India means business in Pak

Anand Sharma to cross Wagah today, a first by Indian Commerce Minister in 30 yrs 


New Delhi, February 12
Starting Monday, an Indian business delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will be taking part in a series of high-end events, including an “India Show”, in Pakistan amid expectations that the neighbouring country will make an announcement granting the much-awaited Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India.

Co-hosted by the two leading Indian business chambers, the event will mark the first visit of an Indian trade minister to Pakistan in 30 years in an exercise aimed at ramping up bilateral trade to $10 billion in three years.
The delegation comprises over 100 top names from India's corporate world. It includes Rajan Bharti Mittal, vice chairman and managing director, Bharti Enterprises; Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman, Hero Corporate Services; KK Modi, chairman, Modi Enterprises; Harsh Pati Singhania, managing director, JK Paper; Naresh Goyal, chairman, Jet Airways; Jyotsna Suri, chairperson and managing director, Bharat Hotels; Arun Nanda, chairman, Mahindra Holidays and Resorts, FICCI president RV Kanoria and CII president B. Muthuraman . Sharma will also be meeting top officials of Pakistan, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
According to an official statement, the ministerial dialogue will cover a wide range of issues, including the steps taken by Pakistan for grant of MFN status to India, progress made on strengthening of infrastructure for cargo movement on the land route, Customs cooperation and mutual conformity of standards and mechansim to redress grievances. The investment policy, which currently prohibits Pakistan investments in India, is also expected to be discussed.
As per the mutually agreed roadmap, Pakistan is committed to shifting its trade regime with India from the Positive List (PL) to Negative List (NL), thereby allowing multi-fold increase in access to Indian goods in the Pakistani market.
Pakistan has maintained a positive list of 1938 items (vide import policy order of Pakistan 2008) which were officially importable from India. On the other hand, India does not impose equivalent formal restrictions on exports to or imports from Pakistan.
"There is every reason for us to believe that there is an expressed wish and desire on part of Pakistan... to move to the (negative list) regime which deepens and diversifies trade and enhances economic engagements," Sharma said.
Sharma reached Amritsar along with FICCI chief Kanoria and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Vikramjit Singh Sahney. “I am going to Pakistan with the positive frame of mind. The focus would be on strengthening the trade ties,” he told reporters after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple. The minister would also inspect the integrated checkpost project at Wagah.
Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is limited to a list of 1938 items and a large number
of these items are confined to minerals, chemicals and other raw materials while most of the manufactured finished goods, bulk drugs and pharmaceuticals, textile products and food products are banned.
Industry is also demanding opening up of additional land routes and easing visa regulations for businessmen.
According to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the advantage of land contiguity and low transaction cost for bilateral trade is lost due to limited trade land routes. It is suggesting opening up of additional land route at Sindh border of Monabao-Khokhara Par in addition to the opening up of second gate at Attari-Wagah border.

Bangalore boy in soup for 'calling' Pak foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar

Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar

RAICHUR: A call to Pakistan's foreign ministerHina Rabbani Khar allegedly from the cellphone of a youth hailing from the remote Buddini village in Sindhanur taluk of Karnataka's Raichur district has landed him in trouble.


The incident came to light when CCB sleuths from Bangalore grilled him on Sunday. The investigation followed a message from thePakistan foreign minister's office asking the government to inquire into this call.


It is alleged that the youth who called the cellphone of the minister and used filthy language, said local police. Police said the foreign ministry officials claimed that the call originated from the youth's phone and lasted 15 minutes.


The incident took place two months ago. Police said CBI officials who arrived from Delhi had visited the town last month. On Sunday, officials from CCB Bangalore visited the town and inquired, the local police disclosed, adding that youth had denied the allegation. However, there was no confirmation from the CCB police in Bangalore. The victim, Amaresh, an attender at a private coaching centre, told media: "Neither have I heard of Rabbani Khar nor do I know Urdu or English to abuse her. I do not know what all this is about. I do not know if some student who resides at this centre had used my phone."


Local police said the CCB officials refused to show the call records to substantiate their allegation when the lecturers at the centre on behalf of the youth sought details. Police have directed the youth not to switch off his cellphone till they contact him again.

Maldives turmoil worries India

DELHI DISAPPOINTS NASHEED Male: Maldives’ ousted President Mohammed Nasheed on Saturday said he was disappointed with India over its response to the political turmoil in his country. India has failed to properly understand the ground situation in his country, he said.

US ENVOY IN MALEUS Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake arrived in Male and met leaders here in a bid to defuse the political crisis. Blake met Nasheed and gathered information about recent political developments in the country. The top US official also had a meeting with 59-year-old Hassan, who was Nasheed's deputy just four days ago. — PTI

New Delhi, February 11
With the situation in the Maldives showing no signs of improvement, India is worried that prolonged political instability in the Indian Ocean archipelago could lead to radicalisation of the Maldivian society.

“There have already been attempts in recent months by extremist elements to get into the Maldives…we are worried and continue to closely monitor the situation,” sources said today.

M Ganpathi, Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry, who had been deputed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the Maldives, has already held discussions with different leaders in Male. He is expected to brief the PM on his talks soon.

Meanwhile, former dictator MA Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives for nearly three decades, is expected to return to Male tomorrow. Ousted President Mohammed Nasheed has already stated that what has happened in his country should be traced to Gayoom’s network.

The developments in the Maldives come close on the heels of an attempted coup in Bangladesh, another close neighbour of India, reflecting the growing presence of Islamic fundamentalism in the region.

Nasheed had gone on record in recent months saying ‘hundreds of Maldivians’ had been recruited by the Taliban and were fighting Pakistan.

Historically, religion has been an important part of the daily lives of the Maldivians but the Islam followed there was never rigid or puritanical. Traditionally, women did not veil their faces or cover their heads and men did not grow beard. Interaction between men and women was allowed and arranged marriages, practiced in most Islamic societies, was never the norm in the tiny island nation.

For quite some time, however, things had been changing in the Maldives. The number of burqa-clad women and men with beards had been increasing steadily. Religious conservatives had been becoming increasingly assertive.

The sources noted that tension had been increasing in the Maldives ever since the SAARC summit was held there in November last year.

Given his uneasy relationship with the judiciary and the police, Nasheed wanted to place his own people in vital organs of the state. Nasheed, elected in 2008 in the country's first democratic presidential elections, faced a hostile Opposition in Parliament, an uncooperative judiciary, and growing discontent regarding the role of Islamic values in the Muslim majority country.