New Delhi, May 11: With the “National Do Not Call Registry” failing to prevent the harassment of consumers by telemarketers, telecom regulator Trai has proposed a “National Do Call Registry”.
Under the current system, if a consumer doesn’t want to receive telemarketing calls, he/she has to register with the Do Not Call Registry. This puts the burden on the consumer to act. In the new system, a telemarketer will not be able to call any subscriber until and unless he/she is registered for receiving commercial calls.

Pawan Bali

Kolkata, May 11: Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday that had the Congress accepted Trina-mul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s terms for seat adjustments in the May 30 Kolkata civic election, the party’s existence would have been in jeopardy. Mr Mukherjee, who is also West Bengal Congress president, added: “If someone thinks the meaning of an alliance is to make a 126-year-old party like the Congress go out of business, that is certainly not acceptable.”
Mr Mukherjee, while not naming Ms Banerjee, made it clear he was giving a “befitting reply” to the Trinamul leader, who had blamed him for the alliance collapsing. “Political allia-nces are forged to increase political strength, not to weaken one’s position,” he said, justifying turning down Ms Banerjee’s offer of 25 seats in the 141-member civic body. At the same time, he made it clear that the Congress and the Trinamul Congress could still have an alliance for next year’s state Assembly elections.

Age Correspondents

New Delhi, May 11: Severely hit by a shortage of young Army officers, the government on Tuesday approved a proposal to re-employ retiring brigadiers for two years. They will perform the task of lieutenant-colonels in this period but retain their rank and report to major-generals.
Brigadiers, who retire at the age of 56, will thus be able to serve till 58. There are around 870 brigadiers in the 35,000-strong officer corps of the Army.
Defence sources point out that the Army is short of 11,000 officers, primarily in the ranks of lieutenant, captain, major and lieutenant-colonel. Re-employment of colonels was permitted a few years back, and they do the job of majors during re-employment. Since rank is a sensitive issue, the Army is taking pains to ensure that the re-employed officers can retain their earlier ranks and get salaries on the basis of the last pay drawn. They will also be appointed to posts in which they can report to officers of a higher rank. One source explained: “The shortages exist more in staff (administrative) and instructional posts since the Army cannot afford shortages in field units which are crucial in counter-insurgency operations. So re-employed officers will be appointed in staff and instructional posts.”
The shortfall has been increasing since the Army ceased to be an attractive career option for young people due to low pay in comparison to higher private sector salaries. The government is hoping that implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations will change this.

Age Correspondent

London, May 11: Britain came close to a new government as Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his resignation late on Tuesday night as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats virtually sealed a deal on a coalition government.
Conservative leader David Cameron appeared to be on the brink of power as tense negotiations between Britain’s three major parties appeared to swing decisively in his favour. Earlier Tuesday, the LibDems and the Tories reopened their negotiations after talks between Labour and the LibDems did not reach any positive conclusion on Tuesday morning.
The fifth day after the general election was full of dramatic swings as the LibDems started by negotiating with Labour in the House of Commons, but then opted to restart negotiations with the Tories at the Cabinet Office at 2 pm.
Tory leader David Cameron and LibDem chief  Nick Clegg met for a private face-to-face meeting on Tuesday morning, and now all eyes are on a formal announcement of the outcome and terms of the Tory-LibDem negotiations.
Mr Brown’s resignation brings to a close the Labour Party’s 13-year hold on power, as his two chief rivals sealed a coalition deal after the country’s inconclusive election.
Mr Brown said he will travel to see Queen Elizabeth II to resign — allowing Conservative leader David Cameron to take office after Mr Cameron struck a deal with Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats. Mr Cameron is likely to go to Buckingham Palace soon after Mr Brown does, to be formally invited by the Queen to form a new government.
Mr Brown’s aides refused to discuss reports that he might even quit politics altogether.
Conservative negotiator William Hague, a former party chief, who is likely to become the next foreign secretary, said a deal between his party and Mr Clegg’s group was the only credible outcome. “There should be a government with a strong and secure majority in the House of Commons,” Mr Hague said.

Sarju Kaul
With agency inputs

Lucknow/New Delhi, May 11: Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who visited Amethi on Tuesday with AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday. After Amethi, Mr Gates will visit Bihar on Wednesday, where he will attend functions organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On Tuesday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took Mr Gates on a whirlwind tour of Amethi and Rae Bareli to give him a glimpse of development work in the two areas. The two arrived at the Indira Gandhi Flying Academy in Fursatganj in a special aircraft Tuesday morning and drove straight to Bahadurpur village at Jais in Rae Bareli. They visited the Rajiv Gandhi Women’s Training Centre and interacted with 300 women associated with self-help groups formed at the initiative of Mr Rahul Gandhi.
Mr Gates explained the importance of computer education and promised to help develop Amethi and Rae Bareli as an information technology hub.
The two visited the bank branch at Gauriganj where local women maintain acco-unts, and then an eye hospital at Munshiganj. They had lunch at the Munshiganj guest house and then visited an eye camp in Shahgarh block, with halts at some villages on the way.
The visit by the two was wrapped in secrecy and most Uttar Pradesh Congre-ss leaders were not infor-med about it. The media too was kept at a distance not given access to the VIPs.

Age Correspondents

New Delhi, May 11: External affairs minister S.M. Krishna will visit Islamabad on July 15 for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi to discuss confidence- and trust-building measures.
The date and venue of the talks was firmed up Tuesday in a telephone conversation between the two ministers, who last met here on November 26, 2008 just hours before terrorists from Pakistan unleashed mayhem in Mumbai, killing around 200 people.
Since then, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan have never visited each other’s country, only meeting on the sidelines of multilateral summits.
The Krishna-Qureshi meeting would be preceded by home minister P. Chidambaram’s visit to Islamabad on June 26 for the much-delayed meeting of the home ministers of Saarc countries.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will get an opportunity to exchange notes with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on the sidelines of the Saarc home ministers’ meeting.
Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani, who met in Bhutan in April, had mandated their ministers and officials to discuss a roadmap to carry forward the dialogue.
Speaking to journalists, Mr Krishna said: “I am looking forward to these talks. Let’s hope these... will help bring our countries closer together, bring the cordiality we desire and that... our efforts will be fruitful[.]” In Islamabad, Mr Qureshi said India and Pakistan were going into the talks with an open mind. He said: “I will not create any false hopes. I am an optimist, yet a realist. I recognise the challenges (and) the difficulties. I recognise the trust deficit. It is an uphill task[.] Don’t expect miracles overnight. The good thing is that on both sides we have democracies, and democracies believe in negotiations... There are no quick fixes.”

Age Correspondents

Viswanathan Anand (right) makes a move against his Bulgarian challenger, Veselin Topalov, during their last game of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Sofia on Tuesday. Anand won the game in 56 moves to retain the title he won in 2008. This was Anand’s fourth world title in 11 years. PHOTO: AFP 

Lucknow, May 10: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Amethi on Tuesday accompanied by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.
The two will arrive in a special aircraft and will land in Fursatganj. Uttar Pradesh Congressmen have also not been informed of the visit.

Mr Gandhi and Mr Gates are expected to visit some villages in Amethi and interact with self-help groups.
The visit, however, has been kept a closely guarded secret and the media will not be allowed near the VIPs on Tuesday.
It may be recalled that a few weeks ago Mr Bill Gates’ wife, Ms Melinda Gates, had visited some areas in Rae Bareli, represented in the Lok Sabha by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Ms Melinda Gates had promised assistance for the poor from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Amita Verma

London, May 10: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Monday he will resign by September — a dramatic move that eases the way for his Labour Party to stay in power in a possible coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Brown said Labour, which came a distant second to the Conservatives in Thursday’s election, would begin a leadership contest to replace him while he focused on talks to break Britain’s election deadlock.
“As leader of my party I must accept that as a judgment on me,” Mr Brown said in a startling press conference outside 10 Downing Street.
The Tories are already holding talks with LibDems, but legislators said these had stalled over differences on key issues, including electoral reform, a major Liberal Democrat demand.
Mr Gordon Brown said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had asked to begin formal coalition talks with the Labour Party.
    —AP

New Delhi, May 10: The defence ministry has sought air traffic restrictions over the country’s oil refineries to pre-empt any attempt by terrorists to strike at them from the air.
The MoD, pointing out that a Mumbai refinery falls on the flight path of aircraft using Mumbai airport, recently communicated its views to the petroleum and civil aviation ministries, where the proposal is under consideration, government sources said.
The petroleum ministry has compiled a list of 20 refineries in states like Assam, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. A blanket ban on civilian air traffic over them would necessitate changes in air traffic corridors and further constrict civilian airspace, possibly leading to longer flights for passengers. It is believed that half the country’s airspace, and over 70 per cent in North India, is already reserved for military use.

Sridhar Kumaraswami

New Delhi, May 10: Minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, who arrived from Beijing on Monday morning, has been asked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apologise to home minister P. Chidambaram for his remarks while on Chinese soil that the home ministry’s policies on Chinese investment in this country were “paranoid” and “alarmist”.
The minister also got a sharp rebuke on Monday from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who told him in no uncertain terms that he had no business commenting in public on the work of other ministries. PMO sources said Dr Singh, who spoke to Mr Ramesh shortly after the latter’s return from Beijing on Monday morning, that it was “not advisable” for ministerial colleagues to “comment on the functioning of other departments, specially with regard to the relationship with important neighbours like China.”
The Prime Minister also told Mr Ramesh that “there is no confusion” about India’s policy towards China, and that “we continue to strive for constructive engagement with Beijing”. Mr Ramesh later also gave an explanation for his remarks to Mrs Gandhi.
Mr Ramesh’s utterances have proved acutely embarrassing for the government as they exposed the clear differences and squabbling within the council of ministers. They also do the Congress no good, given that it is still trying to recover from senior leader Digvijay Singh recently accusing the home minister in a newspaper article of “intellectual arrogance”.

Age Correspondents

Kabul, May 10: Opportunity worth billions of dollars is expected to soon come the way of international business as Afghanistan gets ready to throw open the doors for exploitation of its substantial mineral wealth in its relatively trouble-free centre-north.
Soviet geologists had drawn the first serious Afghan mineral map and hinted at basins of gas reserves and exploitable deposits of other minerals. Six months back the US Geological Survey confirmed these findings, paving the way for the opening or iron ore, coal, and copper mines.
Wahidullah Shahrani, the energetic young minerals minister recently given charge of coordinating the government’s economic infrastructure hub, told this newspaper preparations for laying out the bidding process for iron ore and copper would soon get underway. The world’s largest untapped iron ore deposit has been located at Haji Hak in the Maidan Wardak-Bamiyan region, Mr Shahrani said. The ore content of the two billion metric tonne deposit is said to be 62 per cent, and the estimated value of the complex $300 billion.
Afghan leaders suggest they are keen for an Indian company to bag the contract to exploit the iron ore deposit. But they also express a serious problem. A senior official asked: “How will an Indian entity take the ore out?” He was referring to prevailing geostrategic realities. Pakistan will not permit the output from an India-operated mine in Afghanistan to pass its territory to reach an outlet to the sea, and the Americans are certain to be upset if India sought to use the Iran route as punishing Tehran for perceived nuclear transgressions is high on Washington’s agenda.

Anand K. Sahay