Bill Aitken came to India nearly 60 years ago. He never returned. An Indian citizen since 1972, he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how India changed his life forever.
Iran has offered to help India meet its energy needs by relaunching rupee-rial trade for export of oil and gas, said Iranian ambassador to India Ali Chegeni. Chegeni said if both the countries resume rupee-rial trade, bilateral trade can touch $30 billion. Iran used to be India's second largest oil supplier but New Delhi had to halt imports after the former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on its oil exports.
Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project has been found technically possible but its economic viability will depend on the price at which Tehran sells the fuel, said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel.
The over $7 billion Iran- Pakistan-India gas pipeline project has been found to be technically feasible but its economic viability will depend on the price at which Tehran sells the fuel, the Centre said on Tuesday.
India on Tuesday said its vote against Iran's nuclear plans will not affect the prospects of the proposed $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and its $22 billion deal to import LNG from Tehran.\n\n
The government on Tuesday categorically said that the United States had not any objections on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project with New Delhi.
A day after sealing final pacts with Iran on a long-talked gas pipeline, Pakistan on Monday said it will welcome India joining the project and will guarantee safe delivery of the fuel.
With New Delhi boycotting formal talks for almost three years, Iran and Pakistan this month signed last of a series of agreements for implementing the project on bilateral basis.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora met Iran's Deputy Minister for International Affairs H Noghrehkar Shirazi on the sidelines of the 12th International Energy Forum here to propose bilateral talks in May.
India maintains that it wants to be part of the project but cannot go ahead till its concerns with regard to security and issues related to pricing of gas are addressed.
After a two-year lull, India has proposed to resume talks with Iran on importing gas through a pipeline passing through Pakistan, but the Persian Gulf state wants the meeting to happen in Tehran.
Replaying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Deora said there are some outstanding issues including finalization of the gas price with Iran.
The Indian government, said a senior official, wishes to take talks forward on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
In a new twist to negotiations on the much-delayed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, Tehran wants legal immunity in case of armed conflict disrupting natural gas supplies through the proposed line.
India on Monday said it will meet Pakistan next week to resolve issues, such as transit fee, impeding progress on the over $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, even as it gets formally inducted in a rival line from Turkmenistan.
India is keen to partner the proposed multi-billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project and has promised to resist "all external pressures on the issue", Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.India's petroleum minister Murli Deora is set to arrive in Pakistan on April 21 to hold talks on transit fee to be paid to Islamabad on the $7 billion IPI project.
The move apparently has been triggered by the drastic fall in international crude oil prices which have dived from $147 a barrel in August 2008 to below $40 now. In the old formula, taking crude price at $60 per barrel, the cost of gas at Iran-Pakistan border translated into $4.93 per mBtu. But according to the new formula, gas price will shoot up to $5.9 per mBtu although crude prices have crashed below $40 a barrel.
Iran's proposal to transform the $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project to an Iran-Pakistan-China (IPC) project is nothing more than an "empty threat", according to Indian officials, who say the move is fraught with technical and financial challenges.
The US wants India to be converted into a military base to facilitate refuelling for its planes and recreation for the soldiers engaged in the Iraq war, Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat said.
India will host the next meeting on the 1,680-km gas pipeline, planned from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India, in October even as it has asked Tehran to call a trilateral meeting to finalise the rival Iran-Pakistan-India gas line.
Pakistan says it will go with the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline despite skepticism over the project from the United States.
India on Friday expressed confidence that the work on the proposed $7-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project would start by March next year as it is hopeful of finalising a transit fee agreement with Islamabad before that. India is confident of starting the 2775 km long IPI project by end of March 2008, M S Srinivasan, secretary, ministry of petroleum and natural gas, told reporters in Coimbatore.
Trilateral talks between India, Iran and Pakistan to discuss the project and framework agreement of their $7 billion transnational pipeline project would be held in Tehran next week.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have used a mix of charm and roguish coercion to let India know that he expected the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline proposal to become a reality in 45 days. But India is in no hurry to take a decision, a top Cabinet minister in the United Progressive Alliance government said. The volatile political environment in Iran and Pakistan has as much weightage now and the UPA government is becoming more reluctant.
Clearing the decks for the $7-billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project, the Pakistan government on Tuesday approved the gas sharing arrangement with New Delhi.
India has missed yet another meeting on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline last weekend as officials from Iran and Pakistan met in Teheran to discuss the revised project cost and a new pricing formula.
India and Pakistan will soon finalise the bilateral tariff and transit fee issues for the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. Technical teams of both countries will meet in Islamabad during April 16-18 to firm up recommendations to be discussed by the petroleum ministers of Pakistan and India at their meeting in Islamabad on April 23.
Pakistan and Iran have finalised a gas purchase agreement while India is yet to complete modalities for joining the project mainly due to differences with Pakistan over the transit fee to be paid for the gas transported through Pakistani territory. Iran had been asked by Pakistan earlier this month to finalise the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project by April because of its rising gas requirements. Iran said it was holding final talks with India to persuade it to join.
Iran on Tuesday denied existence of any contract for export of liquefied natural gas to India while stating that it cannot wait endlessly for New Delhi to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathered for their 5th summit in Shanghai
Stating that Pakistan can serve as a 'hub of economic activity' in the region by developing energy corridors, President Pervez Musharraf has offered to extend the proposed multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to China.\n\n
Iran, Pakistan and India are expected to hold a meeting in Tehran later this month to push the $7.4-billion IPI gas pipeline project that had been delayed after being caught in wrangling over transit fee.
Projects worth over $20 billion, ranging from the decade-long Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to various oil and gas exploration and production projects, are being re-considered, said officials in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Pakistan will go ahead with the multi-billion-dollar pipeline Iran-Pakistan-India project to carry Iranian gas even if India decides not to join it, President Pervez Musharraf has said.
India and Pakistan today began final round of discussions to resolve differences on the 7.4-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline before the three nations sign a deal next month.
The directive from 'above' has come to the petroleum ministry on the eve of the departure of the Indian delegation to Tehran for a decisive last round of the trilateral negotiations scheduled to be held there later this week.
Iran may put the $22 billion deal to sell liquefied natural gas to India on the backburner as New Delhi refuses to re-open the contract sealed two years ago, according to an assessment by the petroleum ministry.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora would visit Pakistan early next month to sort out differences over transit fee for the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
Iran had called a meeting of technical experts and lawyers from the three nations during September 24-26 to exchange views on the gas-supply contract that India and Pakistan, as consumers, would have to sign with fuel supplier Iran.
