Wanted Hindu Rashtra !
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
Communist double speak and ideological diviation help the Hindu Rashtra Agenda most. All communist top leaders happen to be Brahmin. Thus , wahtever they may say on Sngh Parivar and its Hindu rashtra agenda, the Indian communists are also defender of Manusmriti rule. Thus, they support the post modern Manusmriti, the Globalision so well.
For Cate Hindu supremacy, capitalist development and emergence of neo rich classes are must.
Pl see all these articles and opine!
[The problem is just not restricted to SEZs only. Singur is not one. Nor was the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
All major land acquisitions do not necessarily relate to SEZ. SEZs have only further accentuated the long ongoing problem of dispossession and displacement without any proper relief and rehabilitation for the numberless faceless marginalised in the name of 'Development'.
The problem goes much deeper. 'Development' for whom, for what, which way?]
Invitation for
An Update & Discussion on Nandigram
&
proposed
All India People's Convention on Nandigram & SEZs in Kolkata (2-3 June, 2007)
Date: 6 may, Sunday
Time: 11.00 am
Venue: NAPM Dadar Office.
Nandigram & other such areas, where anti-people projects like SEZs are being forced on people, are still on a boil. On one hand are the corpotarised governments, who with the use of brutal force are facilitating the loot of resources and on the other hand, are the people, fighting not only for their rights but also struggling to protect the resources and the sovergnity of this country.
To update us, joining us, will be Sumit Chaudhary (an Independent Film Maker) and Bhaskar Nandi (PCC-CPI-ML) from Kolkatta and Medha Patkar (NBA, NAPM)
In Solidarity,
Simpreet Singh Pervin Jehangir Vijaya Chauhan
For more details, please contact :
022-24150529
9969363065
NAPM Dadar Office Address:
First Floor, Haji Habib Building,
Opp. Fire Brigade Station
Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai
Ramdev's 'Putravati' medicine under scanner
Saturday, 05 May , 2007, 23:53
Hardwar: The district health department has begun a probe into a medicine branded 'Putravati', which is reported to help women to give birth to sons, allegedly manufactured by Swami Ramdev's Hardwar based Divya pharmacy.
Two days ago, the State Health Department, at the behest of the Centre, asked the district health department to find out whether Swami Ramdev's pharmacy was manufacturing the drug.
For more news, analysis click here>>
Archarya Bal Krishan, the general secretary of Patanjali Yoga Peeth, the apex organisation which runs all the institutions, including the pharmacy, of Swami Ramdev, has refuted all the allegations and termed them as a 'conspiracy'' of the health department to malign the yoga guru.
The Chief Medical Officer(CMO), Hardwar, Dr RS Puri said there was no mention of the medicine in the catalogue of the medicines manufactured by Swami Ramdev's pharmacy.
"We also sent a decoy to purchase the medicine, but the salesmen of the pharmacy told him that no such medicine is sold by them," the CMO said.
A legal notice will be sent to the pharmacy to explain as to why the pharmacy was reportedly making publicity of the medicine possessing the property of helping women to conceive male child, Dr Puri further said.
Former chairperson of the State Women Commission, Dr Santosh Chauhan said manufacturing such medicine or making publicity of any such medicine was an act of discrimination against the girl child and it was an offence under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994.
She asked for a high level probe to find out whether Swami Ramdev's pharmacy was really manufacturing such a medicine or some body else had published pamphlets under Swamiji's name to sell his own medicine.
Meanwhile, according to reports from Dehra Dun, members of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), were vehemently protesting against the pharmacy 'producing' the medicine, and sought stringent action against Ramdev for 'breaching' PNDT Act.
For more news, analysis click here>>
Scores of women reached Dehra Dun Collectorate sloganeering against Swami Ramdev and handed over a memorandum addressed to the Union Health Minister and State Health Minister through District Administration.
AIDWA General Secretary Indu Nautiyal, spearheading the protest rally said earlier too, Ramdev had breached the Labour Law. She alleged that the previous Congress and present BJP Governments both have soft corner for the Guru.
"Though the matter has been handed over to the Chief Medical Officer for investigation, doubt over transparent probe still lingers," she said.
Sikhs distinct community, RSS comments unfortunate: Akal Takht
The Akal Takht today rejected as "divisive" an RSS statement that Sikhs are part of "one great Hindu Samaj", saying the community is distinct in virtually every respect.
"The Sikhs are distinct in every respect. We respect every religion but the Guru Granth Sahib is our spiritual guide and guru. Our customs are different whether it is a Sikh marriage or other event. We are a distinct community in every respect," Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti, at the seat of the highest decision-maker in the Sikh temporal authority, told reporters over phone from Punjab.
He maintained that the statement linking Sikhs with the Hindu Samaj was aimed at "destabilising" communal harmony in Punjab.
"Such statements are divisive, very unfortunate. Nobody should try to create disharmony in Punjab," he said.
In his address at a religious congregation in the state, he echoed the same views and warned against any such comment.
What Is This Hindu Rashtra ?
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-yechuri120803.htm
By Sitaram Yechuri
Golwalkar acclaims Manu as the "first and greatest lawgiver of the world" who "lays down in his code, directing all the peoples of the world
to go to Hindusthan to learn their duties at the holy feet of 'eldest born' Brahmins of this land." (Golwalkar, 1939, pp.55-56). Now what does the Manusmriti say? Having firmly established the hereditary division of
society into the caste system, the Manusmriti says:
"Serving Brahmins alone is recommended as the best innate activity of a Shudra; for whatever he does other than this bears no fruit for him" (123, Chapter X). "They should give him (Shudra) the leftovers of their food, their old clothes, the spoiled parts of their grain, and their wom-out household utensils" (125, Chapter X).
"A servant (Shudra) should not amass wealth, even if he has the ability, for a servant (Shudra) who has amassed wealth annoys priests" (129, Chapter X).
(All these quotations are from Doniger and Smith, 1991).
The Manusmriti then proceeds to define the outcasts and untouchables who have no place in society at all and defines their menial activities. The intolerant caste structure finds echo in Golwalkar and the Saffron Brigade today because the Manusmriti is also based on an exclusively 'Aryan' social organisation. 'Un-Aryan coarseness, cruelty, and habitual failure to perform
the rituals are the maninfestations in this world indicating that a man is born of a defiled womb" (58, Chapter X). Among those who do not fall into this four caste category, are the tribals, Dravidians, and especially the Andhras: `From an outlaw who is a ruler are born the (castes) 'Pugilist' (Jhalla), 'Wrestler' (Malla), and 'Licchavian' (Lichavi), 'Dancer' (Nata), 'Scribe' (Karana), 'Scab' (Khasa), and'Southerner' (Dravida)" (22, Chapter X), "From a 'Hunter' (nisada)
is born an 'Inferior Worker' (Karavara), who works with leather, and froma 'Videhan' (the name comes from the ancient kingdom of Videha, on the banks of the river Ganga) come an 'Andhran' (Andhra) and a 'Fatty'(meda),
who live outside the village" (36, Chapter X).
Specific inhuman treatment is meted out to women:
"In childhood a woman should be under her father's control, in youth under her husband's, and when her husband is dead, under her sons'. She should not have independence" (148, ChapterV).
Further:
"Good looks do not matter to them, nor do they care about youth; 'A man!' they say, and enjoy sex with him, whether he is good-looking or ugly" (14). "By running after men like whores. by their fickle minds, and by their natural lack of affection these women are unfaithful to their husbands even when they are zealously guarded here"(15).
"Knowing that their very own nature is like this, as it was born at the creation by the Lord of Creatures, a man should. make the utmost effort to guard them" (16).
"The bed and the seat, jewellery, lust,anger, crookedness, -a malicious nature, and bad conduct are what Manu assigned to women" (18).
And
"There is no ritual with Vedic verses for women; this is a firmly established point of law. For women, who have no virile strength and no Vedic verses, are false-hood; this is well established" (19, Chapter IX).
While there is a lengthy description of the code that should government's relations with women, for the woman the Manusmriti has the following:
"But a woman who is unfaithful to her husband is an object of reproach in this world; (then) she is reborn in the womb of a jackal and is tormented by the diseases (born) of (her) evil' (30, Chapter IX).
Not to mention, however, the various other provisions like banning widow marriages (64; 65, Chapter IX). It is not as though such love for the Manusmriti was confined only to this book by Golwalkar. Much later in his Bunch of
Thoughts he said:
"Brahmin is the head, King the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet. This means that the people who have thus, four-fold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu people,is our God". (Golwalkar,1966, p. 25 ).
It is this understanding that prompted the RSS to oppose the amendments to the Hindu Code Bill after Independence, and it is this understanding that today
propels the Saffron Brigade affiliates to reassert the Manusmriti. Witness the aggression at the `Dharam Sansad' held in December 1992 and the castigating of the present Indian Constitution as "non-Hindu". Note
the following report that appeared in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser (May 10, 1992):
`The 2nd state Hindu Advocates Conference Organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at Madurai onApril 18 and 19, 1992, has demanded the review and redrafting of the Constitution. Shri V.K.S. Chaudhary, Advocate General of U.P. in his key-note address asserted that the Manusmriti rendered `justice for all'. Manu took the entire mankind and its needs for ages and evolved his code. Manusmriti was for all times and ages and for all mankind". In this context, the significance of upper caste Maharashtra Brahmins being the leaders of the RSS till date must be noted.
"The centrality of Maharashtra in the formation of the ideology and organisation of Hindutva in the mid-1920s might appear rather surprising, as Muslims here were a small minority and hardly a threat, and there had been
no major riots in this region during the early 1920s. But Maharashtra had witnessed a powerful anti-Brahmin movement of backward castes from the1870s onwards, when Jyotiba Phule had founded his Satyashodhak Samaj. By the 1920s, the Dalits, too, had started organising themselves under Ambedkar, Hindutva in 1925 as in 1990-91, was an upper caste bid to restore a slipping hegemony..." (Basu, Dutta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen,
1993, pp. 10-11).
The vision of a social order under the Hindu Rashtra is thus one which legitimizes both the inhuman caste oppression and the denial of elementary rights to women. Under such a dispensation, criminal practices such as Sati may not only be legitimised but may well be glorified. This vision outlined by Golwalkar continues to form the basis for the Saffron Brigade to
establish its vision of a Hindu Rashtra. If it today claims not to have republished this book in the 1950s, it has little to do with repudiating this vision. If this was so at all, then it was due more to the defeat of fascism in
the Second World War and the liberation of millions from its oppressive yoke. With the Golwalkar-formulated ideal having been smashed, the Saffron Brigade could not propagate it in India. Domestically, following the assassination of Gandhiji, its offensive remarks about the Congress could not have been much of a comfort.
BJP looks for a Yogi miracle in UP
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/politics/05_2007/bjp-looks-for-a-yogi-miracle-in-up-39796.html
Diptosh Majumdar
CNN-IBN
TRUMP CARD? The BJP wants the Yogi to work his magic in the seventh phase of UP polls.
Gorakhpur: He's a mahant who loves the adulation and loves making his followers chant religious slogans in political rallies. A religious leader, Yogi Adityanth was the man who allegedly stoked communal passions that led to riots in Gorakhpur in January this year.
This BJP MP once wept in Parliament complaining that he was being harassed by the Mulayam Singh Government. He is now a star campaigner of the BJP in the UP elections. He says his religio-political influence is bound to work wonders.
According to Yogi Adityanath, the Yogi factor will definitely bring results. "Yogi factor ek under-current hai. Aur unha kewal apna prakash dikhayega, result dega. Unha pradarshit nahi karega. (Yogi factor is an under-current. It will only show results, it will not show in the field)," the BJP MP claims.
Believe it or not, Adityanath is the only BJP campaigner in UP loading his election speeches with Hindutva rhetoric. The BJP has lent him a chopper, granted tickets to 16 of the mahant's handpicked nominees and even sent chief ministers over to humour him.
The 35-year-old maverick Yogi is his own boss and doesn't care too much for the directions coming from the party high command. He even has a word of caution for the BJP leadership.
"Mein Hindutva ke liye samarpit hoon. Bhaajpa Hindutva ke paksh mein jab tak rahega, mein Bhaajpa ke saath rahonga. Bhaajpa agar Hindutva se muh muregi, toh mein Bhaajpa se moh murunga, (I am dedicated to the cause of Hindutva. I will stay with the BJP till the time the party swears by Hindutva. The moment BJP turns its back on Hindutva, I will turn my back on the party.)" Adityanath declares.
But the Samajwadi Party is not too impressed with the Yogi factor.
"Kya hai yeh Yogi factor? Woh factor khatam ho gaya hai. Yogi ka toh koi naam aur nishan nahi raha (What is this Yogi factor. It's long over. There is nothing left of the Yogi factor)," claims an SP leader.
The BJP wants the Yogi to work his magic and help the party come up trumps in the seventh phase of the Uttar Pradesh polls. But Yogi Adityanath hasn't grown too far beyond the Gorakshnath temple and cannot do what an Uma Bharati would have easily done for the party two years ago.
Multiculturalism kills me
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=53730
By Vijay Prashad
Not as much as straight-up racism. That's made a comeback these days. This year, the number of incidents of "black face" and other assorted throwbacks to Jim Crow racism is astounding. My own campus suffered this, as did Texas A&M (where the scandal broke just as President George W Bush nominated its president, Robert Gates, to be his secretary of defence). Such Klan-variety racism is generally couched as juvenile thoughtlessness, lubricated with drink and drugs, although it doesn't feel like a prank for African American students. For them, this is terrorism of a domestic sort.
Colleges respond to such racism with a call for tolerance and diversity. More diversity, less racism. That's the received wisdom. Diversity and tolerance are part of an ensemble of concepts that form the heart of liberal multiculturalism. College administrators rightly cast out cruel racism. Against intolerance of difference, they champion a diverse cultural life world and ask that we respect that which is unfamiliar. With experience comes comfort. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with such an attitude.
Indeed, it is far better to have differences championed than denigrated. Liberal multiculturalism, whose main concepts are tolerance and diversity, provides a raft for students who otherwise would be on the frontline of juvenile cruelty. But, liberal multiculturalism does as much long-term harm as it does short-term good. Here are some of its problems:
(1) It adopts a narrow view of "culture," seeing it as the property of a "people" rather than a set of resources and traditions that emerge in different parts of the world, filled with contradictions and opportunities. As Gandhi said of a narrow idea of culture, "If I can't swim in tradition, I'll sink in it."
(2) It gets caught in who it allows to define the boundaries of a "culture," and in who gets to regulate it. Typically, because theocratic and conservative forces organise on the field of culture, they have come to dominate it. Therefore, it is not ordinary people, with all our contradictions, who fashion the "culture" of multiculturalism. Rather it is most often the most conservative elements, those who have an investment in making purity central to their cultural project, who seize control of the multicultural dynamic.
(3) Finally, because multiculturalism sets up culture to such a high standard for the understanding of the world's people's, "culture" operates as the determinant of destiny. There is no place for political economy or social institutional analysis, if indeed culture can explain everything about how and why people behave.
‘India requires $500bn investment to feed growth’Published: Saturday, 5 May, 2007, 08:39 AM Doha Time
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=147418&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28
Business Reporter
DOHA: Bullish on Indian economy, ICICI Bank has said the country’s growth is robust in the long term to average 8%-10% and the manufacturing sector may see doubling of output in three years.
However, India’s largest private sector lender sounded cautious on pressure points such as high inflation and gaining rupee.
“Growth should remain robust,” ICICI chief KV Kamath told reporters after opening its first branch at the Qatar Financial Centre.
India’s economy has grown an average 8.6% since 2003, the fastest since independence in 1947.
Kamath said structural changes were taking place in India, which now had become a growth story for the rest of the world, and pointed out that wherever such changes had taken place, the growth lasted longer.
In this context, he mentioned Japan whose growth lasted for 25 years, Tiger economies (20-25 years) and China (15 years) and added India’s current economic growth would be a long-term phenomenon.
India required over $500bn investments, he said.
Indian government had in October doubled the budget for infrastructure spending to $320bn by 2012 to improve roads, airports and ports for augmenting economic growth.
Macro growth signals were so strong that the financial services sector had a role to play as the banking system “is likely to see 20%-25% growth in credit in the current financial year” and they need to be adequately captialised, Kamath said in reference to its proposed $5bn capital raising programme.
He said not only banks were “grossly under-capitalised” but the regulatory capital requirements had gone up substantially by 50%.
According to reports, Indian banks require Rs500bn this year to strengthen their capital base because of expanding lending.
The bank is tapping the Indian and overseas markets next month with a $5bn (Rs200bn) public offer, of which three-fourth is expected from American Depository Receipts and the balance from domestic market.
“We have to prepare ourselves for market opportunities and given the economic environment in the country and the prospects, we thought it appropriate to raise capital and shore ourselves up for the opportunities ahead,” he said.
Companies in India borrowed about 28% more as the economy grew an estimated 9.2% in the year ended March 31, 2007.
India will stick to July 18 understanding on n-pact: Pranab
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070504/50241.htm
Allaying apprehensions of any compromise with its strategic autonomy, India Friday said that the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation pact it is negotiating with the US 'will adhere as closely as possible' to the July 18, 2005 understanding and March 2, 2006 separation plan.
New Delhi also called for further easing of restrictions by Washington on high technology exports to India that can narrow down the current US deficit in total bilateral trade of around $32 billion.
'We remain committed to implementing the understanding expeditiously in a way that it adheres as closely as possible to the framework of the July 2005 Joint Statement and the March 2006 Separation Plan,' External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here while alluding to the 'landmark India-US nuclear understanding.'
Mukherjee was inaugurating a conference on promoting business between India and the US in legal regulatory framework at Hotel Intercontinental here. The conference has been organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the Centre for American and International Law.
Mukherjee's remarks have an added significance as India and the US have recently claimed progress in their negotiations as they inch closer to a 'final agreement' on the 123 civil nuclear cooperation pact.
ADB debates new role, some worry poor left behind
http://www.ndtvprofit.com/homepage/news.asp?id=296858
May 5, 2007
By Yoko Nishikawa and Leika Kihara
KYOTO (Reuters) - Some developing member nations of the Asian Development Bank expressed concerns on Saturday that the poor could be left behind as the Manila-based agency tries to reform itself to keep up with growing economies.
While recommendations by a panel of outside experts to re-examine the ADB's role are likely to be largely endorsed by the 67 member countries, challenges are seen ahead as they try to agree on how to transform the agency into a proposed "New ADB".
Founded in 1966 with a mandate to lift hundreds of millions of Asians out of poverty, the ADB has member countries ranging from struggling Bangladesh and Pakistan to booming China and India, with its largest donors Japan and the United States.
The independent panel, dubbed the Eminent Persons Group, envisaged a dramatically transformed Asia by 2020 with 90 percent of the continent's people living in middle-income countries and a regional economy accounting for 45 percent of global growth.
It called on the ADB to radically change itself and focus more on supporting higher and more inclusive growth rather than fighting extensive poverty.
The report, submitted in March, is in focus at this weekend's ADB annual meeting in Kyoto, western Japan, and the agency will seek to reach concrete proposals on it in time for next year's meeting in Madrid.
FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY
Afghanistan's finance minister, Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady, told a seminar on the report on Saturday that even as the ADB reforms itself it should remain focused on the needs of smaller and less developed countries in Asia.
"The task before us in the fight against poverty therefore remains both urgent and immense," Ahady said.
"The importance of ADB's focus on support to the poor members, poorer member countries, should not be diminished as ADB embarks on its mission to address Asia's evolving needs."
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati also raised questions about where the ADB will place itself in relations with other international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Other questions raised at the seminar included why the ADB should be looking into setting up a regional facility to manage part of Asia's massive foreign reserves.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, who chaired the Eminent Persons Group, said the ADB should play a balanced role both as a lender and an organisation that can share knowledge that will help not only middle-income countries but also low-income countries.
Supachai denied suggestions that the ADB would become useless if the region's economies grew further in the future.
"We do see challenges in spite of the fact that countries will be graduating to high-income level and middle-income level (countries). There will be vulnerable countries. Fragile economies will still be there in the region," Supachai said.
"There is still a role for the ADB to look after fragile economies. We never ignore that."
NDTV.com
Prajapati killed in encounter: Sources
NDTV.com - 38 minutes ago
In yet another shocking revelation in the Gujarat fake encounter case, CID sources have told NDTV that Tulsiram Prajapati, a key witness, was also killed in a fake encounter.
Gujarat cops remand extended till May 8 Deccan Herald
CID moves court for narco-analysis on IPS officers Zee News
Times Now.tv - Daily News & Analysis - Hindu - Hindustan Times
all 90 news articles »
CNN-IBN
Travel agent paid Rs 11 lakh to TRS MP
Hindustan Times - 5 hours ago
Rasheed, the arrested kingpin in the human trafficking case, on Friday alleged that he had paid Rs 11 lakh to Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP and former union minister A Narendra for sending five Gujarati women to the United States.
Fake passport case: Petition filed for Rasheed`s custody Zee News
Travel agent links top Andhra politicians to human smuggling Khaleej Times
The battle lines have been drawn, says defiant Vanzara
From correspondents in Gujarat, India
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070505/50362.htm
In a clear indication that he was not going to take the charges against him lying down, arrested Gujarat police officer D.G. Vanzara maintained Saturday that the accusations of staged killings against him were concocted.
Talking informally to reporters while he was sitting in the court along with two other arrested police officers, Rajkumar Pandian and Dineshkumar M.N., waiting for the proceedings to begin, a composed Vanzara said, 'The battle lines have been drawn.'
A metropolitan court extended by three days the police remand of the three senior officers facing charges of killing Sohrabuddin Sheikh in November 2005 after branding him as a terrorist and also his wife. The court will hear a petition for their narco-analysis and brain-mapping tests next week.
While refusing to elaborate on his statement, Vanzara, who looked at ease in court, gave adequate hints that he was prepared mentally to face the long legal haul and was unaffected by the chain of events leading to his and his colleagues' arrests.
Smiling, and occasionally indulging in merry banter, Vanzara stoutly maintained that Sheikh was indeed a terrorist. 'I have even stated this in the court of law.'
The three police officers have been in police custody for the past 10 days. They face the charge of killing Sheikh from Madhya Pradesh in a fake shootout on the outskirts of this city claiming he was a terrorist working for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and was planning to target Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Vanzara's assertion that Sheikh is indeed a terrorist flies in the face of the Gujarat government's submission to the Supreme Court last week that Sheikh was killed in an encounter and his wife was subsequently killed and her body burnt.
On his days in police lock-up, Vanzara said: 'I am spending my time doing yoga. I also listen to and read the preachings of Asaram Bapu as I am his follower. There is no television to watch or newspaper to read.'
'I know what you have been writing about me. But I have nothing against you all as I know it is nothing personal,' he added as the Criminal Investigation Department personnel took him away to seek further police remand.
The CID is also investigating the circumstances leading to the death of Kausar Bi, Sheikh's wife, and Tulsiram Prajapati, an eyewitness to the killing.
With time being at a premium for the CID in view of the Supreme Court's directive to submit a final status report on the case within two weeks, the investigating agency is keen to carry out narco-analysis tests as soon as possible.
India Inc hit hard due to appreciating rupee: Assocham
From correspondents in Delhi, India, 08:32 PM IST
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The appreciation of the Indian rupee in the past 12 months has adversely affected India Inc. as they have been burdened by higher interest rates, said a leading Indian industry report Friday.
Sectors affected the most are real estates, engineering, IT and financial services, as they have witnessed more than double increase in their interest rates, said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM).
Efforts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tame inflation have had serious effect on companies' profit margins. The corporates are unsure whether the RBI would take further stringent action by tightening the rupee.
'The corporate results are an indication towards the demand being impacted in the coming quarter and investment plans being hit leading to capacity constraints if the cost of money keeps its upward trend,' Venugopal Dhoot, president, ASSOCHAM said in a statement here.
'Clearly, the RBI's tight money stance has hit right at the profitability of the companies, adversely affecting the growth of real estate industry', he said.
The borrowing cost of the Indian IT firms has zoomed by 234 percent due to high interest rate regime. This has also led to the telecom, entertainment and infrastructure companies to reduce their borrowing cost.
'The telecommunication majors in India have resorted to paying back their debts resulting into lower interest costs,' the statement noted.
In the engineering sector, the interest rates have increased more than six times in the past 12 months.
Shocking revelation; Husband of Air India victim reacts to james bartleman's testimony at inquiry
CATHY DOBSON / The Observer
http://www.theobserver.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=516800&catname=Local%20News&classif=
Sarnia's Kalwart Mamak says the truth is finally coming out, 22 years after his wife died with 328 others in the Air India crash.
Mamak said he was shocked this week by Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman's revelations that the RCMP was warned just prior to the bombing that Air India flights out of Canada could be targeted by terrorists.
"This changes the whole picture. Now we know what was going on before the plane went down," he said. "They could have stopped it. Why didn't they?"
Bartleman told the Air India inquiry that federal officials received an intelligence report days before the crash. As Canada's director of security and intelligence for the foreign service in 1985, he was aware that an attack on the airline could be imminent.
Bartleman said when he saw the documentation, he spoke to the RCMP and was told the force already knew about it.
Lawyers for the commission of inquiry said Thursday no one has been able to locate that intelligence report.
Mamak is in regular contact with other Air India victims' families. "We are all shocked," he said. "Mr. Bartleman is a very credible gentleman but he should have said something long ago. Why, why, why is it taking so long for these things to come out?"
The stress of having no closure for two decades still brings him and his family to tears, Mamak said.
Bartleman told the inquiry he waited until now to come forward because he thought police were acting appropriately on his information.
Mamak said that in light of Bartleman's comments, he wants the RCMP's role to be more closely examined.
"We need to haul them into court and find out why they kept the information to themselves," he said. "There are so many more questions now.
"If they knew something could happen, it's very hard to understand why they didn't have added security. Why didn't they try to protect families leaving Canada? It all could have been avoided."
Mamak's wife Rajinder, 42, was travelling to India for a 10-day visit with her family when Flight 182 went down off the coast of Ireland.
The only man ever convicted in the terrorist bombing was Inderjit Singh Reyat, now serving five years for manslaughter. The suspected mastermind of the bomb plot was Talwinder Singh Parmar, head of the militant sect Babbar Khalsa, which campaigned for a Sikh homeland in northern India. He was shot dead by police in India in 1992.
Families of the victims spent years calling for the inquiry, which finally started in V
today demanded review of support to the UPA-led government at the Centre, but said the Left was not divided over the issue. When pointed out that the CPI(M) was not in favour of withdrawing support to the government, while the CPI and AIFB were seeking to review the same, AIFB General secretary Debabrata Biswas told reporters that Left parties should review support to the UPA Government. That, however, does not mean that they should withdraw support. "There is no difference of opinion among Left parties. Reviewing does not mean that Left parties are divided on the issue. Unitedly we are supporting the government," he said. After the budget session, the issue would be discussed at the Left coordination meeting, he said. The Left, which had failed to provide an alternative front to the people during the last over 50 years, must play a more active role in providing a political alternative, he said. "Give up your egos. Why play a passive role in Indian politics?," he asked. 