the hindu imp. news jan.31th 2012

8/3/2019 The Hindu Imp. News Jan.31th 2012

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A goal is a dream with a deadline. Page 1

THE HINDU

Imp. News

Jan. 31th 2012

Page-1

Top IAS officer held in Emaar scam:

Andhra Pradesh Home Secretary B.P. Acharya was arrested by the Central Bureau

of Investigation here on Monday for his role in the fast-snowballing scandal

relating to irregularities in the allotment of high-priced plots for villas in the

township project of Dubai-based real estate developer Emaar.

He is the fourth person to be arrested in the case after Trimex group chairman

Koneru Prasad; Sunil Reddy, an aide of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy; and G.

Venkat Vijay Raghav, a top executive of Emaar MGF. The senior IAS officer, who is

now Principal Secretary, Home, was vice-chairman and managing director of the

public sector A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) in 2005-10 when

the alleged irregularities were committed. The APIIC is a joint-venture partner in

the project with Emaar Properties, with a 26 per cent stake.

F

irst round goes to IPS in U.P.-

The IPS officers of Uttar Pradesh cadre registered a moral victory over the

babus when the State Government on Monday agreed to minimise the role of

the District Magistrates in the appointment of station in-charge at the police

stations. The station officers and the station house officers will now be appointed

as per the conditions laid down in the Police Manual.

Approval of the DMs will be required in the appointment of the SOs and SHOs,

but it will not be in writing, and in case of a difference of opinion between the

District Magistrates and the Superintendents of Police, the Range DIG will be

authorised to take the final decision.

The breakthrough was achieved at a meeting between the Chief Secretary, Anup

Mishra, and office-bearers of the UP IPS Association. The meeting was held

against the backdrop of the crisis situation that was a fall-out of the dispute


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between the former Commissioner of Basti Division, Anurag Srivastava, and the

Siddhartnagar SP, Mohit Gupta. About two dozen IPS officers of the 2004 and

2006 batches, posted mostly in the districts, gave their resignation letters to the

Association secretary, Arun Kumar, on Sunday in protest against the SP's transfer

and no action taken against the Commissioner.

Tata to brew Starbucks in India:

Starbucks the iconic American coffee house brand that helped make the

beverage cool' worldwide, spurring imitators but also critics will soon set up

shops across India in association with the Tata Group.

Adnan murder accused acquitted:

A sessions court on Monday acquitted four men accused of murdering Mumbaiteenager Adnan Patrawala in August 2007. It found police evidence insufficient to

prove without a doubt' that Sujit Nair, Ayush Bhatt, Rajeev Dharaiya and Amit

Kaushal had kidnapped or killed Adnan, 16. The fifth accused, a minor at the time

of the murder, is being tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. Adnan was found dead

at Navi Mumbai. His father's car was found on Palm Beach Road at Vashi. The boy

had left home to meet friends he had interacted with through the social

networking site, Orkut. His family claimed that it had received calls demanding a

ransom of Rs 2 crore.

Page 2

Difficult to implement Food Bill, says Pawar:

Concerned over poor Budget allocation for the farm sector, Union Agriculture

Minister Sharad Pawar has said that it may be difficult to implement the proposed

Food Security Bill without adequate funds to boost agricultural output, a must for

increased foodgrain requirement.

My grievance is only one the total budgeted provision for the entire

Agriculture Ministry is Rs. 20,000 crore. And subsidy is, as of today, Rs. 65,000

crore. It might go to Rs 1 lakh crore in the current year, he said. Under this

significant legislation, eligible people in the priority category would be entitled to

seven kg of foodgrains comprising rice, wheat and coarse grains per person

per month. Implementation of the Food Bill scheme is expected to cost Rs. 3.5


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lakh crore per annum and the subsidy bill is expected to be to the tune of Rs.

95,000 crore.

Film directors should take a cue from literary novels:

Since Indian cinema is celebrating its centenary this year, the National Book Trust

has decided to have literature and cinema as the theme of the New Delhi World

Book Fair that opens here in the Capital next month. NBT Director M. A. Sikandar

feels the theme is appropriate for the biennial event as the two fields are closely

interconnected.

Page 3

High Court asks Union Home Ministry for Uphaar case file:

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Union Home Ministry to place on

record the original file regarding grant of sanction for prosecution of former Delhi

Police Special Commissioner Amod Kanth in the Uphaar fire tragedy case for

allegedly allowing the addition of extra seats in the balcony of the cinema hall in

violation of rules.

TERI's Sustainable Development summit begins on Thursday:

To fulfil its vision of working towards global sustainable development, creatinginnovative solutions for a better tomorrow, The Energy and Resources Institute

(TERI) on Monday announced that its flagship event, the 12th

Delhi Sustainable

Development Summit (DSDS), will begin here this Thursday.

Globally threatened Bustard to be surveyed:

The critically-endangered grassland species, the Great Indian Bustard, will be

counted in the desert terrain of Rajasthan in the second week of February.

Rajasthan, specially its desert region, accounts for maximum population of the

bird which is globally threatened and listed in the Red Book of the International

Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


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EDITORIAL

Watch this space:

The saga of the scandalous deal that would have given a private company, Devas

Multimedia Private Limited, control over a large chunk of valuable S-band

spectrum has not ended. If the agreement signed with Antrix Corporation in 2005,

the marketing wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), had been

allowed to stand, Devas could have made a killing. However, doubts over the deal

began to surface and, in December 2009, after K. Radhakrishnan took over the

Department of Space, the parent body for both ISRO and Antrix, an internal

committee was set up to review the deal under B.N. Suresh. The government

constituted a high-powered committee made up of B.K. Chaturvedi and Roddam

Narasimha to review the technical, commercial, procedural and financial

aspects of the agreement. This committee submitted its report to the Prime

Minister in March 2011. In May, a five-member high-level team headed by a

former Central Vigilance Commissioner, Pratyush Sinha, was set up to examine

the deal and identify acts of omission and commission by government officials.

Four former officials, including G. Madhavan Nair who was ISRO chairman when

the deal was signed, were barred from holding any government position. Mr. Nair

has said the Space Commission was told about the agreement with Devas. He has

also indicated that there were government officials, including some in the PMO,

who were well aware of the Devas contract.

The state of our museums:

Despite budget cuts and financial difficulties, museums across the world have

done well to attract more visitors in the year that has just ended, but what lies

ahead? The International Council of Museums, an organisation of museums and

museum professionals from 137 countries, has cautioned that the current year

would be critical, with no sign of improvement in the global economic situation.

More than ever, museums have to urgently innovate ways of remaining relevant

to society. This advice and urging, for an entirely different set of reasons, appliesunequivocally to India's museums, particularly the government-administered

ones. Of the nearly 1,000 museums in the country, over 90 per cent are state-run.

The recommendations by the B.N. Goswamy Committee (2010) on improving

museum infrastructure and administration ought to be implemented without


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delay. Museums across the world are looking at imaginative ways such as virtual

displays to make their collections more publicly available' and show a wider

volume of material'. Indian museums will do well to adopt these innovations.

An action plan for Sri Lanka:

By A.P.J.Abdual Kalam

How do we define a nation's nobility? It is not merely in terms of economic

indicators, human development indicators, or any other form of numerical

indicators. It is more of a qualitative than a quantitative measure. Naturally, a

noble nation has to be populated by people who are noble not just at the

individual level but in a collective sense as well. And nobility has to begin from the

top, from the leader, and percolate to various levels of society, down to the

artisans and peasants.

Having addressed this subtle principle and ideal, let us focus on some practical

aspects of life which provide ground for nobility to arise in society and people.

These are the removal of poverty, hunger and pain from diseases. This will need a

development agenda based on the core competence of the nation and its entire

people.

Let me present one such sustainable development system: the mission of

Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) through the creation of threeconnectivities, namely, physical, electronic, knowledge leading to economic

connectivity, for 15,000 villages of Sri Lanka.

PURA means that the villages must be connected within themselves and with

main towns and metros by good roads, waterways and, wherever needed, by

railway lines. They must have other infrastructure such as schools, colleges,

hospitals and amenities for the local population and visitors. This is physical

connectivity.

Secondly, in the emerging knowledge era, native knowledge has to be preserved

and enhanced with the latest tools of technology, training and research. Villages

should have access to good education from the best teachers, wherever they are.

They must have the benefit of good medical treatment, and latest information on

their pursuits such as agriculture, fishery, horticulture and food processing. That

means they need to have electronic connectivity.


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Thirdly, once physical and electronic connectivity are enabled, knowledge

connectivity is enabled. That can facilitate the ability to increase productivity,

utilisation of spare time, awareness of health welfare, ensuring markets for

products, increasing quality consciousness, interacting with partners, getting the

best equipment, increasing transparency. This, in general, will ensure knowledgeconnectivity.

OP ED

Delhi, we have a problem:

Quite apart from the fashion in which valuable S-band spectrum was allocated to

a single private company for an extended period of time, the Antrix-Devas

agreement and the way in which it was sought to be implemented were highly

questionable in other ways too. The agreement was signed on January 28, 2005

between Antrix Corporation Ltd., the marketing wing of the Indian Space

Research Organisation (ISRO), and Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. based in Bangalore.

The agreement laid down that Antrix would provide satellite capacity to enable

Devas to launch satellite digital multimedia broadcast' (S-DMB) services that

would be delivered to fixed, portable and mobile receivers, including mobile

phones and vehicle-borne devices. As a result of this deal, ISRO was committed to

build, launch and operate two custom-built communication satellites, which came

to be called GSAT-6 (also known as Insat 4E) and GSAT-6A. The agreementspecified that 90 per cent of the capacity on these two satellites would be leased

to Devas on a 24-hour, seven-day-per-week basis for 12 years, with a provision

to extend the lease by another 12 years.

The Devas contract has stringent penalty clauses for when the satellites must

become operational, the quality of service to be provided and tough norms for

declaring a Total Satellite Failure. In the latter event, a replacement satellite has

to be provided within a specified time span at no extra cost to Devas.

CAG estimate

A preliminary estimate prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General last year

had suggested that the spectrum allotted to Devas could have been worth as

much as Rs.2 lakh crore. According to ISRO, the amount payable by Devas over a

12-year period was just $300 million (about Rs.1,500 crore at the current


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exchange rate). While Rs.766 crore of public money would be spent on building

and launching the two satellites, Antrix's revenues from Devas would come to

only Rs.1,350 crore over a 12-year period. The note to the Cabinet Committee on

Security admitted that this would have not been sufficient compensation for all

the costs incurred by ISRO.

Considering that Devas is headed by a person who once held a senior position in

the space programme, the onus on the Department of Space, ISRO and Antrix to

make sure the deal was in public interest and not tainted by any whiff of cronyism

was all the greater.

G. Madhavan Nair, who was chairman of ISRO and Antrix when the deal was

signed and approval for the two satellites taken, has said that several people in

the government, including from the Prime Minister's Office, were aware of the

details of the deal at every stage.

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Ramesh seeks tribal cooperation to combat Naxalism:

The political endeavour under the Saranda Action Plan (SAP) not just to bring

the government closer to the local tribal population but also to give them a stake

in the democratic set-up and unfetter the control of the Naxalites who infest the

dense forests seems to have made some progress.

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh and Jharkhand Chief

Minister Arjun Munda had launched the Rs.250-crore scheme about two months

ago to benefit about a population of about 35,000 at Digha Panchayat, about 40

km from Chotanagra panchayat of Manoharpur block.

RS members take oath:

Veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi

and Pervez Hashmi, who were re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from the National

Capital Territory of Delhi, took oath on Monday as members of the House. The

three MPs were administered oath of office by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid

Ansari in his chamber. Their tenure ended on January 27 and they were re-elected

unopposed. This will be the second term for Mr. Dwivedi and Mr. Hashmi.


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We will revisit and rethink seminar content: Symbiosis:

Symbiosis University, which has postponed its seminar, Voices of Kashmir,'

indefinitely, said it will revisit and rethink on the content and make it more

balanced. Earlier, Symbiosis has agreed to cancel the screening of Sanjay Kak'sfilm on Kashmir,Jashn-e-Azadi, as right-wing student organisation Akhil Bharatiya

Vidyarthi Parishad objected to it.

Sunil Dhar, a member of Panun Kashmir, told The Hindu : The filmJashn-e-Azadi

shows the atrocities by the Indian Army. This is completely anti-national. We had

a doubt that even the seminar would have the same tone. We were told that the

organisers themselves hadn't watched the film. So we met Symbiosis Founder-

Director S.B. Mujumdar, and he said the seminar would be postponed, and that

he would look into the content himself.

INTERNATIONAL

U.S. diplomatic drones' rankle Iraqis:

A month after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a

small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect its embassy and consulates,

as well as U.S. personnel. Senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the

programme, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty. The

drones are the latest example of the State Department's efforts to take overfunctions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security

contractors now protect the embassy's 11,000-person staff, for example, and

typically drive around in heavily armoured military vehicles.

Iran: IAEA can extend visit:

An IAEA delegation visiting Iran could choose to extend its stay beyond the three

days originally planned if it wished, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said

on Monday. Mr. Salehi also urged the European Union and the United States toreplace their policy of sanctions with interaction with the Islamic republic. A six-

person team of senior inspectors and officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog

began their visit to Iran on Sunday.


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Tension mounts in Bangladesh:

The political situation in Bangladesh has taken a violent turn with the killing of five

anti-government activists over two days on Sunday and Monday, allegedly in

police firing.

As the killings became public, opposition leader Khaleda Zia led a massive rally in

Dhaka on Monday demanding elections under the now-defunct caretaker

government system. She said her party would not participate in the next general

election without the caretaker system being restored. She, however, rejected

allegations of her party being linked to the recent foiled coup bid. Thousands of

anti-government activists thronged the party's central office in Dhaka.

The BNP held the government responsible for the killings.

BUSINESS

Centre to inject funds in SBI, PNB:

In a step to increase the capital adequacy and improve the asset quality, the

government has decided to subscribe to preferential equity shares issued by State

Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB). State Bank of India (SBI),

India's premier public sector bank, said that it would receive around Rs.7,900

crore from the government through a preferential allotment of equity shares,including premium. Punjab National Bank (PNB) would receive around Rs.1,285

crore from the government against issue of preferential equity shares of Rs.10 at

a premium.

Take back arbitration notice, RIL told:

Stating that Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has no ground or cause for initiating

arbitrary proceedings against it, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has

asked RIL to withdraw its arbitration notice against the move to curtail cost-

recovery at its KG-D6 gas fields.

In a letter to RIL Executive Director, P. M. S. Prasad, Director in Exploration

Division of the Ministry, Partha Sarthi Das, has stated that As on date, no dispute

has arisen to warrant arbitration and the company should withdraw the notice

invoking arbitration forthwith. It is ironical that the development plan, the


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initial development plan (IDP) and additional initial development plan (AIDP)

prepared and submitted by you, taking into account your own projects, is not

being adhered to by you, a note by Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH)

to RIL states.

DGH for disallowing $1.23 billion in costs:

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) has strongly recommended that

Reliance Industries should not be allowed to recover expenses on underutilised

infrastructure of KGD-6 and government should limit costs recovery only for

infrastructure used by RIL for present gas production. The notice/letter, prepared

by the DGH and sent by the Petroleum Ministry, has the backing of the Law

Ministry and the Solicitor General of India. It charges RIL with failure to fulfil

obligations under the terms of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and having

deliberately and wilfully caused breaches, which have led to immense loss and

prejudice to the Government and people of India. You have over a period of

time, failed to adhere to the terms of the PSC and have repeatedly failed to meet

your targets under the PSC,'' it states.

The DGH has further stated that RIL had failed to adhere to the additional initial

field development plan (AIDP) and hence was a clear violation of the PSC. In

these circumstances, the Government has no other option but to restrict the

recovery of costs incurred by you to the extent of the infrastructure used by you

for the production of gas. In view of the aforesaid where you have persistently,

time and again failed to adhere to the PSC, the Government hence shall disallow

the following cumulative cost for the respective years. For 2010-11, $457 million

have been disallowed and for 2011-12, $778 million, taking the total to $1.235

billion. The aforesaid figures are provisional subject to revisions by the

Government,'' it states.

NexGen Pulsar from Bajaj:

This latest Pulsar takes motorcycle technology to a new level with a SOHC 4-valveTriple Spark engine controlled by an advanced electronic control unit. The Triple

Spark engine comes with liquid cooling and a six-speed gear box.


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SPORT

Djokovic, Nadal and the six-hour epic:

Novak Djokovic tore off his shirt, flexed his sinewy muscles and roared in

celebration, but for once the machismo was not misplaced. After nearly six hours

of the most gruelling final in Grand Slam history, the strutting Serb had shown he

was not only supremely fit and talented, but as tough as they come. The lanky

World No. 1 with the soft-spike hair came on court early on Sunday evening,

played into the night and finished in the small hours of Monday. The 24-year-old

said his Wimbledon triumph last year had been special, but the Melbourne win

was even better. This one I think comes out on the top just because the fact that

we played almost six hours is incredible, he said.

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History of horse domestication traced:

A study published today suggests that the common female ancestor of all modern

horses lived between 1,30,000 and 1,60,000 years ago.

It appears that at least 17 female horse lines were domesticated from this

ancestor. Domestication occurred in many locations across Eurasia.

DNA analyses of sheep, cattle and goat indicate that domestication started from a

handful of animals in a few places and took place around 8,000 to 10,000 years

ago. Hence, these animals show very limited genetic variation.

the hindu imp. news jan.31th 2012

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