New Delhi, December 23
Former Chief of Army Staff General VP Malik today cautioned the government against resuming the composite dialogue with Pakistan, unless the latter changed its policy on terrorism. Gen. Malik was speaking in reference to Pakistan’s inertia on bringing to justice the perpetrators of 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

“Initiating a dialogue with the neighbouring country (read Pakistan) without it changing its policy on terrorism would be a failure,” he said, drawing clear distinctions between India and Pakistan so far as the impact of terrorism goes.

“India is a victim of terrorism, whereas Pakistan is a convict. Hence the argument that both countries were being attacked did not hold ground,” he said, while delivering the 30th Bhimsen Sachar Memorial Lecture on “India’s Strategic Culture and Security Challenges” at Lajpat Bhavan here today.

The General, who authored “Kargil — from Surprise to Victory”, was critical of the government for its failure to pressurise Pakistan to give up assistance to terror outfits, even post the Kargil War.

On China, too, the General warned of the possibility of dispute along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the coming months as greater tension was building up on the Sino-India border.

Pointing out that China was increasing its military presence in Tibet, he said the country was backing out of the agreements it signed with India. With growing military and economic strength, the neighbour was getting aggressive and uncompromising, he cautioned.

“We made a mistake by looking the other way when China was invading Tibet,” Gen Malik said, adding that there were numerous examples when India did not stand firm vis-à-vis China. He said while India shares borders with most of the South Asian countries, China had better diplomatic and military relations with all of them, except Bhutan.

On the Maoist threat, he voiced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that Maoists posed the gravest threat to the internal security situation in the country.

“Maoists and separatist outfits are more dangerous than the external forces,” he said, adding that the Maoists were now planning to build a Red corridor, originating from Katmandu.

The former Chief of Army Staff sounded equally wary of the spawning “regional” sentiment across India. “Raj Thackeray wants Maharashtra to be an all-Marathi state, with separate work visas for north Indians. On Telengana, too, the government bowed down to the demand to divide Andhra Pradesh,” he said, referring to the growing clamour in political circles for separate states.

He sought greater security consciousness and political consensus on important security issues in the country, admitting that India’s security concerns would remain compromised till the time government began taking some “strategically hard decisions”.

Hyderabad, December 23
Protesting the Centre’s apparent bid to buy more time on Telangana issue, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and 29 other lawmakers from the region cutting across party lines resigned tonight.

Taking the lead, Rao faxed his resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar late this evening and he was quickly followed by Lok Sabha MP from Medak M Vijayasanthi, who was elected on a TRS ticket.

About 30 legislators belonging to the Congress, TDP, TRS and Praja Rajyam Party also submitted their resignations when reports last came in till late tonight.

“I have sent my resignation. As many as 30 resignations have been made so far,” Rao told reporters emerging from a meeting with senior Congress MLA K Jana Reddy and R Damodar Reddy and other leaders from Telangana.

While all 10 MLAs belonging to the TRS submitted their resignations, one MLC belonging to Telangana Vimochana Samiti, three MLAs of TDP, two of PRP also followed suit.

More MLAs and MLCs from Telangana are expected to quit. TDP MP from Adilabad Ramesh Rathod will submit his resignation tomorrow.

Leaders from all parties in the region have formed a Telangana Political Joint Action Committee to take forward their movement for a separate state. The committee will meet here tomorrow to decide the course of action.

Reports reaching here said some chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of zila parishads and other local bodies also have resigned. Senior Congress MLA Ch Muthyam Reddy was the first to announce that he would resign.

Bangalore, December 23
As if having taken the cudgel against Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is not enough, the Reddy brothers, Karunakara and Janardhana, both ministers in the BJP government in Karnataka, are also being accused of stoking the agitation against creation of Telengana in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

It is learnt that the pro-Telengana Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi regarding Janardhana Reddy’s alleged role in fanning sentiments against the creation of the new state in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The Reddys have substantial mining interest in the district.

Janardhana Reddy, who is tourism minister of Karnataka, could not be contacted for comments as he was busy attending the ongoing Assembly session in Karnataka.

This is not the first time that the Reddys are facing accusation in Andhra Pradesh. The brothers, super-rich mining barons from Bellary district in Karnataka, shared a close rapport with the late Andhra Chief Minister YSR Reddy. YSR allegedly helped them in carrying out their mining activities in Andhra areas bordering Karnataka.

Following YSR’s death in a helicopter accident, the Reddys used their enormous financial prowess to back YSR’s son Jagan Reddy’s attempt to become Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.

After the Congress high command made up its mind to make K Rosaiah the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, things moved swiftly as the Andhra government recommended a probe by the CBI into the mining activities of the Reddys’ company in Andhra territories.

Alleged backing by the Reddys of the camp led by Jagan Reddy had also annoyed the Congress party’s top leadership. The pro-Telengana MPs had apparently named Janardhana Reddy in connection with the protest in Anantapur district to exploit the party leadership’s dislike for the Reddys stemming from the Jagan episode.

Much before the current rounds of events, the Reddys had challenged Sonia Gandhi herself when they teamed up with BJP’s Sushma Swaraj in the hugely publicised electoral contest between the two ladies in 1999.

New Delhi, December 23
Despite being well aware of Tokyo’s deep-rooted nuclear allergy, New Delhi may broach the subject of Japan actively participating in India’s growing civil nuclear energy programme when Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama visits India later this month.

Officials here hope the December 27-29 visit by the leader of the first Non-Liberal Democratic Party government in Japan will pave the way for deepening of ties between the two countries.

His summit-level talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to cover a variety of issues, including climate change, proposed economic partnership agreement, measures to counter terrorism, the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor project and dedicated freight corridor project. The critical issue of defence cooperation could also come up in the context of joint exercises by the armed forces of the two countries.

The two Prime Ministers have already met once in Pittsburgh (USA) on the margins of the G-20 Summit. The meeting fructified after National Security Adviser MK Narayanan visited Tokyo to establish contact with the Hatoyama administration.

Defence Minister AK Antony was in Tokyo in November, becoming the first Indian cabinet minister to visit Japan after the installation of the Hatoyama government.

The Japanese government has already expressed its desire to focus more on Asia, which is evident from Hatoyama shaping a foreign policy that focuses more on Asia and downplays the country’s excessive dependence on the US. Even he had floated the idea of an East Asian Community while visiting China and South Korea in October 2009.

Even though it has made grand overtures towards China, Japan can ill-afford to ignore the emergence of India on the world stage. The officials said Hatoyama himself was keen to ensure that the process of annual summits between the PMs of India and Japan was not affected in any manner. He will, therefore, be in India before the year is out, albeit on a short visit.

Since New Delhi has the nuclear suppliers’ group (NSG) nod to undertake nuclear commerce, it would be interesting to know Japan’s latest position on cooperating with India in the civil nuclear energy field. India has already signed at least seven nuclear deals with different countries, including the US, France and Russia. A nuke pact with Canada is on the cards while another with Britain is in the works.

However, Japan has time and again stated that while it understands New Delhi’s quest for civil nuclear power, it would cooperate with India in this field only in a manner that will not hamper but strengthen the non-proliferation regime. Tokyo’s stand that India must sign the NPT and CTBT is all too well known. Japan claims to have the best technology in the world for setting up nuclear reactors. Japan is the third largest user of nuclear energy in the world after the US and France.

New Delhi, Decemer 23
Icy winds coupled with steep drop in mercury intensified the winter chill in North India today, as people woke up to hazy and misty morning in several parts of the region.

In Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the ongoing cold conditions further aggravated with the minimum temperature dropping by up to four degrees. Some areas even witnessed fog and mist.

Rohtak remained the coldest in Haryana with a low of 1.8 degree Celsius, four degrees below normal.

Night temperatures declined across Kashmir where Srinagar experienced the season’s low at minus 3.4 degree Celsius - two degrees below normal.

The hill resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir was the coldest place in the valley with a minimum of minus 6.6 degree Celsius, the Met office said.

Sriganganagar at 4.9 degree Celsius remained the coldest in Rajasthan, as dry and cold weather conditions prevailed in several parts of the desert state.

High reaches of Himachal Pradesh reeled under sub zero temperatures while cold winds kept the weather chilly in Shimla and other lower areas of the hill state.

Denizens in the Capital and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh had also no respite from biting cold. In Delhi, the mercury remained at season’s lowest of 6.4 degrees. Najibabad, with a minimum of 3.9 degrees, remained the coldest place in Uttar Pradesh. — PTI

New Delhi, December 23
Belying all hopes of a stable government in tribal Jharkhand, Assembly elections today once again produced a fractured mandate and a hung House, forcing the two main political parties Congress and BJP to seek partnership with all those they had disdainfully dumped in run up to the polls.

The Congress has definitely improved its tally from nine in the out going Assembly to 14 this time and its alliance partner the JVM led by former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi did remarkably well, winning 11 seats taking the total tally of the Congress-JVM to 25 as against the BJP-JD(U) reduced to just 20 (BJP-18 plus JD(U)-2) against 36 in the last elections.

The key to the government lies with Shibu Soren’s JMM, which has only marginally improved its tally from 17 last time to 18. But arithmetically neither the Congress nor the BJP could form a government without aligning with Soren, who is keen to become the CM whoever supports him.

The Congress, which till the other day was disdainfully snubbing and dismissing Soren and Lalu Prasad’s RJD as political, has already started making the right noise. It would have been music to Lalu Prasad’s ears when the Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said today, “RJD is a UPA member.”

Forgetting the royal ignores they gave to Lalu, Tiwari described RJD a “UPA constituent” and referred to Shibu Soren as a “family member.” Both contested against the Congress in separate alliances. Similarly, CWC member Satyavrat Chaturvedi said of JMM and RJD, “They may not be in UPA, but the RJD and the JMM support the Central government from outside.”

While Tiwari cautiously hedged the issue saying, “It will be premature to say anything at this stage,” sources indicated that the Congress was ready to initiate talks with the JMM.

But the Congress is faced with a situation, wherein both Soren and Marandi, are aspiring to lead the next government, exuberant as they are with their respective electoral performance. Marandi had aligned with the Congress on the tacit understanding that he will be made the CM.

The Congress may find it difficult to persuade Marandi to allow Soren to become the CM. The Congress sources say one way out was offering a berth in the Union cabinet to Soren and deputy CM’s post to his son Hemant.

The BJP on the other hand is better placed to offer outright the Chief Ministership to Shibu Soren. BJP leader Ananth Kumar indicated today after a prolonged parliamentary board meeting, the first under new president Nitin Gadkari, that his party is keeping all options open.

But it has not yet lost hope of forming the government with Soren, with insiders remarking, that it is better placed to form the government. Besides if the BJP succeeded in forming a government with the JMM, it would be a feather in the cap of the new president, said sources. So, while the blame for the poor show cannot be put at Gadkari’s doorstep, the credit for forming the government may certainly go to him.

New Delhi, December 23
The government yesterday launched the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad National Fellowship Scheme for minority students and another one to computerise state Wakf Boards.

Under the scheme, 756 fellowships (30 per cent to be reserved for women) will be offered per year to minority students wishing to pursue higher studies. The objective is to grant integrated five-year fellowships in form of financial assistance to students from minority communities as notified by the Central government to pursue MPhil and PhD.

The scheme will cover all universities or institutions recognised by the UGC under Section 2 (f) and Section 3 of the UGC Act and will be implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs through UGC for students belonging to minorities.

The fellowships will be on the pattern of UGC fellowships awarded to research students pursuing regular and full time MPhil and PhD courses. Holders of the new fellowship will be called MoMA scholars.

“In case of non-availability of adequate number of candidates, the number of fellowships not availed during a year will be carried forward to the next academic session. While 30 per cent fellowships will be earmarked for women students, the remaining will be general. In case of shortage of women candidates, fellowship will be passed on to males from the same minority community. Reservation for the differently-abled students will be made as per UGC norms,” the Minority Affairs Ministry said yesterday.

The scheme will soon be notified by the UGC. Financial assistance will be made on the lines of UGC fellowships where a junior research fellow gets Rs 12,000 a month for the first two years and a senior research fellow gets Rs 14,000 a month for the same period. As regards computerisation of Wakf properties- the scheme will be applicable across all 29 State Waqf Boards, including J&K. The scheme is to be implemented during the plan period 2009-10 to 2011-12 at a cost of Rs 22.84 crore.

The computerisation would introduce implementation of a web-based centralised application module for Wakf Management. National Informatics Centre (NIC) will implement the scheme on turnkey basis.

New Delhi, December 23
BSNL, the largest public sector telecom operator, is likely to miss the December 31 deadline set by the government to launch in metros the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) regime that allows users to transfer their cell phone numbers from one operator to another. For, the government has turned down BSNL's plea for a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore to implement the MNP.

BSNL along with other PSU MTNL had earlier informed the government about their inability to implement the MNP system before April for a variety of reasons such as limited time to tweak the technology, tariff plans and billing among others. The two telcos are in the process of purchasing MNP Gateways. MTNL has floated a limited tender for MNP.

The rejection for compensation to BSNL came as a ruling from Department of Telecom (DoT) as all the service providers have to implement MNP at their own cost and no compensation is to be provided to any operator. In comparison, private service providers are at various stages of implementing the MNP.

The government has set a December 31 deadline to implement the MNP system for the metros and June 2010 for smaller cities and other areas. BSNL has cited a slew of impediments that ranged from a lack of a draft inter-connect agreement to issues regarding tariffs for off-net and on-net as its network will not support differential charging.

New Delhi, December 23
The World Bank is likely to come to the aid of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as the $2-billion loan sought by the government for road development will reduce the total borrowing needs of the authority by 20 per cent to Rs 1,53,421 crore over the next 21 years.

According to Transport Ministry officials, the loan from the World Bank will bring down the total money that the NHAI will have to borrow until 2030-31 to only Rs 1,53,421 crore, a reduction of over 20 per cent in its earlier projection.

The ministry is seeking the loan at a lower interest rate of 6.5 per cent with a longer repayment tenure of 25 years.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath had said earlier this month after a meeting of an Empowered Group of Ministers that the government wanted to borrow $2 billion. In the pursuit of the loan, the minister had also met the World Bank chief and presented the case for the loan.

As per the ministry officials, India had got a positive response from the World Bank, which would ease the pressure on the NHAI. The government has an ambitious plan of constructing 7,000 kms of roads every year or about 20 kms of road every day and the minister has also been holding road shows around the world to attract investors.

The longer tenure would prevent the government from borrowing every few years to repay this loan and the lower interest rate will also result in lesser fund outgo towards repayment, cutting down the overall borrowing needs of the authority.

The World Bank lends to the government at prevailing market rates, which currently stands at 9-9.5 per cent, with a usual repayment tenure of around 10-12 years.

A report by the BK Chaturvedi Committee, constituted in August this year to address issues plaguing road development, has pegged the total borrowing requirement of the NHAI till 2030-31 at a cumulative Rs 1,91,948 crore.

Kolkata, December 23
The Centre has no plan to wage any war against the Maoists and liquidate them. Instead, the attempts should be made for bringing them to the mainstream through negotiations, Home Minister P Chidambaram said. He was participating in the “question & answer session” at a seminar here last evening which was organised by the CII.

Chidambaram admitted that the on-going terrorists and Maoists activities in the country had been a great menace for the peace and stability. But only by shooting of guns at them would not solve the problem. He stressed the need for an overall development of tribals and the poor villages in the remote places. He said all respective state governments would have to take the responsibilities of improving the neglected areas.

The Home Minister admitted that there was a need for improving the intelligence network of the security forces and also to upgrade the police personnel for tackling the Maoists and other insurgent groups.

He said the West Bengal government so far could not adopt the right steps in handling the problems at Lalghar, Jangalmahal and elsewhere in the three Maoists-infested south Bengal districts- Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore, though the Centre dispatched a large contingent of CRPF, CISF and other para-military forces to these places as requested by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Different political parties there have been in the race of capturing of power which had been creating more problems, he alleged.

Bhattacharjee, however, said the government would not sit for any dialogue with the Maoists as long as they were not surrendering their arms. He squarely blamed the Trinamool Congress, a partner of the UPA, for encouraging and helping the Maoists for continuing their subversive activities, including the killing and kidnapping of the policemen and other innocent people, only for gaining their political interests and both Prime minister and Chidambaram must be aware of it.

The Forward Bloc, a major partner of the Left Front, however, felt that the Maoists were not untouchable. The party that they would participate in a joint movement with the Maoists against imperialism and the exploitation of the poor people by the capitalists. Accordingly, a resolution was also adopted at the 16th Party Congress which ended yesterday in the city.

Replying to a question, Chidambaram ruled out any possibilities of granting Gorkhaland to hill people in Darjeeling as demanded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

GJM secretary Roshan Giri, however, declared today that they would re-launch their mass hunger strike and indefinite agitation in the hills from December 26 till their demand was not met. Two social organisations, Amra Bangali and the Bangla Bachhao Committee, also announced the launching of counter-agitation at Siliguri and Jalpaiguri from the same day against the bifurcation of the state and creation of the Gorkhaland.

Lucknow, December 23
Capitalist-centric economic policies of the Congress-led UPA government were responsible for the unabated price rise and not global warming and the state governments as claimed by union minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar declared Chief Minister Mayawati here on Monday.

Criticising Pawar’s statement blaming the state government for rising prices she said that instead of accepting the central government’s role in failing to hold prices the agriculture minister was looking for scapegoats and thrusting the responsibility on the state governments.

“The ever-rising inflation was the result of the wrong economic policies of the central government. They were formulated keeping interests of the capitalists in mind; and had nothing to do with the common man. That is why the common man was facing difficulties to arrange two square meals a day”, said the CM.

Substantiating her point she said keeping a possible decline in the paddy crop in the country in view, its export should have been banned this year. However, succumbing to the pressure exerted by “economic criminals and black marketers”, its export has been allowed which would adversely impact the common man.

Giving another example of what she described as “Congress ka haath, poonjipatiyon ke saath” (Congress’ hand with the capitalists) Mayawati said that this year the Central government had tried to benefit the capitalists by attempting to shift the burden of increased sugarcane prices on the state governments which had to be reversed due to intense public wrath.

“The Central government is solely responsible for the rising sugar prices as union agriculture minister has repeatedly declared in the recent past that sugar prices were likely to go up resulting in speculators and profit makers getting a golden opportunity to increase the prices”, she pointed out.

Wondering how the state governments in any way were responsible for the rise in edible articles Mayawati pointed out that the wholesale price index of edible articles was 246 in November 2008, which had risen to 287.1 in November 2009 - an unprecedented increase of 20 per cent!

Lucknow, December 23
On the eve of the New Year Chief Minister Mayawati has opened a virtual Pandora’s box by promising to carve out more states out of the present day Uttar Pradesh.

Her masterstroke of taking the initiative to champion the cause of not only Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh but also a dormant demand for Purvanchal has caught her political rivals off guard. Before 2007 she or her party was not associated with the demand for the creation of smaller states.

With this one move Mayawati is bound to shape much of the politics in Uttar Pradesh not only for the next year but also up to the general election in 2012 and maybe beyond.

The political unease of the parties that in recent times had spearheaded the cause of these states is already visible. Obviously, not happy with the idea of Mayawati usurping the movement for Harit Pradesh the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has decided to make its campaign more aggressive and visible by involving the youth power to lead the agitation.

A panicky RLD has already announced to start organising programmes in various universities and colleges from next week. RLD MP from Mathura Jayant Choudhury, who represents the youth power in the party, will play a key role.

RLD President Ajit Singh’s party has virtually personified the cause of an independent Harit Pradesh comprising 22 districts 28 Lok Sabha seats and about 140 Assembly seats of Western Uttar Pradesh both on the streets and inside the assembly.

It was his father and former PM Charan Singh who had first demanded the creation of a separate Harit Pradesh before the State Reorganisation Committee in 1953. For three generations they have fought for a separate state where Jat may become politically significant. They would not like Mayawati pulling the rug from under their feet.

Similarly, when youth leader and AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi visited Jhansi on December 21, the first time after the Lok Sabha polls, he was greeted by Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha (BMM) volunteers’ slogans of ‘Jai Bundelkhand’ and ‘We want a separate Bundelkhand’.

While the BMM has been raising a demand for a separate Bundelkhand for the last two decades, it was the then Congress MLA from Jhansi and now union minister Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’ and Banda Congress MLA Vivek Singh who had requested the UP Vidhan Sabha Speaker to take up the matter for the creation of Bundelkahnd under Rule 109 in the Vidhan Sabha in 2007.

But the same Mayawati government who has now written to the PM for a separate Bundelkhand state did not allow even a debate on the issue complained Vivek Singh.

So what is Mayawati’s political game plan? As dalits are spread across the state almost evenly (a little more evenly in Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh) Mayawati has nothing to lose.

According to a senior BSP leader by raising the demand for smaller states the party has not only caught the popular imagination but also taken the wind out of the sails of its political opponents as the demand appeals to sections across caste and community barriers.

This senior BSP leader points out that Mayawati has even championed the cause of smaller districts for decentralised governance. It was under her chief ministership that Uttar Pradesh districts increased from 60 to 71! Like smaller districts, smaller states also fulfill the growing aspirations of the people who perceive themselves of being neglected and disempowered.

For instance, for years the people of Western UP have been demanding a bench of the High Court in Agra. For months the bar councils and lawyers of the district courts in Western UP have been boycotting court work every Saturday. Still the issue has not drawn the kind of attention that it deserves forcing the people to support the cause for an independent state.

Except for the Samajwadi Party no other political party is in principle against the division of existing Uttar Pradesh into smaller more manageable administrative units. Still in the coming days they would have to tread carefully so that Mayawati does not completely usurp the political space they had so judiciously carved out for themselves.

Chennai, December 23
As Tamil Nadu enters a pre-election year, the picture on the industrial and agricultural fronts looks rosy, as a major hurdle, power shortage is expected to be out of the way with the new additional capacity.

With the revival of wind energy projects and new thermal, hydro and nuclear power projects, an additional capacity of 700 MW, besides the present 15,100 MW is likely to ensure smooth progress next year.

According to state deputy planning commissioner M Naganathan, Tamil Nadu had emerged as a major destination for investors who have established 29 new industries with an investment of Rs 37,595 crore with an employment potential of about two lakh persons in the past three years.

After emerging as a major IT hub, Chennai is expected to become one of the largest automobile manufacturing hubs in the world next year when it crosses 1.3 million units annually, M Velmurugan, executive vice-chairman, Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Council, said global majors Daimler-Hero, Ashok Leyland-Nissan, Caterpillar Delphi and Allison have come forward to establish industries in Tamil Nadu. In the same manner, leading companies like Dell Computers, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia-Siemens networks have established industries for production of electronic goods.

Even the textile industry closely knit with global economy and therefore hit by recession is recovering, chairman of South Indian Mills Association J Thulasidharan said.

Uniform growth of all regions is a major challenge facing the state, since most of the industries are concentrated in and around Chennai, leading to immense housing and environment problems.

Though IT parks coming up next year in major cities other than Chennai is expected to expand growth, lack of air links to gulf countries and East Asia remains a major challenge for developing those regions. S Ramasundaram, CMD, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, said: “There is a demand to provide air links to Dubai and Singapore from their regions. We are asking the Airport Authority of India to consider the proposal of having short-haul international flights from those places”. Village economy too is picking up due to various projects of the Central and state governments. The Self Help Group movement started in 1989, has grown with 62 lakh members in 3,91,000-self help groups, playing a major role in poverty alleviation.

After receiving good rains this year, the state expects good news on the agriculture front too. Agriculture officials hope to reach the target of 80.6 lakh metric tonnes paddy production which will be a 20 per cent rise compared to last year. Tamil Nadu announced waiver of crop loans even before the Centre, leading to new disbursement of crop loans, which is a major catalyst for the increase of total food production to 91 lakh tonnes from 64 tonnes two years ago.

The fast growing industry has its adverse fall out in exodus of people towards urban areas and this resulting in housing and environmental problems. Chennai’s growing IT industry is generating over 21 lakh tonnes of e-waste annually and the e-waste policy to be unveiled next year will be closely watched by environmentalists. A report by the Union ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation says Tamil Nadu is short of 2.82 million homes. Due to rapid urbanisation, the state has only 22 per cent forest cover against the advised 33 per cent and the results of the Rs 567-crore afforestation project is also awaited in 2010.

Looking into the political calendar, the monotonous and moderate pace of political activities are likely to shift to top gear only after the World Classical Tamil Conference in June with the next Assembly elections which is likely to be the final battle between arch rivals and charismatic leaders M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa.

While the DMK leader is planning to make a glorious exit and guide his son Stalin’s rise to the throne, the AIADMK supremo will be fighting for her survival after three consecutive defeats in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since 2004. The secretariat and Assembly will be moving into the new Assembly complex next year, built in the traditional Dravidian style of architecture at a cost of Rs 200 crore.