With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit just about a week away, Moscow has taken a tough stand on the liability law India is insisting on in all nuclear power equipment purchases. The Russian position can threaten the signing of the commercial pact for building two more reactors — Kudankulam 3 and 4 in Tamil Nadu —expected during Singh’s visit. The Russians said that if all terms of the deal for Kudankulam reactors...

The scheme seeks to add a superstructure of digital empowerment without laying an adequate foundation Until recently, S. Dhibeka, 16, who had never used a computer until she chose the computer science stream last year at the aging, leafy Kakkalur Government Higher Secondary School near Chennai, could practise programming for only an hour or two a week, often sharing a desktop computer with one or more of her classmates. But since September,...

The FDI in retail debate has apparently fully traversed the realm of reason and for it seems to have degenerated into name-calling. I had intimation of this when a diplomat who meets me from time to time asked me if I was being put up, for a price, by Indian corporate interests to stymie the entry of the big western firms like Wal-Mart and Carrefour? I can well imagine the...

-The Telegraph    The text prepared for negotiations at the Durban global cLIMate-change conference, where high-level discussions begin on Monday, is riddled with disagreements. The 131-page text, prepared by officials from the various governments, was released late on Saturday. It is full of brackets, The Telegraph has found, which means that some country or the other has not agreed to what has been written within the bracketed area. It’s clear that the 190-odd participating...

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to ask the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry to raise the controversial matter of Dow Chemical sponsorship for the London Olympics 2012 with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This should be done through the National Olympic Committee in view of the strong public opinion within India. The sponsorship issued has led to outrage among the Bhopal tragedy victims...