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Congress corners BJP over CAG 2G report
New CBI chief
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India takes a step towards targeting multiple missiles
Map row: India hits back at China
MPs’ IT return info
in public interest? CIC to decide
Gujarat poll phase II notification issued
International directors share their experiences FB comments
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Congress corners BJP over CAG 2G report
New Delhi, November 23 Leading the charge against the BJP, which had mounted a high-decibel campaign against the UPA government on the 2G issue, an otherwise elusive Congress president Sonia Gandhi made a rare appearance before mediapersons at the Parliament House today to declare: “The BJP is exposed.” Asked whether the officer's statement had backfired on the Opposition, she replied: “It looks like it has.” Disowning the CAG report on 2G spectrum, Singh said he had deleted the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore from the draft report but it was subsequently restored in the final copy, adding that this was not his report as he was merely asked to sign on it. Joshi and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad were equally prompt in rubbishing the allegations, describing them as baseless. "Why did RP Singh not say anything for a year? He is a pawn in the hands of the government and the Congress. This is a conspiracy," Prasad said. This building tension between the Congress and the BJP could come in the way of finding a solution to the ongoing parliamentary logjam on the issue of FDI in retail. The BJP wants a debate on the issue under rules which entail a vote but the government insists executive decisions are not voted. The government may even use this issue to blunt the opposition attack on FDI and persuade the BJP to back down from its demand for a vote on the issue. Taking a cue from Sonia's aggressive stand, party leaders and ministers went into an overdrive to slam the BJP and demand that these charges be probed. "These are serious allegations and must be probed. These allegations will be discussed in Parliament," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kalam Nath. Other UPA ministers and Congress leaders also queued up in pressing for a probe. Asking Murli Manohar Joshi to clear the air, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said: "The issues raised by RP Singh are very germane. What is extremely important is that in May 2010 when the draft report was prepared, the loss was quantified at Rs 2,645 crore, but in November 2010 when the report was presented in Parliament, this loss jumped to Rs 1.76 lakh crore. How did this leap of faith take place?" Tewari told reporters. With the credibility of the UPA government taking a serious hit on the 2G spectrum issue, the Congress seized the opportunity presented by the CAG officer's revelations to turn the tables on its opponents. UPA sources said this issue was bound to snowball in the coming days with the Congress all set to demand a discussion on it. "All this time we were on the defensive... we did not have anything to counter the Opposition charges with. But now we have something to say," said a senior UPA minister.
CAG’s 2G spectrum report was audited without guidelines Influenced by BJP leader and Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi Deleted the loss figure of
Rs 1.76 lakh crore from draft report but it was restored in final copy
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New CBI chief
New Delhi, November 23 In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leaders of Opposition in the two Houses of Parliament Sushma Swaraj (Lok Sabha) and Arun Jaitley (Rajya Sabha) demanded that the appointment be kept in abeyance till such time that the recommendation of the Select Committee became a law of the land. “Hopefully, this can happen in the next few days.” The two BJP leaders pointed out that the recommendation had been made unanimously by the Select Committee. “This is a matter on record that hours before this recommendation was tabled on the floor of the Rajya Sabha, the government has chosen to appoint a new CBI Director for a period of two years. The manner in which the government has made this appointment persuades us to a conclusion that the government wanted to preempt the possibility of this recommendation at least in the present appointment,” they added. Sinha is a 1974-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre.
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India takes a step towards targeting multiple missiles
New Delhi, November 23 The new technology to physically destroy incoming enemy missiles at an altitude of 120 km will be demonstrated in the coming months, a senior functionary of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) told the Tribune this evening. The new system, developed in-house by the DRDO’s missile development team, has the ability to tackle several incoming targets simultaneously. “In today’s war scenario, some of the incoming missiles can be dummies and the ability to bring down all of them has to be in place,” the functionary explained. Both China and Pakistan have long-range missiles. Today’s test was carried out from the Wheeler Island in Odisha on the eastern coast of India. In today’s test, an incoming ‘enemy’ missile — a modified version of ‘Prithvi’ — was fired. Long and MFC radars detected the missile from take-off and tracked it. Once trajectory was estimated by computers, an interceptor missile was fired automatically. The supersonic missile intercepted the ‘enemy’ object and destroyed it.
About missile defence system
Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile is part of a multi-layer ballistic missile defence system Is a 7.5-metre-long single-stage solid rocket propelled guided missile Has own mobile launcher, tracking and homing capabilities, radars
Missile Shield on course
India on Friday successfully tested its indigenously developed ballistic missile shield off the coast of Odisha. A "hostile" ballistic missile — a modified surface-to-surface "Prithvi", mimicking an incoming enemy weapon — first lifted off from a mobile launcher at
Chandipur - on-Sea at 12.52 pm Within four minutes, the interceptor, Advanced Air Defence missile positioned at Wheeler Island, around 70 km from Chandipur, roared through its trajectory to destroy the incoming missile mid-air
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Map row: India hits back at China
New Delhi, November 23 The retaliation came after the Chinese Government started issuing new e-passports carrying pages with watermark Chinese maps including Arunachal and Aksai Chin as its parts. Taking note of this few weeks back, India through its embassy in Beijing is issuing visas to Chinese nationals with a map of India including these places as part of its territory. Earlier also, China had triggered a diplomatic row by issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir terming it as a "disputed territory" and denied visas to those hailing from Arunachal Pradesh. Peeved over this action, India lodged a strong protest with China which subsequently reverted to issuing normal visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir but without officially admitting that they were doing so. China’s claim to Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, which shares a 1,030-km unfenced border with it, is not new. In 1962, China and India fought a brief war over Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, but in 1993 and 1996, the two countries signed agreements to respect the Line of Actual Control to maintain peace and tranquility. Significantly, these developments occur even as a high-level team of Chinese diplomats, for the first time, visited Sikkim in connection with consular issues, which was seen as reconfirmation of Beijing's stance of accepting the state as part of India. The development comes even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Cambodia where the two leaders discussed ways to move forward on the vexed boundary issue. — PTI
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MPs’ IT return info
in public interest? CIC to decide
New Delhi, November 23 Central Information Commission (CIC) heard the matter admitting a crucial appeal case seeking the ITRs of Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Social Justice Minister Kumari Selja and MoS Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot, whose assets grew by 334 pc; 478 pc and 65 pc, respectively, between the 2004 and 2009 general elections. The CIC has reserved the order. Although the hearing pertains to disclosures by these three ministers, the original RTI application filed by appellants Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) sought the ITRs of 22 MPs, including Naveen Jindal, whose income saw 981 pc growth in assets between 2004 and 2009. IT authorities refused the information citing invasion of privacy clause (Section 8) of the RTI Act and saying the information did not involve public interest. Central public information officers sent notices to Selja and Ajit Singh for disclosure of the ITRs under Section 11 of the RTI Act which mandates third party consent. The ministers replied that the information was personal and its disclosure had no relationship to any public activity or interest and would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy. No notice was sent to Sachin Pilot. At the CIC hearing, representatives of circles where the ITR of Pilot, Selja and Ajit Singh are filed, argued, “Appellants did not prove larger public interest mandatory to provide the ITRs which consists of personal information regarding people’s assets and PAN numbers.” They cited a recent SC order where such information was denied. The ADR’s national coordinator Anil Bairwal and Ashok Aneja, former Chief Commissioner Income Tax contended that the appeal was in public interest and didn’t target a specific MP but the class as a whole. They said MPs/MLAs were in public domain by choice and transparency in their working was essential in public interest. “The Election Commission in February, 2011, added a new section in the affidavit for contesting candidates asking them for mandatory disclosure of last Annual Income Tax filed by them so also of their dependents and spouses”, the appellants said. The EC also asked candidates to disclose income reported in the last ITR filed. “Information we are seeking is thus in public domain,” the appellants argued.
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Gujarat poll phase II notification issued
Ahmedabad, November 23 “The notification for the second phase of polls has been issued today,” said Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar. The second phase election will be held for 95 seats spread across 12 districts comprising Kutch, Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Panchamahal, Dahod and Vadodara. In Ahmedabad district, out of 21 constituencies, 17 will go to poll in the second phase which will decide the fate of Chief Minister Narendra Modi contesting from Maninagar seat. Apart from Modi, voters will decide the fate of former Minister of State for Home and accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter cases, Amit Shah, who has demanded a ticket from Ahmedabad city. However, it is not yet clear whether the party would give him the ticket. With the notification having been issued, candidates will start filing nomination papers. The last date of filing of nominations is November 30 for the second phase, which will also witness other high profile contestants like state ministers Anandi Patel, Nitin Patel, Saurabh Patel and Congress leaders, including former Deputy CM Narhari Amin, testing their luck. The Congress has already announced 30 candidates for the second phase which includes 15 sitting MLAs. — PTI
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International directors share their experiences
Panaji, November 23
Born out of a story he read in Burma, he, however, believes that real story telling can become demagogic. So he prefers the device of magic realism. In his county, he feels that because of its democratic structure, there is a tendency to create please-all cinema while films need to present a vision. But since the entire country has been what he called “Ikeaised’ and become drearily
monontonous, there is little room for exciting ideas.
Not surprising his next film is based in many countries, including India. Interestingly, in India he went down to Chandigarh and surrounding areas to look for the ideal location to shoot long winding traffic jam of trucks which will be an integral part of his next film. India, he gushed, as against his own nation of “killing conformity”, offers a far richer cultural diversity.
Even otherwise, the makers felt that there was no way one could compare Indian cinema with that of their own countries. Israeli director Evgeny Ruman remarked that in a country of seven million, one couldn’t expect films to be made on the same scale as in India.
India guest country at 2013 Cannes India is going to be the toast of Cannes Film Festival next year as it will be the guest country in 2013. The same was announced by Christian Jeune, Director of the Film Department and Deputy General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival. India will be the third guest country after Egypt in 2011 and Brazil in 2012. He made this important announcement at Film Bazaar an initiative that National Film Development Corporation kickstarted in 2007. He felt it was the right time for there was big interest in Indian films.
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RP Singh’s claim
Equipped with navigation system, hi-tech computer and electro-mechanical activator