New Delhi, December 13
India is hopeful of resolving a row with China that erupted last year when Beijing started issuing stapled visas to Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir during the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi from December 15-17. New Delhi also expects the Chinese leader to formally endorse India’s candidature for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, according to Indian officials.

Ahead of Wen Jiabao’s visit, Chinese Ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, prepared the ground for the trip by stating that the two countries were in touch over the stapled visa issue. Addressing a round table organised by FICCI, he hoped the Chinese Premier’s visit would draw up a roadmap for the development of bilateral relations. He struck a note of caution, saying India-China relations were ‘very fragile’ and could be easily damaged. It would be difficult to repair them.

In the information age, public perception is vital for the development of any relations. Efforts should be made on both sides to create an objective, friendly and mutually trustworthy relationship rather than a wrong projection of each other,” he said in the address at the function, which was attended by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar.

This will be Wen’s second state visit to India, the first being in April 2005 when the two countries signed a declaration for strategic and cooperative partnership. The visit is taking place when ties between the two nations have suffered one setback after another over a spate of issues. It, therefore, provides an opportunity to both premiers to review what has gone wrong in the relationship and how it can be repaired.

Briefing reporters here this evening, senior officials of the Ministry for External Affairs (MEA) said the two countries would sign a number of agreements/MOUs during the course of the Chinese leader’s visit. That Wen would be accompanied by a 400-strong business delegation reflects the importance the two sides are attaching to promoting trade and economic ties between them. There are indications that the two sides could sign a free trade agreement (FTA) in the not too distant future.

New Delhi has asked Beijing to correct the growing trade imbalance against India. “We would like more exports from India in IT, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture,” Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for the MEA said. India-China bilateral trade is expected to touch a record $60 billion this year. India also wants Chinese companies to invest in the infrastructure sector here in a big way,

On the boundary dispute, the two countries have painstakingly emphasised that the Sino-Indian border was the most peaceful one. While striving to seek mutually acceptable solutions, both sides have agreed not to let the border issue stand in the way of bilateral cooperation.

It is not that easy for the two countries to brush political differences under the carpet. India has been unhappy with China issuing stapled visas to Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir, thereby virtually questioning the status of the sensitive border state. The presence of Chinese troops and the projects being undertaken by some Chinese firms in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have also been cause of concern in the foreign office.

Another issue is Beijing’s ambiguity on India’s claim for a permanent UNSC seat. China is now the only country among the five permanent members of the UNSC which has not endorsed India’s case for a permanent seat. The US, Britain, France and Russia have all publicly announced that India should be a permanent member of an expanded UNSC.

New Delhi, December 13
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram landed himself and his party, the Congress, in a controversy this morning when he blamed the spate of criminal incidents in Delhi on migrants. However, he withdrew his comments in the afternoon.

He faced flak not only from the Opposition but also from segments within his own party. Chidambaram, while commenting on the series of gang rapes in the National Capital, said, “Crime takes place because Delhi attracts a large number of migrants.”

“There are a large number of unauthorised colonies and the migrants who settle in unauthorised colonies carry a kind of behaviour that is unacceptable in any modern city, so crimes do take place,” he said.

Soon the leaders of almost all parties picked out the word “migrants” from the Home Minister’s speech and associated it with the people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Sensing that his words had cause havoc, the Home Minister issued a statement saying, “I think the best way to put an end to the controversy would be to withdraw the whole of my answer to the question, and I do so.”

Allahabad, December 13
The Allahabad High Court today granted bail to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Neera Yadav and industrialist Ashok Chaturvedi, sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a Noida land scam case last week.

Justice Vinod Prasad passed the order on bail petitions of Yadav, who had been held guilty for irregularities in allotment of industrial land plots in Noida while she was the CEO of Noida Authority in the 1990s, and Chaturvedi, who owns Flex Industries.

Yadav (62) and Chaturvedi (57) were lodged in the high-security Dasna jail in Ghaziabad on December 7.

The court had on Friday put off till Monday its decision on their petitions. The CBI special court had convicted the two under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

New Delhi, December 13
Government has accepted the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee to include transgenders as a separate 'Others' category in the Census 2011. After demands that transgenders be included in a separate category, the Home Ministry had referred the matter to the committee, which has given nod for providing a third category other than male and female.

The Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) said in an RTI reply that as recommended by the Technical Advisory Committee "transgenders would be given separate code i.e. '3' in the names of others, the '1' and '2' being meant for male and female respectively during the ensuing Census 2011." "But it is to be reported only when the respondent wishes to return other than code-1 and code-2 and thus left at the choice of respondents to opt for code-3," the RGI said in an reply to RTI application filed by Bareli-based activist S E Huda.

In the current practice, the community is included in the Census as 'males'. The TAC had proposed that during census, males will be given code one, females two and for transgendered it will be 'code three' which has been accepted by the Government. An NGO led by Huda had petitioned the Prime Minister's Office, the President's Secretariat, the Home Ministry and the Registrar General's Office on inclusion of transgenders as a different category. It has also filed a petition before the Supreme Court.

The Planning Commission, meanwhile, has also recommended separate category for the transgenders in the Unique Identification Authority of India Project, according to a separate RTI reply from the Commission. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 13
The Supreme Court today allowed the Medical Council of India to go ahead with the proposal for conducting a combined entrance test (CET) for admissions to medical and engineering courses.

A Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik, however, clarified that the MCI move would be subject to judicial scrutiny if any state or medical college challenged it.

The court virtually rejected the MCI plea for SC’s stamp of approval on its proposal, aimed at checking malpractices and reducing the burden on students who had to appear for several admission tests. At present, various states and private educational institutions were conducting their own entrance examinations.

The government and its departments were free to notify their regulations and should not rush to the judiciary seeking approval for such proposals, the Bench clarified further. At this, MCI counsel said it had approached the SC because a Constitution Bench of the apex court had laid down certain guidelines for admissions.

The Judges said the SC issued guidelines only in areas not covered under any specific laws. The Bench clarified that the cases pending with it did not come in the way of MCI’s move for holding CET for medical and engineering admissions.

BRIEFLY

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TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu after he was arrested during a protest against the Andhra Pradesh Government over farmers’ issues in Hyderabad on Monday. — PTI

Masjid blast: CBI files chargesheet
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Check NREGA corruption: SC
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Kasab raises juvenile plea
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