IMF: Size Doesn't Matter

Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram emphasised that the formula for allocating voting and other powers to countries in IMF must reflect the current economic status of various nations and not what it was in 1944 when the IMF was established. The 23 countries together amounted to only 9.4 per cent of the votes despite countries like India, Brazil, Argentina and Egypt being large economies with large population and area. What, he was stressing was that other under-represented countries should also get more voting rights by reducing those of several over-represented industrialised nations, including the United States and several European countries. - PTI, 19 September 2006

Sleeping With The Enemy

In a reminder of the costs the Indo-US nuclear deal is continuing to exact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has lapped up a long-pressed US proposal, bringing about a tectonic shift in Indian policy on Pakistan — embracing the sponsor of terrorism as a partner in the fight against terror. While Islamabad has stood its ground, making no new pledge nor budging from any stance, India has overnight gone from portraying Pakistan as the source of the problem to accepting it as part of the solution. - U turn on Pakistan, Brahma Chellany, 19 September 2006

Gas Pipeline

After the meeting Singh said that India would rework on the gas pipeline once the report of the experts on the feasibility of the USD 7.4 billion project is available. The issue of security for the pipeline came up during talks between Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Rajiv Sikri and Safari in view of the unrest in Balochistan through which the pipeline has to pass. - PTI, 19 September 2006

Corbett Apathy

Early on Sunday morning, within 7 km of the high-security reserve, three poachers allegedly killed a male tiger on the banks of the Dhela river in the Terai West forest division. Conservator of Corbett Tiger Reserve Rajiv Bharti confirmed Sunday’s killing but washed his hands of the incident saying he didn’t want to comment as the “incident occurred outside Corbett’s boundary.” - Indian Express, 13 September 2006

Eye for an Eye

Five days after the blasts in Malegaon killed 30 people, the police have detained 20 suspects from a predominantly Hindu locality of the town. - Indian Express, 14 September 2006

Non Aligned, Almost

The Havana summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on September 15-16 is expected to be a tightrope walk for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Loaded as the guest list for the summit is with leaders of well-known anti-US persuasion, India will hope to try and keep the Havana Declaration’s expected anti-US language to an absolute minimum. - IndianExpress, 9 September 2006

Gone With The Wind

The Sultanpur bird sanctuary in Haryana, 50 km from Delhi, is a regular haunt for over 100 exotic species from as far away as Siberia. But now trouble is hovering over this national park with the 2500-acre Reliance Special Economic Zone about to surround the tiny 400-acre sanctuary. "It will be the end of the sanctuary. It was the last safe water body left for birds. Now an SEZ will be built. With its noise, construction and activity, birds will stop coming." - NDTV, 8 September 2006

Song

The Congress Legacy: Dynastic Politics

NCP chief Sharad Pawar's only daughter Supriya Sule is set to enter the Rajya Sabha. In an interview with NDTV shortly after she joined the NCP, Supriya Sule had openly admitted that she needs more time. Ironically, just two months later, she has got the NCP ticket for the Rajya Sabha seat vacated after Chavan's death. And with the Congress, NCP's ally, set to support her candidature, her victory is a foregone conclusion.

Pawar has always been a bitter critic of Congress party's dynastic politics, but with his own daughter getting the Rajya Sabha ticket two months after joining the party, he can hardly afford to take the moral high ground. - NDTV, 5 September 2006

Balochistan Blunder

Denouncing the killing of tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in an army operation as a “political nightmare”, the Pakistani media today said his death could fuel Baloch nationalism and could end up as the second biggest blunder by the military since the execution of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979. - Indian Express, 29 August 2006

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