Onboard PM’s Special Aircraft: Rejecting reports of a rift between him and Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asserted that there was no truth in it as the two worked together almost on all issues.

“In all truthfulness, there is no difference of opinion between me and the Congress president,” he told reporters on his way back from the five-day visit to Japan and Thailand.

“We work together on almost every issue and where consultations are needed, I consult the Congress president,” he said.

He was responding to a question about perception of a trust deficit and divergences between him and Gandhi.

“This perception that on certain issues there were differences of opinion, there is no truth in that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Singh said he was considering the issue of filling vacancies in the Union Council of Ministers.

“There are some vacancies. The issue of filling them up is being considered,” he told reporters. — PTI

MUMBAI: Breaking his silence on the raging spot-fixing scandal, Sachin Tendulkar on Friday said that the developments of the last two weeks were "shocking and disappointing" and the faith reposed by the millions of fans in the game should be justified.

Tendulkar said the authorities must take sincere steps to get to the root of the issue and ensure that credibility of the game is restored.

The champion batsman, who retired from IPL after his side Mumbai Indians won the title recently, said as a cricketer he has always learnt to play in the true spirit of the game.

"It has always hurt me when the game of cricket is in the news for the wrong reasons. The developments in the last two weeks have been shocking and disappointing. As cricketers we are always taught to go out, fight hard, give our very best and play in the true spirit of the game," Tendulkar said in a statement.

The milestone man of Indian cricket said it was important that the authorities get to the root of the problem.

"During this difficult phase, I join every cricketer, from the boys in the maidans across the country to those who represent clubs, states and the country, who trust the authorities to take sincere steps to get to the root of the issue.

"The faith reposed by the millions of fans should be justified and we owe it to them to ensure that Indian cricket is all about pride and joy," the statement added.

Tendulkar's statement on the spot-fixing scandal assumes great importance since none of the current Indian cricketers have spoken on the issue, since it broke out about two weeks ago.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has steadfastly refused to speak on the scandal, apparently under a gag order from the BCCI.

Dhoni evaded questions on spot-fixing at the pre-departure press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday and also did the same at the media interaction in Birmingham on Thursday ahead of the Champions Trophy.

The only thing Dhoni said at the press conference in Birmingham was that Indian cricket's reputation was not "gone" and that some people were "slightly mentally weak" compared to others. He said that he will speak when the time was right.

With more and more cricket boards and state unit officials coming out in the open against BCCI president N Srinivasan's continuance over the last few days, it will be interesting to see whether more cricketers also start giving their views, taking a cue from Tendulkar. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals player Sidharth Trivedi will be a prosecution witness in the IPL spot-fixing case in which three players of his team have been arrested.

Trivedi, a pacer, had refused to accept an invitation by Ajit Chandila, a player arrested on charges of spot-fixing, to attend a party arranged by bookies. He had also refused money and gifts offered by the bookies.

“He is being made a prosecution witness,” a senior police official said.

Chandila had approached Bradd Hodge and Kevin Cooper of Rajasthan Royals to attend the bookies’ party but they had also rejected the invitation. — PTI

NEW DELHI: India announced growth figures for its full financial year on Friday showing the once-booming South Asian economy expanded by 5 per cent in 2012/13, its slowest pace in a decade. Low business confidence, slumping investment, high inflation and weak export demand from Western countries were
blamed for the bleak performance which comes ahead of national elections scheduled for next year.

In the fourth quarter to the end of March, gross domestic product grew by 4.8 per cent year-on-year, slightly higher than the previous quarter when it expanded by 4.5 per cent, according to the data from the statistics ministry.

Despite government efforts to talk up the economy after a burst of pro-market reforms at the end of last year, most independent analysts see continuing slack demand and few quick fixes.

"Business activity is still sluggish," Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist with state-run Bank of Baroda told AFP ahead of the release of the data.
The economy grew by 6.2 per cent in 2011/12.

Global ratings agency Standard and Poor's warned earlier this month that India faces at least "a one-in-three" chance of losing its prized sovereign grade rating amid new threats to economic growth and reforms.

India's BBB-minus investment rating is already the lowest among its BRICS peers Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa and cutting it to "junk status" would raise the country's hefty borrowing costs.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) this week lowered its projection of India's GDP to 5.3 per cent in 2013, from 5.9 per cent earlier.

"The government needs to go all-out to turn around investment sentiment," said Yes Bank chief economist Shubhada Rao.

The government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress party has been dogged by corruption scandals during its second term in office and has struggled to push through promised pro-business legislation.

It is scheduled to face the electorate next year having been unable to sustain the scorching growth rates of the last decade which were frequently near 10 per cent.

In a brief reforming period last year, the government opened up the retail and aviation sectors to wider foreign investment and partly freed fuel prices to reduce its burgeoning subsidy bill.

But faced with a hostile parliament and a shaky ruling coalition, it has since failed to pass mooted legislation to open up the insurance and pension sectors or a long-delayed law to simplify land acquisition.

Government pressure has mounted on the central bank to ease borrowing costs after it raised interest rates aggressively in 2010 and 2011 to combat double-digit inflation last year.

It has obliged by cutting interest rates three times in 2013, but Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said the bank has "limited space" to ease monetary policy further due to the risk of inflation flaring up again.

India's wholesale inflation, its most widely watched measure, cooled last month to a surprise 41-month low of 4.89 per cent. But the consumer price index is at 9.39 per cent, led mainly by high food and beverage prices. — AFP

MUMBAI: The BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday tumbled by 455 points to close below key 20,000-mark, wiping off Rs. 1.1 lakh crore in investor wealth, on panic selling in realty, banks and PSUs as hopes of rate cut crashed after RBI comments amid GDP growth slumping to decade-low of 5 per cent.

The 30-share barometer, which gained 68 points in the previous session, tumbled 455.10 points, or 2.25 per cent, to 19,760.30. This is its biggest daily loss since March 2012.

HDFC, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank fell in 3-4 per cent range. Heavyweights ITC and RIL dropped by over 3.5 per cent each. L&T, SBI, ONGC and Sun Pharma also witnessed selling.

All sectoral indices, barring IT, lost upto 3.3 percent.

Similarly, the NSE index Nifty plunged by 138.10 points, or 2.26 percent to 5,985.95. MCX-SX flagship index, SX40 today closed 258.98 points lower, or 2.16 per cent, at 11731.91.

Belying hopes of further rate cuts, the Reserve Bank Governor D. Subbarao’s comments that there are still upside risks to inflation spooked stock markets. The RBI’s concern about widening country’s current account deficit, amid fall of the rupee to over 10-month lows, also put pressure on the index.

Pulled down by poor performance of farm, manufacturing and mining sectors, economic growth slowed to 4.8 per cent in the January-March quarter and fell to a decade’s low of 5 per cent for the entire 2012-13 fiscal.

The realty sector index suffered the most by losing 3.38 per cent to 1,684.92 as DLF fell 5.41 per cent to Rs. 194.85, its lowest in more than 8 months after its first quarterly loss since at least 2007. Oil and gas index was second worst performer by falling 2.71 per cent to 8,654.79 as the energy major Reliance Industries tumbled 3.62 per cent to Rs. 805.60.

A subdued trend in the overseas markets as investors awaited reports on American consumer confidence and business activity also influenced the market sentiment. — PTI

OXON HILL, Maryland: Thirteen-year-old Arvind Mahankali of New York has won the Scripps National Spelling bee.

Mahankali correctly spelled his final word 'knaidel' to win the 86th version of the tournament that tests brain power, composure and, for the first time, knowledge of vocabulary. He
takes home $30,000 in cash and prizes along with a huge, cup-shaped trophy.

For the first time, competitors had to know the definitions of some of the words they spelled. The eleven finalists advanced from a field of 281 contenders based on a combination of a performance onstage and their performance on computerized spelling and vocabulary tests.

Mahankali outlasted several spelling bee veterans to win. — AP