News in Brief

Dr Senake Dias Bandaranayake, a noted scholar, has been appointed as Sri Lanka's next High Commissioner to India. He would fill the slot vacated a few months back by Shri Mangala Moonesinge. Sixty-two year old Dr Bandaranayake, presently vice-chancellor of the Kelaniya University, has held several significant positions in UNESCO and universitieis of London and Maryland.

Chief of Army Staff General V.P. Malik said in New Delhi that the process of modernising the infantry was high on the agenda of the Army and funds were being made available for this vital task. Addressing a gathering after releasing a book on infantry: "A glint of the bayonet", the outgoing Army Chief said, the Kargil Review Committee in its report had pointed out that modernising infantry was a must to boost its combat capability. The Army Chief, who retires on September 30, said the Indian Army is most experienced in battles today and proxy wars and low-intensity operations had doubled its fighting capabilities.

The Centre has set up a "Petrochemicals Vision 2010 Advisory Group" with the Planning Commission member, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia as its chairman, to shape the future of the country's petrochemicals sector. The group took shape after the chemicals and fertilisers minister, Shri Suresh Prabhu, met representatives of the industry earlier this year. Later, the Centre decided that, along with enhancing exports and examining demand projections over the next seven to 10 years, all policy issues will be examined by a high level advisory group. A similar group had worked on the background paper for the fertiliser industry.

Aspirin, the century-old drug used to treat headaches and prevent heart attacks and strokes, may also help to fight prostate cancer, British scientists have said. New research by doctors of the Prostate Biology Group at Imperial College and Hammersmith Hospital in London shows that the drug may stop or slow down an enzyme called Cox-2 that is involved in the growth of cancerous tumours. l India will press for increasing the World Bank's annual commitment during bilateral discussions at the annual fund-bank meeting in Prague starting on September 20. The Union Finance Minsiter, Shri Yashwant Sinha, who is leading a high-level Indian delegation, will take up New Delhi's case for enhancing the bank's commitment to $4 billion when the new Country Assistance Strategy is discussed for a three-year period starting 2001. The bank had agreed to a commitment level of $3 billion annually in the last case. Shri Sinha is expected to play a major role in the meetings this year in view of the fact that he has been recently appointed chairman of the Development Committee of the World Bank, which is the policy making body.

The Bharatiya Janata Party currently sees "an American policy tilt towards India rather than Pakistan" after Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's successful visit to the United States. With the Russian President, Shri Vladimir Putin visiting India early in October, the party sees no problem in India continuing her warm and friendly relations with Russia even as it unfolds a new understanding for cooperation with the United States. There is no contradiction in this, the senior BJP leader and a member of the national executive, Shri J.P. Mathur, said recently in New Delhi, pointing out that after all, the Cold War had come to an end a decade ago. Confident that Indo-US relations would grow in the right direction irrespective of the outcome of the American Presidential elections in November, the first meeting of the newly reconstituted national executive committee of the BJP, that is meeting in New Delhi on October 1, is likely to place on record its appreciation of the Prime Minister's outstanding US visit.