Will complete Doha Round by 2010: India agrees with G8

In what would be a significant step forward, the G8 and the Group of Five (G5) developing countries — India, Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa — will agree to commit themselves to conclude the Doha Round of talks in a year’s time by 2010.

In fact, India is expected to host a ministerial meet before the September G-20 Summit at Pittsburgh with a view to resolve existing differences.

They will also agree not to indulge in “competitive devaluation” of currencies during the economic crisis.

The almost-finalized draft of the joint communiqué, agreed after detailed discussions among officials today, states: “We are committed to reaching an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round in 2010,

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First signs of thaw in India-Pakistan 26/11 freezeis

Six months after the Mumbai terror attacks put the peace process between India and Pakistan on “pause”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday directed their Foreign Secretaries to meet before the NAM summit in Egypt, where the two leaders are likely to meet again.

The summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries will take place mid-July in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, and indications are the FS-level meeting is likely to be held in the last week of June or early July.

Manmohan Singh on Tuesday told President Zardari to take action to stop terrorism against India emanating from his country’s soil. Setting the tone for the meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Singh, shaking hands with Zardari, bluntly told him in front of television cameras that “my mandate is to tell you that Pakistan territory should not be used for terrorism against India.”

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Rahul has qualities needed to be Prime Minister, says Priyanka

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said her brother Rahul Gandhi would one day become the Prime Minister of the country as he had all the qualities needed for the top post. However, she was quick to add that Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister if the Congress is voted to power in the coming elections.

Asked if she herself planned to join politics, Priyanka did not say a direct ‘no’. “I have realised that in politics one should never say no,” she said, and then added: “But I do not see this happening.”

When asked whether she thought Rahul was qualified enough to become the Prime Minister, she told reporters: “I have full faith in my brother. He is hardworking. He means well. He is, according to me, qualified... So, one day he will. He will do a good job of it.”

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United States House clears nuclear deal, Prime Minister says happy but wait for final outcome

India and US are now just one step away from closing a 38-month Herculean effort to have a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries after the House of Representatives cleared the agreement with a two-thirds majority late Saturday night. The pact now rolls over to the Senate where a senator backed by five others has moved an “on hold” anonymous motion that has got the Senate leadership back on its toes to have it passed early next week.

Singh, meanwhile, is all set to preside over the signing of a similar agreement with France as Department of Atomic Energy head Anil Kakodkar joined his delegation in France. The two countries will also sign a path-breaking space launch agreement, where medium-weight French satellites will be launched by the PSLV.

The news of the House approval — 298 votes in favour, 117 opposed — broke minutes before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to address the Indian community, setting the stage for his speech in which he thanked the US Administration for their efforts. Later, on his way to Marseille for the Indo-EU summit, Singh gave his first reactions. “I have just heard that the House has passed the Bill which will now go to the US Senate.

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Blast-hit UPA wakes up to tougher law, faster courts

The UPA Government, under attack for seeming ineffective in the face of terror, for the first time has acknowledged the need for new counter-terrorism initiatives, including strengthening the existing law and introducing fast-track courts.

Before a two-hour emergency Cabinet meeting late tonight that discussed such measures, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking at the conference of Governors at Rashtrapati Bhavan today, had set the tone.

In an apparent rebuttal of the BJP charge that vote bank politics was the reason Congress was soft on terror, Singh said: “The public debate on the issue of terrorism has, unfortunately, tended to get driven by politics, and has centered on certain laws enacted or repealed by Governments of different political persuasions...Our Government has no fixed, inflexible or ideological view in this regard.”

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Is it end-deal?

What the Congress kept delaying finally happened today: its moment of reckoning has come, after the Left made it clear it would not let the Government go to Vienna to confirm the safeguards agreement, the key first piece in the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The party’s top brass went into a huddle at 10, Janpath faced with perhaps the toughest choice since they took charge four years ago: give in to the Left and freeze the Indo-US nuclear deal to keep the government alive and a line with the Left open in an election year or seize the historic opportunity and stamp the party’s commitment to the “national interest.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the phone, was learnt to have argued in favour of going ahead with the deal after the Left issued a statement that it was of the “firm opinion” that “the government should not proceed to seek approval of the text of the India-specific safeguards agreement from the Board of Directors of the IAEA.”

This Left statement came a few hours after the government deferred today’s UPA-Left meeting to June 25 as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s discussions with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday and Tuesday failed to make any headway. The Left also said it did not get the full text of the agreement.

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Gurjjar quota hot potato is passed on to Law Ministry

With the Vasundhara Raje govemment passing the buck to the Centre on the Guijjar demand for ST status, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today called Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Law Minister HR Bhardwaj to discuss the matter.

Following Raje's latest letter to the PM,wherein she reiterated her earlier stance of seeking a separate category for Gujars, over and above the existing quotas, and giving them 4 to 6 per cent reservation, the Prime Minister's Office decided to refer the matter to the Law Ministry to examine such a possibility.

Today's meeting also saw a general appreciation of the fact that politics aside, the trouble in Rajasthan may not remain confined there and may spread to other states, including those ruled by the Congress, if not handled properly.

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