Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

For better or worse, Martin O'Malley, the current Governor of the state of Maryland and contender for a second gubernatorial stint in the November elections, is a staunch Democrat.

And while it can sometimes seem worse, especially given the dire condition of the United States' job markets and the increasingly accusatory rhetoric emanating from the Republican opposition, it can also be better for U.S.-India ties, Mr. O'Malley argues — and definitely better for Maryland itself.

Speaking to The Hindu at one of his campaign offices near College Park, University of Maryland, the Governor appeared fired up and brimming with hope for his policy agenda, should he succeed in his bid to win a second term in Annapolis, the state capital.

Job creation

Although Maryland, unlike many other U.S. states, has weathered the convulsions of the recession with fewer job losses, job creation nevertheless is at the very apex of Mr. O'Malley's agenda and he recognises that it has both a domestic and an international dimension.

In terms of the relationship with India, whose job-creating potential President Barack Obama has emphasised in the run-up to his November visit, Maryland is among the States that have sought to foster direct trade links.

Specifically, Mr. O'Malley noted, his administration had opened a trade office in New Delhi three years back, for the sole purpose of facilitating trade and commerce partnerships between Indian companies and their counterparts in Maryland.

He said, “Now we have five offices in Asia, including our office in New Delhi, India, run by Indus Links India, whose CEO is Sanjiv Khanna. [The New Delhi office] was opened around three years ago, even during the time of budget cuts here [in Maryland].”

On Maryland's India Representative Office website Mr. Khanna explains that the organisation “assists the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) in recruiting Indian companies to establish a location in Maryland.” It also assists DBED in providing export assistance services to Maryland companies that are seeking to expand their presence in India, Mr. Khanna says.

Mr. O'Malley emphasises that it is such connections with India — and indeed a few more which he spoke to The Hindu about — which make the recent controversy on outsourcing relatively less important.

On outsourcing

On the outsourcing question he is firmly and unapologetically in line with the broader view of the Democratic party, which opposes the outsourcing of federally funded jobs to other countries, especially during tough times such as the present. Yet the Governor speaks not only of trade links but also the role of the Indian-American community and of immigration reform, as factors that could bolster U.S.-India ties.

Regarding the Indian-American community, the Governor pointed out that the Democratic Majority Leader in the Maryland Legislature was Indian-American Kumar Barve, and that his administration had overseen the appointment of over 165 Asian Americans to various key posts in Maryland public boards and commissions. These included Indian-Americans appointed to head the portfolios of human services and economic development, Mr. O'Malley said.

Immigration

On immigration, Mr. O'Malley argued that one area that Republican opponent and former Governor Bob Ehrlich and he “very much disagreed” was Mr. Ehrlich's assertion that “multiculturalism is bunk, that history has shown that a multicultural people can never survive or thrive.”

Referring to a recent gubernatorial candidate debate conducted by the Washington Post, Mr. O'Malley added that Mr. Ehrlich had likened “new Americans” — Mr. O'Malley's inclusive term for legal immigrants — to “someone that is breaking into your home in the middle of the night,” and that Mr. Ehrlich had asked if such persons should be considered a new family member.

More broadly, the incumbent Governor said, “In order for us to be a strong country and to be good neighbours internationally, we have to embrace that aspect of American history which has always made us strong, which is the diversity of people that come together to create new cures, new economies, new inventions and things that make our world a better place and make us a moral leader.”

While President Obama has likely shelved comprehensive immigration reform until after November's Congressional elections, Mr. O'Malley said in the context of such reform it was certainly important to do a better job on immigration enforcement and protect the U.S.' borders.

However, he added, it was also necessary to find that “precious consensus that has eluded us over the last several years, because of people that subscribe to that divisive, fear-mongering ideology that Bob Ehrlich embraces, which would have us believe that people who are here and are not able to get citizenship somehow all came here illegally.” Not all such people came here illegally to begin with, he said.

Mr. O'Malley said that similar to the country's founding fathers he subscribed to the concept of e pluribus unum, or “out of many, one.” Given Maryland's record for predominantly voting in Democrats, it would appear the people of this state agree.

Labels: immigration, India-U.S. ties, Maryland

From The Hindu

During his trip to India early next month, United States President Barack Obama should endorse India’s candidacy for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, an influential Washington think-tank has argued in a report to be released later this week.

Outlining some of the most pressing reasons why the U.S. ought to extend such support the report said that should the UNSC reform occur, it would be inconceivable that India would not be included in the reconfigured body given India was “on track to become the world’s third- or fourth-largest economy, possesses major military capabilities, remains a pluralist liberal democracy, and is a nuclear weapons state”.

Further, three of the five permanent members of the UNSC — Russia, the United Kingdom, and France — had already endorsed India’s candidacy, leaving only the U.S. and China “as strange bedfellows that have resisted the inclination to support New Delhi’s claims”, the report said.

The Obama in India report, authored by Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the U.S. President should also accelerate India’s assimilation into global non-proliferation bodies such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

With regard to the civil nuclear agreement, progress on which has slowed since the passage of the nuclear liability bill by the Indian Parliament, the report by Mr. Tellis argued, “Exhorting India to begin serious commercial negotiations with American nuclear suppliers and to sign and ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation… ought to be a priority.”

Common national interests

Speaking to The Hindu from Washington, Mr. Tellis said, about the overall agenda during Mr. Obama’s time in India, “The fundamental thing Obama should remember is that the U.S. partnership with India is intended to support common national interests over the long haul.”

He further said that there was no reason to be discouraged by the challenges that beset both sides today, adding, “There is plenty the United States and India can do together — not all of it will make the headlines but all of it will deepen the partnership.”

Issuing a note of caution to the U.S. on the Pakistan issue, the CEIP report said that Mr. Obama “ought to refrain from asking India… how it can placate Rawalpindi in order to evoke better counterterrorism cooperation from the Pakistan Army”.

In this regard, the report argued that the Obama administration knew well that there was “nothing that India can meaningfully do to assuage Pakistani paranoia beyond what it has done already, namely offer to sustain the peace process and maintain its restraint in the use of force despite the continuing terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan”.

Released less than two weeks before Mr. Obama’s much-anticipated visit to India, the CEIP report further touched upon some of the geo-political imperatives for a deeper India-U.S. relationship.

Remarking upon the role of China in particular, the report said that the U.S. had a “vital stake in maintaining an Asian ‘balance of power that favours freedom’ at a time when managing China’s rise is certain to be the most important strategic challenge facing Washington”.

Labels: Obama visit, permanent UNSC seat

From The Hindu

The United States has announced one of the largest weapons sales in its history, worth nearly $60 billion, to Saudi Arabia.

Announcing the deal, Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro said the U.S. planned to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a “significant defence package that will promote regional security and enhance the defensive capabilities of an important Gulf partner with whom we have had a longstanding and close security relationship.”

The most significant components of the package include 84 F-15 aircraft, 70 upgrades of existing Saudi F-15s to a more advanced configuration, 70 AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, 72 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, 36 AH-6i light attack helicopters, and 12 MD-530F light training helicopters.

The proposed packages also include aircraft munitions, support, and training services are sufficient, officials said.

In approving the sale the Obama administration argued that it would advance U.S. national security, send a “strong message” to the region that the U.S. was committed to support the security of its allies in the Arabian Gulf and enhance “Saudi Arabia's ability to deter and defend against threats to its borders and to its oil infrastructure, which is critical to our economic interests.”

U.S. officials also emphasised that in authorising the weapons sale they had taken into account how it was “appropriate” from a regional political-military perspective and determined that it “would not negatively impact Israel's security interests or Israel's qualitative military edge.” Further, Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow said the sale would improve U.S.-Saudi interoperability and as a result the U.S. Department of Defence would be able to free up U.S. forces in the region and maximise the effectiveness of the U.S.' global force posture. When asked whether the sale implied the use of air power against Iran, Mr. Shapiro said: “It is not solely about Iran.”

Labels: arms deal, Saudi Arabia, U.S.

From The Hindu

The United States finds itself doing a precarious tightrope act between India and Pakistan this week, with the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue kicking off in Washington exactly two weeks ahead of President Barack Obama boarding a flight to India.

Nowhere was the tension more evident than in Wednesday's State Department briefing and, more specifically, on the subject of Afghanistan. At the briefing, Department spokesman P.J. Crowley hinted that Pakistan had been “meddling” in Afghanistan's politics and emphasied that India would continue to play a constructive role in Afghanistan.

Mr. Crowley's first salvo came in response to a question on whether countries such as India and Iran — and not just Pakistan — had a role in the ongoing reconciliation talks between the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan and the Taliban.

He responded, “We recognise Afghanistan's need to have a dialogue with its neighbours. We have had concerns about Iran's meddling in Afghanistan, just as we have had concerns about other countries meddling in Afghanistan,” a likely reference to Pakistan.

Suggesting that Pakistan's earlier support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan might still rankle in the U.S.' memory, Mr. Crowley noted: “To the extent that the Taliban once ruled Afghanistan, there were a small number of countries that recognised that government. Pakistan was one of them.”

However, Mr. Crowley said that “to the extent that the solution to Afghanistan does involve a regional solution”, the U.S. recognised countries like India “had an interest in a stable Afghanistan and can play a constructive role”.

To reach that regional solution, dialogue was essential and hence, the U.S. was engaging Afghanistan's key neighbours to build effective, sustainable relationships across the region.

This was one of the reasons why Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke had talked about the importance of the transit trade agreement — an agreement that would improve trade between India and Afghanistan routed through Pakistan.

There was a clear message to the visiting Pakistani delegation in Washington as well. Mr. Crowley said: “We have made no secret of the fact that we've told Pakistan clearly that we believe that the existential threat to Pakistan is not India; the existential threat to Pakistan involves extremism within its own borders.”

And, equally, a hint to India: “Likewise, we're having a similar conversation with a country like India. We believe that there the potential for cooperation certainly outweighs what might be perceptions about competition in the region.”

The State Department had also clearly determined that peace and stability in Afghanistan would not be feasible without Iran's contributions to the process. Notwithstanding the differences on nuclear politics, Mr. Crowley said, “we have not ruled out that there are overlapping areas of interest that we have with Iran with respect to a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. We are not ruling out that as an area of potential dialogue…”

Labels: Afghanistan, Pakistan, President Barack Obama, State Department, U.S., US-Pak strategic dialogue

From The Hindu

On the eve of United States President Barack Obama’s visit to India an influential Washington think-tank has called for “a bold leap forward” in the India-U.S. relationship, arguing in particular for the U.S. to establish a vision for what it sought in the relationship and to give concrete meaning to the phrase “strategic partnership.”

The report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) entitled Natural Allies: A Blueprint for the Future of U.S.-India Relations argued that a growing closeness between India and the U.S. was important because although neither sought the containment of China, “the likelihood of a peaceful Chinese rise increases if it ascends in a region where the great democratic powers are also strong.”

Reflecting a “non-partisan” effort the report’s principal authors were former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and former Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, both guided by CNAS Senior Fellow Richard Fontaine.

In particular, the report focused attention upon counterterrorism and defence cooperation, calling for enhanced cooperation in both areas between the two countries. With regard to defence cooperation at a military-to-military level the CNAS report acknowledged shortcomings in progress to date owing to bureaucratic inertia in both countries.

According to the report’s authors Indian leaders believed that the U.S. export control system hindered India’s acquisition of U.S. high-tech defence products and thus the U.S. ought to “modify its export-control measures… permitting increased exports of defence-related technology and goods to India.”

The authors went further into specific detail on this count, emphasising that the U.S. ought to remove the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) subsidiaries from the Entity List, “as the Indian government draws clearer lines between its civil space and civil nuclear activities on the one hand, and its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons activities on the other.”

Touching upon one of the issues that India has repeatedly stressed at international forums, the Natural Allies report urged the U.S. to support India’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. It argued, “The U.S. should commit, publicly and explicitly, to work with India in support of its permanent membership in an enlarged UNSC.”

However the report acknowledged that an India-U.S. partnership at the UNSC may take time to develop, and “India and U.S. votes in the U.N. General Assembly last year matched just 30 per cent of the time.”

The CNAS volume also did not shy away from highlighting a few other dimensions of the India-U.S. relationship that were not yet settled, including the two countries’ divergent views on how to approach the Iran question, and also the impasse that had been reached on the bilateral civil nuclear agreement after the passage of the nuclear liability bill by the Indian Parliament.

Labels: Barack Obama, CNAS report, India tour, Indo-U.S. relations

From The Hindu

With barely two weeks left for President Barack Obama's visit to India, the White House has indicated that he will emphasise economic dimensions of the India-U.S. relationship, especially in the context of the global recession and ongoing recovery.

Asked at a briefing about what the President would discuss with his Indian interlocutors while travelling through the country, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that from an economic viewpoint the Obama administration understood what it had to do to create jobs, increase exports and ensure that it “just does not fall on American consumers to drive world demand.”

“That's a lot of what you'll hear the President talk about on that trip, and we'll hopefully have some tangible results from it,” he added.

In a clear sign that the White House was according high priority to the visit, Mr. Gibbs confirmed that the President was “involved in fairly regular meetings with the national security team to ensure a successful visit not long after the elections.”

He noted in particular that the U.S. had an “an important economic relationship” with India, underscoring that the first State dinner that was held for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington November last showed “the degree of understanding in terms of the significance that this government and this administration puts on that relationship.”

Labels: Barack Obama, India tour

From The Hindu

The United States had “information and concerns” on the terror-related activities of the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind David Coleman Headley, based on communications received from his spouses. However the U.S. did not provide India with full information or a stronger warning due to a lack of “specific information.”

At a press briefing this week, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that regarding the nature of the information provided to U.S. authorities by Headley's wives, “there was concern expressed by both spouses at the same time,” although the information “was not specific.”

He added that had the U.S. possessed specific information on Headley, it would have provided it to the Indian government beforehand. However the information received did not detail a “time or place of the attack.”

In particular, Mr. Crowley acknowledged that the U.S. law enforcement authorities held two meetings with one of Headley's spouses in late 2007 and early 2008, during which she provided information that was followed up on and relayed to the relevant agencies across the U.S. government.

Commenting on the U.S.' slow response to the information, Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, told The Hindu, “Many officials in the U.S. government responsible for Pakistan policy often failed in the past to understand the close links between Pakistan-based terrorist groups targeting India and those that target the West.”

Ms. Curtis said that rather than viewing the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror outfit Headley was said to have been trained with, on par with the Al-Qaeda, U.S. officials tended to see it only through an Indo-Pakistani lens.

“Not specific”

When Mr. Crowley was asked whether the information provided by Headley's spouses did not mention that he was involved with the LeT, implying that this would have provided a clue about whether Indian targets would be involved, Mr. Crowley only repeated, “There was no specific information as to who he was associated with or what they were planning to do.”

Mr. Crowley's comments came even as reports emerged on Monday that in his statements to Indian authorities in June Headley admitted that the Pakistan spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, had been “deeply involved in planning the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, going so far as to fund reconnaissance missions to the Indian city.”

The Associated Press quoted a secret U.S. government report on Headley's interrogation as saying, “According to Headley, every big action of the LeT is done in close coordination with the ISI.”

Mr. Crowley said the U.S. had been pressing Pakistan to take more aggressive action inside its borders to deal with a threat that was of concern to the U.S. and the region.

In the context of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in Washington this week, he added, “Clearly, this is an ongoing threat and more needs to be done. That will be among the issues talked about during this week's Strategic Dialogue.”

However with regard to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Ms. Curtis cautioned that legal issues could arise in the event that direct ISI links were made to the Mumbai attacks, which also killed six U.S. citizens.

She said, “From a policy perspective, there could be major blowback on the Obama administration if it is perceived as stifling information related to a terrorist incident in which U.S. citizens were murdered.”

There were also questions being raised whether the U.S. authorities had failed to follow up on terrorism leads associated with Headley “because it could potentially implicate Pakistan's intelligence service, with whom the Central Intelligence Agency is closely working,” Ms. Curtis, formerly with the CIA, said.

Labels: 26/11, David Headley, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, mumbai terror

From The Hindu

The Obama administration has made one of its most senior appointments yet from the Indian-American community. Subra Suresh (54), Dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has been confirmed as the Director of the high-level National Science Foundation.

Commenting on Dr. Suresh’s appointment at a White House Science Fair this week President Barack Obama said, “I want to welcome and congratulate Subra Suresh, who was sworn in this morning as the Director of the National Science Foundation… We are very grateful to have Subra taking this new task.”

The President noted that at MIT Dr. Suresh was leading one of the top engineering programmes in the United States, and “for him now to be able to apply that to the National Science Foundation is just going to be outstanding.” Mr. Obama had initially announced his intention to appoint Dr. Suresh to the prestigious office on June 3.

The NSF, which is supported by a funding base worth around $6.9-billion, principally finances research in the non-medical sciences. In assuming his new responsibilities Dr. Suresh would, according to reports, take over “just as a $3-billion infusion of economic stimulus money given to the agency early last year begins to run out.”

In a feature on the new Director Nature magazine quoted Samuel Rankin, Chair of the Coalition for National Science Funding, an advocacy group based in Washington, as saying, “Morale is going to be low… He needs to take advantage of the fact that he’s new and push for more funding.”

While NSF funding was said to have enjoyed a massive boost last year as the stimulus money was topped up by a “whopping 6.2% rise in regular agency funding for fiscal year 2010,” Mr. Ranking had said that that rate would drop as the stimulus money petered out.

With immense pressure owing to the politics of soaring national debt levels, reports said that the U.S. Congress would probably only set the NSF’s budget after the midterm elections in November, “which means funding could be frozen at 2010 levels well into next year.”

However expressing a strong vote of confidence in Dr. Suresh’s ability to tackle all such challenges in Washington despite being a newcomer to the scene, Robert Ritchie, his advisor at MIT, said, “The thing about Subra is that, while he’ll take on tasks that are quite complex, you know from the start that he’ll succeed.”

Dr. Suresh, who was the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT, first joined MIT in 1993, as the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Holding numerous joint faculty positions in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Engineering, as well as the Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Dr. Suresh served as the head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2000 to 2006. Apart from MIT Dr. Suresh was also a faculty member at Brown University between 1983 and 1993, in the Division of Engineering.

Winning wide recognition for his expertise, Dr. Suresh was the recipient of the 2007 European Materials Medal, “the highest honour conferred by the Federation of European Materials Societies,” and the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal. After gaining his bachelor’s degree from IIT-Madras he obtained an M.S. from Iowa State University, and a Sc.D. from MIT.

Labels: IIT alumnus, NSF, Obama administration, Subra Suresh

From The Hindu

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to proposals for debt relief made on behalf of Least Developed Countries, according to D. Raja, National Secretary of the Communist Party of India.

Speaking to The Hindu during a visit to New York City to address a committee of the United Nations General Assembly Mr. Raja said that in the context of debt relief the multilateral donor agencies had also accepted suggestions for further democratisation of their structure, specifically in terms of the number of shares held by LDCs.

He noted that on Monday he would be making a statement on behalf of LDCs to Committee II of the UN General Assembly, and in this context he was leading one of the many unofficial delegations engaged in discussions at the UN.

Labels: debt relief, developing economies, UN General Assembly

From The Hindu

A report on Neglected Tropical Diseases released by the World Health Organisation this week has outlined the breathtaking economic cost that developing countries such as India face in coping with diseases such as hookworm infection, lymphatic filariasis and visceral leishmaniasis, commonly known as kala-azar.

In the report WHO Director-General Margaret Chan underscored the linkages between such NTDs and poverty, saying, “Neglected tropical diseases have traditionally ranked low on national and international health agendas.” She added that currently impaired the lives of an estimated 1 billion people, mostly in remote rural areas or urban slums and shantytowns.

According to Dr. Chan, NTDs usually caused massive but hidden and silent suffering, and frequently killed those infected, but not in numbers comparable to the deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. She also noted that the presence of these debilitating illnesses also often went unnoticed by health authorities as those affected or at risk generally had “little political voice.”

Speaking to The Hindu, Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and a spokesperson for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, corroborated the WHO’s assessment of the current state of NTDs, including the possibility that these diseases frustrated the achievement of health in the Millennium Development Goals.

Touching on the scene in India in particular Dr. Hotez said, “India still remains the epicentre for NTDs,” noting for example that there were currently close to 70 million cases of hookworm infection. This was “of great concern” because childhood infection reduces future wage earning by 40 per cent, according to a 2007 study mentioned in the report.

Given the disproportionately large impact of such NTDs on the lower strata of the population, the vaccines for these NTDs are known as “antipoverty vaccines,” Dr. Hotez explained. He said that the reason such diseases received less official attention was because they “do not kill, but cause high morbidity and economic loss, and this is killing India.”

Citing the case of lymphatic filariasis – also know elephantiasis – Dr. Hotez quoted another study which indicated that India faced “almost a billion dollars loss per year, economically,” from the disease.

While the WHO report said that India had undertaken national efforts to reduce the impact of leishmaniasis and filariasis, Dr. Hotez warned that “for hookworm infection it is too widespread to even consider elimination at this point.” He noted that for this disease there was a need for a vaccine and the Sabin Institute was working on such a vaccine,

In the international arena, Dr. Hotez said, the contributions of European governments and developing country governments did not come anywhere near the major efforts of the U.S. to control NTDs worldwide, with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development being a notable exception. “Other countries should be doing more to help control NTDs at the global level,” he said.

Labels: health issues, tropical diseases, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, WHO report

From The Hindu

The Obama administration has said it would appeal a decision by federal judge in California that struck down the infamous “don't ask, don't tell law,” banning gays from serving in the military if they revealed their sexual orientation. Under the law the military cannot, however, ask its recruits about their sexual orientation.

Though President Barack Obama and officials including Defence Secretary Robert Gates support the ultimate repeal of the 1993 law that sought to create a compromise solution, their intention is for the law to be repealed by Congress rather than the courts.

On Tuesday, Judge Virginia Phillips of Federal District Court of California issued a ruling on the case of Log Cabin Republicans — a gay Republican group — vs. the United States of America, arguing that “don't ask, don't tell” was unconstitutional. She further issued an injunction requiring an immediate halt to its enforcement.

Speaking to youth at a town-hall meeting here in Washington, Mr. Obama clarified the government view on Thursday, saying, “I agree with the basic principle that anybody who wants to serve in our armed forces and make sacrifices on our behalf, on behalf of our national security, anybody should be able to serve. And they shouldn't have to lie about who they are in order to serve.”

However, he said while his government was moving towards ending this policy, it had to be done in an “orderly” way given the U.S.' involvement in a war. Yet, he assured, this was not a question of whether the policy would end: “It will end on my watch,” Mr. Obama assured.

In Congress, the House of Representatives has already passed the repeal of the law, yet an attempt to get it passed in the Senate failed earlier last month on the floor, in the face of Republican opposition. While litigants such as the Log Cabin Republicans have turned to the courts in the face of such partisan opposition, the Obama government has preferred to proceed with the law's repeal more cautiously.

In particular, Mr. Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen were reported to have requested Congress not to take action until a Pentagon report on how to implement a repeal came out in December. In the lead-up to that report Mr. Gates noted that a military review panel was considering results of an extensive survey of active duty and reserve-component service members.

“This is a very complex business,” Mr. Gates said, adding, “It has enormous consequences for our troops. And as I have said from the very beginning, I think there should be legislation, and that legislation should be informed by the review we have under way.”

Labels: gays in military, United States

From The Hindu

With the mercury rising all around the United States as the November Congressional elections approach, it is the political drama of states that will dominate the attention of voters, pundits and the contestants themselves.

Yet even within the states, November will be about much more than just the fight for the House of Representatives and Senate — it will also be about battles for 38 state and territorial governorships, four territorial legislatures and numerous state legislature and local races.

While every one of these races will be decided by different local communities, in the state of Maryland it may well be a community of professionals and industrialists that turns the tide — Indian-Americans.

Maryland as a state has been staunchly Democratic for most of its history, even dating back to the Civil War years. Within the state, politics has been dominated by three main areas — Baltimore and the suburbs of Washington, DC; Montgomery County; and Prince George's County — all three mostly voting Democrat. Other parts of Maryland, such as Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore, have usually sided with Republicans.

Yet the Indian-Americans, and their gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich, are betting on red over blue. And it may well be a strong bet given the deep disenchantment with the economy and unemployment. While Maryland is not haemorrhaging jobs like some other states — in fact there was a net addition to jobs between March and June — the situation is still bleak for many.

Ehrlich's Indian connection

But for Mr. Ehrlich his connection to the Indian-American community is about more than economics and elections. “It is personal,” he says, and he's not exaggerating. As the first Republican Governor of Maryland in four decades Mr. Ehrlich hired Indian-American Dilip Paliath as Chief Counsel for his Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

While he lost the 2006 gubernatorial race to Democrat and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley by a margin of 53 per cent to 46 per cent he has since built more bonds with the community and now firmly believes that the entrepreneurial nature of the Indian Americans and the success they have had in their ventures is a “natural marriage with my philosophical orientation.” He added that the community consisted of a lot of professionals and a lot of business people, “people that have lived the American dream.”

There is more to the relationship than abstract values, however, and Mr. Ehrlich was also a key force behind the creation of a trade office in Bangalore, which was later closed under the Democratic state administration. Not missing the irony in the fact that Washington Democrats and the White House have actually been pressing to stop jobs getting “Bangalored,” Mr. Ehrlich said that he had every intention to reopen the office and it would facilitate “getting mutual trade agreements.”

“Mutual,” is the key word, and Mr. Ehrlich said that it was India's with its thriving markets, democracy and growing wealth that were the main reasons for his ambition to build and take advantage of ties with the country. He argued, “If we can bring jobs to Maryland through a trade office, then why not?”

‘A tough state for Republicans'

But given that Maryland has been a virtual bastion of Democratic heavyweights, such as House Majority leader Steny Hoyer, the success of Mr. Ehrlich and his Indian-American support base is by no means guaranteed.

Mr. Ehrlich admitted, “It is a tough state for Republicans,” adding however that his party was well positioned and expected to win. If the dream comes true in November then the priority again will be jobs. Mr. Ehrlich said, “A couple of big business deals, corporate headquarters — maybe even of an Indian company. With the Indian corporate sector fuming over a bill passed in Congress — which hiked visa fees for Indian firms with U.S. operations by $2,000 or more — the strategy of gubernatorial hopefuls such as Mr. Ehrlich may be heartily welcomed by Indian industry.

Mr. Ehrlich however would take it a step further. According to him one reason behind the “impetus from the Indian-American community towards the Republican Party” was that the rhetoric and voting record of the Senate, combined with the platform and policies of the Obama government, suggested that the current federal administration was protectionist.

Mr. Ehrlich said that Democrats in the U.S. today believed in the heavy hand of government as exemplified repeatedly by their regulatory policies. Indian-Americans, contrarily, were “capitalists and free-traders” and so they were being driven towards the Republican Party, he added.

The other deep concern for the former Governor is deficits, in particular Maryland's projected “$1.6bn deficit over next fiscal year.” Lamenting the spending binge in Washington and in Annapolis, Maryland's capital, Mr. Ehrlich is a strong votary for “getting Maryland off its stimulus addiction.”

In the context of the federal stimulus plan he said that if the Obama government had offered Maryland money for a bridge or a tunnel to be built that would help get some people back to work based on a one-time expenditure. “But when they say they are going to cover your bandage this year and next year and then they are going to stop but we can keep increasing our spending you are just asking for long-term trouble,” he said.

Strength lies in technology

And Maryland will bounce back, Mr. Ehrlich insisted, highlighting in particular its inherent strength in higher technology sectors such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, and also an IT presence and traditional manufacturing for higher technology.

It is after all home to a host of agencies involved in cutting edge research and development including the Johns Hopkins University, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Institute of Mental Health, the federal Food and Drug Administration, the Celera Genomics company and, rather famously, the J. Craig Venter Institute.

However Mr. Ehrlich cautioned, “We have this undergirding of federal expenditures that does help prime our pump but it makes Annapolis lazy and we tend to do anti-business things as a result of federal spending being here.”

Labels: midterm elections, Robert Ehrlich, U.S. politics

From The Hindu

Even as there were growing signs that negotiations would soon resume between the Taliban and the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan, a stark reminder of the Taliban’s extreme views on women’s rights resurfaced this week as Bibi Aisha (19), whose nose and ears had been cut off under Taliban sanction, proudly revealed a prosthetic nose in Los Angeles.

Ms. Aisha, whose controversial cover photograph in Time magazine shocked audiences worldwide in July, travelled to the United States following her contact with Time, and in addition to receiving reconstructive surgery this week, she was also given the Enduring Heart award by the Grossman Burn Foundation, the charity that had supported her treatment.

Maria Shriver, wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, presented the award to Ms. Aisha. At the event Ms Shriver said, “This is the first Enduring Heart award given to a woman whose heart endures and who shows us all what it means to have love and to be the enduring heart,” to which Ms. Aisha responded, “Thank you so much”.”

Severely abused and attacked

When she was only 12 years old, Ms. Aisha was said to have been promised in marriage to a Taliban fighter by her father, and when she was 14 she was sent to live with him. In addition to being abused and treated harshly, for example, being “forced to sleep with the animals”, her husband and his brother were said to have attacked her and cut off her nose and ears as she was held down as punishment for having fled the home.

Following the attack, which was said to have occurred “as other Taliban militants watched”, she said in an interview with CNN, “I passed out… In the middle of the night it felt like there was cold water in my nose…” which in fact was her own blood. There was “so much of it, [that] I couldn’t even see…”, she had said.

While she said that she had been left on the mountainside to die, she survived and managed to reach her grandfather’s home. From there she was taken to a U.S. military medical centre and finally brought to the U.S..

While Time’s cover story on Ms. Aisha drew attention to the Taliban’s views on women in society, some media reports said that critics argued that the magazine was “using emotional blackmail and gender politics to justify continued U.S. involvement in Afghanistan”.

Labels: Bibi Aisha, prosthetics, Taliban victim

From The Hindu

The ongoing rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped for over two months in a collapsed mine shaft half a mile beneath the ground hinged as much on technical expertise as it did on the strength of spirit of the miners and their rescuers.

In particular shortly after the trapped miners were discovered to be alive and coping, Chile called upon NASA to advise the rescue team on survival in extremely confined spaces.

On August 31, a NASA team, including two doctors, a psychologist and an engineer, was reported to have arrived in Santiago to begin consultations.

With preliminary estimates for the capsule rescue plan suggesting that it might even take four months to complete, the focus of this Chile-NASA dialogue was to facilitate the development of a programme to help sustain the miners during their isolation. The State Department said the discussions would touch upon whether the U.S.' experience with extended space travel, particularly with respect to the International Space Station, could provide Chile with perspectives that could be applied in the context of the miners.

On Wednesday, as over 13 miners emerged safe from the ground via the “Phoenix” capsule, Michael Duncan, Chief Medical Officer and head of the NASA team in Chile reported back on the operations.

Commenting on the medical treatment of the miners in the days ahead he said, “Each of the miners will be observed for any medical conditions that they may have developed.” He added that in particular they would be looking for skin infections or infections of the sinuses or the lungs, conditions that the miners may have acquired due to exposure to the warm, humid and dusty conditions in the mine.

On the miner's psychological condition, Dr. Duncan said, “I believe that the camaraderie and the bonding that the miners have developed through this ordeal will always keep them together. I think it's much like someone being in the military, someone who has served in war time, for example.”

He said that each miner might have a different reaction but for the most part “they will want to stay as close as they can and in fact, we are hearing that on the media reports from the mine site that the miners who have been rescued want to stay until all the miners are on the surface.”

Touching upon some of the risks faced by the miners subsequent to their rescue – such as the possibility of negative reactions to sudden celebrity status – Dr. Duncan added, that that such reactions were possible, but “Chilean doctors and psychologists have been working with the miners and their families in an effort to educate them on these types of issues and the sudden celebrity that the miners now find themselves in.”

He said that while the miners did not have to be in isolation or quarantine, they would, however, be “sheltered away from the pressures of the media and other entities that want to talk to them.”

Labels: Chile mines, rescue operation, Santiago

From The Hindu

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has said that World Bank financing to developing countries during the global economic downturn had a “positive impact” on how these countries dealt with the crisis. The IEG is an independent body reporting to the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank rather than Bank management.

Vinod Thomas, Director-General of the IEG, said that while many developed countries posted post-crisis growth of about 4 per cent, middle income countries recorded close to 8 per cent, and developing countries as a whole 6 per cent.

Touching upon the effect of World Bank finance in India in particular, Mr. Thomas told The Hindu that “India was one of the moderately-affected countries… At the same time, India was a major recipient of Bank resources in the crisis response, using both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) resources.” The IBRD is the middle-income country financing arm for the Bank and the IDA is the Bank's funding arm for low-income countries.

In this context, the average growth rate in India declined by about 3 percentage points from 9.6 per cent in pre-crisis period to 6.5 per cent in the crisis period, Mr. Thomas noted.

In further comments to The Hindu, Ismail Arslan, Senior Evaluation Officer with IEG, said that in its response to the downturn the World Bank had adapted its 2009-12 India strategy towards intensified programme delivery, “with India becoming the largest single borrower from both the IBRD and the IDA in 2009-10.”

He added that the macro-policy response of the authorities was broad-based, including increases in rupee and foreign exchange liquidity, fiscal stimulus, and actions on trade and finance. Given this response, the fiscal deficit deteriorated in fiscal 2008-09, reaching 9.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), Mr. Arslan noted.

Regarding future economic conditions globally, Mr. Thomas said, “With continued global uncertainty and tougher challenges going forward, sustaining performance and getting stronger results on the ground are crucial tasks in India and some of the other middle-income countries.”

He cautioned in particular that IEG evaluations indicated “more difficult macroeconomic situation… stubborn unemployment levels and poverty, and a climate and environmental crisis in the making.”

Yet the positive effect of the crisis-responsive funding bode well for the World Bank's future role, Mr. Thomas said. “This kind of support is a major force in supporting and shoring up the stabilisation of growth. This is a different role, a new role. It's something to be reckoned with,” he said.

Labels: economic downturn, recession, World Bank

From The Hindu

The Group of 20 major economies is assuming more importance than the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “in matters of money and finance,” according to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is in the United States for the annual meetings of the multilateral bodies.

At a media interaction here after the meetings, Mr. Mukherjee argued that since nearly 85 per cent of world output came from the G-20 countries “there should be some linkage” between this fact and the governance of global financial market and development finance.

The format of the meetings between the G-20 Finance Ministers and the heads of the World Bank and IMF was undergoing some change. Earlier the IMF Managing Director and the World Bank President would present the views of the two organisations at meetings of the G-20 Finance Ministers and then those presentations would be reflected in the communiqué issued, he noted.

But, Mr. Mukherjee said, “This time it was also suggested that the member-countries of the IMF and the World Bank, who are also members of the G-20, should also get the views of these two organisations in respect of current economic developments, in their presentations before the G-20 Finance Ministers conference.”

In addition to governance issues, he said, the meetings entailed discussions of the Bank's and Fund's annual report. The G-20 Ministers also discussed country quotas at the Bank and Fund although “no solution has been found out but talks are going on,” he observed.

Another key issue that emerged was the fact that the Bank had stretched its resources “almost to the point where, from next year onwards, there may be less lendable resources.” The possible options for augmenting the organisation's lendable resources were also discussed.

In a significant change of format, the speechmaking was also kept to a minimum, the Finance Minister said. While in earlier years members' speeches sometimes lasted two whole days, this year “they had to send their video cassettes, either recorded here or recorded [in their home countries], and that will be put on the website.” As a result, the meeting of the General Body was completed within one hour.

Currency valuation issues “should not” be made a top priority in the G-20 meetings context, he said.

In a response to a question from The Hindu whether there was pressure from the U.S. for India to liberalise the banking and insurance sectors, Mr. Mukherjee said such reform was only being stalled due to the Congress not possessing a majority of 472 seats on the floor of Parliament.

The H1-B visa fee hike issue as well as the U.S.' export controls and its Entities List were still being discussed between New Delhi and Washington, he noted.

Labels: economic recovery, G20 Finance Ministers meet, IMF

From The Hindu

In an event that underscored the achievements of the Tamil expatriate community, the New York Tamil Sangam, said to be the oldest of its kind in the United States, conferred an award for business excellence on R. Seetharaman, Group CEO of Doha Bank, at a glittering function this week.

Recognising Mr. Seetharaman’s achievements in the global banking sector, in particular the Gulf region, the Sangam’s award citation also emphasised his philanthropic work for the benefit of people in Tamil Nadu, said Prakash Swamy, Secretary of the Tamil Sangam.

Presenting the award, Kanchana Poola, former president of the Sangam, said that Mr. Seetharaman’s vision of promoting U.S.-Qatari trade was commendable and he was also credited with Doha Bank’s transformation into the “best performing bank in the Middle East region over the last six years”.

At the event, Mr. Seetharaman invited Non-Resident Indians to invest and do business in Qatar which he described “the most happening place in the world” and a progressive country with numerous opportunities for foreign investors.

He also noted that the second World Tamil Economic Conference would be held in Doha in February 2011 and called upon NRI Tamil entrepreneurs to attend the conclave to learn more about the initiatives for start-up businesses that the Government of Qatar offered.

Labels: New York Tamil Sangam, R. Seetharaman, Tamil expatriates

From The Hindu

General James Jones will step down from his role as the National Security Advisor of the United States and will be replaced by his deputy, Thomas Donilon, President Barack Obama announced.

Speaking at the Rose Garden on Friday, Mr. Obama said that when he had offered General Jones the job shortly after the 2008 election, it had been a "difficult decision" for the General. "He had just retired from the military, had a wide range of family obligations," Mr. Obama said, adding, “But because of his patriotism, his dedication to keeping America safe, we were able to agree that he would serve... for about two years."

General Jones, a decorated military veteran and former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, said that he had enjoyed his assignment "immensely", in particular because Mr. Obama was "willing to take on the hard issues of our time at a very, very difficult moment in our nation’s history".

During his tenure, General Jones made several visits to India and met with top Indian officials including Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, Indian NSA Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

The President also commented on the appointment of Mr. Donilon as General Jones’ replacement, saying, he brought to the office a wealth of experience, having served three Presidents and having been immersed in national security issues for decades.

"Over the last two years, there is not a single critical national security issue that has not crossed Tom’s desk," Mr. Obama said, noting that Mr. Donilon had helped manage both the national security team and the policymaking process.

Praise from senior officials

Numerous senior officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joseph Biden and U.S. Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice praised General Jones’ work during his time as NSA.

Ms. Clinton said that the General had brought "a steady hand and clear vision to an unforgiving agenda", in particular, playing a "crucial" leadership role in winding down the combat mission in Iraq and refocusing the war in Afghanistan.

Ms. Rice also commented on General Jones’ accomplishments with regard to resetting the U.S.’ relations with Russia and in making economic development an integral part of the country’s national security strategy.

Labels: National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon, United States

From The Hindu

Adding to the ever-growing list of Indians appointed to influential positions in the United States, Rahul Mehrotra, an architect from Mumbai, has been recruited by Harvard University as Professor of Urban Design and Planning.

Mr. Mehrotra, who has been actively involved in civic and urban affairs in Mumbai and served on historic conservation and environmental commissions, will also take on the role of Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University.

Announcing the appointment Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD), said, “I am especially pleased to have Rahul join our school's leadership at a time when the GSD and Harvard as a whole are strengthening their global engagement.”

He added that Mr. Mehrotra's work as a teacher, practitioner, researcher, and community advocate made him exceptionally qualified to contribute to the Department's involvement with the challenges of urbanism world over.

Mr. Mehrotra, who studied at the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad, and also graduated with a master's degree in Urban Design from the GSD, was the Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute from 1994 to 2004.

Bringing an India focus to students at Harvard, the university confirmed that Mr. Mehrotra would teach studios and seminars on architecture and urbanisation in India, and work with students on research projects related to infrastructure, historic preservation, and questions of rapid growth and extreme urban conditions in South Asia.

Commenting on his appointment Jorge Domínguez, Harvard's Vice Provost for International Affairs said, “The GSD and the University at large will benefit from Rahul's extensive experience and informed perspective on South Asian urbanism.” He added that research and teaching at the university would be greatly strengthened by the presence of faculty with such international reach.

Mr. Mehrotra will begin his tenure at Harvard with an extensive background in teaching and publishing. Academic roles he has held in the past include teaching experience at the University of Michigan (2003–2007) and at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007–2010).

He is also the co-author of the book Bombay – The Cities Within, focussing on the city's urban history from the 1600s to the present; Banganga – Sacred Tank; Public Places Bombay; Anchoring a City Line, a history of the city's commuter railway; and Bombay to Mumbai – Changing Perspectives.

Labels: Harvard University

From The Hindu

Conflicts over currency valuation cannot be resolved through confrontation but only by building consensus, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

Following his speech on the “Emerging global economic architecture” Mr. Mukherjee responded to a question on the U.S.-China trade and currency relationship, saying, “In respect of the currency valuation, my approach is that we should try to engage the countries [concerned] in negotiations and try to build up a consensus through which the matter could be resolved.”

However, in his speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington he noted that in order to achieve sustained growth and stability, global structural imbalances had to be addressed, “sooner rather than later.”

In particular, the huge build-up of reserves in some countries and deficits elsewhere, massive trade surpluses in some economies and deep trade deficits in others were not sustainable, the Minister said.

Mr. Mukherjee said that by way of resolving these issues, more nations ought to come forward and share the responsibility for contributing to global prosperity and “critical gaps” in international policymaking and regulation, in risk management and international development cooperation needed to be bridged.

Labels: currency valuation, Pranab Mukherjee

From The Hindu

The unemployment rate in the United States remained unchanged at 9.6 per cent during the month of September, according to the latest monthly jobs report by the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics.

In news that must offer little consolation to U.S. President Barack Obama the BLS report revealed that non-farm payroll employment edged down by 95,000 jobs last month and government offices were responsible for shedding 159,000 of those jobs.

The BLS noted that the net job loss reflected “both a drop in the number of temporary jobs for Census 2010 and job losses in local government.” The number of unemployed persons was essentially unchanged at 14.8 million.

Offering a glimmer of hope, however, the BLS survey results also showed that private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly, by 64,000 jobs.

Reacting to the news the Austan Goolsbee, the recently-appointed Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers said that given the volatility in the monthly employment and unemployment data, it was “important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”

In fact, he noted, the latest employment report provided evidence that private sector job growth was driving an economic recovery. However he conceded, “But we must do more to put the economy on a path of robust economic growth... the rate of job growth is not as large as needed to bring the unemployment rate down quickly.”

An aspect of the report that might be of particular concern to policymakers was the fact that the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons rose by 612,000 over the month to 9.5 million. The BLS said that over the past two months, the number of such workers increased by 943,000 and these individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Labels: U.S. economy

From The Hindu

With an eye on the approaching India visit of United States President Barack Obama, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed hope that India would be made a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and that despite the global economic slowdown the Indian government would neither curb foreign investment flows nor allow itself to slip into an inflationary crisis.

Mr. Mukherjee also tacitly advanced arguments to quash any notion that outsourcing of economic activities to India adversely affecting the U.S.. He said that trade between India and the U.S. had more than doubled between 2004 and 2008 and as Indian companies sought to position themselves better in the global market place, they have invested over $25 billion between 2004 and 2009 in the U.S., “creating jobs and prosperity.”

Regarding the UNSC Mr. Mukherjee said, “I do hope that as and when the expanded Security Council along with the general reforms of the United Nations takes place, India’s claim for being a permanent member of the Security Council will be considered and accepted.” In his speech on Thursday he further said that international financial institutions needed to reflect in their functioning the realities on the ground and pressed for a “more dynamic and equitable economic architecture for global trade and sustained growth.”

While the Minister emphasised lessons learned in the aftermath of the global economic slowdown, for example regarding the need for financial market regulation, he, however, equally assured the attendees at an event at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington that he did not consider Foreign Institutional Investment and Foreign Direct Investment flows to be too volatile presently.

Mr. Mukherjee added that while it was the responsibility of the Reserve Bank of India to “watch the situation and as and when it is necessary to intervene appropriately,” he did not believe that the inflow of FII or FDI had distorted the market sentiments. “Therefore there is no question of putting any cap,” on such flows, he noted.

Responding to a question on whether inflation risk had become worrisome in the Indian economy, Mr. Mukherjee struck a cautious note. He said, “I do agree that there is an inflationary pressure in the system and you will have to agree with me that when we have massive financial expansions we cannot expect to have non-inflationary impact on the economy at all.”

He admitted that he was particularly concerned about inflationary pressures on food items, and in this area the Indian government had taken steps to improve the supply side by importing scarce goods. Overall, he said, the government was following a policy trajectory that sought to strike a balance, “so that the growth is not retarded and at the same time the inflationary pressure is being reduced.” This ought to produce an end-of-financial-year inflation rate of “around six per cent,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee also highlighted a recently concluded agreement between India and Switzerland relating to double-taxation avoidance. The Minister noted that in order to introduce an amendment to a clause in the agreement, concerning the exchange of relevant information between the two countries, there had been an ongoing bilateral dialogue. However, the negotiations had recently been completed and India was now awaiting the ratification of this agreement as per Swiss laws, he added.

Labels: India, India-US ties, Pranab Mukherjee, United Nations Security Council

From The Hindu

As one of the few men at an event showcasing the power and influence of women in a 21st century, even the Commander-in-Chief of the United States was clearly overawed.

When addressing the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington this week U.S. President Barack Obama fumbled and dropped the Presidential seal behind the podium. However he recovered quickly, quipping, “That’s all right, all of you know who I am. But I’m sure there’s somebody back there that’s really nervous right now.”

The event, organised by Fortune, honoured ten women small-business entrepreneurs who joined 400 of the world’s most influential women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, education and the arts for panel discussions, on-stage interviews and interactive sessions over the course of three days.

The summit brought together an array of the most influential and well-known women leaders across different industries, including notable persons of Indian origin such as Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Padmasree Warrior of Cisco Systems, Sonal Shah, Director, Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, formerly of Google’s Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations, and currently CEO of fashion and shopping network, Polyvore.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also addressed the attendees, and in touching upon some of the important women’s groups around the world she mentioned in particular, an Indian organisation. Ms. Clinton said, “Last year in Mumbai, I visited a shop owned and operated by women selling crafts and textiles, most of whom come from the very lowest socioeconomic stratum, all of whom are organised through one of the most effective women’s organisations in the world, the Self-Employed Women’s Association.” She added that she had worked with SEWA for many years and witnessed the transformation that banding together has catalysed in individual women’s lives.

Obama lauds Buffet

Mr. Obama also tipped his hat to one of the few other men at the event and, as it happened, a powerful one in his own right — billionaire investment guru, Warren Buffet. To Mr. Buffet, the President said, “I understand that even though he is a man, he has been invited back year after year because he knows that the surest path to success is to surround yourself with brilliant women. He’s a smart guy.”

While Mr. Obama outlined some of the key steps that his administration had taken to support women’s education and their activities in the sphere of entrepreneurship, the Summit itself served as a springboard to community-support activity. This included a scheme to mentor 75 Washington-area public high school students in an innovative speed-dating-style mentoring model.

Labels: Barack Obama, Fortune, Hillary Clinton, Indira Nooyi, women entrepreneurs

From The Hindu

Mario Vargas Llosa (74), celebrated Peruvian-Spanish author and one of the most renowned novelists of his generation, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat".

After the award was announced, Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy said that Mr. Llosa was "one of the great Latin American storytellers — a master of dialogue who has been searching for the elusive concept known as the total novel, and who believes in the power of fiction to improve the world."

While Mr. Llosa is known for his prolific writing that included comedies and murder mysteries, his most powerful novels have contained commentary on historical and political conditions in his native Peru and other parts of Latin America. The "monumental" work that Conversation in the Cathedral (1969) represents for example, was deeply concerned with the ravaging of Peruvian politics and government under the dictatorship of Manuel A. Odría in the 1950s.

Mr. Llosa’s first major international breakthrough came in 1963, with the publication of the novel The Time of the Hero. However, the book – which drew upon his military school experiences – also raised a controversy back in Peru and "a thousand copies were burnt publicly by officers" of the school.

His other profoundly influential novel was The Feast of the Goat (2000). This major work was again a political thriller and was loosely based on the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961. Other well known works include Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977), The War of the End of the World, (1981) and, more recently, Death in the Andes (1993).

This last novel — focussing on deaths associated with the militant Shining Path group – also reflected some of Mr. Llosa’s concern for the plight of the downtrodden. In Death in the Andes, Mr. Llosa situated violence "in the context of an older world where life is brutal and in a society which is on the very fringe of the modern world".

Early life

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Mr. Llosa grew up with his mother in Bolivia after his parents were divorced. However, after his family moved back to Peru in 1946, his parents were reunited and they settled in Lima. Mr. Llosa attended both a Catholic school in Lima as well as Leoncio Prado Military Academy – the place that gave him material for The Time of the Hero – following which he studied law and literature in Madrid.

He embarked on a career in languages and journalism after marrying Julia Urquidi in 1955, for which he moved to Paris. In 1965, Mr. Llosa married Patricia Llosa after divorcing his first wife. Moving back to Lima in 1974, he was soon elected to the Peruvian Academy, following which he lectured and taught at numerous universities in the U.S., Latin America and Europe.

In a one-off direct involvement in politics, Mr. Llosa unsuccessfully ran for the Peruvian Presidency in 1990, representing the FREDEMO alliance. In recent years, he was said to have lived in Barcelona, Madrid, Lima, Paris and London.

Labels: Nobel Prize for literature, Peru, Vargas Llosa

From The Hindu

The economic recovery under way has been proceeding broadly as expected, but downside risks remain elevated and the global financial system is the Achilles' heel of this recovery, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In releasing two key documents on the state of the global economy — the October 2010 World Economic Outlook (WEO) and the Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) — the IMF provided a cautious outlook that comprised both gradual improvements in economic conditions and significant uncertainty in Western economies.

In doing so, the Fund, however, made a distinction between the growth trajectories of developed economies on the one hand and emerging markets such as India and China on the other. In the WEO, it noted that most advanced economies still faced “large adjustments,” that their recoveries were advancing at a sluggish pace, and that high unemployment still posed major social challenges.

However, in contrast, the WEO noted that many emerging and developing economies were again witnessing “strong growth,” because they did not experience major financial excesses immediately before the recession of 2009.

In what might be a reference to the ongoing controversy over China's currency value and its role in creating a trade surplus for the country the IMF said that the recovery would require external rebalancing, with “an increase in net exports in deficit countries, such as the U.S., and a decrease in net exports in surplus countries, notably emerging Asia.”

The WEO also made reference to the effectiveness of the overhaul of financial regulation in European countries and the U.S., arguing that “the repair and reform of the financial sector need to accelerate to allow a resumption of healthy credit growth.”

In terms of the financial system itself, the Fund stuck a note of concern in the GFSR, which pointed out that progress toward global financial stability experienced a setback since April, and the recent turmoil in sovereign debt markets in Europe had highlighted “increased vulnerabilities of bank and sovereign balance sheets arising from the crisis.”

The GFSR further noted that while the financial situation has subsequently improved, owing to the “forceful response by policymakers which helped to stabilise funding markets and reduce tail risk,” substantial market uncertainties persisted.

Touching on emerging markets in particular the IMF said in the WEO that many of them had successfully concluded first-generation reforms that improved macroeconomic policy frameworks, strengthening their resilience to macroeconomic shocks.

However, it cautioned, in order to sustain or further raise potential growth and employment, it would be necessary to simplify product and services market regulation, raise human capital, and build critical infrastructure.

The Fund argued that such reforms would help absorb growing capital inflows in a productive manner, “which would accelerate global income convergence and external rebalancing.”

Labels: bailout plan, financial crisis

From The Hindu

A rare window of opportunity for peace and political stability in Afghanistan might have opened up, according to a Washington Post article which reported that the Taliban and representatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have embarked upon “secret, high-level talks” aimed at ending the war in the country.

Quoting unnamed European, Afghan and Arab sources the article said that they believed that the Taliban involved in the discussion were authorised to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan wing of the group that is based in Pakistan. In particular the discussants were said to represent Mohammad Omar, leader of the Quetta Shura.

However the sources mentioned by the Post were also equally clear that the groups that were kept out of the talks included the Haqqani network, a militant outfit in Pakistan that “U.S. intelligence considers particularly brutal.”

This group was said to still exert some influence on the process, with one Afghan source noting that Pakistan’s insistence on a central role in negotiations had made talks with the Quetta group difficult. Regarding this role of Pakistan this source reportedly said, “They try to keep very tight control.”

In January Pakistan’s role in Afghan peace negotiations was criticised in some quarters after it has emerged that Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior operational commander of the Taliban, was arrested by Pakistani authorities because they reportedly feared being left out of a deal that the Taliban was striking with the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul.

Media reports at the time had quoted an unnamed Pakistani security official as saying, “We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us... We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians.”

Destabilised

Kai Eide, a former special representative in Afghanistan for the United Nations Secretary General, had also said shortly thereafter that secret U.N. discussions with the Taliban in Dubai were destabilised by the arrest of Mr. Baradar.

The most recent indications of ongoing dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban have emerged amidst a “distinct change of heart by the Obama administration toward full backing of negotiations,” the sources said.

Labels: Haqqani network, Karzai-Taliban secret talks, Quetta Shura, Washington Post

From The Hindu

Faisal Shahzad (31), the Pakistan-born United States citizen charged with the Times Square bomb plot, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum handed down the sentence on Tuesday after Shahzad admitted that he had intended to kill at least 40 people through the crudely constructed, fertiliser-based bomb planted in a Nissan Pathfinder in the bustling centre of New York City.

He also confessed to planning a second bombing two weeks after the Times Square attack. Media reports noted that Shahzad said he had acted alone out of anger about U.S. military action in Muslim countries and mistreatment of Muslims around the world.

On May 3, Shahzad was stopped from boarding the flight after he was identified by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. On May 18, he was produced before a judge and formally charged with the bomb plot of May 1, including several felony charges.

At the time New York federal attorney Preet Bharara had said that while Mr. Shahzad had voluntarily waived his right to arraignment, he had provided law enforcement authorities with “valuable intelligence from which further investigative action has been taken.”

During his trial Shahzad was said to have appeared “proud but defiant” in court and unapologetic for trying to kill as many Americans as he could. “The sentence does not mean anything to me,” he reportedly warned at the time, adding, “Brace yourself, because the war has just begun.”

However, Shahzad continued to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice and pleaded guilty to ten charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and an attempt to kill or maim.

The weeks following his arrest also saw a spike in tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, with top U.S. intelligence officials Leon Panetta and James Jones travelling to Islamabad to keep up the pressure on Pakistani authorities investigating Shahzad’s links to terror networks there.

Labels: Department of Homeland Security, Times Square bomb plot

From The Hindu

Brazil, similar to its neighbours Chile and Argentina, may soon make history by electing its first ever female President, Dilma Rousseff (62). But not yet.

After Sunday’s vote Ms. Rousseff, the popular Chief of Staff of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, faltered a few steps short of the throne, when she found herself holding nearly 47 per cent of the vote but was still shy of the 50 per cent-level required to avoid an October 31 runoff election.

Ms. Rousseff is a candidate of the Workers Party and an economist. She was associated with militant groups fighting against the 1960s dictatorship in the country. She was also jailed for three years during the 1970s and has claimed that she was she was tortured during her incarceration.

With the counting of votes complete on Monday, it became clear that Ms. Rousseff's strongest rival, São Paulo Governor José Serra, had struck a deadlier blow than many had anticipated. He garnered close to 33 per cent of the vote.

The third candidate in the fray, Marina Silva, is Mr. da Silva’s Minister for the Environment and a Green Party candidate. Ms. Silva is on track to be the queen- or king-maker as the case may be, after she scooped up close to 19 per cent of the vote.

Observers noted that the final outcome after the runoff vote would depend significantly on whether Ms. Silva made a public endorsement of one of the two other candidates.

While neither Ms. Rousseff nor Mr. Serra have proposed policies that would destabilise the course of Brazil’s rapid economic growth in recent years, their politics on subjects such as fiscal discipline and state intervention are in stark contrast. According to analysts, Ms. Rousseff would be more likely to favour greater state control over the economy, whereas Mr. Serra would likely focus on cutting public expenditure.

Shortly after the counting of votes, Ms. Rouseff was quoted as having said to media in Brasilia, “I will confront the second round with a lot of drive and energy... I will have the opportunity to provide more details about my proposals to eradicate misery and ensure the country's development with fast levels of growth."

Most analysts agreed that Ms. Rousseff would retain her position as the strongest candidate in the runoff as well. Her popularity stems in part from her association with Mr. da Silva, who was himself unable to contest a third term due to a constitutional rule forbidding it. Exiting office, however, he enjoyed a whopping 80 per cent popularity rating.

Labels: Brazil presidential elections, Dilma Rousseff, Jose Serra

From The Hindu

The United States has apologised to Guatemala for a series of human experiments its researchers had conducted on Guatemalan prison and mental hospital inmates between 1946 and 1948.

U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior administration officials issued public statements of deep regret this week after archival research by Professor Susan Reverby of Wellesley College revealed that vulnerable Guatemalans were clandestinely infected with sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhoea, and chancroid.

The study, funded by a Department of State grant to the U.S. National Institute of Health, was purportedly aimed at testing the effectiveness of penicillin, which was relatively new at the time. The experiments, acknowledged by officials to be a gross violation of modern-day bioethics standards, were led by the late John Cutler, a U.S. Public Health Service medical officer.

Commenting on the episode the White House issued a statement on Friday saying that Mr. Obama had spoken with President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala to express his “deep regret” regarding the study, and to extend an apology to all those affected. He also reaffirmed the U.S.’ commitment to ensuring that all human medical studies conducted today would meet “exacting U.S. and international legal and ethical standards.”

In a joint statement Secretary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius further said that they were “outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health.” They added that they deeply regretted that the “clearly unethical” experiments had happened and apologised to all the individuals affected by such “abhorrent research practices.”

Officials also remarked that the study had revived memories from another dark period in U.S. medical ethics – the Tuskegee, Alabama, experiments, in which nearly 400 African-American men were infected with syphilis without informed consent. In that case, treatment through Penicillin was not provided.

To further examine the question of adherence to bioethics standards the government also announced two investigations into the experiments. The first would be undertaken by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, and the second by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

The depth of the concern was further underscored by Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, who noted that no fewer than 40 such studies, “where intentional infection was carried out with what we would now consider to be completely inadequate consent in the U.S.,” had been carried out by U.S. researchers.

Commenting on the involvement of minority and vulnerable communities in medical research Dr. Collins added that the Tuskegee study had involved the same Dr. Cutler, and did “great damage to the confidence and the trust that individuals, particularly from the African American community, had in medical research.”

He noted that Professor Reverby’s would be yet another example of medical research being conducted on vulnerable populations “in a way that is reprehensible.”

Labels: Guatemalan prison abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, U.S. President