US sanctions on India, Pak go

The US President, Mr George W. Bush, today lifted sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan in the wake of their 1998 nuclear tests, saying that maintaining the embargoes would not be in the national security interests of the US. The sanctions following tit-for-tat nuclear tests by the two countries barred US economic and military aid to them. Observers here see waiving of the sanctions against Pakistan as a reward for Islamabad's commitment to support US in its campaign against terrorism after the September 11 strikes in New York and Washington in which over 6,000 people are believed to have been killed.

Happy Sinha plays it cool

The Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, sought to downplay the decision of the US to lift sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan after the nuclear tests in 1998. While welcoming the move, Mr Sinha said that he did not regard this as a “development of earthshaking importance”. “It is a good thing that sanctions have been lifted but it is a minor issue as far as the Indian economy was concerned as sanctions have spent themselves out,” he said.

Costly IBRD loans may be retired

The Finance Ministry has firmed up plans to retire some of the more costly loans taken by the Government from the World Bank. At a time when the Fund-Bank will be in a position to sanction increased assistance to India, after the lifting of the economic sanctions, the Government is instead identifying the relatively costly loans taken from the World Bank and other multilateral agencies over the last few years for retiring those loans, according to a senior Finance Ministry official.

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