India will invest $1 billion every year in acquiring oil and gas fields abroad in order to cut dependence on highly volatile international market for its crude oil requirement, petroleum secretary BK Chaturvedi said on Friday. The 70 per cent dependence on imports to meet domestic needs makes the country vulnerable to supply disruptions and adverse effects of extreme volatility, like the one being witnessed currently with oil prices soaring to $41 a barrel. ONGC Videsh has already taken equity in an oil field in Sudan, which is giving three million tonnes of crude oil annually to India. Besides, a 20 per cent stake in Sakhalin field in Russia will give five million tonnes from 2005 and an equal quantity would be received in exchange of 50 per cent in an Angola block, he said. Besides, OVL has also picked stakes in oil fields in Syria, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, May 22, 2004

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The Government may be changing in India, but that is unlikely to affect the arrival of a Pakistani delegation led by the Additional Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, Tariq Osman Haider, to discuss the issue of nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) on May 24. The Indian side, to be headed by the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Sheel Kant Sharma, is preparing to receive the Pakistan delegation for the first-ever discussion at the expert level on nuclear CBMs between the two countries on May 25-26. "The two sides shall engage in bilateral consultations on security concepts and nuclear doctrines, with a view to developing measures for confidence building in the nuclear and conventional fields, aimed at avoidance of conflict," the MoU said. It also committed the two Governments to give advance notice of ballistic missile tests and a (till-date elusive) bilateral agreement in this regard. "The two sides shall engage in bilateral consultations on security, disarmament and non-proliferation issues within the context of negotiations on these issues in multilateral fora." In fact, these expert-level talks were to have taken place soon after the Lahore MoU was signed in the presence of former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif. However, the Kargil war of 1999 rudely shattered the peace process, the thread of which were picked up again only in January this year after a prolonged period of tension.

Courtesy: The Hindu, May 21, 2004

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Ram Gidoomal, a businessman of Indian origin, is bidding to become the mayor of London seeking integration of migrant citizens, equal opportunities and a sense of belonging. "The Asian vote is certainly important, not only numerically but also because the community has some of Britain's most impressive entrepreneurs and business leaders," Gidoomal said in an interview. The Christian People's Alliance (CPA) candidate will be making his second bid for the post after a defeat in 2002. In 2000, Gidoomal was elected leader of the CPA and stood in the first mayoral elections, winning almost 100,000 votes. In the run-up to the polls, he emerged as the most popular choice in a poll conducted by a website, for having the best policies for London. Gidoomal realises the importance of stoking the feelings of the Asian diaspora and projects his own story as one of struggle, survival and success in a foreign land. There, the Gidoomals owned large and prosperous business interests, but all they were allowed to take with them was £2,000.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, May 17, 2004

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She got into politics to voice concerns of the ethnic minorities in her area. Ansuya Sodha, the only Indian woman Labour councillor handpicked for next month's London Assembly elections, has now decided to take her fight to a larger stage. The recent reports of torture in Iraq have aggravated Labour's woes and the party's mayoral candidate, Ken Livingstone, is fighting hard to retain his hold over London. But Ms Sodha is confident of her party's chances. The first Gujarati woman to be selected deputy mayor of the borough of Barnet in 2001, Sodha's campaign for change was triggered off by very personal experiences with a severely disabled son. Balancing her role as a student and mother, she worked as a lecturer for years and gradually took on a leadership role in her heavily Asian borough and has served on several UK government committees for environment, human resources and equality. She is also nominated for the Delhi-based NRI Institute's award for excellence this year.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, May 13, 2004

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An Indian property company has saved the struggling South Pacific nation of Nauru from near certain bankruptcy, Nauru's President said on Friday. Under a deal hammered out in Sydney, the Hiranandani group took control, but not ownership, of a property portfolio owned by Nauru, President Rene Harris said. In return, the Mumbai-based company agreed to pay off $172-million debt Nauru owed to America's General Electric Capital Corp. Economic mismanagement and corruption together with depletion of the country's once-rich phosphate reserves have driven it to the brink of financial collapse. Under Friday's deal, Hiranandani gets control of properties including hotels in Sydney and Melbourne, and a Sydney shopping mall owned by Nauru.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, May 02, 2004

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The Army wants to go global now. No, it's not deploying troops overseas or setting up integrated theatre commands across different continents. Instead, the Army is keen to make its specialised unconventi onal warfare schools into "centres of inte rnational excellence". The Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte (Mizoram) is already attracting foreign armies - from the US , France , Russia , Kazakhstan , Tajikistan and Vietnam , among several others - in hordes to learn how to "fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla". The Army now plans something similar for another unique institution - the High-Altit ude Warfare School (HAWS) in Jammu and Kashmir . From a humble beginning as the 19 Infantry Division Ski School in 1948, the High-Altitude Warfare School has over the years become the Army's nodal agency for "specialised training and dissemination of doctrines" in high-altitude, mountain and snow warfare. "Its facilities, with mountain warfare courses in Sonamarg area and snow-craft and winter warfare in Gulmarg area, are among the best in the world...we can teach most armies a thing or two about this kind of warfare," said an officer.

Courtesy: The Times of India, May 01, 2004