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EXPRESS INDIA September 3, 2013

A weekly News paper featuring News & Trends from the Indian Sub-continent published from the US Capital

Vol. 23 No. 36 WASHINGTON DC • Phone: 301-445-0200/301-445-3543/301-917-4800 • email:[email protected] • September 3, 2013

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EXPRESS INDIA

RAPE See Page 6

Delhi Gang-Rape Case:

Juvenile Sentenced To Three Years In Special Home

New Delhi, Aug. 31 (ANI): Delivering its first verdict in the gang-rape of a student on a moving bus in Delhi in December last year, a Juvenile Court on Saturday held the youngest accused guilty of all offences and sentenced him to three years at a reformatory home. The parents of the 23-year-old girl, who was as-saulted and raped by six men in a moving bus, expressed their displeasure with the ver-dict and said that they would challenge the ruling.

“This kind of justice is meaningless, unacceptable. If the accused gets only three years for rape and murder, he might as well be allowed to go free,” said the victim’s mother. The fatal attack on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern provoked national out-rage and impelled an overhaul of archaic laws to punish sex-ual crimes against women. Six men were arrest-ed for assaulting the student and her male friend with an iron rod.

One of them was 17 at the time of the attack. The charges against him include murder and rape. The girl’s family had asked for the death penalty for all six men accused of the barbaric attack and said the juvenile should be tried as an adult as a special case, given the sheer depravity of the crime. The Supreme Court had earlier on August 22, while admitting a plea seek-ing fresh interpretation of the term ‘juvenile’ in the statute on the basis of mental and intellectual maturity of minor offenders, gave permission to the Juvenile Justice Board to deliver its verdict against one

LAND See Page 3

Obama Approves Military Strike On Syria But Only After Congress OK

Big Current Account Deficit Hit Rupee, Growth In Second Half Of Fiscal: PM

Washington, Sept. 1 (ANI): President Barack Obama has said the United States should carry out a military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians, but also turned to Congress for approval. Obama said that the Assad regime’s menace of carrying out alleged chemical attacks must be confronted with. According to Fox News, however, the announce-ment also raised the question about whether the president put the burden on Congress to act. Obama was driven to make a decision after a chemical weapons attack al-legedly carried out by Assad regime on August 21, which killed thousands of civilians including a number of kids. The attack was just one of several allegedly car-ried out by the Assad regime after Obama said about 12 months ago that the regime

using a chemical weapon would cross a red line, the report said. According to the report, the decision also sets up a congressional debate that could drag on for weeks, with members of Congress divided about whether the U.S. should get involved in another Middle East conflict. Obama, with Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea ready to strike, said he would wait for Congress to make its scheduled September 9 return

from August recess. He said that a mili-tary strike is ‘not time sensi-tive’ and would be effective even one month from now. The White House sent Congress on Saturday afternoon a draft resolution on taking military action. Obama also indi-cated he will not wait for either approval from the U.N. Security Council or the conclusion of U.N. inspectors’ investigation into the Syria attack, the report added.

U.S. President Barack Obama joined by Vice President Joe Biden delivers a statement on Syria at the White House.

Lok Sabha Passes Land Acquisition Bill

New Delhi, Aug 30 (ANI): Asserting that the fall of the rupee is a matter of great concern, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday said that the Central Government is taking steps to reduce current account deficit and added that growth will improve in the second half of fiscal year. “There are concerns and justifiably so on how rupee fall will impact economy, the movement of the rupee recently is a matter of concern to the government,” Dr. Singh told the Lok Sabha while making a statement on the current economic situation. “What triggered the sharp deprecia-tion in Rupee value was due to certain external forces.We need to reduce our appetite for gold, economise the use of petroleum products and take steps to increase our exports,” he said. “The rupee is also getting hit due to high current account deficit. Huge cost of gold and oil imports is also current account deficit. The government is taking steps to reduce cur-rent account deficit,” he added. Dr. Singh further said: “To some extent, depreciation can be good for the as this will help to increase our export competitiveness and discourage imports.” Urging political parties to work to-wards and join in the Government’s efforts to put the economy back on the path of stabile growth, Dr. Singh said: “The easy reforms of the past have been done. For more difficult reforms, we need political consensus.” Facing an attack over the economic situation amid a sliding rupee, Dr. Singh told the Parliament on Thursday that he would make a statement on the state of the economy

on Friday. “It cannot be denied that the country is faced with a difficult economic situation. And there are several causes. I do not deny that there are some domestic factors but there are also international factors arising out of the changes in the US monetary stance,” Dr. Singh said. “There are also problems created by the new tensions that are on the horizon in Syria and they have inevitable consequences for oil prices. So we have to reckon with all those uncertainties. I will be very happy to make a statement tomorrow. I need some time to reflect on what I have to say, but I would be quite happy to make the statement tomorrow,” he added. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Thursday demanded a statement by the Prime Minister outlining the steps that the Congress-led UPA II Government is contemplating to tackle the present economic situation.

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI): The path-breaking Land Acquisition Bill, which seeks to provide just and fair compensation to farmers while ensuring that no land can be aquired forcibly, was passed by the Lok Sabha with overwhelming majority today. “The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilita-tion and Resettlement Bill, 2012” stipulates mandatory consent of at least 70 per cent for acquiring land for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and 80 per cent for acquiring land for private companies. The bill, which will replace over a century-old law, proposes compensation that is up to four times the market value in rural areas and two times the market value in urban areas. The bill was passed with 216 votes in favour and 19 against. Left parties, AIADMK and BJD members staged a walkout. Trinamool Con-gress voted against the bill while main Op-position BJP as also SP and BSP supported the legislation. 381 amendments were moved to the bill, of which 166 were official ones. Of the Opposition amendments, some were withdrawn and others defeated during voting. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister and Leader of the House Sushilkumar Shinde, apparently unwell, did

not participate in the voting as they left when amendments were being moved. The government accepted some op-position amendments, including two moved by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj. These included that instead of acquisition, land could be leased to developers so that its ownership remains with farmers and provide them regular annual income.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh speaks during debate on Land Bill in Lok Sabha in New Delhi

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” —Basho

September 3, 2013 EXPRESS INDIA

Indian Navy To Send Bodies of INS Sindhurakshak Sailors To Hometowns

Advani For Early LS Polls As Remedy To Economic Crisis

New Delhi, Aug 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Par-ty (BJP) veteran Lal Krishna Advani on Friday said the only way to end the present situation of uncertainty in the country and tackle the economic crisis effectively is to hold Lok Sabha elections in 2013. “If people are given a fresh opportunity to select a new government, it would be in the best interest of the country,” Advani told media here. “Country has never seen such a Government which is responsible for the present situation. I advised the President during meet-ing to allow early Lok Sabha poll to get rid the crisis,” he added. Advani, who led a

delegation to meet President Pranab Mukherjee follow-ing Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh’s statement in Parliament on the present economic scenario, held the Congress-led UPA II Gov-ernment responsible for the deteriorating condition of the Indian economy. “The nation has never seen such a government which is responsible for the present situation. I advised the President during meeting to allow early Lok Sabha poll to get rid the crisis,” he said. Advani further said that the BJP was hurt by the Prime Minister’s behaviour in the Rajya Sabha. “We are hurt by the Prime Minister’s attitude in Rajya Sabha and have also mentioned this to the Presi-

dent,” he added. The BJP also sub-mitted a memorandum to President Mukherjee in which it mentioned, “The country can ill afford at this moment of crisis a government which is paralysed, a Prime Minister who never speaks, a Finance Minister who wrongly blames his immediate predecessor - who cannot defend himself - a supreme leader who does not care about where money will come from and a bureaucracy that is frozen and unable to act.” “We advise you to end the current uncertainty by advising this government to seek a fresh mandate at the earliest and not later than state elections due in the next three months,” the memorandum added.

Mumbai, Aug.31 (ANI): The Indian Navy on Saturday said it had identified the bodies of six sailors who had died in the August 14 INS Sind-hurakshak submarine disaster through DNA match-ups. An Indian Navy release said the bodies would be flown to their respective hometowns from Mumbai on

Saturday for last rites with full military honours. So far, the bodies of eleven naval personnel have been recovered, and six of them have been identified. The six deceased were accorded a guard of honour at INS Ashwini in Colaba here to-day. A wreath-laying ceremony was also held.

On August 14, there was an explosion on the Rus-sian-made Kilo-class subma-rine. The diesel-electric submarine was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1997 at a cost of around Rs.400 crore and had gone through a Rs.450 crore extensive upgrade in Russia.

Union Cabinet Decides That DBT Scheme Will Be Rolled Out In 269 More Districts By Jan 2014 New Delhi, Aug.29 (ANI): Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said that the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for LPG consumers will be rolled out in over 269 more districts between September 2013 and January 1st next year. “The Cabinet Com-mittee on Economic Af-fairs (CCEA) has decided to extend the scheme in 34 districts in September, 44 in October, 46 in November, 40 in December and 105 in January next year. This will take the total number of districts to 269 as the scheme is already existing in 20 districts,” he told media here today. “It’s already suc-cessful in the 20 districts, and I think we can make it an equal success in the remain-ing 269 districts in which we plan to roll out before the end

of the current calendar year,’ he added. He also said that banks have been asked to focus on the opening of bank accounts of beneficiaries and linking them to AAD-HAAR. Chidambaram fur-ther said that around half of the country would be covered in terms of districts under the scheme. He also said the Cabinet Committee on Eco-nomic Affairs (CCEA) to-day gave its approval for continuing the scheme of Ground Water Management and Regulation to deal with problems of over exploitation and contamination. “The scheme with an expenditure of 3,319 crore rupees during the 12th Plan involves new components of aquifer mapping and participatory ground water

management,” he said. “It will be imple-mented in parts of 28 States and seven Union Terri-tories covering 8.89 lakh sq kilometer during the Plan. Capacity building of functionaries of Panchayati Raj Institutions, local com-munity, grass root workers, Kisan Vikas Kendras will be undertaken to train them in basic data collection and interpretation,” he added. Chidambaram fur-ther said that the CCEA also gave its nod to the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme during the 12th Plan period with a major focus on pow-erlooms. “The total budget outlay for continuation of the scheme will be about 11,900 crore rupees out of which 2,400 crore rupees have been allocated during the financial year 2013-14,” he said.


LAND From Page 1

Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s Indefinte Fast Completes A Week

Floods In Uttar Pradesh Displace Residents, Inundates Villages

Faizabad, Sep 1 (ANI): Floods due to incessant rainfall in Uttar Pradesh have displaced hundreds of people, submerging lands, houses and inundating villages. The floods have ren-dered it difficult for people to communicate and children had to face lots of difficulties in reaching their schools. More than 300 houses and farms, especially sugarcane farms, of a village named Man-jha Kala were washed away. “Our house and our sugarcane field have been sub-

merged in water. We have to reach our schools on boat. Some people have left their homes and gone,” said Sangeeta Yadav, a schoolgirl. The affected people lashed out at the government for not providing any aid and said that all their life savings were being used up to sustain a living. “We are facing prob-lems but we are trying to man-age. We are left with nothing, as all our farms are flooded. Now we are using up our savings,” said Ram Jhiavan, a villager.

Major rivers including Ganga, Yamuna, Sharda and Ghaghra flow through Uttar Pradesh. India exper iences monsoons from June to Sep-tember, vital for its agriculture. But the rains frequently affect millions of people, devastating crops and homes and sparking outbreaks of diseases such as diarrhoea and dysentery. Flood water can be detrimental to standing crops if it stagnates, otherwise heavy rains do not necessarily cause major damage to the planted crops.

Hyderabad, Aug.31 (ANI): The indefinite fast by Y S R Congress Party presi-dent Y S Jaganmohan Reddy completed a week on Saturday, even as he was shifted to an-other hospital in view of his deteriorating condition. The Kadapa Con-stituency MP was shifted to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) late on Friday night for better treatment. Reddy is fasting in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh without giving justice to all regions. He is currently under judicial custody in connection with a disproportionate assets

case. He was earlier be-ing treated at the Osmania General Hospital. According to media reports, eight doctors are monitoring Reddy in the emergency block of NIMS. The reports quoted NIMS doctors, as saying that his sugar and blood pressure levels have reduced consider-ably, while the ketone bodies in his urine are high. Doctors have warned that his condition may further deteriorate if he persists with his fast. Members of his family, including mother Y S Vijayamma, wife Bharati

and brother-in-law Anil Ku-mar have not been allowed to meet him up close due to the possibility of infection. Jagan Reddy is only drinking water since he began his fast in the Chanchalguda Central Jail last Sunday. His family and other party leaders have appealed to him to call off his hunger strike, but to no avail. His mother and wife have filed a memo before a CBI court, seeking permission for one of them to stay with Jagan in the hospital. The plea will be heard today. Reddy has been in jail since May 2012.

Godman Asaram Arrested In Sexual Assault Case

Indore, Sep 1 (ANI): Almost two weeks after being accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl, self-styled godman Asaram Bapu was arrested from his ashram at Indore by the Jodh-pur police late last night. According to tele-vision reports, he is being brought to Jodhpur and is expected to land in the city at around noon. Heavy police force has been deployed at the airport to avoid any untoward incident. Earlier on Saturday, Asaram Bapu’s son Narayan Sai had claimed his father was unwell and could not be interrogated. However, Jodhpur Police DCP Ajay Pal Lamba earlier said Asaram Bapu will be arrested if he did not cooperate with the police personnel. “Jodhpur police team is in Indore. We will go to the Ashram to interrogate Asaram very soon. If Asaram does not cooperate with us we will arrest him,” Lamba told media in Jodhpur. “He is fit for inter-rogation. We have not gone into the details of travelling because we have to inter-rogate him and he is fit for interrogation—that is what we have been communi-cated. So, we will start our interrogation within a few hours—by late evening, we will start the investigation,”

he added. Assuring that the Madhya Pradesh Police had done all their homework to ensure the smooth transit of Asaram Bapu if the need arises, Lamba said that a close vigil has been kept on the borders of Jodhpur to track any agitation from Asaram Bapu’s followers. “We have kept a vigil on the borders of Jodh-pur city to know whether any followers of Asaram Bapu is coming to Jodhpur or not. If anyone is coming, we are keeping a close watch and will take strict action. If any followers takes the law into their own hands, or tries to go above the law, we will take strict action,” he said. Lamba assured that his team in Jodhpur is fully prepared to tackle any situation that might occur from Bapu’s supporters and followers. “If he is brought to Jodhpur, we have enough manpower for whatever is needed to take care of the law and order. On the part of the police, we have four armed police force companies and we have already planned to deploy them in the potential troubled spots,” Lamba said. Asa ram Bapu’s caretaker Shiva, who is ac-cused of taking the girl to the self-styled godman’s Jodhpur ashram, surrendered before the police earlier on

Saturday. Asaram Bapu was summoned by Rajasthan Police for questioning in con-nection with a case of alleged sexual assault but he did not appear before them on Friday when the deadline expired. Jodhpur Pol ice sealed off the ashram of self-proclaimed godman on Saturday, following the as-sault on media personnel by the latter’s supporters. On Friday, Jodh-pur Police refused to give Asaram Bapu more time to present himself in connec-tion with a case of sexually assaulting a minor at his ashram. Asaram Bapu has been booked under Sections 376, 342, 506 and 509 of the IPC, Section 8 of the Preven-tion of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and Sections 23 and 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act. Besides the sum-mons served on Asaram Bapu, notices have also been issued to the manager of the Chhindwara gurukul in Madhya Pradesh, the hostel warden and the main care-taker of Asaram, who was present at Manai Ashram in Jodhpur on August 15, when the alleged sexual assault took place there. The 16-year-old girl, who has accused Asaram Bapu of sexually assaulting her at his ashram in Jodhpur, hails from Uttar Pradesh.

India’s First Defence Satellite GSAT-7 Launched Successfully

Bangalore, Aug 30 (ANI): India’s first exclusive defence satellite GSAT-7 was successfully launched by European Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana today. The 185-crore ru-pees GSAT-7, the country’s

maiden dedicated spacecraft for Defence applications, was launched during a 50-minute launch window which started at 2 am. After a flight of almost 34 minutes, the satellite was injected into a Geosynchro-nous Transfer Orbit. The frequency bands of GSAT-7 will help space-

based marine communica-tions. It has coverage over the Indian landmass as well as surrounding seas. Indian Navy would be the user of the multi-band home-built communication spacecraft, expected to be operational by September end.

Lok Sabha Passes Land Acquisition Bill

Swaraj had also sug-gested provision for payment of 50 per cent compensation to original owners whose land was purchased after introduc-tion of the Bill in Lok Sabha in September 2011. Government agreed to 40 per cent. “There will be no forceful acquisition of land under this law. This legisla-tion will provide lawful right of the farmers over their land and no right of forceful acquisition to government,” Rural Development Minister

Jairam Ramesh said while winding up the day-long discussion on the Bill. Asserting that the new law will address “his-torical injustice”, the minister said this law is being enacted under the Concurrent list and the states can bring their own law on the subject without derogating from the central law. Allaying fears of Muslim community, he made it clear that the Wakf land will not be acquired under this law. The Bill will replace

the archaic Act of 1894 which suffers from various short-comings including silence on the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by the acquisition of land. In his reply, Ramesh sought to reach out to all political parties including BJP, JD-U, TMC and the Left, telling them that he had tried to accommodate several of their concerns in the bill and many of the amendments suggested by them have been turned into official amend-ments.

Jayalalithaa Appeals To PM To Help Secure Release Of TN Fishermen

New Delhi, Aug 29 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has appealed to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to take immediate steps through diplomatic channels to secure the release of all fishermen who are in Sri Lankan custody. In a letter to Dr. Singh, Jayalalithaa said the Centre has to take positive and concrete steps to secure the early release of the 82 fishermen who are already in Lankan jails for months, besides the 35 arrested recently. Listing out the various instances since 2011 in which fishermen were taken into custody, Jayalalithaa said that five fishermen from Rameswaram were charged in a fabricated case. She also brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the plight of the fishermen who are being deprived of their livelihood. External Affairs Minister Salman Khur-

shid had earlier last week said New Delhi remains engaged with Colombo to ensure that fishermen on both sides can continue to pursue their livelihood in a safe, secure and sustainable manner. Khurshid, who made a statement in the Rajya Sabha regarding ‘Repeated Attacks on In-dian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy’, said that the government attaches the highest importance to the safety, security and welfare of Indian fishermen. “In response to reports of incidents of attacks on Indian fishermen, the Government, through diplomatic channels, immediately takes up the matter issues relating to incidents of firing on or apprehension of our fishermen with the Govern-ment of Sri Lanka to ensure that the Sri Lankan Navy acts with restraint and our fishermen are treated in a humane and pragmatic manner,” he added.


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For The Gorkhalandby Anadi Naik Now that the UPA Government has accepted the formation of Telangana State, it gives impetus to some other areas that are trying to break away from their existing states. Within a given state there are areas that would be better served without being a part of their existing state. That is why the original Ut-tar Pradesh has been divided into several states. Likewise Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar had to be divided. When Gujarat was carved out of the greater Bombay prov-ince, emotion was so high that it caused a riot. Morarji Desai went on a fast. The same thing happened when Andhra was formed out of the greater Madras Province. A State is a political boundary for administrative purposes. It is there to serve the people who live within its boundar-ies. For example, if one compares Ranchi with Patna, one sees differences in cul-ture and the way of life. The same thing happens between Bhopal and Chhattisgarh. By the time Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were formed, the population on both sides acted adult-like. There was no acrimony. Both sides in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar took the interests of the people into account and peacefully formed the states of Chhat-tisgarh and Jharkhand. This shows that over the years In-dians have come to realize the

political necessity of making smaller states. For the sake of economic development such a step is also necessary. Recently, a demand for Gorkhaland has been continuing. In the Parliament Mr. Yashwant Singh, a former Minister in the BJP Govern-ment has passionately argued for it. Among the local people of the Darjeeling area, there have been all kinds of strikes and bandhs. Gurkhas of the area are agitating for a new state. And the situation is becoming increasingly ugly. Right or wrong the Gorkha population has a genuine demand. Either politically or legally it must be addressed. However, violence and coun-ter-violence just muddies the situation. The issue in this case is not what the political leaders want. The issue is what serves the local people the best. To be frank, for the tribal people of Darjeeling, the Writers’ Building, situ-ated in the middle of Kolkata is very far. The people of the hill areas cannot identify themselves with the people from Midnapur or Bardha-man. It is logical to assume that should they have a sepa-rate State the hilly districts would have a better chance for economic development. Right now Mayawati, the for-mer Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is suggesting that the existing Uttar Pradesh should be divided into five more states. Of course, she has

her own reasons. Mr. Singh’s deliberation in the Parliament on behalf of a Gorkhaland has angered Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal who has given a sharp rebuke to Mr. Singh. In British India the State of Bengal used to be half of the British Empire. When Curzon divided Bengal into two separate administrative regions it started a firestorm of protest that culminated into India’s struggle for freedom. In today’s India, Bengal is one of the smaller states area-wise. Any division of the existing state would make it even smaller. For that reason the chief minister is trying to block the effort. However, emotional outbursts aside, the welfare of the people should be taken into account. Having a separate State within the Union should not be seen as if someone is stealing one’s prized possession. In India, especially in the political circle, com-promise and adjustment does not have a good appeal. That is why there are so many big and small mutinies. By resist-ing something that is neces-sary and obvious one does a disservice to the population. Therefore, Mamata Banerjee and her Party should look at the situation calmly and help create a friendly atmosphere in which the hill areas can form their Gorkhaland. She owes peace and prosperity to the people in the hilly areas of Bengal.

Nirbhaya’s Youngest Rapist and Many Questions

With reference to history’s greatest traitor Ju-das Iscariot who betrayed his Guru for thirty silver coins, Christ made a statement which, later, became prover-bial. And this is what Jesus said: It would have been better for Judas himself, had he not been born at all! We recall this while reading a thought-stirring statement by the heartbroken father of the December-16 gang-rape victim of Delhi: “After this, I can say that female feticide is right, as those who do it don’t have to experience the pain which we are going through.” And in agonizing sarcasm, he added that it’s a crime in India to be born a girl. In other words, what he meant precisely was that it would have been better for his daughter “Nirbhaya”, if she had been aborted in pregnancy! It was the very shocking and unjust verdict of the JJB (Juvenile Justice Board) that made Nirbhaya’s father and family members to react so bitterly. The ver-dict adjudged the youngest of the rapists as under-aged, and hence entitled to be tried and punished under the Ju-venile Justice act. In a society where a child prodigy can be deemed adult enough to sit for Class Ten examination at age nine, and be appointed university professor at age 15, why doesn’t the same logic ap-ply to the reverse effect? Why can’t a 16-year-old be treated adult enough to rape a woman, even after he has proved his dexterity to do it—not simply under gang-pressure, but as the captain of the entire team of grown up men! As per reports, it

was this youngish member of the rapist gang who took the initiative at every step! The grown up men only fol-lowed him! The act of raping an older woman, this ‘boy’ did with adult expertise, and with clinical-surgical precision. The beastly act of piercing an iron rod into the victim’s body was done not by the grown-up crimi-nals, but by this so-called juvenile. Besides rape, his crime included robbery and murder. The little villain in the current story was violent even in the Juvenile home where he attacked inmates with a blade. Who says that 16 years is too young an age to understand right and wrong? To call yourself educated, all you need is school-final certification which happens by age 15! The Congress Party which has (mis)governed the country for a major chunk of the post-British years has prohibited child labor as though it were a great achievement. But a child that is not allowed to work is not disallowed to beg, steal, and do drug-pedaling. According to the eye-witness account of the victim’s brother, the young criminal showed no sign of remorse, guilt, shame, or repentance. Yet our honorable judiciary has adjudged him as a boy eligible to go to a juvenile home for three years. For the despicable game that had been played on them, Nirbhaya’s family members had demanded for the minor accused (yet the cruelest among the gang) no lesser than death pen-alty by hanging. Now that

the verdict of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) has shattered their hope of get-ting adequate justice against those who destroyed their daughter, the family is also planning to file an appeal in the higher court. It takes only com-mon discernment to under-stand that providing such an easy escape to a criminal in the pretext of his juvenile sta-tus would encourage more people to do similar crimes without fear of punishment. Such concessions of law will generate more of such trag-edies, and life will become increasingly miserable, and unsafe for women folk. Have our jurists se-riously studied the potential danger of such a decision? When so-called children with criminal inclination and orientation are allowed to roam at large, what is the safety and security of your mother, sister and wife, is the genuine concern of every law-abiding citizen in India, who shares in the agony of the family of the December 16 gang-rape victim. Saturday 31st Au-gust 2013 ought to go down in Indian history as a black day, for the official crime of virtually sparing a notorious criminal in the pretext of juvenile justice—by limiting his punishment to just three years. We join with all peace-lovers concerned about our civic morality, in condemning the JJB’s (Ju-venile Justice Board) verdict which has made it possible for the youthful anti-social to roam again after three years of comfortable life at the juvenile home. No one needs to hope that this youth will come out as a refined person.

BJP Lauds SC For Slamming Govt., CBI For ‘Missing Files’, Slow Probe

New Delhi, Aug.29 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday supported the Supreme Court for pulling up the government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for their tardy pace in probing the coal block allocation scam and the missing files, and said that an FIR must be filed immediately on the missing files. “The credibility of the government is being ques-tioned after the Supreme Court slammed the government for missing files because we have known this from the start that the government is trying to stall CBI enquiry to save the Prime Minister. Coalgate Files can’t walk out of Ministry on its own, someone has taken them out. We agree with the apex court that an FIR must

be lodged on the missing files immediately. And we will raise this issue tomorrow in the Par-liament,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told media here today. The Supreme Court earlier in the day slammed the government and the CBI for the ‘slow pace’ of the coal al-location probe and the missing files linked to the allocation of coal blocks to private parties at throwaway prices. According to reports, the CBI had said it had not received crucial files from the government to investigate 13 FIRs or police complaints it had filed in the case. The agency had claimed than some 225 files it had asked for were ‘missing’, but the government told the court in an affidavit that only seven files are miss-

ing. Supreme Court also came down heavily on the CBI, which had earlier assured that it would complete the coal probe in four-five months. Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on August 18 admitted that some files from 1993 to 2004 were miss-ing and a committee headed by an Additional Secretary of the ministry is inquiring into it. “It’s true that some files from 1993 to 2004 are missing. We are trying to get the copies of those files ready,” Jaiswal said. Jaiswal further said that the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDI), Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Cement have also been asked to return the files if they have them.


PM Says Difficult Economic Situation Due To Domestic And International Factors

New Delhi, Aug. 29 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Thursday said it cannot be denied that the nation is facing a difficult time, and attributed the present eco-nomic situation to several domestic and international factors. Dr. Singh, who was responding to demands by several opposition members in the Rajya Sabha, said the situation in the US and the tensions in Syria have inevitable consequences on the oil prices. Leader of Opposi-tion Arun Jaitley raised the issue as soon as the Rajya Sabha met for the day, and demanded a statement by the Prime Minister out-lining the steps that the Congress-led UPA II Gov-ernment is contemplating to tackle the present economic situation. The Prime Minister will make a statement in Parliament on Friday on the

country’s economic situa-tion. The rupee today recovered from its all-time low of 68.75 to the dollar, rising 170 paise to Rs. 67. 10 against the dollar in early trade. The rise was attrib-uted to fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. The Nifty rose 0.6 per cent while benchmark 10-year bond yields fell 15 basis points to 8.81 per cent. The rupee plunged to a new record low of 68.75 per dollar yesterday trade on persistent dollar demand from banks and importers due to further fall in equity market amid rise in crude oil prices. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier on Tuesday suggested a 10-point formula to revive the country’s economic situation, and sought co-operation from all quarters

despite ideological and political differences. Chidambaram, who was replying to a discussion on the country’s economic situation in the Lok Sabha, said the country needs more reforms, lesser restrictions and an open economy. The Finance Min-ister said the fiscal deficit would be contained at 4.8 percent of the GDP even after doling out subsidies for the implementation of the Food Security Bill. He said the govern-ment is doing everything to boost investment. Chidambaram also underlined the need to en-courage manufacturing in sectors like power, steel, automobiles and textiles. “We must increase production of electronics and textiles. We are import-ing things which we should not have imported. India can be strong only if we have a strong manufacturing economy,” he said.


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‘Ahimsa Messenger’ Programme Would Prevent Violence Against Women, Children: Sonia Gandhi

The Chairperson, National Advisory Council, Smt. Sonia Gandhi addressing at the launch of the ‘Ahimsa Messenger’ programme, in New Delhi

New Delhi, Aug.31 (ANI): United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the ‘Ahimsa Messenger’ programme would spread awareness to the grassroots about the legal rights of women and children “I am proud that our UPA Government has made tough laws to fight violence against women. We know that making laws and policies is not enough. We also have to imple-ment them at the grassroots. In a family, the right that a male child has should be given to a girl child too,” she said at the launch of the ‘Ahimsa Mes-senger’ programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development that addresses violence against women in all forms. The event was also attended by Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath This initiative by the Ministry of Women and Child Development addresses

violence against women in all forms through a mass move-ment by creating numerous Ahimsa Messengers in various parts of the country, till the grassroots level. Violence against women and girls has far-reach-ing consequences, harming families and communities. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has con-ceptualised a programme for empowering women against violence named Ahimsa Mes-senger. The Ahimsa Mes-senger as a concept had been introduced by the Ministry of Women and Child development earlier. However, given the spate of violence against women and children in the cur-rent context, a full-fledged pro-gramme is being started which has the following dimension: a series of awareness building programmes across the nation on gender issues, a series of training and sensitization pro-grammes for grass root level functionaries across the nation,

developing and introducing a gender sensitive module/cur-riculum which is now being introduced in various training institutes across states. The ‘Ahimsa Mes-senger’ programme aims at preventing violence against women and children and gen-erating awareness about basic legal rights, procedures and provisions amongst women and children at the grassroots. The programme involves both men and women including youths to address and eliminate all forms of violence against women and children at grassroots and facilitate social/community mobilization to fight social evils. It would also serve as link to workers in case of any violence and also facilitate the women to approach the concerned authorities in case of incidences of violence for suitable redressal and follow up on the case. The programme en-visages generating awareness amongst the community and

giving intensive training to various cadres of grass root level workers under vari-ous programmes across the country, besides generating awareness amongst the com-munity especially adolescent girls and boys about their civic responsibilities and duties. Ahimsa Messengers will facilitate an enabling environment for safety and security of women and chil-dren in the community. They will also create women and child friendly environment in villages through community participation, especially of lo-cal leaders, adolescent boys and men, opinion makers, village elders etc. This programme will be implemented through all Anganwadi Centres, all Panchayati Raj Institutions, Sabla Girls (in the age group of 16-18 years) and Poorna Shakti Kendras (PSK) coordinators under the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) will be trained as Ahimsa Messengers.

of the accused in the brutal gangrape. The juvenile was one of the six accused arrested in the case. While the juvenile faced inquiry before the Juve-nile Justice Board (JJB), the four adult accused are being

Delhi Gang-Rape Case:

Juvenile Sentenced To Three Years In Special Home

tried before a fast track court. Hours after the Ju-venile Justice Board declared the youngest accused in the December 16, 2012 gang-rape case, guilty of all charges and sent him to a reformatory home for three years, women and girls here expressed their disappointment and demanded

immediate reconsideration of the verdict. Janice, a college student, said the punishment is very less because when the ac-cused committed such a crime, he was fully conscious of it. “I think the govern-ment should reconsider this, three years is very less for a crime like rape,” she said. Another college stu-dent Sonam said that if they are looking at the age of the person and giving the punishment, they should look at the crime as well. A working woman, Cristina, said she does not agree with the verdict and the punishment should have been more for a crime like rape. Neha, another college student, said: “He should have been hanged or imprisoned for life. Three years is very less for a crime like rape. I think a 17-year old boy completely knows what he is doing.” “This kind of justice is meaningless, unacceptable. If the accused gets only three years for rape and murder, he might as well be allowed to go free,” said the victim’s mother.

RAPE From Page 1

Assam Rifles Intensifies Patrolling Along Indo-Myanmar Border

I m p h a l , Aug. 31 (ANI): The Assam Rifles has intensified patrolling on the India-Myanmar border, fol-lowing reports of intrusion by the Myanmar Army along the Manipur border. Recently, a high level committee constituted by the Manipur Government visited the Indo-Myanmar border to assess the situation at Moreh, and said that they were opti-mistic about smoothly settling the issue because India has maintained friendly relations with Myanmar. “We have to sit and solve this problem. Burmese authority has cleared some jungle out there to construct a post, but we protested and now they have stopped. Similarly, from our side, we have resisted for sometime till the dispute is settled. I think it will be settled smoothly, because Myanmar is a friendly country to us. It is not a country that is an enemy to us. So, they also agree in many occasion and we also have to compromise in many occasion” Principle Secretary for Home, Manipur Suresh Babu had said. Babu also said the issue would be taken up with the Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs

(MEA). “We will take up with the Home Ministry and Minis-try of External Affairs because as far as the settlement of the boundary dispute is concerned we can only express our views ultimately it has to be done by both the government of both the countries. We alone cannot make a settlement. We have gone to the Haolenphai village to see the current situation,” he said. Additionally, Manipur Governor Ashwani Kumar, who also visited the site, said that the Centre and the State Govern-ment is aware of the situation and are acting accordingly. “The government, state government is already aware of what ever you have said. They also have full records and history. It is not only the state government of Manipur it is also the government of India. We are aware and action is being taken on this requirement,” Kumar said. Meanwhile, the vil-lage Chief of Haolenphai village made a request to the State and Central Government to take notice of the problems, and said that fear has penetrated into the village that the area will soon be occupied by Myanmar, against their wishes. “I request the govern-

ment of Manipur and Govern-ment of India to note that the village is part of India. However, Myanmar wants to occupy it. Due to ongoing fencing at the border, half of our village will be part of Myanmar. We do not want to be part of Myanmar. We want to remain with India,” Alkhulun Haokip, the village chief, said. Haolenphai village is located at about 3 kilometers to the south of Moreh Police sta-tion, just adjacent to the disputed border pillar number 76. The village with about 50 houses has a population of about 260 people. The State officials had requested the Myanmar Army to stop the construction of their temporary platoon base camp at Haolenphai until issue was amicably settled. The area where Myan-mar soldiers attempted to set up their camp falls in a “no construction zone” as it is within 10 meters from the border. Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also urged Assam Rifles to give a status report on the matter. Manipur shares a 398-km border with Myanmar. A joint meeting of 9th Assam Rifles and Myanmar Army was also held at Moreh.


--Grand Devotee Family Pooja on September 7th, 2013 --Ganesha Chaturthi on September 8th, 2013 --Grand Ganesha Samyojanam on September 15th, 2013

Tata Group Market Value Nears Rs. 6 Trillion New Delhi, September 1 (PTI): Largely unaffected by the recent carnage in stock markets, salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group is closing in on to become the country’s first business house to attain a market valuation of Rs. 6 lakh crore. The cumulative market capitalisation of all 32 listed companies of the Tata group has risen to nearly Rs. 5.90 lakh crore as on Friday — the highest for any business house in the country and almost double the market value of the second ranked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Group. The total market value of Tata group exceeds the combined market capitalisation of at least three leading business houses in the country — Mukesh Ambani-led RIL group (about Rs. 2.75 lakh crore), Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group (about Rs. 1.5 lakh crore) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group (about Rs. 62,000 crore). Interestingly, the Tata group’s market value has grown substantially over the past one year, including in the past few months when the overall stock markets have been facing strong headwinds and have lost value. In the past three months, the Tata group’s valuation has grown by over Rs. 80,000 crore or over 15 per cent, while the total valuation of Indian markets has actually fallen by about 10 per cent during the same period, shows an analysis of data available from stock exchanges. Tata group, which saw a change of leader-ship late last year from Ratan Tata to Cyrus Mistry, has seen its valuation growing by over Rs 1 lakh crore since the beginning of this year. On the other hand, valuations of many other large groups have remained either flat or have fallen in the recent months amid a huge volatility in stock markets. While Tatas have the largest number of listed companies among major business houses in the country, RIL alone used to command a market

value of over Rs 4 lakh crore a few years ago as the country’s most valued company. However, this position is now occupied by Tata group firm TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) with a market cap of close to Rs. 3.96 lakh crore. In comparison, RIL’s market cap currently stands at about Rs. 2.75 lakh crore, while its only other listed group company, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, has a market value of just about Rs. 440 crore. If TCS attains a market value of Rs. 4 lakh crore, it would be only the second company in Indian history after RIL to breach this mark. The data shows that TCS has been main force behind Tata group’s soaring market value with a surge of more than 50 per cent in the past one year. The other major companies of the group include Tata Motors (close to Rs. 90,000 crore), Tata Steel (Rs. 27,000 crore), Titan (Rs. 20,000 crore) and Tata Global Beverages (Rs. 8,600 crore). Other listed entities of the group include Tata Power, Indian Hotels, Tata Communications, Rallis, Tata Coffee, Voltas and Tata Chemicals. While the group has about 100 operating companies, only 32 of them are listed in the stock market, as per information on its website. TCS currently accounts for nearly two-third of the group’s total market cap, up from about half at the beginning of this year. Interestingly, it was after the listing of TCS on August 25, 2004, that the the total market capitalisation of the group’s then 28 listed companies crossed Rs. one lakh crore cap and Tatas became the country’s most valued business house. Way back in 1991, the total market cap of the Tata group was less than Rs. 8,000 crore and Tata Steel was most valued among its 18 listed companies at that time.


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SEPTEMBER 6The Asian Studies Program at the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (UMBC) is presenting a Yakshagana, a musical dance drama in Hindi titled, ‘Panchavati’ - the story of Surpanakha, by the troupe Yaksha Manjusha. Yakshagana depicts Indian epics through song, dance and dialogues. Time is 7:00 p.m. Location is the UMBC Fine Arts Recital Hall, Room 118. For further informa-tion, call 410-455-2094 or e-mail [email protected] . Note: Yakshagana is a musical theater popular in the coastal regions of Karnataka. It consists of a ‘himmela’ (background music group) and a ‘mummela’ (dance and dialogue group in colorful costumes). Yaksha Manjusha is a Yakshagana troupe based in Mangalore, enrolled with ICCR. They are the only troupe to perform Yakshagana in Hindi. The performance at UMBC will have English sub-titles. A Fall Internship with stipend is available! Work on a video, biography/documentary short on Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American elected to the US Congress in 1956. You will have an opportu-nity to learn useful skill sets that translate to all types of profes-sions such as journalism, multi-media, communications, public relations, asset management and documentary film-making. Prerequisites: must have your own laptop computer and the ability to work independently. Hours are flexible. The dura-tion of the internship is from September to December. To apply, please e-mail [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 6 - 15Sri Siva Vishnu Temple is pre-senting ‘Sri Mahaganapathy Mahotsavam’, a grand religious event for Lord Ganesha. Prayers will be offered for the removal of all obstacles to any endeavor including spiritual ones. It is believed that the positive vibrations created by the par-ticipation of the community, including thousands of families with their children, will ensure the continued prosperity of the family unit, the temple satsang and the nation. On September 7, six, young female dancers, who are visually impaired, from

Bangalore, will be performing classical, semi-classical and folk dances. Time is 3:00 p.m. The temple is located at 6905 Cipriano Road, Lanham, MD. For details, visit www.ssvt.org or call 301-552-3335 or e-mail [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 8 - 14Durga Temple is presenting Ram Katha by Dr. Ram Kamal Das Vedanti Ji. Katha will be followed by Aarti and bhandara everyday. The temple is located at 8400 Durga Place, Fairfax Station, VA (703-690-9355). For details, please go to www.durgatemple.org

SEPTEMBER 10Montgomery College is offer-ing a US Citizenship Prepara-tion Program. Are you a legal permanent resident? Do you need help preparing for the US citizenship test and interview? Come to an information session and discover how Montgomery College may be able to help you, for free! Please come to one of the information sessions and bring your Green Card: September 10, at 6:00 p.m.; September 14, at 9:00 a.m.; October 8, at 6:00 p.m.; October 12, at 9:00 a.m.; November 5, at 6:00 p.m.; and November 9, at 9:00 a.m. Location is Westfield South, 11002 Veirs Mill Road, Suite 306, Wheaton, MD. The Montgomery College Citizen-ship Preparation Program is for legal permanent residents who live in Montgomery County, MD, and are learning English as a second language. For more information, Readers can contact Nancy Newton at 240-567-8169 or [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 14Network of South Asian Profes-sionals - DC Chapter (NetSAP-DC) presents ‘Fusion 2013’ at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Time is 7:30 p.m. Location is the Terrace Theater. The Kennedy Center is located at 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC (1-800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600). The evening will celebrate the many cultures and facets of South Asia through various artistic medi-ums including dance, comedy skits, musical acts and much more! NetSAP-DC is team-

ing up with the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center to sponsor the release of its groundbreaking exhibition, ‘Beyond Bollywood: Indian-Americans Shape the Nation’, which is scheduled to open in December. For more informa-tion, go to www.FusionDC.org or www.kennedy-center.org . If you are interested in perform-ing or volunteering, please e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] Nair Society of Greater Wash-ington is presenting ‘Onam Celebrations 2013’ Time is from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Venue is the Durga Temple, 8400 Durga Place, Fairfax Station, VA (703-690-9355; www.durgatemple.org). Come celebrate Onam with family and friends and enjoy a delicious Onam Sadya, riveting cultural program, Thiruvathirakali and other Kerala art forms! Sadya is from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., followed by the cultural program from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. For more information, please contact Mini Ramachandran at 571-201-5955, Rani Nair at 571-214-7501 or Arun Raghu at 301-518-6706.

SEPTEMBER 20Manish and Deepa Sood of Intense Entertainment are presenting top-notch Indian playback singer Shreya Ghoshal - live in concert! Venue is the DAR Constitution Hall located at 1776 D Street, NW, Wash-ington, DC. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; concert starts at 8:00 p.m. For details, please call 202-59-MASTI (62784) or visit www.intenseus.com SEPTEMBER 20 - 22Sivam, Inc., presents ‘Utsav: Celebrating India’s Maestros of Music and Dance’, at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Utsav is a three-day celebration featuring performances of tradi-tional Indian music and dance by renowned Indian artists. The program schedule is as follows: September 20 - Kathak dance by Aditi Mangaldas, at 7:30 p.m.; September 21 - Ranjani and Gayathri, Carnatic vocal-ists, at 2:00 p.m.; Samyoga, performed by Nrityagram, one of India’s leading dance compa-nies in the Odissi style of dance, featuring artists Surupa Sen

and Bijayini Satpathy, at 7:30 p.m.; September 22 - Lalgudi Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijay-alakshmi, Carnatic violinists, at 2:00 p.m.; Mythili Prakash, Bharatanatyam dance, at 7:30 p.m. Performances will be held in the Terrace Theater. Timing is two hours, with no intermis-sion. The Kennedy Center is located at 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC. For more information, Readers can call 1-800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600 or go to www.kennedy-center.org . Note: Sivam, Inc., was established with the mission of promoting opportunities for education and the advancement of Indian classical dance as a traditional art form.

SEPTEMBER 21A Money Matter Mortgage, Inc., presents the 19th annual Miss India-DC Pageant. Come and cheer on the Washington metro area’s talented contestants as they compete for the title of 2013 Miss India-DC. Time is from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Loca-tion is the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville, MD. For more information, please contact Neena Bhaskar at 202-361-2439, Sibtain Kazmi at 201-460-5626, MyDosti.com at 703-675-2645 or go to http://deals.mydosti.com/us/

SEPTEMBER 28American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin - National Capital Chapter (ASEI-NCC) is hosting its 28th Annual Na-tional Convention. The theme is “Innovative Technologies: An Engine for Economic Growth”. The program includes: morning plenary; luncheon; evening gala banquet; tracks of technical pre-sentation; and panel discussions. Tracks and panels are on infor-mation technology, healthcare IT, nanotechnology, traditional energy, renewable energy, bio-engineering and space contri-butions of Indian-Americans, STEM. Participants include ma-jor US and India corporations, government agencies, Indian Embassy, entrepreneurs, digni-taries, academia and students. The convention will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Location is the University of Maryland at College Park, Riggs Alumni Center and Adele Stamp Student Union Building. For further

information, go to www.asei-ncc.org or call 202-800-0333, Dr. Ajay Kothari, Convention Chair, at 301-935-5868, Mr. Hari Bindal, ASEI-NCC President, at 301-262-0254, G.S. Sridhar, Convention Co-Chair at 571-274-9672, Ms. Pavithra Kenjige, ASEI-NCC Vice President, at 703-815-1629 or Mayur Kathu-ria, ASEI-UMD, at 240-475-2320. Note: The convention is being co-hosted by ASEI-UMD, College Park, in collaboration with PANIIT, MIBRT, USIBC, USINPAC and other profes-sional organizations. Manan Singh Katohora and Pa-nache DC are presenting ‘Dance Milkha Dance’ Bollywood-Hol-lywood dance party featuring the famous Bollywood disc jockey, SVP DJ. Time is 10:00 p.m. Panache is located at 1725 Desales Street, NW, Washing-ton, DC. For details, please go to https://dancemilkhadance.eventbrite.com or call 202-656-DESI (3374).

SEPTEMBER 29Kerala Cultural Society of Metropolitan Washington (KC-SMW), in collaboration with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), are organizing ‘Miles 4 Smiles’, a 5K run/1 mile walk. Time is 8:00 a.m. Location is the National Harbor, a 300-acre multi-use waterfront development on the shores of the Potomac River in Prince George’s County, MD. KCSMW is a non-profit organization which focuses on promoting cultural awareness and social activities primarily among Indian-Americans. For further information, visit www.kcsmw.org or www.miles4smiles.org or www.lls.org

OCTOBER 5The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) is hosting its exceedingly popular and awaited annual Gala. The ‘2013 SAJA Gala’, featuring an awards ceremony and banquet-style dinner, will be held at the Yale

Club in New York City. The association will honor and rec-ognize excellence in journalism coverage in South Asia as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists. This is a fantastic opportunity to network with fellow SAJA members, other reporters, editors and producers from reputable media outlets. Registration is open until September 30. For details, head to www.saja.org

OCTOBER 19Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will debut the world’s first exhibition, ‘Yoga: The Art of Transfor-mation’, on the visual history of Yoga. US tour will follow. Yoga is a global phenomenon, practiced by millions of people seeking spiritual insight or bet-ter health. Few, however, are aware of yoga’s rich diversity and historical transformations. Opening October 19, at the Sack-ler Gallery, ‘Yoga: The Art of Transformation’, the world’s first exhibition about the discipline’s visual history, will reveal the fas-cinating meanings and histories over the past 2,000 years. ‘Yoga: The Art of Transformation’, on view through January 26, 2014, explores yoga’s philosophies and its goals of transforming body and consciousness, its importance within multiple religious and secular arenas and the varied roles that yogis played in society, from sages to spies. Working with an interdisciplin-ary team of scholars, curator Debra Diamond assembled more than 130 objects from 25 museums and private collections in India, Europe and the United States, compiling a remarkable survey of Indian art. As much of yoga’s history remains shrouded in mystery, this comprehensive look at yoga’s visual culture marks the start of a new field of study. The Sackler Gallery is located at 1050 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC. For more information, readers can call 202-633-4880 or visit www.asia.si.edu


INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Australia Backs U.S. Strike Against ‘Thug And Murderer’ Assad

Obama Says Syria Situation Poses Threat To U.S. Security

Washington, Aug. 31 (ANI): President Barack Obama has said that it’s an obligation for the United States for being the ‘world leader’ to punish Syria for us-ing chemical weapons against the international law. Accusing Syria of breaching the rules of con-ducting a war by firing chemical weapons on inno-cent civilians in and around Damascus, President Barack Obama has said the United States being the world leader, has an obligation to punish Syria, and added that if the international community ex-hibited reluctance to counter such aggression, Washington might take a decision to move against ruling regime in Da-mascus on its own. Obama released an intelligence report confirming that the Assad regime used chemical weapons and said that the U.S. can act alone to punish Syria for breaching the rules of war, Fox News reports. According to the report, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have indi-cated that they were prepared to move forward with military

intervention in Syria without United Nations’ authoriza-tion. Obama’s adminis-tration said that attacking Bashar Al-Assad regime would be in America’s inter-est, in response to the rising skepticism in Congress and abroad, the report added. He further said that his preference would be to form an international coali-tion to respond against Syria, but he doesn’t want the world to be paralyzed. Obama earlier said that he was considering a “limited, narrow act” to send a message to Syria and others against the use of chemical weapons. The UN investigators claimed that Syrian chemical weapons personnel had spent three days prior to the attack preparing for the strike in a Damascus suburb. The repor t a lso revealed that the symptoms of victims, including uncon-sciousness, foaming from the nose and mouth, constricted pupils, rapid heartbeat and difficulty breathing, con-firmed chemical weapons use

President Barack Obama has said the crisis in Syria is a threat to national security and poses a challenge to the world to stop chemical weapons proliferation. Obama said Wash-ington has an obligation as a ‘world leader’ to punish the Assad regime for breaching international rules of war and using chemical weapons on their own people, including children, Politico reports. Meanwhile, Ameri-cans showed exhaustion towards the U.S. military ef-forts and engagement in wars on other soils. Obama acknowl-edged public opposition to American intervention in Syria and assured that he shares their exhaustion by saying ‘nobody ends up being more war-weary than me,’ the report added. Obama clar if ied that he is considering a lim-ited military action without ground troops. He said that if Syria is not held accountable for the chemical attack, the risk of frequent use of chemical weapons could become the norm.

Syria Denies Kerry’s Accusation Beijing, Aug. 31 (ANI): Syrian Foreign Min-istry slammed on Friday the recent statements of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying Kerry used “fabri-cated” narratives circulated by armed rebels to frame the Syrian government regarding the chemical weapons use. Kerry on Friday said that the Syrian government forces killed 1, 429 people in a chemical weapons attack near Damascus last week. He branded the alleged attack as “inconceivable horror.” According to Xin-hua, in response to the charges, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the evidence that Kerry cited were old narratives disseminated by “terrorists.” It added the number that Kerry mentioned was “fake” which quoted the ex-iled opposition and the armed groups that encourage a U.S.-led aggression on Syria. “The Foreign Min-istry is surprised that a great

country is deceiving its pub-lic opinion in such a naive way through relying on ‘no evidence,’” the ministry said, asserting that “the United States adopts its stances in war and peace over what is being circulated on social network-ing websites.” “We would like to remind Kerry that Syria was the first country to suggest a resolution in the (UN) Security Council to strip the Middle East from mass destruction weapons that the United States rejected,” the ministry added. In Washington, Kerry said the United States already had the facts, adding that nothing that the UN weapons inspectors found could tell the Americans anything new. The UN team is set to leave Syria on Saturday to analyze the samples that they have picked during their short mission in Syria following last week’s chemical gas attack that the rebels accused the govern-ment troops of carrying out.

Meanwhile, Kerry stressed that any response by the U.S. wouldn’ t drag Washington into the Syrian civil war unlike the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan. For his part, Presi-dent Barak Obama said Friday that he has not made a final decision on a military strike on Syria. Obama said he was considering a “limited narrow act” in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, in remarks made before a meeting with three Baltic leaders at the White House. “We’re not consider-ing any open-ended commit-ment,” He said. “We ‘re not considering any boots on the ground approach.” “I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm,” He said. “But as I’ve already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options.”

Melbourne, Aug. 31 (ANI): Australia has justified the United States decision to launch military strike against the Syrian regime, calling President Bashar al-Assad a “thug and a murderer.” Pr ime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr said the Syrian regime “de-serves a response” for using chemical weapons to kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children, the Age reports. Carr was upset after looking at a footage display-ing neuro-toxic symptoms of a gas attack on youngsters and said: “What leader other than a thug and a murderer can approve that sort of as-sault on children?” Although Australia will extend its support to the

U.S. to take action against the Assad regime, it would not be contributing militarily to the attack, he further said. Rudd has warned Australians in Syria to move out from there, as the likeli-hood increases that the U.S.

government will fire missiles on the Syrian regime in com-ing days. Senator Carr also urged Australians with back-grounds in the Middle East to “not take part in this civil war”.

France To Await US Congressional Decision Before Military Strike On Syria Sydney, Sept. 1 (ANI): France will wait for its parliament and the US Congress to consider possible military action on Syria be-fore making a decision about whether to launch strikes on the war-torn country. The comments from an official in the French president Francois Hollande’s office came as President Barack Obama said that he believes the United States should carry out a military strike against Syria over an alleged chemical weapons

attack by Bashar al-Assad regime. According to news.com.au, Obama added that he has decided to put the is-sue before the US Congress first. France has been the most vocal and visible country to show willingness to join the US in military ac-tion against Syria’s regime. The US claims the attack killed 1429 people, including more than 400 children. Before his speech

about Syria outside the White House, Obama explained his decision to Hollande in a phone call. H o l l a n d e t o l d Obama that he already had decided to convene France’s parliament on Wednesday to take up a debate about Syria, the report said. The two presidents ‘reaffirmed their joint will-ingness to act’, and have an ‘absolute and shared convic-tion’ that Assad’s regime was behind the chemical weapons attack, the report added.

Israel Deploys ‘Iron Dome’ Missile Defense System Ahead Of

Looming US Strike On Syria Washington, Sept. 1 (ANI): The Israeli military has deployed an ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense battery in the Tel Aviv area. The move by Israel comes as the United States is threatening to attack Syria over alleged use of chemical weap-ons, which killed thousands, hundreds of children on August 21. Israel fears Damascus may respond to US strikes by firing missiles at Israel, a close American ally. According to the Huffington Post, Israeli officials have sought to distance themselves from Syria’s standoff, but have prepared themselves for a possible strike. It has called up reservists and deployed missile defense batteries in the northern part of the country.

Australia’s Espionage Agency In Global Deal To Tap Undersea Cables Linking Asia, Middle East Sydney, Aug. 29 (ANI): Australia’s electronic espionage agency is entering a deal with major countries to tap undersea fibre optic telecommunications cables that link Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The Australian Sig-nals Directorate is in partner-ship with British, American and Singaporean intelligence agencies. The undersea fibre optic telecommunications carry much of Australia’s in-ternational phone and Internet

traffic, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. According to the report, secret information disclosed by WikiLeaks whis-tleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the British Government Communications Headquarters is collecting all data transmitted to and from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe via the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable that runs from Japan, via Singapore, Djibouti, Suez and the Straits of Gibral-tar to Northern Germany. Australia is con-

nected to SEA-ME-WE-3 by a link from Singapore to Perth, and GCHQ’s bulk interception includes much of Australia’s telecommunications and in-ternet traffic with Europe, the report said. The report added that Australian intelligence sources said that Singaporean intelligence co-operates with Australia in accessing and sharing communications car-ried by the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable, which lands at Tuas on the western side of Singapore Island.


Yemen PM Basindwa Escapes Unhurt In Assassination Bid

London, Sept. 1 (ANI): Yemeni Prime Minister Moham-med Salem Basindwa has sur-vived an assassination attempt unharmed. Gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on Basindwa’s mo-torcade as he was returning home from office, one of his advisers said. According to the BBC, Basindwa was a senior opposition figure before being appointed

in November 2011 to head the government set up after President Ali Abdullah Saleh left power. One of his aides, Ali al-Sarari, said security forces are trying to track down the vehicle used in the attack. Earlier this month, the US and several other Western countries temporarily shut their embassies in Sanaa after reports of an imminent al-Qaeda attack, the report added.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Pakistan Condemns Latest U.S. Drone Strike Islamabad, Sept. 1 (ANI): Pakistan had strongly condemned the U.S. drone strike that killed four people in the country’s North Wa-ziristan tribal region on Sat-urday, the Foreign Ministry said. An American spy aircraft fired missiles into Mir Ali area of North Waziristan and killed at least four people, official sources in the region said. The drone fired two missiles on a house in Mir Ali area, destroying the building, tribesmen said. “These unilateral strikes are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a For-eign Ministry statement said. It said Pakistan has repeatedly emphasized the importance of bringing an immediate end to drone

strikes, Xinhua reported. “The government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications.” The Foreign Minis-try said the U.S. such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations. “These drone strikes have a negative impact on the mutual desire of both coun-tries to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the statement said. The attack came a day after Pakistan announced to formally lodge its protest on U.S. drone attacks in the UN General Assembly ses-sion next month. Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said in the

National Assembly on Friday that the U.S. attacks violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and international laws. “A breakthrough is expected on the issue of U.S. drone strikes in the coming months,” he said, without elaborating. The United States routinely fires missiles into Waziristan tribal region to target militants who are accused of crossing into Afghanistan for attacks on foreign and Afghan forces. Aziz said that Paki-stani leaders in their forth-coming meetings with U.S. authorities will ask them to stop drone strikes as they are counterproductive. He added that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has supported Paki-stan’s stance on the issue and he reiterated his stance during his visit this month.

Mandela Discharged From Hospital: S. African Presidency

Johannesburg, Sept. 1 (ANI): Former South African President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital and returned to his Johannesburg home on Sunday, the South African presidency said. The anti-apartheid leader remains in critical condition and is at times un-stable, President Jacob Zuma said in a statement. “His home has been reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there. The health care personnel providing care at his home are the very same who provided care to him in hospital,” said the statement. According to Xi-

nhua, his doctors are con-vinced that 95-year-old Man-dela will receive the same level of intensive care at his home in Johannesburg that he received in Pretoria, said the statement. “If there are health conditions that war-rant another admission to hospital in future, this will be done,” it said. During Mandela’s stay in hospital in Pretoria, he had been treated by a large medical team from the military, academia, private sector and other public health spheres over his condition which vacillated between serious and critical and at times unstable. “We thank all the

health professionals at the hospital for their dedication,” said the statement. It was the third time for Mandela to be admitted to hospital this year. On March 27, he was hospitalized after doctors diagnosed him of having pneumonia. He was also admit-ted in December for recurring lung infection. Mandela suffered from tuberculosis when he was incarcerated for 27 years before the apartheid ended in 1994. He was the first democratically-elected presi-dent in South Africa, having an honor of the state father in the country.

Chinese Diplomat Warns Against ‘Flaunting ASEAN Banner’ On South China Sea Issue

Beijing, Aug. 30 (ANI): Chinese Foreign Min-ister Wang Yi has warned ASEAN countries against flaunting their stand on the South China Sea disputed islands as it could harm their common interests. Yi said that China wanted to focus on regional cooperation and trust-building and rule out the disputes that could harm overall interests of China-ASEAN countries, China Daily reports. The statement was

given at a news conference af-ter the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting that was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their stra-tegic partnership, the report added. Wang further added that the current situation in the South China Sea was quite stable, in comparison to other places in the world, and everyone should cherish that. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told ASEAN foreign

ministers that they should co-operate in boosting the economy. Earlier, there were reports of maritime territorial disputes between China and the Philippines which flared up tensions in the past few months. Li, meanwhile, as-sured the foreign ministers that Beijing will adhere to the path of peaceful development and properly handle disputes with ASEAN countries, the report added.

Muslim Brotherhood Leader Beltagi Arrested In Egypt For Inciting Violence

London, Aug. 30 (ANI): A Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, Moham-med al-Beltagi, has report-edly been arrested for inciting violence against Egyptian military, following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. Egyptian officials confirmed that Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) secretary-general Bel-tagy and former labour min-ister Khaled al-Azhari were

arrested from a flat on the outskirts of Cairo on Thurs-day, BBC reports. Although prosecu-tors had ordered Beltagi’s arrest on July 10, he regularly delivered fiery speeches at the Rabaa al-Adawiyah protest camp in Cairo, which was oc-cupied by Morsi supporters. Beltagi arrest comes as Egypt’s military moves against Brotherhood leaders after the interim government stated that Muslim Brother-

hood was a terrorist organiza-tion, the report added. Earlier this month, the Egyptian security forc-es had killed hundreds of people, including Beltagi’s 17-year-old daughter Asmaa, in a brutal crackdown on pro-Morsi supporters in Cairo. The interior minis-try said that security forces have the right to use live ammunition against protest-ers who attack public institu-tions.

Did Former ISI Chief Lt. Gen. Pasha Facilitate Raymond Davis’ Release? Islamabad, Aug 29 (ANI): Former Director Gen-eral Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. (retired) Ahmed Shuja Pasha is reported to have sent text messages to the U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter as the Raymond Davis drama was unfolding in a court. According to reports filed by Dunyanews.tv and the reportersdairy.com web site, at least two sources, one of them now a retired two-star general of the Pakistan Army, said that revelations contained in Mark Mazetti’s book, “The Way of the Knife” regarding Lt.Gen. (retired) Pasha “being personally present in the court premises to oversee the release of Raymond Davis were true.” “General Pasha sat in the back of the courtroom, his cellphone out. He began

sending out a stream of nervous text messages to Ambassador Munter, updating him about the court proceedings,” wrote Mark Mazetti shedding light on how the then DG ISI personally ensured freedom from the Court for the US spy. According to the Du-nyanews.tv and reportersdairy.com, the revelations raise ques-tions about the independence of the judiciary, and whether it acted under pressure to release Raymond Davis on March 16, 2011. Former military of-ficials and diplomats aware of the saga have been quoted as saying that Lt. Gen. Pasha took the decision to ensure the release of Davis despite knowledge of the fact that he was working against the ISI and trying to expose the spy agencies alleged links with

militant organisations. Dunyanews.tv states that it is yet to be confirmed whether Lt.Gen.Pasha was act-ing under orders of the Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani or getting cookie points from the Americans for reasons which could range from personal to others. Authorities in Pakistan are silent about Lt.Gen.Pasha be-ing authorised to be personally present in the court premises, to update the US ambassador through text messages, or it was his own initiative. Those privy of intel-ligence matters were of the opinion that Pasha’s personal presence in the court premises demeaned the office of the Di-rector General Inter Services Intelligence agency, as this task could have been given to a major

or a colonel. According to Mark Mazettis’s book, Americans were confident that Lt.Gen.Pasha would deliver. What is emerging is that Lt.Gen. Pasha did not take action under the relevant laws, but acted to the contrary to get U.S. spy Davis released through an act of omission, an act punish-able under relevant military and civilian laws. Apprehensions that Raymond Davis would be re-leased had prompted the widow of one of the deceased to commit suicide a month earlier. However, her dying death declaration had revealed what is now beginning to unfold. Davis was acquitted when relatives of Faizan Haider and Mohammad Faheem par-doned him in court after taking

blood money. How the pardon was secured is credited to Lt General Pasha in some details in the book. Two questions now surface (1) Will the independent courts headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry take notice

of how the justice system was subverted under his leadership in view of the revelations? and (2) Will Pakistan’s parliament question the former DG ISI about his extraordinary role in getting a US spy released by bypassing all official protocols and laws of the land?


Mahesh Bhatt Launches Indo-Pak Peace Anthem ‘Dil Ki Udaan’

Om Puri Arrested,

Released On Bail Actor Om Puri was on Saturday arrested for al-legedly assaulting his wife, and later released on a bail bond of Rs 10,000, police said. Mr. Puri’s wife Nandita had said the actor had assaulted her with a wooden stick on August 22 at their suburban residence after they both had an argument.

New Delhi, August 31 (ANI): Mahesh Bhatt re-cently unveiled a promotional ‘Indo-Pak peace anthem’ titled ‘Dil Ki Udaan’ for a Punjabi cross border film ‘Dil Pardesi Ho Gaya’ in Mumbai. The anthem is com-posed by an Indo-Pak band of musical duo Mudasir Ali and Hamza Akram. The 64-year-old filmmaker told the media that this flick talks about Mahatma Gandhi’s values of Love and Peace and everyone should

support it. “Mahatma Gandhi was our father of nation and at the time of partition he said that both the nations have no other alternative and if we don’t live like brothers then no one would be able to live peacefully. So I think this film revives Bapu ji’s thought as it talks abut love and peace because we have fought a lot and war is not the solution for anything,” Bhatt said. The ‘Murder 2’ di-rector said that the he hopes

that this film would be loved by everyone in India as well as in Pakistan. “And in today’s sour time when someone talks about peace we should support them and that’s the reason I am here today. Because the film which they have made is great and I am sure everyone in India and Pakistan will love the film,” he added. The film, which has been helmed by Thakur Tapasvi, is based on an Indo-Pak love story.

‘Satyagraha’ Team Share Views And Motive Behind Flick

‘Satyagraha’ stars have spoken about their roles, the motive of the movie, and their inter-personal relations with the cast and crew in an ex-clusive interview with ANI. On being asked about taking yet another negative role in a political film, Manoj Vajpayee revealed that he focused on the film, the dimen-sion of the character and how important it is to the whole set up, before deciding on playing the role in this movie. Actress Amrita Rao revealed that she is still in disbelief that she shares screen space in most of her scenes with Amitabh Bachchan, and was thrilled by the profes-sional energies brought in by the ensconced actors. Kareena Kapoor explained that she is playing the role of a women journal-ist, which incorporates some characteristics of every popular journalist, who is very digni-fied and totally involved in her work, adding that it is her character that brings the revolu-

tion together and puts it out in the media. On being asked about his ‘angry young man’ role, actor Ajay Devgn revealed that the role he plays is of a very real and true to life character. Actor Arjun Rampal, who has an army background, confessed that he is a patriot and he likes to do films which would instill that in people, but the real inspiration for taking up this role was the subject of the character and what he was going to be doing.

Will Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha Team Up In Anees Bazmee’s ‘Welcome Back’?

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and actress Rekha are likely to come together for Anees Bazmee’s upcoming comedy film Welcome Back. Producer Firoz Nadiadwala and di-rector Anees Bazmee are reportedly in talks with Bachchan and Rekha for the sequel of their 2007 hit Welcome. Big B has already been approached to play the role of RDX-- a don played by the late actor Feroz Khan in the first part, while Rekha has been offered to play the role of a wealthy fashionista. “We are considering Rekhaji for a role which will have love angle between Nana and Anil. But it is too early to talk about all this as nothing is decided and confirmed. As there are three-four veteran actresses that we are thinking of it all depends if they like it or not, their dates and money issues,” Bazmee said. Bazmee has not yet met Rekha or narrated the part to her. “I am a huge fan of Rekhaji. I wanted to work with her. I feel since it’s a comedy film, Rekhaji will do justice to her part as she has a superb comic timing,” he said. The erstwhile reel life couple whose onscreen and offscreen relationship has al-

ways provided a fodder to Bollywood gossip mills. The two first acted in Do Anjaane (1976) and went to do films like Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr Natwarlal (1979), Suhaag (1979), Silsila (1981) to name a few. Actors Nana Patekar and Anil Kapoor will be reprising their roles in Welcome Back, while John Abraham and Shruti Hassan are the new additions. The film is expected to go on floors in a month’s time.

Priyanka Chopra Clueless About Milan Talkies While there were reports that Priyanka Chopra will be seen in Milan Talkies, the actress says she doesn’t know what is happening with the film. It is said that the 31-year-old will be seen opposite actor Shahid Kapoor in the film, which will be directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and produced by Ekta Kapoor. “I don’t know what is happening with Milan Talkies. I haven’t spoken to Ekta yet. Ekta and Tigmanshu

discussed about the script year and half back after that I don’t know what happened to the movie. I am still yet to discuss with them about the film.” Meanwhile, the ac-tress will be next seen in Zanjeer, a remake of megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s 1973 film of the same name. Di-rected by Apoorva Lakhia, the film will release on September 6. It also features south-ern star Ram Charan Teja in the lead.

SRK Urges Men To Respect Women, Elders Superstar Shah Rukh Khan has urged men to respect women and elderly people, saying those who do so will be blessed. “Respect the girls and women in your home, there is nothing bigger than that. I want every young man to remember that you will be blessed only if you respect your parents, care for them and look upon girls in your family and outside with respect,” the 47-year-old said. Shah Rukh’s comments come in the wake of the ghastly gang-rape of a young photojournalist by five men last week. All the five perpetrators have been arrested. He asked everyone present to repeat after him: “When we wake up in the morning, we will touch our parents’ feet and give them respect. We will respect our wives and sisters like goddess Lakshmi and give them utmost respect.” Shah Rukh also broke the dahi handi and entertained everyone by mouthing dialogues from his films Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Devdas, Don and Chennai Express.

Fast-track Courts Need To Speed Up: Farhan Actor-f i lmmak-er Farhan Akhtar, who launched the Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD) campaign earlier this year, believes that the concept of fast-track courts must live up to its name, thereby granting speedy justice to victims of rape. He also believes it can result in a serious dif-ference to rising number of crimes against women. “I feel that the fact

that cases can go on for so long, emboldens people. I feel the concept of fast-track courts, which really hasn’t come into effect the way we hoped it would... if that can happen, it will probably make a serious difference,” the 39-year-old said. “Right now the rate of conviction is very low and that is because of the process of judiciary moving really slow,” Farhan said in reac-tion to the recent Mumbai

rape case of a photojournal-ist. Farhan stated that if there is fear of law, it will deter potential criminals from committing crimes. “I think a certain degree of fear factor in the mind of somebody who is a potential offender is impor-tant. There has to be respect for law, there also has to be fear that ‘I will get caught’,” Farhan said.


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India Looks Forward To Continuing Close Cooperation With Bhutan: Pranab Mukherjee

Pakistan Flips And Flops On Bhasha Dam, Then Puts It On Hold

New Delhi, Aug. 31 (ANI): President Pranab Mukherjee said on Saturday that India looks forward to continuing close coopera-tion with Bhutan on issues of national interest, including mutual security interests. Welcoming Bhuta-nese Prime Minister Lyon-chhen Tshering Tobgay and his delegation, who called on him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here, President Mukherjee congratulated him and his party for the impressive vic-tory in the second democratic elections in Bhutan. President Mukher-

jee said that Bhutan has in the last five years completed a historical transition to democratic and constitutional monarchy, and added that the smooth transition is a tribute to Bhutan’s wise leadership. He said that the Indian Government looks for-ward to working closely with the Bhutanese Prime Minister and his new team. President Mukherjee said that Bhutan’s 11th Five Year Plan, for the period 2013-18 has commenced and Indian officials have discussed in detail Bhutan’s requirement under Government of India

assistance for Bhutan’s Plan. He said that he is delighted that Government of India will meet the require-ments of Bhutanese Govern-ment. Reciprocating the President’s sentiments, the Bhutanese Prime Minister hoped that this visit would further enhance the ties of friendship between Bhutan and India and go a long way in strengthening their relations. The Prime Minister Tobgay also met Dr. Manmo-han Singh and discussed areas of mutual interest between the two countries.

By Smita Prakash New Delhi, Aug.31 (ANI): In a series of gaffes, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar first announced on 20th August that his government had supposedly arranged funds for the 4500 MW Diamer-Bhasha Dam estimated at a cost of 12 billion dollars. Pakistan media re-ported that The World Bank (WB) had withdrawn its con-dition of seeking a no-objec-tion certificate (NOC) from India for releasing funds for the dam. Finance Minister Dar said,” We have convinced the WB that it is not legally necessary to seek the NOC from a neighboring country” (read India). If such a waiver had indeed been sought and provided, only Dar was aware of it. Neither India, nor the World Bank, was aware of any change in the status of the proposed dam and it’s fund-ing. No multilateral lending agency can fund projects in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or Azad Kashmir as Pakistan calls it, because the ownership of the area is disputed. For the past eleven years, the Pakistani Govern-ment has been contesting this clause. While India has not given up its legitimate right over PoK and still considers Pakistan an illegal occupier of the land, its position on the dam is ambiguous. One source said that so long as the project proposals legally state that it is located in an area, which is disputed between India and Pakistan and its final disposition, is for parties to the dispute to settle and the project is meant for developmental assistance to Kashmiris, and then, India could take a favor-able approach. On the other hand, India could also hold back the NOC and create ‘a situation’ but it could not really block a project because it does not have the weightage in votes. It

also would not like to interna-tionalize the issue but slipping in an NOC in Pakistan Occu-pied Kashmir when the LoC was heating up would not have been politically prudent. Hence Dar’s bombast came as a surprise. Then, came step two of the flip flop: Within a week of making that state-ment, the Pakistani Finance Minister made a quick turn around and said that a study needs to be conducted on the Diamer-Bhasha project, which would take two to three years so Pakistan would instead be-gin with the six billion dollar Dasu Hydropower project. Experts in Pakistan expressed surprise at the flip flop because supposedly all feasibility studies on the Diamer-Bhasha dam are com-plete and even the engineering on the dam has been worked out so Dar’s claim that it needs to go back to the drawing stage was a complete eyewash. They say that the PML-N govern-ment has come under World Bank pressure to shelve the Bhasha dam and instead begin work on the cheaper project: the six billion dollar Dasu Hydropower project. The mystery intensi-fied with one Pakistan media report claiming that a former chairman WAPDA (Water and Power Development Author-ity) had circulated a note to all concerned that the World Bank did not want the con-struction of the Bhasha Dam though the ADB and Friends of Democratic Pakistan were willing to finance the proj-ect. Earlier the Pakistani Finance Minister with a lot of grandstanding even quoted ADB Vice President Xiaoyu Zhao supposedly about the Diamer Bhasha Dam in a state-ment which read: “We have now moved ahead and work to find a way to structure it and we are already looking at various models in this regard.” Whether it was a misinterpre-tation or deliberate quibbling is not clear.

But after two weeks of awkward statements Di-amer-Bhasha has been put on hold and work is to begin on the 4,320MW Dasu project in-stead, as advised by the World Bank in the first place. In March this year, the PPP government had an-nounced that the Dasu project would be priority and not the Bhasha Dam. WAPDA Chairman Raghib Abbas said, “Diamer Bhasha Dam would remain the top priority of the country, however, owing to challenging situation the government would go for con-struction of Dasu Dam project and WB has already assured required financing for it.” So what the PML-N government did was nothing more than jump around and come back to exactly what the PPP government had an-nounced earlier. This has angered the likes of venerable professors like Hafiz Saeed who see a hidden hand, read India, in the decision taken by the Nawaz Sharif government. Speak-ing to Pakistani television channels he accused India of waging Water Wars against Pakistan since it is incapable of waging a conventional war. Taking cue from the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the language press and televi-sion anchors saw this move by the Sharif Government as yet another capitulation to India. Meanwhile in India, sources said it had nothing to do with what was essentially a storm in a tea cup in Pakistan, nothing more. Foundation stone for the Bha-sha dam had been laid twice over by General Musharraf and Prime Minister Gilani and the people of Gilgit-Baltistan had been promised a lot but no funds allocated. The head of the Kashmir National Party in PoK Abbas Butt says, “ Yes Azad Kashmir is free, it is free of water, free of electricity, free of jobs and free of all essentials of life.”

China, Pakistan Pledge To Boost Military Cooperation

Beijing, Aug. 31 (ANI): China’s Vice Chair-man of Central Military Com-mission Xu Qiliang met with Khalid Shameem Wynne, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan, in Beijing on Saturday. During the meeting, the two generals pledged to further boost military co-operation between the two countries, Xinhua reports.

Xu said China and Pakistan are good neigh-bours, good friends, good partners and good brothers, and the practical military-to-military cooperation will not only benefit the two countries, but also help to safeguard peace and stability in the region. Hailing the tradi-tional friendship and the smooth development of the

military ties between the two countries, Wynne said he looks forward to more exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries to address challenges with joint efforts. On Friday, Wynne and his Chinese counterpart Fang Fenghui co-chaired the 10th China-Pakistan defense and security consultation in Beijing.

India, Bangladesh Working Closely To Strengthen Ties

Agar tala, Aug.31 (ANI): Indian and Bangladeshi officials met recently for the 82nd joint border conference here to discuss various issues related to the border. The three-day long meet focused on identifying missing border pillars and tak-ing steps to repair or rebuild them. The six-member In-dian delegation was led by Survey of India’s Kolkata based director N R Biswal, while the Bangladesh side was headed by Abdul Mannan. India and Bangladesh share a 4095-kilometer-long border. Manan said: “India is a friendly state and we re-ceived lots of assistance in our liberation war. So, any issue with friendly countries like India, we will try to resolve it through discussion.” Tripura also hosted a

four-day film festival to com-memorate the 42nd year of the Bangladesh Liberation War. The event, t it led “Bangladesh War of Liberation in Celluloid” was organized jointly by the Directorate of Film Festivals of India and Bangladesh. Visitors thronged the Nazrul Kala Kshetra and showed keen interest in un-derstanding the history of the liberation war and India’s role in it. Various internationally awarded films and documenta-ries on the liberation war were screened at the festival. A photo exhibition, consisting of more than 450 photos showcasing the struggle during the war, was also orga-nized. Sahabuddin Mazum-der, one of the organiser’s of the photo exhibition, said: “Over 30 lakh people died, 3 lakh women were raped during the

liberation war. If we allow the history of such a hard-earned freedom to be forgotten, what will be left with with? That is when the thought came to me that the only way to hold on to the legacy is pictures, because they never lie, and I started collecting them.” Dr. Sanaulla, a visitor from Bangladesh, said: “India and Bangladesh are so closely linked that there are many similarities between the two countries, both in terms of culture and thought processes. Moreover, during the forma-tion of Bangladesh, the kind of support we got from India, especially the people of Tripura, we can never forget that.” Cultural events like this one help in strengthening people-to-people contact and promote better relations. They also give the youth a chance to understand their legacy.


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Nepal Should Ensure Adhikari Case Investigations Proceed Without Political Interference: HRWs

New York, Aug. 31 (ANI): The authorities in Ne-pal need to ensure that the new investigation into the murder of Krishna Prasad Adhikari, allegedly killed by the Mao-ists in 2004, proceeds without political interference, Human Rights Watch said today. Investigations and prosecutions for grave abuses committed by both sides to the conflict are long overdue and should be a priority for the government. Adhikari’s parents are on hunger strike to de-mand justice, and are now in intensive care in a Kathmandu hospital. Despite earlier prom-ising to ensure justice, the Maoist leadership has made statements seemingly threat-ening a return to conflict if there is an investigation into Adhikari’s alleged abduction and murder. Adhikari was al-legedly abducted by Maoist forces on June 5, 2004, from Bakular village on suspicion of being an informer. The police investigation into the case was closed after the gov-ernment decided in June 2006 not to pursue investigations into wartime cases pending the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commis-sion (TRC). In January 2013, after several futile attempts to find out what happened to their son, Adhikari’s parents began a brief hunger strike in front of the prime minister’s

house. When that yielded no results, they began the cur-rent hunger strike, which they vowed to continue until they have answers. In mid-August 2013 the government ordered an investigation into Adhikari’s death following a recom-mendation from the National Human Rights Commission. Before the government re-lented and ordered the investi-gation, Adhikari’s parents had come under severe pressure from the authorities to give up their protest.“Apparently the Maoists no longer believe in justice, at least when it comes to investigating their own crimes,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director. “Police in Nepal should ignore these threats and investigate this killing and other wartime abuses.” In a news release and at a meeting on August 13, the chairman of the Maoist party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, warned the government against re-opening cases pertaining to the conflict era, insisting that they should be handled only through the stalled TRC. Dahal warned that the government’s decision to investigate the Adhikari case could derail the peace pro-cess and put the forthcoming elections at risk. He claimed further that Adhikari’s parents were being used by forces op-posed to the Maoists. “There will be a re-volt if such cases are revived,”

Dahal is reported to have said in the meeting, adding: “We cannot accept the attempts to treat any conflict-era cases in a traditional way.” The Maoists are not the first political party to dismiss the need for account-ability. Several governments in Nepal have argued that con-flict-era cases are politically motivated and have withdrawn hundreds of cases pending in courts against individuals af-filiated with the Maoists and other political parties. The TRC ordinance, which Dahal argues is the only appropriate venue to hear these cases, is flawed and does not divest security forces and the justice system of their mandate to investigate and prosecute crimes, including conflict-related cases. At least 13,000 people were killed during a decade-long armed conflict that started in 1996 between Maoists and government forces. The violence ended with a 2006 peace agreement that also assured justice for serious human rights viola-tions during the fighting. “Instead of listening to parents desperate to know who killed their son, the Mao-ist leadership is dismissing them as manipulated pup-pets,” Ganguly said. “Victims of the civil war should be heard and perpetrators of wartime abuses brought to justice. Let this process begin, at last, with the Adhikari family.”

UN’s Navi Pillay Slams ‘Authoritarian’ Lanka’s Human Rights Record

London, Sept. 1 (ANI): United Nations Hu-man Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has criticised the Sri Lankan government, at the end of a week-long visit to the country on a fact-finding mis-sion on war crimes. In a statement, Pillay said she feared the country was becoming increasingly authori-tarian. She added that since the end of the civil war four years ago, democracy had been undermined and the rule of law eroded. According to the BBC, Pillay said that she was allowed to go wherever she

wanted, but that Sri Lankans who came to meet her were harassed and intimidated by security forces. She added that sur-veillance and harassment ap-pears to be getting worse in Sri Lanka, which is a country where critical voices are quite often attacked or even perma-nently silenced. Pillay added that she would be reporting such incidents to the Human Rights Council. She added she was concerned at recent attacks on religious minorities and at what she felt were government attempts to downplay them.

When she visited the northern city of Jaffna she met Tamil families who complained to her about missing relatives, military land grabs and life without basic facilities. Pillay said that she had raised the alleged harass-ment with the government, adding that she would keep the focus on what happened to the people she had met, the report said. Pillay’s visit comes after a second UN resolution in March urged Colombo to properly investigate killings and disappearances during the war, especially in its final stages, it added.


Why Insomniacs Struggle To Concentrate Washington, August 31 (ANI): A new study has tried to explain the reason behind people suffering from insomnia having trouble con-centrating during the day even though objective evidence of a cognitive problem is lacking. Lead author Sean P.A. Drummond, PhD, as-sociate professor in the de-partment of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, said that they found that insomnia subjects did not properly turn on brain regions critical to a working memory task and did not turn off ‘mind-wandering’ brain regions irrelevant to the task.

The research team led by Drummond and co-principal investigator Mat-thew Walker, PhD, studied 25 people with primary insomnia and 25 good sleepers. The study subjects underwent a functional mag-netic resonance imaging scan while performing a working memory task. The results showed that participants with insom-nia did not differ from good sleepers in objective cognitive performance on the working memory task. However, the MRI scans revealed that people with insomnia could not modulate activity in brain

regions typically used to perform the task. As the task got harder, good sleepers used more resources within the working memory network of the brain, especially the dor-solateral prefrontal cortex. Insomnia subjects, however, were unable to re-cruit more resources in these brain regions. Furthermore, as the task got harder, partici-pants with insomnia did not dial down the “default mode” regions of the brain that are normally only active when our minds are wandering. The study is set to be published online in journal Sleep.

Blame Your Brain’s ‘Reward System’ For Facebook Addiction

Berl in, Aug. 30 (ANI): A person’s intensity of Facebook use can be predicted by activity in a reward-related area of the brain, according to a new study. The study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neurosci-ence, relate brain activity to social media use. Meshi and col-leagues observed activity in the brain’s reward circuitry, the nucleus accumbens, in 31 participants. Researchers focused on the nucleus accumbens, a small but critical structure located deep in the center of the brain, because previous research has shown that re-wards, including food, money, sex and gains in reputation, are processed in this region. “As human beings, we evolved to care about our reputation. In today’s world, one way we’re able to manage our reputation is by using social media websites like Facebook,” Dar Meshi, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, said. Facebook is the

world’s largest social media channel with 1.2 billion monthly active users. It was used in the study because interactions on the website are carried out in view of the user’s friends or public and can affect their reputation. For example, Face-book consists of users ‘liking’ posted information. This ap-proval is positive social feed-back, and can be considered related to their reputation. Subjects participated in a video interview, and were then told whether people thought highly of them. They also saw what people thought of another participant. They also performed a card task to win money. Re-searchers recorded functional neuroimaging (fMRI) during these procedures. Results showed that participants who received positive feedback about them-selves produced stronger activation of the nucleus ac-cumbens than when they saw the positive feedback that another person received. The strength of this difference corresponded to participants’ reported inten-sity of Facebook use. But the

nucleus accumbens response to monetary reward did not predict Facebook use. “Our study reveals that the processing of social gains in reputation in the left nucleus accumbens predicts the intensity of Facebook use across individuals,” says Meshi. “These findings expand upon our present knowledge of nucleus accumbens function as it relates to complex human behavior.” Recent research has shown effects of social media, including interrupting produc-tivity in schools and reducing grade point averages, and also of addiction to Facebook. In the paper, the authors respond: “Our find-ings relating individual social media use to the individual response of the brain’s reward system may also be relevant for both educational and clini-cal research in the future.” The authors point out, however, that their results do not determine if positive social feedback drives people to interact on social media, or if sustained use of social me-dia changes the way positive social feedback is processed by the brain.

IVF More Successful In Women Under 35 Years Of Age

Melbourne, Aug 30 (ANI): A new study has revealed that one in two women below the age of 35 can be blessed with a baby if they opt for In Vitro Fer-tilization. However, the re-search by the University of NSW also suggested that the chances of success drop dramatically after five tries, News.com.au reported. The study, which is the first in the world to track national success rates

for IVF, is based on 2011 statistics from 35 centers in Australia and New Zea-land. According to the study’s lead author UNSW Professor Elizabeth Sul-livan, although fertility treatment can be useful, it is always best to conceive spontaneously if possible. It was found that the overall chance for all age groups of delivering a baby is 21 per cent after one cycle of treatment, increasing to 40

per cent by the fifth cycle, but when women aged 35 and older are removed from the statistics, the success rate jumps to more than 50 per cent after five attempts. Prof Sullivan says although older women have a very low success rate using their own eggs, they usually manage as well as younger women using donor eggs. The study is to be presented at a Fertility So-ciety of Australia scientific meeting.

Learning Second Language As A Child Enhances Brain Development

Washington, Aug 30 (ANI): A new study suggests that the age at which children learn a second language can have a significant bearing on the structure of their adult brain. According to a new joint study by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro at Mc-Gill University and Oxford University, majority of people in the world learn to speak more than one language dur-ing their lifetime. Many do so with great proficiency particularly if the languages are learned simultaneously or from early in development. The study concludes that the pattern of brain devel-opment is similar if you learn one or two language from

birth. However, learning a second language later on in childhood after gaining proficiency in the first (na-tive) language does in fact modify the brain’s structure, specifically the brain’s inferior frontal cortex. The left inferior frontal cortex became thicker and the right inferior frontal cortex became thinner. The cortex is a multi-layered mass of neurons that plays a major role in cognitive functions such as thought, language, consciousness and memory. The study suggests that the task of acquiring a second language after infancy stimulates new neural growth and connections among neu-rons in ways seen in acquiring

complex motor skills such as juggling. The study’s authors speculate that the difficulty that some people have in learn-ing a second language later in life could be explained at the structural level. “The later in child-hood that the second language is acquired, the greater are the changes in the inferior frontal cortex,” Dr. Denise Klein, researcher in The Neuro’s Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and lead author, said. “Our results provide structural evidence that age of acquisition is crucial in laying down the structure for language learning,” the researcher said. The study is pub-lished in the journal Brain and Language.

Have The Fruit, Not The Juice, To Cut Diabetes Risk

Washington, Aug 30 (ANI): For years, we’ve been told that drinking fruit juice is the perfect start to your day, but a new research has revealed that doing so can strongly increase the risk of diabetes. The study by re-searchers from the UK, USA and Singapore also suggested that eating more whole fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes and apples, is associ-ated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, with greater fruit juice consumption having an adverse effect. Researchers looked to examine the association of individual fruit consumption in relation to type 2 diabetes risk. Data were used from three prospective cohort studies among US adults: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS 1984 – 2008), the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II 1991-2009) and the Health Pro-fessionals Follow-up Study

(HPFS 1986 – 2008). There were 187,382 participants, who reported a diagnosis of diabetes, cardio-vascular disease or cancer at baseline were excluded. Ten individual fruits were used in the study: grapes or raisins; peaches, plums or apricots; prunes; bananas; cantaloupe; apples or pears; oranges; grapefruit; strawberries; blueberries. Fruit juice included apple; orange; grapefruit and other fruit juices. Food frequency questionnaires were used every four years to assess participants’ habitual diet, asking how often, on average, they consumed each food in a standard portion size. Participants could choose from nine possible responses, ranging from “never, or less than once per month” to “six or more times per day”. It was found that total whole fruit consumption correlated positively with age,

physical activity, multivita-min use, total energy intake and fruit juice consumption. Three servings per week of blueberries; grapes and raisins; apples and pears significantly reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, greater consumption of fruit juice was associated with increased type 2 diabetes risk. Substitu-tion of whole fruits for fruit juice was associated with a lower risk, except strawber-ries and cantaloupe melon. Results showed that 12,198 out of 187,382 partici-pants developed diabetes so the overall risk in the popula-tions studied over many years was 6.5percent. Among those who had three servings per week of individual whole fruits rather than fruit juice the overall risk was itself reduced by 7percent. The study was pub-lished in the British Medical Journal.


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India To Grow At 5.5% This Year; Export Outlook Optimistic: Anand Sharma Mumbai, Aug. 31 (ANI): Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Saturday expressed hope that India’s GDP would grow by 5.5 percent during the current fiscal and export performance will be better despite global slow-down. “Regardless of the GDP numbers released yester-day, I am confident that India’s GDP growth will not be less than 5.5 per cent this year,” he said,” while addressing the leading exporters here after inaugurating the brand new of-fice of the Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO) in Andheri, Mumbai. Sharma admitted that the country’s economy is facing strong headwinds, but asserted that the fundamentals of the Indian economy remain strong. He said that higher growth is not an option, but an imperative for India. Sharma added that every percentage drop in GDP threatens three million jobs and India can not simply afford to grow at a slower rate. “An atmosphere of gloom is being created unnec-essarily through speculative hammering and we need to overcome this despondency and negativity,” he said. The Commerce Min-ister based his optimism on the export performance and said

despite the world-wide reces-sionary trends, Indian exports managed to touch US $ 303 billion last fiscal, almost double from the US $ 167 billion 4 years ago. He said the exports have done well in the first four months of this fiscal and for-ward bookings of exporters are also encouraging. FIEO mem-bers expressed confidence of touching $ 325 billion mark. Sharma said the government has taken several measures to push merchandize exports to earn foreign ex-change. He said special thrust has been laid on bringing down transaction cost to boost trade efficiency. He observed that the US $ 1.2 trillion investment planned in infrastructure sector will go a long way in boosting export performance of Indian companies. Sharma, however, felt that the turn around time in Indian ports was still longer, which needs to be brought down near international standards. Advocating the need to bring down cost of con-tainer exports, he observed that “CONCOR (Container Corporation of India) alone will be not be able to meet India’s container needs. We need to have competition”. He said special em-phasis is being laid on trade facilitation, which is also an important issue at the World

Trade Organization (WTO). Sharma defended the government and RBI measures to curb gold imports to address the current account deficit. “We import oil. Since it is an energy requirement, we have little scope to reduce imports. So we need to look at other options” said Sharma. “Even if India con-siders to monetize a part of its declared gold reserve, it can go a long way in powering the economy,” he added. The Commerce Min-ister clarified that monetizing gold was one of the options, and he never advocated auctioning or mortgaging gold. Earlier, speaking at the CHEMEXCIL Export Awards function on Friday evening, as part of his two day Mumbai visit, Sharma had said that India would remain one among the top three destina-tions for foreign investment in spite of the economic down-turn. He rejected the ar-gument that the country was facing a pre-1991-like situation, saying ‘the foreign exchange reserves are satisfactory, for-eign debt is at a manageable level and the debt to GDP ratio has been constantly coming down’. He asser ted that India’s growth story can not be written off and there is no reason to panic.

US Launches Probe Against Indian Trade Practices

Washington, Aug 31 (PTI): A US Federal agency has launched an investigation into Indian trade policies which allegedly discriminate against the American trade and investment. The investigation, ‘Trade, Investment and In-dustrial Policies in India: Effects on the US Economy’, was requested jointly by the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means. The United States International Trade Commis-sion (USITC) will report on the recent policies and mea-sures in India that affect US exports and investment and

evaluate the effects of such barriers on US firms and the economy, the federal agency had said in a statement on Thursday. In its examination, the USITC will enumerate the restrictive trade and invest-ment policies that India main-tains or has recently adopted, determine which sectors of the US economy are most affected by these policies, and describe the competitiveness of Indian firms in these sectors. It will provide sev-eral case studies of US firms or industries that have been particularly affected by India’s restrictions. As requested by the Congress, the USITC will

also perform a quantitative analysis of the effects of such measures. The USITC will survey a sample of US firms to measure the perceptions of India’s policies and the impact of those policies on firms’ strategies toward India. The survey results will complement the quantita-tive analysis of the effects of these policies on trade, invest-ment, and the US economy. The USITC will deliver the report to the Com-mittees by November 30, 2014, the statement said, adding that it will hold a public hearing in connection with the investiga-tion on February 13, 2014.

No Proposal To Convert Idle Gold Into Bullion: RBI

CII Draws Heart From PM’s Statement On Roadmap Ahead For Indian Economy New Delhi, Aug.31 (ANI): The Confederation of Industry (CII) has said that it draws heart from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on the roadmap ahead for Indian economy. CII president S Gopalakrishnan said the business chamber agrees with the Prime Minister that the rupee is undervalued, and drew heart from his as-surance that capital controls would not be resorted in an effort to contain depreciation of the currency. “The ta rget of achieving 2.5 percent current account deficit is welcome, however, a roadmap would provide confidence to indus-try,” he added. “CII hopes that the political leadership would come together to further the cause of the “difficult reforms” like the insurance and pension bills, GST, reduction in subsidies, etc,” Gopalakrishnan said. “In the meantime, CII urges the government to fast track implementation of stalled projects as a quick measure to revive the invest-ment cycle, even as industry expects RBI to ease rates in the September review of monetary policy,” he said. Gopalakrishnan’s reaction came after Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh had told both Houses of Parliament on Friday that while the fall of the rupee value to the dollar is a matter of great concern, the Central Government is taking steps to reduce current account deficit and added that growth will improve in the second half of fiscal 2013-14. “There are concerns and justifiably so on how ru-pee fall will impact economy, the movement of the rupee re-cently is a matter of concern to the government,” Dr. Singh told the Lok Sabha while making a statement on the current economic situation. “What triggered the sharp depreciation in Rupee value was due to certain external forces.We need to reduce our appetite for gold, economise the use of petro-leum products and take steps to increase our exports,” he said. “The rupee is also getting hit due to high current account deficit. Huge cost of gold and oil imports is also current account deficit. The government is taking steps to reduce current account deficit,” he added. Dr. Singh further said: “To some extent, depre-ciation can be good for the as this will help to increase our export competitiveness and

discourage imports.” Urging political parties to work towards and join in the Government’’s efforts to put the economy back on the path of stabile growth, Dr. Singh said: “The easy reforms of the past have been done. For more difficult reforms, we need political consensus.” “It cannot be denied that the country is faced with a difficult economic situa-tion. And there are several causes. I do not deny that there are some domestic factors but there are also international factors arising out of the changes in the US monetary stance,” Dr. Singh said. “There are also problems created by the new tensions that are on the horizon in Syria and they have inevitable conse-quences for oil prices. So we have to reckon with all those uncertainties. I will be very happy to make a statement tomorrow. I need some time to reflect on what I have to say, but I would be quite happy to make the statement tomorrow,” he added. The opposition, however, said that the Prime Minister’s statement on the economic crisis was an ad-mission of the UPA regime’s failure on many fronts.

Mumbai, Aug. 31 (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Sat-urday said it is not contemplating any proposal to buy idle gold and convert it into bullion. “The RBI clarifies that no such proposal is under its con-sideration at this juncture,” the apex bank said in a statement. There have been media reports that the RBI is considering various options of converting idle gold, including that available with temple trusts, into bullion. Bullion usually stands for gold in form of bars before

coining. Demand for gold is the reason for rise in import of the precious metal. The rising gold import is one of the main reason for the Current Account Deficit (CAD), which widened to a record 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2012-13 fiscal. The RBI and the government have already taken various steps to control the import of gold with a view to check CAD. The government re-cently raised customs duty on gold to 10 per cent.

Import of gold went up by a huge 87 per cent from 205 tonnes in April-July 2012 to 383 tonnes during the corresponding period this year. In value terms, the increase was 68 per cent from Rs 56,488 crore to Rs 95,092 crore. The government has targeted a CAD at 3.7 per cent of GDP, or $ 70 billion, in the current financial year. India’s CAD, which indicates the excess of imports of goods, services and transfers over exports, touched a record 4.8 per cent of GDP, or $ 88.2 billion, in 2012-13.


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IMF Says Depreciating Rupee Poses Challenges As Well As Opportunities For India New Delhi, Aug.30 (ANI): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday said the unprecedented slide of rupee poses chal-lenges as well as opportunities for India. IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said the current situation presents a challenge, obviously, to the government of India, but also an oppor-tunity for the government to continue in its policy efforts on a variety of fronts. “But maybe just stepping back on the situa-tion in India, the combination of large fiscal and current account deficits, high and persistent inflation, sizable un hedged corporate foreign borrowing and reliance on portfolio inflows are long-standing vulnerabilities that have now been elevated as global liquidity conditions tighten, and this clearly has affected market confidence,” he said. The US India Busi-ness Council (USIBC) Presi-dent Ron Somers stressed on taking steps to restore inves-tors’ confidence. “Bold leadership

that continues to open India’s economy and which advances reforms will help staunch the rupees’ slide,” Somers said. “Lifting FDI caps in Insurance should be the high-est priority, while resisting protectionist measures - such as forced manufacturing and backsliding on Intellectual Property protection - is cru-cial. Demonstrating such leadership will go a long way towards restoring investor sentiment,” he added. Referring to the Food Security Bill, Somers also said that it is now essen-tial to welcome organised re-tail into the country such that Multi National Corporations (MNC) may help achieve the Bill’s efficient implementa-tion and very purpose - to facilitate inclusive growth. Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson said that there is political pressure to keep the economy growing ahead of the 2014 elections. “There is political pressure to keep the economy growing ahead of elections in early 2014. The rupee is able to depreciate without

too much drama, and this by itself should, over time, help to reduce imports and increase exports. Weakening confi-dence in the Indian economy has been compounded by some policy confusion in recent months, which has further encouraged domestic residents to move funds out of the country, he said. Johnson said that when a country like India faces crisis, for domestic rea-sons but also perhaps because of what is happening in the United States, capital tends to flow out of that country and toward safe havens like the United States. According to reports, the rupee’s steep decline is fuelling inflation and posing a threat to public finances as the cost of oil, fertiliser and other critical imports in rupee terms rises. Chief economist at Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) D.K Joshi said that everything depends on wheth-er the rupee stays at these levels or it bounces back and if it stays at the current level, it will lead to a lot of trouble.

Aussie Premier Extends Cultural, Economical Bilateral Ties With India

Sydney, Aug. 30 (ANI): Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that their relation-ship with India has the great-est potential to grow, out of all of other bilateral relationships in Asia. Rudd has outlined an India Country Strategy with a vision of developing Austra-lia’s relationship with India by 2025 across community, business and government, the Indian Sun reports. The strategy outlines a plan for deepening cultural understanding with India by teaching and increasing flu-ency of Hindi in Australian schools to develop cultural awareness, the report added. According to the report, it also aims to achieve a threefold increase of the two-way trade between the nations by 2025, with India becoming one of Australia’s top-five trading partners. He mentioned that the greatest symbol of the ties between the two nations was

the contribution and success of more than 450,000 ‘Indian Diaspora’ that reside in Aus-tralia, becoming the fourth largest migrant community in the nation. However, the op-portunities and challenges Australia would face, when engaging with India, could vary depending on the rate and quality of growth n the country. India’s growing middle class, estimated to

reach 606 million by 2030, is creating new opportunities for Australian exporters. The Indian Gov-ernment has set a target of providing skills training to 500 million workers across 30 sectors in India by 2025. Both the govern-ments are planning to enhance vocational training partner-ships between their education providers, including in-market and low-cost delivery mod-els.

Banks Must Ensure Flow Of Credit To Every Sector Of Industry: FM New Delhi, Aug. 29 (ANI): Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said here today that banks must ensure flow of credit to every sector of industry and that bankers have been told to be sympathetic and have a humane approach towards genuine defaulters. The Finance Min-ister said that banks need capitalization to meet their enhanced lendings, which is increasing every year and

disclosed that this year the Government has made provi-sions of Rs. 14,000 crore for bank recapitalization. He added that nor-mally banks make their own arrangements to meet their capital requirements both through their own resources such as their profit etc. and the market. The Finance Minister said that all our Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are following Basel III norms and, in fact, our capital and provisioning

requirements are stricter than Basel III norms. Additionally, Chid-ambaram said it is time for hand holding of borrowers who are facing difficulties, especially industry. “Genuine defaulters and willful defaulters need to be dealt with separately. We have to be strict with willful defaulters,” Chidambaram said. The Finance Minis-ter, who was speaking at the

Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting of his Ministry here today, said that the subject matter for the discussion of the today’s meeting was “NPAs in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and measures taken to contain them.” The Finance Min-ister said that NPAs are critically dependent on the performance of the economy. “If the economy is growing at 8 to 9 percent per annum,

then the NPAs would be low. ...(Presently) NPAs is at 3.84 percent at the end of March, 2013 while it was 2.32 percent in March, 2011,” Chidambaram said. Chidambaram gave details of sectoral NPAs in-cluding agriculture sector at 5.46 percent, MSME sector at 5.82 percent, Corporate Sector at 3.44 percent, retail loans at 2.37 percent, and real estate at 1.92 percent among others.

Gold, Silver Fall Further On Weak Demand, Global Cues Gold prices declined further by Rs 275 to Rs 31,425 per ten gram, extending losses for the third straight day in the national capital on Saturday on fall in demand at higher lev-els amid weak global trend. While gold fell by Rs 275 to Rs 31,425 per ten grams after losing Rs 2,200 in the last two sessions, silver shed another Rs 70 at Rs 53,930 per kg after losing Rs 4,500 in last two days. Traders said in-creased selling by stockists in view of falling demand at prevailing higher levels and a weakening global trend

mainly kept pressure on gold and silver prices. Gold in New York, which normally set price trend on the domestic front, fell by 10.70 dollar to 1,396.50 and silver by 1.42 per cent to 23.53 dollar an ounce. In addition, strength-ening the rupee against the American currency and recov-ery in equity markets further influenced the sentiment in dollar-priced precious metals, they said. The government raised tariff value on gold imports while FMC hiked margins on the commodity in

futures trading to check vola-tility, was another dampening factor, they added. On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity fell by Rs 275 each to Rs 31,425 and Rs 31,225 per ten grams, respectively, while sovereign continued to be asked at last level of Rs 25,300 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready slide by Rs 70 to Rs 53,930 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 570 to Rs 53,430 per kg respectively. Silver coins remained stable at Rs 89,000 for buying and Rs 90,000 for selling of 100 pieces.


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Looking for an experienced live-out nanny for 5 month old with household duties near Clarksburg, MD. Good salary. Call 301-703-8270.********************************************************8x75 EITW07262013

Ledo Pizza in Largo, Maryland looking for cashier, shift manager, pizza roller and topper. Weekly 45 hours or more. Call 240-354-5909 or 301-421-9232********************************************************24x225 EITW07262013

Administrative Assistant with IT Knowledge. A Growing Healthcare Company needs a general IT administrative as-sistant with excellent background in Microsoft Office to coordinate various IT functions and administrative tasks, Rockville, MD. Email Resumes [email protected]********************************************************8x75 EITW07192013

We are looking experiences waiter’s and waitresses with knowl-edge of wine and drinks in Indian Restaurant 4 to 5 star at least 2 to 3 year experience. Looking for full time experience waiter

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OFFICE ASSISTANT WANTED: Wani & Associates, has an immediate opening for Office Assistant for Langley Park, Maryland office. The candidate must be fluent in HINDI/URDU AND ENGLISH. WELL ORGANIZED; MUST KNOW TYPING AND MS WORD. FAX RESUME ON: (703) 556 6628 OR E-MAIL: [email protected]********************************************************8x75 EITW08232013


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYCuriosity Helps Capture Best Ever

Mars Solar Eclipse Photos

Washington, Sept 1 (ANI): Mars rover Curiosity has been able to capture the sharpest-ever images of a solar eclipse as seen from the Red Planet. The 1-ton Curiosity rover snapped pictures with its telephoto lens as Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two tiny moons, blotted out much of the solar disk on August 17,

Fox News reported. Mark Lemmon of Texas A and M University, a co-investigator for Curiosity’s Mastcam instrument, said that this event occurred near noon at Curiosity’s location, which put Phobos at its closest point to the rover, appearing larger against the sun than it would at other times of day. He said that this is

the closest to a total eclipse of the sun that you can have from Mars. Phobos does not completely cover the sun as seen from the Red Planet’s surface, so the August 17 event was an annular or “ring of fire” eclipse, like the one that wowed skywatchers here on Earth from Australia to Hawaii in May of this year.

200,000 Private PCs Help Unearth 24 Pulsars Washington, August 30 (ANI): Scientists have used a computer cloud, with computing power of 200,000 private PCs, to discover 24 pulsars - stellar remnants with extreme physical prop-erties. Lead author Benja-min Knispel, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Al-bert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Hannover, said that they could only conduct our search thanks to the enormous com-puting power provided by the Einstein@Home volunteers. He said that through the participation of the public, we discovered 24 new pulsars in our Milky Way, which had previously been missed -- and

some of them are particularly interesting. Knispel and his col-leagues analyzed data from the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey, conducted from 1997 to 2001, with the 64-meter antenna of CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in southeast Australia. Knispel said that the search for new radio pulsars is very computer intensive and to determine the a priori unknown characteristics of the pulsar, e.g., its distance or its rotation period, we have to very finely comb through wide parameter ranges. They used the radio telescopes near Parkes, at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, and at Effelsberg for fol-

low-up observations and to characterize their discoveries in more detail. Ralph Eatough, scientist at the Max Planck In-stitute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn and second author of the publication, said that there are different kinds of pulsars, just like there are different animal species in a zoo. Some are more common than others -- in some cases, only a handful of specimens are known. Out of the 24 pulsars discovered, six are in binary systems orbiting the common center of mass with their stel-lar partner. The study has been published in The Astrophysi-cal Journal.

Ultracold Big Bang Experiment Simulates Early Universe’s Evolution

Washington, August 30 (ANI): Scientists have been able to reproduce a pattern resembling the cosmic micro-wave background radiation, using ultracold cesium atoms in a vacuum chamber, in a laboratory simulation of the big bang. Lead author Chen-Lung Hung, PhD ’11, now at the California Institute of Technology said that under certain conditions, a cloud of atoms chilled to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) in a vacuum chamber displays phenomena similar to those that unfolded following the big bang. He said that at this ultracold temperature, atoms get excited collectively. They act as if they are sound waves in air. The dense pack-age of matter and radiation that existed in the very early universe generated similar

sound-wave excitations, as revealed by COBE, WMAP and the other experiments. Hung said that infla-tion set out the initial condi-tions for the early universe to create similar sound waves in the cosmic fluid formed by matter and radiation. The sudden expan-sion of the universe during its inflationary period created ripples in space-time in the echo of the big bang. One can think of the big bang, in oversimplified terms, as an ex-plosion that generated sound, Chin said. The sound waves began interfering with each other, creating complicated patterns. “That’s the origin of complexity we see in the universe,” he said. These excitations are called Sakharov acoustic os-cillations, named for Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who described the phenom-enon in the 1960s. To produce Sakharov oscillations, Chin’s

team chilled a flat, smooth cloud of 10,000 or so cesium atoms to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, creating an exotic state of matter known as a two-dimensional atomic superfluid. Then they initi-ated a quenching process that controlled the strength of the interaction between the atoms of the cloud. They found that by suddenly making the in-teractions weaker or stronger, they could generate Sakharov oscillations. The universe simu-lated in Chin’s laboratory measured no more than 70 microns in diameter, ap-proximately the diameter as a human hair. “It turns out the same kind of physics can happen on vastly dif-ferent length scales,” Chin explained. “That’s the power of physics.” The study has been published in journal Sci-ence.

Grand Canyon Found 1 Mile Under Greenland Ice

Washington, Aug 30 (ANI): NASA airborne science mission has help reveal evidence of a large and previously un-known canyon hidden a mile under Greenland ice. The canyon has the characteristics of a winding river channel and is at least 460 miles (750 kilometers) long, making it longer than the Grand Canyon. In some places, it is as deep as 2,600 feet (800 meters), on scale with segments of the Grand Canyon. This immense feature is thought to predate the ice sheet

that has covered Greenland for the last few million years. “One might assume that the landscape of the Earth has been fully explored and mapped,” Jonathan Bamber, professor of physical geography at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and lead author of the study, said. “Our research shows there’s still a lot left to discover,” he said. The scientists used thousands of miles of airborne radar data, collected by NASA and researchers from the United Kingdom and Germany over

several decades, to piece togeth-er the landscape lying beneath the Greenland ice sheet. A large portion of this data was collected from 2009 through 2012 by NASA’s Op-eration IceBridge, an airborne science campaign that studies polar ice. One of IceBridge’s scientific instruments, the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder, can see through vast layers of ice to measure its thickness and the shape of bedrock below. The findings are pub-lished in the journal Science.

‘Burning’ Ice Can Help Make Potable Water From Oil And Gas Production

Washington, August 29 (ANI): Researchers have reported development on a economical method that can use one form of the “ice that burns” to transform very salty wastewater from fracking and other oil and gas production methods into water for drink-ing and irrigation. Yongkoo Seol and Jong-Ho Cha explain that salty wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production, includ-ing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. These methods use water and produce as a byprod-uct almost 10 barrels of salty water for every barrel of oil. Seol and Cha knew that an alternative called ‘gas

hydrate desalination’ showed promise. A gas hydrate con-sists of only water and a gas such as methane, the stuff of natural gas. Thus, when hydrates form, salts and other impurities are left behind. When the hydrate breaks down, the gas and pure water are released. But forming the gas hydrate used in desalination required costly chilling of the water to 28 degrees Fahren-heit. Seol and Cha sought to develop a less costly version of the method, which involves a variation on methane hydrates, chunks of ice retrieved from deep below the sea that burst into flame when brought to the

surface. They describe devel-opment and laboratory testing of a new type of gas hydrate desalination technique. They formed the hydrates from water and car-bon dioxide with the gases cyclopentane and cyclohexane, which made the method work more efficiently. It removed more than 90 percent of the salt compared to 70 percent with the previous gas hydrate technique. And the process works at near-room temperature, reducing the need for chilling. The study has been published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Android OS Most Vulnerable To Malware Attacks Wellington, Aug. 29 (ANI): Google’s Android is the most popular OS for mobiles yet it is the most vulnerable to malware at-tacks as revealed by a study conducted by the US Depart-ment of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to their study, Android despite be-ing the dominant platform is the primary target of

malware attacks as users do not upgrade the software to its higher version. Android was a target for 79 percent of all malware threats to mo-bile operating systems in 2012 with text messages representing about half of the malicious applications, Stuff.co.nz reports. Contrary, Nokia’s Symbian was targeted by about 19 percent of such

attacks while Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows and Blackberry systems faced less than one percent of malware attacks. Both the DHS and the FBI denied commenting on the matter and their report said that Android continues to be a primary target due to its market share and open source architecture, the report added.


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India Loses To Korea In Asia Cup Finals 0-1 Ipoh, Malaysia, September 1 (PTI): India made a spirited fightback in the second half but failed to earn a direct berth in next year’s hockey World Cup as they lost the high-scoring sum-mit clash 3-4 to defending champions South Korea, in Ipoh on Sunday. The Indians, who are virtu-ally assured of a place in the game’s showpiece event to be held at The Hague, Netherlands, needed to win the eight-nation tournament to secure a direct entry in the World Cup. Korea’s fourth title win means Malaysia are certain to return to the World Cup after a gap of 12 years. The Indians will now have to wait till the conclusion of the Oceania Cup in November, in which either Australia and New Zealand is expected to win, for the official confirmation of their participation from the FIH. Both Australia and New Zea-land have already made it to the World Cup through the FIH World League. The Koreans scored through Jang Jong Hyun (28th minute), You Hyo Sik (29th), Nam Hyun Woo (57th) and Kang Moon Kweon (68th). For India, Rupinderpal Singh (48th), Nikkin Thimmaiah (57th) and Mandeep Singh (64th) were the goal-getters. It was a case of near-yet-so-far for the Indians who did a tremendous

job in the second half, after going into the breather trailing by two goals. But the Indians eventually fell short as Korea eked out a hard-fought win and also got their revenge over the Sardar Singh-led side against whom they lost 0-2 in the pool stage. However, it was a great show by a young and inexperienced Indian team considering the fact that the country finished a lowly seventh in the last edition of the event in 2009. The Indians started the match on a bright note and dominated the early share of exchanges. India made some good moves from the right flank but the forwards fizzled after entering the opposition circle. Korea’s game was all about putting the Indian defence under pres-sure through counter-attacks. The Indian defence was tested by the quick, nimble-footed Koreans from the beginning as goalkeeper P R Sreejesh made a valiant double save in the 21st minute to keep a clean slate. Soon India had their first scor-ing opportunity through their first pen-alty corner but V R Raghunath’s flick was blocked by a Korean defender. In the 26th minute Nithi Thimmaiah had a good chance of giving India the lead but his reverse hit from close range went wide.

Korea soon earned their first penalty corner and tournament’s top—scorer Jang Jong Hyun made no mistake, converting the set piece with a variation. A minute later Korea stunned India again when You Hyo Sik tapped home from Nam Hyun Woo’s cross from the left flank to go into the breather with a morale-boosting 2-0 lead. The Indians, however, made a strong comeback and put the Korean defence under continuous pressure with repeated raids. But goals eluded India till the 47th minute as Korea defended in numbers. India pulled one back in the 48th minute from their second penalty corner which was perfectly converted by Rupinder to bring smiles back on the faces of the Indian crowd present at the stadium. The goal lifted India’s spirit as they went for relentless attacks and finally managed to reduce parity through young Nikkin Thimmaiah. Nikkin scored in the 54h minute with a fierce reverse hit from top of the circle after receiving a pass from Manpreet Singh. But India’s joy was short-lived as Korea regained their lead three min-utes later. The Koreans were awarded a penalty stroke after an Indian defender

blocked Nam Hyun Woo’s dragflcik with the body from their third short corner. Nam Hyn Woo stepped up to take the penalty and calmly foxed Sreejesh under the Indian goal to make the scoreline 3-2 in their favour. The Indians thereafter pressed hard for the equaliser and seven minutes from the final whistle got a great chance but an unmarked Ram-deep Singh faltered as he hit the ball over with only the Korean goalkeeper Lee Myung Ho to beat. But India did not lose hope and kept up the pressure. Their efforts bore fruit in the 64th minute when young striker Mandeep found himself at the right position at the right mo-ment to send one inside the net from a Birendra Lakra cross. But some sloppy defending from Dharamvir Singh and Rupinder resulted in Korea’s third penalty cor-ner and Kang Moon Kweon made no mistake with the chance shattering the hopes of Indian supporters present at the stadium. Apart from the runners-up trophy, India’s P R Sreejesh was adjudged the best goalkeeper of the tournament, while V R Raghunath was selected as the most outstanding player.

India Pips Pakistan 1-0 In

SAFF Cup Opener Defending champions India dished out a listless performance but still managed to beat arch-rivals Pakistan 1-0 in the opening game of the SAFF Football Championship in Kathmandu on Sunday. It took an own goal from Pakistan captain Samar Ishaq in the 14th minute that ensured three points for Sunil Chhetri and Co. The Indian will take on Bangladesh in their second group league encounter on Tuesday. The match was billed as a contest between Pakistan defender and former Fulham player Zesh Rahman against Chhetri. Both disappointed during the 90 minutes of play. While 30 plus Rahman has become slow, Chhetri’s profligacy in the 18-yard box cost India three clear chances. The winner in the 14th min-ute was more about a defensive error on the part of Pakistan. Chhetri over-lapped and tried to find an onrushing Sunil between the two rival stoppers in the opposition box but Pakistan captain Samar in his bid to keep his Indian counterpart at bay made a faulty clearance that entered his own goal.

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