2nd SEPTEMBER, 2014

China’s railway plans for Tibet are firmly on track with two new rail lines going west and east from Lhasa. The ambitious railway line from Beijing to Lhasa began seven years ago. The extended lines — 251 km from Lhasa to Shigatse on the west and 433 km to Nyingchi (still under construction) in the east — will effectively link Tibet to India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Japan on Monday pledged to invest Rs. 2.1 lakh crore ($35.5 billion) in a wide spectrum of projects in India over five years. These include infrastructure, clean energy and skill development. Capping lengthy deliberations between visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, the two sides also decided to double the number of Japanese companies operating in India in five years. Announcing the “Japan-India Investment Promotion Partnership,” both leaders were upbeat about their future relationship. Two countries decided to collaborate in the procurement of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and upstream development of oil and gas as well as clean coal technology. Five agreements, including one in defence, were signed during Mr. Modi’s visit, in which the two sides also decided to turn their “Strategic and Global Partnership to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership”.

After attending a road-show in Mumbai to attract investors to West Bengal's proposed financial hub, State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the government would clear all investment proposals “within a day if the proposals are tabled in September.” The proposed financial hub at Rajarhat on the eastern fringes of Kolkata was inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee in 2012. Mr. Hakim claimed that the response to the road show was “impressive” and top officials of several financial institutions -- public and private -- enquired about the terms and conditions of investing in the hub. In the hub, banks and financial institutions such as UCO Bank, State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Sriram Credit, the West Bengal Financial Corporation and the West Bengal Infrastructure and Development Corporation are setting up offices.

The State Cabinet which met here on Monday reportedly decided in favour of Vijayawada-Guntur stretch as capital of Andhra Pradesh, apparently brushing aside Sivaramakrishnan Committee’s report that had lot of reservations about this location. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is likely to make a formal statement about the Cabinet’s decision in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. He is expected to list out the reasons in defence of his government’s choice. In fact Mr. Naidu is stated to have cautioned his Cabinet colleagues against divulging any information to media about deliberations at today’s meeting, citing rules that prohibited Ministers from making any statement outside the Assembly when it is in session.

The fares at the Tindivanam and Karanodai toll plazas have been hiked from September 1, based on the increase in the wholesale price index (WPI), an index that measures and tracks the prices of wholesale goods. It is also a measure of inflation. A total of 22 plazas under the control of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the State have increased their rates by 5.98 per cent.  (V. Chinna Reddy, Chief General Manager (Technical), NHAI)

Global mass surveillance and privacy of Internet users are likely to dominate discussions at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which begins in Istanbul on Tuesday. The IGF is a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on Internet governance convened by the United Nations Secretary-General to carry out the mandate from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This year’s Forum concludes on September 5. Elvira Tiguru, spokesperson for Association for Progressive Communications,  said that “The latest edition of the Global Information Society Watch reveals the complicity of both states and corporations in communications surveillance.  Also Report shows how most people and governments have completely missed the point of mass surveillance: it is ubiquitous, widespread, and involves everyone, whether or not you are a ‘threat to the state’, or engaged in criminal activities,” 

Dr. Govind, CEO, National Internet Exchange of India, who is attending the IGF, said, “India is the third largest user of internet in the world, with 220 million users of mobile internet alone. So the discussions taking place here matter to us.”

Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, - Governor of Karnataka

The Supreme Court on Monday refused a plea by ICC president N. Srinivasan to reinstate him at the helm of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Mr. Srinivasan’s plea, made through his counsel, came at a hearing when the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee filed an interim report seeking two months’ time to complete its investigation into the Indian Premier League betting and spot-fixing scandal.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is contemplating high speed inter-city rail corridors spread over 1,141 km and connecting all district headquarters and major towns of Telangana State with the city. (HMDA Commissioner Neerabh Kumar Prasad.) The Comprehensive Transportation Study (CTS) for the city too had suggested corridors to connect Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar, Sangareddy, Medak, Vikarabad and Adilab

The extended railway lines built by China in Tibet — 251 km from Lhasa to Shigatse on the west and 433 km to Nyingchi (still under construction) in the east — will effectively link Tibet to India, Nepal and Bhutan. These are part of the Chinese government’s mission 2020 for infrastructure in Tibet. By 2020, China hopes to build 1,300 km of rail lines in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) as well as more than 1,10,000 km of roadways, many of which will work as feeder lines to the railway stations that dot the line.

India and Japan will explore with the United States the possibility of raising their joint secretary-level trilateral dialogue to the level of foreign ministers, On a possible civil nuclear deal, both Mr. Modi and Mr. Abe, who held detailed discussions, directed their officials to expedite their negotiations and bring them to a conclusion. Japan has major domestic concerns on nuclear issues, especially after the Fukushima disaster, and Indian officials had previously indicated that an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation was unlikely in the current trip.

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Monday called for Information Technology-guided transparency in the interface between organ donors and recipients when the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (NOTTO) becomes operational.

The Antrix Corporation-Devas Multimedia spat over the cancelled contract for two Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellites has come up before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague. It even claimed $1.6 billion (around Rs. 9,600 crore by current exchange rate) for breach of contract.

India’s dominating performance against England coupled with Australia’s shock loss to Zimbabwe made it the sole No. 1 team in the latest ICC ODI rankings issued here. “World champion India has been confirmed as the No. 1 ranked side in the Reliance ICC ODI Team Rankings,” the ICC said in a statement.