• US President George Bush called on India to abolish all caps on investment and sought its help to get the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations to complete by end of the year. Bush asked India for more transparency in corporate governance rules and insisted that India's leadership was required to open up world markets. He promised to help India achieve a second green revolution just as it did help India in the 1960s food assistance program. He revealed a USD 100 million knowledge initiative in agriculture.

• Addressing a joint meeting of Indo-US CEOs, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram called for more investments, technology, process, and management experience from the US. He highlighted that India has been rated as the second best destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) after China but said that it has been rated as the best long-term investment ahead of China. He bemoaned that of the USD 37 billion investments flowing into India, only USD 5 billion is from the US. He said that both figures are insufficient if India is to continue to grow at 8-10% a year. US-India CEOs' Forum co-Chairman William Harrison said that the lack of excitement in investment in India is because of "poor energy supply, roads, airports, ports, the core infrastructure, and bureaucracy." He said, "it is hard to get approvals, permits, and in the legal system, the process is slow and cumbersome and it takes a long time for settlement of disputes." Announcing a plan to set up a USD 5billion infrastructure fund to make Mumbai a financial hub, he called on India to "reduce restrictions on foreign investment, especially banking, insurance, and retail." The forum identified 6 priority areas of co-operation including movement of people between the two countries; national coordination on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforcement in India; reforms in power sector including advanced education and technological cooperation; government-to-government co-operation on the civilian nuclear energy plan; faster clearance on pending legislation to liberalize oil and gas sector; and removal of FDI restriction in banking, insurance, and retail.

• A consortium of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries, and Great Eastern Energy Corporation discovered 6 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves below the coal seams. The first commercial production of these blocks is expected to start from 2007.

Democracy, Politics and Judiciary

• Talking to an invited audience, US President George Bush pitched democracy strongly and called India and the US "brothers in the cause of human liberty" and the countries have the "power to transform the world." Speaking at the historic Purana Qila, he attacked policies of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Syria, Zimbabwe, and Cuba saying that their peoples "yearn for their liberty." He insisted that the US and India cannot "pretend that people of these countries prefer their own enslavement" and asked India to join the US to "stand with reformers and dissidents." He said that the world is "hungry for democracy" and India and asked it to "work directly" with countries with incipient democracies. Applauding the Indian success with democracy and its rule of law, he said, "If justice is the goal, democracy is the way." 

• The Justice Banerjee Commission concluded that the fire on a train at Muslim town Godhra in 2002 that killed 59 Hindu volunteers and sparked reprisal attacks on Muslims elsewhere was an accident.  The Government of India appointed former Supreme Court Justice Banerjee in September 2004 to investigate into claims that the Godhra incident was a terrorist attack targeting Hindu volunteers returning from Ayodhya in February 2002. Dismissing this theory, Banerjee said that four exit doors were not locked and of the 250 people in the coach that burnt down only 59 died from toxicity and suffocation caused by rexin, foam, and other inflammable materials. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad dismissed the whole investigation as “eyewash” aimed to gain minority sympathies and brush aside justice.

• NASA has said that the Antarctic has shrunk by about 152 cubic kilometers annually from April 2002 to August 2005 raising the sea water level by 1.2 millimeters. The research conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder used data from the NASA/German Aerospace Centre Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) said that Antarctic was the largest reservoir of water and this loss is equivalent to the amount used by the US in 3 months.

• Editorial : Regulate Ship Breaking Business

• Visiting US President George Bush attacked terrorism in the name of religion saying that the al Qaeda had misjudged the Indian and American resolve to fight it. Speaking for both countries, he said, "we love our freedom and we will fight to keep it." He also thanked the Indian Navy for escorting high value US ships through the Straits of Malacca and applauded the intense bilateral defense co-operation. As partners in the war on terror, he vowed, "we will win this war together." Bush revealed that he would discuss terrorism with Pakistan and insist that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf do more on terror. Major US newspapers castigated Musharraf on his lack of action on terror and have asked Bush not to trust him.