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Inflation Riddle
41 pc voting in Uttar Pradesh bypolls
Lawyers up in arms against AP govt
Cong favours quota in pvt educational institutions
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Sensitive Indian sites on Chinese hackers’ radar
DRDO asked to stop missile test
NATA made mandatory for architecture students
Devastating Norwester: Climate change adds fuel
CJI relives his college life
BJP flays Lalu’s remark on price rise
NSG cover for Olympic torch relay
Boycott Olympics: RSS
Officer fined for not giving info
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Inflation Riddle
Besides this, there was a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and leaders of the party’s core group to deliberate on ways to check the price spiral. In the meantime, the finance ministry has prepared a detailed note for consideration of the CCP. The options include reducing excise on steel, a high-level official said. After the wholesale price-based index, inflation touched a 3-year high of 7.4 per cent. The government announced ban on cement export yesterday and withdrawal of incentives on export of steel as well. On the political front, there was continued mudslinging with the BJP demanding the government to come out with the White Paper on the same. Talking to newspersons, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy referred to the contradictory statements by various ministers stating that “one holds global phenomenon responsible for inflation, second blames it on hoarding and blackmarketing. The third calls it is a handiwork of traders, fourth describes inflation as an imported phenomenon, fifth says bird flu is responsible for rise in prices of fish in West Bengal and the last feels that Beijing Olympics is responsible for rocketing prices of steel and cement, which is having a spiralling affect on all commodities.” The fact, Rudy said, was that the economist Prime Minister had utterly failed to check inflation and the Congress leadership was unsuccessfully grappling with the economic fiasco. What is adding to the inflationary worry is that global investors have also started showing concern over inflation which could be a bad sign considering that India is depended on foreign institutional investors for growth. Global Investment banker Lehman Brothers has lowered its projection for Indian economic growth rate to 7.6 per cent for this fiscal from its earlier estimate of 8.3 per cent. They have also expressed doubts over efficacy of fiscal and trade policies in taming inflation. Pointing out that fiscal and trade policies have limited control on inflation, Lehman Brothers said: "These have been the preferred policy responses in India and elsewhere in Asia with measures such as cuts in import duties, ban on export items, fiscal subsidies and moral on producers. We expect more of these measures." In a report released today, the investment banker said efficacy of these measures is limited and they can have negative effects. The Congress, not to sit quiet, hit back saying its outside supporters Left have not made any “real suggestions” on how to deal with the inflation except for seeking a ban on futures trading on commodities. “As far as the Left parties are concerned, they have no real suggestions to give except that I have heard Sitaram Yechury saying yesterday that we have to ban all futures trading,”
said Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal.
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41 pc voting in Uttar Pradesh bypolls
Lucknow, April 12 Briefing the press Chief Election Officer A.K. Bishnoi said the voting percentage in the Lok Sabha constituencies was relatively low (33 per cent in Khalilabad) as compared to 50.71 per cent during 2004 election. The keenly contested Azamgarh election saw 41 per cent polling today while in the 2004 election it was 51.57 per cent. The highest polling percentage of 54 per cent was recorded at Bilgram in Hardoi today which was almost 10 per cent higher than the 43.67 per cent recorded last year. In both Karnailganj in Gonda (44 per cent) and Muradnagar in Ghaziabad (53 per cent) the percentage went up by a mere one per cent from last year’s 43.32 per cent and 52.8 per cent, respectively. The only major incident occurred in Bilgram where former MLC and now BSP leader Dayaram Prajapati was arrested for violating the Representation of Peoples Act by canvassing inside the prohibited limits. To ensure free and fair poll 59 companies of central paramilitary forces were deployed. Twenty-two companies of PAC and 11,000 police men also assisted them. PTI adds: Meanwhile, an estimated 70 per cent votes were polled in Kharba Assembly by-poll in Malda district today, where Asif Mehboob of the Congress was pitted against Anjumanara Begum of the CPM with the Trinamool Congress and the BJP also in fray. Polling was disrupted for about an hour in three of the 201 booths as the EVMs had to be replaced, district magistrate C.R. Das said, adding, according to preliminary estimates 70 per cent votes were cast.
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Lawyers up in arms against AP govt
Hyderabad, April 12 Based on a report in a vernacular daily on the court proceedings, the state law minister R. Chenga Reddy has reportedly written to the Supreme Court Chief Justice and President, complaining against the judge A.Gopal Reddy. The media report quoted Justice Reddy as having described the government as a “big land-grabber” while hearing a case relating to encroachments in and around Hyderabad. Taking a serious view of the reported oral observations of the judge, the government shot off a letter, saying his remarks were uncalled for and amounted to belittling the government’s image. The legal fraternity, however, is up in arms against the government’s move, terming it as an affront on the judiciary. The Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh and the AP High Court Advocates’ Association have passed resolutions condemning the government’s action. “The government’s complaint against the judge will have a serious impact on the functioning and independence of the judiciary,” the Chairman of the Bar Council A.Narasimha Reddy said in a statement after holding an extraordinary meeting on the issue. The Bar Council has constituted a panel with three of its members to go into the matter and take further action. “It is nothing but threatening the judiciary. This is a disturbing trend... If this trend continues, judges would not be in a position to dispose of matters dispassionately and impartially,” Narasimha Reddy said. Since the state government is a respondent in the matter pending before the court, it was all the more improper for it to approach the Supreme Court. Such a thing had never happened in the history of the AP High Court. Describing the government’s action as “sheer blackmail”, High Court Advocates Association secretary P.Nageswara Rao demanded that it tender an unconditional apology.
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Cong favours quota in pvt educational institutions
New Delhi, April 12 The party said now the Supreme Court has upheld the law bringing 27 per cent the OBC quota in central institutions of higher learning, it is an obvious step to take next. “The Congress supports reservation in private unaided education institutions,” Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily said here today, adding, it is for the government to decide when and in what form it would like to introduce such law. Human resource development minister Arjun Singh, who was privately pilloried by his party colleagues when he first introduced the law for the OBC quota, is learnt to be working on the law to bring private institutions in the ambit of the OBC quota. The move is unlikely to find favour with a large section of the Congress members but they will be constrained from voicing their apprehensions publicly, as this is such an explosive political issue. The party’s declaration favouring extension of quota is a clear indication that the Congress has little choice but to embrace Arjun Singh’s agenda. With crucial Assembly elections coming up in Karnataka next month, the Congress is hoping to highlight this issue as among its achievements in the hope that it will negate all flak it is getting for rising prices of essential commodities. Despite persisting doubts, the party has been quick to stake ownership of the OBC quota law after the Supreme Court’s historic
judgement, stating it is a reflection of the party’s 100-year commitment to social justice. “The Congress is happy that at the broader level, the policy of ensuring affirmative action for the deprived sections has been upheld,” Moily told mediapersons
today. Moily, however, skirted questions on the apex court’s order keeping the “creamy layer” or the more “well off” from the OBCs out of the reservation ambit, which has upset its allies like RJD chief Lalu Prasad
Yadav, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss who want reservations for the
OBCs. “It is for the government to take a view on this,” Moily stated repeatedly, adding that even the definition of the “creamy layer” will rest with the ruling coalition and will need to be based on today’s socio-economic realties. All these issues will be sorted out at a meeting of the UPA coordination committee, which is expected to be convened shortly, he
added. Arjun Singh has already discussed possibilities of reviewing the definition of “creamy layer” and suggested that the income level of those being denied quota be raised beyond the present Rs 2.5 lakh to factor
in inflation.
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Sensitive Indian sites on Chinese hackers’ radar
New Delhi, April 12 Although it has been doing its best to secure the websites, specially the extra sensitive ones, including those of the Indian armed forces, but as is the case in terrorism, the hackers manage to stay a step ahead every time and devise newer methods to break in. Reports suggested that hackers broke into MEA’s internal communications network, possibly accessing e-mails through which officials communicate policy and decisions across the ministry’s offices in India and in foreign missions. Although communication with foreign missions is supposedly encrypted and secured, but a break-in in the system would enable a hacker to ‘listen in’ to the internal discussions of policy-makers. MEA, however, neither confirmed nor denied the “hacking”, reports said. Sources in the government said while the security agencies have been busy dealing with terrorists face to face, hacking into the official system has emerged as a major headache. Officials said experts at NIC had managed to track down the IP addresses of the hackers in the past and it had been revealed that it allegedly could be the handiwork of some Chinese people. Officials said the matter was serious, especially as India’s relations with China were currently delicately poised with the Tibet issue gaining
centre-stage internationally. This is not the first time that reports of professional hackers from China breaking into official system of other countries, have been received. Last year in June, Chinese government had been accused of hacking into a system at the Pentagon, the US defence headquarters, which it denied. Beijing has reportedly made offensive cyberwar capability one of its strategic priorities and Germany and UK too have blamed them for hacking. Reports suggest that in the past it has emerged that the cyber attacks mounted on the e-mails of ministers and top army officials were from dial internet connections, allegedly from China mainland. Sources said Indian servers were targeted at least thrice a day by hackers from across the border and e-mails containing sensitive material regarding national security were being attempted to be broken into. There were reports that the hackers were also trying to target the defence deals that India was entering into with other countries. However, only the minor deals and details have been targeted while the major ones remain secure as still most of the information about big deals remains on paper. Sources do not rule out the possibility of these hackers having a tacit government support as unlike in India, IP addresses in China are allotted to each person by the government itself. Reports also do not rule out this ‘breaking-in’ being part of a larger business strategy of the Chinese, who are trying to make an entry into the software market. By exposing the weak security system present in these countries attempts could be made to pump in security based products into these markets. However, security agencies are not taking this lightly and feel that it could be a larger design rather than just a marketing gimmick. They feel it could be an attempt to cripple the systems in the Indian government, which almost amounts to cyber terrorism.
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DRDO asked to stop missile test
Kendrapara, April 12 The DFO apprehended that due to test firing of missiles at regular intervals at Wheeler Island since last January, the Olive Ridleys turtles did not come enmasse to the shore to lay eggs this year. The Bhitarkanika forest officials said keeping in mind the sporadic nestings of these species during the last week of March, they were expecting that the mass nesting of Olive Ridely would occur at Gahirmatha soon. But on March 23, the DRDO personnel tested the upgraded version of surface-to-surface Agni-1 ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range of Wheeler Island. The forest officials believed that the test prevented the congregation of Olive Ridley turtles at the Gahirmatha beach for mass nesting. Though the forest officials earlier had written to the DRDO authority to stop missile tests during the nesting season they did not pay any heed to it, the forest officials sources said. They were of the view that if missile test continued from the Wheeler’s Island during the nesting season the turtles might not arrive for mass nesting. In 1997, former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who was heading the DRDO then, had promised not to undertake any test during the nesting season but the DRDO authorities failed to keep their promise. They started conducting tests at regular intervals during the nesting season after Dr Kalam left the organisation in 1999, the forest officials alleged.
— UNI
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NATA made mandatory for architecture students
New Delhi, April 12 Sources within the COA inform that architectural institutions all over the country participated in NATA and about 8,500 students appeared in the test for admission to a B.Arch for the session 2007-08. Many institutions, including NITs, have shown their willingness to join the test while many state governments have already conveyed their consent to participate in NATA from the next academic session. The NATA test has been held by the COA through its academic unit - the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Architecture (NIASA) at Pune for admission to the first year of a five-year B.Arch. NATA is an online examination devised to fulfil the mandatory requirement of holding an aptitude test prior to admission to five-year B.Arch. degree course, as prescribed under the COA’s Minimum Standards of Architectural Education Regulations, 1983. For the academic session of 2008-2009, NATA is being conducted by COA for admission to first year of five-year B.Arch degree course at all COA approved architectural institutions in the country (including NITs, IITs, government institutions, government aided institutions, universities, deemed universities and private universities established by a Central or State Legislature and other private institutions). It shall be mandatory for every candidate seeking admission to five-year B.Arch. The course in any COA approved architectural institution in the country to obtain valid NATA score in addition to any other selection procedure whether based on common entrance examination or marks obtained in the qualifying examination. The evaluation through NATA shall be a mandatory requirement for candidates for eventual registration as an architect on successful completion of a five-year B.Arch degree
course. Further, any aptitude test conducted by individual institution or by any agency or the authority holding a common entrance examination, where such common entrance examination is mandated, shall no longer be valid for the purposes of admission to COA approved architectural institutions in such states. It may be pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court of India, in its order on February 29 in SLP(C) No. 3964 of 2008, has granted stay to the interim order by Bombay High Court in WP No. 5004 of 2007, filed by the Marathwada Mitra Mandal's College of Architecture, which had challenged the authority of COA to conduct NATA for all the institutions.
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Devastating Norwester: Climate change adds fuel
Guwahati, April 12 Amid this jovial and festive atmosphere, a lurking apprehension of seasonal Norwester - a high-velocity storm called ‘Bordoichila’ which leaves a trail of destruction - is omnipresent. The storm is called ‘Kaal Baisakhi’ in West Bengal and Bangladesh as it is potent with enough energy to wreck havoc. Now, because of the climate change triggered by the gradual warming of the globe, ‘Bordoichila’ that herald ‘Rongali Bihu’ in Assam, too, is changing its character and getting intense every year. The storm usually sweeps past Assam towards the end of the second week of April, just before the spring festival, and again in the third week of the same month. The storm is accompanied by pre-monsoon showers that soften up the dry paddy fields much to the glee of the farmers who start tilling the land just after the spring festival. These showers are very essential given that farmers in the state hugely depend on rain waters in the absence of proper irrigation network. Scientists define Norwester as a storm with a very high wind speed accompanied by damaging wind gust greater than 30 knots that last for about 2-3 minutes. Physicist Rahul Mahanta, who is working as an investigator in the Department of Science and Technology (DST) studying the changing pattern of the Norwester, said: “Because of the climate change, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like severe thunder storm is changing and Norwester (Bordoichila) is no exception to this global phenomenon.” He informed that there was already a visible change in the pattern of the storm. Earlier, it used to happen during late evening to midnight but of late its timing has changed from late night to early evening. Intensity of the storm has also increased. “It also comes ahead of schedule on occasions. Like this year, it has already lashed the state in the wee hours of April 5 with more intensity that had left a trail of destruction which was discernible in the campus of Guwahati University where large number big and old trees were uprooted and houses damaged,” he said. The DST project called ‘Study of intense rainfall events and severe thunder storm over northeast is being carried out by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology under the supervision of its director Bhupen
Goswami.
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President leaves on Latin American tour
New Delhi, April 12 This will be the maiden official visit of India’s first woman President. Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his cabinet colleagues and Chiefs of the Armed Forces saw her off at the airport. The Brazil leg of the visit will be from April 13 to 16, during which she is slated to visit Sau Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. Patil will be in Mexico from April 16 to 20, where she will travel to Mexico City and Guadalajara. On the last leg of the visit, she will travel to Santiago, the capital of Chile, from April 20 to 23. Besides Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Chile are considered to be the most important countries of Latin America. The President’s visit is being viewed as important in view of India’s healthy trade relations with these countries.
— UNI
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Meanwhile, babus take corporate lessons
Hyderabad, April 12 At present, the service matters of the employees are looked after by the respective department heads. As part of the new drill, it will be mandatory for government employees at all levels to undergo at least eight days of HR training in a financial year, officials said. Separate course modules are being designed for each category of employees in place of the existing modules. Described as the first of its kind exercise in the country, the HR department has already prepared a database of three lakh teachers through the school education department.
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CJI relives his college life
Kochi, April 12 Besides the chief justice, Balakrishnan, the union defence minister, A.K. Antony, the state ministers, Thomas Issac and Benoy Viswom, parliamentarian Sebastain Paul, the consul general of India in Dubai, Venu Rajamony and a renowned writer, Dr M. Leelavati, among others, were present at the function. Justice Balakrishnan, who did his degree in Zoology in the college during 1962-65, said that the values of life learnt at the institution were the guiding light for him throughout his career. Asserting that the college was one of the best in the country, he said that the wisdom imparted at the college shaped his character and gave the confidence to face the rigours of life. Addressing the meeting, attended by more than 5,000 old students, Kerala finance minister Thomas Issac said the institution gave students the freedom to pursue their dreams and aspirations.
— UNI
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BJP flays Lalu’s remark on price rise
New Delhi, April 12 “The prime minister must come out with a categorical statement whether a senior Cabinet colleague, who makes such a bizarre and devastating statement, is fit to continue in the government,” BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters. Prasad had yesterday alleged the rise in the prices of essential commodities was the “handiwork” of BJP-sponsored traders. Prasad had said a sudden rise in prices after the submission of the report of the 6th Pay Commission needs to be investigated.
— PTI
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NSG cover for Olympic torch relay New Delhi, April 12 Sources in Delhi Police said tonight that the India Gate to Rajpath route, a two-and-a-half kilometre stretch has been finalised as the venue of the relay. The time for the relay has been fixed at 3 p.m when traffic is somewhat moderate. The Indian Olympic Association has proposed this shortened route and announced the participation 35 Indian athletes in the relay. The traffic police has a clear strategy in mind for traffic management on April 17. It plans to keep certain areas out of bounds to keep anti-social elements at bay. Sources in the Chinese embassy today confirmed that men of the Beijing Special Police Force comprising outstanding students handpicked from various Chinese police colleges will guard the Olympic flame during the Delhi leg of the relay and have chalked out a special plan. “They are our elite police force-one of the best police in China. Some of them are trained in martial arts. They are required to protect the Olympic flame wherever it goes. It is a requirement of the International Olympic Committee charter. The torch relay would obviously be protected by the local police.” Union home secretary, Madhukar Gupta told TNS here, “I cannot go into the details of the Delhi leg of the relay. All necessary arrangements will be made to ensure full security for the relay.” NSG Director General J.K Dutt confirmed that they had received instructions from the competent authority, the MHA. Asked about the security drill prior to the much awaited event, Dutt said, “It will be entirely the call of the Delhi Police Commissioner. We have only to provide them men.”
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Boycott Olympics: RSS
Mumbai, April 12 At a function organised by the Tibetan Solidarity Committee here last night, RSS chief K Sudarshan said India should boycott the Olympic games as a gesture of solidarity with the Tibetan people. "All democratic countries, including India, should boycott the Olympic games," Sudarshan said. He added that the Chinese were committing atrocities to destroy the Tibetan identity.
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Officer fined for not giving info Patna, April 12 Chief Information Commissioner Justice SK Singh (retd) imposed a fine of Rs 20,750 on executive-cum-arms magistrate N.K Singh for not providing information to Bihar’s former labour minister and RJD leader Upendra Verma, who had sought information regarding rules to keep arms. After hearing the petition yesterday, the judge found the officer guilty of “wilfully” denying information to the petitioner despite the commission’s order. Justice Singh has fixed June 26 as the next date of hearing and directed the Munger district magistrate, sub-divisional officer and the arms magistrate to appear in person at the commission office during the hearing of the case, the sources said. When contacted, Verma stated that he was satisfied with the commission’s action. — PTI
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CM's wife fined Man lynched for stealing Army jawans looted in train Minor raped in Dahod 11 pilgrims die in accidents
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New Delhi, April 12
