INDIA COUNTRY BRIEF
111122
Basic Political Developments
· The Left parties will move a motion in Lok Sabha on the issue of spiralling prices of essential commodities on Wednesday. The discussion on the motion will be held under Rule 168, which entails no voting.
· Rahul Gandhi today (November 22) said the state has been left behind in development and people from there will continue to go to other states in search of employment. "The country has moved forward and you are lagging behind. If you do not move forward, then you will have to go to the rest of the country like you do," the Congress General Secretary said addressing a rally in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. "You go to Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana to work and you will have to keep doing that," he said.
· Residents of western Uttar Pradesh have overwhelmingly supported Chief Minister Mayawati's move to break up Uttar Pradesh into four states. Ghaziabad Bar Association president Rakesh Tyagi said lawyers had been fighting for long for an Allahabad High Court bench in the region.
· In the wake of the NDA deciding to boycott Home Minister P Chidambaram during Parliament’s Winter Session, which got underway on Tuesday, over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said there was no case for such a boycott.
National Economic Trends
· Even as the rupee fell to an all--time low of 52.73 vis-a-vis US dollar on Tuesday, the government said RBI will take the required action while conceding the central bank's intervention may not be of much help."RBI intervention (in the forex market) will not help," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters while attributing the decline to pull-out of funds by the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and uncertain global economic situation.
· The proposed National Food Security Bill, when implemented, would add to inflationary pressures, Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao said here today."The National Food Security Bill, 2011, is another potential source of pressure on inflation and its inflationary impact will depend on the extent to which it will raise demand for foodgrains relative to the normal increase in supply," he said at the inaugural function of 25th annual conference of Indian Society of Agricultural Marketing.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
· With Kingfisher and several other airlines landing into dire straits, the industry ministry has moved a draft Cabinet note on allowing 26% FDI by foreign airlines in the domestic carriers. "Private airlines in the country are in dire need of funds for their operations and service upgradation to compete with other global carriers," the note circulated by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) said.
· Stepping up efforts to check drug trafficking, India is contemplating a further tightening of controls on the manufacture of the precursor chemicals used in synthetic narcotic drugs, Finance Secretary R S Gujral said today. "For the purpose of production of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), (precursor chemicals such as) ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine are used as inputs for the region," Gujral said while addressing the meeting of the Head of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies ( HONLEA) here.
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
· The Petroleum Ministry wants Rs 56,600 crore more in cash subsidy to partially compensate the state-owned oil firms for losses they incur on selling fuel below cost. The subsidy sought is over and above the Rs 30,000 crore assistance already promised by the Finance Ministry for the first half of the current fiscal.
· Joining the global race to tap unconventional hydrocarbon sources to meet energy needs, India will launch its maiden bid round for exploration of shale gas during the 12th Plan Period (2012-17).
· The government will initiate action to limit the amount of expenditure Reliance Industries is allowed to recoup from its flagging KG-D6 gas fields in three to four weeks, Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi said on Tuesday.
Militant Activity/Terrorism (Particularly in Bangalore, Mumbai, Noida, Chennai, Coimbatore)
· An accused in the Ghatkopar blast was arrested from Morna in Noida on Tuesday afternoon. A team of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Tamil Nadu Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Noida police arrested the accused, when he was about to leave for Dubai.
Labor/Social Unrest
· Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of failing to check inflation despite its assurances in parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday said people were losing hope and rising prices could become a cause for violence.BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said the government was 'not ready to recognise inflation as a problem for aam aadmi (common man)' and it will not be surprising 'if price rise becomes a cause for violence'.
Full Text
Basic Political Developments
No voting on Left motion on price rise
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 18:12
http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/no-voting-on-left-motion-on-price-rise_743240.html
New Delhi: The Left parties will move a motion in Lok Sabha on the issue of spiralling prices of essential commodities on Wednesday.
The discussion on the motion will be held under Rule 168, which entails no voting.
The government has accepted moving the motion in the Lok Sabha after leaders of Left parties met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Earlier in the day CPI(M) politbureau member Sitaram Yechury and senior CPI leader Basudeb Acharia had given an adjournment notice in the Lok Sabha.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday will also discuss Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s claim of inflation coming down to 6-7 per cent by March.
Both Left and the Right parties flayed the finance minister’s claims on inflation.
“The prices are not going to come down and the finance minister's statement has been made to mislead the country,” said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
"People will not believe in Congress party's bogus assurances," he added.
Senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said, “The finance minister's statement is a piece of paper without any significance and a colossal denial by the government to accept its own failure to control the inflation."
UP: Rahul kicks off 5-day tour, slams Maya
22 Nov 2011, 1257 hrs IST, AGENCIES
http://www.timesnow.tv/Rahul-kicks-off-5-day-tour-attacks-Maya/articleshow/4389574.cms
Even before the controversy over his remarks on migration of people from Uttar Pradesh have died down, Rahul Gandhi today (November 22) said the state has been left behind in development and people from there will continue to go to other states in search of employment. "The country has moved forward and you are lagging behind. If you do not move forward, then you will have to go to the rest of the country like you do," the Congress General Secretary said addressing a rally in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. "You go to Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana to work and you will have to keep doing that," he said.
Rahul said that UP was losing out on the development opportunities that the other states were benefitting from. "Bangalore has moved ahead in the IT sector. If UP wants to work in this sector, it cannot, because Bangalore and Hyderabad have established a monopoly in this sector. "If you want to set up automobile industry in UP, then Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have already moved ahead and the loss is yours," he said.
Rahul's comments last week in his Phulpur rally on migration of people from UP to Maharashtra and other states suggesting they were begging had sparked a political slugfest as BJP, SP and other parties had been quick to attack him over the remarks. The Congress had dismissed the criticism as a reflection of opposition's "restlessness" over its "rise".
Attacking BSP and SP, the Congress leader told the gathering here that their leaders give a lot of speeches but they could not hide what they have done in the past 20 years. "What they have done in the past they will do so in the future," he said. Rahul, who is elected to Lok Sabha from Amethi, alleged that all the governments UP had got in the past twenty years were against the people.
"In the past twenty years, UP has had governments of BJP, BSP and SP but all of them were against the people," he said. "The country does not lack money but the problem is that it does not reach the poor," he said. "What is happening in UP is that in the past twenty years your money has not been reaching you. Either it gets stuck in Lucknow or it is held back by bureaucrats," he said. Rahul, who is on a five-day tour of eastern UP, will also visit Bahraich, Shravasti, Siddharth Nagar and Kushinagar and meet party workers.
In his speech, Rahul also targeted BSP leader Mayawati and her government, saying, "When we started MNREGA, the UP Chief Minister said that there was no need for it. "In the entire country if you ask which is the government scheme from which you have benefitted the most, people say it is MNREGA. The UP Chief Minister says it is of no benefit."
The 41-year-old Congress MP alleged, "It is in UP that there is no benefit from MNREGA because the money is pocketed by contractors and ministers." He further alleged that due to corruption at the state level, funds released by the Centre through its schemes were not reaching the people. "We had started the 'Janani suraksha yojna' in which every woman who gives birth is given Rs 1,400. But, in UP, it is the officers who pocket the money," Rahul said.
Rahul said that central funds for weavers would be directly sent to their accounts by the Union government to ensure that they reach the people they are intended for. "We changed the system and now the money will directly reach in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries from a package Rs 6,000 crore, besides a waiver of Rs 3,000 crore loan," he said.
Making development his poll plank, Gandhi said there should be a change of government in Uttar Pradesh. "I want UP to develop. Roads should be constructed, industry should arrive, there should be water and electricity," he said. "We can make a big start in five years and in ten years, we can take Uttar Pradesh to the first place. For the past twenty years, the country has been looking at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi but not at you. This has to be changed and only you can do it," he said.
Western Uttar Pradesh backs Mayawati
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/western-uttar-pradesh-backs-mayawati/articleshow/10829926.cms
GHAZIABAD/NOIDA: Residents of western Uttar Pradesh have overwhelmingly supported Chief Minister Mayawati's move to break up Uttar Pradesh into four states.
Ghaziabad Bar Association president Rakesh Tyagi said lawyers had been fighting for long for an Allahabad High Court bench in the region.
"Now the chief minister has given us an entire (new) high court along with a new state," an elated Tyagi told IANS. "It is definitely a great gift to western Uttar Pradesh."
Social activist Rajendra Tyagi added that Mayawati had opened the doors for the development of the sprawling western Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi.
"Till now the entire record revenue from the region was being siphoned off to Lucknow and only a very small part was given to western Uttar Pradesh," he said.
Tyagi said Ghaziabad had been deprived of a Metro train project because of Lucknow's callous attitude.
Residents Welfare Associations Federation chairman Tejendra Pal Singh Tyagi said: "Mayawati's move is highly appreciable."
Ghaziabad Industries Federation chairman Hariom Chauhan said Mayawati should have broken up Uttar Pradesh into two or three but not four states.
"The central government has still not resolved the issues of Telangana and Vidharba," he said. "But for the development of western Uttar Pradesh, a new state is a must."
Noida Lok Manch president Mahesh Saxena called it a "bold step". "We fully support this move. But the chief minister should have passed the resolution in the assembly with support from all parties," Saxena said.
Noida Residents Welfare Association Federation president N.P. Singh felt that a new state of Western Uttar Pradesh would become the most prosperous state in India, leaving behind even Gujarat and Punjab.
Vipin Malhan, president of the Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA), also gave his enthusiastic backing to the concept of smaller states.
"G.B. Nagar district alone generates Rs.10,400 crore revenue which is invested in Eastern Uttar Pradesh," he alleged. "If Western Uttar Pradesh becomes a state, the entire revenue will be invested here.
"Noida would be the best show window for India," Malhan added.
No case for Chidambaram’s boycott: PM
http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/no-case-for-chidambaram-s-boycott-pm_743165.html
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 12:59
New Delhi: In the wake of the NDA deciding to boycott Home Minister P Chidambaram during Parliament’s Winter Session, which got underway on Tuesday, over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said there was no case for such a boycott.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, the PM said, “There is no case for such type of boycott. I hope political parties will resist any such temptation.”
Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanswamy has also defended Chidambaram, saying the Home Minister has done no wrong and that he is not involved in the 2G scam.
The PM, meanwhile, appealed to all political parties to let the House function smoothly.