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INDIA, US DECIDE TO JOINTLY PRODUCE DEFENCE EQUIPMENT

New Delhi: With co-development and co-production of defence products in mind, India and the US on Friday agreed to take the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative forward.

The decision was taken at the delegation-level talks between defence minister Arun Jaitley and US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, who is on a three-day visit to the country.

In the meeting, both sides took note of the progress made over the years in deepening defence ties. Both the sides reaffirmed their desire to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation, especially in technology and discussed ways for strengthening this partnership.

Stressing on indigenisation of the defence industries, Jaitley said, “The develop

FUEL PRICE DISPARITY IS WIDENING WITH EVERY HIKE

MUMBAI: As states governments add layers of taxes on fuel, disparity in petrol and diesel prices across the country has reached as high as 35%, spawning a new mafia that profits by sourcing cheap and selling high

Ever wondered why you have to shell more if you refill at a petrol pump in Thane, just a few kilometers away from your regular fuel station in Navi Mumbai. Or why the fuel costs less outside city limits.

Well, if you thought differential of a few bucks across suburbs was too high, here’s a shocker: it is way too high, as much as almost 35%, when compared among states, and is widening with every price increase.

This is because some state governments are adding multitude of taxes an

Daniel Radcliffe: Will Harry Potter work his magic in a romcom?

‘When Harry Potter Met Sally’: Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan in ‘What If Photo: Entertainment One Casting a spell over cinemagoers is a piece of wizardry even Harry Potter would be hard-pushed to pull off – yet that is precisely the challenge his alter ego, Daniel Radcliffe, has set himself. Later this month, Radcliffe, the diminutive actor seared into the national psyche as a bespectacled schoolboy from Hogwarts, […]

ADANI GROUP IN TALKS WITH INDIAN OIL FOR RS 30,000 CRORE MUNDRA REFINERY JOINT VENTURE

MUMBAI: The Adani Group and Indian Oil Corporation are in talks to build a Rs 30,000-crore joint venture refinery at Mundra, which would give Gautam Adani an entry into the oil sector while the state-run company would get land port facilities for the proposed export-focused unit.

The proposed 30-million-tonne refinery at Mundra will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s native state, Gujarat, a bigger energy hub. It already has refineries of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Indian Oil, apart from two LNG terminals and the country’s biggest city-gas distribution network.

Industry sources said Gautam Adani has held initial talks with top executives at IOC and offered around 3,500-4,000 acres of land for th

US EYES BIG-TICKET ARMS DEALS DURING HAGEL’S VISIT

NEW DELHI: The Obama administration will push for the stalled mega deals for M-777 ultra-light howitzers and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) when US defence secretary Chuck Hagel comes visiting from Thursday.

There will be talks on ways to further bolster the already expansive strategic partnership, ranging from sharing of intelligence and cooperation on counter-terrorism to joint combat exercises, but the cornerstone will remain the US offer to provide India with “ground-breaking” weapon technology on par with its closest allies.

Having bagged defence deals worth over $10 billion over the last decade, the US is obviously hungry for more. Of the different co-development and co-prod

Tiny Village Struggles to Revive Kurdish Life

The village of Kerwas, or Yalaza in Turkish, located near the town of Lice in Turkey’s southeast. Ayla Albayrak for The Wall Street Journal A sleepy little village in Turkey’s southeast has an ambitious project for the country’s estimated 15 million Kurds: to build the country’s first Kurdish-language primary school and set a model for modern Kurdish village life. In a country where Kurdish-language public education remains […]

TO CAPITALISE PSBs, GOVT WILLING TO PRUNE ITS STAKE TO 52 PER CENT

The finance ministry is likely to put out a note soon, detailing its road map to capitalise state-run lenders while explicitly stating the government’s intent to maintain control over public sector banks with at least 52% stake.

This marks a shift from the previous UPA government’s decision to keep 58% shareholding in state-run banks. It is in keeping with the Narendra Modi-led government’s stand articulated in the Budget 2014-15 that it would encourage banks to raise capital from the market.

The government will push banks this way to the point of its own stake falling to 52%, to reduce reliance on the budget.

It has set aside only Rs 11,200 crore for bank capitalisation this f

JOINT SESSION NOT POSSIBLE NOW ON INSURANCE BILL

NEW DELHI: The central government’s worries on the Insurance Bill aggravated on Tuesday with Congress accusing it of adopting double standards on the issue and dismissing threats from the treasury benches that a joint session may be convened, forcing BJP ministers to knock on the doors of parties like SP and BSP to muster the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Congress sources maintained the government was reportedly keen on passing the insurance bill in Parliament in this session so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can showcase it to the US during his visit in September and hence wants to hurry through the process without sending it to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. BJP leaders, on the other hand, alleged Congress was playing politics on

POWER MINISTRY MULLS FUND TO FINANCE HYDRO PROJECTS

NEW DELHI: The power ministry plans to create a fund to provide long-term finances to hydropower developers, and aims to play an active role in resolving state level sues that are blocking such projects.

“Hydropower did not get the desired attention as concerned ministries and departments were working in silos, and problems with states and central authorities could be resolved.

However, the new government is working in tandem as a team and we are hopeful to resolve pending issues to give conducive environment to hydropower sector,” power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

He said one of his first projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated was the

GOVT OPEN TO MINOR CHANGES IN INSURANCE BILL

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government was open to accommodating minor modifications to the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, so that it could be passed in the current session of Parliament. He also said calling a joint session of Parliament was a real option if the Bill was defeated in one of the Houses. After an all-party meeting failed to break the deadlock on the issue between the government and Opposition, Jaitley on Monday reached out to the Congress. But the Congress continued to insist the Bill be sent to a select committee of Parliament, as it now was much changed from the one the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The party added it would be willing to support the legisl

INDIA EYES $40-BILLION PIPELINE FROM RUSSIA TO IMPORT GAS

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at ensuring India’s energy security, the Narendra Modi-led government plans to import huge volumes of natural gas from Russia. The Centre is working out the contours of a $40-billion (Rs 2.4 lakh-crore) mega onland pipeline project carrying gas from Russia to India, in one of India’s biggest energy projects till date.

Top government officials told HT that the move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brazil on the sidelines of the Brics summit.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) along with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas are preparing a blueprint to examine the feasibility of this new project, they added.

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Op-Ed Contributor: Atef Abu Saif: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip

Op-Ed Contributor Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary By ATEF ABU SAIF August 4, 2014 Sunday, July 27 For the last two hours we’ve heard nothing but sonic booms and the sound of rockets and mortars. Shells have fallen on our street a few hundred yards from my father-in-law’s house, where my wife and I, and our five kids, are staying, and on the street behind us. My wife, […]

Dubai Investments bullish on upgrade

Dubai Investments (DIC), whose profit jumped 240 percent in the second quarter after it sold assets, says it may be on the cusp of its first ever investment-grade rating as it bolsters cash holdings. The company expects the credit rating to be increased by year-end to at least BBB, two steps above junk, according to Chief Executive Officer Khalid bin Kalban. Its Dubai Investments Park Development Co. […]

Middle East Proves a Bright Spot for HSBC

Women walk out of a branch of HSBC at Dubai Internet City in Dubai. Reuters With the largest presence of any international bank in the Middle East, HSBC’s results usually serve as a good indicator of the health of the region’s financial services industry. Going by the bank’s results for the region published on Monday, that outlook looks encouraging: the banking giant posted a 8.8% rise in […]

David Cameron’s prospects for victory in 2015 can’t be guaranteed

Photo: STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA As they head for their holidays, senior Conservatives are beginning to worry that they are failing to benefit fully from Britain’s economic recovery. Recent months have seen a succession of good news stories, with growth well established, living standards no longer falling and predictions of future performance regularly upgraded. Yet the Tories seem unable to overturn Labour’s narrow lead. The table below illustrates what […]

CENTRE PLANS CHANGES IN ATOMIC ENERGY LAW FOR NPCIL VENTURES TO TAKE OFF

NEW DELHI: The Centre is looking to move amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to enable the licensing of three joint ventures proposed by state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd — with NTPC Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) — to set up new atomic power projects in the country.

Amid concerns over India’s nuclear liability provisions holding up the deployment of imported Light Water Reactor-based projects in collaboration with global vendors, the proposal by NPCIL to strike joint ventures with cash-rich PSUs is being seen as an alternative strategy to tide over the paucity of funds and ramp up execution capability for new projects using the indigenous pressurised heavy water react

BP & NIKO CANNOT BE PARTY TO ARBITRATION

NEW DELHI: Stung by Reliance Industries’ alleged bid to “influence” the foreign third arbitrator appointed by the Supreme Court in the KG-D6 block case, the government is set to approach the court with a plea that the relevant arbitration be done strictly within the country sans a foreign umpire.

Armed with a law ministry opinion conveyed to it recently, the petroleum ministry will also take the firm stand that RIL’s foreign partners, BP and Niko, should not be made a party to the arbitration, which was initiated by the Indian company, sources familiar with the matter told FE.

The government’s move would escalate the conflict between it and RIL over the alleged suppression of gas production at the once-pro

Gulf Indians among victims of AED1b Ponzi scheme

|TAP Special|Indians living in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other GCC countries along with those in the US are among the victims of an Indian wealth management scheme gone bust. They are among the 5,000 investors who had parked their money with the wealth management schemes of Prashant Wasankar, who has been arrested as the main accused in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes. The amount involved is […]

Gaza Fighting Intensifies as Cease-Fire Falls Apart

By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER August 1, 2014 JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants sprang from the ground and confronted Israeli soldiers Friday morning, as they have repeatedly in recent days. This time, Israeli officials said, one exploded a suicide belt while another unleashed machine-gun fire. This time, two Israeli soldiers were killed and the militants apparently escaped with a third. The attack, at the start of what was supposed to be […]

US WANTS TO LINK POWER PACTS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT

NEW DELHI: A visiting US team has told Indian negotiators it would link pacts on the power sector to the agreement the two countries draw on climate change and one would not happen without the other.

This message was conveyed by the US team to India in a meeting held with the power ministry on Wednesday. Power Minister Piyush Goyal and other ministry officials attended the meeting.

The US team, headed by Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, also called on Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar in its bid to stitch an agreement on various climate change issues.

Sources said the meeting with the environment ministry focused on areas where the two countries

PETROL GETS CHEAPER BY RS 1.09 PER LITRE, DIESEL PRICES UP BY 56 PAISE

NEW DELHI: Petrol became cheaper by Rs 1.09 per litre in Delhi from Friday after state oil companies slashed the price of the fuel for the first time since mid-April because benchmark gasoline rates in the international market dropped.

Companies, however, raised the price of diesel by 56 paise in Delhi, helping to reduce the gap between pump and market rates by about Rs 1.50 per litre and increasing the prospects of deregulating the fuel soon.

If the trend continues, diesel pricing could be freed from state control in three months, government and industry officials said. Prices of diesel sold to bulk consumers such as the railways and state transport companies at market rates have been reduced, IOCsaid in a statement.

Remembering the Irish who fought with Britain in 1914

Thousands of Irish volunteers fought with the British Army in the First World War Photo: PA By Daniel Mulhall 7:30AM BST 01 Aug 2014 At Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery yesterday, a significant event took place: the unveiling of a Cross of Sacrifice erected in conjunction with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In a cemetery associated with Ireland’s patriot dead, this new monument represents an important symbolic reflection of changed […]

Crowd-pleasing Ramadan and Eid Festival draws to a close

ABU DHABI // Fragrances of oud wafted through the air as Syrian baklava wrapped in packets was bought by eager customers. Traditional, embroidered Arab dresses were being sold alongside off-shoulder embellished gowns and silver jewellery. A motley mix of items, clothing and toys was on sale at the Ramadan and Eid Festival at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec). Thousands of visitors have flocked to the indoor […]

Quest for Demilitarization of Gaza Is Seen Getting Netanyahu Only So Far

Video | Behind the Escalations in Gaza A look at why Israel and Hamas have repeatedly chosen to intensify the violence at every stage of the continuing conflict. By JODI RUDOREN July 30, 2014 JERUSALEM — After years in which Israel’s prevailing approach to the Gaza Strip was a simple “quiet for quiet” demand, there is growing momentum around a new formula, “reconstruction for demilitarization.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]