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Borders Divide jurisdictions but families reunite them. The chain to this link is the global citizen. However, this inter-nation cross-flow has with the passage of time generated a new crop of legal issues in the realm of private international law which comprises rules a court would apply whenever there is a case involving a foreign element.

As Reuters reports, while the British Parliament is working its way through The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill to legalise parentage from in-vitro fertilization births and recognize same sex couples as legal parents of children conceived through the use of donated eggs, sperms or embryos, India has still to enact any concrete law arising from the surrogate tourism industry generated here.

A fugitive NRI parent declared a proclaimed offender in matrimonial proceedings in India cannot even see or talk to his children removed to India. A foreign court refuses to permit NRI children to be taken to India and likewise local courts decline to implement foreign court orders directing return of NRI children. These occurrences find daily mention but no straight-forward solution for the NRI in any Indian law. International parental child abduction defined as the removal or retention of a child across international borders by one parent which is either in contravention of court orders or is without the consent of the other parent is sadly an increasing phenomenon which causes acute emotional distress to the abducted child.

The Government is in the process of acceding to the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. However, before that is done, and India becomes a member of about 80 contracting convention nations, an appropriate Indian legislation will have to be enacted for its implementation. In this way children removed to and from India will be reunited with their aggrieved parent and India will no longer be a sought after destination for parking removed NRI kids from foreign jurisdictions. Also, foreign courts will be encouraged to permit NRI kids to freely visit India without fear of abduction.

The draft of the Indian Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Bill 2007 meant to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully retained or removed to India proposes to ensure that the rights of custody and access under laws of contracting states are respected by providing for prompt removal of wrongfully removed children. The salient features of this proposed law are as follows:

1)     A Central Authority for performance of duties under the Hague Convention for securing the return of removed children by instituting judicial proceedings in the High Court.

2)     The appropriate authority or a person of a contracting country may apply to the Central Authority for return of a removed child to the country of habitual residence ·

3)      The High Court may order return of a removed child to the country of habitual residence but may refuse to make such an order if there is grave risk of harm or if it would put the child in an intolerable situation. Consent or acquiescence may also lead to refusal for return of a child by the court.

4)      The HC may refuse to return a child if the child objects to being returned upon it being satisfied that the child has attained an age and maturity to take into account his views.

Before India”accedes to ” the Hague convention, an appropriate law will have to be enacted. In this way, children removed to and from India will be reunited with their aggrieved parent and India will no longer be a sought after destination for parking removed NRI kids from foreign jurisdictions

The current clamour over India’s national jewel, the Bharat Ratna, is priceless. The furore began with a story by a canny young television reporter. Wondering why India has not been able to find a Bharat Ratna for seven long years, he asked in his report why Sachin Tendulkar should not be given this top award. After all, the reporter said, if RATAN can be given to controversial figures like V.V. Giri and M.G. Ramachandran, why not anoint as India’s jewel someone who has inspired and provided hope to the blue billion for 19 long years, who is now regarded as the best cricketer ever and who has been a match winner for India since the age of 17? Let’s stop being hypocritical about those we secretly admire and those we publicly applaud.

Shock and horror greeted the reporter’s suggestion. Sachin Tendulkar for the Bharat Ratna? Unthinkable, declared an august panel. Cricket is simply a game of bat and ball; cricket is the universe of elitist corporate India and big money; Tendulkar is a mere celebrity; cricketers are egoists who promote themselves in toothpaste ads; they aren’t the selfless servants of India’s public good or upholders of civilisational values. A day after the reporter’s story; came L.K. Advani’s thundering letter to the PM: A Bharat Ratna for Atal Bihari Vajpayee, please.

At the heart of the Bharat Ratna controversy lies a disappointing truth about how we view talent in our country. In a country where 70 per cent is under 35, entitlement, not achievement, governs our awards system. The political battle over the Bharat Ratna reveals how the political class remains trapped in a mindset where greatness is defined by age, death or party loyalty. Advani seeks a Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee for being the longest serving parliamentarian. An activist group seeks the Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur for being revolutionary in a decade when a sizeable number of Indians were not even born. The Samajwadi Party and Mayawati seek a Ratna for Mulayam Singh and Kanshi Ram respectively to keep their respective cadres from straying. Veerappa Molly of Congress thinks Jyoti Basu should get it for being one of the oldest living communists in India. And in a real political gem, the Delhi Deputy Speaker believes Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, should get the award because he is safely dead.

 All these names are political and thus their candidature depends on their political acceptability for the government. Yet, the definition of the Bharat Ratna is emphatically not political. Instead it’s an award for “exceptional service towards the advancement of art, literature, science and in recognition of public service of the highest order”. So far, of the 41 Bharat Ratna awardees, most are men and women of the State: politicians, former ministers and PMs with only a small group - Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar, Bismillah Khan, Amartya Sen and J.R.D. Tata - representing civil society. With this overwhelming bias in favour of politicians, is it any wonder that there is no candidate for the Ratna? It’s not that the talent is missing; it’s just that as a new economy creates a new society, increasingly India’s talents are located outside politics, outside the State and outside the old professions. The government is not only looking for Ratnas in the wrong place, but it has also failed to come with a new definition of public service suited for the 21st century.

All over the world, talent and achievement, rather than age and durability are considered inspiring. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are candidates for the top job in the US not because of seniority in the party or the number of birthdays they’ve celebrated, but because of their present-day achievement. Their talent is visible here and now. In India, being a political wife or a cosseted son is often enough for a political career. A talent for oratory or public speaking, the talent to sway a crowd or make a moving speech or win thundering applause, a talent so crucial to Western politicians, is considered quite irrelevant here.

Bono, frontman of the band U2, may be considered a ‘mere pop singer’ in India, but his political activism is so influential that he was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times, granted an honorary knighthood and named ‘Person of the Year’ by Time. Bob Geldof, once the singer of the band The Boomtown Rats, is now ‘Sir Bob’ because of his pioneering concerts such as ‘Band Aid’ and ‘Live Aid’ aimed to provide aid to Africa and is regarded as one of society’s leaders. In India, someone like Sir Bob might also be considered ‘just a pop singer’.

Pride and honour make a potent potion and the turban evokes these feelings in those Sikhs who wear a turban. People have been wearing turbans since time immemorial and you find individuals wearing turbans in many nations in Asia and Africa. While for some turbans might be an optional, formal, attire for the Sikhs wearing a turban is a religious imperative.

Turban-wearing Sikhs stand out in a crowd, for good or bad, and there are many documented cases, spread over centuries and spanning the globe, when the Sikhs have faced discrimination and worse because of their turbans.

Often prominent people would stand up for their rights. When the question of Sikhs wearing turbans and refusing to wear steel helmets came in front of the British parliament, Sir Winston Churchill said it was “a matter of deep regret that consequent to contemporary cynicism, people had been toying with many precious social and religious values, but those who want to retain and maintain them with due respect should receive our appreciation as well as help. The Sikhs need our help for such a cause. We should help them willingly. He who is familiar with Sikh history knows the Sikhs’ relationship with England, the high degree of their achievements, and must help them with full strength. The Sikhs should be exempted from wearing steel helmets because it hurts their religious feelings”.

Especially in the final decades of the last century, the Sikhs would take recourse to the legal systems of the nations that they faced discrimination in, and more in time would be granted relief since courts worldwide recognised the fundamental right of the Sikhs to wear an item of their religious attire. This was so in Britain, Canada and the US, to name just three major nations.

In France, however, it was the state that discriminated against Sikh school students and banned them for wearing turbans to school, because turbans were seen as “conspicuous religious symbols”. It enacted an all-embracing law against “conspicuous religious symbols” in 2004 and enforced it vigorously. Others affected by the law include Muslim girls wearing headscarves, Jewish boys wearing scull caps and Christians wearing large crosses.

The logic behind this decision is to take secularism not as equal respect for all religions, as it is seen in India; or a separation of the church and the state as is practiced in most of Europe and the US, but a particularly narrow and strident interpretation that seeks to stamp out religion and religious symbols to preserve secularity.

French courts have supported the government in this and now the principle is being extended-the Sikhs are being asked to uncover their heads while being photographed for driving licences. Recently, United Sikhs, an international charitable organisation that has also been fighting for the cause of the turban, reported that its appeal regarding Shingara Mann Singh, 52, a French national who was refused a replacement driver’s licence because he did not take off his turban, was turned down by a top French court. Similarly, appeals by eight French students, who have sought to be allowed to attend school, have met with a similar fate.

The forthcoming visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn attention to this issue again. The issue of banning turbans in French schools has been raised, protest marches have taken place, and vigils are being planned. It is a historical fact that 80,000 Sikh soldiers fought for France and many lost their lives during the two world wars, fighting major battles in Ypres, La Bassec, NeuveChapelle, Festubert, Loos, Givenchy and Somme.

The late Hardit Singh Malik was granted the French Legion of Honour Award in 1952. He had served as a fighter pilot for the French Air Force, and won nine aerial battles in World War I. The turbaned Malik also served as Indian Ambassador to France soon after India became independent.

The issue is neither the contributions of the Sikhs to the freedom of France, nor the ties they have with France and the French people. What is at stake here is a fundamental matter of giving people the freedom to profess and practise their faith.

 The following are excerpts from a statement by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at the UN, General Assembly in New York on September 25, 2007, which is being circulated on the Internet:“Attachment to one’s faith, to one’s language and culture, and to one’s way, of life, thought and belief - all this is natural, legitimate and profoundly human. To deny that is to sow the seeds of humiliation. A ‘clash of civilisations’ will not be averted by forcing’ everyone to think and believe alike; cultural and religious diversity must be accepted everywhere and by all.”  

He had an investment of Rs 48lakh as on last Friday. More than half of this was in physical shares where he had taken delivery of shares and around Rs 20 lakh; he had paid as margin money to buy some stocks in futures segment. India is growing at around 9 per cent. There was no reason to believe that the situation would change so dramatically over the last two days. He was asked to pay additional margin money on Monday and Tuesday, which he could not. On Tuesday evening, his broker called to ask him pay another Rs 3 lakh. A net loss of Rs 511akh and no shares in any company.

Two days of carnage in the stock markets have wiped out many investors like him. What took years to build in terms of investor confidence was destroyed in two working days. However, the writing on the wall was clear all along. But everyone failed to read it. The government intervened on Tuesday when the bloodbath on Dalal Street spiraled out of control.

Here are some facts:
Following the weakness in the global financial market, the Indian market was under sustained correction since January 15.

Experts are no longer hesitant to accept that the US market, which is still the centre of gravity of the global financial market, is recession-hit. And that its impact is bound to be felt across the globe including India, irrespective of the fact that ours is a robust and growing economy.

While no one doubts the impending correction, the question is the pace. The overwhelming response of Reliance Power’s Initial Public Offer (IPO), gave enough strength to the bear cartel to trap the market. The Rs 10,200 crore IPO bids worth Rs 7, 45,353 crore and by Friday evening, investors had taken out Rs 112,063 crore to apply for the IPO. This includes small investors - Rs 11,327 crore, high net worth individuals (HNI) - Rs 49,949 crore and Rs 50,787 from institutional investors.

This figure was available for all to see on Saturday morning: there was hardly any cash available with the investors. Even the regulators, banks and the government must have been aware of this. If retail and HNIs have invested over Rs 61,000 crore and locked it I in for three weeks till the time for the refund, could it be possible that the market could have remained strong and not be vulnerable to such people?

Since the market has witnessed sustained selling for the whole of the previous week, it was obvious that all the players in the futures segment needed to fork out additional margin money on a daily basis, which they were doing since January 15. On Black Monday, January 21, the bear cartel got a whiff that the market had crashed out completely. They hammered it down further. For obvious reasons, the default in the margin money had a cascading effect.

The turn of events played out exactly the same way. While Foreign Institutional Investors were on a selling spree to reduce the global losses, the margin call created havoc in the market. Brokers had to sell part of their clients’ shares to meet the margin requirement, since the demat account was also linked with them. But fresh selling pulled down the price further. This generated a fresh requirement for margin. While banks refused to give additional funds to meet the margin, they started asking their borrowers to pay additional margin as per the Reserve Bank of India stipulation for loans against shares.

Since the share price was falling, the banks needed an additional margin and its executives had no option but to sell the shares given as collateral to recover the margin. This created fresh selling pressure and additional fund requirement to meet government stipulation. As there were no buyers in the futures market, the investors had no option but to give additional margin money at every fall.

After brokers started defaulting on margin payment, the stock exchange started switching off their terminals. In fact, everyone was following the prescribed law, which, in turn, was helping the bear cartel, which had been trapped many times by the same heavyweights.

Had the government not intervened on Tuesday, the crisis would have continued for the third day as the FIIs were continuing to add fuel to the fire. Despite the fact the Indian market was hitting new lows; the FIIs were on a ruthless selling spree. They are discerning fund managers and we cannot accept or believe that they adopted a herd mentality.

No one in their right sense, no one with even a rudimentary knowledge of the stock market would sell in such a market which was sinking so rapidly. But the selling went on as there was no tomorrow. The selling at this level reflects that the problems in FIIs’ home countries are far more serious than what perceived. In the two days of meltdown, the FIIs sold more than Rs 7,500 crore.

 The question is if these banks could relax the norms on Tuesday, then why did not they do it a day earlier? Were they not aware of the ground reality, which was in the public domain? Had they done so, it could have helped in arresting the collateral damage it caused to investors but also to the market, which is an intermediary to raise resources to create capital. While the bear cartel had the last laugh, it will take some time to woo these investors back into the market and join the growth story. 

As we prepare to celebrate the 59th anniversary of our Republic, we are justifiably proud of the success of our often anarchic democracy. But amid the pomp and pageantry, statistics in the latest UNICEF report on India’s children should be a sobering thought. India accounts for 2.1 million children of the 10 million worldwide who die before the age of five. One child dies every three seconds. Of the four million neonatal deaths in the world, one million are in India.

 Comparisons do not serve for much but we have fallen behind Eritria, Ethiopia and our neighbour Bangladesh in infant mortality reduction. While India is a fervent advocate of UN development goals, it now seems a distant dream that we can achieve the target of 7.6 per cent reduction in infant deaths from the current 2.6 per cent. And, this despite the fact that India has had the Integrated Child Development Programme in place for 30 years.

India has every right to showcase its spectacular economic success but this has to translate into a better quality of life for its most precious asset, its people.

There are no magic mantras for achieving this. It’s all there in the myriad of policies for the welfare of the underprivileged. But the proof of the pudding lies in the implementation and that is where we have fallen so woefully short. The fall in child mortality across the world was achieved by inexpensive measures like immunisation, breast-feeding, bed nets and nutrition. More than 42 per cent of Indian children are not immunised and -over 40 per cent of clinics in India do not have a trained person on site during a patient’s visit. The main cause of death among Indian children is malnutrition, an ironic situation given our overflowing granaries. The Prime Minister, an eminent economist, has often spoken about inclusive growth. But the underlying cause for such dismal development indicators is the lack of political will and poor governance.

At the risk of repeating ourselves, politics today has become an end in itself. Of course, come election time or in order to berate political opponents with, the issue of gender equality and child rights is raised. But, there the matter normally ends: Where there is political will, these indicators can be reversed, as states like Kerala have shown. The first Prime Minister of our country, Jawaharlal Nehru, was inordinately fond of Robert Frost’s poem, of which two lines were, ‘But I have promises to keep! And miles to go before I sleep’. The Indian State still owes the promises part of that to its people.

The Exchange rate (ER) is an important policy instrument that affects the economy of a country. During its development phase, Japan, for instance, used the ER to promote exports and improve its economic growth. China has for some time started using the ER policy to improve its economic conditions. In India’s case, when the economy had touched rock bottom in July 1991, P.V. Narshimha Rao, the then Prime Minister, appointed Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister to revive the economy. One drastic step that Singh took was to devalue the rupee by 20 per cent.

Regarding the rupee, it is not a fully convertible currency. The RBI does intervene from time to time to ensure that the ER is right. That stability of the rupee has been seriously disturbed in the last one year. Since September 2006, when the dollar exchanged for Rs 46.10, the rupee has been consistently hardening. The dollar went on falling and by March 2007, the ER was Rs 44 to a dollar.

The fall of the dollar continued and in April 2007, the exchange rate went down to Rs 40 to a dollar.Thus in just eight months - ending April 2007 the rupee had taken a big jump and appreciated against the dollar by 9 per cent.Of particular interest is the Rupee-Yuan exchange rates. Against the rupee’s appreciation of over 9 per cent by March-April 2007, the Yuan during the same period appreciated a mere 2 per cent as a result of China’s intervention. As a result, in international markets China gained a 7 per cent advantage over India.

The appreciation of the rupee was due to the near absence of the RBI in the currency market to prevent the rupee from hardening. In fact, the RBI closed its eyes to the rise of the rupee. Its main aim was to keep inflation in check. The RBI, therefore, completely ignored the hardening of the rupee that led to loss of market of indigenous industries and increased unemployment.

Foreign capital comes to India from four sources:
a) foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who buy shares of Indian companies;
b) foreign direct investment (FDI);
c) non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, which are done to take advantage of the higher interest rate in India; and
d) by Indian companies borrowing abroad - external commercial borrowings (ECBs) - to benefit from the low rate of interest prevailing in international financial markets. In 2006-07, the amount of ECBs was $16 billion. With a high rate of interest prevailing in India, ECBs make our industrial units more competitive.

The excessive exposure of the rupee to market forces resulted in the hardening of the rupee very significantly. The loss of exports was heavy in respect of textiles, leather goods and sports goods etc. Information Technology and IT-related industries like BPOs have also been adversely affected. A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) survey brought out that our ex. port turnover was down by 11-16 per cent in chemicals, 10-17 per cent in processed food and agro-products, 20-50 per cent in readymade garments and textiles, 25 per cent in electronics and electrical items, and 50 per cent in machinery. Obviously, it would not be possible to achieve the export target of $ 160 billion for 2007-08 set by the Ministry of Commerce. The figures may come down by 8-10 per cent. This will be a big setback to the economy.

About 11 per cent of the industrial production of the country finds markets abroad. If export growth slows down, industrial growth will also slide. A 10 per cent reduction in export growth will mean a 1 per cent reduction in the industrial growth. The strengthening of the rupee has already caused the unemployment of 200,000 people, as per official figures but about 400,000 people, according to trade and industry. If things don’t improve, this figure will further shoot up. The countries that have gained most from the decline in our exports are China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has no doubt appreciated the problem created by the over-valued rupee and higher interest rates and initiated measures to alleviate the hardships. The Duty Drawback Rates were revised upwards (by 10-40 per cent) for cotton yarn, fabrics, made-ups, carpets, garments, leather products, handicrafts, engineering products, processed agricultural products, marine products, sports goods and toys. The government also lowered the interest rates on post- and pre-shipment credit by 2 per cent. But these steps by the Ministry of Commerce, commendable as they are, are no alternatives to the softening of the rupee.

The Economic Advisory Council (EAC) preferred restrictions on, the use of ECBs.. The industry is not in favour of restrictions on ECBs as that would lead to higher cost of Indian products. The question to be addressed is: what really is the right rate of exchange? As a rule of thumb, the rupee has to be priced in such a way that exports plus FDIs are equal to imports. But the exchange rate needs to be judged in the context of the impact of the exchange rate on export performance. Considering all the angles, it would appear that the ideal exchange rate should be at Rs 43-44 to the dollar. If this is achieved, it will revive the industrial climate and prevent unemployment.

Economist and Secretary General, FICCI, Amit Mitra suggested:
1) As in the policy being followed by Singapore and which has also been adopted by China. The suggestion is to let our massive foreign exchange reserves be used by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “to buy equity in the internationally reputed firms. I don’t think this is likely to affect the value of the rupee. But in case the RBI were to make investments in foreign mutual funds, they could certainly get much higher returns on the money so invested, compared to what they are currently earning, along with the added advantage of appreciation in the value of the investments.

2) Simultaneously; Mitra says that we should raise the cap on Indian companies investing abroad from the current limit of 300 per cent of net worth to 500 per cent of the net worth immediately. This is a good suggestion and should receive early consideration by the Government of India. 

3) Side by side, the intervention of the RBI will have a sobering effect on the international market. It is not the quantum of interventions that will count; the very fact that the RBI is alert and has intervened will change the atmosphere.

These measures would ease the pressure on the rupee.The ad hoc measures taken by the commerce ministry have been warmly welcomed by the trade and industry. But that itself is not adequate. The ER policy as enunciated would help all the industries and should, therefore, be adopted by the RBI and the government of India as early as possible. It would, therefore, be in the interest of exports and the GDP that the present over valuation of the rupee is expeditiously corrected, along with reduction in the interest rates.

It was only seven months ago that Mr. Digambar Kamat took over as the Chief Minister of Goa following the Congress’ victory in the Assembly elections. However, politics in this small state is so fluid that political stability has always remained a distant dream. The resignation of three ministers and the threat of the Nationalist Congress Party to withdraw support have landed the government in a crisis. In two quick decisions, the government first got the Assembly adjourned and then prorogued it on Thursday to prevent voting on the Goa Appropriation Bill 2008 in the House. Clearly, with over nine legislators of the ruling coalition in the 40-member House having decided to vote against the Bill, the government would have fallen.

The crisis also underlines the Chief Minister’s inability to run the government in close cooperation, with his allies, notably the NCP. Mr. Kamat claimed the other day that his decision on the rollback of SEZs had the backing of all the allies. A bigger worry for the Congress is the role of business lobbies in the current crisis. Small states like Goa where a single member can make or mar the government are vulnerable to pressures of all kinds.

Unfortunately, Goa has witnessed 16 governments in 17 years. Despite the Anti-Defection Act, defections have become common. Party labels and affiliations have no meaning when MLAs switch sides all too frequently. They have the least respect for the Constitution which they swear to uphold. Successive governors, including the incumbent, Mr. S. C. Jamir, have abused their powers to bailout the ruling party.

Worse, Speakers too, followed suit, instead of functioning as impartial referees. Very recently, Speaker Pratapsinh Rane restored the voting rights of two Maharashtra Gomantak Party members and a Congress legislator. The decision followed an agreement between the Congress and the MGP under which the MGP MLAs would withdraw their petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the suspension of their voting rights.

The present crisis should be resolved in the best traditions of f democracy - by adhering strictly to the Constitution.

The government’s decision to clear the Rs 1,800 crore scheme- an incentive for the cash-rich private sector to provide employment to 100,000 differently abled people a year - is creditable. According to the proposal, the government will pick up the tab for- the employers’ contribution towards the Employees’ Provident Fund and the Employees’ State Insurance of the special workforce a private sector company employs. However, the landmark decision will lose sheen if we consider the time that has been taken by the government to come to this decision. The first indication of providing an incentive to ensure employment came up in 1995-96. This means that it took the government 12 long years to come up with a concrete plan. And, considering that only one per cent of the total number of differently abled people, who comprise 5-6 per cent of the total population, are employed, this delay is not only unfortunate, it’s almost criminal.

The employment scenario for the differently abled has been dismal for years, to say the least. In 1999, the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People did a survey of the top 100 Indian companies and the percentage of differently abled people they had on their payroll. The results were shocking: the total percentage of differently abled people employed in the public sector was 0.5 per cent, 0.2 per cent in the private sector and for multinationals it was 0.05 per cent. The study also proved that in two decades nothing much had moved even in the government sector, considering that the government had made it mandatory to have 3 per cent reservation in jobs for the differently abled in 1977. If a similar study is done today; the numbers would not be much better even though economic opportunities have vastly increased and diversified.

If the government is serious about levelling the playing field, much more needs to be done. For starters, these incentives must have legal backing. Just a ‘directive principle’ to companies will not take us anywhere. A differently abled employee can take a government company to court because a law binds the company. But this is not likely to cut much ice with private employers. More often than not, there is discrimination among differently abled employees: a job would go to a person with a lower degree of disability to avoid overhauling the access infrastructure of the company. By providing employment to people with a lower degree of disability; firms sometimes manage to fulfill their corporate social responsibility without spending a lot on overhauling their infrastructure. Of course, government offices are no better.

Since access is the first step towards integrating the differently abled with the ‘mainstream’, instead of piecemeal action, the government must ask companies to upgrade their infrastructure and this should be backed up by tax-breaks. Or possibly; preferred employers of the new economy - the BPO industry - could be asked to provide low-floor cars for ferrying wheelchair-bound employees, instead of the high-floor SUVs. It would cost the company a little more, but would mean a world of opportunity for a differently abled employee.

Eicher Motors, which has agreed to transfer its trucks division to a joint venture with Sweden’s Volvo, could possibly deploy the funds to create an engineering business, a top official said.

The company will get Rs 400 crore in cash for transferring the truck and component business to the joint venture and is drawing up plans to use the money, Managing Director Siddhartha Lal said over the weekend.

“We do not want to compete against our own unit. It could very possibly be in engineering,” he said. Eicher’s component business currently produces auto parts for commercial vehicles. Other areas in engineering could include components for cars, bikes and industries. It may also be in the area of design and development, though Lal refused to elaborate.

In December, Volvo, the world’s No 2 truck maker, said it planned to invest $350 million to expand in the fifth-largest truck market through a joint venture with Eicher.  Under the deal, Eicher will transfer its truck, component division and 180-strong dealer network to a joint venture with Volvo. The Swedish firm will also move its dealer network to the JV but continue to own its Indian assembly operations.

“Some of our cash is tied-up in bonds. The rest will come when the JV is formed. We are making the plan though, it is early to comment immediately,” Lal said. “For now, the biggest focus is to make the JV a large and significant business.” Eicher lags Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland in sales but expects the joint venture with Volvo to help it get a larger market share as the market shifts from medium trucks to heavy trucks.

“We have the potential to make large investments to make the changes in the market,” Lal said adding the intent was to route all Volvo truck projects in India, through the yet to be named joint venture.

The Volvo truck group includes Volvo, Mack, Renault and Nissan Diesel trucks. A Volvo India spokesman said the JV will certainly distribute all Volvo truck group launches in India but the company was yet to decide the model to adopt for manufacturing in India. Shares of Eicher ended 2.7 per cent up at Rs 382.25 in the Mumbai market.

NOW KARAT IS LEADING! 

It would seem that there is no issue on which the redoubtable general secretary of the CPI (M) Prakash Karat does not have an opinion. We are now all too familiar with his views on the nuclear deal. After having threatened to withdraw support to the government on the issue, the CPI (M) has now backed down a bit and said that it would do nothing until talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency are over. But Mr. Karat’s pronouncements on cross-media ownership are curious to say the least.After vehemently upholding the cause of a free press in a democratic system of governance, he has suddenly advocated the need for his party to formulate a code of conduct for the print and electronic ‘media. We may be forgiven for thinking that this smacks of authoritarianism and could even be thought of as a form of muzzling the press.As for cross-media ownership, there is no law that prevents anyone with the resources from starting several media ventures. Indeed, India has several media houses that have done so. What Mr. Karat seems to have forgotten is that it is his own party that has a stake in several media concerns in Kerala. His fears that 26 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in the media has made sections of it more pro-Western, anti-political and anti-Communist are uncalled for. Despite all its flaws, the press in India has more often than not said it like it is. At a time when FDI is being invited into most sectors, why should there be different rules for the press? The politically savvy Communist Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his illustrious predecessor Jyoti Basu have been clear that FDI is not anathema to the party and is needed if the state has to develop further. Let us not mince any words; Mr. Karat has overstepped himself here. The party’s plans to have a nation-wide protest against a possible fuel hike are valid. This would indeed make life difficult for the common man. It is incumbent on the CPI (M) as a party of governance to raise these issues.But over the last year at least it appears to have adopted an obstructionist approach to the very government of which it willingly became a part The party has never had such a high profile or so much clout ever and so it is surprising that Mr. Karat has once again raised the option of throwing his lot in with a non-Congress front. The CPI (M) has been sabre-rattling once too often. This is inappropriate coming from such a seasoned political formation and that too from its august general secretary.

This country by law and the Constitution adheres to the principal of free choice. However, by floating the idea of conscription as a possible solution to the manpower crisis facing the Indian Armed forces, a worried Chief of Army Staff Deepak Kapoor has not really served the cause. He was careful, of course, to say that it had not yet come to that, and the government might have to “look at it” in the long run. But the fact is that conscription is an abhorrent idea arid cannot be pushed by any government at the Centre.

The Army Chief need not have wasted a moment on the thought. By mentioning it at all, General Kapoor has attempted to deflect attention away from where the focus should actually be - on the total failure of the government and the armed forces in correcting the officer shortage that has dogged the forces for more than a decade. There have been fancy advertising campaigns, camps of all kinds, tinkering efforts with promotion schemes, some juggling of pay packets and perks. The net result has essentially been zilch.

ear on year, the hard numbers stare us in the face. As per figures presented in Parliament, the Army is short by 11,238 officers, the Navy by 1399 officers and the Air Force by 1528 officers. The numbers have come down only marginally over the earlier years.

In 2006, 811 officers applied for premature retirement, with 464 making it out, along with 87 of their Air Force colleagues. In fact, the conscription idea is all the more foolish, considering that it is officers we are looking for. Year on year, the feeder institutions like the IMA-Dehra Dun, the NDA-Pune, and the OTA-Chennai, only manage to fill the gap, without making much of an impact. The IMA last year boasted about a “highest ever” graduation of 625 cadets, but reports coming in of falling intake are already of great concern.

Hopefully, perhaps, General Kapoor was only throwing in the conscription idea to further spur the Sixth Pay Commission to favourably look upon the demands for large pay hikes for service officers and ranks. There is no doubt a strong case for this, considering the salaries that qualified youngsters are wooed with even as they step out of the portals of their educational institutions.

Slow promotions are an issue, but not as much as unfair methods of assessment, and corruption. There is also need for greater sensitivity towards concerns about family and education of children, but the “tough life” per se is no stumbling block. If anything, it has an appeal of its own to the young. But the armed forces need to get their act together.

Pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories reported an almost unchanged consolidated net profit after tax for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 at Rs 187.8 crore as against Rs 185.9 crore in the same period previous year. Total consolidated sales of the company during the quarter grew 5.11 per cent at Rs 1,795.1 crore as compared to Rs 1,707.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Global sales registered 24 per cent growth. During the quarter, emerging markets like Romania, CIS, South Africa and Brazil were the key drivers of growth which contributed 54 per cent to global sales. For the year ended December 2007, the company’s net profit stood at Rs 790.1 crore, up 53 per cent. However, after excluding foreign exchange gains or losses, net profit of the year was Rs 609.9 crore, up 15 per cent.

To demerge R&D operations
Ranbaxy Laboratories will spin off its new drug discovery research operations to set up a new firm, ‘Ranbaxy Life Sciences Research’, in February. The new entity is expected to get listed in the second half of the year, Ranbaxy CEO Malvinder Mohan Singh said.

HCL profit up
IT firm HCL Technologies today posted a marginal increase in net profit at Rs 266.95 crore for the quarter ended December 31compared to Rs 266.14 crore for the same quarter last year. The total income of the company rose to Rs 1,185.30 crore for the quarter against Rs 1,023.43 in the year-ago period, HCL Technologies said. The board of the company in its meeting held today also declared an interim dividend of Rs 2 per share (of face value of Rs 2).

Reliance Energy
Anil Ambani-owned power utility firm, Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) said its net profit registered an increase of 50 percent to Rs 301.6 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007 as compared to Rs 201.03 in the corresponding quarter last year. Its total income has increased marginally by 2 per cent to Rs. 1,853.41 crore for the third quarter compared to Rs 1,820.43 crore in the same period last year.

RNRL net soars
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), a part of the Anil Ambani Group, reported over two-fold rise in its net profit at Rs 23.79 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 as against Rs 10.45 crore in the year-ago period. However, net sales of the company declined44.60percenttoRs 40.73 crore for the reviewed quarter compared to Rs 73.53 crore for the same period previous year, the company said in a filing on the National Stock Exchange.

Godrej net up 13 pc
Leading fast moving consumer goods company Godrej Consumer Products Ltd said it has registered 13.21 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 41.47 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 as compared to Rs 36.63 crore for the same period a year ago. The company’s total income also jumped 15.73 per cent to Rs 231.36 crore from Rs 199.91 crore in the said period.

IDBI profit up 39 pc
Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd (IDBI) said its net profit has increased 39 per cent to Rs 175.84 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007 as compared to Rs 126.79 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Its total income has increased 32 per cent to Rs 2.471.3 crore for the third quarter compared to Rs 1,877.6 crore in the same period last year.

Wipro:
IT major Wipro bucked prophecies of a slowdown in the software sector by posted a profit of Rs 854 crore for the quarter ended December last year to record a growth of 11.57 per cent. The company had posted a profit of Rs 756.40 crore during the preceding quarter last year. Its total revenues increased by 33 per cent year on year-to-year basis to Rs 5,303 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2007. Revenue in global IT services and products was at Rs 3,616 crore.

NIIT PAT flat:
NIIT Technologies has posted an almost flat profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 34.7 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007, against Rs 34.6 crore in the same quarter previous year. The consolidated revenues grew by 1 per cent and stood at Rs 233.8 crore during the quarter, against Rs 231.5 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, NIIT said in a statement.

Nicholas Piramal
Nicholas Piramal India (NPIL) posted 30.98 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 72.76 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2007, against Rs 55.55 crore in the same quarter of 2006. The total income of the group rose by 13.33 per cent at Rs 736.35 crore for the quarter under review, compared to Rs 649.7 crore in the same period last year, NPIL said in a filing to the BSE.

HCC net up
Hindustan Construction Company Ltd (HCC) posted an increase of 14 per cent in net profit at Rs 25 crore for the quarter ended December 31, compared to Rs 22 crore for the same quarter in 2006. The turnover of the company increased by 39 per cent at Rs 753 crore for the quarter -ender December 31, 2007, against Rs 541 crore for the corresponding period during the year-ago period, HCC said in a filing to the BSE.

ITC profit up:
ITC Limited today posted a 15.79 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 830.72 crore for the quarter ended December ended 31, 2007, compared to Rs 717.40 crore for the same quarter in 2006. The total income of the firm increased to Rs 3,595.39 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 3,184.49 crore for the corresponding period last year, up 12.90 per cent, the company informed the BSE.

HDFC net surges
HDFC has posted an increase of 82.54 per cent in net profit at Rs 648.93 crore for the quarter ended December 31, compared to Rs 355.49 crore for the corresponding period in 2006. The total income of the company rose by 47.81 per cent at Rs 2,154.72 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2007, the same stood at Rs 1,457.73 crore during the year ago period, HDFC informed the BSE.

PNB Gilts
PNB Gilts has reported more than two fold increase in profit before tax at Rs 27.21 crore for the third quarter, against Rs 13.48 crore in the same period a year ago. While, its total income increased by a 30 per cent from Rs 106.85 crore in the previous year period to Rs. 139.87 crore, the company achieved reduction in expenses from Rs 77 .34 crore to Rs 70.79 crore, a decline of 8.5 per cent, PNB Gilts said in a release.

UTI dividend:
UTI Mutual Fund has announced tax free dividend of 8 per cent to its unit holders registered under the dividend option of UTI Dividend Yield Fund. This was the third dividend of Rs 0.80 per unit on face value of Rs 10, declared by the scheme during the current fiscal. “Pursuant to the payment of dividend, the NAV of the dividend option of the scheme would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy if any,” UTI said.

The Government is considering the sale of 10 per cent equity stakes in state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) through an initial public offer of shares. Communications Minister A. Raja signalled the intent when he said in response to questions from reporters at a BSNL function that his ministry was open on the idea.”We will look into it. The Department of Telecom (DoT) will discuss the issue and take a decision,” he said. However, the issue is controversial, given political opposition to disinvestment by Left parties and also BSNL’s employee union.

When asked to the Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, Kuldeep Goyal, he said, “Maybe the ministry is thinking of it.” “It will be good for the company as people will get to know the real value of the company,” he added with a note of caution. However, the CMD also said that an IPO cannot be expected in the near future.

The company has large scale growth plans. It is going to expand its offering on Wireless in Local Loop network (WLL) on the CDMA platform. It will also be soon announcing a 25 million GSM line tender to upgrade its network in the southern India.

Its vendors in the North, East and the West have already taken up the task of up gradation of the GSM line network.

“By end 2008, we hope to retain our number two position in the GSM telephony”, said Kuldeep Goyal. Vodafone Essar had upstaged BSNL from the number two position in 2007. BSNL had lost market share due to unavailability of GSM lines.

The issue is controversial, given political opposition to disinvestment by Left parties and also BSNL’s employee union. The company is going to expand its offering on Wireless in Local Loop network on the CDMA platform. It will also be soon announcing a 25 million GSM line tender

The Elephant’s slow but steady march has been noted by the dragon. A realistic, noneuphoric appraisal of Manmohan Singh’s visit to China suggests that Beijing is more amenable to treating New Delhi on an equal footing than ever before. The political benchmark for judging Sino-Indian relations has been a visit-by-visit assessment ever since Rajiv Gandhi’s ground-breaking trip to China in 1988. Singh’s visit marks a major step-up in endeavour: India and China are now gearing up to act in bilateral concert on a global scale.

Asked why India-China ties were improving, the Prime Minister said at the end of his three-day visit that the world respected the strong, not the weak. ‘If India is strong economically, politically, socially, [the] world will respect us more… and take note of our concerns,” Singh stressed. In essence, the PM said the Chinese had recognised India’s strengths as a nation and were now ready to do business with us on a range of issues from trade talks to climate change.

Sinophobia afflicts a large number of strategic thinkers in India, a fear generated by the crushing defeat that the Indian morale suffered ill 1962. Many of our China pundits lived through that war and believe that Beijing is not to be trusted. New India has now the right to depart from the old phobia and engage China not with fear or suspicion, but through the prism of equality of exchange. Speaking in Delhi in November 2006, Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to put India in its place when he said New Delhi was Beijing’s largest trade partner in South Asia. It was interpreted as gently pointing to India’s mere ‘South Asian’ status. But the real sub-text of Sino-Indian ties - the fantastic increase in bilateral trade - has changed the locational setting of India for the Chinese. Addressing a business meeting with the PM during his visit to Beijing, Chinese Vice-Premier Hu Langyu pointed out that India was China’s tenth largest trading partner globally. The ‘South Asian’ context, this time, was significantly absent.Even before he left for China, Singh also sent out a loud and clear message to the party leadership in Beijing: India was not playing any ‘contain China’ game and the quadripartite dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India was as good as dead.

A close look at the vision document reveals indirect Chinese concerns about the quadripartite dialogue.’The two sides favour an open and inclusive international system and believe that drawing lines on the’ ground of ideologies and values, or on geographical criteria, is not harmonious to peaceful and harmonious coexistence,’ it said. The quadripartite dialogue was supposed to be a dialogue of elected democracies, which specifically excluded China on grounds of ideology and values. Very similar language was used in Ottober 2007, when the Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia agreed that ‘drawing lines on the grounds of ideologies and values is inconsistent with the trends of the times and does not help solve various global issues facing the international community’. But if you thought that only China had its way, take a look at this formulation: ‘The two sides hold that the right of each country to choose its own path of social, economic and political development in which fundamental human rights and the rule of law are given their due place, should be respected.’ The reference to fundamental human rights and rule of law is something that only the Indian side could have insisted on including, given that this is a stick that the West often uses to beat China with.

The story, however, of the Manmohan Singh visit is a different one. It is about India and China believing that they can work together to resist a purely Western shape of the world by speaking, on occasion, in one voice on issues of concern like climate change. India and China want a fair international energy order, want to cooperate in the civil nuclear energy arena, want to step up cooperation in regional organisations and help build a pan-Asian economic architecture. The two countries, in the vision document, also stated their relations were not ‘targeted at any country, nor will it affect their friendship with other countries’. That’s pretty unprecedented language in a joint statement.

India and China, which are in the early stages of a strategic and cooperative partnership, and have solid relations with the US, want to assure the world that they are not ganging up against anyone. It’s also unlikely language for countries that are engaged in resolving a massive unresolved border dispute. Despite all the talk of border incursions, the two countries have put in place a solid system of dealing with situations when their troops come face-to-face with each other. Since 1988, they have put in place a number of confidence-building measures. Top Indian officials have stated that Tawang was not on the table in discussions with China. They also clarified that India did not envisage any transfer of settled populations, in line with the April 2005 guiding principles towards a border accord. In fact, officials also point out that India and China would have the tough job of selling an eventual border settlement, one based on give and take, to their people. Any formal accord would necessarily mean a compromise without any victory.

Singh’s visit actually had India and China talking Pakistan, Iran and Myanmar, with the PM revealing that Hu Jintao had been shocked by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The Chinese cannot but be aware that a weak, violence-wracked Pakistan is no foil to India. If Indian and Chil:lese leaders display an appetite to sustain this vision, the world will benefit. India-China relations are a work in progress. And, the world is watching every brush.

SOUTH-BOUND- What happened in just 7 days? A quick recap:

Investors lose over $300 bn in six days.

The total m-cap stood at Rs 59, 53,525.87 crore at the end of Monday’s trading against Rs 71, 38,810 crore before bourses began business last week on Jan 14.

Investors lost a whopping Rs 6, 63,975 crore in just one trading session from market cap of Rs 66,17,501.33 crore on Friday last week.

Investors had lost over Rs 5, 21,310 crore in the five trading sessions last week.
The 30 stock account for over Rs 2,19,717.74 crore in the total loss with their combined market cap falling to Rs 24,63,139 crore on Monday.

Reliance Industries has lost over Rs 37,110.72 crore, taking its market value to Rs 3,69,837.28 crore from Rs 4,06,948 crore on Friday.

Liquidity Concerns loom large as foreign fund flows reverse and with large chunks of rupee funds locked up in the Reliance Power issue (Rs 1, 15,000 crore subscription money).

Bears went bull hunting on Dalal Street on Monday, January 21, 2008.

As the global economy reacted to a potential US recession and foreign funds sold heavily, the Sensex recorded its biggest ever single-day drop of 1,408.35 points, and investors lost notional wealth worth Rs 6,63,975 crore. Trading halted on the Bombay Stock Exchange for a few minutes as a circuit limit of 10 per cent got wrongly activated instead of the 15 per cent limit specified by regulators.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh moved to cool the mood at the end of a heart-wrenching day. “Orderly growth of the capital market is a priority concern… Considering that fundamentals of our economy are elementarily strong, I am confident market will grow in an orderly manner. I would like to assure the Indian public that sustained orderly growth for capital markets is a priority concern,” he said.

The Sensex lost 2,062 points intraday to hit a low of 16, 951, before recovering about one-third of what it lost to close at 17, 605.35, down 7.41 per cent. The National Stock Exchange Nifty lost 496.50 points or 8.70 per cent to close at 5208.80. 

Market capitalisation on the BSE was Rs 59, 53,525.87 crore at the end of Monday’s trading, a mind-numbing drop of Rs 6, 63,975 crore in just one trading session. Rs 5, 21,310 crore in notional wealth was lost over five sessions last week.

Amid weak stock markets across the globe and heavy foreign institutional selling in the last four sessions (FIIs dumped Indian equities worth Rs 9,118 crore), panic gripped the funds-starved bourses for the third time in the last nine months and stock prices tumbled triggering margin calls imposed on traders by brokers. The big-bang Rs 1l, 600-crore IPO of Reliance Power has attracted 74 times more than what it could absorb, siphoning off huge money from the markets.

A margin call is the requirement to cough up additional money to compensate for the decline in value of shares one has bought with borrowed money (broker’s money). With the indices opening lower and sliding rapidly, brokers were forced to sell their clients’ partly paid holdings as bourses demanded more margin money.

There was a flurry of margin calls as stocks plummeted, which resulted in forced selling that aggravated the fall. The sub-prime factor, which played the villain in May 2007, triggered the crisis this time too.

It is the steepest fall for the Sensex; especially from the peak of 21,206 it scaled on January 10 to touch an incredible low of 16,951.50 on Monday. A heart-wrenching day’s trade wiped off the Sensex market capitalisation alone by Rs 2, 19,717 crore in a single session. The total market cap has eroded Rs 11, 85,285.46 crore since the market downturn started last week, wiping off over 20% of Sensex gains.

No one is talking of buying cheap yet as the day was consumed by panic and worries about margin payments and the payout of Tuesday. Foreign funds turned net sellers yet again on Monday, Rs 3,296.73 crore, according to the provisional figures available on the National Stock Exchange website.