It was a day of records with the Sensex touching its second highest close since March 25, at 838 points up, the rupee touching a 10-week high against the dollar, and oil and gold tumbling by $3 and Rs 510 respectively.

Oil and gold move in tandem while crude prices and the rupee move in inverse proportion and this was witnessed on Wednesday across the markets. The rally added over Rs 2,50,000 crore to investors’ wealth according to one calculation, and since the Left withdrew its support the investors have recouped close to one-fifth of their total loss of close to Rs 30,00,000 since January 10, when the Sensex had peaked at over 21,000 points. The euphoria of the UPA winning the trust vote and announcing that it will go ahead with reforms and the India-US civil nuclear treaty boosted the Sensex to jump over 600 points on opening on Wednesday. L&T which can be one of the biggest beneficiaries when the nuclear deals will happen, was up by Rs 194.

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Did the Congress bend the two BJP parliamentarians from Gujarat, one of whom cross-voted in favour of the UPA government during the trust vote on Tuesday, while the other abstained?

While Somabhai Patel from the Surendranagar seat voted for the UPA, Babubhai Katara from Dahod abstained from the trust vote. Both were expelled from the party on Wednesday for anti- party activities. Till now, they were under suspension on different grounds.

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Union ministry writes to state to encourage local bodies work on Public-Private Partnership model

The Gujarat government, which eulogises its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) ability, does not have a single of its municipal corporations or urban local bodies to have proposed a PPP project from their city for Urban Infrastructure Governance (UIG).

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