Powering the IPO-lineup of more than Rs 20,000 cr

NEW DELHI: So you thought the real estate sector mopped up the lion's share of the capital market this year? Just check these stats — blazing the trail this year is the power sector with an impressive IPO line-up of more than Rs 20,000 crore. This is around 35% more than the Rs 13,000- crore worth of IPOs mobilised in the real estate sector this year, including the mega DLF offering.

In fact, as many as seven companies, including Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance Power, have filed draft papers for IPOs with market regulator SEBI in the last couple of months. Already, funds worth Rs 3,900 crore from the capital market has come to the power sector this year. In addition, the sector is expected to raise over Rs 16,000 crore as companies such as Reliance Power, REC and NHPC line up to float their IPOs in the next couple of months.

Says Sanjeev Zarbage, assistant vice-president, research, Kotak Securities: "The power sector needs huge funds and that's why we are seeing a slew of companies wanting to tap the capital market. Since the economy is doing well, capital expansion is a natural way of catering to the services of the population.

Infrastructure has remained a major bottleneck in development for a long time. The power sector is expected to raise a lot of money from the markets in the next couple of years too. Apart from that, banking is another sector that will raise money through public issues to keep the credit growth going."

The action in the power sector is currently being fuelled by the growth in the services sector. "We are in the capacity building stage. The huge amount of money raised in the power sector will eventually support the other sectors to grow and, in turn, help the overall growth in the country.

Infrastructure is the other sector where we will see a lot of activity happening. Housing companies, commercial malls, airports and ports are the core infrastructure segments that will raise big amount of money from the markets. Power and infrastructure are the base of growth for any country," says Religare Enterprises COO Shachindra Nath.

The companies that have entered the capital market this year include Power Finance Corporation and PowerGrid Corp. Besides, there have been smaller issues from Suryachakra Power and Indowind Energy, which mopped up nearly Rs 135 crore collectively from their IPOs. The fund flow through capital market into the power sector was nearly Rs 1,300 crore in 2006 through IPOs of firms such as Lanco Infratech and GMR Infra.

Killers of Marandi Jr wore military fatigues

CHILKHADIH (GIRIDIH): In military fatigues, they watched the orchestra for quite sometime -- and, the 2,000-strong audience thought them to be CRPF men deployed for security of former chief minister Babulal Marandi's kin who were also in the audience.

Suddenly, a few of them went onto the dais -- one of them took the microphone and announced, "We are Naxalites, here to kill Nunulal Marandi (Babulal's brother). Hand him over to us and we will spare others. But no one should leave the place."

As there came no response from the scared crowd, the announcer shouted, "We know he is here and is wearing a black jacket."

Nunulal, stealthily threw his black coat, mingled in the crowd and, like many others, hid himself behind the plastic chairs.

Not much later, the Maoists started firing indiscriminately. One of Nunulal's securitymen died on the spot; the other has been hospitalised.

The Maoists had apparently failed to identify, Babulal's 22-year-old son Anup Marandi who was also in the crowd.

However, Anup, who married only four months back, fell to the Maoists bullets. The survivors told TOI the Maoists did not explode bombs, but fired about 100 rounds from AK-47s.

Even children and women were not spared. The injured included three-year-old Nilesh Hansdah. "He was asleep in his mother's lap when a bullet hit his right leg," the child's father, Sagar Hansdah, said. Gundu Murmu's 12-year-old daughter Khiloni also received bullet injuries.

Three of the deceased had come from neighbouring Jamui district of Bihar. They had in fact been coming to the village every day for the last four days to watch the football matches organised in the village as part of Luxmi Puja celebrations. The orchestra had been organised on the last day of the soccer tourney.

This was the biggest ever massacre of civilians by Maoists in Jharkhand. Earlier, they targeted securitymen, and their victims included the SP of Lohardagga.

Chief minister Madhu Koda, who reached here along with UPA's state convenor Shibu Soren, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh each to the victims' families and also a government job. Koda announced recruitment of villagers with educational qualification up to class VII as police constables.

The chief minister said the state government would review its Naxalite policy and would soon come out with a surrender-and-rehabilitation policy for the Maoists to return to the mainstream society.

Soren, Koda and former CM Arjun Munda attended the condolence meeting held in the village. They also met Marandi and consoled him.

Aamir wanted to be a filmmaker, never an actor!

'A friend in need is a friend indeed'. This thought goes down well with two friends - Aamir Khan and Amol Gupte. It may sound as though we are contradicting the ongoing controversy about the rift between two friends, but this is ironically true in Aamir and Amol's case.

Very few people know that Amol and Aamir are friends since their college days. Amol wanted to be an actor and shared screen space with Aamir in Ketan Mehta's film Holi . After that producer Nasir Hussain wanted to introduce Amol as an actor in his son Mansoor Khan's directorial debut Qyamat Se Qyamat Tak . They shot five rolls and realized that Amol couldn't act. Mansoor wanted a new face for his film and that's how Aamir Khan, the then assistant director to Mansoor, became Raj of QSQT.

However, Aamir never wanted to be an actor as he was highly inclined towards directing movies. But QSQT made him a 'star' and also earned him the Filmfare Best Debut Award. Meanwhile Amol who failed to become an actor became a writer and wrote scripts for more than 100 short films. He assisted Ketan Mehta on his film Mirch Masala in 1985. He wrote a film on a dyslexic child. Amol who wanted to be a director got this opportunity through his own script. After approaching several producers, it was finally Aamir who agreed to back the film.

A close friend of Aamir says, "Aamir is emotionally attached to this movie that deals with a young child, who suffers from dyslexia which is a specific form of learning disability that manifests primarily as a difficulty with reading and spelling." He continues, "Aamir will be seen playing the father to a young dyslexic child. In real life his son Junaid and daughter Aira suffer from the same disease. That's why this project is so dear to Aamir's heart."

Aamir's friend further explains that the film was earlier titled High Jump and was later changed to Tare Zameen Par as it was more apt for the film. Reportedly, Amol shot five rolls of the film, but as the result wasn't too impressive, Aamir took charge of direction. This, we hear, may have caused some friction between Aamir and Amol. But Aamir's friend clarifies, "Even after 'creative differences' between the two, Aamir Khan and Amol Gupte remain good friends. Amol who was supposed to direct the film has been credited as 'writer and creative director' of the movie and doesn't seem visibly upset at least."

Rahul Dravid's

Rahul Dravid's exclusion from the ODI team for the Pakistan series is a clear indication that time might be running out for India's 'Big Three' - Sachin, Sourav and Dravid himself. On Saturday, the 34-year-old former skipper became the first to succumb to the heat generated by the recent success of the youngsters who won the Twenty20 World Cup.

As reported by TOI on October 24 and 27, Dravid's position in the ODI squad was under a cloud, especially after his recent poor run in the One-day series against Australia, when he scored 51 runs in six matches.

On Saturday, the national selectors, led by Dilip Vengsarkar, finally took the 'tough decision' of leaving out Dravid of the one-day team for the first two matches against Pakistan beginning on November 5. ODI and T20 skipper M S Dhoni was consulted over the phone about the selection and very much a party to the decision.

"One of the reasons for his omission is that we didn't want a situation where Dravid is in the 15 and not in the playing XI, like it happened with Sourav Ganguly earlier," said a selector.

Indian origin youths explore their roots

Twenty-nine youths of Indian origin from nine countries have arrived here for the latest edition of an orientation programme that is meant to help them rediscover their roots.

Welcoming the participants to the Know India Programme (KIP) here Thursday, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said, "you have known about India from your parents and grandparents. This is a chance for you to see India with your own eyes."

He exhorted the participants to explore and experience the real India through the programme, organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan.

"Don't just go back after taking in the sights in cities like Delhi," Ravi said, adding: "Go to the rural areas. See the villages. That is the real India."

This year, Goa is the host state for the programme that runs Aug 29-Sep 15. The organisers have chalked out a series of events in collaboration with the Goa government to showcase Indian life and culture to the youth, who have come from countries like Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, South Africa, Canada, Britain, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Israel.

The participants will spend the first three days in Delhi attending lectures on Indian history, constitution and governance. In between they will also visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Maruti Suzuki car plant in Gurgaon.

Thereafter, they will proceed to Goa where they will be taken around the Goa University, the National Institute of Oceanography, BITS Pilani's Sancoale campus, the Mormugao Port Trust and an eco-tourism site among other places.

A highlight of their Goa sojourn will be visits to villages in interior areas where they will get to know the rural way of life by attending mock panchayat sessions and doing field work on issues like democracy at grassroots level, women's empowerment and empowerment of youth.

This apart, they will also take in the sights and sounds of Goa.

The participants come from different backgrounds - one is a fashion designer from Malaysia, another a teaching assistant from Canada while a third is a project team leader in British auto giant Rolls Royce. They are all excited about their visit here.

Said Jaya Manikchand, an attorney-at-law in Guyana: "I didn't feel at all strange after landing in India. The people are very warm and hospitable."

Manikchand, whose grandparents migrated to the Caribbean nation from Uttar Pradesh, looked forward to taking part in the community development programmes being organised as part of the KIP.

"I want to take back ideas from here so I can replicate them in Guyana," she said.

Though she had to take a circuitous route from her country to India - from Guyana to Trinidad to Barbados to London and finally to Delhi - she summed up the mood of the participants when she said: "I didn't really like the journey. But now I know it was worth it."

Why men fall for younger women

To have the most children, men should find a partner six years younger and women a mate four years older, Austrian researchers said on Wednesday.

The researchers tried to use evolution to explain why men often prefer younger women and what typically drives women’s desire for older men, said their leader, Vienna University anthropologist Martin Fieder.

While it is no surprise to hear that men pick younger women to bolster their reproductive fitness and that women choose older partners for security, the study is the first to quantify the age difference that results in the most children, he said.

"Nobody has shown before this has consequences for the number of offspring," Fieder said in a telephone interview. "We have shown for the first time this is the case."

The researchers wanted to find the most beneficial ages for both men and women to have the most offspring, so looked at the data with that in mind and came out with different numbers for each.

Writing in the Royal Society’s Biology Letters on Wednesday, the researchers said they collected information from Swedish national registries to track the number of births and age of parents going back 55 years.

The researchers looked at men and women who did not change their partners between the birth of their first and last child and found the age differences among couples that produced the most offspring.

For both men and women, having a partner of the optimal age meant having an average of 2.2 children compared with 2.1 children when they picked partners of the same age — a significant number in evolutionary terms that accumulates over time, Fieder said.

The findings are the result of a statistical analysis and do not mean that every man can find a woman six years younger and that every women would find a man four years older. "It was a very systemic pattern," Fieder said. "We don’t think it is random."

The study of couples during their typical child-bearing years also showed that both men and women who changed partners usually chose a person younger than the one they had before for their second one, Fieder said.

Nuke deal on hold, panel to go into Left concerns

In a climb down, the Government today put on hold the operationalisation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal pending the findings of a committee constituted to go into the objections raised by the Left parties.

"The operationalisation of the deal will take into account the Committee's findings," a statement read out by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after a meeting of the Congress and Left parties, bringing to an end the three-week stand-off between the two sides on the deal.

The meeting decided to set up a committee, the composition of which would be announced shortly.

Though Mukherjee did not take any questions after the 30-minute meeting at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence, the Left leaders said the statement makes it very clear that the Government will not operationalise the deal till the committee's findings are known.

Ever since the details of the 123 agreement were made public, the Left parties had demanded that the deal should not be operationalised while the government maintained that there was no going back on the issue.

Matters took a serious turn when Singh dared the Left parties to withdraw support to the government on the issue and they hit back warning of serious consequences if the government went ahead with the deal.

The statement by Mukherjee said in view of the objections raised by the Left parties on the Indo-US bilateral agreement on nuclear cooperation, it has been decided to constitute a committee to go into these issues.