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Planning Commission further lowers poverty line to Rs 28/per day

Planning Commission on Monday further reduced poverty line to Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas, scaling down India's poverty ratio to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10, the estimates which are likely to raise the hackles of civil society.


An individual above a monthly consumption of Rs 859.6 in urban and Rs 672.8 in rural areas is not considered poor, as per the controversial formula. Furthermore, the Plan panel has kept the poverty threshold even lower than it submitted to the Supreme Court last year, which created an outcry among the civil society.

The Plan panel had said in its affidavit before the apex court that the "poverty line at June 2011 price level can be placed provisionally at Rs 965 (32 per day) per capita per month in urban areas and Rs 781 (26 per day) in rural areas".

The civil society had questioned this definition stating it was very low. As per estimates released on Monday, the number of poor in India has declined to 34.47 crore in 2009-10 from 40.72 crore in 2004-05 estimated on the basis of controversial Tendulkar Committee methodology.

The methodology recommended by the Committee includes spending on health and education, besides the calorie intake. Further, poverty in rural areas declined at a faster pace than in urban cities between 2004-05 and 2009-10.


Mukul Roy to be sworn-in as new Railways Minister today

Trinamool Congress's Mukul Roy will be sworn-in on Tuesday as cabinet minister to replace his party colleague Dinesh Trivedi who has resigned as railways minister, as per official sources.

Mukul Roy, minister of state for shipping, would take the oaths of office and secrecy on Tuesday morning as cabinet minister.

Trivedi had to resign after Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee opposed the hike in passenger fares announced by him in the rail budget presented to Parliament last week.

Banerjee had written to the prime minister that Trivedi should be replaced by Roy. Trivedi sent his resignation to the prime minister on Sunday evening. The prime minister told the Lok Sabha on Monday that Trivedi's resignation will be sent to the president with the recommendation that it should be accepted.


Govt may look at suspending Kingfisher Airline's license


Vijay Mallya will meet the government officials today to explain Kingfisher Airline's position. The government is now preparing ground to suspend KFA's license. Fifteen days notice was issued in February-end has expired now. Vijay Mallya is summoned by the government to explain the position.

Drop in flights is a big concern for the ailing airline. Also, summer schedule is reduced to 16 from original 64 aircrafts. Sources say the government may look at suspending its license.

Also, the last independent director has stepped down from the KFA board. With this, all the five directors have resigned over the last six months. Meanwhile, some relief for KFA has come in. The Bangalore ITAT has lifted the freeze on the airline's accounts, with conditions.


Asia Cup: Sri Lanka-Bangladesh match to determine India`s fate


Millions of Indian cricket fans will be praying for a Sri Lankan victory when the islanders take on hosts Bangladesh here tomorrow in their last league match, the result of which will determine India`s fate in the Asia  Cup cricket tournament.

If Sri Lanka win, India will go into the final but a defeat for the islanders will ensure that Bangladesh take on Pakistan in the title clash on Thursday.

As per the rules of the tournament, if two teams are tied on points, head-to-head record will be considered, so Bangladesh will go into the final as they had beaten India in their league match.

Going by the form of both the teams, Bangladesh would back them to register another upset win in the tournament.

After giving Pakistan a scare in the tournament-opener, Bangladesh sprung a surprise by chasing down India`s challenging 289-run target with five wickets in hand and four balls to spare.

Nicknamed `Tigers`, the Bangladesh cricket team has so far showed in the continental event that they are quite a handful in front of adoring home fans.


Apple sells 3 mn new iPads thin 3 days of launch


The California-based company launched the third version of the iPad on Friday with new features including an improved display, better camera, faster processor and support for AT&T's and Verizon's fourth-generation LTE cellular networks.

Apple announced yesterday that it has sold three million new iPads the same day that the company said it will put its nearly $100 billion cash reserves to use by beginning to pay a quarterly 2.65 dollar dividend and through a 10 billion dollar share buy-back programme.

During the conference call with investors to discuss Apple's plans for its cash stockpile, Apple's Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the company had a "record weekend" for its latest iPad but had not given the exact sales figures.

Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller disclosed the figures later in a statement.

"The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold, the strongest iPad launch yet," Schiller said.

The new iPad is already available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US.

"Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we cannot wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world," when it becomes available in 24 more countries from March 23 and through Apple online stores.

The new iPad, available in black and white, is priced between $499 and $829 dollars depending on the various models and configurations.

Apple has reduced the cost of iPad 2 which is now available at a price of between $399 and $529 dollars.

Cook said Apple has sold 55 million iPads since the trend setting tablet computer was first launched in 2010.The first iPad took 28 days to hit one million sales, Apple said.

Posted in: Apple, Asia cup, India's Poverty line, Ipad 3, Kingfisher, Mukul Roy, Planning commission