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APPOINTED

Nabam Tuki

Nabam Tuki was

sworn in as the

seventh Chief

Minister of

Arunachal Pradesh.

He replaced Jarbon

Gamlin. Arunachal Pradesh Governor

JJ Singh administered the oath of

office and secrecy at the Raj Bhavan

in Itanagar.Gamlin had taken over aschief minister on 5 May 2011 following

the death of Chief Minister Dorjee

Khandu in a helicopter crash.

Arunachal Pradesh went through

political instability since July 2011

after a group of Congress legislators

led by Tuki revolted against Gamlin’s

leadership. Prem Khandu Thungan

(Indian National Congress) was the

first chief minister of Aruncahla

Pradesh.

Gurbachan Singh

Union Agriculture Commissioner

Gurbachan Singh was appointed

Chairman of the Agricultural Scientists

Recruitment Board for a seven-year

term until further orders or till he

attains the age of 65, whichever is

earlier. The Board is crucial to

recruitment of farm researchers andpolicy formulation.During the tenure of

Dr. Singh as Agriculture Commi-

ssioner, India achieved its highest

foodgrain production including a

record as pulses output, has assumedcharge of his new post.

Pulok Chatterjee

Senior IAS officer Pulok Chatterjee,

took charge as Principal Secretary to

the Prime Minister.A 1974 Uttar

Pradesh cadre officer, Mr. Chatterjee

replaces T.K.A. Nair, who has been

associated with Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh since 2004. Mr.Nair, a retired IAS officer of the 1963

batch, will hold the office of Adviser

with the rank and status of Minister

of State in the Prime Minister’s

Office.Mr. Chatterjee returns to the

PMO after a stint in the World Bank

as Executive Director. The PMO is a

familiar terrain to Mr. Chatterjee as he

was a Joint Secretary from 2004 to

2009. Mr. Chatterjee’s term will be

co-terminus with that of the Prime

Minister or till further orders.

D. Shivakumar

F i n l a n d - b a s e d

mobile phone

major Nokia

announced the

appointment of

Nokia India Vice-

President and

Managing Director D. Shivakumar as

the Head for India, the Middle East

and Africa (IMEA), one of the four

newly formed global sales regions

comprising around 90 nations.AsSenior Vice-President, Mr.

Shivakumar will relocate to Dubai,

which has been chosen as the hub for

the region, in January next year.

Sudhir Vasudeva

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has

cleared the appointment of Sudhir

Vasudeva as the Chairman and

Managing Director of Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC). Mr.

Vasudeva, 57, is now Director

(Offshore) in ONGC. The formal

orders for appointment of Mr.

Vasudeva, who was selected by

government appointed Public

Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) in

interviews on October 19 last year,

were issued by the Petroleum and

Natural Gas Ministry, officials in the

Ministry said. Mr. Vasudeva will head

ONGC till his retirement on January

31, 2014. The Prime Minister gave his

approval to Mr. Vasudeva’s

appointment after the Central

Vigilance Commission (CVC) gave

final clearance on all complaints

received against him.

S. V. Arumugam

S. V. Arumugam, Managing Director

of Bannari Amman Spinning Mills and

IN THE NEWSIN THE NEWS



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Director of Bannari Amman Sugars,

has been elected chairman of

Confederation of Indian Textile

Industry (CITI) for 2011-12. The other

office-bearers are: Prem Malik,

management consultant for textiles

(Deputy Chairman), and MukundChoundhary, functional Director of

CLC Group (Vice-Chairman), says a

release.

Markandey Katju

Former Supreme

Court judge

Markandey Katju

was appointed as

the new chairmanof media

regulator Press

Council of India

(PCI). The

appointment of Justice Katju, who

retired from the apex court on 19

September 2011 was cleared by a

committee headed by Vice President

Hamid Ansari and included Lok Sabha

Speaker Meira Kumar. In exercise of

the powers conferred by the sub-

section (2) of section 5 of the Press

Council Act, 1978 (37 of 1978), the

Central Government notified notified

his appointment as the Chairman of

the Press Council of India.He

succeeded Justice G N Ray. Justice

Katju was first appointed a judge of

the Allahabad high court in 1981. He

was appointed as the Judge of the

Supreme Court in April 2006 and heretired on 19 September 2011. Katju

has written several books which

include publications such as Law in

the Scientific Era and Interpretation of

Taxing Statutes, among others. The

Press Council of India (PCI) is the

apex media regulator of the country.

The Press Council of India is a

statutory, quasi judicial body which

acts as a watchdog of the media. Its

chairman by convention is a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

Leszek Kucharski

The Table

Tennis Fede-

ration of India

a p p o i n t e d

Poland’s Leszek

Kucharski as

the Indian TT

coach on a one-

year contract.

Kucharski is to take over in

December 2011 at a salary of $6,000

per month including free

accommodation and internal travel

expenses. Kucharski had reached No

11 in rankings as a player and has hada successful career as coach in his

country. Those in the running were

Kucharski, Michael Hajek of the

Czech Republic and 1988 Seoul

Olympics bronze medallist Erik Lindh

of Sweden. Italian Massimo

Constantini was India’s TT coach

before Kucharski and his contract

expired after the Guangzhou Asian

Games in 2010.

Dutchman Robert Baan

The All India Football Federation

(AIFF) appointed Dutchman Robert

Baan as the Technical Director (TD)

for a period of two years.Baan has a

46-year experience in football

management and was involved in a

similar capacity with the Australia

Football Federation. Baan is one of the

most high profile coaches to haveworked in India having been an

assistant coach at PSV Eindhoven

from 1995-98 and also the TD at

Feynoord Rotterdam from 1998-

2004.He has also served as the TD of

the Netherlands youth team. He was

briefly appointed a caretaker manager

of the senior Dutch team for a match

against Cyprus back in 1981. He

performed a similar duty during

Socceroos’ 1-0 win over Nigeria in2007.

Bobby Jindal

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, won

re-election on 22 October 2011. He

is a member of the Republican Party.

Jindal won 66% of the vote with his

nearest challenger, Tara Hollis of the

Democratic party, got 18%. On 20

October, 2007, Jindal was elected

governor of Louisiana for the first

time. Bobby Jindal is the first Indian-

American to occupy the post of a

governor. His real name was Piyush

Jindal. He started calling himself

Bobby from an early age and

converted from Hinduism to

Catholicism as a teenager. He wasborn in Baton Rouge, the capital of the

southern state of Louisiana, to Indian

parents who had immigrated from the

Punjab. He is 37 years old. Louisiana

is a state located in the southern

region of the United States of

America. Its capital is Baton Rouge.

Gustavo Petro

Gustavo Petro was elected mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogota as

Colombians voted in local elections.

Petro won 32 percent of the votes.

His main opponent Enrique Penalosa

was the favoured candidate of former

President Alvaro Uribe. He could

manage only 25 percent of the votes.

Petro was a former guerrilla with the

defunct M-19 Movement. The 19th of

April Movement or M-19, was a

Colombian guerrilla movement. Afterits demobilization it became a political

party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance

(Alianza Democrática M-19), or AD/

M-19. The M-19 traced its origins to

the allegedly fraudulent presidential

elections of 19 April 1970.

Mittal & Jindal

The World Steel Association (WSA),

a premier global steel industry body,

on Wednesday elected Arcelor Mittal

Chairman Lakshmi Mittal and JSW



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Steel Vice-Chairman Sajjan Jindal to

its 15-member Executive Committee,

WSA said in a communiqué, reports

PTI from New Delhi.

Rubin D’Cruz

Rubin D’Cruz,

who was recently

removed as

Director of the

State Institute of

C h i l d r e n ’ s

Literature, has

rejoined the National Book Trust

(NBT) from where his services were

secured by the State government. Mr.

D’Cruz rejoined as Assistant Editor at

the NBT in New. Although the UDF

government had dispensed with his

services, it had informed the NBT

authorities that he may be reinstated

in his old post since the State

government had to dispense with his

services because of some technical

irregularities in his appointment. The

NBT has decided to reinstate him

treating his stint with the State Institute

of Children’s Literature as deputation.

Ashish Bagga

Ashish Bagga of India Today was on

Friday elected president of The Indian

Newspaper Society for the year 2011-

12 at its 72nd annual general meeting

here.He succeeds Kundan R Vyas of

the Janmabhoomi Group.K.N. Tilak

Kumar ( Prajavani ) was elected

deputy president, Ravindra Kumar

( The Statesman ) vice-president and

Rakesh Sharma (Aaj Samaj ) honorary

treasurer.V. Shankaran is the

secretary-general of the Society.

Kamalesh Sharma

Commonwealth Secretary General

Kamalesh Sharma was re-appointed

to the coveted post. The

Commonwealth Leaders agreed to re-

appoint him at the 21st

Commonwealth Heads of

Government Meeting (CHOGM) in

Perth in Australia. Sharma who served

as a veteran Indian diplomat was re-

appointed for a four-year term

beginning in April 2012.

Sarvjit Singh Dhillon

Bharti Enterprises on Wednesday

announced the appointment of Sarvjit

Singh Dhillon as Group Chief Financial

Officer (CFO) with effect from

January 1, 2012.

DEATH

Jagjit Singh

Veteran ghazal singer Jagjit Singh

passed away on 10 October 2011 in

Mumbai. He was 70. He was

admitted in Lilavati Hospital for more

than two weeks. The singer had

undergone an emergency surgery for

brain hemorrhage at the Hospital. The

veteran singer, popularly known as the

Ghazal King had gained acclaim

together with his wife Chitra Singh in1970s and 1980s. He had sung in

Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati,

Sindhi and Nepali languages.

Moreover, Jagjit Singh is the only

singer and composer to have

composed and recorded songs written

by former Indian Prime Minister Atal

Behari Vajpayee, in two albums,

Samvedna in the year 2002 and Nayi

Disha in the year 1999. Jagjit Singh

was awarded Padmabhushan, India’sthird highest civilian honour, in 2003.

Jagjit Singh was born to Sikh parents

in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on 8

February, 1941.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, co-founder

of Apple Inc. died at

age 56 from pancreatic

cancer on 6 October

2011. Steve Jobs had

stepped down as

Apple’s chief executive. Steve Jobs

co-founded Apple in 1976 along with

Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak.

Steve also co-founded and was the

CEO of Pixar Animation Studios,

which created animated films. He

became a member of the board of

directors of the Walt Disney Company

in 2006, following the acquisition of

Pixar by Disney. After leaving Apple,

Jobs founded NeXT Computer in

1985. Steve Jobs was from

California, USA. Steve Jobs helped

create the Macintosh, one of the

world’s most influential computers.

He also reinvented the portable music

player with the iPod, launched the first

successful legal method of selling

Bhupen Hazarika

Legendary singer-

composer and

Padma Bhushan

awardee Bhupen

Hazarika died in

Mumbai on 5 November 2011.

Bhupen Hazarika was born on 8

September 1926, in Sadiya, Assam.

Hazarika studied at Cotton College

and then moved to the Banaras Hindu

University to complete his Bachelor in

Arts in 1944. He completed his MA

in Political Science and was honoured

with a doctorate by the Columbia

University in New York in the 1952.

He also received the Lisle Fellowship

from Chicago University, US to study

the use of educational projectdevelopment through cinema.He was

the chairman of the Sangeet Natak

Akademi from 1999-2004. He was

chosen as a member of the Assam

Legislative Assembly from 1967-72.

At the age of 12, Hazarika sang his

first song Biswa Bijoy No Jowan for

an Assamese film Indramalati . He

was involved with the Assamese film

industry ever since its inception. He

worked to bring tradition of Assamesemusic to a platform where the world



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could listen. Era Bat ar Sur,

Shakuntala, Loti ghoti,

Pratidhwani, Chick Mick Bijul,

Swikarokti and Siraj are some of the

Assamese films that were directed by

him. He lent his voice and composed

songs for the film.His soulful

compositions for Hindi films Rudali,

Chingaari, Daman introduced a new

dimension in Bollywood music. His

song Dil Hoom Hoom Kare from

Rudali is a legend. Legendary black

singer Pual Robenson inspired him to

compose his magnum opus O Ganga

behti ho kyon. Hazarika was a multi-

talented personality. He was a poet,

music composer, singer, actor,

journalist, author and filmmaker.He

had moved to Mumbai to work as an

artist with Indian People’s Theatre

Movement (IPTA) with music

composer Salil Chowdhury, actor

Balraj Sahni and a few others.

He was awarded the National Award

in 1975 for Chameli Memsaab. He

also won the Dada Saheb Phalke

Award in 1992. The legendary

composer was conferred the IndianMusic Director award for best music

Internationally for the film Rudaali at

the Asia Pacific International Film

Festival 1993 held in Japan.He won

President’s medal for his films

Shakuntala (1960), Pratidhwani

(1964) and Lotighoti (1967). He was

also awarded the Sangeet Natak

Akademi Award in 1987.

Srilal Shukla

Renowned litterateur Srilal Shukla died

at a hospital in Lucknow on 28

October 2011 following prolonged

illness. He was 86. Srilal Shukla wrote

Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj (1957),

Agyaatvaas (1962), Rag Darbari

(1968), Aadmi Ka Zahar (1972),

Bisrampur Ka Sant (1998), Raag

Viraag (2001) and many other novels.

His detective novel entitled Aadmi Ka Zahar was serialised in the weekly

magazine Hindustan. His works throw

light on the falling moral values of

society in post-independence era.

Raag Darbaari portrayed a feudal,

crumbling Shivpalganj- the archetypal

village of the Hindi heartland with its

politico-cultural tensions and

administrative neglect. Shukla delved

upon almost everything that was

decadent in the system, but stopped

short of making a moral statement.

English translation of his novel Rag

Darbari was published under the

same title in 1993 by Penguin Books.

The novel was also translated and

published by National Book Trust,

India in 15 Indian languages. A

television serial based on this novel

continued for several months on the

DD National in the 1980s.

He wrote many satires like Angad Ka

Paanv, Yahaan Se Vahaan, Meri

Shreshtha Vyangya Rachnayein

(1979), Kuchh Zameen Mein Kuchh

Hava Mein (1990), Jahaalat Ke

Pachaas Saal (2003), Khabron Ki

Jugaali (2005) and many more. Yeh

Ghar Mera Nahin, Suraksha Tatha Anya Kahaaniyan, Iss Umra Mein,

Dus Pratinidhi Kahaaniyan are his

short story collections. Mere

Saakshaatkaar (2002) and Kuchh

Saahitya Charcha Bhi (2008) are his

memoirs. Noted Hindi writer, Shrilal

Shukla was born in Atrauli village of

Lucknow district on 31 December

1925. He had graduated from

Allahabad University. He began his

career as a state civil servant(UPPCS) in 1949. Later on, he was

inducted into the IAS but in 1983 he

left the services and continued to

pursue his literary dreams. Shrilal

Shukla was presented the India’s

highest literary honour Jnanpith award

on his hospital bed by Uttar Pradesh

Governor B L Joshi on 18 October

2011. He was honoured with the

Sahitya Akademi Award for novel

Raag Darbari for the year 1969. He

was also a recipient of Vyas Samman

(1999), Lohia Sammaan (1994) of

Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan,

Sharad Joshi and Maithili Sharan

Gupta Sammaan of Madhya Pradesh

Government. He was awarded with

national civilian honour Padma

Bhushan in 2008.

Varghese Kakkanadan

Malayalam writer with George

Varghese Kakkanadan died in Kollam.

He battled cancer for over two years,

and was 76.Known simply as

‘Kakkanadan’ (pronounced Kaakkan-

aadan), he was one of the harbingers

of modernism in the genres of

Malayalam novel and short story. Heleaves behind a rich oeuvre, several of

his works landmarks in the history of

literary modernism in Malayalam.

Moving with ease from apocalyptic

visions to tantric imagery, he made his

works representative of an important

strand in the larger modernist trends

in arts, literature and culture in

India.Kakkanadan was a rebel, both in

life and literature. His rebellion

extended from his selection of themes

and use of subversive language to his

careful crafting of the philosophy of

angst into the writing. His was a world

of dark tones and darker people,

many of them social rejects. He often

spoke of the seamy side, the world of

puss and blood. Each of his works was

an act of rebellion against accepted

elitist social mores and codes. Sex,

like violence, was a leitmotif in many

of his works; at times as a resonant

chant, at others as an explosive

outpouring of raw human power that

transcends both the demonic and the

divine. He won the Central Sahitya

Akademi Award, the Kerala Sahitya

Akademi Award and other awards.

Bhagwat Jha Azad

Former Bihar Chief Minister Bhagwat

Jha Azad died. He was a six-timemember of the Lok Sabha from



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Bhagalpur, Bihar. He was a veteran

Congressman who served as the

Chief Minister of Bihar from February

14, 1988 and March 10, 1989.

However, a little before his death he

joined the BJP.Azad superceded the

boards of three apex cooperative

institutions namely Bihar State Co-

operative Bank, Bihar State Co-

operative Marketing Union and Bihar

State Co-operative Land Development

Bank.

Ramdayal Munda

Ramdayal Munda, Rajya Sabha

member, died of cancer at the Apollo

Hospital.He was 72. Born in 1939 at

Diuri village, Mr. Munda completed his

education from Ranchi University in

1957. He was also a Padma Shri

recipient. Mr. Munda took his Ph.D

from the University of Chicago.He

wrote a number of books on tribals

issues. His political life started when

he joined Jharkhand Vikas Dal as

president.He later joined the

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and moved

to the Congress and became a

member of its Working Committee.

Vishnudutt Nagar

Noted economist Vishnudutt Nagar

passed away after suffering a heart

attack at the ager of 82.

Nagar was born on December 16,

1930 at Chanchoda in Madhya

Pradesh’s Guna district. He played a

prominent role in the establishment of

an economics department at the

Vikram University at Ujjain. Nagar’s

analytic columns on the general budget

in national dailies were well received.

K H Ranganath

Veteran Congress leader and former

Karnataka minister K H Ranganath

who was suffering from kidney

disorder died in Bangalore on 18

october 2011. Ranganath, a six term

MLA from Hiriyura assembly

constituency in Chitradurga district,

was also a Lok Sabha member from

Chitradurga during 1984-89. He had

served in the ministries of late D

Devaraj Urs, Bangarappa and S M

Krishna.Ranganath was also the

speaker of the Karnataka state

assembly.

ACCUSED

Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

lost his appeal in the High Court here

against attempts to extradite him to

Sweden over allegations of sexual

assault brought by two women.The

court upheld a magistrate’s ruling in

February this year that he be

extradited.The verdict was greeted

with outrage by rights activists, who

had gathered outside the court in large

numbers to demand his freedom.

They had fixed to the court’s iron

railings banners reading: “Free

Assange! Free Manning! End the

wars.”Mr. Assange, who denies the

allegations and believes that the case

is politically motivated, said he was

considering his “next steps.” He

would remain on bail under the same

highly restrictive conditions that were

imposed when he was arrested in

November last year on a European-

wide Swedish warrant.

Niira Radia

Niira Radia,Corporate lobbyist and

provider of public relations services for

the Tata group and Reliance Industries

announced her exit from the business

of communication consultancy. She

cited her personal priorities of family

and health behind taking the decision

after much consideration.Niira Radia

had been in news related to the 2G

controversy in the recent past when

leaked tapes of her conversations

appeared in the media. The 2G

spectrum controversy involved

officials in the government of India

illegally undercharging mobile

telephony companies for frequency

allocation licenses, which they would

use to create 2G subscriptions for cell

phones.

Sanjeev Bhatt

The suspended IPS officer, Sanjeev

Bhatt, who had implicated Gujarat

Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the

2002 post-Godhra riots, was arrested

here on Friday after a constable filed

an FIR against him.However,later

court granted him bail and he released

from the jail.

Yulia Tymoshenko

The legal team of the former

Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia

Tymoshenko, will next week file an

appeal against her seven-year jail

sentence, said one of her lawyers on

Wednesday. The opposition leader has

claimed the decision to jail her for

exceeding her powers in a gas deal

with Russia in 2009 was ordered by

President Viktor Yanukovych and the

conviction sparked international

outrage. A judge found Ms.

Tymoshenko guilty of exceeding her

authority in 2009 by making the state

energy company sign a 10-year gas

import deal with Russia that was

overly advantageous to Moscow.”The

court rules that Y.V. Tymoshenko

intentionally used her powers to

criminal ends,” he said. “The court

finds her guilty and sentences her to

seven years in prison.”

Jack Warner

A video showing former FIFA vice-

president Jack Warner telling

Caribbean officials how to deal with

cash gifts from Mohamed bin

Hammam was published by a British

newspaper on Wednesday. The Daily



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Telegraph posted footage of a May 11

meeting of the Caribbean Football

Union (CFU) on its website, which

shows Warner advising delegates how

to handle cash offered by bin

Hammam ahead of his ill-fated FIFA

election bid. Asian FootballConfederation (AFC) chief Bin

Hammam was later banned for life

amid claims Caribbean officials had

been paid $40,000 each at the

meeting. In the video, Warner can be

heard telling CFU delegates he had

not been in favour of bin Hammam

offering money at the meeting.

Mahipal Maderna

Rajasthan Water Resources Minister

Mahipal Maderna was dropped from

the Cabinet on 16 October 2011 after

an official recommendation sent to the

Raj Bhavan for his dismissal. He was

dismissed in the wake of allegations

about his involvement in a case of

mysterious disappearance of an

auxiliary nurse midwife, Bhanwari

Devi.Maderna, son of powerful Jat

leader and Congress veteran

Parasram Maderna could not be

persuaded to put in his papers,

following which Chief Minister Ashok

Gehlot decided to recommend his

sacking to the Governor.

The State government announced his

removal a day before a habeas corpus

writ petition filed by Bhanwari Devi’s

husband comes up for the next

hearing in the Rajasthan HighCourt.Maderna figures as an accused

in the first information report

registered for rape, kidnap and murder

of Bhanwari Devi, 36, who has been

missing from Jaliwada village in

Jodhpur district since 1 September

2011. Maderna faces charges under

Sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder) and

120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the

Indian Penal Code.Later he was

arrested and sent to jail.

Arunkumar

The Kerala High Court upheld the

government decisions to order a

Vigilance investigation into various

allegations levelled against V.A.

Arunkumar, son of Leader of the

Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, and

withdraw an earlier order referring to

the Lok Ayukta a complaint against

him..Mr. Arunkumar, who was the

Additional Director of the Institute of

Human Resources Development

(IHRD), pointed out that the

allegations were raised by then Leader

of the Opposition Oommen Chandy

on the eve of the Assembly elections.

Yasin Malik

Violence broke out in Maisuma here

after the police detained JKLF

chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik for

taking out a rally against the death

sentence awarded to Afzal Guru.

Hasan Ali

The Supreme Court quashed the bailgranted to Pune stud-farm owner

Hasan Ali Khan by the Bombay High

Court in a money laundering case on

August 12.

HONOUR

Asha Bhosle

Legendary Bollywood playback singer

Asha Bhosle on 20 October 2011

entered the Guinness World Records

for the most number of single studio

recordings. Asha recorded up to 11000

solo, duets and chorus backed songs

and several others in over 20 Indian

languages since 1947.The 78-year-old

was conferred with the Guinness

honour at the Asian awards function

held in London.

Bhosle’s work includes film music,

pop, ghazals, bhajans, traditional Indian

classical music, folk songs, qawwalis,

and Rabindra Sangeets. Apart from

Hindi, she has sung in over 20 Indian

and foreign languages.The World

Records Academy, an international

organization which certifies world

records, recognised her as the Most

Recorded Artist in the world, inSeptember 2009.The Government of

India honoured her with the

Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2000 and

the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.

Oxford Scholarship

A Delhi University graduate, Hem

Borker, has become the 50th Indian

student to win the prestigious

Clarendon Fund scholarship to studyat Oxford.Ms. Borker, whose

research will examine Muslim identity,

gender and madrassa education, said

it had always been her “dream” to

study at Oxford.

VARIOUS

Namma Metro

Bangaloreans’ long wait for a datewith Namma Metro is finally over

with Union Urban Development

Minister Kamal Nath launched the

commercial services on Reach 1

between Byappanahalli and M.G.

Road on October 20.Bangalore Metro

Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) got

the green signal from the

Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety.

As per the original schedule, Reach 1

should have been ready by March

2010. However, the dates were

postponed to December 2010, March

2011 and April 2011, by which time

both BMRCL as well as the

Government stopped announcing fresh

deadlines.

Panel Moots Helipads in

Sabarimala

Justice M.R. Hariharan Nair

Commission, which inquired into the



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Pulmedu stampede in Sabarimala, has

recommended that the government

regulate traffic through the Periyar

Tiger Reserve, prohibit sale of food

and construct helipads at Sabarimala.

The stampede, which occurred on

January 14, 2011, while pilgrims were

ascending the hillock, claimed 102

lives.

Herald Cable Network

HCN [Herald Cable Network] caught

offering to publish scripted political

interview as ‘news’ for Rs. 86,400. In

the conversations, the marketing

manager appears to confirm that

Raymond D’Sa [an aspiring candidatefrom Cortalim in south Goa] paid Rs.

2 lakh to get his ‘interview’ carried in

the Herald of October 20, the morning

of the conversation. Paid news is no

stranger to Goa, only this time it’s

drawing unfriendly attention. Those

are excerpts from recorded

conversations between Tulshidas

Desai, marketing manager of

OHeraldO (the Herald) and Goa-

based journalist MayabhushanNagvenkar.The journalist was pulling

off a sting posing as Bernard Costa,

a would-be candidate in the State’s

Assembly polls to be held early next

year.

Tawakkul Karman

Tawakkul Karman is known among

Yemenis as the “iron woman” and the

“mother of the revolution,” a motherof three who has long been an activist

for human rights and whose arrest in

January helped detonate a mass

uprising against the authoritarian

regime of President Ali Abdullah

Saleh. For the past eight months, the

32-year-old has been at the forefront

of the daily protests by hundreds of

thousands in the streets of Sanaa and

other Yemeni cities, demanding

Saleh’s ouster and the creation of ademocratic government.

Dr. B. G. Sidharth

This year’s Nobel Prize in physics

went to three astronomers for their

work demonstrating that “dark

energy” was propelling expansion of

the universe at ever-increasing

speeds. An Indian physicist claims

that he had proposed a similar theory

a year before the three astronomers

first announced their results in

1998.Dr B. G. Sidharth, director

general of B. M. Birla Science

Centre, had proposed the “dark

energy” model at the seventh Marcel

Grossman Conference in Jerusalem in

June 1997, and at another conferenceon quantum physics in Singapore a

year later. His research paper titled

“The Universe of Fluctuations” was

published in International Journal of

Modern Physics in 1998.Sidharth

asserts that it was only after his paper

was published that the other

researchers got their findings

published. “My theory was based on

physics and mathematical calculations.

The mathematical model that Ifollowed is called fluctuational

cosmology. On the other hand, the

model proposed by the Nobel winners

was based on observational findings

while studying a supernova,” he said.

Prashant Bhushan

Senior lawyer and Team Anna

member Prashant Bhushan was

violently attacked by activists of theShri Ram Sena and a previously

unknown outfit, Bhagat Singh Kranti

Sena, in his chamber located opposite

the heavily guarded Supreme Court

premises on Bhagwan Dass Road

here on Wednesday. The

organisations claimed that the assault

was in retaliation for his recent

statement on Jammu and Kashmir,

purportedly supporting the demand for

withdrawal of security forces and areferendum to gauge public opinion.

Inder Verma &

Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga

Attackers on Prashant Bhushan were

identified as Inder Verma, president of

Shri Ram Sena’s Delhi unit. He

purportedly revealed the name of

another assailant as Tajinder Pal Singh

Bagga, president of the Bhagat Singh

Kranti Sena.Tajinder had earlier

disrupted Arundhati Roy’s book

release, climbed on the bonnet of a car

in which Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had

arrived at the Foreign Correspondents

Club recently, and had once tried to

disrupt Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s

speech at a seminar in the Capital,said a police officer.

Bhanwari Devi

The Central Bureau of Investigation

has registered a case in the alleged

abduction of Bhanwari Devi, a

resident of Berunda in Rajasthan’s

Jodhpur district.The case, registered

on Tuesday at the request of the State

government, has sparked a

controversy, with allegations having

been levelled against a State Minister.

The case relates to the alleged

abduction of Bhanwari Devi, a folk

singer, who left for Bilada on

September 1 by bus for collecting the

payment for her car sold to a person

of Tilbasni. Her husband tried to

locate her by making repeated calls on

her cellphone, but she was

untraceable.

Irom Sharmila

Irom Sharmila Chanu known as the

Iron Lady of Manipur or Menghoubi

(the fair one) is a civil rights activist,

political activist, and poet from the

Indian state of Manipur. Since 2

November 2000, she has been on

hunger strike to demand that the Indian

government repeal the Armed Forces

(Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA),

which she blames for violence in



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Manipur and other parts of India’s

northeast.She was awarded the 2007

Gwangju Prize for Human Rights,

which is given for an outstanding

person or group, active in the

promotion and advocacy of Peace,

Democracy and Human Rights. She

shared the award with Lenin

Raghuvanshi of People’s Vigilance

Committee on Human Rights, a

northeastern Indian human rights

organization. In Addition the largest

monetary prize the first Rabindranath

Tagore Peace Prize was given to her

in 2010 by the New Delhi IIPM. She

was awarded the Sarva Gunah

Sampannah Award for Peace and

Harmony aka the 12th Signature

Women of Substance award (Assam)

also in 2010. she is the recipient of the

first Mayillama Award (Kerala). in

2010 she was awarded in absentia a

lifetime achievement award in

Bangalore.

World’s Cheapest Computer

Cum Access Device, Aakash

The World’s cheapest computer cum

access device, Aakash was launched.

Aakash is a part of the Indian

Government’s National Mission on

Education’s Sakshat Project. It is one

of the main agendas of the Mission

which aimed to link all higher

education institutions in India. Aakash

has three fold purpose of access,

equity and quality. It is designed to

revolutionize the education system inthe country. Open source materials

from IITs are to be created by

Aakash. The government’s endeavour

is to ensure that every student in any

part India has access to technology

and they can access lectures. The

software for the tablet was developed

indigenously by the Indian Institute of

Technology, Rajasthan. The device is

seven inch touch screen, equipped

with wi-fi Internet, media player, 3hours battery power and several other

multimedia applications. This device is

to be sold only through colleges and

universities.

Shanti Tigga

Another barrier has been broken inthe Army with a mother of two

becoming the first woman

ja wa n.Out per forming her male

counterparts in the physical tests, 35-

year-old Sapper Shanti Tigga joined

the 969 Railway Engineer Regiment of

Territorial Army (TA).Employed with

the Railways as a points-man and

posted at Chalsa station in West

Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, Tigga

volunteered for the TA last year.

Arjun Vajpayee

After an ascent of Mount Everest, 18-

year-old Arjun Vajpayee, on Tuesday

scaled the 8,163-m-high Mount

Manaslu in the western Himalayas.

He is the youngest person to have

climbed three 8,000-m peaks.

Fauza Singh

Fauja Singh, a 100-year-old runner of

Indian-origin, has set a Guinness

record of being the oldest person to

complete a full-distance marathon

here. It took Mr. Singh over eight

hours to cross the finish line, more than

six hours after Kenya’s Kenneth

Mungara won the Scotiabank Toronto

Waterfront Marathon on Sunday for

the fourth straight year. Mr. Singh was

the last competitor to complete the

course but entered the Guinness Book

of World Records. He accomplished

the amazing feat, becoming the oldest

person ever to complete a full-distance

42-kilometre marathon. Mr. Singh,

who only speaks Punjabi, also

surprised himself. He said he had set

a goal of finishing the race in about

nine hours.

Tagore in Lausanne

President Pratibha Patil with her Swiss

counterpart, Micheline Calmy-Rey,

after unveiling a bronze bust of Nobel

laureate Rabindranath Tagore at the

University of Lausanne in Switzerland

on Tuesday. Ms. Patil described

Tagore as a “goodwill ambassador” of

modern India. A Memorandum of

Understanding was signed between

the Indian Council for Cultural

Relations and the University to

establish Rabindranath Tagore Chair

on Indian Studies that will begin with

the teaching of Hindi.

Timothy Walsh

Timothy Walsh, author of the

controversial “superbug” study

published last year in British medical

jour na l The Lancet said he was

unapologetic about his work but

surprised at the reaction it had

provoked from the Indian government

and media.Professor Walsh, who

presented a paper on the NDM-1

(New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase1), the drug-resistant gene which he

named after New Delhi after tracing

it to hospitals in India, at the 1st Global

Forum on Bacterial Infections, said: “I

was chiefly responsible for naming the

gene as NDM-1 and I am profoundly

unapologetic about it.”

BOOKS

Looking Back Into the Future:

Identity & Insurgency in

Northeast India

“Looking Back Into the Future:

Identity & Insurgency in Northeast

India , “ by M.S. Prabhakara, veteran

jour na list and former Special

Correspondent of The Hindu and

Frontline in South Africa and northeast

India was released.The book,

simultaneously published in the United

Kingdom by Routledge, an imprint of



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the Taylor & Francis Group, is an

initiative of the think tank OKDISCD.

It consists of a selection of essays,

edit page articles and reports by Dr.

Prabhakara written in The Hindu ,

Frontline , Economic and Political

Weekly on questions of identity,

ethnicity, sovereignty and insurgency

in the northeast over the past three

and a half decades.

Pages from the Past —

A Journalist Looks Back

Pages from the Past — A journalist

looks back”, a compilation of articles

by veteran journalist K. P. Srivastava

written over past five decades, wasreleased here on Wednesday.Mr.

Srivastava, who retired as Chief Editor

from the Press Trust of India (PTI) in

1987, had also served as Information

Adviser to former Prime Minister

Chandra Shekhar. Releasing the book

at Press Club of India here, veteran

jour na list and columnis t Inder

Malhotra said Mr. Srivastava’s keen

observations as a political analyst

provide a deep insight into the politicsof the Nehru era. Mr. Srivastava, now

in his mid-80s, has recollected his days

as a journalist covering political

developments from the time of first

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru till

the advent of coalition era in Indian

politics.

Rival Prize

For more than 30 years, the BookerPrize (renamed Man Booker after its

takeover by the Man Group) has

enjoyed near cult status in much of

the English-speaking world but on

Thursday a group of prominent British

writers, literary agents and critics

announced a “rival’’ prize, “The

Literature Prize’’, amid a growing and

ill-tempered row over the quality of

this year’s Booker shortlist which has

been criticised for favouring

“readability’’ over literary merit.Theprize, to be launched next year,

promises to recognise “the best novel’’

written in the English language and

published in the U.K. in a given year

regardless of the nationality of the

writer — unlike the Booker which is

restricted to writers from the

Commonwealth countries.

Of a Certain Age:

Twenty Life Sketches

A fresh offering on the lives of 20

great personalities titled Of a Certain

Age: Twenty Life Sketches penned by

former West Bengal governor

Gopalkrishna Gandhi was released by

Penguin Books India in New Delhi.

Social activist and National Advisory

Council member Aruna Roy unveiled

the first copy of the book and

presented it to National Commissionfor Minorities chairperson Wajahat

Habibullah.The book carved out the

lives of prominent personalities ranging

from Jayaprakash Narayan to Jyoti

Basu, K. R. Narayanan to R.

Venkataraman to Pupul Jayakar,

Mahatma Gandhi to the Dalai Lama.

M. S. Subbulakshmi was another

character who found mention in the

book.

Controversially Yours

Former Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib

Akhtar’s autobiography, Controver-

sially Yours was launched.In the book,

the temparamental Pakistan speedster

questioned the abilities of some of the

India’s batting stalwarts like Sachin

Tendulkar and rahul Dravid. He

accused Tendulkar of being scared to

face his scorching pace on a slow

Faisalabad track. He claimed that

Tendulkar and Dravid were not

match-winners nor did they know the

art of finishing games.Akhtar also

spoke at length about politics in

Pakistan Cricket Board. He took a dig

at two former captains Wasim Akram

and Shoaib Malik.The 36-year-old

Akhtar, who had scalped 178 wickets

in 46 Test and 247 I wickets in 163

ODIs, said that Tendulkar and Dravid

who have together conjured over

56,000 international runs (over 33,000

by Tendulkar and over 23,000 by

Dravid) are not match winners.

Julian Assange’s Unauthorised

Autobiography

The WikiLeaks founder founder Julian

Assange’s unauthorised autobiography

was released by publishers

Canongate. Copies of the

unauthorised autobiography of

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are

placed on display for sale in a

bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland on

22 September 2011. The unauthorised

autobiography was released amid

heavy secrecy to stop the author from

seeking an injunction to block

publication.The book is based on an

early 70000-word draft of themanuscript written by Assange with

the novelist Andrew O’Hagan and

was shown to the publishers in March

2011.



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