Hindu guru allowed to leave US on $10 mn bond

New York: Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, a prominent Hindu guru and scholar who was charged three weeks ago with groping two underage girls over 10 years ago and arrested, has been allowed to leave the US on a whopping $10 million guarantee that he would return to face trial.
The 79-year-old founder of Barsana Dham, a 200-acre temple and ashram complex near Austin in Texas - one of the biggest Hindu temples in the US - is out on a $1 million bail.
The swami was indicted on 20 counts of indecency between 1993 and 1996 on complaints filed by two girls last year. He was arrested on April 24 in Washington DC on arrival from Europe, where he had been receiving treatment. The $10 million guarantee money, considered huge by legal experts, was put up by Peter Spiegel, an entrepreneur who is listed as managing member, director and treasurer of JKP, Barsana Dham, the corporate name of the temple founded by the swami, the American Statesman reported Monday.
Judge Jon Wisser, a semi-retired state district court judge from Travis County, said, "I've never in my 35 years heard of anyone putting up that kind of money. It's unprecedented."
Saraswati travelled to several places within the US in the last few weeks, giving discourses. He petitioned the court for permission to leave the country to attend to religious matters in India.
A spokesman for Barsana Dham said that Saraswati intends to visit India soon to oversee several hospital-building projects sponsored by his organisation.
District Attorney Sherri Tibbe said that her office argued against permitting the swami to leave the US. "We oppose anybody, who's out on a felony bond, leaving the country," she said.
According to other provisions of the release, Saraswati was prohibited from entering Barsana Dham property at any time, as the offences allegedly occurred
there.
Spiegel said through a spokesperson, "I have known Shree Swamiji for 24 years, and the accusations against him are false. Anyone who knows Swamiji well would have done the same thing."
Born in Ayodhya, India, the swami is a disciple of Jagadguru Kripalu Maharaj, a prominent guru of the devotional path. He started his mission in 1971 and has led the creation of several Hindu centres and temples around the world and has overseen the development of several charitable hospitals in India.
A renowned scholar, he has authored many books on Hinduism including "The True History and the Religion of India."

RIL offers largest employee stock option

Mumbai: Riding the construction of a new refinery and several retail outlets, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is turning a new leaf in the area of people management. During the last fiscal, it rolled out the largest ever employee stock option scheme (ESOS).
All told, 14,000 employees, constituting roughly 29.1 per cent of the total employee strength, have become the company’s shareholders through this scheme.
The company granted 2.97 crore options to its employees in three tranches in 2007-08, according to the company’s annual report released last week.
This is one of a string of measures that the company has put in place to nurture talent in an organisation that’s facing a huge shortage of manpower to deal with its expansion plans.
The company, which is expanding in high-growth areas including retail and energy, is facing a job market where competition to retain people is becoming increasingly difficult. In early 2007, RIL subsidiary Reliance Retail had rolled out a series of measures to retain its top brass.
Under the new plan, RIL is taking a complete re-look at its existing human resource (HR) processes. Hewitt Associates, a US-based consultant, has been appointed to shape up the new HR strategies. Once Hewitt completes its work, new performance management guidelines and career opportunities will be put in place.
“The main objective being to take a re-look at the existing processes and benchmark with the best in each area and work towards going beyond,” said the RIL annual report.
Another overseas consultant, The Hay Group has recently completed job evaluation exercise for employees at RIL’s petrochemicals business. This will shortly be extended to other divisions. The Hay Group’s mandate includes, among other things, restructuring of employee hierarchy.
Attempts are being made to create a talent pipeline. For the refinery, RIL has been training a total of 1,700 carpenters, fitters and plumbers in Jamnagar. “We recruit people for our construction team and train them on soft skills,” said a Reliance official familiar with the development, who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the press.
The company has also hired 1,500 engineering graduates to cater to demand for its expansion plans. For the first time, a business management trainee (BMT) scheme was launched in the last financial year. “This will be an on-going annual initiative,” the annual report stated.

Another Indian cabbie assaulted in Australia

An Indian cabbie was brutally beaten by two men in Adelaide who allegedly also stole his taxi in a second such incident in the past three weeks.Balraj Singh was severely injured on face and his nose was broken in an attack by the two men, who had boarded his cab at the weekend, Australian media reported.
Last month, a 23-year-old Indian student taxi driver Jalvinder Singh was brutally stabbed and left bleeding on the roadside in Melbourne.
A number of taxi drivers today protested the attack on Balraj, causing chaos in Adelaide city even as they sought justice for the victim.
Drivers parked about 50 taxis in front of the court building and protested for about 45 minutes, chanting 'we want justice' over the bashing of Singh, media reports said.
From his hospital bed, Singh said he was punched in the right eye and had his seatbelt wrapped around his neck by a man in the back seat.
"You're not safe at night time. You don't know the people you pick up, who they are," he told ABC TV.
He was being treated for facial injuries, including a broken nose.
Driver Mohsin Mirsa, 26, said cabbies regretted disrupting customers but feared for their safety every day. "We are prepared to protest until the government says security screens have to be put in taxis," he said.
Meanwhile, ABC reported on Monday that one of the two men charged with bashing Singh and stealing his cab at the weekend made an application for bail.
Driver Balraj Singh was taken to hospital after the attack in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.
Two 24-year-olds, Nathan Morrison and Owen Calyun, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon. Calyun made no application for bail but Morrison will seek to be released on home detention.
Lawyers for both men asked for their names to be suppressed, but the request was denied by Magistrate Joanne Tracey.

Mukesh Ambani's pay cheque is over Rs 44 cr

NEW DELHI: Top business house Reliance Industries has given its chief Mukesh Ambani, the country's richest person and presumably top-paid executive, a hefty pay hike of about 45 per cent to take his annual remuneration to over USD10 million.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, got a total payout of Rs 44.02 crore in financial year 2007-08, marking an increase of about Rs 13.5 crore from the previous fiscal. In fiscal 2006-07, Ambani's annual remuneration had increased to Rs 30.46 crore, from Rs 24.77 crore previously.
However, a large part of Ambani's full-year pay cheque comes in the form of commissions that the company pays to select executives as a ratio of its net profits. According to the company's annual report being sent to shareholders, Ambani got a salary of Rs 60 lakh (Rs 5 lakh per month) and another Rs 48 lakh (Rs 4 lakh per month) in the name of "perquisites and allowances". In addition, he got Rs 18.75 lakh under the head of "retiral benefits" and Rs 4,275.44 lakh toward commission on net profit, taking his total to Rs 4,402.19 lakh for 2007-08.
RIL Chief was the top-paid executive in fiscal 2006-07, followed by Madras Cement's Chairman and MD P R R Rajha, who had an annual payout of about Rs 24.8 crore. However, Ambani, who was ranked as world's fifth richest by Forbes magazine earlier this year with a net worth of USD 43 billion, may not find a place even among the 200 most paid chiefs globally.
In a separate list, Forbes named Oracle's CEO Larry Ellision at the top of 500 most paid CEOs in the US with a pay cheque of USD 192.9 million. A total 177 CEOs in the list had a salary of over USD 10 million. It is not yet clear whether Ambani would be highest paid executive in India for 2007-08, as most of the companies are yet to disclose the remuneration figures for that year.

Trade through Nathu La reopens amid fresh border row

Nathu La: Bilateral trade between India and China opened on Monday through the fabled Silk Road amid a fresh border row, with Beijing claiming a strip of land in Sikkim.
"Border trade was earlier scheduled to open on May 1 but was postponed after Beijing requested New Delhi to delay the start following landslides in the Tibet Autonomous Region," said Ujwal Gurung, Sikkim's director of industry and commerce.
"Formal trade for the current year began on Monday and would continue until Nov 30," Gurung said.
The reopening of bilateral trade comes at a time when Beijing has once again raked up a border row by claiming a narrow strip of land near village Gyangyong in northern Sikkim.
Chinese officials have apparently objected to stone cairns erected at the village by Indian soldiers.
India has told China it would not allow Chinese troops into the area and that it would mean a breach of the treaty between the neighbours to maintain peace along the border.
The two Asian giants in July 2006 reopened trade across the 15,000-ft Nathu La Pass, 52 km east of Sikkim's capital Gangtok, as part of a broader rapprochement. The move marked the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed neighbours since a bitter border war in 1962.
Under an agreement reached between the two countries, trade takes place four days a week - Monday to Thursday - beginning May 1 each year and lasting until Nov 30 when snow makes the area impassable.
Although two-way trade was slow in the first two seasons, about 1,200 Chinese traders crossed the border separated by a rusty barbed wire marker to the bazaar of Sherathang, five kilometres below the pass on the Indian side.
About 700 Indian traders headed to the Renqinggang interim market in Tibet on the Chinese side, 16 km from the border.

Pak wants excellent relations with India: Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants "excellent relations" with India even as the two countries work to address "core issues" like the Kashmir dispute, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Monday.
On the eve of the resumption of the composite dialogue process between the two countries, Gilani told a news conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh that Pakistan "expects good from India and wants to have very good relations" with its neighbour.
"Pakistan wants to maintain excellent relations with India though "core issues have to be addressed, including Kashmir as its people want the right to self-determination", he was quoted as saying by state-run APP news agency.
The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet at Islamabad tomorrow to review the fourth round of the composite dialogue held last year.
Their talks will be followed by a meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday.
Gilani, who is in Egypt to attend the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, said there was no threat to his coalition government despite the PML-N's decision to withdraw its ministers from the cabinet after failing to achieve the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf during last year's emergency.
He said he had not accepted the resignations of the PML-N ministers as they would hopefully rejoin the cabinet very soon after the deposed judges are reinstated.
There is also no pressure on the coalition to restore the deposed judges, who would be reinstated as soon as certain modalities are worked out.

Seal-off Indo-Bangladesh border: Tripura CM

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has asked the Centre to seal off the porous Indo-Bangla border to prevent infiltration by militants from Bangladesh.
More than 100 camps of North East-based militants, including the United Liberation Front of Asom, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Issac-Muivah) among others are operating within Bangladesh.
''The decade-old insurgency problem in Tripura and North East as a whole could be sorted only if our areas with Bangladesh are fenced,'' Sarkar told a team of visiting journalists at Agartala.
Not only fencing, the chief minister said, but the government needs to augment the security in the border.
India shares a 4,095 km-long border with Bangladesh, including the longest in West Bengal at 2,216-km, part of which is porous, riverine and unfenced, and prone to frequent infiltration and skirmishes.
''Our misguided youths are being trained as militants inside Bangladesh with the help of the Inter Services Intelligence and the Central Investigative Agency,'' Sarkar claimed, adding that these two external intelligence agencies have been working against sovereign India, especially in the North East, long before India liberated Bangladesh from East Pakistan.
''It's no more a secret and everyone knows about the working relationship of the Pakistani and American intelligence wings,'' the former student leader-turned chief minister said.
Asked about a possible dialogue with the militant groups operating in his state, Sarkar said that his government was open for talks with the proscribed National Liberation Front of Tripura and All Tripura Tiger Force.
Both the banned militant outfits - the National Liberation Front of Tripura and All Tripura Tiger Force -- are fighting for an independent Tripura, with their operational base inside Bangladesh.
''We are ever ready for a peaceful dialogue. We have told them (militants) that the state government will not object for direct talks with New Delhi,'' Sarkar said.
However, Sarkar, the longest serving Chief Minister of Tripura, claimed that the insurgency problem in his state was on the decline, with several NLFT and ATTF cadres eschewing the path of violence.
''We have developed a holistic approach to this problem (insurgency). We have provided development in practical term and 50 per cent of the government funds are meant for development,'' he said.

India go down fighting in Azlan Shah final

Argentina stopped a surging India in their stride at the Azlan Shah hockey tournament when they won the final 2-1 in extra-time in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Sunday. A brace by Mario Almada saw the South Americans lift the trophy on their third attempt.
Drag-flicker Sandeep Singh put India into the lead when he converted a penalty-corner in the 11th minute and finished as the highest scorer in the tournament with nine goals. But Argentina draw level immediately when Almada slammed in a goal from close range in the 14th minute.
Argentina, who had beaten India 5-1 earlier in the league encounter, clinched the issue through Almada's golden goal in the third minute of extra-time.
The tournament was established in 1983, but Argentina made their debut in 2006 and ended up seventh then; last year they placed fifth. On both occasions eight teams figured in the tournament.
New Zealand [Images] won the bronze when they beat Pakistan 2-1 while Canada [Images] edged past Belgium 4-3 to save themselves the embarrassment of finishing last. Malaysia ended up at the bottom.
India will take the silver medal with pride, having showcased a brilliant turnaround in the tournament. They won four matches in a row after two defeats to book a berth in the final after a huge gap of 12 years.
The title clash was keenly-contested and went down to the wire before Almada's golden goal in extra-time clinched it for the South Americans.
Both the Argentina wingers worked overtime and gave the Indian defenders a torrid time, but Diwakar Ram and Sandeep Singh did well to ward off the initial threats and goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza brought off some scintillating saves to deny Argentina any early advantage.
In the fourth minute umpire Ged Curran of Scotland awarded a penalty-corner to Argentina after Adrian made a diving ground clearance. The enraged Indians advanced menacingly towards Durran and protested. Curran consulted his colleague Amarjit Singh, but in the end stuck to his decision. Ignacio Gilardi took the shot, but Adrian saved it with his characteristic calm.
Shivendra Singh and S V Sunil staged a counterattack in the 10th minute and when they were brought down near the circle, Amrajit signalled India's first-penalty corner. Sandeep Singh flicked the ball past Argentine goalkeeper and captain Manuel Vivaldi without much trouble to open India's account and score his ninth goal of the tournament.
But India could not hold on to the lead for long. Four minutes later, hard working right winger Tomas Argento sent in a cross and veteran Almada got the equaliser for Argentina.
A few minutes before the break, Argentina came close to taking the lead when defender Gilardi's free hit was tapped by Facundo, but the Indian defence rose to the occasion and thwarted his attempt.
Players of both teams got into a scuffle following a melee, forcing the umpires to halt the match for six minutes.
The second half was relatively incident-free with both the sides exercising a degree of caution. Though Argentina were better in terms of attacks, the Indians also did well to create some openings.
Argentina got an easy penalty-corner five minutes before the half-time hooter, but Gilardi's flick narrowly missed the target.
In the second half, India got two penalty-corners, in the 42nd
and 53rd minutes, but Sandeep failed to bring cheer to the capacity crowd that supported the Indians.
As the scores remained tied at 1-1 after regulation time, the match went into extra-time, during which Almada scored the golden goal to seal the issue.

India downplays China's 'threat' in northern Sikkim

A official source in the Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday downplayed the controversy related to Chinese activities in the northern most part of Sikkim. Both sides are expected to meet formally to settle the new friction at the border.
According to reports, China tried to grab a small tract of land, also known as finger area, in northern Sikkim, which overlooks the Himlayan Valley Sora Funnel.
The government reminded China that the boundary with China at the Sikkim border has already been delineated many times since 1898. The Indo-China border demarcation was confirmed in the early part of the 20th century. Both sides are aware of their traditional areas.
A government source said that India and China would meet to discuss the issue formally, adding, "That is the right procedure."
"These problems will always happen. You have to talk it through. The world's largest boundary between two nations has largely been peaceful but unsettled," said a senior official.
China's 'threat' was countered by India by lodging a strong protest. The report claims that India has disallowed Chinese troops in the area. The area on the northern tip of Sikkim contains several stone cairns, which are essentially heaps of stones that can be used for shelter.
The government acknowledged that at a lunch meeting in Beijing [Images], in the presence of India's ambassador Nirupama Rao, a senior Indian diplomat was told about the tension at the border in northern Sikkim by a Chinese official.
The stone cairns have been a bone of contention, as China has strongly objected to the stone structures built by the Indian side for protection. But India has evidence to show that these structures exist since many decades.
This year, many such frictions and transgressions by Chinese troops have been recorded at the Sino-Indian border.

We didn't react to terror warning, says top cop

NAGPUR: In a candid confession, Rajasthan DGP Amarjot Singh Gill on Sunday admitted that police did receive copies of the March 2008 issue of a Nagpur weekly – Iman ki Awaaz – which reported that the walled city areas in Jaipur were infested with Wahabi groups and have become a hub of terrorist activities.
Reacting to a TOI report on Sunday on the Nagpur weekly’s disclosures that went unheeded, Gill said, "We could not understand the gravity of the developments in the city and took them more as an outcome of differences between two sects of the community."
He said it is an open secret that Barelvis and Deobandis, the two sects among the Muslims, are at daggers drawn in the city.
The Barelvis allege that a mosque was being used for terrorist activities and that over two lakh people congregated there for a religious function in February. Police also knew about a dispute between the two sects over the possession of the mosque. "We didn’t take cognizance of this dispute because such conflicts of interests between different sects of the community are commonplace in the entire country," he said.
The Nagpur daily report came after that. "We gathered the report was sent to the weekly by a Barelvi follower," Gill said, explaining why the police doubted its veracity. Also, there was no concrete evidence to suggest there were terrorists in the mosque. "There was nothing to substantiate the news report."
Iman Ki Awaaz is published from Mominpura in the heart of Nagpur. Its March 28 edition warned about the presence of Wahabi group, which believes in violence, might have something to do with a major operation in the Walled City in days to come. Its editor, Mohammed Hameed, on Saturday told TOI that copies of the weekly were circulated to all the important persons of Jaipur, including the CM, DGP and city police chief.
Although the DGP played down the report, police sources said the state intelligence had also warned about possible disturbances in the locality months ago. This prompted the government to order installation of CCTVs in the Walled City areas.
Officials, however, took little interest in the project and, as a result, it got delayed. "The delay has cost us dearly," an officer said.
Meanwhile, activists of Nagpur-based moderate group, Indian Muslim Association Noori (IMAN), were quizzed for about two hours by police top brass here at Tehsil police station on Sunday.
The activists claimed that copies of their Iman Ki Awaz had warned about growing terrorism in Rajasthan and was circulated to all police stations in Nagpur, including the office of the commissioner of police, but authorities chose to ignore them.
'Iman' activists had earlier claimed the weekly mentioning threat to Jaipur from Wahabi Muslims was sent to various authorities in Jaipur as well, including Jaipur’s commissioner of police, Rajasthan CGP and the CM.
"The city police commissioner (Satyapal Singh) denied getting any copy of the edition, we are sure we had given it to him and all police stations. It’s not our fault if he (Singh) did not get to see it," said Engineer Mohammed Hameed of 'Iman', which champions anti-terror ideology.
"I told the police commissioner that the intelligence wing of the city police lacks efficiency as sleuths engaged in the work to collect information from Muslim groups aren’t sincere," Hameed alleged.
"Either the police departments are being misled or useful information is being blocked by unscrupulous personnel in the intelligence wing," he claimed.
When contacted, Singh said, "In all the editorial contents of the four editions of 'Iman Ki Awaz' published in the last six months, the Wahabis have been allegedly associated with terrorism.
" The edition said that Rajasthan was reeling under terrorist threat but such generalisation is true for states like UP, Delhi, MP, Maharashtra and Karnataka which have been identified as terror-prone, Singh said and added that there was no specific mention about the serial blasts — just an indication of threat perception.
‘Iman’ activists claimed on Sunday that more regions in different parts of the country including Maharashtra, Delhi and MP face terror threats. They also claimed that members of terror modules like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, who attacked Parliament in December 2001, find refuge in Delhi’s prominent religious institutions.
"Apart from Delhi, JeM is fast spreading its activities in Dhulia and Nandurbar districts of Maharashtra," said Hameed said. Hameed also claimed that there is information about growing activities of the banned outfit of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in Vidarbha including Pusad (Yavatmal district), Badnera (Amravati), Balapur (Akola) and Wardha. Similarly, terror networks are active in Seoni, Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Jabalpore in MP, Hameed claims.

Indian abducted in Afghanistan released

NEW DELHI: Indian national Mohammed Nayeem, who was kidnapped from Afghanistan's Herat province in April, has been released by his captors. ( Watch ) The Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed the release of Nayeem, Times Now reported. A Nepalese national kidnapped, who was abducted along with the Indian worker, has also been freed. The men are safe in a police compound in the western Adraskan district, provincial intelligence chief Habibullah Habib told a news agency. He could not immediately comment on their condition. "We had an operation last night and the forces found the place where the Indian and Nepalese were and we freed them. We arrested the head of the kidnapping group," Habib said. Nayeem, who works for Dubai-based HEB International Logistics, was kidnapped on April 22. Nayeem was travelling in a taxi on a main highway in Adraskan near Herat when he was abducted. The kidnapping of Nayeem was part of a series of incidents targeted at around 4,000 Indians working in Afghanistan on various projects. The Taliban militia are suspected to be behind most of these attacks on Indians as they don't want New Delhi to build the strategic Zaranj-Delaram road link that seeks to reduce Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan for overland access to Central Asia and provide an alternative route for Indian goods to that country. India has pledged $850 million for a number of developmental projects in Afghanistan - a gateway to the energy-rich Central Asia. New Delhi has already made it clear that it would not "succumb" to pressure from any quarters to withdraw from the strife-torn country.

India to press Pak for concrete action on terror

NEW DELHI: In the first high level contact with the new democratic dispensation in Islamabad later this week, India will press for concrete action by Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism in the backdrop of renewed infiltration bids and terror attacks. During the talks between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday, the Indian side will make it clear that it is keen to take its relations with Pakistan forward but that the atmosphere of peace was essential for the dialogue process to succeed. A day ahead of the Foreign Ministerial meeting, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will hold talks with his counterpart Salman Bashir. Besides terrorism, the two sides will discuss Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and various confidence building measures at the talks while reviewing the fourth round of composite dialogue after a "pause" in the dialogue process. "The dialogue process has contributed so meaningfully to the improvement of relations over last four years. India is ready to carry the process forward," Menon told reporters here ahead of the talks. He said India was ready to address all issues with Pakistan, including Jammu and Kashmir, through talks but noted that atmosphere of peace is essential for the success of the dialogue process. Official sources said India is looking for concrete action by Pakistan in ending cross-border terrorism and infiltration, which have witnessed an increase recently. The infiltration level had gone down for a while but it has witnessed a rise again recently and India will raise this issue at the talks with Pakistan.
Recalling the commitment given by President Pervez Musharraf in January 6, 2004 joint statement not to allow any territory under Pakistan to be used for terrorism against India, the sources said Islamabad has to be seen doing it on the ground. India believes terrorism is a "common concern" for both the countries and that it is in the interest of Pakistan itself to clamp down on the scourge as it has lost former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to terrorism. New Delhi, however, is clear that terror incidents in India will not stop the peace and dialogue process with Islamabad. Citing the case of Jaipur serial blasts regarding which there is no clarity yet as to who is responsible, India says it understands that the terror strike was carried out to "derail" the Indo-Pak peace process. "Such elements, whoever they are, should not be given a chance to succeed in their designs by stopping the dialogue process whenever a terror incident takes place," the sources said. Ready to pick up the threads of talks from where these were left during the Musharraf regime, India will be looking for the new dispensation's ideas on Kashmir and other issues. The Indian side will have "positive" and "open" mind while going for the talks, the sources said. Referring to various statements given by the leaders of the new Pakistan dispensation, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PPP leader Asif Zardari, New Delhi points out that there have been "good" as well as "bad" remarks. "At the talks, we will see what exactly the new government has in mind," the sources said.
New Delhi notes that the relations between the two countries have witnessed a lot of improvement during the last four years when India was dealing with the Musharraf regime. The cross-Line of Control initiatives particularly have witnessed a lot of forward movement and a further push is likely to be given during the upcoming talks. The issue of pardon for Sarabjit Singh, who is facing gallows in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in 1990 Lahore bomb blasts, will also be raised by the Indian side while seeking expeditious release of all its nationals lodged in jails in that country. New Delhi also wants Islamabad to hand over Dawood Ibrahim, who has been labelled as international terrorist by the UN, and would furnish proof of his presence in Pakistan if the matter comes up at the upcoming talks. Proof of Dawood's presence in Pakistan has already been given to Islamabad bilaterally as well as through Interpol but India is yet to get his custody because of the neighbouring country being in denial mode. During the two-day stay in Pakistan, Mukherjee is also likely to meet Musharraf, Gilani, Zardari and PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif.

LN Mittal in race for Bulgarian steel co

MUMBAI: Lakshmi Mittal, the world’s largest steel maker and the richest Indian, has locked horns with Ukrainian tycoon Konstantin Zhevago in the final round of bidding for acquisition of the Bulgarian steel firm Kremikovtzi. Lakshmi Mittal’s ArcelorMittal and Mr Zhevago’s Vorskla Steel Bulgaria have submitted proposals for acquiring Kremikovtzi, which in turn has constituted a committee to choose one of the two. A decision to this effect is likely to be taken next week. Sources said representatives of Mr Zhevago, who is also a prominent bondholder of Kremikovtzi, last week met Kremikovtzi and expressed willingness to acquire it on the same day. This development has given a new twist to the takeover of Kremikovtzi which, otherwise, appeared to be only Mr Mittal’s acquisition target. Kremikovtzi’s advisor Merrill Lynch scaled down the bidders from 20 to seven nearly a month ago. Subsequently, all others, barring these two, left the fray. Merrill Lynch missed its target of announcing the name of the winning bidder nearly a fortnight ago mainly due to fresh proposals of Vorskla. According to sources, the aggressive ArcelorMittal still has the capability to tilt the scales in its favour. On the other hand, the trade unions of the Balkan country’s biggest steelmaker are supportive of the offer of Mr Zhevago. It’s learnt that Mr Zhevago is interested in joint management control of Kremikovtzi and has offered to pay $90 million in working capital. ArcelorMittal, on the other hand, wanted full acquisition and promised to chip in nearly $50 million for immediate due payments and salaries, and another $150 million for working capital requirement. It also offered to invest $500 million in the next five years and up to $1.2 billion in 10 years. There are other conditions attached to the acquisition, too. These include investments of $20 million on ecological issues this year. Also, the new owner is now permitted to take fresh debts from the providers of railways, electricity and gas. Kremikovtzi has a production capacity of 2.2 million tonnes. Last year, it produced 1.4 million tonnes of steel. Its liability stands at around $1.35 billion. The debt burden and spiralling raw material costs have put pressure on the company’s cash flow. Recently, it failed to pay its 8,000 workers. Pramod Mittal’s Global Steel Holdings, which acquired a 71% stake in Kremikovtzi three years ago, has put it on the block as it failed to bring in funds for working capital and environmental upgrades. The Bulgarian government has one-fourth ownership of Kremikovtzi. The company accounts for 10% of the country’s exports. The Global Steel Holdings’ spokesperson was not available for comment. If ArcelorMittal manages to bag Kremikovtzi, it will be the first transaction between the Mittal brothers after the elder brother left the country to carve out his own empire in mid-90s. Also, ArcelorMittal will have synergy in running the Bulgarian company as it has a vast iron ore mine in Krivhyrih in Ukraine from where it could transport ore. Kremikovtzi does not have its own captive ore reserves.