What are they: High performance Italian sports cars, known for their looks, power and price

Why is it in news: Lamborghini has launched its three latest cars-Gallardo, Spyder and Murcielago-in India. They cost Rs 1.65 crore, Rs 1.8 crore and Rs 3 crore, respectively

How many cars does it plan to sell in India: It has set itself a modest target of selling 10 cars this year. "We have already sold two cars and received booking orders for four others," says Stephen Winklemann, President and CEO, Automobili Lamborghini

What's their USP: These cars, with engine displacements of 4,000-6,000 cc, do not roll of conventional assembly lines. Rather, every component is put together manually by expert workers. That's why the company makes only about 2,000 cars a year; potential buyers also have to wait six months to a year before they can take delivery of new cars

What are its future plans: The company, which has only one dealer in Delhi-Exclusive Motors-plans to add another dealer in Mumbai in the next six months. "The streets are not in the best of condition and our cars are very low," says Winklemann, a little apologetically, explaining the low target

-Amit Mukherjee

DoT Plays Big Brother

What are they: They are web logs, popularly called blogs

Why are they in the news: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to Blogspot (owned by Google), Wordpress, Typepad and 17 other popular blogging domains, because some bureaucrat believed that blogs were spreading misinformation in the aftermath of the terror attack in Mumbai

The reaction: The Indian blogging community went up in arms, terming the decision a brutal attack on democracy

And...: CNN and BBC flashed this news all over the world, indirectly equating India with countries like China and Saudi Arabia

Now what: DoT clarified that it had asked ISPs to block only a few websites which had posted derogatory remarks about Islam, but that a technical error led to ISPs blocking all the blogging sites. Access to all but 20 specific sites had been restored at the time of going to press

-Kushan Mitra

ECONOMY WATCH

CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

Status: Up 96.48 per cent to $10.61 billion (Rs 48,806 crore) as on March 31, 2006*.

Impact: A rising current account deficit weakens the domestic currency as imports overshoot exports.
*Latest figure available.

MONSOONS

Status: 14 per cent deficient between June 1 and July 18, but it now covers almost the whole of India.

Impact: NCAER has revised its forecast for agricultural growth for the year from 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. "Rural consumption will be subdued this year," says Gaurav Vats, Senior Research Analyst, Agriwatch. "Foodgrain production, mainly rice and pulses will also be impacted," he adds.

-Compiled by Anand Adhikari and Pallavi Srivastava

P-WATCH
A bird's eye view of what's hot and what's not on the government's policy radar.

A FIX FOR SPIRALLING LAND PRICES?

Squatters, beware! Well, not really. The Central government is attempting to draft a legislation that makes it mandatory for those buying into 'urbanisable' land to start construction within a fixed time frame from the point of purchase. Else, the government will be within its rights to buy it. While this measure is aimed at evicting squatters (and speculators and arbitrageurs) who drive up land prices, the legislation will quite simply be a non-starter. Why? Because land is a state subject. Unless, of course, the states adopt it. A regulator is also envisaged under the legislation, The Real Estate (Regulation and Control of Activities) Act (when the bill is enacted). The regulator will redress the grievances of both the allottees and the developers.

Once enacted, the Act will come into force in Delhi (where land issues are administered by the Centre) beside Union Territories. Hopefully, the states will adopt it before the land mafia makes it any worse for city dwellers.

-Amit Mukherjee

BIG BROTHER HAS TO SAY YES

Only the paranoid survive, said former Intel chief Andy Grove, a few years ago. He surely didn't suggest this prescription for governments. Unfortunately, the Indian government is planning to adopt this mantra. In a proposed move, the government plans to license out the business of manufacture and purchase of broadcast equipment. According to media reports, this move comes at the behest of security agencies. The hounds fear that the country's interests will be undermined if unfettered business is conducted in this domain.

-Aman Malik

SUGAR EXPORT BAN SET TO GO

India's sugar policy is set to come a full circle with the government planning to ease the ban on export of sugar. It had earlier said the ban would be in force till April 2007, largely to keep domestic prices in check; sugar, after all, is a commodity that can make or break electoral fortunes.

Even at the time of the ban the government could have managed price escalations in certain markets by moving stocks internally rather than by banning exports.

Now, with the country expecting a record output of 22 million tonne of sugar in the crushing season starting October, the ban will go. Will domestic prices increase again?

-Aman Malik

TRADE (DEAL) SURPLUS?

The last fortnight has seen two big-ticket regional trade deals involving India gaining momentum. First, Argentina submitted a proposal for a three-way free trade agreement with a host of Latin American and African countries. This was followed up by a deal from the 25-member European Union (EU).

While the commerce ministry is immersed in assessing the impact of these deals, the global trade deal under the WTO, appears to have been put on the backburner.

-Amit Mukherjee

Critical link: Power supplies

RUPEE POWER

Domestic lending agencies like SBI, IDBI, ICICI have decided to fund ultra-mega power projects in rupee denomination, preferring it over foreign currencies. The reason is not hard to comprehend-lenders funding seven out of every ten rupees in a project, foreign exchange risk can jeopardise the viability of the project. In the unlikelihood that all the six projects, aggregating 24,000 MW take off, the rupee exposure would be a staggering Rs 75,600 crore.

-Balaji Chandramouli