june 25 (aa)

SOUTH KOREA TO PERMIT FIRST STEM CELL DRUG
South Korea’s drug safety agency will likely approve a stem cell therapeutic drug in July in what could be the world’s first move to permit the sale of a stem cell medicine, officials said on Friday.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration is expected to finalise all procedures needed to permit the sale of “Hearticellgram-AMI,” a stem cell therapy for acute myocardial infarction, on July 1, according to the KFDA officials. The drug has passed all three procedures, including safety and validity tests, needed for its approval. The other remaining steps will likely be completed soon, the officials said.

GOOGLE MAYE FACE ANTI TRUST PROBE
As of Thursday afternoon, commission formalities remained before the investigation is officially started, but two people with knowledge of the matter said a final decision to issue the subpoenas was imminent in a matter of days For months, Federal Trade Commission lawyers gathered information about Google's search and advertising business
The Federal Trade Commission is preparing to issue subpoenas to Google as part of a wide-ranging civil antitrust investigation into practices in Google’s search engine business, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
For several months, lawyers at the commission have gathered information about Google’s search and advertising business and whether the way it orders search results and related advertising constitutes illegal anticompetitive behaviour.
This month, commissioners privately debated whether to authorise its Bureau of Competition to issue subpoenas to Google and are close to moving forward. As of Thursday afternoon, commission formalities remained before the investigation is officially started, but two people with knowledge of the matter said a final decision to issue the subpoenas was imminent in a matter of days.
They agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because the action was not yet final and because it could be postponed if the commission required additional information. The commission’s action was first reported online by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
Spokesmen for Google and the Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.
Google has been the subject of repeated antitrust inquiries in recent years, most of them involving proposed acquisitions. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and the justice department have con
ducted reviews of Google's acquisitions of the Internet advertising companies DoubleClick and AdMob.
More recently, the justice department reviewed Google's purchase of ITA Software, a travel services company. In that case, the government cleared the merger only after Google agreed to conditions and continuing government monitoring. Just this month, the justice department began an investigation into Google's $400 million acquisition of Admeld, which provides advertising services to publishers.
In 2008, the justice department also blocked a proposed advertising pact between Google and Yahoo because of concerns about its effect on competition.
Last year, it also opposed a sweeping court settlement between Google and publishers and authors, in part because the agreement would have given Google too much power over the market for digital books.
But unlike those cases, which affected only small portions of Google's business, the current investigation focuses on Google's main business: Internet search and advertising. If it leads to charges against the company, its impact could be more far reaching, according to antitrust experts.
“This is the main act,“ said Ted Henneberry, a former trial lawyer at the Justice Department and partner at Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe.
If Google is found to have abused its dominant position in Internet search and advertising, the FTC would not levy fines. But it has the authority to issue cease-anddesist orders for violations of the trade commission act, and it can also file a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against certain behaviors.
The justice department and the FTC.
share jurisdiction over antitrust issues. But as a matter of practice they alternate as to which agency takes the lead in an investigation.
Critics of Google have been pushing for a broad antitrust investigation into the company’s search business, where it controls about two-thirds of the market in the United States. In the past, company executives have said that the increased scrutiny from regulators is a
normal byproduct of its success. Addressing its search results specifically, company officials say that its ranking decisions are made to benefit users and that, as with any ranking system, some parties will be unhappy with their placing.
The company's market share has remained steady in recent years. According to the research firm comScore, Google controlled 65.5 percent of the market in May; Yahoo had 16 per cent and Bing had 14 per cent.
Last year, the European Commission opened its own antitrust investigation into Google’s search business, after complaints from smaller companies, which claimed that Google downgraded their sites in its search results while giving favor to its own Web services. That investigation is pending.
By making a site more or less likely to rise to the top of its search results, Google theoretically could affect how much traffic a Web site got and therefore how much it could charge for advertising. If another company’s Web site for, say, a travel service, competes with an ancillary business of Google’s, manipulation of search results could be considered anticompetitive.
Google’s main searchadvertising business accounts for most of the
company's revenue, which totaled $29.3 billion last year. FairSearch.org, an organization that represents several of Google's critics including the Web sites Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak and Microsoft, said it was encouraged by reports of the FTC inquiry.
“Google engages in anticompetitive behavior across many vertical categories of search that harms consumers,“ the organisation said in a statement. “The result of Google's anticompetitive practices is to curb innovation and investment in new technologies by other companies.“
According to comScore, Google in May became the first company to have one billion unique visitors to its site in one month, a rate that was up 8 per cent over a year earlier. Google's share price is down 19 per cent since the beginning of the year.
By arrangement with the New York Times


MCX TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM NSE
A day after the competition watchdog held National Stock Exchange (NSE) guilty of abusing its dominant market position, MCX Stock Exchange said it would claim compensation for the losses and damages that it has incurred due to predatory pricing by the NSE.
The CCI on Friday pronounced NSE guilty of abusing its dominant market position and asked the bourse to pay a penalty of `55.5 crore within 30 days and also immediately stop subsidising its services.
This amount represents five per cent of the exchange's three-year average turnover. It said there was “a clear intention on the part of NSE to eliminate competitors in the relevant market.“
The order was passed on a complaint filed by NSE's younger bugbear and rival MCX-SX, which had accused NSE of abusing its dominant market position to corner business in CD segment.
NSE entered currency derivatives in August 2008, followed by MCX-SX in October 2008.
No immediate comments were available from NSE officials but they are expected to appeal against the order.
The CCI in its order also asked NSE to maintain separate accounts for each segment with effect from April 1, 2012, and modify its zero price policy in the CD market and levy appropriate transaction costs in 60 days.
Reacting to the CCI order, the MCX-SX managing director and CEO, Mr Joseph Massey, said, “It would safeguard new entrants and ensure innovators are not decimated by existing entities which have deep pockets and more powerful.“


SINGAPORE INDIA SIGN TAX PACT
India and Singapore on Friday amended their Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), a move that will help both the countries exchange banking and tax related information more effectively.
A Protocol amending the DTAA was singed here.
“This amended protocol will go a long way in strengthening relationship between India and Singapore and facilitate mutual co-operation by effective exchange of information in tax matters between two countries,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.
The two nations have adopted internationally agreed standard for exchange of information in tax matters.
This includes the principles incorporated in the OECD Model Article and requires exchange of information in all tax matters without regard to a domestic tax interest requirement or bank secrecy for tax purposes.


INDO PAK TRY TO FIX TRUST DEFICIT
THE TWO-DAY dialogue of the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, which ended in Islamabad on Friday, maintains the steady state which was sought to be brought into being by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Thimphu initiative about a year ago.
The specific mandate provided by the Prime Minister was to reduce and eliminate the “trust deficit“ that has marked relations between the two countries. This objective appears to have been amply met at the foreign secretaries' dialogue, given the tenor of the talks. India on this occasion agreed to a Kashmir-specific dialogue session, a development that would have pleased the Pakistan side enormously, and may be seen to be the principal reason that Pakistan has had no difficulty characterising the just-ended conversation as “cordial“, if “candid“. These expressions, agreed to by both sides to describe the engagement, suggest that both covered the thorny ground in detail at the official level but preferred not to let acrimony mar the occasion. Over the years India has never shied away from discussing the `K' word with Pakistan, but it has preferred to bring to the table the question of terrorism along with it as violent extremist actions have been at the centre of destroying peace in Kashmir and jolting India-Pakistan ties.
Abandoning this route did not throw up new ideas. The two senior officials indicated this when they told the media that the engagement on the Kashmir question was to continue. At this stage, it cannot be said that the Pervez Musharraf-era formula of finding a solution without disturbing the territorial status quo would remain on the table. Dr Singh had famously said then that the idea was to make borders “irrelevant“. However, the so-called Musharraf formula has not found favour with the present Pakistan government, and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said so recently. Nevertheless, the two foreign secretaries agreed to step up the pace on cross-LoC confidence-building measures.
The working group designated for this will convene shortly, before the meeting of the two foreign ministers in New Delhi next month. For now this means a less tight visa regime, opening up more trade points and days of trade between Kashmiri traders on the two sides of the divide, and possibly looking at bank facilities to eliminate barter, which is currently the mode of trade across the two Kashmirs. These are undoubtedly a positive outcome of the talks and should help provide relief to the people of Kashmir who are, in effect, divided by a historically violent boundary (the Line of Control).
Besides giving Pakistan greater room on Kashmir through exclusive focus on it, the Indian side clearly did not seize upon the recent David Headley disclosures at the Tahawwur Rana trial in Chicago to make its case more acutely in the matter of the punishment of those guilty of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Of course, at the joint press conference of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, the senior Indian official did not fail to point out that 26/11 was “of critical importance to us“. She noted that bringing the issue to a “satisfactory closure“ would help the process of “normalisation“ of relations, but gone was the earlier public insistence on trial and punishment of the guilty without delay. Mr Bashir, for his part, observed that while Pakistan noted India's concerns, it preferred to treat the issue in a more “generic“ sense -as an instance of terrorism which, of course, needed to be eliminated. Speaking at the joint press conference, he had little hesitation clubbing the Mumbai outrage with other high-profile incidents of terrorism. When the current IndiaPakistan “process“ moves to the level of foreign ministers in July, the spirit of the present is likely to be sustained.

SRINAGAR DAM QUESTIONS OVER EGOM CLEARANCE
In a scathing ndictment on the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), historian Prof.
Nayanjot Lahiri questioned how the Srinagar Hydroelectric Project, that was cleared for generating 200 MW power in 1985, be granted environmental clearance for an enhanced 330 MW in September 27 1999.
The ministry had commit ed a grave irregularity, especially keeping in mind hat the Uttarakhand high court had stayed construc ion work beyond 200 MW.
In a dissenting report to EAC vice-chairman B.P.
Das and MoEF member secretary Sanchita Jindal, who visited the project site on June 6-7, 2011, Prof.
Lahiri insisted that this decision be reviewed and an opinion be sought from the ministry of law.
“Evidently, there is some hing errors since the min stry could not have transferred the environmental clearance for this project at 330 MW since the environmental clearance in 1985 was for a project of only 200 MW,“ she noted.
On the sensitive issue of the relocation of the Dhari Devi temple, she maintained that the local people and the temple samiti members were not opposed to the elevation of the temple above its present location but the existing plan prepared by TCE Consulting Engineers Ltd did not do justice either to the character of the shrine or to its location. “They were opposed to an elevation being done on a series of RCC columns,“ she said.
Prof. Lahiri, in turn, had proposed that a new plan should be prepared by a conservation architect in collaboration with the INTACH.
While IIT-Roorkee had prepared a detailed plan for muck disposal, Alaknanda Hydro-power Company Ltd (AHPCL) had not followed the procedures laid out by IIT-Roorkee. `The ministry could not have transferred environmental clearance for this project at 330 MW since the clearance in 1985 was for a project of only 200 MW'


INDIA US AIRCRAFT DEAL
India has finally June 15: India has finally inked the biggest-ever defence deal with the United States so far at $4.1 billion for acquisition of 10 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III advanced airlifter aircraft for the Indian Air Force, the MoD said on Wednesday. The deal was inked after it was approved earlier this month by the CCS.
Boeing stated that India will take delivery of its 10 C-17s in 2013 and 2014.
“The C-17 will elevate India’s leadership in the region. With its tactical and strategic capabilities, the C17 fulfils India’s needs for military and humanitarian airlift. The important transaction reaffirms our close relationship of several decades with India and also highlights our commitment to the strategic partnership between the two countries,” said Dinesh Keskar, president, Boeing India.


US HOUSE PANEL SETS LIMIT ON PAK AID
A key US Congressional committee has approved conditional aid of $1.1 billion to Pakistan, withholding 75 per cent of the fund till the Obama administration reports to Congress on how it would spend it
A key US Congressional committee has approved conditional aid of $1.1 billion to Pakistan, withholding 75 per cent of the fund till the Obama administration reports to Congress on how it would spend it.
The approval of the conditional aid to Pakistan for its counter-insurgency operations under the defence spending bill reflects the US Congress’ frustration with
Islamabad's efforts in the war against terror. This is the first major approval of Pakistan-related funding by the Congress after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The move reflects the changing mood of US legislators towards Pakistan as an increasing number of influential Congressmen are questioning the decision of the Obama administration to give billions in aid to Pakistan as terrorists continue to operate in the country. The Defence Appropriations Bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee said that the Congress will withhold 75 per cent of Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capability Funds until the secretary of defence provides a report to Congress on a strategy and metrics for the use of these funds, said a statement issued by the House Appropriations Committee.


UK MPs WANT INDIA AID TO STOP AFTER 2015
Britain's department for international development, which has stopped aid to China and Russia, has decided to freeze the aid programme to India at £280 million per year till 2015
British MPs have recommended that the ToryLibDem government must fundamentally change aid relationship with India after 2015. The UK government is facing domestic pressure to slash foreign aid in view of spending cuts to stem budget deficit. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to spend 0.7 per cent of the UK’s gross national income on foreign aid and India, increasingly considered an emerging economy, is the biggest single recipient of the aid.
Britain’s department for international development, which has stopped aid to China and Russia, has decided to freeze the aid programme to India at £280 million per year till 2015.
“Assuming the progress
we expect to see, DFID should continue to provide technical assistance where needed and requested, but the funding mechanism should change (post-2015),“ House of Commons select committee on international development said in its analysis of whether DFID should continue to provide aid to India.
In India, over 400 million people still live on less than 80 pence per day and the average per capita income is still only one-twentieth of that in the UK, the committee said. “Poverty levels remain high in some parts of India and these are states where UK funding is targeted,” committee chair Malcolm Bruce, a LibDem MP, said.
“DFID must now begin to consider how the post 2015 relationship will look and report on its plans in the next 12 months. We will continue to monitor progress in India and intend to ensure that any decisions are reviewed before the end of this Parliament,” the committee said.
“Our funding is small in relation to the Indian economy. DFID rightly focuses on demonstration projects which can be replicated and scaled up,” Mr Bruce said, adding the UK’s direct contribution is only 0.03 per cent of GDP.


INDIA AMONG TOP 5 NATIONS DANGEROUS FOR WOMEN

India has the dubi ous distinction of making it to the top five list of the world’s most dangerous countries for women. India has been cited for trafficking and sexual slavery.
Afghanistan is the world’s most dangerous country for women, followed by Congo
and Pakistan, India and Somalia are ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in a global survey of gender experts by Thomson Reuters Foundation to mark the launch of its new TrustLaw Women section, a global hub of news and information on women's legal rights.
More than 200 gender experts from five continents ranked countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks -health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking. India ranked fourth on the list primarily due to female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking, the survey revealed.
Of main concern was large-scale trafficking of women and girls. “The practice is common but lucrative so it goes untouched by the government and police,“ said Cristi Hegranes, founder of the Global Press institute, which trains women to be journalists.
The report quoted CBI's 2009 estimate that about 90 per cent of trafficking took place within India and that there were some three million prostitutes, of which about 40 per cent were children. In addition to sex slavery, other forms of trafficking include forced labour and forced marriage, the survey quoted US state department report on trafficking in 2010.