India Summary ( 8 to 14 May 2010)

National Summary:
BJP national president Nitin Gadkari criticises the Congress-led UPA government for being soft on terrorists and their sympathizers because of vote bank politics. He blames UPA for price rise and increasing naxal insurgency in the country. He accused Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad of betraying the opposition on the recent cut motions in parliament, and said they were "dogs who lick the feet of the Congress".
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is under severe criticism of opposition for his remarks in Beijing on Saturday that India should be much more relaxed in its approach to Chinese investments into the country and get rid of "needless" restrictions. Congress party is also not very encouraging for his remarks. Manmohan Singh refused to accept his resignation but warned him to be careful in his statement.
Darul Uloom Deoband, India's foremost Islamic seminary denied asking Muslim women not to work along with men and said it only suggested that working women should dress "properly". Media and civil society’s strong reaction caused Darul Uloom to withdraw its statement.
With an aim to strengthen anti-Maoist operations in West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura before the 2011 Assembly elections, the West Bengal government has decided to set up a dozen more camps in the three districts.
Seven Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans were killed on Saturday when Naxals blew up their bullet-proof vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, the first major attack after the Dantewada incident on April 6, in which 76 personnel were killed.
India is facing shortage of grain storage warehouses Agriculture Minister of the country Sharad Pawar invited individuals to help government in this regard.
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex registered its biggest single day gain of 561 points in ten months after EU and IMF agreed on a 1 trillion dollar emergency fund for the Union to help contain the region's credit crisis. The Sensex, which lost over 788 points over the past five sessions, bounced back by 561.44 points to 17,330.55 on positive Asian cues.
In a big-ticket investment aimed at giving a boost to its holding of oil and gas assets abroad, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited (OVL), along with its partners, entered into an agreement with the Venezuelan government on Thursday to develop a $20-billion oil project in that country. The project is expected to give India 3.6 million tonnes of crude a year. OVL and its partners signed the agreement with Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdV) for development and production of hydrocarbons from the Carabobo project in the Orinoco region.
India has conveyed to Tehran that it had a major role in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan and that India would cherish its support in handling the developing situation in that country. This was conveyed by India's deputy NSA Alok Prasad to Iran's main security body, Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), in a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday. Both sides remained tight-lipped about the dialogue over security-related issues. Sources, however, said Prasad told SNSC chief Saeed Jalili that India was looking forward to full-scale security cooperation between the two countries over Afghanistan and other regional security issues. The crucial IPI pipeline issue also came up during the discussion and Prasad conveyed to the Iranians that India's participation was being prevented solely by its concerns over security and pricing issues.
The US administration has named India's oil and gas flagship ONGC and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) among the 41 firms worldwide having energy ties with Iran, an act for which it may impose sanctions on them. "The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) provides for sanctions against persons, including foreign firms, who invest more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector in any 12-month period," the report said. Of the 41 firms named in the report, five are Indian. Besides ONGC and IOC, it names ONGC Videsh Ltd - the overseas investment arm of the state-run explorer, Oil India Ltd and Petronet LNG Ltd.
Indian government extended the ban on LTTE by another two years following intelligence reports that remnants of the Sri Lankan Tamil terror outfit were trying to re-group in Tamil Nadu.
Despite Pakistan’s protest India will organise a civilian mountaineering and trekking expedition to the forbidding Siachen Glacier for the fourth year in a row in October-November this year. The expedition, which has now become an annual affair, is meant to showcase to the global community that Indian troops hold the Siachen glacial heights and Pakistan is nowhere near the glacier. During this year's expedition, the Army plans to take along 35 civilians including women, journalists, scientists from the DRDO and other glacial studies institutes, and mountaineers from among civilian enthusiasts as well as military training establishments. The civilian Siachen expedition had run into a controversy when it began in 2007 after Pakistan lodged a strong protest, calling it "incongruous" to the ongoing peace efforts between the two countries.
Investigation of Malegaon, Ajmer and Hyderabad blasts cases clearly indicates the involvement of extremist Hindu groups and individuals in all incidents.
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre said an incident of minor radioactive contamination was detected in one of its laboratories. The incident which happened on Monday involved minor contamination of the hands of a person, who was involved in the transfer of samples containing radioactive material in a sealed container from one laboratory to another for analysis.
Regional Summary:
The Election Commission of India (EC) has announced the poll schedule for the biennial election to 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. Eleven members of the Rajya Sabha from the state will retire on July 4.
Nearly 14 years after 21 dalits, mostly women, girls and two infants, were massacred by a private militia of landlords in Bhojpur district; a local court of Bihar awarded capital punishment to three convicts and life imprisonment to 20 others.
A faction of the Gujjars on Monday said it would launch a fresh agitation against the one per cent additional quota offered to the community by the government, saying it was not ready to settle for anything less than the 5 per cent separate reservation.
In a case of 'honour killing', a woman was murdered on Wednesday in Punjab's Tarn Taran district by her family for marrying against their wishes, police said. Her mother-in-law was also shot dead. Cases of honour killing are increasing in Punjab.