Rail maintenance equipment maker Harsco Corp. said Monday it has received $13 million in new rail orders, including contracts from Bangladesh and Liberia, a nod to the company’s effort to bring in new business from overseas.

Under one of the deals, Harsco will build a machine for the Bangladesh Railway system that makes rail tracks more durable by leveling and ramping them.

The unit will be constructed in Harsco Rail’s U.S. production facilities and is scheduled for delivery next year.

The Liberian order calls for the sale of a Harsco Rail Grinder, a machine that helps maintain and improve track by resurfacing and correcting damage. It will also be delivered next year.

Harsco has also received new orders in the U.S. from three railroads for its new drone tampers — fully automated vehicles that can tamp down track beds. The units are scheduled for delivery starting later this year and continuing into early 2012.

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Sources :The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the Indian state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) signed here today (Monday-30-08-2010) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for improving power stations in Bangladesh.

The NTPC, as government utility of India, as per the MoU will assess the feasibility of establishing coal-based power stations in Bangladesh. It will also make endeavour to improve human resources through training and development and look into the possibilities for developing power generations projects especially one coal-based project in Joint Venture.

Md. Abul Quasem,Chief Engineer (generation) of BPDB and Mr. A K Sharma, General Manager, of NTPC signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations at the NTPC Bhawan here this morning.

Indian Power Secretary P Uma Shankar and Chairman of the Bangladesh Power development Board Mr. A S M Alamgir Kabir witnessed the signing of the MoU. Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Mr. Tariq A Karim, Chairman of NTPC R. K. Sharma and senior officials of the NTPC and the members of the Bangladesh delegation were also present.

The NTPC may provide engineering consultancy service to BPDB for feasibility studies, site selection, technology selection, engineering design etc, for developing two coal based power projects approximately 1320 MW each in Khulna and in Chittagong, the MoU envisaged.

“The purpose of the MoU is to create a framework for the general understanding between NTPC and BPDB regarding their cooperation in the power sector of Bangladesh,” the MoU said. Dhaka and Delhi during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January this year, had expressed their desire to enhance traditional ties of friendship through development of economic cooperation in different fields including the power generation, transmission and energy efficiency.

Under the MoU signed today, the NTPC may provide long-term operation and maintenance consultancy services to BPDB for its underperforming power stations to improve their operating efficiency. The NTPC may also carry out technical assessment of the old power stations of Power Development Board in Bangladesh for efficiency improvement.

The MoU also have provisions to provide training to power professionals through the existing training system of NTPC and to prepare long term plans for BPDB to utilize NTPC’s training facilities.

The NTPC would also conduct simulator training on combined cycle gas turbine as well as coal fired power stations for improvement of Operation and Maintenance skill.

The NTPC and the BPDB may also set up a coal-based power project at Khulna under joint venture with 50:50 equity participation and the Joint Venture Company (JVC) will be registered in Dhaka.

The Joint Venture Company (JVC) will be managed by its Board of Directors with NTPC and BPDB nominating equal number of directors to the board of JVC. The Chairman of the JVC shall be a nominee director of BPDB for the first eight years and the MD shall be a nominee director of NTPC.

Thereafter, the position of Chairman and MD shall be nominated by rotation for 3-year period each from NTPC and BPDB respectively. A Joint Technical team (JTT) constituted with equal representation from both BPDB and NTPC will oversee the implementation of the MoU, it said.
NEW DELHI, Aug 30 – BSS

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All America is hallowed ground for freedom
By Bridget Kustin

Last week, I returned to Baltimore after spending a summer researching Islam, finance, and politics in Bangladesh. I still haven’t unpacked–I want to preserve the memories of hospitality and gratitude that couldn’t be captured in my field notes. The smell of wood smoke on clothes worn as my village host prepared me an elaborate Ramadan fast-breaking meal. The parting gift of pungent spices from an Islamic bank officer who accompanied me across my rural field site, answering my questions for hours. And when I arrived home, an email from one of Bangladesh’s most senior figures in Islamic banking and politics was waiting for me, asking if I made it back safely.
As I recovered from jet lag the day after my return, a passenger asked a cab driver in New York City if he was Muslim. When the cab driver responded affirmatively, the 21-year old passenger offered the traditional “Assalamu alaikum” greeting, then apparently slashed the driver’s throat and stabbed his arms and face. According to news reports, this horrific act will be charged as a hate crime.
The cab driver was an immigrant. He came to America 25 years ago from Bangladesh.
Critics of the proposed “Ground Zero” Cordoba House insist that America is exceptional because opposition to different religions and religious institutions is expressed peacefully. This is not true. Violence against Muslims is not systematic or state-sponsored, but it still occurs. These individual violent acts are all but sanctioned by media and political figures who undermine the humanity of Muslims by calling their religion inherently violent, or an existential threat to “American values,” or an innate threat to national security.
A less severe position is that Muslims can be good Americans, but projects such as Cordoba House are insensitive. According to these critics, constitutional rights should be subject to good taste.

Commissioners Richard Land and Nina Shea of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal advisory body, have opposed Cordoba House as insensitive and as a potential security risk, respectively. USCIRF commissioner chair Leonard Leo directs a Tea Party group collecting signatures against Cordoba House, billed on its website as an “affront to decency and common sense.”
The irony of American advocates of religious freedom opposing a Muslim community center would make for pitch-perfect political comedy a l??? The Daily Show if it wasn’t so deeply troubling. As a former USCIRF employee, the deep disconnect between these commissioners’ overseas advocacy and their domestic intolerance of the religious freedom of Muslims suggests to me that Islamophobia has worked its way well into the mainstream.
During my tenure at USCIRF from 2007 to 2009–first in communications and then as South Asia researcher–commissioners defended the right of religious minorities to build and maintain their religious institutions, no matter the popular objections or prevailing social norms. Among the countries in my portfolio, commissioners argued for the rights of Christians to maintain churches in Orissa, India, despite strong anti-Christian sentiment grounded partially in the fear of “forced conversions.” In Pakistan, commissioners defended the right of persecuted Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims and call their houses of worship mosques–despite the widespread, impassioned belief that Ahmadis are not ‘real’ Muslims. Commissioners criticized Sri Lankan government for citing security concerns while restricting the freedom of individuals to worship where and how they pleased.
Indeed, USCIRF advocacy is generally dedicated to upholding Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that every individual has the right, “alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Commissioners Land, Leo, and Shea should protect Cordoba House under Article 18 with the same vigor they have extended to foreign countries.
In Bangladesh this past summer, I met many Muslim Bangladeshis who excitedly told me about friends or relatives living in the United States, while gamely answering my probing questions about Islam. How shameful that being Muslim in the United States is now suddenly enough to have one’s religious freedom restricted via popular pressure–or even to get one killed.
To my host community in Bangladesh, and to my fellow Americans: that cab driver’s life is just as innocent and just as valuable as any of the 3,000 lost on September 11, 2001. All of America is hallowed ground for the freedoms that have made this country great. There is no greater affront to decency than to allow the slow erosion of our commitment to tolerance.

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Bangladesh will conduct its census next March and the process will be implemented using digital methods for more accuracy.

Planning Minister A.K. Khandker Thursday said the population and housing census, an exercise undertaken every 10 years, will be held across the country in March.

It will be the fifth exercise since the country’s independence, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency reported.

The country’s population was 76,398,000 in 1974, went up to 89,912,000 in 1981, reached 111,455,185 in 1991 and rose to 130,522,598 in 2001, New Age newspaper said.

The estimates of 2009 place the population at 156 million.

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“Iran formally invited Bangladesh last month to join $7.5bn plan

India remains hesitant because of disputes about prices, transit fees and its volatile ties with Pakistan”

DHAKA: Energy-hungry Bangladesh is examining an offer from Tehran to join a much-delayed project to pipe natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India, an official said on Tuesday.

Last month, Iran formally invited Bangladesh to join the long-stalled 7.5-billion-dollar trans-national gas pipeline, dubbed the ??peace pipeline??, Bangladesh??s energy secretary Mesbahuddin Ahmed told .

??We have sought more information on the offer, which we will examine,?? he said. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Dhaka confirmed the invitation.

The pipeline plan would see gas carried from Iran, which has the world??s second-biggest reserves after Russia, to Pakistan and then India. New Delhi has hesitated over the project because of repeated disputes about prices and transit fees and its volatile relationship with Pakistan.

But Hossain Mansur, the head of Bangladesh??s state-owned energy giant Petrobangla, told AFP: ??Personally, I??d welcome the offer.??

Bangladesh has offshore gas fields, but the country??s energy reserves are being depleted fast, Mansur said.

The government estimates current gas reserves will run out by 2014-15 at present consumption rates unless new gas structures are discovered.

The country has been grappling with a severe gas crisis in the past three years, with demand shooting up to 2,500 million cubic feet a day, against a supply of 1,950 million cubic feet a day.

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DHAKA ? Bangladesh has launched a vaccination drive in its northern dairy farming region to contain an outbreak of anthrax that has affected more than 100 people this week, an official said Tuesday.

Another 62 infections have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking this week’s toll to 114, Mahmudur Rahman, a health ministry director, told . No-one has died.

“We have sent medical teams to all anthrax-affected areas. The livestock department has also launched a major vaccination drive in the region,” he said.

Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest or inhale its spores while grazing. It can be transmitted to humans who handle or eat infected animals.

Anthrax does not spread directly from one infected human or animal to another but is spread through spores.

Anthrax spores can be produced in vitro and have been used in biological warfare. Weaponised anthrax has not been part of Western countries’ military stockpiles for decades but has been used in bioterrorist attacks.

Bangladesh’s current outbreak — one of nine this year — has spread in the dairy farming districts of Sirajganj and Pabna due to diseased cows being slaughtered and then sold on, Rahman said.

All of the current cases in Bangladesh are cutaneous — or skin — anthrax, which can cause wound-like lesions, he said.

“The farmers were not aware of anthrax. They slaughtered sick cows without knowing that it could transmit the disease to humans,” he said.

Along with the vaccination drive, local authorities have launched an awareness-raising campaign in the region, urging farmers not to kill infected animals and sell the meat.
Sources

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Many factors are working as disincentives to higher education in Bangladesh. Opportunities here for higher education have progressively decreased over the years. Hundreds of aspirants vie for a single seat in any of the departments of the Dhaka University. The scene is more or less the same in all other public institutions of higher learning in the country.

Thus, many in the student population with potential for higher education are finding themselves excluded from the opportunity of such education mainly because the number of general public universities and specialised universities has not increased. Furthermore, the capacities in such institutions have not expanded to make it possible for them to admit more students. The private universities that have cropped up, normally charge high fees that cannot be afforded by many otherwise good students. Thus, the way to higher education is narrowing. Such education is also becoming like a commodity to be purchased by students of affluent parents.

Even in the limited number of public universities or specialised centres of higher education, courses get too frequently disrupted by aimless party politics. Frequent violent incidents linked to such politics contribute to undermine the academic atmosphere. The other fall-outs from campus violence — session jams — painfully lengthen the time that students have to spend for their graduate and post-graduate studies. The public universities are also found lacking in introducing or providing up-to-date courses and teaching aids. The teachers in them, as a consequences of their involvement in party politics and pulls outside for private teaching assignments, are seen spending less than the expected time to their main teaching posts.

Improving conditions of higher education will require adequate attention to both quantity and quality factors. It is very necessary to substantially increase government’s investments in new general universities, specialised universities, engineering universities, science and technology universities, medical colleges, engineering colleges, agricultural colleges and universities, etc. Not only increasing their number, every effort must also be made to impart quality education in them. The resources of the publicly-run institutions of higher learning will need to be increased with greater allocations from the national budget for the purpose. The institutions themselves can reasonably increase tuition fees and other charges to meet increasing costs. Presently, tuition and other costs at public universities are nominal. Guardians will probably not find it hard to pay somewhat higher fees and other charges for the sound education of their young ones from such institutions.

Most private universities also need to progressively meet the criterion to be fully regarded as worthwhile centres of higher education. The deficiency of many of these institutions, in terms of not having their own campus, competent teaching staff and their own spacious premises to provide a healthful academic environment, excessive opportunities to study on a few subjects to the relative neglect of others, etc., do need to be addressed within a time-frame to ultimately overcome them. The operators of private universities do also need to take moves to set up campuses at sites away from Dhaka. Presently, 80 per cent of the existing private universities are located at or around the capital city, Dhaka. Private universities should be set up all over the country to create balanced opportunities for higher education.
Sources :

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AGARTALA:The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) 726-MW project coming up in Tripura will help to resolve the power crisis in the electricity-starved northeastern region by 2012, ONGC officials said
India’s hydrocarbons exploration major has been setting up the gas-based power project — its biggest so far — in south Tripura’s Palatana, about 65 km south of capotal city Agartala. The plant is expected to be operational by March 2012.

According to ONGC, the Power plant will start generating electricity by December 2011.

??The first unit (is) to be commissioned by December 11th and second one by March 12th (2011), that is the assurance I have been given by various senior level (authorities),?? said R S Sharma, Chairman of ONGC.
The first unit of the project with a generation capacity of 363 MW
The Palatana power project combined with transmission links and gas pipelines is slated to bring in investments of around rupees 90 billion, the largest ever single investment in northeastern region.

I feel this project which is getting commissioned here is not only significant for the economy of the state. It is very important for the economy of the entire northeastern region. More than that, this project is building bridges between the two countries, said Sharma

The kind of cooperation, the mutual understanding and the support that we have been getting from the Bangladeshi government and all authorities, we feel so much happy as the two nations coming together, he added.

Heavy machinery for the project was transported through Bangladesh, with Dhaka allowing transit through the Ashuganj river port on the river Meghna.

With the Palatana project generating excess capacity when completed, India has offered to link Bangladesh to its electricity grid and sell it power to help it overcome persistent shortages in peak demand periods.
The power plant is being developed by the ONGC Tripura Power Co (OTPC), a new company formed for commissioning the project

The forthcoming power project would be the single largest investment of Rs 9,000 crore ever invested in the northeastern region of India,” ONGC chairman and managing director R S Sharma told reporters here.
ONGC, also a public sector undertaking, has 50 per cent equity stake in OTPC. The balance is held by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Service (IL&FS) and the Tripura government.

According to ONGC officials, the state-run Power Grid Corp of India Ltd (PGCIL), OTPC and the northeastern states would set up a 660-km transmission line at the cost of Rs 1,771 crore to hook Palatana with the national grid at Bongaigaon in western Assam.

The much expected commissioning of the power project, a co-generation waste heat recovery power plant and ONGC’s first major commercial project, has been delayed due to difficulties in transporting heavy turbines and machineries to south Tripura.

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sources:p Project backed by World Bank and Asian Development Bank has been questioned over impact on indigenous community.
Four years after operations started Lafarge’s gigantic limestone mine in Meghalaya state, north-east India, is still at a standstill, pending a decision by India’s Supreme Court.

In February the court ordered a temporary halt to mining, demanding the French firm carry out an additional environmental impact assessment focusing in particular on protection of biodiversity on the site and in nearby forests, and prevention of sediment dispersal towards the river. The shut-down is costing Lafarge Umiam Mining Private Limited (LUMPL) $3m a month.

In 2006 Lafarge, a global leader in cement, boasted about the diplomatic and technical expertise deployed to locate this massive industrial facility, costing $275m, on the border between India and Bangladesh. A 17km-long conveyor belt can carry up to 6,000t of limestone a day to the cement works on the other side of the border, where the supply of gas, essential to the production of cement, is plentiful.

In 1997 the project gained the financial backing of the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary, on account of its contribution to developing this out-of-the-way area.

But in 2008 a confidential report by an ADB mission highlighted shortcomings, in particular the lack of transparency in the purchase or lease of land belonging to indigenous peoples. The report, which Le Monde consulted, concluded that the use of a go-between fell short of transparency requirements and did not comply with ADB policy on good governance.

The go-between in question was SG Lyngdoh, a member of the Meghalaya state parliament. In the mid-1990s he negotiated the purchase or use of land owned by indigenous peoples. From 1997 onwards he gradually sold the assets of his own company to LUMPL, a joint venture also involving Cementos Molins of Spain.

Under the Indian constitution, land in tribal areas cannot be transferred to “non-tribals”, unless the transaction contributes to the development of local communities. “And so far no one has benefited from it,” says a member of the Shella Action Committee, which opposes Lafarge’s incursion.

Lyngdoh, however, convinced the authorities to allow him to sell the land he had purchased to foreign organisations. “As far as we know land acquisition policy followed the relevant ADB rules,” a Lafarge spokesperson said.

In the village of Nongtrai, where the population has transferred land-use rights to the mine, Lafarge executives show off the recent improvements: a football pitch, an extension to the school, the purchase of six looms for the women of the village and a visit by a mobile clinic at least once a week.

“It is not much. Above all LUMPL has not allocated an annual budget for local community development. Projects are funded piecemeal,” says Kai Schmidt Solau, who took part in the ADB mission.

In February the Supreme Court decided to appoint other bodies to implement sustainable development policies. It also ordered a fund to be set up and endowed with $4m a year ? existing investments are estimated at $200,000 ? to be paid for out of royalties on the limestone. The fund will be managed by NGOs and the state governor for villages near the mine.

At Shella, villagers are demanding more jobs. “Out of 300 jobs on offer, we only got 50,” says village councillor Tobias Tiewdop. “And the lowest wages are only $65 a month, not enough to feed a family.” “Mike Cowell, of LUMPL’s parent company. responds: “A third of the workforce is allocated to security duties and we cannot give that work to local people.”

Lafarge now plans to invest $1m in a scheme for local residents. “But it is difficult for us to deploy sustainable development policies until we are sure we can operate the mine,” Cowell adds.

The villagers are already dependent on revenue from the mine. Although they only receive 25 cents per tonne of mined limestone, a third of what the owners of small mines in the vicinity ? they all dread what would happen if Lafarge actually left. “We would have to take our children out of the school and find other means of subsistence,” says Daioris Stembon, deputy-chair of the Shella women’s council.

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Bangladesh on Wednesday announced USD 2 million humanitarian aid for flood relief work in Pakistan which has affected an estimated 20 million people.

“Bangladesh announces this commitment as an expression of solidarity with the people of Pakistan,” the foreign office said.

Bangladesh would also send a medical team to Pakistan while relief assistance would include tents, blankets, water purification tablets, mineral waters, life saving drugs and vaccines, oral saline, hygiene kit, biscuits and packed dry food, it said in a statement.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had earlier in a statement expressed her deep sympathy to the Pakistani government and people on this human tragedy.

United Nations’ aid coordination body said that more than 650,000 homeless families were still without basic shelter while the floods and torrential rains in some parts of Pakistan have claimed more than 1,600 people.

Bangladesh, formerly the eastern wing of Pakistan, emerged as an independent nation after nine months of Liberation War crucially backed by India in 1971.

Dhaka-Islamabad relations still remained sensitive as issues like sharing of assets and repatriation of thousands of Urdu-speaking stranded Pakistanis are yet to be settled.

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