the hindu imp. news feb. 6th 2012

8/3/2019 The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 6th 2012

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THE HINDU

Imp. News

Feb.6th

2012

Page-1

Report hints at collusive behavior' in Antrix-Devas deal:

In their stinging indictments, two government-appointed committees, set up to scrutinize the

Antrix-Devas agreement, have highlighted serious procedural lapses on the part of, and policy

violations by, senior scientists of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), all of which

benefited a private company. Under the January 2005 agreement between the Antrix

Corporation, marketing wing of ISRO, and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Private

Limited, Devas was allowed unrestricted use of 70 MHz of the scarce S-band spectrum from two

exclusive satellites. The Pratyush Sinha report lists another four bureaucrats found responsiblefor the acts of omission: the former Member (Finance), Space Commission, S.S.

Meenakshisundaram; and three former Additional Secretaries of the Department of Space,

Veena S. Rao, G. Balachandhran and R.G. Nadadur.

Yuvraj Singh in U.S. for cancer treatment:

World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh is trying to relive his role. The crucial difference is, now he is

fighting for his life and not for sporting glory. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he is undergoing

treatment in the U.S., with the tumour reportedly showing signs of malignancy. There were

moments during the World Cup when he woke up at night, gasping for breath, coughing andfeeling drained out. He continued playing, ignoring the ailment at great peril to his life. His all-

round efforts played the most significant role in India lifting the Cup. Much after the euphoria

died down, it dawned on Yuvraj and his family that not all was well.

Will not wait beyond March 27: GJM-

In an indictment of the Trinamool-Congress-led government in West Bengal, which could mean

a fresh spell of political unrest in the Darjeeling hills in the months ahead, the Gorkha Janamukti

Morcha (GJM) leadership on Sunday accused it of dragging its feet over the formation of the

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the autonomous body that has been proposed for

the region. Reiterating that the deadline set by the government for the formation of the GTAwas March 27, GJM president Bimal Gurung told a congregation of party-workers in Darjeeling

that if the body was not set up by then, the GJM would not wait any longer. Mr. Gurung said

the party would announce its next course of action on April 17.

Amid unrest, Wen pledges to protect farmers' rights:





A month after the southern Chinese village of Wukan rose up in open rebellion against the local

Communist Party leadership over land grabs, Premier Wen Jiabao has assured farmers their

rights would be protected as Beijing looks to address rising rural unrest ahead of a crucial

leadership transition. Last week, Wukan's villagers, for the first time in years, had an open

election to choose their election committees. Electoral contests had been stage-managed by

party-backed officials for decades, before the local-leadership was finally thrown out byprotesting farmers, who were subsequently given backing by the provincial government.

EDITORIAL

Believe me, Muslims are not a herd:

The vote bank theory has been convenient for labelling Muslims and shoving them into handy

brackets. It was done in India to explain the political behavior of Muslims across regional,

linguistic, caste, class and social barriers. Today it is done globally to gloss over inconvenient

and inconsistent behavior: it is a one-size fits all formula that cuts across regions and rides over

locational differences and circumstances. Whether they are Thai, Chechen, Palestinian or

European, Muslims are judged unfailingly by their faith and so-called beliefs. In this foretold

story, everything is pre-decided: the crime, the culprit, the cause, the evidence and the

punishment. The Muslim Ulema refuse to accept the ground reality of Islam in India which is as

much mired in caste politics as any other Indian religion. The plain truth is that Muslim society

is as divided as Hindu society and along the same caste and regional lines. Caste is such a

formidable Indian/Hindu institution that no ideology can escape it: Islam, Christianity, Marxism,

rationalism, modernism have all floundered on the bedrock of this hard reality. Islam became

acceptable in medieval Indian society as a caste group and not as a religious group. Mughals,

Pathans, Turks, Sheikhs and Syeds were regarded as sub-castes, so much so that other Indian

converts to Islam came to be conveniently regarded as outcasts.

A tragic impasse:

Russia and China may have acted rashly in vetoing a sharply worded draft United Nations

Security Council Resolution on Syria but the United States, France and Britain who have

reacted with predictable fury cannot escape their responsibility for an impasse which leaves

the world unable to act on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in that country. India voted for

the draft, noting that it expressly rules out intervention in Syria under Article 42 of the U.N.

Charter, and supporting the resolution's call for political dialogue between President Bashar al-

Assad's government and opposition groups under the auspices of the Arab League.

The U.N. resolution of March 2011 imposed only a no-fly zone but served, in reality, as a cover

for NATO's aim of violent regime change there. Today, Russia and China both believe they were

deceived into abstaining rather than using their veto. The P-5 and Arab League, along with

India, Brazil and South Africa, must go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan

of action that can end the violence and set the stage for a Syrian-led political solution.





Come rich, come single:

Given the biting austerity and high unemployment they are presiding over, it is hardly surprising

that the Tories in the current Liberal-Conservative coalition in the United Kingdom should seek

refuge in tougher immigration rules. Immigration Minister Damian Green's recent observations

on restricting British visas only to the wealthy, the highly skilled and the very best in otherrespects seem unexceptionable but are, if anything, aimed at preparing the ground for the

adoption of a controversial policy to curb family migration. The government-sponsored

Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report of last October sets new income criteria for

citizens and settled residents who wish to sponsor foreign spouses or children. It proposes a

minimum threshold where a person's salary before tax would be above the amount that would

entitle him or her to income-related benefits. A January 2012 report of the MAC also claims a

strong correlation between non-European immigration and the displacement of British

workers.

It is ironic, given that commitment to the family is an oft repeated conservative platitude, that

the Cameron government should seek to put in place policies that would allow the right to

family life only to those British residents who are affluent and deny it to working people whose

income is less than the cut-off. Therein lies the harshness of the new criteria. Indeed, their

application could attract legal challenge for violating Article 8 of the European Convention on

Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i.e. the right to respect for private and family life.

OP ED

Dazzling images do not a shining nation make:

In the past few years, residents and visitors to Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF)have become familiar with a spectacular annual phenomenon. Streets, buses, cafés and even

billboards in half empty parking lots are covered with colourful images of emerging nations

competing with one another to position themselves as the most attractive investment

destination in the world. The most prominent players are some of the BRICS mainly Brazil,

Russia, India and South Africa. New players such as Mexico, Thailand and even Azerbaijan which

mounted dazzling image campaigns to attract investor eyeballs. The main streets of Davos

turned in effect, into a site for exhibiting these emerging nations in a never ending mobile

exposition of seductive images.

It is not uncommon to hear stories of shock and disappointment upon arrival from the very

members of the privileged global class that the Indian state so wants to attract. Not surprising,

as the questions of poverty, inequality and social inequity in India remain as much part of the

Indian growth story as the middle class prosperity despite their effacement from the image

world. Despite high growth rates over the past decades, India remains at the bottom of BRICS in

terms of income disparity and human development of its citizens.

MFN status, lost in translation:





Not for nothing is the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) known as the Harvard

of Pakistan. It attracts the best students in the country. It is also stiff on the pocket, so it is an

island of privilege, though the University financially supports deserving, but not well-off,

students. LUMS has also mopped up some of the best brains in Pakistan for its faculty. Despite

some Jamat-e-Islami inclined students, it remains a liberal bastion in the heart of Punjab.

The good news about cancer:

Yuvraj is stricken with cancer today, but why the long faces? All kinds of people have had

cancer, battled with it and emerged winners. The C' word no longer evokes the dread it once

did and there are several good reasons for this. Gone are the days, for example, when a

woman's entire breast was removed, including the lymph nodes under her arm which severely

impacted her ability to use her arm again, after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Removal of the

malignant lump in the breast, followed by radiotherapy, is the preferred course of treatment

now at any reputable cancer institution.

New machines are so accurate that the negative side-effects associated with exposure to

radiation have been almost eliminated. This has resulted in both enhanced survival and a better

quality of life after treatment. So while we may feel sorry for Yuvraj, let us remember that when

it comes to treating cancer successfully we are today in the golden age and Yuvi has a number

of factors working in his favour. He is young, suffers from no other chronic condition and is

healthy given his sporting background. More than that, he has shown time and again that he is

a man who can rise to the occasion when asked to do so. What he now needs from those

around him and from all of us, his well-wishers, is an equal belief in his ability to fight back and

hit cancer for a six.

INTERNATIONAL

U.S. plan shift Afghan role to Special Op forces:

The United States' plan to wind down its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than

expected relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt militant leaders

and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers. These forces

could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014. Unlike in Iraq, where

domestic political pressure gave Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reason to resist a continued U.S.

military presence into 2012, in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai and his senior aides have

expressed an initial willingness to continue a partnership with the United States that includes

counterterrorism missions and training. Senior U.S. officials have also expressed a desire to

keep some training and counterterrorism troops in Afghanistan past 2014. The transition plan

for the next three years in Afghanistan could be a model for such a continued military

relationship.





West's move to form group of friends of Syrian people:

The double veto by Russia and China, which caused the collapse of the draft resolution, that

was supported by 13 of the 15 Council members, including India, visibly upset the Western

nations, especially the U.S. and France.

Castro comes out with memoirs:

Cuban leader Fidel Castro presented two volumes of his memoir entitled Time Guerrilla in a

ceremony that marked his first public appearance since last April, Cuban media reported. The

memoirs trace his life from infancy until 1958, when he succeeded in leading a revolution that

turned Cuba into a Communist country aligned with the Soviet Union.

Romney wins in Nevada but Gingrich fights on:

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney romped to victory in the Nevada caucuses late

on Saturday, cementing his position as frontrunner. But his main rival, former House speaker

Newt Gingrich, who came second, vowed to fight till August for nomination, which he insists he

can still win.

Hedge your bet, plants talk''-

Prince Charles has long been mocked for claiming that plants could talk but now he can afford

to have the last laugh as researchers say it is indeed true. In fact, they claim to have caught

them the first time whispering on camera.

According to scientists at Britain's Exeter University, a cabbage was heard'' warning itsneighbours of trouble ahead after it had a leaf snipped with scissors. They said they were able

to detect the process by modifying a cabbage gene which triggers the production of a gas that

is emitted when a plant's surface is cut or pierced.

By adding the protein luciferase which makes fireflies glow in the dark to the DNA, the

plants' emissions could be monitored on camera. One cabbage plant had a leaf cut off with

scissors and started emitting a gas methyl jasmonate thereby telling' its neighbours there

may be trouble ahead.

Two nearby cabbage plants, which had not been touched, received the message they should

protect themselves. They did this by producing toxic chemicals on the leaves to fend off predators such as caterpillars,'' the Mail newspaper reported.

The footage will be the highlight of a forthcoming BBC series on plants by Iain Stewart,

professor of Geoscience Communication who saw the experiment at Exeter University.





It's fascinating to realise that there could be a constant chatter going on between different

plants, that they can in some way sense chemically what is happening to others, like a hidden

language which could be going on all around us. Most people assume that plants lead a rather

passive life, but in reality they move and sense and communicate. It's almost like they show a

kind of intelligence,'' he said.

Professor Nick Smirnoff, a biochemist who led the experiment, said: We have managed to

show in a visual way that the gas emitted by plants when they have been wounded affects their

neighbours.''

P rince Charles can now have the last laugh

BUSINESS

The data divergence:

It may be trite to say that not just policymakers but even the typical man on the street is

evidencing great interest in the economic growth prospects in a way never seen before. The

focus on growth and broad appeal, which previously arcane matters such as GDP statistics, per

capita consumption and a host of periodic economic indicators, is a natural outcome of

economic reform, liberalization and globalization. In 2010-11, according to CSO statistics, the

economy grew 8.4 per cent. Right at the beginning of this financial year, there were warning

signals from within the country and abroad. Even so, official estimates of a year ago in the

Economic Survey and the Budget were overly optimistic, projecting a growth rate of 8.75-

9.25 per cent.

Needed, caring capitalism:

Corporate chieftains, political leaders, social activists, academicians and global young leaders

had all assembled around the end of January in Davos (Switzerland) for the week-long annual

meeting of the World Economic Forum. They were in a mood to question everything, starting

from the steps being taken to finding a just resolution to the eurozone crisis to the problems

posed by capitalism. The theme, The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models', clearly

indicated that as a global society, we were at an inflexion point. Trouble was not only with the

western nations, which were yet to overcome their economic issues. China, the emerging

power, was entering a year of transition to a new leadership.

Forex reserves up $673 million at $294 billion:

India's foreign exchange reserves rose for the second consecutive week, increasing by $673.4

million to $293.93 billion during the week ended January 27 from $293.256 billion in the

previous week the Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical supplement.





Page 3

New breeding ground for Black-necked Stork:

A new breeding site for the rare Black-necked Storks has been observed by a group of wildlife

enthusiasts near Udaipur in Rajasthan. The place, a wetland near the Dhabok airport, is said tobe the second known breeding ground for the Black-necked Stork ( Ephi ppior hynchus asiati cus )

in Rajasthan after the celebrated wetland, Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur.

Page -8

Norms and procedures flouted in Antrix-Devas deal:

Last year, the government first asked a high-power committee to review the technical,

commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the January, 2005 agreement between Antrix

Corporation, the marketing wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the

Bangalore-based private company, Devas Multimedia.

Further, both committees pointed out that the Insat Coordination Committee (ICC), which was

established in 1977 for the overall management of the Insat communication satellites, had not

met since 2004, and was bypassed when 90 per cent of the capacity on the two custom-built

satellites had been allocated to Devas. There was also a national security impact as a result of

the transponder allocation to Devas not being cleared by the ICC. The allocation of a large part

of the S-band spectrum to the company was an unjustified risk, and this issue seemed to have

been completely overlooked, their report noted.

Like the Sinha committee, the Chaturvedi-Narasimha committee pointed out that Antrix hadsigned an agreement with a company whose paid-up capital was Rs. 1 lakh with two

shareholders. Antrix and the ISRO had committed an investment of about Rs. 800 crore on two

satellites with a lot of other unusual concessions. Consequently, the ISRO was committing

large funds for unproven technology and with players who had very little financial stake.

Clearly, this was financially weak.

the hindu imp. news feb. 6th 2012

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