Laddu weighing 7,000 kg to be offered to Ganesha in Rajahmundry

A sweet shop owner from Tapeswaram town in East Godavari district has prepared a 7,000 kg laddu to be presented to Lord Ganesha on Vinayaka Chaturthi on Monday. The laddu will be offered at a pandal in Rajahmundry set up by the Rajahmundry Ganesh Utsav Committee .

The sweet shop owner, S Venkateswara Rao, had made mega laddus during the Ganesh festivals in 2011 and 2012 as well. This year's laddu is said to be the world's biggest and Venkateswara Rao plans to enter his feat in the Guinness World Records. He spent around Rs 14.80 lakh on the maha laddu, employing 16 workers and using around 2,000 kg of sugar, 2,000 kg of chana dal flour and 1,500 kg of ghee besides other ingredients including cashew and almonds weighing

SpiceJet to add seven Boeing planes in FY14


HYDERABAD: Buoyed by the successful meeting of APNGOs in the heart of the city, Seemandhra ministers said they have prepared a strategy to stall bifurcation of the state by voting against the Tresolution in the Assembly and organizing massive protests in Hyderabad and across the districts.

To provide impetus to their "Save Andhra Pradesh" movement, the leaders said they will spearhead a million march in Hyderabad and get 100,000 lawyers to Hyderabad separately in a series of protest meetings and rallies, some of which are also planned across the state.

"Never in the history has a bill, which was defeated in the Assembly, been taken up by Parliament. Defeat of the T-resolution is a sure way to stall the division of the state," minor irrigation minister T G Venkatesh, said.

Ministers, C Ramachandraiah , Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Vatti Vasanth Kumar, Kasu Krishna Reddy and Erasu Pratap Reddy met at Venkatesh's residence and announced they would ensure the defeat of the T-resolution in the Assembly, when it comes up for debate and voting. Venkatesh said all the ministers would resign immediately after the defeat of the T-resolution in the House.

"We have defied the party leadership on the issue of division of the state. We are confident to convince our leadership of the need to keep the state united. MLAs, MPs and party workers are opposed to the division of the state," Venkatesh said after the meeting.

The smooth conduct of APNGOs meeting at LB stadium have given a ray of hope to Seemandhra protesters , who now say will further intensify their effort to stall the bifurcation process.

Soon they plan to hold a million march, mobilizing the people of 13 districts from Rayalaseema and Andhra region in Hyderabad, followed by a meeting of traders in the capital. Former advocate-general CV Mohan Reddy said over 100,000 lawyers from Rayalaseema and Andhra regions would also converge in Hyderabad on September 28, demanding stalling of the bifurcation process.

Infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao announced in Visakhapatnam that a massive public meeting will be organized at the Vizag beach on September 17, when the Seemandhra movement against Telangana formation enters the 50th day.

Lauding the decision of YSR Congress to support the united Andhra Pradesh, all the six ministers urged TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu also to take back his letter of support to Telangana.

Shinde adding to the confusion: Lagadapati

"We will see that there is no division of the state at any cost," Ganta told the media, after a meeting with Samaikyandhra leaders in Vizag. He said a meeting; "Vizag Samaikya Garjhana" was planned for September 17 to demonstrate the will of the people of the region.

After the APNGOs, the Seemandhra Advocates JAC (SAJAC) is preparing for the massive public meeting in Hyderabad. The decision was taken at the SAJAC's meeting held at Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram here on Sunday.

Talking to reporters, SAJAC chairman Mohan Reddy said the JAC has also decided to convene a meeting of bar council members from Seemandhra region on September 14 at Anantapur, which will finalize the lawyers' future course of action.

Meanwhile, Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal slammed Saturday's statement by Union home minster Sushil Kumar Shinde on the bifurcation issue. He said by reiterating preparation of Cabinet note and going ahead with the Telangana process, Shinde was adding more confusion to the issue."The home minister is not revealing how the Union government wants to go about in the face of fierce opposition from the people of Andhra Pradesh," he added.

Survey shows India Inc firmly in Modi camp

 
Subhadip Sircar and Suvashree Dey Choudhury in Mumbai

Nearly three-quarters of Indian business leaders believe the government has mismanaged the economy and want opposition leader Narendra Modi to lead the country after an election due by May next year, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.
With India's 80-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expected to step aside, only 7 per cent of 100 chief executive officers surveyed for the Economic Times/Nielsen poll backed the ruling Congress party's Rahul Gandhi for the premiership.
Rahul represents the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has led Congress, and India, for much of the time since independence from Britain in 1947. His late father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers.
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Image: Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi (L) and Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Group, embrace as Ratan Tata, chairman Emeritus of Tata group, looks on during the inauguration ceremony of the Vibrant Gujarat global investor summit at Gandhinagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat

Stagflation: Biggest challenge for Raghuram Rajan

 
Andy Mukherjee

Rajan's call to diaspora can't stem rupee rout, says Andy Mukherjee.
Raghuram Rajan's first move as India's monetary czar has been to solemnise a marriage between a needy country and its greedy diaspora. That's the easy part.

Tackling the gruelling Indian stagflation will be the real test for the former International Monetary Fund chief economist.
Rajan, who presciently warned developed nations about a risky buildup of leverage in 2005, began his career as a central banker in Mumbai on September 4 by reaching out for the low-hanging fruit: the monetary authority, he said, will charge local lenders a fixed 3.5 per cent annual fee to convert new long-term dollar deposits from expat Indians into rupees.

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Image: Raghuram Rajan (L), newly appointed governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), hugs the outgoing governor Duvvuri Subbarao during the taking over ceremony at the bank's headquarters in Mumbai.

India has 55.48 cr mobile owners, 14.32 cr Internet users

New Delhi: There are 55.48 crore actual mobile users in the country and 14.32 crore internet users, according to a study by research firm Juxt.

"India has 55.48 crore mobile users as per our India Mobile Landscape (IML) 2013 study. More than 29.8 crore, about 54 percent, of these device owners are in rural areas as compared to 25.6 crore in cities and towns," Juxt co-founder Mrutyunjay told PTI.

There are total 77.39 crore functional SIMs with validity but only 64.34 SIMs are being used by 55.48 crore mobile devices owners, the study report said.

IML study finds that there are 14.32 crore internet users in the country.

"The number of unique Internet users in India, who access Internet from their desktop or laptop, smart TV or mobile data connections together stand at around 94.7 million. But when one adds the number of users who also access Internet through operators portals such as Airtel Live and Reliance R World, the number goes up to 143.2 million," Mrutyunjay said.

The study found 2.38 crore individuals access Internet from their mobile phones using a data connection such as GPRS or 3G. Out of this, 93 lakh access Internet only through mobile phones and around 77 percent of these users are in rural areas.

Talking about size of survey, he said that the field survey was conducted between May and mid-July 2013 covering 109 urban centres and 196 villages in all the 28 states and 3 union territories in India.

"It (survey) covered 80 of the 88 regions as classified by the National Sample Survey Organisation under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The study sample represents 94.8 percent of the Indian population and 96.1 percent of the total Indian households," he said.

Meanwhile, as per the data revealed by sectoral regulator Trai, there are total 87.33 crore mobile subscribers in the country. Of this, 73.14 crore customers were found to be active on a particular date in June.

The cumulative revenue of telecom service providers was Rs 54,284 crore in the January-March quarter as per TRAI data.