URL Link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_36/b3949144_mz035.htm Highlights: Build Some Roads? To remake its creaky infrastructure, India is banking on public-private partnerships When the skies opened up on July 26, dumping more than three feet of water on Bombay and the surrounding area, the creaking infrastructure of India's financial center collapsed under the strain. The aging suburban train service froze, the airport halted flights, and waterlogged roads forced commuters to abandon cars and buses. "It was as if someone had turned off the switch; everything just stopped," says Ann Iype, a teacher at downtown Cathedral and John Connon School who waded four hours in waist-deep water before she was given refuge in a friendly stranger's apartment. Source: Business week Read more

News Source: Reuters News Highlight: The BBC wants to be a major player in the digital media world and is considering partnerships with private businesses to sell music downloads, Director-General Mark Thompson said on Saturday. The publicly-funded broadcaster is testing software called MyBBCPlayer to let users download its TV and radio programing, and plans to use its powerful presence to take its place among Internet media giants like Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research). URL of the news item: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-08-29T142418Z_01_MAR951782_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MEDIA- Read more

News Source: Hindustan Times News Highlight: The Supreme Court on Tuesday severely criticised the Centre for being extremely critical of the recent seven-judge Bench judgment declaring that there should be no reservation or state quota in private unaided professional colleges."Why are we told time and again by the Government that it is not taking a confrontationist attitude? Who is taking a confrontationist attitude?" a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice RC Lahoti asked Attorney General Milan Banerjee during a hearing of a petition seeking Schedule Caste status to Dalit Christians.The Court said what the seven-judge Bench ruled was a reiteration of the eleven-judge Bench judgment and the five-judge Bench judgment thereafter. URL of the news item: http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_1469784,0008.htm Read more

News Source: Times of India News Highlight: The Darul Uloom Deoband's fatwa which calls for making purdah mandatory for women contesting elections, has come in for sharp criticism, especially from women politicians. Scores of Muslim women corporators, social activists and educationists are shocked at the Islamic seminary's anti-women, patriarchal and biased opinion which may hamper Muslim women's participation in politics. Darul Uloom, in its latest fatwa on Wednesday, said that Muslim women shouldn't contest elections, and if they do so, they should observe purdah (completely covered from head to toe). The verdict, scholars feel, has no Koranic sanction as, apart from vague references, nowhere does the Koran mention a specific dress code. URL of the news item: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1204911.cms Read more

News Source: Times of India News Highlight: Wednesday's terror attacks in Bangladesh only reinforce one fact: India is ringed with failed states. A recent study by Foreign Policy, journal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Fund for Peace ranked 60 states in the world that are in danger of going over the edge -- apart from Sri Lanka, every one of India's neighbours is a failed or failing state. Bangladesh is in a critical state at 17th place, while Pakistan is at 34th along with Nepal at 35th while Myanmar and Bhutan are at 23rd and 26th places, respectively, with Afghanistan in the dangerous category at 11th place. URL of the news item: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1204915.cms Read more

News Source: SIFY News Highlight: India is gearing up for its planned Moon mission 'Chandrayaan' two years from now, with top scientists from the country gathering in Hyderabad to discuss the design system of the 32-metre diameter deep space network ground station antenna for the mission. "This antenna will serve as an important component system of the ground support and is currently being finalised at a meeting organised by ECIL and ISRO and top scientists from the field of space and technology," ECIL Chairman and Managing Director, GP Srivastava, told reporters in Hyderabad.   URL of the news item: http://headlines.sify.com/news/ Read more

News Source: Indian Express News Highlight: How could 62,040,606 Americans get it so wrong? So wailed a tee-shirt slogan last November. The reference, of course, was to the votes garnered by US President George Bush, which gave him a second term. If something does not happen to change attitudes — and very quickly at that — I expect to see another tee-shirt on my next trip to London bearing the slogan: How could 1.6 million Muslims get it so wrong? In the wake of the 7/7 London bombings (and the me-too attempt a week later), everyone expected the Muslim community in Britain to be contrite about all that had happened. Instead, the only Muslim voices hitting the headlines were those calling for more of the same. URL of the news item: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=76460&headline=Muslims~have~failed~to~respond~to~the~challenge Read more

News Source: Reuters News Highlight: Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus. The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights which often leave the animals with gaping wounds and missing limbs. "They tear limbs off each other and despite the fact that they live in this environment with all these microbes, they heal up very rapidly and normally almost always without infection," said U.S. scientist Mark Merchant, who has been taking crocodile blood samples in the Northern Territory. URL of the news item: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&summit=&storyid=2005-08-16T050539Z_01_DIT618322_RTRIDST_0_SCIENC Read more

News Source: Hindustan Times News Highlight: Adopting tough measures to prevent hijacking, the Government has decided to allow shooting down of an hijacked plane in case there is conclusive evidence that it is being used as a missile like the 9/11 terror attack. The anti-hijack policy, cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) earlier this week, rules out negotiations with hijackers on their demands and makes it clear that talks will only be aimed at preventing loss of life or ending the incident, official sources said. The CCS gave its approval to fresh proposals by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the Indian Air Force and other agencies to tighten existing guidelines in view of the September 11 terror attack in the US and Kandahar hijack in December 1999. URL of the news item: http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_1461442,0008.htm Read more

URL Link: http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2005/commentary05081201.htm Highlights: As great as it is to find a company with strong free cash flow, the metric itself really only lets you peer into the operational profitability of a business. What a company does with its free cash flow is just as important as having it in the first place. Companies that simply hoard their cash or spend it aimlessly on acquisitions will likely do more harm than good to your portfolio.   As an investor, you're much better served to look for companies that take their free cash flow and put it toward share repurchases when their shares are below their intrinsic value or, better yet, toward a regular cash dividend. The beauty of being an income investor and receiving a cash dividend is not only that you get a guaranteed tangible return, but that you also have the option to reinvest the money received in more shares of the same business or another opportunity. The point is that you get to decide how the cash is allocated. Source: Fool.com Read more