Times for Talks,
Results ZERO
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
It is of course Time for Talks to set every thing surgically appropriate for Post Modern global Order run by Zionist Brahmanical Ruling Class as I wrote so many times. I am grateful to the audiances which go throughs between the lines as we have no space in the Mainstream so called! Nuclear deal has to be struck as the Ruling Shining India wants to invite DOWS and an import of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the need of the consumer time! So Talks on. Tata Motors has to begin production in Singur and Dalits and Muslims unite to resist. So Mamta is invited in the Indira Bahavan! Gurjjars want ST status, thus talks goes on Reservation! Condemning the Haryana government for providing Z plus security cover to Sirsa Dera chief Gurmit Ram Rahim, the newly constituted 15-member Khalsa Action Committee Thursday resolved to take the fight against the Dera Sacha Sauda to its ... Sikh sentiments hurt once again and talks kill the time. Operation Blue Star memories hunt!
U.S. President George Bush, Italian Premier Romano Prodi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, British Premier Tony Blair and Canadian Premier Stephen Harper, the leaders of the G8 nations are holding their annual summit in the historic Heiligendamm sea resort. Why? For Talks , indeed!
India and China have agreed to hold their first ever joint army exercise as part of a wider effort to improve ties between the one-time Asian ...It is also a new pattern of Talks!
What is the result?
Trouble Time intesifies. Eviction goes on . Goes on the killing. New Gestapo. New Gas chambers. New Geo Politics. The story goes like that for thousands years!Elbit, India real estate firm to form joint venture. Reuters reports from JERUSALEM : Israel's Elbit Medical Imaging Ltd. said on Thursday it had agreed to form a joint venture with a leading Indian real estate developer and would invest about $180 million in the concern.Elbit made an advance payment of $50 million after a framework agreement was signed, it said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.The joint venture will be 50 percent owned by Elbit and 50 percent by its local partner, which Elbit did not name. The companies plan to buy 190 acres of land in an upscale section of the southern Indian city of Bangalore.Elbit also said it would offer its subsidiary Plaza Centers NV 50 percent participation in its share of the joint venture.
The residential project will include villas, apartments, a hotel with up to 400 rooms and a shopping centre.Revenues from the project are expected to exceed $3 billion. Construction is expected to begin within a year and will take about three to five years.
Globalisation is the best post modern ploy for Enslavement. It is essencially a Brahminical and Zionist, Neo Nazi idea supported by Sangh Parivar and sponsored by US imperialism and European Community, G-8, World Bank, IMF, ADB and economistas like Amartya Sen and Dr Mohmmad Yunus!
CPIM is quite unsuccesful to hold it supportbase intact. Dalit Muslim Unity emerges in Bengal. Neither Buddhadev nor Mamata Bannerjee or Mahashweta Devi and Kolkata Brahmin Intellentsia may stop this. But CPIM is quite successful to make the fire brand lady isolated and the intellentsia silent once again. Nandan remains in Nandan. Rabindra Sadan and Academy have not changed. Neither changed Bangla Academy with Nirendar Nath Chakrabarti, Divyendu Palit, Pabitra Sarkar and the Gang. Dalit Samanyay Committee, Kanti Biswas and Basudev Barman have not changed their stance, neityher Bilasi Bala Sahi or Upen Kishku! Bengal goes as it likes. With Anand Bazar and Rabindra Mania and The Hilsa!
Having realised that it is impossible to meet Miss Mamata Banerjee’s demand by returning 300 odd acres acquired for the Tata small car project at Singur to the original owners, the CPI-M is now scouting for an alternative to pacify the Trinamul supremo.Land min- ister Abdur Rezzak Mollah today ruled out returning farmland to villagers in Singur because the law doesn’t allow it.
“The Supreme Court has said that government-acquired land cannot be returned to farmers. In case the land is not required after acquisition, it should be handed over to a government department for a project meant for public purpose,” the minister said.
At her meeting with Jyoti Basu on Monday, Mamata Banerjee had demanded that the land be returned to those who had not collected their compensation. Basu said the matter needed to be discussed with the government and the Tatas, for whose small-car project the land had been acquired.
But Mollah made it clear that the government’s options were limited. He added that providing alternative plots would be an uphill task. “There are 165 acres of vested land in Singur, but people have been tilling this land for years. If they are ousted, they would also have to be provided alternative land.”
A series of meetings took place at the CPM headquarters and at Writers’ Buildings today. “We’ll finalise our stand at the state secretariat meeting on Friday. The Left Front is likely to meet the day after,” CPM leader Benoy Konar said.
Suspected Maoists attack police jeep in Bengal
A group of unidentified miscreants, suspected to have links with Maoists, tried to blow up a jeep carrying eight police personnel by exploding a powerful landmine Thursday in West Bengal. No police official was injured.'The landmine exploded in front of the police jeep when a team of police officials, one sub-inspector and seven constables, was coming from Lalgarh in West Midnapore district late Thursday afternoon,' West Bengal Inspector General of Police (law and order) Raj Kanojia said here.He said the police team immediately opened fire on the Maoists but they fled the spot.
Police have cordoned off the area, Kanojia added.According to police sources, the incident took place when the police jeep was passing through the stretch of Kantapahari forest area near Lalgarh in the district.
People who had fled their homes at Nandigram in the aftermath of the March 14 violence have started returning, the West Bengal Government said today. Howevever, East Midnapore district administration, under which Nandigram comes, said efforts to bring such people back at Adhikaripara failed owing to opposition from Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) backed by Trinamool Congress opposed to acquisition of farmland for industries.
"Those rendered homeless in Nandigram have started to return home since yesterday. Both the warring groups are keen to restore peace but it will take some time," Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy told newsmen here.
There was no report of any 'big' incident although stray violence was taking place in Nandigram at night, he said. Earlier in the day, East Midnapore Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas said BUPC, spearheading the agitation against acquisition of land for industries, took out a procession and opposed the return of those who had fled their homes in the Adhikaripara area.
BUPC Convenor Sheikh Sufian said they were not against the return of the homeless at Adhikaripara but were against their coming back with the help of the police and the administration.
Roy said the administrative inquiry report into the March 14 violence by Burdwan divisional commissioner Balbir Ram would be submitted towards the end of this month.
Singur remains in Singur!
So is Nandigram.
The problem is that Singur escalates. Escalates Nandigram and the Rural resistance!
The Resistance is a Viral Attack. Mayawati and Mamata bannerjee may not prove to be good vaccines!
But the Farce is on. The Drama has so many drop scenes.
Without any interactiveness with the real India, Sensex India talks to the world.
The result always remains ZERO!
This atmosphere prevails alover the subcontinent!
In a report on India's consumer market published on May 3rd, they have added detail to the probable economic explosion ahead. Assuming annual growth averages 7.3% over two decades—a reasonable bet—India may overtake Germany as the world's fifth-biggest consumer market by 2025. It predicts the middle class will expand from 50m to 583m, leaving only a fifth of Indians in the bottom household-income bracket, earning less than 90,000 rupees ($2,200) a year (see chart).
CPI (ML) to launch `land for landless' struggle
`Auction of land recovered from encroachers should stop'
BANGALORE: The Communist Party of India (ML) has decided to launch a "land for the landless" struggle to counter the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in the State. Under this struggle, the party would encourage landless poor agricultural labourers to take up cultivation of excess government land such as gomal land in villages, party State secretary R. Manasaiah told on Wednesday. He said the party had already commenced a Statewide survey to find out the extent of availability of government land in rural areas which could be cultivated. He also demanded that the Government stop auctioning of the land recovered from encroachers. Instead, it should distribute the recovered land to the landless poor. Condemning the SEZ projects, Mr. Manasaiah told a press conference that the State was being mortgaged to MNCs by the ruling combine. The Opposition Congress was also supporting the SEZs, he alleged. He demanded that the SEZ Act itself be scrapped. Such projects were helping a few industrialists at the cost of the welfare of lakhs of poor farmers and farm labourers.
Opposition tough against Ambani SEZ
Raigad’s SEZ Vurodhi Kruti Samiti will soon hold protests against the Revas project
The Government of India's step to put on hold Mukesh Ambani's Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and nod his Revas SEZ is likely to backfire. The government faced stiff opposition against the proposed SEZ from the local farmers and has sanctioned a new project at Revas near Alibaug in Raigad district, which will add more fuel to the fire and added stubborn opposition is likely to crop up against this project.
A couple of days ago, the government gave formal approval to a multi-services special economic zone of Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in Haryana and in-principle nod to its port-based SEZ at Revas, besides clearing 31 others including that of GMR's Hyderabad airport. The Board of Approvals in the Commerce Ministry at its meeting gave formal clearance to the 440 hectare SEZ of RIL in Gurgaon and in-principle nod to its 2,850 hectare zone at Rewas.
The Rewas SEZ is strategically important since it would be the last halt on Railways' Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor and is close to Jawaharlal Nehru Port. According to officials, about 200 high-speed freight trains would run on the corridor which will also link SEZs, industrial complexes and ports. While sanctioning this project the Board of Approvals has said that they are waiting views of promoters Mukesh Ambani and his associate Anand Jain as well as the state government on the Navi Mumbai SEZ.
The farmers in and around Raigad district have already united under the banner of "SEZ Vurodhi Kruti Samiti" (Anti SEZ Action Committee) and started their agitation against the proposed Navi Mumbai SEZ. Due to this agitation, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has stayed the land acquisition in Raigad. With sanction granted to this new project, the Samiti has decided to intensify the agitation. They are planning to launch a massive protest against the Revas SEZ.
The US-based Signet Solar Inc Thursday announced plans to set up three manufacturing units in India with an investment of $2 billion to produce solar photovoltaic modules and tap the solar energy potential in the country.
All sorts of businesses will profit. But the report, “The Bird of Gold: the Rise of India's Consumer Market”, suggests where the opportunities will be greatest. First, among the relatively rich. For now, the poor and lower-middle class together account for 75% of total spending. By 2025, McKinsey predicts consumption will be dominated by the middle class, to the tune of 59%, and the rich, accounting for 20%. Second, in the cities. It expects consumption in urban areas to rise from 43% of the total now to 62% by 2025—even though most Indians will still be rural.
West Bengal defends land acquisition policy in Singur before Calcutta HC
West Bengal Government today filed an affidavit before the Calcutta High Court, defending land acquisition in Singur for Tata Motors' Small Car factory. In its affidavit, submitted before the divisional bench headed by Chief Justice SS Nijjhar, the state government stated that 2,414 people had voluntarily handed over land, measuring 2087 acres, to ft.The state government also clarified its policy of land acquisition and stated that it had adequately compensated the farmers whose land had been taken over.
On Tuesday, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation(WBIDC) also filed a 40-page affidavit favouring government land acquisition in the village, about 35 kms west of Kolkata.In the affidavit, WBIDC said that automotive sector provides direct employment to 4.56 lakh people and indirect employment to one crore others.
All these clearly foreshadowed tremendous growth potential on the automobile industry in Bengal.
The affidavit also said of the 997 acres acquired, 645.67 would be given to the Tata Motors for manufacturing units. About 290 acres will be provided to other auto-component manufacturing units, while about 14.33 acres will be given to the West Bengal state electricity board for a 220 KV sub-station and 47.11 acres will be retained by WBIDC, it said.
The affidavit also said the factory would open up several job opportunities boosting Bengal's economy in Singur and surroundings areas.
The United States urged India Thursday to end an effective ban on imported US wheat, saying the measure only meant New Delhi had to pay more than it needed on the international market. The US embassy said the regulations, linked to India's concerns ..So Pawar declares,India to import 5 mn tonne wheat.Days after the Centre scrapped a tender to import one million tonne of wheat, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that India will buy five million tonne of the grain from overseas this year to augment buffer stock for meeting any exigencies.
"We have to import five million tons of wheat to raise the buffer stock position," he said.
This would be the second year in a row that India, the world's second-biggest wheat producer, would import the grain.The government had imported 5.5 million tonne last year to augment its depleted buffer stock owing to low procurement.
"We will now start the process of importing. Import will start from August to December. It depends on country to country," Pawar said.
Incidentally, the government late last month scrapped a tender floated by State Trading Corporation for importing one million tonne of the grain.Pawar said with carry over stocks and this year's procurement, there was no problem in domestic availability of wheat for Public Distribution System..
Thus, they claim India's limits on foreign ownership are keeping out much-needed investment.
IT WAS meant to be India's biggest-ever foreign direct investment (FDI). But Vodafone's acquisition of 67% of Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-biggest mobile operator, for $11.1 billion, has run into regulatory trouble. India's central bank suspects that the deal, announced in February, would violate a 74% limit on foreign ownership of telecoms firms. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIP
has been asked to review the purchase and has twice deferred ruling on it. It is due to reconvene on April 23rd, when it is expected to suspend judgement yet again.
A nuclear test of wills
Apr 26th 2007
From The Economist print edition
The deal in difficulty
DID they celebrate too soon? It was billed as an epoch-making deal between the world's two biggest democracies that would turn decades of estrangement into partnership. Last December, when America's Congress gave its initial blessing to a controversial nuclear deal that President George Bush had struck earlier with India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, supporters in both capitals were euphoric. No longer. India's top diplomat is due in Washington on April 30th to try to rescue the plan. So why has the fizz suddenly gone out of it all?
India has been barred for years from even civilian nuclear trade with America—and most other countries—for having armed itself with nuclear weapons and stayed outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Now it has agreed to separate its civilian nuclear industry from its bomb-building and put the energy-producing bits under safeguards, and America has agreed to beckon it in from the cold. But Congress's Hyde Act sets out other steps needed for the deal to get a final nod: a bilateral “123 agreement” (named after the clause in America's Atomic Energy Act that governs nuclear trade with other countries), and the relevant safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear guardian. In expectation of both, America has been lobbying for an India-sized waiver of the rules of the informal but influential Nuclear Suppliers Group that bar nuclear dealings with countries that don't have all nuclear facilities under full safeguards. And all this must be done before Congress approves the deal.
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9084829
Budhia Singh sports black badge in protest
NewKerala.com - 1 hour ago
Bhubaneswar, June 7: Orissa's five-year-old "marathon kid" Budhia Singh sported a black badge as he along with his mother and coach continued with a protest sit-in for the second day Thursday against the state government disallowing him to proceed on a ...
India could use FX funds in foreign projects
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India, seeking ways like China to use its foreign exchange reserves, could invest some in other countries' infrastructure projects to supplement its own needs, a government-appointed panel said in a report seen by Reuters on ...
Reuters India · 4 hours ago
India Inc briefs Hillary Clinton
New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) An Indian business delegation has briefed Senator Hillary Clinton, a US presidential hopeful, on outsourcing by Indian firms and the jobs they have created in the US. The delegation led by Confederation of Indian Industry ...
India struggles to stop trafficking of women
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Meena discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi's red-light district. The 12-year-old was working as a domestic servant in Calcutta when the homeowner told her about a good ...
CNN · 16 hours ago
Hermès to launch in India
French luxury-goods group Hermès is finalizing the creation of a subsidiary in India, in which it will hold a 51% stake, Hermès managing director international affairs Christian Blankaert announced on Tuesday at the general shareholders meeting in ...
CPI(M) picks holes in Govt's agricultural policy
New Delhi: After stepping up attack on allowing big players in the retail sector, the CPI(M) has now found fault with the UPA Government's new agricultural initiative. The party is particularly angry over the government's soft-corner for contract and corporate farming and its basic policy for making peasant agriculture subservient to the corporate capital.An editorial in party organ People's Democracy slammed the government's proposal at the National Development Council (NDC) for making strong references to contract farming while remaining silent on price-support, tariff policy, procurement and public distribution system.
The resolution talks about food security and increasing foodgrain production but at the same time "wants to carry forward the neo-liberal project of making peasant agriculture subservient to the needs of corporate capital," it said.
"...To talk of food security and liberalisation in the same breath, as the UPA is doing, simply betrays inconsistency and confusion," it said and asserted that "the goal of food security necessarily means an interference with the market."
"The conclusion is inescapable therefore that the UPA government, even while showing concern over food security has not abandoned its basic policy of bringing peasant agriculture under the hegemony of corporate capital.
"This amounts to a fundemental contradiction in the government's agricultural policy," it added.
India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Republic of India
1 This is the name of India in Hindi. See also the name in other languages.
2 *Includes only Indian-administered territory.
This article is about the modern Republic of India. For other uses, see India (disambiguation).
The Republic of India (Hindi ???? ??????? Bharata Ga?arajya; see also other names), commonly known as India, is a sovereign country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of over 7000 kilometres. It borders Pakistan to the west;[2] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia.
Home to the Indus Valley civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region's variegated culture. Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became a modern nation-state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread use of nonviolent resistance as a means of social protest.
With the world's twelfth largest economy by exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power, India has made rapid economic progress in the last decade. Although the country's standard of living is projected to rise sharply in the next half-century, it currently battles high levels of poverty, illiteracy, persistent malnutrition, and environmental degradation. In addition to being a pluralistic, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
Saffron fading
May 24th 2007 | DELHI
From The Economist print edition
The Hindu nationalists are struggling for leadership and direction
WHEN a party dominated by dalits—those former wretches known as “untouchables”—swept to power in Uttar Pradesh (UP) on May 11th, the lamentable performance of India's ruling Congress party made headlines. Congress's campaign in UP had been run by Rahul Gandhi, a glamorous member of the family that has ruled both party and country. His failure to improve its abysmal fortunes in UP, India's biggest state, suggested that Indians are out-of-love with dynastic politics. But significant as this was, there was a bigger casualty of the vote: the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr Gandhi at least maintained Congress's toehold in UP, winning 22 of 402 seats. The BJP's leader, Rajnath Singh, presided over an unpredicted collapse. India's second main party, the BJP had expected to win around 100 seats and share power with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), led by Mayawati, or the “dalit queen”. But her party won a majority. The BJP got a mere 51 seats—its lowest tally since 1985, which was before it rose to state, then national, power on the back of a feud between Muslims and Hindus in Ayodhya, eastern UP, over the contested site of a mosque. “This was unexpected, shocking, a very surprising thing, it was a debacle,” says Mr Singh.
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9241473
The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of countries lying substantially on the Indian tectonic plate. These include countries on the continental crust—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; island countries on the continental shelf—Sri Lanka, and island countries rising above the oceanic crust—Maldives. The term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent,[1] or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision of a continent."[2] There is no agreement on what constitutes a subcontinent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_subcontinent
Monsoon brings Chikungunya, Dengue in Kerala
Daily News & Analysis - 6 Jun 2007
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the onset of south west monsoon, a host of vector-borne diseases like chikungunya, dengue and viral fever have started to spread through out Kerala in alarming proportion even as the government is fighting hard to contain the ...
On the road
May 16th 2007
From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire
India's transport system needs a massive upgrade
India's acute need for better transport and power infrastructure is opening doors for foreign investors to finance projects in the country. There are even rumours that the Indian government will channel its considerable foreign-currency reserves—which now stand at more than US$200bn—into infrastructure investments, possibly in partnership with foreign funds. Although the fate of this particular proposal remains unclear, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI, the central bank) would have to approve the plan, the government appears to recognise that India's infrastructure deficit detracts from its long-term growth potential, and it is eager to attract foreign investment in the sector.
The Indian government estimates that investment of around US$320bn is needed by 2012 to upgrade the country's creaking roads, ports and airports. Three-quarters of this will have to be shouldered by the state and the rest by the private sector, according the government's calculations. Seeking to take advantage of this programme, many foreign and domestic financial institutions are setting up vehicles to invest in infrastructure-development companies and projects in India.
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9178857
India has key role in climate change fight, says Bush.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday called China India's 'greatest neighbour' and said the 10 point programme devised with Beijing had given new substance and meaning to Sino-India cooperative ties.
The prime minister held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, on the sidelines of the G-8 Outreach summit where the two leaders agreed to resolve all pending issues amicably.
Manmohan Singh mentioned that all political parties regardless of affiliations wanted good relations with India's 'greatest neighbour' China. Hu also recollected his visit to India in November 2006 and said he was touched by the warm hospitality extended to him.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prepares to ask the developed world at the G8 Summit on Friday to share responsibility for fighting climate change, US President George W Bush on Thursday insisted that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would not succeed till India and China were involved.Bush emphasised the need for creating a bridge between Europe and developing countries like India and China to ensure reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
"By 2008, the world's emitters of greenhouse gases should come together," he told journalists after his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Heiligendamm near Berlin.
"Nothing is going to happen in terms of substantial reduction unless China and India participate," Bush said, adding "if we want them (India and China) at the table, it is important that we give them the opportunity to set an international goal."
India has held that countries responsible for creating the problem of climate change should come out in a big way to solve this issue. It argues that the greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries even today are many times more than developing countries like India.
Singh is expected to remind the developed countries that as agreed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, they should act in accordance with their "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities".
He is also likely to emphatically state that climate change concerns should be integrated with development strategies.
Buffer stock
"Procurement in the current marketing season has touched 10.75 million tone so far against last year's 9.2 million tonne," he added.
However, the minister said: "I want to build buffer stock for any eventuality."
Pawar said production in the US would be good due to higher acreage while reports from Australia were encouraging.
On the issue of quality, he said: "It is true that talks have been held with the US government. We want the US should also participate in the process."
The US government has asked India should adopt the norms accepted by the world, especially western countries for the American wheat, he said.
RIL to invite bids for KG gas in July
The final countdown has begun and gas from Reliance's KG basin blocks will start gushing out in one year's time.However, RIL top brass already wants to start receiving price bids from industrial end users like power and fertiliser plants.The internal calculations about gas pricing are also complete and NDTV has learnt that RIL is targeting first week of July for the bids to start coming in.
The base price for KG gas is likely to be $4.6-4.75/mmbtu. Keeping in mind the variable transportation costs, the average price is likely to be $5.5/mmbtu.
But along the HBJ pipeline where most of the industrial users are, the price may go up to $7/mmbtu.
Long-term contracts
RIL is pushing for long-term contracts with end users for a period of at least nine years as long-term contracts likely to have in built discounts and take or pay clauses.To stay insulated from price volatility, the gas prices are likely to be linked to the Brent crude oil index with a cap at $60/barrel.
Even though the Reliance spokesperson refused to comment on the news, investors are giving it thumbs up.
"Price looks competitive but instead of nine years, I would prefer a shorter period like four years," said Rajesh Jain, Pranav Securities.
However, just before the bidding is set to begin, frantic political lobbying has begun in Delhi over KG gas by different stakeholders.
Political lobbying
The PMO feels that gas should be principally sold to fertiliser units, something that companies like Reliance say go against the PSC.The fertiliser minister has already sent a letter to the petroleum minister asking for gas for the fertiliser units, while fertiliser secretary has written another letter expressing apprehensions.The letter from the fertiliser secretary to his counterpart in the petroleum ministry clearly states that Reliance's conditions are difficult to fulfill.It says, "The fertiliser companies have expressed apprehensions on the various terms and conditions for the supply of gas and pricing formula as forwarded by RIL. They have indicated that they are not in a position to indicate a firm price to RIL. You may therefore take up the issue with RIL."
The tug of war has intensified as KG gas reaches its last leg, while RIL investors are worried about the kind of government's involvement in a private sector project.The government on its part always has the room to justify that it gave the right to Reliance to explore and that gives it the right to dictate terms.
Bush in bid to mend rift with Putin
The Australian - 35 minutes ago
US President George W. Bush sought to ease tensions with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last night as the world's wealthiest nations struggled to reach a deal on combating climate change.
Putin suggests new missile shield site Houston Chronicle
Bush reassures Putin before G8 face-to-face Reuters.uk
Security check on Sanjay Dutt outside TADA court
Rediff - 3 hours ago
A policeman carries out a security check on actor Sanjay Dutt [Image
