KOTHARI INSTITUTE

DATE-2Jun2014

NATIONAL NEWS

1. Telangana is born 2. Party worker is bigger than PM: Modi 3. T.N. to have 360 more ‘Amma Unavagams’

Business

1. Government cuts import tariff value on gold, silver

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. Soldier’s release hailed as an important step 2. In Ukraine, signs of a new U.S.-Russia proxy war 3. ‘Qatar won FIFA bid thanks to secret payments’ 4. Spanish King Juan Carlos to abdicate in favour of son: PM

EDITORIAL

A historic opportunity

Dear students here are the news from “THE HINDU” and “TIMES OF INDIA”

NATIONAL NEWS

HYDERABAD, June 2, 2014

Telangana is born

J.S. IFTHEKHAR

• CELEBRATIONS ON:Fireworks go off on Necklace Road in Hyderabad on Sunday midnight, marking the formation of Telangana.— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

•

Hope and excitement permeate every corner of the new State

As the countdown to the birth of Telangana, the 29th State of India, began on Sunday, celebrations erupted all over its territory. When dusk fell, the sky lit up in myriad colours of brilliant fireworks in several districts. People cheered, whistled, turned nostalgic and danced in gay abandon for Monday’s inauguration of the new State.

Women were playing ‘Batukamma’ on the main roads of all districts. Hyderabad led the celebrations with the People’s Plaza on the picturesque Necklace Road reflecting the joy and mirth.

Sporting pink scarves, Telangana supporters set about preparing for the big event. Even telephone greetings turned to “Jai Telangana” instead of the usual “hello.”

The entire stretch of Raj Bhavan Road was festooned in pink. The Old City too joined in the celebrations. Noted singer Khan Athar set the tone by rendering soulful ghazals and national integration songs at Charminar.

At Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress headquarters, State unit president Ponnala Laxman paid homage to Telangana martyrs. The BJP, and even the TDP and the YSR Congress Party also took part in celebrations.

TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao will be sworn in as Chief Minister at 8.15 a.m.

NEW DELHI, June 2, 2014

Party worker is bigger than PM: Modi

VINAY KUMAR

Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh and party workers welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday.— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

On the first Sunday after assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent considerable time with Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearers and workers at the party headquarters here, hailing their contribution in the impressive victory of the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Referring to the new government’s bold initiative of inviting leaders from SAARC countries to his swearing-in on May 26, Mr. Modi said it was a “right decision” which had sent a positive message to the world.

He asked the party workers to strive to uphold the trust of the people who have a lot of expectations from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was also present at the party headquarters.

Describing “karyakarta” (party worker) as bigger than the Prime Minister, Mr. Modi said the faith and trust reposed by the people in the BJP should never be betrayed.

While hailing the democratic traditions that are firmly rooted in the country, Mr. Modi said the BJP workers should remain steadfast in their commitment to public welfare.

CHENNAI, June 2, 2014

T.N. to have 360 more ‘Amma Unavagams’

L. RENGANATHAN

In a fresh bid to widen access to low-cost quality food, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has ordered opening of 360 more “Amma Unavagams,” the popular eateries, across Tamil Nadu. Among them 200 eateries would be set up in the Chennai Corporation limits. With this, the State would soon have 654 such canteens serving quality food at affordable rates.

In expanding this welfare scheme which benefits the poor, daily wage earners, labourers and migrant workers the most, Ms. Jayalalithaa directed that each of the 200 wards in the Chennai Corporation have an additional Amma Unavagam.

Besides these, 27 such eateries at the Government Headquarters Hospitals in 27 districts, 129 eateries in 124 municipalities, one each in the recently-created Dindigul and Thanjavur Corporations and one each in Madurai and Coimbatore Corporations are to be inaugurated.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said in a statement on Sunday that feeling the pulse of the people suffering from escalation of cost in food stuff, she had launched the cost effective eateries scheme with 15 Amma Unavagams in Chennai on February 19, 2013.

The surge in their popularity resulted in the scheme being extended to cover all the 200 wards in the Chennai Corporation. The three major Government Hospitals in Chennai have one eatery each out of a total of 203 canteens in the metro alone.

The Madurai Corporation boasts of 11 eateries while the other city corporations in the State have 10 each, making up a total of 294 ‘Amma canteens’ all over the State at present.

Infrastructure works were under way for establishing the eateries at Kilpauk Government Hospital, Royapettah Government Hospital, SRM Hospital and Kasturibai Gandhi Government Hospital.

The rationale behind setting up more such eateries was for several lakh more people to benefit from low-cost quality food in the AIADMK government's bid to fight hunger and malnutrition.

An estimated 2.5 lakh people visit and partake of food at the 203 eateries in Chennai city every day. That apart, the ‘Amma canteens’ provide livelihood to more than 5,000 staff involved in various capacities, informed sources said.

In fact, the popularity of the eateries attracted the attention of an Egyptian delegation that came calling at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai on Saturday and hailed the scheme as “remarkable.”

Earlier, a delegation from Rajasthan studied the salient features of the scheme and had lauded the concept and its execution, sources in the Chennai Corporation said.

The eateries, which mainly serve south Indian delicacies, have turned a huge draw.

The menu includes ‘idli’ at Re. one, ‘sambar rice’ for Rs. five, and ‘curd rice’ for Rs. three. In the Chennai Corporation areas, apart from these items, ‘pongal’, ‘lemon rice,’ ‘curry leaf rice,’ are priced at Rs. five each, while a plate of two ‘chappatis’ come for a mere Rs. three in the evenings.

Sources said that efforts are being taken to constantly monitor the quality of the food being prepared and served in the canteens.

While the State government is substantially subsidising the cost of the food, the objective is to cover more of the vulnerable sections of the urban poor. There is considerable demand to further extend the scheme to semi-urban and town panchayat areas.

BUSINESS

Government cuts import tariff value on gold, silver PTI | Jun 2, 2014, 02.35 PM IST

Government today slashed import tariff value on gold and silver to USD 408 per 10 grams and USD 617 per kg

respectively, in view of weakness in bullion prices globally.

NEW DELHI: Government today slashed import tariff value on gold and silver to USD

408 per 10 grams and USD 617 per kg respectively, in view of weakness in bullion

prices globally.

In the second fortnight of May, tariff value on imported gold stood at USD 424 per 10

grams and silver at USD 650 per kg.

The import tariff value - base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent

under-invoicing - is revised on a fortnightly basis taking into account the volatility in

global prices.

The reduction in tariff value on imported gold and silver has been notified by the Central

Board of Excise and Customs, an official statement said.

In the last few sessions, global gold prices have been ruling on a lower side as positive

US economic data backed the case for the Federal Reserve to keep on reducing

monetary stimulus which has dimmed the metal's appeal.

In Singapore, both gold and silver were trading down at USD 1,246.9 per ounce and

USD 18.70 per ounce respectively, today. Taking global cues, domestic gold rates in

the national capital touched 11 month low at Rs 27,400 per 10 grams.

Due to government curbs, the country's total gold and silver imports dropped 40 per

cent to USD 33.46 billion in 2013-14, as against USD 55.79 billion in the previous year.

Gold is the second largest import item for India after petroleum. The government had

taken several measures to curb gold shipments to address the high current account

deficit.

These measures include raising the import duty to 10 per cent on the metal and also

made it mandatory for traders to export 20 per cent of the imported gold.

INTERNATIONAL

KABUL, June 2, 2014

Soldier’s release hailed as an important step

• Signs celebrating U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release hang on the front of Zaney’s coffee shop in Hailey, Idaho, his hometown, on Saturday. (Inset) A file photo of Sgt. Bergdahl. —PHOTOS: AP, AFP

• Freed in exchange for five Taliban militants in a deal brokered by Qatar

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Sunday said a prisoner swap that freed soldier Bowe Bergdahl could create an “opening” for direct talks with the Taliban as the leader of the insurgents hailed the exchange as a “big victory”.

Mr. Bergdahl, the only U.S. soldier captured by the Taliban since the war began in 2001, was freed in exchange for five senior insurgent detainees as both parties claimed success for the dramatic deal, brokered by Qatar.

But the swap was criticised by several Republican lawmakers who demanded to know whether the Taliban prisoners would return to fighting the United States.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Hagel staunchly defended the trade as an effort to save Mr. Bergdahl’s life and said it could provide a breakthrough for peace in Afghanistan.

“So maybe this will be a new opening that can produce an agreement,” he said, noting that the United States had engaged in talks with the Taliban in the past.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban, also issued a rare statement praising the “big victory” for the Afghan Muslim nation in a sign seen by a government negotiator and some analysts as potential confidence building measure.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Hagel paid a brief unannounced visit to Bagram air base north of Kabul, where he met privately with more than a dozen of the team that carried out the exchange mission, according to The Washington Post .

“We believed that the information that we had, the intelligence that we had, was such that Sgt. Bergdahl’s safety and health were both in jeopardy and, in particular, his health was deteriorating,” he told U.S. media.

“It was our judgment that if we could find an opening and move very quickly... that we could get him out of there, essentially to save his life,” he added.

Mr. Bergdahl’s release came four days after President Barack Obama announced a timetable for a final U.S. pullout by end-2016.

The five Guantanamo prisoners were named as Mohammad Fazl, Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Abdul Haq Wasiq, all influential former officials of the Taliban regime toppled by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

Five Gitmo detainees

They were swapped for Idaho native Mr. Bergdahl, who disappeared from a base in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province.

A senior U.S. administration official confirmed that the United States had transferred the five Afghan Guantanamo detainees to Qatar, as did a Taliban statement which added the men were with their families. The men’s release had long been the main condition imposed by the Taliban to launch peace negotiations with the United States.

Mr. Obama appeared with Mr. Bergdahl’s parents at the White House to announce his release. — AFP

MOSCOW, June 2, 2014

In Ukraine, signs of a new U.S.-Russia proxy war

VLADIMIR RADYUHIN

A woman holds a poster while attending a pro-Russian rally in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Sunday. A Lenin statue is in the background. —PHOTO: AP

With Russia and the United States as far apart as ever on ways of resolving the crisis in Ukraine’s southeast, its outcome may well be decided on the battlefield.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has not spoken with U.S. President Barack Obama since Kiev launched its “anti-terrorist operation” against anti-government protesters in Russian speaking regions in the east six weeks ago.

Two telephone talks last week between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry showed just how irreconcilable their positions are.

While Mr. Lavrov urged Washington to pressure Kiev to “immediately cease military operations and begin direct negotiations with the south-eastern regions,” Mr. Kerry called on Moscow “to end all support for separatists, denounce their actions, and call on them to lay down their arms.”

While Moscow denounces the Ukrainian crackdown in the east as a “punitive operation” against the civilian population, Washington maintains that Kiev’s authorities “have every right to take steps to maintain law and order in their own country.”

Expanding U.S. aid

There are signs of a new proxy war warming up between Russia and the U.S. America’s Assistant Secretary of Defence Derek Chollet is coming to Kiev on Monday to discuss

expanding U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Over the past three months Washington has doubled its military assistance to Kiev, according to the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. German intelligence sources estimated that some 400 U.S. mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine against pro-Russian separatists.

On the other side of the frontline, there are “several hundred” Russian volunteers, according to Alexander Borodai, Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic.

The Ukrainian border guard service has reported several convoys of trucks with militants and weapons crossing the porous border from Russia in recent weeks.

Russia has refrained from openly supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine and still hopes to persuade Kiev to resolve the conflict by granting broad autonomy to the region.

Jury out of outcome

Even though the Ukrainian army has overwhelming superiority in weapons and manpower, experts say the jury is still out on the outcome of the standoff.

The fighting spirit of the Ukrainian army is low because many servicemen belong to the “old guard” and cannot not see Russia as an enemy, according to Andriy Parubiy, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council.

Ukraine’s Acting Defence Minister Mykhailo Koval admitted that the army is short of soldiers. Kiev is trying to solve the manpower problem by recruiting volunteers among radical nationalists in western Ukraine who see Russia as the main threat to Ukrainian nationhood.

The conflict in the east is fast morphing into civil war. This was in stark display earlier this month in Odessa, a peaceful multiethnic Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, where a group of ultranationalists from western Ukraine burnt alive and clubbed to death at least 48 pro-Russian activists.

Lieutenant General (Rtd) Yuri Netkachev thinks the conflict in eastern Ukraine is unfolding along the scenario of Transdienster, a breakaway territory of former Soviet state of Moldova.

LONDON, June 2, 2014

‘Qatar won FIFA bid thanks to secret payments’

PARVATHI MENON

Mohamed bin Hammam

Secret payments of more than $5 million to key football officials won Qatar the needed numbers in the executive committee (Exco) of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)to host the World Cup in 2022.

A special investigation by the Sunday TimesInsight team — and also reported on Sunday by the BBC — reveals that “millions of documents” leaked by a FIFA insider to the newspaper “expose how Qatar’s astonishing victory in the race to secure the right to host the 2022 tournament was sealed by a covert campaign by Mohammad bin Hammam, the country’s top football official.”

At the centre of this scandal is the Machiavellian persona of Mohammad bin Hammam, a Qatari construction billionaire and football official, who plotted and funded the operation that won Qatar the bid.

Mr. Bin Hammam was banned from football for life in July 2011 on allegations of bribery, reinstated a year later, and then issued with a second life ban by FIFA in December 2012 for “conflicts of interest” when he was president of the Asian Football Confederation.

However, in December 2010, when the bids for 2022 were put to the vote by FIFA’s executive committee (Exco), and went in favour of Qatar, he was president of the Asian Football Confederation and a vice-president of FIFA.

According to the Sunday Times , the revelation that Mr. Bin Hammam’s private company paid up to £200,000 into accounts controlled by the presidents of 30 African football associations who then directed the vote of the four voting members of the Exco from the African continent in Qatar’s favour. He is accused of hosting lavish parties for the African football association presidents; putting £1.6 m into the bank account of the

Exco member from Trinidad and Tobago; making payments to the Oceania Exco member; and channelling FIFA funds to the football association of Ivory Coast in return for that country’s Exco member’s support for Qatar.

The official Qatar bid committee has denied the Sunday Times allegations. It has always maintained that Mr. Bin Hammam is an “entirely separate” individual who had nothing to do with the Qatar bid.

Qatar has already been under considerable criticism for labour conditions on its World Cup construction sites where at least 964 migrant workers are believed to have died.

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Spanish King Juan Carlos to abdicate in favour of son: PM AP | Jun 2, 2014, 02.18 PM IST

Spanish King Juan Carlos plans to abdicate and pave way for his son to become country's king.

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says King Juan Carlos plans to

abdicate and pave the way for his son, Crown Prince Felipe, to become the country's

next king.

The 76-year-old Juan Carlos oversaw his country's transition from dictatorship to

democracy but has had repeated health problems in recent years.

His popularity also dipped following Royal scandals, including an elephant-shooting trip

he took in the middle of Spain's financial crisis that tarnished the monarch's image.

The king came to power in 1975, two days after the death of longtime dictator Francisco

Franco.

EDITORIAL

June 2, 2014

Updated: June 2, 2014 00:35 IST

A historic opportunity

The future should not be held hostage to the past. Telangana, India’s 29th State, comes into being today after a long and bitter struggle that was marked by much avoidable pain and suffering. But rather than dwell on the issues of the past, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have the opportunity to work out their future as neighbours held together by a sense of shared political and cultural history. True, in sharp contrast to the celebratory mood in Telangana, the people on the other side of the new dividing line remain wary of the immediate and lasting consequences of the bifurcation. However, the occasion of the birth of Telangana must serve as an opportunity to tackle the outstanding issues between the two States within the framework provided by the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Hyderabad will remain a joint capital for ten years, a period long enough to allow for reinvestment and resettlement. Allocation of employees, management of water resources and sharing of power are contentious subjects, but these can be settled through the available mechanisms. As K. Chandrasekhar Rao takes charge as Chief Minister of the new State, and N. Chandrababu Naidu as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the challenges might seem overwhelming. But if they keep the long-term interests of their people in mind, and not their own short-term political calculations, many of the seemingly insurmountable difficulties could disappear. The two sides might have taken hardline positions during their campaign and immediately after the election, but once in power they will hopefully find some meeting ground.

Andhra Pradesh was one State where the Lok Sabha election was dominated by a ‘local’ issue: the bifurcation of the State. Political parties that until the previous general election could boast of support across the regions found themselves relegated to one or the other of the two regions — Telangana and Seemandhra. Parties were defined by their stand on the bifurcation issue, and invariably this would have an impact on how the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Telugu Desam Party will formulate their policies on subjects that have relevance to any Telangana-Andhra Pradesh dispute. But not more than one election can be won on the basis of the bifurcation issue, and both parties must realise the importance of addressing the larger livelihood and security concerns of the people. There is little political purchase to be had in raising disputes between the two States as emotive issues that brook no compromise. Both Mr. Rao and Mr. Naidu will serve their States well if they adopt, as suggested by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, a consultative process in dispute resolution. The time for political rhetoric is now past.