PM invites Zardari and Gilani for India vs Pakistan Semifinal at Mohali

Not only the World Cup sporting fortunes of our cricket team in the quarter-final match against Australia were in play, the political fortunes of our relations with Pakistan were at stake too.

Unknown to them, our gallant players were playing for the nation for a cause greater than closing the doors for Australia in the tournament. They were, through their successful exertions in the field, opening the doors of a resumed summit-level engagement between India and Pakistan.

If the spectators in the cricket ground were baying for an Indian win, those at Raisina Hill were praying for the victory of our “Nations Eleven”. Our cricketers were acting as diplomats without knowing it. Cricket diplomacy seems to fascinate us, despite our bitter experience with the last Pakistani practitioner of it.

Exultation over our win has promptly led to an invitation to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and PM Yousaf Raza Gilani to visit Mohali for the India-Pakistan semi-final. The difference between being imaginative and being ad hoc in responses can be sometimes thin. What if India had lost the match against Australia?

Obviously, Z and G would not have been sent friendly missives to visit India. How much of the forward movement in our ties with Pakistan depended on the unpredictable results of a cricket match! If this is the fluidity of the underlying dynamics of our approach toward Pakistan, how can we build a solid policy towards that country?

Even before the Thimphu spirit has produced heady feelings on our side, we have already imbued ourselves with a new one — the Mohali spirit. At Thimphu, we had agreed to a series of meetings to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation, trade, Kashmir, Sir Creek, peace and security at the secretary level, to be topped with a meeting at foreign minister- level by July this year. Well, before this agenda has even begun to be completed, we have abandoned it by jumping straight to the PMPresident level.

Without verifying over the coming months if there is any positive change in Pakistan’s positions on various issues, we are demonstrating our trust in that country’s essential goodwill towards us by opening our arms to its leaders.

For us, Pakistan cannot be in disgrace for too long, no matter what they do, because of our powerful yearning to embrace it at the earliest opportunity. Pakistani leaders have long wanted our PM to visit their country, but their actions have made it impossible for him to do so. Even now, Pakistan has not moved on the issue of bringing to justice those responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai massacre, much less dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil.

Pakistan’s unwillingness even to curb Hafiz Saeed is instructive on where it stands on the issue of jihadi groups targeting India. Meanwhile, religious extremism is striking deeper roots in the country, with ministers being killed for opposing the egregious blasphemy law. The government of Z and G is tottering because of internal bickerings in the coalition. US-Pakistan relations have come under more strain because of the Raymond Davis affair. Pakistan’s descent towards failure as a state is generating increased anxiety. China is proceeding with expanding the nuclear capability of this unstable country that is frenetically adding to its nuclear arsenal.

Z and G can’t deliver what their own people want from them. How can they deliver anything that we want? They, in fact, would be looking for gestures from us to bolster themselves internally. Our first gesture has already been made.

We are throwing a political lifeline to Z (and to a lesser extent G) even as he is politically drowning. Why? Should we feel concerned that other gestures might follow? The Pakistanis are keen on a Siachen agreement, and they have support for this from their western friends desperately keen to exit from Afghanistan. There’s is nothing sporting in Pakistan’s conduct and policies towards India.

Cricket, a gentleman’s game, does not, therefore, offer the right metaphor politically for our effort to advance our understanding with Pakistan. Those with no show of remorse for Mumbai did not merit our use of the excuse of the cricket match at Mohali to forgive, forget and move forward.

ISB chairman Rajat Gupta finally resigns after SEC charge

Rajat Gupta, the well known Indo-American and former managing director of McKinsey & Co has resigned from the executive board of the prestigious Indian School of Business (ISB). He was its co-founder. Gupta resigned as ISB’s chairman three weeks after the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) levelled insider trading charges against him and initiated civil charges.

ISB spokesman Sriram Gopalakrishnan said Gupta had requested the ISB executive board to relieve him of his responsibilities in the board till his pending matter with the US SEC is resolved. “This, and the appointment of the new chairman, will be tabled at the upcoming board meeting on April 2, 2011,” Sriram said.

ISB’s executive board comprises top industrialists including Anil Ambani, Rahul Bajaj, Adi Godrej, L.M. Mittal, Deepak Parikh and Sunil B. Mittal, among others. ISB has campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali.

Gupta, who had served on the boards of Goldman Sachs and P&G, among many other entities, has denied the allegations and has pleaded innocent. Two days back he had filed a case against SEC for singling him out ‘unfairly and unconstitutionally’ by linking him to the scam through an administrative action instead of a law suit. The SEC has filed civil charges against Gupta to punish him in the alleged scam.

According to US SEC, Gupta deliberately passed on classified information regarding Warren Buffet’s $5-billion investment in Goldman Sachs and more such confidential information to hedge fund trader Raj Rajaratnam of the Galleon Group, who made illicit profits of over $45 million by trading in Goldman and P&G stocks.

Gupta who is contesting the charges has also resigned from the boards of American Airlines, Genpact Ltd, Harman International Industries and Hyderabad- based Public Health Foundation of India. Earlier, the ISB strongly came in his defence of Gupta. Sriram said the ISB, now in its 10th year, had built its reputation as a world- class business school.

“ It is consistently focusing on its mission of delivering the highest quality of programmes and creating cutting- edge research output,” the ISB spokesman said.

This is the second instance of the ISB hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons in connection with the insider trading related to the Galleon hedge fund. In October last, another foundermember of ISB, Anil Kumar was arrested on similar charges. Anil Kumar, who was the director of McKinsey and Co, was also one of the founding- members of the ISB and had been on the ISB executive Board. Following the exposure of the hedge fund scandal, Anil Kumar was asked to step down from the ISB Board.

The ISB’s image had taken a severe beating in January 2009, when its former dean Rammohan Rao had to step down following exposure of the ` 14,000- crore Satyam Computer Services Ltd accounting fraud by its former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju.

Kolkata- born Gupta (62) is an icon for many in India and commands considerable respect, both in the country and abroad. Gupta is the first Indian to have occupied top positions in American MNCs, such as McKinsey.

Supermoon on March 19 may cause earthquake, natural calamities ?

It would be most beautiful moon tonight in almost last 20 years as it would be most closest to Earth in those years, but would there be any dark side of it. Some believe that it may cause massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, natural calamities and apocalypse in Japan is just the trailer of what it can do.

Supermoon which is also called as lunar perigee in more scientific way takes places when the moon reaches its absolute closest point to Earth and this would take place on 19 March when it will be just 221,567 miles away from our planet.

Supermoons took place in the past i.e. 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005 also brought some extreme changes in the weather conditions but it is yet to be ascertained any co-relation with the sudden change in the weather and Supermoon.

Experts on the other hand hold different view and declare this as no more than utter nonsense. Dr David Harland, space historian and author, said, "It's possible that the moon may be a kilometre or two closer to Earth than normal at a perigee, but it's an utterly insignificant event."

Professor George Helffrich, a seismologist at the University of Bristol was equally dismissive.

"Complete nonsense. The moon has no significant effect on earthquake triggering. If the moon triggers "big" earthquakes, it would trigger the many of millions of times more "small" earthquakes that happen daily. There is no time dependence of those; hence no moon effect," he said.

The question rises, Was that just a coincidence when the devastating Japanese tsunami happened just after 2 days of online warnings about Supermoon which may cause disasters? Is there no relation between the movement of Moon and natural calamities on Earth ?

Relation or not, one things would be certain tonight and that is Moon would be 10% bigger and at its best scenic beauty to bring the sheer treat to the human eyes.

India feels meltdown tremors after Fukushima nuclear blast

The Japanese nuclear meltdown has begun having a ripple effect in India. On Monday, the government ordered an ‘immediate technical review’ of safety aspects in nuclear power plants even as critics called for a moratorium on new nuclear power projects in the pipeline.

The objective of the review is to “ensure that nuclear reactors would be able to withstand the impact of large natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told both the Houses of Parliament. The review would be carried out by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which operates nuclear power plants.

The explosions in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Japan’s northeast coast in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami have come at a time when India is in the process of rolling out an ambitious expansion of its nuclear power generation with imported technology. Despite assurances by the atomic energy establishment, the Japanese disaster has set the alarm bells ringing.

In particular, critics were quick to point out that two of the oldest reactors in India — Tarapur unit 1 and 2 — are of the same type (Boiling Water Reactors) and have been supplied by the same manufacturers (GE) as the ageing reactors of Fukushima. But officials of NPCIL rule out any laxity saying the safety of these two BWR reactors was reviewed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) a few years back, following which, “the two reactors have been renovated, upgraded and fitted with additional safety features”.

All other 18 operational reactors are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs), which too have ‘multiple, redundant and diverse’ shutdown systems as well as cooling water systems, officials said.

Will Indian reactors be able to withstand an earthquake and tsunami of the intensity that hit the Japanese coast?

The opinion is divided. The reactors are designed to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and even external attacks. “Earthquakes of the intensity which have occurred in Japan can occur in India only in the Himalayan region where we don’t have any nuclear plants. As regards tsunami, it is already factored in the design of Indian reactors. For example, the Madras station is located at a higher elevation,” pointed out Dr K.S. Parthasarathy, former secretary of AERB.

During the 2004 tsunami, the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) had to be shut down and was restarted only after a regulatory review. Higher elevation has been chosen for the units under construction at Kudankulam. Jaitapur, too, though in a coastal area, is located much above the sea level. The severe earthquake which hit Bhuj in January 2001 did not affect the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station, which continued to operate during and after the quake.

“It is an unforgiving technology. We have to constantly keep learning and we should relook at design features of all our reactors after the Fukushima experience,” Parthasarathy added.

NPCIL also said the Japanese event will be reviewed once all details become available, and based on this if any reinforcement is needed in Indian reactors, it will be implemented.

Critics however point out that though natural disasters like a tsunami or an earthquake might not have caused serious nuclear accidents, the safety record of Indian reactors has been far from clean. “There have been serious mishaps in nuclear power plants such as fires and leakages. Scores of workers have got radiation exposures many times higher than permissible limits and the safety system is not foolproof,” said Praful Bidwai of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.

“In nuclear technology, the Murphy’s Law operates — if something can go wrong, it will go wrong,” commented Suvrat Raju, a member of the coalition.

Japan Tsunami smashes markets worldwide

Massive earthquake in Japan, which triggered tsunamis (crest of waves), rattled the global markets, including that of India, on Friday. Domestic bellwether Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex slid by 0.84 per cent despite betterthan- expected industrial growth figures for January.

Possible unrest in Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil, and spiralling inflation in China, stoking policy rate hike fears in that country, added to the woes of world markets, and hammered global commodity prices. Also, the debt concerns of Portugal revived by evening, before the US markets opened.

Sensex opened on a negative note but bounced back to scale the previous close within a couple of hours, taking a cue from the better- than expected index of industrial production ( IIP) figures. However, the trend was short- lived as the Japanese calamity took its toll on the market, dragging the index down by 154 points to 18,174 points towards close. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broad- based Nifty slid by 49 points or 0.89 per cent to 5445.45 points.

Early in the day, Asian shares dipped, owing to the spreading unrest in the Middle East and later on fears of rising inflation in China. In the latter part of the Indian session, European markets opened lower as the news of Japan’s earthquake trickled in. In general, fears about the economy and unrest in Saudi Arabia upset the outlook for equities.

“ News from around the globe has been a big worry for the markets, worsening the sentiments day by day. This has fuelled worries over the growth of economy as well,” said Gaurav Dua, research head of Sharekhan.

Rising global economic concerns have hit the commodity prices the most. Oil price, which were spiralling on geo- political concerns in Libya, Bahrain, and now in Saudi Arabia, softened over 2.5 per cent to $ 100 per barrel in New York by Friday evening ( Indian time).

Among sectoral indices on BSE, only oil and gas and FMCG ( fast moving consumer goods) indices bucked the trend, while all the remaining 11 indices ended in red. Metals was the highest loser, followed by outsourcers, on expectation of a fall in demand in line with sliding global growth prospects. Banking stocks tumbled on fears of a policy rate hike next week.

Avinash Gupta, vice- president, (research equity) of Bonanza Portfolio, said, “ Short covering in last one- and- half hour of trade led Nifty to close above its day’s low. The number of declines was more than thrice that of advances.” Though industrial growth figure for January, at 3.7 per cent, is the best in three months, and would have given some fillip on the growth front in normal circumstances, this may not be enough to turn the global bad news around and boost the markets.

The Nifty has been trading in a range between 5,600 and 5,250 for the last couple of weeks with resistance around the 200-day moving average (DMA) at 5,600. Dua of Sharekhan feels that the near-term market outlook is downwards, based on technicals.

“ The market is expected to consolidate in a range of 5200 to 5,650. Market is likely to be volatile as monthly wholesale price index (WPI) inflation data for February is due on Monday,” Gupta said.