Now, Pakistanis can invest in India

[ajtr]

FDI for peace

Gestures from Delhi can make it easier for Islamabad to commit to the bilateral thaw

Delhi’s unilateral decision to allow Pakistani citizens and companies to invest in the Indian market is an important gesture signalling the strong commitment of the UPA government to deepen economic ties with an important neighbour that has been an adversary for so long. The move is a political one, not based on any economic calculation of substantive investments flowing in from a country that is struggling to cope with a profound financial crisis of its own. Coupled with the recent move to invite the Pakistan cricket team to India, the decision on FDI underlines Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s determination to impart some momentum to the peace process. Talks with Islamabad had broken down in the wake of the 26/11 attacks. Rejecting the widespread reluctance in Delhi to engage Pakistan without progress in bringing the plotters of the Mumbai outrage to book, the UPA government renewed the dialogue with Pakistan two years ago.

While the results have not been significant on the political front, progress in the commercial sector has been surprisingly swift. The first move came from Pakistan last November when the civilian government led by Asif Ali Zardari broke the long-standing domestic consensus that normal trade relations with India can only follow the resolution of outstanding political disputes. As a first step towards granting the MFN status to India, which Islamabad has promised to implement by the end of this year, Pakistan opened the door for more imports. Delhi, in turn, addressed Islamabad’s concerns about non-tariff barriers against Pakistan’s exports. India and Pakistan opened an integrated checkpost at the Attari-Wagah border in April.

With a rare show of political will in both capitals simultaneously, the two sides have announced a sweeping agenda for trade liberalisation. An agreement to ease visas for businessmen has already been finalised. Talks are on for establishing banking contacts, exporting petroleum products from India, and opening an additional land route for trade on the Rajasthan-Sindh border. Pakistan is considering an expansion of the list of permissible imports via land and India has promised to shorten the sensitive list of banned imports from Pakistan. Like all else in India-Pakistan relations, the slip between the cup and the lip is never far away. Given the uncertain political environment in Pakistan, it is entirely possible that the commercial spring in Indo-Pak relations could be short-lived. India has every reason to act, unilaterally if necessary, to implement its side of the trade bargain with Pakistan and make it easier for the civilian government in Islamabad to reciprocate.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Thanks bro but honestly I'm just a humble (and new) convert.

Only recently started enjoying whiskey. Been a fauji rum and water guy this long.

Now whenever I travel, I pick up one Chivas and one Glenmorangie from customs pakka

Theres an Irish one called Jameson which I was introduced to recently and which I quite liked as well.

Baaki, for regular tipple, Puneri favorite, apna Teachers zindabad!

Hi Doc,
Inclined to agree with on some of the above. Nothing beats a Single Malt. When I went to work for a Firangi outfit (quite some years ago) we had a visit from a Boss from the UK, I pulled out a bottle of J.W. B/L which I thought was 'par for the course'. He accepted graciously but added that a self-respecting Scotsman (he was Scots) always prefers a Single Malt. And gave me a bottle of Glenfiddich. That converted me. So since then, for my home collection its been the Glens; Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Glenlivet, Laphroaig etc. But even more fascinating are the so-called 'Island Whiskies' from Scotland; like the Shetlands, the Isle of Skye, Jura, Arran,Orkney etc. They are not so common in Duty-Free shops so you'll have to mosey around a bit. Like a Tallisker for instance. Then there are the Irish Whiskies, Bushmills (an Irish blended or single malt) or Tullamore or Connemara (that is a Peated with a distinct taste); all of these are worth a try like the Irish Jameson that you had.

Comparitively speaking, the usual Scotch Blends are somewhat pedestrian. Quite some time back there was a person (in Pune !!) who offered me a Blue Label (he was trying to pull me into some commercial venture !!), but that left me cold (which I had to hide).
The next best thing to Scotch is some of the better Japanese whiskies. The experts (I'm not one) claim that it has to do with the Montain Stream water used. Actually its said, that apart from the grain, the water used is critical to controlling the quality of Whisky. But I dunno too much about that.
Whiskies in India are !?! After all they are made from molasses with the 'required tweaking' in most cases. One exception earlier used to be Solan No.1 . But I have no idea about that now. So better to stick to the Indian Rums, they are more up-front. But I believe many of the old names like Hercules XXX are gone now. Is that true?

But even now, I cannot claim to be a perfect conneiseur of whiskies, since my favorite tipple is a good pilsener or laager. And ideally freshly brewed. I believe that Poona has a micro-brewery running. How good is it?

 

[Capt.Popeye]

<groan>

And here it comes, the charge of the Irani chai brigade! Maska bun, anyone?

I've always been fascinated, watching tea-tasters at work. They depend on trained and highly-refined palates, which get burnt out in ten to fifteen years, and their career is at an end. But they get paid accordingly.

Joe,
Dont only remember the 'Bun-Maska' there was another another thing called a 'Brun-Maska' where the Brun is a hard crusty bun like a French bread. Dip that into your 'Kadak Chai' or 'Paani-kum Chai'. Best way to end off an Irani breakfast of Eggs Akuri and Hot Toast with Slabs of Maska. Thank you Mr. Polson, for giving us so much Maska!

Some-how I never cottoned on the the idea of drinking 'brewed tea' which the Bearers (Boys (sic)) called 'English Chai' and which my parents preferred. So I looked for a mug of Cocoa instead till I reached that stage in life where I woke up for the 'morning watch' with a steaming mugful of 'Kye' (that was Cocoa and Chai).
Then Masala Chai from a roadside dhaba can be a great pick-me-up too.

No, I'd never like to be a Tea-Taster!

 

[Joe Shearer]

Joe,
Dont only remember the 'Bun-Maska' there was another another thing called a 'Brun-Maska' where the Brun is a hard crusty bun like a French bread. Dip that into your 'Kadak Chai' or 'Paani-kum Chai'. Best way to end off an Irani breakfast of Eggs Akuri and Hot Toast with Slabs of Maska. Thank you Mr. Polson, for giving us so much Maska!

Some-how I never cottoned on the the idea of drinking 'brewed tea' which the Bearers (Boys (sic)) called 'English Chai' and which my parents preferred. So I looked for a mug of Cocoa instead till I reached that stage in life where I woke up for the 'morning watch' with a steaming mugful of 'Kye' (that was Cocoa and Chai).
Then Masala Chai from a roadside dhaba can be a great pick-me-up too.

No, I'd never like to be a Tea-Taster!

I can only totter back on unsteady legs to my planter's chair and get the bearer to bring me my whisky pani there.

 

[ajtr]

Investment in India

There appears to be great excitement in Pakistan, particularly within the business community and financial institutions, following India&#8217;s decision to allow direct investment from Pakistan. In keeping with India&#8217;s growth rate and the dismal economic conditions at home, the various chambers of commerce and businessmen are extolling the opportunities which investment in India will offer. Before Partition, for those who lived in the part of India which is now Pakistan, the Bombay Stock Exchange was the only institution which offered an opportunity of investing in the private sector. And so they did.

But after Partition, the bank accounts and shares in Indian companies of the people who chose to stay in Pakistan were sequestrated by the government of India. These were treated as &#8220;enemy property.&#8221; Attempts to claim these assets by their rightful owners or their successors were met with the reply that this was not possible. So, after almost 65 long years, the beneficiaries of these assets have not received the benefits of investment in India which their elders had hoped for. Now that the government of India has decided to permit direct investment from Pakistan, wouldn&#8217;t it be proper to enquire what it intends to do with the assets of Pakistanis held by the custodian of enemy property in Mumbai?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pak businessmen want legal cover their investment in India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani businessmen who intend to invest in India should be given legal cover to ensure that no future government in Delhi reverses the decision to allow investments from Pakistan, a leading trade lobby has said.

The Pakistan-India Business Council (PIBC) urged the Indian government to "provide legal and constitutional cover to investors from Pakistan so that no government in future could reverse" the move to allow the entry of Pakistani investments.

The Indian government's recent move to permit direct investments from Pakistani investors is "a big decision for which the leadership of both countries deserves appreciation", the PIBC said in a statement.


"The decision is in line with the vision of Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of India," said PIBC chairman Noor Muhammad Kasuri.

Kasuri said the Pakistan People's Party-led coalition has been working to normalise relations with India and the decision on investments "will not only bring the two nations close to each other but also pave the way for finding solutions to longstanding disputes".

Pakistan's Commerce Secretary Muneer Qureshi said last week that the two countries will have to ink a bilateral investment treaty to resolve emerging issues related to investments.

"When investments are made, issues will emerge and then some kind of arrangement will be required to resolve bilateral issues. In order to resolve these issues on the investment front, Pakistan and India will have to sign a bilateral investment treaty," Qureshi said.

Qureshi said Pakistan's major players in the textiles sector may invest in India though it would be difficult for small and medium enterprises to make a breakthrough in the Indian market.

PIBC chairman Kasuri further said that President Asif Ali Zardari's proposal for setting up joint economic zones on the India-Pakistan border should be considered by India and a committee set up for working on the matter.

He proposed that the Indian government should set up special economic zones for Pakistani investors and give them concessions. This should be reciprocated in Pakistan by accommodating Indian investors in industrial zones, he said.

 

[ajtr]

wrt to above letter Indians who moved over to pakistan during partition can now reclaim their properties in India....

Singh helps Raja win his empire back

NEW DELHI: It's a king's tale with many twists and turns but a happy ending. Thanks to an intervention by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad will get back his properties across Uttaranchal and UP, together worth thousands of crores, in deference to a 2005 apex court order that had followed a prolonged 32-year litigation over ownership.

Mr Singh's intervention restoring the properties in question to Amir Mohammad Khan, erstwhile ruler of Mahmudabad, would result in the Ordinance issued by the central government last week extinguishing Khan's legal rights over the "enemy property" allowed to be lapsed on August 28. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2010, that was to come up in the current session to replace the Ordinance, has now been struck off the list of parliamentary business.

The Ordinance invalidating the apex court order reinstating the properties of erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad was promulgated last week at the behest of the home ministry, which had reportedly argued that the SC ruling had opened a Pandora's box with owners of similar 'enemy properties' across the country coming forward to seek their restoration on the same plea.

Mr P Chidambaram was all set to bring a Bill to replace the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, but pressure from the minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid who mobilised political opinion against the Ordinance stymied the home ministry's move.

Mr Khurshid approached the prime minister to convey that the ordinance would result in chaos in Uttar Pradesh, leading the latter to order the proposed bill to be struck of parliamentary business list.

The properties had originally belonged to Amir Mohammad Khan's father, a founding member of the Muslim League who migrated to Pakistan during Partition. His wife, Begum Kaneez Abdi, stayed back in India. The property was identified as evacuee property after Partition and thereafter declared 'enemy property' in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.

This spawned a legal battle with Amir Mohammad Khan approaching the courts claiming ancestral rights over the multi-million properties. A 32-year litigation ensued, with tenants too filing counter cases, but ended on a victorious note for the erstwhile Raja in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour and asked the government to hand him all his properties back.

The court order was based on the plea that since Khan had chosen not to migrate with his father to Pakistan and has stayed on in India as a rightful Indian citizen, he was entitled to reclaim his rights over different properties taken over by the custodian &#8212; an official appointed by the Centre.

However, there was considerable opposition to the apex court order from within the Centre. The home ministry was particularly keen to negate the Supreme Court's ruling with an ordinance extinguishing Khan's rights over the various buildings and complexes. An ordinance was promulgated by President Pratibha Patil last week declaring that all enemy property would continue to remain vested in the custodian.

As per the ordinance, even courts are not entitled to alter the status of any property that was once declared 'enemy property'. This meant that prime properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees in Lucknow's prime shopping centre, Hazratganj, Nainital, Sitapur and Lakhimpur-Kheri would go back to the custodian or its lessees.

Given the lucrative worth of the properties involved, the Mayawati government was all too happy to implement the ordinance and started ordering the sealing of buildings and land across Lucknow, Lakhimpur, Kheri and Barabanki. Since the bungalows of the district magistrate, superintendent of police and chief medical officer in Sitapur had also been handed over to the Raja, the official machinery began working overtime to get possession of these buildings.

 

[vsdoc]

Capt. Popeye, man you are a walking Encyclopedia on whiskeys! I am not too into the Johnny boys myself. The double black recently left me cold. Preferred the single black, though the Chivas is better. Have Tallisker on my list of next must haves. Heard good things. I am begining to enjoy a nice whiskey in the evenings, but my daughters give me disapproving looks, as does the old bai who does the cooking. Sometimes I wish I had not settled in my wife's city. I miss the whole maika deal ......

Joe, lucky you! Jameson is different and really nice.

Popeye, the akuri tastes great with brun maska - try it! Vohuman's opposite Ruby Hall in Pune still does a mean cheese poro (Parsi omlette) and akuri - the butter there is consumed in a few HUNDRED kilos per day. Salman Khan's favorite as well.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Capt. Popeye, man you are a walking Encyclopedia on whiskeys! I am not too into the Johnny boys myself. The double black recently left me cold. Preferred the single black, though the Chivas is better. Have Tallisker on my list of next must haves. Heard good things. I am begining to enjoy a nice whiskey in the evenings, but my daughters give me disapproving looks, as does the old bai who does the cooking. Sometimes I wish I had not settled in my wife's city. I miss the whole maika deal ......

Joe, lucky you! Jameson is different and really nice.

Popeye, the akuri tastes great with brun maska - try it! Vohuman's opposite Ruby Hall in Pune still does a mean cheese poro (Parsi omlette) and akuri - the butter there is consumed in a few HUNDRED kilos per day. Salman Khan's favorite as well.

No Doc, I'm certainly not! Though I'm probably able to speak more knowledgeably about different kinds of beer brewed around the world. But I do have a nephew (who woks as a whizz in one the IT outfits in Poona) who is trying to be an encyclopedia on Whiskies and getting there!

Thanks for the gen. on Vohumans. Will case that place when I visit Poona next to trade drinks and stuff with my nephew, of course on the way hopefully calling at Brittania in Ballard Estate in Bombay to have Berry Pulao for lunch.

Does Cafe Naaz still exist around Main Street? Their Chai was a legend, story has it that the whites of eggs were added to the vast degchi ( a huge vat) of tea that kept boiling through the day to give its distinctive taste. Dunno how much of that is BS?

 

[vsdoc]

No Doc, I'm certainly not! Though I'm probably able to speak more knowledgeably about different kinds of beer brewed around the world. But I do have a nephew (who woks as a whizz in one the IT outfits in Poona) who is trying to be an encyclopedia on Whiskies and getting there!

Thanks for the gen. on Vohumans. Will case that place when I visit Poona next to trade drinks and stuff with my nephew, of course on the way hopefully calling at Brittania in Ballard Estate in Bombay to have Berry Pulao for lunch.

Does Cafe Naaz still exist around Main Street? Their Chai was a legend, story has it that the whites of eggs were added to the vast degchi ( a huge vat) of tea that kept boiling through the day to give its distinctive taste. Dunno how much of that is BS?

Please don't leave Pune without meeting me!

No man, Naaz and Maha Naaz both were victims of expansion and modernization a long time ago.

One now houses Adidas retail and the other Will Lifestyle retail

Heard the same egg sheel story about Irani chai. Urban myth more likely.

You do get the same chai at Kohinoor and Yazdaan still. Yazdaan about to be taken over by a bank (deal's already done)

 

[Rig Vedic]

wrt to above letter Indians who moved over to pakistan during partition can now reclaim their properties in India....

Singh helps Raja win his empire back

This should be considered only after reciprocal treatment is given to Sikhs and Hindus who migrated from present-day Pakistan.

 

[indushek]

Hi Doc,
Inclined to agree with on some of the above. Nothing beats a Single Malt. When I went to work for a Firangi outfit (quite some years ago) we had a visit from a Boss from the UK, I pulled out a bottle of J.W. B/L which I thought was 'par for the course'. He accepted graciously but added that a self-respecting Scotsman (he was Scots) always prefers a Single Malt. And gave me a bottle of Glenfiddich. That converted me. So since then, for my home collection its been the Glens; Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Glenlivet, Laphroaig etc. But even more fascinating are the so-called 'Island Whiskies' from Scotland; like the Shetlands, the Isle of Skye, Jura, Arran,Orkney etc. They are not so common in Duty-Free shops so you'll have to mosey around a bit. Like a Tallisker for instance. Then there are the Irish Whiskies, Bushmills (an Irish blended or single malt) or Tullamore or Connemara (that is a Peated with a distinct taste); all of these are worth a try like the Irish Jameson that you had.

Comparitively speaking, the usual Scotch Blends are somewhat pedestrian. Quite some time back there was a person (in Pune !!) who offered me a Blue Label (he was trying to pull me into some commercial venture !!), but that left me cold (which I had to hide).
The next best thing to Scotch is some of the better Japanese whiskies. The experts (I'm not one) claim that it has to do with the Montain Stream water used. Actually its said, that apart from the grain, the water used is critical to controlling the quality of Whisky. But I dunno too much about that.
Whiskies in India are !?! After all they are made from molasses with the 'required tweaking' in most cases. One exception earlier used to be Solan No.1 . But I have no idea about that now. So better to stick to the Indian Rums, they are more up-front. But I believe many of the old names like Hercules XXX are gone now. Is that true?

But even now, I cannot claim to be a perfect conneiseur of whiskies, since my favorite tipple is a good pilsener or laager. And ideally freshly brewed. I believe that Poona has a micro-brewery running. How good is it?

What about Blender's Pride, its in my avatar and my favorite too

 

[Sashan]

What about Blender's Pride, its in my avatar and my favorite too

Hmmm. Never have taken a liking to Whiskey, Whisky or Scotch having tried right from Bagpiper to Blue label. Always like my Ketel ones and Hennessys( it is an irony I took a liking to it in Saigon )

 

[Capt.Popeye]

What about Blender's Pride, its in my avatar and my favorite too

Is that a contemporary Indian Brand? If so then this part of my post will apply, IMHO:

Whiskies in India are !?! After all they are made from molasses with the 'required tweaking' in most cases.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/econom...istanis-can-invest-india-6.html#ixzz22mlHIJxy

Now the base of any Whisky, esp. the Scotch Whiskies: is the grain (rye, malt etc.) that the alchohol is distilled from. That is intrinsic to its character. Most Indian Whiskies use alcohol distilled from Molasses, simply because it is plentifully available (as a by-product from Sugar factories). Then it undergoes 'tweaking' in the form of adding colors and flavors. I'd be careful to call that Whisky. And some premium brands even claim to be blended with Scotch Whisky. If that was true, then ship-loads of Scotch would have been imported into India every year!
I never saw or heard of that happening.

But on the other hand, I've seen some excellent home-distilled stuff in Punjab distilled from Grain (wheat). Very good and smooth. So the basis for most of the spirits is an alcohol distilled from some specific thing like Vodka from Potatoes or Beet. And Rum from Cane Molasses. Which is why the Indian Rums are so good.

But all that is academic after a certain point. If you like your Blender's Pride, go ahead and enjoy your tipple.
But don't drink and drive. Road traffic in India is Mayhem as it is. CHEERS!

 

[Bhairava]

This should be considered only after reciprocal treatment is given to Sikhs and Hindus who migrated from present-day Pakistan.

+ 1.......

 

[Matrixx]

If Pakistani will invest in India then who will invest in Pakistan