Central Assistance for Flood-Hit Areas of Bihar

New Delhi, September 4 2008: Government of India continues to extend all possible assistance to the Govt। of Bihar for supplementing their efforts in managing the ongoing flood situation. The National Crisis Management Committee reviewed the situation today.

37 Army Columns, 13 helicopters, 599 boats, 783 NDRF personnel, 7695 tents, 10 satellite phones, 4 lakh drinking water bottles, 10 water purifying plants have been deployed/ provided by the Government of India for assisting the State in rescue and relief operations।

Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries has informed that 66 wagon-loads of dry fodder on rail from Amritsar and Karnal to Saharsa have reached Bihar। Additional 41 wagon-load of fodder are being sent by the Government of Haryana to Purnia. The requirement of procurement of vaccines is being met through Centrally sponsored Scheme ‘Assistance to States for Control of Animal Diseases’. The State has been asked to indicate the specific requirements of medicines and vaccines they need. 71 Veterinary centres have been set up to provide treatment to the sick animals.

Two crore halogen tablets to purify water are being supplied by the Ministry of Health as per the requirement of the State Government। Thirty-lakh halogen tablets have already reached. Other medicine/medical store viz. Measles vaccine, DPT, oral Polio, TT, Vaccine logistics have also been provided. On the request of State Government, 100 Fogging machines and 50 Ambulances are being organized.

Ministry of Home Affairs is in constant touch with the State Government and closely monitoring the situation round the clock.

NSG Meet to Decide On India Specific Waiver Begins Today

New Delhi,September 4 2008: Amid continued reservations of some member countries over granting waiver to India, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will hold a crucial two-day meeting in Vienna from Thursday to consider the initiative।

The NSG will consider a revised draft that is being presented before the 45-nation grouping after amendments following demands by at least 15 countries during the August 21-22 meeting।

Countries like New Zealand and Austria, which are still not satisfied with the revised draft, are expected to voice their concerns over non-proliferation issues.
On studying the draft circulated to them by Germany, the current Chair of the NSG, these countries feel that the amendments in the text are only cosmetic in nature and conditions are not attached।

Earlier, Prime Minister Dr। Manmohan Singh held a Congress Working Committee meeting late last night with his senior colleagues to discuss issues in the wake of the reported 26-page document that contains an assertion by the Bush Administration that its assurances of nuclear supplies to India are not meant to insulate it against the consequences of a nuclear test.

Dr. Singh told the meeting that “we have the right to test and the US has the right to react”.
New Delhi made it clear there is no change in its stand on the issue of nuclear testing। External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna said, India’’s position on this issue is well known.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told that the Government can’t go beyond the commitment made to Parliament on the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation।

India has maintained that if conditions are attached to the waiver, it could walk away। However, New Delhi refused to be drawn into a controversy over its agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with the US after the secret document.

“We do not, as a matter of policy, comment on internal correspondence between different branches of another government,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna।

“We will be guided solely by the terms of the bilateral agreement between India and the United States, the India Specific Safeguards Agreement and the clean waiver from the NSG, which we hope will be forthcoming in the meeting of the NSG on September 4-5, 2008,” he added।

Washington too down played the disclosures made in the US State Department document and said that there was nothing new in it which has not been shared with India or the US Congress।

“This letter contains no new conditions and there is no data in this letter which has not already been shared in an open and transparent way with members of the Congress and with the Government of India”" US Ambassador to India David C. Mulford said in a statement.

Tata Motors evaluating alternate sites to make Nano

MUMBAI, September 2 2008 : Tata Motors Ltd said it had suspended work at the Singur plant in West Bengal where it planned to make the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, because of violent protests and was evaluating alternate sites।

Tata Motors said it was putting together a detailed plan for the relocation of the plant and machinery, and was evaluating options for manufacturing the Nano at other company facilities।

"This decision was taken in order to ensure the safety of its employees and contract labour, who have continued to be violently obstructed from reporting to work," the company said in a statement on Tuesday।

It said the project's auto ancillary partners, who had commenced work at their respective plants at the site in Singur, had also suspended work।

Chairman Ratan Tata said last month he was prepared to move the plant from West Bengal despite having invested $350 million in the project because of the risks to employees from the protests।

The Nano project has been billed as a key to the rejuvenation of industries in West Bengal, where the world's longest-serving democratically elected Communist government has changed tack after decades of focus on helping agriculture and poor farmers।

The unveiling in January of the 100,000 rupee ($2,250) snub-nosed Nano was hailed by the state's ruling Communists, but protests have since gathered steam।

Trouble began after the government took over 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of farmland for the factory। The government offered compensation, but some farmers with smaller land holdings have refused compensation, demanding that land be given back to them.

The protests reflect a larger standoff between industry in India and farmers unwilling to part with land in a country where two-thirds of the billion-plus population depend on agriculture.

65% rise in girls joining IIT-Delhi

New Delhi: IIT-Delhi has witnessed a significant rise in the number of girls at the undergraduate level। The intake this year has increased by 65 per cent.

“For the last two to three years the number of female students had remained pretty much constant। In 2007, 50 out of the 550 students — 9 per cent — were girls. This year, however, female students have taken up 83 out of the 626 seats, which is 13 per cent. This is a significant increase,” said S.R. Kale, dean, undergraduate studies.

Electrical, chemical and bio-chemical engineering are the popular options among them।

The increase comes across as a pleasant surprise as engineering normally doesn’t figure high on girl students’ list of career options। While girls do better than boys in science subjects in the board examination, not too many make it to engineering.

M। Balakrishnan, dean, postgraduate and research, feels it is the entrance examination that acts as a deterrent.

However, the few who do enroll in the undergraduate courses do better than their male counterparts and are “more focused” in class। In 2007 girls bagged three of the 14 silver medals for undergraduate students.

Though the change is positive, professors at the institute find it difficult to attribute it a particular reason।

“This doesn’t have much to do with the increase in seats as the increase in female students’ enrollment is proportionately a lot larger। Since this is the first year it is difficult to attribute the jump to one reason. It would only amount to speculation,” added Kale.

UP: SP, Cong to jointly contest LS polls

The Samajwadi Party and Congress on Monday decided to jointly contest the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh with the SP also seeking alliance in four other states including Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and Karnataka ।

After a marathon four-hour-long talk with a Congress delegation led by party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, SP general secretary Amar Singh said that the seat-sharing would be carried out with "winnability" as the ।

Sending out a signal of warmth and goodwill towards the Congress leadership, Singh told reporters that if in any eventuality, the alliance does not work out, "we will not oppose Sonia Gandhi and Rahul in their constituencies"।

The SP leader said that talks in which AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi also participated, were held in cordial atmosphere and the overriding sentiment was one of unity to face the challenges ahead।

"Just like the Congress is asking for more seats in UP, despite being weak there, similarly we also asked them to help us in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, where we have a marginal presence," Singh said implying thereby that the SP was in favour of a broad-based alliance comprising several states।

"Though Digvijay Singh and Rita Bahuguna Joshi are not authorised to speak about any other state apart from UP, I took the advantage of Rahul's presence and sought the Congress' alliance in other states also," the SP leader said।

He added that in UP, both the parties would field strong candidates with grassroot support and who could give a tough fight to their opponents.

CPM blames RSS, BJP for unrest in Jammu and Kashmir

Kakinada Minggu, Agust 31 2008 : The CPI(M) Polit bureau member Sitaram Yechuri today blamed the RSS, BJP and other saffron outfits for the turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir and Orissa।

Addressing a party workers meeting at the Ambedkar Bhavan here he said RSS, BJP and other Sangh Parivar outfits were trying to consolidate the "Hindu vote bank" by arousing communal hatred and disharmony among the people।

'The situation is explosive in J and K where communal clashes and extremists activities were taking place posing a grave threat to the very integrity of the nation। It is nothing but exploiting the situation for political ends'. 'We oppose this trend in the interest of the nation.' he said.

Mr Yetchury said that the CPI(M), in a bid to prevent the communal forces from spreading their wings was trying to forge alliance with secular parties to preserve the country's integrity। Pointing out that the World Bank has mentioned that 82.8 per cent of the country's population was struggling below the poverty line, he said the UPA government had miserably failed in controlling the spiralling prices and inflation.

Attributing the present skyrocketing prices to speculative business, he said, the government, despite bringing enormous pressures by left parties could not control the speculative business on more than 17 essential commodities। As a result, the entire economy was in doldrums leading to hike in intetrest rates and credit squeeze.

It has resulted in steep fall in industrial investments and thereby reduction in industrial growth by 50 per cent, Mr Yechury said, addding that only an alternative effective economic policy would set right the present maladies. Giving out the reasons for CPI(M)'s opposition to the UPA government's nuclear policy, he said, it was detrimental to the country's sovereignity as it has to bow down to the dictates of US regime. The country was at a cross road and political polarisation was taking place rapidly, he said and added that elections to the Lok Sabha seemed imminent three months ahead of the schedule poll.

Hooda to Tata: Welcome to mecca of automobile industry

Gurgaon:Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said his government would welcome the Tatas if they expressed interest in setting up their factory for the Nano car project in the state।

As a number of states line up to woo Ratan Tata to shift his project from Singur in West Bengal, IT and automobile hub Haryana has also put up a strong claim to attract the project।

Hooda cited the presence of auto giants like Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Hero-Honda, Yamaha, etc।, in the state.

While terming the state as a Mecca of automobile industry, Hooda said his government has mega infrastructure building plans to turn the state into a corporate hub of the country।

Hooda told Hindustan Times: “Haryana is the ideal destination for automobile companies। Haryana is manufacturing more than 50 per cent passenger cars, 35 per cent tractors and 50 per cent of the motorcycles being produced in India. We also manufacture more than 25 per cent bicycles of the country. We already have India’s biggest car producer Maruti Udyog Limited in collaboration with Suzuki, the manufacturers of two wheeler Honda Motorcycles, Hero-Honda, Yamaha and Escorts tractors in Haryana.”

When asked about the probable location where the state would offer land to the Tatas, the Chief Minister said, “Haryana has a number of options which we will show them only after they express their desire for the same।”

When asked whether he had had formal or informal discussion with the Tatas on the issue, Hooda said he had not had a formal talk।

The housing division of Tata Group recently launched its first housing project, Raisina Residency, in collaboration with Raheja Group at Golf Course Road in Gurgaon।

The Chief Minister said industrial units in Gurgaon had exported goods worth Rs 20,000 crore during the year 2006-07। Out of this, exports worth Rs 14,000 crore was in IT sector, Rs 2,500 crore in automobile sector, Rs 2,000 crore in the sector of readymade garments and of Rs 1,500 crore in other sectors.

The main items being exported from Gurgaon included cars, motorcycles, software, readymade garments, sports goods and rice to UK, Algeria, Hungary, Denmark, Netherlands, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, Korea, South Africa, USA, Europe, Austria and Mexico.