Business and Economy

• The visiting French President Jacques Chirac said that an audacious plan is in motion to double Indo-French trade in 5 years. Addressing corporate leaders of the two countries at the Indo-French Economic Partnership Meet, he said, "With a growth of 7-8 per cent, market of hundreds of millions of consumers, and purchasing power multiplied by five in 25 years, India constitutes one of the world's main engines of growth." He said he wanted to raise the "economic relations to the same level as our excellent political relations."

Democracy, Politics and Judiciary

• A retired General who served 44 years in the Army has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court against the controversial survey of Muslims in secular Government organizations. Charging the Government with vote-bank politics he says that the survey will destroy the integrity, camaraderie, morale, and professionalism. Earlier the court had summoned the Election Commission, the Federal Government, and Press Council of India. Some political parties oppose such surveys when the results seem to go against them. Newspapers and magazines support surveys because of ideology or political party affinity. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbalakshmi Jagadeesan said the Government said that there is no proposal to introduce reservations based on religion. Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asserted that merit will be the sole basis for recruitment in the defense forces.

Environment, Health and Education

• The Government claimed that the outbreak of bird flu virus is localized to an area of 3 to 10 kilometers and that all precautionary measures have been taken. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar asserted that a series of "strategic" steps had been initiated after the outbreak such as notification of affected areas, ban on the movement of poultry or its products in and out of the areas, closure of poultry and egg markets and shops, destruction of affected poultry, and proper disposal of carcasses. He said that the Federal Government has rushed vaccines, tamiflu tablets for humans, and protective handling equipment to Maharashtra where the incidence took place. He also said that the Federal Government would share the cost burden with the state Government; farmers have variously rebuked the Rs. 60 per bird offered by the Government. Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramdoss claimed that no human has been infected even when farmers died of “unknown causes” in the area. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka Governments claimed that they were not affected and they and other states have barred import of poultry from neighboring Maharashtra. The Government banned the retail sale of tamiflu so hoarders may not scalp those who need the drug urgently. While all SAARC countries have banned the import of Indian poultry, there is no talk of co-operation, co-ordination, or containment of the pandemic.  Indian veteran scientist and National Commission on Farmers M.S. Swaminathan advocated an autonomous monitoring body that can coordinate a response to not just this pandemic but other disease too. EU Agriculture Ministers were meeting in Brussels to coordinate action to fight the pandemic even as 250 German soldiers were deployed to join specialists in gathering dead birds, culling infected ones, and disposing the carcasses. Despite stringent measures by Nigeria, it confirmed that the virus has spread to three other northern states. Malaysia and Honk Kong reported isolated cases but no human infestation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), heating the chicken for 70 degrees centigrade will make the meat safe for consumption. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the Government of concealing the veracity of the outbreak and questioned the Government's alertness to a disease known to be spreading for the last 2 years. While this may be good populist question, a better one would have been to question the measures taken by the Government to monitor, manage, report, and control the epidemic before it broke out. The Health Minister has irresponsibly asked people to continue consuming poultry asserting that the disease is localized. Migratory birds and trade of infected poultry carry the disease and while the movement may have been restricted the Government is yet to determine the root cause for the outbreak. If it had been migratory birds then there is absolutely no way that they can claim it being localized. If it is born from trade, it still needs to answer where the disease originated and all the places that have received the infected poultry.

• Editorial : Regulate Ship Breaking Business

Terrorism, Defense, Security and Science & Technology

• An Improvised Explosive Device exploded in Ahmedabad railway station injuring 25 people. Hidden between crates of soft drinks, the crude device with about 1 kilogram of RDX was set off by a timer shattering glass 50 meters away. No one has taken responsibility and police says the absence of pungent odor of gunpowder was not noticeable and forensic experts are analyzing shrapnel of the device.

• The US Government will soon request new funds to develop a new long-range missile that can carry nuclear and conventional warhead. The new missile is intended to be used on Ohio-class submarines and is intended for use against "rogue states" especially underground sites such as in Iran.

Neighbours

• Iran vowed to pursue its nuclear research even if it goes through the civil nuclear deal with Russia with will entail a joint venture to enrich uranium for Iran in Russia. This statement in Brussels by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dampened hopes that the issue will be resolve with the Russian agreement. Russia is insisting that Iran re-implement the Paris Agreement; reinstate the moratorium on nuclear enrichment, before it starts the joint venture project. Iran sees the nuclear program as a national ambition and the pressure from the international community as a national rebuke and said it has given up on the EU-3 (Britain, France, and Germany) negotiations.

• A major rally of a 7-party alliance rejected Nepal King Gnanendra's call to come together to restart the stalled democracy. Terming the call "artificial," they said that call was "meaningless" and accused Gnanendra of political manipulation and autocratic rule.  

• Editorial: The Nepal Stalemate

• Editorial: Iran's Nuclear Program