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Picture grim on farm front
Sidelights
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Mrs Israel wins Mrs World title
Pak rejects India’s demand for MFN status
Kabul would like to join SAARC
Cong sees BJP plot to sabotage CM’s trust vote
Afghan refugees don’t want to return
India set to regain due status in world: PM
Govt to push power reforms with Left support
Christians told to pray for Pope’s recovery
Rane defends govt sacking
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Picture grim on farm front
New Delhi, February 25 Some of the important issues concerning the farmers remain unresolved in the WTO agreement. “Major challenge is to remain within the system and protect the interests of the Indian farmer effectively,” the pre-Budget Survey tabled in Parliament today said. It said more than 65 per cent of the Indians derived their livelihood from agricultural activities. Lack of financial resources constrained India from matching the level of support provided to agriculture by developed countries. In such a situation, the only option available was to “seek inclusion of those provision in the agreement which would provide sufficient protection to Indian agriculture,” the Survey said. Stating that the Indian agriculture faced both opportunities and challenges from liberalisation of domestic and global market, the Survey said there was a need to develop a new strategy for the sector which called for moving away from the subsidy-based regime and to build a productive and internationally competitive agriculture structure. “Promoting more rapid agricultural growth is not only important to achieve higher economic growth but also to lift large number of households in rural areas out of poverty and unemployment circles,” it said. Painting a grim picture on the farm front, the Survey apprehended a six million tonne fall in foodgrain production from last year’s 212 million tonnes due to deficient monsoon and asked the government to step up public investment in the support system. It said there was a “paramount need to move Indian agriculture beyond its century-old dependency on the monsoon by bringing more area under irrigation and by better water management”. The 2004-05 survey said production in the current year had been adversely affected by erratic and delayed monsoon with uneven distribution of rainfall over time and regions. Given the compulsions of fiscal consolidation, the choice was between subsidy for price support to crops, fertilisers, irrigation and power on the one hand and higher public investment in supportive infrastructure for irrigation, roads, electrification, agricultural extension and research on the other. With these investments, diversification of the rural economy beyond not only cereals but also agriculture appeared feasible. The Survey urged the states to decentralise foodgrain procurement and rationalise state levies on it to contain distribution and economic costs. It said the major procurement states of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh had been imposing taxes and levies of over 10 per cent on the procurement of foodgrains, inflating the economic cost.
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Kalam departs from convention
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 25 *** Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat read out only the first and last paragraph from the Hindi version of the President’s Address and said the rest may be treated as read. He had departed from convention, reading out the entire translation last year citing repetition and boredom as the reason. *** The President was cheered on many occasions by the members during his long address. The UPA members had special reasons to cheer when he said: “My government wants India to shine, but it must shine for all!”. The UPA members apparently took it as a dig at the previous NDA government’s ‘India Shining’ campaign. However, members of the Left Parties sat still as the President took off on their red Icon Mao Zedong’s famous quotes and declared: “In the final analysis, power in India can only flow from the ballot box; never from the barrel of a gun”. The President was also cheered when he said India’s plans to stake claim to hosting the 2018 Olympics.
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Address colourless, says BJP
New Delhi, February 25 “It is colourless, tasteless and odourless. Except for engineering downfall of governments, removing Governors and officers and changing text books, this government has done nothing in the past nine months. The government which swears by the common man has betrayed him the most”, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V.K. Malhotra told mediapersons here. Economic Survey
The BJP today reserved its comments on the Economic Survey 2004-05 till tomorrow, while the Left parties expressed concern over the declining growth rate of agriculture to 1.1 per cent and a hike in the external debt burden. The Congress on the other hand, asserted that the survey clearly reflected that the Centre’s economic policy was on the right direction. |
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Brahmos ready for induction
New Delhi February 25 Addressing the joint session of Parliament, President Kalam said the missile
had been successfully tested for the anti-ship role and is ready for induction.
He pointed out that modernisation of the armed forces was one of government’s
priority areas. |
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Mrs Israel wins Mrs World title Amby Valley, Lonavala, February 25 After formal wear, national costume and swimwear rounds six contestants were chosen for the final question-answer round out of 41 contestants. Mrs New Zealand also won the Trim Spa Dream Body award, while Mrs Israel won the Beautiful Legs award. The Beautiful Skin award was presented to Mrs Ukraine, Svitlana Valova and Mrs Bulgaria Yana Marinova got the Beautiful Smile award. Mrs Mexico won the prize for best costume in the national costume round. India’s Ms Jeevikka Shah was among the six finalists but could not make it to the final three. The jury included tennis star Vijay Amritraj, film actor and director Aushotosh Gowarikar, Deputy Managing Director of Sahara India Parivar Swapna Roy, Mrs Heidi Dinan, former Mrs America, and Mrs Rosy Senanyake, Mrs World 1985. Held in the backdrop of 15th century fort on a hill top the three-hour programme was compered by Malaika Arora Khan and was attended by who’s who of the corporate world and sports stars and film personalities like Boris Becker, Fardeen Khan, Arbaz Khan and Manisha Koirala. Sitar funk and Shiamak Dawar’s junior dance company regaled the audience with their spirited performances.
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Pak rejects India’s demand for MFN status
New Delhi, February 25 “At the moment we have selected entries and we will add some more. We just did that... The items will keep increasing till there is a level playing field,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the India Today Conclave here via video conferencing from Islamabad. India needs to open up its markets more to Pakistani exports before Islamabad gives it the most favoured nation trading status. He said New Delhi should remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on Pakistan’s finished goods, he said. “The political situation between the two countries is also a major factor. The ties will also have to normalise,” he added. “Non-tariff barriers are a problem but with support, we can try to create a level playing field,” he stressed while speaking on the “Dividends of peace” at the conference titled “India tomorrow: perception versus reality.” The Pakistan Prime Minister said the SAFTA time table would also boost trade between the neighbours.” Even though Pakistan has not granted MFN status to India, more steps to increase bilateral trade are on the anvil. We can identify the win-win areas in trade even in today’s environment,” he added.
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Kabul would like to join SAARC
New Delhi, February 25 Mr Karzai said Afghanistan belonged to South as well as Central Asia and therefore had a stake in the development of the region. In his inaugural address at the India Today Conclave, Mr Karzai said Kabul would like to see SAARC emerge as a group for the development of Central and South Asia. “We would like the boundaries of South and Central Asia to be enmeshed and the region emerge as a huge power centre,” he said. Mr Karzai suggested a new vision for South Asia, and Central Asia saying it should be a region free from political barriers, a region where instead of building walls, bridges were built. |
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Cong sees BJP plot to sabotage CM’s trust vote
Mumbai, February 25 After a meeting with Governor S.C. Jamir, state Congress President Luizinho Faleiro told reporters in Panjim that the party was afraid of the trust vote not going through “since the Speaker was acting in collusion with BJP leader Manohar Parrikar”. Mr Faleiro’s statement came after high drama in the state capital. BJP ’s former number two leader, Mr Digambar Kamat, who quit the party yesterday to join the Congress was summoned by the speaker from Mumbai where he had gone |
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Afghan refugees don’t want to return
New Delhi, February 25 Husmiya is not enthused by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s appeal to Afghan refugees to return home by the resumption of flights between New Delhi and Kabul. “I do not want to go back. There is no security of life and no scope for education. My father is getting old and my mother is ailing — there is no way we are returning to Afghanistan now,” she says sitting in the office of the YMCA here. Like Husmiya, Abdul Khalil Omarzadah (44) is not enthusiastic about returning to Kabul where he once lived. Omarzadah works as a community mobiliser at the YMCA. He came to India as a refugee in 1982. “Afghanistan will be a new place for me,” he says. “What will I do? What will happen to my children? There is no peace, no school, no college.” He would, however, like to return some day. “Most of the refugees do not want to leave India,” says Manohar Singh. He came to India in 1979. Today he runs a shop in Tilak Nagar and manages the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society, which imparts education to children of Hindu and Sikh Afghan refugees and conducts vocational courses for girls. Afghan refugees first came to India in the early 1980s following the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Most of the refugees living in India came when the Najibullah regime fell in 1992.
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India set to regain due status in world: PM
New Delhi, February 25 However, he hastened to add that “this process will be speeded up if we do what we must at home and build bridges of mutual inter-dependence with the world.” The Prime Minister said his government believed in the concept of foreign policy as outlined by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru that “Ultimately, foreign policy is the outcome of economic policy.” The Prime Minister, in his address at the India Today Conclave here, cautioned Pakistan (without mentioning that country by name) that “the mere lowering of tariffs and pruning of negative lists does not add up to creating relations of mutual benefit.” He said South Asia had been slow to recognise the win-win aspect of economic cooperation. “Greater connectivity, both in transport and communication links, and through the opening up of transit routes can transform our sub-continent into a web of economic and commercial links. He mentioned with pride that countries that imposed sanctions on India when it declared itself a nuclear weapons power are building bridges with New Delhi to utilize opportunities for mutual economic benefit. “There is today growing recognition of India as a responsible nuclear power. We remain committed to our unilateral moratorium on testing, and our policy of no-first use. We reaffirm our willingness to work with the international community to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to work towards the ultimate goal of universal nuclear disarmament,” he declared.
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Govt to push power reforms with Left support
New Delhi, February 25 Meanwhile, the total electricity subsidy bill is estimated to surge to Rs 36,000 crore during 2005-06 from Rs 7,449 crore during 1991-92. It includes subsidy to the agriculture sector amounting to Rs 25,377 crore. The commercial losses of the power utilities are expected to reach Rs 22,013 crore in 2005-06 from Rs 4117 crore in 1991-92. Left parties have been demanding review of electricity reforms while seeking to continue with subsidised power for the agriculture sector and weaker sections, besides central support for rural electrification. Admitting that a large part of the country was still facing power shortage during the peak season, the Economic Survey points out that “effective enforcement of the Electricity Act, 2003 is necessary for solving the problems of power generation, transmission and distribution.” Referring to a study by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), it observes that India has an estimated unutilised hydro power potential of more than 1,50,000 mw. The Power Ministry has identified 162 most promising projects spread over 16 states, with an aggregate capacity of 50,560 mw. |
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Christians told to pray for Pope’s recovery
New Delhi, February 25 The Pope underwent a tracheotomy yesterday. A statement issued by the CBCI here today said that the CBCI President, His Eminence Telesphore Toppo had urged the Catholic community and all fellow Christians in India to pray for the recovery of the pontiff. The Cardinal said: “On behalf of all Catholic bishops of the country, I appeal to all the faithful in the country to offer prayers for His Holiness and we pray that God in his mercy will grant him strength to recover from the sickness.” |
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Rane defends govt sacking
New Delhi, February 25 The Rane government in its affidavit filed in reply to sacked BJP Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s petition, justified the Governor’s decision contending that he had used his discretionary jurisdiction while taking such a step. The Supreme Court, while admitting Mr Parrikar’s petition had issued notice to Mr Rane and the state government, seeking their replies. the petition has been listed for hearing on Monday next by the Court. |
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In video: Mumbai
High Court dismisses petition for ban on Sins. (
