Most Influential People
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
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`The economic transformation of India since liberalisation is real, but it will be a while before the average middle class Indian tosses her Lakmé aside for a Lancome, or trades in her handmade salwar-kameez for a Ralph Lauren pantsuit.'
Inmfluential People in India do represent Brand india! shining India! Dalit India, Underprevilleged India and ruaral India has no representation at all!
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, steel icon Lakshmi Mittal along with Osama bin Laden and Pope Benedict XVI are among a packed and varied field chosen by Time Magazine for this year's list of the world's 100 most influential people.Aishwarya Rai has a knack for appearing on covers and on celebrity shows not because she has mastered the art of media and public relations but she has finessed her early accolade of the Miss World into a rapidly growing cinematic resume now marching towards Hollywood unmatched by her colleagues in Mumbai. Last year, Aishwarya Rai made it into the Time magazine's list of 100 most powerful people. It is very rare that the same person gets selected the succeeding year. But Aishwarya Rai made her presence in the star-studded dinner in New York last night with this year's 100 most powerful influential people.
"It's undoubtedly an honour. It feels great that I was a part of this remarkable group. On a personal level, it's a humbling experience, because the people I have been rated with have achieved so much more than me", said Aishwarya Rai.
Aishwarya shared the night alongside the who's who from government, science, arts, sports, business and entertainment, those who have been rated the most powerful people of 2004-2005 by Time .
The White House rejected on Friday what it called "high cost" scenarios to tackle global warming that were spelled out in the latest report by a United Nations panel on climate change. Microsoft Corp. has stepped up its pursuit of a deal to buy Yahoo Inc., two newspapers reported on Friday, as the two companies re-enter talks to strike a deal and fend off a common competitor in Web search leader Google Inc.Yahoo shares jumped 17.96 percent to $33.24 in Nasdaq trading on Friday, while Microsoft shares fell 1.26 percent to$30.58.The two companies have held informal talks over the years, but the latest approach comes as Microsoft seeks a deal to counter Google's rapid growth.
Outraged over the US attempts to link the nuclear deal with Indo-Iran ties, Left parties on Friday asked the government to make a statement in Parliament on the status of the negotiations on the 123 agreement and progress on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
The parties, which provide key outside support to the UPA coalition, condemned the American "interference" on India's internal affairs and asked the Congress-led government "not to succumb to US pressure".
Observing that the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress had set out unacceptable terms on how India should conduct itself with regard to Iran, the CPI(M) said it was of the view that the government should not have begun negotiations on the 123 Agreement without clarifying the issues raised by it.
With the 123 Agreement being negotiated now and the US mounting steady pressure, "it is imperative that the government make a statement in Parliament about both the status of the negotiations and on how the IPI pipeline project is progressing," it said in a statement here.
Post Modern Manusmriti has fixed new laws of Varanashram. In accordance with these laws, purchasing capacity and sustenance capability against marketing forces determine your social status. recent studies have proved this!
Here you are!
A truer measure of India's failure is not its present level of poverty, but its inability to create a middle class. India's middle class constituted less than 10% of the population in 1984 and 1985, according to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). When half the population in society is middle class, its poor will be fewer — and society will have greater means to look after them. Since then, it has more than tripled, but is still less than 20%. If our country's economy grows 7% over the foreseeable future and if the population increases anually by 1.5%, if the literacy rate keeps rising and if we assume the historical middle-class growth rate of the past 15 years, then half of India will turn middle class between 2020 and 2040. That is a lot of ifs that we will have meet. And to be sure, there will still be huge disparities between different regions of the country.
WHENEVER I hear foreigners talking about the Indian "middle class", I wonder what they mean.
Much of the clamour about economic reforms has focused on this group, which may be sociological but is not entirely logical. The conventional wisdom is that this middle class is some 300 million strong — larger than the entire domestic market of the United States, say the marketing gurus — and, together with a very rich upper class, has both the purchasing power and the inclinations of the American middle class.
Today's economic mythology sees this new Indian middle class as ripe for international consumer goods. Our television channels and glossy magazines overflow with ads for foreign brand-name products from Daewoo Cielo cars to Ray-ban sunglasses. This is why Kellogg's rushed in with their cornflakes; Nike got our then cricket captain, Mohammed Azharuddin, to endorse their sports shoes (sparking off an unintended controversy since his name is also that of the Prophet and could not adorn an item so lowly as footwear); Mercedes-Benzes began rolling off the automotive production lines; and Johnny Walker Black Label scotch has become an Indian brand, not just one purveyed by smugglers. It was once said that more bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label were sold in India than were distilled in Scotland: now the joke may literally come true.
http://www.shashitharoor.com/articles/hindu/middleclass.php
The CBI has made a strong pitch for scrutinising wealth of "highly influential" persons in the country who not only make huge deposits without clearly indicating sources of income but also pack off their ill-gotten money to international financial centres like Swiss banks taking protection under strict privacy laws. The agency came out with these suggestions at a conferenceGlobal Financial Crime Congress in Bangkok on Wednesday. Experts from law enforcement agencies from across the world are participating in the four-day congress which is focusing on corruption, money laundering, terror financing and Internet-related fraud.
The ten most important Indians are the education ministers of the country's ten largest states. The next ten are the secretaries to these ministers. Alas, they do not realize their historic mission. The United States, the European Union and East Asia are all embarked on massive plans to accelerate the development of their human capital — and we Indians are in a race with them, argues Gurcharan Das in this excerpt from his book "India Unbound".
Increased purchasing power
Much of west and south India will turn middle class by 2020, but the backward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa won't get there before 2040. Disparities are obviously bad, but vigorous migration helps to ameliorate them and creates pressure on the backward states to catch-up.
The middle class in India has the sense that it is coming into its own; that it has acquired the numerical strength (300 million and more, if you use a fairly loose definition) to make the Indian market matter even in a global context; and to demand that their issues be addressed when elections come round.The cacophony on television, the visible shift in focus of the general newspapers (out with coverage of city slums, in with coverage of shopping malls), the rush to start new airlines and the obvious international interest in India, all say the same thing: the middle class in India has arrived.
As always, the NCAER (or National Council of Applied Economic Research) survey of households gives us interesting answers to these vital questions.
It is a shock to discover, for instance, that despite the evident emergence of a strong middle class, barely 10 per cent of all households have life insurance cover--traditionally the first form of savings for anyone with a reliable income flow and with dependants.
And medical insurance is available for barely 1 per cent of all households!
There is worse to come. Only 2 per cent of households have credit cards (so much, then, for the vaunted advent of plastic money). Even that basic item in a middle-class household, the refrigerator, exists in only a sixth of all households in the country (probably because only a third of rural households have a domestic electric connection!).
It might be as much of a surprise to know that half of all the TV sets sold in the country are either black and white, or small (i.e. 14-inch) colour sets.
The only items of truly mass consumption remain daily consumables like cooking oil and washing and toilet soaps (which should really be classified as necessities, not options), followed some way behind by shampoos.
Among consumer durables, the ones used most often are not the stuff of contemporary middle class legend, and are either table/ceiling fans or bicycles. The first category sells about 37 million each year, the second about 25 million.
In other words, what appears a normal lifestyle to the average city youngster working in an office is completely abnormal for the majority, in both towns and cities (just as it is completely abnormal to speak and write in English -- only about 6 per cent do that).
Presenting India's viewpoint at the congress, CBI joint director Radha Vinod Raju called for devising a legal framework and coordinated international cooperation to bring in place effective mechanism for recovery of assets accumulated through corrupt means.
Indicating instances of corruption in high places, Raju spoke about the provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption and pointed out that "asset recovery" was probably the finest contribution and a revolutionary concept enshrined in this convention. He stated that several measures were envisaged for national and international attention in the convention. One of the measures, he said, was to enhance scrutiny of the so called "highly influential" persons who make huge deposits without clearly indicating sources of such wealth and the nature of their occupation.
A horserace punter was found bleeding from a gunshot to his chest just across the road from the Prime Minister’s residence this afternoon, triggering charges of a security lapse.Kishore Lal Sehgal, 35, staggered out of his white Maruti Zen, screaming for help, before collapsing unconscious less than 50 metres from the barricades leading to 7 Race Course Road.A splotch of blood flowed down the driver’s backrest, and a 9mm pistol, identical to police service revolvers, was lodged in the space between the two front seats. On the front passenger’s seat lay a bundle of thousand-rupee notes.It was 2.45 pm and Manmohan Singh was to leave for Parliament any time, security officials said.
India’s middle class is expected to grow more than tenfold to touch 583 million by 2025 if the current economic growth continues, according to a report by management consultancy firm McKinsey. The report, which was released today, says: “Indian incomes will almost triple if the government forges ahead on a systematic reform programme, promotes competition, contains the fiscal deficit, reins in inflation and invests in infrastructure, healthcare and education.”
The report defines the middle class as households with an annual disposable income of Rs 2-9 lakh. In 2005, 13 million households, or 50 million people, fell in this category.
The report sees India surpassing Germany to become the fifth-largest consumer market by 2025 from the 12th spot it now holds. The forecasts are based on the assumption that the economy would grow at a compound annual rate of 7.3 per cent from 2005 to 2025.
McKinsey says income growth, rather than a change in savings pattern or population growth, would be the biggest driver of increasing consumption. By 2025, consumers in urban areas would be responsible for 62 per cent of consumption, though they were only likely to represent 37 per cent of the population.India’s middle class is expected to grow more than tenfold to touch 583 million by 2025 if the current economic growth continues, according to a report by management consultancy firm McKinsey. The report, which was released today, says: “Indian incomes will almost triple if the government forges ahead on a systematic reform programme, promotes competition, contains the fiscal deficit, reins in inflation and invests in infrastructure, healthcare and education.”The report defines the middle class as households with an annual disposable income of Rs 2-9 lakh. In 2005, 13 million households, or 50 million people, fell in this category.
The report sees India surpassing Germany to become the fifth-largest consumer market by 2025 from the 12th spot it now holds. The forecasts are based on the assumption that the economy would grow at a compound annual rate of 7.3 per cent from 2005 to 2025.McKinsey says income growth, rather than a change in savings pattern or population growth, would be the biggest driver of increasing consumption. By 2025, consumers in urban areas would be responsible for 62 per cent of consumption, though they were only likely to represent 37 per cent of the population.
Outraged over the US attempts to link the nuclear deal with Indo-Iran ties, Left parties on Friday asked the government to make a statement in Parliament on the status of the negotiations on the 123 agreement and progress on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
The parties, which provide key outside support to the UPA coalition, condemned the American "interference" on India's internal affairs and asked the Congress-led government "not to succumb to US pressure".
Observing that the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress had set out unacceptable terms on how India should conduct itself with regard to Iran, the CPI(M) said it was of the view that the government should not have begun negotiations on the 123 Agreement without clarifying the issues raised by it.
With the 123 Agreement being negotiated now and the US mounting steady pressure, "it is imperative that the government make a statement in Parliament about both the status of the negotiations and on how the IPI pipeline project is progressing," it said in a statement here.
BSP continues lead in exit poll
NDTV Correspondent
Friday, May 4, 2007 (New Delhi)
According to an exit poll conducted by NDTV after the sixth phase of polling for the 52 seats in the Poorvanchal region of UP, Mayawati's BSP is likely to get between 19 and 23 seats.
In 2002, the party got 15 seats in the area. The Samajwadi Party and it's allies are expected to bag between 16 and 20 seats. The last time Mulayam Singh managed 21 seats in the region.
The BJP and allies will get between 9 and 13 seats. In 2002, the party got 11 seats in the area.
The Congress may get up to three seats in the area but even that will be an improvement over the solitary seat it got in 2002. Smaller parties and independents may also get up to three seats.
The overall projections based on all the six phases of polling in the state suggest that the BSP will be getting between 120 and 130 seats. It's a big jump from the 97 seats it got in 2002, but clearly short of the halfway mark.
The BJP and it's allies can expect 110-120 seats. In 2002, they had won 107 seats. The Samajwadi Party is also projected to get between 110 and 120 seats - clearly down from the 145 seats it won the last time.
The Congress is likely to get between 35-45 seats. It's a significant improvement from the 25 seats it won in 2002.
Smaller parties and independents will get between 10 and 20 seats.
India dug in its heels on Friday over agricultural issues in troubled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks and rejected a call to be more flexible on imports.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said proposals put forward by the chairman of WTO farm negotiations, New Zealand's ambassador Crawford Falconer, were unbalanced and disappointing.
In suggestions for breaking a deadlock in farm talks, a key part of the WTO's Doha round aimed at reducing trade barriers across the board, Falconer said developing countries would have to soften demands to shield up to 20 percent of their agricultural market from competition.
"I must express disappointment," Nath told a news conference. "The (Falconer) paper suffers from serious imbalances ... They are not paying enough attention to the livelihoods of farmers ... in developing countries," he said.
Nath said that Falconer had not been demanding enough on the need for rich WTO members, notably the United States and the European Union, to slash farm subsidies which India and others say distort world markets.
"Subsidies by developed countries cause a serious challenge to the successful completion of these talks," he said.
Leading WTO states, among them India, say they want a final deal in the 5-year-old Doha round, which aims to reduce poverty and boost growth, by the end of this year. This means a blueprint must be agreed by August.
"I wish the round closed, but you must realise that the content is as important as the completion," Nath said when asked about the urgency of achieving a breakthrough.
Senior officials from the G4 -- Brazil, the European Union, India and the United States -- had three days of talks in London this week before a ministerial meeting in Brussels on May 17-18.
The Brussels meeting will be followed by three more before mid-June by when the G4, which represents a range of trading interests, hopes to have an understanding that will make it easier for the full WTO membership to agree a deal.
While some progress was made in London, deep differences remain, according to officials who attended the talks.
"The United States is wary about talking numbers on subsidies," said one diplomatic source.
Some diplomats say Washington has indicated that it could lower the ceiling on trade-distorting farm subsidies to $17-19 billion a year, from the $22-23 billion it is formally offering.
Even that is way above what it actually spends and therefore offers developing countries no inducement to open their markets further to either farm or manufactured goods, another important area of the Doha round, some diplomats say.
France risks violence and brutality if right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday's presidential election, his Socialist opponent Segolene Royal said on Friday.On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France.
"Choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice," Royal told RTL radio.
Environmental Activists Blast ADB
Houston Chronicle - 15 hours ago
By HANS GREIMEL AP Writer. © 2007 AP. KYOTO, Japan - The Asian Development Bank opened its annual meeting Friday under criticism from activists who claim its economic growth strategies fuel global warming and degrade the environment.
'Asia must step up financial cooperation' Economic Times
Asian Bank Meeting to Look at Shifting Role as Region Prospers Voice of America
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Rice, Iranian Diplomat Discuss Stabilizing Iraq
Washington Post - 4 hours ago
By Karen DeYoung and Debbi Wilgoren. SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, May 3 -- The US ambassador to Iraq and a senior Iranian diplomat spoke briefly this morning about ways of stabilizing Iraq -- a rare interaction between two long-estranged nations, ...
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TRS MP denies involvement in human trafficking
Hyderabad, May 04: Dismissing as a "total lie" reports suggesting his involvement in a human trafficking racket, suspended Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP and former Union minister A Narendra today said he had never met Rasheed, the alleged kingpin in the case.
"I have no idea about this person. Whatever he has told police about me is absolutely false and has no basis," Narendra said.
His denial came in the backdrop of revelations said to have been made by city-based travel agent Rasheed, linking the TRS leader to the scandal unearthed with the arrest of BJP MP Babubhai Katara.
Rasheed, who was today remanded to judicial custody for two weeks, is understood to have told his interrogators that several politicians, including Narendra, were allegedly involved in smuggling people out of the country using their diplomatic passports.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=369606&sid=REG
"There are measures (for reducing greenhouse gas emissions) that come currently at an extremely high cost because of the lack of available technology," said James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
These expensive scenarios, he said, would bring cuts in world gross domestic product of as much as 3 percent.
"Well, that would of course cause global recession, so that is something that we probably want to avoid," Connaughton said in a telephone briefing after the release in Bangkok of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.One example of a currently prohibitively expensive fix would be to produce power from coal with no emissions, he said.
The latest document -- the third in a series -- offers a range of scenarios, pegged to different so-called stabilization levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measured in parts per million, the current level is about 430.One version that would put the stabilization level of greenhouse gases in 2030 between 445 and 535 parts per million estimates the negative impact on gross domestic product at less than 3 percent over more than two decades. The annual impact was estimated at less than 0.12 percent.
Other scenarios have more modest goals for 2030, with higher stabilization rates of greenhouse gases and less impact on the global economy. Connaughton noted these strategies have "relatively little economic cost and ... potentially significant economic and health benefits."
The fourth annual list, which is due to hit newsstands on Friday, omits US President George W. Bush for the first time but includes democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The "artists and entertainers" category includes Hollywood heavyweights Martin Scorsese, Cate Blanchett and heart-throbs Brad Pitt and Leonardo Dicaprio, along with fashion model Kate Moss.
Pop sensation Justin Timberlake is named along with Senegalese musician Youssou N'dour, while former US vice president Al Gore's shift to environmental campaigner sees him nominated in the "scientists and thinkers" category. The list, which is designed to recognize "the men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world," does not appear in any order or give the magazine's reasons why some people were chosen over others. The "leaders and revolutionaries" category features Queen Elizabeth II, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni --in an entry penned by US counterpart Condoleezza Rice -- and rice herself, appearing for a fourth year running. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a showing next to Raul Castro, the younger brother of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Other politicians in the mix include German chancellor Angela Merkel, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Liu Qi, head of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Committee.
No enhanced compensation for Bhopal victims: SC
The Supreme Court has dismissed a bunch of petitions which sought enhanced compensation for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy. A Bench of Justices C K Thakker and Altamas Kabir, however, said if any of the victims was denied proper compensation, he/she can approach the Claims Tribunal for appropriate settlement of claims.
The petitions were filed by various NGO's and individuals who sought a nearly five-fold increase in the USD 470 million compensation.
The petitioners had claimed that the USD 470 million compensation was inadequate and several victims could not receive the amount till date.
All steps to boost national security will be taken: Antony
Hindu - 2 hours ago
Leh (J&K), May 4 (PTI): India will not close its eyes to arms procurement in the region and will take steps to safeguard national security in the face of "irritants" with some of its neighbours, Defence Minister, AK Antony, said today.
Govt to seek better wages for military: Antony Zee News
NSG clearance not imminent: Bildt Hindustan Times
India seeks more balanced outcome in WTO: Nath
Friday, May 4, 2007
Conditions imposed by developed countries and unfair trade practices were responsible for the deadlock in WTO'S trade liberalisation talks, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said. "The current freeze we are witnessing is because the debate is being deflected from an unconditional delivery of the development dimension to conditionalities that expose what seem to be the real intention of some," he said delivering a special address at Oxford University's. "We have engaged in this round in the belief that it is a development round. And we aim to continue to proceed on that premise," said Nath, who is championing the cause of the developing countries at the WTO talks. High subsidy given by developed countries and industrial tariffs has been the most contentious issue at WTO talks since the Doha development round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001. Representatives of four key WTO players - India, the US, Brazil and the European Union, held a meeting in New Delhi in mid-April but failed to reach an agreement. The representatives are expected to meet again on 17th -18th May in Paris.
Protest in Israel demanding Olmert's resignation
Friday, May 4, 2007
Tens of thousands of Israelis hit the streets at a massive rally asking Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz to resign in the wake of a damning report by a committee investigating last year's war with Hezbollah. Protesters from across the country, cutting across all affiliations, thronged Tel Aviv on Thursday reflecting the widespread dissatisfaction with Olmert's leadership. The police said the protesters at the famous Rabin Square numbered more than 100,000 while the oganisers claimed that close to 200,000 protesters were in attendance, making it one of the largest rallies in Israel in recent times. A banner reading "Failures, Go Home!" hung behind a podium set up at one end of the square in front of Tel Aviv city hall. "Ehud Olmert, you said you work for us. Olmert, you are fired!" said keynote speaker, author Meir Shalev.
The organiser of the rally, Uzi Dayan, chairman of the Tafnit movement which failed to open its account in last elections, said, "Democracy has emerged victorious". Despite a number of cracks since the Winograd Commission issued its interim report on Monday, Olmert's governing coalition has held together, with little apparent appetite among its members for an election that could go Netanyahu's way.
"The Winograd Committee that the prime minister established has courageously stood up to him and said clearly, "Mr Olmert, you failed," Dayan said..
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Bush to proceed on East Europe missile shield talks
Friday, May 4, 2007
The Bush administration said that it would launch negotiations this month to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe despite Russia's objections and growing opposition in the Democratic-led US Congress.
''I plan to lead an interagency team to Warsaw and Prague in late May to begin formal negotiations on the placement of missile defense facilities in those countries,'' Assistant Secretary of State John Rood told a meeting of two House of Representatives subcommittees.
A separate House subcommittee voted unanimously this week to slash 160 million dollar from 310 million dollar sought by President George W Bush to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.
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Iraq's creditors have waived 30 billion dollars:UN
Friday, May 4, 2007
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that the donor countries including Britain, Saudi Arabia and China had pledged to waive 30 billion dollars in debts owed by the government of war-torn Iraq. Ban announced the figure at the end of a one-day international conference that endorsed an International Compact offering financial and other support to Iraqi institutions in return for political and economic reform.
''A number of countries have made concrete commitments under the Compact on Thursday. In particular there was broad support for the terms of the Paris Club on Iraq's outstanding debt. Specific financial commitments made by particular countries are estimated at over 30 billion dollars,'' he told a news conference.
He said the figure of 30 billion dollars included commitments by Bulgaria, China, Saudi Arabia, Greece and new commitments by Britain, Australia, Spain, Denmark and South Korea.
But it was not clear how much of the total these countries committed in connection with Thursday's conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Saudi Arabia, for example, said two weeks ago that it had agreed to waive 80 percent of the money it is owed by Iraq, in line with the percentage recommended by the Paris Club. That alone would have contributed about $12 billion to the 30 billion dollar figure cited by Ban.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said on Thursday Iraq had accepted an Egyptian offer to forgive 800 million dollars in debt, and three east European countries -- Slovenia, Poland and Bulgaria -- have offered an 80 percent waiver of the debt owed to them. He did not give figures for the European countries.
When Saudi Arabia announced its waiver last month, Jabor estimated that his country's debt stood at 140 billion dollars.
But since the Iraqi government was making very few debt repayments, either of interest or capital, the waivers have more political than economic importance, analysts say.
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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus drops political plan
Friday, May 4, 2007
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who late last year announced plans to form a party to bail out the country from confrontational politics, said on Thursday he has decided to give up the plan. "I have decided to back out from my efforts for forming a political party, bowing to the practical aspects of the situation," he said in a statement. Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for helping poor women escape poverty by offering micro-credit through his Grameen Bank, earning the nickname "banker to the poor". Bangladeshis, irrespective of caste and creed, felt national pride at Yunus's worldwide recognition, but he drew criticism from various quarters after unveiling his plan to form a political party that would lead the country forward through good work and harmony. He had named his yet unborn party Nagarik Shakti (citizen's power) and invited Bangladeshis, in an open letter, to join him in the new effort.
On Thursday, Yunus said those who encouraged him to form the party had later declined to back him. Yunus issued the statement on Thursday, after he met Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the army-backed interim government, at his official residence on Wednesday night. Yunus said he felt the interim government, which had restored relative calm in the country after deadly political violence last year, would be able to steer Bangladesh to further progress with the people's support. The stated main objective of the interim authority is to hold a free and fair election. But Fakhruddin has vowed to rid the country of corrupt politicians first.
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