India Insight

Northeast India is home to several rare and endangered animal species, which means that Northeast India is also home to poachers. With floods ravaging Assam and other northeastern states and displacing some 2 million people, poachers appear to be using the opportunity to murder animals.

Suspected poachers attacked a rare one-horned rhino by shooting it and cutting off its horn, the BBC reported:

The rhino was wounded when shot and had its horn cut off after it wandered out of Kaziranga national park, which has been inundated by flood waters. … The rhino was one of many animals that moved to higher ground to escape the deluge. Guards lost track of it as it approached an elevated highway out of the park, Assam’s Chief Wildlife Warden Suresh Chand told the Associated Press news agency. The rhino was then shot by a group of poachers who afterwards cut off its horn, Mr. Chand said.

Poachers have killed 13 rhinos around the park in the past nine months, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, poachers killed a 6-year-old female Royal Bengal tiger in her cage at a zoo in Arunachal Pradesh, according to a report in Mid-Day from Arunachal’s capital Itanagar. “The incident happened when guards had gone out for dinner.”

Of course, it's hard to imagine being raped (and who would want to). But just for a minute try and think about it.

Imagine you are returning home from work, walking down a busy road in early hours of the evening, perhaps from the train station or the bus stop to your home as you usually do.

Suddenly a car pulls up slightly ahead of you and as you walk by, the rear doors open and two men get out. Without any hesitation, they grab you and bundle you into the back seat.

India’s kiranas, or small general stores, fear that the country’s decision to allow Wal-Mart and other foreign companies to invest in grocery stores and other kinds of retailers will hurt their businesses.

They should go to Bangalore and talk to Nandini. She might brighten their mood.

Nandini, who lives in Bangalore’s Indiranagar neighbourhood, was at Aditya Birla Group’s More retail store, eyeing the detergents when I interviewed her about the new rules on foreign direct investment, or FDI.

“Things here are more attractive,” she said. “You can see more options, but for my daily chores I always run in to our local shop nearby.”

There’s a new name on India’s list of pending mercy petitions for death row convicts: Ajmal Kasab, the only gunman who didn’t die during the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

According to a Times of India report, the Maharashtra government wants New Delhi to “expedite his punishment and dispose of his mercy plea, ‘bypassing’ the waiting list.” Kasab hasn’t cited any reason for mercy in his petition.

The plea, which the president of India will review, might not trigger the debate that India needs to have about how long it takes to answer these pleas. The trouble is, it’s not complicated enough.

People in Europe and the United States are blazing away over the topless photos of Princess Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. So they should. The ingredients in this recipe are:

1 royal
No clothes
Liberal dash of good looks, to taste
1 fancy title (Duchess of Cambridge preferred)
1 husband, must be possible heir to British throne.

In India, you could serve the same dish, but without the spice.

Here’s an example of a hot story: Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai took great pains to shield her daughter Aaradhya, AKA “Beti B” from the shutterbugs. But they found her! And took pictures! Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

Mamata Banerjee‘s threat that her ministers would quit on Friday unless the Indian government scrapped its plan to save the economy was her way of giving the government time to consider its options.

I told my colleague Aditya that in reality, it was probably a chance for her to reconsider her move because there was no way that the government would bend to her desires.

That’s not the most auspicious start to an American journalist’s attempt to call outcomes in Indian politics. The government’s reform plan, from which there was to be no retreat, no surrender … is in retreat.

It wasn’t unexpected. After more than three long years of association with the UPA II coalition government, key ally Mamata Banerjee is taking her name off the lease, packing up her things and getting ready to move out. Whether she has taken Congress’ chances for holding power in India with her depends on how strong — and willing — the party’s other friends are.

This move, precipitated by her anger at urgent government moves to fix India’s economy, is a case of better late than never. There is no point being part of a coalition if you don’t like how it works or the decisions that it makes.

Banerjee isn’t moving out just yet. After giving the coalition 72 hours to relook at its recent initiatives, she has given another 72 hours to the coalition before her ministers resign on Friday, Sept. 21. Her demands: rollback diesel prices, scotch a plan to allow foreign direct investment in India’s retail businesses and spend more money on keeping home cooking gas prices artificially low.

Not surprisingly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate on hold on Monday, just days after the Congress-led government dropped a cluster bomb of several reform measures on “big bang Friday”. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; }

Though most experts thought that the RBI would not cut rates on Monday, markets were hoping that central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao would oblige them just a little bit. The Sensex ended 78 points higher, but was up 200 points in anticipation.

Considering the state of the Indian economy and governance, the reforms did not merit immediate rate action. Market and economy watchers should be patient and wait for FDI — “foreign direct investment” — approvals to go through.

Chennai is dealing with a second day of protests against the United States over a film that Muslims say insults the Prophet Mohammad, following an attack on the U.S. consulate on Friday that prompted 86 arrests.

Close to 2,000 people mobilised by the Islamist group Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath reportedly gathered outside the Thousand Lights Mosque. That is less than a kilometre from the U.S. consulate, where protestors smashed windows on Friday.

“Avoid Mount Road stretch and Radhakrishnan Salai near US consulate,” wrote Hindu Business Line journalist Dinakaran Rengachary on Twitter on Saturday. “Heavy traffic jam due to protest by Muslim organisations. #Chennai”

It’s not every day that India makes such a dramatic move as raising diesel prices, or allowing foreign direct investment in its debt-walloped passenger airlines. It’s certainly not every day that it caps this 24-hour period by allowing foreign investment in retail businesses.

In short, big international companies like Wal-Mart will be able to start their own shops in India, or will be able to buy up to 51 percent of existing retail businesses. This could affect small grocery stores like Nilgiris in southern India all the way down to local street vendors.

The Indian government made all these moves as part of increasingly urgent efforts to firm up its sagging economy. While the diesel price rise of 5 rupees a litre and the retail moves are sure to cause a lot of anger and pain on the part of many Indians, the government has suddenly revealed a desire to think about the collective future of the country.