Left may pull out of coordination panel over US nuke deal
New Delhi: Communists, who provide outside support to the UPA government say they may pull out of a key government coordination panel if the central government compromises on a nuclear deal with the United States.

Sitaram Yechury, a senior figure in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition would come under strong pressure if he was not more "transparent" about the landmark pact.

Yechury's comments came before an expected debate in India's parliament over the deal on Thursday and ahead of a meeting between Singh and members of the country's nuclear establishment on Wednesday after senior Indian scientists wrote a joint letter to him saying changes to the nuclear pact could hurt India's ability to develop nuclear technology.

The civilian nuclear cooperation deal gives nuclear-armed India access to U.S. atomic fuel and equipment despite New Delhi not having signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In return, New Delhi has agreed to international inspections of its civilian nuclear reactors and segregation of its civilian and military programmes.

The deal received approval from the U.S. House of Representatives last month and is due to be considered by the Senate next month. The two houses then have to vote together after negotiations on technical details of the pact.

It also needs the approval of the Nuclear Suppliers Group of nations that regulates global atomic trade.
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ICFAI to open private universities across India
Mumbai: The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) plans to open private universities across the country in the next two years. The Rajasthan government has already permitted to set up a private university, and the ICFAI based in Hyderbad is also in talks with the state governments of Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Haryana and Maharashtra for provision of land. It will invest approximately Rs50 crore in setting up each campus.

At present the ICFAI has 18 B-schools across the country.

The subjects on offer at these universities range from management, technology (biotechnology, electronics etc), law, education and doctoral programmes according to the need and demand of the respective states. Besides, these universities will house various research units.

The institute is also planning to introduce a PGPEX (post-graduate programme for executives) at its Hyderabad campus this year.
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India tops in netizens growth
New Delhi: The total online population in India, measured in terms of people aged over 15 years accessing internet, rose 7.8 per cent to 18.02 million in June, from 16.71 million in March this year according to a survey by the US-based technology research firm Comscore Networks.

India is also the ninth biggest country in terms of the total online population from its 10th position three months ago, while the US has retained its top slot with 153 million of web users.

Moreover, the total number of people accessing internet in India could be much higher as the figures exclude those aged below 15 years, traffic from public computers such as cyber cafes and access from mobile phones or PDAs.

The number of internet visitors rose less than 1 per cent in the US, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, while United Kingdom (UK), France and Australia have actually registered a decline from the levels in March 2006.

According to the Comscore June World Metrix report, China witnessed the second-biggest jump of 5.22 per cent, Russia witnessed 5.14 per cent growth, while online population of Japan, Korea, Canada and Brazil rose between 2-4 per cent.

The US continued to have the highest online population across the world of 153 million, which accounted for 21 per cent of the all worldwide unique visitors, while India accounted for 2.5 per cent of the worldwide total.

China maintained its second position with 78.31 million online population followed by Japan and Germany with 53.10 million and 31.97 million respectively.
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