Navratri Nightmare
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Palash
Oct 1, 2008, 3:13:14 PM10/1/08
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NAVRATRI NIGHTMARE
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 75
Palash Biswas
Navratri nightmare
A stampede — not terrorism — has killed 147 devotees, many of them
young, in a country where faith runs deep but not the belief in
perfecting fool-proof crowd management methods. ... | Read..
Jail jolt to Rizwan officer
Ajoy Kumar today became the first IPS officer to be sent to jail in
Bengal in recent memory. ... | Read..
Act or fact? Over to you, your honour
If you have proficiency in English, some knowledge of cricket and do
not “imagine anything in the mind”, are you an actor? ... | Read..
Suicide glare on bosses
Police are on the lookout for two managers of Nokia, the telecom
company, to investigate allegations that they drove a young engineer
to death. ... | Read..
TIME FOR A MEAL
In West Bengal, people have to die, preferably in noticeably large
numbers, of having nothing to eat before the government starts talking
about starvation. Then, too, most of the talk is about how the deaths
are caused by disease rather than starvation, never mind if the
diseases themselves — tuberculosis or dysentery — are because of acute
scarcity of food forcing people to live on ants’ eggs or even just
soil. This time, it is a survey by the government itself that has
decided to come clean with West Bengal’s shocking starvation
statistics — with the familiar hedging, of course, around what exactly
to call the phenomenon. Around five lakh people, most of them above 60
years old, live in “starvation-like” conditions. (What, one wonders,
is the difference between living as if one were starving and actually
starving? Is the former better, or less uncomfortable for the
government, than the latter?) The concentration of the starved,
according to the survey, is in the districts that have been
intermittently in the news, for years, precisely for this reason. And
something else that is not new is the junior panchayat and rural
development minister’s knee-jerk, and entirely ad hoc, offer of a
solution in the form of serving one or two cooked meals to those who
prove themselves to be in such a condition.
Brazen denial of the facts, short-term and politically advantageous
solutions, and refusing to look at the larger systemic factors have
always constituted the Left Front government’s familiar and expected
reaction to starvation. Be they the displaced tribals of Amlashol or
the out-of-work labourers and their families in north Bengal’s tea-
gardens, the government has chronically refused to deal with the
situation by addressing the fundamental causes of why people are
failing to provide themselves with food. This time, the irony is in
the fact that the very panchayats that have failed to make the public
distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
work among the rural poor are now planning to provide meals to the
starving, or the quasi-starving. From the distribution of below-
poverty-line or job cards, to the deflecting of the PDS rice to the
open market, both systems are mired in the corruption and greed of
politically empowered middle-men. This had even led to an extended
outbreak of food riots in the recent past. Nothing about this survey,
and about the government’s reaction to it, is new or cause for any
fresh hope.
Deep declarations
What the PM talked about when he talked about love
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s declaration of “deep love” among
Indians for the president of the United States of America, George W.
Bush, needs to be defended. Or at least put into context. As one of
the two score or so men and women — including of... | Read..
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081001/jsp/opinion/index.jsp
Decline in capital inflows as a result of ongoing global financial
turmoil may see India's foreign exchange reserves depleting by USD 39
billion during 2008-09, says a report by global banker Goldman Sachs!
US congressional blessing is the last hurdle to the Indo US Nuclear
deal and the strategical pact, which the Bush administration believes
will secure a strategic partnership with the world's largest
democracy, help India meet its rising energy demand and open up a
market worth billions! It helped the Much wanted resurgence of Indian
market, finance and money as well!
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday scheduled a vote for
Wednesday evening on a deal to end the three-decade ban on US civilian
nuclear trade with India, a Senate aide said.
President George W Bush wants to secure the agreement before he leaves
office on January 20 and the State Department has mounted an all-out
effort, including phone calls and visits to the Capitol by Rice, to
win passage.
The deal passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 298-117 on
Saturday and the Democrats who control the Senate appeared to have
overcome opponents within their own party.
Extending its gains for the second straight day the Bombay Stock
Exchange benchmark Sensex today regained the 13,000-point level on the
back of positive trends in global markets amid renewed hopes that US
lawmakers would reach an agreement on bailout plan for financial
markets.
The US Senate will tonight try to resurrect the Bush Administration's
stricken $700 billion financial rescue passage when it votes on a
revised version of the Bill.
The aim is to pressure the House of Representatives to reverse its
stunning rejection of the legislation on Monday.
The Senate proposal, which is believed to have broad bipartisan
support in the upper chamber, includes a number of "sweeteners" aimed
at making the colossal rescue plan more palatable to enough Democrats
and Republicans in the House to ensure that the measure can pass in a
new vote when the lower chamber reconvenes on Thursday.
John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — the Democratic vice-
presidential nominee — will all return to Washington to vote in favour
of the Senate proposal.
The vote comes amid a sense that the Dow's record one-day points drop
after the calamitous defeat of the Bill on Monday has led to a
significant shift in the public mood, and a growing realisation among
voters that the plan is not just a Wall Street bailout but a critical
rescue package for the entire US economy.
The angry calls from constituents railing against the Bill shifted
abruptly after the wreckage that followed Monday's House vote. "It's
completely in the other direction now," a spokesman for John Boehner,
the Republican House Minority Leader, said.
Chris Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee,
said that he believed the vote had sobered up some House members,
adding: "I'm told a number of people who voted 'no' yesterday are
having serious second thoughts about it."
The Senate version — aimed at winning over just 12 extra House
Republicans and Democrats needed to reverse Monday's 228 to 206 defeat
— contains more than $100 billion of tax breaks, including relief for
businesses, which is popular with the Republicans, and help for more
than 20 million middle-class taxpayers to avoid higher levies under
what is called the Alternative Minimum Tax.
To calm voter fears of bank collapses, the Senate plan would also
increase federal insurance for deposit accounts, from $100,000 to
$250,000. That element was backed by both Mr McCain and Mr Obama on
Tuesday.
In India, The BSE barometer advanced by 195.24 points to close the day
at 13,055.67, a day after it gained 265 points defying global trends.
The 30-share Sensex touched day's high of 13,203.86 after dipping to a
low of 12,697.30 in early trade.
Nevertheless, The BPO-KPO sector in India is facing the heat of the US
slowdown, particularly following recent events in the financial
markets. It involves the entire generation Next in India which is
facing an unprecedented Job Crunch as the anti national government of
India chose IT as the only avenue of Education and job Opportunities
discarding Higher education, research and development!
Businesses of a host of small and mid-sized firms have taken a further
hit in the industry since a major chunk of business comes from banking
and financial services firms in the US.
“The slowdown is going to impact the BPO firms in India. This will
eventually result in overall slowdown of the BPO industry. But now a
large pool of professionals will be able to provide quality services
to the Indian BPO-KPO industry at much lower prices,” says IDBI
Capital Market Services research head Shahina Mukadam.
According to a report released by Nasscom, the BPO and KPO industry
together generated Rs 1,160 crore revenue and provided employment to 7
lakh people in 2007-08. The share of the US in the Indian BPO-KPO
export market was 61%, making it the largest contributor to exports in
the segment in 2007.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh returned on Wednesday after
completing a hectic and significant ten-day visit to the United States
and France, during which he managed to see through the US Congress,
the passage of the Indo-US and Indo-French civil nuclear cooperation
deal. Singh also described the communal tensions in Orissa and
Karnataka as the worst of his four-and-a-half-year-long tenure as PM.
Addressing a press conference onboard his special aircraft before its
arrival in India, Dr Singh gave his views on a number of topics.
Meanwhile,Sonia Gandhi today said a bill to amend the 19th-century
land acquisition act to end the “exploitation” of farmers was being
prepared for passage in Parliament.
The Horses would hesitate to laugh on this pro farmer stance of the
Italian Neo Liberal Queen ruling India!
Who destroyed Indian Peasantry? Who introduced SEZ, Chemical Hubs,
Nuclear Parks, IT hubs, Retail Chain, GM seeds and the string of anti
farmer anti labour legislation in India? Who sold out the natural
resources to MNCs? Who launched the Indigenous Annihilation festival
in India? Who sold out National security, integrity, freedom and
sovereignty? Who destroyed Indigenous production system, livelihood
and life?
Pantnagar University is already stripped off Five Thousand Acres of
land meant for research and development. Tata Motors has been gifted
One Thousand Acres already @ just One Rupee per unit. It wants more!
West Bengal is dying to protect Tata`s interest at any cost!
What if the European Union on Wednesday imposed one of its highest
ever cartel fines on a `paraffin mafia'' accused of fixing prices and
markets for everyday household products like chewing gum, tires and
candles!
My we ever think to punish Corporates and the MNCs? The builders and
Promoters? May we dare to stop kickbacks and swiss bank accounts?
But, it is all about the European solidarity that a group of nine
paraffin wax producers were ordered to pay fines totaling almost
euro700 mn (almost US$1 bn) for forcing European consumers to pay more
because paraffin was kept at artificially high prices.European
Commission Neelie Kroes said the cartel leader was Sasol Ltd. of South
Africa but also included such multinationals as ExxonMobil, Repsol,
Shell and Total. Paraffin wax is obtained from petroleum and is used
in candles, wax paper, cosmetics and many other products.The overall
total of euro676 mn (US$967 mn) is the fourth highest fine ever and
the fine slapped on Sasol of euro318.2 mn ($455.12 mn) was the fourth
largest for an individual company.
You might remember how Taslima was evicted out of India during
Nandigram Insurrection! The Ruling Marxists are just waiting to see
the Storm of Insurrection diluted and Over in Singur, so that Tata
Motors may launch Nano!
Here you are, Riz Love Tragedy Grave is uncovered just for another
subversion to feed the Sensation eating Media! Three IPS officers were
sent to jail to invite crying News breaks sidelining Singur and Mamata
Bannerjee! The officers got released next day!
Media reported: market strikes back! How did it strike? Is the
internal strength intact? The growth! Replicating DOWS ditto is
converted and the SENSEX has become independent of Global market. The
Bailout plan of Paulson was rejected. And it seems quite a mystery how
the Global Market resurged! Well! It is no mystery as Bush got the
most wanted Periphery full of natural as well as Human Resources! It
is damn Cheap. The Weapon industry got an unprecedented lease of life
exporting Wars and Civil wars in the Third world. Americanism
prevails! It encouraged the FIIs to pump in Money in the Recession
struck Global Economy including the Indian Colony! Only the other day,
unless the Nuke deal was decided to be operationalised and Super Slave
Manmohan got signed another Nuke deal with the French, the Indian
colonial Economy was being licked by the cross Continental flames!
US Parliament showed unprecedented solidarity with tax payers! Long
live Us Democracy! Just go the Corporate Strategic Galaxy Post Modern
Manusmriti Apartheid Imperialism! go to Hell!
What a democracy we have!
Just feel the tremors of NAVRATRI NIGHTMARE!
A stampede — not terrorism — has killed 147 devotees, many of them
young, in a country where faith runs deep but not the belief in
perfecting fool-proof crowd management methods!
More people die in religious accidents than in man made or natural
calamities, in Terror strikes! No security! No Disaster management! No
arrangement to tackle such tragedies!
Who will tell this bloody Slave Government of India to pursue Hindutva
forces just managing the Pilgrimage! It is rather mandatory! Just
cease Hunting Minorities and Indigenous People on the name of God, War
against Terrorism, Development and Internal security!
Rajasthan on Wednesday observed state mourning as a mark of respect to
the devotees who lost their lives during the stamped.
The national flag atop Government buildings and installations flew at
half mast throughout the state and no entertainment programme at
official level was held anywhere.
Expressing their grief on the incident, Jodhpur Muslim youth have also
decided that they won’t celebrate Eid on October 2 and will prefer to
mourn the death of those killed in the stampede.
They feel that the tragedy that struck at the Chamunda Devi temple on
Tuesday doesn't warrant any celebration.
According to the reports, locals rushed to the spot to help with
rescue operation and take the injured to the hospital and a day later
the city is mourning.
And this section of locals have put up posters appealing to others in
their community not to celebrate on Thursday.
"We will only be offering Namaz. We have decided not to
Just remember the Indian Parliamentary Nuke opera Reality show
minutes! How the Indian people are betrayed with all sorts of fake
identities, ideologies and equations! What a horse Trade to feed the
Indian Market as well as Politics saving only the Global hegemony
interests!
Then, perhaps you might be watching the Pay ROW live and felt the
stings of the defence forces of India being furious! Extra Six
thousand corore rupees have been pumped into the War machine to defend
US interests in Indian Ocean region. No one may dare to question the
logic as it involves national security as well as blind nationalism,
the vital statics of Fascism as well as imperialism! What army gets on
default, the ration, the conveyance, the housing furnished, the drink
subsidised, the subordinate staff,were not considered at all!
The Government employees and the forces have to be tamed at any cost.
It is an age old story in every country and every time! Repression and
persecution are the best ways for sustaining any Ruling Hegemony
anywhere! In India it is Americanised! you may never dare to think of
a slightest resistance!
Addressing a farmers’ rally in this Uttar Pradesh town in the run-up
to the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress president Italian Sonia Gandhi
called for transparent land acquisition, building her arguments on the
agitation in Badalpur.
The native village of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati witnessed
protests by farmers in July this year. Congress leaders had courted
arrest in the fight for better compensation for land losers.
The Uttar Pradesh government had acquired land for developing Badalpur
into a tourist destination.
“We have prepared an amendment bill on land acquisition. I hope it
will be passed in Parliament so that farmers’ exploitation stops,”
Sonia told a mammoth gathering at a college ground.
If farmers were opposed to acquisition, she said, “uska jawab lathi
aur goli nahin hai (the answer does not lie in lathis and bullets)”.
Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda, who attended the rally, told the
farmers about the high prices his government was offering for land.
Other leaders like Ghaziabad MP Surendra Goel and Sachin Pilot asked
the farmers to raise their voice against injustice and Mayavati’s
alleged forced land acquisition.
The first right to the government’s treasury, Sonia said, was of the
farmers, workers and the poor. The UPA chairperson also referred to
the Rs 66,000-crore package announced by finance minister P.
Chidambaram in this year’s budget to bail out debt-burdened farmers.
While criticising the Mayavati government for not doing enough to
provide power and water to farmers and businessmen in urban areas,
Sonia sneaked in the nuclear deal as well.
She said once the deal was activated, power generation would increase,
which would not only help farmers and encourage new businesses but
also create employment opportunities.
What a Turnaround!
Just remember the Honeymoon days!
Congress and UPA did their best to defend the Marxist gestapo ruling
in West Bengal as the Marxist played their part to subvert Anti
Fascism Anti Imperialism movement in India. The NDA cooperated to
stall anti US Movement in this subcontinent playing the HINDUTVA card!
The Ruling Hegemony as well as the Resistance Hegemony betrayed
national Interests and bartered away Freedom and sovereignty to make
India a US Colony!
Now, jus see what Manmohan poses just after returning from his heaven,
United states of America!
As the West Bengal government makes a fresh effort to resolve the row
over Tatas' Nano car project, Prime Minister Mahnmohan Singh Wednesday
said it was not too late for a "negotiated settlement" that would be
in the interests of the farmers and the investors.
"I don't want to apportion blame," the prime minister said in a mid-
air press conference while returning from his 10-day visit to US and
France.
"But I sincerely believe that even now it is not too late to find a
negotiated settlement which would meet the concerns of those farmers
who are agitating as well as the concerns of the investors that is the
Tatas," he said.
"It's in the interest of (West) Bengal and the interest of India that
the issue should be resolved satisfactorily," Manmohan Singh said.
The prime minister's remarks came a couple of days after the West
Bengal government called an all-party meeting to find a solution to
the land row that led to the suspension of work by Tata Motors at its
Singur factory. The main opposition Trinamool Congress has, however,
threatened to boycott the parleys.
India and France signed an agreement on civil nuclear co-operation
that covers supply of reactors and atomic fuel.The deal is Delhi’s
first concrete step back into the nuclear mainstream after 34 years of
international isolation.
Sanctions had been imposed on India after the Pokhran nuclear tests of
1974, and also after the 1998 explosions. The US formed the Nuclear
Suppliers Group without whose clearance no country could procure
nuclear technology or supply of fissile material.
“We expect to finalise agreements (on civil nuclear co-operation) with
other European partners, too,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said
after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Elysee Palace
here.
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar and French foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner signed the Indo-France Civil Nuclear Co-
operation Agreement in the presence of the two leaders.
“Today we have added a new dimension to our strategic partnership by
signing an inter-governmental agreement on civil nuclear co-
operation,” Singh said.
France is the first country to open nuclear commerce with India since
the 45-member NSG exempted India from its tough guidelines on
September 6.
The Indo-US nuclear deal is still waiting for the Senate’s nod.
The deal with France will form the basis of wide-ranging bilateral co-
operation — from basic and applied research to full civil nuclear co-
operation, including reactors, fuel supply, radiation, environment
protection and nuclear fuel cycle management.
Two other agreements were signed during Singh’s two-day visit to
Paris. One relates to social security for Indian and French nationals
staying in each others’ country for up to five years. The other is on
utilising services of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
“France is the first country with whom we have entered into such an
agreement after the lifting of international restrictions on civil
nuclear co-operation with India by the NSG. I conveyed to President
Sarkozy our gratitude for France’s consistent support to our civil
nuclear initiative,” Singh said.
A statement on the agreement said both sides recognised nuclear energy
as a reliable source of sustainable and non-polluting energy, which
could make a significant contribution to meeting the global challenge
of achieving energy security.
It said both countries shared common concerns in the field of non-
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including possible links
to terrorism.
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday scheduled a vote for
Wednesday evening on a deal to end the three-decade ban on US civilian
nuclear trade with India, a Senate aide said.
The deal passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 298-117 on
Saturday and the Democrats who control the Senate appeared to have
overcome opponents within their own party.
The deal is expected to pass Congress, where it enjoys strong support
from Democrats and Republicans who want to see closer ties to India,
create jobs in the US civil nuclear industry and cultivate the small
but affluent Indian-American community.
US congressional blessing is the last hurdle to the pact, which the
Bush administration believes will secure a strategic partnership with
the world's largest democracy, help India meet its rising energy
demand and open up a market worth billions.
Critics argue the deal undermines efforts to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons and sets a precedent allowing other nations to seek to
buy such technology without submitting to the full range of global non-
proliferation safeguards.
If the agreement does not make it through Congress before lawmakers
head home to campaign for the November 4 election, it could slip until
next year.
'Landmark agreement'
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not comment on whether the
Bush administration had won over critics of the deal in the Senate but
said the agreement would cement ties between Washington and New Delhi.
"I certainly hope that it can get done because it would be a landmark
agreement for India and the United States and it would be a way to
solidify what has been an extraordinary period in which US-Indian
relations have reached the kind of deepening that is really
appropriate for two of the world's largest and great democracies," she
told reporters at the start of a meeting with Hungarian Foreign
Minister Kinga Goncz.
Accused cops in Riz case granted bail
2008-10-01 [19:12:49 hrs]
The city sessions court on Wednesday granted bail to the accused
police officers in the Rizwanur death case.
Though CBI counsel Partha Tapashi opposed the bail plea of the police
officers, Madhusudhan Dutta, judge of the city session court, granted
them interim bail in lieu of bail bond to the tune of Rs 10,000 each.
The court has also directed the accused cops not to move out of
Kolkata.
The CBI, which is investigating the case as per the order of the
Calcutta High Court, said that Rizwan, in his suicide note, had blamed
Kolkata DGP Gyanwant Singh and uncle Sayeed Rehman for torturing him.
The CBI also gave clean chit to Ashok Todi, Priyanka’s father, saying
that he was not responsible for Rizwan’s death. The CBI’s clean chit
came days after the agency filed a chargesheet in the case which also
included Todi’s name.
Initiatives were taken to expediate the process of sending the court
order to the Presidency correctional home where the accused cops have
been lodged at a room meant for the special court room inside the
correctional home.
"If the bail order directed by the judge does not reach the
correctional home in time, the accused will not be let out of the
correctional home on Wednesday. This, otherwise, will lead to the
suspension of the accused cops," said a senior police officials.
Cong retools Singur strategy
2008-10-01 [14:49:26 hrs]
The Congress on Tuesday said ancillary units should be relocated from
the Nano site, shedding its ambiguity on Singur and leaving room for
manoeuvre in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress’s demand for shifting the units was disclosed by chief
minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings after an “all-
party” meeting boycotted by the principal Opposition group.
“I find a reflection of the Trinamul Congress” in the Congress stand,
the chief minister said on a day Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi in
Delhi.
The confluence of circumstances — the Congress’s demand that could
kill the Singur project if conceded and Mamata’s meeting with the UPA
chief — fuelled speculation that the party was playing with an eye on
the approaching polls.
The Congress is said to be keeping two factors in mind: how to ensure
that its political space in Bengal is not eaten up by Trinamul and how
to avoid antagonising Mamata to such an extent that a future
understanding is not possible. In the process, if the Left — yet to be
forgiven by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for the pullout over the
nuclear deal — suffers a few anxious moments, the Congress will not
lose sleep, sources said.
Mamata has been repeatedly dubbing the Congress the CPM’s “B team”.
The Congress could not respond to the taunt convincingly for several
reasons, one of which was the ambivalent stand on Singur.
Till recently, the Congress, especially state unit president Priya
Ranjan Das Munshi, had been supporting the project though with
qualifications.
The party had also mulled disciplinary action against Subrata
Mukherjee for parti-cipating in a Mamata rally in Singur.
However, on Sunday, Das Munshi had picked out the Tatas for mild
criticism for “threatening” to pull out. The party still officially
supports the project but its demand for relocation of ancillaries is a
killer condition identical to that of Trinamul.
The chief minister suggested as much while making public the
Congress’s stand at the meeting. “It is unfortunate that the Congress
has failed to understand the nature of the project. We don’t think the
ancillaries can be relocated as that would affect the viability of the
project.”
Mukherjee refused to accept that the Congress had changed its stand.
“We are only ta- lking of shifting the ancillaries. That will, at the
most, raise the Nano’s price. What’s the big deal if the Tatas
increase the car’s price by Rs 10,000?”
Congress sources conceded that Mamata’s accusations that the Bengal
unit was a “dalal (broker)” engaged by the CPM and the Tatas to break
a “farmers’ movement” could not be ignored. “Some damage control” had
to be done, said a Congress leader.
For Das Munshi, another compulsion is Sonia Gandhi, who has opposed
Mayavati’s land acquisition plan in Uttar Pradesh.
At the meeting with Sonia, the Trinamul chief apparently asked the
Centre to intervene “decisively” in Bengal. So-nia apparently heard
her out but Congress sources later said they saw no possibility of the
demand being accepted.
Asked if anything other than Singur cropped up, Trinamul sources said:
“If two important leaders are face-to-face before an election,
obviously other matters will come up.”
The Congress feels that the CPM would not do well in the Lok Sabha
elections in Bengal and Kerala. Coupled with that, an understanding
with Mamata should help the Congress neutralise the loss of the CPM as
an outside supporter, according to the leadership.
However, Congress lead-ers said “little else” was discussed.
India will be in nuclear mainstream: Kakodkar
Sanjay Suri / CNN-IBN
Paris: Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said that
says India is not worried about losing out on the reprocessing
technology in the nuclear deal with the French.
"One has to be practical and the purpose is to enhance the electricity
generation. Through nuclear energy means that is our primary
objective. India has full comprehensive technological capability on
all aspects of nuclear fuel cycle," said Kakodkar.
When asked if none of the NSG countries will provide reprocessing
technology to India, Kakodkar said, "It's upto the NSG and we would
expect that soon, we will be in the nuclear mainstream."
Kakodkar and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner signed the Indo-
France Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in the presence of Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and French President Nicolas Sarkozy .
The agreement ended India' 34 years of nuclear isolation.
“We expect to finalise agreements (on civil nuclear co-operation) with
other European partners, too,” Singh said after talks with Sarkozy at
Elysee Palace.
Sanctions had been imposed on India after the Pokhran nuclear tests of
1974, and also after the 1998 explosions.
The US formed the Nuclear Suppliers Group without whose clearance no
country could procure nuclear technology or supply of fissile
material.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india-will-be-in-nuclear-mainstream-kakodkar/74773-2.html
RPT-UPDATE 1-India c/a deficit widens to $10.7 bln in June qtr
Wed Oct 1, 2008 8:15am IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text
[+] (Repeats story issued late on Tuesday) (Updates with details,
analyst comment)
By Anurag Joshi
MUMBAI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - India's current account deficit
<INCURA=ECI> widened to $10.72 billion in the April-June quarter from
$1.04 billion three months earlier as the sharp rise in oil prices
widened the trade gap, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the balance of payments surplus
<INBOP=ECI> in the April-June quarter was $2.24 billion, down sharply
from a surplus of $24.99 billion in January-March.
The merchandise trade deficit on a balance of payment basis widened by
more than 50 percent to $31.6 billion in April-June from $20.7 billion
in the same period last year, as high oil prices boosted the value of
imports.
"It going up does not come as a surprise. Look at oil prices in the
last quarter," said D.K. Joshi, principal economist with CRISIL.
The price of the Indian basket of crude in the fiscal first quarter
was $118.8 per barrel, compared with $66.4 per barrel in April-June
2007, the central bank said.
Oil CLc1 hit a record high above $147 a barrel in mid-July, but has
since eased under $100. India imports about 70 percent of its oil
needs, and crude is its largest import.
Invisible receipts, which includes remittances by overseas Indians and
income from software-services firms, rose to $20.85 billion from $14.4
billion in April-June 2007. Continued...
A year for markets to get back to normal?
1 Oct, 2008, 1929 hrs IST,Arun Duggal,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/A_year_for_markets_to_get_back_to_normal/articleshow/3550348.cms
We are going through the most serious global financial crisis since
the Great Depression. It is centred in the United States, but its
implications are worldwide. The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley
in the UK and financial support for Fortis in Europe highlight the
dangers of contagion.
Only concerted action by governments and monetary authorities,
particularly those of the US, can prevent a global disaster. The
crisis is as much real as it is based on the fear in the minds of
participants in the financial system. That is why the $700 billion
Troubled Asset Recovery Plan proposed by US treasury secretary Paulson
and rejected by US House of Representatives is so important. The US
government must commit large amounts of taxpayer funds and show firm
determination to solve the problem.
There were four main factors behind this crisis. One, the US had long
and continuous economic expansion with low inflation over the last 15
years, making financial markets and regulators complacent. They forgot
that there is a “business cycle”. Only 18 months ago, regulators,
particularly the US Federal Reserve, were focused
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 75
Palash Biswas
Navratri nightmare
A stampede — not terrorism — has killed 147 devotees, many of them
young, in a country where faith runs deep but not the belief in
perfecting fool-proof crowd management methods. ... | Read..
Jail jolt to Rizwan officer
Ajoy Kumar today became the first IPS officer to be sent to jail in
Bengal in recent memory. ... | Read..
Act or fact? Over to you, your honour
If you have proficiency in English, some knowledge of cricket and do
not “imagine anything in the mind”, are you an actor? ... | Read..
Suicide glare on bosses
Police are on the lookout for two managers of Nokia, the telecom
company, to investigate allegations that they drove a young engineer
to death. ... | Read..
TIME FOR A MEAL
In West Bengal, people have to die, preferably in noticeably large
numbers, of having nothing to eat before the government starts talking
about starvation. Then, too, most of the talk is about how the deaths
are caused by disease rather than starvation, never mind if the
diseases themselves — tuberculosis or dysentery — are because of acute
scarcity of food forcing people to live on ants’ eggs or even just
soil. This time, it is a survey by the government itself that has
decided to come clean with West Bengal’s shocking starvation
statistics — with the familiar hedging, of course, around what exactly
to call the phenomenon. Around five lakh people, most of them above 60
years old, live in “starvation-like” conditions. (What, one wonders,
is the difference between living as if one were starving and actually
starving? Is the former better, or less uncomfortable for the
government, than the latter?) The concentration of the starved,
according to the survey, is in the districts that have been
intermittently in the news, for years, precisely for this reason. And
something else that is not new is the junior panchayat and rural
development minister’s knee-jerk, and entirely ad hoc, offer of a
solution in the form of serving one or two cooked meals to those who
prove themselves to be in such a condition.
Brazen denial of the facts, short-term and politically advantageous
solutions, and refusing to look at the larger systemic factors have
always constituted the Left Front government’s familiar and expected
reaction to starvation. Be they the displaced tribals of Amlashol or
the out-of-work labourers and their families in north Bengal’s tea-
gardens, the government has chronically refused to deal with the
situation by addressing the fundamental causes of why people are
failing to provide themselves with food. This time, the irony is in
the fact that the very panchayats that have failed to make the public
distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
work among the rural poor are now planning to provide meals to the
starving, or the quasi-starving. From the distribution of below-
poverty-line or job cards, to the deflecting of the PDS rice to the
open market, both systems are mired in the corruption and greed of
politically empowered middle-men. This had even led to an extended
outbreak of food riots in the recent past. Nothing about this survey,
and about the government’s reaction to it, is new or cause for any
fresh hope.
Deep declarations
What the PM talked about when he talked about love
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s declaration of “deep love” among
Indians for the president of the United States of America, George W.
Bush, needs to be defended. Or at least put into context. As one of
the two score or so men and women — including of... | Read..
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081001/jsp/opinion/index.jsp
Decline in capital inflows as a result of ongoing global financial
turmoil may see India's foreign exchange reserves depleting by USD 39
billion during 2008-09, says a report by global banker Goldman Sachs!
US congressional blessing is the last hurdle to the Indo US Nuclear
deal and the strategical pact, which the Bush administration believes
will secure a strategic partnership with the world's largest
democracy, help India meet its rising energy demand and open up a
market worth billions! It helped the Much wanted resurgence of Indian
market, finance and money as well!
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday scheduled a vote for
Wednesday evening on a deal to end the three-decade ban on US civilian
nuclear trade with India, a Senate aide said.
President George W Bush wants to secure the agreement before he leaves
office on January 20 and the State Department has mounted an all-out
effort, including phone calls and visits to the Capitol by Rice, to
win passage.
The deal passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 298-117 on
Saturday and the Democrats who control the Senate appeared to have
overcome opponents within their own party.
Extending its gains for the second straight day the Bombay Stock
Exchange benchmark Sensex today regained the 13,000-point level on the
back of positive trends in global markets amid renewed hopes that US
lawmakers would reach an agreement on bailout plan for financial
markets.
The US Senate will tonight try to resurrect the Bush Administration's
stricken $700 billion financial rescue passage when it votes on a
revised version of the Bill.
The aim is to pressure the House of Representatives to reverse its
stunning rejection of the legislation on Monday.
The Senate proposal, which is believed to have broad bipartisan
support in the upper chamber, includes a number of "sweeteners" aimed
at making the colossal rescue plan more palatable to enough Democrats
and Republicans in the House to ensure that the measure can pass in a
new vote when the lower chamber reconvenes on Thursday.
John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — the Democratic vice-
presidential nominee — will all return to Washington to vote in favour
of the Senate proposal.
The vote comes amid a sense that the Dow's record one-day points drop
after the calamitous defeat of the Bill on Monday has led to a
significant shift in the public mood, and a growing realisation among
voters that the plan is not just a Wall Street bailout but a critical
rescue package for the entire US economy.
The angry calls from constituents railing against the Bill shifted
abruptly after the wreckage that followed Monday's House vote. "It's
completely in the other direction now," a spokesman for John Boehner,
the Republican House Minority Leader, said.
Chris Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee,
said that he believed the vote had sobered up some House members,
adding: "I'm told a number of people who voted 'no' yesterday are
having serious second thoughts about it."
The Senate version — aimed at winning over just 12 extra House
Republicans and Democrats needed to reverse Monday's 228 to 206 defeat
— contains more than $100 billion of tax breaks, including relief for
businesses, which is popular with the Republicans, and help for more
than 20 million middle-class taxpayers to avoid higher levies under
what is called the Alternative Minimum Tax.
To calm voter fears of bank collapses, the Senate plan would also
increase federal insurance for deposit accounts, from $100,000 to
$250,000. That element was backed by both Mr McCain and Mr Obama on
Tuesday.
In India, The BSE barometer advanced by 195.24 points to close the day
at 13,055.67, a day after it gained 265 points defying global trends.
The 30-share Sensex touched day's high of 13,203.86 after dipping to a
low of 12,697.30 in early trade.
Nevertheless, The BPO-KPO sector in India is facing the heat of the US
slowdown, particularly following recent events in the financial
markets. It involves the entire generation Next in India which is
facing an unprecedented Job Crunch as the anti national government of
India chose IT as the only avenue of Education and job Opportunities
discarding Higher education, research and development!
Businesses of a host of small and mid-sized firms have taken a further
hit in the industry since a major chunk of business comes from banking
and financial services firms in the US.
“The slowdown is going to impact the BPO firms in India. This will
eventually result in overall slowdown of the BPO industry. But now a
large pool of professionals will be able to provide quality services
to the Indian BPO-KPO industry at much lower prices,” says IDBI
Capital Market Services research head Shahina Mukadam.
According to a report released by Nasscom, the BPO and KPO industry
together generated Rs 1,160 crore revenue and provided employment to 7
lakh people in 2007-08. The share of the US in the Indian BPO-KPO
export market was 61%, making it the largest contributor to exports in
the segment in 2007.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh returned on Wednesday after
completing a hectic and significant ten-day visit to the United States
and France, during which he managed to see through the US Congress,
the passage of the Indo-US and Indo-French civil nuclear cooperation
deal. Singh also described the communal tensions in Orissa and
Karnataka as the worst of his four-and-a-half-year-long tenure as PM.
Addressing a press conference onboard his special aircraft before its
arrival in India, Dr Singh gave his views on a number of topics.
Meanwhile,Sonia Gandhi today said a bill to amend the 19th-century
land acquisition act to end the “exploitation” of farmers was being
prepared for passage in Parliament.
The Horses would hesitate to laugh on this pro farmer stance of the
Italian Neo Liberal Queen ruling India!
Who destroyed Indian Peasantry? Who introduced SEZ, Chemical Hubs,
Nuclear Parks, IT hubs, Retail Chain, GM seeds and the string of anti
farmer anti labour legislation in India? Who sold out the natural
resources to MNCs? Who launched the Indigenous Annihilation festival
in India? Who sold out National security, integrity, freedom and
sovereignty? Who destroyed Indigenous production system, livelihood
and life?
Pantnagar University is already stripped off Five Thousand Acres of
land meant for research and development. Tata Motors has been gifted
One Thousand Acres already @ just One Rupee per unit. It wants more!
West Bengal is dying to protect Tata`s interest at any cost!
What if the European Union on Wednesday imposed one of its highest
ever cartel fines on a `paraffin mafia'' accused of fixing prices and
markets for everyday household products like chewing gum, tires and
candles!
My we ever think to punish Corporates and the MNCs? The builders and
Promoters? May we dare to stop kickbacks and swiss bank accounts?
But, it is all about the European solidarity that a group of nine
paraffin wax producers were ordered to pay fines totaling almost
euro700 mn (almost US$1 bn) for forcing European consumers to pay more
because paraffin was kept at artificially high prices.European
Commission Neelie Kroes said the cartel leader was Sasol Ltd. of South
Africa but also included such multinationals as ExxonMobil, Repsol,
Shell and Total. Paraffin wax is obtained from petroleum and is used
in candles, wax paper, cosmetics and many other products.The overall
total of euro676 mn (US$967 mn) is the fourth highest fine ever and
the fine slapped on Sasol of euro318.2 mn ($455.12 mn) was the fourth
largest for an individual company.
You might remember how Taslima was evicted out of India during
Nandigram Insurrection! The Ruling Marxists are just waiting to see
the Storm of Insurrection diluted and Over in Singur, so that Tata
Motors may launch Nano!
Here you are, Riz Love Tragedy Grave is uncovered just for another
subversion to feed the Sensation eating Media! Three IPS officers were
sent to jail to invite crying News breaks sidelining Singur and Mamata
Bannerjee! The officers got released next day!
Media reported: market strikes back! How did it strike? Is the
internal strength intact? The growth! Replicating DOWS ditto is
converted and the SENSEX has become independent of Global market. The
Bailout plan of Paulson was rejected. And it seems quite a mystery how
the Global Market resurged! Well! It is no mystery as Bush got the
most wanted Periphery full of natural as well as Human Resources! It
is damn Cheap. The Weapon industry got an unprecedented lease of life
exporting Wars and Civil wars in the Third world. Americanism
prevails! It encouraged the FIIs to pump in Money in the Recession
struck Global Economy including the Indian Colony! Only the other day,
unless the Nuke deal was decided to be operationalised and Super Slave
Manmohan got signed another Nuke deal with the French, the Indian
colonial Economy was being licked by the cross Continental flames!
US Parliament showed unprecedented solidarity with tax payers! Long
live Us Democracy! Just go the Corporate Strategic Galaxy Post Modern
Manusmriti Apartheid Imperialism! go to Hell!
What a democracy we have!
Just feel the tremors of NAVRATRI NIGHTMARE!
A stampede — not terrorism — has killed 147 devotees, many of them
young, in a country where faith runs deep but not the belief in
perfecting fool-proof crowd management methods!
More people die in religious accidents than in man made or natural
calamities, in Terror strikes! No security! No Disaster management! No
arrangement to tackle such tragedies!
Who will tell this bloody Slave Government of India to pursue Hindutva
forces just managing the Pilgrimage! It is rather mandatory! Just
cease Hunting Minorities and Indigenous People on the name of God, War
against Terrorism, Development and Internal security!
Rajasthan on Wednesday observed state mourning as a mark of respect to
the devotees who lost their lives during the stamped.
The national flag atop Government buildings and installations flew at
half mast throughout the state and no entertainment programme at
official level was held anywhere.
Expressing their grief on the incident, Jodhpur Muslim youth have also
decided that they won’t celebrate Eid on October 2 and will prefer to
mourn the death of those killed in the stampede.
They feel that the tragedy that struck at the Chamunda Devi temple on
Tuesday doesn't warrant any celebration.
According to the reports, locals rushed to the spot to help with
rescue operation and take the injured to the hospital and a day later
the city is mourning.
And this section of locals have put up posters appealing to others in
their community not to celebrate on Thursday.
"We will only be offering Namaz. We have decided not to
Just remember the Indian Parliamentary Nuke opera Reality show
minutes! How the Indian people are betrayed with all sorts of fake
identities, ideologies and equations! What a horse Trade to feed the
Indian Market as well as Politics saving only the Global hegemony
interests!
Then, perhaps you might be watching the Pay ROW live and felt the
stings of the defence forces of India being furious! Extra Six
thousand corore rupees have been pumped into the War machine to defend
US interests in Indian Ocean region. No one may dare to question the
logic as it involves national security as well as blind nationalism,
the vital statics of Fascism as well as imperialism! What army gets on
default, the ration, the conveyance, the housing furnished, the drink
subsidised, the subordinate staff,were not considered at all!
The Government employees and the forces have to be tamed at any cost.
It is an age old story in every country and every time! Repression and
persecution are the best ways for sustaining any Ruling Hegemony
anywhere! In India it is Americanised! you may never dare to think of
a slightest resistance!
Addressing a farmers’ rally in this Uttar Pradesh town in the run-up
to the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress president Italian Sonia Gandhi
called for transparent land acquisition, building her arguments on the
agitation in Badalpur.
The native village of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati witnessed
protests by farmers in July this year. Congress leaders had courted
arrest in the fight for better compensation for land losers.
The Uttar Pradesh government had acquired land for developing Badalpur
into a tourist destination.
“We have prepared an amendment bill on land acquisition. I hope it
will be passed in Parliament so that farmers’ exploitation stops,”
Sonia told a mammoth gathering at a college ground.
If farmers were opposed to acquisition, she said, “uska jawab lathi
aur goli nahin hai (the answer does not lie in lathis and bullets)”.
Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda, who attended the rally, told the
farmers about the high prices his government was offering for land.
Other leaders like Ghaziabad MP Surendra Goel and Sachin Pilot asked
the farmers to raise their voice against injustice and Mayavati’s
alleged forced land acquisition.
The first right to the government’s treasury, Sonia said, was of the
farmers, workers and the poor. The UPA chairperson also referred to
the Rs 66,000-crore package announced by finance minister P.
Chidambaram in this year’s budget to bail out debt-burdened farmers.
While criticising the Mayavati government for not doing enough to
provide power and water to farmers and businessmen in urban areas,
Sonia sneaked in the nuclear deal as well.
She said once the deal was activated, power generation would increase,
which would not only help farmers and encourage new businesses but
also create employment opportunities.
What a Turnaround!
Just remember the Honeymoon days!
Congress and UPA did their best to defend the Marxist gestapo ruling
in West Bengal as the Marxist played their part to subvert Anti
Fascism Anti Imperialism movement in India. The NDA cooperated to
stall anti US Movement in this subcontinent playing the HINDUTVA card!
The Ruling Hegemony as well as the Resistance Hegemony betrayed
national Interests and bartered away Freedom and sovereignty to make
India a US Colony!
Now, jus see what Manmohan poses just after returning from his heaven,
United states of America!
As the West Bengal government makes a fresh effort to resolve the row
over Tatas' Nano car project, Prime Minister Mahnmohan Singh Wednesday
said it was not too late for a "negotiated settlement" that would be
in the interests of the farmers and the investors.
"I don't want to apportion blame," the prime minister said in a mid-
air press conference while returning from his 10-day visit to US and
France.
"But I sincerely believe that even now it is not too late to find a
negotiated settlement which would meet the concerns of those farmers
who are agitating as well as the concerns of the investors that is the
Tatas," he said.
"It's in the interest of (West) Bengal and the interest of India that
the issue should be resolved satisfactorily," Manmohan Singh said.
The prime minister's remarks came a couple of days after the West
Bengal government called an all-party meeting to find a solution to
the land row that led to the suspension of work by Tata Motors at its
Singur factory. The main opposition Trinamool Congress has, however,
threatened to boycott the parleys.
India and France signed an agreement on civil nuclear co-operation
that covers supply of reactors and atomic fuel.The deal is Delhi’s
first concrete step back into the nuclear mainstream after 34 years of
international isolation.
Sanctions had been imposed on India after the Pokhran nuclear tests of
1974, and also after the 1998 explosions. The US formed the Nuclear
Suppliers Group without whose clearance no country could procure
nuclear technology or supply of fissile material.
“We expect to finalise agreements (on civil nuclear co-operation) with
other European partners, too,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said
after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Elysee Palace
here.
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar and French foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner signed the Indo-France Civil Nuclear Co-
operation Agreement in the presence of the two leaders.
“Today we have added a new dimension to our strategic partnership by
signing an inter-governmental agreement on civil nuclear co-
operation,” Singh said.
France is the first country to open nuclear commerce with India since
the 45-member NSG exempted India from its tough guidelines on
September 6.
The Indo-US nuclear deal is still waiting for the Senate’s nod.
The deal with France will form the basis of wide-ranging bilateral co-
operation — from basic and applied research to full civil nuclear co-
operation, including reactors, fuel supply, radiation, environment
protection and nuclear fuel cycle management.
Two other agreements were signed during Singh’s two-day visit to
Paris. One relates to social security for Indian and French nationals
staying in each others’ country for up to five years. The other is on
utilising services of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
“France is the first country with whom we have entered into such an
agreement after the lifting of international restrictions on civil
nuclear co-operation with India by the NSG. I conveyed to President
Sarkozy our gratitude for France’s consistent support to our civil
nuclear initiative,” Singh said.
A statement on the agreement said both sides recognised nuclear energy
as a reliable source of sustainable and non-polluting energy, which
could make a significant contribution to meeting the global challenge
of achieving energy security.
It said both countries shared common concerns in the field of non-
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including possible links
to terrorism.
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday scheduled a vote for
Wednesday evening on a deal to end the three-decade ban on US civilian
nuclear trade with India, a Senate aide said.
The deal passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 298-117 on
Saturday and the Democrats who control the Senate appeared to have
overcome opponents within their own party.
The deal is expected to pass Congress, where it enjoys strong support
from Democrats and Republicans who want to see closer ties to India,
create jobs in the US civil nuclear industry and cultivate the small
but affluent Indian-American community.
US congressional blessing is the last hurdle to the pact, which the
Bush administration believes will secure a strategic partnership with
the world's largest democracy, help India meet its rising energy
demand and open up a market worth billions.
Critics argue the deal undermines efforts to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons and sets a precedent allowing other nations to seek to
buy such technology without submitting to the full range of global non-
proliferation safeguards.
If the agreement does not make it through Congress before lawmakers
head home to campaign for the November 4 election, it could slip until
next year.
'Landmark agreement'
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not comment on whether the
Bush administration had won over critics of the deal in the Senate but
said the agreement would cement ties between Washington and New Delhi.
"I certainly hope that it can get done because it would be a landmark
agreement for India and the United States and it would be a way to
solidify what has been an extraordinary period in which US-Indian
relations have reached the kind of deepening that is really
appropriate for two of the world's largest and great democracies," she
told reporters at the start of a meeting with Hungarian Foreign
Minister Kinga Goncz.
Accused cops in Riz case granted bail
2008-10-01 [19:12:49 hrs]
The city sessions court on Wednesday granted bail to the accused
police officers in the Rizwanur death case.
Though CBI counsel Partha Tapashi opposed the bail plea of the police
officers, Madhusudhan Dutta, judge of the city session court, granted
them interim bail in lieu of bail bond to the tune of Rs 10,000 each.
The court has also directed the accused cops not to move out of
Kolkata.
The CBI, which is investigating the case as per the order of the
Calcutta High Court, said that Rizwan, in his suicide note, had blamed
Kolkata DGP Gyanwant Singh and uncle Sayeed Rehman for torturing him.
The CBI also gave clean chit to Ashok Todi, Priyanka’s father, saying
that he was not responsible for Rizwan’s death. The CBI’s clean chit
came days after the agency filed a chargesheet in the case which also
included Todi’s name.
Initiatives were taken to expediate the process of sending the court
order to the Presidency correctional home where the accused cops have
been lodged at a room meant for the special court room inside the
correctional home.
"If the bail order directed by the judge does not reach the
correctional home in time, the accused will not be let out of the
correctional home on Wednesday. This, otherwise, will lead to the
suspension of the accused cops," said a senior police officials.
Cong retools Singur strategy
2008-10-01 [14:49:26 hrs]
The Congress on Tuesday said ancillary units should be relocated from
the Nano site, shedding its ambiguity on Singur and leaving room for
manoeuvre in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress’s demand for shifting the units was disclosed by chief
minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings after an “all-
party” meeting boycotted by the principal Opposition group.
“I find a reflection of the Trinamul Congress” in the Congress stand,
the chief minister said on a day Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi in
Delhi.
The confluence of circumstances — the Congress’s demand that could
kill the Singur project if conceded and Mamata’s meeting with the UPA
chief — fuelled speculation that the party was playing with an eye on
the approaching polls.
The Congress is said to be keeping two factors in mind: how to ensure
that its political space in Bengal is not eaten up by Trinamul and how
to avoid antagonising Mamata to such an extent that a future
understanding is not possible. In the process, if the Left — yet to be
forgiven by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for the pullout over the
nuclear deal — suffers a few anxious moments, the Congress will not
lose sleep, sources said.
Mamata has been repeatedly dubbing the Congress the CPM’s “B team”.
The Congress could not respond to the taunt convincingly for several
reasons, one of which was the ambivalent stand on Singur.
Till recently, the Congress, especially state unit president Priya
Ranjan Das Munshi, had been supporting the project though with
qualifications.
The party had also mulled disciplinary action against Subrata
Mukherjee for parti-cipating in a Mamata rally in Singur.
However, on Sunday, Das Munshi had picked out the Tatas for mild
criticism for “threatening” to pull out. The party still officially
supports the project but its demand for relocation of ancillaries is a
killer condition identical to that of Trinamul.
The chief minister suggested as much while making public the
Congress’s stand at the meeting. “It is unfortunate that the Congress
has failed to understand the nature of the project. We don’t think the
ancillaries can be relocated as that would affect the viability of the
project.”
Mukherjee refused to accept that the Congress had changed its stand.
“We are only ta- lking of shifting the ancillaries. That will, at the
most, raise the Nano’s price. What’s the big deal if the Tatas
increase the car’s price by Rs 10,000?”
Congress sources conceded that Mamata’s accusations that the Bengal
unit was a “dalal (broker)” engaged by the CPM and the Tatas to break
a “farmers’ movement” could not be ignored. “Some damage control” had
to be done, said a Congress leader.
For Das Munshi, another compulsion is Sonia Gandhi, who has opposed
Mayavati’s land acquisition plan in Uttar Pradesh.
At the meeting with Sonia, the Trinamul chief apparently asked the
Centre to intervene “decisively” in Bengal. So-nia apparently heard
her out but Congress sources later said they saw no possibility of the
demand being accepted.
Asked if anything other than Singur cropped up, Trinamul sources said:
“If two important leaders are face-to-face before an election,
obviously other matters will come up.”
The Congress feels that the CPM would not do well in the Lok Sabha
elections in Bengal and Kerala. Coupled with that, an understanding
with Mamata should help the Congress neutralise the loss of the CPM as
an outside supporter, according to the leadership.
However, Congress lead-ers said “little else” was discussed.
India will be in nuclear mainstream: Kakodkar
Sanjay Suri / CNN-IBN
Paris: Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said that
says India is not worried about losing out on the reprocessing
technology in the nuclear deal with the French.
"One has to be practical and the purpose is to enhance the electricity
generation. Through nuclear energy means that is our primary
objective. India has full comprehensive technological capability on
all aspects of nuclear fuel cycle," said Kakodkar.
When asked if none of the NSG countries will provide reprocessing
technology to India, Kakodkar said, "It's upto the NSG and we would
expect that soon, we will be in the nuclear mainstream."
Kakodkar and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner signed the Indo-
France Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in the presence of Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and French President Nicolas Sarkozy .
The agreement ended India' 34 years of nuclear isolation.
“We expect to finalise agreements (on civil nuclear co-operation) with
other European partners, too,” Singh said after talks with Sarkozy at
Elysee Palace.
Sanctions had been imposed on India after the Pokhran nuclear tests of
1974, and also after the 1998 explosions.
The US formed the Nuclear Suppliers Group without whose clearance no
country could procure nuclear technology or supply of fissile
material.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india-will-be-in-nuclear-mainstream-kakodkar/74773-2.html
RPT-UPDATE 1-India c/a deficit widens to $10.7 bln in June qtr
Wed Oct 1, 2008 8:15am IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text
[+] (Repeats story issued late on Tuesday) (Updates with details,
analyst comment)
By Anurag Joshi
MUMBAI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - India's current account deficit
<INCURA=ECI> widened to $10.72 billion in the April-June quarter from
$1.04 billion three months earlier as the sharp rise in oil prices
widened the trade gap, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the balance of payments surplus
<INBOP=ECI> in the April-June quarter was $2.24 billion, down sharply
from a surplus of $24.99 billion in January-March.
The merchandise trade deficit on a balance of payment basis widened by
more than 50 percent to $31.6 billion in April-June from $20.7 billion
in the same period last year, as high oil prices boosted the value of
imports.
"It going up does not come as a surprise. Look at oil prices in the
last quarter," said D.K. Joshi, principal economist with CRISIL.
The price of the Indian basket of crude in the fiscal first quarter
was $118.8 per barrel, compared with $66.4 per barrel in April-June
2007, the central bank said.
Oil CLc1 hit a record high above $147 a barrel in mid-July, but has
since eased under $100. India imports about 70 percent of its oil
needs, and crude is its largest import.
Invisible receipts, which includes remittances by overseas Indians and
income from software-services firms, rose to $20.85 billion from $14.4
billion in April-June 2007. Continued...
A year for markets to get back to normal?
1 Oct, 2008, 1929 hrs IST,Arun Duggal,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/A_year_for_markets_to_get_back_to_normal/articleshow/3550348.cms
We are going through the most serious global financial crisis since
the Great Depression. It is centred in the United States, but its
implications are worldwide. The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley
in the UK and financial support for Fortis in Europe highlight the
dangers of contagion.
Only concerted action by governments and monetary authorities,
particularly those of the US, can prevent a global disaster. The
crisis is as much real as it is based on the fear in the minds of
participants in the financial system. That is why the $700 billion
Troubled Asset Recovery Plan proposed by US treasury secretary Paulson
and rejected by US House of Representatives is so important. The US
government must commit large amounts of taxpayer funds and show firm
determination to solve the problem.
There were four main factors behind this crisis. One, the US had long
and continuous economic expansion with low inflation over the last 15
years, making financial markets and regulators complacent. They forgot
that there is a “business cycle”. Only 18 months ago, regulators,
particularly the US Federal Reserve, were focused
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