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Saturday, January 14, 2006



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Business & Economy

  • The Indian Government divested 8% of its stake in Maruti Udyog Limited to raise Rs.15.67 billion. It sold its stake to 8 Government-owned financial institutions. The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was the largest investor picking up 5.81% of Maruti increasing its overall investment in Maruti to 9.26%.

  • An International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) study that studied 21 nations for biotech (BT) use has ranked India as the 7th highest biotech adopter. Globally, India also experienced the greatest growth for any BT crop in 2005. Specifically, cotton production grew by 160% with a 160% increase in the acreage used for cotton. It is not clear how BT contributed to the increase in production. Several states including Adhra Pradesh and Maharashtra saw farmers losing entire crops due to defective or ineffective BT seeds. Environment NGOs are demanding that Government ban field trials of second generation seeds from US major Monsanto as it violates bio-safety standards. They accuse the Government of hiding information and lack of monitoring of usage and safety norms. They, along with farmer groups, also want seed companies to be held accountable for crop failure. Of the 21 known genetically engineered consumables, 13 have been illegally tested in unknown locations. Crop failure is one of the reasons for high suicide among farmers and experimental farming increases the chances of crop failure, which could lead to higher number of suicides. 

  • Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Munshi stated announced that the Indian and Saudi Governments are signing a bilateral agreement on investment and protection. The Saudi Arabian King Abdullah will be the Chief Guest at the India Republic Day Parade this year. India has many contentious issues with Saudi Arabia including the sanctuary that country provides to terrorists who operate in India. The recent terrorist incident at the Indian Institute of Science was conceptualized and financed by a Saudi citizen. Rich old Saudi men also visit India to "marry" poor Indian Muslim girls only to abandon them shortly after their marriage. Some have even been arrested for trafficking under age girls and boys for work as sex slaves or for camel racing. A sizeable Indian expatriate community lives in and every year large Haj pilgrims visit Saudi Arabia.

Environment  and Health

  • The Egyptian Government has halted the convoy tugging condemned French warship Clemenceau before it could enter the Suez Canal. They have faxed a letter to the French and Indian Governments asking for certificates that the shipment was not in breach of the Basel Convention of 1989 that proscribes the trans-national transportation of toxic wastes. Clemenceau is on its way to the Alang ship waster yard in Gujarat and is suspected to be carrying 45 (French estimates) to 1000 tons (independent environment company estimates) of asbestos known to be cancerous and banned in France. France, India, and Egypt are signatories of the Basel Convention. France and India disagree on the interpretation of the Basel Convention; France says that warships are not included and India disagrees. The Indian state of Gujarat wants to dismantle the ship and it is profitable. The Federal Government and the Supreme Court do not want the ship in India saying the downside overweighs the potential income of USD 600 million. Two Green peace activists boarded the ship and put up notices asking the Egyptian Government to hold firm and not allow the ship to proceed to India. If the French Government does not respond the ship will be deemed "illicit." In that case, the Egyptian Government will be stuck with disposing the ship and could cause a major diplomatic furor.

Terrorism, Defense and Security

  • Federal Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee has publicly chided the Indian Army for not using the funds for weapons acquisition. Unlike the Navy & air Force, the Army has used only 43% of the budget meant for defense capital purchases. Under new Finance Ministry directive to prevent expense bunching, Government ministries may not spend more than 33% of defense outlays in a single quarter. Ministries, which do not spend the money, need to return the allocations to the Government. It is not clear why the Army has not spent the money. In the past, lack of political involvement, understanding, consensus, and scandals have delayed defense spending and procurement. These delays have been so pronounced that it had seriously eroded defense preparedness.

  • British prosecution officials accused jailed Egyptian priest Sheikh Abu Hamza of preaching terrorism and of possessing a "terror manual." The Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad was written between 1989 and 1999 with chapters dedicated to Osama bin Laden. This how-to manual contains detailed instructions to make bombs, sabotage, assassinate, and infuse terror. It recommends popular buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and Statue of Liberty apart from crowded public areas such as skyscrapers, ports, airports, nuclear plants, and football stadiums as potential targets. The prosecution said that they would produce taped sermons of the priest encouraging listeners in private and public to kill saying it is their "religious duty." While Hamza has denied all charges, mainstream Muslims see the rabid priest, who had lost both hands in a "jihad" campaign, as an embarrassment and campaigned against his provocative speeches..

 

Hot Topics

Tiger Census

Patenting Indian Knowledge 

Recent Supreme Court Verdicts

Forest Management

IISc Terrorist Attack

Indo-Pakistan bilateral relations

Iran - Russia Talks

ASEAN Summit

UNSC Expansion Plan

Featured Analyses

The Saga of the Jemaah Islamiah

Indonesia has continuously been embarrassed by the terror acts of a handful of terrorists from the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a group with definite Indonesian origins and made up mostly by members of Indonesian nationality.

Will Kashmir go the way of Aceh?
A Cry for Help
Watch the Dragon
Cage This "Tiger"
Dalits in India
Was Jinnah a Secularist?
Burying the Howitzer?
Smoking Out Smoking
The French Non

Featured Edits

Pinning General to specifics
View from the Left
Kickback where it hurts
Reading the Muslim mind
Gun with the wind
Inscription
South Indian Inscriptions

Ancient Indian dynasties documented their administration, significant developments, grants, and milestones as inscriptions in temples. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has documented these inscriptions from 1886. These pages contain inscriptions from Pallava, Chola, Pandya, Western Chalukya, Eastern Chalukya, Rashtrakuta, Hoyasala, Vijayanagara, Vishnukundin, Kakatiya, Reddi, Vaidumba, Chinda, Eastern Ganga, Gajapathi, Kalchurya, Qutb-Shahi of Golkonda, and Moghul,  dynasties.

Neighbors

  • Officials from Britain, France, and Germany will meet those from the United States, Russia, and China next week to discuss options to deal with a recalcitrant Iran. Iran spurned international demands not to resume its nuclear research at Nantz. It now looks more likely that the issue will be referred to the United Nations Security Council, which may impose punitive sanctions on Iran.

  • In the largest attack since Maoist terrorists broke their unilateral ceasefire, over 1000 armed men attacked Government buildings about 650 kilometer west of Katmandu. Although early reports said that 10 soldiers were missing, the Royal Nepal Army spokesman refuted this data saying they have lost no men. The terrorists attacked army barracks, police posts, district administration offices, land revenue offices, and district education office in Dhangadi municipalities are of Kallali district.

  • A powerful explosion ripped state-owned gas pipelines in southwestern Baloach province of Pakistan. Although no group has taken responsibility for the explosion, police sources blame Baloach fighters resisting Pakistani rule in Baloachistan. The Pakistani army, using helicopter gun ships, combat aircraft, and artillery, is fighting pitched battles against Baloach tribes.

  • Sri Lankan army officials say that they shot down a suspected Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam operative who threw a grenade into an army encampment. However, a human rights group sympathetic to the LTTE says that the individual killed is a civilian. The group also claims that the Sri Lankan army has killed 45 civilians since November 20, 2005. They also say that 20 civilians have disappeared. However, it is virtually impossible to confirm these claims as differing groups often claim human rights violations by the other side to gain domestic and international sympathy or political mileage. The LTTE is under intense international diplomatic pressure to honor their ceasefire commitment and return to peace talks with the Sri Lankan Government. In another incident, a claymore mine killed 9 and wounded Sri Lankan sailors. President Mahinda Rajapakse continued his "no retaliation" policy except in self-defense. 

  • Speaking at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, the Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said that the theories of containment, conflict of interest, and balance of power between the countries are outdated. He said both countries are too large to contain each other or to be contained by others. He said that the simultaneous rise of both countries made it imperative for greater understanding and sensitivity to each other's goals and aspirations. He highlighted that the strategic dialogue underway between the nations highlighted the long-term, strategic, and global character of their relationship pointing to a shared conviction of co-operative partnership for peace and prosperity. He said India hope to work closely with China for the creation of an Asian Economic Community and on non-proliferation issues. Following discussions in China, he also said that India expected China's support for its bid to be a veto-power wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

  • Federal Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that India and China signed a framework that would allow state-owned oil and gas companies can evolve and submit joint bids for acquisition of assets overseas. The two countries fought bitterly to acquire oil fields in Kazakhstan, Angola, and Nigeria with only the seller benefiting from the sale. The framework extended beyond bidding for assets to joint exploration for gas in each other's potential spots, sharing of information, oil recovery, refining, marketing, transmission, and trans-national pipeline construction. He said that India is bidding for hydrocarbon assets in 50 countries and while competition between the two cannot be ruled out, co-operation is what is expected.

  • Retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal of the United Service Institutions of India said that the Pakistan army had suffered huge losses from the earthquake. As many as 2500 soldiers including 3 brigadiers, 15 battalion commanders, and a large number of junior commissioned officers are believed to have died in the earthquake. The tremors that claimedn75000 lives have nearly destroyed most of the army's artillery positions and air defense systems. Based on radio intercepts and human intelligence input, this report cautioned that real number substantially higher. Nearly 40% of Pakistan’s half-a-million army is stationed in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan.

World

  • In a significant move that will bring it closer to mainstream politics in Palestine, the Islamist terrorist group Hamas has deleted a clause in its manifesto seeking the destruction of Israel. Since 1988, Hamas had been involved in suicide bombs that killed thousands of civilians and soldiers in Israel. The move, within 15 days of Palestinian elections, is seen as a compromise to get Israel to accept their participation in elections. The United States, a major player in this election, wants Hamas with 33% of popular support to participate in elections but give up terrorism after elections. It is unknown if this move is part of a compromise package initiated by the United States.

  • Writing in the latest issues of the US Army's Military Review magazine, senior British officer Brig. Nigel Aylwin-Foster has accused the US military of institutionalized racism. He is the second most senior officer responsible for training Iraqi security forces. He said that American soldiers steeped in patriotism are "almost unfailingly courteous and considerate" but sometimes there "cultural insensitivity, almost certainly inadvertent, arguably amounted to institutional racism." He said the US army is more oriented toward offensive operations that look to eliminate or capture the enemy as a "strategic goal in its own right." Describing troops as passionate, talented, and dutiful, he said that “bureaucracy, a stiflingly hierarchical outlook, and a predisposition to offensive operations” are weighing them down.

  • Visiting US Senator and potential Democratic Party candidate for next American Presidential elections John Kerry said that he expected that the Indo-US nuclear deal would also include a fissile-material cut-off outcome. He indicated that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised him that India would sign the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) as one is ready. Speaking at a press conference, he said that the Indo-US nuclear deal needs approval in the United States Congress and would find greater support if the Indian law on nuclear non-proliferation was included in the deal. Citing clear cases of Pakistan's A.Q Khan nuclear proliferation network and Chinese proliferation to Pakilst6an and North Korea, he said the US efforts at non-proliferation have been ineffective and fallen into disrepair. As an implicit nuclear power, he said that India has to join the US, EU, Russia, and China to take the Iranian nuclear threat and standoff seriously.. 

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