Civil Services Mentor Dec2012

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The Indian economy has tradi-tionally been an agrarian economy,where 70% of the population is de-pendent on agriculture as their pri-mary source of livelihood. Signifi-cantly, land is also the most essentialasset for the development andgrowth of any nation, particularly inthe infrastructure sector. To fulfill thissaid objective, the Government hasto acquire land under the Land Ac-quisition Act, 1894 and 18 other spe-cial Acts, which are applicable tovarious other sectors including High-ways, Railways and Ports.

Land acquisition and compen-sation have always been an emotionaland highly contentious issue be-tween the Government and landown-ers. Recent agitations and protestsby farmers and land owners againstthe Government for unfair compen-sation and forcible acquisition of landin Singur and Nandigram (W.Bengal),Jaitapur (Maharashtra) and GreaterNoida (U.P) have been witnessed bythe world.

After three rounds of vigorousdebate, a Group of Ministers has ap-proved the controversial Land Acqui-sition Bill, with few changes from theversion presented to the Union Cabi-net last month. This paves the way forthe Bill to be introduced in Parliamentin the winter session. Land acquisi-tion is the process by which the gov-ernment forcibly acquires privateproperty for public purpose withoutthe consent of the land-owner. It isthus different from a land purchase,in which the sale is made by a willingseller. Though land is a state subject,“acquisition and requisitioning ofproperty” is in the concurrent list.Both Parliament and state legislaturescan make laws on this subject. Thegovernment had introduced a Bill toamend this Act in 2007. That Billlapsed in 2009 at the time of the gen-eral elections. The government en-acted a new bill in 2011.

In a history spanning 117 yearsof pre and post Independence In-dia, for the first time an honest at-

tempt has been made by the Gov-ernment of India to outline an enact-ment for rehabilitation and resettle-ment of the landowners and farmers,whose land is to be acquired underthe new draft bill ‘The Land Acquisi-tion and Rehabilitation Resettlements(LARR) Bill 2011’. The said bill seeksto strike a fine balance between theneed for facilitating land acquisitionfor various public purposes, includ-ing infrastructure development, in-dustrialization and urbanization,while at the same time eloquentlyaddressing the apprehensions andfears of the landowners and farmersand those whose livelihoods are de-pendent on the land being acquired,by providing a transparent and legalframework aimed at adequately com-pensating people for the loss of theirland as well as ensuring the suitablerehabilitation of those who have beendisplaced.

The preamble to the Bill says ‘ADraft Bill to balance the need for fa-cilitating land acquisition for


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industrialisation, development of es-sential infrastructure facilities andurbanisation, while at the same timeto meaningfully address the concernsof farmers and those whose liveli-hoods are dependent on the landbeing acquired’. While the ultimateend of land use here is specified as amatter of public purpose the presentfunction of the land as meeting thepublic purpose of food security isdiluted to highlight it merely as a so-cial concern of the farmers. The issueis dealt as a case that can be solvedthrough monetary compensation.Only the social security aspect of thefarmers is focused here, though notcompletely, while the ecological andfood security aspects remain in thedark.

The preamble also claims thatthe draft bill aims to mitigate the ad-verse impacts on habitats and is sen-sitive to the natural resource base. Butthe claim is not reflected in theclauses that follow. It also speaksabout ensuring a humane, participa-tory, informed, consultative and trans-parent process of land acquisition andthe realization of a stage in which theaffected persons become partners indevelopment. It is true that the draftpolicy does have indications of be-ing more humane, participatory, con-sultative and transparent comparedto the existing law.

The issues raised here is to high-light how much more humane, par-ticipatory, consultative and transpar-ent it can aspire to be.

While appreciating the conceptof partnership in development, thenote also attempts to highlight thenature of development envisaged bythe policy makers and the extent ofpartnership offered to the stakehold-ers concerned.

LANDOWNER CONSENT

Despite sharp divisions over theconsent requirements, sources at theGoM indicated that the final draft saysonly two-thirds of landowners willhave to agree before land can beacquired for private sector projectsas well as joint private-public part-nerships. The original Bill had calledfor 80 per cent consent from bothlandowners as well as those whostood to lose their livelihood. Indus-try lobbyists had pushed for this re-quirement to be diluted. It is not clearwhat has been decided on the othercontroversial issue of retrospectiveeffect. The original Bill had stipulatedthat its compensation and rehabilita-tion provisions would apply retro-spectively to ongoing acquisitionswhich had not yet completed theprocess of land transfer under the oldLand Acquisition Act, 1894. Sourcessay this clause has been removed andinstead, a cut-off date — to be de-cided later — will be set for the newAct’s provisions to come into force.“The Bill is finalised. We have finalisedthe draft,” Agriculture MinisterSharad Pawar, who chaired the GoM,told journalists after the meeting. “Oneach and every issue where therewere different views, we succeededin bringing [about] some understand-ing.” The Bill, now named The Rightto Fair Compensation, Resettlement,Rehabilitation and Transparency inLand Acquisition Bill, was originallyintroduced in Parliament in Septem-ber 2011. Thereafter, it was referredto a Standing Committee. The Cabi-net, which considered a revised draftlast month, referred the Bill to theGoM after several Ministers objectedto provisions that were seen ashurdles to infrastructure develop-ment and investor sentiment.

Some Revolutionary Fea-Some Revolutionary Fea-Some Revolutionary Fea-Some Revolutionary Fea-Some Revolutionary Fea-tures of this Bill Impacting Ur-tures of this Bill Impacting Ur-tures of this Bill Impacting Ur-tures of this Bill Impacting Ur-tures of this Bill Impacting Ur-ban and Rural Areas:ban and Rural Areas:ban and Rural Areas:ban and Rural Areas:ban and Rural Areas:

• It mandates that the awardedcompensation amount is not lessthan twice that of the marketvalue determined, whereas inthe rural areas it will be not lessthan six times the original mar-ket value.

• It also proposes that the con-sent of 80% of the project-af-fected families will be manda-tory, if the Government pro-poses to acquire land for theuse by private companies forstated public purpose or PPPprojects other than that for na-tional highways.

• The draft bill further suggeststhat under no circumstancesshould multi-cropped, irrigatedland be acquired and most ofsuch land lies in the Indo-Ge-netic plains covering Punjab,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, WestBengal and Bihar.

• The draft bill also gives somerelief to the landowners by cre-ating a provision that it will notbe acquiring land for privatecompanies for their ‘privatepurpose’.Steering clear of the debate re-

garding the Government’s role in landacquisition, the draft bill offers landowners a bigger share of the rewardsof industrialization and urbanizationover and above the liberal compen-sation and huge award package forland owners that includes a subsis-tence allowance of INR.3,000/- perfamily per month for a year, INR50,000 for transportation, an annu-ity of INR.2,000/- per family permonth for 20 years, 20% of the ap-preciation in value of land during




each transaction for 10 years, andmandatory employment besides thepayment of 100% solatium against30% solatium of the existing Act. Thebill also considers the pain of thehomeless (including landless) land-owners and hence proposes a freeof cost constructed house on 150square metres of a housing site in ru-ral areas or 50 sq meters in urban ar-eas. The bill further provides thatwhere land is acquired for urbaniza-tion, 20% of the developed land willbe reserved and offered to land own-ers, in proportion to their land ac-quired.

Positive elements of thePositive elements of thePositive elements of thePositive elements of thePositive elements of theDraft policy at a glanceDraft policy at a glanceDraft policy at a glanceDraft policy at a glanceDraft policy at a glance

• Drive towards a national law toprovide for the resettlement, re-habilitation and compensationtowards loss of livelihoods

• Combining R&R and Land acqui-sition laws than treating themseparately as different entities

• Public purpose once statedcannot be changed in the caseof private companies

• Urgency clause initiated only forstrategic purposes and cases ofnatural calamity and in ‘rarest ofrare’ instances which is a goodattempt though the term stillappears to be vague

• Offer of various resettlementand rehabilitation benefits andmonetary compensation for theland lost

• The policy advocates that about25 infrastructural amenitiesshould be provided in the re-settlement area which includeSchools and playgrounds,Health Centres, Roads, electricconnections and drainage, Irri-gation and transportation facili-ties, Sanitation facilities, As-

sured sources of safe drinkingwater for each family and cattle,Anganwady, Places of worshipand burial and/or cremationground, Fair price shops andseed-cum-fertilizer storage fa-cilities, Grazing land, One com-munity centre for every 100families etc

• Compliance with laws like ThePanchayats (Extension to theScheduled Areas) Act, 1996,The Scheduled Tribes andOther Traditional Forest Dwell-ers (Recognition of ForestRights) Act, 2006, Land Trans-fer Regulations in Schedule VAreas which ensure that the lo-cal Panchayat and the Tribalpopulation have their say inmatters regarding land acquisi-tion. The only question iswhether the Grama Panchayatsin general areas will have a stakein the land acquisition process.

• Formation of LA&RR Disputesettlement authority in the Na-tional and state level; Formationof State Commissioner for RRand RR committee at theproject level – The institutionalsetup highlights the increasedsignificance of RR

• Return of land to original ownerif not used in 5 years for the pur-pose for which it is acquiredwith one-fourth of the awardamount for the land acquired

• The questions sought in the SIAlike, whether extent of landproposed for acquisition is theabsolute bare-minimum extentneeded for the project;whether less or non-displacingalternatives not technically orgeographically available signifi-cant in the process of land

acquisition• Multidisciplinary expert group

to assess the SIA and publicpurpose, consisting of two non-official social scientists, two ex-perts on rehabilitation and atechnical expert related to theproject

• Collector of the district, wherethe acquisition of land is pro-posed, should explore the pos-sibilities of utilising waste, de-graded, barren lands and thatthe agricultural land, especiallyland under assured irrigation isbeing acquired only as a last re-sort

• No notification shall be issuedunless the concerned GramSabha at the village level andequivalent forum in Urban Lo-cal Bodies, as the case may be,or Autonomous Councils in theSixth Schedule Areas havebeen consulted in all cases ofland acquisition

• If a Notification is not issuedwithin six months from the dateof appraisal of the Social ImpactAssessment report by the Ex-pert Committee then the sameshall be deemed to have lapsedand a fresh Social Impact As-sessment will have to be under-taken

• Acquisition would not be donein part of the house or buildingif owner desires that the wholeof the building is acquired.On the other hand, like every

act or bill there are pros and cons.Developers and analysts feel the draftbill will not only make land acquisi-tion difficult for industrialization andurbanization, but will also add to thealready high costs of private parties.The definition of ‘public purpose’




which has been provided is obscureand ambiguous; which might be-come the focus for future litigationsin court due to its interpretation andactual meaning during the practicalimplementation of the bill. Theleader of the National Alliance ofPeople’s Movement, Medha Patkarshowed her disagreement with theBill as it is riddled with contradictionsand suggested that “the adequatecompensation could be “land forland” and not cash as compensation.For a farmer the land is his livelihoodand no amount of cash can compen-sate him or her when land is acquiredfor any public cause.” The Constitu-tion of India guarantees the ‘Right toEquality’ and does not permit in-equality among its citizens; henceunless and until every land acquisi-tion is compensated for in the sameway, the Bill cannot do justice tothose who really need help. Thesame issue of inequality may also beracked up in the land acquisitionmade under 18 other special Acts,wherein the benefits of ‘Rehabilita-tion & Resettlement’ is not provided;the time for passing awards within thestipulated 2 years could also frustrateand be contradictory to the very pur-pose of this bill. Another major draw-back of this Bill is that the compensa-tion or value of the land is determinedin excess of estimated market value,which is totally unfeasible.

The Bill seeks to calculate themarket value as the average costsquoted over three years in various saledeeds. In actuality the rates of theproperty in India are always under-written in sale deeds and are totallyunrealizable, hence the deprivedlandowner/farmer shall never get theactual market rate. In respect of 80%consent for acquisition of land by

Government for private parties to ful-fill the ‘public purpose’, there arepossibilities that the actual land own-ers may be coerced (by local goons,touts or by the local leaders) whoforce them to give their consent, ashas been evident in various casesunder the ‘Slum Rehabilitation Act inMumbai wherein slum-dwellers wereforced to give their consents, so thatbuilder could construct buildings.

The draft Bill portrays a rosy pic-ture of ‘public welfare’ and also guar-antees a number of benefits to thosewho are willing to sell their lands;however, there is no perfect mecha-nisms to make certain that the af-fected people undeniably get theirrightful benefits. With so much ofconcern for the poor farmers or smallland owners, the draft Bill is still abuyer’s Bill, not a seller’s rights docu-ment. Hence, the bill must provide acomprehensive and balancedmechanism, which includes a fair andtransparent procedure for land acqui-sition and adequate welfare measuresto protect the rights of the deprivedlandowners and poor farmers, so thatthey could also voluntarily contributeto the growth of the nation instead ofcausing obstructions by agitating andprotesting. Such an objective is onlypossible, if the landowners and farm-ers are adequately compensated,their livelihood is secured and thattheir families are rehabilitated; onlythen will this bill fulfill the true objec-tive of a ‘Welfare Nation’ built by thepeople of India for the people of In-dia.

However, the ambiguity of theterm ‘public purpose’ continues toexist in the present draft policy. Orrather it is exactly this ambiguitywhich is made use of by the State asa weapon to justify any act of land

acquisition. The following categoriesare considered as public purpose –Strategic purposes, Infrastructureand Industry, Land acquired for R&Rpurposes, Development of village orurban sites for residential, health andeducation purposes, Land for privatecompanies for public purpose andneeds arising from natural calamities.Out of this, categories like Infrastruc-ture and Industry and land for privatecompanies for public purpose canbe really misused. These are oftenpassed off as public purpose initia-tives by offering employment oppor-tunities to the locals and highlightingregional development. But cases likeCochin International Airport Ltd withvery low state Government share,where Golf course and multiplexesare being built in the agricultural landacquired in the name of the airportand the Smart City in Cochin (IT park)where only 50 % of acquired landneed to be used for industrial pur-poses show how land acquired in thename of public purpose and withpublic money is exploited for privateinterests. In the present ambit any-thing and everything can be definedas public purpose and it is very muchpossible that private firms wouldmake undue gain out of the situation.

The draft bill states that the landacquisition can take place only if 80% of the project affected families giveconsent to the proposed acquisition.Though it is an appreciable and revo-lutionary decision if implementedgenuinely, fact is that this is appli-cable only for those acquisitionswhere land is being acquired for pri-vate companies for immediate use orend use. The consent of the projectaffected families doesn’t count whenGovernment acquires land for its ownuse, hold and control. This decision




is in complete negation of thepeople’s right to informed consentwhen the situation is that majority ofthe land acquisitions still take placefor state sponsored projects, espe-cially in Kerala.

The draft policy mandates thatSocial Impact Assessment should bedone by the appropriate Governmentin the Pre-notification stage andshould be examined by indepen-dent multi-disciplinary expert group.Also the legitimacy of the ‘publicpurpose’ and the SIA have to be ap-proved by the Government approvedcommittee. The R&R scheme has tobe finalized within 6 months of thepreliminary notification. But publichearing comes only in the Notifica-tion stage after Preliminary notifica-tion is published. After which theDraft Declaration and R&R scheme ispublished and Awards given.

Though the process do have positiveelements like checking the legitimacyof the public purpose given and con-ducting the SIA, it would no less ter-minate or reduce the issues that isgenerated during a land acquisitionprocess today.

The main flaw in the process isthe reduction of the concept of landto a social entity devoid of its eco-logical and productive properties.Though the draft says that the envi-ronmental costs, benefits and im-pacts are to be included in the re-port the focus of the SIA as detailedin the policy has its focus on socio-economic and institutional impacts.The draft says that the SIA report willbe made available when EIA is con-ducted in a later stage. What calls foris a multi-impact assessment, includ-ing environmental impacts, food se-curity impacts, livelihood impacts,

institutional impacts and other socialimpacts in the context of large scaleacquisition of agricultural lands, wet-lands and forest lands happening inthe country. The significance of En-vironment impact assessment beforeacquiring a wetland in Kerala is notnegligible considering the aspects ofwater conservation, food security andecological balance. But as per thepresent laws of the state, EIA is notmandatory before land acquisitionand need to be conducted only oncethe land is acquired and reclaimedand is made fit for industry. The issuehere is of reducing a larger ecologi-cal concern of wetland destructionto cases of air and water pollution thatany industry may bring about. ThePollution Control Board which comesto the scene in a later stage of theplay acts merely as a licensing agencyfor the industry to function.

Manjeet SinghManjeet SinghManjeet SinghManjeet SinghManjeet Singh




The Union Cabinet on 11 Octo-ber 2012 approved the introductionof Amendments to the IndecentRepresentation of Women (Prohibi-tion) Act, 1986 in Parliament underthe chairmanship of Prime MinisterManmohan Singh. The amendmentsproposed are as: (a) Broaden the scope of the law

to cover the audio-visual mediaand material in electronic formwhich includes Internet, satel-lite-based communication,multi-media messaging andcable television, among others.

(b) Penalties to be enhanced to amaximum of three years of im-prisonment and fine of between50000 to 100000 Rupees forfirst conviction, and imprison-ment of not less than two years,but which may extend to sevenyears, and a fine between100000 Rupees to 500000 Ru-pees for second conviction.

(c) Police officers not below therank of Inspectors authorized to

carry out search and seizure, inaddition to State and CentralGovernment officers authorizedby the State or Central Govern-ment.The Act was enacted in 1986

to prohibit the indecent representa-tion of women through advertise-ment, publication, writing, and paint-ing or in any other manner. With theincreased use of advanced technol-ogy and communication devices ineveryday life, the Government felt thescope of the Act should beamended. The amendments wereintroduced after consultations withstakeholders, including lawyers andcivil society organisations, on the draftBill.

Some Facts about Inde-Some Facts about Inde-Some Facts about Inde-Some Facts about Inde-Some Facts about Inde-cent representation of womencent representation of womencent representation of womencent representation of womencent representation of womenAct:Act :Act :Act :Act :

The act under its ambit covers:AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement which in -

cludes any notice, circular, label,wrapper or other document and alsoincludes any visible representation

made by means of any light, sound,smoke or gas.

DistributionDistributionDistributionDistributionDistribution which includesdistribution by way of sampleswhether free or otherwise.

Indecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representation o fwomen means the depiction in anymanner of the figure of a woman; herform or body or any part thereof insuch way as to have the effect of be-ing indecent, or derogatory to, ordenigrating women, or is likely todeprave, corrupt or injure the publicmorality or morals.

Label Label Label Label Label means any written,marked, stamped, printed or graphicmatter, affixed to, or appearing upon,any package. Package includes abox, a carton, tin or other container.

The Union Cabinet has con-sented to amend the “IndecentIndecentIndecentIndecentIndecentRepresentation of Women (Pro-Representation of Women (Pro-Representation of Women (Pro-Representation of Women (Pro-Representation of Women (Pro-hibition) Act, 1986hibition) Act, 1986hibition) Act, 1986hibition) Act, 1986hibition) Act, 1986” in Parliamentbroadening its scope and imposingstricter penalties. This law aims atcurbing indecent representation andincreased objectification of women




through advertisement, publication,writing and painting or in any othermanner.

In view of modern communica-tion channels development of newerforms of communication such asinternet and satellite-based commu-nication, multimedia messaging,cable television etc. , a need was feltto address such media such as mmsand internet- based platforms whichindulge in spreading messages, pic-tures and representations denigrat-ing the honour of women. By cover-ing these newer forms of communi-cations, more effective protectionwas sought for.

Some of the major changesSome of the major changesSome of the major changesSome of the major changesSome of the major changeseffected will be:effected will be:effected will be:effected will be:effected will be:[1 ][1 ][1 ][1 ][1 ] Audio-video and electronic

media covered[2 ][2 ][2 ][2 ][2 ] Enhanced penalties

a .a .a .a .a . First Conviction-First Conviction-First Conviction-First Conviction-First Conviction-threeyears of imprisonmentand fine of betweenRs.50,000 to Rs.1,00,000

b .b .b .b .b . Second Conviction-Second Conviction-Second Conviction-Second Conviction-Second Conviction- imprisonment of not lessthan two years, but whichmay extend to sevenyears, and a fine betweenRs.1,00,000 toRs.5,00,000

[3 ][3 ][3 ][3 ][3 ] Authorised government officersand police officers not belowthe rank of Inspectors autho-rized to carry out search andseizure.Some relevant Acts whichSome relevant Acts whichSome relevant Acts whichSome relevant Acts whichSome relevant Acts which

supplements Indecent Repre-supplements Indecent Repre-supplements Indecent Repre-supplements Indecent Repre-supplements Indecent Repre-sentation of Women (Prohibi-sentation of Women (Prohibi-sentation of Women (Prohibi-sentation of Women (Prohibi-sentation of Women (Prohibi-tion) Act, 1986:tion) Act, 1986:tion) Act, 1986:tion) Act, 1986:tion) Act, 1986:

11111. Press and Registration ofPress and Registration ofPress and Registration ofPress and Registration ofPress and Registration ofBook Act 1867Book Act 1867Book Act 1867Book Act 1867Book Act 1867

22222. The Information Technol-The Information Technol-The Information Technol-The Information Technol-The Information Technol-ogy Act, 2000ogy Act, 2000ogy Act, 2000ogy Act, 2000ogy Act, 2000: This Act hasmade provisions against

indecenet and inappropriaterepresentation of women.Section 67 of the IT ActSection 67 of the IT ActSection 67 of the IT ActSection 67 of the IT ActSection 67 of the IT Actreads as under: reads as under: reads as under: reads as under: reads as under: “Whoever publishes or transmitsor causes to be published in theelectronic form, any materialwhich is lascivious or appeals tothe prurient interest or if its ef-fect is such as to tend to de-prave and corrupt persons whoare likely, having regard to allrelevant circumstances, to read,see or hear the matter con-tained or embodied in it, shallbe punished on first convictionwith imprisonment of eitherdescription for a term whichmay extend to five years andwith fine which may extend toone lakh rupees and in theevent of a second or subsequentconviction with imprisonment ofeither description for a termwhich may extend to ten yearsand also with fine which mayextend to two lakh rupees. Theimportant ingredients of an of-fence under section 67 arepublishing, or transmitting, orcausing to be published, por-nographic material in the elec-tronic form.”

3 .3 .3 .3 .3 . The Indian Penal CodeThe Indian Penal CodeThe Indian Penal CodeThe Indian Penal CodeThe Indian Penal Code19601960196019601960 contains S. 292 whichdeals with the sale of obscenebooks, pamphlet, inter alia rep-resentation which shall bedeemed to be “lascivious orappeals to the prurient interest”,which can include obsceneadvertisements.

44444. In Young Person’s (HarmfulIn Young Person’s (HarmfulIn Young Person’s (HarmfulIn Young Person’s (HarmfulIn Young Person’s (HarmfulPublications ) Act,1956Publications ) Act,1956Publications ) Act,1956Publications ) Act,1956Publications ) Act,1956 ,harmful publications prettymuch covers this aspect.

5 .5 .5 .5 .5 . Cable Television NetworksCable Television NetworksCable Television NetworksCable Television NetworksCable Television Networks

(Regulation) Act, 1995(Regulation) Act, 1995(Regulation) Act, 1995(Regulation) Act, 1995(Regulation) Act, 1995: TheCable Television Networks(Regulation) Act, 1995 prohib-its the transmission of advertise-ments which derides any race,caste, color, creed and nation-ality. In Rule 7 (2) (vi) it statesthat no advertisement shall bepermitted which, “in its depic-tion of women violates Consti-tutional guarantee to all citizens.In particular, no advertisementshall be permitted which por-trays a derogatory image ofwomen. Women must not beportrayed in a manner that em-phasizes passive, submissivequalities and encourages themto play a subordinate, second-ary role in family and society.

6 .6 .6 .6 .6 . Article 21 of the Constitu-Article 21 of the Constitu-Article 21 of the Constitu-Article 21 of the Constitu-Article 21 of the Constitu-tiontiontiontiontion -Art.21 makes the en-forcement of the laws possibleby the initiation of a writ peti-tion in the Supreme Court orHigh Courts under Art.32 andArt.226 respectively.

7 .7 .7 .7 .7 . The Universal DeclarationThe Universal DeclarationThe Universal DeclarationThe Universal DeclarationThe Universal Declarationof Human Rightsof Human Rightsof Human Rightsof Human Rightsof Human Rights, Interna-tional Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights has recognizedthat human beings have dignityinseparable from them.

IMPORTANT CASE LAW

[a][a][a][a][a] In the landmark case of RanjitRanjitRanjitRanjitRanjitD. Udeshi Vs. State ofD. Udeshi Vs. State ofD. Udeshi Vs. State ofD. Udeshi Vs. State ofD. Udeshi Vs. State ofMaharashtraMaharashtraMaharashtraMaharashtraMaharashtra, a book-sellerwas booked under IPC for sell-ing unedited and unexpur-gated editions of “LadyChatterley’s Lover”. In this casethe court laid down what hascome to be known as ‘test ofobscenity”. It says that obscen-ity must not be judged by aword, here or a passage there.The work as a whole must be




looked into and seen as to howit impacts the society, readersas a whole.In the words of the court,“Where, obscenity and art aremixed, art must so preponder-ate as to throw the obscenityinto a shadow or the obscenityso trivial and insignificant that itcan have no effect and may beoverlooked. It is necessary thata balance should be maintainedbetween “freedom of speechand expression” and “publicdecency or morality”; but whenthe latter is substantially trans-gressed the former must giveway.”

[b ][b ][b ][b ][b ] In the case of ChadrakantChadrakantChadrakantChadrakantChadrakantKalyandas Kakodar Vs.Kalyandas Kakodar Vs.Kalyandas Kakodar Vs.Kalyandas Kakodar Vs.Kalyandas Kakodar Vs.State of MaharashtraState of MaharashtraState of MaharashtraState of MaharashtraState of Maharashtra, it heldthat there was no fixed rules to

determine obscenity.”The con-cept of obscenity would differfrom country to country de-pending on the standards ofmorals of contemporary soci-ety.”As per Section 1 of the “In-As per Section 1 of the “In-As per Section 1 of the “In-As per Section 1 of the “In-As per Section 1 of the “In-

decent Representation ofdecent Representation ofdecent Representation ofdecent Representation ofdecent Representation ofWomen (Prohibition) Act,Women (Prohibition) Act,Women (Prohibition) Act,Women (Prohibition) Act,Women (Prohibition) Act,1 9 8 6 : 1 9 8 6 : 1 9 8 6 : 1 9 8 6 : 1 9 8 6 :

“indecent representation ofwomen” means the depiction in anymanner of the figure of a woman; herform or body or any part thereof insuch way as to have the effect of be-ing indecent, or derogatory to, ordenigrating women, or is likely todeprave, corrupt or injure the publicmorality or morals.”

The medium for earlier repre-sentation were:

• notice, circular, label, wrapper

or other document and also in-cluded any visible representa-tion made by means of any light,sound, smoke or gas;

• “label” meaning any written,marked, stamped, printed orgraphic matter, affixed to, orappearing upon any package

• “package” including a box, acarton, tin or other container;The Amendments have broad-

ened the scope of the audio-visualmedia and materials in electronicform and enhanced penalties. Nowadvertisement in any form- mobileClip or CD will invite strict punish-ment. It is pertinent to note that TheNational Commission for Women hasthe power to initiate actions againstthe indecent Representation ofWomen.

Md. IsrarMd. IsrarMd. IsrarMd. IsrarMd. Israr

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In our eyes, nose and mouth, wehave sensors for light, odours andflavours. Within the body, cells havesimilar sensors for hormones and sig-nalling substances, such as adrenalin,serotonin, histamine and dopamine.As life evolved, cells have repeatedlyused the same basic mechanism forreading their environment: G-pro-tein–coupled receptors. But they re-mained hidden from researchers fora long time. In a human, tens of thou-sands of billions of cells interact. Mostof them have developed distinctroles. Some store fat; others registervisual impressions, produce hor-mones or build up muscle tissue. Inorder for us to function, it is crucialthat our cells work in unison, that theycan sense their environment andknow what is going on around them.For this, they need sensors. Sensorson the cell surface are called recep-tors. Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K.Kobilka are awarded the 2012 NobelPrize in Chemistry for having mappedhow a family of receptors called G-

protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs)work. In this family, we find recep-tors for adrenalin (also known as epi-nephrine), dopamine, serotonin, light,flavour and odour. Most physiologi-cal processes depend on GPCRs.Around half of all medications actthrough these receptors, among thembeta blockers, antihistamines and vari-ous kinds of psychiatric medications.Knowledge about GPCRs is thus ofthe greatest benefit to mankind.However, these receptors eludedscientists for a long time.

AN ELUSIVE ENIGMA

At the end of the 19th Century,scientists began experimenting withadrenalin’s effects on the body. Theysoon realised that it does not workvia nerves in the body and they con-cluded that cells must have some kindof receptor that enables them tosense chemical substances — hor-mones, poisons and drugs — in theirenvironment. But when researchersattempted to find these receptors,they hit a wall. They wanted to un-

derstand what the receptors look likeand how they convey signals to thecell. The adrenalin was administeredto the outside of the cell, and thisled to changes in its metabolism thatthey could measure inside the cell.Each cell has a wall: a membrane offat molecules that separates it fromits environment. How did the signalget through the wall? How could theinside of the cell know what was hap-pening on the outside? The recep-tors remained unidentified for de-cades. Despite this, scientists man-aged to develop drugs that specifi-cally have their effect through one ofthese receptors. In the 1940s, theAmerican scientist Raymond Ahlquistexamined how different organs re-act to various adrenalin-like sub-stances. His work led him to concludethat there must be two different typesof receptors for adrenalin. He calledthe receptors alpha a n d beta.Such drugs undoubtedly producedeffects in the cells, but how they didso remained a mystery. We now know




why the receptors were so difficultto find: they are relatively few in num-ber and they also are mostly encap-sulated within the wall of the cell. Itwas only at the end of the 1960s thatRobert Lefkowitz enters the historyof these receptors.

LURING RECEPTORS

The young top student has hismind set on becoming a cardiologist.However, he graduates at the heightof the Vietnam War, and he does hismilitary service in the US PublicHealth Service at a federal researchinstitution, the National Institutes ofHealth. There he is presented with agrand challenge: finding the recep-tors. Lefkowitz’s supervisor alreadyhas a plan. He proposes attaching ra-dioactive iodine to a hormone. Then,as the hormone binds to the surfaceof a cell, the radiation from the io-dine should make it possible to trackthe receptor. Lefkowitz would alsohave to show that the hormone’s cou-pling to the cell’s outside actually trig-gers a process known to take placeon the inside of the cell. Lefkowitzbegins working with adrenocortico-tropic hormone, which stimulates theproduction of adrenalin in the adre-nal gland. As the project enters itssecond year, Lefkowitz finally makessome progress. In 1970, he publishesarticles in two prestigious journalswhere he outlines the discovery ofan active receptor. He is recruited toDuke University in North Carolinawhere he begins working onadrenalin and noradrenalin, so-calledadrenergic receptors. Using radioac-tively tagged substances, includingbeta blockers, his research groupexamines how these receptors work.And after fine-tuning their toolkits,they manage with great skill to ex-tract a series of receptors from bio-

logical tissue. Meanwhile, the knowl-edge about what happens inside cellshas been growing. Researchers havefound what they call G-proteins(Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medi-cine 1994) that are activated by a sig-nal from the receptor. The G-protein,in turn, triggers a chain of reactionsthat alters the metabolism of the cell.By the beginning of the 1980s, sci-entists are starting to gain an under-standing of the process by which sig-nals are transmitted from the outsideof the cell to its inside.

NEW INSIGHTS

In the 1980s, Lefkowitz decidesthat his research group should try tofind the gene that codes for the betareceptor. This decision would proveto be crucial to this year’s Nobel Prize.The idea was that if the researchgroup could isolate the gene andread the blueprint for the beta recep-tor, they could get clues as to howthe receptor works. At about thesame time, Lefkowitz hires a youngdoctor, Brian Kobilka. Kobilka wantedto study the power of epinephrine inits smallest molecular detail. Kobilkaengages in the hunt for the gene.However, during the 1980s, trying tofind a particular gene in the body’senormous genome is a bit like tryingto find a needle in a haystack. How-ever, Kobilka has an ingenious ideathat makes it possible to isolate thegene. With great anticipation, the re-searchers begin to analyze its code;it reveals that the receptor consistsof seven long and fatty (hydropho-bic) spiral strings — so-called heli-ces. This tells the scientists that thereceptor probably winds its way backand forth through the cell wall seventimes. This was the same number ofstrings and same spiral shape as a dif-ferent receptor that already had been

found elsewhere in the body: thelight receptor rhodopsin in the retinaof the eye. An idea is born: couldthese two receptors be related, eventhough they have completely differ-ent functions? Robert Lefkowitz laterdescribed this as a “real eureka mo-ment”. He knew that both adrener-gic receptors and rhodopsin interactwith G-proteins on the inside of thecell. He also knew of about 30 otherreceptors that work via G-proteins.

ADRENALIN EFFECTS

After successfully having iso-lated the gene, Brian Kobilka trans-ferred to Stanford University Schoolof Medicine in California. There heset out to create an image of the re-ceptor — an unattainable goal in theopinion of most of the scientific com-munity — and for Kobilka, it wouldbecome a long journey. Imaging aprotein is a process involving manycomplicated steps. Scientists use amethod called X-ray crystallography.The first image of a crystal structureof a protein was produced in the1950s. Since then, scientists have X-rayed and imaged thousands of pro-teins. However, a majority of themhave been water-soluble, which fa-cilitates the crystallization process.Fewer researchers have managed toimage proteins located in the fattymembrane of the cell. In water, suchproteins dissolve just as poorly as oil,and they are prone to form fattylumps. Furthermore, GPCRs are bynature very mobile (they transmit sig-nals by moving), but inside a crystalthey have to remain almost com-pletely still. Getting them to crystal-lize is therefore a considerable chal-lenge. It took Kobilka over two de-cades to find a solution to all theseproblems. But thanks to determina-tion, creativity and molecular biology




sleight of hand, Kobilka and his re-search group finally achieved theirultimate goal in 2011: they got an im-age of the receptor at the very mo-ment when it transfers the signal fromthe hormone on the outside of thecell to the G-protein on the inside ofthe cell.

LIFE NEEDS FLEXIBILITY

The mapping of the over onehundred human receptors still pre-sents challenges to scientists, as their

purposes have yet to be figured out.Researchers have also found that theyare multifunctional; a single receptorcan recognize several different hor-mones on the outside of the cell. Thereceptors’ number and flexibility en-able the fine-tuned regulation of cellsthat life requires.

THE CONCLUSION

There has to be a complete fam-ily of receptors that look alike andfunction in the same manner! Since

this groundbreaking discovery, thepuzzle has been assembled bit by bit,and scientists now have detailedknowledge about GPCRs — howthey work and how they are regulatedat the molecular level. Lefkowitz andKobilka have been at the forefront ofthis entire scientific journey, and lastyear, in 2011, Kobilka and his team ofresearchers reported a finding thatput the crown atop their work.

Sandeep DograSandeep DograSandeep DograSandeep DograSandeep Dogra

IAS PCS

K.UJJWALby

250 Probales a book on G.S. Available

E-mail : [email protected] Website : www.ujjwalias.in




National IssuesNational IssuesNational IssuesNational IssuesNational IssuesCABINET RESHUFFLE IN INDIA

The Cabinet Reshuffle that tookplace on 28 October 2012 witnessedreshuffling of 5 ministers along with17 new faces, which were inductedto take on the charge. All these 22ministers would take the charge oftheir new offices, on 29 October2012. Few of the most importantnames in this cabinet reshuffle wasthe lifting of the former Law MinisterSalman Khurshid to External AffairsMinister of India, and Ajay Maken,who has been promoted to CabinetRank and got the Ministry of Housing

& Urban Poverty Alleviation. ThePresident of India, Pranab Mukherjeeappointed and administered theoaths of the office and its secrecy tothe newly elected members in thecouncil of ministers following theadvice of the Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh. The President fol-lowing the advice of the Prime Minis-ter directed the change of portfoliosof different ministers. There areseven new faces in the list of cabinetminister and they include K. RahmanKhan was given Minority Affairs,Dinsha J. Patel was given Mines,

whereas Ajay Makentook the charge ofHousing & UrbanPoverty Alleviation,M.M. Pallam Rajutook over HumanResource Develop-ment, AshwaniKumar took over theLaw & Justice,Harish Rawat gotWater Resources,

and Chandresh Kumari Katoch be-came got the portfolio of Culture.

Two new members were in-ducted in the list of Ministers of Statewith Independent Charge and theyare Manish Tewari for Information &Broadcasting and Dr. K. Chiranjeevifor Tourism. New faces in the list ofMinisters of State to be included wereShashi Tharoor getting Human Re-source Development, KodikunnilSuresh got the charge of Labour &Employment, Tariq Anwar becamethe incharge of Agriculture & FoodProcessing Industries, K. J. SuryaPrakash Reddy got the Railways andRanee Narah took over the Tribal Af-fairs. Few more of the names in thislist for Ministers of State as new facesto be inducted includes AdhirRanjan Chowdhury also got Railways,A.H. Khan Choudhury took overHealth & Family Welfare, SarveySathyanarayana would handle theRoad Transport & Highways, ShriNinong Ering would take the chargeof Minority Affairs, Deepa Dasmunsi




got the Urban Development, PorikaBalram Naik took charge Social Jus-tice & Empowerment, Kruparani Killibecame Communications & Informa-tion Technology and Lalchand Katariagot Defence. List of total Ministers in different seg-

ment:• Cabinet Ministers- 17 • Ministers of State with Indepen-

dent Charge- 7• Minister of State- 20

Portfolios of the newly-electedand reshuffled ministers are men-tioned below:

List with portfolio allottedList with portfolio allottedList with portfolio allottedList with portfolio allottedList with portfolio allottedof the Cabinet Ministers:of the Cabinet Ministers:of the Cabinet Ministers:of the Cabinet Ministers:of the Cabinet Ministers:

• M. Veerappa Moily- Petroleum& Natural Gas

• S. Jaipal Reddy- Science &Technology and Earth Science

• Kamal Nath- Urban Develop-ment & Parliamentary Affairs

• Vayalar Ravi- Overseas IndianAffairs

• Kapil Sibal- Communications &Information Technology

• C.P. Joshi- Road Transport &Highways

• Kumari Selja- Social Justice &Empowerment

• Pawan Kumar Bansal- Railways• Salman Khursheed- External

Affairs• Jairam Ramesh- Rural Develop-

ment• K. Rahman Khan- Minority Affairs• Dinsha J. Patel- Mines• Ajay Maken- Housing & Urban

Poverty Alleviation• M.M. Pallam Raju- Human Re-

source Development• Ashwani Kumar- Law & Justice• Harish Rawat- Water Resources• Chandresh Kumari Katoch- Cul-

ture

List with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theMinisters of State with Indepen-Ministers of State with Indepen-Ministers of State with Indepen-Ministers of State with Indepen-Ministers of State with Indepen-dent Charge:dent Charge:dent Charge:dent Charge:dent Charge:

• Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia-Power

• K.H. Muniappa- Micro, Small &Medium Enterprises

• Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki-Drinking Water & Sanitation

• Sachin Pilot- Corporate Affairs• Jitendra Singh- Youth Affairs &

Sports• Manish Tewari- Information &

Broadcasting• K. Chiranjeevi- Tourism

List with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theList with portfolio allotted of theMinisters of State:Ministers of State:Ministers of State:Ministers of State:Ministers of State:

• E. Ahamed- External Affairs• D. Purandeswari- Commerce &

Industry• Jitin Prasada- Defence & Human

Resource Development• S. Jagathrakshakan- New & Re-

newable Energy• R.P.N. Singh- Home• K.C. Venugopal- Civil Aviation• Rajeev Shukla- Parliamentary

Affairs & Planning• Shashi Tharoor- Human Re-

source Development• Kodikunnil Suresh- Labour &

Employment• Tariq Anwar- Agriculture &

Food Processing Industries• K. J. Surya Prakash Reddy- Rail-

ways• Ranee Narah- Tribal Affairs• Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury- Rail-

ways• A.H. Khan Choudhury- Health &

Family Welfare• Sarvey Sathyanarayana- Road

Transport & Highways• Ninong Ering- Minority Affairs• Deepa Dasmunsi- Urban Devel-

opment

• Porika Balram Naik- Social Jus-tice & Empowerment

• Kruparani Killi- Communica-tions & Information Technology

• Lalchand Kataria- DefenceIMPORTANT INFORMATION

In the Article 74 of the Indianconstitution it is mentioned that theirshall be a Council of Ministers withthe Prime Minister as its head to aidand advise the President for exercis-ing his functions. It is mentioned un-der Article 75 of the Indian constitu-tion that the President is the personwho can appoint, the Prime Ministerand the other ministers shall be ap-pointed by the President followingthe advice the Prime Minister. In the91st Amendment of Indian Constitu-tion, insertion of Article 75 (1 A) tookplace and it states that total numberof Ministers in the list of council ofministers including the Prime Minis-ter shall not exceed 15 percent ofthe total strength of the members ofLok Sabha (House of People).

NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE BOARD

The Union Cabinet on 18 Octo-ber 2012 gave its nod for setting upof the National Automotive Board(NAB). The body will be responsiblefor promoting the research and de-velopment activities of the industryand act as a facilitator in between theindustry and the government.

NAB would also be responsibleas a specialized body to promote sus-




tainable development of the Nation’sAuto Sector along with skill develop-ment for the automobile sector.

SUPREME COURT WORRIED ABOUT

THE STATUS OF GROWING POLLUTION

IN YAMUNA

Supreme Court on 10 October2012 expressed its serious concernsover Yamuna and the growing rate ofpollution in its water although a hugesum of about 1800 crore rupees hadbeen spent on containing pollutionin the river. The Supreme Court ofIndia on issues of pollution in RiverYamuna criticized to the Centre andGovernments of Haryana, UttarPradesh and Delhi. The Bench of Jus-tices Swatanter Kumar and Madan B.Lokur in its statement said it an unfor-tunate event that without showing anyimprovement in the quality of watersuch a huge public fund has beeninvested. Investments made by theCenter, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana forcleaning the water of Yamuna till datewas 1062 crore, 219 crore and 200crore rupees, respectively.

The bench considering the re-port issued by the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB), which pointsout the growing concentration ofpollutants along the stretch of river,directed the Secretary of Union Ur-

ban Development Minister and chiefsecretaries of the three state alongwith civic bodies and concernedministries to file a report in detail,about the works undertaken by themfrom Hathnikund to Agra, so far. Thereport measured coli content to be17 billion per 100 ml in Delhi, sinceMarch 2012. This Bench of SupremeCourt ordering, the concerned au-thorities to be present in the court onthe next hearing on 30 October 2012made it clear that the report shouldcontain the number of sewage treat-ment plants installed and functionalon the sewers that join the river, mayit be domestic, industrial or otherwaste that joins the river. It also di-rected the states and the center topresent the names of their represen-tatives for being included in the ex-pert committee that would be con-stituted to suggest the future actionplan to control pollution in Yamuna.NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON DIRECT

CASH TRANSFERS

The Union Government on 25October 2012 constituteda National Committee on DirectNational Committee on DirectNational Committee on DirectNational Committee on DirectNational Committee on DirectCash Transfers.Cash Transfers.Cash Transfers.Cash Transfers.Cash Transfers. The committeewould be responsible to coordinatein development of the process formaking the transfer of the cash di-

rectly to the indi-viduals, being pro-vided under differ-ent types of govern-ment schemes andprograms. ThePrime Minister of In-dia, ManmohanSingh would be theChairperson of thecommittee and thegroup of memberswould includeeleven Cabinet Min-

isters, two Ministers of State with in-dependent charge, the DeputyChairman Planning Commission, theChairman UIDAI, the Cabinet Secre-tary with the Principal Secretary tothe PM as the convenor. The PrimeMinister can invite some more offic-ers, minister or any expert for thecommittee’s meet.

Proposed tasks of the Na-Proposed tasks of the Na-Proposed tasks of the Na-Proposed tasks of the Na-Proposed tasks of the Na-tional Committee on Direct Cashtional Committee on Direct Cashtional Committee on Direct Cashtional Committee on Direct Cashtional Committee on Direct CashTransfers are: Transfers are: Transfers are: Transfers are: Transfers are:

a) With a clear objective of estab-lishment of transparency, ac-countability and efficiency inthe process the committeewould guide and provide a vi-sion and direction for enablingthe cash transfers directly toensure that the individuals arebenefitted by the schemes andprograms being run by the Gov-ernment. They would also con-trol the investments being madein the Aadhaar Project that in-cludes the financial initiatives ofthe government.

b) Policy objectives and strategieswould be determined andframed by the committee fordirect cash transfers c) Identification of the schemes

and programmes of the Governmentin which the process of direct trans-fer of cash to individuals can beadopted and formulated for the coun-try

d) The committee would be re-sponsible for coordination ofactivities of all the departments,ministries and agencies that areinvolved in the process of trans-ferring cash to make sure that acoordinated action for ensuringspeedy roll-out of the cashtransfers directly without delayacross the country




e) The committee would be re-sponsible for specifying thetimeliness on the cash transfersof the deliverables

f) It would be responsible for re-viewing the process for imple-mentation of direct cash trans-fer as well as guide the mid-termcorrections on it

g) All shots of matter related to itTo assist the National Commit-

tee on the issue of Direct Cash Trans-fer, an Executive Committee forExecutive Committee forExecutive Committee forExecutive Committee forExecutive Committee forDirect Cash Transfer Direct Cash Transfer Direct Cash Transfer Direct Cash Transfer Direct Cash Transfer under thechairmanship of Prime Ministers’ Prin-cipal Secretary is constituted alongwith the Secretaries of the con-cerned Ministries and the DG UIDAI.Convenor for this committee wouldbe the Secretary of the PlanningCommission.

The Executive Committee onDirect Cash Transfers would be re-sponsible for:

a) The Executive Committeewould be responsible for devel-opment of propose after iden-tification of the programs andschemes for which the directcash transfers to Individuals canbe opted for. These recommen-dations would be sent for con-sideration of the National Com-mittee on Cash Transfers. It isalso responsible for suggestingthe extent and scope of cashtransfer in every case.

b) It would be responsible forpreparation of strategies and itsapproval in form of action plansfor speedy transfer of the DirectCash on the areas highlightedand agreed upon, being in linewith the deadlines set by theNational Committee on cashtransfers

c) The Executive Committee

would be responsible for coor-dination of activities betweenthe ministries, departments andagencies, which are involveddirect cash transfers by helpingthem in being able to transferthe cash directly across thenation

d) Direct cash transfers would bereviewed by the executivecommittee and it is responsiblefor offerings suggestions relatedto mid-term corrections, when-ever necessary.

e) It is responsible for handling allthe matters what so ever wouldbe delegated by the NationalCommittee or something re-lated to direct cash transfersThe Chairman of the Committee

can call experts or officers to anymeet of executive committee if re-quired. Planning Commission, wouldbe servicing both the National Com-mittee and the Executive Committeeand it may seek assistance from dif-ferent ministries, departments andagencies of the Government, as re-quired. An officer would be desig-nated from the planning commissionof the Joint Secretary Rank of the plan-ning commission for coordinating andservicing the work of both the Na-tional and Executive committees. For finalisation of the operational de-tails and its implementation in rela-tion to the designing of the direct cashtransfer system and its smooth imple-mentation and operations MissionMode Committees would be consti-tuted.

The notifications of theThe notifications of theThe notifications of theThe notifications of theThe notifications of theMission Mode would be issuedMission Mode would be issuedMission Mode would be issuedMission Mode would be issuedMission Mode would be issuedsoon and it may constitute:soon and it may constitute:soon and it may constitute:soon and it may constitute:soon and it may constitute:

a) To concentrate on the paymentarchitecture, technology and ITissues a TechnologyTechnologyTechnologyTechnologyTechnology

Committee Committee Committee Committee Committee would be devel-oped

b) To ensure universal access tobanks and assure a complete fi-nancial inclusion a FinancialFinancialFinancialFinancialFinancialInclusion Committee Inclusion Committee Inclusion Committee Inclusion Committee Inclusion Committee is be-ing framed out

c) Implementation CommitteeImplementation CommitteeImplementation CommitteeImplementation CommitteeImplementation Committeeon Electronic Transfer ofon Electronic Transfer ofon Electronic Transfer ofon Electronic Transfer ofon Electronic Transfer ofBenef i ts Benef i ts Benef i ts Benef i ts Benef i ts would be devel-oped at ministry or departmentlevel for working out on the de-tails of the transfer of the cashof every payment in the database, this would also control acash transfer rule along with theaudit mechanismThe National Committee onThe National Committee onThe National Committee onThe National Committee onThe National Committee on

Direct Cash Transfer’s compo-Direct Cash Transfer’s compo-Direct Cash Transfer’s compo-Direct Cash Transfer’s compo-Direct Cash Transfer’s compo-sition is as follows:sition is as follows:sition is as follows:sition is as follows:sition is as follows:

a) Prime Minister will head thecommittee as its Chairperson

b) Finance Ministerc) Minister of Communications &

ITd) Minister of Rural Developmente) Minister of Social Justice &

Empowermentf) Minister of Human Resource De-

velopmentg) Minister of Tribal Affairsh) Minister of Minority Affairsi) Minister of Health & Family Wel-

farej) Minister of Labour & Employ-

mentk) Minister of Petroleum & Natural

Gasl) Minister of Chemicals & Fertiliz-

ersm) Deputy Chairman, Planning

Commissionn) Minister of State (i/c) of Women

& Child Developmento) Minister of State (i/c) of Food &

Public Distributionp) Cabinet Secretary




q) Chairman, UIDAIr) Principal Secretary to PM will be

the Convenor of the committeeIGMRI AND CWC SIGNED MOUFOR POST HARVEST MANAGEMENT

OF FOODGRAINS

Department of Food & PublicDistribution under Ministry of Con-sumer Affairs, and Central Warehous-ing Corporation (CWC) on 25 Octo-ber 2012 signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) for creating aCentre of Excellence focusing oncapacity building in the areas of postharvest management of food grain byproviding training on latest develop-ments to the aspirants internationally.The MOU was signed by S. Gupta,Director of Indian Grain Storage Man-agement and Research Institute(IGMRI), Hapur on behalf of Depart-ment of Food & Public Distributionand G. Mathialagan, Director of CWC.As per the Memorandum of Under-standing, CWC is going to take overthe management of training functionsand related facilities of IGMRI, anddevelop it as a centre of excellencefor the purpose of training in postharvest management of foodgrainsand other agricultural commodities.The MOU was signed for a period offive years which is effective from 25thOctober, 2012. The MOU ideates thatCWC will develop IGMRI, Hapur asan institution of excellence to attractoverseas participants from SAARCnations, neighbouring countries fortraining on post harvest managementof food grain.AUTONOMY FOR THE HILLS COUNCIL

IN ASSAM

Tripartite Memorandum ofSettlement (MoS) was signed on 9October 2012 for providing au-tonomy for the North Cachar HillsAutonomous Council in Assam and a

special package for speedier socio-economic development of the area.It was signed between Centre, Assamgovernment and both factions ofDima Halam Daogah(DHD). DHDused to be a group with violent ac-tivities in the state but gave up vio-lence and resorted to peace for get-ting into the mainstream of develop-ment. Under the MoS, a committeewill be constituted to deal with thematters relating to the 6th schedulecouncils. Under the agreement, theDHD will dissolve as an organizationwithin a reasonable timeframe as aprecursor to the government initiat-ing further process to implement theagreed decisions.

4000 CRORE PLAN TO TACKLE

JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS

The Union Cabinet of India on18 October 2012 approved a 4038-crore Rupees comprehensive multi-pronged plan for prevention andcontrol of Japanese Encephalitis (JE)and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome(AES) in the country. The plan willimplemented in Uttar Pradesh, WestBengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Assamwithin five years from 2012-13 to

2016-17. The Plan is going to bejointly implemented by the Ministriesof Health and Family Welfare, Drink-ing Water and Sanitation, Social Jus-tice and Empowerment, Housing andUrban Poverty Alleviation andWomen and Child Development. Theproposal for Prevention and Controlof Japanese Encephalitis came afterthe recommendation of Group ofministers (GoM) to Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare. For making up asum of 4000 crore rupees for Contri-bution, the biggest component of2301.57 crore of Rupees is given by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sani-tation while the Health ministry’s con-tribution is of 1131.49 crore of ru-pees. Also, The Ministry of Social Jus-tice and Empowerment will put in9.19 crore of rupees with the Minis-try of Housing and Urban Poverty Al-leviation contributing 418 crore ofRupees and Ministry of Women andChild Development 177.85 crore ofrupees.What is Japanese Encephalitis?

Japanese Encephalitis is a dis-ease caused by the mosquito-borneJapanese encephalitis virus. The En-cephalitis disease is mainly prevalentin Southeast Asia and the Far EastJapanese encephalitis (JE) is one ofthe main cause of viral encephalitisin Asia, with 30,000–50,000 casesreported annually. Case-fatality ratesrange from 0.3% to 60% which de-pends on the population and on age.Japanese Encephalitis and AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome had alreadytaken almost 1000 lives in India in2012 .

Also, there is not any specifictreatment for Japanese encephalitisand treatment is supportive; with as-sistance given for feeding, breathingor seizure control as required.




CHILDREN IN INDIA 2012 - ASTATISTICAL APPRAISAL REPORT

The Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation releasedon 9 October 2012 a report namedChildren in India 2012 - A StatisticalAppraisal, showcased the griming sta-tus of children in India. The report inits finding pointed out a growth ofpopulation by 181 million people,between 1991 to 2011 and at thesame time also a huge reduction of5.05 million of child in the age groupof 0 to 6 years. And among this thedecline in female population report-edly was 2.99 million and of malepopulation was 2.06 million. The re-port indicates a huge dip in the sexratios of child, increased crime andtroubles against the girl child andcontinued child labour that is consti-tutionally believed to be a socialcrime. As per the report there was a24 percent increase in reported crimeagainst children in the year 2011. Inthis list of crime against children UttarPradesh took the first position with16.6 percent share followed by stateslike Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. 47percent kidnapping cases were re-ported in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi,where as 44.5 percent of child rapecases were reported in the states ofMadhya Pradesh, Maharashtra andUttar Pradesh.

The report also presented a dipof child sex ratio from 945 to 914 in aperiod of two decades in between1991 to 2011, when the graph of over-all sex ratio showcasing improvement

climbed from 927 to 940. In this re-port the identified states with lowestsex ratio were Haryana (830), Punjab(846), Jammu and Kashmir (859),Delhi (866) and Chandigarh (867) ina chronological order. North-easternstates, like Meghalaya and Mizoramremained at top position with maxi-mum (970). This report is preparedby making the comparisons on dif-ferent standards like rural vs urban,north vs south and northeast vs restof India. The findings of the reportpresents a shocking data of no North-ern state except Himachal Pradeshhad its presence in the sex-rationchart above 900. It also presents anindicator of the birth-ration of a girlchild as compared to that of the malebirths per 1000 to be 832 in Punjaband 848 in Haryana due to the im-pacts of female foeticide prevalentin the region. Uttar Pradesh with15.22 percent share in the chart ofchild labour stood at top position andis followed by Andhra Pradesh.Youthful crimes of children have alsobeen raised as the issue of seriousconcern in the report, and Tamil Naduwith 672 cases per 1000, took thelead in the chart with its share of 23.7percent as a whole.

FRESH SURVEYS TO IDENTIFY

BONDED LABOUR PROBLEMS

The Supreme Court of India on15 October 2012 directed all statesand Union Territories to conductfresh surveys to identify bondedlabour problems in the country andregretted that a large number of chil-dren continue to work as domestichelp even after the enactment of theRight to Education Act (RTE act).

A bench of justices K SRadhakrishnan and Dipak Misra ruledin a judgment that it shall be the dutyof the local bodies and panchayats

to identify such children and ensurethat they get proper education. Re-ferring to bonded labour practice, theapex court noted that after the pe-rusal of the NHRC (National HumanRights Commission) and other reportsit is clear that the practice is rampant.The court passed the directionswhile dealing with a 1985 PIL filedby Public Union For Civil Liberties,highlighting bonded labour practicein the country.

OPINION POLLS BANNED DURING

ASSEMBLY ELECTION IN GUJARAT

AND HPThe Election Commission on 19

October 2012 issued a complete banon broadcast and publication of theopinion polls during the period ofAssembly Elections in the two statesGujarat and Himachal Pradesh, from4 November 2012 to 17 December




2012. The election commission hasprohibited the publication or pub-lishing of the polls or any electionmatter by means of electronic me-dium, print or any other medium from8 am on 4 November 2012 inHimachal Pradesh and the ban wouldcontinue up to 5:30 pm on 17 De-cember 2012 the last day of poll inGujarat. The Election Commissionalso ordered a ban on display of anymatter related to elections on any ofthe electronic broadcast platformswithin fixed 48 hours before the con-clusions of the elections following theabove mentioned election results. The Representation of the PeopleAct, 1951 under Section 126 regu-lates prohibition on display or broad-cast of any matter related to electionsby any means like television or some-thing similar to it, within 48 hours andtill the time of conclusion of the pollsin the provided constituency. TheElection matter means any materialthat can influence, calculate or intendto influence the results of electionand violation of the ban as mentionedunder Section 126 of the Represen-tation of People Act, 1951 is a pun-ishable offence and the person be-hind this would be liable to a finepenalty or a two years imprisonmentor both.RAILRADAR, WEBSITE LAUNCHED BY

THE RAILWAYS

RailRadar, the new online appli-cation was launched by the IndianRailways on 10 October 2012, to findout the location of 6500 trains on real-time basis on Google Map. It can beaccessed from the websitetrainenquiry.com. To identify the trainrunning status that whether the trainis running on-time or late from itsschedule, color codes have beencreated. Blue color is a code for trains

running on time and red markers arethe symbol of trains running behindschedule. On clicking upon the nameof the train, the map will show theroute along with stoppages and run-ning status of the train on real time-basis. At present, out of 10000 trainsthat depart from different stations ofIndia 6500 trains would be visible onthe map at present. This website isfull of different features and allowstracking the exact location of the trainacross the country apart from provid-ing its running status. After spottingthe train once, one can also learn thetrains departure time from previoustwo crossed stations and the distanceof the next two stations from thetrains’ location along with the ex-pected time of its arrival. The initia-tive is a pilot project and soon it willbe made a permanent feature.

INDIA AND WORLD BANK SIGNED

DEAL FOR SHIKSHA ABHYAN

World bank and the Govern-ment of India on 5 October 2012signed a loan agreement of 500 Mil-lion US Dollar for Secondary Educa-tion Project named RashtriyaMadhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).The project is going to help in achiev-ing increased and good quality sec-ondary education as directed in theframework of Rashtriya MadhyamikShiksha Abhiyan, the flagship govern-ment of India program for gradual

Universalisation of secondaryeducation. The agreeement wassigned by Prabodh Saxena, thejoint secretary, department ofeconomic affairs and Onno Ruhl,the country director of WorldBank.What is RashtriyaMadhyamik ShikshaAbhiyan?

Like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), the Department of SchoolEducation and Literacy of the Minis-try of Human Resource Development(MHRD) under Government of Indiais launching Rastriya MadhyamicShiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) with an aimto achieve Universal Access and Qual-ity Secondary Education. UnderRashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan,the responsibility to develop Sec-ondary-Education Management In-formation system (SE-MIS) is given tothe Department of Educational Plan-ning, National University of Educa-tional Planning and Administration(NUEPA), New Delhi.

CCEA LIFTED EXPORT BAN ON

SOME MILK PRODUCTS

The Union Government body,Cabinet Committee on EconomicAffairs (CCEA) on 1 November 2012lifted the export ban on milk prod-ucts, especially on whole milk pow-der (WMP), dairy whitener, infant milk




foods and other milk products tillMarch 2013. In February 2011 tomeet the domestic supply of MilkProducts the Union government hadimposed ban on export of all kinds ofmilk products that is skimmed milkpowder (SMP), whole milk powder(WMP), dairy whitener, infant milkfoods, casein and casein products.However the ban was withdrawn infor Casein in April 2012 and forSkimmed Milk Powder (SMP) in June2012. The decision of withdrawingthe export ban was taken in to con-sideration by CCEA after acknowledg-ing the flush season of milk thatstarted in October which had im-proved the supply of milk within thecountry. As per the Government Sta-tistics, there is a stock of 1.12 lakhtonnes of milk powder in the coun-try. As much as 300 lakh kilos of milkper day were procured in the coun-try in September 2012 while saleswere to the tune of only 260 lakh ki-los per day.

GLOBAL HUNGER REPORT 2012The report on Global Hunger

Index for seventh year was releasedon 11 October 2012 by the Interna-tional Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Con-cern Worldwide. The basic theme ofthe report for the 2012 Global Hun-ger Index — The Challenge of Hun-

ger: Ensuring Sustainable Food Se-curity under Land, Water, and EnergyStresses. IFPRI that calculated theglobal hunger Index analysed themeasures based upon multidimen-sional angles. The published reporthave shown a proportional growth inhunger reduction of people world-wide but recorded the progressspeed was tragically slow and alarm-ing. The report in its findings re-corded twenty countries across theworld mainly from South Asia andSub-Saharan Africa to be highly alarm-ing and have highest level of hunger,and showcased the sufferings of mil-lions of poor. As per the report, thenations that had showcased an abso-lute progress between 1990 GlobalHunger Index to 2012 Global Hun-ger Index were Bangladesh, Angola,Malawi, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Niger,and Vietnam. Whereas there are 15countries that have managed to re-duce it by 50 percent or more. Asper the report, India instead of its fastpaced economic growth in past twodecades has lagged behind in im-proving its record in Global HungerIndex chart. In the list of 79 coun-tries in the global Hunger Index, In-dia was ranked 65th behind Chinathat was placed at 2nd place posi-tion, Pakistan at 57th and Sri Lanka at37th position.

The reportalso points out thethree countriesBangladesh, Indiaand Timor-Lesteconstitutes to thehighest occurrenceof underweight chil-dren under the agegroup of five years,which records tomore than 40 per-

cent in each country. India wasranked second with 43.5 percent ofthe children less than five under-weight in the list of the 129 countriescompared for underweight child, af-ter Timor-Leste. Countries like Ethio-pia, Niger, Nepal and Bangladesh fol-lowed the chart. The report alsocomplained about the lack and ab-sence of an up-to-date data and in-formation in case of India for the in-effectiveness of Indian Government’snutrition relevant social programmes.India’s expenditure on Nutrition-re-lated schemes for 2012-13 states thatthere is not a problem of resources inthis case.

India’s investments in theIndia’s investments in theIndia’s investments in theIndia’s investments in theIndia’s investments in theschemes are:schemes are:schemes are:schemes are:schemes are:

• Mid Day Meal - 11,937 crore ru-pees

• Food Subsidy - 60, 573 crorerupees

• ICDS (Integrated Child Devel-opment Services) - 15,850crore rupees

• MNREGA (Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act) - 33,000 crorerupeesWhereas the surveys done dur-

ing 2005-06 proved the health indi-cators of India to be poor with 36percent of Indian women during theirchild bearing age were underweightand 43.5 percent of the children un-der age of 5 were underweight.

SC ORDERED STATES TO HAVE ACHECK ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

OF WOMEN AT WORKPLACES

The Supreme Court of India on19 October 2012 made it mandatoryfor every state, union territory andregulatory bodies to bring in practice/operations the legal mechanism forimplementation of the guidelines is-sued in Vishaka Case that requires the




employers to observe and ensureprevention of sexual harassment ofwomen at workplaces. The threeJudge Bench of Supreme Court thatincluded Justices, R.M. Lodha, AnilR. Dave and Ranjan Gogoi explainedthat the implementation of the guide-lines issued in Vishaka Case was notonly to be followed in a form but wasalso a matter of substantiating thesame with an spirit to make sure thata safe and secured space and envi-ronment in all aspects was made avail-able to the woman at her workplace,which enables them to work withdecency, dignity and respect as awhole.

The bench also pointed out to-wards the lack of a legislation andproper mechanism to address thecomplaints of sexual harassment ofwomen at their work place. TheBench also explained the position ofwomen representation to be only 10to 11 percent of the total seats in Leg-islative Assemblies and Parliament,when it comes to gender parity. It alsopointed out the 129th position of In-dia on the list of United Nations Gen-der Equality Index out of the 147countries covered in it, which is lowerthan all the South Asian Countriesexcept Afghanistan. The Bench ex-plaining the provisions of the IndianConstitution, also cleared that in casethere exists an issue of revising theold acts and bring in new laws to pro-tect women from the indecency, dis-respect and indignity they suffer fromat their workplaces, homes and otherplaces. Providing new initiatives toeducate and advance the girls andwomen in all spheres and to protectviolence in all forms (like sexual as-sault, domestic violence, sexual ha-rassment at the workplace) againstthem new laws may be enacted by

the Parliament and the State Legisla-tures. As the hollow statements, lipservices and inadequate laws with acareless approach may not beenough to bring in gender parity andoffer the genuine respect to the mostprecious population- the women.LAND ACQUISITION BILL CLEARED

The Land Acquisition Bill wascleared on 16 October 2012 by aGroup of Ministers (GoM) headed byAgriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Itis going to be presented to the Cabi-net this month. The bill was clearedafter three rounds of vigorous debatewith few changes from the versionpresented to the Union Cabinet inSeptember 2012. With the clearanceof Bill, the Group of Ministers agreedwith the proposal to seek consent oftwo-third of land owners, instead ofthe existing 80 per cent of project-affected families, for acquiring landfor public-private-partnership orprivate projects. TheGoM also

agreedon flexibility in the

validity period for the socialimpact assessment (SIA), based onthe assessment of the state chiefsecretary’s committee which has tobe constituted to review SIAs for ac-quisitions above 200 crore. The Billis now named as, The Right to FairCompensation, Resettlement, Reha-bilitation and Transparency in LandAcquisition Bill. It was originally in-troduced in Parliament in September2011.

SC: REFUSED TO RESTRAIN CENTER

FROM PROVIDING TRAINING TO SRI

LANKAN ARMED FORCES

The Supreme Court on 8 Octo-ber 2012 denied from restraining thecentre from offering training thearmed forces of Sri Lanka. SupremeCourt Bench headed by JusticeAftab Alam including Ms. RanjanaDesai stated that it was the govern-ment policy and the court cannot in-terfere in the government policy de-cisions. The court in its verdict de-clared the petition as misconceived,dismissed the petition. The decisioncame in response to the petition filedby N Raja Raman against nine Lankandefence personnel’s, who are beingtrained in the Indian Air Force baseat Karnataka.

REPORT-THE STATE OF THE GIRL

CHILD IN INDIA-2012 RELEASED

A report named the state ofthe girl child in India-2012 releasedon 9 October 2012 by a NGO (non-government organisation) Plan In-dia, pinpoints the identified rea-sons for roadblocks in girls’ edu-cation. The key determinantsof the roadblocks found withinthe educationally backwardfamilies in the three states

namely Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhandand Bihar, were the literacy status ofthe girls’ mother, economic conditionof the family and parents willingnessto allow the girl child to continue theirstudies and gain secondary educa-tion.




The other pin-pointed reasonsfor this lack of secondary educationand drop-outs of girl child fromhigher studies as per the report were-the societal reasons because of cul-tural limitations and backwardness,poor infrastructural facilities (as in lackof sanitation facilities, drinking waterand space within the classroom),safety concerns due to the long dis-tance in between the place or resi-dence and secondary school (re-moteness). The report presentedafter interviewing the girls by theNGO Plan India 43 percent of the girlsgot married before 18 years of age,the girls reported to be underweightreached a mark of fifty percent, thirtythree percent were left undernour-ished, fifty six percent of them wereanemic, only thirty percent of the girlswere able to afford their deliveries inhospitals. The report also cleared thatfifty even percent girls dropped theschool even before tenth class. Govind Nihalani, the chairperson ofPlan India’s governing body informedthat because I am a girl is a globalcampaign designed and launched bythe organization to fight against gen-der inequality to lift millions of girlsout from poverty providing them op-portunities to reach the level of theirpotential and to provide them theirrights.

AMENDMENT OF INDECENT

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN ACT

The Union Cabinet on 11 Octo-ber 2012 approved the introductionof Amendments to the IndecentRepresentation of Women (Prohibi-tion) Act, 1986 in Parliament underthe chairmanship of Prime MinisterManmohan Singh. The amendmentsproposed are as: (a) Broaden the scope of the law

to cover the audio-visual media

and material in electronic formwhich includes Internet, satel-lite-based communication,multi-media messaging andcable television, among others.

(b) Penalties to be enhanced to amaximum of three years of im-prisonment and fine of between50000 to 100000 Rupees forfirst conviction, and imprison-ment of not less than two years,but which may extend to sevenyears, and a fine between100000 Rupees to 500000 Ru-pees for second conviction.

(c) Police officers not below therank of Inspectors authorized tocarry out search and seizure, inaddition to State and CentralGovernment officers authorizedby the State or Central Govern-ment.The Act was enacted in 1986

to prohibit the indecent representa-tion of women through advertise-ment, publication, writing, and paint-ing or in any other manner. With theincreased use of advanced technol-ogy and communication devices ineveryday life, the Government felt thescope of the Act should beamended. The amendments were in-troduced after consultations withstakeholders, including lawyers and civilsociety organisations, on the draft Bill.SOME MORE FACTS ABOUT INDECENT

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN ACT

The act under its ambit covers:AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement which in -

cludes any notice, circular, label,wrapper or other document and alsoincludes any visible representationmade by means of any light, sound,smoke or gas.

DistributionDistributionDistributionDistributionDistribution which includesdistribution by way of sampleswhether free or otherwise.

Indecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representationIndecent representation o fwomen means the depiction in anymanner of the figure of a woman; herform or body or any part thereof insuch way as to have the effect of be-ing indecent, or derogatory to, ordenigrating women, or is likely todeprave, corrupt or injure the publicmorality or morals.

Label Label Label Label Label means any written,marked, stamped, printed or graphicmatter, affixed to, or appearing upon,any package. Package includes abox, a carton, tin or other container.PRESIDENT OF INDIA APPROVED NEW

PROTOCOL

Pranab Mukherjee, the Hon’blePresident of India approved new setof Protocols for addressing, the dig-nitaries inside and outside the coun-try. Mukherjee also asked the authori-ties to organise government functionswithin the premises of RastrapatiBhawan, this came out of his concernto the inconvenience caused to thepublic and police during hismovement. Words of colonial era likehis Excellency will be replaced byShree or Smt. before the name of thePresident or the Governor, in thefunctions being organised within thecountry and between the Indian dig-nitaries. His Excellency can only beused to greet the President duringhis interaction with foreign dignitar-




ies. The Hindi word, Mahamahinwould be replaced by RastrapatiMahoday. In official notings in Presi-dent Secretariat, Mahamahim will bereplaced with the word Rastrapati ji.Hon’ble word would be used beforethe names of the President and theGovernor. For further action to betaken on the protocol, the changedProtocol was conveyed to the HomeMinistry. The protocol will be imple-mented and brought in practice withimmediate effect.

DECISION OF CAUVERY RIVER

AUTHORITY RULED OUT

Decision of the Cauvery RiverAuthority was ruled out by the PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh on 8 Octo-ber 2012. The Prime Minister orderedKarnataka to release 9000 cusecs ofwater to Tamil Nadu every day, till 20October 2012. The Cauvery RiverAuthority (CRA) comprises of theChief Ministers of basin states namelyPuducherry, Kerela, Tamil Nadu andKarnataka and is chaired by the PrimeMinister itself. The Prime Minister inresponse to his meet with the Con-gress Union Ministers namely S.M.Krishna, M. Mallikarjun Kharge andK.H. Muniyappa along with 16 mem-bers of Parliament from BJP came toa conclusion that the decision will bemade following the findings of theground reality from the Cauvery Moni-toring Committee. The committee isgoing to meet in the third week ofOctober. As the decision making liesin the hands of the CRA, so the Prime

Minister due to lack of mechanismcannot make any changes in theaward.BROADBAND NETWORK PACT SIGNED

WITH 16 STATES AND UTGOVERNMENT

The central government on 26October 2012 signed a tripartite pactwith 16 state and UT governments forlaying digital highway and alsoformed a special purpose vehicleBBNL for facilitating connection toevery gram Panchayat with broad-band network. The states whichsigned the pact include Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh,Arunachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh,Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerela, MadhyaPradesh, Manipur, Mizoram andTripura. Also, the three union terri-tories Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Damanand Diu and Puducherry also signedthe agreement. The Memorandum ofUnderstanding was signed for around140000 gram panchayats. It is Rs20000 crore projects and entire fundis going to be provided by centralgovernment. State Governments willhave to provide approvals for layingof the optic fibre network and facili-tate other measures for expeditiousrollout of the network. By December2013, broadband network across thecountry will be completed. The stateswhich signed the pact constitute 60per cent gram panchayats in thecountry. Bharat Broadband NetworkLtd will be unveiling the project,which will be executed by BSNL,RailTel and Power Grid.

FRESH GUIDELINES ON TIGER

RESERVES WITHIN A WEEK

Supreme Court of India askedthe center to present fresh guidelineson tiger conservation within a week.The court in its verdict also said thatthe guidelines issued by the court on

banning all types of tourists’ activi-ties in Tiger reserves given on 24 July,may be modified. The SupremeCourt bench of Justices A K Patnaikand Swatanter Kumar in its statementalso stated that the court will not al-low the given directives on tiger-re-serves to be open ended and in casethe state government is not happywith the issued guidelines, they canchallenge the decision in the court.The bench also cleared that ultravires will not be declared in case thestates challenged the guidelines is-sued by the apex court.AADHAR BASED TRANSFER SYSTEM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singhon 20 October 2012 launchedAadhaar Enabled Service Delivery inDudu district of Rajasthan to mark the2nd anniversary of Aadhaar. Alsomarking the second anniversary, the21st crore Aadhaar number was givento a local resident of Kurawar, districtof Udaipur. With this launch of deliv-ery system the government is goingto start out Aadhaar Enabled ServiceDelivery initiatives in 51 districtsacross the country Now, the serviceswill be linked to various governmentschemes such as MNREGA wage pay-ments, PDS distribution, payment of




social security benefits such as old-age payments, distribution of LPGcylinders, etc. A number of state gov-ernments are coming ahead to rollout for these initiatives. Currently 23crore residents have enrolled for anAadhaar number, of which 21 croreAadhaar numbers have already is-sued. Aadhaar, is a 12-digit number,which serves as a proof of identityand address anywhere in the coun-try. It is an online identity platformthat can be accessed in real-time forauthenticating beneficiaries and canbe adapted by various user agencies.

ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE OF

CONGRESS WON FROM JANGIPUR INLOK SABHA BYPOLL

Congress candidate AbhijeetMukherjee on 13 October 2012 wona seat from Jangipur District in WestBengal in Lok Sabha By-Poll. AbhijeetMukherjee is the son of PresidentPranab Mukherjee. AbhijeetMukherjee, won the Jangipur by-election by a narrow margin of 2536votes defeating his nearest CPI-M ri-val Muzaffar Hussain. Abhijit Mukherjee fought the by-election ona Congress ticket after resigning asan MLA. The vote bank of AbhijitMukherjee counted with 332919votes, while the CPI-M candidate

bagged 330383votes. AbhijeetMukherjee’s fatherPranab Mukerjeehad earlier won theseat in 2009 by ahuge margin of over1.28 lakh votes un-der a poll alliancewith Trinamool Con-gress. The by-elec-tion was held on October 10 as theseat had fallen vacant with the eleva-tion of Pranab Mukherjee to the high-est office of the country as President.Also, In an another By-poll, BJP’s MalaRajya Laxmi Shah DefeatedUttarakhand Chief Minister VijayBahuguna’s son Saket in Tehri con-stituency with a margin of more than25000 votes. The seat was vacatedby Vijay Bahuguna to take over as thestate’s CM earlier in 2012. With theresult the strength of Congress comesdown to 206 in a House of 545 whilethat of BJP goes up to 115.SPEED POST RATE INCREASED BY 56

PERCENT

The postal department of Indiahad increased the rates of Speedpost deliveries by 42-56% from 1 Oc-tober 2012. Domestic charges wereincreased from Rs 12 to Rs 17, includ-

ing service tax, and the‘One India’ tariff escalatedup from Rs 25 to Rs 39. Itis first time since 2007 thatthe rates have been re-vised. The biggest users ofSpeed Post are institu-tional users, law firms andcorporate entities thatdispatch bulk mails. ManyBanks, uses this service tosend credit card state-ments and also creditcards. The difference is

particularly distinctive with respectto foreign dispatches. A person is sup-posed to pay Rs 600 to a courier andmerely Rs 150-odd to Speed Postdelivery. On the occasion of WorldPost Day on 9 October 2012, thepostal department also announced aproposal to install ATMs at severalpost offices in the state ofMaharashtra. Banking services are al-ready available at several locationsbut this will enable anywhere, any-time banking.

WORLD POST DAY

World Post day is held every yearon October 9. The date is marked withthe establishment of Universal PostalUnion (UPU) in 1874 in Bern, Swit-zerland. The Universal Postal Unionwas the start of global communica-tions revolution the result of whichpeople could write to others all overthe world.

ABOUT SPEED POST

Speed Post links more than1200 towns in India, with 290 SpeedPost Centres in the national networkand around 1000 Speed Post Cen-tres in the state network. For regularusers, Speed Post provides deliveryanywhere in India’ under contractualservice. Speed Post offers money-back guarantee, under which SpeedPost fee will be refunded if the con-signment is not delivered within thepublished delivery norms.




NEW NON-PERMANENT MEMBER TO

UNSCThe UN General Assembly on

18 October 2012 elected five newnon-permanent members to the Se-curity Council. The New Membersare South Korea, Luxembourg, Ar-gentina, Australia and Rwanda. Thenewly elected member countries aregoing to serve a two-year term in thepowerful UN body that will begin on1 January 2013. The country of Re-public of Korea and Luxembourgwere elected to a two-year term inthe UN Security Council in the sec-ond round of voting.

Whereas, Argentina, Australiaand Rwanda were elected earlier, toserve as new non-permanent mem-

bers of the powerful UN body. Thefive new members are going to re-place Colombia, Germany, India, Por-tugal and South Africa, whose termends on 31 December 2012. Underthe UN Charter, the 15-member Se-curity Council has the primary respon-sibility for the maintenance of inter-national peace and security. To beelected to the UN Security Council,a country must win support from twothirds of the General Assembly mem-bers, or 129 votes.NEW CABINET PROPOSED BY PRIME

MINISTER REJECTED IN LIBYA

The General National Assemlyof Libya rejected the new 10-mem-ber Crisis Cabinet proposed by thePrime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur.He had submitted his second list ofCabinet Ministers for approval to theNational Assembly.

There were 125 votes against,44 in favour while 17 MPs abstainedfrom voting in the 200 member Na-tional Assembly. The rejection impliesdismissal of Libyan Prime Minister.

The National Assembly can nowelect a new Prime Minister within thenext four weeks.

The second list of 10 cabinetministers was proposed as an emer-gency response by the Prime Minis-ter Mustafa Abu Shagur, barely 3 daysafter the first list of 29 ministers wasrejected by the General NationalCongress on 4 October 2012. Thelawmakers at the 200 member Na-tional Assembly yet again disap-proved it saying it was not represen-tative of all the regions in Libya.

After the release of the first list,the Parliament in Tripoli was stormedby the protesters from Zawiya andZuwara demanding more represen-tation and the resignation of the PrimeMinister.

International IssuesInternational IssuesInternational IssuesInternational IssuesInternational Issues




FRANCE OFFICIALLY RECOGNISED

THE KILLINGS OF 1961 PARIS

MASSACRE

France on 17 October 2012 forthe first time officially acknowledgedthe killings of hundreds of unarmedAlgerians in the 1961 Paris Massacre.In a communiqué (communication)that was published by the Elysee Pal-ace, a statement by the PresidentFrancois Hollande stated about thekilling of the Algerians protestors, pro-testing for their Independence on 17October 2012 in a bloody repression.He also paid homage to the victimsafter 51 years of the incident.

Algeria, the North African Coun-try, won its independence in 1962,after fighting 8 years long brutal warin which about a million people died.The official declaration in relation tothe acknowledgement of the killingscame a week before Mr. Hollande’svisit to Algeria. ABOUT THE INCIDENT

Maurice Papon, the French Nazisympathizer and the then Prefect ofParis imposed a curfew on Algeriansliving in France. The Leaders of Alge-ria tried to challenge the curfew witha protest that was to be done in apeaceful manner. The Protestors on17 October 1961 were rounded upin Paris on tne order of Papon andtortured and beaten up brutally. Manyof them were thrown alive in RiverSeine with their hands tied at theirback. The 1961 Massacre of Pariscan be compared to Jalianwala BaghMasscare in which General Dyer or-dered killing of unarmed civilians pro-testing against colonial presence inthe India.ARABIC MADE ITS DEBUT AS OFFICIAL

LANGUAGE AT VATICAN

Arabic on 10 October 2012made its official debut among one of

the Languages at Pope Benedict’sweekly general audiences. This is anexercise and attempt of Vatican toexpand its reach to Christians andMuslims in Middle East.

This came out of the growingconcerns of the Vatican in relation tothe mass departure of the Christiansfrom Middle East fearing to theirsafety over there. The community thatcomprised about 20 percent of thetotal population a century ago hasfallen down to a percentage level offive. Some of the estimates also statesthat the 12 million of Christians leav-ing in Middle East may drop down toits half by 2020. Speaking Arabicduring the audiences that is broad-casted across the world on radio andtelevision may bring down the fear ofChristians in Middle East comfortingthem to stay back on the land that is ahome for many of the holy places forChristians. It is likely that this act ofPope’s address to the world in Ara-bic language would help in improv-ing the strained relations with theMuslim world. The relations betweenthe Christians and the Muslim worldturned sour after Pope’s speech atRegensburg in 2006, which made theMuslim world feel that his messagewas an attack on Islam. The Priest,while addressing thousands ofpeople at St. Peter’s Square, read thesummary of pope’s Italian languageweekly address in Arabic for the veryfirst time in the history along with otherbriefs in different languages includ-ing English, Polish, French, Spanish,

Portuguese, Slovak, German, Czech,Russian and Hungarian. On occasionof the 50th anniversary of the secondVatican Council, Pope for the firsttime addressed people in Arabic.

US UPLIFTED ‘TERRORIST’DESIGNATION FROM NEPALI MAOISTS

The title of ‘terrorists’ assignedto Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists)by United States has been upliftedon 6 September 2012. Maoist partwas Specially Designated with thetitle of Terrorist Entity under ‘Execu-tive Order 13224’. US also withdrewits status as terrorist organisation fromthe Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) un-der the Immigration and NationalityAct. This decision came in favor ofthe party after six years long wait,since the time it signed peace treatyto make its entry to open politics. USdeclared its decision on the day,when final phase of rehabilitation andintegration process of former Maoistscombatants started. The state depart-ment stated that the party is no longerinvolved in the activities that threatenthe security of U.S. foreign policyand its nationals and now they aredirectly involved in governance of theNation.

PAKISTAN SC ORDERED ACTION

AGAINST EX CHIEFS OF PAK ARMY

AND ISISupreme Court of Pakistan on

19 October 2012 ordered the gov-ernment to take legal action againstformer army chief General MirzaAslam Beg and former Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) chief Asad Durranifor distributing millions of rupeesamong politicians to manipulate the1990 general election. A three-judgebench headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Chaudhry also asserted onshutting down immediately of any“political cell” operating in the presi-




dency, ISI, Military Intelligence orIntelligence Bureau. Also the benchruled that any notification to createsuch a cell would be null and void.The directives were issued by theSupreme Court of Pakistan after tak-ing into consideration the petitionfiled in 1996 by former air force chiefAsghar Khan against the distributionof funds by the ISI among politiciansto prevent the Pakistan People’sParty’s victory in the 1990 polls. Al-though the two general are retiredthe court directed the governmentto take action against them accord-ing to the Constitution and the law. Itwas informed to the Supreme Courtduring the case hearing that electioncell in the presidency had received140 million rupees from a banker totampered the poll. Out of which 60million Rupees was distributedamong politicians while 80 millionrupees was retained in a “survey andconstruction account” maintained bythe Military Intelligence. Keeping itinto consideration, the SupremeCourt of Pakistan directed authoritiesto recover the amount paid to politi-cians with interest and to deposit thefunds with the national exchequer.

THE PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED INKUWAIT FOR THE SIXTH TIME IN

FIVE YEARS

In Kuwait, the ruler Emir SheikhSabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on 7 Oc-tober 2012 dissolved the parliament

clearing the decks for yet other par-liamentary elections in the country. Itis for the sixth time in five years thatparliament has been dissolved in Ku-wait. The opposition had been de-manding dissolution of the NationalAssembly. The Islamist led oppositionhad secured a huge victory in theFebruary elections 2012. But fourmonths later, the Supreme Constitu-tional Court annulled the elections,scrapped parliament and reinstatedthe 2009 parliament. The same par-liament was dissolved by the Emir ofKuwait in the wake of widespreadprotests by the opposition and cor-ruption charges against some of itsmembers. The Kuwaiti Cabinet hadrecommended on Wednesday thatthe parliament be dissolved. UnderKuwait’s constitution, fresh generalelections must be held within twomonths or before December 7. Theforthcoming polls will be the secondthis year and the fifth since June2006.

WEBSITE OF NEW YORK TIMES

BLOCKED IN CHINA

China blocked access to theEnglish as well as Chinese-languagewebsite of the New York Times on 26October 2012 in the country, afterthe website published article on thePrime Minister Wen Jiabao with aclaim that he and his family has cre-ated a total asset of at least US dollar2.7 Million. A spokesperson from

Foreign Ministry ofChina announcedthat the blocking ofthe website wasdone in accordanceto the laws availablein the country. TheChinese Authoritiesalso blocked the at-tempts to mention

the names of The Times and the WenJiabao in the posts of its own mini-blogging site named Sina Weibo,which functions similar to that of Twit-ter.

The New York Times is not thefirst website to be blocked in themainlands of China, before thisGoogle in the year 2010 moved itsserver to Hong Kong the semi-au-tonomous Chinese territory wherecensorship firewalls of the Chinacouldn’t make it a prey. It happenedafter the agreement between theChinese Authorities and Googlefailed to reach any conclusion onunrestricted search options oninternet.

NEW NUCLEAR SAFETY AGENCY

LAUNCHED IN JAPAN

Japan launched a new NuclearSafety Agency on 18 September2012. The formation of this five-mem-ber Nuclear Regulation Authority wasdone after the country was hit by Tsu-nami in the year 2011 resulting inmajor breakdown and leakage of theNuclear Power Plants in the tsunami-stricken-area of Fukushima Dai-IchiPlant. Headed by the nuclear Physi-cist, Shunichi Tanaka, this agency isresponsible for reviewing of the




nuclear policies of the country. Be-fore the incident, Japan relied onnuclear power for at least one-thirdof its energy requirements but nowit’s planning to increase it to a level of50 percent of its total energy require-ments. The framed policies framedaims to phase out the issues relatedto nuclear power of the country fornext three decades.

ISRAELI AUTHORITIES RELEASED

RED LINE REPORT

The Israeli Authority on 18 Oc-tober 2012 released documents de-scribing the red line for minimumfood needs of people at Gaza Stripto avoid, the issue ofMalnutrition. Referring to the de-fence ministry documents dated2008 obtained under Freedom ofInformation, an Israeli NGO, Gishathat campaigns for the cause of Pal-estinian Freedom of Movement andTrade stated that 2279 calorie perperson per day was sufficient to avoidmalnutrition on the Gaza strip. Ablockade was imposed by Israel inJune 2006 after a militant snatchedone of its soldiers and tightened it inSeptember 2007 after seizure of theIslamists Hamas Movement and thesoldiers of the Western Backed Presi-dent Mahmud Abbas were sent onexile. Gisha report also cleared thatthis was an official goal of this barrierlied behind the economic warfarepolicy of creating a paralysis in Gaza’seconomy to create pressure on theHamas Government. It was officiallycleared by the COGAT defence min-istry department spokesperson thatthe report entitling- Food Consump-tion in the Gaza Strip — Red Lineswas never implemented to set thelevels of food that was allowed topeople in Gaza as it was just adraft. By 2010 restrictions in Gaza

was eased followed by the interna-tional outcry of killing of nine Turkishnationals by Israel during a navy raidon a ship in a trial to break theblockage. The Red Lines file wasmade available to Gisha after fightingand three-and-a-half year legal battleand the documents of the file men-tioned in its recommendations that aminimum of 106 food trucks per work-ing day was to be sent in the Gazastrip, whereas sending of 67 truckson an average remained in practice.

SOUTH ASIAN UNIVERSITY MADE

INTRODUCTION TO SOUTH ASIA ACOMPULSORY SUBJECT

South Asian University (SAU)made Introduction to South Asia acompulsory course for every studentin the University. The University madeit mandatory to pass this non-creditcourse for gaining a degree from theUniversity. The decision came dur-ing the second meet of theUniversity’s Academic Council inOctober 2012. Thetaken step will helpthe students takingadmissions in theUniversity from dif-ferent South AsianNations to knowsome facts and rel-evant importance ofthe region. A PhDprogram will also belaunched by theUniversity in the next academic year.The University also declared that itwould also institute Gold Medal bythe name of the University for all theeight different Post-GraduateProgrammes that it offers at present.These medals will be awarded to onestudent from each section at the endof the program after reviewing theiracademic record and achievement.

UN WARNED OF PRICE HIKE INFOOD PRODUCTS

United Nations on 4 October2012 issued a warning of price risefor meat and dairy products in re-sponse to the extreme weather con-ditions suffered by Europe and asso-ciated centers of food production.Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) with its headquarters in Romeindicated that the global wheat pro-duction saw an expected fall of 5.2percent and other crops meant forfeeding the animals could drop downby 10 percent in the year 2012 to thaton the available data of year 2011.With rise in density of populationthere has been a fall in the produc-tion to manage the demand of con-sumption and this is a reason thatproducts like wheat have seen 25percent growth in the price in theyear 2012. Whereas, Maize and dairyproducts have witnessed a price hikeof 13 and 7 percent within a month’s

time, respectively. The world atpresent is facing tight conditions infood supply because of decreasedcereal production and decline inworld reserves. This has turned up tobe a reason for hike in prices acrossthe world. This price hike is the rea-son for decline in demand of theseproducts. Maplecroft, the Risk Analy-sis Company has brought forward the




data of identified countries that arethe suspects of societal unrest andfamine, which may steam up the foodstorage and price fluctuations.

These countries have been di-vided into two categories of ExtremeRisk and High Risk Zones. Countrieslisted in the group of High Risk In-cludes Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia,South Sudan and Somalia. The coun-tries named in the list of High Risk in-clude India, Pakistan, Yemen, SriLanka and Bangladesh. US that is theworld’s largest grower and exporterof grain (includes Wheat, Maize andBarley) is also expected to be ef-fected by the harsh weather condi-tions.

ARREST WARRANT AGAINST

EX-PRESIDENT MOHAMED NASHEED

An arrest warrant was issued bythe Maldivian Court on 7 October2012 against Mohamed Nasheed,country’s first democratically electedPresident. The warrant was issued inreference to Nasheed’s questioningthe authority of the special court forinitiating a trail against him for the al-leged charges of power abuse, whenhe was in the office.

Ordering the police to producethe former President in the court, theMagistrate Court of Hulhumale alsoasked the police to keep Nasheed inCustody to face the charges of arrest-ing and detaining Abdulla Mohamed,the Chief Criminal Judge. This is acase that is related to his order of dis-patching the military for arresting the

senior judge. This action led to hisresignation after viewing protests.BERLUSCONI SENTENCED WITH FOUR

YEAR JAIL TERM

Silvio Berlusconi, the formerPrime Minister of Italy was sentenceda term for four years of imprisonmentfor tax fraud, and was alsobanned from hold-ing any

p u b l i coffice, by the

Court of Italy on 26 October2012. But this sentence would notdirectly lead him to jail as the cases inItaly needs to pass a minimum of twolevels of appeal before thefinalisation of the verdict takesplace. In total 11 people were ontrial accused of declaring the seriesof payments by false means by theoffshore companies to avoid taxes inthe scheme of purchasing the rightsof broadcast of the US movies on theprivate networks of MediasetEmpire. All the previous criminalcases against the former premier ofthe state landed to be acquittal. Hehas been convicted in the case with10 more people as accused andneeds to deposit $13 million in thefund of appeals for the losses incurredby the tax authorities, in what theycalled large-scale fraud. The trial ofthe case started in the July month ofthe year 2006, when he was in officebut was put on hold because of theimmunity law that shielded him fromthe prosecution being the premier ofthe nation. The prosecution could

have not been done until he left fromhis office.

RESOLUTION TO PROTECT THE

ONLINE HUMAN RIGHTS OF GLOBAL

CITIZENS

United Nations Human RightsCouncil (UNHRC), the Geneva basedhuman rights wing of UN, adopted afirst ever resolution to protect theonline human rights of global citizens.The resolution adopted by consen-sus, stated that citizens of the worldare as much entitled to the humanrights online as they are offline. Theresolution noted that there can be nodouble standard with regard topeople’s right of fundamental free-dom and since internet makes a ma-jor part of present world’s communi-cation process, all governments mustendeavour to protect the online rightsof its citizens. The landmark resolu-tion was sponsored by Sweden andco-sponsored by over 80 countries,that includes United States, Brazil,Turkey, Nigeria, and Tunisia.

COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT AND

FARC LAUNCHED PEACE TALK

Government of Colombia andLeftist FARC rebels formally launchedpeace talks in Norway on 17 Octo-ber 2012 which aimed at endingnearly five decades of conflict thathas claimed an estimated 600000lives. The peace talk was officiallylaunched by government and therebels in a hotel in Hurdal, a smalltown north of Oslo.

The core area of discussion fo-cused on five main areas that is land




reform, the rebels’ future role in po-litical life, a definitive end of hostili-ties, fighting the illegal drug trade andthe situation of the victims. FARC isLatin America’s largest rebel group,founded in 1964 with 9,200 armedfighters is known by RevolutionaryArmed Forces of Colombia. In thepast several years FARC suffered thecapture and killings of some of its topleaders, and its rank had been de-pleted to half of Militants what theywere at their peak in the 1990s.

It was also earlier found thatColombia’s leftist FARC rebelssmuggle U.S.-bound cocaine via Ven-ezuela, Panama and the Pacific. TheFARC is on both the U.S. and EU listsof terrorist groups. Drug trafficking,extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom

are the FARC’s main means of financ-ing its operations.

REFERENDUM TO BE HOLD ON

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE

UK and Scotland signed anagreement on 15 October 2012 tohold a referendum in 2014 on Scot-tish independence.

The referendum agreement hasbeen signed following talks inEdinburgh between David Cameron,

UK Prime Minister and AlexSalmond, who leads the pro-inde-pendence Scottish National Party. The referendum could lead to theUnited Kingdom breaking up after300 years, leaving only England,Wales and Northern Ireland in theUnion. The British Government wantsScotland to stay in its political unionwith England. The Scottish Govern-ment led by Alex Salmond favoursindependence.

After months of negotiations,the deal is expected to giveScotland’s administration the powerto hold a vote in the final quarter of2014, which will offer Scotland achoice on leaving the United King-dom.




INDIA & PAKISTAN

Pakistan’s Cabinet on 31 Octo-ber 2012 ratified four recent agree-ments with India. The major of whichis landmark visa pact aimed at facili-tating restrictions on several catego-ries of travellers, including senior citi-zens and businessmen. The meetingwas chaired by Prime Minister of Pa-kistan M Raja Pervez Ashraf who alsoratified three other agreements thatis going to promote trade betweenthe Pakistan and India. The visaagreement was signed by then ex-ternal affairs minister S.M. Krishna andPakistan’s interior minister RehmanMalik in Islamabad on 8 September2012. The pact was ready for signingin May 2012 but was held up entirely

due to opposition from RehmanMalik, who wanted Indian ExternalAffairs minister to come to Pakistanfor signing it. The agreement intro-duces new categories for group tour-ist visas and pilgrim visas and relaxesrestrictions on travel by senior citi-zens, businessmen and persons ofone country married to a citizen ofthe other. The two countries are alsodiscussing other measures aimed atboosting bilateral trade and coopera-tion in new areas like opening of bankbranches and cross-border invest-ments. Both the countries assertedthey intend to increase bilateral tradeto six billion dollars by 2014.

INDIA AND PAKISTAN DISCUSSED

TAPI GAS PROJECT

Pakistan’s Minister of Petroleumand Natural Resources Asim Hussainmet Cabinet Minister of Petroleumand Natural gas of India, Jaipal Reddyin New Delhi on 17 October 2012 inan event PETROTECH 2012 and dis-cussed avenues for energy coopera-tion, including the trans-regional

project TAPI. Asim Hussain in his talkunderlined the need of hasteningwork on the TAPI and the importanceof demonstrating political will.

He also stressed for setting upthe economic modality by establish-ing a Special Purpose Vehicle o rconsortium duly empowered to takeall necessary decisions. ABOUT TAPI GAS PROJECT

The TAPI is the Trans-Afghani-stan Pipeline project which is alsoknown as Turkmenistan–Afghani-stan–Pakistan–India Pipeline, TAP orTAPI. It is basically a proposed natu-ral gas pipeline that is developed bythe Asian Development Bank. Theproject was started on 15 March 1995

India & The WorldIndia & The WorldIndia & The WorldIndia & The WorldIndia & The World




by signing a memorandum of under-standing between the governmentsof Turkmenistan and Pakistan for apipeline project.

Under the Proposed plan, thepipeline will transport Caspian Seanatural gas from Turkmenistanthrough Afghanistan into Pakistan andfinally to India.

INDIA, US AND JAPAN

India, U.S. and Japan on its thirdtrilateral meet on 29 October 2012discussed trilateral cooperation inmaritime security and a route throughmiddle or north of Myanmar leadingup to Hanoi.

The other major area of discus-sion was on exchanging of proposalsfor doing projects together in Africaas well as cooperating on the eco-nomic side in Afghanistan. The threecountries were on cycle of talk whichthey completed following this meet.The talk began with their first meet-ing in Washington in December 2011which was followed by next meet-ing in Tokyo in April 2012. Talking ofmaritime security the three countriesdiscussed some specific areas of co-operation which will be productivein the next cycle of talks that is goingto begin after the U.S. Presidentialelections and with the settling downof next US administration.

Each side gave a strategic over-view of the Asia Pacific. While Japan‘sBriefing was primarily focused on dis-pute with China over the Senkaku is-lands. India with discussing issues on

Myanmar had taken up a trilateral con-nectivity initiative with Myanmar andThailand that touched on a routethrough upper Myanmar that wouldlead into Vietnam. Also, US briefingwas about its much-talked aboutpolicy of ‘pivot to Asia’, which is amove driven by the allure of emerg-ing Asian economies, especiallyChina and India.

THE 2ND INDIA-JAPAN 2+2DIALOGUE

The 2nd India-Japan 2+2 Dia-logue was held in Tokyo on 22 Oc-tober, 2012. These 2+2 consultationsat Senior Official level are mandatedby the Action Plan to Advance Se-curity Cooperation concluded be-tween India and Japan in December2009. The first India- Japan 2+2 Dia-logue was held at New Delhi in June2010. The two countries briefed theother on their respective defenceand security policies in the back-ground of each country’s securityenvironment. In this context, bothnations reviewed bilateral securityand defence cooperation and dis-cussed ways of further expandingsuch ties. The two sides also ex-changed views on maritime, cyberand outer space security. Theyagreed to an early meeting of thenew India – Japan Cyber SecurityDialogue. They also discussed theregional and international securitysituation. The next and the 3rdround of the India – Japan 2+2Dialogue will be held at New Delhi

at a mutually convenient date. TheIndian delegation was led by ForeignSecretary Shri Ranjan Mathai and De-fence Secretary Shri Shashi KantSharma.The Japanese delegation wasled by Deputy Foreign MinisterAkitaka Saiki and Administrative ViceDefence Minister Hironori Kanazawa.JAPAN LIFTED TRAVEL ADVISORY ON

JAMMU AND KASHMIR

The country of Japan on 19October 2012 in a step to testimonythe fact that security situation inJammu and Kashmir is improved, re-laxed the travel restriction to the statefor its nationals. The move to ease re-strictions is valid for Srinagar and ad-joining areas like Gulmarg. With lift-ing of Travel Advisory Japan becamethe second country among G8 nationsto take this step. Earlier Germany inJuly 2011 had relaxed travel restric-tion to Jammu and Kashmir for its Na-tional.

The decision of lifting traveladvisory came after the Japaneseembassy officials met the Jammu andKashmir government. Many otherembassies of developed countries ofAustralia, Canada, UK and some morecountries are also making enquiriesabout the situation in Kashmir and areexpected to lift advisory followingstep of two G8 countries of Japan andGermany.RESEARCH PROJECT TO STUDY LNG

PRICING

Japan and India on 10 October2012 launched a joint researchproject into pricing structures in LNGmarkets. Japan’s industry minister




Yukio Edano and Deputy chairmanof Planning commission of India Montek Singh Ahluwalia, signed theagreement on joint research in Tokyo.Resource-poor Japan is on the huntfor cheaper energy, with the situa-tion further worsened by the shutter-ing of all but two of its nuclear reac-tors amid public distrust followingtsunami-sparked meltdowns atFukushima. Japan is the world’s topimporter of liquefied natural gas.Asian buyers pay far more than thosein North America because the priceis index-linked to oil on the continent.Under the present pricing structuresin LNG markets, the price in NorthAmerica is determined on the basisof supply and demand. India’s ex-panding economy also demandmore and more energy keeping thisin view both the countries agreed fora research project to study pricestructure.ABOUT LNG

LNG is gas that is temporarily liq-uefied for easier storage and trans-portation. Liquefied natural gas orLNG is natural gas predominantly inthe form of methane, CH4 that hasbeen converted to liquid form for easeof storage or transport. Liquefied natu-ral gas takes up about 1/600th thevolume of natural gas in the gaseousstate. It is odorless. Colorless, non-toxic and non- corrosive. Hazards in-clude flammability, freezing and as-phyxia.

INDIA AND UKIndia and the United Kingdom

on 30 October 2012 signed a proto-col amending the 1993 bilateral con-vention on avoidance of double taxa-tion and prevention of fiscal evasionrelated to taxes on income and capi-tal gains. The Protocol amends thepact or Convention that was originally

assigned on 25 January 1993 in NewDelhi.

The protocol was signed byIndia’s High Commissioner JaiminiBhagwati and Exchequer Secretaryto the U.K. Treasury, David Gauke.The amended protocol is going toprovide tax stability to the residentsof both the countries and also facili-tate mutual economic cooperationwith stimulating flow of investment,technology and services. Also, thewithholding taxes on the dividendswould be 10 per cent or 15 per centand is equally applicable in the UKand in India. The Protocol integratesprovisions for effective exchange ofinformation between tax authoritiesof the two countries in line with lat-est international standards includingexchange of banking information andsupplying of information irrespectiveof domestic interest. With the amend-ment there will now be a new articlein the Convention on assistance incollection of taxes. It includes provi-sion for taking measures of conser-vancy. The Protocol also constitutesthe Convention anti- abuse (limitationof benefits) provisions which ensurethat the benefits of the Conventionare not misused.

INDIA & AUSTRALIA

India and Australia on 17 Octo-ber 2012 announced the launch ofnuclear negotiations for a civil nucleardeal that will enable the sale of ura-nium from Australian Capital cityCanberra to New Delhi. The deal wasannounced by Australian Prime Min-

ister Julia Gillard on her visit to India.The deal is going to provide stretchin India’s civilian nuclear ambitionsand will also strengthen bilateral tiesbetween both the Countries. Earlierin 2011, the Australian Prime MinisterJulia Gillard, Australian Labour Partyrefused to sell uranium to India byspecifying that India had not signedthe Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The actual Supply of uranium isgoing to take couple of years as ne-gotiations for the safeguards agree-ment are complex and lengthy. Boththe Countries also signed four memo-randum, the most important of whichis agreement on Student mobility andwelfare in which they agreed to holdannual meetings at the summit leveleither bilaterally or during multilateralevents.

The other memorandums are:• Memorandum on Military and

Security Initiative committed toenhance maritime cooperation

• Memorandum to develop acomprehensive economic co-operation agreementIndia and Australia also agreed

to launch a Ministerial-level Dialogueon Energy Security, establish a WaterTechnology Partnership and start ne-gotiations for an Agreement on Trans-fer of Sentenced Persons.

INDIA & AUSTRALIA

Australia on 28 October 2012revealed that the country was plan-ning to include Hindi and Mandarinas languages to be taught in itsschools. This was a step forward tobe taken by the county to establishdeeper and strengthened links withIndia and other nations with boom-ing economies, of the world. PrimeMinister of Australia Julia Gillard an-nounced the plans of the nation atthe release ceremony of the sweep-




ing policy blueprint with its title AsianCentury White Paper. The white pa-per was released with an aim of linkmaximisation with Asia; this wouldhelp Australia to be among the top10 most powerful economies of theworld by 2025.

INDIA AND NEW ZEALAND

India and New Zealand on 19October 2012 signed five Memoran-dum of Understanding, MoU in thedifferent fields of education. TheMoUs were signed in New Delhi dur-ing the first meeting of India-NewZealand Education Council.

The education institutions ofNew Zealand specially higher edu-cation maintain global standards. In-dia and New Zealand share strongpeople to people links through in-creasing migration, tourism, educa-tion and sporting ties. The educationcan play a vital role in strengtheninglinks between the two countries.

INDIA AND FRANCE

India and France on 7 October2012 signed an agreement in the fieldof sustainable Urban Development.The agreement was signed in Parisbetween Union Minister of UrbanDevelopment Kamal Nath and Minis-ter for Foreign Trade of France NicoleBricq. Both India and France wouldbenefit from the agreement as itwould provide an enabling platformfor the officials, professionals, busi-ness leaders and local self-governingbodies to meet and share knowledgeand best practices in the urban sec-tor. It would also lead to enhancedcooperation and deepen the en-

gagement between the two coun-tries. India and France also discussedways to enhance economic and com-mercial relations between the coun-tries.

INDIA AND SPAIN

India and Spain on 26 October2012 signed a memorandum of un-derstanding under which they aregoing to encourage collaborationbetween their defence industriesand exchange of personnel. The MoUwas signed by Indian Defence Minis-ter A.K. Antony and his Spanish coun-terpart Pedro Morenés Eulate in NewDelhi.

Both the Countries agreed toexchange defence-related experi-ence and information, and will en-courage visits of personnel and col-laboration in the defence industry andsimilar areas of cooperation. Also inanother gesture of Cooperation Span-ish firm Navantia is planning to offerits S-80 diesel electric submarine forthe Indian Navy’s Project 75-India,under which it plans to procure sixlarge conventional submarines at acost of more than 50000 crore of Ru-pees. The MoU on defence wasamong the five pacts signed aftercomprehensive talks between PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh and the vis-iting King Juan Carlos I on bilateral,regional and international issues.Other pacts signed are included asunder:

• A protocol for amending theover 19-year-old double taxa-tion avoidance pact to checktax evasion,

• A MoU in the roads and roadtransport sector, aimed at pro-moting efficient and environ-mentally sustainable transportsystems.

• A pact to promote and facilitateco-production of films whichincludes feature films, docu-mentary and animation films.India and AustriaIndia and Austria on 2 October

2012 tied up to develop smart citiesthat would include fine planning ofthe city including the transport sys-tem and services of internet. The de-cision came up after the meeting ofUnion Minister for Urban Develop-ment Kamal Nath with Austrian Fed-eral Minister for Transport, Innovation& Technology Doris Bures.

The plans of developing thenew cities will be implemented un-der the second phase of JawaharlalNehru National Urban Renewal Mis-sion (JNNURM II).

As per the plans initially twomodel smart cities will be developedin every state of the country that willinclude the mid-sized cities with aminimum population of half a millionto one million.EVERY STATE TO HAVE TWO SMART-CITIES

Austrian Institute of Technologywill assist the country in planning anddevelopment of the smart cities thatwill include things that it needs tocover, broadband facilities to its main-tenance to carbon levels.

As per the plans of the CentralGovernment under JNNURM II everystate will have two model towns ini-tially.




70 CITIES WITH OVER A MILLION

POPULATION GRAPH ARE IN PLAN

Plans are on the paper to con-vert at least 70 cities with million pluspopulation in India into smart cities.Austria that has been into differenttypes of trade-relations for a long timewith India will be offering the poten-tial technical support.ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED

IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Austrian Institute of Technologyand the National Institute of UrbanAffairs that is a research, informationand training wing under the UrbanDevelopment Ministry, would be thepartners in the project.

INDIA AND CHINA

India and China agreed to boostdefence ties. The agreement wasmade during the visit of Chinese De-fense Minister Gen Liang Guanglie toIndia and his meet with his IndianCounterpart AK Antony. Last time thedefence minister of China visited In-dia in the year 2004.

The two nations have agreed onimproving the friendly, strategic andco-operative partnership and ex-change of young officers and highlevel visits. An inter-collegiate ex-change that includes non-traditionalsecurity fields is also a part of theagreement. During the joint NavalPractice in Shanghai, the two nationsagreed on increasing the process ofmilitary exchange that includes mari-time operations and navy. Last joint

exercise that took place between thetwo nations was at Kunming in theyear 2007 and at Belgaum in the year2008. The third joint exercise sched-uled for 2010 was cancelled becauseChina disagreed to provide VISA toLieutenant General BS Jaiswal of theNorthern Command and since thenIndia cancelled all collateral ties re-lated to defence activities withChina.

INDIA MALAYSIA

India is going to expand bilat-eral trade with Malaysia to $15 billionby 2013 from $13 billion in 2011-12as per the discussion in India- Malay-sia CEO Forum.

It was informed by Union Minis-ter of Commerce, Industry and Tex-tiles, Anand Shrama that India’s bilat-eral trade with Malaysia stood at nearly$13 billion in 2011-12 registering agrowth of 34% over the previous year.In his visit to Malaysia in July 2010and February 2011Anand Sharmaanalysed that it was re-quired an investmentfrom Khazanah NasionalBerhad (Government ofMalaysia‘s strategic invest-ment fund) into Indian infra-structure sector through acollaborative venture withIDFC. The Union minister,Anand Sharma has identified pri-ority sectors of engagement includ-ing Roads & highways, Railways, Air-ports, IT &ITES, Biotechnology, Tour-ism, Health Services and JV projectsin third countries. Subsequently, the

two countries have entered into aComprehensive Economic Coopera-tion Agreement which was signed inFebruary 2011. The signing of thisAgreement has provided consider-able momentum to trade and invest-ment on both sides.

INDIA AND TAJIKISTAN

India and Tajikistan signed sixagreements in the field of sports,health, culture, education, labour,textiles and energy. India and thecentral Asian country of Tajikistanagreed to advance their ties to a stra-tegic partnership in order to impartgreater strength to the relationshipthrough all-round co-operation andengagement. The President of theRepublic of Tajikistan, Mr. EmomaliRahmon, was on a State Visit to Indiafrom 1 to 4 September 2012 at theinvitation of the President of the Re-public of India. This was the fifth visitto India by President Mr. EmomaliRahmon. The visiting dignitary alsoattended a business meeting orga-nized jointly by ASSOCHAM, CII andFICCI. Both the coun-

tries iden-tified in-forma-t i o ntech-n o l -ogy,bio-

t e c h n o l -ogy, mining, tourism,

pharmaceuticals among other sec-tors as high potential area. After theagreements it was decided that In-dia will increase training slots forTajikistan from 100 to 150 under In-dia Technology and Eco TrainingProgramme.




RBI KEPT REPO RATE UNCHANGED

The RBI on 30 October 2012 leftinterest rates unchanged but had cutthe cash reserve ratio for banks andindicated that it is going to cut mon-etary policy further in the January-March 2013 quarter, with inflationremaining a near-term concern. Thedecision of leaving the policy reporate unchanged at 8.00 percent,which is at the same level for the pastsix months was in line with forecastsin a recent review of macroeconomicand monetary developments byReuters. Also, the reverse repo, at

which RBI absorbs excess liquiditythrough borrowings from banks, re-mained at 7 percent. The new rateswill be effective 3 November2012. The expectations for a rate cuthad grown after India’s finance min-ister P. Chidambaram on 29 October2012 outlined a plan to trim thecountry’s hefty fiscal deficit. D.Subbarao mentioned in his quarterlypolicy review that with the reductionin inflation, there is an opportunity formonetary policy to act in conjunctionwith fiscal and other measures to miti-gate the growth risks and take the

economy to a sus-tained highergrowth trajectory.The RBI, however,cut the Cash Re-serve Ratio (theamount parked bybanks with the RBI)by 25 basis pointsfrom 4.5 per cent to4.25 per cent. Thismeasure is ex-

pected to infuse Rs 17,500 crore li-quidity into the banking system. TheRBI cut its GDP growth forecast forAsia’s third-largest economy to 5.8per cent for the current fiscal year,from 6.5 per cent previously, and in-creased its projection for headlineinflation in March to 7.5 per cent,from 7 per cent earlier.

Repo rate:Repo rate:Repo rate:Repo rate:Repo rate: The rate at whichbanks borrow f from RBI. It is an in-strument of monetary policy. When-ever banks have any shortage of fundsthey can borrow from the RBI.

Reverse Repo rate:Reverse Repo rate:Reverse Repo rate:Reverse Repo rate:Reverse Repo rate: The rateat which the RBI borrows money fromcommercial banks.

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):the amount of total deposits thatbanks are required to keep with thecentral bank. If the central bank de-cides to increase the CRR, the avail-able amount with the banks comesdown. The RBI uses the CRR to drainout excessive money from the system.

Highlights of the RBI Quar-Highlights of the RBI Quar-Highlights of the RBI Quar-Highlights of the RBI Quar-Highlights of the RBI Quar-terly Monetary Policy Reviewterly Monetary Policy Reviewterly Monetary Policy Reviewterly Monetary Policy Reviewterly Monetary Policy Review:

EconomyEconomyEconomyEconomyEconomy




• Repo rate remain unchanged at8 percent

• CRR decreased by 0.5 Percent,coming down to 4.5 to 4.25percent

• Reverse repo rate remain un-changed at 7 Percent

• GDP growth forecast cut downto 5.8 per cent for the currentfiscal year 2012-13 from 6.5 per-cent.

IMF SLASHED INDIA’S GROWTH

FORECAST TO 4.9 % FOR 2012The International Monetary

Fund (IMF) 2012 had slashed India’sgrowth forecast to 4.9 per cent for2012 due to low business confidenceand sluggish structural reforms. TheInternational Monetary Fund earlierin July projected a growth rate of 6.1per cent for the year 2012-13. Dur-ing the first quarter ended in June2012, Indian economy expanded by5.5 per cent. In the World EconomicOutlook (WEO) released in Tokyoahead of the IMF-World Bank 2012Annual Meetings, International Mon-etary Fund stressed that India’s ac-tivity suffered from waning businessconfidence amid slow approvals fornew projects, sluggish structural re-forms, policy rate hikes designed torein in inflation, and flagging exter-nal demand. The report has pro-jected 6 per cent growth for the nextyear (2013), compared to an earlier6.5 per cent projection.

The IMF also expressed that theseries of reform measures taken bythe government was expected toraise India’s gross domestic product(GDP) growth to six per cent in 2013.For 2012-13 fiscal, the IMF assertedthat growth is projected to average5-6 per cent in 2012-13, more thanone percentage point lower than inthe April 2012 WEO. The down-

grade reflects both an expectationthat current drags on business senti-ment and investment will persist anda weaker external environment.

14 FDI PROPOSALS WORTH

113.35 CRORE RUPEES APPROVED

The Union Government of Indiaapproved fourteen foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) proposals, whichwould bring in the capital inflow of113.35 Crore Rupees. The major por-tion of 81.05 crore Rupees invest-ments accounts to the three clear-ances made in the PharmaceuticalSector. Approval of these propos-als was made in accordance to rec-ommendations made by the For-eign Investment Pro-m o t i o nB o a r d(FIPB) dur-ing the meet-ing held on 18S e p t e m b e r2012. The FIPBis headed byArvind Mayaram,the Secretary ofDepartment of Eco-nomic Affairs(DEA). Proposals ofthe companies ap-proved include Dashtag, Neo Capri-corn Plaza Ltd., Pipavav Defence andOffshore Engineering Company Ltd.,Prime Surgical Centers Private Ltd.,Calyx Chemicals and PharmaceuticalsLimited, Egon Software Pvt. Ltd. andAlburaq Trading LLP. Datsang got anapproval to hike its foreign equity ofvalue 68.22 crore Rupees with a nodof carrying out the pharmaceuticalbusiness especially in products re-lated to antibiotics, anti-histamines,dermatology and oncology. PrimeSurgical Centers Private Ltd. is al-lowed for setting-up of the Limited

Liability partnership (LLP) for carry-ing put and setting up the businessof establishing centers for short straysurgery in India. The company willhave its flagship center at Pune andbring in an investment of 14 croreRupees. Neo Capricorn Plaza Lim-ited a Mumbai based company wasallowed with post-facto approvals tocarry out its business of constructingfive-star hotels. Pipavav Defence andOffshore Engineering Company Lim-ited is allowed to issue foreign cur-rency convertible bonds (FCCBs) forraising its foreign equitya n d carry-

i n goutthe

b u s i -nesses of ship repairs,

ship building and production ofoffshore assets.AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT FEE TO BE

OMITTED

The Civil Aviation Ministry on 16October 2012 announced to abolishthe airport development fee on Delhiand Mumbai Airports, from 1 January2013. The ministry directed the op-erators of the two airports to stop levy-ing the charges for Airport Develop-ment Fee from the travellers from nextyear and also asked the Airport Au-thority of India to infuse equity in formof joint venture firms that operatesthe two largest airports of the nation. The Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh




asked the DIAL (Dial InternationalAirport Ltd) and MIAL (Mumbai In-ternational Airport Ltd) to submit pro-posals for stopping the Airport De-velopment Fee to the Airports Eco-nomic Regulatory Authority (AERA).Charges paid by domestic fliers inDelhi and Mumbai are 200 rupeesand 100 rupees and for internationalfliers it is 1300 rupees and 600 ru-pees respectively.DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE FRIENDLY

ROADS APPROVED

C.P. Joshi, the Union Minister ofRoad Transport and Highways on 11October 2012, approved two pilotprojects for development of PeopleFriendly Roads. This project will in-volve construction of National high-ways on corridor redevelopment andspot improvement concepts. This willhelp in reducing the financial burdenfrom the government making it pub-lic friendly. The pilot projects in thisregard will be experimented at theHero Honda chowk on the DelhiGurgaon Expressway for its spot im-provement concept and Delhi-DasnaSection of NH-24 will be used forimplementation of corridor redevel-opment concept. Additional featureslike premium cluster, higher educa-tion cluster, business cluster, SocialEconomic Zone (SEZ) and specialtycluster will be provided in the corri-dor redevelopment concept at Delhi-Dasna section of NH-24. The con-cept just not focus upon, develop-ment of the Highways but also have aprime objective of developing liveli-hood spaces and residential com-plexes, for people whose lands willbe acquired.

CHIDAMBARAM FOR RATIONAL

PRICING OF PETRO-GOODS

Worried over rising oil subsidy,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on

Wednesday, pitched for a rationalenergy pricing mechanism and cor-rection of distortion in petrol and die-sel prices resulting from unequal taxa-tion. “With less than adequate pass-through, subsidies on these (petro-leum) products have burgeoned.

The problem is that these areclearly not sustainable, and we mustdevise ways and means of correctingprice distortions,” he said while ad-dressing the valedictory session ofPetroTech-2012. The Minister alsomade a case for introducing a ratio-nal and transparent energy pricingmechanism to prevent leakageswhile protecting the interest of poorand vulnerable sections of the soci-ety. Referring to the impact of highoil prices on the world economy,Chidambaram said “the relentless risein crude oil prices is hurting growth... In the last few years, all economiesare under pressure. India is no ex-ception”.

India imports about 75 per centof its crude oil requirement. This hasresulted in widening of current ac-count deficit (CAD), while the risingsubsidy bill increased thegovernment’s fiscal deficit. “Tighterproduct markets, rising prices andgrowing demand could slow and in-deed have slowed economic growthand has serious implications ... andconsequently a major challenge forthe policy makers,” Mr. Chidambaramsaid. Indian economy was growing at9 per cent plus rate before the glo-bal economic crisis struck in 2008.The economic growth has slowed toa nine-year low of 6.5 per cent in

2011-12. “Our macro economic out-come in 2008-09 (the year of globalfinancial crisis) and 2011-12 (whichwitnessed the eurozone crisis) weresignificantly impacted by the rise inglobal prices of crude oil,” he said.While the government subsidises oilmarketing companies (OMCs) for sell-ing diesel, kerosene and LPG at be-low market rates, the price of petrolis fixed by the OMCs themselves. Atpresent, petrol price in Delhi hoversaround Rs. 67.90 a a litre, whilesubsidised diesel costs Rs.46.95 a li-tre.

Mr. Chidambaram said the singlemost fiscal risk not only to India butto all developing countries was theburgeoning subsidy bill. “While someprovision is being made under oilsubsidy year after year, we have foundthat provision is always way off themark as oil prices are globally deter-mined,” he said. Referring to pricedisparities on account of unequaltaxation between petroleum prod-ucts, he said it results due to in-effi-cient substitution of one fuel with theother.

RBI EXPANDED THE LENDING

NORMS ON PRIORITY SECTORS

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)on 18 October 2012 extended thelending’s on the Priority sectors likehousing, agriculture, small and me-dium enterprises, and expanded thescope of bank loans for these sectorsup to 2 crore Rupees. These amend-ments would be in effect from 20 July2012. The decision came after dis-cussions were held with the CMDs/CEOs of selected banks as well as theheads of Priority Sectors of selectedbanks and based on the same thenew guidelines and amendmentswere made. The banks were permit-ted by the central bank to offer loans




up to an aggregate limit of 2 croreRupees, to corporate that includesfarmers’ producer companies, co-operatives and partnership firms offamers indulged in agricultural andallied activities including animal hus-bandry, bee-keeping, dairy, fisheryand sericulture. The Priority loanwould also be made available for pre-harvest and post-harvest activities likeweeding, spraying, grading, harvest-ing and sorting. Export Credit loansfor exporting one’s own farm pro-duce would also be made available.The lending scheme fulfills the crite-rion mentioned under the MSMEDAct-2006. Bank loans to Micro andSmall Enterprises (MSEs) those areengaged in providing services wouldbe eligible for the direct finance ofup to 2 crore Rupees per borrowerper unit under priority sector. In casethe loan amount per borrower in-creases the limit of 2 crore rupees,than it can be considered as the indi-rect finance for agriculture.

Loans under priority sectorwould also include loans provided toGovernment agencies for develop-ment of dwelling units or slum clear-ance and rehabilitation up to 10 lakhrupees. This provision also spreads forlow income group and the economi-cally weaker sections of the societyin form of housing finance, construc-tion and re-construction, purchaseand more up to ceiling. The CentralBank also guided the banks to keep acheck on the loans, which are offeredfor the approved purposes. Thus thebanks engaged in issuing loans wouldhave to put forward a fine and chan-neled internal system and control inthis regard. The apex court decisioncame to ensure that credit needs ofpeople who don’t have access to in-stitutional finance.

DOW CHEMICAL TO CLOSE

20 PLANTS

The Dow Chemical Co. willeliminate about 2,400 jobs and closeroughly 20 manufacturing facilities aspart of a restructuring plan aimed atcoping with slowing economicgrowth in Europe and elsewhere.The manufacturing giant said on Tues-day that the job cuts amounted to 5per cent of the company’s workforceworldwide.

Dow expects the strategy willresult in roughly $500 million in an-nual cost savings by the end of 2014.The company also plans to slash capi-tal spending and investments. It ex-pects that will save an additional $500million. Dow anticipates it will save$2.5 billion, including other cost-cut-ting measures. Dow produces mate-rials used in nearly every businesssector and region of the world, leav-ing it exposed to shifts in global eco-nomic growth. Rival DuPont Co., onTuesday, reported a big drop in quar-terly profit and missed Wall Streetexpectations. The company an-nounced a restructuring that in-cludes 1,500 layoffs. Over the nexttwo years, Dow plans to close certainmanufacturing facilities in the U.S.,Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, theUnited Kingdom and Japan.NORTHERN RAILWAYS INTRODUCED

PINK COLOURED TATKAL FORMS

The Northern Railways on 18October 2012 introduced Pinkcoloured forms for Tatkal reservation.These forms would be made availablewith a printed warning column at the

booking counters itself and wouldhave enough space to fill in the de-tails like names, contact number, ad-dress and others. This step of Rail-ways would help in getting away fromthe menace created by touts andunauthorized ticket agents. If thepassenger is caught for buying thetickets from any of these touts or un-authorized agents, he will be respon-sible for the consequences that maybe a fine in form of penalty or impris-onment following the provisions avail-able in the Railway Act 1989.

In case address or phone num-ber provided in the ticket is foundfalse, the passenger would bedeboarded from the train on the verynext station. Tatkal being a specialservice offered by the Railways re-quires special documents to be pre-sented and hence the form wouldserve to the requirements.EXPORTS IN INDIA WITNESSED 11

PERCENT DIPThe Commerce Ministry on 11

October 2012 released a data thatshowcased the dip of 11 percent inexports and rise of 5.1 percent inimports. Exports in India for the fifthconsecutive month reported fall in itspercentage. With 11 percent fall to$23.7 in export, the trade deficit wid-ened to $18.1 billion in a months’time. The imports of the countryshowcased a positive figure in the




month of September saw a rise of 5.1percent at $41.8 billion to that of$39.8 percent recorded in the monthof August, 2012. The cumulative re-corded value of the exports in a pe-riod of April to September in 2012-13 down by 6.8 percent at $143.7billion as compared to the $154.1billion recorded in the same tenurein the previous fiscal year 2011-12.

RBI TOLD TO PROBE FDI NORM

VIOLATIONS BY WALMART

Walmart, the American multi-national retail giant, is being report-edly investigated by the CommerceMinistry for allegedly “clandestinelyand illegally” investing $100 millionin an Indian chain of conveniencestores two years ago in violation of aban on foreign direct investment inthe retail sector that existed at thetime. The move could hinderWalmart’s plans to expand in Indiafollowing the government’s recentdecision to allow foreign direct in-vestment. The Financial Times saidit had obtained documents showingthat the Commerce Ministry last weekasked the Reserve Bank of India tolaunch an investigation into Walmart’sallegedly illegal investment in as manyas 200 convenience stores andhypermarkets in 2010 when foreigndirect investment was banned. “TheEasyday stores in question are osten-sibly owned by Walmart’s partner,Bharti Enterprises, though Walmarteffectively manages them andWalmart executives have been sec-onded to Bharti,” it said.

The paper said the investigationwould focus on whether Walmart di-rectly invested in Bharti’s retail op-erations through a holding companyknown as Cedar Support ServicesLtd. Walmart insisted that it was “incomplete compliance” with FDI

laws. “All procedures and processeshave been duly followed and detailsfiled with relevant Indian governmentauthorities, including the ReserveBank of India,” it said. The companyhas been previously investigated inAmerica for allegedly paying bribesto open stores in Mexico. The Finan-cial Times said that, according tocompany documents and the Com-munist Party of India’s Rajya Sabhamember M. P. Achuthan who has writ-ten a letter to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh demanding a banon Walmart, “Cedar owns Bharti Re-tail and thus the Easyday chain”. Mr.Achuthan alleged that Walmart used“complex arrangements” to circum-vent FDI rules.

“Cedar was originally set up in2007 as Bharti Retail (Holding) Pri-vate Ltd, but its name was changedin 2009. Its articles of associationwere amended to make it a real es-tate and design consultancy servicecompany, in which foreign direct in-vestment was allowed,” the newspa-per said. The report said that accord-ing to the commerce ministry,Walmart Mauritius (4) Holdings in-vested Rs.456 crore, equivalent toabout $100 million at the time, in“compulsorily convertible deben-tures” giving Walmart a 49 per centstake in the company on conversion.RELIANCE INDUSTRIES GETS NOD

TO RAISE KG-D6 PRODUCTION

After months of intense stand-off, the Oil Ministry has given nod toReliance Industries’ plans to raisenatural gas output from the flaggingKG-D6, and agreed that CAG cannotdo a performance audit of the com-pany. The Ministry, on Tuesday, senta letter to RIL stating that “all the gov-ernment nominees” on the KG-D6block oversight committee have “al-

ready approved” to all the develop-ment proposals made by RIL, sourcessaid.

Also, it relented and agreed toRIL stand that an audit by the Comp-troller and Auditor General of India(CAG) of its spending on KG-D6block has to be a financial audit andnot a performance audit. “...the pro-posed audit would be under Section1.9 of the Accounting Procedure ofthe Production Sharing Contract, andnot a performance audit of the op-erator (RIL),” the ministry wrote. Onthe same day, the ministry also wroteto Principal Director of Audit (Eco-nomic & Service Ministries), CAG,stating that “subject to certain con-ditions, RIL has agreed for an auditunder Section 1.9 of Accounting Pro-cedure to the PSC by CAG and to co-operate with such audit withoutprejudice to any of their rights andcontentions.” Oil Ministry had beenwithholding approvals to RIL’s invest-ment plans saying the company mustfirst agree to CAG doing a secondround of audit of KG-D6 field for the2008-09 to 2011-12 periods. RIL hadstated that it was ready for a CAG auditif done under the PSC which providesfor checking of the contractor’s ac-counts in order to verify the chargesand credits but not questioning effi-cacies of processes or technologyused in the complex deep-sea op-erations.

The Ministry finally agreed to RILposition. Sources said the ministry




wrote to RIL “to take necessary ac-tions” on the items approved by theManagement Committee (MC). Whilethe Management Committee (MC) ofKG-D6 block in August approvedannual capex plans pending for pastthree years, the resolution had notbeen signed. These capex includedthose on well interventions to reversethe trend of falling gas output. Also,at least three discoveries RIL has madein the block had not been declaredcommercial, a step necessary to be-gin production from them. Besides,the MC had approved the revisedfield development plan for MA oil andgas field in the same block in Augustbut formal orders had not been is-sued. All these investments, RIL says,are necessary to reverse drop in out-put at the fields. After the ministryaction, RIL can now implement ur-gent remedial measures at KG-D6where output has dipped by morethan 55 per cent in past two years toabout 26 million metric standard cu-bic meters per day. The CAG hascalled a kick-off meeting, called theEntry Conference, with RIL on Octo-ber 31 to begin the second round ofaudit, sources said. RIL had, lastmonth, stated that CAG’s 2009 audit,which it had agreed to as a one-timeexception, turned out to be a ‘per-formance’ audit which was contraryto the provisions of the PSC. The CAGhad, in its first round of audit, ques-tioned the ‘reasonableness’ of costsincurred in the gas field developmentand said the government should re-visit the profit-sharing mechanism.

CABINET CLEARS 10 PER CENT

DISINVESTMENT IN NMDCThe Cabinet Committee on Eco-

nomic Affairs (CCEA), cleared a 10per cent stake sale of the Centre’sequity holding in NMDC through the

‘offer for sale’ route. The transactionis likely to fetch about Rs.7,000 crore.The CCEA has approved the disin-vestment of 10 per cent paid-up eq-uity capital (39.65 crore shares of facevalue of Re.1 each) of NMDC out ofthe government’s shareholding of 90per cent through ‘Offer for the saleof shares through stock exchange’(OFS) method, as per SEBI Rules andRegulations, an official statement saidhere.

STAKE SELL-OFF

Following the stake sell-off, thegovernment’s equity holding in theiron ore mining ‘Navaratna’ publicsector undertaking under the admin-istrative control of the Ministry of Steelwill come down to 80 per cent. Al-though NMDC with a paid-up equitycapital of Rs.396.47 crore as of March31 this year is primarily engaged inthe ore mining business, it is also ex-panding its activities towards produc-tion of steel and other value-addedproducts. The country’s largest pro-ducer of iron ore, it is operating twomining complexes in Chhattisgarhand one in Karnataka. The govern-ment, it may be recalled, had pro-posed disinvestment in NMDC ear-lier but the move had to be shelvedon account of poor market conditions.As and when this transaction comesthrough, it would be the first issueduring this fiscal. For, having set a dis-investment target of Rs.30,000 crorefor 2012-13, the government has notbeen able to roll out any public issuethus far this fiscal, primarily owing touncertain market conditions. For thevery same reason, the governmentcould manage to mop up a paltryRs.14,000 crore through disinvest-ment during the last financial year asagainst a budgeted target ofRs.40,000 crore set for the fiscal.

OFS METHOD

Alongside, at the meetingchaired by Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, the CCEA also approvedauthorisation in favour of EGoM (Em-powered Group of Ministers) tochange the method of disinvestmentfrom the OFS method, if the same isrequired subsequently due to marketconditions or due to change in SEBIRules and Regulations. Moreover, thefloor price, the number of tranches,the basis of allotment and the num-ber of shares to be allotted in each ofthe tranches will also be decided bythe EGoM. According to the officialstatement, the EGoM may also acceptor cancel the offer, if there is notenough demand at or above the floorprice; in case of over-subscription inone or more tranches, the EGoM candecide whether the over-subscribedamount is to be retained subject tothe overall disinvestment of 10 percent. Allotment of additional sharesto eligible and willing employees canbe offered at a discount of 5 per centto the issue or discovered (lowestcut-off) price up to a maximum of 0.50per cent of the paid-up equity capi-tal subsequent to completion of thetransaction under OFS. The methodand procedure of allotment of sharesto the employees will be worked outin consultations with merchant bank-ers or advisors to the issue, the state-ment said.

U.S. DISCUSSED ECONOMY AND

TRADE BARRIERS WITH INDIA

U.S. Treasury Secretary TimothyF. Geithner and Indian Finance Min-ister P.Chidambaram for the third an-nual meeting of the India-U.S. Eco-nomic and Financial Partnership on 9October 2012 discussed loweringtrade barriers and extending ways toexpand capital markets. Both the




countries agreed to deepen coop-eration at various multilateral forums,including the G20 and discussedways to remove trade and investmentbarriers. Timothy F. Geithner wel-comed the economic reform mea-sures announced by the Indian gov-ernment recently by saying that itwould help in boosting private invest-ment. He also asserted that India andUS have agreed on the importanceimproving coordination on bilateraltax matters including with respect tothe tax treaty and Implementation of the Foreign Account tax ComplianceAct (FATCA) to address offshore taxevasion. Both the countries US andIndia recognize the great potentialbenefit from working together tomeet the challenges of a shared fu-ture to generate jobs, sustain growth,and help ensure macroeconomic sta-bility. The growing trade and invest-ment between two countries acrossa wide range of products, services,and technology is a sign of commit-ment to build relationship on a solidfoundation that utilizes mutualstrengthsTEA BOARD, ETC JOIN HANDS TO

PROTECT DARJEELING TEA

A joint communiqué has beensigned between the Tea Board ofIndia and the European Tea Commit-tee (ETC), supporting the ProtectedGeographical Indication (PGI) regis-tration granted to Darjeeling teawithin the European Union (EU). Italso involves evolving a joint workingrelationship to implement the PGIregistration for Darjeeling in letter andspirit. The Tea Board was representedby M. G. V. K. Bhanu, Chairman, whilethe Hamburg-based European TeaCommittee was represented by Will-iam Gorman, President. The ETC andthe Tea Board have agreed that they

would co-operate and work togetherin disseminating information aboutthe PGI registration and its implica-tions in the local language in Germanyand other tea-consuming countrieswithin the EU.

ETC is the Central EuropeanFederation of national associations in-volved in tea. Its activities focus onquality control and food laws mainly.Darjeeling tea from India received thePGI protection in October 2011. It issaid that more ‘Darjeeling’ tea is soldin the international markets than isproduced in Darjeeling as very oftenonly a small portion of the authenticproduct is put in a packet of tea-blends from other regions. Followingthe registration, the teas sold in EUwould have to be 100 per centDarjeeling tea.CHINA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH SLOWS

TO 7.4 %China’s economic growth

tumbled to the lowest in more thanthree years in the latest quarter butretail sales and investment improvedin a possible sign a painful slumpmight be stabilising. The world’s sec-ond-largest economy grew 7.4 percent in the three months ending inSeptember, data showed on Thurs-day. That was down from the previ-ous quarter’s 7.6 per cent and thelowest since the first quarter of 2009.Retail sales rose 14.4 per cent, a smallacceleration over the first half of theyear, and investment in industrial as-sets and some other indicators also

showed small improvements. “Judg-ing from the third quarter figures, wecan see a clear sign of steady eco-nomic growth,” said Sheng Laiyun,spokesman for the National Bureauof Statistics, at a news conference.“There is a smaller margin of declineand some major indicators have beengrowing faster.”

Analysts expect China’s eco-nomic growth to rebound late thisyear or early next year but say a re-covery is likely to be too weak to driveglobal growth without improvementin the United States and Europe. Theslowdown is due largely to govern-ment lending and investment con-trols imposed to cool an overheatedeconomy and inflation. But the down-turn worsened sharply last year afterglobal demand for Chinese goodsplunged unexpectedly.

The government has cut inter-est rates twice since early June and isinjecting money into the economythrough high investment by statecompanies and spending on build-ing airports, subways and other pub-lic works. But authorities haveavoided launching a massive stimu-lus after huge spending fuelled infla-tion. Premier Wen Jiabao said growthappeared to be stabilising and heexpressed confidence the countrycould meet its official targets for theyear. “Economic growth is stabilizingand we are confident through ourefforts we can achieve the full—yeartargets for economic and social de-




velopment,” the premier said in aCabinet statement.

TELENOR FINDS A NEW PARTNER

After ending its telecom jointventure Uninor with Unitech,Norway’s Telenor, on Friday, said ithad signed Lakshdeep Investmentsand Finance as the partner for itsnewly formed Indian entityTelewings Communications.Lakshdeep, controlled by SudhirValia, will contribute an agreedamount of equity into Telewings. Mr.Valia is the brother-in-law of DilipShanghvi, the promoter of Sun Phar-maceutical Industries.

“This is a financial investment byMr, Valia in his personal capacity,”Telenor said in a statement. “Uponsuccessful participation in the up-coming spectrum auctions and postall required government approvals,the Telenor Group will eventuallyown 74 per cent of the joint venture,”the statement said. All assets ofUnitech Wireless will be transferredto this company after getting the ap-provals.

OPERATIONAL CONTROL

“The Telenor Group will main-tain operational control and uponnecessary approvals all assets ofUnitech Wireless (Uninor) will betransferred to this company for seam-less continuity of operations,” thestatement added. Telewings has al-ready applied for prequalificationprocedure to participate in the up-coming spectrum auction. However,a final decision on whether to par-ticipate or not will be made before

the auction starts, it added. Recenlty,realty major Unitech had said it wouldexit from the telecom joint venturewith Telenor by selling its entire 32.75per cent stake to the Norwegian firm.Telenor and Unitech had been at log-gerheads ever since the SupremeCourt in February cancelled Uninor’s22 telecom permits. Telenor wantedto scrap the joint venture and trans-fer the business to a new firm and getfresh licence, whereas Unitech wasopposing it. However, earlier thismonth, Unitech and Telenor agreedto transfer the business in Uninor to anew entity controlled by the latter. 400 CCTV CAMERAS INSTALLED

TO ENHANCE SURVEILLANCE

Northern Railways, Delhi Divi-sion on 9 October 2012 finished in-stallation of about 400 CCTVs at 10different stations of Delhi to enhancesecurity and surveillance. Sum ofmore than 20 crore Rupees was spenton the project. The stations wherethese cameras have been installedinclude New Delhi, Old Delhi,Shahadra, Sarai Rohilla, HazratNizamuddin, Anand Vihar,Ghaziabad, Delhi Cantt, Tilak Bridgeand Shivaji Bridge.

As part of the Integrated Secu-rity System and to enhance quality ofsecurity checks, nine baggage scan-ners and 152 CCTV cameras were in-stalled at the New Delhi Railway Sta-tion. This made the New Delhi Rail-way station, first and the only station

in India to have more than 100 secu-rity cameras installed and operational.

Control rooms with monitoringofficers have also been set-up at thestations and the Railway managementwill also keep a check on these offic-ers. Installation of 12 escalators at dif-ferent stations is in process to man-age the crowd on the stations. In-dian Railways has decided to imple-ment, the Integrated Security System(ISS) at 202 different stations acrossthe country for fine and reliable ac-cess controls, baggage and personalscreening and security surveillance.DAHEJ PLANT OF BASF TO GO ON

STREAM IN MARCH 2014BASF of Germany, announced

that it would invest Rs.1,000 crore toset up a new chemical plant at Dahejin Gujarat by March 2014. “We havedrawn up plans to invest Rs.1,000crore to set up a Greenfield special-ity chemicals manufacturing facilityat Dahej. This will supplement ourexisting plant, and also cater to ex-pand our business,” BASF India Chair-man and Managing Director PrasadChandran told reporters at the inau-guration of the Indo-German UrbanMela here. The company has alreadystarted the construction in April thisyear, and the plant will be operationalby March 2014. “The upcoming fa-cility will help in expanding our busi-ness in sectors such as automotives,paints, paper, home care and lifestyle. It will also supplement ourMangalore facility,” he added.EXPORTS

Besides catering to the demandof the domestic market, the plant willexport chemicals to other nations,including Pakistan, Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, Thailand and some otherASEAN countries. The company atpresent has nine manufacturing




plants in India. BASF also showcaseda concept car jointly developed withGerman auto major Daimler with anadvanced technology and energy-efficient light-weight design. BASFIndia had clocked a revenue ofRs.7,500 crore for 2011, registering ajump of 20 per cent over the previ-ous year. The company, which has2,300 employees in India, also hasresearch and development (R&D)centres at Thane and Mangalore.

POLARIS INKS PACT WITH PYXIS

Polaris Financial Technology, onWednesday, announced that it hadentered into a business purchaseagreement with Pyxis to strengthenits consulting capabilities. Pyxis,which is a specialised player in tech-nologies for global markets, wouldhelp Polaris with its market solutions,according to a press release. “Thisagreement would reinforce our ex-pertise in the consulting business. Weare happy to have a team of domainspecialists from Pyxis joining us,” therelease quoted Kedarnath Udiyavar,Head of Polaris FT Consulting, as say-ing. The details of the contract, how-ever, were not disclosed.NSE, MCX, BSE AMONG TOP 20

GLOBAL DERIVATIVES BOURSES

Three Indian bourses — NSE,MCX and BSE — have made it to theworld’s top 20 derivative exchanges,ahead of their peers in global finan-cial centres such as London,Singapore and Hong Kong. While thelist is topped by the CME Group, asper a list compiled by the FuturesIndustry Association (FIA) for trad-ing volumes between January andJune 2012, the National Stock Ex-change is ranked fifth. Among otherIndian bourses, MCX is ranked at 10thand BSE at the 18th position. Afterthe CME Group, Korea Exchange is

ranked second, Eurex at third andNYSE Euronext at fourth. As per FIAdata, the NSE recorded a decline of7.2 per cent to 971.8 million con-tracts in the derivative segment dur-ing the period under review. MCXsaw its volume dip by 13.8 per centto 489.3 million, while the BSE re-corded a sharp rally to 97.4 millioncontracts after its renewed focus onderivatives trading in recent months.

LARGEST F&O EXCHANGE

The CME Group topped as thelargest F&O exchange but recordeda decline of nearly 9 per cent with1.55 billion derivative volumes. Thesecond spot was taken by Korea Ex-change, which witnessed a slump of34.4 per cent at 1.39 billion contracts.The two were followed by Eurex andNYSE Euronext with 1.26 billion and1.02 billion contracts been tradedduring the first six months, respec-tively. The exchanges ranked belowthe three Indian bourses in the top20 were: JSE South Africa at 19th andthe London Metal Exchange at the20th place. Those ranked below the20th position included Hong KongExchanges and Clearing (23rd), Lon-don Stock Exchange (24th), ChinaFinancial Futures Exchange (25th),Singapore Exchange (26th) and To-kyo Financial Exchange (27th).

SECURITY DEPOSIT ON NEW

CONNECTION OF LPG CYLINDER

INCREASED

The Union Ministry of Petro-leum and Natural Gas on 9 October2012 approved the increase in theonetime security deposit on availinga new LPG Cylinder connection. Thedomestic cylinder weighed 14.2 ki-lograms saw a rise of 250 Rupees andturned up to be 1150 Rupees fromthe previous one of 900 rupees in theNorth Eastern State and in rest of the

country it turned up to be 1450 Ru-pees witnessing a hike of 200 Ru-pees.

People seeking new connec-tion of Indane will have to pay aamount of 2500 Rupees as securitydeposit for the new connection.Apart from this, the security depositfor pressure regulator would be 150Rupees, Blue consumer book will becharged 45 Rupees each and thedeposit for Suraksha Tube is 170 Ru-pees. Consumers with stove facilityavailable at home will have to pay anextra amount of 250 Rupees for in-spection.

SCOPE OF PRIORITY SECTOR

LENDING EXTENDED

The Reserve Bank of India, onWednesday, eased norms for prioritysector lending by banks and also ex-panded the scope for distributingloans to agriculture and weaker sec-tions of the society. “The additionsand amendments will be operationalwith effect from July 20,” the RBI saidin a notification. The central bank al-lowed banks to include loans tocorporates, including farmers’ pro-ducer companies of individual farm-ers, partnership firms and co-opera-tives of farmers directly engaged inagriculture and allied activities —dairy, fishery, animal husbandry, poul-try, bee-keeping and sericulture (upto cocoon stage) — up to an aggre-gate limit of Rs.2 crore per borrower,to be considered as apriority sectorlending. Further short-term loans for




raising crops, which include tradi-tional/non-traditional plantations,horticulture and allied activities,would be included in the priority sec-tor.

Loans for pre-harvest and post-harvest activities, spraying, weeding,harvesting, grading and sorting willbe included in the priority sector.Now priority sector lending wouldalso include export credit for export-ing own farm produce. During theinteraction the RBI Governor had withbankers on July 31, 2012 in connec-tion with the first quarter review ofMonetary Policy 2012-13, certainconcerns were raised by the bankson the revised priority sector guide-lines. “Discussions were held withCMD/CEOs of select banks and alsowith priority sector heads of selectbanks. Based on the feedback re-ceived, it has been decided to makecertain additions and amendments,in the guidelines on priority sectorissued on July 20,” the RBI added.Bank loans to Micro and Small Enter-prises (MSEs) engaged in providingor rendering of services will be eli-gible for classification as direct fi-nance to the MSE sector under thepriority sector up to an aggregate loanlimit of Rs.2 crore per borrower/unit,provided they satisfy the investmentcriteria for equipment as defined un-der the MSMED Act, 2006.

In the housing sector, bankloans to any governmental agency forconstruction of dwelling units or forslum clearance and rehabilitation ofslum dwellers subject to a ceiling ofRs.10 lakh per dwelling unit wouldbe considered as priority sector lend-ing. “For the purpose of identifyingthe economically weaker sectionsand low income groups, the familyincome limit of Rs.1.120 lakh per an-

num, irrespective of location, is pre-scribed,” it added. Bank loans to hous-ing finance companies (HFCs) —approved by the NHB for their refi-nance — for on-lending for the pur-pose of purchase, construction andreconstruction of individual dwellingunits or for slum clearance and reha-bilitation of slum dwellers, subject toan aggregate loan limit of Rs.10 lakhper borrower, would come underpriority sector lending. However, theRBI stipulated that all inclusive inter-est rate charged to the ultimate bor-rower would not exceed the lowestlending rate of the lending bank forhousing loans plus 2 per cent perannum. The eligibility under prioritysector loans to HFCs is restricted to 5per cent of the individual bank’s to-tal priority sector lending, on an on-going basis. The RBI also asked banksto ensure that loans extended underthe priority sector are for approvedpurposes and the end use is continu-ously monitored. “The banks shouldput in place proper internal controlsand systems in this regard,” it added.IOC SIGNS MOU WITH KOREA GAS

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), onWednesday, entered into a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) withKorea Gas Corporation (Kogas) forjointly exploring opportunities in ex-ploration of oil and gas and LNG busi-ness. “IOC and Kogas signed an MoUfor joint participation in explorationand production of gas and oil at theglobal level, and developing naturalgas infrastructure projects and LNGsourcing,’’ the company said in astatement.

PETRONET LNG TERMINAL AT

KOCHI TO BE READY BY EARLY

2013Petronet LNG, on Friday, said its

import terminal at Kochi in Kerala

would be commissioned by the firstquarter of 2013 calendar year. Talk-ing to reporters here, Petronet LNGCEO and Managing Director A. K.Balyan said the Kochi terminal wouldoperate only to less than a fifth of its 5million tonnes a year capacity as theofftake infrastructure was not yetready. GAIL (India) is laying pipelinesconnecting the Kochi terminal toconsumers in two phases. The firstphase, connecting four consumerssuch as Kochi Refinery and FACTTranvancore, would be completedby December-end. Upon this, theKochi LNG terminal would be com-missioned. However, it would oper-ate at only 0.5-1 million tonnes ca-pacity for the first year due to limita-tion of gas offtake, he added. Thesecond-leg of the pipeline, whichwould connect Kochi to Bangaloreand Mangalore, was expected to becompleted by next year-end, he said.The company reported its highestquarterly profit at Rs.315 crore in theJuly-September period on the backof better margins and operational ef-ficiency.

PROFIT UP 21 %Mr. Balyan said the net profit

rose by 21 per cent to Rs.315 crorefrom Rs.260 crore a year ago. “Weoperated the 10 million tonnes a yearDahej import terminal at 106 per centcapacity during the quarter,” headded. Volumes imported remainedflat at 135 trillion British thermal unitsbut there was a 5 per cent increasein margin it gets on turning the liquidgas (LNG) back into its gaseous state.

DAHEJ EXPANSION

The turnover soared 41 per centto Rs.7,549 crore. The company hada forex gain of Rs.114 crore against aloss of Rs.52.6 crore, year-on-year.Petronet, which is in expansion




mode, will commission its secondimport terminal at Kochi by the firstquarter of 2013 calendar year. TheDahej facility will be expanded to 15million tonnes by 2015, and a thirdterminal is being planned atGangavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

APPLE OPENS BIGGEST ASIAN

STORE IN BEIJING

Apple, on Saturday, opened itsbiggest Asian store yet in Beijing. Theshop, on the major shopping streetof Wangfujing in the heart of the capi-tal, covers an area of 2,300 sq. metres,according to Chinese media reports.

DR.REDDY’S TO ACQUIRE

OCTOPLUS PHARMA

Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories an-nounced the intended public offerto acquire Octoplus N.V., a service-based speciality pharmaceuticalcompany for 27.39 million euros(nearly Rs. 192 crore) in cash.Dr.Reddy’s offered to acquire 100 percent of the issued and outstandingshares of OctoPlus with a premium of30 per cent over the closing price ofOctoPlus, as on October 19.Dr.Reddy’s already has commitmentfrom over 50 per cent of sharehold-ers of OctoPlus, whose executiveboard unanimously recommendedthe offer to the remaining sharehold-ers. A release from Dr.Reddy’s saidthat the deal would help expand thecompany’s expertise and scientificcapabilities. “We are looking forwardto build a research base in Leiden(Netherlands). The acquisition wouldhelp us remap up our technologycapabilities in drug delivery,”G.V.Prasad, CEO and Vice-Charmanof Dr.Reddy’s, said in a statement.

INDIAN FIRMS REAP BITTER

HARVEST IN AFRICA

Indian companies which in-vested in controversial deals involv-

ing hundreds of thousands of acresof land in Ethiopia have found them-selves out of their depth in a fast-grow-ing African economy that is still in theprocess of building critical transportand irrigation networks. Documentsrelated to one such transaction revealhow Emami Biotech, a subsidiary ofthe Rs.2,200-crore Emami Group,pulled out of a Rs. 400-crore, 40,000-hectare, bio-fuel plantation only ayear after the project was announced.Indian companies are the secondlargest investors in the Ethiopianeconomy with approved investmentsworth nearly $5 billion. While a ma-jority of the businesses are smallmanufacturing and trading enter-prises run by business families longsettled in East Africa, the big moneyhas come with the recent entry oflarge Indian investors. A number ofIndian companies have signed agree-ments to lease more than 4,40,000hectares of land across Ethiopia,1,00,000 hectares of which has beengranted to a single Bangalore-basedcompany, Karuturi Global Ltd. Inter-national. Rights organisations andNGOs have characterised the dealsas instances of land grab and haveaccused the government of forciblyresettling pastoral communities.

The Ethiopian government hasdenied these allegations, insistingthat large-scale commercial agricul-ture is a vital part of an ambitiousproject to transform the nationaleconomy. Yet, the failure of EmamiBiotech’s plantation and the glacialprogress of Karuturi’s 1,00,000-hect-are project in Gambella have ledsome to question the ability of thesecompanies to manage such largeplots of land. “We think [that] beforemaking necessary preparations, theyjust express interest, get investment

licences, get land and then prepara-tions take more time,” said FederalMinister for Industries MekonnenManyazewal. “Once they start opera-tions, obviously there will be chal-lenges but we are prepared to solvetheir problems.” A senior Ethiopianbureaucrat said the government hadtaken considerable political risk byembarking on such sensitive projectsinvolving the displacement of thou-sands and felt that the Indian inves-tors had not done their homework.Emami Biotech’s project in Oromia,he said, was a case in point.

In August 2009, the companyannounced it was investing Rs. 400crore to acquire 100,000 acres toplant Jatropha and other oil seeds andto set up an oil extraction plant. MottMcDonald, a reputed engineeringand development consultancy, con-ducted a feasibility study. The Ethio-pian government welcomed the in-vestment and even appointed EmamiDirector Aditya V. Aggarwal as Hon-orary Ethiopian Consul at its newlyopened Consular Office in Kolkata.

PULLING OUT

The following year however,Emami was ready to pull out. On De-cember 22, 2010, the company wroteto the Oromia Investment Commis-sion, claiming that only half the landinitially allotted to Emami was suitablefor agriculture, and even that landdidn’t have enough water. As per theletter, the company invested $1.5million in the project, dug severalbore wells, and constructed a checkdam. It also tried to grow maize,pulses, soya bean and sunflower, “butall our hard works becomes in vain[sic],” the letter said. The other partsof the land, the company claimed, layalong a disputed border betweenOromia and the neighbouring prov-




ince of Somaliland. The letter listsseven additional problems, includingcrop damage by local villagers andtheir cattle and a lack of cooperationfrom the local administration. WhileOromia officials said there were noclashes between the company andthe local villagers, a researcher ac-quainted with the project said thecompany and the villagers hadclashed over scarce water supplies.The Ethiopian government is scepti-cal of the company’s claims. “It is amatter of due diligence, they musthave known [about the water]. I don’tthink that has lead to the withdrawal,”said Mr. Mekonnen, the Minister forIndustries, noting that the companyhad conducted a feasibility study.

GLOBAL RECESSION

Analysts said the global reces-sion could have led to a slump in de-mand for biofuels, affecting the vi-ability of Emami’s project. “Since Ja-tropha plantation does not require[much] water, the land allocated wasarid and the lease rental was ex-tremely low,” said an analyst, addingEmami realised that the Jatrophaplantation was not lucrative and triedto cultivate other crops, “This ledEmami to request the government toreallocate the land and give themland that has much better water re-sources.” “[In Ethiopia] the cost ofclearing land and making it into a farmis about $1,500 per hectare,” saidBharat Kulkarni, Director, StalwartManagement Consultancy Services, afirm that advises those looking to in-vest in Africa. “Unfortunately, inves-tors land up in Ethiopia without actu-ally realising this challenge.” Otherfactors include the high internal costof transport, the absence of trainedlabour, government inefficienciesand the high costs of equipment. “We

have returned the 30,000 acres of landhanded over to us but are in talks withthe government for alternative land,”said a spokesperson from EmamiBiotech, but refused to share the rea-sons for this decision. Asked whetherthe Ethiopian government would re-allocate land to the company, Mr.Mekonnen was non-committal. “Wewill think twice,” he said.JINDAL TO BUY EXXON’S BUSINESS

Jindal Poly Films has enteredinto an agreement with ExxonMobilChemical to purchase its biaxially ori-ented polypropyline (BOPP) globalfilms business. The agreement cov-ers five BOPP production locationsin the U.S. and Europe. The transac-tion also includes a technology cen-tre and sales office in Rochester, NewYork and an office in Luxembourg,says a company release.FM UNVEILS ROADMAP FOR FISCAL

CONSOLIDATION

A day ahead of the second quar-ter monetary policy review by theReserve Bank of India (RBI), FinanceMinister P. Chidambaram, on Monday,unveiled a five-year roadmap for fis-cal consolidation in keeping with theKelkar Committee recommendationsto contain the twin deficits and highinflation, spur investments and put theeconomy back on a higher growthtrack. Making a statement at a pressconference here to mark acceptanceof a number of reform measures intaxation, disinvestment and expen-diture recommended by the Kelkarpanel, which had cautioned the gov-ernment that a “business-as-usualscenario for the current year” mightlead to the fiscal deficit rising to 6.1per cent of GDP [gross domesticproduct], Mr. Chidambaram assertedthat efforts would be continued torestrict the fiscal deficit to 5.3 per

cent of the GDP this fiscal, and re-duce it to 3 per cent over a five-yearperiod in 2016-17.

Referring to the lower fiscaldeficit target that was set in the Bud-get for 2012-13, Mr. Chidambaramsaid: “5.1 per cent was very challeng-ing. After looking at all the factors,we think 5.3 per cent is doable, andwe intend to work hard and achievethat.” As per the roadmap, the defi-cit is to be brought down to 4.8 percent by 2013-14, to 4.2 per cent in2014-15 and further to 3.6 per centin 2015-16 and finally to 3 per centper cent in 2016-17. “This plan is nec-essary, this plan must be implementedand the government is very seriousabout implementing this fiscal con-solidation plan…As fiscal consolida-tion takes place and investors’ confi-dence increases, it is expected thatthe economy will return to the pathof high investment, higher growth,lower inflation and long-termsustainability,” he said.

The timing of the announce-ment is significant, in that it is quiteevident that the government wouldlike the RBI to heed India Inc.’s de-mand, and ease its key policy rates tokick-start the economy by revivingdemand and catalysing investment.While it remains to be seen whetherthe apex bank responds to thegovernment’s fiscal action or waits forthe measures to take effect in view ofthe persistently high inflation, Mr.Chidambaram gave a clear indicationthat the government would welcomereciprocal action in view of the de-celeration in industrial and overalleconomic growth. Without referringto the RBI, Mr. Chidambaram said:“Well, I am making the statement sothat everybody in India acknowl-edges the steps which we are taking.




And also acknowledges the govern-ment is determined to bring aboutfiscal consolidation. And I sincerelyhope that everybody will read thestatement and take note of that...” Inhis statement, Mr. Chidambarampointed out that among the reformmeasures recommended the Kelkarpanel strongly advocated a transitionto the Goods and Services Tax (GST),a quick review of the Direct TaxesCode (DTC) before its introductionand passing in Parliament and a num-ber of administrative measures to im-prove tax collection. On disinvest-ment, it suggested a number of newmodels for disinvestment and haspitched for disinvestment of thegovernment’s residual stake in somecompanies that were privatised ear-lier. On the expenditure front, it sug-gested rationalisation of schemes,and strict control and monitoring ofexpenditure. “These recommenda-tions are wholesome and have beenaccepted by the government,” hesaid.

Expressing confidence that thegovernment would be able to mopup Rs.30,000 crore from disinvest-ment and Rs.40,000 crore from saleof spectrum, Mr. Chidambaramstressed that every effort would alsobe made to realise the revenue bud-geted under tax receipts. “The gov-ernment also expects to be able tocontain and economise on expendi-ture, both on Plan and non-Plan side.While funds will be made availablefor essential expenditure, especiallycapital expenditure, every effort willbe made to avoid parking or idling offunds. As regards subsidies, the Gov-ernment will also increasingly rely onAadhaar-enabled direct cash trans-fers of merit subsidies to eliminateduplication or falsification,” he said.

The Finance Minister also expressedthe government’s firm resolve to ad-dress the challenges posed by therising current account deficit (CAD).The CAD, he said, was expected tocome down to $70.3 billion or 3.7 percent of GDP in the current fiscal, from$78.2 billion or 4.2 per cent in 2011-12. “The government is confident thatthe CAD will be fully financed bycapital inflows, and expects that asubstantial part of it will be in the formof foreign direct investments, foreigninstitutional investments and externalcommercial borrowings ,” he said.

As for the reforms in direct andindirect tax laws, Mr. Chidambaramsaid the introduction of the amendedDirect Taxes Code (DTC) Bill wasunder review and would be pre-sented to Parliament after taking therecommendations of the StandingCommittee into account. “A quickreview of the DTC Bill will be done.We are looking at the Bill that was in-troduced, at the StandingCommittee’s recommendations. Weare also looking at current economicsituation and therefore final versionof bill that will be introduced in Par-liament will reflect all these. By andlarge, we will have to abide by Stand-ing Committee recommendations,”he said. Alongside, work is in progresson the Goods and Services Tax(GST).

PENGUIN, RANDOM AGREE TO

MERGE

Penguin and Random House,two of the world’s top English-lan-guage publishing houses, haveagreed to merge, it was announcedon Monday, in a move seen as a pre-cursor to more such mergers as thepublishing industry struggles to over-come growing competition from digi-tal publishing, notably Amazon. At

present, Penguin is owned byPearson, publishers of The FinancialTimes , and Random House by theGerman media group Bertelsmann.The latter will control 53 per cent ofthe proposed joint venture, to becalled “Penguin Random House’’, andPearson 47 per cent. The deal, whichwill create a business with estimatedannual revenues of £2.5 billion ac-counting for 25 per cent of the Brit-ish and American book markets, willbe subject to normal regulatory ap-provals. It is expected to come intoeffect in the second half of 2013.There were calls for competition au-thorities to look at the deal closely,given the size of the merged group.

The move came as RupertMurdoch’s News Corp, which ownsHarper Collins, was reported to haveapproached Pearson with “substan-tial cash offer’’, estimated to be about£1 billion. But there was no officialcomment either from News Corp orPearson. Meanwhile, Pearson said themerger with Random House would“bring together two of the world’sleading English language publishers,with highly complementary skills andstrengths.’’ “Random House is theleading English language publisherin the U.S. and the U.K., while Pen-guin is the world’s most famous pub-lishing brand and has a strong pres-ence in fast-growing developing mar-kets. Both companies have a long his-tory of publishing excellence, andboth have been pioneers in the dra-




matic industry transformation towardsdigital publishing and bookselling,’’it said.

SHARING COSTS

Marjorie Scardino, Chief Execu-tive of Pearson, said that together twopublishers would be able to share a

large part of their costs, and investmore in their authors.

Thomas Rabe, Chairman andCEO of Bertelsmann, described theproposed merger as “the best coursefor new growth for our world-re-nowned trade-book publishers.’’ “It

will build on our publishing tradition,offering an extraordinary diversity ofpublishing opportunities for authors,agents, booksellers, and readers, to-gether with unequalled support andresources,” he said.




A HUMANOID ROBOT CALLED

BAXTER

A humanoid robotwith common sense, designed towork safely alongside its human co-workers on factory production lines,was unveiled in the US.

Baxter could apply commonsense, adapt to its environment andbe trained in less than 30 minutes tocomplete specific tasks. It is capableof superhuman speed and precision.To teach Baxter a new job, a humanguides its arms to simulate the desiredtask, and presses a button to program

in the pattern, the report said. Therobot responds with a confused ex-pression, if it does not understand.

WOODEN HIGH-RISES THAT ARE

ECO-FRIENDLY

Architects and engineers are re-viving the use of wood as an eco-friendly replacement for concrete, asborne out by the completion of aneight-storey office building in Aus-tria and residential block in London.

The LCT One building inDornbirn, Austria, is a ‘hybrid’ build-ing made from both wood and con-crete and designed by Austrian ar-chitectural firm Cree. Assembledfrom solid panels made from layers ofwood and other materials, the high-tech building has a central concrete

core housing its lifts and utilities. Froma concrete foundation, vertical postsof glue-laminated wood (known asglulam) support hybrid floor panelsmade from more glulam beams em-bedded in reinforced concrete.Made by sticking together smallerpieces of wood to create structuralelements, glulam can resist compres-sion better than concrete — butweighs much less and is more sus-tainable, the Daily Mailreports. Creeclaims that prefabricating the glulamelements of the building cuts con-struction time by half, guaranteesquality and slashes the buildings’ car-bon footprint. Concrete emits nearlyits own weight in carbon dioxide asits produce; the raw material forwooden skyscrapers, by contrast, lit-erally grows on trees and absorbscarbon from the air as it does so.

‘LAB ON A CHIP’ MAY MAKE

ANALYTIC DEVICES MORE EFFICIENT

A technique that uses acousticwaves to sort cells on a chip may helpcreate miniature medical analytic de-

Science and TechnologyScience and TechnologyScience and TechnologyScience and TechnologyScience and Technology




vices and lead to cell phone-sizedmedical labs, according to a team ofresearchers. The device uses twobeams of acoustic— or sound —waves to act as acoustic tweezers andsort a continuous flow of cells on adime-sized chip, said Tony JunHuang, associate professor of engi-neering science and mechanics,Penn State. By changing the fre-quency of the acoustic waves, re-searchers can easily alter the paths ofthe cells. Huang said that since thedevice can sort cells into five or morechannels, it will allow more cell typesto be analyzed simultaneously, whichpaves the way for smaller, more effi-cient and less expensive analyticdevices. “Eventually, you could doanalysis on a device about the size ofa cell phone. It’s very doable andwe’re making in-roads to that rightnow,” said Huang. Biological, geneticand medical labs could use the de-vice for various types of analysis, in-cluding blood and genetic testing,Huang said.

CELL-SORTING DEVICES

Most current cell-sorting de-vices allow the cells to be sorted intoonly two channels in one step, ac-cording to Huang. He said that an-other drawback of current cell—sort-ing devices is that cells must be en-capsulated into droplets, which com-plicates further analysis. “Today, cellsorting is done on bulky and very ex-pensive devices. We want to mini-mize them so they are portable, inex-pensive and can be powered by bat-teries,” said Huang. Using soundwaves for cell sorting is less likely todamage cells than current tech-niques, Huang added. In addition tothe inefficiency and the lack of con-trollability, current methods produceaerosols, gases that require extra

safety precautions to handle. The re-searchers created the acoustic wavecell-sorting chip using a layer of sili-cone — polydimethylsiloxane. Ac-cording to Huang, two parallel trans-ducers, which convert alternatingcurrent into acoustic waves, wereplaced at the sides of the chip. Asthe acoustic waves interfere witheach other, they form pressure nodeson the chip. As cells cross the chip,they are channeled toward thesepressure nodes. The transducers aretunable, which allows researchers toadjust the frequencies and createpressure nodes on the chip. The re-searchers first tested the device bysorting a stream of fluorescent poly-styrene beads into three channels.Prior to turning on the transducer, theparticles flowed across the chip un-impeded. Once the transducer pro-duced the acoustic waves, the par-ticles were separated into the chan-nels.

LEUKEMIA CELLS

Following this experiment, theresearchers sorted human whiteblood cells that were affected by leu-kemia. The leukemia cells were firstfocused into the main channel andthen separated into five channels. Thedevice is not limited to five channels,according to Huang. “We can domore. We could do 10 channels if wewant, we just used five because wethought it was impressive enough toshow that the concept worked,”Huang said. The researchers releasedtheir findings in the current editionof Lab on a Chip. AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS UNVEILED

THE COLOSSAL RADIO TELESCOPE

Australian Scientists unveiled acolossal radio telescope with abilitiesof exploring the depths of universewith unparalleled precision. The tele-

scope will increase the abilities ofastronomers in mapping black holes,survey the universe, and cracking thenew light across the galaxies to anexponential level.

At present the Australian SKAPathfinder telescope having 36 an-tennas with diameter of 12 meterseach is placed at the remoteMurchison Radio-Astronomy obser-vatory in the deserts of West Austra-lia. Designed and developed by mak-ing investments of Australian $ 140million has facilities of surveying thesky at a much faster speed than anyother telescope available in theworld. The sensitive antennas of thetelescope are quite sensitive to thefaint radiations of Milky Way hence isable to detect the galaxies far away. The radio waves generated from thistelescope can provide details of thecosmos far away and the gases thatresulted in the formation of any par-ticular star. Pulsars and quasars canalso be identified by the telescopewith an ease pushing forward theboundaries of knowledge of the man-kind ahead of the physical laws ofnature. The principle of radio-as-tronomy can provide the details ofthe beginning of the universe. Basi-cally the antennas of the telescopespread across the rocky terrain wouldbe used for collection of the radiosignals of the cosmic phenomenon.Being 50 times more powerful, whencompared to other radio devices, itcan easily detect the exploding stars.




Hence can be of a great use in estab-lishing the facts related to the forma-tion of the universe that happenedabout 14 billion years ago.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH INMICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY

IBM scientists are reportingprogress in a chip-making technologythat is likely to ensure the shrinking ofthe basic digital switch at the heartof modern microchips for more thananother decade. The advance, firstdescribed in the journal NatureNanotechnology on Sunday, isbased on carbon nanotubes, exoticmolecules that have long held outpromise as an alternative material tosilicon from which to create the tinylogic gates that are now used by thebillions to create microprocessorsand memory chips.

The IBM researchers at the T.J.Watson Research Centre in YorktownHeights, New York, have been ableto pattern an array of carbonnanotubes on the surface of a siliconwafer and use them to build chipsthat are hybrids of silicon and carbonnanotubes with more than 10,000working transistors.

Against all expectations, the sili-con chip has continued to improvein both speed and capacity for thelast five decades. In recent decades,however, there has been growinguncertainty over whether the tech-nology will continue to improve. Theend of the microelectronics erawould inevitably stall a growing array

of industries that have fed off the fall-ing cost and increasing performanceof computer chips. Chip makers haveroutinely doubled the number of tran-sistors that can be etched on the sur-face of silicon wafers by routinelyshrinking the tiny switches that storeand route the ones and zeros that areprocessed by digital computers.They have long since shrunk theswitches to less than a wavelength oflight

The process has beencharacterised as Moore’s Law, namedafter Gordon Moore, the Intel co-founder, who in 1965 noted that theindustry was doubling the number oftransistors it could build on a singlechip at routine intervals of 12 to 18months. To continue the process,semiconductor engineers have hadto consistently perfect an array of re-lated manufacturing systems andmaterials that continue to perform atan ever tinier scale. In recent years,while chip makers have continued todouble the number of transistors onmicroprocessors and memory chips,their performance, measured as“clock speed,” has largely stalled. Thishas forced the computer industry tochange its design and begin build-ing more parallel computers.PACKING 10 TERABITS ON A TINY

DEVICE

A new discovery may open theway for the development of nextgeneration data storage devices withcapacities of up to 10 terabits (10 tril-lion bits) per square inch. An ultra-smooth surface may be the answer,according to a discovery by the re-searchers from Agency for Science,Technology and Research’s (ASTAR)Institute of Materials Research andEngineering (IMRE) and the NationalUniversity of Singapore (NUS), re-

ports the journal Nature. The self-as-sembly technique is one of the sim-plest and cheapest high-volumemethods for creating uniform,densely-packed nanostructures thatcould potentially help store data, ac-cording to an ASTAR statement. How-ever, attempts to employ self-assem-bly on different surface types, suchas magnetic media used for data stor-age, have shown varying and erraticresults to date.

This phenomenon has contin-ued to puzzle industry researchersand scientists globally. The research-ers have now solved this mystery andidentified that the smoother the sur-face, the more efficient the self-as-sembly of nanostructures. Themethod can now be used on moresurfaces. A height close to 10 atoms,or 10 angstroms, is all it takes to makeor break self-assembly,” said M.S.M.Saifullah, one of the key researchers. WASTE DEGRADATION BY WHITE ROT

FUNGUS

Composting is a natural processof rotting or decomposition of organicmatter by microorganisms under con-trolled conditions. Raw organic ma-terials such as crop residues, animalwastes, food garbage, some munici-pal wastes and suitable industrialwastes after composting enhancetheir suitability for application to soilas a fertilizing resource. In additionto being a source of plant nutrient,




compost also improves thephysiochemical and biological prop-erties of the soil.

As a result of these improve-ments, the soil becomes more resis-tant to stresses such as drought, dis-eases and toxicity. Composting helpsthe crop in improved uptake of plantnutrients and possesses an activenutrient cycling capacity because ofvigorous microbial activity indirectlyleading to pathogen suppression insoil. These advantages manifest them-selves in reduced cropping risks,higher yields and lower outlays on in-organic fertilizers for farmers. In re-cent years, decomposition of agricul-tural wastes such as coir pith, bananasheath (dried), sugarcane trash, mil-lets and pulse waste, cotton stubblewith white rot fungus (Pleurotus sp.)is gaining importance. These wastesare decomposed with any one of thewhite rot fungi P. eous, P. platypus,P. djamor o r P. sajorcaju by layersystem. One layer of agricultural wasteat 100 kg is spread uniformly in anarea of 4 x 3 m2 under shade. Cultureo f P. djamor at 200 gms is appliedover the substrate. Another 100 kg ofsubstrate is spread over the first layerand urea is applied at rate of one kgto the substrate. This sandwiching isrepeated to make a heap of 1,000 kgsubstrate with such 20 layers. A totalof one kg of the fungus and five kgurea is required to decompose 1,000kg waste. Water is sprinkled twice a

day to maintain 50 -60 per cent mois-ture level. The heap is allowed todecompose for a month after whicha turning is done. The waste under-goes degradation within 45 days. Ithas a narrow carbon : nitrogen ratioof 20:1 which can be used as organicmanure.

NEW EARTH SIZED PLANET

DISCOVERED IN NEIGHBORING

SOLAR SYSTEM

Astronomers have discovered anew earth sized planet in October2012 which is closest to but outsideour solar system. The planet is said tobe astronomical stone’s throw awayat four light years. The discovery ofplanet was announced in ScienceJournal, Nature by Stephane Urdyand Xavier Dumusque at GenevaObservatory.

The planet is very close to itssun that it is difficult to support lifethere. The planet is of very low massand have a surface temperature ofabout 1200 degree Celsius (2192Farenheit).The Planet orbits one ofthe suns in Alpha Centauri, roughly25 trillion miles away. Also accordingto the previous study by differentscientist if one planet is discoveredorbiting a sun there is usually otherplanet in the same solar system. Al-most 800 exoplanets are discoveredin the recent past that is outside oursolar system since early 1990’s. Butthis Planet is very close to earth. Itwas also asserted that getting to theplanet is nearly impossible becauseit would take about 40000 years to

travel to new planet even with cur-rent Propulsion TechnologyPROCESS OF FRUIT RIPENING AND

CHANGE OF COLOURS

Several major changes can takeplace as fruits ripen. Not all occur inevery type of fruit, but taken collec-tively they characterize ripening pro-cesses. They include: (1) a rise in res-piration rate; (2) production of ethyl-ene; (3) flesh softening; (4) appear-ance of colour; (5) formation ofvolatiles with associated develop-ment of flavour.

Among these changes, forma-tion of bright colour, which evolvedto attract dispersal agents such asbirds, browsing animals and primates,now becomes a particularly impor-tant visible indicator of maturity andripeness. Pome fruit, stone fruit, to-matoes, mangoes and straw berriesprovide good examples wherecolour is a prime indicator of ripeness.The non-greening of leaves is calledsenescence. As in leaf senescence,ripening in fruits also involves chloro-phyll loss and an increase in produc-tion of yellow, orange, red or purplepigments. Yellow, orange or red pig-mentation, as seen in oranges andtomatoes, arise from conversion ofchloroplasts to chromoplasts. Inhigher plants, carotenoids which arefound in chromoplasts and anthocya-nins which are located in the vacu-oles fulfill an important purpose ascolorants of fruits.




For example the red colour oftomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)fruits is due to the carotenoid pig-ment lycopene, whose concentrationincreases dramatically during the rip-ening process. The deep yellowcolour of mango fruits is due to thepresence of beta carotene a commonphytochemical within a group of 600known carotenoids. Similarly the redcolour development in apples andpurple colour development in grapesare due to the formation of anthocya-nin pigments in their skin. Sometimesboth types of pigments can occur inthe same fruit.

These pigments are formed asend products of two separate path-ways during ripening. The phytoenepathway, which leads to the accu-mulation of yellow-orange caro-tenoids or red lycopene and the an-thocyanin pathway which leads tothe accumulation of anthocyanins inthe vacuoles are these two pathways.

TWO LABOUR-SAVING FARM

MECHANISATION INNOVATIONS

Compared to human labour, us-ing machines is always an easier op-tion for agricultural activities. But theproblem arises when farmers are notable to locate or source the right ma-chine on time. Even if they are avail-able their price is either too costly orif on hire, one needs to wait to usethem.

A fabricator cum mechanic, Mr.Gurmail Singh Dhonsi from Rajasthan,has developed two agricultural ma-chineries which he claims are easy touse and light on the pocket. The firstmachine is a tree pruner that can bemounted on a tractor.

The machine can be used fororchard owners like mango growerswho need to prune their trees everyyear.

COMPOST AERATOR

Another machine which he hasdevised is called compost aerator. “Igot the idea to develop this machineby closely observing the earthwormsthat keep turning the soil,” says Mr.Gurmail Singh. “The aerator is alsotractor- mountable and consists of arotating shaft on which several steelblades are fitted to mix the bio wastesthoroughly.” The machine can be at-tached to any make and model oftractor of size 50 hp or above. Therotor, which is 16 inches in diameter,is nine feet long. “The nine-inchblades break and chop the biowastes into very small particles. Ahydraulic jack is provided to facili-tate the up and down movement ofthe main rotor. There is provision forattaching a 1,500 litre capacity watertank to the tractor. This water is usedto moisten the compost while the ro-tor blades turn the heap of biowastes.“A weight box has been providednext to the water tank to maintainbalance during movement,” explainsMr. Gurmail Singh. While the rotor ro-tates and the blades cut the biowaste,water is automatically added to themixture from the tank to moisten it.The tractor is slowly made to run fromone end of the heap to the other.

FUEL CONSUMPTION

“This operation needs to be re-peated four to five times for five daysduring summer and seven days dur-ing winter. As a result the total timefor converting biomass into manurereduces to 25-40 days, as against 120-150 days using manual methods. “Forthe operation the machine consumes3.5-4.0 litre of diesel per hour,” hesays. According to Dr. Nitin Maurya,National Innovation Foundation,Ahmedabad, the technologies forthoroughly mixing compost for rapid

composting are available in many for-eign countries although no such do-mestic product is available.

PATENT FILING

Moreover, the provision of pro-viding moisture while turning biom-ass is rare and accordingly NIF hasfiled a patent for this machine in thename of Mr. Gurmail Singh. The com-post made by the aerator has beentested by soil testing laboratory at theAgriculture Research Station (ARS)Durgapura, Jaipur. The percentagesof nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) andpotash (K) were found to be 1.87,1.79, 2.26 respectively as comparedto 0.4-1.5, 0.3-0.9, 0.3-1.9 per cent inthe conventional farm yard manure.This compost was found to be evenbetter than vermicompost. Similar re-sults have also been reported by aprivate fertilizer company which stud-ied the aerated compost.

GOLD PRODUCING BACTERIA

DISCOVERED BY SCIENTIST

Scientist and Researchers fromthe Michigan State University haddiscovered bacteria that can tolerateimmense amount of toxicity and canalso create 24 carat gold. The re-searchers found that the bacterianamed ‘Cupriavidus metallidurans’ ismetal tolerant bacteria which cangrow on huge concentration of goldchloride which itself is a very toxicchemical compound found in nature.

The researchers fed the bacte-ria with mismatched amounts of goldchloride, intimating the process they




believe happens in nature. In abouta week, the bacteria transformed thetoxins and produced a goldnugget. The researchers used a com-bination of biotechnology, art andalchemy to turn liquid gold into 24-carat gold. It is now being called asMicrobial alchemy - transforming goldfrom something that has no value intoa solid, precious metal that’s valuable.

CHESHIRE CATS AND WATER

SOLUBLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES

We are all familiar with electronicdevices such as integrated circuits,chips and tools that do a hundreduseful things. They have become in-separable from our lives. What do wedo once we are done with them?Throw them away, causing what hascome to be known as e-waste. It isestimated that e-waste alone ac-counts for over 70 per cent of toxicwastes currently found in landfills,and we are yet to get a good esti-mate of how much it is in the seasand oceans. Again, we use electronicdevices such as pacemakers andother sensors that are implanted inour bodies. The trouble with them isthat once they are past their use, weneed to surgically remove them (andperhaps implant a fresh one). Hownice it would be if only they dissolveaway and get removed from thebody; much the way we discard ourbody liquids and solids every day!Yes, it appears possible to do so withthe development of a prototype elec-tronic chip that is made to work for adefined period of time, which is im-planted into a body and dissolves af-ter use and gets excreted away fromthe body after it has done its intendedjob.

Dr. John Rogers of the MaterialSciences department of University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign and his

group teamed up with Dr. FiorenzoOmenetto of the Biomedical Engi-neering department of Tufts Univer-sity in Boston, and devised an implant-able electronic thermal therapy de-vice which lasts inside a rat’s bodyfor a few weeks before dissolvingaway. They report this landmark workin the 28th September 2012 issueof Science . In order that the deviceis water-soluble, every component inthere must be made of molecules andmaterials which are water-soluble,not the conventional aluminium, rare-earth metal compounds or plasticstuff that are built to last forever. Theymust be built to stay and work for astipulated time and then be washedaway. Hence, they used magnesiumor Mg as the electrical conductor,MgO and Silicon dioxide as dielec-trics, specially fabricatednanomembrane silicon semiconduc-tor and so forth, in order to build theelectrothermal device. The entiredevice including all of its inductor,capacitor, resistor, diode and transis-tor dissolves away when placed indeionized water. Next, they packedthis device in a sheet of silk, which isspecially made so as to stay intact fora set period of time, after which itdissolves in the body water, expos-ing the electronic device which toodissolves away. Here then is the‘proof of principle’ – a silicon-basedcomplementary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) device that is animplantable medical device, whichcan be custom-made or programmedto last for a defined period of time,after which it is resorbed in the body,so that no second intervention forretrieval of the device is needed.

The device they made wasmeant to be a heater – one that canbe placed next to a site where a sur-

gical operation has been done. It ismeant to keep the area warmer so asto keep it free of infection from germs.They first implanted it sub-dermally(under the skin) of some mice. Afterthe programmed three weeks, theimplant dissolved away. Only a faintresidue was left, which too clearedaway, with no inflammation or anyside effects. Reassured of its safety,they next implanted this transientthermal therapy device on ratsthrough surgery. Weeks later, theyfound no traces of infection after thesurgery. Here then is the proof of prin-ciple. Such biodegradable electronicdevices can have many uses. Theycan be sensors placed in fields, re-porting what they are meant to, andfade away. One can, in principle, evenmake portable consumer devices(cell phones?) which, after use, canbe dissolved away in water and thestarting material retrieved after evapo-rating the water. Lewis Carroll usedthe term Cheshire Cat, apparently af-ter the practice of dairy farmers inCheshire who would pack and mouldcheese in the form of a smiling cat.The cheese was cut and eaten fromthe tail side of the cat, leaving thesmile for last. In any event, Carroll waspre-scient; Cheshire Cats are now anelectronic reality.

SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED TEST TO

DETECT SCHIZOPHRENICS

Scientists developed a near to100 percent accurate test to detectschizophrenics, by simply checkingtheir gaze. Apparentlyschizophrenics can be checked justby implying some ‘simple viewingtests’. The tests brought out ninetyeight per cent accuracy in distin-guishing between those with andwithout schizophrenia. This pathbreaking research was done by re-




searchers at Aberdeen University.They found that people with schizo-phrenia showed well-documenteddeficits in the ability to track slowmoving objects smoothly with theireyes. The study was led by Dr PhilipBenson and Professor David St Clairwhich involved a range of eye testsand the volunteers were asked totrack slow moving objects slowly withtheir eyes, inspect a variety of every-day scenes and given instructions tokeep a steady gaze on a single un-moving target.

EFFICIENT WAY TO TURN WASTE

INTO RESOURCE

A staggering amount of waste isgenerated every day in every townand city, and the local bodies aregrappling with logistics for its dis-posal. The problem arises as the gov-ernment and individuals fail to seewaste as a potential source of energyand agricultural input in the form ofmanure.

The Bangalore Corporation,which recently made waste segrega-tion mandatory at the household level,is showing the way for the rest of In-dia. It is setting up 12 Nisargrunabiogas plants across the city to con-vert biodegradable waste into meth-ane and organic manure. TheNisargruna biogas plant is based ontechnology developed by theMumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Re-search Centre (BARC). Such plantsare being constructed at local levelstoo. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)is planning to construct 4 tonnes a

day capacity biodegradable wasteconversion plant at its sprawling cen-tre at Siruseri IT Park near Chennai. Italready has similar plants operatingat other locations. IIT Madras has al-ready cleared a project for a plantwith 1 tonne per day capacity. TheChennai Corporation recently initi-ated preliminary discussion withBARC. These are not the first plantscoming up in the country. “Suchplants have already been installed at146 locations,” says Dr. S. P. Kale,Head of Technology Transfer & Col-laboration Division at BARC. “We havetransferred the technology to 100private entrepreneurs.” In a broadsense, the principle is similar to thatof gobar gas plants, but all compari-sons end there — the technology ismuch more advanced and moremethane is produced.

BETTER BET

“Conventional gobar gas plantshave a single digester and producebiogas containing 55-65 per cent ofmethane and 45-35 per cent of car-bon dioxide. But the Nisargrunaplants are biphasic (aerobic followedby anaerobic phase) and producebiogas containing 70-80 per cent ofmethane and only 30-20 per cent ofcarbon dioxide,” he says.

More the methane produced,the better is the fuel value. One tonneof biodegradable waste containsonly 22-24 per cent of solid matter;the rest is water. And 30 per cent ofmunicipal waste is biodegradablewaste. So with one tonne of biode-gradable waste (containing 220-240kg of solid material) it will be pos-sible to produce 25-30 kg of meth-ane, about 150 kg of carbon dioxideand 50-60 kg of organic manure. Themethane enriched biogas can beused directly for heating (instead of

LPG) or for generating electricity. Dr.Kale underlines the higher levels ofefficiency when it is used directly forheating and strongly recommends it.

BEST USAGE

“One metre cube of biogas has3,500 kilo calories of heat. When thisis used directly, and the efficiency ofthe heater is 70 per cent, about 2,400Kcal are effectively used. But onemetre cube of biogas can produceonly 1.5 to 1.8 units of electricity, ac-counting only for 1,200 to 1,400Kcal,” he says. “It is two times moreefficient to use methane for heatingthan for generating electricity. It maybe used for electricity generationonly where thermal use is not pos-sible.” Constructing a one tonnewaste plant will cost Rs.15 lakh and itcan be installed in two months. “If aplant runs at full efficiency and if youclaim carbon credit, the paybackperiod is two years,” Dr. Kale explains.

HAZARDOUS WASTE

The best part of the technologyis its ability to generate resource evenfrom hazardous biological sludge.Waste from textile, food and chemi-cal plants contain harmful chemicals.When the waste is treated, the bio-logical sludge too turns hazardous asorganisms absorb harmful chemicals.“The volume of hazardous solids canbe reduced by 90 per cent,” hestresses. “There are seven such plantsalready in operation.” The first tocome up was in 2010 in Baddi inHimachal Pradesh at Auro Textilesbelonging to the Vardhman Group.He rattles off the details of one plantafter another, and it becomes diffi-cult to understand why this technol-ogy has not been adopted in a muchbigger way across the country. “Theconcept of processing biodegrad-able waste is more talked about but




urban local bodies are not keen todo it. Nisargruna technology offers adecentralized way of reducing thewaste reaching dumping yards,” hesays. “The citizens on their part mustsegregate the waste resources andurban local bodies must make provi-sion to collect these waste resourcesin a segregated manner. It needs ahuge change in perception by thesociety.” So what makes Nisargrunabiogas plants so very efficient? Tostart with, unlike a gobar gas plant,the Nisargruna plant has two digest-ers — aerobic and anaerobic. Aero-bic digester has nine species of Ba-cillus required for breaking downwaste resources.

The waste is first pulverised in amixer before it enters the aerobic di-gester, where it remains for 3 to 4days. “The smaller clumps tend toaggregate to form lumps [despitepulverisation]. These lumps of wasteare attacked by aerobic bacteria. Airand hot water (using solar panels) at70 degree C are added. “Hot water isadded to accelerate the digestionprocess,” Dr. Kale notes. Though thetemperature of the waste after add-ing hot water is 32 degree C to 35degree C in winter and 42 degree Cto 44 degree C in summer, the bacte-ria survive as they are thermophilic.“They can function in mesophiliccondition as well,” he clarifies. Thepulverised water-mixed waste ispassed through many compartmentsso that the bacteria have a betterchance to degrade it. What flows outof the aerobic digester to anaerobicdigester is almost liquefied homog-enous slurry with a reduced pH of 5-5.5. The solid content in the slurry hasbeen reduced from 23 per cent to10 per cent. “The solid is convertedinto organic acids and carbon diox-

ide,” Dr. Kale explains. Methane bac-teria are predominant in the anaero-bic digester. As a rule, methane bac-teria are slow in their actions, andhence it takes about 15 days for thewaste to be degraded in the anaero-bic digester. “But it has been re-duced from 40 days [in the case ofgobar gas] to 19 days,” he points out.“This is due to the initial aerobicphase.” All that is left of the waste ismethane, carbon dioxide and ma-nure — a rich resource extracted fromit.

WEBSITE UPDATES ON SPACE

RADIATION HAZARDS

Scientists have developed thefirst on-line system for predicting andforecasting the radiation environmentin near-Earth, lunar and Martian space.Astrophysicists from the University ofNew Hampshire’s Space ScienceCenter (SSC) created the new nearreal-time tool that will provide criti-cal information as preparations aremade for potential future mannedmissions to the Moon and Mars. “If wesend human beings back to the Moon,and especially if we’re able to go toMars, it will be critical to have a sys-tem like this in place to protect astro-nauts from radiation hazards,” saidresearcher Nathan Schwadron.Known as PREDICCS, the web-basedtool for the first time integrates nu-merical models of space radiation, ahost of real-time measurements be-ing made by satellites currently inspace, and “propagation codes” thatcan accurately project radiation lev-els out as far as Mars. The tool wasmade possible through NASA’s Liv-ing With A Star (LWS) Targeted Re-search and Technology programme.

ON HOURLY BASIS

The website provides updatesof the radiation environment on an

hourly basis and archives the dataweekly, monthly, and yearly. This his-torical record provides a clear pic-ture of when a safe radiation doselimit is reached for skin or blood-form-ing organs, for example.

MANAGEMENT OF RICE BLAST

DISEASE

Rice blast is a fungal infestationknown to occur in all the rice grow-ing areas of the county. The diseaseattacks all the parts of the crop grow-ing above the soil. It is broadly classi-fied into three types, leaf, collar andneck blasts.

Initially elliptical or spindleshaped lesions occurs with brownborders and grey canters. Underfavourable conditions, lesions enlargeand coalesce eventually killing theleaves. Leaf blast usually increasesearly in the season and then declineslater as leaves become less suscep-tible.

BLACK COLOUR

Collar blast occurs when thepathogen infects the collar that canultimately kill the entire leaf blade.The pathogen also infects the nodeof the stem known as node blast thatturns blackish and breaks easily. Neckblast occurs when the pathogen in-fects the neck of the panicle. The in-fected neck is girdled by a greyishbrown lesion and the panicle fallsover if the infection is severe. If neckblast occurs before the milk stage(rice forming stage), the entire




panicle may die prematurely, leavingit white and completely unfilled.Later infections may cause incom-plete grain filling and poor millingquality. Varietal resistant to blast is themost practical and economical ap-proach for management. The mostcommon resistant varieties are Aditya,CSR27, IR64, KRH2, Krishna, Hamsa,Naina, Pusa sugandha3, Rasi,Vasumati, PA6129, DRRH2, Dhan80,PR113, Swati, Narendra, Sumati,Swarnadhan, Triguna, Tulasi, IR-36etc.

DISEASE RESISTANT

Use disease free seeds. Applyrecommended dosage of nitrogenapplication in 3 to 4 splits and avoidfinal application in infested plots.Burn previous crop residues if thecrop is found infested. Early sowinghelps prevent this infestation spreadfrom neighbouring fields. Avoid wa-ter stagnation. Treat seeds withPseudomonas fluorescence 10g/lit ofwater for 30 min, dip the seedlings inPseudomonas fluorescence 5gm/litfor 20 minutes before transplanting.Foliar spray of the Pseudomonas fluo-rescence 5gm/lit can be done at aninterval of 15-20 days after transplant-ing.SCIENTIST DEVELOPED A SUPERHERO

MICE

Scientists of the City Universityof New York in month of October hadgenetically engineered mice thathave up to 500 times more of nosecells to detect explosives and TNT-like chemicals, using the GeneticallyModified technology. The mice arenamed as ‘super-hero’ sniffer miceand have the ability to smell out land-mines and explosives. The mice canbe used by armed forces and can bedeployed in future, to countries af-fected by war for rapidly sniffing out

of landmines. The project was fundedby the US government’s health re-search arm.

Using of rats and mice is notcommon phenomenon as it is evidentfrom the fact that a Belgian charityalready uses giant African rats to sniffout TNT and has deployed them inMozambique and Tanzania and on theThai-Burmese border. While in thisresearch project mice was used be-cause they are cheaper to manageand house and easier to breed.BCG: A VACCINE FOR MORE THAN

JUST TBIn the early years of the last cen-

tury, the director of a newly-estab-lished branch of the famed InstitutPasteur in the northern French city ofLille, Albert Calmette, and his col-league, Camille Guérin, set out to cre-ate a vaccine against tuberculosis. Inhumans, the disease is caused by thebacterium, Mycobacterium tubercu-losis . In their quest for a vaccine,Calmette and Guérin worked tire-lessly to weaken a related strainfound in cattle, Mycobacteriumbovis. The idea was that the live butthoroughly weakened microbewould, when administered to people,produce immunity against the TB-causing germ. The vaccine strain theycreated, ‘bacille Calmette-Guérin’(BCG), was first given to a newborninfant in July 1921. Even today, it isthe only vaccine available against TB.The BCG vaccine is no longer rou-tinely given to children in rich coun-tries where chances of catching the

disease are low. However, the vac-cine is still widely used in develop-ing countries where the disease isrampant. The World HealthOrganisation estimates that 100 mil-lion children receive it each year. Thevaccine provides limited protectionagainst tuberculosis. It does not stopthe disease-causing bacterium fromestablishing an infection, but can helpprevent severe forms of TB in infantsand young children. It does not, how-ever, provide cover against the dis-ease becoming active in adolescentsand adults. Curiously, the protectiveeffects of the vaccine appear to gobeyond tuberculosis. When, for in-stance, the vaccine was introducedin a northern Swedish province in1927, a physician noticed that thosewho received it at birth had a deathrate only about one-third of thatamong unvaccinated children.

Controlled trials among childrenand teenagers in the U.S. and U.K.during the 1940s and 1950s toofound that BCG reduced non-acci-dental deaths from causes other thanTB by 25 per cent, noted Peter Aabyand Christine Stabell Benn of theStatens Serum Institut in Denmark ina commentary published in thejournal Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences (PNAS). Trialscarried out in West Africa a few yearsback found that the BCG vaccine re-duced deaths among low-birth-weight newborns by more than 40per cent, mainly by preventing sep-sis and respiratory infections, theypointed out. Research carried out bya team of Dutch scientists and pub-lished recently in PNAS explainswhy BCG could be having such abroad protective effect. Vaccines areknown to stimulate the adaptive armof the immune system, thereby estab-




lishing a ‘memory’ of a specific in-vader to be recognised and repulsed.BCG, on the other hand, was workingon the evolutionarily more ancientinnate immune system that is trig-gered by molecules that commonlymarked out a pathogen, such as com-ponents of their cell wall. “The gen-eral perception in immunology is thatinnate immunity, as opposed to adap-tive immunity, is static and does notadapt to an enhanced functionalstate,” observed Mihai Netea ofRadboud University Nijmegen Medi-cal Centre and his colleagues intheir PNAS paper. BCG was induc-ing “trained immunity” by reprogram-ming cells known as monocytes thatformed part of innate immune system.When BCG was administered, the livebacteria in the vaccine would bedevoured by the monocytes. Insidethe monocytes, muramyl dipeptide,a constituent of the bacterial cell wall,was then able to latch on to a recep-tor known as NOD2. That, in turn, setoff a chain of events that led to mo-lecular tags being attached to a pro-tein, called a histone, around whichDNA is wrapped.

Such reprogramming allowedcertain genes to be more active andthereby produce more protein.Those monocytes were then capableof an enhanced response when con-fronted with a range of differentpathogens, churning out chemicalsknown as cytokines that mobilisedthe immune system to fight off an in-vading microbe. The Dutch scientistsshowed that monocytes taken fromvolunteers who received BCGshowed a considerably increasedcytokine response to unrelated patho-gens, such as the bacteria Staphylo-coccus aureus and the yeast Can-dida albicans. BCG also ensured sig-

nificantly better survival when micefrom a strain that lacked cells of theadaptive immune system were ex-posed to lethal doses of C. albicans .The work of these scientists very likelyexplained why BCG has been con-sistently observed to reduce deathand sickness to a far greater extentthan could be explained by the pre-vention of TB, remarked Dr. Aaby andDr. Benn in their commentary.Randomised trials had shown that af-ter BCG and measles vaccination, thecontribution of nonspecific effects tooverall health far outweighed the im-portance of the specific protectionprovided by these vaccines. With twotrials of early BCG vaccinationplanned in Denmark and Australia,perhaps the vaccine would be rein-troduced in high-income countriesfor its training effects rather than forprotection against TB. “Disentanglingthe mechanisms of the nonspecificeffects may establish a new paradigmin immunity with a stronger emphasison training and innate immunity,” theysaid. Could the elderly too, with wan-ing immune function that makes themvulnerable to a variety of infectiousdiseases, benefit from BCG boostingtheir innate immunity? “Absolutelyyes, I think that this could be a majorpotential treatment and we are work-ing on that,” said Dr. Netea in an email.SOLAR PARTICLES LIKELY SOURCE

OF LUNAR WATER

Charged particles from the sunor solar winds, bombarding the lunarsurface, could explain the presenceof water locked inside its soil, newresearch says. Over the past fiveyears, spacecraft observations andnew lab measurements of Apollo lu-nar samples have overturned thelong-held belief that the moon isbone-dry. In 2009, NASA’s Lunar Cra-

ter Observation and Sensing satellite,known as LCROSS, slammed into apermanently shadowed lunar craterand ejected a plume of material thatwas surprisingly rich in water ice, thejournal Nature Geoscience reports.Water and related compounds havealso been detected in the lunar re-golith, or the layer of fine powder androck fragments that coats the lunarsurface. But the origin of lunar sur-face water has remained unclear, ac-cording to a Michigan University state-ment. The findings from University ofMichigan researcher Youxue Zhangand colleagues from the University ofTennessee (UT) and the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology support so-lar-wind production of water ice onthe moon.

“We found that the ‘water’ com-ponent, the hydroxyl, in the lunar re-golith is mostly from solar wind im-plantation of protons, which locallycombined with oxygen to form hy-droxyls that moved into the interiorof glasses by impact melting,” saidZhang, professor of geological sci-ences. “Lunar regolith is everywhereon the lunar surface, and glasses makeup about half of lunar regolith. So ourwork shows that the ‘water’ compo-nent, the hydroxyl, is widespread inlunar materials, although not in theform of ice or liquid water that can




easily be used in a future manned lu-nar base.” The findings imply that iceinside permanently shadowed polarcraters on the moon, sometimes calledcold traps, could contain hydrogenatoms ultimately derived from thesolar wind, the researchers report.The researchers analysed individualgrains from Apollo 11, Apollo 16 andApollo 17 missions .

SPOTTING DISEASES FROM BONE

SAMPLES

A new technology can analysemillions of gene sequences in a mat-ter of seconds to identify diseasesaccurately, according to a new break-through.

Terry Brown, working with Char-lotte Roberts, both professors atDurham University (UK), used a next-gen sequencing approach, includinghybridization capture technology, toidentify tuberculosis (TB) genes in a19th century female skeleton foundin a crypt in Leeds. Roberts said:“We’re really pleased with the resultsof this study and that the technologyworks. It will save a lot of time in thefuture. “We now hope to publishmore of the huge amounts of data wehave acquired from the sequencing.”Their study is part of wider researchinto the identification of strains of TBin skeletons dating from 100 AD tothe late 19th century. It’s hoped thatunderstanding how the disease hasevolved over time will help improvetreatments and vaccines. After HIV itkills more people than any other in-

fectious disease, according to aDurham statement. Certain strains ofTB affect the sufferer’s bones, espe-cially in the spine. The marks madeby the disease remain evident on thebones long after the person’s death.It’s this evidence that Roberts usedto find suitable skeletons to screenfor tuberculosis genes. She sourced500 skeletons from across Europethat showed evidence of TB datingfrom the Roman period to the 19thcentury. Bone samples from theseskeletons were screened for TB DNA,and of those 100 were chosen for thisparticular study. Roberts explained:“So many skeletons were needed asit’s very hard to tell if any DNA willhave survived in the bones. You don’treally know if there will be anypresent until you start screening andin the past that has been a lengthyprocess.” Brown and team thensearched for TB gene sequences.Because it is a bacterial disease thebacteria’s DNA can remain in thebones after death.

CHICKOO MOTH MANAGEMENT INSAPOTA

Sapota, a native of Mexico, isgrown widely in India for its fruit andmilky latex which is the source ofchicle used to make chewing gum.

Of the several pests infesting thetree, the sapota leaf webber( Nephopteryx eugraphella ) com-monly called as chickoo moth is amajor one.

DAMAGE SYMPTOMS

As the name indicates, the cat-erpillars of the moth spin web on theleaves and also feed on tender leavesand fruits throughout the year. Pres-ence of dry leaf clusters and darkbrown patches on the leaves are clearsymptoms of the infestation and canbe easily spotted from a long dis-tance. The infestation leads to with-ering and drying of tree branches.The pest activity increases with ap-pearance of new shoots and buds. Awide range of sapota varieties aresusceptible to this pest. The moth isgrey in colour measuring around onecentimetre in length. It lays eggs onleaves and buds of young shoots.Around 350 eggs are laid by a singlefemale. The incubation period isaround one week and after hatchingthe pink coloured caterpillars startfeeding on green leaves by scrap-ping the chlorophyll content leavingbehind a fine network of veins. Theyalso bore inside the flower buds andtender fruits which wither away anddrop down. The larvae can damagemany fruit buds during its develop-mental period which lasts from 13 to60 days according to environmentalconditions. Pupal stage is completedin 8 to 29 days. There are eight tonine generations of this pest in a year.

MANAGEMENT

• Remove and destroy all thewebbed leaves, shoots, budsand fruits along with larvae.

• Crowded and crossingbranches should be pruned.

• Plant resistant varieties such asPKM 1 Sapota

• Erect light trap at one per hect-are to monitor the activity ofchickoo moth

• Spray two rounds of carbaryl0.1 per cent, chlorpyriphos 0.05




per cent or quinalphos 0.05 percent at 20 days interval after newshoot formation and fruit har-vest.

SCIENTIST DISCOVERED SOURCE OF

WATER ON MOON

Scientists in third week of Oc-tober have discovered that the mostlikely source of water on Moon is theconstant stream of charged particlesfrom the Sun known as the solar wind.The findings came by researchersfrom the University of Michigan whoimply that ice inside permanentlyshadowed polar craters on the Moon,sometimes called cold traps, couldcontain hydrogen atoms ultimatelyderived from the solar wind.

Also, The Theoretical models oflunar water stability dating to the late1970s suggest that hydrogen ions(protons) from the solar wind cancombine with oxygen on the Moon’ssurface to form water and relatedcompounds called hydroxyls, whichconsist of one atom of hydrogen andone of oxygen and are known as OH.The researchers have found that the‘water’ component, the hydroxyl, inthe lunar regolith is mostly from solarwind implantation of protons, whichlocally combined with oxygen toform hydroxyls that moved into theinterior of glasses by impact melting.With this research it is also clear thatwater likely exists on Mercury and onasteroids such as Vesta or Eros fur-ther within our solar system. The study

findings are published in the journal‘Nature Geoscience’.WHY AND HOW IS WATER

TRANSPARENT?Light is a form of an electromag-

netic energy with a wide range ofwavelengths. However, the rangethat a human eye can ‘see’ is very tinysegment, ranging from about 400nanometres to about 800nanometres. This narrow range ofwavelengths which a human eye issensible to, is known as ‘the visibleregion’ of the electromagnetic radia-tion. Two of the most important inter-actions a material can engage withradiation are absorption and scatter-ing. When light is incident on an ob-ject, the portion that is neither ab-sorbed nor is scattered is, usually,transmitted through it to the otherside. If a material absorbs any part ofthe visible region then the materialappears coloured to us. The colour,an object looks, is called ‘comple-mentary’ to the portion of light ab-sorbed.

If a material absorbs all the vis-ible range of light, then it ‘looks’ blackto us because there is hardly any vis-ible light left from the object to reachour eyes. If a material does not ab-sorb any part of the visible range oflight, then the object either appearscolourlessly transparent, when thelight is transmitted, or white, whenscattered. Water has H{-2}O mol-ecules that do not have the kind ofelectrons which absorb any portionof the visible range (but have elec-trons that absorb only in the invisibleultraviolet range) of light and their sizeis less than 4 angstroms (tenth of ananometre) with an average intermo-lecular space of less than 10 ang-stroms. That is why water appearstransparent. Several other liquids,

such as benzene, alcohol, chloroform,coconut oil, etc also look transparentfor this reason. Even when the size ofthe non-absorbing constituents is lessor more than the wavelength but ifthe inter space among them or thesize of edges made of them is some-how comparable to the wavelengthof the visible radiation, then the ob-ject just looks white because muchof the unabsorbed light is scattered.A piece of chalk, ground glass, smoke,milk, etc, look white for of this rea-son.HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS IN TOTO

WILL MAKE A SWITCH

Till now encouragement orcompulsion to publish papers inopen-access journals came from uni-versities or funding agencies like theU.S. National Institutes of Health(NIH), and Research Councils UK (anodal body for seven government-funded grant agencies), and was re-stricted to relatively fewer countries.But the switch to be made in high-energy physics has the support andbackup — both in principle and fund-ing — from many countries involvedin particle physics research. High-energy physics has been spearhead-ing Open Access for a long time. Pre-prints are freely available on the Net.“Today about 90 per cent of HEP pre-prints are available in repositories,”notes the executive summary of theReport of the SCOAP3 Working Party.Though these repositories have be-come the “lifeblood of HEP scientificinformation exchange” there is a bigdifference — the papers posted inthe repositories are only the manu-scripts submitted to the journals andnot the peer-reviewed papers thatappear in journals.

The change to the OA modelwill amount to about 10 million euros




a year. The executive summary notesthat annual list-price of a single jour-nal can be as high as 10,000 Euros.“For 500 institutes worldwide… thisrepresents an annual expenditure of5 million Euros.” The Sponsoring Con-sortium for Open Access Publishingin Particle Physics (SCOAP3) has “ne-gotiated contracts with 12 journalsthat would make 90 per cent of high-energy physics papers publishedfrom 2014 onwards free to read,”Salvatore Mele, head of open accessat CERN, was quoted as sayingi n Nature. SCOAP3 Open AccessInitiative was launched at CERN onOctober 1. “It is gratifying to see howthe model of international collabora-tion in particle physics has been ap-plied to addressing the importantsocietal issue of open access to sci-entific information,” Rolf Heuer, CERNDirector General was quoted as say-ing in a CERN press release.ITCHING SENSATION IN OUR MOUTH

WHEN WE EAT TOO MUCH OF

PINEAPPLE

Pineapple is a tropical plantwith botanical name, Ananascomosus , belonging tothe Bromeliaceaefamily. It is one ofthe very popular edible materialsconsumed in many formats. It is a richdietary source of vitamin C, vitamin Bcomplex, calcium, manganese, mag-nesium, phosphorous, potassium, etcamong others.

Pineapple, botanically, is not asingle fruit berry. It is a collection of

individual fruits (each fruit, markedon the surface by the near-hexago-nal demarcation) with their stalks im-pregnated collectively, with bound-aries gradually becoming undefined,into the tip that appears asthe grandstalk. There are two reasons with var-ied degrees why consumption ofgood quantities of pineapple makeour mouth and the tongue itching.Pineapple contains a proteolytic(protein hydrolyzing) enzyme,called, bromelain. It is mostly presentin the inedible stalk (the central axispart of the fruit or the grand stalk men-tioned above). When we have eatenthe pineapple, this bromelain tempo-rarily stays on the tongue and interi-ors of the mouth and starts attackingthe proteinous muscle parts of thetongue and the mouth while sensitiz-ing the nerve endings there. Theseneurological signals, when transmit-ted to the brain, make us feel thepricking and itching sensation. Theother minor but cognizably effectivereason is due to the presence ofnano-sized spiny fibrils that are eitherleft there or mixed with the pulp ofthe pineapple when we have cut it.These fibrils are like the eyelashes ofthe groves (individual fruits) on thepineapple. They are cuticle-like ma-terials composed of glycoproteinouschitin, wax and collagen. While weeat the pineapple, these microscopicfibrils also enter the mouth and findtheir way into the interiors of mouthparts causing their pricks before theyare slowly washed away by the sa-liva.....

FARMERS PARTICIPATORY

PROGRAMME STEMS COCONUT TREE

INFESTATION

Bud rot is a fatal fungal diseaseaffecting coconut trees. Young treesare more susceptible particularly dur-

ing the monsoon. With this infesta-tion, the spear leaf becomes pale andbreaks at the base and hangs down.The tender leaf base and soft tissuesof the crown rot into a slimy mass ofdecayed material emitting foul smell.The rotting progresses downwards,affecting and killing the entire tree.

Lack of awareness about thedisease and its management practiceis also leading to a disease spread.Individual prevention adoption byfew farmers here and there is inef-fective as coconut is cultivated almostthroughout Kannur region in Kerala.

SEVERE SPREAD

The spread of the disease is sosevere that 14,350 hectares of coco-nut growing area is infected by thislethal menace. “Bud rot is a seriousproblem throughout Kannur districtand prophylactic chemical treatmentproves to be effective. “During 2007-08 we have successfully demon-strated this technology inAyyankunnu Panchayath. Howeverthe disease was rampant in otheragro- ecological zones also and it wasfound necessary as per the demandsof farmers to conduct demonstrationsin different regions to curb thespread of the disease,” says Dr.AbdulKareem, Programme Coordinator,Kerala agricultural University,Kahirangad. “We planned and imple-mented a frontline demonstration(FLD) of perforated plastic sachetscontaining 2-3 grams Mancozeb, twosachets per palm tied on the innerside of the spear leaf, spraying ofbordeaux mixture on affected por-




tion as well as neighbouring trees,removal and destruction of affectedportions and application of bordeauxpaste for combating the problem forfour consecutive years (from 2007-8to 2010-11),” he explains. For thisdemonstration, two regions Koralaiand Kolacherry, were selected; farm-ers were identified, group discus-sions, trainings and method demon-strations were done. A total of 22hectares, 4,000 trees, and 50 farmerswere covered under this.

CONTROL MEASURES

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra atKannur areas has adopted farmer par-ticipatory extension approach,named as Compact Area Group Ap-proach, which is now popularlyknown by its acronym, CAGA to con-trol bud rot disease. CAGA promotedand sustained group action in a con-tiguous area for durable adoption ofcontrol measures by solving severalhurdles. Preparation of plastic sa-chets manually is a cumbersome pro-cess since a lot of holes have to bemade on the sachets. To overcomethis problem a small machine hasbeen fabricated to puncture holescontinuously on plastic tubes of 3-inch width. This tube is cut into re-quired length and filled with two gmsof mancozeb and tied at ends. Costof production of this sachet works outto only Rs. 2.50 per sachet. The De-partment of agriculture helped ar-rangement of climbers in a fewpanchayaths at a cost of Rs. 10 pertree and in the remaining areas KVKhelped farmers to arrange for climb-ers by themselves. Coconut treeclimbers are the only persons whosee and feel the extent and magni-tude of the disease incidence in thetree as they climb. Decision-makingon their part was very important for

application of control measures in aneffective manner.

TRAINING THE CLIMBERS

“Therefore the climbers weremade conversant with all aspects ofthe technology like understandingmagnitude of disease incidence,handling of sachets, placement andtying method of sachets, importanceof cleaning methods, preparation ofmixture and paste, areas and methodto apply it etc,” says Dr. Kareem. In-tegrated disease management fo-cuses not only on application ofchemical but also on maintaininghealth of plant. The health of the plantis mainly attributed to the proper nu-trition for the plant. During farmers’meetings conducted in the CAGAapproach, a lacuna in application oforganic matter came up. Recom-mended dosage of organic manure(25kg/ tree) cost more than Rs. 50 andfarmers were not applying the ma-nure. In this context scientists intro-duced a very cost effective technol-ogy of insitu green manuring usingcowpea seeds.

ORGANIC MANURE

Only 100 gm of cowpea seedsare required for one coconut basinto be sown at the onset of monsoonto produce 25 kg of biomass withinfew months.

Thus cost of organic manurecame down to Rs. 5 from Rs. 50. Ap-plication of sachets, when clubbedwith harvest before monsoon season,reduced the cost of application. Co-conut growers throughout the districtwere made aware about the bud rotmanagement practices through widepublicity.

Adoption level of farmers in-creased to 100 per cent due to thevisualised effect of control measuresrecording very positive results.

CONTROL OF SIGATOKA DISEASE OF

BANANA

Sigatoka leaf spot is a seriousdisease of banana that destroys largeareas of plantations resulting in severereduction in fruit yield.

The commercial cultivarsnendran and robusta are highly sus-ceptible to this infestation whereasin rasthali and palayankodan variet-ies the disease severity is less. Thisinfestation is caused by a fungus andwas first recorded in the Sigatoka val-ley of Fiji. Economic losses of 50-100per cent have been incurred due tothe incidence of this disease.

DARK BROWN SPOTS

Symptoms of Sigatoka diseasefirst appear as small dark brown spotsor lines on the underside of third orfourth opened leaf. The spots be-come sunken surrounded by a yel-low halo. Eventually these spots orstreaks expand and become brownor black and make a characteristicblack patch on the leaves. The infec-tion gives a scorched appearance tothe foliage.

Infection on younger leaves ismore severe causing them to dry upmore quickly. Appreciable fruit lossoccurs as there is drastic reductionof leaf surface area for photosynthe-sis.

Infected banana plants pro-duce fruits of inferior quality as thebanana fingers produced do not de-velop properly and remain small andthin.




MONSOON SEASON

Spores of the fungal pathogenform in abundance during tropicaland sub tropical summers along withintermittent rainfall especially if thereis a film of water on the leaves. Theprincipal means of spread is throughrain but later with the progressivedevelopment, spores are also dis-charged through air currents. Spot-ting of leaves starts to increase dur-ing June, July, peaks in October-No-vember and remains at a high levelthrough December. Managementmainly involves chemical control us-ing fungicides like copper oxychlo-ride, mancozeb, chlorothalonil orcarbendazim at the prescribed dos-age. Fungicide spraying on the foli-age and pseudostem should be com-menced with the initial appearanceand repeated at two weeks’ interval.Use of the different fungicides in ro-tation will reduce the risk of resistancedevelopment in the pathogen to thesystemic chemicals.

METHODS TO MEASURE,MANIPULATE QUANTUM SYSTEMS

Serge Haroche and DavidWineland have opened the door to anew era of experimentation withquantum physics by demonstratingthe direct observation of individualquantum systems without destroyingthem.

Through their ingenious labora-tory methods they have managed to

measure and control very fragile quan-tum states, enabling their field of re-search to take the very first steps to-wards building a new type of superfast computer, based on quantumphysics. These methods have also ledto the construction of extremely pre-cise clocks that could become thefuture basis for a new standard oftime, with more than hundred-foldgreater precision than present-daycaesium clocks. For single particlesof light or matter, the laws of classicalphysics cease to apply and quantumphysics takes over. But single par-ticles are not easily isolated from theirsurrounding environment and theylose their mysterious quantum prop-erties as soon as they interact withthe outside world. Both Laureateswork in the field of quantum opticsstudying the fundamental interactionbetween light and matter. In DavidWineland’s laboratory in Boulder,Colorado, electrically charged atomsor ions are kept inside a trap by sur-rounding them with electric fields.One of the secrets behind Wineland’sbreakthrough is the mastery of the artof using laser beams and creating la-ser pulses. A laser is used to put theion in its lowest energy state and thusenabling the study of quantum phe-nomena with the trapped ion. A care-fully tuned laser pulse can be usedto put the ion ina superposition state, which is a si-multaneous existence of two dis-tinctly different states. For instance,the quantum superposition of theion’s energy states can be studied byusing the laser pulse to nudge the ionhalfway between the high- and low-energy levels.

CONTROLLING SINGLE PHOTONS

Serge Haroche and his researchgroup employ a different method to

reveal the mysteries of the quantumworld. In their laboratory in Paris mi-crowave photons bounce back andforth inside a small cavity betweentwo mirrors, about three centimetresapart. The mirrors are made of super-conducting material and are cooledto a temperature just above absolutezero. These superconducting mirrorsare so reflective that a single photoncan bounce back and forth inside thecavity for almost a tenth of a secondbefore it is lost or absorbed. Duringits long life time, many quantum ma-nipulations can be performed withthe trapped photon. Haroche usesspecially prepared atoms, so-calledRydberg atoms to both control andmeasure the microwave photon in thecavity. A Rydberg atom has a radiusof about 125 nanometres which isroughly 1,000 times larger than typi-cal atoms. The Rydberg atoms are sentinto the cavity one by one at a care-fully chosen speed, so that the inter-action with the microwave photonoccurs in a well-controlled manner.

The Rydberg atom traversesand exits the cavity, leaving the mi-crowave photon behind. But the in-teraction between the photon andthe atom creates a change in thephase of quantum state of the atom:if you think of the atom’s quantumstate as a wave, the peaks and thedips of the wave become shifted.This phase shift can be measuredwhen the atom exits the cavity,thereby revealing the presence orabsence of a photon inside the cav-ity. With no photon there is no phaseshift. Haroche can thus measure asingle photon without destroying it.Physics in the quantum world hassome inherent uncertainty or random-ness to it. One example of this con-trary behaviour is superposition,




where a quantum particle can be inseveral different states simulta-neously.

Why do we never becomeaware of these strange facets of ourworld? Why can we not observe asuperposition of quantum marble inour every-day life? The Austrianphysicist and Nobel Laureate (Phys-ics 1933) Erwin Schrödinger battledwith this question. Like many otherpioneers of quantum theory, hestruggled to understand and inter-pret its implications. As late as 1952,he wrote: “We never experiment withjust one electron or atom or (small)molecule. In thought-experimentswe sometimes assume that we do; thisinvariably entails ridiculous conse-quences...”

In order to illustrate the absurdconsequences of moving betweenthe micro-world of quantum physicsand our every-day macro-world,Erwin Schrödinger described athought experiment with a cat:Schrödinger’s cat is completely iso-lated from the outside world inside abox. The cat must be in a superposi-tion state of being both dead andalive. The box also contains a bottleof deadly cyanide which is releasedonly after the decay of some radioac-tive atom, also inside the box. Theradioactive decay is governed by thelaws of quantum mechanics, accord-ing to which the radioactive materialis in a superposition state of both hav-ing decayed and not yet decayed.Therefore the cat must also be in asuperposition state of being bothdead and alive. Now, if you peek in-side the box, you risk killing the catbecause the quantum superpositionis so sensitive to interaction with theenvironment that the slightest at-tempt to observe the cat would im-

mediately ‘collapse’ the ‘cat-state’ toone of the two possible outcomes —dead or alive.Instead of Schrödinger’scat, Haroche and Wineland trap quan-tum particles and put them in cat-likesuperposition states. These quantumobjects are not really macroscopic asa cat, but they are still quite large byquantum standards. Inside Haroche’scavity microwave photons are put incat-like states with opposite phasesat the same time, like a stopwatch witha needle that spins both clockwiseand counterclockwise simulta-neously. The microwave field insidethe cavity is then probed withRydberg atoms. The result is anotherunintelligible quantum effect calledentanglement. Entanglement has alsobeen described by ErwinSchrödinger and can occur betweentwo or more quantum particles thathave no direct contact but still canread and affect the properties of eachother. Entanglement of the micro-wave field and Rydberg atoms al-lowed Haroche to map the life anddeath of the cat-like state inside hiscavity, following it step by step, atomby atom, as it underwent a transitionfrom the quantum superposition ofstates to a well defined state of clas-sical physics.

COMPUTER REVOLUTION

A possible application of iontraps that many scientists dream of isthe quantum computer. In present-day classical computers the smallestunit of information is a bit that takesthe value of either 1 or 0. In a quan-tum computer, however, the basicunit of information — a quantum bitor qubit — can be 1 and 0 at the sametime. Two quantum bits can simulta-neously take on four values — 00, 01,10 and 11 — and each additionalqubit doubles the amount of possible

states. For n quantum bits there are2{+n} possible states, and a quantumcomputer of only 300 qubits couldhold 2{+3}{+0}{+0}values simulta-neously. Wineland’s group was thefirst in the world to demonstrate aquantum operation with two quantumbits. Since control operations havealready been achieved with a fewqubits, there is no reason to believethat it should not be possible toachieve such operations with manymore qubits. However, to build sucha quantum computer one has to sat-isfy two opposing requirements: thequbits need to be adequately isolatedfrom their environment in order notto destroy their quantum properties,yet they must also be able to commu-nicate with the outside world in or-der to pass on the results of their cal-culations. David Wineland and histeam of researchers have also usedions in a trap to build a clock that is ahundred times more precise than thecaesium-based atomic clocks whichare currently the standard for ourmeasurement of time. Time is kept bysetting, or synchronizing all clocksagainst one standard. Caesium clocksoperate in the microwave rangewhereas Wineland’s ion clocks usevisible light — hence their name:optical clocks.

OPTICAL CLOCKS

An optical clock can consist ofjust one ion or two ions in a trap. Withtwo ions, one is used as the clock andthe other is used to read the clockwithout destroying its state, or caus-ing it to miss a tick. The precision ofan optical clock is better than onepart in 10{+1}{+7}— if one had startedto measure time at the beginning ofthe universe in the Big Bang about14 billion years ago, the optical clockwould only have been off by about




five seconds today. With such preci-sion, some extremely subtle andbeautiful phenomena of nature havebeen observed, such as changes inthe flow of time, or minute variationsof gravity, the fabric of space-time.According to Einstein’s theory of rela-tivity, time is affected by motion andgravity. The higher the speed and the

Lethal virus diseaseprevented in monkeys

By using monoclonal antibodies, anew ebola virus study resultingfrom a widespread scientific col-laboration has shown promisingpreliminary results, preventing dis-ease in infected nonhuman pri-mates.

Space launch system’s armready

System installation and integra-tion of a test umbilical arm was re-cently completed at NASA’sKennedy Space Center in Florida.

Coral migration andevolution of marine life

A new study in MolecularEcology elucidates the historicalpatterns of deep-sea coral migra-tion and gene flow, coincident withoceanic circulation patterns andevents. Protecting corals requiresthis knowledge.

Human brains outpacechimp brains in womb

Humans’ superior brain size incomparison to chimpanzees’ tracesback to the womb says a studyin Current Biology , the first totrack and compare brain growth inchimpanzee and human fetuses.

Light shed on Sun’sexplosive ejections

In a paper in Nature Physics , aninternational team of scientists, ex-plains the mysterious physicalmechanisms underlying the originof Sun’s coronary mass ejectionsbased on state-of-the-art computersimulations.

Exercise does body andmind good

Exercise is not just good for physi-cal health — research shows thatdaily physical activity can alsoboost our mental health.

Bat study sheds new lighton evolution

Brain size relative to body size hasbeen used for long as a measure ofintelligence. The evolutionary his-tory of bats reveals they decreasedbody size faster than brain size,leading to an increase in intelli-gence.

Active region on Sun emitsanother flare

The sun emitted a significant solarflare on October 22. The flare camefrom an active region on the leftside of the sun that has been num-bered AR 1598, which has alreadybeen the source of a number ofweaker flares.

stronger the gravity, the slower thepassage of time. We may not beaware of these effects, but they havein fact become part of our everydaylife. When we navigate with the GPSwe rely on time signals from satelliteswith clocks that are routinely cali-brated, because gravity is somewhatweaker several hundred kilometres

altitude. With an optical clock it ispossible to measure a difference inthe passage of time when the clock’sspeed is changed by less than 10metres per second, or when gravityis altered as a consequence of a dif-ference in height of only 30centimetres.

Unlocking secrets ofcauliflower’s geometry

The laws that govern how intricatesurface patterns, such as thosefound in the cauliflower, developover time have been described, forthe first time, by a group of Euro-pean researchers.

No age restriction, saysvaccination study

A study suggests that the addi-tional children’s lives saved by re-moving the age restrictions forrotavirus vaccination would be muchgreater than any extra deaths fromvaccine-associated complications.

New water-proof colourfrom butterfly study

University of Pennsylvania re-searchers studying butterflies havefound a way to generate colourthat can repel water based on atrait of butterfly wings: super-hy-drophobicity.

Nanoparticle cancertherapy safe in dogs

Scientists at the University of Mis-souri have demonstrated that anew form of prostate cancer treat-ment that uses radioactive goldnanoparticles is safe to use in dogs.It has a chance of being used in hu-mans.




Fingers do the talking

People can use their fingers witha new touch-activated system thatprojects onto surfaces and allowsusers to interact with their environ-ment and each other.

Reducing cold-inducedsweetening in potato

Preventing activity of a key enzymewhich causes changes in potatosugars at low temperatures couldboost quality by putting an end tocold-induced sweetening, say U.S.Department of Agriculture scien-tists.

Metabolic syndrome link toimpaired brain

A new study in Pediatrics revealsthat metabolic syndrome (MetS) isassociated with cognitive andbrain impairments in adolescentsand needs to be taken into ac-count when considering earlytreatment of childhood obesity.

Primate study adds toevidence of BPA harm

A Washington State University re-searcher has found new evidencethat the plastic additive BPA can

disrupt women’s reproductive sys-tems, causing miscarriages andbirth defects.

New gene for better bug-resistant plants

Acyl sugars, not found in cultivatedtomatoes, play a key role in allow-ing wild tomatoes to fend off bugs.New research at Michigan StateUniversity identifies the first genethat helps produce acyl sugars.

Adequate sleep cutsappetite, excess fat

Adequate sleep is an importantpart of a weight loss plan andshould be added to the recom-mended mix of diet and exercise,states CMAJ ( Canadian MedicalAssociation Journal ). Less sleepmeans more appetite.

Bee behaviour evolved dueto genetic ‘remix’

Worker bees have become a highlyskilled work force because thegenes that determine theirbehaviour are shuffled frequently,helping natural selection to builda better bee, says a York Universitystudy.

Viral alliances overcomingplant defences

Researchers have found that vi-ruses will join forces to overcomea plant’s defences and cause moresevere infections.

Local wildlife’s role inCentral African diet

Animals like antelope and rodentsare tricky to catch, but provideprotein in places where livestockare scarce. According to a new pa-per in Animal Frontiers , meat fromwild animals is increasingly impor-tant in central Africa.

Link between Hawaii’senigmatic volcanoes

A new Rice University-led studyfinds that a deep connection about50 miles underground can explainthe enigmatic behaviour — theirsimultaneous inflation, or bulgingupward of Mauna Loa andKilauea volcanoes.




SportsSportsSportsSportsSportsCRICKET

INDO-PAK CRICKET SERIES

The Union Home Ministry on 30October 2012 mentioned that it hadcleared the Pakistan cricket team’sIndia visit later this year after detaileddiscussions with the Board of Con-trol for Cricket in India (BCCI) offi-cials on issues related to security andvisas for fans who will be visiting forthe limited-overs series.

BCCI senior official and UnionMinister Rajiv Shukla after meetingwith Union Home Secretary RK Singhasserted that BCCI team had dis-cussed all security aspects and as-sured full proof security to the Visi-tors. The coming series is going to be

of limited-overs and is likely to beginon December 2012 and continue tillJanuary 2013. Both the teams are go-ing to play three one-dayinternationals and two Twenty-20 in-ternational matches. The ODImatches are planned to be played inChennai, Kolkata and New Delhi. Theliberal visa regime was already signedby both the countries and is sup-posed to be on operational mode be-fore beginning of cricket series on 25December 2012.WOMEN T-20 WORLD CUP TITLE

The Australian Women Cricketteam on 7 October 2012 defeatedEngland by four runs to retain theWomen T-20 world cup title.

It is Australia’s second win inwomen T-20 World cup. Before thisAustralia had won T-20 World Cup in2010. Australia Batted first and made142 runs in 20 overs with 6 wickets inhand, In response to that Englandwomen cricket team managed tomake only 138 runs in 20 overs losingthe tournament to Australia.

BCCI POLLY UMRIGAR AWARD

Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli waschosen for the Board of Control forCricket in India’s (BCCI) Polly Umrigaraward for being India’s top interna-tional cricketer in 2011-12. With thisVirat Kohli is going to be honouredwith a trophy and cheque of 5 lakhRupees at the Annual BCCI AwardsCeremony in Mumbai on 21 Novem-ber 2012.

The other previous winners ofthis prestigious award are SachinTendulkar in year 2006-07 and 2009-10, Virender Sehwag in year 2007-08, with Gautam Gambhir and RahulDravid in year 2008-09 and 2010-11




respectively. Virat Kohli in year 2011-12 had scored:

• 627 run @ 52.25 from 7 Tests,which include two centuries.

• 1539 runs @ 73 from 26 ODIs,which includes seven centuries.

• 389 run @ 48 from ten T20Internationals, which includefour fifties.VVS Laxman, who announced

his retirement from internationalcricket in August 2012, is also goingto be felicitated at the ceremony withSachin Tendulkar who is beinghonoured for completing a centuryof international centuries.

The award Polly Umrigar is un-der the name of late Indian crick-eter Polly Umrigar (28 March 1926 –7 November 2006) who had playedfirst-class cricket for Bombay, andTest cricket in the Indian cricket team,as a middle-order batsman and had captained the Indian team in eightTest matches from 1955 to 1958.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Australian all-Rounder ShaneWatson on 7 October 2012 at theconclusion of T-20 World Cup inPremadasa Stadium named player ofthe tournament.

It was his outstanding form in T-20 World cup that helped AustralianTeam getting into semi-final beforethey were knocked out by WestIndies. Shane Watson batted six in-nings in the tournament, scoring atotal of 249 runs at an average of 49.80 and took 11 wickets at an aver-age of 16 and an economy rate of7.33. Shane Watson is also the onlyPlayer in the tournament who got fourconsecutive man-of-the-matchawards.

HYDERABAD IPL FRANCHISE

Chennai based SUN TV Net-work acquired the Indian PremierLeague (IPL) Hyderabad franchise on25 October 2012 for an enormousamount of 85.05 crore Rupees peryear.

The Hyderabad franchise of theIndian Premier League was fell vacantafter the Board of Control for Cricketin India (BCCI) dropped DeccanChargers in October 2012 for its fail-ure to give a bank guarantee andother issues. The deal was made byowner of Sun TV Network, KalanithiMaran who bought the (IPL)Hyderabad franchise for 425 croreRupees (approx $80m) which is pay-able in the next five years at 85.5 croreRupees per year. The bid made bySUN TV Network was substantiallyhigher than the second bid of 69.03crore Rupees made by PVP Venturesof Hyderabad. For attracting morebidders, the BCCI had kept the base

price at reasonable 60 crores Rupeesper year. The franchise was earlierowned by Deccan Chronicle Hold-ings Ltd. (DCHL) who had bought theHyderabad franchise for 428 croresrupees for a period of 10years. Chennai-based Sun TV Net-works Limited is the part of Sun Groupand is one of India’s biggest televi-sion networks with 32 TV channelsand 45 FM radio stations primarilycatering to an audience in the foursouthern languages of India. Theirnetwork includes channels coveringnews, entertainment, film, documen-tary and music.

NEW COACH FOR MAHARASHTRA

RANJI TEAM

Dermot Reeve, the former all-rounder of England took the chargeof Maharashtra Ranji Team as its Coachfor domestic season of 2012-13 on 9October 2012. Reeve will take thecharge from the outgoing coach ofthe team Shaun Williams, who is go-ing to take charge of the indoorCricket Academy of MaharashtraCricket Association. Reeve has alsoserved Raigad Royals, a franchise ofMaharashtra Premier League as itsCoach in past. Before Reeve, the RanjiTeam of Maharashtra had seen twomore Foreign Coach in its history andthey were Shaun Williams and DarrenHolder.NEW ZEALAND TOP CRICKET AWARD

Opening batsman of NewZealand Cricket team Martin Guptillon 18 October 2012 claimed the tophonour at the New Zealand CricketAwards in Auckland, winning the SirRichard Hadlee Medal for 2011-12.Martin Guptill was also named ODIand Twenty20 player of the year,based on performances between 1September 2011 and 31 August2012. Also, Young fast bowler of New




Zealand cricket team Doug Bracewellpicked up the other big award ofTest Player of the Year.

Bracewell finished the 2011-12season with taking up of 37 wicketsat an average of 24.05. Martin Guptillplayed terrifically in all forms of thegame during the 2011-12 season.With 490 Test runs he is only secondbehind skipper Ross Taylor, while hetop-scored for the New Zealand teamin one-day with 579 and in T20 with378.

RARE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA FOR

SACHIN

Australian Prime Minister JuliaGillard on her visit to India on 16 Oc-tober 2012 announced that SachinTendulkar would be conferred withthe membership of the Order of Aus-tralia.

This is the honor that is rarelybestowed on any non-Australian. ThePrime Minister, while announcing thisspecial honour for Sachin said thathe deserves the award because hewas a special cricketer. Sachin will

be conferred with this award duringthe visit of Australian Minister SimonCrean to India. Tendulkar will behonoured with AM award, one of thesix different grades of the Order ofAustralia honour.

Sachin is the Second Indian af-ter Soli Sorabjee, the former Attor-ney General of India to be conferredwith this award.

Before Sachin Tendulkar, BrainLara the cricketer from West Indieswas conferred with this honour in theyear 2009.ANIL KUMBLE APPOINTED CHAIRMAN

OF ICC CRICKET COMMITTEE

Former India cricketer and cap-tain Anil Kumble on 11 October 2012was named the new head of the In-ternational Cricket Council’s (ICC)cricket committee, replacing formerWest Indies skipper Clive Lloyd.

The International CricketCouncil’s (ICC) cricket committee isa 16-member committee whichmeets twice a year to consult on play-ing matters and offer recommenda-tions to the ICC on technical aspectsand rules of the sport. Also in anotherseparate reshuffling of membersformer West Indies paceman IanBishop was replaced by England’sAndrew Strauss, who retired from allforms of cricket at the end of August.Anil Kumble also heads the Board ofControl for Cricket in India’s board’stechnical Committee. Anil Kumble, is41 years old and has 619 Test and

337 One-Day International wickets tohis name.

ACC T20 ASIA CUP 2012The Indian women’s cricket

team on 31 October 2012 won inau-gural Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC)Twenty20 Asia Cup, beating Pakistanby 18 runs in a low-scoring final inGuangzhou city of People’s Repub-lic of China. The team elected to batfirst but did not have a good begin-ning as they lost both their openerswithin the first couple of overs. Theysomehow managed to make a lowscore of 81runs but the bowlers dida splendid job to dismiss Pakistan to63 in 19.1 overs. The women bowlersshowed an impressive disciplinedperformance with giving away just acouple of wides from 19.1 overs.Harmanpreet Kaur, was stand-in cap-tain in place of Mithali Raj. The cap-tain of Indian women cricket teamMithali Raj and senior player JhulanGoswami were not playing the finalmatch due to ankle injury. Earlier In-dian women cricket team defeatedThailand in their opening match ofthe tournament by 77 runs, whileHong Kong was defeated in the sec-ond match with 142 runs.

WEST INDIES PLAYERS’ASSOCIATION BOARD

West Indies batsman RamnareshSarwan on 23 October 2012 resignedfrom the board of the West Indies Play-ers’ Association (WIPA). The resign-ing of Ramnaresh Sarwan came withresignation of Dave Kissoon, the di-rector of West Indies Players’ Asso-ciation (WIPA). Dave Kissoon, re-cently had presided over the courtcases concerning player contractsand a disputed memorandum of un-derstanding involving WIPA and theWest Indies Cricket Board (WICB).Ramesh Sarwan, the out-of-favour




West Indies batsman, was a memberof WIPA’s executive from 2008, whileDave Kissoon was appointed a direc-tor in November 2010. Ramnareshsarwan had resigned from WIPA ex-ecutive to patch up with the WestIndies Cricket Board (WICB) and heis in way to make is presence backinto the national team. RamnareshSarwan, last played for West Indies inJune 2011, but has since then de-clared that he would never representthe regional side again. He had wonhis case against the WICB (WestIndies Cricket Board) in September2012 over comments made about hisfitness and was awarded $161000 indamages. The positions made vacantby both the people are going to befilled at the next annual general meet-ing in January 2013.DECCAN CHARGERS OUT OF INDIAN

PREMIUM LEAGUE

The Supreme Court of India on19 October 2012 rejected the pleaof Deccan Chargers to put a stay or-der on the decision of Mumbai HighCourt that supported the decision ofBCCI to terminate the franchise frombeing in Indian Premier League(IPL).

The Bench of Supreme Courtheaded by the Chief Justice of IndiaAltamas Kabir including Justices S.S.Nijjar and J. Chelameswar after dis-missal of the plea made by the

Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd.cleared that the arbitrator can’t over-rule an order passed by the Court.With this development by the side ofSupreme Court it is clear that theDeccan Chargers are completely outof the League. There remains onlytwo ways for the franchise to bounceback into the IPL and they are in case,Bombay High Court reverses its deci-sion after hearing the arguments fromboth sides once again in detail or CKThakkar, the court appointed arbitra-tor finds any ground of incorrect ter-mination of the team from the IPL by29 October 2012.

ICC SUSPENDED SIX UMPIRES

The International Cricket Coun-cil (ICC) on 10 October 2012 sus-pended all the six umpires for theiralleged involvement in their willing-ness to fix the T20 matches by the TVSting Operation. The statement re-leased by the governing body of ICCafter the meet of its full memberboard cleared that the umpiresnamed in the sting would not be ap-pointed in any format of internationalor domestic cricket matches, until theongoing investigations doesn’t reachto a conclusion. Due to the matters ofurgency, the board that recruits andnominates the umpires would di-rectly look into the matter. Umpiresalleged for their willingness to fix thematch in the TV sting were Nadir Shahfrom Bangladesh, Nadeem Ghauriand Anees Siddiqui from Pakistanand Maurice Winston, GaminiDissanayake and Sagara Gallage fromSri Lanka.

TENNISSHANGHAI MASTERS

Novak Djokovic beated BritishTennis Player Andy Murray, on 14October 2012 saving five match

points to seal a stunning 5- 7, 7- 6 (13/ 11), 6- 3 victory in the ShanghaiRolex Masters final.

With the winning of matchNovak Djokovic became the firstplayer to win seven of the nine ATPWorld Tour 1000 Masters events. Alsoin the Double’s Category, LeanderPaes and Radek Stepanek won theShanghai Rolex Double title by de-feating Mahesh Bhupati and RohanBopanna. Novak Djokovic has wonfive Grand Slam singles titles: the2008, 2011, and 2012 AustralianOpen; the 2011 Wimbledon Cham-pionships; and the 2011 US Open.By winning three Majors in 2011,Djokovic became the sixth maleplayer in the open era to win threeMajors in a calendar year. He is thefirst male player representing Serbiato win a Major singles title and theyoungest player in the open era tohave reached the semifinals of all fourGrand Slam events, separately andconsecutively.ABOUT SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERS

The 4th Edition of ShanghaiRolex Masters, is one of the world’sbiggest tennis tournaments and theonly such tournament to be stagedoutside North America and Europe.The Shanghai Rolex Masters is one ofonly nine ATP Masters 1000 tourna-ments in the world and is the culmi-nation and feature event of the AsianSwing. The Shanghai Rolex Masterswas named ATP Masters 1000 Tour-nament of the Year for 2009, 2010




and 2011. Total prize money for theShanghai Rolex Masters isUS$3240000HIRONMOY CHATTERJEE APPOINTED

AS THE CEO OF AITAHironmoy Chatterjee, Secretary

of the Bengal Tennis Association on1 November 2012 was appointed asthe Chief Executive Officer (CEO)of The All India Tennis Association(AITA). The decision of Chatterjee’sselection was made by the Execu-tive Board of AITA that is headed byPresident Anil Khanna with consulta-tion to the honourable Life President,Yashwant Sinha. Chatterjee in his 36years experience as a tennis admin-istrator has been a beneficiary of con-ducting different types of tourna-ments that includes the local tourna-ments to the Davis Cup, a tournamentof world level.

BADMINTONDENMARK OPEN BADMINTON TITLE

The World No. 4 badmintonplayer Saina Nehwal on 21 October2012 won the Denmark Open SuperSeries Premier tournament by defeat-ing the German badminton playerJuliane Schenk by 21-17 21-8.

She was competing inthe women’ssingle finalcategorybadmintonmatch inO d e n s e ,Denmark andwas Playingwithout thechief nationalcoach and her m e n t o rPullela Gopi Chand. This title iscounted to be her sixth Super Seriestitle and the first title outside Asia.Her previous titles came in Indonesia(2009, 2010, 2012), Singapore

(2010) and Hong Kong (2010). SainaNehwal, was competing in her firsttournament after the London Games,which fetched her $30000 The vic-tory is another milestone in career his-tory of the Indian shuttle SainaNehwal who had successfully de-fended her Swiss Open title by de-feating world number two WangShixian of China in March 2012. InJune 2012, Saina had won the Thai-land Open Grand Prix Gold titlethereafter she had also won the In-donesia Open Super Series Premierby defeating world number three LiXuerui of China.

PETER GADE RETIRED

Danish legend Baminton Player,Peter Gade on 30 October 2012 re-tired from international badmintonafter his three-game defeat againstcompatriot Jan Ø. Jørgensen of Den-mark. Peter Grade is five-time Euro-pean Champion in Year (1998, 2000,2004, 2006 and 2010). Peter Danehad 22 Super series and Grand Prixtitles under his name and took 5 med-als at World Championships: Silver in2001, Bronze in 1999, 2005, 2010

and 2011. He had alsowon the 1999 All-En-gland Championships.He is counted amongmost successful Euro-pean singles player inAsia of all times by tak-ing 13 tournamentstitles in the “FarEast”. Peter Gade

remained professionalambassador for European badmin-

ton, through major part of his career.He had inspired thousands of youngplayers all around the world with hisunique style of playing Badmintonthat was fast attacks, smooth footworkand constant pressure.

SHOOTING/ARCHERYJASPAL RANA AS JUNIOR PISTOL

CHIEF COACH

National Rifles Association ofIndia (NRAI) on 15 October 2012appointed Jaspal Rana as the chiefcoach for the Junior Pistol Shooters.The triple Gold Medallist at DohaAsian Games, Rana would be entitledfor a salary of 50,000 rupees permonth.

MOTOR RACING/F1F1 SECOND INDIAN GRAND PRIX

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettelwon the Indian Grand Prix 2012 on28 October 2012 at the Buddh Inter-national Circuit (BIC) for the secondtime in a row extending his FormulaOne championship lead.

The rival Fernando Alonso ofFerrari kept the pressure on with fin-ishing up for a second-place. The winput Vettel (240 points) 13 pointsclear of his rolling Ferrari rivalFernando Alonso. It was SebastianVettel’s fourth straight win for the firsttime in his career completing a cleansweep of the Asian swing -- and now




ABOUT SAUBER TEAM

Sauber F1 Team is a Swiss For-mula One team. It was founded in the1970s by Peter Sauber, who pro-gressed through hillclimbing and theWorld Sportscar Championship toreach Formula One in 1993. The teamwas sold to BMW in 2005; the reasonwas not winning a Grand Prix as anindependent. The team thereaftercompeted as BMW Sauber from 2006to 2009, achieving one victory. At theend of the 2009 season, BMW pulledout of Formula One and the team’sfuture remained uncertain for severalmonths, until it was sold back to Pe-ter Sauber and granted a 2010entry. However, due to issues withthe Concorde Agreement, the teamremained as “BMW Sauber” for the2010 season. In March 2010, PeterSauber announced plans to changethe team name during the season, butthe FIA announced that they wouldhave to wait until the end of the sea-son to change their name. From thebeginning of the 2011 Formula Oneseason the team dropped BMW fromtheir name. Peter Sauber currentlyowns a controlling 66.6% stake in theteam, with the remainder belongingto Monisha Kaltenborn.

JAPANESE GRAND PRIX

Sebastin Vettel on 7 October2012 won the Formulae One title raceof the Japanese Grand Prix for theseason.

He left Ferrari’s Felipe Massa 20seconds behind in the race to con-quer the title. Kamui Kobayashi, the

home favorite of the tournament tookthe third position on the podium.Sebastin Vettel is this year only manto bag back-to-back victories in theGrand Prix.MICHAEL SCHUMACHER ANNOUNCED

RETIREMENT

Michael Schumacher, the Ger-man Formula one driver and the seventimes world Champion on 4 October2012 announced his retirement fromFormula one Race.

Michael Schumacher will retirefrom Formula 1 for the second timeat the end of the 2012 Season. Hefirst retired in 2006 but made a come-back with the Mercedes team in2010. The retirement came afterMercedes announced that LewisHamilton would replace him in theside although it was clear that theMichael Schumacher will join Sauberfor the next Formula one season.Michael Schumacher dominated theF1 world at the start of 20th centurywhen he won five world titles in arow from 2000-2004. He is popularlyregarded as the greatest F1 driver ofall time. Michael Schumacher madehis debut at the Belgium Grand Prixin 1991 and won 91 Grand Prixes inhis career.MICHAEL SCHUMACHER’S CAREER

RECORDS-Debut: 1991 Belgian Grand PrixRaces: 302.Championships: 7Race wins: 91Podiums: 155Points: 1560 Poles: 68Poles: 68Poles: 68Poles: 68Poles: 68

leads the drivers’ championship by13 points with three races to go, chas-ing a third successive F1 title.Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull teammateMark Webber finished third, the Aus-tralian fending off a strong late chal-lenge from Lewis Hamilton ofMcLaren who finished fourth aheadof his teammate and fellow BritonJenson Button. Earlier on 26 Octo-ber 2012 Vettel clocked the fastesttime with 1 minute 25.283 secondsto grab pole, his teammate Webber fin-ished second with a timing of 1:25.327.FIRST WOMAN TEAM PRINCIPAL IN

FORMULA ONE

India-born, Monisha KaltenbornBecame the First Woman Team Prin-cipal in Formula one on 11 October2012 after taking the control of teamSauber, a Swiss Formula one teamwith the stepping down of teamfounder Peter Sauber from day to daymanagement.

The news of MonishaKaltenborn appointment came afterPeter Sauber made it clear that hedid not wish to run the team, whichhe built more than fourty years ago.Monisha Kaltenborn joined Sauber in2000 as head of its legal departmentand has been its CEO since January2010. Monisha secured herbachelor’s degree in law from theUniversity of Vienna in 1995 and alsoholds a Master’s degree in Interna-tional Business Law from the LondonSchool of Economics which she didin 1996.




BILLIARDS/SNOOKERWORLD BILLIARDS CHAMPIONSHIP

TITLE

Indian Billiards Player PankajAdvani on 29 October 2012 won sev-enth World Billiards Championshiptitle after comprehensively beatingdefending champion and seasonedEnglishman Mike Russell in the finalsof World Billiards Championship2012.

The event was scheduled at theNorthern Snooker Centre in Leeds,England where Pankaj scored 1895points and Russell managed to scoreonly 1216 points losing to PankajAdvani. Pankaj was on steady rhythmsince the beginning of the match andgot on track with first break of 147points followed by 298 points to ob-tain a lead of 450 points. Russel, onthe other hand fearlessly replied witha break of 397 narrowing the deficitto just 60 points. In session 2, Pankajmaintained the same rhythm and kepthis attack scoring breaks of 100+ inalmost every visit he played where asRussell could manage only breaks of243 and 120 during the second ses-sion play. The win came after Pankajhad choosen to play the World Cham-pionships in Leeds with avoidingplaying International Championshipon the Professional Snooker tour. Priorto this title Pankaj had also won WorldProfessional Billiards title in the year2009 and it was a case of history re-peating itself because Pankaj hadbeaten Mike Russel with 2030-1253

in the finals of the World ProfessionalBilliards Championship in 2009 at thesame venue. The win also marks theeighth overall world title for Pankajand it is his seventh title in billiards.

FOOTBALLGOLDEN BOOT AWARD

Lionel Messi, the Barceloneanforward footballer on 29 October2012 wonGolden Boot Award. Messiwon the award in recognition to hisrecord 50 goals scored in theEurope’s domestic football league inthe last session.

To win the award he scored 4more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo, theSpanish league star.

This is the second Golden Bootaward for Messi, as he won his firstGolden Boot Award in the year 2010after scoring 34 goals during Argen-tina International to help Barcelonawin the league title. He is also in thelist of the favorites to win the 2012Ballon d’Or for the World’s bestplayer.

ABOUT LIONEL MESSI

The Flea is the nickname giventhe Messi for his uncanny abilities ofdribbling the ball through defenders.

The 25 year old is an ArgentineFootballer and a captain to the na-tional team of Argentina and fourthfootballer to win three Ballons d’or.He is also the second player to winthree Ballon’s d’Or consecutively.

Some of the Records by hisSome of the Records by hisSome of the Records by hisSome of the Records by hisSome of the Records by hisnamenamenamenamename

• He scored 73 goals, the highestnumber of goals in a season inall the competitions and brokethe European record of 67 goalsmade in the year 1972-73 byBayern Munich’s Gerd Mueller

• By scoring 14 goals he becamethe person to score maximumgoals in European Cup season;this record is jointly shared withJose Altafini

• With 8 hat-tricks, he became theperson to score maximum LaLiga hat-tricks in one season

• With 15 hat-tricks, he becamethe person to score maximumLa Liga hat-tricks overall

• His triump with 21 hat-tricksmade him the person to scoremaximum hat-tricks in all com-petitions overall

• 4 awards of as a top scorer inEuropean Cup and he sharesthis position with Gerd MullerMICHAEL BALLACK RETIRED

The Former Germany captainBallack, who had played for BayernMunich and Chelsea, had called a haltto his professional football career on3 October 2012.

It was the downtime in his ca-reer which showed him that the timewas right to stop. Ballack became afree agent at the end of June afterLeverkusen opted not to offer theirformer captain a contract extension.Ballack began his professional careerin 1995 and won the first of four




Bundesliga titles with Kaiserslauternin 1998. He missed out on a majortrophy with Leverkusen in his firstspell at the club and in 2002 he fin-ished as a runner-up in theBundesliga, DFB-Pokal, ChampionsLeague and World Cup. He spent thelast two seasons of his career withLeverkusen and appeared for the lasttime in a 4-1 win over Nurnberg, leav-ing the field to a standing ovation inthe 51st minute of what turned out tobe his last-ever game as a professionalFootballer. Internationally, Ballackhas played in the European Champi-onships in 2000, 2004 and 2008 andthe FIFA World Cup in 2002 and2006. Jurgen Klinsmann appointedhim captain of the national team in2004. Ballack scored consecutivegame-winning goals in the quarter-fi-nal and semi-final to help his countryto the 2002 World Cup Final, and ledhis team to the semi-finals of the 2006World Cup and the Euro 2008 Final.He is among the top goal scorers inthe history of his international team.He was also selected by Pele as oneof FIFA’s 100 Greatest Living Playersand as the UEFA Club Midfielder ofthe Year in 2002. He has won theGerman Footballer of the Year awardthree times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005.Ballack is known for his passing range,scoring ability, ball skills, and com-manding presence in the midfield.

HOCKEYTHREE DUTCH HOCKEY STARS

ANNOUNCED THEIR RETIREMENT

Floris Evers, Roderick Weusthofand Teun Floris de Nooijer, thethree Dutch Hockey stars on 10 Oc-tober 2012 announced their retire-ment from International Hockey. Thethree players were the part of the

Netherlands Hockey Squad in Olym-pics 2012, where the Dutch team fin-ished with silver medal after facingdefeat from the hands of Germany.

GOLFMACAU OPEN

Indian Golfer Gaganjeet Bhullaron 14 October 2012 fired a three-under 68 to complete a start to-finishwin in the Venetian Macau Open Golf.Gaganjeet Bhullar finished with 16-under 268 for a two-shot win and baghis second title on Asian Tour withina month.

With this he took over his fourthtitle of his career, keeping aside theinaugural Gujarat Challenge Tour winin 2011. American Jonathan Moorefinished two shots back in secondplace after a 65 and Thai youngsterThitiphun Chuayprakong closed witha 70 to share third place withBangladeshi Siddikur (66).ABOUT MACAU OPEN

The Macau Open is a men’s pro-fessional golf tournament on theAsian Tour which take place in Macauever year. It was founded in 1998.The venue is the Macau Golf & Coun-try Club at Coloane. The best knowngolfer who won the tournament iseight-time European Tour Order ofMerit champion Colin Montgomerie.

VARIOUSMASCOT OF 2014 FIFA WORLD

CUP, BRAZIL

A Smiling Armadillo is declaredto be the official mascot for the 2014FIFA World Cup in Brazil on 12 Sep-tember 2012. The reports state that

FIFA has registered the patent for thisrare animal with the European PatentOffice as a symbol to this extremesporting event.

Officials declared that internetpoll will help in deciding the nameof this mascot. Brazuca the name ofthe ball for the world cup 2014 towas finalized by the opinion poll oninternet. The armadillo in Brazil isknown by the name of ‘tatu-bola’ andis known for its abilities of rolling it-self in form of a ball to with a leatheryshell as a symbol of self defence.

In the previous FIFA World Cupthe mascots were:

• FIFA 2010 World Cup in SouthAfrica- Zakumi the green-hairedleopard

• FIFA 2006 World Cup in Ger-many- Goleo named lionTaking the Armadillo as an offi-

cial mascot for the mega event wasbacked by a NGO named CaatingaAssociation engaged in protection ofthe biodiversity of North Eastern Bra-zil.

KAPIL SIBAL LAUNCHED HOCKEY

AND CRICKET LEAGUE

In order to give encouragementto the talented sportsmen of the Uni-versity system and promote sports inUniversities, the Union Minister ofHuman Resource Development KapilSibal on 5 October 2012 launchedhockey and cricket league under theAssociation of Indian Universities(AIU). Association of Indian Univer-sities has been organising the




Rohinton Baria Cricket Trophy, theInter University Hockey Tournamentand other events for promotion ofsports in the Universities throughoutthe country.

It was after an offer made by theNDTV Group for assisting in sponsor-ing sports events, it was decided toorganise every year, a National LevelUniversity Cricket League (UCL) andUniversity Hockey League (UHL). SoFor this purpose an Organising Com-mittee chaired by the Minister of Hu-man Resource Development, Com-munication and IT has been consti-tuted, composed of senior represen-tatives of University Grants Commis-sion (UGC), AIU, NDTV, Vice Chan-cellors of several Universities, NDMC,DDCA Hockey India and eminentpersons in the field of sports. The Uni-versity Cricket League would beplayed among 8 top University teamsin the T 20 format, from amongst thosewho qualify through a zonal compe-tition. Similarly the University HockeyLeague would be played among thetop 8 teams selected through thezonal competitions.IJM LAND PENANG OPEN SQUASH

TITLE 2012Joshna Chinappa, one of the

top squash players of India claimedthe IJM Land Penang Open after de-feating top most squash player SitiMunirah Jusoh of Malaysia in straightgames on 30 October 2012. JoshnaChinappa defeated her Malaysianopponent Siti Munirah Jusoh with 11-

9 11-7 11-1 in a 34-minute match be-tween them at the Nicol David Inter-national Squash Centre.

Both had dropped just onegame to finish for the route to the fi-nal. Joshna Chinappa is the first In-dian girl who had won the BritishSquash Championship title in 2003 inthe under 19 category, at Sheffieldin U.K and she is also counted amongthe youngest Indian women’s na-tional champion.

LANCE ARMSTRONG STRIPPED OF

FROM SEVEN TOUR DE FRANCE

TITLES

Lance Armstrong on 22 Octo-ber 2012 was stripped of from all theseven Tour de France Titles andbanned for life from cycling. Thisevent occurred as a follow up of the202 page report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA ) that ac-cused Armstrong of leading a dop-ing programme on his team.

President of International Cy-cling Union (UCI) Pat McQuaidcleared on 22 October 2012 that thereport from the anti-doping agency,USADA was accepted and no ap-peals would be made in the Court of

Arbitration for Sports. Organisers ofTour de France would now officiallyremove the name of Armstrong fromall its record books that will includeomission of his consecutive victoriesfrom 1999 to 2005. ChristianPrudhomme the Tour Director an-nounced that no official winners ofthese years would be declared andthe race would follow the decisionsmade by the UCI.SAHARA INDIA PARIWAR FELICITATED

LONDON OLYMPIC MEDALISTS

Sahara India Pariwar on 31 Oc-tober 2012 at the Sahara Shaher inLucknow felicitated six Indian ath-letes who won medals at the LondonOlympics in July-August 2012. Thefunction was attended by Chief Min-ister Akhilesh Yadav and by re-nowned businessmen, politiciansand officials and was marked with acultural programme which includedsome memorable performances bySonu Nigam and Shiamak Davar’stroupe. The silver medalist SushilKumar and Vijay Kumar were pre-sented with gold weighing three kgwhile bronze medalist GagangNarang, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom andYogeshwar Dutt were presentedwith 2 kg of gold by Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav. Sahara India Pariwaris a major business conglomerate andthe prime promoter& patron ofsports in India. It had been alreadydeclared by Sahara India Pariwar priorto the commencement of the LondonOlympics that it is going to awardmedals of pure gold of 5 Kg, 3 Kgand 2 Kg to every Indian winninggold, silver and bronze medal re-spectively in the London Olympics 2012.

VIJAY KUMAR NAMED SERVICES

BEST SPORTSMAN

London Olympic Shooter andsilver medalist Vijay Kumar on 19




October 2012 was honoured withthe Services Best Sportsman awardfor 2012 at the Army Headquarters inNew Delhi. The award which includetrophy and cash award of one lakhrupees is generally given to the bestsportsman from the three defenceforces of Army, Air Force and Navy.Vijay Kumar is the current world num-ber and had earlier won three goldmedals and one silver medal at the

Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.Vijay Kumar won a silver medal at theJuly-August 2012 London Games in

the individual 25 metre rapid fire pis-tol. Vijay Kumar is from Barsar villageof Hamirpur district of HimachalPradesh and is presently a servingSubedar Major in the Dogra Regiment(16th Battalion) of the Indian Army.He was also awarded with ArjunaAward in 2007 and Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna Award in 2011-12 by the Gov-ernment of India.


2013




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Awards & PrizesAwards & PrizesAwards & PrizesAwards & PrizesAwards & PrizesNOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2012The European Union (EU) won

Nobel Peace Prize 2012 on 12 Octo-ber 2012 for its effort to promotepeace and democracy in Europe.The award was announced by Nor-wegian Nobel Committee.

The award was given to Euro-pean Union even though the Unionis struggling with its biggest crisissince it was created in the 1950s.Practically, the EU was being hon-ored for six decades of contributionsto the advancement of peace andreconciliation, democracy and hu-man rights in Europe. Different So-cial media exploded with strong re-actions both for and against, award-ing the prize to European Union –

worth 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2million). The EU grew out of the tre-mendous devastation created byWorld War II, fuelled by the convic-tion that ever-closer economic tieswould make sure that century-oldenemies never turned on each otheragain. The European Union is nowmade up of 500 million people in 27nations, with other nations lined up,waiting to join.

ABOUT NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

The Nobel Peace Prize isawarded annually by the NorwegianNobel Committee to the person whoshall have done the most or the bestwork for fraternity between nations,for the abolition or reduction of stand-ing armies and for the holding andpromotion of peace congresses. It isone of the five Nobel Prizes estab-lished by the 1895 will of AlfredNobel (who died in 1896), awardedfor outstanding contributions inchemistry, physics, literature, peace,and physiology or medicine. The re-cipient of Nobel Peace Prize receives

a medal, a diploma, and a monetaryaward prize that has varied through-out the years. The first Nobel PeacePrize was awarded in 1901 toFrédéric Passy and Henry Dunant.The 2011 Nobel peace Prize wasawarded to Leymah Gbowee ofLiberia for their non-violent strugglefor the safety of women and forwomen’s rights to full participation inpeace-building work. And, The 2010Nobel peace Prize was awarded toLiu Xiaobo of China for his his longand non-violent struggle for funda-mental human rights in China.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

2012Mo Yan, the Chinese writer won

2012 Nobel Prize for Literature on 11October 2012. The Swedish Acad-emy of Stockholm praised the Chi-nese writer for the writer called hishallucinatory realism. The writer com-bines the folk stories, modern eventsand the history in his works. He is thefirst Chinese writer in the 111 yearsof Nobel history to become a Nobel


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Prize winner. Before him, GaoXingjiana a French citizen born inChina won a Nobel in literature in2000.

The Swedish Academy com-pared him with two writers of twenti-eth century namely William Faulknerfrom America and Gabriel GarciaMarquez from Colombia. Mo Yan willreceive the prize medal and the prizeamount of more than 1 million $ on10 December 2012, the death anni-versary of the prize founder, AlfredNobel. Mo Yan means Don’t Speak. The original name of Mo is GuanMoye. The writer changed his nameto be Mo Yan, to remind himself oftalking less to avoid the trouble thatfollows. Nobel Prize for Peace 2012would be declared on 12 October2012.

NOBEL PRIZE FOR

ECONOMICS 2012Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley of

America were awarded the Nobeleconomics prize on 15 October2012 for their work in market designand matching theory.

The research work helps in ex-plaining the market processes at

work, say, when doctors are assignedto hospitals, students to schools andhuman organs for transplant to recipi-ents. The award was cited to theeconomist by The Royal SwedishAcademy of Sciences for the theoryof stable allocations and the practiceof market design. The Royal SwedishAcademy of Sciences, which awardsthe 8 million crown ($1.2 million)prize, called their work an outstand-ing example of economic engineer-ing. The two economists were work-ing independently on the same re-search project. Lloyd Shapley usedgame theory to study matching mod-els, and Alvin Roth built on them tomake real-world changes to existingmarkets, including school choice andorgan transplants, Alvin Roth is a pro-fessor at Harvard and Lloyd Shapleyteaches at the University of Californiain Los Angeles. The Nobel MemorialPrize in Economic Sciences was thelast of the 2012 Nobel awards to beannounced. The economics awardis not among the original prizes cre-ated in 1895 by Swedish industrialistAlfred Nobel to honor work in phys-ics, medicine, chemistry, literatureand peace. It was added as a cat-egory in 1969 by the Swedish cen-tral bank in memory of the industrial-ist.NOBEL PRIZE 2012 FOR PHYSICS

Serge Haroche and DavidWineland of France and US respec-tively, won the Nobel Physics Prizeon 9 October 2012.

They received Nobel for theirwork on quantum physics, whichwould open a gate forsupercomputers in future. The twophysics have developed the technol-ogy for examining the intimate re-lationship between matter and light. This research by the duo would helpin development of precise clocks,which will be hundred-times precisethan the caesium clocks of present-time. The eight million SwedishKrona ($1.2 millions) would be di-vided in between the two and theaward will be received by them on10 December 2012 on the death cer-emony of the Prize Founder, AlfredNobel. The remaining prizes in Chem-istry, Literature and Peace would beannounced on Wednesday, Thurs-day and Friday respectively.NOBEL PRIZE-2012 FOR MEDICINE

John Gurdon and ShinyaYamanaka, the British and Japaneseresearchers respectively on 8 Octo-ber 2012 won the Nobel Prize-2012in Medicine. They were awarded withthe prize for the discovery of repro-gramming the specialised and ma-tured cells of the body into blankslate and this may one day this canstart repairing the damaged organs.The Prize committee based inKarnolinska Institute at Stockholmstated that this discovery has helpedin understanding the theory of celland organism development.

The discovery has turned up tobe a tool for the scientists round the




world allowing them to make remark-able progress in different areas ofmedicine and can help in tissue trans-plantation for treatment of diseaseslike Diabetes and Parkinson. TheNobel Prize in Medicine sector is thefirst announcement made for theyear. Awards for physics, Chemistry,Literature and Peace will be an-nounced on Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday and Friday respectively.The declared prizes will be handedout to their respective winners on thedeath anniversary of prize founderAlfred Nobel on 10 December2012.

Nobel Prize Winner for theNobel Prize Winner for theNobel Prize Winner for theNobel Prize Winner for theNobel Prize Winner for theyear 2011 in Medicine/ Physi-year 2011 in Medicine/ Physi-year 2011 in Medicine/ Physi-year 2011 in Medicine/ Physi-year 2011 in Medicine/ Physi-ology segment:ology segment:ology segment:ology segment:ology segment:

Bruce Beutler and JulesHoffmann from America and Francerespectively won the 2011 NobelPrize for the discoveries related tothe activation of innate immunity. Theduo shared the prize with RalphSteinman of Canada for discoveringdendritic cell. The Canada born,Ralph Steinman died few days be-fore receiving the prize. Although thePosthumous prizes in case of Nobelis not allowed but it remained un-changed just because the decisionwas made previously without beingaware of his death.

NOBEL PRIZE 2012 FOR

CHEMISTRY

Robert Lefkowitz (69) and BrianKobilka (57), the two Americans wonthe Nobel Prize 2012 for Chemistryon 10 October 2012. They won theaward for their study and research onProtein Receptors, which allows thebody to respond the signals from out-side world. The study is a key andwould pave the path for developingbetter drugs to different ailments. Lefkowitz and Kobilka from Duke

University Medical Center in Durham,North Carolina and Stanford Univer-sity School of Medicine in Palo Alto,California respectively will be shar-ing the prize amount of 8 million-krona ($1.2 million).

The Nobel Prize 2012 for Litera-ture and Peace would be announcedon Thursday and Friday respectively.

BOOKER PRIZE 2012British Writer Hilary Mantel on

16 October 2012 won the prestigiousliterary prize, the Booker Prize for hernovel Bring up the Bodies, the sec-ond in a historical trilogy set duringthe reign of King Henry VIII. HilaryMantel had earlier won the Bookerprize in 2009 for “Wolf Hall,” the firstnovel in the trilogy.

Hilary Mantel is the third authorto win the prize twice, alongsideSouth-African-born J.M. Coetzee andAustralian Peter Carey. With this shealso became the first British author,and the first woman, to achieve adouble Booker Prize. Bring Up theBodies” is also the first sequel to winthe prize. Bring up the Bodies andWolf Hall are parts of a planned tril-ogy about Thomas Cromwell, thepowerful and ambiguous chief min-ister to King Henry VIII. Hilary Mantelbeat five other shortlisted books to

take the prize. She was the Bookiesfavourite, although Britain’s Will Selfwas also considered a strong con-tender for the century-spanningstream of consciousness “Umbrella.”Indian poet Jeet Thayil was also nomi-nated for his first novel, “Narcopolis,”set among heroin addicts in 1970sand 80s Mumbai, and Britain’s AlisonMoore for “The Lighthouse,” about amiddle-aged man’s life-changingferry trip to Germany.About Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fic-tion is a literary prize awarded eachyear for the best original full-lengthnovel, written in the English language,by a citizen of the Commonwealth ofNations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. Thewinner of the Man Booker Prize isgenerally assured of international re-nown and success. The selection pro-cess for the winner of the prize com-mences with the formation of an ad-visory committee which includes anauthor, two publishers, a literaryagent, a bookseller, a librarian, and achairperson appointed by the BookerPrize Foundation. The winner ofBooker Prize is usually announced ata ceremony in London’s Guildhall,usually.

INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL AWARD

Lyricist and well known poetGulzar on 31 October 2012 awardedwith Indira Gandhi National Integra-tion Award by congress PresidentSonia Gandhi.




The award was given on the eveof 28th death anniversary of the latePrime Minister Indira Gandhi who wasassassinated on 31 October 1984.Marking the event, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh congratulated thepoet for the award and asserted thefact that Gulzar Sahab is real talentand a great personality who is spread-ing the message of peace and broth-erhood in the country. Gulzar hadwritten some charismatic lyrics forsongs like Raah pe rehte hain, Dodeewaane shehar mein, Hazaarraahen mud ke dekhi, Tujhse naraaznahin zindagi and Mera kuchhsaamaan. He is a versatile lyricist andhad also shown his magic in new agesongs like Kajra re and Beedi jalaileand had used his poetic talent for latefilmmaker Yash Chopra’s FilmJab TakHai Jaan as well. Earlier, Gulzar wasawarded Sahitya Akademi Award in2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2004for his contribution to the arts.

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI AWARD

President Pranab Mukherjee on1 October 2012 conferred the pres-tigious Lal Bahadur Shastri NationalAward 2012 to ISRO scientist TessyThomas at an award function inRashtrapati Bhawan.

The award was given on the eveof Birth anniversary of Former PrimeMinister Lal Bahadur Shashtri. TessyThomas 48 years old is the Key Sci-entist for Agni-V in Defence Researchand Development OrganisationHyderabad. She is the first womanscientist to head a missile project inIndia. Tessy Thomas was an associateProject director (mission) for Agni-I,II and III systems. She was associatedwith the Agni Programme since theirdevelopmental stages. She has de-signed the guidance scheme for long-range missile systems, which is usedin all Agni missiles. Presently, she isthe Project Director of Agni -IV,which is a major project with state ofthe art technologies. The Agni-IV wassuccessfully flight tested on 15thNovember, 2011.What is Lal Bahadur ShastriNational Award?

The Lal Bahadur Shastri NationalAward, instituted by the Lal BahadurShastri Institute of Management(LBSIM) is given each year each yearto an Indian, residing either in Indiaor abroad, who is an exceptionallyoutstanding and distinguished busi-ness leader, management practitio-ner, public administrator, educator orinstitution builder for his/her sus-tained individual contributions andachievements of high professionalorder and excellence. The honourcarries a cash award of Rupees FiveLakh plus a Citation and a Plaque. TheAwardee’s name is inscribed on theRoll of Honour of LBSIM and he/sheis designated as Lal Bahadur ShastriFellow. The Award is presented bythe President of India on October 1each year which is the eve of the birthanniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri.The Award process begins in Janu-ary each year with the nomination of

a twelve member Jury by the Chair-man of LBSIM, who is the ex-officioconvenor of the Jury.

INDIA BIODIVERSITY AWARD

The Government of India in col-laboration with United Nation Devel-opment Programme (UNDP) an-nounced Biodiversity award 2012 inHyderabad on 17 October 2012. Thewinners of the awards were: PirJahania Jungle Suraksha Samiti fromOdisha in the community steward-ship category, Shankarpur VillageGram Panchayat from Maharashtra inthe category of decentralised man-agement, Van Utthan Sansthan fromRajasthan in the category of co-man-agement and Periyar Tiger Reserve inthe protected areas category.

The programme was hosted bythe Ministry of Environment andForests.The award recognizes theoutstanding models of biodiversitygovernance across the country. Theaward was actually presented at min-isterial reception of Eleventh Confer-ence of the Parties to the Conventionon Biological Diversity. With the pre-sentation of Award, the Minister ofEnvironment and Forests JayanthiNatarajan announced that the IndiaBiodiversity Awards will now be givenannualy, to mark InternationalBiodiversity Day on 22 May each year.The winners of the India BiodiversityAwards represent innovative ap-proaches that combine the basicneeds of livelihoods, wellbeing anddignity while respecting biodiversity




conservation and the earth’s limits. In-dia Biodiversity Awards was de-clared after short listing people from150 received nominations fromacross the country. A six-member juryfor the awards was made which washeaded by eminent agriculture sci-entist M S Swaminathan.

BEST TV HOST AWARD

Amitabh Bachchan, was re-warded as the ‘Best Television Host’for the popular game show ‘KaunBanega Crorepati’ by People’sChoice Award of Colour Televisionchannel.

Amitabh is presently hostingSeason 6 of Kaun Banega Crorepati,which is being aired on Sony chan-nel. He had earlier hosted 5 seasonsof KBC except for the third one,which was hosted by Bollywood ac-tor Shahrukh Khan. The first appear-ance of Amitabh Bachchan on Indiantelevision is marked with Kaun BanegaCrorepati,(KBC) which first aired inthe year 2000. Amitabh Bachchan,the 70-year-old Indian Bollywoodmegastar had previously won the In-dian Telly Awards, BIG TelevisionAwards, The Global Indian Film andTV Honours among major award bytelevision channel.BRITISH SAFETY COUNCIL AWARD

Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL)Jamnagar Refinery on 15 October2012 won the British SafetyCouncil’s Globe of Honor Award forexcellence in Environmental man-agement. The award would be pre-sented on 23 November 2012 at

Mansion House in Lon-don. RIL’s Jamnagar SEZRefinery is the only In-dian organisation which had made itto the list and it is for the first timethat a Reliance Industries’ manufac-turing site has grabbed this very wellknown award.

In all, there were 13 applicantsand 9 received the Globe of Honour.The eligibility of a organization for theaward which is a five-star environ-ment audit is that the applicantorganisations should demonstrate aculture of best practice for health andsafety throughout the business - fromthe boardroom to the shop floor. Allapplications for the Globe of honourwere marked by an independentadjudicator and SEZ Refinery re-ceived 68 marks out of 72.

ABOUT BRITISH SAFETY COUNCIL

The British Safety Council is aglobal health, safety and environmen-tal charity which was founded in1957. For over 50 years, the BritishSafety Council has been a championof workplace health and safety. TheBritish Safety Council over years hasprogressed to become one of the larg-est independent occupationalhealth, safety and environmental or-ganizations in the world.

THE KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF

ARTS AND LETTER

The Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on1 November 2012 was conferredwith the Knight of the Order of Artsand Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordredes Arts et des Lettres) by the FrenchAmbassador to India François Richier.She was awarded on behalf of theFrench Authorities. She was con-ferred with the award for the contri-butions made by her to Indian andWorld Cinema and the developmentsin Indo-French cooperation in art,

culture and the most important one,Cinema.

Late Habib Tanvir, Nandita Das,Raghu Rai, Shahrukh Khan, andUpamanyu Chatterjee are few moreIndians who had been conferred withthis prestigious French award. ABOUT AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN

• The youngest Indian Actress towin Padmashree in 2009.Padmashree is the fourth high-est civilian award given by theUnion Government of India

• She is the first Indian Actress tobe among the jury members atCannes

• She made her debut in the In-dian film industry with ManiRatnam’s Tamilo Film Iruvar in1997

• Has received two Best ActressAwards at Filmfare for her filmsHum Dil De Chuke Sanam in1999 and Devdas in the year2002

• In the year 2012, she was ap-pointed as the goodwill ambas-sador for UNAIDS

• To promote eye donation in In-dia, she was appointed as thebrand ambassador for the EyeBank Association of India’s na-tionwide campaign

• She became the brand Ambas-sador for Pulse Polio in 2005 amission established by theUnion Government of India forpolio eradication from the coun-try




• To raise awareness about themain goals and priorities of theUnited Nations’ poverty allevia-tion efforts, she was appointedas the spokesperson for the In-ternational Year of Microcredit

• For Smile Train, she was ap-pointed as its first Goodwill Am-bassador in the year 2009. It isan international charity estab-lished to provide free Cleft lipand palate surgery to childrenacross 76 different developingcountriesSINGHAM BRAVERY AWARD

Narendra Kumar the IPS officerwho was brutally killed by illegal min-ing mafia in Madhya Pradesh andmany other Security Personnel whohad laid down their life for fightingagainst Maoists and anti Social ele-ment on 20 October 2012 wereawarded with Singham BraveryAwards.

The awards were handed overto the family members of the policeofficers by reel life ‘Singham’ AjayDevgan,who is also the brand ambas-sador of Maharashtra police ,actorSunil Shetty and former CRPF Direc-tor General K Vijay Kumar. BesidesNarendra Kumar, the award was post-humously presented to SurinderSingh, Narinder Singh Ranjeet Singh,Prakash S Meena, K C Meena, TanveerSingh and Sanjeev Kumar.

Marking the occasion, AjayDevgn and Rohit Shetty, were alsobestowed with ‘Pride of Nation’awards.

The Singham Bravery Awardwas organised by the All India AntiTerrorist Front (AIATF) and wereheld on the occasion of National Po-lice Day 2012 to felicitate those whohad risked - some had even sacrificedtheir lives in the line of duty.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Pakistani Sufi legend AbidaParveen was honoured with a lifetimeachievement award on 7 October2012 by Kaladharmi Begum AkhtarAcademy of Ghazal in New Delhi. 58years old Abida Parveen is the famousPakistani singer of Sindhi descentand one of the foremost exponentsof Sufi music.

She was born in a musical fam-ily and had received initial trainingfrom her father Ustaad GhulamHaider. She sings mainly ghazals, Urdulove tracks and her forte, Kafis, a clas-sical form of Sufi poetry. Some of herhits are ‘Duma Dum Mast Qalandar’,‘Teray Ishaq Nachaya’, ‘Latthe DiChadar’, ‘Kuch Is Ada Se Aaj’ and‘Kafian Bulleh Shah’. She began hercareer with Radio Pakistan in 1973and gained new fans following herappearance in Coke Studio, a TVmusic programme that showcasescollaborations between classical androck artists. She was also awardedwith the ‘Pride of Performance’ andthe ‘Sitara-e-Imtiaz’ by the Govern-ment of Pakistan.

FRIENDS OF LIBERATION WAR

HONOUR

Former Deputy Prime Ministerand Defence Minister of India, BabuJagjivan Ram was Posthumouslyawarded with the Friends of Libera-tion War Honour by the Governmentof Bangladesh for his contribution inthe 1971 War. The award was re-

ceived by Babuji’s grandson, AnshulAvijit at the Bangabandhu Interna-tional Conference Centre in Dhaka.Anshul Avijit, is a journalist and aca-demician and also the son of Speakerof the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar. BabuJagjivan Ram as the Defence Ministerof India in 1971, helped in liberationof Bangladesh. He assured that thewar for liberation of Bangladeshended in the remarkably short timeof 13 days. He was among the remark-able figure that had helped in cre-ation of the Joint Command ofBangladesh and the Indian forces forthe final outrage which led to the vic-tory.AN INSIGHT INTO POLITICAL CAREER

OF BABU JAGJIVAN RAM

Babu Jagjivan Ram was bornnear Arrah in Bhojpur district of Biharin 1908 and had joined the freedomstruggle while student in BHU inBenares and at Calcutta University.

• He as a freedom fighterfounded the All India De-pressed Classes League.

• He was the youngest servingmember of Jawaharlal Nehru’sInterim Government of 1946 asthe Minister of Labour and hadalso hold a number of criticalportfolios including Agriculture,Railways, Communications andDefence.

• He holds the record for havingan uninterrupted Parliamentarycareer that spanned almost halfa century with holding therecord for being the longest-serving cabinet minister in In-dia for 30 years.

INDO-AMERICAN MALYALEES TO BE

HONOURED AT NEW YORK

The Veteran Indian DiplomatVijay K. Nambiar along with five Indo-American Malayalees would be




honoured at New York by IndianAmerican Kerala Cultural and CivicCenter. The honour would be con-ferred for their service to the societyand outstanding contributions in therespective field of specialization.These awardees would be honouredon 3 November 2012 during the an-nual banquet in the Long Island andthey are Vijay K. Nambiar, GeetaMenon, Joy Kuttiyani, Viju Menon,Narayanan Neithalath and Roy Tho-mas.

Key details of the peopleKey details of the peopleKey details of the peopleKey details of the peopleKey details of the peopleto be honoured:to be honoured:to be honoured:to be honoured:to be honoured:

• Vijay K. Nambiar is the UnderSecretary General and SpecialAdviser of the UN SecretaryGeneral of Myanmar and wouldbe honoured for his services toUnited Nations. He would bethe Chief Guest to the occa-sion.

• The second person to behonoured is Geeta Menon whowill be the keynote speaker ofthe occasion and is a dean forUndergraduate College andAbraham Krasnoff professor ofGlobal Business, Stern Schoolof Business, New York Univer-sity. She would be honoured forher contributions in the field ofeducation

• Viju Menon, the Vice presidentof Supply Chain Management atVerizon, would be conferredwith this honour for his contri-butions in the field of supplychain management. Verizon isthe largest wireless carrier in theUS

• Joy Kuttiyani, president ofKerala Samajam of South Florida

• Narayanan Neithalath, the asso-ciate professor in the School ofSustainable Engineering and

the Built Environment at Ari-zona State University, Tempe,Arizona

• Roy Thomas, deputy director atNew York State Mental HealthDepartment13TH ANNUAL GREENTECH

ENVIRONMENT AWARD

Indian Oil’s Mathura Refinerywas awarded the Platinum Award inthe 13th Annual Greentech Environ-ment Awards. The award was felici-tated on 31 October 2012.

Mathura Refinery was awardedin regard to the company’s outstand-ing achievements and contributionto apt implementation of environmen-tal friendly technologies and meth-odologies. Greentech Awards is a keycomponent that values the need ofenvironmental management in busi-ness sustainability.JAPAN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

AGENCY (JICA) PRESIDENT AWARD

FOR 2012The Delhi Metro Rail Corpora-

tion (DMRC) on 29 September 2012awarded the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) PresidentAward for 2012 for its outstandingcontribution to the development ofhuman resources, society andeconomy of India and also for pro-moting mutual understanding be-tween India and Japan.

The award was formally pre-sented to DMRC Managing DirectorMangu Singh at a function organisedat Metro Bhawan in Delhi for DelhiMass Rapid Transport System Project(I) – (VI). Also, a commendation cer-tificate along with a tribute to this ef-

fect duly signed by Japan Interna-tional Cooperation Agency (JICA)President Akihiko Tanaka was pre-sented to Mangu Singh who assertedthat it will go a long way in strength-ening bilateral ties between the twocountries.

It is the ninth edition of the JICAawards which in the past has beengiven mostly to Japanese organisationsuch as research institutions, non-gov-ernment organisations and medicalorganisations. JICA and DMRC havebeen associated since the beginningof the Delhi Metro construction in1998 in the National Capital Region.The award came to DMRC after com-peting with four other projects acrossthe globe which was chosen byJICA.SHARMILA TAGORE HONOURED WITH

HONORARY DOCTORATE OF ARTS

Veteran actress Sharmila Tagoreon 25 October 2012 was Awardedwith an Honorary Doctorate ofArts for her outstanding contributionto Indian cinema by the EdinburghNapier University.




The Vice-Chancellor and Prin-cipal of the University Dame JoanStringer called her as an excellentambassador for the IndianCulture. Sharmila Tagore whose filmsare appreciated and enjoyed all overthe world is also a strong advocate ofeducational rights of Indian children.At present, she is a Goodwill Ambas-sador for UNICEF that is working forliteracy, maternal health and AIDS-related issues and is also an activespokesperson for Indian ChildrenChild Rights and YOU (CRY). TheUniversity stressed its strong links withIndia and Indian Culture and pointedout that to promote and establish arelationship with Indian culture, phi-losophy, education, art and literatureit has created a Scottish Center forTagore Studies (ScoTs), which high-lights the legacy of RabindranathTagore the first Asian, who won aNobel Prize for Literature in the Year1913. This study center is first of itskind in United Kingdom. The 67 yearold Indian actress announced that herrecognition and honour from the Uni-versity proves the role of Indian Cin-ema and its cultural influence acrossthe world.

CAREER OF SHARMILA TAGORE INTHE INDIAN FILM INDUSTRY

Sharmila Tagore started her ca-reer as an actress in 1959 with SatyajitRay’s Bengali film Apur Sansar (TheWorld of Apu). Some more films ofSharmila Tagore includes Kashmir KiKali in 1964, Evening in Paris in 1967,Aradhana in 1969 and Amar Prem in1972, Safar in 1970, Daag in 1973,Maalik in 1972and many more. ForMausam,a film directed By Gulzarbased on the novel named The Ju-das Tree by A.J. Conin, she won theNational Film Award for Best Actressin 1976 and received the Silver Lotus

Award at the 23rd National Film Fes-tival for this film.

AWARDS AND HONOURS • Filmfare Best Actress Award for

Aradhana in 1969 • Nominated, Filmfare Best Ac-

tress Award for Safar in the year1970

• National Film Award for BestActress in 1976 for her role inthe movie Mausam

• Filmfare Lifetime AchievementAward in 1997

• Star Screen Lifetime Achieve-ment Award in the year 2002

• National Film Award for BestSupporting Actress for AbarAranye in the year 2004

• Commander of the Order ofArts and Letters of France in2004

• In the year 2006 was nominatedfor Filmfare Best Actress Awardin Viruddh- Family Comes First

• Lifetime Achievement NationalAward (Actress) in the year2007 honoured by JournalistAssociation of India

• In 2011was awarded with Out-standing Achievement in Indiancinema at Floriana IIFA Awards,TorontoSharmila Tagore has also served

the Central Board of Film Certifica-tion in India as its Chairperson.

2012 HOOVER MEDAL

V. Narayan Murthy washonoured with 2012 Hoover Medalat the Global Humanitarian Technol-ogy Conference in Seattle in Wash-ington on 22 October 2012. Murthy,who is the 70th recipient since themedal’s inception, was recognizedfor establishing a foundation thatforges outstanding improvements inhealthcare, social rehabilitation, ruraluplift and education. Previous

awardees include former US presi-dents Herbert Hoover, Dwight D.Eisenhower and James Earl Carter. Narayan Murthy co-founded Infosyslimited in 1981. He contributed sig-nificantly in India’s success in infor-mation technology outsourcing. TheHoover Medal was established in1930 to recognize great, unselfish,non-technical services by engineersto humanity. The Infosys ScienceFoundation was established in 2009to promote science research in In-dia. The Hoover Medal is administeredby a board representing five engi-neering organizations: The AmericanSociety of Mechanical Engineers, theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers,the American Institute of ChemicalEngineers, the American Institute ofMining, Metallurgical and PetroleumEngineers and the Institute of Elec-trical and Electronics Engineers.

11TH ECONOMIST CROSSWORD

BOOK AWARD

The 11th Economist Cross-word Book Award was declared on18 October 2012 at Mumbai. TheFolded Earth and A Free Man-a non-fiction book, written by Anuradha Royand Aman Sethi respectively weredeclared among winners of the 11thEconomist Crossword BookAward. The Folded Earth was de-clared winner in English Indian Fic-tion Category, whereas, A FreeMan won the award in the EnglishNon-Fiction Category for 2011.

Few more books that wonawards in different categories were:

• English Translation by ArunavaSinha of a book on shortstories, 17 written by AnitaAgnihotri and The ArayaWoman written by Narayan andTranslated by CatherineThankamma were declared




joint winners of the award forIndian Language Translation.

• The Incredible Banker writtenby Ravi Subramanian fetchedthe Popular Award Overall, there were 330 entries

of the books published in 2011 forthe awards. Renowned writer SudhaMurthy distributed the Prizes on 18October 2012.

ABOUT THE CROSSWORD BOOK

AWARD The Award is among the presti-

gious literary awards in India, whichrecognizes the best Indian Writingsand rewards them to make sure thatthe merit works reach easily reachesto wider audience group.

The Awards are given in differ-ent categories and it includes Cross-

word Fiction Award, Crossword Non-Fiction Award, Crossword TranslationAward, Crossword Children’s Awardand Crossword Popular Award. ThePrize for Non-Fiction, Fiction, Trans-lation and Children’s writing carriesan amount of 3 lakh rupees and a ci-tation and a trophy. The PopularAward winner author gets a cash prizeof 1 lakh rupees and a certificate.


CSATGeneral Studies Manual

IAS Preliminary Examination Paper I






APPOINTEDAJIT SARAN

Senior IAS officer Ajit M Sharanwas appointed as Member Secretaryin National Commission for Women(NCW) on 3 October 2012. AjitSharan is a 1979 batch officer ofHaryana cadre. He is going to be inthe rank and pay of Additional Sec-retary. The Appointments Commit-tee of the Cabinet has also appointedRajiv Mehrishi, an IAS officer of 1978batch of the Rajasthan cadre, as Sec-retary, Ministry of Overseas IndianAffairs in the vacancy of ParvezDewan, a 1977 batch IAS officer ofJammu and Kashmir cadre. RajivMehrishi is presently Special Secre-tary, Department of Agricultural Re-search and Education, Ministry ofAgriculture.

JUSTICE YATINDRA SINGH

The newly-appointed ChiefJustice of the Chhattisgarh HighCourt, Justice Yatindra Singh, took theoath of office in Chattisgarh on 22 Oc-tober 2012. Chhattisgarh Governor

Shekhar Dutt administered the oathto Justice Yatindra Singh at Raj Bhavanin Bilaspur District of Chattisgarh.

Prior to appointment as ChiefJustice, Justice Yatindra Singh wasposted at the Allahabad High Court.He was born in 1952 and had gradu-ated from Allahabad University in1970. He had also served as Addi-tional Advocate-General of UttarPradesh Between March 1997 and

February 1999. He had two bookswritten under his name entitled‘Cyberlaws’ and ‘A Lawyer’s Worldand Childhood dreams’.

S.VISHWANATHAN

S. Viswanathan on 8 October2012 was appointed as a managingdirector of State Bank of India. Hisappointed came by the Central Gov-ernment of India. Viswanathan, wasearlier serving as a deputy managingdirector of State Bank of India. Priorto that he was heading the state-runbank’s investment banking arm, SBICapital Markets Ltd.

The appointment of S.Viswanathan takes effect from thedate of taking over charge of the post

In the NewsIn the NewsIn the NewsIn the NewsIn the News




till April 30, 2014 , that isthe date ofhis attaining the age of superannua-tion or until further orders, whicheveris earlier. Following the appointment,SBI has now four managing directors,including Diwakar Gupta, who thechief financial officer, Hemant Con-tractor, who is in charge of interna-tional operations and A. KrishnaKumar, who looks after national bank-ing.

HUGE CHAVEZ

Huge Chavez re-elected asPresident of Venezuela on 9 Octo-ber 2012 Venezuela.

It his third election victory in14 years of Office. With this he willbe spending 6 more years in Office.Huge Chavez had won with 54% ofthe vote defeating his challengerHenrique Capriles who managed toget only 45% of vote in presidentialelection held on 7 October 2012.Among the 19 million registered vot-ers the turnout was a record of 80.4%voters.

BRIEF LOOK AT HUGE CHAVEZ

CAREER

Huge Chavez was formerly theleader of the Fifth Republic Move-ment political party from its founda-tion in 1997 until 2007; thereafter hebecame the leader of the United So-cialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Following his own political ide-ology of Bolivarianism and Socialismfor the 21st Century, he has focusedon implementing socialist reforms in

the Venezuela as a part of a socialproject known as the Bolivarian Revo-lution, which has seen the implemen-tation of a new constitution, partici-patory democratic councils and thenationalisation of several key indus-tries.A.RAJA, KANIMOZHI AND SURESH

KALMADI

The congress on 3 October2012 nominated the former UnionMinister, A. Raja, Kanimozhi andSuresh Kalmadi as the members ofthe Parliamentary Standing Commit-tees on Energy, Home Affairs andExternal Affairs respectively.

Raja was arrested in the 2G scamcase on February 2 last year and is onbail since 15 May 2012. SureshKalmadi, who was accused in theCommonwealth Games scam case,spent about nine months in jail andwas released on bail on 19 January2012. DMK MP Kanimozhi, also anaccused in some cases related to the2G spectrum allocation,was nomi-nated to the Standing Committee onHome Affairs. Also,Congress generalsecretary Rahul Gandhi was made amember of the Standing Committee.The role of the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committees is to inspect the billand give their opinion to the plannedlegislation associated about the re-garding ministries.

HASSAN SHEIKH MOHAMUD

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud wonthe presidential elections of Somaliaon 10 September 2012. He won the

election by gaining 190 votes to 79in the second round of competition.

Alliances were formed be-tween the Prime Minister AbdiweliAli and Hassan Sheikh.SHORT DESCRIPTION ABOUT HASSAN

SHEIKH MOHAMUD

1. He was born in Jalalaqsi on theShebelle River of central Soma-lia in the year 1955

2. He completed his education inIndia and United States

3. Worked in the United Nationsdevelopment program andWorld Bank as well as a univer-sity lecturer

4. In the year 2008, he workedwith Somalia Civil Society

5. In 2009 history of mediation inSomalia is a book written by himwas published

6. 2011, founded the peace de-velopment party as its chairmanHis election as a President is

welcomed by many of the nations ofthe world and there are expectationsthat Somalia will soon see a new dawn.

ONNO RUHL

World Bank appointed OnnoRuhl a Dutch National to be the coun-try director for India on 10 Septem-ber 2012.




He will replace the retiring NRoberto Zagha in October 2012. Hisappointment at this post will help thebank to formulate and implementdevelopmental programs and stepsin the nation.ABOUT ONNO RUHL

1. Onno Ruhl holds a post gradu-ate degree (MSc) in Econom-ics from University ofAmsterdam

2. He joined World Bank in theyear 1993 and due to his po-tential leadership skills andstrong experience in financeand operations; he held severalpositions in Asia and Africa.

3. He has served World Bank as itsdirector for Nigeria and a coun-try manager for Democratic Re-public of the Congo (DRC)

4. Prior to his joining to World Bankin 1993, Ruhl served the ForeignAffairs Ministry of Netherlands

5. He has served the MultilateralInvestment Guarantee Agency(MIGA) as an Alternate Execu-tive Director on the Board

JAIDEEP SARKAR

Jaideep Sarkar on 27 Septem-ber 2012 was appointed as the newIndian Ambassador to Israel. TheIITian and diplomat, is a private sec-retary to Prime Minister ManmohanSingh and a joint secretary of exter-nal affairs ministry, has replacedNavtej Sarna, the former ministryspokesperson.

MAR CLEEMIS

Pope Benedict XVI on 24 Oc-tober 2012 appointed Major Arch-bishop-Catholicos Baselios MarCleemis as the Cardinal to boost Chris-tianity in India. Cleemis is the head ofthe relatively-young Syro-MalankaraCatholic Church and is the only In-dian in the list of six senior prelates to

be named as Cardinals in the latestexpansion of the Church of Cardinalsthat is elected by the Pope.

Cleemis who is 53 years old,with this appointment has turned upto be the youngest Cardinals in theCatholic Church and is the first cardi-nal from the Syro-Malankara rite ofCatholic Church and is now the firstPrince of the Church as Cardinals areknown. Mar Cleemis is at Vatican toattend the proceedings of theGolden Jubilee of the Vatican’s Sec-ond Council at Rome. His investiturewould be held in Rome on 24 No-vember 2012 along with five otherCardinals named by Vatican.

VIVEK RAE

Vivek Rae, on 8 October 2012took over as Secretary in Ministry ofMicro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME).

He succeeds Radha KrishnaMathur who at present is Secretary inDepartment of Defence Productionand Ministry of Defence. Vivek Raeis a 1978 batch IAS officer of UnionTerritory cadre. Before joining theMinistry of Micro Small and MediumEnterprises he was Director General(Acquistion) in Ministry of Defence.

ABOUT MSMEWith the amendment of, Gov-

ernment of India (Allocation of Busi-ness) Rules, 1961 by the Presidentof India, Ministry of Agro and RuralIndustries (Krishi Evam Gramin UdyogMantralaya) and Ministry of SmallScale Industries (Laghu UdyogMantralaya) have been merged intoa single Ministry, namely Ministry ofMicro, Small and Medium Enterprises(Sukshma Laghu Aur MadhyamUdyam Mantralaya). The micro smalland medium enterprises (MSMEs) areaccepted as the engine of economicgrowth and for promoting equitabledevelopment. The major advantageof the sector is its employment po-tential at low capital cost. The labourintensity of the MSME sector is muchhigher than that of the large enter-prises. The MSMEs constitute over90% of total enterprises in most of theeconomies and are credited withgenerating the highest rates of em-ployment growth and account for amajor share of industrial productionand exports. In India, the MSMEsplay a pivotal role in the overall in-dustrial economy of the country. Inrecent years the MSME sector hasconsistently registered higher growthrate compared to the overall indus-trial sector.

RAVI NARAIN

National Stock Exchange’s(NSE) chief and Managing DirectorRavi Narain on 17 October 2012 waselected as chairman of the workingcommittee of the World Federationof Exchanges (WFE). The appoint-ment of Ravi Narain came in the an-nual meeting of World FederationExchange which also electedelected Deutsche Borse AG’sDeputy Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Andreas Preuss as its chair-




man, while Thomas A Kloet, CEO ofTMX Group, as the vice-chairman ofthe working committee.

Ravi Narain is also the chairmanof the National Securities ClearingCorporation and a board member ofthe National Commodity and Deriva-tives Exchange. The World Federa-tion of Exchanges (WFE) is an inter-national organization for securitiesand derivative markets such as stockexchanges. It comprises of Group ofmore than 50 Bourses or Stock Ex-changes.

DEATHYASH CHOPRA

The Indian Filmmaker YashChopra died on 21 October 2012,nine days after being diagnosed withDengue.

He passed away at the age of80 at Lilavati Hospital at Bandra dueto dengue and multiple organ failure.Also termed as the King of Romance,Yash Chopra had by his name Six

National Film Awards, Eleven FilmfareAwards out of which four was FilmfareAward for Best Director. Yash Chopra,in his last interview with Shah RukhKhan on television stated about hislatest upcoming film named Jab TakHai Jaan and his retirement along withthe plans of spending his time withfamily members. The Titan of IndianCinema, Yash Chopra was born on 27September 1932 Yash Chopra byprofession was an Indian Film Direc-tor, Screenwriter and Film Producerin Indian Cinema, Bollywood. Work-ing as an assistant director to I.S.Johar and B.R. Chopra his elderbrother, he started his career andmade his debut as a director withDhool ka Phool in the year 1959 pro-ceeded by films like Dharmputra in1961. He turned up to set his stage asone of the most successful directorwith the commercial and criticallysuccessful drama Waqt in 1965, thefilm that set the stage for multi-starrersin the industry.

Yash Raj Films, yash chopra’sown production company statedwith the launch of DAAG: A poem oflove in 1973. Few of his most ac-claimed films, were Deewar in 1975that set the angry young man imageof Amitabh Bachchan, Kabhi Kabhi(a romantic drama) in 1976, Trishul,Silsila in 1981, Mashaal in 1984 andVijay in 1988 and Chandni in 1989.Some more movies of Yash Choprawere Lamhe in 1991, Darr in 1993 thedebut movie of Shah Rukh Khan, DilTo Pagal Hai in 1997, Veer-Zaara in2004. His latest movie Jab Tak HaiJaan is scheduled to be launchedduring the week of Diwali in 2012about a month after his death.

Awards and honours attachedto his name were:

• He received Legion of Honour,

France’s highest civilian honour• Remained a Vice President for

10 years with Film Producers’Guild of India

• Received Padma Bhushan in2005

• Asian Filmmaker of the Year,2009 at Pusan International FilmFestival

• On behalf of Swiss Governmenthe received a Special Award byUrsula Andress and washonoured for rediscoveringSwitzerland

• He received the BBC AsiaAwards two times in the year1998 and 2001 for the kind of con-tribution he made to the films

• In the year 2001 he received Dr.Dadabhai Naoroji MillenniumLifetime Achievement award

• For promoting tourism in UK viahis films, he was conferred witha Certificate of Recognitionfrom the British Tourist Author-ity and British Film Commission

• For his contribution to IndianCinema he was conferred withPriyadarshini Award

• The Leeds Metropolitan Univer-sity in Yorkshire awarded himwith Honorary Doctorate in Art

• At the 2008 Asia Pacific ScreenAwards, for his outstandingachievements to the films he re-ceived FIAPF Award

• In the year 2010 he washonoured with the HonoraryDoctorate from the School ofOriental and African Studies

• The Government of MadhyaPradesh awarded him with Na-tional Kishore Kumar Award

• For his contribution via his filmsto ‘Brand Switzerland’ he re-ceived Swiss Ambassador’sAward 2010




• The Asian Awards in October2010 he was given the Out-standing Achievement in Cin-ema award

• The Rotary Club awarded himwith Vocational ExcellenceAward

• In the year 2001 was awardedDadasaheb Phalke the topmostand the highest honour of In-dian Film Industry

• Maharashtra state government’sRaj Kapoor and V. Shantaram’Awards was given to him for hiscontributions to Indian Cinema

• In the year 2006 he received4th Pune International Film Fes-tival Lifetime AchievementAward Some more associations of his

life:• Before his death he was on the

Advisory Board of the Informa-tion and Broadcasting Ministryof Government of India

• Founder Trustee of Film Indus-try Welfare Trust established inthe year 1996

• BAFTA gave him a lifetimemembership for the his contri-butions to Indian Cinema, in 59years history of the academy hewas the first Indian to behonoured with the membership

SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY

President of the SahityaAkademi and an eminent writer, SunilGangopadhyay died on 23 October2012 due to heart attack at his resi-dence in Kolkata. Gangopadhyay whodied at the age of 78 is now survivedby his wife and a son. ABOUT SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY

Born on 2 September 1934,Sunil Gangopadhyay was an ac-claimed poet and novelist from In-dia. He provided a platform for the

poets of new generations withKrittibas a seminal poetry magazinethat he started in 1953 as a foundereditor.

He was successful as a novelist,short story and travelogue writer aswell as for his writings as childrenfiction. He as a poet and novelist hasmore than 200 books by his name andwon several awards and honours ascredentials to his name. His pennames were Sanatan Pathak, NilUpadhyay and Nil Lohit. AWARDS AND HONOURS

• He received Ananda Puraskar in1972 and 1989

• He was awarded with SahityaAkademi Award in 1985

• Gangopadhyay was honouredas Sheriff of Kolkata in 2002 as aprominent citizen of the city

• He was honoured with India’shighest literary award SaraswatiSamman in 2004- this award isalso listed under Schedule VIIof Indian Constitution

• In the year 2011 he won theHindu Literary Prize, shortlist,The Fakir

• In the year 2012 received SeraBangali Lifetime AchievementAward by Star Ananda

JASPAL BHATTY

Actor and Satirist Jaspal Bhattidied in a road accident on 25 Octo-ber 2012 near Punjab’s Nakodar town40 km from Jalandhar.

The accident happened inaround 3 am in morning when JaspalBhatti was on his way to Jalandhar fromBathinda for Promotion of his upcom-ing Film Power Cut. Jaspal Bhatti’s sonJasraj, was also injured in the acci-dent along with the film’s heroineSurili Gautam. Jaspal Bhatti was on a40-day tour for the promotion of hislatest film .The tour was to end on 25 October 2012 with a media con-ference in Jalandhar. Bhatti was a veryrenowned face on Indian televisionand also for Bollywood films with hiscomedy shows and appearances. HisTV shows Ulta-Pulta and Flop Showon Doordarshan had entertained TVaudiences in late 1980s and 1990s.He had also directed a Punjabi Com-edy film Mahaul Theek Hai in 1999,which is a comedy satire set on thepolice force, administration and so-ciety. Jaspal Bhatti was 57 years oldand is Survived by his wife SavitaBhatti and son Jasraj Bhatti.




KEVIN CURRAN

Former Zimbabwe all-rounderand Coach Kevin Curran died at ageof 53 on 10 October 2012. His deathnews came after he collapsed whilejogging but the actual cause of deathwas not clear.

In his career Kevin Curranplayed 324 first-class matches andhad made 15,740 runs with taking upof 605 wickets. He was a right-handedmiddle-order batsman and fast-me-dium bowler and had played 11 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe. Kevin Curran was a veteran of twoWorld Cups for Zimbabwe - prior totheir being given Test status in 1992and had also five times cleared 1,000runs in a season in the English league.Kevin Curran was a part of the Zimba-bwe team that made its internationaldebut against Australia at TrentBridge in the 1983 World Cup, beat-ing the opponent side by 13 runs. Hishighest international score was 73 inthe famous 1983 World Cup matchagainst India at Tunbrigde Wells. Hefollowed that up with 63 against de-fending champions West Indies in thenext match. He replaced PhilSimmons as Zimbabwe coach in2005, retaining the post until 2007before coaching Zimbabwean fran-chise Mashonaland Eagles. KevinCurran first served as Zimbabwe’s as-

sistant coach before assuming theduty full-time from August 2005 toAugust 2007, which was a period inwhich the team won nine and lost 28of 42 ODIs.

T. SAMUEL

Veteran Cartoonist and the pio-neer of pocket cartoons in India, TSamuel died on 2 October 2012 atthe age of 86. Samuel is now survivedby his wife, two daughters and a son. ABOUT T. SAMUEL

Samuel started his journey as aprofessional cartoonist before Inde-pendence from Lahore with a Mili-tary Gazette. After partition he cameto Delhi as a refugee and joinedShankar’s weekly, where he contrib-uted the Kalu and Meena, the silentstrip cartoon and some more relatedto social life. As a staff cartoonist, heserved Delhi edition of Times of In-dia, where he became famous as thecreator of the pocket cartoon namedBabuji. After serving Times of Indiafor a certain period of time, he joinedIndian Express as a cartoonist andcarried on with his featured cartoonBabuji and Garib, the next strip car-toon series. He was back with Timesof India and served it and its Hindidaily Nav Bharat Times till 1985, theyear of his retirement.

NORODOM SIHANOUK

Former Cambodian kingNorodom Sihanouk died on 15 Oc-tober 2012 in Beijing.

He was 89 Years old. NorodomSihanouk was receiving medical treat-

ment for many years in Beijing for can-cer and other ailments. Norodom haddominated politics in Cambodia fornearly 60 years. He was the King ofCambodia from 1941 to 1955 andagain from 1993 until 2004. He wasthe effective ruler of Cambodia from1953 until 1970. After his secondabdication in 2004, he was known asThe King-Father of Cambodia a posi-tion in which he retained many of hisformer responsibilities as constitu-tional monarch. Sihanouk held somany positions since 1941 that thehe was identifies as the politician whohas served the world’s greatest vari-ety of political offices. These in-cluded two terms as king, two as sov-ereign prince, one as president, twoas prime minister, as well as numer-ous positions as leader of various gov-ernments-in-exile. He was suc-ceeded in 2004 by his son, KingNorodom Sihamon

SATYANARAYAN REDDY

Former Governor of UP andOdisha and a renowned freedomfighter B Satyanarayan Reddy died on7 October 2012 folowing age-re-lated illness in a private Hospital inHyderabad.

86 years old SatyanarayanReddy, was a bachelor who had dedi-cated his life for public service. He




was a strong follower of JayPrakashNarayan and Ram Manohar Lohiya.Satyanarayan Reddy was a patriot andfreedom Fighter who during quit In-dia movement in 1942 also faced ar-rest for leading a procession of pro-test against the arrest of MahatmaGandhi. He began his Political careeras a member of Socialist Party andthereafter joined Janta Party and be-came its State General Secretary in1977. It was during Emergency Pe-riod that Satyanarayan Reddy on Au-gust, 1 1975 was detained underMaintenance of Internal Security Act(MISA) for 18 months and sent toMusheerabad Jail. He became thegovernor of Uttar Pradesh in 1990 andserved for three years and later hebecame the governor of Odisha.Satyanarayana Reddy as a Telanganaprotagonist, served as an inspirationfor many who are in Telanganamovement.

ACCUSED/RESIGNED/CONTROVERSY

SM KRISHNA

SM Krishna on 26 October 2012resigned from his post of ExternalAffairs Minister.

He submitted his resignation tothe Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,who accepted it and forwarded tothe President of India. SM Krishna,before being inducted as the Exter-nal Affairs Minister in 2009, servedMaharasthtra as its nineteenth Gover-nor from 2004 to 2008. He served as

a Member of Parliament from theMandya district of Karnataka in its inthe 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Lok Sabhastarting from 1968.

ABOUT SM KRISHNA SM Krishna (Somanahalli

Mallaiah Krishna), who belongs to In-dian National Congress was the old-est member of the Union Council ofMinisters at the time of his resigna-tion remained the External AffairsMinister from 2009 to October 2012.Before taking up the responsibility asExternal Affairs Minister, Krishnaserved Karnataka as its sixteenthChief Minister from 1999 to 2004. Healso served as nineteenth Governorof Maharashtra from 2004 to 2008.

PAWAN VARMA

Indian Diplomat Pavan K. Varmain October 2012 resigned as India’sambassador to Bhutan with an ideaof entering into politics. AmbassadorPavan Varma is set to join the JanataDal-United (JDU). He asserted thathe wants to contribute to clean poli-tics and good governance in the coun-try. Pawan Varma, is a 1976 batch IFSofficer and had taken voluntary re-tirement but is going to demits officeon 31 December 2012. Pawan Varmais also an author of several well-ac-claimed books,including Ghalib andThe Great In-dian Middle Class. Pawan Varma’s res-ignation sets in process a minorshuffle which was long overdue,withincreasing in strength of lobbying forkey diplomatic posts.

HONOURBRAHMA CHELLANEY

India’s leading strategic thinkerand analyst, Brahma Chellaney on 25October 2012 won the 2012 AsiaSociety Bernard Schwartz BookAward for his recently published

book Water: Asia’s New Battle-ground.

Brahma Chellaney is going to behonoured with $20,000 prize moneyat a special event to be held at AsiaSociety’s headquarters in New YorkCity on 23 January 2012. The bookWater: Asia’s New Battleground” byBrahma Chellaney was selected fromnearly 90 nominations submitted byUS and Asia-based publishers forbooks published in 2011. Asia Soci-ety Bernard Schwartz Book Awardwas established in 2009 and is theonly award that recognizes non-fic-tion books for their outstanding con-tributions to the understanding ofcontemporary Asia or US-Asia rela-tions.

BOOKSTHE FOLDED EARTH AND A FREE

MAN

The Folded Earth written byAnuradha Roy and A Free Man byAman Sethi won the 11th EconomistCrossword Book Award that was de-clared on 18 October 2012 atMumbai.

The Folded Earth was success-ful in securing its position in the En-glish Indian Fiction Category,whereas, A Free Man by Aman Sethiwas successful in the category of In-dian Non-Fiction books. A Bengalishort-story collection Bengali writtenby Anita Agnihotri named 17 andtranslated in English by Arunava Sinhaand a Malyalam Novel, The Araya


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Woman that was written by Narayanand translated in English by CatherineThankamma were declared as thewinners of the award for Indian Lan-guage Translation jointly.

Ravi Subramanian’s creation TheIncredible Banker fetched the Popu-lar Award by its name. The Cross-word Book Award is presented towriters in different categories with acertain prize amount and these in-cludes Non-Fiction, Fiction, Transla-tion and Children’s Writing carryingan amount of 3 lakh rupees and a ci-tation and a trophy. The PopularAward winner author gets a cash prizeof 1 lakh rupees and a certificate.

EK THHI KUSUM

Ek Thhi Kusum a collection ofshort stories written by Prakash Pant,former State Assembly Speaker ofUttrakhand was released on Mondayby Aziz Qureshi, Governor ofUttarakhand. The stories of the bookare a collection of socio-economictales of the far-flung areas of hill state.Ek Thhi Kusum in itself is an explora-tion of the pains and sufferings of

common man and his trails to fit him-self in the fast changing social envi-ronment.

It is a self criticism of the loos-ing moral and traditional values,which has been neglected in a blindpursuit of prospering and achievingthe material satisfaction. He is a se-nior BJP leader of Uttarakhand andwas the first Speaker to the state As-sembly of Uttarakhand.

VARIOUSNEWSWEEK

Newsweek, the eighty year oldprint magazine on 18 October 2012announced that it would shut downits print operations completely andgo all-digital. The Editor-in-Chief ofthe Magazine and founder of theonline Newsweek Daily Beast Com-pany, Tina Brown posted a statementon the website that being affectedby the harsh media environment, themagazine had planned to stop itsprint publication and move on theonline platform completely. TheDigital Publication of the magazinewill be a single issue worldwide anda compilation of world events in a

sophisticated context targeting onthe opinion leading audience.

NEO-NAZI GROUP’S ACCOUNT

BLOCKED BY TWITTER

Twitter on 18 October 2012announced that it had blocked theaccount of a neo-Nazi group namedBesseres Hannover on 25 September2012. This blocking act is the first everactivity of blocking by the micro-blogging site in the country follow-ing the orders of the German Policeto block the neo-Nazi groups. Thecompany is still visible on itshandle@hannoverticker that is callingitself as Das NationaleInformationsportal aus Hannover. Butthe messages updated by the groupafter 25 September is no more vis-ible. The Besseres Hannover ischarged for creating criminalorganiations and inciting racial ha-tred.

BRAHMOS

The Indian Navy on 7 October2012 successfully test-fired the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruisemissile which is capable of carrying aconventional warhead of 300 kg,from a warship off the Goa coast.

The cruise missile was test-firedfrom guided missile frigate INS Teg—the Indian Navy’s latest induction fromRussia off the coast of Goa.

The INS Teg, which has beenbuilt at the Yantar shipyard in Russia,had fired the missile successfully dur-ing pre-induction trials in Russiain2011.


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ABOUT BRAHMOS MISSILE

BrahMos is a stealth supersoniccruise missile that can be launchedfrom submarines, ships, aircraft orland. It is a joint venture betweenRepublic of India’s Defence Re-search and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) and RussianFederation’s NPO Mashinostroeyeniawho have together formed BrahMosAerospace Private Limited It is theworld’s fastest cruise missile in op-eration. The missile travels at speedsof Mach 2.8 to 3.0. and have the ca-pability of attacking surface targetsby flying as low as 10 metres in alti-tude.

GLOBAL JAMES BOND DAY

Global James Bond Day wascelebrated on 5 October 2012 tomark 50 years since the world pre-miere of Dr.

No which introduced author IanFleming’s sophisticated secret agentto the people. The franchise went onto produce best selling Agent 007films. It is making legends out of ac-tors over the last 50 years and theJames Bond movie franchise hasmade heart-stopping thrillers.

ANAND KUMAR

Anand Kumar, teacher andfounder of Super 30 institute, whichprovides free residential coaching tostudents from economically back-ward families for IIT-JEE exams,named ’People’s Hero’ by Peoplemagazine of American Time Maga-zine Group. It is itself an uncommonoccasion where the people magazine

which usually profiles celebrities fromfilms and other fields onto their maga-zine had chosen a person who is ateacher by profession.

The magazine stated that Anandhas done it on his own, which is re-markable. Earlier Anand was featuredin Different Magazine. Time magazineearlier had described Super 30 as the“best of Asia,” with Newsweek put-ting it into the category of world’s fourinnovative schools. Also, DiscoveryChannel made an hour-long docu-mentary on Kumar and Super 30 andhad described it as a “revolutionaryexperiment to bring about socialchange. Back in April 2011, AnandKumar was selected by Europe’smagazine Focus as one of the glo-bal personalities who have the abilityto shape exceptionally talentedpeople and was also named amongthe list of 20 pioneering teachers ofthe world by UK basedmagazine Monocle.

BRAHMOS AND INVAR MISSILES

The Cabinet Committee on se-curity on 18 October 2012 approvedproposals worth over 8000 crorerupees for procuring around 10000Invar missiles from Russia for theArmy’s T-90 tanks and over 200 air-launched versions of the BrahMossupersonic cruise missiles for the In-dian Air Force. Also, the Union Cabi-net approved the waiver of the out-standing loan along with interest forthe 370 tsunami affected fishermenand to reimburse the same to con-cerned banks. The Union Cabinet

also approved setting up of a NationalAutomotive Board, NAB a bodywhich would act as a facilitator be-tween the government and the indus-try and promote Research and De-velopment activities in the sector.

DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM

China on 2 November 2012 in-vited Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the formerPresident and Missile Man of India toteach at the Peking University ofChina.

The nation also offered him thelab of his choice to work on with thestudents. The invitation came up dur-ing Dr. Kalam’s visit to the Beijing Fo-rum by the Chairperson Zhu Shanluof Peking University. ABOUT BEJING FORUM

Beijing Forum is the intellectualbody backed by the Chinese Gov-ernment, Chinese Ministry ofEductaion and the Beijing MunicipalGovernment. It is co-sponsored byBeijing Municipal Commission of Edu-cation, Peking University, and KoreaFoundation for Advanced Studies.ABOUT DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam (Avul PakirJainulabdeen Abdul Kalam) servedIndia as its 11th President and is reck-oned as an eminent scientist of India.Also known as the Missile Man of In-dia for development of Ballistic Mis-sile and its launch Vehicle. Dr. Kalamhas also worked as an aerospace en-gineer with the Indian Space Re-




search Organisation (ISRO) and theDefence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO). After retiringas a President of India he has beensharing the knowledge with theyoung people and students of thenation.

He is a visiting Professor to In-dian Institute of ManagementAhmedabad and Indian Institute ofManagement Indore. He is also aChancellor at the Indian Institute ofSpace Science and TechnologyThiruvananthapuram. He serves Aero-space Engineering at Anna Univer-sity (Chennai) and JSS University(Mysore) as its Professor. Apart fromall this he has been visiting differentinstitutes across India as a visiting fac-ulty.

AWARDS WON BY KALAM • He has been awarded with

India’s highest Civilian honour,Bharat Ratna in the year 1997

• In 1998 he was awardedwith Veer Savarkar Award byGovernment of India

• In the year 2012 was awardedwith Doctor of Laws (HonorisCausa) by Simon Fraser Univer-sity

• He was conferred with IndiraGandhi Award for National In-tegration in 1997 by Govern-ment of India

• He was conferred with PadmaVibhushan in the year 1990 byGovernment of India

• In the year 1981 he wasawarded Padma Bhushan

• Royal Society of U.K. awardedhim King Charles II Medal inthe year 2007.

• University of Wolverhampton,U.K awarded him HonoraryDoctorate of Science in theyear 2007

PRITHVI IIIndia on 4 October 2012 suc-

cessfully test fired its indigenouslydeveloped, nuclear-capable ballisticmissile Prithvi-II from a test range inOdisha. The missile was test fired bythe Strategic Forces Command (SFC)from the Integrated Test Range atChandipur, Odisha.

All the radars and electro-opti-cal systems along the coast have moni-tored the missile throughout its flightpath. The Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO)have developed Prithvi-II for the In-dian Air Force for deep interdictionand the missile can be armed with anuclear warhead weighing 500 kg. Inthis flight, it carried conventionalexplosives. Prithvi-II is a user-friendlymissile which has a completelyguided trajectory. The SFC had ear-lier launched it on August 25, 2012and the flight was successful. TheIndian Army is already armed with thesingle-stage Prithvi-II, which uses liq-uid propellants. From July 2012 on-wards the Strategic Forces Commandhad launched a series of strategicmissiles including Agni-I, Agni-II andAgni-III. It is one of the five missiles

that were developed under thecountry’s Integrated Guided MissileDevelopment Programme.

RAJAT GUPTA

Rajat Gupta, the formerGoldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) di-rector and McKinsey & Co. Managingdirector on 25 October 2012 wassentenced to two years in prison forpassing inside tips to his businesspartner. Rajat Gupta was convictedin June 2012 on three counts of se-curities fraud and one count of con-spiracy.

It was alleged by the US pros-ecutors that Rajat Gupta used his po-sitions on the boards of Goldman andProcter & Gamble, one of the world’slargest consumer goods companies,to pass information to hedge fundmanager Raj Rajaratnam, who thendrew millions of dollars in profit fromtrading on it. Rajat Gupta is 63 yearsold. He was handed for a two-yearprison term by US District Court JudgeJed Rakoff and he was also orderedto pay a USD 5 million fine. RajatGupta, the India-born businessmenin the US who was considered to bean icon is now being called “decep-tive and dishonest” after his convic-tion on insider trading charges.

POST CARD CAMPAIGN INMAHARASHTRA

Tribal women fromMaharashtra’s Chandrapur districthave sent 80,000 postcards to ChiefMinister Prithviraj Chavan on 6 Octo-ber 2012 asking to make the district




liquor-free. Hundreds of womenfrom rural parts led by president ofShramik Elgar- Paromita Goswami andDr Rani Bang took out protest rally intown and after the rally the partici-pating women posted 80,000 lettersto CM Prithviraj Chavan. The demandto ban liquor is being made since2010 in Maharashtra. The differentnon- governmental organization andNGO’S have been asking a reassess-ment of the state government’s policyon liquor in the district, including thesale of country liquor and Indian madeforeign liquor. But the Governmentside is showing no results.

A CULTURAL CARNIVAL

The German Ambassador to In-dia, Michael Steiner on 19 October2012 announced the eventnamed Indo-German Urban Melascheduled to start from 27 October2012 at Delhi. The celebrations arethe part of Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities. Thenine-day cultural extravaganza that isscheduled to be held at IndraprasthaMillenium Park that is meant for com-memorating the sixty years of Germanand Indian ties. The Carnival that isnamed as Indo-German Urban Melais partnered by the Federal Ministryof Education and Research and otherbusiness organizations from Germanyand India and aims towards achiev-ing a holistic exchange, of culture,science, entertainment and technol-ogy. Before this the Mela travelledthrough Mumbai, Bangalore andChennai and has followed its journeyto the largest show in the capital.

SUPER 30Super 30, the acclaimed edu-

cational programme by Anand Kumarand known for training economicallybackward section for the IIT-JEE on24 October 2012 entered into an

agreement with University of Tokyo,to sponsor its student a chance tostudy at Japan. The agreement wasinked between Director of the Uni-versity of Tokyo, Yoshino Hiroshi andAnand Kumar founder of Super 30.Following the pact of this agreement,University of Tokyo would sponsor thestudy of atleast one student from theSuper 30 at the University. This agree-ment is a follow-up of the JapaneseGovernment Program named Global30, of engagement with Super 30 forincreasing the flow of Indian Studentsto Japan. The University came toknow about the educational groupnamed Super 30 by a programme runby the Japanese Government Broad-cast Corporation (NHK) about Super30 with a title Indian Shock, whichhighlighted the success story of theMathematical Club. The Super 30 isan initiative of Anand Kumar at Patna,Bihar to train 30 students from eco-nomically backward section of thesociety, for IIT-JEE and a majority ofits students have succeeded in thetest so far.FIRST MUSEUM OF INDIAN CINEMA

Films Division Ministry of Infor-mation & Broadcasting, Governmentof India on 16 October 2012 an-nounced its plan of establishing aNational Museum of Indian Cinema(NMIC). The Museum would be lo-cated in the Films Division Complex,Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai andis predicted to come up by June2013. The development of the mu-seum was planned to mark the occa-sion of Indian Cinema that will com-plete its 100 years of journey from theday of first screening of RajaHarishchandra in 1913. The Museumwould come up in two differentphases and developed at an initialbudget of 120 crore Rupees. This

museum would be serving as themonument of Indian cinema and thefirst phase of the museum would startfunctioning from May 2013, the veryday of release of Indian first film, RajaHarishchandra. The first phase will bein a portion of Gulshan Mahal, theheritage building renovated recentlyin a total area of 6000 square feet. To design the concepts and exhibitsof the museum the ministry of culturehas appointed National Council ofScience Museums (NCSM). The Mu-seum that is being developed will alsoshowcase the technical aspects likescreening and production of cinemaand the social aspects covered by theIndian cinema in 100 years of its jour-ney. To guide NCSM, an advisorycommittee that is being headed byShyam Benegal the renowned Indianfilmmaker has been appointed. TheMuseum will portray the step-by-step-development of Indian cinemain different phases comprising silentfilms, studio period and the timeswhen Indian Cinema show its starsand mega stars.

OSMAN ALI KHAN

Osman Ali Khan the last Nizamof Hyderabad on 16 October 2012was named in list of the 25 richestpeople across the world who everlived by US website CelebrityNetworth. Osman Ali Khan, theNizam, who ruled Hyderabad be-tween 1886-1967, was ranked sixthin world and the richest in India with$236 billion. He died in 1967 at ageof 80. The list declared by US websiteCelebrity Networth was compiledafter adjusting the fortunes of peopleacross history for inflation. For ex-ample, $100 million in 1913 is equiva-lent to $2299.63 billion in 2012. Asper the report, The 25 richest whoever lived had a combined fortune




of $4.317 trillion, of which 14 areAmerican.

PHASE-II OF COASTAL SECURITY

After the high level meet ofDefence Ministry on 8 October 2012,the Defence Minister, A.K. Antonyannounced that the phase-II of thecoastal security initiatives would belaunched shortly. He also said that itstime to focus on fool-proof marinesecurity. Phase-II of the security ini-tiatives would concentrate on devel-opment of a gap-free and robust Mari-time Domain Awareness. The an-nouncement came after the DefenceMinister reviewed different stepstaken for enhancement or the CoastalSecurity Network. In his announce-ment, he emphasised on completionof the pending tasks in a time-boundmanner. Advising the Coastal Statesand different departments acting asstakeholders towards Coastal Secu-rity to monitor things closely, he prom-ised that the Indian Coat Guard andNavy would complete their actionsin a time-bound manner. He also re-quested the Cabinet Secretary to fixtimeline for monitoring the perfor-mance of all. He stressed towardsstrengthening of the Department ofAnimal Husbandry, Dairying and Fish-eries in Government of India and theDepartment of Fisheries of States. TheDefence Minister, laid emphasis onmaking the fishermen an integral partof their planning considering them tobe the eyes and ears of the CoastalSecurity.

Appreciating the steps takenfor monitoring the maritime traffic byinstallation of 46 coastal static radars,which includes 10 in the island terri-tory and 36 in the mainland, he statedthat the navy and the coastal guardhas seen an unparallel growth in itscapabilities.

FELIX BAUMGARTNER

Austrian Felix Baumgartner be-came the first skydiver on 14 Octo-ber 2012 to go faster than the speedof sound, reaching a maximum veloc-ity of 1,342 kilometers per hour. Injumping out of a balloon 39 kilome-ters above New Mexico, the 43-year-old also smashed the record for thehighest ever freefall. It took just un-der 10 minutes for him to descend.Only the last few thousand feet werenegotiated by parachute. The previ-ous highest, farthest, and longestfreefall was made by Kittinger, wholeapt from a helium envelope in 1960.His altitude was 31 kilometers.

DHANUSH

India on 5 October 2012 suc-cessfully test fired nuclear capableDhanush Missile, the naval version ofshort-range ballistic missile, Prithvifrom a warship off Odisha coast.Dhanush, The indigenously devel-oped naval version of the Prithvi short-range ballistic missile has a strikerange of up to 350 km and can carry500 kg of conventional or nuclearwarhead. The test was conducted bythe strategic force command (SFC)of the Indian Navy. The trial was acomplete success.

Dhanush missile is a single stagemissile and was developed by theDRDO and is about 8.53 metre inlength and 0.9 metre in diameterwhich uses liquid propellant. TheDhanush missile is going to be usedas an anti-ship weapon as well as fordestroying land targets dependingon the range.

KATKTH

Delhi Police CommissionerNeeraj Kumar under Yuva Schemehad initiated a programme in themonth of October 2012 for sexworker of GB Road to train and en-

gage them in handicrafts and othersmall-scale businesses. Theprogramme started is basically meantfor providing alternative livelihood tosex workers so that they can becomeself-defendant. The drive is namedas Katkth of which more than twodozen sex workers is already a part.The drive was started by Delhi Policefrom Farash Khana area of Kamla Mar-ket in Second week of October.Thehigh point of scheme is that it is notlimited for sex workers as Delhi po-lice is also providing free educationto the children of sex workers so thatthey don’t get into illegal activities toearn their livelihood. The children areeducated by private teacher and vol-unteers first thereafter they will joingovernment schools. The participantsof the programme are trained in mak-ing jute bags, mats, pen stands anddifferent household items. Also, theyare being provided job oriented pro-fessional course like beauty training,boutique and cloth designing.

KOSHIK

Koshik, an Asian elephant is tobelieve that he can reproduce hu-man speech. And the words are Ko-rean in nature. Apparently, the re-searchers from an Austrian Universityseemed to have validated the news.

Koshik can apparently matchboth pitch and timbre patterns, healso imitates human formants as wellas the voice pitch of his trainers ac-curately. Biologically, elephants havea trunk instead of lips. While their largelarynx are capable of producing avery low-pitched sounds, this particu-lar elephant’s speech exactly copiesthe pitch and other characteristics ofhis human trainers’ voices. The otherreason for Koshik’s such developmentcould be the fact that he was the onlyelephant living at the Everland Zoo




in South Korea for about five years,while humans were his only socialcontacts.

ALI ZIDAN

Libya’s 200-member GeneralNational Congress on 14 October2012 elected Ali Zidan as the newPrime Minister. Ali Zidan, an inde-pendent, won 93 votes, a majorityamong those present. He beat a can-didate favoured by the Justice andConstruction party which is linked tothe Muslim Brotherhood. Announc-ing his victory, President of the Na-tional Assembly asked Mr Zidan topropose a cabinet within two weeks.Ali Zidan is a human rights lawyer. Theprevious Prime Minister, Mustafa AbuShagur, was dismissed a week agoafter failing to form a government.

MUKESH AMBANI

China based Research firmHurun in a Report on 10 October2012 declared Reliance IndustriesChairman Mukesh Ambani, the rich-est Indian with a Personal Fortune of$19.3 billion.

Mukesh Ambani is preceded byArcelor-Mittal chief L.N. Mittal, whosewealth is nailed down to be $16.9billion. The other businessman in-

cluded in the list followed by MukeshAmbani and Laxmi Mittal are AzimPremji of Wipro with a Personal For-tune of $12.3 billion, Dilip Shanghviof Sun Pharmaceuticals with $8.5 bil-lion, Pallonji Mistry of ShapoorjiPallonji & Co, the largest shareholderin Tata Group with $7.9 billion, Shashiand Ravi Ruia of Essar Energy withpersonal fortune of $7.2 billion andAdi Godrej of Godrej Group with $6.9billion. Four others Entrepreneurswho are included in the list of top 10billionaires are Kushal Pal Singh ofDLF with a Personal fortune of $6.3billion, Kumara Mangalam Birla ofGrasim Industries with $5.8 billion,Shiv Nadar of HCL Technology with$5.7 billion and Sunil Mittal of BhartiAirtel with $5.7 billion of Personalfortune.

In terms of women Savitri Jindal,the non-executive chairperson ofO.P. Jindal Group, is the richest In-dian woman with personal fortune of$5.6 billion, on the other hand KiranMazumdar-Shaw, the chairman andmanaging director of Biocon is therichest self-made woman with a per-sonal wealth of $600 million. Also, Inthe list of people whose wealth wasadversely affected in 2012 wereMukesh Ambani, L N Mittal, ShashiRuia and Ravi Ruia, Kumara MangalamBirla’s flagship company Hindalcoand telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is theonly self-made woman in the list oftop 100 richest Indians. The reports

shows that only five of the top 100rich Indians are women. Among thewomen rich list, Savitri Jindal is fol-lowed by Indu Jain of BennettColeman with $1.7 billion, Anu Agaof Thermax with $690 million,Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon with$600 million and Shobhana Bhartiaof Hindustan Times with $490 million.Talking of State, Mumbai is the placefor 36 of India’s richest 100, followedby Delhi and Bangalore with 22 and15, respectively. The youngest per-son put on the list is Shivinder MohanSingh at 37 years old while the oldestone is Keshub Mahindra with 89 yearsof age.The average age of the Top100 is 62 years while the average ageof the Top 10 is 65 years.

HYDERABAD

The City of Hyderabad wasnamed as World Third best city to visitin 2013 by Travel guide book LonelyPlanet published on 22 October2012. Hyderabad the capital city ofAndhra Pradesh was described as“elegant and blossoming” by theLonely Planet. The top 10 cities ac-cording to Lonely Planet to visit in2013 are San Francisco, Amsterdam,Hyderabad, Derry/Londonderry,Beijing, Christchurch, Hobart,Montreal, Addis Ababa and PuertoIguazu. Earlier in 2011, New YorkTimes rated Hyderabad among the41 top destinations to visit in theworld.




A salary plan that changes nothingA salary plan that changes nothingA salary plan that changes nothingA salary plan that changes nothingA salary plan that changes nothingRecently during a press conference called by the Minis-

try of Women and Child Development, the Minister of State(Independent Charge), Krishna Tirath, proposed the formula-tion of a bill through which a certain percentage of a husband’ssalary would be compulsorily transferred to his wife’s bankaccount to compensate her for all the domestic work sheperforms for the family. According to the Minister, this per-centage of husbands’ salaries would not be taxed and wouldprovide women the much needed source of income to runthe household better, and more importantly, to spend on herown, personal consumption. In a later clarification, the Minis-ter identified this payment as an “honorarium” and not a sal-ary which is to be paid to wives for all the services theyotherwise render for free.

This proposition has not gone down well, especiallywith women of higher income brackets who see such pro-posed action as unnecessary intervention in the realm of theprivate, i.e. the realm of familial relations. Many such womenalso believe that this government intervention amounts toreducing wives into “glorified maids” who need to be paidevery time they walk into the kitchen, wash the baby, sweepthe house, etc. Sadly, what is sidelined amid all the clamourand jokes about commercialisation of the mia-biwi relationship is the necessity of recognising the back-breaking work performed by women to sustain their families.Of course, what we also lose sight of is the sheer hollownessof such proposed legislation. For example, such legislation, ifimplemented, would not provide women a source of incomewhich they earn independently of their husbands. Instead,women would continue to depend on their husband’s earn-ings and employment status, and thus, remain dependent onthe family structure for their individual financialsustenance. Indeed, the problem with the proposed legisla-tion is not that it is unnecessary and demeaning, but that it isinformed by a poor understanding of economics surroundinghousehold work and women’s labour in general. Clearly, thequestion then is whether the Indian state is even serious aboutuplifting the position of the woman within the home and inrecognising her contribution to the national economy.

Historical issueHistorical issueHistorical issueHistorical issueHistorical issueAssigning an economic value to women’s domestic

labour is a long-standing debate. The international women’smovement has continuously debated the question and reachedmany important conclusions. It is now time for the largersociety to engage with the movement’s propositions seri-

ously. First, as a society we must learn to accept that there issheer drudgery involved in day-to-day household work. Thefact that such work is performed by a woman for her hus-band and other family members in the name of “care” and“nurturing” cannot be used to conceal that this is a thanklessjob which the majority of women feel burdened by. Justbecause some women do not have to enter the kitchen everyday since their maid does the needful, we cannot write-offthe helplessness with which the average woman walks to-wards her kitchen hearth, every day without fail. Here, thereis no retirement age, no holiday, and definitely, no conceptof overtime.

Second, we must realise that the process wherebywomen’s domestic labour has been rendereduneconomicactivity , is a historical one. It was with the emergence ofindustrial society and the resulting separation between thehome and the workplace that women’s housework lost valuewhereas men’s labour outside the home fetched wages.Third, as a society we must accept that while many are un-comfortable with providing an economic value to women’sdomestic labour, chores such as washing, cleaning, cooking,child rearing, etc., are already assigned such a value by themarket when need be. After all, many middle-class homesbuy such services through the hiring of maids, paying forplayschool education, crèche facilities, etc. Fourth, women’sdomestic labour must be accounted for in the economy pre-cisely because it is one of the contributing forces in the re-production of labour power expended by this country’s work-ing masses. In fact, because a woman’s domestic labour isdevalued by the economy, a man’s wage can be kept low. Forexample, if all families were to pay every day for services likewashing, cooking, cleaning, etc., because women of the house-hold did not perform such duties, the breadwinners of eachfamily would need to be paid higher wages so that they canafford to buy such services off the market.

The solutionThe solutionThe solutionThe solutionThe solutionThis being the reality surrounding women’s unpaid, do-

mestic labour, where does the actual solution lie? Does it liein redistributing limited family incomes between husbandand wife, or, in redistributing the national income so as toenhance individual family incomes, and hence, the woman’sshare within the improved family consumption? Importantly,while pressing for valuation of women’s domestic labour, theprogressive women’s movement has always argued that ifthe value of unpaid housework is paid but does not add to orincrease the total household income, such remunerationamounts to nothing. Hence, one of the most important con-




clusions reached on this question of unpaid domestic labouris that the state should pay for it, especially by providingwomen gainful employment, special funding, subsidised homeappliances, free health care, etc. In this way, women wouldearn through an independent source of income and be freedof an overt dependence on the family structure for their con-sumption. There would also be a gradual undermining of thesexual division of labour which has resulted in women beingtied to their homes and unable to do little else.

Of course, what has not won much attention so far isthe fact that the proposed legislation posits wages for house-work rather than employment for women as a long-term so-lution. Indeed, questions have been raised whether the pro-posed legislation is implementable, but not whether it doesthe needful. For example, will the government be able to putin place the required administrative machinery? How exactlyis the value of women’s household work to be calculated, orsimply put, how many bais will equal a wife? Will the num-ber of family members she rears determine whether she isentitled to greater compensation? And what of widowedwomen who do not have a husband’s salary to draw on?

Absolves the stateAbsolves the stateAbsolves the stateAbsolves the stateAbsolves the stateHowever, implementation is far from the real problem

with such legislation. Mechanisms can always be put in placeif administrative sincerity prevails. The real problem with theMinistry’s endeavour is the rationale by which it is driven. Theproposed legislation should be criticised because it absolvesthe Indian state of the responsibility it owes to women whocontribute daily in sustaining the national economy. Indeed,if the proposed legislation is formulated and implemented, itwill only result in undervaluing and underpaying women’sdomestic labour.

To elucidate, if we actually sit down to calculate thecost of all the different household chores a wife does forfree, the figure would easily touch amounts that in no waycan be compensated by a small percentage of the husband’swages. Furthermore, with varied family incomes, such legis-lation would result in women being remunerated differentlyfor the same kind and same amount of domestic work. In thecase of the average working class or lower-middle class fam-ily where the total family income is anywhere betweenRs.2,000 to Rs.10,000 per month, such legislation would as-sign women a pittance as an economic value for their back-breaking housework. This pittance will not empower thewoman as the total family income remains the same. Withouta growth in the actual family income, neither will such fami-lies be able to change their consumption pattern, nor will thenature of household work change so as to enable women todo other things instead of just labouring at home.

Clearly then, the issue at stake is how to minimise house-work for women so that they too can step out of the home toearn, to enhance family incomes and to have greater say infamily as well as public matters. Greater employment gen-eration for women by the state, and widespread introductionof facilities like crèches at all workplaces, subsidised homeappliances, unhindered promotion post child birth/maternityleave, etc. are the need of the hour. While direct employmenthelps to create women who are financially independent, the

provision of the latter helps women to remain in the labourmarket, despite starting a family. If the average woman is tobe freed of the yoke of household drudgery then it is evi-dently the Indian state which has to pay by creating concreteconditions for her greater economic participation outside thehome.

Courtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The Hindu

Means greater than endsMeans greater than endsMeans greater than endsMeans greater than endsMeans greater than endsThe Supreme Court’s recent judgment overturning the

convictions of 11 persons mainly under the Terrorist and Dis-ruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) cuts through theclutter to arrive at the essence of justice-delivery in terror-ism-related cases. There is undoubtedly an element of dramain the judgment, which makes reference to a recent Hindifilm. Yet the line — “My name is Khan and I’m not a terrorist”— succinctly captures the trauma of a community that hascarried the cross of terrorism for far too long and whosemembers feel defensive and answerable each time terrorstrikes anywhere in the country. Nonetheless, laudable as thejudgment’s human rights approach is, its greater significancelies in going beyond and taking an unequivocal position onthe principles of fair investigation and trial, which have some-how come to be seen as dispensable in terrorism cases. In thecase under question, the prosecution had argued that disre-garding a key requirement of TADA was a technical errorwhich, therefore, could not become a ground for setting asidethe convictions. Although the draconian TADA lapsed in 1995,some safeguards were introduced in the law while it was inforce, and among them was the addition of a section whichmade it mandatory for every FIR registered under the Act tohave prior permission from the District Superintendent ofPolice.

The prosecution first tried to falsify evidence by pro-ducing a copy of the DSP’s permission. When the Court estab-lished that no such permission existed, it argued that thepermission was a technical requirement that ought not tohave a bearing on the case. The judges rejected the argumentsaying TADA was an extraordinarily harsh law that could notbe interpreted liberally. In the country of the Mahatma “themeans are more important than the end,” the judges said,enunciating a truth that the police and the investigating agen-cies have tended to overlook in their rush to solve terrorcases. Thin or fabricated evidence and shoddy investigationdo not necessarily help the cause of fighting terror. Far fromit, they allow the real terrorists to escape while tarnishing thereputations of innocents. Case after case of arbitrary deten-tions made on the flimsiest grounds or on trumped up charges,have come to light recently via lower court judgments thathave expressed amazement at the state of terror prosecu-tions in the country.

Disturbingly, police forces across India have tendednot to take the right lessons from this, seeing terror acquittalsas “technical” verdicts arising out of the difficulty in gatheringevidence, rather than as a sign that their investigative abilitiesneed serious and urgent improvement.

Courtesy-The Hindu




The feminisation of old ageThe feminisation of old ageThe feminisation of old ageThe feminisation of old ageThe feminisation of old ageAccording to the World Population Prospects: The 2010

Revision , the current youth bulge in the country is expectedto last till 2025, after which, the growth rate of the elderly islikely to take over. It is imperative that the current needs ofthe youth and the emerging needs of the elderly are addressedsimultaneously within the diverse demographic fabric of thecountry. In 2009, there were 88 million elderly people in India.By 2050, this figure is expected to soar over 320 million.Between 2000 and 2050 the overall population of the countryis anticipated to grow by 60 per cent whereas population ofpeople of age 60 years and above would shoot by 360 percent. The ratio of the dependent population to that of theworking population is defined by the dependency ratio. In-vestment in the elderly population is no longer a question ofchoice.

By 2050, women over 60 years would exceed the num-ber of elderly men by 18.4 million, which would result in aunique characteristic of ‘feminisation’ of the elderly popula-tion in India as is being experienced in many provinces ofChina. In fact, the two most populous nations will togethercontribute to 38 per cent of the global elderly population.

Ageing differentlyAgeing differentlyAgeing differentlyAgeing differentlyAgeing differentlyThe predicament of elderly women is aggravated by a

life time of gender-based discrimination. The gendered na-ture of ageing is such that universally, women tend to livelonger than men. In the advanced age of 80 years and above,widowhood dominates the status of women with 71 per centof women and only 29 per cent of men having lost theirspouse. Social mores inhibit women from re-marrying, re-sulting in an increased likelihood of women ending upalone.The life of a widow is riddled with stringent moral codes,with integral rights relinquished and liberties circumvented.Social bias often results in unjust allocation of resources,neglect, abuse, exploitation, gender-based violence, lack ofaccess to basic services and prevention of ownership of as-sets. Ageing women are more likely to get excluded fromsocial security schemes due to lower literacy and awarenesslevels.

Angst of ageingAngst of ageingAngst of ageingAngst of ageingAngst of ageingWhile narratives may vary, the stories of ageing women

are those of loss and loneliness. During my interactions withresidents of an old-age home it was evident that many areforced to either live in a house uncared for or leave theirhomes with nowhere to go to. Consumed by isolation, RadhaSanyal{+*}confided that she decided to walk out with dignitybefore her family could actually propose the same. But livingin temple premises, public parks and pavements deprivesher of the dignity that she wrestled to preserve in the firstplace.

Although the degree of isolation may vary, withurbanisation and nuclear families on the rise, elderly womenliving in metropolitan cities are more likely to feel sociallyalienated than their rural counterparts. Challenges of healthsecurity get aggravated by the fact that elderly women oftentend to underplay their ailments. Pre-occupation with nursingan ailing spouse, lack of awareness, nutritional deficiencies

or simply neglect are some of the reasons that often take anadverse toll on their health.

While investing for old age is important it is equallycritical to safeguard ownership of assets. Religious dogmason liberation serve to allay the brutal contours of existence.That explains why widowed destitute elderly women seekrefuge at pilgrim spots. The promise of salvation after deathhelps them in embracing the hardship that dominates the lastyears of their lives.

‘Longevity’ dividend‘Longevity’ dividend‘Longevity’ dividend‘Longevity’ dividend‘Longevity’ dividendJust as all things end, so would the effects of India’s

youth dividend. When people live longer, it offers society achance to reap a ‘longevity’ dividend. This implies that theelderly continue to contribute significantly for an unprec-edented period of time.

In order to address this unprecedented demographicshift it is necessary to to understanding the challenges of anageing population. A joint study by the United Nations Popu-lation Fund and Helpage International called ‘Global Reporton Ageing’ seeks to fill the knowledge gap. It is to be releasednationwide on October 1, 2012, on the International Day forOlder People.

It has been a decade since the adoption of the MadridInternational Plan of Action on Ageing (Mipaa). Its bold agendafocused on three priority areas: older persons and develop-ment; advancing health and well-being into old age; and en-suring enabling and supportive environments.

As a signatory to Mipaa, India has the responsibility toformulate and implement public policy on population age-ing. Issues of poverty, migration, urbanisation, ruralisationand feminisation compound the complexity of this emergingphenomenon. Public policy must respond to this bourgeoningneed and mainstream action into developmental planning.Gender and social concerns of elderly, particularly elderlywomen, must be integrated at the policy level. The elderly,especially women, should be represented in decision mak-ing. Benefits of social schemes must percolate to thegrassroots. Increasing social/widow pension and itsuniversalisation is critical for expanding the extent and reachof benefits. Renewed efforts should be made for raising wide-spread awareness and access to social security schemes suchas National Old Age Pension and Widow Pension Scheme.Provisions in terms of special incentives for elderly women,disabled, widowed should also be considered.

Innumerable reasons add up to make ageing women inIndia one of the most vulnerable segments of the population.Their social and health security can no longer be compro-mised. In a country of ageing women, India must step up tothe challenge to offer more than just the solace of promises.


No room for hasteNo room for hasteNo room for hasteNo room for hasteNo room for hasteThe past year has witnessed unprecedented official ef-

forts to rein in the growing tuberculosis epidemic. In 2011alone, 1.2 million new TB cases were reported while 60,000patients already inflicted died. In reality, the real incidence,most likely was much higher — the number of new cases




diagnosed and treated by private practitioners has not beenfactored in. It is to change this that TB was made a notifiabledisease in May this year. The government had to bite thebullet as effective interventions can be taken only if a systemis in place to capture the true incidence and prevalence of thedisease, including the drug-resistant cases. Herein lies thebiggest challenge — ensuring every new case diagnosed bythe private health sector is accounted for. This can be achievedonly if the government engages with the private sector byfirst taking it into confidence. The draft versions of the JointMonitoring Mission (JMM) and the National Strategic Plan forTB Control, 2012-2017 have made strong recommendationsto engage the private health sector to stem the spread of TB.The government, which very recently sent out guidelines onnotification, requires every private health institution, includ-ing laboratories, to provide the personal details of a patient— name, address, mobile number and unique identificationnumber (Aadhar or driving licence). The objective is to pro-vide a support system to patients seeking private healthcarein terms of treatment initiation, adherence, follow-up anddefault retrieval — tasks that are beyond the private sector’scapacity.

The goal is laudable but it is quite unlikely that the TBControl programme can achieve all of its highly ambitiousobjectives in the short term. The most significant obstaclewill be the reluctance of patients and some doctors to partwith personal data. This despite the fact that such sharing ismandatory in the U.S. and many other developed countries,and that the Medical Council of India’s code of ethics war-rants such sharing. Hence, consensus and confidence-build-ing measures have to be undertaken on a massive scale tobring private healthcare providers on board and make themopen to the idea of sharing details. According to the draftJMM report, about one million TB cases per year are notreported. While the National Rural Health Mission has foundsome innovative ways of increasing manpower, urban areaslack the infrastructure to handle additional cases. This needsfixing. Most importantly, the TB control programme, whichuses the interrupted regimen, has to show flexibility and al-low the private sector to continue following the WHO recom-mended daily fixed-dose regimen.


Paralysis is not an optionParalysis is not an optionParalysis is not an optionParalysis is not an optionParalysis is not an optionDeferring a decision on a contentious issue can be a

short-term tactic, but never a long-term strategy. If the Cen-tre and the Andhra Pradesh government were looking forfurther proof of popular support for a separate State ofTelangana in the region, it came in the form of the SagaraHaaram rally in Hyderabad on Sunday. As tens of thousandsgathered to demand statehood for Telangana, the Congressgovernment reacted as if it were another law and order chal-lenge, nothing more than an evening’s headache for the po-lice. Quite astonishingly, even years after the revival of theTelangana struggle, and evidence of growing support forstatehood demonstrated through by-elections and mass agi-tations, the Congress and the governments it heads at theCentre and in the State are still hoping they can eventually

wear down the movement by their inaction. The Congresstactic is, of course, engendered by the fear that any decisioneither for or against Telangana could set off violent reactions,either in Telangana or in Coastal Andhra, where large sectionsof the people are opposed to any division of the State. Butinaction does not guarantee peace; indeed, there is no alter-native to dealing with this political issue head-on. Instead oftrying to find a consensus on the basis of the B.N. SrikrishnaCommittee report, which offered various viable options forit to consider, the government was happy doing nothing atall. However, there is a price to pay for being reactive anddefensive. Those on the streets are now the agenda-setters,with the government constantly in crisis-aversion mode.

The Sagara Haaram must be seen as another opportu-nity to engage with the advocates of Telangana and explorethe way to a solution on the basis of a structured consensus-building process started with the help of the Centre. But bothsides need to give up their maximalist positions. For instance,questions relating to the post-bifurcation status of Hyderabad— which is within the Telangana region but is a cosmopolitancity with links to the whole of undivided Andhra Pradesh —will have to be sorted out through broad-based consulta-tions. What the Centre and the AP government ought not todo is equally clear: make a solution part of a political dealbetween the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Irre-spective of whether the offer of TRS president K.Chandrasekhara Rao to merge his party with the Congress inthe event of statehood being granted to Telangana is a politi-cal ploy or not, the dangers in such a barter deal are self-evident. Political exigencies and electoral compulsions shouldnot be allowed to decide the future of Andhra Pradesh.


Let’s not overrate foreign investmentLet’s not overrate foreign investmentLet’s not overrate foreign investmentLet’s not overrate foreign investmentLet’s not overrate foreign investmentWith the intention of signalling a strong commitment to

reforms, the UPA government has announced a hike in theprice of diesel and liberalisation of foreign direct investment(FDI) in multi-brand retail, justifying the measures as growth-enhancing and inflation-dampening. They have been termedbold by India’s corporate sector and burdensome by an Op-position united across the ideological spectrum. In his speechto the nation on September 20, the Prime Minister stated thatthe government’s move is motivated by concern for the ordi-nary Indian. Given the conflicting responses, there is roomhere for analysis.

Strengthen infrastructureStrengthen infrastructureStrengthen infrastructureStrengthen infrastructureStrengthen infrastructureThe interesting thing about public sector pricing, in this

case of diesel, is that keeping prices steady as input costs risewould be as political in content as raising them is. As statedin an editorial in this newspaper some days ago, the govern-ment need not have waited so long to raise the price. It wouldseem that the government had no intention of doing so whileParliament was in session. Be that as it may, there is a strongcase for eliminating the subsidy on all fossil fuels and trans-ferring the saving thus made into public infrastructure. Apartfrom the symbolism of soaking the SUV-driving rich, the build-ing and maintenance of public infrastructure are more likelyto help the poor — presumably the PM’s aam aadmi — than




the current regime of subsidies. The creation of infrastructureemploys the poor directly as it is they who build it. Secondly,the provision of the producer services afforded by the infra-structure sustains private economic activity which generatesemployment. The idea that the poor would benefit morefrom public investment than the present subsidy regime, de-scribed by some as welfare state for the rich, has not reallybeen sufficiently debated. For India’s political class, subsi-dies are the easiest path to being seen as benefactors whilebeing relieved of the task of managing the process of build-ing and maintaining infrastructure, arguably a non-negotiableaspect of governance in a democracy. So, even a small hikein the price of diesel can be the beginning of a realignment ofgovernment expenditure from consumption subsidies to in-vestment in infrastructure, and the poor may be expected togain from this. Finally, the gains from macroeconomic stabil-ity cannot be legitimately ignored when evaluating the pros-pects for the poor. Macroeconomic instability spares no-body, and India’s current account deficit by now exceeds thefigure for 1991. Fuel subsidies have enormous consequencesfor the balance of payments, as 80 per cent of our oil con-sumption is imported.

When it comes to FDI in retail, the beneficial impact onthe aam aadmi is altogether less obvious than in the case oflowering the diesel subsidy. What FDI in this sector may beexpected to do is to take the shopping experience in India tothe next level. Surely, cavernous supermarkets make it easierto shop for those with deeper pockets. Precisely because thesupplier caters to this cohort the quality of the groceries maybe expected to rise. In fact, we have already seen this hap-pening, even without FDI, with organised retail spreading inIndia. But those on a daily wage and no ready cash are un-likely to patronise these suburban behemoths. They may beexpected to prop up the kirana with its infinite capacity forapportioning their stuff to suit the customer’s purse and will-ingness to extend her credit. So the Opposition may well becrying wolf over the imminent disappearance of the cornerstore.

But the government’s claim of a ‘win-win’ with higherprices for farmers and lower prices for customers with theadvent of FDI may be somewhat exaggerated. For preciselybecause the large retailer must cut through the supply chainto deliver this outcome, there would be some displacementin the middle. The government counters this reasoning bypointing to investment at the backend, in cold storage andsuch. This is possible of course, but we would want to waitand see the full combined effect once all effects have workedtheir way through the economy. Some part of the corner-store complex will survive purely because there are too manypoor people in this country yet, generating a substantial de-mand for low quality food with lower mark-ups. But the po-sition that a policy is only as good as its direct impact onemployment is surely untenable. To reject outright a move onthe grounds that it does not directly put the poor to workwould be folly. Productivity growth is often first employ-ment displacing but it also lowers prices and raises demand.The point is that it not only raises demand for the good inquestion but for all other goods in the economy, as real in-

come is higher following the rise in productivity. Overallemployment in the economy may be expected to expand.

Little to offerLittle to offerLittle to offerLittle to offerLittle to offerIt is when it comes to inflation though that the present

round of announcements by the government has little or noth-ing to offer. The suggestion, first made when the proposalwas mooted some months ago, that FDI in retail woulddampen inflation is difficult to fathom. The source of thecurrent inflation is a veritable excess demand for vegetablesand a manufactured excess demand for the principalfoodgrains. The latter stems from the government’s procure-ment and storage policy. By mopping up almost the entiremarketed surplus of grain as it comes into the wholesalemarkets and then allowing it to rot by unaccountable stockmanagement, the Government of India abets hunger in thename of supporting the farmer. The entire political class isunited in not calling attention to this travesty.

The RBI’s argument that the fiscal deficit is the sourceof the inflation may deflect attention from its own incapacityin the present context, but does not do much to enhance ourunderstanding of policy options. The Central government’sfiscal deficit is lower today than it was when the present boutof inflation commenced about two years ago. Thus the hikein the price of diesel would have to be justified on countsother than its presumed impact on inflation via a lower fiscaldeficit. The current inflation is rooted less in macroeconomicimbalances than in structural ones emanating, as explainedabove, in the market for food. As a corollary, macroeco-nomic intervention via fiscal or monetary policy can haveonly a limited impact. As an aside, they can only compressoutput, a sequence of events playing out in the guise of aslowing manufacturing sector. It is by now clear that onlymicroeconomic policy intervention can make a difference tothe food situation and thus inflation. In India the cost of pro-ducing food is high in relation to per capita income. FDI inretail can make no difference here. It can at best only delivermore efficiently what has been produced at cost. The gov-ernment can hardly be accused of not knowing of the impor-tance of micro interventions.

For instance, it has been observed that vast sums ofmoney spent by the government on irrigation were not show-ing up as increase in irrigated area. This was at least five yearsago. Now there are reports of an irrigation scam involving Rs20, 000 crore in Maharashtra, a State for all purposes gov-erned by the UPA. It is quite extraordinary that the currentfood-price led inflation has been in existence for over twoyears now and the government has not been able to come upwith a single measure addressing it, even if its impact may befelt only in the medium term. When it is not actually stokinginflation by raising the procurement price of grain it comesup with window dressing in the form of FDI in retail.

It would be appropriate to conclude by asking whetherthe government makes too much of foreign investment, de-sirable as it is. With respect to its heroic recent announce-ment, there is the issue of the suppliers’ response. Walmart’sAsia President Scott Price is reported to have already stated“we are not in any rush” to enter India. But there is a querymore general than the likely response of foreign investors to




the overtures being made presently. In the two decades since1991, India has not attracted much FDI, giving us an idea ofwhat may be expected in a future with or without FDI in retail.Some perspective is to be had from looking at the Chineseexperience. For an idea of the relative roles of FDI and do-mestic investment in generating growth in that country, notethat FDI as a share on the domestic product had peaked in1993. It was only 6 per cent even then, and has declinedprogressively since to a figure less than half that. This sug-gests that China’s double-digit growth cannot be explainedby alluding to the FDI it attracts. Is our own governmentoverrating the power of foreign investment to transformIndia’s economy?


Historian in the Marxist tradition with aHistorian in the Marxist tradition with aHistorian in the Marxist tradition with aHistorian in the Marxist tradition with aHistorian in the Marxist tradition with aglobal reachglobal reachglobal reachglobal reachglobal reach

If Eric Hobsbawm (June 9, 1917 – October 1, 2012) haddied 25 years ago, the obituaries would have described himas Britain’s most distinguished Marxist historian and wouldhave left it more or less there. Yet by the time of his death atthe age of 95, Hobsbawm had achieved a unique position inthe country’s intellectual life. In his later years Hobsbawmbecame arguably Britain’s most respected historian of anykind, recognised if not endorsed on the right as well as theleft, and one of a tiny handful of historians of any era to enjoygenuine national and world renown. Unlike some others,Hobsbawm achieved this wider recognition without in anymajor way revolting against either Marxism or Marx. In his94th year he published How to Change the World , a vigor-ous defence of Marx’s continuing relevance in the aftermathof the banking collapse of 2008-10. What is more, he achievedhis culminating reputation at a time when the socialist ideasand projects that animated so much of his writing for wellover half a century were in historic disarray, and worse, as hehimself was always unflinchingly aware.

In a profession notorious for microscopic preoccupa-tions, few historians have ever commanded such a wide fieldin such detail or with such authority. To the last, Hobsbawmconsidered himself to be essentially a 19th-century historian,but his sense of that and other centuries was bothunprecedentedly broad and unusually cosmopolitan.

The sheer scope of his interest in the past, and his ex-ceptional command of what he knew, continued to humblethose who talked to him and those who read him, most of allin the four-volume Age of ... series in which he distilled thehistory of the capitalist world from 1789 to 1991. “Hobsbawm’scapacity to store and retrieve detail has now reached a scalenormally approached only by large archives with big staffs,”wrote Neal Ascherson. Both in his knowledge of historic de-tail and in his extraordinary powers of synthesis, so well dis-played in that four-volume project, he was unrivalled.

Reading MarxReading MarxReading MarxReading MarxReading MarxHobsbawm was born in Alexandria, a good place for a

historian of empire, in 1917, a good year for a communist. Hewas second-generation British, the grandson of a Polish Jewand cabinet-maker who came to London in the 1870s. Eight

children, who included Leopold, Eric’s father, were born inEngland and all took British citizenship at birth (Hobsbawm’sUncle Harry in due course became the first Labour mayor ofPaddington).

But Eric was British of no ordinary background. An-other uncle, Sidney, went to Egypt before the First World Warand found a job there in a shipping office for Leopold. There,in 1914, Leopold Hobsbawm met Nelly Gruen, a youngViennese from a middle-class family who had been given atrip to Egypt as a prize for completing her school studies. Thetwo got engaged, but war broke out and they were sepa-rated. The couple eventually married in Switzerland in 1916,returning to Egypt for the birth of Eric, their first child, in June1917.

“Every historian has his or her lifetime, a private perchfrom which to survey the world,” he said in his 1993 Creightonlecture, one of several occasions in his later years when heattempted to relate his own lifetime to his own writing. “Myown perch is constructed, among other materials, of a child-hood in the Vienna of the 1920s, the years of Hitler’s rise inBerlin, which determined my politics and my interest in his-tory, and the England, and especially the Cambridge of the1930s, which confirmed both.”

In 1919, the young family returned to settle in Vienna,where Eric went to elementary school, a period he later re-called in a 1995 television documentary which featured pic-tures of a recognisably skinny young Viennese Hobsbawm inshorts and knee socks. Politics made their impact around thistime. Eric’s first political memory was in Vienna in 1927, whenworkers burned down the Palace of Justice. The first politicalconversation that he could recall took place in an Alpinesanatorium in these years, too. Two motherly Jewish womenwere discussing Leon Trotsky. “Say what you like,” said oneto the other, “but he’s a Jewish boy called Bronstein.” In 1929,his father died suddenly of a heart attack. Two years later hismother died of TB. Eric was 14, and his Uncle Sidney tookcharge once more, taking Eric and his sister Nancy to live inBerlin. As a teenager in Weimar Republic Berlin, Hobsbawminescapably became politicised. He read Marx for the firsttime, and became a communist.

Hobsbawm could always remember the winter’s day inJanuary 1933 when, emerging from the Halensee S-Bahn sta-tion on his way home from his school, the celebrated PrinzHeinrich Gymnasium, he saw a newspaper headline announc-ing Hitler’s election as chancellor. Around this time he joinedthe Socialist Schoolboys, which he described as “de factopart of the communist movement” and sold itspublication, Schulkampf (“School Struggle”). He kept theorganisation’s duplicator under his bed and, if his later facil-ity for writing was any guide, probably wrote most of thearticles too. The family remained in Berlin until 1933, whenSidney Hobsbawm was posted by his employers to live inEngland.

The gangly teenage boy who settled with his sister inEdgware in 1934 described himself later as “completely con-tinental and German speaking.” School, though, was “not aproblem” because the English education system was “waybehind” the German. A cousin in Balham introduced him to




jazz for the first time, the “unanswerable sound,” he called it.The moment of conversion, he wrote some 60 years later,was when he first heard the Duke Ellington band “at its mostimperial.” Never satisfied to be anything less than the masterof anything that absorbed him, Hobsbawm spent a period inthe 1950s as jazz critic of the New Statesman , and pub-lished a Penguin Special, The Jazz Scene , on the subject in1959 under the pen-name Francis Newton (many years later itwas reissued with Hobsbawm identified as the author).

Learning to speak English properly for the first time,Eric became a pupil at Marylebone grammar school and in1936 he won a scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, whereat one point he had rooms on a staircase on which his onlytwo neighbours were A.E. Housman and Ludwig Wittgenstein.It was at this time that a saying became common among hisCambridge communist friends: “Is there anything thatHobsbawm doesn’t know?” He became a member of thelegendary Cambridge Apostles. “All of us thought that thecrisis of the 1930s was the final crisis of capitalism,” he wrote40 years later. But, he added, “It was not.” When war brokeout, Hobsbawm volunteered, as many communists did, forintelligence work. But his politics, which were never a secret,led to rejection. Instead he became an improbable sapper in560 Field Company, which he later described as “a very work-ing-class unit trying to build some patently inadequate de-fences against invasion on the coasts of East Anglia.” This,too, was a formative experience for the often aloof youngintellectual prodigy. “There was something sublime aboutthem and about Britain at that time,” he wrote. “That wartimeexperience converted me to the British working class. Theywere not very clever, except for the Scots and Welsh, butthey were very, very good people.”

Hobsbawm married his first wife, Muriel Seaman, in1943. After the war, returning to Cambridge, Hobsbawm madeanother choice, abandoning a planned doctorate on northAfrican agrarian reform in favour of research on the Fabians.It was a move which opened the door to both a lifetime ofstudy of the 19th century and an equally long-lasting preoc-cupation with the problems of the left. In 1947, he got his firsttenured job, as a history lecturer at Birkbeck College, Lon-don, where he was to remain for much of his teaching life.

With the onset of the Cold War, a very British academicMcCarthyism meant that the Cambridge lectureship whichHobsbawm always coveted never materialised. He shuttledbetween Cambridge and London, one of the principalorganisers and driving forces of the Communist Party Histori-ans Group, a glittering radical academy which brought to-gether some of the most prominent historians of the post-war era. Its members also included Christopher Hill, RodneyHilton, A.L. Morton, E.P. Thompson, John Saville and, later,Raphael Samuel. Whatever else it achieved, the CP HistoriansGroup, about which Hobsbawm wrote an authoritative essayin 1978, certainly provided a nucleus for many of his firststeps as a major historical writer.

First bookFirst bookFirst bookFirst bookFirst bookHobsbawm’s first book, an edited collection of docu-

ments from the Fabian era, Labour’s Turning Point, publishedin 1948, belongs firmly to this CP-dominated era, as does his

engagement in the once celebrated “standard of living” de-bate about the economic consequences of the early indus-trial revolution, in which he and R.M. Hartwell traded argu-ments in successive numbers of the Economic History Re-view . The foundation of the Past and Present journal, nowthe most lasting, if fully independent, legacy of the HistoriansGroup, also belongs to this period.

Hobsbawm was never to leave the Communist partyand always thought of himself as part of an internationalcommunist movement. For many, this remained the insuper-able obstacle to an embrace of his writing. Yet he alwaysremained very much a licensed freethinker within the party’sranks. Over Hungary in 1956, an event which split the CP anddrove many intellectuals out of the party, he was a voice ofprotest who nevertheless remained.

Yet, as with his contemporary, Christopher Hill, wholeft the CP at this time, the political trauma of 1956 and thestart of a lastingly happy second marriage combined in someway to trigger a sustained and fruitful period of historicalwriting which was to establish fame and reputation. In 1959,he published his first major work, Primitive Rebels , a strik-ingly original account, particularly for those times, of south-ern European rural secret societies and millenarian cultures(he was still writing about the subject as recently as 2011). Hereturned to these themes again a decade later, in CaptainSwing , a detailed study of rural protest in early 19th-centuryEngland co-authored with George Rude, andBandits , a morewide-ranging attempt at synthesis. These works are remind-ers that Hobsbawm was both a bridge between Europeanand British historiography and a forerunner of the notablerise of the study of social history in post-1968 Britain. By thistime, though, Hobsbawm had already published the first ofthe works on which both his popular and academic reputa-tions still rest. A collection of some of his most importantessays, Labouring Men , appeared in 1964 (a secondcollection, Worlds of Labour , was to follow 20 years later).But it was Industry and Empire (1968), a compelling sum-mation of much of Hobsbawm’s work on Britain and theindustrial revolution, which achieved the highest esteem. Formore than 30 years, it has rarely been out of print.

‘ The Age of ’ seriesEven more influential in the long term was the “ Age

of ” series, which he began with The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 , first published in 1962. This was followed in 1975b y The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 and in 1987 by The Age ofEmpire: 1875-1914 . A fourth volume, The Age of Extremes:1914-91 , more quirky and speculative but in some respectsthe most remarkable and admirable of all, extended the se-quence in 1994.

The four volumes embodied all of Hobsbawm’s bestqualities, the sweep combined with the telling anecdote andstatistical grasp, the attention to the nuance and significanceof events and words, and above all, perhaps, the unrivalledpowers of synthesis (nowhere better displayed than in a clas-sic summary of mid-19th century capitalism on the very firstpage of the second volume). The books were not conceivedas a tetralogy, but as they appeared, they acquired individualand cumulative classic status. They were an example,




Hobsbawm wrote, of “what the French call ‘hautevulgarisation’” (he did not mean this self-deprecatingly), andthey became, in the words of one reviewer, “part of the men-tal furniture of educated Englishmen.”

Hobsbawm’s first marriage had collapsed in 1951. Dur-ing the 1950s, he had another relationship which resulted inthe birth of his first son, Joshua Benathan, but the boy’s motherdid not want to marry. In 1962, he married again, this time toMarlene Schwarz, of Austrian descent. They moved toHampstead, and bought a small second home in Wales. Theyhad two children, Andrew and Julia.

In the 1970s, Hobsbawm’s widening fame as a historianwas accompanied by a growing reputation as a writer abouthis own times. Though he had a historian’s respect for theCommunist party’s centralist discipline, Hobsbawm’s intel-lectual eminence gave him an independence which won therespect of communism’s toughest critics, such as Isaiah Ber-lin. It also ensured him the considerable accolade that notone of Hobsbawm’s books was ever published in the SovietUnion. Thus armed and protected, Hobsbawm ranged fear-lessly across the condition of the left, mostly in the pages ofthe CP’s monthlyMarxism Today , the increasingly hetero-dox publication of which he became the house deity.

His conversations with the Italian communist, and nowstate president, Giorgio Napolitano date from these years,and were published as The Italian Road to Socialism . Buthis most influential political writings centred on his increas-ing certainty that the European labour movement had ceasedto be capable of bearing the transformational role assignedto it by earlier Marxists. These uncompromisingly revisionistarticles were collected under the general heading The For-ward March of Labour Halted .

By 1983, when Neil Kinnock became the leader of theLabour party at the depth of its electoral fortunes,Hobsbawm’s influence had begun to extend far beyond theCP and deep into Labour itself. Kinnock publicly acknowl-edged his debt to Hobsbawm and allowed himself to beinterviewed by the man he described as “my favourite Marx-ist.” Though he strongly disapproved of much of what latertook shape as “New Labour,” which he saw, among otherthings, as historically cowardly, Hobsbawm was without ques-tion the single most influential intellectual forerunner ofLabour’s increasingly iconoclastic 1990s revisionism.

His status was underlined in 1998, when Tony Blair madehim a Companion of Honour, a few months after Hobsbawmcelebrated his 80th birthday. In its citation, Downing Streetsaid Hobsbawm continued to publish works that “addressproblems in history and politics that have re-emerged todisturb the complacency of Europe.”

Later yearsLater yearsLater yearsLater yearsLater yearsIn his later years, Hobsbawm enjoyed widespread repu-

tation and respect. His 80th and 90th birthday celebrationswere attended by a Who’s Who of left wing and liberal intel-lectual Britain. Throughout the late years, he continued topublish volumes of essays, including On History (1997)and Uncommon People (1998), works in which DizzyGillespie and Salvatore Giuliano sat naturally side by side inthe index as testimony to the range of Hobsbawm’s abiding

curiosity. A highly successful autobiography,InterestingTimes , followed in 2002, and Globalisation, Democracy andTerrorism in 2007.

More famous in his extreme old age than probably atany other period of his life, he broadcast regularly, lecturedwidely and was a regular performer at the Hay literary festi-val, of which he became president at the age of 93, followingthe death of Lord Bingham of Cornhill. A fall in late 2010severely reduced his mobility, but his intellect and his will-power remained unvanquished, as did his social and culturallife, thanks to Marlene’s efforts, love and cooking.

That his writings continued to command such audiencesat a time when his politics were in some ways so eclipsedwas the kind of disjunction which exasperated right-wingers,but it was a paradox on which the subtle judgment of thisleast complacent of intellects feasted. In his later years, heliked to quote E.M. Forster that he was “always standing at aslight angle to the universe.” Whether the remark says moreabout Hobsbawm or about the universe was something thathe enjoyed disputing, confident in the knowledge that it wasin some senses a lesson for them both.


Pouring oil over troubled bordersPouring oil over troubled bordersPouring oil over troubled bordersPouring oil over troubled bordersPouring oil over troubled bordersOn a cloudy Sunday morning this September, a gaggle

of reporters and photographers walked past a large, stuffedlion to sit amid a collection of bone china and assorted cu-rios in a waiting room of the Presidential Palace in the Ethio-pian capital of Addis Ababa.

Somewhere in the vast palace, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, was in conversation withEthiopia’s Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, discussing,no doubt, the imminent presidential summit with Salva KiirMayardit, the leader of South Sudan.

These are difficult times for the two Sudans. Last year,when South Sudan seceded from its northern neighbour afterdecades of conflict, it did so with two-thirds of the region’soil, but no oil processing or transport facilities, and barely100 km of asphalt road. Sudan, by contrast, was bereft of itsprincipal source of foreign exchange, and saddled with $40billion of outstanding external debt.

Yet the summit was as much a test of the facilitators asof the participants. Hailemariam Desalegn was presiding overhis first international summit after taking office after the deathof Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who ruled Ethiopia for 21years and oversaw a muscular and interventionist foreignpolicy. Meanwhile, Thabo Mbeki, former South African Presi-dent and pan-African statesman, was determined to illus-trate that the African Union could contain the fallout of thedivision of Sudan, till recently the continent’s biggest coun-try, without external supervision.

Oil dealOil dealOil dealOil dealOil dealThe summit was expected to address a number of post-

secession issues, most importantly an oil-agreement thatwould give South Sudan access to northern ports and pro-cessing plants. In January this year, a dispute over transit feeshad lead to the suspension of all oil production in the Southand, as every reporter in the palace had noted, denied South




Sudan 98 per cent of its state revenues. “What’s the remainingtwo per cent?” asked a wondering hack as the crowd rushedto observe Mr. Bashir, brandishing an elegant walking stickinlaid with blue enamel, make his way out of the palace andinto an armoured SUV bound for the Sheraton Hotel. Thepattern continued for the next four days as reporters watchedthe Presidents get into and out of cars, conference rooms andhotel elevators even as spokespersons insisted that a dealwas likely to be concluded “tomorrow.” The crucial oil dealhad been hammered out in August, granting South Sudan theright to process and transport the oil for between $11 and $9a barrel depending on the pipeline in use; but the Presidentsstruggled to find a consensus on the exact contours of a safedemilitarised zone between the two armies or the status ofAbyei, an oil-bearing territory claimed by a settled commu-nity allied to the south and itinerant Arab pastoralists fromthe North.

Most evenings, a pianist in the Sheraton lobby playeddarkly appropriate tunes like Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” andthe Casablanca classic, “As Time Goes By,” as delegates andnegotiators swapped desultory gossip; in the outdoor OfficeBar, an American diplomat shuffled awkwardly as a singerwith a peroxide-blonde comb-over sang Adele’s breakouthit, “Rolling In the Deep,” the lyrics ominous for anyone strik-ing a deal on behalf of a country emerging from war — “Fi-nally I can see you crystal clear./Go ahead and sell me out andI’ll lay your ship bare.”

“And where are you from?” a South Sudanese officialasked this correspondent, who replied that his family settledin New Delhi after the Partition in 1947. “Ah, the British,” hereplied sagely, “Always, they cause the problems.” The prob-lem, in this instance, being the opposite of the subcontinentalexperience; in Sudan, the ethnically diverse south and pre-dominantly Arab north were united into one political andadministrative unit with catastrophic results.

Test for AfricaTest for AfricaTest for AfricaTest for AfricaTest for AfricaWhen the press was finally ushered into the high-ceiling

ballroom on the fifth day, the agreements signed offered aninsight into the sheer complexity involved in separating twonations. “When I arrived here on the 22nd of September,” saidPresident Kiir in his address, “I thought I would then proceedto the U.N. General Assembly in New York. I came to besurprised that things were really very difficult.”

Apart from the expected deal on oil and a demilitarisedzone, the countries hammered out procedures to finalise in-ternational boundaries, to interconvert currencies, to sharehistorical and government archives, preserve cultural heri-tage sites, and pay pensions and retirement benefits to gov-ernment workers who served one government only to find itreplaced by another.

The South also agreed to pay the North $3.028 billion asa one-time transitional financial agreement and the two coun-tries agreed to jointly lobby for a reduction in Sudan’s $40 bnexternal debt, failing which the two countries will resumenegotiations to agree on how best to apportion the sum.

Perhaps the most heartening agreement, for a regiondestroyed by civil war, is the Cooperation Agreement thatcommits both states to resolving all outstanding issues

through peaceful negotiations; yet, diplomats suggested, bothsides would first have to overcome half a century of mistrust.

In his closing comments, Mr. Mbeki spelt out the stakesof the past week of negotiations. “These two countries arevery critical to the future of our continent,” he said, “If theyfail, the continent will fail and if they succeed, Africa willsucceed.” Courtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The HinduCourtesy-The Hindu

Understanding the obligations of rulingUnderstanding the obligations of rulingUnderstanding the obligations of rulingUnderstanding the obligations of rulingUnderstanding the obligations of rulingIndiaIndiaIndiaIndiaIndia

The year was 2002. Two days after bloody riots eruptedin Gujarat, I got a call late in the evening from an Ahmedabad-based officer of the Indian Police Service. The policemansimply said: “Sir, I am embarrassed to make this call. I amtold that a local BJP legislator in Mehsana district is planningto undertake a massacre of Muslims tonight. And I amashamed that there is no one here who will listen.” The policeofficer gave me the name of the village and taluka where theBJP “leader” had invited the village for a feast before the mobcould be worked up to march on to a nearby village with alarge concentration of Muslims.

Overwhelmed by the enormity of the imminent crime, Irang up my friend Brajesh Mishra. Fortuitously, Mishra pickedup his mobile. I simply narrated to him what I had been toldfrom Ahmedabad. He heard me out, noting down the sketchydetails, and said: “Let me see.” Next morning I got anothercall from the police officer, who was obviously relieved andsaid: “Sir, I do not know what you did or to whom you talked;within two hours, an army posse reached the spot, rowdieswere made to stay put, and their bloody plans sabotaged.Over 100 lives were saved. Thank you.”

A few days later, when I went over to the Prime Minister’sOffice to have my weekly tea with Mishra, I thanked himprofusely. With becoming dignity and gravitas he observed:“Those of us who have the good fortune to work in this officefor the Prime Minister of India can never become indifferentto the obligation of social harmony.”

Golden principleGolden principleGolden principleGolden principleGolden principleSuddenly it was clear that the man who wore two hats

— the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and National Se-curity Adviser — was laying down the golden principle foradministering India. The state can never abandon its neutral-ity nor become ambivalent about social harmony. In thatmoment, Brajesh Mishra revealed himself to be a keen stu-dent of P.N. Haksar, another practitioner of enlightened state-craft who served another Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, withgreat distinction.

Haksar had presciently spelled out a vital link betweeninternal cohesion and our national security: “Secularism or itsfailure affects vitally social cohesion in our society, withoutwhich we cannot discuss our security. The fundamental basisfor ensuring security of any state is its inner unity, cohesionand coherence of the society. A society which is torn be-tween conflicting religions is bound to be an easy prey tointernal forces of disintegration and external forces of desta-bilization.” Although Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya JanataParty’s mascot, had managed to notch up an impressive vic-




tory in the 2002 Gujarat election by positing a Mian Musharraf-Madarsas-Muslims linkage, Brajesh Mishra (as well as his boss,Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) was profoundly unhappy.It was clear to him that if the BJP had any long-term hopes ofruling the country, surely the Modi prescriptions and sloganswere totally unhelpful. Those were the heady days of thepost-9/11 war on terror. Indian statesmanship demanded thatthe polity be spared the debilitating polarisation of a civilwar.

Mishra was convinced that only a Centre able to prac-tise secular values and respect our country’s plural traditionscould conduct superior diplomacy and pursue a robust strat-egy, especially vis-à-vis Pakistan. And, he was equally con-vinced that an amicable solution to the Kashmir problemcould be attempted only from a higher secular moral ground.The political discourse would have to be detoxed of itsGujarat-centric delinquencies.

It is possible to argue that it was only after the Gujaratcarnage that the Vajpayee-Mishra duo embarked on seekingsome kind of reconciliation with Pakistan, an effort that cul-minated in January 2004 in Islamabad. Mishra was painfullyaware that the Advani-Modi faction had so precipitouslydamaged the social fabric throughout the country that ournational security had become vulnerable. Sensible statecraftdemanded engagement with Pakistan.

The second principle that Mishra believed in was thatthose who were fortunate enough to get the privilege of gov-erning — or hope to govern — this country do not have theluxury of pettiness. History is witness that whenever a PrimeMinister allowed his pique to get the better of sane impulses,the outcome has been a morally and politically inferior re-sponse. On a number of occasions he would hint how PrimeMinister Vajpayee was under pressure from the NDA hot-heads to use the state’s coercive instruments against politicalrivals; and, how he was able to help the Prime Minister wardoff the sangh parivar’s efforts at dirty tricks. He once pro-nounced: “A Prime Minister of India has an obligation to de-cency and decorum.”

Like Haksar, Mishra was a great believer in centralisationof resources and power in pursuit of national ambitions andpurpose. Just as Haksar helped Indira Gandhi accumulatepower of oversight and co-ordination in the Prime Minister’sOffice, Mishra helped Vajpayee restore the aura and author-ity of the PMO. Though Mr. Vajpayee’s circumstances werevastly different from those of Indira Gandhi, Mishra was awareof the toll that two years of the United Front government hadtaken of our national will. The wobbliness in the PMO had tobe corrected and that is precisely what he achieved.

In his autobiography, My Country, My Life , L.K. Advaniunwittingly reveals how efforts were made by him and othersto cut Brajesh Mishra to size. The Kargil Review CommitteeReport was flaunted to argue that Mishra should not combinetwo roles — of Principal Secretary and National SecurityAdviser. Mr. Advani plaintively notes how Mr. Vajpayee stoodby Mishra: “We repeatedly urged the Prime Minister to bifur-cate the two posts held by Brajesh Mishra. Atalji, however,had a different view and did not implement this recommen-dation. It was, of course, the Prime Minister’s prerogative to

do so. In my view, the clubbing together of two critical re-sponsibilities, each requiring focused attention, did not con-tribute to harmony at the highest levels of governance.”

Command structureCommand structureCommand structureCommand structureCommand structurePresumably neither Mr. Advani’s suggestion nor Mr.

Vajpayee’s rejection of it was personal. At issue was a certainnotion of a command and control structure that should beavailable to the Prime Minister of India. I remember vividlythat within a few weeks of the UPA government coming topower in May 2004, Mishra told me crisply and precisely: “Ifyou have any influence with the new crowd of our new rulers,please tell them to dismantle the disastrous trifurcation in thePMO.” The Manmohan Singh government had experimentedwith a three way division of Mr. Mishra’s responsibilities — aPrincipal Secretary (T.K.A. Nair), a National Security Adviser(J.N. Dixit) and a Security Adviser (M.K. Narayanan).

Mishra would have violently disagreed with MamataBanejree who recently decreed that “India cannot be gov-erned from New Delhi.” Inherent in Ms Banerjee’s formulationis an emasculated and enfeebled Centre. Mishra’s, on theother hand, hinged on a national mobilisation, not a fragmen-tation of political power; on a pan-Indian vision, rather than aregion-centric calculus; and, on a summoning of our bestcivilisational instincts and traditions, rather than the sanghparivar’s shoddy feudal animosities. The Mishra-Vajpayeeduo rescued the exercise of power from the BJP’s preferencefor pettiness and provincialism. It was a six-year long strugglebetween the two approaches and the balance perhaps tiltsslightly against the Vajpayee-Mishra team.

Once the realisation dawned on the country that theBJP was not inclined to abide by the Vajpayee-Mishra ap-proach, it was only a matter of time before the NDA wasvoted out of power.


Health care is more than access toHealth care is more than access toHealth care is more than access toHealth care is more than access toHealth care is more than access tomedical servicesmedical servicesmedical servicesmedical servicesmedical services

Gita Sen’s article in The Hindu “Getting India’s HealthCare System out of the ICU” (“The Sunday Story,” Sept. 2,2012) does an elegant job of masking the technological fixthat grips the imagination of those who are redrafting the12th Plan’s approach to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).Thus, Sen consistently uses the term “health care” when actu-ally she means “medical care.” The latter only addresses ill-ness, but the former includes the treatment of illness, alongwith all national programmes and welfare measures that de-termine health. This makes it convenient to mislead the readerinto believing that the public health care system is “seriouslybroken” merely because there are no “free drugs,” “lack ad-equate staff and equipment,” and “treat patients with scantrespect.” The deliberate actions of an elitist state for over 20years in starving the public sector of resources, subsidisingthe private sector, and promoting the growth of the burgeon-ing corporate sector, (although partially acknowledged bySen) have not been linked to the broken state of the publichealth care system. “Ensuring universal health care is a majorconcern of governments the world over,” may sound good as




an apologia for state intervention, but the fact is that differ-ent nations have different visions and contexts. The UnitedKingdom, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico have been men-tioned approvingly by Sen, but without comparing povertylevels, the proportion of GDP invested in health, and — mostcritically — the fact that costs of health care in these coun-tries are sky rocketing. Through this generalisation, therefore,Sen ignores how the Indian public health system has beencommercialised and medical care opened to commercialand corporate medical care providers, merely to add to therevenue of a state driven by a neo-liberal commitment toeconomic growth, even though the gap between rich andpoor widens and health indicators stagnate. It is only by con-cealing these linkages that an appealing argument can bemade that “one cannot ignore the reality of the private healthsector” and it “ought to be made to play its part in the movetowards universal health coverage.”

Can UHC be provided without prescribing minimumstandards for food, drinking water, housing and public sani-tation (a point so vividly made almost 35 years ago by theAlma Ata Declaration)? What is the process of defining anadequate package of health care? Will epidemiological pri-orities and the needs of the marginalised determine healthcare, or the cost-efficiency of technologies and the need forrevenue generation? Why is the Health Ministry opposing therecommendations of the draft chapter on health for the 12thPlan prepared by the Planning Commission, if its objectivewas that, “a strengthened public sector must be the bedrockof reforms”? Sen evades these questions by merely highlight-ing “management reforms” to back up more investment, “regu-lation” of “ad-hoc” public-private partnerships and land sub-sidies and tax-breaks to ensure accountability, and “indepen-dent” bodies that would ensure “standard treatment guide-lines” for “high quality clinical services” through “cash-less”smart cards! This methodology of clinical medical practicewidely known as “managed care” is the thrust of the 12th FiveYear Plan. Designed by insurance companies to optimise theirprofits and control providers, it has failed globally to pro-vide even good clinical care, what to speak of comprehen-sive primary health care.

“Citizen participation and accountability” are the otherbuzzwords that Sen uses — even though, in this regard, thefailures of the panchayats and the district health commit-tees in ensuring the rights of the underprivileged are well-known and the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) report hasnothing on social monitoring mechanisms. The reality is thatif the public sector service is to be made transparent, respon-sive and responsible, with a focus on the health-care needs ofthe most needy, then a relook at its priorities through anepidemiological and socio-economic lens, a review of itstechnological choices, and rejuvenation of its demoralisedand corrupted personnel are the non-negotiables. This ser-vice may not fully provide the rest of the welfare inputs but itmust prescribe objectively the standards for these and de-mand that these be provided by other sectors if health for thepeople is to be achieved. Health-care planning has to recognisethe complexity of public health and judiciously use clinicalfacilities to change the history of disease and not to simply

use them to enhance medical markets and revenues. It hastaken the state over 20 years to undermine what was built inthe first 40. To tackle the complexity of health care and en-sure people’s right to it will take at least another 10 to 15years so that a public sector can be rebuilt to act as the mostcritical regulatory force for the private sector.

To emphasise only the urgency of UHC based on creat-ing “access to medical care services” is to deny the complex-ity of public health and people’s right to it.


Premium on regulationPremium on regulationPremium on regulationPremium on regulationPremium on regulationAt first blush, the wave of financial sector reforms un-

veiled by the government on Thursday appears to have pulledoff the impossible. The rapturous surge witnessed on thestock market tells us the investing classes are happy, whilethe somewhat muted reaction of Opposition parties sug-gests the insurance and pension sector initiatives cannot eas-ily be painted as “anti-people.” If the entry of multinationalretail behemoths raises fears about the potential loss of jobsand livelihoods, insurance and pension reforms hold out theprospect of better social security for the middle class with-out the immediate danger of a “employment displacement”effect. In insurance, at least, the reform being contemplatedis also quite modest: foreign insurance companies will beallowed to hold 49 per cent equity in their Indian operationsbut this still does not make for majority control. The privateinsurance sector is starved for capital and the increase inforeign equity cap will enable foreign partners to pump inmoney. Whether they will actually do so is another matter,given their own financial problems and their inability to crackthe Indian market. For those squeamish about opening thepension sector to foreign investment, the reform has a silverlining: the regulator for the sector will finally acquire teeth.Banks and some mutual funds have already evinced interestin offering pension fund products and passage of the pensionBill will facilitate this process.

As junior partners restricted to a 49 per cent equityshare, foreign pension fund companies may not be the threatsome believe them to be. But the pension reforms beingintroduced are hardly a remedy to the absence of a viableand well-funded system of social security in India. On thepositive side, millions of private sector employees and theself-employed — most of whom have no viable pension plansto subscribe to today — may get new options as a result.Remember, the government is in no mood or position tooffer its services here; some of its own employees are nowgoverned by the National Pension Scheme. On the negativeside, the Western, especially American, private pension modelhas not exactly been an unqualified success on its home turf.Millions of Americans are unprotected or their retirementbenefits have been compromised because of insufficient regu-lation and the lack of official oversight.

As for insurance, many of the companies looking toenhance their positions in India were key players in the 2008global financial meltdown.

That is why Parliament needs to focus sharply on thequality of the regulator and regulations that will govern the




pension and insurance business from now on, especially sinceit will increasingly be in private hands.


A public-private partnershipA public-private partnershipA public-private partnershipA public-private partnershipA public-private partnershipEver since India Against Corruption cited business in-

formation in the public domain to allege the existence of anexus between Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra andreal estate giant DLF, Congress leaders have insisted that noprobe is needed since the impugned transactions were be-tween “private individuals.” The argument is an absurd onefor a seasoned political party to make because perception iseverything in politics and the public simply isn’t buying it. Theparty high command ought to have realised that Mr. Vadra,who is a part of the Congress’s first family, must, like Pompeia,be well and truly above suspicion. Instead of taking measuresto reassure the public that the business dealings of Mr. Vadra— who has accumulated assets worth hundreds of crores ofrupees in the past five years — were indeed above board,senior ministers and spokespersons said he was a privatecitizen who had nothing to answer for. Today, that argumentmakes even less sense in the light of what seems like thepunitive transfer of Haryana’s top land official shortly afterhe initiated an internal probe into Mr. Vadra’s land dealings.The official, Ashok Khemka, discovered irregularities in atleast one of the deals struck between Mr. Vadra and DLF. Healso ordered an inquiry into the possible undervaluation ofproperties sold or bought by Mr. Vadra in four districts of theState.

Given the questionable decision to transfer Mr. Khemka,the suspicion that the DLF-Vadra private partnership has offi-cial support can no longer be sidestepped or dismissed. Ad-mittedly, nothing in the documents produced by the IAC sofar establishes or proves wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Vadraor DLF. But the whiff of impropriety is all around and if theparty high command still believes it can brazen things out it ismaking a serious mistake. The more the Congress and theCentral and State governments resist or foreclose the launch-ing of a probe into his dealings, the greater will be the publicperception that Mr. Vadra used his friendships and relation-ships with people in high places to further his own businessinterests. The Haryana government has offered a most un-convincing explanation for why Mr. Khemka was removedfrom his post as Director General for Land Consolidation andInspector General of Registration after serving barely threemonths of a tenure that is meant to run for a minimum of twoyears as per the rules of the Department of Personnel andTraining. The Haryana government says it will now look intoMr. Vadra’s land deals but any probe it launches is unlikely tohave credibility. Instead, Mr. Khemka must be reinstated inhis post and allowed to complete the inquiries he initiated.


Follow the money, find the leaderFollow the money, find the leaderFollow the money, find the leaderFollow the money, find the leaderFollow the money, find the leaderThe point is not whether Barack Obama wins re-elec-

tion as President. The point is not whether Mitt Romney can

win. The point is that you can’t dream of contesting without abillion dollars. That figure merely ensures you can run, notwin. Especially if the other guy can spend even more. All butthe tiniest sliver of the elite stands priced out of the game. Ademocracy neatly labelled in another context, by economistJoseph Stiglitz, as: “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.”

The two main candidates, their parties and ‘outsidemoney’ will likely splurge $2.5 billion by the time the cam-paign fog clears in November. Throw in spending on the Con-gressional races, says the Centre for Responsive Politics (CRP)— the country’s foremost poll-spending tracker — and thetotal would close in on $6 billion. (That’s roughly Rs. 32,000crore. A sum on which you could run the mid-day mealprogramme for 120 million Indian school children for threeyears).

Less than one per centLess than one per centLess than one per centLess than one per centLess than one per centIf we take it that the two presidential campaigns burn

equal sums of money, the campaign that wins will have spentover $1.25 billion, all sources included. Say Mr. Romney tri-umphs and hopes to run again in 2016. Just raising the samewar chest means he’d have to, on average, secure over$850,000 every day of his four-year presidency. That leavesyou little time for anything else other than pushing bills yourfunders want. Ask Mr. Obama. When it comes to the polls,then, it’s a fraction of that 1 per cent that calls the shots.(Allowing for variances in scale and form, it sounds a lot likethe way Indian elections are or will be going).

Being hostage to money power is no myth. As DaveLindorff points out in CounterPunch.org , the biggest con-tributors to the Obama campaign in 2008 were mostly finan-cial companies. Apart from other big corporations. Theseincluded Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup,who gave him close to $2.5 million via Political Action Com-mittees (PACs).

Another $1.5 million came from two more big banks,“UBS and Morgan Stanley, as well as General Electric, whichless than a year later bought a bank.” GE did that in order togorge on the government’s “bailout” with billions of “rescue”dollars from public money.

Mr. Obama repaid those debts, Mr. Lindorff points out.Among other things, he made Tim Geithner his Treasury Sec-retary. Mr. Geithner, as head of the New York Federal Reservebranch during the Bush era, “had ignored the derivatives scan-dals that brought on the financial crash.” Mr. Obama alsomade Lawrence Summers his top economic adviser. The sameSummers who “as Treasury Secretary under President BillClinton, had pushed for the deregulation of derivatives, andfor allowing banks to merge with investment banks.” Therewere other such jobs for the boys, too. Yet, this time around,Mr. Romney has collected more Wall Street money than Mr.Obama.

It might appear that direct spending in 2012 by bothpresidential campaigns is less than it was in 2008 — thoughnot by much. But that’s if you look only at what the candi-dates or parties are doing. There’s also big spending by ‘Su-per PACs.’ These are groups that can raise unlimited amounts.Technically, they are not allowed to coordinate their adver-




tising with the candidates. In truth, they act as de factoadjunctsto the campaigns. And after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in2010 that threw out the rules on independent expenditures bycorporations directly, there’s a lot more money flowing.

There are no limits on the sums that Super PACs canraise from corporations or others. Nor on how much theyspend to support or defeat a candidate. (They cannot di-rectly fund a candidate. And must submit details of theirdonors to the Federal Election Commission).

The CRP reckons that as of October 16: “935 groupsorganized as Super PACs have reported total receipts” ofover $433 million. And “total independent expenditures” ofclose to $375 million in the 2012 cycle.

Most of the millions spent by outside groups went intotelevision advertising, says the New York Times. In Iowaalone, the two campaigns and linked “independent” groups“have run more than 100,000 ads to win the state’s six elec-toral votes.”

Meanwhile, the pundits are swooning over the “energy”of the second Obama-Romney debate. This one was “morespontaneous.” What’s more, it had “a town hall format.” Well,yes, if town hall audiences can be handpicked by organisers.And if the town hall audience actually had to have a rehearsalwith the moderators (as they did here). That’s apart fromsubmitting all their questions for advance scrutiny — notquite a town hall practice.

Once again, neither man mentioned the word “inequal-ity” at any point in the debate. That is the issue that sparkedthe ‘Occupy’ movement in countless towns across the coun-try last year. It is an issue that worries several leading econo-mists in the U.S. It is one that reflects in recent IRS data. Itshows up in the Census data on poverty out barely a monthago.

But the word was as taboo as “corporate crime.” Theonly mention of it came from a questioner who wanted toknow why women were paid 72 per cent of what men re-ceived for the same work. The closest Mr. Obama ever camenear it was when he charged Mr. Romney with wanting “folksat the top” to “play by a different set of rules.” Neither men-tioned the word even in his replies to the question.

Compensation on Wall Street rose by four per cent lastyear to $60 billion, says the New York Times . Higher than inany year except 2007 and 2008. And “the average pay packetof securities industry employees in New York state was$362,950, up 16.6 % over the last two years.” Meanwhile,about 25 million people who want full-time jobs can’t findthem. The number of those on food stamps is at record lev-els. And 50 million people suffer food insecurity in a nationwhere, as economist Paul Buchheit points out: “The 10 richestAmericans made enough money last year to feed every hun-gry person on earth for a year.”

There were a couple of other things in the debate thatshould interest Indians. Both candidates agonised over petrolprices — speaking to an audience that clearly felt the need toregulate those prices. Even more interesting: In the time givento the energy crisis, Mr. Obama never once mentioned nuclearenergy as an option. He did not even club it under ‘clean’energy. (Though he’s happy with India holding to that belief).

“Wind, solar and bio-fuels” was his mantra. Mr. Romney men-tioned ‘nuclear’ once but gave it no special status.

Setting up debatesSetting up debatesSetting up debatesSetting up debatesSetting up debatesAnd now more on who sets up the debates and how

they are run. Last week, we ran Ralph Nader’s point about“the secret debate contract negotiated by the Obama andRomney campaigns that controls the Commission on Presi-dential Debates (CPD), the campaigns’ corporate offspring.”Their grip on the process is stifling, dishonest and total. Itwasn’t always that way. Till 1987, the debates were spon-sored, for over a decade, by the League of Women Voters.

Why did that change? Why did the League, which ran anindependent show, lose control over the debates? Why did itfeel compelled to walk out, or was it forced out of them, in1987? I asked the League and received a prompt emailedreply from Betsy Gardner, its Administrative Coordinator.The party campaigns were exerting huge pressures and con-trol. Whether in choosing a debate format, in picking a ‘mod-erator,’ or on the questions to be asked. The League also sentus the 1987 statement of its then President, Nancy M. Neuman.That was the period of the George H.W. Bush-Michael Dukakisrace.

Ms Neuman’s statement of the time says, among otherthings: “Between themselves, the campaigns had determinedwhat the television cameras could take pictures of. They haddetermined how they would select those who would posequestions to their candidates … They had determined thatthey would pack the hall with their supporters. And they haddetermined the format. The campaigns’ agreement was aclosed-door masterpiece. The agreement was a done deal,they told us. We were supposed to sign it and agree to all ofits conditions. If we did not, we were told we would lose thedebate … In Winston-Salem, they went so far as to insist onreviewing the moderator’s opening comments.

“It turned out that the League had two choices. We couldsign their closed-door agreement and hope the event wouldrise above their manipulations. Or we could refuse to lendour trusted name to this charade.

“The League of Women Voters is announcing today thatwe have no intention of becoming an accessory to the hood-winking of the American public.”


Building deterrence for peaceBuilding deterrence for peaceBuilding deterrence for peaceBuilding deterrence for peaceBuilding deterrence for peaceRecent demonstrations in China over Japanese claims

on the Senkaku Islands indicate a new belligerence and na-tionalism among the Chinese populace that does not augurvery well for India-China relations. While Japan, Taiwan, Viet-nam and other contested spaces in China’s immediateneighbourhood occupy “pole” position when it comes to thedominant nationalistic discourse, a stronger India has startedfiguring actively in the academic discourse.

From being seen as a mere irritant on the periphery thatcan be tackled anytime, India is now being seen as a com-petitor and a “spoiler” in China’s quest for total dominance inAsia. Current geopolitical realities offer some space for Indiato navigate and manoeuvre in the South East Asian landscape




and convince China that it stands to benefit from a reconcil-iatory, rather than a confrontationist approach towards In-dia. On that count, India has been nimble to diplomaticallyand militarily engage with a host of countries like Japan,Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar inits Look East strategy; not with any aggressive intent, butwith a hedging posture that seeks to revive memories of theBandung initiative of 1954 that attempted to build capacitiesand propagate peaceful coexistence in the region.

Unfortunately, India has the habit of an either/or strategy vis-à-vis China that tends to ignore concurrentdevelopment of deterrent and coercive capabilities whensome success is perceived to have accrued in the diplomaticspace. This is fraught with danger and this time around therecannot be any let-up in building up military capability on ournorthern and eastern frontiers with China while concurrentlyseeking diplomatic gains from our “hedging strategy” in S.E.Asia. Deterrence for Peacecould be a posture that meritswide articulation, both within the domestic constituency andthe international community.

Then and nowThen and nowThen and nowThen and nowThen and nowThe military lessons of the 1962 India-China conflict

have been widely debated and need very little amplificationbeyond reiterating some important ones that would allow usto introspect. At the strategic level, notwithstanding the suc-cess of the Indian military in the 1947-48 conflict, the post-independence politico-bureaucratic establishment looked atthe military as a wasteful remnant of India’s colonial pastwhose need was only grudgingly acknowledged. Even theopposition was guilty of pressuring Nehru in the late 1950s toreduce the defence budget even when there was overwhelm-ing evidence that despite economic woes, China was main-taining a defence budget in excess of five per cent of GDP.There was no attempt to understand “war as an extension ofpolitics” — hence the ill-fated forward policy that overlookedimperatives of mountain warfare like clothing, shelter, suit-able weapons, logistics support and air support plans forcasualty evacuation and resupply. Given the strong WW IIpedigree and battle experience of a number of senior armyand air force officers, particularly in the Burma campaign, itis perplexing that the senior military leadership failed to ac-tively participate in a national defence strategy to counterChina. In fact, one of the concerns of Mao was the core fight-ing ability of the Indian Army, which is why he interestinglyput together an attacking force with a ratio of 5:1 againstexisting norms of 3:1, which were considered essential forsuccess in the mountains. Inadequate firepower and the com-plete absence of air power meant that India was lacking intwo vital ingredients of modern warfare that have the poten-tial to cause physical degradation and psychological shockin what was primarily an attrition battle in the mountains. Thetotal absence of aerial reconnaissance by the Indian Air Forcemeant that field commanders had no real time idea of thestrength of forces that Mao was amassing for his attack.

The Indian Armed Forces have come a long way since1962 and are in a consolidation phase in the current Five YearPlan (2012-2017). There has been a slow shift in our politico-military strategy from a primarily Pak-centric orientation, to

one that seeks to balance two adversaries on multiple fronts;much more needs to be done to ensure that this strategy isbacked with intent and speedy capability build-up. There is aperception that alarmist signals regarding the imminence of aChina-India confrontation in the next five years have beenprecipitated by vested western interests that seek Indian mili-tary build-up as part of a “hedging” strategy to deflect Chi-nese attention from the Pacific and South China Sea.

While there may be some merit and an element of“realpolitik” in this, there is overwhelming evidence of mili-tary and infrastructure build-up in Tibet including increasedfighter aircraft activity that points at a methodical and typi-cally Chinese “chess-like” build-up towards supporting andsustaining a modern high altitude campaign against a strongadversary. While there is no way in which India can currentlymatch the Chinese infrastructure in Tibet, what is the way outin the short and medium term? A high survivability-high vis-ibility-high attrition deterrent strategy that revolves aroundpreserving own forces in the face of a ferocious initial assaultand inflicting unsustainable losses to integrated applicationof firepower, whilst continuing to see what the enemy is do-ing with near 24x7 recce and surveillance, seems to be thesurest way of combating the Chinese threat. India has noterritorial ambitions and hence can ill-afford to work on ma-noeuvre strategies that look at capturing ground as part ofany trade-off strategy. Lessons from the China-Vietnam warof 1979 and the subsequent lack of battle-experience of thePeople’s Liberation Army (PLA) makes it vulnerable to attri-tion warfare, both in the air and on ground.

Whether the Chinese have the stomach to take high ca-sualties in pursuit of a nationalistic objective on its extremeperipheries that has few tangible benefits is highly debatable.The maritime domain too is a space that can be exploitedand contested by India. With both India and China headingfor a two-carrier fleet and blue water capability, strategicanalysts predict that a future China-India conflict may not berestricted to only a localised high altitude conflict over deso-late terrain. It may well spillover to vital sea lines of commu-nication that run through the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Seaand the Bay of Bengal.

Final analysisFinal analysisFinal analysisFinal analysisFinal analysisA militarily strong India that seeks to defend its sover-

eignty with strength and dignity is not an aggressive or bellig-erent India. It is an India that seeks peace in the region onrespectable terms. China has to be respected as a strongadversary with an emerging penchant for regional hegemony,something that has to be contested by India, should it threatenits national interests. A China strategy, which is short on rheto-ric and long on capability, is the only way to cope with anincreasingly assertive China. While Mao did pronounce thatpower flows from the barrel of a gun, India can well twist it tosay that peace too can flow from the barrel of two matchingguns.


The quest for Naga accordThe quest for Naga accordThe quest for Naga accordThe quest for Naga accordThe quest for Naga accordAprocess that could lead to an honourable settlement

of the six-decades-old Naga problem seems to be in the




making. With the Prime Minister giving the go-ahead, the UnionHome Ministry has begun discussing with all regional stake-holders the broad contours of a proposal that was ham-mered out earlier in negotiations between the Union govern-ment and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah). The NSCN (I-M), the major player among Naga groups,has accepted — at least for the “interim” — the impractical-ity of demanding the integration of contiguous Naga-inhab-ited areas including those in Assam, Manipur and ArunachalPradesh, and of redrawing State boundaries. More impor-tantly, it has tempered its demand for “Naga sovereignty,”thereby allowing an outcome that can conform to the basicstructure of the Constitution. An agreement being stitched upbefore the State Assembly elections that are due by March2013 will enable former insurgent groups to take part in thedemocratic process. The larger political environment appearsconducive for a democratic reconciliation.

But there is still a long way to go, and many minefieldsto cross. Several concessions on the government’s part, in-cluding grant of a special brand of autonomy and freedomfor Nagaland, will be required. For the grant of special status,additions will need to be made to Article 371A, under which

no Act of Parliament applies to Nagaland in respect of thereligious or social practices of the Nagas, administration ofcivil and criminal justice involving decisions under custom-ary Naga law, and ownership and transfer of land and itsresources, unless its Assembly so decides. The creation of apan-Naga social body to highlight the identity of the peopleappears to be a key element of the formula. Its role, scopeand powers need to be defined with clarity in order to avoiddifficulties. The constitutional amendment that some of theseproposals will entail requires national political consensus.Even the question of decommissioning weapons held by mili-tants needs to be resolved. In the short term, a consensus willbe needed to meet a demand that has been raised by Nagalandlegislators for an alternative interim administrative arrange-ment. There is no time like the present to let the processreach its logical culmination. But every strand in this complextapestry needs to be laid in place carefully. A prudent bal-ance needs to be struck between what the Centre can con-cede and what the insurgents can accept. This has to be doneon the basis of a clear understanding of the changing socialand political dynamics of the region as a whole.



Data Interpretation&

Data SufficiencyMCQ Series






Democracy in Lincoln’s famouswords is “Government of the people,for the people, by the people’. Therudiments of democracy are well-known. It is a form of governmentwherein every individual has a say.Democracy has come a long waysince the classical times whenAristotle in his classification catego-rized it as a -perverted form of gov-ernment. Rousseau’s concept of Gen-eral Will which had entrusted sover-eign power to the masses paved theway for the French Revolution withits cry of liberty, equality and frater-nity. It marked the turning point forthe rise of modern democracy -ulti-mate authority of government isvested in the common people so thatpublic policy is made to conform tothe will of the people and to servethe interests of people today wehave indirect democracy where gov-ernment is conducted by the repre-sentatives of the people, who areelected at regular intervals. Have weever given heed to the kind of de-

mocracy we have in India and underwhat conditions it had been estab-lished? Well, let’s explore this. It isimpossible to define Indian democ-racy as liberal, participatory or delib-erative, because it is a blend all ofthese at the same time. It is notenough to only examine the formalpresence of democracy but check-ing how effective are the institutionsand procedures by relating them tothe conditions that sustain them andreproduce them is equally important.So let’s check and examine what con-ditions were present when demo-cratic values and procedures wereadopted.

According to Sameul Hunting-ton, Indian democracy as an institu-tion was facing few crises at the eveof independence. They were: crisesof national integration, crises of iden-tity, crises of participation, crises ofpenetration and crises of legitimacy.Thus we see the number of chal-lenges, which the newly indepen-dent and decolonized India was fac-

ing while adopting the system of de-mocracy. The major problems beforeIndia were linguistic problems, castesystem (which further took a newform of economic class system), pov-erty and illiteracy. To add to themmalnutrition and poor health condi-tions, poor housing, poor work capa-bility, lack of occupational adaptabil-ity and an inadequate level of savingsreflected the clear picture of India.

Many scholars compare the sta-tus of development and democracy,since independence. Does democ-racy leads to development or devel-opment leads to democracy? Thisdilemma still remains. India had a firmnationalist base with the strong lead-ership of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru as thefirst Prime Minister. But during thattime, the members of legislative as-sembly were elitist. The democracywas functioning smoothly but in theirfavor because the masses were illit-erate. Congress at that time was work-ing for indigenous bourgeoisie. Thuscongress became a party of social sta-




tus quo. 1967 was the turning pointwhen the state parties suddenly cameinto power. This was a signal of de-mocratization of Indian politics. Dueto balance of payment problem, in-ternational financial institutions deval-ued rupee and India started driftinginto economic crises. Mrs. IndiraGandhi swept the polls in 1971 elec-tions with the ‘eradicate poverty’ slo-gans. In 1975 with the misuse of ar-ticle 356 of Indian constitution, Mrs.Gandhi declared an emergency inIndia. Economic crises, formation ofBangladesh and Authoritarian rule atthe center weakened Indian democ-racy. The decision-making roles andpowers of the cabinet members andministers were consequently dis-solved and were taken over by Mrs.Gandhi. Though the Panchayati rajsystem was to democratize the coun-try at the village level but the powerwas still concentrated at the top ofthe pyramid.

But after all the turbulent yearsin India, democracy still exists in itsunique forms. Arguably it is the bestform of government. Democracywould thus appear differently to dif-ferent classes of India. To more privi-lege classes of society it would meanthe freedom of enterprise and to thelower orders it would mean equality(at least between communities) andrepresentation. But whatever thecontradictions democracy may offers,Indian democracy will continue inspite of its paradoxical and surpris-ing history.

It’s noteworthy that despite ev-erything, India has sustained a fairlystable democracy, while the coun-tries with comparable (and in somecases much less serious) problemshave abandoned democracy for au-thoritarian form of rule. There are

many conflicting views on the suc-cess and failure of democracy andthey all are associated to some ide-als. For some an ideal democracy is aconstruct where people are trulyequal citizens, politically engagedwith an equal voice, tolerant of eachother and where representatives areaccountable. On the other hand,scholars have viewed democracy asan institution, which would mean freeand fair elections, legislative assem-bly, and under this understandingIndia is considered as the largest de-mocracy in the world. But any evalu-ation of democracy is of course, acombination of both.

Indian state has a deep commit-ment to democratic system and val-ues as democracy provides impulsetowards change and looks at contem-porary struggles and movements ofthe people as a part of the demo-cratic process. Democracy centerscertain rights on the people. But moreoften than not these rights are abusedin the name of resisting oppression.Au unbalanced insistence on onesrights without a corresponding real-ization of one’s duties creates indis-cipline and disorder and, in reality,an erosion of the democratic prin-ciple.

Liberty and equality are bothbasic to democracy but are not thesetwo concepts intrinsically opposed’?Can liberty, which allows a humanbeing to develop his/her individual-ity, be reconciled to equality, whichby its very nature puts a check onsuch individual aspirations for thewelfare of a group. a community, acollectivity ? Democracy containswithin it seeds of dissolution and de-cay as well as of life and progress. Intruth, it calls for a balance betweenself-interest and consideration for

others, between rights and duties anda successful democracy manifests areconciliation of opposites.

India today proudly proclaimsits position as one of the foremostdemocratic nations of the world. Interms of the size of the electorate, itis the largest democracy in the world.India, on gaining independence fromcolonial rule, had forthwith decidedto adopt the parliamentary system ofgovernment of its erstwhile coloniser- Great Britain. The founding fathersof the Constitution, truly inspired byegalitarian zeal, had ensured univer-sal adult franchise to citizens of thecountry, without any discriminationon the basis of caste, religion. sex,education or ownership of property.India had its first general elections in1952 and the democratic processeshave been vigorously functioningever since. Belying all doubts andapprehensions on account of thelarge number of illiterate citizens inthe country; the people have dis-played an amazing political maturityand have ensured that democracybecomes a part of the social ethos ofthe country. To express their dissat-isfaction with the agendas and poli-cies of a particular government orwith the qualities of governance -ingeneral, they have skillfully utilisedtheir democratic privilege to oust theincumbent from power. Democraticprocesses have earned such credibil-ity that there has not been a singleinstance of a coup d’état or mass revo-lution to destabilise or overthrow thegovernment. The regular, periodicelections have almost become asource of envy to other countries inSouth Asia whose experimentationswith democracy are marred by inter-ference from the army top brass aswell as extremist religious leaders.




One of the biggest achieve-ments of the Indian Constitution is theprotection of democratic rights sinceits inception. The success and failureof a democracy can be judged bylooking at its track record in the pro-tection of ‘right to freedom’. Any ero-sion of these rights can ultimately leadto the breakdown of the very Consti-tution of the country. We the citizensneed to be vigilant against the assaultto our rights. If we overlook these vio-lations today, it will be a licence forthe unscrupulous and unethical ele-ments to subvert our very democraticsystem. which we value greatly. Suchadmirable achievements notwith-standing, India is often characterisedby critics as a pseudo-democracy.The time is ripe enough to look backat the errors committed, to analysethe maladies that afflict the presentday political system. In other words,what ails Indian Democracy?

The reasons are not far to seek.India had failed in its primary demo-cratic responsibility of ensuring lib-erty and equality to the people. Fifty-six years since independence andstill, every night, one third of thepopulation goes to bed on an emptystomach. Thirty percent of the popu-lation lives below the poverty line,means to meet their consumption re-quirements, without access to safeand clean drinking water, sanitationor proper health facilities. Govern-ments have come and one, policieshave been framed and supposedlyimplemented. crores of rupees havebeen spent, and yet India staggersinto the New Millennium with millionsof disadvantaged people to whomevery day is nothing but a strugglefor existence. Surely it is a grave sinto talk about democracy and votingrights to a person lying oil an empty

stomach. The right to freedom is themost fundamental of the Fundamen-tal Rights in our Constitution. Withoutthis right the moral and intellectualdevelopment of a citizen cannot beachieved. Articles 19 to 22 describethis vital right in the Constitution,which is the very backbone of theFundamental Rights. Democracy ismeaningful only when these rights arefulfilled.

Of late, our Fundamental Rightsare under severe stress from certainelements in the state. In the name of‘national interest’ and ‘protection ofprivileges this ‘essence of democracyis being crucified by vested interests.’

Equality has also taken a beat-ing in a society totally raven by com-munal considerations. Casteism todayis perhaps more rampant than it everwas. Untouchability remains abol-ished only in theory, with frequentnewspaper reports of Dalits beingdenied entry to temples or otherpublic places. Class conflict, too ison the rise with entire Dalit familiesbeing massacred by upper class land-lords and the retaliatory violence thatthe Dalits indulge in to seek ven-geance. The dreams of Gandhiji foran egalitarian casteless society lieshattered on the ground. It is the po-litical parties, organized on castelines that thrive on such societal ten-sions and rivalries and perpetuate theanimosity between upper & lowercastes to serve their vested interests.

The liberal, humanistic prin-ciples which can result in the estab-lishment of a just and humane soci-ety have been subjected to criminalnegligence. Indian democracy signi-fies nothing greater than party poli-tics and elections. The very processof election has become suspect,marred as it is by allegations of rig-

ging, booth capturing and bogus vot-ing. A large number of police per-sonnel and paramilitary forces haveto be deployed lust to ensure thatlegitimate voters get opportunity toexercise their right to vote. Seriousdistortions are visible in the. demo-cratic process - a recent examplebeing the Panchayat elections in oneof the States where there were wide-spread allegations that candidatesbelonging to opposition parties badbeen prevented even from filing theirnomination papers - thus making asham of all the rhetoric about demo-cratic decentralization and grassrootsparticipation of people in demo-cratic process.

An unsatisfactory aspect of In-dian democracy is the practice ofdefection from one party to another-ironically justified on the basis of“democratic” considerations of free-dom of choice. The problem withIndian democracy is that it has beentransplanted recently and has not“grown” from the roots. “Governmentby the people is not and never canbe a reality; it is only a cry by whichdemagogues humbug us into votingfor them” said George Bernard Shaw.

All of this is direct fallout of thecriminalization of politics and thepoliticization of crime. The visionarygiants who led the country to inde-pendence and secured its futurethrough a democratic Constitutionhave all departed; the present dayleader is a creature driven greed andthe lust for power; he can resort toany measure to capture power andthen retain it. His value system iswarped, he is driven by narrow, self-ish, parochial interest and he does nothesitate in flexing muscle power toeliminate his opponents. Multipartydemocracy; so essential for a diverse




country like India, has come more asa bane titan a boon. Parties have be-come the vehicle for the leaders andfaithful to amass wealth and shieldthemselves from the law of land. Na-tional interest has been made sub-servient to parry cause: The motto is‘self before party. party before na-tion’. The Peoples RepresentationAct, 2002, passed in Parliament re-cently, exposes the shamelesslengths to which politicians - of allhues and colours - can go to save theirown skin.

A subversion of almost all demo-cratic norms and values has led to aseething wave of intolerance andhatred, searing and destroying thebonds of love and harmony that hadheld the society together for ages.Violence assumes many forms - ter-rorism, insurgency, and communaltension, violence against women andthrough it all, the fabric of the societygets distorted beyond recognition.Intolerant, ignorant about thecountry’s composite culture and heri-tage, devoid of any sense of history,people indulge in relentless, mean-ingless criticism of all things Indianand blindly imbibe whatever crumbsof Western culture come our way,courtesy globalization. Negative criti-cism is, however, not an attribute lim-ited to the uncomprehending masses- the august body of the parliamen-tary opposition. forgoing all attemptsat constructive criticism, utilizes ev-ery single opportunity to humiliateand embarrass the government.Quite literally, its function has beenreduced to mere opposition.

The question that naturally arisesis whether the form of British parlia-mentary democracy, which was to alarge extent imposed upon the na-tion without making sure whether the

people were ready for it, is actually asuitable method of governance for acountry like ours. The religious, eth-nic, racial and caste diversities aredeeply entrenched in the social ethosas well as the psyche of the peopleand they cannot be eradicated byjust wishing them away. Doubtless,the needs of a country like ours, arevastly different from Britain, a smallisland nation with a largely homoge-neous population.

The retrograde effect of Indiandemocracy has led a section of theeducated masses to clamour for anend to democratic rule. Instead, theyfavour a brief stint of martial law andmilitary dictatorship and justify theirdemand by arguing that such a stepwould help to restore discipline andconfidence among the masses andreverse the process of degenerationthat has set in. In fact, a lack of disci-pline and absence of national dedi-cation was one of the six fatal mis-takes which had brought the countryto its present sorry state, as pointedout by the great jurist late NaniPalkhivala. But it would be fallaciousto assume that respect for the rule oflaw can be enforced through a mili-tary government because such obe-dience based on fear of reprisalswould be transitory. Love for thecountry is something that comes fromwithin, through a proper appreciationof our unique social, cultural, histori-cal legacy. No other political setup,except a democracy permits an indi-vidual to think freely and reach thislevel of realisation.

In India, we are fortunateenough to possess firmly establishedand functioning democratic institu-tions. Their weakness is their rigidityand inflexibility, their inability toadapt themselves to the changing

times. Erosion of values has led toopacity of vision and this wrong canbe set right only by that section ofthe population which constitutes itsmajority-the youth. No hurdle is for-midable enough if people act to re-move it. Action is important today, asthe liberal educated intelligentsiaturn their faces away in disgust fromthe murky world of politics and gov-ernance. People who plead helpless-ness in the face of rampant corrup-tion are the very ones who sustain itby their silence acceptance of it.People who do not vote as a sign ofprotest are actually instrumental inperpetuating the lawlessness andanarchy around them.

CONCLUSION

Thus, it is thus clear that with-out a sense of discipline in all wakesof life, democracy is likely to turn intoanarchy, chaos and disorder. If wewish to preserve democracy in Indiawe will have to practice restraint anddiscipline each citizen.

The onus is on the youth of thecountry-to create awareness, tosensitise the illiterate masses, to en-able the downtrodden to ask for theirrights, to teach them that rights arealways accompanied by correspond-ing duties, to warn the politicians thatwe have borne the assault of the laststraw on our back and will not toler-ate any more. Democracy’s defectsdo not, however obscure its basicvalue. It guarantees freedom to theindividual albeit that freedom is cer-tainly restrained by virtue of mast’sliving in a society. The freedom iscertainly accompanied by certainresponsibilities. Self-defence and thedifficulty of judicious choice but ademocratic way of life alone comesnearest to satisfying the love of free-dom in man. S. K. Singh S. K. Singh S. K. Singh S. K. Singh S. K. Singh




The essence of democraticgovernance is Rule of law. Delayedjustice, poor appreciation of evi-dence, and incapacity to apply con-stitutional and legal principles to reallife situations play havoc withpeople’s lives. Failure of justiceextracts a heavy toll from the societyand economy. If we examine thependency of cases in courts, wecome across two factors. First, cer-tain judges handle a much larger caseload and yet dispose of cases swiftlyand fairly. Others take interminablytang, and yet fail to render justice.The quality of justice administereddepends on the quality of those whoadminister it. The judiciary is com-pletely independent and invulner-able to the vagaries of politics andpartisan pulls. The High Court hascomplete control over the conductand functioning of subordinatecourts. And there are established pro-cedures for elevation to High Courtand Supreme Court. Therefore, oncerecruitment practices are sound,

there are incentives for better per-formance and effective monitoring atleast until a judge is elevated to theHigh Court.

THE CENTRE is contemplatingcreation of an all India judicial ser-vice (AIJS) on the pattern of the AllIndia Civil Services. In its 15th report,the Parliamentary Standing Commit-tee on Law and Justice has recom-mended its creation and directed theLaw Ministry to take immediate stepsfor setting up such a service. As ofnow, while most government depart-ments have all India service recruits,selected after an all India competi-tive examination conducted by theUnion Public Service Commissionevery year, the judiciary is the onlyset-up that does not have an all Indiaselection process. Incidentally, theproposal for having an AIJS is not newand draws its support from the re-ports of the first, eighth and 11th lawcommissions. Even the SupremeCourt is not averse to the idea. For, intwo of its judgments in 1991 and

1993, it had recommended settingup of an all India judicial service. Ar-ticle 312 of the Constitution also pro-vides for a national level judicial ser-vice. In spite of all this, the proposaldid not get far in the process of con-cretization and has been hanging firefor over four decades now.

The current procedures to en-force accountability in higher judi-ciary are not so effective, but thatproblem needs to be dealt with sepa-rately. If judicial officers are accordedthe prestige and respect thatAll India Services enjoy, then thebest talent can be tapped for the ju-diciary. Then the control exercisedby the High Court, and the prospectsof elevation to High Court ensure highquality performance in district andother subordinate courts. At the veryleast, formation of anAll India Service for judiciary wouldensure a high level of competenceand skills in our justice administration.

Article 312 of the Indian Con-stitution provides for the creation of




an all-India Judicial Service commonto the Union and the States. The firstLaw Commission headed by M CSetalwad, had made a strong recom-mendation for the Constitution of anAll India Judicial Service (AJJS),like the IAS and IPS. Three Chief Jus-tices’ conferences in 1961, 63 and65 favored this recommendation. In1972, the Chief Justiceof India suggested the creation ofAJJS. Later, the 8th Law Commission,in its 77th Report, recommended cre-ation of such a service. In 1986, LawCommission again examined the is-sue in detail, and recommended for-mation of an All India Judicial Ser-vice. The Supreme Court consideredthis issue in the All India Judges casein 1992, and endorsed the creationof AIJS.

Undoubtedly our judge-popu-lation ratio is too low, and we needmany more trial courts. But as manyjurists have pointed out, mere in-crease in the number of judges, with-out improvement in their quality, is ofno avail. The quality of justice admin-istered critically depends on the qual-ity of the judges recruited. Clearly,there is a compelling case to create ahighly competent, meritocraticAll India Judicial Service. Creationof AJJS is a low-cost, high-impact re-form long overdue. There are manyother steps required to make our jus-

tice system work for the people. Butimproving the quality of judges, en-hancing the prestige and dignity ofjudicial service, and promoting com-petition for recruitment is a relativelysimple measure around which thereis impressive consensus. The creationof AUS will surely benefit the judi-ciary system and it is the need of hour.

If implemented, the scheme willhave its own advantages. Primarily, thedirect recruitment of judges from theentry level will be handled by an in-dependent and impartial agencythrough an open competition therebyensuring fair selection of incumbents.It would naturally help attract brightand capable young law graduates tothe judiciary to take over as judges.For subordinate judicial officers itwould ensure equitable service con-ditions besides providing them awider field to prove their mettle.

In this scheme of things, themeasure of uniformity in the standardsfor selection will improve the qualityof personnel in different High Courts,as one-third of the judges come thereon promotion from the subordinatecourts. Similarly, judges of the Su-preme Court are drawn from the HighCourts. In this process only personsof proven competence will presideover the benches of superior courts.Simultaneously, the quality of dispen-sation of justice will also improve con-

siderably right from the bottom to thetop.

In addition, the objective of in-ducting an outside element in HighCourt benches can be achieved bet-ter and without any problem becausea member of an all India judicial ser-vice will have no mental block aboutinterstate transfers.

However, critics of this featuremay say that a district judge comingfrom a different linguistic region willface the problem of language in as-sessing and tackling the critical legaland other issues of facts, which willaffect the quality of justice. True, lan-guage may be a problem but thatshould not be an argument forstraightaway rejecting the idea.Young recruits from outside can eas-ily learn the local language and adaptthemselves to local conditions unlikeolder people.

Nor should the finances in-volved in the formation of such a ju-dicial service pose any problem. Infact, the amounts collected as courtfees, at least, should be spent for thispurpose instead of being utilised asa source of general revenue of theStates. According to an agency re-port, figures from the Ministry of Lawand Justice show that the incomegenerated from court fees is morethan the expenditure incurred on theadministration of justice.

Amit Kumar Amit Kumar Amit Kumar Amit Kumar Amit Kumar

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Civil Services Mentor Dec2012

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