• Indian oil major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) revealed plans to start a joint venture with steel baron Lakshmi Mittal to buy energy stakes around the work valued at USD 15 billion. ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd will buy energy blocks to meet oil and natural gas requirements by a tornado Indian economy. ONGC Chairman Subir Raha also revealed plans to start production of natural gas from a deep-sea platform on the Krishna Godavari basin to produce one million standard cubic meters per day (mscmd) before summer and a full production of 2.7 mscmd by mid-2007. This is the first time India is tapping gas from a deep-sea platform; the present 69 mscmd comes from on-land and shallow water fields. The company will increase its domestic oil exploration budget by 18% to USD 3.5 billion. Since 2001-2002 when Raha started running the company, the exploration budget has grown by 300%. Oil production from the Mumbai High offshore oilfields will be less than 1 million tons because of the fire in Mumbai High that destroyed the platform. By June 2006, ONGC expects to produce 275,000 barrels a day to produce 29.09 million tons in the next fiscal year.

Democracy, Politics and Judiciary

• Uttar Pradesh (UP), a safe haven for terrorists, Ministers offering bounty for murders, and Ministers offering to transport heroin, and Ministers and Chief Minister colluding to manipulate the judiciary is throwing up a different Constitutional challenge. The Election Commission (EC) of holding has charged a former cine actress elected to the Rajya Sabha an “office of profit” would mean an automatic disqualification. Jaya Bachan, wife of a well-known actor who was in the news for income tax default and evasion, is also Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Corporation, which is considered an “office of profit.” If disqualified, other prominent members such as UP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, senior Samajwadi Party (SP) functionary involved in the judiciary manipulation issue will likely face expulsion. The SP has been casting aspersions on the EC terming the notice has a political bias. The Chief Election Commissioner B.B. Tandon said that it is “below our dignity to comment on these remarks and dismiss with the contempt it deserves.” In the meanwhile, UP Assembly passed a legislation that will remove 79 positions out of the “office of profit” list just to benefit Bachan and Singh; the bill will mostly likely be struck down in the courts as unconstitutional.

• A senior British Foreign Office source warned that Iran could only be months away from developing a nuclear bomb technology although it could take years to develop a serviceable nuclear weapon. Iran claims that it is interested only in energy related nuclear technologies but most countries and analysts do not believe that claim. At present Iran has 85 tons of uranium fuel at Ishafan and has installed 3000 centrifuges at Natanz. Last year, Iran started processing small quantities of nuclear fuel at Natanz underground complex using 20 centrifuges. British officials say that a military option to destroy the Natanz facility is not under discussion but the US and Israel is not ruling out use of force to get Iran to comply. Iran warned the US not to take military action saying that it will inflict “hurt and pain.” 

• Editorial: The Nepal Stalemate

• Editorial: Iran's Nuclear Program