INDIA & WORLD

Pranab concludes visit to Australia

Melbourne: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on June 24 left for New Delhi concluding his first visit to Australia during which both the sides inked treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral ties including the possible sale of uranium to India.
Both the countries also agreed to further strengthen their relationship by forming a new body to hold yearly talks and by signing treaties to increase anti-terror efforts.
Mukherjee, who met Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and visited Parliament on June 23, signed extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties with his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith as both the leaders vowed to enhance their strategic security and counter-terrorism cooperation.
Smith said he wanted Australia to take its relationship with India to “the front line of its international partnerships.”
“It is a matter of regret that, over the past 30 years or so, Australia has under-appreciated its relationship with India,” Smith said on June 23.
On export of uranium, Smith said New Delhi was well aware of the Labor Party’s opposition to uranium sales to India, as India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India, Myanmar sign four agreements

New Delhi: India and Myanmar on June 24 signed four economic cooperation agreements, demonstrating the expanding partnership between the two countries.
The agreements were signed in the presence of India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh and Myanmar’s Minister for National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha in Yangon, a Commerce and Industry Ministry statement issued here said.
The two countries have entered into a Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement (BIPA) to encourage flow of funds. The trade pact with Myanmar is India’s 71st BIPA agreement, designed to facilitate greater Indian investments in Myanmar and vice versa.
The Exim Bank of India and the Myanmar Trade Bank entered intro a credit line agreement for $20 million for the establishment of an aluminum conductor steel reinforced (ACSR) wire manufacturing facility to be used for expansion of the power distribution network in Myanmar.
United Bank of India and the Myanmar Economic Bank also signed an agreement for providing the banking arrangement for the implementation of the border trade agreement between the two governments.
India will also provide $64 million for financing three 230 kv transmission lines in Myanmar to be executed by the Power Grid Corporation of India.

‘China, India among worst performing stock markets

New York: India and China, two of the investors’ biggest darlings not so long ago, are among the world’s worst-performing stock markets this year, says the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Indian shares are down 28 percent this year as of June 26, clearly a bear phase. Chinese stocks have faced a worst fate - tumbling 46 percent, the WSJ reported on June 23.
Both countries started 2008 with stocks trading at expensive levels, leaving them vulnerable to a correction. While economic growth goes on apace in the two countries, it is not expected to match last year’s superb performance. Growth could be further dented because investors are increasingly anxious about rising inflation and government efforts to stem it.
June is likely to witness the fifth monthly loss in six months for a deeply depressed Chinese stock market that has seen some $2 trillion in market value evaporate since January. Down by more than half from its peak, the Shanghai Composite Index is trading at levels last seen in early 2007.
Many international investors are bearish, too, on India and China. “Neither is looking outstandingly attractive, but they’re starting to get back in touch with reality,” Allan Conway, who manages $23 billion in emerging-market shares for Schroders in London, was quoted as saying by the WSJ. Shares in India are trading at about 17 times their 2008 earnings, according to UBS estimates, as are Chinese shares in which foreigners invest.
Foreign investors have pulled a net total of more than $5.5 billion out of Indian stocks this year, according to Standard Char-tered Bank. China’s domestic stock market remains almost entirely closed to foreigners, whose investment is limited to a quota of about $10 billion. Foreigners can also buy some big Chinese shares in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index is down 18 percent this year.

UK residents to face jail if relatives overstay visa

New Delhi: Resident family members of visitors traveling on short-term visas to Britain would be responsible for overstaying or any rules broken by their guests, the British government announced on June 25.
The plan to introduce a new family visitor category for short-term visas from 2009 includes a penalty of £5,000 and a 14-year jail sentence to the family member, who takes the responsibility of the guest’s stay in Britain, in case of any violation of law by the visitor.
British citizens and those with Permanent Residency in Britain would have to become licensed sponsors for family members for quicker processing of visa applications along with better chances of getting the visa.
These sponsors would be given I-cards and would be held liable in case of violations of visa conditions by guests. They would have to ensure that no visitor sponsored by them stays beyond the six-month period allowed on a short-term visa.
Nearly 1.5 lakh Indians apply for tourist visas to visit their families in Britain each year. Of these, about 38,000 were rejected for different reasons, mostly lack of documents, a British High Commission official said.

Mumbai dabbawala shares secret of success with Dubai accountants

Dubai: Forget about the coding system that Mumbai’s dabbawalas use to transport lunch boxes from homes to offices or the six-sigma and ISO certificates they have. The men, who ensure workers in India’s financial capital, get their food on time credit their success to simple principles: stick to time and work is worship.
A conference of chartered accountants in Dubai this week, which heard presentations on topics like wealth structuring crisis, India’s cost competitiveness, Middle East equity markets and commodities cycle, was perked up by a presentation on Mumbai’s ubiquitous dabbawalas.
The men who transport lunch boxes have been a subject of study for management gurus like C.K. Prahalad and schools like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and those in the American Ivy League.
Invited by the Dubai chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Manish Tripathi, honorary director of Mumbai’s dabbawalas, gave a presentation on the trade wearing a now globally recognizable dabbawala white cap and swearing with his hand on a tiffin box that he would “say the truth and nothing but truth” about his trade.
“Believe me, I will give you so much knowledge about dabbawalas that any of you can come to Mumbai and start working as a dabbawala,” he told an over-1,000 strong audience at a five star hotel here.

Indian lawyer to get American award for securing animal rights

New Delhi: Leading animal law expert Raj Panjwani has been chosen from among 4.13 lakh members of the Chicago-based American Bar Association (ABA) to receive the 2008 Excellence in Advancement of Animal Law Award for his contribution to secure animal rights in India.
Panjwani will receive the award during the 2008 ABA annual meeting at a public reception at Chicago on August 9, an ABA release said on June 19.
The ABA in its release listed Panjwani’s numerous achievements — protection of Olive Ridley turtle rookeries, prohibition of ivory trade and seizure of illegal ivory stocks, prohibition of trade in furs and skins of endangered wild animals, prohibition of manufacture and sale of shahtoosh shawls from the wool of the endangered Tibetan antelope “Chiru,” improving conditions of circus and mobile zoo animals and improving the conditions at slaughter houses for animals and use of scientific slaughtering methods.
Panjwani, who is the founder of the Animal and Environment Legal Defense Fund in India, has also drafted legislations for the government that include Performing Animals (Registration) Rules and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Rules.
How did a lawyer in Panjwani direct his energies towards animal welfare? The sense of compassion towards animals is ingrained in every Indian where one sees mothers feeding stray cattle, dogs and crows, he says.

Oxford rates Indian students among the best

Oxford: The legendary Oxford University considers Indian students among the best in the world and would like more of them joining its campus, Chancellor Chris Patten has said.
The university, which produced the likes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has presently 257 Indian students on roll. But it is one-third the numbers of students from China.
“We want more Indian students because we want the best in the world to come to Oxford,” Patten said. Most of the Indian students are in the said business school.
“About a quarter of the students are doing MBAs... But I would like to see more in social sciences and humanities, doing both under- graduate and post-graduate work,” he said.
Though Indians are less in number, they have won more scholarships than the Chinese. Last year, they had won 54 different scholarships, including the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, according to an Oxford journal.
“They (Indians) probably got more than China,” the Chancellor said. He said the number of scholarships may go up as the university improves its financial position.

Indian group crowned world energy champion

London: An Indian technology and alternative energy group has been crowned “Energy Champion” of the world by a prestigious British environmental organization.
Bangalore-based Tech- nology Informatics Design Endeavour, or Tide, was awarded the title along with a prize of £ 40,000 by Nobel laureate and environmentalist Wangari Mathai at a ceremony in London.
Another Indian group, the Aryavart Gramin Bank, was among six other international bodies whose schemes were awarded £ 20,000 each on June 25 night by the Britain-based Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy - the so-called Green Oscars.
Tide was named for the way it has harnessed technology to help Indian businesses conserve energy.

‘Diana Award’ for Indian-origin teenager in UK

London: A teenager of Indian origin will be awarded the “Diana Award” for her “voluntary and selfless work” within the community of Leicester, a British town comprising a sizeable population of ethnic Indians.
Kalpreet Kau Aulakh, 16, will be presented the award by Manjula Sood, the Indian-origin Lord Mayor of Leicester on June 23, in recognition of her “selfless community work, compassion and work to improve people’s lives.”
The award recognizes the time, effort and voluntary work done by Kamalpreet for her community.

Nepal PM quits, says his ‘sorrow, burden’ over

Kathmandu: More than two months after constituent assembly elections, Nepal’s embattled Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on June 26 tendered his resignation following mounting pressure by the Maoists, paving the way for a new government under the former guerillas.
The octogenarian leader made a rare appearance in the assembly after zero hour, announcing his resignation in a short speech heavy with emotion.
“When you take a decision, you are relieved of tension and feel light,” Koirala told the House. “I have appeared before you feeling lighter.”
Referring to the long struggle for a republic and the thousands of lives lost in the struggle, Koirala said he was relinquishing his “sorrow and burden” before the assembly as it was the authority that could soothe the nation’s pains and show the way forward.
The Prime Minister, who forged a pact with the Maoists and won kudos for ending the decade-old Maoist uprising but then lost his halo in the ensuing bitter feud for power, said with regret that the parties had deviated from the way that had taken them to the historic election in April and forced King Gyanendra to exit from the palace.

India ranked 74 on corruption index; Pak, Russia more corrupt

New York: India has been ranked a lowly 74, two steps down since last year, among 180 countries of the world on the worldwide Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), prepared by independent international agency Transparency International.
However, corruption is much higher in Pakistan which occupies 140th place, a little below Iran, Libya and Nepal which are ranked 133, 134 and 135 respectively.
Meanwhile, China which was ranked a joint 72 with India in 2007, slide a step down to occupy a place above its neighbor this year. Among other Asian countries, Russia is placed still lower on 145, while Sri Lanka occupies the 96th position and Maldives is ranked 90.
The least corrupt country in the region is the nascent democracy Bhutan, which has been placed at the 41st spot by the non-government organization tracking prevalence of corruption worldwide.
Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden corner the top five spots retaining positions as the least corrupt nations of the world, while bottom of table is occupied by Myanmar and Somalia.

Indians favor torture of terrorists, world does not

New York: A majority of Indians favor the use of torture on terrorists to help save innocent lives, going against the world’s majority, who disapprove of torture methods in all cases, a public opinion poll in 19 countries has found.
In India, 59 percent want an exception made for terrorists that is more than the 54 percent in Nigeria and 51 percent in Turkey, the two other countries where majorities favor torture of terrorists, according to the WorldPublicOpinion.org survey of over 19,000 respondents.
The report said that in 14 of the 19 nations surveyed, a clear majority of people favored a prohibition against torture. On an average, across all nations polled, 57 percent of the public opted for unequivocal rules against torture.
The survey report was presented at the United Nations ahead of the International Victims of Torture Day June 26 and as part of this year’s 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provided for the first international prohibition of torture.

World’s first rotating skyscraper unveiled in Dubai

Dubai: The Dubai skyline will be constantly changing after plans for the world’s first rotating tower were unveiled.
The 80-storey “Dynamic Tower,” will be a shifting skyscraper of luxury apartments on spinning floors, which will be attached to a central column.
Plans for the project were unveiled in New York by Italian architect David Fisher, who said: “This building will have endless different shapes.”
The 420-meter (1,378-foot) building features 80 apartments that spin a full 360 degrees around a central column by means of 79 power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.
The apartments will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, and at $30,000 (£15,254) per square meters, will cost between $3.7 million (£1.8 million) to $36 million (£18 million).

India 3rd most popular for sourcing talent

New Delhi: India is the third most popular country for sourcing foreign talent after China and the US, a survey by global recruiting firm Manpower Inc released on June 24 said.
The Borderless Workforce Survey conducted in 27 countries also showed India received the highest remittances ($27 billion) from nationals working abroad.
It is closely followed by China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion) and the Philippines ($17 billion).
“The demand for Indian skilled labor is the highest in the US followed by the Gulf. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for engineers in the oil and gas sector and aviation,” said Manpower India managing director Naresh Malhan.
Others in demand are nurses, drivers and construction workers, he said.
The survey also ranked India third in the list of the top 10 countries considered an economic threat to other nations.
Of the 26 countries surveyed other than India, all countries with the exception of Costa Rica and Peru believe that India provides competitive threat to their own country’s ability to compete economically.
So far as Indian employers are concerned, they consider China, the US and the UK as the biggest competitive threats. According to the survey, Chinese employers — followed by those in India — were the least concerned about migration of talents to foreign countries.

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