Ten Things India Will Be Watching in 2011

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Ten Things India Will Be Watching in 2011​

1. Will Telangana Join the Union?: The recommendations of the five-member Srikrishna committee on whether a separate Telangana state should be carved out of southern Andhra Pradesh were submitted to the home ministry on Dec. 30. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is supposed to meet with parties from the state to discuss the recommendations on Jan. 6, after which the report on the ramifications of the long-standing demand will be made public. The Indian government has moved troops and put other security measures in place in Andhra Pradesh in the mean time. Last year at least one person set themselves on fire during a demonstration calling for the new state.

2. India at the High Table (Temporarily): India will serve a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council starting January after almost two decades. India won the UNSC Asian seat in October last year, securing 187 out of 191 votes. India still hopes for a permanent seat—a demand the heads of the permanent member countries made nice noises about (well, not China) on their visits to India in 2010. Will that affect how the country votes over the next two years?

3. Environment vs. Industry: Lavasa's hill town project in Maharashtra and South Korean steel giant Posco's plan to build a plant in the eastern Indian state of Orissa will either get the green light in January to continue with their plans or will be told they have to change or scrap them.

Both decisions hinge around whether the projects have adhered to environmental regulations, including laws to protect land-dependent communities and secure their consent. The Ministry of Environment and Forests, headed by Minster Jairam Ramesh, will issue orders in both cases, with the Bombay High Court giving the ministry a deadline of Jan. 10 in the case of Lavasa.

4. Jaipur Literary Festival: The sixth edition of the annual Jaipur literary festival will take place in the historic Diggi Palace from Jan. 21 to 25. The five-day literary extravaganza will see discussions on fiction, narrative nonfiction, Hindi blogging, Indian works in translation and sports writing among other topics. Who's coming? Orhan Pamuk, Kiran Desai"¦and Candace Bushnell. (We can't quite add it up either)

5. A Hearing on the Babri Verdict: On Jan. 28, the special Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court will hear a petition filed by a lawyer for the Sunni Waqf board, asking them to review and overturn the Sept. 30 decision on a spot of land in the town of Ayodhya claimed by both Hindus and Muslims. The verdict called on the main Hindu and Muslim parties to the dispute to accept a division of the land that a 16th-century mosque stands on, but where Hindus believe the god Ram was born. The judgment allotted two parts to Hindu groups, and one part to the Sunni Waqf board. On Feb. 15, the same bench will also see how the implementation of that decision by the religious groups involved is progressing.

 

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6. The 2G Report: The government may be hoping the corruption allegations around the Commonwealth Games and the 2008 telecom spectrum allocations will vanish in the new year. Anything is possible in the foggy haze of January. But come Feb. 10, when the Central Bureau of Investigation is supposed to submit a report to the Supreme Court on the progress of its probe, India should get a sense of whether anyone is going to be prosecuted. The agency last month questioned former telecom minister A. Raja, who resigned in November.

7. The Budget: Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will table the budget in Parliament on Feb. 28. It's going to be a tricky one, since the Finance Ministry is in the midst of trying to simplify India's tax regime by moving towards a new goods and services for the whole nation as well as a new income tax code. Other thorny budgeting problems—fuel subsidies look set to rise as crude oil prices go up, which will make it hard to keep last year's promise of reducing the ever-widening fiscal deficit. This should help some though: India looks set to reach its revenue goal from divesting in state-run companies.

8. Assembly Elections: After a relatively quiet year on the election front, apart from the Bihar vote that predictably returned the popular chief minister Nitish Kumar to a second term, it's going to be very busy. The five Indian states of Assam, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam will hold elections this year. The dates will be announced by the Election Commission of India at the end of March. At least two things people will be watching for—will communist rule in West Bengal come to an end after three decades? And will we see Rahul Gandhi, son of ruling Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi, return to the kind of field campaign he waged in Uttar Pradesh State ahead of national elections in 2009?

9. Cricket Mania: The International Cricketing Council World Cup will be held from Feb. 19 to April 2 and hosted by three South Asian cricket playing countries: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Let's hope the Boys in Blue do better than they did in the West Indies last year—fortunately this time the Indian Premier League (and its parties) come after the T20 series.

No sooner does the World Cup end, when the fourth season of the high-octane Indian Premier League begins. The tournament begins April 8 and will see 74 matches over 45 days between 10 teams representing different cities and owned by a bevy of Bollywood and business personalities. This will be the first time the league resumes play since a fracas broke out around the auctions of new teams last year, and saw the income tax department descend on the IPL offices to investigate the ownership of the teams.

10. India's New Population Numbers: The numbers from a headcount conducted from Feb. 9 to 28 will be out in April, telling us how much India's population has grown in the last decade. The headcount is part of Census 2011, which began in April with a series of questions on housing. The last part of the Census—which will quiz people about the caste they belong to—will take place from June to August, and will mark the first time in eight decades India is comprehensively counting its population by caste. Some hope the numbers will help gauge how far India has come in the fight to rule out discrimination on the basis of caste. Except for the population numbers, census data will roll out in early 2012.

 

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10 things related to defense

1, Agni V test.

2, Launching of IAC.

3, LCA IOC and Induction.

4, PDV test

5, MMRCA selection.

6, GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine.

7, C-130 induction.

8, Upgradation of Sword fish radar .

9, Commissioning of first Kolkata class destroyer.

10, 2nd prototype of LCH.