I News India - Empowering Ideas!

After the Left parties have withdrawn support to the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government President Pratibha Patil has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet her on Thursday.

BJP demanded that the government be asked to prove its majority within a week and in wake of these political crises, Singh who is in Japan for the G-8 summit is asked by Patil to meet her. He will be back past midnight.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh and its Parliamentary party leader Ramgopal Yadav also met the President and gave a fresh letter of support of 39 of its MPs to the government.

Earlier in the day, top leaders of CPM, CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP met President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted a list of 60 Members of Parliament and handed over separate letters withdrawing their support to the government. They also submitted a joint communication asking her to “direct the Prime Minister to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha immediately”.

Lok Sabha has a total of 543 members. SP, PDP and some independents are supporting the government and UPA hopes to get 272 votes for a simple majority in the Lok Sabha.

Ajit Singh-led RLD, JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamul Congress and TRS come in the “undecided” category but have given enough hints of backing the government in a trust vote.

There are clouds of worries in the Indian political ring. There is a curiosity among all regarding government’s survival? Now there are uncertainties whether the government will able to prove a vote of confidence within a week and will retain its power or will it fall??

Tags: Congress, G-8, India, JD, Manmohan Singh, MM Singh, PM, Pratibha Patil, President, RLD, SP, TMC, UPA

Today, on the 17th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, India’s top political leaders gathered to pay homage to the late Prime Minister amid uninterrupted drizzle in the capital city, Delhi. President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi pays their tribute to Rajiv Gandhi.

The departed leader’s widow and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, along with her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka Vadra, reached his memorial ‘Vir Bhumi’ to pay their tributes.

A prayer meeting was organized in the premises of the memorial ended with the play of a speech, given in 1985 by the late Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated on May 21, 1991, during a public meeting at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. Seventeen other people were also killed in that explosion and 44 injured.

The day is also being observed as anti-terrorism day with seminars and discussions organised. A pledge would be later administered to people to fight against the scourge of terrorism and for maintaining peace.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Defence Minister A K Antony and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also paid floral tributes to the former prime minister.

Youth Congress workers present on the occasion raised slogans in memory of the former Prime Minister.

Minster for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora were among others who paid tributes to their beloved leader.

Tags: Delhi, Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Pratibha Patil, Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dismissed all the possibilities of bio-production fuel from food grains in India saying that country would not follow Brazil to use sugar for bio-fuel production. Currently India is facing an unprecedented inflation and shortage of food grains. Concerned on this issue, Prime Minister asked his government not to use food grains for the production of bio-fuel in India as it will definitely enhance inflation crisis.

According to Vilasrao Muttemwar, the minister for non-conventional energy, who is accompanying President Pratibha Patil on her 3-nation tour to Brazil, Mexico and Chile, “The prime minister is very particular that we should not use food grains for producing ethanol or any bio-fuel even if we are facing energy crunch. We cannot afford that.”

Pime Minister asked to use alternative sources of bio-fuel production.

“He has also made it clear that we will grow the (bio-fuel producing) plants (like Jatroba) in waste lands and we should ensure that there would not be any diversification from the traditional cultivation,” Vilasrao said, adding that the country has around 35 million hectares waste land that can be used for cultivation of such plants.

“But how can a country like India where a section of its large population still faces shortage for food grains, can use food grains for the production of fuel? We promote bio-fuels made of plants like Jatropha and energy out of indigenous natural resources,” the official said.

There has been a concern in the world about the increasing usage of food products to create the fuel that led to a food grain shortage. India and Brazil both imports 80 percent fuel. Like Brazil, India also needs to use alternative sources of fuel to level its import from other countries. India, the second biggest producer of sugar after Brazil, mandated in 2003 that nine of its states add a five percent ethanol mix to petrol.

Eighty percent of two million cars made in Brazil have flexi-fuel engines and the country has reduced its requirement of petrol sustainability since then. It has also emerged as the lowest cost producer and leading global exporter of fuel ethanol. Ethanol now makes more than 20 percent of Brazil’s transport fuel market, while the use of alternative fuels in the rest of the world is a scant one percent.

The government has proposed to constitute a bio-fuel board to formulate and implement a comprehensive plan for the production of alternative energy sources.

“The sugar producing states use 10 percent ethanol in the fuel,” Vilasrao Muttemwar, minister of non-conventional energy, told IANS.

The usage of ethanol, which releases less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, helps to reduce the pollution in the air.

Economists have raised concern that the US move to use maize in the production of the ethanol was one of the reasons behind the current food crisis in the world.

President Patil has also shown his concern over the issue saying, “This is a matter of concern. Experts from both the countries will come together to discuss the matter.”

When asked whether India will seek Brazil’s cooperation in producing ethanol from sugar, Patil said: “That is one point of discussion.”

Tags: Bio Fuel, Brazil, food grains, India, Manmohan Singh, MM Singh, PM, Pratibha Patil, President

President Pratibha Patil will begin her first foreign visit to Latin American nations on Saturday as Indian President since July 2007. She will visit Brazil, Chile and Mexico during two weeks of her upcoming three-nation tour.

Patil, the first woman president of India, is expected to meet Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Mexican President Felipe De Jesus Calderon Hinojosa and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile during her 12-day visit to strengthen India’s growing trade ties with these countries.

Brazilian President Lula has expressed happiness that India’s first woman president has chosen his country for her first visit abroad. According to Lula, the visit “reflected the desire of the two countries to continue their dialogue at the highest political level with the objective of consolidating and diversifying their strategic partnership.”

She will begin her official visit to Brazil from Sao Paulo, where she will arrive April 13 where she will meet a business delegation of the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paolo (FIESP) and the National Confederation of Industry (CNI). She will also address the Indian community in Sao Paulo. Her schedule also includes visit to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.

After Brazil she will visit Mexico City and Guadalajara province during her four stay there. On April 20, she will arrive in Santiago for two days and expected to address the students and academicians in the University of Chile.

Before coming back to India on April 23 she will stay in Cape Town.

Tags: India, Pratibha Patil, President