Petrol price cut by Rs 2.42 a litre; diesel by Rs 2.25 per litre

NEW DELHI: Petrol and diesel prices fell again as the rout in the global oil market triggered the tenth cut in fuel rates since August, pleasing consumers including voters in Delhi, who are seeing a high-decibel duel between the BJP's Kiran Bedi and the Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal.

Prices fell ironically at a time when global crude oil prices climbed 15 per cent since Thursday to trade close to $57 per barrel after remaining below $50 for many days. Prices rose as global oil majors such as BP and Chevron have announced cuts in capital expenditure. However, state oil firms align local rates with the average global fuel prices in the past fortnight.

The exchange rate is also a factor in determining the landed oil price in the country that imports about 80 per cent of the oil it consumes.

"International prices of both petrol and diesel have continued to be on a downtrend and the INR-USD exchange rate has appreciated. The combined impact of both these factors warrant a decrease in retail selling prices of both petrol and diesel," the country's top fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement. Petrol prices fell for the tenth time since August, dropping Rs 2.42 to Rs 58.91 per liter in Delhi, while diesel fell by Rs 2.21 to Rs 46.01. Retail prices of auto fuels were last cut on January 17 by the same margin.

The new rates would be effective from Tuesday midnight.

Oil prices have soared since the end of last week, triggering speculation that the fall in crude prices may have ended and this may be the trend of reversal.

Global oil major BP, which partners Reliance Industries in India, said it will cut capital expenditure, which analysts say will help balance the oversupplied oil market in the future.

BP chief executive Bob Dudley, tempered expectations of lower production, however, he said on Tuesday that he expected US oil output to rise until the summer of 2015 when it would flatten, according to a Reuters report. Oil cartel OPEC has refused to cut production despite the steep fall in oil since June.

This is because it expects lower oil prices to make US shale output unaviable. OPEC's strategy would help it retain market share and be in a position to raise prices once US oil output falls.

In the US, companies kept around 100 rigs idle, indicating some success in OPEC's strategy, but some analysts feel the rebound may not be sustained as supplies are still higher than demand.

CREDITS:- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Maria Sharapova nails dignified denial after another Serena Williams rout

It was raining on Maria Sharapova’s parade, as it has done for a decade, and on Melbourne, the scene of her latest public humiliation by Serena Williams. Yet, as she strode past into the wet and windy night, there was an ineluctable nobility about the best Russian tennis player there has ever been. She stared straight ahead, expressionless, dressed from blonde head to quick-stepping toes in black, and ducked her head into the courtesy car to be ferried away from another wretched battlefield to the comfort of her no doubt excellent living quarters. If we had stood in her way, she would have walked straight over the top of us.

This, it is apparent, is her destiny: never to beat Williams again no matter how well she plays, never to experience the joy that flooded over her at Wimbledon in 2004 when, in the final of a major at 17, she allowed the American only five games.

That the story did not pan out like that was not Sharapova’s fault but that Serena was just too damn good, certainly in 17 subsequent matches, the most recent delivering her a 19th major, 14 more than Sharapova’s admirable tally and only three fewer than Steffi Graf’s record accumulation of 22, which is there for the taking.

As Sharapova was whisked away, Williams was ready to party. She and Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach and partner, content together again after a rough 2014, could reflect on a perfect start to 2015. She might even do a calendar slam, if she is fit.

How the combatants saw their fight, another close but predictable victory for Williams, offered more affirmation of the facts than any surprises. Sharapova said: “No matter how you played, well or not, whatever the scoreline is, it’s always tough. But it will be all right.”

There is probably a clever psychological term for that but, in simple terms, it hurtles on from denial towards acceptance of the inevitable. In practical tennis-speak, Sharapova nailed it, though. She was, after all, aced 18 times in an hour and 51 minutes, the last of them the final shot of the contest after another that had been ruled a let.

“One of her biggest strengths is her serve. Maybe it’s something that has saved her in many matches. When the game was on her serve [with the score] 30-all, 40-30 or 15-30 a few times, she came up with really great serves.”

Game, set, match. And it just keeps happening. Perhaps that is Sharapova’s real victory: stoic if processed acceptance of defeat after giving her best – which is always second best against Williams. She can’t do any better than that. As for this serial losing, like a dose of repetitive strain syndrome, it is impossible not to respect her attitude.

“Yes, I haven’t won against her many times but, if I’m getting to the stage of competing against someone like Serena, I’m doing something well. I’m setting up a chance to try to beat her and it hasn’t happened. I’m not just going to go home without giving it another chance. That’s just not who I am and not who I was raised to be. I’m a competitor. I love playing against the best and, at the moment, she is.”

At the moment? At this moment, and all the other moments, past and those to come in the most lopsided rivalry in the history of women’s tennis. For Williams, victory against a player with whom she shares reciprocal, now muted loathing of Olympic proportions (rooted in their relationship with Grigor Dimitrov, once with her, now with Sharapova), her 6-3, 7-6 victory could not have been sweeter. She beat her biggest enemy and a running fever that threatened to halt her progress at any time over the past fortnight.

“Definitely I was not feeling great,” she said, confirming she was retching in the players’ tunnel during a 13-minute rain break in the first set. “I’ve never done that before. I guess there’s a first time for anything. In a way that just helped me. I felt better after that. My chest was really stuck at that point.”

CREDITS:- http://www.theguardian.com