India, US to hold final agenda talks for Obama visit

Oct,19, US Undersecretary of State William Burns and chief pointperson for South Asia Robert Blake will hold two-day talks here starting Thursday, barely three weeks before President Barack Obama touches down in India.Topping a series of preparatory meetings aimed at firming up deliverables during the presidential visit, Burns and Blake, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, are expected to meet Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Indian officials Thursday-Friday, official sources said. They may also call on External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.This will be the final round of agenda-setting talks before Obama comes on his maiden visit to India, likely Nov 5-8.The talks will try to iron out differences over contentious issues like the hike in H1B visa fees, curbs on outsourcing and the civil nuclear liability legislation.The two sides will focus on issues such as the easing of high-tech exports that could give a historic character to Obama’s visit to India.There will be talks on removing Indian firms from the banned ‘entities list’ that could signal the relaxation of much-needed high-tech exports to India, said informed sources.India is being denied technology in 11 of the 16 categories, just one short of both Pakistan and China, while most European nations figure in just four categories and Canada faces restrictions on just two counts.Krishna had last week said India would raise concerns expressed by its IT industry over the US curbs on outsourcing when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets the US president next month and will press for lifting restrictions on exports of high-technology.The visit by Burns and Blake follow a string of recent high profile visits from Indian ministers to the US.These include trips by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao too met top US officials in Washington to firm up agenda for Obama’s visit.Last week, Blake had announced that Obama was planning a landmark visit to India in November.“I foresee our great nations becoming ever closer in the years and decades to come. President Obama intends to make a landmark visit to India in November to help further grow the ties between our two knowledge societies, our economies, and our people,” he said at the San Diego World Affairs Council.
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Rosaiah defends university land for TIFR campus

Oct,19, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah Monday defended the allotment of University of Hyderabad land to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for setting up its Hyderabad campus.

Rosaiah told reporters that TIFR was not a private company and that it was allotted 209 acres of surplus land of the university in accordance with the rules.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone for the Hyderabad campus of TIFR Tuesday even as a section of students and faculty are opposing the land allotment.Rosaiah claimed that the state got the second campus of the prestigious institution after tough competition from other states. He pointed out that TIFR planned to invest Rs.2,500 crore in the campus and this would help in the state’s development.The chief minister promised to compensate the central university for the land by extending other assistance.Meanwhile, University of Hyderabad’s Vice Chancellor Seyed E. Hasnain also justified land allotment to TIFR. He pointed out that it is an institute of excellence wholly-funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and there was nothing wrong in giving it land.He said the opposition to the move from some sections was politically motivated. The VC hoped that the institute would help in making the campus a world-class research hub.TIFR director Mustansir Barma said the Hyderabad campus would start functioning from the next year. It will have world-class labs and facilities to put India in the forefront of research in the emerging areas of science.It plans to accommodate 200 permanent faculty, 1,000 students and 300 post-doctoral researchers.TIFR, which was founded by Homi J. Bhabha on June 1, 1945 with the support of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, has already entered into memorandum of understanding with University of Hyderabad to facilitate collaborative research.Barma said this collaboration between the university and the institute would continue in future.
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Expand human resource pool in science, technology: PM

Oct,19, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday called for expanding the human resource pool in science and technology and creating a stimulating institutional environment “through innovation and pursuit of excellence”.Singh laid the foundation stone for the Hyderabad campus of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at the centrally-run University of Hyderabad.
“We need to expand human resource pool in the area of science and technology to maintain our competitive advantage in the knowledge economy that is now on the horizon in the world,” Singh said.“Secondly, we need to create a stimulating institutional environment that can engender a full flowering of our vast, latent capacities through innovation and pursuit of excellence.”“The scientific and technological prowess of a nation is a major determinant of its state of development. Innovation and knowledge will be the key factors in our nation’s progress in the 21st century. We must, therefore, foster an environment that promotes and nurtures scientific achievement and makes us a world leader in creating intellectual property,” he said.He stressed the need to strengthen scientific infrastructure, draw the brightest minds to scientific research, and create institutions of the highest standards of excellence.“Scientific development is an integral part of the journey of our country towards inclusive, balanced and sustainable growth,” he said.The ceremony passed off without any untoward incident as tight security arrangements were made in view of protests by a section of students and faculty of the university over allotment of university land to TIFR.The institute is coming up on 209 acres allotted by the state government. TIFR plans to set up various research and academic facilities at the Hyderabad campus with an investment of about Rs.2,500 crore over a decade.Recalling that India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation stone for TFIR at Mumbai 56 years ago, Singh noted that from modest beginnings TIFR has emerged as a great centre of research and learning of international repute.He said the institute was closely associated with many of the advances the country has made in the frontier fields of scientific research.“From its origin in nuclear science and mathematics, TIFR’s activities now encompass all branches of natural sciences, mathematics, computer cience and science education,” he said.Paying rich tributes to TIFR’s founder and a greatest scientist Homi Bhabha, Singh said the nation owes Bhabha a deep debt of gratitude for his pioneering efforts in putting India on the scientific map of the world.Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee described TIFR as a cradle of atomic energy activities in the country.He said the need for the new campus was felt as the Mumbai campus had come to a state of saturation and it couldn’t grow any farther.“TIFR has chosen a path in which it will try to converge various traditional disciplines into some common theme. They have named it as research in light, matter and life,” he said.TIFR plans to have 1,000 to 1,400 students in Phd programmes and about 400 post doctoral associates in new campus. It will also have 250 faculty members.Mustansir Barma, director of TIFR, said TIFR was an autonomous institute supported by the department of atomic energy with a mission to conduct world class research in various sciences and train young researchers.He said the new campus would have TIFR centre for interdisciplinary science, which is expected to be functional by 2013.Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L Narasimhan and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah were also present on the occasion.
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Kasab spits on video camera, wants to go to US

Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, caught alive during the 26/11 Mumbai mayhem, Tuesday spat on the video-conferencing camera in the Arthur Road Central Jail from where he ‘attends’ the proceedings in the Mumbai High Court where arguments on confirming his death sentence are going on.Though the jail officials discreetly switched off the camera at the right moment, they later informed the court of the spitting incident.Kasab, who was seen misbehaving during the first day of the hearing Monday – laughing, stretching himself, playing with his jail uniform buttons, yawning and exhibiting boredom – continued his antics Tuesday, the jail officials said. At one time, he attempted to get up and walk away from the camera.He also came on the live video-screen and demanded that he should be sent to the US since he was not sure on what charges he was being kept in captivity here. At this, the bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R. V. More suggested that he should ask his lawyers under what charges he was being kept in jail.Kasab also told the court in Hindi that he wanted to attend the proceedings in person, instead of through video-conferencing, which the judges declined on security grounds.Kasab’s lawyers too agreed that he could not be brought to the Bombay High Court in view of security considerations.Government counsel Ujjwal Nikam Monday opened his arguments in the case for confirming the death sentence awarded to Kasab by Special JUdge M.L. Tahaliyani May 6 this year.Kasab was the only Pakistani gunman nabbed alive from the group of 10 terrorists who sneaked into Mumbai and created mayhem between Nov 26-29, killing 166 people, including 26 foreigners, and injuring around 300 others.
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