june 25 (ie)

India, Pak exchange proposals on conventional, nuclear CBMs


India and Pakistan have exchanged several proposals on conventional and nuclear confidence- building measures like inclusion of cruise missile launches in the mechanism for advance notification of missile tests.
The proposal for including cruise missile tests in the existing bilateral agreement on Pre-Notification Of Flight Testing Of Ballistic Missiles, signed in October 2005, was mooted by the Indian side during yesterday's talks between the Foreign Secretaries on peace and security, sources familiar with the discussions said.
The Pakistani side gave a proposal for the two sides to "exchange experiences and expertise" in the field of nuclear technology, especially the operation of atomic power plants and their safety mechanisms, the sources said.
Making a reference to the recent nuclear accident at the Fukushima atomic plant in Japan after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, the Pakistani side proposed that the two sides could work together to address similar safety concerns, they added.
The proposals were discussed by the two sides but no firm commitment was made by either delegation, the sources said.
The discussions were only of a preliminary nature and both sides would explore the proposals in future talks, they added


Why should CBI be out of RTI, Madras HC asks Union govt


The Madras High Court today issued a notice to the Union government on a PIL seeking to declare a recent notification exempting Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the purview of Right to Information Act as ultra vires or 'beyond the powers' of the Constitution.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam directed Additional Solicitor General M Ravindran, who took the notice on behalf of the Union government, to get instructions from it within three weeks.
Petitioner S Vijayalakshmi, an RTI activist, challenged the June 9 notification issued by the Centre exempting the CBI from Central Act 22 of 2005 (Right To
Information Act).
However, the court declined to grant a stay on the notification as sought by the petitioner and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
The petitioner alleged that since the expose of the Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum allocation, other scams and the Lokpal movement, the Centre had become “jittery and rudderless” in the war against corruption.

The Centre had “maliciously” decided to conceal its “wrongdoings” by taking recourse to section 24 of the RTI Act and cloaked the CBI by granting it blanket exemption from the RTI, the petitioner charged.
Claiming that certain bureaucrats at a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries had disagreed with the decision to exempt CBI, the petitioner urged the court to issue a direction to the government to produce the related files.
Counsel for the petitioner Manikandan Vathan Chettiar contended the respondents have “willfully” overlooked the first proviso to section 24(1) of the RTI Act excluding information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations from being exempted under Section 24.
He further submitted that Section 24 exempts only intelligence and security agencies, whereas the CBI was a mere investigating agency.
New perspective required for close China-India-Pak ties: China
Seeking a “new perspective” for establishing close China-India-Pakistan ties, the official think tanks here today said recent efforts by Beijing to have strong relationships with its two neighbours should not be viewed with “suspicion”.
Outlining China's foreign policy perspectives in the next five years under the 12th five year plan, the Members of Foreign Policy Advisory Group (FPAG) said that China is seeking to have close relations with both India and Pakistan.
“Indeed we see improvement of relationship between India and Pakistan and we know you (India-Pakistan) are taking measures to solve differences,” Ma Zhengang, who headed the Ambassador's group in FPAG, told a media briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry here.
He along with Qu Xing, President of state-run China Institute of International Studies, addressed the media here to outline China's policy perspectives in the next five years.

China really hopes to see Indo-Pak relations improve and “we are making our own efforts to promote mutual understanding between your two countries. If the bilateral (ties) between India and Pakistan can make breakthroughs it is a great pleasure for Chinese people too,” Ma said answering a question on how China sees its role in South Asia, specially in the context of its close ties with Pakistan.
“So I think for all our three countries, China, India and Pakistan, we should have new perspective concerning international situation and we should shake our Cold War mentality,” he said.
“ ...In China's relations with India and China relations with Pakistan, we should avoid Cold War ideology," he said, adding that while Beijing enjoyed traditional friendship with Pakistan, the Sino-India ties also moved forward.
While pursuing further development of friendship with Pakistan, China is also working actively to promote friendship between China and India, Ma said. “So to be frank Chinese people do not wish to see suspicion from India or Pakistan concerning China's relationship with other country."
He was apparently referring to apprehensions in India about “all-weather” China-Pak friendship and similar anxieties in Pakistan over China's efforts to normalise ties with India.
Qu said China had close ties with both India and Pakistan until the 1962 Sino-India war that affected the relationship between Beijing and New Delhi.
“Back in 1950s, China indeed had struck a balance in its relations with India and Pakistan. The relationship with china and India was solidly based. But later the balance broke because of the border war and other reasons,” he said.
“Starting from that China developed a very solidly based relationship with Pakistan. Therefore, during that time China indeed had a closer cooperation with Pakistan than India," he said. “However, after the improvement in relationship between China and India, “we sincerely hope that we can move this bilateral relationship forward to have better relationship. The best solution is that we should try to have such cooperation equal to that of China and Pakistan,” Qu said.

“China sincerely hopes we can see friendship and cooperation between India and Pakistan because China does not wish to (see) tension to the west of our country. The country which will gain from tension from India and Pakistan is not China. So that I do hope that you can believe that China is not targeting India,” Qu said.
Both said suspicions about China's efforts to forge close ties with several of India's neighbours, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, with huge aid and infrastructure projects were wrong as it was only making efforts to improve relations with them.
They also referred to various efforts by India and China to resolve the border dispute.
Stating the border issue is more an “emotional” matter than a technical one, they said good relations will improve public sentiments to resolve the problem with mutual concessions and adjustments.
“If we can win the general public support it may not be that tough (to resolve boundary dispute). So I do hope that friends from India can believe that China is not seeing India as rival,” Qu said.


Aus may lift ban on exporting uranium to India: report
In a bid to strengthen bilateral ties, Australian government could review and lift the long standing ban on uranium export to India later this year, a media report said.
“Later this year, the (Julia) Gillard Government is likely to take two very big decisions affecting relations with the US and India. It will provide much greater access for US military forces to northern Australia. This could ultimately lead to US ships being based in Australia.
“And it will likely lift the ban on selling Australian uranium to India. Both decisions should be seen against the backdrop of China,” The Australian said.
Expert on foreign affairs Greg Sheridan in the article said: “I now believe senior ministers within the Gillard government will make a serious attempt to change this policy at Labor Party's national conference in December.”
A resolution could take one of two forms -- it could simply allow an exception for India, with appropriate safeguards or allow federal cabinet the authority to make an exception where it wants to, provided various safeguards were met.

“Earlier this year, Indian foreign minister S M Krishna met the Australian authorities including Resources Minister Martin Ferguson where the uranium talks were raised.”
Australia had maintained its stand on not selling uranium to India as it has a policy of exporting the radioactive element only to the signatories of NPT.
The report cited that all big nuclear nations were now offering nuclear trade with India and the US had signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India and secured support for this from Nuclear suppliers group.
“This is not an issue about the security of uranium supply for India. Rather, it is a determination to make the leap to real strategic partnership with India.”
“New Delhi is too proud to make a public fuss about Australia's uranium policy, and the hypocrisy of our selling uranium to China while we refuse to do so for India. But the Australian position is a huge road block to a real strategic partnership,” the report said.
The expert said that it was of first order importance or Canberra as commercially India was Australia's next China.
“Indian investment is already making a big difference in our resources sector,” the report out. It further commented that even more importantly the US-India-Indonesia-Australia relationship was essential to Canberra's ability to manage successfully the growing power of China.
“The only way we can become of genuine strategic consequence to India is through fulfilling a historic role of providing energy security, and in particular uranium. Such a policy reform would mean a big fight for the Gillard government with the Greens and with the far Left of its own party,” the report added.



'50% of India's workforce self-employed'
More than half of the India's overall workforce is self-employed, even as female employees receive less remuneration than their male counterparts for doing similar jobs, as per the data of a government survey released today (NSSO survey).
While 51 per cent of the India's total workforce are self-employed, only around 15.6 per cent are 'regular wage/salaried' employees and 33.5 per cent are casual labours, the key indicators from a survey the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) revealed.
Among workers in rural areas, about 54.2 are self-employed, while only 41.4 per cent of the workforce in urban areas are self-employed.
While only 7.3 per cent of workers in rural areas are regular wage earners, 41.4 per cent of workers in cities are getting regular salaries.
The findings of the NSSO also reveal that women workers, both in rural and urban areas, continue to receive less remunerations than their male counterparts.
In urban areas, the average wage is Rs 365 per day and it is Rs 232 in rural areas.
NSSO survey found that the average earning per day received by male workers is Rs 249 but it is only Rs 156 in case of female workers, indicating the female-male wage ratio at 0.63.
Similarly, in urban areas males earn Rs 377 as against Rs 309 by woman, indicating a ratio of 0.82.
The indicators are based on a central sample of 1,00,957 households of which 59,129 were from the rural areas and 41,828 from urban areas.
This was the 66th round of the survey by NSSO.
The samples, collected between July 2009-June 2010, were drawn from 7,402 villages and 5,252 urban blocks across the country, a statement by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said.
The survey found that the per day wage rates for a casual labourer in works other than public works in rural areas is Rs 93. In urban areas, the comparative rate is Rs 122.
In rural areas, male casual labourers engaged in such activities receive an average of Rs 102 per day. However, for a female labourer the rate is only Rs 69.
On the other hand, in urban areas the wage rates for casual labourers engaged in work other than public works is Rs 132 for males and Rs 77 for females.
The difference between the wages for males and females is visible even in projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
In rural areas, daily wage rates for casual labourers in MGNREG public works is Rs 91 for males and Rs 87 for females.
In public works other than MGNREG, the wages are Rs 98 for males and Rs 86 for females.
The NSS key indicators say that in rural areas nearly 63 per cent of the male workers are engaged in agriculture. The percentage engaged in secondary and tertiary sectors stood at 19 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.
The agriculture sector is more dependent on female workers. Nearly 79 per cent of the female workforce is engaged in agriculture while secondary and tertiary sectors shared 13 per cent and 8 per cent of female workers, respectively.
The survey also found that the industry-wise distribution of workers in the urban areas was distinctly different from that of rural areas.
In urban areas the share of the tertiary sector is more, followed by that of secondary sector while agricultural sector engaged only a small proportion of total workers for both male and females.
In urban areas, nearly 59 per cent of male workers and 53 per cent of the female workers are engaged in the tertiary sector.
The secondary sector employs nearly 35 per cent of the male and 33 per cent of female workers, while the share of urban workforce in agriculture is nearly 6 per cent of male and 14 per cent for female workers.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said the key indicators have been released, before the full survey is made public, for use in planning, policy formulation, decision support and as input for further statistical exercises by the government and its agencies.
The NSSO 66th covered the whole country except interior villages in Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of a bus route, villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year and the Leh, Kargil and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir.



China preferred over India in M&A action
Global companies are more active in acquiring entities in China than in India, as the China focused Mergers and Acquisitions(M&A) activity this year so far amounted to a whopping USD 84.3 billion, while India-targeted M&A volume was just USD 24 billion.
According to global deal tracking firm Dealogic, India inbound M&A volume surged to USD 24 billion in 2011 so far, while China targeted M&A volume reached USD 84.3 billion in the same period.
"India and China have been the most targeted nations by acquirers outside the region posting volume gains of 191 per cent and 76 per cent respectively year-on-year," Dealogic said.
The United Kingdom dominated the acquisition scene this year with USD 19.2 billion announced deals so far, surpassing the US for the first time since 2007 (in the comparable period).
BP's USD 9 billion acquisition of Reliance Industries' oil & gas assets, was the deal that pushed the United Kingdom to this coveted position.
BP's USD 9 billion bid for 23 oil and gas blocks from Reliance Industries in February still stands as the largest inbound M&A in India so far this year and is also India's second biggest inbound cross-border deal on record.
The UK is the top acquirer into India with USD 15 billion much more than the value seen in the comparable period last year (USD 157 million) and accounts for 62.6 per cent of India inbound M&A volume in 2011 so far.
China targeted M&A volume, which stood at USD 84.3 billion in this year so far, witnessed 13 per cent surge from the USD 74.6 billion announced in the same period last year.
In terms of number of deals also there were 1,808 transactions this year so far, up 4 per cent from 1,733 deals announced in the same period last year.
Other leading acquirer nations into India this year so far were the United States (18 per cent), Germany (6 per cent), Japan (4 per cent), Denmark (3 per cent), the report said.
Though year-on-year there has been an increase in inbound M&A volume, on a quarter on quarter basis there has been a significant decline.
“India inflow M&A volume totalled to USD 3.9 billion in the second quarter of this year, down a whopping 81 per cent from the record quarterly volume of USD 20.1 billion achieved in the first quarter of 2011”, Dealogic said.