There is never a dull moment
in Raisina Hill’s North Block. Half way through fiscal 2001-02,
it is becoming clear that union finance minister Yashwant Sinha
will have to re-think his policies with the help of yet another
new team if he has to deliver on his budget promises.
The campaign against the Taliban
and its many collaborators and supporters is not just a war
against terrorism. It is a struggle against sectarianism, bigotry,
monotheism and mono-culturalism. It is a campaign for multiculturalism,
pluralism and secularism.
In the recent obsession with
Nobel prizes, the media has not devoted enough attention to
the Ignoble prizes, annual awards since 1991 for achievements
that “cannot or should not be reproduced.”
There is no doubt about it: bad times bring
out the best in people. Out of the rubble of the World Trade
Centre rose tales of bravery and love. Cubicles clearly housed
compassion: story after story highlighted the special gestures
colleagues made to each other even as they tried to run for
their life.
The Industrial Finance
Corporation of India has not performed well in the past, and
may well be unable to improve its financial health in the near
future, but this sordid state of affairs has not deterred the
organisation from giving its senior functionaries an impressive
salary hike.
Colin Powell is to visit Pakistan
and India, and many in India are anxious to impress upon the
United States that it should expand its war on terrorism to
cover the cross-border terrorists operating in Kashmir.
As for consensus among developing
nations, there are challenges all the time...But there is, as
I see, growing realisation based on national interests. Pakistan
tells me that the LMG (the like- minded group) wants to meet
in Geneva (on October 27)
Qatari oil minister Abdullah
al-Attiyah said on Monday there was a “strong movement” within
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output
to shore up sagging oil prices.
Shanghai greeted a week of
Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation meetings on Monday with smiles
despite the significant inconveniences imposed by a massive
security operation made even tighter since the September 11
attacks in the US.
Italy is the fifth
largest economy in the world which is marked by a strong services
and industrial sector and predominance of dynamic family-owned
small and medium enterprises. It’s foreign trade value is estimated
at $440 billion.
