New Delhi, November 19
The shortage of research scholars will hinder India’s progress as a knowledge economy, with the market economy devaluing the academic profession, National Knowledge Commission (NKC) chairman Sam Pitroda has said in a communication to the Prime Minister.

“There is already a severe shortage of well-trained young doctorates to fill existing posts in research institutes and universities. This problem is likely to be even more acute in the envisaged elite new universities,” Sam Pitroda has written to Manmohan Singh.

“One of the casualties of the expanding market economy has been the devaluation of the academic profession and this is now seriously affecting the desirability of this profession,” he wrote in the letter dated November 6.

He was hinting at how more and more students are opting for professional degrees like MBA, IT and other such courses.

Pitroda, who is credited with bringing telecom revolution to India, has written that research and development needs to improve dramatically to transform the country into a knowledge economy.

But he has doubts.

“There is ample evidence that India is not well placed for this future transformation.” The letter, a copy of which was obtained by IANS, said the “growth in the number of doctorates has only been 20 per cent in India in the period 1991-2001 compared to 85 per cent in China”.

“Not more than one per cent of those completing undergraduate degrees currently opt for doctoral studies in India, and a substantial number of students prefer to 
go abroad.

“To address these problems, there is a pressing need for urgent government policy interventions, including high priority initiatives, to attract, nurture and retain the country’s best young minds in academia and research.” The commission has suggested that besides giving better remuneration to teachers, there is a need for using technology to bridge the language gap in knowledge dissemination.

The commission was set up by the Central government in 2005 to advise the Prime Minister on improving the educational scenario in the country. Its primary target is to devise a road map for transforming India’s education system.

Pitroda too has suggested that “increased coverage in the media of different facets of teaching, research, and academic achievements, both nationally and internationally” is desirable.

The letter says that academic reforms are a must.

“Throughout the world, universities are the natural homes for the interface between teaching and research. But this is far from reality in the vast majority of Indian universities.

“In fact, the overall current situation in Indian universities is dismal largely due to the lack of quality infrastructure and the inability to recruit good young faculty and gifted students,” Pitroda’s letter reads.

He has suggested increasing funding to university departments to recruit talented youngsters and periodic peer reviews of these departments.

Pitroda has also recommended increasing the industry-institution interface and funding of research and development activities. — IANS

New Delhi, November 19
The Left parties have reacted strongly to BJP threat of civil war over the current Maharashtra ATS investigations into the Malegaon blasts and charged the Sangh Parivar with complicity with the accused.

Three different Left leaders have spoken on L.K. Advani’s demand to scrap the ATS investigations and BJP president Rajnath Singh’s threat of launching a civil war in the country if the investigations were not stopped forthwith.

The Left leaders here today described the BJP threats as “an attempt to sabotage the investigations into the role of the Sangh Parivar outfits in the acts of terrorism” and to threaten and intimidate the ATS team.

CPM deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Mohammad Salim pointed out: “The word civil war has been used frequently by Advani earlier also, now his successor Rajnath Singh is using the same tactics. But the Sangh Parivar should not forget that the militant outfits of its own creation and other extremist organisations - all are working as part of the nefarious design to throw this country into chaotic situation where the extremists of all hues have a field day.”

Salim alleged that the issue was aimed “to create anarchy in the country where they can organise militia in the name of various religious and ethnic identities as is being witnessed in the African countries.”

CPI national secretary D Raja said: “Why is the BJP raising a bogey of civil war at this point when its own outfits are involved in the terrorist activities and some of its activists are under custody for questioning?”

Raja charged: “The BJP is crying hoarse as their true face of terrorism stood exposed. It is to pre-empt the investigation. This is clear from Advani’s contention,” Raja argued.

Forward Bloc secretary leader G Devarajan said: “The BJP leadership is up in arms to sabotage the whole process of probe into the Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and similar serial blast involving the communal forces.”

New Delhi, November 19
Alarmed at suspected involvement or infiltration of radical elements into security forces, the Union home ministry has convened a meeting of Director Generals of Police of all states and senior functionaries of the Intelligence agencies over the coming weekend in the National Capital.

Besides discussing strategies for tackling the suspected infiltration of fundamentalists, the meeting will also discuss the home ministry’s recent letter to all states seeking details of the activities of the Bajrang Dal in each of the states.

During the meeting, the Intelligence Bureau will have a brainstorming session to sort out and discuss issues to control and keep a check on security personnel. The Malegaon blasts of September 29 will also be discussed. More than a 100 seniormost IPS officers of the country will be present.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be interacting with top security and intelligence officers from across the country twice, first over a lunch he is hosting for them on Saturday and again on Sunday when he will intervene in their discussions.

Home minister Shivraj Patil will preside over the inaugural session. Those invited to join the deliberations include national security adviser M.K. Narayanan. Sources said the Military Intelligence had been urged to depute a senior officer for a briefing on how the defence forces intend to tackle and check things at their end.

Bangalore, November 19
A Gnat aircraft hung on a frame at the road near the Bangalore Press Club hardly gets a glance of the passers by. But in 1972, recalls Group Capt P.M. Velankar (retd), the Gnats were a great crowd puller for their success against the Pakistani Sabre Jets in the 1971 war, a feat which had earned the aircraft the sobriquet of “Sabre slayers”.

Velankar recalls how an “Air Force mela” at Kasturchand Park in Nagpur on April 1, 1972, was milling with crowd, thanks to two static Gnats at display at the venue. Later, the two aircrafts were successfully flown back to Sulur near Coimbatore without a flight test being done. “I do not think that would have been possible with any other aircraft but a Gnat,” says Velankar.

Air Comd A.C. Goel (AVSM) recalls how he could fly back safely to the base at Adampur after his aircraft as well as six others participating in the mission were hit by the gunfire of the Pakistanis. “There is not a single case of losing a Gnat in combat due to enemy gunfire when escorting strike missions”, he recalls.

The Gnats have been now phased out of the Indian Air Force (IAF). But, the people associated with it still have fond memories of the aircraft which played a key role in the most decisive victory modern India has ever registered in a full blown war.

Over 200 pilots, engineers and flight-testing experts of yesteryears and their families from India and abroad will assemble in Bangalore on November 21 for the golden jubilee celebrations of Gnat aircraft in India. The event is being jointly organised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The unique event is slated to be held at HAL’s Ghatge Convention Centre here and some of the prominent pilots of the bygone days have already arrived in Bangalore for the event.

Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major will be the chief guest in the function. A film on Gnat will be screened during the event, while a book on the aircraft edited by Pushpinder Singh will also be released. A photo exhibition will also be set up at the Ghatge Centre.

“The event holds special significance as never in the recent past we have witnessed the coming together of so many experts associated with Gnat under one roof. IAF and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) are proud to be associated with this event which will help the current generation aviators and engineers rub shoulders with some of the jewels of the past,” Sanjeev Sahi, Chairman of Gnat Golden Jubilee Celebrations in India, said.

HAL was the licensed producer of the Gnat in India and rolled out 200 of them for the IAF. The original designers and builders of the Gnat were Folland Aviation of the UK. The IAF was the only air force to operate them in large numbers and use them in combat. The Gnat proved so formidable that the Pakistani pilots were told to avoid combat with the Gnat.

In Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, the winning tribal candidate will be the king, thanks to the delimitation of the constituencies.

The delimitation exercise has changed the boundaries of the constituencies this time so much that it may upset several political stalwarts, including seven ministers and 54 legislators belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ultimately, believe political gurus, the delimitation seems to be benefiting the tribal candidates.

While the seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) have gone up from 41 to 47, the ones for the Scheduled Castes (SC) has increased by one, from 34 to 35. Meanwhile, the number of general seats has decreased from 155 to 148 in the 231-member state assembly, which includes one nominated Anglo-Indian member.

Of these, the BJP has 36 sitting Scheduled Tribe legislators, 30 representing Scheduled Castes and 107 who won from general seats in the December 2003 polls.

The increase in the number of seats reserved for the SCs and the STs is a major worrying factor for the BJP, especially because of the rising influence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), particularly in the Gwalior-Chambal and Baghelkhand belts, and that of Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) in Mahakaushal.

So far, the BSP has succeeded in grabbing power in Uttar Pradesh but now it is has made inroads into this state and the adjoining Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh states also.

The 82 seats reserved for the SCs and the STs - the trusted vote bank of the BSP - hold the key for the formation of the next government in Madhya Pradesh. “In the 2003 poll,” a senior BJP leader said, “we faired well on these seats, but this time the BSP and the GGP may spoil our game on the reserved seats.”

No political party, including the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress, has fielded candidates in all 230 constituencies. Both the Congress and the BJP have fielded 228 candidates. The BJP has left the Bahoriband constituency to the National Democratic Alliance partner Janata Dal (United). Similarly, the Congress has left Burhanpur to the United Progressive Alliance partner, the Nationalist Congress Party.

As many as 3,179 candidates are trying their electoral fortunes. In the 2003 poll, 2,171 candidates contested. The percentage increase has been 46.43 with 1,008 more candidates in the election arena.

The number of independent candidates has also increased from 879 to 1,374. The BSP has fielded 224 candidates, the Samajwadi Party 186, the Shiv Sena 29, the Communist Party of India and Samata Party 14 each, the Republican Party of India 11 and the Rashtriya Janata Dal five.

There is no Janata Party candidate in the race this time. It fielded 18 candidates in the 2003 elections, but none won the poll; 17 of them had lost their deposits.

After Chhattisgarh was created out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, the parent state was left with 230 constituencies as 90 went to the new state. After the bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh, the BJP was the sole party that fielded its nominees in all the constituencies in the previous polls and secured a historic three-fourths majority by winning 173 seats.

The Congress in 2003 won 38 while contesting 229, the BSP two of the 157, the SP seven of the 161, the Gondwana Ganatantra Party three of the 61, the CPI one of the nine, the JD(U) one of the 36, and the NCP one of the 105. Besides, two independents and as many candidates of other political parties had emerged winners.

Just four candidates (the minimum) are in the poll race from Susner and the maximum (33) are contesting from Pichhor constituency this time. Speculation is already on about tribal leaders emerging as the “kingmakers” at the time of the formation of the next government. However, at present, all parties have already started treating their possible winning tribal candidates as a “king”.

Bhopal, November 19
Wheat at Rs 2 a kg, free salt, free dhotis and sarees and treatment for the poor free of cost, free power to farmers, unemployment allowance to the unemployed, Rs 500 per month dole to the old, widows, the destitute and the handicapped, Central pay scales to government employees — after the BJP it was now the Congress’ turn to promise the moon to the people of Madhya Pradesh.

The party released its manifesto for the Assembly polls here today and the 60-page document has something for everyone. The constitution of at least 50 new government corporations, commissions, trusts and authorities has been promised. Among them are trusts for the preservation of tribal culture, traditional systems of medicine, folk languages and dialects. Then, ‘Garibi hatao commission’, ‘land reforms commission’, ‘regional roads authority’ will also come into being if the Congress is voted to power.

The party chose not to reveal from where it proposes to garner the monetary resources for fulfilling these promises. To quote just one instance, supplying wheat at Rs 2 a kg to the 65 lakh BPL families in the state alone will cost the government upwards of Rs 1,200 crore annually, given the fact that the procurement price of wheat in the state last year was Rs 900 per quintal and each BPL family is entitled to 25 kg of wheat every month. 

Jaipur, November 19
“Hum do, humaare do”. This popular family planning slogan does not seem to have been adopted and practised by a majority of the politicians in Rajasthan.

They make poor followers of family planning. They may be promising the moon to the electorates but seem to have little regard for the population explosion in the country. As many as 55 per cent of the BJP-INLD candidates have more than two children each, while the Congress is no better with 51 per cent of its candidates not coming within the purview of an “ideal family of four”.

Maqbool Mandelia, the Congress nominee from Churru assembly seat, surely emerges as the dubious topper with 14 children. The personal details furnished by the candidates to the Election Commission revealed that 36 per cent of the BJP candidates and 37.5 per cent of the Congress candidates could boast of sensitivity towards the problem of overpopulation in the country. These candidates have only two children.

While 10 per cent of the BJP candidates and 7 per cent of the Congress candidates have one child, eight BJP candidates and nine Congress candidates are unmarried. The education qualifications of the party candidates also put up interesting figures. Probably for the first time, both parties have a high number of graduates and professionals

Out of the 200 seats, the BJP-alliance has put forward 74 candidates whose profile claims that they have of a professional degree. The Congress has 65 such candidates. The BJP has 85 graduates, while the Congress has 75. The remaining are undergraduates or have studied up to primary classes.

Jodhpur/Jaipur, November 19
Just like the multi-coloured Rajasthani turban, candidates for the elections range from the scions of erstwhile royal families to magicians to snake charmers to priests and government employees. And, yes, even a gangajal-spraying candidate.

If chief minister Vasundhra Raje is from the Scindia royal family of Gwalior, Sidha Kumari belongs to the former princely state of Bikaner while Vishwendra Singh is of Bharatpur lineage.

Sidha Kumari has been handpicked by Dushyant Singh, son of Vasundhra Raje, to fight the elections even though she has no political experience.

Sleight of hand is at work in different constituencies of Jodhpur district: ex-CM Ashok Gehlot, who once used to perform as a magician in his youth along with his ex-MLA father and popular magician Lakhshman Singh, has been fielded from Sardarpura constituency.

Berobed as a magician, Gopal Jadugar, who is contesting as an independent for the second time from Sursagar, goes around on a camel-cart. His sales pitch: “My magical tricks will make the Congress and the BJP flags disappear for ever”. There is much evidence to the contrary, though.

But, once trickery is over and done with, he hits the ground running: “I don’t have a magic wand for easy solutions for your problems,” he tells people, “but I promise I would work hard for the benefit of the common man and especially performing artists.”

“There are 64 arts but magic has not been recognized as an art form.

The recognized artists get halls for performing on subsidised rates, just Rs 500, but we have to pay as mush as Rs 10,000 for the same.”

Rajendra Prasad Arora, also a magician, is trying to get into the assembly from Jodhpur.

Rajendra Patel, the Bharatiya Janshakti Party-hopeful from the 
Sanganer constituency in Jaipur, is different. He goes about spraying gangajal wherever he goes, claiming the BJP government has made the state “ashudh” (impure) by opening a large number of liquor shops. He also believes ganagajal would the help the victims of, what he calls “bloodshed”, rest in peace.

Priest Deepak Purohit, clad in Saffron dhoti, contesting from Jodhpur City. His promise: end to system of reservation.

And, guess who accompanied snake-charmer Hawai Singh when he filed his nomination papers from the Alwar rural seat? A large number of snakes and an equal number of charmers...

A day before second phase of Chhattisgarh goes to poll on Thursday, both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress claimed having upper hand in the current Assembly elections, which is predictable.

What has raised eye-brows of political observers is a statement made by Chief Minister Raman Singh at a press conference in the state capital on the poll-eve that the BSP was emerging as a third power and may affect results on some seats.

The Chief Minister had made a similar statement while talking to The Tribune earlier. Observers say that the BJP is trying to boost the image of Mayawati's party, which was an indication of political permutations and combinations to follow. According to them, the Chief Minister's publically-favourable statement towards the BSP showed that the BJP will not hesitate in seeking the help of Mayawati if the need be.

How the BSP would react to these positive feelers or whether an understanding has already been reached between the “kamal” and the “haathi” in the state would only be known after December 8, when votes are counted. But party supremo Mayawati is aware of the BSP’s growing influence in the state dominated by SCs and backward classes, which is why she decided to contest all 90 seats independently.

It was in the satnami belt in the Phase-II from where BSP founder Kanshi Ram fought election in 1984. It is no wonder, therefore, that after her tremendous show of strength in Bilaspur on November 16, BSP leaders claimed that the next government in Chhattisgarh will not be formed without their help.

As the Phase-II in the state goes to poll on Thursday, it can be safe to say that barring some local issues, the 2008 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh were contested almost a major poll plank or issue, which perhaps is the reason that trends regarding who will sit on treasury benches are not clear even a day before the poll.

While in Phase-I it appeared more of an advantage-BJP, in the second Phase, the Congress seemed to have picked up, and more so after party president Sonia Gandhi’s appearance at Kharsiya on Tuesday. But Maya is working her magic on the state and may end up with winners on three to four seats is also possible

Amidst rice-politics and issues relating to naxal violence and corruption charges against the government, in these elections personalities appear to have emerged more powerful than issues, whether it was Raman Singh or former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who has tremendous following among lower sections, Dalits and Satnami community.

In such a situation, Mayawati, with her social enginnering formula and larger than life persona, has pitted herself against Jogi and his staunch Satnami and Dalit supporters and the BJP with Re 1 per kg rice deal for poor families.

Since Satnamis are known to go with Jogi and the Congress, Mayawati has targeted OBCs that comprise 45 per cent of voters in the state and are more favourable towards the BJP. In other words, if Maya's magic works in Phase-II, more than the Congress the saffron party would get hurt.

Chandigarh, November 19
Thousands of armed forces personnel and their family members residing in Delhi Cantonment would not be able to exercise their right to franchise during the Assembly elections this month. The Election Commission has failed to register their names as voters in electoral rolls.

Sources said that house-to-house survey for compiling the electoral rolls, as undertaken by the electoral authorities prior to elections, was not conducted in the areas concerned for registering serving armed forces personnel and their family members.

An officer estimated the number of military personnel and family members who have been deprived of their democratic right to be about 30,000.

According to an officer, a petition was submitted to the chief electoral officer, Delhi, earlier this month to register serving personnel and their eligible family members as voters. The Delhi polls are scheduled for November 29.

“We had written to the chief electoral officer on November 14 and are yet to receive any reply,” Maj Gen Satbir Singh (retd) of the Delhi-based Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation, said. “Orders to enlist servicing personnel at voters at their place of posting exist since 1971, but they have never been implemented,” he added. The Supreme Court has also ruled that serving personnel can vote at their place of posting.

“The petition was sent on the last day for withdrawal of candidatures,” Brig H.S. Ghuman (retd) said. “It was within his powers to order a survey or register voters if any anomaly is brought to his notice by that date,” he claimed.

According to law, all serving military personnel have a right to vote at their place of posting. Other alternatives like postal ballots and proxy voting are merely options that may be exercise by an individual at his discretion.

No serving officer has been nominated to compile electoral rolls at military stations. The Election Commission has nominated record officers at regimental centres to prepare rolls of serving soldiers, but it is for the purpose of postal ballots only.

The issue of not registering serving personnel as voters has also cropped up in the past in other stations.

Lucknow, November 19
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) continued its victorious spree at the polls by bagging the Hardoi seat for its candidate Nitin Agarwal. He defeated his nearest SP rival Sukh Sagar Misra by a margin of 17,365 votes.

Agarwal polled 65,533 votes against Misra’s 48,168 votes. Congress nominee Mithlesh Chauhan came a poor third, polling a mere 5,737 votes and losing his deposit in the process.

Interestingly, the BJP had not fielded any candidate for this seat. Son of former state minister Naresh Agarwal, Nitin, retained his father’s pocket borough. The senior Agarwal had won the seat for seven successive terms, the last time during the 2007 Vidhan Sabha election as a SP candidate.

Known for being on the right side of power, Naresh originally a Congress leader forged a split to form the Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP) of the breakaway group. Subsequently, he crossed over to the SP and became a minister. The seat was rendered vacant after Naresh resigned from the SP to join the BSP.

After passing on his traditional seat to his son, Naresh has now been declared as the BSP Lok Sabha candidate from Farukhabad. 

Guwahati, November 19
The regional Asom Gana Parishad’s decision to strike an election understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the next round of parliamentary elections has apparently isolated the party from other non-Congress parties in the state.

The Left parties, including the CPI and CPM, which used to consider the regional AGP as like-minded formation, have now decided to distance themselves away from the AGP after it has decided to swim along with the saffron party.

A source in the state unit of CPM said the party would not have any relation with the AGP after the latter had chosen the BJP as its ally. The Left party will now rather explore forming a third force in the state politics to keep equal distance from the AGP-BJP combine as well as the Congress.

The party will hold talks with other Left parties, including the CPI, the CPI-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), in this regard. On the basis of the outcome of the discussions with these parties, the CPM will finalise its strategy on approaching other non-Congress and non-BJP-AGP parties.

The state unit of the CPI too favours an alliance of ‘democratic forces’ in the next Lok Sabha elections to fight against both the BJP and Congress-led fronts and that automatically bracket its former ally AGP in the company of bitter political rival BJP.

New Delhi, November 19
Rejecting the Centre’s plea for reconsideration, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan has insisted on promotion of three judges as recommended by it, irrespective of their seniority level.

Explaining that seniority was only one of the criteria for promotion and merit and integrity could not be given a go-by, the five-Judge collegium has returned the file to the law ministry, sources said.

The collegium has, thus, stuck to its recommendation for the promotion of High Court Chief Justices H.L. Dattu (Kerala), A.K. Ganguly (Madras) and R.M. Lodha (Patna) as judges of the apex court.

Official sources ruled out any possible confrontation between the judiciary and the executive on the issue as the Prime Minister’0s Office (PMO), which had sent back the file seeking clarifications on the issue of seniority, was now likely to forward the names to the President for approval.

While making its recommendations, the collegium had overlooked the seniority of Chief Justices A.P. Shah (Delhi ), A.K. Patnaik (Madhya Pradesh) and V.K. Gupta (Uttarakhand).

The proposed elevation is aimed at filling the vacancies caused by the retirement of Justices A.K. Mathur, Ashok Bhan and C.K. Thakker. The Supreme Court has a strength of 25 judges, including the CJI. The collegium mechanism has been in practice since 1993.

New Delhi, November 19
The Supreme Court yesterday confirmed the life sentence awarded to seven gangsters involved in the murder of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) general secretary Rauf Valiullah in 1992.

The convicts had challenged the February 6, 2007 judgment of the TADA Court, Ahmedabad, which had acquitted them of charges under Section 3 and 5 of TADA, but held them guilty of different offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“…we hold that the trial court did not commit any error in recording a finding that charges of conspiracy and murder are proved against the appellants,” a Bench comprising Justices B.N. Agrawal and G.S. Singhvi ruled, dismissing their appeals.

The Congress leader had been shot dead by one of the convicts, who fired three shots with a 38-bore revolver from close range, while the victim was getting into his car. Valiullah had planned to submit a memorandum to the Centre, exposing the plan of the Abdul Latif gang to make some of its unimportant members surrender to the police.

The mock surrender had been planned to shield the real culprits in the August 1992 murder of one Hansraj Trivedi, an alleged supplier of illicit liquor, and eight others at Radhika Gymkana Club, Ahmedabad.

The gang killed the Congress leader to prevent him from exposing it and also to create terror among the people so that no one would come forward to oppose it.

New Delhi, November 19 
Sixteen years after she was found dead under mysterious circumstances, the CBI today arrested two priests and a sister in Kerala in connection with the murder of 
Sister Abhaya.

A CBI spokesman said the agency’s Special Crime unit arrested Father Thomas Kottor, Father Joes Phthrukayil and Sister Abey.

This is the first arrest in the case that shocked Kerala after the 21-year-old sister was found dead in a well in St Pius convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992.

Sister Abhaya, daughter of M. Thomas hailing from Areekara, was a second year pre-degree student in BCM college at Kottayam in 1992. The college belonged to the diocese of Kottayyam.

The local police who first investigated the matter could not bring out any evidence to prove the murder. The case was transferred to the Kerala Crime Branch on April 7, 1992, which claimed that Abhaya had committed suicide.

In the meantime, the Action Council, constituted for justice for Sister Abhaya, approached the Kerala High Court which directed the CBI to investigate the matter on March 29, 1993.

The CBI had earlier filed three closure reports which were rejected by the High Court. — PTI

Chandigarh, November 19
Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief, IBN Network, has been unanimously elected president of the Editors’ Guild of India. He succeeds Alok Mehta, chief editor of Nai Duniya.

At the annual general meeting of the guild held yesterday, K.S.Sachidananda Murthy, resident editor, Malayala Manorama and The Week, was re-elected as secretary-general. Rohit Bansal, senior editor and COO of India TV, was elected as treasurer. Bansal succeeds Y.C. Halan who was treasurer for five terms, according to a note received here.

Sardesai has over two decades of journalistic experience in print and electronic media. A law graduate from Oxford University, Sardesai worked in the Times of India, before moving onto television news. He has served as managing editor of NDTV group's news channels.

Sachidananda Murthy began his career with the Indian Express and has been part of Malayala Manorama for a quarter century. He writes a political column for Malayala Manorama and an anecdotal column for The Week.

The guild is a body of editors of newspapers, news agencies, news magazines and television news channels in the country. It takes up issues of freedom of the press, independence of editors and rising standards and ethics of journalism.

Gurgaon, November 19
Playing games with your friends may sometimes prove to be risky. A young man, Saurabh Sabarwal (22), died here today after consuming pastries with his friends.

Saurabh, resident of Patpat Ganj, New Delhi, was working with Nokia Seimens Company in Udyog Vihar as a solution engineer here.

According to Saurabh’s friend Jatin, who took Saurabh to a hospital after finding him unwell, told the police that Saurabh along with his friends, in all 16 in number, were competing with each other in a pastry-eating competition and had ordered around 200 pastries.

After consuming some pastries Saurabh went to the wash room. When he did not come back, his friends went to look for him and found him lying unconscious.

The police said all the other boys ran away and it was Jatin who brought Saurabh to Max Health Care Centre at Sushant Lok, where doctors declared him brought dead.

Saurabh's father R.K Sabarwal said the police informed him that his son was in serious condition and has been admitted in the hospital. When they reached there, they found Saurabh dead.

Saurabh was planning to go abroad soon. Dr Sushuan Sharma said Saurabh died as the pastries entered his veins making him unconscious.

Satinder Singh, SHO, Udyog Vihar, said until now they had not received any complaint. 

BRIEFLY

Army vice-chief appointed
NEW DELHI: Lt Gen N. Thamburaj, the General Officer in Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian Army’s Southern Command was on Tuesday appointed as the Vice-Chief of Army replacing Lieut Gen M.L Naidu on the latter’s superannuation. The orders issued on Tuesday said Lt Gen P.K Khanna, the Chief of staff of the Northern Command, Udhampur, would go as GOC-in-C of the Southern Command. Meanwhile, Lieut Gen J.K Mohanty GOC-in-C of the Simla-based Army Training command (ARTRAC) has been moved as the GOC-in-C of the Lucknow-based Central Command replacing Lt Gen H.S Panag, who will retire. The Lieut Gen B.S Jaswal, commander of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps will be the new GOC-in-C of the ARTRAC. — TNS

Pranab to visit Nepal
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee will pay a three-day official visit to Nepal from November 24 as part of the ongoing high-level bilateral interaction between the two countries. The visit will provide an opportunity to the two countries to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations, an external affairs ministry release said. Mukherjee would be the first Indian minister to visit Nepal after the transformation of the Hindu kingdom into a republic and the formation of a Maoist-led government. — TNS

Bihar hotels to serve rats
PATNA: Do not get surprised if you find a roasted rat or rat curry on the menu of restaurants across Bihar, along with chicken and mutton delicacies. Very soon protein rich “patal bageri” (rat meat) would adorn the menu of hotels in the state as the Bihar government is actively considering a proposal for rat farming on the lines of chicken, goat and pig husbandry in order to popularise consumption of protein rich rat meat. — PTI

Gene pool of Asiatic lions
AHMEDABAD: Turning to science in a long-term conservation plan for the endangered Asiatic lions, an exclusive gene pool of the species will be set up with blood and DNA samples to maintain their genetic diversity. The measure taken up by the Gujarat government is aimed at protecting the diverse gene pool of the last surviving Asiatic lions - just 359 as per the last census in 2005 - which face threat from poaching and deadly diseases, affecting their population in the lone habitat of the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary. — PTI