Newsmaker: Lalu declares loyalty to Cong, UPA

Union Railways Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav joined hands with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) supremo Ram Vilas Paswan and cornered majority of the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The duo divided 37 seats among themselves and left just three seats out of the 40 for the Congress in Bihar. Stung by the seat-sharing deal, the Congress announced that it will go alone in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar and contest 37 seats.

Meanwhile, in another major development key National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has taken on the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) over the Varun Gandhi hate speech issue. It seems the power equation id changing in Bihar with Lau moving away from the Congress and Nitish adopting a hardline towards the BJP.

CNN-IBN’s India @ 9 grilled Lalu Prasad on his relationship with the Congress and the power equation in Bihar.

CNN-IBN: Nitish Kumar has come to Delhi and criticised Varun Gandhi. Are you seeing a new alliance? Is Nitish Kumar getting closer to the Congress and you are getting away from the Congress?

Lalu Prasad: Why don’t you ask him to declare? He is criticising Varun Gandhi to save his face among the minority community. He is a very, very greedy man for power. He will never leave the BJP.

CNN-IBN: You don’t see Nitish Kumar moving closer to the Congress? Somewhere down the line in speech after speech there is an indication that Nitish is edging closer to the UPA?

Lalu Prasad: The main point is that in the entire country is talking about the language used by Varun Gandhi. The speech was approved by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh). Nitish Kumar is sitting in the BJP's lap, the Sangh Pariwar's lap and that is why he saying these things to save his face.

CNN-IBN: But is it possible that after the election that Nitish Kumar is with the ruling party at the Centre and Lalu sits in the Opposition. How realistic is the possibility?

Lalu Prasad: He is very greedy for power. I know him very well as he was with me earlier.

CNN-IBN: After the break-up that you had in Bihar, will you remain with the Congress, with the UPA even after the elections?

Lalu Prasad: I have said this many times that we are part and parcel of the UPA. UPA does not mean the Congress alone

CNN-IBN: But you are fighting the Congress?

Lalu Prasad: Yes, yes. They are fighting. I am not fighting.

CNN-IBN: Rahul Gandhi said we did not leave Lalu Prasad but he left the Congress?

Lalu Prasad: That's ok. That's his view. We are part and parcel of UPA. Sonia Gandhiji and Manmohan Singhji have said that the UPA will form the government.

CNN-IBN: But what about the seat sharing problems? Have you spoken to Sonia Gandhi about it?

Lalu Prasad: I don’t want to involve Sonia Gandhiji in any controversy. I respect her.

CNN-IBN: But has not your alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan created problems in you relations with Sonia Gandhi?

Lalu Prasad: No, no. Nobody can break my relations with Sonia Gandhi, whether I am in power or out of power.

CNN-IBN: But some people say you broke away from the UPA because you were greedy for power?

Lalu Prasad: Look, people are shocked to see Ram Vilas Paswan joining hands with me. The same people who had dismissed the Congress from the cow belt have suddenly started sympathising with the Congress. It is a fact that the Congress party has no presence in the cow belt. They have to work very hard to create an organisation if they want to make their presence felt in the cow belt.

CNN-IBN: But this is a bizarre situation. You are still the Railway Minister but are fighting the Congress. Are the doors still open for an alliance with the Congress?

Lalu Prasad: No. Now it’s not possible. I have entered the field.

CNN-IBN: But why are you not resigning from the Cabinet? Is there any possibility now of an understanding with Congress?

Lalu Prasad: No, no. Now nothing is possible. The question of reopening the negotiations does not arise.

CNN-IBN: Is the move to make Sadhu Yadav one of Congress’ candidates a deliberate move to anger you?

Lalu Prasad: I don’t even take notice of these things. So called Sadhu Yadav is a child in politics. The Congress has no idea. I know him and Bihar people know Sadhu Yadav. I have already suggested the media people why are you taking my name with Sadhu Yadav as my brother-in-law.

CNN-IBN: You were one of the most important ministers of the UPA. After the elections will you continue to be so or do you fear that you will lose some weight in terms of importance?

Lalu Prasad: I am not fearing anything. I am here because of my own strength. If I am strong, people will like me. If I am not in power, nobody will even congratulate me.

CNN-IBN: Some people are saying how come Lalu Prasad is both a minister at the Centre as well as an enemy of the Congress?

Lalu Prasad: Nobody is a minister because of the Congress party. Whoever was a minister at the centre was because of the share they got being part of the UPA.

CNN-IBN:So you are saying, today you will continue to be a minister as well fight against the Congress in Bihar?

Lalu Prasad: We will first defeat the fascist forces and then join hands with the Congress.

CNN-IBN: Sonia Gandhi has made it clear that Manmohan Singh is UPA’s prime ministerial candidate. Do you accept it? Will Manmohan Singh be the PM?

Lalu Prasad: Yes without fail. No doubt. Sonia Gandhi will be always respected. Nobody can create any confusion.

CNN-IBN: Will you join the Third Front if the numbers favour them? You may become the prime minister then rather than support the UPA?

Lalu Prasad: The Third Front has good parties. It has the Left and other parties. But I am not in touch with them. If the UPA is short of numbers then we will take their help.

CNN-IBN: But will you join them?

Lalu Prasad: No, no.

CNN-IBN: So no 1996-like situation? You will not be the Deve Gowda of 2009?

Lalu Prasad: If the need be we will take help for the UPA. Yes for the UPA. And Nitish Kumar cannot leave the BJP. He will be finished. It was a coincidence that Varun Gandhi gave this statement and it was approved by the RSS.

India to stage IPL abroad over security issues

The Indian cricket board will stage the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament abroad this year due to security issues, the country's cricket chief said on Sunday.

"Because the government... are not in a position to provide security, we were forced to take the decision to move the event outside of India," Indian cricket board (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar told a news conference.

"We're having discussions with other boards who have shown their willingness," he added.

Cricket authorities in South Africa and England confirmed on Sunday they had been asked to look into hosting the event.

The BCCI had failed to get government clearance for security cover despite revising the match dates three times because the tournament clashes with the country's general election, to be held between April 16 and May 13.

The IPL will be played on its original dates, between April 10 and May 24, and is scheduled to return to India next season, league commissioner Lalit Modi said.

Modi also told Sky Sports News that four possible venues were being considered to host the tournament.

"Hopefully I will have everything wrapped up in the next 24 hours," he added.

The South African cricket board said it had received a request from the BCCI to be a possible host.

"We received an official approach this morning to be one of several options they are considering to host the tournament outside India," Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola said in a statement.

South Africa will also stage the Champions Trophy one-day competition beginning in September.

The England and Wales Cricket Board later released a similar statement, saying that at the request of the BCCI and the IPL it was "examining the feasibility of hosting the 2009 IPL in England and Wales".

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Indian officials said the huge financial implications and a tight international calendar had forced their hand. The World Twenty20 begins in England in early June.

"Under the given circumstances, there is no other period for the conduct of IPL matches," the BCCI said in a statement and apologised to the cricket-crazy Indian fans for not being in a position to host the event at home this year.

"There are many stakeholders apart from the BCCI, the players, the franchise owners, media partners, team sponsors, venues sponsors, apart from the cricket loving public at large.

"The experience of the first IPL season has shown that apart from providing employment to a large number of people at the various venues, IPL has also contributed close to one billion rupees ($20 million) to the exchequer."

Security concerns have dominated the build-up to the lucrative eight-team event, involving many big-name international players, after an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in the Pakistani city of Lahore earlier this month.

The BCCI failed to secure approval from the government, who said it would be difficult to spare security forces as they would be deployed for the polls.

The country remains tense after bomb blasts killed 166 people in the financial hub of Mumbai last November.

(Additional reporting by Mike Collett)

Bengalooru City rentals down 30%

If you live life in 11-month instalments, worrying how much more you may have to fork out when your lease comes up for renewal, the tide has turned. Rents across the city are sliding.

In South Bengalooru, which is the worst hit, about 50% of lease market flats are vacant. In the western suburbs, this number is 30%. One reason is that many corporations have curtailed recruitments and sacked or transferred senior executives. Hence, there are fewer takers for high-end apartments. A large number of flats remain locked after many companies moved out as the owners were demanding high rents. And nearly 130 flats in Hiranandani Complex, Powai, are gathering dust after Lehman Brothers went bust last year.

The story across the city is much the same. In the past few months, residential lease rates have fallen 25-30% between Bandra and Malad and up to 25% between Colaba and Sion/Mahim. Brokers expect a further downturn of 10-15% as property owners realign expectations with market dynamics. Rents have corrected by about 5-10% in the low-budget segment between Malad and Borivli and in the central suburbs from Sion to Thane and Navi Bengalooru.

"The number of apartments available for lease is more than double the number available last year," said Mahesh Ahuja of Aruba Homes Pvt Ltd. "Vacancy levels have ballooned due to cost-cutting. Most companies now prefer to relocate to affordable locations.
Flatowners who have understood this seismic shift have scaled down their expectations so that they can continue to pay their EMIs."
In Bandra, owners of 4BHK apartments are accepting Rs3-3.5 lakh as rent against their earlier expectation of Rs4-4.5 lakh. Powai, which has a large number of investor-owned flats, is badly hit with rents plunging to Rs1.5-2 lakh from Rs2.5-3 lakh.

Rajiv Jain of Jaisons Property Management, a real-estate broking company dealing only in high-end residential apartments, said,
"Rates are now comparable to 2005-06 levels. Expats are relocating further away for cheaper rates in suburbs. I recently leased out a 3BHK in Juhu for Rs2 lakh while a flat in the same building was earlier leased at Rs2.5 lakh." A fallout: Jain's income has dropped 40%.

Ram Prasad Padhi of Pinnacle Realty, who recently leased a flat in Oberoi Woods, Goregaon, to an expat for Rs30,000, said, "In better times, her budget would have been Rs60,000 and she would have been looking at options in Bandra. But this time, she made it clear she could not afford to stretch her wallet beyond Rs35,000."

Rupee marginally up; eyes stx open for cues

The rupee was slightly higher in early trade on Tuesday with the market looking to equities open for fresh cues, but gains in other regional currencies in seen supporting the local unit.

* At 9:12 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 51.36/39 per dollar, little changed from its Monday's close of 51.385/395.

* The dollar index, a gauge of the U.S. unit's performance against six major currencies, was down 0.1 percent. Most Asian units were also stronger.

* Regional stock exchanges, except for the Hang Seng, were in the green. At 0345 GMT, the Kospi was up 1.7 percent, Nikkei up 1.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite index higher 1.3 percent.

* Dealers said there could be some dollar demand from importers and refiners, which could pressure the rupee lower.

Money Doesn't Make People Happy

"The hippies," claimed economist Andrew Oswald recently, "are having their quiet revenge." Oswald, a professor at Warwick University in England, is one of a growing number of economists fascinated by the question of what makes us happy. In a recent public lecture he announced, "Once a country has filled its larders, there is no point in that nation becoming richer."

That, at least, should bring a smile to a few faces. Economists have suddenly realized that money can't buy you happiness? This is like the squarest kid at school suddenly discovering beer, girls and music in his 30s. The rest of the world had worked it out already.

One of the things that excites economists like Oswald is the ability to compare data on wealth, education and marital status with the results of happiness surveys. In these surveys, people are asked such questions as "Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, quite happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" Economists have been trying to make sense of the results across individuals, across countries and across the years. The headline: Once a country gets fairly rich (though much poorer than the United States), further economic growth does not seem to make its citizens any happier.

So, money does not buy happiness. Or does it? "In every society, at any point in time, richer people are happier," points out Will Wilkinson, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C., who runs a blog on happiness research and public policy. "But that in itself doesn't tell you much about the relationship between money and happiness."

Richer people, after all, tend to have high-status jobs. They tend to have more control over their lives at work--why pay someone six figures if you're not going to ask her to use her own judgment? They also have higher expectations and will be comparing themselves to wealthier people. It's hard to say what is really driving the results: money, status or expectations.

Perhaps each society's richer people are also happier because happiness comes not from absolute wealth but from relative wealth--recall H.L. Mencken's quip that "a wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband." A more skeptical view is that while it means something to compare my happiness with that of the guy asking me for change on the street, it means nothing to compare my feelings today to those of my grandfather in 1950--or those of a Portuguese shopkeeper or a Japanese salaryman.

Wilkinson and economists like Oswald and his compatriot Lord Layard are thinking about the policy implications of happiness research. My own interest is a little different: Can the new breed of happiness economists offer us any tips for happier living?

Much of the advice is pretty slippery. For instance, married people are much happier than single people. So perhaps you should get married? (Even better if your fiancée's sister's husband is unemployed.) Not so fast. More sophisticated surveys show that the causation runs both ways: Happy people tend to find spouses, while those suffering from depression don't find it so easy. And--not surprisingly--some people do brilliantly out of marriage, and others are utterly miserable. As an economist, I'm afraid I have no idea whether you should propose to that cute girl you've been seeing. (You may or may not take comfort in Oswald's finding that you can always get out of marriage: People are happier immediately after a divorce than immediately before.)

Oswald also suggests self-employment, if you can pull it off without losing out financially. "Everything associated with self-employment--independence, autonomy--is also associated with being happy."

Both Oswald and Richard Layard argue that relationships are more important than money--and that includes professional relationships. "I've come to believe in the old-fashioned view that one should be tender in one's dealings with colleagues," Lord Layard told me in an interview. And what else? "Think about what you have rather than what you don't have, both materially and in your relationships and your personal strengths. To use the language of economics, don't try to rectify things that aren't your comparative advantage."

This is spiritual thinking from an economist, but Oswald goes one better. If you're depressed, why not just wait? "There's a kind of J-curve describing happiness over time. Your late 30s are the most unhappy period of your life, but then the older you get the happier you are. Life really does begin again at 40."

I think the most useful research, though, is by an honorary economist: Danny Kahneman, the only psychologist ever to win the Nobel Prize in economics. He asked nearly 1,000 working women in Texas to reflect on their previous day, list the different episodes in it, what they were doing and how they were feeling.

Some results are predictable enough: Work is miserable, and commuting is worse. Others are not so obvious. For instance, praying is fun, but looking after the kids is not. Spending time with your friends is one of the most enjoyable things you can do, but spending time with your spouse is merely OK. In fact, parents or other relatives turn out to make more enjoyable company than the supposed love of your life.

What is perfectly clear, though, is that socializing with anyone except your boss makes you feel good. Sex is best of all. This is handy advice at last. But what if you are having sex with your boss? Whereof economists cannot speak, we must remain silent.

Tim Harford, a Financial Times columnist, is the author of The Undercover Economist.

Sri Lankan cricketers hurt in Pakistan attack

LAHORE, Pakistan  - Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach were wounded when gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort on Tuesday to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore, officials said.

Lahore Police chief Habib-ur-Rehman said five police were killed in the attack by unidentified gunmen, who fired AK 47s and rockets and hurled grenades at the bus as it slowed at a traffic circle near the 60,000-seater Gaddafi stadium.

Witnesses saw gunmen with rifles and backpacks running through the streets and firing on people and vehicles around the massive stadium in the morning attack.

"I saw them from the window of my office firing at the police escort first. When the police dispersed after the shooting, they started firing at the bus of Sri Lankan team," Mohammad Luqman told Reuters.

Punjab Governor Salman Taseer told reporters the assailants had been surrounded after being chased into a nearby commercial and shopping area. A massive security sweep was taking place across the city.

The attack highlights Pakistan seeming inability to defeat militancy spreading inside and outside the country and comes at a time when the United States is putting pressure on the government to do more to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.

It had echoes of an attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November in which 179 people died and which led to the Indian cricket team cancelling its planned tour of Pakistan.

"One thing I want to say it's the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai," said Governor Taseer.

Pakistan's civilian government has lurched into political crisis less than a year since ex-army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced to quit as president, and the country is braced for street agitation by opposition parties in coming days.

"WHO WOULD WANT TO INVEST IN PAKISTAN?"

"This is not only an attack on the Sri Lankan team but on Pakistan," said Shuja Rizvi, director of broking at Capital One Equities Ltd. "Who would want to invest then in Pakistan?"

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index was down 1.50 percent at 5,596.32 at 12:30 a.m. (0730 GMT).

India blamed the Mumbai attack on Pakistan-trained militants and the incident sharply raised tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

The group blamed by India, Lashkar-e-Taiba, came from Pakistan's Punjab province, whose capital is Lahore.

A spokesman for the Sri Lanka High Commission in Islamabad said six players were wounded along with assistant coach Paul Farbrace, a Briton.

Sri Lankan and Pakistan media said Thilan Samaraweera seemed to be the worst hit, suffering a thigh injury. The other Sri player admitted to hospital was Tharanga Paranavithana.

Reserve umpire Ehsan Raza was also critically wounded, according to Ejaz Butt, chairman of Pakistan's Cricket Board.

It was unclear whether their injuries were caused by bullets, shrapnel or flying shards of glass.

Sri Lanka, which had been invited to Pakistan after India pulled out, immediately cancelled the rest of the tour.

"We are planning to have them airlifted out from there, and then evacuated to Sri Lanka on the first available flight," Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona told Reuters in Colombo.

It was the second day of their second test match and being played at the venue where Sri Lanka won cricket's world cup in 1996, beating Australia in the final.

Until this series Pakistan had gone without test cricket for more then a year because of security concerns.

In 2002, a bomb exploded in Karachi while the New Zealand cricket team were touring, killing 13 people, including 11 French navy experts.

In that incident the New Zealand cricketers were also preparing to drive to the stadium when the car bomb exploded. They called off the tour within hours of the attack.

(Additional reporting by Mubasher Bukhari, Augustine Anthony,

Zeeshan Haider, and Bryson Hull, Charlie Austin and Ranga Sirilal in Colombo)