To tackle Maoists in Lalgarh, special force to be upgraded

Express News Service
Posted: Nov 25, 2008 at 0502 hrs IST

Kolkata, November 24 After being pushed by the Union Home Ministry, the Left Front government will develop a special force to tackle Maoists in Bengal’s western zone. For the purpose, the state’s Special Combat Force (Straco) is being trained and equipped to undertake combat operations in the jungles.
“We already have a specialised force trained by the Army, which is camped in Lalgarh,” said IG (Law " Order) Raj Kanojia. “Now we are training them to operate in tough terrain.”

The Straco, comprising men selected from the police force, are trained by the Army through its Junior Leaders’ Training Establishment set up in 2005. The number of companies — 14 now — is likely to be increased.

“The Union government wants this force to be developed on the lines of Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh,” said a top officer of the Bengal Police. “Straco is similar to Greyhounds but we need to upgrade it by providing specialised equipment and better training. The matter was discussed at a meeting in Delhi recently where the director general of police was present,” he added.

Meanwhile, the tribals reached the West Midnapore district headquarters on Monday and dug up a road in Midnapore town, which leads to Jhargram. As a result, the area remained cut off for the 17th day.

The police and administration are in a fix over resolving the Lalgarh issue. According to police sources, the movement is being led by an active Maoist leader, Sasadhar Mahato, the prime suspect in the Chief Minister’s convoy blast case. However, no action can be taken against him because of the mass agitation. The police are not in a position to even enter tribal areas, and they cannot accept the demand that charges against Mahato be dropped. The police have also refused to hold meeting with the Maoist-backed agitators in a remote village in Lalgarh, which sparked the agitation after the police raided in on November 4.

In another development, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has sought a report on the Lalgarh situation from the West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress Committee. A Youth Congress team visited Lalgarh today and prepared a report to be forwarded to state Youth Congress president Amitava Chakraborty.

CM wants to discuss issue in Assembly
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday asked Left Front MLAs to raise the Lalgarh stalemate in the Assembly during the ongoing winter session. In a Left Front’s parliamentary meeting, addressed by the chief minister, it was clear that the Left MLAs would attack the opposition for hobnobbing with the Maoists. The government has decided to move three private motions against the Opposition for instigating anti-state activities. Meanwhile, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress are gearing up to move an adjournment motion, blaming the state government for its failure to tackle the Lalgarh crisis and the lack of development in the tribal areas.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/to-tackle-maoists-in-lalgarh-special-force-to-be-upgraded/390286/

State Congress requests Rahul to expose the ‘true face of CPM’
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 Posted: Nov 26, 2008 at 1950 hrs IST
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CPM is trying to politicise steel project foundation, says TMC, CongKolkata : As the tribal agitation in Jhargram over the November 2 Salbani blast entered its 19th day, the state Congress requested AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to visit the area and see how the “tribals were being tortured by the police and CPM cadres”.
In a letter to Gandhi, Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhuniya appealed to him to send a high-powered team to the trouble-torn Lalgarh before his visit. The team should mostly comprise leaders from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, the letter stated.

Earlier, Gandhi had sought a report on Lalgarh situation,

Bhuniya said. Giving details of the alleged torture and police atrocities on tribals in the area after the blast in chief minister’s convoy, Bhuniya had requested him to raise the issue in Parliament to expose the “true face of the CPM”.

He claimed that even after nearly three weeks since the agitation begun, no action has been taken against any police officer.
“The Congress will launch a 36-hour sit-in demonstration in front of the Lalgarh police station on Wednesday,” he said. On Monday, a youth Congress delegation had met the protestors at Lalgarh, including the women who were tortured by the police.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/state-congress-requests-rahul-to-expose-the-…/390931/

Tribals launched a fresh round of agitation in Lalgarh on Tuesday. Roads were dug up again at Penchapara in Salboni, 27 km from Lalgarh,  and many other places like Chilgeria and some villages between Chandra and Dherua. Times of India reports.

CPI(Maoist) leaders held meetings at Patharkumkumi jungle near Lalgarh with the locals to decide what the tribals would do if the administration sits with the Polici Santrash Birodhi Janaganer Committee (PSBJC) by November 28.

“We cannot understand why the protesters are insisting on holding a meeting at Dalilpurchawk. We are ready for discussion again," said Narayan Swaroop Nigam, West Midnapore DM.

“Nothing can be done without taking the Constitution into account," said ADM Raja Aron Israel.

Salboni BDO Pravat Chattopadhyay, Midnapore Sadar SDO Partha Ghosh and DSP (operation) Arnab Ghosh rushed to Penchapara to remove the blockade but failed as villagers obstructed police.

“We will remove the blockade ourselves only if the officials decide to go to Dalilpurchawk and solve the problem of Lalgarh. But we will continue with our stir if you neglect our demands," said Prankrishna Soren, a schoolteacher.

“Why are police and administration fearing common people? Are police officers and civil officials feeling guilty themselves? Why don"t we have one standard road, electricity and pure drinking water even six decades after Independence," asked Shyam Chand Murmu, a protester.

Congress leader Manas Bhunia has threatened to sit on a 36-hour dharna in front of Lalgarh PS on Wednesday, demanding punishment for the accused police officers and a CBI inquiry into the ambush on the chief minister"s convoy at Salboni on November 2.

Gana Mukti Parishad president Sunanda Sanyal went to Chhoto Pelia with six other members to listen to tales of police torture on Tuesday. “This is not the fallout of just one incident. The area has been neglected by the government for three decades and we condemn the role of the police," he said.

 Opposition parties staged demonstrations at different places in West Bengal on Monday protesting alleged police excesses on tribals in Paschim Medinipur district. Parts of the district have remained virtually cut off for more than a fortnight following an agitation by locals in Lalgarh, demanding action against police for highhandedness.

Fresh roadblocks were set up by protesters in the Jhargram sub-division of Paschim Medinipur district as well as in parts of adjoining Bankura district, according to reports reaching here.

Procession
A group of tribals led by Trinamool Congress leaders took out a procession at Asansol in Burdwan district in protest against the alleged police atrocities.

Those leading the agitation alleged that police excesses had been committed on Lalgarh villagers during police raids to track down those responsible for the IED blast that narrowly missed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy on November 2.

Supporters of the Congress and its youth wing staged demonstrations in the Jhargram subdivision against the ‘police excesses.’ They squatted for two hours on the highway that links Kolkata to Mumbai, causing severe traffic disruptions.
The LPG Mafia has made My country a Valley of Death! CHRONY, CASINO and STARVATION Economy Sustained to Kill its Majority People!
If Dr Manmohan Singh is relieved and Chettiyar gangsters disaapear from the scene, we may not have any opportunity to feel relaxed as the recent History of India shows unprecedented CONTINUITY in GOI`s Economic Policies since nieties, no matter what parties or coaliation rules the country. Even the declaerd ENEMY of Capitalism and Globalisation, the great Indian Left is nowhere behind the mainstream Political parties as far as MASS ANNIHILIATION is concerned. The RSS Fascists, who never feel any SHAME in either  ETHNIC CLEANSING or LOYALITY to Zionist White Imperialism rae well set to take over and the Indian Media is doing veery thing to highlight the Prime Minister in Waiting, the Ram Janma Bhhomi Movement leader, the mastermind behind Bengali Refugge Deportation along With Bengali Elite Brahmins like Buddhadeb and PRANAB, LALKRISHNA ADWANI!

Semi fanal for the Great indian Brahaminical power politics is in Progress and  As part of its “carpet-bombing" strategy, BJP on Wednesday held nearly 50 election rallies, mostly addressed by party star campaigners L K Advani, Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi and other senior leaders.

Not leaving anything to chance in its bid to come to power in Delhi, the party had asked all its top leaders to campaign for the Delhi Assembly election.

BJP"s “good governance" mascot Modi attended several rallies on Wednesday and Tuesday as well.

Other prominent leaders who have addressed poll rallies in the capital include Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduri, cine star Shatrughan Sinha, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Suhsil Modi, and TV actress Smriti Irani.
The Washington Planted Suprme salve Dr Manmohan Singh refers to Chrony Economy sometimes and CASIONO Economy another time. CHETTIAR Gang of worldbank slaves along with FINMIN, Planning Commission, Reserve Bank and well fed Policy Makers and Media have done everything to FEED the MONEY Machine and the CREAMY LAYERs! Chrony economy as well as Casino Economy  sustain to create STARVATION ECONOMY in the Killing Fields of Indian Indigenous Geopolitics besieged!Even as the governments around the globe are struggling to pull their economies out of the financial crisis by injecting trillions of dollars, experts believe the times of layoffs, detrimental economic growth and liquidity crunch is here to stay for at least two years! According to government data released yesterday, the US economy contracted at the fastest pace in seven years with a negative growth of 0.5 per cent in the third quarter this year. The Word bank slaves tagged Indian Economy with US Destiny. The claim Risilience and Decouplation while the unholy couplation continues and the LPG BASTARDS  do everything to ensure MASS DESTRUCTION and it never needs a Nuclear explosion. The Economic Disaster is greater than any Nuclear war! Creation of a mechanism for strengthening technology transfer and financing architecture to meet adaptation and mitigation cost will be key issues on which India will negotiate at the forthcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) meet scheduled next week in Poland.

The Centre on Wednesday said it has deferred a for Foreign Direct Investment proposal from global media conglomerate Dow Jones, publishers of Wall Street Journal, for taking out the facsimile edition of the business daily in India.

Announcing the approval for 32 FDI proposals, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday said Dow Jones " Company had proposed to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary “to carry out publishing of facsimile editions of newspapers".

A facsimile edition of a newspaper published abroad is its exact replica without any local content or advertisements.

The media giant already has its presence in India through its Wall Street Journal newspaper. WSJ has an exclusive content partnership with Mint, the financial daily published by HT Media .

At present, there is only one foreign newspaper that gets published in India as a facsimile edition.

The International Herald Tribune, the international newspaper of New York Times, is published in India by Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings.

My Office has changed the Bank Account from ICICI to HDFC Bank. I had Zero balance salary Account with ICICI. NOw I have an account with HDFC. My office opened both the account. But it did not care to send a letter to the ICICI Bank informing the Closure. I have got a personal loan from the CITI Bank to buy a Computer at Home. I had no option as ICICI and all the Nationalised Banks refuse to sanction Loan to Scribes, POLICE and DEFENCE Personnels. It was going well as I never felt the burden as the monthly ionstallment was being deducted from my ICICI savings account by ECS. I could not continue the ICICI account as the mandataory depsosit and Mandatory transaction amounted to cross my limit. I could not run both the account. At the same time, I could not close the ICICI Bank account simply because CITI BANK Camac ST, Kolkata could not transfer my ECS from ICICI to HDFC. I had applied immideiately. But they never did load the Bank code as the HDFC bransh , Clive Row, Kolkata One happens to be anew branch. The CITI Bank staff had to create a new Code file to load the code. The cheque bounced. I had to pay no less than Rs 824 for asingle cheque bounce and the EMI amount being only Rs 2021.I applied once again and paid the istalment in cash.They waived the penalty this time but the cheque bounced. Only a few days back, I requested the Bank Official to accept Post dated Cheques for all the EMIs due. They agreed and I deposited. I have to wait for the stoppage of the damned ECS to close ICICI account. meanwhile I have to pay RS 750 for every quarter with 12 percent service tax for non transaction to ICICI bank. And all this Harrasment is created without my fault.

Salary are now credited to bank Acoounts and most banks are Foreign. The Account Holder is bound to ist conditions without any choice!
Meanwhile, visiting so many financial institutions to bail out myself from Purchasing capacity crunch to sustain myself, I had a reare opportunity to share the grievances of the Common masses. While as empowered as I am, I feel the pangs of the Plight, just guess the suffering.

Contending that India is a nuclear-weapon state whether the world recognises it or not, former President APJ Abdul Kalam has said the country needs not go for any more atomic tests to prove this status “again and again". Kalam, who has brought out a special edition of his e-magazine ‘Billion Beats" on the Indo-US nuclear deal, has said the country should believe in its strength as he sought to allay fears that the agreement would compromise India"s sovereignty. The deal, apart from paving the way for Uranium imports, will help India develop nuclear technology that the world may need in the future, said the strong proponent of the agreement in an article ‘Strength respects Strength". He said people should believe in the country"s strength in economy and security and prove to the world that “India is wiser" in playing a responsible nation in achieving energy independence vision before 2030.

FDI has changed the Scenerio. FDI Magic works behind SEZ, RETAIL, REALTY, CHEMICAL HUBs, NUCEAR PARKS, Consumer market and INFRASTRUCTUR. BANKS, INssurances, Health and Education, IT and entertainment, Construction, Aviation, Rural Development and harvesting, everything including all powerful OMNIPRESENT Media is struck by FDI. Now Corporates and MNCs and India Incs  rule for different governments. The People are ejected out of Hoem, Land and Livelihood and DEINDUSTRIALISATION is dubbed as Industrialisation, Devastation of Indigenous market and Production syastem is termed as Development. Displacement is named as URBANISATION. License to KILL is called DEMOCRACY!

An empowered Group of Ministers, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is likely to meet soon to discuss a proposal to exclude foreign institutional investors" stake from the overall FDI ceiling.

Despite slowdown in the global economy, India received 17.21 billion dollar between April-September this financial year, showing an impressive increase of 137 per cent from 7.25 billion dollar in the first half of the previous fiscal.

While the DIPP is understood to have mooted the proposal for excluding the foreign institutional investors" stake in companies from the overall FDI ceiling, the plan is believed to have been opposed by the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The issue will be resolved by eGoM.

Between April-August, data for which has been officially released, manufacturing has attracted an FDI of five billion dollar, showing an increase of 41 per cent over inflows in the year-ago period.
Undeterred by global credit freeze, India maintains a bullish outlook on attracting Foreign Direct Investment which may be governed by easier rules, a top government official said on Wednesday.

“FDI inflows were robust till September and…my sense is that the October figures will be robust as companies like the General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota are going to execute their ongoing projects," Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ajay Shankar said in New Delhi. He said the issue of “liberalisation and rationalisation" of FDI policy was under inter-ministerial consultation. “A decision is expected soon", he said at a FICCI function in New Delhi.Asked whether the government is mulling import restrictions to protect the domestic industry, Shankar said both fiscal and monetary measures would be used to stimulate demand and maintain growth.
Meanwhile,The BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 3.8 per cent on Wednesday in a late rally led by financials as rate cut expectations gathered momentum after China lowered its interest rates.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram had said on Monday the focus had shifted to bolster growth as inflation cooled, and a Reuters poll forecast on Wednesday annual inflation would have dropped to a seven-month low of 8.56 per cent in mid-November.

Affluent Classes have to do nothing with Mass Movements, Public Grievances and Isurrections as Top airlines in India have withdrawn a transaction fee on air tickets effective Wednesday for tickets sold through call centres, websites or city offices. Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have withdrawn the fee, which ranges from 350 rupees on a domestic economy ticket to 1,200 to 10,000 rupees on first class international tickets.

Indian Politicians of Brothel Culture and most Politicalised, Corrupt Next after the Politicians, the Media are PREVILEGED enough to enjoy LIFE in Americanised Colonial FREEseSEX Shining INDIA ruled by BRAHAMINICAL Hegemony in alliance with Zionist WHITE HINDU GALAXY Order of Post Modern MANUSMRITI and APARTHEID. What if BARRACK OBAMA takes over the OVAL OFFICE in the White House in Washington!The US economy contracted at its fastest pace in seven years in the third quarter as consumer spending plunged to a 28-year low, data showed on Tuesday, raising the specter of a deeper recession. Separate reports showed US home prices continued their downward spiral, with the cost of single-family homes plunging by a record 17.4 per cent in September from a year earlier. The data painted a dismal picture of the troubled economy and backed views the Federal Reserve could push benchmark lending rates to an unprecedented zero per cent by early 2009.
At home,reports from Mumbai say that ICICI Bank, India"s second-largest lender, rose 9.6 per cent to 350.50 rupees, while smaller rival HDFC Bank firmed 8.6 per cent to 907.20 rupees. Leading lender State Bank of India gained 3 per cent to 1,104.25 rupees.

China slashed its one-year lending and deposit rates by 108 basis points in its fourth cut since mid-September to help its economy weather the global economic slowdown. Traders said the move strengthened prospects for a rate cut by the Indian central bank.

A businessman fed up of being harassed by debt collectors because of a wrong entry in his loan repayment record held three of them hostage until the bank clarified in writing that he wasn’t a defaulter. The Telegraph Kolkata reports.

The report follows:
Subhashis Chatterjee, 35, told Metro after the six-hour drama on Tuesday evening that he decided to take the “extreme step” after several intimidating calls from a loan recovery agency hired by ICICI Bank.

“The callers claimed that I hadn’t paid my personal loan EMI for March 2007, along with some extra charges for defaulting on repayment. I told them that I had documents to prove them wrong but they wouldn’t listen,” he said.

Subhashis, a resident of Sarojini Pally in Barasat, had taken a personal loan of Rs 50,000 from ICICI Bank in January last year to expand his air-conditioning and fridge repairing business. The EMI was fixed at Rs 2,406 for 36 months.

The businessman, who had opted for electronic clearance instead of giving post-dated cheques, defaulted on the second EMI because of insufficient funds in his account. “The bank sent a collection agent to my home a few days later and I paid the EMI in cash,” he said.

Subhashis thought the matter was settled but a representative of the bank called two months later to say that he had “missed” the EMI for March. When he went to the Gurusaday Road branch of ICICI Bank to enquire why he was being harassed, it turned out that the culprit was the collection agent.

“The loan account number he wrote in the receipt was not mine. The bank rectified the error and assured me that I would not receive any more calls,” Subhashis recalled.

But an official of ICICI Bank called Subhashis again a few days later and requested him to visit the branch for a “clarification”. On reaching the Gurusaday Road branch, he was asked to speak to a bank official in New Delhi over phone. “I had to repeat what I had said earlier, after which the official said there would be no more confusion.”

Subhashis continued paying his EMIs — 21 out of 36 till this month — and forgot about the dispute until a collection agent called on October 17 and said he owed the bank an extra Rs 4,300, payable immediately. Another caller said the outstanding amount was Rs 1,906.

More calls followed over the next few days, some of them allegedly threatening ones. “A couple of callers even abused my family members,” Subhashis said.

After consulting some friends, he decided to teach them a lesson. When a collection agent called on Monday, Subhashis asked him to come to his residence on Tuesday and take the “outstanding amount” in cash.

The collector arrived at Subhashis’s home around noon and immediately wrote a receipt. Subhashis showed him his bank statement and the receipt for the March ’07 EMI that he paid in cash but the collector wasn’t convinced. “You can call the police or go to court but I won’t leave without the payment,” Subhashis quoted him as saying.

Subhashis and his friends, who had arrived by then, took the collector to a room and asked him to call his senior. When two more representatives of the bank, one of them a supervisor, arrived an hour later, they were asked to speak to the bank and ask for the complete repayment statement.

The trio were allowed to go only after a bank statement was emailed to the supervisor and he took a printout from a nearby cyber café to give Subhashis.

A spokesman for ICICI Bank admitted that Subhashis had been unnecessarily harassed but said his method of getting justice was illegal. “We could have lodged a police complaint but didn’t do so because he apologised for holding our men hostage.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081126/jsp/calcutta/story_10163664.jsp

The global economic downturn is going to continue for next one and half to two years. Post the downturn, the economy will stabilise but at a much lower level (in relative GDP growth rate) compared to the booms that we saw in 2005-2007 era," said Mayank H Shah, Global Capital Markets and Derivatives expert and Associate Partner at IBM.

Besides, a recent survey of global fund managers by Merrill Lynch revealed that four out of every five investors believe the world will continue to be gripped by recession in the coming years.

Policy makers have offered fiscal stimulus packages, liquidity and interest rate cuts, but investors are not yet ready to give their policies the benefit of the doubt.

About 40 per cent of the panel still believe that monetary policy is “too restrictive" and asset allocators remain overweight cash and bonds relative to equities.

What a situation!

Economic turmoil will erode the wages of millions of workers in 2009, fanning the flames of global recession, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday. Inflation-adjusted pay in rich nations will fall 0.5 per cent in the coming year — the first wage decrease since before 2001 — after having increased 0.8 per cent this year, according to new estimates from the United Nations agency.

Developing country wages should prove more resilient, led by continued gains in China and India, the ILO said. On a global basis, it estimated real wages will rise 1.1 per cent in 2009, compared to 1.7 per cent in 2008.

“For the world"s 1.5 billion wage earners, difficult times lie ahead," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in the Global Wage Report, whose comparable data only stretches back to 2001.

Somavia, a Chilean, called for strong collective bargaining to counter any decrease in wages linked to the world"s financial and economic crises that the ILO has previously said will wipe out 20 million jobs by the end of 2009.

In previous periods of contraction, every 1 percentage point drop in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita brought about a 1.55 percentage point decline in average wages, making it even harder for people to spend and invest, according to ILO data.

“If this pattern were to be followed in the rapidly spreading global downturn, it would deepen the recession and delay the recovery," Somavia said.

But even when economic growth rates were buoyant, the ILO report said wages have failed to keep pace.

For each 1 percentage point of GDP growth from 1995 to 2007, average wages only increased 0.75 percentage points, with pay rates largely failing to increase in line with productivity growth levels, it found.

Inequalities between top and bottom wages have also risen, most notably in the United States, Germany, Poland, Argentina, China and Thailand, the ILO said.

France, Spain, Brazil and Indonesia were found to have reduced those gaps somewhat in recent years.

Women"s wages represent an average of 70 to 90 per cent of men"s wages in most major economies, though some Asian nations have larger disparities, the report said.

People at the bottom of the wage ladder will be squeezed hardest by decreasing rates of pay in the coming period of economic contraction, according to ILO expert Manuela Tomei.

“If they fall too much, this will make the crisis even worse," she told a news briefing in Geneva.

Greater efforts to empower workers and enact minimum wage laws should help more people weather the coming storm, the ILO concluded. “We think that it is important to encourage collective bargaining and social dialogue," Tomei said.

India must banish the thought of recession: FM

 Hoping that the worst is over on inflation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said India must banish the thought of recession even though the overall outlook for the economy continues to be of “cautious optimism" in the face of global turbulence.
“I hope the worst is over," Chidambaram said on inflation, inaugurating the annual Economic Editors Conference in New Delhi. The rate of price rise has declined to 8.90 per cent for second week of November after touching 12.91 in early August.

The Finance Minister said the policy interest rate may moderate if inflation continues to decline and there would be “bias" in favour of growth.

Among the strategies to revive the business confidence, the government is contemplating increasing expenditure on infrastructure projects.

“Increasing expenditure on infrastructure is being contemplated" to address concerns over global slowdown," he said agreeing the country faces a “difficult situation".

Projecting a growth of 7-8 per cent for current fiscal, Chidambaram said, “In our view, we may expect a moderation in growth rate in the current year."

What an Amusement! Oil Prices slided from 147 Dollars to 49 Dollars! ATS Fuel prieces reduced three times. Airlines relieved. but no relief for COMMON MAN!

The  Petroleum Minister encashes the CRISIS hinting REDUCING on POLL EVE. All Hue and Cry is all About Power Politics. No one is concerned with the Public grievances!

Remarks on oil price cuts not made ‘knowingly": Deora Claims. But the Election Commission issued notice to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora for his remarks on effecting a fuel price cut after the conclusion of assembly elections next month. Opposition BJP had approached Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami over the issue on Wednesday contending that the announcement amounted to violation of the Model Code of Conduct enforced by the Commission.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said he had not made the announcement ‘knowingly’.

“I am upset over these reports. I would never do something knowingly," Deora said.

The Election Commission has sought an explanation from Deora on his remarks on fuel price cuts, following complaints by the BJP, which said the minister"s statement amounted to violation of the model code of conduct.

“I have been in public life for 45 years. I have fought nine elections and never been issued any notice before," Deora said.

Asked whether he has written a letter to Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Deora said, “These are things I would not like to discuss."

On fuel price cut, he said, “We are trying to do our best."

Deora also said there was a contradiction between statements of BJP leaders V K Malhotra and Arun Jaitley.

With a drop in prices of crude oil in the international market, “there is an expectation that prices need to be reduced. I am also of the opinion that they should be reduced and that will happen after December 24," Deora said on Tuesday.

Spectrum policy: Delhi HC issues notice to UPA Govt

The spectrum allocation policy followed by the Centre in recent years has come under judicial scrutiny as the Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response from the government on a petition challenging the policy.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar issued notice to the government and fixed the matter for further hearing on December 10.

The petition filed by an NGO, Telecom Watchdog, contended that the government allotted the spectrum without following any policy and cellular operators were provided excess spectrum without charging them for the scarce resource since 2001.

“The government should withdraw the excess spectrum from the operators by applying the tougher of the two spectrum allocation norms suggested by TRAI and TEC," contended advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO.

The court, however, refrained from issuing notice to cellular companies.

Indian IT firms unfazed by Obama"s tax plans
Indian IT and IT-services companies seem undaunted by the potential impact from US President-elect Barack Obama"s proposal to repeal tax breaks for companies that outsource certain operations to offshore centers.
“I don"t see Obama doing anything terribly drastic. I think he has enough on his plate; he has got a trillion-dollar bailout and probably got another trillion dollars coming on top of that which he has to finance," Genpact Ltd"s Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin said at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

Obama"s tax plans are unlikely to affect the outsourcing industry because of the scarcity of IT talent in the United States, Suresh Senapaty, chief financial officer of Wipro Ltd, told the summit, held at Reuters Bangalore office.

Over the past few years, IT-services firms armed with competitive, English-speaking professionals working for relatively cheap wages have cashed in on an outsourcing boom. But they are now experiencing a lull in growth as the US economy faces one of the worst crises in history.

Obama"s plans to encourage US firms to keep jobs in the country have raised concerns that Indian IT-services firms could lose out as more services are retained in the United States.

“Barack Obama will repeal tax breaks that reward corporations that retain their earnings overseas, and will use those savings to lower corporate tax rates for companies that expand or start operations in the United States," according to Obama"s website.

With unemployment rates in the United States rising and Wall Street giants collapsing, merging or rushing to chop their workforces to mitigate costs, Obama faces growing political pressure to keep jobs at home.

But IT industry experts concur with the view of Indian firms that the policies of Obama, who will be the first African-American president of the United States, may not be so taxing after all.

Currently, the US Internal Revenue Code allows corporations to offset losses in overseas jurisdictions against profits made in the United States, analysts Kishore Belai and Shashi Bhusan of Macquarie Research Equities said in a research report earlier this month.

The code also allows companies operating through subsidiaries overseas not to pay taxes on profits made by the units unless those profits are directed back to the United States, they said.

The tax plan proposed by Obama, who will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20, seeks to revoke this benefit.

“Such provisions may have the perverse effect of making US companies uncompetitive in overseas markets rather than deterring offshoring," the Macquarie analysts said.

Indian IT-services companies like Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd could get an edge over U.S. companies such as Cognizant and IBM, they said.

The India-domiciled companies will continue to pay lower taxes, while Cognizant and IBM will have to pay out more, the analysts said.

“It is not very tangible because he (Obama) cannot dictate what companies do or do not do," Avinash Vashistha, CEO of Tholons, an investment advisory and management consultant firm, said.

Vashistha said it would be easier for Obama to control jobs that are going offshore in the manufacturing sectors such as textiles and autos.

“But as far as the (IT and BPO) services jobs are concerned, we expect no changes," he said.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, the director of advisory services at Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt Ltd, believes companies probably need to adopt a “wait and watch" policy to see how many of Obama"s tax plans are actually implemented.

“These are uncertain times. You can"t really make some very insightful statements. We are closely watching the situation," Anantha Radhakrishnan, a vice president at Infosys BPO, said at the summit.

But currently, he does not expect to see any fundamental changes in the outsourcing environment due to Obama"s plans.

Zinnov"s Ramalingegowda said, “On the one hand (Obama) has said he is going to take away some of the tax breaks, and on the other hand he has said, very categorically, that the trend of outsourcing cannot be reversed."
That every successive administration in the last decade has eventually succumbed to the pressures of globalization suggests that regardless of how different political formations package their policies in advance of the elections, there is a powerful and very vocal lobby for globalization in India. This is because for some sections of Indian society and the Indian diaspora, globalization has come as something of a bonanza. NRIs look forward to new business opportunities in a globalized India. English-language (or even local language) media outlets who expect globalization to increase advertizing revenues have also been eager supporters of globalization. (A recent Economic Times survey of the nation"s top CEO"s indicated that most major India businesses anticipated considerably higher allocations for marketing and advertizing campaigns in order to survive in the globalized Indian economy. Some estimate that the advertizing industry has been one of the fastest growing industries in India - growing as much as 25-30% in some years.) Another outcome of globalization has been a huge increase in salaries of senior managers, accountants, lawyers and public-relations personnel working for MNCs or their local competitors. For the IT-literate, job opportunities have been plentiful, and there are also opportunities to live and earn abroad. For the English-speaking upper middle-class, this has come as a boon. With greater access to disposable income, the seduction of consumerism becomes hard to resist, and the demand for unrestricted globalization inevitably follows the attraction for new and ever more advanced consumer goods. This new and more prosperous class of Indian consumers associates India"s progress with the availability of the latest automobile models and consumer goods. The local availability of imported European cosmetics and fashions, imported drinks and confectioneries - these have all become important to those who have sufficient disposable income to purchase such items.

In the 1990s, the forces of globalisation exploded in India: a formerly tiny middle class quickly expanded, international trade burgeoned, and privatisation of state-controlled industries and sectors proceeded apace. Globalisation poses particular challenges to nations and national identity, and nations have responded to the myriad and complex forms and forces of globalisation in contradictory ways. In India, nationalism grew in strength and the major Hindu nationalist party took power for the first time in decades. Using the discourses of identity and belonging in 1990s India, this book explains how the cultures of neoliberalism become dominant. Rupal Oza examines three sites of public national debate that occurred in the 1990s: the privatisation of television, the 1996 Miss World Pageant (a publicity event meant to sell an image of a new, more liberal and secular India), and the nuclear weapons tests of the late 1990s, which nationalists correlated with masculine virility. Oza argues that globalisation has reconstituted the nation spatially, culturally, and economically along neoliberal lines and explores which gendered and sexual identities are privileged over others (and, as a consequence, who belongs in the nation and who does not).
“Death Valley ‘69" is a song by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth and is the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. The song was written and sung by guitarist Thurston Moore and fellow New York City musician Lydia Lunch, and recorded and produced by Wharton Tiers in July 1984. A demo version of the song was released in December 1984 on Iridescence Records, and it was released again in single format with different artwork in June 1985. The Flaming Lips" Finally the Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid includes a live cover of the song.

Although these sections of society are in numerical terms a very small minority in the country, they are able to wield considerable authority on account of their financial clout. Their voices are far more likely to be heard in the Indian media, and they are much more likely to be able to influence important political decisions in the country. Because of their familiarity with English, and privileged access to major media outlets and institutions of higher learning, they are taken to be more credible, and are thus able to exercise tremendous influence on public policy.But the greatest danger posed by unrestricted globalization is that it may exacerbate the problems of nagging poverty and uneven development, and create grave infra-structural mismatches. It is already evident that the Indian economy has become more dependent on imports which has brought with it constant pressure on the value of the Rupee, leading to recursive bouts of high inflation. And rather than expand India"s manufacturing strength and develop new capabilities and technological development in India, globalization may in fact put India at a global disadvantage in key sectors of modern industry leading to an economy that is always chasing scientific and technological advances that occur in other nations.

Death Valley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Death Valley is the lowest, driest and hottest[1] valley in the United States. It is the location of the lowest elevation in North America at 85.5 m (282 ft) below sea level. It holds the record for the highest reliably reported temperature in the Western hemisphere (134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek in 1913, as discussed below) - just short of the world"s highest, which was 136 F (58 C) in El Aziza, Libya on Sept. 13, 1922. Located southeast of the Sierra Nevada range in the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert, it constitutes much of Death Valley National Park. It is mostly located in Inyo County, California. It runs north-south between the Amargosa Range to the east and the Panamint Range to the west; the Sylvania Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. It has an area of about 3,000 square miles (~7,800 km²).[2]

Native population
Death Valley is home to the Timbisha tribe, who have inhabited the valley for at least the past 1000 years. Some families still live in the valley at Furnace Creek. The name of the valley, tümpisa, means ‘rock paint" and refers to the valley as a source of red ochre paint. Another village in the valley was located in Grapevine Canyon near the present site of Scotty"s Castle. It was called maahunu in the Timbisha language, the meaning of which is uncertain although hunu means ‘canyon".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley

The Valley of Fear: A Sherlock Holmes Novel
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 322 pgs

I am inclined to think- said I. “I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I"ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption. “Really, Holmes," said I severely, “you are a little trying at times." He was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to give any immediate answer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand, with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the flap. 

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One of the most popular of all the Sherlock Holmes novels 

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Book 7 of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Sherlock Holmes receives a cipher message from his agent named Porlock predicting the murder of a rich country gentleman. Minutes after he deciphers the message, Scotland Yard informs him that the murder has already taken place, under mysterious circumstances. Sherlock Holmes, together with his friend Dr. Watson, travels to Birlstone Manor to unravel the mystery. There they were told a number of truths and lies, and found myriad clues, true and false. Sherlock Holmes must unravel the tangle to find out what really happened, and in the process discovers the amazing history of a very remarkable man. 

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Book 7 of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Sherlock Holmes receives a cipher message from his agent named Porlock predicting the murder of a rich country gentleman. Minutes after he deciphers the message, Scotland Yard informs him that the murder has already taken place, under mysterious circumstances. Sherlock Holmes, together with his friend Dr. Watson, travels to Birlstone Manor to unravel the mystery. There they were told a number of truths and lies, and found myriad clues, true and false. Sherlock Holmes must unravel the tangle to find out what really happened, and in the process discovers the amazing history of a very remarkable man.
 

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‘
The Valley of Fear
 

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The last of the ‘Sherlock Holmes" novels. 

Globalisation, Privatisation and Liberalism in India
In a July 20 Times of India report titled ‘IT expert warns against digital divide in country" the author wrote: A leading information technology (IT) expert has cautioned against a “digital divide" in the country and creation of disparities between the IT haves and have-nots. The report quoted M. Anandakrishnan (vice-chairman of the information technology task force of the Tamil Nadu government and the vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu state council for higher education) as saying: “You cannot have a high-tech facility and have 50,000 people within a few kilometres who don"t have any access to computers. Availability of computers in every village did not mean accessibility and accessibility does not mean assimilation. Unless there is ‘localisation of content" this technology could not be used by 97 per cent of the population." The article goes on to question the euphoria surrounding the growth of the IT sector and again quotes M. Anandkrishnan: “We speak of 57 per cent growth of the software sector and 100 per cent growth of the hardware sector. We must take into consideration that the figures include hardware and equipment imports. We are talking of someone else"s products. We are still dependent on imports, and even now we have to use servers abroad to get to the Net". (Although there are some companies that assemble personal computers in India, India"s share of world hardware manufacturing is less than that of Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, China, or Singapore - even lower than Thailand or the Philippines). M. Anandkrishnan was also quoted as saying that the productivity of Indian labour was very low - that Indian workers earned one thirtieth of what a Japanese worker took home, concluding that the burgeoning of IT could be termed a “revolution" only if a “high intensity of growth," was indicated. The absence of any significant investment in the local design and manufacture of advanced electronic components, computer chips or telecommunication hardware must be seen as a significant failure of this decade of rapid globalization.

Advocates of globalization have often made the claim that globalization rather than destroy Indian industry would instead accelerate the growth of new industry and cause India"s economy to grow faster. But a detailed analysis of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the last few years indicates that a sizeable portion of this investment has not gone into the creation of new productive capacities. Much of the investment has simply gone into into takeovers of existing Indian enterprises or towards speculative investments in the Indian stock market. Moreover, other than India"s “hot" IT companies and select MNCs - the vast majority of Indian stocks have not benefited from such highly volatile FDI flows.

In addition, several MNCs have deliberately launched new 100% owned ventures that consciously undercut already existing partnerships with Indian manufacturers. Ironically many of these predatory ventures are funded by Indian banks and financial institutions! An Economic Times report (Dec 25 1999) cited Gouri Prasad Goenka, who took over as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce " Industry (FICCI) president last month as complaining that MNCs were using Indian capital to take over Indian industry! He had said that the grant of approvals for 100 per cent subsidiaries in areas where the multinational already had a venture with a local partner was a danger signal for shareholders as well as industry. Amit Mitra, Ficci secretary, supplemented Goenka"s objection by saying that in the United States, an agreement between joint-venture partners had a conflict of contract clause. Goenka also complained that MNCs were able to get loans from Indian financial institutions at interest rates lower than those offered to domestic industrialists and pointed out that nowhere in the world was a 100 per cent subsidiary allowed in non-technical areas. A report in the Hindustan Times by Nitya Chakroborty pointed to the case of Pfizer - the US pharmaceutical major lobbying to set up a 100% subsidy in direct competition with it"s existing Indian venture that was partially Indian-owned. She also mentioned the tobacco giants as lobbying hard for permission to set up 100% subsidies.

MNCs and ‘transparency" and ‘ethical practices"

Arguments favoring globalization have often centered on how multinationals practice ‘transparency" in their business dealings and are more ‘ethical" than their Indian counterparts. Although rarely substantiated with any thing other than anecdotal testimonies, such praise for the MNCs is common in the Indian media. Yet, there are numerous instances where multinationals have not only displayed a lack of ethics and ‘transparency" but have actually broken the law. Consider an October 2, 1998 report in the Hindu titled: Large-scale tax evasion by MNCs unearthed. The author of that report, Sujay Mehdudia wrote: “Income-Tax officials have alleged that these companies evade taxes with impunity as the tax laws of the country are ‘inadequate and ineffective" to deal with such cases." He wrote of multinational giants flouting tax laws knowing very well that they could not be arrested or criminally prosecuted against under the Indian legal system and could get away by paying the tax dues when caught. Violations were neither rare nor exceptional, since all the companies surveyed or scrutinized by the Income-Tax authorities in the recent past had shown a tendency to violate the law of the land. The article quoted a high-ranking tax officer as saying: “Had the violations taken place in some other country, not only would criminal proceedings have been launched but the people responsible for it would have been put behind bars." The author concluded his article with the statement: “In the recent past, cases of TDS evasion by some Japanese and South Korean firms operating in India have come to the notice of the authorities, highlighting a “certain intention'" on the part of these companies to dupe the Government."

A more recent Hindustan Times report (May 12 2000) was more specific - it began with the headline: Rs 2100 crore tax evasion by MNCs. Minister of State for Finance V Dhananjaya Kumar in a written reply to a question posed in the Lok Sabha had provided data that indicated that MNCs had evaded Rs 1433.89 crores on income tax, Rs 143.80 crore on central excise duty as well as Rs 535.05 crore on account of import duty payable during last three years. Sony was identified as the biggest evader, and charged with evading over 450 crores. SEDCO Forex International Drilling Co, Swiss-Swedish major Asia Brown Baveri, Hyundai Motors, Johnson " Johnson, Siemens, LG, Hawlet Packard and Philips were others implicated in cheating on import duties. Several MNCs had not paid enough central excise duties - including stock market darlings like Hindustan Lever, Procter and Gamble and Nestle. EID Parry, Gillette, Pepsi, Bayer, Novaritis and Carrier Aircon were also named as violators. Asia Satellite Telecom, Sabre Inc, Lucent Technologies, Nokia, Caribjet inc and Allied Signal group had been cited for serious income tax violations. Amadeus Marketing, American Airlines, British Airways, Pan Amsat, Motorola, Ashurst Morris Crisp, Reuters and ABN Amro were also in the list of companies to have evaded income tax.

‘Efficiency" in whose interest - the MNC or the Indian consumer?

Another oft-repeated argument in favor of globalization is that multinational companies are more “efficient". Of course efficiency is never clearly defined. For instance, let us assume that efficiency equals profitabilty. Suppose a multinational invests 1000 crores and makes 200 crores in profit. On the other hand, assume that a domestic company invests 1000 crores and makes 100 crores in profit. It would thus seem that the MNC was more “efficient" - twice as much as the Indian company. But if half or more of the MNC"s profits were repatriated to their foreign parent or to foreign shareholders, the relative benefit to India would be nil! And if the 100 crore in extra profit accrued only due to special tax breaks and other special favors granted to the multinational, the increase in ‘efficiency" would be entirely fictitious.

Take another example. Let us suppose that the MNC is actually very “efficient" and is able to drive it"s more “inefficient" Indian competitors out of business. With it"s Indian competitors out of business, it could then raise prices over and beyond what the “inefficient" Indian companies charged their consumers. Here is another example of where “efficiency" from the point of view of the business does not translate into benefits for the Indian consumer. This has occurred not only in the soft-drinks sector, it has also occurred in the pharmaceutical sector.

Others have argued that the presence of multinationals would end the corrupt practices that hurt the ‘efficiency" of India"s public sector companies. The power sector is one such area where there is a clamour for speedy privatization. But consider a recent Times of India report (17 July 2000) where a report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India was cited, pointing to the wastage of crores of rupees in the process of privatizing Orissa"s power sector. According to the report, foreign consultants were appointed in violation of guidelines and no attempt was made to engage domestic firms for the purpose. The consultants, engaged to “effectively start and give a momentum to the reform programme'", were given a 582 per cent increase over the originally estimated time to do their work. However, their work spilled over to the third stage forcing the state to cough up an additional expense of Rs 72.96 crore. A sum of Rs 2.95 crore was also reimbursed to them without verification of supporting documents, the report pointed out. The implicated agency was DFID of Britain. The report said that during the selection process, World Bank"s senior energy economist virtually put pressure on the government to opt for foreign firms, particularly KPMG, UK, and Arthur Andersen, USA, and sent the list for approval. The state government agreed to the WB official"s suggestion without inquiring into the firms" experience and capabilities, the CAG report said. The WB staff, in violation of the Bank"s own guidelines and without request from the government, also reviewed suo moto the proposals submitted by the short-listed consultants and took Rs 2.2 lakh as service charges. A consortium of consultants led by KPMG was finally chosen, with whom the state government entered into an agreement. The other members of the consortium included the National Economic Research Associates Inc. (NERA), USA, Mckenna " Co., London, and Monenco Agra Inc., Canada. Globalization of Orissa"s power industry - (one of the few power surplus states in the country) has brought neither improved service nor lower costs. In Maharashtra, Enron remains the most expensive supplier of power charging the Mahrashtra State Electricity Board more than double what Tata Electricity Company charges. Moreover, it"s power is produced using imported fuels making India more dependant on the international market.

There is also an assertion that globalization allows India to allocate scarce capital more efficiently because the Indian government could concentrate on areas that need special attention. But few seem to note that in this decade of globalization, the government has been steadily reducing it"s ability to fund vital social needs or infra structural needs. Numerous tax breaks have been given to MNCs to set up manufacturing in India. States have competed with each other in offering concessions to MNCs. Maharashtra has huge concessions to Skoda for it"s automobile plant near Aurangabad, Tamil Nadu offered special incentives to GM to set up it"s plant near Chennai. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been competing to attract IT businesses in their state. Even the Central Government has joined in the act.

In a report titled: Export give-aways to cost govt Rs 760 cr, Jayanthi Ayangar (Economic Times) wrote about the various tax holidays provided to exporters. The detailed report suggested that with violations and other means of tax evasion, the loss to the government may ammount to a 1000 crores. Rather than increase the government"s ability to solve pressing problems, globalization has actually weakened the government"s financial ability to intervene in the areas of education, healthcare and essential infrastructure.

Two years ago, (Deccan Herald, Aug 7, 1998) noted economist and deputy- chairman of the State Planning Board Dr D M Nanjundappa had termed as ‘"a bad commercial proposition“ the export incentives announced by former Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde. ‘"Excessive higher dependence on foreign capital inflows and rise in exports is likely to be dangerous. Unless there is a sustained growth in exports arising from improvement in the competitive strength of the Indian industry, our hope to recover will be the willo-the- wisp," he said. Referring to the incentives offered for exports during 1995-96 by the Narasimha Rao government , he said though the revenue loss varied between Rs.18,00 crore and Rs.23,000 crore, exports rose only by Rs.10,000 crore. Losing Rs.25,000 crore of revenue to get export earnings of Rs.10,000 crore was not a good proposition adding that the loss of revenue and its implications were crucial. Two years later, his concerns remain just as valid since the trade deficit has widened to a record of 4 billion dollars for the last quarter. India"s trade deficit grew almost 27% for the last quarter in spite of a substantial increase in exports. Although much of the rise came from fuel imports, growing fuel imports are themselves a negative consequence of poorly thought out liberalization.

As already noted in previous articles on liberalization and FDI, globalization has done little to solve India"s pressing infra structural needs. This is particularly evident in the oil exploration and production sector. As a percentage of GDP, investment in oil exploration has fallen dramatically. In spite of deregulation and the award of licenses to multinationals for oil-drilling, domestic production of crude has been falling in both absolute and percentage terms. As a result, in the last quarter (Apr-July 2000), India"s oil-import bill jumped 95%.

Skewed development: by-product of indiscriminate liberalization and globalization?

Critics of indiscriminate liberalization had warned that one of the biggest dangers of a totally liberalized economy would be the anarchic development of select geographical areas and the neglect of industrially unpopular areas. This has been reinforced in a report by Tushar Mohanti for the Economic Times Research Bureau. The report pointed out that of all the industrial entrepreneurs memorandum (IEM) filed since the new economic policy came into being in June 1991, only 10% have been implemented so far. In the case of implemented projects, only 10 per cent of the employment commitments were actually realized. He goes on to say that apart from poor implementation rate, what must be disturbing for both the planners and the government is the strong regional bias of the investment proposals. Proving the critics right, (who at the beginning of the reforms had doubted the chances of industrially backward states to derive benefits from the reforms), more and more IEMs have gone to industrially developed states. Other studies have also shown that prosperous states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu and the National Capital region around Delhi have attracted most of the new investment proposals - especially those from the multinationals. In contrast, Mohanti reported that West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Assam — all from the east — had failed to take the benefits of deregulation. Bihar, Orissa and Assam each had less than one per cent share of the total IEMs filed during the period. Their shares in actual investment were even lower.

Another aspect of non-selective globalization is that a few select sectors - namely consumer goods, automobiles, and software have attracted almost 90% of all foreign investment. There has been very little investment in the production of advanced electronics, computer or telecom hardware, aircrafts, advanced industrial materials, capital goods and modern tools and equipment, or robotics. These are the areas where India is completely dependent on imports and is likely to fall further behind. Rather than steer production in areas of cutting-edge technology, state governments have been falling over each other in giving MNCs more concessions to produce more of what India is already producing!

Globalization and Privatization

One of the most dangerous aspects of unqualified and unrestricted globalization is the privatization of key publicly held companies to MNCs at prices lower than what it would take to set up a new company in that field. The predatory domination of the world"s oil supply by a few Western mega-monopolies is too well-known. Yet, just last year, the BJP-led government sold off shares in GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd) at a scandalously low price. A Business Standard story from November 9, 1999 headlined: GAIL sell off opens cheap route to key stake for firms pointed to Enron and British Gas picking up equity in publicly held GAIL at 70 Rs a share when the strategic value of those shares was estimated as Rs 350.

Given the history of the BJP"s previous sweetheart deals with ENRON, this giveaway is hardly surprising. But it sets an ominous precedent for the future. Will the euphoria that a section of the Indian population feels vis-a-vis liberalization and globalization blind them to such loot of vital and strategic assets? That the world"s former colonial powers should wish India to globalize should not be surprising. Prior to 1947, India"s assets and resources were looted to the hilt by the British rulers, and Britain was not the sole beneficiary. The benefits of unfair trade and colonial loot went as much to Britain"s allies such as the US, Australia and Canada, and even to rival imperial powers such as Germany and Japan. Although the Indian situation today is not comparable to the situation in 1756 or 1858, the desire of the MNCs to gobble up strategic Indian assets is real and should not be dismissed lightly.

(In recent times, BALCO, the government owned Aluminium mining company came under the auction block and 50% of the company was sold at bargain basement prices. There is even talk of privatizing highly profitable and successful state enterprises such as BHEL)

It is no accident that economic policy “experts" in these nations are the most aggressive champions of privatization and globalization. Selling off strategically vital companies could not only introduce monopoly pricing pressures on Indian consumers, it could also seriously jeopardize India"s national sovereignty. As it is, much of India"s defence needs are procured from abroad. By privatizing oil and gas companies and other vital infrastructure related companies - India"s vital interests will be even more controlled by foreign interests that could impinge on the ability of India to take the best decisions vis-a-vis protecting it"s sovereign rights and interests.

To some extent this has already happened. During the Kargil invasion, the BJP government caved in to US pressure by not crossing the LOC even though it prolonged the war for India and led to higher Indian casualties. The manner in which the government has been bending to pressure on India"s nuclear program, releasing dangerous terrorists in Kashmir, backing down on it"s opposition to Pakistan"s military leadership, privatizing key public sector companies and opening India"s defence sector under pressure from the US, demonstrates a major policy shift from the days of Indira Gandhi. Such retrograde steps indicate that the obsession with attracting US and British investments into India is leading the BJP-led government into a foreign policy that is based on appeasement rather than any genuine advancement of broad-based Indian national interest.

Apparently an important lesson from India"s history has been lost on the present ruling coalition. Before the First World War, Gandhi too had believed that appeasing the British would bring India gains. He campaigned heavily in favor of the British war effort, but after the war, the British rather than make any new concessions towards independence tightened it"s colonial control. Gandhi"s exercise in “partnership" ended up as a futile exercise in self-delusion and the freedom movement lost precious and valuable years in the bargain.

Those who have been taken in by promises of “partnership" during Clinton"s much hyped visit to Indian might note that in spite of all the tall claims, FDI in the months following Clinton"s visit actually fell, the trade deficit widened to a new record, and the rupee has shrunk in value.

While no one is arguing for India to remain aloof from the process of technological upgradation and modernization - it is unlikely that political and economic appeasement in the guise of globalization will do the trick for India. Unless India adopts a stance of hard bargaining and selectivity in the manner it globalizes, globalization will take place on the terms of the world"s most powerful nations - and is unlikely to bring widespread benefits for the Indian people. It is therefore high time that the mantra of unrestrained globalization be questioned and challenged. The tall claims made by it"s advocates need to be carefully scrutinized without the prevailing neo-liberal bias. The many failures, economic distortions and pitfalls of globalization need to be clearly exposed. Above all, India"s economic policies need to be restructured to give an impetus to the local development of key technologies that play a crucial role in the modern economy and satisfy the most pressing needs of the vast majority of the Indian people.
http://india_resource.tripod.com/globalization.html

New $800 bn rescue for US economy
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Reuters
Posted: Nov 26, 2008 at 0910 hrs IST

New York The US Federal Reserve unveiled an $800 billion plan on Tuesday to buy mortgage-related debt and back consumer loans as it tries to revive the US lending market and steer the global economy away from a deep recession.
As the Fed announced its move, the United States posted the sharpest fall in gross domestic product since 2001, likely joining Europe in recession, while China"s economy is now expected to grow next year at the slowest pace since 1990.

Mining company BHP Billiton"s $66 billion bid for rival Rio Tinto became the latest corporate casualty of global economic turmoil, with BHP blaming the financial crisis and sliding metals prices.

The Fed"s move is intended to strike at the heart of US economic woes, the collapsed housing market. The resulting meltdown in the high-risk mortgage market engulfed the world and caused the worst financial crisis in 80 years, freezing access to credit, sparking bank collapses and requiring the bailout of entire countries.

The latest actions mean the US government now faces a possible bill as high as $8.3 trillion from various programs to prop up the financial system, revive loan markets and rescue faltering companies. That is more than half last year"s US gross domestic product, about $14 trillion.

President-elect Barack Obama announced his top budget officials on Tuesday and promised significant spending cuts to partially offset the costly stimulus package.

Under its latest massive life-support intervention for the US financial system, the Fed is planning a $600 billion program to buy mortgage-related debt and securities and a $200 billion facility to support consumer debt securities.

“This action is being taken to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for the purchase of houses, which in turn should support housing markets and foster improved financial conditions more generally," the Fed said in a statement.

At the same time, Goldman Sachs sold a greater-than-expected $5 billion of bonds guaranteed by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a promising start for a government program approved last Friday that is aimed at loosening jammed credit markets.

‘HEART OF THE PROBLEM"

Investors generally welcomed the Fed"s latest move, although some worried that injecting more dollars into the financial system would spur inflation.

“They (the Fed) are getting to the heart of the problem," said Todd Abraham, co-head of government and mortgage bonds at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh.

“It"s clean, it"s quick, it"s direct. It"s a good way to bring down mortgage rates, because at the end of the day they have to stabilize the housing market," he said.

The Fed"s move had an immediate effect on mortgage rates, showing some relief in consumer markets. The 30-year mortgage rate plunged about 0.75 per centage point to 5.5 per cent, according to Bankrate, Inc.

US large cap stocks ended higher after European and Asian stocks gained. Oil fell sharply to below $51 a barrel while the US dollar slumped against the euro and the Japanese yen.

Stocks of home builders and consumer lenders jumped, boosted by the Fed"s support plan.

Global data and sentiment surveys confirmed the depth and breadth of the problems. The US economy shrank more severely during the third quarter than first estimated as consumers cut spending at the steepest rate in 28 years, according to a Commerce Department report.

It revised the annual rate of decline in third-quarter gross domestic product to 0.5 per cent from 0.3 per cent, the sharpest fall in GDP since the third quarter of 2001 when the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States took place.

“I think it anchors the beginning of the US technical recession," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist with Bank of New York-Mellon in New York. “It"s likely to get worse before it gets better."

Prices of US single-family homes also plunged a record 17.4 per cent in September from a year earlier, according to a key index released on Tuesday.

Although China, the world"s biggest consumer of many metals, this month unveiled a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) spending package to prop up its economy, growth would still likely slow to around 7.5 per cent in 2009, the World Bank said, which would be China"s slowest growth rate since 1990.

Official data confirmed Germany is in recession for the first time in five years.

And falling consumer and business morale in Italy and France pointed to a continent heading for a prolonged recession, with a surprise tick up in consumer sentiment in Germany seen as an isolated and temporary blip.

The European Commission will propose on Wednesday measures to stimulate the recession-hit European economy including VAT cuts and a call for lower European Central Bank rates.

‘US Govt didn’t get successor to Citi"s Pandit"
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Agencies

New York/London Vikram Pandit may thank the TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor for still being in job as Citigroup CEO, as the US government reportedly did not push for his ouster in its rescue package for the troubled bank partly because there was no ‘obvious" successor.
In the run-up to the federal rescue plan that guaranteed 306 billion dollars of toxic assets of Citi and multi-billion dollar capital infusion in lieu of shares, media was rife with the reports that Pandit was on the verge of losing his job as he had failed to deliver on the mandate to revive the bank.

A day after the mega rescue plan, it has now come out that the authorities discussed whether to replace Pandit as Citi CEO, but there was a disagreement over the issue.

A report from the US business daily ‘Wall Street Journal’, which has said that the name of American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault had emerged as a possible replacement, said that the federal officials had a disagreement on whether Pandit was at fault for the company"s problems, while debating the structure of the rescue plan for Citigroup.

Separately, British daily the ‘Financial Times’ reported that the US regulators during their talks have decided against Pandit"s replacement as they could not find an obvious successor for him.

The report quoted a participant from the discussions as saying that, “if there was an obvious choice for a replacement for the chief executive officer, that would have levered up the benefit of the package but there was no obvious queue of candidates."

Over the past week, media was agog with reports that Pandit was set to lose his job within a year of assuming the office, as he had lost the mandate for steering Citi out of its financial mess.

Further the WSJ report stated that, Pandit may not be in an immediate danger of losing his job as the government did not push for his ouster as part of the agreement, as it did with the CEO of American International Group when it bailed out that company.

Till a few weeks ago, Citi was being considered among the last ones standing in the world"s biggest economic crisis in the recent times and Pandit was even being commended for successfully turning around the bank.

But a sharp plunge in its share price over the past week to below four dollars, which wiped off more than half of the company"s valuation, re-ignited the concerns about the bank"s financial health and reports started surfacing that the board and investors wanted Pandit out of his corner room.

A number of media reports suggested that Pandit was looking at selling the entire bank, or dis-assemble it into pieces to be sold out separately, in his efforts to revive the once-most-valued financial institutions of the world.

However, the state-sponsored bailout of the battered Citigroup has not only dispelled the doubts about the very existence of the financial services giant but also put to rest questions on the continuation of its India-born chief Vikram Pandit.

Easy credit comes back to haunt consumers
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Reuters
Posted: Nov 26, 2008 at 0854 hrs IST

New Delhi “Credit is a devil that dances in empty pockets," was the advice PV Rajiv"s father gave him when the young salesman swiped his new credit card for the first time to buy an expensive watch he could hardly afford.
As someone whose generation was brought up on the virtue of thrift, Rajiv"s father did not understand the culture of unfettered consumerism that has been one of the engines of India"s stunning economic growth.

If Rajiv couldn"t pay up front for a purchase, he used his card, until he exhausted his credit limit about six months ago.

“The outstanding is so high now that I am hardly able to pay the minimum due," said the 26-year-old, once the quintessential ambitious customer every bank targeted, hoping the offer of a credit card or loan for that dream car would prove irresistible.

With India"s growth, an average of 8.6 per cent in the last four years, matched only by an expansive embrace of debt-fuelled consumerism among its growing middle-class, the country was a magnet for retail lenders.

But now as the global slowdown hobbles India"s growth, while interest rates are still high, banks, companies and consumers are feeling the strain of rising debt.

According to latest central bank data, consumer credit growth in August slowed to 17.4 per cent from 21.4 per cent a year ago.

Housing loan growth slowed to 13.9 per cent in August from 17 per cent last year, while advances for consumer durables fell by 7.9 per cent from a year ago.

Car sales, a major indicator of the economy"s health, fell an annual 6.6 per cent in October, the third decline in four months.

“There has been significant moderation in retail credit disbursal," Abheek Barua, chief economist of HDFC Bank, India"s second largest private bank, said.

“Consumer credit has fallen in the past 6-7 months because of very high rates and with banks becoming more careful about any spike in non-performing assets."

PAYING FOR PAST EXCESS

Just a year ago things were very different.

According to Goldman Sachs, Indian consumers" growing appetite for cars, computers or clothes during the past eight years accounted for nearly as much growth in global demand as the United States, and triggered huge demand for credit.

Total loans, including mortgages and unsecured loans such as credit cards, grew around 30 per cent annually in the last three years, an expansion the central bank called “unprecedented".

But now the strain of the global slowdown is reflected in most banks raising their loan-loss provision, while overextended Indians find themselves in the whirl of revolving credit.

The largest among Indian private banks, ICICI, a major player in consumer credit markets, raised its bad loans provision to 1.91 per cent of net advances from 1.43 per cent a year ago. Retail credit is the biggest contributor to its bad loans.

According to ratings agency Crisil, a unit of Standard " Poor"s, Indian banks" consumer loans are now likely to be major risk areas as bad debts are expected to rise to four per cent of advances by 2009.

Outstanding loans on credit cards stood at about $6 billion at the end of August, up a staggering 86 per cent from a year ago.

NO CHECKS, LITTLE SECURITY

Until about two decades ago a father would raise a loan from friends and family or take an advance from his retirement benefits to marry off a daughter or buy a house.

But as the economy opened up, credit providers distributed loans indiscriminately with little care for the credit-worthiness of the debtors – it became common to be accosted by credit card agents or offered a loan with virtually no demand for a security. “If you produce your plane boarding pass, you might be able to obtain a credit card as you exit the airport terminal," Manmohan Agrawal, executive director of Axis Bank, said in a Wharton School business report last year.

Defaults were bound to follow. Consumer credit repayments three months or more overdue form about 7-9 per cent of total loans outstanding this year, and, Crisil says, could touch 15 per cent.

India has about 30 million credit cardholders, a number that has tripled over the past five years as private and foreign banks chose plastic to break into the Indian market.

Indians put $14 billion on their cards in fiscal 2008, more than three times the amount charged four years earlier.

Last month, police broke open the door of a Mumbai apartment and recovered the bodies of AK Nair – both had swallowed poison – and their two dead children.

Police found 73 credit cards in the house.

The Nairs were not alone in their debt misery. In New Delhi alone, courts are dealing with about 400,000 cases of bounced cheques, mostly dishonoured payments for credit card purchases and loans, a national daily said.
 
Axis bares derivative harassment
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
 
TROUBLE BREWS 
Mumbai, April 21: Axis Bank today admitted that two of its corporate customers had hauled it to court over losses arising from certain structured derivative transactions.

Axis became the first bank to admit that a problem was brewing with corporate clients over the exotic instruments that were sold earlier in the year which lost value dramatically after the market collapse in January.

The private sector bank — one of the first to come out with its fourth-quarter results today — has made contingent provisions of Rs 71.97 crore, which reflects the mark-to-market loss suffered by the specific customer.

Axis Bank has also provided $5.09 million towards depreciation in the value of a derivative instrument.

Mark-to-market is an accounting process by which the assets of an entity are recorded at their current market value. This value may differ from its purchase price.

As a result of the downturn in global financial markets, many companies have been forced to book losses on these exotic instruments — and are furious with the banks which advised them to make these investments.

Several companies first approached the Reserve Bank of India but failed to win any reprieve.

The situation was complicated after the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India instructed all auditors to book these transactions on a mark-to-market basis, which would dent the profits of companies.

Axis Bank, however, reported a net profit that was ahead of estimates.

Its net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, zoomed 71 per cent to Rs 361.40 crore over Rs 211.89 crore in the same period last year.

Net interest income also rose sharply by 89 per cent to Rs 828.43 crore.

The bank’s balance sheet size grew 49.58 per cent to Rs 1,09,577.85 crore as at end March 2008 from Rs 73,257.22 crore as at end March 2007.
 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080422/jsp/business/story_9170134.jsp

Compensate customer for mental harassment, bank told
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Agencies
Posted: Nov 21, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST

Pune, November 21: A consumer disputes redressal forum in Pune has ordered a private bank to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a woman whose car was seized by its recovery agents for an alleged default in repayment of Rs 4 lakh loan.
The Additional Judge of the Forum S J Kshirsagar who delivered the order, on Wednesday said that the bank had been asked to pay the compensation to Renu Bhandwalkar within a period of 30 days.

Passing its order on Bhandwalkar"s complaint, filed in September last year, the forum said the bank should pay the amount as a compensation for the ‘mental harassment’ caused to the borrower who had claimed that ICICI bank did not follow her instructions regarding recovery of loan installments from her savings account even though she had given post-dated cheques and had substantial deposits in the bank.

The complainant alleged that she had to approach court and police to take possession of the car fitted with laptop.

When it was finally returned to her by the bank"s recovery agents, it was in a damaged condition, she claimed.

The respondent bank, during the forum hearings had refuted the claim of the borrower that she had left instructions to transfer her deposits to saving account in the event of insufficient balance.

Earlier also, the bank was asked to pay a compensation of Rs 55 lakh in a coercive recovery case by a court.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Compensate-customer-for-mental-harassment-bank-told/241800/

Report of the Working Group on Regulatory Mechanism for Cards 
(1) Introduction
In recent years plastic cards(credit, debit and smart cards) have gained acceptance and their use has become popular in the country. The total number of cards issued by 42 banks and outstanding, increased from 2.69 crore as on 31st December 2003 to 4.33 crores as on 31st December 2004. Like wise, the actual usage has registered increases both in terms of volume and value i.e. from 14.57 crore transactions amounting to Rs 26,951 crores during 2002-03 to 18.55 crore transactions aggregating Rs 35,870 crores during 2003-04.
In the current year up to December 2004 (April—Dec 2004) alone, card customers undertook about 21.19 crore transactions amounting to Rs 44,737.73 crores. In view of such a widespread use of cards, issues relating to the regulation of this payment mode as well as those relating to customer protection assume considerable importance. The functioning of the card payment system should not present any risks to the payment and settlement systems in particular and to the country’s financial system in general. Thus it was felt necessary to build an appropriate regulatory mechanism on payments by cards.
While building a regulatory oversight on the card payment system, we need to ensure it neither reduces the efficiency of the system nor it does in any manner stifle the growth of cards/ hampers card usage. However, cards represent an important financial service offering and they should work in the best interests of their users. Hence aspects such as terms of access, pricing, trade practices, and customer grievances redressal mechanism are very important.
In view of these aspects, the Governor of Reserve Bank, in his Mid-Term Review of the Annual Policy Statement 2004-2005 on the 26th October 2004 had announced the setting up of a Working Group for Regulatory Mechanism for Cards.
The terms of reference of the Working Group are as follows:
(a) To suggest the type of regulatory measures which are to be introduced for plastic cards (credit, debit and smart cards) keeping in mind the need to encourage their growth in a safe, secure and efficient manner.

(b) To recommend measures to be introduced to ensure that the rules, regulations, standards and practices of the card issuers are in alignment with the best customer practices.

(c) To draw a roadmap for setting up of a grievances redressal mechanism for the card users.
The list of members is furnished in the Annexure- 1
The Working Group met on five occasions. The Department of Information Technology and the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems of the Reserve Bank of India acted as the secretariat to the Group.
The Working Group invited two card companies, Visa and Mastercard, to share their international experience in the area of regulation and customer grievances redressal system. These companies made presentations on the subject and briefly discussed the issues with the members of the Working Group.
The Working Group also invited well known consumer rights protection activist Prof Manubhai Shah of Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), Ahmedabad to discuss the issues relating to customer grievances and customer rights protection in the area of card payment system.
The Group also studied the developments with regard to card business and the institutional and regulatory arrangements in many developed countries.
Based on the study, discussions and the consensus reached, the Group submits its report and recommendations as follows:
(2) Current regulatory structure for cards
Banks in India having a networth of Rs 100 crores and above can undertake credit card business either departmentally or through a subsidiary company set up for the purpose. Prior approval of the Reserve Bank is not necessary for banks to set up domestic credit card business, the approval of concerned bank’s Board is sufficient for the purpose. Banks desirous of setting up separate subsidiaries for undertaking credit card business would require prior approval of the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank has laid down broad guidelines to card issuing banks regarding selecting customers, recovery of dues, sharing of information on card holders, fraud control, processing, transparency in fees etc.

Banks can introduce smart /on-line debit cards with the approval of their Boards, keeping in view the stipulated guidelines issued by Reserve Bank. While banks need not obtain prior approval of the Reserve Bank, the details of the smart /on-line debit cards introduced and copy of bank’s Board approval may be submitted to the Reserve Bank. Issue of off-line debit cards requires prior approval of the Reserve Bank, in view of the risk perception since it does not lead to immediate debiting of the customer’s account and use of such cards can lead to build up of large payables.
As at the end of December 2004, 42 banks undertook card business. While 24 of them are issuing credit cards, 30 of them issue debit cards and only 2 banks are issuing/ have issued smart cards. While earlier banks used to issue proprietary cards, the current practice is that the banks mostly issue cards under affiliation to international card companies like Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and American Express.
Card business by banks is primarily governed by the rules, procedures, guidelines, terms and conditions agreed to between the card-issuing banks and the card companies. The relationship between card-issuing banks and the cardholders is governed by the set of terms and conditions of card issue and usage. The terms and conditions between card holders and card issuing banks vary depending on the bank and the type of credit card held.
Banks have developed their own policies on disclosure, customer grievance redressal, customer rights protection etc. While there is a certain magnitude of convergence on these matters, divergence of procedures and practices are also discernable. The practices followed by card issuing banks vary from bank to bank. Foreign and private sector banks are known to use more aggressive marketing methods, are more likely to outsource the work relating to selling of cards as well as collection /recovery work to private agencies, as compared to public sector banks.
(3) Customer service issues
The rapid expansion of the card usage in India merits regulation. The growth of this non-cash mode of payment should be in a safe, secure, efficient and customer friendly manner. In India the main areas of regulatory concern in this regard relate to the issue of customer service/ consumer protection. The Reserve Bank has been receiving a number of complaints regarding undesirable/ objectionable practices by credit card issuing banks/institution and their agents. They mainly relate to:
(i) Unsolicited and vexatious calls to members of the public by card issuing banks/ direct selling agents pressurising them to apply for credit card.

(ii) Communicating misleading/ wrong information regarding credit cards regarding conditions for issue, amount of service charges/ waiver of fees, gifts/prizes by DSAs

(iii) Sending credit cards to persons who have not applied for them / activating unsolicited cards without the approval of the recipient.

(iv) Not issuing credit cards to members of certain professions e.g. legal and police.

(v) Upgrading credit cards without knowledge of the credit card holders.

(vi) Charging very high interest rates /service charges.

(vii) Lack of transparency in disclosing fees/charges/penalties. Non-disclosure of detailed billing procedure.

(viii) Wrong billing

(ix) Not sending credit card statement in time to the customers.

(x) Delaying credit of cheques meant for credit card payments and then levying heavy penalties for defaults on customers.

(xi) Use of physical coercion/harassment/ intimidation by recovery agents appointed by card issuing banks.

(xii) Banks sharing confidential information about their customers to their credit card issuing subsidiaries/ other credit card issuing banks/ DSAs etc.
During the last few months the issue of customer grievances and setting up a suitable system to quickly and effectively redress the grievances has been discussed by the Reserve Bank of India with the senior officers of the card-issuing banks i.e. on 16th and 17th November as well as 24th December 2004.
More recently, Public Interest Litigations (PIL) have been filed in the Supreme Court and the High Court of Bombay on matters relating to unsolicited calls for marketing products and services and to the behaviour of sales and recovery agents who strong-arm tactics to effect recovery of dues.
The Group noted these developments and decided to study the international scenario and practices in the matter.
(4) Regulation of card payment schemes in other countries

In recent years world over card systems have been receiving focused attention of the regulators. (Details are given in Annexure 2). In general it is observed that card-based payment businesses in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America have been examined for their methods of determining interchange fees, exclusivity arrangements, no- surcharge rules, honour all cards rules, membership requirements and governance policies. The survey revealed that generally it is from the perspective of the competition and customer/consumer rights protection that the financial services including cards have been receiving attention and there are specific legal/statutory provisions. There are also institutional arrangements such as competition commissioners and customer/consumer fora. It is very rarely that banking regulators/supervisors have been entrusted with these responsibilities.
(5) Deliberations and Recommendations

(I) Regulatory framework

The Working Group studied the regulatory regimes for the credit card industry in various countries and found that the