CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk, July, 29,2010

During his visit to India, Foreign Secretary William Hague answered questions on the UK’s relationship with India on issues such as trade and investment, innovation and security.

An invitation to ask questions was posted on the Foreign Secretary’s and UK in India’s Twitter channels. Using the hashtag #fsininida, and limited to 140 characters, the Foreign Secretary selected a sample of questions to answer.

When asked if the UK and India could create a free trade act with 100% foreign investment he answered ‘we want a strong EU-India Free Trade Act’ and ‘Free Trade benefits all – key message from Britain to the world.’

Some questions suggested concern over the ease of investment between the two countries, to which the Foreign Secretary replied ‘we are building a deep and strategic dialogue on trade issues, including key businesses.’ In an interview with the Sun earlier this week, the Foreign Secretary said ‘India has 1.2 billion people, and soon hundreds of millions more, who can buy our goods and services.’

When asked how we can help India make the $35 laptop a reality, the Foreign Secretary said we need to ‘deepen our trade, science and research links’.

The Foreign Secretary received some questions on how migration might effect education and investment. In response, he said: ‘we need effective immigration controls. We’re consulting on how best to achieve them.’

When asked about how Afghanistan and Pakistan relate to the UK’s relationship with India, the Foreign Secretary said ‘all Afghanistan’s neighbours have a role in building a stable future.’ In relation to the work required to address terrorism he said ‘all countries must work against all forms of terrorism’.

Asked about the UK and India’s military and security relationship he replied ‘[the UK and India are] working for better defence relations including joint exercises’.

A range of individuals asked how the UK’s relationship with other countries would be affected as a result of the partnership with India; ‘shouldn’t we also be building relations with other countries like Brazil? Why India?’

The Foreign Secretary said ‘I have just been to China and Japan. And I want a better relationship with Brazil – and others.’

The Foreign Secretary also explained how the UK government is currently reviewing the aid provided internationally and explained that no decisions had been made for the aid allowance for India. He highlighted India’s role as a Commonwealth country and said ‘Commonwealth memberships should be a source [of] strength and pride.’

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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
DD news, July 29,2010

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to hold delegation level talks with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron later in the day during which the two sides are slated to take up security related issues along with talks on boosting bilateral commerce.
The visiting Prime Minister is accompanied by seven cabinet ministers and a huge trade delegation, including representatives from British Aerospace Systems (BAE), Rolls-Royce, Standard Chartered Bank and the British Museum.

Terrorism, Civil nuclear cooperation, Afghanistan and British government’s restrictions on non – EU immigration of skilled labour are expected to come up for discussions apart from other bilateral, regional and international issues.
The two sides are also discussing extension of India-UK Education and Research initiative by another five years.
Briefing media on the visit, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman, Vishnu Prakash said that education is a very important sector for collaboration. He said that the visit is expected to give a further fillip to multi-faceted bilateral ties.
Cameron is also scheduled to have a luncheon meeting with the captains of Indian Industry in the capital. ___________(SS-29/07)

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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 29,2010

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The Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. David Cameron inspecting the Guard of Honour, at the ceremonial reception, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on July 29, 2010. ________Photo no.CNR – 32686
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The Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. David Cameron laying wreath at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, at Rajghat, in Delhi on July 29, 2010. _____Photo no.CNR – 32692
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The Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. David Cameron meeting the President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, in New Delhi on July 29, 2010. Photo no.CNR – 32694
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The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh at the ceremonial reception of the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. David Cameron, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on July 29, 2010. Photo no.CNR – 32684
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The Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. David Cameron introducing the British delegation to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, at his ceremonial reception, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, in New Delhi on July 29, 2010. _____Photo no.CNR – 32685
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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 29,2010

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The Union Minister for Textiles, Shri Dayanidhi Maran addressing at the inauguration of the process of undertaking the largest ever e-auction of land of two closed mills of National Textiles Corporation located at Worli, Mumbai, in New Delhi on July 29, 2010.
The Minister of State for Textiles, Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi and the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Smt. Rita Menon are also seen. ____Photo no.CNR – 32683
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With an objective to bring transparency in the process of sale of land of the closed mills of the National Textile Corporation Ltd.,(NTC) Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran , Union Minister of Textiles, commenced here today the e-auctioning of the sale of land of NTC in Mumbai. This is the first ever initiative for any Govt. Company to sell land by the e-auction process. The function was attended by Tmt. Panabaaka Lakshmi , Minister of State for Textiles, Tmt Rita Menon , Secretary Textiles, and senior officials of the NTC and the Ministry.
Complying with the directions of Thiru Dayanidhi Maran, the NTC initiated, last month, the process of selling the land through “e-auction process’ under its revival scheme for sale of land of Poddar Textile Mills and Bharat Textile Mills in Mumbai. Earlier, NTC had been resorting to only tender process for selling their immovable properties. The process of e-auctioning will be conducted by M/s e-Procurement Technologies Ltd., Ahmedabad on behalf of NTC.
Today, Thiru. Maran started the process of e-auctioning of Podar Mill (Process House) land facing Worli Sea Face at Mumbai, measuring 2.39 acres (9664.44 sq. mtrs.) by e-auctioning. The reserve price of the land has been fixed at Rs. 250 crore. There are 8 bidders participating in the bidding process for the next 3 days from 29th to 31st July, 2010 (3 days) with auto extension as applicable after 5.00 PM on 31.07.2010.
M/s Indiabulls Infratech Limited, Mumbai.
M/s. National Building Construction Corpn., Ltd., New Delhi.
M/s. Kohinoor Duet, Mumbai.
M/s Peninsula Mega-City Development Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.
M/s Celebration Developers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.
M/s Runwal Developers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.
M/s Lodha Ultimate Buildtech & Farms Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.
M/s DB View Infracon Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai
This will be followed by e-auctioning of the next property at Mumbai, viz., Bharat Textile Mills, measuring 8.37 acres (33,938.83 sq. mtrs.). The reserve price of the property has been fixed at Rs. 750 crore. This auction will be carried out on 4th, 5th and 6th August, 2010. For this auction, 7 interested parties have submitted the EMD. NTC is expecting to mobilize enough resources, well above the reserve price by these auctions for the implementation of its Revival Scheme.
1. D B View Infracon Pvt Ltd.

2. Indiabulls Infraestate Ltd.

3. Peninsula Realestate Magmt Pvt Ltd

4. Ahinsa Realtors Pvt Ltd. ( Tata )

5. Perspective Realty Pvt Ltd. ( Oberoi )

6. Videocon Realty & Infrs. Ltd.

7. Lodha Strucutre Developers Pvt Ltd.

NTC will declare its starting price which shall be visible to all the vendors during the start of the forward auction. Any bidder can start bidding, in the online forward auction, from the start price itself. The second online bid and onwards will have to be higher than the H1 rate by minimum one increment value or higher. The minimum bid increment amount has been fixed at Rs. 2 crore.
All the bidders would have a valid digital certificate well in advance to participate in the online event. Under no circumstances, the bidders will be allowed to participate in the online event without Digital Certificate.
Thiru. Maran announced that there will be a press briefing by the Company every day between 5.30 and 6.00 PM to inform the highest bidding amount and the auction will be concluded on 31.7.2010 at 5.00 PM. If a bidder places a bid in the last 10 minutes of closing of the auction, the auction shall get extended automatically for another 10 minutes. In case, there is no bid in the last 10 minutes of closing of auction, the auction shall get closed automatically without any extension.
NTC has drawn a roadmap to generate Rs. 5000 crore during the current financial year by selling most of its properties in the city of Mumbai and a few small size properties in the city of Indore, Kanpur, Bangalore, Coimbatore, etc. The main resources will be from the city of Mumbai by selling the balance 2,24,500 sq. mtrs of land. On the basis of Rs. 100 crore per acre of reserve price that the company has fixed, it should be easily possible for NTC to generate Rs. 5000 crore by selling its land.
The Company has already paid Rs. 2256 crore by way of compensation to 61,900 employees under MVRS and Rs. 900 crore ( approx.) on modernization of its 21 mills, of which 3 are new composite mills – one each at Hassan( Karnataka); Achalpur (Maharashtra); Ahmedabad( Gujarat). 18 of the mills have already completed modernization and are generating cash profit for the last four months.
NTC is expected to transform itself into a profit making integrated textile company, consisting of ginning, spinning,weaving, processing, and garmenting by the end of the current financial year. The handsome returns, which NTC expects from this new revolutionary method, will pave the way for future expansion, forward and backward integration proposals apart from foraying into the technical textiles field, for the NTC’s strategic turn-around to become a noteworthy textile industry player with presence through the value chain.

Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran added that henceforth all land of NTC will be sold under e-auction. This will set an example for all Govt. Companies to emulate this process.
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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 28,2010
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has been enacted to provide for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of six to fourteen years. The Act has come into force from 1st April, 2010. It is the duty of the appropriate government and local authority to ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by every child of the age of six to fourteen years.
Section 4 of the RTE Act provides that where a child in the age group of six to fourteen years has not been admitted to any school or though admitted could not complete elementary education, he/she shall be admitted in an age appropriate class, and will have the right to receive special training. Such children shall be entitled to free education till completion of elementary education even after fourteen years.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. D. Purandeswari, in a written reply to a question, in the Lok Sabha today.
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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 28,2010
In pursuance of the understanding reached between External Affairs Minister and US Secretary of State and as reflected in the Joint Statement in July 2010, the inaugural India-US Strategic Dialogue took place in Washington DC on June 3, 2010.
The Strategic Dialogue, led by External Affairs Minister and the US Secretary of State is the sum total of the meetings and events held over the period June 2 – 4, 2010, geared towards strategic planning and determining the next steps for India-US collaboration across the various sectors of bilateral co-operation identified under the 18 India US Dialogues under the groupings, namely: (i) Strategic cooperation,(ii)Energy and Climate change, (iii)Education and Development, (iv) Economics, trade and agriculture and (v)Science, technology, health and innovation; while leveraging the strong foundation of economic and social linkages between the people, private sectors and institutions in both countries.
The Plenary Session on June 3, 2010 was led by External Affairs Minister, Shri S.M. Krishna and US Secretary of State Ms. Hillary Clinton. The Government of India delegation included Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development (HRM), Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Foreign Secretary, Secretary Environment, Secretary Department of Bio-technology and Special Secretary Ministry of Home. On the US side, participants included Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Deputy NSA Michael Froman, US AID Administration, Rajiv Shah, Science Advisor to the US President Holdren, Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Ponemon, NASA Administrator Bolden and Under Secretary for Global Affairs Maria Otero.
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, MoS (S&T) and HRM met individually and collectively with their respective counterparts to pursue the India-US bilateral dialogues which their Ministries co-chair – the Economic Dialogue, the Energy Dialogue, the Agriculture Dialogue, the Science & Technology dialogue and the Education Dialogue.
Similarly, Foreign Secretary met the US Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry, Security on Export Controls and they discussed, inter alia, the ongoing review of US export control policy. Foreign Secretary and the US Under Secretary for Political Affairs held discussions on regional issues and global issues including Food Security, Energy Security and reviewed other ongoing India US dialogues including those relating to cooperation in defence, education, energy, and science & technology. Secretary Environment, Special Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs and Secretary DBT, similarly, met their counterparts to pursue the agenda of the India-US Climate Change dialogue, the India-US dialogue on cooperation in countering terrorism and the joint implementation of the India-US MoU on cooperation in the field of Energy and Climate Change signed in November 2009, respectively.
The Strategic Dialogue of June 2-4, 2010 gave a strategic direction to the 18 ongoing bilateral Dialogue components – with the aim of strengthening and building on the economic, political and technological linkages that they advance between India and the USA, and taking the bilateral co-operation in all identified areas to the next level for the mutual benefit of India and the USA while complementing India and US development, security and economic interests. A number of short term targets were set – to be achieved in the individual areas of our cooperation – which are presently under implementation. This information was given by Shri S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. __________YSK/PM

CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
PIB, July 28,2010
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has expressed grief and shock over the tragic plane crash in Islamabad. In a message to his Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Yousuf Raza Gilani, Dr. Singh condoled the loss of lives in the tragedy. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s message:
“Excellency,

I have learnt with deep shock of the tragic plane crash this morning near Islamabad resulting in the loss of so many valuable lives. On behalf of the Government and the people of India, I convey my heartfelt condolences and sympathies to you and through you to the bereaved families at this time of sorrow. I also convey our best wishes for the speedy recovery of al those who have been injured in this most unfortunate tragedy. Please accept Excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.”
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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
DD news, July 27,2010

The overseas arm of ONGC Videsh Ltd and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam will make a formal offer for buying crisis-hit British energy giant BP’s stake in a gas field in the South Asian country “in the next few weeks,” Oil Secretary S Sundareshan told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“PetroVietnam is talking to BP, we are also talking to them… I think in next few weeks, they (OVL and PetroVietnam) are likely to make an offer,” he said.

OVL and PetroVietnam are likely to make the joint offer for BP’s 35 per cent stake in the gas field off Vietnam coast.
“We have given our interest (for BP’s stake). And we have also stated that we would like to work collectively with PetroVietnam,” he said.
Hanoi has also stressed that the British firm must give its partners priority in the stake sale.
OVL, backed by sister explorer Oil India Ltd, and Vietnam’s national oil firm PetroVietnam will make a joint bid for BP’s 35 per cent stake in offshore gas block 06.1.
While OVL has 45 per cent stake in the gas block, PetroVietnam has the remaining 20 per cent.
Last week, the Indian Oil Minister had met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the South Asian nation’s trade minister for forging a joint approach to acquire BP’s stake. ____________(SP-27/07)

CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
DD news, July 27,2010

The European Union on Monday formally adopted a package of new sanctions against Iran, targeting the country’s foreign trade, banking and energy sectors.
The move, which EU leaders had been agreed to in principle in June, is the latest in a series of measures taken by the international community in an effort to halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast denounced the EU decision.
“Moving toward confrontational measures and supporting unilateral actions and damaging the atmosphere are not considered by us to be a good use of the opportunity,” Mehmanparast said.
“We have a comprehensive set of sanctions. This is something where we have all 27 countries working together,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said ahead of the meeting.
According to the decision reached in June, the sanctions will target dual-use items that could be used as part of a nuclear program, and Iran’s oil and gas industry – including the “prohibition of new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies.”
Iran’s shipping and air cargo companies will be blacklisted and banned from operating in EU territory, and new visa bans and asset freezes will be imposed on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The sanctions also encompass trade insurance and financial transactions.
EU exports to Iran – mainly machinery, transport equipment and chemicals – amounted to Euro 14.1 billion in 2008.
Imports from Iran, the EU’s sixth largest energy provider, amounted to Euro 11.3 billion, with energy being 90 per cent of the total.
The new European restrictions will come on top of a fourth round of sanctions imposed last month by the UN Security Council to curtail Iran’s nuclear program over fears it is developing weapons.
The council endorsed those sanctions after Iran rebuffed a plan to suspend uranium enrichment and swap its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium for fuel rods.
____________ (SS-26/07)
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CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
From the July 27 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends