Speaking to the Times of India exclusively, the finance minister said that in a multi-party government, it is possible to have different views. He was therefore open to discussion. He said as of now there was no decision for a rollback as yet. He also said the impact of the fuel hikes on inflation was minimal. He no doubt clearly indicated a rollback could not be ruled out keeping in view the objections raised by the Trinamool as well as the DMK. When asked whether he would consider a rollback in fuel prices he said, “When the decision takes place you will come to know. These decisions cannot be taken in front of the camera.”

The decision to start a graded withdrawal of the stimulus package, he said he had been encouraged by the performance of the economy in the October –December quarter.

Comment: The hike in fuel prices is of much concern for most people, not only for those running vehicles and using public transport but also for the common man. The hike in fuel prices would result in overall increase in prices of commodities. The freight charges would go up and this would in turn would mean that commodities would cost more. As it people are reeling under a lot of economic pressure on account of increase in prices of essential commodities.  Further increase would be very burdensome for the common man as well as the salaried class, who will find it difficult to stretch their budget.

In the 15th Lok Sabha one could see about 33% of all seats in Parliament as well as state assemblies that would be reserved for women. The huge representation of women in the legislatures could definitely have an impact  on policies and can result in changes and also alter bring about changes in the nature of politics itself.

This move by the Congress has been feasible due to the absence of Lalu Prasad’s RJD in the UPA  and also the lessening of the relevance  of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Of course, both the OBC chieftains have no doubt opposed the bill as they would like one-third of the proposed women’s bill to be earmarked  for OBCs as well as minorities.

Another person opposing this Bill is JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, but the combined support of the Bill by BJP, Congress as well as Left can definitely bring  the Bill into effect. The DMK support is possible which does say that priority must be given.

In order to ensure that the Bill becomes a reality then a Constitutional Amendment is necessary. The Bill to be passed requires 2/3rd of the members present as well as voting, but must not be less than what is the majority mark of the House.

Comment: It is indeed good that women will be more active in politics. The say of women does matter in Government matters  since much efforts are on to improve their conditions. Women have become more assertive these days and are force to reckon with in many spheres of activities, be it social, political or economic.

Railways had actually taken a decision to set about 82 cyber cafes on the railway premises all over the country in 2006 on a franchise model based on revenue sharing. By around 2007, 24 cyber cafes have come up at major stations which include New Delhi, Howrah, Mumbai Central, Hyderabad, Secunderbad, Lucknow as well as Bangalore. Says, a senior official of RailTel, which is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways,”After functioning for about 2 years, all these cafes are being closed down though the operators had a five-year contract with the railways. “According to the official the business at the cyber cafes was not up to the expectation and one had to shut them down.

RailTel has been responsible for making commercial utilization of telecom facilities on the railway premises, which was responsible for coordinating the setting up of cyber cafes at stations. Two franchise operators had been selected, VSNL as well as Sify, through the process of tendering. As per agreement made out revenue sharing type of model had been worked out with the operators for making use of the railway land.

The official further adds,”Today, technology has developed a lot. The e-mail and other related facilities in mobile phones are easily available. As a result, the cyber cafes at stations could not attract many customers.”

Pawar said that the purchasing power of the farming community, which consists of 62% of the population of the country, must increase. This will ultimately increase the prices of the commodities. He was addressing a prize distribution ceremony of a state-level competition which have been organized for the students of the agriculture universities. Also present on the occasion were Baramati MP Supriya Sule as well as state agriculture minister Balashaeb Thorat.

Pawar said that the middle as well as upper middle classes are in a position to bear the price rise. Those who are economically poor are able to get their food grains at cheaper rates on account of government subsidies. “Every year, the Union government spends Rs.60,000 on subsidies as a result people from the economically weaker section get wheat and rice at Rs. 4 per kg and Rs. 6 kg, respectively”, he said.

With regard to inflation, Pawar said he was very surprised that the wheat-growing farmers had welcomed him in North India. He thought that perhaps they would be angry with him as the food grain prices had gone up.” But due to inflation, they got higher prices for their crop. They used this money for purchasing vehicles, reconstructing houses. When I was in Solapur district, which is a drought- prone area, recently, I was told that in the last four months, 55,000 new two wheelers have been registered.”

“If farmers are getting good returns, I have no issues with being criticized in Parliament,” he said.

“India has 3% of world’s water,4% of land and 17% of the world’s population. The farming community which feeds the entire country should be strengthened. It will control migration and dependency on import,” he added.

In order to increase the number of nurses available for service, the ministry has decided to allow married women to also seek admission for the nursing professional courses.

The Nursing Council director T. Dileep Kumar who has a written a letter to all the states giving required directions that they could allow married women to seek admission in nursing colleges.

On the whole India has about 2,000nursing diploma schools, 1.200 nursing degree schools as well as 261 MSc nursing colleges. Every year, about 60,000 nurses graduate. Says Kumar,” But majority of them work in the private sector. At present, we have a gap of 3.5 lakh nurses.”

The reason why India is facing a shortage of nurses is because many qualified nurses are going off to Europe. The ministry no doubt has enhanced the retirement age of the faculty in nursing colleges to around 70 years. At the consultative committee parliamentary meeting on health it was decided to relax the qualification as well as experience of the nursing teachers to about 2012. Also the eligibility requirements for admission for the diploma as well as the degree course has been relaxed by about 5%.

Comment: Now many young women are joining the nursing profession, but are going abroad for greener pastures. There is paucity of trained nurses in Government hospitals as many prefer to work in private ones. The earlier stigma attached to this profession is no more. Now many prefer to join it as it is a well paying profession abroad.

According to the UNDESA data the number of poor in India was about 33.6 million higher in 2009 as compared to what it would have been had growth rates of the years from around 2007 to 2009 had been of course maintained.

In the year 2009, an estimated 13.6 million additional people in India became poor or had remained in poverty as compared to what it would have been as per the 2008 growth rates.

The 2.1% decline in India’s GDP growth rate had effectively resulted in a 2.8% increase in poverty levels.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 47 million additional people were poor globally in 2009 than perhaps it would have been if the 2008 growth rates remained. At 2004-7 growth rates 84 million would have been more poor. Out of these about 19 to about 40 million respectively are situated in South Asia.

Comment: Recession has been a tough time for people all over the world but more so for those residing in underdeveloped and developing countries, where many people live below the poverty line. Those already below the poverty line suffered a lot and many were brought under the poverty line as they were just managing to meet both ends.

India had announced that it would re-engage itself to settle issue pertaining to various matters concerning the respective countries, including the terrorist activities. It was hoped that the Indian home minister P. Chidambaram’s visit towards the meeting at Islamabad would pave the way for a “meaningful dialogue” between the two countries.

While confirming the postponement, sources said that it was due to the dates being inconvenient to the Nepalese home minister and that this was the primary reason for it.

It is obvious that Chidambaram visit is now on hold and at present no definite date has been announced as to when the meeting will be held. It is understood that Nepal has requested that the meeting to be held sometime in mid-March.

Had the meeting been held as per schedule, it was hoped that Chidambaram’s presence in Islamabad would improve ties between Pakistan and India and India would be in a position to make a point on the specific need of Pakistan to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in that country.

India and Pakistan have been trying to make efforts to normalize relations between the two countries. Recently, the high commissioner of Pakistan Shahid Malik met the Indian foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao to clarify the issues to be dealt with in the forthcoming talks at the foreign secretary level.

Comment: India and Pakistan have been having strained relations on account of the terrorists activities. India allegedly claims that the terrorists operating in India had their bases in Pakistan. The Indian Government has been impressing upon world governments to take up the matter and that the issue must be resolved by Pakistan uprooting all terrorists outfits there.

The ruling states that the merit list is only for that category that is the general category. This is the foremost intervention in the “merit-versus-social justice debate.”

The ruling had come into effect on account of the appointment of district judges in the Delhi Judicial Services. The aggrieved candidates said that after filling up of the 13 posts had been notified as far as the general category was concerned, there were vacancies left in the reserved candidates which could accommodate them.

The Bench comprised of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan as well as Justices B.S. Chauhan and Deepak Verma who had rejected the petition on the ground that it would result in being patently illegal to appoint more persons who were rather in excess of the vacancies that were notified.

Says Justice Chauhan while writing out the judgment, ” Any appointment made beyond the number of vacancies advertised is without jurisdiction, being violative of Articles 14 and 16 (1) of the Constitution, thus a nullity, in executable as well as unenforceable in law,”

Comment: To encourage candidates belonging to the backward classes of the society, reservation in Government jobs was introduced. Several seats have been reserved for the scheduled caste as well as scheduled tribes. The purpose is to uplift them from their backwardness and provide them with opportunities to better themselves. Many of these posts remain vacant on account of lack of candidates.

The Bihar assembly elections are due this year and Rahul naturally wanted to impress upon the Biharis that they had every right to work anywhere in the country.

Uddhav Thackeray wrote in the party organization “Saamna” that Rahul had insulted the Marathis cops who had died in the terrorist attack. Even senior level leader Manohar Joshi said that not only had Marathi cops fought against the terrorist but also the firebrigade personnel were also Maharashtrians.

Chief Minister of Maharasthra, Ashok Chavan very strongly supported Rahul Gandhi’s view point about migrants working in Mumbai. “The Congress has been following secular policies and as Rahul said, Mumbai belongs to every Indian. When it was attacked it was defended by everyone without any discrimination on the basis of caste, region or language.” He further said that, “We will not allow anyone to take the law in their hands and we will take stern action.”

The Sena has being raising its voice against the BJP as well as RSS stand that Mumbai is open to all Indians. Any body can reside there.

Comment: Siva Sena has always felt that Maharasthra is for Maharashtrians and is against migrants from Bihar and UP from coming and settling in Mumbai. Those who did not favor felt that India was democratic and a free country and people could settle and work where they wanted.

Commenting on what RSS had to say about migration to Mumbai, the Maharashtra CM said that, “I do not know what it is saying but for the first time it seems to be saying something in the interest of the nation.”

Verappa Moily, Union Law minister in a statement also said disciplinary action would be taken against those who do not delink themselves from the JAC.

Moily also said that the Center had been concerned with the issue of looking into all the issues that happened to be concerned with all the respective regions of the state. “The terms of reference are under preparation and had not been finalized “, says Moily. He is also in-charge of state party affairs.

He requested that the partymen not to make beeline to the media on such sensitive issues which rather precipitate matters or disrupt the restoration of normalcy after discussions were held with various leaders of political parties and the union home minister, P. Chidambaram on January 5th.

The statement has been made after Chidambaram announced that a committee on the Telangana issue would be appointed next week, and its deadline having been extended to February7th for resumption of the agitation for separate statehood.

Comment: The Telangana issue has not completely died down. State political leaders are very much still expressing their views about it. Agitations are likely to be held again. Most people belonging to the Telangana region feel they are a neglected lot. Even Rayalseema region leaders are also expressing the same opinion. In fact, recently senior leader J.C. Diwaker Reddy hailing from Rayalseema region felt that his region should merge with Telangana or become a separate state. He did not favor Rayalseema merging with Andhra. In fact, all along he was favoring the a United Andhra.