Unified command meet discusses militancy combat strategy
Guwahati,Monday, July 23, 2001: A meeting of the Unified Command today discussed new strategies to tackle militancy in Assam.
The operational group of the command, formed for counter insurgency operation, met and discussed the new strategies on security deployment keeping in view the militant threats during the Independence day celebration next month, a defence spoesman said.
The strategic group of the command also met during the day to review the prevailing situation in the state, he said.
The meeting was presided by Chief Secretary P K Bora and attended by General-officer-commanding four corps Lt Gen Mahesh Vij, CRPF Inspector General P N Rama Krishnan and other members of the group.
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22 injured as bomb goes off inside running bus
Balurghat (WB),Monday, July 23, 2001: Twenty-two people, including three women, were injured when a bomb went off inside a running bus at Balurghat in West Bengal's South Dinajpur district today, police said.
The bomb, concealed under the seat, exploded shortly after the bus left the Municipal Bus Terminus of the district headquarters, Superintendent of Police Anuj Sharma told PTI.
The injured were being treated at the Balurghat Hospital.
The bus, which was damaged, was going to Safanagar, a village near Bangladesh border.
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Mumbai erases bit more of Bombay - ENS
Knocking down yet another signpost in the city, the Maharashtra government has agreed to rename Sandhurst Road Station of Central Railway (CR) after the late freedom fighter V.D. Savarkar. The announcement was made by Minister of State for General Administration Vijay Gavit, who said in the state Legislative Assembly on Friday that the recommendation would be sent to the Centre.
The demand itself was made by Bala Nandgaonkar (the Shiv Sena), who said since the station bore the name of a British officer, it was a ‘‘sign of slavery’’. He said: ‘‘Savarkar was imprisoned in Dongri Jail near the railway station during the British rule in India. It is appropriate to rename the station as Savarkar Nagar station.’’
Gavit revealed that the government already had two more suggestions for the station’s rechristening. While the Dongri Shwetanbar Murtipujak Jain Sangh is plumping for Shanti Nagar or Mahavir Nagar, Congress corporator Balwant Pawar feels it would be appropriate to rename the station after former chief minister of Maharashtra Y.B. Chavan.
While moving the motion in the Assembly on Friday, Nandgaonkar said he had written to the Union Railway Ministry in July 1998, seeking permission to rename the station. ‘‘The then Union railway minister Ram Naik had told me that the Centre would accept the demand if the state government sent such a proposal.’’ His motion was supported by Sena and BJP members. Encouraged at the government’s acceptance of the demand for Sandhurst Road, Goyal also suggested that King’s Circle station on the Harbour Line of the Central Railway be named after Mahavir.
If Sandhurst Road station is indeed rechristened, it will add another relic to a museum of names discarded by both Shiv Sena and Congress governments in the state. If the Sena government made the transition from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995, former Union railway minister Suresh Kalmadi (Congress) ordained that Victoria Terminus should be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a year later. Determined to propogate the legacy of the Maratha warrior, the Congress-led Democratic Front government went on to christen the domestic and international airports after Chhatrapati Shivaji last year. Only a few months ago, the government sprung yet another surprise when it decided that the Prince of Wales should take up permanent residence in the museum to which he lent his name and that the building be also named after Chhatrapati Shivaji now.
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Pakistan formally invites Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh
Islamabad,Monday, July 23, 2001: Pakistan has sent formal invitations to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to visit Islamabad at their earliest convenient date for follow up talks on Agra summit, a media report said here today.
"Separate letters have been sent to both the Indian leaders on Saturday expressing Pakistan's desire to pursue peace process and reach an understanding on all contentious issues including the issue of Kashmir," Pakistan daily 'The Nation' said.
The Pakistan officials were not immediately available for comments on the report.
The invitation to Vajpayee was sent by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf while the invitation for Jaswant Singh was signed by his counterpart, Abdul Sattar.
"Through the letter Paksitan has once again reiterated its determination to resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful means," it said.
Both, Vajpayee and Singh have in principle accepted the oral invitations extended during the Agra Summit to carry forward the talks in order to resolve diferrences between the two countries, it said.
Though the summit talks failed to produce a joint declaration or a joint statement, Pakistan agreed with India in asserting that talks have not failed but remained 'inconclusive'.
Official indications here are that Singh would visit Islamabad in September before the Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting during the annual UN General Assembly meet at New York.
Pakistan official establishment, however, projected that Vajpayee could also be visiting Islamabad by the end of the year.
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Indian creates record by standing still for 25 hours
Armed with immense determination, a 30-year-old man on Sunday created a record of sorts by standing still in the pose of Mahatma Gandhi for 25 hours in Delhi.
Seshu Babu, an admirer of the Father of the Nation, set out to meet the self-posed challenge at 1200 hours on Saturday and accomplished the feat at 1300 hours on Sunday, surpassing the 18 hours record of a Bhopal-based man in the Limca Book of Records.
With his head shaven and the entire body painted in silver, the Vijayawada-based bespectacled employee of a private company stood still holding a stick, replicating the statue of the Bapu.
When he finally moved after standing for 25 hours, his legs refused to take the burden of his body. He was made to sit as a number of visitors eagerly jostled with each other to get a glance of him.
"My dream is to create a world record by the end of this year and earn a good name for my country," said Babu, for whom such feats are nothing new.
"Delhi Lt Governer Vijai Kapoor once mistook him for a statue in one of our functions," said B Nagaraju, General Secretary of the Delhi Telugu Academy, who organised the show.
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Indian Navy to participate in Australian Fleet Review
Sydney,Monday, July 23, 2001: Indian Navy battleship 'INS Mumbai' will be among 42 warships from 32 countries to participate in the largest ever peacetime collection of warships at Sydney Harbour later this year.
Besides India, 13 other countries including US, UK, Japan, Italy and France have accepted the invitation, for the September 25 to October 7 celebrations, extended by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for an international review to mark this year's 'Centenary of Federation' celebrations.
With Captain Sanjeev Bhasin at the helm, 'INS Mumbai' will have 60 officers and 500 sailors on board.
Meanwhile, another Indian ship 'INS Jyoti', led by Captain G S Randhawa with 25 officers and 250 sailors aboard, is to visit Melbourne and Freemantle.
Over a million people are expected to witness the review of ships.
Some 45 ships of the RAN and vessels from the civilian boating community would also participate in the celebrations.
Several events have been planned for the Cenetenary celebrations, including an 'open day' to allow people to visit RAN and other ships.
Also being planned is a 'Youth Sea Day', which would provide 250 school students and families the opportunity to go to sea for a day aboard an Australian warship.
The last Australian naval review was held during the RAN's 75th anniversary, in 1986, by the Duke of Edinburgh.
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Sivaji Ganesan dies at 77
Sivaji Ganesan, an actor who excelled at historical and family dramas in more than 170 films in three languages, died Saturday in the southern Indian city of Madras. He was 77.
Ganesan was admitted to a hospital after he complained of breathlessness, but the cause of death was not immediately released.
Born in a tiny village in the Thanjavur district of southern India's Tamil Nadu state, V.C. Ganesan, as he was originally known, began acting in his teens. By the late 1940s he was playing lead roles in the theater.
Ganesan made his screen debut in the 1952 Tamil language film, "Parasakthi." He took on the name "Sivaji" after he portrayed the 17th century warrior king Shivaji in a film.
Ganesan acted in films in the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages.
Over the years, he developed an intense style of delivering dialogue. Indian trade journals called him the Marlon Brando of South Indian cinema.
In 1996, the Indian government gave him the Dada Phalke award, the country's highest honor in the entertainment industry, for his lifetime contribution to Indian film.
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Crude oil production dips 7.5% to 2.48 MT in June 2001
New Delhi,Monday, July 23, 2001: India's crude oil production fell 7.5 per cent to 2.481 million tonnes in June 2001 as opposed to production of 2.682 million tonnes a year ago.
Refinery production, however, rose 11.6 per cent to 9.125 million tonnes over production of 8.173 million tonnes in June 2000, according to latest data released by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas here.
Refinery capacity utilisation was 98.7 per cent in June 2001 as against 88.8 per cent in the corresponding month of the previous year.
Natural gas production at 2416 million cubic meters during June 2001 was 0.1 per cent higher than the production of 2414 million cubic meters in June 2000.
Cumulative crude oil production during the first quarter of current fiscal was 4.5 per cent lower at 7.616 million tonnes as compared to 7.977 million tonnes in April-June 2000.
Refinery throughput rose 6.4 per cent to 26.031 million tonnes in Q1 2001 over 24.471 million tonnes in the same period last fiscal. Besides refinery capacity utilisation was also higher at 92.8 per cent in April-June 2001 as opposed to 87.6 per cent in the corresponding perious the previous financial year.
With crude throughput of 2.562 million tonnes in June 2001, private sector Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), which operates country's largest refinery of 27 million tonnes capacity at Jamnagar in Gujarat, had a capacity utilisation of 115.5 per cent.
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Over half of existing foreign investors want to grow: FICCI
New Delhi,Monday, July 23, 2001: More than half of the Foreign Direct Investors already present in India plan to expand operations whereas about one-third want to maintain their current investment levels and nine per cent want to decrease Indian exposure, as per a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) study.
As per the study titled `The experience of foreign direct investments in India', 56 per cent of foreign investors already present in India plan to expand their presence in India, 35 per cent want to maintain the size of their operations whereas only nine want to reduce exposure to the Indian market.
Also, devising the `Right' policy initiatives comes across as the most critical factor likely to affect future FDI inflow into the country, as per the study
An overwhelming 87 per cent of the respondents felt right policy initiatives are of paramount importance, followed by political stability at 68 per cent and market growth at 63 per cent.
While ground-level hassles (58 per cent) also carry substantial weight in determining future FDI inflows, only 39 per cent of the respondents felt that Manpower Availability was of vital consequence.
The survey covered over 2000 companies - including all major foreign direct investors operating in India - and 400 respondents.
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Supreme Court asks states to make closed PDS shops functional
New Delhi,Monday, July 23, 2001: Taking serious note of starvation deaths despite overflowing Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, the Supreme Court today asked six drought-prone states to take immediate steps to make closed PDS shops functional within a week.
The direction was given by a Bench comprising Justice B N Kirpal and Justice K G Balakrishnan on a petition filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) alleging starvation deaths in Orissa, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Maharshtra, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Arguing for the petitioner, counsel Colin Gonsalves and Aparna Bhat contended that it was tragic that over 50 million tonnes of food grains, as against required buffer stock of 17 million tonnes, were lying in various godowns of FCI across the country and said the non-enforcement of famine code had resulted in starvation deaths.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee termed it as a "horrendous state of affair" and added there was something radically wrong with the system and sought time from the Court for formulation of a mechanism to provide food to the destitutes.
The Court said the priority of the Government should be to provide food to the aged, infirm, disabled, destitutes, pregnant and lactating women who are in danger of starvation in compliance with the famine code.
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Major role for scientists in tackling problems under WTO: Ajit Singh
New Delhi,Monday, July 23, 2001: New Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh today asked scientists to play a major role in tackling the challenges posed to the Indian farm sector by World Trade Organisation (WTO) and globalisation.
In his first official engagement after being sworn in as Cabinet Minister on Sunday, Singh said "the biggest role has to be played by scientists in dealing with the challenges posed by globalisation and WTO".
The Minister was addressing a gathering of agricultural scientists and researchers after inaugurating a new "Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan" of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) here.
Singh said with his professional background, he fully understood the implications of the rapidly changing global economic scenario under WTO regime.
"Agriculture now requires much greater attention than ever before in order to ensure overall progress of the country", he said.
Stressing the need for concrete steps at the grassroots level to make agriculture vibrant, Singh said extension services must be strengthened to ensure that the benefits of research reach the farmers.
ICAR Director General R S Paroda said the new building, constructed at a cost of about Rs 165.6 mn, would go a long way in accelerating agricultural research with its modern and state-of-the-art facilities.
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NSE striking brokers demand word with Govt., SEBI
New Delhi,Monday, July 23, 2001: Expressing concern over the dip in volumes with the introduction of new trading system, the striking stock exchange brokers today demanded a dialogue with the government and SEBI to break the impasse.
"Strike is not the only solution. We will like to have discussions with the FM, who is at present not available due to UTI fiasco and the beginning of monsoon session of Parliament," NSE Board Member, Vinod Jain told reporters here on-behalf of Association of NSE Members of India (ANMI).
He said the brokers, quite unwillingly, had resorted to abstaining from trading to highlight the issues regarding the weak surveillance and monitoring mechanism of SEBI and were not against the reforms, including rolling settlement.
There should be an alternate arrangement like margin trading, stock lending and bank finances, which are available in the international markets, he said.
"We cannot be pushed to rolling settlement without providing for alternate system," Jain said.
Pointing out that NSE daily volume had fallen to Rs 1,000 crore from a high of Rs 15,000 crore and in BSE it had gone down to Rs 500 crore from a higher figure of Rs 5,000 crore, he said drastic reduction in volume would ruin not only capital markets but the economy as a whole.
On tunover tax on Bhatt committee's recommendations, he said, there should be review of tax, if possible by the same person, since the brokerage had gone down "significantly" and brokers were "willing to negotiate with SEBI on the issue".
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Anna Kournikova marries Sergei Fedorov: report
London,Monday, July 23, 2001: Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova has married ice hockey player Sergei Fedorov in a private ceremony in Moscow, the Sun newspaper reported today.
The 20-year-old Kournikova, who has made millions in modelling and endorsement deals, wed the 31-year-old Fedorov at a registrar's office in the Russian capital, the paper said.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the report.
The wedding took place sometime during Wimbledon, which ran June 25 to July 9, the Sun said.
Kournikova missed Wimbledon with an ankle injury, which also kept her out of the French Open.
The Sun said only five guests attended the wedding, the parents of Kournikova and Federov and Fedorov's brother.
"It was a lovely wedding," Federov's mother, Natalia, was quoted as saying. "I am very happy to be Anna's mother-in-law. Anna and Sergei did not take a honeymoon. They both work hard. After the wedding, they went home to Miami and are practicing their sports."
Kournikova has been linked with Fedorov since she was 15. She was also reportedly involved with another Russian ice hockey star, Pavel Bure.
Kournikova, who has a world ranking of 13, is one of the most recognizable female athletes in the world, even though she has never won a professional tournament.
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De Mel discusses cricket development with Dalmiya
Kolkata,Monday, July 23, 2001: Former Test cricketer Asantha De Mel, the secretary of the interim committee which oversees cricketing activities in Sri Lanka, today met the chairman of the Asian Cricket Foundation, Jagmohan Dalmiya to discuss various issues related to the development of cricket in the region.
De Mel, who flew into the city last night, mainly discussed about Sri Lanka's role in the Asian cricket development programme envisaged by the ACF.
The two cricket administrators, who met for about two hours, also discussed on ways to implement the development programme in the island nation and various aspects of the detailed development plan drawn up by the ACF.
They identified areas of cooperation in an effort to streamline the programmes and promote the game in new areas.
The former Sri Lankan Test player also briefed Dalmiya about the cricketing scenario prevailing in Sri Lanka following the suspension of the country's cricket board.
Sri Lanka's tourism and sports minister, Lakshman Kiriella was also supposed to attend the meeting but cancelled his trip due to the fluid political situation prevailing in the island nation.
Apart from De Mel, the interim committee, set up after the cricket board was suspended, comprised C. Mallela Sekhara as chairman and former Sri Lankan captains Anura Tennekoon and Michael Tissera.
The meeting assumes importance in view of the two-day ACF conclave scheduled to be held in the city from July 31.
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Baroda, Mumbai to play a triangular series in Kenya
Mumbai,Monday, July 23, 2001: Ranji Trophy champions Baroda and former champions Mumbai would play a triangular limited overs cricket tournament with the hosts as the third team from September 10 to 24 in Kenya.
The Mumbai team would play Baroda and Kenya three times each in the league phase with the final slated for September 24, Mumbai Cricket Association's joint secretary, Mayank Khandwala told PTI here today.
Mumbai will also play a three-day match against Kenya.
"The main intention of touring Kenya is to give exposure to Mumbai players and help them get accustomed to staying together which in turn would help them knit well as a team," he said.
"An invitation from the Kenya Cricket Association was received by the MCA and the newly formed Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) sanctioned the tour immediately," Khandwala said.
"The MCA selectors will meet here in the third or fourth week of August to pick the team for the tour," he added.
Kenya had invited Mumbai last year as well but the tour was cancelled due to non-availability of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who was busy with the Indian team's conditioning camp for the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Mini World Cup.
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Hockey: Indians get past the first hurdle
EDINBURGH, JULY 21: India qualified for the second round of the World Cup hockey qualifying tournament, beating Egypt 3-1 in a Pool A match here today.
India now have six points along with New Zealand in Pool A but the Kiwis have a match against Wales in hand. If New Zealand win that match, they would top Pool A with nine points while India will be on six.
India will now play Argentina tomorrow in the second round. The South Americans have been on a roll winning all their matches and are Pool B toppers with nine points. If India beat Argentina, they will enter the semi-finals and be assured of a slot in the 2002 Kuala Lumpur World Cup.
India today packed their midfield hoping for more balls coming through to the forwards but the Egyptians were expecting that and they brought in more players into their circle.
But apprehensions were dismissed in the 42nd minute when Daljit Singh Dhillon found himself in the clear off a pass from the left flank which had been fed by the midfield. Daljit Singh made no mistake with his shot to beat the Egyptian goalkeeper Hasanein and give India the lead.
Four minutes later, India again raided the Egyptian circle and in the melee, the ball hit a defender’s leg after Indian captain Baljit Singh Dhillon was stick-checked. The umpire pointed for a penalty stroke which Baljit Dhillon converted for India’s second goal.
India got their third goal in the 53rd minute when mid-fielder Arjun Hallapa, overlapping and coming into the circle, latched onto a cross and fired in with aplomb.
With India leading 3-0, it seemed that the Egyptians were losing the fight. But off a counter-attack, they earned a penalty corner and scored in the 60th minute to pull back a goal for a 1-3 scoreline.
India, somehow, managed to hold on for 10 minutes with a few attacks from their own forwards and must have heaved a sigh a relief when the hooter went. The other teams to have qualified for the second round are Poland (9 points) and Canada (6 points) from Pool D.
>>From Pool C, 1998 World Cup silver medallists Spain and Japan are on six points. Both the teams are through to the second round but it remains to be seen who will top the pool. In Pool B, Argentina go through with three wins but Belgium squeezed through on goal average, finishing second behind Argentina.
France needed to beat Bangladesh 5-0 but could only manage a 5-2 victory after being 4-0 up at the break.
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