June 2006
01 June 2006
Patna, June 1 (IANS) Boys and girls from socially disadvantaged sections in Bihar have cleared the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT JEE) on merit.
Like last year, success came to the door of Patna-based Ramanujam School of Mathematics, where these youngsters worked hard day and night for nearly eight to 10 months.
The youths were part of "Super 30" - a group of 30 students, mainly from poor and rural backgrounds who are given free coaching, food, accommodation and other facilities by young mathematician Anand Kumar and a senior police official, ADG (headquarters) Abhyanand.
This year, 28 of the 30 students - with nearly half of them from the other backward classes (OBCs) and three from the Scheduled Castes (SCs) category - made it to IIT JEE.
Last year, 26 were selected, while 22 made it in 2004 and 18 cracked the test in 2003, when Super 30 was born.
Interestingly, these students have shown their abilities to compete in the general category at a time when anti-quota stir is underway across the nation to protest central government's decision to provide 27 percent reservation for OBCs in higher educational institutions.
"They were selected in the general category, thanks to their hard work and proper guidance," Anand Kumar, who belongs to the OBC, said.
Take for instance Kumar Dipankar, who studied in a Hindi-medium school in Chapra district, ranked 486 in the all-India entrance exam in the general category despite being an SC, he said.
"We encourage and promote boys and girls from poor and socially disadvantaged sections of society to reach the top," he said adding that he hoped to achieve a 100 percent success rate next year.
Super 30 is supported with the income generated from the Ramanujam School of Mathematics, said Anand Kumar, who could not take admission at the Cambridge University for want of money a few years ago.
Super 30 is situated at Jhakkanpur, a lower middle-class, crime-infested locality in Patna.
By Prasun Sonwalkar,
London, June 1 (IANS) Leading British academics have condemned the forced closure of noted Indian artist M.F. Husain's exhibition and criticised Hindu groups in Britain for putting pressure on the organisers.
The exhibition, called M.F. Husain: Early Masterpieces 1950-70s, was to run at Asia House until Aug 5 but was cancelled following protests by the Hindu Forum of Britain against some paintings that allegedly violated Hindu sentiments.
Moreover, two of Husain's paintings depicting Hindu goddesses were defaced by three men with black spray paint in what is being called the first act of Hindu extremism in Britain. The damage to the paintings was reported to be to the tune of 200,000 pounds.
Officially, Asia House cancelled the exhibition for "for security reasons".
In a letter to The Guardian, 43 academics and researchers, most of them of Indian origin, alleged that groups such as the Hindu Forum of Britain and Hindu Human Rights "are wielding the same tactics used by organisations in India".
"These groups are known for repeatedly attacking the works of artists and intellectuals, undermining India's constitutional right to freedom of thought and expression...As scholars of South Asia and its rich traditions of artistic, social, religious and political expression, we condemn the forced closure of the exhibition," the letter stated.
The academics, led by Chetan Bhatt of Goldsmiths College, London, said: "The Hindu Forum of Britain and Hindu Human Rights accuse Asia House of not 'consulting' with them before putting on the exhibition.
"Consultation should not be a requirement for artistic expression. These are unelected groups, not known for consulting democratically with the community before putting pressure on others in the name of Hinduism.
"Their actions would not be sanctioned by most Hindus. Hindu traditions have an extensive history of diverse representations of deities, include nude and erotic images of gods and goddesses. Hinduism has never possessed a concept of censorship of the kind that these authoritarian groups wish to promote."
The academics said they urged Asia House to reopen the exhibition - by doing so it would honour the rich and diverse traditions of expression arising from Hinduism and from India.
In a separate communication to The Guardian, Lord Meghnad Desai wrote: "Hindu goddesses can be seen in a variety of poses which many may find erotic in the temples of Khajuraho and Tirupati and many others.
"Hindu society and religion are remarkably relaxed and tolerant about sexual practices of human beings as well as of their gods and goddesses. What we are witnessing is the import into the UK of a group which under the guise of Hindu human rights is practising censorship for which there is no sanction in Hindu religion.
"In my view the objection to Husain is not the so-called obscenity of his paintings. It is because he is a Muslim and hence the desire of some Hindu groups to deny his artistic freedom to take Hindu gods and goddesses as his theme.
"This is an outrageous attack on artistic freedom in the British context. Would the media have ignored such an event had the protesters been Muslims and not Hindus?"
Nairobi/Brussels, June 1 (IMI) The internal situation in Chad is deteriorating rapidly, and spill-over from the Darfur crisis is only part of the reason.
Chad: Back towards War?, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the country’s growing instability. Sudan’s deliberate use of Chadian warlords in its counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur and as a tool in its attempts to topple President Idriss Déby is just one aspect of Chad’s woes. The ever deeper convergence of the two crises underlines the difficulty of settling one independently of the other. But Chad’s troubles are equally the result of Déby’s brittle semi-authoritarian regime, and the charade of the 3 May presidential election only made things worse.
“The absence of domestic political space has militarised all political differences in Chad�, says David Mozersky, Crisis Group Senior Analyst.
Déby’s sixteen-year rule has been marked by coup attempts and rebellions that were either suppressed with extreme violence or partially settled by expelling dissident elements to Sudan and the Central African Republic. Chad has known relative peace but never reconciliation, since renegotiating the social contract would have weakened the militarily dominant groups and opened a political process Déby did not control.
The April 2006 rebel offensive brought Chad to the brink of all-out civil war. The victory Déby ultimately achieved in pushing the United Front for Democracy and Change (FUCD) back from the gates of the capital, N’Djamena, to its Darfur sanctuary settled nothing militarily and highlighted the political fragility of the regime. The army’s success was primarily due to French logistical and intelligence support.
The armed opposition to Déby has three significant groups: the FUCD, headed by Mahamat Nour, which receives strong Sudanese support; the Zaghawa dissident groups, under the Rally of Democratic Forces (RaFD) umbrella and chaired by Timan Erdimi, a former director of Déby’s cabinet; and the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), established in 1998 and operating in the extreme north along the Libyan border under the command of Mahmat Choua Dazi.
This armed opposition, however, reflects only the aspirations of marginal or minority groups in the population. A regime change by force in such a context would bring neither stabilisation nor a democratic opening.
There are about 70 political parties, the most significant of which joined in 2002 to create the Coordination of Political Parties for the Defence of Democracy (CPPDD), and civil society has become increasingly organised.
“Chadians share a common aspiration for security, in particular an end to ubiquitous police and army harassment, and a national dialogue that permits a political opening and transparent elections�, says Suliman Baldo, Africa Program Director.
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday flayed India's decision to join a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline deal and New Delhi's alleged pro-US tilt in foreign policy.
In an editorial, the latest issue of its organ "People's Democracy" said the Indian decision showed that the Congress-led government was "giving priority to US strategic interests and sidelining the Iran pipeline project which is more suited for our energy requirements".
It said the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) project was "uncertain and illusory" and there were serious doubts about the availability of gas in the long-term for such a project. As against this, Iran had abundant gas reserves.
"If the Iran pipeline is considered 'insecure', then the TAP passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan should be doubly so.
"Thus, if this project were to materialise in the final analysis, which is highly doubtful, then it would only serve US geo-political interests in the region."
The journal said this was clear because the foreign secretary had sent a note to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas recommending the TAP project saying: "It would be in tune with the latest US strategic thinking for the region."
The CPI-M said there was suspicion that "vested political interests" did not stand to gain from the Iran pipeline project. "Their interests would be best served if India continues to depend on the market for purchase of oil rather than address its energy security by firming up pipeline projects.
"This is because spot purchase of oil facilitates lucrative kickbacks. Therefore, the 'enlightened national interests' of the country are best served if we continue to buy oil from American oil majors."
It said this episode "illustrates the new direction of India's foreign and strategic policy.
"The Manmohan Singh government expects its stance on ... these issues to be overlooked by proclaiming that it will act on 'enlightened national interests'. But the overall direction of foreign policy and the constant erosion of India's strategic autonomy will be major issues and will haunt the government in the coming days."
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) Asserting that all unauthorised constructions along the banks of the Yamuna river here would have to go irrespective of their nature, Delhi High Court Thursday ordered demolition of all illegal places of worship forthwith.
A division bench comprising judges Vijender Jain and Kailash Gambhir directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to go ahead with its demolition plan.
The bench pointed out that Section 4 of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions), 2006 - recently passed by parliament putting one-year moratorium on demolitions of unauthorised constructions and sealing of commercial premises in residential areas in the capital - allowed removal of "slums and jhuggi-jhompri dwellers... in accordance with the relevant policies approved by the central government for clearance of land required for specific public purposes".
The bench passed the order after the convener of the court-appointed Justice Usha Mehra Committee, S.M. Aggarwal, submitted that the unauthorised religious structures - mosques and temples - along the river's banks could not be removed due to the new law.
The court also ordered removal of washermen's facilities from the river banks, so as to prevent Yamuna waters from polluting with chemicals and inferior soaps used by them.
The priests who perform last rites at the crematoria on the banks would also have to go, the bench said.
The bench summoned the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of South Delhi and issued a contempt of court notice to the station house officer of the Indraprastha Estate police station for not assisting the authorities in carrying out the demolitions.
The bench directed the DCP to be present on July 20 in the court in person and explain the non-cooperation.
In its report submitted to the court, the committee said that it had been successful in getting about 5,150 jhuggies (slums) removed from the eastern bank of the river in the first week of May.
By Kazem al-Attabi
Baghdad, June 1 (DPA) Over 90 women are widowed each day in Iraq amid an escalation in sectarian violence and most of them struggle to make ends meet, having lost their family's sole bread-winner.
Life has been a struggle for 39-year-old Somaya since her husband was felled two years ago by a random bullet as he was walking in a Baghdad suburb leaving her along to bring up three children, the oldest only 11.
She lives in a small rented apartment in the Shia-dominated Al-Shoala district of western Baghdad, where she works as a vegetable vendor. Her apartment building lacks basic sanitation.
"Two years ago my husband was killed. He did not have any political activities or animosities, he was just working selling leftovers," she says.
"We were happy despite having a difficult life. Now I am alone and have to raise three kids and send them to school regularly with the little income I get from my work," she adds.
The ministry for women's affairs is unable to provide statistics on the number of widows in the country but a recent UN report, based on information from several Iraqi aid organisations, showed that around 90-100 women are widowed each day, owing to an escalation in sectarian violence.
Targeted assassinations, random killings and roadside and car bombs have become commonplace in Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led invasion and ouster of former president Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Asma al-Shabout, a women's rights activist, says the statistics provided by UN reflect the increase in violence across the country, but also noted that the country already had many young widows before the current Iraq war.
"The phenomenon dates back to the start of the wars ordered by Saddam in 1980 until he was toppled in 2003," informs al-Shabout.
Official statistics on the numbers of women widowed during Saddam Hussein's rule were never published, probably because in some cases the men died in controversial circumstances.
"Some of them (widows) were under conditions that did not allow them from demanding their rights as their husbands died by being hanged or tortured in Saddam's prisons on political or sectarian grounds," she explains.
Fa'eza Papakhan, a former Kurdish MP and activist, also sounds the alarm bell over the growing number of widows.
"Iraqi streets are experiencing lots of violence and killing, so the rate of widows is at risk of rising, something that would put the Iraqi family at risk," she says.
Papakhan believes that the problem of Iraqi widows could only be tackled by improving the security situation and by disarming the militias. "The problem of widows needs serious government intervention and real aid."
The Iraqi government has earmarked 1.5 million Iraqi dinars ($1,000) for each Iraqi widow, but some complain that only those with political connections get help.
"We did not receive any financial assistance from the government because my husband was not affiliated with any of the government bodies," laments Somaya.
By Mayank Chhaya
Actor Aamir Khan is discovering what many celebrities before him have done to their chagrin - the price of expressing a dissenting opinion in India's fractious and imperfect democracy.
In specific financial terms there is a way to put a price on Khan's dissent. "Fanaa", Khan's latest film whose release has been quasi-officially banned across Gujarat, would cost upwards of Rs.50 million (about $1 million) in losses to its makers.
The actor came under fire after he voiced support for rehabilitation of those ousted by the Narmada dam project and for his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat for its alleged failure to control violence in Vadodara after the demolition of a mosque in the city.
The issue is not so much about the financial loss as it is about Gujarat's worrisome slide into knee-jerk and abrasive intolerance of dissent. The state has for quite some time been displaying intolerance peculiar to societies in early throes of fascism. Gujaratis are by nature pragmatic and seekers of the honorable way out of any dispute.
However, that laudable characteristic has been in serious decline for the past decade or so, roughly coinciding with the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its virulent brand of politics.
The party has been strikingly successful in rallying the unusually responsive Gujarati citizenry, first around the issue of Hindutva and now around the Narmada dam.
In both cases it has subtly and not so subtly exploited the Gujarati passion for causes. Anyone who has the gumption to question the pervasive wisdom on these two issues has had to face unvarnished wrath in the state.
Dancer and social activist Mallika Sarabhai is all too familiar with her home state's visceral dislike for competing opinions. So is Narmada activist Medha Patkar. Actress Shabana Azmi too has encountered similar protests.
What compounds Khan's case is that he has chosen to express his views on both, the consequences of unbridled Hindutva and the plight of the farmers and tribal populations displaced by the dam.
That he happens to be Muslim who is speaking out against two of Gujarat's pet obsessions also fuels the fury against him.
At an intellectual level it may be a fair game to question and even deride Khan's understanding of the Narmada issue and the complex politics of water. But it is one thing to question his qualification and quite another to unleash an economic boycott against him.
In any case, Khan has as much right to express his opinion, however ill informed or half-baked, as any citizen of the country on any issue.
There is something fundamentally flawed about the street-side logic that merely because he is a hugely successful film star who gets paid tens of millions of rupees and has women of various ages swooning over him it automatically precludes him from acquiring a sound understanding of larger societal issues.
Deriding celebrities with strong opinions is not unique to Gujarat or India.
Many Hollywood stars such as George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and others have faced the same level of censure for speaking out against President George W. Bush's policies.
It is fascinating to see how the right wing of American politics mirrors the right wing of Indian politics when it comes to dissent against the establishment.
Some time ago some leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had issued an appeal to Hindus to produce more children in order not to be outnumbered by Muslims.
Recently an anchor of the rightwing Fox News issued a similar call to "white Americans" to produce more children in order not to be outnumbered by Hispanics.
The difference between the two calls is largely symbolic - one is based on religion and the other is based on skin colour. In reality both are about supremacy of a particular group. Zealots on either side of the political divide strangely sound alike because Muslim fundamentalists are known to have issued similar calls. In some ways they have even pioneered that practice.
Intolerance for dissent is a bad sign in any situation but it acquires even greater urgency when it happens in societies whose members are as industrious, economically savvy and generally intelligent as the Gujaratis are.
It is interesting that even in their political protest they have built in a strong element of economics by imposing a boycott not on just Khan's latest film but even asking video and DVD libraries to pull out his earlier films.
There was news even about the protesting organisations, which are predominantly offshoots of the BJP, preventing movie fans from going to Mumbai and watching "Fanaa". If this is not an onslaught on individual freedom reminiscent of what early fascists did, then what is?
It has been argued with some legitimacy that outsiders confuse the loony political fringe with the people of Gujarat generally when it comes to issues such as Hindu-Muslim tensions.
However, what reinforces the impression that a substantial number of Gujaratis are becoming intolerant of any opinion other than their own is the fact that too few others speak out.
In this context the failure of the state unit of the Congress party is galling. Here is a political organisation which so handsomely mined the Gujarati passion for lofty causes during India's independence movement in the early 20th century is now looking askance as the debate has been hijacked.
To its credit the BJP has been successful in articulating some of the popular feelings on the question of Hindu-Muslim relations and how skewed government policies have become in favour a certain pressure group. There is validity to the party's refrain that celebrity activists of a certain hue pick and choose the wrongs they want to champion as opposed to speaking out against all wrongs.
Shouldn't Aamir Khan or Shabana Azmi or Mallika Sarabhai or Arundhati Roy feel as aggrieved and as exercised when Hindus die in Kashmir is the question frequently asked. Sure they should and they most likely do. But that is the essential part of the freedom to choose your causes and express your opinion about in any democracy.
Gujarat has always been at the vanguard of major national causes. It has the intrinsic ability to choose the right causes. Banning "Fanaa" because Aamir Khan spoke out in favour of farmers is a cause not even worthy of being ridiculous.
(Mayank Chhaya is a Chicago-based journalist.)
Beijing, June 1 (Xinhua) Chinese President Hu Jintao Thursday night told US President George W. Bush in a telephonic conversation that he welcomed the US stance on resolving the Iran nuclear issue through diplomatic means and its willingness to join negotiations on the issue.
The Chinese government believes the international non-proliferation system should be maintained and the Iran issue be resolved in a peaceful way through diplomatic means and talks, Hu told Bush.
"China is ready to maintain contact and coordination with the US and play a constructive role in resuming negotiations at an early date," a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Hu as saying.
Bush told Hu that his country was determined to resolve the Iran nuclear issue through diplomatic means. He said as long as Iran agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment activities in verifiable ways, the US would join relevant negotiations.
The Iran nuclear issue is reaching a critical stage.
Earlier Thursday, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran that Iran welcomed direct talks with Washington, but would not give up its nuclear rights.
Senior representatives from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany were to meet in Vienna later Thursday to discuss the issue, China's Foreign Ministry said earlier.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo would attend the meeting, which was expected to focus on a decision to offer Iran a package of incentives in return for suspension of its nuclear activities.
The six nations achieved some progress in forming a common position at a meeting in London last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, France, Germany and Britain, or the EU-3, have been trying to work out a package of both incentives and possible penalties to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear programme.
Hu also told Bush he was ready to work with Bush to advance bilateral relations in a healthy and stable way.
Bush said it was important for both leaders to exchange ideas on strategic cooperation through such ways as telephone conversations.
By T.R. Ramakrishnan, St John's (Antigua), June 1 (IANS) Practice matches have a way of meandering to meaningless finishes and India's two-day game against Antigua and Barbuda at the Police Ground Wednesday was no exception.
Wasim Jaffer 52 (87 balls, 108 minutes, 8 fours), V.V.S. Laxman 72 (122b, 204m, 9 fours), Mohammad Kaif 53 retired (127b, 119m, 2 sixes, 5 fours) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni 60 not out (78b, 103m, 1 six, 8 fours) all had a good stint at the wicket as the Indians ended the day at 311/8 in reply to the Antigua-Barbuda score of 300.
Yuvraj Singh (20) and Rahul Dravid (5) missed out but overall the Indians were pleased to make the transition from the one-dayers to the Tests with this rather than two days of nets, as skipper Dravid said later. "It was a good hit for us," he said.
It was a quiet day around the ground. The first day's buzz was missing, there weren't as many spectators and those present weren't as vocal.
There was more noise when Andy Roberts, the great pace hero of the 70s, one whose menace and thrust began the era of domination by the West Indian quicks, entered the ground in the afternoon session.
Roberts, who sat and chatted with coach Greg Chappell and Dravid for a while, works with the Antiguan Sports Ministry, whose office is just next to the Police Recreation ground, a cream bungalow-like structure from whose elevated verandas the match could easily be witnessed.
The Sports Ministry also employs three other famous pacemen, Curtley Ambrose and Kenneth and Winston Benjamin. A trip there in the pre-lunch session in the hope of catching Ambrose proved in vain.
Instead we bumped into another officer, Hugh Gore, perched on the veranda and watching the game. And then he surprised us by asking if Sunil was coming over.
Sunil, of course, was Sunil Gavaskar and apparently he had played in the same Somerset team as Gavaskar in 1980, along with Viv Richards and Joel Garner.
Gore, a left-arm fast bowler was excited to know that Gavaskar was in the Caribbean, he was scheduled to deliver the Sonny Ramadhin Memorial Lecture in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, but we could not tell him whether the "little master" would be here in Antigua to watch the Test, starting Friday.
Wonder whether it would have mattered in any case for when asked whether he would be watching the Test, Gore replied: "Haven't been at the ground (Antigua Recreation Ground) for 12 years and there's another 12 coming."
New Delhi/Washington, June 1 (IANS) India Thursday welcomed the US' new-found "readiness" to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue with the European Union (EU) troika and urged all sides to adopt a "constructive and forward looking approach" towards the issue of Tehran's nuclear programme.
"The readiness of the US to join in the dialogue between EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) and Iran, which India has all along supported, is to be welcomed," external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said in response to a question in New Delhi.
"India has all along advocated that issues relating to Iran's nuclear programme ought to be resolved through dialogue and that confrontation should be avoided," the spokesperson added.
New Delhi urged all sides to display "flexibility and adopt a constructive and forward looking approach," and hoped that the on-going diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear standoff would reach "successful conclusion."
Sarna was alluding to US President George Bush's remarks at a press conference in Washington Wednesday about resolving the Iranian issue through "robust diplomacy."
"You are seeing robust diplomacy," Bush had commented in response to a question about US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's enunciation of the American policy towards Iran that was seen as slight softening of the earlier American insistence on imposing sanctions against Tehran.
"... I believe it's very important that we solve this issue diplomatically. And my decision today says that the United States is going to take a leadership position in solving this issue," Bush said.
"And our message to the Iranians is that, One, you won't have a weapon and, two, that you must verifiably suspend any programs, at which point we will come to the negotiating table to work on a way forward," Bush added.
In her enunciation of the re-calibrated US' policy on Iran, Rice exhorted Iran to work with the international community to inspire confidence in its nuclear programme, but made it clear that it would not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.
According to Rice, there were two options before Iran: the "negative choice" meant pursuing nuclear weapons in defiance of international obligations and the positive one to alter its present course and cooperate in resolving the issue.
Rice warned Tehran that the former option would entail "great costs" and lead to "international isolation and progressively stronger political and economic sanctions."
Britain has also "welcomed" the US' proposal to join EU-3 in any new negotiations. "The US offer will, therefore, give added weight to the proposals which Foreign Ministers will be discussing in Vienna tomorrow. I urge Iran to respond positively to this opportunity," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett Beckett said in London Wednesday.
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) India's IT and ITeS industry recorded a 33 percent growth in exports, earning $23 billion in the financial year 2005-06 as against $17.7 billion in 2004-05.
According to the annual survey of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) released here Thursday, 2005-06 saw the Indian IT-ITeS industry (including the domestic market) grow by 31 percent registering revenues of $29.6 billion, up from $22.5 billion in 2004-05.
According to the survey, exports of IT software and services grew by 33 percent, registering revenues of $13.3 billion. The ITeS-BPO segment clocked revenues of $6.2 billion, recording a growth of 37 percent.
Engineering services and product exports grew from $3.14 billion in 2004-05 to $4 billion in 2005-06. The domestic market clocked revenues of $6 billion in 2005-06, up from $4.8 billion in 2004-05.
This amounts to $23 billion in total exports.
A press release quoted Nasscom president Kiran Karnik as saying, "The excellent performance of the Indian software and services industry once again reinforces our confidence that the industry is on course to meet the projected target of $60 billion exports by 2010, as projected in the Nasscom McKinsey Report.
"This growth is also reflected in the employment trends, both direct and indirect which according to our estimates is to the tune of 4.3 million."
The Nasscom survey also projected that the overall software and services sector will grow by 25-28 percent clocking revenues of $36-38 billion in the financial year 2006-07.
IT-ITeS exports are likely to grow by 27-30 percent in 2006-07, posting revenues up to $29-31 billion, the survey stated.
"With less than 10 percent of the market currently addressed, a large market opportunity exists for the sector which will ensure sustained demand led growth.
Factors like evolution of global delivery model, unbundling of large IT outsourcing deals with larger India based delivery shares, and the large contract values due for renewal over next two years are some of the positive indicators for the sector," Karnik said.
He said that last year India's strength emerged through large client wins, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, movement of the industry towards stable pricing model and a gradual positive shift in the outsourcing debate.
At the same time, he warned that there are challenges that call for focused efforts.
"These include concerns about the quality and skill sets of graduates, infrastructure, maintaining the attractiveness of India for IT investments and steps to boost the domestic market," he said.
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) India and the US will share their security perspectives during the June 4-7 visit of Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, the highest ranking American military officer to visit here in three years.
"The visit is reflective of the growing closeness between the two countries and is part of a series of exchange visits that have been agreed upon," a defence ministry spokesman said Thursday.
A crowded schedule awaits Pace, who arrives here from Singapore on a special US Air Force jet. His predecessor, Gen. (retd) Richard B. Myers, had visited India in July 2003.
After a briefing at the US embassy June 5, Pace will lay a wreath at the eternal flame that burns for martyred soldiers at the India Gate and inspect a guard of honour before holding discussions with his host, Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash.
Prakash is the chairman of the Indian chiefs of staff committee.
Thereafter, Lt. Gen. H.S. Lidder, chief of Integrated Defence Staff, will brief Pace on "India's Security Perspective", following which US officials will brief senior Indian officers on "Regional Security Perspective".
After his meetings with Indian Army chief Gen. J.J. Singh and Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, Pace will attend a lunch hosted by Prakash.
A meeting with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has not been confirmed but Pace will call on National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.
Pace's other two engagements June 5 are a press conference at US Ambassador David Mulford's residence and an informal dinner hosted by Prakash at his official residence Navy House.
Early June 6, Pace flies to Agra for a view of Taj Mahal and then to Chandimandir, adjacent to Punjab-Haryana capital Chandigarh, for a briefing at the Indian Army's Western Command headquarters.
He will deliver an address at the United Services Institution on his return to the capital the same day. Pace departs June 7.
Pace is the third senior US military officer to visit India this year after US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Gary Roughead.
India and the US had upgraded their defence ties in June 2005 by signing a 10-year agreement that envisages stepped up military cooperation in fields like missile defence, joint weapons production and technology transfer.
Mumbai, June 1 (IANS) Indian equities crashed again Thursday because of selling pressures, notwithstanding a robust economic growth of 9.3 percent reported by the government a day before for the last quarter of the previous fiscal.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened strong at 10,472.46 points, compared with the previous day's close of 10,398.61 points and moved higher to 10,597.23 points, but soon began a southward journey.
The index finally closed at 10,071.42 points and registered a loss of 327.19 points, or 3.15 percent, over the previous day's close. As many as 28 stocks that go into the basket of 30 Sensex shares ended in the red.
The bellwether index had crashed 388.02 points or 3.60 percent Wednesday, after losing as much as 567.53 points during intra-day trading.
In the past month, the Sensex has shed 16.37 percent, mainly on account of heavy selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). It had touched an all-time high of 12,671.11 points May 11.
Among the Sensex shares, ICICI Bank and Bharat Heavy Electricals were the only gainers, while the major losers included Maruti Udyog, Hindustan Aluminium, Tata Motors, Larsen and Toubru, Hero Honda and Tata Steel.
By Mahendra Ved,
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has scored a significant point at home and abroad by demonstrating a commitment to fight terrorism with the arrest, trial and conviction of some of the most wanted Islamist militants.
The convictions of Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam, alias Bangla Bhai, leaders of the outlawed Jamiat-ul-Mujahiden Bangladesh (JMB) on charges of murdering two judges were carried out in a matter of about 10 weeks.
Even in the unlikely event of the convictions being challenged - those convicted have declared that as "soldiers of Islam" they do not acknowledge non-Islamic courts and are willing to die for their cause - the course of justice can be safely said to have been set.
Bangladesh watchers may note with satisfaction the Zia government's current approach as also the role of the police and the judiciary in bringing the killers to book. Also significant is the public revulsion that came out when the trial was on; the accused were spat upon, indicating a strong social disapproval against extremism.
The Zia government had earned much flak for denying the very presence of the militants all through the period Bangla Bhai had been functioning in and around Bheramara on the country's western flank, extorting funds, terrorising non-Muslims and spreading hatred built on an extreme version of Wahabi Islam.
With veterans of the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan involved, the activities of JMB and other Islamist outfits had attracted the concern of the media at home and in the West. Bangladesh's donor nations had warned the Zia government that it would cut off development aid if these forces, seen as part of the global terror network, were not arraigned.
Zia's domestic compulsion has been the sympathy, if not outright support, the militants had within the ruling coalition, of which a three-party Islamic Oikya Jote (Islamic unity front) is a part.
Its largest constituent, Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), has 18 members in the National Assembly of whom three are ministers, including JEI's Amir (chief) Matiur Rahman Nizami.
The JEI and the IOJ have denied any links with the militants who have been active since the 2001 victory of the alliance. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to watch the political repercussions of the conviction of eight militants.
Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party can be expected to show this high on its performance card to the critics and to the donor nations. The opposition led by her rival and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina on the other hand would still go hammer and tongs at the government, reminding that it had acted only after the Aug 17 nationwide bomb explosions.
Hasina was the target of at least two assassination attempts credited to the Islamists. For Hasina and her 14-party alliance, the battle lines would be sharper in time for the parliamentary polls due later this year.
It needs watching if Zia will follow up her resolve to fight terrorism by passing an anti-terror law, on the lines of the Homeland Act of the US, that is on the anvil and by amending the banking laws that are weak and outdated, not geared to fighting money laundering done at home and through foreign banks.
The Bangladesh Bank levied a niggardly fine of taka 100,000 ($1,440) on Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL), the largest Shariah-based bank that has 169 branches, for its alleged violation of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2002.
Such fund flows have occurred with full government knowledge through what can be considered 'legal channels'.
New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) An examination centre for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) will be opened in Saudi Arabia in the next academic year 2007, India's Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has said in Riyadh.
"The issue of equivalence of degrees will cease to be a problem very soon," the visiting minister told the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys' Association (AMUOBA), which had organised a reception in his honour Wednesday.
The education of Indian expatriates' children is an important issue for the Indian government and it would take every step to ensure that they did not face any difficulty, Singh said, according to an official release issued here.
The minister also assured the AMUOBA that the minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) would be protected. The government had initiated a number of steps to promote education among minorities, he added.
"The UPA government has ensured the minorities in India get what is legitimately due to them," the minister said.
He said while several universities had offered him honorary doctorates, he declined them and chose to accept only the doctorate awarded by the AMU, which he values and cherishes most.
The reception was attended by Indian Ambassador in Saudi Arabia M.O.H. Farook, former MP Waseem Ahmed and AMUOBA president Syed Misbahul Arifin among others.
The minister is currently on a week-long visit to the Gulf countries to discuss collaborations in the field of education and meet the top leadership of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Dubai, June 1 (IANS) More and more Indian students in Qatar, especially Doha, are opting for distance education programmes after passing their higher secondary examinations.
After clearing their Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 exams, the students are making a beeline for the various distance education programmes offered by a number of Indian universities in Qatar.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the Mahatma Gandhi university and the Kerala, Alagappa, Calicut, Kannur and Karnataka open universities are among those who have opened shop in that Gulf country.
These universities are opening their centres at local CBSE-affiliated schools like MES Indian School and Shantiniketan Indian School.
Recently, Kerala University's Institute of Distance Education opened its centre at Shantiniketan Indian School.
The courses offered include all streams - from humanities and science to commerce and business management programmes. The courses are being offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
The latest postgraduate diploma courses in child and family counselling, journalism, early childcare, educational planning, hospital administration and functional Hindi are supposed to start from this year.
"A majority of our students are those who have passed senior secondary from MES school itself," a report in the Gulf Times newspaper quoted MES Off Campus Centre administrator P. Manoharan as saying. Over 93 percent students in the Gulf cleared the CBSE Class 12 exams this year.
There has also been a significant rise in the number of girls seeking distance education programmes. The reason, according to Ahmed Ottayil, director of the National Education Centre (NEC), was that parents wanted their daughters to stay close to them.
Also, the thought of the hardships involved in procuring admission for their children back home in India has made them look at correspondence courses.
The admission process for the various courses will start this month.
Over 130,000 Indians live in Qatar and distance education is expected to provide a big boost for the education of their children.
Islamabad, June 1 (IANS) Pakistan wants to close down within three years all Afghan refugee camps that some say shelter fugitive Taliban and drug and arms peddlers.
Some of the camps, which critics maintain are also the source of disease and socio-economic problems, are a quarter century old and still house many who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, The Daily Times newspaper noted.
The government proposed to gradually close all the camps at a meeting held in Qatar's capital Doha Tuesday.
Participating in the meeting were representatives of the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - a group that governs the voluntary repatriation programme of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.
"We have prepared a strategy to close all (Afghan refugee) camps gradually over the next three years, which has been shared in the meeting with UNHCR and Afghan officials in Doha," Fehmina Taufeeq, deputy director of the ministry dealing with refugees, said in Islamabad.
Repatriation of the refugees began after the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001. But thousands have come back to the camps using the money given to them to buy goods that would fetch high prices in Pakistan, upsetting local economies.
The camps were the source of problems right from the time they were set up by the late Zia-ul Haq's government in the 1980s, becoming hotbeds of drug and arms peddling and upsetting the economies in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province.
Afghan refugees lived in similar camps in Iran, since largely closed down, and also in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. An estimated 30,000 refugees live in India.
Dubai, June 1 (IANS) Bahrain's Fakhro Insurance Services (FIS) has announced that it will offer a pension scheme for NRIs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
According to a press release, the company's 'Life Time Pension II' programme is a regular-premium, unit-linked retirement solution that offers flexible annuity options, ensuring customised choices to suit the need of the insurer on retirement.
With five different annuity options to choose from, insurers have the flexibility to select the best suitable way on how to receive their pension.
The choices include deferring the start date of annuity until the age of 75, or taking annuity from any other player in the insurance industry with the help of the Open Market Option, to assess the best offer available in the market.
Till now, there was no pension plan for NRIs in GCC countries.
The GCC countries, comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Yemen, are home to around 3.5 million Indians.
FIS is a part of Abdulla Yousif Fakhro group of companies and was incorporated in January 2000 as a limited liability company. It is registered with the ministry of commerce in Bahrain as insurance brokers for all classes of insurance and is a member of the Bahrain Insurance Association.
Nagpur, June 1 (IANS) Three militants wearing police uniforms were shot dead when they tried to barge into the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) headquarters here early Thursday armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades.
Two police personnel were injured in the operation, police sources said, without giving further details. The incident occurred at the rear side of the RSS building at about 4.15 a.m.
No organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
This attack comes within days of a series of arrest of suspected militants, shootouts and seizures of explosive materials from terrorists in the Maharashtra cities of Aurangabad and Nasik.
Vienna/Tehran, June 1 (DPA) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Vienna Thursday for the six-nation talks on the nuclear dispute with Iran.
She will meet her counterparts from Russia and China and the European Union trio of France, Britain and Germany later Thursday as the six nations seek to hammer out a common position to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear programme which includes uranium enrichment.
On Wednesday, Rice made an offer of direct talks between the US and Iran, conditional on Tehran "verifiably" suspending uranium enrichment.
She called the offer a bid to give "the negotiating track new energy" - and to see if Iran does "intend to come into the international consensus about this."
But in Tehran on Thursday, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki told the Khabar news network that Iran would reject any talks with the US with preconditions.
"We welcome negotiations upon equal conditions but will not make any concessions on our legitimate rights (in pursuing nuclear technology," he said.
"The remarks by (US Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice did not contain anything new and especially nothing which would lead to a logical settlement (of the nuclear dispute)," Mottaki added.
Madrid, June 1 (DPA) Spain's Supreme Court has lowered a prison sentence handed to an Al Qaeda leader, acquitting him of charges that he helped to prepare the Sep 11, 2001 attacks in the US, judicial sources said Thursday.
Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as Abu Dahdah, had appealed the 27-year sentence given by the National Court at a mega-trial in September. He will only serve 12 years for belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Yarkas was the only one among 18 convicts to be sentenced on account of the Sep 11 attacks. The Supreme Court acquitted Driss Chebli, Sadik Merizak and Abdelaziz Benyaich, who had been sentenced to six, eight and eight years respectively for collaborating or belonging to a terrorist group.
The three had already been released in April in anticipation of their acquittal.
The Supreme Court rejected the appeals of the 14 other convicts, including Al-Jazeera television journalist Taysir Alony, who is serving seven years for collaborating with Al Qaeda.
Alony, who interviewed Osama bin Laden after the Sep 11 attacks, was accused of transporting Al Qaeda funds to Afghanistan.
The National Court had deemed Yarkas guilty of conspiracy to terrorist homicide on evidence such as his meeting suicide pilot Mohammed Atta in the eastern Spanish city of Tarragona before the attacks.
The court was to make its reasons public next week. Its position coincided with that of the prosecutors who described the evidence against Yarkas as flimsy during the trial.
Prosecution also maintained there was not sufficient proof that Chebli, Merizak and Benyaich had served as Islamist fighters.
By Uma Nair
The rising number of teen suicides, highlighted by the tragic death of a bright Delhi school girl who hanged herself, not only sent waves of shock and dismay through the nation but brought into sharp focus the need to confront the issue upfront and immediately.
Teachers, parents, teenagers and the Central Board of Secondary Education - all of us together form the fulcrum of a system that is obviously providing the necessary fermentation for such a grim act.
"Teenagers today have a stronger role in family decision making, so they can be more dictatorial about their requirements," explains my friend and counsellor Mallika Raghavan. "I think they have been given more space, but with space come dilemmas of how much, when and why."
Raghavan says that among the reasons why teenagers commit suicide are: they have been thwarted in love; lack of acceptance or a sense of belonging; frustrated desires for achievement, order and understanding; damage to self-image and the need to avoid shame, defeat, humiliation or disgrace; ruptured key relationships, with attendant grief and bereavement; and excessive anger, rage and hostility, coupled with frustrated desire for dominance and aggression.
But what happens when a student who has never exhibited any of these traits takes the extreme step of ending his or her life?
What happens when a fun-loving, happy teenager decides that her life must end despite scoring 95 percent marks, as happened in the case of Shefali Bhan who took her own life even before the Class 10 exam results were announced.
If any problem needs a high-profile counter-offensive, it is suicide. It needs to be studied, discussed and debated threadbare - teachers and parents need to sit down and chat with their kids, especially since this approach would seem to represent our best hope of solving the problem.
It will seem insensitive to some but it needs to be spelt out in tough terms - suicide is wrong. It is not cool, it is not clever, and it is terribly cruel on families.
Yes, your parents will be sorry they were hard on you. Yes, people will say nice things about you in the funeral grounds after you are dead. But life will go on, and you will still be dead.
Today's teenagers are considerably more grown-up and sophisticated than we ever were, with one upsetting exception - they seem to have a lethal logic.
This is the generation wowed and wooed by the livid packaging and lurid colours of advertising and marketing and the onslaught of terror and horror garbed in glamorous ideology.
Teenagers have different priorities. To them, the important things in life are saving the world from capitalism, protecting the polar ice caps and ending world poverty.
To an adult, a major goal can be getting up from the sofa and being able to remember what it is they stood up to do, helping with household chores, going out of way to be kind to someone, and living life without hurting someone. But today's teens have other things on their minds.
Twenty-three years ago I remember a Class 10 student coming to me and breaking down. "I want to commit suicide because my parents are separating," he said.
It took me two weeks of patiently talking to him and getting him to understand that life wouldn't stop even after his parents' divorce, he would have to make a life for himself and move on and love both his parents for different reasons. Today he works for the UN and is somewhat content.
The grave problem of suicide needs to be confronted in a novel, outspoken way but we prefer to tiptoe around the issue while praying it won't happen to anybody close to us. This is where we as a nation need to change. One loss must be the lesson that saves many others.
We've tried hushing suicide up, making it a cause of shame, refusing to acknowledge it. Youngsters are hugely impressionable, and there is no doubt that many are charmed by the thought of being the centre of such intense attention. They picture themselves as doomed, misunderstood, almost romantic figures.
It is difficult to believe that all those suicide-prone youths are suffering from profound mental illness. That there are other influences at play becomes undeniable. Is it impulse? A lethal logic that snuffs everything else out and leaves them alone as monarchs of their destiny?
At a time in their lives when they are at war with the world, feeling unloved and unlovable, teens are obviously susceptible to the package that goes with suicide: the scene that follows is even more heart-rending - grieving parents blaming themselves, stricken schoolmates eulogizing their deceased pal, their favourite songs being sung in a prayer meeting and teachers regretting every harsh word they ever uttered.
We need to counter promptly this insidious glamorisation of suicide, and we also need people to lead the required campaign against suicides. It requires a courageous, direct, straight-talking approach based on concern not just for the at-risk category but also for those who will be left behind.
As parents, we certainly have a duty to feed, nurse and care for our children. But it is also our duty to give our children a taste of what life holds in store; in the future if we are overly protective they will be end up being misfits in the matrix of modernism. Has modern day education brought the teenager to the edge of a precipice? A life lost to suicide is indeed a precious life wasted.
(Uma Nair is an English teacher at Don Bosco School, Delhi. She can be reached at umatnair@gmail.com)
Washington, June 1 (DPA) The US will engage in multilateral talks with Iran if Tehran verifiably suspends uranium enrichment, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.
The talks would take place along with France, Britain and Germany, the so-called EU-3 that have been trying for more than two years to get Iran to dismantle its nuclear ambitions, Rice said in a formal speech at the State Department here.
The proposal offers for the first time that Washington would sit at one table with Tehran - after more than 25 years of severed diplomatic relations.
Rice said the US believes the offer to talk to Iran "gives the negotiating track new energy".
She said the US was willing to engage in talks as a way of exerting "strong leadership to give diplomacy its very best chance to succeed".
"As soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives," she said.
She made clear that if Iran refused to suspend enrichment and hold talks, it was making a "negative choice" that would "incur only great costs".
She sidestepped questions from journalists about whether China and Russia had agreed to back sanctions in a UN Security Council resolution if Iran does not accept Wednesday's overture. China and Russia have objected to the threat of economic or military sanctions in a resolution.
But without mentioning Moscow and Beijing, Rice said "there is substantial agreement and understanding that Iran now faces a clear choice ... If Iran is not willing to suspend, there is another path. Our friends and partners understand the importance of this step."
US President George W. Bush had telephone discussions with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany earlier this week on the Iran issue.
The US may also be willing to scrap the threat of the use of force in a UN resolution under debate, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Rice was heading to Vienna to continue negotiations on the nuclear standoff with Iran later this week.
Bush has been under pressure to engage Iran in talks after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to the White House - the first overture for direct contact in more than 25 years.
The pressure for talks has come from former secretaries of state and diplomats. But the Bush administration had until Wednesday rejected such an idea and dismissed the letter as not serious because it did not offer any compromise on the nuclear issue.
The overture to talk was apparently sent from Washington to Iran via Switzerland, CNN reported. Switzerland has acted as the diplomatic intermediary since the seizure of the American embassy and American hostages in Tehran provoked the US to break off diplomatic contacts.
Caracas, June 1 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said that the current prices of crude oil are affected by geopolitical factors and other tensions.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday accredited to the 141st Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) extraordinary meeting, Ramirez denied the rising tendency of oil corresponded to the existing supplies on the world oil market.
"We think there is an overproduction, but every time the US administration threatens Iran, or acts in Iraq, prices become unstable," he explained.
Ramirez said it was impossible to try to stabilise oil prices if there was no security in the producing countries.
The 141st OPEC extraordinary meeting began Thursday with the presence of the OPEC member countries comprising of Venezuela, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Libya, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Algeria.
Nagpur, June 1 (IANS) Three terrorists wearing police uniforms and armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades were shot dead when they tried to barge into the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the pre-eminent Hindu nationalist organisation, early Thursday, police said.
Three police personnel, including a sub-inspector, were injured in the shootout, police sources said. The terrorists were trying to enter from the rear side of the multi-storey RSS building in old Nagpur at about 4.15 a.m. when they were detected by security personnel who opened fire on them.
No organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack so far but police say the modus operandi and the planning point to the hand of the Lashker-e-Taiba, the terror outfit that is based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
This attack comes within days of a series of arrests of suspected militants, shootouts and seizures of explosive materials from terrorists in the Maharashtra cities of Aurangabad and Nashik.
Police sources said in Mumbai that the RSS top brass - none of whom were inside the building at the time - were warned of such an attack in the wake of intelligence reports of suspicious militant movement in and around Nagpur.
The attack was probably timed to coincide with the morning 'shakhas', or drill, that is held at around 5.30 a.m. and is attended by large number of Hindu volunteers.
The RSS is the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and right-wing Hindu nationalist outfits that go under the banner of the Sangh Parivar.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attack and said "the entire nation remains united in its fight against terrorism" and appealed to the people to remain calm and maintain communal harmony.
RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said "Hindu centres have been a major target for the last few months. They (terrorists) have been emboldened to the extent to attack the RSS headquarters today. It is a matter of major concern for us. We want the government to ensure safety of all these places."
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said security forces had "defused" the attack plan and a team is on the job. We have an anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai and we are considering having similar squads at Nagpur and Aurangabad and, if needed, other places as well."
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is on a holiday in Himachal Pradesh, also appealed for calm and said the situation should not lead to lawlessness.
Islamabad, June 1 (IANS) Pakistan has said it is ready to address the nuclear "proliferation concerns" of the United States and its allies but is not ready to provide any foreign agency "direct access" to disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qader Khan.
Reliable sources in the Pakistan government told the Dawn newspaper that Islamabad would resist the pressures being exerted in this regard through different means.
Perceived US pressures to make Khan, now under house arrest, available for further probe into his past proliferation activities have prompted Pakistan on one hand to seek nuclear energy facilities on a par with India and, on the other, to cooperate on combating terrorism and arraigning the Taliban working against the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul.
According to a Washington-datelined report in the Daily Times, US-Pakistan relations are seen as "at their coldest since 9/11" because of these factors.
Noting reactions from the US State Department and Congressional sources, Dawn noted that the US, on its part, has refused to ease the negative travel advisory for its citizens and investors wishing to visit Pakistan, demanding "substantive improvement" in the security situation.
Unidentified sources told the newspaper that Pakistan's security situation was uncertain "partly because of Pakistan's participation in the United States war on terrorism."
In their recent formal and informal meetings, Pakistani officials told their American counterparts that Pakistan was energy deficient and could not sustain 7-8 per cent GDP growth rate without meeting its energy needs.
"With the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline still undecided and the US-promoted gas pipeline from Central Asia even more uncertain, Pakistan is constrained to make difficult choices to keep up its growth momentum," an unnamed source was quoted as saying.
On the nuclear energy front, Islamabad is ready to play the China card. "Since the United States and the Western nations are not ready to oblige over the issue of nuclear energy, all eyes are now on President Pervez Musharraf's visit to China next month, the source told Dawn.
Musharraf will brief the Chinese leadership about the current status of Pakistan-US cooperation in various political, economic and defence fields, and would particularly raise the issue of acquiring a few more nuclear power plants from China during 2006-08.
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, sources said, has informed higher authorities that Pakistan was unlikely to meet its 88,000-mw power requirements by 2030 without having more nuclear power plants.
"Chashma-1 is successfully producing 300 mw of electricity while the Chashma-2 of 325 mw was expected to be completed - and linked to the national grid - ahead of schedule due to huge support from China," another source was quoted as saying.
Sources said that Pakistan has again urged the United States to allow its companies to invest in energy projects in the "designated industrial parks".
Musharraf had reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and to the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards in industrial parks when he met US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher recently.
Musharraf, the sources said, had also underlined the importance of consolidating and expanding bilateral cooperation in diverse areas in the framework of the Pakistan-US Joint Statement on Strategic Partnership issued during the visit of President Bush to Pakistan in March this year.
Bangalore, June 1 (IANS) Wipro Technologies, the global services of Wipro Ltd., has acquired Europe-based retail solutions provider Enabler for $53 million (euro 41 million) in an all-cash deal, a top company official said here Thursday.
The transaction, however, includes earn-outs of Enabler over the next two years. The integration will be completed by this month-end and its projected revenues will be taken into Wipro Technologies division account from July 1.
For the calendar and fiscal year 2005, Enabler posted revenue of $39 million (euro 30 million). Being a privately held firm, its net margins were not made public, despite a track record of profitability and being in line with the industry leaders in the IT services space.
The 10-year-old Enabler, with delivery centres in Portugal and Brazil, was spun out of Modelo Continente, a leading Portugal retailer and a division of Sonae group.
As a preferred integrator of Oracle Retail (Retek) solutions, Enabler provides consulting services to global retailers in Europe, Middle East and Latin America. Wipro intends to retain Enabler's identity to leverage its brand reputation in the markets it operates.
"Enabler is a leading specialist in consulting and implementation of integrated solutions for retail systems. Its customer base has a dozen Retek users for retail formats such as food, fashion and DIY (do-it-yourself), covering Oracle Retail modules," Wipro Technologies president Sudip Banerjee told reporters.
Post-acquisition, about 300 employees of Enabler will join the 2,500-strong Wipro retail solutions division to serve the former's customers in Portugal, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Britain in Europe, besides Middle East, Latin America and Britain.
"With the retail industry emerging as one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in the enterprise solutions market, the acquisition makes a strategic fit for us in the light of Enabler's track record in retail domain consulting and package implementation," Banerjee said.
As the fifth overseas acquisition in as many months, Enabler will enable Wipro to extend its geographic footprint into Europe and Latin America. As a subsidiary, its operations will be integrated with the IT services division and expanded with additional investments and hiring in the coming months.
Enabler CEO Antonio Murta will be joining Wipro Technologies as vice-president after the transaction is completed.
02 June 2006
DUBAI, June 2 (NNN-WAM) -- Abraaj Capital, one of the leading private equity firms in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asian region, and BMA Capital, one of the most prominent investment firms in Pakistan, have launched a 300million USD fund, the Abraaj BMA Pakistan Buyout Fund L.P.
The largest Private Equity fund ever to target investments in Pakistan, it aims for an internal rate of return of 30 per cent and will pursue a broad-based and opportunistic strategy, rather than a sector-focused strategy.
The fund will concentrate on sectors with high growth rates and proven business models. It will also look into fragmented sectors with room for consolidation, with significant barrier to entry and with stability of business cycle and resistance to recession.
In a statement on the deal, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Economy Minister Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi said the UAE and Pakistan enjoy a special relationship as highlighted by the recent visit to Pakistan by UAE Vice-President and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
She added: "Pakistan offers tremendous investment opportunities and UAE is keen to play an important role for Pakistan's development. Abraaj BMA Pakistan Buyout Fund is a step in this direction which I support whole heartedly."
Arif Naqvi, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of Abraaj Capital, said: "We are delighted to announce our latest buyout fund dedicated to Pakistan. Pakistan's economy is the second fastest growing economy in Asia.
“The Government's increasing focus on privatisation and the extremely conducive regulatory environment for foreign investment present great opportunities for business and we are delighted to be part of it."
Farrukh Khan, the CEO of BMA Capital, said: "We are extremely pleased to partner with Abraaj Capital in this pioneering venture. We see a number of consolidation opportunities in many fragmented industries such as insurance, banking, basic materials, power, automotive parts, telecom, textiles, etc.
“With BMA's deep knowledge and understanding of Pakistan and involvement in landmark transactions in Pakistan and Abraaj Capital's regional expertise in private equity, we intend to focus on 'buy & build' initiatives, under-leveraged companies with quality assets or stable cash flows and under-managed or under-capitalised assets, adding significant value for both our partner companies and shareholders in the process."
Poonch, June 2 (IANS) Excitement is palpable in this border district of Jammu and Kashmir as the nearly six-decade wait for meeting their family members and friends in Pakistan will end June 19.
That is when the road connecting Poonch in the Jammu region to Rawalakote in Pakistani Kashmir will be thrown open after 57 long years.
Almost each family living in Poonch has relatives across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The people on both sides of the border share a common language and culture.
The security establishment is working overtime to secure the town for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is expected to flag off the inaugural Poonch-Rawalakote bus service.
The reopening of the Poonch-Rawalakote road follows the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road in April last year and is another confidence building measure (CBM) between New Delhi and Islamabad to take forward the peace process.
In preparation for the prime minister's visit, checkpoints have been erected at sensitive points in the insurgency-infested district.
District police officer S.D. Jamwal, who is supervising the security measures, said the troopers were being extra cautious after three improvised explosive device (IED) blasts in the district in May.
Unmindful of the high security scenario, residents here are counting the days till they finally meet their relatives across the LoC in Rawalakote, barely 40 km from here.
Ram Nayak, a resident of Poonch town, said he and his family were eager to travel across to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
"This is the best thing to happen to us since the country's independence. We have always been neglected. For covering a distance of a few kilometres, it took years," Nayak said.
Nayak's cousins, whom he has never seen after the route was closed in 1948, live in Rawalakote.
"I used to play with them when we were kids. Today when I am an old man I am getting an opportunity to see them again," he said, visibly happy.
After the deadly earthquake of October in the Kashmir region claimed around 72,000 lives and left some three million homeless, a few checkpoints were opened on the LoC for distribution of relief to the victims.
At the time, relatives of former prime minister of Pakistani Kashmir Sardar Sikander Hayat Khan had crossed the LoC through the Chakan Da Bagh checkpoint in Poonch to meet Khan and his family.
Initially, Poonch-Rawalakote was scheduled to be the first point to be opened on the LoC but after the quake Chakan Da Bagh was chosen instead.
The Poonch-Rawalakote road would be the first to open south of the Pir Pinjal mountain ranges.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) India's human resource development (HRD) minister Arjun Singh has promised all help and support for promotion of Urdu language to the Jeddah Urdu Academy in Saudi Arabia.
Addressing a function at Jeddah Thursday, the minister assured that India's National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language would closely work with Jeddah Urdu Academy to promote the language, an official statement issued by the HRD ministry here said.
At a reception, Singh said: "A proposal to declare Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's birthday as the National Education Day is under active consideration of the Indian government.
"It is likely to be implemented soon."
Maulana Azad, a well-known freedom fighter and Muslim intellectual, was independent India's first education minister.
"Each and every one of the grievances raised by the Indian expatriates will be receiving serious consideration by the Indian government," Singh assured.
The minister added: "I have flagged all the issues raised by the Indian expatriates in my talks with the Saudi minister for higher education."
The reception was followed by a seminar on "Educational Exchanges between India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" in which delegates of the two nations participated.
The minister is currently on a week-long visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to strengthen India's educational ties with them.
By Arun Kumar,
Washington, June 2 (IANS) India's most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim and his organisation have been named as foreign narcotics kingpins by the US along with a Brazilian and an Iranian drug trafficker and were slapped with sanctions denying them access to the country's financial system.
Besides Dawood, who was named a global terrorist by the US three years ago, President George W. Bush also named Fahd Jamil Georges of Brazil, Ali Naway of Iran and Mexico-based Amezcua Contreras Organisation as subject to sanctions under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act").
In a letter to the US Congress designating them as foreign drug traffickers, Bush clearly indicated that Dawood Ibrahim's operations encompassed India, Pakistan and UAE.
"This action underscores the president's determination to do everything possible to pursue drug traffickers, undermine their operations, and end the suffering that trade in illicit drugs inflicts on Americans and other people around the world, as well as preventing drug traffickers from supporting terrorists," a White House statement said.
Dawood, wanted in India for the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts figures in New Delhi's list of 38 most wanted criminals harboured in Pakistan, but Islamabad has feigned ignorance of his presence.
With this, the total number of individuals and entities designated under the Kingpin Act has gone up to 62 since the first designations were made in June 2000.
The Kingpin Act, which became law in December 1999, targets significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organisations and operatives worldwide, denying them access to the US financial system and all trade and transactions involving US companies and individuals.
The act does not target the countries in which these foreign individuals and entities are operating or the governments of such countries.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions has criticised the Delhi government for shortage of textbooks and teachers in Urdu-medium schools in the city.
The commission Friday issued notices to concerned government officials, taking suo motu cognisance of the poor results of Class X CBSE in Urdu-medium schools in Delhi. The commission asked the government to explain the reasons behind the poor performance of the schools.
The results for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class X were announced last month.
"Inaction of the Delhi government in providing Urdu textbooks and allowing the posts of Urdu teachers to remain vacant for the last eight years tantamount to deprivation and violation of the educational rights of the minorities," the commission observed in the notice.
An official spokesman of the human resource development ministry said, "The commission has issued notices to the chief secretary and secretary (school education) of the Delhi government in this regard."
"Notices have also been issued to the principals of Zakir Hussain school, Hakim Azmal Khan Girls Memorial school, Anglo Arabic School, Fatehpuri Muslim School and the secretary of the Confederation of Muslim Educational Institutions of India for assisting the commission," the spokesman added.
The first hearing is scheduled for July 20.
Paris, June 2 (DPA) High-flying Martina Hingis led Patty Schynder in a Swiss sweep into the third round of the 14.3-million-euro French Open Friday, with two-time finalist Kim Clijsters joining the winner's parade.
With sun finally shining at Roland Garros following days of rain and clouds, spirits lifted on the clay.
Grand Slam champions Hingis and Clijsters made up for lost time, with number 12 Hingis, the winner of five majors as a teenager, hammering Czech Zuzana Ondraskova 6-1, 6-3.
Second seed Clijsters rolled past Conchita Martinez-Granados of Spain 6-0, 6-3. Schnyder, the number 7, faced more of a struggle, but pulled though over Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.
"I really played very well, served well, moved well, everything," said Hingis, never a champion in Paris.
"I just hope it's going to continue like that. I want to save the best for last," said the 1999 losing finalist to Germany's Steffi Graf.
Russian eight seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, playing a round ahead, reached the fourth round as she put out one of two remaining Chinese hopes, defeating Na Li 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
The last Chinese was beaten in the second round, Jie Zheng going out to Croatian Ivana Lisjak 6-4, 6-4.
Clijsters, who struggled in the first round, had a wobble in the second set, losing serve to the 95th-ranked Martinez-Granados in the fifth game.
But the Belgian second seed, the reigning US Open champion, broke back a game later before moving on to close out victory in 55 minutes.
"I wasn't patient enough," said Clijsters. "I wasn't making the right decisions at the right time I think in those few games.
In the men's section, defending champion Rafael Nadal predictably steamrolled American lucky loser Kevin Kim 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in less than two hours.
The win was the Spaniard's record-setting 55th in succession, his first after breaking the old mark set in 1977 by Guillermo Vilas of 54 during the first round on Monday.
But eighth seed James Blake overturned the form guide with his comeback over young Spanish specialist Nicolas Almagro. Blake remains the lone American into the third round with his 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 win.
He was joined by Spain's 15th seed David Ferrer, who defeated Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
2004 champion Gaston Gaudio won a battle of former holders, defeating Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 winner, 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7).
Berlin, June 2 (DPA) A majority of Germans see Brazil winning the World Cup, but only one in 10 think the host nation will do it, according to a survey released on Friday.
Compiled for the main ARD television network, the Infratest study showed 54 per cent of those questioned favouring the South Americans to defend their title.
Ten per cent thought Germany would win, while 4 per cent fancied Italy and another 4 per cent Argentina. Twenty-one per cent thought Germany would reach the final, while 14 per cent saw them failing to make it past the group stage.
The survey also showed that 93 per cent were happy with the security arrangements for the tournament, which kicks off June 9 with the host country playing Costa Rica in Munich.
A recent string of xenopobic attacks had raised fears of violence targetted at visitors to the World Cup.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is in charge of World Cup security, said he did not expect the threat of right-wing violence to increase during the month-long competition.
"First of all police will be extremely vigilant. Secondly, I believe that the large number of genuine fans would make sure that any rowdies would think twice about having a go at a foreigner in a public viewing area," the minister told the daily Die Welt.
New York, June 2 (IANS) The family of a 42-year-old businessman of Indian origin in Wayne, New Jersey, is living in terror after what appeared to be racially motivated vandalism at their home last weekend.
The incident, which has come to light only now, took place at the family's Toms Lake community home last Saturday.
According to media reports here, the family discovered graffiti spray-painted at the back of their two-storey house, front steps and rear patio with threats and profanities along with references to their Hindu faith and their Asian Indian descent.
According to a report on the northjersey.com website, the black, orange and neon green graffiti read threats like 'We Kill U', 'We will Fire your house', 'Watch Your Kids' and 'I HATE INDIANS' among others. Some profanities, targeting Hindus, were too vulgar to print according to the website.
Wayne in Passaic County, New Jersey, is a small township of around 54,000 people. It is a cosmopolitan community with a mix of African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, Asians and Native Americans besides Whites. Asian Indians comprise around two percent of the population, according to the report.
The businessman, who was born and brought up in Tanzania and moved to Passaic in the US when he was 17, said on condition of anonymity that his three children were aware of the graffiti but he would not let them see it.
"They don't understand it," the father of two boys, aged 11 and 16, and a daughter, 13, was quoted as saying.
"They were born here (in the US) and they go to school here in Wayne. They learn what everybody else does. They don't feel any different from the next kid."
He said he and his wife, hailing from Mumbai in India, drive straight into their garage and enter their home from there.
According to the report, a neighbour saw two individuals, described only as dark-haired teenagers or men in their early 20s, in the house's backyard Saturday. When she saw the graffiti, she called her husband who urged her to call police.
This is not the first time that the family has been made targets of hate crime since they moved into this home in November last year. Early in January this year, they received a series of hate mails and found threats painted on their garage doors.
Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana, who expressed disgust at the incident, said: "Any action like this is not tolerated whatsoever, and I'm appalled that any individual and any family would be subjected to this kind of treatment.
"We are all neighbours no matter what religious or ethnic background. We expect people to be understanding and supportive of that position."
Jyoti Gandhi, a former president of Arya Samaj in New Jersey, has expressed shock at the incident. She, however, added that many Hindu families prefer to keep quiet when they face something like this.
In the past, there have been a number of reports of hate crimes against Indian Americans, who comprise less than one percent of the US' population of around 300 million. Post 9/11, Sikhs were targeted and one of them was killed in Phoenix, Arizona, on the mistaken assumption that he was an Arab.
In the 1980s, New Jersey witnessed a series of attacks on Indian Americans by a group calling itself Dot Busters.
The Indian American community is among the most educated and affluent among all communities in the US. Last year, the US Congress had passed a resolution recognising contributions made by Indian Americans to the country.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) After three successive days of losses, Indian equities ended higher Friday as investors resorted to some active buying at lower levels, especially in blue chip stocks.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened on a positive note at 10,104.57 points, as against the previous day's close of 10,071.42 points, and gained steadily, only to fall sharply to 10,011.45 points.
But a rally in the afternoon took the index to the day's high at 10,477.35 points, to finally end with a gain of 379.91 points or 3.77 percent at 10,451.33 points.
As many as 28 stocks that go into the basket of Sensex shares ended with gains, while two were in the negative territory.
Maruti Udyog, Hindustan Lever, Hindustan Aluminium, Housing Development Finance, Tata Motors, Associated Cement Companies and Tata Steel were the main gainers among the Sensex shares, while Reliance Energy and Tata Power ended with losses.
London, June 2 (DPA) Tehran could have the capability to develop nuclear weapons within a decade, United States' top intelligence official John Negroponte said Friday.
In an interview with the BBC's Today radio programme, director of national intelligence Negroponte warned that Tehran could have a nuclear bomb ready between 2010 and 2015.
"We don't have a clear-cut knowledge, but the estimate we have made is that some time between the beginning of the next decade and the middle of the next decade they might be in a position to have a nuclear weapon which is a cause of great concern," he said.
Negroponte accused Iran of being the world's top sponsor of terrorism, saying: "Their behaviour has been a cause of concern not only in Lebanon and Israel and in the Palestinian territories but also in Iraq."
His warning came on the heels of claims by former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix that Israel possessed a substantial nuclear arsenal.
Israel is "assumed" to have 200 nuclear weapons, said Blix, who was speaking Thursday in his capacity as head of new Swedish organisation Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission.
Blix warned that current political tensions in the Middle East did not allow for the establishment of a nuclear-free zone, saying that regional disputes must be resolved first.
"Israel should commit itself not to make more plutonium; they are assumed to have 200 nuclear weapons," Blix told a news conference called by his group to present a 227-page study.
Tehran, June 2 (DPA) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised the Iranian national football team all assistance during the World Cup in Germany, the news agency ISNA reported Friday.
At a meeting with the head of the Iranian Football Federation Mohammad Dadkan, football fan Ahmadinejad wished the squad the best of luck for the tournament.
His remarks indicated the president himself would not travel to Germany where there has been opposition to a visit because of his controversial remarks about Israel and the Holocaust.
But there was a chance he might go if Iran survived the preliminary group stage and advanced to the second round.
The president was due to receive the 23-man squad on Saturday to personally wish them good luck.
The Iranian team flies out of Tehran on Sunday for its training camp in Friedrichshafen and a warm-up game against a local team on Monday before their first match against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11.
New York, June 2 (DPA) Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that Israel is "assumed" to have 200 nuclear weapons - a figure that Israeli officials and its allies have rarely, if ever, mentioned.
Blix, who was speaking in his new capacity as head of a Swedish organisation, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, said Thursday that a nuclear-free Middle East would be possible if states in the region, including Israel, rejected nuclear activities.
To date, Israeli officials have never discussed in public the breadth of their nuclear programme or their nuclear arsenal. The assumption has been that the programme exists.
But in Israel, Mark Regev, a spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign ministry, said, "there has been no change in Israel's long standing position that we will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the region".
Blix's release of the "assumed" number of Israeli nuclear weapons comes at a tense time over Iran's nuclear programme. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the dismantling of the Israeli state and claimed that the Holocaust never happened.
The international community is wrestling with Tehran to bring a stop to its new uranium enrichment programme, which Washington charges will be used to produce nuclear weapons that would be a threat to Israel.
Blix last made headlines as chief of the international team that searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during the time it was ruled by Saddam Hussein. The weapons inspectors found no such weapons and the effort was disbanded after the US invaded Iraq in March 2003.
Blix said Middle East states should refrain from uranium enrichment and conversion of plutonium as a first step to a nuclear-free zone.
"Israel should commit itself not to make more plutonium, they are assumed to have 200 nuclear weapons," Blix told a news conference to present a 227-page study by the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission in Sweden.
The document, titled "Weapons of Terror," was issued at UN headquarters in New York and given to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the president of the UN General Assembly, Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson.
The world now has a stock of 27,000 nuclear weapons, of which 12,000 are still actively deployed, held mostly by the nuclear powers, the report said.
The study made 60 recommendations, topped by a call on all countries to accept the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which for nuclear states would reduce their arsenals and stop producing fissile material for nuclear weapons and enrichment of uranium.
"All states - even the great powers - must prepare to live without nuclear weapons and other weapons of terror," the study said.
The 14-member commission that issued the study seeks to reduce dangers from nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons. When he returned to Stockholm after his work as head of the IAEA, Blix was given the job of forming the commission in December 2003, with the cooperation of dozen well known world experts on weapons.
Israel has taken strident moves to keep secret information about its nuclear programme. In 1986, it abducted nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu from Rome and put him in jail for 18 years for leaking secret information to a British newspaper. Since his 2004 release, he has been banned from travelling abroad and meeting with foreign nationals without prior clearance from Israeli authorities.
By Yoginder Sikand
Early last month, unidentified gunmen shot dead 22 Hindus in Kulhand, a remote mountain village in Doda in Jammu and Kashmir. The massacre is an indication that the situation in Doda district, racked by conflict over the last fifteen years, continues to be volatile.
Local opinion is divided on precisely who was behind the massacre. Many Muslims claim that it was the handiwork of the ubiquitous ‘agencies’. H, a teacher in Doda, says, ‘It could well have been done by the ISI but, equally, it could have been done by the Indian armed forces, as in the case of the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chhatisighpora in 2000, which, some people say, was engineered by the army and falsely attributed to the militants, after which the army is said to have killed 5 innocent Muslim villagers in Pathribal, claiming that they were responsible for killing the Sikhs. There have been so many killings here and in the Kashmir valley of innocent people by militants as well as Indian forces that we don’t know who was behind the Kulhand massacre’.
L, a shopkeeper in Doda, argues, ‘In the past, whenever militants have massacred people like this, one or the other militant group has claimed responsibility. In this case, no group has done this. Hurriyat leaders rushed to Kulhand to commiserate with the victims’ families and many militant outfits have condemned the act’. R, a Muslim student, thinks that the massacre might have been perpetrated by political rivals of the Congress because it occurred soon after Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s landslide victory in nearby Bhadarwah. ‘It might have been to defame Azad, destabilize his government and polarize people Doda on communal lines to benefit certain political parties, such as the BJP, that thrive on Hindu-Muslim conflict’, he opines. ‘On the other hand’, he adds, ‘the massacre might have been done by some terrorist groups that, shocked by the massive turnout in the recent elections and realising that many Muslims here are fed up of militancy, want to stir communal conflict to keep the pot boiling’.
A, a Hindu from Kulhand, provides an interesting twist to the story of the massacre. He claims that the day the massacre took place a meeting of the Village Forest Committee, consisting of local Hindus, was held in the house of a Hindu school-master in Kulhand in which a serious altercation took place, and one of those present had threatened the others with dire consequences. ‘It might be that this person contacted local militants to finish off his enemies’, he says. The person he alludes to denies the charge. He admits of an ongoing dispute with other Hindu families in the village for the last three generations and says that his social relations are with the Muslims of the village rather than the Hindus. ‘I have several cases pending in the courts against other Hindus in the village, but I did not issue any threats and I have nothing to do with the massacre’, he insists.
While many Muslims in Doda are hesitant to blame militants for the massacre pending an impartial investigation, most Hindus, as well as some Muslims, think otherwise. T, a Rajput from Kulhand, who lost his son in the massacre, insists it was the handiwork of militants. He claims to have seen the same persons who killed his son roaming in the area a fortnight before the carnage. ‘They had long hair and beards and spoke with each other in Kashmiri’. T speaks of how militants often come to Hindu homes in these remote parts and demand food from them and even stay in their houses. ‘We give them what they ask for and refuse to tell the army about their whereabouts for fear of our own lives. And this is how the militants have repaid us for our kindness’, he says, sobbing uncontrollably.
N, a widow who lost her only son in the carnage, echoes this view. ‘Those who say that militants were not behind the massacre only want to deny that Muslims, like anyone else, can commit such a heinous crime. They say that militants could not have done it because, they say, Islam forbids this, but these militants are not pious religious people at all but criminals’. As she relates the events of that fateful day, her neighbours, Hindus and Muslims, listen grim-faced in stunned silence, and a young maulvi from a neighbouring village places his arm on my shoulder and bursts into tears.
As I leave T’s house, S, her Muslim neighbour, tells me, ‘Some militant groups have their own false interpretation of Islam based on unrelenting hatred of all non-Muslims. But that is not our Islam, the Islam which the Sufis taught us, and at whose hands our forefathers, who were Hindus, became Muslims’. ‘Popular support for militancy has considerably declined’, S adds, ‘because we have seen how it has been infiltrated by criminals and also because we now realize that conditions in Pakistan are terrible and that it is better to be with India instead of becoming a Pakistani colony’.
The massacre suggests that the militants, if they were indeed responsible for the deed, are getting desperate, S says. ‘They wanted to sabotage the recently-held peace talks in Srinagar and widen the communal divide. And now the BJP is taking up the issue, spreading canards about ethnic cleansing of Hindus by Muslims in Doda, thereby playing into the hands of terrorist outfits that actually want this to happen. In actual fact, most local Muslims are opposed to Hindus migrating from here and our leaders have issued appeals for peace and communal harmony’. S tells me of how Muslims joined Hindus in organizing a complete strike in Doda district to mourn the massacre. ‘Even Sayyed Ali Gilani of the Jamaat-i-Islami, known for his advocacy of Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, sought to come to Kulhand to commiserate with the victims, but he was stopped by the police. The general secretary of the Jamaat-i-Islami visited Kulhand and announced that the Jamaat would pay for the education of three children who lost relatives in the massacre. Prominent Muslim leaders, social workers and doctors visited Kulhand along with Hindus to provide relief and express their shock and sorrow and the Imam of Doda’s Jama Masjid joined the priest of the town’s major temple to denounce the heinous act’.
‘There has never been any communal violence in our area, whether in 1947 or even at the height of militancy’ says R, brother of a Hindu lad slain in the massacre. ‘Hindus are a small minority here and the village Muslims are like our brothers. We visit each others’ houses, attend each other’s festivals and help each other at times of need. Our Muslim neighbours helped us carry the bodies of people killed in the massacre and arrange for their cremation’, he adds. But, R admits, some Hindus are planning to leave the village, following some others in the area who have already done so for fear of more attacks. ‘There is of course a distinction between our Muslim neighbours and the militants. Many Muslims in our village are opposed to the militants but cannot speak put against them or else they will be killed. But after this incident a wall of suspicion has come up. We don’t know who is working with which agency and the trust that we enjoyed for centuries is no more. Our Muslim neighbours insist we should not leave the village, but even they admit that they cannot protect us from the militants’, R says. ‘We don’t know who was behind the massacre’, he adds, ‘but the government should immediately institute an impartial inquiry to set suspicions at rest’. This demand is echoed by every Muslim and Hindu I met in Doda.
R is planning to leave Kulhand for Doda or Udhampur, but G, the son of a slain Hindu school-teacher, is determined to stay on. ‘Where else can we go?’, he asks. ‘We have our land and animals here and we’ll be treated as beggars elsewhere. We’ll live and die here just as our ancestors did’. ‘It isn’t just the Hindus who are fearful here’, he tells me. ‘Many more Muslims than Hindus have been killed by militants and various agencies, so our destinies are interlinked. Communalism is not a major problem here. We have no enmity with local Muslims. But selective killings have created a fear psychosis. Certain militant groups as well as the BJP are hell-bent on widening the communal divide in Doda’. ‘Ordinary Hindus and Muslims opposed to this’, he says, his eyes brimming with tears, ‘but what can we small people do, when our fate is being determined by people from outside?’.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) A month after senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan's death, his son Rahul was Friday struggling for life in a Delhi hospital while the late leader's close aide Vivek Moitra died after a drinking binge whose circumstances police believe left many questions unanswered.
"Rahul was brought in with low blood pressure and low respiratory rate. He is on a life support system. However, the functioning of his kidney is normal. We will keep a strict watch on him for the next 24 hours," stated an evening bulletin at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital where Rahul had been admitted in the early hours of Friday.
Nirmal Surya, neurologist and Rahul's personal doctor, said his condition had deteriorated due to toxins that had affected his respiratory system. But he ruled out any drug overdose that police circles appeared to suspect after the recovery of some unknown white powder from the late leader's sprawling bungalow at 7 Safdarjung Road.
"We do not know what these toxins are and it needs to be investigated," said Surya, adding that his blood samples had been sent for forensic tests.
Moitra, on the other hand, had been brought dead to the hospital by the Mahajans' domestic helps around 3 a.m. and his body was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for post-mortem.
"We will get to know the results later this evening or maybe on Saturday," said a hospital official.
Following his father's death on May 3, after being shot at by his brother Pravin Mahajan, Rahul was reportedly suffering from acute depression and was taking anti-depressants.
"Three days back, he had called me to tell me about his depression and the dosage of medicine was slightly increased," said Surya.
The incident has come like a double whammy for the Mahajan household, barely recovering from the tragic demise of the dynamic BJP leader who succumbed to his injuries after a 12-day fight for life at Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital.
Rahul's mother Rekha and his sister Poonam arrived here from Mumbai in the evening.
Police, who initially suspected food poisoning, were now looking at various angles including "drug overdose" and have not ruled out foul play as a possible reason behind the incident.
"The white residue found in the champagne glasses and in the vial recovered from Rahul have been sent for toxicological tests. We cannot share details of the investigation right now," said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manish Aggarwal.
Police said they had also contacted Sudhanshu Mittal, a close associate of Pramod Mahajan, and Nirmal Sharma, his private secretary, whom the servants had contacted.
Many who know Rahul, 31, say that he was a regular in Mumbai's party circuit, keeping late hours.
Reconstructing the sequence of events, police said three unidentified people came to the late leader's official house, within walking distance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence, shortly before midnight and were greeted by Moitra at the gate.
According to the domestic helps, there was a party Thursday night and Rahul and Moitra, who was Mahajan's factotum and a virtual family member, were expecting several guests.
"Both began drinking at 8 p.m. and it was only three hours later that the three guests arrived," said Aggarwal.
However, the servants told the police that the three were not known to them.
After staying for about 30 minutes, two of them left the house only to return a little later. After a while, one of the three came and told the helps, Ganesh and Anil, that Rahul and Moitra were not "doing well", police sources said.
With their condition deteriorating, both were rushed to the Apollo Hospital. Moitra, who was a diabetic, was declared brought dead.
According to police, both Rahul and Moitra received several calls on their respective mobile phones while they were in the house. Efforts were on to establish the identity of these callers.
It is believed that neither Rahul nor Moitra had dinner and both had vomited leaving the household staff to clean up.
Friday was the day when Rahul was to go, probably to Guwahati, to immerse his father's ashes in the Brahmaputra river.
Moitra was a force to reckon with in the BJP due to his proximity to the late leader. "In fact, he was Pramod Mahajan's Man Friday. Mahajan trusted him more than anyone even in his own family and thus he acted as his son Rahul's guardian also," said a senior BJP functionary.
The low-profile Moitra's association with the senior Mahajan dated back to more than a decade.
Emergency procedures of injecting adrenalin as well as electric shocks and oxygen were administered to at least get Rahul's heart pumping. Even after monitoring him for over 15 hours, a battery of five doctors described Rahul's condition as "critical but stable".
A host of political personalities, including Pramod Mahajan's brother-in-law and senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde and Samajawadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, went to the hospital on hearing the news.
After Mahajan's death, Rahul was being tipped as a potential political heir to the charismatic leader.
His unscheduled appearance at the BJP national executive meeting in the capital early this week created quite a flutter among the delegates and hordes of media persons covering the event, prompting many to ask if this was his initiation into politics.
Police have not registered a case so far and are conducting investigations under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
LUSAKA, June 2 (NNN-Xinhua) Malawians are still living poor lives as they were 10 years ago with more than half the 12 million population living below the 44 kwacha (33 US cents) line per day, local media cited a World Bank report as saying Thursday.
The Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment (PVA) on Malawi, jointly produced by the Malawian government and the World Bank, says there has been little or no progress in reducing poverty and inequality in the country, independent newspaper The Nation reported on its website.
Unveiling the PVA report Wednesday, World Bank country manager for Malawi Timothy Gilbo said there was a need for the government to invest in long-term projects that will in turn change the economic status of most Malawians.
Gilbo said although President Bingu wa Mutharika has shown political will to fight poverty from the grassroots since he came into power in 2004, there was concern that 52 per cent of Malawians are still poor while 22 per cent are ultra-poor with daily expenses being less than 15 kwacha (11 US cents).
Minister of Economic Planning and Development David Faiti pushed much of the blame to former President Bakili Muluzi's administration for fiscal mismanagement during his two five-year terms of office.
"In those 10 years, agricultural production almost collapsed, forcing this government to come with quick interventions like irrigation projects and creation of employment for the rural people," Faiti said when he was briefing the press after the release of the report.
But opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesperson Sam Mpasu said the current government cannot run away from its responsibilities, arguing that the Muluzi administration took over a collapsed economy but managed to bring inflation from 98 per cent to 6 per cent.
"The truth of the matter is that today the economy is worse than it was two years ago when President Mutharika came to power," Mpasu was quoted by the paper as saying. "If Mutharika claims to be an expert in economics, he should have changed things within this period."
The report shows that the highest shares of the poor are rural inhabitants of the southern and northern parts with the central region presenting relatively less poor indicators.
The report also says HIV/AIDS has put considerable pressure on the public sector, with only 31 per cent of communities having access to a health clinic where drugs are not readily available.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) An Islamic organisation Friday condemned the attempted terrorist attack on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur Thursday and asked Muslim youth to reject militant groups and participate in politics instead of indulging in violence.
A statement issued by All India Muslim Majlis-E-Mushawarat (AIMMM) president Syed Shahabuddin, also deplored the "tendency to ascribe terrorist acts to Islam".
"The AIMMM deplores the terrorist attempt to attack the RSS headquarter in Nagpur but it also deplores the impatient and uncalled for statement of Nagpur Police maligning Islam," the statement said.
Three militants, wearing police uniforms and armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, were shot dead when they tried to barge into the complex early morning Thursday.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Nagpur Police Commissioner S.P.S Yadav has said the slain men "Islamic militants".
"Investigate all cases of extra judicial killing particularly of those in custody and prosecute the detained in accordance with law and above all stop automatic ascription of supposed acts of terrorism to Muslim youth and religious functionaries without any evidence and before investigation," the body said.
It asked the government to make all the Special Task Forces "accountable".
"The AIMMM has consistently opposed political violence in any form and believes that politically repugnant ideologies and policies have to be contested, combated and debated through mass education and non-violent political means," Shahabuddin said.
He appealed to the Muslim youth to "reject the hand of extra-territorial militant outfits and shirk acts of violence and instead actively participate in politics."
By T.R. Ramakrishnan,
St John's (Antigua), June 2 (IANS) Irfan Pathan, the rising star of Indian cricket who claimed a sensational hat-trick in Pakistan four months ago, is facing tough times and has been dropped from the team for the first Test against the West Indies that began here Friday.
The 21-year-old left-arm medium-pace bowler has had a poor tour of the Caribbean so far. His performance in the one-dayers, with both bat and ball, was unsatisfactory, (24 runs and 6 wickets, economy rate 5.59, in four matches). Not only was he off form, his successive failures were eroding his confidence.
Every effort was made to get him ready for the first Test at the Antigua Recreation Ground, for he has been an integral part of the Indian team since his debut in Australia in 2003 (816 runs, 89 wickets in 24 Tests). There was that special session after the end of the two-day practice match, with sports psychologist Rudi Webster in tow.
Obviously, it wasn't enough. And the team management took the brave decision of dropping him. It must have thought hard and long before doing so because it left India going into the match with a pace attack having a combined experience of four matches: S. Sreesanth (2), Munaf Patel (2) and V.R.V. Singh (making his debut, India 256th Test player).
They would be regretting the selection committee's decision to leave out Ajit Agarkar from the Test squad. With nine wickets at 18.11 (economy rate 3.46) he was easily India's best bowler on view. Both skipper Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell have avoided commenting on the decision, saying they had to make do with what was available, what was given to them.
With Pathan out, India had no choice but to take the safe option of playing six batsmen. Anil Kumble at No 8, followed by Sreesanth, Patel and Singh, looks a very long tail. Mohammed Kaif had to come in and Harbhajan Singh is omitted.
The teams:
India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, M.S. Dhoni, Anil Kumble, S. Sreenath, Munaf Patel, V.R.V. Singh.
West Indies: Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Darren Ganga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Ian Bradshaw, Dave Mohammed, Fidel Edwards, Corey Collymore.
Umpires: Simon Taufel and Asad Rauf.
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) Rahul Mahajan, son of late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan has been admitted to the Indraprastha Apollo hospital here, while the late leader's secretary, Vivek Moitra, died of suspected food poisoning.
Both Moitra and Mahajan took ill Friday and were rushed to hospital, but Moitra was reportedly "brought dead".
"Both Vivek Moitra and Rahul Mahajan were brought to our hospital at around 3.00 a.m. and Moitra was declared 'brought dead' by the doctor," said a spokesperson of the hospital.
"Rahul is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but his condition is stable. A team of multidisciplinary doctors are supervising his health condition. Both blood tests and X-ray reports are yet to come, the spokesperson told IANS.
"We are waiting for their relatives from Mumbai, but there is no confirmed report of any team of specialists coming to our hospital. Initial examination shows that the death of Vivek Moitra and the ill health condition of Mahajan is due to food poisoning, but the doctors are examining other details to reach a final conclusion," he added.
A couple of days back, Mahajan participated in the BJP executive meeting and it was speculated that he may join the party following his father's death.
Pramod Mahajan, who was the BJP's general secretary, passed away on May 3, 2006, after being shot at by his brother Pravin Mahajan. He succumbed to his injuries after a 12-day fight for survival at Mumbai's Hinduja hospital.
Singapore, June 2 (DPA) The Singapore Exchange (SGX) will list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on 64 top Indian stocks including Reliance Industries and Tata Group, Channel News Asia reported Friday.
The new fund, iShares MSCI India, is designed and managed by Barclays Global Investors and will be listed on June 15.
It tracks mainly blue chips, covering at least 85 percent of the Indian market.
The minimum board lot for an investment is 100 shares, which will cost about 730 Singapore dollars ($462).
"There is a lot of demand in India. It's one of the two most exciting markets right now. Together with China, India is the growth engine for this new century," said Joseph Ho, head of iShares Asia for Barclays Global Investors.
"The issue has always been - how do you help investors to get access because India has these restrictions about foreign investments into the country. They only allow certain groups of investors, the very large institutional investors."
There are already several US-based, exchange-traded funds on SGX, but the local exchange is aiming to promote more Asian products, with two to three more ETFs based on Asian equities and possibly a non-equities ETF based on fixed-income products or commodities.
Port of Spain, June 2 (IANS) Comments by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Trinidad and Tobago's leader of the opposition, on people of Indian origin (PIOs) being targeted in government enterprises have sparked a controversy with a US-based think-tank describing them as racist.
Addressing a rally in Penal village in southwestern Trinidad on the occasion of Indian Arrival Day celebrations, Persad-Bissessar, herself a PIO, had said that "tactics of suppression" on the part of the government against PIOs have resulted in many of them being fired from state enterprises.
May 30 is observed as Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago. It was on this day in 1845 that the first batch of Indian indentured labourers arrived to work in the sugar plantations following the abolition of slavery.
Today their descendants, who call themselves Indo-Trinidadians, comprise 40 percent of the country's population of over one million.
A New York-based Caribbean think-tank, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), has taken strong exception to Persad-Bissessar's remarks, describing them as apparently unfounded and racist "designed to incite racial hostilities and insecurities for self-aggrandisement and political expediency".
A report in the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper quoted Persad-Bissessar as saying in the rally: "Indians in the state employ are being fired or displaced by government merely because they are Indians."
She added the terminations cannot be taken in isolation but, rather, have to be seen as a part of the state's employment strategy. She also read out names of people who have been victims of what she called a 'shock and awe' programme with state-sanctioned policy that significantly discriminated against Indo-Trinidadians.
She said the termination of employees needed to be reviewed holistically.
Citing an example, Persad-Bissessar said oil company Petrotrin has drawn out a list of PIOs - known locally as east Indians - to be demoted or terminated from service. She even mentioned the names of these PIOs.
She also cited the case of Winston Dookeran, now a leader in her own United National Congress party, whose contract as governor of the Central Bank was not renewed.
The newspaper also quoted her as saying that the emphasis on the occasion of Indian Arrival Day should not be on "arrival", but on survival and revival.
CGID, on its part, has sent a strong letter to Persad-Bissessar, in which it stated: "Your comments, apparently made without providing the necessary empirical evidence to demonstrate an established government policy or pattern of racial discrimination against Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagoians, were irresponsible and tinged with an element of racial insularity that is a dangerous tactic on your part."
Accusing her of inciting racial fears among Indians, the letter demanded that since the charges made by her against the government were so serious, she should present the evidence to an independent constitutional body for investigation.
"However, if your charges are unfounded and cannot be substantiated by credible evidence, they should be withdrawn forthwith and not left to ferment racial and political tensions and divide the society," the letter stated.
CGID promotes the educational, cultural and economic development of the Caribbean diaspora in the US. According to its constitution, it also stands for human rights and good governance in the Caribbean region and the advancement of the humanities and social and human development, among others.
This year's Indian Arrival Day celebrations have seen leaders calling for racial harmony among all sections of people in this Caribbean nation.
Riyadh, June 2 (IMI)Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said that UPA Government will leave no stone unturned to protect the rights of minorities in India and ensure that they get what is legitimately due to them. He was speaking at a reception by Aligarh Muslim Old Boys’ Association (AMUOBA) yesterday at Riyadh.
He further added that the UPA Government has constituted the National Minority Education Commission