The mysterious case and photos of Qing Wang

New Delhi: Photographs retrieved from a Macbook laptop belonging to a Chinese national have left the Government befuddled about her intentions.

Qing Wang, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was passing herself as both a timber sales representative and TV journalist. Her pictures show her "interest" in insurgent movements in South Asia particularly NSCN-IM in Nagaland, Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar and Maoist rebels in Nepal.
On January 21, Indian Immigration authorities sent back Qing on board Chinese Eastern Airlines flight CZ 360 from IGI Airport and deported the Beijing resident to Guangzhou. This happened when she was caught in Dimapur without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit.
While Qing was given a tourist visa (No. AH-228250) on her passport (No. G45343709) to visit New Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and Bangalore from December 17, 2010 to January 25, 2011, she "strayed" to Nagaland after meeting NSCN-IM general secretary Th. Muivah for four hours in Delhi.
Qing was questioned for nearly 36 hours by security agencies at IGI Airport and was allowed to leave after she "evaded" all questions. Sources said that Qing, resident of F 1910-1912, Tower C, Beijing Global Trade Centre, No 36, North Third Ring Road, East Dongcheng district, Beijing, was deported as she was suspected to be a "non official cover agent."
Her visa application said that she was working as Department Manager in the Trade Department of Beijing Xuanwei Timber Industry Company Limited in Dongcheng. However, she passed herself as a journalist and took the Brahmaputra Mail on January 15-16, 2011, to Dimapur along with other Naga youths.
A background check on Qing found that she had travelled to India thrice: from December 27, 2009 to January 23, 2010; from August 11, 2010 to August 23, 2010 and her trip this month.
During her last trip in August 2010, Qing made her first acquaintance with Muivah in Delhi and visited the NSCN-IM Camp Hebron at Manglamukh as well as a camp in Kohima. This time, she had a long meeting with Muivah and then went to Camp Hebron where she was caught by Dimapur police and flown to Delhi.
What intrigued authorities is that Qing travelled to India in August 2010 on a separate passport (No G 16555721) with similar identity details and landed up at Kolkata from Kunming in Yunnan province.
The NSCN-IM has a presence in Kunming with their chief arms supplier Anthony Shimray, now under arrest, travelling to China no less than six times since 1994.
"Her keen interest in Naga insurgency and her extra-cautious measures in movements raised doubts about her stated official position and indicated that she had links with Chinese intelligence," a senior official said.
Qing's laptop revealed photographs with Muivah in Delhi, with Maoist supremo Prachanda aka Pushpa Kumar Dahal in Nepal, in a purported PLA camp in Nepal and a Kachin insurgent camp in Myanmar. It is suspected that Qing was in touch with some of these groups.
Source: The Indian Express

Sibal delinks spectrum from licences, new telecom policy soon

New Delhi: In a major shift in spectrum allocation policy, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today announced that henceforth no licence would be issued bundled with spectrum and also the operators would have to pay a market price for an additional spectrum.

He also said that for new operators the contracted amount of spectrum would be 4.4 Mhz and for the incumbent players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea the limit would be 6.2 Mhz.
"In future, the spectrum will not be bundled with licence. The licence to be issued to telecom operators will be in the nature of 'Unified Licence' and the licence holder will be free to offer any of the multifarious telecom services.
"In the event, the licence holder would like to offer wireless services, it will have to obtain spectrum through a market driven process," the minister said.
This means the new operators, if their licences are held valid, would have to pay a market price for the additional 1.8 Mhz of 2G spectrum and this may make their operations financially unviable.
While for the old operators, who are holding spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz would have to pay market driven price for the extra airwaves. These changes would be implemented with immediate effect, Mr. Sibal said.
"We need to seriously consider the adoption of an auction process for allocation and pricing of spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz while ensuring that there is adequate competition in the auction process," Mr. Sibal told reporters here.
He also announced that there would be a uniform rate of revenue share to be paid by the operators as spectrum charge to the government as part of level playing field for all players.
These changes would be part of new telecom policy being framed by the Department of Telecom.
The new telecom policy is expected to tighten the norms for grant of licences and airwaves to service providers in a bid to induce transparency and provide a level-playing field to new and existing players.

Sibal said more notices will be issued to companies that had failed to roll out their services as contracted to explain why their licences should not be annulled.
"We've reached a stage where the objectives of the existing policy has been well served. Every circle has 12-14 competitors. Tele-density has reached almost 62 percent. Now the broad contours of the policy needs a directional shift," Sibal said.
"It also is necessary to ensure a level-playing field for all players. Going forward, any new policy on pricing would need to be applied equally to all players," said the minister, ruling out first-cum-first served basis for award of spectrum in future.
According to Sibal, the responses have been sought from the industry watchdog, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRA), on these issues and the policy would be announced within the 100-day deadline he had set for himself when he assumed charge in November.
The remarks come against the backdrop of opposition parties and a petition in the apex court alleging a large-scale scam in the award of spectrum for second generation (2G) telecom services since 2006, prompting government action against some 11 companies.
Sibal has also been under attack by the apex court and the opposition for his remarks that the official auditor was "utterly erroneous" in assessing the loss on award of second generation (2G) telecom spectrum at Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) in 2008.
The government's missive to new telecom companies notwithstanding, the Supreme Court had also issued notices to 11 companies, asking why their licenses should not be anulled for not complying with the conditions, including time-bound roll out of service obligations.
The companies that have been issued notices are: Etisalat, S-Tel, Uninor, Loop Telecom, Videocon, Allianz Infra, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Dishnet Wireless and Vodafone-Essar.
Source: PTI & IANS

A dictionary for our times

By Pratap Bhanu Mehta

In ancient polities political disorder used to be best measured by linguistic disorder. In the Mahabharata, a sense of moral vertigo is induced by no one knowing quite what key moral terms mean any more. Thucydides conveys a sense of political disorder and chaos by telling us that words themselves have lost all meaning. Confucius thought that a well-ordered society required “fixing names.”

On that measure most of the key terms of our political Constitution are now profoundly disordered. The traditional associations of those words don't make any sense; but the new ones are not fixed. Perhaps the path to moral clarity lies through first recognising and fixing meanings. Only then can we understand that we are in the midst of a new constitutional regime, where old words need new definitions.
Let us begin with our constitutional order.
Office of the prime minister: The weakest office in the cabinet.
Cabinet government: Each minister for himself or herself.
An opposition party: A party guilty of exactly the same things it accuses government of.
Federalism: A system of government where the Centre takes credit for growth and blames the states for poverty.
Member of Parliament: Marginal players in the system, whose sense of worth depends upon major pandemonium.
Supreme Court: The only office whose majesty cannot be redefined. (Any redefinition risks incurring a contempt petition.)
Office of the governor: Like an imperial regent in princely states. Can meddle if necessary.
Civil liberties: Something you might just get -- if you can have Ram Jethmalani as a lawyer.
Coalition politics: When there is always some other party to blame.
Separation of powers: When each branch of government thinks it can do the other's job better.
Then there are two curious words associated with government. These are curious because they mean themselves and their opposite. Is it a coincidence that they are used in connection with our government? The first is scheme: both a benevolent government project to help the people and something conspiratorial. In government the two meanings unite to make benevolence a conspiracy. The second is sanction: it can mean "giving permission" or "reprimanding." When sanctions are given or refused, which speech act is being undertaken?
Then there are some new words that signal political change; words that promise a new revolution and imagine new utopias.
Governance: During revolutions, new slogans are coined. "Power to the People!", "Liberty!" and so on. Now our war cry is "Governance!" Fourteen prominent citizens have even petitioned the prime minister to take this seriously. A powerful revolutionary slogan, inevitably, has several meanings. It poses a real semantic challenge. Is it a noun or a verb? Is it a problem or is it a solution? Is there a path to governance or is governance the path?
But here are some competing definitions. 1) The word polite company uses when it doesn't want to directly blame the government for not taking decisions. 2) The word the PM uses to explain why he cannot take decisions. 3) The word used by people fed up with politics. 4) The word used by politicians fed up with bureaucrats. 5) The word used by civil society fed up with everybody. 6) The word used by people who wish they were living in China.
Independent institutions: Another revolutionary re-imagining of our institutions. What form of government does it mean? 1) Where people have the illusion that they can bypass politics. 2) Where people want to duck the question "Who guards the guards?". 3) Where the solution to a breakdown in every institution is to create another one. 4) One which bureaucrats and judges love, since they get more power.
But perhaps we should not complain. After all, all utopias are fuzzy and vague. And seriously, can there be a more energising war cry than "Governance"?
But we don't just have an emerging utopian political imagination. Even some of our old institutions have taken on new roles. Consider:
Income tax department: The department that raids individuals when the media does not do a good enough job producing gossip about film stars.
Central Bureau of Investigation: The agency the Supreme Court trusts, just because the court is monitoring it.
Civil society: That part of the establishment that does not like the establishment but is too afraid to come out on the streets.
Ministry of defence: The ministry that defends India against its greatest enemy: not Pakistan, not China, but corruption. No decision, no corruption.
We even have a new economics to go with a new political system.
Inflation: The only economic phenomenon that government can blame on the weather.
Public-private partnerships: More efficient rent-seeking arrangements between the public and private sectors.
Interest rate: The thing the RBI has to fiddle with when the government closes off all fiscal options.
Inclusive growth: The kind of growth that gives the government an excuse to launch more schemes that it claims it has no capacity to implement.
Free market: When government discretion and tariffs are sold on the market.
Then there are serious redefinitions of major political challenges:
Kashmir: The place the BJP needs to plant a flag when it is bored with other problems.
Northeast: The place where ethnicity and elections are synonymous.
Maoism: The political phenomenon that the Trinamool thinks will be easier to fix than the Railways.
The list could go on. After all India has arrived at the world stage. It must have a new global vocabulary.
Strategic thinking: The decision we take when we have given ourselves no options.
This list is admittedly incomplete and random. More skilful linguists could come up with deeper and profound changes. Our language is breaking under the weight of our political and economic innovation. We are talking at cross-purposes because we don't know whether we are using words in their old or their new meanings.
Since language is an inherently social enterprise we will all have to contribute to the reconstruction of our language. But how can one possibly make sense of our times, when words and institutions lose all their meaning? In uttering them, we conjure up merely unmeaning shadows of their former referents.
The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi
Source: Indian Express

Delhi launches distribution of unique ID numbers

New Delhi, Jan 25 (PTI) The ''Aadhar'' programme was launched in Delhi today by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who distributed unique identification numbers to a few residents from vulnerable sections of the society.

"Our collaboration with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will yield positive results and people will have their identity numbers along with all relevant and crucial details," Dikshit said after distributing the numbers and unfurling the tricolour at the state-level Republic Day function organised at Chhatrasal Stadium here.

Bank passbooks were also handed over to the residents who received UID numbers. The UID numbers will enable people to establish their identity while applying for bank accounts and will also help them get SIM cards from MTNL, officials said.

Delhi government had started giving out UIDs to the city''s 40 lakh homeless people in October 2010. Officials said the government will now start enrolling the rest of Delhiites.

Addressing the gathering, Dikshit congratulated school children and citizens for rendering their constructive cooperation in hosting the Commonwealth Games, "which turned out to be the best ever international sports event".

"An apprehension was being reported over the success of Commonwealth Games, but we managed to make it a magnificent event. We were able to gear up all our resources for the success of Games despite being involved in overcoming flood-like situation," she said.

The chief minister said the hosting of Games provided an opportunity to take up a large number of developmental works on war-footing within shortest possible time which would have otherwise taken six years to complete. "This also provided us an excellent opportunity to showcase our world-class infrastructure and greenery of the city."
The chief minister stated that her government during last 12 years has been able to bring a positive change in governance by enhancing transparency and accountability.

It has now implemented service-level agreements (SLAs) to ensure delivery of services by various departments within prescribed time-frame. "Around 40 services have already been included and it is expected that the number of services will be over 100 very soon," she said.

This will provide relief to the common man who used to roam in offices to get their certificates issued from the authorities, Dikshit said.

Further, it has also been decided that the officers found to be lukewarm and negligent in their works resulting in late delivery of services will be suitably fined to make SLAs more effective with more sharpened teeth, she said.

What AIIMS students live with: Dirty water, no doors in women's washrooms, stray dogs

Unhygienic drinking water, missing doors in women's washrooms, naked high-tension wires are a few of the many ailments that students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have been living with as they wait for a promised new hostel building for postgraduate students at Masjid Moth.

The construction of the building, which has been in the pipeline for the past seven years, has been pushed back once again, with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) returning the AIIMS 2011 masterplan. The civic agency, which had received the revised copy of the plan on December 28, has asked for more information.

Students, meanwhile, have sent repeated complaints to the authorities, hoping for redress.

In September last year, faecal coliform bacteria were found in samples of the institute's drinking water supply in the boys' hostel and the swimming pool — the water pipeline has, however, not been examined till now by the Engineering department.

"Engineering personnel came and cleaned the tanks, but the drinking water is still visibly muddy. This effectively means that sewage water has been coming in contact with the drinking water for over four months now," said Dr Debjyoti Karmakar, president of the AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association (RDA).

The hostel's drinking water purifying plant has been dysfunctional for the past two years.

Bigger problems lie at the women's hostel, where the washrooms either do not have latches on the doors or do not have doors at all. While new doors were installed in October last year, students said they fell apart within a month.

"It is barbaric. Not only do the doors not shut, most of the lights don't work either. Dogs roam inside the bathrooms and it is terrible to use them at night," said a woman resident doctor.

Getting hot water for bathing is another issue, as most of the geysers are not working. "Two men's hostels have solar heaters. This year, despite repeated reminders, the heaters were activated only at the end of December," said another resident doctor.

According to Dr Karmakar, six doctors have complained of dog bites inside hostel premises in the last six months.

High-tension naked wires, lack of parking facility and the non-working "free Internet Wi-Fi" facility also feature on the list of complaints.

"We were promised special parking stickers months ago, but that never took off. At first faculty members started using the space, but now even patients park their vehicles in our allotted space," said Dr Karmakar, talking about the reserved parking facility for resident doctors.

Meanwhile, the 1,700-bed hostel site at Masjid Moth continues to lie deserted. After five years of non-activity, the masterplan was first sent to the NDMC in October 2009. After additional information was sought, the institute sent a revised copy on December 28 last year, which has now been labelled inadequate.

NDMC officials said they have asked the AIIMS administration to provide additional inputs in their proposal, such as the FAR ratio of the buildings and ground coverage. "In the past, AIIMS built structures without proper clearance of the building plans."

AIIMS RDA representative Dr Bhaumik Shah has now filed an RTI with the NDMC to get details of the delays in the promised new hostel.

At present, 70 per cent men and 80 per cent women doctors have to wait for around 20 months to get a hostel seat, even as the residency programme itself runs for three years. "We are called at odd hours due to the nature of our job, and it is difficult for women who rent places far away from the hospital to report for duty at night. There have been repeated complaints of eve-teasing," said Dr Karmakar. In October last year, a junior resident was beaten up and robbed while returning to his rented house in Janakpuri.

While the AIIMS administration refused to comment on record, senior administrative officials told Newsline that the delay in the Masjid Moth hostel is due to the "finicky" nature of the civic body. "AIIMS is a very old institution. A lot of structures have come up, which may not necessarily meet strict building requirements, but it is not practical to bring them down. We have now been asked to furnish details of all existing buildings, which is resulting in additional delay," said a source.

For the new masterplan 2014, the NDMC has asked AIIMS to submit the FAR of all its buildings. "Once the submission is done, we can clear the plans and forward them to Delhi Urban Art Commission," said a senior official of the NDMC. The official also highlighted the fact that part of the AIIMS land in Gautam Nagar belonged to the MCD.

"The process of giving sanction to the masterplan is complicated, but it has recently been sorted out. The NDMC can now clear the building plans on the land on behalf of the MCD," he said.

IndianExpress

Chinese ‘spy’ detained but deported without noise

New Delhi, Jan. 25 : India picked up a Chinese woman suspected to be operating as a spy in the guise of a TV reporter but quietly deported her on Friday in a reflection of New Delhi’s eagerness not to precipitate matters with its testy neighbour.

The 39-year-old woman, identified as Wang Qing, had posed as a TV reporter to meet Naga militant leader Thuingaleng Muivah in a government guesthouse in Delhi, sources told The Telegraph.

On Saturday, the foreign ministry “conveyed its displeasure” to Beijing.

Youth attacks Aarushi's father with meat cleaver

Ghaziabad: Rajesh Talwar, father of murdered teen, Aarushi, has been attacked on Ghaziabad court premises by an young man.

Tv grab shows Rajesh Talwar (left) bleeding after being attacked by a youth (right)

Talwar was hit on the face by a meat cleaver and was seen bleeding profusely from the face.
He had fallen to the ground thereafter but had picked himself up unsteadily.
Talwar was holding his forehead but looked like he was in control of his movements.
The extent of the injury is yet unknown.

Combination photo shows Rajesh Talwar after the attack

The young man had refused to run away and allowed himself to be caught.
People gathered there then started beating the young man.
Talwar was at one time an accused in the murder of his daughter, Arushi.
Source: Indian Express

Crackdown on benami deals

ovt to bring bill cracking down on benami transactions, includes confiscation of property

The scam-ridden Adarsh housing society

New Delhi: In one of its more serious anti-corruption moves, the UPA government is planning to crack down on benami transactions, including confiscation of such properties.
Loopholes in the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, allow proliferation of black money through such deals, especially in property -- in the controversial Adarsh Society alone, 35 flats are allegedly owned in benami names.
The planned legislation will empower designated government agencies to seize benami properties. Unlike the present Act, the onus of proving that the property in dispute is not benami would rest on the owner and not the authorities.
The Ministry of Finance is ready with the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, 2011, and it has reportedly been cleared by the Union Law Ministry. Sources told The Indian Express that the Central Board of Direct Taxes is studying the proposed amendments and is expected to give its comments soon.

Though the present Act allows the government to "acquire" benami property, the absence of a proper implementation machinery has ensured that the law is seldom used. Another major handicap is the burden of proof lying on the government or the person making the allegation of benami transactions.
The new law provides for setting up of fast-track courts to deal with such transactions. Appeal in the matters will lie with the respective high court, which will have to be satisfied that a substantial question of law is involved before taking up the appeal.
The proposed Bill also aims to bar the owner or his legal heirs from giving any defence in respect of the benami property. More importantly, once a property has been held benami, the owner would not be allowed to launch any legal proceedings to recover such a property.
While the previous Act applied only to tripartite transactions and did not cover bipartite or sham transactions, the proposed amendments would take all this into account.
The amendments also provide for prison term up to two years and fines for anybody found guilty.
Source: Indian Express

Top five IT companies to hire 1.8 lakh persons in 12 months, says Infosys

Indian IT sector seems to have come back to its record-breaking hiring days, with a top industry player Infosys projecting up to 1.8 lakh employees being hired by the five largest companies alone this year.

"Growth is back and most companies are hiring in large numbers again. The top five companies are estimated to hire 1,60,000 to 1,80,000 new employees in the next 12 months," Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said here.
Such large-scale hiring activities were last witnessed in 2007 by Indian IT companies, after which they had to cut back on hiring and even prune their existing headcount to cope up with the economic slowdown.
"In 2008, the industry saw growth coming down to single digit. Most IT companies stopped hiring employees and stopped expanding," Mr. Gopalakrishnan said at a discussion on 'sustainable Development Strategies' organised by College of Architecture here last evening.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said that the growth was now back in the sector and the companies were expanding their headcount.
He further said, "The IT industry has grown fast over the last 15 years. For example, the industry had about 1.50 lakh employees in 1993, around five lakh employees in 1999 and today, the industry employs around 2 million employees."
The highest-ever hiring in the IT space was seen in 2007, when more than four lakh jobs were created in Indian IT space by all the companies together.

After that, the hiring fell to 2.5 lakh people in 2008 and further down to 1.5 lakh in 2009 and then just above one lakh in 2010.
Industry estimates suggest that the overall hiring in India by all the IT companies together during 2011 could exceed or at least match the levels of 2007.
Besides Indian IT firms, global giants like IBM, Accenture and HP have also been hiring aggressively in the country in the past.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said that multinational corporations were also looking to India to expand their markets and to create back office function and many of them are looking at Tier II and III cities to expand.
Emphasising the significance of infrastructure development in growth of these cities, he said an effective mechanism is essential to implement various development strategies.
"Industry bodies, relevant NGOs, civic bodies must all have a role to play. For example, industry bodies will be able to mobilise participation by experts. Industry will be able to provide project and programme management expertise. Civic leaders will be able to mobilise public opinion.
Thus I believe there is a higher chance of the initiatives getting implemented," Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.
Source: PTI

Nasa terms ongoing Indian winter as ‘deadly'

Vinson Kurian
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 23
The US National Aeronautical and Space Administration (Nasa) has termed as ‘deadly' the 2010-11 winter bearing down on north India.
The cold even reached the city of Agra, where the mercury plunged to only one degree above freezing, Nasa said in a recent report.
DENSE HAZE
Northern parts of the country have been chilled by the cold wave that prompted officials to distribute blankets and firewood to those in the usually temperate region but without adequate shelter.
An image taken by Nasa's Terra satellite on January 14 showed a dense haze stretching from the foothills of the Himalayas southward into the metropolitan areas of New Delhi, Lucknow, Patna and Kolkata.
The haze was due to a combination of cold-weather fog thinning during the daytime, burning of wood and other fuels to battle the chill as well as farmers setting agricultural burns typical of the season.
POOR VISIBILITY
The ensuing smoke reduced visibility caused extensive disruption to rail, road and air transportation across the region over the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, the Nasa report coincided with the latest national agro-met advisory bulletin brought out by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) that called on farmers to arrange for more smoking around the field to prevent the crops from cold/frost injury.
Minimum temperatures have been below normal by 3 to 5 deg Celsius over parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh, north Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and interior Orissa, the IMD report said.
Farmers in these regions have also been advised to apply light and frequent irrigation to the standing crops.
SOUTHERN COLD
In Telangana and Rayalaseema in peninsular India, the nurseries of vegetables may be covered with polythene sheet to protect seedlings from cold/frost injury.
But low temperature conditions prevailing in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are favourable for the wheat crop which is at tillering stage.
However, frost damage of potato has been reported in parts of Uttarakhand.
Frost has been reported also from Malwa plateau in Madhya Pradesh.
The bulletin advised farmers to apply light and frequent irrigation to standing crops and arrange for smoking around the field.
Nurseries of the vegetable crops are particularly vulnerable and should be protected by covering with plastic sheets.
MAIZE CROP
Taking the advantage of mostly dry weather in several parts of the country, farmers were advised to adopt intercultural operation to the crops followed by irrigation.
As the maize crop is sensitive to moisture and nutrients, stress irrigation and nutrient management have been advised for better yields and to help the cob attain full length with good quality grains.
Tomato
Tomato may be adversely affected due to frost in Meghalaya and needs irrigation.
Early harvesting may also be useful in saving the crop, the bulletin said.
Crops are in good condition in southern States of the country. However, given lack of any significant rain, irrigation may be applied to the standing crops to ensure good harvest.

Premji sacks CEOs, Kurien gets the job

In a surprise move, Wipro chief sacked his two CEOs and appointed T K Kurien as the new head

Bangalore/Mumbai: Wipro Chairman Azim Premji's dual helmsmanship model has failed. In a tacit admission of the fact, T K Kurien was on Friday appointed Wipro's new CEO, replacing incumbents Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani. The development comes even as the company announced thirdquarter financials that not only disappointed the markets, but also lagged its Indian IT services sector competitors.
Wipro, which derives over two-thirds of its revenues from IT services and has interests in consumer care and heavy engineering, posted a 9.9 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 1,325.9 crore for the period ended December 31, compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues at Rs 7,820.2 crore were up 12.71 per cent.
Compared with the trailing quarter, the company's net profit was up 3.2 per cent, whereas revenue growth was nearly flat, showing a marginal increase of 1.15 per cent. Wipro's flagship IT services business posted a little over than 15 per cent growth in revenues at Rs 5,949 crore, compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Operating profit for the business grew by 7.8 per cent to Rs 1,321.1 crore. On sequential quarter basis, IT services revenues went up by 3.51 per cent and the operating profit went up by about 3.6 per cent.
Industry watchers feel that numbers such as these prompted the rejig at the top, after a three-year dual-CEO structure. Although Premji did not acknowledge performance as prompting the exit of Paranjpe and Vaswani, he made an oblique reference to Wipro lagging behind peers TCS, Infosys, HCL and Cognizant.

"Organisational changes are determined by strategy, which is the foremost in any company. The changes don't go in front and strategy follows. As we see, the strategy we have set for the organisation is fundamentally right. We believe it requires to be executed more rapidly, more quickly and with more thoroughness -- and done in the short term," said Premji.
The sudden change at Indias third-largest IT services firm has taken many by surprise. While the company said Paranjpe and Vaswani volunteered to step down after the board realised the need for a "simpler organisation structure" with the economic crisis over, company observers are not quite convinced.
Premji acknowledged that Wipro has been found wanting in financial services and healthcare, the fastest growing segments in the market that have helped haul up competing companies. "Though we are strong in the financial services area, relative to the total share of our topline, its contribution is 27 per cent, whereas most of our competitors have done far better," he said.
The banking, financial and insurance sector accounted for 50-55 percent of Cognizant's revenue and in excess of 35 per cent at Infosys and TCS. "So, they have got the advantage of extremely high turbocharged growth, which has happened in the financial services sector, an advantage we did not get," Premji noted.
There were murmers within the industry that Friday's move makes way for Premji's son and Chief Strategy Officer, Rishad, to take the mantle, even though Premji has insisted that Wipro is a professionally-run company. "Management and ownership are two different things. For Rishad to become CEO, he needs to prove his capability. As do others," Premji has said.
Kurien, who is currently president of Wipro EcoEnergy, the clean technology business division, will take charge from February 1. He has been with the company for only a decade, but has grown very quickly. Kurien was instrumental is putting in order Wipro's BPO operations after the acquisition of Spectramind.
Vaswani, who has been Wipro for almost 25 years, said he is yet to decide on his next course of action. This was echoed by Paranjpe, who has worked at Wipro for almost 20 years. They will continue with the company until March 31 to ensure a smooth transition.

Their departure could prompt several other changes in senior management. Anand Sankaran, senior vice-president & business head for India & Middle East, is understood to have been asked to move to Wipro Technologies. Anil Jain, who heads the professional services and telecom business, is likely to head the India business. This could not be confirmed independently.
However, senior management leaving is not new to Wipro. Vivek Paul, Ashok Soota, Arun Thiagarajan and Ashok Narsimhan exited at the height of their careers. Others like Sudip Banerjee (now CEO of L&T Infotech), P R Chandrasekar (Hexaware), Sudip Nandi (Aricent) and others left as they were sidelined.
"We have high regard for Kurien, who helped restructure the BPO operations in 2005. But we are concerned at the departure of the present joint-CEOs, long-time Wipro stalwarts. While the IT spending environment remains strong and we have a positive view on the sector, we believe Wipro could lag peers, as the new CEO relooks strategy and given possible churn in BU heads. Q3 was weak, as expected, and we see risk to Q4 guidance being achieved," stated a source at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Wipro has underperformed most of its competitors on many parameters, including volume growth, utilisation and growth of key business lines and geographies. This was acknowledged by Premji. "I don't think we should try making excuses about our performance. We have underperformed in the third quarter relative to our competitors and as relative to our potential as a company. We are trying to improve performance in Q4 and also significantly improve performance going forward," he said.
Wipro's IT business saw a volume growth of 1.5 per cent, compared with 6.6 per cent in the previous quarter. Utilisation also dropped to 79.9 per cent, about 2.5 per cent lower than the previous quarter. Attrition went up by more than 2per cent in the quarter and stood at 21.6 per cent -- the highest in the last six quarters.
The market was not too kind on the performance. Wipro stock fell around 5 per cent to close at Rs 456.06 at the end of the day's trading on the BSE. Dipen Shah, senior VP (PCG research) at Kotak Securities, said: "There was no surprise in the numbers. Wipro has effected management changes. We expect the stock to be range-bound."
Source: Business Standard

Colleague on board same US flight blew whistle on ‘drunken’ IFS officer

New Delhi: It was a diplomat colleague in Washington on board the same aircraft who blew the whistle on 2002 batch topper and Indian Foreign Service officer Alok Ranjan Jha on his alleged misbehaviour with women passengers in an inebriated condition while on a flight to New York.

Jha, in Executive Class, was on his way to New York -- on board Air India 101 -- to join as First Secretary in India's permanent mission there.
Sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that a US-based Indian diplomat and his wife were on the same flight and were scheduled to change planes in New York en route to Washington.
Jha was clearly unaware of their presence, sources said, as he allegedly got inebriated, flaunted his credentials and New York assignment, as he misbehaved with at least three women passengers, including the crew who sought to intervene to bring the situation under control.
On reaching their destination, Jha's diplomat colleague is said to have made an official complaint with the mission. This was corroborated a few days later when the alleged misbehaviour found a detailed mention in the flight crew's report filed on the plane's return to New Delhi.
Sources said Jha's "drunken behaviour" was also on display at the Customs area at the JFK airport in New York prompting "a lot of talk" among the airport ground staff there.
Following the complaint, the Indian mission in New York is said to have made "discreet" inquiries and verified details. Given that India is being closely watched after its recent election to the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member, the Ministry of External Affairs decided to immediately recall Jha to avoid further embarrassment. An internal inquiry will now be carried out here.
Source: Indian Express

RTI Awards presented in Delhi

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) From a sports teacher to widow of a slain cop, five people from various walks of life were felicitated here Thursday for effective use of the Right to Information Act.
The winners, including Vinita Kamte, widow of Mumbai Police officer Ashok Kamte who was killed in the Nov 26, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, were shortlisted from 726 applications received by the jury appointed by non-governmental organisation Public Cause Research Foundation, set up by RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.
The jury included Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, former chief justice of India J.S. Verma, former chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh and journalist Madhu Trehan.
Manoj Kumar Karwasra, a sports teacher in Hisar district of Haryana, filed several RTI applications to expose how government land had been encroached by the panchayat members themselves.
'I have great feeling now. It will boost my morale,' Karwasra told IANS.
Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, a helpline service for RTI queries which was launched in May 2006 and claims that it has received more than 60,000 calls till now, was one of the winners.
Sadhna Pandya, coordinator of helpline, said the award will increase their responsibility.
'We receive calls from across the country in various languages,' she said.
Athar Shamsi, an advocate from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, was also honoured for fighting for the rights of the beedi workers who were not being paid their full wages by factory owners.
The workers were allegedly paid just Rs.27-34 per thousand beedis made, as against the minimum wage of Rs.60.
The other winners of the Best RTI Citizen award were Ramesh Kumar Verma from Haryana and Rajan Savlo Ghate from Goa. The Best RTI Journalist award went to Saikat Dutta of Outlook for exposing a Rs.2,500 crore-scam in rice exports.
Pradeep Kumar from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh received the Best Public Information Officer award.

A tale of two diplomats

New Delhi/United Nations/London: Even as India is trying to stave off more embarrassment from its diplomats overseas, another incident has cropped up.

The external affairs ministry has recalled Indian diplomat Alok Ranjan Jha for allegedly misbehaving with a passenger on an Air India flight to New York and will decide on disciplinary action after he returns home.
"He has been recalled. The ministry will take action after an internal inquiry," an informed source in the ministry said in Delhi Wednesday. Jha, a 2002 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and first secretary in the permanent mission in New York, has been transferred to Delhi following the incident Jan 7, sources said.
His recall comes close on the heels of Anil Verma, the third-ranking diplomat at the Indian High Commission in London, being recalled following charges of wife-beating.
Ashok Tomar, additional secretary in charge of administration in the ministry, deals with cases of inappropriate behaviour by IFS officers. In the US, an Indian diplomat told IANS: "We have been told that there are reports appearing on Indian television regarding transfer of Mr Alok Jha to Delhi."
"Matters regarding an incident involving him at JFK airport were promptly reported to the ministry of external affairs, which is now seized of the matter and has transferred the officer to New Delhi," he said, without giving details. He did not wish to be named, citing ministry rules.
Jha topped the all-India civil services exams in 2002 and had opted for the IFS as his first choice.
Last week, the external affairs ministry decided to transfer back to India Anil Verma, minister (economic) and third-ranking diplomat in the Indian high commission in London, following allegations of assaulting his wife.
Row over X-mas tree provoked Verma: Indian mission
The Indian High Commission here has issued a blow-by-blow account on the alleged wife-bashing by its senior diplomat Anil Verma, who has been transfered back to India, saying the incident was "provoked" by a row over a Christmas tree gift.
Taking a tough stand on domestic violence, the mission in a statement here said, "there is no question of condoning domestic violence which is totally unacceptable. Once the officer returns to India, the matter will be thoroughly investigated and acted upon appropriately."
Noting that the Ministry of External Affairs has taken a serious view in the matter, it said, "the laws of the land would take care of any acts that need to be taken care of, consequent to the inquiry."
Verma, a senior IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, joined the High Commission here as Minister (Economic), ranking number three in the mission, on August 24, 2009.
Narrating the sequence of events, the five-page statement said, "apparently, the incident was provoked by a gift (a Christmas tree) made by Verma's aunt (her mother's sister who is married to Robert Chase and lives near their house) to their son.
"This was objected to by Verma and led to an altercation." According to the statement, Verma had offered to buy a Christmas tree for their son. However, Verma's wife Paromita had said that since they already had a tree from the previous year, they did not need to buy one.
Subsequently, when a Christmas tree was gifted by Mrs Chase, Verma said that he felt humiliated. He wanted to remove the tree from the house. When he went upstairs to do this, Paromita followed him and tried to prevent him from doing so.
In the scuffle that followed, she was injured. According to Verma, "Mrs Verma was hit on the face when he was trying to remove the Christmas tree from the house and she was trying to forcibly prevent him from doing so.
According to Mrs Verma, she was slapped. This resulted in bleeding from her nose due to damage to tissues in the nose.
"Mrs Verma ran out of her house and her neighbours called the police and an ambulance. The police recorded Mrs Verma's statement (which was also signed by her) after which Mrs Verma was taken by the ambulance to the Hospital and returned to her residence the same day."
India assures action against diplomat for flight incident
India's external affairs ministry has recalled its diplomat Alok Ranjan Jha from the UN and said Wednesday that "follow-up" action would be taken against him for allegedly misbehaving with a passenger on an Air India flight to New York about two weeks ago.
"The ministry is aware of the unfortunate incident. The matter was looked into immediately," Vishnu Prakash, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, told reporters here Wednesday.
"The officer since stands transferred back to headquarters. Necessary follow-up action will be taken once he is back in New Delhi," he said.
Jha, a 2002 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and first secretary in India's permanent mission at UN in New York, has been transferred to Delhi following the incident Jan 7, sources said.
His recall comes close on the heels of Anil Verma, the third-ranking diplomat at the Indian high commission in London, who is being recalled following charges of wife-beating.
Ashok Tomar, additional secretary in charge of administration in the ministry, deals with cases of inappropriate behaviour by IFS officers.
In the US, an Indian diplomat told IANS: "We have been told that there are reports appearing on Indian television regarding transfer of Mr Alok Jha to Delhi."
"Matters regarding an incident involving him at JFK Airport were promptly reported to the ministry of external affairs, which is now seized of the matter and has transferred the officer to New Delhi," he said, without giving details. He did not wish to be named, citing ministry rules.
The diplomat was transferred after he allegedly misbehaved with Air India flight attendants on a flight to New York Jan 7. There was, however, no confirmation of this incident.
Jha topped the all-India civil services exams in 2002 and had opted for the IFS as his first choice.
Last week, the external affairs ministry decided to transfer back to India Anil Verma, minister (economic) and third-ranking diplomat in the Indian high commission in London, following allegations of assaulting his wife.
Source: Agencies

Earthquake rocks Delhi

Massive earthquake rocked North India on Early Wednesday.

The earthquake, epicentred in Pakistan's Balochistan province, also felt in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Jaipur and other adjacent areas.

In Delhi the temblor were felt around 1.58 am, which lasted around one minute.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the 7.2 magnitude earthquake was 84 km deep.

Around 10 houses were collapsed and several others damaged in Pakistan’s mountainous region of Balochistan. However, the exact report of damage and causality is yet to be known.

According to reports, houses were damaged in Quetta, capital city of Balochistan province. But details about the damage were not immediately available.

A three-storey building reportedly collapsed in Karachi after the earthquake. Details about any casualties were, however, not immediately known.

Local media quoted meteorological officials as saying that the epicentre was located in Kharan area of Balochistan province, with a warning that there might be aftershocks following the earthquake.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake was too far inland to have generated a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

In Rajasthan, cracks were reported in the several houses while window glasses were also damaged due to massive tremor.

Roots of India's transformation

The roots of India's transformation can be found in the 1950s and 1960s, says Patrick French, the author of a history of modern India, over burgers and coffee

Never before have I had such a serious conversation over French fries -- not even in graduate school as a history student where the food habits were generally deplorable. Between discreet mayonnaise finger-licks, salt sprinkles from the fries, crackles from the paper around the burgers, gurgles from the cola and slurps from the coffee, Patrick French tells Rrishi Raote about his latest book, on the modern history of India.
We are at, of all places, a McDonald's outlet on Janpath, a few steps from Connaught Place in central Delhi. Given the choice of any eatery in the city, this is the one French, 45, has picked. It is lunchtime and the place is a-rumble with background noise from people grabbing a bite in the middle of office hours. The murmur from the TVs scattered about at head height is almost soothing.
When the publicist told me on the phone that this was French's choice, I thought with a pulse of irritation that perhaps the fellow wanted to make some boring point about the new Indian middle class. But no, it turns out he just feels like a burger. And not even a Maharaja Mac -- he's satisfied with a Veggie Burger. "Are you vegetarian?" I ask, surprised. No, it's because beef isn't on the menu.
Perhaps he hoped fast food would make this a quick lunch (he has another interview and the book launch after this).
But it doesn't. Conversation does slow a meal down, and then a burger leaves room for a cappuccino afterwards (for him; I've had my coffee), which we take at the Cafe Coffee Day just around the corner.
We talk about his book. He thinks the book may sell more copies in India than elsewhere. "I wanted to write a book for everybody," he says, "a wide-ranging book that caught some sense of the way in which India was transforming, and also how and why that process took place, what were the historical roots of that process. Because quite often when the changes in India are written about, particularly abroad, it's as if they suddenly appeared out of nowhere."
French's thesis is that the roots are to be found in the 1950s and 1960s, the decades in which the institutions of the newly independent nation were established. "Take for example IT or the success of Indian software engineers," he says, while struggling to open a ketchup sachet.
"That can probably be tracked back to the early interest in teaching of people like (Jawaharlal) Nehru and (P C) Mahalanobis, the foundation of the IITs, the focusing of certain tech industries in places like Bangalore and the fact that you had a pool of highly educated people ready to go when economic liberalisation happened. And again with the political changes -- the rise of a politician like Mayawati, that comes directly out of a decision to have universal franchise... So it was really trying to track back and say what are the roots of these changes."
Tracking back to the roots of this book project, French says, "I wrote Liberty or Death (his 1997 book on the independence movement and Partition), and that book stops in 1947. Then in about 2000 I thought I'd like to write something about how India was changing, because I was in the south and it seemed like there was a great business dynamism in places like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu" -- he pronounces the name decently -- "and then I got distracted by the V S Naipaul book (The World Is what It Is ,a prize-winning 2008 biography of the Nobel laureate) and as soon as that was done I set to work on this one."
Much of the story ought to be familiar to anybody who knows a little history and has kept up with recent books on contemporary India -- such as those by Ramachandra Guha, Ed Luce and others. But there is something novel about French's approach. For one, he isn't a historian by training, and thus is not uncomfortable writing about the recent past. Then, unlike these writers, and perhaps because he came straight from the Naipaul book, he tells his story through biography. Nehru, Indira, Sonia get the treatment, and though this is well-trodden ground, even here French is able to dig up new material and revealing angles.
"In the instance of Indira Gandhi's death," he says (and by this time we have finished eating), "by describing the way in which her body was brought to the hospital, the way that all of the doctors were trying to bring her back to life even though they knew she was dead, because nobody felt confident to take the decision to say, let's stop trying to revive the corpse; and at the same time all the ministers and movers of Delhi were milling about on the floor below, saying, oh, we must show our faces to Rajiv, to show that we've come here -- and it seemed just like a microcosm of everything that was wrong with Indian politics at that time."
There is a stunning moment when Rajiv arrives at AIIMS and everyone abandons Indira. French's source, a reporter named Vichitra Sharma, is left entirely alone with the former prime minister's ravaged body. It is gut-churning.
But the Nehru-Gandhis are extensively biographed. Ambedkar, on the other hand, awaits a serious biographer. French would like to know "how it felt to be the only person in your community being a legislator, going to college in the United States -- he was the first, he was the groundbreaker."
And Ambedkar's relationships, especially his second marriage to a Brahmin doctor, "I would like to see all of that biographically." I ask him what he sees when he looks around this McDonald's. He laughs as if he knew this was coming. "What strikes me is that there's quite a range of people. You've got everybody from the guy in the suit to the guy wearing some sort of kurta with white training shoes and a cardigan. You've got the kind of adverts (on the TV screens) that would not have ever been allowed when I first came to India in the 1980s.
"Essentially what I see is the dynamism. The way in which people speak and the speed with which they move through. If you went to a McDonald's in London at this time of day most of the people would be unemployed and being paid by the government. Here the majority of people are men. The majority in London would be women. They'd probably be thinking, if I stay here for another hour I'd have to pay less for my oil or gas when I go home. It's more like a social service."
And we saunter out for coffee next door. He asks for a cappuccino, and takes off his puffy, shiny green, faintly comical jacket (it was a cold morning) to reveal a slightly scruffy white Armani Exchange T-shirt. I ask him about himself and his family background, and say rather more than I ought to about mine. I learn that he comes from a small and dull English town, and got out as soon as he could -- first to London, and then to China in the mid-1980s as a 20-something, and Tibet (subject of his third, Tibet, Tibet, 2003).
I think that it's good he adopted India -- where his second wife is from, and where his youngest son from his first marriage likes to drive a borrowed autorickshaw at full tilt down a back lane in Kochi.
His next book, he says, will be a biography of the Himalayas. Yet another towering subject for French to tackle.
Source: Business Standard

In the name of God, end this fraud

The Kerala Govt and the authorities concerned should now speak the truth on the divine light near Sabarimala

Why can't the Kerala Government, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that runs the Sabarimala temple be booked for cheating, negligence and murder?
For years since 1950, the official machinery on Kerala has been claiming that the light that appears three times on Ponnambalamedu hill opposite the Sabarimala shrine every January 14 was a divine one. The official AIR and the Doordarshan too have abetted in this transmission of falsehood. Even if the Kerala Government, the KSEB and the TDB deny that they had ever made any public pronouncements on the authenticity of the origin of the divine light, they can still be accused of aiding and promoting falsehood.
It was this silence of the Kerala authorities that has been resulting in attracting lakhs of pilgrims to witness the Makarajyothi every Jan 14; the authorities have been using this `divine fraud' to pocket huge revenue for the TDB, the government, eateries, and the cash-strapped transport sector.
If this is not cheating, what is? Section 420 IPC says "whoever does anything with the intention of causing wrongful gain to one person or wrongful loss to another person, is said to do that thing "dishonestly".
It was this cheating that led to the death of 102 pilgrims on Friday night when they were returning from Pullumedu after witnessing the Jyothi.
Forget cheating, why not book the authorities for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for negligence and abetment to murder?
The Karnataka Government has openly accused the Kerala government of gross negligence while dealing with the pilgrims that led to the death of 102 Ayyappa devotees.

The government and the crime branch team may pin the blame of the tragedy on a hapless jeep driver or an autorickshaw guy and sweep the larger issue of cheating in the name of god under the carpet. Will the authorities now openly declare that the divine light has no divine halo around it and that it is lit by a handful of KSEB officials? This will not result in Ayyappa devotees not coming to the shrine; they will still do, but the numbers can be managed. The earnings may dip, but what the temple and the government earn would atleast be honest money, not blood-stained or coins that stink of cheating.
Many in Kerala know the truth about the light and hence they keep away. Only a few still trek to see the light. Most pilgrims are from Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka - pilgrims who are told that the divine light will transport them to Moksha.
The authorities cannot perpetuate this fraud in the name of god. It is time that the government and the temple authorities come out with the truth about the divine light.
The stampede at Pullumedu should come as an eye-opener and an opportunity for truth to come out - truth that embodies Ayyappa, the presiding deity at Sabarimala.
Recently, the Kerala government and the temple authorities admitted for the first time the Jyothi was not a celestial occurrence but a fire lighted by men.
Devaswom Minister G Sudhakaran, known for his loud mouth, had openly said: "I was present on the Makaravillukku day at the Sabarimala last season. I saw the celestial star and it is at that very time that Makaravilakku is lighted. There is no doubt about it that it is lighted by the men.''
Days after he had made the statement, the minister was asked not to open his mouth further on the issue. Hence the controversy around the divine light died down.
Rahul Easwar, grandson of Sabarimala chief priest, later said: "It's a misunderstanding in the mind of misinformed people not informed devotees. Makarajyothi is different and Makaravillkku is different that's why there are two names. Makarajyothi is a celestial star while Makaravillakku is symbolic lighting of lamp in place called Ponambalamedu, where there was a temple earlier.''

An embarrassed Devaswom Board, which administers the temple and earns crores during the Jyothi season, said it had absolutely no role in lighting Makaravillaku as it happens in a jungle, which is not under the Board's control.
So, why not the authorities make a clean breast of the facts surrounding the divine light?
Makara Jyothi (Makaravillaku) - the so-called divine light (some call it divine flame) flickers three times atop Ponnambalamedu hill opposite the Sabarimala shrine.
Critics, including a few Ayyappa devotees, have of late questioned the appearance of the divine light. A few, who had studied the `phenomenon' and got `evidence', had come to the conclusion that there was nothing divine or mysterious about the light. The Ponnambalamedu is a thick forested area and is closely guarded by the State Forest Department and the Electricity Board. Nobody is allowed to go to the area.
Sources say that atop the Ponnambalamedu there was a small temple that was once the centre of worship of a few tribes who prayed and paid their respects to Ayyappa once a year by lighting camphor and wood. After the tribes vanished and were `consumed' by modernisation, officials of the electricity board continued lighting huge amounts of camphor on Makara 1 or January 14 every year.
Now, sources say, the tribal temple has vanished and a huge concrete platform has been constructed. Huge heaps of camphor are put into a large bowl and lighted. Soon, the flames are extinguished using large wet sacks. After a few minutes, it is lit again and the process goes on for two more times.
Ponnambalamedu is about 4 Km away from the Sabarimala temple and very close to Kochupamba Power Substation which supplies power to Sabarimala. It is under the control of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). There is just one rough road that leads to Ponnambalamedu and this is closely guarded by the Forest Department officials. Ponnambalamedu is at an elevation of 1170m above MSL and Sabarimala is just 544m - making the view of the Jyothi very clear.
While the Jyothi may be man-made, the appearance of `Garuda' -- an eagle - is still a mystery. The eagle escorts the Thiruvaabharanam (the box that carries the ornaments for Ayyappa) from the royal palace in Pandalam and then vanishes. It comes back then the ornaments are taken from Sabarimala to Pandalam.
So why are the authorities keeping silent on the divine light. It is pure commerce. The State earns crores during the Sabarimala Jyothi pilgrimage season. According to the figures provided by the Devaswom, collections at the temple had crossed Rs.131 crore as of Thursday, while last season it was Rs.120 crore during the same period. All this may go up in flames if there is an official denial.
Commerce, fraud and divinity do not go together. It is time to bring divinity back to Sabarimala. It is also time to look into all miracles, miracle cures and strange `phenomena' across all religions.

Indian diplomat's wife Seeks Asylum

UK Indian diplomat's wife goes into hiding: Report

LONDON: The wife of Indian diplomat Anil Verma, accused of beating her at their official residence in London, has gone into hiding with the couple's five-year-old son over fears for her safety, a media report said.

Paromita Verma is living in fear of her life after moving out of their home and has applied for leave to remain in the UK on humanitarian grounds amid fears that she would be forcibly taken back to India, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

An IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre, Anil Verma, who is the third senior-most diplomat and Minister (economic) in the Indian High Commission in the UK, had reportedly sought immunity from prosecution after being questioned by the police over claims that he assaulted his wife in December.

"Throughout their time over here, Anil would boast about his diplomatic immunity and he would tell Paromita that no one could touch him because of it. He would goad her and say, 'Call the police as many times as you want. I've got diplomatic immunity'.

"He was shameless with it. He has been given so much power and he is abusing it. Paromita has gone into hiding and seriously fears that her safety and health are in jeopardy," a close family friend of the Vermas was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.

Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs had issued a statement on the issue: "The Ministry of External Affairs and our High Commission in London are aware of and are looking into the matter."