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Don’t expect much from Copenhagen: Jairam
Cane production bitter for farmers
Rahul meets PM
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Air Force Vice-Chief hits out at politicians
NASA ties up with ISRO for Oceansat data
RS adjourned on opening day
TDP for probe into mining row
No link with Headley: Hashmi
Train derails as Maoists blow up
track
No move to change judges’ appointment system, says Moily
AI employees hold protest
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Don’t expect much from Copenhagen: Jairam
New Delhi, November 19 Reiterating that India was not going to accept any legally binding cuts on its greenhouse gas emissions, Ramesh said: “Don't expect anything much from Copenhagen. We will stick to our stand. It seems there is a long haul before we arrive at an international commitment,” he said at the release of the UNFPA State of World Population Report 2009. In any case, it so appears that no one is expecting much, let alone some consensus on combating global warming and climate change from the December 7-18 summit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Rich countries responsible for the damage have neither promised significant emission cuts nor money to help developing countries fight climate change effects. Instead what they are demanding is that all countries, including developing countries, make political statements to undertake GHG cuts. In other words, the Kyoto Protocol should be discarded, which is not acceptable to developing nations. As a pressure tactic, the developed world is putting the blame of higher emissions on countries like India and China primarily because of their large populations. However, Ramesh categorically rejected the West’s point of view that India was a big polluter because of its population, saying that it was not the population but life style which was the root cause of high emissions. Citing measures for the developed countries to cut emissions, he said, “It has been seen that the developed countries have the maximum amount of emissions. They can cut down on emissions, if they stop eating beef.” But since India is among those countries that were going to suffer most from effects of climate change, Ramesh said India must take aggressive and proactive domestic measures to cut its GHGs irrespective of what happened at the international forum. India faces vulnerability due to climate change on several fronts, including sea-level rise, melting of Himalayan snow, threat to bio-diversity and disruption in monsoons and, the minister said, it would be in India’s own interest to adopt a low carbon trajectory. He said the government would follow a “twin track” approach of not binding itself to any global agreement but at the same time putting in place “ruthless” measures to cut emissions on the domestic front. “We need to be proactive, aggressive and ruthless in our domestic obligations”.
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Cane production bitter for farmers
Lucknow, November 19 Against this, around 40 lakh sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh, the second biggest producer of sugar in the country, is being offered state’s advised price (SAP) of between Rs 165 to 170. On the other hand, the fair and remunerative price (FRP) fixed by the Central Government is just Rs 129.84 per quintal for crushing season 2009-10 on the basis of 9.5 per cent recovery, which comes to barely Rs 123 per quintal on the basis of 9 per cent recovery taken in earlier crushing seasons. On an average, a farmer having four acres of land produces 1,000 quintals of sugarcane. The cost of agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides etc) is around Rs 1.55 lakh. The return from the crop (at Rs 170 per quintal) is around Rs 1.7 lakh, bringing in a profit of Rs 15,000 to a farmer for his entire sugarcane crop. Due to this skewed economics of sugarcane production, weighed heavily against farmers, they have taken to the streets demanding sustainable returns. “Out of frustration, hundreds of farmers in the districts of Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahar and Bijnore set on fire their standing sugarcane crops. They had to clear their fields to prepare these for sowing rabi crops,” said Yudhvir Singh from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). It is due to the strength of farmer organisations that no large-scale suicides are being committed despite things being extremely grim for farmers. “Till now, only one farmer has committed suicide when he jumped in front of a running train in Muzaffarnagar on November 9 when sugarcane farmers from the state had called for a day-long bandh in protest against low SAP and import of raw sugar,” he said. Producing sugarcane has become non-lucrative over the past few years and this has forced many Uttar Pradesh farmers to switch to paddy or wheat, which bring better returns. “This year, sugarcane cultivation in the state has fallen by 17 per cent to 1.8 million hectares from a year ago. It may be worse next years if no systematic solution to the problem is worked out,” he added.
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Sugarcane Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 19 In a statement issued by Congress leader Digvijay Singh, the Congress has gone to a great length to explain how Rahul met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning to voice farmers’ concern, who in turn, assured the Congress general secretary that the problem would be resolved and farmers’ interests upheld. “Today morning Rahul met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey the sentiments of the sugarcane growers in UP. The Prime Minister has assured him that the Government of India would look into the matter again and assured that if it is in the interest of farmers the ordinance would be suitably amended,” Digvijay Singh said. Assuring farmers that it would “ensure highest possible sugarcane price in the present context”, the Congress also tried to dismiss the controversy saying that protest by farmers was more for political purpose than anything else. Congress leaders believe that the new sugarcane pricing policy, which created a huge uproar in the Parliament and streets on Thursday, is in fact a battle for Uttar Pradesh and that the issue is just an excuse to target Rahul, who managed to make major inroads in the state during Assembly elections and is now trying to win back UP when it goes topolls in 2012. Fearing slipping of ground in UP with the BJP-led Opposition NDA, including JD(U), Shiv Sena and Akali Dal as also parties supporting the UPA like SP, BSP and RJD, and the Left and TDP all ganging up on the issue, Singh went further to explain how after the new ordinance was issued a delegation of sugarcane growers, led by him and PCC president, UP Congress, Rita Bahuguna, had met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to convey farmers’ sentiments.
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Air Force Vice-Chief hits out at politicians
New Delhi, November 19 In a way he blamed the entire political class of stalling defence projects just to hit out at political opponents. Making some of the most forthright comments, Barbora said: “Internal politics over the years is such that whatever defence requirements are cleared by the government, they are opposed by the opposition parties and the same happens when roles change and opposition sits in the government." ”All this impinges very badly on our defence requirements,” he told said at a seminar ‘Energising aviation sector in India’ organised by the CII. Barbora also painted a dismal picture about the country's defence exports saying: “We don't even match up with Pakistan.” On the present status of the country's capabilities in the aerospace sector, he said India was happy producing small parts of aircraft and exporting them to Airbus in Europe, but China has already started building whole aircraft for the same company. Air Marshall Barbora asked the private companies to learn reverse engineering processes the way China did to develop most of its defence technologies. “Forget about ethics. China has done all the reverse engineering. Has anyone ever had the courage to ask China why are you doing it? No one cares a hoot. If you can't do it yourself, you should know how to do reverse engineering.” Notably two days after he had created a major controversy with his comments over induction of women as fighter pilots, Barbora today issued an apology saying: “My remarks concerning induction of women fighter pilots into the IAF have come in for a lot of discussion in the media. I would like to clarify that my remarks concerning ‘off-spring’ and ‘imposing some conditions’ were my own personal opinion and not that of the IAF or the Defence Ministry.”
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NASA ties up with ISRO for Oceansat data
Bangalore, November 19 Launched from the Sriharikota spaceport near Chennai on September 23 with the help of polar satellite launch vehicle
(PSLV), Oceansat-2 is designed to provide service continuity for operational users of the Ocean Colour Monitor
(OCM) instrument on Oceansat-1. On the OCM aboard Oceansat-1, R L Bernstein and K
Prasad, participants in the 12th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography (held in California in 2003), said the quality of the Indian sensor was superior to the one available with a contemporary American satellite. The US agencies, it seems, finally woke up to the usefulness of the Indian satellite and signed a LoI at the sidelines of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) underway in Washington. At the signing ceremony, NASA was represented by Michael H
Freilich, director, earth science division, and the NOAA represented by Mary E
Kicza, assistant administrator for satellite and information science, and ISRO was represented by R R
Navalgund, director, space application centre. Indian embassy officials, including Ambassador Arun K Singh, were present when the LoI was signed. The initiative, the ISRO officials here said, was under the overall joint civil space cooperation agreement signed earlier by India and the USA. The LoI will provide opportunity to the US agencies to receive Oceansat-2 data for research, education and activities of public good. The joint activities will include calibration, validation, algorithm development, scientific investigations and operational applications. While ocean colour data is envisaged to be useful for fisheries, monitoring of harmful algae and in studying global carbon cycles, wind vectors from scatterometer will be useful in facilitating better weather forecasting.
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RS adjourned on opening day
New Delhi, November 19 Soon after the House assembled for the winter session, Chairman Hamid Ansari led the House in paying tributes to Pyarelal Khandelwal (BJP) and Mahendra Sahni (JD-U), both sitting MPs who died recently. Tributes were also paid to former member and former Union Minister P Upendra and YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, who died in a helicopter crash in September this year. Sitting member Khandelwal died on October 6 at the age of 80. Born in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh in April 1929, Khandelwal participated in the freedom struggle and was associated with several social welfare organisations. In the obituary reference to Khandelwal, Ansari said the veteran BJP leader made special efforts for the uplift of tribesmen and farmers. The month-long winter session of Parliament will conclude on December 21.
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TDP for probe into mining row
Hyderabad, November 19 Alleging that the “mining mafia”, led by the “Bellary Brothers”, was more dangerous than terrorism, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said a comprehensive probe alone could “expose the mafia with political, economic and muscle power” and its nexus with the family of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Alleging that the Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC), owned by Reddy, was indulging in illegal mining in Anantapur district, the opposition leader wanted the UPA government to order a multi-disciplinary inquiry on the lines of Satyam probe to get to the bottom of the scam.
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Mumbai, November 19 “These allegations are baseless and are causing harm to my image and day-to-day life. I am very upset by the irresponsible behavior of the media,” he said. In a statement issued through his lawyer Rohini Vakil, Emraan said he was “shocked” to see news channels put out reports without proper verification. “I was in touch with Rakesh Maria, Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, to clarify whether the NIA had given any such information to the media. However, Maria very clearly denied any such information had been passed on and that my name has never been linked in this case,” he added. Claiming the NIA had not contacted him so far, the actor threatened legal action against news channels or publications for dragging his name in the case. — PTI
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Train derails as Maoists blow up track Ranchi, November 19 The blast occurred at 9:15 pm shortly after a pilot engine passed. “The Maoists blew up a portion of the railway track which caused the derailment. Three bogies have been badly damaged,” Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said. “I am monitoring the situation and have asked senior railway officials to rush to the spot,” she said. The three badly damaged bogies were believed to be carrying CRPF personnel. “The derailment followed a blast which damaged the rail track,” SP (Railway) Amil B Homkar said, adding the number of casualty or injury could not be ascertained. — PTI
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No move to change judges’ appointment system, says Moily
New Delhi, November 19 "There is no such proposal before the government at present," Moily said in a written reply in the Lok
Sabha. The issue has cropped up once again in the wake of allegations of corruption against some judges and a number of vacancies remaining unfilled for a long time due to procedural
delays. Moily himself recently acknowledged the need for a change. In a vision statement made at a conference of HC Chief Justices, SC Judges and other legal experts, the minister wanted a role of the government in the appointment of judges. The conference had adopted the statement primarily aimed at eliminating cases numbering at 30 million, besides reducing the disposal period from the present 15 years to 2-3 years.
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AI employees hold protest
New Delhi, November 19 The employees also demanded removal of MD of National Aviation Co of India Ltd (NACIL), Arvind Jadhav, whom they held “responsible” for the deterioration of the national carrier. Notably, NACIL owns Air India. Later, Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) president Shailendra Singh said if their demands were not met, they would strike work from November 24.”
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