Team Anna v/s tainted MPs

Comments by Team Anna members labeling MPs as criminals guilty of crimes like murder and rape sparked a row in the Parliament on Monday, with political parties condemning the remarks and some leaders suggesting that Lok Sabha pass a resolution condemning the allegations. Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal’s comments about criminals sitting in Parliament caused a furore. The demand at Sunday’s rally for FIRs to be registered against 14 Union ministers and taunts that MPs could never legislate a Lokpal law to check corruption united Parliamentarians on Monday, with lawmakers lashing out at the activists. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj set the tone saying that Team Anna must not lose sight of maintaining decorum while pressing its demands. JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav said the chair could move a resolution censuring the activists for levelling unsubstantiated charges. Yadav asked the chair to consider a resolution condemning the “uncivil” language used against MPs during Anna Hazare’s day-long fast on Sunday. “We stood up to speak for Hazare, but this language is not acceptable,” the JD(U) leader said. Swaraj argued intemperate attacks were harming institutions and this could be read as an attempt to encourage or back dictatorship. While no MP has as yet sought to move a notice against Team Anna members, privilege committee chair P C Chacko said that remarks made at Sunday’s rally “were a fit case of privilege.” Faced with backlash from the political community Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal remained defiant, saying that the Parliament faced a crisis of credibility with 162 sitting MPs facing criminal charges. Kejriwal, who has two privilege notices against him, sought to shift the blame on the elected representatives. He argued that it “tainted’’ ministers and elected representatives with dubious antecedents had insulted the Parliament and not activists. “We are willing to be punished if we have insulted Parliament. However, nation and Parliament’s respect will increase not by punishing me, but by bringing in clean candidates,’’ he said.

Somewhere in New Delhi....

Tibetan activist, Jamyang Yeshi (26), runs through the crowd after setting himself ablaze at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday, during a demonstration against Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit later this week. Sources said Yeshi ran nearly 50 yards before collapsing and protesters doused the flames with Tibetan flags. He suffered 90% burn injuries and is in a critical condition at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. He had escaped from Tibet in 2006 and had been living in the city for the past six years, activists said. Jintao is arriving in Delhi on Thursday to attend a summit of Brics nations. In Dharamsala, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said the Dalai Lama is “neither encouraging self-immolations in Tibet nor advocating expulsion of Han Chinese from Tibet”. The CTA said 17 people have reportedly killed themselves this year in Tibet for the cause. Some incidents of immolation have been reported from Andhra Pradesh too for the creation of Telangana.

INS Chakra

INS Chakra, the nuclear-powered Akula-II class submarine taken on lease from Russia for 10 years, will reach Indian shores in the next few days. It will formally be inducted into the Navy, in the presence of defence minister A K Antony, at Visakhapatnam on April 4. With this, the country’s protracted wait for a nuclear submarine, which can operate underwater for months at end, is finally over. But this does not mean India now has an operational nuclear weapon triad – the capability to fire nukes from land, air and sea – since INS Chakra is not armed with nuclear-tipped missiles due to international non-proliferation treaties. The triad will be in place only when the indigenous nuclear submarine, the 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, equipped to carry a dozen K-15 (750-km) or four K-4 (3,500-km) nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, becomes fully operational next year. The 8,140-tonne INS Chakra, which makes India the world’s sixth country afterUS, Russia, France, UK and China to operate nuclearpowered submarines, of course, has boosted India’s underwater combat arm that is currently grappling with just 14 ageing conventional diesel-electric submarines. Armed with the 300-km range Klub-S land-attack cruise missiles as well as other missiles and advanced torpedoes, INS Chakra will be potent ‘hunter-killer’ of enemy submarines and warships as well as provide effective protection to a fleet at sea. INS Chakra will also be used to train sailors in the intricate art of operating nuclear submarines. Incidentally, the ‘Charlie-I’ class nuclear submarine India had leased from Russia from 1988 to 1991 was also named INS Chakra but the expertise gained on it was steadily lost since Indian Navy did not operate any other nuclear submarine thereafter. The new 10-year lease flows from the January, 2004, agreement, with India funding a major part of Nerpa’s construction at Komsomolskon-Amur shipyard after Russia stopped it midway due to funds crunch. It was slated for induction much earlier but technical glitches delayed the process, which included a toxic gas leak in November, 2008, that killed 20 Russian sailors.

India & South Korea

South Korea has offered to build nuclear reactors in India and sought land for the project. The move is significant on another count too — it indicates a renewed interest in the Indian nuclear power sector with the impending resolution of the Kudankulam crisis. New Delhi, in turn, is likely to launch Korean satellites, adding South Korea to a clientele that includes Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Algeria. Emerging from talks with president Lee Myung-bak in Seoul, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “India has offered to launch Korean satellites on Indian space launch vehicles.” A joint statement said, “The two leaders proposed that the concerned agencies of both countries study the possible cooperation in future space activities, including launching a nano-satellite developed by Korean students on an Indian launch vehicle.” Korea, in many ways, rewrote nuclear history a few years ago by winning a contract to build reactors in the UAE, undercutting French giant Areva. Given the delays in working out a nuclear deal with Japan, which is holding up deals with France among others, some quarters in India feel Korean reactors could be the answer.

Jaya's Vision 2023

TN Chief minister J Jayalalithaa has unveiled a 11-year roadmap, which pitches Tamil Nadu as a global investment destination with potential for projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore. The ‘Vision 2023’ document stresses on high levels of private participation in sectors ranging from roads and ports to agriculture and manufacturing in a bid to boost economic output and ensure that the state tops the human development index in the country. The strategic release of a 11-year plan, a day after her party’s landslide byelection victory, is seen as a move by the AIADMK chief to seek a mandate that goes beyond her present five-year tenure. Although political fortunes in TN have swung every five years in recent decades, the CM promised that she “will not rest or give up till she realized her dream”. Jayalalithaa made it plain that her ambitions go beyond making Tamil Nadu the most attractive destination for investments in India. “Attaining one among the top three positions in Asia would be tantamount to benchmarking Tamil Nadu with countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, which are ranked 8, 17 and 18 in the world by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in its study on ‘Ease of Doing Business’,” she said at a gathering attended by industrialists and heads of chambers of commerce.
Vision 2023:
TN as a global investment destination with potential for projects worth 15 lakh crore
An economic boom that will raise the GSDP growth rate to 11%
Increasing the annual per capita income by six times to 4.5 lakh
20,000MW of additional power generation capacity
Training 20 million people for job skills, building cold chains and grain storage complexes, setting up medical hubs, and eight-laning of roads.
Given the present investment climate and shortage of power, the state would find it a challenge to meet the deadline. “I am aware that the state government alone cannot meet the resource requirements. A substantial portion of the financing for infrastructure has to be mobilized from nongovernmental sources, including private sector organizations, banks and foreign direct investment,” Jayalalithaa said. Commenting on the strategy, Madras School of Economics director D K Srivastava said, “Sectoral priorities are alright. The competitive edge that Tamil Nadu can build is totally dependent on the infrastructure facilities the state can provide. The vision is quite achievable, and it will allow it to take advantage over other states.”

Rupee at a 3-month low

The rupee saw its steepest drop in three months over demand from oil companies and concern that exit of foreign institutional investors from equity markets could see an outflow of dollars. The rupee closed at 51.22, down 56 paise from Wednesday’s close of 50.66. A sharp fall in the value of the rupee would increase pressure on the government to hike fuel prices. The rupee mirrored the fall in the sensex, which declined 2.3% following a series of bad news. The rupee opened weak at 50.75 and plunged to an intraday low of 51.27 before recovering marginally to close at 51.22. After a smart recovery in January, the rupee has fallen by 4.3% against the dollar in March, which makes it the worst performing Asian currency for the month. In the offshore market, three-month non-deliverable forwards were traded at 52.44 on Thursday, down from 51.68 on Wednesday. Since the rupee is not fully convertible offshore contracts are settled in dollars without delivery of the rupee.

Railway rollbacks

Mamata Banerjee’s new nominee in the railway ministry, Mukul Roy withdrew the hike in passenger fares for all classes except AC-II tier and first class, virtually rewriting the budget presented by his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi just eight days ago and which was praised by PM Manmohan Singh. Rolling back the fare hike, Roy invoked the UPA’s concern for the “aam aadmi” to reject Trivedi’s argument that an increase in fares was necessary to improve passenger safety. Roy, who replaced partyman Trivedi after the latter defied Mamata to hike fares, also tossed out of the window the “reforms” proposals announced by his predecessor—setting up of an independent tariff regulator, restructuring of the Railway Board on professional lines and creation of posts of member (PPP) and member (safety).