LS polls from April 16

To be conducted in 5 phases
Counting on May 16
Code of conduct in force
New Delhi, March 2
The Election Commission of India today announced the much-awaited dates for holding elections to the 15th Lok Sabha. The general elections would be conducted in five phases — between April 16 and May 13 — while the counting would be done on May 16. The model code of conduct, too, was enforced with immediate effect.

The poll schedule was announced at a press conference here this afternoon by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and Election Commissioners Naveen Chawla and SY Quraishi.

As many as 124 Lok Sabha constituencies would go to the polls on April 16 in the first phase, followed by 141 on April 23, 107 on April 30, 85 on May 7 and finally 86 on May 13. Significantly, this would be the first general election after the delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies.

Notably, most of the constituencies in north India — Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, western parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand — would go to polls in the fourth or the fifth phase. In Punjab, polling would be held in two phases while in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh it would spread across five phases.

The poll schedule was announced a day after President Pratibha Patil rejected Gopalaswami’s controversial suggestion to sack Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla from the poll panel on grounds that he was “biased” towards the Congress. The CEC said the new Lok Sabha would be constituted by June 2.

Notably, this time there would be 4.3 crore more voters than 2004. At 71 crore, the strength of the Indian electorate is more than the combined population of Russia and the US.

More than 40 lakh civil officials and 21 lakh security personnel would be deployed across some 8.28 lakh polling stations, an increase of 20 per cent over 2004 when 6.87 lakh polling stations were set up. As many as 12,000 of the new polling stations have been set up in villages having less than 300 electors. The commission has also undertaken exercise of vulnerability mapping to identify areas where voters could face threat. A total of 13.68 lakh electronic voting machines would be used.

Among other states, Bihar would have four rounds of polling. Maharashtra and West Bengal would undergo polling over three phases. Apart from Punjab, seven more states, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Orissa, would witness voting in two rounds. All other states and union territories would go to the polls in one go.

Lok Sabha polls in 5 phases between April 16-May 13

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha elections will be held in five phases between April 16 and May 13. The counting will be done on May 16.

New Lok Sabha will be constituted by June 2. The elections will be held in 5 phases in J&K and Uttar Pradesh, in four phases in Bihar, three in Maharashtra, two in AP, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, MP, Orissa and Punjab, remaining states and UTs, the election will be held on one day, the Election Commission informed the media on Monday.

Polls will be conducted in 124 constituencies on April 16, in 141 constituencies on April 23, in 107 constituencies on April 30, 85 on May 7 and 86 on May 13.

Treating Manipur as an exception, polls will be conducted in the state on April 22, considering April 23 is a local holiday there.

Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Orissa will go to polls with the other states.

Earlier in the day, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Ajit Singh announced its entry into the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The RLD will have a poll pact with the main NDA constituent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

January exports fall by 15.9%

NEW DELHI: The global economic downturn continued to take its toll on Indian exports in the first month of the calendar year. Exports in January 2009 fell by 15.9% to $12.38 billion compared to exports worth $ 14.72 billion in January 2008. Thanks to a sharp dip in India’s oil bill during the month, imports registered the first dip during the on-going fiscal. There was a sharp fall of 18.2% im imports to $ 18.45 billion in January 2009 compared to $ 22.56 billion in January 2008. The official estimates of trade data for January 2009 was realsed by the commerce department on Monday.

Sectors which took the most severe drubbing during the month include textiles, handicrafts, gems & jewellery, leather, plastics, metals and rice, as per the initial estimates brought out by the commerce department earlier this month. The early estimates had painted a darker picture by putting the drop in exports at 22%.

India’s cumulative value of exports for the period April-January, 2008-09 was $144.26 billion as against $127.45 billion in the first ten months of 2007-08 registering a growth of 13.2%. The commerce and industry minister revised India’s growth target for the fiscal downwards to $170-175 billion from $200 billion fixed earlier. The minister is, however, optimistic that in the next fiscal it will be possible to meet the $200 billion target. India exported goods worth $162 billion in 2007-08.

In January 2009, India’s oil imports went down by 47.5% to $4.46 billion from $8.5 billion in January 2008. The dip in non-oil imports was relatively negligible at 0.5% with imports falling to $13.99 billion in January 2009 compared to imports worth $14.06 billion in January 2008.

Non-oil imports during April-January 2009 were valued at $ 160 billion which was 21.9% higher than the level of such imports valued at $ 131.36 billion in April-January 2007-08.

The trade deficit for April-January 2008-09 was estimated at $99.1 billion compared to a deficit of $66.83 billion during April-January 2007-08.

Sensex plunges to three-month low, RIL leads the fall

2 Mar 2009, 1627 hrs IST, PT
MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Monday tumbled to a three-month low by losing 284 points, impacted by the deepening global economic crisis, sparking heavy selling by funds in blue-chips led by Reliance Industries.

The Sensex plunged by 284.53 points at 8,607.08, after touching the day's low of 8,563.52, the lowest since November 20, mostly on reports of the US economy contracting at the fastest pace in more than 27 years.

The 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty dropped by 89.05 points to 2,674.60, after touching a low of 2,659.55 during the day.

The trend-setter Reliance Industries, which approved the absorption of its unit Reliance Petroleum, led the decline with many stocks in the Mukesh and Anil Ambani group firms closing with losses.

Tata Consultancy Services led the decline among software makers as the US economy shrank at the fastest pace since 1982. More than 50 per cent of the country's software export revenue comes from the US.

RIL lost 3.15 per cent, Reliance Infra 9.12 per cent, RCom 6.50 per cent, Reliance Capital 6.97 per cent, Reliance Power 1.86 per cent and Reliance Petroleum 1.38 per cent.

Rupee at all-time low of 51.80/$; Citi sees 54/$ ahead

The Indian rupee is at a record low of Rs 51.80 per dollar on the back of dollar buying by oil companies.

Most other Asian currencies fell too on global risk aversion.

Citi has said the rupee may touch touch Rs 54 per dollar levels in the next two to four weeks. “Customers are still on the short side,” it said. “The rupee will move along with other Asian currencies as risk aversion is still there. Any RBI intervention will smooth the movement but cannot stop the rupee slide.”

Standard Chartered said it expects rate cuts to happen soon.

“There is little fresh supply coming from the market and with global equity markets weakening outflows, it is likely to put pressure on the rupee,” said HDFC.