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• Bloody Kashmir, Bloody India, and the Bloody Deal
  Western media is always on the alert for China’s insults to its Uighur and Tibetan minorities. Certainly, China’s occupation of Tibet since 1950 has been a brutal, bloody botch that killed upwards of half a million Tibetans during the rebellion in the 1950s and during the Cultural Revolution. Despite China’s determined efforts to fulfill its enlightened despot role and reduce the body count in recent decades, Tibet’s hostility to Han control is intense, justified, and seemingly terminal. But I think the well-oiled Western outrage machine gives a free ride to India, and brushes aside New Delhi’s ongoing shenanigans in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nepal, Jammu-Kashmir, Balochistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan as “nothing to see here” efforts by the dominant power (and vibrant democracy!) in the region to secure its sphere of influence. Kashmir is the place where India’s democratic ideals and regional power aspirations collide with the greatest violence.
  Indian troops stationed in Kashmir: 700,000 Since all Americans are by now counterinsurgency experts, we note immediately that the locals to troops ratio is an eye-popping 14:1. That’s the sign of a major security problem. In fact, that’s the sign of a major insurgency. If we had gone into the Iraq occupation with those kinds of numbers (instead of Donald Rumsfeld’s ratio of roughly 300,000 troops per 24 million Iraqis for a ludicrous 80:1 or the industry standard of 50:1), we would probably have been able to keep a lid on things, too. Make no mistake: the Indian occupation of Kashmir is as bloody, expensive, oppressive, and unpopular as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories or, for that matter, the Chinese occupation of Tibet [Separatism] [China India comparison] [Double standards]
• Reviving India’s manufacturing industry
  December 19th, 2009 Author: Rajiv Kumar, ICRIER China’s manufacturing boom and export surge is in large part a result of the subsidization of producers through cheap capital, low wages and disciplined labour, combined with the latest technology brought in by foreign direct investment. Additionally, the role of the Chinese armed forces and local governments must be mentioned. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) regularly places orders on emerging domestic enterprises to generate economies of scale and be globally competitive. They also transfer technology to these firms. Local governments acquire land for both domestic and foreign enterprises and often contribute the proceeds as equity capital, thereby becoming partners and assuring the investors against any future political risk. Can India follow the same model?
  During the 1980s, it established a plant in Nepal as well. Then in January 2005, the family’s second generation shifted the entire production to Yuwe in Hangzhou province (sic) in China.
  This example, which captures the story of the ongoing hollowing out of India’s manufacturing sector, is unfortunately not an isolated one. Manufacturing capacities are being routinely shifted out of India.
  I have heard senior policymakers argue that it does not matter if growth comes from manufacturing or service industries such as software, Bollywood or tourism. I hope readers will see the dangerous fallacy in this line of thinking. [Development strategy] [FTA] [Services]
• US, UK protest India's new tight tourism rules
  By Gethin Chamberlain | Dec 21, 2009 Britain and the US have lodged a diplomatic protest with India after the government in Delhi introduced rules barring tourists from returning to the country within two months of any visit. The new visa rules, which also apply to other foreign nationals, are apparently a reaction to the arrest in the US of a Mumbai terror suspect, David Coleman Headley, who had entered India on a multiple-entry visa. [Terrorism]
• India Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile
  India says it has successfully test fired a short range, nuclear-capable missile. Officials fired the surface-to-surface Dhanush missile Sunday from a ship in the Bay of Bengal. The missile can hit a target up to 350 kim away. India last tested the Dhanush missile in 2007.
• India lays to rest a Bush-era ghost
  By M K Bhadrakumar The African thinker Theophile Obenga has a thesis that it is only through a profound "intellectual mutation" that the present with its attendant modes of cognition and perception can be truly understood, which in turn involves a revalorization of one's intellectual legacy. India is on one such root expansion of thought, breaking out of a cognitive closure. Obenga argued that by way of its "intellectual mutation", Africa should travel all the way to the flowering of hominization in ancient Egypt - via the rock paintings of the Grotto- Apollo in Namibia dating back to 28000 BC. Fortunately for India, the perceptual matrix involves far less reaching back - a mere eight years encompassing the George W Bush era. [US India]
• Analysis: Why India is at the top of U.S. state visit list
  By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer STORY HIGHLIGHTS Visit by Indian PM reflects India's growing political, economic importance to the U.S. Visit will build on deals for unity on security, nuclear, science, technology, education issues U.S. wants good relations with India as it seeks stability, influence in Asia Nations' frictions include relations with Pakistan, climate change legislation Editor's note: Since becoming State Department producer in 2000, Elise Labott has covered four secretaries of state and reported from more than 50 countries. Before joining CNN, she covered the United Nations. Washington (CNN) -- State visits to the White House are full of show and symbolism, and Tuesday's visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is no exception. But Singh's visit, the first state visit hosted by the Obama administration, reflects India's growing political and economic importance to the United States and the deepening partnership between Washington and New Delhi. The 2005 civil nuclear cooperation deal with been the two countries symbolized a new status in U.S.-India relations. But that deal, yet to be ratified by the Indian parliament, was not in a vacuum. The Bush administration followed that up with agreements for increased cooperation on security, science and technology and education. Singh's visit this week will build on that, with announcements expected on a range of areas from the economy and defense to climate change and energy. India is a fellow democracy, and there is a strong Indian-American community in the U.S. So as it rises to power, India is a natural U.S. ally. On every big global issue today -- from the economy to climate change to fighting terrorism and curbing nuclear proliferation -- Washington needs New Delhi's cooperation.
  Climate change is another point of friction. The U.S. wants India, one of world's the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, to accept limits on its carbon emissions. India maintains it is still a developing country and wants developed nations, like the U.S., to assume the lion's share of burden in dealing with climate change. Another potential difference looms over Iran. India has been careful not to support Iran's government, but if U.S. diplomacy with Iran fails, it remains to be seen if New Delhi will support tougher sanctions if the U.S. decides to go that route. As India's economy grows, so will its capability to be one of the U.S.' great partners. But as its international position strengthens, New Delhi's interests may not always be aligned with Washington's. Obama must work to convince India that the U.S. sees it as an important ally and that its rise to power is in the U.S.' strategic interest. The symbolism of giving Singh the administration's first state visit will be a good start. [US India]
• Wary India seeks reassurance in U.S. visit
  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official visit to Washington will seek to reaffirm the importance of ties between the two nations. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had good relations with President Bush, but isn't sure where his country stands with President Obama. A summit should reinforce ties. By Mark Magnier November 24, 2009 Reporting from New Delhi - Today's summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and President Obama is laden with symbols. It will be the first official visit that Obama hosts. There will be much language on the importance of the relationship and the links between the two major democracies. [US India]
• Nepal in the News! …Kinda
  Friday, December 11, 2009 Nepal’s government has decided to notify the international community formally of numerous violations of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) by the Nepalese Maoists. The last straw was the declaration of two newly minted autonomous regional governments in Maoist strongholds in eastern Nepal. Good. Maybe then the world will take notice of Nepal’s slide back into civil war thanks to the calculated defiance of the Maoists and India’s uncontrollable compulsion to meddle in Nepalese internal affairs.
• India: The Largest Democracy?
  Arundhati Roy Disturbs Democratic Daydreaming, book review By Trond Overland
  Global Research, December 5, 2009 Arundhati Roy is an unusual Indian woman. Instead of acting the graceful upholder of traditional values, she goes on challenging the hard core of establishment thinking. Roy is India's leading commentator on such evils as militaristic imperialist capitalism, Hindu- supported genocide of Muslims, and dam disasters. In her latest book, Listening to Grasshoppers; Field Notes on Democracy, she hammers at perhaps the most central of all contemporary sacred pillars, i.e. that of democracy, which in her words “have metastasized into something dangerous”. Grasshoppers is a collection of essays on such recent events as the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, the 2006 visit to India by “the war criminal” U.S. President George W. Bush, the 2002 Gujarat carnage (between 2000-4000 Muslims slaughtered), the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament by "so-called" Pakistan-based terrorists, and the growing inequality in India (“the old society has curdled and separated into a thin layer of thick cream – and a lot of water...”). A radical analysis of democracy runs through the book's fiery chapters, like a river running from its mountainous source towards the ocean. Roy's conclusion is disquieting: she is forced by the rationale of her facts and arguments to approve of violence as a means of people's resistance to injustice. She observes with understanding that many of the poor are “crossing over... to another side; the side of armed struggle.” [Democracy]
• U.S.-India Ties: Focus the Summit on High Tech
  President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Singh need to promote a trade agenda focusing on innovation and launch a bilateral IT trade initiative By Richard Celeste and David Karl Asia Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travels to Washington on Nov. 24 for the first state visit of the Obama Presidency. State visits are elaborate affairs and the status-conscious Indians will take special note of the honor, especially since President Barack Obama will have just returned from his own high-profile trip to China. With Obama making it known that he considers Singh and India part of his family, bonhomie will flow, as will talk about taking bilateral relations to a higher plane. But beyond high symbolism and rhetoric, the summit provides a wonderful opportunity to articulate a bold, substantive agenda for the next stage of U.S.-India ties.  
• Bhopal's night of terror
  Kalpana Sharma Date:29/11/2009 Twenty-five years after the Bhopal Gas Disaster, justice still eludes the victims…    There are many smaller Bhopals that have occurred since 1984 and keep on   taking place, often unreported.   This past week has been one where one anniversary has dominated the news — that of the terror attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The date is like a permanent scar on the memory of not only Mumbai but also on the collective memory of the rest of India that watched the 60-hour siege and battle as it unfolded on television. But in the coming week there is another anniversary that unfortunately will not draw the same kind of media attention. Twenty-five years ago, on a winter night of December 2/3 1984, deadly poisonous gas leaked out from the tanks of the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and killed over 3,000 people. The factory was located in a densely populated area. As the sirens went off in its premises, indicating an emergency, the mostly poor people living around it rushed out to witness a dense cloud of smoke emerging from the factory. In no time, the cloud had spread to the areas close by and beyond. As terrified men, women, children ran in panic, not knowing what this was or where they should run, they inhaled vast quantities of the poisons contained in that cloud. The immediate sensations were burning eyes, breathing difficulties and vomiting. Those who found a quick way to move out of the area survived; the others, including children and the elderly, died on the spot.
• Vodafone's Indian Dilemma
  It's signing up plenty of new customers, but price wars are putting a serious crimp in the carrier's margins By Mehul Srivastava and Mark Scott
  November 30, 2009 Delhi - Ruchira Sharma should be any mobile-phone company's dream. She has two cell-phone numbers and endless gossip to share with friends and family across the country. Problem is, she's in India, where calling rates are less than a penny a minute, by far the lowest in the world. So her carrier—Vodafone Essar, a unit of Britain's Vodafone Group (VOD)—isn't making much from her gabbing. "It's fantastic," says the 19-year-old student. "I spent 330 rupees [about $7] in October, and I talk for hours." Fantastic for her, but less so for a key Vodafone strategy. In May 2007 the company paid $11.2 billion for 67% of what would become Vodafone Essar. The Indian operation was the centerpiece of an ambitious expansion in emerging markets to make up for slowing sales in Europe. Vodafone, though, didn't factor in a price war that in October culminated in 50% cuts in rates and a switch to per-second billing (instead of one-minute increments—a big saving for people who make short calls). "Emerging markets can no longer offset problems at home," says Emeka Obiodu, an analyst at Ovum, a telecom advisory firm in London. "There's now too much competition for easy growth." [IM]

• Rural India Gets Chance at Piece of Jobs Boom
  By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: November 12, 2009 BAGEPALLI, India — Under harsh fluorescent lights, dozens of heads bend over keyboards, the clattering unison of earnest typing filling the room. Monitors flicker with insurance forms, time sheets and customer service e-mail messages, tasks from far away, sent to this corner of India to be processed on the cheap.
  This scene unfolds in cities across India, especially in the high-tech hubs of Bangalore and Gurgaon, places synonymous with the information technology revolution that has transformed India’s economy and pushed the country toward double-digit economic growth. But these workers are young people from villages clustered around this small town deep in rural Karnataka State in India’s southwest. They are part of an experiment by a handful of entrepreneurs to bring the jobs outsourcing has created to distant corners of India that have been largely cut off from its extraordinary economic rise. [Offshoring]
• Dalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian tensions
  By Peter Lee India has engaged in high-profile hand wringing over the Barack Obama administration's renewed focus on developing the United States' relationship with China, as New Delhi perceives a pattern of diplomatic, economic and military encirclement by Beijing. A Chinese threat is seen in the "string of pearls" - China's access to maritime facilities in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives - and in the military buildup on India's eastern border that threatens to sever the "chicken's neck", the narrow Siliguri Corridor between Nepal and Bangladesh that connects India's landlocked eastern boondock to the national heartland. [China India] [US China India]
• Dalai Lama Challenges China! Chaos in Nepal! Tension at the Border!
  Parsing Sino-Indian Tensions I have an article up at Asia Times Online under the pen name Peter Lee entitled Dalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian tensions. It's keyed to a high profile news item--the Dalai Lama's provocative visit to a border town in territory held by India but disputed by China--and a significant but rather underreported development--the escalating political struggle between pro-Chinese and pro-Indian political forces now reaching its climax in Nepal.
• Korea-India CEPA Ratified by Nat'l Assembly
  The National Assembly on Friday ratified a trade deal with India, called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), that will eliminate or reduce tariffs on over 4,000 Korean goods. Under the deal, Korea will eliminate or reduce tariffs on 90 percent of Indian products over the next decade while India is to phase out tariffs on 85 percent of Korean exports within the same period. The two countries wrapped up more than three years of bilateral trade negotiations in early August after agreeing to cut duties on goods such as auto parts and electronics. According to the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, the pact will boost bilateral trade by as much as US$3.3 billion annually and raise Korea's GDP by W1.3 trillion (US$1=W1,169). [FTA]
• India Buys Gold from IMF to Diversify Foreign Exchange Reserves
  India has purchased 200 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund to diversify its foreign exchange reserves. From New Delhi, Anjana Pasricha reports the deal means that India's Central bank now has the tenth largest gold holdings in the world. Few had expected India's Reserve Bank to be the first to buy the International Monetary Fund's gold. India has snapped up 200 metric tons of gold -- nearly half the precious metal the IMF is selling to shore up its finances and increase lending to developing countries
  Economists say India has bought gold to diversify its assets and hold fewer dollars at a time when the U.S. currency is weakening against other currencies. Gold, whose prices have surged in the past year, is seen as a hedge against a slumping dollar. India, like several Asian countries, holds relatively little gold in proportion to its foreign exchange reserves. India's move to buy gold from the IMF is also seen as part of an effort to assert its greater role in world economic affairs. India, along with China, has been lobbying for larger representation in the IMF, and has promised to augment its resources for lending to developing countries. [Reserve] [Decline]
• Sino-Indian relations: Beijing muffs its hand
  November 3rd, 2009 Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU Australia is not the only country on the receiving end of China’s new-found diplomatic ‘forthrightness’. India too has recently received a sizzling serve from the Beijing end of the court. As pointed out in South Asia Masala, the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is also claimed by China, is the current immovable object in the Sino-Indian relationship. However, on this occasion that tricky problem has been exacerbated by a planned visit of the Dalai Lama to the disputed state and to Tawang, birth-place of the revered Sixth Dalai Lama, which lies within the borders claimed by India.
  On the same day the paper claimed that India’s yet-to-be tested Agni V strategic ballistic missile would be capable of reaching the northern Chinese city of Harbin if launched from North East India. (Agni V is scheduled to be tested in 2011).
  India and the US have just completed their largest ever joint exercise in terms of participating troop numbers. The exercise involved a total of 1000 special forces from both sides and demonstrations of the US Stryker and Javelin anti-tank missile system. [China India relations] [Joint US military] [China India US]
• India’s Growing Role in the Gulf Implications for the Region and the United States
  Gulf Research Center Dubai, United Arab Emirates The major countries of Asia are looming as important regional players in the Middle East. A primary reason for the growing Asian footprint is economics, but it is more than simply the need for petroleum and natural gas that draws in the Asian states. They are attracted by opportunities for consumer sales and, in the case of South Asia, the export of millions of laborers to build the emerging city-states of the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, the paradox is that despite the threat of new conflicts, billions of dollars have been invested in the region and vast wealth accumulated and spent only a few hundred miles from ongoing military conflict. The financial crisis, which began in earnest in September 2008, has raised the prospects for a prolonged global recession, which will have a negative impact in most economic activities, including the value of energy exports, investments, tourism and consumer sales. Nevertheless, many observers believe that, in the long run, the global economy will recover and the economic trend lines that were in effect before September 2008, which showed growing economic activity between Asia and the Middle East, will be resumed. [US global strategy]
• India’s 21st-century war
  Paul Rogers, 6 - 11 - 2009 In an age of climate change and deepening inequality, the spreading Naxalite insurgency in India - not al-Qaida - may show the world its future. (This article was first published on 5 November 2009) 6 - 11 - 2009 A year on from the election of Barack Obama as United States president, the conflicts that dominated Washington's concern under his predecessor are still raging - and even increasing in intensity. This is particularly true of the arc of insecurity that stretches from the middle east through to southwest Asia, where - from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Israel-Palestine and Iran - the reality and potential of violence have hardly been diminished as a result of the change of administration. Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001 Bradford's peace-studies department now broadcasts regular podcasts on its work, including a regular commentary from Paul Rogers on international-security issues. Listen/watch here Moreover, alongside the high-intensity conflicts where Washington is directly or by proxy involved in this region, there are other slow-burn insurgencies that often receive less attention than they deserve. The persistent rebellion in India of the Maoist guerrilla movement known as the Naxalites is one such. A reason for paying more heed to this issue is that the evolving nature of the Naxalite conflict - including the Indian government's approach in attempting to combat the movement - may represent a more accurate indicator of future trends in global insecurity even than the al-Qaida network. [Naxalites] [Global insurgency] [US global strategy]
• Wal-Mart in New India Push
  Chairman's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Singh is latest sign the company is lobbying for greater access to the market By Ratna Bhushan and Sanjeev Choudhary Its wall-to-wall influence in America may be waning, but Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is pushing its cart harder than ever to find its square inch in India. S Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday, in what is seen as an effort by the world's second-largest company to press its demand for permission to invest in multi-brand retail. [Protectionism] [Retailing] [FDI]
• National Assembly Approves India Trade Pact
  The National Assembly Friday approved a trade agreement with India that would eliminate or reduce tariffs on over 4,400 South Korean products exported to Asia's third biggest economy, Yonhap News Agency reported Friday. South Korea and India concluded the deal, called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), in early August to cut duties on such goods as auto parts and electronics and to boost cooperation between the two Asian economic powerhouses. The bill was passed 192-0 with five abstentions at the 299-seat National Assembly. The accord will likely take effect on Jan. 1 next year if ratified in both countries as scheduled. CEPA, which is similar to the free trade agreement (FTA) but phases out tariffs more slowly, will lower tariffs on auto parts by 1 to 5 percent in eight years and on refrigerators and televisions by 50 percent. [FTA]
• India's space ambitions taking off
  Nation plans astronaut-training center, manned space mission as it seeks higher profile
  By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, November 4, 2009 In this seaside village, the children of farmers and fishermen aspire to become something that their impoverished parents never thought possible: astronauts. Through community-based programs, India's space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas such as this one, helping to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation's first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore. "I want to be prepared in space sciences so I can go to the moon when India picks its astronauts," said Lakshmi Kannan, 15, pushing her long braids out of her face and clutching her science textbook. Lakshmi's hopes are not unlike India's ambitions, writ small. For years, the country has focused its efforts in space on practical applications -- using satellites to collect information on natural disasters, for instance. But India is now moving beyond that traditional focus and has planned its first manned space mission in 2015.
  India's program is smaller in scope than China's and is thought to receive far less funding. It is also designed mostly for civilian purposes, whereas experts have suggested that China is more interested in military applications (sic). (The Communist Party has said its goal is peaceful space exploration.) [Space race] [China confrontation] [Media]
• Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India
  By JIM YARDLEY Published: October 31, 2009 BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist rebels dedicated to overthrowing the government. An Indian officer guarded a post in Barsur, in Chattisgarh State, where Maoists dominate thousands of square miles of territory. “That is their liberated zone,” said P. Bhojak, one of the officers stationed at the river’s edge in this town in the eastern state of Chattisgarh. Or one piece of it. India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers, a figure almost as high as the more than 1,100 members of the coalition forces killed in Afghanistan during the same period. [Naxalites]
• At Air India, Losses, Rats and a Brawl in the Sky
  By VIKAS BAJAJ and HEATHER TIMMONS Published: October 30, 2009 MUMBAI — In what has been a bad year for airlines everywhere, Air India has suffered from a series of particularly painful — and at times embarrassing — misfortunes. The struggling government-owned carrier’s already uneven reputation has been further tarnished in recent months by rats on a plane, a strike by senior pilots and a midair fistfight between pilots and flight attendants. In September, a flight to Riyadh was grounded after a passenger saw sparks coming from an engine. The embarrassing chain of events and the airline’s dire financial situation — it is expected to lose more than $1 billion in the current business year, and the government tentatively pledged about $1.1 billion in bailout money to it recently — has prompted many to ask: Why is the Indian government still running an airline? The question is particularly relevant in a country that has more poor people than any other nation and where just a tiny percentage of the people fly. Frequent domestic and international fliers prefer airlines other than Air India, which has lost significant market share since the country liberalized commercial aviation in the 1990s.
  Many analysts say government ownership is a root cause of Air India’s most pressing problems.
  At well-run government-owned airlines like Singapore Airlines and Emirates Airlines, which is owned by the Dubai government, politicians hire experienced professionals and give them significant authority, analysts say.
  Mr. Bhargava said Air India’s performance could not be directly compared with those of other airlines because it did not outsource functions like ground handling and because policy makers required it to fly unprofitable routes to remote areas and to religious pilgrimage destinations.[Religious tourism]
• In rural India, resistance to nuclear plants
  By Rama Lakshmi Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, October 31, 2009 MITHI VIRDI-JASAPARA, INDIA -- Standing precariously on the thin edge of a newly dug well, Ajitbhai Narela looked out proudly at his groundnut and mango saplings. For decades, he said, his family has tilled the soil here, working the land and producing sweet-tasting fruit. But soon, he noted, the fields may disappear. If Indian officials have their way, land in this seaside village will be paved over for a nuclear power plant. "This is our birthplace. We have farmed this land with our blood and sweat over generations," said Narela, 55. "The government can cremate us right here, but we will not sell our land." The proposed nuclear plant is to be designed using American technology, making it one of the first projects made possible by last year's historic civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States. But villagers here are determined not to let that happen [Nuclear deal]

• CNN/IBN "Devil's Advocate" program: an interview with Arundhati Roy: 'Indian Democracy In A State Of Emergency'
  a program in 5 parts Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARs3lcjEMzo&feature=related Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyxVpUtW6b4&feature=related Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140wO1di9V8&feature=related Part Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c8XKz2EqgI&feature=related Part Five: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARs3lcjEMzo&feature=related [Democracy]
• India behind terrorist acts in Pakistan: Malik
  Tanvir Siddiqi Islamabad—Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that Pakistan is fighting the war on terror in its own interest and will never allow its terroritory to be used for terrorists activities against any country. He was talking to media here on Wednesday after chairing a meeting of the Vice Chancellors and the heads of the educational instituions which evolved a strategy for the protection of the educational institutions. The Minister said Pakistan’s offer of dialogue with India should not be taken as our weakness. He said we are sincere to resolve all matters with India through negotiations and India should respond positively. He asked India to stop giving threatening statements against Pakistan and should stop interference in Balochistan. Ridiculing Indian threats he said India was in a state of paranoia, adding that Pakistan did not fear such threats as it was facing 9/11 everyday. The Interior Minister said India was involved in fanning violence in Balochistan and asked New Delhi to stop intervening in the province. Rehman Malik said Pakistan could not arrest any of its citizens on Indian demands, adding that no action could be taken against Hafiz Saeed without any concrete evidence. He said Pakistan has extended full cooperation to India in the investigation into the Mumbai incidents and arrested seven persons accused by India. However, he said on the contrary India did not take any action against the culprits of Samjotha Express Tragedy. [Terrorism]
• Protest against New Uranium Mining and Nuclear Power Plants
  To: The President of India; with copies to the Prime Minister and Minister of Environment & Forests To Smt. Pratibha Patil, The President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi – 110 001. Copy to: Sri Manmohan Singh, The Prime Minister of India, New Delhi – 110 001. Sri Jairam Ramesh, The Minister of Environment & Forests, New Delhi – 110 001. Subject: Protest against New Uranium Mining and Nuclear Power Plants Madam, We are writing to you on behalf of the National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements. It is to protest against the reported decision of the government of India to take a quantum leap in installed capacity for nuclear power generation, from the current level of 4,120 MW to 63,000 MW by 2032. This decision is but an invitation to disaster. In this context, we will like to submit the following. Nuclear power, contrary to orchestrated hypes, is actually costlier than power from conventional sources like coal, gas and hydro. And once all the hidden costs are factored in, it would be costlier than even from renewable sources, like wind, in particular. More importantly, it is also intrinsically hazardous, as large amount of radiation is routinely released at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle. An even more intractable problem is that of safe storage of nuclear waste and safe disposal of outlived power plants, given the fact that the half-lives of some of the radioactive substances involved are over even millions of years [Nuclear energy]
• NPT and Obama: How long can India hold out?
  Indrani Bagchi, TOI Crest 17 October 2009, 02:54pm IST Print Email Discuss Bookmark/Share Save Comment Text Size: | "To achieve a global ban on nuclear testing, my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Indira Gandhi at the testing site at Pokhran in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974. The explosion heralded India’s entry into the select club of nuclear states More Pictures Ban Treaty." US President Barack Obama, Prague, April 5, 2009 "Nations with nuclear weapons have the responsibility to move towards disarmament and those without have the responsibility to forsake them." Obama, at the UN, September 24, 2009, while chairing a summit of the 15-member UN Security Council which unanimously adopted a resolution calling on countries that had not signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (like India) to join as "non-nuclear weapons states" and to "comply fully with all their obligations… pending their accession to the Treaty" . The resolution also asked all states to refrain from conducting nuclear tests, and to sign and ratify the CTBT. Even as New Delhi went into a frenzy over the mere thought that Barack Obama might indirectly be seeking to "pressure" India to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the real killer arrow was still in the American quiver, virtually forgotten but still enormously potent - the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which is expected to knock on India's door yet again soon and with much greater purpose. [NPT] {CTBT] [Nuclear deal]
• After the perfect storm: Indian students in Australia
  Janaki Bahadur Summary In this Lowy Institute Perspective, Janaki Bahadur draws upon her experience as an Indian-born journalist living in Australia to look below the surface of this year’s controversy about the welfare of Indian students in Australia. She identifies the commercial and nationalistic drivers of the sensationalised Indian media coverage, while also observing that the intense media attention exposed genuine problems, not so much about racism as about the quality of vocational education on offer and the motives of Indian vocational students in Australia. She concludes that the storm may ultimately lead to more sustainable education and immigration policies along with improved Australia-India ties.
• What's Holding India Back
  Business is battling farmers over land, putting $98 billion in investments—and an industrial revolution—on hold By Mehul Srivastava, with Prashant Gopal in New York Spitting a fine stream of red betel-leaf juice into the knee-deep waters of his rice paddies, Subhash Mahapatra points to the line dividing his land from his neighbor's. It's not much, but his family has cultivated rice on the two acres of dark, loamy soil for generations, and Mahapatra knows of no other way to feed his children. "If I don't want to sell it, do I not have the right to say no?" he asks. The answer to that question may determine whether India will see a new industrial revolution, one broad enough to provide the jobs needed to lift millions out of poverty. Mahapatra's property is part of a 4,000-acre parcel that the government of Orissa state five years ago promised to steelmaker Posco (PKX). The South Korean giant had hoped it would be home to India's biggest steel mill, a $12 billion behemoth with its own port on the Bay of Bengal. So far, Posco hasn't even managed to build a fence around the site, as Mahapatra and thousands of others have battled police, once even taking Posco workers hostage for a few hours. Across India, similar struggles are holding back nearly 200 proposed factories, railroads, highways, and other projects. [FDI] [Globalisation]
• On Cluttered Ballots of India, Families Proliferate 
  Adam Ferguson for The New York TimesRajendra Shekhawat campaigning in Amravati, where his parents once held elected office. His opponents belittle any suggestion that his family did not orchestrate his candidacy and call him a carpetbagger. By JIM YARDLEY Published: October 11, 2009 AMRAVATI, India — Rajendra Shekhawat, nicely polished in a pressed white shirt and neatly parted hair, his face sunburned from campaigning in the south Indian sun, says he is running for office as a common man. His pink cheeks suggest otherwise, though, since common men in India usually toil outdoors without requiring sunscreen. Supporters of Dr. Sunil Deshmukh, a radiologist and two-term Congress incumbent who was pushed aside by Congress Party leaders so that Mr. Shekhawat could run. Dr. Deshmukh is running as an Independent. More Photos » Another clue is the elephant in every room in which he campaigns in this city in the state of Maharashtra: Mom. She is Pratibha Patil, the president of India. “I’m not using my parents’ name at all,” Mr. Shekhawat, 42, stated in an upstairs office in his parents’ home, which he is indisputably using as a campaign headquarters. “I’m running on my own. But for sure, being in a political family for so many years does help me, and gives me easy accessibility for doing the work of the people.” Democracy is built on the oft-tarnished ideal that any man or woman can get elected, but in India, home to the world’s biggest democracy, it helps to be part of a political family. [Succession]
• South India floods death toll crosses 300: Officials
  AFP 7 October 2009, 01:41pm IST BURDIPADU: The death toll from the worst floods to hit south India in decades has passed 300, officials said on Wednesday, as relief efforts South India floods At least 1.5 million people have been displaced in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh after days of torrential rain. More than 200 people have been killed in Karnataka alone, said HV Parashwanath, secretary of Karnataka's disaster monitoring agency. "There could be 200,000 to 300,000 people in villages where aid has not reached," he said.
• India and decoding Doha
  October 7th, 2009 Author: Geethanjali Nataraj, NCAER Since the last World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in 2005, the WTO Doha negotiations have remained at an impasse. Negotiations continue to be unbalanced with developing countries still being offered a raw deal. The stalemate is largely over developed countries’ reluctance to make considerable reductions in their trade distorting agricultural subsidies and unbalanced proposals for further reductions in industrial tariffs. From November 30 to December 2, 2009, after a spate of failed attempts to revive the WTO Doha Negotiations, a WTO ministerial conference will take place in Geneva. It’s a much-anticipated event given American President Barack Obama’s enthusiastic endorsement of the G-20 statement in April this year, calling for a conclusion of the Doha talks. [Protectionism]
• India’s new foreign trade policy: Old wine in new bottles
  October 3rd, 2009 Guest Author: Nabeel Mancheri, Hiroshima University The recently released new five-year national Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) of India has set a few objectives. Given the current financial crisis, it is also intended to provide a confidence boost for the export market. Its objectives are ambitious. Fiscal incentives, institutional changes, procedural rationalisation, and enhanced market access across the world, as well as the diversification of export markets are the trust areas mentioned in the document. However, the document doesn’t provide any new thoughts and lacks any bold initiative in terms of longer term objectives. It is the same old type of bureaucratic exercise that the Commerce Ministry has been carrying out for decades.
• Deadly bomb explodes near Indian embassy in Kabul
  Rush-hour blast on busy road in Afghan capital kills at least 12 people and injures dozens A large suicide bomb exploded near the Indian embassy in Kabul this morning, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens. Officials said it was a suicide attack.
  The Indian foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, said the embassy had been the target. "The suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy with a car loaded with explosives obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," Rao said. In July last year the Indian embassy was the target of the deadliest attack in Kabul since the US-led invasion in 2001.
• India's Naxalites A ragtag rebellion
  Jun 25th 2009 | HARIHARPUR From The Economist print edition There are not enough brave politicians, honest officials and well-trained police to fight India’s Maoist insurrection SQUATTING on a string bed in Hariharpur, a hamlet of West Bengal’s West Midnapur district, Chhatradhar Mahato does not seem a hunted man. He is skinny, soft-spoken and, in a bored sort of way, lists the demands issued to the state’s communist rulers by his group, the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), which represents local adivasis or members of India’s tribal minorities. Above all, Mr Mahato wants the local police, who in recent months have ceded a vast area covering some 2,000 villages to a joint force of PCAPA and Maoist guerrillas, to atone for their abuses by crawling to Hariharpur on their hands and knees. Their commander, says Mr Mahato, squatting before a poster of Mount Cook with an image of a Hindu priestess pasted onto its snowy summit, will have to perform penitential sit-ups while clutching his ears. [Naxalites]
• Kim Yong Il Sends Message of Sympathy to Indian PM
  Pyongyang, October 7 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Il, premier of the DPRK, sent a message of sympathy to Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, on Tuesday as regards the recent flood that hit southern India, claiming huge human and material losses. Kim in the message hoped that the Indian government would eradicate the aftermath of flood damage as early as possible and stabilize the living of the inhabitants in the flood-hit region.
• New Zealand’s free trade talks with India will hot up in 2010.
  We would like better access for our traditional agricultural exports as well as services and technology exports. But what do the Indians think? By Matthew Roy Trade Minister Tim Groser’s meeting in Delhi in early September 2009 signalled that New Zealand’s talks on a free trade agreement (FTA)
• Exporting to India: finding the room in the elephant
  How to succeed in a market where relationships matter as much as pricing, where it’s difficult to see the bureaucracy for the red tape and 28 different languages are spoken? Go local, explains Matthew Roy
• Two million slum children die every year as India booms
  Save the Children says state-run health system is failing to give skilled care to poor
  * Gethin Chamberlain in Delhi * The Observer, Sunday 4 October 2009 India's growing status as an economic superpower is masking a failure to stem a shocking rate of infant deaths among its poorest people. Nearly two million children under five die every year in India – one every 15 seconds – the highest number anywhere in the world. More than half die in the month after birth and 400,000 in their first 24 hours. A devastating report by Save the Children, due out on Monday, reveals that the poor are disproportionately affected and the charity accuses the country of failing to provide adequate healthcare for the impoverished majority of its one billion people. While the World Bank predicts that India's economy will be the fastest-growing by next year and the country is an influential force within the G20, World Health Organisation figures show it ranks 171st out of 175 countries for public health spending.
• Film to portray Nehru-Mountbatten love affair
  By James Lamont in New Delhi Published: October 9 2009 19:18 | Last updated: October 9 2009 19:18 Indian authorities have tried to censor a British film portraying the relationship of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, with the wife of the country’s last colonial viceroy amid agonising that the movie could bring New Delhi’s ruling dynasty into disrepute. Indian Summer is an adaptation of a book by Alex Von Tunzelmann published two years ago. The film is scheduled for release in two years’ time, with Cate Blanchett, the Australian actress, expected to play the role of Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Irrfan Khan, an Indian actor, Nehru. Nayantara Sahgal, Nehru’s niece, said her uncle and Countess Mountbatten of Burma had been in love with each other and made a devoted pair. The relationship has been murmured about across dinner tables since India’s independence 62 years ago but rarely publicly acknowledged in the UK or India.

• What Have We Done to Democracy?
  By Arundhati Roy
  September 28, 2009 While we're still arguing about whether there's life after death, can we add another question to the cart? Is there life after democracy? What sort of life will it be? By "democracy" I don't mean democracy as an ideal or an aspiration. I mean the working model: Western liberal democracy, and its variants, such as they are. So, is there life after democracy?
  This theft of language, this technique of usurping words and deploying them like weapons, of using them to mask intent and to mean exactly the opposite of what they have traditionally meant, has been one of the most brilliant strategic victories of the tsars of the new dispensation. It has allowed them to marginalize their detractors, deprive them of a language to voice their critique and dismiss them as being "anti-progress," "anti-development," "anti-reform" and of course "anti-national"--negativists of the worst sort.
  The war in the Kashmir valley is almost twenty years old now, and has claimed about 70,000 lives. Tens of thousands have been tortured, several thousand have "disappeared," women have been raped, tens of thousands widowed. Half a million Indian troops patrol the Kashmir valley, making it the most militarized zone in the world. (The United States had about 165,000 active-duty troops in Iraq at the height of its occupation.) The Indian Army now claims that it has, for the most part, crushed militancy in Kashmir. Perhaps that's true. But does military domination mean victory?
  In the midst of all this, Kashmir is set to become the conduit through which the mayhem unfolding in Afghanistan and Pakistan spills into India, where it will find purchase in the anger of the young among India's 150 million Muslims who have been brutalized, humiliated and marginalized. Notice has been given by the series of terrorist strikes that culminated in the Mumbai attacks of 2008. [Democracy] [Separatism] [Terrorism] [Islam]
• India raises nuclear stakes
  By James Lamont in New Delhi and James Blitz in London Published: September 27 2009 22:30 | Last updated: September 27 2009 22:30 India can now build nuclear weapons with the same destructive power as those in the arsenals of the world’s major nuclear powers, according to New Delhi’s senior atomic officials. They said India had built weapons with yields of up to 200 kilotons, which would be considered a “proper strategic deterrent” by the global community. A nuclear weapon above 50 kilotons is considered high yield. India’s enhanced capability gives it a considerable edge over Pakistan, its nuclear-armed arch-rival. India’s declaration came as Iran launched war games on Sunday, testing short-range missiles, just days after announcing it had been building a second uranium enrichment plant. Western governments seized upon this as further evidence that Tehran was in breach of UN obligations. [Nuclear weapons] [Double standards]
• U.S. Eyes Bigger Slice Of Indian Defense Pie
  New Delhi Boosting Military Budget in Modernization Mission By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 26, 2009 NEW DELHI -- In the ballroom of a five-star hotel here, executives from Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest arms supplier, threw a candlelight reception one recent night to woo Indian defense experts as their country embarks on a major military shopping spree. India plans to spend an estimated $100 billion on defense over the next decade to modernize its Soviet-era arsenal. With its growing military footprint, India is steering away from traditional ally Russia, its main weapons supplier, and looking toward the United States to help upgrade its weapons systems and troop gear. As the world's largest democracy, India is seen as the most dependable U.S. ally in a part of the world that also includes Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which are racked by Islamist insurgencies. But India's expanding military ambitions, and the U.S. role in selling this nuclear-armed nation more firepower, is starting to worry its neighbors, especially perennial rival Pakistan. India also has ongoing border disputes with another Asian giant, China, which defeated it in a short 1962 war. [US China] [Arms sales] [US India China} [border war] [Proliferation] [Double standards]
• Strike Ends, but India's Airline Woes Continue
  Jet Airways' pilot strike was a boon to other carriers. Still, the Indian industry's problem is too many planes and too few passengers By Mehul Srivastava Air travelers in India let out a collective sigh of relief on Sept. 13, when Jet Airways, the country's second-largest private airline, negotiated an end to a five-day strike by nearly half its pilots. But for the rest of India's airline industry, that just might be terrible news. In an industry plagued by too many planes and too few passengers, the past five days may end up being its most profitable. As soon as Jet Airways started canceling flights on Sept. 1, competitors moved in hungrily on its 25% market share, doubling and even quadrupling ticket prices for last-minute buyers. "Break even? We raked it in," says the chief operating officer of a competing airline, who asked not to be named because India's airline regulator had frowned on the practice. "All the industry needs is for one major airline to go out of business, and the rest of us will be fine." That's a dire—albeit accurate—prognosis for an industry that was once the fastest-growing in the world, capturing the public imagination as passenger traffic doubled every two years, new airports opened across the country, and airlines wooed economy passengers with tickets at throwaway prices. They wowed business-class travelers with private helicopter rides from airports to city centers, lavish meals, and fancy lounges. "These airlines, they treat you like a king," says Jagdish Chattra, a 52-year-old U.S.-based businessman who took an Aug. 27 business-class flight on Kingfisher Airlines, India's largest private carrier. His lunch included salmon, spinach-and-brie soup, French pastries, and fresh-baked bread for an $80 economy-class ticket that he spent a further $50 to upgrade. A valet carried his bag to a plush lounge, and a flight attendant polished his eyeglasses before landing.
• Left wing extremism gravest threat to national security: PM
  15 Sep 2009, 1102 hrs IST, IANS NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday described left wing extremism as perhaps the "gravest internal threat" facing India and said there had not been much success in containing the level of violence despite efforts. [Naxalites]
• Indian army on 'Operation Alert' along China border
  16 Sep 2009, 2200 hrs IST, IANS NEW DELHI: The Indian army has mobilised its troops to forwards posts in Jammu and Kashmir and along the northeastern border with China in an exercise named Operation Alert, a defence official said on Wednesday. "About 50% troops on the Line of Actual Control have been mobilised to forward posts. The mobilisation would last for nearly a month," a senior Indian army official said. The mobilisation of Indian troops has come close on the heels of a high-profile war game launched by the Chinese army. China had deployed close to 50,000 troops in its biggest cross-country tactical mobilisation exercise that has sent alarm bells ringing in India as it is seen as Beijing's efforts to improve its ability to deploy troops in Tibet whenever reinforcements are required. [China India relations] [Border war]
• Folly in India's nuclear ways
  Ramesh Thakur
  14/09/2009 1:07:00 PM Three recent events reopen the debate on the wisdom of India's nuclear tests in 1998, as judged from within the narrow framework of its own interests. Or rather, they confirm the folly of the tests.
  Without nuclearisation, India could retaliate the more easily and have much better assurance of inflicting military defeat. With nuclearisation, India has found its policy options for dealing with a nettlesome neighbour far more sharply curtailed. The BJP, the nationalist party in power in 1998, should have been a tad more careful in what it wished for. There is no chance of either India or Pakistan, let alone both, renouncing their nuclear weapons unilaterally: however much we detest them, they cannot be de-tested. But the costs, risks and complications offer compelling reasons for India, leading up to the five-yearly review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty next year, to line up solidly behind recently reinvigorated efforts to achieve global nuclear disarmament. [Nuclear weapons]
• India no spoiler in trade talks
  September 7th, 2009 Author: Suman Bery India’s Commerce Minister and his senior officials have been unusually candid about their motives in hosting this week’s conclave of trade ministers and officials in New Delhi to revive the Doha trade negotiations (the so-called Doha Development Round, or DDR). Jointly with the U.S., India is commonly held accountable for the failure of the last mini-Ministerial meeting to discuss the Round, in July 2008.
  Eight years later the situation is radically altered. Initially China and more recently India have emerged as important growth centres in the world economy. India’s organised private sector has made a major shift from wariness to confidence in its international economic engagement, through both trade and foreign investment. The financial crisis has provided a valuable stress test for both government and the private sector. While it is too early to declare victory, and there is considerable distress in certain sectors, notably labour-intensive exports, seen from a comparative international perspective India’s aggregate performance is now seen as reassuring and impressive. Access to the Indian market is accordingly now very valuable, potentially increasing India’s leverage in both multilateral and bilateral/regional negotiations. India’s hand is further strengthened by the scale of the Congress victory in the recent elections, ensuring stability and continuity in the government for the full term. The issue facing India therefore is how best to play this strong hand. [Protectionism]
• Can India catch up with China?
  Oxford Economics Executive Summary · Although it is only since 2000 that the growing economic power of the Chinese ‘dragon’ has emerged fully into the media spotlight, its GDP has in fact been growing at an average rate of close to 10% pa for the last 30 years. On a PPP basis, China is already the second largest economy in the world. The Indian ‘elephant’, on the other hand, has grown at a more sedate pace, but following a burst in the 2000s it now has the fourth largest GDP in the world on a PPP basis and has been close to emulating Chinese growth rates. [China India comparison]
• India and the United States in the 21st Century
  * By Teresita C. Schaffer Jun 17, 2009 "There are few more knowledgeable observers of US-India relations than Teresita Schaffer, a former senior US diplomat, who has served in virtually every south Asian capital and is now a doyenne of Washington’s still surprisingly small coterie of India watchers. . . . [a] detailed and concise anatomy of the growing ties between the world’s largest and wealthiest democracies." - Ed Luce in Financial Times. [India US]
• Renewed tension on the India-China border: Who’s to blame?
  September 3rd, 2009 Guest Author: Neville Maxwell, ANU ‘So solidly built into our consciousness is the concept that China is conducting a rapacious and belligerent foreign policy that whenever a dispute arises in which China is involved she is instantly assumed to have provoked it.’ — Felix Greene 1965. India is heavily reinforcing its Army and Air Force units on its undefined border with China (two additional infantry divisions, a squadron of attack aircraft, refurbishing airfields etc). This is in breach of the parties’ obligation under a 1993 Sino-Indian treaty to keep force levels in border areas to ‘a minimum level compatible with … friendly and good neighbourly relations’, and Beijing has protested angrily and publicly. [Border war] [China India]
• Drought Puts Focus on a Side of India Left Out of Progress
  By JIM YARDLEY Published: September 4, 2009 PIPRI VILLAGE, India — Two very different recent scenes from India: At a power breakfast in New Delhi for many of the country’s corporate leaders and top economic officials, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee declared that India had “weathered the storm” of the global economic crisis and was witnessing “green shoots” in industry and services that signaled a return to more rapid growth by next year. Rainfall has been down by 25 percent during the summer monsoon season that India’s farmers count on, drying out fields like S. Saidugunda’s in Hyderabad. Hundreds of miles away in this farming village in Andhra Pradesh, in the south, weeds were the only green shoots sprouting in the black soil that belongs to the widow Chandli Bai. Her field went 12 weeks without rain during India’s annual monsoon season before showers finally arrived on Aug. 23, splattering down too late onto the dry dirt. Her summer crop of lentils was stillborn in the ground. “We eat once a day,” said Mrs. Bai, 65, explaining how she and her family had survived the lack of rain. For the past year, as the economic crisis convulsed much of the world, India wobbled but never tumbled over. And now that the world is starting to pull itself out of the mire, India seems poised to resume its rapid economic expansion. Government officials are projecting that growth will reach or surpass 6 percent this year and approach 8 percent next year, almost the pace that established India as an emerging global economic power second only to China. But the cautious optimism about the broader economy has been tempered by a historic summertime drought that has underscored the stubborn fact that many people are largely untouched by the country’s progress.
• The Australia South Asia Research Centre (ASARC)
  The Australia South Asia Research Centre (ASARC) was established as an initiative of the The Arndt-Corden Division of Economics through the Strategic Development Fund of the Institute of Advanced Studies, and with financial assistance from the Department of Employment, Education and Training. It was inaugurated in April 1994 by a past-President of India, His Excellency Dr KR Narayanan.
• The South Asian Bureau of Economic Research (SABER)
  The South Asian Bureau of Economic Research (SABER) builds on the success of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research (EABER) in creating a forum for high-quality economic research focusing on issues facing the economies of South Asia and economic interaction between South and East Asia. It comprises representatives from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. The rapid development of the South Asian economies, the growth of regional and intra-regional trade, financial and other economic interaction, and South Asia's increasing role in the global economy all underline the need for access to a vastly increased range of quality economic analysis on South Asia. SABER, like EABER, is a portal for research on South Asian Economics and houses a collection of research papers from all its member institutes available in the categories at the top of this page. For more information on SABER funding, support and purpose, see 'About SABER'
• Moving beyond the Blame Game: China-India Border Relations
  Guest Author: Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster August 22nd, 2009 The China-India border issue is mired in the international politics of competing perceptions, mythmaking, and obfuscations. The recent warming up of international relations between China and India, as evidenced by frequent exchanges of high level visits and a massive increase in trade, has failed to replicate the fraternal relations of early 1950s, and the biggest hurdle in this is the unresolved border dispute. The legacy of the 1962 border war is very much alive as the nationalist narratives in both countries adopt a register of blame rather than critical examination and mutual understanding. Recently, the media in both the countries played up the disagreements; even a minor action by one country or statement by a leader gets amplified and sensationalised. There is no tangible evidence that allows commentators to ascribe responsibility to one or the other side and a fruitful way forward is to shift away from cataloguing blame to a critical understanding.
  The revisionist scholarship of Neville Maxwell and a few others who put the blame solely on India, and describe the 1962 war in terms of pre-emptive self-defence or punitive expedition by an aggrieved China, is refreshing but should be read with caution because they avoid a serious engagement with the domestic and international compulsions of the Chinese leadership in 1950s and 1960s. [China India] [Border war] [False balance]

• Indian Economy & Business Update
  Indian Economy & Business Update — Economic Policies of the New Government in India and Implications for Australia 9am Thursday, 17 September 2009
• Census of India
  The Indian Census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on different characteristics of the people of India. With a history of more than 130 years, this reliable, time tested exercise has been bringing out a veritable wealth of statistics every 10 years, beginning from 1872 when the first census was conducted in India non-synchronously in different parts [Statistics]
• 2 Killings Stoke Kashmiri Rage at Indian Force
  By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: August 15, 2009 SHOPIAN, India — On a sunny late spring afternoon, Asiya and Nilofa Jan left home to tend to their family’s apple orchard. Along the way they passed a gantlet of police camps wreathed in razor wire as they crossed the bridge over the ankle-deep Rambi River. Little more than 12 hours later their battered bodies were found in the stream. Asiya, a 17-year-old high school student, had been badly beaten. Blood streamed from her nose and a sharp gash in her forehead. She and her 22-year-old sister-in-law, Nilofa, had been gang raped before their deaths. The crime, and allegations of a bungled attempt by the local police to cover it up, set off months of sporadic street protests. It is now the focal point for seemingly bottomless Kashmiri rage at the continuing presence of roughly 500,000 Indian security forces here. The forces remain, though the violence by separatist militants allegedly supported by Pakistan who they came here to fight in the past few years has ebbed to its lowest point in two decades. [Separatism]
• Nepal’s Future: In Whose Hands?
  Asia Report N°173 13 August 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Nepal’s peace process is in danger of collapse. The fall of the Maoist-led government, a mess largely of the Maoists’ own making, was a symptom of the deeper malaise underlying the political settlement. Consensus has steadily given way to a polarisation which has fed the more militaristic elements on both sides. While all moderate politicians still publicly insist that there is no alternative to pursuing the process, private talk of a return to war – led by generals of the Nepalese Army who have never reconciled themselves to peace – has grown louder. Outright resumption of hostilities remains unlikely in the short term but only concerted efforts to re-establish a minimal working consensus and a national unity government including the Maoists can avert the likelihood of a more dangerous erosion of trust. Strong international backing, with India eschewing short-term interference in favour of longer-term guardianship of the process it itself initiated, will be essential. The immediate cause of the Maoists’ departure from government on 4 May 2009 was their bungled (sic) attempt to dismiss the army chief.
  The Maoists had not proved as effective in power as many had hoped. Moreover, they alienated two important constituencies: India (both by appearing to make overtures towards China and by refusing to become a pliant, moderate force) and the Kathmandu upper middle classes (by making them pay taxes (sic) and failing to deliver basic services, in particular electricity).
• Pakistan says Indian submarine harms regional peace
  Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:03am EDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India's launch of its first nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying ballistic missiles is "detrimental to regional peace and stability," Pakistan's foreign ministry said, vowing to safeguard its own security. India launched the submarine Sunday as part of a $2.9 billion plan to build five submarines. The vessel, Arihant, will undergo sea trials before being formally inducted in 2015. It completes a nuclear triad for India of fighter aircraft, missiles and now submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Nuclear-armed rival Pakistan has only aircraft and missiles to deliver nuclear payloads, according to military officials. [Military balance] [China confrontation]
• Strategic stability in South Asia
  Saturday, August 01, 2009 By Tariq Osman Hyder The launch of India's first missile-capable nuclear submarine, the latest proliferation of lethal WMD in the region, has serious implications for South Asia and beyond. It poses response choices for Pakistan to avert strategic imbalance. India must also reflect on what kind of an overarching architecture of relationship it wishes in the long term to evolve with Pakistan. How far is India's strategic and conventional build-up a consequence of its threat perceptions or motivated by the objective of threat projection and hegemony. Furthermore the international community must reassess its responsibility for this deterioration and how it should act in future to support peace and security in South Asia. Pakistan continues to perceive that, while socio-economic progress and combating extremism constitute core objectives, its main existential threat continues to emanate from India. An India in which core policy makers and influential segments continue to regard the creation of Pakistan from "mother India" as a historical mistake, which at best may still be undone and till then Pakistan should be dealt with so that it gives up its support for Kashmiri self-determination and acquiesces to a subordinate role in South Asia. Pakistan, though a significant middle order country, has always faced an asymmetrical imbalance and threat in the conventional field from a much larger India. Pakistan's hard won nuclear capability has kept the peace by providing, through a credible minimum nuclear deterrent, strategic stability in South Asia.
• Korea and India sign CEPA
  Korea and India signed a landmark free trade agreement in Seoul yesterday with the vision of boosting their economies through liberalized exchange of industrial goods and services, as well as the axing of non-tariff barriers. Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that would either eliminate or reduce tariffs on 85 percent of Korea's exports and 90 percent of India's exports between eight and 10 years.
• India, US planned to attack China through Nepal: Prachanda
  6 Aug 2009, 1307 hrs IST, PTI KATHMANDU: Maoist chief Prachanda has made a sensational charge that India and the US had planned to launch anti-China campaign, even a possible attack on the Communist giant, using Nepalese territory. "I had to quit the post of Prime Minister as my party was opposed to allow our territory to be used against China," Prachanda was quoted as saying by the Rajdhani daily. "The US-India plan had to face challenge from our party and that triggered the conspiracy against my government," Prachanda, who quit following a rift with his coalition partners over the controversial decision to sack the army chief, said at a training programme of the Maoists here. Prachanda had earlier blamed India for toppling his eight-month old government in May this year. The Maoist chief said he was quoting a senior Indian professor while making these statements but did not name the Indian scholar. He alleged that reactionary and conspiratorial elements have been deceiving the Nepalese people by acting as agents of the foreign powers. "But we will never bow down before any power for the establishment of peace and writing the constitution," he said. Conspiracy is being hatched to sabotage against the writing of the constitution, he pointed out. Prachanda's allegations came ahead of a month long protest programme by his party starting tomorrow with the aimed at maintaining "civilian supremacy" and forming a government of national consensus under Maoists' leadership. [China confrontation] [US India China]

• Seeking Business Allies, Clinton Connects With India’s Billionaires
  By MARK LANDLER Published: July 18, 2009 MUMBAI, India — India’s booming economy has turned some of its business executives into rock stars. So it was perhaps not surprising that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — a celebrity in her own right — would stop first in India’s commercial capital for a power breakfast with bankers and billionaires. Skip to next paragraph Related India Fears Pressure From U.S. to Mend Ties With Pakistan (July 18, 2009) Times Topics: Hillary Rodham Clinton | India Mrs. Clinton will go to New Delhi on Sunday for meetings and ceremonies with government leaders. But she began her visit to India, the first by a top official from the Obama administration, by discussing climate change, education and health care with private-sector potentates. Flanked by Mukesh Ambani (estimated net worth: $19.5 billion) and Ratan Tata (estimated net worth: $1 billion), Mrs. Clinton heard ideas from seven other guests about how Indian companies could provide health care, education and banking services to India’s desperately poor. “You’re so right, Ratan,” Mrs. Clinton said to Mr. Tata when he explained how his Tata Group was delivering nutrients to children and young mothers through daily staples like milk. “If we could get the nutritional status of children to improve, it would solve so many problems.” [Spin] [US India]
• The Indian left in strategy crisis
  Praful Bidwai Thursday, July 09, 2009 India's Left parties, which command credibility and respect far in excess of their membership, have been forced to debate the causes of their recent electoral setback, which saw their Lok Sabha tally to drop by 61 percent to a historic low of 24 (of a total of 542 seats). Unlike the other big election loser, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in which personalised mudslinging substituted for "debate," the Left has tried to address programme- and policy-related issues, including its poor management of relations with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. This is welcome. But it doesn't go far enough. Going by the first post-election meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) central committee, the four Left parties--including the CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc--are reluctant to go the whole length in clinically dissecting their weaknesses. Unless they do so, they may not recover from the electoral rout. The Left parties are at a fork in history: Either they re-establish an organic relationship with the working people, or become irrelevant and perish, like other communist parties. The Left is debating four questions. First, to what extent can its rout be attributed to its splitting with the UPA over the India-United States nuclear deal? Second, was the Left right to take "equidistance" from the Congress and the BJP, and project the motley non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front? Third, to what extent were "tactical mistakes" in the two biggest CPM bases--allying with the Islamic-Right People's Democratic Party in Kerala, and coercive land acquisition and mishandling of the Rizwanur Rehman suicide in West Bengal--responsible for the Left's dismal performance? And, most vitally, did structural factors related to the Left's ideology, strategy and policies contribute substantially to its defeat? [Nuclear deal]

• In Mumbai Terrorism Case, An Emotional, Historic Trial
  By Rama Lakshmi Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, June 22, 2009 MUMBAI -- Grainy images of men wielding AK-47s riveted a packed courtroom here one day last week as the public prosecutor rolled soundless video footage from November's deadly attacks on the city. "Here they come! Here they come!" Ujjwal Nikam said, pointing out to the judge the two gunmen caught on tape by a Mumbai train station's surveillance camera. A few feet from him, a diminutive, barefoot man in an oversize gray T-shirt squinted at the screen. After the chaotic scenes of gunfire and panic faded, he rubbed his eyes, stretched his legs, leaned back and stared blankly. Pakistani-born Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, is accused of being one of the two assailants caught on film at the train station, where 48 people died. He is also the only alleged gunman captured alive during the terrifying three days beginning Nov. 26, when 10 men arrived in Mumbai by boat and attacked 10 sites, including two five-star hotels and a Jewish outreach center, killing more than 170 people. His trial, on charges of terrorism, criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state, began two months ago, and the stakes could not be higher for India.
• Tata Group's Innovation Competition
  India's Tata Group sponsors an annual Innovista competition to spur innovation among its far-flung subsidiaries By Jessie Scanlon What's more innovative: intelligent software designed to automate the buying and selling of telecom minutes; patented technology for unloading soda ash from railroad cars faster, safer, and cheaper; or a rebranding campaign that gained a company synonymous with black tea a 42% share of the fast-growing green tea market?
• Social Networking: Facebook Looks to India
  A little late to the subcontinent, Facebook is now pushing hard to win over Indians by adding Hindi and five other local languages By Bruce Einhorn and Mehul Srivastava These are busy times for Javier Olivan. As international manager for Facebook, the 32-year-old Spaniard's job is to find ways for the social networking site to expand its reach far beyond its U.S. base. And last month the company took one of its biggest steps yet, adding Hindi and five other Indian tongues. That takes the number of languages officially supported by Facebook to 57, with several dozen more in the works. "We've been literally launching almost a language a week," says Olivan. Facebook, though, isn't expanding its workforce at anywhere near that pace. More established Internet companies such as Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) have grown internationally by setting up operations in far-flung locales and hiring workers there, but Facebook believes that's not an option. "I don't know why people think that by having a local office you will have a better local product," Olivan says. That might work "for certain types of businesses," the Stanford MBA concedes, but not for Facebook. "The brick-and-mortar approach is not effective in doing [things] fast and efficiently," he says. [Services]
• India to Dispatch Nuclear-Capable Jets to Chinese Border
  Wednesday, June 10, 2009 India said yesterday it plans to send fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons to its border with China, United Press International reported (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2008). Indian defense official Col. R. Kalia said New Delhi would next week begin sending the advanced aircraft to a base in Tezpur, where the Chinese are alleged to have breached the border on several occasions, according to Indian news reports. "Four Sukhoi 30-MKI fighter jets would land first and soon it would be a full squadron comprising of 18 aircraft," Kalia said (United Press International, June 9).
• Welcome to India’s newest, secret state
  Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times Lalgarh (W Midnapore), June 10, 2009 First Published: 02:46 IST(10/6/2009) Last Updated: 08:05 IST(10/6/2009) When the engineer came to this sylvan southwestern corner of West Bengal in May, his estimate for rebuilding a canal was Rs 2 crore. Across India, 150 of 600 districts are termed “Naxal affected”, meaning areas nominally or directly under the control of Maoists. The government didn’t call him. The villagers didn’t call him. The man from Jadavpur University — an institution known for its engineering department — was called in by Maoists to this sylvan land of 1,100 villages where a seminal change is unfolding in the way India’s most-powerful and long-lived extremist movement works. Here across a 1,000-sq-km area bordering Orissa in West Midnapore district, the Maoists over the last eight months have quietly unleashed new weapons in their battle against the Indian state: drinking water, irrigation, roads and health care. Carefully shielded from the public eye, the Hindustan Times found India’s second “liberated zone”, a Maoist-run state within a state where development for more than 2 lakh people is unfolding at a pace not seen in 30 years of Left rule.
• ‘We support Islamic terrorism’
  Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times Email Author June 09, 2009 First Published: 23:54 IST(9/6/2009) Last Updated: 23:56 IST(9/6/2009) He is West Bengal’s most wanted man and one of India’s most dreaded outlaws. Koteswar Rao, better known to his cadres as Kishanji, is the deputy leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the underground party of Naxalites. After much effort, he agreed to meet HT’s Snigdhendu Bhattacharya deep in the jungles of West Bengal’s West Midnapore district. Short, shabbily dressed, late-50-ish and surprisingly mild and polite, Kishanji spoke animatedly for three hours in highly accented Bengali about his revolutionary dreams, Islamic terror and the state of his “movement”. Excerpts: What’s the future of the so-called Indian revolution you are spearheading? We have a considerable mass base in eight or nine states. Moreover, the capitalist economy is going through a crisis all over the world, and sooner or later, India will suffer the same fate as the West. So, the conditions are quite ripe for a revolution.

• India Likely to Move on U.S. Military Pact
  By REUTERS Published: May 24, 2009 Filed at 3:11 a.m. ET NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's new ruling coalition, freed of pressure from its former communist allies, is expected to move forward soon on a military logistics deal with the United States that would help U.S. operations in the region. The Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), on hold for more than two years, allows refueling, maintenance and servicing of military ships and planes from both countries at each other's ports and bases. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's former communist allies opposed the agreement, saying Indian military bases could become permanent ports of call for the U.S. military engaged in unilateral operations in the region. [US dominance] [Nuclear deal]
• Driving India's Economic Reforms
  By RUCHIR SHARMA From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.
  The inevitable never happens; the unexpected always does. Nowhere is this truer than in the realm of Indian politics. No clear verdict was expected from India's fractured polity following the close of national polls last Wednesday. Many days of hard political bargaining seemed unavoidable before the country could even hope to see the contours of a new government. Instead, within the first couple of hours of counting more than 400 million votes that had been polled, firecrackers were lit outside the ruling Congress Party's office in Delhi, signaling victory. For the first time since 1962, a government in India that has served its full five-year term has been re-elected under the same leadership. That's a remarkable achievement for the Congress-led coalition and marks a major departure from the nation's recent political history. Two major trends have dominated Indian politics over the past 25 years: anti-incumbency -- with two of every three governments at both the national and state levels failing in their re-election bid -- and the rise of regional political parties, often at the expense of a national party such as Congress. But Congress regained ground in key states as it reorients the party's organizational structure to be increasingly sensitive to regional interests.
• Governing Party in India Scores Victory
  By Somini Sengupta Published: May 16, 2009 NEW DELHI — The governing coalition led by the Indian National Congress sailed to a surprisingly decisive victory in India’s grueling parliamentary elections, vaulting Manmohan Singh, a soft-spoken economic reformer, to a second term as prime minister, and sweeping away the prospect of political instability in the world’s most populous democracy. Mr. Singh, 77, called the victory “a massive mandate” on Saturday afternoon, hours after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party conceded defeat. The victory, in what is apparently a Congress landslide, signals the possibility of a stable and strong government in the face of stiff challenges: a sharp slowdown in economic growth, abiding poverty and instability in the region. It also sidelines a slew of small, regional party bosses whose influence had steadily grown in Indian national politics, and potentially cuts down the power of Communists who had blocked economic reforms for most of Mr. Singh’s first five-year term. The Congress Party’s showing vindicates the prime minister’s efforts to deepen a strategic partnership with the United States at a time when the Obama administration is deeply concerned about security in the region, chiefly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A stronger government will also be better able to tackle issues of crucial importance to Washington, from economic reforms to climate change, although there is not necessarily agreement with the Americans on how to proceed.
• For India's Rupee, a New Identity
  By Rama Lakshmi Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, May 16, 2009 NEW DELHI -- It has a venerable culture. It has growing economic might. But what India doesn't have is a currency symbol that reflects those things, according to its government, which has launched a public competition to find one. Unlike other major currencies such as the U.S. dollar, the British pound, the euro and the Japanese yen, the Indian rupee lacks an easily recognizable identification symbol -- a logo to set beside the $, the £, the € and the ¥. It is currently depicted around the world as either "Rs" or "INR" and is designated differently in various Indian languages. In March, the Finance Ministry called for suggestions for a logo in a nationwide contest. It attracted about 3,000 entries before it closed April 15. [Image]
• India’s Path to Economic Reform Reaches a Fork
  By VIKAS BAJAJ Published: May 13, 2009 MUMBAI, India — In one of the many slick campaign commercials that are airing during this country’s monthlong election, an actor reels off the signature achievements of the governing Congress Party over the last 60 years: independence, land reform, a green revolution and bank nationalization. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition, is championing subsidies for a struggling diamond industry and promising to protect farmland against “dubious industrial projects.” One regional party said it would reduce the government’s use of computers to increase employment. India’s rise as an economic power has captivated many people in the West, but talk of economic openness and dynamism leaves many Indians cold. This year, the global financial crisis has made appeals to India’s traditional socialist-style self-sufficiency even more popular. Policies that seemed increasingly outdated during the fast growth of the past 15 years are getting a fresh hearing, partly because they are seen as insulating much of India from the global slump. No matter which coalition of parties comes to power in voting that ended on Wednesday — none are expected to win a majority in Parliament — the next stage of Indian reforms will be deeply contentious. Many in the political class are skeptical that India, after nearly a decade of high growth and rising prosperity, needs more openness to investment, fewer state-owned companies, or greater deregulation of the private sector. [Globalisation] [Opening]
• Tata Nano Gets 203,000 Orders
  By Jerry Garrett May 5, 2009, 7:34 am Punit Paranjpe/Reuters Prospective buyers fill out forms for a Tata Nano.Tata Motors received more than 203,000 fully paid bookings for its new Nano subcompact car in just two weeks, the company reported in a statement on Monday.
• India's Business Schools Out of Date
  Grads Return to Build Up Skills for Fast-Changing Economy By Rama Lakshmi Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, May 3, 2009 NEW DELHI -- Barely eight months after leaving prestigious Delhi University with an undergraduate degree in commerce, Reena Dubey is back in the classroom, poring over a textbook on debt recovery and taking notes on India's banking industry. "I studied economics, accounting, trade, corporate tax planning and industrial law for three years. But I was still clueless when I graduated," said Dubey, 22. "All my education was bookish and theoretical." [Education]
• Hyundai hit by first overseas strike
  May 11, 2009 The production lines of Hyundai Motor plant in India was halted between April 20 and May 7 after some of the workers went on strike, the company confirmed yesterday. This is the first strike to take place at any of the leading Korean automaker’s overseas plants, which are located in four countries. Hyundai Motor is considering shifting the production of its strategic compact vehicle i20 to its plants in Turkey as the labor issue at its Indian plant is expected continue. According to Hyundai Motor official, some 700 of its 10,000 workers went on strike. “Because the number of people who took part in the affair was so small it hardly had any effect on production,” the official said. “The workers have returned and the operation has become normal.” Hyundai Motor said that the workers on strike demanded recognition of its irregular workers’ labor union, the rehiring of laid off workers and higher pay. The Chennai plant where the strike took place has the best production rate of Hyundai’s overseas plants in four countries. Growth is approximately 30 percent every year. [Labour] [FDI]
• Clashes, protests in Kashmir mar Indian voting
  By AIJAZ HUSSAIN The Associated Press Thursday, May 7, 2009; 6:29 AM SRINAGAR, India -- Scores of protesters clashed with government troops in Indian Kashmir's main city Thursday as residents went to the polls in the disputed Himalayan region, the country's capital and other key states in a monthlong parliamentary election.
  Thousands of troops wearing bulletproof jackets and carrying assault rifles patrolled the streets and guarded polling stations in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar amid separatist calls for a poll boycott and a general strike. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse at least one group of rock-throwing protesters, said Prabhakar Tripathy, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force. The protesters chanted slogans against the elections and Indian rule. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in mainly Muslim Kashmir, where most people favor independence from India or a merger with Pakistan. [Separatism]
• Heir to Gandhi dynasty claims power now rests with the poor
  As India's parties go neck and neck in the polls Rahul Gandhi and his Congress party are recast as the best hope for the impoverished masses Amelia Gentleman in Rajasthan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 May 2009 20.24 BST Article history Rahul Gandhi campaigning ahead of the Indian national elections. Photograph: Findlay Kember/AFP/Getty Images Rahul Gandhi, the suave, Cambridge-educated heir to India's most powerful political dynasty, is on a mission to show that he is at one with the poorest and most downtrodden in India's rural heartland. In a sports ground on the dry plains of Rajasthan, 15,000 people, most of them farmers, sat beneath an orange canopy, enduring temperatures of 42C, as he told them that his Congress party had the fate of India's common man, the am aadmi, at its heart. The audience, many of them wafer thin and wearing broken plastic shoes, had nothing in common with this privileged emblem of India's elite, and yet Gandhi's potent political heritage and his determination to focus on the needs of the dispossessed won him enthusiastic applause.
  Wiping the sweat from his glasses, he reminded his audience of the BJP's ill-fated "India Shining" slogan, which was the theme of its over-confident 2004 election campaign, when its leaders focused exuberantly on the nation's soaring economic growth. The Congress party successfully retaliated, pointing out that the vast majority of Indians endured lives that could scarcely be described as shining, and swept to power, promising to defend the interests of those left behind. The Congress party has been in power, in a coalition with several allied parties, for five years, but the benefits of growth have yet to spread to the rural poor.
• Disappointment after low voter turnout
  Richa Bansal, 1 - 05 - 2009 Despite hopes that recent events like November's Mumbai attacks would energise voters, turnout is depressingly low in the third phase of the general elections. And much more in this week's round-up of the big stories in India. The third phase of polling of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections held on 30 April in 107 constituencies spread across nine states and two union territories saw an average voter turnout of 49-50 percent, with Mumbai clocking in at 41.24 percent, a record low since 1977, despite the recent Mumbai attacks. After the third round, 372 constituencies have completed voting and the remaining 177 will go to the polls in the fourth and the fifth phases to be held on 7 May and 13 May respectively. Although both the big parties claimed to have done well after the third phase, the BJP appeared more buoyant, confidently asserting that it would improve its numbers in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bihar. [Election]
• Communists’ Land Plan Could Backfire in India
  By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: May 2, 2009 NANDIGRAM, India — Promising land to the landless, the Communists won Abdul Bakir Shah’s heart decades ago. Under an ambitious land reform drive, Mr. Shah, a sharecropper all his life, got title to nearly one fertile acre. His village and others like it have voted Communist since, keeping the party in power for an uninterrupted 32 years here in West Bengal State. But things went topsy-turvy two years ago. As Bengal belatedly joined India’s slow but inexorable march to capitalism, the Communist-run state government sought to scoop up this entire cluster of mud-and-thatch hamlets to make way for the construction of a multinational chemical industrial complex. The Communists, under whose leadership factory after factory had been shuttered across this state, said it was time to bring private industry and jobs back to Bengal. “Reform or perish,” became their rallying cry. That is when the Communists lost Mr. Shah’s trust.
• In India, a Grass-Roots Shift
  New Parties Compete in Election as Mumbai Attacks Spur Greater Political Engagement
  Independent Candidates Rise in India Mona Shah, an eye surgeon-turned-politician, is among the ordinary citizens running in India's month-long election, which continues Tuesday in Mumbai. By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 30, 2009 MUMBAI, April 29 -- Her sunglasses perched on her head, Mona Shah, an eye surgeon-turned-politician, raised her bullhorn as she weaved and ducked among the slippery nooks and narrow alleys of a slum in this mega-city. From a bright blue, one-room hovel, Sunita Chaldwadi, a 28-year-old mother of four, peered out. This Story In India, a Grass-Roots Shift Independent Candidates Rise in India "Are you fed up with the same old faces in Indian elections? The same old choices between thugs or thieves?" Shah called out with a hoarse voice on her final day of campaigning. Dozens of domestic servants, mechanics and laundrymen -- those who keep this metropolis of 14 million working -- climbed down from their rooftops, leaning on rickety iron ladders and flooding the cramped warrens for a glimpse of the candidate. The appearance of ordinary citizens such as Shah in India's phased, month-long general election -- which continues with voting in Mumbai on Thursday -- is a subtle but seismic shift in a nation seemingly eager for change. The proliferation of independent candidates and dozens of new parties represents a grass-roots movement in which bankers, business leaders, socialites, artists and others sense increasing political opportunity in a country where power has often been wielded by dynasties.

• Mumbai attacks: Kashmir is source of long-running India-Pakistan dispute
  Kashmir remains the main thorn in relations between India and its arch- foe, Pakistan, upon whom suspicion of responsibility for the attacks in Mumbai has fallen. By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad Last Updated: 7:19PM GMT 27 Nov 2008 Hostages rush out of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai: Blasts were heard across southern Mumbai on Thursday as Indian commandos prepared to storm the Trident-Oberoi hotel to rescue the last foreign hostages seized by Islamist militants in a series of attacks Hostages rush out of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai Photo: AFP/Getty The attacks came as the two countries re-engaged in peace talks to resolve the dispute over Kashmir. Militants involved in the Mumbai massacre spoke of abuses in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars and where more than 40,000 people have been killed since the 1980s. [Separatism]
• In India, Shadows of Violence Cling to a Politician on the Rise
  Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Mr. Modi campaigning last week in Gujarat State. He was chief minister during a deadly episode of Hindu-Muslim violence in 2002. By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: April 28, 2009 AHMEDABAD, India — Narendra Modi, India’s most incendiary politician, is trying to cast himself as the vanguard of India’s modern industrial future. The ghosts of this city’s savage past, though, are refusing to leave his side. Mr. Modi, 59, is the thrice-elected chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. On his watch, this city witnessed one of the worst episodes of Hindu-Muslim violence in the history of independent India: in the spring of 2002, mostly over three days, 1,180 people were killed across the state. Most were Muslims. Mr. Modi’s administration was accused of doing little to stop the fury and on occasion, abetting it. On Monday, India’s Supreme Court, in its strongest move yet, ordered a special police team to investigate Mr. Modi’s role in the alleged conspiracy to attack Muslims. With national elections under way, Mr. Modi is the biggest crowd-puller for India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. And while party hierarchy means he is not the B.J.P.’s candidate for prime minister this year, he is positioning himself for the top slot in the next race. [Communalism]
• Indian rebels release railway hostages
  Several hundred passengers freed unharmed after hijacking by Maoists in Jharkhand Associated Press guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 April 2009 06.53 BST Article historySuspected communist rebels have freed more than 250 train passengers after keeping them hostage for nearly five hours at a railway station in eastern India, according to police. The hijacking came a day before parliamentary polling that the guerrillas have threatened to disrupt.
  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described Maoist violence as India's biggest internal security threat. Some 500 civilians and police were killed in insurgent clashes last year. [Global insurgency] [Election]
• North 'missile factory' used Japan parts
  India took steel, devices from freighter in '99 New Delhi
  Sunday, April 19, 2009 NEW DELHI (Kyodo) Japanese precision tools and steel were found in missile-making equipment taken from a North Korean freighter detained at an Indian port in June 1999 while en route to Pakistan, a former senior Indian official said Saturday. While North Korea is known to have provided missile knowhow to Pakistan in return for nuclear weapons technology, this is the first concrete example of how Japanese equipment has played a part in North Korea's proliferation of missile technology. K. Santhanam, a senior official in India's Defense Research and Development Organization, told Kyodo News that the North Korean cargo contained a device for three-dimensional measuring, a numerically controlled machine tool, maraging steel and other Japanese high-tech products. Santhanam said he directed the search of the freighter Kuwolsan in his capacity as chief adviser to DRDO, part of the Indian Defense Ministry involved in missile development. The Kuwolsan, described by some media reports as a "hidden missile factory," was detained during a stop at Kandla in the province of Gujarat. The Japanese firms named by Santhanam as the purported manufacturers of the high-tech instruments and maraging steel, which is used in rocket and missile frames, have denied exporting any of their products to North Korea. Indian authorities believe North Korea acquired the Japanese products through China or other countries. According to Santhanam, the Kuwolsan's captain initially told Indian authorities his ship was delivering "water refining equipment" to Libya. At India's request, the United States, Russia, South Korea and other members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an informal association of countries seeking to curb missile proliferation, sent experts to examine the ship's cargo. By analyzing Korean-language documents and sensitive equipment confiscated from the Kuwolsan, the MTCR experts concluded the ship was carrying missile-assembly equipment and missile parts. Engineering diagrams of missiles were also found on the ship. The ship's 44 crew members were detained by Indian authorities and later repatriated to North Korea. [Proliferation] [Double standards] [Legality]
• China and India: Convergence in Economic Growth and Social Tensions?
  Nirmal Kumar Chandra Do the economic policies or the “business model” adopted by China and India necessarily aggravate inequalities in income and wealth distribution, and thus exacerbate social contradictions? While not providing a definitive answer, the article examines a wide range of quantitative data on wealth, poverty and inequality in the two counties, noting the rising concentration of income and wealth, the trends in poverty, inequality, employment and unemployment, and the nature and extent of social unrest. It also, however poses methodological issues including the comparability of Chinese, Indian and international data. The author outlines a feasible alternative centred on development with equity. Nearly sixty years ago India and China embarked on planned development of their economies. The former opted for a mixed economy with a pivotal role for public enterprises in critical sectors, while there were minimal reforms in the agrarian set-up dominated by feudal or semi-feudal landowners. China adopted a socialist model of industrialisation preceded by radical land reforms leading to collectivisation. In 1978 China changed track in favour of a ‘socialist market economy’, de-collectivisation of agriculture, and an ‘open door’ for foreign trade and investment. India in 1991 dismantled a very large part of the previous regulatory regime and moved towards freer trade in goods and services and ever fewer controls on cross-border capital flows. [China India comparison] [Development strategy]
• India's Muslims See Bias in Housing
  Recent Increase Is Blamed on Islamist Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai Last Fall By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, April 19, 2009 MUMBAI -- The sunny apartment had everything Palvisha Aslam, 22, a Bollywood producer, wanted: a spacious bedroom and a kitchen that overlooked a garden in a middle-class neighborhood that was a short commute to Film City, where many of India's Hindi movies are shot. She was about to sign the lease when the real estate broker noticed her surname. He didn't realize that she was Muslim, he said. Then he rejected her. It was just six weeks after the November Mumbai terrorist attacks and Indian Muslims were being viewed with suspicion across the country. He then showed her a grimy one-room tenement in a Muslim-dominated ghetto. She felt sick to her stomach as she watched the residents fight over water at a leaky tap in a dark alley. "That night I cried a lot. I was still an outcast in my own country -- even as a secular Muslim with a well-paid job in Bollywood," said Aslam, who had similar experiences with five other brokers and three months later is still sleeping on friends' sofas. "I'm an Indian. I love my country. Is it a crime now to be a Muslim in Mumbai?" [Islam]
• The New Great Depression and India
  Posted by parisar on March 29, 2009 Research Unit for Political Economy Over the last six months, a new Great Depression has enveloped the entire world. The ruling circles worldwide and the international media have been propagating that this Depression is the result of a mere financial crisis, caused by irresponsible lending by banks to poor people in the U.S.. Accordingly, they began by claiming that within six months to a year, the recovery would begin, thanks to government bail-outs and stimulus packages of unprecedented size. So rapidly did the crisis advance, however, that within weeks these claims wore thin.
• India's election: parties, people, politics
  Sumantra Bose An epic month-long election takes place against a background of both regional and global tests to India's polity, says Sumantra Bose. 9 - 04 - 2009 India's politics is an alphabet-soup that is certain to bewilder the uninitiated. As the world's largest democracy heads into its fifteenth general election since independence in 1947, Uttar Pradesh - the country's most populous state, a vast sprawl across north India's Gangetic plain - is being contested between three parties whose acronyms are SP, BSP, and BJP. In the neighbouring state of Bihar, the chief contenders are the RJD, LJP, and the JD (U) - the last not to be confused with the JD (S), which is active in the southern state of Karnataka. In the deep-south state of Tamil Nadu, the major parties are the DMK and the AIADMK, with the PMK, the MDMK and the DMDK also in the fray. The alphabet-soup illustrates the striking transformation of India's politics over the past two decades. The defining feature of that transformation is what political scientists call "party proliferation". The turning-point came in November 1989, in India's ninth general election. That election signalled the end of the hegemony of the Congress Party - the colossus of Indian politics for four decades since independence and the engine of the independence movement for three decades prior to 1947.
• In Elections, Rural India Rules
  With 65% of Voters, Heartland Again Plays Pivotal Role By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 16, 2009 KURUL, India -- Just six months ago, Ranganath Tiwari, 38, was a pea farmer in debt, eking out a living for his wife and six children in this dusty village of half-finished brick and bamboo-roofed shelters. But in the run-up to India's month-long elections -- which start Thursday -- Tiwari said he feels more like royalty, wooed by the ruling Congress party with a farm loan waiver program, saving him the $400 he borrowed to buy two dairy cows. "The farmer is like an emperor this election," said Tiwari, dressed in a traditional wraparound lungi, with a scarf tied around his forehead to shade him from the baking midday sun. "We just hope they remember us when election season is over."
• As Elections Near, Tightrope Awaits in India
  By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: April 14, 2009 PASCHIM DWARA, India — Skinny, weathered peasants gathered berries falling from a butter tree as Rahul Gandhi, heir apparent to the governing Indian National Congress, drove across these baked plains, part of a hectic campaign tour to pitch his party as champions of the poor. At every campaign stop, Mr. Gandhi, 38, fourth-generation scion of the country’s premier political dynasty, rattles off antipoverty programs begun by the Congress-led coalition government: a law that promises 100 days of employment to the poor, greater financing for schools, major debt forgiveness for farmers. More largess is forthcoming, he says, if voters return Congress to power in national elections that start on Thursday.
• Apple's iPhone, an Indian Flop, Prepares for China
  The failure of Apple's iPhone to make a dent in India's lucrative telecom market may hold lessons for its upcoming push in China By Mehul Srivastava Take the most talked-about phone in recent history and launch it in one of the fastest growing cell-phone markets in the world, and you'd expect fireworks. But in India, where carriers Vodafone (VOD) and Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) have been offering Apple's (AAPL) iPhone since last August, unsold phones are stacking up at shops around the country. Apple won't break down sales figures by country, but a senior Airtel executive confirms analyst estimates that total official iPhone sales here have yet to touch 20,000 handsets. Vodafone, which has a lower-key advertising campaign, has sold even fewer, the analysts estimate. Even including sales on the black market, where the phone sells for half the $700 sticker price, the total only increases by an additional 15,000, according to an Indian customs official. That's puny, especially since Indian cell-phone providers have added nearly 20 million new customers since the iPhone's launch last year.
• India’s economy better bet than China
  By James Lamont, Alec Russell and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi Published: March 31 2009 17:26 | Last updated: March 31 2009 23:20 Democracies have a far better chance of sustaining economic reform than one party states Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, has told the Financial Times in a rare top-level assertion of his country’s stance over neighbouring China. The architect of India’s market liberalisations and a well-respected economist, Mr Singh has placed the long-term success of the world’s largest democracy over the potential fragility of the fastest growing large economy under Communist party rule. “The Chinese have certain advantages: the fact that it’s a single party government,” Mr Singh said in an interview with the Financial Times before travelling to the G20 meeting in London on Thursday. “But I do believe in the long run in the fact that India is a functioning democracy, committed to the rule of law. Our system is slow to move but I’m confident that once decisions are taken they are going to be far more durable.” [China India comparison] [Democracy]

•  How Maoist guerrillas threaten Indian poll from their jungle lair
  In Dantewada, in the heart of the world's biggest democracy, civil war is flaring, claiming nearly 1,000 lives in the past two years. Gethin Chamberlain reports from the jungle hideouts of the Naxal rebels who are ordering villagers to boycott the election - and whose increasing strength is straining the Indian security services to breaking point [Global insurgency]
• Role reversal: Some Americans seeking jobs head to India
  By Ben Arnoldy | Christian Science Monitor NEW DELHI and PUNE, India - IBM announced a major round of US layoffs on Thursday, even as the company has been hiring workers in developing nations like India. But over the past year, the company began offering US workers who are facing a job cut a novel carrot: If you apply for a new IBM position in a foreign country and are hired again at local wages, we will cover some of the transition costs like visa fees. Few IBMers have taken the offer, and the firm has taken public relations lumps over it. But a handful of pioneering Americans at other firms have started to shop their skills on the Indian market, finding fulfillment and job security at a time of deep recession back home. [Globalisation]
• What Can Tata's Nano Teach Detroit?
  As the commercial model of India's microcar is unveiled, U.S. carmakers would do well to learn from the innovations that brought it about By Jessie Scanlon
  When Tata Motors (TTM) unveiled a prototype of its Nano microcar at the Delhi Auto Show in January 2008, auto executives around the world were aflutter. Quickly, they hustled teams to India to document the planned $2,000 "people's car." And industry watchers and innovation experts soon reported on the engineering and supply-chain breakthroughs behind the car. Some 14 months later, Tata is set to show off the commercial version of the Nano, on Mar. 23. Today, the U.S. auto industry is struggling to survive, with General Motors (GM), once the world's biggest carmaker, on the brink of bankruptcy. Look beyond the Nano halo and it's clear that Tata Motors has problems of its own, from the $2.3 billion in debt it took on to purchase Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor (F) last year to the sums sunk into the Nano assembly plant in West Bengal that had to be abandoned. On top of that, there are the Nano competitors in development.
• Tata Nano
  FT test drives the Nano (video)
• Indian Automaker Launches World's Cheapest Passenger Car
  Amid tremendous fanfare and expectations of a transportation revolution for millions of Indian families, the world's lowest-priced production automobile has been launched in India. The world's cheapest passenger car is one of the most eagerly awaited product launches in India's history. In front of a giant glowing sphere, a pair of Tata Nanos -- each barely longer than three meters -- rolled onto a stage on the grounds of an elite Mumbai sports club. It was an event broadcast live on many Indian TV channels.
• Tata Motors looks to sell Nano in US
  By Joe Leahy in Mumbai and John Reed in London Published: March 23 2009 18:30 | Last updated: March 23 2009 18:51 Tata Motors has started work on plans to launch the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, in the US in a change of strategy made possible by the deep recession there. Ratan Tata, head of the Tata group, said that tough times in the world’s largest car market had convinced the group to start designing a version of the Nano for possible export to the US as early as 2011 or 2012.
• The good doctor: Binayak Sen and the cost of dissent
  Richa Bansal, 23 - 03 - 2009 A doctor committed to social welfare and justice, Binayak Sen remains behind bars after his controversial arrest two years ago. openIndia's Richa Bansal speaks with activists working for his release and for the decriminalisation of dissent in India's strife-torn heartland When India wraps up its fifteenth general elections in mid May, Dr. Binayak Sen will be completing two years in jail in a cruel inversion of democracy. Held on charges of suspected involvement with Maoist insurgents under the heavy-handed Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA), his guilt has not yet been proven. Why is this award-winning doctor - who for thirty years worked tirelessly for the tribal poor of Chhattisgarh - still imprisoned? Sen dared to speak out against the atrocities of Salwa Judum, a controversial state-backed militia group, which armed local tribal people and pitted them against the Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh, an impoverished state in central India. He led a fifteen-member fact-finding team in December 2005, which published the first in a series of damning reports about the excesses of the Salwa Judum. [Human rights] [Global insurgency]
• Indian cricket board to stage IPL abroad
  By James Lamont in New Delhi Published: March 22 2009 09:52 | Last updated: March 22 2009 16:33 India suffered a massive blow on Sunday to its image and pride when its cricket authorities said security concerns had forced them to hold the lucrative India Premier League outside the country. Opposition politicians seized on the announcement to argue that the decision to relocate a potent symbol of India’s increasing financial domination of world cricket, taken only weeks before India’s parliamentary elections, had brought shame on the country and would undermine international confidence. The Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata party said the Congress-led government’s lack of commitment to the championship had bracketed India with insurgency-racked Pakistan as an “unsafe” country. [Services]
• The HDI Oscars Slumdogs vs. Billionaires
  By P. Sainath
  It’s been the night of the long knives for India’s billionaire population. Their band has just been decimated, falling by more than half from 53 to 24. The latest Croesus Count, also known as the Forbes Billionaires list, makes that much clear. We also fell by two notches to sixth rank in the list of nations with the most billionaires. India’s earlier No. 4 slot being slyly usurped by the Chinese who clock in with 29. More mortifying, we are a rung below the Brits who’ve grabbed Perch 5, with 25. The net asset worth of India’s richest has also shrunk by over a third from the time of the last Forbes scroll. By 2007, that worth had reached $ 335 billion. That is, 53 individuals in a population of one billion held wealth equal to almost a third of their nation’s GDP at the time. This year, that worth plunged to $107 billion. (A moment’s respectful silence in memory of the dear, departed billions seems in order.) But there is some comfort in that our team is still worth more than twice what their Chinese rivals are. And we even now have 8 billionaires more than all the Nordic nations put together -- though they boast the highest living standards in the world. “Four Indians were among the world’s top ten richest in 2008, worth a combined $160 billion,” points out Forbes. Today, alas, “that same foursome is worth just $ 54 billion.” But the 29 Indian tycoons reduced to the penury of mere millionairehood should not lose heart. Forbes offers us these words of reassurance. “The winds of wealth can change quickly…They may yet again blow favorably in the direction of these tycoons.” So what if the big balances fly at half mast briefly? There could be gales ahead. Alongside this winnowing of India’s plutocrats runs a slightly longer-term and truly grim saga. India has fallen to 132 in the new rankings of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) for 179 nations [Development]
• Much hyped Third Front offers more bark than bite
  Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala, 18 - 03 - 2009 Rivalries and infighting scupper an alternative coalition to the two main powers in Indian politics, and much more in today's round-up of the Indian political scene Last week, Indian politics saw the attempt to create an anti-Congress and anti-BJP Third Front for the upcoming elections. Ten regional and leftist parties huddled near the southern city of Bangalore to discuss alliances, policy directives and possibly the prime minister's post. The basics India is a constitutional democracy with two houses of parliament, the directly-elected House of the People or Lok Sabha, and the Council of States or Rajya Sabha, elected by the legislators of each Indian state. The President is the head of state and appoints the Prime Minister, who governs the country according to the make-up of the Lok Sabha. The ten parties included, the Janata-Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Forward Bloc, the Telegu Desam Party, the AIADMK, the Telengana Rashtra Samiti, the Bahujan Samaj Party (its leader Mayawati was conspicuous by her absence) and the Haryana Janhit Congress. Currently these parties have approximately 90 seats in the Indian Parliament's Lower House. The number is far short of the 272 half-way mark, prompting skepticism from the media and the major national parties.
• High-level dispute adds to BJP's troubles
  Tom Walker, 17 - 03 - 2009 Fissured within, the BJP limp into election season, and much more in today's round-up of the papers. Political loyalties are coming under strain as parties prepare for the Indian parliamentary elections and the leading party in the opposition coalition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is not coping well with the pressure. Behind in the polls and fissured with internal divisions, the party's problems were exacerbated today by conflict within its leadership and inflammatory rhetoric from one of its young leaders.
  Over 700 million people will vote in the 2009 elections, in what is the world's largest exercise in democracy. Elections will be held in five phases between 16 April and 13 May. The final result is expected to be announced on 16 May.
• Election season begins in India
  Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala, 9 - 03 - 2009 Political spats, divorces and marriages of convenience in today's survey of India's newspapers The game of political marriages and separations is in full sway as India prepares for general elections next month. The three major national parties, the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI-M) have started courting smaller, regional parties for pre-poll alliances to bolster their prospects at forming the next central government. In this game of mixing and matching, foes turn friends easily, ideologies remain on the back burner and real ground issues hardly take centre stage.
• The Mysterious "Amar Singh" What Did Hillary Clinton Do?
  March 10 , 2009 By VIJAY PRASHAD
  The citadel of the Clinton Foundation cannot be breached. The former President’s foundation settled on the 14th floor of an elegant building on 125th Street in Harlem, across the road, perhaps to Bill’s dismay, from a health food store. Flaxseed carrot juice is no substitute for a McDonalds’ milkshake, but fortunately for the former President there are many good West Indian take-aways just down the block. If Transparency International did a study of Foundations, Bill Clinton’s outfit wouldn’t do too well on the Global Corruption Barometer. What would trip it up is the exacting secrecy of the Foundation, which shies away from revelations about all aspects of its funding. When Hilary Clinton ran for president, the Foundation sniffed at calls to open up its list of donors. When President Obama appointed Hilary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, the curmudgeons of propriety asked the same questions again. This time it was harder to be a scofflaw. The Clinton Foundation sent two heavy hitters to meet with Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar of the Foreign Relations Committee to assuage them that no conflict of interest would exist: which is to say, that Bill Clinton would not actively raise money from those overseas whose interests might be in the diplomatic pouch of Secretary Clinton. The two senior people who went to see the Senators were Clinton Foundation CEO Bruce Lindsay (who has been called “Clinton’s consigliore”) and attorney Cheryl Mills (who is a member of “Hillaryland” and defended Bill Clinton in the impeachment trial). Kerry and Lugar could not shuck the two hard clams that sat before them. They didn’t get much, but at least it was something.
  Amar Singh is a member of the Samajwadi, or Socialist, Party, although its commitments to socialism ended a long time ago. It is now a populist party with a very close attachment to one or two major conglomerates (such as the Sahara Group). [Nuclear deal] [Corruption]
• An Empire for Poor Working Women, Guided by a Gandhian Approach
  Ruth Fremson/The New York Times By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: March 6, 2009 AHMADABAD, India THIRTY-FIVE years ago in this once thriving textile town, Ela Bhatt fought for higher wages for women who ferried bolts of cloth on their heads. Next, she created India’s first women’s bank. Since then, her Self-Employed Women’s Association, or SEWA, has offered retirement accounts and health insurance to women who never had a safety net, lent working capital to entrepreneurs to open beauty salons in the slums, helped artisans sell their handiwork to new urban department stores and boldly trained its members to become gas station attendants — an unusual job for women on the bottom of India’s social ladder. Small, slight and usually dressed in a hand-spun cotton sari, Mrs. Bhatt is a Gandhian pragmatist for the New India. At 76, she is a critic of some of India’s embrace of market reforms, but nevertheless keen to see the poorest of Indian workers get a stake in the country’s swelling and swiftly globalizing economy. She has built a formidable empire of women-run, Gandhian-style cooperatives — 100 at last count — some providing child care for working mothers, others selling sesame seeds to Indian food-processing firms — all modeled after the Gandhian ideal of self-sufficiency but also advancing modern ambitions. She calls it the quest for economic freedom in a democratic India.
• India's Congress Party to Campaign with 'Slumdog' Theme Song
  India's ruling Congress party says it has acquired the rights to use the Oscar-winning theme song from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" in its election campaign. The name of the catchy tune "Jai Ho" can be translated as "Victory," and it won the Academy Award for best song last month. Congress party officials say they will play the tune at campaign rallies and other events around the country before parliamentary elections scheduled between mid-April and mid-May.
• India's Deficit Threatens 'Junk' Rating
  Standard & Poor's warns India of further downgrades as the country's exports sink and extra borrowing raises its deficit to 12% of GDP
  By Mehul Srivastava Faced with a slowdown in growth, an exodus of foreign investors, a huge corporate accounting scandal at a top , and a make-or-break election, India's government has been struggling to find ways to rev up the economy. First came an $8 billion stimulus package in December. Then, on Jan. 2, as the country digested the news that exports had fallen for the first time in nearly 15 years, the central bank cut interest rates and allowed state governments to borrow another $6 billion. And last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition government slashed taxes. Now comes the slap on the wrist. On Feb. 24, Standard & Poor's sniffed at all the extra borrowing, which has raised India's total deficit to about 12% of its gross domestic product, and revised the country's outlook downward to negative from stable. While S&P reaffirmed its BBB- rating, Takahira Ogawa, the analyst who recommended the change, says the ratings agency (which, like BusinessWeek, is owned by The McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP)) would be watching India's fiscal condition closely for the next few months. "We see more possibility for a downgrade later on down the line," he says. "In a sense, this is a warning." Any more large expenditures announced by the government could trigger a downgrade, says Ogawa. One big problem: BBB- is the lowest investment grade rating. If S&P does downgrade India, then the country would have a junk rating. That would mean the government would have to pay a painfully high yield on any bonds it issues, both overseas and domestically.  
• India Maintains Sense of Optimism and Growth
  By Heather Timmons Published: March 1, 2009 NEW DELHI — While most of the world grapples with a crippling financial crisis and a recession, optimism reigns in much of India as its economy continues to grow. A storefront in Jodhpur, India. In a recent quarter, the country’s economy grew 5.3 percent when compared with the previous year. India’s trillion-dollar economy remains a relative bright spot, some say, in part because the country’s bureaucracy and its protectionist polices have kept it insulated from the fallout of the global downturn. “India is not as vulnerable” as other countries, said Rajeev Malik, head of Indian and Southeast Asian economics at Macquarie Capital, who recently wrote a report titled “India: Better Off Than Most Others.”  

• Can slumdogs become millionaires in India?
  By David Pilling Published: February 18 2009 19:27 | Last updated: February 18 2009 19:27 The last film about India to collect an Oscar for best picture was Gandhi, the 1982 epic about how the country won independence. If Slumdog Millionaire wins on Sunday, viewers may ponder what India has done with its freedom. Danny Boyle’s film is more a tale of rags than riches, a fact that has angered some – though by no means all – Indians. Here is a short quiz in the Millionaire format to help readers through the controversy.
• "Loose" India women to send pink knickers to Hindu group
  Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:49pm IST By Rina Chandran MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - Thousands of Indians, many fuming over a recent assault on women in a pub, are vowing to fill bars on Valentine's Day and send cartons of pink panties to a radical Hindu group that has branded outgoing females immoral. A "consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women", founded by four Indian women on social networking website Facebook has, in a matter of days, attracted more than 25,000 members with over 2,000 posts about the self-appointed moral police. The women said their mission was to go bar-hopping on February 14 and send hundreds of pink knickers to Sri Ram Sena, the militant Hindu group that has said pubs are for men, and that women should stay at home and cook for their husbands.
• India's indigenous N-sub secret is out
  Mail Today Bureau New Delhi, February 13, 2009 The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has added a feather to its cap. It is delivering on schedule— in 2009— India's first indigenously built nuclear powered submarine (SSBN) as it had promised at the beginning of the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) term in office. The secret of the indigenous nuclear submarine programme seems to be finally out. Defence minister A. K. Antony has confirmed what was being speculated all this while - that the country is ready to launch the third arm of its nuclear triad. India is getting a batch of submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and submarine- launched cruise missiles (SLCM), ready to wed with the SSBNs, which would presumably be nuclear tipped. This would, in turn, underline the deterrence posture of the nuclear weapons programme providing it a failsafe 'second strike' capability.
  The Indian development is important in terms of the changing Chinese deployment by which they are modernising their nuclear submarine fleet, putting into waters the refurbished Xia class and a new Jin class. [China confrontation]
• Attack on Women at an Indian Bar Intensifies a Clash of Cultures
  By SOMINI SENGUPTA Published: February 8, 2009 NEW DELHI — A mob attack on women drinking in a college-town bar has set off the latest battle in the great Indian culture wars, uncorking a national debate over moral policing and its political repercussions, and laying bare the limits of freedom for young Indian women. Members of the group Sri Ram Sena attacked customers at a bar in Mangalore, India, on Jan. 24. The latest Old versus New India hubbub began one Saturday last month when an obscure Hindu organization, which calls itself Sri Ram Sena, or the Army of Ram, a Hindu god, attacked several women at a bar in the southern Indian college town of Mangalore and accused them of being un-Indian for being out drinking and dancing with men. The Sena had television news crews in tow, so its attack on the women at the bar, called Amnesia — the Lounge, was swiftly broadcast nationwide. The video, broadcast repeatedly since then, showed some women being pushed to the ground and others cowering and shielding their faces. It was unclear whether they were trying to protect themselves from their assailants’ fists or the television cameras or both. None of them have come out publicly since then, and it is unclear whether anyone was seriously hurt. Eventually, more than 10 members of the Sena were arrested, only to be released on bail in a week. Since then, they have promised to campaign against Valentine’s Day, which they criticized as a foreign conspiracy to dilute Indian culture, and they said they did not disapprove of men drinking at bars. [Human rights] [Globalisation] [Religion]
• US hits out as nuclear scientist is freed
  By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad and Daniel Dombey in Washington Published: February 6 2009 09:23 | Last updated: February 6 2009 22:28 The US on Friday hit out at Islamabad after Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was freed after five years of effective house arrest for selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Mr Khan, a metallurgical engineer and the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was declared to be a free citizen, and allowed to move around the country, in a brief order by the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court. EDITOR’S CHOICE Islamabad woos US for long-term relationship - Feb-06In depth: Obama’s first 100 days - Jan-28“This man remains a serious proliferation risk,” said Gordon Duguid, a US state department spokesman, who said Washington was still seeking official confirmation of the decision. “The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact on international security and will for years to come.” Describing any decision to release Mr Khan as “extremely regrettable”, Mr Duguid added that Pakistan was “well aware” of the US position. France also voiced its concern. But in his first comments to journalists waiting outside his house in the upper class E-7 district of Islamabad, Mr Khan highlighted his legacy. “The nuclear programme has made this country secure,” he said, looking slightly frail in comparison with the large portraits of him across Pakistan.
  The court ordered his release on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to keep him in detention. Shahidur Rehman, the author of an authoritative book on Pakistan’s nuclear program me, said the legal basis of the charges against Mr Khan was always very weak. “How do you punish a man based on what seemed like hearsay,” he asked. Pakistani government officials have said in the past they had gathered detailed evidence of Mr Khan’s activities, including evidence that was too sensitive to be presented in a courtroom. However, Mr Khan’s public position was strengthened in the wake of his house arrest, with many Pakistanis believing that he had been was framed.
• Pakistan Frees Nuclear Dealer in Snub to U.S.
  By SALMAN MASOOD and DAVID E. SANGER Published: February 6, 2009 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani court freed one of the most successful nuclear proliferators in history, Abdul Qadeer Khan, from house arrest on Friday, lifting the restrictions imposed on him since 2004 when he publicly confessed to running an illicit nuclear network. Mr. Khan, 73, considered in the West as a rogue scientist and a pariah who sold technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran, is revered as a national hero in Pakistan for his role in transforming the country into a nuclear power. The ruling to set him free seemed as much a political decision as a legal one, intended to shore up support for the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, which has been derided in the Pakistani press as being too close to the United States. The government has been under intense domestic pressure to free Mr. Khan, and that outweighed the backlash that Mr. Zardari knew the action would cause in Washington
  In its announcement, the State Department specified that Mr. Khan and his associates provided Iran and Libya with centrifuge components, designs and, in some cases, complete centrifuges. According to the statement, the United States also believed that Mr. Khan and his associates provided centrifuge designs, equipment and technology to North Korea, though the intelligence agencies have backed away from allegations several years ago that the North used those to build secret facilities. [Double standards] [HEU] [Evidence]
• Thousands rally for Kashmir in Pakistan
  ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets on Thursday to denounce Indian rule in Kashmir, the disputed Muslim-majority Himalayan state divided between the nuclear-armed rivals. A public holiday, Kashmir Solidarity Day supports the region's right to self-determination under UN resolutions that call for a plebiscite in Kashmir on whether it should be ruled by Hindu-majority India or Muslim Pakistan [Separatism]
• India's $10 Laptop 'a Joke'
  The Indian government's US$10 laptop project, which had attracted the world's attention, has proved a joke. The Times of India reports that the new product hyped as the $10 laptop "prototype" by the Department of Human Resources Development "wasn't a laptop at all but a computing device" to store educational content. According to the paper, the so-called $10 laptop displayed during the inauguration of the National Mission on Education Using IT Technology in Tirupati turned out to be a storage device measuring 10 by 5 inches. Without a keyboard, it was only able to read stored content and meets none of the requirements for a laptop. Even so, the price even went up to $30. Fox News carried a derisive article entitled "India's '$10 Laptop' Revealed as Nearly Useless Brick." The controversy involving the $10 laptop is growing as the Indian government has made no official statement on the scandal.
• India to unveil the £7 laptop
  Government hopes its mini-computer, the world's cheapest, will bridge the digital divide between rich and poorRandeep Ramesh in New Delhi guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 February 2009 16.37 GMT Article historyThe credit crunch computer is set to arrive tomorrow in India when officials unveil the 500 rupee (£7.25) laptop. In an attempt to bridge the "digital divide" in the country between rich and poor, the government will show off the prototype, low-cost laptop as the centrepiece of an ambitious e-learning programme to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country. India has a reputation for creating ultra-cheap technologies, a trend sparked last year by the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car at Rs100,000 (£1,450). The computer, known as Sakshat, which translates as "before your eyes", will be launched as part of a new Rs46bn "national mission for education". This envisages a network of laptops from which students can access lectures, coursework and specialist help from anywhere in India, triggering a revolution in education. A number of publishers have reportedly agreed to upload portions of their textbooks on to the system [ICT]
• India signs IAEA inspection deal key to atom trade
  Mon Feb 2, 2009 9:10pm IST By Sylvia Westall VIENNA (Reuters) - India on Monday signed a pact governing U.N. inspections of its civilian nuclear plants, a key step toward implementing a U.S.-engineered accord allowing India to import nuclear materials and technology. India will be required to make 14 of 22 nuclear reactors subject to regular non-proliferation inspections by 2014 under the terms of the deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s non-proliferation watchdog. [Nuclear deal] [IAEA]
• India and Globalisation
  January 30 2009 Inside this issue • Retailers must negotiate labour codes • The lure of India’s outsourcing services is growing • After the Satyam scandal, all eyes are on regulators - - Ambitions dimmed but not abandoned The country is at a critical juncture as it faces the prospect of global recession and a tightly-fought general election, writes James Lamont Global supply chain: Ethical rules impose perverse incentives Sourcing is a big factor for retailers after cheap labour, says Alan Beattie Foreign policy: Craving greater influence Alignments are shifting as the country projects itself on the world stage, writes James Lamont Energy: Foreigners battle for nuclear power stake Western companies see opportunities, but New Delhi is nervous, writes Amy Kazmin Philanthropy: Charity alone not the answer in tackling poverty To combat India’s notoriously high malnutrition rates, the government launched a national programme in 2001 to give free meals in schools, writes Amy Yee Profile: Abhinav Bindra In a country obsessed with cricket, the Olympic medalist’s victory reminded India of its potential in other sports, writes James Fontanella-Khan Kamal Nath: Showmanship at the WTO that plays well with the poor Alan Beattie weighs up the approach of the country’s adroit trade minister Corporate governance: Scandal raises questions about disclosure regime The Satyam affair focuses attention on the regulator, says Joe Leahy Telecoms: Mobile operators scramble to dial up vast rural market A rapid growth in users offers big opportunities, reports Joe Leahy Bollywood: ‘Slumdog’ challenges a comfortable tradition But melodramatic ‘masala movies’ remain popular, finds Amy Kazmin Wanted: 1,500 universities; apply here Outsourcing: Law firms fuel the demand for offshore services Book review: Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century Citizenship: Diaspora suffers ambivalence Profile: Omar Abdullah Profile: Chanda Kochhar [Globalisation]
• Ambitions dimmed but not abandoned
  By James Lamont in New Delhi Published: January 30 2009 00:10 | Last updated: January 30 2009 00:10 The small farmers of Bansur village in eastern Rajasthan overwhelmingly agree that life has changed for the better over the past 10 years. The reason is India’s greater engagement with the world economy. Many still plough their tidy fields with camels. Between about 100 of them, they share only three tractors. They are troubled by the rising price of food, particularly of wheat, pulses and edible oils. They have also noticed that weather patterns are changing. The summers are hotter, and the monsoon rains a little less heavy. On the upside, the men feel more connected among themselves and a world outside their village. What has revolutionised their lives is the mobile telephone – almost all of them possess one. They receive weather reports, discuss market prices for their crops and coordinate better among themselves. They even find spouses for their children this way. “Before we would have to travel, but now we just talk. It saves time,” says Genda Lal Baisla, owner of one of the larger farms. These same farmers are suppliers to a company listed in London that has its origins in Johannesburg and has global operations that stretch from Milwaukee to Moscow. Although few of the farmers openly admit to drinking beer themselves, they are part of SABMiller's global drinks supply chain. Their barley finds its way into beer distributed across northern India to cheer the country’s claim to be the fastest-growing beer market in Asia. [Globalisation]
• Outsourcing: Law firms fuel the demand for offshore services
  By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi Published: January 30 2009 00:10 | Last updated: January 30 2009 00:10 A few months ago, Ayetree Gogoi, 28, was practising law in a provincial court in India’s remote tea-growing state of Assam, litigating civil matters. Today, Ms Gogoi is part of a team of 75 Indian lawyers and medical professionals combing millions of pages of internal e-mails, annual reports, clinical trial data, and medical publicity material belonging to GE, as the US-based company prepares its defence for a high-profile pharmaceutical product liability lawsuit. The task of Ms Gogoi and her colleagues – all employees of UnitedLex, a three-year-old New Delhi-based legal process outsourcing company – is to identify documents relevant to the case. [Offshoring]
• U.S. Removes Kashmir From Envoy's Mandate; India Exults
  By Emily Wax Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, January 30, 2009; Page A09 NEW DELHI, Jan. 29 -- Inside a chandeliered ballroom Thursday, Indian diplomats and business leaders and American officials held forth about a new "Cooperation Triangle" for the United States, China and India. But little mention was made at the Asia Foundation's conference on Indo-U.S. relations of the Indian government's recent diplomatic slam-dunk. India managed to prune the portfolio of the Obama administration's top envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard C. Holbrooke -- basically eliminating the contested region of Kashmir from his job description. The deletion is seen as a significant diplomatic concession to India that reflects increasingly warm ties between the country and the United States, according to South Asia analysts. Indian diplomats, worried about Holbrooke's tough-as-nails reputation, didn't want him meddling in Kashmir, according to several Indian officials and Indian news media reports. Holbrooke is nicknamed "the Bulldozer" for arm-twisting warring leaders to the negotiating table as he hammered out the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia, a peace that has stuck.
  At a news briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Kashmir was not part of Holbrooke's mandate. [Separatism] [US India]

• Confessions of a market obsessive
  Published: January 28 2009 23:41 | Last updated: January 28 2009 23:41 Early on Wednesday, January 7, B. Ramalinga Raju began dialling his closest circle of family, friends and business and political associates in Hyderabad, southern India. Most of those he called thought that the then chairman of Satyam, India’s fourth largest outsourcing company based in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh state, was about to resign. The software mogul was under intense pressure from investors after trying to push Satyam into an abortive $1.6bn acquisition of two of his family-controlled companies, Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, three weeks earlier. “He called and said, ‘I have sent the letter, you guys just see the television’,” one person who worked for Satyam and has knowledge of the situation said. The letter not only contained Mr Raju’s offer to step down but also confessed to a fraud so complex and bold it is being described as India’s Enron. [Corruption]
• China Aims to Gain from Satyam Mess
  By Bruce Einhorn For Western companies looking to outsource to Asia, there's long been a clear division of labor. Manufacturing jobs go to China and services work heads to India. That belief has helped Indian IT companies such as Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) become global powers in the services industry. Meanwhile, the preference for India has stymied the growth of China's IT-services outsourcing providers. No Chinese company has established itself as a global player and most have struggled just to crack the 1,000-employee barrier. Now some executives from China services companies are hoping the scandal surrounding India's Satyam Computer Services (SAY) will finally convince clients to consider China when looking to outsource tech and research-and-development support. The turmoil affecting India's fourth-largest IT services company, in which the longtime chairman admitted to fraud that artificially inflated profits, will lead U.S. and other Western clients to think twice about relying too much on Indian companies, says Brian Keane, chief executive of Dextrys, a Wakefield (Mass.) company that has 1,100 of its 1,400 employees in China. "There is a very strong sentiment in the marketplace about mitigating risk relative to being overexposed to India," he says. The Satyam scandal, following the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, is prompting companies to ask "What is our risk-mitigation strategy," adds Keane. [Services] [China India competition] [Offshoring]
• Global Outsourcing Rankings
  The titans of outsourcing are still trying to digest the accounting scandal at Satyam Computer Services (SAY), the fourth-largest outsourcing provider in India. The longtime chairman is out and the company is struggling to survive following his admission of massive fraud at Satyam. Now customers that had outsourced much of their IT-related work to Satyam are wondering whether they should shift their business elsewhere. [Offshoring]
• Taean Ruling Mars Korea-India Ties
  Foreign Shippers Threaten Boycott of Sea Voyages to Korea By Michael Ha Staff Reporter A court verdict last month on two foreign maritime officers involved in the Taean oil spill case is drawing scrutiny overseas. The controversy surrounds a Dec. 10, 2008, court ruling in the Taean oil spill incident, the largest oil spill in the country's history. The court gave Jasprit Chawla, master of the Hebei Spirit oil tanker, an 18-month jail term and Syam Chetan, the chief officer, an eight-month sentence. The oil tanker spilt more than 10,000 tons of crude oil into the West Sea on Dec. 7, 2007. But critics say the two men and their oil tanker were ``passive victims,'' noting that their ship was sitting at anchor and that it leaked massive amounts of crude oil only after being rammed by a barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries.
• $1bn fraud at India IT group
  By Joe Leahy in Mumbai Published: January 7 2009 08:03 | Last updated: January 7 2009 19:23 The head of one of India’s biggest outsourcing groups has confessed to fixing the company’s books in a $1bn fraud described as the country’s “Enron”. B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman and chief executive of Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Wednesday after admitting he had manipulated the accounts for “several” years to show hugely inflated profits and fictitious assets. The fraud is India’s biggest corporate scandal since the early 1990s and its first high-profile casualty since the start of the global financial crisis.
  In a final attempt to make ends meet and keep the fraud under wraps, he launched an aborted attempt last month to buy two companies controlled by his family for $1.6bn. This would have absorbed the fictitious cashpile and added some real assets to Satyam’s books but the deal was staunchly opposed by institutional investors. [Corruption]
• The Next World Order
  By GURCHARAN DAS
  Published: January 1, 2009 New Delhi
  CHINA and India are in a struggle for a top rung on the ladder of world power, but their approaches to the state and to power could not be more different. Two days after last month’s terrorist attack on Mumbai, I met with a Chinese friend who was visiting India on business. He was shocked as much by the transparent and competitive minute-by-minute reporting of the attack by India’s dozens of news channels as by the ineffectual response of the government. He had seen a middle-class housewife on national television tell a reporter that the Indian commandos delayed in engaging the terrorists because they were too busy guarding political big shots. He asked how the woman could get away with such a statement. I explained sarcasm resonates in a nation that is angry and disappointed with its politicians. My friend switched the subject to the poor condition of India’s roads, its dilapidated cities and the constant blackouts. Suddenly, he stopped and asked: “With all this, how did you become the second-fastest growing economy in the world? China’s leaders fear the day when India’s government will get its act together.” The answer to his question may lie in a common saying among Indians that “our economy grows at night when the government is asleep.” [China India comparison]