The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 11th 2012

8/3/2019 The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 11th 2012

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THE HINDU

Imp. News

Feb.11th

2012

Page-1

Army Chief loses age war:

In a setback to General V.K. Singh, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in his plea,

pointing out that the Army Chief, who accepted the government's decision in determining his

date of birth as May 10, 1950 on three occasions, could not go back on his commitment. His

writ petition was disposed of as withdrawn. A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale,

however, made it clear that the question raised by Gen. Singh was not about the determination

of his actual DoB but it concerned the recognition of a particular DoB by the Defence Ministry in

the official service record.

Pakistan apex court rejects Gilani's plea in contempt case:

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday rejected the intra court appeal filed by Prime Minister

Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani against its February 2 order that asked him to appear before it on

February 13 to be formally charged with contempt. Immediately after the petition was rejected,

Prime Minister's lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters that Mr. Gilani would abide by the

summons and appear before the court on Monday. If held guilty of contempt, he could face loss

of office and a maximum of six months imprisonment. Disqualification from membership of

Parliament under Article 63 mandates a minimum of two years in prison. An eight-judge Bench,headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, dismissed the Prime Minister's petition

after a marathon argument by Mr. Ahsan.

Death sentence upheld in Mumbai blasts case:

The Bombay High Court on Friday confirmed the death sentence of three Lashkar-e-Taiba

operatives, including a couple, accused of the twin blasts in Mumbai in 2003 claiming the lives

of 52 persons and injuring over 100. Two bombs went off at the Gateway of India and Zaveri

Bazaar after the accused left them in the taxis to explode on August 25, 2003. It was the first

time that a married couple was involved in the attack. Five accused were arrested in the case.

They have been charged with two more terror attacks a bomb blast in a bus at Ghatkopar inJuly 28, 2003; and an unexploded bomb at the Seepz Bus Depot planted on December 2, 2002.

Special envoy leaves for Maldives:

The Government on Friday sent a special envoy, M. Ganapathi, Secretary (West) in the External

Affairs Ministry, to Male on Friday to assess the situation in the Maldives. Former


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President,Mohamed Nasheed, had claimed that he was ousted in a coup. I have sent an envoy

to Maldives to assess the situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters at the

India-EU summit here. Mr. Singh said that it was his sincere hope that the matter can be

resolved through peaceful dialogue.

India Show' starts in Lahore today:

Pakistan's Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim will inaugurate the three-day India

Show at Lahore Expo Centre. The show is being organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of

Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in collaboration with Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry

with support from Pakistan's Commerce Ministry and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and

Industry. Nearly 150 Indian companies will showcase their products during the show and it is

expected that business deals could also be finalised. It will be the first bilateral visit by an Indian

Commerce and Industry Minister to Pakistan. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma

will walk into the Pakistan territory through the Attari-Wagah border on February 13 to take

part in the India Show celebrations and also hold bilateral talks with Mr. Fahim.

EDITORIAL

The Russians are leaving Russia:

Andrei and Nadezhda are, by any measure, successful professionals and a happy family. They

are the kind of people who are supposed to be the mainstay of new Russia and the driving force

of its resurgence. Except that they are planning to leave this country for good. They live in the

ancient Russian city of Vladimir, about 200 km east of Moscow. Andrei, 40, and Nadezhda, 36,

have decent jobs, a two-bedroom flat and a car, and are raising two daughters, aged 10 and 4.

Four years ago they took a firm decision to emigrate. Why? We don't see a future for us here,says Nadezhda. Once a military and industrial giant, our country today is reduced to a raw

material appendage to other economic powerhouses. Look at our shops: You won't find any

goods made in Russia. Our well-being depends on the price of oil and on decisions taken by

politicians and economists in other countries. We don't feel we are needed here.

According to the Federal Migration Service, almost 30,000 left Russia in the 11 months of last

year. However, the figure includes only those who gave up their Russian passports, whereas

most migrs retain Russian citizenship. The Auditing Commission, last year, estimated on the

basis of tax returns that almost 1.25 million Russians had left during the past decade. Other

estimates put the number of migrs at 2 million. The shocking fact is that the exodus from

Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union is comparable to that in the wake of the October

1917 Bolshevik revolution. In those days Russians fled violence and hunger.

Last month, the 250-year-old Gusevsky Crystal Glass Factory, the main employer and tax-payer

in Gus-Khrustalny, a town of 60,000 residents less than an hour's drive from Vladimir, went

bankrupt and fired its remaining workers. Once famous for its beautiful designer crystalware,

Gus-Khrustalny, which means Crystal Goose, has recently made headlines as a town controlled


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by criminal gangs. The scandal broke out when residents complained to Mr. Putin of mass

extortion racketing that was patronised by local police.

The paper reported a fire in a municipal district administration in Vladimir that destroyed all

ballot papers of the December parliamentary election from two polling stations, where Mr.

Putin's party received over 90 per cent of the votes (twice the average for Vladimir). What ismore, the two polling stations never opened on the election day. Police blamed the fire on

faulty electrical wiring.

What changes can we hope for in a country where authorities act with such impunity, asked

Nadezhda. Putin's decision to return as President has only strengthened our resolve to

emigrate.

A past that will not pass:

Consider this for the volatility of present times in Gujarat. On Wednesday, the Gujarat High

Court lit into the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of inaction and negligence resulting

in the destruction of over 500 Muslim places of worship during the 2002 post-Godhra pogrom.

Rejecting the State government's portrayal of the violence as a general reaction to the

February 27, 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar

Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala ordered compensation to be paid for the defilement

and destruction, noting that in the absence of police intelligence and appropriate preventive

action, anarchy had reigned unabated in Gujarat. Twenty-four hours after the

sledgehammer indictment came news of a different kind: Mr. Modi had been cleared of the

charge of abetting the 2002 violence in a final report filed to the magisterial court by the

Special Investigation Team probing Zakia Jafri's omnibus complaint against the Chief Minister

and 61 others.

But whatever the final view taken by the courts on his individual legal culpability for the tragedy

of Gujarat, Mr. Modi should know this much. The fact that he remained at best a mute

spectator to the killing of hundreds of innocent citizens and did nothing to ensure justice for the

victims afterwards is a moral and political badge of dishonour that will ensure the higher office

his supporters seek for him remains out of reach.

Murder in the classroom:

Many factors are at play, some of them at larger societal levels that are not easily controllable.

Blaming parenting is easy, but this is no more than a way of absolving the rest of society of all

responsibility. There is nothing to suggest the boy was brought up in abnormal circumstances;

all his siblings have done well for themselves. By locating the murder in the specificity of the

circumstances, other problematic issues are brushed under the carpet. Of course, parents bear

a greater share of the responsibility for the behaviour of their children, but bad parenting

cannot explain all deviant behaviour. While several things are wrong with our education

system, including the processes of examination and evaluation, these cannot be understood as


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major contributors to the violence in schools. Films and other forms of popular culture also

have an impact on young minds, but then again, it would be simplistic to relate them directly to

real-life violence. The fact is children do not occupy an innocent world of their own; they are

very much a part of the nasty, adult universe. At one level, then, the teacher's murder is

indicative of a collective failure of society our schools cannot remain untouched when the

world outside is not peaceful, fair and just. But we need also to pursue remedies at the schoollevel itself, including counselling and other early warning systems that can help children cope

with the stress and strain of learning.

OP ED

Pakistan's judiciary faces criticism for overreach':

One photograph that many a Pakistani newspaper had on Thursday morning was of lawyer

Aitzaz Ahsan driving the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to court during

the lawyers' movement for restoration of the higher judiciary. Once iconic, that photograph is

now ironic. Mr. Ahsan was the Chief Justice's counsel when he legally fought his removal by the

military ruler Pervez Musharraf. After the Supreme Court reinstated Mr. Chaudhry, the much

feted Mr. Ahsan vowed he would never appear before his former client. Unhappy with the

court's verdict in the memogate' case, Asma Jehangir risked being hauled up for contempt by

the Supreme Court to ask if this is the judiciary of the people or judiciary of the

establishment.

For diehard PPP supporters, the Supreme Court's prompt attention to some of the cases smacks

of its traditional anti-PPP bias, epitomised in what is referred to as the judicial murder of

party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Viewing the judicial activism in the context of jockeying for

power and influence in the formative phase of democratic transition, political analyst HasanAskari Rizvi warned that the increased tension between the elected executive and non-elected

Supreme Court could be used by the opposition to destabilise the government. Given the state

of affairs in the country and maintaining that the military's capacity should not be

underestimated, he wrote in Pakistan Today : In case of direct military intervention, the

superior judiciary will also be removed. Thus, the decline and discredit of democracy endangers

independent judiciary.

Paradise is perched on the edge of hell

The young man in the striped brown t-shirt had patiently waited his turn to put a question at a

giant gathering the Mumbai-based neo-fundamentalist preacher Zakir Naik addressed in Mal

on May 28, 2010. I'm a Maldivian, Mohamed Nazim said, [but] I am not a Muslim. He

demanded to know what Dr. Naik believed ought be his punishment under shari'a law.

Ever since September 2007, when a bomb targeting Chinese, Japanese and British tourists went

off in Mal's Sultan Park, security experts have feared a paradise for jihadists instead of

tourists. Its 1,200-plus islands are near-impossible to police, which means terrorists could use


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them as bases to target India's western seaboard and even Europe. The Maldives' New Islamist

movement came to be known as the Dot Coms, a reference to the online sources of

theological resources. Mr Jaleel's faction studied the works of Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin-

Laden's mentor and the Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder. In 2002, a study estimated that 11 of every

1,000 Maldives citizens was divorced against four in 1,000 in the United States, and 0.5 in

1,000 in Turkey, making it the worst country for marriages of 92 surveyed.

INTERNATIONAL

Ijaz permitted to record statement via video link:

As the Supreme Court's rejection of the Prime Minister's appeal sent Pakistan's political class

and analysts into a spin came news of the judicial commission on memogate' allowing

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to record his statement via video link from

London thereby reviving a matter that appeared to have eased just last week.

Wen strikes a markedly different tone on Tibet:

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday greater efforts would be made by the government

to protect Tibetans' cultural traditions and religious freedom, amid ongoing unrest in the north-

west that has seen at least 16 self-immolation protests in recent months. Chen Quango,

Communist Party chief in Tibet, had said on Thursday an on-going fight against the Dalai Lama

clique was long-term, complicated and sometimes even acute.

Norbu was appointed by Beijing in 1995 in controversial circumstances in place of Gendun

Choekyi Nyima, who had earlier been selected by the Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of

the Panchen Lama. Nyima disappeared the same year, but is still worshipped by many Tibetansin China as the 11th Panchen. The Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since 1959, says he is only

seeking genuine autonomy for Tibetans and the protection of their religious and cultural rights.

Overseas groups reported in recent days four more self-immolation protests, as well as the

killing of two Tibetans, accused of being involved in recent clashes, by the police. These

incidents have however not been confirmed by the authorities.

Powerful bombings in Syria's most populous city Aleppo expand conflict:

Two powerful car bombings on Friday in Syria's most populous city of Aleppo has escalated the

nationwide contest for political ascendancy but also seemingly diverted some attention from

the embattled city of Homs where perceptions of gross human rights violations has put the

regime of President Bashar Al Assad firmly on the defensive.

The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has also weighed in unambiguously against

the Assad regime, citing the humanitarian situation in Homs. I fear that the appalling brutality

we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighbourhoods, is a grim

harbinger of worse to come, he observed.


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Nuclear weapons: U.S. must put its house in order first, says report:

Even as the United States continues to exert pressure against India and other emerging powers

for not falling in line with its vision for a global nuclear order, a stinging report by a major

watchdog has revealed that the U.S.' own nuclear weapons are potentially unstable and critical

intra-agency guidance on maintaining nuclear safety has been vague. In a report that sharplychastised the nodal National Nuclear Security Administration for not sufficiently briefing the

Pentagon on dangers lurking within the U.S.' ageing nuclear weapons stockpile, the

Government Accountability Office this week drew attention to the euphemistically-named issue

of limitations.

The GAO's investigation into whether the NNSA had helped mitigate the 52 limitations it

identified revealed, worryingly, that the guidance that the NNSA had been supplying the

Pentagon on this subject comprised statements that... contain highly technical information

and vague wording and may not clearly communicate a limitation's potential impact on

stockpile operation, maintenance, and war planning. Citing one disturbing example based on

its interview with a military service lead project officer, the GAO said when this officer had

sought to clarify the impact that a particular limitation may have on weapon reliability with

officials at a national laboratory, his efforts were inconclusive and... for this particular

limitation, NNSA's guidance provides little additional technical information and concludes that

the weapon may not operate as required in a particular delivery mode, and the recommended

mitigation action is to have laboratory staff brief STRATCOM war planners.

BUSINESS

Numeric sells UPS business to Legrand in over Rs.800-cr deal:

Electrical equipment major Numeric Power Systems has decided to sell its UPS (uninterrupted

power system) business to Legrand Group of France for a total consideration of Rs.806.44

crore. Numeric Power has initialled a definitive agreement to this effect with the French Group.

It has also entered into a deal to sell Numeric Lanka Technologies, a fully-owned subsidiary of

Numeric Power Systems, to Indo-Asian Electric Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of Legrand France, for

Rs.9.36 crore .Numeric board also approved the sale of the UPS business undertaking of

Numeric Power System Pte. Limited (a 100 per cent subsidiary in Singapore), to a Singapore

affiliate of Legrand France S.A. for an aggregate consideration of $ 4.5 million.

Tata Motors to drive into Indonesia with Ace:

The next international stop for automobile giant Tata Motors is Indonesia where it plans to

soon start assembly of the successful Ace range of light commercial vehicles. We are looking at

Indonesia quite seriously which, in several ways, is a replica of the Indian market, P. M. Telang,

Managing Director (India Operations), Tata Motors.


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A top official of the company, however, said that the Ace will be the first model that the

company would assemble in the Southeast Asian country. This will be followed by passenger

vehicles, the official said. The knocked down kits of Ace meant for assembly in Indonesia will

be supplied from India. Tata Motors launched the Ace branded as Ace Super City Giant in

Thailand in November 2010. It has an assembly plant in Bangkok as a joint venture with the

Thonburi Group which assembles pick-up trucks for the Thai market.

Paperless insurance in a year: IRDA-

The insurance sector will be moving towards paperless model in a year, said Insurance

Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman J. Hari Narayan here on Friday. About three

to four companies were shortlisted to manage the repository. To begin with, five crore to six

crore insurance policies taken by consumers in a year could be fed into the database while the

backlog data would be gradually ported, he said. It would function like National Securities

Depository Limited (NSDL) that handled most of the securities held and settled in

dematerialised form in the Indian capital market, he said.

DGH to extend search period in KG, Mahanadi basins:

Even as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is in the process of tying up with strategic

partners for collaboration, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has agreed to

extend the exploration period of major gas blocks, two each in the KG and Mahanadi basins,

to carry out further appraisal. In the KG-DWN-98/2 in the northern discovery area (NDA), the

period has been extended to 2013 and that of KG-DWN-98/2 in the south discovery area (SDA)

to end of 2012 to carry out appraisal. It has also agreed to extend the exploration period of two

Mahanadi blocks for carrying out appraisal in MH-OSN-200/2 and that of MN-DWN-98/3 to end

of 2012. ONGC plans to start producing natural gas from these blocks in the Bay of Bengal in2016-17. In-place gas reserves of 3.42 trillion cubic feet have been established in block KG-

DWN-98/2 in the KG basin. Of this, 1.904 trillion cubic feet (tcf) is recoverable. Seven of the

finds are in the Northern part of the block, where Cairn India holds a minority 10 per cent stake.

FDI worth Rs.1,034 cr cleared:

The Central Government on Friday approved 20 foreign direct investment proposals (FDI),

including that of Fluke South East Asia Pte, APF II India Investments Mauritius and Edict

Pharmaceuticals, that envisage a total investment of Rs.1,034.37 crore. The proposals were

cleared following recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The

government cleared Singapore-based Fluke South East Asia Pte's Rs.400 crore proposal to

incorporate an investing company to make downstream investments in other Indian firms

engaged in wholesale trading and related activities. Besides, the Board cleared a proposal of

Mauritius-based APF II India Investments Pvt Ltd's investment of Rs.300 crore.


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The proposal of Mauritius-based Multiples Private Equity Fund I Ltd seeking induction of foreign

equity worth Rs.50.94 crore for acquisition of equity shares of a company engaged in the

operation of automated and online power exchange was also cleared.

Analjit Singh to head Vodafone India:

Telecom major Vodafone has appointed Max India founder Analjit Singh as the non-executive

Chairman of its India operations. The appointment is effective from February 16 following

formal approval from the Board of Vodafone India. Mr. Singh is the founder and Chairman of

Max India as well as its subsidiaries such as Max New York Life Insurance Company, Max

Healthcare Institute and Max Bupa Health Insurance Company.

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Don't trade away our lives:

Because of the competition among generics producers in India, the price of first-line HIV

medicines has dropped by more than 99 per cent since 2000. This significant price decrease has

supported the massive expansion of HIV treatment worldwide. More than 80 per cent of the

HIV medicines used to treat 6.6 million people in developing countries come from Indian

producers, and 90 per cent of paediatric HIV medicines are Indian-produced. MSF and other

treatment providers also use Indian generic medicines to treat other diseases and conditions.

Existing trade rules already limit the possibility of making generic versions of new medicines,

but the EU-India FTA threatens to make this situation even worse, by creating new intellectual

property (IP) barriers, noted protestors. This trade deal would go far beyond what India has

agreed to at the World Trade Organisation. The EU wants India to agree to IP enforcement

measures that could block medicines at Indian ports on their way to patients in otherdeveloping countries, and could even draw treatment providers into court proceedings. These

provisions are designed to delay the entry of generic producers into the market and will

adversely affect the right to health of patients not only in India but across the developing

world, said Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit director Anand Grover.

Veteran film-maker O. P. Dutta passes away:

Veteran Bollywood writer-filmmaker O. P. Dutta has passed away following a bout of

pneumonia at Kokilaben Hospital here in suburban Andheri. The end came on Thursday night

around 9-30 p.m. According to Dr. Ram Narain, COOof Kokilaben Hospital, Mr. Dutta was

admitted to the hospital on February 7 and he succumbed to complications of pneumonia on

Thursday. The film-maker, who was in his late 80s, began his career as a director with Pyaar Ki

Jeet' in 1948, followed by Surajmukhi' (1950), Ek Nazar' (1951), Malkin' (1953), Aangan'

(1959) and others. Later he turned writer for his son J. P. Dutta with films like Ghulami'(1985),

Hathyar' (1989), Border' (1997), Refugee' (2000), LoC Kargil' (2003) and, his last film as a

writer, Umrao Jaan'(2006).


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Page 10

No breakthrough in the Maldives:

The Indian government is suggesting that we find a peaceful path and amicable settlement.

And we are all trying to work out an amicable settlement, Mr. Nasheed said when asked abouthis meeting with the Indian envoy M. Ganapathi, who is Secretary (West) with the Ministry of

External Affairs. But he was firm on fresh Presidential elections, he told Mr. Ganapathi. Mr.

Nasheed told the U.N. delegation that anyone who went by the Maldivian Constitution would

support his position. His party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), would go it alone in the

elections, Mr. Nasheed said. He wanted the Speaker to act as the interim administrator for two

months, by which time, the elections could be held. Mr. Nasheed insisted that he was not

relying on the international community to do this. We are relying upon the people of the

Maldives to do this, he said. Dr. Waheed has been struggling to form a government. He does

not have a single member in parliament from his party, no councillors, and those who had

promised to join his Cabinet have not done so. But Abdulla Yameen, parliamentary party leader

of the Progressive Party of Maldives, and former President Gayoom's half-brother, said the

formation of a government and Cabinet took time. After all of the Cabinet resigned when

Nasheed was President, it took several days to form a Cabinet. Dr. Waheed is serious about

including all parties and making it a unity government in its truest sense,

Interceptor missile scores with direct hit:

India moved closer to the deployment of the fledgling, home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence

(BMD) system on Friday when an interceptor missile achieved a direct hit and destroyed an

incoming target missile at an altitude of 15 km over the Bay of Bengal. With this success, India

joined a select band of four countries which have ballistic missile defence capabilities.

India plans to put in place a two-tiered BMD system in two phases for endo and exo-

atmospheric interception of incoming enemy missiles. While the first phase seeks to intercept

and kill ballistic missiles having a range of less than 2,000 km, the second phase envisages

destroying those with ranges of more than 2,000 km. Another interceptor missile test for

interception in endo-atmosphere of an incoming target missile at an altitude of 120 km would

be conducted in the next few months. A new missile was being developed for that exercise and

it was in an advanced stage, he added.

Most advanced MCC deployed:

The Mission Control Centre for the AAD Interceptor trial held on Friday was deployed in

Master-Slave configuration at DRDO Hyderabad and Wheeler Island, Orissa to ensure high

availability with built-in fault tolerance at each location. The MCC of the Indian BMD

programme is one of the most advanced, automated net-centric Command and Control

systems in the world, a DRDO press release said.


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Page 20

Redesign programmes taking States' needs into account, says Jairam:

The time has come to re-design and re-structure the approach to rural development by taking

into account specific needs of States, focussing more on the outcome, making drinking waterand sanitation as priority areas and above all making it as a tool in the government's political

and ideological fight against Naxalism, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh

said here on Friday. Stressing the need for giving freedom to States in selecting the priority area

after due considering of local needs, he noted that currently all States are treated identically

while evolving programmes. I want to give more freedom to States so that they can spend

money for the programmes that they select. By end of 12{+t}{+h}plan 50 per cent of the money

provided by Centre should be used for programmes selected by the States. I have suggested to

the Finance Minister that this year in the Budget 10 per cent of the funds be tied as flexi funds,

he said.

Pointing out that drinking water and sanitation were the two areas that did not get due

importance, he said it was a shame that 60 per cent of all open defecations are in India. There is

a need for a bold new thrust in the area of drinking water and sanitation. He said 70 per cent of

funds in MGNREGA was being spent for water conservation, rainwater harvesting and

watershed management programmes. Expressing dismay at the way the Centrally-sponsored

schemes were being implemented in States, Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office

V.Narayanasamy said there was a need for a system to be put in place to ensure that the

money was spent purposefully. Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy,

Social Welfare Minister P. Rajavelu, Electricity Minister T. Thyagarajan also attended the

inaugural session.

The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 11th 2012

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