Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.
Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for six-year-old Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014.
Having left the nuclear deal almost until the eleventh hour, India and its international allies are trying to scrounge for ways to save the nuclear deal — and looking for ways to "telescope" the next few stages.
Left to itself, the next stages of the IAEA ratification and the NSG approval could take months that would go beyond the timeline of both the UPA government and the Bush administration. But the better part of the nuclear world like the UK, US, Russia and France are all openly backing the India-US nuclear deal at this moment.
Diplomatic sources said
At the IAEA stage, Indian officials haven't yet been given the green signal from the government to go ahead to the next step. But (if and) when they do, they will initial the finalized draft, which then becomes a finalized text. While this text will be sent to the board of governors by the IAEA secretariat, there is a possibility that NSG leaders like
The hope is that it may be possible to work on the NSG exemption and the IAEA governors' approval almost simultaneously. This would be unusual, said sources, but not impossible, because most of the IAEA governors are NSG members.
The NSG deliberations will take a minimum of two months before any exemption can be forthcoming. At this stage, it will already be September-October, which would include forcing many Europeans to forego their vacation in August.
If this tight timetable can be followed,
If the Congress receives the determination before it breaks for elections in November, it could take it up during the lame duck session before January 2009. This would involve its own "telescoping" but that would be the
All of this is terribly ambitious depending on virtually precision timing and coordinated efforts by many countries apart from
The government seems determined, said sources. On Monday, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma said in
The
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that it is becoming increasingly difficult "to assume that we could be able to get an agreement through the US Congress".
US officials have said that
Analysts believe that given the sharp 47 per cent spike in ATF prices in Q1 FY09, there is little choice for carriers than raise prices. While raising prices when customer demand is dipping might be risky, what are the areas they can look at? Says Kapil Arora, partner, Risk Advisory Services, Ernst & Young,
The increase in ticket prices due to the rise in ATF costs have dealt a double whammy to the sector. Airlines are now having to cope with growth, which is coming in single digits as customers are leaning to cheaper modes of transport while costs are spiralling out of control. For the January-March 2008 period, passenger traffic grew at 10.5 per cent which was less than half of the 25-30 per cent achieved in the last couple of years. If fares continue to go up, growth rates are expected to be in low single digits or slip into the negative. Earlier, with high growth rates, airline companies had ordered for about 480 aircrafts, which was to be inducted between now and 2012. Analysts say the assumptions were based on demand growth, expansion into new sectors and the prevailing ATF cost structure. Companies are expected to either cancel the order or lease it out to other carriers. Analysts believe that the low cost carriers (SpiceJet, Indigo and Go Air) will be the first to be hit as they target the visiting friends and relatives or leisure segment, whereas the professionals or the business segment constitutes the bulk of the customer base for full service carriers.
| BATTLING IT OUT | |
| Market Share in CY07 | (%) |
| Jet Airways + Jet Lite | 29.8 |
| Indigo | 7.6 |
| Air | 19 |
| SpiceJet | 8.8 |
| Kingfisher + | 29.3 |
| Go Air | 4.2 |
| Others | 1.3 |
| Source: DGCA | |
The LCCs, which have about 45 per cent of the market in the country, were expected to garner 60 per cent in the next three years, but with the consolidation (Jet Airways-Sahara, Kingfisher-Deccan and Indian
The country's five- and four-star hotels could soon revise downwards their tariffs as the world's second fastest-growing economy heads for a slowdown. According to Crisil Research, the average room rates in cities like Chennai,
| DROP DOWN | ||||
| City | Current room | Projected | Decline | Decline % |
| | 14,000 | 12,700 | 1,300 | 9.29 |
| Chennai | 7,200 | 6,800 | 400 | 5.55 |
| | 7,500 | 7,100 | 400 | 5.33 |
| Figures in Rs Source: Crisil Research | ||||
Large players like ITC Hotels and East India Hotels, which runs the Oberoi chain, denied any move to reduce their room rates, though some hotels told Business Standard that such a move was indeed on the cards. A five-star hotel in north Mumbai is mulling a rate cut, while it has added other services like free breakfast and free airport-drop for its clients. The hotel charges around Rs 12,000 per room at present. Another player in the leisure segment has already revised the rates for its properties in
A day after Sonia Gandhi asked the Congress to get ready for elections, CPM announced that it would snap support to the UPA government if it took the “harmful” Indo-US nuclear deal to the IAEA. The government can now have the deal either at the cost of elections or by getting the Samajwadi Party’s 39 members to back it in the Lok Sabha.
The government is betting on the second option because no one, neither Congress or its allies, is ready for polls with double-digit inflation expected to shoot up further. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has held that he would decide on the matter when the UNPA meets on July 3.
Mulayam remained noncommittal on the issue on Sunday, when he exhorted his party workers to prepare for Lok Sabha elections. This was interpreted in political parlours as the SP chief ’s resolve to drive a hard bargain with Congress.
On Sunday, the CPM politburo, attended by chief ministers of
Significantly, RJD chief and railway minister Lalu Prasad said at a rally in Bharuch, “The UPA government will complete its fiveyear term and the nuclear deal will also go through.’’ This is the first time that the leader of a major constituent of the UPA has asserted in public that the India-US civilian nuclear deal will go through, reflecting the progress made in Congress’s talks with SP.
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, meanwhile, said going to the IAEA board to get the safeguards agreement approved would be a “flagrant violation” of the understanding reached at the November 2007 meeting of UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal. “In case the government decides to go ahead with such a harmful agreement, which has no majority support in Parliament, the CPM will withdraw support to the UPA government in concert with other Left parties,” Karat said, reading out prepared statement.
The Left’s idea of what would constitute a “decision” hinges on the elusive last meeting of the UPA-Left committee, as announced on Wednesday. Left leaders insist that this meeting should pen down the committee’s finding that there is no consensus on the matter. “The result should be taken to the highest level after which the PM may clarify whether he is moving with the deal or not,” a Left leader said.
The Left’s stand is now crystal clear and a formal announcement of the committee’s futility would serve no purpose. Also, with the PM slated to attend the G-8 summit in early July and IAEA talks scheduled soon after, the government has no time for niceties.
FINAL STRAW
CPM politburo says the decision to snap support would be taken in consonance with the other three Left parties
RJD chief and railway minister Lalu Prasad says in a rally that the UPA government will complete its five-year term and the nuclear deal will also go through
Telugu Desam Party, UNPA’s second important constituent, has backed the Left stand. So, SP’s lifeline to the government may also mean the death of UNPA
