Seeking to expand the ambit of its Look East Policy and pave way for the fructification of its recently concluded Free Trade Agreement with Asean, India has formally granted market economy status to Vietnam. The move will help channelise commodity trade and mandate India to accept prices supplied by it in all anti-dumping investigations against goods originating from that country.

“India has granted market economy status to Vietnam last week. The Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung thanked our Prime Minister for the same during their bilateral talks,” Secretary (East) Ministry of External Affairs N Ravi said.

PM dismisses oppn demand for Raja’s resignation

Hua Hin: PM Manmohan Singh dismissed the opposition’s demand for Telecom Minister A Raja’s resignation in the wake of the CBI raids on the Department of Telecom and private players. “Opposition aur sarkaar mein nok-jhonk chalti rehti hai. Iska matlab yeh to nahi ki who jo kehte hain sab theek hai (Squabbling does go on between the opposition and the government. That does not mean whatever the opposition says is correct),” he said.