New Delhi, March 19
This isn’t the first time that Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal has invited criticism from own party colleagues. But unlike in the past when he would go about retracting from controversial statements, he seems pretty confident of himself this time round.

So for the first time in a year, Sibal today appeared unfazed by rumblings within the Congress over his Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill 2010, which is set to go to Parliament amid objections by Left parties, BJP and now even the Congress.

The Minister, however, said he owed no explanation to the Congress for the Bill, as it was one of the promises President Pratibha Patil made in her address to Parliament on February 22. “The Bill is part of the presidential address and a commitment by the Congress to the nation… The Bill was unanimously passed by a cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister this Monday. There was not even one dissent,” he told The Tribune when asked would he take his Congress colleagues into confidence before bringing the Bill to Parliament post-April 12. Still, said Sibal, he was ready to discuss the Bill with political parties which had objections to it. On the Left’s continued criticism of the law, HRD Minister said he would try to convince them that the legislation was in national interest.

“We will talk to all political parties,” he said, insisting that the red brigade had no serious reservations to the law except that they wanted the foreign entrants regulated and the best institutions to come. “The current law ensures all this.”

Notably, the Left had hampered introduction of the Bill in Parliament during UPA-I regime on the grounds that it was “pro-elitist”.

Meanwhile, BJP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha today again reiterated that the law was “retrograde” and would not serve India’s interest. He said only profit-seeking institutes would come.

New Delhi, March 19
President Pratibha Patil today conferred the 56th National Film Awards to winners at the high-security Vigyan Bhavan here.

Priyanka Chopra received the Rajat Kamal Medal for Best Actress for her role as an aspiring model in ‘Fashion’ with her co-star Kangana Ranaut, also winning the award for Best Supporting Actress. Arjun Rampal received the award for Supporting Actor for his role as a struggling musician in ‘Rock On’. The Best Actor award went to Upendra Limaye for Marathi film ‘Jogva’ while Hariharan got Best Male Playback Singer award for same film.

Actor-director Jugal Hansraj won the Best Animation Film Award for his directorial debut ‘Roadside Romeo’. Shams Patel received the Best Child Actor award for ‘Thanks Maa’ while director Dibakar Banerjee was awarded for Best Popular Film providing wholesome entertainment, ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’).

Director Neeraj Pandey and UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala received the Swarna Kamal Medal and Rs 1.25 lakh for the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film — ‘A Wednesday’.

Others award winners are: director Anirudh Roy Choudhary (Best Feature Film —‘Antaheen’, Bengali); director Abhaya Simha (Best Children's Film — ‘Gubbachigalu’, Kannada); director Bala (Best Film — ‘Naan Kadauul’, Tamil); director Haobam Paban Kumar in Best Non-feature Film ‘AFSPA 1958’; Umesh Kulkarni, Best Direction for ‘Three of Us’; Ganesh Anantharaman for Best Book on Cinema ‘Bollywood Melodies’ (English) and Altaf Mazid and RK Bidur Singh received the Best Film Critic awards.

New Delhi, March 19
Dismissing as mere speculation media reports that the Americans have asked India to scale down its presence in Afghanistan, India has asserted that there was no dilution in its commitment to assisting the war-ravaged nation despite the spate of attacks on Indian nationals there.

“Contrary to speculation, the US has not asked us to scale down our presence in Afghanistan and we are working closely on Af-Pak issues,’’ informed sources said today.

The US has never asked New Delhi to reduce its presence and has appreciated the reconstruction programmes India has undertaken in the embattled country, they said a day after Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao held talks with US officials in Washington over a range of issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

New Delhi, March 19
The Centre today gave a go-ahead to the creation of National Population Register (NPR), a unique mechanism to record biometric particulars of the entire populace. The work on the project will start in April this year and is expected to complete by September.

“The project would cover an estimated population of 1.2 billion and the total cost of the scheme is Rs 3,539.24 crore,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She said the creation of a digital database with identity details of all individuals along with their photographs and finger biometrics “will result in the creation of a biometrics based identity system in the country”.

“Once finalised, the NPR database will be sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for biometric de-duplication and assigning of a unique identification number. This UID number will be added to the NPR database,” Soni said.

It will be one of the biggest exercises in the world to count, identify and issue ID-cards to people of a country which has the second largest population the world. The Home Ministry initiative aims at bringing homogeneity between the NPR and UID numbers to be allotted by the Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani-led UID authority.

Such a database will enhance the efficacy of providing services to the residents under government schemes and programmes, improve the security scenario and check identity frauds in the country. Data for the NPR will be collected along with the housing census starting in April and will be completed by September. UID numbers would be allotted on the basis of the data gathered in NPR.

New Delhi, March 19
The UPA government today set the ball rolling to make acceptance of donations by higher educational institutes a cognisable offence.

Anyone found asking students for capitation fee could now face a penalty up to Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment up to three years. Even abetment of donation would be a cognisable offence under the landmark new law -- The Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutes, Medical Educational Institutes and Universities Bill, 2010 -- which the Union Cabinet cleared today. Once this draft bill is cleared, which reconvenes on April 12, donations will become punishable under the law.

The other two significant legislations approved by the Cabinet today were the Education Tribunal Bill, 2010, which provides for the resolution of educational disputes outside of courts through the National Educational Tribunal and State Tribunals; and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) Bill, 2010, under which the accreditation of all educational institutes, including the existing central and state universities, would become mandatory.

All these laws, along with the foreign education Bill cleared this Monday, form the backbone of the higher education reform agenda announced last year by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. “Under the Education Tribunal Bill, we will have a national tribunal and state tribunals to address disputes between institutes, between a college and the affiliating university.

New Delhi, March 19
BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s promise of change has fallen apart. So has his commitment of giving the party a “moderate and inclusive look.”

Two days after the saffron outfit chief announced his new team, notes of discordance are pouring in, particularly from the Bihar unit. Assembly elections are due in the state this October, but party cadres are feeling low. Reason: general-secretary-ship hopefuls from the eastern states have been neglected and the state unit feels the high command has let them down on the eve of a crucial political test.

The dejection was out in the open today, with senior leaders from the state- former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, CP Thakur and Shatrughan Sinha making their unhappiness felt. Also, three-time MP and BJP’s Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussain, today absented himself from the meeting of newly-appointed party spokespersons, called by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

Barring him and Prakash Javadekar (he had intimated his absence), all new spokespersons were present, including former JNUite Nirmala Sitharaman, Tarun Vijay, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Ramnath Kovind.

The meeting was meant to initiate the office bearers into the BJP line of things, with most of the time being devoted to party’s demand of extradition of David Coleman Headley, pleading guilty in the US in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case. It was attended by senior BJP leaders Ram Lal, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar.

Jaipur, March 19
Ruckus prevailed in the Rajasthan Assembly for the second straight day today. Marshals jostled with Opposition MLAs while trying to evict suspended BJP Whip Rajendra Singh Rathore.

While former Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria and BJP MLA Vasudev Devnani fainted, legislators Bahadur Singh Koli and Shankar Singh sustained minor injuries in the ensuing scuffle.

As House proceedings began at 11 am, Speaker Deependra Singh Shekhawat asked Rathore to leave. The latter was present in the Assembly premises along with his party legislators, who have been staging an indefinite dharna against his one-year suspension since yesterday.

However, when Rathore didn’t heed to his order, the Speaker asked Deputy Leader of BJP legislature party Ghanshyam Tiwari to send him out. In the meantime, BJP MLAs supported by JD(U) and CPM members started raising anti-government slogans. The Speaker then called in the marshals to evict Rathore but they had a tough time dealing with the MLAs, who had thrown a cordon around him.

What followed was utter chaos on the floor of the House -- senior BJP leader Kataria complained of chest pain and had to be hospitalised while Koli and Shankar Singh got hurt.