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News:
Stop dreaming about Kashmir, Vajpayee tells Pak
Klebanov, Jaswant hold wide-ranging discussions
Five JeM militants killed, hideout busted in J and K
Kolkata police interrogating two Hazaribagh men
Muslim sect linked to Gilani accused of money laundering
India, Russia discuss partnership in futuristic weapons system
JEM leader emerges key suspect in Pearl case
US, India discuss cooperation against terrorist financing
India, Russia concerned over declining trend in bilateral trade
Efficient telecom officials lured by private operators: BSNL
Sugar decontrol linked to futures trading, cane prices
IT sector will have to maintain 30 pc growth: NASSCOM-Mckinsey
Shares flare up at NSE on heavy buying
Sourav Ganguly to remain skipper for Zimbabwe series
Dingko to miss Commonwealth Games
Nothing went right for India in semis: Vengsarkar
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Stop dreaming about Kashmir, Vajpayee tells Pak
Pathankot,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: A day after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's strident rhetoric in Pak-occupied Kashmir assembly, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today bluntly told Islamabad to stop dreaming about Kashmir making it clear that it cannot get the valley.
"Yesterday, Pakistan has observed Kashmir Divas (day). How long they will have to observe this? By observing Kashmir Divas, they are not going to get Kashmir. You will not get Kashmir. Faisla ho chuka hai (the decision has been made)," Vajpayee told a largely-attended election meetings for BJP-Akali Dal candidates in the border town of Ferozepur and Pathankot in Punjab.
The Prime Minister said the troops hae been massed on the border not to attack but ruled out their withdrawal until Pakistan stopped export of terrorism to India.
"Troops are stationed on the border not for waging a war but for self-defence. Troops will be returned only when Pakistan stops aiding and abetting terrorist activities from its soil and then only there is possibility of resumption of talks," he said.
Vajpayee said though India had initiated several steps for peaceful resolution of bilateral issues, including Kashmir, these were rewarded in the form of Kargil intrusion.
"Pakistan broke India's trust. If Pakistan wants any improvement in its relations with India, it must regain India's trust," he said.
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Klebanov, Jaswant hold wide-ranging discussions
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov today held wide-ranging discussions with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on the situation in Afghanistan and prospects for increasing bilateral trade in diversified areas.
During the 30-minute meeting, both Klebanov and Singh shared similar views on Afghanistan, an External Affairs Minister spokesperson told reporters.
The two leaders agreed that the campaign against terrorism involved all members of the international community.
They reviewed ongoing bilateral cooperation including defence ties. The two countries are slated to sign a Defence Protocol on Friday heralding a new phase in defence cooperation betwen them.
Singh and Klebanov noted that defence cooperation was proceeding "very well" and expressed satisfaction on the state of relations in this area, the spokesperson said.
Klebanov told reporters that as conveyed by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov during his recent visit, he has "confirmed once again our full support to India" in an apparent reference to Moscow endorsing New Delhi's view on stepping up concerted international action against terrorism.
He said there was "convergence of our positions" on several issues of concern.
Singh noted that the two countries were "strategic partners, old allies and friends having the friendliest of relations".
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Five JeM militants killed, hideout busted in J and K
Srinagar,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Security forces gunned down five Pakistani militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit including a self-styled district commander, arrested a local militant and busted a hideout in separate anti-militant operations in Jammu and Kashmir today, a police spokesman said today.
The five JeM militants, including district commander Abu khalid were killed in an encounter with Rashtriya Rifles at Khudi-Warnow, 100 kms from here, in frontier district of Kupwara in north Kashmir today, the spokesman said.
He said the encounter broke out when the troops laid a cordon in the forest area to flush out the hiding militants who resorted to firing in an abortive attempt to escape. The troops retaliated and killed Khalid alongwith four of his accomplices identified as Abu Talha, Abu Majid, Abu Nisar and Abu Sufian.
The killed militants were all Pakistanis hailing from punjab province. Three ak assault rifles, 13 magazines, two pistols with two magazines, two wireless sets, a rocket projectile gun and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered from them, the spokesman said.
He said another encounter between militants and security forces took place at village Nutnusa in the same district, but no casualty was reported.
Prior to the encounter, security forces apprehended a local militant, Ghulam Qadir Dar in the area and recovered a mortar, a base plate and seven mortar bombs from him, the spokesman said.
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Kolkata police interrogating two Hazaribagh men
Kolkata,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Hassan Imam and Adil, detained in Hazaribagh in connection with the January 22 terrorist attack at American centre were today brought here for interrogation.
The two were alleged to have received Md Salim, one of the two terrorists killed in Hazaribagh, at Koderma on January 23 and took him to Gaya in a jeep, Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) Soumen Mitra told reporters here.
Both Hassan and Adil were brought to Kolkata this morning and being interrogated by intelligence and police officials to to derive any clue about the main conspirators.
"We are yet to ascertain as to whether the two had any direct connection with any terrorist organisation, but they had gone to receive Md Salim at Koderma station from where he was taken to Gaya in a jeep," Mitra said.
Adil was a refrigerator mechanic working in Delhi and had come to his native village. "He might have been asked by Hassan to accompany him to receive Salim from Koderma."
Giving further details about the investigations so far made, the DC (DD) said, it was found that Sadaqat had left Kolkata on the day of the attack itself, while Md Salim had left Kolkata next day.
"So far we have fixed up three persons - Babloo, Niaz and Abdullah - from Kolkata in connection with the attack. None of them had any criminal record and it appears that they had never been arrested earlier," Mitra said.
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Muslim sect linked to Gilani accused of money laundering
Washington,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: US law enforcement agencies are investigating whether a radical Muslim sect, Jamaat Al-Fuqra, linked to Sheikh Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, who was arrested recently in connection with the kidnapping of US reporter Daniel Pearl, is laundering money into Pakistan.
Jamaat al-Fuqra, which has documented ties to international terrorism, is the focus of the probe, which includes the fraudulent procurement of social services money, authorities have told the Washington Times.
"AL Fuqra has various broad schemes to take government entitlement money and use it to fund terrorist activities. This money goes to Pakistan, to their leader. Our Government should be watchful because this is going on in our ownback yard," an investigator in Colorado, Susan Fenger said.
Al-Fuqra is linked through court documents to Muslims of the Americas, a tax-exempt group established in the US in 1980 by Gilani. The group has set up and funded rural communes that Federal authorities say are linked to murder, bombing and other felonies throughout the US and Canada.
Al Fuqra is also suspected of ties to Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who tried to blow up a Paris to Miami jetliner on December 22.
Muslims of the Americas operates communes of mostly Black, American-born Muslims in Binghamton, New York; Badger California; York, South Carolina; and Red House, Virginia, lasw enforcement officials said. But there are also some non-Muslims in the group.
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India, Russia discuss partnership in futuristic weapons system
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Aiming at a strategic partnership in developing futuristic weapons systems, India and Russia today opened three days of high level talks here that could pave the way for an agreement to get advanced armaments like AWACS surveillance aircraft and nuclear submarines and long range maritime bomberson lease.
Simultaneously, with a view to overcoming shortages in spares and ammunition of some critical weapons systems, India is also pressing for rapid implementation of the Putin decree enabling New Delhi to buy directly from orginal equipment makers in Russia, bypassing middlemen.
Emerging after his almost hour-long meeting with Defence Minister George Fernandes, the visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Illya Klebanov said Moscow was offering New Delhi a stake in its programme for development of futuristic weapons.
"Russia is willing to go beyond the sale and lease of hi-tech weapons", he said adding he has come to New Delhi with "new proposals" for long term strategic partnership in joint development and production of fifth generation weapons.
Klebanov and Fernandes, who are co-chairmen, opened the session of the inter-governmental commission on military-technical cooperation which is likely to take up the issue of Moscow leasing out two nuclear submarines and four long range TU-22M3 maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
"The three day meeting will discuss various bilateral defence issues at the level of working groups and their sub-groups", an official announcement said.
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JEM leader emerges key suspect in Pearl case
Islamabad,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Banned militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed's leader Sheikh Omar Saeed, one of the three JEM ultras released by India to end the Kandahar hijacking crisis, has emerged as the ring leader in the abduction of US journalist Daniel Pearl, who has been missing for nearly three weeks.
Pakistani investigators have said that Saeed was a key suspect along with an unnamed person. The JEM militant was released to end the Kandahar hijacking drama.
This followed interrogation of three militants arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the Wall Street Journal reporter.
"We're better able now to clarify who's on first, who's on second," the official said.
When interrogated by police, the three ultras said the photograph of Pearl sent along with the e-mails were given to them by Omar, daily 'Dawn' reported.
Quoting sources, it said, the police picked up the militants - Fawad and Salman - from Karachi while the name of the third person could not be ascertained.
The three men were said to have been working as an intermediary between the US journalist and militant outfits. Pearl had reportedly interviewed members of militant groups through these men and they had helped him in reportage.
"We are very very close to solving this case," Home Secretary of the provincial Sindh Government, Mukhtar Ahmed Shah, told reporters adding, it "could be today or tomorrow. In any case very soon".
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US, India discuss cooperation against terrorist financing
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: United States wants India and Pakistan to join the "Egmont" treaty which entails member countries to share financial information to effectively crack down on funding of terrorist activities.
A senior US official told reporters here that there were already 58 or 59 member countries to the agreement signed in Brussles in 1995 and US was of the view that more countries like India and Pakistan should join to step-up the "war against terrorism".
Besides there was also another sub-treaty called FATAC Financial Investigation Task Force, of which 29 countries are members, he said suggesting countries in the region should join it as well to block funding of terrirosm.
Earlier, unveiling a six-point agenda of cooperation to track down funding of terrorist activities, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam said efforts against hawala has to be redoubled besides encouraging independent notification of terrorist groups by other nations.
Dam, who had a meeting with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha here, said there was need for more information sharing and increased efforts by US and allied nations against charities, particularly the role of donors.
"We hope to use the financial investigation to track down the ticking time bombs or sleeper cells that President Bush mentioned in his recent state of the Union address. These are not challenges specific to India, rather these challenges faces the global community of nations," he said.
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India, Russia concerned over declining trend in bilateral trade
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Worried over the declining trend in bilateral trade, India and Russia today decided to expand and diversify the basket of goods, besides making inroads in the banking and financial sector.
This was agreed in the Protocol of the 8th Session of Indo-Russian Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation held under the Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, economic, scientific and technological and cultural cooperation.
The Protocol of the two-day session was signed by the Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee and First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Mikhail Egonovich Dmitriev on behalf of the Russian Federation.
''Both sides agreed to initiate remedial action to arrest the declining trend in bilateral trade, especially in the context of the decline in exports of some important items like tea, tobacco, and rice (from India) and fertilisers, Iron and steel and metaliferrous ores and metal scrap (from Russia)'', says an official release.
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Efficient telecom officials lured by private operators: BSNL
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today accused private telecom operators of luring its efficient employees and defended the decision to give free telephone facilities saying it was part of efforts to counter the competitors and prevent exodus.
"The concessional telephone facility to the Telecom employees is a well thought of business decision to face the competition from the private operators," BSNL said in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in reply to a petition alleging that it was an arbitrary decision which would cause huge loss to the excehquer.
"These private operators offer attractive remunerations including an improved pay package, free telecom facilities like cellular or a fixed telephone or a pager. As the private competitors target mostly the efficient employees, it was essential to take appropriate counter-measures to check the exodus of the employees....," it said.
Refuting the charge that the telecom employees were being given better facilities than even the defence personnel, BSNL said "the perks of defence personnel in many ways far exceed the perks given to telecom employees."
It referred to the free tickets given by Railways, Indian Airlines and Air India to its employees and the lower rate charged by PSUs from its employees on items manufactured by them and said the telecom facilities given to BSNL employees was nothing new.
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Sugar decontrol linked to futures trading, cane prices
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Union Food Minister Shanta Kumar today said sugar will be fully decontrolled only after futures trading in the commodity begins and cane prices are rationalised.
"Government is committed to full decontrol of sugar in 2002-03, however, the decision will be subject to improvement in viability of sugar mills and quality, futures trading and cane price rationalisation," the Minister told reporters.
He said once these steps have been taken, the commodity will be decontrolled by removing restrictions of release and levy quotas.
Cane pricing will be so structured that farmers get a good price without imposing a burden on the millers and the issue has been referred to the Commission on Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP).
For making production and exports cost effective, assistance will be given for commerical utilisation of byproducts like ethanol and molasses.
The Sugar Development Fund (SDF) Act will be amended to ensure necessary financial assistance for blending petrol with five per cent ethanol and co-generation of power from molasses
The amendment will also provide for reimbursement of inland transport subsidies for sugar exports.
To improve quality, sugar and sugarcane production will be brought under the Voluntary Certification Mark Scheme of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The government will bring about decontrol, synchronising it with these initiatives during the next financial year, he said adding that BPL families will continue to get sugar under PDS even in the post-decontrol regime.
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IT sector will have to maintain 30 pc growth: NASSCOM-Mckinsey
Mumbai,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Indian IT sector will have to maintain a 30 per cent growth rate to attain exports upto USD 50 billion by 2008, according to a NASSCOM-Mckinsey study.
The Indian IT industry growth rate has slumped due to global economic slowdown, the dotcom bust and September 11 events in US, forcing customers to delay decisions and shift spending pattern, Mckinsey Consultancy team Noshir Kaka and Gautam Kumra said in their presentation at NASSCOM 2002 here today.
Despite the current slowdown, the long-term fundamentals of the Indian industry remain robust. Indian IT sector's growth would be influenced by overall slowdown in spending, significant adverse impact of past overspendings, which had made global companies cautious on returns on investments.
According to the study, China was likely to emerge as a potential competitor in IT services over the next two to three years. Chinese entities may enjoy a cost advantage of 15-20 per cent in next five years over the Indian counterparts, they said.
As per premliminary findings, Indian companies would have to focus on five key short term challenges including acquiring new customers, identifying new opportunities like system integration and transaction processing services to maintain growth tempo, they said.
These challenges include systematic agenda on merger and acquisitions, forging alliances with system integrators to grab global business opportunities, they added.
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Shares flare up at NSE on heavy buying
Mumbai,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: A Buoyant sentiment prevailed on the National Stock Exchange here today as prices of pivotals, led by IT and petro shares, flared up on heavy all-round buying and closed with handsome gains.
Mirroring the general trend, the S&P CNX Nifty zoomed up by around 40 points.
Prices started on a better note and shot up during the day on heavy buying and a large numbner of shares like BHEL, IPCL, MTNL, SBIN, SatyamComp, DigitalEqp, Wipro, Infosystech, IBP, Global Tele, Softsolint, HCL Tech, NIIT, Pentasfware, Him Fut, Vishualsoft, Polaris, Telco, Aftekinto, Larsen, Reliance Petro and Mastek closed with remarkable gains.
In the market, 534 securities advanced, 169 declined and 57 held steady with 84 hitting their price bands.
The S&P CNX Nifty started better at 1074.40 and shot up to a high 1117.10, before closing at 1113.10, showing a remarkable rally of 38.85 over yesterday's close of 1074.25.
CNX Nifty Junior shot up by 84.40 to 1514.85 from 1430.45. S&P CNX defty rallied by 27.35 to 792.80 from the last close of 765.45. S&P CNX 500 jumped up by 29.35 to 753.15 from yesterday's level of 723.80 and CNX midcap 200 showed a handsome rally of 26.50 at 678.60 as against the previous close of 652.10.
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Sourav Ganguly to remain skipper for Zimbabwe series
Mumbai,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Sourav Ganguly will continue as captain of the Indian cricket team for the home series againsts Zimbabwe starting on February 15.
Though the skipper would be named officially on February 14 here, a highly-placed Cricket Board source said Ganguly had already been retained captain for the two-Test and five one-day matches series against Zimbabwe.
"The team under Ganguly beat the England 1-0 in the Test series and squared the six-match one-day series 3-3. He regained his batting form at the end of the series and he will be the right choice to lead against Zimbabwe," the source said.
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Dingko to miss Commonwealth Games
New Delhi,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: Asian Games gold medallist Dingko Singh will miss out the Manchester Commonwealth Games in July as he is yet to be "fully fit at par with international standards" following the wrist injury that kept him out of action for almost two years.
The promising pugilist will, however, be available for the Busan Asian Games in October.
"Though I have recovered (from the hairline fracture of the wrist), it will take at least six more months to be completely fit at par with international standards," Dingko, who today made lightwork of his pre-quarter-final opponent in the ongoing 48th Senior National Boxing Championship, told PTI.
Pointing out that taking part in any international event requires lightning-fast reflexes and stronger punches, 24-year-old Dingko said, "my fitness level is not good enough for the highest level of competition. I would be skipping Commonwealth and have started concentrating more on Asian Games."
Dingko, a Chief Physical Training Officer with the Indian Navy, revealed that he barely managed a month's practice for the current featherweight championship.
Ruing about his ignorance of any better treatment available abroad, Dingko, who has won six international medals for the country, said "the recovery period was too long. Even my coach didn't know about treatments abroad. Government helps cricketers to go abroad for treatment, but we boxers are not given that importance."
Dingko was hopeful to remain in action till 2008.
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Nothing went right for India in semis: Vengsarkar
Mumbai,Wednesday, February 06, 2002: "It was one of those bad days when nothing went right for the team," was how former India captain Dilip Vengasarkar today described the team's loss in the semi-finals of the Under-19 World Cup in Auckland last week.
Vengsarkar, who accompanied the team as a consultant, was, however, satisfied with the overall performance of the team which entered the tournament as defending champions.
"Though we lost in the semi-finals to South Africa, our boys' overall performance was good," Vengasarkar, who is also in-charge of BCCI's new scheme for spotting young talent, told reporters after the team's return from New Zealand.
"In fact we had beaten South Africa in the league stages by 71 runs and in the semi-finals we were 80 for one off 12 overs but lost wickets regularly. The boys also dropped a few catches while fielding and let South Africa off the hook.
"I think it was one of those bad days when nothing went right for the team," he said.
"Our strong point was our bowling but our fielders did not give good support. We played on a very bad wicket against Bangladesh and lost during league stages but against Pakistan we fought hard before going down by two wickets," he said.
"I only wish our batters had done better than what they did. However, we have unearthed some very fine youngsters who have bright future like opening batsman Maninder Bisla, Chandan Madan, Abhishek Sharma, Chandrashekar Atram and Irfan Pathan," Vengsarkar said.
He also praised team physio Arjun Singh Rana who, he said, had kept the fitness levels of the players at par with the Australians and South Africans.
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Sensex: 3427.39, +115.66
The sensex closed at 3427.39, up 115.66
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Forex
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1 U.S. $ = 48.61 INR
1 Japanese Yen = 0.36 INR
1 British Pound = 68.75 INR
1 Canadian $ = 30.33 INR
1 Singapore $ = 26.52 INR
1 UAE Dirham = 13.23 INR
1 Saudi Arabian Riyal = 12.96 INR
1 Euro = 42.12 INR
1 Qatar Rial = 13.35 INR
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Weather
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Temperature: 70 F / 21 C
Humidity: 78%
Dewpoint: 63 F / 17 C
Wind
North at 3 mph / 4.8 km/h
Pressure: 29.88 in / 1012 hPa
Conditions
Smoke
Clouds
Scattered Clouds (SCT): 10000 ft / 3050 m
Sunrise : 07:09 AM (IST)
Sunset : 06:32 PM (IST)
Moon Rise : 04:01 AM (IST)
Moon Set : 02:22 PM (IST)
Tonight : Low: 64 F / 18 C Scattered Clouds
Thursday : High: 73 F / 23 C Scattered Clouds
Thursday Night : Low: 62 F / 17 C Scattered Clouds
Friday : High: 73 F / 23 C Clear
Friday Night : Low: 62 F / 17 C Clear
Saturday : High: 75 F / 24 C Scattered Clouds
Saturday Night : Low: 64 F / 18 C Clear
Sunday : High: 75 F / 24 C Scattered Clouds
Sunday Night : Low: 64 F / 18 C Clear
Monday : High: 78 F / 26 C Scattered Clouds
Monday Night : Low: 68 F / 20 C Clear
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