The Great Ambush

Why Heroines Kill Themselves?

The rupee is falling, falling…

Return of the Mentor

Game most foul!

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IN THIS ISSUE

Transcending Boundaries

Volume 14Issue 12Jyeshta-Aashaadha July 2013

EditorNarayana Sevire

Editorial TeamNarayan A.Sridharan.M.KCP NambiarRaju Shanbhag

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The Great Ambush

Caught in the Act

Scholars’ noble effort

Maoists asked the Congress leaders to line up and then told them to identify themselves. When Mahendra Karma came forward and identified himself, they singled him out and took him away from the crowd.

Many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online. This may be a surprise to many. At least 12 of the 30 groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups have their own Websites.

The ancient Nalanda University had taken various pioneering initiatives. It was one of the world’s first residential universities and had dormitories to accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.

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Muzzling the media?Many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent functioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By scaling down their advertisement revenue, the government is looking to stifle their functioning and make them more submissive, many feel.

IN THIS ISSUE

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35

37

39

42

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IT Industry Reaches a DeadendA career in IT industry will never be as lucrative as it was until few months ago. Today, IT professionals are working late into the night just to cling on to their job. Cloud Service appears to have dealt a heavy blow to India’s IT outsourcing industry. Today, the task of maintaining software has almost been automatized in the Cloud.

Stinging Politics

Return of the Mentor

Communal Politics

The Islamist War

Game most foul!

Will RTI Ever Expose the Party Funds?

Worried Infosys Recalls Narayan Murthy

When JDU and Others are After Muslim Votes

Where’s the Syrian War Heading for?

IPL fiasco shame unabated

Third (Class) Front

Missile shieldDevelopment of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much progress in this technology that it is planning to develop a laser-based weapon system for defensive purpose.

The rupee is falling, falling…The rupee has been falling owing to brisk demand for dollar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to another record low of 58.40.

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6 JULY 2013

Tired of advertisements eating up your TV entertainment time? Well, the Telecom Regulatory Au-

thority of India (TRAI) is here to help you. According to a new directive by TRAI, no TV channel can show more than 12 minutes of advertisement per hour from October 1.

Although this directive by TRAI has put a smile on many TV viewers’ faces, broadcasters are clearly not amused. The current advertising time per hour on TV is anywhere between 20 and 22 minutes and this period goes up

at the

time of popular events such as crick-et matches or a popular film. Now, the TRAI directive puts an end to all that and restricts advertisement time

to 12 minutes per hour.Most of the In-

dian television

Muzzling the media?

Many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent functioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By scaling down their advertisement revenue, the government is looking to stifle their functioning and make them more submissive, many feel. As the general elections are looming, they believe that this is an effort by the government to influence the independent functioning of the media.

• Raju Shanbhag

TRAI to the Rescue of Ad-weary TV Viewers

7JULY 2013

channels depend largely on adver-tisements for their survival. Driven mainly by TRPs, these channels have to fight it out among themselves to get more eyeballs and consequently, more advertisements. Even then, many news and entertainment chan-nels complain that they can hardly make ends meet.

One of the major reasons for the over dependency of Indian television channels on advertisements could be the model at these channels oper-ate. Unlike in the West, where most of the channels earn their profit by sub-scriber fees and run ad free, channels in India are mostly free or have only nominal costs as subscription.

A case in point is that during the cricket World Cup last year, a hugely popular event in the sub-continent, ESPN Star, which was broadcasting the event in high definition, tried to extract some hefty sum from the HD viewers for ad-free broadcast of the event. The effort fell flat on its face as DTH players bluntly refused the idea and finally, ESPN Star had to beam its HD channels at a nominal cost, sans the advertisements.

With the unwillingness of Indian customers and service providers to shift to a sustainable subscriber-based model, the dependence of channels on advertisements remains disturbingly high. Agencies like the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and News Broadcasters Association (NBA) state that more than 90% of their revenues come from advertise-ments. The new TRAI directive cuts their revenues by 40% by decreasing the advertising time by about 40%.

Although the viewing public might welcome this directive, the channels have a plethora of problems knocking on their doors. To start with, a one-hour program has to produce about 10 minutes of more content now as the advertisements that filled this spot will be taken off. This means, channels and the program producers will be faced with increased program budgets and less profits.

The TRAI ruling would effectively push out small-time advertisers from

the scene. Already the costs of adver-tisements on TV channels are stag-geringly high. Less time for advertise-ments would mean more competition for available space and a definite increase in rates. This would put TV advertisements out of reach of small time advertisers.

Meanwhile, for broadcasters, who have already doled out large amounts to acquire blockbuster movie rights, the scenario is worse as they would find it difficult to recover costs.

However, this new move by TRAI also has its supporters. Many say TRAI’s decision is linked directly with the digitization drive. TRAI expects broadcasters to make more money than they did before from subscrip-tion and, therefore, it’s time to im-prove consumer experience, feel these analysts.

But many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent func-tioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By cutting down their ad-vertisement revenue, the government

is looking to stifle the functioning of these channels and make them more submissive, many feel. As the general elections are looming around, many believe that this is an effort by the government influence the indepen-dent functioning of the media.

The NBA also states that in the milieu of “regulation of advertise-ments”, TRAI has imposed restric-tions that amount to “control of content”. “The advertisement regula-tions are in violation of Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution of India, which entitles a citizen to, inter-alia, carry on any trade or business,” it says.

Interestingly, this is not a new law. The law has been in existence for al-most eight years (Advertising Code of the Cable Television Act). It never got enforced as the government felt a new industry should have time to take roots before such a law can be implemented.

Now, TRAI feels the roots have grown well and it is time to enforce the law.

Television Advertisement – A Costly AffairEven though television channels claim that they hardly get any profits, advertising on popular TV channels leaves a deep hole in the advertis-ers’ pocket. In the Indian television scenario, cost values are decided per 10-second advertisement show on TV. The cost of advertising is in-fluenced by various factors such as time and channel. Usually, advertis-ers will have to shell out Rs.75,000-80,000 on primetime for a general entertainment channel. On special occasions or seasons, advertisers shell out almost around Rs.1.2 lakh for the same spot.

8 JULY 2013

• Narayan Ammachchi

“Almost the entire Congress lead-ership of Chhattisgarh has been wiped out,” cried Minister of

State for Home RPN Singh, on hearing the deadly Maoist attack on a convoy of Congress Party workers on May 25. It certainly seemed so when even Vidya Charan Shukla, who was hos-pitalized having suffered four bullet wounds, died a week after the attack.

All in all, 27 Congress leaders were killed in the ambush, but the Maoists stated two days after the attack that all they wanted to kill was Mahendra Karma, who founded an anti-Naxal tribal militia called “Salwa Judum”. How the attack came about is a heart-wrenching story.

On that fateful day, a convoy of ve-hicles carrying a team of prominent Congress leaders came to a halt on

an isolated jungle road in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The place is the thickly-forested Dharba Valley, just a mile off the Jagdalpur-Sukuma Highway. They were returning from a rally organized as part of ‘Parivartan Yatra’, a programme designed to win power in the oncoming election.

As they were moving along, they saw logs of trees blocking the road. When a few of them got out of their vehicles to remove the logs and clear

the way, firing began. To their horror, they realized that it was a Maoist am-bush and that they had been caught. The attackers, who also included young women militants, had mounted the nearby hill slopes on both sides with their guns aimed at the vehicles on the road below.

Seconds later, a land mine went off underneath a vehicle, leaving a huge crater on the road. One of the cars caught fire. As the frightened Con-gress workers started to run for cover, their vehicles collided with each other since the panic-stricken drivers were looking for ways to escape death. The landmine was planted by the rebels hours before the convoy arrived.

As the firing began, the security personnel of the Congress leaders took up positions and tried to de-fend their bosses. The 90-minute gun battle was more a game with death

The Great Ambush.....When firing began in the middle of a jungle road

9JULY 2013

for the Congress leaders. The Mao-ists waited for the security men to run out of ammunition. When the guns fell silent, they came out from behind the trees and asked everyone to hand over their mobile phones. A few of the Maoists were asking for Mahen-dra Karma. As they did not know who he was, they asked the leaders to identify themselves.

By then, a dozen of Congress lead-ers had already been killed. Now Mahendra Karma’s guards started fir-ing at militants. But they too ran out of ammunition. It was then Mahen-dra Karma surrendered along with seven Congress leaders. Those who survived the attack say the Maoists seemed “hungry for Mahendra Kar-ma.” The militants asked the lead-ers to line up and identify Mahendra Karma. Karma came forward and identified himself. The Maoists then took him away and beat him up black and blue. They then stuck bayonets through his head, sprayed him with bullets and then beat him again on the head with the rifle butts. They also raised the slogan Mahendra Karma Murdabad. The post-mortem report revealed that Karma had suf-fered 78 stab wounds. Eye witnesses say he was stabbed to death by two female Maoists.

MLA Uday Mudaliyar and Gopal Madhavan were among the others killed in the gunfire. Vidya Charan Shukla, who sustained four bullet wounds, could be taken to the hospi-tal only a day later. But he succumbed to injuries later. State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh Patel, who jumped out of the car, were abducted by the militants. Both were found dead a day after the horrible incident. The autopsy revealed that Dinesh Patel had an axe injury in his head and Patel was stabbed several times. At least ten personal security officers of the Congress leaders were also gunned down.

Vidya Chanran Shukla’s personal security officer Prafulla Shukla killed himself with the last bullet he was left with, apologizing and regretting that he could not protect his boss.

Also killed in the ambush was Yo-gendra Sharma, one of the popular politicians of Dharsiva. Interestingly, the Naxalites let free Kawasi Lakhma, a local Congress MLA. Another lucky survivor was ex-chief minister Ajit Jogi who had got into a helicopter soon af-ter the rally, leaving his colleagues to go by the road. Some of the survivors walked in shock to Darbha town, 12 km away.

What surprised everyone was that the Maoists were using wireless in-struments and were often found talk-ing to someone during the course of the attack.

Darbha police station is 10 km

away and a major CRPF camp was also nearby. However, their way was blocked by the trees that the Nax-alites had felled.

It took security reinforcements sev-eral hours to reach the spot as they had to walk for fear that land mines might have been planted on the road leading to the area. This is because in the past it was seen that the Maoists used to plant mines in and around such spots of attacks to target the security forces rushing for rescue and relief operations.

Maoists asked the Congress leaders to line up and then told them to identify themselves. When Mahendra Karma came forward and identified himself, they singled him out and took him away from the crowd. Behind a large tree and away from the helpless other leaders, two female Maoists stabbed Karma for more than 78 times.

Vidya Chanran Shukla

The body of the Congress leader Nanda Kumar lying on the forest floor.

10 JULY 2013

Why Were They Baying for Karma’s Blood?

Mahendra Karma, whom the Maoists chased and killed like a dog, is the founder of

“Salwa Judum”, a sort of civilian mi-litia tasked with countering Naxalites in the tribal region of Chhattisgarh. It means “Peace March” or “Purifica-tion Hunt” in the tribal people’s Gon-di language.

The Judum was made of tribal youths who received military train-ing from the Chhattisgarh Govern-ment. In the first year of its launch, the Judum proved so successful that several states – including Karnataka, Andhra, Manipur and Jharkhand – talked of replicating its model. But a few cases of atrocities and criminal activities tarnished its image and one

day brought about its end.Whatever the allegation, the Judum

created a kind of fear among the lef-twing terrorists who have long been trying to capitalize on the poverty, ignorance and innocence of the in-digenous people. The Judum militia was so strong that it looked like an army with as many as 50,000 trained youths.

It was 2009 and Chhattisgarh ac-counted for 65 percent of Maoist ac-tivities. The trained Judum activists were called Koya commandos and were known for their fearlessness and ferocity. Bastar, the forest region of Chhattisgarh where the Maoists killed 27 Congress party leaders on May 25, is a sparsely populated re-

gion. The terrorists have long been using it as the base, overseeing their operations in several neighbour-ing states, including Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

Prior to the formation of the Judum, there was a movement called “Jan Jagran Abhiyan” to counter the Nax-alites. That too was founded by Ma-hendra Karma. This was, however, led by local traders and businessmen. The tribals never really endorsed the Abhiyan. As a result, it collapsed and its members sought police protec-tion.

Though Bastar is thickly forested, it has huge deposits of iron ore and copper. The need for launching the Judum gained importance when the State Government wrapped up deals with the Tatas and Essar Group for mining in the area.

Mahendra Karma, who was then an MLA, came forward and started nego-tiating with the tribal chieftains. Thus came into being the “Salwa Judum” in 2005. Soon, the Judum militia began to herd the villagers and tribals into makeshift camps and stood guard against Maoist attacks. As days went by, the Judum became violent and, at some point of time, appeared be to out of control. More than three lakh villagers fled their homes for fear of the Judum militia. Over the course of months, the government was ac-cused of using the militia to displace the villagers to make way for the min-

As days went by, the Judum became violent and, at some point of time, appeared to be out of control. More than three lakh villagers fled their homes for fear of the Judum militia. Over the course of months, the government was accused of using the militia to displace the villagers to make way for the mining companies.

Mahendra Karma, who lived under tight security.

11JULY 2013

ing companies.Violence spread like wild fire over

the course of days and months. More and more villages were deserted, with the residents fleeing to camps south of Chhattisgarh. Angry crowds began to burn the villages, creating an atmosphere of fear in the entire area. The Judum members were ac-cused of raping women and burning villages. A report from Human Rights Watch in 2008 claimed that 1,50,000

tribals had been displaced. The Judum, however, fought daily

battles with the Maoist rebels. In four years -- between 2005 and 2008 -- as many as 98 Judum members were killed by Maoists. But that was rela-tively a small number, because they have killed 300 security personnel and 800 villagers in Bastar so far. In 2006 alone, they gunned down as many as 66 Judum members. Bands of Maoists hunting for Judum mem-

bers and killing them in ambush were often reported in the local media. The militants pasted posters and distrib-uted pamphlets across Dantewada and Bijapur districts, issuing death threats to Judum members.

As days went by, the number of Judum members dwindled. Several senior leaders of the militia went into hiding. Following the Supreme Court’s order of 2008, Mahendra Kar-ma announced that Salwa Judum had ceased to exist. The Supreme Court, in fact, outlawed the organization, ruling that private armies are illegal.

Mahendra Karma seems to have spent his whole life curbing the grow-ing dominance of leftwing activists in his state. In the 90s, he launched an awareness campaign against Maoists in his own village of Faraspal. Soon, the campaign spread to neighboring villages before engulfing the entire state.

Karma hated leftwing terrorists, because they were pitting his com-munity against the landless tribal people. Losing control over his own private army was the biggest defeat for Karma. The Maoists bayed for his blood and waited for the day to avenge their defeat. And finally they succeeded.

The scattered cars on the jungle road.

13JULY 2013

Big brother is watching you. Ev-ery make you make in the big bad world of internet, every in-

nocuous comment you make, every picture you post, is being gathered and sent across to secret places.

A piece from a cheap thriller? Not really! American citizens and citizens in other parts of the world have been handed down a rude shock by the American Government and its allies in the private sector. Recently, it was revealed that the National Security Agency and the FBI are looking direct-ly into the central servers of various major US Internet companies. What does the government do with these data? Well, they extract audio and video chats, e-mails, photographs, connection logs and documents that enable analysts to track foreign tar-gets.

The internet service providers who have joined hands with the American Government in this program, code-named PRISM, include Microsoft, Ya-hoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Apart from these, GCHQ, Britain’s equiva-lent of the NSA, has also been gather-ing intelligence from the same inter-net companies through an operation set up by the NSA.

This secret program by the Ameri-can Government has a tiny history. The idea of snooping on the citizen’s online activities was germinated at the time of President George W. Bush, who had started a secret program which gave the power to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007. Since then, the American Gov-ernment has been using every means it had (and obviously, it has LOTS of means) to extract details about its citizens’ online activities.

But why does the US Government do it? According to President Barrack Obama, who strongly defended this program when it was revealed, it’s a lot of noise over nothing. The gov-ernment wants to see if anti-patriotic elements such as terrorists are con-necting with each other online. So it will go through all the internet data, social media records and chats and

see if something suspicious is cook-ing on the net.

This begs another important ques-tion; how many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online? The answer is, surprisingly, many. It’s surprising to know that at least 12 of the 30 groups

on the State Department’s list of for-eign terrorist groups have Websites on the Internet. According to US of-ficials, some terrorists use encrypt-ed E-mail to plan acts of terrorism and most groups use the Internet to spread their propaganda.

Islamic militant groups also make use of the Internet to spread their an-ti-Western, anti-Israel propaganda. For example, various Internet sites created by Hamas supporters contain the organization’s charter and its po-litical and military ideas.

Needless to say, the knowledge of existence of such program has been a needle in the internet balloon for many advocates of privacy. Many among them claim that the US Gov-ernment is overreacting to the terror-ist threat and many others claim that the government cannot succeed in its motive even with this program.

The critics might have had a point here. These types of secret data gath-ering programs have been in place for nearly a decade now and even then the American Government was clue-less when the 9/11 attacks happened. In 2004 a whistleblower revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA)

Caught in the Act

US Govt. Spying on Its Own Citizens

• Raju Shanbhag

14 JULY 2013

was violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as the agency ignored the FISA court and spied on Americans without obtaining the nec-essary warrants. But the story was never published for one year until George W. Bush was safely re-elect-ed.

But the proponents of this program, mostly in the government sector, say that you cannot have 100% security and 100% safety in this age of infor-

mation superhighway. One such man is the Director of the National Secu-rity Agency Keith Alexander, who claims that these types of programs have prevented ‘dozens’ of terror-ist attacks on US According to him, a federal data mining seems to have played an important role in prevent-ing a recent plot to attack the New York subway system.

The Obama administration has also claimed that more than 50 po-

tential terrorist plots in 20 coun-tries, which also include India, have been busted worldwide since 9/11 because of NSA’s electronic surveil-lance. An agency repot says that “the time frame of at least one such India-related plot indicates it was around the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.

But some are holding on to the idea of absolute privacy of the users. Twit-ter, a company known for steadfastly protecting its users’ privacy, is con-spicuous in its absence from the list of Internet firms involved in the data-mining program.

Even those companies providing the data to government seem to have guilt about doing so. Google has is-sued a statement, which reads, ‘It cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully.”

In spite of strong protests by the advocates of privacy, these types of programs cannot be stopped. This is especially true in the light of increas-ing terrorist threats to the developed nations like U.K and the US The mod-ern internet user will have to live with the fact that there is no such thing as complete privacy on the internet.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is the eyes and ears of America across the world as it intercepts 1.7 billion e-mails and phone calls a day. It collects all forms of foreign com-munications to prevent attacks on the US. The agency has a state-of-the-art data centre in the Utah desert. It is code-named Bumblehive and it looks to enhance online security efforts.

But former employees claim it could be utilized to monitor people’s private e-mails.

The NSA said these allegations were ‘unfounded’, and stated that it remained ‘unwavering’ in its respect for US laws and the American citizens’ civil liberties. The agency also said that it was subject to broad oversight by all three branches of the government.

Many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online. This may be a surprise to many. At least 12 of the 30 groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups have their own Websites. According to US officials, some terrorists use encrypted E-mail to plan acts of terrorism and most groups use the Internet to spread their propaganda.

NSA – Official US Spy on the Net

16 JULY 2013

It’s an effort reinvigorate the past glory of our country in the field of education. A group of statesmen

and scholars, led by the Nobel laure-ate Amartya Sen, is putting in efforts to revive the Nalanda University as an international centre of learning. The revived university will have ac-tive cooperation with Yale’s School of Forestry Studies, Bangkok’s Chu-lalongkorn University’s department of history, Seoul University in South Korea and Peking University in China.

The group is focusing on estab-lishing a new world-class residen-tial university with top students and researchers from around the world.

Expectedly, the new univer-sity will come up on

a site close to the ruins of

the an-

cient Buddhist institution in Bihar. Obviously, the course taught at the new university will change with time. While the old Nalanda University taught almost every field of learn-ing with a religious bent, the new Nalanda International University will focus on humanities, economics and management, Asian integration, sus-tainable development and Oriental languages.

While the idea of reviving the once world-famous university and putting it back to its former glory looks patri-otically attractive; there are practical issues to be considered for Amartya Sen and his team. In the past, Na-landa attained fame because of its unique focus on infusing education with religious practices. Nalanda University’s insistence on religious curriculum can be gauged by the fact that the old university had ten tem-

ples in its premises, along with many other medita-

tion halls.

Scholars’ noble effortNalanda University being revived

The ancient Nalanda University had taken various

pioneering initiatives. It was one of the world’s

first residential universities and had dormitories to

accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered by many as an

architectural masterpiece as one could see a lofty

wall and one gate at the entrance.

17JULY 2013

In fact, the ancient Nalanda Univer-sity had taken various initiatives that were considered as pioneering steps at that time. It was one of the world’s first residential universities and had dormitories to accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was con-sidered by many as an architectural masterpiece.

The university had lakes and parks and its library was one of the best in the world at that time. It was located in a nine-storyed building and reams of important texts were produced there. The subjects taught at Nalanda University attracted pupils and schol-ars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 vil-lages given as grants.

Times have changed, and so has the education system in our country. Now, education is just a means for getting a good job. Gone are the days of the sacred relationships between the teacher and the pupil as the com-mercialized system of education has seeped deep into our educational system. In such an atmosphere, the old school thinking will definitely not work.

And the idea of reviving Nalanda is proving to be harder every time it is attempted. In 2006, India, China, Singapore, Japan and Thailand came together to announce the plan to re-vive the university based on the vi-sion of the old Nalanda. The plan was backed by the

East Asia Summit which consisted of South East Asian countries, Aus-tralia, New Zealand, Russia and the US.

So, how successful will this effort be? And where will the revived Na-landa University fit in the modern day education system? The new universi-ty, to be built in Rajgir, Bihar, and the postgraduate university have already published invitations to research fel-lows and scholars from around the world. The first two faculties will be history and ecology and the environ-ment with the first intake of students

due next year.Obviously, Amartya Sen and his

team are making every effort to make the revived university stand apart from the crowd. It is inviting only scholars and research fellows, trying to ensure the sanctity of education and the reputation the old university. By reviving this university and with the kind of courses it offers, the team is looking to improve the image of

higher education in India.

The next two facul-ties will be informa-tion technology and management and economics which will help develop job op-portunities. Amartya Sen believes that this will facilitate Bihar to catch up with the rest of India in terms of education and job scenario.

Apart from imparting higher edu-cation, the university will look to develop the region in which it is es-tablished. It will work with some 60 surrounding villages to enrich liveli-hoods in agriculture and tourism.

The effort to revive Nalanda Univer-sity is a welcome step. But it is yet to be seen how this effort will hold up in the modern day education system.

Takshashila UniversityTaxila or Takshashila University was located some 20 miles northwest of modern day Rawalpindi, which was part of ancient India. Takshashila University existed sometime in the 5th century and was a very impor-tant Hindu and Buddhist centre. The university attracted students from all corners of Greater India, to get trained under renowned scholars. The learning courses offered included agriculture, Vedas, grammar, com-merce, archery, politics, Ayurveda, music and dance, among others.

Great scholars like Chanakya or Kautilya, the author of “Artha Shas-tra”, taught here. Another very famous face from the university was Panini, an expert in language and grammar, who authored the famous work on grammar called “Ashtadhyayi”.

18 JULY 2013

In this modern day volatile world, peace always comes at a heavy cost. Even for a traditionally peace loving country like In-

dia, self-defense is imperative, because the country is surrounded by belligerent neigh-bours. On the one side, India has Pakistan, which aggressively builds up its defensive capabilities in spite of its poor economic conditions. On the other side is China, which constantly works on testing India’s patience with its untimely misadventures.

So, when DRDO announced the comple-tion of Phase I of its Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, Indian security analysts had a reason to rejoice. This is an important step in India’s self defense, which is constantly

Missile shield

A feather in DRDO’s cap

Development of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much progress in this technology that it is planning to develop a laser-based weapon system for defensive purpose. Considering the fact that very few countries in the world have the missile interceptor technology, DRDO’s achievement is laudable. About 40 public and private companies are closely involved in developing the “missile shield”.

• Raju Shanbhag

19JULY 2013

threatened by external and internal sources.

In effect, BMD is the amalgamation of radars, anti-ballistic missiles and a command and control system. This system can detect missiles launched from a range of 5000 kilometres and destroy them. Simply put, when this technology is fully implemented, major Indian cities will be protected against any missile attacks, nuclear or non-nuclear, from countries like Pakistan or China.

Phase one of the BMD programme provides the capacity to destroy an incoming ballistic missile with a range of up to 2,000 kms. This in-cludes Pakistan’s Ghauri and Sha-heen missiles. The first phase of the BMD programme will reportedly cover Delhi and Mumbai and, thereafter, this protection is likely to be extend-ed to other major cities in the country.

Political tension between Pakistan and India has forced both the coun-tries to spend a large part of their invaluable monetary resources on defense. After being elected Prime Minister, one of the very instant deci-sions taken by Nawaz Sharif was to increase the country’s defense bud-get by a hefty 15%, amounting to a

total of Rs 627 billion. On the other hand, China has an-

nounced its latest official defense budget as approximately Rs.6,783 billion, a 10.7% nominal increase over the previous year. When it comes to missile technology, China is believed to have around 240 warheads. Of these, 175 are active, whereas India has only around 100 warheads which are active.

According to defense analysts, Phase II of the missile defense shield defends India from China’s arsenal of ICBMs. China is the only Asian coun-try which has an ICBM arsenal, in-cluding submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

A missile defense system for In-dia is almost inevitable considering the near-war situations the country had against Pakistan in the past. A key development in nuclear warfare in recent years is the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the developing world. India and Pakistan have pub-licly tested numerous nuclear devices and North Korea conducted an un-derground nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

Reports suggest that during the Kargil conflict in 1999, Pakistan al-

most decided to use its nuclear weap-ons when its conventional military situation underwent further deterio-ration. The 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff again gave rise to the fears of nuclear war between the two coun-tries.

Along with threats from other na-tions, nuclear warfare by terrorists and other individuals cannot be ruled out. The collapse of the Soviet Union has given rise to the possibility that former Soviet nuclear weapons might become available on the black mar-ket. While there are no reports of warheads being mislaid, analysts be-lieve that at least some very small or suitcase-size bombs might be unac-counted for.

Development of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much prog-ress in this technology that it is plan-ning to develop a laser-based weap-on system as part of its defense. This defense system will have the abil-ity to intercept and destroy missiles right after they are fired towards the country. According to DRDO, it’s good to destroy a ballistic missile carrying nuclear or traditional warheads in its boost phase. Many analysts couldn’t

20 JULY 2013

agree more. DRDO’s deployment of the first

phase of BMD technology not only boosts its defense system against its troublesome neighbors, but it also stands testimony to India’s evolving capabilities in defense technology.

Missile interception technology is an integral part of a nation’s defense strategy, but not every country has it. China does not have a strategic mis-sile defense system that can intercept a Medium/Intermediate Range Ballis-tic Missile (IRBM/MRBM) or an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Italy and France have developed a missile family called Aster (Aster 15

and Aster 30) which can defend these countries against ballistic missiles.

Israel has a national missile de-fense against short and medium-range missiles and the country makes use of its Arrow missile system for this purpose. The Russian A-135 anti-ballistic missile system currently only protects Moscow, the national capi-tal, and is being developed to protect major cities in Russia. In the US Pen-tagon recently deployed 14 missile interceptors in Guam in response to threat from North Korea.

Considering that very few countries in the world have the missile inter-ceptor technology, DRDO’s achieve-

ment in this regard becomes even more laudable. About 40 public and private companies all over the coun-try are closely involved in developing the indigenous ballistic missile in-terceptors. They include Bharat Elec-tronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Astra Microwave, ASL, VemTech and KelTech.

LRDE is an important player in this Rs2,000-crore programme. The com-pany has developed two prominent radars — the long-range tracking ra-dar and the multi-function fire control radar. The company has tied up with Israel’s IAI and French defense com-pany Thales for this.

The gun or butter dilemmaWe spend too much to fight against each other and then, we spend even more to defend against each other. Every day, more than 20,000 infants die all over the world because of lack of food, and almost all the countries in the world are busy building their arsenal to their teeth. Here is a list of countries that spend considerable part of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on military expenditure:

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Country and % of GDP Spent on Military Expenditures

9.8

4.4

4.4

2.5 2.5

2.3

2.0

1.7

1.4

1.0

21JULY 2013

The rupee is falling, falling…

May 24, 2013

Industrial production data also disappointing

The rupee has been falling owing to brisk demand for dollar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who have pulled out more than Rs.7,600 crore from the Indian debt market in the first week of this month owing to weakness in the rupee which hit a nine-month low of 56.01 on May 24, 2013. On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to another record low of 58.40.

• CP Nambiar

22 JULY 2013

The GDP has shown a distress-ingly low growth during fiscal 2012-13 at 5 percent; so has the

other parameters like the current ac-count deficit, inflation and industrial growth. The fiscal deficit is better than the estimate to some extent, but there is still room for worry to the Finance Minister who is at pains to explain away the negative factors due to global recession and woes of some of the developed na-tions in Europe. But the biggest – and the latest – worry is the low index of industrial production (IIP) of 2.3% percent during April and the free fall of the rupee.

The revised data released by the Central Statistics Office on Thurs-day, June 13, showed the industrial production grew by 2.3% in April (as against 2% it stated on Wednesday), but it is still slower than the upwardly revised 3.4% in the previous month though slightly higher than 1.3% in April 2012. That is small consolation for both the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank.

The economy as a whole slowed to a 10-year low in 2012-13, going by the CSO numbers which have, however, been questioned by Finance Minister

Chidambaram and his chief economic adviser Raghuram Rajan saying that they were based on “dated data”. However, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia seemed to have grudg-ingly accepted the CSO data stating the April figures were disappointing.

He said, “There is evidence that the economy has bottomed out. But we still don’t have evidence of a

strong recovery. It is challenging to get to 6% growth …”

The mining sector continues to be sluggish, the growth de-

clining by 3% against a fall of 2.8% owing to delayed approvals and lack of clear policy directives. According to rating agency Crisil, “Fuel short-ages, ongoing mining ban in some states, delays in commissioning of large projects and slack demand continue to plague India’s in-dustrial sector.”

The 2.3% IIP has sent shiv-ers down the spine of the corporate sector which has stepped up call for interest rate cut by the RBI. But whether the central bank will fall in line is a moot question. For one thing, it has to reckon with the stubborn inflation especially since the rupee is falling

at a rapid rate. A rate cut will make it cheaper for the traders to specu-late on the dollar causing further de-preciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar.

ALARMING FALL The rupee has been falling in-

exorably owing to demand for dol-lar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who have pulled out more than Rs.7,600 crore ($1.35 billion) from the Indian debt market in the first week of this month owing to weakness in the ru-pee which hit a nine-month low of 56.01 on May 24, 2013.On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to

another record low of 58.40. How-ever, RBI intervention pulled back the currency from lev-els close 59 against the dol-

lar. But the question is how far RBI can act to stem the tide. RBI also ordered all exporters in Special Eco-nomic Zones to repatriate full value of exports within 12 months from the date of export. There was no such time limit for repatriation earlier. Ac-cording to economists, RBI can act to

Rupee’s Sudden Fall

54.5

55

55.5

56

56.5

57

57.5

58

58.5

May 24

56.0

1

56.7

6

58.1

4

58.1

4

May 30 June 6 June 11

23JULY 2013

support the rupee by floating $10bil-lion global bond issue, ask exporters to bring back funds and hike interest rates (which of course will be strongly opposed by the corporate sector) and sell dollars. One of the reasons for the slump in the rupee has been attribut-ed to the sell-off in the bond market which raised fears that the RBI may hike interest rates in the mid-quarter review on June 17.

The Finance Ministry also moved in to defend the rupee on Wednesday, June 13, by announcing a hike in the foreign investment limits in govern-ment debt by $5 billion. The measure aims at reversing the outflow of FII funds from debt instruments, one of the reasons for the depreciation in the rupee.

Currently, the government debt limit stands at $25 billion, of which 75 percent is estimated to have been used up so far. The move comes a day after the Chief Economic Advisor to the finance ministry Raghuram Ra-jan had said the government will be announcing measures to ensure that portfolio investor inflows are enabled and encouraged.

The SEBI, in a circular issued on June 13, said that the enhanced limit of $5 billion shall be available for in-vestments only to those FIIs that are registered with the market regulator under the categories of sovereign wealth funds, multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks.

Fitch upgrades rating

to ‘stable’The fiscal performance has, howev-

er, improved with the squeeze applied by the Finance Minister on govern-ment expenditure. The fiscal deficit is expected to be lower at 4.9% against the budgeted deficit of 5.2% of GDP mainly due to the fact that at the end of March, expenses, estimated at Rs.14.1 lakh crore, were 98.5% of the revised estimate of Rs.143 lakh crore.

Receipts, on the other hand, includ-ing tax and non-tax revenues, were of the order of Rs.9.2 lakh crore, which was 101% of the revised estimate of Rs.9.1 lakh crore.

Endorsing the government’s efforts to tame fiscal deficit, Fitch on Wednes-day revised the country’s sovereign credit rating outlook to “stable” from “negative” that brought cheer to the government battling slowdown.

“The revision of the outlook to stable reflects the measures taken by the government to contain the budget deficit, including the commit-ments made in the FY’14 budget, as well as some, albeit limited, progress in addressing some of the structural impediments to investment and eco-nomic growth,” Fitch said in a state-ment.

The revision by Fitch comes within weeks of global agency Standard and Poor’s retaining the negative outlook on India. Last year, both Fitch and S&P had threatened to downgrade In-dia’s rating to junk grade in absence of steps by government to contain deficits and promote investment.

Planning Commission Deputy Chair-man Montek Singh Ahluwalia said re-vision by Fitch reflects strengthening of basic fundamentals of economy. “Basic fundamentals have improved and to that extend, the rating agen-cy’s shift in the outlook reflects that. I would like to believe that in the com-ing months you see a significant im-provement in the performance and that should ultimately be reflected in the grading,” he said.

Fitch further said it expects the economy to recover after real GDP grew just 5 percent in 2012-13 versus 6.2 percent in the year ago period. “As a result, Fitch is forecasting only a modest recovery with real GDP ex-pected to expand 5.7 percent and 6.5 percent in FY’14 and FY’15 respec-tively,” Fitch said. India’s economic recovery, however, is likely to remain slow until a healthier investment cli-mate is created, which helps lift po-tential growth again, it said.

No cut in interest ratesIn view of the inflationary pres-sure, falling rupee and record current account deficit (5.4% of GDP) attributed mainly to a 90 percent annual jump in gold and silver imports, the RBI has kept interest rates unchanged. The RBI, in its monetary review on Monday, June 17, said food prices and the falling currency pose inflationary risks, and also called for vigilance over global economic uncertainty, citing the risks of a reversal of capi-tal flows like the one that has roiled emerging markets in re-cent weeks.

RBI left the repo rate un-changed at 7.25 percent and kept the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or the share of deposits banks must keep with the cen-tral bank, steady at 4.00 per-cent. “It is only a durable reced-ing of inflation that will open up the space for monetary policy to continue to address risks to growth,” the RBI said in a state-ment.

India GDP Annual Growth Rate

2011

2012

2013

In early

In early

by the end

by the end

7.8 6.9

6.1 5.3

4.7(numbers in percent)

24 JULY 2013

• Narayan Ammachchi

Splintered political groups, such as JDU and Trinamul Congress, are discussing plans to cobble

together a Third Front to rival national political parties. Third Front has a history of failure. It is interesting that the founders of this political alliance are well aware that they cannot form a government without support from either BJP or Congress, yet they try to carry on with their plan!

The new alliance will not be named

as Third Front, JDU wants to call it a ‘Federal Front.’ Whichever the name, Third Front will only polarize the na-tional political landscape rather than give people a better choice.

Those trying to form the Third Front were with either Congress or BJP and their ideology never differed from the major political parties. Worse still, as their political agenda feeds on a range of regional issues, they cannot run a government that has to care for the interest of the whole nation.

Third Front formed the government

–– once led by Deve Gowda and then IK Gujral – with the support of Con-gress Party, the party which they had fought tooth and nail to defeat in the election. Congress toppled the government, complaining that intelli-gence agency was spying on its presi-dent Seetaram Kesari. Gujral’s gov-ernment lasted barely a few months, but by which time the country’s econ-omy had been destructed, stock mar-ket had collapsed and investors had fled.

It took years for the successive gov-

Third (Class) FrontThe threat of the Third Front

25JULY 2013

ernments to put the economy back on track. That was the destructive nature of the Third Front. And that’s precisely why people hate them.

Congress has a history of such be-trayals. Remember, it had propped up Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar and then unceremoniously brought them down.

Those talking of forming the Third Front need to know that they cannot form the government on their own, because their popularity and the sup-port base is limited to a few patches of the country.

This time JDU and the Trinmul Con-gress are ‘threatening’ to form the Third Front – both were with the BJP or Congress until few months ago. How their ideology can change over-night and how can they promise a good a government?

Political parties need to know that the very concept of a Third Front or a Federal Front has inherent flaws that have resulted in disasters in the past. The glaring flaw is in its basic struc-ture – members of the Front pursue different ideologies and agendas that are designed to deal with their re-gional problems. So disparate is their agenda that they are less likely to ap-proach the voters together, let alone forming the government.

When forming the Front, these members invite parties that are not identified with either Congress or BJP. The irony is they cannot form the gov-ernment without the support of either the one national party.

They assume that they can gar-ner a large support nationwide with the help few individuals, who have their own support base in their home states. Lalu Yadav is an example. The belief that they get a large mandate to govern is a fiction and illusion. What they do not realize is that the same advantage harms their unity when they form the government and run the government. A mere railway budget can break the parties apart and lead the government crashing down.

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, is going to be the archi-tect of the Third Front. Anyone track-

ing her political career will predict that she will pull out of the coalition citing some or the other reason, how-ever silly that is. She broke out of the UPA after the government insisted that it should raise the railway fare.

Let us take the case of JDU. This political outfit ditched the NDA after BJP elevated Gujrat chief minister Na-rendra Modi to the post of the party’s campaign committee. If such things can make them to think of getting out, how the coalition made up of parties

of this kind can expect to survive?The biggest flaw with the Third Front

is that it will have too many bosses who have no control whatsoever on their own tongues. As they comment and tease the leaders of their allies, the coalition weakens and falls apart in due course of time.

Some analysts say the talk of form-ing the Third Front will die away in the coming days, as the parties realize that they rely largely on regional is-sues than national ones.

Once again, there is a talk about forming of the Third Front. Historically, Third Front has proved to be a failure. Worse still, Third Front has become a symbol of political instability, something that economy hates. Thanks to Third Front, we have seen Deve Gowda, Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar all become prime ministers. But the common man turned out to be the loser. Economy crumbled, investors fled and the living standard got degraded…

26 JULY 2013

27JULY 2013

• Raju Shanbhag

T wenty five years is not the age to die. Especially when you have tasted success and a promising fu-ture beckons you. Yet Zia Khan, the talented Bolly-

wood starlet, chose to end her life at her prime age when most youngsters would have been looking to settle down in their career.

Success came early to Zia Khan and so did failure. She made a debut in Ram Gopal Verma’s Nishabd in 2007 when she was just 19. Nishabd was by no means a box office success; but her acting in the film was noticed and appreciated. She held her own against stalwarts like Am-itabh Bachchan and Revathi in a film that depicted the complex romantic relationship of a man with a girl fit be his daughter.

28 JULY 2013

Zia Khan the latest victim of early success

It’s high time that we teach our youngsters the fine art of managing success, and failure. The inability to manage either will result in unwanted results; and we will be collectively responsible as a society when precious lives are lost.

In fact, Zia Khan would have tested the Bollywood way of func-tioning much earlier at the age of 16. She was almost selected as the leading lady in Mukesh Bhatt’s Tum-sa Nahin Dekha. But she was too young at that time and the director felt that he needed a relatively ma-ture actress for that role. Later she was replaced by Dia Mirza.

Maybe Zia Khan witnessed the glittering world of Bollywood too early. At the age 19, she had acted with one of finest superstars of In-dia, worked with Gopal Verma, a maverick director who has launched innumerable actors from his ‘fac-tory’. Later she starred with Aamir Khan in Ghajini in 2008. She was not the leading lady, but once again, she was acting with a superstar in her second film.

There are reasons to believe that early success and the kind of work she got in her first two films raised her expectations skyhigh in the coming films. But Bollywood does not care for your aspirations; it only rides your success. Zia Khan’s Nishabd was a box office disaster, and no trade pundits gave even an iota of credit to Zia for the success of Ghajini.

Two years down the line, Zia did an unimportant role in Sajid Khan’s Housefull opposite Akshay Ku-

mar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta in 2010. Housefull was her second highest grossing Bollywood film, but again the success was not credited to Zia as she had a very small role in the film.

Zia Khan was born on 20 February, 1988, into a Muslim family in New York City. She was the daughter of Ali Rizvi Khan, an Indian American and Rabiya Amin, a Hindi film actress in the 1980s, from Agra. Zia grew up in London and moved to Mumbai to test her luck in Bollywood. In spite of her landing in good projects at the early phase of her ca-reer, her Bollywood career didn’t take off as expected.

Meanwhile, Zia Khan suffered an-other setback as she was ousted from Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance opposite Shahid Kapoor. Prior to this, Zia had shot for a considerable portion of the film, but was re-placed by Genelia

29JULY 2013

D’souza. The production house UTV insisted that “the reason for her with-drawal from the film was due to her not suiting the character.”

Media reports suggest that Zia Khan took her life because she couldn’t cope with the failure at her profes-sional and personal lives. On the one hand, her film offers had almost dried up; she hadn’t done a single movie for three years and Bollywood waits for no one. Many younger actresses had invaded the screens and chances of Zia making a successful career in the film industry were looking bleak. In fact, Zia herself wanted to focus on interior designing as she thought her career in Bollywood was not evolving as she expected.

And then, there were rumours that this young actress didn’t have it easy in her personal life either. Her rela-tionship with Sooraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi, was in the dol-drums. In fact, Zia’s mother Rabiya Amin alleged that Sooraj Pancholi raped her daughter and later forced her to abort her child. Based on these allegations and a reported death note that alleged about Sorraj’s brutality towards her, the Mumbai police have arrested Sooraj Pancholi, and the in-vestigation is still on.

All this happened to Zia at the young age of 25 and understandably, it was too much to for her. This is not the first time the glittering world of Bollywood has revealed its dark side and the star struck victims have fallen prey. Madhubala, an actress hailed by many as the most beauti-ful woman of the Hindi films, died at the age of 36. She had suffered vari-ous failed relationships and probably died in her quest for love.

Guru Dutt, the master filmmaker from the black and white era, died at the age of 39. While his death was reported to be an accidental over-dose of sleeping pills, there was no denying that the man had a troubled relationship with the women in his life and had attempted suicide twice before.

Parveen Babi is another example of how fame and fortune can some to

a torturous end. In her time, Parveen Babi was among the top heroines of the country and worked with almost all the leading male stars of Bolly-wood. In fact, many believe she was the first female superstar in India. But when she died, it took 72 hours to discover that she was dead in her Mumbai home. She was suffering from chronic schizophrenia and she lived like a loner, away from glamour and glitterati. It was reported that she had starved herself to death.

Divya Bharati is another actress who died in mysterious circumstanc-es at the age of 19. She was a popular film star at a very young age; her films were running successfully and she was married to Sajid Nadiadwala, a very famous Bollywood producer. Re-ports of death centered around mur-der and suicide. Fingers were pointed at her husband Sajid Nadiadwala. Her death still remains one of the most mysterious ones in Bollywood.

Nafisa Joseph, a former Miss Uni-verse, committed suicide at the age of 26. She apparently ended her life because her marriage was called off. Fiance Gautam Khanduja reportedly lied about his marital status and he was tried on charges of abetment to suicide. Earlier, Joseph’s engage-ments with Sameer Malhotra and Samir Soni had also ended.

Silk Smitha, the quintessential sex symbol of the Southern film industry, died at the age of 36. It was rumoured that she committed suicide due to financial problems, disillusionment with the film industry, failed love and alcohol dependency tht led to de-pression.

Most of the above mentioned ac-tresses were successful, and it was success at an early age that drove them to suicide. Bollywood can give you success, but it will never teach you to manage that success. Not only in the film industry, but many youngsters who have achieved glory at a very young age have fallen by the wayside in later years, mainly be-cause they were unable to handle the success that came their way.

It’s high time that we teach our youngsters the fine art of managing success, and failure. The inability to manage either will result in unwanted results; and we will be collectively re-sponsible as a society when precious lives are lost.

30 JULY 2013

The sun is not shining on the In-dian IT industry as it did a few years ago. The information tech-

nology industry, or the IT-BPO sector, as NASSCOM calls it, is struggling with various issues. Although bright predictions have been made about the future of this industry in India, the stalwarts of the industry agree that drastic measures have to be taken to revive it.

The latter part of 2012 and the be-ginning of 2013 have brought some uncertain times for the industry. Ex-perts say that as IT relies heavily on globalization and international trade, it will register a slow growth in the

coming years. Just one year ago, the growth pre-

diction in the Indian industry was 16% p.a. Owing to the global econom-ic crisis and cost cutting by major IT spenders in the US and Europe, this forecast has been reduced to 11% for the financial year 2013.

Under such as situation, NASSCOM has stated that the growth of Indian IT-ITeS companies will rely on the worldwide economic scenario as well as information technology spend-ing in North America and Europe this year.

And this has directly affected the job market in the Indian sec-

tor. Although becoming a software engineer is the ongoing fad for the educated Indian middle class, the opportunities are not as rosy as they were a few years ago. The starting sal-aries for fresh engineering graduates have come down drastically and even the senior pros are witnessing many of their facilities being taken off.

Although we see an abundance of IT manpower in big cities, only 25% of the engineers, who pass through these institutions are employable, state industry reports. The dearth of qualified IT talent in India can be gauged by the fact that only 3 out of 100 applicants ever get hired for a

A career in IT industry will never be as lucrative as it was until few months ago. Today, IT professionals are working late into the night just to cling on to their job. Cloud Service appears to have dealt a heavy blow to India’s IT outsourcing industry. Today, the task of maintaining software has almost been automatized in the Cloud. Believe it or not, more than half the contracts handled by companies like Infosys are related to maintaining software of their clients. Interestingly, the same Indian software professionals worked to push this maintenance work to the Cloud. Now they are paying the price. Alas, it is deadly!

IT Industry Reaches a DeadendStruggles Within Indian IT Industry

job. For a large part of its history, the

Indian IT sector has been a backend support for the major jobs that hap-pen in the developed countries. This means the fate of Indian IT industry is heavily dependent on their counter-parts in the US. and Europe who do more ‘meaningful’ work.

The US and the developed coun-tries in Europe outsource their work to India because a few years ago they found the costs attractive in India. But as the industry grew, the com-panies started competing with each other to employ a minuscule number of employable IT workers, resulting in increase in salaries. These high salaries created a wide rift between the IT employees and other sections of the Indian society. Prices of es-sential commodities skyrocketed in metros and ‘special’ services, such as malls and multiplexes, which fo-cused mainly on the affluent Indian ‘IT Class,’ came to the fore.

The Indian middle class still suffers from the IT mania, which has reduced the number of students who apply for other educational streams. In the marriage market, IT guys undoubt-edly have an edge over other poten-tial grooms and they are married off easily.

While the increasing salaries in the Indian IT sector made them the new blue-eyed boys and girls of the Indian middle class society for years, the outsourcers in US and Europe were not amused. India’s price advantage in the global IT market was thinning

fast and new competitors from other Asian countries were emerging. The hardworking Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean IT industries were driving a wedge in the Indian industry. Indian IT companies, which were already working on a small profit margin and relying on large volumes of projects, were not in a position to compete with these emerging challenges.

Coupled with this is the protec-tion being given to IT companies

and employees in countries like the US. The Obama a d m i n i s t r a t i o n has designed po-lices that discour-age outsourcing and encourage in-sourcing.

The Indian IT-BPO industry now stands at the crossroads. While the days of glitz and glamour in the industry look to be over, it can still look ahead for a period of solid growth. The cost advantage of In-dia may have been wearing off; but India is still an at-tractive option for the outsourcers, thanks to its high number of English speaking popula-

tion and encouragement by the gov-ernment for the development of IT.

The IT industry can start by hav-ing a reality check about its future prospects. Also, experts are urging the Indian IT leaders to focus more on actual software development rather than mere providing backend support. This time, the growth may be slow, but if it is done with plan-ning, it will be permanent this time around.

IT Services

IT Product

Knowledge Process Outsourcing

Hardware Networking

Business Process Outsourcing

17.45

9.22

2.68

36.57

40.69

Empl

oya

bili

ty o

f En

gin

eeri

ng

G

rad

uat

es in

Dif

fere

nt

Sec

tors

32 JULY 2013

Return of the Mentor

• Raju Shanbhag

It looks like India’s IT industry is losing its sheen. Projects are dry-ing up and jobs too are dying. As

the world economy struggles to get back to its feet after a sluggish phase, major Indian companies, especially in the IT sector, are feeling the heat.

One such company in this group more than anyone else is Infosys. Since the retirement of its founder Narayana Murthy, this Indian IT bell-wether has seen an alarming decline in its performance. Over the last few quarters Infosys has performed much below the market expectations.

Drastic situations require drastic

steps. So, in order to revive its sag-ging growth, Infosys has recalled its co-founder Narayana Murthy. The re-turn of Murthy has revived the hopes of Infosys as he was instrumental in bringing this company to where it is today, or where it was a few quarters ago.

Narayana Murthy retired from Info-sys two years ago. Although he was still involved with the company as a mentor, veteran banker K.V.Kamath had taken over as the CEO of the com-pany.

Infosys, for years an investor fa-vourite for exceeding its earnings tar-gets, has been struggling for the past two years to even meet the market

predictions. One of the reasons cited for this is the fact that large custom-ers in the United States and Europe are looking to cut costs and rival companies in India, such as Tata Con-sultancy Services and HCL Technolo-gies Ltd are performing better than Infosys. Recently, even Cognizant, a company established much after In-fosys, superseded Infosys to become the second-largest offshore-centric IT services company.

In April 2013, Infosys forecast full-year sales growth that was below analysts’ expectations by a margin of up to 50 percent. This resulted in shares falling to their lowest level in a decade. One of the major reasons

Worried Infosys Recalls Narayan Murthy

33JULY 2013

for the company’s poor performance has been its insistence on premier pricing. While other companies con-stantly look to cut costs and offer their products at a lower rate to their customers, Infosys still commands a premium pricing.

Although Murthy, 66, said his recall was “sudden, unexpected and most unusual,” the writing was on the wall for Infosys. In the last few months, Murthy was spending more time with the Infosys top leadership, express-ing concerns over its dismal perfor-mance. He also attended the Infosys annual strategy meet called STRAP. Even before Narayana Murthy’s re-call, he was actively involved in for-mulating the company’s strategy on the US Immigration issue.

Under the newly formed leader-ship, Current Executive Co-chairman S Gopalakrishnan will now be the ex-ecutive vice-chairman and managing director and chief executive officer S D Shibulal would hold his post. Of course, all these decisions have to be approved by the stakeholders to come into effect. The board is meet-ing on June 15 to arrive at a decision for convening an extraordinary gen-eral meeting to seek approval from shareholders.

According to industry insiders, Na-rayana Murthy is one man who is not afraid of making changes. Back at the helm, Murthy has already started confidence building measures in the company. As a first step in this re-gard, Infosys has announced salary hikes for its local employees effec-tive July 1, 2013. While employees in India will get an average increase of 8 per cent, offshore employees will get an average increase of 3 per cent. Off-shore employees were not covered by salary increments announced in Feb-ruary 2013.

While almost all Infosys employees will get salary raise, Narayana Murthy himself will work on a token salary of Re 1 per year. His recall and subse-quent appointment as the executive chairman of Infosys will be for five years.

But many in industry believe that

Infosys’ days of glory are over unless the company does something radical to get back in the hunt. While other companies like Cognizant and TCS have adapted to the changing market conditions, Infosys is still clutching to its old policies. The company still re-fuses to work on small contracts and

insists on getting premium pricing for its products. At a time when compa-nies all over the US and Europe are looking to cut costs, this way of doing business for Infosys could be damag-ing to the company’s prospects.

Even with Narayana Murthy at the helm of its affairs.

Some Murmurs and GrumblesAlthough a major portion of the

industry has welcomed Na-rayana Murthy’s return to Infosys, there are some who have opposed this move as well. One of the major complaints is the appointment of his son Rohan Murthy as Murthy’s executive assistant. They say this violates the company’s principle that founder children do not take up executive roles. But Murthy has defended his son’s appointment by stating that he will have no execu-tive authorities.

It is alleged that the retirement age for executives and non-execu-tives, which is fixed at 60 at Info-sys, has been flaunted with Mur-thy’s return. It is also complained that Murthy’s return has brought back the post of the Executive Chairman, which had been done

away with after Murthy’s retire-ment.

The sudden manner in which Murthy was reappointed through a board meeting too has raised some eyebrows. Even market regulator SEBI has sought details from Info-sys about a board meeting held on the day founder Narayana Murthy was re-appointed to an executive role in the company.

Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS), an investor advi-sory firm, has also raised issues about the re-appointment of two independent directors – Omkar Go-swami and DM Satwalekar. Goswa-mi has been on the Infosys board for 13 years, while Satwalekar has been there for 16 years. This period is more than the maximum nine years allowed by the company.

Murthy looks too old to deal with the new problem

35JULY 2013

• Narayan Ammachchi

Politicians may have to find a new way to bring in black mon-ey into politics. But now the

question is whether they can do so with the Central Information Commis-sion bringing the major political par-ties under the purview of the Right to Information Act. In brief, can RTI re-ally sting the parties and politicians?

A far more important question is how the political parties have so far managed to stay from the RTI Act jurisdiction. You can invoke RTI pro-visions to access any public docu-ment, and every document that the government employees process is a public document. The government has long processed and overseen the accounts of political parties, at least at the time of elections.

But how did the parties dodge questions about their funding?

Asked why it believes that the polit-ical parties should be brought under

Stinging PoliticsWill RTI Ever Expose

the Party Funds?

Mutts and trusts have become the safe haven for politicians to hide their illicit wealth. Almost every major politician has a trust whose business runs into crores of rupees. According to conservative estimates, private trusts in the country have almost half the money the banks have. And they never disclose their source of income, nor are they accountable.

36 JULY 2013

the RTI Act, the CIC stated: “… corporate companies can save money in taxes by donating to parties.”

This was not something many people were aware of. More interesting still, CIC said parties are given free air-time to make their announcements on state-run All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Not all parties are an-swerable to RTI queries. The Commission has named only six national parties: The Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP. Is it because other political parties are not accepting corporate donations?

“Maybe so,” said one of the officials this reporter spoke to.

That means, today the only option left for the parties to escape RTI is to give back everything they received from the govern-ment or the corporate com-panies. But they cannot do so unless they stop receiv-ing money from private firms.

The CIC has set a six-month deadline for parties to name a public informa-tion officer to answer the questions asked under the RTI Act.

Interestingly, nobody knows how much money corporate companies paid to political parties as they have not disclosed this in-formation, except the Aam Aadmi Party founded by Arvind Kejriwal.

There is no doubt that RTI has immense powers, it being of the most power-ful laws ever brought out in independent India. But how people will use this weapon to expose corrup-tion inside political parties

is not yet clear. Be it the coal scandal or

2G, RTI played a crucial role in digging out many secrets and underhand dealings in almost every scam in the past few years. Of course, those accused of master-minding these scams are yet to be convicted, but what is clear is that RTI did supply enough evidence to nail them all.

The reason why RTI is so powerful is that it sets a time limit on providing the information sought and every document handed in by the government is

something the courts can act upon.

Nevertheless, RTI is less likely to succeed in blowing the lid off the “donation scam” of the political par-ties. For one thing, they use only a tiny fraction of white money and as of now they are not required to explain the source of their unac-

counted wealth that may well run into crores.

Yet, even a little piece of information that can be gleaned through RTI may give the citizens a hint at the way the parties are pil-ing up funds and who the donors are. All those who donate will have a motive to get high returns and they do so only after obtaining firm assurances to this ef-fect from the parties con-cerned.

The political parties had contended that exemp-tions from disclosing the source of income are rou-

tinely extended to many charitable and non-profit, non-governmental organ-isations across the coun-try, but they are not consid-ered public authorities.

This point was rejected by the CIC which said there is a great difference between the tax exemption given to charitable and non-profit,

non-governmental organ-isations and that given to political parties.

What about Mutts and trusts?

“Parties are answer-able because the money donated to them (Mutts and Trusts) gets tax ben-efits.” This very sentence of the CIC appears to have opened up a Pandora’s Box. Everybody knows that Mutts and trusts have be-come the safe haven for politicians to hide their il-licit wealth. Almost every major politician has a trust whose business runs into crores of rupees.

Can people seek to know the source of income of these trusts?

According to conserva-tive estimates, private trusts in the country have almost half the money the banks have. And they never disclose their source of income, nor are they ac-countable.

Believe or not, some of these trusts fund the expenses of politicians and they generously lend money to the foreign trips of several leaders. Almost every wealthy educational institution is run by trusts and they pay no tax though they collect huge sums of money as tuition fees.

Analysts say that if the CIC has correctly defined the law it is referring to, then a day will come for people to insist that trusts and mutts be brought under the purview of the RTI Act. That means RTI will one day turn out to be the biggest weapon to deal with the corrupts and corruption in independent India.

When RTI activist Masood was killed

37JULY 2013

• Narayan Ammachchi

Choosing to snap ties with the BJP in Bihar, the Janata Dal (U) has underscored how im-

portant it regards the votes of Mus-lims who make up 17 percent of the population in this northern state. But this decision of Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar appears to be worse than that of JDS leader Kumaraswamy who refused to back the BJP government after enjoying power with its support for more than two years in Karnataka. Predictably, angry voters taught him a lesson by voting the BJP to power in the 2008 Assembly elections. Will Ni-tish face a similar fate?

In Bihar, the JDU and the BJP had

fought elections together, and they knew too well that the mandate was for them to rule together. Now, having ditched the BJP, Nitish is all set to go it alone. He knows he can, because all that the JDU needs is the support of just four legislators to prove his majority in the lower House.

There are six independent legisla-tors and four MLAs from the Congress in the Bihar Assembly. Already, Con-

gress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has expressed an interest in joining hands with the JDU.

BJP’s state unit has repeatedly de-manded that the JDU must seek fresh mandate from the electorate, be-cause the national party backed the JDU candidates wherever it did not field its own candidate.

“Nitish Kumar should resign as Chief Minister, because the people

Communal Politics

By ending its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP, the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar has revealed its true intention, which is to woo Muslim votes to stay in power. This underlines the growing clout of Muslim votes in Indian politics and the political parties’ endless battles to win over the hearts and minds of the minority community.

When JDU and Others are After Muslim Votes

38 JULY 2013

of the state gave the mandate to the NDA (National Democratic Alliance),” stated the BJP’s state unit.

But the JDU is determined to leave the NDA and is currently talking with Mamata Banarjee and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik to form a Third Front before the parliamentary elections. Forming a Third Front is an old idea and such an adventure had failed historically in Indian politics, but the regional parties in the country often found it hard to resist that tempta-tion.

In fact, the Third Front will go in fa-vour of the BJP as it will eat into the traditional vote bank of the Congress –– the minority and the backward class communities.

JDU’s ties with the BJP lasted over a decade and it had proved success-ful. The biggest benefactor of the alliance was none other than Nitish Kumar himself, who was the Minister of Railways under the Vajpayee gov-ernment.

The JDU has not made it clear why it was parting ways with the BJP; ana-lysts say it is upset by the growing clout of Gujarat Chief Minister Naren-dra Modi in the BJP. But Nitish Kumar himself had praised Narendra Modi’s administration on his visit to Gujarat when he was the Railway Minister in 2003. Terming the communal riots in Gujarat as “unfortunate” he went on to say that the country must also look into the spectacular developmental works Modi had carried out in his state.

The same Nitish has now put com-munal issues above the developmen-tal programmes. Gujarat has not seen communal violence since then, but it has become a common occurrence in UP under SP’s rule.

The BJP knows that the people of Bihar will sympathise with it and help bolster its position in the next elec-tion. However, the party is currently focusing not on the state election but on next year’s parliamentary election.

JDU’s departure has shrunk NDA further. Today, there are only three parties in it – the BJP, Shiva Sena and the Akali Dal.

Analysts are wondering why the JDU assumed that Modi will be the Prime Ministerial candidate. Neither the BJP nor Modi has ever stated so.

The JDU is now counting on Muslim

votes to stave of defeat. The break with the BJP will, however, split Mus-lim votes and that will go in favour of the BJP. Nitish is also hoping to woo the backward class, but there are many other political outfits also in Bi-har soliciting their votes.

Yadavs and Paswans are the domi-nant communities in Bihar, but their votes are shared by several political parties. Remember, Ramvilas Paswan too has his own party.

Thus, JDU’s departure cannot be viewed as a loss to the BJP. The big-gest loser, it seems, is the JDU itself, because this so-called secular party will now have to fight for Muslim votes with a dozen like-minded politi-cal outfits.

39JULY 2013

The United States and its allies, like Britain, are likely to arm the Syrian rebels fighting the au-

thoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia, which is doing all it can to prevent the Western forces’ involvement in the Syrian conflict, is struggling to convince them why Assad should be left alone to deal with the crisis even as the latter are citing human rights violations and the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.

Syria is the last remaining battle ground in the Arab world where au-thoritarian regimes were swept away by the democratic uprising, which began for the first time in Tunisia. From there, the “Arab Spring”, as the movement was called, spread to neighbouring Libya and it has now engulfed Syria.

The conflict began on March 15,

2011, with popular demonstrations that soon spread nationwide by April 2011. The protesters demanded the resignation of President Assad, whose family has held the presidency in Syria since 1971.

Reports say that the Hezbollah fighters, the Islamists opposed to Is-rael and the United States, are fight-ing alongside the Syrian army and Russia has supplied them with a huge cache of arms and ammunitions.

NATO forces would have long at-tacked Syria and removed Assad from power had Russia not vetoed a resolution passed by the United Na-tions Security Council. But now the question is how long Russia will pro-tect Assad.

Tens of thousands of people have already been killed in the battle and millions have fled to neighbor-ing countries. One of the cities has

already been destroyed completely. The war is raging so fast that it ap-pears to be tearing the country apart.

The United States seems to be arm-ing the rebels, while Russia made huge money selling weapons to the authoritarian regime. America, how-ever, did not give heavy and sophis-ticated arms, because it fears the weapons might later be acquired by the terrorists.

When the Russians occupied Af-ghanistan three decades ago during the Cold War period, the United States had taken the help of Pakistan to arm the Islamic rebels. Later, the rebels gave shelter to Osama bin-Laden, leading the United States’ attack on Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Ameri-ca has now learnt the lesson and has already spent billions to eliminate the rebels it groomed to fight against the

Where’s the Syrian War

Heading for?The Islamist War• Narayan Ammachchi

Syria is the last remaining Arab country, where the Western forces are trying behind cover to remove an authoritarian regime and enforce democracy. But the war here is increasingly turning out to be a clash between different Islamist groups. As in the case of Pakistan and Iraq, revenge killings between different militant groups are becoming the order of the day.

40 JULY 2013

erstwhile Soviet Union.In Syria, the battle is turning out to

be a sectarian one. UN investigators say many ethnic and religious minor-ity groups have taken part in the con-flict, raising the possibility of reprisal killings and prolonged violence that could last for years after the govern-ment falls.

Forcing the Arab nations to embrace democracy is America’s new strategy to curb Islamic terrorism. That’s pre-cisely the reason why it wants to en-force democracy in Syria.

A BBC report says that in rebel-held areas clerics and lawyers are enforc-ing the Islam’s Sharia law. Another report in The New York Times says there is no democracy in the rebel-controlled areas of Syria. The Turkish Government has accused the Syrian Government of ethnic cleansing, cit-

ing the killings of Sunnis in Baniyas, a minority Muslim community.

In May 2013, the United Nations re-leased an estimate that the death toll in the Syrian conflict had exceeded 80,000. Various opposition activist groups have put the death toll be-tween 72,960 and 96,430. Accord-ing to the UN, about 4 million Syrians have been displaced.

The involvement of Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, ap-pears to have played a major role in turning the conflict into a sectarian one. Hezbollah had joined battle with government forces fighting to regain control of the strategic western town of Qusair, which lies on vital supply routes for both the rebels and the government.

It is also feared that the Syrian gov-ernment is deliberately pitting com-

munities against each other in an attempt to save its skin. In Pakistan, it is no longer a political crisis but a societal crisis. There the Sunnis and Shia groups have killed several hun-dreds of people so far. Such revenge killings are becoming common in Iraq as well.

Each one is an act of revenge for an offence committed by another mem-ber of the victim’s religious commu-nity.

“Women are being raped because they are Sunni or Alawite and their men are assumed to be involved in the fighting,” says a recent BBC re-port.

“Christian women are being hauled off buses and attacked by Salafist fighters for not covering their hair,” the report goes on.

42 JULY 2013

Game most foul!IPL fiasco shame unabated

Sreesanth and two other RR Players arrested

Rajasthan Royals Orders Internal Probe

Rajasthan Royals suspend contracts of all 3 accused players

SC seeks BCCI report on spot-fixing in 2 weeks

BCCI orders probe, RR files FIR against the arrested players

May-16 May-17 May-20 May-21May-19

• Raju Shanbhag

It’s threatening to be the biggest controversy in cricket ever. As the police dig deep into the murky

world behind the glittering IPL circus, more skeletons are tumbling out of the BCCI closet, and it’s not a pretty sight.

Since the day three cricketers from Rajasthan Royals were arrested on match fixing charges, too much has been exposed in IPL. BCCI’s Presi-dent and Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan, who was highly vocal about punishing the tainted cricket-ers, came under the scanner himself. Along with him, many other owners and other small time celebrities were questioned by the police.

The IPL scandal is a fine example of how BCCI and its sister concerns have grown out of anybody’s control. The arrangement works fine for BCCI, as its bosses are some of the most pow-erful politicians of the country. May be that’s the reason why the govern-ment is still shying away from making BCCI’s administration more transpar-ent. Remember, BCCI does not even come under the RTI Act as it’s an ‘au-tonomous body.’

But the investigations have re-vealed ugly truths that have sent the BCCI ducking for cover. Bookies al-legedly used the name of the under-world D-company to intimidate play-ers. It was reported that Dawood’s right hand Tiger Memon looked after the betting operations. The other key names that have surfaced are that of Sunil Dubai and Manoj Metro.

When cricket and underworld form an unholy nexus, how can Bollywood be left behind? Police first arrested

Action brooks no delayApart from the accidental discovery of widespread match fixing in IPL, the government has been doing precious little to take the bull by the horn. The talks of bringing in tougher anti-fixing laws will only be effective if the government shows some real intent in making BCCI more answerable to the people of the country.

43JULY 2013

Gurunath Meiyappan arrested by Mumbai Police after questioning

Two top BCCI officials quit and Rajeev Shukla resigns as Indian Premier League chairman

Srinivasan ‘steps aside’, Dalmiya named interim BCCI boss

I have no reason to resign, says BCCI chief N Srinivasan

May-25 June-1 June-2May-27

Vindoo Dara Singh, son of Late Dara Singh and winner of reality television show Bigg Boss season 3, on charges of betting and abetting the bookies. Later, former betting king Dinesh Kalgi added fuel to the fire when he stated that no cricketer in the Indian team is honest. He went on to say that even the cricket administrators were part of this racket. He also said that players from all countries were involved and fixing was a common phenomenon in other global sports like tennis and football.

But the drama has just begun, and big players were waiting in the wings. On May 22, 2013, a special team of Mumbai police left for Chennai to in-

terrogate Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of BCCI chief and Chen-nai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan. This step was taken after Vindoo Dara Singh claimed he was betting on be-half of various Bollywood personali-ties and also Gurunath Meiyappan. Although Meiyappan sought time to appear before the police, he was fi-nally arrested on the midnight May 25 by the Mumbai police.

Later, Mumbai police stated that Meiyappan was involved in large-

scale betting since 2011. Apparently he placed bets even on other teams and made considerable amount of money. The situation was tricky for Chennai head honcho N. Srinivasan, as he faced the wrath of the govern-ment and his team Chennai Super King’s future was in the doldrums.

This is because, according to Rule 11.3, Clause C of the BCCI-IPL consti-tution, a franchise can be terminated with immediate effect by a written notice if “the Franchisee, any Fran-chisee Group Company and/or any Owner acts in any way which has a material adverse effect upon the rep-utation or standing of the League, BC-CI-IPL, BCCI, the Franchisee, the Team (or any other team in the League) and/or the game of cricket.”

What happened later was a sad commentary on how the corporate sector works in our country. India Ce-ments, the owner of the Chennai Su-per Kings, issued a statement to me-dia stating that Gurunath Meiyappan was neither the owner nor the CEO

of CSK, all this while Meiyappan’s ID card was promptly being flashed on the TV screen where it was written in big letters that he was the OWNER of CSK! Even the Chennai Super Kings website was quick to remove all men-tion of Gurunath Meiyappan from its website, as if merely removing the name of a personality would wipe out his past connections with the team.

As the investigation progressed, the details only got dirtier. Part own-er of Rajasthan Royals, Raj Kundra was summoned by the police and he reportedly confessed to betting. Although he was quick to deny any wrongdoing and lash out at media for wrongly projecting him, police claim that he confessed various things.

Apart from the accidental discovery of widespread match fixing in IPL, the government has been doing precious little to take the bull by the horn. The talks of bringing in tougher anti-fixing laws will only be effective if the gov-

44 JULY 2013

ernment shows some real intent in making BCCI more answerable to the people of the country. BCCI may be an autonomous body, but it runs on public money and the affection this country showers on this wonderful game.

The government can start by bringing BCCI under the RTI act. Further, it can take more steps to make the functioning of BCCI more transparent. But this is easier said than done, as high stakes are involved in keeping BCCI working as it is now.

Foul Play AwardEvery year in IPL, the organizers give out a fair play award to teams that have allegedly played the game in the true spirit. This year, the top three included Chennai Super Kings stuck in a serious controversy involving its CEO and team principal, and Rajasthan Royals, who had three players arrested on allegations of spot-fixing. The organizers did what their bosses were doing. They simply removed the names of these two teams from their official website and pretended everything was beautiful. As an icing on the cake, Chennai Super Kings won the fair play award!

Ankeet Chavan marries Neha Sambri in a low key wedding

Delhi Police questions Rajasthan Royals’ owner Raj Kundra; Internal probe report submitted to BCCI

Delhi Police seek open NBWs for Dawood, Chhota Shakeel

Raj Kundra’s passport confiscated by Delhi Police

June-3 June-5 June-8June-6

River Yamuna has hopeInterestingly, the destructive flood,

which has brought death and de-struction along the banks of the

Yamuna, is also silently benefiting the ecology of the Capital. The flood has been able to provide a fresh lease of life to the dying river.

The gushing flood waters will clean the Yamuna by pushing away the filth in it, and will also enable replenish-ing the depleted ground water levels in Delhi.

For years, the aquatic life in the Yamuna was polluted with froth and hazardous materials. The floods might now fill the river with fresh wa-ter. Experts believe that this will also

help in making the soil more fertile.This is important as the flood also

facilitates the growth of vegetation as it adds moisture to the soil. The flood waters originate from the mountains that contain a high amount of silt. The silt that is deposited along the river bed is very conducive to crops and it increases the fertility of the soil. It is also believed that an overflowing riv-er assists in recreating water bodies in the nearby areas.

The flood also contributes in the moderation of the micro-climate in the city where it occurs. Water forms a significant part of the climate and an increase in the water content of a

river will definitely benefit the ecosys-tem. The dissolved oxygen level was zero. Biotic animals and plants are dependent on the dissolved oxygen in water. Since the flood, the scenario is in terms of the quality of water in the river.

It is now the duty of the Govern-ment to restrict any more construc-tion activities on the flood plains. Also, there needs to be a restriction on the sewage flowing into the Yamu-na. The water emanating from drains should be treated and diverted to ag-ricultural land or for other use. Then we will not require to spend crores on cleaning the river.

45JULY 2013

The Ministry of Woman and Child Development has stated that it is planning to put officers in place to

check and prevent the unabated cases of child mar-riages in the country. The Ministry has drafted a ‘Na-tional Strategy on Prevention of Child Marriage’ for this purpose and has decided to appoint and train child marriage prohibition officers (CMPOs).

There are no registrations when child marriages happen and hence the exact data on child marriages are unavailable. But, according to the District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3), 43 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 get married before 18. UNI-CEF states that there are 23 million child brides in India. This is approximately 40 per cent of all child brides worldwide.

The Ministry is looking for methods to improve the enforcement of laws against child marriages in states. Apart from putting gatekeepers in place in states to check child marriage, the Centre will soon be writing to state governments which do not have rules to check the practice. It will also provide them a time frame to have their rules and actions in place.

The government expects the state authorities to ensure that rules define the roles and responsibilities of CMPOs and local institutions such as panchayats. They should also have the powers and responsibili-

ties to enforce such laws, the government feels.The Ministry is looking to devise ways to link this

prevention of child marriages with the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) structures and also statutory bodies. This will help in ensuring detection and referral of cases that need care and protection.

The Ministry is also looking to increase awareness and capacity building at all levels. This includes im-proving awareness and information on other rele-vant legislations such as the Juvenile Justice Act and Dowry Prohibition Act.

It will also have workshops for lower judiciary on the Child Marriage Prevention Act, besides engaging the police to check illegal child marriages.

Child Marriages: Where are they?

An SMS is Enough to Clean Up Railway?

The Railways will be introducing an SMS-

based service to secure immediate response to passengers’ complaints about housekeeping ser-vice in coaches.

The service will initial-ly be launched on a few select trains to enable commuters to contact onboard staff with SMS or phone call for com-

plaints related to cleanliness in coaches and toilets and other problems faced during the journey. As planned in the Railway Budget 2013-14, an Onsite Passenger Complaint Redressal System (OPCRS) is

being developed. The service may be launched either in Mumbai Rajdhani or Bangalore Rajdhani as a pilot project in the near future.

46 JULY 2013

The system allows a passenger to send SMS for any issue about housekeeping such as dirty toilets, compartment or absence of liquid soap. The Rail-ways have requested for a three-digit number from the Department of Telecommunications for this pur-pose.

Once the SMS is sent, the information is registered on OPCRS that is connected with GSM network. Then it will be immediately sent to a GSM hand-held unit (mobile phone) available with the housekeeping su-pervisor on the train.

At the same time, an acknowledgement will be sent on the mobile phone of the complainant along with a complaint ID and instruction to reveal the ID to the housekeeping supervisor after he attends to the

problem to his satisfaction. On receipt of passenger information, the housekeeping supervisor would lo-cate him, get briefing of his needs and attend to the problem besides offering him feedback.

After the completion of the job, the housekeeping supervisor will request for complaint ID from the pas-senger and will send it through SMS from the hand-held unit back to OPCRS. It will then send the feed-back to the complainant for closure of his complaint.

The Railways are looking to make the OPCRS a sys-tem that enables the communication between the user requesting the service and actual service pro-vider available on board.

Now you Cannot Send Telegram

The modern communication systems such as smartphones, emails and SMS have finally been

successful in pushing the old telegram service out of the race. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced that it has decided to discontinue the 160-year-old telegraph service from July 15.

Old timers fondly remember the urgent communi-cations they received through telegram services. In the absence any of the modern day communications systems, telegrams were the main source of rapid and urgent communication. The service offered both

happy and sad news to recipients all over the coun-try. But, with the advent of new technology and new-er means of communication, the telegram was slowly seen losing its sheen.

A circular issued by Shameem Akhtar, Senior Gen-eral Manager (Telegraph services) (BSNL), New Delhi, to various telecom district and circle offices states that all telegraph offices under the management of BSNL will stop booking telegrams from July 15.

The circular has also asked the telecom offices to have log books, service messages and delivery slips only for six months from the date of bookings. But press reports, complaints and other messages from the consumer forum can be kept for one year.

According to reports, BSNL, Delhi, had asked the government to support the service as it was not com-mercially viable. But the government refused to step in and said the BSNL board should decide on it. So, BSNL decided to close the service after consulting with the Department of Posts. They also opined that there are better options available to the users.

BSNL has asked that surplus telegraph staff mem-bers should be employed at mobile services, broad-band services, landline and telephony. It has also stated that shifting could take place within the next three months. The government had in May 2011 re-vised the telegram charges after a gap of 60 years as it was facing declining revenues.

47JULY 2013

At this year’s Global Peace Index (GPI) that mea-sured peace in 162 countries, India ranks low at

141. India scored low because of militarization, domes-

tic and international conflicts, and corruption. But at the same time, the country has taken positive steps in achieving high level of peace after reductions in deaths from internal conflict and the level of per-ceived criminality in society.

Even Sri Lanka is one place above India and Bhu-tan is ranked the most peaceful country among the Southeast Asian countries. It is followed by Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Afghani-stan, in that order.

Europe is still the most peaceful region, which in-cludes 13 of the top 20 countries, including Iceland, which continues to rank first. But numerous high

debt countries including Spain, Greece, France and Portugal had less peaceful conditions amid problem-atic economic circumstances during the last year.

In contrast, a few slight improvements were seen last year on the indicators of the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the Political Terror Scale, a mea-sure of State-sponsored terror, with improvements in countries such as Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Zambia and Tunisia.

Syria’s descent into civil war got the country the greatest score deterioration in the history of the In-dex. Also, many Middle Eastern and North African countries are still affected by the fallout from the Arab Spring as they are prone to violent demonstra-tions and increasing political instability.

The data also showed evidence of countries be-ing able to make considerable gains in peace. Libya experienced the highest rise in peace as its newly elected government and recovering institutions were established after the turmoil of the recent revolu-tion and civil war. North Africa also had reasons to rejoice as Sudan and Chad experienced the second and third most considerable gains as their respec-tive conflicts eased.

This also reflects the six-year trend data, which shows that countries that suffer from recession de-crease in peace at a greater rate than the rest of the world.

India Ranks 141 on Peace Index

Dalit Priests in Uttarkhand

The northern state of Uttrakhand is undergoing an important social change as Dalits, once consid-

ered untouchables, and are taking on a role, which has been traditionally performed by upper-caste Brahmins.

Dalits are now training priests from their own com-munity because Brahmins usually refuse to perform rituals for them. As a result, they are feeling happy and more free than ever.

Known as Vritti or Panditji in the community, these priests perform all rituals, from marriage to homas. As Brahmins, they too have started giving deeksha their disciples to make sure that the tradition follows into the next generation.

Many of these priests have studied Sanskrit in the country’s prestigious universities. Take the example of the person the paper spoke to: Pratap Ram Arya, This 37-year-old boy has obtained Sanskrit Diksha from Haridwar.

“My thread ceremony was performed by Pandit Joga Ramji of Sani Ujar village. He was the first Dalit priest from this area,” the paper quoted him as say-ing.

Given the article, Arya charges Rs 3,000 for per-forming a marriage ritual. ‘He looks like a Brahmin priest, complete with a kanthi mala, tilak and choti,’ says Express.

“The demand for Dalit priests is very high; I have also started sending my son Shankar to perform reli-gious rituals,” he added. Shankar is an intermediate student at a Sanskrit school.

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Arya, according to he paper, has become popular in nearby villages including Jhakra, Jakhni, Malsona, Sehri and Jarti.

Joga Ram’s sons, Bhopal Ram and Mohan Ram, are also priests like their father. “Our father was a carpenter. He became a priest in 1960 having been trained by his friend Bhola Dutt Pant,” said Bhopal.

The priests say they will give Deeksha to anyone interested boy in their community. Bhagat Prasad Arya is reportedly working as priest for the past three decades and he has recently introduced his son to he profession.

“My father wanted me to become a priest. We had no agriculture land. Brahmins were reluctant to per-form rituals for us. So, I thought I should become a priest,” he said.

He wears dhoti, kurta and topi for performing ritu-als.

According to the paper, these priests are invited only by Dalits. Prominent Dalit priests include Kishan Ram of Maudiyar, Ram Prasad of Bajura Nakuri and Keshar Ram of Kulgara.

No-go Zones in Western Ghats

The Environment Ministry is set to mark the bound-aries of no-go zones in the Western Ghats.The

Ministry is also planning to ban establishment of pol-luting industries including mining and thermal power plants in a 60,000 square kilometers area spread across six states.

This was what Kasturirangan Panel has recom-mended in its report on the safety of the Western Ghats. The Ministry, according to Times of India, has collected comments and opinions from both the state governments and public.

Government set up the panel after a committee headed by veteran environmentalist Madhav Gadgil suggested the government that it prohibit industries in most part of the Western Ghats, which is home a wide verity of plants and animal species.

The Committee had asked the government to set up Western Ghats Authority and ban polluting indus-tries including mining.

What this Kasturirangan Panel did was that it re-duced the size of these no-go zones. Government, however, appears to have trashed the Gadgil report

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which suggested it that it set up a powerful federal and autonomous authority to oversee the Ghats. But the Union Government is not setting up such bodies as that weakens the sovereignty of states.

Kasturirangan Panel had also recommended that the autonomous body supervise over farmlands, plantations and habitations in the region.

There are about 4,156 villages in the forested ar-eas which the government planning to make ‘no-go zones’.

Though Kasturirangan panel was more diplomatic than the Gadgil committee in terms of the harsh-ness of the report’s content, the government took a long time to make up its mind.

The report does not call for banning hydel power plants, but asks the government to enact strict laws for assessing such projects.

Congolese Carry out Revenge Attacks against Indians

People attacking shops and businesses owned by Indians in Kinshasa, the capital of the Demo-

cratic Republic of Congo, in revenge against the ar-rest of a Congolese student in Punjab.

Reports say a kind of riots have broken out in Kin-shasha following the arrest of 21 students in Jaland-har. It is not clear why the police arrested so many numbers of foreigners.

Congolese are arguing that their fellow nationals are being mistreated by police in the lockups.

Indian government has dismissed reports that po-lice beat up the detainees in the lock-ups, but it said that there was an exchange of violence at the time of the arrest.

The students were released soon afterwards. DR Congo’s deputy foreign affairs minister had request-ed that the students be immediately freed.

The Congolese authorities also demanded that the students be given a medical examination following the allegations of abuse.

Earlier, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported that one of the detainees had attempted to commit suicide.

Most of the students who were detained came from Kinshasa to study commerce or engineering

within the last two years at the Lovely Professional University in Punjab state.

According to the police, the group was arrested after a fight broke out between several Congolese students and an Indian at a bus stop in Jalandhar.

Jalandhar deputy police commissioner Jaspreet Singh to the media that the Congolese then stole the bag of the victim.

Police and Congolese students are blaming each other.

Setback for Dalits in Britain

Britain’s parliament has voted against a bill de-signed to give Dalits legal safeguard against

caste-based discrimination. The House of Lords had voted last month by a majority of 103 in favor of such a law, but the House of Commons, the powerful low-er house, dismissed the draft bill.

Britain’s Equalities minister Jo Swinson told the media that the legislation could increase the stigma rather than ease the problem.

“This is more an issue for India rather than for UK. I haven’t come across a single case of caste-based discrimination in UK. We are against such discrimi-nation. The government needs to take a decision af-ter a proper understanding of the issue and all-party dialogue,” Keith Vaz, MP, said.

Dalits demanding that the government include them into that powerful anti-racial law. The Act in question currently prohibits race discrimination, harassment and victimization at workplace. The definition of “race” within the Act includes colour,

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nationality, ethnic or national origin but does not specifically refer to caste.

There are about 8 lakh Indians living in the UK, but they appeared divided over enacting such a law.. While ‘Caste Watch’ rallied behind the amendment, the Hindu Alliance, representing over one million Hindus, opposed the proposed law.

There is no caste system present in UK and so there will be no need for anyone to identify himself by naming his caste.

“The issue of the caste system is one that the Hin-du community would very much like to move beyond. We strongly believe that modern Hindus do not care about caste. This legislation would take us back to the past,” Alliance’s Arjan Vakaria said in a press re-lease.

The Alliance of Hindu Organisations UK fears that this will label the community as being institutionally discriminatory and will result in individuals applying for work or places to study having to identify them-selves by caste for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

Mittal’s house on sale

One of the oldest and expensive houses of Indian business tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is up for sale

in London. The house in question is on Billionaire's Boulevard, which is the richest lane of London.

According to news reports, the house is now worth

110 million pounds or ap-proximately Rs 93 billion. Mittal is said to be selling the house to avoid a huge sum he is spending as house tax. There is a huge tax levied on big and pala-tial houses in Britain.

Given a report in Times of India, decreasing demand

for steel in China has hit his business hard.The house is adjacent to Israeli Embassy, and Mit-

tal had bought the house for his son Aditya from Israeli-American financier Noam Gottesman. Aditya is the chief financial officer of the steel firm, Arcelor Mittal.

Reports say he is selling the house at a price that is far less than the price he paid to buy.

The 12-bedroom palatial house in Central London, Kensington area, was often described as the beauti-ful bungalow. A few blocks away is a house where Diana, Princess of Wales, lived. Maybe that was the reason why people called the road “the most presti-gious address in London.”

In fact, Aditya never moved into the new mansion, though his father had bought it in 2008.

The four-floor house with at least five luxurious suite bedrooms was built in the 1920s. It was sold along with expensive artifacts. The entire first floor of the palatial building is Mittal’s master bedroom, reports Times.

RNI KARENG/2000/2368 Aseema English Monthly. Postal Reg. MNG/504/2012-2014Posting Date: First of every month @ Konchady Post Office