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India News Network Digest    Sat, 23 Jan 93      Volume 2 : Issue 11

Today's News Topics:

        John Major to mix trade and politics in India visit
        Indian riots, Airline strike hit tourism
        Radical Hindus arrested in rally against illegal Bangladeshis
        Srilankan Rebels accuse India over death of leader on ship
        Pakistan might fence border with India
        India introduces pollution masks for commuters
        "Long March" to highlight child slavery in India
        US faults China, India on human rights
        ICMR report on AIDS in India
        India receives proposals from 28 foreign companies
        Country's population rises to over 838 million
        Presidency College turns 175
        Cricket: Indian squad for 1st Test

Editorials & Commentary:

        India chooses to remain silent over Pak Nuclear reports
                                       - By N V Subramanian  [ Part I ]

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Date: 22 Jan 1993 07:56:12 -0800 (PST)
From: "Sukhjinder Singh Bajwa" <[e-mail]>

* MAJOR TO MIX TRADE AND POLITICS IN INDIA VISIT
  By David Storey
    LONDON, Jan 21, Reuter - Prime Minister John Major will mix business
with politics on a visit to India next week, trying to push British
commerce and clarify Western interests in the shifting strategic balance in
the sub-continent. Major, who meets Indian leaders including Prime Minister
P.V. Narasimha Rao on Monday, will be the chief guest at India's Republic
Day ceremonies on Tuesday, a rare honour usually accorded a Third World
leader. He is taking with him a delegation of 17 top businessmen, a sign of
British enthusiasm for finding new investment and trade opportunities in
the country with the world's second-biggest population as it relaxes its
controls on foreign involvement.
    British officials said the businessmen were hoping to hear reassurances
from the Indian government both about the economic reforms and about its
commitment to stability after a recent outbreak of factional violence that
left hundreds dead. "They want to be sure any investments would not become
victims of violence," one official said. Among the delegation is the chief
executive of British Aerospace Plc which is hoping for a big deal to provide
India with nearly 100 Hawk military training aircraft.
    Major was expected to make clear Britain's concern about India's
nuclear weapons. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd was diplomatically rebuffed
when he urged India to contribute more to regional nuclear non-proliferation
during a visit last year. Neither India nor its uneasy neighbour Pakistan
have signed the nuclear non-proliferation agreement and Britain and the
United States would like both states to be drawn more tightly into
international controls.
    Another issue will be the religious and factional conflicts in the
northern Kashmir and Punjab regions, which have prompted accusations of
involvement by Indian communities in Britain. Officials said Major would
encourage the Indian government to work towards better relations with
Pakistan as the basis for settling the fighting in divided Kashmir. Britain
has urged democratic reforms in Punjab.
    Indian diplomats had high hopes for the visit, which they said would
help lay the ground for a complete break with the old colonial relations
between Britain and India which ended formally with the declaration of a
republic on January 26, 1950. They also hope Britain will provide a key to
increased trade and other economic relations with the European Community.
Relations between Major's abrasive predecessor Margaret Thatcher and Indian
leaders, particularly the late Indira Gandhi, were strained but one diplomat
said Major "represented a new generation in Britain unencumbered by the Raj
mentality."

* INDIAN RIOTS, AIRLINE STRIKE HIT TOURISM
   By Dev Varam
    JAIPUR, India, Jan 21, Reuter - Vicious communal violence and a
crippling airline strike have dealt a severe blow to tourism in India just
as it had emerged from a two-year slump. "It's most unfortunate that tourism
was hit very badly when it was poised for a grand takeoff," said C.S.Welinkar,
secretary of the Indian chapter of the Pacific and Asia Travel Association.
Travel agents said communal riots, sparked when a frenzied Hindu mob tore
down a mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya on December 6, led to heavy
cancellations of tours by foreigners.
    "The entire January business is a washout since it crashed to a mere 30
per cent soon after the Ayodhya incident," Welinkar said. "The whole thing
was compounded by the pilots' strike." Also on December 6, Indian Airlines
pilots began a strike for higher pay. The state-owned airline has since
operated only a skeletal service on major routes.
    In 1990, violent unrest over job quotas for low-caste Hindus, religious
riots, a nasty insurgency in Kashmir -- one of India's most popular
destinations -- and the Gulf crisis combined to devastate foreign tourism
in India. A fresh bout of communal violence, which erupted in Bombay this
month killing at least 500 people, has reinforced the image that India is
still a powder keg, Welinkar said. A spokesman for the tourism ministry said
most destinations had not been hit by communal violence and a "reassurance
campaign" has been launched abroad to repair India's image.
    "It's fortunate that not a single foreign tourist was hurt in communal
violence," Deva said. "But the tourists faced hell because of the pilots'
strike." Tourism officials estimate lost income at 10 billion rupees ($370
million). Tourists in Jaipur, famed for its grand palaces and desert forts,
thinned to a trickle at the peak of the season. A quarter of all foreign
tourists arriving in India visit Jaipur, known as the "pink city" for the
colour of its ancient stone structures. Foreigners particularly like Jaipur's
palaces, some of which have been turned into classy hotels. "For two weeks it
was extremely bad, resulting in heavy loss of revenue," said Salil Dutt, an
executive at the Rambagh Palace hotel, where rooms are fully booked during
the season. "We're in an uncertain and unpredictable situation." Khas Koti,
a city restaurant popular with tourists, was almost empty at lunchtime
recently. "There have been hardly any tourists in the last few days," said
barman Vinod Singh, lazily polishing the bar. "At normal times you won't find
a place to sit."
      Travel agents said that 1992 was still India's best year for tourism
despite the year-end traumas. Official figures show 1.86 million foreigners
visited India in calendar 1992, up from 1.68 million in the previous year.
Foreign exchange earnings from tourism rose eight per cent to $1.41 billion.

* RADICAL HINDUS ARRESTED IN RALLY AGAINST ILLEGAL BANGLADESHIS

   NEW DELHI, India (UPI) -- Hundreds of radical Hindus werre arrested
Thursday in a demonstration calling for the expulsion of illegal
Bangladeshis camped in the capital. Activists and leaders of the pro-Hindu
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's largest opposition group, attempted
to march to a major industrial estate where they claim the foreigners are
living, but were immediately arrested.
   The BJP rally was held under the surveillance of scores of specially
deployed security officers who were instructed to arrest anyone marching
into the area where authorities imposed a ban on assembly a day earlier.
Over the past decade BJP party has waged a campaign for the expulsion of
illegal Bangladeshi refugees. Their earlier campaigns were directed at
Bangladeshis in West Bengal state and in northeastern India.
   Federal officials say as many as 200,000 illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh have in recent years taken refuge in New Delhi, 750 miles from
their homeland. The Indian government last year announced it would start
to take stringent measures to halt the influx of Bangladeshis into India.
In September it deported a small group of Bangladeshis living illegally
in New Delhi, but further expulsions were stymied by Dhaka's uproar and
refusal to take back the refugees. Now the BJP argues thousands of foreign
aliens are being allowed to illegally settle on government-owned land in
the capital, while masses of Indian slum dwellers have not been provided
with basic amenities such as water and electricity.
   At Thursday's rally BJP leaders demanded "Bangladeshi and foreign
settlers...be identified and removed." They said all slum dwellers should
be issued identity cards, and called on the government to provide low cost
housing and sanitation to replace Delhi's shanty-towns. The BJP spearheaded
a national movement to construct a temple at the site of a disputed mosque
in Ayodhya and its Dec. 6 rally resulted in the razing of the mosque and
sparked sectarian violence that engulfed much of south asia. However,
Thursday's rally, attended by about 5,000 people, was peaceful and the
arrested have now been released.
   Over the past two decades, tens of millions of Bangladeshis are reported
to have settled in India, the world's second most populous nation after
China. Fleeing poverty and land shortages at home, the migrants have sought
refuge across their country's porous border with India. Several Bangladesh-
bordering states in northeastern India are demanding the deportation of
millions of aliens from the region. One state, Assam, has been wracked by
anti-immigration unrest for more than a decade.

* REBELS ACCUSE INDIA OVER DEATH OF LEADER ON SHIP

    COLOMBO, Jan 21, Reuter - Sri Lankan Tamil rebels have accused India of
breaking a promise to allow the safe passage of one of their senior leaders
who died in a suicide blast aboard his ship last Saturday. "We had been
informed of the Indian government's willingness to give protection and allow
the safe passage of Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Kittu on his mission," said
Anton Balasingham, spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
    Kittu, a former rebel commander, and nine others died aboard their ship
headed for Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. They blew the ship up rather than
surrender to the Indian navy, which had surrounded the vessel. The Indian
Defence Ministry said the ship was carrying arms and was in Indian waters.
    Balasingham was speaking at a rally on Wednesday in rebel-controlled
Jaffna. The LTTE, fighting for a separate state for minority Tamils, denounced
the interception of the ship as a high-handed act of piracy, saying it was in
international waters. "India stands condemned for the death of Kittu," the
Tigers said in a statement on Thursday. Kittu, who lost a leg in a bomb blast
in 1987 while he was commander of the Tiger's Jaffna battalion, had been living
in Europe and was a lobbyist for the rebels.
    Balasingham, the LTTE's theoritician, spoke on Wednesday as thousands
of people in the Jaffna peninsula and other areas controlled by the rebels
marched in processions, burning effigies of Indian leaders and condemning
the Indian government.The rebels ordered three days of mourning in the north.
Balasingham said Kittu died while he was returning to the north with a peace
plan that could have paved the way for an end to the 10-year-old ethnic
conflict that has killed 28,000 people. His comments were reported on LTTE
radio from Jaffna and monitored by Tamils living outside rebel-controlled
towns. Balasingham said Kittu established the rebel group's first international
headquarters in London and had frequent contacts with diplomats on seeking ways
of ending the war. These efforts led to a visit in November by officials from
the British-based Quaker group to Jaffna and during talks the rebels suggested
a ceasefire by both armies as the first step.
    Balasingham said the Tigers sought the formation of an interim rebel-run
administration in the north and the east, where most of the Tamils live, while
peace talks were held. The Tigers also told the Quaker mission they were
prepared to resume negotiations with the Sri Lankan government in a third
country. Previous talks between the warring sides have failed. The LTTE,
deciding to hear more details of the plan from their overseas offices, arranged
for Kittu to return to the north for consultations. The Indian government,
according to Balasingham, was informed about Kittu's trip and was reported to
have promised to allow his ship to sail without hindrance.
    Indian and Sri Lankan navy gunboats patrol the Palk Strait that separates
the two countries, attacking any rebel boat that tries to cross. "India went
back on that promise. We appealed to human rights groups and Western countries
to save Kittu from being arrested by the Indian government, but the effort
failed," Balasingham said.

* PAKISTAN MIGHT FENCE BORDER WITH INDIA

    ISLAMABAD, Jan 20, Reuter - Pakistan said on Wednesday it considering
building a barbed-wire fence along its border with India to check illegal
immigration and smuggling. A foreign ministry spokesman said building the
fence was one of the options Islamabad was considering to check illegal border
movements "but it is not on the top of the list."
    Local newspaper reports on Wednesday said a special committee of Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif's cabinet had proposed building the border fence in
phases, starting with the troubled southern province of Sind. Other committee
proposals included a higher fee for extending visas to Indians, a penalty for
Pakistanis who sponsor Indians if their guests fail to leave Pakistan on the
expiry of their visas, and fines for airlines that bring in foreigners with
invalid travel documents, according to the News. The daily said the cabinet
would soon take a final decision.
    Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi is estimated to have 600,000 illegal
immigrants from India and "this is certainly a matter of serious concern,"
the foreign ministry spokesman said. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis are
also illegally living in Pakistan, he said. The Pakistani government said early
this month it had decided to deport illegal immigrants.

*  RUSSIA'S YELTSIN TO REAFFIRM CLOSE TIES WITH INDIA
   By Jawed Naqvi
    NEW DELHI, Jan 20, Reuter - Russian President Boris Yeltsin will
reaffirm warm ties between old Cold War allies when he makes his first
visit to India next week, Indian and Russian officials said on Wednesday.
Indian officials said Yeltsin and Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha
Rao will sign a new Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation during the
three-day visit beginning on January 27. Although the new pact is modelled
after India's 1971 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the former
Soviet Union, the word "peace" has been dropped.
    When New Delhi signed the previous treaty, it saw a threat from
Washington, which had sent the Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal to
deter Indian forces from overrunning Pakistan in the 1971 war that led to
the creation of Bangladesh. "You don't have to emphasise what you already
have," said a Russian embassy official, explaining why the word was dropped.
    Russia and India are now bound by similar challenges in reshaping their
economies, the Russian diplomat said. India embarked on an ambitious market-
oriented economic reform programme in July 1991, just before the Soviet Union
began disintegrating after a failed coup. Both countries are locked into
structural adjustment programmes with the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund and "need to step up our mutual cooperation that much more for the same
reason," the diplomat said. "The thinking in Russia is saving those who are
drowning is the business of those who are drowning. Nobody is going to help you
out, unless you make the effort yourself," he said.
    The countries' biggest bilateral dispute is over the size of India's
debt to Russia as the successor to the Soviet Union. The Russian diplomat
quoted a World Bank estimate of $16 billion, mostly in the form of credits for
the purchase of military equipment. India, which must repay the debt in rupees,
disputes that calculation and says any repayment must reflect the new value of
the rouble. The currency has plummetted since a 1978 accord established a rupee-
rouble trade arrangement. Russia says one rouble is now worth 31 rupees. India
says it is worth only a fraction of that and wants a 60 per cent reduction in
its debt. The Russian diplomat said Moscow was prepared to reduce the burden by
30 per cent, and he added that a case could be made for cutting it in half.
The former Soviet Union accounted for some 15 per cent of India's exports, with
Russia taking 80 per cent of that.
    India's armed forces rely heavily on Russian supplies. Last May Moscow
provided a new defence loan of $830 million as part of its continued
military cooperation with New Delhi. The Russian diplomat said Yeltsin would
seek to consolidate cooperation in joint defence ventures with India, including
the manufacture of spare parts,anti-aircraft guns and aircraft. Yeltsin is also
expected to discuss nuclear issues with Rao, the Russian diplomat said. India,
which exploded an atomic bomb in 1974, has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, saying it discriminates in favour of existing powers.
India has also rejected a proposal that it join the United States, Russia,
China and Pakistan in a five-nation regional pact on nuclear non-proliferation,
saying there was nothing in it to guard against the global reach of nuclear
weapons states.

------------------------------

Date: 22 Jan 1993 07:57:49 -0800 (PST)
From: "Sukhjinder Singh Bajwa" <[e-mail]>

* INDIA INTRODUCES POLLUTION MASKS FOR COMMUTERS

   NEW DELHI, India (UPI) -- Commuters in the Indian capital can now
breathe easier with the introduction of personal pollution masks which are
selling like hot cakes. The masks have been designed primarily for the
millions of motorbike and bicycle travelers who are exposed to high levels of
toxic fumes, dust and pollen, transport officials said Wednesday. They are made
of two layers of fabric, cover the mouth and nose and are secured by elastic
bands.

* "LONG MARCH" TO HIGHLIGHT CHILD SLAVERY IN INDIA
   By Bill Tarrant
    NEW DELHI, Jan 20, Reuter - Social workers and former child slaves will
embark on a "long march" through India's heartland calling attention to the
plight of the country's 55 million children in servitude, organisers said
on Wednesday. The 1,500-km (900-mile) march begins on February 1 in northern
Bihar state and winds through cities along the crowded Ganges River plain in
Uttar Pradesh state before reaching Delhi on February 15. Led by freed child
slaves, marchers will travel in a convoy staging street dramas, audio-visual
shows and exhibitions near sweat-shops employing children, said Kailash
Satyarthi, chairman of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS).
SACCS and its partner organisations have already liberated about 20,000
children from bondage in India over the past decade. With the help of police,
the groups usually swoop into a village, freeing children who have been bonded
by their parents to work in dark and dreary hovels weaving carpets, making
leather goods or polishing brass.
    Most of the children are taken from their parents, usually poor farmers
and migrant labourers, on the promise of lucrative wages and a small spot
payment. Typically, no money is given to the parents or children thereafter
and attempts to take back the children are usually forcibly blocked. Bonded
labour has been outlawed in India since 1976 and laws prohibit children under
14 from working. But the law is hard to enforce in a country of 870 million
people that still adheres to a rigid social caste system. About half of the
110 million children working in India are considered to be in servitude,
making a pittance in non-family enterprises. About 10 million of those are in
bonded labour, a form of slavery, Satyarthi said. "We have 55 million children
in servitude, which means 55 million job opportunities that are not being
filled by the adult workforce," he told foreign correspondents.
    "It's conspiracy to keep adults unemployed and give those jobs to
children," he said, adding that children are docile, vulnerable to threats,
ignorant about money and non-voters. Child servitude has been tolerated as
part of "the harsh reality of India, a socially accepted evil," he said. But
it is "increasing day by day" as a result of urban migration. About 95 percent
of bonded labourers are from the lowest castes in India's rigid Hindu social
hierarchy, the so-called "untouchables," backward classes and tribals.
    They are generally employed by politically powerful upper- caste
Brahmins and landed gentry, he said. Indian governments "have never shown the
political will to eradicate child servitude," because the victims are power
-less and the perpetrators influential, he said.
    The purpose of the march is to begin a massive public education
campaign to show that child servitude is socially and economically
backward, Satyarthi said. He said the organisers expected that child employers
and landlords will try to thwart the march, possibly with violence. "We
anticipate very severe, possibly violent, reaction by the Brahmins and other
upper-caste groups along the way." SACCS also has been active on the consumer
side, working with groups in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom
to restrict products made by child labour in India.
    He said sales of south Asian carpets in Germany declined by 2 billion
rupees ($74 million) since two years ago when importers began demanding
proof through labelling that a rug was not made by children. In the United
States Senate, a "Child Labour Deterrent Act" was introduced last August,
which proposes to ban all imported products made by children, Satyarthi said.

* U.S. FAULTS CHINA, INDIA ON RIGHTS

    WASHINGTON, Jan 19, Reuter - The United States on Tuesday criticised
continued human rights abuses in China and India but said democracy had
been restored to Thailand. In its annual human rights report -- the last to
be issued by the Bush administration -- the State Department said Beijing's
human rights practices "have remained repressive, falling far short of
internationally accepted norms." But it also noted "a more positive side"
in Beijing's record and thus seemed to undercut Assistant Secretary of State
Patricia Diaz Dennis, who told a briefing "there is no fundamental change in
China ... there is no upward trend line" in China's human rights policies.
    The assessment would seem to provide ammunition to Democrats in Congress
who have called for revoking favourable trade benefits for China ever since
the government cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen
Square in 1989. As evidence of continued repression in China, the report
cited pre-determined verdicts meted out to persons linked to the 1989
demonstrations, denial of access to legal counsel and the eight-week
detention of Boston-based dissident Shen Tong. It also said "torture and
degrading treatment of detained and imprisoned persons persisted" and
estimated that "hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners of conscience
remained imprisoned or detained." On the positive side, the report said up
to 80 per cent of the dissidents imprisoned after Tiananmen Square were
released and a number of prominent dissidents were allowed to leave China.
    Although it described India as a democracy with strong, legally
sanctioned safeguards for individuals, the report said there continues to
be "significant abuses of human rights, many of which are the product of
violent ethnic, religious, caste, communal and secessionist activities and
the government's response to them." India's main problems include police,
paramilitary and army excesses against civilians, especially in Punjab,
Assam and Kashmir, it said. The report also found that political killing
by both military and government forces continued at an alarming rate,
particularly in the states of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, where
separatist insurgencies continued.
    Dennis, at her briefing, made what may be the strongest U.S. statement
to date in endorsing political changes in Thailand, saying "democracy was
restored in Thailand" with elections last September. The elections, ending
political upheaval begun with a military coup in 1991, gave power to the
opposition coalition under civilian Prime Minsiter Chuan Likphai.The report
said the Chuan administration "has made clear its strong commitment to
upholding democratic rights (and) has presented parliament with specific
proposals to extend the benefits of the nation's robust economic growth to
all areas of the country."
    On Cambodia, the report said the country "made notable progress in
human rights, although serious problems remain." Four Cambodia factions
signed a peace accord in 1991. But the Khmer Rouge faction, which was
blamed for one million deaths when it ruled Cambodia in the 1970s, had
refused to allow the United Nations peacekeeping force access to areas it
controls and to participate in U.N. plans for elections.

* SINGAPORE'S LEE SAYS HE FEARFUL FOR INDIA

    SINGAPORE, Jan 19, Reuter - Religious violence in India poses a serious
threat to the country and can be linked to misguided efforts at democracy,
Singaporean former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview.
"I am fearful at the developments in India. This is more divisive than
caste. Caste was bad enough. But religion really works up people's
emotions," Lee told Reuters on Monday. "It's the failure of the system.
The preconditions for liberal democracy do not exist," Lee said. "What
India requires is development, education, and the breakthrough in living
standards that will make the vote become meaningful."
    More than 1,100 people died in Hindu-Moslem rioting last month after
Hindu militants destroyed a 16th century mosque in the Indian town of
Ayodhya. More than 500 have died in clashes that have flared in Bombay over
the past 10 days. Lee said he saw little light at the end of the tunnel, as
Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had said he would rebuild the
destroyed mosque despite thousands of Hindu zealots who have made the site
into a shrine."Can any government of India, which is more than 80 per cent
Hindu based on votes, send an army in and knock out devout Hindu disciples,
remove Hindu gods and rebuild a mosque?" Lee asked. "What would happen if a
vote were taken anywhere in the next few months? I think BJP (the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party) stands a good chance of becoming the
next government. And then what? "It'll be similar to what happened in
Algeria, where the fundamentalists were within grasping distance of power,
through a popular mandate. There again, the preconditions were absent -- a
largely educated population and a middle class."
    Algeria has been shaken by unrest since the authorities last year
cancelled a general election the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front was
poised to win. Lee, who led Singapore to prosperity over 31 years until
stepping down in November, 1990, used strict laws on religious harmony to
moderate occasional tensions in Singapore's population which is 77 per cent
Chinese, 14 per cent Malay-Moslem and seven per cent Indian.

------------------------------

Date: 22 Jan 1993 07:58:50 -0800 (PST)
From: "Sukhjinder Singh Bajwa" <[e-mail]>

* INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH SAYS AIDS IS ...

NEW DELHI (JAN. 21) IPS - In orthodox India, prostitution provides
employment for thousands of poor women yet the subject goes unmentioned
both in private and public spheres. A looming AIDS specter is, however,
changing that. Last month, the country's top health body, the Indian Council
of Medical Research (ICMR) acknowledged that 150,000 of India's estimated one
million sex workers may be HIV-infected.
   In a report, the ICMR has for the first time given an assessment of the
HIV epidemic in India, pegging the number of carriers at 637,000 in the
country's urban areas. The report does not make any projections for rural
India. It says there is no information about the sexual habits of the 95-
million sexually-active Indians between 15 and 45 years who live in villages.
Officially only 10,856 Indians are HIV-positive.
   However, critics say the figures do not reflect the reality. Top Indian
virologist Dr. Jacob John believes some 2.5 million may be HIV-infected,
while India's AIDS control chief P.R. Dasgupta thinks that the epidemic has
reached a stage where every Indian is at risk if he or she is not careful.
"The HIV epidemic in India is following the African pattern because the
same co-factors are spreading the disease in the two regions," says Dr.
I.S. Gilada, founder and head of the Bombay- based Indian Health Organization.
"The chief co-factor is unprotected sex without condoms in Indian brothels,"
he explains. "Prostitutes and their clients are infecting and getting infected
by one another, and the clients are infecting wives who give birth to infected
baby's." Officially, the "heterosexually promiscuous" account for 41 percent
of those known to be sero-positive, blood donors for 15 percent and
intravenous drug-users for 15 percent.
   But as in Africa, heterosexual transmission perhaps accounts for 80
percent of the HIV because infections stemming from the sheer volume of sex
far dwarfs the rate of infections caused by contaminated needles used by
drug-addicts or by blood banks. India's port city of Bombay gives a glimpse of
how the scourge is spreading. The city has an estimated 100,000 sex workers
and HIV-incidence among them has jumped from two percent to four percent in
just three years. Reports from elsewhere in India indicate the infection is
spreading rapidly among prostitutes even in Hinterland towns.
   To complicate matters, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's) that AIDS
the transfer of the AIDS virus, are rampant among India's sex workers.
Gilada estimates that 80 percent of the women are suffering from an STD at
any given time. Further, condoms which can protect sex workers from HIV are
seldom used by clients in brothels. The AIDS virus is spreading like wild
fire in India, worried experts say. The infection is being carried to the
country's villages by tens of thousands of migrants in the cities who frequent
the squalid brothels. "We have reached the third and final stage of the AIDS
epidemic," says Gilada. According to Gilada, "in the first stage, we had a few
infected prostitutes and blood donors. In the second stage, the clients of
prostitutes and blood recipients got infected. But in this third stage, the
HIV has reached the general population,"
   Besides heterosexual transmission, one hazard in India is its infected
blood supply. The blood is not safe because as much as 30 percent of it is
from professional donors -- malnourished and sometimes homeless Indians who
sell their blood for money. Many of these donors are infected, but continue
to donate blood because no machinery exists to stop them from doing so.
"If one blood bank turns them away, they go to another which has no HIV-
testing facility," says Dr. M.L. Gupta, director of the Indian Red Cross.
"The horrifying truth is that most of India's blood banks don't have
diagnostic kits to screen blood." One heartening feature of AIDS-control
efforts, is the sprouting up of scores of volunteer groups that are fanning
out to teach safe-sex practices to sex workers and their clients. In Bombay,
Gilada's team visit brothels every day. Some 3,000 women are now insisting
that their clients use the condoms that are distributed free. But this effort
is only a drop in the ocean. Elsewhere clients refuse to use condoms, and if
women insist, they go off to others who are ready for unprotected sex.

* INDIA NARCOTICS BUREAU RECORDS WORLD'S LARGEST ...

BOMBAY, INDIA (JAN. 21) UPI - India's Narcotics Control Bureau raided a
ship  bound for Africa Thursday and recovered large quantities of a
psychotropic drug valued at $10.6 million in the underground international
market, officials said. Bureau Deputy Director R.N. Kakar said the seizure
was the world's largest recorded catch of an illicit shipment of methaqualone,
a white crystalline powder used in the form of its hydrochloride salt as a
sedative and hypnotic.
   Methaqualone is the main substance in the antidepressant pill, Mandarax,
which Kakar said was widely abused in Africa. The export consignment aboard
the ship at Bombay harbor was listed as  containing talcum powder, but the
search team found that nearly a quarter of all boxes had methaqualone in them,
Kakar reported. The official said the 7,370 pounds of Indian-manufactured
methaqualone seized was valued at $1.2 million in India - the Third World's
largest pharmaceutical producer - but was worth $10.6 million in the under
-ground global drug market. He did not reveal the name of the African country
where the narcotic was to be off-loaded.

* INDIA RECEIVES PROPOSALS FROM 28 FOREIGN COMPANIES ...

NEW DELHI (JAN. 20) DPA - India has received 28 proposals from foreign
companies for improving the power generation in the country, newly-named
Energy Minister N.K.P. Salve said Wednesday. New Delhi recently decided to
allow Indian and foreign private firms to bid for improving the country's
power situation. Salve said 12 proposals had also been received from Indian
companies. He said if these companies were "allowed in, more than 10,000
megawatts more power would be available annually. Administrative shackles
will be removed for them".
   India had an installed power generation capacity of 70,000 megawatts.
The actual generation was only half of that, mainly due to very inefficient
and improper transmission and distribution management. Salve said
transmission and distribution losses accounted for 23 percent of the power
generation as compared to just six per cent in the Western countries.

* COUNTRY'S POPULATION RISES TO OVER 838 MILLION

(JAN. 19) MIDDLE EAST INTELLIGENCE REPORT - Latest data show that India's
total population now is 838,583,988. This was indicated by the final
population data of the 1991 census or the census abstract data released in
New Delhi today. Doordarshan correspondent Rudranath Sanyal has the
details.
   (Begin recording) (Sanyal) Information data released by the union
minister of state for home, Mr. M.M. Jacob, indicates that India's
population is nearly 2,000,000 more than what was found in the provisional
census figures released last year. Another highlight of this final data is
that for the first time census figures down to the village and ward levels
have been made available on a nationwide computer network. The deputy
chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, fed the data
into the National Informatics Center's (NIC's) computer network today with
the push of a button.
   (Mukherjee) With the eighth five-year plan in operation, I am confident
the Planning Commission and other ministries of the government would surely
benefit from the PCA computerization.
   (Sanyal) Through NIC's mainframe computer in Delhi, the data bank has
been linked to nearly 5,000 computer terminals across the country. This was
possible with the help of satellite. Besides population figures, the census
abstract data has details like number of households, number of literates,
and population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. NIC has also drawn
up plans for data broadcasts with the help of small satellite earth
stations. (end recording)
   From Doordarshan Television in English

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 22:01:12 GMT
From: [e-mail] (G.Narotham Reddy)
Subject: By-elections in April

Source   : The CGI

* Election Commission Revises Decision, Schedules By-polls for April
* Presidency college turns 175


* Election Commission Revises Decision, Schedules By-polls for April

New Delhi - April 21: The election commission has revised its earlier
decision and decided to hold by-elections in three parliamentary and 14
assembly seats in different parts of the country in the first week of
April. The commission has, on the request of the cabinet secretary,
issued orders for holding these by-elections in the constituencies not
affected by any court proceedings. The commission also passed orders for
intensive revision of Andhra Pradedesh barring Karwan and Chandrayangutta
(both in the state capital Hyderabad) assembly constituencies by 24th of
next month.
        In its earlier decision on Jan 11, the commission decided to
restrict the Feb 15 polls to general elections to the state assemblies
of north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. The decision
based on the specific request of the cabinet secretary for the postponement
in the light of the delicate situation in the country following post-mosque
demolition developments.
        While by-elections will be held for Parliamentary seats in
Ottapalam -Kerala, Jalandhar in Punjab and Palani in Tamilnadu, the
14 assembly constituencies to go to polls are : Rayachoti and Panyam
(Andhra Pradesh), Goh (Bihar), Rapar, Gadhada, Kundla, Jhalod and Jambusar
(Gujrat), Narwana (Haryana), Guhagarm Chinchpokli, Parel, Kinwat and
north Solapur in Maharashtra.

* Presidency college turns 175

Calcutta, Jan 20 - West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, arch rival
S.S.Ray, Ashok Mitra, Amlan Dutta, Sukanta Chawdhary, Amartya Sen,
Veteran journalists R.P.Goenka, Pritish Nandy, --- all spent their youth
in the corridors of the Presidency college here. They all get together
again at their alma mater on Wednesday when the college celebrates its
175th anniversary to muse over the cataclysmic role it played in the
socio-political history of Bengal.
        The nostalgia to dwell on the legends, traditions and
memorabilia associated with the college whose history is entwined with
movements like the Bengal renaissance and the Naxalite uprising, must
engross them. The Hindu college, set up in 1817 to tutor 'sons of
respectable Hindus in the English and Indian languages and in the
literature and science of Europe and Asia' was its predecessor. The
Hindu college was rechristened Presidency College in 1855.
        An architectural splendour with its improvised doric columns,
neo-greek arches, fluted pillars and antiquated cast-iron gate, the
main building of the college is truly built in the colonial style,
complete with a turret clock, repaired at a huge cost for the
anniversary bash.

------------------------------

Date: 22 Jan 93 13:32:19 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Reddy Mallidi)
Subject: Pakistan Urges India to Lease Jinnah House

    Source : XINHUA, Financial Times

    * Pakistan urges India to lease Jinnah house

    Islamabad 01/20 : Pakistan today called on India to lease the Jinnah
    house to Pakistan as official residence of Pakistan consulate general
    in Bombay. In response to Indian government's recent decision to
    disallow Pakistan to rent the Jinnah house, a foreign office spokesman
    said that it "deeply disappointed us". "We hope Indian government will
    review and rethink this decision with a view to fulfilling its
    longstanding committment and facilitating our efforts to make our
    recently established consulate general in Bombay fully operational",
    the spokesman said in a statement. According to the spokesman the house
    was built by Jinnah, and served his residence for several years before
    the independence of Pakistan in 1947, so the Pakistan people have
    special sentimental attachment to it. (XIN)

------------------------------

Date: 21 Jan 1993 19:18:00 -0500 (EST)
From: Gopalan Krishnamurthi 80951 <[e-mail]>
Subject: Cricket: Indian squad for 1st Test


            CHANDIGARH, INDIA, JAN 21 - India have dropped five
        players from their south african tour for the first test against
        england in calcutta on january 29.
            With Vice-captain ravi shastri ruled out through injury, the
        14-man squad contains four non-tourists.
            Batsman vinod kambli and off-spinner rajesh chouhan are new
        to the test arena while batsmen navjot sidhu and ajay sharma are
        recalled. All four have shown impressive form against england on
        their current tour. The five dropped are sanjay manjrekar and
        ajay jadeja, bowlers subroto banerjee and chetan sharma, and
        reserve wicketkeeper vijay yadav.

------------------------------
_____________________________________________________________________________

                            Editorials and Commentary
_____________________________________________________________________________

Date: 09 Jan 1993 19:39:07 -0400 (AST)
From: Prasad Gokhale <[e-mail]>
Subject: India Chooses To Remain Silent Over Pak Nuclear Reports -Part 1 of 2.

Article : India Chooses To Remain Silent Over Pak Nuclear Reports
Source  : News India, Jan. 8, 1993 (Originally from 'Sunday').
By      : N. V. Subramanian
Typed by: G. Narotham Reddy ([e-mail])
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     The news was explosive enough. Recently the American TV  network  NBC
disclosed  that  Pakistan  had  seven nuclear bombs of the type dropped on
Hiroshima.  And, sometime during the spring of 1990, it  was  prepared  to
drop  it  over India in view of the escalating crisis in Kashmir. The dis-
closure had the attributes of a first rate scoop. It should have put chan-
ceries  around  the  world on full alert. People in India should have been
worried. Parliament should have been convulsed. And the media should  have
gone hysterical.
     Yet nothing like this happend. The news came on the agency  wires  on
Dec  2. It was naturally front paged. Opposition parties demanded a state-
ment from the government but the same  evening,  doordarshan  slotted  the
item  toward  the end of its news bulletin which was dominated by Ayodhya.
The next day's news papers reduced it to a single column.
     At the end of the week, India and Pakistan were scheduled to  play  a
one day SAARC Cricket match in Dhaka ( It was postponed becuase of tension
in Bangladesh after the destruction of Babri masjid ) it was  business  as
usual.
     Really?  Wasn't New Delhi bothered?
     The truth is that India has chosen to remain silent.  There  is  more
than one reason for this. India has known for at least two years that Pak-
istan has assembled a few nuclear weapons. Ofcourse, in the  last  fifteen
years,  much  has been revealed about its atomic program. But the informa-
tion that Pakistan had several operational bombs came by  chance.  In  the
middle  of  1990,  Robert Oakley the American Ambassador to Islamabad, and
J.N.Dixit ( India's Representative, now  Foreign  Secretary  )  met  at  a
diplomatic meeting.
     At that time, there was great tension on the western border.   Pakis-
tan  had  increased  its  support to Kashmiri militants. V.P.Singh said in
Parliament that, if necessary, India would fight  a  1000-year  war.  And,
Robert  Gates,  the  US  deputy  national security advisor, had flown back
after failing to convince India and Pakistan of the need for peace.
     What Oakley told Dixit, then, was significant. A former cabinet  min-
ister  who  was  privy to the conversation told this reporter, Oakley said
that Pakistan had nuclear bombs, and that it  would  use  them  not  as  a
weapon of last resort, but as a first.
     We raised  the  matter  with  Pakistan,  the  ex-minister  said.  Our
response was adequate and firm, and the Pakistanis backed down.
     Did India threaten war, or hint nuclear retaliation? I  can't  answer
that  question,  he  said.  But  let  me  assure you that we are not found
wanting.  And  then,  early  this  year,  came  the  second  confirmation,
Pakistan's foreign secretary, Shahryar Khan gave an interview to the Wash-
ington Post on Feb 7. He disclosed that his country had the components  to
assemble atleast one nuclear bomb.
     Khan was suspiciously generous in filling in details for the  benefit
of  the Post's editors. He said that Benajir Bhutto, the former Pakistan's
Prime Minister, had stopped  production  of  weapons  grade  uranium  just
before  her  visit  to  Washington  in  June 1989. But this was resumed in
Spring 1990 as tension mounted between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
     Shahryar Khan concluded that his revelations were meant to  bridge  a
credibility gap created by the Bhutto government.
     The last definitive account of Pakistan's nuclear capability appeared
in  the  July/Aug  1992  issue  of the bulletin of the 'Atomic Scientist.'
David Albright and Mark Hibbs, two nuclear experts wrote an article called
"Pakistan's  Bomb:  Out of the closet." Based on US state department docu-
ments and interviews with privileged sources, they drew three conclusions:

       *  China may have given Pakistan the design for a small tri-
       tium initiator. ( An initiator starts the fusion chain reac-
       tion  that  causes a nuclear explosion ) and tritium initia-
       tors are harder to  make  but  last  longer  than  Polonium,
       Berelium  initiators.  Pakistan,  therefore,  has  an almost
       nuclear trigger mechanism.

       * The Kahuta gas centrifuge plant near  Islamabad  has  pro-
       duced between 100kg and 200 kg of weapons grade Uranium.

       * Assuming 15 kg per bomb, Pakistan has got anything between
       6-13 nuclear explosive devices.

     NBC then  reported  that  Pakistan  possessed  seven  Hiroshima  type
nuclear bombs.
     Officials of the India's Research and Analysis Wing  (RAW)  say  that
they know of nine independent sites where they could be stored.

------------------------------

End of India News Network Digest
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