India raises defence budget outlay by 34%

NEW DELHI: India has increased defence budget by 34 % to Rs.1,41,703 crore.

The stand-in Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has presented the interim budget in the Lok Sabha for the next fiscal.

Mukherjee said the increased plan expenditure for defence this year would be Rs 86,879 crore. Last year’s plan expenditure was only Rs 73,600 crore, thereby providing an increase of Rs 13,279 crore this year.

“Mumbai attacks have given a new dimension to cross-border terrorism. In this context, I propose to raise defence allocation to Rs.1,41,703 crore,” said Mukherjee.

Afghanistan to take part in US review: Karzai

KABUL: US President Barack Obama has accepted Kabul’s request to be part of a major review of US strategy in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai and a US envoy said Sunday.

Karzai said he asked Obama by letter for Afghanistan to have a role in the review, which is under way amid concerns about worsening security in this country seven years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime.

US envoy Richard Holbrooke brought the message to Karzai on Saturday that Obama had accepted, the Afghan leader told a joint press conference. A delegation from Afghanistan chaired by Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta would travel to Washington “and will be working jointly with the US government in the review of the strategy in the war on terrorism,” he said.

Holbrooke arrived late Thursday and met with a range of Afghan officials and politicians, international military commanders and diplomats before holding talks with Karzai late Saturday. He has held similar wide-ranging meetings in Pakistan and is due to continue his tour of the region in India.

India’s NTPC, NPC plan 2,000 MW nuclear power unit

MUMBAI: Indian state-run firms NTPC Ltd and Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd have agreed to form a joint venture to build 2,000 megawatts nuclear power plant in India.

NTPC, India’s largest power utility, will hold 49 percent stake in the venture, it said in a statement over the weekend. Nuclear Power Corp will hold the majority 51 percent stake. It did not disclose financial details, but Indian newspapers estimated investment in the join venture would total 150 billion rupees ($3 billion) over eight years, with the two firms bringing in 50 billion rupees as equity.

India signed a nuclear pact with the United States last year, giving New Delhi access to civilian nuclear fuel and technology for the first time in three decades, and opening up a potential multi-billion dollar market to global trade.

The country hopes to generate 20,000 MW through nuclear power by 2020, boosting supply for its power-starved economy, which currently faces shortages of up to 16 percent at peak hours. Existing nuclear power capacity stands at about 4,000MW.

Kasab’s life under threat: Indian media

MUMBAI: The life of Ajmal Kasab, lone surviving gunman captured during the 26//11 attacks on Mumbai, is in danger, Indian media reported Tuesday.

Kasab has been kept under strict security in the jail while the final charge sheet leveled against him is likely to be presented before the court by end of this month, reports said.

Al-Qaeda warns India of new attacks

DUBAI: A top Al-Qaeda commander thought to have died last year has released a video warning India of future terror attacks similar to those in Mumbai, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian Al-Qaeda leader based in Afghanistan, also called on the people of Pakistan to overthrow their president and government, it said.

Yazid was thought to have died in the Bajaur tribal region of Afghanistan in August when Pakistani helicopter gunships carried out an offensive in the area, a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

"India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan," he said in the video.

"The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan," he added, referring to the defeat of the Soviet army in the 1980s by US-backed Afghan fighters.

He also referred to India's "humiliation" over the Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen killed 165 people during a 60-hour siege on the country's financial capital in November.

The bespectacled, bearded Yazid has been named by US officials as Al-Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan and was identified by the 9/11 Commission as the group's chief financial manager.

Yazid is said to be a close aide of Osama bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Indian troops martyr one innocent youth in IHK

SRINAGAR: A large number of Kashmiris took to streets at Maisuma in Srinagar against subjecting of a shopkeeper to brute force by Indian troops here on Tuesday.

Pitched battles were witnessed between the demonstrators and the troops. People took out a procession from Medical College Srinagar to Lal Chowk to protest the anti-people policies of the puppet administration.

Indian troops, in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one innocent Kashmiri youth during a siege and search operation at Kalihand in Doda district.