Volume 9

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Editorial • Taste the TEST, sour or sweet..........................................................................................03

SECTION - 1: Articles • APEC Summit .................................................................................................................04 • Presidential Election in Afghanistan ..............................................................................14 • Hindi Article (Bal Kuposhan : UNICEF Report) .............................................................28 • Hindi Article (Aarthik Mandi) .......................................................................................32

SECTION - 2: Hot Topics • Commonwealth Summit .................................................................................................37

SECTION - 3: Current Relevant Facts..............................................................................41SECTION -4: Sports...........................................................................................................55SECTION -5: Awards.........................................................................................................60

INDEX



Hello!As many of you are going to fill the application form for IAS examina-tion in coming Days; You have literally invited the war. Now you aregoing to ‘Taste’ the most complicated and unpredictable test. This firststep is a resemblance of your courage. With courage you will dare totake risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom tobe humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.

No doubt courage is very important, but only courage can’t win youthe battle. Now you must weave a good strategy and follow it withhard work and honesty. To make meaning of your strategy you needsupport of Gurus and Institutions. You should choose them very care-fully. On this critical juncture, we will provide all support online andat the same time make you competent enough to choose other ammu-nitions tactfully.

With coming issues we are going to target 2010 Exams and put ourpromise into reality. We will do our best to provide you study materi-als, encouragements and inspirations; But ultimately you have to facethe actual battle and You should also give your level best and makeyourself free from the fear of result.

In this issue we are providing some special articles and hot topics asAPEC Summit: Dropped a Target to Cut Greenhouse Emissions in Half,Presidential Election in Afghanistan: Winner with Blot, Hindi articleson “Arthik Mandi” & “Kuposhan Mein Dakshin Asia Avval” (UNICEFReport) and Hot Topic Commonwealth Summit: Multi Billion DollarFund to Help Developing Nations. we are aware about our responsibili-ties to provide you day-to-day facts, so there are CURRENT AFFAIRS,SPORTS & AWARDS are includedunder regular column.

With this I conclude. Best wishes and hopeful future meet in next is-sue.

Ram Kumar PandeyAnd

UPSCPORTAL Team.

Taste the TEST, sour or sweet…

Honorary Editor:Ram Kumar Pandey

Sr. Honoray Advisor:Sant Prasad Gupta

Honorary Advisors:1) Dr. Nageshwar Nath Mishra2) Dr. Sachchidanand

Disclaimer:Editor and Publisher are notresponsible for any views,data, figures etc. Expressed inthe articles by the author(s).Maps are notational.

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Asia-Pacific leaders ended their summit inSingapore on 14-15 November 2009 with a finalstatement that pledged a conclusion of the DohaRound of global trade talks in 2010, but removedtargets for carbon emissions cuts. The 21-memberAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summitdropped a target to cut greenhouse gas emissionsin half by 2050, despite declaring climate changeone of the biggest global challenges.

The APEC leaders also rejected all forms of pro-tectionism and said they would commit to con-cluding the Doha Round of trade talks next year. The talks have been deadlocked over disagreementsbetween developing and developed nations on cut-ting farm subsidies and tariffs. The declaration alsosaid the 21 member economies will maintain stimu-lus policies until a durable global economic recov-ery has clearly taken hold.

Lower Expectations for ClimateChange Agreement

Leaders of Pacific Rim economies say a legally bind-ing climate change agreement is not likely inCopenhagen, but that they should still work for apolitical deal. Climate change is one of the topicsbeing discussed during the Asia Pacific EconomicCooperation forum in Singapore.

APEC leaders, including U.S. President BarackObama, lowered expectations for a deal on climatechange before December meetings in Copenhagen.

Meeting in Singapore, Pacific Rim leaders agreedthere is not enough time for a legally binding agree-ment on reducing global emissions of greenhouse

APEC SummitDropped a Target to Cut Greenhouse Emissions in Half

BY: Dr. Sachchidanand

gasses.The Pacific Rim leaders agreed that a politicalframework that they can build on later is morerealistic.

The meeting on climate change was attended byleaders from 19 of APEC's 21 economies, as well asthe Danish prime minister. APEC leaders meetingthis weekend in Singapore had planned to endorsea goal of cutting their greenhouse gas emissions tohalf of 1990 levels by 2050.

Lomborg says the focus of negotiations on cappingand paying for emission reductions is too costly. He said a smarter and cheaper approach to tack-ling climate change would be to invest everythingin clean energy technology. APEC leaders haveexpressed concerns about signs of rising protection-ism, particularly in the United States, and the needfor freer trade, investment, and a new path for glo-bal growth.

President Obama gave a speech to APEC leadersemphasizing U.S. ties to the Asia Pacific, urgingbalanced and sustainable growth and resisting pro-tectionism.

“

”

We are now running out oftime with respect to that ap-proach. And so I discussedwith President Medvedev thefact that we have to continueto maintain urgency,--Mr. Obama.

Section -1 ( Article : APEC Summit )



Obama Meets Medvedev

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with RussianPresident Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of theAPEC forum. The two plan to discuss Iran'snuclear program and Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama also announced that his native U.S.state, Hawaii, will host the APEC summit in 2011.President Obama's schedule Sunday includes meet-ing with the leaders of the Association of South-east Asian Nations, with Burma among the keytopics.

US Accused of Protectionism

APEC leaders called for more cooperation on glo-bal economic recovery efforts and took aim at signsof U.S. trade protectionism. Chinese President HuJintao said promoting openness in internationaltrade and curbing protectionism would help re-vive the world economy.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon singled outWashington for "going in the opposite sense of freetrade." Russian President Medvedev made thesame point.

In a speech in Tokyo, President Obama called onAsian countries to break their dependence on ex-ports to the United States, and to pursue "balanced"and sustainable economic growth.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders havecalled for more cooperation on global economic re-covery efforts, and have warned against withdraw-ing economic stimulus measures too early. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on 14 No-vember 2009 called for broad international co-operation to overcome the global crisis andachieve sustainable growth.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposedcreating an Asia-Pacific Community, styled af-ter the European Union.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said promotingopenness in international trade and curbing pro-tect ionism would help revive the worldeconomy.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon singled outWashington for "going in the opposite sense offree trade." Russian President Dmitri Medvedevmade the same point.

Obama Discusses ClimateChange

He began with an unexpected meeting on climatechange called by the leaders of Mexico and Aus-tralia.

The prime minister of Denmark urged the groupto back a different approach to save the upcominginternational climate conference in Copenhagen.

With negotiations on a new global climate agree-ment in trouble, there was consensus behind analternative: adopt a political framework inCopenhagen and fill in the details later.

Nuclear Issues

There was also an effort to push forward talks onarms control, with President Obama and RussianPresident Dmitri Medvedev meeting to talk abouta successor to the soon-to-expire 1991 StrategicArms Reduction Treaty.

Mr. Obama said he still believes they can get anagreement by the end of the year. The presidentsaid, "I am confident if we work hard, and with asense of urgency about it that we should be able toget that done and I very much feel as if both sidesare trying to work through some difficult techni-cal issues but are doing so in good faith."

They also talked about Iran's nuclear program. President Obama urged Iran once again agree to adeal to ship its uranium out of the country for pro-cessing. "We are now running out of time withrespect to that approach. And so I discussed with




President Medvedev the fact that we have to con-tinue to maintain urgency," said Mr. Obama.President Medvedev said he still hopes to convinceIran to accept the nuclear deal. The Russian leadersaid, "We are prepared to work further and I hopethat our joint work will yield positive results."

Obama Discusses Burma

A short time later, Mr. Obama became the firstAmerican president to meet with all 10 mem-bers of the Association of Southeast Asia nations- including Burma.

He called for political reform in Burma and therelease of democracy advocate Aug San Suu Kyi,saying, "I reaffirmed the policy I put forward inTokyo with regard to Burma."

Mr. Obama's last meeting before leavingSingapore was with Indonesian President SusiloBambang Yudhoyono. President Obama spent agood bit of his childhood in Indonesia, and hasreferred to himself as America's first Pacificpresident.

In 2011, he will host the annual meeting of Pa-cific Rim leaders. And the president announcedin Singapore that he plans to host the gatheringin his native state, Hawaii.

Leaders' Declaration

"The post-crisis landscape will be different," saidAPEC Leaders. "We need a new growth paradigm.We need a fresh model of economic integration."In a statement, Leaders of 21 economies through-out the Asia-Pacific endorse the goals of the G20Framework for Strong, Sustainable and BalancedGrowth and declare their intent to "ensure a du-rable recovery that will create jobs and benefit ourpeople."

Balanced growth

"Strong and sustained economic growth will re-quire structural reforms to gradually unwind glo-

bal imbalances and raise the potential output ofour economies." "We will ensure that our fiscalmonetary, trade and structural policies are consis-tent with a more sustainable and balanced trajec-tory of growth, both within and across our econo-mies."

"We will develop our financial markets to betterserve the real economy."

Inclusive growth

"To achieve inclusive growth, we must broadenaccess to economic opportunities and build the re-silience of the most vulnerable against economicshocks."

"We will help small and medium enterprises andwomen entrepreneurs gain better access to globalmarkets and finance."

"We will facilitate worker retraining, skills upgrad-ing, and domestic labour mobility."

"We will design social safety nets that provideshort-term support but avoid long-term depen-dency."

Sustainable growth

"Future growth must be compatible with globalefforts to mitigate climate change. At the sametime, efforts to address climate change must beconsistent with keeping trade and investment freeand open."

"We will rationalise and phase out over the me-dium-term fossil fuel subsidies while providingthose in need with essential energy services."

Connected Asia-Pacific

"We launched a pathfinder initiative led by Aus-tralia, Canada, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore andthe United States to practice self-certification oforigin so that businesses can better take advantageof free trade agreements in the region."




"We will strive to achieve by 2015 a collective 25percent reduction in the cost, time, and number ofprocedures that our businesses face when startinga business, getting credit, enforcing contracts, deal-ing with permits, and trading across borders."

What is Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, isthe premier forum for facilitating economicgrowth, cooperation, trade and investment in theAsia-Pacific region .

APEC is the only inter governmental grouping inthe world operating on the basis of non-bindingcommitments, open dialogue and equal respect forthe views of all participants. Unlike the WTO orother multilateral trade bodies, APEC has no treatyobligations required of its participants. Decisionsmade within APEC are reached by consensus andcommitments are undertaken on a voluntary ba-sis.

APEC has 21 members - referred to as "MemberEconomies" - which account for approximately40.5% of the world's population, approximately54.2% of world GDP and about 43.7% of worldtrade.

APEC's 21 Member Economies are Australia;Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Repub-lic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan;Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand;Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of thePhilippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore;Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America;Viet Nam.

Purpose and Goals

APEC was established in 1989 to further enhanceeconomic growth and prosperity for the region andto strengthen the Asia-Pacific community. Sinceits inception, APEC has worked to reduce tariffsand other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific re-gion, creating efficient domestic economies and

dramatically increasing exports. Key to achievingAPEC's vision are what are referred to as the 'BogorGoals' of free and open trade and investment inthe Asia-Pacific by 2010 for industrialised econo-mies and 2020 for developing economies. Thesegoals were adopted by Leaders at their 1994 meet-ing in Bogor, Indonesia.

Free and open trade and investment helps econo-mies to grow, creates jobs and provides greateropportunities for international trade and invest-ment. In contrast, protectionism keeps prices highand fosters inefficiencies in certain industries. Freeand open trade helps to lower the costs of produc-tion and thus reduces the prices of goods and ser-vices - a direct benefit to all.

APEC also works to create an environment for thesafe and efficient movement of goods, services andpeople across borders in the region through policyalignment and economic and technical cooperation.

APEC Secretariat

The APEC Secretariat is based in Singapore andoperates as the core support mechanism for theAPEC process. It provides coordination, technicaland advisory support as well as information man-agement, communications and public outreach ser-vices.

The APEC Secretariat performs a central projectmanagement role, assisting APEC Member Econo-mies and APEC fora with overseeing more than250 APEC-funded projects. APEC's annual budgetis also administered by the APEC Secretariat.

Staffing

The APEC Secretariat is headed by an ExecutiveDirector, currently, Ambassador Michael Tay fromSingapore. 2009 marks the last year when the po-sition will be held on an annually rotating basis byan officer of Ambassadorial rank from the hosteconomy. From 2010 the appointment will be madeon a fixed-term basis (3 years) and is open to pro-fessional candidates from any of APEC's 21 mem-ber economies.




The APEC Secretariat is staffed by a small team ofprogram directors, seconded from APEC MemberEconomies. In addition, professional staff fulfillspecialist and support functions at the APEC Sec-retariat.

ISO Certification

In 2002, the APEC Secretariat obtained ISO 9001Quality Management Certification. This recognisesthe continuous efforts made by the APEC Secre-tariat to provide improved administrative and sup-port activities. The APEC Secretariat is the firstmultilateral trade-related secretariat to attain ISOcertification.

Scope of Work

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) worksin three broad areas to meet the Bogor Goals offree and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020for developing economies.

Known as APEC's 'Three Pillars', APEC focuseson three key areas: » Trade and Investment Liberalisation » Business Facilitation » Economic and Technical Cooperation

The outcomes of these three areas enable APECMember Economies to strengthen their economiesby pooling resources within the region and achiev-ing efficiencies. Tangible benefits are also deliv-ered to consumers in the APEC region throughincreased training and employment opportunities,greater choices in the marketplace, cheaper goodsand services and improved access to internationalmarkets.

Trade and InvestmentLiberalisation

Trade and Investment Liberalisation reduces andeventually eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriersto trade and investment. Protectionism is expen-sive because it raises prices for goods and services.

Thus, Trade and Investment Liberation focuses onopening markets to increase trade and investmentamong economies, resulting in economic growthfor APEC Member Economies and increased stan-dards of living for all. This goal is also now fur-thered by APEC's Regional Economic Integrationagenda, which includes work on model measuresfor bilateral and regional trade agreements and anexamination of the prospects for a Free Trade Areaof the Asia-Pacific.

Business Facilitation

Business Facilitation focuses on reducing the costsof business transactions, improving access to tradeinformation and aligning policy and business strat-egies to facilitate growth, and free and open trade.Essentially, Business Facilitation helps importersand exporters in Asia Pacific meet and conductbusiness more efficiently, thus reducing costs ofproduction and leading to increased trade, cheapergoods and services and more employment oppor-tunities due to an expanded economy. APEC'sStructural Reform agenda addresses this area: itfocuses on reforming domestic policies and insti-tutions that adversely affect the operation of mar-kets, and the capacity of businesses to access mar-kets and to operate efficiently.

Economic and TechnicalCooperation (ECOTECH)

ECOTECH is dedicated to providing training andcooperation to build capacities in all APEC Mem-ber Economies to take advantage of global trade.This area builds capacity at the institutional andpersonal level to assist APEC Member Economiesand its people gain the necessary skills to meet theireconomic potential.

Achievements and Benefits

The Asia-Pacific region has consistently been themost economically dynamic region in the world.Since APEC's inception in 1989, APEC's total tradehas grown 395%, significantly outpacing the restof the world. In the same period, GDP (in pur-




chasing power parity terms) in the APEC regionhas tripled, while GDP in the rest of the world hasless than doubled.

APEC's work under its three main pillars of activ-ity, Trade and Investment Liberalisation, BusinessFacilitation and Economic and Technical Coopera-tion, has helped drive this economic growth andimprove employment opportunities and standardsof living for the citizens of the region.

Trade and InvestmentLiberalisation

APEC is the premier forum for trade and invest-ment liberalisation in the Asia-Pacific and has settargets dates for "free and open trade": no later thanthe year 2010 for industrialised economies, and2020 for developing economies (the Bogor Goals).When APEC was established in 1989 average tradebarriers in the region stood at 16.9%; by 2004 bar-riers had been reduced by approximately 70% to5.5%.3

As a consequence, intra-APEC merchandise trade(exports and imports) has grown from US$1.7 tril-lion in 1989 to US$8.44 trillion in 2007 - an aver-age increase of 8.5% per year; and merchandisetrade within the region accounted for 67% ofAPEC's total merchandise trade in 2007.4

Similarly, trade with the rest of the world has in-creased from US$3 trillion in 1989 to US$15 tril-lion in 2007, an average increase of 8.3% per year.Trade in the rest of the world has increased at 7.6%over the same period.

Over 30 bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) havebeen concluded between APEC Member Econo-mies.

APEC is also pursuing trade and investmentliberalisation through its Regional Economic In-tegration agenda. Progress to date includes:

Investigating the prospects of and options for a FreeTrade Area of the Asia-Pacific.The development of 15 model measures for RTAs/

FTAs that serve as a reference for APEC membersto achieve comprehensive and high-quality agree-ments.

APEC has also acted as a catalyst in the advance-ment of World Trade Organisation multilateraltrade negotiations over the past 20 years.

Business Facilitation

As a result of the APEC Trade Facilitation ActionPlan (TFAP I) the cost of business transactionsacross the region was reduced by 5% between 2002and 2006.

A second trade facilitation action plan (TFAP II),aims to reduce transaction costs by a further 5%between 2007 and 2010.

APEC initiatives that help facilitate trade include:The introduction of electronic/paperless systemsby all member economies, covering the paymentof duties, and customs and trade-related documentprocessing.

The Single Window Strategic Plan, adopted in2007, provides a framework for the developmentof Single Window systems which will allow im-porters and exporters to submit information togovernment once, instead of to multiple govern-ment agencies, through a single entry point.

Providing business with a concise one-stop reposi-tory of customs and trade facilitation related in-formation for all APEC economies through theAPEC Customs and Trade Facilitation HandbookThe APEC Tariff Database provides users with easyaccess to APEC member economies' tariff sched-ules, concessions, prohibitions and other informa-tion.

In 2008, a groundbreaking Investment FacilitationAction Plan was endorsed; it aims to improve theinvestment environment in Member Economies.The APEC Privacy Framework provides guidanceand direction to both APEC Member Economiesand businesses on implementing information pri-vacy protection policies and procedures. By facili-




tating information flows it will facilitate trade ande-commerce.

The APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) providessubstantial time and cost savings to business peopleand facilitates their travel in the region, by allow-ing visa free travel and express lane transit at air-ports in participating economies.APEC is also removing behind-the-border barri-ers to trade through its Structural Reform agenda,which focuses on reforming domestic policies andinstitutions that adversely affect the operation ofmarkets, and the capacity of businesses to accessmarkets and to operate efficiently.

Economic and TechnicalCooperation

APEC's Economic and Technical Cooperation(ECOTECH) activities are designed to build capac-ity and skills in APEC Member Economies at boththe individual and institutional level, to enablethem to participate more fully in the regionaleconomy and the liberalisation process.

Since APEC first began to undertake capacity build-ing work in 1993, more than 1200 projects havebeen initiated; and in 2008, APEC was implement-ing a total of 212 capacity building projects with atotal value of US$13.5m.

A particular focus has been reducing the digitaldivide between developed and developing econo-mies:

In 2000, APEC set a goal of tripling internet usagein the region and that goal has now been achieved,as recognised by the 2008 APEC Ministerial Meet-ing on the Telecommunications and InformationIndustry. APEC's new goal is to achieve universalaccess to broadband by 2015.

A network of 41 APEC Digital Opportunity Cen-ters (ADOC) now operate in seven Member Econo-mies. ADOC's objective is to transform the digitaldivide into digital opportunities and the centresact as local information and communication tech-nology (ICT) resource centres, providing citizens

and businesses of the region with access to ICTtechnologies, education and training.

APEC is also developing a Digital Prosperity Check-list that outlines specific steps economies can taketo enable them to utilise ICT as catalysts for growthand development.

Other Achievements

APEC has also been able to evolve its agenda toinclude pressing regional priorities. Examples in-clude: counter-terrorism (The Shanghai Statementin 2001, and the Counter-Terrorism Task Force);human security (Health Working Group); emer-gency preparedness (Task Force for EmergencyPreparedness); climate change, energy security andclean development (The Sydney Declaration in2007); and the global financial crisis (The LimaStatement in 2008).

History

The idea of APEC was firstly publicly broached byformer Prime Minister of Australia, Mr BobHawke, during a speech in Seoul, Korea in January1989. Later that year, 12 Asia-Pacific economiesmet in Canberra, Australia to establish APEC. Thefounding members were: Australia, BruneiDarussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Ma-laysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore,Thailand and the United States.

China, Hong Kong, China and Chinese Taipeijoined in 1991. Mexico and Papua New Guinea fol-lowed in 1993. Chile acceded in 1994. And in 1998,Peru, Russia and Viet Nam joined, taking the fullmembership to 21.

Between 1989 and 1992, APEC met as an informalsenior official and Ministerial level dialogue. In1993, former United States President, Mr BillClinton, established the practice of an annual APECEconomic Leaders' Meeting.

A moratorium on new membership stands untilthe end of 2010, at which point APEC membereconomies will consider whether or not to lift themoratorium.




Key APEC Milestones

2008 - Lima, Peru : APEC focused on the socialdimensions of trade and on reducing the gap be-tween developing and developed members, in ac-cordance with the 2008 theme, "A New Commit-ment to Asia-Pacific Development". Leaders alsoaddressed the global financial crisis in the LimaAPEC Leaders' Statement on the Global Economy.They committed to take all necessary economic andfinancial measures to restore stability and growth,to reject protectionism and to intensify efforts toadvance WTO Doha Development Agenda nego-tiations.

2007 - Sydney, Australia: For the first time, APECMember Economies issue a Declaration on ClimateChange, Energy Security and Clean Developmentoutlining future action in support of a new inter-national climate change arrangement and announc-ing a forward program of practical, cooperativeactions and initiatives. Leaders also adopted a ma-jor report on closer Regional Economic Integra-tion, including structural reform initiatives, andwelcomed the new APEC Trade Facilitation Ac-tion Plan which will reduce trade transaction costsby a further five per cent by 2010.

2006 - Ha Noi, Viet Nam : APEC Economic Lead-ers endorsed the Ha Noi Action Plan which iden-tifies specific actions and milestones to implementthe Bogor Goals and support capacity-buildingmeasures to help APEC economies. They also is-sued a statement on the WTO Doha DevelopmentAgenda calling for ambitious and balanced out-comes. To prioritize its agenda, APEC takes a stra-tegic approach to reform working groups andstrengthen the Secretariat.

2005 - Busan, Korea : APEC adopts the BusanRoadmap, completes the Mid-Term Stocktakewhich has found that APEC is well on its way tomeeting the Bogor Goals, and the APEC PrivacyFramework. Leaders issue a stand-alone statementin support of a successful conclusion to the WTO's6th Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, China andagree to confront pandemic health threats and con-tinue to fight against terrorism which could causedeep economic insecurity for the region.

2004 - Santiago, Chile : APEC issues a strong state-ment of support for progress in the WTO DohaDevelopment Agenda and sets a target date forachieving a breakthrough in negotiations: Decem-ber 2005, the convening of the Sixth WTO Minis-terial Conference. APEC adopts Best Practices forRTAs and FTAs, the Santiago Initiative for Ex-panded Trade and a Data Privacy Framework.APEC reiterates its "unmistakable resolve" to con-front the threat of terrorism, and takes further ac-tion in this regard by identifying key elements ofeffective export control systems; establishing guide-lines on the control of man-portable air defensesystems (MANPADS), and continuing to imple-ment the STAR initiative. APEC makes a politicalcommitment to fight corruption and ensure trans-parency, and endorses a specific Course of Actiontowards this end.

2003 - Bangkok, Thailand : APEC agrees to re-energize the WTO Doha Development Agenda ne-gotiations and stresses the complementary aims ofbilateral and regional trade agreements, the BogorGoals and the multilateral trading system underthe WTO. APEC dedicates itself not only to pro-moting the prosperity of member economies, butalso to improving the security of the peoples ofthe Asia-Pacific region. APEC pledges to take spe-cific actions to dismantle terrorist groups, elimi-nate the danger of weapons of mass destructionand confront other security threats. Members signup to the APEC Action Plan on SARS and theHealth Security Initiative to further protect per-sonal security. APEC also strengthens its efforts tobuild knowledge-based economies, promote soundand efficient financial systems and accelerate re-gional structural reform.

2002 - Los Cabos, Mexico : APEC adopts a TradeFacilitation Action Plan, Policies on Trade and theDigital Economy and Transparency Standards.APEC's second Counter-Terrorism Statement isdelivered, along with the adoption of the SecureTrade in the APEC Region (STAR) Initiative.

2001 - Shanghai, People's Republic of China :APEC adopts the Shanghai Accord, which focuseson Broadening the APEC Vision, Clarifying theRoadmap to Bogor and Strengthening the Imple-mentation Mechanism. The e-APEC Strategy is




adopted, which sets out an agenda to strengthenmarket structures and institutions, facilitate infra-structure investment and technology for on-linetransactions and promote entrepreneurship andhuman capacity building. APEC's first Counter-Terrorism Statement is issued.2000 - Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam:APEC establishes an electronic Individual ActionPlan (e-IAP) system, providing IAPs online andcommits to the Action Plan for the New Economy,which, amongst other objectives, aims to tripleInternet access throughout APEC region by 2005.

1999 - Auckland, New Zealand : APEC commitsto paperless trading by 2005 in developed econo-mies and 2010 in developing economies. APECBusiness Travel Card scheme is approved and aMutual Recognition Arrangement on ElectricalEquipment and a Framework for the Integrationof Women in APEC is endorsed.

1998 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : APEC agrees onthe first nine sectors for EVSL and seeks an EVSLagreement with non-APEC members at the WorldTrade Organization.

1997 - Vancouver, Canada : APEC endorses a pro-posal for Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization(EVSL) in 15 sectors and decides that IndividualAction Plans should be updated annually.

1996 - Manila, The Philippines : The Manila Ac-tion Plan for APEC (MAPA) is adopted, outliningthe trade and investment liberalisation and facili-tation measures to reach the Bogor Goals and thefirst Collective and Individual Action Plans arecompiled, outlining how economies will achievethe free trade goals.

1995 - Osaka, Japan : APEC adopts the Osaka Ac-tion Agenda (OAA) which provides a frameworkfor meeting the Bogor Goals through trade andinvestment liberalisation, business facilitation andsectoral activities, underpinned by policy dialogues,economic and technical cooperation.1994 - Bogor, Indonesia : APEC sets the BogorGoals of, "free and open trade and investment inthe Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economiesand 2020 for developing economies."

1993 - Blake Island, United States : APEC Eco-nomic Leaders meet for the first time and outlineAPEC's vision, "stability, security and prosperityfor our peoples."

1989 - Canberra, Australia : APEC begins as aninformal Ministerial-level dialogue group with 12members.




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Hamid Karzai wassworn in asAfghanistan's presidentfor a second term onNovember 19, 2009,nearly three months af-ter winning a contro-versial election. He wasdeclared the winner of

the August 20 presidential election after his mainrival Abdullah Abdullah quit a run-off and inves-tigators threw out a third of Karzai's original votesfor fraud. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton andPakistani President Asif Ali Zardari were among300 foreign dignitaries attending the ceremony.Speaking during his inauguration ceremony, Karzaivowed to prosecute corrupt government officials.He said his government was doing whatever itcould to implement reforms, pledging that theAfghan forces would be able to take control of se-curity in the next five years. The President addedthat he firmly believed the problem of internationalterrorism in his country would be overcome.

Hamid Karzai was installed by the US and its Af-ghan allies in 2001. He won a full five-year term

Presidential Election in AfghanistanWinner with Blot

BY: Sant Prasad Gupta

in the country's first democratic presidential elec-tion in 2004.

While Karzai had been expected to win anyway,the extent of the fraud in his favor severely dam-aged his credibility at home and among Westerncountries.

Abdullah withdrawal

On November 1, 2009, Abdullah Abdullah an-nounced that he was withdrawing from the run-off vote, saying "I will not participate in the No-vember 7 election," because his demands forchanges in the electoral commission had not beenmet, and a "transparent election is not possible."Hamid Karzai had rejected Abdullah's demand thatthe head of the IEC resign.

Abdullah also said the Afghan people should notaccept results of an election from the current elec-tion commission, and stated that Karzai's govern-ment had not been legitimate since its mandateexpired in May 2009. Speculation immediately fol-lowed that the run-off election would be cancelled,

Run-off cancelled and winnerdeclared

The next day, on November 2, officials from theIndependent Election Commission announced thecancellation of the November 7 run-off and de-clared Hamid Karzai the winner by default.

Abdullah said the appointment had no legal basisand Afghans deserved a better government. Hestated that A government that is appointed by an

Government was doing what-ever it could to implement re-forms, pledging that the Af-ghan forces would be able totake control of security in thenext five years.--Mr. Karazi

“

”

Section -1 ( Article : Presidential Election in Afghanistan )



illegitimate commission, a commission that hastainted its own legitimacy, cannot bring the ruleof law to the country, it cannot fight the corrup-tion.

U.S. interference

The United States is widely seen to have an enor-mous stake riding on the outcome of the electionin Afghanistan. While U.S. officials have takengreat pains to repeatedly assert neutrality, thereare many perceptions and allegations of U.S. in-terference and manipulation in Afghanistan. Manyin Afghanistan perceive the U.S. to be favouringAshraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah over HamidKarzai.

Four prominent Afghan politicians, includingGhani and Abdullah, were in attendance at U.S.President Obama's inauguration in January. Karzai,however, was not. Media reports began appearingthat suggested that the U.S. was eager for a changeat the top in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was alsoangered when the U.S. Ambassador to Afghani-stan, Karl W. Eikenberry, appeared beside Ghaniand Abdullah at news conferences in June, aheadof the election, though Eikenberry stressed impar-tiality in his remarks. After Karzai did not showup at the first televised debate – against Abdullahand Ghani the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistanpublished an op-ed in The Washington Post call-ing for "serious debate among the candidates" inAfghanistan.

All these developments were viewed by many inAfghanistan as a message about which candidatesthe U.S now preferred to have in power in Afghani-stan.

As the first installments of vote counting resultswere being released, about a week after electionday, Ramazan Bashardost, who ran third in exitpolls, contended that the U.S. was playing a rolein manipulating the outcome, in order to use a con-tested situation for its plans to broker a deal amongthe leading candidates. Others have made the samecontention.

A Time article that came out just after the electiondid suggest that a contested election outcome couldsuit the U.S. purpose.

Some support for Bashardost's allegation may beseen in the U.S.-funded pre-election polls, one con-ducted by what Gary Langer, director of polling atABC News, described as "an outfit called GlevumAssociates, which appears from its website to be amilitary contractor engaged in producing psycho-logical operations data as part of a U.S. Armycounterinsurgency program, the Human TerrainSystem," and the other by the International Re-publican Institute, a "pro-democracy group affili-ated with the Republican Party and financed bythe American government."

In their May 3–16, 2009 poll, the InternationalRepublican Institute found that Bashardost placedhigher than Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghaniin favorability amongst Afghans, and thatBashardost and Ghani both came in at the verysame level of support, 3%, when Afghans wereasked who they would vote for president in anopen-ended question.

New chief executive position

U.S. officials have also made clear, even before theelection, that – regardless of who won the Afghanelection – Washington planned to use the lever-age of the military force and financial resources atits command to extensively reorganize the Afghangovernment according to U.S. plans. The U.S.would push for a new non-elected "Chief Execu-tive" position to be inserted under the President,with the appointee taking over all the day-to-dayoperations of the country.

Ashraf Ghani has widely been characterized as theU.S. favourite for appointment to that position.(Another mention was Zalmay Khalilzad.) Ghanihas had discussions with U.S. officials, includingboth the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Rich-ard Holbrooke, and the U.S. ambassador to Af-ghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, and has denied turn-ing down the job offer. He told reporters a fewdays before the election: "I've been approachedrepeatedly; the offer is on the table. I have not ac-




cepted it." Other plans by the U.S. Defense andState departments also call for the installation ofAmerican "mentors" and liaisons inside Afghangovernment ministries in Kabul, a policy that washeavily used in the early years of the U.S. militaryoccupation of Iraq.

The powerful, non-elected "chief executive" posi-tion envisaged for insertion into the Afghan gov-ernment was characterized by a senior WhiteHouse official as "a prime minister, except notprime minister because he wouldn’t be responsibleto a parliamentary system."

The day after the election, a tense meeting tookplace between the U.S. special envoy to Afghani-stan, Richard Holbrooke, and Afghan presidentHamid Karzai, with sources describing the meet-ing as "a dramatic bust up" and "explosive". Ac-cording to the The Times, Holbrooke was alreadyraising the possibility of a run-off, causing Karzaito accuse the U.S. special envoy of trying to force asecond round "against the interests of Afghanistan".

The U.S. special envoy also met with Karzai's ri-val, Abdullah Abdullah, after the election. Thediscussion between Holbrooke and Karzai was saidto have been noticeably briefer than Holbrooke'smeeting with Abdullah.

On August 29, it was announced that the envoysfrom the United States, Britain, France, and Ger-many would meet in Paris to discuss the Afghanelections. According to The Times, a French offi-cial said that Holbrooke wanted a run-off in orderto chasten Karzai and show him his power was lim-ited.

On September 3, 2009, envoys from the UnitedStates, Britain, France, Germany, and other West-ern countries met in Paris to discuss the Afghanelections and how to rescue their costly efforts.The Paris meeting was seen as an effort to garnersupport for the U.S. response to the election andpressure Afghan President Hamid Karzai. TheWestern envoys to Afghanistan said to expect arun-off in the Afghan election, suggesting that onecould occur if enough votes are invalidated.

The U.S., European, and NATO leaders also de-clared in their Paris meeting that their Westernmilitary troops were staying in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Le Figaro released on Sep-tember 7, 2009, Hamid Karzai accused the UnitedStates of trying to undermine him in order to makehim more malleable.

On September 15, 2009, the top U.S. diplomat tothe United Nations mission in Afghanistan(UNAMA), Peter Galbraith, was reportedly or-dered out of the country by the head of the mis-sion, U.N. Special Representative to AfghanistanKai Eide, following a heated disagreement over theAmerican diplomat's demands for a wholesale re-count that would virtually ensure a run-off. Ac-cording to diplomatic sources, Galbraith – a closefriend of the U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke– wanted the Independent Election Commission(IEC) to annul results from 1,000 of the nation-wide total of about 6,500 polling centres and torecount results from another 5,000. Eide, on theother hand had been seeking only a recount of some1,000 polling centres. UN officials suggested thatMr. Galbraith's position was representative of theU.S. stance, while Mr. Eide's echoed those of theEuropean missions in Kabul.

According to The Times, the IEC were preparingon September 8 to announce results for the last15% of ballots, mostly from the controversial ar-eas of the south and Badghis province in the norththat were expected to return big majorities forKarzai, when Galbraith stepped in and forced themnot to announce those results.

At a meeting with IEC officials on September 13,Galbraith "laid into the commissioners, in front ofthe donors and observers" and demanded to knowwhy they had not yet started printing ballot pa-pers in preparation for a run-off.

In October 2009, numerous news articles, such asone by the New York Times and another by theAssociate Press, described the extraordinaryAmerican efforts, in concert with allies, over mul-tiple days to pressure Hamid Karzai into accedingto run-off vote. On October 20, caving in to the




relentless U.S. arm-twisting, he reluctantly acqui-esced.

Power-Sharing deal

On September 13, 2009, the Sunday Telegraph re-ported that American officials were making fran-tic efforts to force President Hamid Karzai into apower-sharing deal against his wishes, stating that"US officials have made little secret of their wishto see his wings clipped". In what one official inKabul described as "turmoil" behind the scenes,Western diplomats were attempting to convert theelection crisis into an opportunity for their pur-poses by forcing Karzai to share power in govern-ment with Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and "reformistministers", and accept a diminished role for thepresidency.

Intense Western diplomatic pressure was also be-ing exerted on Abdullah Abdullah to cut a deal.According to the Telegraph, the fear is that if Karzaidefies Washington and appoints his own choice ofallies to key ministerial roles, he would be more"difficult for the West to influence".

On September 27, 2009, it was reported that theUnited States and other NATO countries withmilitary forces in Afghanistan had indicated toHamid Karzai's government that they expected hewould remain in office for another five-year term.The U.S. Secretary of State and foreign ministersof the countries, meeting in New York on Septem-ber 25, 2009, with U.N. Special Representative KaiEide and Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta,reached "consensus" in Spanta's presence thatHamid Karzai would probably "continue to bepresident" of Afghanistan, whether by winning arun-off or as a result of having won more than 50%of the ballots in the disputed August 20 elections.The electoral fraud investigations by the ElectoralComplaints Commission had not yet been com-pleted.

On October 15, 2009, Zalmay Khalilzad, the formerU.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under George W.Bush, arrived in Kabul from Washington D.C. Aspokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul saidKhalilzad was there as a "private citizen" and that

he was not representing the United States govern-ment. Earlier in the year Khalilzad was widely dis-cussed as an American favorite to assume a power-ful, unelected "CEO" position that U.S. officialshoped to create inside the Afghan government. AWestern official said Khalilzad had come on theinvitation of Mr. Karzai, but a spokesman forKarzai’s campaign denied that.

On October 17, 2009, the U.N.-backed ElectoralComplaints Commission, which had widely beenexpected to release its findings from the statistics-based audit, delayed the announcement again asU.S. and ally envoys pressured Karzai and Abdullahto state their acceptance of the findings before theECC announcement and to work out a power-shar-ing deal. A senior American official made the pointof stating that Karzai and Abdullah together wonmore than 70% of the votes in the first round, en-suring the credibility of a government in whichthey shared power. A Karzai spokesman indicatedthat both foreign and Afghan officials were prof-fering formulas for power sharing, but the Karzaihad rejected them and would not discuss powersharing until after a winner is declared. Abdullahalso reiterated that he would consider negotiatingafter the results were announced.

On October 18, 2009, the Telegraph reported thatthe ECC results were being "delayed as the Westasked the men to reach an agreement that wouldavoid another round of voting." In veiled criticismof Hamid Karzai, White House Chief of Staff RahmEmanuel made clear that the U.S. would not sendmore troops to Afghanistan until there is a 'truepartner' to work with in Kabul. An expert familiarwith the U.S. administration's thinking suggestedthere was no longer any stomach for an electionrun-off after the "organisational headaches andrisks to American troops" brought by the August20 ballot, and stated: "There is a clear preferencefor a deal."

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner statedthat Karzai and Abdullah were ready to "work to-gether" to find a settlement. A Western diplomatin Kabul said: "The idea now is to reach an agree-ment in which Karzai's victory at the first round isaccepted ..."




Following the flurry of last-minute phone calls,visits, and statements that U.S. and other Westernofficials made to Karzai, on October 19, 2009, theNew York Times reported an unnamed Westernofficial saying: "In the last 72 hours, I think evenKarzai got the message.".

Demonstrations supporting Karzai took place inKandahar, in the south of Afghanistan and inGhazni province in the center of the country. Inthe district of Spin Boldak, around 3,000 demon-strators gathered in a market, shouting: "We don'twant foreigners to interfere in our election."

Ali Shah Khan, a tribal leader from the area, saidthe protesters believed that foreigners were delib-erately delaying the election results, and stated:"The foreign countries want a weak leader for Af-ghanistan. After that they can do whatever theywant."

On October 19, 2009, the ECC communicated itsfraud investigation result to the IEC, with its un-officially released findings stripping approximatelya million votes from Karzai – and bringing his voteshare slightly below the critical 50% threshold re-quired to win without a run-off. The continuedconcerns that Karzai and the IEC, whose membershe appointed, might reject the ECC's findings, re-sulted in continuation of the intense American andally efforts to pressure Karzai into accepting apower-sharing deal or face a run-off vote.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, SenatorJohn Kerry made an unplanned stop in Kabul tomeet Karzai in the presidential palace "to continuehis discussions and consultations". Meanwhile, ac-cording to White House spokesperson RobertGibbs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, formerU.S. army general Karl Eikenberry who com-manded U.S and ally forces in Afghanistan in 2005–2007, was also engaged in "delicate but extremelyimportant" efforts to persuade Karzai to accept theU.N. panel's ruling.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,stating that she had spoken with Karzai a numberof times in recent days, announced that Karzaiwould be making an announcement the next day,

saying "He is going to announce his intentions ... Iam very hopeful that we will see a resolution inline with the constitutional order in the next sev-eral days. But I don't want to pre-empt in any wayPresident Karzai's statement, which will set thestage for how we go forward in the next stage ofthis." A diplomatic source told The Times thatKarzai would make a nationwide address flankedby U.S. Senator John Kerry and U.N. Special Rep-resentative to Afghanistan Kai Eide, claiming thatKarzai was prepared to make concessions, such asagreeing to a run-off or forming a power-sharingcoalition.

On the other hand, The Times reported that oneof Karzai's senior cabinet ministers, Ismail Khan,who had met with Karzai, said he had been toldthat a formal challenge will be issued: "He said hewill complain against the ECC decision, and de-mand an investigation into why they cut his votes."

According to one analysis on October 20, 2009,"Why a weakened President remains the leastworst option" by Tom Coghlan in The Times, theU.S. did not want a run-off to take place, but,rather, was trying to push Karzai into entering apower-sharing deal with his rival, in order to keephim in office but with a "weakened mandate".

On October 20, 2009, after Karzai caved in to in-tense U.S. and ally pressure that a senior U.S. ad-ministration official described as a "full court press",and acceded to a run-off, diplomats said the effortsto get the two men to join forces would now in-tensify.

On October 21, 2009, U.S. officials, including a U.S.defence official, emphasized that a power-sharingagreement remained a strong possibility as a wayof resolving the crisis without going through withthe run-off that had just been announced the daybefore.

On October 25, 2009, Karzai and Abdullah, re-sponding to questions in separate interviews on U.S.television, both rejected a power-sharing deal be-fore the run-off vote. Karzai, responding to ques-tions in a CNN interview, stated that such a dealwould be "an insult to democracy". Abdullah, re-




sponding to questions on Fox News, ruled out adeal ahead of the run-off, and, in an another inter-view on CNN, stated he had "absolutely no inter-est" in joining the government if Karzai won, say-ing that he would not be "part of the same deterio-rating situation". The New York Times wrote thatsuch a coalition would provide the U.S. and NATOwith political cover for the continued presence oftheir military forces "because they would be back-ing a government that had the support of a vastmajority of Afghans."

Accusations ofForeign Interference from

within the ECC

On October 12, 2009, one of the two Afghan mem-bers of the Western-dominated Electoral Com-plaints Commission resigned over "foreign inter-ference".

Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, appointed to the panelby the Afghan Supreme Court, stated that his res-ignation was due to the fact that the three UN-appointed Western officials on the panel – anAmerican, a Canadian, and a Dutch – were "mak-ing all the decisions on their own".

Barakzai's resignation leaves the Electoral Com-plaints Commission (ECC) with only one Afghanmember and three officials from countries withforeign military troops in Afghanistan. The ECC isled by one of the three foreign officials, chairmanGrant Kippen.

Accusations of aUnited Nations cover-up

U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, fired from his UNpost by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon onSeptember 30, 2009, after accusing his former boss,UN special envoy Kai Eide, of helping cover upelectoral fraud and being biased in favor of HamidKarzai, further accused the United Nations of fab-ricating the reason for his dismissal and of helpingto cover up massive electoral fraud committed byAfghan President Hamid Karzai.

In his statements on October 4, 2009, the Ameri-can diplomat characterized the Afghan election asa "train wreck", and claimed: "As many as 30% ofKarzai's votes were fraudulent, and lesser fraud wascommitted on behalf of other candidates."

On October 11, 2009, Kai Eide referred toGalbraith's allegations as "personal attacks" againsthis integrity, adding they have "affected the wholeelection process."

Frauds and Corruptions

Karzai retained incumbent second Vice PresidentKarim Khalili, who is from the Hazara ethnic groupbut exchanged the first Vice President Ahmad ZiaMassood for Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a Tajikformer warlord blamed by human rights groupsfor mass civilian deaths during the Afghan CivilWar.

According to human rights groups, at least 70 can-didates with links to "illegal armed groups" wereon the ballot list in the election.

While the electoral law disallowed candidates withlinks to "illegal armed groups", and the Karzai-ap-pointed Independent Election Commission hadbarred 56 other candidates that it identified as be-ing commanders or members of illegal militias,many of the bigger warlords, including currentparliamentarians and provincial council memberselected in 2004 and 2005, simply bypassed this byregistering their militias as private security com-panies or by having the right political connections.

Both of Hamid Karzai's vice-presidential candidatesand many of his key allies in the election are al-leged to have committed widespread human rightsviolations and war crimes. Human Rights Watchhas called for Vice President Karim Khalili and keyally, former army chief of staff General AbdulRashid Dostum, to face trial before a special courtfor alleged war crimes. Khalili is alleged to havebeen responsible in the killing of thousands of in-nocent people.




Karzai's other vice-presidential candidate andformer senior security advisor Mohammad QasimFahim, along with Karzai backer and former en-ergy minister Ismail Khan, have also been listedby the human rights group as among the "worstperpetrators." Better known as Marshal Fahim, thevice-presidential candidate is accused of havingbeen a former Communist secret police chief, mur-dering prisoners of war during the 1990s, runningprivate armed militias, and involvement in kidnap-ping and other crimes after 2001. Fahim, a key U.S.ally in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, had alsopreviously served as Karzai's First Vice Presidentand Minister of Defense, appointed to those posi-tions in the interim and transitional governmentsinstalled after the 2001 invasion. Karzai is also be-ing advised by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf who is said tohave first invited Osama bin Laden to Afghanistanand has lobbied for an amnesty for warlords.

Most prominently covered has been the dramaticreturn, three days before the election, of GeneralAbdul Rashid Dostum from exile in Turkey as partof a deal to help bring President Karzai to victory.After allegedly kidnapping and beating up a po-litical rival, he was removed as Karzai's army chiefof staff in late 2008 and disappeared into exile inTurkey. A key U.S. ally during the U.S. invasion ofAfghanistan, General Dostum is arguably the mostnotorious of Afghanistan's warlords, accused ofmassive human rights abuses, including the Dasht-i-Leili massacre of up to 2,000 Taliban who weresuffocated in cargo containers in late 2001. He isalso alleged to have crushed one of his own sol-diers to death by tying him to the tracks of a tank.

Many Afghans hate these powerbrokers in theAfghan government, angered that they evadedaccountability for their human rights abuses in thenineties and regained power and land through pri-vate militias funded by the millions of dollars theywere paid by the CIA in the 2001 U.S. invasion.

Analysts have suggested that part of Karzai's strat-egy was to make deals with warlord allies to de-liver large blocs of votes in return for key posi-tions and influence in his new government or othersignificant promises.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, ana-lysts and diplomats suggested that Karzai's allianceswith strongmen like General Dostum had paid off,delivering him large numbers of votes in the north.Fahim delivered Tajik votes for Karzai, Khalilibrought Hazara support, and Dostum deliveredUzbek votes.

Involvement of drug traffickers

Karzai's vice-presidential candidate, MarshalMuhammad Qasim Fahim, is also alleged to havelong ties to drug trafficking, according to CIA re-ports from as early as 2002.

A crucial U.S. ally as the military commander ofthe Northern Alliance, he worked closely with theCIA in the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan andwas rewarded with millions of dollars in cash. Hewas then appointed First Vice President and Min-ister of Defense in the interim and transitionalgovernments installed after the invasion, handlingmore millions of dollars sent by the U.S. in mili-tary aid to raise and arm a new Afghan army. CIAintelligence reports in 2002 showed that Fahim hada history of narcotics trafficking before the U.Sinvasion, and that he was still actively involvedafter being installed as defense minister, traffick-ing heroin via cargo plane flights north throughRussia, with aides in the Afghan Defense Ministryalso involved.

Hamid Karzai's election campaign manager for thesouth, and half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai – him-self a candidate for re-election as the head of theKandahar provincial council – has also long beenalleged to have prominent drug trafficking ties, andthought to control a significant proportion of Af-ghan heroin production. Numerous reports linkhim to the Afghan drug trade, according to offi-cials from the White House, the State Departmentand the United States Embassy in Afghanistan.Officials at the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) and the Office of the Director of NationalIntelligence have alleged that the White Housefavored a hands-off approach with Ahmed WaliKarzai because of his political position. Only a weekbefore the election he denied a report from Ger-




man news magazine Stern that said that Britishspecial forces had found several tons of opium onhis land. He claimed that this was being done justbefore the election to hurt Hamid Karzai's chanceof re-election.

According to current and former U.S. officials,Ahmed Wali Karzai was also being paid by CIA,and had been for the past eight years, the NewYork Times reported on October 27, 2009, stating:"The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that the UnitedStates is not doing everything in its power to stampout the lucrative Afghan drug trade." Also allegedto have orchestrated much of the fraud in favourof his brother in the presidential election, AhmedWali Karzai was himself re-elected to the Kandaharprovincial council in the August 20 vote.

Campaign

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Com-mission (AIHRC), said insecurity had "severely lim-ited freedom of movement and constrained free-dom of expression for candidates". Security con-cerns prevented presidential candidates from cam-paigning in most of the provinces, and candidatesrunning for provincial councils were under con-stant threat wherever they went. Widespread cul-tural opposition to women in public life, furthercompounded by the lack of security, made cam-paigning by women candidates very difficult orimpossible in many parts of the country, accord-ing to EU observers.

A UN election monitoring report said in early Au-gust that there was mounting evidence that thegovernment was using state resources to favourKarzai. An election commission report in July notedthat state-run Radio Television Afghanistan haddedicated 71% of prime-time news coverage to thepresident.

Issues at the forefront in the election campaignwere the insurgency and lack of security, the con-duct of foreign troops in Afghanistan and civiliancasualties, corruption, and poverty. Topics concern-ing women's rights were virtually never featuredin news coverage of the electoral campaign, and

women received almost no coverage in news re-porting during the election, according to a Euro-pean Union observation mission report.

Mr. Karzai announced that he would invite theTaliban to a Loya Jirga (a grand tribal council) totry and restart stalled peace talks. A May pre-elec-tion poll reported that over two-thirds, 68%, ofAfghans thought their government should holdtalks and reconcile with the Taliban, and 18% didnot know or refused to answer. Only 14% did notsupport government talks and reconciliation withthe Taliban. Karzai also said the country was grow-ing in stature and would be able to prevent "for-eigners" from jailing Afghans, referring to the for-eign military forces operating in their country.

According to Ramazan Bashardost, the insurgencywas motivated by the presence of foreign militaryforces in their country, by the presence of war-lords and human rights abusers in the Western-backed regime, by the corruption in that govern-ment, and by poverty. Bashardost vowed that hewould not allow foreign troops to stay in Afghani-stan if elected.

Abdul Salam Rocketi, a former Mujahideen "free-dom fighter" – whose name came from usingrocket-propelled grenades to shoot down Soviethelicopters – and former Taliban commander, saidhe would announce an amnesty for all the insur-gents if he won the election.

The Election Commission accredited 160,000 ob-servers for the election. The Afghan Free and FairElections Foundation, the largest local monitoringgroup, said that it would have observers at 70 percent of polling stations but couldn't observe theremainder because of security concerns.

Debates

Two candidate debates took place before the Au-gust 20 election. The first debate was held on July23 and was broadcast on Tolo TV. It was supposedto feature Karzai, Abdullah, and Ghani, thoughKarzai later declined to take part, with his cam-paign blaming Tolo TV for being biased against




him. A second debate took place on August 16 onRTA TV (the state broadcaster) and Radio FreeAfghanistan involving Karzai, Ghani, andBashardost, with Abdullah not participating.

November 7 run-off election

On October 23, election authorities, with UN as-sistance, began delivering ballots for the Novem-ber 7 run-off. UN planes flew ballots and votingkits to provincial capitals from where they wouldbe delivered to thousands of polling stations byhelicopter, truck, and donkey.

Because of insecurity and fraud concerns, 7,000polling stations – nearly 30% of the 24,000 pollingstations that had been set up for the August 20vote – were cut for the run-off vote.

There were also concerns that voter turnout forthe run-off could be even lower than the "anemic"turnout of 30–33% in the first round on August20.

According to Gilles Dorronsoro, a visiting scholarat the Carnegie Endowment and an expert on Af-ghanistan and South Asia: "This time around, theweather will be worse, and the plain fact is, mostAfghans don’t like their options enough to vote."

The UN told the IEC that 200 of its 380 districtelection chiefs in the first round had ignored pro-cedures or been complicit in fraud and must notbe hired again. The run-off campaign period for-mally opened on October 24. Abdullah's campaigncalled for the dismissal of the three top officials ofthe Independent Election Commission (IEC), ac-cusing them of having allowed widespread fraudin the first round of the election.

Both run-off candidates were reported to be fran-tically wooing Ramazan Bashardost, the presiden-tial candidate that had placed third in the August20 first round vote.

Bashardost, who had campaigned against the cor-ruption and greed of Kabul politicians and against

the poverty of Afghans, said he had not decidedwho to support between the two – if anyone – say-ing the choice was between "the worst, and worsethan the worst."

The Taliban reiterated their call for Afghans toboycott the election, denouncing it as a foreign-orchestrated sham.

On October 26, Abdullah called again for the sack-ing of Azizullah Lodin, the head of the Indepen-dent Election Commission, saying that he had "nocredibility". Karzai rejected the call by Abdullah,stating "the changes would not be helpful to theelections and the country".


“According to Article 156 of the consti-tution of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,the Independent Election Commission(IEC) has the authority and responsibilityto administrate and supervise all kind ofelections; as well as refer to general pub-lic opinion of the people, in accordancethe provision of the law. The IEC consistsof nine members, including a chairper-son and a deputy chairperson, ap-pointed by Presidential Decree No.21,dated 19 Jan 2005.

The IEC Secretariat is the executive bodyof the Commission. Professional electoralstaff of the Secretariat are implementingdecisions, regulations and proceduresadopted by IEC. As an interim measureduring the transitional period, 2004 Presi-dential and 2005 Wolesi Jirga and Pro-vincial Council elections were con-ducted and supervised by Joint ElectoralManagement Body (JEMB), which was ajoint institution of Afghan governmentand United Nations. After completion ofits responsibilities the JEMB was dissolvedby Presidential Decree No.110, Dated18.12.2005 and all its responsibilities wastransferred to the IEC.”



Election Method

In Afghanistan, the President is the head of theexecutive branch. The President serves as the headof state and the Command-in-Chief of the ArmedForces of Afghanistan. He or she is elected by re-ceiving more than 50% of the votes cast throughfree, general, secret, and direct voting. If none ofthe candidates for President receive more than 50%of the votes in the first round, a run-off election isheld within two weeks. In this round, only twocandidates with the highest number of votes areallowed to participate. In the run-off, the candi-date who gets the majority of the votes will beelected as the President. The President serves a 5-year term. The executive branch also includes twoVice Presidents and members of the cabinet. Cabi-net Ministers are appointed by the President andapproved by the National Assembly.

Voter Registration: An update toAfghanistan's voter registry was conducted in fourphases in all provinces across the country betweenOctober 2008 and February 2009. According to theAfghan Independent Election Commission (IEC),as of March 2009, more than 4 million Afghansregistered, of which more than 38% arefemale registrants. Almost 550,000 Afghans reg-istered in the south, of which more than 300,000are in Kandahar alone.

These registrants join the approximately 12 mil-lion registrants already in the existing nationalvoter registry (2005), although some overlap mayoccur for individuals with lost registrationcards, who have reached the legal age to vote, etc.Candidate Registration: As part of Canada’s fifthpriority to help strengthen and promote democraticdevelopment and national institutions in Afghani-stan, one of Canada’s targets for 2011 is the estab-lishment of an Independent Electoral ComplaintsCommission. This target was achieved by the es-tablishment of the ECC through UNDP ELECT,supported in part by Canada. 44 Presidential Can-didates registered with the IEC, including twowomen. One candidate dropped out of the race and,as per its mandate, following the vetting processand the ECC’s recommendations, the IEC excluded

2 candidates. 3324 Provincial Council candidatesregistered with the IEC, including 342 women. 90candidates dropped out of the race and, as per itsmandate, following the vetting process and theECC’s recommendations, the IEC excluded 54 can-didates.

Elections Timeline

Election Day was preceded by important dates anddeadlines that, all together, constituted the Elec-toral Calendar.

May 25 April – 8: Presidential candidates nomi-nate themselves at the headquarters of the Inde-pendent Election Commission.

May 16 – 21: A preliminary list of candidates wasdisplayed at all offices of the Independent Elec-tion Commission.

May 16 –June 8: Registered voters could challengethe eligibility of candidates with the Electoral Com-plaints Commission (ECC). The ECC adjudicateschallenges and responses, and relays its feedbackto the Independent Election Commission.

June 12: The Independent Election Commissiondisplayed the final list of candidates.

June 16 - August 18: Candidates mounted theirofficial campaigns prior to polling day. Campaign-ing concluded 48 hours prior to August 20, thepolling day.

August 20: Voters went to the polls in approxi-mately 27,000 polling stations around the coun-try. Domestic and international observer groupsobserve polling and counting. Political rights moni-toring is conducted jointly by the UN AssistanceMission to Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Inde-pendent Human Rights Commission. After poll-ing closes, ballots are counted and the Indepen-dent Election Commission announces preliminaryresults. After adjudication of complaints, the Com-mission announces the final results.




If no presidential candidate receives 50% +1 of votescast, a presidential run-off is held between the twocandidates who receive the highest number ofvotes.

October 20 : Afghanistan’s Independent ElectionCommission releases official certified results of thePresidential election. The IEC announces PresidentHamid Karzai will face his rival Abdullah Abdullahin a second round after the U.N.-backed electionwatchdog tossed out hundreds of thousands ofvotes.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledges thefull support of the UN to ensure that Afghanistan’spresidential election run-off is as credible as pos-sible and welcomed President Hamid Karzai’s ac-ceptance of a second round of voting.

Prime Minister Harper acknowledges the final re-sults released by the IEC and is encouraged thatboth candidates recognize the need for a run-offin the best interests of Afghan democracy.

22 October 2009: Afghan Ministers of Defense,Interior announce preparations for holding run-off election. Run-off electoral materials to bebrought to all 34 provinces across the country.

November 7: Date of Presidential run-off

Presidential Contender

Second time winner Karzai was main contender inthe presidential election. He filed his candidacy onMay 4, 2009. The United National Front announcedon April 16, 2009 that they would nominate formerforeign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as theirpresidential candidate. Abdullah was foreign min-ister of the Northern Alliance from 1998 onwards,and was a dominant figure in the Alliance. He wasappointed foreign minister in the interim govern-ment that was installed after the U.S. invasion. Thefirst person to have declared his intention to run,Dr. Ramazan Bashardost formally registered for thepresidential election on May 7, 2009, with vice-presidential candidates Mr. Mohammad MosaBarekzai, a professor at the Kabul Agricultural In-stitute and Ms. Afifa Maroof, a member of the Af-

ghanistan Independent Human Rights Commis-sion, and with a dove, a symbol of peace and lib-erty, as their campaign symbol. Bashardost hasopenly criticized the government and accused min-isters of corruption. Dr. Ashraf Ghani, a senior fel-low in foreign policy at the Brookings Institute inWashington D.C., and former finance minister,registered as a presidential candidate on May 7,2009. Mirwais Yasini, the First Deputy Speaker ofthe Afghan House of the People joined the race inMarch 2009. Shahla Atta, a liberal female MP andwar widow has female candidate. Other presiden-tial contenders included the leader of the Justiceand Development Party of Afghanistan ZabihullahGhazi Nuristani; former attorney general AbdulJabbar Sabit; former defence minister Shah NawazTanai; Uzbek leader Akbar Bai; economy expertand current senior minister Hedayat Arsala; econo-mist Mohammad Hashem Taufiqui; SarwarAhmedzai.

Key Facts

Voter registration: During voter registration eli-gible citizens are provided with the documents theyneed to cast a ballot, namely the voter registrationcard. In order to qualify for a card, citizens mustmeet a number of criteria under Article 13 of theElectoral Law. Citizens qualified to vote mustpresent themselves at a voter registration locationand provide the identification required. They aregiven a photo identification which can be used tovote. Individuals with a voter registration card mayvote in the presidential election at any polling sta-tion in the country. In order to vote in the provin-cial council election, though, they must vote at apolling station in the same province where theyare resident. For example, a voter resident inKandahar can only vote for the Kandahar Provin-cial Council.

Candidate Nomination: Individuals wishing to can-didate themselves for elections must meet criteriaas laid out in both the 2004 Constitution and 2005Electoral Law. Criteria include, for example, ageand citizenship. Candidates must also pay a fee anddemonstrate a minimum amount of support bypresenting a certain number of signatures. Criteria




differ between candidates for president, provincial,parliamentary, and district council elections.

All voters can challenge the candidacy of an indi-vidual by filing a complaint with the ElectoralComplaints Commission. When all complaints havebeen adjudicated, a final candidate list is published.Campaign Period: The campaign period providestime for candidates to explain themselves to thevoters. As part of their campaigns they might holdpublic events, hang posters, speak with media, orengage in debates with other candidates. Duringthis period, voters may report any inappropriatebehavior to the Electoral Complaints Commissionand the Electoral Media Commission. Inappropri-ate behavior could include interfering with elec-toral officials, violating codes of conduct for po-litical parties or candidates, or urging others tocommit an electoral offense. Activities that con-stitute violations are laid out in the 2005 ElectoralLaw.

Polling: On polling day, voters have the opportu-nity to cast their vote for their preferred candi-dates. All voting takes place at polling centers lo-cated around the country.

Tallying the Votes & Certification of Results:Counting takes place at the polling stations whiletallying happens at the tally center in Kabul. Be-cause millions of ballots must be counted and tal-lied, results are not made final until the IEC is con-fident they are accurate. This can take severalweeks. The final results is certified and announcedby the IEC.

Voting Process

All registered Afghans (who is at least 18 years ofage, has Afghan citizenship, has not been deprivedfrom his/her civil or political rights by a court ofcompetent jurisdiction) with valid voter ID cardwill have the right to vote for Presidential andProvincial Council Elections.

Individuals with voter registration cards issued in2003-05 and 2008-09 are allowed to vote on 20August 2009. Polling station staff check for ink (to

ensure individuals have not already voted), for eli-gibility, and for identity.

Registered voters can vote in the province wherethey are resident. However if a voter is not resi-dent of that province, he/she is allowed to voteonly for the Presidential elections.

Polling centers are open on 20 August 2009, from7am until 4pm. Starting at 4 pm, no additional vot-ers are permitted to join the queue.

At the polling center. Within a polling centre, thereare male and female polling stations. In some cen-ters there are also stations for Kuchis. In some prov-inces, the IEC establishes specific polling centersfor Kuchis.

Not more than 600 voters are allowed to vote inany given polling station.

Polling staff, under the supervision of the DistrictField Coordinators, are the officials responsible forrunning centers/stations and processing voters.Observers, media, candidate/party agents who areaccredited by the IEC may also be present in thepolling center.

Each voter must vote in person. Voting on behalfof another person is not permitted. Each voter mustmark his/her ballots in secret behind the votingscreen provided for this purpose. Family or groupvoting, where more than one person is behind thevoting screen at a time, is not permitted. The eld-erly, people with disabilities, nursing and pregnantwomen are given preference in the polling center.Finally, once a voter has cast a ballot he or shemust leave the polling station.

Special Voting Cases: The IEC recognizes the needto facilitate access to polling for voters with spe-cial needs, these include: the Afghan NationalArmy, police, internally displaced persons, prison-ers (who have not been deprived from their civiland political rights by a court of law), people thatare hospitalized, and those at the Presidential Pal-ace.




In order to facilitate access to polling for thosepeople, the IEC added 82 polling stations to exist-ing polling centers.

India-Afghanistan

Afghanistan holds strategic importance for Indiaas New Delhi seeks friendly allies in the neighbor-hood, and because it is a gateway to energy-richCentral Asian states such as Turkmenistan andKazakhstan. India is looking to ensure that othercountries in the region favor or at least are neutralon its conflict with Pakistan. Both countries his-torically have shared close cultural and politicalties, and the complexity of their diplomatic his-tory reflects this fact. India supported successivegovernments in Kabul until the rise of the Talibanin the 1990s, and was among the first non-Com-munist states to recognize the government installedby the Soviet Union after its 1989 invasion. Butlike most countries, India never recognized theTaliban's assumption of power in 1996. During thisturbulent period, India supported the efforts ofNorthern Alliance to defeat the Taliban.

The terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001 once againturned the tide in relations. With the overthrow-ing of the Taliban by the NATO and the emer-gence of democratic forces in Afghanistan, Indiasought to revive the ties, restored full diplomaticrelations, and provided hundreds of millions ofdollars in aid for Afghanistan's reconstruction anddevelopment.

Instead of military involvement, India is the sec-ond largest contributor after the US and has spentalmost $2 billion on humanitarian assistance inAfghanistan so far. In January 2009, India com-pleted construction of the Zaranj-Delaram high-way in southwest Afghanistan near the Iranianborder; it is building Afghanistan’s new parliamentbuilding set for completion by 2011; it is construct-ing the Salma Dam power project in Herat Prov-ince; it has trained Afghan police officers, diplo-mats and civil servants; and it has provided sup-port in the areas of health, education, transporta-tion, power, and telecommunications.

In spite of the significant humanitarian assistancebeing provided by India, Pakistan views India'sgrowing influence in Afghanistan as a threat to itsown interests in the region. It has frequently raiseddoubts about the real motive for Indian presencein Afghanistan. Experts fear for Afghanistan's sta-bility as India and Pakistan compete for influencein the war-torn country. The result is that India’sattempt to leverage its ‘soft power’ in Afghanistanis becoming increasingly risky. So far, there is ageneral consensus in India that it should not sendtroops to Afghanistan. Yet beyond this there is littleagreement about what policy options it has ifgreater turbulence in the Af-Pak region spills overinto India. The traditional Indian stance is while itis happy to help the Afghan government in its re-construction efforts, it will not be directly engagedin security operations, but this is increasingly be-coming harder to sustain. A debate therefore isemerging as to whether India should start support-ing its humanitarian endeavors in Afghanistan witha stronger military presence.

If Afghanistan is the most important frontier incombating terrorism targeted against India, thenhow long can India continue with its present policytrajectory whereby its civilians are getting killedin pursuit of its developmental objectives?

India has much to consider. The return of theTaliban to Afghanistan would pose a major threatto its borders. In the end, the brunt of escalatingterrorism will be borne by India, which alreadyhas been described as ‘the sponge that protects’ theWest. Indian strategists warn that a hurried USwithdrawal with the Taliban still posing a threatto Afghanistan will have serious implications forIndia, not the least of which would be to see Paki-stan, its eternal rival, step in more aggressively.




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The leaders of 53 countries just concluded a cli-mate change summit a mere few days beforeCopenhagen. Hosted in Trinidad and Tobago on27-29 November, 2009 , the Commonwealth Sum-mit aimed to make progress on the negotiationsthat will come to a head in Copenhagen beginningDecember 7. One key outcome is a figure for a pro-posed "Copenhagen Launch Fund," of $10 billion ayear, described by President Nasheed of theMaldives as recognizing in part the plight of islandnations in coping with climate change.

The Commonwealth countries assembled are com-prised of many former British colonies, and the vastmajority of these countries are severely threatenedby climate change. These are countries like theGambia, Cameroon (pictured in this photo),Guyana, and Kiribati.The countries represented inTrinidad make up one third of the world's popula-tion. In Copenhagen, people around the world arecalling for progress that meets the scale of the cli-mate challenge that faces the entire planet. Manyof these same countries are vocal supporters of anagreement in Copenhagen that calls for reaching350 ppm; many of these leaders have frequentlyspoken out about climate impacts already felt bythe people in their countries. You can count onthe fingers of one hand how many Commonwealth

Commonwealth SummitMulti Billion Dollar Fund to Help Developing Nations

countries have not backed such ambitious positions;yet they appeared to hold the day in Trinidad.Thisis yet another indication that we must stand in soli-darity with those people whose lives are at stake,and those countries that, even despite bold leader-ship and commitments to take serious action, arenot being heard.

Climate fund to helppoor nations

UK PM Gordon Brown and French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy have proposed a multi-billion-dol-lar fund to help developing nations deal with cli-mate change.

Mr Brown said the $10bn (£6bn) fund should alsobe used to help developing nations cut greenhousegas emissions.

Both spoke at the Commonwealth summit inTrinidad, the last major world forum before theglobal summit on climate change in Copenhagenon 7 December.

Many Commonwealth members are island statesthreatened by rising sea levels.

Mr Sarkozy, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Dan-ish Prime Minister Prime Lars Loekke Rasmussen,is there to give weight to any climate change state-ment.

The topic was the only issue on the Commonwealthsummit's agenda for the first day.

Opening the Trinidad meeting, Queen ElizabethII said the Commonwealth had an opportunity tolead once more on climate change.

The threat to our environmentis not a new concern but it isnow a global challenge whichwill continue to affect the se-curity and stability of millionsfor years to come.--Elizabeth II

“

”

Section -2 ( HOT TOPICS )



"The threat to our environment is not a new con-cern but it is now a global challenge which willcontinue to affect the security and stability of mil-lions for years to come," she said.Mr Brown said half of the $10bn fund should gotowards helping developing nations reduce theirgreenhouse gas emissions and the other half to-wards helping them adapt to climate change.The first cash would be made available next year,he said, before any emissions deal could take ef-fect.

He is offering $800m from the UK over three years,money that has already been budgeted for.Mr Sarkozy proposed a funding programme of$10bn a year in the years 2010-12, and an "ambi-tious mechanism" for payments beyond those years.He did not indicate how much France was pre-pared to contribute.

The two leaders said the move could encouragedeveloping nations concerned about the economicconsequences of reducing emissions to sign up to aclimate treaty.

Insistence on India

The Commonwealth's 53 nations comprise nearlytwo billion people, a third of the planet's popula-tion. India has admitted that China's decision tounveil emissions targets two weeks before theCopenhagen summit has put it under pressure.Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh saidChina's decision was a "wake-up call to India".Mr Ban said new and positive commitments fromseveral countries over recent days were very heart-ening.

But in another Commonwealth country, Austra-lia, the government's plans to enact a law for anemissions trading scheme have been thrown intochaos by a revolt within the opposition LiberalParty, whose support is required to pass the bill.The issue is likely to be controversial. The nation'sentry bid has received strong backing from somemember states.

However, some rights activists are angry that en-try would reward a nation they say is guilty ofabuses dating back to the 1994 genocide.

Meanwhile the UK has indicated it will try to blockSri Lanka's bid to host the next Commonwealthsummit over its handling of the recent war.A UK government source said Mr Brown had "realconcerns about Sri Lanka's bid".

It's a highly unorthodox summit, which may bejust what the Commonwealth needed to countercharges it is an irrelevant relic of Britain's imperialpast. This time, key leaders from outside the Com-monwealth were invited to the first day - givenover entirely to the dominant world issue: climatechange.

The UN secretary-general, the French president,and Denmark's prime minister seized the chanceof the last major political gathering beforeDecember's crucial global negotiations to urge theheads of more than 50 nations here to lead by ex-ample and ease deadlocks between the developedand developing world.

If the Commonwealth is a microcosm of the widerworld, spanning giant India, rich Britain, Austra-lia and Canada, as well as some of the smallest andmost vulnerable island states like the Maldives,then where better to argue that all leaders shouldprepare to make bold concessions to achieve a bet-ter outcome in Copenhagen?

Judging whether or not this Summit really makesa difference may be impossible, but it has certainlyraised the Commonwealth's profile, and remindedthe world beyond the Commonwealth that, at thevery least, huge amounts of political effort are be-ing expended to try to maximise success inCopenhagen.

What is Commonwealth

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of53 independent sovereign states consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoplesand in the promotion of international understand-ing and world peace.

Today's Commonwealth is a world away from thehandful of British Dominions, which were the firstCommonwealth members. From Africa to Asia,




from Pacific shores to the Caribbean, theCommonwealth's 1.7 billion people make up 30%of the world's population.

The modern Commonwealth gradually evolved outof United Kingdom's imperial past, mainly throughdecolonisation, the effects of two world wars andchanging patterns of international relations. To-day it helps to advance democracy, human rights,sustainable economic and social developmentwithin its member countries and beyond. Armedwith a common working language and similar sys-tems of law, public administration and education,the Commonwealth has built on its shared historyto become a vibrant and growing association ofstates in tune with the modern world.All of themember states, except for Mozambique, have ex-perienced direct or indirect British rule, or havebeen linked administratively to another Common-wealth country.

At the 1997 summit in Edinburgh, Heads of Gov-ernment considered the criteria for Common-wealth membership and agreed that in order tobecome a member of the Commonwealth, an ap-plicant country should, as a rule, have had a con-stitutional association with an existing Com-monwealth member state; that it should complywith Commonwealth values, principles and pri-orities as set out in the Harare Declaration; andthat it should accept Commonwealth norms andconventions. The association has no constitution or charter, butmembers commit themselves to the statements ofbeliefs set out by Heads of Government. The basisof these is the Declaration of Commonwealth Prin-ciples, agreed at Singapore in 1971, and reaffirmedin the Harare Declaration of 1991. The fundamen-tal political values underpinning the Common-wealth include democracy and good governance,respect for human rights and gender equality, therule of law, and sustainable economic and socialdevelopment.

HM Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Com-monwealth and is recognised as the 'symbol of theirfree association' by members of the association.Among other things, Her Majesty attends the bi-

ennial Commonwealth summits or CHOGMs, andthe Commonwealth Games, which are held everyfour years. At the Edinburgh summit in 1997, forthe first time, she addressed the opening ceremony.On every Commonwealth Day a special messagefrom the Queen is broadcast in all member coun-tries.




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» Asia-Pacific leaders endedtheir summit in Singapore onNov 15 with a final statementthat pledged a conclusion of the

Doha Round of global trade talks in 2010, but re-moved targets for carbon emissions cuts.

The 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion summit dropped a target to cut greenhousegas emissions in half by 2050, despite declaring cli-mate change one of the biggest global challenges.

The APEC leaders also rejected all forms of pro-tectionism and said they would commit to con-cluding the Doha Round of trade talks next year. The talks have been deadlocked over disagreementsbetween developing and developed nations on cut-ting farm subsidies and tariffs.

The declaration also said the 21 member econo-mies will maintain stimulus policies until a durableglobal economic recovery has clearly taken hold.U.S. President Barack Obama meets with RussianPresident Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of theAPEC forum. The two plan to discuss Iran'snuclear program and Afghanistan. Mr. Obama alsoannounced that his native U.S. state, Hawaii, willhost the APEC summit in 2011.

» Indian-Americans won one oftheir highest-ever appointmentsin the US government whenPresident Obama in novembernominated Dr Rajiv Shah as ad-

ministrator of the United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID).

Dr Shah, who currently serves as Under Secretaryfor Research, Education and Economics and Chief

Current AffairsCurrent Relevant Fact

Scientist at the US Department of Agriculture, willtake his new job after he is confirmed by the Sen-ate, a step that is expected to happen quickly. Witha budget of over $40 billion and nearly 2000 em-ployees, USAID is an independent federal agencythat is responsible for most US non-military for-eign aid, virtually the developmental face of UncleSam.

Shah, a graduate of University of Michigan, earnedhis M.D. from the University of PennsylvaniaMedical School and his Master of Science in healtheconomics at the Wharton School of Business. Healso attended the London School of Economicsbefore becoming a policy wonk, variously work-ing at the World Health Organisation, advising theGore 2000 presidential campaign on health carepolicy, and most recently, before joining theObama administration, serving as Director for Ag-ricultural Development at the Bill and MelindaGates Foundation.

At USDA, he managed the Agricultural ResearchService, the Economic Research Service, the Na-tional Agricultural Statistical Service and the Na-tional Institute of Food and Agriculture, and wasresponsible for overseeing more than 10,000 staffworldwide including 2,200 federal scientists and abudget of more than $2.6 billion. He also launchedthe National Institute of Food and Agriculture(NIFA) - a new scientific institute created to el-evate and enhance the capacity of agricultural re-search to address sustainable food production, cli-mate change, bioenergy and human nutrition.

But the job as USAID administrator is a major pro-motion, elevating him to a crucial job that involvesadvancing US foreign policy objectives by support-ing economic growth, agriculture and trade; health;democracy, conflict prevention, and humanitarian

Section -3 ( Current Relevant Facts )



assistance abroad. Although its predecessor agencyInternational Cooperation Administration datesback to World War II and the Marshall Plan,USAID was formally constituted in 1961 and isconsidered a crucial foreign policy arm of the USgovernment.

The agency typically receives foreign policy guid-ance from the Secretary of State, and expectedly,Hillary Clinton warmly welcomed the Shah's ap-pointment, describing him as a "leader in the de-velopment community, an innovative and results-oriented manager, and someone who understandsthe importance of providing people around theworld with the tools they need to lift themselvesout of poverty and chart their own destinies."

Shah will have his hands full once he is confirmedby the State since the USAID administrator's posthas been vacant for several months with an actingadministrator holding the fort after Obama cameto office. In fact, the vacancy at the top of USAIDhad attracted the ire of Congress, whose membersnoted that it was the “only major agency in thegovernment without a captain at a time whenAmerican leadership in development around theworld is more needed than ever.”

In a September 18 letter to Obama urging him toexpeditiously appoint a USAID administrator,Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar complainedthat USAID has been shut out of the interagencyprocesses related to US policy in places such asAfghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Israel are among thebiggest recipients of USAID dollars and Pakistan issoon expected to join the top ranks since much ofthe US non-military assistance to Islamabad is ex-pected to be sent through USAID. As of Septem-ber 2009, the USAID said it had contributed morethan $ 170 million in assistance to conflict-affectedpopulation in Pakistan. India, which at one timegot around $ 160 million in USAID funds (a pit-

tance in per capita terms), has gradually weaneditself off US dole, preferring trade and businessopportunities.

» Recognising India's excellence in education, Aus-tralia has invited 'elite Indian institutions' to setup campuses there and help Adelaide become a'University City'. Some of them are already on thetable.

There are over 500,000 interna-tional students in Australia pur-suing university education and

vocational studies, of which 94,000 are Indians --the second highest group after the Chinese. Thou-sands of Indians are enrolled in vocational coursesin government and private Technical and FurtherEducation (TAFE) institutes.

In recent years Australia's education industry hasboomed to become the country's third-largest for-eign currency earner after coal and iron ore, gen-erating about $12 billion in revenue in 2008. In-dian students in Australia alone contribute $3.5billion a year to the economy.

Dozens of Indian students have been attacked inAustralia throughout this year, making India re-act strongly. Even Prime Minister ManmohanSingh took up the issue with his Australian coun-terpart. The soaring sentiment in India forced manyAustralian authorities, including its prime minis-ter, to tour India, to assure parents about the safetyof their wards.

» Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singhon Dec 4 said that all the 2,50,000 GramPanchayats in the country will be pro-vided high speed broadband connectiv-ity by 2012 to remove asymmetry of in-

formation and opportunities to the rural popula-tion.


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The Prime Minister was speaking at the closingceremony of 'India Telecom- 2009' in the nationalcapital. Assuring the auction of 3G spectrum, Singhsaid that this spectrum will be allocated at a mar-ket determined price rather than an administeredone.

While, lauding the setting up of seven telecomcenters of excellence by DOT in public private part-nership mode, he said that sustained competitive-ness requires a strong research and developmentefforts.

The Prime Minister also expressing concern on theslow growth of the telecom manufacturing sector,and called for using various fiscal incentives pro-vided by the Government to attract potential in-vestors.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Communicationsand Information Technology Minister A. Raja saidthat telecom sector is recognized as one of the majordrivers of the growth of Indian economy as it iscontributing about 5.6 per cent in GDP.

'Indian economy registered 11per cent rise in FDI,despite the global recession and liquidity crunch,'he added.

The Minister further said that it also attracted 2558million dollar FDI in 2008-09 as compared to 1261million dollar in 2007-08, which is about 10 percent of the total FDI inflow in the country during2008-09.

Enlisting the achievements of the telecom depart-ment, the Minister said that target of 500 millionof telephone connections was scaled in September2009, much ahead of the scheduled time of De-cember 2010.

» The Wolf Hall novel has beenwritten by British author HilaryMantel, winner of the Booker Prize2009. Set in the 1520s, the novel

tells the story of English statesman ThomasCromwell’s rise to prominence through political

intrigues in Henry VIII’s court.» Indian government, in collaboration with theUNDESA, organised the ‘High-Level Conferenceon Climate Change: Technology Development andTransfer’ on October 22 and 23, 2009 at New Delhi.

The conference was a step forward in the processof the international policy dialogue on technolo-gies needed to address climate change.

The outcomes of the conference will support theUnited Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC) process.

» Google Wave is the latestbuzz to hit the internet shores.The Web search giant—it has

already sent out 1,00,000 select invites for a lim-ited preview—has announced what it claims to bethe future of all internet conversations.

What Wave does is to integrate e-mail, instantmessaging (IM), collaboration, Google maps as wellas search. It actually empowers your browser tohandle all your communication needs. The Wave,however, requires a Chrome Frame plug-in to func-tion on the ubiquitous Internet Explorer as of now.The preferred browsers seem to be Chrome, opensource Firefox and Apple’s Safari.

» Romanian-born German writer Herta Muellerhas won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature. The56-year-old author, who emigrated to Germanyfrom then-communist Romania in 1987, made herdebut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titledNiederungen, or Lowlands in English, which waspromptly censored by her government.

In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled toGermany where it was published and her workdepicting life in a small, German-speaking villagein Romania was devoured by readers there. Thatwork was followed by Oppressive Tango in Roma-nia.

» With domain names in Hindi, Arabic and Chi-nese set to become a reality on the Web, the pun-dits in this science hub, where the internet was




arguably invented, claim the next giant leap to-wards internationalisation will be the grid. Thegrid, which is made of thousands of desktops,laptops, supercomputers, data vaults, mobilephones, meteorological sensors and telescopes willstart work when protons beams collide with eachother in the world’s biggest experiment ever, deepin a tunnel on the French-Swiss border.

» The United States blasted thesurface of the moon on October9, 2009 with two rockets on a mis-sion to look for water below the

lunar surface that could be used by astronauts onfuture space missions. At 1130 GMT the LCROSSsatellite crashed into the Cabeus crater floor nearthe moon’s south pole, at around 9,000 kilometersper hour, followed four minutes later by ashepherding spacecraft equipped with cameras torecord the impact.

The LCROSS cost 79 million dollars and waslaunched in June 2009, along with another probe—the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is taskedwith producing a detailed map of the moon.

NASA scientists looked into the 350 tonnes of de-bris ejected from the cold, dark Cabeus crater, andafter thorough analysis confirmed presence of wa-ter. The crater is 100 km across and between 2.5 tofour km deep.

The mission came just two weeks after India hailedthe discovery of water on the moon with itsChandrayaan-1 satellite mission in partnershipwith NASA.

Finding water on Earth's natural satellite is a ma-jor breakthrough in space exploration and will pavethe way toward future lunar bases for drinkingwater or fuel, or even man living on another planet.

» Scientists are mulling to use German-built ro-bots for clearing rogue satellites from Earth's orbitor pushing them into the outer space. Robots thatrescue failing satellites and push "dead" ones intoouter space should be ready in four years, Britishnewspaper 'The Observer' reported.

Experts have described the development by Ger-man scientists as a crucial step in preventing a di-saster in the Earth's crowded orbit. In 2008 it wasreported that critical levels of debris circling theEarth were threatening astronauts' lives and fu-ture of the multi-billion-dollar satellite communi-cations industry.

» Alarmed over the sharp drop in the number offreshwater dolphins surviving in river systemsacross the country, the Union government, act-ing on a proposal made by Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar, has declared dolphin as a nationalaquatic animal. The animal has been declared as a‘highly endangered’ under the ICUN and Sched-ule I of Wildlife Protection Act (1972), Govern-ment of India.

The Ganga River Dolphin is a flag-ship specie,meaning that their strength in river system wouldindicate its health. The freshwater dolphin, a blindspecies, is mainly found in the Ganga andBrahmaputra river systems in India.

Construction of dams and barrages, increase inpollution-levels, indiscriminate fishing, the dread-ful prospect of the mammal getting entangled innets—all these factors have contributed to a re-duction in their numbers in two river systems.

In the Ganga, the dolphin is found primarily inthe Bijnore-Narora section in Uttar Pradesh andthe Vikramshila sanctuary in Bihar. Thanks togreater involvement of the community and stake-holders and application of modern technology,WWF-India has been able to save these mammalsfrom getting depleted.

» The world’s largest cruiseliner, Oasis of the Seas, beganits maiden voyage to Florida onOctober 30, 2009, gliding out ofa shipyard in Finland. With an

amphitheatre, basketball courts and an ice rink onboard, the 16-deck liner spans 1,200 feet from bowto stern. Its 2,700 cabins can accommodate 6,300passengers and 2,100 crew. The ship cost $1.5 bil-




lion and took two and a half years to build. It boastsof four swimming pools, volleyball and basketballcourts, and a youth zone with theme parks andnurseries for children.

» India has signed agreements withthe World Bank for $4.2 billion(around Rs 20,000 crore) credit tosupport the country's infrastructure

projects and also for recapitalising the public sec-tor banks. State-run PowerGrid Corp of India, In-dia Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL)signed pacts for $1 billion and $1.195 billion, re-spectively. The Centre signed the agreement for$2 billion to recapitalise the state-run banks. Thefunding to IIFCL has two components, IBRD loanof $1.195 billion long-term finance to infrastruc-ture projects and a grant of $5 million for capacitybuilding of IIFCL, which finances infrastructureprojects. The loan will be utilised for strengthen-ing transmission systems for Sasan, Mundra andKrishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Projects andSouth-West interconnection.

» The 150th birth anniversary of RabindranathTagore will be celebrated internationally by theUNESCO in 2010 as a mark of respect to the NobelLaureate whose literary work blends universalhumanistic values and sympathy for the poor. Theagency will also celebrate the 100th birth anni-versary of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and 100thbirth anniversary of Afro-Martinican littérateurAime Cesaire. The UNESCO will establish prizesand medals in the name of these literary giants. Itwill also organise a series of seminars and confer-ences across the world to spread awareness abouttheir literary works.

» India has announced sites for setting up lightwater reactor-based nuclear plants in cooperationwith the United States, France and Russia. Powerplants would be set up in cooperation with the USat Chhayamithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvada inAndhra Pradesh, while Jaitapaur in Maharashtrahas been designated as the site for the plant to beset up with France’s assistance. Kudankulam inTamil Nadu and Haripur in West Bengal have been

chosen as the sites for power plants to be set up incooperation with Russia.

» The Reserve Bank of India hasacknowledged the resurgence ofthe feel good factor in the Indianeconomy but has said that growth

and inflation continue to be a concern. Maintaining a hawkish stance on inflation, thecentral bank has highlighted its concern over slow-down in credit off-take and surplus liquidity in thesystem, giving no clear indication on its rate stance.In its report on Macro and Monetary Developmentsin Q2 of 2009-10, the Reserve Bank has noted that"The combination of a weak recovery and elevatedCPI (consumer price index) inflation has alreadymagnified the complexity of policy challenges,notwithstanding the subdued nature of headlineWPI inflation so far." While premature reversal of the monetary policystance entails the risk of stifling recovery, persis-tence of accommodative stance could adverselyimpact inflation expectations. However, the results of its survey, based on “as-sessment for July- September 2009” and “expecta-tions for October-December 2009”, point to astrong momentum in industrial recovery. Both theindices remained above 100 for the second con-secutive quarter (100 is the threshold that sepa-rates contraction from expansion). According to theRBI analysis, this suggests that the industrial re-covery already seen up to August 2009 in terms oftrends in IIP growth could gain further momen-tum. The outlook for employment is also improving andfirms are expected to increase their workforce onthe back of expected increase in demand. Among the positive pointers to the economic re-covery include improved financial conditions asreflected in return of capital flows, significant re-covery in the stock markets, and better transmis-sion from low policy rates to declining lendingrates. The RBI has also said that there should notbe any concerns about private credit getting




crowded out since over 80.4% of the governmentborrowing programme has been completed so faras there is adequate liquidity in the system. But RBI is concerned about the deceleration inprivate consumption and investment demand thatit says needs to be reversed from the low levelsseen in the first quarter of 2009-10 for ensuring asustainable recovery.

Indian economy seen cruising at 6.5% in 2010 .A key economic think-tank has made the most op-timistic official projection yet for growth in thefiscal to March 2010, flagged rising food prices as amajor concern, and suggested that tighter mon-etary and fiscal policies are unlikely in the comingmonths.

The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Coun-cil, headed by former RBI governor C. Rangarajan,said it sees the gross domestic product (GDP) ex-panding by 6.5% in 2009-10.In its July 2009 forecast, the RBI had forecast thatIndia’s economy in 2009-10 would grow by 6%,with an upward bias, and the Planning Commis-sion had said in early September that it sees GDPgrowth at 6.3%. India’s economy expanded by 6.7%in 2008-09 after growing at over 9% for three years.

The improving trend is unlikely to prompt anyimmediate withdrawal of stimulus measures or atightening of monetary policy, even though thepanel made clear its concern about inflation andfiscal deterioration. It expects the consolidated fis-cal deficit of the Centre and States at 10.09% for2009-10 and sees inflation, imported and local foodinflation, as a significant risk for the Indianeconomy.

» Directors of the prestigiousIndian Institutes of Manage-ment (IIMs) and members oftheir boards will eventuallybe appointed through an in-

dependent collegium of industrialists and academ-ics. Also, IIMs can set up campuses abroad, pro-vided they come up with “workable proposals andpreferably function together instead of individu-ally”.

"We want to globalise the IIM brand,” said HRDMinister Kapil Sibal. In another major move, thegovernment agreed that a collegium, as mooted forthe appointment of vice-chancellors of centraluniversities, would also apply to IIMs, where ma-jority appointments so far are cleared by the HRDministry, which advertises the positions beforeshort-listing and selecting candidates.

But that is set to change to advance the cause oftransparency in appointments to top institutes. IIMboards are also proposed to be restricted in size,with HRD ministry describing them as “unwieldyand huge”. The membership will be limited to 13(currently over 20 or so.

The boards are proposed to be reconstituted postJanuary 2010, the deadline which the governmenthas given to IIM directors to present their viewson the constitution of the collegium, which willbe empowered to recommend names of boardmembers and directors to the government for fi-nal selection.

For the institutes to beat competition, autonomyis the key, feel the directors. Sibal agrees, but witha rider: “We are for IIM autonomy, for letting go,but let’s not forget that the primary responsibilityof all education systems is national.”

» Twenty two years and Rs 960 crore later, thegovernment plans to spend another Rs 15,000 croreover the next 10 years to make the Ganga riverpollution free. This decision was taken at the meet-ing of the first National Ganga River Basin Au-thority, chaired by Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, on October 5, 2009.

It has been decided to take up the cleaning of theGanga river on a mission mode. Mission CleanGanga will ensure that by 2020 no untreated mu-nicipal sewage and industrial effluents flows intoGanga. At present, the sewage treatment capacityis about 1,000 mld, against 3,000 mld sewage be-ing generated in the towns along Ganga. Nearly75% of the pollution in the Ganga is on account ofmunicipal waste.




The costs will be borne by both the Centre andthe States. There were disagreements over the shar-ing, with States asking for 100% central funding.An alternate funding pattern of 70% by the Cen-tre and 30% by the States has been suggested. Afinal decision on the sharing ratio will be workedout by the Planning Commission, in consultationwith the States and Central government.

In the meantime, the World Bank has offered aloan of $1 billion for the mission.

» India has notified its separationplan in the IAEA, which formallyseparates India’s civilian and militarynuclear establishments. The plan,which was announced in March

2006, has passed muster at IAEA and India’s safe-guards agreement is now officially operational. This is likely to help in the negotiations for thereprocessing agreement that is currently under waybetween India and US. But more than that, thiswill silence many non-proliferation critics in thenew Obama-led US administration who had beenlooking at the delay in notifying the safeguardsagreement as an example of Indian dithering.

» Pakistan has succeeded in its efforts to compelthe Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) toappoint a special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir.At its meeting in New York earlier in first week ofOctober 2009, the OIC also stated that it supportedpeople of Jammu and Kashmir in realisation of theirlegitimate right to self-determination in accordancewith relevant UN resolutions and aspirations of theKashmiri people.

A fuming India reacted sharply to the OIC action,dubbing it as interference in the internal affairs ofthis country. “Jammu and Kashmir is an integralpart of India and it is our firm position that theOIC has no locus standi in matters concerningIndia’s internal affairs,” the External Affairs Min-istry said in a statement.

Condemning the OIC move, New Delhi said in-herent in its statements and actions on the issue ofJammu and Kashmir was a complete inability tounderstand India’s position.

» On October 14, 2009, India signedan agreement for civil nuclear co-operation with Argentina, makingit the seventh nation to ink such anaccord with this country after New

Delhi secured a waiver from the nuclear suppliers’group (NSG) to undertake nuclear commerce.

The agreement for cooperation in the peaceful usesof nuclear energy was among the 10 accords signedby the two countries following wide-ranging talksbetween Prime Minister Manmohan Singh andvisiting Argentine President Cristina Fernandez deKirchner, during which they desired to establishstrategic partnership between their two nations.The two leaders discussed a wide range of bilat-eral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.

A joint statement issued by India and Argentinaafter the visiting dignitary concluded her talks withIndian leaders said the two sides shared the viewthat civil nuclear energy could play an importantrole as a safe, sustainable and non-polluting sourceof energy in meeting rising global demands forenergy.

The other nine accords signed between the twosides include: exchange of letters for business visaproviding for five years multiple entry gratis visafor a single stay of 90 days; programme of coopera-tion in science and technology for 2009-11; MOUbetween ONGC Videsh Limited and ENARSA;MOU on sports cooperation; MoU on cooperationin the field of trade promotion and technologytransfer in international trade; and agreement onouter space.

The two sides also agreed on the need to give anew impulse to multilateral negotiations in the areaof disarmament, especially weapons of mass de-struction.




» Without getting into the re-cent spat over ArunachalPradesh, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and ChinesePremier Wen Jiabao talked peace

and harmony on October 24, 2009, in a meetingon the sidelines of the India-ASEAN summit inThailand.

The visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal also didnot figure in the discussions between the two lead-ers who instead focused on the positives in the re-lationship and agreed that "differences" should notimpede cooperation between the two countries.

In an effort to ameliorate the recent strain on thebilateral relationship, Prime Minister ManmohanSingh even proposed that the two countries ob-serve the 60th anniversary of the establishment ofdiplomatic ties in a "fitting manner". He also putstress on the trade and economic relations, callingit a "vital pillar" in the bilateral relationship.

This exchange at the highest political level cameafter an escalation in the rhetoric between the twosides over the border issue. China had objected toMr Singh’s trip to Arunachal Pradesh for the As-sembly elections. This had elicited a strong reac-tion from New Delhi which had reminded Beijingthat Arunachal remained an integral part of thecountry. New Delhi had further pointed out thatin the democratic system leaders visited Stateswhere elections are taking place. This was furtherfollowed by India protesting against China’s in-volvement in projects in Pakistan Occupied Kash-mir, which New Delhi pointed out was also dis-puted territory. New Delhi had earlier also objectedto Beijing’s practice of issuing visas to people fromJammu and Kashmir on loose sheets.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen recalled Mr Singh’sremark about both sides having enough space todevelop and cooperate and added that there aresufficient areas in the world for India and China toenhance such cooperation. The Chinese premierfurther suggested that the Joint Economic Groupshould hold early consultations and that Chinawould work with India to handle the matter ofthe growing trade deficit.

India also rejected China’s objections to DalaiLama’s Arunachal visit in November while mak-ing it clear that the Tibetan spiritual leader wasnot allowed to indulge in political activities on theIndian soil. The issue figured when Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpartWen Jiabao were seated next to each other at agala dinner hosted by the Thailand Prime Minis-ter for leaders attending the ASEAN and East Asiasummits.

» Amidst tension over political is-sues, India and China have signed anagreement to cooperate on ways tofight climate change. Moving closer,at least on an issue concerning the

entire world, the two neighbours announced set-ting up of a Joint Working Group (JWG) to ex-change views concerning international negotiationson global warming. The memorandum of agree-ment (MoA) assumes significance in the run-up tothe Copenhagen climate summit. Developed anddeveloping countries are at loggerheads over whoshould reduce emissions of greenhouse gases thatare causing climate change.

India and China are in the same bloc as the Groupof 77 countries in climate negotiations.

The MOA acknowledges that climate change andits adverse effects are a common concern of man-kind and need to be addressed through interna-tional co-operation. It emphasises that the UNFCCand its Kyoto Protocol were the most appropriateframework for addressing climate change.

The agreement also reaffirms the principle of com-mon but differentiated responsibilities, in particu-lar that developed countries should take the leadin reducing their greenhouse gases and providingfinancial resources, technology transfer and capac-ity building support to developing countries.

» Egypt has invited India to build a ‘India indus-trial zone’ in the Suez development area for set-ting up joint ventures with Egyptian companies.Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, in his meet-ing with commerce and industry minister Anand




Sharma in Cairo, offered to designate an area forsetting up of the zone exclusively for Indian com-panies.

India could gain significantly from the offer as itwould give it easier entry to the European andAfrican markets, since Egypt has preferential ac-cess to both.

The Suez development area, located on the north-west coast of the Gulf of Suez, has lower bureau-cratic barriers to business formation and providestax incentives. The law gives more incentives forpriority areas, such as infrastructure, auto parts,software, oil field services, tourism and manufac-turing. The terms and conditions of investing inthe proposed India zones and the tax benefits toindustry are to be worked out.

Indian companies have, till now, invested about$750 million in 40 projects in Egypt. India has asignificant presence in the IT and automobile sec-tor with companies like Wipro, Satyam, Mahindraand Tatas having invested in the country.

» In a speech delivered at the inau-guration of the Anantnag-Qazigundrail link in Anantnag, Prime Minis-ter Manmohan Singh focused largelyon ties with Pakistan and the ear-lier success of cross-LoC initiatives.

Targeting domestic audience and also sending outa message to Pakistan, Mr Singh prefixed his offerof peace with the rider that Islamabad must bringperpetrators of terror attacks to justice and destroyterror camps. "For a productive dialogue it is es-sential that terrorism must be brought under con-trol," he said.

Mr Singh said India would put pressure on Paki-stan to curb the activities of the elements engagedin terrorism against India. "If they are non-Stateactors, it is the solemn duty of the government ofPakistan to bring them to book, to destroy theircamps and to eliminate their infrastructure. Theperpetrators of the acts of terror must pay theheaviest penalty for their barbaric crimes againsthumanity," he said.

With Pakistan now being targeted by terrorism,Mr Singh said there could be no compromise withthe ideology of terror. "It is a misplaced idea thatone can reach a compromise with the ideology ofthe terrorists or that they can be used for one’sown political purpose. Eventually, they turn againstyou and bring only death and destruction. The realface of the terrorists is clear for the people of Paki-stan to see with their own eyes," he said.

He maintained that India was ready to discuss hu-manitarian issues whose “resolution requires thecooperation of Pakistan”. "We are ready to discussthese and other issues with Pakistan. I hope that,as a result, things will be made easier for our trad-ers, divided families, prisoners and travelers," hesaid.

» President Pratibha Patil visited UK andCyprus from October 27 to 31, 2009.During her visit to UK she received theBaton of the Commonwealth Gamesfrom the Queen of England at a cer-

emony in the Buckingham Palace in London onOctober 29.

This was the third State visit by an Indian Presi-dent to the UK. The first was by President S.Radhakrishnan in 1963 and the second by Presi-dent R. Venkataraman in 1990. This was also thefirst State visit after the commencement of the stra-tegic partnership between India and the UK in2009.

During her visit, President Patil interacted withQueen Elizabeth of England as also met PrimeMinister Gordon Brown, leader of the oppositionDavid Cameron and leader of the Liberal Demo-cratic Party Nick Clegg.She also addressed in London a business meetingorganised by the UK India Business Council.

» The President visited Cyprus on an invitation ofthe then President of Cyprus Papadopoulos whovisited India in April 2006. The last time an IndianPresident visited Cyprus was 21 years ago, againR. Venkataraman, whereas all former CyprianPresidents have visited India during their term ofoffice.




Cyprus has always supported India on all crucialissues and expressed its understanding on ournuclear tests in 1998 and supported Indian posi-tion during Kargil war, too.

India is planning a major headway in generatingenergy through solar sources. It has approachedCyprus which has made considerable headway inthat direction to develop solar power plants rang-ing between one MW and 50 MW. An MoU wassigned in the presence of visiting Indian PresidentPratibha Patil for providing solar power to India.

The MoU states that NORASCO, UPTURN ofDALCO company and CASE NEUBERG of theCASE group of companies will supply solar photo-voltaic systems, kits and technology for solar en-ergy projects in India. It also states that CASE willbe Indian technology and engineering partners forsetting up turnkey solar energy plants in India andNORASCO will provide project finance and invest-ments of EURO 50 million in solar energy sectorin India between 2010 and 2015. The Photovol-taic Technology Group of University of Cyprus(PVT Group) also signed an MoU with NORASCOwhereby PVT Group will act as a technology con-sulting partner for developing solar energy projectsand solar energy education in India.

» Jharkhand presents an examplewhere lack of political stability wasallegedly exploited by a group of leg-islators led by former Chief Minis-ter Madhu Koda to fatten them-selves. The Enforcement Director-

ate, on October 9, 2009, slapped charges underPrevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) onthe former Jharkhand CM and three of his formerCabinet colleagues for allegedly amassing assetsrunning into several hundred crores—between Rs700 and 800 crore according to the preliminaryestimate.

Koda, the first Independent to become Chief Min-ister and now a member of Lok Sabha supportingUPA government, has been charged with havingbusiness interests of diverse kinds—cement, steel,auto, power, agro and tourism. His alleged invest-ments, estimated at Rs 300-400 crore, are just as

widely spread—from Singapore to Thailand toDubai to Liberia.

The Centre’s plans to take the battle to Naxaliteshinge on a strategy that will see Central and Stateforces acting in concert to first wrest control ofareas long considered “Red” zones and then facili-tate expeditious restoration of civil administration.

» The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) hasokayed a comprehensive approach to Maoist ex-tremism with a "clear and hold" doctrine at thecentre of the anti-Naxal "action plan". Moving fromthe current largely reactive stance which saw oc-casional jabs into Maoist hinterland, forces will pro-actively engage the ultras.

The view in government is that the offensive can-not be delayed much further. With alarming signsof an emboldened Maoist leadership targeting ur-ban areas beyond their known forest hideouts—arrested politburo member Kobad Gandhy wasincharge of operations in cities like Delhi, Mumbaiand Pune—the government is gearing for actionand bracing for casualties.

The strategy for acting on intelligence tip-offs andhitting at naxal bases deep in Red "liberated" zoneswas put to trial in September 2009 in Chhattisgarh’sDantewada. The Maoists were routed but the haz-ardous forests and complete lack of infrastructureunderlined how difficult it would be for a force tooperate "behind the lines". It is felt that the surgein Central and State forces after the Assembly elec-tions in Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh andMaharashtra can be sustained if the local popula-tion is convinced that Maoists can be defeated andthat the forces will not leave in a hurry. This wouldstrengthen intelligence collection and provide theadministration with valuable allies as even fencesitters opt for the winning side.

The Centre plans to deploy 70,000 paramilitarypersonnel—drawn from CRPF, ITBP, BSF, SSB,CoBRA and Nagaland Armed Police—in States likeJharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bengal, Bihar,Maharashtra and Andhra.




» On October 3, 2009, Irish voters strongly en-dorsed the European Union's Lisbon Treaty-16months after their first vote rejecting it plungedEU reforms into deadlock.

About 67% voted "Yes". Irish Prime Minister BrianCowen hailed a "clear and resounding" endorse-ment. Political leaders across the EU have alsowelcomed the result. The President of the Euro-pean Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said it wasa great day for Europe. He urged the leaders ofPoland and the Czech Republic-the only othercountries yet to ratify Lisbon Treaty-to sign thetreaty as soon as possible.

The treaty-which is aimed at streamlining deci-sion-making in the 27-nation bloc-cannot take ef-fect until all 27 member States ratify it.

Ireland was the only EU member State to hold areferendum on Lisbon Treaty, though there havebeen calls for referendums in several countries.

Irish opinion is thought to have swung behind the"Yes" vote this time because of the severity of theeconomic downturn, as well as the legal "guaran-tees" on Irish sovereignty that the EU pledged af-ter the first referendum.

The legally binding "guarantees" state that LisbonTreaty will not affect key areas of Irish sovereignty,such as taxation, military neutrality and familymatters such as abortion-significant issues in 2008'scampaign in Ireland. But they have not yet beenattached to the treaty.

The treaty is intended to make EU institutionsbetter suited to the enlarged bloc of 27. But oppo-nents see it as part of a federalist agenda that threat-ens national sovereignty.

» While China figures among theonly five countries across the worldthat improved their Human Devel-opment Index (HDI) rankings,

2009, by three or more points, India continues tocut a sorry figure, slipping six points (from the lastcompilation) in the latest UNDP Human Develop-

ment Index. Overall, however, India made progresson HDI, improving its value from 0.556 in 2000 to0.612 in 2007.

As against a standing of 128 in the 2008 UN Hu-man Development Report, India has been ranked134th among the 182 nations surveyed. The sliprepresents poor progress on some indicators ofpeople’s well-being, including life expectancy, lit-eracy, school enrolment and GDP per capita.

In China (ranked 92), along with Colombia, France,Peru and Venezuela, which improved theirrankings by at least three points, the fillip has beenattributed to increase in incomes and life expect-ancy. China, Colombia and Venezuela’s progresshas also been driven by improvement in educa-tion. The report concludes that disparities in lifeexpectancy in the world can range up to 30 years.Despite progress in the last 25 years, disparities inpeople’s well-being in rich and poor countries con-tinue to be unacceptably wide.

2009 report represents the most extensive cover-age ever of 182 countries. As for rankings, the topthree ranked countries in the HDI are: Norway,Australia and Iceland. France rejoined the top 10countries after dropping down for one year, whileLuxembourg fell from the top 10.

» As the Bangkok round of talks on climate changein October 2009 came to an end, the rift betweenthe developed and developing countries appearedto have deepened and widened. The developedcountries would like to abandon the Kyoto Proto-col, in favour of a new agreement, while the de-veloping countries would like an extension of theProtocol. There has been virtually no progress onthe issue of finance and mid-term emission reduc-tion targets for industrialised countries.

Developing countries have opposed scrapping theKyoto Protocol as it clearly places an obligation ondeveloped world to deepen emission cuts and toprovide finance to help developing countries toadapt to and mitigate climate change. The UnitedStates and Australia were among the 42 countriesthat sought to junk the Protocol. They argued that




the world had changed since the 1990s, and keep-ing in mind the ground realities a new agreementneeds to be crafted. This agreement would requireall countries to take on emission cuts. This movewas resisted at Bangkok, with the developing coun-tries under the G-77 umbrella argued that such aproposal would violate the Kyoto Protocol and theBali Action Plan.

The bright spot in Bangkok was the unveiling ofan aggressive emission reduction plan by Norway.The Scandinavian country had previously commit-ted unconditionally to slashing emissions 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Its new pledge isto cut greenhouse gas output by 40 per cent if aninternational agreement is reached in Copenhagenin December 2009.

» Global terrorism with spe-cial focus on Afghanistandominated the ninth trilateralmeeting of the foreign minis-

ters of Russia, India and China (RIC) that concludedin Bangalore on October 27, 2009. The ministers emphasised the need for the threecountries to assist Afghanistan in fighting terror-ism, ensuring security, restoring peace and stabil-ity and building a democratic and pluralistic Af-ghanistan.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of two sig-nificant bilateral issues—meeting between PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh and China’s PremierWen Jiabao at Hua Hin, Thailand and trade,economy, scientific and climate meeting with Rus-sia in Moscow on October 21—and resolved tojointly fight terrorism and narcotic trafficking withmention also being made on diplomatic settlementof Iran nuclear issue and denuclearization of theKorean peninsula.

The demand for a greater role for India in theUnited Nation affairs has gained momentum onceagain. Russia and China made a strong bid forIndia’s status in international affairs be accordedimportance.

» Trade Ministers from SAARCcountries have decided to fast-tracknegotiations on liberalising the ser-vices market within the region, amove that will enable freer move-ment of people within the region and

give a boost to investments in areas like tourism,financial services and telecom.

Services could be incorporated into the South AsiaFree Trade Agreement (SAFTA) soon.

SAARC Ministers, who met in Kathmandu in Oc-tober 2009, also decided to work on reducing thenegative list of items that are not covered underSAFTA to make the free trade agreement more"meaningful". SAFTA is an agreement for elimina-tion of tariffs on goods traded within the SAARCregion, and was signed in January 2004.

» The leaders of 53 countries just concluded a cli-mate change summit a mere few days beforeCopenhagen. Hosted in Trinidad and Tobago on27-29 November, 2009 , the Commonwealth Sum-mit aimed to make progress on the negotiationsthat will come to a head in Copenhagen beginningDecember 7. One key outcome is a figure for a pro-posed "Copenhagen Launch Fund," of $10 billion ayear, described by President Nasheed of theMaldives as recognizing in part the plight of islandnations in coping with climate change.

The Commonwealth countries assembled are com-prised of many former British colonies, and the vastmajority of these countries are severely threatenedby climate change. These are countries like theGambia, Cameroon (pictured in this photo),Guyana, and Kiribati.The countries represented inTrinidad make up one third of the world's popula-tion.

» Indian companies are way ahead in the region indisclosing their carbon emissions and setting per-formance targets for mitigation of green house gases(GHG) emissions, according to a latest survey ofthe Confederation on Indian Industry (CII).




The total GHG emissions reported by the respondents of carbon disclosure project (CDP) 2009 stands at68.9 million metric tones (MT), which is almost double the GHG emissions reported in the last two years.

As many as 68 per cent of the respondents to CDP 2009 have reduction plans in place for slashing eithertheir energy or GHG emissions as compared to 61 per cent last year while 84 per cent of the companies donot consider existing regulatory mechanisms as a risk but see it as an opportunity for triggering long terminvestment in energy efficient technologies. However, these companies do acknowledge that in future,the regulations may affect their businesses.

The report says 82 per cent of the companies acknowledge physical risks such as damage, disruption anddisplacement due to climate change as some of the major challenges that could result in financial losses.

This year a larger number of companies have not only started disclosing information on their GHG emis-sions, but they are also adopting more accurate methodologies for doing so and are providing categoricalbreak-downs of their GHG emissions.Close to 63 per cent of the companies disclosed their GHG emissions in CDP 2009, which is almost doubleas compared to only 33 per cent in CDP 2008.

This is the third edition of the CDP India report since it was first published in 2007 and is based on the top200 companies in India based on market capitalisation.


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» Two more Australia legends, Clarrie Grimmettand Greg Chappell, were formally inducted intothe ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the tea inter-val on the second day of the second Test betweenAustralia and West Indies at the Adelaide Oval.

ICC President David Morgan presented commemo-rative cap to Grimmett’s son Victor while CricketAustralia Chairman and ICC Director Jack Clarkepresented the cap to Greg Chappell who was thendriven around the outfield in a motorcade to allowthe crowds to show their appreciation.

The Hall of Fame, run in association with the Fed-eration of International Cricketers’ Associations(FICA), recognises some of the truly great playersfrom cricket’s long and illustrious history.

The late Grimmett was one of Australia’sgreatest spin bowlers and took 216 wick-ets in 37 Tests, including five wickets inan innings 21 times and 10 wickets in amatch on seven occasions.

Born on Christmas Day 1891 in Dunedin, NewZealand, Grimmett went to Australia on a shortworking holiday in 1914 and ended up spendingthe next 66 years of his life in the country andplaying cricket for it. Grimmett holds the recordfor reaching the fast 200 Test wickets. He claimedhis 200thwicket in his 36th Test. The next quick-est to reach the milestone of 200 Test wickets, isfellow Hall of Famer Dennis Lillee who accom-plished the feat in his 38th Test.

SPORTS

Making his debut for Australia at the age of 33,Grimmett is only the second bowler (the otherbeing India’s Dilip Doshi) to have made his Testdebut after the age of 30 and still end up with 100or more Test wickets. Doshi took 113 wickets in33 Tests.

Also inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fametoday was Greg Chappell whose elder brother Ianwas inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fameduring the Ashes series in England in July.

Born in August 1948, Chappell appeared in 87 Testsfor Australia, scoring 7,110 runs with 24 centuriesand 31 half-centuries. He captained Australia in48 Tests, winning 21 Tests.

Chappell is one of the four batsmen tohave scored centuries in his first and lastTests. He scored 108 on his debut againstAustralia in Perth in 1970 and signedoff on his illustrious career by hitting

182 against Pakistan in Sydney in 1984. The otherthree batsmen to have achieved the rare distinc-tion are Mohammad Azharuddin of India, ReginaldDuff and William Ponsford (both Australia).

In 74 ODIs, Chappell made 2,331 runs at an aver-age of 40.18 while in 321 first-class matches hescored 24, 535 runs, including 74 centuries. He wasnamed Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1973.

Section -4 ( SPORTS )



» Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir was given the International cricketer and Interna-tional batsman award 2009. While his partner and Delhi mate was awarded the best OneDay International batsman. Gambhir, the winner of CEAT International cricketer and In-ternational batsman award also received a cash prize of Rupees 5,00,000. India''s ErapalliPrasanna was given the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the game.

Sri Lankan batsman Thilan Samaraweera, who was injured severely in the Lahore terror attack, was giventhe Spirit of Cricket award, while his teammate Ajantha Mendis was named the ODI bowler of the year.

Team Australia won the CEAT International cricket team award and a cash prize of Rs 10,00,000. Austra-lian fast bowler Mitchel Johnson was awarded the International test bowler award.

» Former under-10 world champion Sahaj Grover has become India’s youngest InternationalMaster, winning the final round game against the higher-rated Nicolas Clery to finish fifth inthe International Open Chess meet, held in France. Sahaj played in a strong field comprisingseven Grandmasters and eight International Masters.

(ICC Awards)» Cricketer of the Year: Mitchell Johnson (Australia).» Test Player of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India).» One-Day Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India).» Twenty 20 International Performance of the Year: Tillekratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka).» Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan).» Spirit of Team Award: New Zealand.» Emerging Player of Year: Peter Siddle (Australia).» Associate and Affiliate Player of Year Award: William Porterfield (Ireland).» Women Cricketer of Year: Claire Taylor (England).

» The ICC World ODI Team of the Year is (in batting order): Virender Sehwag(Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh(Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, wk), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), NuwanKulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak). 12th men: Thilan Thushara(SL).

» The ICC World Test Team of the Year: M.S. Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), GautamGambhir (Ind), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind),Thilan Samaraweera (SL), Michael Clarke (Aus), Shakib Al Hasan (Ban), MitchellJohnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), 12th man: Harbhajan Singh (Ind).




Though just 2288 as per ELO ratings of September2009, Sahaj gained the required points to scale hisrating well past the 2400 mark. The youngster hadmade his maiden Grandmaster norm in.

» Australia were crowned the 2009 ICC Champi-ons Trophy winner after Shane Watson’s unbeatencentury guided the defending champions to a six-wicket victory over a depleted New Zealand in thelow-scoring final match played at Centurion, SouthAfrica.

» New South Wales Blues from Australia, alreadythe most successful domestic outfit in cricketinghistory, added another feather in its cap by pull-ing off a 41-run victory over Trinidad and Tobago.The final was played at the Rajiv Gandhi Interna-tional Stadium, Hyderabad. The Blues clinicallyhemmed in the West Indians, and in forcing themto hit out of trouble, ensured they were bundledout for 118 chasing 160. The victory made the Bluesricher by $2.3 million while T&T pocketed $1.5million.

» Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagiwreaked havoc with seven scalps be-tween them as India Red won theTrophy, steamrolling MahendraSingh Dhoni and his India Blue team-

mates by seven wickets in an extremely lop-sidedfinal played at Nagpur.

» Rest of India clinched their fourth successiveIrani Cup, defeating Mumbai on the basis of firstinnings lead, after the fifth and final day of thematch was called off due to wet ground conditions.

» In India-Australia One Day series Praveen Kumarand Harbhajan Singh’s batting heroics took Indiaagonisingly close to a sensational win before thehosts slumped to a four-run defeat against Austra-lia in the first match, played at Vadodra. Chasing292, India scored 288 for 8 in the allotted 50 overs.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni struck a breath-taking 124 as India put up an all-round display to

crush Australia by 99 runs in the second one-dayerto level the seven-match series 1-1, at Nagpur.Dhoni smashed a 107-ball 124 to guide India to arecord 354 for seven, the highest against Austra-lia.Yuvraj Singh and captain Mahendra Singh Dhonidealt the Australian bowling attack with a mix-ture of caution and aggression to power India to asix-wicket victory to go 2-1 up in series at theFerozeshah Kotla, New Delhi.

The Queen's Baton Relay, one of the traditions ofthe Commonwealth Games, will travel 1,70,000 kmand pass through 70 Commonwealth nations be-fore reaching India for the Games starting on Oc-tober 3, 2010.

It will take the Queen's Baton 240 days to com-plete the epic journey to all of the other 70 na-tions. On its 100-day tour in India, the baton willvisit all the capital cities in India's 28 States andseven Union Territories and many other cities alongthe way, covering well over 20,000 km.

On arrival at the opening ceremony, the Baton willhave travelled in excess of 190,000 km over a 340-day period. This will make the Queen's Baton Re-lay one of the longest relays in the history of theCommonwealth Games.

The Baton's run in India for the 2010 Delhi Gameswill be twice as long as the Manchester andMelbourne relays, which lasted for 50 days each.

Queen's Baton Relays have been the curtain raiserto every game since Cardiff, Wales, in 1958. TheQueen's Baton for 2010 Delhi Games containsQueen Elizabeth II's 'message to the athletes.'

President Pratibha Patil joined Britain's QueenElizabeth II to launch 2010 Commonwealth Gamesbaton relay at a gala Indian ceremony inBuckingham Palace. The 51-year-old tradition tookplace on the last day of Patil's three-day State visitto Britain, with the Queen formally bidding fare-well to Patil at the Palace's Grand Entrance.

The Queen’s Baton for the 2010 CommonwealthGames is a delicate mix of aesthetics and technol-




ogy with an in-built location tracking system anda camera capable of sending images to the Gameswebsite.

Built with Aluminium and Gold, this piece of arthas Queen Elizabeth’s message engraved on a min-iature 18-carat gold leaf that is symbolic of theancient Indian palm leaf ‘patras’, using laser tech-nology. Designed by Michael Foley of Foley de-sign, along with Titan Industries and Bharat Elec-tronics, it has an embedded system to receive SMSessent by enthusiasts from across the world. TheseSMSes can be viewed when baton is docked on itsspecial stands or on the website of the Common-wealth Games.

» In Singapore Open Amateur GolfChampionship Rashid Khan, India’stop-ranked amateur, walked awaywith the title. He shot a last roundof two-under 70 to take the title

ahead of overnight leader Thai VasinSripattranusorn and Singapore’s Jerome Ng.

» Jeev Milkha Singh has added yet another featherto his well-adorned cap. The Indian golf pro hasbecome the first Indian to tee up at the 16-manVolvo World Match-play Championships inCasares (Spain). The Championship was held inSpain for the first time in its history, moving fromWentworth Club to the magnificent 7,439-yardcourse at Finca Cortesin. The total prize moneyfor the event was $ 3,250,000.

» India rounded off their impressive tour of Canadawith a 3-2 victory over the home side in their fi-nal game to win the seven-match hockey Test se-ries 6-0, at Tamanawis Park.

» World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu shoneat the 2009 Asian clay shooting championship. Hebagged the gold medal in the trap event in Almaty,Kzakhstan. He shot 121/125 in the qualificationround and in the finals he came up with a score of19/25 to claim the top position.

Mansher Singh won the bronze in the event witha score of 113+21. The team consisting of Manavjit(121), Mansher (113) and Anwer Sultan (109) tookthe silver with a total score of 343/375. The teamgold was won by Kuwait with a score of 346.

Indian shooters finished the event with four goldmedals, two silver and a bronze. Three gold werewon in individual category by Ronjon Sodhi(double trap), Sangram Dahiya (double trap jun-ior) besides Manavjit.

» Competing in the backdrop of a se-ries of dope flunks, Indian weightliftersbegan their Commonwealth Senior

and Junior Championship campaign in Penang,Malaysia, with a bang by winning six gold and foursilver medals.

Out of the six gold, three were won by the seniorlifters while the remaining were pocketed by thejuniors.

Indians won both gold and silver in senior men's56 kg and 62 kg. In 56 kg, V.S. Rao clinched theyellow metal while V. Vinoth Kumar came sec-ond.

In senior men's 62 kg, Rustam Sarang won goldwhile Omkar Otari pocketed the silver.

In senior women's 48 kg, Soniya Chanu won gold.Bangaru Usha bagged gold in junior women's 48kg, while compatriot Deeksha Gaikwad won sil-ver in the same event.

In junior men's 56 kg, Sukhen Dey, who createdhistory by becoming the first Indian male lifter towin a medal at the global level by winning bronzein World Junior Championships in Romania,bagged the gold, while Swapnil Ghagare won thesilver.

K. Ramesh Kumar finished first in junior men's 62kg to complete the tally of six gold and four silverfor Indians.




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» British author Hilary Mantelhas won the Booker Prize, 2009for her novel Wolf Hall, whichhas been hailed by the judges as

an ‘extra-ordinary piece of storytelling’. She took20 years to decide whether to write it. Her otherwell-known books include a memoir Giving up theGhost (2003), and Beyond Black (2005).

» The Indira Gandhi Award for National Integra-tion for the year 2008 has given to an eminent jour-nalist of Jammu & Kashmir, Mr. Balraj Puri for hisyeoman work in promoting National Integrationin the country on the 31st of october, the Martyr-dom day of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The award whichis given for upholding National Integration andUnderstanding consists of five lakh rupees in cashand a citation.

» Mining Journal magazine pre-sented Lifetime AchievementAward 2009 to Mr Anil Agarwalchairman of Vedanta Group on De-cember 2nd 2009. The Mining Jour-nal announced their Outstanding

Achievement Awards for 2009. Mr Anil Agarwalwas given this award for his contribution in themining industry.

Vedanta group is the first Indian group that hasobtained a primary listing on the London StockExchange, in 2003, and within a short period oftime moved into the select band of FTSE 100 Met-als & Mining Majors, signifying the well craftedand visionary approach of Mr. Anil Agarwal. Inno time, Vedanta Group's market capitalization in-creased from USD 1.9 Billion to USD 11 Billion.

» India's music genius and Oscaraward winner A.R. Rahman has beennominated in two categories at the2010 Grammy Awards for his SlumdogMillionaire soundtrack. The Mozart of

Madras has been nominated in the best soundtrackfor motion pictures and in the best song for mo-tion picture for 'Jai Ho' .

The 52th edition of the Annual Grammy Awardswill be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeleson Janyary 31, 2010. This is the first time that the44-year-old music director has been nominated forthe Grammys.

Written by lyricist Gulzar, 'Jai Ho' was sung bySukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer,Vijay Prakash and Rahman himself. Rahman wontwo Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire and the bestoriginal score award at the 2009 Golden GlobeAward.

Meanwhile, Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khanalso got a Grammy nomination in the best tradi-tional world music album category. Khan has beennominated for the album "Ancient Sounds", a joint-venture with Iraqi oud soloist Rahim Alhaj.

» Leading NRI entrepreneur Maneck Dalal, whohas played a major role in promoting Indian artand culture in the UK, has been awarded the AsianLeadership Award for his contribution towardsheritage.

Dalal, who has been chairman of the BharatiyaVidya Bhavan UK for the last 36 years, was pre-sented the award by British lawmaker Keith Vazin London.

Surinder Mongia, a leading NRI entrepreneurspecialising in consultancy and design services for

Section -5 ( AWARDS )



aviation projects with offices in Canada, UK, Fin-land and India, won the Asian of the Year Award2009.

Vijay Goel, partner at Singhania & Co, one of thelargest Indian law firms here, received the AsianLeadership in Europe award for his "significant rolein promoting Indo-European business relations.Dalal was educated at Cambridge University andcalled to the bar in London in 1945. At 29, hestarted Air India in the UK in 1948 and becamethe airline's first Regional Director. In 1973 hebecame the Indian government's Adviser for Tour-ism and Civil Aviation. In 1997, Dalal was con-ferred the Order of the British Empire by TheQueen.

Other recipients of the awards included Alpesh BPatel, who was awarded the Asian Leadership inIndo-UK Business Relations, and Indya Aujla, whoreceived the Asian Leadership in Harmony awardamong others.

Patel is the founder of Praefinium, an internationalasset management company and has been ap-pointed by the UK government as a 'Dealmaker'responsible for India.

Ravi Gidar, who bought his first pharmacy at theage of 23, and is now managing director of GoldCare Homes, was awarded the Asian leadershshipin Community Health Care award.

Nina Amin, a chartered accountant and Tax Part-ner with KPMG, one of the "Big four" professionalservices firms in the world, was awarded the Asianleadership in Diversity for her contribution to sharevaluations for tax purposes.

» India’s most beautiful and enig-matic voice from bollywood is indeedthat of Lata Mangeshkar. She is of-ten addressed as India’s Nightingaledue to the flawless rhythm in hermelodious voice. This magical owner

of the outstanding voice box has been honouredwith the French Award ‘Legion D honneur.’ Thehonour was bestowed in Mumbai on the 3rd ofDecember 2009.

She is the second Indian to be given this presti-gious award by France. The first bollywood star tobe given this honour was none other than AmitabhBachchan.

Lata Mangeshkar has been lending her voice to theIndian screen goddesses since she was a teenager.Her undulating voice has been heard for more than60 years in various languages ranging from Hindi,Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, and Gujarati etc.She is one figure which shall go down in the his-tory of Indian Cinema as one of the greatest leg-ends to have been born.

» Bangladesh Prime Minister SheikhHasina is the recipient of the presti-gious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,Disarmament and Development for2009 for her contribution to the pro-motion of democracy and pluralism.

Sheikh Hasina embarked on her “Vision 2021”,aimed at transforming Bangladesh into a middle-income country by eliminating poverty and ineq-uity, after being elected as prime minister last year.

Section -5 ( AWARDS )

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Volume 9

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