July 16, 2009, New Delhi (ANI): Inflation on Thursday rose marginally to (-) 1.21 per cent for the week ending July 4 against (-) 1.55 per cent in the week before according to official data released here on Thursday.

The marginal rise was mainly due to government decision to raise fuel prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 4 and Rs 2 per litre, respectively.

Following the decision, effective from July 1, prices of naphtha rose 15 per cent, furnace oil 11 per cent, petrol 10 per cent, high-speed diesel 7 per cent and light diesel oil by 4 per cent.

The index for ‘Basic Metals Alloys & Metal Products’ group rose marginally due to higher prices of lead ingots, foundry pig iron and basic pig iron (1 per cent each). However, the prices of other iron steel (2 per cent) and ms bars & rounds (1 per cent) declined.

The wholesale price index during the corresponding week a year ago was as high as 12.19 percent.

Inflation had turned negative for the week ended June 6 for the first time since the new wholesale price index (WPI) series started in 1995.

Negative inflation implies that the average wholesale price level was lower during a given week, than it was in the corresponding week a year ago. (ANI)

New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) Both houses of the Indian parliament were adjourned Thursday following chaos over the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi and the arson attack on her house.
Congress MPs were on their feet as soon as the house convened in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice.

MPs from Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) defended the state government.

Joshi was arrested after midnight Wednesday in Ghaziabad for allegedly insulting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Around the same time, her house in Lucknow came under attack from BSP supporters.

Joshi was Thursday sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) With a fall in international prices of crude, state-run oil companies Wednesday slashed aviation fuel prices by almost 6 percent. The new prices will be effective Wednesday night and come after four consecutive hikes.
Aviation fuel will now cost Rs.2,220 less per kilolitre. In Delhi, it will cost at Rs.36,338 a kilolitre, and in Mumbai Rs.37,475 a kilolitre.

However, air fares are unlikely to come down, according to an airline official.

The three state-owned oil companies – Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum – last raised prices July 1 by Rs.2,307 per kilolitre.

Aviation fuel prices are revised every fortnight according to the crude prices prevailing in the international markets.

US crude oil for August delivery had fallen 20 cents Monday to $59.69 a barrel, after earlier touching a new low of $58.32, the lowest since May 18 this year.

Aviation fuel prices in India rose to their peak last August at Rs.71,028 per kilolitre in Delhi when international crude prices peaked to a record high of $147 a barrel.

Fuel expenditure constitutes a major chunk of an airline’s operational costs, about 35 percent.

New Delhi, July 15 (ANI): The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has sacked official in-charge of the Badarpur Metro line, Vijay Anand, for neglecting his duty, following shocking collapse of an under construction Metro pillar in south Delhi.

Six persons were killed and 15 others injured when an under-construction bridge of the Delhi Metro collapsed on Sunday.

The collapse had prompted DMRC chief E Sreedharan to resign owing the moral responsibility for the worst mishap involving the modern transport system.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna had rejected Sreedharan’s resignation, saying the city needed the man to continue his work.

The accident took place at around 5 am when a pillar of the bridge gave in during some construction work near Lady Sriram College in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.

Four labourers and a 28-year-old engineer of Gammon India, the contractor of the project, were killed in the mishap, the second such incident in nine months.

DMRC set up a four-member committee to examine reasons for the accident and it would submit its report in 10 days. (ANI)

New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) Over a crore passengers travelled by air in the domestic sector in the April-June quarter, an increase of about 11 lakh compared to the previous quarter, according to official data released Monday.
About 1.09 crore passengers flew in April-June, up from 98.22 lakh in January-March, data released by the Director General of Civil Aviation showed.

Private carrier Kingfisher Airlines topped the list, scoring 25.3 percent in terms of passenger load share between April and June.

It was followed by Air India (domestic) at 17.5 percent and Jet Airways at 16.3 percent. Low cost carriers like IndiGo scored 13.7 percent, SpiceJet 12.4 percent and GoAir accounting for 4.9 percent.

The passenger load in the first half of the year was 2.1 crore passengers, down 8.05 percent as compared to 2.3 crore in the year-ago period.