Opposition, pro-government groups demonstrate in Venezuela
Tens of thousands of people — both opponents and supporters of the government of President Nicolas Maduro — demonstrated on Saturday in the Venezuelan capital.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a rival politician defeated by Mr. Maduro in last year’s presidential election, said there were millions of reasons to protest, but he demanded that the demonstrations remain peaceful.
The government shouldn’t be given an excuse for repression, said Mr. Capriles, who was accompanied by Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.
Elsewhere in the city Defence Minister Carmen Melendez led a demonstration of women sympathetic to the government.
“The women are in the streets as patriots of peace,” said Mr. Melendez.
Mr. Maduro on Saturday called for a “national conference for peace” involving all societal groups to take place on Wednesday in order to stop the violence. However, he did not expressly invite the opposition to participate.
In response to a statement issued by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr. Maduro said Venezuela is to be respected, adding “Yankee go home.” Mr. Kerry had expressed concern over the situation in the South American country and accused the government of using force against peaceful demonstrations.
The deaths on Saturday of two people involved in anti-government protests brought to 10 the number of people killed since the unrust began last week.
A student allegedly shot in the face by military police on Wednesday succumbed to her injuries, the student’s doctors reported. The other death reported Saturday occurred in Caracas when a man drove a motorcycle into barbed wire stretched across a street by demonstrators, Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said.
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AAP targets top politicians
Launching his party’s Lok Sabha election campaign, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday named several leaders across the political spectrum who, according to him, represent “corrupt, criminal and dynastic politics.”
Inaugurating the opening session of the AAP’s National Council meeting here, Mr. Kejriwal read out a list which included Suresh Kalmadi, Sushilkumar Shinde, Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, M. Veerappa Moily, Pawan Kumar Bansal, G.K. Vasan, Tarun Gogoi, Naveen Jindal, Anu Tandon and Avtaar Singh Bhadana (all Congress); Nitin Gadkari, B.S. Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar and Anurag Thakur (all BJP); Mulayam Singh (SP); Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel (both NCP); M.K. Alagiri, Kanimozhi and A. Raja (all DMK); H.D. Kumaraswamy (JD-S); Jaganmohan Reddy(YSR Congress); Mayawati (BSP) and Farooq Abdullah (National Conference).
The AAP, he vowed, would put up candidates against each of them in the Lok Sabha election.
The Delhi Chief Minister also took a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for spending over “Rs.500 crore on branding” and an image-building exercise.
“Can these people who are spending so much for branding themselves provide an honest government? The expensive branding of these leaders will not only fuel inflation after they come to power, they will recover the money from us, tax-payers,” he said.
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U.N. chief meets Fidel Castro
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday met Fidel Castro in Havana for a conversation that ranged from climate change to the civil war in Syria, and said he criticized Cuba’s human rights problems.
Mr. Ban, who is in Cuba for a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, met with the former Cuban leader for 55 minutes, the U.N. chief’s office said.
Their talk touched on the troubles in Syria, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the statement said. They discussed food security, climate change and nuclear proliferation.
Mr. Ban later told reporters that he also criticised the Communist-run nation on human rights.
“I emphasized the importance of playing a greater role in enhancing human rights, and providing spaces for people’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association, and the cases of arbitrary detention occurring in Cuba,” Mr. Ban said in Havana.
“I sincerely hope that the Cuban government will continue working with the international community to enhance further the human rights,” he added.
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Devotees crowd Sabarimala on the eve of Makarajyoti
Devotees in thousands are camping at Sabarimala and the surrounding hills to worship the celestial star Makarajyoti that appears on the eastern horizon of the Sannidhanam as well as the ‘deeparadhana’, Makaravilakku, performed atop Ponnambalamedu on the Makaravilakku day on Tuesday.
The faithful are occupying the forests surrounding the Sannidhanam, Pampa Hilltop, Attathode, and Nilackal.
Almost all vantage points at the Sannidhanam have been occupied by the pilgrims so that they could get a trouble-free view of the deeparadhana performed at Ponnambalamedu in the twilight hours of Tuesday.
The pilgrims are camping in makeshift tents pitched at Paandithavalom, Appachimedu, Marakkoottom, Urakkuzhy, and Malikappuram for the past two days. Many carried cooking gas, provisions, and vegetables for preparing food on their own, disregarding the Forest Department’s plea not to cook food in the open to avert fire outbreaks.
The Makarasankrama puja will be performed at the Ayyappa temple at 1.14 p.m. on Tuesday, chief priest (Tantri) Kandararu Maheswararu said. The Neyyabhishekom offering to the presiding deity will be performed with the ghee brought from the Kowdiar palace in Thiruvananthapuram. The deeparadhana at Ponnambalamedu, a remote hill in the shola forests facing the Sannidhanam, will be performed soon after the deeparadhana at the Ayyappa temple at 6.30 p.m.
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Snowden exposés ‘lethal’ to U.S. forces: Congressman
A lawmaker here has warned that the actions of Edward Snowden, whistleblower and former National Security Agency contractor could have “lethal consequences” for U.S. troops in places like Afghanistan because, he added, “The vast majority of the material was related to the Defence Department.”
Discussing a classified Pentagon report that concluded that Mr. Snowden, now living in Russia with temporary asylum, downloaded 1.7 million intelligence files, Republican and House intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Mike Rogers said, “This report confirms my greatest fears - Snowden's real acts of betrayal place America's military men and women at greater risk.”
Although Mr. Rogers added that Mr. Snowden’s actions could have “lethal consequences for our troops in the field,” the whistleblower’s supporters said that U.S. officials were exaggerating the impact of the disclosures.
Reports quoted American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wizner, an adviser to Mr. Snowden saying, “This is straight from the government's playbook… Remember, the government told the Supreme Court that publication of the Pentagon Papers would cause grave damage to national security. That was not true then, and this report is not true now.”
However, Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, argued that Mr. Snowden “handed terrorists a copy of our country's playbook and now we are paying the price… We have begun to see terrorists changing their methods because of the leaks and this report indicates that the harm to our country and its citizens will only continue to endure."
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Arctic air eases grip on much of the US
An arctic blast eased its grip on much of the U.S. on Wednesday, with winds calming and the weather warming slightly a day after temperature records some more than a century—old shattered up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
In Atlanta, where a record low of 6 degrees Fahrenheit (—14 Celsius) hit early Tuesday, fountains froze over, a 200—foot (60—meter) Ferris wheel shut down and Southerners had to dig out winter coats, hats and gloves they almost never have to use. It shouldn’t take too long to thaw out, though. The forecast Wednesday was sunny and 42 degrees (5 Celsius).
In the Midwest and East, where brutal polar air has lingered over the past few days, temperatures climbed but were still expected to be below freezing.
In Indianapolis, Timolyn Johnson—Fitzgerald returned to her home after spending the night in a shelter with her three children because they lost power to their apartment. The water lines were working, but much of the food she bought in preparation for the storm was ruined from a combination of thawing and then freezing during the outage.
“All my eggs were cracked, the cheese and milk was frozen. And the ice cream had melted and then refroze. It’s crazy, but we’re just glad to be back home,” she said.
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Kejriwal seeks 10 days to set up system to address grievances
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday sought 10 days time to formulate a system to address grievances and problems of the people in Delhi.
He said that he would accept the applications of the people visiting him only after a system is in place.
“I don’t want to give you false assurances. I will take the application when we put a system in place to resolve the problems,” he said.
He assured the visitors, who gathered in large numbers at his residence, that he needed the support of the people to establish such a system and without their backing, he would not be able resolve issues.
“We have just assumed power. It will take us sometime, seven to ten days to put a system in place to resolve your problems,” he said, addressing a gathering which included DTC employees and people from the Valmiki community.
Contractual employees of DTC and municipal corporations had come to put forward their demand to end the contract system in these bodies. They also wanted that those working for several years should be made permanent.
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African leaders in South Sudan for peace talks
The leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia arrived in South Sudan on Thursday to try and mediate between the country’s President and the political rivals he accuses of attempting a coup that the government insists sparked violence that has threatened to destroy the world’s newest country.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will meet with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir later on Thursday, said Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth.
World leaders have urged the country’s leaders to stop the violence in which thousands are feared killed. The United States, Norway and Ethiopia are leading efforts to open peace talks between Kiir and his political rivals. Mr. Kiir said in a Christmas address that he is willing to “dialogue” with all his opponents.
The United Nations is investigating reports of mass killings since violence began spreading across South Sudan after a fight among the presidential guards on December 15, pitting soldiers from Mr. Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group against those from the Nuer ethnic group of former vice-president Riek Machar.
South Sudan’s top U.N. humanitarian official, Toby Lanzer, said on Monday that he believes the death toll has surpassed 1,000.
Mr. Leuth, the Information Minister, said the government has not yet established formal contact with Mr. Machar, who has been accused of leading what the government insists was a failed coup plot, because “the rebel” was expected to first renounce violence.
“For us, we are not talking with him,” he said, referring to Mr. Machar, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Government troops are trying to retake control of Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, from forces loyal to Mr. Machar. There was also reported fighting overnight in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state, according to Mr. Lueth.
Upper Nile and Unity comprise the country’s key oil-producing region, raising fears unrest there could cut off the country’s economic lifeblood. South Sudan gets nearly 99 per cent of its government budget from oil revenues.
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Greenpeace activists get visa to leave Russia
Russian authorities on Thursday issued visas to seven of 30 members of a Greenpeace ship crew that allows them to leave the country after dropping criminal charsges against them over a protest outside an Arctic oil rig.
Greenpeace said other foreign members of the crew were expected to get their exit visas soon.
The 30 people were arrested in September following a protest outside a Russian oil rig in the Arctic and spent two months in jail before they were granted bail in November.
Greenpeace said Anthony Perrett of Britain was the first to get the visa in his passport Thursday.
“This was the final step,” Mr. Perrett said in a statement released by the group. “I’ll be leaving for home in Wales as soon as possible now, extremely proud of what I did three months ago. We took peaceful action to defend a part of the world that is the heartbeat of our climate.”
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Better ties with India top priority: Pak
Described the meeting of the DGMOs of the two countries as a “positive step forward”, Pakistan on Thursday said better relations with India is a top priority.
“This meeting is a positive step forward,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said about the December 24 meet between the Directors General of Military Operations to address tensions on the Line of Control (LoC).
The DGMOs had “agreed on the need to maintain peace and tranquillity on the LoC and to stay in touch with each other over (their) hotline”, she told reporters during a weekly news briefing.
Military officials would hold regular flag meetings so that “incidents are not allowed to blow up and they are controlled at the local level”, she said.
Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, separately said that improving relations with India is a top priority.
Positive developments had taken place in the past few months as a result of efforts made by the government, he said.
The government is now devising a national security policy to ensure friendly ties with neighbouring countries, he added.
Ms Aslam said the meeting of the DGMOs, agreed on by Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif in September, was held in a cordial atmosphere. The military officials have also been speaking to each other on their hotline.
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A museum to showcase the rich traditions of Ayurveda
A museum that will display the evolution of Ayurveda will be opened soon at Thaikkattussery, near here.
On December 27, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President, will inaugurate the museum, which will showcase the rich traditions of Ayurveda, its evolution through millennia and the contribution of Ayurveda acharyas.
“A library of ancient scriptures, reference books, a 3D gallery traversing through the history of Ayurveda are preserved in their natural settings,” said Astavaidyan E.T. Narayanan Mooss, who supervised the setting up of the museum.
The exhibits in the museum have been divided into various sections, which include display of authoritative texts on Ayurveda, description of various ancient practices of black magic, study of Vedas, Yaagas and Yajnas, Gurukula system, Rasasalas or pharmacies of ancient times, pulse diagnosing and various researches in Ayurveda, said Mr. Narayanan Mooss.
An exclusive section is dedicated to Susrutha, who is considered as the father of surgery.
Practice of surgery
Acharya Susrutha effectively used natural medicines to reduce pain and sterilise surgical instruments and wounds.
He used special techniques to anesthetise the patients before surgery.
Detailed descriptions about various branches of Ayurveda such as Kayachikitsa (general medicine), Balachikitsa (paediatrics), Graha Chikitsa (psychiatry), Oordhvanga Chikitsa (ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngiology), Salya chikitsa (surgery), Damshtra Chikitsa (clinical toxicology), Jara Chikitsa (rejuvenation therapy ) and Vrusha Chikitsa (reproductive medicine) are on display at the museum.
A 3-D gallery is set up to show various pictures connected with varied forms of treatment.
A picture gallery and a collection of specimen of more than 300 medicinal plants depicting their medicinal property are also displayed.
A library comprising a vast collection of ancient literatures, scriptures and manuscripts from traditional Ayurveda, including the ones used by the Ashtavaidyas, are preserved in this section.
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Mass spectrometry: the most important analytical tool of modern times
Mass spectrometry (MS), arguably the most important analytical spectroscopic tool of modern times, is in its centenary year in 2013 along with two other celebrated discoveries of science, the Bohr atom model and the chemical bond of G. N. Lewis; both have profound connections to the first.
Sir J.J. Thomson, a Nobel Laureate, also known for the discovery of electrons, built the first rudimentary mass spectrometer in 1913 (it was built earlier, but a full description appeared in this year) which identified the existence of isotopes — atoms differing in mass but having the same atomic number and therefore occupying the same position in the periodic table (‘isos’ is equal and ‘topos’ is place, in Greek).
His student, Aston, who built more mass spectrometers, expanded the discipline, identified 212 of the 287 naturally occurring isotopes and became the first Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in the area. Five Nobel Prizes have been awarded to MS pioneers.
Mass spectrometry is a way to measure the mass of ions — electrically charged species, derived from atoms or molecules. In the preface of his celebrated book, Rays of Positive Electricity and Their Application to Chemical Analyses (1913) Thomson stated, “I feel sure that there are many problems in Chemistry which could be solved with far greater ease by this than by any other method. The method is surprisingly sensitive — more so even than that of Spectrum Analysis, requires an infinitesimal amount of material, and does not require this to be specially purified…”. The words were prophetic. Today, there is no single area of experimental science where mass spectroscopy is not being used. There is no university or research institution in the developed world without a mass spectrometer; this may even be said about India.
The technique is used to explore the chemical constitution of molecules from this planet and beyond, e.g. the hydrocarbon “seas” of Saturn’s moon Titan.
It is used to understand the fundamental atomic and molecular processes and at the same time those of immediate relevance to events within cells. As a technique, it helps to control processes in chemical and biological industries, diagnose diseases, discover new drugs, protect the environment and explore mysteries of nature.
In 100 years, it has been used to separate much of the uranium 235 used to make the Little Boy (the bomb that was dropped onto Hiroshima in 1945), led to understanding of thousands of chemical reactions, to the discovery of new molecules, to the resolution of protein structures, to solve crimes and to provide answers to complex questions of nature.
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‘West abandoning regime change project in Syria’
The wheels of a western-backed “regime change” project in Syria appear to be falling off as members of opposition signal that President Bashar Assad may be allowed to stay in power and even contest elections in future to steer the country’s political transition.
Reuters is quoting a member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) as saying that the group was told in a recent meeting in London of the Friends of Syria — an anti-Assad alliance — that next month’s talks in Geneva may not lead to President Assad’s removal.
On the contrary, Mr. Assad will be a key a player in any transitional administration, and could even run for elections next year. “Our Western friends made it clear in London that Assad cannot be allowed to go now because they think chaos and an Islamist militant takeover would ensue,” Reuters quoted a senior member of the coalition who is close to Saudi Arabian officials, as saying.
He added: “Some do not even seem to mind if he runs again next year, forgetting he gassed his own people.” President Assad’s current term ends in 2014, when fresh presidential elections may take place.
Analysts point out that, if confirmed, acceptance of President Assad’s centrality in Syria’s transition will mark a dramatic turnaround in the “regime change” policy adopted by the West and their Gulf partners soon after the Syrian uprising commenced in March 2011.
The turnaround in position has apparently been triggered by the growing dominance of al-Qaeda affiliated groups, hostile to any negotiations, within the broad spectrum of the Syrian opposition. The preference for a political rather than a military solution to the crisis became perceptible after Syria decided to eliminate its chemical weapon stockpiles-a move that was followed by a joint initiative by Moscow and Washington to back Geneva peace talks.
The assertion of armed extremists peaked earlier this month when Salim Idris, the commander of the so-called “moderate” Free Syrian Army (FSA) was forced to flee Syria for Qatar after the “Islamic Front” — a militant organisation — took over his group’s bases and warehouses along the border with Turkey. The incident that brought into sharp focus the power struggle between the FSA and al-Qaeda affiliates persuaded the United States to suspend “non-lethal” support to the FSA, fearing that the passage of this hardware may end up in the warehouses of its extremist foes.
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Historic Lokpal Bill passed
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the historic Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013, paving the way for establishment of an ombudsman to fight corruption in public offices and ensure accountability on the part of public officials, including the Prime Minister, but with some safeguards. The measure was adopted by the Elders on Tuesday.
The Bill was passed unanimously following a brief discussion as members from Seemandhra disrupted the proceedings protesting against division of Andhra Pradesh. Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena members walked out, opposing the new law.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi described the passage of the Lokpal Bill in Lok Sabha as a “historic and landmark” step to fight corruption.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said it was a remarkable achievement. “It is a historic day in India’s Parliamentary democracy,” he said in a statement.
Making a rare intervention in the House, Lok Sabha, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the passage of the Bill was a “big success” but more needed to be done to fight corruption. Supporting the Bill, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj sought to give credit to the “old man” (social activist Anna Hazare), who has been fasting for the passage of the Bill, and the people of the country, who had put pressure. She said there was a clamour to take credit for it.
Earlier, moving for the passage of the Bill, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said discussion had taken place over the past two years both inside and outside the House. However, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said the law Bill would bring government work to a halt as officials would be afraid of carrying out their duties.
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China’s lunar probe leaves trace on moon
China’s first lunar probe on Sunday successfully separated from the lander and left deep trace on its loose soil, hours after the communist giant carried out the world’s first soft landing on the lunar surface in nearly 40 years.
“China’s first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separated from the lander early on Sunday. The 140 kg six—wheeled rover touched the lunar surface at 4:35 a.m., leaving deep trace on the loose lunar soil,” state—run Xinhua news agency reported.
The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent to the earth. After the separation, the rover and lander took photos of each other and started their own scientific explorations, the report said.
At about 11:42 pm Beijing Time, the six—wheeled moon rover moved to a spot about 9 metres to the north of the lander and the photographing began, it said.
Yutu will survey the moon’s geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will conduct in—situ exploration at the landing site for one year.
China’s first lunar rover yesterday successfully landed on the moon, making the communist giant one of three world powers to make a soft landing as part of an ambitious programme that aims to put a Chinese astronaut on the moon.
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Child-friendly, first-line TB combination drugs will be available in 2016: Dr. Mel Spigelman
Dr. Mel Spigelman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in tuberculosis and TB drug development. He was instrumental in forging key organisational partnerships and building the pipeline of TB drug candidates when he was the Director of Research & Development at TB Alliance. In an email to R. Prasad, Dr. Spigelman explained the various facets of paediatric TB drug development.
Is there a greater involvement by drug companies in producing paediatric TB formulations after UNITAID provided a grant of $16.7 million and USAID also contributed funds?
The goal of the grant is to develop first-line TB treatments designed for children, in the proper doses and formulations, but also to help catalyse paediatric TB drug development among pharmaceutical companies through a variety of incentives. More accurately defining the market, clarifying the regulatory pathways for new products, and addressing barriers to entry for manufacturers are all within the scope of our work, and will help bring new partners into the field.
We’ve already engaged and entered into collaborations with interested generic manufacturers, including Svizera, which will help improve access to treatments. It’s also important to note that TB Alliance’s work under this grant will aim to reduce the lag time between adult and paediatric formulations of new drugs, accelerating the availability of new TB drugs in paediatric form. For example, we are working with Janssen to speed up the availability of the paediatric formulation of bedaquiline, which was approved for the treatment of MDR-TB in adults last year.
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Nobel winner boycotts top science journals
Leading academic journals are distorting the scientific process and represent a "tyranny" that must be broken, according to a Nobel prize winner who has declared a boycott on the publications.
Randy Schekman, a US biologist who won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine this year and receives his prize in Stockholm on Tuesday, said his lab would no longer send research papers to the top-tier journals, Nature, Cell and Science.
Dr. Schekman said pressure to publish in "luxury" journals encouraged researchers to cut corners and pursue trendy fields of science instead of doing more important work. The problem was exacerbated, he said, by editors who were not active scientists but professionals who favoured studies that were likely to make a splash.
The prestige of appearing in the major journals has led the Chinese Academy of Sciences to pay successful authors the equivalent of $30,000. Some researchers made half of their income through such "bribes", Dr. Schekman said in an interview.
Writing in the Guardian, Dr. Schekman raises serious concerns over the journals' practices and calls on others in the scientific community to take action.
"I have published in the big brands, including papers that won me a Nobel Prize. But no longer," he writes. "Just as Wall Street needs to break the hold of bonus culture, so science must break the tyranny of the luxury journals."
Dr. Schekman is the editor of eLife, an online journal set up by the Wellcome Trust. Articles submitted to the journal - a competitor to Nature, Cell and Science - are discussed by reviewers who are working scientists and accepted if all agree. The papers are free for anyone to read.
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Kerry, Congress spar over Iran nuclear deal
The Obama administration and Congress clashed on Tuesday over the historic nuclear deal with Iran, exposing deep rifts over a U.S. pledge to refrain from any new sanctions over the next six months in exchange for concessions on enriching uranium. The disagreement could have broad consequences for the U.S. diplomatic effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
In his first congressional testimony since last month’s Geneva agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the diplomacy as having halted and rolled back central elements of Iran’s nuclear program for the first time. He pleaded with Democrats and Republicans alike not to scuttle the chances of a peaceful resolution to a crisis that has regularly featured U.S. and Israeli threats of potential military action.
“Let me be very clear. This is a very delicate diplomatic moment and we have a chance to address peacefully one of the most pressing national security concerns that the world faces today,” Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We’re at a crossroads. We’re at one of those really hinge points in history. One path could lead to an enduring resolution in the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. The other path could lead to continued hostility and potentially to conflict.”
Mr. Kerry’s appearance came as lawmakers increasingly threatened to undermine the six-month interim pact, which gives Iran $7 billion in sanctions relief over the next half-year in exchange for the Islamic republic’s neutralizing its higher-enriched uranium stockpiles, not adding any new centrifuges and ceasing work at a heavy water reactor that potentially could produce plutonium used in nuclear weapons.
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8/12/2012
BJP gets absolute majority in Rajasthan Assembly
Inflicting a crushing defeat on ruling Congress, BJP on Sunday got an absolute majority in the 200-member
Rajasthan Assembly, winning 121 out of 145 seats results for which have been declared so far.
Election officials said that till 1600 hours BJP won 121 seats, Congress 14, Independents 5, while other parties
and NPP got 2 each. BSP has won from one seat.
State BJP president and party’s chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje won from Jhalarpatan defeating
Congress candidate Meenakshi Chandrawat with a margin of 60,896.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot won Sardarpura seat by defeating his nearest rival Shambhusingh Khetasar
of BJP by a margin of 18,478 votes.
Mohammed Iqbal reports from Jaipur
Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 83 out of the 199 seats which went to polls, while its
candidates won in 73 constituencies in the results declared by Sunday afternoon.
State BJP president Vasundhara Raje was declared winner in Jhalrapatan, while Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand
Kataria registered a decisive victory in Udaipur.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was leading in his home constituency Sardarpura in Jodhpur, even as his government
was decimated.
The BJP’s strong return in the State and the defeat of Congress was beyond the expectation of political observers
and defied all political calculations. Congress was ahead in 15 constituencies and had won nine seats in the
results available by the afternoon.
Prominent among the Congress leaders who were trounced in the polls were Ministers Shanti Dhariwal (Kota
North), Hemaram Chaudhary (Gudhamalani), Aimduddin Ahmed Khan (Tijara), Bina Kak (Sumerpur) and Naseem
Akhtar Insaaf (Pushkar), while Finance Commission Chairman B. D. Kalla lost the Bikaner seat.
The National People’s Party brought to the State by Dausa MP Kirorilal Meena also depicted a lead in five
constituencies, which included Lalsot, where Mr. Meena himself is contesting, and Mahuwa, where her wife and
former Minister in the Ashok Gehlot government Golma Devi is the party candidate.
Bahujan Samaj Party was leading at three seats.
With the results in the party’s favour coming in, BJP activists started celebrations at the State headquarters and
burst firecrackers. The Pradesh Congress Committee headquarter, on the other hand, wore a forlorn look.
Mr. Gehlot attributed the defeat of Congress to “negative campaign” by BJP and said the ruling party had failed to
convince the voters about the development it had carried out in the State. He said Ms. Raje had sought votes in
the name of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and tried to create a wave in his favour.
Speaking to journalists, Mr. Gehlot said the people had voted on the basis of an undercurrent, which could not be
countered. “Our welfare schemes provided real benefits to the people. The BJP could not compare the works in its
previous rule with our achievements. It [only] created an incorrect impression among the voters.”
Mr. Gehlot has sought an appointment with Governor Margaret Alva at Raj Bhavan, where he is likely to submit
his resignation.
Ms. Raje, who was in Banswara to worship at the historic Tripura Sundari temple, was scheduled to return to
Jaipur in the evening.
She thanked the people of the State for giving a decisive mandate in favour of BJP and said Mr. Modi was an
“important factor” responsible for the party’s impressive show in the State.
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Most distant orbiting planet discovered
Astronomers have discovered the most distantly orbiting planet to date, weighing in at 11 times Jupiter’s mass and revolving its host star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance.
The discovery of the giant planet has puzzled the astronomers, effectively throwing a wrench in planet formation theories.
An international team of astronomers, led by a University of Arizona graduate student, discovered the planet HD 106906 b around a Sun-like star.
“This system is especially fascinating because no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see,” said Vanessa Bailey, who led the research.
It is thought that planets close to their stars, like Earth, coalesce from small asteroid-like bodies born in the primordial disk of dust and gas that surrounds a forming star.
However, this process acts too slowly to grow giant planets far from their star, researchers said.
Another proposed mechanism is that giant planets can form from a fast, direct collapse of disk material. However, primordial disks rarely contain enough mass in their outer reaches to allow a planet like HD 106906 b to form.
“A binary star system can be formed when two adjacent clumps of gas collapse more or less independently to form stars, and these stars are close enough to each other to exert a mutual gravitation attraction and bind them together in an orbit,” Ms. Bailey said.
According to Bailey, the mass ratio of the two stars in a binary system is typically no more than 10-to-1.
“In our case, the mass ratio is more than 100-to-1,” she said.
“This extreme mass ratio is not predicted from binary star formation theories - just like planet formation theory predicts that we cannot form planets so far from the host star,” Ms. Bailey said.
This system is also of particular interest because researchers can still detect the remnant “debris disk” of material left over from planet and star formation.
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4/12/2013
Mars spacecraft crosses sphere of influence of Earth
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission notched up another achievement at 1.14 a.m. on Wednesday when the spacecraft to the Red Planet crossed the sphere of influence (SOI) of the Earth, traversing beyond 9.25 lakh km. The SOI of the Earth extends to about 9.25 lakh km from it. The spacecraft is now into the sun-centric orbit proper.
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Deviprasad Karnik, spokesperson, Indian Space Research Organisation, said, “This is the first time that any Indian spacecraft has crossed this distance. It has entered the interplanetary regime now. It has entered the sun-centric orbit.”
The spacecraft crossed the SOI of the Earth around 1.14 a.m. Wednesday, exactly 72 hours after it was slung out of its Earth-bound orbit on Sunday.
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India’s Mars spacecraft will now coast around the sun for the next 300 days before it has its rendezvous with Mars on September 24, 2014.
Around 00.49 hours on Sunday, ISRO fired the spacecraft’s propulsion system for 23 minutes. At the end of the 23 minutes of ignition of this propulsion system, called 440 Newton engine, the Mars spacecraft was catapulted out of its Earth-bound orbit towards the sun-centric phase.BR>
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RBI reference rate for US dollar, euro
The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday fixed the reference rate of rupee against US dollar at 62.3330 and the euro at 84.6848 as against 62.3443 and 84.4570 on Tuesday.
In a press release issued by RBI, the exchange rates for the pound and yen against the rupee were quoted at 102.1825 and 60.77 per 100 yen, based on reference rates for the dollar and cross-currency quotes at noon.
The reference rate is based on the noon rates of select banks here and the SDR-Rupee rate would be based on this rate, the release added.
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Rupee trims initial losses, still down by 3 paise
The rupee trimmed initial losses against the American currency, but was quoted still lower by 3 paise to 62.39 on mild dollar demand from banks and importers.
The rupee resumed lower at 62.40 per dollar as against the last closing level of 62.36 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and dropped further to 62.55 on good dollar demand from banks.
However, it recovered immediately to 62.37 per dollar before quoting at 62.39 at 1040hrs.
It hovered in a range of 62.37-62.55 per dollar during the morning session.
In the global market, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell sharply in early trade as the yen regained some lost ground, while the Australian dollar tumbled after the country’s disappointing third-quarter growth data.
The tone for Asia was cautious as regional markets dropped ahead of the November labour report from the US, due to be out on Friday -- a much-watched indicator used to gauge whether the Federal Reserve will start to roll back its bond-buying programme.
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3/12/2013
Nuclear deal with Japan on the anvil
Japan has said the main purpose of Emperor Akihito’s ongoing visit to India was to add more ballast to the bilateral relationship.
One of the elements that would add greater depth to the ties would be a civil nuclear agreement. “We are close to a bilateral deal on the peaceful use of nuclear energy,’’ said senior Japanese diplomats accompanying the Emperor, who is on a six-day visit to India.
India and Japan share the goal of total elimination of nuclear weapons and Parliaments of both countries pay tributes to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But a section of Japanese opinion, including senior Ministers, wants India to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India has been averse to this idea and wants to sign a civil nuclear deal with Japan on the basis of its existing strong anti-proliferation credentials.
“We are touched by the gesture of your Parliament paying tribute every year to Japanese victims of the nuclear bomb. Japanese people have strong feelings about nuclear weapons, but this aspect is not known to our people,’’ conceded an official.
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China ready for space cooperation with India
China, which successfully launched its first ever mission to land an unmanned spacecraft on the Moon, has expressed interest in space cooperation with India which has sent its first interplanetary mission to Mars.
The probe Chang’e-3 was launched into orbit on Monday night aboard an enhanced 56.4 meter high Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre.
The launch came a day after India’s Mars orbiter Mangalyaan left the Earth for a 300-day journey to the Red Planet.
Chinese space scientists are looking forward to cooperation with other countries, including the country’s close neighbour India, state-run Xinhua news agency said in a report on the successful launch of China’s lunar probe.
Li Benzheng, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of China’s lunar programme, told media earlier that China’s space exploration does not aim at competition.
“We are open in our lunar programme, and cooperation from other countries is welcome. We hope to explore and use space for more resources to promote human development,” the Xinhua report quoted him as saying.
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CAD to remain within limit: Chidambaram
Encouraged by better-than-expected growth in the July-September quarter, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Monday, expressed confidence that the economy would expand by 5 per cent, and the fiscal and current account deficits would remain within limits, notwithstanding the present stress.
“We are going through a period of stress, but there is a ground for optimism... We hope things will become better in the second half of the current fiscal (2013-14). We hope to achieve a growth rate of 5 per cent,” he told reporters.
Mr. Chidambaram based his optimism on several factors such as improvement in the current account deficit (CAD), output of the services sector and recovery of exports.
The Reserve Bank of India data showed on Monday that decline in gold imports and turnaround in exports helped narrow CAD sharply to $5.2 billion, or 1.2 per cent of GDP, in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal.
“We are satisfied with 4.8 per cent growth in Q2 versus 4.4 per cent in Q1 (April-June). We are looking forward to better performance in Q3 and Q4,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
The economic growth had slipped to decade’s low of 5 per cent in 2012-13, and during the first quarter of the current fiscal, it was 4.4 per cent.
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2/12/2013
Mars spacecraft cruising towards sun-centric orbit
With India’s spacecraft to Mars slung out of its earth-bound orbit early in the morning of December 1 and its cruising towards the sun-centric orbit, its 300-day voyage to the Red Planet has begun. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) accomplished this tricky manoeuvre called Trans-Mars Injection (TMI) of the spacecraft by giving commands to the spacecraft’s propulsion system to start firing at 00.49 hours Sunday (December 1). The propulsion system came up with a cameo performance for 23 minutes, imparting the required velocity to the spacecraft, which was catapulted out of its earth-bound orbit into the sun-centric phase. Eight control thrusters on board also erupted into life, aiding the propulsion system to give the needed velocity to the spacecraft. “The spacecraft is now on course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around the Sun,” said an ISRO statement. The orbiter is now in a hyperbolic orbit and it will escape from the sphere of influence (SOI) of the Earth around 1.15 a.m. of December 4. The SOI of the Earth extends to about 9.25 lakh km from the Earth.
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‘No China factor in Emperor’s visit’
Japan has sought to put across the message that Emperor Akihito’s ongoing visit has the singular aim of
improving bilateral ties with India rather than trying to counter China with whom it has sovereignty issues over a
chain of islands in East China Sea.
“The difference in Japan’s ties with China and its ties with India is staggering. This visit gives us another moment
of proximity with India,’’ said veteran diplomat Sakutaro Tanino, who is accompanying the Emperor and was
Japan’s Ambassador both in Delhi and Beijing. In order to dissipate that impression, the Emperor’s banquet
speech on Monday is unlikely to have any reference to China.
Mr. Tanino gave some indicators – Japanese visitors to India were 1.9 lakh compared to over 36 lakh to China;
only 541 Indian students study in Japan, compared to over 86,000 Chinese; there are only 7,000 Japanese
residents in India, against 1.5 lakhs in China; 18,000 Indian students are learning Japanese, compared to 8.27
lakh in China; and there are 26 flight connections a week Japan and India against 668 between Japan and China.
“The ratio of Japan’s engagement with India and China is 1:30 or 1:50 on most counts,’’ he pointed out while
admitting to ongoing difficulties in ties with China. “There should be some good mechanism to ensure something
untoward won’t happen in the sea and particularly in the air. We have good agreements with Russia and South
Korea. We were negotiating a similar mechanism to take care of the crises,’’ he said while acknowledging that
nationalist sentiments in the media on both sides will make the problem tough to resolve.
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HIV prevalence rate comes down in Kerala
From being a death sentence, HIV/AIDS has now evolved as a chronic yet manageable disease, with early and effective treatment utilising anti-retroviral drugs.
Thus, even as the State continues to focus on the goal of preventing new HIV infections in the general population, the major challenge in the coming years would be ensuring continued care and support services for those who are surviving with the infection.
“Kerala’s HIV prevalence rate has further come down, from last year’s 0.19 per cent to 0.12 per cent this year. The total estimated number of those living with HIV in the State is 25,090. We have achieved almost zero transmission of the infection from mother to child; the infection among those groups considered to be high-risk is also coming down because of our intensive programmes. But high-risk behaviour of those in the general population has been resulting in new infections,” a senior official working in the area of HIV/AIDS said.
“Our focus will soon shift exclusively to the issues faced by those living with HIV because the anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has made it possible for them to live normal lives.
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1/12/2013
Banks can pay interest at shorter intervals
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to pay interest on rupee savings and term deposits at intervals shorter than quarterly intervals.
Since banks are functioning on core banking platform, the RBI has decided to let banks decide on the periodicity of interest payment on rupee savings and term deposits.
The RBI move, it is suggested, may set off intense competition among banks to woo deposits.
A circular dated November 4, 2000 advised banks to pay interest on savings and term deposits at quarterly or longer rests. “As banks are functioning on core banking platform, it has been decided to review the above instructions. Accordingly, banks will now have the option to pay interest on rupee savings and term deposits at intervals shorter than quarterly intervals,’’ the RBI said.
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Mars orbiter poised for final toss off Earth on Sunday
ndia’s Mars orbiter is all set to bid farewell to Earth and begin its long journey to the Red Planet in the early
hours of Sunday.
Senior scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have been gearing up over the last few days
for the second-most decisive activity to set it on course to Mars.
A success will take them a step closer to a record first sure shot at Mars by any nation — but that test would only
be in September 2014.
On Sunday at 12.49 a.m., when the 1,300-kg spacecraft will pass 268 km overhead, they must deflect it away
from Earth and thrust it out tangentially on the planned path to Mars. They have about 22.43 minutes to do so,
by firing at the engine on the spacecraft. The firing or ‘engine burn’ will raise the speed of the spacecraft and give
it the power to escape beyond Earth.
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Indian Bank cuts FCNR (B) rates
Indian Bank has revised interest rates on FCNR (B) term deposits with effect from 01.12.2013. For FCNR (B) deposits, in US Dollar, the revised interest rate has been fixed at 2.58 per cent for deposits of one year and above but less than two years (2.60% existing); at 2.39 per cent for deposits of two years and above but less than 3 years (2.44% existing); at 4.66 per cent for deposits of three years and above but less than 4 years (4.70 % existing); at 5.06 per cent for deposits of four years and above but less than 5 years (5.06 % existing) and at 5.51 per cent for deposits of five years only (5.44% existing).
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30/11/2013
Rupee falls three paise to 62.44 vs dollar
The rupee fell for the second day, dropping three paise to close at 62.44 against the dollar, amid demand for the US currency from oil refiners even as local equities firmed up on optimism about GDP data.
A weak dollar overseas and sustained capital inflows into local stocks limited the rupee’s decline, a forex dealer said.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened higher at 62.30 a dollar from the previous close of 62.41. The local currency moved in a range of 62.20 to 62.64 before settling at 62.44, a fall of three paise. Yesterday, it dropped 27 paise.
The rupee advanced for the second straight week, adding a total of 67 paise. However, the local currency fell 94 paise in November, the first monthly drop in three.
“Month-end oil-related dollar demand kept rupee under pressure. Dollar index was trading weak and was heading towards the third weekly fall in a row, taking cues from mixed economic data,” said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India).
The 30-share benchmark Sensex flared up 257 points, or 1.25 per cent, on expectations economic growth is recovering.
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India offers to train Sri Lankan Navy officers
The Indian Navy has offered to train Sri Lankan Navy officers, said a statement issued by the office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday.
The announcement followed a meeting between the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral D.K. Joshi, and Mr. Rajapaksa, which discussed important maritime issues in the Indian Ocean region.
Admiral Joshi told Mr. Rajapaksa that the Indian Navy would put Sri Lankan Navy officers through the four-year Bachelor of Technology course, now being offered to Indian Navy officers. Many countries wanted to enrol their officers in this course, but India would give Sri Lanka priority. The meeting also discussed ways of combating piracy in the Indian Ocean.
As for frequent arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly engaging in illegal fishing, Admiral Joshi and Sri Lankan Navy Commander Vice-Admiral Jayanath Colombage told the President that the two navies had always cooperated well while handling the problems faced by the fishermen of both countries.
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Amid tensions, China sends warplanes into new air defence zone
China deployed some of its most advanced fighter jets and an early warning aircraft to patrol through its newly set up Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the disputed East China Sea, officials said on Friday, even as Japan and South Korea carried out their own air patrols in defiance of China’s plan to enforce its control over the area.
“Several fighter jets” and an early warning aircraft from the People's Liberation Army’s (PLA) air force conducted "normal air patrols" through the ADIZ, said Shen Jinke, a spokesperson for the airforce. He described the deployment as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices," the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
China, on November 23, announced the setting up of the ADIZ, saying it would track aircraft through the zone and, if needed, take "emergency" defensive measures if aircraft did not notify authorities of their flight plans in advance.
Many countries have established similar zones, which are predefined areas in international airspace - beyond a country's territorial airspace which extends up to 12 nautical miles from its coastline - in which countries track aircraft for security reasons.
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GDP up, touches 4.8% in Q2
India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at the rate of 4.8 per cent during July-September 2013, according to official data released here on Friday. The rate of growth of the GDP in April-June 2013 was 4.4 per cent, a four-year low. The pick-up in the rate of growth has come from better performance of agriculture and industry.
“I don’t think at the moment we have signs of strong revival yet but I do get a picture that people think that the economy has bottomed out,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia was reported to have said on the sidelines of an event at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had used in this year’s Union Budget a GDP growth estimate of 5 per cent for 2013-14 for the purpose of pegging various targets. This includes the target set for the fiscal deficit at 4.8 per cent of the GDP. Since the GDP growth rate for the six months April-September is 4.6 per cent, it will have to be at least 5.4 per cent during October-March if India is to achieve a growth of 5 per cent in 2013-14.
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29/11/2013
‘No air defence zone near India border’
China on Thursday said there was “no question” of it establishing an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) near its border with India. It pointed out that such zones are set up only by littoral countries in international airspace.
On Saturday, China announced the setting up of its first ADIZ — an area in international airspace within which countries monitor aircraft — which extends over the disputed East China Sea islands that are at the centre of a dispute between China and Japan. The Chinese government said aircraft that enter its ADIZ — which overlaps with parts of the ADIZ set up by Japan in 1969 — will be required to notify the authorities in advance about their flight plans. Failure to do so could trigger “emergency” responses from defence forces.
Following the setting up of the East China Sea ADIZ, China has said it will establish other zones “at the right time after necessary preparations” are completed.
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World Bank slaps 11-yr ban on PCL for fraudulent practices
Progressive Constructions Ltd (PCL) was founded by Union Textiles Minister and Congress leader K Sambasiva Rao
World Bank has banned Progressive Constructions Ltd (PCL), founded by Union Textiles Minister and Congress leader K Sambasiva Rao, for at least eleven years for engaging in “fraudulent practices” in execution of three contracts for a National Highway project.
During the sanction period, which would extend to all legal entities directly or indirectly controlled by PCL, the company would not be able to work on any World Bank-financed projects, the multilateral lender said in an order.
Calls made to the PCL office in Hyderabad for their comments did not elicit any reply, while phone calls and messages sent to Mr Rao also remained unanswered. However, sources close to the Minister claimed that he has not been involved in operations of the company since 1983 and it is being run by his daughter.
According to the World Bank’s three-page order, passed on November 26 2013, PCL was found to have “engaged in sanctionable practices” in connection with the Lucknow—Muzaffarpur National Highway project.
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h3>29/11/2013
Iran invites IAEA inspectors to Arak |
Maduro vows to end ‘economic war’ with decrees, crackdown
After ordering fancy stores across the country to cut prices by more than half last week, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has now promised to put to an end the “economic war being waged against his administration”. In a dramatic move this week, the Venezuelan President was granted special powers which allow him to rule the country by decree. The legislation, known as the Ley Habilitante, or Enabling Act, would allow Mr. Maduro to bypass the country’s Congress for a year.
With inflation on the rise (54 per cent), the dollar rate going out of control and the biggest chains indulging in hoarding and over-pricing, the Venezuelan government has ordered a crackdown on private businesses and enterprises. The President has also accused his opponents of trying to destabilise his administration ahead of next month’s municipal elections.
In his first request for the special legislative powers in August, Mr. Maduro had said that he would use them to tackle corruption in Venezuela. Now, as the National Assembly has awarded him powers to rule by executive orders for a year, the President has vowed to end the “economic war” that, according to his supporters, is the real reason behind Venezuela’s growing economic crisis.
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China reiterates support to Sri Lanka on human rights
China has underlined its strong backing to Sri Lanka by calling on the international community “to respect the right of the Sri Lankan government and people to choose their own path of promoting human rights”, amid recent criticism of the country’s human rights record.
With the issue coming under renewed attention following the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, the Chinese Embassy, in a statement issued in the Sri Lankan capital on Thursday, said it was Beijing’s view that the Sri Lankan government and people “have the wisdom and capacity to deal appropriately with its internal affairs”.
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28/11/2013
Mars mission’s D-day in three days
The first Indian Mars mission began its last orbit around the Earth on Wednesday morning, even as its controllers prepared for the big night three days away.
On the night of November 30-December 1, the spacecraft will be finally thrust away from the Earth, and all the way towards the Red Planet, after gathering a total escape speed of around 11.4 kms a second.
Indian Space Research Organisation’s Scientific Secretary V. Koteswara Rao told a pre-event briefing at the control centre at the Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) on Wednesday, “We are planning for the Mars spacecraft to depart the Earth in the early hours of December 1.”
‘SECOND BIG CHALLENGE’
Dozens of controllers at the Mission Operations Complex at ISTRAC were getting set for what the space agency’s chairman, K. Radhakrishnan, earlier termed ‘the second big challenge in the Mars mission’: the day when they must precisely increase the spacecraft’s velocity and slingshot it exactly towards Mars.
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Govt to review FDI policy in pharma, housing tomorrowGovt to review FDI policy in pharma, housing tomorrow
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is taking to the Cabinet on Thursday a proposal to ban complete takeovers by foreign companies of critical lifesaving drugs production facilities. The proposal is to lower the cap for foreign direct investment (FDI) from 100 per cent to 49 per cent, subject to approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
The DIPP also wants critical pharma manufacturing to be declared a strategic sector, officials told The Hindu, just as on October 31, 2011 President Obama had through an executive order directed “the US FDA to take steps to prevent and reduce current and future disruptions in the supply of lifesaving medicines” as “last five years data indicates that the use of sterile injectable cancer treatment has increased without a corresponding increase in production capacity.”
``Our concern is that an alarming number of foreign acquirers of cancer oncology injectables and APIs manufacturing facilities over the last two years have post-takeover shut down the manufacturing units and R&D centres of the acquired companies,’’ DIPP officials said.
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Restrict market share to curb monopolies in cable sector: TRAI
To curb dominance of a single player in the cable sector, broadcasting regulator TRAI has recommended restrictions on the market share that a single Multi System Operator can hold.
As per recommendations made by the broadcasting sector regulator, rules should be amended to ensure that market share of Multi System Operators (MSOs) is restricted up to 50 per cent.
TRAI made the recommendations after I&B Ministry sought its advice saying that the cable TV distribution had been virtually monopolised by a single entity in some states.
In its recommendations, TRAI approved the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for measuring the level of competition or market concentration in a state.
The regulator said that to ensure that at least three MSOs of comparable size operate in a market, it would be desirable to restrict the building up of market share up to 50 per cent.
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Sentinel Project gives a fillip to managing MDR-TB in children
The Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis is a collective power of a global partnership by
experts and others who share the same vision of ensuring that no child dies of drug-resistant TB that is curable.
“We are collaborating to raise the visibility of this vulnerable population of children, and to share evidence and
resources that can increase children’s access to prompt and effective treatment,” Mercedes C. Becerra, Associate
Professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School said in an email to
this Correspondent.
It all started in April 2011 when Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director of the Chennai-based National Institute for
Research in Tuberculosis and Prof. Becerra met in New Delhi at a workshop to examine the barriers to scaling up
drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) treatment in India.
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27/11/2013
INS Vikramaditya sets sail for India
Ten days after it was commissioned into the Indian Navy at the North Russian shipyard of Sevmash at Severodvinsk, INS Vikramaditya left the yard’s pier, setting course for its homeport at Karwar in Karnataka on Tuesday.
Commanded by Captain Suraj Berry, Vikramaditya is at the outer anchorage at the time of filing this report, completing customs clearance formalities and bunkering. Resuming its long voyage home possibly on Wednesday morning, the carrier will have a few days’ stop at the Northwest Russian port of Murmansk, some 215 nautical miles away, where it will be joined by the frigate INS Trikhand and fleet tanker INS Deepak.
The aircraft carrier underwent an issue-ridden reconstruction that lasted eight years at the Russian shipyard.
INS Vikramaditya is expected to be in Indian waters by the third week of January. Sources in Sevmash said Vikramaditya would transit three oceans and several seas during its maiden voyage. “It is planned that the aircraft carrier will reach India in the end of January. While crossing the distance at sea, the crew will check the air-conditioning system which should be tested at full load in conditions of tropical climate in the Indian Ocean. To ensure a guaranteed work of all systems of the ship at sea, we formed the team of Sevmash specialists — 177 persons, who participated in the tests of the aircraft carrier,” Sevmash’s Deputy Director-General Sergey Marichev said.
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Geneva nuclear success impacts Saudi-Iran ties
The success of nuclear talks in Geneva have triggered the first signs of a possible de-escalation of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose regional rivalry has acquired a sharp sectarian edge in recent years.
In their first official remarks after Iran and the six global powers signed a nuclear deal in the early hours on Sunday, Saudi authorities signaled that a potential opportunity had been created to improve regional security. “If there is goodwill, then this agreement could be an initial step toward reaching a comprehensive solution to Iran's nuclear programme,” said that Saudi Cabinet in a statement.
The Saudis also hoped that the Geneva agreement would lead to the removal of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, from West Asia—a veiled reference to Israel—as well as the Gulf region, which includes Iran.
The cautious welcome accorded to the Geneva deal, marks a significant shift, at least on paper, from previous positions adopted by Saudi officials, who had expressed deep reservations, if not hostility, to a possible thaw in ties between Iran and the West.
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U.S. bombers fly through China’s new defence zone
Two days after China announced the establishment of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) to bolster its claims over parts of disputed East China Sea, the U.S. dispatched two B-52 bombers to fly through the contested area, according to a report on Tuesday.
Chinese authorities did not make contact with the two bombers, which flew out of the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam as part of an earlier planned exercise and crossed over into zone, flying above the disputed islands that are at the heart of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.
U.S. officials told Wall Street Journal that the planes left Guam at around 5.30 am IST on Tuesday. Beijing announced that starting Saturday morning, it would track and monitor all aircraft that enter the ADIZ. Aircraft that failed to notify it of their flight plans could face interception.
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No tax on foreign banks converting to WoS: RBI
The Reserve Bank of India has clarified that conversion of existing foreign bank branches into wholly-owned subsidiaries in India will not attract any capital gains tax nor stamp duty.
“In this context, it may be indicated that Government of India has inserted, by the Finance Act, 2012, a new Chapter XII-BB titled ‘Special Provisions relating to Conversion of Indian Branch of a foreign bank into a subsidiary company’ in Income Tax Act, 1961, inter alia, exempting capital gains arising from such conversion from capital gains tax, with effect from April 1, 2013,’’ the RBI said in a release.
On the applicability of stamp duty in the case of conversion of existing branch of a foreign bank into a wholly-owned subsidiary, the RBI pointed out that “a new section ‘8E’ had been inserted in Indian Stamp Act, 1899 vide Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012 notified in Gazette of India Notification dated January 18, 2013, exempting from stamp duty on any conversion of a branch of a foreign bank into wholly-owned subsidiary or transfer of shareholding of a bank to a holding company in terms of the scheme or guidelines of RBI.’’
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26/11/2013
Sabarimala pilgrim influx makes crowd control a tough task
Sabarimala witnessed heavy rush as the flow of pilgrims to the forest shrine continued for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
The police, who had a tough time controlling the crowd, blocked the pilgrims periodically at Pampa in an effort to regulate their entry into the traditional trekking path leading to the Ayyappa Temple.
The pilgrims were also blocked at different points on the traditional path to ease the pressure at the Sannidhanam.
10 segments
Blocked at 10 segments between Sabaripeedhom and the Sannidhanam, the pilgrims had to wait for four to five hours to reach the temple premises.
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UN- Syria peace talks to take place January 22
A long-awaited international conference to resolve the Syrian crisis will be held in Geneva on January 22, bringing diplomacy into sharper focus as a means to resolve some of the most intractable problems besetting the region.
The United Nations (U.N.) announced the date of the conference on Monday, a day after Iran and six global powers successfully negotiated a landmark nuclear deal in the Swiss city.
“We will go to Geneva with a mission of hope,” said the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through his spokesperson, Martin Nesirky. The conference, billed as Geneva-2, will be held within the framework of the Geneva Communiqué that was issued in June 2012 following a meeting of the global and regional heavyweights with Kofi Annan, the former special envoy on Syria of the United Nations and the Arab League. The conference had then yielded an agreement for the establishment, based on mutual consent, of a transitional governing body in Syria that would be armed with full executive powers, covering all government institutions, including the military and security agencies.
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RBI to launch CPI-indexed bonds by December end
The Reserve Bank on Monday said it will launch CPI-indexed bonds aimed at protecting the savings of retail
investors from the impact of price rise by the end of next month.
“Guidelines will be out soon...We are likely to launch the first tranche before end of December. We will come out
with details (quantum),” RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan said on the sidelines of a National Housing Bank event.
“This year it should be between Rs 10,000-15,000 crore (wholesale price and consumer price indexed bonds) but
exact amount will come out. This is part of overall borrowing programme,” he said.
The RBI in its policy statement last month had said inflation-indexed securities for retail investors of 10-year
tenor would be linked to the new (combined) consumer price index.
Interest would be compounded half-yearly and paid cumulatively at redemption, according to the statement.
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25/11/2013
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Rupee fall pushes Tata group out of $100-billion club
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group’s combined turnover has slipped below $100-billion mark due to a fall in rupee, despite an over ten per cent growth in total revenue when measured in Indian currency.
Tatas have, however, emerged as the country’s first business house to record an annual turnover of more than Rs. five lakh crore in rupee terms, while its headcount rose by nearly 88,000 persons to over 5.4 lakh employees in 2012-13.
The group, with over 100 operating companies, saw its total revenue rise by 10.8 per cent to Rs. 5,27,047 crore in last fiscal, from Rs. 4,75,721 crore in previous year.
However, a fall of over 14 per cent in rupee value against the US dollar during the fiscal 2012-13 resulted into Tata group recording a fall of over three per cent in its US dollar revenue during the year.
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Giant dinosaur that rivalled T-rex discovered
A giant new predatory dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 100 million years ago and even rivalled the mighty tyrannosaurus rex has been discovered.
The new species of carnivorous dinosaur — one of the three largest ever discovered in North America — lived alongside and competed with small-bodied tyrannosaurs.
The species, called Siats meekerorum, was the apex predator of its time, and kept tyrannosaurs from assuming top predator roles for millions of years.
Siats is a species of carcharodontosaur, a group of giant meat-eaters that includes some of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever discovered.
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24/11/2013
ITF Futures: Sriram Balaji wins second title of the season
It was the second singles title of the season for Sriram Balaji as the second seed defeated third-seeded Na Jung-
Woong of Korea 7-5, 7-5 in the final of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the Arera Club here on
Saturday.
It was a welcome title for the 23-year-old Balaji, who trains at the Schuttler Waske tennis centre in Germany, after
he had failed to win a set against Yuki Bhambri in the previous final last week in Delhi.
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Heavy rush at Sabarimala
The holy hillock of Sabarimala witnessed heavy rush on Saturday with hundreds of devotees visiting the Ayyappa Temple in the last 24 hours.
According to the police, as many as 35,000 pilgrims reached the Sannidhanam till Saturday afternoon, using the Virtual Queue system.
Long hours of wait
Pilgrims had to wait for hours together inside the barricades on the Sannidhanam-Marakkoottom stretch of the trekking path.
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DBS plans 50 more branches in India
India should open up its banking sector to foreign banks and tap the strength of international financial institutions, an expert has said.
Piyush Gupta, Chief Executive of Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings, said India could tap foreign banks to bridge its capital shortfall.
Speaking at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention here, Mr. Gupta said countries such as India often looked at banks to fulfil multiple agendas, which could include those for the financial sector and rural development.
“There are multiple requirements that a country has, and you need to find different participants to be able to address different sets of those requirements,” Mr. Gupta said.
He announced that DBS would open 50 branches in India once restrictions on setting up of branches were removed.
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No new buses if there is no safety for women: Centre
The States and Union Territories that have failed to put in place steps to make public transport systems safe for
women will not be eligible for getting their quota of new buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal
Mission (JNNURM), the Union Urban Development Ministry has decided.
The Ministry has asked all the States and Union Territories to spell out the initiatives taken by them to make
transport systems safe for women.
Details have also been sought on how the States propose to implement new plans for women’s safety that can be
financed by the Rs. 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund, which was announced by the Centre in the 2013 Union budget.
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23/11/2013
Carlsen is King
Eight days before his 23rd birthday, Magnus Carlsen on Friday gave himself the biggest present of his stunningly successful career.
The Norwegian prodigy dethroned home favourite and defending champion Viswanathan Anand 6.5-3.5 to win their best-of-12 world chess title clash.
In the 10th game, Carlsen, playing white, drew with Anand after 65 moves. Much against expectations, the game was a hard-fought contest with both players looking for winning possibilities. Neither player appeared in a hurry to sign the peace-treaty.
With Carlsen reaching the finish-line with two games to spare, it was also the end of Anand’s six-year reign as the World champion. It was Anand’s first loss in a world title match since 2007. The triumph was worth Rs. 8.4 crore for Carlsen. Anand settled for Rs. 5.6 crore.
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Viswanathan Anand’s long reign ends
It took close to five hours of pitched battle on Friday to bring an end to the war of pieces.
Needing nothing less than a victory to keep alive the 12-game World chess championship match, a desperate Viswanathan Anand gave it his all. At one point, he seemed to have overreached himself with his 28th move.
Carlsen, for once, missed a possible chance to press home for victory and eventually peace was signed after 65 moves.
The title-clinching draw saw Carlsen justify the tag of ‘firm favourite’, winning 6.5-3.5. The coronation of the new king of chess is likely to be on Sunday or Monday.
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US backtracks on financial commitments to climate change
In a late night manoeuvre on Thursday the US backtracked from its obligation to the promise of the $ 100 billion funds by 2020 for poor countries instead demanding that the developing countries too should be asked to contribute.
The move by the US of inserting a new fundamental idea going against the decisions that have been taken in previous years at the UN climate negotiations left the G77 countries angry and made them officially register complaint against negotiations being conducted in bad faith.
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India rejects WTO Peace Clause proposal
At a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma it was agreed on Friday that India cannot agree to the Peace Clause for agriculture subsidies that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo has proposed for Bali.
In no situation can India’s food security be dictated, said Dr. Singh at the meeting, according to highly-placed Commerce Ministry sources. The Prime Minister’s instructions are that “India will not agree to any deal at Bali until it is certain that the proposed interim solution will be available till a permanent solution to the issue of India’s minimum support prices (MSP) breaching the WTO norms has been found and agreed to,” the officials told The Hindu.
The Commerce Ministry plans to seek the Cabinet’s approval for this position at Bali. “The food subsidies under the Food Security Act we are not even discussing...that’s our sovereign space,” Mr. Sharma told The Hindu. India is negotiating in Geneva safeguards for its administered MSPs. “The MSPs will only rise with the roll out of the Food Security Law,” Mr. Sharma said.
The deal breaker for India is the lack of clarity on when the proposed Peace Clause, an interim safeguard for MSPs in breach of the WTO caps, will expire. India, said the officials, also cannot afford to not have any deal at all at Bali for then there will be no safeguards against the breaches of the WTO caps.
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22/11/2013
India facing multifarious challenges on internal security: Shinde
Pointing out that India was facing multifarious challenges on internal security, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday said that terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) was behind three of the four major blasts in the country this year.
Without taking names, Mr. Shinde said that Indian Mujahideen draws its motivation and sustenance from inimical forces operating from across the Western border. He held IM responsible for Hyderabad twin blasts and the series of blasts at Bodh Gaya and Patna in Bihar. “Another blast that took place in Bangalore was the handiwork of some misguided fundamentalist youth and remnants of Al Ummah,” he said.
Addressing the inaugural session of the three-day conference of Directors General of Police (DGPs) here, conducted by the Intelligence Bureau, Mr. Shinde made a special mention of the arrest of alleged IM mastermind Yasin Bhatkal and Abdul Karim, also known as Tunda, both of whom were wanted in many bomb blasts cases in different parts of the country.
Describing the arrests as "a major breakthrough" in the fight against terrorism, he said it was important that the leads emanating from the investigations “are vigorously pursued to apprehend all those associated with this network.”
Stating that the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) has emerged as an effective platform for proper coordination between Central and State agencies, he said the scope of MAC was now being extended to more than 450 districts across the country. The mechanism of MAC was
instituted by his predecessor P. Chidambaram who had taken over the reigns of the Home Ministry in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai serial terror attack in November 2008. However, his other brain-child – the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) – failed to find favour with the States and continues to remain in cold storage.
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Mars orbiter sends first snap
The Mars orbiter currently revolving around Earth has sent its first pictures.
The single greenish, yellow and cream image of India and its neighbourhood that ISRO has shared was taken on November 20 at 1.50 p.m. from a distance of 70,000 km.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the spacecraft was now orbiting Earth once in 91.5 hours. The last orbit-raising operation of November 16 has placed the orbit apogee or farthest point from Earth at 2 lakh km. It will continue in this orbit until it is given the escape velocity to leave Earth on December 1 and set on the path to Mars.
The update on ISRO's Facebook page on its Mars Orbiter Mission page said the team handling the spacecraft has been testing the instruments on it. On Wednesday, it turned its colour camera towards Earth and switched it on for the first time since MOM was launched on November 5.
The update team earlier said, “We have a nice little thing to share with all of you... And here is the first ever image of Earth taken by the Mars Colour Camera. The image has a spatial resolution of 3.5 km. We are certain we're going to get some great shots in the orbit of Mars.”
ISRO’s spokesman Deviprasad Karnik noted that the regular IRS remote sensing satellites take pictures of Earth all the time but from distances of 600-800 km from ground. This picture was taken from several times that distance.
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IM, social media misuse biggest threats: IB chief
Intelligence Bureau chief Syed Asif Ibrahim said on Thursday the spread of Indian Mujahideen (IM) and use of social media to fan communal tension were the biggest threats to internal security. He was addressing the three-day annual conference of police chiefs here.
"After the recent arrest of Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah, we achieved some success in interdicting important members of IM. But the challenge remains as despite these arrests they executed the Patna blasts," said Ibrahim.
The IB chief, credited with the arrest of Yasin and Abdul Karim Tunda, said: "Evidence gathered from various cases indicates Pakistan continues to nurture terrorist groups."
"Besides the LeT, IM has enlarged its network and developed capabilities to carry out acts of terror at short notice in various parts of the country," said Ibrahim.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said, "IM is getting motivation and strength from inimical forces in Pakistan." He said attempts were being made to vitiate communal harmony using social media as was witnessed in Bangalore last year and Muzaffarnagar this year and the situation in J&K remained challenging, with terror groups upping the ante.
"The recent attacks indicate a nefarious game plan hatched across the border to demoralise our security forces. There have also been violent actions and ceasefire violations along the border. The security forces have killed 35 terrorists along the LoC but they cannot lower guard, particularly in view of the elections next year," the Home Minister said.
"It is essential for district administrations to put in place an early warning system for immediate detection of communal issues. For this, they should maintain constant engagement with all communities, particularly in disturbance-prone areas."
Shinde also said Central and state security forces had achieved notable successes in restricting the areas of Naxal influence. Shinde also underlined the threat of cyber crime and cyber attacks. "Extensive networking of computer systems, particularly in sensitive areas, has increased our vulnerability to such attempts from hostile elements. Security agencies
and police will need to develop expertise for a coordinated response to these problems," he said.
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‘Decision on CHOGM won’t hit Sri Lanka ties’
Only time will tell how diplomatic ties with Sri Lanka would shape up as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not presented the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo held earlier this month.
But the prospects of all countries tiding over this hiccup in ties were positive. There is a commonality of interest on many issues and both countries would
continue to engage closely with each other, well placed sources said here on Thursday.
Maintaining that Dr. Singh’s decision not to visit Sri Lanka for CHOGM was no “reflection” of the strength of bilateral ties, they drew attention to External
Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s presence at the summit. “That was widely appreciated and we have to continue to work with each other as we can’t wish each
other away,” they added.
Asked if Dr. Singh’s decision not to presented CHOGM meant less leverage with Sri Lanka, without elaborating the sources said India was working on other leverages
to improve bilateral ties.
They did not appreciate British Prime Minister David Cameron trying to pin Sri Lanka to a deadline for addressing problems relating to alleged human rights abuses.
“This is not our style,” they said and feared that such kind of diplomacy could become counterproductive. “We make our point but not in a manner that is quite so
apparent. Our interlocutors know what we are talking about... but we don’t do this through the media,” they added.
Mr. Cameron had called on Sri Lanka to address by March next year, charges of mass killing of civilians in the final months of the war between the Sri Lankan
armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. The sources said India would definitely take a stand at the next UN Human Rights Council meeting in
March — the deadline Mr. Cameron was referring to — but its attitude would be firmed up on the basis of steps taken by Sri Lanka by then.
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RBI will take steps to bring inflation down: Andrew Michael Spence
American economist and Nobel laureate Andrew Michael Spence yesterday said the hope that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would take steps to bring
inflation down to its comfort level.
"High inflation in India is a hard problem.I have huge respect for RBI. I think RBI will take steps to bring inflation down to its comfort level,"
Spence, who is recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for economics,
said at an event here while replying to a question on high inflation in India. RBI's inflation comfort level is from four-five per cent.
Costlier food items, including vegetables, had pushed the October wholesale inflation to 7 per cent, the highest in current financial year, while
retail inflation in October was 10.09 per cent.
Inflation worries had forced the Reserve Bank to continue its firm stance and hike the short-term lending (repo) rate by 0.25 per
cent in the first full policy unveiled by new RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan last month who had increased the repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 per cent.
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21/11/2013
Malala receives EU’s Sakharov human rights prize
Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt last year, today received the EU’s Sakharov human rights prize at a ceremony in Strasbourg.
The European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, presented the award to the 16-year-old who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.
Malala dedicated the award to “the unsung heroes of Pakistan” and to human rights campaigners worldwide.
“I am hopeful the European Parliament will look beyond Europe to the suffering countries where people are still deprived of their basic rights, their freedom of thought is suppressed, freedom of speech is enchained,” she said.
Malala was shot in the head a year ago for campaigning for better rights for girls in Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan, an erstwhile Taliban stronghold.
The Sakharov Prize for free speech is awarded by the European Parliament annually in memory of Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
The 50,000—euro (USD 65,000) prize is considered Europe’s top human rights award. Malala joins a distinguished list of winners of the prize that includes South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Malala rose to prominence in 2009 for anonymously writing a blog for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban rule and the lack of education for girls in the mountainous Swat Valley.
She became internationally known after the Pakistan Army pushed the Taliban out of the area in 2009.
A Taliban shot her as she was riding in a bus with school friends. She was brought for treatment to Birmingham, where she now lives with her family.
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‘In 80-90 %, TB bacilli in children same as in MDR-TB index case’
Children in contact with a household index case with MDR-TB should be managed as if they are infected (or have disease) by the same organism (TB bacillus/TB bug) as the index case. Infection means they have the TB bug in their bodies, but do not yet have TB disease (no symptoms, clinically well, normal chest X-ray) while TB (TB disease) means the children have symptoms and/or signs of TB disease and/or an abnormal chest X-ray showing that the infection has developed into disease.
In case of infection after exposure to an MDR-TB case, the organism will usually not be found in the sputum of the child, but in case of disease, health-care workers can get samples of sputum (or gastric aspirates) to try and confirm that the child has the same TB organism as the adult index case.
Our experience in South Africa, a high TB incidence country, is that when we do find the TB organism in the child it is the same as in the identified MDR-TB case in 80 to 90 per cent of cases. Unfortunately, because of the fewer number of organisms in children, even if they do have TB disease, it is only possible to get positive cultures in about 40 per cent of cases. Therefore, if a child develops TB with a known MDR-TB index case, the child should empirically be managed as having MDR-TB — the same as in the adult case — until proven otherwise.
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UN tells Myanmar to make Rohingyas citizens
The U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee passed a resolution urging Myanmar to give the stateless Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship and to crack down on violence against them and other Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation.
The resolution, passed by consensus on Tuesday, received mixed reactions in Myanmar.
The director of the Myanmar President’s office, Maj. Zaw Htay, said steps were being taken to address the issue, and the opposition party headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi accused the rights committee of “interfering” in the country’s internal affairs.
Under General Assembly rules the body will unanimously pass the resolution later this year.
Myanmar emerged from a half-century of military rule in 2011, but its transition to democracy has been marred by sectarian violence that has left more than 240 people dead and sent another 240,000 fleeing their homes, most of them Rohingya. Some say the communal violence presents a threat to Myanmar’s political reforms because it could encourage security forces to re-assert control.
In 1982, Myanmar passed a citizenship law recognising eight races and 130 minority groups — but omitted the nation’s 800,000 Rohingya, among Myanmar’s 60 million people. Many Myanmar Buddhists view the Rohingya as interlopers brought in by British colonialists from Bangladesh, but many Rohingya say they have lived in the country once known as Burma for hundreds of years.
Ms. Suu Kyi has had little else to say about Rohingya rights. She declined to meet with an Organisation of the Islamic Conference delegation visiting Myanmar this week to look into the plight of the religious minority.
A spokesman of her party, Nyan Win, slammed the decision by the rights commission.
“Even the United Nations is interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs,” he said. “Anyone who is eligible to become a citizen will get citizenship, but they cannot become ethnic nationals.”
Maj. Zaw Htay, the director of the President’s office, meanwhile, denied the Rohinyga minority are stateless.
“These people are either Bangladeshis or Myanmarese. We are not denying their right to citizenship. They will be given citizenship according to the law.”
The General Assembly resolution welcomed a statement by Myanmar’s President that “no prisoners of conscience will remain in prison by the end of the year.” Myanmar released 69 political prisoners last week.
But it also “expresses concern about remaining human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detentions of political activists and human rights defenders, forced displacement, land confiscations, rape and other forms of sexual violence and torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as violations of international humanitarian law, and urges the government of Myanmar to step up its efforts to put an end to such violations.”
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‘Very few children in India are diagnosed and treated for MDR-TB’
“A child with TB [is] as likely as an adult with TB to have MDR-TB [multi-drug resistant TB],” notes the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2013. that was released last month. “It is therefore essential that the identification of MDR-TB in children be strengthened.”
WHO did not stop at that. “Efforts should be made to systematically conduct household contact investigation of all patients with MDR-TB, including children,” it underlined.
The reason for the emphasis on MDR-TB detection is not difficult to fathom. Patients with MDR-TB do not respond to, or respond extremely poorly to standard first-line anti-TB drugs. A person is said to have MDR-TB when he is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, two of the first-line anti-TB drugs.
This makes it all the more important to trace the vulnerable groups well before they become diseased with drug-resistant TB. And children younger than five years from the same household as an adult (index case) who have been recently diagnosed with MDR-TB disease are one such vulnerable population. A 2002 study published in Pediatrics journal suggested two child contacts for every adult MDR-TB source patient in a high-burden setting.
“As many as a million children could be exposed to MDR tuberculosis globally each year, many of whom, in the absence of effective preventive therapy, will go on to develop MDR-TB disease,” the 2002 paper notes.
“Preventive chemotherapy for children with second-line drugs is debated. Hence preventive chemotherapy for MDR-TB among contacts of MDR-TB patients is not a policy globally as enough scientific evidence is not available,” Dr. K.S. Sachdeva, Additional Deputy Director General at Central TB Division, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare said in an email to this Correspondent.
But there is a gradual shift in policy outside India.
Incidentally, even the implementation of the WHO-recommended, RNTCP-approved contact screening and preventive therapy using the first-line drug isoniazid for six months in children younger than five years who are asymptomatic or infected with drug-sensitive TB as a TB-diseased adult in the same household is “sub-optimal,” as a few studies have revealed.
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20/11/2013
G77+China group walk out after stalemate on Loss and Damage modalities
The G77+China group of 133 countries walked out of negotiations on Loss and Damage at around 3:30 am on Wednesday morning after the rich countries refused to budge from the position that the subject should be discussed only after 2015.
The U.S., Australia and Canada have been the most vocal and trenchant advocates against setting up a separate mechanism on Loss and Damage while the E.U., though not belligerent, has also played a part to make sure the mechanism does not materialise at the Warsaw meeting.
At a closed door meeting of representatives of various country blocks, called a ‘contact group on loss and damage’, the developed countries continued to demand that the issue be discussed only after 2015. While several parallel stream of negotiations are on at the moment, including that on finance for poor countries and the basic elements of the 2015 agreement, walk out of even one stream of parallel talks in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change threatens to bring to halt all negotiations.
“Everything clears together or nothing moves at all,” is how one G77 delegate put it to The Hindu.
The Hindu had earlier reported that the G77+China group had warned that if the rich countries did not relent, it would be forced to walk out of the talks — a rare event, which happens only when there is absolute lack of trust between countries gathered at the climate talks.
A secret briefing document, prepared by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, that The Hindu had accessed, had advised that Loss and Damage should remain, at worst, another stream under the ‘adaptation’ mechanisms and not be allowed as a separate independent system to pay compensation or reparation to poor countries.
While poor countries look upon Loss and Damage reparation for the damage caused by inevitable climate change which any amount of adaptation cannot avoid, the developed countries desire that the issue be defanged from any kind of legal liability it may impose upon the key countries with highest historic emissions.
At the time of writing, the G77+China group is holding its coordination meeting in which the walk out from Loss and Damage is likely to be the key discussion.
“USA, EU, Australia and Norway remain blind to the climate reality that's hitting us all and poor people and countries much harder. They continue to derail negotiations in Warsaw that can create a new system to deal with new types of loss and damage such as sea level rise, loss of territory, biodiversity and other non-economic losses more systematically," Harjeet Singh, International Coordinator — Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Adaptation, ActionAId International, said.
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Mahila bank to offer universal banking services
Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, on Tuesday, said that the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) would be a universal bank which would establish branches across India and offer all banking products that a regular commercial bank offers.
“BMB would design and offer special products tailor made to the needs of women. It will cater to everybody from self help groups to lower middle class women to high net worth individuals,” said Mr. Chidambaram at a press conference at the newly opened BMB branch here .
It will establish branches all over the country and, “in due course, some branches abroad,” Mr. Chidambaram added.
Finance Minister said only 26 percent of women in India have bank accounts and per capita credit for women is currently 80 percent lower than that for men. He said, “there is deep seated bias, at the institutional and individual levels against women. Since fewer women have bank accounts, fewer women get bank loans. Hence, the need for a bank that caters predominantly to women’s needs”.
Mr. Chidambaram added that “the seed we have sown today, when it branches out and flowers, it will bring enormous benefits to half the population of the country.” Apart from the Nariman Point branch in Mumbai, Bharatiya Mahila Bank has six other branches at Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Two other branches, in Delhi and Indore, would be inaugurated in December after the conclusion of state assembly election process there.
By the end of the financial year, the bank plans to open at least 25 branches, eyeing a presence in every state capital. The bank network would be expanded in subsequent years to reach 770 branches by 2020, covering Tier II and III cities, rural areas and unbanked areas.
The bank has drawn up an ambitious business plan to touch Rs. 60,000 crore total business (deposits plus advances) by 2020.
BMB, headquartered in New Delhi, is headed by Usha Ananthasubramanian, a public sector banker with 31 years of experience. The Finance Minister also announced the eight ember all-women board of directors of the bank.
The other members on the board include Chhavi Rajawat, a sarpanch from Rajasthan, Nupur Mitra, former CMD of Dena bank, Renuka Ramnath of Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Tanya Dubash - Executive Director and President (Marketing) of the Godrej group, Kalpana Saroj - CEO of Kamani Tubes and government nominee Priya Kumar.
In the Budget 2013-14, the Finance Minister had announced setting up of all-women bank with an initial capital of Rs. 1,000 crore.
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A record 78.50% polling in Chhattisgarh phase-II
An unprecedented 78.50 per cent of the nearly 1.40 crore electors voted in the second phase of polling for the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
“We expect that there will be an increase in polling percentage, when all figures arrive,” Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur said.
With Tuesday’s feat, the State has broken its record, polling 74.65 per cent, if both phases are combined, which is 3.99 and 3.35 per cent higher than the 2008 and 2003 turnouts. Polling in the first phase last week was 70.8 per cent in 18 constituencies.
Four of the 19 districts — Surajpur and Balrampur in the north and Dhamteri and Balod in the central part of the State — crossed the 80-per cent mark. This is substantially higher than the 2008 figure. In the other districts, it was more or less 70 per cent. The lowest, 67.83 per cent, was recorded in Durg district which has six constituencies. Yet, this figure is almost 3 per cent higher than the 2008 turnout. The constituency that polled the highest number of votes is Kurud, at 88 per cent.
Voting was peaceful till afternoon. Around 3 p.m., one person was killed and three were injured when Central paramilitary forces opened fire at villagers who allegedly tried to disrupt polling at Vindrawani in central Chhattisgarh. The person who died of a bullet wound is said to be a worker of a political party.
Director-General of Police Ram Niwas confirmed the death of Ashoke Sen (33).
A magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
In Bemetara and Janjgir Champa, supporters of the BJP and the Congress attacked each other. However, the situation was quickly brought under control, the police said.
District officials could not get the residents of Kamreed in the Sarangarh constituency to vote. The villagers said they were upset that political parties had failed to create amenities in the village. The other booth where no voter turned up was Bamnipalli, also in Sarangarh.
In Raipur South, both the BJP and the Congress claimed that their supporters were dropped out of the roll. Both parties threatened to take legal action against the Election Commission, if action was not taken. In Raipur West, BJP candidate Rajesh Munnat was involved in a minor scuffle with a poll observer. An FIR was filed against him.
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Court notice to Centre, RBI to regulate financial institutions
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition for a direction seeking the constitution of an expert committee of SEBI, RBI, Finance Ministry, Enforcement Directorate and Serious Fraud Investigation Office officials to devise a long-term plan to end all the unauthorised and illegal deposit schemes, collective investment schemes by financial institutions across the country.
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi issued a notice on the petition filed by Humanity, Salt Lake, Kolkata, which also wanted prosecution of all violators and recovery of money for the depositors/investors.
The petitioner said: “The menace of Ponzi schemes has shaken the very foundation of rural and semi-urban economy in India. The problem of innocent poor people being robbed of their last savings by greedy, well-organised outfits has remained a fact of life in other parts of country as well. Recently, big frauds like the Sahara scam, Saradha chit fund scam, etc. have come to light, but they are only the tip of the iceberg. The problem of unscrupulous companies collecting deposits from crores of poor people, in violation of guidelines issued by the RBI and the SEBI, has reached menacing proportions and no effective action is being taken.”
It said: “All these companies which are in the business of misappropriating the savings of the marginal saver are in breach of the Company Deposit Rules 1975, which prohibits all companies [except PSUs] from accepting deposits which are unsecured instruments [debentures or otherwise] for more than 10 per cent of their net worth.”
Therefore, the petitioner said, an expert committee should be constituted to devise a long-term plan to end all the unauthorised and illegal deposit schemes and to recover the amounts collected.
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Impact of HIV treatment and prevention slowing down: report
A significant progress has been seen in a number of countries in Asia and the Pacific in reducing new HIV infections by over 50 per cent since 2001, but the impact appears to be slowing down with overall numbers across the region remaining largely unchanged in the past five years, a latest UN report has said. It also warns of emerging epidemics in some countries, including Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Launched at the 2013 International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, the report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), titled “HIV in Asia and the Pacific: Getting to Zero” found that more people than ever before had access to HIV services across the region. However, inadequate focus on key populations at higher risk of HIV infection and geographical areas with higher HIV burden mean that most countries in the region were not progressing fast enough to reach global targets on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
According to the report, an estimated 4.9 million (3.7 to 6.3 million) people were living with HIV in Asia and the Pacific in 2012. Twelve countries account for more than 90 per cent of people living with HIV and of new HIV infections in the region, including India.
Regionally, the numbers of new HIV infections have fallen by 26 per cent since 2001. A number of countries have reduced new HIV infections by over 50 per cent in that time: India (57 per cent among adults), Myanmar (72 per cent), Nepal (87 per cent), Papua New Guinea (79 per cent) and Thailand (63 per cent).
But emerging epidemics are becoming evident: between 2001 and 2012, new HIV infections increased 2.6 times in Indonesia; Pakistan has seen an eight-fold increase and new infections in the Philippines have more than doubled. There are high HIV prevalence levels in some geographical areas within countries and among key populations, even in countries where national HIV prevalence rates are falling, the report said.
“The pace of progress needs to be redoubled to sustain past achievements, drive results and meet global AIDS targets,” said UNAIDS Director of the Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific Steven Kraus.
The number of people accessing antiretroviral treatment in the region has increased to 1.25 million people at the end of 2012. Numbers of AIDS-related deaths have declined by 18 per cent since 2005 to 2,70,000 in 2012 largely due to increased access to treatment.
However, nearly half of people in Asia and the Pacific who were eligible for treatment were not accessing it and rate of increased
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Team arrive to traditional welcome
Chris Gayle did a little dance, almost in tune with the traditional drummers who increased the tempo of the beat to welcome the West Indies and Indian cricket teams, at the Nedumbassery airport, on Tuesday.
The teams will play the first of the three-match ODI series at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
But, unlike the England team which took time out to appreciate and enjoy Kerala’s Kathakali dancers and the traditional welcome when they arrived here for a one-dayer in January, the two teams that landed today made a quick exit from the airport.
Meanwhile, despite last night’s heavy rain, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium appeared green and dry this afternoon and the Kerala Cricket Association curator P.V. Ramachandran appeared a relieved man.
“We had covered the entire ground, so despite the heavy rain, there is nothing to worry today,” he said.
The two teams will have their nets on Wednesday. The Sachin Tendulkar pavilion at the stadium will also be inaugurated the same day.
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19/11/2013
GoM completes Telangana consultations
It will submit report to Cabinet soon
The Group of Ministers (GoM) looking into issues related to Andhra Pradesh bifurcation has completed consultations with all stakeholders and is expected to submit a report to the Union Cabinet as early as possible. On Monday, it heard the Union Ministers representing all the three regions of the State and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
The GoM has been mandated to look into a whole range of complex issues including determination of the boundaries of State of Telangana and the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the electoral constituencies, judicial and statutory bodies, and other administrative units.
“We have completed discussions with others. Now the GoM members will meet to discuss among themselves to finalise the report to be submitted to the Cabinet as soon as possible,” Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.
The GoM, headed by Mr. Shinde, is expected to meet on November 21 and is likely to send the report to the Cabinet by this month-end. The Centre intends to introduce and get the Constitutional Amendment Bill approved to create Telangana in the coming winter session of Parliament.
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Home Ministry opposed Maken on award to Tendulkar
The Union Home Ministry, in September, opposed the Centre’s plan to award the Bharat Ratna to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, the Ministry has revealed in its reply to an RTI inquiry. The then Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Ajay Maken had, in September 2011, written to the Home Ministry requesting inclusion of sports as “an area of recognition for the conferment of the Bharat Ratna”. But the Ministry rejected the suggestion, saying, “Inclusion of sports as a field for Bharat Ratna may raise the issue to include other fields such as trade and industry and social work in the award category of Bharat Ratna.”
The Ministry said that while Tendulkar “deserves the highest honour […], there are several other sportspersons who have made our country feel proud, such as Dhyan Chand in hockey, Jaspal Rana in shooting, Vishwanathan Anand in chess, P.T. Usha in athletics.”
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Migrants face systematic abuse in Qatar, says Amnesty
Qatar’s feverish preparations for hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022 has triggered systematic abuse of migrant workers, mostly from South and South-east Asia, who are arriving in the wealthy Emirate in droves.
The rights group Amnesty International has penciled the spotlight on what it called was the “routine abuse of migrant workers — in some cases amounting to forced labour.”
The hard-hitting report titled, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup, has unraveled in considerable detail, the various dimensions and mechanisms that are used for systematically abusing migrants, who are arriving at the rate of 20 workers per hour, in the hope of benefiting from an unprecedented construction boom in the tiny Gulf Emirate.
"Construction companies and the Qatari authorities alike are failing migrant workers. Employers in Qatar have displayed an appalling disregard for the basic human rights of migrant workers. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers," said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty international.
The report, compiled after extensive interviews with expat workers, as well as meetings with company and government officials, points to the existence of “complex contractual chains” that often display inhuman disregard of workers’ rights. The study quotes one manager as saying that his company was employing “animals"—a deeply pejorative reference to blue collar workers that were hired by the firm.
The findings of the report reveal that migrant construction workers often work for small and medium sized enterprises, which are sub-contracted to major companies, which, in some cases fail to prevent abuse. Global giants including Qatar Petroleum, Hyundai E&C and OHL Construction are on top of the construction pyramid.
A variety of mechanisms are deployed to deprive migrant workers their basic human rights, including non-payment of wages, harsh and dangerous working conditions, and “shocking standards” of accommodation. Amnesty’s researchers encountered dozens of construction workers whose employers prevented them from leaving the country for many months – leaving them helplessly trapped in Qatar.
The report points to appalling safety standards , by quoting a representative of Doha’s main hospital, who said earlier this year that more than 1,000 people, falling from heights, while at work, had been admitted to the trauma unit of the facility in 2012. Ten per cent of these were disabled, and the resulting mortality rate was "significant".
Companies frequently withheld passports, which were then used as instruments of blackmail. Amnesty’s researchers witnessed 11 men signing papers in front of government officials, falsely confirming that they had received their wages, in order to get back their passports so that they could leave Qatar.
The rights group has consequently called for an overhaul of the ‘sponsorship’ system, which is a root cause of the inability of migrant workers to leave the country or change jobs without their employers’ consent.
The report reveals instances of forced labour, resulting from threats of deportation or loss of income if employees, even those were not being paid, did not show up to work.
Many workers have suffered extreme psychological distress, resulting from their inability to clear their debts, incurred ahead of their arrival in Qatar, and their inability to support their families back home. The report quotes one Nepalese worker, who has not been paid for seven months, and not allowed to leave either, for three months, as saying: "Please tell me - is there any way to get out of here? ... We are going totally mad."
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SEBI tightens disclosure norms of corporates
Concerned over large-scale discrepancies in mandatory disclosures by listed firms, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, on Monday, tightened its regulations in this regard, and asked bourses to put in place a stronger mechanism with additional manpower to monitor adequacy and accuracy of such disclosures.
The companies would also have to provide the details of their promoters, directors and/or key management personnel, who would be held responsible for ensuring compliance with the disclosure norms.
Stock exchanges have been asked to publish these details on their websites in case of defaults.
SEBI has also asked the stock exchanges to set up a separate monitoring cell with identified personnel to ensure compliance with the new norms.
The stock exchanges, which act as front-line regulator for listed companies, have been asked to “keep themselves informed of the updates in various media, including print and mass media, with respect to a listed company.”
The bourses will scrutinise the disclosures and ensure that no important information has been omitted by the company.
It has been often found that key business developments first appear in the media and later in the company’s regulatory filings by the companies.
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18/11/2013
C.N.R. Rao bemoans lack of funding for science
If the top-10 place eludes India in global ranking for science performance — whether in innovation or publications, it is because of “subcritical funding” the discipline receives, according to the scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, C.N.R. Rao, who has been named for Bharat Ratna.
Funding for science was “marginal,” at an average just “20 per cent” of what was needed for specific projects, and “it never comes on time,” he told journalists at his residence at the Indian Institute of Science here on Sunday.
For a brief moment, Professor Rao lost his cool and criticised politicians for having given “so little.” “But for the money that science receives, India, I suppose, is doing well,” he said.
India’s ranking in innovation was poor, at 66 among 140 countries. “I think India has to learn to use the latest results of science and technology for innovation,” he said. The government appeared to be giving more importance to sport. “The future of India is secure if it invests in basic science and science education. Only countries that have advanced scientifically have made progress, while those who neglected it are not known.” Investment in science should be raised from 1 per cent of the GDP to 6 per cent if India had to keep pace with China and South Korea, whose high investments in science was reflected in innovation.
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NASA’s Maven Mars mission set for launch
NASA’s latest Martian explorer, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (Maven), is on its launch pad in Florida, ready to soar. The Maven spacecraft is scheduled to blast off aboard an unmanned Atlas V rocket Monday afternoon.
NASA is sending Maven to Mars to study its upper atmosphere. Scientists want to know why Mars went from being warm and wet during its first billion years, to the cold and dry place it is today.
The early Martian atmosphere was thick enough to hold water and possibly support microbial life. But much of that atmosphere may have been lost to space, eroded by the sun.
“Something clearly happened,” the University of Colorado’s Bruce Jakosky, the principal Maven scientist, said on the eve of Maven’s flight. “What we want to do is to understand what the reasons for that change in the climate are.”
Maven bearing eight science instruments will take 10 months to reach Mars, entering into orbit around the red planet in September 2014. The mission costs $671 million.
A question underlying all of NASA’s 21 Mars missions to date is whether life could have started on what now seems to be a barren world. “We don’t have that answer yet, and that’s all part of our quest for trying to answer, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ in a much broader sense,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s Science Mission Director.
It is NASA’s 21st shot at Mars. Fourteen of the previous 20 missions have succeeded, the most recent being the Curiosity rover that was launched in 2011 and landed in 2012.
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Human intervention hindering tiger movement in country
Even as efforts are being made to protect, conserve, and augment the wild tiger population of the country, a study report that appeared in the open-access journal ‘Plos One’ earlier this month says that human intervention, even in the form of roads through tiger habitats, hinders the instinctive quality of the tiger to wander far in search of connectivity with distant populations. The study ‘Connectivity of Tiger (Panthera tigris) Populations in the Human-Influenced Forest Mosaic of Central India’ conducted in six protected forest areas of Central India with appreciable tiger population shows that tigers can wander even 650 km between protected areas for connectivity. The study was conducted by Aditya Joshi, Samrat Mondol, and Uma Ramakrishnan from the National Centre for Biological Sciences attached to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, Srinivas Vaidyanathan from the Foundation for Ecological Research, Puducherry, and Advait Edgaonkar from the Indian Institute of Forest Management. The study was carried out in the protected areas of Melghat Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve, Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra; Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh; and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh. The study says that many tigers currently live in small protected areas in India, and their survival depends on increasing the connectivity between these areas through tiger corridors. Further, geo-spatial analyses revealed that tiger connectivity was affected by landscape elements such as human settlements, road density, and host-population tiger density, but not by distance between populations.
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HAL divestment plan gains speed
The proposed disinvestment of shares in defence public enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) could be picking up speed with the Secretary, Department of Disinvestment, Ravi Mathur, presiding over a high-level review meeting with the company’s senior management here on Friday.
The process for the initial public offer (IPO) may roll out in January 2014, so that HAL might get listed on the stock exchanges by March 31, 2014 as planned, it is reliably learnt.
The meeting thrashed out certain concerns about allowing the military aircraft manufacturer to be publicly traded on the bourses ahead of finalising the public offer documents, The Hindu learnt.
In view of the sensitive and security-related nature of HAL’s business, the meeting is learnt to have favoured excluding foreign financial institutions from buying HAL’s shares and limiting this to small and big Indian investors. Apparently, there are also other issues, such as possibly seeking exemption from stock market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) so that military-sensitive information need not be disclosed in the offer document or later.
Publicly traded companies are required to be transparent about their business. Two other defence PSUs - Bharat Electronics Ltd and BEML Ltd - also based in Bangalore, are trading on the bourses for several years. BEML came out with a follow-on or second offer in 2007.
Besides HAL’s executives, the meeting was attended by a few senior officials of the Ministry of Defence which governs the company, military officers, merchant bankers and the legal team who will handle the IPO.
The Bangalore-based company licence-manufactures fighters, trainer and small transport planes, helicopters, avionics and other hardware for the Armed Forces, mainly the Air Force, through its 19 divisions. It also undertakes repair, overhaul and other services for them.
For the year which ended on March 31, 2013, HAL made a turnover of over Rs. 14,300 crore and profit of over Rs. 3,400 crore. Its modernisation plan for the period of 2010-20 anticipates an expenditure of Rs. 20,000 crore, part of which is to be offset by the amount coming in from the divestment.
The latest development comes almost a year after Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the disinvestment. As on March 31 this year, the paid-up equity of the company that is fully owned by the government was Rs. 120.50 crore
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17/11/2013
ISRO performs last orbit raising manoeuvre on its Mars mission
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter in the early hours, raising the apogee (farthest point from Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.
"The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 AM (IST). with a burn time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in apogee is from 1,18,642 km to 1,92,874 km," ISRO said.
In the series of five orbit raising manoeuvre with a supplementary operation after the fourth one, the space agency had raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.
After the successful completion of these operations, the Mars Orbiter mission is expected to take on the "crucial event" of the trans-Mars injection around 12.42 AM on December 1. It will reach the orbit of the red planet by September 24, 2014 after taking on a voyage of over 10 months.
ISRO's PSLV C 25 successfully injected the 1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the earth some 44 minutes after a text book launch at 2.38 PM from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs 450 crore mission
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French agency gives green signal for loan; agreement may be inked in January
The Kochi Metro Rail project received a shot in the arm on Friday with the director board meeting of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), a French financial agency, giving the green signal to extend to the project a Rs.1,500-crore loan.
The loan agreement is likely to be signed in January. The loan will entail an interest rate of 1.90 per cent when calculated in terms of the euro. The interest rate is likely to be about 11 per cent when converted into the rupee.
AFD will sign an agreement with the Union government as the loan will be given to the Centre. The project will then receive the loan from the Centre as budgetary allocation. AFD may write to the Centre shortly explaining the terms for signing the agreement.
The loan will have a repayment period of 20 years with a repayment-free period of five years. More discussions on the terms of repayment are likely to be held in the coming days. Authorities are hopeful of making the provisions more lenient.
Relatively simple procedures in receiving loans prompted Kochi Metro to approach the French agency. The loan will be released in two tranches of Rs.1,000 crore and Rs.500 crore. A total investment of Rs.5,537 crore is required for the Kochi Metro. Of this, Rs.2,170 crore will be taken as loan from private agencies. A loan of Rs.1,170 will taken from the Canara Bank. The Union and State governments will have to raise the remaining amount. So far, about Rs.400 crore has been spent to acquire land and launch initial construction work of the project.
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Vikramaditya, another shining example of our long-standing ties, says Antony
Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Saturday called Russia a “time-tested friend” with whom India enjoyed a “special relationship.”
With Russian help, India had survived many challenges and grown in military might, Mr. Antony told the media aboard the newly-inducted aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. “Today’s handing over [of the carrier] is yet another shining example of the long-standing relationship between India and Russia. After nine years of waiting, at last the Indian Navy [has] got the Vikramaditya. There was a time when we thought it would never materialise, but the Navy, the government, the Russian Navy, the Russian government, the Sevmash Shipyard [which modernised the carrier] and its crew worked tirelessly and overcame the challenges,” said Mr. Antony about the long-winding and protracted carrier reconstruction project that had, at times, threatened to jeopardise the Indo-Russian relationship.
Mr. Antony said the carrier was just one of the many important military projects India had with Russia. Refusing to divulge details about the forthcoming India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation meeting in Moscow on Monday, the Defence Minister said discussions would be held for further expansion of military cooperation in various fields. He offered no response to a question whether the lease of a second nuclear submarine would come up for discussion at the meeting.
Mr. Antony showered praises on Sevmash Shipyard, Russia’s nuclear submarine-building facility, for taking up the carrier project — its first — and doing a commendable job of it. “The project would have been given by the government of the day with great hope. There were delays, but we now realise that there were real challenges [in its execution].
Earlier, speaking at the commissioning ceremony, he termed the transformation of the carrier as an engineering marvel, which had tested the professionalism, capability and perseverance of the Indian Navy and the Russian industry, especially the Sevmash Shipyard. He expressed the hope that Russia would extend India all possible support to ensure that the ship functioned effectively for the duration of its expected operational cycle of 25 years.
Asked whether Indian pilots were qualified to operate MiG-29k fighters from the carrier deck, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D.K. Joshi said flying operations had been partially begun — full operations would be possible only after the carrier reached India.
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16/11/2013
Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first sports man to get Bharat Ratna Award
Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first sportsperson to receive the country's highest civilian honour.
On a day when “Master Blaster” Sachin Tendulkar bid an emotional good bye to his cricketing career, the Government on Saturday announced “Bharat Ratna”, the highest civilian award to him.
Bharat Ratna will also be conferred on eminent scientist Prof C.N.R. Rao who is also a well recognized international authority on solid state and materials chemistry, an official statement said here.
Prof. Rao has published over 1,400 research papers and 45 books. Prof. Rao's contributions have been recognized by most major scientific academies around the world through conferment of memberships and fellowships. He has been honoured with several national and international awards.
A living legend, Sachin Tendulkar has inspired millions across the globe. During the last 24 years, since the young age of 16 years, Sachin has played cricket across the world and won laurels for India.
“He has been a true ambassador of India in the world of sports. His achievements in cricket are unparalleled, the records set by him unmatched, and the spirit of sportsmanship displayed by him exemplary. That he has been honoured with several awards is testimony to his extraordinary brilliance as a sportsman,” the statement said.
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UPA policies have given good results, record growth: Manmohan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that the UPA government’s policies and programmes for rapid and inclusive growth are showing good results and the country has seen a record average economic growth in the last nine years.
“The UPA government’s policies and programmes for rapid and inclusive growth are showing good results. We have seen a record average rate of economic growth in the last nine years, which is higher than what the country achieved in any other decade so far,” Dr. Singh said at an election rally in Aizawl.
Dr. Singh said during UPA’s regime since 2004, poverty has come down at thrice the rate achieved during the preceding decade.
“Consumption in rural areas has increased much more rapidly than before. People are living healthier lives and their average lifespan has increased by five years in the last decade,” Dr. Singh said.
He also said that the government has taken various steps to ensure transparency and curb corruption.
“A number of steps have been taken for improving governance and curbing corruption and enhancing transparency and accountability in the work of public authorities.
Dr. Singh highlighted the Right to Education, Food Security Bill and MNREGA as UPA regime’s landmark achievements.
“The Right to Information Act today entitles common citizen to get information about how a particular decision in the government has been taken,” said Dr. Singh.
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‘Tendulkar’s was the day’s best knock’
While Sachin Tendulkar took centre stage after the fall of M. Vijay on Thursday, and went on to score a half century in his farewell Test, India’s young middle order batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma came up with performances that indicate that they have the ability to make up a competent Indian middle-order in the years to come.
The general refrain is that no one can replace the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid, and that batsmen like Pujara, Virat Kohli and Sharma bring in their own flair and character.
On Friday, Pujara and Sharma notched up contrasting centuries; both were steady and showed flair.
“Initially, I was trying to settle down because I thought there could be some help for the West Indies bowlers, but it did not turn out that way. I was on 34, and I just wanted to play my natural game,” said Pujara.
“It was noisy and it was difficult to concentrate. It was really disappointing to see him (Tendulkar) miss a century, but his knock was the best among the three of us today.
“I am sure his preparation for this Test would have been very intense. He was as determined today as he must have been when playing his first game. There are many things to learn from his innings. It’s always a pleasure to watch him bat. We had a partnership going and it gave me a nice feeling. It’s difficult to stay focused when you are playing your last game; that’s why it was incredible the way he played.”
Pujara said India has played well as a team, and it should be given all the credit.
On Sharma who got his century batting with the tail, Pujara said: “Today Rohit batted really well; I think he did the same thing V.V.S. Laxman used to do, batting with the tail-enders. “He was 50-odd when we were eight down, and to score a century is a big achievement. He’s good form; he did well in the ODIs against Australia and in the first Test at Eden Gardens.”
Off-spinner Shane Shillingford who has sent down 98 overs in two innings this series and has taken 11 wickets, said the Indian batsmen really played well, and Tendulkar was classy. “I think he is an awesome batsman. He uses his feet very well, coming back and forward, getting to the pitch of the ball, riding the turn and everything. It has worked for him doing this for so many years.”
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New Melsanthis installed at Sabarimala
P.N. Narayanan Namboodiri of Panangattumpalli Mana at Thrikkariyoor in Ernakulam district was installed as the new Melsanthi (head priest) of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple at a ceremony held at the temple Sopanam on Friday evening.
Tantri (chief priest) Kantararu Maheswararu, assisted by the outgoing Melsanthi N. Damodaran Potti, performed Kalasabhishekom on the Melsanthi-designate by pouring holy water over him. The tantri led him to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and uttered the Moolamantra of the presiding deity thrice in his ear before installing him as the head priest of the temple for the next one-year period.
At Malikappuram
P.M. Manoj of Polpakkara Madhom at Edappal was installed as the new Melsanthi of the Malikappuram Devi temple at another ceremony held at Malikappuram, later.
M.P. Govindan Nair, Travancore Devaswom Board president; Subhash Vasu, member; P. Venugopal, Devaswom Commissioner; K. Babu, Special Commissioner appointed by the Kerala High Court; A. Hemachandran, Additional Director General of Police, and K. Ravikumar, TDB Chief Engineer, were among those who attended the ceremonies.
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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says a new analysis of satellite data shows that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane plunged into the southern Indian Ocean.
U.S. space agency NASA has announced a formal proposal worth $6 million for projects that would help robots and astronauts grab an asteroid from deep space and bring it closer to earth for further study.
In support of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission — a key part of the agency’s stepping stone path to send humans to Mars — agency officials are seeking proposals for studies on advanced technology development.
NASA envisages spending up to $6 million on over 25 proposals this year.
The proposal should focus on technologies that can be used to identify potential targets like sending robotic spacecraft to capture the selected asteroid and put it in a stable orbit beyond the moon.
The technology should also help astronauts get to the space rock and bring back samples in the mid-2020s, NASA said in a statement.
“We are reaching out to seek new and innovative ideas as we extend the frontier of space exploration,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
“To reach Mars, we would rely on new technologies and advanced capabilities proven through the Asteroid Initiative. We are looking forward to exciting ideas from outside NASA as well to help realise that vision,” he added.
International monitors are being finally deployed in crisis-hit Ukraine after their mandate was modified to meet Russian objections.
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