Putin to cement Indo-Russian ties: senators

NEW DELHI, Apr 29 (UNI): The Indo-Russia relations, which slackened after the breakup of the Soviet Union, will enter a new phase of dynamism and pragmatism when Mr Vladimir Putin officially becomes Prime Minister on May 8, top Russian senators said today.

''Mr Putin will give a boost to Indo-Russian relations...

as Russia moves to a multi-party democracy,'' Mr Nokolai Tulaev, heading a delegation of members of the Council of Russian Federation, told reporters.

The delegation, which also includes senators Oleg Pantoleev and Alexander Suvorov, is here to study the working of the Indian Parliament and incorporate its procedures in the Russian Parliament.

''We are very much impressed the way open discussions on important subjects take place in Indian Parliament....

We want to incorporate that,'' Mr Tulaev said.

T he senators were also impressed by the healthy interaction between the government and the Parliamentarians which, they said, was lacking in Russia.

The Russian Government should also be responsive to Parliament, they opined.

''We have come here to strengthen our historic relations with India ...

and make them prosperous,'' said Tulaev, chairman of the Commission on Parliamentary Procedures and Organisation of Parliamentary Activity of the Russian Federation Council.

Yesterady, the three-member delegation met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Chatterjee said the Parliamentarians can play a proactive role in cementing age-old relations between the two countries and should, therefore, interact more frequently in mutual interest.

He also evinced keen interest in the political processes and Parliamentary procedures followed in Russia, and said the two countries could share their experiences in the working of a Parliamentary democracy.

The delegation members will meet the Deputy Speaker of the Rajya Sabha later today.

They will learn the peculiarities of the legislative process, including the procedure of adoption of financial statues and constitutional amendments.

'Lalu Express' to have next stoppages in Singapore and Malaysia NEW DELHI, Apr 29 (UNI): Lalu Prasad, the showstopper of Indian political world whose rustic management skills have transformed the railways and greatly impressed the dons and students of top-grade business schools the world over, will now be going to Singapore to divulge his success mantra at the reputed INSEAD business school.

After having a series of sessions with the high-brow faculty and aspiring business brains of renowned B-schools like Harvard, Wharton, IIM-A and HEC, Paris, Mr Prasad will be in Singapore on May 12 to have an interface with around 350 MBA students at the Institute d' Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) Asia campus and give them an insight into 'Lalunomics'.

The high-profile Railway Minister, during his visit to INSEAD that ranks among the world's top ten business schools, will be delivering a lecture on the transformation of Indian Railways, which was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy six years ago.

Prasad will be delivering his lecture in Hindi and it will be translated in English with the help of translators.

The Minister may chip in with English during question-answer session.

A senior Ministry official told UNI that the icing on the cake for Prasad would be a visit to Malaysia on May 15 where IRCON had recently bagged a Rs 4000 crore high-speed corridor project in the face of tough international competition.

Under the deal signed with Malaysian KTMB Railway, IRCON will construct a high-speed corridor between Sanbam and Gamas, which would facilitate trains cruising at a speed of 250 km per hour.

"The deal is to be formally signed on May 15 in the presence of Prasad,'' the official said.

Giving details the Railway Minister's visit to Malaysia, he said it was in response to an invitation from INSEAD's Global Dean Frank Brown and Asia Campus head Narayan Pant.

The schedule for Prasad's visit was firmed up after Pant visited Rail Bhavan here yesterday.

Brown and Mr Pant had also visited India last year as head of an INSEAD delegation for an interaction with the Railway Minister.

The official pointed out that Indian Railways had entered into a five-year contract with INSEAD, under which the Malaysian business school was providing training to its senior officers on customer strategies with macro-plan perspectives.

For Prasad, this will be his first lecture abroad during which he is to dwell at length on the spectacular turnaround of Indian Railways, how he gave financial muscle to the government's biggest department without retrenching a single employee or effecting any hike in passenger fares for the last four years.

Impressed by his earthy management skills which have left the high-profile management gurus scratching their brains, Mr Prasad has been invited by the World Bank, Japan and South Korea to narrate his experiences as India's Railway Minister.

The invitation from the World Bank has been pending since long.

In fact, Prasad was scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Bank's headquarters in Washington last year, but it could not materialise because of the Parliament session.

The Minister has also been invited by the HEC School of Management, Paris.

He is also to address American and Bangladeshi bureaucrats in Washington and Dhaka respectively, the modalities of which are being worked out.

Last year, Prasad had visited a number of European countries, including France, Italy and England, to get a first-hand experience of the working of their railway systems.

CJI Alerts Indians to misuse of traditional knowledge NEW DELHI, Apr 29 (UNI): Alerting Indians to misuse of their traditional knowledge, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan has called for a national registry to comprehensively list what needs protecting.

''India does not even possess a complete catalogue or a full knowledge of the many different expressions of traditional knowledge it possess,'' Justice Balakrishnan noted at a seminar on Safeguarding Indian Traditional Knowledge late evening.

The CJI stressed having a ''National Registry'' so as to obtain ''a fairly comprehensive knowledge'' of what has to be protected.

He suggested steps to prevent erosion of traditions stimulate innovation and creativity based on such knowledge and protect traditional innovators' dignity and moral rights.

He also suggested adopting a legal scheme which allows a community to offer traditional knowledge for public use and receive equitable remuneration or benefits in case of private commercial use.

Noting how meetings on protecting traditional knowledge are seldom attended by its possessors- healers, village elders, Justice Balakrishnan stressed setting up a body ''representing the community concerned.'' ''Interestingly, whenever an intellectual gathering or academic deliberation regarding these issues does occur, it does not include the participation of the very people whose knowledge we are striving to protect- traditional practitioners, cultural healers, village elders and the like.

''It is important, therefore, that the rhetoric and discourse for protecting and safeguarding traditional knowledge be cast in terms of the indigenous peoples' world views and not only from the perspective of intellectuals and academics.'' He reminded that such people see their very existence as linked to such knowledge, and for them practice and protection of traditional knowledge is more an assertion of self-determination than anything else.

''The foremost need, therefore, is to establish a body representing the community concerned and the relevant sectors of civil society to balance the competing interests of access and control of traditional knowledge.'' The event was organised by Asia Pacific Jurist Association presided over by Punjab and Haryana Chief Justice Vijender Jain, who emphasised reinforcing ''our indigenous entitlements'' through the framework of law.

Justice Jain said the matter touches not only products and knowledge, but the cultural lineage as well as socio-economic aspects of the generations that nurtured and carried them to the present status.

"If we condemn our past, we are likely to doom our future as well.

If we fail to protect them, our inheritance is being lost and the essence and beauty of our culture get trampled upon.'' Speakers included two experts, Dr Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign, and Dr Philippe Cullet of the International Environmental Law Research Centre in Switzerland.

According to Dr Sahai, global treaties on indigenous knowledge are often ''not binding.'' For instance, the International Labour Organisation's convention 169, which talks a lot about legal standards for indigenous rights, ''fails to protect the intellectual property rights of indigenous people.''