By A Staff Reporter NEW DELHI, December 9: A group of workers of the Youth Congress (S), Yuva Janata and Yuva Lok Dal went on a day-long dharna today outside a proposed five-star hotel being financed by a private company. In a press release, the demonstra-tors alleged that the hotel was a “symbol of corruption” as…
Our Staff Reporter A French hotel firm is collaborating in the construction and marketing of the latest five star hotel that is being built in the Capital in the private sector by Congress-I MP Charanjit Singh. A three per cent royalty on the basis of room revenue will be siphoned off by the French collaborators,…
Express News ServiceNEW DELHI, July 24:The Works and Housing Ministry and the New Delhi Municipal Committee came under sharp attack from opposition members of Parliament on Friday for allotting plots on instalments to Communist leaders and Congress(I) men on preferential terms to individuals close to the ruling party. The Minister for Works and Housing, Mr…
The Nation Manila — President Corazon Aquino has faced down the most serious threat to her rule, but Friday’s coup attempt is a warning to her to get her act together quickly, a shaken businessmen told Reuters. Rolando Atienza, president of Anscor Hagedorn Securities, the nation’s biggest stockbroker, said the markets opened on a firm…
Manila (Reuter) — The armed forces, the institution that has held the Philippines together over the past year, has emerged at war with itself after Thursday’s face-saving solution to an insurrection by 400 rebel soldiers, analysts said. Western diplomats and military experts said that Tuesday’s coup attempt and its compromise with a rump of 190…
The question is being debated as never before MUCH against his wishes, Dr Manoj Shah may yet become a national hero. He is the polio victim who failed to get a seat in the post-graduate pathology course in Ahmedabad’s BJ Medical College. The reason? There was only one seat in the pathology department and that,…
Reuter Tokyo, Dec. 28 Satellite and cable television is approaching the status of rice as staple in the Asian diet but some governments feel threatened by foreign encroachment on their airwaves. Viewers across Asia are tuning in to a cornucopia of information and entertainment. Millions of Asians now know American newsmen Ted Koppel and Dan…
Manila (Reuter-Kyodo) “Who goes there friend or foe?” That traditional challenge has acquired new meaning here after the recent uprising by elite soldiers who helped President Corazon Aquino to power last year, analysts say. A senior army officer who did not wish to be identified said the coup bid had proved loyalty to an individual…
Reuters The Philippine economy is expected to continue to grow in 1987 after a modest upturn in 1986, but a major revival depends on an end to political uncertainty, bankers, economists, diplomats and businessmen said. Economic Planning Minister Solita Monsod has said the gross national product (GNP) grew 0.13% in 1986 after declining a total…
Reuter When Corazon Aquino pledged retribution Tuesday for the latest coup attempt against her, she also proclaimed the finality of her transformation from hesitant housewife to leader of a tumultuous nation. For a woman who said her family was her greatest pleasure and agonized over entering politics in the shadow of her slain husband, Benigno,…
India’s ex-prime minister says the nation needs a unified approach to fuel growth LEFT: Supporters of India’s main opposition Congress party attend a protest against what they say is a rise in the prices of essential food items and fuel in Ahmedabad in June. RIGHT: India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh (blue turban) and main…
Reuters News Service MANILA — The Philippines, once Southeast Asia’s second-richest nation but now its second-poorest, claims it is poised for an economic boom in 1987 after three years ofprecipitous decline that has drained millions in poverty. Government officials, buoyed by rising foreign exchange reserves and single-digit inflation, have begun the new year on a…
MANILA: A government-appointed special prosecutor yesterday ordered the filing of corruption charges against Philippine Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez, who said he would contest them. Ombudsman Raul Gonzalez said there was evidence to indicate that Mr. Fernandez had misused his office in ordering the closure of the private Pacific Bank in July, 1985. He said…
The Assam agitators have taken a lot of inspiration from the RSS, reports The RSS’s position on the North-East has been enunciated very clearly in a 104-page book titled What ails India’s North-East? written by Bhanu Pratap Shukla and published by Suruchi Sahitya, the Sangh’s propaganda wing. In a preface titled As I view it,…
Almost everyone who saw Sholay liked the ‘Mehbooba dance number immensely. Apart from Jalal Agha singing in R. D. Burman’s voice, there was Helen-swooping, whirling, and twirling all those scarves. I thought she looked every inch a gipsy dancer. And Mani Rabadi thinks so too. Mani designed Helen’s costume for that song. Her telephone’s busy…
Can Modi balance populism and prudence as external risks mount? India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes taking big steps and does not shy away from wagering his political capital. But he squandered quite a bit of it with his November demonetization measures, which banned 500- and 1,000-rupee bank notes. Modi was widely expected to unveil…
OBSCENITY. Vulgar display. Indecent exposure. Suggestive gestures. We’ve been hearing a lot of such phrases, ever since the Cinematograph (Censorship) Act was passed in 1952. Even today, they look back with nostalgia to the days when there were kissing scenes in Hindi films, and Himansu Rai is an often-mentioned name. Ever since 1952, the audience…
Government pushes for monetary easing despite central bank doubts While India swelters in record high June temperatures, senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government are sweating for another reason. The heat is coming from a debate over whether the country is poised for a V-shaped recovery after last November’s shock demonetization or if it…
When CHAITANYA KALBAG arrived for this pre-arranged interview at Janata General Secretary RABI RAY’s residence at 12, Safdarjung Lane, New Delhi, an assistant of the latter’s informed him that he had been summoned urgently by the President, Mr Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Half an hour later Mr Ray returned, to inform our correspondent…
NEW DELHI — India’s economy is doing well despite slower growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2016-17, but moribund private investment and a mushroom cloud of huge bad loans over banks are worries, according to the chief economic adviser to the Indian government. “In the short run, our biggest challenges are private investment and…
NEW DELHI — India’s northeastern border state of Assam is waiting with trepidation for the results of a citizenship census that could have major political, sectarian and diplomatic consequences just months before the country’s next general election. The National Register of Citizens, which will identify mostly Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh who are living in the…
It was a pleasure to attend the Ninth Upendra Vajpeyi Memorial Lecture on April 1, 2016, delivered by Balmiki Prasad Singh, who is a respected administrator, scholar, author and thinker. Mr Singh, a former Governor of Sikkim, is familiar with the absence of peace – he was a senior official in Assam when the anti-foreigner…
The Sai Baba controversy is utterly irrelevant and merely proves that Indian newspapers and magazine are hard put to finding topic worthy of discussion. An article on the occasion if Satya Sai Baba’s 50th birthday which was celebrated on November 23. “I Wonder,” remarked a Professor of Political Science at an American university when I…
Government must create jobs, not just offer cash: renowned Indian economist NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi’s government unveiled an ambitious budget last week with huge handouts for India’s poor, a move that could certainly win him votes in the upcoming elections but will do little to alleviate poverty in the long term, analysts said. Modi’s…
Indian bank governance is in the spotlight amid the ballooning $2.1 billion fraudulent-loan scandal at Punjab National Bank. © Reuters NEW DELHI – The crisis in India’s state-owned banking sector is deepening, but the government may be preparing to give a key oversight body, set up two years ago to improve governance at bank boards,…
If there’s one thing I learned from directing Time’s coverage of America’s post-9/11 wars, it’s this: Military professionals, at least in our era, are rarely cheerleaders for war. They know well the risks involved and appreciate the value, in lives and money saved, of alternative approaches. So, what can the rest of us learn from…
The Philippines is poised to write a new and dangerous chapter in the global debt crisis, bankers and economic analysts warned on Monday. Over the past week, a combative Congress has set in motion plans likely to pit the heavenly indebted nation against its foreign creditors and rupture economic recovery. The analysts said the legislators’…
The external environment has “deteriorated,” Subramanian said. “Interest rates have gone up globally so there is a capital outflow, and now the major new development is the prospect of trade wars, especially if China converts it into something bigger, like a currency war. We could see very unsettling times. So just to hold the fort…
Return to Bhopal Bhopal: A small, red-painted build-in this centraling in Indian city has become the focus of a grim battle being waged against the after-effects of a poison gas leak that killed 2,500 people last December. In the first weeks after the disaster, the victims were reported to have died as their lungs filled…
Imphal — A minister in the northeast Indian state of Manipur was sacked this month because he went to a polo match. The minister was not dismissed for taking time off but because he went with only two bodyguards instead of his usual jeep-load of machine-gun carrying policemen. “We are fighting against insurgents in Manipur,”…
Bhopal: A small, red-painted build-in this central in Indian city has become the focus of a grim battle being waged against the after-effects of a poison gas leak that killed 2,500 people last December. In the first weeks after the disaster, the victims were reported to have died as their lungs filled with fluids after…
New Delhi -Ten months after the army stormed the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has run up against his toughest domestic challenge so far in Punjab state. Gandhi has pledged to give top priority to the Punjab problem Eight leaders of the main Sikh party, the Akali Dal, were…
— Continued from Page 1could have dealt with an accident much better died. “Those left behind couldn’t really cope very well and we all spun off in own directions.” Hillary did eventually find happiness again, marrying June, widow of his exploring partner Pete Mulgrew. Despite the tragedies, life has been full of richly satisfying firsts…
Continued from Page 1 Col 7 discover, are fully operational. But they contribute little to Iran’s total refining needs. The oil wells in the Kermanshah region are in Iraqi hands. But the Iraqis have failed to snap two vital links from the captured Khorramshahr and the pulverised Abadan, which go above Susangerd to the biggest…
Chaitanya Kalbag, one of Reuter’s New Delhi-based correspondents, has returned to Bhopal to assess the long-term effects of December’s poison gas leak on the city and its population. Kalbag, aged 28, and a former award-winning writer with India Today magazine, covered the original disaster story. Hundreds of people stand outside the drab, white bungalow, clutching…
Bhopal: Hundreds of people stand outside the drab white bungalow, clutching yellow X-ray folders and medical prescriptions in a line stretching down the driveway and into nearby bushes. A chorus of dry coughs punctuates the slow progress of emaciated men, ragged children and ghost-like Muslim women covered head-to-toe in veils and black robes towards the…
India, a land where personality cults spring up overnight, is struggling to find a pedestal on which to put its assassinated leader Indira Gandhi. In the year since her murder last Oct. 31, the woman once portrayed by a leading painter as a Goddess has become mainly a face looking out from old election posters. …
US ‘interference’ charges spur soul-searching in Manila MANILA —The recall of a US military diplomat from the Philippines underlines the love-hate ties between the two countries but also points to a new direction in Manila foreign policy, analysts said Wednesday. The US Embassy’s announcement that assistant army attache Lt Col Victor Raphael would depart this…
The troops and the refugees are two knots in a tangle Indira Gandhi’s son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, must unravel before peace returns to Punjab state. TWO streets from the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, a soldier in olive green uniform stands atop a t a tall building, his binoculars trained on the clusters…
The RBI governor refuses to be drawn into the game of popularity stakes Well, I think we’ve still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying, ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. We’re a little bit that way. We feel things are turning to the…
Philippine investigators recover millions by seizing funds of ex-leader’s ‘cronies’ MANILA Former President Ferdinand Marcos-and his associates still control vast amounts of funds circulating in the country’s economy, the head of a government panel tracking the ousted leader’s “hidden wealth” said Sunday Ramon Diaz, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, said in an…
The office of Indian politician Arjun Dass, where he was assassinated. AP picture NEW DELHI,— Thurs. Indian security forces rounded. up nearly 300 Sikh extremist suspects today in a race against time to break the back of the extremist movement before elections in Punjab State. Security chiefs, on the defensive after the murder yesterday of…
New Delhi— Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has vowed to take tough action to conquer what he sees as India’a political and social ills after basking in a year-long glow of triumph for hauling the country back from the brink of widespread unrest. Cracks have started appearing in the national euphoria swirling around the former airline…
Bhopal — The poison gas leak that killed 2,500 people last December in this central Indian city has left the future of tens of thousands of people in doubt. The biggest question-mark hangs over the lives of about 125,000 people severely injured in the leak, which occurred at a pesticide factory owned by the Indian…
Tehran, JAN. 23-Iranian military plans were always offensive vis-a-vis Iraq. it was not surprising, therefore, that the Iranian air force’s first raids on Iraq after the war broke out in late September focused on economically important target The Iraqis, too, have centrated their attacks Iranian economic centres— a situation that seems to invite the acronym…
By Chaitanya Kalbag of Reuters through NZPA Bhopal—The poison gas leak that. killed 2500 people last December in this central Indian city has left the future of tens of thousands of people in doubt. The biggest question mark hangs over the lives of about 125,000 people severely injured in the leak, which occurred at a…
In New Delhi India, a land where personality cults spring up overnight, is struggling to find a pedestal on which to put its assassinated leader Indira Gandhi. In the year since her murder last October 31, the woman once portrayed by a leading painter as a goddess has become mainly a face looking out from…
NZPA — Thimphu, Bhutan Tucked away in the eastern Himalayas lives the ruler of a fairyland little kingdom who must be one of the world’s most eligible bachelors because he is the world’s youngest reigning monarch. The personal life of the Druk Gyalpo (precious ruler of the dragon people) is not gossiped about in Bhutan,…
New Delhi, Mar 11. The Soviet Union has tightened its grip on the Indian arms market by offering an array of sophisticated weapons to a Government worried about growing United States military aid to Pakistan, defence analysts said today. Indian officials said that under an agreement reached during the visit of the Soviet Defence Minister,…
New Delhi, June 1: Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh said on Tuesday there would be “no relenting” on air and ground operations in Kashmir, and accused Pakistan’s military of connivance with “armed intruders.” “There will be no relenting on any ground operations or air operations until status quo ante is restored,” Mr. Singh told Reuters…
New Delhi, May 31: Defence minister George Fernandes said on Monday he was sure Pakistan’s military chiefs would not resort to the use of nuclear weapons against India because they would “liquidate” their own country in the process. Asked if the Kashmir fighting, the worst between the bitter neighbours in nearly three decades, might worsen…
New Delhi — The Soviet Union has tightened its grip on the Indian arms market by offering an array of sophisticated weapons to a government worried about growing U.S. military aid to Pakistan, defense analysts said here last week. Indian officials said that under an agreement reached during the visit of Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry…