The Ford Story 2.0 Web Site Launches

Ford created TheFordStory.com Web site in December to help show the public that the company is different – Ford has a plan centered around great new products that deliver on fuel economy, quality, safety and smart technologies.

Now the company is introducing “version 2.0” of this social media Web site. Highlights of the updated site include:

· Daily updates of fresh content, showing the progress on Ford Motor Company's plan. A particular emphasis will be on fuel economy and quality, as Ford tries to make the reality of where we stand competitively match the perception the public has today.

· An Outside Voices area, providing visitors the ability to not only see what Ford is saying about itself, but also what consumers and the news media are saying about the company directly.

· Easier ability to share individual articles and videos, allowing visitors to spread Ford's story and progress to others.

· Connection with other external social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr – and it now can be browsed on iPhones.

3G auction may fetch only Rs 20,000 cr

The Finance Ministry has sharply scaled down the estimated income from auctioning 3G spectrum. The Budget estimate for the year 2009-10 pegs revenues from the auction, expected to be held later this year, at Rs 20,000 crore only.

The total income from collecting telecom licence fees, entry fees and spectrum charges from the operators for the year 2009-10 is estimated at Rs 33,335 crore compared with the revised estimate of Rs 13,174 crore during 2008-09.

USO fund
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While the Universal Services Obligation fund has collected nearly Rs 20,000 crore for rolling out telecom services in rural areas, the Finance Ministry has allocated only Rs 1,800 crore for 2009-10.

Rs 100-cr tax concessions in TN budget

The Tamil Nadu budget, presented by the State Finance Minister, Mr K. Anbazhagan, on Tuesday, shows a deficit of Rs 11,823.64 crore, chiefly on the back of tax concessions worth Rs 100 crore and interest-free crop loans to be given to farmers wh o repaid their loans on time from this fiscal.

Land tax for dry land would be reduced to Rs 2 from the present Rs 15 a acre, and to Rs 5 from Rs 50 for wet land.

Pakistan army vows to hold fire in Swat

Pakistan's military on Tuesday vowed to hold fire and respect a controversial agreement signed between the government and militants to enforce Islamic law in the violence-torn Swat valley.