International and Bilateral Issues:

The Maldives is bracing for another showdown between the traditional, democratic Maldivian Islamists and those who hold extreme views on Islam.
The Maldives believes there is Pakistani money helping the extremists.
Last Christmas, trouble erupted after a restaurant decorated itself for Christmas. Under Maldivian law, no religion barring Islam can be publicly practised. The buntings were pulled down in no time but as news spread, protesters filed into the capital, Male, and ended up fighting pitched
battles with the police. Tourism during the season took a serious knock after the protests.
The religious extremists, growing in numbers despite international efforts to preserve the Maldivian brand of tolerant Islam, have called for a protest on December 23.
The protesters had received support from both Pakistan and the former Maldivian President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Ahead of the religious protest, President Mohamed Nasheed defended Islam as practised in the Maldives.
President also defended traditional cultural practices such as playing and listening to music. He also defended the role of women in society, noting that “women have been in the Maldivian workforce as long as men.”

A bipartisan bill has been tabled in the U.S. House of Representatives to make companies that move call centres overseas ineligible for grants or guaranteed loans from the federal government, a move aimed at stemming the tide of jobs heading to nations like India.
The companies also require to provide 120-day advance notification before moving a call centre overseas.
The call centre bill has strong backing from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a union which represents 150,000 call centre workers in the U.S.
In a report, issued recently by the CWA, the union alleged that outsourced call centres, including some based in India, pose a serious security threat as there are insufficient safeguards in place to deter fraud.
Reverse' call-centre outsourcing — driven by broadband — could create 100,000 U.S. jobs. If passed, the proposed call centre legislation would likely further fuel a move of call-centre jobs back to the U.S.
Today the outsourced jobs just cost only $11-12 an hour. Similarly the unemployment benefits have been extended to 180 days or more by the present Obama Government. As a result, they are not willing to work for low salaries. This is the ground reality

Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Y. Thinley has said that with unfailing assistance from India, Bhutan had been making notable advancements in all fields.
Emphasising that the two countries should work together towards creation of a “harmonious and cooperative SAARC,” he called upon India to take the lead in bringing forth a suitable atmosphere for economic development in terms of trade and investment flows.
This would further lend support to India's demand for a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council so that it could provide effective leadership to the other countries in the region
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could not be considered “the beacon for societal well-being” because it disregarded “the ultimate purpose of life and desire of the human being,” he said.
What he offered as an alternative was a measure of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which would mean judging a policy on the basis of its contribution to living standards, health status, educational standard, psychological well-being along with cultural, communal and ecological diversity.

India has asked Russia to drop a court case against a translation of the Bhagavad Gita
Russian court adjourned the case till December 28 to hear the views of Indologists from Moscow and the Russian ombudsman on the Bhagavad Gita and the minority rights.
State prosecutors are seeking a ban on the Bhagavad Gita, alleging that it promoted extremism and sowed social discord.
Ombudsman said the attempt to ban the book amounted to infringement of the constitutional right to the freedom of consciousness.
Prosecutors said it was not the original Bhagavad Gita that they found offensive, but some commentaries allegedly insulting non-believers in the book written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
The case is built on testimony from local professors of philosophy and philology that the book expresses religious hatred and discriminates on the basis of gender, race, nationality and language.