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pslv-c18 launch India, Vietnam sign oil exploration pact |
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New land Bill unlikely in winter session M’rashtra fumes as Telangana agitation affects power supply
2G Scam
Court reserves order on Bhatt’s bail plea
JEE REFORM CASE
PM writes another letter to Jaya on Kudankulam N-plant
Tribune Impact India seeking Mirchi’s extradition
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pslv-c18 launch
Bangalore, October 12 The satellites are: Megha-Tropiques, an Indo-French satellite to study weather and climate in the tropical region of the world; SRMSat, built by students of SRM University, near Chennai; Jugnu, built by students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur; and Vesselsat from Luxembourg-based aerospace and defence company Luxspace. This was the seventh flight of the PSLV in “core alone” configuration (without any solid strap on motor). The launch, scheduled for 11 am, was delayed by a minute. This, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters at the spaceport at Sriharikota, was done as a precaution to avoid any collision with space debris floating in the orbit. At the end of more than 21 minutes of flight, the PSLV-C18 first put the 1,000-kg Megha-Tropiques satellite into an orbit at an altitude of 867 km. A few seconds later, SRMSat shot out, followed by VesselSat and Jugnu. Radhakrishnan called the launch “a grand success”. Megha-Tropiques has day-night and all-weather viewing capabilities. It will pass over India almost a dozen times every day, giving scientists constant inputs about the formation of clouds. The satellite will have a life-span of five years. Megha-Tropiques, with four scientific instruments, will help in predicting the monsoons, floods, cyclones and droughts. The French CNES and the Indian ISRO will share joint responsibility for the satellite and its science missions. Jugnu (3 kg) will check out an indigenously developed camera system for imaging the Earth in the near infrared region and test image processing algorithms, evaluate GPS receiver for its use in satellite navigation and will also test indigenously developed MEMS-based inertial measurement unit (IMU) in space. SRMSat (10 kg) will try to address the problem of global warming and pollution by monitoring carbon dioxide and water vapours in the atmosphere with the help of a spectrometer. VesselSat (30 kg), developed by Luxspace, has tools to guide ships in the high seas.
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India, Vietnam sign oil exploration pact
New Delhi, October 12 “India and Vietnam are maritime neighbours. We face common security challenges from terrorism, piracy and natural disasters. We believe that it is important to ensure the safety and security of the vital sea lanes of communication. We have agreed to continue and strengthen our exchanges in these fields,’’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared at a joint media interaction with visiting Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang after wide-ranging talks between the two leaders. Official sources said the two leaders discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties in diverse fields, including defence, and how their two countries could grapple with global challenges, including the growing Chinese assertiveness in the region. The most significant among the accords signed by the two countries is the one between the ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and the PetroVietnam for developing long-term cooperation in the oil sector. The pact covers new investments and strengthening presence from drilling-to-dispensing in Vietnam, India and other countries, the ONGC said in a statement. The accord came days after China raised objections over the oil and gas exploration by the OVL in the Vietnamese blocks in the South China Sea. Beijing claims full sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, but its claim is contested by other countries in the region. India and Vietnam also instituted a mechanism of a biennial dialogue on security issues between the Home Ministry and its Vietnamese counterpart. The extradition treaty signed today would provide a legal and institutional basis for the cooperation. The two countries would celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between them next year. “We have agreed to celebrate 2012 as the Year of Friendship between India and Vietnam. We will also organise the 'Year of India in Vietnam' in 2012,’’ Manmohan Singh said. The two countries decided to increase their bilateral trade from $2.7 billion to $7 billion by 2015 and agreed to boost the two-way investment. They also agreed to work towards an early finalisation of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Services and Investment. The visit of the Vietnamese President to India coincides with a trip by Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnamese ruling party chief, to Beijing. On Wednesday, China and Vietnam announced unveiled a slew of steps to reduce tensions in the South China Sea, agreed to hold discussions twice a year to resolve their differences and to set up a hot line between the two countries.
Friendly ties
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UP rail board denies permission to Advani’s rally; later relents
Chandauli (UP), October 12 “Railway Board has given permission to hold the rally at that place,” a senior Railway official said. District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Tripathi had earlier in the day refused permission for the rally in the absence of clearance from the Railways. The DM had stated that permission for holding the rally was conditional and since the Railways had denied it, the rally could not be held at that particular ground. The district police had deployed additional force at the ground as a precautionary measure as BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak insisted that the rally would be held at
the venue originally planned and that the party was ready to face consequences. MP Congress slams Advani over yatra funding Indore, October 12 The Congress in Madhya Pradesh today alleged that expenditure of the state leg of BJP leader L K Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra is being borne by a cement company owner. “What message Advani wants to give to public when his yatra in Madhya Pradesh is being funded by a cement company owner,” MP Congress spokesman KK Mishra said in a statement here. Mishra questioned the BJP’s commitment to fight graft when the party-led government in the state is “mired” in corruption. “Corruption cases against several BJP ministers, IAS, IPS and IFS officers are pending with the Lokayukta,” the Congress leader said and sought to know why Advani and his party were silent on this issue. — PTI
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New land Bill unlikely in winter session New Delhi, October 12 The newly constituted committee on rural development will hold its first meeting tomorrow. Sumitra Mahajan told The Tribune that the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, introduced in the monsoon session, is a complex and important legislation which requires in-depth study and wide-ranging consultations. “It cannot be pushed through in a rush,” she said. Mahajan said she had received innumerable requests from farmers’ groups, industry representatives and other individuals who wish to present their views before the committee. She said the committee had recently placed an advertisement in leading newspapers inviting public comments on the Bill and these responses are yet to come in. Mahajan said though Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had consulted the Chief Ministers before the finalisation of Bill, the panel has also decided to seek the views of the state government for greater clarity on this crucial issue since land is a state subject. “All this requires time ... we have to elicit everybody’s views and study the Bill before we finalise our recommendations,” Mahajan said, adding that the panel will not be able to finalise its report before the winter session of Parliament. Jairam Ramesh had tried to prepare the Bill in time for introduction in the monsoon session at Rahul Gandhi’s behest so that it could be passed in the winter session of Parliament before the Uttar Pradesh elections, which are slated for early next year. This would have enabled the Congress to showcase this legislation as the UPA government’s answer to the problems of farmers in Uttrar Pradesh who have been agitating over the Mayawati government’s land acquisition policy. Sumitra Mahajan, however, maintained that this or any other legislation should not be seen only through the prism of state elections.
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M’rashtra fumes as Telangana agitation affects power supply Mumbai, October 12 To tide over the situation, the Maharashtra Government announced staggered power outages amounting to 16 hours per day from today in different parts of the state to conserve electricity. Under this measure, power supply to industrial units in different parts of the state would be switched off on a different day of the week. The move has drawn flak from the Shiv Sena and the BJP. Already angry consumers have run riot in many parts of the state. The police said it had arrested people who attacked power supply stations of the MSEB in Vasai and Badlapur in Thane district earlier this week. "Mahagenco (the power generation wing of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board) has been receiving just 12 rakes instead of 24 rakes of coal," a spokesperson for the utility said. According to the utility, power shortage in the state is to the tune of 3,500-4,000 MW of power.
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2G Scam
New Delhi, October 12 The Bench was hearing the bail pleas of top company executives involved in the 2G Spectrum case. They were Sanjay Chandra (Unitech), Vinod Goenka (DB Realty/Swan Telecom), Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara (all the three from Anil Ambani’s ADAG). The Bench made the observation while Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal, appearing for the CBI, was explaining the alleged role of the executives in hatching a conspiracy with former Telecom Minister A Raja. The ASG said he was not in a position to say anything on the minister’s statement as he was not appearing for the government. He, however, said he cross checked with the CBI regarding another media report which said that the agency would not oppose the bail plea of DMK MP Kanimozhi, the daughter of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, in the 2G case. Rawal said the CBI had already filed an affidavit opposing Kanimozhi’s plea. The Bench was, however, not satisfied. It pointed out that the media was repeatedly carrying the news item, but the CBI, which had a public relations department, had not denied the report so far. The apex court was also not convinced by Rawal’s attempt to draw a distinction between the CBI and the government. “To say CBI is not part of the central government is a misnomer,” it remarked. The judges said if this was the stand of the government it should be clarified. “We will release the company executives in the 2G case if the government filed a memo to this effect,” the Bench remarked. Later, Khurshid said his remarks were not case specific, nor was it the stand of the government. “I just voiced my concerns” over political economy, he clarified.
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Court reserves order on Bhatt’s bail plea
Ahmedabad, October 12 Sessions Judge V K Vyas, after hearing the arguments of special public prosecutor S V Raju and Bhatt's advocate I H Syed, reserved the order on bail till October 17. Bhatt's advocate Syed contended that his client's arrest was politically motivated. He argued that the arrest was also aimed at getting hold of and destroying the alleged evidence he had, against the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with regard to the 2002 communal riots. Syed had further contended that the complaint, on which Bhatt was arrested, was false and filed with an ulterior motive, at the behest of some political functionaries and senior police officers. He had said that the complainant K D Pant, who had alleged that Bhatt had threatened him and forced him to sign false affidavits, appeared to be enacting a ploy at the dictates of political members of the state government. — PTI
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Supreme Court hails whistleblower IIT professor as an unsung hero
Rajeev Kumar has been under suspension from IIT-Kharagpur since May Aditi Tandon/TNS
New Delhi, October 12 Calling Prof Rajeev Kumar “an unsung hero who helped improve the JEE system”, the court said action taken by the appellants (among them Kumar’s son) in challenging JEE 2006, their attempts to bring in transparency through RTI applications and the debate generated, helped make merit-ranking processes of IITs more transparent and accurate. “IITs and the candidates who now participate in the examinations must, to a certain extent, thank the appellants for their effort in bringing about such transparency and accuracy in the ranking procedure,” a Division Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik said yesterday, clarifying that there was no ground for the court to interfere in policies laid down by institutes unless such policies violated the law. Ironically, Kumar is fighting a battle against IIT Kharagpur, which suspended him in May for “defaming the institute and lowering students’ morale”. The instant Special Leave Petition (which the SC dismissed) was filed by two students who, despite scoring highly in JEE 2006, didn’t figure in the merit. Attributing their non-selection to the defective process adopted by IITs to fix cut-offs, the petitioners first moved Calcutta High Court in 2007 seeking that the JEE 2006 merit list be quashed and a fresh one be published with new Chemistry cut-offs. HC rejected the prayer. In JEE 2006, the first appellant Sanchit Bansal had scored 75 marks in Maths, 104 in Physics and 52 in Chemistry, aggregating 231 against the cut-off aggregate of just 154 the IITs fixed that year. Subject cut-offs were 37 for Maths, 48 for Physics and 55 for Chemistry. Bansal missed the merit because he scored less than the cut-off in Chemistry; which the appellants challenged as “arbitrary”. Second appellant, Kumar’s son, alleged mala fide on the part of Chairman, Joint Admission Board, JEE 2006 and Chairman of the exam organizing committee, saying they harboured enmity towards Kumar and deliberately set arbitrary cut-offs to deny his son admission. The SC, while admitting that the IIT selection process required upgradation every year to keep the selection process and examination relevant, rejected the appellant’s claims of mala fide. “The claim that to deny admission to one student from among 2,87,000, they manipulated the process of fixing the cut-off is too far fetched,” the court held, dismissing the SLP. It cited several precedents to say that all aspects connected with the IIT admission process in question were technical and fell within the purview of experts and the courts had limited role. “There’s no ground for courts to interfere with the procedure, even if it was not accurate or efficient, in the absence of mala fide or arbitrariness or violation of law. It’s true that if in JEE 2006, a better process had been adopted or the process now in vogue had been adopted, results would have been different…. but on that ground, it is not possible to impute mala fide. Therefore, the appellant will have to be satisfied in being one of the many unsung heroes who helped in improving the system,” the Bench observed.
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PM writes another letter to Jaya on Kudankulam N-plant
New Delhi, October 12 “Of the 2,000 MW power to be generated by the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project Units 1 and 2, the allocation of power to Tamil Nadu is 925 MW. If the prospects of availability of this power are suddenly withdrawn, this would impact the state's development and industrialisation plans,’’ he said in the wake of continuing protests against the nuclear plant in the southern state. Assuring Jayalalithaa that the Centre attached the highest importance to ensure that the use of nuclear energy in the country meet the highest safety standards, Singh said the government would take all steps to allay fears about the safety of the plant.
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Tribune Impact New Delhi, October 12 Issuing notice to the Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand, calling for a factual report in two weeks, the commission has asked its Director General (Investigation) to send a team for an on-the-spot inquiry. The Tribune had highlighted in its columns how Raj Kumar and Faisal were awarded life sentence for murder 14 years ago. However, Raj Kumar managed to convince someone else — one Kiran Singh of Uttar Pradesh to go to jail in his place.
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Bangalore, October 12
New Delhi, October 12
