Indian media: Brics bank 'a step in right direction'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-28322815

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Media in India feel "the equal sharing agreement" at the new Brics development bank is a step in the right direction.

The Brics group, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on Tuesday announced the creation of a new $100bn (£58.3bn) development bank and emergency reserve fund.

The capital for the bank will be split equally among the five participating countries.

India has been pressing for equal shareholding in what experts say is a bid to avoid China's dominance in the bank.

"India's insistence on the equal sharing of the initial subscribed capital was based on the premise that Brics bank should not fall into the practices of the Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF and the World Bank dominated by the United States," says a report on the India Today website.

The bank will have its headquarters in Shanghai, China, and the first president of the bank will come from India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is taking part in his first international conference since assuming office in May, said he was "happy that the initiative announced at the Brics Summit in New Delhi in 2012 has become a reality", The New Indian Express quotes him as saying.

Echoing similar sentiments, a report in The Business Line says that "India's status in the world order could get elevated by the success of the proposed" bank.

Alternate pole?

Newspapers and websites have reflected the sentiment in their headlines.

"Diplomatic victory: India to head Brics' $100 billion new development bank," reads the Deccan Chronicle's headline.

However, the First Post website differs with the view, saying the "first president will be Indian, but Brics bank won't work for us".

"Will Brics be an alternate pole, albeit with a regional flavour, to the West in international politics? If it does morph into an alternate growth pole, will it be a grouping of equals or will some nation be the primus inter pares in it?

"India should not fall into the trap of bleary eyed and mushy rhetoric. It's a Hobbesian jungle out there where power and power politics runs the roost. Let India not lose sight of this," it says.

And finally, a minister in the eastern state of Bihar has termed "mobile phones and non-vegetarian food as reasons for surge in rape cases", The Times of India reports.

"Many students misuse mobile phones by watching blue films and hearing obscene songs which pollute their mind," Bihar Art, Culture and Youth Affairs Minister Binay Bihari said.

"It's like issuing license for a revolver to individuals in the name of self-defence, but [it is] misused for criminal purposes," he added.

He also spoke against non-vegetarian food which he said "contributed to hot temper", the report added.

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