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Wanted:
Governors Solving
Telangana |
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Chew for
cheer
‘None
of the Above’ voting
2010 for
Delhiites
Mobility
and green technology will rule the new decade No need to dig deep
for the top story Health
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Solving Telangana
Union
Home Minister Chidambaram’s invitation to eight recognized parties in Andhra Pradesh to meet him on January 5 for ‘wide-ranging’ discussions to resolve the ongoing imbroglio for a separate state is a step in the right direction. Coming after his assurance on wider consultations on the issue in a statement on December 23, the invitation is aimed at evolving a consensus. The political parties cannot shy away from their responsibility to restore order and calm in the state ravaged by unrest over the vexed issue. Significantly, the Centre’s in-principle nod to statehood for Telangana had come after a consensus had emerged at an all-party meeting on December 7. However, when the Telangana region on the one hand and coastal Andhra and Rayalseema on the other began polarising along regional lines, all parties, including the Congress, found themselves split down the middle on the issue. Parties like the TDP and the Praja Rajyam Party, which had earlier pledged open support to the cause of the Telangana state and had aligned with the avowedly pro-Telangana TRS in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, did a complete volte face, after they found the non-Telangana regions opposing the bifurcation of the state. It does not behove parties to shift their position on key issues as per their political convenience. It is vital that they behave responsibly, first by attending the January 5 meeting and then by working with due sincerity to defuse the situation. Indulging in doublespeak or dragging their feet in the restoration of peace would eventually expose them before the people at large. The state has indeed suffered enormous damage in the three weeks since the Centre’s nod on Telangana. Industrial production has been crippled, investor sentiment jolted, tourism has been severely affected, work in offices has been paralysed and education in schools and colleges has been hit. It is, therefore, imperative that the January 5 meeting be not a wasted opportunity. A durable solution must be found in a spirit of give and take. For Mr Chidambaram too this is a challenge and an opportunity to prove his negotiating skills.
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Chew for cheer
Anything
for that morning cup of tea! Say that again. The cup is likely to be replaced by a pill. That is if the Tocklai Experimental Station at Jorhat has its way. In a pioneering move, the oldest and the largest research station of its kind, synonymous with tea research, has developed a tiny tea tablet that can be chewed as well as stirred in a cup of water. Made from natural extracts, fresh from tea gardens of Assam, it will be just as invigorating as a regular cup of tea that brings cheer. The health benefits of a cup of tea have been driven home time and again and it has been rated as the best beverage, even better than water. Researches have proved its role in cancer prevention, improved cardiovascular health and in arresting tooth decay. Green tea benefits are manifold, some anti-oxidental. It not only cuts off risks of dying from heart diseases and strokes but also deaths from many other ailments. Green tea improves metabolism and fights fat too. Now, Indian scientists have given the much-loved health drink a new avatar. Perhaps it will give a fillip to the Indian tea industry too, which has seen a decline in exports recently. The health industry can enter into a joint venture with the tea industry. Tea can be bought like candy, chocolates and chewing gum all from the same counter. How the “chaiwala” at the street corner will take remains to be seen. But the history of tea in India, whose consumption finds mention even in ancient texts, may or may not be rewritten with the new tea pill , or whatever the brand name it may come to acquire. But for those who decide to beat the chill with the pill, the fine art of tea making may well be history. Will the world’s largest tea drinking nation no longer wake up to that morning cup of tea? Time to mull over a cup of tea… nay a pill in your mouth. Out with teatime.…. reserve your sympathy for those exquisite tea pots. At 80 paise per tablet — commercial production will bring down the cost even further — it is time to pop the pill and chew your thoughts.
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Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. — Billy Wilder
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‘None of the Above’ voting
The
recent legislation by the Gujarat government to make voting compulsory at the local election level has elicited mixed response. There is no doubt that there are weighty reasons against making voting compulsory, and the effective mechanism to supervise makes the task still more difficult. But it is somewhat surprising that almost no attention has been paid to the provision of negative voting or “None of the Above” right given to the voters by the same legislation — this right means that if a person does not approve of any candidate selected by the party cabal, he should not have to choose the least undesirable or sit at home sulking and cursing the law. In a vibrant democracy the voter should be able to hit effectively at all the political parties to show that all the candidates selected by them are undesirable. The principle of “None of the Above” is that whereas the government should secure the consent of the governed, at the same time legitimate consent requires the ability to withhold consent. It is also recognised that the provision of “None of the Above” in election law will enable and encourage voters to participate in greater number at election time, and thus indirectly assist in the same process as is sought to be effectuated by providing for compulsory voting. In fact, the Supreme Court in 1993 affirmed that “voting is formal expression of will or opinion by the person entitled to exercise the right on the subject or issue in question” and that the “Right to vote means right to exercise the right in favour of or against motion or resolution. Such a right implies the right to remain neutral as well.” Thus, it is incumbent on the Central government to provide an effective mechanism for negative voting. As a matter of fact, such a provision exists under the rules framed by the Central government since long, though hardly anyone, including the presiding officer, acts on it. Thus, under Rule 49(o) of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, a voter has to inform the presiding officer of his intention not to vote — the presiding officer makes an entry in the remark column in Form 17 and the voter has to sign the form which is also to be countersigned by the presiding officer. This right was hardly exercised because it was then ballot voting, and in this process the secrecy of voting could not be maintained; polling agents and other officers would know about it. The majority of voters do not wish openly to get into conflict with political parties, especially their goons, and, therefore, per force, they voted for what they thought was the least undesirable. But when we switched over to the present system of using the electronic voting machine (EVM), it became easier to provide a mechanism in a manner that the secrecy of voting was not violated by just providing one more slot in the voting machine as “None of the Above”. The Election Commission commendably has been writing to the Central government (which alone can amend the rule and provide for this method) since 2001. But, regrettably, there has been deafening silence from different political parties and governments. Now the provocative and undemocratic stand of the Central government is that even if the present rule violates secrecy, it does not matter because secrecy, though desirable, is not inviolate and hence there is no reason to amend the rules. This stand of the Central government flies in the face of the International Civil and Political Covenant Rights and which has been ratified by India — that the secrecy of voting at an election is part of the human rights guaranteed to each citizen in a country which calls itself democratic. Though the right to negative voting is provided in the election law, it cannot be effectuated unless the rules are amended by the Central government. Not doing so, in fact, goes against the mandate of the Parliament’s Act — a serious breach of constitutional obligation on the part of the executive — hardly a commendable action. It is not as if it is a radical untested suggestion. Negative voting is already prevalent in Ukraine and Russia, which have only recently adopted democratic elections. It has been in existence for a long time in many of the states in the US since the nineties. In some states of the US it is provided that “if None of the Above” receives the most notes, then no one is elected and a byelection with new candidates is to be held within 60 days. Imagine what pressure it will put on the parties to avoid nominating candidates with a criminal background which in our current elections reaches the minimum of 25 per cent and across all the political parties. Such a pressure on the political parties may compel them to democratise their method of selecting candidates as against the present one of cabal selecting their own progeny, nephews, nieces and underlings — even if the disgusted voter is annoyed he or she cannot prevent any such nominee to be elected. But if negative voting was there it would give a choice to the voters to loudly say “None of the Above”, resulting in a fresh ballot This would be a step in the right direction of further democratising the elections and give the “small man with a pencil (a phrase used by Winston Churchill and emphasised by Krishna Iyer J. in the time of ballot voting) — but now the little man with a small finger with the power to press the None of the Above” (NOTA) button on the election machine and make democracy more participatory. One hopes this competitive politics generated at the local-level election in Gujarat will provoke the Central government (which alone is the competent authority to amend the rules) to provide for Nota as requested by the Election Commission. But the Opposition cannot sit idle and blame the Central government. If the BJP wants to take credit for a negative voting provision in Gujarat, it should publicly announce its support for an amendment to the rules to provide for negative voting at the state and central levels which will inevitably put pressure on the Central government to do
so. The writer is a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
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2010 for Delhiites I
have
been gazing intently into my crystal ball in a bid to ensnare the ethereal psychic waves and find out just what 2010 has in store for the Delhiites. My findings: For the Aries folks, 2010 is likely to be a bumpy year. With Saturn adversely aspected in their third stellar mansion, they will find themselves coming a beautiful cropper in unexpected potholes on Barakhamba Road and breaking their precious necks. For the Taurans, everything points to a house move, courtesy the bulldozers of the demolition squad of the Delhi Development Authority and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. With Mercury transiting their birth sign, they can expect sewage-contaminated water to start trickling thru’ their taps at 2.30 in the morning instead of 3 o’clock. For the Gemini folks, the influence of Venus, the planet of love, will be pronounced and their love life will prosper. They can expect to convince the mobile court in Tees Hazari that they were courting and wooing and not eve teasing and get away with a light fine and a warning. For the Cancer folks, 2010 is likely to be a financially rewarding year with both Delhi Telephones and Delhi Vidyut Board apologising in writing for overbilling and sending refund
cheques. For the Leos, the Jupiter factor will be pronounced as also their speculative and gambling tendencies. They will wager that all curbs on the construction of high rise apartments and commercial complexes in the Green Belt zones would be abolished and win hands down. For those born under the Virgo sign, 2010 is likely to be a smelly year with garbage in front of their houses remaining uncleared for months on end and reaching mountainous proportions and becoming stellar tourist attractions. For the Librans, 2010 is likely to be, quite literally, the year of the Dog. With wild packs of stray dogs in their neighbourhood barking and whelping thru’ the night and driving them bonkers. A good year for investing in pharma companies manufacturing anti-rabies vaccine. The literary and poetic streak in those born under Scorpion sign, will come to the fore during 2010. They will pen epic prose and poetry protesting against the hike in property taxes and submitting them to
NDMC. Success in business is indicated for those born under the Sagittarious sign. They will get in on the basement floor of the most lucrative racket of ‘em all and set up as house brokers and palm off a one-room thatched roof tenement in Trans-Yamuna as a “posh, imperial residency” and pocket a fat commission. For the Capricorns. Mars will be in a malefic aspect and with an adverse conjunction of Neptune and Jupiter, they will find themselves standing in a km-long queue to buy kerosene and have the hawkers flying at them. 2010 will find the Aquarians in a relaxed and laid-back mood and doing things they enjoy most like gardening, that is pulling congress grass and other noxious weeds by the roots. For entertainment, they might join a video club that gets raided for piracy. Good prospects are indicated for the Pisceans. They will be able to get their children admitted to Hindi medium Corporation Nursery School in Trans Yamuna colony after paying a donation of just Rs 75,000. A Happy New
Year!
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Mobility and green technology will rule the new decade
Technology
in the second decade of this millennium will build on the foundation laid in the first 10 years for mobility, cloud computing and green technology that saw the birth of the iconic iPhone, third generation telephony, notebooks, netbooks and the iPod with a camera. Here's a peek into what's in store: Third Generation Telephony: Finally, India goes 3G. If the auction happens before February as planned, it ends a forgettable episode in Indian telecom, 11 years after 3G's birth. If you ignore the 3G services of state-run firms-both amazing failures-then 3G should be on our phones by end-2010. The iPhone, too, will rise with 3G. With under five percent global share, the iPhone accounts for half the world's mobile data traffic. Mobile Data Boom: Only five percent of India's 500 million mobiles are data-enabled smart-phones. That's changing. Of the 10-15 million phones selling each month, a tenth are smart-phones, supporting data and a memory card. Starting 2010, the decade will see an explosion of mobile data applications. The Netbook Will Rule: Four-fifth of personal computers in India are desktops, versus two-third globally. That's changing, too. Annual laptop sales are now nearly a third of total personal computer sales. Laptops and now netbooks have the edge in power-starved India. Now, with Rs.15,000-netbooks and power-packed laptops at Rs.30,000, there's little reason to buy desktop computers. While desktops will still log high sales, thanks to large business and government buyers, laptops and netbooks should match their numbers in 2011, saving, by the way, 100 MW of electricity. Up ahead in 2010: the smart-book, a smart-phone-netbook crossover, that will run a full day on a battery charge. Cloud Computing: Services delivered over the internet already serve the public at large with Webmail, photo sharing and web services. The cloud is evolving into a simple, pay-per-use way to get services on tap, just like electricity, for businesses. A billion mobile and desktop devices will tap into the cloud. The cloud is also the greenest way to go. Organisations don't need to set up server banks running lots of software. Just pay for what you use. The provider services many users from one set of equipment, halving energy and equipment cost per user. Green Building: Environment-friendly features are finally getting into office buildings. House-owners are using power-saving techniques, such as high-albedo reflective paint, which drops rooftop temperature 20 degrees, CFL lamps, and natural light. A ramp-up of solar heating, motion sensors, and LED lights will be seen in 2010. Newer housing projects will be built with green features such as double-glazed glass for natural light, VRF air-conditioning, water harvesting and recycling. The need for saving power will be driven by high cost of backup power, a necessary evil in power-starved India. Green Software: The biggest impact on green tech and energy efficiency will come not from electronics and hardware but from smarter software-software that controls electrical grid, uses sensors data to smartly control building lighting and cooling, improves efficiency of car engines, or runs power management for computer networks. It's software that will really rule 2010's clean
tech.. —Indo-Asian News Service
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No need to dig deep for the top story
It's
traditional for newspapers to make a list of the top news stories of the passing year, and I know what’s No. 1 on my list. The White House vegetable garden. I am not sure there has ever been a patch of dirt anywhere that has received as much attention, been so widely imitated and been the source of so much controversy as that 1,100-square-foot garden on the South Lawn of the White House. It even eclipsed the antics of Bo, the Obama children’s long-promised pet. Michelle Obama’s modest attempt to get some fresh vegetables in her family’s diet became an international sensation and hijacked the food conversation in
this country. The Queen of England, Maria Shriver and the mayor of Baltimore followed her example-as did municipalities all over the United States. When she went to Russia, no one wanted to talk to her about anything else, and when her husband hosted the G20 summit for world leaders, a jar of honey from the beehive in the White House garden was the gift for each of their spouses. The first lady was even moved to say, “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” It is true that just about anything a newly inaugurated presidential family does holds fascination for Americans-until we get bored with them. But I am not sure there is anything the Obamas could have done, short of hanging out the White House wash to dry in the sun, that would have had such a profound impact on our thinking about our stewardship of the Earth. The poor economy and the threat of lost jobs helped propel Americans toward a money-saving alternative to the produce aisle at the grocery store, as did renewed concerns about the safety of our food. But Mrs. Obama, planting the garden in her purple sweatsuit and harvesting it in her salmon colored Gap jeans, surrounded by children who were surprised to discover that they liked fresh vegetables, captured the imagination of the country and changed how many Americans think about food and healthy eating. Even her gown for the first state dinner did not garner the kind of attention that her garden gear did. (And by the way, herbs and greens from the garden were served at that dinner.) A farmers market was installed just outside the gates of the White House, with the first lady as its first customer. The vegetable garden was opened to tours for schoolchildren, and Mrs. Obama used the first harvest in June as a platform to help launch her husband’s health care reform initiative. Two reality shows, “The Biggest Loser” and “Iron Chef,” used the garden as a prop. Mrs. Obama appeared on “Sesame Street” to plant a vegetable garden. Replicas of the garden were installed in one of Europe’s biggest garden shows and at the Pennsylvania headquarters of Burpee, probably the nation’s top garden seed seller. A marzipan replica of it graces the holiday gingerbread White House, and assistant chef and head gardener Sam Kass, who starred in a White House video that tells the story of the garden, made People magazine’s list of the 100 most beautiful people. More than 1,000 pounds of vegetables were harvested from the garden, and it isn’t done yet. Kass did a YouTube video on how to build row covers to conserve the sun’s heat and grow winter crops. Not bad for an investment of about $175 in seeds and soil amendments. I’m surprised the photo for the White House Christmas card wasn’t taken in the vegetable garden (although it was taken outdoors on the lawn.) Not surprisingly, the vegetable garden had its share of political enemies. First there was the charge, after June’s first harvest, that the garden had been “faked.” Conspiracy theorists claimed that despite a lot of compost and a very rainy spring, the greens the schoolchildren harvested with the first lady had actually been purchased, fully grown, and planted in the garden in the dead of night, and that the media was complicit in fooling the
American public. Next were the stubborn reports that a previous administration had used a sludge fertilizer on the South Lawn that contained dangerously high levels of lead and had contaminated the vegetables. Not even a parade of scientists could squelch
that rumor. In this conspiracy theory, the first lady refused to let Malia and Sasha eat anything from the lead-filled garden. Instead, she shipped it off to soup kitchens where poor children would have their brain development and their futures stunted by the lead levels in the food. All of this, over a simple vegetable
garden? Now that’s a news story that should make anybody’s list. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Health IT IS 2020, and the American media is transfixed by the story of a 33-year-old baseball player who has become the first person in the world to The athlete was two when his father died from a heart attack, and now he was found to be suffering from advanced heart disease during routine screening tests introduced for sportsmen and women in 2015. The move followed a rising toll of deaths among top-class athletes who died on the sports field as a result of undiagnosed heart conditions. His inherited heart disease was so serious that a transplant was his only option. But instead of using a donor heart from an accident victim, specialists from the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM) in North Carolina inserted an artificial heart n a fully implantable device called the Abiocor which was first used in 2009 n as a stop-gap while they repaired his own. For six months, he lived with the artificial heart fitted alongside his existing heart, which was "rested". Scientists grew replacement heart tissue in the laboratory from stem cells taken from his bone marrow, and stitched it into the diseased left ventricle, after removing the dead and damaged tissue. The player's "remade" heart was restarted and the artificial heart removed. The advance marks a new frontier for medicine and a world first for the IRM, which has led stem cell science and transplant medicine for more than two decades. Its first breakthrough came in 2006, when it announced the successful transplant of new bladders grown from stem cells in the laboratory into
seven patients. The institute's latest success came as a bitter disappointment to British experts from the University of Bristol who, as part of an international team, were responsible for "Claudia's trachea", the world's first successful transplant of a windpipe, grown using stem cells taken from the patient, a 30-year-old mother of two children, from Barcelona in 2008. The British specialists predicted at the time that their advance would "transform the way we think about surgery" and that "in 20 years the commonest operations will be regenerative procedures to replace organs and tissues" with ones grown from stem cells. But their research foundered after 2011 due to a lack of funding during the squeeze on universities and cuts in NHS spending. The potential of stem cell science has given a boost to the growing number of patients suffering organ failure. But their hopes of life-saving surgery have been dashed by a shortage of funds. The introduction of presumed consent for organ donation in 2014 failed to produce the expected boost to transplants. Adults are presumed to consent to the use of their organs after death unless they have registered their objection beforehand on a national database, but there has been no increase in transplant
operations. — By arrangement with The Independent
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Corrections and clarifications n
In the headline “Headley link brings Manali in spotlight” (Page 17, December 31) the word “into” would have been appropriate in place
of “in”. n The report “The grand old party looking for a makeover” (Page 14, December 29) is a review of the Congress performance during 2009. It does not focus on a makeover. A more apt headline would have been “The grand old party showcases its history”. n
In the headline of the report on Al-Qaida’s failed attack on a US passenger plane (Page 14, December 29) the word “responsible” has been mis-spelt as “responsibile”. n
“The blurb in the report “China spied n Dalai Lama in Tawang” (Page 18, December 29) says “A unmanned aerial vehicle….”. It should have been “An unmanned aerial vehicle….”. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find
any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections”
on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com. H.K. Dua
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