The richest man to enter the Rajya Sabha in the just concluded elections, Vijay Mallya, has in his sworn affidavit claimed he does not own a house but his net worth is a staggering Rs 615 crore. Mallya said he had a 1989 model Ferrari he bought for Rs 25 lakh. 

Like Mallya, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said he does not have a house and his wealth is a modest Rs 62 lakh. Ramesh is clearly the odd man out considering 78% of the 55 candidates just elected to the RS have assets of Rs 25 crore on average. 

Kanwar Deep Singh of the JMM from Jharkhand is among the top three crorepatis with assets of Rs 83 crore, following behind Y S Chowdary of the TDP from Andhra Pradesh, who has declared assets of Rs 190 crore. 

The analysis of RS winners’ wealth was carried out by the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms.

Source: The Times of India

Kuwait’s Zain telecom said on Tuesday it has completed the sale of its operations in 15 African nations to India’s Bharti Airtel for $10.7 billion (€9 billion). Kuwait’s largest mobile operator said it has already received $7.87 billion as part of the “largest telecom deal in Africa and the Middle East,” and will receive $400 million more within 12 months, after completing “certain official requirements.” Zain will also receive another $700 million one year from now. “I announce here today that we have completed the deal to sell African operations to Bharti Airtel,” Zain CEO Nabil bin Salamah told a news conference. The sale does not include the company’s units in Sudan and Morocco. The value of the deal which was signed on March 30 includes $1.7 billion of debt that will be assumed by 
Bharti Airtel. Source: Khaleej Times

Emirates airline yesterday broke the aviation record for the largest order by value when it signed a $11.5 billion deal with Airbus for 32 additional A380s at the Berlin Air Show. The year's first and only A380 order has brought the total to 234 for the European manufacturer, taking Emirates' share to 90 superjumbos — making it by far the biggest buyer of the double-decker aircraft. "This latest order, adding to 58 A380s previously ordered, affirms Emirates' strategy to become a world leading carrier and to further establish Dubai as a central gateway to worldwide air travel," Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates airline and group, said. In addition to the order placed yesterday, Emirates has 48 A380s, 70 A350s, 18 Boeing 777-300s and seven Boeing air freighters on order totalling 143 wide-body aircraft worth more than $48 billion. Source: Gulf News

In just eight weeks, Apple's infant mobile advertising effort has emerged as a serious contender to challenge Google Inc for the crown in the fast-growing new ad market. The two tech titans are increasingly clashing in areas such as smartphones and PC operating systems. The details Jobs provided about Apple's mobile ad service at the company's developers' conference on Monday hinted at a growing threat to one of Google's key business opportunities, analysts said. Source: Times of India

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was on a dharna to protest spiraling food prices, was taken into preventive custody even as police lathicharged protesting Samajwadi Party workers.

NABHA (Punjab): A major accident was averted in Punjab's Patiala district with the timely detection and inactivation of a bomb placed outside an Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment Indian Oil liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plant near here, police said on Tuesday. The bomb, suspected to be an improvised explosive device (IED), was discovered late Monday evening. According to police, the timely detection of the bomb has averted a major fire incident like the Jaipur oil depot fire in October last year. Punjab Armed Police (PAP) defused the bomb, which was placed in a canister and wrapped in a men's shawl inside a plastic bag. The device was kept along the Bhiwanigarh-Nabha highway, very close to the LPG bottling plant. The IED was placed at a gas pipeline of Indian Oil coming from Panipat till the bottling plant. The bomb was defused after an operation that went on for over two hours Tuesday morning. "Experts of PAP have successfully defused the bomb and disintegrated it to ascertain its ingredients. Its contents included different chemical substances like potassium nitrate, petrol bottles and nails," R.S. Khatra, district police chief, told reporters. He added: "After scrutinising the contents, we will try to find out the places where they were manufactured. So far we have not arrested anybody in this connection but our investigation is on and very soon we will nab the accused." Earlier, Punjab police had requested the army authorities to help in defusing the bomb. But the idea was dropped as army officials were in favour of destroying the bomb. "We dropped that idea of destroying the bomb because we wanted to ascertain the contents as it can provide us vital clues to help in nabbing those behind this incident," said a senior police official present at the site. The area was cordoned off by the police and district authorities. A bomb disposal squad of the PAP arrived here from Jalandhar, 150 km away, to defuse the bomb. Nabha is about 110 km from Chandigarh. The bomb contained up to 10 kg of explosives and if it had gone off, it would have caused a major incident at the LPG bottling plant, police officials said. The fire last October at the Indian Oil depot in Jaipur had raged for a week, burning off the petroleum stored in the tankers there. Twelve people were killed, and over 100 injured.

shouts of "Long live comrade Jyoti Basu" as the Marxist patriarch's body was carried in a procession around the heart of Kolkata on Tuesday. Men and women, some with children in tow, thronged the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) West Bengal headquarters at Alimuddin Street, the state secretariat at Writers Buildings and the assembly premises to pay their last respects to Basu, who had been chief minister for 23 years and died on Sunday. "I can still hear the speech he had given at Barasat Kachari Maidan during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. He will remain in my heart as one of the greatest icons Bengal had ever produced," said Jamal Ahmed, who had queued up in front of Alimuddin Street since midnight to get a glimpse of the leader.

The stampede occurred when the main gate was fully open for a brief period of 15 minutes, before being closed finally at 3 pm, and preparations were on to take the body in a gun carriage to Mohor Kunj park, some distance away. The police swung into action to control the swelling crowd of mourners. Hundreds of shoes, slippers, sweaters, shawls, water bottles and other articles lay scattered on the road inside the assembly premises as the crowd surged towards the platform where Basu's was kept. According to police, a catastrophe was averted and the situation was quickly brought under control.

China has dismissed as "groundless" India's charge that Chinese hackers had attempted to break into sensitive Indian govt computers, a week after US internet giant Google levelled a similar allegation against it.