After getting a big shock with the CAG report, the state government went on the defensive yesterday. But the government has now made a U turn and has now decided to brazen it out.
Ministers Rosiah and Ponnala have started claiming that the CAG report was only recommendatory in nature. They now say that it is not binding and that many of the facts and figures in the report are not correct and even misleading. Ponnala says that the new norms in the tender process have made the earlier norms redundant. The new norms have not been taken into account by CAG.
Ninety six percent of Brazilians are concerned about Corruption, stated political scientist Eduardo Graeff, who visited the Centre for Good Governance (CGG) at Hyderabad, on Monday for a talk on A Chronicle of Corruption and Transparency in Brazil organised jointly by CGG and the World Bank.
Mr Graeff was an Advisor to the Govt. of Brazil from 1999 to 2002.
He mentioned about an innovative practice, Reverse Auction being adopted by the Brazilian Government.
A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the roles of buyers and sellers are reversed. Brazil follows an internet based reverse auction system that is more efficient and accountable than the conventional bidding system.
He also stated that Brazil is in the process of enacting the Right to Information law in the lines of Indian RTI Act.
The Centre for Good Governance (CGG) aims to be a world-class institution to guide governance reforms in Andhra Pradesh, other states in India and the developing world at large, by bringing together and harnessing the power of knowledge, technology and people for good governance.
CGG strives to be among the very best in the world in the area of practical reforms to foster growth-oriented and people-centred good governance.
2008/2/7 8:40:26 A new film 'Cell' with Prabhakar and Sameer in prominent roles in now in postproduction. The film is directed by Venkataramana and produced by T Lakshmi. The film is being made with a novel technique called the reverse screenplay'.
This 'reverse screenplay' is new to Telugu cinema. In this technique, the film opens with the climax. One may wonder that if the film opens with the climax, then there would be no interest or suspense element in the film.
But the director explains that the novel technique has been adopted to make the film more interesting as well as building up the suspense more than the conventional way. The film will begin with the climax scene and it will also end with the climax scene. The director is very confident that the audience would receive 'Cell' in the same was as they received 'Anasuya' and 'Manthra'.
While on side we have Jr. NTR cutting down on food and slimming down, Nitin is going in the opposite direction. He is now adding flab to his soft body. The reason is the failure of his film Ram. He played a mass hero in the film. He was shown bashing up villains who wee twice his size. The film naturally was a flop as the audience far from appreciating his fights, started laughing
. This has set our hero thinking and he result is he now sports a well rounded and muscle toned body. He wants to play only mass hero in all his films. He is even reported to have turned down an offer from EVV Sathynarayana saying that the heros character in the film is too soft!
A new film 'Cell' with Prabhakar and Sameer in prominent roles in now in postproduction. The film is directed by Venkataramana and produced by T Lakshmi. The film is being made with a novel technique called the reverse screenplay'.
This 'reverse screenplay' is new to Telugu cinema. In this technique, the film opens with the climax. One may wonder that if the film opens with the climax, then there would be no interest or suspense element in the film.
But the director explains that the novel technique has been adopted to make the film more interesting as well as building up the suspense more than the conventional way. The film will begin with the climax scene and it will also end with the climax scene. The director is very confident that the audience would receive 'Cell' in the same was as they received 'Anasuya' and 'Manthra'.
2011/10/27 5:10:22 Telugu Desam Party leader Sudeesh Rambhatla on Thursday stated that the Central Government was planning to hike interest rates to contain inflation. He said such a move increase further burden on the common man.
In a statement, Sudeesh Rambhatla said that the UPA government has increased the interest rates by 13 times in the last 20 months which had driven the farmers and the common man into huge debt trap.
“The UPA government is continuously misleading the people with false projections of inflation at 5.5 percent all these years and even this year they were not able to maintain the inflationary trends below 6 percent,” he pointed out. He said that contrary to global trends of reducing the interest rates as a prerequisite to economic growth and industrial production as in Singapore, Brazil and Indonesia, India was on the reverse gear.
The TDP leader said that it was a shame that the country was exposed to such economic and financial crisis in spite of having a noted economist Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. (INN)
I will quit politics if govt fails to set up port by 2014: Perni Nani
2011/8/12 2:15:54 Machilipatnam MLA Perni Nani on Friday stated that he would resign to his post if the government did not take any decision on setting up of Machilipatnam Port.
Talking to media persons, Perni Nani stated that he was committed to the establishment of port in the district. However, the government delaying the file in connection with establishing port, he stated.
In 2007, Nani with help of YSR tried to start Port work which was dragged for more than 4 years.
Nani said that he would not reverse his decision on his resignation.
I will continue my agitation for materializing the port at any cost. Posts and politics are not important for me. My top priority is establishment of port in Machilipatnam, he stated.
I will quit politics if I failed to get port for Machilipatnam people by 2014, he stated.
Perni Nani said that he would meet Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar on August 21 with resignation letter, if the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy did not clear the file by August 20. The port file gathering dust at Chief Ministers office since seven months, he pointed out.
Earlier, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy called Nani over phone and asked him not to take any hasty decision on his resignation.(INN)
The Reserve Bank of India has tightened home loan norms by asking banks not to lend more than 80 per cent of the value of the house to borrowers. This means that new borrowers will have to shell out at least 20 per cent of the total value of the house from their pockets.
The central bank has also increased the risk weight for housing loans above Rs. 75 lakh to 125 per cent. It implies that loans above Rs.75 lakh will now become more expensive. The RBI has also made it harder for banks to offer teaser rates where the interest rate is fixed for few years and later it turns into a floating rate. In a move to curb inflation, the central bank on Tuesday hiked the repo and reverse repo rates by 0.25 per cent, making loans costlier if banks decide to pass on the rate hike. Accordingly, the short term lending rate or (repo rate) stands at 6.25 per cent and the borrowing rate (reverse repo) at 5.25 per cent.
The RBI has, however, left the cash reserve ratio or bank rate, which is the amount of cash that banks have to park with the central bank to maintain prudential norms, unchanged at 6 per cent. (Courtesy: NDTV)
2011/10/20 7:51:03 The State Government on Thursday accorded sanction for the construction of six lakh houses against the applications received during the Rachabanda – I of 2011-12 who are found eligible and registered on line, both for Rural and Urban areas.
Of six lakh houses, 5,40,000 houses will be rural areas while 60,000 houses will be in urban areas. The unit cost for RPH house is Rs. 45,000 which includes Rs 13,200 Govt. Subsidy, Rs 31,300 Loan Component and Rs 500 Beneficiary Contribution for Rural areas. Similarly, the unit cost for UPH house is Rs 55,000 which includes Rs 6,000 Govt. Subsidy, Rs. 47,000 Loan component and Rs 2,000 Beneficiary Contribution for Urban areas under Rachabanda.
Out of 6,00,000 houses, 3,24,000 houses for Rural and 13,680 houses for Urban would be for SC/ ST beneficiaries for whom, additional loan of Rs. 20,000 and Rs 30,000 has been sanctioned in Rural and Urban areas respectively, over and above the unit cost as is being sanctioned under Indiramma in all phases. The total project cost will Rs. 3.,44,904 lakhs.
Nearly 15 per cent of houses have been sanctioned for minorities and therefore, they would get 81,000 houses under the scheme. (INN)
TDP will bite dust if it goes ahead with midterm polls: Nagam
2011/7/18 4:30:42 Telugu Desam Party suspended leader from Telangana Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Monday regretted the TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu call for party to gear up for midterm elections.
Talking to media persons at Assembly Media Point, Nagam alleged the TDP chief was making confusing statements despite the Telangana forum members stated that they are not ready to go for elections.
He asked Naidu what is the rationale behind calling party cadre to gear up for midterm elections.
He demanded Naidu make his stand clear on contesting of by-elections in the event of fall of government.
He said the TDP would bite dust if it goes ahead with midterm elections in the Telangana.
Responding on Congress in-charge of state affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad call to Telangana Congress leaders to discuss on Telangana, Nagam asked them not to go head for New Delhi until the Centre gives a clear statement on separate statehood.
He said the Telangana people will backlash Congress leaders on the lines of TDP Telangana Forum members if they visit New Delhi without any assurance from high command.
He further stated that they would meet Speaker Nadendla Manohar and urge him to accept resignations submitted for the cause of Telangana.
He called upon all Telangana elected representatives to urge for acceptance of their resignations to mount pressure on the Centre for T statehood. (INN)
2012/4/7 6:05:54 Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana on Saturday called upon party rank and file to gear up for facing by-elections in a coordinated and responsible manner.
In the Congress Coordination Committee meeting held at Chief Minister’s Camp office at Begumpet, both Kiran Kumar Reddy and Botsa Satyanarayana unitedly appealed to all leaders to work for winning chances of party by taking the government welfare schemes and programmes to the door steps of the people.
Kiran Kumar Reddy advised the leaders to take all steps to counter the campaign of YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy in the by-elections. Reiterating that the government has not diluted former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s schemes, the Chief Minister reportedly assured the leaders of respective constituencies that the government would sanction 3,000 houses under Indiramma scheme to appease the beneficiaries.
Botsa said that the high command was keen about the next by-elections, especially in view of the recent debacle in the polls in the State.
Apart from discussing the political strategy, the Coordination Committee also focused its attention on constituting coordination committees at constituency level with local leaders and district in-charge ministers. The proposed committees would conduct a survey at the constituency level from April 10-15 and give a feedback to the PCC over the party position in each constituency.
The coordination committee would meet against on April 16 or 17 to finalise the strategy for by-polls. (INN)
2012/3/28 3:46:54 Mumbai, March 28 (IANS) Several Bollywood biggies have been involved in brawls but Akshay Kumar has managed to stay away from such controversies and says he doesn't believe in violence.
At a recent event in the capital, Akshay's "Housefull 2" co-star Zarine Khan asked him how he managed to keep away from fights.
He said: "I don't think violence is the answer. I don't believe in violence. I believe in pyaar and mohabbat."
Akshay is currently busy with the promotion of his forthcoming comedy "Housefull 2", releasing April 5. He will then gear up to return to his action avatar with "Rowdy Rathore".
The US President Barack Obama watched the US Navy Seals operation that resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden live. The operation was broadcast to the President live via the Helmet Cams that were attached to the Navy seals gear.
2012/2/24 2:07:07 Hyderabad, Feb 24 (INN): While Tamil pictures are dubbed into Telugu or other languages and some sometimes produced simultaneously, someone is looking for a reverse trend in Tollywood.
If reports are to be believed, Allu Arjun may get the credit.
The film in question will feature him and Shruti Hassan. Talks are on for a bilingual effort in Telugu and Tamil. To go further south they film will be dubbed in Malayalam as well.
If the projects get rolling, Bunny along with Cherry will be setting foot on new shores
Back to Bunny, Selva Raghavan and Allu Arjun had confabulations for a bilingual.
2011/5/17 0:03:09 Tollywood hero Nagarjuna and Congress leader Chiranjeevi who were on board of British air ways plane had a miracle escape from fatal incident. Soon after the plane takes off from the Rajiv Gandhi International Air Port, Shamshabad on Tuesday morning at 7 am, the pilot of the plane has noticed that one of the rear tires of the plane has developed cracks. Hence, the pilots have returned the flight to air port and landed the plane with the help of emergency gear. No one was injured in this incident. All the passengers were temporarily shifted to Senora Hotel until alternative arrangements are being made by the air ways. It is learnt that more than 200 passengers including several VIPs were on board.
A new film titled 'Cell' with Prabhakar in the lead role is now in progress. Venkatanarayana is the director and T Srilakshmi is the producer. Manthra director Tulasi Ram unveiled the audio CD and director Deviprasad unveiled the logo at a function held recently.
The film has been made with a reverse screenplay technique. The film will be a different film like 'Manthra' and 'Anasuya'. The director is confident that the film would be received well by the audience. For people who look for variety, the movie 'Cell' will be a like a beautiful gift. The duo of Mahi-Sridhar is scoring the music for the film.
Be ready to watch yet another Tamil dubbing movie ‘Gambler’ is releasing on September 9th. This is the dubbed version of Tamil film ‘Mankatha’ which is a big hit Tamilnadu. Ajith and Trisha have played the lead roles in this movie supported by Arjun, Lakshmi Rai, Vaibhav, Andrea Jeremiah, Premji and Anjali.
This film directed by Venkat Prabhu and Bellamkonda Suresh is releasing this movie into Telugu as Gambler. Yuvan Shankar Raja has given music to this film. This is a comedy entertainer fully packed with enough action and romance. This is the 50th film for the hero Ajith. According to movie reviews the 1st half of the movie moves a little bit slow but quite entertaining and the 2nd half runs in 4th gear with many pleasant surprises in every other scene.
2012/4/17 4:00:51 Srikakulam, April 17 (INN): Chief Electoral Officer Banwar Lal on Tuesday stated that the Election Commission of India is likely to announce the notification for conducting by-elections to 18 Assembly segments and one Parliament segment in the State within next 10 days.
Talking to media persons during his visit to the district to review preparedness of officials for the ensuing by-elections, he said that the Commission could issue the by-election notification at any time in the next 10 days. He said that all the District Collectors and police officials in the respective constituencies have been asked to gear up for the by-elections.
Stating that the Collectors have been asked to update the voters' list for the ensuing by-elections, he said that the Commission would act tough against those who lure the voters with money and by distributing liquor in the elections.
He said the Commission would not spare anyone and take serious action as per the existing laws.
India's central bank halts rate hikes on lower inflation
2011/12/16 9:37:05 Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS) India's central bank Friday kept key interest rates unchanged - after as many as 13 successive hikes since early 2010 - in a bid to spur growth, while also drawing some comfort from the easing of annual inflation.
'While inflation remains on its projected trajectory, the downside risks to growth have clearly increased,' the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement, presenting the mid-quarter review of the monetary policy for the current fiscal.
'The guidance given in the second quarter was that, based on the projected inflation trajectory, further rate hikes might not be warranted. In view of the moderating growth momentum and higher downside risks to growth, this guidance is being reiterated.'
So the repurchase rate, or the interest the Reserve Bank levies on short-term borrowing by commercial banks, is unchanged at 8.5 percent, while the reverse repurchase rate, or interest the RBI pays to banks on short-term lending, stands at 7.5 percent.
The apex bank also maintained status quo on the cash reserve ratio at 6 percent, which refers to the cash that banks have to maintain with the central bank, which uses it to manage liquidity in the system.
The central bank also said that from this point onward, the effort would be to reverse the cycle, which effectively means industry can even hope for some easing of interest rates in the coming months.
Talking to reporters here, RBI Governor D.Subbarao, however, said he could not speculate when the central bank could start lowering rates.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee welcomed the RBI's decision to keep rates unchanged and said it signified the governor's concern on slowing growth.
'The need to improve the business sentiments and recover the growth momentum in the remaining months of the current fiscal necessitated a review of the current monetary policy stance,' Mukherjee told reporters in Delhi.
The review came against the backdrop of India's annual rate of inflation falling to 9.1 percent in November, while the food inflation fell to 4.35 percent for the week ended Dec 3.
But factory output also declined sharply to minus-5.1 percent in October, while the gross domestic product saw a mere 6.9 percent growth during the second quarter of this fiscal, which was the lowest in over two years.
The Reserve Bank said it maintained its projection for annual inflation at 7 percent for end-March, while reserving its forecast on growth for the third quarter review, which is expected in January.
2008/3/26 22:07:29 Hero Nagarjuna is now taking a lot of interest in turning around MAA TV. He is a major stake holder and is now producing some serials for the channel. Nagarjunas first serial Yuva has attracted the audience in a big way. The serial is about the present generation youngsters and the refreshingly different story is being welcomed by the audience.
Nagarjuna wants to make MAA TV the number one in the entertainment based channels. As part of his efforts, he has increased coverage of films news and film based shows on the channel. He is now roping in several actors from Tollywood to feature in his serials. Anushka is appearing in the serial Yuva.
Nagarjuna has now lined up several other actors to feature in the show. This could be perhaps the first time that artist who are busy in Tollywood and also in big demand are appearing on TV. It is normally only those actors whose career has come to an end in Tollywood, who then turn to the small screen. Nagarjuna now is trying to reverse the trend in his own little way.
The State Government on Thursday accorded sanction for the construction of six lakh houses against the applications received during the Rachabanda – I of 2011-12 who are found eligible and registered on line, both for Rural and Urban areas.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana on Saturday called upon party rank and file to gear up for facing by-elections in a coordinated and responsible manner.
Tollywood hero Nagarjuna and Congress leader Chiranjeevi who were on board of British air ways plane had a miracle escape from fatal incident. Soon after the plane takes off from the Rajiv Gandhi International Air Port, Shamshabad on Tuesday morning at 7 am, the pilot of the plane has noticed that one of the rear tires of the plane has developed cracks. Hence, the pilots have returned the flight to air port and landed the plane with the help of emergency gear. No one was injured in this incident. All the passengers were temporarily shifted to Senora Hotel until alternative arrangements are being made by the air ways. It is learnt that more than 200 passengers including several VIPs were on board. 
