Indian Nugget

‘HIV drugs to get costlier in India’

2012-02-12T16:56:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Feb 10, 2012, DHNS:

“My husband is HIV positive but I and my son are not. If the European Union-India trade agreement is signed, then we will not be able to afford the medicines and the family will be in ruins,” said Rosalin from Mizoram.
She came to attend a protest rally, attended by hundreds of people, against the EU-India Free Trade Agreement which, if signed, threatens the production of generic drugs by Indian companies.

This will increase the cost of medicines a great deal in India. India is called the ‘pharmacy of the developing world’ because it produces quality affordable generic medicines which are used to treat patients in developing countries of Latin America and Africa, apart from India.

“From 1970-2005 Indian government encouraged production of locally made medicines to provide cheap drugs. With the kind of agreements that India has been signing in the recent past, this production is slowly being threatened.

Such agreements will make existing generic drugs illegal and won’t allow new drugs to be created, ” said Leena Menghaney of Médecins Sans Frontières, (MSF), an international medical aid organisation.

She listed the example of the price of first-line HIV medicines that has dropped by more than 99 per cent. It was US$10,000 per person per year in 2000 and is now roughly $150 per person. More than 80 per cent of HIV medicines used to treat 6.6 million people in developing countries come from Indian manufacturers.

“The EU wants India to agree to Intellectual Property enforcement measures that could block medicines at European ports on their way to patients in other developing countries, and could even draw treatment providers into court proceedings.

“These provisions are designed to delay the entry of generic products into the market and will adversely affect the right to health of patients not only in India but across the developing world,” said Anand Grover, Director of Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit.

The rally was organised by MSF and farmers organisations. They demanded the government to make the draft report of the agreement public so that all stakeholders can debate and discuss the consequences.

Friday’s protest was organised on the basis of a leaked text of the draft on three different occasions – once in 2009 in 2010 and again in 2011.

For 26 yrs, India overlooks squatter China

2012-02-08T17:46:00.001-08:00

Guwahati, Feb 9 : The Chinese army occupied a strategically important slice of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh in 1986 and has remained entrenched in the area since then as successive governments in Delhi have denied the army permission to evict the intruders for what are being quoted as “pragmatic”
reasons.

In late 1986, the Chinese army crossed the McMahon Line — the de facto boundary between India and China — and occupied a strategically critical 28 sq km area in the Wangdung region of Sumdorong Chu Valley, 68 km northeast of Tawang town, a senior army officer told HT on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The Indian Army used to vacate the area during the harsh winter and return every summer.

This occupied territory, though small, is strategically important as it can, in the event of hostilities, provide the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a launch pad for a thrust into Tawang and the Brahmaputra valley beyond. Beijing claims Tawang is a part of China.

“We could have easily ejected the Chinese soldiers, but were restrained by the government from doing so,” the officer said, adding: “This stance is demoralising the army.”

A senior official at army headquarters in Delhi confirmed that the PLA is, indeed, in illegal occupation of Indian territory but added that it didn’t matter as “the Indian Army holds the heights around the area”.

He added: “We’re being pragmatic as we don't want to escalate tensions.”

In an operation that bears startling similarities with Pakistan’s Kargil misadventure 12 years later, the PLA occupied the post and the surrounding area during winter of 1986, when it was unoccupied.

The PLA refused to leave when Special Services Bureau personnel, who manned the post, returned the following summer.

The PLA has, meanwhile, fortified the area and even built a helipad to fly in supplies.

Arunachal West MP Takam Sanjoy recently said the Chinese had penetrated deeper into Indian territory in the Tawang sector, but HT could not independently confirm this.

“We had met the Prime Minister and defence minister to apprise them of the fresh incursions a few weeks ago,” he said.

Bodos from different parts unite in the Bodo National Festival

2012-02-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

KOKRAJHAR: The dream of Bodo leader and former president of the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU), Upendra Nath Brahma, to make Bodos the master race of the world is moving ahead on the right track. The 4th Bodo National Festival (BNF) at Alaikhungri field, Kajalgaon in Chirang district entered its third day on Monday.

Over 6,000 delegates from Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, West Bengal, BTC area, Dima Hasao district, Meghalaya, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh participated in the historic festival and shared their views about the reunion of all the Bodos living in different parts of the world. The meeting was a significant step in the road map of uniting all the Bodo groups.

Representatives of Bodos from Bodoland, Borok of Tripura, Bru of Mizoram, Garo, Rabha, Hazong, Deori, Meche of Nepal and West Bengal, Kacharies, Mech, Barman, Tengal Kacharies, Sonowal Kacharies, Tiwa etc are attending the ongoing Bodo festival to be concluded on February 8.

Biswajit Daimary, the president of the Bodo National Festival committee and Rajya Sabha member from Assam, hoisted the flag of the BNFC in the morning. A cultural procession flagged off by Debojit Thaosen, chief executive member of the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council followed. The annual mouthpiece of the BNFC, 'The great Bodo race' and souvenir 'Gwrwbthai' meaning unity, were released by the BTC deputy chief and chairman of the organizing committee, Kampa Borgoyary. The Bodo traditional game, organized by the Khomlainai Federation of India (KFI) and Bodoland Indigenous Games Association (BIGA) was also held. It was inaugurated by a Tripura MLA, Prasanta Debbarma.

Borgoyary said some of the Bodo groups are educationally, economically, politically and linguistically backward and so he called upon all the representatives of the Bodos to understand each other's problem as it can only be addressed through concerted efforts. He said the initiative of the BNFC to unite all the scattered Bodo groups is very significant.

"The Bodos of Bodoland are known as Bodo or Boro but the same people living in West Bengal and Nepal are known as Mech or Meche while Bodos of Tripura are known as Borok. Bodos are also known as Dimasa, Tengal Kachari, Sonowal Kachari, Tiwa, Lalung, Hazong, Rabha in other parts even though they all belong to the same race. There should be oneness of language and identity and also a common dictionary," Borgoyary said. He further called upon all Bodos to help resolve the basic problems of the Bodos of Bangladesh, Tripura, West Bengal, Assam and the northeastern states.

Debojit Thaosen said, "The initiative to unite the Bodos should have been made much earlier but it is better late than never. The BNFC is the right platform to share and exchange views and ideas, address the common issues of the great Bodo nationality and frame future strategies to make it the master race."

Apurba Tripura of Bangladesh said there are over two lakh Bodo people in Bangladesh but they are backward in all spheres. He said, "The language and traditions of the Borok people of Bangladesh are similar to those of the Bodos of Bodoland. But since the Bodo groups are scattered in different parts of the world, the languages spoken are a little different but their characters remain the same."

Centre sets timelines for securing international borders in northeast

2012-02-07T19:50:00.001-08:00

GUWAHATI: The Centre has set timelines for securing the international borders which the landlocked northeast shares with four countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.

While the Indo-Bangladesh border is expected to be fenced and floodlit by March-end, the open border with friendly Bhutan would be marked by roads. Another open border with Myanmar will be partly fenced while the border with China will have better surface communication for the border guarding forces.

According to the ministry of home affairs' (MHA) 'action plan V', a proposal has been approved for construction of 313km of border roads in the state along the Indo-Bhutan border. The Sashastra Seema Bal ( SSB) is deployed for guarding the Indo-Bhutan border, which is not fenced.

The MHA is also setting up an integrated checkpost (ICP) at Moreh in Manipur on the Indo-Myanmar border at a cost of Rs 136 crore. The detailed project report has been approved and land has been taken into possession by the Assam Rifles, who guard this border, on behalf of the MHA.

ICPs are also being built at Dawki in Meghalaya and the state government has transferred the physical possession of the land to the BSF, which is the border guarding force here. According to the MHA timeline, 30% of the work is targeted to be completed by March-end. Another ICP at Akhaura on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura is also being built and 40% of the work is scheduled to be completed by March-end.

Myanmar has a 1,643km-long border with India in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. Fencing of a part of this border in Moreh is going on.

In the northern part of the region, which shares a border with China, phase-wise construction of roads is being carried out by the MHA for operational use by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police ( ITBP).

Assam shares a 267km border with Bhutan while Arunachal Pradesh shares 217 km. Bangladesh shares a 4096.70-km long border with India of which Assam shares 263km, Meghalaya 443km, Tripura 856km, Mizoram 318 km. The remaining portion is in West Bengal. In the eastern part of the region, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram share 520km, 215km, 398km and 510km of the border with Myanmar.

Forest cover falls to 23.81% of total geographical area

2012-02-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

The environment ministry has blamed Maoist rebels and shifting cultivation practised in the north-east for a drop in forest cover

Jacob P. Koshy

New Delhi: India’s environment ministry has blamed Maoist rebels and shifting cultivation practised in the country’s north-east for a drop in forest cover.
Forests and trees covered slightly less than one-fourth of the country’s geographical area, a decline of 0.03 percentage point from the previous assessment in 2009, according to the biennial forest report. The decline also reveals that the government has failed make any progress on its oft-repeated promise to bring one-third of the country under trees.

“There’s been significant loss in one district in Andhra Pradesh—Khammam,” environment secretary T. Chatterjee said. “That’s partly due to encroachment by Naxalites, which makes measurement and access difficult as well as harvesting of plantations that take time to harvest.”The India State of Forest Report 2011, released on Tuesday, said forests and trees covered 78.29 million hectares (ha), about 23.81% of the country’s area, and nearly 800 sq. km less than the 78.37 million ha published in the 2009 report. To be sure, the government said forest cover declined by 367 sq. km and the discrepancy was due to an update in measurement techniques applied in the 2009 survey.
Apart from Andhra Pradesh, which posted a 281 sq. km decline from the 2009 data, other states that saw a drop in forest cover were the north-eastern states of Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, which government officials attributed to “the prevailing practice of shifting cultivation in the region”.
Timber smuggling may have also contributed to the decline in forests in Andhra. “Naxalites are into timber smuggling and Andhra is relatively peaceful, and therefore, it’s possible to make visits and ascertain the actual loss,” said a government official involved in operations against Maoist rebels.
Other states, which have inaccessible areas because of Maoist violence, may have a similar or higher forest loss, he said.
According to the survey, Madhya Pradesh had the largest forest cover in the country at 77,700 sq. km, followed by Arunachal Pradesh at 67,410 sq. km. In terms of the percentage of forest cover in relation to total geographical area, Mizoram ranked No. 1 with 90.68%, followed by Lakshadweep at 84.56%.
Forest officials estimate forest cover every two years through a combination of satellite imaging and physical visits to 60 random districts across the country, to tally results from satellite imaging.
Between the forest reports of 2003 and 2007, there was a nearly 10 million ha jump in forest and tree cover that saw it rise from 20.55% to 23.84% of the country’s geographical area.
For the first time ever, forest officials also estimated the area under bamboo plantsand the carbon trapped within the forests. They estimated these at 13.96 million ha and 6,663 million tonnes, respectively.

Repair ties with Dhaka, Indian daily tells Mamata

2012-02-06T16:57:00.001-08:00

Pachimbanga Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee still has a chance to “repair West Bengal’s relations with Bangladesh and boost India’s”, a top Indian daily said Monday.
Mamata’s refusal to clear the Teesta water-sharing treaty with Bangladesh “did kill a splendid opportunity for India to bring bilateral ties to the next logical level”, The Indian Express said in an editorial.
The newspaper draws a contrast between Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Mamata and says where Sarkar “has done an excellent job,” she “is yet to begin undoing last September’s failure” to approve of the Teesta water-sharing treaty.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s not attending the convocation of Calcutta University “is a good time to reflect on the damage Mamata’s last-minute backing out of the Teesta water treaty last year may have done to bilateral ties.
The CPI (M) has already accused Mamata of failing to ‘keep a cordial relationship with Bangladesh’ even as her government insists there’s no adverse fallout of that failure on the water treaty”, said the editorial
“That treaty is politically and economically important not only for Hasina – who has been outspokenly friendly with India – but also for India to secure transit rights through Bangladesh, which would cut time and distance from the Indian mainland to the Northeast”, the daily added.
It said Hasina’s recent trip to Tripura, with a large business delegation, “was meant to revive the old ties and build new ones. In the process, she also received the Tripura Central University’s first honorary D Litt. However, this visit may acquire an added significance, in contrast to her decision not to attend the convocation ceremony of the University of Calcutta.”
“..In undoing last September’s failure. There may not be much time left. She (Mamata) must begin now. At a time when Chief Ministers of (other Indian) border states are actively helping India’s neighbourly relations, Banerjee has no excuse vis-a-vis a country with which her state shares the added advantage of a common language and culture, much more than Tripura”, said The Indian Express editorial.

Why India must be prepared to face China militarily

2012-02-02T16:52:00.001-08:00

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd)

Much confusion and controversy has been caused by the wishful thinking that somehow the rise of China as a superpower will be peaceful, says Colonel (retd) Anil A Athale, while pointing to several reasons why China may not be averse to inflicting a military rebuke to India.
American intelligence has leaked a document on Sino-Indian relations and has speculated that India is possibly preparing for an armed conflict with China. While the American 'leak' may well be a part of mischief mongering, we as Indians need to look a long hard look at our northern neighbour. For far too long the media focus has been on the failing State to our West.
As the 'n'th round of Sino Indian border talks ended in Delhi it is time we carry out a reality check. Many have questioned the logic in speculating an Indo-Chinese conflict in June/July 2012. Here are some of the factors that make this a possibility.
PEACEFUL RISE OF CHINA IS AN OXYMORON!
Much confusion and controversy has been caused by this 'wishful thinking' that somehow the rise of China, as a superpower will be peaceful. This would indeed be a miracle that will be contrary to the over 5,000 years of recorded history of the humankind.

Rural India going to private schools: Report

2012-01-18T17:34:00.001-08:00

CHENNAI: The overall enrolment in private schools in the country has gone up from 18.84% in 2006 to 26.09% in 2011, says the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, released by Pratham Foundation, an NGO. Academics blame poor infrastructure and lack of teachers in government schools for this trend.

"There is no village without a matriculation school now. All government schools have been downgraded by the government, and parents are pulling their children out of government schools because of poor infrastructure and no teachers," says educationist S S Rajagopalan. Many say there is greater accountability, awareness and responsibility towards providing quality education in private schools when compared to government schools.

The survey was conducted in rural areas including small towns. ASER 2011 says northwestern states like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have recorded high enrolment in private schools. Since 2006, these numbers have gone up by 15-20%. In the northeast, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were moderate, Tripura low, and Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur high in courting private enrolment.

In the east, with traditionally low enrolment in private schools, there has been a 20% increase in enrolment in such schools. In Bihar alone, the number of students enrolled in private schools has been decreasing.

The major enrolment story is in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. There are several reasons why government schools in Tamil Nadu should attract children- the mid-day meal scheme, the activity-based learning, etc. Yet, the rate of enrolment in private schools has gone up from 19.15% to 26.6% since 2006. "It appears that Tamil Nadu is not able to convince parents that government schools are better. Is this only because parents associate some kind of a status with private schools and are not concerned with what goes on in the classroom?" says a volunteer who participated in the survey for Pratham.

There is also a disconnect between what parents want and what the government is prepared to give. Educational consultant K R Maalathi says, "English-medium education is a big draw in small towns. Parents want their children to call them 'mummy' and 'daddy' and speak in English."

But higher enrolment does not necessarily mean quality of education in all private schools is up to the mark, says Maalathi. Many private schools pay little attention to primary sections and focus on helping those in higher grades score high marks. This is a major reason for children developing the habit of learning by rote, leading to poor performance in tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment.

However, unless regulation prevents it or suddenly a large population starts believing in neighbourhood or common schools run by the government, the proportion of children going to private schools will keep increasing, say experts. The question is how far?

Slaughtering cowsis barbaric and offensive to India

2012-01-16T16:08:00.001-08:00

Anuradha Dutt

‘Liberals' have condemned the anti cow-slaughter laws adopted by some States. In doing so, they ignore the sensitivities of the majority population

The enactment of Cow Slaughter Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 2010 in Madhya Pradesh has elicited some vitriolic reactions, with one writer dwelling on the attractions of a beef steak. A similar diatribe in a Muslim nation, extolling the flavour of pork, would have been sufficient to get the police and clerics on the scribe’s trail. But India happens to be a secular democracy, with the Constitutional directive to ban cow slaughter being flouted with impunity by West Bengal, Kerala and the North-East.

The fact that most people in Hindu-majority India shun beef, and that the 1857 Mutiny against the British rule was triggered by the use of cow and pig lard on cartridges, seems to be of little concern to political parties that pander to minority sentiments or, more likely, beef, leather and exporters’ cartels. The irony is that even Jammu & Kashmir, battered by Islamist terror, has a strong anti-cow slaughter Act, enforced in 1896 by the erstwhile Dogra monarchy.

In the present instance, disturbed by the provisions for a seven-year jail term for a lapse and minimum fine of Rs 5,000, beef lobbyists have been quoting from the scriptures, like the Biblical Devil, to justify their stand. The onset of economic liberalisation was marked by a slew of supposedly scholarly features on the consumption of beef, especially as ritual food, by Hindus in Vedic and subsequent times.

But that the interpretation of Sanskrit verses is geared towards demolishing traditional beliefs is evident from the following excerpts. Mahabharat, for instance, states in praise of cows: “Cows are the prestige of beings — they are givers of all good. Cows were and will be the health-givers. Cows are the root of wealth and prosperity. Nothing that is given to the cows or is with them is lost. Cows are food itself. They give food and ghee and milk for the sacrifice. Oblations and offerings are inherent in the cow. Verily, cows are the very result of the sacrifice, and the yagyas are inherent in them.”

How easy would it be to twist the phrase, ‘Cows are food itself’, out of context to imply that ancient people routinely consumed beef. Besides cows’ utility as milch animals, in farming, with dung and remains fertilising fields, and the use of panchgavya — five products of milk, ghee, butter (and curd), dung and urine — in Ayurvedic medicine and the first three as sacrificial offerings, they have sanctity in Indic metaphysics. The Shree Krishna avatar and his profound association with cows underline this belief.

Preceding this, Atharva Veda says: “The cow, in the form of the universe, may fulfill our desires.” The exalted position accorded to cows in the Vedas is denoted by the use of the term Dhenu (cow) for Aditi, mother of the gods, while the gods are referred to as gojaat (kin of the cows). ‘Aghnya’ is the word commonly used for cows in the Vedas, denoting that they should not be injured. These earliest available Sanskrit texts recount that the deity Indra freed the cows from the mountain and made them available to humans, though not for meat. The fire in which meat is roasted is not to be used for yagyas, with a phrase in Rig Veda stating: “I am taking away the fire far from the place of roasting.”

A verse in Yajur Veda abjures all violence: “Protect and rear the animals: do not hit the cow; do not hit the goats; nor the sheep; nor any other creature; nor two-legged animals; nor the one-legged; one should not injure any living being.”

Panchatantra, which is a set of popular fables, aver: “If one can go to heaven by cutting down trees, killing animals and letting of blood of injured beings — who will go to hell then?”

About ritual sacrifice, Mahabharat says: “It is said that in the olden age, crops used to take the place of animals; and pious men, seeking heaven, used to perform their sacrifices with these only.” Eight chapters of Anushasan Parva of Mahabharata concern the cow. Bhishma, quoting from the Shrutis, says: “The cow is my mother; the bullock is the father; heaven is my shelter; and by this in the world arises my prestige.”

Further, he says: “The sacrifice becomes fruitful by her. She is the embryo of nectar and the prestige of the world. On earth, she is prosperity, birth-giving. All prosperity is due to the cow. This is the real truth.”

Devout Hindus, and especially the business class since millennia, have rendered service to cows by providing for the upkeep of cattle, even old, useless ones that are saved from slaughter houses. Some Islamic rulers, respecting such sentiments, also banned cow slaughter, which, however, was sanctioned by the British on a mass scale, for obtaining beef, leather and lard. Mechanised means of butchering facilitated the decimation of cattle and other creatures.

Arunachal launches scheme for TB patients

2012-01-15T16:11:00.001-08:00

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh has become the first state in the northeast to launch the Directly Observed Treatment Plus Services (DOTS), meant for the treatment of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB Patients. The service was launched at the DOTS Plus Site in Arunachal State Hospital, Naharlagun, on Friday, official sources said.

The programme was inaugurated by the state director of health services Dr K Nishing, who administered DOTS Plus ( CAT-IV) medicine to two MDR patients admitted to the newly constructed DOTS Plus Ward of the hospital.

This service will be introduced in Assam, Manipur and Sikkim soon. With this, MDR (TB) patients will get the benefit of free check-ups and DOTS Plus medicines for 24 to 27 months.

Delayed investigation weaking most cases

2012-01-10T19:38:00.001-08:00

CHENNAI: The police may be quickly solving the 11 murders committed in 10 days this year, but not many are likely to get convicted. Going by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics for 2010, in close to 50% of Indian Penal Code (IPC) cases in the state, the accused were acquitted.

NCRB statistics suggest a direct correlation between a state's population and its conviction rate in heinous crimes. While less populous north-eastern states like Mizoram (93.6%), Nagaland (78.5%) and Manipur (68.5%) had high conviction rates for IPC cases, states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal fell below the national average of 40.7%. The lowest rate was reported in Maharashtra (9%) followed by Odisha (9.9%). In all, 22.2 lakh IPC cases were registered in the country in 2010, of which 10% were in Tamil Nadu.

Even within a state, there is a stark difference between the conviction rates in densely populated urban regions and rural areas. "Our experience shows that conviction rates are higher in rural areas where the society is closely knit. People in cities refuse to turn up as witnesses. This weakens the prosecution," said P Kumaresan, a former state public prosecutor.

Tamil Nadu's conviction rate is much higher than the national average. Still, it is a matter of concern that 44.4% of the accused in IPC cases are acquitted. This includes murders and attempts to murder.

Former city public prosecutor M Shahjahan said, "The prosecution has to prove a case beyond all reasonable doubt to ensure conviction. Delayed investigation weakens the case once it reaches the court."

NCRB statistics show that 17 states and union territories (UTs) fared below the national average and an equal number surpassed it. Eight states and UTs failed to cross the 20% mark. Conviction rates were higher than 60% in five states and Puducherry.

The conviction rate was highest (52%) across the country in cases of sexual harassment. Cases registered under special and local laws (such as the Arms Act and Excise Act) had a conviction rate of 91.7%, across India. Cases registered under Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act saw 93.1% convictions.

"In many murder cases, the prosecution crumbles in court owing to the investigating officials not adhering to the rule of law," said S Jayakumar, former state public prosecutor. "Most officials emphasise on material evidence and go in search of the weapon, without realizing that a strong eye witness is more important. They should know that courts will convict the accused even if they do not trace the weapon," he said.

He added that delays in registering FIRs weaken the case. "In many cases they fix the accused before registering the FIR. The FIR and inquest report reach the court simultaneously, and the delay is inexplicable. Ultimately, the courts suspect the bonafides of the investigation. Lack of experience of the government-appointed assistant public prosecutors is another reason for poor conviction rates. The government should consider appointment of more experienced special public prosecutors to assist police," he said.

Racism? BBC's Clarkson mocks India

2011-12-30T22:22:00.001-08:00

LONDON: Controversial TV personality Jeremy Clarkson has once again been accused of racism after mocking Indian culture in a 'Top Gear' Christmas Special on BBC.

Viewers were furious after Clarkson staged a series of Carry On style digs at India's trains, toilets, clothing, food and history, The Daily Mail reported. At one point, the controversial presenter ridiculed the unhygienic conditions and lack of sanitation among the poor by driving around the slums in a Jaguar fitted with a toilet.

A spokesman for the BBC said they have been 23 complaints about content "offensive to India" in the programme, which was broadcast on Wednesday evening. She added: "If viewers or religious groups want to complain, they can complain to the BBC. We won't be responding through the media."

Clarkson was earlier involved in another controversy earlier this month. He was forced to apologise after saying striking public sector workers should be shot in front of their families during an appearance on The One Show on BBC1.

After his latest act, many viewers, however, took straight to social networks and internet message boards to voice their objections about the show, in which the Top Gear team set out to boost British trade links with the subcontinent.

In one scene on the programme, Jeremy Clarkson was seen stripping off his trousers in front of two Indian dignitaries to show them how to use a trouser press, the report said.

In another shocking set-piece, the Top Gear team put banners promoting British industry on trains. One read, 'British IT is good for your company', and another, 'Eat English muffins'. But the messages turned obscene when the carriages of the trains split.

Adding insult to injury, the latest programme was shown just two days after the murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve in Salford on Boxing Day.

Delhi's Nehru Place still on US list of world's most notorious markets

2011-12-21T22:03:00.001-08:00

Washington: An official US report has identified Nehru Place in New Delhi among the top 30 notorious IT markets of the world, dealing in goods and services infringing intellectual property rights (IPR).
"Nehru Place is reportedly one of the many markets in major cities throughout India that are known for dealing in large volumes of pirated software, pirated optical media containing movies and music, and counterfeit goods," said the report released by the US Trade Representative (USTR).
An earlier USTR list released in March 2011 also included Nehru Place as among the world's notorious markets for pirated and counterfeited products including software.

The latest list does not include Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine in a nod to the firm's efforts to clean up its music offerings. Baidu, which has been on the notorious markets list for years, in July inked an agreement with top music studios to distribute licensed songs through its mp3 search service, ending a legal dispute over accusations the company encouraged piracy.
However, Alibaba Group's Taobao unit made it on the United States Trade Representative's November notorious markets list for offering a wide range of copyright infringing products.
The report also cited two Chinese music websites, Sogou Mp3 and Gougou as providing "deep linking" services to copyrighted music. Four of the 15 listed physical notorious markets for piracy are located in China, USTR said.
The Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets report identifies more than 30 markets that typify the problem of marketplaces that deal in goods and services that infringe on intellectual property rights (IPR) and help to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting.
The results identify examples of both Internet and physical marketplaces that have been the subject of enforcement action connected with counterfeiting and piracy, or that may merit further investigation for possible IPR infringements. The announcement concludes the review process launched on September 22.
"Piracy and counterfeiting continue to present a serious challenge to the innovation and creativity that is essential to supporting American jobs and creating economic growth around the world. The notorious markets highlighted in this review negatively impact legitimate businesses and industries of all sizes that rely on intellectual property to protect their goods and services," said US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
"We hope that this review will continue to yield the kind of concrete action from highlighted markets that led to the removal of several markets from the list this year," he said.

Vodafone to terminate inactive mobile connections

2011-12-20T21:07:00.001-08:00

Vodafone India will discontinue services to phone numbers from which subscribers make no calls, send messages or use applications for 60 days. The main reason is the shortage of phone numbers after the Department of Telecom crunched the number allocation criteria recently by linking it to a mobile phone company’s active subscribers.
“Vodafone will discontinue mobile services for prepaid customers on numbers that have no usage i.e., no Voice Calls (incoming or outgoing), SMS and Data for any continuous period of 60 days,” the company said in a statement today.
“This guideline has been implemented because DoT’s stringent guideline for allocation of new number series based on subscribers in VLR (visitor location register) has created acute shortage of numbers, for any telecom company,” the carrier added.
The operator also said that the new customers will be intimated of the deactivation process in their starter kits while existing customers will be informed via SMS and outbound calls wherever possible.

Collateral confusion in India

2011-11-26T21:06:00.001-08:00

In a globalised and shrinking world, romantic liaisons and marriages between people of different races, languages and cultures have become quite common. This cultural remix throws up many comic moments, notes Lakshmi Palecanda
(Marriage itself is a funny institution. So, what do you expect in inter-caste marriages? Well, confusion more confounded, of course.)
A couple of decades ago, an inter-caste marriage was a big deal. However, with downing of international barriers and increased urbanisation has come a whole new acceptance of unions between people from different castes, family situations, and even financial backgrounds.
For, love conquers all, at least initially.
There is a cultural remix happening now in the country on an unprecedented level. All over the country, inter-caste and inter-state marriages are bringing Indians closer to a more homogenous mix. Punjabi, Bangla, Gujju, Bihari and Mizo are tying eternal knots with Tamilian, Kannadiga, Keralite, Telugu and Konkani, blurring and sometimes even erasing caste and cultural barriers, while encouraging national unity. Incidentally, this phenomenon also throws up many comic moments.
First off, mixed weddings themselves are crazy. Couples who marry without parental consent settle for the registrar. But, once the families of the lovers have accepted the cross-cultural match, each of them wants to contribute ideas on events to be conducted on the Big Day. From time immemorial, Indian weddings have been bastions of faith and significance, and naturally, both parties want the matrimonial bond cemented with at least a few of their own traditions. The end result is somewhat like going to a discotheque and finding two traditionally-clad ajjis, one Kannadiga and one Marwari, together on the dance floor, jiving to Lady Gaga.
Ever go to your Iyer friend’s daughter’s wedding and see the Dilliwalla bridegroom arriving on a white horse to be received by madisaar-clad maamis? Or hear conches at a Gowda wedding? Does the wedding hall look like a fancy dress party with saris worn in Marathi, Kodava, Keralite, Gujarathi, and Kannadiga traditional styles? And, does the wedding feast resemble the menu of a multi-cuisine restaurant with dishes culled from kaara oota to thali to tandoori to Continental and Chinese? Most of us have been to these kinds of dos, and if you haven’t already, chances are that you will, sometime soon.
Once, a wedding was a solemn occasion in which there was an underlying competition between families to see who would be more traditional. With mixed marriages especially, the wedding has become a spectacle or a pageant, where the families of the bride and groom are introduced to the other’s cultural identity. At least, that is the intent. What really goes on is a lot of funny compromises and a whole lot of gawking.
In the old days, being a guest at a wedding meant having to awaken reluctantly at unreasonable times of day and night, dress traditionally, and yawn through interminable sessions of same old muhurats. These days, you eagerly charge up your camcorders, wear what you want that is jazzy enough, and dare not blink in case you miss something interesting, like the bride’s North Indian father dressed in a dhothi over his pants at a Tamilian wedding, or a groom’s mother wearing Kannada sari at a Kodava wedding. The homogenous nature of the cacophony heard at weddings has also changed, with the occasions sounding like an audio version of the rupee note’s list of official languages… and don’t forget the dialects!
Kitchen politics
Once the music of the shehnai, nadaswara and vaalaga have become mere echoes in memories or recordings on memory sticks, the newly-wedded couple settle down to real life routines… and realise an immutable fact. Marriages may be made in heaven and enjoyed in the privacy of the bedroom, but they are cemented in the kitchen. Yes, one may love rotis or puliyogare once in a while, but if one grew up on rice and menusu rasam or naati koli saaru, sooner or later, something… or someone… has to give in. This point is definitely a factor in the everyday lives of veg and non-veg combos in a marriage.
Flexibility is the key word here, and since inter-caste couples have already compromised on the most sensitive decision, this usually works itself out in a year or so, though not before throwing up some interesting versions. Most men adjust quickly, especially if they don’t want to cook, with vegetarian men turning omnivores without turning a hair. Women, on the other hand, go nuts initially before establishing ground rules.
Some women turn non-veg themselves, some cook meat for the husband but do not eat it themselves, and a few neither cook nor eat it. Women of the latter category come to another decision point when children arrive on the scene. Kids with one carnivorous parent mostly tend to become carnivores themselves. The same woman who turned up her nose at meat in her kitchen usually relaxes some rules once her children are born, because ‘my children like it, what to do.’
Language is another potential variable in a hybrid union. A woman generally picks up her husband’s mother tongue rapidly, basically since only then can she keep tabs on what the husband’s family is saying. Of course, she justifies this by saying that this is to enhance communication with her husband. But she soon realises that the communication barrier at home is not so much due to the language, but due to the fact that her man has severely impaired listening skills (except when it comes to sports and car talk, when he just won’t shut up), probably due to his Y chromosome. That is when she switches to swearing in her own mother tongue, as swearing is done most efficiently and satisfactorily in one’s own mother tongue.
Meanwhile, the husband, who is not overly worried about his wife’s family’s gossip, has picked up enough language to understand the wife’s cursing, but he won’t reveal that he knows her language just in case she starts expecting him to listen to her more often. Actually, the wife is aware of this fact but pretends that she doesn’t know that he knows, so the deception is not really a deception… well, anybody with a decade of marriage under their belt can grasp this concept of mild passive aggression quite easily.
It is common knowledge that the first year of a love marriage is harder than that of an arranged marriage, because unlike the couple that enters the marriage with no expectations, the love marriage couple have seen only the good side of their spouses during the courting. And just when the couple have settled their differences, and settled down, children come along to throw deep-rooted convictions and prejudices into high relief.
This means a period of adjustment to deal not just with the new little lovable tyrant who is now ruling the roost, but also on ways of bringing up the said tyrant. Both parents agree that one set of rules only should be used to bring up baby so as not to confuse the infant, but differ on whose culture it should be based. Should the baby be eating porridge made of ragi or of jowar? Should his first solid meal be rice or chapati? This period of adjustment ends when the child shows its preference of a Lay’s potato chip and Cadbury’s milk chocolate over porridge and rice/chapati. Every child is a born manipulator with cute gummy smiles, and senses undercurrents of emotions far better than adults can.
Therefore, in due time, parents realise that the little one has actually understood what both parents are fighting over and is training them to accede to its wishes by playing one against the other. On the plus side, the child learns languages, customs and cultures very quickly and often acts as an interpreter to its parents and grandparents.
Selective adaptation
And it is in the children of inter-caste marriages that a very important aspect of culture is revealed. These children live their lives naturally by mixing their parents’ cultures and interpreting them in ways most conducive to their own lives, along with their own input as individuals. Where others feel compelled to follow hidebound customs and traditions, children from mixed marriages have the freedom of choice, to pick and choose the ones they want to follow.
They make their own family traditions, and by doing so, they show that culture is not something that is carved in stone, something which is depleted and diminished by change. Instead, culture is a very alive, ever-changing, evolving entity that is enriched and invigorated by change so that future generations are better able to combat challenges that arise with the passage of time.
Therefore, long live cross-cultural conjugations!
go to the gurudwara. Relatives who wanted to invite the newly-wed couple home for Sunday lunch would be shocked when the salwar-kameez clad, demure looking, gori bride would innocently tell them that they would not be able to make it since “theke jana hai”.
When the young bride, trying so hard to make a good impression, did find out what her husband had been up to, she offered to break a few bottles on his head. Now, almost two decades later, communication is not a problem since she speaks Punjabi and her in-laws have caught on with her Welsh accent.
When Boston-based NRI Prithvi Raj Banerjee fell in love with his Benaras Hindu University classmate Anisha Mahajan some years back, there was a face off between Bengali bhadralok and boisterous Punjabi cultures. Since Bengalis don’t have a baraat in marriages and Punjabis can’t believe a wedding can take place without one, groom-to-be was given a crash course on the topic by his would-be wife and her brothers, who even arranged a band for the visiting Bong brigade.
“Since the Banerjee clan (including my parents) had never attended a baraat, they had no idea about its logistical constraints and didn’t turn up on time on the D day,” recounts Prithvi. So, after an hour-plus of waiting (with only him and his young friends having arrived), the band party started muttering that they had a second shift to attend and would not stay much longer. Common friends of the bride and groom even hinted darkly that the band (as well as the baraatis) might just defect to the bride’s side and be at the gate to welcome him when he eventually turned up.
The distraught groom had to finally take a call on it and decided to go ahead without the seniors. The baraat wound its way to the bride’s house with his tipsy friends and a lone uncle doing him proud by dancing all the way. “My Mom still regrets that she could not dance at my wedding. I’ve asked her to be punctual when it’s time for her grandson to have a baraat. I don’t care where in the world his bride is from, we will have a baraat,” he laughs.
Frankly speaking, how many of us can say which gene pools future members of our family will come from? With the world shrinking so beautifully, life is becoming a cultural cauldron. To quote my Kiwi pal Julie Middleton (who incidentally married her mate of 14 years in a Hindu wedding ceremony held in our garden two years back): Crikey! Who cares so long as we learn to celebrate our differences instead of letting them build walls around us.

India defeats China to be on UN oversight body

2011-11-22T22:48:00.001-08:00

India has been elected to the UN Joint Inspection Unit, an independent external oversight body mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations worldwide.

UNITED NATIONS: In a two-way contest with China, India has been elected to the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit, an independent external oversight body mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations of UN system worldwide.

India won the Asia-Pacific region seat for the five-year term beginning 1 January 2013, with a clear majority of 106 votes out of the 183 cast in the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. India has served only once on the JIU, 35 years ago, from 1968 to 1977. China got only 77 votes.

A Gopinathan, India's nominee for the JIU is currently India's permanent representative to the UN offices in Geneva. Earlier, he was India's deputy permanent representative in New York from January 2002 to September 2005. He has also served as joint secretary (UN) from August 1997 to December 2001 at the ministry of external affairs.

The JIU is a standing subsidiary organ of the General Assembly with a mandate covering the United Nations, its separately administered funds and programmes, and the specialised agencies that have accepted its statute. It is composed of not more than eleven inspectors serving for a term of five years, renewable once.

Why Kashmiris want the hated AFSPA to go

2011-11-20T22:58:00.001-08:00

Caught in the crossfire between security forces and separatist militants for over two decades, Kashmiris say the government must revoke the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) because the law gives sweeping powers to security personnel in the state that is inching towards peace.

The Kashmiri on the street feels the act, in place since 1990, has given Jammu and Kashmir a terror tag, even as peace is seemingly settling down and tourists are returning to the valley.
People feel the circumstances that forced the implementation of the law no longer exist.
"Even Western countries have started lifting travel advisories against Kashmir. When the government itself boasts of peace, why do we need the AFSPA?" Abdur Rehman, who runs a tourist houseboat in Srinagar, asked this IANS correspondent.
Rehman and many others think the army does not have a strong ground to continue with the AFSPA in the Muslim dominated state of over 10.2 million people. The act was implemented in July 1990 when the armed insurgency backed by Pakistan was at its peak. Gun-toting men, sporting handgrenades, would fire and bomb at will wherever they wanted.
The Indian Army's help was taken after the state police and paramilitary forces failed to curb the reign of terror unleashed by militants, who were growing in number and strength. They were also joined by dreaded foreign mercenaries, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
More than two decades since, the situation has visibly improved. Violence and militancy have steeply gone down over the years. The number of terror strikes in urban areas has been brought down to almost zero now.
The number of militants present in the entire state, according to official figures, is less than 500, with all top commanders either killed or forced to run away to Pakistan.
Citing these reasons, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also been strongly demanding partial withdrawal of the law that has come under widespread criticism for alleged violation of human rights by the armed forces.
In its war against cross-border terrorism, the army has been criticised for alleged human rights violations by misusing the law that allows any junior officer to use force, even to kill, on a mere suspicion.
An officer accused of rights violations can be prosecuted only after a nod from the central government and the defence ministry.
Over 1,500 cases of human rights violations have been filed against the army in the last two decades, according to official data.
The army, according to its own investigation, claims that a majority of them - 97 percent - have been found to be "fake or motivated".
It also refuses to hand over the accused officers to civilian authorities because it says it has its own internal mechanism to deal with the "aberrations" of rights violation under the Army Act, 1950.
There are many cases in which the army takes recourse to the iron-fisted AFSPA to contest the prosecution of accused personnel.
Common Kashmiris feel the law should be repealed because the objective to eliminate terror has largely been achieved. They also feel it was hampering justice for the families of victims.
"In how many cases of rights violations have you prosecuted accused officers?" asks human rights lawyer Rubbayya Yasmin. "None," she adds, because the central government hasn't accorded sanction.
"The act should go and it is time to give justice now," Yasmin told IANS.
The army argues that withdrawing the law, even partially, would have "serious operational implications" as militancy would raise its head again. It also argues that partial withdrawal of AFSPA from selected districts would "only create sanctuaries, which the terrorists would exploit to rest, regroup and strike again."
But the reason to continue with the act is not taken well by political and social activists.
Communist Party of India's A.B. Bardhan, a strong advocate of repealing the law, says the army's reason was tantamount to holding Kashmir at "gunpoint".
"It means Kashmir can be kept as part of India with the army of occupation," Bardhan told IANS, adding the time was ripe to withdraw the act at least from the areas where army is not operating.
"Kashmiris have grievances and repealing the law will give them a sense of justice, though there is a long way to go," he added.

2G scam: CBI searches Airtel, Vodafone offices

2011-11-18T23:55:00.001-08:00

The CBI today carried out searches at the Vodafone office in Mumbai and Airtel office in Gurgaon after registering a case against ex-Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and the two telecom service providers for alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during tenure of Pramod Mahajan as Telecom Minister.

Besides Ghosh, the case was registered against former director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited J R Gupta, the agency said.

Immediately after registering the case, CBI teams conducted searches at the official premises of Vodafone in Mumbai,Airtel in Gurgaon and residences of Ghosh and Gupta, it said.

Responding to the raids, Bharti Airtel said it has always maintained the highest standard of corporate governance and regulatory compliance.

"We would like to categorically state that all the spectrum alloted to us from time to time has been strictly as per the stated government policy," a Bharti Airtel spokesperson said.

"We are providing all details and correspondence to the authorities and shall provide complete support as needed in the matter," the spokesperson said.

When approached, Vodafone said they would comment on the developments later.

The CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry to look into the allocation of spectrum under Mahajan to certain companies beyond the prescribed limit.

The CBI alleged in its FIR that Department of Telecom had increased the base spectrum for telecom companies from 4.4 MhZ to 6.2 MhZ during Mahajan's tenure from 2001 to 2003 and also allocated extra spectrum on subscriber-based criteria.

The agency has already filed a case with regard to alleged conspiracy in the Aircel-Maxis deal during the tenure of the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Myanmar window for Delhi

2011-11-18T21:04:00.001-08:00

SUJAN DUTTA

Hillary Clinton in Bali on Friday. She will visit Myanmar in December. (AP)
Bali, Nov. 18: Myanmar has broken out as an open secret from a closed conspiracy, to what should be two cheers from New Delhi and three for Calcutta and Imphal in India’s east and Northeast.
Myanmar has been nominated to head a multi-national body — the Asean — for the first time despite being ruled by a military junta because America and Asia think it is curing itself.
From Bali on the rim of the Indian and Pacific Oceans has arisen a rare opportunity for both Myanmar and India.
This is a window for New Delhi and Naypyidaw — the new capital of the Myanmarese junta — to embrace an opportunity that can translate into real benefits for the marginalised peoples along a border that is longer than India-Pakistan’s.
India can dream of sailing goods and people down the Brahmaputra and the Imphal rivers and transferring them to Mandalay just as Myanmar can envisage sailing its sampans down the Irrawaddy so that they may reach the people of blockaded Manipur.
Even more, Myanmar can actually expect India to look at it as a neighbour with friendship benefits and not just a haven for insurgents that harass the northeastern states.
After years of isolation, sanctions and opprobrium, Myanmar has been recognised by an international body, the Asean, and the US as an infantile democracy-in-the-making.
Leaders of the Asean, of which Myanmar is a member, today decided that the country would get to chair and host the next summit of the Asia-Pacific body.
The rotating presidency of Asean was due to Myanmar in 2006 but it was denied the privilege because of human rights allegations against it.
India physically touches the Asean with Myanmar. The states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh share a border with Myanmar that is probably easier to negotiate for bootleggers than armies. Indeed, bootleggers can find the India-Myanmar border more porous than inter-provincial boundaries
New Delhi can still draw comfort, though. Despite western opposition since dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi was interned, New Delhi kept up a military and strategic cooperation with Naypyidaw.
When India looks east, the first country is Myanmar.
Barack Obama, who met Manmohan Singh here today, later said that secretary of state Hillary Clinton would visit Myanmar in December, a breakthrough by any standard.
The US had sanctions imposed on Myanmar but it has begun seeing a “glimmer of democracy” since the junta released political prisoners last month, at the same time when New Delhi was hosting a junta leader.
Myanmar will get to host the next meeting of Asean heads and the East Asia Summit in 2014 when it assumes the presidency of the body. India and China have been strategic rivals in Myanmar.
The “emergence” of Myanmar has the potential to transform the economic and social life of India’s east and Northeast. On the table, but under the cloth, since Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister is the Mekong-Ganga project, a road highway plan intended to connect India with five countries on the banks of the Mekong River — Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, apart from Myanmar.
India has persisted with a diplomatic relationship with the Myanmarese junta, despite India-bred dissident leader Aung San, because of insurgents in the Northeast who are suspected to find safe shelters there. That policy now promises rich-payoffs for India.
For Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, Myanmar and Bangladesh are the two key countries for New Delhi’s “Look East” policy to translate from rhetoric to action
Between Manmohan Singh and Mamata Banerjee, over disparate visits between Dhaka, New Delhi and Calcutta, the level of comfort with Bangladesh has increased in spite of the apparent quarrel over the Teesta waters.
Now, from Bali, on a margin in the waters south east of India, is the promise of a hope for India’s perennially disturbed and wide-berthed Northeast. Promises sustain more than hope but hopes outlive promise.

India: more AWACS and BrahMos missiles

2011-11-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

NEW DELHI, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- India is in final negotiations for buying two more Israeli-made EL/M-2075 Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems, the Times of India reported.

The $800 million contract is in addition to another $1.1 billion deal for three Phalcons signed in 2004 with Israel and Russia, the Times report said. In that deal, Russia supplied the AWACS aircraft -- Ilyushin-76 military transport plane. The three planes were delivered in 2009 and 2010.

The Phalcon is developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Elta Electronics Industries of Israel. Apart from India and Israel, the Phalcon is used by Chile and Singapore.

India also is on schedule for developing its own AWACS, a smaller system than the Phalcon and for use on smaller planes.

The mini-AWACS program is a $400 million project to mount the radars on three Embraer-145 jets bought from Brazil.

Delivery date for the first plane is 2015, according to a Ministry of Defense statement in November 2010. The Ministry also plans another three mini-AWACS, but has not decided on an aircraft.

Dr. Prahlada, Chief Controller of Research and Development at the Defense Research and Development Organization, which is leading the mini-AWACS program, said the systems will be "85 percent indigenous."

The first three mini-AWACS will have a radar range between 150 and 225 miles and stay airborne for up to 5 hours.

Early last year, Boeing was in talks with the Ministry of Defense about using its 737-700 as a platform for the mini-AWACS.

The AWACS will be especially useful for detecting troop movements as well as cruise missiles.

The Time of India also reported that the Indian army has inducted another regiment of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, a precision-strike weapon with a range of around 200 miles.

The missiles likely will be deployed in the state of Arunachal Pradesh state in the northeast along the remote and contested border with China, the report said.

BrahMos missiles will "counter China's huge buildup of military infrastructure all along the 4,057-kilometer (2,500-mile) Line of Actual Control following a similar nod for the western sector facing Pakistan." the Times said.

The BrahMos is a based on Russian technology and is developed by BrahMos Aerospace -- a joint venture company created in 1998. BMA is 50.5 percent Indian-government owned and 49.5 percent by the Russian government. The name BrahMos is derived from two rivers, India's Brahmaputra and Russia's Moskva.

Last year the Indian government announced plans to have a reduced-weight air-launched version of the BrahMos on the air force's Sukhoi SU-30 MK-1 fighter aircraft by 2012.

The two-stage supersonic version, with its solid propellant engine, reaches Mach 3. But a hypersonic version is under development, BrahMos Aerospace said. It will use scram-jet engines, in place of ramjet, and reach Mach 6.

India has hopes for exporting the missiles, but only after all Ministry of Defense orders have been met.

Omar says ample opportunity to allay Army's concerns on AFSPA

2011-11-14T04:19:00.003-08:00

Amid raging controversy over the issue of partial withdrawal of AFSPA, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said there was ample opportunity to address the concerns of the armed forces and still go ahead with the proposed plan.

Omar, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram, also made it clear that he was not in the "business of playing politics with national security", nor would he do so ever in future.
"I believe that there is ample opportunity to address both the concerns of armed forces while still allowing us to go ahead with the position that we have taken which is keeping with what the Cabinet Committee on Security recommended almost a year ago," he said after a meeting with Chidambaram.
Omar said as part of his efforts to evolve a consensus on the partial withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, he has already met the Prime Minister, and other members of the CCS -- Defence Minister A K Antony, the Home Minister and would meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee later tonight.
"Obviously the effort is to narrow the differences between what we would like to see happening and what the Army is so far as publicly stated as comfortable to let happen," he said.
The Chief Minister dismissed the suggestion that by raking the AFSPA he was trying to deflect other issues facing his government and said he has been raising the AFSPA issue ever since be became the Chief Minister three years ago.

"Please understand. I have been talking about AFSPA and its possible partial roll back almost the day since I became the Chief Minister...I am not in the business of playing politics with national security. I never have been and I never will be," he said.
Asked what assurance he has received from the Prime Minister and the Union Ministers, Omar said it was not proper for him to say anything on their behalf.
"I am not...Its not my place to speak on behalf of raksha mantri or the Prime Minister or the Home Minister. I have made our point of view very clear. They, I think, were very receptive, to what we had to say. As I say, this is an ongoing process, this will continue," he said.
The Chief Minister said he was in the process of meeting all the members of the CCS and his effort was to reach the goal of partial withdrawal of AFSPA.
"I met the raksha mantri yesterday. I met the Prime Minister this morning. I just concluded a meeting with the Home Minister. I am scheduled to meet the Finance Minister later tonight. This will conclude my first round of discussions with the members of CCS.
"These discussions will continue. If necessary, I will meet them again. My effort is to reach the goal of partial withdrawal of AFSPA and simultaneously ally the apprehensions of the armed forces," he said.
Asked about hardline Hurriyat faction's statement that if Disturbed Areas Act, Public Safety Act and AFSPA were lifted then there will be a public uprising in Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said the separatists did not want the withdrawal of AFSPA as it would benefit them in two ways.
"If not withdrawn, they will say it has not withdrawn. If withdrawn, they will threaten you (with such statement) and you will get scared by their threat," he said.
The Chief Minister said the state government was talking about withdrawal of AFSPA from the areas where armed forces were not operating now.
"If they (Hurriyat) have the courage, they should do whatever they want to do... They should show me by doing something in Srinagar...Even today the forces are not operating in Srinagar. They can't do anything. They know that if the Act is withdrawn, people will be happy and they will lose ground. They want to threaten you...," Omar said.
The Chief Minister said apart from the issue of the partial withdrawal of the AFSPA, he has discussed with the Home Minister several other issues including overall security environment of the state.
"We reviewed the overall security environment of the state, particularly in light of the fact that offices have moved from Srinagar to Jammu for winter. We also discussed some of the ongoing works visa-a-vis the rehabilitation of migrants etc," he said.

Over 7,500 Pakistanis overstayed in India: RTI

2011-11-14T04:19:00.001-08:00

As many as 7,691 Pakistanis and 32,644 Bangladeshis were found to be overstaying in India even after their visas expired, a Right to Information (RTI) reply has revealed.

The information was given by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Foreigners Division, in response to an RTI application by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal.
The foreigners division of MHA has informed that the data is available only till 2009 and the data for last year and this year has not been compiled yet.
"It is not possible to estimate the total number of such foreign nationals, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals, who have entered into the country without valid travel documents and are staying in the country since the entry of such foreign nationals into the country is clandestine and surreptitious," the MHA said in the RTI reply.
According to Dec 31, 2009 statistics of MHA, 7,691 Pakistanis, many of them Hindus and Sikhs, are overstaying in India.

"A number of Pakistani nationals belonging to the minority community in Pakistan, the Hindus and Sikhs, have come to India with a desire to get Indian citizenship. But the central database about Hindus who have come from Pakistan and Bangladesh in anticipation of Indian Citizenship is not maintained," the MHA has said in the RTI reply.
Almost 32,644, Bangladeshi nationals have overstayed in India. Apart from Pakistan and Bangladesh, 33,106 individuals of other nationalities were also found to be overstaying in India.
The RTI data indicate that after Pakistan and Bangladesh, the other nationals belong to Afghanistan (13,569), Sri Lanka (2,490), US (1,535) and Nigeria (1,121).
The ministry has also revealed that during 2009, 12,147 foreign nationals, including five Pakistani nationals and 10,602 Bangladeshi nationals, were deported from the country.

EC plans to use Facebook to educate voters

2011-11-14T04:02:00.001-08:00

The Election Commission is planning to take the help of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to impart electoral messages to young voters, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said.

"The Commission is now seriously looking at the social media as the hubs to impart electoral education," Quraishi said delivering the Maulana Azad Memorial Lecture 2011 titled 'Education for Deepening Democracy'.
"Like Maulana Azad, I believe that an educated and aware citizen is the best guarantee for deepening both democracy and development," Quraishi said.
The CEC said he had recently held talks with policy makers of Education and Youth ministries to integrate citizenship and voter education as a part of the curriculum of their various courses.

"We have established the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management ( IIDEM) making voter education a core area of emphasis in it," Quraishi said.
Regretting that many voters in the age group of 18-35 years do not exercise their voting rights for whatever reason, the CEC said the Commission has put voter education and awareness programme on fast track to improve the situation.
In a strategic initiative called YUVA (Youth Unite for Voter Awareness), the Commission has planned to rope in the new and young voters, he said.

Hazare made demi-god by Team Anna members: blogger

2011-11-11T23:16:00.001-08:00

Seeking to put Team Anna members on the backfoot, the Gandhian's former blogger Raju Parulekar has accused a 'gang of four' in Anna Hazare's core team of using the activist as a demi-god to further their interests and hold government to 'ransom'.

Parulekar, who fell out with Hazare after the latter publicly snubbed him on the issue of restructuring of Core Committee, alleged that Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia had 'free reigns' and had free run in media by becoming 'experts' on various subjects which gave them also the 'stature of being virtuous and demi-gods'.

He sought answers from Hazare as to who 'pressurised' him not to show the door to Bhushan from the Core team for his controversial comments on plebiscite in Kashmir, saying who will understand the legal loopholes in the bill and whether he was aware of the financial transactions of Kejriwal and Sisodia and their 'ambitions'.

He also questioned the entire Jan Lokpal bill movement in his blog posting late last night to put his side of the story claiming that he had not manipulated Hazare's blog postings. He said the 'disillusioned' countrymen have misled to believe that this self-centered movement will 'create heaven for them' and a stricter Janlokpal Bill (law) can abolish more than 50 per cent of corruption from their life.

"...truth lies somewhere else," he said, adding "this bunch of 20-plus people and 'gang of four' among them take the country for a ride and hold the government for ransom...are we going to place our country in the hands of these four-five people and their salaried gang members? ". "How difficult will it be for the agitation to sustain and pull ahead alone on Anna Hazare’s moral strength? Which direction it is heading to? Are any of us Indians familiar with the other members of Team Anna except for Bhushan father-son-duo, Bedi, Sisodia and Kejriwal? Who has selected these 21 people to represent the 120 crore people in India?" he asked.

The only difference between parties and Team Anna was the moral authority wielded by Hazare because of which 20-plus people including ‘Gang of four’ enjoy privilege of being called ‘patriots’ and whole political class bow at their feet with "sheer guilt of their absolute corruption..." Parulekar, who also released a letter he wrote but did not sent to Hazare, said there is no movement on the ground to bring systemic change and the present fight for Jan Lokpal Bill if enacted will mean "another opportunity for corruption".

On the controversial letter by Hazare on restructuring Team Anna which was made public by him, Parulekar said Hazare has cast aspersions on his honesty and integrity but he felt that it was not the Gandhian's words but those of somebody else, "dangerous, wicked, self-centered and in real-sense enemy of the people of country called India."

He claimed that the October 30 meeting in Ralegan Siddhi was stormy and Hazare contradicted Kejriwal and others. "I have shown Annaji's handwritten and signed letter for re-structuring ‘Team Anna’ to the trio. They were shaken but remained arrogant. Kejriwal said, ‘we ‘Team Anna’ have decided in Kosambi that the ‘team’ will remain so hence the letter is insignificant.’ He went on to claim that to re-structure ‘Team Anna’ will harm Janlokpal issue. Annaji wrote on a piece of paper, ‘how come re-structuring and Janlokpal bill issue is contradictory?’ Annaji’s reaction was all the more explosive," he said.

Parulekar claimed that Bhushan mocked at Hazare asking what he knew about Chinese history as he spoke about a 'gang of four' in government targeting Team Anna. Parulekar also alleged that Kumar Vishwas' letter seeking disbanding of the team was "orchestrated" by Kejriwal and others.

"The moment I announced to the media your plans of bringing about changes in ‘Team Anna’ at the earliest, Kumar Vishwas suddenly appeared from Gaziabad and started reading and explaining the letter that was meant to be a ‘secret’," he said. He also questioned why the donations for Hazare agitation was deposited in the trust held jointly by Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia and why it was were not deposited in Ralegansiddhi's trust account.

"Swami Ramdev, Shri Shri, Medha Patkar, Rajendra Singhji and even Hegde sahib distanced themselves from the movement. Though they do not publicly disown the movement they are hurt within which is absolutely visible," he claimed.

Kingfisher urgently needs $400 million to survive: Expert

2011-11-11T23:12:00.001-08:00

Tycoon Vijay Mallya's cash-strapped and bleeding private carrier Kingfisher Airlines urgently requires about $400 million (Rs.2,000 crore) to survive and keep flying, an aviation expert said late Friday.

"If Kingfisher has to survive, it urgently requires capital infusion of $400 million, including $200 million immediately to maintain its daily operations," Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) chief executive Kapil Kaul told IANS.
Noting that the financial health of Kingfisher was critical, Kaul said the country's leading private airline had to operate a manageable fleet from cash flow perspective and rationalise its routes to match with demand.
"The airline has no choice but exit from loss-making routes and operate a fleet that is manageable from a cash flow point of view," Kaul said from New Delhi.
The two-decade-old CAPA provides independent aviation market intelligence, analysis and data services.
Expressing concern over the sudden turn of events for the debt-ridden airline, Kaul said Kingfisher had to find ways and means to reduce non-bank dues at least by Rs.2,000 crore to overcome the financial crisis it was facing.

"According to our estimates, Kingfisher will require about $800 million (Rs.4,000 crore) to fully fund its business plan over next two years. Funds can be raised through rights issue (as planned), GDR (global depository receipts), QIPs (qualified institutional placement) or converting finance leases into sale lease back and leverage future aircraft orders," Kaul said in an e-mail.
Advocating substantial contribution and commitment by the promoter group (United Breweries Holdings & Kingfisher Finvest India), the aviation expert said the airline had to bring in serious management to initiate a genuine recover plan.
"The key issue is to ensure sustainable viability. We have a largely loss-making aviation industry due to the very fragile financial status of the domestic airline industry in which Kingfisher is no exception," Kaul pointed out.
The Indian private carriers reported a combined cumulative loss of $6 billion (Rs.30,000 crore) till March 2011.
"The domestic carriers are projected to report a combined loss of $2.5 billion (Rs.1,250 crore) by end of this fiscal (2011-12), with the state-run Air India alone accounting for $1.75-2 billion) and other airlines to the tune of $600-700 million," Kaul noted.
Making the Gurgaon-based private carrier IndiGo exception to losses as it is expected to be profitable this fiscal (FY 2012) too, Kaul said the low-cost airline continued to deliver a robust performance in extremely challenging circumstances.

Referring to the restructured debt of Kingfisher (Rs.6,007 crore/$1.2 billion), the analyst said the cumulative debt burden of the three big Indian carriers, including Air India (AI) and Jet Airways was a whopping $16 billion (Rs.80,000 crore).
"Indian banks have an exposure of $6 billion (Rs.30,000 crore) related to working capital and term loans. They will have an additional exposure ($2 billion) on the aircraft related financing," Kaul observed.
As of date, Indian carriers, including Air India will immediately require $2.5 billion to fund their operations and stay afloat.
"The operating environment is very challenging. Fuel costs are high, rupee has depreciated by over 10 percent and AI continues to work with loss leadership pricing. I expect this to continue in the near-term," Kaul asserted.
Though the domestic aviation sector will grow 17-18 percent this fiscal, most of the growth will come from cost minus pricing by the airlines.
"We have a serious issue on hand and that is to address the viability of these carriers. Unfortunately, there is no direction in this regard. Government response to the financial crisis continues to be ad hoc and weak. We don't have strategic aviation thinking at present," Kaul added.

Kerala tops child rights index

2011-11-09T20:14:00.001-08:00

Aarti Dhar

Resource person P.S. Sreekala training students at P.S. Nataraja Pillai Memorial UPS as part of the Holistic Child Health Programme of Kudumbasree here in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: S. Mahinsha
As in most social sector indicators, Kerala tops the national child rights index, followed by Karnataka. Arunachal Pradesh is the worst performer in protecting the rights of children.
Strangely, Kerala's child marriage indicator is the lowest, and the State's performance is far from satisfactory in early childhood care and crimes against children.
One point that stands out in the indexing — the first of its kind in the country — is that economic growth does not necessarily improve the wellbeing of children. Jharkhand is the only State whose economic status matches its child rights rank — both standing at 17.

Lack of attention

Kerala, which ranks first in the national child rights, stands ninth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) status, whereas Maharashtra, which ranks first in the GDP, is standing third in child rights. Maharashtra does badly in sex ratio and child marriage, which points to the lack of attention to children. Arunachal Pradesh has performed fairly well in sex ratio, child marriage and early childhood care.
This composite index, brought out by the HAQ-Centre for Child Rights, looks into all aspects of child wellbeing in all sectors and indicators for realisation of child rights as a whole.
With the second highest GDP in the country, Uttar Pradesh ranks 18th in child rights and 27th in the provision of health care, next only to Jharkhand. Surprising facts the indexing has thrown up are that Mizoram is doing badly in controlling child labour, while crimes against children are the highest in Nagaland (in proportion to the number of children), and Manipur is the worst performer in crimes by children and Bihar is the best.
“It [the index] was timed to coincide with the 12th Five Year Planning process, and we hope it will help to identify the States that still lag behind, and highlight the specific areas — geographical and sectoral — that pull them down, so that they can be paid attention to,” said Enakshi Ganguly Thukral of HAQ.

Regional pattern

The ranking has a regional pattern: four of the five best performing States — Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh — are from the southern region. Maharashtra alone is from the west. On the other hand, all the worst performing States are in the Northeast: Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. In fact, of the five States falling in the not-so-well performing States category, Tripura, Assam and Mizoram are from the Northeast. They are performing badly in almost indicators.
A significant proportion of the population of the worst performing States, which are performing badly in education, are tribals: Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh are tribal-dominated, with indigenous groups constituting 26.3 per cent and 64.2 per cent of the population. This is also true of health, wherein the five worst performing State are Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. All among them are essentially tribal States, except Uttar Pradesh.
Maharashtra, though ranking third in child rights, has not been able to address the falling sex ratio and child marriage. In fact, all the five best performing States are not doing well in early childhood care and preventing child marriage.
Kerala and Goa, the two best performing States in health, are performing poorly in the provision of health infrastructure. Himachal Pradesh, one of the five best States in health care, ranks among the last five in HIV/AIDS intervention.

Anna's future may be less rosy than his past

2011-11-06T21:50:00.003-08:00

It is possible that the Congress will finally succeed in outflanking Anna Hazare. It isn't only the decision to introduce the Lokpal bill which is likely to take the wind out of the latter's sails, another piece of legislation to tackle corruption at the lower level will send the message that the government is at last serious about purposeful legal measures and not insipid ones, as was the earlier perception.

True, the Lokpal bill is unlikely to be passed during the winter session, as the civil activists want. The government may even engage in a bit of filibustering to ensure that the debate stretches into 2012. There are enough critics of the measure outside the government, like the Congress' old friend Lalu Prasad, who can help prolong the discussion on the grounds of a closer look.
Even then, once the consideration of the bill is taken up by parliament, it will be extremely difficult for activists to rev up their campaign. Certainly, there can be no question in this context of a third fast, as promised by Anna. The movement can continue, of course. Even suspicions can be voiced about the dilatory parliamentary tactics. But anything smacking of pressure tactics will be counter-productive. What this means is that the Anna camp has lost its trump card that compelled the government to accept its terms, namely, its version of the bill, by exerting relentless pressure.
Till now, the group has been fairly successful - in fact, more successful than any such movement in the past, including Jayaprakash Narayan's. The latter's pro-democracy movement was actually a failure considering that JP himself was jailed along with scores of other top-ranking leaders and the period from June 1975, to March 1977 was largely uneventful. It was only Indira Gandhi's erroneous reading of the prevailing calm which made her call for elections with disastrous results for the Congress.
Anna's success, on the other hand, was based, first, on the deep disquiet among the aam admi about the prevailing corruption and, secondly, on the Congress' initial mishandling of protests, mainly because it seemed to have no idea about how the many scams have undermined its position. But now the wheel has apparently started turning the other way.
Anna's problem is that he wants to operate outside the system because he regards it as corrupt to the core. However, in trying to place himself above it - above parliament, in the words of an acolyte - he has been acting in accordance with a certain traditional viewpoint which maintains that the present Westminster system is essentially alien to the Indian ethos. What the adherents of this belief hark back to is a glorious Indian past, where the kings were subservient to the sages.
Hazare apparently fancies himself in that role, which is above and beyond the existing system, not least because it reflects Mahatma Gandhi's lifestyle and JP's concept of a partyless democracy. Although his austere image has helped him carry conviction, some of his followers have proved to be his Achilles' heel. Hence his decision to frame a "constitution" for his group. But it is a dicey path since it carries the whiff of politics, which the Gandhian claims to shun.
Already some of his followers have dropped out because of the movement's political role during the Hisar parliamentary by-election in which Anna's men campaigned against the Congress. Now the constitution may be another contentious issue. For instance, how will Anna's position be defined? Will he be above the movement as well - someone whose word will be law? It has been said that the constitution will have an ethical content in the wake of the allegations about income-tax evasion, the parking of campaign funds, the fudging of travel expenses, a pro-separatist stand in Kashmir, etc., which have been levelled against some of Anna's followers. But who will be the judge and jury and what will be the punishment?
Evidently, when Anna launched his anti-corruption battle, he did not anticipate that it would become such a big affair, capturing the imagination of the people who were looking for a hero in a dispiriting time and attracting activists from various walks of life. It was all very well when the government was on the retreat. But now the difficulty of sustaining the two basic ingredients of the movement - hype and a lily-white image - have come to the fore.
The government, on its part, can carry on much as before since the focus will be on parliament rather than on it. But Anna will have to ensure that the movement does not flag, that the bill does not go off track and that no other allegations of dubious transactions are made against his followers. Clearly, Anna's future will be less rosy than his past.

No purpose of Press Council, scrap it!

2011-11-06T21:50:00.001-08:00

The new Press Council Chairman, Justice Markandey Katju was probably unaware of the work done by the National Broadcasting Association in promoting self-regulation in the electronic media when he demanded the extension of the Press Council's powers to cover TV channels in the country.

More than 45 TV channels are covered by the body which is headed by one of the more distinguished former chief justices of India, J S Verma. In the short space of two years, it framed its guidelines, considered nearly 200 complaints and passed orders against nine broadcasters, even fining some of them. A parallel body headed by retired Justice A P Shah deals with the entertainment channels.

Justice Katju's ignorance stems from his agenda which is nothing short of bossing over the TV news channels, directing their programming towards allegedly socially and educationally relevant streams, ensuring that the anchors ask the right questions, and going down to the fine detail of ensuring that guests in talk shows do not interrupt each other. He has, of course, made no bones about the fact that his method will not be pedagogical, but one based on the fear of the stick, which he generously says will be used only in "extreme" situations.

In contrast to Justice Katju who is a government functionary, Justice Verma and the NBA work pro bono. Considering that it does little to either foster press freedom or aid the media to enhance its quality, scrapping the Press Council of India would be a good idea, and it would save some public money.

More so, since its chairman seems determined to play the stalking horse for the government which claims that it wants to merely "regulate" the media, while in reality its aim is to restrict it.

Don't cite Metallica to malign Delhi

2011-11-06T21:49:00.001-08:00

My friend and I had reached Saket when we got a call from the venue saying that the Metallica gig had been cancelled. We had only just asked the taxi to turn back, when my mother phoned from Allahabad giving us the same information. By the time we got home, we realised that the cancellation had become national news and was all over the TV channels. Minutes later, the Internet was abuzz with comments about the gig that never was.
There was a curious slant to the debate. Those from Bombay and Bangalore launched into an attack on Delhi. This, it seemed, was not about a band and a cancelled concert. This moronic inferno was about Delhi versus the Rest of India. People from other cities rubbed their hands gleefully. What did you expect from Delhi? - that crude, horrible, power-hungry and anarchic city.
Comparison
There is something curious about this. It's the West that has often spoken in superior tones about India's inefficiency and ineptitude. In the aftermath of the gig fiasco, people from Bombay and Bangalore seemed to take on this superior attitude. They behaved as if they come from ultra-civilised societies where everything works like clockwork. We know what the reality is. We know that they come from crowded, dying cities that are riddled with ethnic and regional concerns, and where morality is regulated by the state. They come from cities that have seen terrible riots, where dancing is banned at live gigs, where parochial concerns-whether it be Telangana or the Marathi manoos-dominate.
Delhi, in many ways, is a young new city. It doesn't suffer from any of these bugbears. A couple of days after the Metallica cancellation, it became clear that the organisers of the event were responsible for the chaos, that angry people went berserk only after the event was cancelled. It could have happened anywhere. When a hundred thousand people peacefully watched the Formula One race on the same weekend, the Internet trolls were silent.
Young Delhi, on the other hand, is mature about what happens in other cities. Weeks ago, a group of friends went out for dinner in Andheri West in Bombay. They were heckled by drunken men. When two members of the group protested the harassment they were killed. Delhi didn't rub its hands in glee. We didn't say, oh god, Bombay, awful city, why can't it sort things out? We commiserated. Every time Bombay gets flooded, we don't clap our hands and stomp our feet.
There are a couple of things that are happening here. People from other cities do not realise how far ahead Delhi has moved. There is ignorance. The gap between Delhi and the Rest of India has widened in the last decade. There is jealousy too. Those who have experienced this change, realise that this is the only big city in the country that allows one the space to breathe, while also guaranteeing anonymity. Things happen here, culturally there are more events taking place in Delhi than in any other city, and traffic moves here, even during rush hour. There is also a diversity of professions.
The issues that the young grapple with here in Delhi are different in nature from other cities. We are not bothered about morality, religion, what's in our culture and what's not, all this old-fashioned stuff. The young here are dealing with new issues, more modern issues, like the influx of foreigners and how they fit into our lives. For the rest of this piece, I'll concentrate on the new immigration, for I believe it illustrates that the young in Delhi have more pragmatic concerns.
Delhi has attracted more foreigners in the last ten years than ever before. Many of them are part and parcel of the life of the city; they settle here because they find it more habitable than creaking Bombay or sleepy Chennai. This new expat does not work in an embassy or a multinational, and is certainly not a hippie. She works instead in publishing, plays in local bands, edits magazines.
Expats
Gavin Morris, a Londoner, visited India almost ten times over a period of five years. Having lived in London and New York, he wanted to move to a big city but not to one in the West. New Delhi, India, was a natural choice. It helped that he could find work here. Delhi is host to several international publishing majors; Gavin designs book covers for many of them. He likes Delhi because it is constantly changing. "The Metro is amazing, and there are tons of restaurants now. I remember the choice being pretty limited earlier on. The city has really transformed itself."
Stefan Kaye is a musician and event organiser. He's the man behind The Medicine Show, a successful variety show that blends Broadway musical, farce and cabaret. Arundhati Roy is a very vocal fan of his band The Ska Vengers, regulars on the Delhi music scene. Before turning up in Delhi, he spent time in Barcelona and Brighton. Stefan has singlehandedly rejuvenated the live music scene in Delhi, proving the point that the new expats are contributing in a big way to the cultural life of our cities. Just as Indians went to the UK to realise their dreams, now people from other parts of the world are coming here, and to Delhi in particular, to realise theirs.
Expats, once they become part of the local fabric, also become important agents of change, trying to jolt the natives out of their somnolence. The Medicine Show's Bangalore edition had two men in rabbit costumes gyrating to Louis Armstrong's "We've Got All the Time in the World", followed by an act by Adam Pasha, Bangalore's very own drag queen. Manola Gayatri, a performance artist danced naked, while Stefan's band performed.
Hurdles
She was spray-painted from head to toe; the nudity was cleverly camouflaged. She flashed torchlight on a gasping audience. When the show was over, a middleaged woman came up to her and said, "I would never have dared to go to the beach in my swimsuit. Seeing you I feel better about my nakedness." Stefan says, "My show has adult themes but no sexism or racism. I want to show that women can be sexy but not for the gratification of men. In my own way, I'm trying to redress the prudery that came to India via us Brits."
It's not all smooth sailing though, being an expat among natives. Stefan has encountered his share of aggression in Delhi. He's been asked to go back to the UK or "whichever shit hole country he comes from." A music magazine printed an anonymous letter that asked fellow Indians to "kick his teeth in." Some local musicians, jealous of his success, have insinuated that he finds it easier to get gigs because he is white. He's had people barging into a recording studio and telling him he can't write songs about Binayak Sen and Narendra Modi simply because he is "not from around here."
Stefan though is planning to stick it out. He loves Delhi. He says he is not going to behave like a guest all the time. "I will not keep silent just because I am a foreigner. If I see injustice around me I will react. As a primate I think it's my duty to do so."
A vibrant young multi-ethnic Delhi is showing other cities the way. We are working out a new template for the future. We are still in the process. The cancelled Metallica show was just an aberration. And it was certainly not our fault.

Irom supporters observe token fast

2011-11-05T22:01:00.001-07:00

Imphal, Nov 6 (PTI) Hundreds of supporters of Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila, whose indefinite hunger-strike for repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act entered 11th year today, went on a fastd here and across the country. "Hundreds of people from all walks of life came here to support our cause, observe a token fast and help Sharmila in her fight," Just Peace Foundation's Onil Kshetrimayum told PTI as protesters fasted from 10:00 am till 4:00 pm at 25 venues here and the districts of Manipur. The 39-year-old civil rights activist's elder brother Irom Singhajit led the mass fast here. Students body All Manipur Students Union and civil society groups like Sharmila Kanba Lup, Meira Paibi, senior citizen groups, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and those affected by alleged atrocities of the army joined the hunger strike. Leaders from Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) also lent support. The Ima Market in the heart of the town and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, where Sharmila is forcibly nose-fed, were among the venues of the mass fast. The 'Save Democracy Repeal AFSPA' group observed fast in other parts of the country also, said civil rights activist Seram Rojesh Kumar. In Delhi, a day-long fast was held as also a discussion. Street theatre on democracy and AFSPA, music and poetry recitals by amateur social-artists were held along with 'Tales from the Margin', a touching documentary by Kavita Joshi on the issue, was also screened. Cities like Bangalore, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chandigarh, Pune and Patna also joined in to express solidarity with Sharmila.

Indian police halt Tibetan's self-immolation bid

2011-11-04T02:50:00.001-07:00

The protester poured fuel on his body and lit himself before police overpowered him (AFP, Roberto Schmidt)

NEW DELHI — A Tibetan exile set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on Friday before Indian police intervened, witnesses said, in the latest self-immolation protest against China.
The young protester poured liquid fuel on his body and lit himself before police overpowered him and put out the flames, which licked up his trousers and across his waist, an AFP photographer at the scene reported.
The man, who was on his own, had stepped off a public bus and shouted slogans during his protest before several policemen grabbed him and he fell to the ground.
He appeared to have suffered minor burns on his legs and was taken away in a police vehicle. A New Delhi police spokesman was unable to provide further details.
Since March there has been a series of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns in southwest China in protests demanding religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
At least five monks and two nuns have died, rights groups have said, with the most recent death being reported on Thursday when a nun, named Qiu Xiang and aged about 35, set fire to herself in China's Sichuan province.
Tibetan groups in Delhi said the activist in Friday's protest was a 25-year-old named Sherab Tsedor.

India objects to Chinese company's map, Beijing promises rectification

2011-11-03T22:05:00.001-07:00

A Chinese company Thursday signed a pact for investing $400 million in Gujarat, but a row erupted when China's ambassador Zhang Yan asked an Indian journalist to "shut up" when he questioned the company's map showing Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China.

India was prompt to take up the issue, with the Chinese envoy assuring that the mistake will be rectified. TBEA, a Chinese power company, inked a memorandum of understanding for investing around $400 million in two-stages for manufacturing transformers in Gujarat.
The company is part of the business delegation Nur Bekri, governor of the Muslim-majority Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, has brought to India to explore two-way investment opportunities. The brochure of the Chinese company, which was circulated at a business function, showed a map of India on its front page that depicted Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Chinese territory and parts of Jammu and Kashmir as part of the Pakistan-administered Kashmir, evoking consternation among journalists.

When Chinese ambassador to India Zhang Yan was asked for his reaction, the envoy first said it's "a technical issue." However, when he continued to be pressed, he lost his cool and said "shut up," triggering much outrage among the media there. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory. The issue is part of boundary talks between India and China.
India and China have held 14 round of boundary talks to resolve their decades old territorial dispute, but not much headway has been made. The next round will be held in New Delhi November-end. Gautam Bambawale, joint secretary in charge of China in the external affairs ministry, promptly took up the issue with the Chinese ambassador and conveyed his objections.

The envoy admitted that it was a mistake and he will have it rectified soon, reliable sources told IANS. The envoy also said that it was a private company and should not be seen as a reflection of the Chinese position. Zhang, on his part, admitted that Bambawale brought up the issue, but declined to say anything more than that it was a technical issue. "This is a technical issue. We handle these issues. Your joint secretary has mentioned and I have said that we will look into this."
"I have talked to our people. So what can I do for you," the Chinese diplomat told the journalist. Zhang added that "shut up is not something that changes the nature of these things because we are handling this in a friendly way".

Bekri, who began his four-day visit to India Thursday, has been invited by the Indian government under the India-China Distinguished Visitors' Programme. Speaking at a business meet organized by the CII, Bekri invited Indian companies to scale up two-way trade and investment.
He met Vice President Hamid Ansari and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma. Bekri will go to Agra Friday and to Mumbai Saturday, where he is expected to seek business and tourism linkages between his province and India. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar visited China in June. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is expected to go to China later this month to attract Chinese investment in his state.

$1 million jackpot: Should Sushil Kumar rejoice or worry?

2011-11-03T02:31:00.001-07:00

P V Subramanyam

Sushil Kumar from Bihar just won the Rs 5 crores jackpot (Rs. 50 Million) on the fifth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati. (For those who do not know KBC, this is the Indian version of Who wants to be a Millionaire)
Sushil Kumar will not receive the entire Rs. 5 crores, the tax department will eat up about one third of his jackpot leaving him with about Rs. 3.5 crores; that's still a sizeable amount.
Let us see how it can help Mr. Sushil Kumar - a post graduate in philosophy and an IAS aspirant - in his life. He is currently a school teacher earning a meager Rs. 6000 per month.
In an interview Sushil Kumar revealed that he has some obligations that need to met first before he invests the rest of his money

An elder brother who wants to set up his own business
A younger brother wanting to quit his 'piddly' Rs. 1500 per month job and also wants to start a new business.
His parents will want a nice big house - befitting the 'crorepati' son's status
Sushil Kumar himself plans to quit his job in order to concentrate on his IAS exam.

Sadly, along with a big amount of money God does not gift one with 'financial wisdom' - not even the wisdom of knowing that he needs unbiased financial advice. I can see a tomorrow and, therefore, find it difficult to rejoice in his success.
Why you ask? Here's why
Even in his small village there will be a lot of people chasing him — "investment consultants" There will be greedy hands pulling from all sides:
Namely, LIC agents, mutual fund agents, bank managers, other life insurance companies, pension providers, brokerage houses and bankers.
It would be really interesting to track his life over the next 10 years on a year to year basis to see how much this money is scaring him, helping him, torturing him and helping him to meet his goals.
The author P V Subramanyam is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a financial trainer by profession. Writing being a passion he also regularly pens his thought in his blog Subramoney.com

I-T Dept sends notices to persons involved in black money cases

2011-11-01T02:43:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department has started sending notices to persons involved in black money cases on the basis of information received from abroad, even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said their names would be disclosed after initiation of prosecution proceedings.
The notices are being sent by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to individuals and entities across countries following scrutiny of classified banking data received from foreign countries about Swiss Bank accounts.
"As and when the information (is received), investigation starts, prosecution takes place (and) matter comes to the court. Then, as per the existing treaty terms, we can reveal the names in cases of prosecution by the Income Tax Department," Mukherjee told reporters here when asked whether the government has received information about industrialists and MPs in connection with black money.
The minister had earlier said the government has received information from France about the overseas bank accounts of Indians. "In 69 cases, the taxpayers have admitted to unaccounted income of Rs 397.17 crore. Taxes of Rs 30.07 crore have also been paid," he had said.
India, according to the Finance Ministry, has so far received over 9,900 pieces of information from several countries regarding suspicious transactions by Indian citizens, which are now under different stages of processing and investigation.
The Department of Criminal Investigation will initiate legal proceedings in several cases in the next few months, sources said, adding that the cases would be dealt with under criminal provisions of the IT Act.
In a number of cases being probed by the DCI, the department plans to conducts searches and surveys for obtaining additional information.

Punjab among the worst drug abuse affected states in the country – Wasnik

2011-10-29T22:20:00.001-07:00

Chandigarh: Punjab, Maharashtra and Manipur are among the worst drug abuse affected states in the country, Mukul Wasnik, union minister for social justice and empowerment disclosed.

Speaking at the 6th Annual Conference on Drug Abuse at Punjab University, the minister said that the drug addiction rate of Punjab is at about 26% which is only exceeded by Manipur, where about 28 % of the population is afflicted by drug abuse.

Treatment and rehabilitation are a slow process and addicts relapsing into abuse are many, he said.

To acknowledge the achievements of persons working to eradicate drug abuse in country, Wasnik mooted instituting national awards.

Drug Abuse

Delegates from Sikkim let the conference know that drug addicts are prosecuted as criminals in the state. This makes the drug-abuse situation in that state appalling, they said.

The delegates argued that the Sikkim Anti Drug Act was contrary to the Central Act in its criminalization of individual drug addicts.

Government employees found using drugs in Sikkim are suspended from service. Drug addicts need to be treated humanely and with sympathy rather than harshly under the law, the Sikkim delegates advocated.

Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who was also present at the conference sought to change the term ‘drug addict’ to ‘drug dependent’. He said that it was a hidden menace that needed to be overcome.

Ross Bell, a delegate from New Zealand said that India was a great market for drug providers and big lobbyists were targeting the nations young population.

Frustration, peer group pressure, unemployment were some of causes of drug use, said Bell.

Organized by Federation of Indian NGOs for Drug Abuse Prevention in partnership with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the State Aids Control Society of Punjab there are about 400 representatives from different NGOs participating in the conference that concludes on October 30th.

Aussie media lobbies for uranium for India

2011-10-29T00:08:00.001-07:00

Perth: New Delhi can relax, the Australian media is doing its lobbying for it - especially on the uranium front.

Slamming Prime Minister Julia Gillard's foreign policy as "obsolete and discredited", a writer in The Australian has contended that it is prejudicing Australia's ties with India, the emerging third-biggest economy in the world.
"That the ALP (Australian Labour Party) ... should continue to impair Australia's economic and strategic interests is intolerable. If this situation continues uncorrected at the December national conference then Gillard should be held to account for allowing Labour's atiquated obsessions about uranium and nuclear power to prevent Australia from following an India policy that its ministers know is desirable and inevitable," wrote Paul Kelly, the paper's editor-at-large.
Kelly quoted Rory Medcalf of the Lowy Institute, a think tank, as saying: "A decision to stick with the old policy (of not selling uranium to India) will convince India's political elite that Labour is never going to be a natural partner for a rising India."
Kelly wrote: "Consider the facts. Australia exports uranium yellowcake to China, Japan, South Korea, the US, Taiwan and several European countries... (Hence) there is no justification, strategic or economic, for the ban (on selling to India)."
The ban was imposed by the Kevin Rudd government in 2008, reversing an earlier decision by the previous Howard government.
The Australian media sees Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's absence at the ongoing Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as a clear snub to Australia over its no-uranium-for-India policy.
Kelly quoted Labour Senator Stephen Loosley, described as a foreign affairs specialist, as saying: "The Indians have sent a clear and unambiguous message at Perth,. They regard this issue as important to them."
He again quoted Medcalf to say that "New Delhi does not immediately need our uranium but responds to Labour's ban with 'frustration and bafflement'. The situation is so bad that Australia, in Medcalf's words, 'refuses even to talk' to India about uranium exports."
In another piece, titled 'Empty chair at CHOGM shows India policy hurdle', Greg Sheridan, The Australian's foreign editor wrote: "...We only need to look to India, as the world's most populous democracy, to realise that for all the fashionable dogma about colonialism, the spread of democratic institutions has been beneficial for people in countries where they have been properly administered.
"Despite enormous challenges, India continues to lift millions of people out of poverty as it modernises its economy and asserts itself as an international power. Just as India represents the greatest weight of the Commonwealth, and perhaps the strongest manifestation of its ideals, so the absence of its Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, from Perth delivers the sharpest blow to CHOGM."
He went on to add: "If this summit is to affirm its relevance it must attract engagement from India. Julia Gillard will be privately disappointed at this snub, which cannot be divorced from the pallid state of Australia's broader relationship. Over many decades Australia did not place sufficient emphasis on this relationship. John Howard belatedly recognised this and, after his second visit, in 2006, sought to elevate the bond.
"One important initiative in this process was agreeing to export uranium to India. On coming to power, Kevin Rudd also saw the potential and visited New Delhi. But Labor overturned the export decision because India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This, together with attacks in Melbourne on Indian students, soured the relationship. The figuratively empty chair in Perth (India has sent its vice-president) emphasises the urgent need to repair this relationship. Ms Gillard should endorse former South Australia premier Mike Rann's call to change L4bor policy on uranium exports."
Noting that "India is a responsible nuclear power and vibrant democracy facing massive energy needs", he said: "The move will help achieve the aim of minimising global carbon emissions, aside from the benefits in boosting our trade and strategic relationship. Bonding with India should be a top foreign policy priority and should not be held hostage to the Labor Party's feel-good anti-uranium symbolism."
The last Indian prime minister to visit Australia, the media noted, was prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.
Though media reports say that Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is leading the Indian delegation to CHOGM in Manmohan Singh's absence, will take up the matter of uranium exports in his meeting with Gillard on Sunday, officials say this is not likely.
Indian High Commissioner Sujata Singh told reporters here that "Australia has a stated position on uranium exports... and we will not bring up the matter till that position changes".

Metallica concert postponed, disheartened fans go on rampage

2011-10-28T23:01:00.001-07:00

Broken barricades, torn posters, strewn equipment and angry youngsters - excitement turned into aggression at the Leisure Valley Ground here, as American heavy metal band Metallica's performance was Friday postponed to Saturday following "technical faults". Police have launched an inquiry into the incident.
The Metallica concert, the opener for the 'F1 Rocks' series of performances for the upcoming Formula 1 event, was set and the audience was kicked about head-banging to the high-voltage music, until the spoiler came. "F1 Rocks and Metallica regret to announce that due to technical difficulties, the Metallica show at Gurgaon has been postponed until Saturday. We apologize for any inconvenience caused," said an official statement from the organisers, DNA Networks.
The four member-band, who arrived here Friday and addressed the media, are known for albums like 1986 release "Master of Puppets", 1991 album "Metallica", which reportedly sold over 15 million copies in the US and 22 million copies worldwide. Their last release was "Death Magnetic" in 2008. Deputy Commissioner P.C. Meena said: "The organisers did not inform about the cancellation of the programme. The local administration will take legal action against them. An inquiry has been started."

"They (organisers) have to explain why they cancelled the event," Police Commissioner S.S. Deshwal told reporters. Fans started queuing up as early as 9 a.m. Friday. A crowd of over 20,000 had filled up the venue when the announcement was made. The crowd knocked down barricades out of anger, witnesses told IANS.
"As soon as the organisers announced that the show has been postponed, the crowd went berserk... people started pushing each other, broke barricades, started shouting and throwing water bottles... some even climbed up the stage and broke equipment, while some burnt posters and banners," Pankaj Kaushik, who waited for three hours for the show to begin, told IANS.

The venue was vandalised by upset fans, some of whom even ran around the ground shirtless as a mark of rebellion. They threw bottles at the security personnel, who formed a human chain on the stage. Technical equipment was destroyed as angry fans threw chairs at the LED wall. Metallica was due to stage its first ever performance in India. "It's quite sad and it's not the first time that this kind of a situation has come up. It has happened earlier with the Bryan Adams show (in February) and that is why people are so pissed at the organisers. People are looking for refund now," said Keru of Delhi-based band Naysa.
People came from several cities and countries to attend the concert. "Watching Metallica live is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I was so excited about coming here, and now apart from the ticket price, I have to bear losses for my return flight too," said a fan, who came from Kerala. "People have come from across various countries - Malaysia, China, Nepal, Indonesia, Singapore... but everybody is feeling robbed. They are confused what to do...whether to stay or not for tomorrow's gig," said Anurag Sharma, another disappointed fan.
"Those who had booked tickets to fly back tomorrow, have already lost out on money. This is very bad," he said. Some fans even hurled abuses as they felt cheated. "I paid Rs.2,750 for the show. Then the guy at the security took a bribe of Rs.700...and thanks to the chaos, I have lost my ticket...so even if the gig happens tomorrow, what good will it do to me?" asked a fan, who came from Manipur.
Some boys even tried to burn the carpets on the ground, but were finally shooed away from the venue by police. Due to the destruction, there is a question mark to whether the concert will happen Saturday or not. Metallica is slated to perform in Bangalore Sunday.

Rs 40,000 tickets for Gaga concert - sold out!

2011-10-28T05:41:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: One has to shell out Rs 40,000 for a ticket to attend international pop star Lady Gaga's performance at the F1 after-party in Greater Noida Sunday and the show is a total sell out, says actor-businessman Arjun Rampal, who is organising the event.
"The maximum capacity for the party is 1,000, and Gaga's show is completely sold out," Arjun told IANS.
The F1 after-parties, to be held as part of the Airtel Grand Prix of India, will take place at a special, 20,000 sq ft construction at the Jaypee Greens Golf and Spa Resort in Greater Noida.

International DJ Roger Sanchez will perform on day one Friday, Edward Maya on the second day Saturday and Tom Navy on day three Sunday. Gaga will stage the finale.
Gaga, known for numbers like "Poker face" and "Born this way", is already in town, and excited about her performance.
"I am finally here + what a dream come true. Performing at Formula 1 in INDIA, and my first day here I reached #15millionmonsters," Gaga had posted on micro-blogging site Twitter after reaching here Thursday.
Her Indian 'monsters', as she calls her fans, are excited too.
"I think Lady Gaga is uber cool. Look at her flamboyant style, carefree attitude, she is so popular...I was so keen to watch her show, but the ticket rate is so high," said 17-year-old Devyanshi Mehra.
Even Arjun Sinha, a 23-year-old was looking forward to Gaga's performance, until he found out the ticket price.
"There was no way I could have asked my parents to sponsor such an expensive ticket for me. But I am sure all the people who are lucky enough to attend it, will get to enjoy a lot. She's a total rockstar!" he said.
Asked about the reason for putting such a heavy price tag for the party, Arjun said: "We couldn't have lowered the price. We have limited space...and here, we are talking about an immensely popular international celebrity. One has to understand that the costs are very high. Maybe if we had a bigger venue with capacity for more people, we could have gone easy on the price. But with less people, it becomes difficult to lower the price. After all it's business, and we have to break even."
Arjun says he has other reasons too for pricing the party at Rs.40,000 per head.
"We know Gaga has a lot of young fans. In fact, a majority of her young monsters here are teenagers...so we couldn't have kept a low price, and invited youngsters to a party where there would be free alcohol and stuff. It's not a done thing," he said.
That is why he has tied up with UTV Stars to telecast the show at a later date in November.
"For all those who will miss out Gaga's performance, they can watch it on TV. After all we should give the young monsters a chance to see their favourite star on her India tour. The channel will show all the performances exclusively," he said.

Anna, Hegde, Patkar not to attend IAC meet

2011-10-28T05:38:00.001-07:00

Several prominent members of India Against Corruption (IAC), including N. Santosh Hegde, Medha Patkar and Anna Hazare himself, are expected to be absent from the organisation's crucial core committee meet in Delhi on Saturday.

The meeting comes in the wake of allegations of financial impropriety against IAC members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi and the attack on another member Prashant Bhushan by rightwing activists over his comments suggesting a plebiscite on the Kashmir issue.
Patkar told TV channels that she would not be attending the meeting, but hoped the committee would hold "free and frank" deliberations on all issues.
Hedge, a former Supreme Court judge, told reporters in Bangalore Friday he would not be attending the meet as he had some personal engagements in Mumbai.
"I don't think Anna's strength lies in the core committee or people's honesty in the core committee. Anna's strength lies in the common man's fight against corruption...That's his strength, it's not a few people in the core committee."
"I am not out of Team Anna, with a rider that my commitment to Team Anna is in regard to a strong Lokpal bill and fight against corruption. Beyond that, I am not with anybody," Hegde was quoted as saying.

He had criticised the political turn of the movement when Kejriwal led an anti-Congress campaign in the Lok Sabha by-poll to the Hisar seat recently.
Hazare, who has undertaken a vow of silence in his village Ralegan Siddhi since Oct 16, will also not be attending, an aide had told the media in his native village Ralegan Siddhi.
"My health still does not permit me to give up my 'maun vrat'. There is still some swelling on my feet and the knee troubles me a lot," Hazare wrote in his latest blog post Thursday.
Two members of the 26-member core committee - Gandhian activist P.V. Rajagopal and Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh - had resigned recently protesting against the politicisation of the movement under Kejriwal. Singh had described Kejriwal's ways as autocratic.
Kumar Vishwas, a member of the core committee, Friday urged Hazare to re-organise the committee to give it a new look, TV reports said.

Bangalore: From silicon city to suicide city

2011-10-28T05:35:00.001-07:00

Crime in India increased by 4.9 percent in 2010

New Delhi, Oct 27 (ANI): Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram released "Crime In India-2010" a publication of national importance brought out by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) here today, which showed crime in 2010 rose by 4.9 per cent compared to 2009.

NCRB publishes Crime in India from the year 1953 and the current edition "Crime in India-2010"is its 58th edition.

India's Silicon Valley Bangalore remains the suicide capital of the country with 1,778 cases reported, according to the crime statistics for 2010 published by the National Crime Records Bureau.

Crime in India is a compilation and analysis of crime statistics on various types of crimes which had taken place in that year in India. This report is widely referred by policy makers, police personnel, researchers, NGOs, media persons and other stake holders.

NCRB has digitized all the editions of crime in India from 1953 to 2010 and accidental deaths and suicides in India from the year 1967 to 2010. .

NCRB has planned to bring out the next edition of these reports in the month of April 2012. It is also implementing crime and criminal tracking network and systems, a mission mode project of the Home Ministry under national e-Governance plan to connect all the 15000 police stations and 6000 odd higher police offices across the country.

This project is likely to be rolled out by March 2012. Once this project becomes operational, the publication of these reports would become available at the end of the year as NCRB will receive data on-line.

Crime in 2010 has increased by 4.9 per cent compared to 2009. In 2010 a total of 22,24,831 crimes were reported under Indian Penal Code against 21,21,345 cases in the year 2009. Murder cases during the year 2010 (33,335) went up by 3.0 per cent as compared to 2009 (32,369).

Cases under the following heads shown an increasing trend in the year 2010 compared to 2009 - Attempt to commit murder increased by 1.3 per cent, rape cases increased by 3.6 per cent, kidnapping and abduction cases increased by 13.5 per cent, robbery cases increased by 4.4 per cent and dowry deaths increased by 0.1 per cent. (ANI)

It's India's big music weekend with Lady Gaga, Metallica

2011-10-28T01:40:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: As the Formula 1 practice sessions begin on Friday, there is also a huge treat lined up for people who enjoy speed mixed with some heavy metal and pop. Lady Gaga and Metallica are both in Delhi and will perform on the occasion of India's first ever Grand Prix.
While the heavy metal band Metallica will perform in Gurgaon on Friday evening, the pop diva Lady Gaga will take the stage on Sunday.
While Metallica is expected to gather huge crowds from all over the country, tickets for Lady Gaga's show have been selling for a whopping Rs 40,000.

Reuters

After performing in Delhi, Metallica will also perform in the Bangalore Palace Ground on October 30 as part of the Sonisphere Festival.
'Nothing else matters' really this weekend as the F1 fever fans go Gaga over music.

'Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign' against AFSPA reaches Manipur

2011-10-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

Civil rights activist Irom Sharmila.
The "Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign" (SSSC), a nationwide yatra against the controversial Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) showing solidarity with civil rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu, reached Manipur on Thursday.
The yatra would conclude at Sharmila's prison hospital -- Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital -- in the state Imphal.
Sharmila has been on a protest fast since 2000 seeking withdrawal of AFSPA.
The 4,500 km march was flagged off in mid-October from Srinagar. The march organised to generate public opinion for the withdrawal of the law from Jammu & Kashmir and the North East has passed through 10 states so far.
Noted social activists, including Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Binayak Sen, author Arundhati Roy and a host of intellectuals and activists have supported the campaign.
The organisers also plan to meet President Pratibha Patil with signatures collected from different parts of the country.
Activist Faisal Khan said, "Political parties have agreed with us... All party delegation will take it up.... We are showing solidarity with the movement. Sharmila and her team will take the issue of AFSPA."

Masterchef India: Guaranteed to cure you of any desire to cook

2011-10-27T04:34:00.001-07:00

The casting criteria seems to be exactly the same as Indian Idol. starplus.startv.in
by Rajyasree Sen
The horror that is Masterchef India is back and it’s even worse than before. After the last season of Masterchef India, I believed things could only improve. Surely, it couldn’t possibly get any worse. But I was wrong.
So last season, Endemol – the geniuses who put the show together for India – decided to get two chefs on board and do away with the food critic who is part of the usual Masterchef format around the world. What we got instead was Akshay Kumar. His tenuous link with food being that he used to cook in a stall when he was in Thailand as a young man. By the same logic, since I learnt Odissi as a child, I ought be a judge in a classical dance competition. But hey, I’m not Bollywood’s Khiladi No. 1.
As a result of this casting coup, last year’s Masterchef India looked more like Khatron Ke Khiladi, with Kumar air-dropping from a chopper or some such nonsense before each episode.

Ajay Chopra, Vikas Khanna and Kunal Kapoor. Image: starplus.startv.in
And we’re still stuck with the same two chefs who made last season must-see horror TV: the very Punjabi Kunal Kapoor and Ajay Chopra. And why do I harp on about them being ‘Punjabi’? Because they seem to epitomise every Punjabi stereotype possible: loud, brash, rude and with little redeeming charm or talent. Basically, they’re the exact anti-thesis of the Masterchef Australia judges.
Why these two were selected is anyone’s guess. Endemol either couldn’t afford any of India’s well-known chefs – be it Marut Sikka, Ritu Dalmia, Nikhil Chhib or Rahul Akerkar — or none of them agreed to share the limelight with their peers. Either way, ours is not to wonder why. Ours is but to watch and cry. And appreciate Masterchef Australia all the more when we watch it during the week on Star World.
This year, Masterchef Australia fans were at first thrilled to hear that Matt Preston – the burly food critic who looks as if he’s walked straight out of the pages of a PG Wodehouse novel— was going to be the third judge on the show. But no such luck. We’re instead stuck with an Indian-born chef called Vikas Khanna who supposedly is the best known Indian chef on foreign shores. (Vineet Bhatia of the Michelin-starred Rasoi should really just throw himself on his ladle and commit hara kiri.)

starplus.startv.in
And what is the source of Khanna’s fame? He’s cooked saatvik food for the likes of Barack Obama, Salman Rushdie and Tyra Banks. Khanna is undoubtedly a pretty boy and more camera-friendly and people-friendly than his co-hosts, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. But he almost makes you miss Akshay Kumar. Where Akshay displayed some humour and charm, Khanna reminds you of Neil Nitin Mukesh. There is potential, yet he misses the mark for some hard-to-pinpoint reason.
Now the other aspect that makes or breaks any reality show are the participants. Masterchef Australia’s contestants are fun, normal, happy people who simply enjoy cooking. And this is where the Indian version really falls flat on its face.
The opening shot of the contestants offered an inkling of what was to follow. They stood on a steam boat, wearing aprons and serious expressions, facing forward and looking out to sea while the boat jettisoned onward. Once they landed, they all marched in file, and shouted, “Yes Chef, yes” in a chorus each time they were asked a question. Very Children of the Corn. You almost expect their heads to swivel in unison.
The casting criteria seems to be exactly the same as Indian Idol. Sadder your life, the more likely you will make the cut. Everyone on Masterchef has a sad story to tell. There are two divorced mothers, a son who needs the prize money for his ailing dad, a wife who wants to win in order to establish herself as an equal partner in her marriage. And they all have a scary predilection for weeping at the drop of a hat. Ask them why they’re on the show. They cry. Tell them they made it to the next round. They cry.

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Then came the episode that cured me of any interest in watching Masterchef. It was the basic skills segment which shone the spotlight on the charm quotient of both the contestants as well as the judges. First, the judges demonstrated how to julienne chilis, cut French fries and chop cabbage. The judges spent less effort on actually showing people how to do this correctly and more on complimenting themselves and each other on their chopping skills. The closing shot of the stunning Chef Ajay, who doesn’t use his surname much like Hindi film villains of yore, was the scariest, as the camera zoomed in to his podgy hairy palm holding the said chilis.
The cherry on the cake: the contestants saying a prayer before getting started on chopping their chilis. That India is a highly religious country and God is in the details is well-known. But asking for divine intervention in the matter of chopping chilis? Really, now. And then we wonder why God has left mankind to its own devices. It’s because we are asking God to interfere in such nonsense.
So after praying for culinary prowess, the contestants start chopping as the judges walked by and walloped the contestants on their back as a sign that they had made it to the next round. That nobody lost a finger or turned and stabbed one of the judges was most disappointing.
All that praying and the walloping finally pushed me over the edge and almost cured me of cooking, for a while at least. But now I’m off to make rasgullas in the shape of the Masterchef logo for my ten orphaned siblings and my one-eyed dog. Be sure to watch out for me on a Masterchef episode coming to a television near you.
Rajyasree Sen is a bona fide foodie, TV connoisseur and unsolicited opinion-giver. You can read about her adventures with food and life in Delhi on her blog www.brownsahiba.blogspot.com or follow her at @rajyasree

IAF on cusp of acquiring cutting edge combat jets

2011-10-26T22:01:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is finally on the cusp of ordering and acquiring cutting edge combat jets to replace its outdated inventory of Soviet-vintage MiG aircraft.

With the decision of the defence ministry to open the financial bids early next month of the two finalists in the IAF?s medium multi role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender, IAF can now hope to acquire the first lot of 18 aircraft by end-2014 or mid-2015, depending on when the contract is signed.
The ministry completed the formalities last week and sent letters Monday to representatives of Eurofighter and Rafale for opening the bids on the afternoon of Friday, November 4. The representatives would authenticate the tender packets as their own and as submitted by them earlier, in the presence of senior ministry officials, and then they would be opened by one of the designated officers.
Each bid would have a Summary Sheet and the Best and Final Offer, or BAFO as it is called, and both the bids would be read out to the Rafale and Eurofighter representatives. The ministry officials present would represent the the acquistion, technical and defence finance departments.
Although the ministry's initial assessment was that the deal could be worth around $10 billion, the Rafale and Eurofighter should cost somewhere around $15 billion.

It is perhaps safe to assume that if the difference between the two bids is 15 per cent or more, then the lower bidder would ultimately be the winner. But if the difference is only marginal, or around four to five percent, then the associated costs on spares, tooling, maintenance and operating costs per hour in terms of fuel, manpower, maintenance and lifecycle would play a role in determining the winner.
In any case, the initial costs, which include spares and support for the first two years, as well as the associated costs would be computed and only then would the winner be declared.
Well placed sources told India Strategic defence magazine (www.indiastrategic.in) that it should take a month or so to do the necessary calculations. The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne, has has also expressed this hope.
Notably, the financial bids are valid only till December 2011, and if there is a delay by chance, then the two companies, French Dassault for Rafale and European consortium Cassidian for Eurofighter, would have to renew the validity of their bids. But that is unlikely to happen.

The IAF has been in a hurry for several years to replace its inventory of old Soviet Migs, but it was only in 2007 that a Request for Proposals (RFP), or tender, was issued to these two European companies as well as US Lockheed Martin for the F-16 Super Viper and Boeing for F/A-18 Super Hornet, Swedish Saab for the Gripen and Russia?s Rosoboronexport for Mig 29M2, later designated Mig 35.
The IAF conducted extensive flight and weapon trials within India and the country of manufacture. According to Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, who retired a couple of months ago as the IAF chief after overseeing the exercise, all the aircraft were good but the Rafale and Eurofighter scored the maximum points.
The tender is for 126 aircraft, with an option for 63 more. It mandates two years support, cost of weapons, transfer of some critical technologies and 50 per cent of the value of the tender to be reinvested back in India in defence-related industries. The winner has to supply 18 aircraft in fly-away condition and the rest as kits and parts, some of which would be progressively made in India.

It would be up to the winner to choose any public or private sector company for collaborations but the final integration of the aircraft and systems would be done by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India's premier aerospace state-run company.
Nonetheless, both Dassault and Cassidian, a subsidiary of EADS, have tied up with Indian industrial houses like Tatas, Mahindras, Larsen and Toubro as well as HAL, BEML and so on.
Senior and younger officers of the IAF are looking forward to the arrival of the new combat jets, particularly as the Sukhoi SU-30MKI is the only aircraft in IAF?s inventory which can be described as modern. All the other aircraft are 25 or more years old and are being upgraded for a life extension of 10-15 years.
Source: IANS

Rajat Gupta pleads not guilty, freed on $10 million bail

2011-10-26T21:59:00.001-07:00

Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of acting as “the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom” for a friend who was already convicted in the biggest insider trading case in history.

The case, built partially on use of wiretaps for the first time in insider trading, stands to offer unprecedented insight into allegations of greed at the highest levels of Wall Street.
The indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Mr. Gupta of cheating the markets with Raj Rajaratnam, the convicted hedge fund founder who was the probe's prime target.
Mr. Gupta, quietly surrendered early in the day at the FBI's New York City office, a few blocks north of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstration against what they call a culture of corporate greed. His lawyer called the allegations "totally baseless."
Mr. Gupta, a Connecticut resident, pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and five counts of securities fraud, charges that carry a potential penalty of 105 years in prison. He was freed on $10 million bail, and conditions call for him to remain in the continental United States. A trial date of April 9 was set.
The indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges Mr. Gupta shared confidential information about both Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble at the height of the financial crisis from 2008 through January 2009, knowing that Mr. Rajaratnam would use the secrets to buy and sell stock ahead of public announcements.
In a release, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Mr. Gupta broke the trust of some of top public companies of the U.S. and "became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta's breach of duty."
Alluding to the wide scope of the prosecution, he added, "Today we allege that the corruption we have seen in the trading cubicles, investment firms, law firms, expert consulting firms, medical labs, and corporate suites also insinuated itself into the boardrooms of elite companies."

In all, 56 people have been charged in insider trading cases since Bharara took over shortly before Mr. Rajaratanam's October 2009 arrest. Of those, 51 have been convicted and 21 sentenced to prison terms ranging from no prison time to 11 years.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said Mr. Gupta's arrest was the latest to occur in an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 against hedge fund cheats.
"The conduct alleged is not an inadvertent slip of the tongue by Mr. Gupta," she said. "His eagerness to pass along inside information to Rajaratnam is nowhere more starkly evident than in the two instances where a total of 39 seconds elapsed between his learning of crucial Goldman Sachs information and lavishing it on his good friend."
The prosecutions for the first time employed extensive use of wiretaps to catch insider trading suspects. If the Gupta case goes to trial, taped conversations would be key evidence, as it was in the Rajaratnam trial.
The Rajaratnam probe led to a major spinoff investigation of expert networking firms, which link employees at public companies with hedge fund managers.
Mr. Gupta's lawyer, Gary P. Naftalis, said in a statement on Wednesday that his client only had legitimate communications with Rajaratnam.
"The government's allegations are totally baseless," he said. "The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of any of these charges and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. ... We are confident that these accusations which are based entirely on circumstantial evidence cannot withstand scrutiny and that Mr. Gupta will be completely exonerated of any wrongdoing."
Aside from being a former director of the Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs, Mr. Gupta was the former chief of McKinsey & Co., a highly regarded global consulting firm that zealously guards its reputation for discretion and integrity.
Mr. Gupta was also a former director of the huge consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co., a pillar of American industry and one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average. P&G owns many well-known brands including Bounty, Tide and Pringles.
The defendant's name played prominently at the criminal trial earlier this year of Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted after prosecutors used a trove of wiretaps on which he could be heard coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades.

Jurors heard testimony that at an October 23, 2008, Goldman board meeting, members were told that the investment bank was facing a quarterly loss for the first time since it had gone public in 1999.
Prosecutors produced phone records showing Mr. Gupta called Mr. Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the meeting ended, causing Mr. Rajaratnam to sell his entire position in Goldman the next morning and save millions of dollars.
Mr. Rajaratnam also earned close to $1 million when Mr. Gupta told him that Goldman had received an offer from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant, prosecutors said.
In one tape played at trial, Mr. Rajaratnam could be heard grilling Mr. Gupta about whether the Goldman Sachs board had discussed acquiring a commercial bank or an insurance company.
"Have you heard anything along that line?" Mr. Rajaratnam asked Mr. Gupta.
"Yeah," Mr. Gupta responded. "This was a big discussion at the board meeting."
Prosecutors sought to maximise the impact of the Gupta tape by calling Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify that the phone call violated the investment bank's confidentiality policies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil insider trading charges against Mr. Gupta Wednesday.
Mr. Rajaratnam was sentenced earlier this month to 11 years in prison.
Source: AP

Kejriwal warns government of bigger agitation

2011-10-26T21:54:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday warned the government of a much bigger agitation if it "kept targeting" the anti-corruption movement.

"If the government keeps targeting us like this, next time around, the people will deliver a movement that will be ten timess bigger than the one we saw in August," said Kejriwal.
He defended Team Anna member Kiran Bedi, who is under attack for inflating her travel bills, and said: "If Kiran Bedi has committed a crime, hang her. Send her to jail but talk about the Lokpal bill. Whatever mistake she has done, investigate and punish her but we cannot decide it in a press conference whether the allegations are true or false."
"Dont forgive us. Give us twice the punishment given to common people. But bring the Lokpal and you will have to," he said.

Jump in H-1B visas issued in India as US gets generous

2011-10-25T22:04:00.001-07:00

New York: The State Department announced on Tuesday that it saw specialised H-1B work visas issuances in India increase 24 percent year-on-year between the US governments’ fiscal year 2010 and 2011.
The US government’s fiscal year extends from October through September and FY 2011 just ended on 30 September. Outsourcing giants from India’s $60 billion IT industry such as Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies are heavy users of H-1B work visas, which are good for three years, but extendable to six.
Indian firms have complained bitterly this year about the US government being stingy about H-1B visas, but the statistics tell a different story.

India is by far the single largest beneficiary of H-1B visas. Reuters
“This marks a total increase from 54,111 issued in 2010 to 67,195 in 2011,” the US State Department said in a statement. “This 24% increase is tied to the highest ever H-1B application and issuance rates in the history of the US Mission to India, and illustrates the booming nature of US-India business relations.”
The US government noted: “India is the single largest beneficiary of H-1B visas by a wide margin: in the past four years, applicants in India have received more than twice as many H-1B visas as the four next-highest countries combined.”
India also scooped the lion’s share of L-1 intra-company transfer visas, with the US mission in India issuing over 25,000 L-1s in FY 2011. This was 37 percent of US L-1 visa issuances worldwide.
India’s grouse
Some Indian companies are complaining that the US has significantly tightened its policy for granting work visas, asking for increased documentation and conducting tougher interviews than earlier. In September, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma raised the issue at the India-US CEO Forum, in Washington.
“Uptake of H-1B visas this year has been less than half of annual prescribed limit and the rejection rates have gone up,” Sharma told the forum.
With the US economy in the doldrums, there has been plenty of saber-rattling over H1-B visas. In August 2010, the US Senate passed a bill that hiked fees for the H-1B and L visa categories used by Indian tech workers. Indians were incensed by Senator Charles Schumer’s characterisation, during debate over the bill, of Indian businesses as “chop shops.” The term refers to a shady business where stolen cars are brought to be stripped and sold as parts.
“It was mean and disparaging of Senator Schumer to insult Indian companies,” said an Indian techie, whose firm’s policy doesn’t allow use of his name.
“We rely on the H-1B program to send personnel to the US to work on-site at major customers. It is part of our low-cost model in which we use engineers in India to do the actual software programming to implement projects. But we are not stealing from anyone. We help US companies save costs.”
US industry wants visa overhaul
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who founded financial business service Bloomberg, recently slammed quotas limiting the number of H-1B work visas, as “arbitrary,” and “crazy.” He said the cumbersome process to secure visas for top foreign graduates and experts in the US contributed to “critical shortfalls” in the software industry as well as electronics, pharmaceuticals and aerospace.
The US caps H-1B skilled worker visas at 65,000 a year and often hits the maximum within months. An additional 20,000 visas are earmarked for immigrants who earn advanced academic degrees in the US.
US expanding consular facilities in India
The United States said on Tuesday that, all told, it issued over 490,000 non-immigrant visas to Indian tourists, students and businessmen in the last year, a 4.3 percent rise from the last financial year.
“Consular staffing has increased 60 percent in the past five years,” said the State Department release.
The US mission in India had recently invested $100 million in updating and expanding its consular facilities in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Thanks to local hiring, applicants can now choose to have their visa interview in languages like Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil and Telugu.
A bill has also been introduced in the US Congress, which would require visas to be processed in 12 days and authorise the use of videoconferencing to conduct visa interviews.

F1 puts sex trade on fast track

2011-10-24T07:47:00.001-07:00

By: Amit Singh and Shashank Shekhar
Date: 2011-10-24
Place: Delhi
With 30,000 foreign tourists expected in the national capital region for the event this week, prostitution syndicates don't want to miss out on the opportunity
Fast cars and beautiful women seem to go together. Which is why the demand for high-profile escorts in the national capital region has gone up in the last few days. Eyeing the Indian Formula One Grand Prix that will be held from October 27 to 30, escort agencies and sex traders have called in English-speaking girls from across India to cater to the growing demand.

With a crackdown on many high profile pimps within a year, the prostitution trade is running slow. Delhi police arrested Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi aka Sex Baba, Sonu Punjaban and Nagma - all in about a one year period - who were allegedly pulling the strings of the sex trade in the national capital. So now with the big names behind bars, the small-timers have come together, hoping for Formula One to boost their business.

In the net: Six call girls and three pimps being produced at Saket court
complex. File pic
No cheer!
"For quite long now, business has been running slow. Police have arrested lots of girls. Even during CWG last year we did not see much clients as number of foreign tourist turn out was low. So after CWG this is the most awaited event as around 30,000 foreigners are expected here," said a pimp on condition of anonymity.
If the escort agents whom MiD DAY contacted are to be believed, then the business has acquired an international flavour. You name a country -Britain, Spain, Germany, Poland, former USSR countries, Afghanistan and Turkey - and brokers, numbering about 450-500 in the city, would arrange girls from there at your doorstep in the garb of escorts.
"There are over 450 brokers working overtime to put the business in order as each has about 15-20 girls under his/her charge," said Sanjay Sharma, who asked us to meet him at Connaught Place.
Nothing comes cheap
According to the agents, many girls from Thailand frequently visit Singapore during the Formula One event there, so they are trying to contact them and ask them to come over to India. Most of the foreigners come to India on tourist visa. Each broker has to pay between Rs. 1-2 lakh for a girl from the former USSR countries and about Rs. 5-7 lakh for someone from Britain or Spain. "The net is spread far and wide. High-class escorts from London cost about Rs. 7 lakh while those from Spanish-speaking countries charge around Rs. 6 lakh. Turkish escorts are relatively cheaper at about Rs. 2 lakh," explained Sanjay. All of them are hired under contract for a fortnight. Apart from the foreign escort syndicates, Indian agencies would be operating during the event as well. "It is not a mass event so we have only selected smart girls. The rate of these girls will start from Rs 15,000. We will be extra cautious and will take orders only from trusted clients," said Vicky of Paradise Escorts.

Pesky calls continue, government says it's helpless

2011-10-21T21:53:00.001-07:00

Sibal said that the government is unable to track the violators as they are sending unsolicited messages through the Internet from servers located outside India

New Delhi: Telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday expressed the government's helplessness in curbing unsolicited calls and messages to over 85 crore mobile phone users despite imposing a ban on such communications from September 27.

While addressing the Economic Editors Conference in New Delhi, Sibal said that the government is unable to track the violators as they are sending unsolicited messages through the Internet from servers located outside India. He added that the government is unable to provide any solution for the problem as it has no jurisdiction over these servers.

"I admit there is still a problem. There is still a technical glitch in the system. People are still receiving unsolicited calls and messages but the situation is much better now," he added.

The day the regulation barring commercial calls and messages was kickedoff Sibal had said the challenge of its successful implementation still remained. "The first step has been taken but the more important challenge will be that we are able to implement it as well," Sibal had said.
Subscribers who have registered their mobile numbers with the National Customer Preference Registry, earlier known as the National Do-Not-Call registry, complained that though the number of unsolicited calls and messages have dropped, they are still receiving such communications.

"I have received over four messages from a real estate agency called Globeedge today (Thursday). I also keep getting four to five telemarketing calls every day, even after the ban was imposed on such practices late last month," said a Delhi-based Vodafone subscriber.

The government, too, has been lenient in bringing in an effective filtering mechanism for unwanted calls and messages.

Sibal had earlier said that telemarketers will have to pay termination charges of five paisa per commercial message and telemarketers who violate the norms would face heavy penalties, which could go up to Rs. 2.5 lakh, besides possible termination of services.
However, senior telecom department officials admitted that no action has been taken against any violators in this regard ever since the regulations came into effect late last month.

The bulk messages and unwanted messages market is worth over Rs. 335 crore in India, with over 16,800 crore bulk messages being sent to mobile users every year. Service operators sell bulk SMS packages which may be up to one lakh bulk SMSs at costs ranging from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 4,000.

Army still opposed to withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act from J&K

2011-10-21T21:46:00.001-07:00

NEW DELHI: The Army, backed by the defence ministry, still remains largely opposed to the "withdrawal" of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Disturbed Areas Act from Jammu and Kashmir.

"But if the Union government decides to revoke it from certain areas after careful consideration, as is being declared by J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, it will be binding on all," said a senior officer.

The home ministry has already declared that the districts identified by the state government as having being largely violence-free can be denotified as "disturbed areas", leading to the automatic revocation of AFSPA from those parts.

A defence ministry official, in turn, said, "This issue is under discussion for last several months at various levels of the government. Defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma will be visiting J&K once again this weekend."

The Army, however, will not be too happy with any move to withdraw the AFSPA -- considered draconian by many civil rights activists -- even from some areas in J&K since it will adversely impact "its operational flexibility and legality" in the battle against militancy in the strife-torn state. "The areas concerned could become safe havens for terrorists, like it happened around Imphal in Manipur," he said.

The terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK is "still very much intact", with over 40 terror-training camps directed against India. "Pakistan continues to control the terror tap. If 12 terrorists were killed while infiltrating in September, another seven have met the same fate so far this month," he said.

"Counter-terrorist and insurgency operations cannot be equated with normal law and order duties. Soldiers need requisite legal protection against being dragged to civilian courts," said another officer.

Given all this, both MoD as well as Army are also sticking to their position that there should be "no significant change" in Sections 4 and 7 of AFSPA, under which sweeping powers and legal safeguards are given to security forces for undertaking counter-terrorism operations.

The Army feels the proposed change in Section 4 to reflect "minimum use of force" will lead to differing interpretations in courts about what exactly constitutes minimum use of force.

As of now, Section 4 gives Army powers to search premises and make arrests without warrants, "use force, even to extent of causing death", destroy arms dumps, hideouts and to stop, search and seize any vehicle.

Activists' march meant to integrate separatists

2011-10-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Jammu: Expressing concern over the 10-day long march for revocation of AFSPA from disturbed areas, Panun Kashmir today alleged that the movement smacks of an intent to integrate the separatist movement in J-K with those elsewhere in the country, particularly the Northeast.

"The recent march from Kashmir to Manipur, for the revocation of AFPSA, seems to be only a brazen expression of the intent to integrate the separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir with the separatist movements elsewhere in India particularly the Northeast," Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrangoo told reporters here.

"At a time when China is increasing its military presence in PoK and encouraging Pakistan against India, the Centre seems to be sleeping over the deepening nexus among J-K separatists, Maoists and insurgent groups in Northeast," he said.

"This combination is dangerous and government should look into it rather than sleep over when marches for revocation of AFSPA are being held," he said.

Led by noted social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, around 25 activists from across the country have started the march from October 16 from the Hazratbal shrine to express solidarity with rights activist Irom Sharmila on her cause for revocation of AFSPA. The march would pass through 10 states and is scheduled to reach Imphal on October 27.

Partial lifting of AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir: Omar

2011-10-21T03:26:00.001-07:00

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to lift the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA] from some parts of the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said here Friday.

"Within some days, AFSPA will be removed from some areas. I am, however, not in a position to disclose the names of those areas right now," Abdullah said at the police commemoration parade in this summer capital.
Abdullah had said on microblogging site Twitter Friday morning: "For some it will be too much, for others not enough, but the way I see it, it will be a significant beginning however small."
The decision was taken after the chief minister met union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, sources said.
There has been a widespread demand from various rights groups and social activists for the removal of AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir, which gives sweeping powers to security forces dealing with insurgency.

Social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey started an anti-AFSPA journey from Srinagar to Imphal Sunday. In Imphal, activist Irom Sharmila has been fasting for the last 11 years for the repeal of AFSPA from Manipur.
Security forces and intelligence agencies have favoured a cautious approach.
"Its removal will have to be cautiously calibrated with the security situation in a particular area. An overview will also have to be taken to ensure that areas from where the act is removed do not become safe havens for insurgents as powers of the security forces to operate in those areas would be limited after AFSPA is repealed there," said an intelligence official.

The chief minister has been committed to the reduction of security forces from areas where normalcy has returned and militancy-related incidents have come down significantly.
"The legal way out has finally to be agreed upon between the state and centre. The revocation of the disturbed areas act by the state government would result in automatic repeal of AFSPA.
"Once AFSPA is removed from parts of the state, the exercise would be gradually extended to other parts depending upon the security scenario," an official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

Team Anna: From a grand cause to self-destruction

2011-10-20T01:37:00.001-07:00

Team Anna is under attack.
Attack from outside, by those wanting to discredit the anti graft crusaders.
Simultaneously, the team of disparate individuals who together constitute the core committee of team Anna –each fired by their own individual cause and ambition—is facing internal dissension and division. There’s a real threat of implosion.
Body blows, kicks, slippers, PILs seeking investigations into the various trusts and NGOs associated with members, internal dissensions and now finally even an expose by the Indian Express on how the feisty ex cop Kiran Bedi over invoiced and inflated her travel bills when claiming reimbursements from organizations, charities and companies hosting her.

The group that came together for a common apolitical cause, is imploding from the politics. PTI

Kiran Bedi is yet to respond to a text message from Firstpost seeking her reply to the charges made by the Indian Express. In a press conference to television, she denied nothing.
Team Anna should have been expecting this no holds barred attack. They should have even been prepared for it.
The kind of challenge it has posed to the political class in general and the congress party and the UPA government in particular, it’s no surprise that quite a few very powerful people must be rubbing their hands in glee and enjoying the discomfiture of team Anna. Some may even be proactive in ensuring that team Anna remains under pressure and more skeletons were unearthed at regular intervals from what were supposed to be corruption free, clean and glistening cupboards of the leading lights of team Anna.
Team Anna and their supporters must be naïve to expect anything else. And quite frankly there’s precious little they could have done to ward off these attacks if they wanted to sustain their Jan Lokpal bill agenda with the necessary vigour.
But it’s in their inability to manage affairs internally and evolve a consensus in the core committee on key issues of strategy and decision making that team Anna has failed and let down their supporters.
Just look at the list of people who have either walked out on team Anna or have been sidelined.
Swami Agnivesh went ostensibly for conspiring and blaming his fellow team Anna members while on the phone with one Kapilji. Maybe he was doing all that he has been blamed for – being a Vibhishan in the ranks of team Anna and, a government mole. But surely even that instance could have been handled with more sensitivity and maturity. Maybe, just maybe and for the sake of being the devil’s advocate, Swami Agnivesh did have some issues on which he differed with other members of the team and was simply airing his frustration with the rival camp.
Whatever, the public perception is that Agnivesh’s case was not tenable and perhaps team Anna was not very much in the wrong in that case.
But again why and how somebody, like a Santosh Hegde started feeling sidelined by an all consuming, Arvind Kejriwal running the show during Anna’s hunger strike at the Ram Lila maidan and the subsequent negotiations with the government should be worrying. The gentleman that he is, Santosh Hegde did not go public with his opinion till recently when he opposed the rather whimsical and unilateral (or was it a bilateral decision authored by Kejriwal and Bedi) decision to oppose the congress party in Hisar.
The Congress may have been trounced in Hisar and the electoral verdict may well be a precursor to what lies ahead in Haryana politics but the call to oppose the congress party in the by election could well turn out to be a decision which team Anna may repent at leisure.
Speaking to Firstpost, the waterman from Rajasthan—as he is popularly referred to for raising issues pertaining to conservation of water—and Magsaysay award winner, Rajendra Singh, said he was increasingly feeling stifled, sidelined and even manipulated by people like Arvind Kejriwal who were hijacking the movement for their own agenda.
“Why should we be opposing and supporting any political party. Our aim was to secure the Jan Lokpal bill and we should have just focused on that rather than play party politics.”
Rajendra Singh and Gandhian activist P V Rajgopal have already quit the 25-member core committee earlier this week and now there are reports that some other members of the core committee like the Archbishop of Delhi, Maulana Shamim Qasmi, Jamiat Ulema Hind leader and MP, Mehmood Madani, and some other religious leaders may also either quit or distance themselves from the core committee of India Against Corruption (IAC).
All of these people have their political views and leanings and feel uncomfortable being tagged with whatever Kejriwal & co thinks is right.
There’s a growing perception that Anna Hazare is a virtual captive of the Kejriwal-Bedi-Bhushan trio and even amongst these three it is the combination of Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia who have the final say as far as Anna’s IPR (intellectual property rights) is concerned. It’s widely believed that they are the real voice of Anna and make the veteran articulate whatever they wish. Since even Sisodia is a relative lightweight and seen as a Kejriwal follower by most, it’s ultimately Arvind Kejriwal alone who is seen by observers as the one man who is now running team Anna in a arbitrary and authoritarian manner perhaps hurtling down the anti corruption movement on a self destructive course.
It’s a pity that the movement finds itself on crossroads in this manner.
If only the team occasionally learns to appreciate the virtues of silence ( like Anna himself is at the moment!). Unrelenting aggression and attacking the congress may have helped team Anna become popular amongst those who already are against the party and may even win them kudos from the BJP leaders. It also got them supporters for the common enemy against corruption. But if the team was made legitimate by the congregation of reasonable voices, it is losing support from that same group who were for an apolitical national cause. A reasonable cause.

Is it wrong to save? Asks Kiran Bedi on ticket row

2011-10-20T01:30:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: Key member of Team Anna, Kiran Bedi, Thursday, dismissed allegations of any wrongdoing by way of inflating travel expenses that NGOs and institutions reimburse to her for attending seminars or meetings organised by them.

The matter came to the fore after a newspaper reported that Bedi gets discount tickets - as a gallantry award winner- on Air India, but she charges her hosts the full fare and at times also claims Business Class fare while flying Economy.

In an apparent bid to clear air, Bedi convened a press conference in which she said that she has in no way personally gained by the practice as the money is deposited in the account of her NGO, India Vision Foundation.

“I get many speaking invitations where the organisers offer Business Class air fare. When such an invitation comes, I take a decision that I will travel Economy and save the money. I don’t take any cheque myself; the money is saved for the Foundation.”

“I tell the organisers about it. The organisers appreciate it. The money remains with the Foundation, there are many NGOs which call me but can’t afford travel expenses, and I use the money saved for travel for such causes.”

“I save for the larger good. Today I have to give explanation for my honesty. I have nothing to hide, it’s all very clear. Whatever money came has remained with the foundation. Organisers used to say in public that I set an example,” she said, adding, “Is it wrong to save?”

Kiran Bedi stressed that she didn’t get any financial benefit out of it and the saving is contributed to the ‘cause’.

She said, “When someone is in public life, it is normal for me to be questioned like this. I take this as one more challenge, that’s it. But tell me one instance where I got Economy and I used Foundation’s money to upgrade myself. Whatever I earn from speaking and royalty from my books, all go the Foundation.”

With regards to the finances of her Foundation, she said, “Every year we are audited.”

On whether she has talked to Anna Hazare on the issue, Kiran Bedi said that she has passed on her clarification to one of Anna’s key aides as the Gandhian is observing ‘maun vrat’. “I have also talked to Arvind Kejriwal,” she added.

As per the newspaper report, Bedi has been carrying on with the practice from as far back as 2006 when she was a serving IPS officer - her last such travel with inflated invoice was as recent as September 29 this year. All the reimbursement cheques were credited in the account of Bedi’s NGO.

As an example, the newspaper has furnished the details for her recent trip to Hyderabad and Chennai.

This year on September 29 this year, Bedi flew Delhi-Hyderabad on Air India (AI 560), then Hyderabad-Chennai (AI 546), in Economy class. The next day, she took a flight back to Delhi (AI 539).

She paid a total fare of Rs 17,134, but the invoice was generated for Rs 73,117 (payment is pending). While Bedi flew form Delhi to Hyderabad, onward to Chennai and then back to Delhi, the fares being claimed are for Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi (Economy) and Delhi-Chennai-Delhi (Business class).

March 06, 2009: Flew Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi (IC 688, IC 605) on discounted tickets. Fare: Rs 12,483. Bill submitted for/amount received: Rs 32,495.

100,000 community foresters to help green India

2011-10-18T05:48:00.001-07:00

By Sujit Chakraborty, IANS,
Agartala : India will engage 100,000 educated youths to execute an ambitious Green India Mission (GIM) which seeks to increase the country's forest cover to 33 percent from 20 percent within 10 years, says a top forest official.
P.J. Dilip Kumar, director general of India's forest department, says that in order to cope with climate change threats, the central and state governments have decided to raise new forest cover on five million hectares under the GIM.
"India has to increase its present forest cover area of 20 percent (out of the total geographical area) to 33 percent within the next 10 years," Kumar told IANS in an interview here.
"To facilitate planning, execution and monitoring of the GIM at the village level, one lakh cadre of community foresters (CCF) would be employed from among educated community youths," he said.
The Rs.46,000 crore ($9 billion) plan is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change announced by the prime minister in June 2008.
The GIM document was prepared in June last year and the countrywide consultation is now on.
With 2011-12 being the preparatory year, GIM would be implemented by the Twelfth and Thirteenth Five Year Plans (2012-13 to 2016-2017 and 2017-18 to 2021-22).
"In view of the massive urbanisation and construction of houses and infrastructure, parks, grasslands, wetlands and open spaces across India would be in danger. Under the GIM, these areas would be protected," said Kumar. "Tough laws have to be enacted for everlasting protection of the open spaces."
According to the official, all parks, grasslands, wetlands and open spaces will be permanently demarcated and, in suitable cases, will be fenced by walls.
Kumar, who is also special secretary of the union forest and environment ministry, conducted a regional workshop on GIM here Sunday. Top forest officials of West Bengal and eight northeastern states took part in the day-long brainstorming session.
Before Agartala, such workshops were held in Bangalore, Jabalpur and Jaipur.
"One lakh Joint Forest Management (JFM) committees, thousands of self-help groups, gram panchayats and people's committees would be involved in the mission," he said.
Quoting the latest Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, released in 2009, the official said during 1997-2007, three million hectares of land had come under new forest cover across the country.
GIM also targets improvement of forest-based livelihood for about three million households living in and around forests.
"The mission is the first of its kind in India as it is aimed at the socio-economic development of tribals and other backward people and the protection of natural resources through the development of a participatory management of natural resources," he said.
According to the GIM document, on account of management of shifting cultivation areas under different agri-systems, the area under age-old 'jhum' or shifting cultivation had come down from 1.87 million hectares in 2003 to 1.2 million hectares in 2005-06.
Tribals in the hilly terrain of northeast and other areas have for generations been carrying out the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, which has resulted in degradation of forest land and badly affected soil quality.
"The mission will support fallow management within the overall framework of socio-culturally valued, fast growing species managed by the communities," Kumar added.
GIM aims at enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other eco-systems, adaptation of vulnerable species and eco-systems to the changing climate and adaptation of forest-dependent locals in the face of climate variability.
"Satellite-based remote sensing and geo-imagery system would also be used for monitoring of GIM progress and implementation," he added.

India Raises Its Game in Burma

2011-10-18T05:47:00.001-07:00

By Tom Wright

The Great Game between India and China to foster business ties with resource-rich Myanmar is getting fiercer.

: B. Mathur/Reuters; Myanmar’s President Thein Sein, right, with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, left, in New Delhi last week.

India has long stood in China’s shadow when it comes to investing in Myanmar, also known as Burma. China, which like India shares a border with Myanmar, accounts for two-thirds of investment in the country and almost half of its bilateral trade.
But there are signs of change as India more aggressively pushes its “Look East” policy to balance China’s influence in Asia.
Myanmar President Thein Sein visited India last week with a large delegation of ministers. The visit, coming only days after Myanmar announced it was suspending a controversial $3.6-billion dam being constructed by a Chinese company, has Indian commentators talking about a window of opportunity for New Delhi in Myanmar.
Srinath Raghavan, a senior fellow at the New Delhi—based Center for Policy Research, a think tank, wrote in The Hindu Business Line newspaper Monday that Myanmar’s generals are worried that China’s focus on resources is not creating employment.
“Myanmar does not wish to be locked in an exclusive embrace with China,” Mr. Raghavan wrote.
India has been slower than China to develop infrastructure in Myanmar and to benefit from its natural resources but appears to want to redress the balance.
Last week, India announced it was lending $500 million to Myanmar to help develop projects, including irrigation works.
In a briefing, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it finally was serious about plans to develop Myanmar’s Sittwe port in western Rakhine state. India agreed to finance and carry out the $110-million project in 2008 but has so far failed to deliver on its promise.
An Indian company, Essar Group, recently began work on the port and dredging the Kaladan River, and plans to complete the job by 2013, the ministry said last week.
The idea is for India to ship goods from its eastern port of Kolkata to Sittwe, where they can then travel up-river, either back into India’s cut-off northeastern states or on into Myanmar.
India also is pushing ahead with plans to develop a road network from Manipur state through Myanmar and down into Thailand, a policy which in the past has been delayed because of Indian fears that separatists from its northeast who hide out in isolated parts of Myanmar might use these roads to facilitate attacks.
These measures, although yet to be completed, come as India is re-invigorating its “Look East” policy, developed in the 1990s to focus on relations with its Asian neighbors after the demise of the Soviet Union, but never really developed.
Recently, India has been beefing up defense ties with countries like Japan and Vietnam to counter China’s rising assertiveness in the region, especially the resource-rich South China Sea, which is the focus of territorial disputes between Beijing and a number of countries.
Myanmar’s state visit came on the heels of a trip to India last week by Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang. During that visit, both sides firmly stated they would go ahead with joint gas-development projects in the South China Sea, despite China’s warnings this would amount to an infringement of its sovereignty.
Still, India has a long way to go until it can challenge China, with whom it fought a brief border war in 1962, in Myanmar or elsewhere in East Asia.
China, which won that war, knows that its military and economic heft gives it huge negotiating power. China became India’s largest trading partner last year, with two-way trade touching $60 billion, much higher than the $1.28 billion that India does with Myanmar. While China exports communications equipment to India, fueling its economic growth, Myanmar is a source of pulses.
Indian officials were keen last week to stress that there’s room enough for India and China in Myanmar and that development there was not a “zero sum game.”
That attitude also partly reflects that India knows it’ll likely have to rely on Chinese infrastructure to get resources out of Myanmar.
China is building a pipeline from the Rakhine coast to southern China to transport oil and gas extracted offshore in Burmese waters. It’s also building a new deep-water port at Kyauk Phyu, not far from India’s development at Sittwe.
Indian companies that are prospecting for gas in Burmese waters, which include Essar and state-owned ONGC Videsh, will likely have to use this pipeline to sell gas to China because plans to build a similar India-Myanmar pipeline have so far stalled.
Nevertheless, the game to take on China in Myanmar is on.
You can follow Mr. Wright on Twitter @TomWrightAsia. Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

Top US based corporate giants like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Morgan Stanley, New York Life Insurance, Prudential Financial, Intel, Dow Chemical, Pfizer, AT&T, Boeing, and others lobbying hard to enter India

2011-10-16T00:29:00.001-07:00

NEW DELHI: Aiming to grab a pie of India's robust economic growth, at least a dozen US-based corporate giants are lobbying hard with their lawmakers to help them enter or expand further in this fast-growing market.

The issues on which these companies are lobbying with the US government range from facilitating the market access to easing of foreign investment rules in India to help further expansion of their businesses here, show the lobbying disclosure reports filed by them with the US Senate.

These large US-based multinationals include the likes of the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores, the coffee shop giant Starbucks and financial services majors Morgan Stanley, New York Life Insurance and Prudential Financial.

Besides, technology major Intel, chemicals major Dow Chemical, pharma giant Pfizer, telecom majors AT&T, Alcatel- Lucent, as well as defence and aerospace giants like Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are soliciting the support of the US government for furthering their Indian business interests.
In addition to these large corporates, there are numerous other smaller size companies seeking support from the US lawmakers to help them enter or expand further in India.

Together, these companies are estimated to have spent millions of dollars on their lobbying activities on various issues, including those related to their Indian interests.

Lobbying is a legal activity in the US, but the companies and their lobbyists are required to inform the US Senate about such activities through a quarterly disclosure report detailing the issues, the concerned government departments and institutions and the related expenses.

A host of Indian companies, including the country's biggest private sector company Reliance Industries, and even the Indian government, have also been lobbying in the US for many years to present their case with the American lawmakers.
India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and a host of the companies from across the world, including from the US, are seeking to enter this market or further expand their business here.
Despite a global economic slowdown, countries like India and China have delivered an impressive growth.
The average annual growth rate for the lower-middle income countries such as India and China at about 7 per cent in past 20 years has been more than three times that of the high-income countries like the US at little over 2 per cent, as per the World Bank estimates.
However, the foreign investment ceilings in a host of sectors in India have come in the way of the US companies seeking to expand here, and they are seeking the help from their government to facilitate their expansion plans.
While some firms like Wal-Mart have been lobbying for many years with the US lawmakers to help them set up shop in India, a few others such as Starbucks and Morgan Stanley have also begun such activities recently for their India-related causes.
Starbucks, which runs the world's largest coffee shop chain, has been seeking an entry into India for many years, but it began lobbying on this issue in 2011 only, according to its lobbying disclosure report.
The company spent more than USD 200,000 on its lobbying in the first two quarters of 2011, on various issues including "market opening initiatives in India."

India climbs 10 spots, on global IT industry index

2011-10-14T23:15:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: India has climbed 10 spots to reach the 34th ranking on the global IT industry competitive index owing to its strong human capital and research and development (R&D) base, a study said Friday.

Compiled jointly by Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the IT industry competitiveness index benchmarks 66 countries on a series of indicators covering the critical foundation areas for IT innovation. It includes overall business environment; IT infrastructure, human capital, R&D, legal environment and public support for industry development.
"India's competitive momentum is hugely encouraging, since unlocking the next phase of industry growth will require a continued focus on creating a favorable business and legal environment, and improved IT infrastructure," said Keshav Dhakad, who heads the BSA India Committee. "To continue its trajectory as a rising IT power, India will increasingly need a safe and secure digital economy that inspires the trust and confidence of government, business and citizens, especially as markets across Asia become more competitive," he added.
India has also scored above its neighbour China, who stood at the 39th rank. However, it remained behind Singapore and Australia. "India's 10 place rise in the global rankings for IT competitiveness is reflective of the continuous focus on increasing R&D and human resource capabilities in India along with creating a dynamic and barrier free environment for the IT industry," said Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, the apex forum of the IT industry.
"India is gradually diversifying its services focus to innovation in new product development and related capabilities reflecting its gradual emergence as a leader in not just IT exports but soon also in IT products." he added. The report also said that the global field of competition is becoming more crowded as new challengers, especially in developing Asia, raise their game to meet the standards leaders have set.

Maruti production halted, workers leave Manesar plant

2011-10-14T23:13:00.001-07:00

Workers at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant, who occupied the plant last few days, Friday came out of the premises as Haryana started evicting them while production at the automobile giant's other plant in Gurgaon came to a halt for want of components amid labour unrest.

The workers came out of the manesar plant's gate number 3, shouting slogans, while a large contingent of police stood around.
Earlier, Sonu Gujjar, one of the leaders of the workers who occupied the plant and went on a tool-down strike, told IANS that the administration had started to pressure them by cutting power and water supply inside the plant.
According to Gujjar, police had earlier stopped workers from taking food inside the plant.
Terming the situation on the eighth consecutive day of the strike as "very tense", he said they were on a peaceful "tools-down" and asserted they would remain until evicted by force.
Officials of the local administration met the workers and asked them to comply with the Punjab and Haryana High Court directive to vacate the factory premises.
Gujjar, however, said: "We will not go anywhere until our legitimate demand for reinstatement of our fellow workers is met."
"Administration is here, we are here and we are discussing the issue, but our demands are non-negotiable," Gujjar said.

Workers at the Manesar plant went on strike on Oct 7 demanding the reinstatement of 44 suspended co-workers, who were not taken back after an earlier 33-day impasse with the management ended Oct 1.
Meanwhile, production at Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon plant was stopped due to lack of components supply following labour unrest at the company's component plant.
"Production has stopped at the Gurgaon plant due to lack of component supply. Production at Manesar plant and component supply units remained closed due to the strike," a senior company official told IANS.
According to the official, the company produces 2,800 units per day on an average in the Gurgaon plant and 1,200 units in the Manesar facility.
The company suspended production at the Gurgaon plant for two days and said it would review the situation Sunday.

The decision was taken as workers at Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL), which supplies diesel engines and transmissions to Maruti cars, halted production to express solidarity with the striking workers at Maruti's Manesar plant.
Though models like M-800, Omni, Eeco and Gypsy are not dependent on component supplies from SPIL, the spokesperson said: "Operating the plant only for these models will be unviable. The production loss for these models can be recovered once production resumes."
The trouble could not have come at a worse time for the company. This is the festive season, which typically generates huge demand -- crucial for the automobile giant that has been witnessing sluggish sales in recent months.
The company's scrip at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed at Rs.1,028.45, down 2.65 percent from previous day's close of Rs.1,056.40.

$500 mn credit line offered to Myanmar

2011-10-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

The joint statement said Myanmar welcomed Indian investments in the energy sector and “agreed to encourage further investment by Indian companies... in the oil and gas sectors”

Elizabeth Roche

New Delhi: Myanmar agreed to encourage investments from Indian firms in the energy sector as India announced a new line of credit of $500 million to promote economic and development activity during the visit to New Delhi by Thein Sein, Myanmar’s first civilian president in decades.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with President of Myanmar Thein Sein before a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: PTI
A joint statement released on Friday after talks between Thein Sein, who took charge as the new president in March, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said both sides had agreed to “broaden” their ties in various fields and prioritize the promotion of trade, investment, cooperation in science and technology, energy security and border security.
This is Thein Sein’s first visit to India after the landmark 7 November polls that ushered in limited democracy to the previously military ruled country. The joint statement said both countries “encouraged business associations... to enter into closer ties with their counterparts.” To enhance border trade, meetings between the officials of customs, immigration and banks and businessmen representing border chambers of commerce will be held at regular intervals, it said. The two countries also agreed to look at two new border trading points, besides the two already open for business, in Manipur and the other in Mizoram.
The statement said officials had been directed to improve air, rail, ferry and road connectivity between the two countries to improve business ties. Bilateral trade between the neighbours—who share a 1,600 km border—stood at $1.28 billion in 2008 and both countries have set a target of $3 billion by 2015.
“This is a great time for Indian business to enter Myanmar,” said a government official. “There are political changes happening there,” he said, referring to recent political reforms introduced by Thein Sein—a fact the joint statement took note of, welcoming “progress in moving towards an open and democratic framework”.

Myanmar President Thein Sein offers prayers at Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya on Thursday. (PTI )
“There are also changes happening on the economic front to bring the country on par with any other modern state to attract investments,” said the official.
“More importantly, the President (Thein Sein) is in favour of increasing trade links with India. Of the strong ministerial delegation with him, most are economic ministers,” he said. According to another official, the $500 million credit line is “the largest that India has extended to Myanmar”. This was to “encourage Indian businesses to take advantage of the opportunities next door”, he said.
At a meeting with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry later in the day, three Myanmarese ministers—commerce minister Win Myint, industry minister U. Myint Maung and minister for national planning and economic development U. Zaw Min—called on India to take advantage of the changing economic environment since the new government took office with easier and more transparent rules governing investments.
“Revision of existing rules and regulations and promulgations of new laws are shortly to be done for the promotion of economic activity in Myanmar,” commerce minister Myint said. “We found that investment from India is very low, although there are a wide range of areas for investment. I would like to inform you that the Myanmar investment law is under review... the application procedure for investment projects is being simplified to facilitate investment inflows,” he said, adding Myanmar was looking at setting up special economic zones to attract foreign investors.
“Myanmar is located in a strategic area between two populous countries. Myanmar could be a regional business hub after the completion of existing infrastructure projects,” Myint said, as his colleagues Maung and Min urged Indian businesses to “seize the opportunities” in IT, infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, dairy industry and fisheries.
The joint statement said Myanmar welcomed Indian investments in the energy sector and “agreed to encourage further investment by Indian companies... in the oil and gas sectors.” India’s state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd and GAIL India Ltd besides the privately held Essar group already have a presence in Myanmar’s energy sector. On border security, India and Myanmar “agreed on enhancing effective cooperation and coordination between the security forces of the two countries in tackling the deadly menace of insurgency and terrorism,” the statement said.
elizabeth.r@livemint.com

Indian telecom department cautions BSNL about Chinese companies

2011-10-14T20:58:00.001-07:00

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) of Indian Government has cautioned the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the state-owned telecommunication service provider, about offering its projects to Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei, reports ET Bureau.

According to some reports, home ministry and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) of India have raised their concerns about Chinese companies getting telecommunication projects in India.

Earlier, BSNL had decided to offer contracts to Chinese companies only for those areas that do not share international boundaries with China and Pakistan. Now BSNL is to offer contract for its Rs 5,000 crore project for the 15 million GSM lines.

The IB is of the opinion that restricting Chinese companies on the basis of geographies will no longer work.

An internal note from the telecom department on the issue reads – “In the recent past, despite being clearly advised by the DoT and the expert committee set up by home ministry and IB, not to allow Chinese equipment deployment in sensitive regions like North-East states, allowance by BSNL to ZTE to deploy wireless broadband network in North-Eastern states is highly objectionable and should not be allowed.”

The note warns BSNL on selection of Chinese vendors for 15 million lines GSM contract.

A few months back, the Indian telecom department had announced new security norms for telecom gear makers to address security concerns related to telecommunication projects being run in the country. The new rules were adopted especially to address concerns related to Chinese companies.

Now this fresh caution from the telecom department is expected to further slow down the BSNL’s expansion plans for its telecommunication infrastructure in the country.

It is time news TV came under press watchdog as well

2011-10-14T03:39:00.001-07:00

Anant Rangaswami

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is ‘actively’ considering the proposal to bring news television under the ambit of the Press Council of India. Reuters
Is it the end of the road for the near absolute freedom that news television enjoys in India?
“The Press Council of India…wants to adjudicate over the electronic media as well. It is in consultation with the Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) over its long-standing demand to be converted into the Media Monitoring Commission of India, arguing that principles of good journalism, ethics, morality and freedom of speech apply to both print and electronic media in equal measure and hence, the two should be held to the same standards of accountability,” reports the Indian Express.
“The proposal is now under active discussion with the I&B Ministry,” said a senior Press Council member,” the report goes on to say.
It’s how the Press Council views the lack of responsibility in pockets of news TV that has instigated the demand, stating that, because of this, the code of conduct defined under Section 13(2) of the Press Council Act, 1978, must apply to news TV as well.
Let us take a look at the origins of the Press Council. “If the Press is to function effectively as the watchdog of public interest, it must have a secure freedom of expression, unfettered and unhindered by any authority, organised bodies or individuals. But, this claim to press freedom has legitimacy only if it is exercised with a due sense of responsibility. The Press must, therefore, scrupulously adhere to accepted norms of journalistic ethics and maintain high standards of professional conduct.
Where the norms are breached and the freedom is defiled by unprofessional conduct, a way must exist to check and control it. But, control by Government or official authorities may prove destructive of this freedom.
Therefore, the best way is to let the peers of the profession, assisted by a few discerning laymen to regulate it through a properly structured representative impartial machinery. Hence, the Press Council,” the Council says about itself.
When the Press Council was formed, in July 1966, the objectives of the Council were defined as under:
• to help newspapers to maintain their independence;
• to build up a code of conduct for newspapers and journalists in accordance with high professional standards;
• to ensure on the part of newspapers and journalists the maintenance of high standards of public taste and foster a due sense of both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship;
• to encourage the growth of a sense of responsibility and public service among all those engaged in the profession of journalism;
• to keep under review any development likely to restrict the supply and dissemination of news of public interest and importance;
• to keep under review such cases of assistance received by any newspaper or news agency in India from foreign sources, as are referred to it by the Central Government.
Since this was 1966, the Press Council, obviously, did not see the need to say ‘news media’ instead of newspapers. News in non-print forms was then available only through government run organizations, Doordarshan and All India Radio.

An Indian news anchor sits in the newsroom of the popular Indian news. Reuters
So print had a watchdog and a regulator in the form of the Press Council, while news television has none. Facing criticism from both the government and private citizens alike from time to time on irresponsibility in TV news, the two (private) industry bodies, the News Broadcasters Association and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation have announced content guidelines and and self-regulatory mechanisms — which have kept the proposed legislation — the “Broadcast Services Regulation Bill” — at bay.
As a consequence, newspapers are required to heed the Code of Conduct, which news television is, currently, not required to. The entire Act may be read here
and the Norms of Conduct here but we reproduce some pertinent extracts here.
• Newspaper (sic) should not publish anything which is manifestly defamatory or libelous against any individual/organisation unless after due care and verification, there is sufficient reason/evidence to believe that it is true and its publication will be for public good.
• Truth is no defence for publishing derogatory, scurrilous and defamatory material against a private citizen where no public interest is involved.
• The Press has a duty, discretion and right to serve the public interest by drawing reader’s attention to citizens of doubtful antecedents and of questionable character but as responsible journalists they should observe due restraint and caution in hazarding their own opinion or conclusion in branding these persons as ‘cheats’ or ‘killers’ etc. The cardinal principle being that the guilt of a person should be established by proof of facts alleged and not by proof of the bad character of the accused. In the zest to expose, the Press should not exceed the limits of ethical caution and fair comment.
• Publication of defamatory news by one paper does not give license to others to publish news/ information reproducing or repeating the same.
• Insertion of out -of -context, uncalled for and irrelevant statements likely to malign a person or an organisation must be eschewed.
• Freedom of Press does not give license to a newspaper to malign a political leader or mar his future political prospects by publishing fake and defamatory writings.
When you read this list (and it’s only a small extract), it’s difficult not to agree with the Press Council’s view that newspapers are more responsible than news television. Increasingly, news anchors become the judge, jury and executioner, leaving hapless victims little or no recourse for redressal.
“On receipt of a report or article of public interest and benefit containing imputations or comments against a citizen, the editor should check with due care and attention its factual accuracy apart from other authentic sources- with the person or the organisation concerned to elicit his/her or its version, comments or reaction and publish the same alongside with due correction in the report where necessary,” says one of the “Norms’.
If these norms had been adhered to, incidents such as the Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Times Now would not have arisen.
The irresponsibility of some sections of news TV have been highlighted time and again, most notably in the coverage of the 26/11 attack. Since then, despite all the sound and fury, there is little evidence to show that news television is addressing the issue, despite the very impressive (self-authored) self-regulatory guidelines.
The coverage of recent scams and the entire Anna Hazare movement against corruption has seen news television raking the government across the coals; perhaps that’s why, after many years of dilly-dallying, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is ‘actively’ considering the proposal to bring news television under the ambit of the Press Council of India.
Broadcasters may complain, but they will not get too much support. What is the logic of two sets of rules for two mediums, TV and print, when the roles they play, and the responsibility they should bear, are the same?

Rs 20,000 crore IT park scam

2011-10-13T23:48:00.001-07:00

Dotting many of the IT parks across the state are arbitrary establishments that have nothing to do with information or technology, but a lot with exploiting benefits provided under IT policy
While one could gasp at the amount of space -- on land and in news headlines -- that upcoming and existent info-tech enterprises have grabbed, it has emerged that not as much is actually being done for what is touted as the driving force in scripting India's success story. Many of the Information Technology parks across the city and on the outskirts are now housing a number of shops and other establishments that have nothing to do with IT, in contravention to the rules governing land meant for IT parks.

MiD DAY found that while establishments like ayurvedic outlets, watch and leather stores have opened shop in certain IT parks in Navi Mumbai, and other unrelated companies can also be found sharing the space reserved for IT.

Sanjay Chaturvedi, executive editor, Accommodation Times, said, "According to NASCOM, we require to generate 5 million jobs by 2015 in the IT industry. If IT parks are used for purposes other than for which they were constructed, 5 million jobs may get wasted in the economy. Only big IT companies from abroad can generate such a massive scale of economic growth by investing in India." Many others have voiced their concerns (see 'Expertspeak').

Out of line
When the government gave the green light to develop IT parks it was understood that these would have IT establishments and allied services, which include outsourcing of processes that can be enabled with IT and covers diverse areas like finance, HR, administration, health care and telecommunicaions etc in conjunction with technology.

A few years later, after the IT park boom, the IT industry saw a slack period. It is believed that IT park owners then gave out the land to other establishments that have nothing to do with IT. These commercial businesses are subsequently reaping special benefits meant for IT parks.

According to data available from the industry department (copy with MiD DAY) of the state government, approximately 100 IT parks located in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Pune have been registered with it since 2002 until March this year. And another 340 have been issued the Letter of Intent in the said areas.

"As per the norms, a developer has to first obtain the letter of intent for constructing an IT park to avail certain exemptions. On completion of the construction work, as per the prescribed norms under the IT policy, the developer may or may not register the IT park with the industry department. The local civic body is responsible to keep a check on the usage of the space," said an official from the industry department, Mantralaya.

Himadri Mayank, assistant vice-president, Research and Real Estate Intelligence Service at Jones Lang LaSalle India, said, "Mumbai and NCR-Delhi are the only two major cities in the country where non-IT space constitutes more than a third of city's total office stock. Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata have 55-65 per cent of office space devoted to IT. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are gradually becoming operational and constitute 17 per cent of the total operational stock."

Big money, big space
A city-based real estate broker, who also operates in Navi Mumbai and Pune, said IT park rates could vary between Rs 1-1.60 lakh per sq m in Mumbai. However, the same can be between Rs 35,000-60,000 per sq m in Navi Mumbai, and Rs 40,000-70,000 pr sq m in Pune. Hence, at the average of Rs 50,000 per sq m, the cost would cross Rs 20,000 crore for the nearly 4 crore sq m of IT Park in the three municipalities.

"Maharashtra accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country's software exports, with over 1,200 software units based in the state, thus providing a familiar and friendly environment to IT companies. The whole state has been connected through an optical fibre cable network; a statewide network of competent training institutions has been established for building a pool of world-class IT professionals in order to provide strength and support to the IT sector in the state. Besides, the state government has framed an IT policy to make Maharashtra the most-favoured destination for investments in the IT and ITES industry, which was amended thrice," said another Mantralaya official.

The Maharashtra IT/ITES policy was revised thrice since its inception in 1998. Initially only IT companies could avail of benefits under the policy or have offices in IT parks, but in 2003, an amendment provided wider scope and 80 per cent of IT companies and 20 per cent ITES services could avail of the facilities and have offices in IT parks. In 2009, the policy allowed 50 per cent IT companies, 30 per cent ITES and 20 per cent support services to avail of the benefits.

Consequences
According to a senior Mantralaya official, at present, there is no governing body other than the local civic body, which as per the Development Control Regulations, allows the developer to carry out construction.

"We are not the authority to check if there is any misuse of IT park across the state. If at all anybody brings to our notice any such violation, we can ask the local civic body to look into the matter and take the necessary action. If even a single unit in the IT park is found doing non-IT related activity as mentioned in the IT policy, the project could even lose the IT park status, and penalty could be imposed on the developer. The civic body can take action for violation of FSI."

Attempts made to contact state Industry Minister Narayan Rane did not yield any result as he was in Kankavli in Konkan.

Findings from the field
MiD DAY visited some of the IT Parks and found they were housing services and firms that have nothing to do with information or technology. Some of the proprietors of these alternative producers/services either dodged our questions, or claimed ignorance of the law. Only a few had answers.

Name: Infotech Park
Location: Belapur railway station, Navi Mumbai
Unit: Patanjali Chikitsalay (Baba Ramdev)
Response: Mukesh Upadhyay, a partner in Pantanjali Chikitsalay, said, "We were using the unit for selling automobile spare parts initially when we bought two outlets. However, we changed our business and decided
to have a franchise of Patanjali, and since last three years we have been running this Chikitsalaya as a social
service." Upadhayay even claimed of having intimated CIDCO of the usage of IT space for the mentioned purposes. However, he could not produce any documents for verification.

Name: Technopolis Knowledge IT Park
Location: Chakala, Andheri
Unit: M/s Castrol India Pvt Limited
Response: MiD DAY sent an e-mail to the company on the issue, but did not get any response at the time of going to press

Name: Real Tech Park
Location: Sector 30 A Vashi, Navi Mumbai
Unit: Watch World (wrist watch outlet)
Response: A manager at the outlet said they were on rent and refused to speak further.
However, adjacent to his shop was another watch outlet, Just in Time, whose owner, Jayesh Jadhod, said, "I started this retail outlet three months ago. The premises were rented after an appropriate lease agreement with the owner of the property, Real Tech Park. I do not know anything about IT policy."
MiD DAY approached M/s Real Tech park proprietor Govind Gami of Real Trade Technologies said, "We got a floor-space index (FSI) of 3 for developing the IT park. Although it is basically meant for IT companies, we can give some of the shops in this building to non-IT firms as well. We have had agreements with CIDCO and District Industries Center (DIC) of Thane for the allocation of the shops to IT and non-IT companies. We have allotted them as per the agreement and DIC guidelines."
CIDCO official reactsA CIDCO official expressed his inability in crosschecking the allocation of shops.
"The state IT policy has been amended from time to time and I am not very sure about the allocation of non-IT companies/units in IT parks under the amended policy. Also, CIDCO does not have any mechanism to keep a check on the developers/owners to find if the premises are actually being used by IT/ITES units."

Name: International Infotech Park
Location: Vashi Railway station, Navi Mumbai
Unit: Jai Bhavani Communications (mobile recharge outlet)
Response: An attendant at the shop who did not reveal his identity said, "We occupied this unit a few years ago on rental basis. I do not know about the IT park policy, nor did my employer inform me about it."

Expertspeak
Sanjay Chaturvedi, Executive Editor Accommodation Times
According to NASCOM, we require to generate 5 million jobs by 2015 in the IT industry. If IT parks are used for purposes other than for which they were constructed, 5 million jobs may get wasted in the economy. Only big IT companies from abroad can generate such a massive scale of economic growth by investing in India. This is a sheer waste of public resources and the mockery of the IT policy crafted by the government. Immediate action should be taken.

Anil Harish, Advocate
The IT parks policy was specifically designed to encourage the development of IT and everyone has to comply with its conditions. Every user must take care to ensure that their activity is within the scope of the policy. There could be consequences for violation, and everyone must carry out their due diligence (verification) before investing in an IT park.

Vinod Sampat, Stamp Duty Payers Association President, Advocate
It is a financial loss to the state at the expense of some influential persons associated with the builders lobby. It is a wide-in-the-open, 24x7 scam, with the knowledge and connivance of bureaucrats and local body officials. It also raises questions about why disciplinary action is not initiated against corrupt officials.

Paras Gundecha, President MCHI
I am unaware any such happenings. But if it is indeed happening, then it is wrong. Legal action should be taken against those found violating the norms.

Fiscal Benefits for IT/ITES
* 100 per cent additional FSI shall be made available to all registered IT/ITES units (including telecom manufacturing units) in public and private IT-ITES parks approved by the Directorate of Industries with or without levy of premium.
* IT-ITES units covered under PSI will be exempted from payment of electricity duty. IT/ITES units will be supplied power at industrial rates applicable under MERC tariff orders.
* IT/ITES units (except hardware and telecom hardware manufacturing units) will be allowed in any zone (including residential, no development etc)
* 100 per cent stamp duty exemption to all the registered IT/ITES units in C, D, D+. No Industry District area and low HDI districts as per the PSI 2007 and Public IT parks, in IT SEZs and in IT Hardware SEZs and Telecom Hardware Manufacturing SEZs in A and B area as classified in PSI 2007
* 75 per cent stamp duty exemption to all IT-ITES units in private IT parks (including IT hardware and telecom hardware manufacturing) in A and B areas
* 90 per cent stamp duty exemption on merger, de-merger and reconstruction of IT/ITES units
* 90 per cent stamp duty exemption to assignment leases of IT/ITES units under section 60 and leave and licence of IT/ITES under section 36 A of the Bombay Stamp Act, 1958.
* Works contract tax on annual maintenance agreements charged at the minimum rates recommended by the Empowered Committee.
* IT/ITES units shall be exempt from Octroi/entry tax or other cess or tax levied in lieu of these
* Property tax shall be levied on IT/ITES units at par with residential rates
* VAT on sale of IT products will be charged generally at the minimum floor rate recommended by the concerned empowered committee at the central government level, barring exceptions

Other benefits
For an industry-friendly and supportive environment, following benefits have been accorded IT/ITES ventures:
* Relaxation in the Shop and Establishment Act with regard to working hours, work shifts and employment of women
* Exemption from maintaining physical records for attendance and salary
* IT/ITES units not discharging process effluents and with less than 100 employees will be exempt from obtaining consent from MPCB
* Promotion of focus sectors- Special attention to the development of special fields such as AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics) in which the state has particular strengths; AVGC units will be eligible for all the benefits extended to IT units in this policy
* Promotion of Green IT - To ensure growth in the IT sector in an environmentally sustainable and responsible manner
* While procuring IT products, government will give preference to firms that have an expressed end of life products take back policy and e-waste recycling processes.
* Promotion of entrepreneurship and innovations: To promote the establishment of knowledge/resource centres and incubation centres across the state
* 50 percent of the cost of filing patents will be reimbursed to micro, small and medium IT units covered under the PSI, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh.
* Promotion of brand Maharashtra: To position Maharashtra as a lucrative destination for IT investment
* 50 per cent of the expenditure incurred for certification of CMM level 2 upwards, ISO 27001 for security and COPC and eSCM certification, limited to maximum of Rs 5 lakh, will be reimbursed to micro- and small-scale IT units under PSI scheme

Support services allowed to have office/unit in an IT park
* Banking services
* Medical stores
* Convenience Shopping outlets
* Communication Center
* Conference and Meeting halls
* Travel Agencies
* Food Services, cafeterias, food courts, coffee shops etc
* Dispensaries
* Recreational facilities, gyms, club house etc
* Vehicle service center for automobiles (in Nashik, Nagpur and Low HDI districts)
* Accommodation facilities including hotel/services apartments (in Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Low HDI districts)

India rejects China rivalry, to boost ties with Myanmar

2011-10-13T21:16:00.001-07:00

New Delhi : Rejecting competition with China, India Thursday opposed sanctions targeting Yangon, a day before the leaders of the two countries hold talks to expand security, economic and energy cooperation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold wide-ranging talks with Myanmar President U. Thein Sein Friday that are expected to pitch their growing relations into a higher trajectory.

Thein Sein began his visit to India from Bodh Gaya Wednesday and visited neighbouruing Buddhist pilgrimage destinations, including Kushinagar, before touching down in Delhi in the evening.

Signalling Yangon's keenness to expand ties with India across the spectrum, 13 senior ministers handling key portfolios are accompanying Thein Sein on this four-day visit to India, his first since the elections early this year that started the process of political and economic reforms in that country.

Several pacts in areas related to economy and infrastructure development are expected to be signed after the talks.

Ways to expand security cooperation, specially in the context of insurgents of India's Northeast states suspected to be sheltering in the Myanmarese territory, will figure in the discussions.

"We have received assurances that the Myanmarese territory will not be allowed for insurgent activities directed against India," Vishnu Prakash, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, told reporters here.

Ahead of the talks New Delhi rejected competition with Beijing amid Yangon's fraying ties with Beijing over a mammoth dam.

"The relations between nations is not a zero sum game. There is room for everyone," Prakash said here when asked whether India was seeking to counter China's growing influence in the Southeast Asian country.

"We have an important relationship with Myanmar. And we have an important relationship with China. There is no competition," said Prakash.

Prakash also underlined New Delhi's opposition to sanctions that have been slapped by some Western countries against Myanmar on account of its perceived human rights violations.

"We have a distaste for sanctions. They do not serve the desired purpose and affect the people who are vulnerable," said Prakash when asked whether New Delhi will use its leverage with Western countries to lift sanctions in the wake of reforms undertaken by the civilian government.

EC looking at January to May slot for polls

2011-10-13T21:14:00.001-07:00

The first five months of 2012 would be busy for Election Commission as it is looking at holding elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand in mid-January and in Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur in April-May. Although the commission has not finalised the schedule for the elections, government
officials do not rule out the probability of conducting the elections in one go in smaller states of Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand.

But, elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh may be spread over more than one phase for better management of elections. "Holding elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are more complex than in other states because of the large number of voters," an official explained.

Uttar Pradesh is expected to have 11.1 crore voters whereas Punjab would have 3.12 crore voters for 2012 elections. In other states, the number of voters is relatively less. Uttarakhand would be about 55 lakh voters whereas Goa has 11 lakh voters.

The EC has, however, directed the poll bound state chief electoral officers (CEOs) to revise the electoral rolls and the new rolls are to be finalized by end of this December so that the election process can start from January.

Officials said the commission has already held several rounds of talks with the CEOs for holding free and fair elections in a peaceful atmosphere. The CEO have also been directed to hold voter awareness campaigns first for enrolment in the voters list and then for exercising franchise.

"Our past experience has shown that awareness campaigns lead to increase in voting percentages," an official said, pointing out record voting in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal this year.

To check influence of money in polls, the CEOs have already been directed to monitor flow of money and advertisement in newspapers. The EC wants that the government to ban any advertisement in newspapers six months before the scheduled elections but its proposal is yet to be accepted by the government.

The year 2012 will also witness elections for the post of President and Vice-President of India in June.

In Delhi, Use This Phone App To Fight Back Rapists

2011-10-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, Oct 13 : Women will soon be able to fight off potential attackers with a push of a phone button that will alert not only friends, family and police but also sound an alarm on their social networking websites.

One in every four rapes in India occurs in New Delhi, police say, with reports

of women being bundled into moving cars and gang-raped before being dumped on roadsides, giving the city an unsavoury reputation as the "rape capital" of the nation. There is one rape every 18 hours, according to police.
The phone app "Fight Back" will be launched in November by a local charity and will function as an SOS alert device -- sending out a text message with a GPS location to up to five people, including police, and as a post on Facebook and Twitter.
"Safety for women has become such a huge issue here and we felt that citizens of Delhi, where possibly the problem exists the most, could use this type of technological intervention," said Hindol Sengupta, co-founder of Whypoll, which created the application.
"Women are harassed and molested everywhere on buses, at metro stations, in markets ... we believe this is Asia's first phone application aimed at making women safer."
In conservative and largely patriarchal India, women face a barrage of threats ranging from forced marriage and dowry murders to human trafficking, domestic violence, "honour killings" and abduction as well as sexual harassment and rape.
Rape cases in India increased by 760.4% to 21,397 cases in 2009 from 2,487 in 1971, according to latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau.
But activists say this is a gross underestimation of the actual number of crimes, with most women afraid to go to police, fearing stigma and family dishonour.
While male attitudes towards women have improved over the last two decades due to greater awareness, the dangers to women remain starkly evident -- particularly in New Delhi.
The "Fight Back" app will initially be available to download from the Whypoll website (www.whypoll.org) for a nominal fee and will be supported by a range of mobile devices such as Nokia and BlackBerry. SOS alerts will cost the same as an SMS.
Sengupta said the app, which is part of the Whypoll's "Safe in the City" campaign, will also map the SOS alerts to build an accurate database of where and what gender-related crimes occur.
"We have created a platform where women can remain anonymous yet the incident will still be recorded and reflected on a map on our website -- which will help us push for action in places where there appears to be increased risks to women," he said.

Law student serves notice to team Anna

2011-10-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

By: Amit Singh
Date: 2011-10-12
Place: Delhi

The 22-year-old has alleged that Hazare's aides have insulted the sentiments of Indians by shifting their focus to a single party rather than concentrating on the issue of corruption
A 22-year-old student pursuing law from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIU) has served a legal notice to Anna Hazare and his team for 'misguiding the people of the country'.

Anna Hazare
The legal notice sent to all the members condemns the team for not sticking to their fight against corruption and shifting its focus to only a single party.
The notice says that lakhs of people got inspired by Anna's movement because it was purely non political and not against any particular political party. But later, the team changed its stance and started targeting only one party, that is, Congress.
Without even waiting for the winter session, representatives from his team announced campaigns against the party in five states going to poll next year and also started campaigning against them in Hissar by-election.
These acts and statements are making a mockery of the law and order situation and trying to destabilise the independent democratic set-up of the country, it says.
'Hidden agenda'
Speaking to MiD DAY, Vibhor Anand, the law student, said, "I have supported the movement for a better India. But recent statements by the team clearly show their hidden political ambitions.
By campaigning against a particular party, the team would indirectly be supporting other national political parties."
"The team is actually diluting the unique character of the anti-corruption movement by taking sides and by using the sentiments of the people of India as the means to reach the helm of political power, which also amounts to corruption and makes all the members guilty of criminal breach of trust that the citizens of India have on the team," Anand added, who also runs a NGO, Astha Nishulk Kanooni Salah Avm Sahayata Kendra, which provides legal aid and counselling to women, poor, downtrodden and the other needy sections of the society, free of cost.
Seeking action
The notice, to which the Ministry of Home Affairs, commissioner of police, Delhi, and DGP Haryana are also a party, seeks them to initiate criminal proceeding against the entire team for causing insult to the sentiments of lakhs of people. It demands that the team tender an unconditional apology to the citizens of India for breach of trust.

Maruti sacks 15 workers, suspends 10 others

2011-10-10T01:19:00.001-07:00

Cracking the whip, Maruti Suzuki India today dismissed 10 workers, terminated five trainees and suspended 10 employees in connection "with the strike and violence at the Manesar factory premises".

In a statement, the company said the strike by the workers and the violence thereafter violated the agreement signed by the workers with the company management on October 1 in the presence of the Haryana government officials.
"The company has dismissed 10 employees, suspended 10 others and terminated the training of five trainees in connection with the strike and violence at the Manesar factory premises," the statement said.
MSI said it continues to be concerned about the safety of people as well as the plant and machinery and today the company "rescued" another 100 workers who were being "held under duress" by the striking workers in the factory.
"These 100 workers were rescued with the help of police. Yesterday, the company had similarly rescued 355 workers with the help of the police. Many of these workers had been beaten up by the striking workers," it claimed.
"With the rescue of about 450 people, the number of striking workers in the factory premises has come down to around 1500. About 170 regular workers have stayed away from the strike from the start," the company said.
MSI said in a meeting convened by the labour department on Manesar issue, its management pointed out that the striking workers have violated the agreement signed on October 1 in the presence of Haryana government. The company sought action against the striking workers from the labour department and the Haryana government, the company said.
As per the agreement, the workers had agreed to sign the good conduct bond laid down by the management. Further, while the company had agreed to reinstate 18 trainees, 44 regular employees were to be suspended.
Workers at the Manesar plant went on stay-in strike on Friday afternoon affecting production. The total number of workers who went on the stay-in strike inside the Manesar plant was around 2,000. This included all categories like regular, contractual, apprentices and trainees.
The plant produces about 1,200 units on an average in a normal working day, including models such as Swift, SX4 and the A-Star.
The company alleged that the striking workers attacked co-workers, supervisors and executives in multiple incidents of violence and damaged factory property inside the Manesar plant since they began the stay-in strike on Friday evening.
The workers, however, denied any such acts. They have gone on strike demanding that casual workers and another 44 permanent employees who were suspended during the 33-day-long standoff that ended on October 1, should be reinstated.
In a related event this morning, Gurgaon police had filed a case regarding a firing incident at the plant of Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL), where workers are on strike in support of agitating colleagues at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar factory.
SMIPL workers claimed they were intimidated by a person, Satish Kumar, who belongs to the family of their contractor, Tirupati Associates. Proprietor of the company Rakesh Kumar said his brother had fired in self defence after the workers tried to manhandle him.
Source: PTI

CBI raids Marans, files FIR

2011-10-10T00:43:00.001-07:00

Aircel-Maxis deal: CBI raids Marans, files FIR

New Delhi/Chennai/Hyderabad: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Monday, filed an FIR against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanidhi Maran and two others in connection with the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal.

Apart from the Marans, the two others who have been named in the FIR are TA Krishnan and Ralph Marshal. The CBI had said that after Aircel was sold to the Maxis Group, investments were made by the Malaysian firm in the family business of Marans.

Following the FIR, the investigative agency raided the residences and offices of the Marans in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad. Dayanidhi’s brother Kalanidhi is the promoter of the Sun TV network.

As per reports, Dayanidhi has been booked for various offences including showing "undue favour" shown to Aircel.

At the centre of the probe is a statement by Aircel founder C Sivasankaran, recorded in June by the CBI. According to the statement, he was coerced by Dayanidhi Maran—when he was the telecom minister (2004-2007)—to sell out to Maxis. Maxis had paid $800 million for the deal.

The CBI is trying to find out if there was a case of quid pro quo involved. Importantly, Aircel, which denied a pan-India telecom licence earlier, was able to enter all circles after the Maxis takeover, Sivasankaran alleged.

Moreover, the CBI has also probed, Astro’s, a T Ananda Krishnan company, $160-million investment in Sun Direct for a 20 percent stake. Ralph Marshall is the CEO of Astro.

Last year, Astro had raised its stake in Sun Direct to 35 percent. Sun Direct is the direct-to-home arm of the Sun group, owned by Kalanidhi Maran.

Maran was the Telecom Minister between May 2004 and May 2007. He was forced to resign as the Union Textiles Minister in July this year after CBI said it was investigating a complaint against him filed by Sivasankaran.

The CBI has also asked the telecommunication department to provide them with technical details of the alleged set-up connecting Sun TV office and Maran's residence.

According to the agency sources, 323 residential lines were in the name of BSNL general manager allegedly connecting the Boat House residence of Maran with the office of Sun TV through a dedicated underground cable during Maran's tenure as Telecom Minister.

Vietnam invites India for oil exploration

2011-10-09T23:49:00.001-07:00

HANOI, Oct 10 – Unfazed by Chinese threats, Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang today said India and other foreign nations were welcome to explore hydrocarbons in areas within his country’s jurisdiction, as he sought to deepen strategic and defence ties with New Delhi, reports PTI.

Ahead of his maiden state visit to India from Tuesday, President Sang said the objectives of his trip are to continue to strengthen friendship between the two peoples, reinforce, deepen and add greater substance to bilateral strategic partnership.

“This visit takes place in the context that the time- honoured traditional friendship and strategic partnership between Vietnam and India are witnessing strong growth in all areas for the sake of peace, stability, cooperation and development,” Sang told PTI in an interview.

“We note with satisfaction the fine developments of the strategic partnership between the two countries in all areas, including security - defence,” he said.

The high-level visit, which will be closely followed by Beijing, comes at a time when both countries are having their own difficulties with China.

Commenting on the controversy over oil exploration by India in two Vietnamese oil blocks in the South China Sea with Chinese authorities raising objections claiming that it was their area, Sang defended Hanoi’s deal with India.

“It is a fact that all cooperation projects between Vietnam and other partners including ONGC in the field of oil and gas are located on the continental shelf, within the exclusive economic zone and under the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of Vietnam, entirely in conformity with international laws, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he said.

“We welcome foreign companies to work with Vietnamese partners in oil and gas projects on the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone of Vietnam and in conformity with Vietnamese laws,” Sang said.

Bangladesh-India joint military exercise begins

2011-10-09T01:02:00.001-07:00

Dhaka: A 14-day-long Bangladesh-India joint military exercise, aimed at building camaraderie between the two Armies, started on Sunday, the authorities said.

The drill began at Jalalabad Cantonment in Sylhet division, some 240 km northeast of capital Dhaka.

According to a release of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Bangladesh Army, "Exercise Unity-2" will continue till October 22.

A 25-member Indian Army delegation led by Major SY Mahadik is participating in the exercise, Xinhua reported.

The Indian Army team will leave the country on October 23.

"Exercise Unity-1" was held at Jorhat in the Indian state of Assam from November 1 to 15 last year in which a 25-member Bangladesh Army team took part.

Married to My Rapist

2011-10-07T03:17:00.001-07:00

There are places in India where rape is grounds for marriage. In some villages in Murshidabad, for example
BY Shruti Ravindran

REFLECTION Zareena with her wedding picture. She was married to a neighbour who had raped her, only to be abandoned by him
Zareena Khatun, 19, looks like the sort of lovesick girl that you cast a fond eye over, half-seeing your own early romantic self. She sits outside her house on a straw mat, her knees drawn up to her chin, gazing at the rain with an all-absorbing melancholy. Intrude into her reverie with a question, and she’ll act like she didn’t hear you, chewing absently on a fingernail painted a 90s starlet-maroon. But ask her about the young man in the denim shirt whose framed photo hangs by her bedside, and she’ll say his name softly, blush and look away.
“Newton Patua.” The 22-year-old son of a silk weaver and a student of Bengali in Bolpur College, Newton used to live across the road from Zareena’s home in Jhilli village in Khargram tehsil of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, and he is now her husband. But their first meeting could not be described as either neighbourly or domestic. “I was sleeping upstairs deep in the night, two years ago,” says Zareena, in a voice with flattened affect, “when he came in through the window of my room, caught hold of my mouth, stuffed it with cloth, and raped me. Then he ran away, and I came down and told my mother what happened.”
“We filed an FIR the next day,” says Zareena’s mother. That’s when the story took an unusual course. After Newton was taken into judicial custody, his parents approached Zareena’s and offered to get the two married. Sitting in on the meeting were two members of Bhalo Manush (literally, Good Men), a select group of worthy locals such as schoolteachers and government servants, who are charged with preserving the honour of Jhilli and the 17 surrounding villages. The Good Men, along with the two sets of parents and the girl’s lawyer, agreed that it would be in everybody’s interest to get the rapist married to his victim. Newton would be spared five to eight years of incarceration, the girl would get married despite no longer being a virgin and her father wouldn’t need to scrape together a dowry, even though the boy was from a better educated family and had well-off relatives, including a schoolmaster brother-in-law, and an uncle who was, Zareena says reverentially, “a doctor in Kolkata”.
So, an affidavit was filed, stating that Zareena wished to marry Newton, and he was released on the condition that he would do so. He did, and left the village almost immediately afterwards, explaining to his father-in-law that he needed to complete his college degree to be able to support his new wife. Meanwhile, Zareena got pregnant, dropped out of school, and had a miscarriage. She hasn’t seen or heard from Newton in more than a year, though her father has heard rumours that he finished his course and doesn’t plan on returning to Jhilli anytime soon.
The idea of marrying a rapist to his victim sounds unimaginably wrong. On Women’s Day last year, when ex-CJI KG Balakrishnan suggested that rape victims ought to be allowed to exercise “their personal autonomy” if they wanted to marry their rapists or have children that resulted from sexual assault, he was vociferously condemned by women’s groups and the media. Yet, around Khargram tehsil in Murshidabad district, that doesn’t seem to be considered an especially uncommon, or even undesirable, way for a rape case to end.
Zareena’s father, Sameer Sheikh, a lottery shop owner, regrets letting Newton get away—though it’s not clear whether as rapist or son-in-law. “I knew it was a bad idea to resolve the matter that way, and I never would have consented to this marriage under normal circumstances,” he says, adding, “When Newton’s parents heard that we’d filed the affidavit [which would enable his release] they immediately distanced themselves, and started talking to me rudely. Then I realised we had been manipulated, and that they wouldn’t keep their promise. It’s all because of this wife of mine. She wanted a better house, better food, everything, and their family is better off, with big-city relatives.”
His wife shakes her head remorsefully and says, “In the whole of Jhilli, and all the surrounding villages, everybody knows what happened to Sameer Sheikh’s girl. How will we ever get her married now?” Zareena’s grandmother, an old woman bent like a boomerang, and clad in a white sari faded to gauze, suddenly speaks up: “Aren’t you going to ask me what I want? I want sazaa, justice for my granddaughter. Phaansi!”
Ask Zareena what she thinks of Newton, though, and she says, almost to herself, “Bhalo lage (I like him). If he comes back and asks me to go away with him, I will.” In the meantime, however, she’s afraid to go anywhere alone. “I used to go out by myself, but now I’m too scared. Besides, the people in the village talk.” As she waits for the prodigal rapist, she broods by his picture in her room, wallpapered with posters of polychromatic Bollywood couples hugging or capering across unnaturally ultramarine skies. In a corner, next to a near-lifesize poster of actor Shahid Kapoor is a poster bearing a message wreathed in flowers: ‘Love is a secret language that only loving hearts understand.’
Morality is Abdul Kamaluddin Sarkar’s preferred tongue. As the gram panchayat pradhan, he’s a righteous Good Man, one who is always entitled to a plastic chair while everyone else sits on the floor. “I went to the meeting after I got to know both parents agreed to the marriage,” he says, glancing down from his perch. “In this case, as in all such cases, we try to bring about a mimanksha, an understanding, like getting them married. When there is a class or caste difference, a suitable monetary sum is decided on. If neither works, we leave it to the courts.” Most families prefer a speedily delivered mimanksha to the indefinite wait for justice. “We end up negotiating about ten such cases every year,” says Sarkar, “and in our experience there’s no such thing as a girl’s family that’s not ready [to settle for marriage or money].”
MD Nur Nabi, Zareena’s Khargram-based lawyer, who often finds himself in the role of a go-between, concurs. “Eighty per cent of the rape cases I see are false—they’re a popular means of settling scores in disputes around here. Of the rest, 80 per cent are sorted out by way of an understanding. In 20 per cent of the cases, this means marriage, of which about 90 per cent end up happy.”
“Happy?” the photographer and I exclaim. “Yes, happy,” he repeats patiently. “For two reasons. One, the rapist always has this thought at the back of his mind: ‘If I kick her out or otherwise mistreat her, I’ll end up behind bars once again.’ Second, he feels, ‘I’ve misbehaved with her, let me rectify it.’”
Those sound like improbable explanations that would only serve the interests of frequently misbehaving men. But Nabi claims to have evidence to support his theory: a couple brought to an understanding in 2005 in the nearby village of Gowai are now “enjoying [like] as husband and wife”. According to the FIR filed on 10 February that year, Mallika Ghosh had gone to the sugarcane fields the previous evening for a “nature walk”. There, says Nabi, translating from the statement in Bengali, she was “attacked from behind by one Gadadhar Ghosh, who then proceeded to rape her forcefully, without [her] consent”, warning her that he would kill her if she told anyone about the assault.
The statement was supported by two witnesses returning from the paddy fields, who’d apparently heard her screams. The accused was sent to judicial custody, where he enlisted Nabi’s help. A chargesheet was filed after an investigation and the medical examination of both parties—which apparently only served to prove that they were both “capable for (sic) sexual intercourse”. In the meantime, the two families agreed to get their respective wards married. “When I met my client then,” says Nabi, “he said that he was guilty, but that if the girl wanted to marry him, he too wanted to marry her.” So, Mallika filed an affidavit, Gadadhar was released, and they were married a month after the alleged assault took place.
Today, they live in Gowai with their son and daughter, beside a mossy-green pond shaded by tamarind and neem trees. Unlike most houses in the village, which have straw roofs and mud walls studded with cow-dung cakes, Gadadhar has earned enough from cultivating rice on his six bigha of land to afford them a half-constructed dwelling of brick and cement.
We head up to the roof, trailed by a chattering crowd of curious villagers. Egrets squabble on a tree behind, and a cow lows. “How did you meet your husband?” we ask Mallika. “We had a sort of love m arriage,” she replies shyly. A few awkward enquiries later, she elaborates: “It wasn’t by force. I liked him from the beginning. We’d seen each other around, in the fields, on the path.”
We try her mother next. “Did you feel uncomfortable marrying your daughter to this man?” “No,” she says, motioning across a big pond in the centre of the village, to a small mud house, “We live close by, if she needs us.” “Getting him to marry my daughter was the whole point of filing the case against him,” adds her husband, Rabindranath. “His father was against it because we are poor. Finally he agreed. He died soon after the wedding.” A villager who professes to be “like Gadadhar’s brother” adds that everyone in Gowai had disapproved of the match since they belonged to the same village.
Throughout the meeting, Gadadhar looks tense and suspicious. Apart from asking the people accompanying us just why he should consent to being interviewed, he says little. He only begins to unclench his jaw once we prepare to leave. He watches us from the threshold of his home, his six-year-old daughter in his arms. We turn the corner, past a jackfruit tree, several piles of meticulously gathered cow dung, and two goats. And their telltale past is behind them once again.
+++
Some names have been changed on request

High suicide rates continue to plague Indian Armed Forces

2011-10-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

New Delhi, Oct 7 : The Indian Armed Forces continue to loss more manpower to suicides and fratricide shootings in peace than in combat missions involving counter insurgency operations, Indian defence authorities said. According to reports received here, Indian Defence Minister, A K Antony disclosed latest figures during the Parliament session, saying that around 780 soldiers have committed suicide since 2005 and the suicide graph in the forces which dipped a little in 2009 has resumed its upward spiral in recent years.
In 2007 the suicide figures stood at 142, climbing to 150 in 2008, however, dipped to 111 in 2009 before touching the 130 mark last year.
Till July 2011 the suicide figures reached 70 and if this trend continues, it would touch 130-140 figure by year end.
According to Indian commanders, the long period of absence from home and family, caused by long tenures on counter insurgency operations in Kashmir and the Indian North Eastern Region has sapped state of morale in the Indian Army.
The suicide incidents remained rampant despite introduction of psychological counselors among Indian Army units, introduction of yoga exercises as stress relievers and augmentation of psychiatric care and advisory resources within the military hospitals in Indian Held kashmir and the North East.
The trend also casts a poor light on the functioning of chain of command in Indian units.
“Incidence of high suicide rates reflect poorly upon discipline, man management and standard of leadership - both at junior and senior tiers-obtaining in the Indian Army”, says analysts.

Dussehra, marking triumph of good over evil, celebrated across India

2011-10-06T20:35:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, October 7 :

The Ravana effigy in flames, at the Dussehra celebrations, at Ramleela Maidan on the occasion of Vijay Dashmi, in New Delhi on October 6, 2011.
Giant effigies of demon king Ravana, his son Meghnad and brother Kumbhakaran went up in flames amid spectacular displays of fireworks as people across the country celebrated Dussehra across the country today.
Thousands of people in different parts of the country also bid farewell to Goddess Durga with religious fervour as she returned to her celestial abode.
Ramlilas, enacting events from the life of Lord Rama, were staged in many places during the nine days of festivities that preceded today's celebrations.
In Delhi, Vice-President M Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were among a host of leaders who attended Dussehra celebrations at the Subhash Maidan near Red Fort in New Delhi.
Before the burning of the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakaran, Dr Singh and Ms Gandhi spent some time backstage with the artistes who were enacting Ramlila on the stage.
Later, they set free white pigeons and balloons in a gesture of peace and harmony.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at the Dussehra celebrations, at Ramleela Maidan on the occasion of Vijay Dashmi, in New Delhi on October 6, 2011.
United News of India adds:
Dusseha was celebrated with gaiety, enthusiasm and fervour across Andhra Pradesh. In the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, lanes and bylanes reverberated with songs praising Goddess Durga.
Clad in their best, people thronged temples from the crack of dawn to worship the Goddess. Temples were decked up with lights and flowers and special pujas conducted as part of celebrations.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmila Singh inaugurated a week-long International Kullu Dussehra festival by participating in the Rath Yatra of Lord Raghunathji at the historic Dhalpur Ground, Kullu.
Ms Singh said Himachal Pradesh was known as the land of Gods and Goddesses and their congregation during the Dussehra festival depicts the vivid culture of Himachal.
Ms Singh said "besides promoting our rich culture, Dussehra also promotes tourism in a big way."
Durga puja was celebrated peacefully in Christian-dominated Mizoram. The Hindustan Club of Aizawl has literally kept the flame of Durga puja burning since 1904 in this remote North-east state where nearly 90 per cent of the population are Christians.
"We have been celebrating Durga puja here without any disturbance since the past 107 years. This is possible only through the harmonious co-existence among people of all faiths, particularly the tolerance and hospitality of the majority Mizo Christians," Hindustan Club of Aizawl president P Chakraborty said here.
In Uttarakhand's capital Dehradun, the main attraction was a 60-feet tall Ravan effigy set up at the sprawling Parade Ground in the heart of the city, where hundreds of people assembled to witness the end of the evil King through a remote controlled device, used for the first time in Uttarakhand.
Earlier, the procession of elaborately decorated "chariot-car" carrying Lord Rama accompanied by brother Lakshman and monkey-God Hanuman among others, accompanied by hundreds of devotees, wound through the main thoroughfares of the city before reaching the main "battlefield".
At the same time, the Navratra festivities dedicated to Goddess Durga also drew to an end with the elaborate idols of the Goddess and her family, given an emotional send-off for her matrimonial home in Mount Kailash after a sojourn in her maternal home.
Dussehra was celebrated with gaiety and enthusiasm in Maharashtra with people greeting their near and dear ones on the occasion.
The famous Mahalaxmi Temple in Mumbai was decked up with lights and flowers and special pujas conducted as part of the celebrations.
There was a large rush seen in the temple since midnight last night. People were also seen exchanging gifts of leaves from the Shami tree (Prosopis spicigera) as a symbol of the story of the Pandavas brothers' exile in the Mahabharata stories.
People all over may treat Ravan as symbol of evil and untruth and burn him in effigy on Dussehra every year, but residents of a small locality along the Mehrangarh fort-hill in Jaipur at Rajasthan regard the demon king of Lanka as their ancestor and a benevolent and mighty warrior and learned pundit.
Locals mourn his death and perform post-funeral rituals like holy bath and holy wash in their houses after the effigy burning on this day every year.
It is generally believed that Mandodri the princess of Mandawara, now Mandore, situated about nine km from here, was married to Ravan and the locality is the place where Ravan had stayed after the marriage.
Members of the Mysore Wadiyar royal family held their traditional Dussehra festivities inside the Mysore palace. The scion of the Wadiyars, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar performed the "shammi pooja" at the Bhuvenswari Temple inside the palace premises.
The private durbar of the Mysore royal family was held to commemorate Dussehra festivities, the genesis of which is traced to the celebrations observed by the Vijayanagar emperors in Hampi.
The baton was passed to the Wadiyars who kept alive the tradition with customary rituals adding a dash of colour with the caparisoned elephants, horses, and soldiers participating in a procession.
In the past, the Maharaja used to ascend the royal throne on all nine days and hold a durbar while the subjects used to pay their obeisance to the ruler.

Skilled Indians face a 70-year green card wait!

2011-10-06T07:14:00.001-07:00

A highly skilled Indian national sponsored today for the most common skilled employment-based immigrant visa could wait 70 years to receive a green card, conclude two new reports by a US policy research group.

The reports by the National Foundation for American Policy conclude that exempting from green card quotas international students with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) would keep talented individuals from leaving the United States.
This would "reap significant benefits to the competitiveness of U.S. companies and to the economy overall" suggests the reports - "Keeping Talent in America" and "Waiting and More Waiting: America's Family and Employment-Based Immigration System."
The majority of employer-sponsored immigrants tend to be from India and China, but the wait times are longest for such foreign nationals because of the per country limit, which restricts the number of green cards awarded to any one country to 7 percent of a preference category.
By establishing that fewer than 3,000 Indians are permitted green cards annually in the employment based third preference (EB-3) and estimating a backlog of 210,000 among Indian professionals in the category, the report is able to conclude an Indian sponsored today could wait 70 years for a green card.
The report concludes that even if the backlog of Indians in EB-3 were half as large, the wait time would still exceed 30 years for Indians sponsored today in the category.
A Chinese immigrant sponsored today in the EB-3 category could wait two decades. Immigrants from other countries would likely wait 5 years or more.
In the EB-2 (second preference) category the wait times are 6 to 8 years for a newly sponsored Indian or Chinese immigrant, but there is no wait for those from other countries.
"It is not in our interests to have the most important characteristic of an immigrant to America be the ability to wait a long time," said NFAP's executive director Stuart Anderson, who authored the two reports.
"Absent action by Congress the situation will grow worse, creating great hardship and weakening the competitiveness of US companies," he said.
A key part of any solution to reducing wait times is to eliminate the per country limit for employment-based immigrants, the reports say noting the step would reduce the typical wait for Indians applying today in the EB-3 category from 70 to 12 years.
While 12 years is still too long, it would be a welcome reform for longest waiting Indian and Chinese professionals, the reports said.
Source: IANS

ISRO’s bhuvan takes on, beats Google Earth

2011-10-05T06:04:00.001-07:00

A screenshot of Bhuvan 2D - DC
India's answer to Google Earth, ‘Bhuvan,’ will now provide satellite data to the general public.
Registered users will be able to, browse and download satellite data through the city-based National Remote Sensing Centre's Open Earth Observation Data Archive.
Bhuvan, which has many more features than the Google Earth, is run by ISRO which has thrown open some of the earth observation data obtained through its satellites.
Presently, users can download elevation data of CartoDEM-1arc second and Resourcesat-1: AWiFS data (56m) of the Indian region. Users can access other data in the near future.
Satellite earth observation data of Indian cities and terrain can be accessed from link provided at www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in or http://bhuvan-noeda.nrsc.gov.in.

Is Team Anna less ‘Team’ and more ‘Anna’? Jury is out

2011-10-05T04:33:00.001-07:00

Anant Rangaswami

There have been many indicators of, at best, a strain in the team, and, at worst, a major difference of opinion between its members. AFP
Is Anna Hazare finding it difficult to manage his own small team, the team which brought all major political parties to their knees over the Lokpal Bill?
There have been many indicators of, at best, a strain in the team, and, at worst, a major difference of opinion between its members.
The first sign was Anna Hazare’s decision to launch his own blog. Overtly, where was the need for it when the India Against Corruption website was available as a platform?
Hazare spelt out the reasons. “People from world over want to know my thoughts on various issues. Many a times people (even those who are closer to me) make statements that do not collaborate with my thinking. Henceforth, through the medium of internet, I will personally make sure that my thoughts and views reach over to the people,” he wrote in his first post on the blog.
Firstpost’s Raman Kripal, perhaps, foresaw where Team Anna, as they proudly called themselves, was headed – looking at how Team Anna was born.
“The story doesn’t begin with Anna starting out as an anti-corruption crusader building his movement brick by brick and finding followers along the way. In fact, corruption wasn’t the focus of the initial movers and shakers in this story.
It began with different civil society activists pursuing their own goals before it all fell into place as events unfolded over 2010. Anna Hazare was grafted onto the movement at the last stage – once the activists decided they needed a credible face to show the world,” Raman wrote on 17 August2011.
After the euphoria of Team Anna’s success over the political classes, Anna went back to his home at Ralegan Siddhi. Once there, the media focus and attention was squarely on him, undistracted by other members of the ‘Team’. Marathon (exclusive, of course) interview schedules saw him speak to all major news outlets in one day – with no other member of the team at the interviews.
It took members of the international press to push Anna Hazare into admitting that there were cracks in the anti-corruption brigade. Lydia Polgreen and Hari Kumar of The New York Times spoke to Anna Hazare. You can read the entire conversation here.
Q. Among your allies are Prashant Bhushan, who criticizes economic liberalization, and Arvind Kejriwal, who has been criticized for saying overly harsh things about the prime minister. Do you agree with them, and is there disunity among your senior leaders?

Reuters
A. I will try to change them. There were some ego problems. From the government side it was Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal. From our side also there were some issues. I was not getting the right feedback, nor was the prime minister. That complicated the issues. Later, Vilasrao Deshmukh and another minister got involved and direct contact with the prime minister was established. I have an old relationship with Vilasrao. Then the issues were resolved. They (Mr Bhushan and Mr Kejriwal) are good people. I need to change them. I will change them.
During the entire reality show that was the period immediately preceding the fast and during the fast, the first person singular ‘I’ was noticeable by its absence, with the inclusive, warm, ‘We’ dominating all pronouncements by members of Team Anna.
In the single answer that we’ve reproduced from the conversation between Anna Hazare and the NY Times team, Anna Hazare uses the word ‘I’ five times. There’s more than a hint of the hierarchy as seen by Anna: “I was not getting the right feedback, nor was the prime minister,” Anna says, suggesting that the PM and he are equals, and the rest of the players (on both sides) mere members of the team.
The unity will get further asundered by Anna’s choice of issues, which seem driven by his experiences and his passions. The same Anna who leads the country in a battle against corruption and corrupt politicians chooses to take up the problems caused by toll roads in Maharashtra as another focus area. He targets Narendra Modi‘s handling of the Bhatt case as another, and a by-election at Hisar as a fourth.
Do Messrs Kejriwal and Bedi, and the father-son Bhushan duo, and the near-forgotten Santosh Hegde see eye-to-eye with Anna Hazare on this prioritisation? Do they have a common view?
News media, especially TV news, combined with new media, especially social media, saw Anna and team pitchforked into the limelight and, ostensibly, become extraordinarily popular in an extraordinarily short time.
Anna Hazare would do well to remember that his arch foes, the politicians, do this every election; it is what they do after the elections that matters in getting re-elected.
Team Anna, ‘Civil Society’ and the individuals who comprise both, have, in a way, won an election.
Sadly, like the constituents of the UPA, they seem incompetent, inept and focused on selfish interests immediately after, rather than demonstrating commitment to the ‘manifesto’ which won them the popularity in the first place.

Karzai in India on crucial visit

2011-10-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

Afghanistan and India set to forge closer ties as Afghan leader visits New Delhi during an unstable time in region.

The talks in New Delhi could include training for Afghan forces, which might strain ties with Pakistan further [Reuters]

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has arrived in New Delhi on a two-day visit described by India as an opportunity for both countries to consolidate their strategic partnership and discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Tuesday's visit comes against a backdrop of shifting relations in the region.
During his second trip to the Indian capital this year, Karzai will meet Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, and sign several strategic agreements, including some on development aid and security.

Abdul Ali Seraj tells Al Jazeera Pakistan should stop being paranoid about Afghanistan's relations with India

Some analysts in India predict that Karzai will elevate the role of India in stabilising his violence-torn country as he eyes a drawdown of US-led troops by 2014 after more than a decade of fighting.
They argue that Karzai is losing patience with Pakistan, whom he accuses of funding anti-government groups, and is unable to count on the US.
"Karzai's visit comes at a crucial juncture to endorse India's involvement in Afghanistan," Saeed Naqvi from the Observer Research Foundation think-tank told the AFP news agency.
"Karzai is coming to India to confer on India the tag 'reliable ally'... India will get the right to play a more pronounced role [in Afghanistan] after Karzai's visit."
The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that Karzai would sign a "strategic partnership" agreement with Singh, the first such pact with any country in the world.
The proposed alliance, which foreign ministry officials declined to confirm, was said to include an Indian commitment to increase its training of Afghan security forces, including the police.
Indian involvement in Afghanistan is sensitive because of the delicate and often deadly power games in South Asia.
Pakistan's 'double-game'
In a primetime national address on Monday, Karzai accused Pakistan of "pursuing a double-game", saying Islamabad was not co-operating in the battle against armed groups to establish peace in Afghanistan.
Karzai said he had always stood by friendly relations with Pakistan, hoping to face the challenge of cross-border extremism together, but that the neighbouring nation had failed him, continuing to use "terrorism as a means".
"The Islamic republic of Pakistan has not co-operated with us to bring peace and security to Afghanistan, which is unfortunate for us," he said.
He also called for a review of his country's plans to pursue peace with the Taliban, saying he would focus on talking to governments and not specific groups related to them.

Afghans took to the streets of Kabul on Sunday, chanting slogans against the Pakistani authorities [Reuters]

Karzai acknowledged that his efforts for peace had failed as his overtures were met with more violence and targeted killings, most recently of his chief peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
"The killings show that our call for peace has not seen a positive response. One-sided desire for peace will not bring a resolution. Peace can only be achieved with those who believe in it."
"We have to fight decisively against those who do not believe in peace."
Karzai's comments follow Pakistan's criticism by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, who accused Pakistan's intelligence agency last month of playing a role in the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
Mullen called the powerful Haqqani network, operating out of Pakistan's borderlands, a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's ISI military intelligence.
The Haqqani network has denied links to the ISI and also involvement in last month's assassination of Rabbani.
Afghan officials have blamed the Taliban for the September 20 turban bombing, saying Rabbani's killer was Pakistani and that the attack was plotted by the Afghan Taliban's leadership body, the Quetta Shura, in Pakistan.
The network is considered loyal to the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar, and has a seat on the Taliban leadership council.

Apple’s IPhone Loses Surging India Smartphone Market to BlackBerry

2011-10-03T22:08:00.001-07:00

Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s largestsmartphone maker, is having trouble selling iPhones in India, amarket with 602 million active subscribers.
Apple, which will introduce a new iPhone version tomorrow,ships fewer handsets to the world’s second-largest mobile-phonemarket than it does to Norway. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and Research In MotionLtd. (RIM) sell more devices in India, where smartphone shipments areforecast to grow almost 70 percent a year until 2015, helpingmitigate their market-share losses in the U.S. and Europe.
Sales for the world’s biggest company by market value arehindered because Indian wireless carriers, which started third-generation networks this year, have yet to offer nationwideservices fast enough to take advantage of iPhone features, saidGus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto.
“Networks in India are just not conducive for Apple -- 3Gnetworks aren’t quite where they are in Western Europe and NorthAmerica,” he said. “RIM got the right product, the righttiming, the right app.”
Apple shipped 62,043 iPhones to India in the quarter endingJune 30, or fewer than to Norway, Belgium or Israel, accordingto estimates by Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC.

BlackBerry Messenger

Apple dropped 0.6 percent to the equivalent of $381.08 inGerman trading as of 11:22 a.m. in Frankfurt.
Apple accounted for 2.6 percent of India’s smartphoneshipments in the quarter ended June 30, trailing RIM’s 15percent, Samsung Electronics Co.’s 21 percent and Nokia’s 46percent, IDC estimates.
“The iPhone only really works when you have Wi-Fi,” saidKshma Shah, a 25-year-old interior designer in Mumbai. “3G hasbarely started in India, and on 2G you just can’t have the sameexperience.”
The world’s largest maker of tablet computers also shippedabout 21,150 iPads to India in the same period, or 0.2 percentof its global total, according to IDC.
RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging service ispopular because it was one of the first, and it functions wellon networks a generation behind the speeds offered in the U.S.and Europe, Papageorgiou said.
“Only a few of my friends have iPhones,” said MahafareennSarkari, a 25-year-old dance instructor in Mumbai. “BlackBerryis where everybody is, so it made sense for me to be on it,too.”

RIM’s ‘Wave’

RIM, which entered India in 2004, plans to extend its leadover Apple after expanding distribution to 80 cities from 15starting last year, said Krishnadeep Baruah, director ofmarketing for Waterloo, Canada-based RIM in India.
“We want to ride this wave,” Baruah said. “This isreally the time to expand into the emerging towns and cities.”
That contrasts with RIM’s struggles worldwide, with itsstock falling 65 percent this year on the Nasdaq Stock Market.At least five RIM executives have left since March, and thecompany sold half as many PlayBook tablets in the second quarteras analysts had forecast on average.
Nokia has more than 200,000 outlets in India and offers 13smartphone models, Vilsha Kapoor of New Delhi-based Six DegreesPR, hired by Nokia to handle public relations, said in an e-mail.
The Espoo, Finland-based company is seeking to reverse itsglobal performance. Shares are down 45 percent this year, and itis eliminating at least 7,500 jobs as Apple takes global marketshare and Asian competitors push the price of smartphones below$100.

68% Growth

Smartphone shipments in India are poised to jump almosteightfold, or an average of 68 percent a year, to 81.5 millionunits by 2015, according to IDC.
Apple products aren’t as accessible in India becauseconsumers can’t buy iPhones, iPads and iTunes songs from companystores or its website. Apple sells through licensed resellers,including a Reliance Industries Ltd. subsidiary and Tata Group’sCroma.
“Apple continues to invest in India as a growing marketfor the company,” Alan Hely, a London-based spokesman forApple, said in an e-mailed response.
Steve Dowling, a Cupertino, California-based spokesman forApple, declined to comment.
In China, Apple operates six stores, including its highest-grossing ones worldwide. Revenue in China, Taiwan and Hong Kongincreased six times to $3.8 billion in the quarter ended June,Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in July.

‘Pathetic’ Advertising

Apple may be relying more on word-of-mouth among India’swealthy, said Harish Bijoor, who runs his own brand consultingfirm in Bangalore.
“They don’t see a big enough market for their products tomake it worthwhile,” Bijoor said. “They’ve barely done anyadvertising. It’s pathetic, really.”
Cost is also an issue in a country where the World Bankestimates that about 900 million people live on less than $2 aday.
The cheapest iPhone 4 costs $705 at Reliance’s iStore,while the cheapest iPad 2 sells for about $603. In Apple’s U.S.online store, the iPhone 4 starts at $199 with an AT&T Inc.contract and the iPad starts at $499.
BlackBerrys under $200 made up 40 percent of theirshipments in India in the quarter ended June 30, said T.Z. Wong,an analyst for IDC.
“I don’t think Apple is a brand for the masses,” saidAjit Joshi, managing director of Croma, which also sells otherbrands besides Apple. “It’s a brand for the classes.”
The masses may be getting wealthier as India’s new five-year plan aims for 9 percent growth in gross domestic product.India last year joined the top dozen countries with the mostmillionaires, according to a report by Capgemini and MerrillLynch Global Wealth Management in June.
Salaries in India also are set to rise the most in theAsia-Pacific region this year, according to an Aon Hewitt LLCsurvey released in March 8.
“It’s a brand-in-waiting,” said Viren Razdan, managingdirector of consulting firm Interbrand’s Mumbai office. “Appleis waiting for infrastructure and consumer maturity.”

After spam SMS, phishing ISD missed calls menace beckons

2011-10-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Heaving a sigh of relief after Trai’s regulation that effectively banned SPAM SMS might be short-lived for many Indian cellular subscribers as they face a new menace – missed calls from international numbers aimed at phishing information. Most of these calls originate from +92 (Pakistan), +375 (Belarus) and +232 (Sierra Leone) and usually come late at night. This is not a new fraud scheme but it seems to have picked up since Trai’s new SMS regulations have come into force. Many of our readers have reached out to us complaining about the new menace. Airtel warns its customers that on calling these numbers back, a fraudster would claim that he is a representative of the carrier and would claim that the caller has won a prize and would try to get sensitive information.

We would like to issue a general advisory to caution Indian telecom customers who are being arbitrarily targeted by calls fraudulently claiming the recipient customer as being a Prize/Lottery Winner. In these types of phone frauds, the customer returns a missed call with a +92 or +375 country code, and reaches a fraudster pretending to be representative of airtel or another Indian mobile operator and informs the customer of having won some lottery/prize money. The fraudster then attempts to trick the customer into divulging sensitive personal information and to pay a “commission” to receive the winnings. Such commission is usually asked to be paid via an international DTH operator’s recharge vouchers.
To protect all our mobile subscribers from such malicious activities airtel would like to advise the following:
Do not respond to any unexpected calls from a number with the +92 or +375 country code or any other suspicious missed calls from unknown numbers.
Do not get lured into any financial transactions or divulge any personal information, to callers offering prize money or lottery winnings. Also do not respond to any instructions to dial an international number to get the prize money.
Do not respond to any SMS from unknown sources prompting to call on a number.
In case of such suspicious calls from +92 or +375 country code, airtel customers, please report the same to us immediately at airtelpresence@in.airtel.com, others please inform your respective operators’ customer care departments.

Rs 32/day row: Montek likely to revise key poverty numbers

2011-10-02T23:36:00.001-07:00

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is today expected to clear his stance over the panel's affidavit in the Supreme Court defining poverty line cut-offs which have triggered strong opposition from food rights activists.

Ahluwalia met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday amid the controversy.

The affidavit said that poverty line for urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs.965 per capita per month (about Rs.32 per day) for urban areas and Rs.781 per capita per month (about Rs.26 per day) for rural areas.

Apart from food rights activists, opposition parties had also slammed the government over the affidavit.

The number of poor entitled to below poverty line (BPL) benefits, as per the affidavit, has been estimated at 40.74 crore.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is also learnt to have expressed his concern over the poverty line cut offs.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni admitted on Saturday that there was concern among people on the issue.

She said the figures could undergo a change.

"There is a certain disquiet in the civil society and some sections. They believe the statistics are perhaps somewhat removed from reality," she said.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had sent a missive to the panel on the issue. National Advisory Council members Aruna Roy and N.C. Saxena also expressed reservations over the poverty line cut offs.

Saxena said that only dogs and animals can live at Rs.32 a day and said that people spending that kind of amount were poorest of the poor.

Following the uproar, Ahluwalia said that the affidavit was 'factually correct' and it was not a new policy decision but simply a factual explanation given to the apex court on how poverty lines were calculated based on Suresh Tendulkar report.

Leh residents fear Chinese take over

2011-09-30T00:43:00.001-07:00

The inaction of central government even after repeated incursions of Chinese troops into Leh has struck apprehensions in the hearts of local population. They feel that the government is sleeping and is quite weak,

Leh: The Union government's continued denial to the recent Chinese incursions on Indian territory has angered the locals, who have been unhappy over the passive response of the Centre.
As reports of Chinese incursion in Leh were confirmed, Headlines Today travelled to the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir to get an insight into the situation.
Leh additional deputy commissioner Tsering Morup was the first to confirm a recent incursion by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel. "Yes, there have been incursions," he told Headlines Today.
Inspector general of police (Kashmir) S.M. Sahai said: "If you look at the terrain in Leh and Ladakh, there are huge terrains which are unmanned. So definitely an incursion can take place there."
To get an exact impression of the situation on the ground, Headlines Today went further towards the Chinese border in Leh district.
Even as the state and the central establishment remains frozen in a state of denial about Chinese presence, Headlines Today found that the villagers were quite unhappy with the timidity of the government in tackling the brazen incident.
Leh resident Phunsuk Tonduk said, "The army and intelligence are sleeping. The Chinese are slowly inching towards Indian territory. One day they will take over Leh."
An angry local journalist went up to say: "The government is weak."
While a majority remain enraged, there were also a few who chose to remain indifferent. Some young boys said they "don't know... don't care".
Even the newspapers in the region have been flooded with reports of Chinese incursions over the last few months. Defence Minister A.K. Antony might choose to blame "perception" for the Chinese incursions, it seems that this dragon has already hacked into the Indian stable.

Probing Anil Ambani in 2G scam: CBI tells SC

2011-09-30T00:42:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it is probing the alleged involvement of Anil Ambani in the 2G scam. The agency said that it will further investigate to to find out the people who are the real beneficiaries of the scam.

The CBI also gave a clean chit to Videocon Industries-owned Datacom saying that the company was eligible to get the licence, unlike the Swan and the Unitech. CBI further said that former Telecom Minister A Raja did not favour Tata Teleservices due to which it suffered loses.

Tata Group lost spectrum allocation because of Raja's conspiracy with other co-accused in 2G scam, the CBI further said. The CBI also rejected allegations that Tata Group gifted land to the DMK family for favours in spectrum allocation.

Dawood Ibrahim marries off son in Karachi

2011-09-29T01:30:00.001-07:00

Underworld dons Chhota Shakeel and Anees Ibrahim tell Headlines Today that India's most wanted man is happily partying at his son’s gala wedding in Karachi, Pakistan.

www.indiatodayimages.com

New Delhi: India's most wanted -- Dawood Ibrahim -- has been staying in Karachi, Headlines Today has found. The latest about the underworld don is that he is playing host at his son's wedding in the Pakistani city.
India has maintained for years that Dawood, aided by Pakistani authorities, has been living there, but Islamabad has always denied the charge vehemently.
However, in a telephonic conversation, the don's closest aides -- Chhota Shakeel and brother Anees Ibrahim -- confirmed to Headlines Today that he was present in Karachi.
Shakeel made it clear that Dawood was not in hiding, but playing host at his son Moin Ibrahim's grand wedding.
Excerpts:
Headlines Today: We heard that Moin Ibrahim, Dawood Ibrahim's son, is married. Is this true?
Chhota Shakeel: Yes, it is absolutely true. The wedding did happen.
Headlines Today: Had everyone attended the wedding, including Dawood bhai?
Chhota Shakeel: Wouldn't he attend his own son's wedding?
For the son of a man in hiding, the wedding between Moin and Saniya was a rather grand affair. It was held at the don's palatial bungalow, aptly nicknamed the White House in Karachi's posh Clifton area.
The guest list included the who's who of Pakistan's elite, including some senior members of its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Sharpshooter Shakeel, who has been busy with the wedding preparations himself, gave some details about the marriage.
Excerpts:
Headlines Today: Several rumours regarding the wedding have been doing the rounds since April, May...
Chhota Shakeel: That is not correct, the wedding date was fixed and the wedding took place on that date.
Headlines Today: When did the nikaah take place and when was the reception?
Chhota Shakeel: 23rd September, Friday...
Headlines Today: What was the date of the nikaah?
Chhota Shakeel: 25th September, Sunday...
Headlines Today: Sunday was the dawat-e-walima?
Chhota Shakeel: Yes.
Even as the wedding and the reception got over, Dawood now plans to throw a gala reception.
Headlines Today: There are reports that you are planning a big reception?
Chhota Shakeel: We have not decided yet. If we do have one, we will let you know. In fact, we will send you an invitation.
Headlines Today: Will there be a reception or has the reception already taken place?
Anees Ibrahim: Reception is yet to take place.
Headlines Today: Will you hold the reception in London or in Dubai?
Anees Ibrahim: Delhi, Dubai or Nepal.
This is not the first time that Dawood's Karachi connection has been confirmed. In 2003, a news report in Pakistan had suggested that Dawood was hiding in Karachi. Two years later, Dawood's daughter Mahrukh got married to former Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad's son Junaid, confirming the don's presence in the country.
Mahrukh's wedding took place at Dubai's Grand Hyatt hotel. Since the news of the wedding had already been made public, Dawood had to skip the function. However, with his son Moin, the don did not commit the same mistake. The wedding was kept under wraps and the date was not revealed.

Indian firms employ tens of thousands of Americans: US official

2011-09-29T01:28:00.001-07:00

Arun Kumar, On Wednesday 28 September 2011, 10:33 AM

Washington, Sep 28 (IANS) Noting that India's direct investment in the US has grown by an average of 33 percent each year since 2005, a top US official has acknowledged that Indian companies employ tens of thousands of Americans.
In the decade between 2000 and 2010, Indian investment has increased from a negligible $96 million to over $3.3 billion, deputy secretary of state Bill Burns said at the 3rd FICCI-Brookings Dialogue on 'Is there a future of India-US strategic dialogue' here Tuesday.
India-US bilateral economic relationship is anchored in the realisation that their long-term interests are essentially congruent and mutually reinforcing, he said at the event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the Washington think tank.
'Together, we are drawing the best from both of our societies to make better products that compete and win in the global economy,' Burns said noting Tata Steel has a plant in Ohio, while Boeing uses engineers in Bangalore to design 787s whose parts are manufactured across America.
Noting 'the modernisation of India and the lifting up of hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty necessarily remains the focus of the Indian government', he said India has no more important partner than the US in this endeavour.
'This extraordinary -- and so far extraordinarily successful -- effort requires India to sustain its high rate of economic growth, open markets for its goods and services, and attract the investment needed to realise its vision of inclusive development,' he said.
'There is no more important partner for India in this endeavour than the United States,' Burns said.
Over the past decade, India-US bilateral trade has doubled and then almost doubled again, he said while US total direct investment in India rose 10-fold, from $2.4 billion in 2000 to $27.1 billion in 2010, he noted.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

Govt to launch $35 computer on Oct 5

2011-09-28T07:26:00.001-07:00

The prototype of the low-cost computing device which HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had unveiled in July last year

NEW DELHI: The much-awaited $35 computing-cum-access device, to be made available to students right from primary schools to universities, will be launched on October 5.

"The computer will be launched next month," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said at a function. "This is not just a dream, it is a reality," he added. Officials in the Ministry said the low-cost device will be launched on October 5.

Sibal said the name has already been finalised for the device and will announced at the launch. He, however, did not elaborate about the device, which is being billed as the cheapest computer globally.

The computer will bring in immense benefits to the students and will be connected to the internet and perform "all the functions that any other computer can perform. That's an enormously empowering tool," he said.

Sibal, who gave away the first IGNOU-instituted Rajiv Gandhi International Prize for technology in education development to Azim Premji in recognition of his foundation's role in the education sector, said IT has come to play an important role not only in the education sector but in other sectors as well.

He said while it gives scope to a child to transcend boundaries and acquire knowledge using the net, IT can also be used to root out corruption from the country.

"Much of the talk of corruption that we have had in the recent past will be dealt with through initiative of IT. What we need to do is to ensure the scope of human intervention which is the scope of all corruption is dealt with and IT plays an important role in finding solutions and we are in the process of doing it," he said.

The Minister, however, expressed concern over the quality of teaching in educational institutes and teachers, regretting that "we just don't have that quality teachers out there".

"For the last 64 years, we have felt that we just don't have that quality teachers out there. So one of the big initiatives of the 12th Five Year plan is going to be a mission on teacher education.

"This is what we are proposing to the Government in 12th plan to make it a very central mission in one its many missions," he said.

The prototype of the low cost computing device which Sibal had unveiled in July last year is likely to be a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget. It would be packed with internet browsers, PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and multiple content viewer.

Delhi markets use toxic formalin for preservation of fishes

2011-09-27T02:35:00.001-07:00

Formalin is a toxic and carcinogenic chemical used to preserve dead bodies in mortuaries, to prevent fish from deteriorating during transportation.

The malpractice of preserving fish in formalin is widespread in Andhra Pradesh and in Delhi.

Fish lovers beware! Unscrupulous fish wholesalers are using formalin, a toxic and carcinogenic chemical commonly used to preserve dead bodies in mortuaries, to prevent fish from deteriorating during transportation.

This shocking practice came to light after fisheries department authorities in neighbouring Punjab sounded an alert.

What is alarming is that while the Punjab authorities have reacted, authorities in Delhi, from where the fish is resold to Punjab retailers, appear unaware of the malpractice.

Dr A. K. Walia, Delhi's health minister, when contacted, said, "In the past, whenever we have heard reports about adulteration in any food substance, we have carried out raids, thoroughly examined the substances and subsequently taken requisite action." "Formalin is a poisonous substance and I am hearing about its use in fish coming to Delhi only now. We will definitely enquire about it and once it is authentically established, we will take whatever action is required under food safety laws," he promised.
"There is no usage of formalin to preserve the fish as the authorities keep a check on quality of fishes coming in," insisted Chaudhary Riyasat Ali, chairman of the Ghazipur Fish Market, Delhi's largest. Every day, about 20-26 tonnes of fish arrives at this market, from places as far away as Orissa, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. This peaks to over 50 tonnes after October.

The contaminated fish was mostly of the Pangasius variety.

Pangasius is a type of Vietnamese catfish which is now farmed in a big way in Andhra Pradesh.

Locally known as 'Basa', it has become extremely popular in India, since it is virtually boneless and has white flesh favoured by those with a taste for freshwater fish. It is, in fact, one of the most extensively farmed fishes in Asia and is one of the 10 most popular fish varieties consumed in the US. The Basa being procured by the retailers in Punjab is suspected to have been preserved using formalin.

Trade sources said the malpractice is widespread in Andhra Pradesh, where a bulk of the fish is grown, as well as in the Delhi wholesale market, which feeds many towns in Punjab.

The fisheries department authorities in Punjab have sounded an alert that wholesalers were allegedly treating the fish with formalin - a chemical used for long-term preservation of bodies for dissection by doctors and medical students.

The alert sent to municipal authorities in several cities including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Bathinda has asked them to constitute teams and collect the samples of the fish for formalin contamination.

Formalin treatment increases the shelf life of the fish which takes about a week to reach Punjab from Andhra Pradesh. Trade sources said formalin is available over the counter and is cheap, hence it is often used to illegally preserve perishable food items like fish and fruit.

B. K. Sood, director and warden, fisheries, Punjab, confirmed that the government had received complaints that the fish being procured from Andhra Pradesh had formalin contamination.

"We have issued alert to municipal health authorities to take note. We have advised them to form teams and check if contaminated Pangasius fish were being sold in their respective town," Sood said.

He explained that Punjab was one of the major consumption centres for the fish. "It is a striped cat fish being cultured in Andhra Pradesh," he said.

Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa - a progressive fish farmer in Kadian in Punjab's Gurdaspur district - stated that a few wholesalers procuring their locally produced fish had suggested some farmers to treat fish with formalin.

"At present, the wholesalers buy live fish from local producers. Its transportation and storage involves a lot of effort. They wanted the Punjab fish farmers to follow the practice adopted by their Andhra counterparts to save money and labour," Bajwa said.

The farmers however raised alarm.

Ranjodh Singh - president, Innovative Fish Farmers' Club, Punjab - said fish takes up to a week to reach Delhi from Andhra Pradesh. It is auctioned the next day and kept in the local markets in Punjab for a further four to five days for sale. It is not possible to avoid decomposition of the fish without a preservative.

"Farm labour in Punjab is the major consumer of Pangasius fish. They do not complain even if they have any ill effect on health," he said. Between September and March, Punjab consumes nearly 250 tonnes of Basa fish every day.

The fish farmers meanwhile said that Basa fish coming to Punjab also jeopardised their business in the state. "The Andhra fish is sold at Rs 40 a kg. The locally produced Saul, Malli and Singhara found in rivers are sold at about Rs 100 per kg. There are fish farms which cultivate American carp and grass carp varieties sold at about Rs 300 a kg," said Avtar Singh, a fish farmer in Barnala district.

"Preserved Basa has literally spelt doom for Punjab farmers in addition to causing health hazard for its consumers," he added.

Andhra fish producers, however, strongly deny the practice and say they send their produce in airtight ice containers which keep fish fresh for up to 10 days. "I challenge anybody to prove that the fish is preserved with formalin. Let any official come to our places and conduct any inquiry," said Ch. V. Ranga Raju, a leading fish exporter from Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district.

- With inputs from Mail Today Bureaux in Delhi and Hyderabad

Delhi unsafe for women even during day: Study

2011-09-25T04:56:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: Police may say they are doing whatever they can to ensure safety of women in the capital but a study on rape cases claims that the fairer sex is not safe here even during daytime.

The study, conducted by the Centre for Social Research (CSR), is based on 58 FIRs lodged by rape victims in Delhi between January 2009 and July 2011 and medical legal reports of doctors.

According to the study, as many as seven rapes took place between 6 am to noon, 17 cases between noon and 6 pm and 14 victims were raped between 6 pm and midnight.

"Recently, the Delhi Police Commissioner was quoted by media asking women not to venture out alone at night. But our study clearly shows that a woman is not safe even during the day," claimed legal consultant Soumya Bhowmick who helped prepare the report.

The study also claims that 18 women were battered in some form or the other every hour across the country with 13 cases of statutory rape (below 10 years) and 18 cases of school or college level girls being raped. The age group of the accused varied from below 18 years to above 50 years of age.

"Despite police claiming tough enforcement and action against the accused, figures show an alarming rise in the number of victims as it was observed that 85 people were accused in 58 cases of rape," said Bhowmick.

A senior Delhi Police official said they were taking adequate measures for ensuring safety of women. "The rape cases are coming down in the capital. There was a 11 percent decline in rape cases in the capital this year," he said.

In most of the cases, it was found that the offender was a close acquaintance of the victim. In 22 cases, the accused were neighbours of the sufferer, in five incidents they were relatives, and in 10 others the offenders were friends of the victims.

An analysis revealed that nine incidents took place in the victim's house, three in a vehicle and 25 other cases in other places.

The victims in many cases do not lodge a complaint out of fear of being stigmatised and of reprisal from the attacker.

Out of the 58 cases, only 27 victims lodged the complaint on the same day, 18 victims lodged the complaint after one day of the rape, and 12 cases came up after more than a day of delay, the study noted.

"We also conducted a study on the status of rape cases at the post FIR stage and we discovered that many families had withdrawn the case due to delayed trials," said Ranjana Kumari, CSR's director.

Accusing police of being lax during daytime, Ranjana said that there was an urgent need to equip the city with comprehensive security measures for women.

"Besides, forming community watch groups, spreading awareness among families and in schools and fast tracking the judicial system to deal with rape cases could help ensure women's safety," Ranjana added.

‘10 Indian tourists dead in Nepal plane crash’

2011-09-24T22:47:00.001-07:00

Kathmandu: Ten Indian nationals were among 18 people killed on Sunday when a small plane carrying them crashed at Kotdanda hills in Lalitpur district near the Nepalese capital while returning from a mountain flight.
The Beach Aircraft (BHA 103), which crashed at 7.30 am local time, belonged to the private Buddha Air airline and had a total of 19 people aboard, including a three-member crew.
One Nepalese passenger survived miraculously, according to an official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
A total of 18 people, including 10 Indians, were killed in the crash, the official said.
The passenger, who escaped the crash, was rescued from the accident site located 25 km east of the capital and admitted to hospital.
Apart from 10 Indians and three crew, the plane had three foreigners, whose identities were yet to be established, and three Nepalese passengers aboard, according to the Rescue Coordination Centre, Tribhuvan International Airport, under the CAAN.
The aircraft, which had taken tourists to view Mount Everest and other high peaks, crashed at Kotdanda hills in Lalitpur district when it was returning to Kathmandu.
The Indian nationals killed in the crash were identified as Pankaj Mehta, Chhaya Mehta, H D Nagraja, S Nagraja, I Nagraja, L Nagaraja, D Talosubrisum, D P Talosubrisum, Nagraja Talosubrisum and P Talosubrisum.

Ghost of buried 'paid news' report returns to haunt Press Council of India

2011-09-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

Originally published in Asian Correspondent on September 20, 2011
Columns: Deadline Delhi
Date: September 20, 2011
Updated: September 20, 2011

The buried report had its roots in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Once over, disturbing news emerged of payment of money by candidates to representatives of media companies for favourable coverage, or the phenomenon popularly known as “paid news”.
A year after the Press Council of India decided to bury a sub-committee report on the malaise of “paid news” in the news media, the issue has returned to haunt the council again. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Press Council make public the report of the two-member sub-committee as part of suo motu disclosure mandated under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Press Council of India had constituted a two member sub-committee comprising senior journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K Sreenivas Reddy to probe the phenomenon of paid news following allegations that publicity material of some politicians camouflaged as news was being published by certain media organisations. The committee had submitted its report ‘Paid News: How Corruption in the Indian Media Undermines Democracy’ in April 2010.
A meeting of the Press Council of India on July 30, 20101, however, decided not to make the damning report public, and instead opted for a much watered down version.
The CIC direction came after a RTI applicant demanded from the Press Council a copy of report and communications exchanged on the issue besides other information. The council initially refused to provide information saying it was seeking legal opinion on disclosing the report and providing it under the RTI Act. Later, it asked for an additional fee for providing the same. The applicant stated that he had not received any such letter and the report should be published as proactive disclosure mandated under the law. The council did not cite any provisions of the RTI Act while denying the information required as per the provisions of the transparency law.
"This (suo motu disclosure) appears to be a reasonable demand and the Commission under its powers under Section 19(8)(a)(iii) directs the PIO to ensure that the report is placed on the website of the Council before October 10, 2011. This would be in fulfilment of its obligation under Section 4(1)(b)(xvii) of the RTI Act," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi held, while directing the council to provide it before September 30.
A number of newspaper houses had been named in the report as having indulged in malpractices. These included Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd (owners of the Times of India), HT Media (owners of Hindustan Times, Hindustan and Mint), Dainik Jagaran, Dainik Bhaskar, Punjab Kesari, Lokmat, Eenadu, and Sakshi, among others.
Of the Press Council’s 30 members, 12 voted against making the report public, while nine were in favour. Six remained absent from the crucial meeting, while three abstained. Outlook magazine had carried a breakdown of who had voted for/against the motion. The magazine had even carried a note “This is based on information from some of the members present. Should any of those present in the July 30 meeting wish to dispute the above, we would be more than happy to offer their version and/or correct the above.” No one disputed the claims. It was clear that the publisher lobby in the council had held sway.
The report, in due course, leaked out into the public. The government, however, could not act on it since the document could not be deemed as official.
The buried report had its roots in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Once over, disturbing news emerged of payment of money by candidates to representatives of media companies for favourable coverage, or the phenomenon popularly known as “paid news”. The Press Council of India subsequently acted and constituted the two-member sub-committee to study the phenomenon. The council itself could not have punished any of the errant newspapers since it does not have punitive powers. The Election Commission, perhaps, could have.
Meanwhile, all eyes will stay glued to the Press Council’s website for the report to officially make it into the public domain.

Living in a place ‘unfit for humans’, a battalion revolts

2011-09-24T22:19:00.001-07:00

Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay

The kitchen at the IRB 1 camp in Shilda, Jhargram. 62 IRB men have been living here for more than a year. partha paul
It was one hunger strike that registered barely a blip. But then the 58 jawans, four assistant sub-inspectors and three cooks of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) 1 are used to being overlooked. It’s been eight straight years now that the men of West Bengal Police’s armed force have served in Maoist-hit areas. For the past year, this has been in a bareknuckle, half-fallen structure, infested with rats, that goes for a camp here, in one of Bengal’s hottest Naxal zones. For drinking water, they have an uncovered well in the compound; for toilet, the open space around the same.
A CRPF unit asked to stay at the camp had refused, saying “Yahaan pe koi insaan nahin rah sakta hai (No human being can live here).”
It was in the hope of a change in their living conditions that the men revolted. On September 20, when ordered to raid an unknown Maoist hideout, 13 jawans at the camp demanded replenishments for their contingent. The Inspector-in-Charge of Binpur Police Station refused and marked all the 58 jawans at the camp “absent”, threatening further departmental action.
Anger simmering for years, they sat on a hunger strike on September 21. The Commanding Officer of IRB 1, Kalyan Kumar Mullick, was stopped from entering the camp when he came to enquire. Soon, the revolt had spread to all the six camps of IRB 1 located in the Naxal-hit areas of Bankura and West Midnapore, plus to the camps at the headquarters in Durgapur, Suri in Birbhum district, Singur in Hooghly district, Nandigram in East Midnapore and Katwa in Burdwan district.
There are 327 jawans in IRB 1, and out of them 215 are deployed in the Bankura and West Midnapore camps. The jawans demanded that either Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or one of her representatives come for talks.
An alarmed Mamata rushed Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, DG, Armed Police, who is the head of all the 12 armed police batallions, to Shilda. It was Chakrabarti’s promise of redressal of their grievances that convinced the jawans to withdraw their agitation.
“The DG has submitted a report. We will definitely look into their grievances,” says Kundan Lal Tamta, ADG, Armed Police.
Ironically, the Shilda camp had come up in March 2010, a month after the attack by Maoists on an EFR (Eastern Frontier Rifles) camp about a kilometre away that left 26 dead. So that camp was dismantled and an abandoned government office at the present site was converted into a camp.
If the idea was better safety, the Shilda camp is a mockery. The walls at the back are low enough to provide anyone easy entry. Till the DG’s visit, the walls were also covered with thick bushes providing easy cover.
In the name of recreation, there is one television and one carrom board for the 65 who stay here under constant Naxal threat. They have remained in Maoist areas since 2003, the year the IRB was set up.
“You can see for yourself,” said a jawan, adding that they were sitting ducks for Maoists. “We eat along with rats and lizards. In the past one year we have killed four poisonous snakes that sneaked in. There is frequent loadshedding, and often we cannot start the generator because there is no diesel. We pass the night in darkness. We have set up a sentry duty and a night patrol duty. We asked for some sand to build more bunkers but that was refused.”
Their main demand is a transfer and posting in the district police. “Since our recruitment in 2003 we have been moving from one jungle to another. Men in other armed police units get regular posting after three years, but we do not get it. Why this discrimination? I am 24 now. Shall I have to hunt down dangerous people such as Naxalites in jungles all through my career?” says a jawan.
Such is the pressure, they allege, that at the headquarters at Durgapur, four have committed suicide and 10 have become mentally unstable.
Incidentally, Mullick doesn’t dispute the facts, just the figures. “I can remember two suicides by jawans at the headquarters and one is suffering from insanity. The jawan who is suffering form insanity is still there and has been assigned duties he can perform,” he says, in all seriousness, adding he doesn’t believe the suicides were due to work conditions.

Cyber attack led to IGI shutdown

2011-09-24T22:18:00.001-07:00

Rahul Tripathi
Three months ago, a ‘technical snag’ had hit operations at the state-of-the-art T3 terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). It now turns out it was caused by a “malicious code” sent from a remote location to breach the security at the airport.
A hunt has been launched to nab the perpetrator with the CBI registering a case under the IT Act and IPC. Investigators say that the “malicious code” was in the form of “attack scripts”, which means a programme was written by an expert to exploit the system’s security weakness.
The check-in counters, transfers counters and boarding gates at the IGI are operated using the Common Use Passengers Processing System (CUPPS), maintained by Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC). The CUPPS operates on a common software-and-hardware platform that integrates all information such as an airline’s reservation system, the expected time of departure and the capacity at waiting lounges. The problem in CUPPS started at 2.30 am on June 29 due to which check-in counters of all airlines at T3 became non-operational.
“This forced the airlines to opt for manual check-in and as a result passengers had to wait. There are around 172 CUPPS counters and only a third were functioning online,” said an official. The investigation revealed that someone had hacked into the main server of the CUPPS and introduced a virus.
It took nearly 12 hours for the experts — from ARINC, Wipro and DIAL — to restore the system. The CBI was also called in as officials suspected it was a security breach. “We found that there were serious security lapses,” said a CBI official.
The agency had also asked for details of records of CUPPS and staff handling the system. “Once we receive the details, it will be analysed to see if any official is involved. It appears that someone sitting at a remote location had operated the system. We have registered a case under the IT Act and other relevant section of the IPC,” added the CBI official.
Said Guru Prasad Rao, country-head of ARINC: “We have lodged a complaint with relevant authorities and are cooperating with all the stake-holders including DIAL. The investigation into the matter is still pending.” The US-based firm was given the contract to set up CUPPS at T3 in 2009.

Manmohan Singh plunges into hectic diplomacy at UN

2011-09-23T06:03:00.001-07:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins a hectic round of diplomacy here Friday ahead of his address to the United Nations focusing on terrorism, the economic slowdown and the vexed Palestine issue.

Manmohan Singh, who arrived here Thursday afternoon, is set to hold five bilateral meetings during his five-day stay in New York.
Starting with a meeting with the new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Friday morning he meets with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the new Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
He would also be meeting with the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, the newest nation to join the world body.
India's Permanent Representative at the UN Hardeep Singh asked the media not to read too much into Manmohan Singh not meeting President Barack Obama during his current trip.
"It was simply a scheduling issue," he said noting Obama had left New York before Manmohan Singh landed. But both leaders are going to be present for the upcoming G-20 summit in Cannes in November and Manmohan Singh will have many opportunities to meet Obama as also leaders of UK and France there and other international meetings.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna Thursday attended a meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) foreign ministers and a symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formation of the African National Congress.
"This is the century of Asia and Africa," he said at the event on South Africa's contribution to the fight against racism and xenophobia.
"The new dawn that the freedom fighters of India and the African National Congress dreamed about is upon us. We walked together in the walk to freedom; we now continue this journey into a better future for our two nations and for the entire world."
Speaking at another high level event on conflict prevention at the UN Security Council organised by its current president Lebanon he said there really is no sustainable alternative to political processes.
"The primary focus of the United Nations should the facilitation of a political settlement", he said stressing "the time tested principles of national consent, impartiality, fairness and equity in all conflict prevention activities that the UN may undertake."
Source: IANS

Tiger Pataudi begins final journey: Images from his funeral

2011-09-23T01:18:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: The funeral procession of late former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi began from his home here with sobbing family members, friends and several celebrities paying their last respects before his burial which will be held today in Pataudi.
Here are some images from his funeral procession:

Pataudi, who would forever be remembered for leading India to their maiden Test series triumph abroad, died yesterday due to a lung infection at the age of 70.

The body of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi is carried by his son Saif Ali Khan during his funeral in New Delhi. AP
His body was brought to his Vasant Vihar residence here early this morning and the last rites will be performed at his native Pataudi village in Haryana.
Pataudi’s wife, yesteryears’ Bollywood star Sharmila Tagore, his actor son Saif Ali Khan and his girlfriend Kareena Kapoor, and many other celebrities were at the Pataudi residence when his body was taken to his native village at around 1030 hrs this morning.

Wife Sharmila Tagore and son Saif. AP
Among those who came to pay their last respects were Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik with his wife, former cricketers Kapil Dev and Ajay Jadeja, and Punjab Cricket Association chief IS Bindra.

Daughter Soha Ali Khan and Saif Ali Khan. AP
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, and BJP leader Arun Jaitley also paid their respects to Pataudi, who led India in 40 of the 46 Test matches he played and was fondly called ‘Tiger’.
Pataudi’s body was taken in an ambulance and his family members offered Friday prayers before the procession began.
The former cricketer’s daughter Soha Ali Khan, a Bollywood actor, was inconsolable while Kareena also wept as the body was taken out.

Pataudi's wife, yesteryears' Bollywood star Sharmila Tagore, his actor son Saif Ali Khan and his girlfriend Kareena Kapoor, and many other celebrities were at the Pataudi residence when his body was taken to his native village at around 1030 hrs this morning. AP
Hundreds had gathered outside the Pataudi residence including numerous mediapersons, who even got into an argument with the policemen over the coverage.
Former Haryana Chief Minister OP Chautala also came to pay his respects but the procession had left for Pataudi by that time.

‘68% of India in quake danger’

2011-09-21T23:48:00.001-07:00

India’s densely populated cities with poorly designed buildings makes 68 per cent of our urban population vulnerable to earthquakes.

“There are 344 towns which fall in the Zone 5 category (high risk category) making them amongst the most damage prone cities in the planet,” pointed out Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.

Another 813 Indian cities, including seven out of 24 metros with populations in excess of two lakh, fall under the Zone 4 category. These metros include Delhi, Patna, Thane, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Meerut and Faridabad.

If these stats were not alarming enough, the NDMA reveals that Indian buildings are largely not been built to withstand earthquakes. “Only three per cent of buildings use concrete while 85 per cent of buildings are using brick and stone with no steel reinforcements,” said Mr. Reddy.

A country-wide survey highlights how even new buildings in a city like Ahmedabad do not have seismic retro-fitting. Mr Reddy points out that out of 'India’s 8.22 lakh engineers and architects in India, only 14,700 admit to being trained in safe seismic engineering. From an estimated 32 lakh masons, only 34,000 were found to have any knowledge of seismic design'.

“The tectonic plates in the entire Himalayan range, stretching from J&K to the Northeast, are constantly moving and earthquakes will continue to occur but vulnerability to earthquakes has increased due to our population growth,” Mr Reddy added.

Referring to the recent earthquake in Sikkim, he said the population density in its northern district of Mangan was 10 per square kilometre while in east Delhi, population density was 37,000 per square kilometre.

“Over 23,000 people died between 1990-2006 due to six major earthquakes in India, including Bhuj and Latur. Earthquakes are the only disaster where there is little prior warning,” he said.

The great Bengaluru land loot: Rs 1870000000000 scam?

2011-09-21T00:08:00.001-07:00

As Governor H.R. Bhardwaj accepts the resignation of Lokayukta Justice Shivaraj Patil who put in his papers on Monday in the face of growing embarrassment over a land scam, and Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda attempts to put the scandal behind him by saying that he planned to appoint a successor as soon as the Koppal byelection concludes on September 26, the big question — is that enough?
Here’s why the Chief Minister must order a probe.
The Vyalikaval House Building Cooperative Society Ltd offices are a shed! And it is a Rs 1.87 lakh crore scam. Housing cooperative societies are making a mockery of the law.
And the irony is that while successive chief ministers approach the Lokayuta for investigation at the very whiff of a scam, the question is, who is going to investigate the ‘Bengaluru Land Scam’ where even the Lokayukta is alleged to have violated rules?
Therefore, while Justice Patil tendering his resignation in the wake of allegations may be seen as the right thing to do for the state ombudsman, it is not an open and shut case. It has actually opened a Pandora’s Box.
Don’t the people of this state deserve to know who is responsible for this flagrant breach of the law and the biggest scam to occur in the state?
This, Mr Chief Minister, is the moment for you to order an inquiry.
Here’s why
* A person who unsuccessfully contested assembly elections on a BJP ticket in 2008 owns 173 sites in Vyalikaval House Building Cooperative Society Ltd.
* Politicians, judges and bureaucrats across parties own at least 10 sites each in this society. While a member said 10 sites is an under-estimation and claimed around 50 sites were picked by politicians in this society during 1995 to 2000 as the society was neck-deep in financial crisis.
* In hundreds of transactions there is no mention of details of DDs or cheques which is in gross violation of RBI rules in sale deeds. Also shows large-scale black money transaction.
* Over 7,000 members in the society registered in the society since 1964 but only some 3,000 members have got sites.
* There are over 500 housing societies in Bengaluru. But a majority of them are manipulated by officials and politicians as the society need their help for sanctions. Barely 25 percent of the society's original members get sites and the rest go to a powerful lobby
*There are easily over 10,000 litigations concerning housing society site allotment, say legal luminaries.
* The Bellary mining scam according to the Lokayukta report was Rs 16,068 crore. Consider this: There are over 500 societies and even if you take an average of each society distributing 2,000 sites, the total sites sold or transacted by housing societies is 5 lakh sites of different dimensions so far.
Take the cost of each site at an average price of Rs 2,500 per sqft and also an average plot site of 1,500 sqft which sums upto around 37 lakhs per plot as on today. For 5 lakh plots transacted so far, the money exchanged is a whopping Rs 1875000000000 (can't count the zeros? It is Rs 1.87 lakh crore). 12 times more than Bellary mining scam!
* This is taking into account, the lowest of low land prices in Bengaluru where the cost of land in Vyalikaval is Rs 12,000 per sqft and Rs 3,000 in the peripheral villages of city. By any stretch of imagination one can easily say that this is in fact the biggest scam in Karnataka so far.
* The cooperation department is one the most manipulated departments in the government. It maintains a low profile as its visibility is zero considering the fact that thousands of high profile people have benefited from this department.

Bengaluru housing societies a mega scam?

September 21, 2011
By B.R. Srikanth

The office of the Vyalikaval House Building Co-operative Society in Malleswaram is housed in a tin-roof shed

Politicos, judicial officers, senior bureaucrats and police officers would figure among gratuitous beneficiaries if the Lokayukta or any investigating agency probes murky deals of housing cooperative societies in Bengaluru and other cities of Karnataka: That is the conclusion of activists who complained to then Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde in 2009 and subsequently stumbled on acquisition of sites by his successor, Justice Shivaraj V Patil, in precincts carved by two such housing cooperative societies.
The activists said the deals run into several thousand crores with public figures and officers working hand-in-glove with directors of these societies to line their pockets while selling only a handful of sites to members while a lion’s share is sold at a premium to associate members or wealthy purchasers.
In many societies, the beneficiaries are described as “members” by directors to circumvent rules or duck queries from legitimate applicants. In some instances in the controversial Vyalikaval House Building Co-operative Society Ltd, members who possess the sale deed and possession certificate discovered later that site numbers allotted to them were either fictitious or sold to others!
In another housing cooperative society which figures in the complaint submitted to the Lokayukta, the directors violated all rules in appointment of contractors/developers to favour the kin of a former BJP minister and aide of former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa as well as a member of the current cabinet headed by Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
“It is a myth that such cooperative societies are formed for the benefit of the poor and needy. We have dug up a case of one society with only 262 legitimate members awaiting allotment of sites while more than 18,500 associate members have signed on with the help of directors who demand the market price instead of subsidized rates for every available site. Most often, the directors have links with the kin of minister for cooperation or top bureaucrats. One of our complaints is against the sibling of a cooperation minister in the previous Congress government,” the activists told Deccan Chronicle.
With crores of rupees involved in each cooperative housing society, the minister for cooperation and registrar of cooperative societies drag their feet on complaints against office-bearers or suggest that members cough up extra for sites that ought to be distributed at subsidized rates.
In odd cases, the original owner of land has reneged on agreement with the directors to leave members with empty pockets and no piece of land to talk of, said the activists.
Who’s land is it anyway? While poor and middle class families pool every pie to own a site, those at the helm have been laughing all the way to the bank. Just who will get to the bottom of a scam that will put into shade the one that has rocked the “Republic of Bellary”?
Allotment or auction?
Documents available with this newspaper raise many questions on Justice Shivaraj V. Patil’s assertions that allegations on allotment of sites to himself and his wife were part of a “malicious campaign”.
For instance, the sale deed for site No. 252 acquired by Mrs Annapurna Patil (which she surrendered on September 14) in a layout carved by the Vyalikaval House Building Co-operative Society Ltd, describes her as “member of the vendor society” who has applied for “allotment of a site in the layout formed by the vendor society”.
Though the value of the site has been mentioned as Rs. 20,06,250, the sale deed does not cite details of the cheque or demand draft, a sine qua non, in such transactions.
The registration fee of Rs 2,25,100, however, has details of two demand drafts of Rs 54,550 and Rs 1,70,550 respectively, drawn on two different banks in Bengaluru.
Question: Was the site acquired through an application or auction? The sale deed for Justice Patil’s site in layout of the Karnataka State Judicial Department Employees House Building Cooperative Society, dated September 1, 1994, even lists his membership number as 1960. Such details are missing in the other sale deed.
Hot spots around Bengaluru
Vyalikaval House Building co-operative Society had proposed four housing projects in the city:
1. Laggere near Peenya
2. Nagavara, Kasaba Hobli
3. Binnamangala
4. Kempapura Agrahara
Hundreds of members of this society are still awaiting allotment of sites whereas some have approached courts for redressal. But VIPs have cornered bulk of the sites.

40.74 crore people below poverty line, apex court told

2011-09-20T23:01:00.001-07:00

New Delhi: The Planning Commission Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the below poverty line (BPL) population in the country is 40.74 crore and the poverty line for the urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs.965 per capita per month (around Rs.32 per day) and Rs.781 per capita per month (around Rs.26 per day), respectively.

The Planning Commission in an affidavit said that the BPL population at present touched by the public distribution services (PDS) was 35.98 crore.
"If the Tendulkar (committee) poverty ratio for 2004/05 is applied to the projected population of the Registrar General of India as on March 1, 2005, the total BPL population would be 40.74 crore," the affidavit said.
The poverty estimates for year 2009-10 were being worked out and the "provisional estimates suggest that the total BPL population as per 2009-10 estimation may be lower than that which would have emerged (on the basis) of Tendulkar ratio on 2004-05 projection", it said.
The Planning Commission filed the affidavit in pursuance of the May 14 order of the apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma, which said that according to the expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar at the price level of 2011, it was impossible for an individual in urban and rural area to consume 2,100 calories in Rs.20 and Rs.15, respectively.

The bench's order asked the Planning Commission to "revise norms of per capita amount looking at the price index of May 2011 or any subsequent dates".
The affidavit said that on applying price increase using the consumer price index for industrial workers in urban areas and the consumer price index for agricultural labourers for rural areas, "the poverty line at June 2011 price level can be placed provisionally at Rs.965 per capita per month in urban areas and Rs.781 per capita per month in rural areas."
"At June 2011 price level, for a family of five, this provisional poverty line would amount to Rs.4,824 per month in urban areas and Rs.3,905 per month in rural areas," the affidavit said.
The affidavit said that the final poverty line following the Tendulkar Committee ratio would only be available after completion of the 2011-12 National Sample Survey (NSS) and this would vary from state to state because of price differential.

Flying Machine's new advertisement draws controversy

2011-09-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

Women rights activists have denounced the new Flying Machine advertisement calling it outrageous and vulgar.

NEW DELHI It was meant to transport the brand into the consciousness of India's youth, but a new advertisement by Flying Machine has flown into a storm of controversy instead. A welcome controversy!

One of India's early home-grown jeans brands, Flying Machine, over the weekend, released a print advertisement that shows the picture of a female model wearing tight fit jeans around her buttocks, with the catchline in big, bold font screaming: 'What an Ass!' It was probably meant to highlight the oomph and cool quotient in an old brand, perhaps even mimic the edginess of the 'All asses were not created equal' tagline in an advertisement last year by larger rival Levi Strauss & Co. While the jury is out on whether Flying Machine's latest campaign has found resonance with the cool set, the advertisement is generating heat in some quarters.

Women rights activists are certainly not amused. "It's outrageous and vulgar," says women rights activist and director of Centre for Social Research Ranjana Kumari. "Such sexually suggestive and titillating advertisements are responsible for creating the image of women as sex objects." Kumari plans to take up the matter with the National Commission for Women and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

However, Flying Machine, owned by Ahmedabad-based Arvind Mills, the world's fourth-largest producer of denim and a supplier to some of the biggest brands in the planet, does not find anything vulgar in the ad. "There is a sensational headline," says Alok Dubey, chief operating officer of the youth, denim and sportswear division of Arvind Lifestyle Brands. "But if you read the headline and body copy harmoniously, there is humour."

Dubey says the Flying Machine advertisement reflects a strong attitude of a mature and aware girl who "doesn't care about those who mock her existence or physicality".

Ankit Fadia, a 26-year-old who acquired fame and fortune after he published a book on ethical hacking at the age of 15, also can't seem to understand why there is so much fuss around the advertisement. "This is modern India and women dress up the way they want to," says Fadia, adding that this advertisement is not at all vulgar when compared with the kind of advertisements aired on TV and what appears in movies.

Fadia is one of Flying Machine's brand ambassadors along with cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan. Some branding experts say the advertisement was designed to be controversial, with the ensuing brouhaha aimed at making it a talking point that could improve the product's visibility.

"Once a familiar brand, Flying Machine is now trying hard to get back into public consciousness," says Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer of ad agency BBDO India. "Sensationalism makes even a small-size ad look bigger."

Branding expert and CEO of brand consultancy firm Brand-comm, Ramanujam Sridhar, says: "Young would love it, activists would hate it, but nobody can ignore it."

In Arvind's case, given what is at stake - India's denimwear market, according to Technopak Advisors, is expected to double to Rs 14,000 crore by 2015 from around Rs 7,000 crore last year - any controversy can only be good for business.

In a nation of more than a billion people, over 70% of whom are less than 35 years old and fast westernising, branding experts say Flying Machine, whose tagline is 'I'm Sexy When I Am Me', knows too well it needs a new, edgy language if it has to connect effectively with this demographic.

It's not the only one using what can be considered provocative language. A host of marketers are pushing the envelope of decency with edgy advertisements these days, hoping to stand apart from other competing products and nursing hopes that some controversy can yield collateral benefits.

A very fine line separates the sensational from the vulgar, and campaigns that fall in the latter category have found themselves on the wrong side of public decency - and with it, law. Recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting cracked the whip on some men's deodorant commercials for being overtly sexual and against good taste and decency because they depicted women as sex-starved.

Flying Machine must wish its latest ad is viewed as firmly in the first category, becoming the news while appearing between it.