Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - THREE HUNDRED Twenty FIVE
Palash Biswas
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CIL selloff may fetch Rs 10K crore for government
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NEW DELHI: The government is likely to raise about Rs 10,000 crore from the proposed divestment of its 11 per cent stake in Coal India.
"The coal ministry and Coal India have had series of meetings with the department of disinvestment till date. The DoD expects the stake sale to generate around Rs 10,000 crore for the government," a person in the know of the development said.
The government at present holds 100 per cent equity in the country's largest coal producer. It is planning to sell 10 per cent of its stake through an initial public offering which may happen in July-August. In addition, it will be offering 1 per cent of its share to the employees of CIL and its subsidiaries which comprise about 4.16 lakh.
When contacted, CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya declined to comment on the amount the Centre may raise from IPO, but said the IPO is on a fast track. "We might hit the capital markets by the end of July," he said.
A draft proposal for government approval for selloff may reach the Cabinet by April end. Bhattacharyya, however, did not comment on it.
In the wake of the poor response to an auction-based route for selling its shares in two power firms NTPC, REC and NMDC, the government is likely to go for the book-building process which would offer a price band to investors to buy shares of the coal major, while CIL employees may get a 5 per cent discount on the issue price.
"The SEBI had recently given special dispensation to Coal India by which it would be able to offer shares to employees of its subsidiaries as well," Bhattacharyya added.
The government is likely to sell its 63.13 crore shares in the IPO, while the company's employees could be offered an additional 6.31 shares.
The CIL disinvestment would be part of the government effort to raise about Rs 40,000 crore through stake sale in 2010-11.
The country's largest coal producer with 80 per cent market share last week paid a dividend of Rs 2,210 crore to the government for 2009-10.
"After our proposed listing, the reward of shares will spread to many investors. We want to share our prosperity with our shareholders. Today we have only one shareholder--the government and going forward we would have many," said Bhattacharyya.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/CIL-selloff-may-fetch-Rs-10K-crore-for-government/articleshow/5734450.cms"The coal ministry and Coal India have had series of meetings with the department of disinvestment till date. The DoD expects the stake sale to generate around Rs 10,000 crore for the government," a person in the know of the development said.
The government at present holds 100 per cent equity in the country's largest coal producer. It is planning to sell 10 per cent of its stake through an initial public offering which may happen in July-August. In addition, it will be offering 1 per cent of its share to the employees of CIL and its subsidiaries which comprise about 4.16 lakh.
When contacted, CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya declined to comment on the amount the Centre may raise from IPO, but said the IPO is on a fast track. "We might hit the capital markets by the end of July," he said.
A draft proposal for government approval for selloff may reach the Cabinet by April end. Bhattacharyya, however, did not comment on it.
In the wake of the poor response to an auction-based route for selling its shares in two power firms NTPC, REC and NMDC, the government is likely to go for the book-building process which would offer a price band to investors to buy shares of the coal major, while CIL employees may get a 5 per cent discount on the issue price.
"The SEBI had recently given special dispensation to Coal India by which it would be able to offer shares to employees of its subsidiaries as well," Bhattacharyya added.
The government is likely to sell its 63.13 crore shares in the IPO, while the company's employees could be offered an additional 6.31 shares.
The CIL disinvestment would be part of the government effort to raise about Rs 40,000 crore through stake sale in 2010-11.
The country's largest coal producer with 80 per cent market share last week paid a dividend of Rs 2,210 crore to the government for 2009-10.
"After our proposed listing, the reward of shares will spread to many investors. We want to share our prosperity with our shareholders. Today we have only one shareholder--the government and going forward we would have many," said Bhattacharyya.
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Fiscal consolidation to be the top agenda on Budget: Deven Choksey
Deven Choksey, MD, K R Choksey Securities, in a chat with ET Now talks about the Budget.
Is the Budget going to be a more aam driven or you are going to expect more for corporate India?
I think my reading is very-very clear. They have very clearly laid down the agenda. They have got nothing more to ahead on to that. Agenda No.1 fiscal consolidation by way of allowing the growth in the economy in to happen and in turn collect more amount of revenue and in turn bring down all those subsidies and bring up the kind of a collection through divestment or 3G auctions etc.
So that is a fiscal consolidation part. The second part is definitely I think rollout of GST & DTC . I think that is something which is going to be look forward to very-very clearly and the third important aspect what we are going to be seeing is the gradual withdrawal of stimulus in turn allowing the growth to continue. Larger emphasis could be here in the growth on the social infrastructure side. So I think these are the three key agendas we probably look at from the finance minister tomorrow.
Sanctioned by two regimes - Stephen Court's floors termed 'illegal' by govt were given official clearance twice Approval in 1975, renewal in 1983 | ||
| SAMBIT SAHA AND DEEPANKAR GANGULY | ||
Calcutta, March 28: Stephen Court's additional floors, dubbed "illegal" by the chief minister in the Assembly, were sanctioned in 1975 and the permission was renewed in 1983, documents accessed by The Telegraph show. The sanction and the renewal occurred when the Calcutta corporation was under administrators appointed by two state governments, one headed by the Congress and the other by the Left. The additional floors were among those that caught fire on Tuesday. At least 34 people were killed in the blaze.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said in the Assembly on Thursday: "How were the two new floors added to the building? They were totally illegal. Who broke the law?" It is difficult to conclude whether the law was broken when the two floors were added. If the norms in vogue before 1984 — when the Corporation of Calcutta became the Calcutta Municipal Corporation — are taken into account, the government will find it hard to penalise Stephen Court on the specific ground of illegal addition. But had Stephen Court waited for another year, it would have had to approach fire officials before the sanction was renewed. It is also an open question whether the rules that had changed by then would have allowed the additions without any modification. However, it is easier to answer the chief minister's first question: "How were the two new floors added?" The documents — copies of building plans approved by the corporation — with The Telegraph show that Stephen Court had the sanction to add not two but three floors (fifth, sixth, seventh and a roof) to five floors. The Telegraph has tried its best to verify the authenticity of the documents; corporation sources did confirm that the contents tallied with the information they had collated. The sanction was given on March 31, 1975 (see parts of the documents on the left). The sanction did not limit the options available to the developer — whether it would erect a new building, or alter or add to the existing building — which can be interpreted as a carte blanche. In 1972, the Siddhartha Shankar Ray government had superseded the corporation board. An administrator to run the civic affairs was appointed by the then municipal affairs ministry, which was headed by Subrata Mukherjee. Asked about the sanction, Mukherjee said today: "In 1975, I was the municipal affairs minister and P. Samaddar was the administrator. In those days, unlike today's centralised administration, Writers' Buildings or the ruling party never interfered in the matters of the corporation. If anything was sanctioned at that time, it should have come to my notice as the minister of municipal affairs. But I must say that the vertical escalation of the building (Stephen Court) was done much before 1975." However, three residents of Stephen Court since the 1960s — Debkishore Dutta, Rajeev Butta and Manu Lilaram — said the fifth and the sixth floors were added in 1984. The sanctioned seventh floor was never built. The sanction of 1975 was valid for five years till 1980. In 1983, the sanction was renewed for another five years with retrospective effect from 1980 by another administrator, who reported to the then municipal affairs ministry headed by the late CPM leader, Prasanta Sur. Subsequently, the addition and alteration to Stephen Court was regularised. Gorachand Mondol, the official who renewed the validity in 1983 as deputy city architect, said the sanction was in line with the rules prevalent then. "Yes, I did sign. According to the then Calcutta Corporation Act, the maximum allowable height for a building used to be 2.5 times the width of the road in front of the premises," Mondol, now director-general of buildings, said today. Going by Mondol's statement, Stephen Court could have risen up to 150 feet as Park Street is considered 60ft wide by CMC officials. Fire officials put the current height of Stephen Court around 120 feet. This probably explains why the corporation allowed a seventh floor – under the rules being cited by Mondol the building could have gone up by another 30 feet. What would have happened if Stephen Court had waited for one more year? In 1984, Calcutta corporation formally became a municipal corporation and the building rules changed. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act introduced concepts such as floor-area ratio and mandatory open space. It also imposed conditions for height above 47.5 feet (14.5 metres). For construction above 47.5 feet, approval was needed from the fire department, police and the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority. The clearance in 1983 meant the corporation could renew the sanction without making such conditions mandatory. | ||
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My Friends countrywide seem to be very Enthusiastic as the Budget Burning Event was Celebrated with larger Involvement of the Masses everywhere. Colonel Siddharh, Professor Kharat and others continued to report on . I got feedback from New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Banaras, Nagpur, Phagwara, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Since Electronic as well as Print Media balcked out the Movement, I have not the Reporting support until our friends write themselves the Report. Unfortunately Mulnivasi nayak is also not Updated since 27th, I may not present the actual Picture. However, the paper has published everything in detail!
25 Vidarbha farmers committed suicide in a week: activist!Vidarbha wants Rs 30,000 crore from Mukherjee's Budget kitty!
Death Chambers in the Envelop of OIL Fire in Uraban Subhuman Civilisation Post Modern!he death toll from a blaze in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata last week jumped to 43 on Monday after rescuers found new bodies among the charred debris, an official said. More than 200 firefighters battled for eight hours last Tuesday when a fire broke out in a seven-storey colonial-era block on one of Kolkata's most exclusive streets.Many people fell or jumped to their death, captured in horrifying. About a week after the killer fire at Kolkata's iconic Stephen Court, the West Bengal government on Monday formed an 11-member probe panel to look into all aspects of the tragedy and fix.
1800 paramilitary personnel rushed to Hyderabad!While,The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday asked the government to explain if India was planning to talk to the Taliban, as suggested by some media reports, and warned against any compromise with anti-India elements.Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Monday staged a protest here against the Supreme Court for citing the example of the relationship of Hindu god Lord Krishna with his consort Radha to corroborate its judgment on live-in relationships
Development should not violate rights of locals: Sachar
Government to borrow $64 bn in first half of 2010-11.
Govt approves FDIs worth over Rs 2,300 cr.
Now Globalisation of Indian Knowledge Economy is all set to be launched as CBSE to go global this week!In an ambitious plan to go global, India''s premier education board CBSE has decided to set up CBSE International (CBSEI) which would offer a new curriculum and also affiliate schools from foreign countries. The CBSEI will be launched on Thursday when the board would affiliate 25 schools from Gulf countries, where there is a large concentration of Indian population. These 25 schools, already affiliated to CBSE, will be re-affiliated to the new global wing, CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi said, adding that the CBSEI will not only focus on Indian diaspora but also attract students from those countries. "The new curriculum is of international standards and will give a global view to students.It is expected to attract students from the foreign countries to opt CBSEI as an alternative to the international boards like International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) affiliated to the University of Cambridge or Geneva-based International Baccalaureate," Joshi said. The new curriculum will be introduced in Class-I and Class-IX and will be introduced in other classes over a period of three years.
Nine more bodies were found today during clearing of debris almost a week after a fire devastated the two top floors of Stephen Court building on Park Street, taking the toll to 43. Two charred bodies were found in the early hours, followed by seven later in the day from the fifth floor where a stench continued to prevail, Additional Director General (Fire Service), Debapriya Biswas told PTI. Joint Commissioner of Police (Hqs), Jawed Shamim said, "The search operation is continuing and the bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination.
On the other hand,Worried over the communal clashes in Hyderabad, the Centre has rushed 1800 paramilitary personnel to the trouble-hit city to help local police to restore peace. About 400 Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have already reached the Andhra Pradesh capital while 400 more RAF personnel are being airlifted from Ahmedabad and Coimbatore.
" An 11-member inquiry committee, headed by former chief secretary S N Roy, was constituted by the West Bengal government today to probe the fire which broke out on March 23 in the 6-storey building. It would submit its report in three months.
Though the Commissioner of Kolkata Police Gautam Mohan Chakraborty had earlier said that FIRs were filed for 37 missing persons, the recovery of 43 bodies added to the confusion over establishing identity. At the state-run SSKM hospital morgue four bodies were identified during the day.
Pankaj Ghosh, the father of 21-year-old Pritish Ghosh who worked in a call centre at the building identified his only son''s body from the ID card and mobile phone on the body. On the day of the fire he had telephoned home to shriek, ''I can''t stand it anymore'', before his mobile phone went dead, his father said.
Meanwhile,as many as 25 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the past one week in the agrarian crisis-hit Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, an activist said Monday.
'While six farmers ended their lives in the past 48 hours (since Saturday), another 19 ended their lives during the past week,' Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari told IANS.
In fact, five farmers committed suicide on the eve of the state budget last week, he said.
In the state budget, the state government had said that nearly two-thirds of its annual revenues go into salaries, pension and interest on the state's debt burden which is slated to cross Rs.2.10 lakh crore by next year, he added.
'Accordingly, there was nothing by way of providing direct or indirect relief to the three million farmers reeling under drought in over 15,000 villages in the region, who were expecting some major policy measures from the budget. This is triggering the suicides,' Tiwari contended.
He also attributed the suicides to the 'wrong policies' of the state government, such as promoting the cultivation of rain sensitive Bt. Cotton in dry areas of the state which has caused more than 95 percent crop failure, leading to huge losses for the farmers.
'We have been demanding a ban on Bt. Cotton in the dry areas since 2004 but it is being ignored by the authorities concerned. The result is there for all to see,' he said.
In the past six years, over 7,300 farmers have ended their lives in Maharashtra, Tiwari said, citing official central government figures, of which a majority were in Vidarbha and Marathwada, the dry regions of the state.
This year, the drought conditions have led to severe crop failures across the state and over 20,000 villages, including around 15,000 in Vidarbha, have been officially declared as 'scarcity-hit' by the state government.
'Since the Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is busy in controversies with Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, the VJAS has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and take urgent steps to prevent the farmers' genocide in this region,' Tiwari said.
The Vidarbha region in east Maharashtra comprises the 11 districts of Nagpur, Chandrapur, Gondiya, Bhandara, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Amravati, Yavatmal, Buldana, Akola and Washim, with a total population of over 30 million.
Vidarbha wants Rs 30,000 crore from Mukherjee's Budget kitty
Farmers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region are hoping for a Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) development package in Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's budget, only two days away.
According to the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), in view of the neglect faced by the region since independence, it was high time the central government looks at Vidarbha seriously and announces a hefty development package.
"The Maharashtra government has spent over Rs.3,000 crore towards the irrigation backlog in the past three years, but it has failed to yield any benefit to the region," VJAS president Kishor Tiwari said.
He demanded a Rs.30,000 crore package, which would take care of the huge backlog for the region, help sustainable irrigation projects, take care of drinking water needs and other infrastructure development in the region.
Since 2006, the state government has announced two separate packages worth Rs 5,825 crore. This was followed up by a loan waiver from the central government of Rs 4,600 crore and from the state Rs.1,100 crore (the figure for this region) in 2009.
"Yet, suicides have not stopped, the region continues to be backward and the sentiments are strongly in favour of a separate state of Vidarbha," Tiwari pointed out.
According to official figures, almost 50,000 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra, of which a majority fall in the Vidarbha region.
"Despite such a large number of deaths, the state has not announced any concrete welfare measures for the farm widows, for the education of their children, employment opportunities and marriage of the girls," Tiwari said.
He urged the finance minister to display his generosity in the next budget by making a substantial allocation for the Vidarbha region.
Development should not violate rights of locals: Sachar
Noting that industrial development should not bypass masses, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar today said government should ensure that people''s livelihoods were not snatched away and human rights not violated while pursuing development projects. Referring to the land acquisitions in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal and elsewhere leading to mass agitation, Sachar said development should benefit the local people and leaving them out of the loop is in a way violating their rights.
"A mere six per cent people get benefit of the water released from Narmada Dam. The government itself admits that only 20 per cent of the NREGA has been properly implemented.
If the local people are not benefiting by any project, then what is the point?" Sachar said. "Agencies like Church of England and Amnesty have withdrawn their support from Vendanta and Posco as they violating human rights in Orrisa," he said.
Referring to the situation in some villages in UP, he said the nexus between the administration and local mafia is most worrying and creates an environment of indiscipline and fear. "The situation in these villages are barbaric.
People are arrested on false charges of being Maoist sympathiser, illegal mining is rampant and goons loot people, shot them," Sachar added. Expressing concern over the fact that over 5 crore adivasis have been displaced in India for various reasons, Sachar said the local people have the basic rights over the natural resources of the area.
"Gangster Act was imposed on innocent people only because they protested illegal mining and fish auctioning," Imtiaz Ahmad, a social scientist said. Highlighting the plight of the villagers of Kaushambi district that speaks of the "anti-poor" stance of Mayawati government, they demanded Gangster Act be withdrawn from those arrested besides restoring law and order.
First Parliamentary meeting should not be considered as first session, says Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale, saying the first meeting of Parliament each year could not be necessarily considered as its first session.
Athawale had challenged Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to treat the first meeting of the House in January 2004 as the continuation of the winter session, which was adjourned sine die on December 23, 2003.
The RPI leader in his petition had challenged that despite the winter session being adjourned, it could not be termed as continuation when it met again in the New Year in the month of January.
He had contended that the meeting of the House for the first time in each year has to be considered as the first sitting of Parliament requiring the address by the President to both the Houses.
The government had then opposing the petition contended that there was no substance in it as the Speaker had then itself decided the issue by citing case laws. (ANI)
Government to borrow $64 bn in first half of 2010-11
The government will borrow $64 billion (Rs.2.87 trillion) in the first half of the 2010-11 financial year, which will be 63 percent of the full-year borrowing, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said Monday.
'The government plans to borrow 4.57 trillion rupees ($101 billion) in 2010/11 which is 1.3 percent over the previous year,' Chawla said after meeting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials.
RBI Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath said the central bank would look at making the government's borrowing more even.
'On an average, Rs.11,000-15,000 crore of issuance would come to the market every week,' she said after the meeting held to finalise the schedule for the first-half borrowing.
The government's borrowing during next fiscal is to rise an annual 1.3 percent to Rs.4.57 trillion to fund a fiscal deficit which is projected at 5.5 percent of the (gross domestic product).
Govt approves FDIs worth over Rs 2,300 cr
The government approved 23 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals worth over Rs 2,325.21 crore, including that of broadband services provider Tikona Digital Network and auto components maker Bharat Forge.
"The Union Government has approved 23 FDI proposals amounting to approximately Rs 2,325.21 crore," an official statement said.
The highest FDI of Rs 1,142.21 crore is likely to come into Tikona Digital Network from convertible debenture and share sale, followed Kalyani group company Bharat Forge's proposal to raise Rs 576 crore by issuing warrants to overseas investors and medical device maker Opto Circuits' Rs 376.27-crore proposal.
Also, the government has deferred eight proposals, including Essar Capital Holding, Verizon Communications and Etisalat DB Telecom, besides rejecting six FDI proposals. However, Star India Holding has withdrawn its Rs 324.59-crore proposal, the statement said.
Road work begins in Orissa industrial hub opposed by tribals
Four years after 14 protesters were killed in police firing in Kalinga Nagar in Orissa's Jajpur district, the authorities Monday started construction for a common corridor road in an industrial area opposed by local tribals.
About 25 platoons of police forces were deployed as the district administration started construction in Kalinga Nagar industrial area.
'We have started construction work for the common corridor road that is needed for the industry. Many people die in accidents there every year. The road will reduce congestion and minimize accidents,' district Superintendent of Police D.S. Kutte said.
The administration Sunday met the tribals, who were represented by Bisthapan Virodhi Jana Manch (BVJM), to solve the issue of their displacement.
'We are not using force. The discussions are going on, so are the construction works. But anybody found resorting to violence will not be spared. We will certainly take action,' Kutte added.
The 12,000-acre Kalinga Nagar complex, about 100 km away from Bhubaneswar, has about 10 industrial units and steel plants. The BVJM is opposing the construction of common corridor road, considered the lifeline of the Kalinga Nagar industrial hub.
In January 2006, 14 people were killed in Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district when police opened fire during a protest by villagers against acquisition of land for industry.
'Only 25 percent properties in Delhi pay tax'
Only 25 percent of the properties in the national capital are paying property tax, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) told the Central Information Commission (CIC), which has termed the revelation 'startling'.
The revelation was made during a hearing of an appeal filed by an RTI applicant, Naved Ahmed, who sought information regarding property tax of a particular property in Okhla village.
Municipalities levy tax on properties within their jurisdiction on the basis of their value. It is a major source of income for the civic agency.
'The respondent (MCD) states that until 2004, the property tax department used to send bills to the owners of property.... After 2004, when self-assessment scheme was implemented, the MCD has not been able to clearly identify which properties have paid property tax,' noted information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi in his order dated March 25.
'The respondent admits that whereas there are about 40 lakh (four million) properties in Delhi, only about nine lakh pay property tax. This is indeed a startling revelation and if the city taxes less than 25 percent of properties it is a very sad comment on the way it is being administered,' he added.
Hospitals or deathtraps? - Hyderabad - City - The Times of India
4 Feb 2010 ... If the management of Park Healthcare Hospital flouted norms by constructing an additional floor illegally, so have many other hospitals in ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com › City › Hyderabad - CachedManhole, drain turn death traps for kids - Delhi - City - The ...
Callousness of civic authorities, who feel the arm of the law can't reach them, has once again claimed the lives of two children in the city.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/...death-traps-for.../4543980.cms - CachedGurgaon–Delhi Expressway A Death-Trap of Anonymity - Indian Road ...
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North India must upgrade education to meet job market demands: CII
States in north India must focus on developing educational standards so that their working-age population can meet emerging demands in the job market, says a study by industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
'Currently the region trails the western and southern regions of the country significantly, with an overall literacy rate of 60 percent as against 69 percent and 71 percent in the South and the West. Therefore, the education and skill infrastructure in the region needs to be upgraded,' says the study done with professional services provider KPMG.
North India needs to upgrade its education system, not only by building capacity but also making qualitative changes in teaching methods, the report says, adding that the system needs to ensure access, equity and inclusive education for all.
Demographic data compiled by the study suggests that there would be nearly 106 million people in the age group of 15-24 years in north India by 2016.
'This implies that about 33.4 million students are likely to enter the higher and vocational education in north India. This will require about USD 84 billion to meet demand-supply challenges in skill and education sectors of the region.'
The number of industrial training institutes (ITIs) per 100 sq km is 1.7 in the north compared to 4.7 in the south.
North India also has lesser number of medical colleges compared to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat. These states account for 63 percent of total medical colleges and 67 percent of the number of seats in the country.
'For the northern region to be at the forefront of India's development, it has to ensure access to education and opportunities for skill development. The north, which is estimated to account for 50 per cent of the population increase between 2001 and 2026, should build itself into a knowledge economy,' Harpal Singh, chairman CII Northern Region, said here.
Industrial and environmental experts have suggested that while the north builds up more infrastructure for the future, the need for having a balance between the 'built environment' and the 'natural environment' needs to be kept in mind to sustain it as a green territory.
'Blue Economy is the next step in sustainability and talks about development through technology and innovation from the natural resources available. For example, development of newer natural based materials for industrial use,' said Singh.
The Blue economy idea has been championed by Gunter Pauli, founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI). Its business models rely on a new generation of entrepreneurs who do not pursue a business strategy based on core competence but who meet the basic needs of a multi-faceted and diverse society with what is available.
'Contributing 27.1 per cent of India's energy demand, the (north) region is responsible for about 26 per cent of overall emission from the power sector. The region's water resources are also under severe constraint. Therefore, north India must look at the sustainability principle of Pauli and try to adopt some of the processes, which are already being implemented globally,' said Singh.
The report, 'Tomorrow's North: Green & Educated', will be released at the CII's annual regional meeting in New Delhi Tuesday.
Budget risks disappointing on fiscal discipline
MUMBAI: Anything less than a strong show of deficit-slashing intent in the budget, to be unveiled on Feb. 26, is likely to disappoint investors.
With its economy booming anew, India is well-positioned to wean itself from aggressive deficit spending that risks driving up funding costs, crowding out private borrowing and scaring away overseas investment desperately needed to fund infrastructure.
"If you can't do fiscal consolidation when the economy is strong, when can you do it? This is the time to do it," Stephen Roach, Asia chairman of Morgan Stanley, said recently in Mumbai.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is widely expected to initiate a gradual pull-back of stimulus measures when he unveils the budget for the next financial year on Feb 26, but will stop short of curtailing spending or borrowing.
Instead, Mukherjee will hope accelerating growth, improved tax receipts and the sale of government assets provide enough new revenue to avoid unpopular spending cuts and yet allow him to lower a deficit poised to hit 6.8 percent of GDP this year, which would be a 16-year high.
Inflation approaching double-digits, meanwhile, is expected to prompt the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates by late April, bringing up borrowing costs and adding pressure to cut the deficit.
New Delhi is on track to borrow a record 4.51 trillion rupees ($98 billion) in the current fiscal year, and market expectations are for higher borrowing in the new year, with a Reuters poll forecasting a 2.2 percent pickup.
India has set a target of cutting its fiscal deficit to 5.5 percent of GDP in the new fiscal year, with analysts polled by Reuters forecasting 5.6 percent. Including state-level shortfalls, the total is now roughly 10 percent.
That is by far the highest among the BRIC group of emerging economic powers. China's fiscal deficit is forecast this year to be 2 percent of GDP, while Brazil's will be 1.1 percent and Russia's 3.2 percent, International Monetary Fund data show.
Missing the deficit target or borrowing more than investors expect would send bond yields higher and convey a negative message to markets choking on government debt.
"The key for this budget is...fiscal deficit and I would say it's not just the next year's target, but the road map going ahead," said A. Prasanna, economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership in Mumbai.
"If the government can have a credible plan and they can communicate it, I think that will be the best thing for financial markets," he said.
BINGE BORROWER
Asia's third-largest economy is forecast to grow at about 7.5 percent in the fiscal year that ends March 31 and accelerate in the year through March 2011.
Still, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is reluctant to make drastic cuts in support measures when recovery remains uneven, with stimulus accounting for much of the recent rebound. A still-cloudy global outlook adds to the caution.
Politics also constrains the government from making tough choices that would alienate a Congress party voter base that is predominantly rural and poor.
For example, the government is expected only to partially adopt, at most, recent recommendations by a committee to introduce market pricing for gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel.
MarketS Vasudevan's view on NHAI's new bid norms
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/pre-budget/Budget-risks-disappointing-on-fiscal-discipline/articleshow/5606737.cms
Rupee at near 19-month high on dollar moves 29 Mar 2010, 1814 hrs IST, REUTERS
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Expectations have started building up for the Budget: Angel Broking
A day before the Budget, how are you feeling?
There is a little bit of expectation because however many number of times that we say that we do not expect much from this Budget or we are entering with less expectations but as the D-day arise, expectations have built up.
looking at some of the aspects of the Railway Budget yesterday, although we would have liked more clarity on the same and what is going on in general like a slight revision in the fertiliser prices and things like that and 3G auctions timeline coming up, that expectations have started building up for the Budget.
IVRCL bags infrastructure work for Rs 867.57 cr
Indian Express
IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Limited (IVRCL) Water Division bagged orders worth Rs 867.57 crores for various infrastructure works.
An IVRCL release said that all works (including canal systems and building) water extension, renovation and modernisation (E R M) of Eastern Kosi Canal system including setting basin, repairing and construction of building," awarded by Water Resources Department, Birpur, Bihar.
The work will be completed by March 31 2012, they said.
"Hogenakkal water supply and Fluorosis Mitigation project-package I, intake works, raw water pumping station, treatment plant, treated water pumping station, booster pumping station, pumping mains, MADAM master balancing reservoir and allied works" is awarded by Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, the release said.
The total completion period is 30 months, the release said.
The company also bagged the 'Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Project-II Contract-I Raw Water Transmission System' awarded by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
The work will be completed in two years, they said.
"Providing Sewerage System to erstwhile Bommanahalli CMC areas (Zone 4E and Zone 4F) under KMRP - Slice No GBS 4E and GBS 4F" awarded by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The total completion period is 36 months for Zone 4E and 24 months for Zone 4F, release said.
Two blasts at Moscow Metro stations, over 40 killed
At least 41 people were killed in two explosions that hit the Moscow metro during rush hour Monday, according to Russian news agencies.
The first hit the Lubyanka Metro Station in central Moscow about 7:56am local time (3:56am GMT), Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported. Twenty-six were killed and 15 people were injured.
Sky News reported that a second explosion hit the Park Kultury station, three stations away on the same line, about 30 minutes later. AFP reported at least 15 people were killed.
RIA Novosti reported that a security source told the agency the Lubyanka station was hit by a bomb.
The Moscow Metro, which spans almost the entire Russian capital, is the world's second most heavily used metro system after Tokyo's twin subway.
The Lubyanka Station is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, located under Lubyanka Square.
The square houses the former headquarters of the KGB and the Lubyanka prison. It now houses the Border Guard Service of Russia, which is the nation's federal security service which succeeded the KGB.
It is located a third of a mile from the Kremlin.
Spokeswoman for the Russian emergencies ministry Irina Andrianova told ITAR-TASS 15 people were killed in the train at Lubyanka and 11 on the platform.
Sky News reported the explosion struck the second car of the train.
The Russian capital over the last decade has been hit by a string of deadly explosions claimed by militants from its turbulent southern region of Chechnya but this has become less frequent in the last years.
Obama rallies troops on first Afghan trip
Reuter
Barack Obama made his first trip to Afghanistan as U.S. president on Sunday, delivering a rousing speech to troops and telling Afghan President Hamid Karzai that progress on fighting corruption should match military gains.
Air Force One landed in darkness at Bagram airfield north of the Afghan capital, and Obama was whisked by helicopter to Karzai's palace in Kabul, where he was greeted by the Afghan president and a band playing the U.S. national anthem.
His meeting with Karzai was subdued, reflecting the frosty relations between his administration and the wartime ally upon whom Obama's signature foreign policy rests. Neither man answered questions from the press.
"I want to send a strong message that the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan is going to continue. We have already seen progress with respect to the military campaign against extremism in the region," Obama told Karzai in front of a group of reporters ushered into a room inside the palace.
"We also want to continue to make progress on ... good governance, rule of law, anti-corruption efforts -- all these things end up resulting in an Afghanistan that is more prosperous, more secure, independent," he added.
Karzai said he hoped "the partnership will continue ... towards a stable, strong, peaceful Afghanistan that can sustain itself, that can move forward into the future."
U.S. officials said corruption and governance were among the issues that the president discussed directly with Karzai during talks that lasted barely half an hour. A perception in the United States that Karzai is tolerant of corruption has sapped support for the war back home.
In December, Obama ordered the deployment of an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan and set a mid-2011 target to begin withdrawal. About a third have so far arrived, participating in a major offensive in the south of the country last month.
Obama returned to Bagram, appearing in a bomber jacket, and delivering a speech to troops just before midnight, telling them he was confident they would have success in their mission.
"I want you to know ... whether you are working here on Bagram or patrolling a village down in Helmand ... your services are absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America's safety and security," he told the troops.
He met the commander of U.S. and NATO troops, Army General Stanley McChrystal, and the U.S. ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, before taking off on Air Force One without seeing daylight.
The Obama administration has had an uneasy relationship with Karzai throughout Obama's 14 months in office, reaching a low point during a three-month Afghan election dispute last year.
Eikenberry wrote in a classified cable in November, later leaked, that Karzai was "not an adequate strategic partner". Asked about that description during the flight to Kabul, Obama's national security advisor, James Jones, said he saw Karzai as an adequate partner because he was Afghanistan's elected leader.
Obama speaks to Karzai much less frequently than his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, who launched the war after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. He invited Karzai to visit Washington in May.
TROOP INCREASE
The trip allowed Obama to see any early results of his troop increase, showed support for military personnel and countered critics who say his focus on passing healthcare legislation has diverted attention from foreign policy.
Since Obama took office, the eight-year war in Afghanistan has shifted from a second priority behind Iraq to the main effort of the U.S. military. By the end of this year, the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will have tripled under Obama's watch to 100,000, along with about 40,000 from NATO allies.
Obama's domestic victory on healthcare reform last week gives him political space to turn his attention to the Afghan war, which has mixed support from the American public amid rising casualties, costs, and corruption among Afghan leaders.
Obama travelled to Afghanistan during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign after being criticised by Republican opponent John McCain for failing to tour the war zone, but had not returned since winning. The White House says previous planned trips were cancelled because of weather or logistics.
Afghan policy has been transformed during Obama's year in office. Top U.S. officials held two long reviews of the White House's war policy in less than a year, both times electing to send tens of thousands of extra troops.
The war has become far deadlier and far more costly, setting records last year for the numbers of troops and civilians killed.
Karzai, who remained in power after a fraud-marred election last August, has launched a high profile effort to reconcile with the Taliban, who have made a comeback more than eight years since U.S.-backed Afghan militias drove them from Kabul.
The Taliban have so far spurned his offer to talk, although another insurgent group, Hezb-i-Islami, sent a delegation to Kabul this month to present a peace plan. The palace revealed this week that Karzai had received them.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said last week the timing was still not right to reconcile with top Afghan Taliban leaders.
(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch, Golnar Motevalli and Peter Graff; writing by Peter Graff, editing by Paul Casciato)
Jeff Mason
New age ideas see UK streets being renamed as Karma Way or Yoga Way
Goodbye Acacia Avenue, welcome to Eco Way, Euro Close and Sustainability Way-these are just changed names of some streets in Britain, which are increasingly being chosen to reflect councils' interests in the environment, health and safety, and diversity, revealed a survey.
"New age" ideas are also influencing the naming of roads such as Karma Way or Yoga Way.
Other streets are being given names, which reflect Britain's increasingly multicultural society.
According to experts, local authorities were doing the same thing the Romans did 2,000 years- using names, which reflected the nature of society around them.
"Street names reflect modern culture and society and preoccupations. They now also show a worldwide influence," the Telegraph quoted Dr David Green, a geographer from King's College London, as saying.
Other new streets with an environmental theme include Eco Way, in Doncaster, and Sustainability Way, in Leyland, Lancashire.
There also exists a Kyoto Walk and Kyoto Terrace, in Havant, Hampshire, which feature environmentally friendly homes and were named after the Japanese city where an international treaty on climate change was agreed.
Council officials in Poole renamed Salamander Road as Safety Drive, after a new fire station was built on it, reflecting an interest in health and safety,
Samsara Road, in Bromsgrove, and Karma Way, in Harrow, north London, both use phrases from Indian religions, dealing with concepts of reincarnation and cause and effect, respectively, which have become popular elements of "new age" western thinking.
Then there is Yoga Way, in Sutton, south London.
In Brent, however, councillors chose the financial over the spiritual, calling one street Euro Close.
Among the new names, which reflect Britain's multicultural society, are Masjid Lane, in Tower Hamlets, east London, which uses the Arabic term for mosque.
A street is called Jinnah Close, after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of the modern state of Pakistan.
Other recently named addresses reflect African influences, such as Ashanti Mews, in Hackney, named after a major ethnic group and area of Ghana.
Local authorities have responsibility for the creation of street names, and very often they will take suggestions from developers or the public.
The names uncovered by the survey of local councils, carried out by The Sunday telegraph, are all for streets or developments created within the last ten years. (ANI)
Gujarat riot cases: SIT quizzes three lawyers
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing some of the 2002 riot cases in Gujarat, has questioned three lawyers in connection with a complaint filed against them by some victims, SIT sources said on Monday.
Advocates H N Dhruv, P L Gandhi and V P Atre, were quizzed by SIT on Saturday in connection with the allegations by some riot victims and social activist Teesta Setalvad, who said these lawyers, having close proximity to the government, were appointed as special public prosecutors in post-Godhra riot cases.
Dhruv was initially appointed as special public prosecutor in the Godhra train burning case, while Atre was made public prosecutor in the Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg case. Gandhi was the chief government pleader in the Godhra sessions court in Panchmahal district.
Some of the riot victims and Setalvad had complained against the lawyers to SIT after their names were suggested for appointment as public prosecutor in the special courts where the trial of the riot cases is being held.
Become voice of the poor, Sonia Gandhi tells Seva Dal
Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday urged workers of the Seva Dal, the grassroots frontal organisation of the party, to reach out to the people through social work.
Addressing the national convention of Seva Dal workers here, Gandhi said they should work against the designs of communal and casteist forces. 'People who resort to communalism, casteism, their plans should not be allowed to succeed,' she said.
Lauding the work of the Seva Dal, she said its members were working to popularise welfare initiatives of the party-led government.
Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first president of Seva Dal, she said that smaller interests have to be given up for a bigger cause and success often comes to those who display courage.
She said the Congress had never compromised on its ideology and its leaders had laid strong secular foundations of the country. 'We have always stood with the poor, tribals, minorities and women. We will always stand by them,' Gandhi said.
She hoped that Seva Dal workers would become a pillar of support for the 'poor and weak'.
Seva Dal chief organiser Mahendra Joshi said the organisation was preparing a 15,000-strong 'voluntary force (swayamsevak)' from 7,500 blocks across the country.
Union Minister Mukul Wasnik, who is incharge of Seva Dal, said the workers had provided succour to people affected by natural calamities in different parts of the country.
Seva Dal was founded in 1923.
TN Govt rejects Nalini's plea for premature release
Indian Express
Ending months of uncertainty over the State Government's stand about the possible premature release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan, the Government informed the Madras High Court on Monday that the Prison Advisory Board constituted to decide on the request has rejected her plea, a decision which the State accepted.
There were serious speculations about the nature of the report prepared by the advisory board with many claiming that it was positive for Nalini, who appealed that she be set free after over 19 years of continuous imprisonment since her arrest in early 90s.
However, clearing the air today, State Advocate General PS Raman informed the court that the board has rejected her plea on eight counts and that the Government has decided to accept the report. A Government Order has been issued in this regard, the AG said.
The contents of the report, the reasons cited for rejecting the plea, or the GO has not yet been made public.
The present case that is being heard by a division bench comprising justices Elipe Dharma Rao and KK Sasidharan deals with a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy challenging Nalini's right to plead for remission, arguing that she has already received one when the death sentence initially awarded was reduced to life in prison.
Express news service
LeapFrog to invest $30mln in Indian insurance firms
Reuters
Microinsurance fund LeapFrog Investments on Monday said it planned to invest up to $30 million in Indian insurance and financial services companies to boost growth in the microinsurance sector.
The fund plans to make individual investments of between $5 million and $15 million over four years, it said in a statement.
Microinsurance insures low income people against specific perils in exchange for regular premium payments proportionate to the likelihood and cost of the risk involved.
It can be used by individuals to protect against any typical risk -- including natural catastrophes, life insurance, or sudden illness.
(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)
BSE Sensex hits 25-month high; outsourcers drop
Reuters
The BSE Sensex hit a 25-month high before closing 0.4 percent up on Monday, its fourth straight rise, as earnings optimism and firm global equities boosted sentiments. Financials led the gainers.
The 30-share BSE index closed 0.38 percent or 66.59 points higher at 17,711.35. It rose as much as 17,793.01 points in the day, its highest level since February 2008.
Twenty-one of its components advanced.
Analysts and wealth managers were divided about the market's direction from now on. Some were optimistic, while others felt it was time to book profits.
"We should move higher from here, said Rakesh Rawal, head of private wealth management at Anand Rathi from Bangalore.
"The earnings and guidance next month should be the next trigger," Rawal, who manages $1 billion of funds, said.
Foreign funds have poured around $3.9 billion in Indian equities so far this year. A major chunk of this arrived in March, a part of which was directed towards primary market issuance.
"We still have some steam left (in the market rally)," said Apurva Shah, vice-president and head of research at brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher.
"Liquidity flows are helping the market."
The benchmark index rose 1.4 percent since the end of 2009, outperforming the MSCI's measure of Asian markets other than Japan and the MSCI's emerging markets index which have risen 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
Amongst its regional peers, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.9 percent and 4.7 percent so far this year while and Japan's Nikkei climbed 4.2 percent.
Earlier this month, a Reuters poll showed the BSE index may rise to 18,000 points by end-June and close 2010 at 19,250.
But not everyone is buying into the optimism.
"Current valuations do not leave anything on the table for investors," said Arun Kejriwal, director of research firm KRIS.
Kejriwal said there were euro zone concerns which could worry the market in the near term and it remained to be seen how monsoon fared this year.
Financials topped the gainers' list on promising long-term outlook in an advancing economy, shrugging off near-term worries over inflation.
Headline inflation in Asia's third-largest economy should peak in March with demand-side pressures likely having a short-term impact on prices, chief statistician Pronab Sen had said late last Friday.
Top lender State Bank of India climbed 1.1 percent while leading private lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rose 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.
Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp rose 2 percent.
Export-focused software companies dropped on concerns a stronger rupee would hit their revenue.
The rupee climbed to its strongest level since September 2008 earlier in the day, boosted by the dollar's weakness against major currencies.
India's top software services outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services was down 1.7 percent, while rivals Infosys Technologies and Wipro shed 2.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.
Higher base metal prices pushed aluminium maker Hindalco and non-ferrous metals producer Sterlite Industries 3.2 percent and 2 percent higher respectively.
London metals rallied, with copper rising almost 2 percent to its highest level since January.
Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel rose 0.2 percent.
Bharti Airtel and Kuwait's Zain are likely to sign agreements for the Indian firm's $9 billion buy of Zain's African assets on Tuesday, sources told Reuters.
Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, reversed early gains and closed 0.5 percent lower.
In the broader market, declining shares outnumbered advancing shares in a ratio of 1.8:1 on volume of 462 million shares, higher than Friday's volume.
Elsewhere in the world, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.5 percent by 1030 GMT, while MSCI's measure of Asian shares other than Japan rose 0.8 percent.
The 50-share NSE index gained 0.4 percent to 5,302.85 points.
STOCKS THAT MOVED
* Carmaker Maruti Suzuki and leading utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra gained 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent respectively on hopes for robust sales in March.
* Animation and gaming firm DQ Entertainment (International)
Ltd listed at 140 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 75 percent higher than its issue price of 80 rupees.
The stock pared some of the early gains and closed at 108.55
rupees.
* Punj Lloyd shed 3.9 percent to 178.05 rupees, after the engineering and construction firm said it was selling its 19.43 percent stake in Pipavav Shipyard for 6.56 billion rupees.
Pipavav Shipyard was up 8.9 percent at 69.50 rupees.
MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME
* DQ Entertainment on 39.9 million shares
* Pipavav Shipyard on 12.5 million shares
* Syncom Healthcare on 8.1 million shares
(Editing by Malini Menon)
(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)
Ami Shah
Greenpeace activists protest against toxic waste
Greenpeace activists today staged a protest against toxic waste in front of the Dell office here, carrying placards with messages that read "Micahel Dell: Drop the Toxics". "It is disappointing to see that a firm which aspires to be the greenest technology company on the planet, backtracks on its commitment to phase out deadly chemicals from its products and lags behind IT firms like Wipro and HCL," said Greenpeace India Toxic Campaigner Abhishek Pratap.
Dell continues to use PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in all its computers, despite promising to eliminate the usage of these toxic substances by the end of 2009, the statement said.
India to get multibillion-dollar loan from Japan for infrastructure projects
India is to get a loan of 105 billion rupees from Japan for six infrastructure projects, which also includes the second phase of the Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System.
In this regard, an MoU was signed between Alok Sheel, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs of India and Hideaki Domichi, Ambassador of Japan to India, here today.
The funds will be sanctioned during the next fiscal year 2010-11, and in 2011-12.
"I am pleased that we are here to sign the document for the Japanese Yen loan for the year 2009-10 and this year, the amount of the Yen loan would become 218 billion Japanese Yen (105 billion rupees). The loan includes the main loans for the Dedicated Freight Corridor for the Phase I," said Domichi.
Sheel said the collaboration would further enhance Japanese investment in India and help develop India's infrastructure and manufacturing capacity.
"We hope that India-Japan collaboration in the Dedicated Freight Corridor would substantially enhance Japanese investment in India and help develop infrastructure and manufacturing capacity of India. I am hopeful that it will fully leverage the ample availability of skilled human resource and public-private partnership police of the Government of India. Japanese collaboration in these projects will become a shining example of India-Japan partnership," said Sheel.
Further, 16.48 billion rupees would go towards Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System (phase II), 11.46 billion towards Kolkata East-West Metro Project, 29 million rupees towards Chennai Metro Project and 44.22 billion towards Dedicated Freight Corridor Project of Indian Railways.
In addition, 1.5 billion rupees would go towards Rengali Irrigation projects in Orissa and 2.6 billion rupees towards Sikkim Bio-Diversity Conservation and Forest Management Project.
With this exchange of notes between India and Japan, the cumulative commitment of Japan for the developmental projects in India would reach 1,558 billion rupees.
Scientists to crash protons in LHC tomorrow
Scientists in Geneva will crash two proton beams at record high energy in their new bid to discover the elusive ''God particle'' that would help them unravel the secrets of the universe. The Large Hadron Collider, a 27-km accelerator located at CERN on the Franco-Swiss border, was fired up on November 20, 2009 and the two proton beams have been circulating in the device at 3.5 trillion electron volts (TeV) since March 19.
The two proton beam have been travelling in two different 27-km pipes in opposite directs almost at the speed of light. Each beam goes around the device 11,000 times every second.
Researchers at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) will make attempts to collide the two beams at 7 TeV tomorrow, which could create conditions similar at the time of the Big Bang -- that is believed to have created the universe. An array of computers would them detect minute details of the collision and store them on DVDs for analyses by physicists from across the world.
When the proton beams collide, 800 million collisions per second would take place and powerful detectors installed at the collision site would gather data of each of the collisions. It is the analysis of this data that could lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson, also called as the ''God particle'', that is believed to have existed when the universe was born, said Prof.
Satyaki Bhattacharya of Delhi University who is involved in the LHC experiment. A number of Indian scientists have been involved at various stages of the experiment.
Bhattacharya''s student Sandhya Jain would be one of the scientists at CERN who would be monitoring the collisions tomorrow. CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said scientists hope by the end of this year to make discoveries into the mysterious dark matter that they believe comprises a quarter of the whole universe; the better understood visible universe makes up only five percent of the universe.
Dark matter has been theorised by scientists to account for missing mass and bent light in faraway galaxies. They believe it makes galaxies spin faster.
A separate entity called ''dark energy'' makes up the remaining 70 percent of the universe, and this is understood to be associated with the vacuum that is evenly distributed in space and time. It is believed to accelerate the expansion of the universe.
After two years of running, the LHC will be shut down for about a year and specialists will install improvements and make changes to enable the collider to operate at its design energy of 7 TeV in each direction to produce collisions of 14 TeV..
India shifts Afghan policy, ready to talk to Taliban
Indian Express
In the wake of a possible American pullout from Kabul next year, New Delhi has sharply re-oriented its strategy towards Afghanistan by reaching out to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami party and keeping its door open in case of a reconciliation effort by the Taliban.
While the new Afghan policy is being crafted at the highest levels with National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon playing a lead role, New Delhi is learnt to have made contact with Hizb-e-Islami party even though it knows that Hekmatyar is firmly under Pakistani control. New Delhi is also now amenable to talking to Taliban in case the latter are to open an engagement. This change in Indian posture comes as Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also talked about reconciling with India.
Top government sources told The Indian Express that New Delhi wants to reach out to the second generation Pashtun leaders like Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, and is with the former Northern
Alliance leaders like Marshal Fahim, Karim Khallili and Mohammed Mohaqiq in backing President Hamid Karzai's government.
This fine-tuning of India's position on Afghanistan comes after exchange of views between top diplomats. After the February attack on Indians in Kabul, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Pakistan-Afghanistan envoy Satinder Lambah and former West Asia envoy Chinmay Gharekhan wanted India to adopt a neutral position in Afghanistan. This essentially meant keeping out of Aghanistan politics but carrying on the development works in the war-torn republic.
This month, this view was nuanced further by the UPA government, with New Delhi now all for an independent or neutral Afghanistan that does not require the crutches of neighbouring Pakistan. According to a paper prepared by the Ministry of External Affairs on the subject, India should back an Afghanistan that keeps out terrorism emanating from Pakistan and does not allow the state to slip back into the violence spiral of 1990s. The sub-text of the paper is that Afghanistan will come under the total influence of Pakistan if New Delhi were to let matters go out of hand.
While a section in South Block wants India to go back to supporting the former Northern Alliance faction, the fact is that all the top six alliance leaders are firmly backing Karzai, including Marshal Fahim, heir of legendary Ahmed Shah Masood, and Uzbek leader Mohammed Dostum. New Delhi is conscious of the fact that its former allies like Iran of the Northern Alliance days are still confused on whether they want the Americans out or the Taliban.
It is in this context that New Delhi wants to reach out to Pashtuns in the south and on the Durand Line while retaining ties with its Northern Alliance friends and President Karzai. So rather than the expected downscaling of Indian engagement in Afghanistan, New Delhi is all for enlarging it, lest it wants to let the republic be dominated by extremist forces of the past.
Shishir Gupta
Varun targets Maya, Rahul, calls cow slaughter crime
Mon, Mar 29 04:28 PM
Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), March 29 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi delivered a fiery speech here Monday, calling for a ban on cow slaughter. He also targeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and his cousin Rahul Gandhi whom he called a 'handsome face'.
Hundreds of men, women and even children sweated it out to listen to the 30-year-old Gandhi's 20-minute high voltage speech at Gandhi Park - his first public rally after being appointed the BJP secretary this month.
The MP from Pilibhit called for a 'more intense war' against cow slaughter. 'It is a social crime. It is a legal crime. Why don't you wake up and fight this more intense war against cow slaughter? It is not for Hindus only, but for the nation's pride,' he said.
'Jai shri ram' was his slogan. And the crowd of men, women and children, some of whom had been waiting since 8 a.m., repeatedly responded likewise.
'I know people in western Uttar Pradesh don't compromise with self-esteem. I am asking you, don't stay calm, don't tolerate. Wake up and fight. I want warriors in my troupe, who can fight for your self-esteem.'
Gandhi, who stirred a political storm with a communal speech during the Lok Sabha election campaign last year, this time chose to weigh his words carefully.
The young BJP leader thundered: 'If somebody targets my mother, what would I do? I will stand and save her, isn't it? Likewise, you should get up, gather and save our mother cow.'
He criticised Mayawati over her garlands of currency notes and said the cash should have been used for the welfare of poor farmers and unemployed youth of Uttar Pradesh instead.
'But don't worry, two more years to go,' he said, pointing to the 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh which, he added, the BJP was confident of winning.
'Then there is another party which has young handsome faces. They have a mission, but don't worry, we will win,' he said, referring clearly to his estranged cousin Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.
'I know, I am also on this stage with my Gandhi surname. Had I been Varun Chowdhury or Sharma, I would not have been here. But this name comes with responsibility, responsibility towards the poor, towards you,' he said.
Fighting for the poor of the nation is a long struggle that people from 'well-off families' are not interested in, he said. 'I want to produce at least one lakh Varun Gandhis who will fight that war,' he said.
Sarwar Kashani
Rahul tempted by samosas at roadside joint
Sat, Mar 27 07:20 PM
Lucknow, March 27 (IANS) Tempted by the sight of freshly-fried samosas and bread pakoras, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday could not resist from stopping at roadside joints to get them packed while driving through an Uttar Pradesh town.
Gandhi, who was returning after holding a meeting with Congress activists on the last-day of his tour of his parliamentary constituency Amethi, stopped his cavalcade after he came across fresh samosas and bread pakoras at two different eating joints, adjacent to each other, in Jais town in Sultapur district, some 150 km from Lucknow.
'He was so tempted by the samosas and pakoras that within no time he got down from his vehicle and approached the eating-joint owners to get the items packed,' Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told reporters.
The owners of both the roadside-eating joints were taken by surprise when they noticed Gandhi standing at their shop.
'Meeting Rahulji was definitely unexpected for me. I will not forget the experience till I am alive. Like any normal customer, he stood before me and asked for the samosas,' Ram Khilawan, owner of one of the eating joints, told reporters.
According to Singh, Gandhi tried his best to pay for the samosas and pakoras he took from the shops, but their owners did not take the money.
'The gesture of the shop owners only reflects the affection and love Rahulji enjoys amongst masses. At the same time, the incident also reflects how Rahulji gets connected to the common man,' Singh said.
As Gandhi stood at the roadside joint, a large number of people watched him from a distance, as the security personnel did not allow anyone to go to the shop at that time.
West Bengal Finance Minister criticizes center and its policy of liberalization
Published on 22nd March, 2010 20:42:00
The Government of West Bengal, heading for assembly elections, has presented the State Budget 2010-11 on 22 March 2010. The Finance Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Asim Dasgupta in his budget speech criticized the central government and its policy of liberalization as the root-cause of the various problems country facing recently. Dr Dasgupta said, the two major economic problems, which are of serious concern for the common people of the country, relate to unemployment and inflation. He attributed the policy of uncontrolled globalization to be a major cause behind the recent world-wide recession. He further added that this damage would have been much wider but for the stalling of Central efforts to privatise the nationalised banks by the democratic movements.
Dr Dasgupta pointed out that, after following the policy of globalization, the incidence of unemployment in the country (on the basis of current daily status), according to the latest large National Sample Survey data (2004-05), has increased by nearly 87 lakh over the period of five years between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, and reached a figure of 3.52 crore.
He also highlighted that in recent years a few wealthy Indian Houses have found a place in the list of world's richest households. But, expressed concerns that according to the latest data and analysis of Expert Group of the Planning Commission (November, 2009), the percentage of people below the poverty line in rural areas of the country in 2004-05 has also been much higher at 41.8% than the previously announced proportion of 28.3%.
Dr Dasgupta called recent price rise as the burning problem for the common people. He attributed this to the sluggishness in agricultural production due to the pursuit of policy of globalization and liberalization, resulting in inadequate Central investment, in general, in the sphere of irrigation and drainage. He pointed that in the recent Union Budget (2010-11), although there has been inclusion of Center-State joint schemes for irrigation and drainage in certain river basins of West Bengal, the share of irrigation sector, in general, in the total Central Plan Outlay has been only 2%. As a result, the proportion of irrigated area in the total agricultural area of the country, particularly for foodgrains, has still not exceeded 45% (Government of India, Economic Survey, 2008-2009, Statistical Appendix).
He also criticized the policy of liberalization for neglect of central investment in all the Central Public Sector Units in fertilizers (including the units at Haldia and Durgapur) resulting in their sickness. This has also led to over-dependence on imports, causing an increase in fertilizer prices. All these factors have resulted in a fall in the average annual rate of growth of agricultural production in the country to only 1.7% in the period from 2002-03 to 2006-07 which is even lower than the average rate of growth of population of 2.1% (Planning Commission : Approach Paper on Eleventh Plan, December 2006, p.4) and also made the per capita availability of foodgrains decline from 503 grams per day in 1997 to 443 grams per day in 2007 (Economic Survey, Government of India, Statistical Appendix, p.22).
Dr Dasgupta expressed the need to introduce from the level of Government of India the universal Public Distribution System with appropriate subsidy and implement it in coordination with all the States to protect the common people from the ravages of inflation.
Suggestions of Dr Dasgupta, Finance Minister, West Bengal
The Finance Minister suggests reducing indiscriminate dependence on external markets and focus on the need, with appropriate role of the Government, of the growth of internal domestic market in the desired direction. He expressed the need of reliance on the certainty of domestic market, with a need to participate in external trade on the basis of mutual interests
For the development of domestic market, he asked to increase in purchasing power of the vast majority of common people, for which generation of employment and income on a permanent basis would be essential.
He suggested that the role of the government needs to be expanded and make it more effective for attaining the objective of employment generation. In the spheres where there is failure or incompleteness of markets (such as, for instance, in irrigation, roads, power, education, public health, etc.), the welfare role of the Government will need to be expanded.
For controlling inflation, he recommended that the welfare and effective role of the Government will be essential. He also expressed the need to reduce the monopolistic control within the Government itself, by moving towards appropriate decentralization of powers and making the Government more accountable to the common people. This decentralization of powers is necessary from the Center to the States, and then from the State level to the levels of elected Panchayats, and Municipalities.
http://www.bloombergutv.com/stock-market/stocks/commentary/382393/west-bengal-finance-minister-criticizes-center-and-its-policy-of-liberalization.html
Mainstream, Vol XLVIII, No 14, March 27, 2010
Political Economy of Judicial Precedent—Delay and Unaccountability
Saturday 27 March 2010, by K G Somasekharan Nair
Law courts in Britain, their Jonathan Brother America and some Eastern countries, believing White is right, are being overwhelmed by the weight of pending cases and the people despair over the despicable delay in the administration of justice. In accordance with the increase in population, they enhanced the number of prodigal courts, but when the number of courts was increasing in arithmetical progression, the number of pending cases increased in geometric progression. Now Western judges are groping for out-of-court remedies like bargaining and conciliation, the traditional duty of clergies and rural grandsires. While constituting pacificatory bodies for that purpose, they are admitting that the dictatorial system commanded by them failed to properly provide justice to the taxpayers and are declaring ironically that the body of principles recognised by the state in the administration of justice cannot be enforced in due course. Instead of conducting a mathe-matically rational probing into the reasons for such crumbling, they are compelling the political executive to have a separate head of account in budget allocation for the extravagance of extra-judicial bodies. In this context, it would be interesting to analyse the historical reasons generated by productive forces that caused the delay in the disposal of cases legally and such analysis may reveal that delayed justice is an ultimate product of the judicial precedent adopted by those countries in judicial adminis-tration.
The spiritual source of judicial precedent that evolved in Britain was Themis, the goddess of law and justice, a social fantasy of bucolic Greece, ignorant to declare one minus one is equal to zero and oblivious of iron and steel. They believed, their kings, head shepherds, while deciding an issue, had been possessed by Themis and the delirious speeches of kings were divine judgments; to dispose of a similar case later, the earlier judgment made by Themis was adopted as the yardstick for justice without conducting a new incantation for Themis. It was done on the ground that Themis was the goddess of justice as well as law, and her judgments were law as well. The material development of judicial precedent in Britain, like any other social phenomenon in any other society, was the resultant of productive forces, wars, religious coercions, goads of tradition and such other lively forces which acted on the society from various directions from time to time.
Britain, the exilic island for criminals in the Roman Empire till its waning in the 4th century AD, deported criminals mingled with autochthons and primitive societies were formed. In the 5th century, various Germanic tribes, Angle of South Denmark, Saxon of the Shelswig-Holstein territory and Jute of Juteland colonised Britain and it was the declining period of the slave-owning mode of production in Europe. All tribes and societies in Britain fought for generations to establish monopoly on land and the inspirited feud enabled the victorious to feudalise land tracts sufficient for their needs. The internal management of every feudal society was done by the gangster, and the most mighty among them became the feudal lord, the less mighty became vassals and the least became serfs. Thus might is right, established by the uncivilised feudal societies of Britain, became the motto of capitalism and its final form, imperialism. Thus the Anglo-Saxon civilisation of Angle and Saxon tribes was boisterous of gladiatorial combats, gang murder, and amputation, for which each feudal lord had enough armed serfs under knights.
In the meantime, a mission headed by St. Andrew deputed by Bishop Gregory of Rome, roamed, preached, baptised and organised churches in the early 7th century Britain. Churches became the biggest feudal lords with the highest income; in addition every family was bound to pay tithe, a compulsory levy to the church at the rate of one-tenth of the income, and that enriched churches immensely. They maintained the military to fortify the duchy and conduct inquisition, excommunication and heresy burning festivals. They sermonised to the working class under servile subjugation loquaciously that the privilege and power of the elite were the manifestations of divine decree, and any protest against that will be heresy, the gravest sin condemnable to hell. To establish this, they quoted the biblical authority in the First Epistle of Peter (2-18,19). This was the religious and psychological substratum of feudalism, that 'opium' identified by Karl Marx, and for the working class it was worst than the caste system in ancient non-feudal India.
In the feudal mode of production, both mundane and spiritual lords were holding a vast area of land with a large number of subjected population. Feudal lords were stocky kings, capable of conducting judicial management of the manor by themselves. They acted as supreme judges for criminal cases and civil disputes arising within the fief, and enforced the judgment using their own armed militia. Their judgment was not based on judicious findings derived from any codified law or procedure, for there was no such thing—every judicial decision was an uttering on the spur of a moment. Feudal lordship was hereditary, sometimes the son applied the logic in the father's judgment to decide similar cases; in the case of spiritual lords, the successor used his predecessor's decision as the guideline for adjudging similar cases, and the continuance of this process for generations gave birth to judicial precedent, the only law of feudal Britain.
¨
In the 11th century, England was invaded by a William, the military commander of Normandy in north-west France, and his colonisation is known as the Norman conquest; thereafter a nominal kingdom was formed, but the sovereignty of the king was limited by incursive feudalists, and churches were also contumacies. Being kings, as a status symbol, Normans wanted the king's court, however easy; but the difficulty was the enforcement of the kingly commanded laws as they were unable to withstand feudal onslaughts, possible to arise on the issue. So they decided to work out an arithmetic sum of all feudal laws practised by various lords, amounting to the law of the land, but the disintegrable anarchy of feudal propensity made conflicts between those law units. To bridge over that strait, kings deputed travelling judges to discover existing laws in feudatories, get the discrepancies rectified and reconciled all. For that purpose judges visited all feudal courts, heard cases and syncretised everything they witnessed, and that compiled mass of law is called Common Law. It was also called judge-made law; here the word 'Judge' did not indicate those judges who compiled common law, they were only discovers of existing laws, but the word 'Judge' represented feudal lords acting as judges who made laws out of emptiness. Both common law and case law are judge-made laws, but the difference is that the judges who made common law were feudal lords, but those who made case law were capitalistic judges.
In 1214, King John levied a scutage for his military campaign; then the feudal lords, war- lords also, organised and turned against the king for civil war, a usual practice in feudal Europe. At last the cornered king, to avoid a literal surrender, entered into an agreement with those lords, that he should not tax without their consent thenceforth. This perpetual agreement, sanctified by Bishop Stephen Langton, is known as Magna Carta, the foundation of the unwritten British Constitution. That document is also called the Great Charter, which transmuted British sovereignty on a partnership firm of monarchy, hierocracy and aristocracy with the transigent king as the managing partner. The most misunderstood, misinterpreted words 'Magna Carta' restricted financial management of the government by terrestrial and spiritual lords and thereby that peerage could control the whole government business. The British king, the executive head of the country, became the feudalist-in-chief among equals; however they were fierce totalitarians over colonial nations. In obedience to the bondage of Magna Carta, King Henry in 1256 summoned up a council of feudalists of both sectors to discuss the financial crisis due to crop failure. In pursuance of that council, King Edward in 1295 conducted a 'Parliamentum', meant talking together, of the peers to discus the business of the realm and thus the parliament emerged in Britain. Subsequently, a list of demands prepared by the bigoted puritans and approved by King William of Orange in 1689, called the Bill of Rights, mono-polised the right of the Crown for the Protestants; however it accepted the freedom of speech for knights and property owners in parliament—in the House of Commons it was meant only for those then.
In the endless material changes betided in society, common law courts representing a comparatively ancient society, became unable to solve the ever-new problems arising regularly and the aggrieved parties approached the king for redress. He, in consultation with the Lord Chancellor, his conscience-keeper, issued writes and thus equity laws evolved as the disposition of the kingly disposals.
Time went ahead sowing new socio-legal problems, especially with the socialised poverty and total criminality created by Black Death in 1348, together with the concentration of trade and commerce. Common law and equity law courts failed to solve everything and the parliament, leading the country from feudal anarchy to centralised governance, undertook the authority to fill the gaps in existing laws. Lords in the parlia-mentary House had borne judicial authority and legislative capacity simultaneously like Themis. They were the Supreme Judges for their feudatory individually, and the Apex Court for the kingdom collectively on the one hand; on the other, they were individual law-makers for their feudatory and as a collectivised body they became the ultimate legislature of the country. Hence the laws made by the parliament were not conflicting with the feudal precedents, but acted as supplementary or gap-fillers for those needed in changing circumstances and thus judgments made by the House of Lords continued to be law in the parliamentary period too. In this context, parliamentary enactments assented by the king, the decision of the British Sovereign, has no individual entity, apart from feudal precedents because a substance used to fill a gap in an object cannot have any use without that object and parliamentary statutes are not law for Britons but only a source of law. Under these circumstances 'law' defined by Austian as the 'Command of Sovereign' had been modified by Salmond adding judicial precedent to it. Anyhow, it is reasonable to continue the authority of judicial precedent over statutory law, till both temporal lords and spiritual lords, the ambassoders of feudal darkness, and the king, the representative of Middle Age pettiness, are continuing to decide the parliamentary wisdom of undemocratic Britain.
¨
Another reactionary principle, independent judiciary, was also a contribution of feudal Britain, where lords were haughty to deliver any sort of judgment and mighty to enforce it within their territorial jurisdiction; kings were depending upon the lords for money-material-military, till they could plunder Sonar Bangla in 1757. It may be remembered, Queen Elizabeth, who propelled English Renaissance, was selling her private property and utilising the service of buccaneers like John Hawkins and Francis Drake for subsistence, and such Crown weavers could not have any control over feudal mammonists—money is might and might is right for the West. Feudal judges, pony kings were independent of the Crown in the administration of justice and they were capable of keeping their wealth out of reach of the state. Those countries like America transplanted the shadow judiciary of feudal Britain together with judicial precedent and independent judiciary, cherished up an undemocratic judiciary, like a thread-free kite. There, judges placed themselves above nations, theorised they are privileged Mammons to keep their pelf unrevealed before the society feeding them, like the British feudalists.
In the British system, lawyers are the most advantageous group of judicial precedent and the independent judiciary, who produce tome bundles in the court-hall to show the number of precedents to establish their case and the impugning lawyer pushes tome trolley to refute it. In prolonged arguments quoting conflicting laws on the same point, lawyers do not apply the logic of sorites and syllogism at least, but everything is a blaring of defiance and retortion; at last the confused Judge, usually less intelligent than the lawyers, tosses secretly to give justice. In the British system, there is no legal criterion for justice, it varied from judge in accordance with individual susceptibility; so justice got reversed and reversed on appeals, while people suffered and suffered everything. For establishing and reversing the justice, lawyers at various levels conduct exhaustive talkathon, they determine fees at the rate of load of books produced before the lords and the number hours spending for vociferant ding-dong. The pilgrimage of lawyers through controversial case laws afforesting in voluminous books and journals is time-consuming and delay-making. Moreover, regular creation of expensive courts in the same station on the misconcept that increase in number of courts would alleviate the number of pending cases, compelled same efficient lawyers to appear in many courts at the same time; such lawyers applied for adjournment without relinquishing their engagement, to maintain reliability and income, but such adjournments increased the number of pending cases in all courts. Now judges, salary lords, declare their bureaucratic judiciary is inefficient for the purpose for which it was constituted, and they are coercing wearier litigants to approach waged intercessors, more unaccountable than them, for out-of-court judicial settlement. America has travelled much distance in that direction and formulated a 'rent-a-judge' scheme parallel to their 'rent-a-girl' culture and finally it would be an additional judiciary creating another burden for taxpayers—a medicine more dangerous than the disease.
It may be realised, the malignant growth of pending cases and inevitable delay is the curse of only those countries that admitted the feudal precedent of Britain in their unaccountable judicial system. Disintegrated mode of manual production is the characteristic of feudalism. In the absence of written law, precedent was the rule for administration of disintegrated feudal holdings and the despotic judiciary executed by the will of a single individual. Under capitalism, an advanced form of economy, where the mode of production is centralised as well as mechanised, smaller states were integrated and centralised to bigger nations. Hence the separated administration and judiciary are governed by statutory laws enacted by people's sovereignty. The present judicial chaos is an outcome of assaults being made by the feudal precedent on statutory laws, that is, attacks made by feudal might on people's will.
As history cannot be retraced, judicial precedent, an approved source of law, may be eradicated, statutory laws may be recognised and enforced as the only and ultimate law of the land; and concurrently the judicial system may be adapted and made accountable to the reconstituted people's machinery. Otherwise no panacea can cure the aggravating judicial maladies, although this may not be acceptable to the intellectual detenues of feudal Briticism.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1962.html
Indo-US diplomacy classes for masses | ||
| ARCHIS MOHAN | ||
New Delhi, March 28: When it comes to Indo-US ties, diplomacy must begin at home. This appears to be the thinking at the ministry of external affairs, which is unleashing a battery of retired ambassadors on India's civil society. Their brief is to enlighten students, academics and journalists about New Delhi's foreign policy in the 21st century, particularly the importance of the growing Indo-US relationship that many view with apprehension. The former ambassadors are lecturing at leading Indian universities under an "outreach programme" started by the ministry's public diplomacy division. The first in the series was a lecture on March 20 by Ronen Sen, ambassador to the US from August 2004 to March 2009, at Lucknow University on the "evolution of India's relations with the USA". Former ambassador A.N. Ram has interacted with students and teachers at Banaras Hindu University. Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh will speak on "India's foreign policy in the 21st century" at Goa University tomorrow. At Lucknow University, Sen, one of the architects of the Indo-US nuclear deal, criticised people "who remain frozen in ideological postures of a bygone era" and view most India-US initiatives as "potential Trojan horses of threats to our sovereignty". Sen said it wasn't just poli-ticians who suffered from this "colonial-era mindset" — there were bureaucrats, diplomats and even businessmen who viewed Indo-US ties with suspicion. "Our relationship with the US is our single most important bilateral relationship today," Sen said. He highlighted how America had helped India's Green Revolution and aided New Delhi in setting up its first nuclear power station, and how India became the first non-Nato country other than Japan to be supplied a supercomputer by the US. The former ambassador touched on the times when the relationship had touched its lowest point — during the Bangladesh war of 1971 and after the nuclear test in 1974. He lauded George W. Bush's two terms that had led to "a fundamental re-orientation of US perceptions of India". Sen said: "The most significant, and most controversial, initiative was the India-US civil nuclear agreement. The full extent of the implications of the nuclear deal has still not been realised in our country. This was, to a great extent, due to our poor communication." He hoped the two countries would iron out the remaining wrinkles to implement the deal without foot-dragging. Sen slammed "uninformed speculation" that the Bush administration's interest in the nuclear deal was driven by commercial considerations. "There has also been loose talk of going ahead with contracts for nuclear power reactors with countries such as Russia and France, while proceeding cautiously with the US. This kind of thinking not only betrays bad faith but fails to recognise the close ties between US, French, Russian, German and Japanese firms," Sen said. He advocated participation in the nuclear power sector by both the domestic and foreign private sectors. Sen credited the Bush administration with effectively de-hyphenating Pakistan and India. "I am sure that India-US relations will continue to strengthen under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama. The relationship will, however, need constant nurturing and care," he said. |
Kishan bullet buzz - Statement, intercepts suggest injury | |
| OUR BUREAU | |
March 28: A purported Maoist statement and a string of telephone intercepts have lent credence to suspicion that Kishan, the guerrillas' military wing chief, has suffered bullet injuries and is in need of emergency medical attention. "We will reply to each bullet that hit Kishenji and comrade Bikram," said an email sent to Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik and attributed to the "central military commission of the Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army" on Saturday. It was not clear whether the Bikram the email referred to is a former Jadavpur University student or a senior Maoist leader who goes by the same name. "As soon as you launch the joint special operation or Green Hunt, we will start attacks at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri simultaneously," the email said while threatening to blow up the Orissa chief minister's residence. Speculation about Kishan's injury — some police officers said they thought he was dead — has been rife ever since joint forces in Bengal mounted a 12-hour offensive on Thursday within 30km of Lalgarh in West Midnapore. The security forces had then described the offensive as the "biggest" yet in Bengal. Bengal police believe the 58-year-old Kishan has been trying to sneak into Jharkhand for treatment after being hit by two bullets in the gun battle on Thursday when the security forces alone were said to have fired 2,500 rounds. According to sources, Kishan took part in the encounter on the outskirts of Lalgarh. "We haven't faced such intense firing in recent times. It was clear that there was a big leader there. We think it was Kishan," said an officer. Although the police could not find a body in the forest, they were sure of some casualties. While the forces were advancing towards a deserted Lakshmanpur village on Friday afternoon, their telecom wing recorded conversations on "bullet injuries to Dada". People in the region are known to address Kishan, who is also a politburo member of the CPI (Maoist), as Dada. Several factors — heightened resistance, the telephone intercepts and local intelligence — make the police believe that the "Dada" in the conversation was Kishan. He is believed to have been hit in his shoulder and leg. Kishan and his aides, earlier accessible to the media after advance notice of a few hours, were not reachable over the phone. For over a month — since the security forces' offensive gained momentum — the Maoists have slipped into the silence mode. The police have apparently learnt from the intercepts that "Dada" has been moved somewhere in Belpahari, about 20km from the Hatishole forest where the encounter took place, in the past 24 hours. "Jharkhand is just a few kilometres from Belpahari and it appears he is trying to sneak into the neighbouring state. Ferrying him in a motorbike will be risky and he can't walk on his own. So, they are taking time," an officer said. Security forces have found empty medical kits near a deserted irrigation department building in a forest adjacent to Lakshmanpur. "It is not possible to handle bullet injuries in a forest.… We have checked all nursing homes and health centres in the region. Crossing over to Jharkhand seems to be his only option," the officer said. "The forces have fanned out to prevent Kishan from crossing the metalled road between Belpahari and Banspahari on his way to the Jharkhand forests," he added. |
FDI appears to be bypassing the telecom sector
NEW DELHI: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) appears to be bypassing the telecom sector , despite India being one of the most attractive and fastest growing telecom markets.
An analysis of the ownership details revealed by nine bidders for the 3G auctions opening on April 9, reveals that the average FDI holding is just below 40% (39.7%).
This changes the common perception that FDI levels in the telecom sector are very high. It also reveals that despite the fact that FDI limits were raised from 49% to 74% five years ago, foreign investors have not utilized the higher investment ceiling.
In addition, foreign telcos have given the 3G auctions a miss. This has wiped out the possibility of a large chunk of fresh FDI inflow and also reduces the auction's potential to generate telecom minister A Raja's original revenue target of Rs 40,000 crore.
Among the nine bidders, Vodafone accounts for the highest FDI at 70.9%, which includes Vodafone's investments and some of Essar's own foreign investments. The second largest FDI is in Aircel with its foreign investor — Global Communication Services Holding (GCSH) owning 64.9%. Deccan Digital , which owns 34.9% is, in turn, also held 25% by GCSH.
So in that sense, the exact foreign holding in Aircel is closer to 74% through direct and indirect routes.
The other two bidders with leading foreign investments are Etisalat and S Tel. Etisalat Mauritius holds 44.73% in Etisalat India with Delphi Investments holding 4.27%, totalling 49%. Bahrain-based BMIC Ltd owns 42.7% of the 49% FDI in S Tel.
Bharti Airtel and Idea both have roughly 40% FDI. Pestel Ltd is Bharti's largest foreign investor with a 15.5% holding, followed by foreign FIs, foreign companies and shareholders who own 17.9% FDI. Idea has FDI of 40.5% through TMI and P5 Asia Investments.
Tatas have an FDI of 34.1%, mostly through NTT Docomo, which is the single largest foreign investor at 26.5%.The only bidder that has 100% Indian investment but barely any 2G operations is Videocon. Reliance communications also has a very large chunk of its total investment held by Indian promoters.
While foreign investments coming in after the 3G bidding is over is a possibility, the lack of foreign investors' interest in 3G bidding or even investing up to the full 74% FDI limit in 2G operations should be of concern to the government.
In fact, Telenor, one of the major new foreign investors is staying away from 3G auctions altogether.
FIs had made it clear in 2008 that 3G bid conditions presented huge entry barriers to new entrants in general and foreign investors in particular.
Despite this, a year after the first set of guidelines were issued, the 3G entry norms were not adequately altered, resulting in nine bidders joining the race for three pan-India 3G licences but without any new Indian or foreign investor in contention.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/FDI-appears-to-be-bypassing-the-telecom-sector/articleshow/5737976.cms
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