Sunday, November 22, 2009

India-US partnership is essential: PM

New Delhi, Nov 21: Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh on Saturday said India is looking forward to building on the strategic dialogue with the US and seeking greater cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, services, energy, science and technology and defence.

“The last several years have witnessed a transformation in India-US relations. Today, they are characterized by greater maturity, depth and convergence of interests,” Manmohan Singh said in his departure statement before his four-day trip to Washington as the first state guest of the Obama White House.

“The United States is our largest trading partner in goods and services, and we have deep economic ties. There is a large Indian American community and robust people-to-people exchanges. Above all, we share common values and commitment to democracy, pluralism and human rights,” he said. “A sustained and dynamic India-US partnership is essential if we are to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.” During his visit, the prime minister said, he would exchange views with President Obama on major global threats and challenges including international terrorism, climate change, the global economic slowdown, the Doha round of trade negotiations, and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Didn’t Mukesh know of Ambani family pact, queries apex court

NEW DELHI, Nov 12: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) can’t say it had no knowledge of the Ambani family pact between brothers Mukesh and Anil, which was brokered by their mother Kokilaben, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday.

As arguments continued on the Krishna-Godavari gas dispute, Ram Jethmalani, counsel for Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), wanted to question seven directors of RIL whose affidavits claim they had no knowledge of the contents of the family pact. “Mukesh Ambani had a copy of the MoU (memorandum of understanding or the family business reorganisation pact)?” asked the three-member apex court bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Justice P Sathasivam.

“So you cannot say RIL did not know of the MOU,” the bench observed, after hearing the reply of RIL counsel Harish Salve, while adjudicating the Krishna-Godavari gas supply and pricing dispute between RIL and RNRL. The bench made the observation amid RIL counsel’s ongoing arguments that the family pact was “in private domain” and “not in the corporate domain” because of which it was not binding on his client company.

The dispute is over the supply of 28 million units of natural gas for 17 years at $2.34 per unit to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) from the gas fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast, awarded to Mukesh Ambani-led RIL.

The price, tenure and quantity were all based on a family re-organization pact in 2005, but RIL subsequently said it could only sell the gas for $4.20 per unit, as this was the price, the company claimed, that was fixed by the government. Jethmalani, who spoke toward the end of the hearing on Thursday, said if the court admits as evidence the affidavits filed by seven directors of RIL who claimed no knowledge of the family pact, then he must be permitted to cross-examine them.

“These affidavits were not filed earlier in the Bombay High Court or in any earlier legal proceedings,” Jethmalani said, adding the law stipulates that while admitting a document as evidence, the person filing them have to be cross-examined.

Earlier, Salve said the family pact also cannot override the production-sharing contract between the company and the government, adding: “The gas belongs to the Government of India till the point of delivery.” He also wondered if it was unreasonable to have the government’s nod on the matter.

The RIL counsel said the family pact envisaged gas supplies to RNRL on the same terms under which his client company was to supply natural gas from Krishna-Godavari fields to the state-run power utility NTPC. This agreement between RIL and NTPC — which called for gas supplies at $2.34 per unit — had also resulted in a dispute, and is being adjudicated by the Bombay High Court.

The hearing of the Krishna-Godavari gas dispute is scheduled to resume on Friday at 2 p.m. (IANS)