New Delhi, March 11
Private players interested in building schools or hospitals need not worry about the commercial non-viability of their investments anymore.

Taking a huge leap forward towards boosting educational and health facilities in the country, the government today said all investments in these two sectors would henceforth be treated as infrastructure investments and would be eligible for the Finance Ministry’s Viability Gap Funding (VGP) scheme which provides a total viability gap funding up to 20 per cent of the total project cost.

The scheme was conceived to ensure widespread access to infrastructure provided through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) by subsidising capital cost of the project. It provides financial supplement in the form of grants — one time or deferred — to infrastructure projects through the PPP mode to make them commercially viable.

Hitherto, only the following sectors — highways, ports, railways, power and urban transport — were eligible for grants under the VGP scheme of the Finance Ministry. But from now, all capital stock (assets) in educational institutions and hospitals would be treated as part of the infrastructure sub sector to encourage private players to come forward and help the government strengthen the deficient sectors.

“Investment in health and education will be eligible for the VGF scheme under the Finance Ministry. Guidelines will follow,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said, replying to the debate on the general budget in the Lok Sabha.

The scheme would attract private investors to education and health, where India is severely deficient of infrastructure. On the health side, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has projected the requirement of 500 new medical colleges by 2015 to cater to the increasing mass of Indian population. The allopathic doctor: population ratio in India is 1:1772 -- among the lowest in the world. With 100 new colleges per year, the MCI hopes to add 10,000 medical graduates to the pool.

On the education side, the government needs 14.25 lakh new classrooms and 655 new residential schools to cover all eligible children aged 6 to 14 years. Even on the higher education side, the HRD Ministry has projected a requirement of 600 new universities and 35000 new colleges in 12 years if India is to increase its Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education from 12.4 to 30 per cent by 2020. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has repeatedly said that the existing 480 universities and 22000 colleges are not enough to cater to an increasing mass of students who will seek access to higher education with the successful implementation of the RTE Act.

New Delhi, March 11
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced that money available to a MP under the Member Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme has been raised from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore.

An additional Rs 2,374 crore would now be annually available under the scheme. However, the scheme has been criticised in the past by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Planning Commission. MPs of poll-bound Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry would have to wait until May-end for the polls to end before they can use additional funds.

“Though the EC told me that I could make this announcement today, he said the members of poll-bound states can’t spend the money till May end,” Mukherjee said. The announcement received loud applause. However, the CAG in the past has said that though the scheme’s guidelines debar revenue expenditure in any form on commercial and religious places and mandate the creation of durable assets, these objectives were not being served.

Notwithstanding negative evidence, the Parliamentary Committee on MPLADS in its 13th and 15th reports backed the scheme saying it only had few procedural infirmities. This was against the second Administrative Reforms Commission’s report on “Ethics in Governance” which blasted it on grounds of erosion of the separation of powers as the legislator directly became the executive under the scheme.

New Delhi, March 11
The second India-US strategic dialogue, which was to be held in New Delhi in early April, has been postponed in view of the Assembly elections in India and the ongoing unrest in certain West-Asian and North-African nations.

The strategic dialogue was to be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The first such dialogue was held in Washington last year.

“In view of the state elections in India and the ongoing developments in West Asia and North Africa, the two sides have decided to reschedule the strategic dialogue and will hold it at the earliest available opportunity,” the External Affairs Ministry said.

It is learnt that Defence Minister AK Antony and Home Minister P Chidambaram had expressed their inability to participate in the dialogue as they would be busy with electioneering in their home states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively.

The two countries will now decide the date for the strategic dialogue through mutual consultations.

The India-US strategic dialogue is a principal mechanism for advancing bilateral cooperation across the full spectrum of relationship and exchanging views on global and regional issues of mutual interest.

However, other important bilateral engagements between the two countries would go ahead as scheduled over the next few weeks. These include: the visit of Commerce Secretary to Washington DC later this month; meeting of the India-US joint working group on counter-terrorism on March 25 in New Delhi; meeting of the high technology cooperation group in India in May; and the India-US Higher Education Summit in June in Washington.

The first Homeland Security Dialogue and the meeting of the joint working group on space cooperation will also be scheduled in the coming weeks.

New Delhi, March 11
The government today assured there was no immediate threat to the Indian coast in the wake of huge tsunami that devastated parts of Japan following a massive earthquake near the east coast of Honshu.

While quite early in the day the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) confirmed that there was no tsunami threat to India, there were speculations that the Japan earthquake may affect countries in the Indian Ocean as well. Later, Earth Sciences Minister Ashwani Kumar confirmed that there was “no immediate threat” of tsunami in the Indian Ocean. “The government is in constant touch with INCOIS, which is monitoring the tidal currents and sea-level changes near the epicentre,” he said. Earth Sciences secretary Shailesh Nayak, too, said there was no threat to the Indian coast.

However, tsunami alerts were sounded in Philippines, Taiwan, Guam and Russia, Indonesia and many islands in the Pacific.

Following the destructive tsunami that struck the east coast of India in 2004, the government set up a tsunami-warning centre that is run by INCOIS. An autonomous body, which came into being in 2007 and is under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, provides ocean information and advisory services through sustained observations and focused research.

Director seismology RS Dattatreya says that India's tsunami-alert system is one of the most advanced in the world and can issue a warning to not only the coastal districts in the country, but also other nations in the Indian Ocean .

More than 10,000 people were killed and several lakh others were rendered homeless after the devastating 2004 tsunami. The worst affected states were Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Though India, fortunately, has not witnessed many major earthquakes, the country has lost several thousand lives to these natural disasters.

Some theories suggest that the Indian land mass, which rests on a plate called the Indo-Australian Plate, is sliding along another massive structure, the Asian Plate, which includes China and Japan.

The energy released from this friction created the Himalayas. Spread along a line, there is a 2,500-km long zone - the Main Central Thrust (MCT) - that stretches from Bhutan to India’s western border. It has several tectonic rocks that are most likely to trigger earthquakes.

India has set up observatories in Ghuttu, Uttrakhand, Shillong and Port Blair to understand earthquake generation process, which, in the due course of time, will help identify its precursors. Dattatreya said these facilities would assist in understanding the earthquake precursory phenomena in the regions and provide real-time data to the scientists for quick analysis.

Incidentally, Ghuttu, where the observations have already begun, is the country’s first coordinated attempt at studying warning signals to a coming earthquake. 

New Delhi/Lucknow, March 11
A mentally disturbed youth from Uttar Pradesh has been identified as the murderer of a college girl in Delhi as he wanted to avenge the humiliation when he was beaten up for stalking her three and a half years ago, police said today.

Ram Singh (25) alias Vijay, who is absconding, followed Radhika Tanwar at least twice with an intention to kill her in the past one month, the last one being three days before her murder on last Tuesday outside Ramlal Anand college in Shantiniketan area of south Delhi's Dhaula Kuan.

Investigators zeroed in on Ram Singh, who introduced himself as Vijay in Delhi, after they detained his two associates from Daera area in Biswan block of Sitapur district adjoining Lucknow today. The duo allegedly helped him flee the Capital on March 10, two days after Radhika was shot dead. All of three are tailors by profession.

“He nurtured deep grudge against Radhika after he was beaten up for harassing her and used to tell his friends that whenever he gets an opportunity, he will take revenge. He felt insulted and left for Mumbai," HGS Dhaliwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), told reporters in Delhi.

Dhaliwal said investigations in Viswan village of Sitapur from where Vijay hails have revealed that he has a "psychopathic streak" and is learnt to have been involved in stalking women in his village. Sitapur is around 450 km from the National Capital.

"We have learnt that a month ago, he had boarded a bus in which the victim was travelling. However, he could not execute his plans. Last Saturday, he followed her on the foot over-bridge," Dhaliwal said.

According to investigators, Vijay had gone to his friend's place in Rohini and told them he was involved in a scuffle. He stayed at their place on March 8 and next day left for another friend's place in Gurgaon. “He and his two friends planned to go to Gurgaon after seeing the extensive media coverage. The friends also got a whiff of what was happening. However, the friend in Gurgaon refused to help as he was scared. The two friends took him to Gurgaon railway station where they got separated from Vijay.

Bangalore, March 11
The two sub-continental rivals flexed their military muscles today with India test-firing two missiles against one fired by Pakistan.

Close on the heels of the success of the ballistic air defence missile system test on March 6, India kept up its fine performance in the arena of missile technology by successfully test-firing two nuclear-capable missiles today.

The homegrown nuclear-capable ballistic missiles Prithvi-II and its naval version Dhanush were test-fired from different locations off the Orissa coast, on a day when Pakistan too tested its nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile.

Prithvi-II was fired from complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district, about 230 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, at 10.50 am. “The missile reached the designated target with accuracy of a few meters, which can be achieved by a very few missiles in the world,” a statement issued by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

Dhanush was launched at 10.03 am from the warship INS Suvarna anchored off the Orissa coast in the Bay of Bengal. “All the radars and Electro optical systems located along the coast have tracked the vehicle (Dhanush) and monitored all the parameters. A ship located near the impact point witnessed the final arrival. The flight test was perfect like a text book trajectory with the missile reaching the target point with a very high accuracy of less than a few meters,” the DRDO statement said.

The tests, carried out as part of training exercises of the armed forces, came a week after India successfully tested its ballistic missile interceptor on March 6 as part of its efforts to develop a shield against enemy missiles.

Prithvi-II, a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 350 km, is a variant of the country’s first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

Dhanush, with a range of 350 km, is a single-stage ship-based missile with a 500 kg pay-load and capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads. 

New Delhi, March 11
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) today decided to intensify diplomatic efforts to secure the safe release of 53 Indian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates even as India raised the issue at the UN Security Council (UNSC).

The CCS meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to set up an Inter Ministerial Group under the Cabinet Secretary to act as an apex forum to monitor early release of Indian ships or crew or cargo.

"The CCS met today and considered proposals with regard to conduct of anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told Parliament later.

The CCS, he said, approved a series of measures which would be taken by the government to address the legal, administrative and operational aspects of combating piracy. A broad policy framework covering all these aspects was approved," he said, adding this would involve medium and long term actions to be taken by Ministries of Shipping, External Affairs and Defence.

The meeting decided to intensify diplomatic efforts through consultations with governments of Egypt and UAE where the owners of the vessels concerned reside, as also governments of other nationalities who were also being held hostage.

The government also decided to intensify diplomatic efforts at the multilateral level and within the UN framework.

The CCS also decided to formulate suitable standard operating procedures for the Indian Navy and coordination of its activities with its counterparts of friendly foreign countries in the Gulf of Aden, Krishna said.

On the Inter Ministerial Group, he said it would monitor early release of Indian ships and crew and consider welfare measures necessitated after the release of the captured Indian nationals.

The CCS expressed sympathy with the families of the hostages and decided that the government would take all appropriate actions to safeguard their welfare, Krishna said.

Meanwhile, addressing a UNSC meeting on strategy for realistaion of peace and security in Somalia, Indian Ambassador to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri regretted that the world body had not addressed the issue of sailors taken hostage by pirates and their plight.

Referring to the 53 Indian sailors still in the custody of Somali pirates, he lamented the fact that the owners of the ships involved had not taken responsibility or displayed adequate interest in securing the release of the sailors. “The hostages are generally from working class backgrounds and often the only bread-winners of their families.’’

He called for more effective action by the international community to meet the challenge posed by the pirates.

New Delhi, March 11
A month after he declined to be the first Vice-Chancellor of Jammu Central University, Professor Amitabh Mattoo has been named the inaugural Director of the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne, which is among the top 30 universities in the world. He will concurrently serve as a professor of international relations at the institute.

At present, Mattoo is presently a professor of disarmament studies at the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at the Capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. He will proceed on three-year leave from JNU to discharge his new responsibility.

“The institute has to spend $8 million (Australian) over the next two years on developing a research programme that would benefit both countries. I will primarily help identify potential areas for joint research, including in the fields of art and culture,” Mattoo told The Tribune here today. Appointing Mattoo as the inaugural Director, Chairman of the institute board, University of Melbourne Chancellor Alex Chernov, today said, “We are delighted to have as Director a person of world-renowned academic and administrative calibre such as Professor Mattoo. He has a wealth of experience in areas concerned with university affairs, government and other institutions.”

The principal aims of the institute include the promotion of greater exchange in knowledge between India and Australia in a range of areas of mutual interest.

As for Mattoo, he has been a member of the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory group to the Prime Minister and the V-C of Jammu varsity from 2002-2008.

His appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the new Jammu Central University last year led to major political controversies with some factions in Jammu opposing his name on grounds of nepotism, among others. Though the President of India finally appointed him as the VC despite stiff resistance in Jammu, Mattoo declined to take up the job.

New Delhi, March 11
India’s Ambassador to Turkey Raminder Singh Jassal, who was the country’s public face as the spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry during the Kargil conflict in 1999, died this morning after a prolonged battle with cancer.

An IFS officer of the 1976 batch, Jassal is survived by his wife Smita and two sons.

Extremely popular among his colleagues, the ace diplomat had served as India’s Ambassador to Israel and Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington during his distinguished career spanning more than three decades. He played a key role during the thorny negotiations between India and the US over the civil nuclear deal. One of his colleagues recalled that Jassal had a great zest for life while being very serious with whatever work was assigned to him. Collecting pens was one of his hobbies.

That he was suffering from cancer was confirmed soon after he shifted to Ankara from Washington as the Indian envoy to Turkey in 2008.

Journalists on the MEA beat would always remember Jassal for his detailed briefings at the height of the Kargil war with Pakistan. One could telephone him at any time and get a response from him to any query. And he would never sound rude even if one were to call him well past midnight.

Jassal is the second IFS officer to have died due to cancer in recent years. India’s Ambassador to Turkey Arif Khan, who too was the ministry’s spokesman in the mid-1990s, died in February last year.

BRIEFLY

Notice to Chhattisgarh on Binayak's bail plea
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Chhattisgarh Government, seeking its response in four weeks to rights activist Binayak Sen's plea for bail and suspension of the life sentence imposed on him by the trial court for his links with Maoists. — TNS

Pawar on pesticides
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday admitted that 67 pesticides allowed for use in India have either been banned or severely restricted by some countries. On why these pesticides were being allowed for use in India, he said some countries had banned their use but others like Brazil and Australia continue to use them. — TNS