.  Among the Trinamool Congress leaders on "strike" at Parliament is the man tipped to be the next Railways Minister, Mr Roy. 

Akhilesh Yadav to take oath today

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav is set to take oath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday for the first time, after his party gained absolute majority by winning 224 seats in the 403-member Assembly.

A host of top VVIPs including LK Advani, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu and Janata Dal (U) president Sharad Yadav, industrialist Anil Ambani, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and others will also witness history as it is made when Akhilesh will become the youngest ever CM of Uttar Pradesh.
Though invitations were also sent to Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalita, both of them have are unlikely to turn up. The 38-year-old Akhilesh will be the state's youngest chief minister and his Cabinet is likely to be a mix of youth and experience.

RBI keeps policy rates unchanged

New Delhi: After having already cut CRR by 0.75 percentage points last week, Reserve Bank of India kept its policy rates unchanged on Thursday.
Repo or the short term lending rate of the RBI now stands at 8.5 percent. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF will remain unchanged at 7.5 percent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 9.5 percent.

The RBI has also decided to keep the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.75 percent.

Mid-Quarter Monetary Policy Review Recent growth-inflation dynamics have prompted the Central Bank to indicate that no further tightening is required and that future actions will be towards lowering the rates. However, notwithstanding the deceleration in growth, inflation risks remain, which will influence both the timing and magnitude of future rate actions, RBI said.

Last week, RBI slashed CRR (cash reserve ratio), the percentage of deposits that banks have to keep with the RBI, from 5.5 percent to 4.75 percent. With this, the central bank had infused Rs 48,000 crore into the economy.