Indian Government

The Indian government said Tuesday that it will seek parliamentary approval for a controversial anti-terrorism decree despite stiff opposition. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance--proclaimed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States--will be introduced in Parliament on Dec. 11. "We're ready to accommodate any amendments suggested by the opposition parties.

Shopkeeper Mauji Lal was boarding a train four years ago when the crowd pushed him onto the tracks and he was run over. Doctors amputated his right leg and four toes on his left foot. Hobbling on a walker, he got back on a train last month for the 20-hour trip across India to this western city. He was fitted with an artificial limb and got meals and rudimentary therapy, all free. "The limb is good," the 72-year-old Lal said. "I feel some pain and it's still difficult to walk on it for more than an hour, but I'm getting used to it. " Lal is one of hundreds of patients each week who arrive leaning on sticks, hobbling on crutches or carried by relatives, a near-biblical scene, at the gates of a white three-story building.

Shopkeeper Mauji Lal was boarding a train four years ago when the crowd pushed him onto the tracks and he was run over. Doctors amputated his right leg and four toes on his left foot. Hobbling on a walker, he got back on a train last month for the 20-hour trip across India to this western city. He was fitted with an artificial limb and got meals and rudimentary therapy, all free. "The limb is good," the 72-year-old Lal said. "I feel some pain and it's still difficult to walk on it for more than an hour, but I'm getting used to it. " Lal is one of hundreds of patients each week who arrive leaning on sticks, hobbling on crutches or carried by relatives, a near-biblical scene, at the gates of a white three-story building.

Sushil Kumar's job entering data into a computer earns him $120 a month. His 50-year-old home is in serious need of repair. His family owes $8,500. But his life, so similar to the hardscrabble existence of fellow Indians, has taken a decidedly Bollywood turn for the better. The rags-to-riches story that unfolded in the 2008 Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" came to life this week when the struggling government clerk from eastern India won $1 million on a TV game show.

A court today declared Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide Corp., an "absconding offender" in an effort to extradite him from the United States to face charges in the Bhopal gas leak, the world's worst industrial disaster, in which more than 2,000 people died. Chief Judicial Magistrate R. C. Mishra issued a warrant last Nov. 15 for Anderson's arrest to answer homicide charges filed by the Indian government.

The U.S. State Department describes the first tenet of its counter-terrorism policy this way: "Make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals." So why didn't the State Department complain when the Indian government struck a deal with the hijackers of Indian Airlines Flight 814 and agreed to release three prisoners in exchange for 155 hostages? If you believe the reports, three dangerous terrorists walked free in exchange for the hostages.

Mohandas Gandhi's eyeglasses and other items sold for $1.8 million at an auction that drew outrage from the Indian government, a last-minute reversal from the seller and a frenzy of bidding that was won by an Indian conglomerate that said the pacifist leader's things would be coming home. The lot included Gandhi's wire-rim glasses, worn leather sandals, a pocket watch, a plate and the brass bowl from which he ate his last meal. The Indian government had protested the sale, saying the items should go back to India.

India will try again Monday to test launch its first long-range missile, official sources said. The first attempt to launch the 75-ton Agni (Fire) into the Bay of Bengal from the Orissa state east coast was called off on April 20 just seven seconds before the scheduled launch. The Indian government said technical problems aborted the launch but remained tight-lipped on what they were. The missile can carry a one-ton payload over a 1,000-mile range, according to the Indian government.

Almost 100,000 troops and police officers were deployed in India's Assam state to prevent a repetition of election violence that killed 4,000 in 1983. Officials said they believe the extraordinary security for today's parliamentary and state balloting will be sufficient to deter a new wave of ethnic violence. The trouble grows out of a campaign by Assamese students, who sought to expel vast numbers of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.

Lawyers for Union Carbide and the government of India today told an Indian judge that they failed to agree on an out-of-court settlement in the case resulting from the disastrous release of poison gas here in 1984. The gas release, the world's worst industrial accident, killed 2,850 people and injured at least 20,000 others. Judge M. W. Deo said he will consider a request for interim relief to victims of the leak. The Indian government is suing for $3 billion in damages.

Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables have sparked a political battle in India, putting the ruling party on the defensive with their disclosures on alleged human rights violations and religious extremism. Most damaging to the Congress Party was a cable reporting that Rahul Gandhi, scion of India's first political family and pegged by many as the nation's next prime minister, told the U.S. ambassador last year that hard-line Hindu groups in India could be a bigger threat to the country than Pakistan-based Islamic militants.

International medical tourism in India tends to garner the headlines -- it's a $2-billion industry that’s growing by 30% annually -- but the Indian government estimates that it's dwarfed by its domestic cousin. A recent tourism survey found that Indians make an estimated 126 million trips annually to meet health and medical needs within their own country, spending $5.2 billion on such trips. Foreigners may come to India to save money on medical treatment, but trips for locals are expensive, with health and medical traveling reportedly costing four times as much for Indians as social or recreational trips.

NEW DELHI -- India may have banned smoking in public, but it's not exactly making smokers an endangered species. According to India's first survey on adult tobacco use, nearly 35% of adults consume tobacco in some form, as do 10% of 15- to 17-year-olds. In addition to cigarettes, cigars, pipes and hookahs,  Indians, particularly in poor communities, frequently smoke bidis, a sort of rolled up leaf tobacco that sells for a few cents for a pack of 30. While 35% isn't particularly high for a developing country, its use is rising with disposable income.

India's BlackBerry users breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday as word spread that their beloved smart-phone devices would keep beeping after Aug. 31, the deadline New Delhi had set for the company to either open up its technology or shut down its service. BlackBerry's Canadian parent company reportedly agreed to copy Indian security agencies on client e-mails and short messages, local news reports said Tuesday, citing government sources. The agencies initially must make a specific request but after November reportedly will receive automatic data feeds.

Combine two of India's favorite pastimes, cricket and politics. Add allegations of corruption, greed, and tax evasion. Throw in the implosion of a highflying political career and it's not difficult to understand why India's hyperactive broadcast media are on a tear. On Monday, India's finance minister announced an investigation of the funding and sources behind the nation's top cricket teams, suggesting that more bombshells are to come. The scandal underscores the cost of operating a business on steroids without creating adequate safeguards, analysts said.

Stepping up pressure on Pakistan to help thwart further terrorist attacks on India, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday that the Indian government probably would not show the same level of restraint that it did in 2008 if struck again. Gates said at a news conference that Al Qaeda and other Islamic militant organizations are hoping to ignite a regional clash between Pakistan and India, a confrontation he said must be averted. Gates has praised India's "statesmanship" in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, which left at least 166 people dead and has been attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based extremist group aligned with Al Qaeda.

The government of India on Monday filed suit against Union Carbide, alleging that the company was negligent in the Bhopal chemical leak last December that killed 1,700 people and injured hundreds of thousands more. The accident, the civil lawsuit contends, doomed thousands of victims to "agonizing, lingering and excruciating deaths." Survivors "experienced an unimaginable and unforgettable catastrophe, witnessing the virtual destruction of their entire world."

Instead of following through on their threats to kill more passengers, Muslim extremists who commandeered an Indian Airlines jet continued talking today with a team of Indian negotiators hastily flown to Afghanistan. Several deadlines set by the hijackers came and went without more killings, and there was no indication that progress had been made to resolve the crisis.

Mohandas Gandhi's eyeglasses and other items sold for $1.8 million at an auction that drew outrage from the Indian government, a last-minute reversal from the seller and a frenzy of bidding that was won by an Indian conglomerate that said the pacifist leader's things would be coming home. The lot included Gandhi's wire-rim glasses, worn leather sandals, a pocket watch, a plate and the brass bowl from which he ate his last meal. The Indian government had protested the sale, saying the items should go back to India.

India's ruling coalition survived a confidence vote by a slim margin Tuesday, keeping alive the possibility that a controversial nuclear cooperation deal with the U.S. would go ahead as planned.