New Delhi, September 13
The signing of the deal between India and France for transfer of technology to construct the highly sophisticated Scorpene submarines, manufactured by Armaris, a joint venture between Thales and DCN, at the Mazagon Docks in Mumbai, signals the start of a new era for the Indian Navy.

The approximately $ 2.4 billion dollar deal, out of which the Thales' share would be worth 300 million

Euros, would not only plug a major gap in the country’s defence preparedness but also provide India with the expertise to eventually manufacture the submarines indigenously.

Defence experts point out that the availability of the Scorpene submarines with the Navy would also provide the country with the much-needed push to eventually emerge as a major regional superpower. The Indian Navy already has in place its blueprint to project India as a major power, especially in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

The Navy which has been desperate for the fleet upgrade would particularly be happy with the signing of the deal. Although it would still take at least six years for the first of the six submarines to roll out of the Mazagon Docks, but it would come in handy as by the same time the first of the six or seven of the Navy’s present fleet would in a position to be phased out. The Navy at present has a fleet of 16 diesel-electric submarines.

The Scorpene is equipped with six bow-located torpedo tubes providing salvo launch capability. The submarine’s weapons include anti-ship and anti-submarine torpedoes and anti-surface missiles. Eighteen torpedoes and missiles can be carried at a time and the handling and loading of weapons is automated.

The SUBTICS combat management system, which would be provided by the Thales besides other warfare equipment, comes with up to six multifunction common consoles and a centrally situated tactical table. The combat management system is composed of a command and tactical data handling system, a weapon control system and an integrated suite of acoustic sensors with an interface to a set of air surface detection sensors and to the integrated navigation system. The system can also download data from external sources.

The ship would also have underwater sensors, communication and optronics systems and electronic warfare systems.

It can hold a total company of 31 men with a standard watch team of nine. The vessel is especially equipped with all necessary systems to provide vital supplies, water, provisions and regeneration of the atmosphere to ensure the survival of all crew for seven days.

Chennai, September 13
A murmur in the heart of a child has created a medical record in this premier city of south India.

When the seven-year-old Dhruv Mistry from Ahmedabad in Gujarat underwent a beating heart coronary artery bypass graft at the Apollo Hospital here last week, he was the youngest patient in India to have undergone such a procedure.

A “silent” heart attack nine months ago had led to many complications for Dhruv and the restless child was put under severe restrictions. But following the beating heart surgery, which is considered rare among paediatrics patients, he can lead a normal life.

According to the chief cardio-vascular surgeon at Apollo Hospital, Dr. M. R. Girinath, Dhruv suffered an attack that had gone undetected.

Druv’s mother, Mrs. Seema Mistry, said that he was taken to a physician in Ahmedabad following fever and persistent cough.

The physician heard a soft murmur from one of his heart valves as blood pumped from the ventricle and started oozing back from the auricle.

Following an echo-cardiogram, it was revealed that the boy had an abnormal regional wall movement, which meant his heart muscles were not beating in rhythm.

A subsequent angiogram detected that the child had suffered a heart attack because of a block in the left main coronary artery.

Dr. Girinath said, “When Dhruv was referred to Apollo, there was substantial damage in the anterior part of the heart muscle as it was starved of blood supply for a while. The right coronary artery had grown, giving collateral supply to the left side of the heart. But his heart function was impaired and the boy led a restricted, but normal, life.”

A coronary bypass surgery was necessary to prevent Dhruv’s heart muscle, deprived of blood supply, from dying and his heart from growing lopsidedly towards the right side, over time.

The surgeons decided to go for the beating heart surgery and attach an arterial graft to reduce the post-operative complications instead of the conventional mode of bypass surgery, which involves the use of a heart-lung machine, stopping the heart while it is being re-vascularised.

Dr. Girinath said, “Conventional modes of treatment through drugs would have deprived the child of a chance to live a normal life.”

Dr. Jacob James Raj, a member of the team of surgeons, said that in a child, the arteries are usually small and Dhruv’s were just 1.23 mm in diametre.

The surgeons operated with magnifying glasses fixed to their operating goggles and could see the blood vessels magnified three-and-a-half times.

Dr Jacob said, “The vein graft will not grow with the child, but the mammary artery graft chosen for its high patency rate will. After the graft, blood rushed into the previously blocked artery, showing that results were comparable to that of bypass surgeries done on heart-lung machines.”

Said Mrs Mistry, “I am grateful to the Apollo Hospital for giving me such a huge discount and it is because of the surgeons here that my son will be able to live and lead a normal life.”

The total expenses cost only around Rs. 60,000 for the Mistrys while a normal coronary bypass costs a few lakh of rupees.

New Delhi, September 13
The Delhi police has arrested an alleged ISI agent in Punjab, four days after another suspected operative of the Pakistani intelligence service was nabbed in the Capital.

Mohammad Ramzan (53) was arrested at Malerkotla in Sangrur district, police sources said here today. Ramzan was allegedly in direct contact with Pakistani intelligence officers and was working to provide shelter to other ISI agents, the officials said.

Ramzan was running a shop of metal polishing in Malerkotla. He had allegedly visited Pakistan four times to meet Pakistan Intelligence officials. Ramzan was arrested on the basis of revelations made by 24-year-old Irfan Kausar, a Pakistani national, arrested four days back at a cyber cafe in the Bikaji Cama Place area of South Delhi.

Ramzan had allegedly provided shelter to Irfan at the behest of a Pakistani intelligence officer Arif, the sources said. Irfan, hailing from Gujranwala district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, was nabbed at the cyber cafe when he was allegedly sending secret information about the Indian military to his mentors through the Internet.

Incriminating documents about the deployment and movement of military units and their weapons in Ambala Cantonment were seized from him.

New Delhi, September 13
Although the wait for the formal letter from the UPA on the navratna disinvestment continues, the Left parties have decided to meet the Congress-led coalition later this month to take up several policy issues, including the WTO negotiations, water privatisation in Delhi, FDI the in retail sector and oil price hike.

The leaders of the four Left parties met this evening to discuss the political and economic situation since their last meeting held before the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

They also discussed the Bihar Assembly poll.

Talking to newspersons, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat said though formal written communication was awaited, they would take up some issues with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

High on the agenda would be the developments on the WTO front since the Left parties submitted their detailed note in June. “Several developments have taken place since then and Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has apprised us of the development and the government’s response to different issues raised by us. We would at the end of the month meet and present a response to these issues,” he said.

On the FDI in the retail sector, which the government is keen to open saying that it would not affect the Indian retail sector, Mr Karat said, “We would take up the issue with government as the opening up of this sector would have an adverse impact and add to unemployment in the country.”

He was also critical of the privatisation of water in Delhi on the advice of the World Bank report. “We shall take up this privatisation of water in Delhi with the Prime Minister. Citizens of the Capital have already suffered from the privatisation of power and we do not want them to suffer once again with the privatisation of water,” he said.

Mr Karat said the government should now immediately start the process of revising the pricing and taxation structure of the oil prices. “The Left parties had given several alternate proposals .... Now the government should immediately start the revision of the pricing and taxation structure”, he said.

To a question as to which platform they would utilise to raise these matters with the government as they were boycotting the Coordination Committee, the Left leaders said the committee was set up to review the implementation of the Common Minimum Programme.

“This mechanism is very important. We have made known our point of view on BHEL disinvestment. Now the ball is in their court and they will reply to us,” Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas said.

On the Bihar issue, he said, “We have different views on the approach to be adopted (in the elections). We, however, feel that secular votes should not be split.”

Asked whether the Left parties had decided not to contest against each other in the elections, Mr Karat said, “We did not discuss the issue at today’s meeting.”

While the CPM has aligned with Mr Lalu Prasad’s RJD with the Congress and NCP coming to back it, the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc have joined hands with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP to contest the poll.

New Delhi, September 13
The absence of the nameless, faceless, missing girls of India, exterminated before their birth due to societal preferences is beginning to show. “Take the case of one family in a remote village in UP. We saw that one girl was married to four boys due to scarcity of girls and this is not an isolated incident,” says Dr Girija Vyas, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

At a national seminar on ‘Female Foeticide: Challenges and Strategies for Change’, held in Jamia Millia University, Dr Vyas said this dire situation was due to the “abhorrent practice of female foeticide in certain states which is a gross violation of natural laws. The girl child has a natural right to survive.”

The fact remains that despite being a population of over 1.03 billion people, with a clear 21.34 per cent rise between 1991 and 2001, the child sex ratio has consistently declined and has been extremely unequal. According to the 1991 Census report, the ratio then stood at 945 girls per 1000 boys. The 2001 Census shows that the gap has widened further with a mere 927 girls.

Sociologists warn of a grave crisis in society. If this trend continues, they feel a stage can soon come when it may become impossible to make up for the missing number of girls. This can lead to major imbalances that can destroy the social and human fabric of society.

Dr Vyas stressed, “The sharp decline in the sex ratio is a cause of great concern. Though abortions are legally permissible in this country, there is no doubt that most MTPs today are contributing towards female foeticide. So there is a need to re-work the Abortion Act and we are currently pressing the government to do this.”

She added that the National Commission for Women was leading a nationwide campaign to eradicate female foeticide. This campaign is being carried out at two levels: a sensitisation and awareness building campaign at the village level called ‘Chalo Gaon Ke Aur’ and another awareness building campaign at the university level through workshops and seminars that target at building consensus on this issue.

The states where female foeticide is most widely prevalent are Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. In some of these states the ratio has declined to less than 900 girls per 1000 boys. The ratio stands at a mere 770 in Kurukshetra district of Haryana, 814 in Ahmedabad and 845 in South West district of Delhi. This is appalling given that this is in the nation’s Capital and in one of the most prosperous regions of the country.

Perhaps, the most unheard story in this sad tale is the trauma and suffering the woman undergoes, the trauma of losing her baby and of being forced to conceive again and produce a son. In most cases, this is a tragedy visited by women on women when the elders, mostly the mothers-in-law demand a male child from the daughter-in-law and the cycle carries on.

Prof H.Y. Siddiqui, the officiating Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, said, “We must look at this problem in a far more detail and especially determine what a woman participating in female foeticide goes through emotionally. This is largely an untold story and brings an entirely new aspect into play.”

New Delhi, September 13
The Task Force on Recombinant Pharma Sector, headed by Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Director-General CSIR, which submitted its report to the government today, has recommended confining the role of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to regulate the proposals involving large scale use of living modified organisms (LMOs) in the pharmaceutical industry from environment angle.

The pharma and biotech companies have been demanding restructuring of the regulatory mechanism in the fast emerging sector. The GEAC has been mired into controversy over the regulation of BT cotton into India.

According to information, the Task Force has recommended that Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) should be the nodal agency to evaluate the product safety, efficacy, clinical trials, market authoritisation and post market surveillance.

The Task Force has also recommended the constitution of a Standing Technical Advisory Committee on Biotechnology Regulation under the Chairmanship of an eminent scientist on case by case basis prior to any deviation from the regulatory mechanism.

The committee was set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to review the current regulatory framework and to recommend a transparent and streamline mechanism and process for the use of LMOs (living modified organisms) in the pharmaceutical industry during various stages of R&D, testing, manufacturing and import of LMOs as drugs.

“The product where the end product is an LMO has the potential for propagating, replicating in the environment, pointed out the task force, needs a higher level of regulation as compared to products derived from the LMOs where the end product is not an LMO.

The Mashelkar Committee has suggested five-fold regulatory procedure for different categories.

“No approval of GEAC is required for phase III clinical trials if the end product is not an LMO. The DCGI can approve human clinical trials based on the recommendation of the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulations (RCGM) and product approval based on the results of clinical trials,” said the report of the committee.

The GEAC should play the role of a regulator in those products, where the indigenous product is an LMO, since it would involve high risk due to accidental release of LMOs in the environment.

Hyderabad, September 13
The ruling Congress party in the state today urged the UPA leadership to dismiss

TRS Union Ministers K Chandrasekhar Rao and A Narendra for their recent inflammatory statements.

These leaders are using the language of bloodshed and violence against people of other regions. They are spreading animosity and hostility among people, through RSS-like activities by their recently launched Telangana Jagaran Samithi, Shabbir Ali, a close confidant of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said.

Both Mr Rao and Mr Narendra, during the three-day training session of TJS preraks which concluded here yesterday, asked the cadre to teach a lesson to the Reddy government and called upon the 'militant' outfit to attack all those who were acting against their Telangana motherland.

The Congress and TRS, once allies, are now contesting the ensuing municipal elections separately following bitter separation in the state, even while continuing their friendship at the Centre.

"We will take up AK-47s if need be to liberate Telangana," Mr Narendra had warned. The TRS ministers' threats were mostly directed against Mr Rajasekhara Reddy.