Motion unanimously passed; Govt-Opposition divide persists
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: Despite the Rajya Sabha unanimously passing a censure motion on Gujarat seeking effective Central intervention under Art 355 of the Constitution, the government-opposition divide persisted with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rejecting the demand for the removal of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
"The government will fully implement in letter and spirit the House motion seeking more effective action under Article 355. There need be no no doubt about it," he said in an intervention in the 17-hour debate on the Opposition censure motion on Gujarat.
Seeking to set at rest controversy over his remarks in Gwalior on Saturday, he recalled "I said the debate is on in Parliament and in effect it is a notice (under Art 355)) to the Gujarat authorities."
Though the unanimous adoption of the Motion was somewhat unprecedented, the government had hit upon this tactic to save an inevitable defeat in case of a division voting because of lack of numbers.
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India's crucial monsoon rains seen normal this year
India's southwest monsoon, vital to the country's economic performance, is expected to be normal in the season beginning June, a state-run scientific agency said in a forecast.
"As per criteria of India Meteorological Department (IMD), both the years 2002 and 2003 are likely to be normal monsoon years," the Bangalore-based Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation said.
"It is noteworthy that all these experimental forecasts, generated well ahead of the season and several of them two seasons in advance, have been fairly accurate," the centre said on its Web site referring to its forecasts over the last seven years.
More than 70 percent of India's one billion people depend on agriculture for a livelihood. It contributes 25 percent to the country's gross domestic product.
Good monsoon rains are vital to a good harvest, which helps agricultural production and boosts consumption and demand.
The south-west monsoon normally arrives over India in the early part of June and lasts through September. India has had 13 consecutive years of normal monsoon rains leading to bumper grains output.
The centre said over the past one hundred years or so, the longest spell of consecutive normal monsoon years was 13.
"We are thus at the edge of a shift to drought/excess year. However, our forecasts for both 2002 and 2003 are quite close to the long-term mean," it said.
The centre adopts a technique different from the conventional methodology of assessing atmospheric and oceanic processes used by the IMD, to forecast the monsoon.
The IMD is expected to come out with its official monsoon forecast on May 25.
India is counting on good monsoon rains to shore up its sagging industrial sector, which has been hit by poor demand, and bolster economic growth.
The southwest monsoon rains provide 80 percent of the country's total rainfall.
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Tension in Ahmedabad locality after blast near mosque
Ahmedabad,Monday, May 06, 2002: A crude bomb was thrown at a mosque by some unidentified persons in curfew-bound Mirzapur locality of the city this afternoon triggering tension in the area, police said.
The bomb exploded on the road outside the mosque, where a prayer session was on, they said adding that no one was injured in the blast.
However, tension gripped the area after the incident with mobs taking to streets which dispersed after police fired teargas shells, they said.
Police described the attack on the mosque as a handiwork of miscreants to create communal tension.
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Brit Lawmaker Fired For Racist Joke
A senior lawmaker in the opposition Conservative Party was sacked from her front bench post Sunday after making a racist joke about Britain's South Asian population.
During an after dinner speech at her local rugby club, rural affairs spokeswoman Ann Winterton referred to South Asians in Britain as being "10 a penny" — an expression similar to "dime a dozen" which means cheap or commonplace.
Winterton apologized for the comment late Saturday when a national newspaper broke the story, but was condemned by lawmakers and civil rights groups.
Conservative Central Office issued a statement Sunday saying party leader Iain Duncan Smith found her remarks "unacceptable and offensive" and had fired her. She remains a member of the party and a lawmaker.
Conservative peer Lord Taylor said Sunday Winterton had shown an "appalling lack of political judgment" to make the joke so soon after the extreme right, anti-immigrant British National Party won three seats in local elections Thursday.
The Commission for Racial Equality described Winterton's joke as "unfortunate."
Britain has a large Asian community — a term used here to denote those with roots in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
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Osama bin Laden sighted in Pakistan: report
New York,Monday, May 06, 2002: Afghan chief of military intelligence Hazrat Uddin says he has received "credible reports" that terror leader Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant Ayman al Zawahiri were seen inside Pakistan.
Uddin said a source informed him that Laden had trimmed his beard and appeared healthy.
A second Afghan commander, Kamal Khan Zadran, said he thinks Osama's men were trying to keep their leader safe inside Pakistan.
"The local al Qaeda network is active," he says. "They're working out their plans."
While false sightings of bin Laden are reported every day and there is no solid proof he is even alive, privately, many terrorism experts think Uddin is on the right track, the American news magazine 'Newsweek' says in its upcoming issue.
Both Uddin and Zadran are stationed in the Afghan city of Khost, just over the mountain pass from Miram Shah, a corner of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, east of Afghanistan.
Also in Khost, an Afghan intelligence official in daily contact with the Americans was quoted as saying an operation launched on April 30 called Mountain Lion -- using British, Australian and US' 101st Airborne commandos to seek out possible al Qaeda hideouts - would expand into a major offensive on both sides of the border.
"They have a plan to go into Miram Shah to do an operation," he says. "There are 1,200 Americans and Brits in the tribal areas right now. They're working very hard. They're in a hurry".
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Riots Threaten India's Top Business School
(Excerpted from a Reuters article)
AHMEDABAD, India - Under normal circumstances, it would be a day parents in India would not miss -- seeing their child graduate from the equivalent of Harvard.
The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, or IIM Ahmedabad for short, is the top business school in the country, if not in Asia.
But at the graduation ceremony in March for the class of 2002, proud parents were conspicuous by their absence.
Only one third of the invited parents turned up. Others were too frightened to make the trip to a city racked by religious rioting that has killed more than 850 people.
Three days of interviewing were to begin on March 1, then on March 8. They finally began on March 18, as the worst communal violence in India in a decade raged across the city of 4.5 million and the surrounding state of Gujarat.
There are few places that highlight so much the two faces of India. The serene, tree-filled campus is a reflection of a modern, high-tech industrialized democracy. Outside mobs burned families alive and hacked women and children to death.
Anyone arriving in the city by plane or train needs to run the gauntlet through burning neighborhoods to get to the campus on the safer west side of town.
School director Jahar Saha said recruiters from about 60 companies turned up, the same number as last year, a testimony to the school's reputation.
But the violence decimated attendance at short-term executive programs that the institute depends on for revenue.
The institute postponed to April all three programs scheduled for March, and eventually canceled one when likely attendance plummeted to 20 percent of the original figure, said Ravi Acharya, a manager of short-term programs.
With acceptance letters going out for the academic year starting in June, there is serious concern about the school's ability to remain the top choice of Indian students.
IIM Ahmedabad is the toughest MBA program in which to gain admittance in the world, in terms of the number who try and fail. This year 75,000 applied for 200 spots.
Normally, only a handful of students accepted each year decline the offer. "Generally our rejection rate is negligible," said Saha. "Out of the 220 or 230 we accept, only five or six go to other institutions and 10 to 15 go abroad."
That figure could jump this year as students who win entry to any of the other six Indian Institutes of Management -- the Ivy League of the nation's MBA schools -- opt to go elsewhere.
Like a degree from Harvard or Tokyo University or France's Ecole Normale d'Administration, an IIM Ahmedabad degree flings open doors and earmarks one for the fast track. Corner offices in India are filled with the school's graduates.
M.S. Banga, the chairman of Hindustan Lever Ltd., the nation's biggest company by market value, is a graduate -- class of 1971. So too is the man on the cover of a recent edition of Business India -- K.V. Kamath, class of 1976.
Kamath is chief executive of ICICI Ltd., which on April 11 won court approval to merge with ICICI Bank. The union, engineered by Kamath, will create India's first universal bank with assets of $20.4 billion.
At least six professors on the faculties at both Harvard Business School and at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of business have IIM Ahmedabad degrees.
The latest outbreak of violence may only encourage that brain drain by students seeking not only greener, but safer, pastures abroad.
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India hails lifting of restrictions on Suu Kyi
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: India today welcomed the lifting of restrictions on Myanmar's democracy leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, terming it as a ''concrete step'' by the Myanmar Government towards lasting peace and tranquility in that country.
''India has consistently advocated reconciliation and moves towards restoration of democracy. That is why we regard this as a concrete step reflective of the desire of the Government of Myanmar to strengthen efforts to realize lasting peace and tranquility in the country,'' External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao told reporters.
''This decision will further the on-going dialogue between the Government of Myanmar and the National League for Democracy (NLD) and would consolidate the process of national reconciliation,'' she said.
India will continue its policy of engagement and cooperation with Myanmar, she said
Suu Kyi, freed after 19 months of house arrest in Yangon, is now at liberty to carry out all activities including her party activities.
Educated in Burma, India and England, Suu Kyi, 56, had been confined to her lakeside villa since September 2000.
The military junta has been under pressure from Western nations who have been demanding Suu Kyi's unconditional release, slapping sanctions on the country.
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B N Kirpal sworn in as Chief Justice of India
Justice Bhupinder Nath Kirpal on Monday took over as the new chief justice of India (CJI).
President K R Narayanan administered the oath of office to him at an impressive ceremony at the Ashoka Hall in Rashtrapati Bhawan. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister L K Advani, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, other cabinet ministers and Supreme Court and High Court Judges. Justice Kirpal, who will have a short tenure of six months, is the 31st Chief Justice of India.
Justice Kirpal is at pesent heading a 11-judge consitution Bench hearing the landmark case dealing with on the definition of minority communities and their right to establish and administer educational institutions.
Justice Kirpal set the trend of disinvestment in the Public Sector by upholding the government's decision to divest its stake in the Bharat Aluminum Company (Balco).
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World Bank to provide $315 million loan to India
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: The World Bank today signed agreements for providing 315 million dollar in loans for two projects in India aimed at improving transport system in Mizoram and Kerala.
The agreements were signed by Adarsh Kishore, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, on behalf of the government of India; Edwin Lim, World Bank's Country Director; Babu Jacob, Principal Secretary, PWD, Government of Kerala, and H V Lalringa, Chief Secretary, Government of Mizoram, an official statement said here.
The Bank would provide 255 million dollar loan for Kerala State Transport Project and another 60 million dollar for Mizoram State Roads Project aimed at supporting physical and management improvements of transport networks.
World Bank loan is payable in 20 years and carries an interest rate of 2.5 per cent.
The Mizoram State Roads Project would improve road capacity, quality and safety through rehabilitation and maintenance. It aims at expanding or rehabilitating over 700 km of the state's core road network over the next five years.
The Kerala State Transport Project would address the rapid increase in demand for road services. The project would enhance road capacity and provide targeted safety programs designed to boost both safety and efficiency of Kerala's roads.
An estimated 1,600 km of roads would be rehabilitated or expanded under the project over the next five years, the release said.
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US asks India to reduce tariffs, cut red tape
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: United States has asked India to allow more market access through reduction in tariffs and removal of bureaucratic red tape to attract more investments and warned that unless that happened India could be left behind.
Addressing captains of the Indian industry, William H Lash, US Assistant Secretary of commerce for market access and compliance said "Policies like granting subsidies and red tape make it difficult to invest in India".
"US investment has shrunk here, our trade has decreased. We don't want India to be left behind in the trade game, but unless India shows it wants to be taken seriously the possibility that India will be left behind is all too real," he said, addressing a meeting organised by CII.
India, in its response, said it was firm in its policy of economic reform and privatisation and though its progress had been slow it was steady.
"We will be slow but steady. Don't expect us to grow like China as we want to move in a sure-footed manner," Additional Secretary, Commerce Ministry, S N Menon said in his address.
Lash is leading a high level delegation to India, the first from the US Commerce Department this year. He said his trip was an attempt to engage in dialogue with India and deepen economic relations.
Describing India as an important market, Lash said US' seriousness to deal with India could be guaged from the fact that US trade officials would visit India at least once in four months.
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Hindujas seek quashing of chargesheet in Bofors case
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: In a new twist to the Rs 64-crore Bofors pay-off case, the Hinduja brothers today moved the Delhi High Court for quashing of the CBI chargesheet against them contending it was illegal and unconstitutional because it did not have the prior approval of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
Taking cognizance of a petition filed by one of the three brothers, P P Hinduja, Justice R S Sodhi issued notices to the CBI and CVC directing them to file replies by May 14.
The Court declined to stay trial proceedings by Special Court till it decided on the petition after CBI counsel N Natrajan said there was a Supreme Court direction for day-to-day trial in the case.
Natrajan, however, said he would inform the trial court about filing of the petition by Hindujas on the next date of hearing fixed for May 10.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Hindujas, said the CBI had not sought any prior approval from the CVC before filing the chargesheet against the three brothers -- S P Hinduja, G P Hinduja and P P Hinduja -- on October 9, 2000.
He said the Supreme Court in the Vineet Narain's petition in Jain-Hawala case had held that prior sanction of CVC for filing chargesheets in all corruption cases was mandatory.
"The apex court had laid down this provision to prevent injustice to innocent persons and at the same time to prevent escape of the guilty," Jethmalani contended.
Preliminary objections in this regard were raised by the Hindujas before the trial court in an application on April 15 but CBI's reply to it was without any supportive affidavit, he said.
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Unofficial gold imports to India fell by over 50% lst yr: GFMS
New Delhi,Monday, May 06, 2002: Unofficial imports of gold into India during 2001 fell sharply by 50 per cent with total bullion import during the period rising by only two tonnes, according to London-based Gold Fields Mineral Services(GFMA).
GFMS, a precious metals consultancy, while giving a detailed breakdown of trade flows into the country in its report on Gold Survey 2002, pointed out that total bullion imports last year were up by only two tonnes, although the composition of these shipments changed markedly from the previous year.
"In particular, gold unofficial imports fell sharply in 2001, by over 50 per cent," it said adding lower imports were compensated for by a rise in locally generated scrap and higher recovery of gold from base metals concentrates.
GFMS director, Paul Walker, also an India analyst, said "the strength of demand in the first half and the weakness in the second can partly be explained by movements in the rupee gold price and the number of auspicious and inauspicious periods."
He said "...in the medium term, the main driver of demand has been the agricultural sector, and this is likely to remain the case for the forseeable future. India's WTO commitments have in turn pushed prices dramatically lower, hitting rural incomes and purchasing in these areas."
GFMS said these could be the reasons for India's gold offtake not picking up in the past few years.
Last year, gold offtake oscillated dramatically with demand shooting in the first half and then falling sharply later in the year. Investment in bar and coin rose, which together with stronger industrial demand, combined to leave total gold offtake up by just over 1.5 per cent for the year.
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Six Indians qualify for the main draw in ITF tennis
Mumbai,Monday, May 06, 2002: Six Indians, including local lads Saurabh Kohli and Karan Rastogi, qualified for the men's singles main draw of the $6250 prize money ITF men's Satellite circuit tennis tournament at the Dr Ranade Tennis Centre here today.
In the final qualifying rounds, Kohli rallied magnificent- ly, after dropping the first set 3-6 to pip Kedar Tembe 3-6 6-3 6-3 in 2 hours 25 minutes while Rastogi sidelined Parath Bhattacharya 7-5 6-3 in 1 hour 50 minutes.
Other Indians who made it to the main draw were Anant Sitaram, Mohammed Yasser Arafat, Arun Prakash Rajagopalan and Jaco Mathew.
Sitaram crushed local lad Kedar Shah 6-2 6-2, Arafat downed Wrik Ganguly 6-4 6-2, Rajagopalan sidelined another local lad Abhishek Tamhane 6-2 6-1 and Mathew subdued Nehal Advani 6-2 3-6 7-5.
Among the foreign players Roy Sichel of Isreal made it to the main draw without stepping on the court when his opponent Serguie Demekhine of Russia failed to turn up for the match while Japan's Naoki Arimoto drubbed Ashutosh Singh of India 6-1 6-2 on the way to the main draw.
Results (final qualifying round): S Kohli bt K Tembe 3-6 6-3 6-3, A Sitram bt K Shah 6-2 6-2, K Rastogi bt P Bhattacharya 7-5 6-3, M Y Arafat bt W Ganguly 6-4 6-2, A P Rajagopalan bt A Tamhane 6-2 6-1, J Mathew bt N Advani 6-2 3-6 7-5, N Arimoto bt A Singh 6-1 6-3, R Sichel w/o S Demekhine.
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Ten-wicket defeat for India in the third Test
Bridgetown,Monday, May 06, 2002: India's dream of an overseas series win once again suffered a setback as they crashed to a humiliating ten-wicket defeat in the third Test against West Indies here Sunday to squander a 1-0 advantage in the five- match series.
On a ground that has been historically troublesome for them, India just about managed to avert an innings defeat, and were shot out for 296 in their second innings thus setting a target of only five runs for the West Indies for a series- levelling win. Skipper Sourav Ganguly remained unbeaten on 60, the top-score of the innings.
West Indies, who enjoyed a 292-run first innings lead, knocked off the required runs without any trouble, the winning shot coming from the bat of Stuart Williams who hit Harbhajan Singh for a four in the second over.
India's low total in the second innings followed their paltry 102 in the first innings to which West Indies replied with 394, thanks to centuries by skipper Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
India have now lost seven of the eight matches they have contested at the Kensington Oval here, with only the history- making 1971 team under Ajit Wadekar managing to play out a draw.
The inevitable was delayed by a defiant 74-run partnership for the eighth wicket between Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan who dazzled in his career-best knock of 46 off just 45 balls after India had lost a few quick wickets in the morning.
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Anand wins Eurotel trophy
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Viswanathan Anand of India won the Eurotel Chess Trophy tournament by holding Russian Anatoly Karpov to a draw in the second game of the final here on Sunday.
After winning Saturday, Anand only needed a draw to win the event.
On the black side of a Slav Defense, Anand appeared to equalize fairly easily.
English grandmaster Michael Adams remarked on move 19: "Things are going well for Anand. A draw is likely."
The organizers seemed to agree and, expecting the game to end shortly, announced that the closing ceremony would be at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT). The game actually ended at 3:52 p.m. (1252 GMT).
But Anand appeared to play inaccurately and to give his opponent chances. Still, the consensus was that the game would be drawn.
American master Mig Greengard commented at move 24, "I could see Karpov grinding down an ordinary master in a position like this, but not Anand."
Russian grandmaster Alexander Khalifman agreed: "White has some chances. Objectively, I don't think they're enough but we'll see."
But Karpov's chances soon evaporated and the players agreed to a draw on move 34.
The event attracted 32 of the world's top players to compete for a purse of 500,000 euros (dlrs 450,000). The only top player absent from the event was FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, currently ranked sixth in the world.
It was organized as a series of two-game knockout rapid matches with blitz playoffs if necessary. The finals were played at standard time controls.
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Gavaskar pinpoints flaw in Tendulkar's batting
Sachin Tendulkar has become more vulnerable to falling leg before because of a technical flaw that has crept into his batting, according to Sunil Gavaskar.
India's leading batsman has been dismissed lbw four times in five innings in the current test series in West Indies and failed to reach double figures in his side's 10-wicket defeat in the third Barbados test on Sunday.
"Tendulkar was trapped leg before wicket...what is of concern is that he is playing across the line so much," former India skipper Gavaskar wrote in a column in the Hindustan Times.
"He is moving back and across, something he rarely does. By doing that, he is opening his right shoulder a bit and that is bringing his bat down at an angle unlike the impeccably straight way it usually comes down.
"This is only a slight movement but it is making him play across the line and getting hit on the pads.
"Once he stays still and moves only after the ball is delivered, it will be alright."
Tendulkar, widely regarded as the world's best batman, hit his 29th test hundred -- five less than Gavaskar's world record -- to lift India to their first victory in the second Trinidad test, their first in the Caribbean for 26 years.
But he was out for a duck in the second innings of the Trinidad game before falling cheaply in Barbados both times as West Indies bounced back to level the five-match series.
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