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26/11 handlers were in touch with Headley, Rana
DRDO downplays UAV crash
3 LeT militants held in Kolkata
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Two UP
youth held for ‘aiding’ Pak spy Mid-air Scuffle
Jaipur Foot steps into controversy
Justice Thakur sworn in as SC judge
Jurists to honour Haryana CM
Andhra techie released
Navy chief to review coastal security
Advani faction may be isolated further in BJP
Ex-Speaker joins K’taka cabinet
India continues to be ‘highly corrupt’ nation
India can join IPI gas project, says Mottaki
IIMB ranked No. 1 business school in India
India hands over 7th dossier to Pak
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26/11 handlers were in touch with Headley, Rana
New Delhi, November 17 Sources today confirmed that a few hundred persons responded to advertisements issued by Headley promising immigration to the US and Canada. Investigators are also probing if the advertisements were also inserted in Urdu language newspapers that are popular in certain parts of Uttar Pradesh. All calls made by people in response to advertisements are being traced down. The calls received on numbers of Headley and his accomplice Tahhawur Hussain Rana are being verified thoroughly, said a senior official. It was still not clear if Headley and Rana were recruiting only pilots or other experts, a source said, adding there was a frightful possibility of the duo looking to hire someone as pilot to carry out attacks on the lines of 9/11. Since the US and Canada offer only highly skilled employment and not the unskilled jobs, the possibility of Headley and Rana coming in contact with an expert was very high. In the past, former Air Chief Marshall Fali Home Major (retd) had said the large number of unused airfields — some 100 of them — are scattered across the country and these could be used by terrorist groups to launch a private plane and target it at any place. Sometime in December last year, international intelligence agencies had warned that India could be the next target of airborne terror attacks. Sources in the government today said it had been found that handlers of the 26/11 attacks were also in touch with Headley and Rana. This means the people who were in touch with Ajmal Kasab and other nine gunmen were also in touch with Headley and Rana. Both are believed to have provided pictures and videos of the sites which were targeted. Investigations indicate they were part of a larger conspiracy behind the last year’s mayhem in Mumbai, a top government source said today. “Evidence is slowly getting established that Headley and Rana were part of the larger conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks. They were in touch with same people who were giving directions to Kasab and the others. India has asked the FBI for the voice sample of Headley and Rana so that it could be compared with the sample available here. Sources said filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul was not a terror suspect but efforts were on to ascertain if he had unwittingly helped Headley. During their stay in India, Headley and Rana had mostly used international credit cards for their financial dealings, besides receiving money from abroad. Officials in India have denied reports on television that an official of the Pakistan consulate in Mumbai had handed over a satellite telephone to Headley.
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DRDO downplays UAV crash
Bangalore, November 17 The DRDO attributed the mishap to “misjudgement of the altitude of the flight”. DRDO officials said due to wrong judgement of the altitude of the flight, the engine of the UAV was switched off by the ground command. This brought down the on-board thrust developed in the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) UAV and it crashed. It, however, remained unclear whether the error was a manual one or lied with the gadgets being used by the ground command to control the UAV. The ADE, part of the DRDO, is leading the Rs 1,000-crore Rustom programme. The UAV is expected to have capabilities that will match contemporary UAVs such as the Israeli Heron currently in use by the armed forces. The ADE is using the technology demonstrator as a stepping stone to prove the technologies that will go into the Rustom UAV. The technology demonstrator is smaller in size than the original but has the same configuration as that of a full-fledged Rustom UAV. It was to undertake around 10 flights to check out taxing, taking off and landing like a conventional airplane but devoid of a pilot. Being smaller than the full-fledged production standard, Rustom has endurance of only 12 to 15 hours, approximately half of what the Rustom is being designed for. “The taxing and take-off of the UAV was exactly as planned. There are a lot of gains from the flight. The flight proved the functioning of number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine, redundant data link, etc which go a long way towards development of complex UAVs”, the DRDO said in a statement. It added that it was the first flight of the UAV using a 700-kg airframe and sophisticated controls and hence “prone to development hazards”. Rustom is being developed by the DRDO for the Army, the Navy and the IAF. It is proposed to supplement the Israeli UAVs in service with the Indian armed forces. Rustom is proposed to see the enemy territory up to a distance of 250 km and carry a variety of cameras and radar for surveillance.
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3 LeT militants held in Kolkata
Kolkata, November 17 According to the city police, they, aged between 30 and 40 years, belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and al-Qaida groups and had been trained in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas. They were carrying some incriminating documents, a detailed map and plan of their future operations. Fake Indian currencies worth Rs 30 lakh were also seized. On interrogation, they confessed to the police that were on their way to Kashmir valley from Bangladesh en-route Kolkata. But during their weeklong stopover in the city, they wanted to get themselves acquainted with some locals. The Special Task Force had arrested these terrorists following a tip-off from a source in Dhaka. Task force chief Rajiv Dhubey said they had admitted that they were involved in several terrorist activities in different parts of the country. Today they were planning to go to Malda. Dubey, however, declined to disclose anything further. Soon after their arrests, these terrorists were taken to Lalbazar for interrogation and later locked up in the Lalbazar jail. They will be presented before the special magistrate court tomorrow. State secretary A. Sen said after the arrests of the terrorists, extra precautionary measures were taken in the vulnerable areas. The district police, particularly in the border areas, had been also alerted. PTI adds: They were allegedly involved in the attack on the STF office at Hyderabad and the Sramjivi Express in 2006. The three were members of the Pakistan-based Sahid Billal group, which provided support to the LeT and HuJI. Special Additional Commissioner of STF Rajib Kumar said Indian driving licences and voter ID cards were seized from them, which they had procured in Bangladesh.
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Two UP youth held for ‘aiding’ Pak spy Lucknow, November 17 Speaking to the media this evening, ADG Law and Order (II) Arvind Jain made it clear that the entire operation was conducted by the Delhi police that is probing the case after Ali, a Pakistani national from Mustafabad, was picked up by them from the IGI airport a few days back being in possession of some “sensitive defence documents”. Mohammad Arshad, alias Arshu, and Aman, alias Chand, both residents of different localities of Lucknow were reportedly working as touts in the passport office where they had helped Ali acquire a passport on the basis of fake documents reportedly at the cost of Rs 16,000. While no FIR has been lodged in the city, Jain said that the police would be probing how the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) clearance was faked and if any insider was involved in this. He did not rule out the possibility of many more such passports being acquired in a similar manner. According to Jain, the address mentioned in the passport did not exist. Similarly the copy of the ration card was fake, as the shop does not exist at that address. Even the principal of a local college, whose signature appears on his school-leaving certificate of July 3,1985, was not even living in Lucknow at that time.
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Mid-air Scuffle New Delhi, November 17 The NCW in its report, submitted to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, stated there was an altercation on board the flight during which the commander had physically pushed the air hostess Komal Singh as a result of “his strong concern about the safety of passengers”. According to the repot, Komal Singh and flight purser Amit Khanna entered the cockpit of the flight while arguing. “Subsequently, the two were asked to leave the cockpit. During the argument, the captain pushed Amit Khanna and Komal Singh both in order to send them out of the cockpit,” the report said. The commission said it was the push that resulted in Komal Singh getting hurt. The airhostess had filed a compliant of sexual harassment against the co-pilot following the October 3 incident. While establishing that the complainant was physically pushed by the co-pilot for his concern for the passengers, the committee headed by NCW member Wansuk Syiem, also observed that there was no reason for the co-pilot to behave like that. The right way to deal with the situation that arose on board was to wait for the flight to safely land and then a written complaint should have been made against “unprofessional behaviour”, the commission recommended.
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Jaipur Foot steps into controversy
Jaipur, November 17 The knee joint was incorporated in Jaipur Foot by Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayta Samiti (BMVSS) of Jaipur, promoters of the latest generation of artificial limbs, in collaboration with Stanford University, USA. The Time has listed the invention with heading - “The $20 knee” where it states, “The Jaipur Knee is made of self-lubricating, oil-filled nylon and is both flexible and stable, even on irregular terrain. The device is being tested in India; more than 300 persons have been fitted with this prosthetic so far. The Jaipur Knee comprises five pieces of plastic and four nuts and bolts. It requires no special tools and takes just a few hours to manufacture.” However, officials of LeTorneau University, Texas, have disputed the claim on various science portals, saying Jaipur Knee is exactly the same technology as the prosthetic knees created by LeTourneau undergraduate students five years ago. “We thought that was our knee. It looks exactly like our M-1 knee. It raised a question. It is not a new invention. It is not even a new design. So, in a way, we saw this as affirmation of what we had been doing for over five years at LeTourneau University,” said Dr Robert Hudson, vice-president of the varsity’s academic affairs. He said LeTourneau researchers were upset because The Time didn’t do good research. “They’re hurt because they have put a lot of effort, hundreds of hours in testing and research and development,” he averred. LeTorneau officials further claimed that their prosthetic knee cost $15 for patients and had reached four nations, with 20 clinics using the prosthetic. “Our prosthetic can be locally manufactured and meets international standards of testing, something Stanford’s prosthetic can not,” they said. On the other hand, Dr MK Mathur, a member of the R&D team of the BMVSS, said the LeTourneau prototype was totally different from Jaipur Knee and the university did not have any ground to make such a claim. “The four-bar polycentric mechanical joint design of Jaipur Knee model is unique and is not at all similar to other prosthetic limb models,” he added. What is Jaipur Knee?
While Jaipur Foot has gained the reputation of the world’s most cost-effective artificial limb over the years, the “above-knee” amputees remained a challenge for the BMVSS because of technically intricate proposition of restructuring the knee movements. In case of amputation below the knee, it is easier for the patient to use the knee to manoeuvre movements of the amputated leg, but those with above-knee amputations face serious problems. “To address these problems, we tied up with Standford University to invent Jaipur Knee which ensures free movement of the artificial leg (Jaipur Foot) without posing any threat of loss of balance, offering a near normal gait,” said SR Mehta, secretary general of the BMVSS. The varsity shared its patented technology with the makers of Jaipur Foot to produce one of the cheapest mechanical joint in the world.
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Justice Thakur sworn in as SC judge
The others, who took oath, were Justice AK Patnaik, Justice SS Nijjar and Justice KS Radhakrishnan, who were Chief Justices of Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta and Gujarat High Courts, respectively. Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan administered the oath of office to the new judges. With this, the strength of the apex court has gone up to 26, against the sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI. CJI Balakrishnan is scheduled to retire on May 12 next year and he is expected to be followed by Justice SH Kapadia, Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice HL Dattu, before Justice Thakur gets his chance.
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Jurists to honour Haryana CM
New Delhi, November 17 The conference will discuss various issues, including international terrorism, global efforts to combat threats, role of law enforcement agencies and drug trafficking. Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan will chair the inaugural session. Among special guests are Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanaswamy, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Singapore's Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong and Justice Awn S Al-Khasawneh from the International Court of Justice. President Patil will present National Law Day Awards-2009 to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Justice Arijit Pasayat, chairman, Competition Appellate Tribunal, and Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium and five others.
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Andhra techie released
Guwahati, November 17 The engineer from the Gayatri East Coast Insulator (ECI) of Andhra Pradesh was abducted at gunpoint on October 16 last, while he was supervising work at a site of the East-West Corridor project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) at Kokarjhar district. The police informed that suspected NDFB militants released Rao at Karigaon in Kokrajhar district. From there, he went to a camp of the Gayatri ECI Company at Kajalgaon in the neighbouring Chirang district. There he had some coffee and changed his clothes before the police took him to Guwahati for interrogation.The police as well as company officials are tight-lipped about any ransom paid to secure the release. Earlier, a source informed that the militants had demanded Rs 4 crore as ransom.
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Navy chief to review coastal security
New Delhi, November 17 As part of his three-day visit to the western naval command beginning tomorrow, Verma would sail on the flagship Viraat during a coastal security exercise that the western fleet of the Navy would carry out in the Arabian Sea to review the apparatus put in after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. “The Navy chief will witness fleet exercises, gun and missile firings by ships and aircraft operations onboard INS Viraat, which has rejoined the fleet after an extensive maintenance period, during the ship sortie off Mumbai,” Navy officials said here yesterday.
— TNS
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Advani faction may be isolated further in BJP
New Delhi, November 17 While BJP president Rajnath Singh has confirmed his intent to step down and announce incumbent Nitin Gadkari as the new chief much ahead of the deadline, sources hinted that there were plans to separate parliamentary party from the main organisation. The move, said sources, was aimed at isolating and confining Leader of Opposition LK Advani and his four camp members - Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar - to parliamentary affairs, who would then have no say in the running of the organisation. Also, the step would reduce the primacy of the parliamentary party in the organisation. But, the RSS also knows that the Advani camp commands a majority in the parliamentary party. The Rajnath (RSS) camp is strategising the move on the assumption that Advani would quit from the Leader of Opposition’s post immediately after the winter session of Parliament (beginning Thursday) and facilitate Sushma Swaraj’s appointment. Already, Advani loyalist Arun Jaitley is the Leader of Opposition’s in the Rajya Sabha. However, the Rajnath camp fears that Sushma and Jaitley, as the party’s head in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively, may continue to wield the same political clout that they had been exercising earlier. Sources recall how Rajnath Singh, reportedly brought in to “dispossess Advani and his camp followers of any powers in the organisation”, had “failed” to do so. “This mistake will not be repeated this time and to prevent any interference by them in the organisation, the parliamentary party will be totally separated from the main body,” a party insider said.
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Ex-Speaker joins K’taka cabinet
Bangalore, November 17 Shettar, who had emerged as the rallying point for the dissidents demanding the removal of Yeddyurappa before the BJP central leadership brought about a truce, was inducted as a cabinet rank minister, raising the size of the ministry to 33. Shettar was administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Glass House in Raj Bhavan by Governor HR Bhardwaj. He has been given the panchayat and rural development portfolio that was earlier held by Shobha Karandlaje. She had to resign from the post to placate the dissidents. By giving this portfolio to Shettar, Yeddyurappa avoided carrying out any fresh reshuffling of the departments assigned to the various ministers. Some officials, including VP Baligar, who was the Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary, were also earlier shifted to fulfill the conditions of the compromise formula.
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India continues to be ‘highly corrupt’ nation
New Delhi, November 17 With “Integrity Score” of 3.4, the CPI 2009 has ranked India 84th among the 180 countries surveyed, below other developing economies like Brazil (3.7) and China (3.6). “The CPI measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys,” says Chairman of the Transparency International India Admiral RH Tahiliani (retd). The 2009 edition analysed 180 countries, the same number as the 2008 CPI. Last year also, India scored 3.4, dropping from 3.5 in 2007. “We can, however, derive solace from the fact that with the exception of Bhutan, which scored 5.0, India is at the top among other South Asian countries.” Pakistan with a score of 2.4 is ranked 139th on the list followed by Bangladesh (2.4), Nepal (2.3), Maldives (2.5) and Sri Lanka (3.1). In fact, nearly half of the 180 countries have scored three or even lower points, a clear indication that corruption is perceived to be rampant worldwide. Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia have recorded the score of less than 1.5, while leaders of the pack are New Zealand (9.4), Denmark (9.3) and Singapore and Sweden (9.2). How world perceived India has a direct impact on the FDI, says Tahiliani, adding that “since India is perceived as a developing economy we manage to attract money, but we could get much more FDI if our rating increases”. A vast majority of the 180 countries included in the 2009 index scored below five on a scale of zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels corruption). “The Transparency International has found that a strong correlation between corruption and poverty continues to exist, jeopardising the global fight against poverty and threatening to derail UN Millennium Development Goals,” Tahiliani adds.
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India can join IPI gas project, says Mottaki
New Delhi, November 17 Iran has in place a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan on the gas pipeline and both the countries have begun work on the project, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here. "We have a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan and the door is open for our Indian friends. That (IPI) will be a reality...but I am not sure about the future," he said in an interaction at the Indian Council of World Affairs. Mottaki claimed that more than 100 km of the pipeline has already been laid on the Iranian side and the Pakistani side has also "started action" on its side of the border. "But when you consider this pipeline bilaterally, there is a definite capacity. If we make commitments with other partners, with other pipelines, to other regions, in such a case may be in the future the structure of the project may change. I do hope to have Indian participation as soon as possible," he said.
— PTI
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IIMB ranked No. 1 business school in India
Bangalore, November 17 In the Eduniversal Palmes 2009, IIMB has been awarded ‘5 Palmes’, the highest recognition under the evaluation, accorded to ‘Universal Business Schools with major international influence’. The award effectively positions IIMB amongst the 100 best business schools worldwide. Deans of 1,000 reputed business schools from 153 countries have voted for IIMB with a recommendation rate of 395 per thousand, followed by IIM Ahmedabad (345). The Eduniversal Palmes uses a comprehensive methodology that takes into account all aspects of a business schools’ influence on three different levels. The levels are international recognition through accreditations, memberships and international, regional and local rankings; international awareness through the votes of the 1,000 deans; and suggestions from the members of the International Scientific Committee appointed by
Eduniversal.
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New Delhi, November 17