India ABLAZE Launched into Space. Manmohan Rushes to Tokyo to Bail Out Melting Japanese Economy. GoM Approves Insurance FDI. ISRO Eyes Manned Moon Mission by 2015, Awaiting Govt Approval. Obama Establishes Double Digit Lead over McCain! Financial Crisis Summit to be Nov. 15 - U.S. Official.The MNS Rampage: Thackeray Granted Bail, Repercussions felt in Bihar and West Bengal
Palash Biswas
Chandrayaan-1 has perfect launch
(01:25) Report
Oct. 22 - India's first unmanned mission to the moon, the Chandrayaan-1 had a perfect launch according to the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Madhavan Nair.
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Barring any technical failure, the spacecraft will reach the lunar orbit and spend two years scanning the moon for any evidence of water and precious metals.
An ANI report.
Raj Thackeray arrested in Mumbai
(01:33) Report
Oct. 21 - Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray has been arrested on Tuesday sparking violent protests in and around Mumbai.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has said that all measures were being taken to keep the situation under control.
An ANI report.
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US, India sign nuclear deal
(01:36) Report
Oct. 11 - The United States and India signed a potentially lucrative agreement on Friday that would allow India to buy U.S. civil nuclear technology for the first time in three decades.
The accord, reached after years of tortuous negotiations and harshly criticized by non-proliferation advocates, was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Pavithra George, Reuters
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'Fashion' stars walk the ramp at LFW
(02:19) Report
Oct. 21 - Actors from Madhur Bhandarkar's film "Fashion," Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Mugdha Godse walked the ramp at designer Narendra Kumar's show at the Lakme India Fashion Week in Mumbai.
An ANI report.
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India Ablaze launched into Space.India launched its first unmanned moon mission on Wednesday, joining the Asian space race in the footsteps of rival China and reinforcing its claim to be considered a global power!
The US on Wednesday congratulated India on the successful launch of the maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I, describing it as demonstration of the country's technological prowess in its quest for peaceful exploration of space.
India Inc is hopeful that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would bring down repo rates to 7 per cent from the current 8 per cent and create a mechanism to monitor banks' lending, according to an industry lobby survey.
India reached a historic milestone in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday as it successfully launched its first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan 1, into Transfer Orbit. The feat placed India as the sixth country to join the space-trotters club after USA, former Soviet Union, European Space Agency, China and Japan. The spacecraft was successfully launched at 6:22 am (IST) and with it the ISRO scientists at Sriharikota burst with joy that was resounded by the entire nation.
Nevertheless, dark happens the Moon for Indians facing the turmoil of communal violence instituted by the ruling Brahminical Hegemony to subvert the Parliament in Session derailed from the track to address the burning national international issues!In what seems like a backlash against MNS-led violence against north Indians in Mumbai, two air conditioned bogies of a train – reportedly with Maharashtrian passengers on board – two bogies of Vikramshila Express were set on fire in Barh area of Bihar.
Maharashtra and Bihar burn as Assam and Orissa have been. Kashmir and entire north East happens the Troubled zone for time infinite. Tamil Nationality has to clash with Indian foreign policy. Global financial crisis Inferno eats Indian Economy. Parliament Session is once again subverted as none of the burning issues have been addressed at all. Mass Destruction of Black Untouchables, indigenous communities and minorities continue as well as continues the War against Terrorism! Unable to stall either INdo US Nuclear deal or the Strategic realliance in US lead, the decoupled Left now takes credit to Save India! The Marxist ways of capitalism, indeed, save India as nandigram and singur have exposed well! On the other hand, the planted Prime Minister, the supreme slave Dr manmohan singh rushes to Tokyo to bail out the melting Japanese Economy. US periphery is not enough, Japanese corporates are now Invited to the open Indian Consumer market to destroy us!Reaffirming their commitment to fight terrorism and trans-national crimes, India and Japan on Wednesday signed a joint declaration on security cooperation that will intensify interaction between their militaries and expand the scope of strategic dialogue between the two Asian powers. Cooperation between coast guards, defence dialogue, coordination on issues relating to disarmament and non-proliferation and disaster management are some of crucial elements of the security cooperation pact signed here by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.
Japan's Nikkei average fell more than 5 percent on Wednesday, with Sony Corp and other exporters battered as the yen advanced on the dollar and euro, while banks were hit by worries about their earnings. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and other big banks tumbled after a Nikkei business daily report that they will cut their earnings outlooks, while trading houses slid after oil fell on fears of a slide in demand.
European shares extended losses by midday on Wednesday, led by commodity and financial stocks.
The first global summit on the financial crisis and how to reform the financial system will be held on Nov. 15 in the Washington, D.C., area, a senior Bush administration official said on Wednesday.
"This will be the first in a series of summits that bring together leaders from the countries that participate in the G20 finance ministers process to discuss current economic challenges," the official said declining further identification.
The official said that at the first meeting, which will be 11 days after the U.S. presidential election, it will be important that the leaders discuss the causes of the financial crisis, progress being made, develop principles for reforms and to instruct working groups to begin developing recommendations.
A venue in the U.S. capital area has not been chosen yet, the official said. A dinner at the White House will be held the night before the summit, the official said.
The G20 includes the Group of Seven major industrial economies plus key emerging-market countries like China, India and Brazil.
Keeping the more expensive manned lunar missions in its radar, the country's top space agency is planning to send two Indians to the Moon by 2015 in a purely indigenous effort.
And Indian Space Research Organisation's(ISRO) ambitious plans does not end there for it has just started technical capability as well as mission planning for a Mars mission saying the red planet was the "next natural destination" for the space agency.
After the spectacular success of the country's maiden unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I, ISRO said on Tuesday it would gear up for the complex and challenging task of the manned mission which is awaiting government's approval. The manned mission project is estimated to cost Rs 120 billion (about 2.4 billion dollars).
"Now we have a little bit of breathing time (after today's launch)... we are looking how we can design a capsule, which can carry two(Indian) astronauts onboard a GSLV rocket," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said at a post-launch press meet here.
"This is a very complex and challenging task... first of all to conceive a module, which can predict the condition of human life in space, is a big challenge is terms of technology and realisation," he said. The manned mission will be an indigenous initiative but foreign agencies are welcome to cooperate, he said.
Besides, selecting the astronauts and training them for the space flight and improving the reliability of the launching system were also complex issues, he said.
"After considering all these, we have prepared a project report and this had been cleared by the Space Commission and is awaiting the government approval. Based on this, we will have the first man mission from Indian soil before 2015," a beaming Nair said.
Meanwhile, Group of Ministers (GoM) has cleared a bill to hike the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49% from the current 26% and it will be placed be
fore the Cabinet now, Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
“The GoM has approved the proposed amendment with certain modifications and the same are to be placed before the Cabinet,” minister of state for finance P K Bankal said in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The government on October 16 had deferred a decision on hiking Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in insurance sector to 49% from 26%, as it is watching for the impact of the global financial crisis. The proposed changes include amendments in the IRDA Act, 1999 and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Act, 1956 among others.
It is a time for jubilation for the scientific community of India and they are cherishing every moment of it with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 early Wednesday!
I was excited as a child when I learnt from All India Radio that Man has landed on Moon. It was an American Mission. But I believed that it was breaking the barriers in the space.
After almost four full decades, my motherland India enters the elite Space club just after USA, USSR and Japan! But I feel nothing! Sorry !Nothing! The excitement of that day before four decades is quite absent in the Indian Masses despite the Information explosion. How can it be? When your Home is burning, how you may celebrate a Carnival irrelevant? More than hundred private companies are associated with Moon Mission India! The meat of the national Revenue is going to be digested by India Incs and MNCs! We are amidst the Global financial meltdown! How do we afford such a strategic Moon Mission associated with Nasa and with direct involvement of Developed Capitalist nations including United States of America!All these instruments have been developed in India, but Chandrayaan-1 also carries six other instruments, developed in collaboration with the European Space agency, Bulgaria and the United States.
I don`t know whether I would survive in 2015. but I am sure that I would not be excited with Indian Manned Moon Mission either!
How would I?
Seventy Corore of my countrymen are suffering from Food insecurity!
Twenty Corore of them face starvation!
Indigenous communities and black Untouchables are predestined to be killed!
Dismissing suggestions that Chandrayaan-1 was an expensive mission, ISRO today said the moon odyssey will enable India to upgrade technological expertise for exploration of outer space and ultimately help in setting up a base on the earth's natural satellite.
"Moon mission cost is less than Rs 400 crore, which is just ten per cent of annual budget of ISRO spread over many years," ISRO spokesperson S Satish said, countering critics who questioned the need for such a venture when other countries have already explored the moon.
Cost of India's first unmanned lunar mission, slated for October 22, is Rs 386 crore, which includes Rs 100 crore for the establishment of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near here that will perform the task of receiving radio signals transmitted by future satellites, not just Chandrayaan-1.
With inherent injustice and inequality how may we the enslaved majority Indian people enjoy the US backed super Power status of a colonised Periphery?
However, we black untouchables have something to celebrate as we approach closer to the Dream of martin luther King!
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has established a double digit lead over his Republican rival John McCain just two weeks ahead of crucial elections, a just released poll says.
The Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 52 per cent voters favour Obama against 42 per cent who support McCain, showing a four per cent increase since the poll two weeks ago. The poll has a margin of error plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The poll says that a growing number of voters said that they were comfortable with the Democrat's values, background and ability to serve as commander-in-chief.
It's the largest lead in the Journal/NBC poll so far, and represents a steady climb for Senator Obama since early September, when the political conventions concluded with the candidates in a statistical tie.
"Voters have reached a comfort level with Barack Obama," said Peter D Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the poll with Republican Neil Newhouse.
Though most voters polled said that McCain is better prepared for the White House than the first-term Obama, there are increasing concerns about the readiness of McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the poll showed.
The race, the Journal said, has rested largely on the question of whether voters could get comfortable with Obama, the first African-American to run on a major party ticket, and one who has been on the national political scene for just a few years.
McCain has worked to stoke concerns about Obama's past and his qualifications, raising questions about his rival's character and his association with 1960s-era radical William Ayers. The new poll suggests that these attacks haven't worked.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was granted anticipatory bail for two days in all the cases pending against him. He was earlier remanded to 14-day judicial custody by the Kalyan Court, which later approved his bail application. On Tuesday too he had been sent to judicial custody in another case but was granted bail. The situation outside the Kalyan court where the MNS chief was being tried was tense, with the party’s activists gathered outside the court and indulging in miscreant activities.
NCP chief and Union Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday denounced the violence carried out by MNS in Maharashtra but said there was no need for Central intervention as the state government is already taking action in the matter.
Pawar, whose party is a part of the Congress-led coalition government in Maharashtra, also criticised the media for highlighting actions of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, saying this had led to creation of a ‘monster’ out of the situation.
Meanwhile, The Maharashtra Government seems to be learning its lessons. Their new zero-tolerance approach with Raj Thackeray is an attempt to demonstrate that they are not going to go soft on him as many believed they did last time.
So the state is likely to bring in an ordinance on Wednesday against destruction of public property.
The ordinance will seek to increase the fine and punishment of upto five years.
It will also have provisions to recover money directly from those who damage public property be it a political party.
The MNS activists had indulged in stone throwing nad slogan shouting to protest their leader’s arrest and the police had to resort to cane-charge to disperse the mob. A preventive curfew was clamped in Kalyan from 11 am.
After Tuesday's incidents outside the court in Bandra, in Mumbai, where groups of MNS activists indulged in violence, police today prevented all journalists from standing near the court.
In a separate incident Bihari students in rural Patna set on fire two air-conditioned coaches of the Vikramshila Express in the Barh area of Bihar, which were reportedly carrying Maharashtrian passengers.
Hundreds of slogan-shouting students descended surrounded Barh railway station in rural Patna demanding that MNS leader Raj Thackeray be tried for sedition.
The students set on fire the coach of the Danapur-Durg South Bihar Express, Superintendent of Railway Police (Patna) D N Gupta was quoted as sayiing by the media.
No injuries were reported as the passengers had fled as soon as the attackers started setting the bogies on fire. Police had to fire four rounds in the air to disperse t he protesting mob.
The incident had an effect in West Bengal too, as the Eastern Railway authorities decided to cancel all trains that pass through Bihar, as a preventive measure.
More European banks may fail as cash injections dry up and the region's economy grinds to a near-halt next year, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.
The IMF said in its economic outlook for Europe that banks are still under severe pressure to reduce their high leverage the amount of debt they carry in proportion to their assets.
It said recapitalization was ``now likely to slow'' because cash-rich investors such as sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors such as pension funds are now less interested in buying into banks. Instead, governments have decided to take equity stakes and become the provider of new capital.
Leaders from Asia and Europe will gather in Beijing Friday for two days of talks in which French President Nicolas Sarkozy will seek Asian b
acking for his bid to rebuild the world's financial system.
The global economic woes are set to dominate the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), a summit of 43 nations held every two years, with the forum offering the first opportunity for Asian countries to discuss the financial crisis as a group.
Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has made it clear he will use the event to press Asian nations for support in a dramatic restructuring of the global financial system.
Sarkozy said on Tuesday his objective for the forum was "to convince the Asian powers to take part in this (financial) rebuilding."
Three killed in landmine explosion in West Midnapore
Three persons, including a doctor, were killed in a landmine blast set off by suspected Maoists in West Midnapore district on Wednesday, a senior police official said. The blast blew up a vehicle killing its driver, the doctor in-charge of the Belpahari primary health centre and a woman employee at Patharchabri on the Simulpal-Laboni road under Belpahari police station, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order), Raj Kanojia told the media.
The explosion occurred at around 2:30 PM and could have been triggered by Maoists, he said.
Villagers claimed that they had informed the police in the morning that "wires were lying on the road and that a landmine could have been planted, but no action was taken
‘Worried’ Buddha mum on Darjeeling Morcha
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee broke his silence on Darjeeling, saying the signs were “extremely worrisome”, but did not name the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the prime mover of the agitation in the hills.
After meeting hill affairs minister Ashok Bhattacharyya at Writers’ Buildings today, the Bengal chief minister said in a statement: “What has been happening in the hills of Darjeeling district over the past few days is extremely worrisome. Activities like changing of car number plates, defacing government buildings and naming them as offices of the Gorkhaland government and imposing a dress code... have certainly hurt the sentiments of the people and disturbed the rule of law in the hills.”
He said the district administration had been “instructed to ensure that law and order is maintained in Darjeeling” and the state government was keeping an eye on the developments’’.
Such activities could affect the tripartite talks in Delhi, he pointed out. “Based on a request by our state government, the Centre convened a tripartite meeting to discuss the Darjeeling issue and come to a solution to the problems being talked about by the protesters. Given that, the activities in the hills threaten to affect the talks atmosphere. So, the manner in which the present agitation is being staged should stop.”
Bhattacharjee appealed to the “right-thinking people of the hills” not to give into such “provocation”.
“What is necessary in this regard is the co-operation of all right-thinking people of living in Darjeeling district. Please don’t give into any provocation.’’
He said the hill economy had suffered “immensely’’ because of the agitation and that people of Darjeeling would be hurt the most if the movement continued.
“The agitation has cost the hill economy dear, affecting the life of every person living in Darjeeling. Tourism, education and the general condition in the hills have become the casualty. Consequentially, Siliguri, Dooars and the Terai regions have also been affected,” he said.
DM order
The Darjeeling district administration has ordered that signboards reading “Government of Gorkhaland” were to be brought down at the earliest.
The Chandrayaan-1
The Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), an ESA payload, is the result of a joint development by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England, and ISRO Satellite Centre. The instrument will conduct high-quality mapping of the moon based on an X-ray fluorescence technique, which will also be used to identify the presence of Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Iron and Titanium on the lunar surface.
The launch of India's maiden unmanned mission to Moon [Images] on Wednesday prompted Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama [Images] to underline the need for the United States to revitalise its space programme "to remain the undisputed leader in space".
"With India's launch of its first unmanned lunar spacecraft following closely on the heels of China's first spacewalk, we are reminded just how urgently the United States must revitalise its space programme if we are to remain the undisputed leader in space, science, and technology," Senator Obama said.
Obama, who is ahead in most opinion polls for the November presidential election, stressed on the importance for the US to train new scientists and engineers for the next generation so as not to "let other countries surpass" American technical capabilities.
"We must not only retain our space workforce so that we don't let other countries surpass our technical capabilities; we must train new scientists and engineers for the next generation,'' Obama said in a statement.
He said his plan to revitalize the space programme and close the gap between the Space Shuttle's [Images] retirement and its next-generation replacement includes $2 billion more for NASA [Images] -- but more money alone is not enough," the Illinois Democrat added.
"My comprehensive space policy focuses on reaching new frontiers through human space exploration, tapping the ingenuity of our commercial space entrepreneurs, fostering a broad research agenda to break new ground on the world's leading scientific discoveries, and engaging students through educational programmes that excite them about space and science," Obama said.
The Democrat Party leader said as a child he had been inspired by the splashdown of Apollo. "As a child, I remember sitting on my grandfather's shoulders and watching the Apollo astronauts return from a splashdown to Hickam Air Force Base, dreaming of where they had been," Obama noted.
"It inspired my imagination and gave me confidence in what we as Americans could achieve. It's time for a space programme that inspires our children again," he underlined.
"As President, I will lead our space programme boldly into the 21st Century - so when my daughters, and all our children, look up to the skies, they see Americans leading the way into the deepest reaches of our solar system," the Democratic nominee said.
The successful launch of the India's maiden mission to moon Chandrayan 1 is "just the beginning" of the opening up of a new frontier of cooperation between the US and India on a wide range of sectors, the United States India Business Council (USIBC) said on Wednesday.
"It is an extraordinary moment in history. We have an India of 1.3 billion people looking to the heavens and now exploring the frontiers of Space," USIBC president Ron Somers told PTI upon the launch of Chandrayan 1.
The liftoff of Chandrayan 1 was lustily cheered at the US Chamber of Commerce where the USIBC had organised a live broadcast of the historic occasion that saw the participation of officials from the White House, the State Department, the NASA and senior officials of the Indian Embassy.
The USIBC event also saw the participation of the Indian American community who were clearly thrilled.
The Smart Near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2), the second ESA payload, developed by Max Plank Institute of Germany, will explore the mineral resources on moon’s surface. The Sub kiloelectronvolt Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SAR), the third ESA payload, developed at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Space Physics Laboratory of Bikram Sarabhai Space Center, will analyze the surface composition of the moon, and the magnetic anomalies associated with the surface.
The Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM), developed by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, will target the radiation environment surrounding the moon.
"In an era of renewed interest for the Moon on a world-wide scale, the ESA-ISRO collaboration on Chandrayaan-1 is a new opportunity for Europe to expand its competence in lunar science while tightening the long-standing relationship with India – an ever stronger space power," said Prof. David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.
Two other instruments from the U.S., the Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), will try to detect the presence of water ice at moon’s poles, up to a depth of a few meters, as well as help obtain a map-view of the mineral resources on the moon, at high special and spectral resolution.
On the other hand, notwithstanding the drop in international oil prices, the government has no immediate plans to reduce retail price of petrol, diesel and domestic LPG as oil firms are yet to breakeven.
"There is no such proposal with the government as of now," Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey said when asked if the government was planning to cut fuel prices by this weekend to brighten Diwali.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum continue to incur losses as a 22 per cent depreciation in value of rupee against the US dollar have wiped away some of the gains from falling international crude oil prices.
The Indian Space Research Organization announced the successful launch of its first unmanned lunar space mission: Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian spacecraft expected to reach Moon’s orbit, where it will spend the next two years to investigate the lunar surface. Its primary objectives are to conduct mineralogical and chemical mapping of the lunar surface, as well as upgrade the technological base in the country.
On October 22, Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) launched Chandrayaan-1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, at 06:22 IST (Indian Standard Time).
The agency explained that Chandrayaan-1 was placed into an elliptical transfer orbit around the Earth, which will help it obtain the desired trajectory later on. As it reaches the vicinity of the moon, the spacecraft will slow down, which will allow it enter into an elliptical orbit, where it will begin its observations.
Heralding a new era in the country's space programme, India on Wednesday successfully launched its first unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, becoming the sixth nation to undertake an odyssey for exploration of lunar surface. Meanwhile,in line with fall in global markets, the domestic bourses on Wednesday closed in the red with the benchmark Sensex losing a hefty over 500 points to cut short the gaining trend of the past two days. Marketmen attributed the steep losses to heavy selling pressure, re-emerged on renewed worries of global economy falling into a recession.
The 30-share index, which had gathered nearly 710 points in the past two sessions, lost 513.49 points, or 4.81 per cent, at 10,169.90.
Three persons were killed and over 170 arrested in neighbouring Thane after violence erupted there following the arrest of MNS leader Raj Thackeray, police said.
Three deaths were reported in the Pisoli village area in Kalyan last night following a clash between two groups, Thane Police Commissioner Anil Dhere said. MNS leader Raj Thackeray, who was arrested on Tuesday and spent a day in police custody, returned to his residence amidst celebrations by supporters on Wednesday evening.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the plight of the common man in Mumbai who is caught in the mayhem caused by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists to protest the arrest of party chief Raj Thackeray!
Thirteen people were killed and 27 injured when a bomb attached to a two-wheeler went off at Ragailong near the Police Commando Complex in Imphal West district on Tuesday evening. According to official sources, unidentified militants targeted the place where security personnel and civilians were gambling ahead of Diwali.
The home-grown PSLV-C11, ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle, placed the spacecraft into a transfer orbit around the earth exactly 18.2 minutes after a textbook lift off at 6.22 am from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this island in the Bay of Bengal, 100 km north of Chennai.
When the spacecraft finally reaches its destination at 100 km above the moon surface after a series of manoeuvres over the next two weeks, it would signal India's arrival in the league of nations -- the US, Russia, European Space Agency, China and Japan which are already involved in lunar exploration.
India's last tryst with moon came way back in 1984 when Indian astronaut, Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma, travelled to space along with two Soviet cosmonauts. The focus now shifts to ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network (ISCRAC) at Payenya in Bangalore, which will be the country's nerve centre for tracking and controlling Chandrayaan-1 over the next two years of its life span.
What a contrast in between the Full Moon and the dark Moon! People on Honeymoon may perhaps feel it most!
The short-term outlook for Indian economy looks "cloudy" in the face of the global financial meltdown and steps are required to prevent the credit crunch from turning into a crisis of confidence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday in Tokyo.
"The short-term outlook is cloudy but I am confident that the Indian economy has the resilience to sustain its growth momentum in the medium-term... we have to prevent the liquidity crisis from becoming a crisis of confidence in the international monetary and financial system," he said.
Singh was addressing a gathering of top Indian and Japanese business leaders in Tokyo on the second day of his three-day official visit to Japan.
For the first time, the Centre on Wednesday admitted that it may miss the budget targets for fiscal and revenue deficits for 2008-09 as global financial crisis is exerting pressure.
"Thanks to the global financial crisis, which is exerting pressures on all economies, it is likely that we may overshoot budget targets (for fiscal and revenue deficits)," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at USAID function in New Delhi.
According to the budget estimates, the Centre would be bringing down the fiscal deficit below the three per cent and revenue deficit to 1-1.1 per cent this year, Chidambaram said. However, he said, the government will do its best to remain as close to the targets as possible.
"If we are not able to achieve the targets by 31.03.2009, I am sure we can achieve them by 31.3.2010. I often console myself by saying that we waited odd 60 years to achieve some fiscal discipline, it does not matter to wait for one more year," he said.
Fiscal deficit represents excess of government's total expenditure over total income (excluding market borrowing), while revenue deficit is the difference between the current expenditure and current receipts.
The Budget for 2008-09 targets to cut fiscal deficit to 2.5 per cent of GDP and revenue deficit to one per cent of GDP.
The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act binds the government to cut fiscal deficit to three per cent of GDP by 2008-09 or 0.3 per cent every year.
Revenue deficit is targeted to be reduced to nil in five years by 2008-09 or 0.5 per cent every year.
The joy of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists knew no bounds as the 44.4 metre tall four-stage rocket majestically soared into the sky, capping their four years of toil for the first-ever mission that would travel beyond earth's orbit in the country's forty-year-old space programme.
"The launch was perfect and precise. It was a remarkable performance by the PSLV. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit and with this we have completed the first leg of the mission. It will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit," a beaming ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair announced.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani congratulated the space scientists on the successful launch.
Chandrayaan-1 carries 11 payloads, including two instruments from the American space agency, NASA, which will assess mineral resources, map the polar regions, look for ice deposits and prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources.
Coming after 44 years of its maiden rocket launch from Thumba in 1963, Chandrayaan-1 will also look for possible uranium deposits on the moon as India sets out to augment its energy capacity through international bilateral nuclear pacts.
Later addressing a press conference, the ISRO Chairman said the first leg and perhaps one of the most difficult parts of the journey to the moon has been completed successfully.
"The 360-tonne PSLV-C11 has precisely achieved the objective of placing the satellite in the orbit around the earth with its nearest point being 250 km (perigee) and the farthest around 23,000 km (apogee)," Nair said.
"If everything goes on well, on Nov 8 we will be injecting the spacecraft into the lunar trajectory."
Nair expressed the hope that India would be able to send the first man-mission to moon from Indian soil before 2015 and that mars was the next natural destination for the ISRO.
Help build 'new India': PM tells Japanese investors
Seeking Japanese investments to build a ‘new India’, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that he has come this time on a mission: to consolidate the multifaceted India-Japan strategic relations.
"Our relations have changed considerably over time and we now have a multifaceted relationship. Japan is not just a source of development aid but an important investor and partner in building Asian co-operation," Singh said at a luncheon hosted by the Indian and Japanese business community in Tokyo.
"For me, each interaction with Japan has been a most pleasurable, educative and revealing one. It has revealed to me how much our two countries can do together, and how little we have done," he said.
"I have come to Japan to consolidate this partnership," Singh said ahead of his summit talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.
"We welcome Japanese investment in our efforts to build a new India," the Prime Minister said while thanking Tokyo for its generous aid in the form of Overseas Developmental Assistance (ODA).
India currently gets 30 per cent of all Japanese ODA, becoming the largest recipient, overtaking China.
"We are deeply grateful that India has been the largest recipient of the Japanese ODA for the last five years. Its most visible symbol is the Delhi Metro," he said.
Describing Japan as the ‘economic and technological powerhouse of the world’, Singh noted that both nations were located in Asia to which the 21st century undoubtedly belongs.
Raj Drama!
MNS leader Raj Thackeray, who was arrested on Tuesday and spent a day in police custody, returned to his residence amidst celebrations by supporters on Wednesday evening.
Hundreds of supporters who thronged his residence 'Krishna Kunj' in the Shivaji Park area of Central Mumbai and celebrated Thackeray's return by bursting crackers after a court in Kalyan granted him bail.
"He is happy that he has been released from police custody and appealed to MNS activists to mantain peace," Shishir Shinde, general secretary of MNS, said.
Thackeray was arrested from Ratnagiri on Tuesday in connection with cases of assault registered against MNS activists for attacking North Indian candidates appearing for railway recruitment exams.
The MNS leader spent the night in custody at the Manpada police station in neighbouring Dombivali and was produced before a magistrate's court in Kalyan where he was granted bail. On Tuesday, he was granted bail in a similar case by a court in Mumbai.
Thackeray was also granted interim relief by the court in a case where Railway police sought his custody, after which he was released.
Sporadic violence was reported on Wednesday in Mumbai which was by and large peaceful, a day after MNS activists went on a rampage to protest the arrest of Raj Thackeray, as curfew was clamped in the area around the Kalyan court in Thane where the politician was to be produced.
Elsewhere in Maharashtra, stray cases of violence were reported in Ahmednagar district where MNS workers targeted buses breaking window panes in Sangamner area and resorted to arson and stone pelting at several places.
"There were no reports of any major violence in the city and the situation was largely peaceful," Police said.
As they kept a tight vigil on the country's financial capital, Police said they had been given instructions to sternly deal with MNS activists if they indulge in violence after Raj was picked up in connection with the attack on North Indian job aspirants on Sunday.
Curfew has been clamped in the area around the Kalyan court, where Thackeray was to be produced, and the Manpada police station, police said apparently not wanting to take any chances after Tuesday's arson and rioting in Thane.
The police had a tough time dispersing the crowd which had gathered around the police station and were maintaining a tight vigil.
In overnight violence in neighbouring Thane, three persons including brother of a local MNS leader were killed, Thane Police Commissioner Anil Dhere said.
The deaths were reported in the Pisoli village area in Kalyan last night after a clash between two groups.
Miscreants torched an auto-rickshaw in the northern suburb of Dahisar and damaged another in suburban Ghatkopar.
Services on the Central Railway was disrupted for some time when miscreants attempted to block tracks using a cement sleeper near Kalyan station, railway officials said.
Left Claims Credit to Save india
UPA's friend-turned-foe, Left parties, self-congratulated themselves for saving India from getting trapped in the global financial turmoil by stopping the government from allowing pension money in stock market and opening up banks for foreign investment.
Demanding reduction in the fuel prices, Sitaram Yechury (CPM) said, "you must congratulate us as we have stopped you from increasing the FDI in insurance".
The policy allowed 26 per cent foreign direct investment in insurance. While there was a move to raise the FDI ceiling to 49 per cent, the Left parties which had provided crucial support to the government, were opposed to it.
Had the government allowed the pensions funds to be invested in the share market, "what would have happened to pensioners now," Yechury asked. Investors have lost over 50 per cent value in the stock market since January this year.
He said with the softening of crude oil prices, government should cut prices of petroleum products. Yechury also sought a cut in the issue price of food grains supplied through ration shop since food prices have come down.
"These two measures should be immediately taken, if government is serious about inclusive growth," he said. The CPM MP said the government has delisted only eight commodities in futures trading though there was a demand for banning 25 essential commodities.
"But I do not know why you have included rubber in the list of banned items," he said. The primary cause of inflation is speculative trading in commodity exchanges where turnover has exceeded Rs 40 lakh crore, he said. "How can you stop rise in prices when people are expecting profit from commodity futures," he asked.
Slow pace in river interlinking irks Parliamentary panel
Asking the government to take urgent steps regarding interlinking of rivers, a Parliamentary panel on Wednesday warned that if the pace of arriving at consensus is not accelerated by states, the ambitious programme would take at least another 30 to 40 years to materialise.
Presenting its 11th report on Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) in Lok Sabha today, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources said it was "disheartened to note that though all states had agreed to the ILR programme in principle, problems cropped up on the specifics of the issue of water sharing and other related benefits."
The committee felt that if the pace of arriving at consensus and preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) is not accelerated, the actual implementation of projects under ILR would take another "30-40 years or more" for completion of all the identified 30 links.
The committee, headed by R Sambasiva Rao, "desired" the Ministry of Water Resources to take urgent and concerted measures to bring all the concerned states on one platform to arrive at a consensus for all the 30 links at the earliest.
The committee, in one of its recommendations, suggested that the government should ask the Irrigation and Water Resources Finance Corporation to raise funds through bonds to fund projects under the ILR.
"To begin with, the Corporation could raise funds for the Ken-Betwa link for which the DPR is likely to be available by end of December, 2008," it said.
The report said the government should discuss threadbare with Nepal issues relating to the Himalayan component of the ILR programme so that Kathmandu could also appreciate the benefits accruing from the programme to them.
Left parties to decide on alliance strategy in AP
Amid efforts to forge a grand alliance to fight the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh in the forthcoming assembly elections, the state leaders of CPI and CPI(M) met in Hyderabadon Wednesday to discuss the political situation and a common strategy on public issues.
The state CPI(M) Secretary B V Raghavulu and his CPI counterpart A Narayana had a two-hour long meeting at the CPI(M) headquarters.
While broad contours of tie-ups with other opposition parties were discussed at the meeting, a final decision on alliances will be taken after the central committee meetings of the two parties before the first week of November, the Left leaders said.
"I will submit my report on the alliances to the state executive committee meeting here on October 29. It will be discussed by our national executive committee on November 1 and 2 after which a decision will be taken," Narayana told reporters.
The CPI(M), on the other hand, will discuss the issue of poll alliances during its meeting, scheduled to be held here from October 30 to November 5 before taking a final view, Raghavulu said.
There has been hectic activity in the opposition camp in the last few weeks with Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Left parties stepping up efforts to forge a grand alliance to take on the Congress.
However, there are reports that Left parties have different view points on alliance strategy.
While CPI(M) is said to be in favour of sailing with the main opposition TDP in view of the latter's strong cadre base, the CPI is reportedly keen on joining hands with the actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party.
Eastern Railway cancels 12 trains due agitation by students
Eastern Railway on Wednesday cancelled 12 trains running through Bihar, including the Howrah and Sealdah Rajdhani Express, owing to the student agitation in the state over the recent assault on railway recruitment examinees in Mumbai.
Besides, the 2301-Up Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and 2313-Up Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, other important trains cancelled include the 3111-Up Lalquila Express, 3133-Up Sealdah-Varanasi Express and the 3049-Up Howrah-Amritsar Express, an ER release said.
Other cancelled trains include the 3105-Up Sealdah- Ballia Express, 3185-Up Ganga Sagar Express, 3021-Up Mithila Express and the 0231-Up Howrah-New Delhi Puja Special.
The 2367-Up Bhagalpur-New Delhi Vikramshila Express, 3401-Up Bhagalpur-Danapur Intercity Express and 3419-Up Bhagalpur-Muzzafarpur Janseva Express have also been cancelled, the release said.
Stating that four trains passing through Bihar were short-terminated, it said the 2381-Up Poorva was stopped at Asansol, while the 2317-Up Akal Takht Express was terminated at Jasidih. The 3151-Up Jammu Tawi Express was short- terminated at Baruipara and the 0365-Up Howrah-Danapur Puja Special was short-terminated at Vidyasagar.
Centre to take final view on GUJCOC soon: Home Ministry
The Centre will take a "final view" on the the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2003 (GUJCOC) soon, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Replying to written questions, Minister of State for Home Radhika Selvi said the bill has been under examination of the Centre "in the light of the angles of conflict with any Central law, the policy of the Central government and other legal and Constitutional angles."
"It is expected that a final view in the matter would be taken in the near future," the minister said.
In reply to another question on Rajasthan Control of Organised Crime Bill, Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said a fresh draft of the bill was received by the Ministry on May 16 this year and is under the examination in consultation with various ministries and departments including Law Ministry.
He said the revised draft bill was sent after certain objections and comments of the Department of Revenue and the Department of Telecommunications were communicated to the state government for their consideration.
FM discusses liquidity situation with bankers
Finance Minister P Chidambaram held a meeting with senior bankers last evening in the backdrop of easing liquidity situation following a slew of measures taken by both RBI and the government.
"The meeting reviewed situation in the light of easing liquidity situation," Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty said.
Credit delivery to productive sector was also discussed during the meeting, he said.
The meeting was also attended by State Bank of India Chairman O P Bhatt and Indian Banks Association and Bank of India Chairman T S Narayanaswami.
When asked whether any meeting with Prime Minister was also there on the day, Chakrabarty said, "I am not aware of that."
Last month, owing to the tight liquidity situation, many banks had tightened their purse and went slow on credit disbursal.
Cash in the market dipped to the extent that inter-bank call money rates went as high as 23 per cent.
However, Finance Minister P Chidambaram came to the rescue of borrowers.
"Our banks are ready and willing to provide credit. Suitable advisories are being issued to the banks," he had said.
Following this, RBI issued a notification saying, "In view of the improved liquidity in the markets, the banks concerned are advised to review all such cases and permit drawal of sanctioned limits, guided by their usual commercial judgment."
Govt to set up 1500 new ITIs
Government will set up 1500 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in blocks where there are none at present, Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said the Government has taken up establishing ITIs in those blocks where such institutes do not exist now. He said 5000 skill development centres will also be set up on priority.
Fernandes said 300 ITIs will be approved by the month-end on top of a similar number sanctioned recently.
About 100 applications for ITIs are currently pending with the Government.
In addition, 100 ITIs will be upgraded with Government funds and another 400 through World Bank assistance. After that, 1396 ITIs would be upgraded through assistance from financial institutions, he said.
RS adjourns after uproar over attack on Christians in Orissa
Opposition BJP and ruling Congress members on Wednesday clashed in the Rajya Sabha over the issue of attack on Christians in Orissa, leading to abrupt adjournment of the House.
Trouble broke out when Congress member Shantaram Laxman Naik rose to read his Zero Hour notice on the issue, provoking BJP members who strongly protested against raising state matters. Orissa is ruled by BJD-BJP coalition.
Rudra Narayan Pany (BJP) led the opposition attack which was immediately countered by Congress members, plunging the House into turmoil.
Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan pleaded with the agitated opposition members to restore peace as the notice had been admitted by the Chairman and he could not do anything about it.
As Pany rushed towards the podium, Khan admonished him. "I condemn this. I am warning you," he said as the BJP member had a heated argument with the Chair.
Senior BJP member S S Ahluwalia then asked Pany to take his seat and he himself entered into a verbal duel with Khan. BJD member B J Panda was also seen standing in protest.
Amidst noisy scenes, Khan asked Naik to read the notice, further infuriating the opposition members who rushed to the well.
Some members from the Congress too rushed towards the well to counter the BJP attack.
At one point of time, an agitated Pany was seen rushing towards the Congress bench and was persuaded by his senior party colleagues to go back to his place.
As the din continued, Khan adjourned the House 15 minutes before the scheduled lunch recess.
Indo japanese landmark Joint declaration
India and Japan on Wednesday inked a landmark joint declaration on security cooperation but immediately assured China that their enhanced ties were not aimed at it or any other country.
Economic partnership and security cooperation between India and Japan “are not at the cost of any third country, least of all China,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.
“I have explained on several occasions both in India as well as in China and abroad that I sincerely believe that there is no competition between India and China. The world offers enormous scope for both our countries to realise their development ambitions.
“So there is no question of our ... economic partnership with Japan being at the expense of any other third country, least of all China,” Singh said here on the eve of his visit to Beijing to attend the 7th ASEM Summit from October 24.
Aso also tried to downplay the ‘China factor’, saying “we do not have any assumptions as targeting a third country, including China.” Earlier, Singh and Aso inked the Joint Declaration on enhanced security cooperation between India and Japan, saying their ties were rooted in their similar perceptions of the evolving environment in the region and the world at large.
The two sides stressed common commitment to democracy, open society, human rights and the rule of law and pointed out their deep respect for each other’s contribution in promoting peace, stability and development in Asia and beyond.
Recognising that India and Japan are partners with a mutual stake in each other’s progress and prosperity, the joint declaration said “a strong and prosperous India is in the interest of Japan and a strong and prosperous Japan is in the interest of India."
We will solve ethnic issue after 'finishing' terrorists: Lanka
Ahead of the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Senior Adviser Basil Rajapaksa here next week, Sri Lanka on Wednesday promised to address the decades-old ethnic conflict in the island nation through a political settlement but only after "finishing" terrorists.
Sri Lankan Minister of Rural Industries and Self Employment Promotion S B Nawinna said the government is committed to protecting Tamils in the restive northern region and that it had made efforts to supply food and other essential items to those affected.
"The government will end the conflict through a political settlement. After liberating the eastern region from the LTTE, the Government conducted elections and have made a Tamil as the Chief Ministers. Likewise, due representation will be given to people in north also," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
"We will settle the (ethnic) issue after finishing terrorists," Nawinna said.
His comments assume significance as India has been insisting that Sri Lanka should address the ethnic issue through a political settlement as there could be no military solution to the problem.
India has voiced concern over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka and has asked Colombo to ensure that the rights of Tamils in the island nation do not get "enmeshed" in the hostilities and that their safety is not compromised.
Basil will be coming here next week to discuss the issue with the Indian leadership.
Rs 7.35 crore fraud: Two accused of duping IA sent to PC
Four office bearers, including chairperson of a private firm, accused of duping state-owned Indian Airlines of Rs 7.35 crore by not remitting sale proceeds of air-tickets, have been remanded to two days of police custody by a Delhi court.
"The recovery has to be effected at the instance of the accused. Therefore, two days of police custody is granted," Metropolitan Magistrate Satish Kumar said, allowing Delhi Police plea that their custodial interrogation was needed to ascertain the money trail.
Sanjeev Khanna, chairman of Delhi-based M/s Rao Tours and Travels Private Ltd, woman accused Swatanter, director of the firm, Jyotika Khanna and Satish were arrested following the complaint of Indian Airlines that they did not remit the sale proceeds of the tickets in the tune of Rs 7.35 crore with it.
Indian Airlines had on July 13, 2000 appointed the firm its authorised dealer for selling the tickets, said the complaint lodged by Tilak Raj, Manager (finance) of the Airlines.
The private firm, however, did not remit sale proceeds of the air tickets, distributed during August-September, 2006, and a cheque, issued to the company, also bounced, it alleged.
Later, an FIR on May six last year was lodged against the firm and its officials under various provisions of the IPC, dealing with fraud, breach of trust and misappropriation of public money.
The police, seeking their custodial interrogation, said the money and various documents have to be recovered at the instance of the accused.
No third alternative before LS polls: Bardhan
Dismissing the possibility of a third front emerging at the national level before the Lok Sabha polls, CPI leader A.B. Bardhan on Tuesday said the Left will instead have state-specific alliances to fight the BJP and the Congress.
"There is no question of an all-India front coming up before the elections. The third alternative is a perspective to be materialised through struggles," the CPI general secretary told reporters here.
On the chances of projecting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati as the prime ministerial candidate of the anti-Congress and anti-BJP axis, he said his personal opinion was that she would be a better candidate.
"I have only said there are several aspirants, and according to me, she is better than others," he said. Voicing concern over the communal polarisation taking place in many parts of country resulting in the alienation of minorities, Bardhan said it was regrettable that the Centre has not responded to the demand for a judicial probe into the Jamia Nagar encounter in Delhi.
It has become all the more necessary to have a probe into the Jamia Nagar incident as so many doubts have been raised and so many questions asked about it, he said. Resenting the tendency to equate the entire Muslim community with terrorism, he said "What sort of national unity could be there if 18 crore Muslims are alienated." On the attack on Christians in Orissa, he said the Centre has failed to exercise the constitutional powers and create a sense of security among those under attack "from forces like the Bajrang Dal".
India is fastest growing market for Bell Helicopter
After taking 52 years to sell its first 100 choppers in India, Bell Helicopter expects to sell its next 100 in less than five years as the country has emerged as an important market for the US company, a top official said.
"India is our fastest growing market in the whole world," said Bell's director of communications Greg Hubbard, who was here for the civil aviation show last week.
"When we started our India office in 1995 we had only four percent of the market share; today we enjoy 52 percent market share," Hubbard told IANS.
Bell sold its first helicopter in India in 1956 and delivered its 100th commercial aircraft to leading Indian infrastructure company Abir Infrastructure during the air show here.
"We have sold 17 helicopters in India this year, we expect to sell 22 next year and we expect to sell our next 100th one within five years," Hubbard said.
"In India our growth rate is 15-17 percent while it is less than five percent in the US or Europe. Russia and Brazil are also growing fast, but the growth rate is lower than that in India," he said.
According to the Bell executive, the global downturn has not affected its India operations; nor does the company expect it to do so in the future. "Unlike fixed wing aircraft, helicopters are utility vehicles and demand will always be there."
Bell Helicopter, which is a subsidiary of Texas-based $13.2 billion multi-industry company Textron Inc, is also excited about supplying military helicopters to India.
"We will bid for the Indian Army's 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter programme by end of December and we are hopeful of bagging a large contract."
Giving details of the Bell429 model that it unveiled at the air show, Hubbard said the company had adopted a unique approach while developing the model.
"We formed a panel of customers and asked them what features they wanted and during the designing process they participated in working out the trade-offs between various features," he said.
"As a result, we ended up developing a very flexible model that can be easily customized. For example, it has a completely flat floor that helps in customizing to meet specific needs of customers," he said.
The helicopter has a glass cockpit and digital controls designed to meet the latest safety requirements and is very quiet, he said.
Talking about training institutes and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centres that Bell is planning to set up in India, Hubbard said: "We hope to select our Indian partners by early next year."
Sena targets Lalu, takes credit for disrupting Rly exams
Keen to reinforce its pro-Marathi agenda in the face of aggressive stand on the issue by MNS chief Raj Thackeray who is hogging limelight, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday sought to take credit for thwarting the scheduled Railway exams in Mumbai, saying they were arranged "exclusively" for Biharis.
An editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', which flayed Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for his "anti-Maharashtrian" stand in recruitment in Railways, played down the role of MNS in jolting the exam. It said the recruitment of "bhaiyyas" was stopped by Shiv Sainiks who agitated at the exam centres in Mumbai.
MNS workers too arrived waving their flags but it was the valour of Shiv Sainiks that finally clinched the issue leading to cancellation of the exams, the editorial claimed.
In a departure from its earlier assertion that Shiv Sainiks too had bashed up the candidates from north India at railway stations in the metropolis on October 19, the paper said the MNS workers were responsible for the attack on Biharis asleep on railway platforms.
It also carried a statement by Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray saying that the Sainiks would never resort to a cowardly attack on people in their sleep.
Lambasting the Railway Minister, Saamana said, "The Railway Board exams for recruitment covered only the Yadavs coming from Bihar and nobody from other states, including Uttar Pradesh."
Nun rape case: No CBI inquiry says SC, archbishop disappointed
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hand over to CBI the investigation into the alleged rape of a nun during the on-going communal violence in Orissa.
"At this stage we do not think that handing over the investigation into the case from the state police to the CBI is in the interest of the victim as well as in the interest of justice. We think that the victim will cooperate with the state police," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said.
The Bench noted that the victim has left the area and was refusing to participate in the Test Identification Parade (TIP), though nine persons have been arrested in connection with the alleged rape.
On the issue of compensation for damage caused to churches during the communal riots, the Bench asked the Orissa Government to assess the damage and assist in re-building them.
The apex Court said that proceedings in cases arising out of the violence will have to be conducted by setting up fast track courts.
Further, the Bench said that the central para-military forces provided to the state government for maintaining law and order in riot-hit area will remain there till December-end in view of the upcoming festival of Christmas.
The Archbishop of Cuttack had in a petition sought Rs hree crore compensation for demolition of Churches in the anti-Christian riots, while seeking a CBI inquiry into attacks on Christians.
He alleged that Orissa government was not taking steps o arrest the culprits who allegedly raped and paraded the nun naked on August 25.
I am disappointed over SC judgement: Archbishop
Noting that he was ‘disappointed’ over the Supreme Court declining to hand over the nun rape case to CBI, the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on Wednesday said they were not interested in filing a review petition in the apex court.
"I am disappointed. I was expecting more from the Supreme Court," Archbishop Raphael Cheenath said, adding he would hold talks with the community leaders before taking any further action.
Cheenath, who had filed the petition in the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the state government to hand over the case to the CBI, said that the court should take a harassed woman's statement into consideration.
The Archbishop said he approached the apex court seeking a CBI probe after the victim expressed her ‘no trust’ on the Orissa police. "How can the woman face the same police which turned mere witness to her being assaulted and raped," Cheenath said.
Asked what would be the community's next course of action, the Archbishop said that he would like to speak to the nun before saying something.
Declining to reveal whereabouts of the nun, the Archbishop said he would try to speak to her over phone.
Though he was a petitioner, Cheenath said he was yet to receive a copy of the judgement. "I will go through the wording of the judgement copy before giving further statement on the matter," he said.
On the court's advice to the state government to help in re-building damaged churches, Cheenath said he was expecting positive action from the state government.
Earlier, Cheenath had claimed that nearly 200 churches and prayer houses were damaged during violence.
Book Raj for murder, demand RJD, LJP, BJP
Slamming the Congress government in Maharashtra for ‘failing’ to protect north Indians from attacks by MNS men, UPA constituents RJD and LJP and Opposition BJP on Wednesday demanded booking Raj Thackeray for murder after the death of a youth in violence.
LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Maharashtra government has booked MNS chief Thackeray under bailable sections of the IPC.
"You release him tomorrow and he will indulge in same activities...he should be booked under section 302 (murder) of the IPC as a candidate (for the railway board exam) injured in Maharashtra violence has died," Paswan told reporters before Lok Sabha met for the day.
He also demanded job in Railways on compassionate grounds for the kin of the victim. "The LJP will provide Rs one lakh to the family of the deceased," said Paswan.
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain dubbed Raj as a ‘murderer’ and demanded that he be booked under Section 302 of IPC.
Describing Raj as a ‘danger for national unity’, Hussain said the treatment meted out to north Indians in Maharashtra is something done ‘not even in Pakistan’.
Taking potshots at RJD over the violence in Maharashtra, the BJP leader said the RJD should withdraw support to the UPA government at the Centre.
After the Lok Sabha was adjourned following an uproar over the issue, RJD member Ram Kripal Yadav told reporters that violence was continuing in Maharashtra.
"Taxi drivers, shop-keepers of north Indian origin are
being targeted...Raj Thackeray be booked under section 302 of IPC or we continue with our agitation," he said.
He claimed the Centre and Maharashtra governments failed to take action which helped Raj become a ‘hero’.
"The Centre should use provisions under Article 355 or 356 to curb violence and instil a sense of confidence in people," he added.
LJP member Ramchandra Paswan claimed the Bihar government also maintained a silence when north Indians were being targeted and said it too should be dismissed.
Airlines can repay fuel dues in 6 instalments
Indian carriers troubled by a financial crunch on Wednesday got time until March 2009 to clear their dues, estimated at about Rs 2,500-2,800 crore, to oil companies in equated monthly installments.
The decision was taken at a meeting called by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora with airline bosses and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to work out ways to help airlines stay afloat without hurting the interests of oil firms.
Patel said that it was decided that oil companies would extend the credit period on jet fuel purchase to 90 days from 60 now (applicable till March 2009), as also allow airlines to clear dues in EMIs by March 2009.
Kingfisher Airlines Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya, Jet Airways Executive Director S K Dutta and Air India Chairman Raghu Menon were among those who attended the meeting.
The meeting was necessitated as some airlines, including Jet, have defaulted on payments at the end of their 60-day credit period on Aviation Turbine Fuel purchase.
Representatives from state-run oil firms Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum and Finance Ministry officials also attended the meeting.
Why target us for being pro-Maratha, look at DMK: Sena
Defending its stir to facilitate jobs for Marathi people in the Railways, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday cited the example of political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the ruling DMK, that were exerting pressure on the UPA Government to protect the interests of Tamilians in Sri Lanka.
"The DMK has even threatened to withdraw its support to UPA at Centre if the government failed to curb the anti-LTTE offensive launched by Sri Lankan military," an editorial in 'Saamana', the Sena mouthpiece, commented. "These political parties are so sensitive to the Tamilian interests even outside India and Shiv Sena is being condemned for supporting jobs of Marathis in Maharashtra with the labeling of regionalism," the editorial in the paper, edited by party chief Bal Thackeray, said.
The editorial said just to mention a few, Maharashtra had given to the nation illustrious sons like Babasaheb Ambedkar, C D Deshmukh (who resigned from the Nehru Cabinet on the issue of Samyukta Maharashtra) and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar.
"But the rulers in Delhi always handed a raw deal to Maharashtra and expected it catapult before it. The Shiv Sena will never tolerate this situation and will always support Marathis in their fight for justice," it said.
Reliance Communication launches ‘Free laptop offer with unlimited net surfing’
Reliance Communications, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has entered into a strategic alliance with five computer hardware suppliers, to offer free laptops with internet connectivity to customers.
The computer companies are Intel Corp, Acer, Asus, HCL Infosystems and Lenovo.
The company claims that, the latest introduced scheme will enable customers to get free laptops powered by Intel's 'Atom' with high-speed internet data card service of Reliance.
However, under the scheme, customer has to pay monthly installment of Rs 1,500 for two years duration.
Reliance Communication is Country 's leading wireless internet service provider with over 10 lakh customers and access to 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakh villages in the country.
Spice S-580 Music Phone Launched in India
Spice Mobiles has announced the availability of its latest smart and slim musical handset, dubbed the Spice S-580, in the Indian market.
Seven PSU banks to be recapitalised: FM
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said that seven PSU banks having a capital adequacy ratio of below 10% would be recapitalised.
Chidambaram said the fundamentals of the Indian economy are strong and assured the Rajya Sabha that policy rates can be revisited if inflation continues to moderate.
Replying to a discussion on supplementary demands for grants in the Rajya Sabha, finance minister said, "We have taken pre-emptive measures (to deal with the global crisis) and we are drawing upon the inherent strength of our economy. We will overcome the crisis."
Referring to the measures taken by the Reserve Bank to manage the crisis, Chidambaram said, "CRR has been reduced by 250 basis points and repo rate has been reduced by 100 basis points... We are watching the situation. If the liquidity situation remains benign, there is no reason to infuse further liquidity and if inflation continues to moderate, we can again revisit these rates."
Parliament on Wednesday approved the supplementary demands for grants with the Rajya Sabha returning the Bill. The supplementary demands were earlier approved by the Lok Sabha.
The supplementary demands envisage an additional expenditure of Rs 2,37,385 crore, which include Rs 15,000 crore for payments to banks towards farmers debt relief fund.
On Tuesday, Chidambaram held a meeting with senior bankers in the backdrop of easing liquidity situation following a slew of measures taken by both RBI and the government.
"The meeting reviewed situation in the light of easing liquidity situation," Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty said.
Credit delivery to productive sector was also discussed during the meeting, he said.
The meeting was also attended by State Bank of India Chairman O P Bhatt and Indian Banks Association and Bank of India Chairman T S Narayanaswami.
Indian shares drop 4.8 pct; Reliance, ICICI lead
Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:23pm IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+] * Shares fall 4.8 pct on global recession fears
* Disappointing Wipro earnings drags down software stocks
* Resources shares slump on worries of falling demand (Updates to close)
By Devidutta Tripathy
NEW DELHI, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell 4.81 percent on Wednesday in a broad sell-off, erasing the previous session's gains as recession fears hammered international equity markets and helping knock the rupee to a record low against the dollar.
Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), India's most valuable firm which is due to report quarterly results on Thursday, fell 5.8 percent, and top private-sector bank ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) lost 8 percent.
These two stocks, which account for more than fifth of the main index, contributed most to the fall.
Disappointing quarterly results from No. 3 software-services exporter Wipro Ltd (WIPR.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and a muted outlook on worsening economic conditions triggered selling of other outsourcers.
"Global cues, selling pressure from foreign institutional investors are hitting the markets," said D.D. Sharma, vice president at Anand Rathi Securities in Mumbai.
Asia, EU wrestle crisis in messy diplomatic dance
Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:58am IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Dozens of Asian and European leaders representing half the global economy gather this week confronting a world financial crisis but their talks are more likely to cloak differences than galvanise action.
At the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) opening on Friday, the 27 EU member states and the European Commission will trade views with Japan, China and India and 13 other Asian countries on the global downturn, climate change and international security.
Beijing, this year's host, has stressed the value of the biennial leaders' meeting in joining two regions that account for two thirds of world trade and 60 percent of global output.
"If everyone doesn't meet like this, then it's much easier for misunderstandings to arise," said Zhou Hong, an expert on relations with Europe at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"Europe is fairly united on many issues, of course, but Asia is much more disparate, so achieving consensus among all 45 members is never easy. But we do need it now."
The meetings make no binding decisions, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose bailout of the British banking system swiftly became a model for the United States and many EU countries, will not attend.
Yet even a symbolic flourish of unity may help as governments seek to steady themselves in the financial turmoil: the two-day meeting will issue a closing statement likely to stress a shared purpose in the face of financial meltdown and economic slowdown.
"The main thing is to come out with strong united messages conveying confidence -- confidence that, yes, we can improve the international financial system," France's ambassador to Beijing, Herve Ladsous, speaking last week, said of the ASEM meeting.
surprise rate cut
Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:52pm IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Surojit Gupta
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Shoring up India against a global recession has overtaken taming double-digit inflation as the government's prime economic goal, officials said on Tuesday.
Soon after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed its key lending rate by 100 basis points on Monday, just four days before a scheduled review of monetary policy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country should brace for slower economic growth, but stressed the economy and banking system were safe.
"There was in some sense unjustified nervousness about the impact of the recession in advanced countries on the Indian economy," said Suresh Tendulkar, chairman of prime minister's Economic Advisory Council.
"It is precisely to dispel this nervousness that the prime minister made his speech, and I think the Reserve Bank of India cut the repo rate to keep the India growth story going."
Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Tuesday that financial stability would be a focus with growth and inflation as India faced the indirect impact of the global crisis.
"At this moment we must stimulate the economy. The steps that we have taken on the CRR (cash reserve ratio) and the repo rate are intended to stimulate the economy," he told parliament.
"Meanwhile we continue to pay attention to inflation. I concede inflation is still high."
Like elsewhere around the world, Indians have been bombarded with headlines of global market turmoil and forecasts of slowing growth and job losses, and sentiment has been undermined
Chandrayaan: ‘It was a perfect launch’
K Sreedevi at Sriharikota | Wednesday, 22 October , 2008, 18:15
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14782731
The rains are not a taboo anymore at Sriharikota (SHAR).
Moments before the launch of India's first unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan -I, at 6.22 am on October 22, 2008, there were prayers to the rain gods to rein in their fury.
However, the incessant showers around 9 a.m. in the area was a matter of cheer.
The relaxed and jubilant group of ISRO scientists actually did not even mind getting drenched in the drizzle. For it was celebration time after an "on the dot" launch of India's first lunar mission worth about Rs 360 crore. The copy-book launch of Chandrayaan into orbit by PSLV-C11 was a matter of pride for all.
"It is a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle," beamed ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair. "It is a perfect launch. What we have started is a remarkable journey for the Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the moon".
Chandrayaan –I launched successfully
Exactly seven years ago, on the same date (October 22, 2001), ISRO scientists had successfully and proudly launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C3) carrying three satellites - one Indian and two foreign.
Today, on the day of PSLV’s 14th flight, however, the pride was greater on achieving the "perfect" launch "against all odds".
"We have been fighting against all odds," said Nair, admitting that the heavy rains and cloudy skies over the last four days had led to a lot of worries about the launch.
There were moments of apprehension until as late as the penultimate day of the launch (October 21). But the tiresome team refused to let even nature come in the way of its 27th launch exercise. “What we faced in the last five days is nearly an ordeal. We were looking for breaks in between rains to carry out preparation. We had lost all hopes for the launch yesterday,“ Nair said.
But his special prayers to Chengamma Devi at Sulurpet on Monday evening and ISRO team’s offering to Lord Balaji at Tirumala Tirupati last week seem to have paid off.
"Fortunately, we had clear skies today and we would be completing the remaining part of the journey within 15 days," Nair said heaving a sigh of relief.
"It was a coincidence of events working against all odds. The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit."
Special: Destination Moon
After some more procedures, Chandrayaan's orbit would be finally lowered to its intended 100 km height from the lunar surface around November 8.
"Injecting the spacecraft into the lunar trajectory is another key aspect of the mission and we are looking forward to it," Nair said.
Unveiling future plans of the research organization, the ISRO chief said his team was looking at moving from moon mission to a manned mission and was gearing itself up to send GSLV spaceships with two humans before 2015.
Work on the RS 12,000-crore Chandrayaan-II, with the same set of scientists, had already begun and the focus would be on a soft landing on the moon, he said.
Inside Chandrayaan-1
Re-useable launch systems were also at a conceptual stage and would materialize in 2020, Nair said.
Despite such elaborate plans, ISRO was working only on a shoe-string budget of S1 billion on projects, compared to the $20 billion spent on the same project by its US counterpart, NASA, Nair claimed.
With Chandrayaan, India joins the elite space club comprising the US, Russia, European Space Agency, China and Japan by demonstrating its capability to explore the moon with its own spacecraft and launch vehicle.
From the launch of a US-made Nike-Apache Sounding Rocket from Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram, on November 21, 1963, which marked India’s foray into space, we have come a long way.
Yahoo to axe 1,500 jobs on weak ad revenue
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Reuters
Posted: Oct 22, 2008 at 0918 hrs IST
San Francisco, October 22: Yahoo Inc posted a sharply lower quarterly profit on nearly flat sales, but its shares rose 8 per cent on the Internet media company's plan to cut at least 10 per cent of its work force to save costs.
Yahoo, the leading provider of online display advertising, said on Tuesday it planned to cut at least another 10 per cent of its roughly 15,000-strong global work force, and reduce its expense-run rate by around $400 million by the end of 2008.
The planned job cuts of more than 1,500 employees expand an earlier cut of roughly 1,000 jobs, or 7 per cent, that Yahoo made in February. Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said Yahoo was prepared to further cut jobs and other expenses in 2009 if the economy continues to deteriorate.
Yahoo is cutting its work force in high-cost markets and hiring aggressively in lower-cost locales such as Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia.
"The stock is up," Cowen & Co analyst Jim Friedland said. "It's not up on better-than-expected results. It's up on a lack of a complete meltdown in the business," he said.
The Silicon Valley-based Web pioneer said net income for the third quarter tumbled to $54.3 million, or 4 cents per diluted share, from $151 million, or 11 cents per diluted share.
Gross revenue, including payments to affiliated websites that carry Yahoo ads, edged up 1 per cent to $1.79 billion. Net revenue was $1.325 billion, compared with the average Wall Street estimate of $1.37 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Wall Street was looking for a profit, on average, of 8 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Net revenue forecasts had ranged from $1.29 billion to $1.43 billion, the same data showed.
Yahoo President Susan Decker said the company struggled as corporate brand advertisers scaled back spending on Web marketing promotions, not only in the United States but also across Europe and Asia. Marketers in the travel and retail industries have been canceling some contracts, she said.
"We are still seeing a weakening trend in some Asian markets," Decker said.
Yahoo co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang put a brave face on the situation, saying that while its premium display advertising business was declining, Yahoo appeared to be gaining market share as buyers consolidated their spending.
"I am encouraged that most advertisers who are still spending in this environment are spending with Yahoo," Yang said.
GLOOMY OUTLOOK, NARROWING OPTIONS
Yahoo forecast fourth-quarter gross revenue at between $1.773 billion and $1.973 billion. That represents a decline of 3 per cent to a modest growth of 8 per cent from the year-earlier quarter's $1.83 billion.
"I had been predicting they would reduce their guidance for (the fourth quarter) but they really whacked it," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities.
"It had been in the mid-teens, now it's just barely over 2 per cent for revenue growth in the fourth quarter, normally a seasonally strong one," he said, referring to the midpoint of the per centage growth Yahoo has forecast.
Shares of Yahoo gained 7.7 per cent to $13 in extended trade on the results, after closing 6.1 per cent lower at $12.07 on Nasdaq. But despite the rebound, the stock remains at 5-year lows as hopes earlier this year that Microsoft might acquire Yahoo for $33 or more per share have dissipated for now.
Free cash flow fell to $215 million from $231 million in the 2008 second quarter and $310 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts said that while the latest downturn in Yahoo's business has forced the Sunnyvale, California-based company to make sweeping cutbacks, these cuts are likely to further damage its competitiveness with Internet market leader Google.
"They don't have much of a choice, but it's likely to hurt Yahoo's longer-term growth," Friedland said.
Excluding one-time items such as the costs of fending off a proxy campaign by Carl Icahn to force Yahoo back into talks with Microsoft Corp on a possible merger, quarterly profit rose to $123 million, or 9 cents a diluted share.
For the September quarter, the company said it ran up $36 million in merger, consulting and legal costs related to its on-again, off-again talks with Microsoft, an aborted proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn, and its bid to win regulatory approval for an ad sales deal with Google Inc.
Icahn subsequently joined the Yahoo board.
Yahoo and Google recently agreed to delay their advertising deal amid competitive concerns by the US Justice Department but Yang.
Once Chandrayaan goes near the moon, we will be there to track it’
The 32-metre antenna in Bangalore will allow us to collect the signals from Chandrayaan about 4,00,000 km away both in terms of satellite control capability and the science data coming from the various onboard experiments.
After its expected launch on Tuesday morning, Chandrayaan-1, the Indian lunar orbiter, will be injected into its first orbit around the earth in just 17 minutes. During its subsequent course to the final orbit around the moon, and during the orbiter’s lifetime of two years, a critical element of the mission will be the constant communication link from the ground to the satellite for tracking it as well as for its orbit control and house-keeping — the Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) operations — and receiving data from the 11 onboard experiments.
Missions that go beyond a distance of 1,00,000 km from the Earth are usually termed as deep space missions and Chandrayaan-1 is the first such for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). For deep space missions, ISRO has established an impressive communications infrastructure called the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu, a village located about 45 km from Bangalore, as part of the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command (ISTRAC) system. Comprising a massive indigenously built 32-m antenna and a German 18-m antenna, the IDSN will be the centre of activity for the entire duration of the mission.
Excerpts from an interview of ISTRAC Director S.K. Shiva Kumar with Science Correspondent R. Ramachandran:
Dr. Shiva Kumar, what are the critical issues involved in telemetry, tracking and communications in general associated with deep space missions?
When we talk of satellites in near earth orbit, we mean about 1,000 km altitude or more, or near earth space of about 2,000-2,500 km in range from the Earth’s surface. But when we say deep space mission, we mean lakhs of kilometres. For example, when we talk of the Moon mission, it means that the distance is not less than the Earth-Moon distance, which is about 4,00,000 km. Internationally, there is a way of categorising deep space and near earth, but a common way of defining would be the moon distance and beyond.
In deep space missions, as the space probe moves farther away from the Earth, the strength of the signals from it become weaker and weaker. The real challenge is to catch those weak signals. Mathematically, from antenna theory, we know that we have to put up larger and larger dishes. ISTRAC has so far been involved with smaller dimension 10-11-metre diameter dishes. But now for a deep space mission, it jumps to something like 32 m. To make such an antenna, especially through the indigenous industry, was a big challenge for us. We looked at [systems] the world over and found that the nominally working deep space antenna you get to see is 30m-plus. We decided to make a 32-m antenna in Bangalore, which would give us the strength to talk to our satellite from our own soil and also to collect the signals from Chandrayaan about 4,00,000 km away both in terms of satellite control capability and the science data coming from the various onboard experiments.
Of course, in deep space everything is [at] a premium. Actually, IRS satellites, which are in 700-900-km orbit, produce much more data than what Chandrayaan will produce. For the imagery that you collect with 1-m and 5-m resolutions, that data is quite voluminous. But we are [already] in the higher level of data transmission from Chandrayaan. We will be transmitting data at 8.4 Mbps, whereas many people are doing it at much lower rates. Just for comparison, IRS satellites transmit at 100 Mbps data rate. Since we have handled high bit-rate data links, there is no issue in handling these lower bit-rates. For Chandrayaan, since the incoming data is at 8.4 Mbps, we have organised ourselves well for transmitting the data. The data we receive from Chandrayaan at our SSDC will be redistributed [for which] we have put up really high-speed dedicated links [up to 16 Mbps depending upon the experiment and the location]. In addition to that, since some people did not want dedicated links because they wanted [their data] to be in the public domain, we have put up a high-speed internet link of 16 Mbps. These are all, I would say, first in our domain. ISTRAC has never handled so many high-speed links.
That’s rightly perceived. Actually, the satellite will be first put into an orbit with an apogee of 22,800 km. This is quite close to Earth. Since ISTRAC has a fairly big network, all our stations commonly used in our IRS missions will be deployed. None of these stations has a big antenna but they are good enough for tracking up to 1,00,000 km without any problem. Once we cross the 1,00,000-km barrier, the big antenna will come in. Notwithstanding this [nominal procedure], since we are deploying the big antenna for the first time, we cannot be waiting till 1,00,000 km. So, for most part of the trajectory we will be tracking it with both DSN-18 and DSN-32, even earlier than 1,00,000 km. But beyond 1,00,000 km, we will be doing specifically by the mission-assured IDSN.
First, there are the standard test and evaluation procedures that we have in ISTRAC. Then we have tracked some of the LEO satellites like Cartosat and IRS-P4/Oceansat with the big antenna. But, of course, this does not satisfy anybody because you have to track something nearer to moon. Very recently, we have started tracking SELENE, the Japanese lunar orbiting satellite [launched in September 2007], thanks to cooperation from JAXA [the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]. We have been able to track the satellite continuously with this antenna. That has given us ample confidence to say ‘Yes. Once Chandrayaan goes near the moon, we will be there to track it.’ To that extent, our comfort level is quite high because if you have tracked a similar object that is closer to moon and you have been able to establish links with good margins and all that, we don’t have to speak much about our ability to do [the same] with Chandrayaan. In addition, we are planning to track another deep space [cometary] probe ROSETTA [launched in 2004]. This was another opportunity that was created thanks to the European Space Agency.
The realisation of the entire antenna system itself was a big challenge because we were doing it for the first time. ISTRAC was responsible for building this. We chose ECIL [Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.] as the prime contractor who had the primary responsibility for the reflector and the mount of the antenna. In turn we worked with ECIL very closely. Along with that we chose BARC for antenna control servo system, the major subsystem. The RF design was entrusted to the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC). ISTRAC and ISAC together developed the feed system. These three are the heart of the whole system and these four agencies constituted the core team for executing the project. But that is not all because many subsystems had to be realised. So we went around scouting different industries in the country. We could identify sources with good capability within the country — L&T, Godrej & Boyce, SLN Technologies in Bangalore, HAL and many others. I think we had interface with 40 industries to do this work.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/22/stories/2008102255641100.htm
RPF had warned Maha police about attack
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Raghvendra Rao
Posted: Oct 22, 2008 at 1021 hrs IST
In one of its communications to Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh, the RPF had expressed concern over "certain local political activists and hoodlums" who could target applicants from outside Maharashtra and had demanded that sufficient police strength be made available to guard the exam centres.
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Reuters
San Francisco, October 22: The US economy is currently in a recession that will not end until the middle of next year when a slow recovery begins, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Tuesday.
"A recession appears to be under way, as evidenced in rising unemployment, contracting manufacturing activity and declining inflation-adjusted consumption spending," said Jay Brinkmann, the trade group's chief economist, at the group's annual convention.
Action replay: Raj steals a march on stumped Sena
22 Oct 2008, 0323 hrs IST, S Balakrishnan, TNN
na simply did not know what to do as hundreds of Marathi youths protesting Raj’s arrest were lathi-charged by the police. “If we condemned the violence against the Marathi youths, then we would be unwittingly helping Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). If we kept quiet then we would be seen as being unsympathetic to the Marathi cause. We simply do not have a strategy to counter Raj,’’ a Sena activist conceded on Tuesday.
Thackeray Sr’s Sena wiped out the communist influence in Mumbai. Now, history is repeating itself with the Congress and its ally, the NCP, backing Raj Thackeray with a view to delivering a body blow to the Shiv Sena. If the near-total bandh in Mumbai and Thane on Wednesday following the arrest of Raj was any indication, then the Congress-NCP alliance appears to be succeeding in its cynical gameplan. Another Thackeray has emerged on the political scene and he is, ironically, destroying the Sena.
MNS had four VVIP suites at guest house
22 Oct 2008, 0320 hrs IST, Yogesh Naik , TNN
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray managed to get four VVIP suites at the circuit house (government guest house) in Ratnagi
ri, from where he was picked up early Tuesday morning. The guest house had been recently renovated.
President’s visit to fetch more Chinese capital
Hafiz sanaullah
http://thepost.com.pk/NatNewsT.aspx?dtlid=188450&catid=2
As the US is losing, China is rapidly gaining influence in the war on terror's worst hit province - NWFP - and its adjoining tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Thanks to the US predator and drone attacks on the tribal territory of NWFP causing heavy loss of civilian lives.
There are ample opportunities Pakistan offered in various sectors given its strategic geographical local and the presence within the country of many resources. China has extended offers of help in several areas including mineral development, agricultural research, satellite procurement and technical cooperation.
The joint statement envisages strong opposition to all forms of terrorism, extremism and separatism. Both sides resolved to cooperation with each other to fight the above mentioned three forces. China conveyed its complete support to Pakistan's commitment and efforts to fight terrorism and appreciated its sacrifices rendered by the people and the government of Pakistan towards this end.
Sarah Palin's new image cost Republicans $150,000Shopping spree in Minneapolis just before party conference is revealed in campaign records
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Sarah Palin's new image cost Republicans $150,000Shopping spree in Minneapolis just before party conference is revealed in campaign recordsElana Schor in Washington guardian.co.uk, Wednesday October 22 2008 14.49 BST Article history
Sarah Palin, with her daughter Willow, holding her brother Trig, campaigns at a rally in Henderson, Nevada. Palin is giving the American sign language hand sign for "I love you". Photograh: Eric Jamison/AP
The Republican party has spent $150,000 (£92,000) on clothes and accessories since late August for Sarah Palin and her family, according to records of party spending.
The Republican shopping sprees, including a $75,000 jaunt to the upscale store Neiman Marcus, began showing up on financial disclosure reports in early September, just after Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate.
Palin often depicts herself as a homespun product of small-town "real America"on the campaign trail, but she was revealed last month to be working with a secret team of stylists on sharpening her dress sense.
Today's reports on the Palin family's elaborate spending habits – a $295 pram was among the purchases as a treat for baby Trig, according to politco.com – could hurt the Republicans' credibility. The election is less than two weeks away.
The former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards became a national joke last year after campaign financial reports showed him spending $400 on haircuts. McCain and his wife, Cindy, were plagued this year by reports of $500 shoes and a $300,000 party ensemble respectively.
"The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent," Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, told politico.com, declining to confirm that the fashion expenses were exclusively for Palin.
No similar shopping trips were reported by the Republican party before Palin became McCain's running mate.
The Neiman Marcus branch where Republicans shopped in September was located in Minneapolis, the site of the party's national convention where Palin was introduced as McCain's running mate. Republicans spent $9,440 at a Macy's shop in the city during the same period. Another $4,900 was registered at Atelier, a men's fashion emporium, suggesting Palin's husband Todd was treated to a new wardrobe.
Palin's makeover was not limited to attire, according to a lengthy story due to be published this weekend in the New York Times. The vice-presidential hopeful worked with Priscilla Shanks, a voice coach and Hollywood actor, to help refine her speaking style before her speech at the Republican convention.
She has billed her home state of Alaska, where she is governor, for more than $21,000 for taking her five children on official trips – even when they were not invited.
Palin claimed $17,000 in per diem reimbursements from her state's government for nights spent at her family home in Wasilla, Alaska. Tax experts have questioned the propriety of those claims, which were not added to her annual income tax returns.
"With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we're spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," said the McCain campaign's spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt.
"It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/22/uselections2008-sarahpalin
Chinese surfers see red over Microsoft black-outs
Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:57pm IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Kitty Bu
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Internet users have expressed fury at Microsoft's launch of an anti-piracy tool targeting Chinese computer users to ensure they buy genuine software.
The "Windows Genuine Advantage" programme, which turns the user's screen black if the installed software fails a validation test, is Microsoft's latest weapon in its war on piracy in China, where the vast majority of 200 million computer users are believed to be using counterfeit software, unwittingly or not.
"Why is Microsoft automatically connected with my computer? The computer is mine!" one angry blogger wrote on popular Chinese web portal Sina.com. "Microsoft has no right to control my hardware without my agreement."
Another blogger railed over the cost of authorised versions.
"If the price of genuine software was lower than the fake one, who would buy the fake one?" he wrote.
A visitor to a Beijing internet cafe said Microsoft was violating people's rights.
"If, when I'm programming, the computer screen goes black, that will probably cause some important information to be lost," he said. "Who will pay me for my loss then?"
Dong Zhengwei, 35, a Beijing lawyer, described Microsoft as the "biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users' computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority", the China Daily said.
Wells Fargo Chairman Prefers U.S. Plan to Buy Stakes (Update2)
By Ari Levy
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman Richard Kovacevich said the U.S. Treasury's intention to buy stock in banks provides a better stimulus to escape the financial crisis than an earlier plan to purchase soured mortgage-related assets.
``Direct capital injections versus buying loans is a far more preferable way'' to help companies already facing credit losses, Kovacevich, 64, said yesterday at an event hosted by San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. ``It's an important tool to get the financial system back into the money business again.''
Wells Fargo, which agreed to buy Wachovia Corp. for about $14 billion this month, is one of nine large lenders slated to receive cash infusions as part of the government's plan to spend $700 billion unfreezing credit markets. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, will get $25 billion. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among the others that will receive the cash.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last week urged banks to ``deploy'' the money in loans. He was forced to change his strategy after the initial plan to buy distressed assets caused banks to hoard cash and failed to halt a slide in the stock market. Kovacevich declined to say if he initially opposed Paulson's plan as the New York Times reported.
Wells Fargo dropped 99 cents, or 3 percent, to $31.65 at 10:04 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 8.1 percent this year through yesterday, the biggest advance in the 24-comopany KBW Bank Index. Wachovia fell 17 cents to $5.92, adding to its 84 percent decline this year.
He's Seen Worse
Kovacevich said the current economic crisis isn't the worst he's seen, and the U.S. government's may help end the credit freeze ``reasonably soon.''
``Our customers, except those in residential home lending or autos, are doing quite well,'' he said. ``By far, the worst economic crisis of my career was in the 1980s.''
The Wachovia deal, orchestrated by Kovacevich, marks an eastward expansion and strategic shift for Wells Fargo, which maintained a profit during the financial crisis by avoiding riskier loans. Wachovia's mortgage portfolio includes an estimated $74 billion in future losses.
The Wells Fargo-Wachovia deal will create the biggest U.S. bank network, with 6,675 branches. The Federal Reserve said yesterday that Wells Fargo agreed to reduce its deposit base to comply with U.S. bank-merger law should the combined company control more than 10 percent of deposits nationwide.
Wachovia reported its third straight quarterly loss today, hurt by crumbling mortgage markets and writedowns on securities backed by real estate. The loss for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $23.9 billion, or $11.18 a share, compared with net income of $1.6 billion, or 85 cents, in the same period a year earlier, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said in a statement.
The Wachovia deal would be Wells Fargo's biggest acquisition since Norwest Corp. purchased the old Wells Fargo 10 years ago and adopted the name.
Kovacevich was chief operating officer at Minneapolis-based Norwest in the 1980s when current Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, 55, was running the auto-dealer business and working on commercial loans. Kovacevich was promoted to CEO of Norwest in 1993 and stepped down in June 2007 to make way for the promotion of Stumpf, who has been with the company for 26 years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 22, 2008 10:06 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJA_SCWQqtkw&refer=home
Tripura suicide in stock crash
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Agartala, Oct. 21: A 26-year-old man hanged himself here last night after he found that he had bungled while trying to recoup his losses in the market downswing.
Jayanta Saha, a resident of Shanitola and son of an LIC development officer, had invested over Rs 18 lakh in equity shares, which had halved in the meltdown.
Jayanta did not hold a regular job but made a living by investing in the stock market.
A harried Jayanta planned to recoup the losses by making fresh investments in 700 more shares. But while operating his demat account through the Internet yesterday, he keyed in an extra zero, thereby placing an order for 7,000 shares.
Jayanta, who had passed MCom from Tripura University, was alone at home as his parents had gone to Bangalore to visit his married sister.
Having realised the mistake, Jayanta spoke to his father in Bangalore over phone and was advised not to worry.
“Apparently it is a case of suicide though we have found no suicide note. Only papers containing accounts of share values were recovered from his bedroom,” said Sanjay Biswas, officer-in-charge of East Agartala police station.
Police sources said Jayanta’s father Santosh and his mother Manjushree arrived home this morning. He was cremated today after post-mortem.
“Jayanta was upset at having lost so heavily in the stock market, especially because part of the money was his father’s,” an LIC agent and Jayanta’s cousin, Chhaya Saha, said.
Saha said even his parents had tried to pacify him from Bangalore, saying the loss would be made up in time but “Jayanta was inconsolable”.
Kotak Securities, through which Jayanta transacted business, downed shutters early, presumably on hearing the news of his death. Mintu Bhowmik, who heads the local office, refused to comment on the monetary value of shares under his care.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081022/jsp/frontpage/story_10002713.jsp
THE GREAT GAME
- Where is India on the new map of energy security?
Chandrashekhar Dasgupta
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, October 2005
“Turkestan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia …they are the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world,” wrote George Nathaniel Curzon in 1898, at the high noon of the British Empire.
Central Asia all but ceased to figure in international relations during the Soviet era. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, triggered off another struggle for influence over the newly independent states in Central Asia and the Caspian region. A century after Lord Curzon, the American energy secretary, Bill Richardson, highlighted the geo-strategic importance of the region, albeit in more prosaic terms. “This is about America’s energy security, which depends on diversifying our sources of energy worldwide,” he said in October 1998. “It’s also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don’t share our values. We’re trying to move these newly independent countries toward the West. We would like to see them reliant on Western commercial and political interests than going the other way. We’ve made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it’s very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right.” A new Great Game had been launched in Central Asia.
Though the theatre of contest remains broadly the same, the players as well as the stakes are very different today. In the 19th century, the principal players of the Great Game were Russia and Britain. Today, the leading players in the new Great Game are the United States of America, Russia and China, together with a supporting cast including the European Union, Turkey and Iran, among others. Central Asia was only the theatre of the 19th-century contest; the principal stake lay elsewhere. The stake was the control of the approaches to Britain’s Indian empire, rather than the resources of the arid lands of Central Asia. The objective in the current contest is to control access to Central Asia’s vast oil and gas resources. The geopolitics of the new Great Game no longer focuses on potential invasion routes, as it did in Curzon’s time, but on the alignment of oil and gas pipelines.
Since the Caspian-Central Asian region is landlocked, its petroleum and natural gas production can reach major foreign markets only through pipelines leading directly to consumer countries or to international ports from which they can be shipped to consumer countries. During the Soviet era, all pipelines constructed in this region passed through Russia. Even today, the bulk of oil and natural gas produced in the region is exported through pipelines running northward through the Russian Federation. Thus, for instance, gas from Turkmenistan is currently delivered to Central Europe via Russia.
Two new pipeline routes have radically changed the geopolitical map of the Caspian-Central Asian region. An east-west oil pipeline now runs from Baku in Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey, bypassing Russian territory. A new west-east pipeline transports oil from Kazakhstan to China. Both these ambitious ventures have important strategic implications.
The strategic objective of the US-backed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is to reduce Western dependence on Russia for energy imports. Russia, with its vast deposits of oil and gas, is an energy superpower. The EU is already heavily dependent on Russia for gas imports and this dependence is expected to increase further as a result of declining offshore production in the North Sea. The new pipeline will enable the EU to secure access to Caspian oil and gas without giving Russia the control or leverage that it might exercise as a transit state.
The construction of the pipeline was an immense political enterprise in a region divided by deep animosities. The shortest routes from Baku to Ceyhan lie through Iran or Armenia but neither was politically acceptable. The US would not even contemplate an option involving Iran, a “rogue state” in its eyes. The latter option was impracticable because Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan are characterized by deep hostility, while its ties with Turkey are still marred by historical animosities. Ruling out these shorter — and more economical — alignments, the only feasible option was the pipeline that now initially runs northward from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Tbilisi (Georgia) and thence southwards to Ceyhan (Turkey).
The alignment of the pipeline thus took into account existing regional political realities. At the same time, it is also creating new political realities. The Western alliance is building closer ties with both Georgia and Azerbaijan. Both countries have contributed troops to current peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Kosovo. Georgia has received sizeable military aid from the US, and is now an eager candidate for Nato membership. Washington is pressing for Georgia’s early admission, but several of its west European allies are reluctant to get drawn into Georgia’s dispute with Russia over the status of the territories of Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. Azerbaijan, more wisely, has thus far refrained from seeking Nato membership, while indicating that the option remains open for the future.
China’s search for energy security provides the strategic rationale for the Kazakhstan-Xinjiang pipeline. China’s spectacular economic development can be maintained only if it is able to import increasing volumes of oil and gas. The quest for energy security has led China to invest heavily in oil and gas fields in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. This enables Beijing not only to secure access to overseas “equity oil” but also to diversify its sources, thereby minimizing the risk of a disruption of supplies on account of political instability in an oil-producing country.
The Chinese have been prepared to pay high prices for oilfields in Central Asia. Heavy costs are also involved in transporting oil and gas over a distance of 3,000 kilometres from Kazakhstan to China’s industrial heartland. Many analysts have drawn the conclusion that Chinese policy in this regard is shaped by strategic factors. They maintain that Beijing is prepared to pay a premium for oil and gas transported by overland routes because it apprehends that, in certain contingencies, the US may employ its naval supremacy to impose a maritime oil embargo against China. As in the case of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, energy security considerations (rather than purely economic calculations) appear to provide the rationale of the Kazakhstan-China pipeline.
How does India fit into this new geopolitical map? Indian officials are reportedly holding talks with their Turkish and Israeli counterparts to examine the feasibility of transporting Central Asian oil from Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean, linked by an overland pipeline to the Red Sea port of Eilat, from where supertankers could pick up shipments destined for India. This route would avoid the overcrowded Suez Canal or the long detour around the African continent.
The Ceyhan route might be an attractive short-term option. The preferred long-term goal, however, must be to obtain access to Central Asia’s oil and gas reserves through less circuitous southward routes running through Iran or through Afghanistan and Pakistan. For example, crude oil from Azerbaijan could be carried through pipelines to Iranian ports for shipment to India. Gas from Turkmenistan could be delivered to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Political factors obstruct early implementation of these projects. The Iran option would face strong opposition from the US, and would be practicable only if other powerful countries can be recruited as partners in the enterprise. The Pakistan-Afghanistan option must await restoration of peaceful conditions in southern Afghanistan and adjacent areas of Pakistan. Yet, we must not lose sight of these alternatives because of the important contribution they can make to our energy security — and to consolidating our ties with neighbours.
The author is a retired ambassador and is currently a Distinguished Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081022/jsp/opinion/story_9995591.jsp
No terror charges on Godhra accused: SC
NEW DELHI, Oct. 21: The Supreme Court today dropped POTA charges against all the 134 accused in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident in Gujarat in which 59 Kar Sevaks were burnt alive, while holding that a trial under POTA cannot proceed if the review committee decides otherwise.
A bench of Chief Justice Mr KG Balakrishnan and Justices Mr R V Raveendran and Mr Dalveer Bhandari held that a trial under POTA cannot proceed if the review committee recommends that the offence against the accused cannot be made out under the anti-terror law. The bench also directed that the trial against the accused will now resume.
The apex court, however, said the state can always file an appeal against the POTA review committee.
The apex court gave the order on a bunch of petitions challenging the decision to prosecute the accused under the anti-terror law even after the Gujarat POTA review committee had held that offence under POTA cannot be made out against them.
The SC rejected the Gujarat government’s stand that the review committee recommendations are not binding. n SNS
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=228047
TN: Human chain deferred
Chennai, Oct. 21: The human chain protest demanding the Centre to stop military aid to Sri Lanka and provide medicine and food to the Tamil population in the island nation through the International Red Cross has been postponed to 24 October due to continual rains in the State for the last three days.
In another significant development, the student wings of the DMK and MDMK joined hands to form a Confederation of All Students alongwith the students unions of the Left, Dravidar Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, “to channel the rising emotions among the students community in the right direction in support of the suffering Tamil brethern in Sri Lanka”. The students would start a campaign against a section of the English media, “supporting state terrorism of the Sinhalese and opposing the self-determination rights of Tamils”. These are the ones who count in the state, since the AIADMK and Congress have negligible presence among the students’ community.
The confederation in a resolution said that they would boycott classes on 24 October and hoist black flags in front of colleges and conduct meetings to mobilise all the students against the Centre’s military and economic assistance to “Sinhalese government carrying out a genocide of Tamils”. The resolution said that relief materials should be provided through the International Red Cross and other international agencies as it should reach the suffering Tamils and should not go to the hands of the island military. Going a step further from the stand of their leaders, the students said that the Vattukottai resolution demanding a separate Tamil homeland for island Tamils had been endorsed by the people in the Kangesanthurai bye-election, which was accepted by all parties concerned as a referendum and the subsequent general elections and this alone could be the solution to the conflict.
n SNS
Rajapaksa assurance
Massive operations by security forces to capture the Tamil Tigers stronghold of Kilinochchi was taking more time as troops have been instructed to ensure safety of battle-zone trapped civilians, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said, adds PTI.
“We have directed the Armed Forces to refrain from inflicting any harm, even a scratch, to the innocent civilians who are being used as human shields by the terrorists in the Wanni,” the President said. Speaking at the National Research Council ceremony in Colombo yesterday, President Rajapaksa said that army was fighting under constraints as they had been told to avoid any civilian collateral damage.
“We are proud to have an army which is complying and carrying out their humanitarian operations accordingly,” he said.
He said the ongoing military operations were designed to liberate the Tamil masses, who are deprived of their rights for many years due to LTTE's intimidation.
The President said that humanitarian assistance was being allowed for the trapped civilians in the rebel held area even when the government was aware that some of the food items were ending up with the terrorists.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=228044
Orissa tops communal violence chart
PTI & SNS
New Delhi, Oct 21: Orissa has recorded the highest number of communal violence incidents this year, resulting in the death 41 people, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
“A total of 695 cases of communal violence were reported from different states during the period in which 116 people were killed and left 1680 injured,” minister of state for home affairs Mr Shakeel Ahmad said in reply to a question.
“Orissa recorded maximum of 159 cases till September 2008 which left 41 people dead and 76 injured. The ministry does not maintain record of the property destroyed during the violence,” he said.
In terms of toll, Orissa was followed by Madhya Pradesh where 19 people were killed, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh where 11 people lost their lives and Karnataka where three persons were killed.
Mr Ahmed was replying to a question by Members of Parliament Mr Naveen Jindal and Mr P Karunakaran. He said the data included recent incidents of violence targeted against the members of Christian community in Orissa in the wake of murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others on 23 August this year.
The minister said seven advisories and communications were sent to Orissa government between 25 September to 18 October , 2008 at various levels. “Four advisories were sent to Karnataka between 15 September to 15 October, 2008,” he said.
“Orissa was asked to take stringent action against persons indulging in communal violence, including identification and apprehension of elements inciting communal violence and hatred,” the minister said.
Similarly, Karnataka was also asked to take immediate steps to stop violence targeted at minority communities and their places of worship, Mr Ahmad said.
Karnataka today ordered a probe by Corps of Detectives (COD) into the fire that broke out at a church in Yadavanahalli in Anekal taluk after the government came in for flak from Christian bodies and political leaders on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today adjourned the hearing till tomorrow of the petition filed by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack seeking a CBI inquiry into the rape and humiliation of a Christian nun, while allowing the Centre to file some additional documents in connection with the ethnic violence that rocked the Kandhamal district of Orissa.
Caring for the land losers
Developing countries like India and China, burdened with about one-third of the world’s total population, are for rapid industrial development so that jobs are available to as many people as possible. Availability of suitable land with infrastructure is most vital for development of industries, and particularly attracting the big industries which require large parcel of land.
In India the governments, central and the states, announce their industrial policy without doing any homework on availability of land with infrastructure. While some states left the matter to industrialists to find suitable land, others made ready industrial plots (with infrastructure and services) in advance and these states ~ Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana ~ attracted more industries than others.
States like Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal, which have a good reserve of natural resources, as well as human resources (particularly West Bengal), are unable to provide land with infrastructure to industrialists and advise them to find their own land (as is the case with the Jindal Industries which is preparing to set up a major steel plant in West Bengal). This highlights the unplanned industrial development across the country particularly in West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar.
China too is facing major problems in acquiring land for industry and violent protests have flared up in villages where even local leaders have been harassed and beaten up. However, in most cases before the situation turns violent, the state committees sit with the displaced persons and provide them with adequate compensation. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is a one-party state and there is no opposition party to agitate.
While industrialisation is essential for economic development and creating employment opportunities and wealth, it must be developed in a planned manner; unplanned industrial development encroaches on fertile agricultural land, evicts villagers and turns them destitutes and creates environment pollution leading to climate change.
In order to establish planned development, it is essential for government to earmark in advance the land for industries in order to ensure that such industries do not encroach upon high-yielding agricultural land/water bodies, resulting in the eviction of farmers from their land which has sustained them for generations. This inheritance of loss is unbearable for the farmers and their families and sometime the suffering leads to loss of human lives. Consequently unplanned industrial development must be stopped.
In India, the earliest planned use of land can be traced back to 1894, when the British introduced the Central Land Acquisition Act primarily for housing the British citizens and military population in settlements (cantonments) adjoining a few existing urban centres and for establishing new towns.
The Land Acquisition Act 1894 is indeed very old and archaic. It is surprising that even after 113 years the central government has failed and neglected to amend the Act considering that it has caused more harm than good over the past 60 years. Even though the Centre has announced its amendment several times, it has failed to do so.
In order to avoid any controversy in the future on state governments acquiring land for private industry (as it happened for the land acquired by the West Bengal government for the Nano plant at Singur in 2006), it is essential that the revised Act must state specifically under what circumstances the state governments can acquire land for private industrial houses.
As per the existing Act, the state government cannot acquire land for a private company except for “public purpose”. It has not been specifically mentioned what constitutes “public purpose”. Many experts said that since Tata Motors’ main motive is to make profit for the benefit of the shareholders, the project cannot be classified as “public purpose”. Others said that since the car factory would provide employment, it could be termed as “public purpose”.
This controversy and disturbance that followed during 2006-08 could have been avoided had the Act specified what constitutes “public purpose’. Accordingly, the revised Act must specify clearly what constitutes “public purpose” and clarify other controversial issues.
Furthermore, the Land Acquisition Act states that the landowners should be compensated monetarily at the market price of the land, but does not include any clauses granting rehabilitation and resettlement rights of people displaced.
It is obvious from the present experience that land owners and farmers are reluctant to part with their land, unless they are offered better compensation package, including resettlement and rehabilitation. Industrialists are now providing these facilities, as is evident from the packages offered by industrialists recently.
The Land Acquisition Act provides landowners with the market price of land as compensation. Now it is a well known fact that “the method of fixing fair price through the averaging of the sale deed price is unfair even as a starting point because of systematic undervaluation of the deed price due to stamp duty and income-tax (on land)”.
Since the evicted families found that the compensation amount was a petty sum compared to the enhanced price of land once it was acquired for industry or development, most of the farmers and displaced persons are unwilling to accept the cost of land only.
For example, the price of land around the car factory at Singur had gone up four times since the work on the factory commenced. However, as per provision of the Land Acquisition Act, only the nominal price of the land prior to commencement of the car factory was paid as compensation to Singur farmers. Consequently, there was a demand from the displaced families that the compensation had to be paid considering the enhanced price of land and many industrialists felt the demand was justified.
About a year back, the Union ministry of rural development announced that it had prepared a draft proposal for a comprehensive Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act; it is yet to be placed in Parliament for approval.
On 27 August, Union minister for steel and mines Jitendra Prasada said in Kolkata that “the draft policy consists of a provision for adequate compensation to the land losers, job guarantee for the displaced and has provision for including land lowers as share holders in the project.” However, the proposed Act has to be implemented by the state government.
The proposed Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act covers all the demands made by the displaced persons in West Bengal, Orissa and other states. Had this Act been approved by Parliament a year ago, many of the prevailing land disputes (in West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar) could have been settled and progress on the industrial front could have been made.
Procrastination by the Centre has delayed industrial projects and caused loss of crores of rupees to the states and the Union government.
Notwithstanding the delay, different industrialists have already adopted various packages for the rehabilitation of displaced persons;
The most important issue with respect to providing compensation for land has its roots in the fragmented nature of the land pattern in Singur and in other parts of West Bengal. An estimated 20 to 30 per cent of agricultural land owners in Singur are absentee landlords and they do not personally tend to their land. These and other important issues have been recorded in a study conducted by the Centre for Human Settlements and prepared by Tara Lonnberg on “The Use of Land and its Acquisition for the Development of Industry: the Case of Singur, West Bengal”.
Thus, it is not known whether all the persons who claimed compensation from the government are the current owners of the land; there may be many cases that the compensation has been claimed by former landlords or absentee landlords. This is based on the statements of the people associated with the state’s Land Records and Surveys department which estimates that 80 per cent of the land data deficit is due to land owners not reporting change in ownership or use of their land.
When landowners wish to convert the use of their land from agriculture to homestead land, they are supposed to go through a process of applying for the proposed change of ownership. However, due to lack of knowledge of the legal requirement, such changes in land use are often made outside the legal framework, without the knowledge of the authorities.
While the compensation should be paid to the person owning the land at the time of compensation, if a transfer of acquisition occurred prior to the acquisition; which the landowner failed to report, then the government records would not have been updated, and would not recognise the rightful claimant as the owner. In the process the wrong person would be identified as eligible recipient of compensation. Without the land deed in hand, the land owner has to contest the misdirected compensation in court.
It is yet uncertain whether the rightful owners of Singur land have received compensation. There have been reports in the print media that compensations have been paid to men in Singur who have sold the land to some one else earlier.
One of the big steel producing companies in India, Jindal group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of West Bengal to establish a steel plant at Salboni. The company required about 6,000 acres or more of land and it has ventured to acquire the land on its own by directly negotiating with the land owners. The company is progressing satisfactorily.
In order to avoid any confrontation with the land owners, the company has offered an attractive compensation package termed as “Salboni model”. It proposes to pay for the land at the open market price if not higher. And in addition, it proposes to give company’s share at free of cost, so that the families will have long term earning from the shares even in case the land owners spend their money within a few years. Many industrialists have hailed this as one of the best packages offered to displaced families.
On 28 August, the West Bengal government approved a new airport project at Andal, Burdwan, where for the first time the land losers will be compensated with land. The promoting company would buy about 3,500 acres of land from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited. Those who would lose their homes would be provided with a house. It is estimated about 250 families would be displaced.
The Centre must revise the Land Acquisition Act and take steps to get the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act passed at the coming winter session of Parliament for rapid industrialisation of the country. However, it is the state which has to implement the Acts and it must have its machinery ready.
(The author is executive director, Centre for Human Settlements)
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=227885
Manufacturing consent
22 Oct, 2008, 0409 hrs IST,Ram Puniyani,
Noam Chomsky is one of the foremost rights activists. He theorised as to how the US administration creates consent of the broad layers of population
for its acts of aggression.
The perceptions which were drilled into popular psyche related to the dangers of communism, while attacking the emergent nation state of Vietnam in yesteryears or weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq in recent times.
By the time such propaganda starts getting questioned, the mainstream US propaganda becomes part of popular consciousness and too large to be countered by the sceptics and its opponents. Manufacturing consent is achieved through various mechanisms, the major of that being the media.
And by the time the state version starts getting challenged the ‘goal’ of the state is achieved. So even if the critics prove that there were no WMDs, the goal of controlling the oil wells is over. Even if some sections question the veracity of the version of 9/11, Afghanistan is in its pocket.
Another dimension to this comes when the powerful political formations, in power or out of power, achieve the same, through molecular permeation, infiltration in media, through other parts of state apparatus. In the Indian context, the perceptions about minorities can be traced to the role and sustained propaganda programmes of ‘supra-political’ formation with a political agenda of a Hindu nation.
Currently ‘all terrorists are Muslims’ is the perception, deep rooted, hardly affected by the reports of citizens fact-finding committees or the academic and popular contributions by activists/scholars. The initial propaganda gradually became part of broad-ranging perceptions and the policies of the administration, police and other investigating agencies make it the base of their actions. So we see that Batla house encounter in the Jamia Nagar has lot of holes in the story dished out by the vacillating police authorities, and the human rights activists have pointed the flaws in the same demanding the deeper probe.
The acceptance of such a simple demand is shelved in order to go along with popular sentiments and to ‘preserve the morale’ of police force! The voice of these activists questioning the version dished out by the authorities hardly reaches the popular level as the media already ensures that police version is part of popular perception. Truth, the desirable guiding principle of the social policies can wait.
In different acts of terror, in front of mosques or in other crowded places, always the Muslims are involved and the job of investigating authorities is fairly well cut out. The tragedy with a section of media is that, contrary to ethical norm of doubting the official/police versions, they are not only meekly accepted; at times they are accepted in highly exaggerated form as well.
Here the word ‘Islamic terrorism’, initially popularised by the US media after 9/11, is generously used while nobody has heard of Hindu terrorism when Dhanu of LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi or Sikh terrorism, when Khalistanis were doing such actions or Christian terrorism when Irish republican army was indulging in acts of terror.
The other points elaborated by Chomsky relate to ‘Thinkable thought’ and ‘Unthinkable thought’. These are the outcome of the propaganda, indoctrination, which is the culmination of the same process. So by now the thinkable thought is that all Muslims are terrorists and unthinkable thought is that anyone else can be also be a terrorist.
By now all the acts of terror where Bajrang Dal is involved are either, suppressed, under-projected or forgotten with ease by the social thinking process. So the Bajrang Dal activists getting killed while making bombs in Nanded or Kanpur soon lapse out from popular memory, and the blasts where Hindu Jagran Samiti is involved is not taken due note of.
The consistent propagation that Christian missionaries convert by force and fraud is thinkable thought, good enough of a pretext to kill and maim them. There are reports by the human rights groups to the contrary, but that is not the story bought by the mainstream, media and others.
While a section can claim that they are objective, the pattern of reporting of large section of media on anti-Christian violence is hidden in the small columns in the back pages while the acts of terror hog the front page banner headlines. Channels keep screaming about a Muslim terrorist, while reports of violence against Christian are buried somewhere under the weight of the news of ‘jehadi terrorist’, and of those doing aggressive conversions!
So today, even when the role of state in the carnage of Gujarat, even when Modi’s role in leading the carnage in Gujarat is well known, for section of media he is the hero, for whom he is the hope for India.
So today when it is a well known secret that VHP and Bajrang Dal are behind the Orissa violence, they can dare the state to ban them and see the consequences! So it is thinkable (and doable too) that SIMI should be banned, it is unthinkable that Bajrang Dal can be banned, despite its role in Orissa violence.
( The author is retired professor of IIT, Mumbai)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Manufacturing_consent/articleshow/3625887.cms
SEZs: Going down well-trodden path
11 Oct, 2008, 0000 hrs IST,R PRASAD & R SINHA RAY,
Special economic zones (SEZs) are in the news yet again with the much publicised decision of the Maharashtra government to go in for a referendum on
the acquisition of land in Raigad and the granting of eighteen formal approvals and ten in-principle approvals by the Board of Approvals of SEZs on September 22.
Much has been made of the fact that SEZs are being proposed in large numbers in industrially backward states like Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa, and have even shown up in the hinterlands of Nagaland. Based on this, proponents of SEZ policy argue that it is heralding a new dawn of balanced industrialisation. Contrarians choose to call the outcomes a ‘race to the bottom’ characterised by state governments over-reaching themselves in a bid to attract SEZ investment. This trend, they argue will lead to fiscal ruin and neglect of crucial public functions like boosting agriculture, education, and health.
This article postulates that neither camp is correct, because contrary to general perception, SEZ activity continues to be focused in states with strong industrial bases perpetuating the trend of unbalanced regional development.
SEZs have been notified (i.e., been approved by the board and acquired land) in only 17 out of 29 states with six of these states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka — bagging 80% of SEZs both in terms of numbers and total land area notified. These states fall in the top ten states of India along the dimensions of state domestic product (SDP), SDP per capita, SDP from industry, and percentage share of industry in SDP. In terms of formally approved SEZs (those that have been approved by the board but not necessarily acquired land), the trend is identical.
States like Uttar Pradesh and Orissa which have low ranks in many economic indicators have succeeded in attracting SEZs but they are the exceptions rather than the rule. The non-SEZ states which include the North-East states, Chhattisgarh, and Tripura lie in the bottom ten, in respect of most economic (and social) indicators. Even within SEZ states the quantity of SEZ activity measured by the land area under SEZs increases with SDP from industry, average industrial SDP over the last three years and so on. This strong correlation continues to be valid after removing Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh which can be considered as atypical on account of their high SEZ activity, between themselves accounting for almost 40% of the total land approved.
One may suspect that the statistical results reflect the relatively innocuous fact that large states have a higher amount of land available for SEZs and also a higher industrial SDP by virtue of their size. However the correlation between total land area of a state and land area under SEZs is low. States like Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu &Kashmir which lie in the top half of Indian states in terms of land area, do not have any SEZs.
White House not proposing second stimulus package
21 Oct, 2008, 2240 hrs IST, REUTERS
WASHINGTON: The White House on Tuesday said it was not proposing a second economic stimulus package, but was open to ideas that would clearly help the economy.
"We're not proposing a second stimulus package right now," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "We are open to good ideas, we will listen to people if they put anything forward that we think would actually stimulate the economy; so far we have not seen that."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday told Congress another wave of government spending may be needed following a first stimulus package earlier this year.
US govt chooses PWC and E&Y to manage $700 bn rescue plan
21 Oct, 2008, 2145 hrs IST, AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: The US government has selected two major accounting firms to help it manage the $700 billion rescue program for the financial system.
The Treasury Department said on Tuesday it had chosen PricewaterhouseCoopers to be the auditor for the program. Ernst & Young will provide general accounting support.
The two firms will work on the part of the rescue program that is handling the purchase of troubled assets from banks as a way of encouraging them to resume more normal lending.
Treasury said that Ernst & Young will be paid $492,006.95 initially while Pricewaterhouse Coopers will be paid $191,469.27 for its services initially. The two contracts last until Sept. 30, 2011.
In a statement, Treasury said that the two firms will help the department with accounting and internal control services that will be needed ``to administer the complex portfolio of troubled assets the department will purchase, including whole loans and mortgage-backed securities.''
Britain to loan Iceland 3 bn pounds to repay savers
22 Oct, 2008, 0556 hrs IST, AGENCIES
LONDON: Britain is planning to lend about three billion pounds (five billion dollars, 3.8 billion euros) to Iceland to repay Britons with savings in
a stricken Icelandic bank, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Financial Times, quoting unnamed officials in Iceland, said a British delegation hoped to wrap up the deal, worth about 30 per cent of the island nation's gross domestic product, during a trip to the country this week.
The British finance ministry announced Tuesday that the delegation would be heading to Iceland to finalise a compensation deal for British savers with Icesave, a subsidiary of Landsbanki.
After talks between finance minister Alistair Darling and Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde, "officials from the Treasury and Bank of England are going to Iceland to work on finalising an agreement that aims to compensate UK depositors and ensure fair treatment for creditors", a statement said.
The freezing of thousands of British-held accounts following the collapse of Icesave came close to provoking a diplomatic incident earlier this month.
A British delegation visited Iceland October 10-11, with both sides reporting progress on the issue of compensation for British savers. Britain said last week it would provide a short-term loan of up to 100 million pounds to Landsbanki to help repay cash to British savers.
Iceland's once booming financial sector has collapsed under the weight of the global financial crisis, with the government forced to take over the major banks for lack of liquidity as its krona nose-dived.
The country has been scrambling to get hold of foreign currency to try to re-boot its struggling foreign trade. On Tuesday, the government said it hoped to reach a deal on an economic rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund within a day or two.
Iceland has also been negotiating with Russia for a loan that could be worth as much as four billion euros.
US aid to banks seen exceeding $700 bn
22 Oct, 2008, 1425 hrs IST, REUTERS
NEW YORK: The US government will likely have to pump much more money into banks than the $700 billion it has committed if they are to survive the do
wnturn, even if the cost is a tough pill for taxpayers to swallow.
The government must temporarily support the US banking system, until banks can attract substantial amounts of new money from investors. To begin operating normally again, banks will have to admit to their bad assets.
But that cannot happen immediately. Banks cannot predict how many of their loans will sour because they do not know how much the economy will shrink, and forecasts of their future losses would only spook investors. Investors will likely shy away from pouring money into banks until they fully understand the extent of their bad assets.
That hesitancy means that in the near term, the government will likely need to pony up more than the $700 billion it agreed to shell out through the Trouble Assets Relief Program, experts said. "The government is being political and not saying they're putting in a trillion dollars or more, but the commitment has to be open ended," said Dan Alpert, a banker at Westwood Capital.
By the numbers, the outlook for banks is troubling. US commercial banks had about $1 trillion of capital as of the end of the second quarter. That may sound like a lot, but Alpert estimates that banks globally could have a total of $1.25 trillion to $1.5 trillion of writedowns and losses from mortgages, of which perhaps $600 billion have already been recorded.
Admittedly not all of those will be in the United States, and banks will generate capital in the coming years even as they write down assets and set aside more money for losses. But add in expected losses from commercial real estate, leveraged loans, credit cards, auto loans and a host of other areas as economic growth slows, and even the Treasury's full $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program starts to look worryingly small.
But if $700 billion from the government is not enough, don't expect investors to make up the difference -- they aren't interested in pouring money into a banking system that would otherwise be insolvent. That's why pumping in enough money to keep the banking system solvent is key, experts said.
China - Rising by stamping skulls of our fellow countryman who were mercilessly slaughtered
Are you aware that the news you are watching is interlaced with
Communist China's propaganda,as
Communist China maps a realm of news with innocent lives?
Communist China is scheming a millennial terrorist activity by
manipulating people's behaviors
through electromagnetic waves to contain criticism and harm
innocent human lives.
1. The anomaly in community traffic of cars and motorcycles and drag
racing,and reckless honking by
cars and motorcycles is exceeding an unprecedented level.
2. Communist China has the technology to scan the human brain waves
through military satellite and
to discern and decipher their thoughts,scheming to instill
individual interference focusing on
each individual in need using the satellite electromagnetic
waves.
3. Deploying electromagnetic waves is poised to project onto the
human brain with certain
sounds for the perception of grossly traumatizing or startling
pain,or deploying the broadcast
of noise via electromagnetic waves in sleeping humans with edited
clips of films or through
voice or image signals onto our brains or besiege our sensory
functions with fabricated
audible and sensory illusions.
4. It manipulates one's moods,such as
smiling,nervousness,disgust,panic,anger,sorrow,
desires,appetite,and so forth.
5. It interferes the human brain's thinking capability,memory or
linguistic capability,to name a
few,causing spasms of muscles and fingers in the left and right
hands,stinging aches
throughout the body,coughing,yawning,trembling,involuntary
blinking of the eye,runny
nose and so forth.
6. Electromagnetic waves are deployed to hinder the motoring
functions of the body and neck,
disrupt the heartbeat or respiration,manipulate dizziness,deprive
one's sleep,spasm,saliva
gland,dental neural pain,etc.
7. Watch out that Communist China is infiltrating the news media by
deploying electromagnetic
waves to besiege the broadcast media,map out viral disillusion or
erroneous perception,and
investigate threats of brainwashing in viral spreading.
8. It further moved to deploy various symptoms in what one sees of
media icons,gesture terms,
adding a skewed interpretation to one's cognitive
awareness,misleading an individual to
hallucinate or suffer,such as the North Korean's rigid
smile,which is a tactic Communist
China often deploys to counter the people.
9. By observing the resolution accuracy of Communist China's sound
and image (scenario)
interference projected onto the human's brain,this can only be
achieved with a certain level
of frequencies at the source of interference,hence there is no
doubt that it has to be the
electromagnetic wave. Yet questions remain as to what range of
frequencies the source of
interference deploys,or what kind of electromagnetic waves
insulation chamber would suffice
to provide an insulation yield? Communist China might deploy
specific metal alloys as small scale
molecular antennas, which are attached to the human brain in
large number,creating
electromagnetic waves when the human brain is in function,where
the current created by
Communist China's electromagnetic interference would poise to
amplify in a staggering
number of multiplication,which Communist China can detect at all
times to discern and
muscles would excel the generation of electrode,which in turn
create a corresponding
electromagnetic wave within.
10. Some of Communist China's intimidation experiences in 2002:6.9
"Hey,are you tired of living?"
6.14 "We had concocted the bombing incident at the U.S. embassy
in Pakistan"
"Jiang Zhemin ordered us to kill you,but without creating
scenes"6.16 "The Pakistani
civilian troops confessed that they had schemed the bombing of
the U.S. embassy in
Pakistan,which we had manipulated them to confess,so what are you
going to do about it?"
6.19 "Hey,why don't you just go ahead and commit suicide""We are
going to scheme
murder using the public bus"6.20 "Commit suicide by burning
charcoal,get it?"6.25 "Jiang
Zhemin just does not like you,go hit your head against the wall".
11. I reckon that there are victims abound out in the street,no less
alarming than wars,and those
not in the know or did not understand that Communist China's
simple electromagnetic design
could easily turn people against each other,create moving
incidents,little lese to say mislead
the youth to broach down the wrong path,suicidal prompting,design
and fabrication of a host
of society news (which Communication China refers to as movie
making),as Communist China has had a
decade long of the technology,and has long abused its
technological advantages to scheme up design
of abusing human lives by arranging fabricated news to poison and
infiltrate the free
world,manipulate and misguide the contents of the media,and
deploy brainwashing and malicious
spread of viruses,done with insinuation and riddles.The fact that
Communist China's slaughtering
the innocent had been the result of a high level of
calculation,and a high level of rationalization,
where the threats are in existence,and cannot be ignored of their
detrimental severity.
12. Communist China often coerce people to watch news compiled by the
reporter Lu Yuling of the cable
news in order for them to be saved,but few are aware that
Communist China had merely deploy the
reporter to entrap many people. I do envision that those that
turn to committing crime as framed
by Communist China,the extra sufferings by the ordinary
people,and the deaths of many innocent
lives will not go unnoticed as hindered by a condoning attitude.
13. Nazi Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Chinese Liberation Army, security
police and armed police have committed suppression and massacre on
their own civilians. Hu, Jiang and the other atrocious butchers owe
these innocent civilians! More horrible and serious is that they are
using mysterious killing technologies to cause harms to human brains
around the world, making advantage of numerous international
politicians and journalists to help them commit atrocities and
beautify their actions, aiming to overturn and suppress those innocent
people and cover up their terrorist acts and win fame by cheating the
world. Securing in the knowledge that they have strong backing, these
arrogant and shameless butchers have committed tortures and mass
killing cruelly to those innocent ones around the world.
Unfortunately, neither these politicians and nor journalists knowing
what is what would dare to express their conscience.
14. The inhumane acts and atrocities committed by Nazi China are far
more vicious than that of Nanjing massacre in China during WWII
committed by Japanese army, as Chinese government is using mysterious
technologies to commit massacres to masses of bare-handed civilians
around the world as well as launch violence and terrorist activities
to suppress these completely unarmed people’s freedom of speech. These
demons, like Hu, Jinag and Chinese Liberation Army, despise the
chastity, dignity and precious life of those innocent ones and
suppress the emotions of their beloved. Meanwhile, relying on the
condition that most of people in the world will not be able to witness
their vicious acts of violence and behaviors they have committed
unscrupulously and shamelessly, these Chinese Liberation Army enjoys
using cruel ways to torture, massacre and trample on these innocent
people, physically and mentally, in one free world. The arrogant Hu,
Jiang and those jackals nurtured under such ferocious power treat
themselves as the symbol of benevolence and hero, as they fail to
learn their gutless and vicious acts to trample on those innocent
people. If these demons, butchers and dregs of human, such as Hu,
Jiang and Chinese Liberation Army who have become frenzied and
conscienceless appeared in the site of Nanjing massacre in WWII, they
definitely would be the leading roles to act atrocities!
15. We don’t want to see masses of innocent people to fall victim to
the hell on earth built by red China where they will be susceptible to
tortures and massacres for thousands of years.
16. Despite being even unable to fend for themselves in face of the
high-tech detriments and attacks from China, we can not tolerate the
fact that these politicians and journalists will become the
accomplices to help China commit its terrorist acts and suppression on
these innocent people in the current era or an unknown future.
17. In view of the notorious, vicious and sinister Hu, Jiang, Chinese
Liberation Army with blood-stained hands, we just cast doubt over
whether these greats of knowing what is what who have negotiated with
these demons will show their conscience to save these innocent
civilians or will act just for the sake of their profits, or are under
the control of China. In this current drowned world, how will these
innocent lives be treated in face of the atrocious acts committed by
these diabolical figures, or when these innocent people will witness
the practice of democracy in China? Will these phenomena turn out to
be the joint efforts and endeavors achieved by China and those
powerful figures in the world? Are we really dedicated to overturning
such adversity? Our goal is to eliminate the vicious power one day
with our strenuous efforts, and we absolutely will achieve it!
Chen,Shun-Chuan's Blog http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/shun-chuan
http://abn2739.blogspot.com
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