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THE HINDU
Imp. News
Feb.11th
2012
Page-1
Army Chief loses age war:
In a setback to General V.K. Singh, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in his plea,
pointing out that the Army Chief, who accepted the government's decision in determining his
date of birth as May 10, 1950 on three occasions, could not go back on his commitment. His
writ petition was disposed of as withdrawn. A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale,
however, made it clear that the question raised by Gen. Singh was not about the determination
of his actual DoB but it concerned the recognition of a particular DoB by the Defence Ministry in
the official service record.
Pakistan apex court rejects Gilani's plea in contempt case:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday rejected the intra court appeal filed by Prime Minister
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani against its February 2 order that asked him to appear before it on
February 13 to be formally charged with contempt. Immediately after the petition was rejected,
Prime Minister's lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters that Mr. Gilani would abide by the
summons and appear before the court on Monday. If held guilty of contempt, he could face loss
of office and a maximum of six months imprisonment. Disqualification from membership of
Parliament under Article 63 mandates a minimum of two years in prison. An eight-judge Bench,headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, dismissed the Prime Minister's petition
after a marathon argument by Mr. Ahsan.
Death sentence upheld in Mumbai blasts case:
The Bombay High Court on Friday confirmed the death sentence of three Lashkar-e-Taiba
operatives, including a couple, accused of the twin blasts in Mumbai in 2003 claiming the lives
of 52 persons and injuring over 100. Two bombs went off at the Gateway of India and Zaveri
Bazaar after the accused left them in the taxis to explode on August 25, 2003. It was the first
time that a married couple was involved in the attack. Five accused were arrested in the case.
They have been charged with two more terror attacks a bomb blast in a bus at Ghatkopar inJuly 28, 2003; and an unexploded bomb at the Seepz Bus Depot planted on December 2, 2002.
Special envoy leaves for Maldives:
The Government on Friday sent a special envoy, M. Ganapathi, Secretary (West) in the External
Affairs Ministry, to Male on Friday to assess the situation in the Maldives. Former
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President,Mohamed Nasheed, had claimed that he was ousted in a coup. I have sent an envoy
to Maldives to assess the situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters at the
India-EU summit here. Mr. Singh said that it was his sincere hope that the matter can be
resolved through peaceful dialogue.
India Show' starts in Lahore today:
Pakistan's Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim will inaugurate the three-day India
Show at Lahore Expo Centre. The show is being organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in collaboration with Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry
with support from Pakistan's Commerce Ministry and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. Nearly 150 Indian companies will showcase their products during the show and it is
expected that business deals could also be finalised. It will be the first bilateral visit by an Indian
Commerce and Industry Minister to Pakistan. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma
will walk into the Pakistan territory through the Attari-Wagah border on February 13 to take
part in the India Show celebrations and also hold bilateral talks with Mr. Fahim.
EDITORIAL
The Russians are leaving Russia:
Andrei and Nadezhda are, by any measure, successful professionals and a happy family. They
are the kind of people who are supposed to be the mainstay of new Russia and the driving force
of its resurgence. Except that they are planning to leave this country for good. They live in the
ancient Russian city of Vladimir, about 200 km east of Moscow. Andrei, 40, and Nadezhda, 36,
have decent jobs, a two-bedroom flat and a car, and are raising two daughters, aged 10 and 4.
Four years ago they took a firm decision to emigrate. Why? We don't see a future for us here,says Nadezhda. Once a military and industrial giant, our country today is reduced to a raw
material appendage to other economic powerhouses. Look at our shops: You won't find any
goods made in Russia. Our well-being depends on the price of oil and on decisions taken by
politicians and economists in other countries. We don't feel we are needed here.
According to the Federal Migration Service, almost 30,000 left Russia in the 11 months of last
year. However, the figure includes only those who gave up their Russian passports, whereas
most migrs retain Russian citizenship. The Auditing Commission, last year, estimated on the
basis of tax returns that almost 1.25 million Russians had left during the past decade. Other
estimates put the number of migrs at 2 million. The shocking fact is that the exodus from
Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union is comparable to that in the wake of the October
1917 Bolshevik revolution. In those days Russians fled violence and hunger.
Last month, the 250-year-old Gusevsky Crystal Glass Factory, the main employer and tax-payer
in Gus-Khrustalny, a town of 60,000 residents less than an hour's drive from Vladimir, went
bankrupt and fired its remaining workers. Once famous for its beautiful designer crystalware,
Gus-Khrustalny, which means Crystal Goose, has recently made headlines as a town controlled
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by criminal gangs. The scandal broke out when residents complained to Mr. Putin of mass
extortion racketing that was patronised by local police.
The paper reported a fire in a municipal district administration in Vladimir that destroyed all
ballot papers of the December parliamentary election from two polling stations, where Mr.
Putin's party received over 90 per cent of the votes (twice the average for Vladimir). What ismore, the two polling stations never opened on the election day. Police blamed the fire on
faulty electrical wiring.
What changes can we hope for in a country where authorities act with such impunity, asked
Nadezhda. Putin's decision to return as President has only strengthened our resolve to
emigrate.
A past that will not pass:
Consider this for the volatility of present times in Gujarat. On Wednesday, the Gujarat High
Court lit into the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of inaction and negligence resulting
in the destruction of over 500 Muslim places of worship during the 2002 post-Godhra pogrom.
Rejecting the State government's portrayal of the violence as a general reaction to the
February 27, 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar
Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala ordered compensation to be paid for the defilement
and destruction, noting that in the absence of police intelligence and appropriate preventive
action, anarchy had reigned unabated in Gujarat. Twenty-four hours after the
sledgehammer indictment came news of a different kind: Mr. Modi had been cleared of the
charge of abetting the 2002 violence in a final report filed to the magisterial court by the
Special Investigation Team probing Zakia Jafri's omnibus complaint against the Chief Minister
and 61 others.
But whatever the final view taken by the courts on his individual legal culpability for the tragedy
of Gujarat, Mr. Modi should know this much. The fact that he remained at best a mute
spectator to the killing of hundreds of innocent citizens and did nothing to ensure justice for the
victims afterwards is a moral and political badge of dishonour that will ensure the higher office
his supporters seek for him remains out of reach.
Murder in the classroom:
Many factors are at play, some of them at larger societal levels that are not easily controllable.
Blaming parenting is easy, but this is no more than a way of absolving the rest of society of all
responsibility. There is nothing to suggest the boy was brought up in abnormal circumstances;
all his siblings have done well for themselves. By locating the murder in the specificity of the
circumstances, other problematic issues are brushed under the carpet. Of course, parents bear
a greater share of the responsibility for the behaviour of their children, but bad parenting
cannot explain all deviant behaviour. While several things are wrong with our education
system, including the processes of examination and evaluation, these cannot be understood as
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major contributors to the violence in schools. Films and other forms of popular culture also
have an impact on young minds, but then again, it would be simplistic to relate them directly to
real-life violence. The fact is children do not occupy an innocent world of their own; they are
very much a part of the nasty, adult universe. At one level, then, the teacher's murder is
indicative of a collective failure of society our schools cannot remain untouched when the
world outside is not peaceful, fair and just. But we need also to pursue remedies at the schoollevel itself, including counselling and other early warning systems that can help children cope
with the stress and strain of learning.
OP ED
Pakistan's judiciary faces criticism for overreach':
One photograph that many a Pakistani newspaper had on Thursday morning was of lawyer
Aitzaz Ahsan driving the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to court during
the lawyers' movement for restoration of the higher judiciary. Once iconic, that photograph is
now ironic. Mr. Ahsan was the Chief Justice's counsel when he legally fought his removal by the
military ruler Pervez Musharraf. After the Supreme Court reinstated Mr. Chaudhry, the much
feted Mr. Ahsan vowed he would never appear before his former client. Unhappy with the
court's verdict in the memogate' case, Asma Jehangir risked being hauled up for contempt by
the Supreme Court to ask if this is the judiciary of the people or judiciary of the
establishment.
For diehard PPP supporters, the Supreme Court's prompt attention to some of the cases smacks
of its traditional anti-PPP bias, epitomised in what is referred to as the judicial murder of
party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Viewing the judicial activism in the context of jockeying for
power and influence in the formative phase of democratic transition, political analyst HasanAskari Rizvi warned that the increased tension between the elected executive and non-elected
Supreme Court could be used by the opposition to destabilise the government. Given the state
of affairs in the country and maintaining that the military's capacity should not be
underestimated, he wrote in Pakistan Today : In case of direct military intervention, the
superior judiciary will also be removed. Thus, the decline and discredit of democracy endangers
independent judiciary.
Paradise is perched on the edge of hell
The young man in the striped brown t-shirt had patiently waited his turn to put a question at a
giant gathering the Mumbai-based neo-fundamentalist preacher Zakir Naik addressed in Mal
on May 28, 2010. I'm a Maldivian, Mohamed Nazim said, [but] I am not a Muslim. He
demanded to know what Dr. Naik believed ought be his punishment under shari'a law.
Ever since September 2007, when a bomb targeting Chinese, Japanese and British tourists went
off in Mal's Sultan Park, security experts have feared a paradise for jihadists instead of
tourists. Its 1,200-plus islands are near-impossible to police, which means terrorists could use
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them as bases to target India's western seaboard and even Europe. The Maldives' New Islamist
movement came to be known as the Dot Coms, a reference to the online sources of
theological resources. Mr Jaleel's faction studied the works of Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin-
Laden's mentor and the Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder. In 2002, a study estimated that 11 of every
1,000 Maldives citizens was divorced against four in 1,000 in the United States, and 0.5 in
1,000 in Turkey, making it the worst country for marriages of 92 surveyed.
INTERNATIONAL
Ijaz permitted to record statement via video link:
As the Supreme Court's rejection of the Prime Minister's appeal sent Pakistan's political class
and analysts into a spin came news of the judicial commission on memogate' allowing
Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to record his statement via video link from
London thereby reviving a matter that appeared to have eased just last week.
Wen strikes a markedly different tone on Tibet:
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday greater efforts would be made by the government
to protect Tibetans' cultural traditions and religious freedom, amid ongoing unrest in the north-
west that has seen at least 16 self-immolation protests in recent months. Chen Quango,
Communist Party chief in Tibet, had said on Thursday an on-going fight against the Dalai Lama
clique was long-term, complicated and sometimes even acute.
Norbu was appointed by Beijing in 1995 in controversial circumstances in place of Gendun
Choekyi Nyima, who had earlier been selected by the Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of
the Panchen Lama. Nyima disappeared the same year, but is still worshipped by many Tibetansin China as the 11th Panchen. The Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since 1959, says he is only
seeking genuine autonomy for Tibetans and the protection of their religious and cultural rights.
Overseas groups reported in recent days four more self-immolation protests, as well as the
killing of two Tibetans, accused of being involved in recent clashes, by the police. These
incidents have however not been confirmed by the authorities.
Powerful bombings in Syria's most populous city Aleppo expand conflict:
Two powerful car bombings on Friday in Syria's most populous city of Aleppo has escalated the
nationwide contest for political ascendancy but also seemingly diverted some attention from
the embattled city of Homs where perceptions of gross human rights violations has put the
regime of President Bashar Al Assad firmly on the defensive.
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has also weighed in unambiguously against
the Assad regime, citing the humanitarian situation in Homs. I fear that the appalling brutality
we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim
harbinger of worse to come, he observed.
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Nuclear weapons: U.S. must put its house in order first, says report:
Even as the United States continues to exert pressure against India and other emerging powers
for not falling in line with its vision for a global nuclear order, a stinging report by a major
watchdog has revealed that the U.S.' own nuclear weapons are potentially unstable and critical
intra-agency guidance on maintaining nuclear safety has been vague. In a report that sharplychastised the nodal National Nuclear Security Administration for not sufficiently briefing the
Pentagon on dangers lurking within the U.S.' ageing nuclear weapons stockpile, the
Government Accountability Office this week drew attention to the euphemistically-named issue
of limitations.
The GAO's investigation into whether the NNSA had helped mitigate the 52 limitations it
identified revealed, worryingly, that the guidance that the NNSA had been supplying the
Pentagon on this subject comprised statements that... contain highly technical information
and vague wording and may not clearly communicate a limitation's potential impact on
stockpile operation, maintenance, and war planning. Citing one disturbing example based on
its interview with a military service lead project officer, the GAO said when this officer had
sought to clarify the impact that a particular limitation may have on weapon reliability with
officials at a national laboratory, his efforts were inconclusive and... for this particular
limitation, NNSA's guidance provides little additional technical information and concludes that
the weapon may not operate as required in a particular delivery mode, and the recommended
mitigation action is to have laboratory staff brief STRATCOM war planners.
BUSINESS
Numeric sells UPS business to Legrand in over Rs.800-cr deal:
Electrical equipment major Numeric Power Systems has decided to sell its UPS (uninterrupted
power system) business to Legrand Group of France for a total consideration of Rs.806.44
crore. Numeric Power has initialled a definitive agreement to this effect with the French Group.
It has also entered into a deal to sell Numeric Lanka Technologies, a fully-owned subsidiary of
Numeric Power Systems, to Indo-Asian Electric Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of Legrand France, for
Rs.9.36 crore .Numeric board also approved the sale of the UPS business undertaking of
Numeric Power System Pte. Limited (a 100 per cent subsidiary in Singapore), to a Singapore
affiliate of Legrand France S.A. for an aggregate consideration of $ 4.5 million.
Tata Motors to drive into Indonesia with Ace:
The next international stop for automobile giant Tata Motors is Indonesia where it plans to
soon start assembly of the successful Ace range of light commercial vehicles. We are looking at
Indonesia quite seriously which, in several ways, is a replica of the Indian market, P. M. Telang,
Managing Director (India Operations), Tata Motors.
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A top official of the company, however, said that the Ace will be the first model that the
company would assemble in the Southeast Asian country. This will be followed by passenger
vehicles, the official said. The knocked down kits of Ace meant for assembly in Indonesia will
be supplied from India. Tata Motors launched the Ace branded as Ace Super City Giant in
Thailand in November 2010. It has an assembly plant in Bangkok as a joint venture with the
Thonburi Group which assembles pick-up trucks for the Thai market.
Paperless insurance in a year: IRDA-
The insurance sector will be moving towards paperless model in a year, said Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman J. Hari Narayan here on Friday. About three
to four companies were shortlisted to manage the repository. To begin with, five crore to six
crore insurance policies taken by consumers in a year could be fed into the database while the
backlog data would be gradually ported, he said. It would function like National Securities
Depository Limited (NSDL) that handled most of the securities held and settled in
dematerialised form in the Indian capital market, he said.
DGH to extend search period in KG, Mahanadi basins:
Even as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is in the process of tying up with strategic
partners for collaboration, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has agreed to
extend the exploration period of major gas blocks, two each in the KG and Mahanadi basins,
to carry out further appraisal. In the KG-DWN-98/2 in the northern discovery area (NDA), the
period has been extended to 2013 and that of KG-DWN-98/2 in the south discovery area (SDA)
to end of 2012 to carry out appraisal. It has also agreed to extend the exploration period of two
Mahanadi blocks for carrying out appraisal in MH-OSN-200/2 and that of MN-DWN-98/3 to end
of 2012. ONGC plans to start producing natural gas from these blocks in the Bay of Bengal in2016-17. In-place gas reserves of 3.42 trillion cubic feet have been established in block KG-
DWN-98/2 in the KG basin. Of this, 1.904 trillion cubic feet (tcf) is recoverable. Seven of the
finds are in the Northern part of the block, where Cairn India holds a minority 10 per cent stake.
FDI worth Rs.1,034 cr cleared:
The Central Government on Friday approved 20 foreign direct investment proposals (FDI),
including that of Fluke South East Asia Pte, APF II India Investments Mauritius and Edict
Pharmaceuticals, that envisage a total investment of Rs.1,034.37 crore. The proposals were
cleared following recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The
government cleared Singapore-based Fluke South East Asia Pte's Rs.400 crore proposal to
incorporate an investing company to make downstream investments in other Indian firms
engaged in wholesale trading and related activities. Besides, the Board cleared a proposal of
Mauritius-based APF II India Investments Pvt Ltd's investment of Rs.300 crore.
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The proposal of Mauritius-based Multiples Private Equity Fund I Ltd seeking induction of foreign
equity worth Rs.50.94 crore for acquisition of equity shares of a company engaged in the
operation of automated and online power exchange was also cleared.
Analjit Singh to head Vodafone India:
Telecom major Vodafone has appointed Max India founder Analjit Singh as the non-executive
Chairman of its India operations. The appointment is effective from February 16 following
formal approval from the Board of Vodafone India. Mr. Singh is the founder and Chairman of
Max India as well as its subsidiaries such as Max New York Life Insurance Company, Max
Healthcare Institute and Max Bupa Health Insurance Company.
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Don't trade away our lives:
Because of the competition among generics producers in India, the price of first-line HIV
medicines has dropped by more than 99 per cent since 2000. This significant price decrease has
supported the massive expansion of HIV treatment worldwide. More than 80 per cent of the
HIV medicines used to treat 6.6 million people in developing countries come from Indian
producers, and 90 per cent of paediatric HIV medicines are Indian-produced. MSF and other
treatment providers also use Indian generic medicines to treat other diseases and conditions.
Existing trade rules already limit the possibility of making generic versions of new medicines,
but the EU-India FTA threatens to make this situation even worse, by creating new intellectual
property (IP) barriers, noted protestors. This trade deal would go far beyond what India has
agreed to at the World Trade Organisation. The EU wants India to agree to IP enforcement
measures that could block medicines at Indian ports on their way to patients in otherdeveloping countries, and could even draw treatment providers into court proceedings. These
provisions are designed to delay the entry of generic producers into the market and will
adversely affect the right to health of patients not only in India but across the developing
world, said Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit director Anand Grover.
Veteran film-maker O. P. Dutta passes away:
Veteran Bollywood writer-filmmaker O. P. Dutta has passed away following a bout of
pneumonia at Kokilaben Hospital here in suburban Andheri. The end came on Thursday night
around 9-30 p.m. According to Dr. Ram Narain, COOof Kokilaben Hospital, Mr. Dutta was
admitted to the hospital on February 7 and he succumbed to complications of pneumonia on
Thursday. The film-maker, who was in his late 80s, began his career as a director with Pyaar Ki
Jeet' in 1948, followed by Surajmukhi' (1950), Ek Nazar' (1951), Malkin' (1953), Aangan'
(1959) and others. Later he turned writer for his son J. P. Dutta with films like Ghulami'(1985),
Hathyar' (1989), Border' (1997), Refugee' (2000), LoC Kargil' (2003) and, his last film as a
writer, Umrao Jaan'(2006).
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No breakthrough in the Maldives:
The Indian government is suggesting that we find a peaceful path and amicable settlement.
And we are all trying to work out an amicable settlement, Mr. Nasheed said when asked abouthis meeting with the Indian envoy M. Ganapathi, who is Secretary (West) with the Ministry of
External Affairs. But he was firm on fresh Presidential elections, he told Mr. Ganapathi. Mr.
Nasheed told the U.N. delegation that anyone who went by the Maldivian Constitution would
support his position. His party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), would go it alone in the
elections, Mr. Nasheed said. He wanted the Speaker to act as the interim administrator for two
months, by which time, the elections could be held. Mr. Nasheed insisted that he was not
relying on the international community to do this. We are relying upon the people of the
Maldives to do this, he said. Dr. Waheed has been struggling to form a government. He does
not have a single member in parliament from his party, no councillors, and those who had
promised to join his Cabinet have not done so. But Abdulla Yameen, parliamentary party leader
of the Progressive Party of Maldives, and former President Gayoom's half-brother, said the
formation of a government and Cabinet took time. After all of the Cabinet resigned when
Nasheed was President, it took several days to form a Cabinet. Dr. Waheed is serious about
including all parties and making it a unity government in its truest sense,
Interceptor missile scores with direct hit:
India moved closer to the deployment of the fledgling, home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence
(BMD) system on Friday when an interceptor missile achieved a direct hit and destroyed an
incoming target missile at an altitude of 15 km over the Bay of Bengal. With this success, India
joined a select band of four countries which have ballistic missile defence capabilities.
India plans to put in place a two-tiered BMD system in two phases for endo and exo-
atmospheric interception of incoming enemy missiles. While the first phase seeks to intercept
and kill ballistic missiles having a range of less than 2,000 km, the second phase envisages
destroying those with ranges of more than 2,000 km. Another interceptor missile test for
interception in endo-atmosphere of an incoming target missile at an altitude of 120 km would
be conducted in the next few months. A new missile was being developed for that exercise and
it was in an advanced stage, he added.
Most advanced MCC deployed:
The Mission Control Centre for the AAD Interceptor trial held on Friday was deployed in
Master-Slave configuration at DRDO Hyderabad and Wheeler Island, Orissa to ensure high
availability with built-in fault tolerance at each location. The MCC of the Indian BMD
programme is one of the most advanced, automated net-centric Command and Control
systems in the world, a DRDO press release said.
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Redesign programmes taking States' needs into account, says Jairam:
The time has come to re-design and re-structure the approach to rural development by taking
into account specific needs of States, focussing more on the outcome, making drinking waterand sanitation as priority areas and above all making it as a tool in the government's political
and ideological fight against Naxalism, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh
said here on Friday. Stressing the need for giving freedom to States in selecting the priority area
after due considering of local needs, he noted that currently all States are treated identically
while evolving programmes. I want to give more freedom to States so that they can spend
money for the programmes that they select. By end of 12{+t}{+h}plan 50 per cent of the money
provided by Centre should be used for programmes selected by the States. I have suggested to
the Finance Minister that this year in the Budget 10 per cent of the funds be tied as flexi funds,
he said.
Pointing out that drinking water and sanitation were the two areas that did not get due
importance, he said it was a shame that 60 per cent of all open defecations are in India. There is
a need for a bold new thrust in the area of drinking water and sanitation. He said 70 per cent of
funds in MGNREGA was being spent for water conservation, rainwater harvesting and
watershed management programmes. Expressing dismay at the way the Centrally-sponsored
schemes were being implemented in States, Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office
V.Narayanasamy said there was a need for a system to be put in place to ensure that the
money was spent purposefully. Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy,
Social Welfare Minister P. Rajavelu, Electricity Minister T. Thyagarajan also attended the
inaugural session.