India-Arab trade can double by 2014: Anand Sharma
New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) India will strive towards doubling its trade with the Arab region by 2014, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here Monday.

"We will look towards doubling bilateral trade with the Arab world by 2014. We can do it," Sharma said at the inaugural session of the two-day second India-Arab Investment projects conclave, organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The current trade between India and the Arab states stands at $114 billion per year.

Sharma urged the sovereign wealth funds based in the region to look towards India, noting it was now one ... Read More

Former Sri Lankan Army chief arrested
Colombo, Feb 8 (IANS) Former Sri Lankan Army chief and defeated presidential poll candidate Sarath Fonseka has been arrested, his family told reporters here Monday.

Fonseka was arrested by the military police, Xinhua reported citing sources.

Fonseka's media secretary Senaka de Silva was also arrested, the Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka reported on its website.

Weekend newspapers had speculated that Fonseka would be arrested and hauled before a military court for several allegations against him, including a conspiracy to assassinate Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He was the main challenger to Rajapaksa in the country's ... Read More

Australia to cancel 20,000 visa applications
Melbourne, Feb 8 (IANS) In an overhaul of the immigration policy, Australia will cancel 20,000 visa applications from foreign nationals, including Indians, who have been staying in the country under the existing skilled migration programme.

The changes which will be unveiled Monday will see 20,000 current applications binned as a result of an overhaul of the list that identifies occupations in demand and awards points on the basis of professional qualifications of the applicants.

State governments will be asked to develop new migration plans and a new list will be prepared to define occupations in demand in the country. The ... Read More

Pakistan wants to discuss Kashmir with India: Qureshi
Islamabad, Feb 8 (IANS) Pakistan says it wants to discuss Kashmir and other unresolved issues with India when the foreign secretaries of the two countries meet, possibly later this month.

Pakistan had a "strong case" on several outstanding issues, including Kashmir and the sharing of river waters, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said at a gathering in his hometown Multan Sunday.

At the same time, Qureshi took a hard line, pointing out that Pakistan had not knelt before India, which had now "sought talks" and a return to the negotiating table.

"India had broken off the composite dialogue process and spoken ... Read More

Andhra High Court quashes reservation for Muslims
Hyderabad, Feb 8 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh High Court Monday quashed a legislation providing four percent reservation to Muslims in education and jobs, terming it unconstitutional. The state government has decided to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Delivering the much-awaited judgement, the seven-member constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice A.R. Dave ruled that reservation cannot be provided on the basis of religion.

It was a majority judgement. Five judges, including Dave, opposed the reservation while two differed with their opinion.

The court verdict has come as a big blow to the Congress government, which had brought the legislation in ... Read More

India projects 7.2 percent economic growth for this fiscal
New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Spurred by a turnaround in factory output, India Monday forecast its economic growth for this fiscal at 7.2 percent, against 6.7 percent achieved in the previous fiscal, despite a 0.2 percent decline predicted in the farm output.

The advance estimates of the country's gross domestic product released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) forecasts a growth of 9.9 percent in services and 8.9 percent in manufacturing -- the highest among the eight broader economic activities.

Mining and quarrying comes next with an 8.7 percent expansion followed by 8.3 percent for trade, hotels, transport and communications, and ... Read More

Officer, 16 jawans killed in Kashmir avalanche
Srinagar, Feb 8 (IANS) At least 16 Indian Army soldiers and an officer were killed and 12 personnel injured Monday when a massive avalanche struck a high altitude warfare training camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

The officer killed is a lieutenant, said a defence official and added that rescue operations are going on in the north Kashmir district.

"A massive avalanche rolled down the Khilanmarg mountain, engulfing a high altitude warfare camp set up by the army," the official said.

The injured soldiers have been shifted to a hospital.

There were around 300 ... Read More

Somdev jumps 21 places in ATP rankings
New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) India's Somdev Devvarman jumped 21 places to be at 141st position in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings released Monday.

The 24-year-old Somdev had reached the quarterfinals of South Africa Open at Johannesburg last week.

The US-based Indian Prakash Amritraj slipped 22 places to be at 222nd position.

In the men's doubles, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are static at seventh and eighth positions, respectively.

In the women' singles, Sania Mirza stayed at her 59th position. ... Read More

Mandate to check prices with Pawar's ministry: Congress
New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Apparently peeved with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's meeting with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the Congress Monday sought to put the minister in a spot on the issue of price rise, saying his ministry has the main responsibility for tackling the problem.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said the mandate for controlling food prices lay with the agriculture and food ministries, but added that inflation was also the concern of the central government.

Tewari said that controlling prices was "a collective but differentiated responsibility".

Responding to queries, he said the Congress has never indulged ... Read More

Chidambaram to discuss anti-Maoist steps with chief ministers
Kolkata, Feb 8 (IANS) Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will sit with the chief ministers of three eastern Indian states here Tuesday to draw up the details of a joint security operation against the Maoist menace.

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren will take part in the talks being hosted by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat Writers' Buildings.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, however, will not attend. The state will be represented by its chief secretary.

The meeting for four states has been convened to decide the modalities of ... Read More

'Australian attacks on Indians, Nepalis not racist'
By Sudeshna Sarkar

Kathmandu, Feb 8 (IANS) With Australia reporting the first attack on a Nepali student after a series of assaults on Indians, an education consultant in Nepal says the incidents should be regarded as criminal attacks and not racist.

Ricky Shrestha, 32, who spent 12 years in Sydney first as a student and then worked there, says Australia has always been regarded as one of the safest destinations by Nepali students.

"At least five Nepali students have been killed in the US," Shrestha, now an Australian citizen who runs an education consultancy in Kathmandu called Sydney Express Education Consultancy, told ... Read More

Researchers unveil psychology of ads that prompt you to buy
Washington, Feb 8 (IANS) If you won a million dollars today, what would you do? Say “sayonara” to your boss and head to Bora Bora, or invest your new found wealth in sound projects?

Your answer may not be so clear-cut, says a new research by Danit Ein-Gar of Tel Aviv University (TAU) Recanati Graduate School of Business Studies.

She and her American colleague Camille Su Lin Johnson found that whether you'll indulge or be prudent is not necessarily based on your personality type or education, but may be strongly influenced by advertising and other environmental cues.

This research ... Read More

Rs.55 crore fund set up to help young scientists
New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Young researchers struggling to muster funds to establish their startups have reason to smile - the government Monday set up a corpus of Rs.55 crore to help scientists convert their prototypes to tangible commercial products.

“This (venture capital) fund will now help researchers become entrepreneurs,” Science Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Monday.

The Rs.55 crore fund will be provided to startups registered with nearly 40 science and business 'incubators', which help researchers set up new companies, in the country during the 2010-11 financial year. These incubators help to take the laboratory prototypes to the masses as ... Read More

East India Company coming to India again: report
London, Feb 8 (IANS) East India Company, whose forces once ruled over much of India, is coming to India again but under Indian ownership this time around, a British newspaper reported Monday.

Indian entrepreneur Sanjiv Mehta, who has bought all the shares in the company, will launch the East India Company's store in the upmarket Mayfair neighbourhood of London in the spring, with plans to open a second by the year-end, The Times reported.

This will be followed by stores in India and the Middle East, with concessions in Japanese department stores and franchises in Russia, and finally the US.

The ... Read More