Taking another swipe at Kapil Sibal over 'Aakash' tablets, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked him not to indulge in "cheap gimmicks" and instead make honest efforts to deliver the promised device to the youths in the country.        

 

Modi's comments came after Sibal shot off a letter and two tablets to the Gujarat Chief Minister who had criticised the "delay" in delivery of 'Aakash' to the students.        

 

"Instead of cheap gimmicks, the minister (Sibal) should first inform the nation on his promise to provide Aakash tablet to 10 lakh (one million) youths in 2011!," tweeted Modi.        

 

"In future, Mr Sibal should make honest effort to ensure delivery of good quality computing and access device to our youth," he said.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley today contended that the Supreme Court judgement on the Presidential reference on allocation of natural resources was not a validation of government policises in spectrum and coal blocks allocation.        

 

"The court has said that if you allocate natural resources for commercial purpose then you can give it through auction, by bidding and at market prices. If you give it for a social purpose like land for an orphanage or a playground then it can be different," Jaitley said.        

 

"The 2G spectrum or coal mines were not given for a social purpose, they were given for commerce and trade. So to consider it to be a victory of the government, even some media persons have also written it.... I believe there is arrogance in ignorance and this goes on show that," he added.        

 

Jaitley also said the Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail would hurt the interest of the people and added that his party would oppose it.

Security in and around the Sanganer airport in Jaipur was today stepped up after security agencies received information about a post on social-networking website Facebook threatening to blow up the airport on October 1.        

 

"We got information that somebody has uploaded content threatening bomb blast at the airport on a social networking website, following which we tightened security and briefed airlines about that," airport's Officiating Director P Srikrishna said, adding that the threat was non-specific.        

 

Internal security at the airport is being handled by CISF and addition policemenhave also been deployed outside the airport.

Mohammed Siddique reports from Hyderabad: As many as four tear gas shells fell on the stage where many leaders of different organisations and parties were sitting during the Telangana march.  

 

As the eye-burning gas enveloped the area, two leaders including former Congress minister K Venkat Reddy fell sick.  

 

The tear gas shells were fired from behind the stage where two vehicles of Rapid Action Force were placed.   Later the police also pressed in to service the water canons to disperse the crowd which was already drenched due to the rains.

Mohammed Sidique reports from Hyderabad: The situation on the Necklace Road in Hyderabad has taken a very explosive turn with the police and paramilitary forces swinging into action.  

 

The police have started using force to disperse the crowds as the permitted time for Telangana March came to an end at 7 pm.  

 

As the police and paramilitary forces were lobbing tear gas shells, people were running helter-skelter creating a stampede like situation.  

 

The Necklace Road-Buddha Bhavan stretch has only one exit as the road has been sealed from the other side.

The US military has suffered its 2,000th death in the Afghan war -- with a suspected "insider" attack at a checkpoint in the east of the country.

 

A US soldier and a foreign contractor were killed while two Afghan soldiers died and four were injured.

 

Read more on BBC

Hitting back at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her criticiam of UPA government's policies, Union minister V Narayanasamy today alleged that no industrial activity has taken place in her state or jobs created since she came to power.       

 

"After Mamata Banerjee came to power in West Bengal, there is no industrial development and no jobs were created. A state cannot remain like that.... The Centre cannot remain like that," the Minister of State in PMO told reporters at the airport in Chennai.        

 

"Centre has to march forward for the purpose of fulfilling the wishes and aspirations of the people", Narayanasamy said on the eve of Trinamool Congress' demonstration in Delhi to protest the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, an issue on which it has withdrawn support to the UPA.        

 

Banerjee had alleged yesterday that "Looting is on in the name of aam admi and reforms".

India can recover from global economic slowdown faster than China as the economy is driven by domestic consumption, but the country needs to "get its act together" for this to happen, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Anand Sinha said in Beijing today.        

 

Speaking to PTI, Sinha also said "confidence issues like the general pessimism and not-so-good-feel factor also affected the economy".        

 

"Both economies (India and China) are affected by the global economic slowdown but India being a domestic consumption driven economy could recover faster," he said.        

 

"But for that we have to get our act together. Being dependent on domestic economy, we would be less affected by export sector performance. So, that could be our strength. But we have to get our act together and whatever weaknesses we have to get around them," he said responding to a question.        

 

When asked what should be done by India to arrest the slide in growth, he said, "We have to get hold of inflation. If we get hold of it, growth will have better prospect. Once growth takes off things would be better. 

Mohammed Siddique reports from Hyderabad: Violence has erupted along the Neckalce Road in Hyderabad -- the site of Telangana march -- as the protestors have gone on rampage. They have attacked the vehicles of the police and the media and set fire to at least three vehicles.  

 

The vehicles set on fire include those of Sakshi TV, Doordarshan and a police van. The protestors were infuriated over the lathicharge of police against the people coming for participating in the Telangana march.  

 

Meanwhile, TJAC convenor Prof Kodanda Ram has told the march participants that they should not move from the place till central government makes an announcement on Telangana state.

Stressing that BJP will continue to oppose the decision taken by UPA government as part of economic reforms, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu today said the party would never accept FDI in multi-brand retail and fight against the reforms undertaken by UPA government.  

 

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a party function in Bangalore, he said FDI in retail would "kill" the Indian trade.  

 

Naidu said once the multinational retailers are allowed, millions of small traders will be put of business.

Shashank Joshi on India's No First Use Doctrine: http://shashankjoshi.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/india-and-no-first-use/

Stung by massive protest during his 'Adhikar Yatra' in the districts, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today slammed opposition parties for allegedly orchestrating the stir to "sabotage" his campaign on the demand for special status to the state.        

 

"The opposition forces are unable to digest my 'Adhikar Yatra' and they have tried to sabotage the campaign by instigating protest against me," he told a meeting of JD-U workers at Khagra stadium in Kishanganj district.        

 

Kumar said he was unfazed by the protests and would carry on his campaign on the special category status demand as he has the larger public interest and Bihar's development in mind.        

AP: Bombs striking Shiite neighbourhoods, security forces and other targets across Iraq killed at least 19 people today, officials said.        

 

It was the latest string of coordinated bombings in multiple Iraqi cities, a tactic used by insurgents apparently aimed at rekindling widespread sectarian conflict and undermining public confidence in the beleaguered government.        

 

The deadliest attack came in the town of Taji, a former Al Qaeda stronghold just north of Baghdad, where three explosive-rigged cars went off within minutes of each other.        

 

Police said eight people died and 28 were injured in the back-to-back blasts that began around 7:15 am.        

 

In all, at least 68 people were wounded in the wave of attacks that stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq's north to the southern Shiite town of Kut.        

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, but car bombs are a hallmark of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Seven pilgrims were killed and 11 injured when a bus, on way from Tarapith to Kolkata, overturned on NH 2 at Gurap in Hooghy district today.        

 

The bus, carrying over 30 pilgrims from Vaishali district in Bihar, was on a tour of religious places in the region and had arrived at Tarapith Kali temple only yesterday from Deoghar's Basukinath temple in neighbouring Jharkhand, Burdwan Superintendent of Police S M H Mirza said.        

 

The accident spot was not very far away from Burdwan district.        

 

The 11 injured were being treated at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital where the condition of some was stated to be critical, Mirza said.        

 

The SP said the driver probably lost control and the vehicle overturned twice as local people started rescue operation soon afterwards alerted by the screams.

The Empowered Group of Ministers on Telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, is scheduled to meet on October 3 to decide on the issue of one-time fee on spectrum held by existing telecom operators.     

 

"Yes, it is (EGoM meet) on October 3," confirmed a senior government official when asked about the schedule for the meeting.   

 

In July, the Cabinet had referred the matter to EGoM for obtaining its view. Later in the month, EGoM had deferred a decision on the matter till the outcome of Presidential Reference.     

 

Following the Supreme Court's opinion on the Presidential Reference, the government is now free to take a decision in this regard.  

Both Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA would be defeated in the next general elections slated for 2014, CPI said today and voiced optimism about the emergence of a programme-based alternative of the Left and democratic forces.        

 

"BJP's dream of regaining power will be shattered mainly due to infighting in that party," CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy and senior leader A B Bardhan said in Bhubaneswar.  

 

"Though BJP seems to be presuming that it would come back to power at the Centre in the polls, it must realise that people will reject the party as several of its leaders are embroiled in corruption," they said.        

 

The Congress-led UPA on the other hand would fail miserably to retain power as people are fed up with rampant corruption, faulty economic policies involving permission for FDI in multi-brand retail and sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities, Bardhan said.

India's Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao points out the business opportunities in developing India's infrastructure in this speech delivered in Chicago: http://www.indianembassy.org/prdetail2031/inaugural-address-by-ambassador-nirupama-rao-at-the-symposium-on-andquot%3Bindian-infrastructure%3A-the-one-trillion-dollar-opportunityandquot%3B-in-chicago-on-26-september%2C-2012

Signalling another step towards political reform, Myanmar President Thein Sein has said that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi would be acceptable as the country's president if the people vote for her in 2015.        

 

Sein has initiated a series of reforms in recent years that have seen the beleaguered country gradually emerge out of its international isolation.         Western countries have either suspended or eased sanctions due to the new direction in hitherto military-control in Myanmar's politics.        

 

Speaking to BBC, Sein said he would accept Suu Kyi as president if the people voted for her, and insisted that the will of the people would be respected whoever they chose in an election due in 2015.

Santwana Bhattacharya reports on the West Bengal chief minister's plans in this report for The Sunday Standard: http://newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/article1279829.ece

The late Brajesh Mishra on Mao's handshake and the thaw that followed on niticentral.com: http://www.niticentral.com/2012/09/maos-famous-handshake-and-thawing-of-freeze.html

Prabhu Chawla reveals why the top echelons of India's bureaucracy are in upheaval in this piece in the New Indian Express: http://newindianexpress.com/prabhu_chawla/columns/article1279814.ece

Battering at the hands of YSR Congress in successive by-elections notwithstanding, Congress in Andhra Pradesh does not feel the need to approach rebel Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and suggests any effort for a rapprochement should come from his side.        

 

It also attributes the triumph of YSR Congress in the June by-elections to "sympathy" towards late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the arrest of his son Jaganmohan Reddy in disproportionate assets case while asserting that the party is not afraid of facing anyone at the hustings.        

 

In a free-wheeling interview to PTI, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke about the by-election defeats, future of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh and his efforts to revitalise the party and its cadre before the elections in 2014.  

Vicky Nanjappa reports: The situation in Hyderabad is tense ahead of the the Telangana march even as 6 leaders from the Congress have been taken into preventive custody. The situation at the Osmania university the epi centre of the protest is extremely tense and clashes have been reported between the students and the security personnel. Depsite the government banning all forms of processions, many organisations defied the order and carried out rallies and processions. At the Osmania University, a motor cycle rally was taken out. Even the employees union carried out a procession which was objected to by the police. There were arguments, skirmishes and clashes between the police and protestors at every place in Hyderabad. The police say that permission has been granted to take out a march only at the Necklace Road and no processions have been allowed. However the protestors argued that such orders cannot be issued. A police officer informed that they need to tread very carefully as the situation could go out of control. The bigger worry is the UN Bio diversity meet tomorrow at Hyderabad where 193 countries will take part. The protestors say if they are allowed to stage a protest and take out processions today without any interference then they would assure that the bio diversity meet passes off peacefully. However if the government stops us then it will be curtains for the meet tomorrow, the protestors also said. Meanwhile the Congress MLAs are sitting in dharna outside the house of the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy while the rest of the leaders are gearing up for the march.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is scheduled to visit Russia next week to give a push to Islamabad's efforts to improve relations with Moscow ahead of the pull out of foreign troops from Afghanistan. 

A commemorative postage stamp to mark the 50th year of raising of border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police will be released tomorrow. 

Complying with the Supreme Court directive, Karnataka today began release of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu, triggering widespread protests across the district and disrupting vehicular movement. 

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is likely to visit Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir next week to review the security situation in forward areas along the Indo-Pak border, including Kargil. 

The Coast Guard's plan to boost its maritime surveillance capabilities will have to wait as the defence ministry has scrapped its tender to procure 16 light helicopters. 

A complaint has been filed in a court in New Delhi against Bollywood actor-producer Ajay Devgn for allegedly maligning and defaming Sikhs in his upcoming film Son of Sardar.

A provocative excerpt from Hanna Rosin's new book, The End of Men and The Rise of Women: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/30/hanna-rosin-end-men-extract

Saurabh Shukla in Mail Today reveals how the ministry of external affairs's cash crunch may make the ASEAN summit in New Delhi in December a tepid affair: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/asean-summit-india-budget-cut-caash-crunch/1/222826.html

Fifty years ago this week, The Beatles released their first single. The Observer hails the event in this feature: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/sep/29/october-1962-modern-culture

Frank talk by Sharad Yadav, the Janata Dal-United leader, at an Indian Express Ideas Exchange event: http://m.indianexpress.com/news/-we-know-the-situation-in-bihar.-bjp-is-both-an-asset-and-a-liability-/1009804/

Shashi Shekhar, an occasional Rediff columnist, feels "More than Arabic and Quran would have been good to see Advaniji read Arthashastra, Narada in Mahabharata and Vashishtha in Ramayana"

Kenya's Edwin Kipyego wins Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in the men's elite section with a timing of one hour and 55 seconds. Rahul Kumar Pal top Indian. In the women's elite section, Yimer Wude of Ethiopia clocks one hour, 11 minutes and 10 seconds to win the Delhi Half Marathon. Sudha Singh top Indian woman.

Dr Rana Ranbir Singh will establish a centre for treating drug users: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-doctor-to-set-up-first-OST-center-in-Pakistan/articleshow/16604107.cms

The home ministry has sought funds for this important initiative. Read the Times of India report: http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/16608179.cms

The BJP doyen has confirmed he is learning Arabic. He has read the Quran in English and Hindi and now wants to read it in the original Arabic. http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/GUJ-AHD-why-is-advani-learning-arabic-3857583-NOR.html Will this lead to a fresh controversy?

A forceful defence of the Chinese position on its recent territorial disputes by one of its top officials: http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/2012-09/10/content_483950_2.htm

While wicked rumours swirl around her brother Bilawal Aseefa Zardari, Benazir and Asif Ali's elder daughter, is involved in a campaign to fight polio. She tweets a picture of her with television star, the gorgeous Archie Panjabi: https://mobile.twitter.com/AseefaBZ/status/252192328322785280?photo=1#!/AseefaBZ/status/252192328322785280/photos

Hollywood star weds in California. She wore Valentino. The designer who says Ann is like a daughter to her especially designed the dress. The HuffPo story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/anne-hathway-married-adam-shulman_n_1923958.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

The most photographed woman in the world with her brood in a French park: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/angelina-jolie-and-kids-park-south-of-france-photos_n_1924364.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003. Fun!

In a week where his memoir Joseph Anton was released along with Deepa Mehta's film on his Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie has this to say: "@SalmanRushdie: OK, publishing a book and releasing a movie is all very well, but Tottenham beating Man. U. 3-2... priceless." Salman has apparently been a Spurs fan for a long time.

Kanchan Gupta, who worked with the late Brajesh Mishra in tne Vajpayee PMO, salutes his memory: http://dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/52549-a-master-strategist-with-a-daring-mind.html

Chief Justice Altamas Kabir as profiled on niticentral.com: http://www.niticentral.com/2012/09/all-you-need-to-know-about-altamas-kabir-the-new-cji.html

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger played a heroic part in backing his editors and reporters to make the New York Times the truly awesome newspaper it is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/former-new-york-times-publisher-arthur-ochs-sulzberger-dies/article4577082/ A tribute to 'Punch'Sulzberger from President Obama: http://www.bnowire.com/inbox/?id=1135

An interesting revelation: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/how-the-world-spends-money/263023/ Or is it?

In case you missed reading Perry Anderson's feature from the London Review of Books, here it is: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n15/perry-anderson/after-nehru

According to this Times of India report, citing a HelpAge survey, Indian sons are not good to their dads: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Every-third-senior-citizen-in-India-abused-mainly-by-son-Study/articleshow/16596677.cms

Two years after it enters China, the racing car manufacturer hopes to be in India: http://www.indiandrives.com/mclaren-coming-to-india-by-2015.html

Jairam Ramesh has roped in Vidya Balan to front a government campaign to promote better sanitation. Vidya will do a swell job for sure. She has her heart in the right place: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/vidya-balan-and-jairam-ramesh-team-up-for-toilets/

According to a Christian group, there have been 13 worrisome incidents directed against Christians in Tamil Nadu. Read the report here: http://www.persecution.org/2012/09/24/anti-christian-incidents-rising-in-southern-india/

Both Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar feel the Indian star is not fully fit after his recent battle with cancer and should not have played the world T20 championships: http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-world-twenty20-2012/content/story/584683.html

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