New Delhi, July 22: The Samajwadi Party and the Left have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to let FDI in multi-brand retail sector, saying this will virtually destroy India’s retail sector.

“Entry of MNC supermarket and hypermarket chains would cause severe displacement of small and unorganized shopkeepers and traders,” a joint open letter to the prime minister said.

“The entry of the giant Wal-Mart supermarket chain would have a disastrous impact.”

The letter quoted one estimate as saying that a Wal-Mart supermarket in India would displace over 1,300 small retail stores and render about 3,900 people jobless. “In a situation when employment growth has slowed down, the entry of foreign supermarkets would further aggravate the employment situation.

“We urge the government not to open up the retail trade to FDI any further. Political parties across the spectrum are opposed to this move. Many state governments have also stated their opposition.”

The letter was signed by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, CPI-M’s Prakash Karat, CPI’s S. Sudhakar Reddy, Danish Ali of Janata Dal-Secular, Debabrata Biswas of Forward Bloc and Abani Roy of Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The letter pointed out that the Indian retail sector was the second largest employer in India after agriculture.

“It employs over four crore people. Most of these are small unorganized or self-employed retailers.”  (IANS)

GUWAHATI, July 22: Rio Tinto, one of the world’s major diamond producers, launched its flagship Indian diamond initiative, ‘Nazraana’ in Guwahati at an event conducted in association with L Gopal Jewellers, one of the leading jewellers of Assam.

‘Nazraana’ which takes its reference from royal gift giving rituals of past eras is woven into the gift giving traditions of the Indian wedding. These timeless and dazzling gifts of love are the ideal gift for family and friends when celebrating a wedding. Nazraana - the royal gift of diamonds, goes beyond the bridal couple and celebrates the coming together of two families.

This exquisite of jewelry is crafted using genuine natural diamonds and hallmarked 18K gold or 925 silver. They are available at popular gifting price-points from Rs 4,999 to Rs 39,999.

The Nazraana collection was previewed by selected customers and media at an exclusive event held at Gopal Jewellers flagship showroom on GS Road, Guwahati. The collection was brought alive through a fashion show symbolizing Indian wedding traditions.

Barasha Rani Bishaya, the heart-throb of Assam, unveiled the ‘Nazraana’ collection and was gifted the first ‘dazzling gift-of love’ by Vikram Merchant, Manager Rio Tinto Diamonds, India Representative Office.

Merchant said “The Nazraana products are beautiful, timeless and affordable. We are happy to be associated with L Gopal Jewellers in introducing this new gifting category to consumers in Guwahati.”

“We welcome ‘Nazraana’ to Guwahati, the great eastern city of light”, said Ram Gopal Soni, Director, L Gopal Jewellers. “Nazraana will be the perfect way for parents of the bridal couple to share their joy with family and friends.”

The launch event will be followed by a ‘Nazraana’ promotion at L Gopal Jewellers showroom on GS Road. There will be attractive offers with every purchase in the true spirit and tradition of Nazraana. This was stated in a press release.

London, July 22: Wall Street analysts have demanded an assurance from Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg that he is fully committed to driving the sales and profits of the social networking site, as the firm prepares to release its first results as a public company this week.

The 23pc slump in Facebook’s share prices since its 104 billion dollar flotation in May has left investors nervous, following which they have demanded Zuckerberg to make an appearance on the conference call with Wall Street analysts, which Facebook would hold after the release of its Q2 results on Thursday.

“If they want to present themselves as a company that sees investors as stakeholders, then at least a brief introduction [from Mr Zuckerberg] would be welcome. You want to be reassured that they respect investors,” The Telegraph quoted Brian Weiser, an analyst in New York at Pivotal Research, as saying.

According to the paper, Facebook, whose much-hyped initial public offering was marred by technical glitches on its opening day on the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York, faced accusations that the company and its advisers had selectively disclosed bad news about the outlook for 2012, before the shares were eventually sold for 38 dollars each on May 17, which the firm and its advisers had vehemently denied.

Analysts at Nomura believe that Facebook needs to tread a fine line between increasing revenues without alienating the users around which it has built the company, and the firm could do this is by charging companies for the pages they have on the site. Coca-Cola currently has the most popular corporate page with 41.9 million “likes” followed by Walt Disney with 35.7 million, the paper said.

Analysts also said that Facebook’s debut quarterly results and conference call will be critical in revealing how much detailed information the historically private company is prepared to share with investors.

“Facebook must reinforce with investors that they care about driving revenues. I think clearly they do care,” Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles said. (Agencies)

Jammu, July 22: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday announced that State planning board is being constituted this year to “achieve the development goals in consonance with aspirations of the people”.

An official spokesman said that while chairing the meeting of Jammu district development board in Jammu, the chief minister said: “Comprehensive planning is an important aspect in the equitable and holistic development of the state which has prompted us to constitute state planning board this year.”

According to the spokesman the chief minister said that reaching out to all areas in development process and mitigating the difficulties of people is focused concern of the his government.

A well defined state planning board would address all issues pertaining to the development demands across the State.

Abdullah stressed in the meeting that “the management of planning and allocation of suitable funds to all areas across the state in accordance with the public demand is an uphill task in a state like Jammu and Kashmir where the indigenous income is meagre while losses are many.”  (IANS)

Chandigarh, July 22: With the elusive monsoon raising concerns for the agriculture sector, the Punjab government on Sunday sought an interim relief package of Rs.800 crore from the central government.

The State government also demanded 1,000 MW additional power allocation from the central pool in lieu of the extra money being spent by it on purchase of power for the agriculture sector, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here Sunday in a statement.

He said that the deficient and erratic monsoon had put financial burden on Punjab and its farmers for the irrigation of the paddy crop. Punjab alone contributes over 70 per cent of the total foodgrain (wheat and rice) to the national kitty despite having just 1.55 per cent of the country’s total geographical area.

Badal said that the state government approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to immediately come to the aid of Punjab farmers.

He said that the 70 per cent deficient rains in the month of June and July was a cause of concern for the Punjab government as farmers of Punjab were contributing more than 50 per cent paddy to the central pool and any failure of crop in the state could have a bearing on the nation’s food security.

Badal said that state power agencies were being forced to purchase power from different sources at exorbitant rates to feed the agriculture sector during the paddy season. Punjab Powercom purchased power of Rs.6,556 crore in recent weeks.

He added that Punjab farmers were spending crores of rupees on diesel to run generator-driven tubewells.

Punjab has an area of 29 lakh hectares area under paddy cultivation this season. (IANS)

Chandigarh, July 22: Punjab has objected to a move by the central government to transfer the subject of water from the state list to the concurrent list, accusing it of trying to usurp the powers of states.

A spokesman of the chief minister’s office said Sunday that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had sought direct intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get the centre to shelve the proposal.

Badal has written letters to the prime minister, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal urging them “to desist from the purported move before it leads to further suspicion and harm”.

“What was required at this stage was the resolution of the inter-state water issues harmoniously in accordance with the nationally and internationally accepted riparian principle,” Badal wrote in his letters.

Badal’s response came in wake of remarks by Chidambaram that the central government was considering a proposal to transfer the subject of water in the constitution from state to concurrent list.

Badal said the news had “alarmed and anguished the people of Punjab who were already feeling aggrieved over the discrimination meted out to them on the issue of river waters”. He said by transferring subjects from the state to the concurrent list, the centre was trying to usurp the powers of states.

He said the central government was making such moves in “a secret manner” and not informing the states.

Badal said sharing of river waters was an emotive issue and a root cause of militancy which Punjab and the rest of the country had to pass through during the 1980s and 1990s.

He said Punjab opposed the reported proposal, with regard to both the jurisdiction of the states on river waters and the larger issue of union-state relations. (IANS)

Jaipur, July 22: In a major decision to push the rural economy, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Kumar Gehlot has decided to provide interest-free loans of up to Rs 1 lakh to some 26 million farmers, with money drawn from cooperative societies. “This scheme will specifically benefit small farmers and free them from the clutches of moneylenders who charge high interest rates. The money can be used to buy fertilizers, seeds, pesticide and diesel needed to raise crops,” a senior official said. “What makes the scheme even more attractive and unique is that farmers who repay the loan by the due date will not have to pay interest. This kind of scheme, perhaps, is being implemented for the first time in the country,” the official added.

Outlining the contours of the scheme, officials said the loan will be made available for both the kharif and rabi crops seasons through gram sewa cooperative societies. There are over 5,000 such societies in Rajathan and all of them are linked to the loan scheme.

In the beginning of the year, the chief minister had allowed Rs 8,000 crore worth of cooperative loans. This has been hiked to Rs 9,431 crore so that more farmers benefit from the interest-free loan scheme. In another decision, the chief minister has decided to release Rs 300 crore from the primary cooperative land development banks for disbursal as cooperative crop loans so that there is no shortfall of funds.

Officials said this was a part of the government’s initiatives to help farmers in distress. Earlier, policy changes were made for award of compensation to farmers whose crops are destroyed by natural disasters.

“Now, farmers do not face any problem in getting compensations. The scope of the crop insurance scheme has also been widened and procedures have been simplified. The chief minister is keen that the problems of farmers are solved without delay,” an official said. Officials explained that when the Congress took power three-and-a-half years ago, a landmark decision was taken by Gehlot not to hike electricity tariff for crops for five years. (IANS)