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Books on India
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
3,287,590
Population
1,049,700,118
Capital
New Delhi
Currency
Irdian Rupee (INR)
President
Abdul Kalam
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Update No: 010 - (29/11/04)
India-Pakistan Relations
The Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proposed in October 2004 that
certain regions of Kashmir should be identified and demilitarized. The response
by the Congress party was a clear rejection of the proposal declaring that the
proposal implied a division of the state which was totally unacceptable to the
Indian side. Following up on the developments of last month, India has expressed
concerns about the way in which Islamabad seems to be dealing with the Hurriyat
leaders. The Indian political establishment is worried that the importance being
given to the Hurriyat leaders by Pakistan may prove to be an
"irritant" in bilateral relations between the two countries. India
labeled Pakistan's attitude on this issue as "fundamentally wrong" and
believes that the Pakistani leadership does not seem to understand the realities
of Jammu and Kashmir. India's criticism is based on the fact that the Pakistani
position is a reflection of their belief that the Hurriyat represents the people
of Kashmir; a belief that runs contradictory to the actual ground realities of
the situation. India's External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh holds the view
that there is nothing wrong with Pakistani leaders meeting Hurriyat factions but
it could be a major problem for bilateral ties especially since the Hurriyat
factions were not talking to the Indian leadership. What appears interesting is
that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan is trying its
best to unite the warring factions of the Hurriyat. However, this is a futile
exercise since the Hurriyat leaders are adamant in not succumbing to Pakistani
pressures to unite. Pakistan wants to use the unified Hurriyat as symbolizing
Kashmiri unrest as a freedom struggle. India reiterated its stand on no-third
party role with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not just ruling out third party
mediation but also urging the Pakistanis to arrive at "credible and
mutually acceptable" solutions to the Kashmir dispute. India is firm on its
position that it was not going to favour any third-party mediation. New Delhi is
trying to be hopeful about the Pakistani President's commitment to stop
cross-border terrorism. We are hopeful that president Musharraf will stand by
the commitment. We hope cross-border activity will cease and terrorist movement
will stop," he told reporters here.
Politics
This month has not been particularly exciting on the political front. To
recapitulate the events of last month, the successes and failures of the current
government were evaluated by the opposition leaders in October of 2004. Former
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met with his BJP and they adopted a
political resolution which emphasizes rashtravad (nationalism). It seems that
the BJP's Hindutva flavor is still quite strong among party members and will
remain one of the pillars of the BJP party agenda.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) recently evaluated the performance of the
five-month tenure of the Manmohan Singh government and concluded that the
performance of this government has been "mixed." The party said that
the government had drifted away from the Common Minimum Program (CMP)
particularly with regard to issues like reduction in Employee Provident Fund
interest rate, FDI and the privatization of airports. The party also alleged
that the government's decisions on a number of issues were "flawed".
The CPI has suggested a change of focus towards the rural economy and
agriculture sector. The CPI also emphasized that the programs outlined in the
CMP to take care of the interests of the rural and other working people needs to
be attended urgently. The CPI however seems quite calculated in declaring its
interests especially because it appears to be measuring the success of the UPA
government's efforts largely based on how much support it receives. Thus much of
what the CPI wants is conditional upon how much its own ideology and interests
are promoted by the present government. Maintaining that the Left was not being
consulted on several issues, The CPI's Party General Secretary Bardhan stated
that "our objections or protests have always been in the interests of the
toiling masses and in national interests and never out of any narrow or
sectarian interests." Bardhan said the government should focus on matters
aimed at strengthening the public distribution system, employment generation,
redistribution of surplus land, poverty alleviation and relief to farmers.
(Press Trust of India Report).
Economy
Coca-Cola's bottling franchise arrangement with the Kandhari group, one of
its biggest bottlers in Northern India has run into major problems over issues
of operations and pricing. The differences are so acute that it might lead to
Coke's cancellation of its deals with the Kandharis. Punjab is one of the
biggest per capita soft drink consuming states. It accounts for close to 20 per
cent of Coke's overall soft drink sales. Besides the Kandharis, Coke's other 3
leading franchisee bottlers are the Agarwals in Delhi, the Ladhanis in UP and
the Goenkas who service the East. The Kandhari family has been in the bottling
business since 1956 and holds franchisee licenses for Chandigarh, Haryana and
parts of Punjab and HP. The more general problem at the root of the issues is
that although companies like Coke and Pepsi have recorded healthy volumes sales,
these firms have been operating under severe margin pressures. Sharp increases
in the prices of sugar and freight have also exacerbated the problem.
Among other economic issues this month, inflation fell to 7.34 per cent during
the week ended November 13 due to cheaper vegetables and other essential food
and manufactured products even though fuel became costlier. Inflation based on
Wholesale Price Index fell to 7.34 per cent from 7.76 per cent a week ago but
was still significantly higher than 5.42 per cent in the year-ago period. The
price level fell by 0.42 per cent during the week ended November 13 as essential
primary food and non-food articles became cheaper by 0.4 per cent and prices of
manufactured products moved down by 0.2 per cent. But fuel prices rose by 0.1
per cent.
The automobile industry also received a major boost when the Rolls Royce chief
executive John Rose visited India this month. Rose was positive that India's
growing economy had created a large number of opportunities for further
investment. One of the major objectives of Rose's visit was to explore avenues
to collaborate with Indian tech firms for outsourcing some IT-related work. The
firm was looking for new partnerships with Indian universities under its
university technology centre program for research activities. He noted that
"we invest about $1 billion annually in research activities, and nearly 60
per cent of this budget is spent outside the UK. We want to look at Indian firms
and institutions now". (Source: Times of India). India accounts for £100m
in Rolls Royce turnover, half of which comes from its civil aerospace business.
The head of the world's largest steel company Lakshmi Mittal, a renowned UK
businessman is keen to have his firm's presence in India and China in an effort
to supply to global customers. "If you look at us, we are in 14 countries,
in four continents, and this is the only truly global steel company. But this is
not enough," the NRI business tycoon, head of the newly-created Mittal
Steel Corporation, said in an interview published in 'The Sunday Telegraph.'
Mittal is Britain's richest resident with a fortune of 12 billion pounds. The
business tycoon's desire is to revamp the steel industry which was in the midst
of a tremendous upheaval that could potentially lead to the disappearance of
local companies and rise of global giants. Mittal's vision is to build on
creating five or six world class groups each producing 100 million tonnes of
steel each year. According to Mittal, there is a new breed of CEOs in the steel
industry who do not want to lose money as they've done in the past but also want
to make money.
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FOREIGN COOPERATION
Delhi and Astana explore cooperation possibilities
India and Kazakstan decided to expand cooperation in a host of fields,
including energy, during talks between Indian External affairs Minister, K
Natwar Singh, and Kazak President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in Almaty recently, New
Europe reported.
Singh also discussed various regional and international issues bedsides the ways
in which the two countries can strengthen their relationship.
Forging cooperation in energy sector with Kazakhstan, which is rich in
petrochemical products, was on of the major issues discussed during the meeting,
official sources said.
India realises the tremendous potential for cooperation in oil and natural gas
sector considering the immense quantity of reserves existing in this Central
Asian country for which Indian companies can conduct exploration. Other areas
that figured in the talks included trade in pharmaceuticals and tourism, the
sectors where India finds a considerable scope for cooperation.
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