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Books on India
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Update No: 042 - (25/07/07)
INDIA ELECTS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT
Pratibha Patil, former Governor of Rajasthan has replace Abdul Kalam as the
next President of India and will maintain the title for a five year term. The
election was particularly historic as this is the first time in India's history
that a woman has been selected for the President's post. Pratibha Patil who is a
72-year-old lawyer won by a landslide victory over the 84-year-old
vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the position of head of state. On
being elected, Patil expressed her gratitude to the men and women of India for
giving her the opportunity to serve India. She told reporters that her election
signified a victory for the principles that India stood for. Many other
political leaders and members of parliament share the euphoria over a female
taking over the reins of the Presidency. Sonia Gandhi, the president of the
ruling Congress party, noted that in the 60th year of India's independence, for
the first time, the country has a woman president. The government's Communist
partners echoed her views. A.B. Bardhan, the leader of the Communist party of
India called it a "historic win" and a "great moment."
Patil's victory had been shrouded in controversy as her campaign was tainted by
accusations from Hindu opposition parties of corruption. Patil had been
previously accused of protecting her brother in a murder probe and protecting
her husband in suicide scandal. However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called
Patil's victory a win against the "politics of divisiveness."
INDIA-AUSTRALIA ANTI-TERRORIST TREATY
In the light of the Glasgow terror plot, and due to the Mohammed Haneef
episode, Australia and India have decided to "accelerate" negotiations
on extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties. Australian Foreign Affairs
Minister Alexander Downer spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukerjee and
said that his dialogue with his India counterpart was good and that India was
well armed with all the facts of the case. Part of accelerating the negotiations
includes a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and also an Extradition Treaty. The
Glasgow episode has bound India and Australia in a campaign against terror more
so because both countries want to display their cooperation in eliminating any
future terrorist connections. The idea behind cooperation is that in future,
both countries will find it easier to deal with Indian and Australian citizens
who may be involved in allegations in relation to the law.
INDIA-US FORMULATE NUCLEAR TEXT
India and the US took an important step towards realizing civilian nuclear
cooperation after negotiators on both sides achieved a breakthrough and
finalized the 123 agreement, which will govern Indo-US civilian nuclear
cooperation. After four days of negotiations, the two sides have finalized the
text of the 123 agreement and moved past issues that were blocking any
successful negotiations. The joint statement released after the talks said,
"the discussions were constructive and positive, and both Under Secretary
Burns and Foreign Secretary Menon are pleased with the substantial progress made
on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement." The two governments will
now review the final text of the bilateral agreement. India has been successful
in negotiating reprocessing rights for itself and an assured fuel supply for the
14 civilian nuclear reactors. In the last couple of months, negotiations reached
a deadlock over the issue of granting reprocessing rights to India and on
returning nuclear material to the US in case India decided to test a nuclear
weapon. On reprocessing the US side accepted India's offer of a safeguard
facility for reprocessing of imported fuel. The fine print of the 123 agreement
is in the final stages and will now be reviewed by the respective governments.
(SOURCE: Economic Times)
ECONOMY/BUSINESS
RS 100 CRORE FUND FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
The Central government has urged states to develop a number of
infrastructure projects to avail of a revolving fund that has almost been
finalized with an initial amount of Rs 100 crore. The India Infrastructure
Project Development Fund was proposed in this year's Budget speech. It is set up
to help the government develop various infrastructure projects under
public-private-partnership (PPP). Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, said that the
fund would finance up to 75 per cent of projects' development expenses under
PPP. The fund would be a revolving one, and would be replenished from successful
bid projects. In a separate move, the government is looking at using $5 billion
from the country's foreign exchange reserves every year for use in
infrastructure projects. The proposed fund would provide up to 75 per cent of
the project development cost in the form of interest free loans to state
governments in case bidding of projects is successful. In the event of the
bidding failing, it would be converted into a grant. What might stand in the way
of successful implementation of this proposal is that, currently states are
averse to developing projects as they risked losing all the money invested if
the bidding failed. Mr. Chidambaram echoed such concerns saying, "States do
not have adequate pipeline of projects. Nor do they have the capacity to prepare
a shelf of projects." Mr Chidambaram said. Therefore, it was absolutely
vital for states to first prepare the shelf of infrastructure projects, and they
would receive all support from the finance ministry.
BIOTECHNOLOGY BOOM IN INDIA
Up until recently, information technology has reigned supreme and
biotechnology has been a runner up. However, there are positive indications that
the biotechnology industry is all set to witness a higher growth than in recent
years. One of the most prominent signs of such growth is the willingness of
several big biotechnology-plus-life sciences corporations in the world to set up
a base in India for doing variety of activities from clinical researches to drug
discoveries. India's large reserves of intellectual talent, low costs as well as
presence of small biotechnology companies in the country, are playing an
important role in attracting these companies. Biogen Idec, the world's oldest
biotechnology company, set up a subsidiary in India in early 2007 with the aim
of doing Research & Development and integrating India in its worldwide
clinical development programs. Other international companies such as Genzyme,
Pall Life Sciences, Genentech, Agilent Technologies', Histogenetics, are also
keen on starting operations in India A recent report by RNCOS on "Asia
Pacific Biotechnology Market (2007-2010)" also unveiled India's immense
potential in the field of Biotechnology. As per the report, India possesses a
great potential to become one of the most significant players in biotechnology
industries globally by 2010. "It is poised to leverage its scientific
skills and technical expertise to make a global impact from a strong innovation
led platform." The report also stated that "India presents exciting
opportunities for biotech companies in US and Europe to integrate their drug
development programs at lower cost and shorter time, thereby having an advantage
over trials conducted in the more expensive research environs of the west."
The research reports also addressed some other interesting issues and facts that
are critical for the success in Asia-Pacific biotechnology market, like trends
in the Asia-Pacific biotechnology industry, an overview of bio-clusters in the
industry, course of market growth for the next 5 years as well as issues
confronted by the industry.
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