Devas Goes To The US

Strange news of the day:  Devas Multimedia lobbying with the US lawmakers.  

Devas hired US lobbyist to manage ISRO deal

Devas Multimedia, whose satellite communications contract with the Indian government-owned Antrix was scrapped after a controversy, has been lobbying here to push forward its case before the US President and other lawmakers and has paid USD 140,000 so far for the same.

As per the disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, lobbyist firm Hogan Lovells US LLP began lobbying on behalf of Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia before the American lawmakers in June 2011.

Hogan Lovells said in its latest quarterly disclosure report that it was paid USD 60,000 during the fourth quarter of 2011 (October-December period) for lobbying on behalf of Devas.

Prior to this, Hogan Lovells had earned USD 60,000 in the third quarter and another USD 20,000 in the second quarter of 2011 as lobbying-related income from Devas, its disclosure filings with the US Senate showed.

Hogan Lovells has been registered as a lobbyist of Devas Multimedia in the US since June 6, 2011.

India Will Continue Gas Ties With Iran

Nice to see that we've finally grown up.  

India wants to keep getting oil from Iran: Pakistani daily

India intends to keep importing oil from Iran and it appears that Indians, and even Chinese, will explore paying Tehran ''with gold, the Japanese yen or even in part with their own national currencies'', said a Pakistani daily.

An editorial in the News International Monday said that the US wants Pakistan to drop the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project altogether. 

"It has stepped up efforts to lobby Pakistan to abandon not only the IP gas pipeline project but also liquefied natural gas purchases from its western neighbour in return for cheaper gas from the US," the editorial added.

Pranab Mukherjee confirms that: India won't scale down its petroleum imports from Iran: FM

India, which imports 12 per cent of its oil from Iran, will not scale down its petroleum imports from Tehran despite US and European sanctions against the Islamic republic, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

"It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Mukherjee told reporters here.

Speaking at the end of a two-day visit aimed at wooing US investment, Mukherjee yesterday said: "Some other countries, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the other Gulf countries they also contribute but Iran contributes substantially."

"We (India) imports 110 million tonnes of crude per year. We will not decrease imports from Iran. Iran is an important country for India despite US and European sanctions on Iran," the finance minister said.

India No To US' Iran Sanctions - Why So Late?

After kow-towing to the US for the better part of UPA-I and II terms, we seem to have suddenly decided to go against its wishes.  India rejects US embargo, to import oil from Iran

NEW DELHI: Even as China cuts down drastically its oil imports from Iran, which is soon likely to run into fresh sanctions from the US and the EU, India on Tuesday declared it will continue to import crude oil from the country. 

Brushing aside US sanctions that prevent financial institutions from doing business with Tehran and its central bank, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai stated that India will only accept sanctions imposed by the UN. 

Refreshing, but what took us so long?  And can we get going on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline while we still have the gumption?

US against local content requirements in renewables

US against local content requirements in renewables

The company's President, Mr James Brown, said that the solar industry was “in a bit of a turmoil”. In an obvious reference to the Chinese, he said that some players, “desperate to find a market for their products”, were bringing down prices aggressively.

Other players, equally desperate to find a market, bring Daddy along with them for help. to arm-twist the client. 

India: US' Natural Partner

That's right. India is the US' natural partner. No one else. The US loves India whom it has chosen from among the more than hundred fifty odd nations on earth in order to bestow on it this great primeval relationship! Of course, there is the teenie-weenie wish list that they expect us to fulfill. But the wish list is not related to the relationship in any way, no siree! We are naturals.

Maintaining that the U.S. viewed India as a “natural partner,” the Pentagon official indicated Washington's wish list. It includes purchasing more American-origin defence equipment, “realistic” joint exercises and stepped up visits by Indian armed forces officers.

Nuclear Liability: Do As We Say, Not As We Do

Siddarth Varadarajan writes in The Hindu:

The irony is that even as it has pushed the regime of legal channelling on the rest of the world, the U.S. system of economic channelling of liability allows tort claims as well as an unrestricted right of recourse for the operator. That is how, for example, Metropolitan Edison, the operator of the Three Mile Island reactor, sued its supplier, Babcock & Wilcox, after the 1979 accident.

What is it that makes the U.S. so hypocritical?

He also considers some alternatives that India could consider in terms of making a liability law:

In a recent article, Evelyne Ameye has confronted the flawed logic of channelling, making a safety-cum-engineering argument in favour of suppliers remaining liable for accidents their products may cause. (“Channelling of nuclear third party liability towards the operator,” European Energy and Environmental Law Review, 2010). This can be done in two ways. Liability for an accident can still be channelled on to the operator but his right of recourse in the event of supplier negligence is left unrestricted. The Russian Federal Act on Atomic Energy, for example, does not impose a limit upon the operator's right of recourse. (Alexander Matveev, “The Russian approach to nuclear liability,” International Journal of Nuclear Law, 2006). South Korea's liability legislation also allows operators to recover damages from suppliers in the event of negligence. A second way would be to allow victims to sue suppliers for fault-liability under tort law so as to win damages over and above what the operator pays through strict liability. Thus Germany, a party to the Vienna Convention on nuclear liability, entered a reservation stressing its right, under national law, to hold persons other than the operator liable for nuclear damage. Besides, several conventions on environmental damage — such as the 2003 Kiev Protocol on industrial accidents in transboundary waters — now explicitly provide for strict as well as fault-liability to run side by side.

US Fingers In All Our Pies

It is so touching that the US wants to put its fingers into all our pies. Defence, nuclear technology, and now broadband. Look at this: US to work with India on National Broadband Plan:

The US has said that it would collaborate with India in evolving a National Broadband Plan.

“We have initiated talks through the ICT joint working group last week in New Delhi. We have fixed a time-bound schedule to discuss things. The two sides will soon identify points of contacts for one-to-one interactions,” Mr Philip L. Verveer, Ambassador (US Coordinator for International Communication and Information Policy), said.

So sweet of them. Of course, if it results in a few dollars flowing to their business, nothing like it:

The [ICT] group comprised top Government executives and representatives from businesses.

Who Is The Nuclear Liability Bill For?

Prithviraj Chauhan has denied that there is US pressure to pass the Nuclear Liability Bill, while at the same time admitting that 'only US companies' will be affected. Now ET claims that the US ambassador is doing a sales job for the Bill among opposition leaders. So who really wants this Bill?

We Learn

At least, that's the message I take away from this news:

Hopes revive on pipeline deal

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: In a major initiative that could culminate in the clinching of the 2,300 km. trans-border Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora is likely to visit Pakistan in February first week to sort out issues relating to the transit fee.

Highly placed sources on Tuesday said Pakistan’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon invited Mr. Deora to pay a visit for sorting out issues pertaining to the project during their meeting in London late last week.

The Pakistan Minister told Mr. Deora that Islamabad was ready for talks some time in the first week of February. Both discussed the possibility of settling the transit fee issue and also the price revision clause sought to be introduced in the contract by Iran.

In a related development, Iran has suggested February 12 or 13 as dates for holding talks with India and Pakistan in Tehran to settle the $7 billion deal.

The U.S. is pressuring India not to go ahead with the project.

Wake Up

Wake up our foreign policy est., 'cos the world is changing:

New Delhi needs to think hard about the shifting templates of the Middle East’s geopolitics. All indications are that Russia and China anticipated, months ahead, the inevitable collapse of the U.S.’ containment policy toward Iran. How such wisdom eluded our government, remains a question mark. If the U.S decides now to march towards a constructive engagement of Iran — which seems likely — where does that leave the UPA government? The latter must first unscramble the omelette.

That is to say, it must rapidly deconstruct what it precipitated under American pressure — and then try to rebuild. Not an easy task.

The LNG deal with Tehran negotiated by the National Democratic Alliance government has all but perished following the UPA government’s somersault under American pressure at the International Atomic Energy Agency over the Iran issue. No one talks anymore about our grandiose plans of a “north-south” transportation corridor via Iran. The gas pipeline project languished while the government used one lame excuse after another to drag its feet.

The State Bank of India’s curb on normal trade with Iran is completely illogical. Evidently, Washington pressured us. While doing so, the Bush administration kept us in the dark about the NIE sailing into view. Now, what sort of a “strategic partnership” with the U.S. — and what sort of a “friendly” President in the White House — are we talking about? Washington took our government’s naiveté for granted.

It is plain common sense that India has a congruence of interests with Russia and China in optimally exploring the primacy that Iran places on Asia for its energy exports. That is why the Iran pipeline becomes crucial. That is precisely why Washington wants to stifle the project. The spectre that haunts Washington is the emergence of an Asian energy club involving Russia, Iran, China, and India. The U.S. apprehends that such an Asian grouping — first proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2003 — will disrupt its strategy of global domination. Through its lukewarm attitude towards the Iran pipeline, the UPA government has tacitly collaborated with the U.S. global strategy.

Military-Industry-Democracy Complex

The US wants to sell us arms and get a pie of the $40 billion we give away to other countries currently. But they have to clothe the whole desire in the garb democracy:

"By reaching out to India, we have made the bet that the planet's future lies in pluralism, democracy and market economics," said Nicholas Burns, the State Department's No. 3 official, "rather than in intolerance, despotism and state planning," an apparent reference to communist-ruled China.

No, Mr Burns, you have made the bet that there is no way China is going to buy any arms from you, and that India, on the other hand, will quite possibly do so. Especially as you have so many levers to manoeuvre us into doing so. Russia at least talks only about friendship when it sells us its wares. No hypocritical statement linking everything to the chimera of democracy.

And look at this:

"A significant Indian defense purchase from the United States ... would be a great leap forward and signal a real commitment to long-term military partnership," he added in the November/December issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

A real commitment won't do, we need to show them some moolah too.