BOTTLED TREASURE: Iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world

With petrol consumption expected to cross 120 million metric tonnes (MMT) and gas 96 MMT, India is all set to become the world's fourth-largest consumer of energy this decade. Its energy security planners have been drawing elaborate plans to extend its oil and gas sources to south-east Asia to avoid being totally dependent on Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran. However, the plan to import crude from Vietnam ran into hurdles as the oil has high viscosity and cannot be refined by most Indian refineries.

Realising Delhi's need to feed its energy-hungry markets, Vietnam has proposed to pay back its Rs 300 crore debt to India in the form of Iraqi "Basra light" crude oil. Hanoi gets Iraqi oil under the un monitored "oil for food" programme. Vietnam has so far repaid its debt by exporting rice. Oil India will now pick up the Vietnamese share of Iraqi oil at international prices and remit the debt amount to its coffers.

Nearly two years ago, India had sought approval from the un sanctions committee to increase oil imports from Iraq after Baghdad conveyed that it was willing to meet Delhi's energy needs at an incredible $7 a barrel. The UN is yet to decide on the matter. But with the Bush Administration gunning for Iraq, India's only hope of getting additional Iraqi oil is via Vietnam.

-Shishir Gupta

Talking Up

MR HOPE: Greenspan

The recession is over. Pronouncing this verdict, Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve chairman, told the Senate recently that an "expansion is already under way". Companies are reporting lower inventories, auto sales are up and consumer spending is growing. The unemployment rate fell for the second month in a row to 5.5 per cent. The clamour now is that the decline in output was so short that it did not qualify to be called a recession-a claim that won't amuse those who lost their jobs. Besides, pessimists warn of a double-dip recession with the second low to come

. -Anil Padmanabhan

AWESOME TWOSOME
Pumpkin And The Peach

ROLL MODELS: Victoria (left) and Roy

Posh Spice and Arundhati Roy-do they have anything in common? One is a fashion victim and another a Booker Prize winner now famous for taking part in political protests. However, British newspaper The Sunday Times finds they have a bond-both are role models for young British women because they share inspiring qualities. And, in the Sunday Times' rather stretched analogy, both lived as outsiders on the edge of community.

For Roy it was because her parents divorced when she was young. For Posh Spice Victoria Beckham the trouble was being rich. Apparently, nobody wanted to sit next to her in class because of that. According to the Times, Posh's appeal as a role model for the young coincides with Roy's but also moves beyond. To be Roy needs literary and intellectual talent. To be Posh, all one needs is a good figure and gumption, and that, the report wisely points out, is more achievable.

-Ishara Bhasi