• China for Opening up Stilwell Road
• India Poses Challenge to US Tech Leadership
• 'India should be in UN Body'

• India a Key Growth Market at 3GSM World Congress
• 'India to be a Super Power in 25 Years'

A visiting Chinese trade delegation has urged India to open up the historic Stilwell Road that connects north-east India with the Yunan province of China through Myanmar, to facilitate trade between the two nations through the route. During an interaction with officials of Assam and the Central Government and entrepreneurs north-eastern States here yesterday, the delegation insisted that Stilwell Road, known as Tea Horse Road in the Yunan province, would be the focal point to carry forward the trade among South-Asian countries. The 16-member delegation led by Wu Xiaoli, vice-president of the Yunan Provincial Chamber of Commerce, arrived here on February 19 to take part in the 12th edition of the International Guwahati Trade Fair which began on February 21. The interaction was arranged by the Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam, the organisers of the fair.

Courtesy: The Hindu, February 23, 2005

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The highly-skilled, Indian-born talent that once flocked to the US is now returning home, "Turning America's brain drain into India's brain gain," a report released by a high-tech lobbying group here said. Titled 'Losing the Competitive Advantage? The challenge for science and technology in the United States,' the report also says that countries like India and China, through the restructuring of their economies, were dramatically increasing the skill sets of their work force, thereby posing a challenge to the US leadership in the technology domain. "Public-private partnerships (in India) have invested in technical universities and communications infrastructure to create cutting-edge technology parks in places like Bangalore. This will only make India more competitive and alluring to investors and multinational companies," the report by AEA, formerly known as the American Electronic Association, says. India is embarking on further reform to provide labour flexibility, freer flows of capital, and desperately needed infrastructure improvement, it says adding that the country, along with China, was catching up in critical areas and has restructured their economy to benefit from the free market system they once resisted.

Courtesy: The Indian Express, February 16, 2005

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The 3GSM World Congress kicked off to a glittering start here today with the who's who of the wireless world in full attendance. The world's largest gathering of telecom operators, handset manufacturers and mobile operating systems, services and applications' vendors, the congress is an essential forum which brings the mobile community together and sets the agenda for the global mobile industry's future. Ed Zander, CEO, Motorala, Rene Obermann, CEO, T-Mobile International, Lomar Pauly, president and CEO, Siemens Communication, Miles Flint, president, Siemens, are just a few of the celebrity keynote speakers addressing the four- ay conference and exhibition that ends on Thursday evening. Fifty-six CEOs are slated to be speakers at various sessions in the next four days. India's very own telecom czar, Sunil Mittal, CEO, Bharti Telecom, was a keynote speaker at the Leadership Summit today. He said, "The GSM congress represents the interests of GSM operators all over the world, with over 1.2bn customers it is absolutely essential to have a single body which acts as a conduit and facilitator to address customer needs in a most cost effective manner." Mr Mittal has also been recently appointed a GSM board member, the first time an Indian operator has received representation on the board. He said that participating in the key discussions and policy-making is important not only as the GSM discussions revolve around not only spectrum allocations and standards, but also mobility focus areas based on socio-economic issues in emerging markets such as India and China.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, February 15, 2005

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Visualising India to be one of the super powers in the next 25 years, former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali on Saturday said the development would help democratisation of the world body. "In the next 25 years, we will have new important states, among them new super powers India, China, Russia, USA and European Union. This will help in democratisation of the UN," he told reporters in New Delhi. Favouring the expansion of the UN Security Council, Ghali said without the political will of the member states it would not be possible to achieve. "The extension of the Security Council is something positive and again it depends on what will be the direction of countries like India or will they accept to have a permanent seat without the veto," Ghali, who headed the UN before the incumbent Kofi Annan, said. On chances of India getting a permanent seat in the UNSC, he said, "With veto power, it will be more difficult, and without veto there are 99 per cent chances of getting the seat." observing that unilateral decisions have created crisis for the UN, he said the new world order might help making the body a more democratic one.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com, February 12, 2005

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India should become a member of the UN Security Council even if it is without veto power so that the country can protect its interests better, former permanent representative of India to the UN, Mr C.R. Gharekhan said on Tuesday. Speaking on the political aspects of the report of the UN Secretary-General's high level panel on threats challenges and change, Mr Gharekhan, recently appointed India's special envoy to West Asia, said though the power of veto is considered anachronistic, the permanent five are not agreeable to the removal of their veto rights. The enlargement of the Security Council could thus result in a "second-class category" of permanent members. Stressing that India should join the Security Council even without veto powers, he said, "Even without the right of veto, we should get on what is the board of directors of the world so we can protect our interests better." The editor in chief of The Asian Age, Mr M.J. Akbar, who chaired the session, questioned why the P5 continue to hold veto power and dismiss talk about removing this power as irrelevant. Why is it that only these five nations have a right to hold nuclear weapons while others are termed rogue states, asked Mr Akbar, before saying that the UN was "redefined" in 1998 in New Delhi. That year, India by conducting the nuclear tests (followed by Pakistan), had succeeded in getting the status of a nuclear state without being termed as a rogue state, altering the geopolitical balance, he said. "South Asia thus became the first area in the world to challenge the dominance of the victors of World War II," he said. Mr Gharekhan said that the enlargement of the Security Council is not going to happen this September, but a declaration by the General Assembly that it should be expanded is expected Regarding collective security and the use of force, Mr Akbar said a good area of inquiry would be why international consensus was taken on Afghanistan and not in the case of Iraq. He said this will answer practical problems in this regard. Mr Gharekhan, however, said the reference to Kashmir half a dozen times in the report, was "gratuitous." It was unnecessary and is unacceptable from India's point of view. The report has pointed out that the UN will not be able to discharge its role effectively unless efforts are redoubled to resolve the Palestine, Kashmir and the Korean peninsula issues. The special envoy also said that the climate in the UN was full of resentment against the US. The resolution on the Darfur crisis, even though being a good one, was "thrown out" simply because member states are fed up with the dominance of the US.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, February 10, 2005

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