With a view to stamp out fraud and ensure that students have the financial capacity to live and study in Australia, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Government of Australia announced (August 2009) strengthening of checks on student visa applications.  The targeted measures, which will address the potential for document fraud and other issues around financial capacity, identification and bona fides, include:

• Upgrading the interview programme to build a strong evidence base around fraud;

• Removing or restricting e-Visa access for some agents where there is evidence of fraud or inactivity, and

• Restricting access to e-Visa for some segments of the caseload if analysis demonstrates restricted access would allow for better control of fraud;

As part of Government’s efforts to combat the menace of international terrorism, Ministry of External Affairs has signed agreements for establishment of Joint Working Groups (JWG-CT) on Counter-Terrorism with 25 countries and 2 regional organizations. The JWGs provide a forum for counter-terrorism cooperation enabling sharing of information, experience and assessments regarding global terrorism, training and capacity building including in relevant technologies and equipment, countering terrorist finance, strengthening of multilateral efforts in the area of counter-terrorism, and facilitating agency-to-agency cooperation. Additional Secretary (International Organizations & Political), MEA leads meetings of JWG-CT with participation by representatives of MHA, IB, Cabinet Secretariat, DEA, Department of Revenue, CBI, Narcotics Control Bureau, Financial Intelligence Unit-India, ICMR etc. JWG agreements are signed with countries based on mutual assessment of need; this assessment is an ongoing process. 

India and China through negotiations are seeking to arrive at a final settlement of the International Boundary between India and China. There is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries. From time to time, on account of differences in the perception of the LAC, situations have arisen on the ground that could have been avoided if we had a common perception of the LAC. Since 1993, the two Governments have agreed to maintain peace and tranquility along the LAC in the India-China border areas, without prejudice to their respective positions on the alignment of the LAC as well as on the boundary question.

The regulation and risk assessment of GM crops must address two questions. First, what is the degree of enforcement and commitment to keeping India safe? And second, what is required to regulate this hazardous technology before the environmental release of any GMO [genetically modified organism]? The need for extreme caution arises from the fact that once released into the environment, these organisms cannot be recalled. Yet, we have a most complacent pro-industry process: a safety dossier prepared by Monsanto with no regulatory oversight and no capability in place to conduct independent studies.

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Islamist fundamentalist organisations rooted in religious obscurantism have long been prone to sudden bursts of irrational violence at the slightest provocation. The stone-throwing and arson in Karnataka by fanatics against the publication in a Kannada daily of an article, purportedly by Taslima Nasreen, on wearing of the burka were a nasty challenge to the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. Two people died, one of them in police firing, after thousands of protesters came out on the streets in Shimoga and Hassan districts and indulged in indiscriminate destruction of private and public property.

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