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Govt OKs wheat, rice export to Nepal, B’desh
Govt for Muslim quota through OBC route, says Khurshid
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Servers first, service later, govt tells BlackBerry
Fresh crisis looms over Manipur
Radar system at IGI collapses
Curfew in Udaipur after tribal leader’s murder
BJP not to keen to defend Shah
Rajiv Gandhi Assassination
CVC nod a must before blacklisting
cos
PF scam: Judge pressurising us, says CBI
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Govt OKs wheat, rice export to Nepal, B’desh
New Delhi, July 28 Revived monsoon has boosted crop prospects. Besides, strong wheat harvest and growing expectations of higher rice output has encouraged the Centre to consider exports. In 2009-10 marketing season, the country produced around 89.13 million tones (MT) of rice and 80.71 MT of wheat Despite holding surplus stocks of wheat and rice, India severely curtailed grain exports in recent years to ensure steady domestic supplies. But the ban is relaxed on diplomatic grounds. In May, the Government allowed export of four lakh tonne of wheat to Bangladesh from the Central pool at Rs 15.43 per kg, while in February, export of 50,000 tonne of the foodgrain was allowed to Nepal. Government godowns, at present, have around 60 MT food grains stock. Therefore, helping neighbours in time of need is not such a bad idea, especially when lakhs of tonnes of wheat is rotting in FCI godowns. On whether the government would export foodgrains at lower prices, Pawar said the decision would be taken by the External Affairs Ministry. Drawing flak from various quarters for stiff rise in commodity prices, Pawar said he was ready for a discussion in Parliament “if only the Opposition allowed it”. Proceedings were stalled for the second consecutive day today with the Opposition pressing for discussion on price rise under a rule that entails voting. Meanwhile, even though food inflation stands at 12.47 per cent for the week ended July 10, Pawar claimed that foodgrain and vegetable prices were coming down. “This year, there will be exceptionally good produce, as, by and large, the monsoon report is very good. There were less rains in certain parts of the country, but it has improved in those areas as well,” he added.
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Govt for Muslim quota through OBC route, says Khurshid New Delhi, July 28 Khurshid was replying to questions on whether the government is ready to implement the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission for reservation to Minorities. The Commission, whose report was tabled in Parliament in December last year, had recommended 10 per cent reservation for Muslims and five per cent for other minorities in government jobs. The Commission had also suggested an alternative route for reservation to minorities if there is "insurmountable difficulty" in implementing the recommendation for 15 per cent reservation. According to the Mandal Commission report, minorities constitute 8.4 per cent of the total OBC population. So in the 27 per cent OBC quota, an 8.4 per cent sub-quota should be earmarked for minorities of which 6 per cent should be for Muslims. "They (Mishra Commission) are saying either do it as 15 per cent or as share of 27 per cent. We are moving on the second option," Khurshid said, adding that this option was also recommended by the Sachar Committee, which looked into the issue of the backwardness of Muslims. Asked whether the UPA is ruling out the first option of giving 15 per cent reservation to minorities as a whole, Khurshid said, "Not ruling out the first option, we are moving on the second option." — PTI
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Servers first, service later, govt tells BlackBerry New Delhi, July 28 This was the sixth time that the IB has issued a warning since January 2008. Emails sent through BlackBerry phones remain untraceable. For the past two years the mobile manufactures are strongly resisting the Intelligence agencies' demand to establish a server of the BlackBerry in India. The security agencies have pointed out at the hardship faced while tracing the origin of emails sent from the BlackBerry phones which number lakhs in the country. With lower-end mobile phones now allowing same services, thousands of users are being added each month. According to sources, the recent notice issued this week was "very strong." It directs DoT to tell the RIM, "either to comply with Indian laws or shut down". The Ministry made it clear that BlackBerry has been addressing security concerns of several other countries, including the US, where it operates and therefore, there is no justification not to have similar safeguards in place in India, said sources. The service providers have to provide information sought by the Home Ministry. This enables tracking of the person using emails on the move. The controversy about the location of the BlackBerry server started during the 2007 serial blasts. Intelligence agencies failed to trace the origin of terror e-mails and e-mails they had tracked of certain organisations staking claiming to terror attacks. It was later found that mails were sent from the BlackBerry sets. As the BlackBerry server is located in Canada, the investigators faced a dead end while trying to trace further to locate the actual origin of the e-mails and the Internet Protocol (IP) Identity of the sender. Once the server has been set up in India, it will be easy to track the origin of messages. The BlackBerry makers have already agreed to Chinese regulations by installing a server there. The government has also roped in the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), to bring the BlackBerry phones under scrutiny.
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Fresh crisis looms over Manipur
Imphal, July 28 The UNC’s demands include judicial inquiry into May 6, 2010, police firing at Mao Gate on Nagaland-Manipur border in which two students were killed and over hundred injured, withdrawal of Manipur police commandos from Naga areas in Manipur, removal of ‘wanted’ tag and ‘rewards’ on leaders of the council and All Naga Students Asociation Manipur (ANSAM) and dissolution of the autonomous hill district councils. The council has shot off a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to fulfill the demands by July end. The UNC has threatened that this time the agitation will be more intense. On July 1, the Naga Peoples’ Convention, the highest decision-making platform of the Nagas in Manipur, declared it had severed political ties with the Manipur Government and sought the intervention of the Centre for an alternative arrangement for the Nagas in the state. Notably, the Manipur police who were deployed at Mao gate to prevent entry of NSCN-IM leader Th Muivah into the state, had opened fire on unruly protesters on May 6.
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Radar system at IGI collapses New Delhi, July 28 The air-traffic management system went on a blink for over 20 minutes, airport officials said, adding that flights were disrupted between 5.50 pm and 6.16 pm. Incidentally, the Autotrack-III was operationalised around March this year. While the Ministry of Civil Aviation said the ATC reverted to the earlier Autotrack-II system and no take-off or landing was affected, some officials claimed that controllers took time reverting to Autotrack-II and the ATC, in the meantime, was manually guiding the flights. However, chairman of the Airport Authority of India VP Aggarwal said the two automation systems were working simultaneously. “Autotrack-III, which is under validation trails at the IGIA, developed a technical snag at 5.50 pm. However, the other system i.e. Autotrack-II that was maintained as a stand-by was used for ATC operations. Though there were some problems in Autotrack-III for few minutes, there were no delay in flight operations due to this,” he added. Meanwhile, senior ATC officers maintain that experienced controllers are well-equipped to handle such emergencies. Incidentally, the airport started commercial operation of its Terminal 3 today. This is the third time this year that the radar at the IGIA had gone on a blink. The air traffic management system at the airport crashed twice in January when US company Raytheon's Autotrac-III system was being tested for installation. When systems fail... According to an air traffic controller, when the system is operational, the blip of the aircraft is available on the radar and the controller is able to see it and reduce minimum separation required between two aircraft to ensure more landing and take offs. If the system is not operational, the controller resorts to normal approach control procedures as per ICAO norms. “A person who is sitting on the Autotrack system has enough experience and knowledge to do that,” a senior controller says, adding that radars going on a blink is a situation that may happen once in a while. “The difficult that a controller faces during this period is that he has to ensure more separation between aircraft in terms of time, thereby adding to his already-high stress levels,” he adds.
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Curfew in Udaipur after tribal leader’s murder
Jaipur, July 28 The tribals were demanding they be allowed to perform the rituals of “mautana” and “chahdawana”, which are traditional ways of taking revenge on the family of the accused. They had locked horns with members of a particular community as well as the police over the issue. They also accused the members of the other community of possessing arms and ammunition and demanded that they be seized by the police. Udaipur Range IGP TL Meena said they have deployed six companies of police. Section 144 has also been promulgated in the town. However, curfew was relaxed for around two hours from 4 pm on Tuesday during which no untoward incident was reported. Meena was reportedly abducted and murdered on July 3. Though the police arrested prime accused Shehzad, the situation continued to be tense. It took an ugly turn when thousands of armed tribals gathered at the residential area dominated by a particular community.
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BJP not to keen to defend Shah
Virtually admitting the reluctance of the BJP to raise this issue in Parliament, a BJP insider said, “We know the Congress would want us to harp on this so that they can capitalise on it and isolate us. We will fight this legally and fight them (Congress) politically on an issue on which the entire Opposition is united,” he said. Before Shah was arrested, four top BJP leaders, L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely and Nitin Gadkari boycotted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s exclusive lunch on July 24, merely because CBI was closing in on Shah and was about to arrest an absconding Gujarat Home Minister. Sushma and Jaitely also announced together on July 23, with great aplomb, that they would take this up in a big way in the Monsoon session of Parliament which was beginning three days later. It is now abundantly clear that Amit Shah’s defence is certainly not among BJP’s priorities. Unlike the price rise issue, on which the BJP has found friends and comrades cutting across party lines, the “misuse of CBI” may isolate the BJP even from close allies.
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Rajiv Gandhi Assassination
New Delhi, July 28 A Bench comprising Justices VS Sirpurkar and MK Sharma rejected the plea by E Veluchamy for the release of Nalini, Santha, Murugan and Arivu contending that the investigation in the case had been flawed. The petitioner had argued that the trial court and the apex court did not take into account the findings of the Justie MC Jain Commission, which had suggested further probe into three crucial aspects of conspiracy -- the role of Chandraswami and the possible involvement of a foreign hand and 21 other suspects.
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CVC nod a
must before blacklisting cos New Delhi, July 28 The CBI has recommended blacklisting of six firms after lodging an FIR against Sudipto Ghosh, former DG of Ordnance Factory. The CBI named Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (STK), Singapore, Israel Military Industries Ltd, Israel, TS Kisan & Co Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, RK Machine Tools, Ludhiana, Rheinmetall Air Defence (RAD), Zurich and Corporation Defence, Russia (CDR) for blacklisting. Defence Minister AK Antony in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha said “Nexus, if any, between Indian and foreign companies does not appear to have been investigated by CBI in this case”. It was due to this cloud of suspicion that the Singapore Technologies was cold shouldered and the ongoing process to procure artillery guns was stalled. Antony also said to infuse greater transparency in the procurement process, the role of independent monitors has been enhanced and made more elaborate in the Defence Procurement Procedure — 2008 (Amendment — 2009). Independent Monitors have been provided access to the relevant records of the buyer, connected with the complaint.
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New Delhi, July 28