Industrialised countries are nowhere near meeting their legal obligations to combat climate change and are trying to muddy the waters by saying the global problem cannot be tackled unless developing countries do more, says Shyam Saran, India's chief negotiator at the climate treaty talks.
As the world stumbles towards a climate treaty scheduled to be inked this December in Copenhagen, a key preparatory meet is on in Bonn (June 1-12). Negotiators from around the world are poring over the "negotiating text" expected to lead to the treaty.
Saran, who is the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change, said as the negotiating text stands now, "some parts of it do not correspond to the parameters laid down by the Bali Action Plan and several elements go beyond the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It should not include such formulations".
"The current exercise is not to renegotiate the UNFCCC but to see how we can enhance it" to tackle climate change more effectively, Saran told IANS in an interview.
Climate change - caused by an excess of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - is already affecting farm output, leading to more frequent and more damaging droughts, floods and storms and raising of the sea level, with India among the worst-hit countries.
Saran said, "When the UNFCCC talks of sustainable development (SD), it does so because SD includes adaptation to climate change. If you try to change that to a 'low-carbon development path', you reduce SD to mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. You cannot have mitigation as the predominant element" in a treaty.
"The Copenhagen package must be comprehensive and balanced, where mitigation and adaptation is supported by finance and technology transfer to developing countries," Saran said. "So anything that strays from this is of concern to us."
Saran said there were many suggestions from industrialised countries that diverged from the UNFCCC, "giving the impression that we are negotiating a new treaty. Any country which wants to do that should use the procedure laid down in the convention. This is very important for us because UNFCCC is the only agreed legal text to address global climate change".
According to India's chief negotiator, any quantitative term in the proposed treaty, such as keeping global warming within two degrees Celsius or limiting the concentration of the main GHG carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million, "should be accompanied by clear detailing of equitable burden sharing.
"You cannot just do the arithmetic and say developing countries must play their part. Science cannot trump equity."
Saran hoped that by the end of the Bonn meeting the negotiating text would be "far more balanced" than it was now.
Talking about the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by which all industrialised countries except the US are legally bound to reduce their GHG emissions by five percent during 2008-12, compared to 1990, Saran said: "Most developed countries are nowhere near meeting their targets."
"That is why they are trying to muddy the waters," Saran told IANS. "The latest is Japan saying the baseline should be shifted from 1990 to the current date. All these are efforts to get away from the legal document and to gloss over the fact that they are not meeting their legal targets.
"And when that happens, what is our confidence in the commitments you make for a period 10 years from now? Then you can very well turn around and say the original target was unrealistic."
What was the status of the commitments made by industrialised countries for the 2008-12 period, Saran wanted to know. "This is the issue being repeatedly brushed under the carpet, the one that the western media ignores," he said.
India's chief negotiator was unhappy that there had been no progress in Bonn "in terms of indicating (GHG emission reduction) targets for 2015 or 2020, nor any clarity on having 1990 as the base year, except from the EU (European Union)".
Saran, who will be in Bonn next week to lead the Indian delegation, emphasised that these points of view were not of India alone, but of all developing countries, which negotiate climate treaties jointly under the umbrella called G77 plus China. The Group of 77 (G77) countries actually has over 130 countries as members.
For 25 years, Raj Kumari has brought home abandoned children and showered them with love, care and education. Never mind that the eunuch community, to which she belongs, finds itself at the receiving end of Indian society's prejudices.
The 49-year-old has picked up female and male infants from the roadside over the years and given them shelter in her house in a neighbourhood for eunuchs in the Ritudih area on the outskirts of the steel city of Bokaro.
"These children are my family. People call them abandoned and I call them my children. I have picked up infants left in the bushes or garbage boxes and have been looking after them," Raj Kumari told IANS.
Originally a resident of Siwan district in Bihar, she arrived in Bokaro in 1984 for the work traditionally performed by eunuchs in India - singing and dancing at social celebrations.
That's when she found a blind couple begging and brought them home. Soon after, she found a female infant, who had been abandoned next to some roadside bushes. She took the baby in and that was when she began giving shelter to abandoned children.
Three of the girls brought up by Raj Kumari are now married. Of course, she ensured that these girls were educated up to secondary school level before being married. Raj Kumari even chose the grooms herself and helped them monetarily to set up home.
"I do not know who gave birth to us. We know that Raj Kumari is everything to us. She not only provided shelter but also ensured a life of dignity for us. She is like god for discarded children like us," said Rinku Devi.
Rinku Devi was the first baby girl whom Raj Kumari brought home. The two other girls who are married are Kaushallya Devi and Sarshwati Devi.
Seven boys stay with Raj Kumari today and all of them go to school. She wants Shubham, the youngest boy residing with her, to become an engineer. She also offers help to leprosy-affected people and distributes blankets and clothes to them.
On how she earns a living, Raj Kumari said: "I am still involved in my traditional profession. I earn enough to take care of the children."
Raj Kumari dances at celebrations for weddings or the birth of a child, but she does not want any of her children to join her profession.
"It's the children's plight that inspires and compels me to work even at this age," she said. Raj Kumari wants to adopt more abandoned or orphaned children, but financial constraints prevent her from doing so.
Committed to women's empowerment and rooting out corruption from society, Raj Kumari has also set up a Self-Help Group with housewives in her neighbourhood and named it "New Jan Kalyan Mahila Samiti". On a few occasions, she has cremated the unclaimed bodies of children.
And, of course, the blind couple still stays with her.
"Apna liye to sabhi jeeta hai, lekin doosron ke liye jeene me kuchh alag hi mazza hai, (All live for themselves, but there is a unique pleasure in living for others)," Raj Kumari said.
An adventure sojourn during the day and the evenings filled with luxury and indulgence. Yes, that's the new mantra travel operators across the country are offering to woo domestic as well as international travellers.
The trend which has become much sought after by the jet-set corporate honchos is now becoming common with adventure seekers looking for that adrenalin rush with some pampering thrown in.
"From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. we give our guests the spice of adventure that they want - while from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. we pamper them with the finest high-end luxury products and services," Sanjay Basu, from The Far Horizons, an international tour operator, told IANS.
"An average man is looking to be pampered with tailor-made holidays with high attention on details along with unparalleled and memorable soft adventure activities," said Basu, whose group charges $200-300 for a two night-three day package per person.
The Far Horizons has its own super luxury Dera resorts in Rajasthan and its clients comprise Indians as well as foreigners.
According to Mandip Singh Soin, vice president, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India: "The amalgamation of luxury with soft adventure owes its existence to two reasons."
He said: "One reason is that those who love to indulge in luxury are now beginning to enjoy an occasional trek, jeep safari through the woods and mountains that adds to their experience. Secondly, those who are pure adventure fanatics now have the opportunity to upscale their comfort level. Overall it is a better and healthy experience."
The preferred sectors in India for a 'luxurious adventure' are Rajasthan, Kerala and Uttarakhand, Soin said.
However, some of the most preferred destinations are Velavadar black buck national park and Gir national park, both in Gujarat.
The other draw is Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, Dera Sanddune resort in Thar and luxury camps in Sunderbans in West Bengal.
According to many travel planners, such packages are specially favoured by corporates and are now being followed by others too.
"There is a growing interest amongst the corporates about the dual package of high-end vacations with adventure activities. They use this concept to promote team building amongst their employees," an official from the Corbett Foundation told IANS.
"Our clients can experience the typical jungle ambiance but with a panache. Multi-cuisine restaurants, fully stocked bar, hot and cold swimming pools, spacious cozy rooms along with visits to the wildlife centres, tiger safaris and river rafting in the river Kosi are big on demand," he added.
The Neemrana Group of Hotels in Rajasthan offers an aerial zip-line experience - an airborne adventure, that flies you high in the sky along super-strong steel cables suspended between hills-tops which costs Rs.1,500 for an individual.
What adds to the thrill of the zip is its location - in the midst of a mountainous landscape etched with royal fortresses.
Another fairly new concept is hot air ballooning.
Skywaltz is India's first commercial and only licensed hot air balloon company and offers tie-ups with hotels for passenger rides in Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur, Ranthambore in Rajasthan and in Delhi on special requests.
The ride can cost Indians Rs.8,000 to 12,000, while the same would cost foreign tourists $200-300.
"We offer our guests the opportunity of flying in man's first flight while experiencing leisure and comfort," Gagan Kapoor, business development manager Skywaltz, told IANS.
But, apart from these adrenaline-rush adventures, resorts are also promoting soft adventures.
Ooty-based Kurumba Village Resort offers soft adventures and treks with local tribals along with the high-end stay.
"In the past few years we have had the opportunity of making our guests appreciate nature's infinite sounds and sights while piecing together various resorts which would retain the glory of the nature and provide ultra modern amenities to our guests," Sanjay Awatramani, the resort's spokesperson said.
History was made in India Wednesday when diplomat-turned-politician Meira Kumar, 64, became the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha - the lower house of parliament - with MPs cutting across party lines to elect the Dalit leader.
The newly elected members of the 15th Lok Sabha watched in rapt attention as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, who were engaged in a bitter war of words until a month ago, together led Meira Kumar to the podium.
Political leaders from various parties paid rich tributes to Meira Kumar, who had quit the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1985 to join the Congress, a party of which her father, the late Jagjivan Ram, was a revered leader.
"In many ways it is a historic event as it is for the first time that a Congress woman member of house has been unanimously elected as speaker," Manmohan Singh said, evoking thunderous applause in the splintered 545-member Lok Sabha.
Party president Sonia Gandhi proposed Meira Kumar's name for the post. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seconded it.
Member after member welcomed the speaker. She returned the compliments, saying it was "a "historic decision" to elect a woman to the coveted post and thanked everyone for being chosen for the honour.
She assured the house that she would be judicious and give all members equal opportunity to speak.
Meira Kumar told a press conference later: "It was a historic decision to elect a woman speaker. I am deeply honoured that I have been elected the first woman speaker of the great and vibrant democracy that we have."
Later, when journalists asked her if men should be scared now that India has a woman president and a speaker, she laughed: "Well, I think so."
The prime minister said he hoped the "charm" and "grace" of the new speaker would "calm frayed tempers that sometimes happen in the house", evoking widespread laughter from MPs.
The Lok Sabha speaker's status in the Warrant of Precedence is next only to the president, vice president and prime minister. Meira Kumar is the 16th speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Advani said he did not have any idea that Meira Kumar would be elected the speaker when she was sworn in May 22 with 18 other cabinet ministers of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
"I read (in newspapers) that your voters are disappointed with your election as speaker but I feel you will be able to serve the people better in this position than as a minister," he said.
Finance Minister Mukherjee, leader of the lower house, said: "Your experience as a diplomat, political organiser, administrator in government and long standing in parliament and association with this house will help you render your responsibility as best as possible... in the real temple of democracy."
Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta said Meira Kumar's election marked a new chapter in India's parliament.
Meira Kumar belongs to the Dalit - formerly untouchable - community, one reason why political parties across the spectrum in the hung house rushed to support her.
The new speaker got down to her new job even as senior leaders of various parties were busy singing paeans to her and wishing her success. This was when two leaders from her home state of Bihar exchanged heated arguments in the house.
In her mild-mannered but firm way, Meira Kumar expunged the remarks made by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Yadav, who had a spat when the former was giving his congratulatory speech to the new speaker.
"Nothing of this will go on record," the speaker said.
A double graduate of Delhi University, Meira Kumar joined the IFS in 1973 and served in the Indian missions in Spain, Britain and Mauritius.
She took to politics in 1985 when Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister. She was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Karol Bagh constituency in the national capital.
After one defeat, she shifted to Sasaram in Bihar -- a constituency that her father Jagjivan Ram, a long-time confidant of Indira Gandhi, represented for years in the Lok Sabha.
Meira Kumar, while taking the compliments of one and all, exhorted the Lok Sabha MPs to put the elections behind them and address the social and economic problems facing the country.
United News of India reports:
Sixty four-year-old Meira Kumar is the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the world's largest democracy.
She is also the second Dalit to hold this position, the first being the late G M C Balayogi.
By opting for a woman as a Speaker for the first time, the Congress hopes to take the message of social and woman empowerment into the rival camp.
The Congress decision to have a woman Speaker is a clear signal that the 124-year-old party is bent on getting passed the long pending bill seeking to give 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies.
The women's quota bill was one of the major electoral promises in the Congress manifesto for the 2009 general elections. The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the first UPA government towards the fag end of its term early this year.
The election of Ms Kumar was unanimous with the Opposition also supporting her candidature.
She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 general elections from the Sasaram seat in Bihar, where the Congress could manage to get only two out of the 40 seats. She has earlier represented Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the Lok Sabha.
Ms Kumar is soft-spoken but a firm pursuer of her social missions.
Daughter of late Deputy Prime Minister and prominent dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram and Indrani Devi, Meira Kumar gave up a career in the Indian Foreign Service which she had joined in 1973 on the request of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to enter politics and claim her father's legacy.
She was born in Patna on March 31,1945. Her husband, Manjul Kumar is a Supreme Court lawyer and they have three children, Anshul, Swati and Devangna, all married.
Poet, painter, sportsperson and a social activist, Ms Kumar was educated at Indraprastha College and Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is a graduate in law and holds a Masters in English.
Ms Kumar successfully contested for the Lok Sabha seat from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh in 1985. She was a member of the 11th and 12th Lok Sabha, re-elected with a record margin from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar.
She was inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2004.
Ms Kumar has actively participated in a number of movements for social reforms and protection of human rights.
Besides being a Minister, she has served on various important posts in Parliament including as Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs, General-Secretary, All India Congress Committee (AICC), Member, Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Public Accounts Committee.
Ms Kumar has also been closely asociated with a number of social and cultural organisations. She is President and Founder of the All India Samta Movement (also its founder). She has been on the Governing Body, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 1987-92, and on the Central Advisory Board of Education, 1977-90 and 2004 onwards.
She has served on the National Commission on Population, and the National Integration Council.
She was Chairperson, National Drought Relief Committee of the Congress party during the century's worst drought in 1967. She had launched a Family Adoption Scheme under which drought-affected families were adopted by affluent families.
Ms Kumar has been committed to human rights and abolition of the caste system. She has visited a number of places where atrocities were committed against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Ms Kumar's hobbies include painting and writing poems some of which have been published. She was the editor of Pavan Prasad--a monthly magazine (1980-92).
Thirty-two-year-old Manaka Singh remembers being discriminated against as a child by the elders of her family who thought she was possessed and inauspicious because of a birthmark on her neck.
"People still have myths associated with these birthmarks and I had to face a lot of discrimination because some people in my family thought I was possessed and was inauspicious," Singh said.
"This discrimination forced me to get rid of this mark because it was affecting my mental state and social interactions," she added.
According to Anup Dhir, senior cosmetic surgeon at Apollo Hospital, some other myths associated with these birthmarks are that they are caused when an expecting mother sees something strange, or experiences a great deal of fear. None of this is true, of course.
Kaya skin clinic's medical head Snehal Sriram agrees with Dhir: "Some people believe that birthmarks are caused by anything done or not done during pregnancy. There is no truth to these old wives' tales about these 'stains' being caused by something the mother did or ate."
Though the real cause behind birthmarks is still unknown, they are mostly harmless and painless.
As Dhir explains, a birthmark is a blemish on the skin formed before birth. It is a vascular lesion (abnormal tissue) and looks like soft raised swelling on the skin, often with a bright red surface, and some may look a bit like a strawberry or may be a black or a brown mole.
"They are a benign overgrowth of blood vessels in the skin, and are made up of cells that usually form the inner lining of blood vessels. Some birthmarks show up soon after a baby is born. Most birthmarks are obvious at birth. Some kinds of birthmarks fade or go away as a child gets older. Others stay the same or get bigger, darker, or thicker," Dhir told IANS.
Another reason for having these birthmarks is to have extra colour (melanin pigment) in that part of skin, says Mumbai-based cosmetic surgeon Meenakshi Agarwal.
Different types of birthmarks are vascular (such as strawberry hemangiomas, port-wine stains, and stork bites) and pigmented (such as moles, cafe-au-lait spots, and Mongolian spots).
"Hemangiomas are caused by many tiny blood vessels bunched together and vary in severity whereas port wine stains are caused by abnormal development of blood vessels and last a lifetime," Agarwal told IANS on phone.
A lot of people shy away from social gatherings to avoid unwanted attention because of these marks.
Pragya Khanna, 18, is very conscious about the birthmark on the right side of her cheek. She hides it with her hair whenever she goes out and tries to avoid meeting new people who ask her about this black patch.
"Every time I meet a new person, his attention is automatically directed towards my cheeks and the worst part is that either they will stare at it or else will ask me obvious questions like what is it? It does get embarrassing for me. Hence I either try to hide it or else avoid meeting new people," Khanna said with a bit of irritation.
"I am planning to get rid of this because my confidence level is already shattered and I don't want to live my life with people staring at my face," she added.
The good news is that most of these marks can be treated with laser therapy.
"These treatments can be painful and it is very important to know the benefits and risks involved in it. Success rate varies according to type of mark. Though lasers are generally successful on improving them but at times complete cure may not be possible," Dhir said.
According to experts, one should take a few precautions after undergoing treatments.
"After the birthmark has been treated with surgery or laser therapy, avoid scratching the treated area. It's also important to restrict exposure to the sun for several weeks after surgery. Until the treated areas are completely healed, use sunscreen regularly," Sriram said.
Sometimes there is no water in the campus for days altogether and we have to queue up with buckets in front of the tankers which, mind you, is not a rare occasion
The water trickles in for only an hour a day and those who need more queue near tankers, bucket in hand. This is not a scene from a slum or a deprived village, but in the campus of the premier Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in south Delhi.
While water shortage is a problem throughout the year in JNU, the last two months when the mercury level has been soaring has been especially difficult for the students, teachers and others staffers who stay on campus.
Reshma Hasan, a student doing her M.Phil in political science in JNU, said that although they suffer throughout the year, the problem aggravates during summers when the water consumption increases.
"The water crisis has been there for ages. Ask us how much we suffer throughout the year. But the severity of the problem increases with the onset of summer. Usually, we get water for two hours twice a day but during summers the water supply is cut to just an hour and that too in low pressure," Hasan told IANS.
With temperatures soaring and no long term solution in sight, the shortfall is compensated by water tankers. So professors and their family members queuing up with buckets is not a rare sight in JNU.
A faculty member said: "Sometimes there is no water in the campus for days altogether and we have to queue up with buckets in front of the tankers which, mind you, is not a rare occasion."
What irks most of the university residents even more is that while JNU remains waterless, surrounding areas like Katwaria sarai do not seem to be facing the problem to the same extent.
"It is extremely annoying because we know that the neighbouring areas like Katwaria Sarai have regular water supply, even during summers, while we face such crisis everyday," said Anusuya Verma, a student.
According to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) - the government agency responsible for supplying water in the capital - the main reason for water scarcity in JNU is the fast increasing population of Delhi, and everybody needs water.
DJB spokesperson Sanjam Cheema told IANS: "Delhi is expanding at an exponential rate while our water supply is fixed and limited. We cannot manufacture water but it is our endeavour to efficiently manage the limited resource (water) and fulfil a humanitarian goal - water for all."
Cheema said that they are doing all they can to counter the problem by building underground reservoirs to store water underground and promote rainwater harvesting.
Much to the dismay of the JNU residents, she refused to acknowledge the water crisis there, saying: "Isn't an hour's water supply enough for everyone?"
If the Manmohan Singh government appears to have made a faltering start, the blame falls on the unavoidable exigencies of coalition politics. However, of all its partners, it is the regional ally from Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which must be held responsible for creating most of the problems.
Its antics started with its ailing leader, M. Karunanidhi, leaving Delhi in a huff and returning to Chennai with his band of relatives and party members because he was unhappy with the ministerial berths being offered to the party.
Although the differences were subsequently sorted out, it left a bad taste in the mouth. What is more, it is the DMK whose reputation suffered the most because Karunanidhi's demands showed that the party has been reduced to virtually a family concern.
In the end, however, only one of the ageing patriarch's sons, M.K. Azhagiri, was sworn in along with his grand-nephew, Dayanidhi Maran, but the fact that his daughter, Kanimozhi, opted out suggested that there was a row within the family before the final decision was taken.
That the family drama hasn't ended was also evident from Kanimozhi's absence during Thursday's swearing-in ceremony.
While the DMK evidently did not come out of the episode smelling of roses, neither did the Manmohan Singh government. The latter's acquiescence in the appointment of the former telecommunications minister, Andimuthu Raja, who did not really excel with his performance and made some dubious decisions, in the same position disappointed those who had presumed that the prime minister would make a new beginning free of the scandals of the past.
The only consolation was that another controversial former minister, T.R. Baalu, belonging to the DMK, did not find a place in the ministry. But the fact that his name was mentioned as a possible deputy speaker underlined the unwarranted influence which the DMK wields over the Congress at the national level.
It is noteworthy that Baalu's earlier portfolio has gone to the Congress' Kamal Nath, who is known for his efficiency. He is expected, therefore, to clear the mess left by Baalu in the surface transport ministry, which handles the important national highways project. However, to cap a period of unedifying haggling, Maran went on record to say shortly after being sworn in that the DMK should have had more ministers.
Since the Congress, with its 200-plus seats, now holds the whipping hand in the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA), one would have expected it to be more stern with greedy allies. But it probably did not want to illtreat the DMK lest it lost ground to its equally demanding rival in Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which was earlier regarded as a possible winner.
In contrast to the DMK, the other allies exhibited exemplary behaviour, accepting the Congress's prerogative as the No. 1 party to allocate portfolios. As expected, Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress became the railway minister. As the leader of a one-person party, she did not seem to favour anyone else from her party becoming a cabinet minister. So, six from her party became ministers of state.
The Congress has also been quite generous towards the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) considering that it gave its leader, Sharad Pawar, all the portfolios he held in the last cabinet - agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution. This gesture was somewhat surprising since Pawar did not seem totally loyal before the elections when he hobnobbed with the Third Front. His name was also proposed by the Shiv Sena, among others, for the prime minister's post.
Not surprisingly, when Pawar entered the room in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's house where the UPA's first meeting was being held, he first took a chair away from the big guns before his party member, Praful Patel, escorted him to a more prominent place.
Patel, however, suffered a relegation as he was made a minister of state, though with independent charge, despite being a full minister before. Another minister of state from the party is Agatha Sangma, who, at 28, is the youngest member of the cabinet. Her induction was also surprising since her father, former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, had been cozying up to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the elections and had made a political issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins.
Against the background of the reports that the Congress intends to part company with the NCP in Maharashtra before the assembly polls in the state, the relations between the two parties at the centre will be watched closely.
The choice of the Congress ministers and their portfolios was along expected lines except for the selection of S.M. Krishna as the external affairs minister. The former Karanataka chief minister and Maharashtra governor may initially feel a little out of his depth in his new, unaccustomed position, especially at a time of turmoil in the neighbourhood with Pakistan imploding, Sri Lanka still coping with the bloody aftermath of a civil war and the Maoists in Nepal uncertain about their role in a democracy.
Otherwise, the continuation of Pranab Mukherjee in finance, P. Chidambaram in home and A.K. Antony in defence was expected. Mukherjee, the Congress's man for all seasons, will undoubtedly focus on the revival of the economy at a time of recession while Chidambaram will carry on his task of strengthening internal security, with which he was entrusted after 26/11.
The arrival of the aerial-borne radar system from Israel soon after Antony's reappointment as the defence minister shows that he remains engaged in his job of boosting the strength of the country's armed forces.
Among those who fell by the wayside was the former human resource development minister, Arjun Singh, a sulking heavyweight who became an embarrassment for the government with his penchant for striking out on his own on sensitive policy matters, such as reservations for the backward castes in higher educational institutions. It was no secret that he was driven by resentment over Manmohan Singh's elevation to the prime minister's post.
His place has been taken by the eminent lawyer, Kapil Sibal, who is expected to restore a semblance of sanity in the ministry, which needs to pay greater attention to primary education.
Similarly, Ghulam Nabi Azad is expected to bring the healthy ministry back on track after the antics of the former minister, Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK, derailed it. The latter's sole concern was to deprive premier institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences of their autonomy.
Another prominent omission was of former law minister, Hansraj Bhardwaj. Perhaps his suspected role in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) giving a clean chit to Italian businessman, Ottavio Quottrocchi, whose name is related to the Bofors gun purchase scandal, was not appreciated because it gave the Congress, and especially the Gandhi family, a bad name.
For all the drama before the two swearing-in ceremonies, Team Manmohan has a settled look, suggesting that it should be able to act more purposefully this time than during the last five years when the Congress was heavily dependent on pushy allies like the Left. It also has the satisfaction of knowing that its principal opponent, the BJP, is too demoralised to create any problems in the immediate future.
The prospects for the government, therefore, are reasonably bright.
Indian foreign policy will be pro-active in pursuit of its trade and economic ties with all countries in an interdependent world, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Friday.
"Diplomacy, trade and economy go together in an interdependent world. As a critical component of governance, the foreign policy is tailored to serve our national interests," Krishna, 77, told IANS in an exclusive interview at his home in the city's upscale Sadashivnagar.
On his first visit to the tech hub after assuming office a week ago, Krishna said India had to keep pace with developments across the world, as nothing was static in diplomacy and one had to prepare for any eventuality.
"As one of the fastest developing countries, India has an important role in the geo-politics of the world. We need to respond appropriately, keeping in view our larger interests," Krishna said.
Hesitant to elaborate on his assessment of the latest developments in South Asia and the rest of the world, Krishna said India would continue to maintain its independent foreign policy regardless of the situation prevailing either in the neighbourhood or elsewhere.
"It is only a week since I have been in this job. Various developments during the last four-five days have kept me occupied to respond accordingly. My views are not different from the stated policy," Krishna noted.
Reiterating that resumption of composite dialogue with Pakistan depended on its response to India's persistent demands to dismantle the terror networks and their infrastructure, Krishna said the culprits of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage would also have to be brought to justice for creating a conducive atmosphere for talks.
Asked the significance of his new posting to his home state, Karnataka, and its knowledge economy driven by the burgeoning IT and biotech sectors, the state's former IT-savvy chief minister said that he, as the foreign minister, would strive to work for all states and sectors of the economy.
Krishna said he was planning to visit Bhutan and Nepal soon on his first overseas trip as external affairs minister.
On India-US bilateral ties, Krishna said it was too early to comment but he was looking forward to the visit of secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India.
Though Krishna had planned to spend the weekend in the city, he said he was going back to New Delhi Friday night as the prime minister had scheduled a cabinet meeting Saturday.
Krishna, however, declined to respond when told that he was the oldest minister in the Manmohan Singh government or that he was the first to hold a high-profile cabinet post from Karnataka. He is a Rajya Sabha member from the state.
A Fulbright scholar in George Washington and Southern Methodist Universities in the US during the 1960s, Krishna was minister of state for finance in the Indira Gandhi government 1980-84. He was also Maharashtra governor from 2005 to 2008.
Krishna is also credited for putting Bangalore on the world IT map by attracting global investors and multinationals to set shop in the state during his tenure as chief minister from mid-1999 to early 2004.