From Dipu Moni to Clinton, Kolkata geared up for VVIP visits

Kolkata: The West Bengal capital is all geared up for according a warm welcome to a host of international VVIPs who are slated to visit it in a short span of time, beginning with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, and including US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell, Britain's Prince Andrew and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Moni arrived in the city on Sunday to receive the prestigious Mother Teresa award. She has been nominated for the award for social work and administration.

Though Moni does not have any scheduled meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the possibility of an unscheduled meeting between the two cannot be ruled out.

Her visit will be followed by that of Powell - the first woman head of the US mission in India - who is slated to meet Banerjee here Monday. Her visit is said to be crucial as it comes just days ahead of Clinton's visit.

Next of the list is Britain's Prince Andrew who will arrive in the city from New Delhi Tuesday.

The prince, who will be in the country to represent Queen Elizabeth II in the year of her Diamond Jubilee, will be on a week-long visit to further enhance ties with India in diverse areas including defence and trade.

India to ferry heaviest foreign satellite in August

Chennai: India will ferry two foreign satellites - French and Japanese - on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) rocket in August this year for a price, said a senior official.

"The next rocket launch will be in August. We will be sending our PSLV rocket with French satellite SPOT 6 (800 kg) and a small Japanese satellite weighing around 15 kg. Though the rocket is called PSLV-C21 it will go before PSLV-C20," PS Veeraraghavan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), said.

The Thiruvananthapuram based VSCC is part of India's space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix) has entered into a commercial Launch Services Agreement with Astrium SAS, a company under EADS, France for launching SPOT-6, an advanced remote sensing satellite.

What is interesting is that the 800 kg SPOT-6 built by Astrium SAS will be the heaviest third party payload that ISRO will be carrying after the 350 kg Italian satellite Agile it carried in 2007, officials said.

As the total luggage will be around 815 kg, ISRO will be using its Core Alone variant of PSLV (rocket without its six strap on motors).

India holds talks over fuel exports to Pakistan

Bathinda: India has held talks over exporting refined fuels to its neighbour Pakistan, the head of Hindustan Mittal Energy said on Saturday, at the opening of the company's new refinery close to the border between the two countries.

Moves to stimulate trade flows and liberalise restricted investment rules have emerged as the key driver of peace efforts between the neighbours, whose fragile ties were shattered when Pakistani militants attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.

"There were government-to-government discussions. A delegation from Pakistan came but nothing has been finalised," said S. Roy Choudhury, chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Mittal Energy.

"Any decision has to make economic sense," he added.

Pakistan said last month it was close to removing petrol from a list of banned imports from India. It allowed diesel imports in 2009, but no Indian supplies were sent in the face of preferential prices offered by allies such as Kuwait.

"We have significant refining capacity to enable us to export petroleum products," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the official inauguration of the Bathinda refinery.

India-Indonesia bilateral trade target revised to $ 45 bn

Chennai: Seeing bigger potential in the fast growing business between India and Indonesia, the bilateral trade target for 2015 has been revised from $25 billion to $45 billion, Indonesian Ambassador Andi M Ghalib said on Sunday.

Indonesia will also resume its plan of commencing air traffic to India this June, he said. "Earlier, the target was to reach $25 billion by 2015.

But the bilateral trade has already crossed $20 billion. So, on the advice of our President we revised it to $45 billion last month," Ghalib, who arrived here on a week-long trip till April 26, said.

Indonesia is interested in electronics, telecom and textiles, and India in coal, rubber, timber, palm oil and wood products, he said.

Intending to improve relations with India, the southeast Asian archipelago would also start air traffic of the state owned airlines Garuda Airlines from June this year, he said. "We have proposed to our government to fly Garuda Airlines flights from Jakarta to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Traffic would start this June. However, the destinations in India are yet to be finalised," the Ambassador said.

'Bahrain result massive boost for Force India'

Manama: Force India driver Paul Di Resta feels that his sixth place finish here in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix was a massive result for the Silverstone-based team.

Di Resta maximised an opportunistic two-stop strategy to finish sixth while his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was 12th. For Force India it was an impressive result considering the fact that the team vehicle survived a fire-bomb during anti-government protests in the capital of the Gulf kingdom.

Di Resta said the two pit-stops worked wonders for the team.

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"The result today is massive for us. The team did an amazing job all weekend, the strategy came together and the pit-stops were perfect. We knew it would be a big ask to make only two stops and it was a close run thing at the end because my tyres completely went away on the final lap," he said.

Air India to get Rs 30,000 crore; 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets

New Delhi: Air India would get additional fund of Rs 30,000 crore from the Central Government to turn around the airline's fortunes following the Cabinet approving a financial restructuring plan for the company. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that the aviation industry was in trouble in India and after the restructuring plan Air India, which had not been able to pay salaries to the employees for some time, would see better days with the airline getting Rs 6,750 crore in 2012 alone.

"There is good news for Air India and the passengers. Air India and some other airlines are in trouble. The Cabinet had approved a turnaround plan and financial restructure plan for Air India. Airlines were restricted from being part of foreign direct investment. The Group of Ministers that met on February 9 February allowed 49 per cent FDI in aviation. It would go to the Cabinet very soon," said Ajit Singh in New Delhi on Thursday.

"As part of the financial restructuring plan for Air India, Central Government will infuse a lot of money. About Rs 30,000 crore will be infused in Air India till 2020. But it will have a lot of checks at different levels," said Singh.

The Civil Aviation Minister also announced that it has been decided to hive off Air India's engineering and ground handling services into two subsidiaries. Goods handling and engineering departments would be separate and according to the industry norms, he added.

According to the restructuring plan 7,000 Air India employees would be shifted to engineering section and 12,000 would be moved to the transport division.

India, Pakistan to open Attari check post for trade today

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New Delhi: India and Pakistan will take another step forward in enhancing trade ties. The two countries will formally open the Attari check post on Friday for trade.

The Attari route has hardly been used for trade since 1947. But as the relationship between India and Pakistan improves the Attari check post is expecting big business.

The number of trucks crossing the border daily could go up from the present 150 to 1500 and the trade is expected to rise four times from the current $ 2.6 billion. The number of Integrated Check posts will also go up to 13.

The dampener is that Pakistan is allowing trade in only 137 items. Even so 100 member delegation of Pakistan exhibitors are already in the capital. While hopeful of finding a big market in India they're worried about red tape and immigration restrictions.

The trade between the two countries seems to be at its best right now. But the big worry for these businessmen is whether India and Pakistan will follow India-China model of keeping political issues away from business.

India scales down tsunami warning, authorities on alert

New Delhi: Hours after a tsunami warning was issued on Wednesday following the 8.6-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, India withdrew the warning, saying that there was no cause of panic.

Home Secretary R K Singh said, "Apart from Nicobar, the tsunami warning has been reduced to tsunami alert."

Referring to the second earthquake in Indonesia, which measured 8.2 on the richter scale, Singh said, "Let us see what waves are generated by the second quake."

According to Singh, the authorities have been asked for evacuation in South Andaman. Meanwhile, reports suggested that some people had already been evacuated from South Andaman as a precautionary measure.

Reports also said that Andaman and Nicobar Islands could see waves up to 3.9 metres high following the quakes.

Though the tsunami warning has been scaled down, the government has sounded high alert in six districts of Odisha and emergency preparations are underway.

The Indian Army's largest public-private partnership

Four companies are battling for the largest ever public-private partnership project to build a light armoured carrier for the Indian Army—the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV).

The Army needs about 2,600 such vehicles over 20 years. All four bidders—Tata Motors, Mahindra Defence Systems, L&T and the government-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB)—have presented their designs and the evaluation is set to move to the final phase within a month.

The Rs 50,000-crore order is likely to be divided between the winner and runner-up, providing a huge leg up to the defence manufacturing industry. "It will be a game changer," says Brigadier Khutub Hai, CEO Mahindra Defence Systems, since it will help develop an eco-system of small and medium sized companies as suppliers to the winners.

Mahindra Defence is partnering with British Aerospace, while OFB is likely to partner Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport. There is no clarity on who the partners are for the other two bidders.

Are we battle ready? Panel summons service chiefs

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New Delhi: The parliamentary standing committee on defence on Monday asked the three service chiefs to appear before it on April 20 on the issue of defence preparedness. The development follows Army Chief General V K Singh's leaked letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a series of CNN-IBN reports.

According to sources, the panel also questioned the Defence Secretary and the Vice Chief on the issue of preparedness.

After clarifications from the Defence Secretary and the Army on the much hyped January 16 troop movement, the panel agreed that it was a shut case.

The Defence Secretary backed by the Vice Chief called the troop movement wrong inference and conjectures.

It was the gaping holes in India's defence capabilities flagged off by the Army Chief's leaked letter to the Prime Minister and CNN-IBN's reports on preparedness that caught the committee's attention.

According to sources, the 30-member panel was angry at the critical levels that some ammunition had reached and asked the defence establishment how soon the situation could be remedied.

Noida: Cops rescue kidnapped girl, 3 arrested

Noida: Three youths, including two college students, were arrested from Ghaziabad on Sunday for allegedly kidnapping an 18-year-old girl, who was later rescued by police.

The victim, Srishti, was allegedly kidnapped by the trio from Noida on Saturday when she was on her way home, SP Yogesh Yadav said.

The accused, which lived in the girl's neighbourhood, later called up her parents and demanded Rs one lakh for her safe release, he said.

Following a tip-off, Noida police on Sunday arrested the accused from Ghaziabad and rescued the girl.

The three accused have been identified as Rakshit Rastogi, a B Tech student, Mohammad Shariq, an architecture student, and Lalit Singh, who was employed at a hotel.

PM will not mince words on 26/11 before Zardari: Farooq

Jammu: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not mince words and clearly convey India's concern on terrorism and the need to book the perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai attacks when he meets Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Delhi on Sunday, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said on Saturday.

Abdullah said it is vital to bring to book those responsible for the terror attacks including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, who is the kingpin of the audacious attack on the western metropolis which claimed 166 lives.

"I think the Prime Minister will be very clear. Prime Minster is not one of those who will mince any words. I am sure the Prime Minister within that atmosphere of cordiality will put the Indian point of view before President Zardari and I am sure President Zardari will respond to the Prime Minister when he meets.

"And I hope that the meeting is held with the idea of taking India-Pakistan friendship forward," Abdullah said when he was asked if India should press for action against the LeT chief.

Abdullah also said that the $10 million bounty announced by the United States on Saeed is not aimed at killing him, but to bring him to book.

Now, Panda's rivals ask Odisha government to release more Maoists

Bhubaneswar: The Maoists in Odisha, who have abducted Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Jhina Hikaka, released a fresh audio tape on Saturday demanding the release of five more Naxals from jail, issuing a fresh deadline till April 10.

The Maoists have now demanded the release of top cadre Chenda Bhushanam alias Ghasi, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Ghasi, a dreaded Maoist, was arrested by the security forces in 2011.

Four other CMAS members whose release has been demanded by the Maoists are Gananath Patra, Suna Pangi, Singa Nachika and Walsi Wadeka.

The fresh ultimatum comes from the Maoists who have abducted the MLA. They are the rival group of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who has abducted Italian national Paolo Bosusco.

Pranab among top 5 global forces dealing with 'Transfer Pricing'

New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been ranked fifth in the list of top forces that effectively deal with disputes and other issues concerning transfer pricing, prepared by UK-based newsletter TPWeek.

Besides Mukherjee, the other leading forces were Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), ActionAid and Taskforce on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, revealed the poll conducted by TPWeek.

Around 700 readers comprising tax directors, transfer pricing advisers, non-governmental organisations among others chose the five leading forces in global transfer pricing.

Transfer pricing deals with the technique, wherein parent companies sell goods and services to subsidiaries in other countries to minimise tax liability.

"The Indian Minister of Finance was nominated for his power to implement an APA (Advance Pricing Agreement) programme in India. This is a long-awaited development for India tax payers and the new option for certainty will go some way to alleviating taxpayers' dispute in the country and may encourage more foreign direct investment," TPWeek said.

Air India likely to clear salary dues by Saturday

Mumbai: After Air India promised to clear their salaries, many of its contractual ground staff who bunked duty on Thursday morning returned to work, official sources said.

Earlier, around a hundred workers remained away from work protesting non-payment of two months salaries.

Air India officials said it had made arrangements to clear the salaries by Saturday.

The officials said two international flights from Mumbai to Cairo and Shanghai were delayed by around an hour each.

Thursday's protest included around a hundred of crucial ground staff and personnel manning the airline's counters at the airport during the morning shift who do not belong to any union.

Lockheed bags deal to supply laser-guided bombs to IAF

New Delhi: US defence major Lockheed Martin has bagged a deal expected to be worth over Rs 100 crore for supplying laser-guided bombs (LGBs) for the Jaguar fighter aircraft fleet in the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The IAF plans to induct more than 100 bunker-buster LGBs for its Jaguar warplanes to destroy strongly fortified enemy targets.

"We have emerged as the lowest bidders in the deal for supplying LGBs to the IAF. We have offered our Paveway II LGBs for the Jaguars and contract negotiations are on in this direction," Lockheed Martin India head Roger Rose said.

The IAF had issued a global Request for Proposal (RFP) for the purpose last year, and Lockheed Martin along with Raytheon and an Israeli missile manufacturer had taken part in the tender.

With their capability to pierce hard surfaces, the LGBs can also be used to destroy enemy's concrete runways and fortified locations.

Army Chief General V K Singh had warned of 'spook story' in March

New Delhi: That there was some talk about the mid-January movement of two elite Army units towards the capital which had exercised Army Chief Gen V K Singh's mind is evident in an interview he had given to an English magazine in middle of March.

"Even, let us say one of our forces or divisions or brigades does exercise, somebody will say, oh! they did exercise. It was not an exercise, they wanted to do something else.

"Now you will make a story out of it. There are lots of people who want to make stories these days for various nefarious aims, if I can put it like that," he had told 'The Week' magazine during the interview on March 13.

He also said that "if somebody has got any doubt, they should come and face us. They won't because they know they are wrong".

In that interview he had also said that Army was doing a professional job but there were people both uniformed and not in uniform, some civil servants, who had their own axes to grind. They start feeding all kinds of wrong things, he said.

Pranab to meet jewellers' associations today

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Mumbai: Amid widespread protests by bullion traders, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called a meeting with jewellers' associations on Friday to sort out the issue related to increase in taxes on gold and non-branded jewellery.

Protests against the Budget proposal to impose excised duty on jewellery have turned violent in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Punjab and Delhi. The jewellers' associations which includes the Bullion Traders Association, Market Sarafa Association and diamond traders have been on strike for the last 18 days now.

"We protested with rage today because govt is not noticing our problem. Our businesses is getting ruined," a protester said.

Mukherjee had on March 16 proposed a 1 per cent excise duty on all unbranded jewellery and doubled the import duty to 4 per cent on gold. He also announced TDS of 1 per cent on any purchase of jewellery above Rs 2 lakh. Protestors say this will seriously hit profits.

Maharashtra government recommends Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar

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New Delhi: The Maharashtra government has recommended cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's name for the country's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan made the announcement in the Assembly on Wednesday.

"We felicitated both players from the state after the World Cup. From that time plans were on to recommend the name of the son of the soil, the son of Maharashtra for the Bharat Ratna for his outstanding achievements in cricket and for being a role model to the younger generation of this country," Chavan said.

Sachin's name for Bharat Ratna started doing the rounds just before the world cup 2011 but it was felt that it would be too early to give it to him. Tendulkar completed 100 centuries on March 16, 2011.