India,
China border talks begin
Beijing:
India and China began a crucial round of border negotiations
on Thursday with both sides keen to find a mutually acceptable
solution to the vexed issue, a foreign news agency reported.
The fourth round of talks, at the level of Special Representatives,
is being held between Indian National Security Adviser J
N Dixit and the Chinese Executive Vice-Foreign Minister
and designated Special Representative, Dai Bingguo. The
in-camera parleys, being held at the leafy Diaoyutai State
Guest House will last for at least two days, official sources
said while being tight-lipped about the prospects of a breakthrough
on the issue.
Networking
of rivers can benefit in many ways: Kalam (Go
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Mumbai:
President APJ Abdul Kalam today said that networking
of rivers in the country would help in power generation,
providing adequate water for drinking purposes as well as
agriculture and most significantly in employment generation.
The President was interacting with the students of Bhartiya
Vidya Bhavan's Gandhi Institute of Computer Education and
Information Technology here. "Once the river networking
is done, it would help in power generation, water for drinking
and agriculture. It also has a vast employment generation
potential," he said. To tackle the situation of flood and
drought in different parts of the country, the President
suggested, "There is a proposal to direct the surplus waters
to drought prone areas once the networking is done. If the
proposal is implemented then this would be the largest programme
in the world and through which there will be 20 per cent
growth in forest cover in the country." Kalam also said
that the physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity
of the villages would help in improving the economic conditions
of the rural areas. "With launch of a sattelite uniquely
configured for educational purpose on September 24 a great
thing has happened in India that will connect schools and
colleges throughout the country enabling good teachers to
impart education to large number of students," he added.
Chidambaram
turns tables on CPI(M) over fuel price hike (Go
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by Gautam Ghosh
Kolkata:
Reeling under constant pressure from the left parties
for a rollback of the recent hike in fuel prices, the Congress-led
UPA government has sought to turn tables on them by suggesting
a reduction in sales tax on the petroleum products by the
Left Front government in Bengal.The suggestion, put forward
by union finance minister P. Chidambaram at a conference
of Economic Editors in Delhi yesterday, has made his West
Bengal counterpart Asim Dasgupta somewhat jittery in view
of the state's current financial stringency. Dasgupta, who
has declined to comment on Chidambaram's suggestion, intends
to take up the matter with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
shortly, but feels all the states have to take a decision
together since Bengal alone can not "unilaterally reduce
the sales tax on petroleum products." Dasgupta has also
reiterated that the Centre should try to re-adjust fuel
prices by reducing import duties.
The latest increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and
cooking gas has brought the Centre and the left parties
almost on a collision course. The Centre's subsequent announcement
on a partial rollback of the petrol price has failed to
satisfy the CPI(M) leadership who appears determined to
extract from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a similar assurance
regarding diesel and LPG prices at the UPA's meeting with
the coordination committee on November 24. The hardening
in the Marxists' stand vis-a-vis the Centre's economic agenda
is also apparent from CPI(M) politburo member and its Bengal
secretary Anil Biswas' threat to re-consider the party's
support to the Congress-led government at the Centre. Biswas
was unusally harsh on the UPA government while addressing
a public rally in South 24 Parganas yesterday. The CPI(M)
leader even warned that his party would not be responsible
if the UPA government met the NDA's fate for persuing "anti-
people policies." Bhattacharjee almost echoed Biswas at
a women's conference at Bhubaneswar the same day.
According
to informed sources, the CPI(M) is apprehending a sharp
rise in the rate of inflation in the near future due to
the fuel price increase. The party is also wary of its political
repercussions since the UPA government is dependent on its
support. The Marxists feel the hike in the prices of petroleum
products has overshadowed "the positive impact" of the UPA's
common minimum programme as the people are yet to benefit
from its long-term effects. The Left Front government's
partial success in foling an opposition party-sponsored
state-wide bandh yesterday has not solved the real issue
over which the strike was called. The bandh, called by the
Socialist Unity Centre of India, an anti- CPI(M) left outfit,
witnessed almost normal attendance in government and private
offices. It also indicated the people's growing reluctance
to enjoy a forced holiday during bandhs.
The Calcutta high court's order regarding a salary cut of
the absentee government employees and its threat to ensure
de- recognition of the political parties calling bandhs
have no doubt come in handy for the state government for
the time being. But the CPI(M), which has been responsible
for organising a number of bandhs during the past two and
a half decades of the Left Front rule, does not appear ready
to welcome the high court's anti- bandh stand. For, the
party knows that a change of guard at the Centre in future
may alter the political scenario in which it may have to
take recourse to strikes and bandhs as a weapon against
its adversaries. As far as West Bengal is concerned, the
Marxists are worried about both the economic effects and
political fallout of the Centre's policies.The CPI(M)'s
stranglehold on the administration has been a convenient
weapon in the party's armour to win poll battles. However,
the CPI(M) has been hard put to explain its position vis-a-vis
the Centre's policies to the people of Bengal. Trinamul
Congress, which has given a bandh call on December 3 to
protest the fuel price hike, has been holding the Marxists
"equally responsible for the people's current hardship."
The Marxists' attempts to counter this campaign have so
far been ineffective.
US
would like to build on ties with India (Go
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Washington:
The US enjoys a strong relationship with India, and
it would like to build upon that relationship with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in President George Bush's second
stint, the White House has said. The statement assumes significance
even as it has come a couple of days after the change in
US Secretary of State. US' National Security Adviser Condoleeza
Rice had replaced Colin Powell on Monday. White House Press
Secretary Scott Mc Clellan said that the change of Secretary
of State would not affect Washington's efforts for promoting
peace in South Asia, especially between India and Pakistan.
Acknowledging Powell's role in brokering peace between the
two South Asia nations, Mc Clellan said that all possible
efforts would be made to continue the erstwhile Secretary's
policy. "We will continue to work on those efforts and encourage
dialogue between the parties. There has been some good progress
made in that respect," the Dawn quoted him as saying.
Govt.
cautiously serious about bank mergers (Go
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by Ashok Dixit
New
Delhi: The UPA Government or more particularly the Ministry
of Finance, it seems, is quite serious about taking up the
issue of bank mergers in the near future, but senior ministry
officials said that this would have to be addressed in a
step-by-step and a cautious way. These views were aired
at a dinner hosted by Union Finance Minister P.Chidamabaram
in honour of economic editors attending a two-day annual
conference in the Indian capital. The dinner was held in
the Convention Hall of the Ashoka Hotel. Preferring to engage
in relaxed and informal group discussions rather than one-to-one
tete-a-tete's, senior officials like N.S.Sisodia, Secretary
(Financial Sector), Ashok Lahiri, the finance minister's
chief economic adviser, and others spoke on a wide variety
of issues such as moves to initiate reforms in the nationalised
banking sector, the visit of World Bank President James
Wolfensohn and his missive to the Indian leadership, the
public's gradual shift and preference back to public sector
banks rather than private banks, the impact on branding
and prominent brand names on festivals like Dussehra, Durga
Puja and Diwali and how this was negatively impacting on
a business class that still favoured the traditional way
to celebrate these occasions, and other issues.
On the question of bank
mergers, the officials said that the ministry or the government
could take between three to six months to come out with
a policy decision on how to go about the mergers, which
they added, would largely depend on the "appropriate" marriage
of partners. They said that as such the government was not
pushing for the mergers, but was assessing the possibility
of amending the Banking Companies (Regulation) Act and the
Bank Nationalisation Act that was passed in the 1970s. In
the context of bank-related operations, the officials accepted
the few that service-related flaws existed in private sector
banks, and that the public shift back towards public sector
banks in the hope of reasonably good services, is a reality.
On whether steps would be taken to address some of the anomalies
in private sector banks, the response was non-commital.
The interaction also focussed on the impact of branding
on traditional events like Dusshera, Durga Puja and Diwali
or even on daily shopping excursions.
Optus
heads for India (Go
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Sydney:
Singaporean-owned technology conglomerate Optus has
confirmed its plans to shift to India for some of its call
centre work. According to a report in The Australian, Optus
CEO Paul O'Sullivan is said to have taken this decision
after reviewing the company's call centre operations. O'Sullivan,
however, said that no local jobs would be lost. "When we
first discussed this publicly last year, we said - and reaffirm
today - that the planned changes do not mean redundancies
for any of Optus' permanent staff," the paper quoted O'Sullivan
as saying in a statement. The call centre in India would
have an initial capacity of 150 seats, but this is expected
to grow. Operations will commence by mid-to-late next year.
The company presently employs about 3500 call centre workers
in Australia. Optus had shortlisted Indian partners for
the venture, O'Sullivan said, adding that details would
be revealed only after negotiations were complete. "Optus
is growing at a rapid rate and we expect over the next five
to 10 years to double in size. This places pressure on us
to continue improving our service while cutting our costs,"
O'Sullivan said.
