Delhi's residents who brag about its boulevards can take a reality check. The Economist Intelligence Unit's survey on the level of hardships posed to expatriates ranks Delhi 121st out of 130 cities that featured. The only consolation is Mumbai fared even worse, at 124. The hardship rating was based on factors such as health, environment, safety, accommodation, retail prices and infrastructure. The Pakistani port city of Karachi took a real dive, figuring at the 129th place. London ranked 44th. No US city made it to the top 10 which included Melbourne, Vancouver, Perth, Geneva, Toronto, Vienna, Zurich, Adelaide, Brisbane and Copenhagen.

Oil Over Haldia Waters

IN THE RED: Haldia complex

The Rs 4,700-crore Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) complex has become an "R-sensitive" issue. The flagship project, in which the West Bengal government has a 43 per cent stake, went on stream last year without meeting its capital requirement. The Ambanis of Reliance Industries Limited, keen to take over HPL and monopolise the market, began negotiating with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya soon after his election last year. The move was opposed, among others, by Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, who would rather have HPL run by petro PSUs like GAIL and ONGC. But Bhattacharya had his own priorities. He persuaded Ratan Tata, who was planning to withdraw his small stake in HPL, to desist. Last month the chief minister sent his emissary Manab Mukherjee, it minister, to Mumbai. Mukherjee met Tata to elicit his assurance to augment his shareholding in HPL. He then met the Ambani brothers to explain his Government's position. They parted as friends, with the brothers promising an it education centre in Kolkata named after the late Dhirubhai Ambani. Bhattacharya is unfazed: "We will make sure that HPL functions as a professionally managed company," he says. All's well that ends well.

-Sumit Mitra

Forged Faction

ARRESTED LEAK: George in custody

The Kerala police refrained from arresting Congress MLA Sobhana George on Gandhi Jayanti to spare the ruling party some embarrassment. But it did not help much. The Surya TV forgery case has done irreparable damage to the party. In June Surya TV beamed a letter supposedly from the additional director-general of police (Vigilance) sent to the chief minister's office. It contained a paragraph in which state Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas was linked to a Rs 330 crore hawala scam. Next day the Government declared the document was forged. Surya TV reporter Anil Nambiar, after a month in hibernation, surrendered to the police and confessed that it was George who had given him the document. "These charges are all cooked up to malign me and my leader Karunakaran," alleged George. But former chief minister K. Karunakaran, who heads the anti-Antony camp, did not come to her rescue. "I wouldn't condemn her arrest," was all he said. His son Muralidharan who has now joined Chief Minister A.K. Antony's camp, served George a show-cause notice. Days of Karunakaran's domination of Kerala politics are certainly over.

-M.G. Radhakrishnan

SIGNPOSTS
JOINED: Former foreign secretary J.N. Dixit, the Congress.

AWARDED: The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture and Heritage Conservation, to Jodhpur's Nagaur Fort.

ARRESTED: P.D. Vani, Maharashtra PSC chairman, for accepting bribes to replace answersheets.

RANKED: No. 4 in Fortune's list of 50 most powerful businesswomen in the US, Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo's president.

DIED: Dr N.S. Jain, the Delhi eye surgeon who served 10 years in jail for hiring killers to murder his wife Vidya in the 1970s.

NOMINATED: Najma Heptullah, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman, president for life, of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.