11.08.2008

• Olympic Updates
• China and USA are currently leading the medal count with 8 medals each
• American swimming sensation Michael Phelps won the 400 metres individual medley. The 23-year-old looks set to at least match his six golds at Athens in 2004 and hopes to win an unprecedented eight golds in a single Olympics
• Saina, the 18-year-old from Hyderabad, became the first Indian woman to enter the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals in the Olympics. India’s Anup Sridhar got past Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal in men's singles first round match in Badminton. Is there a glimmer of medal here?
• Manavjit & Mansher faltered in the trap shooting event. Look at this picture to get a bird’s eye view of India’s performance.

• Market Prices for Petrol and Diesel by 2010?
• The high-powered BK Chaturvedi Committee, set up to examine the financial position of oil companies, has suggested a price hike of Rs 2.5/litre for petrol and Rs 0.75/litre for diesel every month so that these fully reflect global price scenario by March 2009 and 2010
• Big cities and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) have to pay Rs 2/litre more for diesel under ‘Metro Extra’ scheme
• The committee has recommended scrapping import duties on petrol and diesel and fixing the price at which refineries sell fuel to oil marketing companies (OMCs) at the price at which they can export their produce
• Will these measures be implemented in an election year?

• Singh is indeed King
• Akshay Kumar-starrer Singh is Kinng has re-written box office history by raking in Rs 18 crore in the first two days. It is expected to close the opening weekend at Rs 28 crore, smashing all past box office records
• The film also managed the biggest-ever opening in North America, the Middle East and the UK. The film’s music has already sold over 5,00,000 CDs and cassettes worldwide.
• The film was made for Rs 50 crore and the music rights of the film were sold to Junglee Music for a record Rs 13.2 crore.

• Vodafone-Essar JV in trouble
• The issue at hand is an Essar Group company, Loop Telecom, which has licence to launch a pan-India wireless telephony network. The Ruias are talking to Egyptian telecom giant Orascom, Qatar Telecom and Russian firm Sistema for offloading their stake in Loop Telecom.
• Vodafone is understood to be exploring various options, including legal action since the new company would compete directly with Vodafone Essar, their joint venture.
• Vodafone could move the Company Law Board against the Ruias for “breach of shareholders’ agreement”

• South Ossetia crisis coming to an end?

• Georgia started pulling out its forces from the South Ossetia under heavy Russian fire.
• Moscow said that there would be no peace till Georgia signed a pledge not to use force against its breakaway territories.
• South Ossetia and Abkhazia are breakaway territories of Georgia.
• Moscow appears to have ignored the Bush administration’s warning about significant long-term impact on the U.S.-Russia relations if the conflict escalates
• Look at this page on Wikipedia that gives more details about the issue.