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Delayed monsoon: Centre, states to discuss crop gains
Pak stand on India N-stockpile delays Geneva talks
Krishna to meet gurdwara victims in US
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IAF to spend $36.5 bn on aircraft in 10 years
Urban poor yet to benefit from housing schemes
UPA making false job promises: Modi
India to move WTO against US visa fee hike
Agartala-Dhaka bus service suspended after attack
Explosion near Imphal airport
3 die in temple stampede
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Delayed monsoon: Centre, states to discuss crop gains
The aim of the two-day “National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2012” is to bridge the production shortfall of kharif and make the most of existing moisture in the soil by sowing short-duration seeds during the intermediate period in some areas and fast-forwarding winter crops in fallows. As the monsoon prepares for a retreat in the northwest and west this week, the countrywide situation is quite different from how it was four months back in June, or even in the beginning of August. With the help of some smart economic moves, UPA’s managers may have managed to save the day for the government but they also have the rain gods to thank, who, albeit a little late, helped overall rain shortfall improve sharply from an extremely alarming 22 per cent to a heartening 5 per cent. This helped improve the overall sentiment among people in the country along with soil moisture. It is a known fact that any deviation by the monsoon, especially on the side of shortfall, invariably spells trouble for the party in power. Apart from ill effects on the economy, a bad monsoon leads to a decline in the overall outlook of people. However, despite some excellent show by the rains in the latter part of the season, key food granaries - Punjab, Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh - are technically still staring at a deficiency of 43 per cent, 37 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, quite easily the highest in the region. Along with these regions are Saurashtra and Kutch (35 per cent), Gujarat region (27 per cent) and Marathwada (31 per cent). It is a point that will be brought up the states concerned tomorrow. Another matter of concern for planners is to study how the monsoon ignored some regions to the point of drought while it rained havoc in some other regions. With the way the rains are playing out in the North-East, the country, at least in terms of statistics, will improve upon the existing 5 per cent deficit but it will be at the cost of farmers and their fields.
Kharif's loss is rabi's gain
Monsoon about to withdraw
Conditions have become favourable for the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Saurashtra and Kutch during the next 48 hours, according to the IMD
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Pak stand on India N-stockpile delays Geneva talks
New Delhi, September 23 “Pakistan has only been trying to complicate the negotiations ...Its taking shelter under lame excuses like arguing that India’s nuclear initiative has made things difficult for it. However, nobody is buying its argument,’’ the sources pointed out. India, on the other hand, has taken the stand that if the existing stockpiles were to be made part of the negotiations at Geneva, the proposed deal would no longer remain the FMCT but become the nuclear weapons convention. It must be mentioned here that the Geneva disarmament conference can only move forward by consensus. Until Pakistan is on board, the negotiations can't be concluded. On why China was getting away with its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan, the sources explained that when Beijing joined the FMCT, it had made it clear that it was in the process of assisting Pakistan in building Chashma-I and Chashma-II nuclear plants. “There was a well-established 'grand fathering' clause when China joined the FMCT and it insisted on the same existing clause for helping Pakistan in constructing Chashma III and Chashma IV reactors.’’ The world community was not in agreement with Beijing on this but the fact of the matter was that the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) has not been able to prevent China from supplying Chashma III and Chashma IV reactors, the sources acknowledged. They said India was making a steady progress in becoming a member of the four international export control regimes-the NSG, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. “There is a general opinion that India will join all the four groupings in a coordinated fashion...everybody appreciates our credentials to become a member of these groupings,’’ they added. The sources said a team of experts from the IAEA would visit Rajasthan in November to carry out an in-depth operational safety review of two atomic power plants there in the wake of growing concerns over the safety of nuclear facilities worldwide.
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Krishna to meet gurdwara victims in US
New Delhi, September 23 Official sources said Krishna would also be meeting those who injured in the incident, which enraged Indians across the world. The minister is leaving here next week to represent India at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, which has already started on September 18. India will pitch for fast-tracking reforms of the UN Security Council and press for expanded global cooperation in combating terrorism, piracy and climate change during Krishna’s address at the UNGA on October one, the sources said. The Indian minister will also conduct multilateral diplomacy that includes a meeting of India with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the meeting of the foreign ministers of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and a conclave on Somalia. Krishna will also be attending a meeting of the foreign ministers of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries on the sidelines of the UNGA. At the UN, India, which is currently serving a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, will seek to shape the global agenda on a host of issues. On the top of the agenda will be a renewed effort to fast-track the expansion of the UN Security Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories. The focus will be on moving forward negotiations to tangible outcomes, the sources said. In this context, India will mount a diplomatic outreach with the delegations from African countries as the 54-nation continent holds the key to the reforms of the UNSC. The complex negotiations on the UN reforms, which have been decried as talk shop, have progressed in the last few months with the beginning of the text-based negotiations. Being a victim of terrorism, India, which is the chair of the terrorism committee of the UN, will also press for concrete measures to target financing of terrorist networks. Evolving a concrete plan of action to combat piracy and bolstering peace-building efforts of the UN will also be part of India's UN agenda. India is currently the chair of the UN contact group on piracy off the coast of Somalia.
On the agenda
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Flash floods, landslides leave 21 dead in Sikkim
Gangtok, September 23 The dead include four from the ITBP, two of
their family members, and 12 junior officers from the BRO. Other victims were casual labourers, officials said. Most of the casualties are reported from Rangma range. Landslides were caused by heavy rains since September 19, Deputy Commissioner North district TW Khangsherpa said. There were about nine landslides blocking the main road between Chungthang and Mangan in the district, he said. Army and IAF personnel have started rescue operations in full swing. Several landslides blocked the main roads between Chungthang and Pegong. Houses along Lachen river between Rangma and Chungthang were washed away in flash floods along Lachen river. The state government has declared a state of alert along the establishments on the river banks right from Lachen, Lachung, Chungthang, Mangan, Dikchu, Singtam and Rangpo, a government press release said. In the small hours of today, another landslide was reported from a place 1 km away from Mangan, the district headquarter town of north Sikkim. As a result of which, official reports said NH31-A has been blocked leaving the northern side of the Himalayan state cut
off. —IANS
Situation in Assam grim, 7 killed z The flood situation in Assam is grim with over 800,000 people affected in at least 15 of the 27 districts in the state z Officials said seven persons have died in floods in various places during the past one week. Over 700 villages have also been submerged in the affected areas z The government has sounded an alert, as water level in most of the rivers in the state continue to rise owing to incessant rains in some Upper Assam districts as well as in Arunachal Pradesh z The flood situation is more serious in Kamrup, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts
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IAF to spend $36.5 bn on aircraft in 10 years
New Delhi, September 23 IAF Deputy Chief Air Marshal RK Sharma said, “We are on path of modernising our assets. In the last five-year plan, IAF procurements were around Rs 1.5 lakh crore and over next two plan periods (2012 to 2022), we envisage procurement of assets worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore. The IAF is planning to sign a number of big-ticket deals in the near future including the 126 MMRCA expected to be worth over Rs 50,000 crore, the fifth generation fighter aircraft deal with Russia which is expected to cross the Rs 1 lakh crore mark and a number of other projects over and above the range of Rs 5,000 crore.” He was addressing a seminar on ‘Energising Aerospace Industry’ in India here today organised by industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Addressing the gathering, the IAF Deputy Chief said there was “huge potential” for the private sector to work in the defence sector but it should be done by “adopting best ethical practices.” “You must adopt best ethical practices and be extremely sensitive to IAF’s concerns about security of information,” Air Marshal Sharma told the audience. He said the the DRDO and the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) must not see the private sector as a competitor but as a partner in developing an indigenous defence industry in the country.
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Urban poor yet to benefit from housing schemes
New Delhi, September 23 The country faced a shortage of 18.78 million houses at the beginning of the 12th Five Year Plan (FYP), of which the economically weaker section (EWS) accounts for 56 per cent of the total housing shortage. Over 11 million houses are lying unused and vacant in urban India, states a “Report of the Technical Group (TG-12) Urban Housing Shortage (2012-17)” that was released by Minister of Urban Housing and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja here on Friday. The shortage of houses in the EWS and the low income group (LIG) is 96 per cent of the cumulative crunch of dwellings faced by the country. States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala account for over 60 per cent of the total housing shortage in India. Maharashtra alone accounts for 20 per cent to the problem. Many housing structures are “occupied and locked” owing to multiple factors, including the slowdown of rental market. In the northern region, Chandigarh has 19,000 empty houses along with 1,000 unused houses. In Punjab and Haryana, 3.38 million and 2.97 million houses are vacant, respectively. Number of houses found locked attributed to the NRI population are 27,000 in Punjab and 20,000 in Haryana, respectively. The TG-12 headed by Professor Amitabh Kundu from Delhi University’s Department of Economics points out that most of the vacant houses are owned by middle income group (MIG) and upper income group (UIG) even as Census 2011 does not mention the expenditure group of the households. Thus, the findings based on Census 2011 clearly attest to the paradox that urban India contributes to the housing poverty even as it has witnessed a rising stock of houses over the last few years, notwithstanding the dip in the quantum of housing shortage coming down to 23 per cent this year March against 37 per cent seen prior to the 11th FYP in 2007.
Unoccupied
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UPA making false job promises: Modi
Patan (Guj), September 23 "See the Congress manifesto, it says we will give jobs to people from each family. In 2009, they said one crore jobs will be given. Has it happened?," Modi told a gathering at the Swami Vivekanand Youth Convention here. "Why are they cheating youths like this? If someone cheats, we cannot forgive...It is not our nature to cheat," he said. Modi was reacting to state Congress unit's announcement that it would provide jobs to 10 lakh youths in the state, if voted to power. Elections in Gujarat are scheduled later this year. "The government in Delhi is cheating the youths of Gujarat, while we are bringing industrial development in the state," Modi said. "As per GoI survey estimates, 72 per cent of jobs created in India are coming from Gujarat," he said to assert his viewpoint. "Please don't have expectations from Delhi. Over 3.5 lakh people have got jobs in last one decade rule of Gujarat government. One lakh more will get jobs," he said. If any youth wishes to start his own venture, the Gujarat government will back him for providing bank loans, Modi announced. "These are not small decisions. It's not my courage but the faith I have in you. Our youngsters will not do wrong...I have the faith," Modi said . — PTI
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India to move WTO against US visa fee hike
New Delhi, September 23 Although the commerce ministry had internally started the process in April, collecting all the relevant information and data to make a strong case in the WTO is taking time, a senior official told PTI. "But now we have finalised our case. We are putting all the evidences together. The US visa fee hike is a discriminatory move against Indian IT firms. We are expecting that by October end, we will formally file the complaint and seek consultations under WTO," the official said. The US had raised visa fee in 2010 to fund its enhanced costs on securing border with Mexico under the Border Security Act. India has been protesting against the measure at different forums. An American law (Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010) has substantially increased the fees for H-1B and L-1 categories of visas for applicants that employ more than 50 employee in the US or have more than 50 per cent of their employees admitted on non-immigrant visas (called the “50/50 rule”). "... which is prima facie discriminatory for Indian companies," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia had said earlier. According to industry experts, the H1B visa fee has been increased to $ 2,000 per visa application and L1 by $ 2,700 per visa application. Some of the top Indian companies --TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam -- were affected by the US action on visa fee. The US is the largest market for the Indian software exports. As per the procedure of WTO, consultation is the first stage of a complaint filed with the global
trade body. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further. After 60 days, if consultations fail to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel. Meanwhile, New Delhi and Washington have also completed consultations on other issues in WTO that include avain influenza and steel. In April, India had complained that the US had wrongly imposed countervailing duties, a kind of restrictive duty, on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India. "We have asked for setting up of panel under the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism on the steel issue," the official said.
— PTI
Companies hit
Some of the top Indian companies — TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam — have been affected by the US action on visa fee
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Agartala-Dhaka bus service suspended after attack
Agartala, September 23 "The Agartala-Dhaka bus service has been suspended temporarily following Friday's incident. The service is expected to resume after an inquiry into the incident and other necessary formalities," said a Tripura transport department official. "A team of Tripura government officials would visit Bangladesh to probe the incident and to talk to the police and officials of that country," he added. The Dhaka-bound 'Maitree' passenger bus, run by the Tripura Road Transport Corporation, was torched by an angry mob at Narsindi in central Bangladesh on Friday. According to Bangladesh media reports, the incident was a fallout of a clash between two local political groups. Narsindi is 50 km north-east of Dhaka and 45 km west of Agartala. The driver and conductor of the bus sustained minor injuries. All the 22 passengers and one of the three crew members were safe. Of the passengers, 12 were Indians and the rest were Bangladeshi nationals. — IANS
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Explosion near Imphal airport
Imphal, September 23 Sources said the bomb, an improvised explosive device allegedly planted by insurgents to attack security personnel, went off around 1 PM. They said the insurgents used remote-controlled device to explode the bomb. The officer-in-charge of nearby Kwakeithel police station, accompanied by a police force, went to the area soon after the explosion and started a combing operation. No arrest was made. — PTI
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Mathura, September 23 Malini Devi (60) of Bareilly and Kusum (42) of Faridabad were crushed to death while Deepak (40) succumbed to his injuries at the district hospital, official sources said. Two 20 persons were injured and were admitted to various hospitals, they said. While eyewitnesses claim that the stampede took place when devotees were passing through the exit gate during prayers, the police denied that any incident of such nature had taken place. "It is not an incident of stampede. In fact both women died of heart attack as they reached the temple after climbing over 100 stairs," SP (Rural) AK Rai said. — PTI
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Land Bill: Jairam faces GoM hurdle
Barely a day after PM constituted a 14-member Group of Ministers
(GoM) to scrutinise the Land Acquisition Bill, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh began getting in touch with its members to explain the contentious provisions of the proposed legislation. He has also sent them a sheaf of documents. The GoM begins its proceedings next week. Ramesh is said to be particularly possessive about the Land Acquisition Bill that ran into trouble in the Cabinet. As a result, it was referred to the
GoM. Although the Bill tops the Congress agenda and is Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi’s pet project, it has been held up as several ministers believe that its tough provisions would hamper
industrialisation. Ramesh is insisting that the Bill should not be diluted. He is learnt to have tried hard to see that the Bill doesn’t get sent to a GoM as this would delay its
finalisation. Ramesh’s efforts went in vain as the Bill has not only been referred to a GoM but it also comprises all those ministers who had raised objections to it. Faced with a battery of
sceptics, Ramesh has a tough task ahead convincing his colleagues. And given the mammoth size of the panel, the legislation is unlikely to be ready in a hurry.
East Delhi MP delivers six safely
With the electorate becoming increasingly demanding, Lok Sabha MPs find themselves saddled with many requests. But East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit was recently confronted with the most unusual demand. He was baffled when he received an SOS from six panic-stricken pregnant women from his constituency saying that they were stranded in Amritsar and needed his help to get back to Delhi. The group had apparently travelled to seek blessings at Paonta Sahib and Harminder Sahib before their
deliveries. Dikshit immediately deputed his aides to rush to Amritsar with strict instructions that the women be escorted back safely to their homes in Delhi at the earliest. Dikshit was on the tenterhooks till he received reports about their arrival as he was worried about the consequences in case one of the women went into labour during the road
journey.
Pranab is music to artistes’ ears
Cultural activities clearly top President Pranab Mukherjee’s agenda ever since he moved to Rashtrapati
Bhawan. Last month, the Presidential residence held its first World Flute Festival to commemorate Krishna Jayanti while a music body called ‘Indra Dhanush’ was floated on the occasion. After the flautists enthralled the President and the selected guests, it was the turn of vocalist Shubha Mudgal to regale the special audience at the Rashtrapati Bhawan last week. The President had announced last time that ‘Indra Dhanush’ had been started as a cultural series to showcase the richness of Indian culture and provide a platform to artistes. Many more such performances are in the pipeline.
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One of the main items on External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's agenda during his upcoming visit to the United States will be a visit to Wisconsin to meet the families of those killed in the indiscriminate firing by a gunman at a gurudwara in early August in what appeared to be a hate crime.
Patan (Guj), September 23
New Delhi, September 23
The benefits of the Congress government’s flagship programmes Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojna (RAY) are far from reaching the people who need it the most — the urban poor — than envisioned in the plans of having a slum-free India.
India is expected to soon seek consultations with the US under the aegis of World Trade Organisation (WTO) on visa fee hike for professionals, which discriminates against Indian software companies that send employees to America on short-term contracts.
