Why Natwar Singh wrote his Sonia expose: 'Inner voice' or political gain? - Firstpost

Is it becoming a fad or is it plain business sense that the Gandhis have become the focal point of all ‘tell all’ tales being published in the country? Right from former media advisor Sanjaya Baru to one of the closest aides of the Gandhi family, Natwar Singh have targeted the Congress’ first family in their respective books.

Despite the differences between the Gandhis and Natwar Singh, one never imagined that the schism would run so deep that the former diplomat would write about the inner functioning of the Congress president. What this book ‘One life is not enough’ does is that it throws light on the best covered secrets of the Grand Old Party. The enigma and novelty value of the Gandhis has been dented by the allegations made in Natwar Singh’s autobiography.

“It is all heresay. It is too late to make such allegations,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha. “These people were themselves advisors, then they said nothing,” he added.

Image from IBNlive

But these allegations have not just given ammunition to the BJP, but have also given their allies an axe to grind them with. One of the Congress party’s oldest allies, the NCP, has surprisingly taken Natwar Singh’s side on the issue. “Natwar Singh Ji is right when he says that power lies solely with 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s residence),” a senior NCP leader told reporters in parliament.

“People refuting Natwar Singh Ji should realise that he has been a diplomat with impeccable credentials,” he went on to add. Though the Congress has kept mum on the allegations, it has rather focused on the intent of Natwar Singh. The former External Affairs Minister claims that it was Rahul Gandhi who forced Sonia not to become Prime Minister in 2004 and that all important government files were shown to Congress president contrary to popular perception.

But there is more to the allegations than just the book, Natwar Singh’s son and his political future.

It was because of the alleged involvement of his son Jagat Singh and his friend Andaleeb Sehgal that Natwar had to resign from the Union cabinet. But he felt slighted at the way he was treated in the aftermath of the Volcker scam when the party refused to back him. Since then he has been used by various political parties to bad mouth the Congress at different public platforms.

The famous comment on the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not being an elected member of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) while hobnobbing with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in 2006 ensured that there was no way back for Natwar Singh into the Congress party. He went on to join Mayawati’s BSP for a brief period after which he was expelled for anti party activities.

“His son is in the BJP and is a sitting MLA from Rajasthan” said Digvijaya Singh, senior leader and general secretary of the Congress Party. “This book is being used as a platform to push his son into BJP politics. Whatever he is today is because of the Nehru Gandhi family, need I say more,” he added.

Despite all criticism, Sonia Gandhi has largely accommodated all senior leaders during the UPA regime from 2004-2014. Right from the likes of Margaret Alva who had been shunted for anti-party remarks in public after her son was denied an assembly ticket in 2008 Karnataka elections to to former Governor HR Bhardwaj whose name figured in the alleged cover up of the Bofors scam when he was denied a ministerial berth in UPA-II. Both leaders were appointed governors by UPA-II as part of their rehabilitation scheme. Same applied to Shivraj Patil who had to resign as Union Home Minister after the dreaded 26/11 attack in Mumbai that happened in 2008, he was subsequently made Governor of Punjab in 2010. “We are not privy to what transpired between him and Congress President, it is his version in the book” said former Union Minister Anand Sharma. “We have to take this version not with a pinch but a fist full of salt,” he added.

The repeated attacks on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have rattled the party so much so that the normally reticent Manmohan Singh came to the rescue when he rubbished claims of files being sent from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to Sonia for her approval. Even Sonia looked different from her normal stone cold self when she said. "I saw my mother-in-law riddled with bullets, saw my husband assassinated. Why should I feel hurt?" Perhaps this was too personal an attack on her as she mocked Natwar Singh "I am far from getting hurt by these allegations," she said.

While former close aides of the Congress party and UPA government continue to wash their linen in public, the threat of writing a book seems the perfect defence to keep such agents of negative publicity at bay.

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Sonia was no deity of sacrifice: Did Priyanka endorse Natwar's claim? - Firstpost

'Amazing Grace,' announced a leading newspaper’s banner headline on 19 May, 2004, words that went on to become a sort of catchphrase to describe the "sacrifice" made by Sonia Gandhi who had heeded the call of her “inner voice”. Whatever propelled her decision to not become prime minister, in one single stroke, she had become a deity of renunciation, personifying the biggest human trait that Indians value.

Natwar Singh. Image courtesy PIB

There were live images of wailing senior Congressmen in the Central Hall of Parliament as Sonia told the Congress Parliamentary Party, "Today my inner voice is telling me that I should politely refuse to accept the post of Prime Minister.” The drama that followed outside her residence and at the Congress headquarters made many in the country, regardless of whether they had voted for the Congress, review their opinion of her. Even her most bitter critics accepted that the move was most graceful, dictated by circumstances or otherwise.

The emotional outpouring and Sonia’s handling of affairs with a certain coolness, steadfastly supporting Manmohan Singh, was a powerful image. All other stories, why she refused to become Prime Minister, her citizenship issue, her family's fears that if she became prime minister she could meet the same fate as her mother-in-law and husband, all these were discredited.

Now, what Natwar Singh, her one time confidante, has done is to torpedo that image, partially demolish her claim to renunciation and sacrifice, and also portray her son and heir Rahul Gandhi as a timid young man who forced his mother not to accept the challenge of shaping the fate of the nation only because of his own panic. He may have become the Congress’s vice-president only eight years later, but he took decisions on her behalf even when he was hardly in active politics.

Sonia Gandhi has now promised that she will write her own book and 'reveal the truth'. Expectedly, for Congress party leaders, it’s a free for all situation, whereby one could choose strong words and phrases to berate Natwar Singh. There are no clues yet on just when Sonia will write her book. Was it a light-hearted comment to politely get away from the inquisitive media without responding to substantive questions or did she really mean it? Will she write a book while still serving as Congress president or do it post retirement?

Nobody knows. But first, it would be interesting to take a look at Barkha Dutt’s interview with Priyanka Gandhi for NDTV in April 2009 when she was campaigning in her mother's parliamentary constituency, Rae Bareli. Priyanka could be seen to be virtually endorsing what Natwar Singh said, that Rahul did not want Sonia to become PM because he feared that she could die if she accepted the post. And it was Priyanka who conveyed Rahul’s message, with a deadline of 24 hours.

In response to Barkha’s question, “You have seen what happened to your father and you have seen what happened to your grandmother, do you feel scared for your brother, your mother, yourself,” Priyanka says: "No, I don’t. I don’t feel scared for them at all... But I did have this one moment of terror in 2004 when I peeped into her office and I saw this bunch of, you know, Lalu ji and everybody surrounding her and saying that you have to be Prime Minister, I had this one moment of complete terror. And I burst out crying. I didn’t realise that I was afraid. I burst into my brother, I was like is she going to die..you think you are not scared but you are scared of losing someone else you love..”

Taken in the context of what Natwar Singh has written in his book and said in his pre-release interview to Headlines Today, Priyanka’s response becomes very revealing.

That 'renunciation’ formula helped Sonia again in March 2006 when the “office of profit” issue threatened to culminate in her disqualification as an MP. In a surprise move, she resigned from Lok Sabha, only to be re-elected from Rae Bareli before Parliament could open for the next session. The UPA government would later make relevant amendments in the office of profit statutes.

Natwar Singh obviously has chosen his timing well. For the last nine years he has been persona non grata, going from the second most powerful person in the UPA government in its first year, from somebody who could call Sonia by her first name to a humiliated, haunted man thrown out of the Congress after his name figured in the Volcker report. But for the past few days, he is making headlines, the difference being that this time around, he is having the last laugh, at least for now, having put Sonia and Rahul in the dock.

At the age of 83, with the Modi government firmly at the centre and son Jagat Singh now a BJP MLA from Rajasthan, he has nothing to lose now. He knows that the Congress is down. Sonia’s Mother India frame has already been left tattered in these elections. The country may have rewarded her for that renunciation in 2009, but no longer reposes faith in her.

Natwar has said he wrote his book, One Life Is Not Enough, because he did not want to take his “bitterness to the funeral pyre” but he has virtually bombed the dynasty’s aura. He has used a range of adjectives to describe Sonia, from “authoritarian” and “capricious” to “Machiavellian” and “secretive.”

The first controversy on why Sonia refused to become PM -- that president Kalam raising citizenship issue thus making her nominate Manmohan Singh – was debunked by Kalam but continued to be a talking point because there were other versions also. Interestingly, a senior BJP leader, now an important minister, had met President Kalam same day, May 17, 2004, when Sonia had met him to stake claim to form government.

Kalam had spoken to that BJP leader about the various petitions including that of Subramanian Swamy he had received and said he was looking into the matter. Swamy in his petition to President Kalam had said the Citizenship Act did not allow Sonia to become PM. “In particular Ms Gandhi is subject to proviso under Section 5 of Citizenship Act, a reciprocal disqualification to be Prime Minister of this country since she is Italian,” Swamy said in his petition dated May 15, 2004 to Kalam adding that the President’s power to invite anyone who enjoys support of majority of elected members is not “unfettered”.

On this subject, Kalam wrote in his book later: “While this communication was in progress, I had a number of e-mails and letters coming from individuals, organizations and parties that I should not allow Mrs Sonia Gandhi to become the prime minister of our country. I had passed on these mails and letters to various agencies in the government for their information without making any remarks. During this time there were many political leaders who came to meet me to request me not to succumb to any pressure and appoint Mrs Gandhi as the prime minister.” He added, “If she had made any claim for herself I would have had no option but to appoint her.”

Natwar Singh's narration of events of 17-18 May 2004 is an insider’s account. Given the current political mood, it would be easily acceptable to most, until Rahul or Sonia come out with a more substantive counter. It is, after all, not an ordinary event that Sonia and Priyanka went to his doorstep with a very personal request, a full nine years after he was shown the door from the government, from the Congress party and from key positions that he held in the first family foundations.

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Pune landslide: Unscientific farming seen as trigger - Livemint

Rescue workers and volunteers clear the debris from the site of a landslide at Malin village. Photo: Reuters

Mumbai/Malin (Pune):Environmental campaigners said Wednesday’s landslide in Malin village of Pune district that has killed 41 people so far and buried around 125 more was caused by unscientific paddy farming encouraged by the local agricultural department.

Ambegaon-based non-governmental organization Nisarg Sahas Sanstha (NSS), which works in the field of environment protection, has lodged a complaint with Pune Rural Police demanding that an offence of culpable homicide be registered against local officials of the agricultural department.

It said these officials encouraged tribal farmers of Malin village to undertake paddy cultivation in an unscientific manner.

Dhananjay Konkane, president of NSS, said: “Villagers who mostly belong to the Scheduled Tribe community called Mahdeo Koli were encouraged by the agriculture department to flatten large tracts of hills in the village and also uproot the trees on the hill to promote paddy cultivation among these tribals, so that they have a permanent source of livelihood under the government scheme called Padkai.”

However, before encouraging villagers to undertake paddy cultivation on the hills, no survey on the geographical features of the village and its surroundings were carried out by the officials, he claimed.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh , who visited Malin village on Thursday, announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.2 lakh each for close relatives of those who died in the landslide.

Singh said: “One must strike a balance between development and environment. Eco-friendly development is a must to ensure that balance of nature is not disturbed.”

However, he added, it would be premature to comment on the reasons for the landslide before authorities had received the report of the Geological Survey of India.

The confirmed death toll was 41 from Wednesday’s landslide, said H.H. Chauhan , deputy director of health services in the district where the village is located.

More than 24 hours after the Wednesday morning landslide, authorities said the chances of survival were slim for anyone still trapped under the mud in Malin village in Ambegaon near Pune district of Maharashtra. Suresh Jadhav , a district official, said around 40 homes were wiped out.

Two days of torrential rains triggered the landslide, which continued to pound the area as rescuers brought bodies covered in soaked white sheets to waiting ambulances while relatives stood by, weeping. Bad communications, dangerous roads and debris delayed national rescue personnel from the stricken area for several hours Wednesday.

The disaster only came to light when a bus driver passed by and saw that the village had disappeared under masses of mud and earth. “The driver returned to a nearby city and alerted authorities,” Jadhav said. “Everything on the mountain came down.” Thirty bodies had been recovered and eight people pulled out alive, said rescue official Sachin Tamboli .

Suresh Dhonde , who was working in another town when the landslide ripped through his village, said only two people managed to get out of his home alive.

“The other six are buried under the mud,” he said.

Crowds of people from nearby areas were helping rescuers, using their bare hands to move fallen trees and rocks. About 250 disaster response workers and at least 100 ambulances were involved in the rescue effort, officials said.

Overnight, emergency workers used flood lights mounted on jeeps to illuminate the disaster area, where the tangled roofs of homes poked up through thick mud.

Rescuers expected the death toll to rise in the village at the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountains. Sandeep Rai Rathore , a top official of the National Disaster Response Force, estimated that around 100 people were missing and feared dead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned the loss of lives and said all possible efforts must be made to help the victims, according to a statement from his office. He sent home minister Rajnath Singh to the disaster area.

Landslides are common in the area during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September. The area around the village has been deforested extensively, increasing its vulnerability to landslides. Similar deforestation and environmental damage have caused floods and landslides in other parts of India.

Pune district is about 150km (95 miles) southeast of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital.

On Thursday, heavy rains hit a remote mountainous village in northern India and six members of a family were feared dead, said police officer Pravin Tamta. Police have recovered two bodies and were searching for four others in Tehri district in the hilly Uttarakhand state, Tamta said. The village is 300 kilometers (200 miles) north of New Delhi.

Last year, more than 6,000 people were killed as floods and landslides swept through Uttarakhand state during the monsoon season.

Reuters contributed to this story.

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Sonia was no deity of sacrifice: Did Priyanka endorse Natwar's claim? - Firstpost

'Amazing Grace,' announced a leading newspaper’s banner headline on 19 May, 2004, words that went on to become a sort of catchphrase to describe the "sacrifice" made by Sonia Gandhi who had heeded the call of her “inner voice”. Whatever propelled her decision to not become prime minister, in one single stroke, she had become a deity of renunciation, personifying the biggest human trait that Indians value.

Natwar Singh. Image courtesy PIB

There were live images of wailing senior Congressmen in the Central Hall of Parliament as Sonia told the Congress Parliamentary Party, "Today my inner voice is telling me that I should politely refuse to accept the post of Prime Minister.” The drama that followed outside her residence and at the Congress headquarters made many in the country, regardless of whether they had voted for the Congress, review their opinion of her. Even her most bitter critics accepted that the move was most graceful, dictated by circumstances or otherwise.

The emotional outpouring and Sonia’s handling of affairs with a certain coolness, steadfastly supporting Manmohan Singh, was a powerful image. All other stories, why she refused to become Prime Minister, her citizenship issue, her family's fears that if she became prime minister she could meet the same fate as her mother-in-law and husband, all these were discredited.

Now, what Natwar Singh, her one time confidante, has done is to torpedo that image, partially demolish her claim to renunciation and sacrifice, and also portray her son and heir Rahul Gandhi as a timid young man who forced his mother not to accept the challenge of shaping the fate of the nation only because of his own panic. He may have become the Congress’s vice-president only eight years later, but he took decisions on her behalf even when he was hardly in active politics.

Sonia Gandhi has now promised that she will write her own book and 'reveal the truth'. Expectedly, for Congress party leaders, it’s a free for all situation, whereby one could choose strong words and phrases to berate Natwar Singh. There are no clues yet on just when Sonia will write her book. Was it a light-hearted comment to politely get away from the inquisitive media without responding to substantive questions or did she really mean it? Will she write a book while still serving as Congress president or do it post retirement?

Nobody knows. But first, it would be interesting to take a look at Barkha Dutt’s interview with Priyanka Gandhi for NDTV in April 2009 when she was campaigning in her mother's parliamentary constituency, Rae Bareli. Priyanka could be seen to be virtually endorsing what Natwar Singh said, that Rahul did not want Sonia to become PM because he feared that she could die if she accepted the post. And it was Priyanka who conveyed Rahul’s message, with a deadline of 24 hours.

In response to Barkha’s question, “You have seen what happened to your father and you have seen what happened to your grandmother, do you feel scared for your brother, your mother, yourself,” Priyanka says: "No, I don’t. I don’t feel scared for them at all... But I did have this one moment of terror in 2004 when I peeped into her office and I saw this bunch of, you know, Lalu ji and everybody surrounding her and saying that you have to be Prime Minister, I had this one moment of complete terror. And I burst out crying. I didn’t realise that I was afraid. I burst into my brother, I was like is she going to die..you think you are not scared but you are scared of losing someone else you love..”

Taken in the context of what Natwar Singh has written in his book and said in his pre-release interview to Headlines Today, Priyanka’s response becomes very revealing.

That 'renunciation’ formula helped Sonia again in March 2006 when the “office of profit” issue threatened to culminate in her disqualification as an MP. In a surprise move, she resigned from Lok Sabha, only to be re-elected from Rae Bareli before Parliament could open for the next session. The UPA government would later make relevant amendments in the office of profit statutes.

Natwar Singh obviously has chosen his timing well. For the last nine years he has been persona non grata, going from the second most powerful person in the UPA government in its first year, from somebody who could call Sonia by her first name to a humiliated, haunted man thrown out of the Congress after his name figured in the Volcker report. But for the past few days, he is making headlines, the difference being that this time around, he is having the last laugh, at least for now, having put Sonia and Rahul in the dock.

At the age of 83, with the Modi government firmly at the centre and son Jagat Singh now a BJP MLA from Rajasthan, he has nothing to lose now. He knows that the Congress is down. Sonia’s Mother India frame has already been left tattered in these elections. The country may have rewarded her for that renunciation in 2009, but no longer reposes faith in her.

Natwar has said he wrote his book, One Life Is Not Enough, because he did not want to take his “bitterness to the funeral pyre” but he has virtually bombed the dynasty’s aura. He has used a range of adjectives to describe Sonia, from “authoritarian” and “capricious” to “Machiavellian” and “secretive.”

The first controversy on why Sonia refused to become PM -- that president Kalam raising citizenship issue thus making her nominate Manmohan Singh – was debunked by Kalam but continued to be a talking point because there were other versions also. Interestingly, a senior BJP leader, now an important minister, had met President Kalam same day, May 17, 2004, when Sonia had met him to stake claim to form government.

Kalam had spoken to that BJP leader about the various petitions including that of Subramanian Swamy he had received and said he was looking into the matter. Swamy in his petition to President Kalam had said the Citizenship Act did not allow Sonia to become PM. “In particular Ms Gandhi is subject to proviso under Section 5 of Citizenship Act, a reciprocal disqualification to be Prime Minister of this country since she is Italian,” Swamy said in his petition dated May 15, 2004 to Kalam adding that the President’s power to invite anyone who enjoys support of majority of elected members is not “unfettered”.

On this subject, Kalam wrote in his book later: “While this communication was in progress, I had a number of e-mails and letters coming from individuals, organizations and parties that I should not allow Mrs Sonia Gandhi to become the prime minister of our country. I had passed on these mails and letters to various agencies in the government for their information without making any remarks. During this time there were many political leaders who came to meet me to request me not to succumb to any pressure and appoint Mrs Gandhi as the prime minister.” He added, “If she had made any claim for herself I would have had no option but to appoint her.”

Natwar Singh's narration of events of 17-18 May 2004 is an insider’s account. Given the current political mood, it would be easily acceptable to most, until Rahul or Sonia come out with a more substantive counter. It is, after all, not an ordinary event that Sonia and Priyanka went to his doorstep with a very personal request, a full nine years after he was shown the door from the government, from the Congress party and from key positions that he held in the first family foundations.

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Pune landslide: 41 bodies found, 160 people still missing - Times of India

PUNE: It's been more than 24 hours since several rescue teams, including those of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), were deployed at Malin where a major landslide on Wednesday killed over 41 people. About 150 are still feared buried under the debris.

Till Thursday evening, about 41 bodies, mangled and covered in slush were recovered. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and state assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil, visited the village. Three excavators are working round the clock to clear the rubble under which over 60 houses lie buried.

Government medical teams and those from private hospitals and fire-brigade personnel are stationed at the stricken village. The teams have been ferrying bodies to the nearest public health centre at Adivare by ambulances. Heavy rain is hampering salvage work. The only shelter for the rescue teams is an old primary school building. This structure and a few locked houses were the ones that escaped getting flattened. As rescue workers sifted through the debris, they found objects like a temple bell, a domestic LPG cylinder, and a mangled motorcycle.

The NDRF team is still searching for survivors and taking utmost care to search for bodies. Of the three excavators, two pushed the silt, and a third loaded thick layers of mud to trucks. Alok Awasthi, commandant of Talegaon-based 5th NDRF Battalion said, "There are around 158 people trapped under the debris. Till late Thursday, we've recovered 31 bodies and eight survivors. The rescue work will take another 48 to 72 hours. Rain is slowing down the work but we are working round the clock."

Expressing condolences to the families of the victims, Rajnath Singh said the PM has released Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the victims, in addition to the assistance under NDRF and the state disaster response fund.

Sharad Pawar said he'd urge the state government to shift such villages located on hill slopes. "A similar incident had taken place near Kamshet in Maval, 25 years back," he recalled. Saurabh Rao, district collector said the response time of the district administration to the Malin village tragedy was about three hours. "Our teams had reached the site around 11am and immediately started the rescue work," Rao said.

For the relatives, it's been an agonizing wait. Many have been sitting around sobbing looking at the rescue work.

"The excavators have been able to remove silt from just one portion so far. It will take several days before all the silt is removed", said Sharada Zhanjare, who lost her sister-in-law, and her in-laws.

http://ift.tt/1mnDau8 Pawar,Rajnath Singh,Pune landslide,National Disaster Response Force,Malin landslide

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Pune landslide: 41 bodies found, 160 people still missing - Times of India

PUNE: It's been more than 24 hours since several rescue teams, including those of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), were deployed at Malin where a major landslide on Wednesday killed over 41 people. About 150 are still feared buried under the debris.

Till Thursday evening, about 41 bodies, mangled and covered in slush were recovered. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and state assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil, visited the village. Three excavators are working round the clock to clear the rubble under which over 60 houses lie buried.

Government medical teams and those from private hospitals and fire-brigade personnel are stationed at the stricken village. The teams have been ferrying bodies to the nearest public health centre at Adivare by ambulances. Heavy rain is hampering salvage work. The only shelter for the rescue teams is an old primary school building. This structure and a few locked houses were the ones that escaped getting flattened. As rescue workers sifted through the debris, they found objects like a temple bell, a domestic LPG cylinder, and a mangled motorcycle.

The NDRF team is still searching for survivors and taking utmost care to search for bodies. Of the three excavators, two pushed the silt, and a third loaded thick layers of mud to trucks. Alok Awasthi, commandant of Talegaon-based 5th NDRF Battalion said, "There are around 158 people trapped under the debris. Till late Thursday, we've recovered 31 bodies and eight survivors. The rescue work will take another 48 to 72 hours. Rain is slowing down the work but we are working round the clock."

Expressing condolences to the families of the victims, Rajnath Singh said the PM has released Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the victims, in addition to the assistance under NDRF and the state disaster response fund.

Sharad Pawar said he'd urge the state government to shift such villages located on hill slopes. "A similar incident had taken place near Kamshet in Maval, 25 years back," he recalled. Saurabh Rao, district collector said the response time of the district administration to the Malin village tragedy was about three hours. "Our teams had reached the site around 11am and immediately started the rescue work," Rao said.

For the relatives, it's been an agonizing wait. Many have been sitting around sobbing looking at the rescue work.

"The excavators have been able to remove silt from just one portion so far. It will take several days before all the silt is removed", said Sharada Zhanjare, who lost her sister-in-law, and her in-laws.

http://ift.tt/1mnDau8 Pawar,Rajnath Singh,Pune landslide,National Disaster Response Force,Malin landslide

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Gas Suspected in Fatal Blasts That Jolted a City in Taiwan - New York Times

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US cyber snooping unacceptable, says India - Firstpost

New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) India Thursday raised the issue of America's cyber snooping on the country, saying it was "unacceptable" as visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry in a conciliatory note said the US would continue to work with India wherever they saw a "threat to shared interests".

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, addressing a joint press briefing with Kerry after the Fifth India-US Strategic Dialogue, said that she conveyed to Kerry that the people of India were very agitated over US surveillance activities. "I also said if we consider each other friends then a friendly country spying on another is unacceptable."

Kerry, in reply, said that the US "fully respects and understands the feelings expressed" by the minister. He said the US values its relationship with India and "we also value the sharing of information regarding counter-terrorism, and we had conversations with government officials and we try to with intelligence communities".

He said President Barack Obama has undertaken a "unique and unprecedented review" of the US intelligence and intelligence gathering and gave a speech articulating American approach to the standards that will apply to it.

Sushma Swaraj's raising the issue of US internet snooping by its intelligence agency, the National Security Agency, comes days after Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in parliament that the government would not accept breach of any Indian law relating to privacy of people by American intelligence agencies.

The US has been facing flak from numerous countries, including Germany and Brazil, following revelations that the NSA snooped on phone conversations and the internet mail of the leaders of those countries.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

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WTO talks fail over India's protection of food subsidies - Livemint

Negotiators for a Trade Facilitation Agreement at WTO headquarters in Geneva failed to agree as a midnight deadline passed to implement part of the accord by the end of July. Photo: AFP

New Delhi: Talks for the first major accord in the World Trade Organization’s 19-year history collapsed over objections raised by India, which was seeking to bolster farm protections.

Negotiators for a Trade Facilitation Agreement at WTO headquarters in Geneva failed to agree as a midnight deadline passed to implement part of the accord by the end of July. India refused to go along without assurances the pact would allow it to keep protections for its domestically produced food.

We tried everything we could. But it has not proved possible, WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo , said in a statement.

The failure is a setback for the global trade talks and throws into question the ability of the WTO to serve as a forum for international accords as well as its status an arbiter of trade disputes. The US’s envoy to the WTO last week said a failure to agree would be tantamount to killing the accord, struck in Bali, Indonesia, in December.

The WTO estimated that the deal would have stimulated the world economy by more than $1 trillion by cutting regulatory hurdles and red tape at international borders.

Now we’re back to square one, to where we were before Bali, said Biswajit Dhar , an economics professor and trade specialist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Hopefully, the members all come back to the table and pick up negotiations instead of letting them die as they did during a round of trade talks in 2008, he said.

Bali agreement

The Bali agreement, reached under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s predecessor, lets India and other developing countries subsidize food staples so long as they don’t distort trade. Members also agreed to negotiate a permanent solution for adoption at a meeting scheduled for 2017, the text says.

Negotiators were trying on Thursday to agree on a technical provision of the trade deal, which would allow nations to begin steps to ratify the accord in their own countries.

The fact we do not have a conclusion means that we are entering a new phase in our work — a phase which strikes me as being full of uncertainties, Azevedo said.

WTO members should take the coming weeks to consider how to move forward when they reconvene in September, he said.

An accord to smooth commerce at borders, negotiated by all 160 WTO members, is an increasingly unlikely option, according to a person familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Separate accord

WTO members are now talking informally about moving ahead without India, and may use the already negotiated text as the basis for those discussions, according to the person.

Today’s developments suggest that there is little hope for truly global trade talks to take place, Jake Colvin , vice president for global trade issues at that National Foreign Trade Council in Washington, said on Friday in an e-mailed statement.

What is most impactful is the slowdown or the lost growth opportunities that will happen in the developing world, Linda Dempsey , vice president of international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, said before the talks collapsed. The agreement would have helped US companies expand their exports, she said.

US officials had seen the WTO agreement as a test of Modi’s intent to boost growth, which has slowed in recent years, and as a way to revive relations between the world’s largest democracies.

US secretary of state John Kerry and commerce secretary Penny Pritzker pressed Indian officials to advance the accord during a visit to New Delhi for US-India strategic talks this week. BLOOMBERG

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Pune landslide: 41 bodies pulled out, little chance of more survivors - Times of India

PUNE: The old primary school building serves as the only shelter for the rescue teams who are working tirelessly at Milan village, the scene of Wednesday's landslide. It has been more than 24 hours since several such teams, including that of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), have been stationed here. Till last count, 41 bodies had been pulled out of the debris while around 160 more are expected to be found.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and speaker of the state legislative assembly Dilip Walse Patil visited the village and took stock of the situation. Three excavators have been pressed into service to remove the debris under which more than 60 houses have been buried.

Several medical teams from government and private hospitals, besides fire-brigade personnel, are camping at the village. With very little chances of finding more survivors, all that the medical teams can do is shift the bodies from the silt to the nearest public health centre at Adivare village in ambulances.

The incessant heavy rain in the village is hampering excavation work. The school building and a few houses were the only constructions that were saved in the landslide. Besides bodies, a bell from the Hanuman temple, a domestic LPG cylinder and a mangled motorcycle were found during the excavation.

The NDRF team engaged in the excavation work is taking utmost care while searching for bodies. Of the three excavators, two just push the silt aside while the third one collects the silt and transfers it into a truck.

Alok Awasthi, commandant of the Talegaon-based 5th NDRF Battalion, said, "Around 158 people are still trapped in the debris. We have recovered 41 dead bodies and eight survivors till late afternoon on Thursday. The rescue work will take another 48 to 72 hours to finish."

Expressing condolences to the families of the victims, Rajnath Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released Rs 2 lakh to the families of each victim. This is in addition to the assistance given through the NDRF and state disaster response fund.

Speaking to reporters at Malin, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he would urge the state government to work out a plan to shift out such small villages that are located on hill slopes. There are several such villages in the Sahayadri hill range. "A similar incident had taken place near Kamshet in Maval 25 years back. For now, we will focus on the rescue operations instead of trying to examine the reasons why the landslide occurred," he said.

District collector Saurabh Rao said the response time of the district administration to the Malin village tragedy was about three hours. "Our teams reached the site around 11 am and immediately started rescue work," he said.

Kin wait for bodies, say silt removal will take time

It has been an agonizing wait for relatives of the victims at Malin. Sharada Zanjare, who lives in Pune, lost three of her relatives in Wednesday's landslide. "The excavators have been able to remove silt from just one portion of the mound so far. It will take several days before all the silt is removed," she said.

Narayan Unde, who lives in the village, said he and his wife were saved because they had left home on Sunday for Undewadi, a local hamlet nearby. "Many relatives had come to the village to transplant paddy. All of them lost their lives. I have lost my house, but I am fortunate to be alive," he said.

Radhabai Dhongade, an aanganwadi worker, had come to the village to find two of her colleagues, Kusum Zanjare and Baydabai Zanjare as well as their relatives. The village has an aanganwadi room which suffered no damage in the landslide.

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Kerry in Delhi to revive ties after friction - DAWN.com

NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday opened his first meetings with India’s right-wing government as he seeks to reboot a relationship seen as a bulwark against a rising China.

Kerry’s visit to New Delhi comes after an unusually large number of disputes between the world’s largest democracies, including charges of US surveillance against Indian politicians and a trade rift that could scuttle a global customs deal.

The top US diplomat met Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, a key player in the new government, as part of an annual dialogue which was meant to be held in Washington but was shifted in light of the political transition in Delhi.

Kerry will meet on Friday Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist who was shunned by Washington until not long before his sweeping election victory in May.

Taking a break from intense Middle East diplomacy that has dominated his tenure, Kerry highlighted other issues close to his heart including the environment. He toured the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and spoke to students who are trying to make plastic biodegradable.

“It’s very exciting. I wish you well with that. It would be a huge contribution to the world,” he said.

The United States and India, at odds during the Cold War, began to reconcile in the late 1990s with leaders describing the world’s two largest democracies as natural allies.

The two ethnically diverse countries are targets of Islamist extremists, and have both been wary about the rapid ascent of China, which has a long-running border dispute with India.

But Indian perceptions that the United States is insensitive to its concerns broke into the open in December, when US authorities arrested an Indian diplomat for allegedly mistreating her servant.

Kerry is paying his first visit to India since the episode, which led New Delhi to take retaliatory action against US diplomats.

More recently, India thre­atened to block a global pact to streamline customs procedures before Thursday’s ratification deadline unless the World Trade Organisation (WTO) approves its stockpiling of food for the poor. Rich nations say the policy distorts global trade.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who is accompanying Kerry, said the United States was “very disappointed” at India’s stance, but was hopeful of a deal to salvage the WTO deal.

“I am hopeful that between now and the end of the month, we will find a way forward which is mutually beneficial,” she said in an interview with Thursday’s edition of The Times of India.

Pritzker said the US wanted to strengthen energy ties, including nuclear and was hopeful of resolving a key stumbling block of liability in the event of a nuclear accident on Indian soil. “There’s certainly a desire by American businesses to work not just with the Indian government but Indian businesses to see that there’s a greater energy capacity here in India,” she said.

She emphasised the common ground between the two countries, saying there was “great opportunity in this partnership”.

However, allegations that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had been the target of surveillance operations by the US National Security Agency while it was in opposition have added to the sense of grievance on the Indian side.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that she told Kerry and his aides that Indians were “angry” about the alleged spying. “I also told them that if we consider each other friendly countries, it is unacceptable that a friendly country spies on other friendly nations,” she told a joint news conference.

Kerry told reporters that he could not comment about specific allegations but he insisted that US President Barack Obama had made “unprecedented” efforts to ensure better oversight of intelligence.

India is among the nations most concerned by the US withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan planned this year.

Modi has vowed a tough line against Islamist extremism, although he has shown pragmatism since taking office and reached out to Pakistan.

The United States in 2005 refused a visa to Modi over allegations that he turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim violence as leader of the state of Gujarat.

Washington abruptly reversed course as Modi rose to power, with President Barack Obama inviting him to the White House in September.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014

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Taiwan gas blasts in Kaohsiung kill at least 22 - BBC News

Footage taken by eyewitnesses showed huge fires at the scene

A series of gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has killed 22 people and injured about 270, officials say.

The exact cause of the gas leaks is not clear, but reports say the blasts were caused by ruptured pipelines.

Images from the scene show major fires, cars overturned and significant damage to roads and buildings.

Dozens of those injured by the blasts were taken to hospitals for treatment, Taiwan's fire agency said.

"The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday and then there was a series of blasts around midnight affecting an area of two to three sq km [one sq mile]," the National Fire Agency added in a statement.

'A huge cave'

"I saw lots of cars and motorcycles with engines all over on the road, and doctors checking if bodies were dead or alive, "eyewitness Chen Guan-yuan, who was at the scene shortly after the blast, told the BBC.

"Because the explosion range is so far so it's really difficult to handle this situation immediately," Mr Chen said, adding that the blasts "caused a long range hole, like a huge cave".

The blasts ripped through the southern city of Kaohsiung

The blasts left craters in the road

Four firefighters are said to be among the dead.

People in the nearby area have been evacuated to schools, local officials say.

Despite firefighting efforts, fires were still out of control in two streets at 05:00 local time (21:00 GMT), five hours after the blasts, local media reported.

Firefighters are still trying to see if people are trapped under the rubble of the explosion, the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei reports.

The cause of the blast has not yet been identified but several petrochemical companies have pipelines running along the sewage system in the district, our correspondent adds.

The multiple explosions were sparked by gas leaks in the sewage system of Kaohsiung's Cianjhen District, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said, according to Taiwanese news agency CNA.

Hundreds of soldiers, and firefighters from neighbouring Tainan City and Pingtung County, had been deployed to assist rescue efforts, Mr Jiang added.

Scores of people have been wounded

A wide area has been affected by the blasts

People have been ordered to stay home from school and work in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen and Lingya districts on Friday, local media reported.

Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu wrote on her Facebook page (in Chinese): "Rescue efforts are still underway."

She urged everyone to "follow the instructions of rescue teams at the scene, and avoid standing around and watching".

"The local government has already requested [gas suppliers] CPC and Hsin Kao Gas cut off the gas supply," she added, urging residents to stay calm.

The local government has set up an emergency response centre.

Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that before the explosion, smoke with a "gas-like smell" came out of drains.

Major fires could be seen at the scene of the blasts

Are you in Kaohsiung? You can send us your experiences by emailing Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line "Kaohsiung".

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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India's demands block $1 trillion WTO deal on customs rules - Reuters India

By David Brunnstrom and Tom Miles

GENEVA Fri Aug 1, 2014 6:22am IST

A labourer speaks on a mobile phone while lying on sacks filled with rice at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) market yard, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad July 29, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Amit Dave

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization failed on Thursday to reach a deal to standardise customs rules, which would have been the first global trade reform in two decades but was blocked by India's demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling.

"We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap," WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told trade diplomats in Geneva just two hours before the final deadline for a deal.

"Of course it is true that everything remains in play until midnight, but at present there is no workable solution on the table, and I have no indication that one will be forthcoming."

The deadline passed without a breakthrough. WTO ministers had already agreed the global reform of customs procedures known as "trade facilitation" last December, but it needed to be put into the WTO rule book by July 31.

Most diplomats saw that as rubber-stamping a unique success in the WTO's 19 year history, which according to some estimates would add $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the world economy, so they were shocked when India unveiled its veto.

Trade experts say Thursday's failure is likely to end the era of trying to cobble together global trade agreements and to accelerate efforts by smaller groups of like-minded nations to liberalise trade among themselves. India has been vocal in opposing such moves, making its veto even more surprising.

"Today’s developments suggest that there is little hope for truly global trade talks to take place," said Jake Colvin at the National Foreign Trade Council, a leading U.S. business group.

"The vast majority of countries who understand the importance of modernizing trade rules and keeping their promises will have to pick up the pieces and figure out how to move forward."

Some nations have already discussed a plan to exclude India from the agreement and push ahead regardless, and the International Chamber of Commerce urged officials to "make it happen."

“Our message is clear. Get back to the table, save this deal and get the multilateral trade agenda back on the road to completion sooner rather than later,” ICC Secretary General John Danilovich said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to New Delhi, had earlier said he was hopeful that differences between India and much of the rest of the world could be resolved.

But after Azevedo's speech, U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke was downbeat.

"We're obviously sad and disappointed that a very small handful of countries were unwilling to keep their commitments from the December conference in Bali, and we agree with the Director-General that that action has put this institution on very uncertain new ground," Punke told reporters.

India had insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by WTO rules. It got support from Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

India's new nationalist government has insisted that a permanent agreement on its subsidised food stockpiling must be in place at the same time as the trade facilitation deal, well ahead of a 2017 target set last December in Bali.

Kerry, whose visit to India was aimed at revitalising bilateral ties but was overshadowed by the standoff, said the United States understood India's position that it needs to provide food security for its poor but India would lose out if it refused to maintained its veto.

DEAL WITHOUT INDIA?

Diplomats say India could technically attract a trade dispute if it caused the deal to collapse, although nobody wanted to threaten legal action at this stage. The summer break will give diplomats time to mull options, including moving ahead without India.

Technical details would still have to be ironed out, but there was a "credible core group" that would be ready to start talking about a such a deal in September, a source involved in the discussions said.

"What began as a murmur has become a much more active discussion in Geneva and I think that there are a lot of members in town right now that have reached the reluctant conclusion that that may be the only way to go," he said.

An Australian trade official with knowledge of the talks said a group of countries including the United States, European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Norway began discussing the possibility in Geneva on Wednesday afternoon.

New Delhi cannot be deliberately excluded, since that would mean other countries slowing down containers destined for India, but if it becomes a "free-rider" it will add another nail in the coffin of attempts to hammer out global trade reform.

Trade diplomats had previously said they were reluctant to consider the idea of the all-but-India option, but momentum behind the trade facilitation pace means it may be hard to stop.

Many countries, including China and Brazil, have already notified the WTO of steps they plan to take to implement the customs accord immediately.

Other nations have begun bringing the rules into domestic law, and the WTO has set up a funding mechanism to assist. But WTO head Azevedo said he feared that while major economies had options open to them, the poorest would be left behind.

"If the system fails to function properly then the smallest nations will be the biggest losers," he said. "It would be a tragic outcome for those economies — and therefore a tragic outcome for us all."

(Additional reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh, Manoj Kumar and Krista Mahr in New Delhi, Matt Siegel in Sydney and Krista Hughes in Washington DC; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Grant McCool)

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Some part of Sonia Gandhi is not Indian, she's ruthless: Natwar - Hindustan Times

Former Gandhi family loyalist K Natwar Singh kicked up another political storm on Thursday by raking up Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins in a television interview.

Former union minister K Natwar Singh who fell foul with the Congress after the 'oil for food' scam.

Slighted at being rebuffed by the Congress President after his alleged involvement in the Iraq food-for-oil scam of 2005, the 83-year-old said Gandhi’s behaviour “towards a person who had been loyal to the family for 45 years and one who had been close to her “ showed the “ruthless side” of her.

Read: Sonia takes a page from Natwar’s book, to pen her own

“Neither Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv – nor any other Indian - would have behaved like that (with me). That is a part of Sonia that is ruthless”, said Singh, who quit the Congress in 2008.

Asked whether Sonia’s behaviour (towards him) was linked to her Italian origins, the former external affairs minister shot back saying: “What else can it be? Some part of her is not Indian”.

Speaking on his soon to be released autobiography titled ‘One Life is Not Enough’, Singh disclosed that Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister had decided to send troops as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka without consulting his cabinet or top officials .

Read: Natwar Singh drops book bomb, says Rahul made Sonia refuse PM job

Singh, however, spoke positively about his commitment, hard work and intentions and resisted from “singling him out for the IPKF fiasco”, saying that “everybody was responsible” for it.

“Rajiv was too trusting and decent a human being” who, during the first 18 months of his tenure as Prime Minister, “depended wholly on a team of ignoramuses with inflated egos”.

In his book, Singh has said that one of the members of this group “claimed to be a socialist, while the other was an inept political wheeler dealer. The third was a meddling nuisance”.

Singh identified two of these as Arun Nehru and Gopi Arora (both deceased), while refraining to name the third, “who was very old now”.

Read: Sonia more powerful than Nehru, Indira, says Natwar Singh

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US says hopeful of WTO deal with India only hours before deadline - Daily Times

NEW DELHI/SYDNEY: The United States said on Thursday it was hopeful that differences between India and much of the rest of the world over a major trade agreement could be resolved in time, with only hours remaining before the deal has to be signed.

New Delhi has insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organisation rules.

The WTO deal must be signed in Geneva on Thursday, and India’s ultimatum has revived doubts about the future of the WTO as a negotiating body.

“I am an optimist, I am hopeful that within the period of today...there is a common ground that is found,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, accompanying Secretary of State John Kerry during annual strategic talks with India, told NDTV.

India’s new nationalist government has demanded a halt to a globally agreed timetable on new customs rules and said a permanent agreement on food stockpiling and subsidies aimed at supporting the poor must be in place at the same time, well ahead of a 2017 target agreed last December in Bali.

Kerry warned India it stood to lose if it refused to budge.

“Right now India has a four-year window where it’s been given a safe harbour where nothing happens,” he told NDTV.

“If they don’t sign up and be part of the agreement, they will lose that and then (they will) be out of line or out of the compliance with the WTO.”

Pritzker said serious efforts were underway on Thursday to save the deal, which proponents say could add $1 trillion to the global economy and create 21 million jobs.

As trade officials in Geneva tried to rescue the deal, India’s Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said New Delhi’s position remained unchanged.

An Indian government source added separately that the Bali deal need not collapse even if the July 31 deadline is not met.

But several diplomats said New Delhi’s stance could derail the whole process of world trade liberalisation, leading some WTO nations to discuss informally the last-ditch idea of excluding India from the agreement.

“If India does end up blocking (on Thursday) there is already a group of members who are interested in pursuing that path,” a source involved in the discussions said.

“A dozen or so” of the WTO’s 160 members had informally discussed pushing ahead with the trade facilitation agreement with less than 100 percent participation, the source said.

An Australian trade official with knowledge of the talks said a group of countries including the United States, European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Norway began discussing the possibility in Geneva on Wednesday afternoon.

A Japanese official familiar with the negotiations said Japan was still working on reaching a consensus, while a State Department official travelling with Kerry in India said the United States continued to talk with India on the deal.

A WTO spokesman said the group’s director-general would hold meetings throughout the day to “avert a crisis.

“Delegations are showing real commitment to finding a solution and the director-general remains hopeful that a solution can be found,” he said.

Technical details would still have to be ironed out, but there was a “credible core group” that would be ready to start talking about a deal without India when WTO diplomats return from their summer break, the Australian official said. To what extent the alternative proposal, and India’s hardline position, were part of political brinkmanship was unclear. New Delhi’s absence from any agreement would be a setback given its size and importance in global trade.

“What began as a murmur has become a much more active discussion in Geneva and I think that there are a lot of members in town right now that have reached the reluctant conclusion that that may be the only way to go,” the official said.

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Men disguised as langurs to scare away monkeys around Parliament - India Today

The New Delhi Municipal Corporation has found a bizarre way to tackle the money menace in the Parliament House. The monkeys will now be scared away by young people disguised as langurs!

An August 2010 file photo of a street artist dressed as a monkey performing in a slum area in New Delhi. Reuters/Reinhard Krause

So serious is the NDMC about this method that 40 people have been hired for this very purpose.

Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu revealed the plan to the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question by MP Ambeth Rajan.

Naidu said measures being taken include "scaring monkeys away by trained persons who disguise themselves as langurs".

The other, more conventional method, will be using "Sure Shot Rubber Bullet Guns" for scaring away the monkeys.

On the stray dog menace that haunts Parliament, a team of dog catchers is visiting the Parliament House and surrounding areas twice a week for "catching unimmunised and unsterilised stray dogs".

For more news from India Today, follow us on Twitter @indiatoday and on Facebook at http://ift.tt/1aKMnw7

For news and videos in Hindi, go to AajTak.in. ताज़ातरीन ख़बरों और वीडियो के लिए आजतक.इन पर आएं.

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US says hopeful of WTO deal with India only hours before deadline - Daily Times

NEW DELHI/SYDNEY: The United States said on Thursday it was hopeful that differences between India and much of the rest of the world over a major trade agreement could be resolved in time, with only hours remaining before the deal has to be signed.

New Delhi has insisted that, in exchange for signing the trade facilitation agreement, it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organisation rules.

The WTO deal must be signed in Geneva on Thursday, and India’s ultimatum has revived doubts about the future of the WTO as a negotiating body.

“I am an optimist, I am hopeful that within the period of today...there is a common ground that is found,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, accompanying Secretary of State John Kerry during annual strategic talks with India, told NDTV.

India’s new nationalist government has demanded a halt to a globally agreed timetable on new customs rules and said a permanent agreement on food stockpiling and subsidies aimed at supporting the poor must be in place at the same time, well ahead of a 2017 target agreed last December in Bali.

Kerry warned India it stood to lose if it refused to budge.

“Right now India has a four-year window where it’s been given a safe harbour where nothing happens,” he told NDTV.

“If they don’t sign up and be part of the agreement, they will lose that and then (they will) be out of line or out of the compliance with the WTO.”

Pritzker said serious efforts were underway on Thursday to save the deal, which proponents say could add $1 trillion to the global economy and create 21 million jobs.

As trade officials in Geneva tried to rescue the deal, India’s Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said New Delhi’s position remained unchanged.

An Indian government source added separately that the Bali deal need not collapse even if the July 31 deadline is not met.

But several diplomats said New Delhi’s stance could derail the whole process of world trade liberalisation, leading some WTO nations to discuss informally the last-ditch idea of excluding India from the agreement.

“If India does end up blocking (on Thursday) there is already a group of members who are interested in pursuing that path,” a source involved in the discussions said.

“A dozen or so” of the WTO’s 160 members had informally discussed pushing ahead with the trade facilitation agreement with less than 100 percent participation, the source said.

An Australian trade official with knowledge of the talks said a group of countries including the United States, European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Norway began discussing the possibility in Geneva on Wednesday afternoon.

A Japanese official familiar with the negotiations said Japan was still working on reaching a consensus, while a State Department official travelling with Kerry in India said the United States continued to talk with India on the deal.

A WTO spokesman said the group’s director-general would hold meetings throughout the day to “avert a crisis.

“Delegations are showing real commitment to finding a solution and the director-general remains hopeful that a solution can be found,” he said.

Technical details would still have to be ironed out, but there was a “credible core group” that would be ready to start talking about a deal without India when WTO diplomats return from their summer break, the Australian official said. To what extent the alternative proposal, and India’s hardline position, were part of political brinkmanship was unclear. New Delhi’s absence from any agreement would be a setback given its size and importance in global trade.

“What began as a murmur has become a much more active discussion in Geneva and I think that there are a lot of members in town right now that have reached the reluctant conclusion that that may be the only way to go,” the official said.

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Monkey business: These men are paid to mimic langurs - Business Standard

Forty young men “impersonating” as langurs currently protect our public representatives from the troops of monkeys that terrorise Members of Parliament and officials inside Parliament House, and other important buildings like the Supreme Court in the New Delhi area of the national capital.

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John Kerry visit: India, US stress strategic ties but tensions remain - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The United States and India stressed their desire to boost business and defense ties on Thursday, but trade and spying rows were a reminder of the obstacles to President Barack Obama's vision of a "defining" partnership.

After a day of meetings in New Delhi seen as a preparation for a September visit to Washington by new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Indian leader's election had created a "singular opportunity."

"The moment has never been more ripe to deliver on the incredible possibilities in the relationship between our two nations," he told a news conference after the annual Strategic Dialogue meeting between the two countries.

"The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners in the 21st century," he said.

His Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, said the two countries were at "an important turning point" and said they shared "converging long-term strategic interests."

She told the news conference that India was keen to see greater US business participation in its economy and expanded defence cooperation.

Kerry said delivering on the potential was key and much needed to be done to deliver concrete progress by Modi's visit.

He stressed the need to break down barriers to trade, subsidies and protectionism, which US firms have long cited as obstacles in India.

He hailed Modi's commitment to economic reform, but added: "We are waiting to see - the proof is always in the pudding."

The comments show lingering frustrations in a relationship that, while it has come a long way since the suspicions of the Cold War, has yet to live up to Obama's 2010 rhetorical billing as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

TRADE, SPYING ROWS

The talks in Delhi were overshadowed by a dispute over India's opposition to a world trade pact and a new expression of Indian irritation over US surveillance activity.

Kerry urged India to reconsider its threat to veto the landmark pact agreed last year in Bali, which aims to speed trade by standardising customs rules and slashing red tape.

New Delhi has insisted it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organization rules.

For its part, India on Thursday, raised the issue of US surveillance activities, with Sushma saying such acts were "unacceptable" and had caused resentment in her country.

According to a document leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post earlier this year, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was among a handful of political organisations a US court allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on.

Kerry said it was not US practice to comment on intelligence matters but added: "We fully respect and understand the feelings expressed by the minister."

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Monkey business: These men are paid to mimic langurs - Business Standard

Forty young men “impersonating” as langurs currently protect our public representatives from the troops of monkeys that terrorise Members of Parliament and officials inside Parliament House, and other important buildings like the Supreme Court in the New Delhi area of the national capital.

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First time buyers, discounts offered boosts Marui Suzuki's performance - Economic Times

India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki put up a good show in the June quarter, this at a time when consumer sentiment continues to be fragile. Maruti's performance can be attributed to a phenomenon called the 'pushed demand', where it boosted its volume growth by creating demand in markets: it offered higher discounts to attract consumers, who had pinned their hopes on a Modi-led government to deliver on its promise of 'acche din'.

The average discount the company offered in the June quarter increased to Rs 21,000 per vehicle against Rs 17,500 in the March quarter, which improved entry-level passenger car sales by a significant 22% y-o-y to 1.19 lakh units in the quarter under review.

This segment now constitutes about 44% of the total sales, compared with 40% during the same quarter last year. The company even offered discounts ranging from Rs 40,000-45,000 per vehicle for entry-level cars to crank up its volume.

There's another factor that helped Maruti raise its game: first-time buyers. The sales volumes for first time buyers in the June quarter rose to 43% compared with 39% in the corresponding quarter last year.

The carmaker strategically targeted first-time buyers, offering them higher discounts, turning several such enquiries into sales. Despite the auto industry witnessing a decline in this period, Maruti Suzuki posted a volume growth of 12% on a year-on-year basis.

In a conference call post earnings, the Maruti management said, "After many quarters, the company has witnessed a 12% growth in its urban sales during the June quarter while rural sales increased 26% — both these factors helped the company attain a market share of 44% in the passenger car segment. Our market share was 40.4% a year ago. We have also witnessed a rise in enquiry levels, which have increased by as much as 10%."

The market would, however, keep a close watch on how soon a 'push demand' can change into a 'pull demand'.

The long-term sustainability of sales volume and a change in the demand scenario depend to a large extent on macro indicators like economic growth and job creation.

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John Kerry visit: India, US stress strategic ties but tensions remain - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The United States and India stressed their desire to boost business and defense ties on Thursday, but trade and spying rows were a reminder of the obstacles to President Barack Obama's vision of a "defining" partnership.

After a day of meetings in New Delhi seen as a preparation for a September visit to Washington by new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Indian leader's election had created a "singular opportunity."

"The moment has never been more ripe to deliver on the incredible possibilities in the relationship between our two nations," he told a news conference after the annual Strategic Dialogue meeting between the two countries.

"The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners in the 21st century," he said.

His Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, said the two countries were at "an important turning point" and said they shared "converging long-term strategic interests."

She told the news conference that India was keen to see greater US business participation in its economy and expanded defence cooperation.

Kerry said delivering on the potential was key and much needed to be done to deliver concrete progress by Modi's visit.

He stressed the need to break down barriers to trade, subsidies and protectionism, which US firms have long cited as obstacles in India.

He hailed Modi's commitment to economic reform, but added: "We are waiting to see - the proof is always in the pudding."

The comments show lingering frustrations in a relationship that, while it has come a long way since the suspicions of the Cold War, has yet to live up to Obama's 2010 rhetorical billing as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

TRADE, SPYING ROWS

The talks in Delhi were overshadowed by a dispute over India's opposition to a world trade pact and a new expression of Indian irritation over US surveillance activity.

Kerry urged India to reconsider its threat to veto the landmark pact agreed last year in Bali, which aims to speed trade by standardising customs rules and slashing red tape.

New Delhi has insisted it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organization rules.

For its part, India on Thursday, raised the issue of US surveillance activities, with Sushma saying such acts were "unacceptable" and had caused resentment in her country.

According to a document leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post earlier this year, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was among a handful of political organisations a US court allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on.

Kerry said it was not US practice to comment on intelligence matters but added: "We fully respect and understand the feelings expressed by the minister."

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First time buyers, discounts offered boosts Marui Suzuki's performance - Economic Times

India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki put up a good show in the June quarter, this at a time when consumer sentiment continues to be fragile. Maruti's performance can be attributed to a phenomenon called the 'pushed demand', where it boosted its volume growth by creating demand in markets: it offered higher discounts to attract consumers, who had pinned their hopes on a Modi-led government to deliver on its promise of 'acche din'.

The average discount the company offered in the June quarter increased to Rs 21,000 per vehicle against Rs 17,500 in the March quarter, which improved entry-level passenger car sales by a significant 22% y-o-y to 1.19 lakh units in the quarter under review.

This segment now constitutes about 44% of the total sales, compared with 40% during the same quarter last year. The company even offered discounts ranging from Rs 40,000-45,000 per vehicle for entry-level cars to crank up its volume.

There's another factor that helped Maruti raise its game: first-time buyers. The sales volumes for first time buyers in the June quarter rose to 43% compared with 39% in the corresponding quarter last year.

The carmaker strategically targeted first-time buyers, offering them higher discounts, turning several such enquiries into sales. Despite the auto industry witnessing a decline in this period, Maruti Suzuki posted a volume growth of 12% on a year-on-year basis.

In a conference call post earnings, the Maruti management said, "After many quarters, the company has witnessed a 12% growth in its urban sales during the June quarter while rural sales increased 26% — both these factors helped the company attain a market share of 44% in the passenger car segment. Our market share was 40.4% a year ago. We have also witnessed a rise in enquiry levels, which have increased by as much as 10%."

The market would, however, keep a close watch on how soon a 'push demand' can change into a 'pull demand'.

The long-term sustainability of sales volume and a change in the demand scenario depend to a large extent on macro indicators like economic growth and job creation.

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Indo-US dialogue: Sushma Swaraj talks tough with John Kerry on spying, gives ... - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday raised with US Secretary of State John Kerry the issue of American intelligence agencies allegedly snooping on BJP and conveyed to him the 'public anger in India' over the issue.

"I raised this issue and even told them that when the news was reported in the media, people were angry," Swaraj told a joint press conference with Kerry following the fifth round of strategic dialogue that discussed wide ranging cooperation in security, energy and trade issues.

"I even told him that both countries consider each other as friendly nations and it will not be acceptable to us from any angle if one friendly country spies on another friendly country. This is unacceptable to us," Swaraj noted emphatically.

A classified document made public by the Washington Post earlier this month showed that BJP was among authorised targets for NSA in 2010.

In response, a defensive Kerry told reporters: "We value our relationship with India, our bilateral relationship... We also value sharing of information between each other regarding counter-terrorism and other threats to both of our countries. Usually, we try to have our intelligence communities to work to resolve any questions or differences that may exist. We will continue to work actively with India wherever we see a threat to our shared interest and we fully respect and understand the feelings expressed by the minister."

While the Indian side raised the snooping issue and security and counter-terror partnership was part of the dialogue, commerce and investments were clearly the priority for Kerry.

He welcomed raised foreign investment ceilings in several sectors of the Indian economy, including defence, railways, e-commerce and insurance, according to a joint statement issued at the end of the dialogue.

The two sides agreed to identify specific areas for investment in India's manufacturing and infrastructure sectors including through establishing a new initiative in this regard. They also sought to empower the India-US CEO Forum to build a better business environment. The two sides planned to expand the Commercial Dialogue.

Kerry told reporters that private American firms could be catalyst for change in India and fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas'.

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