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4 truckloads of jewellery, cash seized in Mumbai
Food ordinance on Cabinet agenda today
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2G: Realignments in JPC now look possible
Prevent spurious milk sale, SC tells states
Munde’s nephew quits BJP, joins NCP
Modi likely to unveil his new team on July 4
All eyes now on GSLV launch next month
Khurshid meets Chinese counterpart in Brunei
(From right) Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong at the 3rd East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, on Tuesday. — AP / PTI
Antony’s China vists begins tomorrow
RBI blames poor security for ATM card fraud
Cyber security policy aims to protect nation’s vital assets
Cong working towards forming govt in J’khand with JMM
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4 truckloads of jewellery, cash seized in Mumbai
Mumbai, July 2 The consignment included bundles of cash, mostly in denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500, gold and diamond jewellery packed in 150 bags. The consignment was intercepted near the Mumbai Central train terminus around 9.30 pm yesterday. "The consignment was being sent to Gujarat. We will know by Wednesday how much cash is there in the bags," Swatantra Kumar, Director General, Income Tax, told reporters. He refused to comment on estimates that put the haul between Rs 200 crore and Rs 2,500 crore. Police sources said the cash was most likely being sent to Gujarat by hawala operators with links to the gold and diamond trade in that state. The trucks carrying the consignment also had 47 couriers as escorts. All couriers, who were picked up from the trucks, are angadias, a native form of couriers in western India, favoured by gold and diamond industrialists. The police said 20 of these persons had no knowledge about the consignment and were allowed to go. However the rest were being questioned in order to ascertain identities of the senders and receivers of the consignment. More than 100 officers from the Income Tax Department and the NIA were involved in the operations. Shortly after the trucks were intercepted, security personnel were called in and the vehicles were driven to the headquarters of the Income Tax Department at Ballard Estate. Sources said several currency counting machines had been brought in to count the money. The gold and diamonds seized were also being valued, they added. Meanwhile, NIA officials have summoned owners of several angadia companies, traders and exporters of gold and diamonds for questioning. Officials said apart from the obvious hawala angle, they were also looking at possible terror links in the case.
BIG haul
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Food ordinance on Cabinet agenda today
New Delhi, July 2
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the UPA government is committed to bringing the food law as promised in the Congress manifesto for 2009 general election. “The Food Bill is a promise made by the UPA and the Congress party. It is one of the promises, we believe, on which the people voted the UPA back to the power. If that is the will of the people that we must have a Food Security Act in place, I think UPA will have an Act, a law in place," he said. Asked whether government is late in fulfilling the promise to bring food security law, Chidambaram said: “We are not late. Nobody said all promises will be implemented in first 100 days”. “The five-year tenure was to implement promises. We will implement the promise only when economic condition promise us to implement the promise. This is the promise which we had said we will implement. It will be implemented,” he added. On convening a special session to pass the Bill, he said: “That I don’t know. That is for Minister of Parliamentary Affairs to answer”. — PTI
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2G: Realignments in JPC now look possible
New Delhi, July 2 The panel is sharply divided over the issue with majority of its members rejecting the draft report circulated this April by Chairman PC Chacko and some members in the Opposition suggesting writing an alternative report, while the Chairman mentioned of invoking the casting vote provision in case the stalemate continued. However, developments over the past one month indicate that a gradual change may occur. As the first step, the ruling coalition will have to fill the vacancy created after Congress member EMS Natchiappan was made a minister. A second vacancy is due to arise towards the last week of this month, when DMK MP Tiruchi Siva retires after the end of his six-year term in the Rajya Sabha. While the Congress will find a replacement for Natchiappan, it remains to be seen whether the AIADMK will push its candidate for a seat on the JPC or the DMK is successful in holding on to it. Watching the DMK stance will be interesting after Kanimozhi won the Rajya Sabha elections last month. Equally, interesting will be to watch the approach of the Janata Dal (United) that has two members in the panel, including its president Sharad Yadav. Now that the JD(U) is no longer in the BJP-led NDA and is seen moving closer to the Congress, its attitude will be keenly watched in the political circles.
Number game
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Prevent spurious milk sale, SC tells states
New Delhi, July 2 “It is a serious matter. What action have you taken against the erring officials?” the Bench asked the counsel for Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and two other states. The Bench was hearing a PIL by Swami Achyutanand Tirath and others through their counsel Anurag Tomar. Pointing out that the Centre had told the court that 68 per cent of the milk tested was adulterated, the Bench wanted to know if the problem was due to the demand-supply gap. Haryana’s Additional Advocate General Manjit Singh Dalal said the state had finalised its affidavit detailing the steps it had taken to check the menace and would file the same in a day or two. The Bench said it would consider enlarging the scope of the PIL to cover all the states after hearing the response of the six states that had been made respondents in the petition. On October 22, 2012, the SC had directed the states to crack down on adulterators of milk ahead of the then festive season marked by Dussehra and Deepavali. The court’s order had come in the light of a country-wide survey conducted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA) in 33 states and Union Territories by testing as many as 1,791 random samples. The survey had shown that only one-third of the commodity sold in the market met safety and standards norms. More than 80 per cent of the samples collected from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had failed the FSSA test. Posting the final hearing in the case for July 31, the Bench directed the six states to file their response before that.
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Munde’s nephew quits BJP, joins NCP
Mumbai, July 2 "I am leaving the BJP because I was sidelined by the party and my services were not properly utilised by the state leadership," Dhananjay told reporters at the NCP office here. An active politician in Beed, the pocket borough of the Munde family, Dhananjay is expected to campaign actively against his uncle. It is expected that the NCP will field Dhananjay against Gopinath Munde in future elections. Last year, Dhananjay's father Pandit Munde, had joined the NCP following differences with Gopinath. For the past year, Dhananjay had been actively working for the NCP in the local elections. Sources say Dhananjay is seen as an asset by the NCP because he has managed to lure several party workers of the BJP into his new party over the past year. NCP officials say Dhananjay will surely be a candidate in the forthcoming elections. "The party will decide which elections Dhananjay will contest -- Lok Sabha or Assembly," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said.
the GROUSE Dhananjay Munde said he was leaving the BJP because he was sidelined by the party and his services were not properly utilised by the state leadership
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Modi likely to unveil his new team on July 4
New Delhi, July 2 Sources said Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Sudhanshu Trivedi, apart from all general secretaries of the party, are likely to be included in Modi's election campaign committee. By doing so, Modi's attempt will be to showcase that he wants to carry everyone along in his 2014 endeavour. Moreover, the step will give him powers equal to that of party president Rajnath Singh, as all general secretaries will then report to him directly.
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All eyes now on GSLV launch next month
Bangalore, July 2 Radhakrishnan is slated to retire on August 31. Unless he gets an extension, the launch of GSLV D5 with the 1980-kg communication satellite GSAT-14 on board will be the last launch of his over three-and-a-half year stint as the ISRO Chairman. The ambitious Mars mission is slated for coming October. Radhakrishnan will be out of the ISRO Chairman’s post by then. The Mars orbiter is slated to be carried aboard a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV). Radhakrishnan took over as the ISRO Chairman in November 2009 and the first launch during his stint was that of a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) that ended in a failure. On the Christmas day in 2010, the GSLV-F06 rocket, carrying the 2,300-kg GSAT-5P satellite with a pre-purchased Russian cryogenic upper stage, exploded mid-air. While the indigenous cryogenic engine had malfunctioned during the April 2010 launch, trouble during the next launch was attributed to the “inadvertent snapping of a group of 10 connectors located at the bottom portion of the Russian cryogenic stage”. Unlike its workhorse PSLV, the technology of which has been mastered by ISRO (the launch of the 1,425-kg IRNSS-1A by PSLV C22 last night was the 23rd successive successful flight of PSLV), ISRO has had a troubled past with GSLV. Only two of the seven GSLV launches so far have been a complete success. ISRO, however, claims that four launches had been successful. While Russia sold cryogenic engine to India, it refused to give India the knowhow. For the past two decades, ISRO scientists have been trying to develop an indigenous cryogenic upper stage. ISRO had initially projected that it would develop indigenous cryogenic engine by 1997. GSLV, powered by cryogenic upper stage, is essential for launching heavier satellites. Most of the communication satellites fall in this category. As of now, ISRO has been using foreign launchers for such satellites. The proposed Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to the moon, is also supposed to be launched on board a GSLV. The success of the GSLV next month is, therefore, is of crucial importance to ISRO and India.
The importance
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Khurshid meets Chinese counterpart in Brunei
New Delhi, July 2 Earlier in the day, Khurshid also held a meeting with Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs, and discussed the possibility of putting the dialogue process back on the track at an early date. They also considered if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York in September. In a brief interaction with the media after his talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Khurshid said Defence Minister AK Antony would be in Beijing on Thursday for taking bilateral defence cooperation to a higher level. Asked if India and China had made any progress at the 16th round of boundary talks held in Beijing last week, the Chinese minister said it was a very successful meeting and good progress was made. Khurshid shared the view expressed by Wang. The Chinese minister observed that India and China were natural strategic partners and they should engage in all-round cooperation in a wide range of areas. The two countries must shoulder the common responsibility to regional and global peace and stability, he added. At the meeting with Aziz, a former Finance Minister of Pakistan, Khurshid discussed with him the steps that could be taken by the two countries for restoring trust in bilateral ties and ensuring peace and security in the region. This was the first high-level contact between the two countries after Sharif assumed charge as Pakistan Prime Minister following his party’s handsome win in the elections. Khurshid and Aziz also discussed trade and economic relations between the two countries and Pakistan’s request for purchasing electricity and gas from India. They also agreed that that the India-Pakistan Joint Business Council, which had just concluded its session in Islamabad, was another important mechanism that would help in taking the economic relationship forward.
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Antony’s China vists begins tomorrow
New Delhi, July 2 Antony will be accompanied by Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, Southern Naval Commander Vice-Admiral Satish Soni and Defence Secretary RK Mathur. The delegation will land at Shanghai and travel to Beijing, Chengdu and Hong Kong before returning home. The visit will be reciprocated by his Chinese counterpart later. Chinese former Defence Minister Liang Guanglie and Antony had earlier held talks on cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, among other issues. — TNS
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RBI blames poor security for ATM card fraud
Mumbai, July 2 “The two-factor identification and other security measures in force in India are not in use in the countries where the cloned cards were used,” RBI executive director G Padmanabhan said here today. Under the two-factor identification system, which is mandatory for Indian websites, users will have to enter a password on the credit card issuer’s website apart from entering other information like name, date of birth and CVV number. However, the absence of such a requirement on international websites make cards vulnerable to fraudsters who skim data using specialised equipment.
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Cyber security policy aims to protect nation’s vital assets
New Delhi, July 2 Cyber incidents, including phishing and malicious URLs, virus and malicious code propagation and spams, have been on the rise and touched new levels in 2010 when the Internet and smart phone penetration in the country crossed new heights. "The policy is a framework document and it gives you a broad outline of what our vision is...the real task or the challenge is the operationalisation of this policy," said Minister of Communications and IT Kapil Sibal while releasing the policy here. Sibal said the critical infrastructure such as air defence system, power infrastructure, nuclear plants, telecommunications system have to be protected otherwise it may create economic instability. "Air defence system, power infrastructure, nuclear plants, telecommunications system will all have to be protected to ensure there is no disruption of the kind that will destabilise the economy...instability in cyber space means economic instability no nation can afford economic instability, therefore it is essential not just to have a policy but to operationalise it," Sibal said. The cyber policy was necessary in the wake of possible attacks from state and non-state actors, corporates and terrorists as the Internet world has no geographical barriers and was anonymous in nature. The Minister said there will be multiple places from where cyber war could take place, it will involve individuals, sections of society, businesses, terrorists, drug dealers and those who want to generate violence. He said it will not be able to point out to a particular country to say the source of the attack because it will difficult in the cyberspace to figure it out. "In the ultimate analysis, we have to develop global standards because there is no way that we can have a policy within the context of India which is not connected with the rest of the world because information knows no territorial boundaries," Sibal added. He said everything today is cross-border. "We have to corroborate to find what is that meeting ground which allows the citizens to be empowered and at the same time ensures that nation is safe". "We don't know who attacks our systems, so we have to ourselves secure our systems," Sibal added. In order to create a secure cyber ecosystem, the policy plans to set up a national nodal agency to coordinate all matters related to cyber security in the country with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. It plans to establish a mechanism for sharing information, identifying and responding to cyber security incidents and for cooperation in restoration efforts. — PTI
Defending cyber space
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Cong working towards forming govt in J’khand with JMM New Delhi, July 2 As part of the exercise, JMM chief Shibu Soren's son Hemant Soren tonight met senior Congress leader A K Antony and Ahmed Patel during which leaders of both the parties discussed the modalities for the alliance. Sources said the Congress leadership made it clear to Soren that its main focus is on the pre-poll seat-sharing arrangement for next Lok Sabha polls and it has no problem having a chief minister from JMM, provided the person has a clean image. The meeting also deliberated on how to garner the requisite number to form the government in Jharkhand where the spell of President's Rule expires on July 18. A senior Congress leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said an announcement on the alliance is likely this week. Soren will also be meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi soon. Under the understanding reached so far, Congress will accept JMM chief Shibu Soren's son Hemant as Chief Minister, while JMM will have to concede nine to ten seats to Congress in the next Lok Sabha polls, sources said. — PTI
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India and China are poised to take their defence cooperation to a higher level, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said today after a cordial meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the margins of
ASEAN-related meetings in Brunei.
Sources said the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013, is listed on the Cabinet’s agenda for tomorrow. On June 13, the Cabinet had deferred the proposal amid differences on the issue.
