Ehnic Conflict Intensify in the GLOBAL Village as Backlash INFLICTS the DEMOCRACY ike PANDEMIC. CEO is the latest supreme ELITE Class ROBOTIC!
Troubled Galaxy Detroyed Dreams, Chapter 411
Palash Biswas
Ehnic Conflict Intensify in the GLOBAL Village as Backlash INFLICTS the DEMOCRACY ike PANDEMIC. CEO is the latest supreme ELITE Class ROBOTIC!
Sabita has left for her maternal Home in mourning mode to join her near and dear ones as her mother SARALA Devi EXPIRED on 16th Oct. last. She has performed the last rites in the pure Brahaminical Vedic way and also organised a Death Feast called Niyam Bhanga. We could not acompany her to her Home a thousand miles away in Bijnore near HARIDWAR. I saw her off in the 3009 Up DoonExpress last night. My Son Sreve is indulged in Virtual world and Personality Disorder resultant and he refuses to go anywhere. Thus, we dare not to leave him alone so often.
I was a ittle bit tense as I could not contact her on CELL as she slept in her berth keeping the mobile set in the bag. this morning she responded crossing Mugalsarai.
Major Siddhartha Barves called me fromMumabai as he stumbled through my FREE Market Democracy posts. Only yesterday, BAMCEF West Bengal had its state Conference and I could not attend. matang Bhai had reminded me but I could not oblige. Abhiram enquired about the route to Thakur Nagar, the Matua head quarter.
We discussed the unbearable inaction in Ambedkarite Organisations which do arrange BIG BIG Convensions and do Nothing. This Failure provides infinite SPACE for Hindutva forces, Political parties, NGOs and Maoists along with other extremist groups to arouse ETNONATIONALISM and make SCAOEGOATS of SC, ST, OBC Aboriginal Indigenous and converted Minority communities!
We could not launch a Mobilisation Drive to Unite the Productive forces and social forces including professional and are almost eating dust in the war of knowledge,information and Job. Economic reforms do continue as CEOs with ROBOTIC Heart and Mind have emerged as the RUYHLESS ELITE Class amongts the Ruling Hegemony. CivilSociety and Intelligentsai sustain the equities of State Power just changing wings on the line of Politicians. Demogogues and media MISLEAD us Everywhere.
The Growth of Wealth is SHOCKING. Hatred INTESIFIED as intesify the ETHNIC Conflict resultant in Ethnic cleansing, Holocaust, Exodus. Backlash against Free Market Democracy Promotion has turned this planet into warfield!
What should we do?
Sabita has left for her maternal Home in mourning mode to join her near and dear ones as her mother SARALA Devi EXPIRED on 16th Oct. last. She has performed the last rites in the pure Brahaminical Vedic way and also organised a Death Feast called Niyam Bhanga. We could not acompany her to her Home a thousand miles away in Bijnore near HARIDWAR. I saw her off in the 3009 Up DoonExpress last night. My Son Sreve is indulged in Virtual world and Personality Disorder resultant and he refuses to go anywhere. Thus, we dare not to leave him alone so often.
I was a ittle bit tense as I could not contact her on CELL as she slept in her berth keeping the mobile set in the bag. this morning she responded crossing Mugalsarai.
Major Siddhartha Barves called me fromMumabai as he stumbled through my FREE Market Democracy posts. Only yesterday, BAMCEF West Bengal had its state Conference and I could not attend. matang Bhai had reminded me but I could not oblige. Abhiram enquired about the route to Thakur Nagar, the Matua head quarter.
We discussed the unbearable inaction in Ambedkarite Organisations which do arrange BIG BIG Convensions and do Nothing. This Failure provides infinite SPACE for Hindutva forces, Political parties, NGOs and Maoists along with other extremist groups to arouse ETNONATIONALISM and make SCAOEGOATS of SC, ST, OBC Aboriginal Indigenous and converted Minority communities!
We could not launch a Mobilisation Drive to Unite the Productive forces and social forces including professional and are almost eating dust in the war of knowledge,information and Job. Economic reforms do continue as CEOs with ROBOTIC Heart and Mind have emerged as the RUYHLESS ELITE Class amongts the Ruling Hegemony. CivilSociety and Intelligentsai sustain the equities of State Power just changing wings on the line of Politicians. Demogogues and media MISLEAD us Everywhere.
The Growth of Wealth is SHOCKING. Hatred INTESIFIED as intesify the ETHNIC Conflict resultant in Ethnic cleansing, Holocaust, Exodus. Backlash against Free Market Democracy Promotion has turned this planet into warfield!
What should we do?
The Planning Commission expects the economy to stage a full recovery by next fiscal and register a growth of 8%. It also expects last year s final GDP numbers to be a tad higher than the revised estimate of 6.7%. GDP...Hit by the global financial crisis, the Indian economy is unlikely to fully return to the high growth path till 2011-12, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Virmani says.The recovery of Indian economy may be more than expected but the credit offtake situation is heading towards bad to worse with every passsing fornight. The loan growth in the banking industry has dipped to 10.75% for the year ending October 9, 2009.
The Indian banking system has exhibited resilience against the backdrop of global financial turmoil and slowdown of the Indian economy. The Reserve Bank of India s (RBI) report on the trend and progress of banking in India for 2008-09, has depicted...
Obama's fury at Baghdad bloodbath
 The ministry of justice was one of the targets |
US President Barack Obama has led international condemnation of Sunday's double suicide bomb attack in Baghdad that killed at least 132 people.
Mr Obama branded the attacks - the worst in more than two years in Iraq - "hateful and destructive".UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said they were a "terrible reminder of the threat from violent extremism".
The blasts hit the ministry of justice and a provincial government office near the heavily fortified Green Zone.
 | ANALYSIS  Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC News, Baghdad Sunday's blasts present a problem for President Barack Obama. He wants all combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August, in preparation for a full military withdrawal by 2012. If the security situation deteriorates, the US military may have to revise this timetable. They will be asking searching questions about Iraq's security forces - are they competent and well enough trained to secure the country and are they immune from infiltration by insurgents? After Sunday's attacks there will be those who will argue that the answer to both these questions is no. |
The White House said President Obama had spoken to Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki and President Jalal Talabani to pledge his support.
Mr Obama said in a statement: "I strongly condemn these outrageous attacks on the Iraqi people, and send my deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones.
"These bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, women and children, and they only reveal the hateful and destructive agenda of those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that they deserve."
The International Zone, or Green Zone, is the administrative heart of the capital.
The Iraqi authorities said the suicide bombers drove their vehicles into parking bays and detonated them.
Traffic limits in the street were eased six months ago and blast walls repositioned as part of a programme which Mr Maliki said showed progress was being made against insurgents.
Dozens of the dead were said to be staff members of the ministry of justice and Baghdad provincial government.
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Mobile footage captures blast in the Iraqi capital
Election fears
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says that hours after the explosions, rescue workers were still sifting through the rubble and the wreckage, looking for bodies and survivors.
| DEADLIEST ATTACKS SINCE 2003 Aug 2007: More than 500 killed in attacks on villages near Sinjar Jul 2007: 150 killed in truck bombing in Tuz Khurmato Apr 2007: 191 killed in car bombings in Baghdad Mar 2007: 152 killed in truck bombing in Tal Afar Feb 2007: 135 killed in truck bombing in Baghdad Nov 2006: 202 killed in multiple blasts in Baghdad Mar 2004: 171 killed in bombings in Baghdad and Karbala Source: News agencies, BBC  |
After Mr Maliki visited the scene he blamed al-Qaeda and supporters of former president Saddam Hussein.
"These cowardly terrorist attacks must not affect the determination of the Iraqi people to continue their struggle against the remnants of the dismantled regime and al-Qaeda terrorists," he said.
Overall, violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq compared to a year ago, although sporadic attacks still continue in several parts of the country.
But our correspondent says there are fears that violence may increase as the country heads towards parliamentary elections scheduled for the beginning of next year.
The bombs went off as senior politicians were met in central Baghdad to try to break the deadlock over a draft law that would enable elections to take place in January.
The meeting ended without agreement, but will re-convene on Monday.
Last week the Iraqi parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass the legislation because of differences on a number of issues, among them whether to tell voters which candidates are on the party lists.
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President Obama on "difficult days ahead" 
Footballers defy Iraqi insurgents 
SPECIAL REPORT
FROM OTHER NEWS SITES
The Independent Carnage in Baghdad as twin blasts strike city - 3 hrs ago
The Scotsman 'Despicable' suicide attacks kill 147 - 4 hrs ago
Financial Times* Car bombs in Iraqi capital leave 136 dead - 5 hrs ago
Mail Online UK At least 136 killed in two Baghdad suicide bombings - 6 hrs ago
Boston Globe Obama: Iraq attacks an attempt to derail progress - 9 hrs ago
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Transcript
"The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion"
| TOOLBOX    Resize    COMMENT  Discussion Policy  CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. Who's Blogging  |
Thomas Carothers
Director, Democracy and Rule of Law Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Tuesday, March 7, 2006; 1:00 PM
Thomas Carothers , director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the book " Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge ," was online Tuesday, March 7, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his Foreign Affairs article on increased resistance to attempts to spread democracy in nations around the world. In " The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion " Carothers describes foreign leaders who have associated democracy with American intervention and meddling to strengthen their own grip on power. Russian President Vladimir Putin 's recent law restricting NGOs is one symptom of the mounting challenge to aid groups that operate within foreign countries. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has often been cited as evidence that the U.S.'s efforts to promote democracy are nefarious to regimes. Carothers suggests that the U.S. must fight this perception by not selling democracy as solely American concept and being consistent in speaking for political reform in nations that have been less scrutinized for their assistance in fighting terrorism.
Read more about : democracy promotion.
The transcript follows.
Atlanta, Ga.: We're not a democracy. We are a republic. Democracy leads to mob rule. We are getting closer to a democracy daily (with our leaders, rather than leading, following polls - and the way that Senators are elected). Just a thought - since everyone thinks we are, but we are not.
Thomas Carothers: Ideally we're a democratic republic -- with indirect, representative democracy. Democratic political processes do not have to lead to mob rule if they are grounded in the rule of law, checks and balances, and a civic culture.
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Hendersonville, N.C.: Sudden emergence of a Democracy in a society requires each citizen to accept responsibility for their personal participation in the common good. How do people go from suppression to such membership in society?
Thomas Carothers: It is a gradual process of building representative institutions and also building a civil society based on norms of accountability, participation, and civic engagement. Some Central European countries that lived through decades of harsh, dictatorial rule have made good progress toward creating genuinely democratic societies in the past fifteen years.
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London, U.K.: Hi Tom, what could the U.S. do to repair the damage to its image as the beacon of democratic values in Latin America as a result of events in Iraq? I am saddened and horrified by the extent of anti-US feeling in the region. Warm regards.
Thomas Carothers: The damage to the U.S. reputation caused by Iraq will take a long time to get over, in Latin America and many other places as well. There is no easy solution to the problem of America's low image in Latin America. It can only be alleviated over time if the United States shows more genuine interest in the disillusionment many Latin Americans feel with the results of democracy in their own societies, if the United States does not overplay its hand against Hugo Chavez and give him the advantages that Castro receives politically by being able to claim that he alone can stand up to U.S. bullying, and if the United States is able to create a real economic partnership with the region.
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Fairfax Station, Va.: The recent report by John Edwards and Jack Kemp illustrates a serious concern about the direction of democracy in Russia. However, when George W. Bush met Putin, Bush said he "saw into Putin's soul" and he was a good man.
Is it possible that George W. Bush was wrong, again?
Isn't this just another example of the lack of respect afforded the Bush administration and the lack of diplomacy in the Bush administration?
Thomas Carothers: President Bush did misjudge President Putin's democratic intentions or nature when he first met with him in 2001. The Bush admin has stuck to a fairly positive line on Putin due to Russia being helpful to the U.S. on a number of security issues, including the war on terrorism generally. In the past six months, however, Putin's ever-increasing authoritarianism is causing more people in and around the U.S. government to ask whether or not the U.S. should be more critical of Putin's politics at home. The recent report you refer to is part of that process of questioning.
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Houston, Tex.: How is the president's "freedom agenda" perceived around the world? Do the inconsistencies in the administration's rhetoric/spin account for the lack of credibility for its democracy endeavor referenced?
Thomas Carothers: The president's freedom agenda is not being met with much enthusiasm in most places, for a whole set of interconnected reasons -- association of the freedom agenda with a war in Iraq that is disliked in most parts of the world, perceptions of U.S. double standards in pursuing freedom, resentment at the idea of the United States telling other people how to live, and uncertainty that freedom per se (without justice and other more results oriented concepts) is the answer to the problems many societies face.
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London, United Kingdom: You use the terms U.S. democracy promotion in your paper - and democracy promotion more generally - as well as Western democracy assistance, which seem to indicate either a gradual move of democracy assistance towards assertiveness and "promotion", or a specific U.S. take on democracy assistance.
It does seem that democracy assistance has become more political over the past 25 years. For example anti-corruption reform, that is now standard fair, but was previously seen as too political, or the early rule of law projects in Latin America which you mention in "Aiding Democracy Abroad". Given how far the field has moved on since then and given the public attention which the field is currently receiving, do you think it would be useful to have some type of agreed-upon standards/benchmarks that would define what constitutes "legitimate" democracy assistance and where the line towards interference is to be drawn? One would think that by measuring this, the modest nature of most programs, and the long-term nature of the engagement would come to light, and help counter the backlash both in recipient countries and in Western countries where the field is increasingly misunderstood (cf. The Guardian UK's coverage of the orange revolution). Or do you think that an attempt at measuring might actually be counter-productive and overly restrictive?
Thomas Carothers: You raise a very good question and one that is being discussed increasingly among organizations that promote democracy. I am cautious about the idea of trying to develop broad standards for democracy assistance because I fear it would be possible to get wide agreement only on very unassertive types of work that would overly limit democracy aid.
On the other hand, in some domains, such as election observing, the attempt to articulate international standards for such work has been a useful exercise and helped clarify what this work is and is not.
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Philadelphia, Pa.: To what degree do you believe that the resistance in non-democratic countries to the democratic values is less an objection to the idea of democracy and more fear of the imposition of a foreign value that goes against their traditions and cultures?
Thomas Carothers: Governmental elites in some regions, especially the former Soviet Union and the Middle East, say they are resisting democracy promotion efforts to defend their national security but in most cases they are basically using that excuse to maintain their own anti-democratic power.
Citizens of some countries, particularly in the Middle East, do worry that calls for democracy by the West are more about cultural imposition than about political change.
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Chantilly, Va.: What should this country do, that it is not currently doing, to promote democratic or more properly republican forms of government around the world? (Both democratic and republican in lower case reflecting concept and not party ideology.) Is it antithesis to believe that a country without any history of freedom and elections will actually find its way to being a republic in any kind of short term?
Thomas Carothers: The United States is doing a fair amount to try to promote democracy in some parts of the world, but it could do better at this task by, being more consistent in its policies, working more effectively with other democracies that also are interested in promoting democracy abroad, avoiding high-octane rhetoric about democracy promotion that ends up engendering cynicism abroad, and getting its own democratic house in order on various fronts to be a better model for the world.
It is hard for countries with little democratic experience to become democratic but many have around the world, over time.
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Orange County, Calif.:
It seems to me, that we have become the old Soviet Union attempting to spread our system of government via militaristic aggression. Iraq, is a perfect example. This agenda enhances terrorism and recruits new terrorists. Have we truly examined the root cause that has created this hate towards Americans? This current administration is the most dangerous and untrustworthy in recent years. If we have not yet awaken to what our government is doing abroad and here at home, then we are in real serious danger. Free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, but if you look around, it is gradually being suppressed under the false pretense of national security. This is how fascist governments perpetuated their hold on power. I hope our Constitution can withstand this assault before it is to late.
Thomas Carothers: As I discussed in my Foreign Affairs article, abuses by the United States of the rule of law at home and abroad in the past few years have greatly damaged the credibility of the United States as a pro-democratic actor.
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Washington D.C.: What is the alternative policy that these people advocate? Going back to supporting oppressive, unpopular, and corrupt rulers and regimes, and who obviously are against any real reforms or progress?
Thomas Carothers: The Bush administration is struggling in the Middle East to get away from decades of U.S. support for authoritarian regimes. But shifting the policy is hard because of all the countervailing interests that point the U.S. toward maintaining such relationships, as with the oil-rich countries.
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Hendersonville, N.C.: Must democracy evolve from struggle or can it spring forth de novo? If it evolves, what are those stages? Where is the U.S.? Is there a final stage? What are its characteristics?
Thomas Carothers: Democracy exists when the bulk of citizens have power over the political system. Such systems often do emerge through struggle -- the political mobilization that allows citizens to assert their interests and power. After an initial breakthrough of democratic mobilization and collapse of a non-democratic regime, there needs to be a sustained period of building the representative institutions and regularizing the procedures and processes of democratic political competition. No country is a perfect democracy and even established democracies can still evolve to become more fully representative and democratic.
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Ottawa, Canada: Hi, Thomas
In principle I have no problem whatsoever with the notion of spreading democracy in nations around the world. However the issue we are facing is how it is to be put into practice.
Here is my question:
I assume that the democracy you are referring to in you book is the one currently operating in the western society and is fundamentally based upon the Christian civilization. If so how could we spread our value of democracy around the world without causing much culture clash which usually leads to some very unpleasant results ?
Should it be the time now that the academic community (international politics and economics, social science, history, culture studies, etc., etc.) spend more time on studying the feasibility and operability of democracy promotion amongst the different civilizations than continue to throw the new slogans around?
Many thanks.
Thomas Carothers: I don't think that the core political principles, values and institutions of U.S., Canadian, or European democracy are necessarily based on Christian or Judeo-Christian values. India, principally a Hindu and Muslim country, has had a functioning democracy for 50 years, showing that such political principles can coexist with other religions and with non-Western cultures.
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Seattle, Wash.: One of my friends has spent the last few years overseas promoting democracy. However, my question is, why would any other nation trust us on this issue, when we show a preference, both in funding and military action, for dictators and theocratic governments, in terms of our actual foreign policy?
Thomas Carothers: The United States does face a serious problem of credibility with its democracy promotion efforts. In some places the U.S. does actually stand for democracy and push for it, such as currently in Belarus where a dictatorial leader is in the process of manipulating the electoral process. In other places, the U.S. maintains quite friendly relationships with non-democratic regimes for the sake of U.S. economic and security interests, such as vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia. This inconsistency, which has long been part of U.S. policy, breeds cynicism abroad about the sincerity of U.S. intentions.
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Los Angeles, Calif.: Isn't the United States a democratic republic? I've read scathing descriptions by Washington's supporters equating democracy to mob rule. Simplifying our governmental structure to that of a "democracy" is misleading, really. With our own government. skewed towards a corporate fueled plutocracy of military/industrial cheerleaders, wouldn't it be better to trick foreigners into loving America based upon our culture, and T.V. shows, and not on our presently malfunctioning form of government?
Thomas Carothers: You're right that the shorthand of "democracy as opposed to "liberal democracy" or "representative democracy" contributes to confusion about what it is the United States stands for. And it does encourage some observers here in Washington, seeing the results of some elections abroad, to worry that promoting democracy will simply lead to the rise to power of undemocratic forces.
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Sims, N.C.: The problem is our leaders talk the talk but don't walk the walk. the world sees a country who tells the rest of the world how to behave but refuse to follow the same rules themselves.
Thomas Carothers: I agree that when the administration tells the world that liberty is the solution to terrorism then tells the world that the United States has to abridge liberty to fight terrorism the message is ineffective and produces cynical reactions.
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California: Should we be spending our money lecturing our own citizenry instead? Do you have any idea how many Americans from the USA could define what the American Enlightenment was? How about "The Age of Reason", or who Voltaire and Adam Smith were? A pitiful few, I would say. What's your opinion on America's grasp of the charged word "democracy"?
Thomas Carothers: I agree that the state of American civic education and culture is troubling. But I think it should be possible for us as a country to do better in cultivating democratic values and knowledge at home while still taking some measures to support them abroad as well. It would be useful if our government encourage less the idea that we have to export our political ideas and system and more that we could learn from the experience of others and they could learn from us on the political front.
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Princeton, N.J.: When I was young (I an 67 now), I used to describe myself as a "Wilsonian Liberal" which, I guess, would be called today a neoconservative without the guns. I believed if you helped other peoples economically, educationally, and medically, they would naturally turn toward democracy as the best form of government. I no longer believe this. My change of heart came not by observing peoples from abroad, but from looking at my fellow Americans. Democracy is not easy; one has to look at the facts and reason from these facts. Today many of my fellow Americans seem to prefer to use faith rather than facts. Faith is the ability to hold beliefs that are not necessarily supported by facts and, indeed, may be contradicted by facts. They are quite willing to use the logic construct called "a leap of faith" when they reason. There are many, many examples, but I will content my self with quoting Hans Blix who when asked why the US government did not seem interested in his investigations replied that the Americans _knew_ there were WMD in Iraq. "Why do you need facts when you know the answer. It's like the Salem witch trials. If everybody knows they are witches, what use is proof?"
Then I thought if Americans who have the best in economics, education (well, better than most), and health care (well, better than some) prefer to reason in a fashion inimical to democracy, how can we expect the Iraqis, the Palestinians, the Iranians, etc. to develop a democratic government under the current conditions?
Thomas Carothers: You're certainly right that the state of understanding about fact-based reasoning and argumentation in political life seems to have suffered greatly in the intense polarization of U.S. politics of recent years. I don't think societies with no tradition of democracy will move at all easily or quickly toward democracy but we shouldn't give up the idea that positive change, gradual though it may be, is possible.
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Reston, Va.: According to a Zogby poll last week, 85 percent of our troops in Iraq believe we were sent there--not to spread democracy--but to "retaliate for Saddam's role in 9-11." What do you make of that and doesn't it just prove the point that by putting Saddam and 9-11 in the same sentence enough times you can get anyone to believe anything no matter how untrue?
Thomas Carothers: It is disturbing when one reads accounts about U.S. military personnel believing the Iraq war in punishment for 9/11. This administration has encouraged that idea, largely for domestic political purposes and it has greatly damaged the credibility of the United States abroad.
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Rockville, Md.: What's your take on Fox "news"??
Also why is it our appointed job to "promote" democracy? No one "promoted" democracy to us; we wanted it and fought the British for it!
Thomas Carothers: It is true that no one appointed the U.S. to promote democracy and any suggestions of that sort, which do sometimes come from U.S. officials, are met with derision in many places. But we have considerable experience with democracy and it is in our interest generally that other countries become democratic and so I think we should at least try to engage, with humility and caution, in promoting democracy abroad.
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Cambridge, Mass.: There is an ongoing debate regarding the virtues and pitfalls of presidential political systems versus parliamentary systems. Juan J. Linz has written extensively on this topic, arguing that presidential systems are detrimental to the stability of democracy. Looking at the case of Russia, his argument seems to be true. Could Russia have ever been anything else BUT a presidential system given its history and diverse population? Now that President Putin appears to be returning the country to a more centralized system with a strong presidency, what viable options does the country have to reverse this trend?
Thomas Carothers: Once a presidential system is entrenched it is very hard to change the basic rules of the game. There may have been a moment in the early 1990s when Russia might have moved toward a mixed presidential-parliamentary system but the moment passed quickly. Now the only hope to preserve some sort of democracy is to push for the preservation of at least some independent sources of power in the country, such as the media, opposition political parties, and independent civil society.
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Richmond, Va.: John Quincy Adams: "We are the friends of liberty everywhere, but we are the guardians only of our own".
If people want to be free, they will be, or they will try to be. If people want democratic governments, they will have them, or will try to have them. Certainly we should help where people show a strong interest in having a better form of government. Unfortunately we seem to be trying to give them to people whether they want them or not. That is not how to make friends and influence people.
Thomas Carothers: The U.S. government is in a phase of overestimating how much ability this country has to fundamentally reverse or reshape the political direction of other societies. As you say, it is possible to help a country that is already moving in a democratic direction to move faster in that direction but hard to cause profound changes in countries stuck politically.
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Albany, N.Y.: Iraq is the cradle of civilization. Iraqi recorded history goes back 5,000 years. The first code of laws of which we know (Code of Ur-Nammu) is from Iraq, as is the first complete code of laws known to us (Code of Hammurabi). By contrast, our recorded history goes back 400 years. So who the hell are we to tell Iraqis how to run their affairs?
The theory seems to be:
1. Everyone wants to be like us.
2. No one is better than being us than we are.
3. Therefore we have to show them how to be us, no matter what it takes.
The first assumption is wrong, therefore all else is wrong. If they wanted to be us, they would be us. Different peoples have different values.
Thomas Carothers: We need to separate out the idea that basic freedoms and other political rights are things that have very wide appeal and the idea that other societies "want to be like us." Different countries can be democratic and still not be like us in many fundamental ways, such as India or Indonesia, both democracies.
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Why Foreign Countries Are Not Taking the U.S. Seriously...:
I'm sorry; but the U.S. is not engaged in spreading Democracy abroad. It is indeed more concerned about power and plundering other countries' vital resources.
If the U.S. were TRULY concerned about spreading Democracy, it would not have:
(1) Ignored the U.N. vote and invade Iraq.
(2) Not hold POWs indefinitely and without trial. In fact, the International Red Cross has said that 80% of POWs were innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(3) Not be involved in torture.
(4) Not be spying on its own citizens. Some former Intelligence workers, who quit in protest, have said that no terrorists have been caught this way; only innocent people were caught up in the spying.
(5) Not economically sanction the Palestinians for their free and fair vote. Yes, they elected HAMAS. a group that is considered a terrorist organization to power; but remember when the IRA gained power, they renounced violence. Sometimes, a little bit of a voice can go a long way toward ending violence.
(6) Finally, shouldn't the citizens of a country be asked if they WANT Democracy? Is forcing a Democracy really Democracy?
Given the above, how can any foreign country actually take the United State's claim seriously that it is interested in spreading Democracy abroad?
Thank you for listening.
Thomas Carothers: I agree that the combination of the Iraq war, U.S. abuses of law abroad and at home, U.S. hesitancy over accepting the actual or potential results free and fair elections in other Middle Eastern countries all combine to make many people abroad dismiss U.S. claims about promoting democracy.
But at the same time, U.S. policy is a many-sided thing -- in other parts of the world, such as parts of the former Soviet Union, the United States is supporting democracy.
_______________________
Munich, Germany: Briefly put, how do you think that the international context for groups promoting democracy has changed? Is the change due to the backlash from upheavals like the Orange Revolution, or are there other factors involved, such as the new mass media possibilities such as the Internet?
Also, what do you think will happen in Russia after Putin steps down? I've often wondered if Putin considered his hardball policies as a temporary measure to tame a rambunctious new economy, but now I'm wondering if Putin's successor will be even more autocratic than Putin.
Thomas Carothers: In my For Affairs article I argue that the color revolutions did cause many leaders around the world to see Western democracy promotion in a different, more menacing light and that this reaction combined with a broader souring in the world of views on democracy promotion due to unpopularity of the Bush admin's approach to the issue. This combination has created higher resistance to democracy promotion in many quarters.
Putin has institutionalized his authoritarian approach by weakening all other alternative sources of power so that when he leaves power, his successor will inherit a system that is structurally quite authoritarian or at least "super-presidentialist." It is likely then, though not inevitable, that the post-Putin period will also be fairly authoritarian as well.
_______________________
Tampa, Fla.: Ottowa raised an interesting issue on the role of religion in promoting democracy. Ottowa erroneously stated that our form of government "is fundamentally based upon the Christian civilization." As you correctly noted, this is not true. Democracy not only pre-dated Christianity, but Christianity came to power by allying itself with the Roman Empire, and then the hereditary monarchies of Europe. The Catholic Church opposed the democratic revolutions of Europe in the 1800s, and continued to ally itself with anti-democratic governments even after WW II (such as Franco's Spain).
We constantly hear arguments democracy and Islam are incompatible. But isn't the real question whether One can argue that democracy and organized religion are fundamentally incompatible? Anti-democratic regimes routinely ally themselves with religion to stifle democracy, especially in the Islamic world. So how can we overcome religious arguments against democracy?
Thomas Carothers: Organized religions have to make their peace with democracy, as Christianity did from the 16th to the 19th centuries -- by learning that they can live within a democracy without losing their social role and at least some of their influence. What we see now is a period in which Islam is struggling with the same issue -- and in some places, such as Indonesia, it is finding that it can live within a democratic system.
_______________________
Houston, Tex.: Mr. Carothers, why do you believe we are in Iraq?
Thomas Carothers: I believe that the Bush admin invaded Iraq for a combination of reasons, primarily to knock out of power a leader they believed dangerous to the United States and its friends and to show strength to the world after 9/11. We are still in Iraq because the costs of leaving, in terms of political damage to the president, and possible damage from an even more chaotic Iraq, outweigh the costs of staying in.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: It seems to me that the U.S. sometimes pushes elections prematurely instead of helping create the conditions conducive to real democracy. Elections are not democracy and can lead simply to another autocrat. In countries divided my ethic or religious divisions, elections simply stir the pot or anger and hatred without bringing any real results. Do you think the U.S. fixation on elections helps or hinders democratic reform?
Thomas Carothers: It's true that the U.S. government sometimes focuses in very much, probably too much, on elections in its efforts to promote democracy. But it's important to see how a norm of elections has emerged in the world such that after a dictator falls, the people of that country often immediately clamor for elections, as the only way to confer legitimacy on a new government. Remember that in Iraq the U.S. resisted elections after the invasion and was dragged into accepting them by the Iraqis themselves.
_______________________
Burke, Va.: Democracy won't always produce results we want, but it's probably better to try and support democratic norms (i.e elections, rule of law, protection of minorities, protection of rights) and rely on the tendency a democratic system to right itself.
I think we're making a big mistake in Palestine. I think we should accept Hamas' victory, talk to them as much as possible, and try to deal with them however possible. Hamas will fail if they don't provide acceptable results to the Palestinians.
Thomas Carothers: If it ends up being seen in the Arab world that the United States actively tried to undermine a Palestinian government that was the product of among the most free and fair elections ever held in the Arab world, this will do great damage to the U.S. pro-democratic stance in the region.
_______________________
Albany, N.Y.: You wrote that 'We need to separate out the idea that basic freedoms and other political rights are things that have very wide appeal and the idea that other societies "want to be like us."'
I agree. The problem is that my comments describe the philosophy of many American administrations, this one especially.
During the Eisenhower administration, in order to try to wean Yugoslavia away from the Warsaw Pact, we tried to establish an alliance between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia. Turkey and Greece have been at odds for 3000+ years. Cyprus is still a major sore point today. Tito was not a fool and would have easily figured out what was going on. Such an attempt to me seems beyond absurd, given those realities. And yet we attempted to do this anyway.
Thomas Carothers: The United States has had a remarkably hard time, for many decades, appreciating the power of nationalism in other societies. This has led to many serious mistakes abroad. It is odd in a way that we do because we put a high value on nationalism in this country -- what we believe is a positive form of nationalism but nationalism nevertheless.
_______________________
Richmond, Va.: Seattle asked, "why would any other nation trust us...when we show a preference, both in funding and military action, for dictators and theocratic governments..."
A democratic Saudi Arabia would greatly help change things in the Middle East for the better, I think. The problem is that we are dependent on them. I don't think we can effectively put pressure on their government any more than a junkie can put pressure on their dealer.
Thomas Carothers: We have very little leverage over the Saudi government though we can highlight various modest steps they can take, such as allowing more competition at the local level and giving greater power to their consultative councils, to at least start a real process of political reform.
_______________________
washingtonpost.com: Manassas, Va.: I'm surprised that supposedly intelligent people at the highest level of government wouldn't be able to articulate that "democracy" couldn't work in societies where there is no respect of the rule of law, private property and contracts, and people's basic freedoms that we take for granted in the "First World".
Allow "democracy" (meaning the freedom to vote for whomever one wants to) in many Muslim nations that have autocratic rulers, and most likely the winners would be radical anti-Western zealots.
Hitler was elected democratically, no? Why can't government articulate the difference between "freedom" and "democracy"? Those words are frequently heard around the world, but in many places their meanings are not well understood.
Thomas Carothers: It's true that if a society goes very quickly from complete repression to wide open elections citizens can choose leaders with little interest in or respect for democracy. I wouldn't give up on the possibility of Arab democracy though. True, Islamist movements or parties are often the strongest opposition forces in many Arab countries but if these forces are given increasing chances to compete electorally and to take some responsibility for governance I think at least some of them will prove to be willing to live by democratic rules. Keeping them completely out of the political game only intensifies their radical tendencies.
_______________________
Thomas Carothers: Thanks everyone for your questions and comments. The subject of democracy promotion always produces strong feelings -- when I speak about it in other countries I get some very vivid reactions, rarely of a positive sort. I enjoyed the discussion.
Thomas Carothers
_______________________
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Ethnic conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An ethnic conflict or ethnic war is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism. They are of interest because of the apparent prevalence since the Cold War and because they frequently result in war crimes such as genocide. Academic explanations of ethnic conflict generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist or constructivist. Intellectual debate has also focused around the issue of whether ethnic conflict has become more prevalent since the end of the Cold War, and on devising ways of managing conflicts, through instruments such as consociationalism and federalisation. Contents[hide] |
[edit] Theories of ethnic conflict
[edit] Primordialist accounts
Proponents of primordialist accounts of ethnic conflict argue that "[e]thnic groups and nationalities exist because there are traditions of belief and action towards primordial objects such as biological features and especially territorial location".[1] The primordialist account relies on a concept of kinship between members of an ethnic group. Donald Horowitz argues that this kinship "makes it possible for ethnic groups to think in terms of family resemblances".[2]There are a number of political scientists who refer to the concept of ethnic wars as a myth because they argue that the root causes of ethnic conflict do not involve ethnicity but rather institutional, political, and economic factors. These political scientists argue that the concept of ethnic war is misleading because it leads to an essentialist conclusion that certain groups are doomed to fight each other when in fact the wars between them are the result of political decisions. Opposing groups may substitute ethnicity for the underlying factors to simplify identification of friend and foe.
[edit] Instrumentalist accounts
Anthony Smith notes that the instrumentalist account "came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, in the debate about (white) ethnic persistence in what was supposed to have been an effective melting pot".[3] This new theory sought to explain such persistence as the result of the actions of community leaders, "who used their cultural groups as sites of mass mobilization and as constituencies in their competition for power and resources, because they found them more effective than social classes".[3] In this account of ethnic identification, "[e]thnicity and race are viewed as instrumental identities, organized as means to particular ends".[4][edit] Constructivist accounts
Formalization of the theory of constructivism is generally attributed to Jean Piaget, who articulated mechanisms by which knowledge is internalized by learners. He suggested that through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences. When individuals assimilate, they incorporate the new experience into an already existing framework without changing that framework. This may occur when individuals' experiences are aligned with their internal representations of the world, but may also occur as a failure to change a faulty understanding; for example, they may not notice events, may misunderstand input from others, or may decide that an event is a fluke and is therefore unimportant as information about the world. In contrast, when individuals' experiences contradict their internal representations, they may change their perceptions of the experiences to fit their internal representations. According to the theory, accommodation is the process of reframing one's mental representation of the external world to fit new experiences. Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning: when we act on the expectation that the world operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail, but by accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world works, we learn from the experience of failure, or others' failure.It is important to note that constructivism is not a particular pedagogy. In fact, constructivism is a theory describing how learning happens, regardless of whether learners are using their experiences to understand a lecture or following the instructions for building a model airplane. In both cases, the theory of constructivism suggests that learners construct knowledge out of their experiences. However, Constructivism is often associated with pedagogic approaches that promote active learning, or learning.
More recently, scholars of ethnic conflict and civil wars have introduced theories that draw insights from all three traditional schools of thought. In The Geography of Ethnic Violence, for example, Monica Duffy Toft shows how ethnic group settlement patterns, socially constructed identities, charismatic leaders, issue indivisibility, and state concern with precedent setting can lead rational actors to escalate a dispute to violence, even when doing so is likely to leave contending groups much worse off.[6] Such research addresses empirical puzzles that are difficult to explain using primordialist, instrumentalist, or constructivist approaches alone; such as why some ethnic disputes escalate to violence while others - even in the same geographic region - do not.
[edit] Ethnic conflict in the post-Cold War world
One of the most debated issues relating to ethnic conflict is whether it has become more or less prevalent in the post-Cold War period. At the end of the Cold War, academics including Samuel P. Huntington and Robert D. Kaplan predicted a proliferation of conflicts fuelled by civilisational clashes, tribalism, resource scarcity and overpopulation.[7][8]
The post-Cold War period has witnessed a number of ethnically-informed secessionist movements, predominantly within the former communist states. Conflicts have involved secessionist movements in the former Yugoslavia, Transnistria in Moldova, Armenians in Azerbaijan, Abkhaz and Ossetians in Georgia and Chechens in the Russian Federation.
However, some theorists contend that this does not represent a rise in the incidence of ethnic conflict, since many of the proxy wars fought during the Cold War were in fact ethnic conflicts masked as hot spots of the Cold War. Research shows that the fall of Communism and the increase in the number of democratic states were accompanied by a decline in total warfare, interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, and the number of refugees and displaced persons.[9][10][11] Indeed, some scholars have questioned whether the concept of ethnic conflict is useful at all.[12] Others have attempted to test the clash of civilisations thesis, finding it to be difficult to operationalise and that civilisational conflicts have not risen in intensity in relation to other ethnic conflicts since the end of the Cold War.[13][14]
On the question of whether scholars deeply invested in theories of interstate violence could adapt their theories to explain or predict large-scale ethnic violence, a key issue proved to be whether ethnic groups could be considered "rational" actors.[15] Prior to the end of the Cold War, the consensus among students of large-scale violence was that ethnic groups should be considered irrational actors, or semi-rational at best. If true, general explanations of ethnic violence would be impossible. In the years since, however, scholarly consensus has shifted to consider that ethnic groups may in fact be counted as rational actors, and the puzzle of their apparently irrational actions (for example, fighting over territory of little or no intrinsic worth) must therefore be explained some other way.[6][15] As a result, the possibility of a general explanation of ethnic violence has grown, and collaboration between comparativist and international relations subfields has resulted in increasingly useful theories of ethnic conflict.
[edit] Ethnic conflict regulation
John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary have developed a taxonomy of eight macro-political ethnic conflict regulation methods, which they note are often employed by states in combination with each other.[17] They include a number of methods that they note are clearly morally unacceptable.
- Methods for eliminating differences:
- Genocide
- Forced mass-population transfers
- Partition and/or secession (self-determination)
- Integration and/or assimilation
- Methods for managing differences:
- Hegemonic control
- Arbitration (third-party intervention)
- Cantonisation and/or federalisation
- Consociationalism or power-sharing
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Steven Grosby (1994) 'The verdict of history: The inexpungeable tie of primordiality – A response to Eller and Coughlan', Ethnic and Racial Studies 17(1), pp. 164-171, p. 168
- ^ Donald Horowitz (1985) Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, p. 57
- ^ a b Anthony Smith (2001) Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History, Cambridge: Polity, pp. 54-55
- ^ Stephen Cornell and Douglas Hartmann (1998) Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, p.59
- ^ Mahmood Mamdani (2001) When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
- ^ a b Monica Duffy Toft (2003) The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
- ^ Samuel P. Huntington (1993) The clash of civilizations?, Foreign Affairs 72(3), pp. 22-49
- ^ Robert D. Kaplan (1994) The coming anarchy, The Atlantic Monthly 273(2), pp. 44-76
- ^ Peter Wallensteen and Margareta Sollenberg (1995) After the Cold War: Emerging patterns of armed conflict 1989-94, Journal of Peace Research 32(3), pp. 345-360
- ^ Lotta Harbom and Peter Wallensteen (2005) Armed conflict and its international dimensions, 1946–2004, Journal of Peace Research 42(5), pp. 623-635
- ^ Measuring systemic peace, Center for Systemic Peace, 30 October 2006, accessed 18 February 2007
- ^ Bruce Gilley (2004) Against the concept of ethnic conflict, Third World Quarterly 25(6), pp. 1155-1166
- ^ Jonathan Fox (2002) Ethnic minorities and the Clash of Civilizations: A quantitative analysis of Huntington's thesis, British Journal of Political Science 32(3), pp. 415-434
- ^ Giacomo Chiozza (2002) Is there a Clash of Civilizations? Evidence from patterns of international conflict involvement, 1946-97, Journal of Peace Research 39(6), pp. 711-734
- ^ a b Stathis N. Kalyvas (2006) The Logic of Violence in Civil War, New York: Cambridge University Press
- ^ John Coakley (1992) The resolution of ethnic conflict: Towards a typology, International Political Science Review 13(4), pp. 343-358
- ^ John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary (1993) 'Introduction: The macro-political regulation of ethnic conflict', in John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary (eds.) The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation: Case Studies of Protracted Ethnic Conflicts, London: Routledge, pp. 1-40
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| Monday October 26, 04:06 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
FIIs up stakes in 11 Sensex firms
By PK Dey Riding on positive global cues and a reviving Indian economy, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have raised their holdings in Sensex (^BSESN : 16810.81 0
) companies during the second quarter of the current fiscal. A study on shareholding pattern of 26 Sensex companies shows FII holdings in 11 firms have increased during the September quarter, compared to the previous quarter of the current fiscal. The average share of FIIs stake in Sensex companies increased from 19.40% to 19.57% during the period. Top 5 companies, according to the share of FIIs stake in total as on September 30, are HDFC, Infosys (INFOSYS.BO : 2260.2 0) Techno, ICICI Bank (ICICIBANK.NS : 903.7 0), Hero Honda Motor and HDFC Bank. Compared with the last quarter, FII holding in corporate behemoth Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS : 2047.35 0) marginally increased from 16.45% to 16.51%. While metal major Hindalco Industries (HINDALC0.NS : 142 0) witnessed the highest increase of over 25.4% to 16.7% in foreign holding during the period, FII holding in JP Associates increased from 23.55% to 26.54%. The net profit of JP Associates increased 328.4% to Rs 870 crore during the second quarter, from Rs 203 crore in the same period last fiscal. The sales of the company also increased 59.7% during the above period. On the other hand, highest decrease in FII stake was seen in the case of Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 331.1 0) followed by ONGC (ONGC.NS : 1175.85 0), Bhel (BHEL.NS : 2384.8 0), ICICI Bank and Tata Power. The latest shareholding pattern, as of September 30, 2009, clearly shows that FIIs have significantly decreased their stakes over the June 30, 2009 quarter in to telecomm major Bharti Airtel. The FIIs share of Bharti Airtel decreased from 19.58% to 18.39% during the period. FIIs stake in private bank major like ICICI Bank also decreased to 35.26% during the September quarter from 36.18% in June quarter. FIIs stake in HDFC Bank decreased from 28.18% to 28.16% during the period. Among the above top 5 firms, only increase in FIIs share was seen in the case of IT bellwether Infosys Techno. The firm saw FII holdings in the company increased by 1.1% to 36.05% during the second quarter of the current fiscal.| Monday October 26, 04:04 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
Monetary policy to push for banks' credit growth
By Sunny Verma The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which will unveil its mid-term review of the monetary policy on Tuesday, is expected to push banks for expanding credit. For, bank credit growth fell to a 12-year low of 10.8% as on October 9, from 29.5% in the same period last year, according to RBI s latest weekly statistical supplement released on October 23. Even as banks are ready to finance, no one in the corporate sector seems to be complaining against lack of credit. Policy advisors, bankers and company executives point to decreased credit demand as companies try to trim their interest costs and pursue expansion plans slowly. Interestingly, companies are raising funds from non-bank finance sources at the same time. During April-August 2009, companies raised Rs 1,21,158 crore through corporate bonds and equity issuances, almost three-times the Rs 41,270 crore raised during the same period last year, according to Prime Minister s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) economic outlook for 2009-10. (see chart). Moreover, companies raised an additional Rs 88,000 crore from the mutual funds industry in April-August 2009, up from Rs 38,000 crore in the same period last year, it said. However, bank credit to the commercial sector halved in the same period to Rs 62,275 crore, from Rs 1,37,018 crore. This happened due to a combination of factors including costly credit and lack of demand, said India s chief statistician Pronab Sen. Rajiv Deep Bajaj (BAJAJAUTO.NS : 2101.05 0
), VC and MD, Bajaj Capital Ltd, said credit demand is low because of slowdown in expansion plans, lower working capital demand and recovery in the equity market in the past 6-8 months. Experts also acknowledge that Indian companies actually improved their cash generation after the global economic crisis started in September 2008. And they are now using this cash to meet their working capital needs. A CMD of a large public sector bank said there was indeed a slowdown in working capital loan off-take. One of the first reactions to crises of any company is to conserve cash, and to conserve cash the first step is that you do not take debt. This gets reflected in sluggish credit. Then money from other sources is coming in, said Saumitra Chaudhuri, member of Planning Commission as well as the PMEAC. Bajaj agreed that cash generation improved through cost efficiencies and productivity improvement. While our top-line has grown by 15%, the bottom-line has grown 30-40%, he said. There appears to be a consensus that while credit growth is low, the problem of lack of finance has certainly dissipated. And banks are hoping to do better business in the second half of this fiscal which is also the busy season. This expectation is in line with the up tick in industrial expansion that touched double-digit growth rate at 10.4% in August 2009 after a gap of 22 months. According to Corporation Bank CMD JM Garg, credit demand is slowly picking up. Now we are having increased flow of (loan) proposals. In the last months, proposals have tripled, he said. Garg also expected RBI to keep rates unchanged. We should keep rates as benign as possible and let everybody thrive.| Monday October 26, 03:44 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
Rice procurement gathers pace; may miss last year's mark
By fe Bureaus After making a slow start, rice procurement across the country is slowly picking up pace. Though figures from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) show that till the last week, procurement was around 4,55,000 tonne less compared to last year, officials are hopeful that it will improve in coming days as late sown rice planted in several parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand will start arriving in the markets. Till now, procurement from Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh has been almost nil. However, procurement in two of the largest contributors of rice to the central pool--Punjab and Haryana--has been going on smoothly. Till last week, Punjab has contributed around 42.46 lakh tonne of rice to the central pool, while Haryana s contribution was around 11.70 lakh tonne. Figures show that its not only government agencies whose rice procurement has been sluggish till now. Private traders and millers have also not been able to make much headway. Till middle of October, private traders purchased around 112,410 tonne of paddy in Punjab, while during the same period last year; they had bought around 455,522 tonne. In Haryana, till middle of October, private millers purchased around 88,733 tonne from farmers, while during the same period last year; they had bought around 2.2 million tonne. Private millers and dealers are currently purchasing paddy in the two big growing states at prices ranging from Rs 925 per quintal to around Rs 1,040 per quintal. Sources said this is another indication that paddy is not available in abundance this year. Officials believe that if everything goes smoothly India s annual rice procurement in 2009-10 would be somewhere around 26 million to 27 million tonne, which would around the average annual rice procurement, but far less than last year s record procurement of 33 million tonne. It must be remembered that last year, we had record rice production of more than 95 million tonne, while this year drought and floods in Andhra Pradesh have already pulled down kharif rice production by 10-15 million tonne, a rice miller said. Last week, PTI quoted finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as saying that rice production this year could drop by around 16 million tonne because of the twin impact of drought in first part of the season and later the devastating floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which produced significant quantities of rice last year. As per latest available figures, rice acreage across the country is around 55 lakh to 60 lakh hectares less than last year.
26/10/2009
Telecom scam: Can Manmohan ditch Raja?
The Solicitor General and the TDSAT have both okayed Raja's moves!
New Delhi: Readers of this column have reasons to feel vindicated by last week's CBI raids in the telecom ministry as on various telecom firms that benefited from telecom minister A Raja's largesse in early 2008 -- he gave a handful of favoured firms valuable spectrum at prices exactly equal to those paid by buyers in June 2001. Readers would recall every vicissitude in this saga, from the wishy-washy Trai recommendations that allowed Raja to do what he wanted, to his announcing a "technology neutrality" policy to give CDMA-mobile phone firms like Reliance Communications (RCom) and Tata Teleservices a GSM-mobile licence after RCom paid the licence fees, and finally to the TDSAT verdict on the RCom part of this scam that ruled in favour of Raja's ministry -- in the event, they're probably hoping the CBI will find enough evidence to nail those behind the scam that some estimate is worth $10 billion.
CBI credibility under cloud
Given the CBI's track record in investigations (think Aarushi) and the political interference in its functioning (think Quattrocchi), it is an open question as to whether it can conclusively prove the case. But there's a far more serious problem the CBI has to deal with. Let's assume the CBI gets all the proof it needs -- where does it go after this to check how solid its legal case is? To Attorney General (AG) GE Vahanvati, India's highest law officer. Well, when he was Solicitor General (SG), Vahanvati had opined in favour of much of what Raja's done -- how is the AG going to say that what he said as SG was incorrect?
Assuming he does, how does the CBI get around the fact that the TDSAT has also ruled in favour of Raja? The CBI cannot possibly complete its case without talking to the head of Trai since the regulatory authority is seen as independent of Raja's ministry.
Well, the current Trai chief, JS Sarma, is the man who, in the TDSAT, ruled in favour of Raja -- Telecom Secretary DS Mathur, who was against giving the licences at the 2001 prices and refused to sign on the file, was in the running for the Trai job but it was Sarma who got it eventually. How is the CBI going to bridge all these chasms?
Read, in this context, the affidavit filed by the government in the case registered by Dr Arvind Gupta against the allotment of the new licences. Gupta argued that while the government policy since 1995 had been one of auctions, Raja allotted licences on a first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis -- on September 25, 2007, Raja announced he would accept applications till October 1, but later decided he'd process only those received till September 25 on a FCFS basis.
In response to Gupta's case, in December 2008, Vahanvati okayed ("settled", in legalese) a government affidavit saying there were no problems with what Raja had done -- mind you, this was done long after the then Trai chief Nripendra Misra had said Raja had twisted his recommendations, it was done long after Swan and Unitech had sold part of their firms to Etisalat/Telenor, making it clear just how much the licences they got for Rs 1,651 crore were worth.
| Monday October 26, 03:54 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
CEOs' salary: debate rages at Samvit '09 conclave
By Deepa Jainani
The debate on the CEO salary issue continues to rage and elicits the most diverse of reactions amongst India Inc. In Lucknow to attend the Samvit 09 , the CEOs conclave on Emerging Pillars of the Indian Economy , Kalpana J Morparia, CEO of JP Morgan, and Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff.com, offered diverse views. While Morparia was of the view that in a free market, shareholders must be left to decide how much salary the CEOs should draw and the answer to social causes is philanthropy , Balakrishnan, on the other hand, said there should be some kind of societal intervention because it was shameful to draw such outlandish salaries . Speaking on the sidelines of the conclave, Morparia said while most companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and most CEOs sign cheques for social causes, it is their minds that need to be engaged. A reduction of the CEOs salary will in no way eradicate poverty in the country. The answer to that problem is philanthropy. A CEO s mind should be engaged in social causes in order to reduce the inequality. If our minds are engaged, we can bring the same kind of commercial success to the venture that we bring to our business, she said. However, Balakrishnan said, The salaries of CEOs have gone over the top in India. I am as aghast as anyone else as to how much could be needed to live a decent yet dignified life. We may justify the salaries by saying that the shareholders fix them, but we should be sensible to the needs of society too, he said. IIM Lucknow director Devi Singh also felt that there is only as much that is needed for a person to lead a decent life. Even in our institute, we teach our upcoming CEOs that when they would go out in the world, no one would know how rich they are or who they are unless they do something for others. So this streak of societal responsibility has to be inculcated from the beginning, he said.
The debate on the CEO salary issue continues to rage and elicits the most diverse of reactions amongst India Inc. In Lucknow to attend the Samvit 09 , the CEOs conclave on Emerging Pillars of the Indian Economy , Kalpana J Morparia, CEO of JP Morgan, and Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff.com, offered diverse views. While Morparia was of the view that in a free market, shareholders must be left to decide how much salary the CEOs should draw and the answer to social causes is philanthropy , Balakrishnan, on the other hand, said there should be some kind of societal intervention because it was shameful to draw such outlandish salaries . Speaking on the sidelines of the conclave, Morparia said while most companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and most CEOs sign cheques for social causes, it is their minds that need to be engaged. A reduction of the CEOs salary will in no way eradicate poverty in the country. The answer to that problem is philanthropy. A CEO s mind should be engaged in social causes in order to reduce the inequality. If our minds are engaged, we can bring the same kind of commercial success to the venture that we bring to our business, she said. However, Balakrishnan said, The salaries of CEOs have gone over the top in India. I am as aghast as anyone else as to how much could be needed to live a decent yet dignified life. We may justify the salaries by saying that the shareholders fix them, but we should be sensible to the needs of society too, he said. IIM Lucknow director Devi Singh also felt that there is only as much that is needed for a person to lead a decent life. Even in our institute, we teach our upcoming CEOs that when they would go out in the world, no one would know how rich they are or who they are unless they do something for others. So this streak of societal responsibility has to be inculcated from the beginning, he said.
| Monday October 26, 03:52 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
Power, industrialisation high on Maha CM's agenda in 2nd term
By Sanjay Jog Ashok Chavan, who has been retained by the Congress high command as the Maharashtra chief minister for a second stint, is quite focused on his priorities. In an exclusive telephonic interview with FE on Sunday, Chavan said the Congress-led government in the state will focus on expediting the capacity addition in the power sector, implementation of ongoing and new schemes to boost the financial sector and Mumbai to be developed as the international finance centre. Chavan, who was industries minister earlier, says priority would be given on expediting the industrialisation process, especially in remote and underdeveloped regions. Chavan is expected to be sworn in as chief minister on October 27. Chavan said the state has been reeling under power shortage of around 5,000 mw and his government s attempt would be to expedite the completion of ongoing power generation projects and also simultaneously encourage projects in the transmission and distribution sectors. The state energy department has already launched a Rs 60,000-crore investment plan that gives weightage to capacity addition with a proposed investment of over Rs 30,000 crore. Besides, the Congress-led government during its third consecutive term would have to revisit the capacity addition of almost 12,500 mw by the private sector. Except a 1,200-mw power project by JSW in the coastal Raigad district, remaining projects of 10,000 mw have been caught up in issues relating to land acquisition and administrative approvals. Chavan said his government would lay further emphasis on expediting the Mumbai makeover plan, which entails an investment of over Rs 55,000 crore. The Mumbai metro phase I and II are under implementation, while urban development ministry has offered to take equity for phase III. This apart, the government will take up on a priority basis development of Mumbai as an international finance centre and make it a world-class city, Chavan said. On social issues, Chavan said his government s priorities include development of ongoing and new schemes for the welfare of minorities and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For the families in the category of Below Poverty Line (BPL), the Congress-NCP combine in a joint manifesto has promised to provide special health cards to enable them to avail medical benefits.
| Monday October 26, 03:50 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
India,US to talk trade and investment
By Rituparna Bhuyan
Commerce minister Anand Sharma and United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk will meet for the fourth time in the past five months in New Delhi on Monday to discuss measures to strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries. In 2008-09, United States was India s second biggest export destination and accounted for the third highest investment inflows into the country. Sharma and Kirk will chair the seventh US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF), where negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty to promote investment flows will be taken forward, while exploring avenues for co-operation in healthcare and education services, information communications technologies, and energy and environmental services. The first round of negotiations on the Indo-US investment pact was held in August. While the US is demanding pre-investment national treatment for its investments, India is willing to give that status only for a post-investment scenario. National treatment in the pre-investment stage would mean that Foreign Direct Investment inflows would not be subject to screening by monitoring bodies like the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The US is optimistic about the negotiations but realises that certain issues may be challenging. We hope that officials can meet again in the coming weeks to continue discussions In the US view, the focus of this TPF meeting will be the renewal and strengthening of the US-India bilateral trade relationship, Carol Guthrie, assistant United States Trade Representative for Public and Media Affairs told FE. Sharma and Kirk last met in Washington during the second week of October, where they discussed a range of issues including loss of duty preference by India s labour intensive exporters under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as well as movement of Indian professionals to the US. While I cannot say in advance all issues to be discussed, I can say that India is to be commended for its success under the GSP programme. As far as the future, the US Congress currently is reviewing GSP as part of a review of US preference programmes. The Office of the USTR is working with the Congress as it considers ideas for preference reform, Guthrie informed. Historically, the US has been India s biggest export destination, but in 2008-09, that position was taken by United Arab Emirates. While India is the largest democracy, US is the biggest global economy and relations between both the nations reached a new height with the signing of the civilian nuclear agreement in October, 2008. However, on the multilateral trade liberalisation talks, both the nations are often seen locking horns at the Geneva based headquarters of the World Trade Organisation over the Doha Round negotiations. While India wants to protect its poor farmers from import surges in farm goods, the US is seeking additional market access for its industrial goods. The focus of this visit is primarily on the bilateral relationship between the US and India. However, ambassador Kirk and Sharma have had several productive discussions in the past regarding the Doha negotiations. The September mini-ministerial in New Delhi certainly resulted in renewed energy for the Doha Round. In subsequent weeks, the United States has been pleased to see movement forward on sustained bilateral engagement in additional to multilateral efforts. Such bilateral engagement can help trading partners to assess the nature of gaps that exist and to address them, particularly with regard to market-opening contributions by key emerging markets, Guthrie said.
Commerce minister Anand Sharma and United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk will meet for the fourth time in the past five months in New Delhi on Monday to discuss measures to strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries. In 2008-09, United States was India s second biggest export destination and accounted for the third highest investment inflows into the country. Sharma and Kirk will chair the seventh US-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF), where negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty to promote investment flows will be taken forward, while exploring avenues for co-operation in healthcare and education services, information communications technologies, and energy and environmental services. The first round of negotiations on the Indo-US investment pact was held in August. While the US is demanding pre-investment national treatment for its investments, India is willing to give that status only for a post-investment scenario. National treatment in the pre-investment stage would mean that Foreign Direct Investment inflows would not be subject to screening by monitoring bodies like the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The US is optimistic about the negotiations but realises that certain issues may be challenging. We hope that officials can meet again in the coming weeks to continue discussions In the US view, the focus of this TPF meeting will be the renewal and strengthening of the US-India bilateral trade relationship, Carol Guthrie, assistant United States Trade Representative for Public and Media Affairs told FE. Sharma and Kirk last met in Washington during the second week of October, where they discussed a range of issues including loss of duty preference by India s labour intensive exporters under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as well as movement of Indian professionals to the US. While I cannot say in advance all issues to be discussed, I can say that India is to be commended for its success under the GSP programme. As far as the future, the US Congress currently is reviewing GSP as part of a review of US preference programmes. The Office of the USTR is working with the Congress as it considers ideas for preference reform, Guthrie informed. Historically, the US has been India s biggest export destination, but in 2008-09, that position was taken by United Arab Emirates. While India is the largest democracy, US is the biggest global economy and relations between both the nations reached a new height with the signing of the civilian nuclear agreement in October, 2008. However, on the multilateral trade liberalisation talks, both the nations are often seen locking horns at the Geneva based headquarters of the World Trade Organisation over the Doha Round negotiations. While India wants to protect its poor farmers from import surges in farm goods, the US is seeking additional market access for its industrial goods. The focus of this visit is primarily on the bilateral relationship between the US and India. However, ambassador Kirk and Sharma have had several productive discussions in the past regarding the Doha negotiations. The September mini-ministerial in New Delhi certainly resulted in renewed energy for the Doha Round. In subsequent weeks, the United States has been pleased to see movement forward on sustained bilateral engagement in additional to multilateral efforts. Such bilateral engagement can help trading partners to assess the nature of gaps that exist and to address them, particularly with regard to market-opening contributions by key emerging markets, Guthrie said.
| Monday October 26, 03:45 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
Dollar movement, buoyant equity markets drive in oil prices
By Priti Gupta
Crude prices finally came out of the shell. For the last couple of months prices were hovering in the range of $65-75. Last week it broke the confined range to make a high of $78.75 for the first time in 2009. Despite the visible green shoots, the economic recovery from the worst financial crisis after the great depression, along with energy demand, is still very fragile. Well, the up-move had nothing to do with change in fundamentals of the oil market but were primarily influenced by the following factors--dollar movement, buoyant equity markets, US economic numbers (industrial production and jobless claims), OPEC monthly oil market report (MOMR), US weather conditions and surprise drawdown in US crude and gasoline inventories. Along with equity markets, dollar movement also influenced crude prices. During the week, the greenback hit a 14-month low against the euro and other major currencies, including yen, as signs of a global recovery gaining steam sent investors seeking assets and currencies that promise higher returns than the low-yielding dollar. On the fundamental front, the Opec in its MOMR revised demand forecasts for crude at 150,000 b/d higher for 2009 and 190,000 b/d higher for next year. Even though the Opec has given an optimistic picture on demand front, the supply numbers continue to rise, thereby capping any major rally. Since September last year, the Opec has been holding down its production limits lower as the recession eroded demand, but the compliance rate continues to sink as prices rise, which currently stands at 62% of the set targets. Including Iraq, the Opec pumped 28.9 million bpd in September. To add to the pressure on prices, there were reports that Nigerian crude production is on its way to top 2 million barrels per day for the first time since July 2008 with its gun amnesty halting attacks on oil facilities. The amnesty, which expired on October 4, has been more successful than the Nigerian government anticipated with up to 15,000 gunmen surrendering their arms. Prices of crude breaking its confined range of $65-75 have been looked upon as confirmation that restored indications of economic growth are setting the oil market back on an upward track. As of now, it appears that prices can climb up to $84-85 level soon, but the sustainability at those levels will require a big push in demand or any major change in the policy of the Opec members. Both of these factors appear a bit unlikely as of now, so we do suggest selling crude at those levels than going long at this point of time. In the domestic market this is the arrival time of many crops, especially the soybeans which provides bulk of edible oil for the country. Typically this is the rare time of the year where the domestic factors influence the prices rather than international factors. But the slower arrivals post Diwali is making the traders look for international market cues. Well to understand things in totality, we need to know that soybean prices do not only get influenced by domestic factors but it does get influenced by international markets (CBOT). In the international markets soybean prices follow crude prices very closely, wherein it can be said that both the commodities (crude and soybean) have a high correlation. Out of both crude and soybean, crude leads the pack and soybean follows because of bio-diesel perspective. Last week, crude prices were up, and taking cues from the same, bean prices increased as well. Soybean prices had gone below $9 for a brief period of time on expectation of good crop from the US and on hope that South American crop will be higher than previous year, but prices catapulted to $10 during the previous week as delay in harvesting due to wet conditions in the US and rise in imports from China. US exporters sold more than 21.27 million tonne in the first six weeks of the current marketing year, 76% more than a year earlier. Sales to China, the biggest global buyer, more than doubled to 12.69 million tonne from 5.82 million tonne reported during the previous year. As a result, prices showed a good recovery. Taking cues from the same, even prices on domestic front traded positive. Overall, we expect soybean crop from India in the range of 9-9.5 lakh tones for the year 2009-10, which is at the same levels as last year. So as the harvest picks up, prices will be suppressed for sure and we can expect prices to drift below Rs.2000 level. Besides this prices would also be suppressed by rising edible oil imports which currently attracts 0% import duty. Vegetable oil imports climbed 36% to 905,192 metric tons in September. Purchases rose 47% to 7.98 million tons for month ended Sept. 30, from 5.43 million tons a year earlier. The higher oil inventories and increase in arrivals would be bearish for soybean; traders can look to sell December beans at around 2170-2200 for targets below 2000. (The author is director, Anand Rathi Commodities)
Crude prices finally came out of the shell. For the last couple of months prices were hovering in the range of $65-75. Last week it broke the confined range to make a high of $78.75 for the first time in 2009. Despite the visible green shoots, the economic recovery from the worst financial crisis after the great depression, along with energy demand, is still very fragile. Well, the up-move had nothing to do with change in fundamentals of the oil market but were primarily influenced by the following factors--dollar movement, buoyant equity markets, US economic numbers (industrial production and jobless claims), OPEC monthly oil market report (MOMR), US weather conditions and surprise drawdown in US crude and gasoline inventories. Along with equity markets, dollar movement also influenced crude prices. During the week, the greenback hit a 14-month low against the euro and other major currencies, including yen, as signs of a global recovery gaining steam sent investors seeking assets and currencies that promise higher returns than the low-yielding dollar. On the fundamental front, the Opec in its MOMR revised demand forecasts for crude at 150,000 b/d higher for 2009 and 190,000 b/d higher for next year. Even though the Opec has given an optimistic picture on demand front, the supply numbers continue to rise, thereby capping any major rally. Since September last year, the Opec has been holding down its production limits lower as the recession eroded demand, but the compliance rate continues to sink as prices rise, which currently stands at 62% of the set targets. Including Iraq, the Opec pumped 28.9 million bpd in September. To add to the pressure on prices, there were reports that Nigerian crude production is on its way to top 2 million barrels per day for the first time since July 2008 with its gun amnesty halting attacks on oil facilities. The amnesty, which expired on October 4, has been more successful than the Nigerian government anticipated with up to 15,000 gunmen surrendering their arms. Prices of crude breaking its confined range of $65-75 have been looked upon as confirmation that restored indications of economic growth are setting the oil market back on an upward track. As of now, it appears that prices can climb up to $84-85 level soon, but the sustainability at those levels will require a big push in demand or any major change in the policy of the Opec members. Both of these factors appear a bit unlikely as of now, so we do suggest selling crude at those levels than going long at this point of time. In the domestic market this is the arrival time of many crops, especially the soybeans which provides bulk of edible oil for the country. Typically this is the rare time of the year where the domestic factors influence the prices rather than international factors. But the slower arrivals post Diwali is making the traders look for international market cues. Well to understand things in totality, we need to know that soybean prices do not only get influenced by domestic factors but it does get influenced by international markets (CBOT). In the international markets soybean prices follow crude prices very closely, wherein it can be said that both the commodities (crude and soybean) have a high correlation. Out of both crude and soybean, crude leads the pack and soybean follows because of bio-diesel perspective. Last week, crude prices were up, and taking cues from the same, bean prices increased as well. Soybean prices had gone below $9 for a brief period of time on expectation of good crop from the US and on hope that South American crop will be higher than previous year, but prices catapulted to $10 during the previous week as delay in harvesting due to wet conditions in the US and rise in imports from China. US exporters sold more than 21.27 million tonne in the first six weeks of the current marketing year, 76% more than a year earlier. Sales to China, the biggest global buyer, more than doubled to 12.69 million tonne from 5.82 million tonne reported during the previous year. As a result, prices showed a good recovery. Taking cues from the same, even prices on domestic front traded positive. Overall, we expect soybean crop from India in the range of 9-9.5 lakh tones for the year 2009-10, which is at the same levels as last year. So as the harvest picks up, prices will be suppressed for sure and we can expect prices to drift below Rs.2000 level. Besides this prices would also be suppressed by rising edible oil imports which currently attracts 0% import duty. Vegetable oil imports climbed 36% to 905,192 metric tons in September. Purchases rose 47% to 7.98 million tons for month ended Sept. 30, from 5.43 million tons a year earlier. The higher oil inventories and increase in arrivals would be bearish for soybean; traders can look to sell December beans at around 2170-2200 for targets below 2000. (The author is director, Anand Rathi Commodities)
| Sunday October 25, 09:38 PM | Source: Financial Express |
India looks East to build Asian economic community
Keen to tap the booming services market in Southeast Asia, India has pressed for an early conclusion of talks with the 10-member ASEAN on trade in services and investments to create an Asian economic community.
"We attach high importance to the early conclusion of negotiations on the trade in services and investment agreement and we should direct our officials accordingly," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the 7th India-ASEAN summit here last evening.
"Our engagement with the ASEAN countries is a key element of India's vision of an Asian economic community... India wishes to partner ASEAN in realising this vision on the basis of mutual benefit, mutual prosperity and mutual respect," Singh said.
After India signed the Free Trade Agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in August, the two sides have started negotiations to broadbase the pact to include investment and services.
The FTA is now limited to trade in goods. With services contributing 55 per cent of its economy, India is quite keen on tapping the growing services market in Southeast Asia.
Singh expressed confidence that the two-way trade between India and ASEAN would touch USD 50 billion by 2010.
| Monday October 26, 03:57 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
Mumbai, Delhi are leading realty market revival
By Mona Mehta Following the real estate sector s revival, Raheja Universal Private Ltd (RUPL) has outlined a vision for development of 35 million sq ft of realty projects, 23 million sq ft of pipelines and how it foresees spearheading pan-India presence. Ashish Raheja, managing director of Raheja Universal Private Ltd, spoke to Mona Mehta on the realistic pricing challenges the company would want to overcome amidst expanding its realty presence to other cities Could you give details of ongoing real estate projects in the commercial, residential and retail segment? What are your expansion plans in India? The company is actively pursuing premium residential projects across its core region of operation - Mumbai and has already sketched plans to launch many new projects across South and North Mumbai. With strong brand equity and an indelible footprint in Mumbai, we have now embarked on an ambitious venture to replicate our signature in Navi Mumbai and other cities across India, some of them being Goa, Mangalore, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Pune. The total saleable area of on-going and forthcoming projects is to the tune of 18 million sq ft approximately. This includes residential towers, signature residential towers, office towers, residential complexes, corporate parks and townships. What is your take on the revival gaining ground in the Indian realty market? During the second half of 2008, the onset of the economic slowdown led both buyers as well as developers to sit up and take stock of the real estate scenario. In the residential segment, end-users became apprehensive about taking up long-term loan obligations due to job market uncertainties. Moreover, they adopted a wait and watch policy to take advantage of consistent price declines. On the supply side, developers became concerned about increasingly limited funding options and a substantial decline in aggregate demand. Now, there are signs of revival in the real estate sector with the metros Mumbai and Delhi leading the way. Demand in Mumbai has always been real and with some re-calibration of product and pricing by developers as well as positive steps like bank rate cuts and overall economic stability, buyers are flocking to quality developers as they realise that this might be the best time to buy. The recovery in the commercial and retail segment is a little slower than the residential one but surely reviving. How many affordable housing projects is Raheja Universal planning to launch? We believe that the affordability is a critical aspect. However, its relative nature has to be recognised. In Mumbai, as you move from the northern suburbs towards the island city, the value of what is an affordable increases drastically. Looking at the extreme shortage of options and land, even a Rs 2-crore apartment in South Mumbai can be termed affordable. Similarly, apartments in the range of Rs 40-50 lakh are affordable in suburbs like Andheri- Malad-Kandivali-Borivali area. The same cannot be said for other tier-II cities where anything above Rs 10 to Rs 25 lakh may not be termed as affordable. What are your views on the price correction in the Indian real estate market? There has definitely been a price correction across certain geographies and asset classes due to the effect of the economic slowdown. This has been more drastic in locations or segments where there has been oversupply and speculation like in Retail and IT. Overall there has been up to 35% drop in prices which even after recovering by 15% is still down by 20%. Developers have accordingly re-calibrated their product to cater to the market. Tell us about the new land and real estate deals Raheja Universal plans to enter into? Apart from strategic deals in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, we also have plans for key cities outside Mumbai namely Goa, Mangalore, Chandigarh, Nagpur and Pune. We are also keenly following the developments in the real estate markets across India to put into place an expansion plan that is well thought out and based on strong positive fundamentals.
| Monday October 26, 03:58 AM | Source: Indian Express Finance |
DTH players eye 50% growth in festive sales
By Priyanka Akhouri
Direct-to-home (DTH) companies say that they have already seen 30%-35% growth during the festive season, and are still hoping to reach 50% by the end of this month (festive season). With already existing 16.5 million subscribers, the players of this sector expect to add another 1-1.5 million subscribers by the end of this festive season. Last financial year, before the festive season, there were 8 million DTH subscribers, which increased to 9 million during the festive season. Sugato Banerjee, CMO, Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 331.1 0) DTH said, Commencement of any festive season sees an increase in demand for entertainment, be it new releases or new programs on television. During the festive season the sale of durables, this includes TV. Since TV is directly related to DTH, the sale of DTH during the festive season increases. Industry experts say with DTH players introducing new packages and reducing set-top box prices during the festive season, the desire to own an improved quality service at value driven pricing holds immense potential in every TV household in India. Talking about the festive season, Sanjay Behl, CEO, Reliance Big TV said, The current average revenue per user of Big TV stands at Rs 200 per month, and with the festive season we are expecting a fair growth of 15% in the ARPU. We have crossed 2 million subscribers and expect to sustain aggressive growth in the future. However, Sun Direct says that the company so far has seen good sales during the festive season and expects to see a 25-30% extra surge in sales. While the company s current subscriber stands at 4 million, it is looking at touching 6 million by the end of the financial year. Tony D silva, COO, Sun Direct said, The festive season is a small bonus for us as it helps us in getting extra sales.
Direct-to-home (DTH) companies say that they have already seen 30%-35% growth during the festive season, and are still hoping to reach 50% by the end of this month (festive season). With already existing 16.5 million subscribers, the players of this sector expect to add another 1-1.5 million subscribers by the end of this festive season. Last financial year, before the festive season, there were 8 million DTH subscribers, which increased to 9 million during the festive season. Sugato Banerjee, CMO, Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 331.1 0
) DTH said, Commencement of any festive season sees an increase in demand for entertainment, be it new releases or new programs on television. During the festive season the sale of durables, this includes TV. Since TV is directly related to DTH, the sale of DTH during the festive season increases. Industry experts say with DTH players introducing new packages and reducing set-top box prices during the festive season, the desire to own an improved quality service at value driven pricing holds immense potential in every TV household in India. Talking about the festive season, Sanjay Behl, CEO, Reliance Big TV said, The current average revenue per user of Big TV stands at Rs 200 per month, and with the festive season we are expecting a fair growth of 15% in the ARPU. We have crossed 2 million subscribers and expect to sustain aggressive growth in the future. However, Sun Direct says that the company so far has seen good sales during the festive season and expects to see a 25-30% extra surge in sales. While the company s current subscriber stands at 4 million, it is looking at touching 6 million by the end of the financial year. Tony D silva, COO, Sun Direct said, The festive season is a small bonus for us as it helps us in getting extra sales.Top News 
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India and China pledged not to let their differences derail bilateral relations as Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Wen Jiabao held a much-awaited meeting in Thailand. At a nearly hour-long meeting here, both leaders avoided the most contentious issues -- Arunachal Pradesh and the Dalai Lama's proposed November visit to the northeastern state -- as they discussed ways to build a relationship marred by a lingering border dispute.
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