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India has high growth potential, says Bill Gates
Bangalore, Nov 13 (ANI): Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday he is optimistic that India will register tremendous growth in coming years. Gates on the third of day of his trip to India visited Bangalore, considered to be the country's tech capital. Gates also met Karanataka chief Minsiters S.M Krishna and the two signed a Memorendum of Understanding (MoU) to promote a state of the art on-line portal. Addressing a gathering of industrialists and corporate heads, Gates said India is a country of great expertise and has high growth potential. "India is a country that has so much promise for us in terms of having great expertise. They are to provide these partnership capabilities whether it is in services or back office processes. I am extremely optimistic about the high growth that will take place here in India in the rest of this decade," said Gates. Gates added that India was on course to become a global hub for 'mission-critical activity' in software as it was increasingly earning a reputation for its quality work and delivery on time. Gates said that in the last couple of years, Indian companies such as NASDAQ-listed Infosys Technologies Limited, based here, had built a worldwide reputation and earned a name for delivering quality work on schedule. In the next few years, he predicted, firms in the US and Europe would be sure to insist that Indian companies be considered for doing all mission-critical work. Having donated 100 million dollors for AIDS prevention to various organisations in India, the world's richest man hailed Karnataka for its developmental work. Gates said the state was playing a leadership role not only in terms of software development but also in making technology an effective tool for citizens. Applauding the success of a joint online land registration project which has helped regularise land reforms in rural areas, Gates said, "We are very lucky to be a partner in many of these projects. The "Bhoomi", our land registration project, is being recognised as a very successful leadership project with the help of Karnataka which helped in spreading uses and benefits. Karnataka is doing a lot in education. We just talked about extending schools project that we have to another 1,000 schools and that's someting I am very committed to." Forty seven year-old Gates, whose fortune is estimated at 43 billion dollars by Forbes magazine, has announced a 400 million dollar investment in India to boost education, business partnerships and software development.(ANI) Gandhinagar, Nov 13 (ANI): The Election Commission has barred the VHP from going ahead with its proposed yatra in Gujarat from November 15. The VHP was planning to start a Padpadshahi Yatra from Godhra on November 15, which was to stop at nearly 200 places and culminate in Ahmedabad on December 6. Fresh from a two-day tour of Gujarat, the three-member commission said on Wednesday that there is every likelihood of communal tension getting exacerbated by the VHP's plans for a yatra. It also pointed out that the yatra would involve the use of replicas of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express that was burnt down by miscreants in Godhra. "The possibility of a law and order situation arising in the wake of the proposed yatra cannot be ruled out", said the Commission citing the Gujarat Government report. The Commission said it would "in fact go so far as to state that any activity which may aggravate existing differences will not only vitiate the election process but tarnish the fair democratic traditions of the country." It stressed that the maintenance of law and order was the responsibility of the state government and the Commission expected the administration to take all measures under the existing laws.(ANI) "Astrostat launch by 2006"
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Chandigarh, Nov 13 (ANI): If all goes well, the country would soon launch indigenously-built scientific research satellite "Astrostat". It would be utilised in learning more about deep space. This was announced here on Wednesday by Chairman of Space Commission K. Kasturirangan. Kasturirangan said the satellite has detectors to monitor different types of radio frequencies, X-rays and electromagnetic radiations which would give insight into deeper space and "significantly increase our understanding of space systems". The launch is likely to take place in 2005-06, he said. There were also plans to establish within five to eight years a unique space observatory which would have the facility to study different objects, including neutron stars and black holes, at different wavelengths simultaneously. Kasturirangan said the observatory project would involve collaboration with various agencies across the country including Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, ISRO, Raman Research Institute, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, all from Bangalore. (ANI) Iftikhar Geelani's bail plea rejected
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to top New Delhi, Nov 13 (ANI): A local court on Wednesday denied bail to Iftikhar Geelani, a New Delhi-based Kashmiri journalist, who was arrested by the police on charges of spying. Geelani alongwith his father-in-law Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a firebrand leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, was arrested in June under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Jamaat-e-Islami is the key constituent of the main Kashmiri separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). Geelani's lawyer V.K.Ohri said the court denied him bail after accepting the prosecution's stand. "Due to hypercritical reasons, the court for the time being accepted the story of the prosecution which does not go according to the file. The court has accepted that Geelani stayed in Agra on Pakistan's expense. Whereas, the file says that Yusufi, who is an accredited journalist, paid the expense. The court has rejected the bail on these grounds," Ohri said. Geelani was found to be in possession of incriminating documents which police said pertained to Indian troop movements in Kashmir. Geelani is the New Delhi bureau chief of Jammu-based "Kashmir Times". His father-in-law has been booked on charges of channelising funds to Kashmiri militants. Geelani is well-known in the media and government circles and he is accredited with India's Press Information Bureau, which holds a thorough security check before issuing identity cards.(ANI)
No crop loan recovery from drought-hit farmers, says PM Go to top New Delhi, Nov. 13 (ANI): Farm loans are not to be recovered from the drought-hit farmers, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced here on Wednesday. The interests are also be written off. The aim of the measure is to provide relief to millions of farmers whose summer crops dried up due to the failure of south- west monsoon this year, subjecting them to great hardship. "It has been decided that this year the government will not recover agricultural loans from the farmers in drought-hit areas. Interest on previous year's loans will also not be collected," Vajpayee said. The relief would be applicable to farmers in the drought-hit areas all over the country. He also informed that the Centre has decided to create a corpus of Rs. 500 crores, which will be used to help crop growers during depressed market conditions. This money will largely come from the Central exchequer as well as from state governments, apart from small contributions from the farmers themeselves. Several meteorological zones this year received only 60 percent of average rainfall due to erratic monsoon in June-September. The worst-hit states were Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and northwestern Rajasthan from where dozens of deaths due to starvation and malnutrition were reported. (ANI) Osama hails recent terror attacks, threatens US allies Go to top Nicosia, Nov 13 (ANI): Osama bin Laden hailed the spate of terror attacks in the Arab world and Asia as well as last month's Moscow hostage-taking, and threatened US allies, in an audiotape attributed to him and broadcast by Al-Jazeera TV late Tuesday, reports The News. The speaker lashed out at US President George W. Bush, calling him the "pharaoh of the century," and at his key allies, whom he called "murderers." "As you assassinate, so will you be (assassinated), and as you bomb so will you likewise be," the tape said, against the background of a photograph of the Al-Qaeda terror network's leader, in turban and khaki jacket, a rifle at his side. In the message to "the peoples of countries allied to the United States," he warned them against the "alliance between their governments and the United States to attack us in Afghanistan." He cited "Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia." The supposed bin Laden said: "What has happened since the conquests of New York and Washington until now--like the operations on Germans in Tunisia, the explosion of the French tanker in Yemen, on the French in Karachi, the operations against the (US) Marines in Failaka (Kuwait), on Australians and Britons in the explosions in Bali, as well as the recent hostage-taking in Moscow and other operations here and there--were nothing but the response of Muslims eager to defend their religion and respond to the order of God and their Prophet.(ANI)
Bengal lawyers on strike in protest against court fee
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top Kolkata, Nov 13 (ANI): All the courts in West Bengal were shut on Wednesday and are expected to remain closed for the next 10 days after lawyers across the state called for a strike to protest against a recent decision to hike court fees. The state government had passed an ordinance a week before courts opened on November 7, raising the fee that the litigant has to pay to the government to file a case. Though the fees has been increased in the past also to meet the expenses of running the courts, this time it has been doubled and, in some cases, hiked by five times. At least 80 bar associations met on Tuesday evening and decided that unless the fees are scaled down, the cease-work will continue. The lawyers are also upset that the government issued an ordinance in doing so instead of following the normal process of legislation. (ANI)
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