Paes-Black clinch Australian Open mixed doubles title: Sandeep Mishra

Paes-Black clinch Australian Open mixed doubles title: Sandeep Mishra

Melbourne: Leander Paes claimed his eleventh Grand Slam title after he, along with his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black, won the Australian Open 2010 mixed doubles championship here on Sunday.

The top seeded pair of Paes and Black beat 10th seeds Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czechoslovakia in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 just about one and a half hour.

They broke their rivals as early as in the third game and save for a couple of breaks lost on Black’s serve, the Indo-Zimbabwean pair seemed hardly troubled by Makarova and Levinsky, who committed far too many unforced errors.

Black, whose net game and serve were the weak links for the top seeds, raised her game when it mattered after getting some pep talk from Paes.

Having lost her serve twice, Black held it in the all-important 12th game before Paes smashed a winner to clinch the opener 7-5.

The emotionally charged Paes exulted and an equally enthusiastic crowd cheered him on in the stands.

With momentum going in their favour, Paes and Black broke their rivals in the very first game of the second set.

Makarova and Levinsky has their moments but they were far too few in a match which left them amazed at Paes’ athleticism.

They could only watch wide-eyed as the veteran Indian reached out to chase unlikely winners at the net and inspire his partner in moments of doubt.

This is Paes and Black’s second title together, the first being the 2008 US Open.

Paes and Black had made back-to-back Grand Slam finals — Wimbledon and the US Open — last season but faltered at the finishing line in both the events.

Paes has been a former mixed doubles’ champions at Melbourne Park and that triumph came in 2003 when he was partnering American legend Martina Navratilova.

Paes thanked the fans and Black for their support after the win.

“I want to thank fans in India and those who came here to support us. Tennis is our bread and butter but most important is that you make relations. Cara, I am blessed to have you as my partner. Thanks for supporting me,” Paes said.

The admiration was mutual as Black too showered praise on Paes.

“Paes is a fabulous partner. I am thankful to him that he stuck with and took the hard shots rightfully. He is a great partner,” she said

Posted By Sandeep Mishra

Telangana Committee next week: Chidambaram

Telangana Committee next week: Chidambaram

Home
Minister P Chidambaram announced on Thursday that a committee on Telangana would be formed in a week.

“We are sticking to our word. We will have the names more or less finalised by the end of this week and perhaps by early next week, you will have the committee announced,” Chidambaram said.

The political representatives from Telangana had set January 28 as the deadline for the Centre to announce a timeframe for the formation of the new state. And they had threatened to resign enmasse in case Centre failed to keep its promise. The Centre’s latest move comes as if to pre-empt the mass resignations.

Congress representatives from Telangana claim the announcement is a definite move forward but the other members of the political Joint Action Committee (JAC) are far from impressed.

“Today’s statement is not at all to our satisfaction. We expected a statement that would clearly indicate a timeframe for formation of Telangana. On 29th, the people’s representatives should submit their resignations and declare non-cooperation. That programme stands,” said Professor Kodandaram, Convenor, Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC).

Chidambaram, in the meeting with political parties from Andhra Pradesh on January 5, had said that its agenda was to “deliberate on the mechanism and lay down a road map for consultations” on the Telangana issue.

The meeting followed Chidambaram’s statement on December 23, 2009 when the government put on back burner the formation of the separate state for which it had on December 9, 2009 promised to initiate the process.

On law and order situation in Andhra Pradesh, the Home Minister said much of the agitation has cooled down while there are some protests here and there.

“My greatest regret is that a couple of students reportedly committed suicide. That, I think, should have been completely avoided. Why should children commit suicide. Parents, teachers have responsibility to stop this. But keeping that apart, by and large, things are peaceful there. There is no major law and order violation. We are sticking to our words,” he said.

India’s central bank hints at tightening monetary policy

India’s central bank hints at tightening monetary policy

Mumbai: India’s central bank Thursday set the stage for tightening the monetary policy in the quarterly update due Friday with concerns over rising inflation even as it upgraded the country’s growth outlook for this fiscal to 6.9 percent from 6 percent.

“With a stronger recovery in India, the risk of food price inflation causing generalised inflation cannot be ignored,” the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its review of the macroeconomic developments for the third quarter.

“Reining inflation and inflationary expectations while carefully nurturing the growth impulses will be the main challenge for the conduct of monetary policy during the remaining period of the year,” the central bank added.

The report said the turnaround in the country’s growth during the first quarter of 2009-10 was sustained in the second quarter, spurred by robust revival in industrial output and services, despite a subdued performance by the farm sector.

“The industrial recovery, besides exhibiting acceleration in the last few months, has also become more broad based. Most of the lead indicators of services sector activities also suggest revival in growth momentum.”

Some of the highlights of the report include:

- Prediction for overall economic growth raised to 6.9 percent from 6 percent

- Agriculture growth outlook revised upward to (-)0.9 percent from (-)1.4 percent

- Outlook for industrial output growth raised to 8.4 percent from 6.3 percent

- Forecast for growth in services revised to 8.7 percent from 8.1 percent

- Employment outlook improving and firms expected to increase workforce

- Deficient monsoon will lower grain production and oilseeds by 16 percent

- Food prices may ease after arrival of new crop and release of government buffer stocks

- Increased capital inflows and domestic liquidity will stroke rising inflation

- Managing growth needs with rising inflation a delicate task

- Merchandise exports witnessed a turnaround after 13 consecutive months of decline

- The pace of contraction in imports has also moderated significantly

- Industry likely to increase selling price of merchandise

- Expected rise in demand for short term funds from the private sector in coming months.

Indian Industry feels that given the current state of play, RBI Governor D. Subbarao may hike cash reserve ratio (CRR) for commercial banks to suck excess liquidity and rein in inflation in the third quarterly review of the monetary policy for this fiscal Friday.

CRR is the minimum liquid assets commercial banks have to retain against deposits. A hike of 100 basis points in CRR has the potential to suck out about Rs.40,000 crore from the system.

A survey of economists from the banking and financial services sector by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) saw the respondents anticipate a 50 basis points cut in CRR, as part of the move to tighten the monetary policy.

“A hike in CRR at this point in time may tone down the inflationary expectations that are building in the economy but would fail to arrest inflation as it is not a monetary phenomenon,” said a statement based on the FICCI survey

Mithun, Saha named in India’s Test squad

Ravaged by injuries to key players, India today infused fresh blood into its Test squad by naming Karnataka pacer Abhimanyu Mithun and Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha for the first Test against South Africa beginning in Nagpur on 6th February.

With experienced batsman like Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ruled out of the series because of injuries, the selectors recalled Tamil Nadu middle-order batsman S Badrinath in the team and dropped wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik.

While 20-year-old Mithun was rewarded for his splendid show in the domestic circuit by emerging as the highest wicket taker in the Ranji Trophy season, the inclusion of the diminutive Saha came as a surprise.

Apart from Mithun and Saha’s inclusion, there were no other suprises in the squad announced by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a meeting of the selection committee in Mumbai.

Dravid, who sustained a face injury in the second Test against Bangladesh, has been advised rest for three weeks while Yuvraj Singh has also been ruled out of the Test series due to an injury to his left wrist.

Stylish batsman VVS Laxman, who had also suffered a finger injury during the Test series against Bangladesh, has recovered sufficiently to be drafted into the squad.

Uttar Pradesh paceman Sudeep Tyagi, who also featured in the squad that toured Bangladesh, has retained his place largely because S Sreesanth’s injury

India, China to be global growth engines: WEF experts

India, China to be global growth engines: WEF experts

Davos: Led by India and China, Asia will not
only become the global engine for growth but will also
increasingly exercise its influence on the rest of the world,
experts at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting here
have said.

“As their economic might grow, the region’s (Asia)
various societies will become more assertive and influential,”
WEF said in a statement, summing up the discussions on a
session on ‘The Rise of Asia’ yesterday.

Among the speakers, who participated in the session,
include President of Asian Development Bank Haruhiko Kuroda
and President and CEO of Genpact India Pramod Bhasin.

India and China continued to grow at reasonable rates
even when several developed countries witnessed economic
contraction. While India grew 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 and is
expected to rebound to 8 per cent this fiscal, China jumped to
10.7 per cent during the quarter ending December 2009 from a
low of 6.8 per cent during the period a year ago.

Speakers, while stating that it is not clear what will be
the impact on the world with the rise of Asia as it is a
diverse region, said focus on family and the primacy of
relationships over written contracts in business may be two
influential ‘values’. MNCs often find it difficult to
understand that employee loyalty in Asia is to the boss? the
individual? rather than to the company and brand name.

The rise of consumerism in Asia may also bring changes in
the way Western and other companies relate to customers, the
summary said.

Delhi Metro to introduce additional train on Dwarka line

Delhi Metro to introduce additional train on Dwarka line

Delhi Metro today introduced one additional train on the Dwarka Line, the “most heavily crowded” line in the new age transport system.

With this, the number of trains on the Dwarka Sector-9 to Noida City Centre/Anand Vihar, have increased to 43.

“This line is the most heavily crowded line and is also the longest line in operation at present carrying 48 per cent of the total ridership on the Metro system,” a DMRC spokesperson said.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which had 41 trains at the time of inauguration of the Anand Vihar extension on 7th January, added one additional train on 18th January.

With the introduction of today’s train, the DMRC will be able to run seventy eight additional train trips between Yamuna Bank and Dwarka everyday with thirty nine of these trips running further up to Noida City Centre and the remaining thirty nine trips going till Anand Vihar as only alternate trains go towards these two destinations after Yamuna Bank.

The introduction of this additional train will enable DMRC to reduce congestion on Line-3/4 as over ninety thousand persons will be accommodated everyday on these seventy eight trips, the spokesperson said.

It is expected that a further additional train will be added in another 10 days to further ease the traffic.