New Delhi, May 8
The Indian Air force pilots flying fighter jets will be “seeing” the world and enemy targets through a helmet-mounted computer screen display when they fly out in the near future. The screen will be fitted onto the visor of the helmet.

European defence and aerospace company, Thales, will be upgrading French made fighters, Mirage 2000. Though the Mirage upgrade deal is still to be finalised, according to Francois Quentin vice-President, Thales, the first four Mirages would be upgraded in France and the rest 47 in India by creating special facilities at Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. In the upgrades the entire airframe of the Mirages would be stripped down and re-equipped with the advanced radar avionics and weapon delivery system, Quentin said.

The helmet display will also be provided in the soon-to-be-acquired MiG-29K fighters. This is being purchased for the Indian Navy and will be based on naval-ships. In today’s fly-by-wire technology, each second is important and the helmet mounted screen technology is being used by just a couple of developed countries. The helmet display provides head pointing information and head referenced display surface to the pilot. This facilitates easy target designation.

It helps in missile head and weapon-sensor technology. In the new technique, the computerised display will be fitted onto to the pilot’s visors, providing the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting aircrafts.

In some models adopted in the UK, the computer screen also superimposes infra-red imagery on to the visor to allow the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

Thales today signed a joint venture with Indian company Samtel for producing highly sophisticated cockpit helmet mounted displays and other avionics for fighter aircraft in India.

Samtel, which will hold a 74 per cent stake, proposes to bid for mounting of these specialised helmet pilot displays. The joint venture comes after the government last week announced a 1 billion Euro project to upgrade IAF’s 51 Mirage fighters to the level of those flying with the French Air Force.

Quentin said the upgrades would enhance the life of the Mirage fighters by 20-30 years. The French company official said the deal was expected to be signed in the next three to four months and the first of the upgraded Mirages delivered to the IAF by 2011.

The French company also has 30 per cent of its systems on-board the new Dassault fighters Raffale, which are in contention for India’s biggest ever global tenders worth $10 billion for purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft. Samtel is collaborating with IAF for installing major avionics system for the Russian acquired Sukhoi-30.

New Delhi, May 8
Senior Congress leader and cabinet minister in the UPA government Arjun Singh has said that decision-making process in the Congress had slightly “withered away”. Admitting that in the past there used to be ample opportunity within the Congress to contribute to the major party decisions by way of debate, Singh said the old structure had been now somewhat eroded.

“That’s why people don’t hesitate in defying the party directions,” he said in an exhaustive interview to eminent Hindi writer Kanhaiya Lal Nandan, who has just edited a book on Arjun Singh's life and times.

In the book, titled, “Mohe Kahan Vishram: The Architect of India’s Modern Democracy”, Singh has said he honoured the party’s view and abided by its decisions, but also believed that until the decision was final, one had the freedom to shape it. “Earlier there were occasions to do so. But now that process has withered away to an extent. When people don’t feel that they have contributed to a decision, they don’t find it hard to oppose it,” Singh said in the interview that’s part of the 251-page book, to be released in the capital tomorrow by President Pratibha Patil. The book marks the completion of 51 years of Singh’s public life, and features articles on his personality by people like Rajendra Prasad Shukl, Vasant Sathe, Prof K.P. Singh and Digvijay Singh, among others.

Interestingly, the union HRD minister in the book has also openly disagreed with the government on the issue of Sethusamundaram and said, “There is no question of any controversy over the existence of Lord Rama, nor does such an argument make any sense. This is a matter of our faith.” Singh also said it would have sufficed the government to say in respect of Ram Setu that historical evidence on the subject was not available. “On the contrary it was said that there was no history,” said Singh.

On the matter of religion and faith, the minister said only those who knew how to exploit faith could distort it. He followed up this comment with the one on Sethusamundaram, on which the centre had earlier said in an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the contents of Valmiki Ramayana, Tuslidas’s Ramcharitmanas and other mythological texts could not be taken as historical records to prove the existence of the characters in the book. The government had also said “Ram Setu” was not a man-made structure but a natural formation made up of shoals/sand bars, which are possessed of their particular shape due to several millennia of wave action and sedimentation.”

Interestingly, Singh made it clear to Nandan that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was not to blame for the error; it was the fault of officers. “They should have checked the facts,” he said. Back to education, Singh said his dream was to see a “literate India”. he added that he was not opposed to foreign or corporate involvement in education, but was opposed to commercialisation of the sector.

Commenting on the highly controversial subject of sex education in schools, the minister said it should be imparted only when one was sure that students had the wisdom to consume it. “Also it should be structured in a decent manner,” he said, crediting his political wisdom to Dwarka Prasad Mishr, and holding the politicians responsible for their public image.

“The politicians should have patience and political wisdom if they want to avoid becoming subjects of mockery. There is no time-tested formula for a smooth sailing in politics. It all depends on your own conduct,” he said.

Bangalore, May 8
Gone are the days of flexing muscles on 9 per cent growth phenomenon. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in the city today to wind up his party’s campaign for the first phase of the assembly elections in Karnataka on May 10 for 89 seats, was busy assuring people about bringing inflation under control.

The Prime Minister was addressing Congress workers, intellectuals and members of NGOs in Bangalore. The PM did mention his favourite growth story but it was his promise on putting a check on inflation, an issue on which the Congress had been continuously facing flaks from its rivals such as the BJP and the BSP, that stuck out among the points he made in his speech.

The BSP, perceived by many as a party that would do damage to the Congress party’s electoral prospects even if its candidates might not win too many seats on their own, had already turned the heat on the Congress on this issue. BSP chief Mayawati, while campaigning for her party here, had alleged “nexus between Congress politicians and capitalists” as the reason for the spiraling inflation in the country.

Dr Manmohan Singh cited the global context of inflation and also pointed out steps taken by the government to keep the prices of LPG, kerosene and diesel low to shield the ordinary people against the rising prices.

The Prime Minister was the last in the series of high-profile campaigners visiting the state in view of the polling in the state. Canvassing for the seats, for which over 900 candidates are in fray, came to an end today. 

Bangalore, May 8
Hours after he arrived here following his deportation, Indian doctor Sabeel Ahmed, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in the UK for withholding information about Glasgow terror plot, has come under surveillance at his residence.

Top police officials said following deportation of Sabeel here, who was detained in London, for withholding information about his brother Kafeel Ahmed's plot to blow up Glasgow airport, certain formalities would have to be completed.

"State and central intelligence agencies will keep a strict vigil on Sabeel," the officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said today, indicating that Sabeel would be questioned about the events that led to the attack on Glasgow airport.

"Local police will do its job and find out what exactly happened," they added.

Sabeel, who hails from Bangalore, was escorted by two UK Metropolitan police officers when he arrived here in the wee hours today and was whisked away by the security officials before the media could even catch a glimpse of him.

Kafeel, after sending an SMS to Sabeel, rammed a burning jeep laden with explosives into the Glasgow airport on June 30 last and succumbed to burns after a month.

The Indian doctor worked at Halton Hospital in Runcon from where he was arrested by UK police the same day.

He was accused of not sharing the information on the terror plot. — PTI

Chennai, May 8
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s son, M.K. Azhagiri, was today acquitted in the murder case of T. Kiruttinan, a former DMK minister, for want of reliable evidence.

Chittoor sessions court judge P. Durga Prasad acquitted Azhagiri and all others accused in the murder of Kiruttinan, who was a minister in the DMK government from 1996 to 2001.

While reading out a brief verdict, the judge said there was no reliable evidence to connect the accused with the murder of Kiruttinan. Azhagiri was present along with his supporters in the court and after the judgement DMK workers raised slogans in his support.

Kiruttinan was brutally hacked to death few yards from his residence in Madurai, 600 km from here, while returning from his morning walk on May 20, 2003, by hired goons.

The next day the a large posse of the Tamil Nadu police arrested Azhagiri and 12 others and accused them of hatching a conspiracy to annihilate Kiruttinan because of a factional feud within the DMK.

Azhagiri who has been based all along in Madurai had sibling rivalry with M.K. Stalin, Tamil Nadu minister for rural development. Kiruttinan was a close associate of Stalin, who at the time of his murder was in the USA and cut short his visit to attend his funeral.

The sensational murder case registered during the Jayalalithaa regime was transferred by the Supreme Court on August 27, 2007 to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh after two witnesses feared that the trial would be derailed if held in Madurai because of Azhagiri’s influence in the administration there.

The Chittor court examined 82 out of 114 witnesses cited the by the police in the charge sheet and many of them turned hostile.

The prosecution had contended that Azhagiri had developed deep animosity against Kiruttinan and “decided to do away with him to hold the party in his grip” and cited “serious differences” between Azhagiri and the slain DMK leader over affairs of the party.

Kiruttinan was said to have been sidelined and being peeved had worked for the defeat of many DMK candidates in the 2001 Assembly polls leading to the party losing power.

However, at present Azhagiri and Stalin are no more rivals and there seems to be no differences within the Karunanidhi family. While Stalin is tipped to succeed Karunanidhi, Azhagiri is happy with his southern Tamil Nadu domain.

New Delhi, May 8
The ministry of environment and forests plans to take up plantation in over six million hectares of degraded forests of the country in two phases in the next 10 years at an estimated rate of around one lakh per three hectares of land.

The money collected under compensatory afforestation fund management and planning authority (CAMAPA) will be used for these programmes christened “Green India Programme”.

In the first phase, three million hectares of the degraded forestland will be taken up for afforestation from 2008, at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. For this, CAMPA will initially provide Rs 3,000 crore followed by Rs 1,000 crore per year for four years out of the annual accruals in compensatory afforestation funds (CAF).

The interest-bearing CAF will be placed under public account under the control of the central government and managed by CAMPA in the manner prescribed by the government. The remaining funds will be mobilised from the market, development partner association, carbon credits, income from tree felling at ecologically appropriate intervals to augment funds, and service debts, if any.

The money collected under CAMPA will be mainly used for site-specific compensatory afforestation, artificial regeneration plantation, natural assisted regeneration, forest management, protection, infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management. These activities, besides greening the country, will also help in mitigating adverse effects of climate change, say MoEF officials.

Guwahati, May 8
The Assam government has stepped in to protect the guardians who send their children to private educational institutions, against growing tendency of these institutions to ask for compulsory donations on one pretext or another much to the exploitation of hapless guardians.

In an order issued under Section 19 of the Assam Non-government Educational Institution (Regulation and Management) Act 2006, the government has prohibited all non-government institutions from levying or collecting any donations compulsorily from any student or his/her parents/guardians.

However, the government hasn’t put bar on management of private educational institutions to invite voluntary donations from parents/guardians for construction of any building for the school or extension of buildings or hostels, any other facilities to be provided to the students only with prior intimation to the director of secondary education, Assam.

The government’s order imposing ban on the practice of seeking compulsory donation has come at a time when private English medium schools in the state, especially in the state’s capital city, have been fleecing the parents/guardians of students.

Given that the sorry state of affairs in government-run educational institutions in the state, majority of parents have opted for education in private English medium schools in the state. The educational institutions in response are trying to exploit the situation to make money at the expense of students.

New Delhi, May 8
The 13th Prem Bhatia Memorial lecture left the listeners at India International Centre with food for thought. Delivering the lecture “Growth for Whom: Choice of Dilemma” was Dr Ashok Mitra, the celebrated economist and former finance minister of West Bengal, who minced no words while painting the real picture of India’s growth story which, he said, was full of anomalies.

Listing those anomalies and the dilemmas they pose, Mitra made a case for equitable growth where the fruits of development were evenly distributed and hunger did not prevail the way it does. An economist of repute, he said, “It is wrong to call India the “Republic of Hunger” at a time when we are basking in the fact that our GDP has been growing at a rate of 9 per cent per annum - a world-beating performance achieved only by China.”

Mitra, however, drew the attention of audiences to the other end of the spectrum where almost 40 per cent of those dependent on agriculture live without any land. This segment of the rural population remained out of the orbit of growth, Mitra said, while dissecting the GDP growth we are so excited about.

“The annual rate of growth in the services sector has averaged around 15 per cent for the past few years. Since services constitute for more than half of our GDP, an annual growth rate of 15 per cent in this sector itself ensures an overall GDP growth of 7.5 per cent,” he said, coming to the real problem. Output of services has taken off, industrial activities are also expanding but at a lower pace. Agricultural growth, however, remains frighteningly low, and growth unevenly distributed over the producing sectors.

“The services sector does not provide employment for much more than 20 per cent of the nation’s working force. On the other hand, agriculture and allied activities are the source of livelihood for close to two-thirds of the working population. Since the annual growth rate in agriculture is around 2.5 per cent, the rate of population growth being what it is, per capita growth in farm sector is niggling,” Mitra explained, mentioning how the Human Development report of the UN had placed India at a lowly rank of 127 in the “development” ranking of nations.

Among the audience today were former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, who presided over the lecture, other trustees of the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, including Anand Bhatia. Earlier, Trust president Air Chief Marshal O.P. Mehra presented the Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Journalism to Nirupama Subramaniam, Pakistan correspondent for the Hindu, for her courageous reporting in adverse conditions. The Prem Bhatia Award for Environmental Journalism was presented to Kiya Acharya, a freelancer from Bangalore.

New Delhi, May 8
The Army Chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor, yesterday laid the foundation stone of the third phase of the housing project in Noida. Constructed by the Army welfare housing organisation, this is the Phase-3 of an ongoing project.

It will have a total of 1,066 dwelling units, including 54 Penthouses. The site in Greater Noida measures 95 acres on which a total of 2,822 dwelling units (DUs) are planned to be constructed. The project has been planned in three phases, out of which in Phase-1, 844 DUs have already been completed and are in the process of being handed over.

Dehra Dun, May 8
The Uttarakhand government has decided to revise the rate of the cow urine concentrate. In an ambitious programme, the state Agriculture Department has been collecting cow urine from farmers at the rate of Rs 5 per litre.

After due processing, the cow urine concentrate was sold to the Pitanjali Yog Peeth, Hardwar, run by famous Yoga Guru Ramdev. Cow urine concentrate is being used by the Peetanjali Yog Peeth pharmacy for making many ayurvedic medicines. The state government was selling the cow urine concentrate to the pharmacy at the rate of Rs 25 per litre. “We have decided to raise the selling price of cow urine concentrate to Rs 31per litre with mutual consent of Peetanjali Yoga Peeth,” said Uttarakhand agriculture minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

He further said the basic idea was to give better price to cow owners most of whom are women. “We want to give a price of Rs 10 per litre to the animal owners,” he added.

The state government has been buying cow urine through milk cooperative societies in the state at two centers at Kalsi in Dehradun district and Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal district. Swami Ramdevs’ pharmacy has a demand of 5,000 litres of cow urine.

A total 1,900 active milk cooperatives would be engaged to collect cow urine to be later sold to the Ayurvedic pharmacies or used in making Ayurvedic medicines. “We are handicapped due to shortage of equipment to make cow urine concentrate but we will expand our operations soon,” said Trivendra Singh Rawat. Apart from sale of Cow urine, state government is also keen to start a Cow Research Institute. The state government had also decided to set up a Cow Science and Technology Institute in Chamoli district of the state. A provision of Rs 3 crore was made for the proposed institute in the first budget presented by the state government.

The research institute first of its kind in the country would carry out research on various breeds of indigenous cows. The institute would develop various medicines made from cow urine that would reduce dependency on anti-biotic medicines. The institute is a brainchild of Uttarakhand agriculture minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, a former RSS ‘Parcharak’.

Guwahati, May 8
An 18-month-old child, Babu, had to pay with his life for the superstition that engulfs the mind of his 20-year-old uncle Tarun Gogoi.

In a bizarre incident, Gogoi, a religious bigot and staunch devotee of Hindu Goddess Kali, severed the head of Babu as a ‘sacrifice’ before the Goddess in their residence at Japisojia village under the Amguri police station of Sivasagar district yesterday.

The police today said Gogoi, who used to worship Goddess Kali at his residence, butchered the toddler when it came to his place of worship in the house. As soon as the family members raised hue and cry on seeing the body of the child lying in a pool of blood in two pieces, Gogoi escaped on a bicycle an hour before police could reach the village located about 4 km away from Amguri township.

Mirzapur, May 8
A man permitted his wife and mother of his four children to marry her paramour in Jamalpur area here.

The incident took place in Pratappur village last evening, when a 35-year-old woman accepted in village panchayat her affair with a 25-year-old youth of Ghazipur.

The husband compromised after he failed to cease the woman's meetings with the youth and permitted his wife in written to go with her lover, in front of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and station in charge.

The panchayat also permitted the woman to take her four children with her. — UNI

BRIEFLY

HC grants bail to Shahabuddin
Patna: Controversial RJD Lok Sabha member from Siwan, Mohammed Shahabuddin, facing life imprisonment in connection with a case relating to kidnapping-cum-suspected killing of a CPI-ML (Liberation) activist, was on Thursday granted bail by the Patna High Court in a case in which he was charged with filing false affidavit with respect to the criminal cases pending against him. Justice Navin Sinha allowed his prayer for bail after hearing his counsel and the standing counsel for the state. — PTI

Baby critical after vaccine shot
KANNIYAKUMARI: A two-month-old baby girl is in a serious condition after being administered BCG and DPT vaccines at a primary health centre in this district. Sources said Selvadarshini was administered the vaccines at the Aralvaimozhi Primary Health Centre on Wednesdays. After midnight, the girl started foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the ears and the nose. Her parents rushed the baby to a private hospital at Vellamadam, where the doctors are providing intensive treatment. — UNI

Delhi’s gastroenterologist awarded
NEW DELHI: One of the country’s leading gastroenterologists Dr Ajay Kumar of the Apollo Hospital has been chosen for the prestigious ‘Dr B.C. Roy’ award for the year 2007, by the Medical Council of India. Dr Kumar, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Glasgow, is a senior consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at the hospital. — PTI

Villagers pour acid into man's eyes
PATNA: In yet another incident of mob justice, a man wanted in connection with the killing of a villager and his grandson was mercilessly beaten up by locals and acid poured into his eyes in Purnia district. Residents at Radhanagar overpowered Vinay Yadav alias Pappu Yadav, wanted in connection with the February 28 killing of Bihari Lal Yadav and his grandson, and beat him mercilessly with sticks and iron rods on Monday night, SP B.S. Meena said. — PTI

Surgeon held for graft
SHEOHAAR: The civil surgeon of Bihar’s Sheohar district was on Thursday arrested by the Vigilance Bureau for allegedly taking bribe. A Vigilance team from Patna arrested Panchanan Prasad from his residence on Tuesday morning when he was allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 28,000 from the secretary of an NGO to clear its bills. — PTI