india this week aug 9, 2013

INDIA THIS WEEK August 9, 2013

INDIA THIS WEEKA W e e k l y N e w s p a p e r F e a t u r i n g N e w s & Tr e n d s f r o m t h e I n d i a n S u b - C o n t i n e n t P u b l i s h e d f r o m t h e U S C a p i t a l

Vol. 20 No: 32 • WASHINGTON DC • Phone: 301-445-0200 /301-445-3543/301-917-4800 • email: [email protected] • August 9, 2013

RememberWhere there is unity, there is always victory. Publius Syrus

GOVERNOR See Pg 14

SOLDIERS See Pg 2

GOPIO See Page 12

Raghuram Rajan Appointed Next RBI Governor

New Delhi, Aug, 6 (PTI): Chief Economic Ad-visor Raghuram G. Rajan has been appointed as the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Mr. Rajan will re-place D. Subbarao, who completes his five-year term on September 4, 2013 and will be the 23rd Governor of the central bank. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ap-proved appointment of Ra-ghuram Rajan as Governor of RBI for a term of three years,” an official statement said. After the announce-ment of his appointment as the new RBI governor, Ra-jan made a brief statement to reporters without taking any questions. “These are chal-lenging times for the Indian economy... The government and the RBI are working together to address these challenges. We don’t have a magic wand to make the problems disappear instan-taneously. But I have abso-

lutely no doubt, we will deal with them,” he said. Mr. Rajan said “I look forward to working with many dedicated employees of the RBI to continue these traditions even though I will miss my colleagues in the Fi-nance Ministry“. The RBI, he added, is a great institution with a tradition of great integrity, independence and profes-sionalism. Mr. Rajan, a for-mer IMF chief economist, was appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry in August last year.

GOPIO Commemorates Gadar Centennial in Maryland

Five Indian Soldiers Killed Near LoC

Indian Ambassador Mrs. Nirupama Rao (eighth from left) is flanked by the organizers of the Gadar Centennial Com-memoration and GOPIO leaders and members, in Rockville.

by Geeta Goindi Rockville, MD: Commemorating 100 years of the Gadar Movement, the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) paid tribute to the patriots who sacrificed all to

liberate India from British colonial rule. The Gadar Party was founded in 1913 by Pun-jabis in the United States and Canada. The Gadarites, as they are called, were based primarily in California and

constituted farmers and stu-dents. Their mission was to free India from British hege-mony. They are the true he-roes and theirs was the true struggle! They left a legacy which is formidable to fol-low! And our history is all the more richer for their awe-inspiring contributions! Addressing a com-munity gathering at a recep-tion in Rockville, chief guest Indian Ambassador Mrs. Nir-upama Rao noted, “the word

‘Gadar’ literally means revo-lution. It was a revolution that in many ways heralded the independence movement of India”, she said, adding, “the Gadar Movement is a milestone in our freedom movement”. The envoy pointed out that what sets the Ga-dar Movement apart is “that spirit of sacrifice, that spirit of courage, that was exem-

Jammu, Aug.7 (Agen-cies): In a deadly instance of firing on Indian Army troops on the Line of Control from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, five Indian soldiers died in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. Defence sources said that an unsuspecting Army patrol walked into an ambush by 15 to 20 men, wearing Pakistan Army uniform, close to Sarla and Chhaja posts, about one kilometre from the cross-LoC Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) of Chakan Da Bagh, in the early hours of Tuesday. Five soldiers were killed in the intense firing. Four of them were from the 21 Bihar Regiment and one from

the Maratha Light Infantry. One soldier managed to hide himself behind the bushes of the unit but sustained injuries. He was later evacuated and treated at a military hospital in Poonch. The arms and ammunition of the sol-diers were reportedly looted but Defence officials declined to con-firm or deny. The officials said that the ambush had been laid at a vantage point between the barbed wire fencing and the Zero Line of the LoC. “It’s intrusion, not a rou-tine incident of ceasefire violation”, said an official. Senior Army officials maintained that the ambush had been laid on the Indian side, 350 metres short of the Zero Line of LoC by a Border Action Team of the lately deployed Mujahid Bat-talion of the Pakistani Army. They said it was a professional assault carried out by regular Pakistani troops along with a few heavily armed and highly trained militants. Asked about the Pakistani claim

that its regulars had not carried out the ambush, sources insisted that the neighbouring country’s Army had not outsourced its border ma-noeuvres to the guerrillas. Military officials in Paki-stan denied that any such incident took place. “No such incident has taken place on LoC as there was no violation of the ceasefire by our troops,” a military official in Islam-

abad told PTI. Chief of Army Staff Gen-eral Bikram Singh paid tribute on Wednesday, to the five soldiers who were killed on Tuesday morning by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in the Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir, soon after his arrival at Jammu Airport. General Bikram Singh will visit Poonch today to review the se-

Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh pays tribute to the 5 Indian soldiers killed at the LoC on Tuesday night

curity situation in the wake of the killing of the five Indian soldiers. General Singh is also scheduled to visit the Division headquarters in Rajouri and the 93 Brigade headquarters to take stock of the security situation. He is also expected to meet the Commanding Officer and troops of the units whose person-nel were killed in a Pakistan Border Area Team action, reports said. Of the five Indian soldiers killed, four belong to the 21 Bihar Regiment and one to the Maratha Light Infantry. They were killed in an ambush by Pakistani troops. The Indian Army soldiers killed in the incident have been identified as Prem Nath Singh,Shambhu Saran Ray, Vijay Kumar Rai, Raghunan-dan Prasad and Pundalik Mane. The United States has reportedly expressed hope that Pakistan and India would continue their recent peace efforts towards

August 9, 2013 INDIA THIS WEEK

Five Indian Soldiers Killed Near LoCnormalisation of relations despite the recent turbulence caused in the respective gov-ernments over reports of the alleged unprovoked firing from the Pakistani side and the resultant death of five In-dian soldiers. According to the Ex-press Tribune, US State Depart-ment spokesperson Jen Psaki said that US is aware of the unconfirmed reports and is con-cerned about any violence along the Line of Control(L1oC) and added that Washington’s policy on the Kashmir dispute has not changed. Psaki further said that the pace, scope and the charac-ter of India and Pakistan’s dia-logue on Kashmir is for those two countries to determine and the US hopes that India and Pakistan will continue the steps they have recently taken to im-prove their bilateral relations. Defence Minister A.K Antony condemning the act by the Pakistani side said that the numbers of infiltration attempts have doubled this year in com-parison to the corresponding period January 1- August 5 of 2012.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister A.K. Antony strongly condemned Pakistan’s firing and attack on the Indian side of the LoC in the Poonch sector. “We strongly con-demn this unprovoked inci-dent. The Government of India has lodged strong protest with the Government of Pakistan through diplomatic channels. I assure the House that our Army is fully ready to take all neces-sary steps to uphold the sanctity of the LoC,” Antony said in a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. “The Government of India conveys its condolences to the families of the martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty,” he added. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday condemned the killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch District, saying that In-dia can’t be cowed down by such a blatant attack. Urging the govern-ment to take appropriate action in the matter, Gandhi said:”The Congress party and the nation stand by the martyred soldiers. We will not be cowed down by such blatant acts of deceit.”

Gandhi’s response to the incident came in the wake of criticism from political parties that the Congress-led govern-ment is soft on Pakistan despite several instances of ceasefire violation by the neighbouring country. Antony informed that a patrol of the Indian Army comprising of one Non Com-missioned Officer and five other ranks was ambushed on our side of Line of Control in Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir. “In the ensuing fire-fight, five Indian soldiers were martyred and one soldier was injured. The ambush was car-ried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons dressed in Paki-stan Army uniforms,” he said. The Defence Minis-ter informed that the numbers of infiltration attempts have doubled this year in compari-son to the corresponding period (January 1- August 5) of 2012. “There has also been 57 cease fire violations this year, which is 80 percent more than the violations last year during the same corresponding period. The Indian Army successfully eliminated 19 hardcore terror-

ists in the recent months of July and August along the Line of Control and in the hinterland in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Antony. “The effective coun-ter infiltration grid on the Line of Control has ensured that 17 infiltration bids were foiled this year,” he added. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani on Wednesday criti-cised Defence Minister A.K. Antony for misleading the na-tion through his ‘militants in Pakistan Army uniform’ remark made in Parliament. “The statement of the Defence Ministry and the statement of the Defence Min-ister are different. The Pakistan Army has been exonerated by the Defence Minister’s state-ment,” said Advani. “The Defence Minis-try directly blamed the Pakistan Army, the Defence Minister says they were dressed in Paki-stan Army uniform,” he added. Advani further said the incident that took place along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district was not a skirmish, but an invasion. The Directors Gen-eral Military Operations (DG-

MOs) of Pakistan and India have spoken over the hotline on the situation on the Line of Control (LoC). The move comes af-ter Pakistani troops were ac-cused of being involved in the killing of five Indian soldiers in an attack on an army post in Kashmir. According to Dawn News, reports of the attack came just as the two countries were preparing to resume long-stalled peace talks broken off since January when an Indian soldier was beheaded in a bor-der clash. Pakistan’s DGMO Major General Ashfaq Nadeem said the accusations levelled against the country’s soldiers were without foundation and utterly baseless, the report said. Major General Nadeem also told his Indian counterpart that Pakistan wholeheartedly respected the ceasefire agreement with In-dia. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday defended Defence Minister A.K. Antony after the opposition criticized him over his ‘terrorists in Pakistan Army

uniform’ remark made in Par-liament, and said that the latter made the statement based on facts. “Mr. Antony made statement as was briefed by the Army. There is no contra-diction. The Army’s statement (that the attack was carried out by a Pakistan Border Ac-tion Team, which indicted the Pakistan Army) was corrected before the Defence Minister made a statement based on cor-rected version,” he told media here today. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today sought an apology from the Defence Minister for his ‘terrorists in Pakistan Army uniform’ re-mark made in Parliament yes-terday. “Antony’s statement is in contrast to the defence ministry’s statement. We de-mand that the defence minis-ter should apologize. He gave a needless clean chit to the Pakistan Army,” Leader of Op-position in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament to-day. “Who is the defence Minister to give a clean chit to the Pakistani Army?” she asked.

SOLDIERS From Pg 1


Antony Highlights Contribution Of Armed Forces

New Delhi, Aug. 6 (ANI): Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Tuesday said the Indian Armed Forces made an invaluable contribution in the search and rescue operations in Uttarakhand, which was devastated by cloudbursts and floods in June. Antony, who made a statement today in the Lok Sabha today on the Central Government’s response to the Uttarakhand calamity, said the Air Force rescued 23,775 persons by deploying over 45 helicopters and carried out about 3500 sorties. “The Army rescued 38,750 persons by deploying 8,000 personnel, 150 Special Forces and 12 helicopters. During the rescue operations, five Air Force personnel along with nine personnel of

the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and six ITBP jawans lost their lives in a tragic helicopter crash,” he added. Antony said the NDRF rescued 9,500 persons by deploying 14 teams. “ITBP rescued 33,000 people. Essential sup-plies like food, drinking wa-ter, medicines, kerosene oil and blankets were continu-ously provided by airdropping as well as by land routes,” he said. The Defence Min-ister said more than 1,710 roads have been temporarily restored by Border Roads Or-ganisation (BRO) and Public Works Department of Uttara-khand. “Power supply of 3,700 villages has been re-

stored temporarily. Also, about 1670 drinking water schemes have been restored for the time being,” he said. Antony said a high-ly commendable work by the Uttarakhand Government and all other central ministries and agencies involved during the long crisis period. “The Centre has released about 400 crore ru-pees for relief and immediate restoration measures. Addi-tional funds will be released depending on the state’s re-quirements,” he added. The Defence Minis-ter assured the House that the Centre will continue to sup-port the state government for long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction to make it bet-ter equipped to handle such crises in future.

Yechury, Mayawati Say Government’s Shifting Statements On LoC Killings

Not Confidence Inspiring New Delhi, Aug. 7 (ANI): Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sita-ram Yechury on Wednesday said that the contradictory ac-counts made by the Govern-ment and Army, of Tuesday morning’s Poonch District ambush of five Indian soldiers by the Pakistan Army, doesn’t inspire confidence in the In-dian troops. “Yesterday, our Army said the Pakistani Army had done it. The Defence Ministry said that the perpe-trators were terrorists in Paki-stani Army uniforms. What is true and what is not, one can-not be clear about because of the back and forth from the Defence Ministry. ...Approxi-mately 30 hours have passed since the incident and they are still saying that the matter is being investigated. This con-stant shift is not confidence inspiring,” Yechury said. Yechury also said that the Parliamentary dis-cussion surrounding the lat-est LoC killings must focus around what India can do to protect its soldiers. “We are not asking them to order a war against Pakistan. We are just asking them to do something for the security of our soldiers. There is a weakness in their pro-tection and we have to solve that,” Yechury said.

Bahujan Samaj Par-ty (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday said that the UPA-led government and the In-dian Army were not speaking in a united voice, and that the former should clarify its ac-count of the Poonch District incident in which five Indian soldiers were ambushed by the Pakistani army on Tues-day morning. “This issue is ex-tremely serious. ...The Gov-ernment and the Indian Army are not speaking in the same voice. The House was prema-turely adjourned again today because their statements are not aligned. This is a wor-risome and serious matter. I believe that the Government should clear its stance on this issue in both Houses of Par-liament and to the nation,” Mayawati said. While Pakistan has denied the involvement of its troops in the incident, De-fence Minister A.K. Antony on Tuesday said in Parlia-ment that the intruders were “terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uni-form.” Antony’s statement attracted a lot of flak, as it has contradicted the Indian Army’s account, which said that the perpetrators were “soldiers from the Pakistan Army.”

After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yas-hwant Sinha issued a breach of privilege notice against the Defence Minister, Antony changed his statement in Par-liament on Wednesday after Prime Minister Dr. Manmo-han Singh’s approval. Meanwhile, the Congress has maintained that there is no contradiction in voices between the Indian Army and the Central Gov-ernment. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said “The Defence Minister did not say anything wrong “ while criticizing the BJP-led opposition for targeting Anto-ny. Information and Broadcasting Minister Man-ish Tewari appealed to parties not to politicise the Line of Control killings, saying that Antony had made his state-ment on Tuesday with the information that he had at the time. Both Houses of Par-liament were adjourned pre-maturely again today after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition continued to mount pressure on the Con-gress-led UPA Government and demanded an apology from the Defence Minister for misleading the nation through his statement.

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


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In An Interconnected World

22 U.S. Missions To Remain Shut For A Week Over Al Qaeda Attack Fears

Washington, Aug. 5 (ANI): The U.S. State De-partment has said that 22 of its diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa will remain closed till August 10 (Saturday) to safeguard against terror threats from al Qaeda and its affiliates. Fox News reports that U.S. embassies in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Ri-yadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Ma-nama, Muscat, Sanaa, Trip-oli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali

and Port Louis have been instructed to remain closed this week. U.S. intelligence agencies have revealed that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been pres-suring militants in the Arab Peninsula to launch fresh terrorist attacks on American and other Western targets, following the recent killing of members of an al-Qaeda group by American security forces. New York Repub-lican member Pete King,

leader of the subcommit-tee on counterterrorism and intelligence, also said that the threat message included dates but not locations of possible attacks. The precaution-ary measures by U.S. were prompted after a series of recent Al Qaeda-led prison breaks that have freed hun-dreds of militants over the last month, the report added. The French-based international policy agency, Interpol, has also issued a global security alert.

by Anadi Naik Like individuals, nations also make mistakes but the consequences of such mistakes are measured in historical terms. The rise of Nazism in Germany, in-ternment of those with Jap-anese ancestry in the United States during World War II, the mass killing of Leftist elements by General Pino-chet in Chile., China’s cul-tural revolution under Mao Zedong are some of the fol-lies of history that come to mind in random. Incidents like those represent the mass hysteria of the time, and the intelligent, upright citizens who get carried away with them. There is no specific time or place where those things could not happen. Any place at any time can give birth to mass hysteria that could put the lives of in-numerable people at risk. In our own time the news of murder and mayhem come regularly from all directions includ-ing Afghanistan and Syria. In Egypt in recent weeks scores of civilians have been killed at the hands of the local military. Unmanned drones of the United States kill al Qaeda members regu-larly wherever they can be found. And al Qaeda? It considers the entire world as its killing field. Surpris-ingly, al Qaeda’s activities are supported by some of the Governments who are sup-posedly committed to uplift-ing their people. Ideological and religious bonding plays a big role in lending support to such murderous groups. On the one hand

there are countries and or-ganizations that condone extreme violence and will-ingly become their enablers. At the same time there are many institutions, groups and individuals who abhor violence and try to build a peaceful world by creating understanding between the warring groups. Given the divide that has widened so deep it is difficult to build a sane world by appealing to logic or reasoning. Yet, for many, changing the minds of the people is the only way that can produce something good. They work at it re-lentlessly. So far, the force of violence has been used to achieve a goal through-out history. Be they Jews in ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, or slaves in the cottons fields of the Ameri-can South, many have been kept under punishing cir-cumstances by force. Today we consider such actions as mistakes. But at the time they happened, such behav-iors were considered accept-able. Over the years the definition of civilization has continued to be refined. As a result, things that were so well accepted in an earlier era today make us scream in disapproval. Sometimes we go against our will. Even if we want to scream our disap-proval of an injustice in plain sight we move away and do not utter a word against it. Instead of challenging the perpetrator of injustice we remain silent for the sake of convenience. Raising ones voice is not always easy. It invites anger and retribution

from others who could be powerful elements. Those who take that risk and chal-lenge the misdeeds of others are later praised but seldom recognized at the time of their actions. Like individuals, nations too need to speak out at times. During the Apart-heid period in South Africa there was a worldwide boy-cott of investment in that country. When the Junta in Burma was riding high, some of the members of the United Nations stopped do-ing business there. By not doing business or by not investing in a country the people from other areas sent a message and expressed their feelings. It was a sign of their disapproval. In both cases it showed results even-tually. The way things are in the world now, because of improved communication it is not easy to perpetrate violence or injustice and not get caught. And the conse-quence of getting caught could be serious. What hap-pens in one part of the world affects many other parts also. Whether it is Egypt or India or Afghanistan, the action of one country causes ripples in other areas. For example when India goes to help Afghanistan in its economic development, the Pakistani leaders talk about “hegemony of other coun-tries”. When the Egyptian military overthrows a popu-larly elected government, President Obama sends Sen-ators Lindsey Graham and John McCain there to defuse the situation. We are all in-terconnected. Aren’t we?

Sand Quarrying Mafia And Durga Nagpal Suspension

If all chief minis-ters were to go along with Akhilesh Yadav, then India must return to kingship and feudalism. Uttar Pradesh can do without IAS officers—is what Yadav Junior the chief minister has reportedly claimed. Is the administra-tive structure that includes civil servants, something that can be done-undone by the whims and fancies of a chief minister? The signifi-cance and functionalities of bureaucracy is built into our constitution, and cannot be modified except through proper route. It was Sardar Val-labhbhai Patel, the first home minister and chief architect of the AIS (all-India service) that said, you can’t have a united India unless you have a good all-India service with authority to vocalize itself without being intimidated. But sixty plus years this side of Independence, what is happening in differ-ent states, including as per the latest story from Uttar Pradesh?! Durga Shakti Nag-pal, Uttar Pradesh Indian Ad-ministrative Service (IAS) officer, has been suspended in a very questionable man-ner, deprecating which, Su-preme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan calls for reforms in civil services rules. Clarify-ing himself, Bhushan says, in order to insulate bureau-crats from the strangulating control of politicians, very fundamental civil service reforms are needed—maybe patterned after what the Su-preme Court had ordered for the police, by way of creat-ing state security commis-sions, police establishment boards, police compliant au-thorities etcetera. If it was really done to the 28-year-old IAS offi-cer Durga Shakti Nagpal, as was bragged by Samajwadi Party leader Narinder Bhati,

then one wonders what is all this halo around civil service that millions of youth and their parents are fantasizing about! And Bhati’s boast is that he got Durga the IAS officer transferred in 41 min-utes! Referring to this foolish declaration by Narinder Bhati—for which there is even video evi-dence—Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi has lashed out at the Samajwadi Party and the UP adminis-tration for such a cowardly suspension of a young IAS officer who, despite being a woman, had the courage to clamp down on the sand-mining mafia. The under-30 IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal has gained wide acclaim as diligent, hardworking and honest, with her conscience tuned to duty as needle to pole. For championing a sustained campaign against the illicit and rampant sand quarrying along the banks of the Yamuna, in Greater Noida, she was ‘splendidly rewarded’ by the corrupt Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh, which sus-pended her on the midnight of 27th July 2013. Prima facie evidences reveal that Durga’s suspension was or-dered at the behest of a local Samajwadi Party leader Na-rendra Bhati who is closely tied up with the local mining mafia. In order to imple-ment the well-conspired suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, the Uttar Pradesh government framed her in an ostensible case—on which she was issued a charge-sheet to which she is asked to reply within 15 days. Regarding the charge-sheet, the govern-ment sources have clarified that it was prepared on the basis of enquiry report filed by Meerut commissioner Manjeet Singh.

Union minister Jitin Prasada points out that the drama of Manjeet Singh’s enquiry report followed by the charge-sheet against IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, and the related developments were apparently necessitated by the government’s urgency to hide and protect the activ-ities of corruption and illegal mining under the patron-age of politicians, which the people of Uttar Pradesh are aware of, but do not have the nerve to speak out. Determined to fix the daring officer, they had to build a false accusation that Durga’s action to demolish an illegally constructed wall of a mosque had inflamed religious passions and was likely to flare up communal tension. However, the dis-trict magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar testified that Durga Nagpal had never de-molished any wall! Even the district police appeared un-aware of any such likelihood of communal tension cited to justify Durga’s suspension. So, if the magistrate can be taken at his word, the entire accusation leveled against Durga to justify her suspension is unfounded. Congress spokes-person Sandeep Dikshit has remarked that govern-ments are not 15th century kingdoms where the ruler can chop off your head! His statement only reflects the public reaction to Durga’s unreasonable suspension against which almost all par-ties including the Congress, BJP and BSP, have registered their protest. Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to see that the victimized officer get fair treatment. The Yadav gov-ernment of UP argues that officer Durga Nagpal’s sus-pension is a normal admin-istrative action.


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From The Poet’s PenINDIA THIS WEEK April 5, 2013

Song [“When I am dead, my dearest”]

by Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet;

And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows, I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale Sing on, as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember, And haply may forget.

From The Poet’s PenINDIA THIS WEEK August 9, 2013

Jaswant Singh Stresses Strategic Importance Of Creating Gorkhaland

New Delhi, Aug. 6 (ANI): As the indefinite bandh in Darjeeling entered its fourth day, Senior Bharati-ya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday stressed the strategic impor-tance of granting Gorkhaland the status of a separate state and accused the Congress of giving in to the Telangana state demand for the sake of votes. “The demand for Gorkhaland is the oldest, most valid and most im-portant demand for a new state because Darjeeling is the only part of the country which shares four interna-tional borders. Understand the importance of this fact—on one side is China, on the other are Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Chumbi Valley is also not far. Darjeeling is on top of what is known as the Chicken’s Neck, or the North Bengal corridor. To-day if there is any prospect to stop the Bangladeshi infiltra-tion into India, it is the cre-ation of Gorkhaland,” Singh said.

Saying that the situ-ation in Darjeeling was a matter of great national con-cern, Singh said the agitation was of “high national prior-ity”. Targetting the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, Singh—who represents Darjeel-ing constituency in the Lok Sabha—criticized, what he called “the lapse in commu-nication” by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) govern-ment in their communication with the citizens of the Dar-jeeling area. “Political discourse between the citizens and the government of Bengal has come to a standstill. This is an extremely worrisome and, to my mind, a very negative development,” Singh said. Singh also took the opportunity to hit out at the Congress-led Central Gov-ernment, accusing the ruling party of indulging in vote bank politics by announcing the creation of Telangana in close proximity to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “The demand for Telangana was only 50 years

old but the government gave it priority for the sake of votes. It is a saddening de-velopment. I appeal to the government and the media to take this demand for Gork-haland to the people of this country,” Singh added. The Gorkha Jan-mukti Morcha (GJM) has been on an indefinite shut-down since Tuesday, press-ing their demand for Gork-haland as a separate state to be carved out of parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of northern West Bengal. In July 2011, a tri-partite agreement was signed between the GJM, the West Bengal government and the Centre for setting up an au-tonomous and elected hill council, Gorkhaland Territo-rial Administration (GTA), vested with more powers than its predecessor—the Darjeel-ing Gorkha Hill Council. Presently, the GJM runs the GTA after sweeping its maiden elections held in July 2012. According to re-ports, members of the GJM who have been camping in New Delhi since Friday are scheduled to meet Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday afternoon. After the decision to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh was made public, the demand for cre-ation of other states has grown louder throughout the country. There have been de-mands and protests to divide Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal.

Jaswant Singh

SC Rejects Abu Salem’s Plea To Quash Proceedings Against Him

New Delhi, Aug 5 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed gang-ster Abu Salem’s plea to quash trials against him following the Portugal top court’s decision to terminate his extradition to India. The apex court while passing its order said the verdict of Portugal’s constitutional court is not binding on us, and added

that Salem’s extradition is still valid in the eyes of law. Salem had filed the application after the Portu-gal Supreme Court upheld the order of a lower court in that country, terminating his extradition after it con-cluded that India had vio-lated the deportation rules in Salem’s case. A bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam

had reserved the verdict on July 9, saying it would pass the order after considering the CBI’s submission that the agency was willing to withdraw certain charges against Salem under the TADA and the Explosive Substances Act. Attorney General GE Vahanwati had said government was committed to its assurance given to the Portuguese court and sought the apex court’s permission to drop the additional charg-es framed against Salem by the trial court. The agency sought withdrawal of charges under section 5 and 6 of TADA and sections 4(b) and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act. Salem was arrested in Lisbon in 2002 along with his girlfriend, actor Monica Bedi, for travelling with fake passports. He was ex-tradited from Portugal three years later for his alleged role in the 1993 Mumbai se-rial blasts.

Congress Says BJP’s Remarks Over Defence Minister’s Statement ‘Libelous’

New Delhi, Aug 7 (ANI): The Congress Party today launched an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for targeting Defence Minister A.K. Antony over his ‘terrorists in Pakistan Army uniform’ remark made in Parliament, and said the opposition’s state-ment that the latter has giv-en a clean chit to Pakistan Army is a sort of libelous talk. Congress spokes-person Renuka Chaudhary on Wednesday said that he was in possession of certain facts and based on that he

gave the statement. “For the BJP to talk like this, to spread in-security in the country, to say we have given ‘clean chit’ to Pakistan is a sort of libelous talk,” she said. Chaudhary fur-ther said that BJP showed no sense of responsibility in making a statement like this. “I am a daughter of a soldier and I don’t think this is what soldiers need to hear. They fight and defend our nation’s borders. I don’t think BJP has any sense of responsibility,” she said.


HOMEOWNER See Pg 8


Raghuram Rajan Appointed Next RBI Governor

As the new RBI chief, Mr. Rajan will have a challenging time as he will have to battle the declining rupee, sliding growth and rising retail inflation, amid global economic uncertainty. Known for his frank

views, Mr. Rajan was also honorary economic advisor to the Prime Minister. He was acclaimed for predicting the 2008 global financial cri-sis. An alumni of IIM-Ahmedabad and IIT-Delhi, Mr. Rajan did his doctorate from the Massachusetts In-

stitute of Technology. He was professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business before taking over as CEA. Mr. Rajan was also involved with the report on Financial Sector Reforms, which was authorised by the Planning Commission.

GOVERNOR From Pg 1

Govt, RBI Taking Steps To Stabilise Rupee: FM New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI): Attributing the de-cline in the rupee to a host of global and domestic factors, the government on Tuesday informed Parliament it has taken a slew of steps to check forex volatility and is moni-toring the situation. “The government is continuously monitoring the emerging external sector de-velopments leading to higher CAD and rupee depreciation. (The government) has taken a slew of initiatives to boost exports and reduce imports, encourage capital flows to facilitate financing of CAD and stem the volatility in the exchange rate of the rupee,” Finance Minister P. Chidam-baram told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. The rupee hit a record low of 61.80 to the dollar in afternoon trade on Tuesday, while the S&P BSE Sensex declined more than 300 points. The currency has lost over 16 per cent since April. Referring to the measures taken by the gov-ernment to support the rupee, Mr. Chidambaram said they include “raising the rate of interest subvention from 2 to 3 per cent that will ben-efit exporters and small and medium enterprises, hike in import duty on gold, liberali-sation of FDI, etc.”

Regarding the cur-rent account deficit (CAD), the Minister said it has de-clined to 3.6 per cent in the January-March quarter from 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter of 2012-13. For the full fiscal 2012-13, the CAD worked out to 4.8 per cent of GDP, or USD 88.2 billion. In a separate reply, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said the rupee depreciated signifi-cantly in the second half of 2011-12 owing to the impact of the Eurozone crisis on the Indian forex market. Mr. Chidambaram said the rupee’s decline in re-cent months was due to “con-cerns relating to high current account deficit... In addition, the rupee has depreciated on account of risk-off stance by global investors in emerging markets, anticipating that the US Federal Reserve could begin tapering its asset pur-chases.” He added that the uptrend in US yields and portfolio outflows in recent months have led to a sharp depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar. Mr. Meena further said the sharp fall in the value of the rupee can be explained by supply-demand imbal-ance in the domestic foreign exchange market on account

of volatility in FII inflows. Elaborating upon the steps taken by the gov-ernment and the RBI to sta-bilise the rupee, Mr. Meena said the central bank has in-tervened in the market and had tightened liquidity by raising borrowing costs for banks. The government, he said, has liberalised FDI in various sectors, enhanced FII limits in government and corporate bonds and relaxed ECB norms for NBFCs. A significant part of the widening of the trade deficit was due to higher im-ports of key commodities such as crude oil, coal and fertilisers, Meena said, add-ing that the “pass-through of such higher cost to the domestic market has been limited in view of the still substantial outgo on account of subsidisation of products like diesel, LPG, kerosene, fertiliser and energy. As such, the impact of rupee deprecia-tion on domestic consumers is mitigated to a large extent. Headline WPI inflation has remained at moderate levels in recent months.” Inflation as mea-sured by the wholesale price index declined to 4.86 per cent in June, although re-tail inflation inched closer to double digits at 9.87 per cent.

Indian Stock Market Slips Below Trillion-dollar Mark

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI): Indian stock market slipped below the trillion-dollar level in terms of total valuation of all listed com-panies on Tuesday morning, as downward pressure con-tinued on rupee and share prices. Rupee touched its all-time low level of Rs 61.51 against the US dollar in early trade and the stock market also lost further ground with a fall of over one per cent in the benchmark Sensex. As a result, the total market capitalisation of all listed stocks in the country fell to nearly USD 992 bil-lion (close to Rs 60.9 lakh crore), pushing India out of the elite global league of markets having a trillion-dol-lar valuation. Indian stock market has been holding to the tril-lion- dollar level by a wafer-thin margin for last few days amid continuing weakness in stocks and rupee values.

At the end of Mon-day’s trade, the total valua-tion of all listed stocks in In-dia stood at Rs 61,55,448.63 crore (USD 1.011 trillion), while it had touched a low of USD 1.004 trillion last week. With India out of this league, only 13 stock markets across the world currently enjoy a trillion-dollar status, led by the US (an estimated USD 20 tril-lion). Other members of this elite club are — UK, Japan, China, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, South Korea, Nordic region and Brazil. While markets like Russia, Spain and South Africa have moved out of this club after enjoying a trillion—dollar status in the past, at least three more mar-kets — Brazil, South Korea and Nordic region markets — are maintaining this level

with small margins. India had first en-tered the trillion-dollar club in June 2007, but moved out in September 2008, amid a global slowdown. It again got back into this elite league in May 2009 and had largely re-mained there since then, ex-cept for some brief periods. Rather than the fall in share values, the ru-pee weakness has been the greater force behind the dol-lar—valuation plunge in the recent months. Since the beginning of the current fiscal in April 2013, though the rupee valu-ation of Indian stock market has fallen by only about 4 per cent (from Rs 63.88 lakh crore to Rs 60.90 crore), but its dollar valuation has plunged by about 18 per cent (from USD 1,209 bil-lion to USD 992 billion). Rupee has depreci-ated by over 12 per cent dur-ing this period.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post For $250million

Sydney, Aug.6 (ANI): Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has reportedly acquired The Washington Post inclusive of its assets and its flagship daily news-paper for 250 million US dollars. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Bezos has purchased the company as an individual and Amazon is not in-volved. Washington Post chairman and chief execu-tive Donald Graham whose family owns the paper said

that he along with the board of directors have decided to sell the paper after years of familiar newspaper-indus-try challenges. As newspapers are facing unprecedented challenges with declines in advertising revenue and readership, there have been more of such acquisitions now-a-days and recently the New York Times sold the Boston Globe newspa-per for just $US70 million to the owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Bezos in his letter

posted on the Washington Post’s website said that the values of the paper do not need changing and its duty will remain to its readers and not to the private inter-ests of its owners. The transaction covers The Washington Post and other publishing businesses, including the Express newspaper, The Gazette Newspapers, South-ern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing, the report added.

Radix Launches First India-centric Namespace .in.net For General Public Mumbai, Aug. 7 (Business Wire India/ ANI): Radix, Asia’s largest new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) applicant in the In-ternet Corporation for As-signed Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) has announced the launch of the General Avail-ability period for its first In-dia-centric domain, .in.net to the public for registration. The general avail-ability corresponds to the opening of the .in.net namespace to the general public. All available .in.net domain names can now be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. .in.net is a unique opportunity - offering reg-istrants a new experience in

the branding of their online presence. The .in.net exten-sion caters to Indian individ-uals, businesses based in In-dia as well as India-focused businesses. Sandeep Ramchan-dani, Business Head - .in.net said “This is a great op-portunity for Indian individ-uals and businesses to grab a short, memorable and af-fordable name that is exclu-sive to India. We are pleased to offer our customers the possibility to register .in.net domain names and thus acquire a competitive edge. For example, instead of reg-istering flowersellers-india.in or .com, people can now register flowers.in.net.” The General Avail-

ability Registration Period follows the recent comple-tion of the Landrush & TM Claims period, during which customers could pre-reg-ister for generic, premium names and brand names could block their trademark domains to prevent cybers-quatting. As per estimates by Boston Consulting Group, India’s internet population is expected to nearly triple from 125 million in 2011 to 330 million by 2016. The number of domain names in the country is expected to increase at a faster pace as more businesses look to setup their online presence to tap the vast Indian inter-net population.


Aam Aadmi Party Volunteers Protest Globally Against Planned RTI Amendments

Washington, Aug.6 (ANI): Volunteers and Friends of Aam Aadmi Party in the United States, Singapore and Australia organised protests during the weekend against the planned amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the upcoming parliament ses-sion. The protests were planned to show the strong pub-lic demand for transparency in political parties as well as the anger against the any amend-ments to the act by vested inter-ests. Protesters gathered in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington DC and raised slogans such as “Hands off our Right to Information” and “Why are you afraid of RTI?” against the union cabinet’s ap-proval for an amendment to the RTI act last Thursday. They expressed out-rage over how many of the leading national parties, includ-ing the Congress and BJP, are united to scuttle this cornerstone order given by the Chief Infor-mation Commissioner to bring transparency in the functioning of political parties. The main demands of

the group to all parties was to not make any amendments to the RTI act and respect the or-der by immediately appointing public information officers in their party. “Political parties play a very important and intrinsic role in our democracy and by all measures are public authorities. We fully support and appreciate the CIC’s order and will fight until political parties implement the order” said Madhusudan Narasiah from Boston and Ak-shay Anugu from Florida who were in town as part of ‘Swaraj Yatra’, a 210 mile walk from DC to NYC, organized to promote decentralization of power and transparency in governance. Somu Kumar, a volun-teer of AAP and resident of DC said: “Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday mentioned that if this order is implemented, it will strike at the root of the political system. Indeed, it will strike the root but of the existing ‘corrupt’ political system and hence we are demanding its implementa-tion. He also said that all parties are unanimously opposed to the CIC order, which is incorrect as Aam Aadmi Party has come out strongly in favor of the political

parties implementing RTI. The party is leading by example by implementing the act even be-fore the order was passed”. Namita Pandey, orga-nizer of this protest and a state convention in Melbourne said: “We need more transparency in political transactions and not less. Hope government would listen to voice of people and act as representatives of people and not as custodians of their party high command.” She added that pro-testers have pledged to continue creating awareness among the NRI communities and gather support to fend off the current and any future amendments to this act. “In current scenario many political parties made our democracy ‘Government of the Neta, by the Neta, for the Neta’. To bring the real democracy i.e. ‘Government of the People, by the People, for the People’, all political parties must come un-der RTI and accountable to all people” said Rajiv Ratn Shah, one of the organizers of the meeting in Singapore to show support to CIC decision and garner more support for the pe-tition against the amendment.

Demand For Separate Bodoland Intensifies After Telangana

New Delhi, Aug. 5 (ANI): Days after the UPA Government gave its nod for the formation of Telan-gana, the Bodoland Mem-bers of Parliament staged a protest outside the Par-liament here on Monday for creation of a separate state. “Today we have deiced to stage a dem-onstration in front of the main gate of the Parlia-ment House to raise the long pending demand for the creation of a sepa-rate state of Bodoland so that the people of the whole nation may come to know about the Bodoland. Bodoland demand is a very very ancient demand, very genuine demand, much de-cade old demand. It is very must justified, legitimate and democratic right of the Bodo people of Assam,” said Bodo People Front (BPF) MP Sansuma Khun-guur Bwiswmuthiary. Bwiswmuthiary further said if the UPA

Government headed by Prime Minister Dr. Man-mohan Singh can give its nod for the formation of Telangana then it should also take a decision to create a separate state of Bodoland. “We want similar kind of justice, equitable kind of justice. We would like to urge upon the Gov-ernment of India to take appropriate positive po-litical decision to create a separate state of Bodoland carving out of the present state of Assam in order to help ensure survival and existence of the Bodo peo-ple,” he added. Another Bodo People Front MP Biswa-jit Daimary said that they would raise their demands for a separate state of Bodoland in the Parlia-ment. “We are staging a protest here and want to raise this issue in the Par-liament. They are giving Telangana then should also

give us Bodoland. Why they are showing the sym-pathy to Telangana people and not us,” he added. The Bodo People Front has also sent a no-tice to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to raise the issue in the House. Thousands of peo-ple of the Bodoland Ter-ritorial Autonomous Dis-tricts (BTAD) gathered in Assam’s Kokrajhar town yesterday, and slogans ‘No Bodoland, No rest’ and ‘Divide Assam 50:50’. The All Bodo Stu-dents’ Union (ABSU) has called for a 60-hour shut-down in Assam to press its demand for a separate Bodoland state. The trains services to the northeast in Bodol-and have been disrupted due to the shutdown called for separate statehood. Assam Chief Min-ister Tarun Gogoi has said that people have the right to agitate, but no one can take laws into their hand.


Mani Shankar Aiyar Endorses Government’s China Policy

New Delhi, Aug. 5 (ANI): Former Diplomat and Congress leader Mani Shan-kar Aiyar on Monday backed the Government’s response to Chinese incursions, saying that the Centre is correctly working towards a resolution instead of aggravating the Indo-China re-lationship. Speaking to the media here, Aiyar said that the Govern-ment was committed to mitigate differences with China through talks instead of wars. “When diplomatic talks fail, it leads to war. Diplo-macy and violence cannot go together. We understand your concerns and, in my opinion, the approach taken by our gov-ernment is the most productive way forward,” Aiyar said. Aiyar added that though India and China have had a complicated history of violence, the UPA-led govern-ment was taking steps to con-structively solve the differences pertaining to the border between the countries. “We do have a tangled history but the wise thing to do is work towards their resolution and not work towards their ag-gravation, that is why I support the Government of India,” Aiyar said. Aiyar also said that the Government should not act in a matter of haste and excite-ment and must analyze the situ-ation from both sides. “We must ask our-selves what these incursions mean—are they threats? At the same time, we have to think about how China is reacting to us while we are making our army significantly stronger by investing thousands of crores of rupees. Keeping all these things

in mind, we must not get too excited and trigger a war but in-stead look for a solution outside those which call for violence,” Aiyar said. Meanwhile, political parties have called for a tough stand against Chinese troops, along the unresolved Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Jammu and Kashmir. Samajwadi Party lead-er Ram Gopal Yadav attacked the UPA-led government’s reac-tion to China saying, “When the country’s government is weak, enemies start to attack.” Shiv Sena lawmaker Sanjay Raut on Monday criti-cized the government for re-maining silent over the recent incursions. “It is very unfortunate that Chinese troops had en-tered Ladakh and they stopped Indian troops from patrolling after entering our territory. It is the weakness of our govern-ment. This has not happened for the first time. This happens in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and other parts of the country and we are sitting quietly,” Raut said. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader An-anth Kumar urged Prime Min-ister Dr. Manmohan Singh to seriously take up the Indo-China issue. “The Prime Minister of India should seriously discuss the matter and he should submit a report before the Parliament on the activities of the Chinese troops alongside the Indo-China border,” Kumar said. Earlier Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Agar-wal said that China posed a threat to India’s security and warned that they had deceived India in the past.

“I have been repeat-edly saying that China is posing a threat to our country. In the past they had said that India and China are brothers and then they deceived us. Similar situation has arisen once again,” Agarwal said. On July 26, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said that both India and China are pres-ently trying to find a long-term solution to their border dispute through frank discussions. “Both sides are try-ing to find a long-term solution to the long-pending border dis-pute. Till that time, our aim is to maintain peace and tranquility along the border. Still, there are disputed points. Both sides are going by their own perceptions. Sometimes, this gives cause to some embarrassing situations,” Antony said. Talks with China, Antony said, were at the “final settlement” stage and would be continued through another round of talks in Beijing within the next few months. The India-China re-lationship has caused worry over the past weeks following multiple Chinese intrusions into India. Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave its approval for the es-tablishment of a 40,000-strong Mountain Strike Corps along the Indo-China border, which would boost Indian defence ca-pabilities in the area. Chinese troops are re-ported to have crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on July 16, 18 and 20, and on each of these occasions, they intruded into Indian territory upto three kilometers before turning back under pressure from the Indian side.

‘Credibility of IAS Officers Has Gone Down Due To Durga Nagpal’: Ahmed Hasan

Lucknow, Aug 6 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Ahmed Hasan on Tuesday joined the debate over the suspension of Indian Adminis-trative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, saying that her actions of last month had affected the credibility of the service. “Due to Durga Shak-ti Nagpal, the credibility of IAS officers has gone down,” he told media here today while justifying the ruling Samajwadi Party’s stand to chargesheet Nagpal and to inform the Central Government that it will be taking further disciplinary action against the officer if the situation demands. Meanwhile, the Waqf Board, which manages dedication of any moveable or immove-able property for religious purpose, said that they had no knowledge about who gave the state-ment on the controversy surrounding the alleged mosque wall demolition case. “I want to clarify that the Waqf Board has not given any statement and the named person has no relation with Waqf

Board. He is some member in a committee respon-sible for some management. See, we have around 150,000 registered Waqfs and around 15,00,000 people are related to its management, there must be around 10 persons in each committee,” Zufar Ahmad Farooqui, the chief of Waqf Board, said. “Out of the 15, 00,000 any person who stands and gives a statement would not be consid-ered as a statement from Waqf Board,” he added. It was earlier reported that the UP Wakf Board has extended full support to Nagpal, and de-manded the Uttar Pradesh Government to reinstate her on the ground that she had no role in bringing down the wall of mosque in Greater Noida. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has maintained his stand on the suspension and defended the order on Monday. “If an official makes a mistake then the government punishes the official. This is the way government works,” Yadav said.


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plified by these young men from all over India, but ba-sically from Punjab. The Gadarites had to suffer death and imprisonment in the hands of the British”, she noted. The reception, held at the Hilton hotel, drew a number of distinguished guests including: Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler; Montgomery Coun-ty Executive Ike Leggett; Dr. Rajan Natarajan, Maryland Deputy Secretary of State for Policy and External Affairs; Maryland Delegate Aruna Miller (Democrat), District 15, Montgomery County; and Indian-American community leaders. It was preceded by an educational seminar on the Gadar Movement featur-ing speakers from across the country including: Professor Harbans Lal of Texas; Mr. Samip Mullick of Pennsyl-vania; Dr. Sambhu Banik and Dr. Joy Cherian of Maryland; and Mr. Ashok Madan and Mr. Inder Singh of California. The program was held under the ensign of GO-PIO and spearheading the ef-forts were Dr. Renuka Misra, Event Chair and GOPIO Na-tional Coordinator, Dr. Satish Misra, Co-Chair, Dr. Za-far Iqbal, President of the DC Chapter, Mr. Walton Dawson and Dr. Ram Singh. Ambassador Rao told the gathering that she believed the Gadarites were inspired by “the democracy, the freedom that they saw in the United States to resist, to fight against colonial rule in India”. Mentioning the names of some prominent Gadarites - Baba Har Dayal, Govind Bihari Lal, Kartar

GOPIO Commemorates Gadar Centennial in Maryland

Singh Sarabha, Vishnu Ga-nesh Pingle, Gurmukh Singh, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Jawala Singh - the envoy noted that “they actively par-ticipated not only in setting up the movement here, but bring-ing it to India”, which drew much applause from the audi-ence. “This was like a spark of fire that lit up an entire forest and created a network of freedom fighters across the globe”, she said. “Today, the Indian diaspora, here in the United States, has grown to over three million. But, one hundred years ago, it was only a handful of young men who, through the launch of the Gadar Movement, real-ly brought home to a number of people in this country what India and Indians stood for”. New Delhi’s top dip-

lomat in Washington never tires of lauding the achieve-ments of Indian-Americans and the event in Rockville was no exception! She told the gathering: “Today, when I see the success of the Indian-American community here and the contributions Indian-Americans are making to the well-being and progress of the United States, and also bring-ing home to India so much of the knowledge and the exper-tise that they have gained in this country, I think they have succeeded in building a won-derful bridge of friendship and cooperation between the United States and India which is really what partnership is all about”. Attorney General Gansler echoed similar senti-ments, extolling the accom-plishments of the Indian-

GOPIO From Page 1

Students of the Nrityaki Dance Academy, which special-izes in Kathak, performing ‘Jai Ho’ from the Oscar-win-ning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, choreographed by Shweta Misra, founder and director of the Academy.

Mr. Inder Singh (center), Chairman of GOPIO Interna-tional presenting his book, ‘The Gadar Heroics’, to Indian Ambassador Mrs. Nirupama Rao. At right is Dr. Renuka Misra, Chair of the Gadar Centennial Commemoration held in Rockville and GOPIO National Coordinator.

Indian Ambassador Mrs. Nirupama Rao (center) is seen with members of Jawan Shoorveer Ankhiley, the supremely gifted Bhangra group from Delaware, and organizers Mr. Inder Singh (left), Dr. Renuka Misra (third from right) and Mr. Walton Dawson (right).

Indian Ambassador Mrs. Nirupama Rao (sixth from left) is flanked by organizers of the Gadar Centennial Commemoration in Rockville, MD.

American community which, he said, “contributes so much to our culture here”. He noted how Indian-Americans pos-sess an entrepreneurial spirit, are committed to education, and many serve as physicians - “such wonderful contributions while preserving the cultural wonders of India”, he said. Gansler commended Ambassador Rao as “a woman of intelligence and elegance. She always shows up”, he told the audience. “She is a true ambassador”. We would like to mention here that a highlight of the event were the cultural performances which effec-tively conveyed the mood and momentum of the com-memoration. Students of the Nrityaki Dance Academy, which specializes in Kathak, charmed the audience with ‘Jai Ho’ from the Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, and Sneha Misra presented the Ganesh Vandana as an in-vocation piece. Both dances were adeptly choreographed by Shweta Misra, founder and director of the Academy. For the finale, members of Jawan Shoorveer Ankhiley, the tal-ented Bhangra group from Delaware, regaled the audi-ence with an energetic dance in their signature style. The vocal renditions were also top-notch! Prethi John and Niti Dharwadkar sang the US and Indian na-tional anthems, respectively. Marveling at the performances, Ike Leggett pointed out how “people come together to make certain that their heritage and culture is protected”. The County Exec-utive, who will be running for a third term, noted, “We are now a million people in Mont-gomery County. This is one of

the most diverse communities in all of America”, he said. Earlier, in a message to the organizers of the event, Leggett stated: “Americans of Asian Indian heritage have made innumerable cultural and economic contributions to our county and comprised an invaluable part of this commu-nity”. Dr. Rajan Natara-jan applauded the organiz-ers, particularly Dr. Renuka Misra, Dr. Ram Singh and Dr. Sambhu Banik, for presenting such a significant event. The Gadarites “left an extraordi-nary legacy”, he said. “We are truly blessed, as Indian-Americans, to live here - a very diverse nation where we can celebrate our success and differences and also appreciate our unification”. Delegate Aruna Miller, who has a knack for reaching out to everyone and is beloved for doing so, told the gathering, “Tonight is about remembering the vi-sion of Mahatma Gandhi and courage of the freedom fight-ers and everyone who has ever laid down their lives so that all of our lives could be enriched

and be guided by the prin-ciples of justice, freedom and equality. These are the values that make ordinary people do extraordinary things. Let us never forget the sacrifices made by those of our past and remember what we can do in the present to continue to fight for freedom, justice and equal-ity for the future”, she said. One is left wonder-ing, how do you even begin to pay tribute to the Gadarites - these bravest of men? The words of a patriotic song, im-mortalized by India’s foremost singer Lata Mangeshkar and rendered so beautifully at the GOPIO event by Niti Dhar-wadkar, come to mind and lin-ger on: “Aye mere vatan ke logon (O’ people of my country)Tum khoob laga lo naara (Raise all the slogans you like)....Par mat bhoolo seema par (But, never forget that on the border)Veeron ne hai praan ganvae (The brave have lost their lives).”

(Photo credit: Bala Chandran, Asian Ocean Media)


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President Barack Obama Calls For Responsible Homeownership

Phoenix, AZ, Aug 6: Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been visiting towns like this talking about what we need to do as a country to secure a better bargain for the middle class – a national strategy to make sure every-one who works hard has a chance to succeed in the 21st century economy. For the past four and a half years, we’ve been fighting our way back from a devastating recession that cost millions of Americans their jobs, their homes, and their savings – a recession that laid bare the long erosion of middle-class security. Together, we took on a broken health care sys-tem and a housing market in freefall. We invested in new American technologies to reverse our addiction to for-eign oil. We changed a tax code that had become tilted in favor of the wealthiest at the expense of working fami-lies. We saved the auto in-dustry, and now GM plans to hire 1,000 new workers right next door in Chandler to make sure we build some of the most high-tech cars in the world right here in America. Today, our busi-nesses have created 7.3 mil-lion new jobs over the last 41 months. We now sell more products made in America to the rest of the world than ever before. We produce more renewable energy than ever, and more natural gas than anyone. Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years. And our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years. Thanks to the grit

and resilience of the Ameri-can people, we’ve cleared away the rubble from the financial crisis, and begun to lay a new foundation for stronger, more durable eco-nomic growth. But as any middle-class family will tell you, we’re not where we need to be yet. Even before the crisis hit, we were liv-ing through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, while most families were working harder and harder just to get by. Reversing this trend must be Washington’s high-est priority. It’s certainly my highest priority. But for most of this year, an endless pa-rade of distractions, political posturing, and phony scan-dals have shifted focus from what we need to do to shore up the middle class. And as Washington heads towards another budget debate, the stakes could not be higher. That’s why I’m lay-ing out my ideas for how we must build on the corner-stones of what it means to be middle class in America. A good job with good wages. A home to call your own. A good education. Affordable health care that’s there for you when you get sick. A se-cure retirement even if you’re not rich. And more chances for folks to earn their way into the middle class as long as they’re willing to work for it. Last Tuesday, I went to Tennessee to talk about that first cornerstone, and lay out a grand bargain for middle-class jobs. And today, I’ve come to Phoenix to talk about that second,

most tangible cornerstone at the heart of middle-class life: the chance to own your own home. A home is supposed to be our ultimate evidence that in America, hard work pays off, and responsibil-ity is rewarded. I think of my grandparents’ genera-tion. After my grandfather served in World War II, this country gave him the chance to go to college on the GI Bill, and buy his first home with a loan from the FHA. To him, and to generations of Americans before and since, a home was more than just a house. A home was a source of pride and security. It was a place to raise chil-dren, put down roots, and build up savings for college, or a business, or retirement. And buying a home required responsibility on everyone’s part – banks were supposed to give you a fair deal, with terms you could understand, and buyers were supposed to live within their means. In my grandfather’s America, houses weren’t for flipping – they were for living in. But over time, re-sponsibility too often gave way to recklessness – on the part of lenders who sold loans to people who couldn’t afford them, and buyers who knew they couldn’t afford them. And when the hous-ing bubble burst, triggering the recession, millions of Americans who had done everything right were hurt badly by the actions of oth-ers. By the time I took of-fice, home values had fallen almost 20% from the year before. New housing starts

had fallen nearly 80% from their peak. Hundreds of thousands of construction workers had lost their jobs. A record number of people were behind on their mort-gages. And the storm hit harder here in Phoenix than almost anywhere. So less than a month after I took office, I came here to Arizona and laid out steps to stabilize the housing mar-ket and help responsible ho-meowners get back on their feet. And while it’s been a long, slow process that’s taken longer than any of us would like, we’ve helped millions of Americans save an average of $3,000 each year by refinancing at lower rates, and we’ve helped mil-lions of responsible hom-eowners stay in their homes. And where Con-gress wouldn’t act, we did. Over the past few years, the Department of Justice stood up for buyers who were dis-criminated against or conned by predatory lenders, win-ning more money for victims of discrimination last year alone than in the previous 23 combined. We worked with states to force big banks to repay more than $50 bil-

lion dollars to more than 1.5 million families – the largest lending settlement in his-tory. We’ve extended the time folks who’ve lost their jobs can delay payments on their mortgages while they keep looking for work. And we’ve cracked down on the bad practices that led to the crisis in the first place – be-cause if something is called a “liar’s loan,” it’s probably a bad idea. Today, our housing market is healing. Home prices are rising at the fast-est pace in 7 years. Sales are up nearly 50%. Construction is up nearly 75%. New fore-closures are down by nearly two-thirds. Millions of fami-lies have been able to come up for air, because they’re no longer underwater on their mortgages. And even though we’re not where we were need to be yet, Phoenix has led one of the biggest come-backs in the country. Home prices have risen by nearly 20% over the last year. New home sales are up by more than 25%. A company I vis-ited this morning, Erickson Construction, shrank to less than 100 workers during the worst years of the crisis. To- HOMEOWNER See Pg 14

President Barack Obama lays out his plan to strengthen middle-class homeownership, call-ing it a cornerstone of the American dream, at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Ari-zona on Tuesday.

day they employ 580 people – and they’re hiring even more. Now we have to build on this progress. We give to more hard-working Americans the chance to buy their first home. We have to help more responsible ho-meowners refinance their mortgage. And above all, we have to turn the page on the bubble-and-bust mentality that created this mess, and build a housing system that’s durable and fair and rewards responsibility for generations to come. Some of the ideas I put forward today will be new. Some will be old ideas Congress hasn’t acted on yet. But like the other actions we’ve taken, these will not help the neighbors down the street who bought a house they couldn’t afford, then walked away and left a foreclosed home behind. It won’t help speculators who bought multiple homes just to make a quick buck. What these ideas will do is help millions of re-sponsible, middle-class hom-eowners who still need relief,


RNC Chairman Calls On NBC & CNN To Stop Promoting Hillary Clinton

Washington: Today Republican National Com-mittee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus sent a letter to Robert Greenblatt, Chair-man of NBC Entertainment, and Jeff Zucker, President of CNN Worldwide, calling on their networks to cancel their attempts to influence Americans’ political deci-sions. Both networks are airing programs promoting former Secretary Hillary Clinton ahead of her likely candidacy for president in 2016. NBC has announced plans to air a miniseries, while CNN is producing a documentary. If the produc-tions are not canceled prior to the start of the RNC’s Summer Meeting, Chair-

man Priebus will seek a binding vote of the RNC to prevent the committee from partnering with these networks in 2016 primary debates or sanctioning de-

bates they sponsor. “It’s appalling to know executives at major networks like NBC and CNN who have donated to Democrats and Hillary Clinton have taken it upon themselves to be Hillary Clinton’s campaign op-

eratives,” said Chairman Priebus. “Their actions to promote Secretary Clinton are disturbing and disap-pointing. I hope Americans will question the credibil-ity of these networks and that NBC and CNN will reconsider their partisan actions and cancel these political ads masked as unbiased entertainment. If they have not agreed to pull this programming prior to the start of the RNC’s Sum-mer Meeting on August 14, I will seek a binding vote stating that the RNC will neither partner with these networks in 2016 primary debates nor sanction prima-ry debates they sponsor.”

RNC will not partner with networks in

2016 primary debates

and working Americans who dream of owning their own home fair and square. And there are immediate actions we can take, right now, that would make a difference. Step one is for Con-gress to pass a good, biparti-san idea, and allow every ho-meowner to save thousands of dollars a year by refinanc-ing their mortgage at today’s rates. Let’s get that done. Step two: now that we’ve made it harder for reckless buyers to buy homes they can’t afford, let’s make it easier for qualified buyers to buy homes they can. We should simplify overlapping regulations and cut red tape for responsible families who want to get a mortgage, but who keep getting rejected by banks. And we should give well-qualified Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis a fair chance to get a loan if they’ve worked hard to repair their credit. Step three is some-thing you don’t always hear about when it comes to the

just re-inflate a housing bub-ble. That’s the second thing I’m here to talk about today: laying a rock-solid founda-tion to make sure the kind of crisis we just went through never happens again. That begins with winding down the compa-nies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For too long, these companies were allowed to make big profits buying mortgages, knowing that if their bets went bad, taxpayers would be left hold-ing the bag. It was “heads we win, tails you lose.” And it was wrong. The good news is that there’s a bipartisan and working Americans who dream of owning their own home fair and square. And there are immediate actions we can take, right now, that would make a difference. Step one is for Con-gress to pass a good, biparti-san idea, and allow every ho-meowner to save thousands of dollars a year by refinanc-ing their mortgage at today’s rates. Let’s get that done. Step two: now that we’ve made it harder for reckless buyers to buy homes they can’t afford, let’s make it easier for qualified buyers to buy homes they can. We should simplify overlapping regulations and cut red tape for responsible families who want to get a mortgage, but who keep getting rejected by banks. And we should give well-qualified Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis a fair chance to get a

loan if they’ve worked hard to repair their credit. Step three is some-thing you don’t always hear about when it comes to the housing market – and that’s fixing a broken immigration system. It’s pretty simple: when more people buy homes, and play by the rules, home values go up for every-body. According to one re-cent study, the average hom-eowner has already seen the value of their home boosted by thousands of dollars, just because of immigration. Now, with the help of your Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, the Senate has al-ready passed a bipartisan im-migration bill that’s got the support of CEOs, labor, and law enforcement. And con-sidering what this bill can do for homeowners, that’s just one more reason Republi-cans in the House should stop dragging their feet and get this done. Step four: we should address the uneven recovery by rebuilding the communities hit hardest by the housing crisis, including many right here in Arizona. Let’s put construction work-ers back to work repairing rundown homes and tear-ing down vacant properties. Places facing a longer road back from the crisis should have their country’s help to get there. Step five: we should make sure families that don’t want to buy a home, or can’t yet afford to buy one, have a decent place to rent. In the

run-up to the crisis, banks and the government too often made everyone feel like they had to own a home, even if they weren’t ready. That’s a mistake we shouldn’t re-peat. Instead, let’s invest in affordable rental housing. And let’s bring together cit-ies and states to address local barriers that drive up rent for working families. Helping more Americans refinance. Help-ing qualified families get a mortgage. Reforming our immigration system. Re-building the hardest-hit communities. Making sure folks have a decent place to rent. These steps will give more middle-class families the chance to buy their own home, more relief to respon-sible homeowners, and more options for families who aren’t yet ready to buy. But as home prices rise, we can’t just re-inflate a housing bub-ble. That’s the second thing I’m here to talk about today: laying a rock-solid founda-tion to make sure the kind of crisis we just went through never happens again. That begins with winding down the compa-nies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For too long, these companies were allowed to make big profits buying mortgages, knowing that if their bets went bad, taxpayers would be left hold-ing the bag. It was “heads we win, tails you lose.” And it was wrong. The good news is that there’s a bipartisan

President Barack Obama Calls For Responsible Homeownershiphousing market – and that’s fixing a broken immigration system. It’s pretty simple: when more people buy homes, and play by the rules, home values go up for every-body. According to one re-cent study, the average hom-eowner has already seen the value of their home boosted by thousands of dollars, just because of immigration. Now, with the help of your Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, the Senate has al-ready passed a bipartisan im-migration bill that’s got the support of CEOs, labor, and law enforcement. And con-sidering what this bill can do for homeowners, that’s just one more reason Republi-cans in the House should stop dragging their feet and get this done. Step four: we should address the uneven recovery by rebuilding the communities hit hardest by the housing crisis, including many right here in Arizona. Let’s put construction work-ers back to work repairing rundown homes and tear-ing down vacant properties. Places facing a longer road

back from the crisis should have their country’s help to get there. Step five: we should make sure families that don’t want to buy a home, or can’t yet afford to buy one, have a decent place to rent. In the run-up to the crisis, banks and the government too often made everyone feel like they had to own a home, even if they weren’t ready. That’s a mistake we shouldn’t re-peat. Instead, let’s invest in affordable rental housing. And let’s bring together cit-ies and states to address local barriers that drive up rent for working families. Helping more Americans refinance. Help-ing qualified families get a mortgage. Reforming our immigration system. Re-building the hardest-hit communities. Making sure folks have a decent place to rent. These steps will give more middle-class families the chance to buy their own home, more relief to respon-sible homeowners, and more options for families who aren’t yet ready to buy. But as home prices rise, we can’t

Homeowner from page 13


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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Ex-Turkish Army Chief Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Ergenekon Overthrow Plot Ankara, Aug. 6 (ANI): Turkey’s former Chief of Army Staff Ilker Basbug has been given a life term for his role in a plot to overthrow the government known as the Ergenekon Conspiracy. The retired general was one of the most promi-nent of the 267 defendants in the case. Dozens of others, including several opposition MPs, military figures, aca-demics and journalists, were given prison sentences rang-ing from 12 to 35 years, CNN reports. Prosecutors said a network of secular nationalists formed the Ergenekon Plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted

conservative government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Ergenekon, a reference to a mythical story about the origins of the Turk-ish people, case investigation had begun in 2007.

The group had been accused of planning a cam-paign of killings and bomb-ings to trigger a military coup in Turkey after a stash of grenades and bomb-making materials were discovered in Istanbul, the report added. The case has polar-ised opinions across the coun-try. While critics, including the main opposition party, claim that they have not been given a fair trial and the charges are politically motivated. The supporters of the process said that military has a history of overthrowing at least four governments in Turkey and meddling in civil-ian-political affairs.

Egyptian Government Offers Muslim Brotherhood Three Ministerial Posts

London, Aug. 6 (ANI): Egypt’s military lead-ers have offered to include the Muslim Brotherhood in the country’s political pro-cess. The Muslim Broth-erhood leaders will get three ministerial posts in a unity government and frees some members from prison. According to the Guardian, a security source close to the discussions con-firmed the substance of the

discussions. However, the Egyp-tian military and the presi-dency later denied that talks had taken place, or that any offers had been made to the Brotherhood. The security source said that under the national reconciliation there have been promises made by the government to the Brother-hood, but only after they end the protests following ouster of democratically elected

president Mohammed Mor-si. He said that these promises include three min-isterial posts in the new government; unfreezing the assets of the senior Muslim Brotherhood and only letting out of prison those who have not incited violence against the state, the report said. Two senior Broth-erhood officials also de-nied that a deal had been reached.

Pressure Mounts On Mugabe Following ‘Deeply Flawed’ Presidential Win

J o h a n n e s b u r g , Aug. 5 (ANI): The inter-national community, by and large, has reacted with dismay over the result of the latest general elec-tions in Zimbabwe, which has once again returned President Robert Mugabe to power with a two-thirds majority. Eight-nine-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, trounced his long-standing rival Morgan Tsvangirai in Wednesday’s polls, secur-ing 61 per cent of the pres-idential vote. His Zanu-PF party also achieved a crushing parliamentary majority. A News24 report said that most Western powers have labeled the elections unfair and flawed, and warned that Zimbabwe

risks falling further into a political, constitutional and economic crisis. The global con-cerns have been expressed after African and local observers complained of extra ballot papers being printed and of voters being turned away from polling stations. Australia has urged the Zimbabwean Government to hold fresh polls in the presence of a fresh set of observer teams. Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that elec-tions should be held again based on a verified and agreed voters roll. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the election as “deeply flawed” and added that Washington felt the results

did not represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people. Germany said the election could cast a big shadow on the political and economic future of Zimbabwe. But South African President Jacob Zuma con-gratulated Mugabe for his win and urged all political parties in Zimbabwe to ac-cept the election outcome as an expression of the will of the people. Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe’s oldest rival, has vowed to challenge the result in court. He also said that the MDC would boycott all government institutions and their activities.

U.S. Offers New Iran President Rouhani ‘Willing Partnership’

Washington, Aug.5 (ANI): The United States (U.S.) has offered Iran a “willing partnership” follow-ing the inauguration of new President Hassan Rouhani. The White House has said Iran now has a chance to allay fears over its nuclear programme and meet its international obliga-tions after President Rouhani used his inaugural speech to promise a government of moderation, and called for international sanctions to be

lifted. Rouhani’s speech was described as conciliatory in tone, and as one reaching out to groups inside and out-side Iran. He talked of trans-parency as being the key to open a new chapter in mutual trust. The 64-year-old former nuclear negotiator said no country could pre-serve peace by waging war, including Iran. A sign that ties be-

tween Washington and Teh-ran could be on the mend can be gleaned from the fact that Rouhani has nomi-nated a cabinet that includes moderates in key positions, including ex-UN envoy Mo-hammad Javad Zarif as the country’s foreign minister. However, he did not mention the nuclear pro-gramme, which has blighted Iran’s international relations and been responsible for sev-eral global economic sanc-tions.

Iran’s New President Says No Force In World Can Shake Alliance With Assad’s Syria

Johannesburg, Aug. 5 (ANI): Iran’s new presi-dent Hassan Rouhani has expressed his country’s sup-port for Syria’s embattled leader Bashar al-Assad’s re-gime. Rouhani said that no force in the world will be able to shake their decades-old alliance. According to news24, Rouhani made the comments during a meeting

in Tehran on Sunday with Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi. He said that Iran aims to strengthen its rela-tions with Syria and will stand by it in facing all chal-lenges. He added that the deep, strategic and historic relations between the people of Syria and Iran will not be shaken by any force in the world.

The report said that Iran has been one of Assad’s strongest backers since Syr-ia’s crisis began. Tehran is believed to have supplied Assad’s government with billions of dollars since the country’s crisis began in March 2011, the report said. Iran-supported He-zbollah also has sent fighters into Syria to bolster an of-fensive by Assad forces.

Japan Unveils Biggest Warship Since WWII Which Could Double As Aircraft Carrier

London, Aug. 7 (ANI): The Japanese Navy has reportedly unveiled its biggest warship since the World War II which is spec-ulated to double up as an aircraft carrier amidst grow-ing tensions with China over some disputed islands. According to the Sky News, Japan unveiled the Izumo which has a flight deck that is nearly 250 me-tres (820ft feet) long and is designed to carry up to 14 helicopters. The ship which has raised eyebrows in rival China will be used in na-tional defence particularly in anti-submarine warfare and border-area surveillance

missions. It will also be used to bolster the nation’s abil-ity to transport personnel and supplies in response to large-scale natural disas-ters, like the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The ship’s launch comes in light of the long-standing dispute between

China and Japan over sev-eral small islands located between southern Japan and Taiwan. Some experts be-lieve that Izumo could be used to launch fighter jets or other aircraft that have the ability to take off vertically but Japan said that it has no plans to use the ship in that manner, the report added.


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UK Home Secretary Criticized For Racist Spot Checks On Illegal Immigrants

London, Aug.5 (ANI): British Home Secre-tary Theresa May is report-edly under pressure from within Tory ranks to scale down a new and tough crack-down on suspected illegal immigrants. The pressure to scale down comes in the wake of a report published by The Independent news-paper that officials had con-ducted a series of “racist and intimidatory” spot checks at

railway stations in areas with large ethnic minority popula-tions. The government is also facing criticism over a campaign in which trucks reportedly carried messages such as “go home or face ar-rest” while passing through several London boroughs. Both schemes were signed off by the Home Of-fice. Conservative ele-ments now feel that an un-

necessary row has surfaced over tactics and distracted from policy. Meanwhile, the spot-checks have triggered an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commis-sion for possible unlawful discrimination. It is being touted around that the government while doing something about irregular immigration, must know where to draw the line on what is a complex issue.

Italian Former PM Berlusconi Stands-by Coalition In Economic Reforms

London, Aug. 5 (ANI): Former Ital-ian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, despite being convicted for the tax fraud case, has said that he fully supports the current coali-tion and has asked the government to approve the economic measures for the benefit of the country. According to the BBC, hundreds of supporters from Berlusconi’s People of Free-dom (PDL) party had gathered for a rally out-side Berlusconi’s Rome mansion to offer him support.

He is likely to serve house arrest or given a community sentence under Italian law, where people over the age of 75 rarely go to prison, the report added. The court ruled that his Mediaset business empire had avoided taxes by inflat-ing the price it had paid for film distribution rights. Berlusconi, who has dominated Ital-ian politics for almost two decades, has faced several trials since leaving his public office in November 2011.

Australia, Nauru Ink Pact On Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals

Canberra, Aug.6 (ANI): Australian Prime Min-ister Kevin Rudd has signed an arrangement with the President of the Republic of Nauru, Baron Waqa, regarding unauthorised maritime arrivals. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed to by Australia and Nauru, is in broadly similar terms to the arrangements with Papua New Guinea. This MOU strength-ens the regional approach taken by the Australian Government. Under the Arrange-ment, it will now be possible for asylum seekers to not only be processed in Nauru, if they are found to be in need of protec-tion, they could also be settled there. In the first instance, the government will focus on transferees in family groups and unaccompanied minors for settlement. Nauru is a nation with a small population. We would only expect modest numbers to ever be involved in settlement and our expectation is that they would be family groups and un-accompanied minors. The significance of today’s announcement is not the numbers that are involved, but

that we are adding an extra layer to a comprehensive regional ap-proach and we thank the Gov-ernment of Nauru for that. The Government of Nauru first raised with Australia the prospect of looking at settle-ment arrangements in a meeting between Justice Minister David Adeang and Immigration Minis-ter Tony Burke in Canberra on July 9. Since that time, the two governments have been working together in identifying appropriate locations for family accommodation. It is clear that the only way to deal with the challenge of people smuggling is through a comprehensive regional ap-proach. A cornerstone of this regional approach is to ensure people smugglers do not have a product to sell because people that come by boat without a visa will not be settled in Aus-tralia. The government has always said that people smug-glers would continue to test our resolve. Today’s announce-ment is a reminder of the full strength of the resolve of this government. Australia is commit-

ted to Nauru’s future develop-ment. Over the last three years under our Partnership for De-velopment, Australia has in-vested $91.1 million in aid to Nauru, to support better health, education, electricity and water for the people of Nauru. Australia expects to provide $29.9 million in aid to Nauru in 2013-14. The recent riots in-volving a number of the single male transferees at Nauru on July 19 has led to a number of individuals being charged un-der the law of Nauru. Australia respects the law of Nauru and respects that these individuals will have their charges tested following due process in the courts of Nauru. The incident has put particular pressure on the ca-pacity of the prison in Nauru. The Australian Gov-ernment has agreed to assist the Government of Nauru in expanding its prison capacity. Today’s announce-ment will allow families and unaccompanied minors to settle and reside in Nauru without gaining citizenship. We have instructed Australian officials to work with officials from Nauru to streamline visa arrangements.


Farhan Akhtar: I’ve Latched On To Milkha Singh’s Philosophy Of Life

As an actor, director or producer, Farhan Akhtar has broken new ground with every project - and his winning streak contin-ues with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He says the film’s “biggest” knock-on effect, however, is that filmmakers now won’t see him just as the “cool urban guy”. “Off course Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has earned great success in terms of its box office, but I’d like to believe that it has bro-ken, in a lot of people’s heads, this percep-tion about me...that I can only play the cool urban guy. That’s been the biggest fallout and achievement for me from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,” Farhan said. His past films as an actor - debut project Rock On!! in 2008, followed by Luck By Chance, Karthik Calling Karthik and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - have seen him in a young, chilled out and debonair role. In Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s high-on-passion-and-emotion biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag on ace athlete Milkha Singh, Farhan’s raring-to-go portrayal of the Flying Sikh made the audience and industry mem-bers sit up and take notice of the multi-tal-ented star’s evolving acting acumen. “It (the film) has proved that ‘he (Farhan) can apply his talent and do a char-acter of this nature and that he can go out of his comfort zone’,” said the 39-year-old, son of veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar and writer Honey Irani. But, if harping on past laurels was his way, “it would be the beginning of my end”, says Farhan, who is readying to sur-prise the audience once again with his next romantic comedy Shaadi Ke Side Effects.

“You can’t be sitting and thinking about past successes. I can just hope to again meet someone like Rakeysh, or Abhishek Kapoor, who has a story which can inspire me enough to take it up, and say, ‘Yes, this is one thing I must do.’,” he added. Farhan says the variety in his work is not a conscious, but an obvious thought. “More often than not, an actor is bound to want to do two different kinds of projects back-to-back so that one can explore other avenues. But really, that’s not what an actor goes out looking for...like I said, it’s about meeting people, hoping something wonderful will emerge out of it,” he said. His own personal interactions with the legendary Milkha Singh milked his life’s learnings for Farhan. “In all honesty, I’ve latched on to his life’s philosophy. He is so simple in his approach, and just believes that if you work as hard as you can, you will be noticed and people will recognise you for that,” he said. For Farhan, that’s worked precisely - be it in his visible six-packs, Punjabi accent or the way he has immersed himself so deep into the character’s skin. But plain hard work with simplicity - is that a possible combination in a celebrity life? “Well, your life is your life. It is, after all, what you make out of it. Simplic-ity is an attitude... it’s just about committing yourself to everything - be it your work or re-lationships,” said the actor, who has two chil-dren with wife, celebrity hairstylist Adhuna Akhtar.

Anushka Shooting Bombay Velvet Actress Anushka Sharma, who will soon join the cast of upcoming movie Bombay Velvet in Sri Lanka, is looking forward to the experience.

My Hollywood Role Should Be One That Makes India Proud: SRK

Not interested in tak-ing up a stereotypical role cre-ated for Asians in Hollywood, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan says “to get a role not spe-cific to my colour or the way I speak or act is very difficult”. He has been active in Hindi films for over two de-cades, has featured in more than 80 films and is a superstar, but the 47-year-old has yet to find a suitable role in inter-national films. A hugely popular actor in many internation-al countries, one whose face has be-come synonymous with the huge draw of the Indian film in-dustry, particularly the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry, King Khan feels he doesn’t have the USP to work in Hol-lywood. Asked what made him think so, he said: “I didn’t talk in terms of fan following.” “I think the kind of role I would want to do in a Hol-lywood film is one that makes India proud. To get a role like that is not specific to my colour, or the way I speak, look or act or my age, it’s very difficult,” said Shah Rukh. “I mean you can’t go to a big filmmaking world and say write a role for a 47-year-old actor who is brown, has hair like this, acts this way, dances a bit... the role should be something that Indians should be proud of. It’s too specific for me to have a USP.” He however appreci-ated Indian faces who are doing well on the international arena. “There are a few young boys

and girls, who are doing really well internationally, and I pray they make it big,” he said. Shah Rukh relishes and cherishes all the love and at-tention showered on him on the home turf and is set to woo his fans with Chennai Express. In fact, he is right now busy driving the buzz around the comedy drama, coming out this Friday, his first film with new

age master of comedies Rohit Shetty. Sharing his experience of working with Shetty, Shah Rukh said: “Rohit is fantasti-cally organised. The best part about him is that he has a group of 200 trained people working under him. Rohit knows what he wants. He always delivers the best.” Chennai Express, Shah Rukh’s second film with Deepika Padukone after the 2007 super duper hit Om Shanti Om, has a popular train scene from his Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Interestingly, in Chen-nai Express the name of Shah Rukh’s character is Rahul, a screen title he has donned in a string of hits. He confesses to being a director’s actor. “I’m a direc-

tor’s actor. I belong to a world which directors create. I enjoy being with them in their world. I want the world to see me as an actor who moulds himself according to the character his director creates for him,” said Shah Rukh. The Hindi film indus-try, which is celebrating its 100 years this year, has evolved with new filmmakers enlivening the

silver screen with new subjects, Shah Rukh said, adding it’s not a new trend. “There’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Barfi!... all kinds of films are being made, which is good,” said Shah Rukh. “ T h e r e have always been all kinds of filmmakers who make films like Iron Man, Batman and Chak De! India.

It’s always parallel. When I did Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, there was Maya Memsaab too. I always try to work on a dif-ferent genre. I feel the industry has given me name, fame and money and I won’t ever forgive myself if I won’t do anything beneficial for Indian cinema and my fans.” From romantic to vil-lainous and from action to su-perhero - Shah Rukh has delved into a variety of roles. Asked how he is in real life, Shah Rukh said: “I am a little like all of them. There are parts and portions of me that you see in my characters also. If I play a father, I do it the way I would do it with my kids. If I play a lover, I behave the same way I am in real life. I would say I am a funny person but also gentle and kind.”

Directed by Anurag Kashyap, Bombay Velvet brings actors Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma together on the big screen for the first time. Last seen in director Vishal Bhardwaj’s Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, Anushka said: “I am really excited and looking forward to joining the crew of Bombay Velvet in Sri Lanka.” “I have always wanted to work with Anurag and I am glad that I am going to be a part of his biggest celluloid dream yet. I am sure it is going to be an unforgettable experience. Fingers crossed,” she added. Anushka will be shooting for 40 days in Sri Lanka. Bombay Velvet is set in Mumbai and the story covers the time between 1950s to 1970s. It is the first film of a trilogy on how the city became a metropolis.

Dhoom 3: Final Cut Ready, Aamir Khan Eagerly Waiting For The Release

Bollywood star Aamir Khan is happy after watching the final cut of his upcoming ac-tion film ‘Dhoom 3’ and says he can’t wait for the audience to see it this Christmas. The 48-year-old will play an antago-nist for the first time in the third installment of the popular ‘Dhoom’ series along with actress Katrina Kaif. While Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra will reprise their roles as police officer Jai Dixit and his sidekick Ali Khan respective-ly. “Guys, I just finished seeing the final cut of

‘Dhoom 3’ and I cannot wait for you all to watch it. Suddenly Christmas seems too far away,” Aamir posted on Facebook. ‘Dhoom 3’ has been written and di-rected by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film will be released on December 25. Aamir was last seen on the big screen in Reema Kagti’s ‘Talaash’ last year opposite Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor. The actor is currently shooting for ‘Peekay’ directed by Raj-kumar Hirani opposite Anushka Sharma.


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If you want to publish an upcoming event in our Community Calendar please send an

e-mail: [email protected] or Fax: 703-893-2202 or contact:

Geeta at 703-599-6623. Please send the announcement at least one week in advance

AUGUST 9 - 11Enjoy the Arlington County Fair, the premier community-wide event that effectively provides a range of education-al and entertaining activities for people of all ages. Timings are as follows: August 9 - 4:00 to 10:00 p.m., indoors, and 2:00 to 11:00 p.m., outdoors; August 10 - 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., indoors, and 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., outdoors; Au-gust 11 - 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., indoors, and 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., outdoors. Lo-cation is the Thomas Jefferson Community Center, 3501 Sec-ond Street South, Arlington, VA. Sheela Ramanath, found-er and artistic director of Ka-lavaridhi (www.kalavaridhi.org), will be performing a spe-cial Bharatanatyam dance on August 10, at 11:00 a.m. Indi-an Dance Educators Associa-tion (IDEA) will be presenting Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi, on August 10, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. For more information about the Fair, go to http://arlington-countyfair.us/

AUGUST 10Richard Byrd Library is host-ing Family Day: Antarctica at the Library. Try on extreme cold weather gear, play in the snow, experiment with blub-ber and more! There will be no “cooler” place to be! Time is from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. The Richard Byrd Library is located at 7250 Commerce Street, Springfield, VA (703-451-8055).

AUGUST 13Montgomery College is offer-ing a US Citizenship Prepara-tion Program. Are you a legal permanent resident? Do you need help preparing for the US citizenship test and interview? Come to an information ses-sion and discover how Mont-gomery College may be able to help you, for free! Please come to one of the information sessions and bring your Green Card: August 13, at 6:00 p.m.; August 17, at 9:00 a.m.; Sep-tember 10, at 6:00 p.m.; Sep-tember 14, at 9:00 a.m.; Octo-ber 8, at 6:00 p.m.; October 12, at 9:00 a.m.; November 5, at 6:00 p.m.; and November 9, at 9:00 a.m. Location is Westfield South, 11002 Veirs Mill Road,

Suite 306, Wheaton, MD. The Montgomery College Citizen-ship Preparation Program is for legal permanent residents who live in Montgomery County, MD, and are learning English as a second language. For more information, Read-ers can contact Nancy New-ton at 240-567-8169 or [email protected]

AUGUST 18National Council of Asian In-dian Associations (NCAIA), together with the Indian-American community of the Washington metropolitan area, is organizing an Independence Day Gala Dinner at Martin’s Crosswinds, 7400 Greenway Center Drive, Greenbelt, MD. Time is 6:00 p.m. For details, please contact Dr. Suresh K. Gupta, President of NCAIA, at 301-332-9596, Mr. Yo-gendra Gupta, Coordinator, at 301-515-1411, Mr. Pavan Bezwada, Co-Coordinator, at 301-455-0073, Mr. Sunil Singh, Chairman of NCAIA, at 571-233-1292 or Mr. Satish Gupta at 301-529-5757.

AUGUST 24All ladies are welcome to at-tend and participate in ‘Mela Teeyan Teej 2013’. Enjoy a night of music, mehendi, fash-ion, food and entertainment. Time is from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. Venue is the Gesher Jew-ish Day School, 4800 Mattie Moore Court, Fairfax, VA. For details, please contact Moni Gill at 571-232-9656 or [email protected] or Varinder Randhawa at 571-243-5745.

AUGUST 25ICCC, together with Indian-American community organi-zations of the Washington met-ro area, are celebrating India’s 67th Independence Day with a special program, ‘Indian Diaspora and Global Impact’. Location is Northern Virginia Community College, Ernst Community Cultural Center, 8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA. The program is as follows: Mela from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.; parade and flag hoisting at 3:30 p.m.; cultural show beginning at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, please contact

Mr. Kumar Singh, Chairman of ICCC, at 571-451-5309, Mukund Agashe at 240-453-0580, Puneet Ahluwalia at 703-283-6644, Krishna Ban-audha at 301-633-5563, Dr. Sambhu and Mrs. Promila Banik at 301-530-7539, Poo-nam Bansal at 703-719-0440, Pavan Bezwada at 301-455-0073, Mr. Walton Dawson at 240-701-2685 or Dr. Satish Misra at 301-340-2983.

AUGUST 28Hare Krishna Temple is cel-ebrating ‘Janmashtami’, the birth of Lord Krishna. Time is from 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The program includes bhajans and Aarti every hour on the hour with a grand midnight Aarti and darshan. Festival will feature a stage show with drama and dance, free vegetar-ian feast, mantra meditation, inspirational books, a special children’s tent, Govinda’s gift store, and lots of laughter and joy! The program on the fes-tival stage is as follows: 4:00 p.m. - Children’s Abhishek; 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. - Hari Bhakti bhajans; and 8:00 p.m. - drama and dance. The tem-ple is located at 10310 Oaklyn Drive, Potomac, MD. For more information, Readers can call 301-299-2100 or e-mail [email protected] or visit http://iskconofdc.org

AUG. 31 - SEPT. 1Gnanananda Seva Samajam, Inc., USA invites all to ‘Na-masankeerthanam Mela 2013’ to celebrate the divine celes-tial wedding of Lord Krishna and Radha. Timings are as follows: August 31 - 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; and September 1 - 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Venue is Durga Temple, 8400 Durga Place, Fairfax Station, VA. The program features bhajans, Radha Kalyanam, divyanamam, ashtapathis and guru padhuka pujas. Attend this free event to seek bless-ings of the Gods. For further information, visit www.gssus.org or e-mail [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 8 - 14Durga Temple is presenting Ram Katha by Dr. Ram Kamal Das Vedanti Ji. Katha will be followed by Aarti and bhan-dara everyday. The temple is

located at 8400 Durga Place, Fairfax Station, VA (703-690-9355). For details, please go to www.durgatemple.org

SEPTEMBER 20Manish and Deepa Sood of Intense Entertainment are pre-senting top-notch Indian play-back singer Shreya Ghoshal - live in concert! Venue is the DAR Constitution Hall located at 1776 D Street, NW, Washington, DC. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; concert starts at 8:00 p.m. For details, please call 202-59-MASTI (62784) or visit www.intenseus.com

SEPTEMBER 28American Society of Engi-neers of Indian Origin - Na-tional Capital Chapter (ASEI-NCC) is hosting its 28th Annual National Convention. The theme is “Innovative Technologies: An Engine for Economic Growth”. The pro-gram includes: morning ple-nary; luncheon; evening gala banquet; tracks of technical presentation; and panel dis-cussions. Tracks and panels are on information technol-ogy, healthcare IT, nanotech-nology, traditional energy, renewable energy, bio-engi-neering and space contribu-tions of Indian-Americans, STEM. Participants include major US and India corpora-tions, government agencies, Indian Embassy, entrepre-neurs, dignitaries, academia and students. The convention will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Location is the University of Maryland at Col-lege Park, Riggs Alumni Cen-ter and Adele Stamp Student Union Building. For further information, go to www.asei-ncc.org or call 202-800-0333, Dr. Ajay Kothari, Convention Chair, at 301-935-5868, Mr. Hari Bindal, ASEI-NCC Pres-ident, at 301-262-0254, G.S. Sridhar, Convention Co-Chair at 571-274-9672, Ms. Pavithra Kenjige, ASEI-NCC Vice President, at 703-815-1629 or Mayur Kathuria, ASEI-UMD, at 240-475-2320. Note: The convention is being co-hosted by ASEI-UMD, College Park, in collaboration with PANIIT, MIBRT, USIBC, USINPAC and other professional organi-zations.

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

OCTOBER 5The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) is host-ing its exceedingly popular and awaited annual Gala. The ‘2013 SAJA Gala’, featuring an awards ceremony and ban-quet-style dinner, will be held at the Yale Club in New York City. The association will honor and recognize excel-lence in journalism coverage in South Asia as well as out-standing reporting by South Asian journalists. This is a fantastic opportunity to net-work with fellow SAJA mem-bers, other reporters, editors and producers from reputable media outlets. Registration is open until September 30. For details, head to www.saja.org

OCTOBER 19Smithsonian Institution’s Ar-thur M. Sackler Gallery will debut the world’s first ex-hibition, ‘Yoga: The Art of Transformation’, on the visual history of Yoga. US tour will follow. Yoga is a global phe-nomenon, practiced by mil-lions of people seeking spiri-tual insight or better health. Few, however, are aware of yoga’s rich diversity and historical transformations. Opening October 19, at the

Sackler Gallery, ‘Yoga: The Art of Transformation’, the world’s first exhibition about the discipline’s visual history, will reveal the fascinating meanings and histories over the past 2,000 years. ‘Yoga: The Art of Transformation’, on view through January 26, 2014, explores yoga’s philos-ophies and its goals of trans-forming body and conscious-ness, its importance within multiple religious and secular arenas and the varied roles that yogis played in society, from sages to spies. Work-ing with an interdisciplin-ary team of scholars, curator Debra Diamond assembled more than 130 objects from 25 museums and private col-lections in India, Europe and the United States, compiling a remarkable survey of Indian art. As much of yoga’s history remains shrouded in mystery, this comprehensive look at yoga’s visual culture marks the start of a new field of study. The Sackler Gallery is located at 1050 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC. For more information, readers can call 202-633-4880 or visit www.asia.si.edu

OCTOBER 20Konark Dance School and MKK-USA are presenting ‘Bandhan’ - the Bond, featur-ing Konark Dance School art-ists and invited guest artist, Guru Meera Das of Orissa. The program includes dances in the Kathak, Mohiniattam, North African and Odissi styles, as well as a dance drama. Time is 6:00 p.m. Venue is the F. Scott Fitzger-ald Theater, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville, MD. Net proceeds will benefit needy and bright STEM schol-ars. For further information, please call 703-450-4291 or e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] or visit www.konark-danceschool.org


Sri Lankan Opposition Demands Foreign Probe Into Protest Deaths

Colombo, August 6 (PTI): Sri Lanka’s main op-position party, the United National Party (UNP), on Tuesday called for an interna-tional probe into last week’s military crackdown on a pro-test against poor water quality which killed three and injured nearly 50. “We call for an in-ternational investigation. We can’t trust a probe headed by a government henchman,” said UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake. The call for the probe came as the London-based rights group Amnesty International said that the Sri Lankan government should not be allowed to conduct its own probe. “The Sri Lankan army should have never been policing unarmed demonstra-tors in the first place,” Am-

nesty said in a statement. The Lankan Army has already constituted a five-member board last week to investigate all allegations against the military, including the alleged assault on civilians and the killing of three pro-testers including a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old boy in Weliweriya — a small town in the country’s northwest. Mr. Attanayake said it was a question about the level of democracy in the is-land as people’s right to dem-ocratic protest had been chal-lenged. “This will add a black patch to the government in the international eyes,” he added. Residents of Weli-weriya alleged that their ground water has been con-taminated by acid waste, dumped by a nearby rubber gloves manufacturing plant. They have been demand-

ing action for several weeks, leading to Thursday’s police and military crackdown. Television footage showed that soldiers charged into protesters who hurled debris at them during the pro-test. Villagers, who had blocked the vital A1 highway, alleged that the Army assault-ed them and opened fire on them. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe asked for an independent probe on the Army’s action in Parliament. The Leader of the House, Ni-mal Siripala de Silva, assured that government would con-duct an inquiry. The Army had earlier defended its action claiming it was protecting itself against an organised gang which had incited the residents to pro-test.

Pakistan Accuses India Of Cease-fire Violation In Pandu Sector Of LoC

Islamabad, Aug.7 (ANI): A day after five Indian Army soldiers were killed in Poonch Sector along the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistan on Wednesday accused Indian troops of cease-fire violation in the Pandu Sector of the LoC. A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations wing of the Paki-stan armed forces claimed that two Pakistan Army soldiers had received critical bullet injuries during the cease-fire violation by Indian troops. Pakistan’s Director General of Military Opera-tions (DGMO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed has Pak strongly rejected Indian allegation of Pakistani troops violating the cease-fire along the LoC on Tuesday to kill five Indian Army soldiers. The ISPR statement quoted him, as saying that there is no truth in it. The ISPR statement also said that a hotline is in the process of being estab-lished between the DGMOs of Pakistan and India to dis-cuss the dispute over repeated cease-fire violations. The ISPR statement comes after India accused Pakistan of carrying out the ambush-cum-attack through its Border Area Team. Of the five Indian soldiers killed, four belong to the 21 Bihar Regiment and one to the Maratha Light Infantry. The Indian Army soldiers killed in the incident have been identified as Prem Nath Singh, Shambhu Saran

Ray, Vyay Kumay Ray, Rag-hunandan Prasad and Punda-lik Mane. The Pakistan Gov-ernment had on Tuesday categorically rejected the al-legations carried by some sections of the Indian media of an attack across the LoC in the Poonch sector in which the five Indian soldiers were killed. In a statement, the Pakistan Foreign Office said: “These are baseless and un-founded allegations. Our military authorities have con-firmed that there had been no exchange of fire that could have resulted in such an inci-dent.” The statement fur-ther said that Pakistan re-mains committed to the ceasefire agreement of 2003, which is an important Confi-dence Building Measure and should be respected in letter and spirit. “Pakistan also urges the need for abiding by and strengthening existing mili-tary mechanisms to ensure that such ill-founded reports that have the potential of vi-tiating the atmosphere, are avoided,” the statement add-ed. “Pakistan is com-mitted to a constructive, sus-tained and result-oriented process of engagement with India and looks forward to an early resumption of the dialogue process. It is im-portant that both sides make serious efforts in maintaining the positive atmosphere and avoid negative propaganda,”

US Blacklists Pakistan-based Terrorist Leader Bahawal Khan

Islamabad, Aug. 7 (ANI): The United States has blacklisted the new leader of a Pakistan-based group that carried out ter-rorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The State Depart-ment announced it has add-ed Bahawal Khan’s name to its list of specially desig-nated global terrorists. According to Dawn News, the move will

freeze any assets Khan may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from transactions with him. The department said that Khan runs the Commander Nazir Group, which has run training camps, dispatched suicide bombers, provided safe ha-ven for al Qaeda fighters and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan since 2006, the report said.

The group is named after Mullah Nazir, a Taliban member whose faction agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistan mili-tary in 2009 but then broke it in 2011. Nazir was killed in a US drone strike in Jan-uary. Bahawal Khan is reported to be aged 34 and was a former bus driver. He is a long-time associate of Mullah Nazir.

it concluded. On Tuesday, De-fence Minister A.K. Antony strongly condemned Paki-stan’s firing and attack on the Indian side of the LoC in the Poonch sector. “We strongly con-demn this unprovoked in-cident. The Government of India has lodged strong pro-test with the Government of Pakistan through diplomatic channels. I assure the House that our Army is fully ready to take all necessary steps to up-hold the sanctity of the LoC,” Antony said in a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. “The Government of India conveys its condolences to the families of the martyrs who made the supreme sac-rifice in the line of duty,” he added. Antony informed that a patrol of the Indian Army comprising of one Non Commissioned Officer and five other ranks was am-bushed on our side of Line of Control in Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir. “In the ensuing fire-fight, five Indian soldiers were martyred and one soldier was injured. The ambush was car-ried out by approximately 20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms,” he said. The Defence Minis-ter informed that the numbers of infiltration attempts have doubled this year in compari-son to the corresponding pe-riod (January 1- August 5) of 2012. “There has also been 57 cease fire violations this year, which is 80 percent more than the violations last year during the same corre-sponding period. The Indian Army successfully elimi-nated 19 hardcore terrorists in the recent months of July and August along the Line of Control and in the hinterland in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Antony. “The effective coun-ter infiltration grid on the Line of Control has ensured that 17 infiltration bids were foiled this year,” he added.

Pak Sugar Mills Collaborate With Indian Companies For Biogas Boilers

UN Ready To Aid Flood-hit Pakistan, Afghanistan

The UN said that it is ready to assist Pakistan and Afghani-stan if required, as monsoon rains and floods have reportedly killed at least 120 people in these two countries. “The (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and its humanitar-ian partners are reviewing the situation and stand ready to assist if required,” reported Xinhua citing UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky. “Further monsoons are forecast later in the month.” “UN and humanitarian partners are ready to provide food, basic household items, water, sanitation and emergency health sup-port, if required,” Nesirky added. The OCHA “has received reports indicating that heavy monsoon rains have killed more than 80 people across Pakistan, dis-placing hundreds, ravaging thousands of acres of crops and causing huge damage to houses and infrastructure,” the spokesperson said, while adding the Pakistani authorities have not yet requested inter-national assistance.

Islamabad, Aug. 7 (ANI): Pakistan is going to join hands with Indian boiler manufacturers for fulfilling their energy requirements us-ing biogas as the main fuel. According to the Ex-press Tribune, the new gov-ernment of Pakistan is focus-ing to tackle the energy crisis, especially by tapping alterna-tive energy sources. High-profile offi-cials of two Indian engineer-ing companies, manufactur-ing high pressure boilers, are presently on a trip to Pakistan to join hands with local coun-terparts, the report added.

They will manufac-ture boilers, which they call ‘power packs’, for meeting the needs of sugar mills and allied industries through pro-duction of cheap electricity with bagasse as the main fuel. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed be-tween Cheema Boilers Limit-ed, the manufacturers of high pressure boilers, along with Triveni, the turbine manufac-turers, and a local company Haseeb Waqas Group of Com-panies. Meanwhile, the high pressure boilers manufactured in Pakistan costs around 1

billion rupees, whereas the joint venture will offer power packs for around 700 million rupees. Pakistan is a lucra-tive market for Indian com-panies as 90 percent of their industries are energy-efficient and they produce their own electricity. There are expecta-tions that this venture will boost more Indian companies to come to Pakistan, which will benefit in terms of tech-nology transfer, creating job opportunities and reducing prices for high pressure boil-ers.


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U.S. And Pakistan: An Uneasy ThawBy Mohammad Taqi Islamabad, Aug.7 (ANI): U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry concluded his visit to Pakistan last week. The off-again-on-again trip came on the heels of the Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to India, suggesting perhaps that the U.S. does not want to be perceived as lumping the two countries together. Pakistan, in addi-tion, wishes to be delinked from Afghanistan too. Insis-tence on a strategic dialogue and partnership with the U.S. has been a Pakistani demand for some time. But Pakistani interference in Afghanistan is such that no strategic dia-logue is possible without ad-dressing this transaction first, especially with the 2014 U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan looming. Mr. Kerry’s rather low-key visit is perhaps a soft reset of the U.S.-Pakistan re-lationship oriented primarily towards Afghanistan and not a jumpstart despite a pledge to resume the strategic dia-logue. Mr. Kerry’s visit was obviously timed to meet and greet the new Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Shar-if. It came after a consider-able cool off period since the extreme rancor between the countries over a series of 2011 events, including the Raymond Davis saga, Osama Bin Laden’s discovery and killing near the Pakistani mil-itary academy and the Salala episode where several Paki-stani soldiers were killed. Fortunately for Mr. Kerry, he did not have to put out any major diplomatic fires during this round. From the pre-visit background brief-ings by the State Department, it seems that either the U.S. is a bit too optimistic about Mr. Nawaz Sharif taking the helm, or is keeping up the pretense ostensibly to start with a clean slate as the new Pakistani dispensation takes charge. Going in, Mr. Ker-ry’s State Department team appeared to be lauding not just Mr. Sharif’s economic reforms agenda, focus on energy sector, ties with India and his advisor Mr. Sartaj Aziz’s Kabul visit, but also the “constructive cooperation from the Pakistanis” – civil-ian and military- that they are receiving in Afghanistan! On what the State Department

called “cross-border mili-tancy” and safe havens for extremist groups, their view was that while it threatens the US and its allies in the region, it is Pakistan that has borne the brunt of terrorism with 40,000 lives lost. It seems that the U.S. is buoyed about a civil-ian government taking charge in Pakistan with a comfort-able parliamentary majority and rightly calls its stabil-ity the centerpiece of the US policy towards that country. But, in all likeli-hood, the U.S. is perhaps overestimating both the ca-pacity and will of the new Pakistani incumbent. Mr. Sharif neither has a history of addressing the primary problems nor has he revealed any new ideas or roadmap sixty days into the present stint. Mr. Sharif’s squabbles with his country’s powerful military were never about processes, but individuals. His desire in his past terms was to be able to hire and fire army chiefs at whim without addressing the fundamentals of civil-military relations and the national security and for-eign policies. Mr. Sharif oversaw a blatant Pakistani interven-tion in Afghanistan in his first term (1990-93), recognized the Taliban regime in his sec-ond term (1997) and virtu-ally slept through his army’s infiltration in Kargil towards the end of that term (1999). In the recent past, the Pun-jabi Taliban and India-ori-ented jihadists had a field day when his party governed the Punjab province. In the first 50 days of Mr. Sharif’s cur-rent term there have been as many terrorist attacks includ-ing massive bombings killing the Shiite and a spectacular jailbreak where terrorists freed 250 of their cohorts. But instead of rushing to any action or formulation of a national security policy, Mr. Sharif took off for the non-obligatory Umrah pilgrimage to Makkah. This cannot be lost on the Mr. Kerry but, his ob-jectives during the current visit were less lofty perhaps. Mr. Kerry has mentioned quite clearly that the 2014 was a drawdown not a with-drawal date and that the US and Afghanistan will soon reach an agreement regard-ing the US forces remaining there.

But an orderly and safe extraction of troops from Afghanistan is what the U.S. seems more concerned about. The optimism smacks of appeasement, even if tem-porary. When asked about ending the drone attacks Mr. Kerry’s misspoke that “the (US) President has a very real timeline and we hope it’s going to be very, very soon”. This remark and his shaky defense of the drone strikes at a press conference suggest that either he was not in a confrontational mood or his heart – like his boss Mr. Barack Obama’s – is not in the fight. Mr. Kerry’s low profile nudge to bring Tal-iban and even the Haqqani Network to the table, despite expressing concerns about both, is reflective of a policy of containment and maintain-ing status quo. At this stage the U.S. is neither expecting nor pushing for a change in Pakistani policy vis-à-vis its jihadist proxies operat-ing in Afghanistan. Barring a major Pakistan-incited and sponsored catastrophe in Af-ghanistan the U.S. is unlikely to confront it. Pakistan’s mild chastising by Mr. Kerry over the gas pipeline from Iran also pertains more to the U.S.’ Middle East policy and developments there, es-pecially in Syria. In fact, the Middle East and encircling Iran are the front burner for-eign policy issues in the US presently. Were it not for the drone gaffe Mr. Kerry’s visit would have gone almost un-noticed at home. The powers like In-dia and Russia must watch this uneasy U.S.-Pakistan thaw closely as the US may leave Afghanistan as an un-finished business and largely to the whims of Pakistan. In-dia has exercised remarkable restraint in not getting drawn into Afghanistan against Pak-istan. But a serious possibili-ty exists that a vacuum left by the U.S. exit or a partial and inert presence may neces-sitate Afghanistan’s friendly powers to bolster its econo-my and defense. Mr. Kerry’s visit does little to alleviate the fears within Afghanistan that Pakistan will continue to try pushing its proxies on Kabul. U.S. engagement with Paki-stan is certainly a welcome move but one hopes that the region does not have to pay its price.


Maternal Smoking Linked To Asthma In Third Generation Offspring

Washington, Aug 6 (ANI): A new study led by an Indian researcher found for the first time that mater-nal smoking can cause the third generation of offspring to suffer from the chronic lung disease. The study, by Los Angeles Biomedical Re-search Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) researchers, re-ported that maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy is linked to asthma in the third generation in disease models. This is known as a “transgenerational” linkage because the third generation was never directly exposed to nicotine or smoking.

Previous research had found nicotine exposure was linked to asthma in the second generation, or was a “multigenerational” cause of asthma. “Even though there are multiple causes for child-hood asthma, research link-ing this serious chronic con-dition to maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy for up to three generations should give mothers-to-be even more reasons to recon-sider smoking,” Virender K. Rehan, MD, an LA BioMed lead researcher and the cor-responding author of the study, said. “Eliminating the use of tobacco during preg-nancy could help halt the

rise in childhood asthma and ensure healthier children for generations to come,” he said. Worldwide, approx-imately 250 million women smoke daily, and the number of people living with asthma is expected to grow by about a third by 2025, reaching ap-proximately 400 million. Twelve percent of women in the US continue to smoke during pregnancy, resulting in the birth of at least 400,000 smoke-ex-posed infants per year in the US alone. The study is pub-lished online by the Ameri-can Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecu-lar Physiology.

Big Breakfasts Far Better Than Big Dinners In Fighting Off The Flab

Washington, Aug 06 (ANI): People who eat their largest daily meal at breakfast time are far more likely to lose weight and have a lesser waist line circumference than those who eat a large dinner, a new study has revealed. The research con-ducted by Tel Aviv Uni-versity has found that that proper meal timing can make an important contribution to-wards managing obesity and promoting an overall healthy lifestyle Participants who ate a larger breakfast- which included a dessert item such as a piece of chocolate cake or a cookie- also had signifi-cantly lower levels of insulin, glucose, and triglycerides

throughout the day, translat-ing into a lower risk of car-diovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and high cho-lesterol. Prof. Daniela Jakubowicz and her fellow researchers conducted a study in which 93 obese women were randomly assigned to one of two isocaloric groups. Each consumed a moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-fat diet totalling 1,400 calo-ries daily for a period of 12 weeks. The first group con-sumed 700 calories at break-fast, 500 at lunch, and 200 at dinner, while the second group ate a 200 calorie break-fast, 500 calorie lunch, and 700 calorie dinner. The 700

calorie breakfast and dinner included the same foods. By the end of the study, participants in the “big breakfast” group had lost an average of 17.8 pounds each and three inches off their waist line, compared to a 7.3 pound and 1.4 inch loss for participants in the “big din-ner” group. According to Prof. Jakubowicz, those in the big breakfast group were found to have significantly lower lev-els of the hunger-regulating hormone ghrelin, and showed a more significant decrease in insulin, glucose, and triglyc-eride levels than those in the big dinner group. The study is pub-lished in the journal Obesity.

Healthy Tips To Prevent Late Night Cravings New York, Aug 05 (ANI): Do you struggle with your dietary decisions and eat too much at night? Well, try a two-week ex-periment that can help you control these cravings. According to an expert, time-based struggle has something to do, at least in part, with a hunger hormone called ‘ghrelin’- which is known to increase in response to fasting and recurrent feeding patterns. Oftentimes people, who are night-time eaters, keep their daytime calories purposely low and even in-

tentionally skip meals be-cause they will struggle in the later parts of the day. The New York Dai-ly News has suggested that if the struggles only occur at night, there’s a great chance that one can switch them off without the requirement of intense willpower. The expert believes that breakfast and lunch should include a minimum of 400 food-based calories, inclusive of 25 grams of protein. Night-time eaters are advised to have solid food-based snack between

meals with each including at least 7 grams of protein. For the first week of the two-week experi-ment, it is advisable to have an additional 150-calorie, solid food-based snack that includes at least 10 grams of protein 30 to 60 minutes before your struggles used to begin. It has also been suggested that if the experi-ment is a partial success- which means if cravings are down but not gone- try adding 50 solid food-based calories to each meal and snack.

Physicians’ Strong Antibiotic Prescriptions ‘Hazardous’ For Patients’ Health

Washington, Aug 5 (ANI): A new study has revealed that when US phy-sicians prescribe antibiotics, more than 60 percent of the time they choose some of the strongest types of anti-biotics, referred to as “broad spectrum,” which are capa-ble of killing multiple kinds of bacteria. Unfortunately, in more than 25 percent of cases studied, such prescrip-tions are useless because the infection stems from a vi-rus, which cannot be treated with antibiotics. This overuse of antibiotics has a number of downsides, including that these types of drugs kill more of the “good” bacteria

found in our bodies – which may lead to more side ef-fects – and also contribute to the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to Adam L. Hersh, M.D., Ph.D., an infectious disease expert, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and senior author on the study. Discerning whether an infection is viral or bacte-rial can be tricky, according to Hersh, which probably accounts for much of the overuse of antibiotics. “It seems that the natural bias, when there is uncertainty about an infec-tion’s cause, is to err on the side of prescribing antibiot-

ics,” he said. “Our study found that the majority of prescrip-tions are for antibiotics that kill a wider range of bacte-ria, and that they are most likely to be given when they’re not needed, such as in cases of viral infections,” he added. The types of ill-nesses where doctors seem to choose stronger antibi-otics include respiratory problems, skin infections and urinary tract infections, which in many cases would be better treated by other an-tibiotics that are less likely to cause resistance. The study is pub-lished in the Journal of An-timicrobial Chemotherapy.

1st Probable Person To Person Transmission Of New Avian Flu Reported In China

Washington, Aug 7 (ANI): A first probable person to person trans-mission of the new avian influenza A (H7N9) virus has been reported in East-ern China. The findings pro-vide the strongest evidence yet of H7N9 transmission between humans, but the authors stress that its abili-ty to transmit itself is “lim-ited and non-sustainable.” As of 30 June 2013, 133 cases have been reported, resulting in 43 deaths. Most cases appear to have visited live poultry markets or had close con-tact with live poultry 7-10 days before illness onset. Currently no defi-nite evidence indicates sustained human-to-hu-man transmission of the H7N9 virus. The study reports a family cluster of two pa-tients (father and daughter) with H7N9 virus infection in Eastern China in March 2013. The first (index) patient – a 60 year old man – regularly visited a live poultry market and became ill five to six days after his last exposure to

poultry. He was admitted to hospital on 11 March. When his symp-toms became worse, he was transferred to the hos-pital’s intensive care unit (ICU) on 15 March. He was transferred to another ICU on March 18 and died of multi-organ failure on 4 May. The second pa-tient, his healthy 32 year old daughter, had no known exposure to live poultry before becoming sick. However, she pro-vided direct and unprotect-ed bedside care for her fa-ther in the hospital before his admission to intensive care. She developed symptoms six days after her last contact with her father and was admitted to hospital on 24 March. She was transferred to the ICU on 28 March and died of multi-organ failure on 24 April. Two almost ge-netically identical virus strains were isolated from each patient, suggesting transmission from father to daughter. Forty-three close contacts of both cases

were interviewed by pub-lic health officials and tested for influenza virus. Of these, one (a son in law who helped care for the fa-ther) had mild illness, but all contacts tested negative for H7N9 infection. E n v i r o n m e n-tal samples from poultry cages, water at two lo-cal poultry markets, and swans from the residential area, were also tested. One strain was isolated but was genetically different to the two strains isolated from the patients. The researchers acknowledge some study limitations, but say that the most likely explanation for this family cluster of two cases with H7N9 infection is that the virus “transmit-ted directly from the index patient to his daughter.” But they stress that “the virus has not gained the ability to transmit it-self sustained from person to person efficiently.” They believe that the most likely source of infection for the index case was the live poultry market. The findings are published online in bmj.com.


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CURRENTS: Casting The Analytical Gaze Of Criticism

August 7 Cochin: The last three days in Cochin did see the greatest showers of all time. Despite the heavy downpour 6 artists organized a show to ex-hibit their paintings to reflect the contemporary of currents on the possibility of lending itself to the realm of pedagogical knowl-edge. The show is conducted at the Durbar Hall, which was in-augurated on 4th August by Mr. Sidharthan, HOD of Painting, RLV College of Music and Fine Arts which will be on till 9th August. Four students of RLV College Ashil Antony (2nd MFA student), Ramesh P (2nd MFA student), Fr. Antony Jo-seph (4th year BFA student) and Vikas S (3rd year BFA student) along with Fr. Ebey Edassery (Art Teacher – Cardinal High School) and Minon John Baby, a 13-year-old multi talented art-ist had exhibited their chosen paintings at the exhibition. The

2nd Annual 2013 Sikh Youths Gurmat Camp Held Singh Sabha Gurd-wara Punjabi School, Fairfax, VA held the second annual Gurmat Camp for the Sikh youths in 2013 on July 23 to July 26. This was a four day camp. More than 55 students participated in this camp. The camp was conducted by the Camp Ndr non-profit organi-zation. The theme of this camp was Seva. The youths learned the meaning of self-less (nishkaam) Seva which was demonstrated on Friday, the last day of the camp by performing the skits. The skits were prepared by the Sikh youths themselves. The Sikh youths learned how to prepare parshad. During these four days the morning & eve-

ning Diwans were conducted by the Sikh youths. They learned how to take the Hu-kam Nama, the meaning of the Hukam Namas and serve parshad. They were actively involved in the discussions related to Seva. The Sikh youths also performed the Gatka lessons. The lead counselor of Camp Ndr was Raminder Kaur supported by Arpin-der Kaur (Dallas, TX) and Sonu Kaur (New Jersey). The Shabad Kirtan lessons were taught by Bhai Darshan Singh who is well versed in Gurmat Principles. He communicated with youths in English & Pun-jabi. The Gatka lessons were taught by Sandeep Singh of

currently a student of Painting at RLV College who has exhib-ited interesting collages with currency note depicting cur-rent social scenario. His works have the Rs.10, Rs.20, Rs.50, Rs.100 and Rs.500 currency notes folded in the form of cloth where Gandhi’s picture in the note takes place of the head. Fr. Ebey Edassery is an Art Teacher

involvement of two priests and the child artist did win the atten-tion of visitors. The exhibitors have aptly named their exhibition ‘CURRENTS’ as it meant, be-longing to the present time or a steady smooth onward move-ment. Their paintings are related to the current social issues and also have created a new onward flow for the upcoming artists. The priests Fr. Antony Joseph and Fr. Ebey Edassery though being parish priests, have taken their passion to the next level. Fr. Antony Joseph is

at Cardinal High School who has used mixed medium (mix of acrylic and charcoal) to portray beautiful canvas. Ashil Antony’s work is an attempt to render a voice to the voiceless nature around us. He has painted images of sliced fruits and vegetables in the canvas to alert the human’s carefree attitude towards the dy-ing soul of nature. Vikas S has portrayed metal-utensils in his paintings, which are basically derived from earth, and now we are using them against it causing harm to the entire humanity.

The painting of Ra-mesh P exists on the theme meditation. One of his paint-ings is the portrait of a faceless Christ. Minon Joy Baby a 13-year-old boy had an entire sec-tion to display his paintings, was found making a new piece while the visitors were still visiting the gallery. He is also a child actor who played the Anik Kumar Bo-

karo, the central character in the movie Noottonnu Chodhyangal directed by actor Siddarth Shi-va. He is a National Award win-

ner and a free spirit in complete sense. He has held 65 painting exhibitions and has 3,500 paint-ings to his credit.

When people have started being amused by the new generation Computer Graphics, an exhibition of hand drawn and

painted canvas was definitely a soothing feeling to ones heart and soul. The exhibition will conclude on on 9th of August.

Art by Ebey Edassery

Art by Ashil Antony

New Jersey. Also, the adult Seva Gurmat 2-hour class for three days was conducted by

Harinder Singh, Director of Sikh Research Institute lo-cated in San Antonio, TX.


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India Has Become ‘Bread Basket’ From ‘Begging Bowl’: Pranab Mukherjee

Chennai, Aug 7 (ANI): President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said that the year 2013 would mark a significant milestone in Indian agricultural and social history, and expressed confidence that the Parlia-ment would pass the National Food Security Bill believed to be the world’s largest social protection measure against hunger. “The National Food Security Ordinance was pro-mulgated and the Bill in this regard has been introduced in the Lok Sabha today. He is confident the Parliament would approve this measure. This initiative is believed to be the world’s largest social protection measure against hunger,” said President Mukherjee in his address on the occasion of the Sil-ver Jubilee Celebrations of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here. “Henceforth, avail-ability of food at an afford-able cost would be a legal right to over two thirds of our population,” he added. President Mukher-jee said ‘every Indian can be proud of this transition from the days of the Bengal Fam-ine of 1943 in which over 3 million people died to the implementation of the Right to Food with our own home grown food’. “However, this Rights based approach to Food can be sustained only if we pay greater attention to farmers and farming. The National Commission on Farmers, chaired by Prof M S Swaminathan has given valu-able recommendations for converting the Green revolu-tion into an Ever-Green revo-lution, resulting in higher productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm,” he added. President Mukher-jee said land is a shrinking resource for agriculture. “We have hence no option except to produce more from less land as well as less irrigation water. This is where the farmer participa-tory research programme as well as the farmer to farmer

learning institutions like Farm Schools promoted by this Foundation are extreme-ly valuable,” he added. Asserting that east-ern India has large untapped production potential, Presi-dent Mukherjee said: “The future of our food security system will depend upon the progress we make in assisting farm families in this region produce more in an environ-mentally sustainable manner. When I was the Finance Min-ister, I had delineated in the Union Budget for 2010-11 a strategy to extend the Green Revolution to the eastern re-gion of the country. “ “As a result of this initiative, farmers in the se-lected clusters have adopted good agricultural practices and benefitted from the yield advantage of hybrid rice tech-nology. It is important that the Green Revolution in east-ern India is provided impetus through synergetic packages of technology, services and public policy,” he added. President Mukher-jee pointed out that climate change, leading to adverse changes in precipitation, temperature and sea level is a major threat to our food secu-rity system. “Drought, floods and extreme weather events are likely to become even more frequent. We have just witnessed the havoc caused by the floods in Uttarakhand. We should strengthen the coping capacity of rural and tribal families in the area of climate risk management. I am happy this Foundation is developing a cadre of Com-munity Climate Risk Manag-ers, with the ultimate goal of training at least one woman and one male member of every Panchayat in the sci-ence and art of climate risk management,” said President Mukherjee “There is great scope for marrying tradition-al knowledge and wisdom with modern science in this area. Our earlier systems of agriculture focused more on risk avoidance than yield en-hancement. Now, we need to combine both,” he added.

Commenting on nu-tritional maladies in the coun-try, President said: “There is hidden hunger caused by micro-nutrient deficiencies, such as iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A, Vitamin B 12 etc. Financial provision for a new initiative for organizing nu-tri-farms where agricultural remedies can be applied to overcome nutritional mala-dies has been included in the 2013-14 budget by Finance Minister Shri P Chidam-baram. Credit for this idea also goes to Prof Swamina-than,” he added. President Mukher-jee further said ‘non -food factors like clean drinking water, sanitation and toilets, environmental hygiene and primary health care need equal attention, if we are to ensure nutrition security for our people’. President said he was happy that he was hon-ouring the farmers of the Kuttanad region of Kerala and Koraput in Odissa. He said: “This unique system of rice-fish cultivation devel-oped by farm families against great odds has been declared by FAO as a Globally Im-portant Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). I am glad the Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Oommen Chandy has come all the way to receive the Plaque on behalf of the farm families of Kuttanad. I am also happy that the Assis-tant Director General of FAO is with us today for the spe-cific purpose of handing over this Plaque. It will be appro-priate to recall that the first GIAHS site to be recognized in our country is the tribal farming system of Koraput in Odisha. Kuttanad farmers are the second to receive such a global recognition.” On the occasion, he recalled the contribution of political leaders like Lal Ba-hadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and C Subramaniam who had realized the strengths in the areas of science and farming. “Their indomitable spirit helped scientists and farmers to convert the nation from a begging bowl into a “bread basket,” he added.

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DRDO Has Developed Chilli-spray For Women’s Self-defence: Antony

New Delhi, Aug. 7 (ANI): Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Wednesday informed that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a chilli-spray for protection using the world’s hottest chilli grown in As-sam. “Defence Research Laboratory (DRL), Tejpur, a laboratory of Defence

Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a chilli spray i.e. CAPSISPRAY. It is an eco-friendly non-lethal chilli spray for personal protection and self- de-fence. It contains Oleoresin Capsicum extracted from the world’s hottest chilli, the Bhut Jolokia (Capsi-cum Assamicum), largely cultivated in Assam and

other parts of North East-ern States of India,” said Antony in a written reply to Anil Desai and Rajani Patil in Rajya Sabha. “The prototype of chilli spray is ready and the product is required to be tested for several toxicolo-gy parameters. DRDO will take further steps to popu-larize the product once tri-als are over,” he added.

ECI Asks States, UTs To Implement SC Judgement On Conviction Of Sitting MPs, MLAs New Delhi, Aug 7 (ANI): The Election Com-mission of India (ECI) has asked all states and Union Territories to implement the judgement of the Supreme Court on conviction of sitting MLA s and MPs, and devise a proper mechanism to track cases of their conviction. The Election Com-mission has in a letter ad-dressed to Chief Secretaries of the states also sought a monthly status report about the cases of conviction of sit-ting members of parliament or state legislature.

The poll body has cited the apex court judge-ment whereby the protection against immediate disquali-fication from membership enjoyed by sitting members on conviction and sentence to imprisonment or fine will no longer be available. The Election Com-mission said that it is neces-sary to have a system in place so that cases of conviction of sitting members of parlia-ment and state legislature are immediately communicated to the speaker or chairman of the house concerned and to

the commission. The Chief Electoral officers of all states have also been asked to pursue the matter with states in moni-toring the case of conviction of sitting members. The Election Com-mission said if any sitting Member of Parliament or State Legislature is con-victed or sentenced to im-prisonment and fine after the date of this judgment he or she will be disqualified from membership forthwith and his or her seat will become vacant.

Bodo Leaders Meet Manmohan Singh In Delhi New Delhi, Aug. 7 (ANI): A delegation of Bodo leaders met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here on Wednesday, and demand-ed the creation of a separate Bodoland state. Lok Saba MP San-suma Khungur Bwiswmuthi-ary, who was a part of the Bodoland People’s Front delegation, after the meeting said that the Prime Minister assured them of starting a discussion on the issue at the highest political level. “He gave us a pa-tient hearing and told us that

political level discussion will start very soon at the high-est level . He will entrust the task to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for this,” he said. The Bodo leaders submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister, and hoped that the UPA leader-ship will take a ‘positive’ political decision for creation of Bodoland on the lines of Telengana. Bwiswmuth ia ry, who was interacting with media outside the Parliament here, further said they would

also be meeting Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in this regard. The Bodoland Mem-bers of Parliament had earlier on Monday staged a protest outside the Parliament for creation of a separate state. The Bodo People Front had earlier sent a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to raise the issue in the House. The demand for Bodoland gained ground fol-lowing the Centre’s nod for the creation of a separate state of Telengana.

“We Want Peace And A United Bengal”: M.K. Narayanan Kolkata, Aug 7 (ANI): West Bengal Gov-ernor M.K. Narayanan on Wednesday avoided com-menting on the ongoing pro-tests for the creation of a sep-arate state of Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana, and said his priority is to ensure that there is peace and the state is united. “What we want is peace and we want to keep Bengal united. Whether you negotiate or do something else that is the matter of

the Government. Telangana came in and that made a big issue,” he said. The indefinite shut-down called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) demanding a separate Gork-haland state entered its fifth day. The GJM activists have intensified their stir follow-ing the government’s nod for the creation of a separate Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. The GJM has been pressing its demand for

Gorkhaland as a separate state to be carved out of parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of northern West Bengal. In July 2011, a tri-partite agreement was signed between the GJM, the West Bengal government and the Centre for setting up an au-tonomous and elected hill council, Gorkhaland Terri-torial Administration ( GTA ), vested with more powers than its predecessor-the Dar-jeeling Gorkha Hill Council.


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Ode Of Remembrance: The Kargil War By Jaibans Singh New Delhi, Aug.6 (ANI): The strength of a nation is seen by its response to vicious belligerence by inimical forces; its capability to stand for what is right and just under the gravest of provocation; above all, the will of its soldiers to fight for the country against all odds and sacrifice their very lives on the mantle of national honour and sover-eignty. The Kargil war displayed, in full measure, the strength of the Nation and its ca-pability to with stand any challenge, however insidious and deceitful. As the fourteenth anniversary of the historic battle goes by, it is time to recollect the deviousness of the perpetrators of the con-flict, to see how the ignominious design of an aggressive neighbour to intrude on the territo-rial integrity of the nation was thwarted by a military action that has no parallels in the an-nals of military history. It is also time reflect upon the mature and restrained manner in which the political leadership of the country dealt with the treach-ery and got international acclaim. Above all, it is time to revisit the bravery of the Indian soldiers who fought against insurmountable odds to restore a situation . Even as India was being feted with an olive branch and the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was visiting Lahore in the inaugural journey of the Delhi-Lahore bus service on February, 20, 1999, Pakistan troops of the Northern Light Infantry (NLI) were on their way to occupy Indian territories in the Kargil sector. On May 3, 1999, two shepherds re-ported unusual movement to the Army in Ban-ju and Batalik sector; A Patrol led by Captain Saurabh Kalia to confirm the tip-off by the lo-cal shepherds was ambushed. This established the presence of in-filtrators in the area. Further investigations laid bare ingress by Pakistani forces 200 km into the Kargil sector comprising of Maskoh, Kaksar, Bimbar, Batalik, Yaldor and Turtok. It is well known that Captain Saurabh Kalia and his colleagues were captured by the Pakistani intruders and subject to horrendous torture. Their mutilated bodies were returned after twenty two days. For the Kargil operation, Pakistan army launched forces exclusively from the NLI. These included 5, 6, 8 and 12 NLI bat-talions in full strength and elements of 3, 4, 7 and 11 NLI with the Chitral and Bajaur Scouts employed for logistic support. NLI battalions comprise exclusively of troops taken from the Northern Areas and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir - Indian terri-tories under Pakistan occupation. They are hardy, loyal and well disciplined troops with limited education and a reputation of obeying orders without question. Regardless of their capabilities they are looked down by their Punjabi counterparts as low level soldiers. It was these troops that were chosen as cannon fodder by the Pakistani military hi-erarchy for sacrifice on the mantle of its un-sustainable ambition. The capture of a diary belonging to a Pakistani officer of 12 NLI confirms that the operation was launched in February when

winter was at its peak. The officer’s column lost eleven men in the approach march itself. The remainder suffered dreadful physical torture. In his diary the officer talks of a terrible thirst and living in igloos (snow tents) in treacherous terrain; it is punctuated with narrations of blizzards and prayers for salvation. Only trained mountaineers, espe-cially clothed, equipped and rationed would risk a passage in such treacherous terrain, yet, these poor soldiers were sent to their almost certain doom. The soldiers were not aware that, right from the word go, the operation was undertaken with woefully inadequate logistic planning on the misguided assumption that the intrusion would be under a counter attack only for a few days and after that some sort of a cease fire would allow them to stay on and be re-supplied. Soon enough, the intruders came face to face with the harsh reality of the treachery of their own leaders when they reached their objective and found themselves without sup-port and assistance. It is quite evident that the operation was militarily unsustainable, irrational and implausible. It was a political gamble aimed at blackmailing the international community to force India to accept a cease fire followed by mediation on the Kashmir issue. Pakistan took this gamble on a warped calculation of a weak and vacillating Indian reaction, a strong element of surprise and obfuscation of a strong international inter-vention for fear of a possible nuclear escala-tion. The reaction of the Indian army, how-ever, was swift and surgical. The enemy was sitting higher in a terrain that required scaling bare rock with punishing loads of arms, am-munition and essential supplies. Ten to one superiority required to launch an operation in such a terrain was neither available nor sought when battle was joined. In each attack the approach was con-tested by unrelenting enemy fire; victory was wrested from the enemy with close combat and hand to hand fighting after the punishing climb. The Indian air force carried out bombing, rocketing and strafing under most challenging and dangerous conditions made more difficult by the order of not crossing the line of control under any circumstance. The ensuing war lasted about two months, up to July end, when Pakistan lamely announced the withdrawal of its battered NLI units when there was little left to withdraw. The Kargil war paid many dividends over and above the resounding military vic-tory. The entire Indian nation united in support for its brave soldiers; a feeling of nationalism not experienced since the struggle for inde-pendence was generated across the country. The old remembered the heady days of the freedom struggle; the middle aged expressed a feeling of nationalism by chipping in with whatever means that they had in their disposal. The young found new role model and heroes. Pakistan, on the other hand, re-gressed into a repressive military regime to save the skins of those responsible for the hei-nous plan.

Manish Tewari In Favour Of Self Regulation Mechanism For Media

New Delhi, Aug 6 (ANI): Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcasting Manish Tewari on Tuesday said that the process of main-streaming self regulation as a statutory mechanism ought to be led by the Industry rather than the Government. Speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Observer Research Founda-tion, the Minister said that the Government’s approach towards the media was an “Essay in Persuasion not Regulation”. The panel discus-sion “Media Regulation: Is status quo the option?”, in which the Minister partici-pated, heard him saying that the stakeholders within the industry would have to de-fine the equilibrium levels so as to ensure that the para-digm of transparency, fair-ness, sobriety and avoidance

of sensationalism becomes the key driver of the National discourse in the media space. Tewari further said that digitization as a process could be leveraged to aug-ment sample sizes by re-en-gineering every Set Top box to function as a virtual “Peo-ple’s Meter”. He also said that out of the box innovation and creative thinking by Media entrepreneurs could surmount the current challenges by a technological leap that could transform the dynamics at the back end of the Media Sec-tor. While emphasizing on the growing importance of the New Media space which had revolutionized the media landscape, Tewari said that the growth of the internet had led to a situation where there could be a conflict between the physical and virtual civi-

lization. He also added that it was important to compre-hend the fact that the power of expression and dissemina-tion through the internet had added a new dimension to in-novations in information dis-semination. He further added that these developments could also lead to a situa-tion where one could also face “Balkanization of the Internet” if agreed rules of international engagement did not emerge as a binding international compact that encompassed states and other entities who controlled the underlying hardware. He said that this sit-uation needed to be avoided at all costs so as to ensure that no artificial divisions are cre-ated in the World Wide Web (WWW) on ideological enti-ties and Westphalian lines.

If Congress, BJP Work Together, Vidarbha Could Be Created With Telangana: BJP

Nagpur, Aug. 5 (ANI): Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Monday confirmed his party’s sup-port for a separate state of Vidarbha by saying that if the Congress and the BJP worked together on the is-sue, it could be created along with the state of Telangana. “I feel that if the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party come together, Vidarbha will be created. I appeal to local Congress supporters of Vidarbha to go to Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh to convince them, and make those against its cre-ation understand. Vidarbha, I believe, can be brought into Parliament along with Telangana and we will sup-port its creation,” Gadkari said here. Reiterating that the BJP is in favour of smaller states, Gadkari said that whenever the Congress brings forth a proposal for a separate state of Vidarbha, the main opposition party

would support it wholeheart-edly. Gadkari also used the opportunity to urge local Congress Vidarbha support-ers to convince the top lead-ership of their party, so that the proposal would come into parliament with Telan-gana. “In the Congress party, some leaders are in support of Vidarbha, while some are against its creation. I appeal to Nagpur Congress politicians (and) Vidarbha (Congress) politicians to bring an internal unanim-ity within their party and with the proposal to bring in Telangana, a proposal for Vidarbha should also be brought forth. I assure them that the BJP will support it when it comes into Parlia-ment,” Gadkari said. According to re-ports, Congress Member of Parliament Vilas Muttem-war had earlier expressed his support for Vidarbha state-hood to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a letter. Nationalist Con-

gress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel had also said that his party backed a Vi-darbha being carved out of Maharashtra, saying “it has been a long-pending demand for statehood.” Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maha-rashtra and is made up of the Nagpur Division and the Amravati Division. Its former name is Berar. It oc-cupies 31.6 percent of total area and holds 21.3 percent of total population of Maha-rashtra. It borders the state of Madhya Pradesh to the north, Chhattisgarh to the east, Andhra Pradesh to the south and Marathwada and Khandesh regions of Maha-rashtra to the west. After the decision to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh was made public, the demand for cre-ation of other states has grown louder throughout the country. There have been de-mands and protests to divide Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal.

INDIA THIS WEEK August 9, 2013 INDIA THIS WEEK April 12, 2013 Page 37


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National Food Security Bill introduced in Lok Sabha

11. Expenditure- At the proposed coverage of entitlement, total estimated annual foodgrains requirement is 612.3 lakh tons and corresponding estimated food subsidy for 2013-14 costs is about Rs.1,24,724 crore. It may be recalled that in June, 2009, the Central Government made a commit-ment to enact a new law to pro-vide a statutory basis for food security of the people. Accord-ingly, the National Food Secu-rity Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 22nd De-cember, 2011. After its introduc-tion, the bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Com-mittee on Food, for examina-tion and Report. The Standing Committee presented its report on 17th January, 2013. The recommenda-tions of the Standing Commit-tee were examined on priority; and accordingly, Government gave notice in Lok Sabha in the Budget Session for consid-eration and passing of the said Bill, along with official amend-ments. The said Bill was in-cluded in the Business of the House twice on 21st and 22nd

March, 2013, before the recess of the Session. Subsequently, after reassembly of the House on 22nd April, 2013, the Bill was again listed on each work-ing day since 2nd May, 2013. A motion for consid-eration and passing of the Bill was moved in the Lok Sabha on 2nd May, 2013, and the discussion were held on the Bill on 6th and 7th May, 2013. However, the discussion could not be concluded in the Budget Session, as Parliament was ad-journed sine die on 8th May, 2013. In view of the time that has already lapsed in pass-ing of the National Food Se-curity Bill, 2011 since its an-nouncement on 4th June, 2009, and further delay in getting it passed through Parliament, the government was of the con-sidered view that it will not be appropriate to further delay the reaching of the proposed ben-efits of the Bill to the people of the country. As both the Houses of Parliament were not in Ses-sion the National Food Security Ordinance , 2013 was promul-gated on 5th July, 2013 which now has been replaced by in-troduction of the Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha today.

New Delhi, Aug. 7 (ANI): Union Consumer Af-fairs, Food and Public Distri-bution Minister K.V. Thomas today introduced National Food Security Bill in Lok Sabha today to replace the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 which was promulgated on July 5. The National Food Security Bill is a historic initia-tive for ensuring food and nu-tritional security to the people. It gives right to the people to receive adequate quantity of foodgrains at affordable prices. The Bill has special focus on nutritional support to poorest of the poor, women and chil-dren. In case of non-supply of foodgrains now people will get Food Security Allowance. The bill provides for grievance re-dressal mechanism and penalty for non compliance by public servant or authority.Other features of the National Food Security Bill are as fol-lows:1. Coverage of two thirds pop-ulation to get highly subsidized foodgrains- Up to 75 percent of the rural population and up to 50 percent of the urban popula-tion will have uniform entitle-ment of 5 kg foodgrains per month at highly subsidized prices of Rs. 3, Rs. 2, Rs. 1 per kg for rice, wheat, coarse grains respectively . It will en-title about two thirds of our 1.2 billion population to subsidised foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Poorest of the poor

continue to get 35 kg per household The poorest of poor households would continue to receive 35 Kg foodgrains per household per month under Antyodaya Anna Yajna at sub-sidized prices of Rs 3, Rs 2 and Rs 1. It is also proposed to pro-tect the existing allocation of foodgrains to the states/Union Territories, subject to it being restricted to average annual off take during last three years.

2. Eligible households to be identified by the states- Corresponding to the coverage of 75 percent rural and 50 percent of urban popu-lation at all India level, state wise coverage will be deter-mined by the Central Govern-ment. The work of identifica-tion of eligible households is left to the states/UTs, which may frame their own criteria or use social economic and caste census data, if they so desire.

3. Special focus on nutritional support to women and chil-dren- There is a special focus on nutritional support to women and children. Pregnant women and lactating mothers, besides being entitled to nu-tritious meals as per the pre-scribed nutritional norms will also receive maternity benefit of at least of Rs. 6000/-. Chil-dren in the age group of 6 months to 14 years will be en-titled to take home ration or hot cooked food as per prescribed nutritional norms.

4. Food Security Allow-ance in case of non supply of foodgrains- The Central Gov-ernment will provide funds to states/UTs in case of short sup-ply of food grains from central pool, In case of non-supply of food grains or meals to en-titled persons, the concerned state/UT governments will be required to provide such food security allowance as may be prescribed by the Central Gov-ernment to the beneficiaries.

5. States to get assistance for intra-state transportation and handling of foodgrains- In order to address the concern of the states re-garding additional financial burden, Central Government will provide assistance to the States towards cost of intra-State transportation, handling of foodgrains and FPS dealers’ margin, for which norms will be developed. This will ensure timely transportation and effi-cient handling of foodgrains.

6. Reforms for doorstep deliv-ery of foodgrains- The bill also contains provisions for reforms in PDS through doorstep delivery of foodgrains, application of in-formation and communication technology (ICT) including end to end computerisation, le-veraging ‘Aadhaar’ for unique identification of beneficiaries, diversification of commodities under TPDS etc for effective implementation of the Food Security Act. Some of these re-forms are already underway.

7. Women Empowerment-El-dest women will be Head of the household- Eldest woman of eighteen years of age or above will be head of the household for issue of ration card, and if not available, the eldest male member is to be the head of the household.

8. Grievance redressal mecha-nism at district level- There will be state and district level redressal mechanism with designated officers. The States will be al-lowed to use the existing ma-chinery for District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO), State Food Commission, if they so desire, to save expen-diture on establishment of new redressal set up. Redressal mechanism may also include call centers, helpline etc.

9. Social audits and vigilance committees to ensure transpar-ency and accountability- Provisions have also been made for disclosure of records relating to PDS, social audits and setting up of Vigi-lance Committees in order to ensure transparency and ac-countability.

10. Penalty for non compli-ance- The bill provides for penalty to be imposed on public servants or authority, if found guilty of failing to comply with the relief recommended by the District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO).


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYNASA’s Next Spacecraft Ready To

Study Mars’ Upper Atmosphere Washington, Aug 6 (ANI): NASA’s next space-craft which is set to go to Mars arrived on Friday at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is now perched in a cleanroom to begin final preparations for its Novem-ber launch. The Mars Atmo-sphere and Volatile Evolu-tion (MAVEN) spacecraft is undergoing detailed testing and fueling prior to being moved to its launch pad. The

mission has a 20-day launch period that opens Nov. 18. The spacecraft will conduct the first mission dedicated to surveying the upper atmosphere of Mars. Scientists expect to obtain unprecedented data that will help them under-stand how the loss of atmo-spheric gas to space may have played a part in chang-ing the planet’s climate. “We’re excited and proud to ship the spacecraft right on schedule,” David

Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s God-dard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, said. The spacecraft was transported from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo., on Friday, aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colo., designed and built the spacecraft and is responsible for testing, launch process-ing, and mission operations.

Perseid Meteor Shower Set To Light Up Sky On Aug 11 And 12

Farmers Growing Less Water Intensive Crops In India’s Drought Prone Areas

By Harshita Bisht, Develop-ment Alternatives Bundelkhand (Mad-hya Pradesh), Aug.6 (ANI): Charan Singh Parihar has proved to be an excellent role model for other farmers in the drought prone Bun-delkhand region. He has set a good example for promot-ing climate resilient farming in this semi - arid region of central India by replacing wheat with barley - ahighly water efficient crop. As compared to wheat, which requires six cy-cles of irrigation, barley only needs three.Barley also uses 50 percent less manure in comparison. Consequently, the input cost of barley pro-duction is 50 per cent less. At the same time,

production and market price of barley is 20 per cent more as compared to wheat which makes it a very attractive proposition for the farming community. “This substitution has increased my per unit productivity by 1.5 times. Moreover, selling barley in the market is highly profit-able. Due to less competition in the barley market, barley trading is less time consum-ing and offers Rs. 150 per quintal more as compared to wheat prices”, says Charan Singh. It is not surprising that Charan Singh’s success-ful ‘barley’ experimentation has already been replicated in the fields of more than 600 farmers in the region.

Dr. Nishi Rai, a scientist working at the KrishiVigyan Kendra in Jhansi asserts, ”We have observed over the last few years that not only the aver-age quantum of rainfall in Bundelkhand has reduced but the rainfall pattern is be-coming very erratic and un-certain. Ground water levels have drastically gone down in the region which makes it very imperative to conserve water and do farming that is water efficient”. Farming practices such as using seed varieties that require less water and mature in less time should be widely promoted in water deficient regions of India to help farmers reduce their vul-nerability to climate change.

New X-rays Can Sniff Out Gold With Greater Accuracy Than Ever Before

Sun’s Magnetic Field All Set To Flip

Melbourne, Aug 7 (ANI): Scientists have fine-tuned a method called gamma-activation analysis, which is claimed to be far better at detecting gold than the current industry stan-dard. It uses a metre-long tube to shoot high-powered x-rays - like those used to treat cancer patients - into fist-sized samples of ore, the Daily Telegraph reported. The rays activate traces of gold which are then read by a detector.

The technique is faster and more accurate than the industry standard for detecting gold, Dr James Tickner, a science leader at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Or-ganisation (CSIRO), said. That method, called fire assay, puts ta-blespoon-sized samples through lengthy chemical tests. It’s slow and be-cause it uses such small samples, can often miss gold traces, he said.

He said that often only 65 to 85 per cent of the gold is recovered, and the rest eventually goes back into the ground. The x-ray method could reduce those losses by a third, he said. The Russian sci-entists who originally pio-neered the method struggled to get the sensitivity to ac-ceptable levels. The CSIRO is look-ing to partner with compa-nies to get a facility up and running within two years.

Washington, Aug 6 (ANI): The Perseid me-teor shower is set to put on a spectacular show on the nights of August 11 and 12. According to the editors of StarDate maga-zine, prime viewing time begins after midnight, with the constellation Perseus in fine view in the northeast. The waxing cres-cent Moon will have set by

then, and will not obscure the view of any meteors. The shower is at its peak during the day-light hours as seen from the United States, so it won’t be as impressive as in some years. However, under dark skies, viewers may see up to a couple of dozen me-teors per hour, particularly in the pre-dawn hours of

August 12. Perseid meteors appear to fall from the con-stellation Perseus, but they arenot associated with it. The meteors are actually leftover debris from comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseid mete-ors recur each year when Earth passes through its de-bris trail.

Washington, Aug 7 (ANI): Measurements from NASA-supported observa-tories suggest that the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip. “It looks like we’re no more than three to four months away from a com-plete field reversal,” solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University, said. “This change will have ripple effects through-out the solar system,” he said. The sun’s magnetic field changes polarity ap-proximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun’s inner magnetic dy-namo re-organizes itself.

The coming rever-sal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of “solar max” will be behind us, with half yet to come. Hoeksema is the director of Stanford’s Wil-cox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitors the sun’s polar magnetic fields. The poles are a her-ald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet’s polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physi-cists do the same thing for the sun. Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun’s polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand rever-

sals—with a fourth in the offing. Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: “The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.” A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, liter-ally, a big event. The domain of the sun’s magnetic influ-ence (also known as the “he-liosphere”) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.

Samsung Might Unveil Next Galaxy Note On Sept. 4

Washington, Aug. 6 (ANI): Mobile manufac-turer Samsung is likely to unveil its latest version of the flagship Galaxy Note on September 4 at the IFA technology conference in Berlin. The company called the event ‘Samsung Unpacked 2013’ which will be live streamed via the web, and it will host a press event at the same time

in New York City’s Times Square for people to watch and get hands-on time with the devices, the CNN re-ports. According to the report, Samsung is not of-ficially revealing informa-tion about the new devices but its invitation and sub-sequent tweets include the phrase ‘Note the Date’ sug-gesting the possibility of a new Note device.

The speculations surround about the screen size of the new Note as competitors have respond-ed to the Galaxy Note’s success with large screen sizes as well. Apart from the conventional smartphone and tablet market, Sam-sung is rumored to enter the wearable computing market with its smart watch called ‘ Gear ‘.

Apple Acquires Communication Chip Developer For New Prospects In Wearable Computing

Washington, Aug. 5 (ANI): Tech firm Apple’s latest acquisition, Passif Semiconductor, is going to give the company more ventures into wearable computing. The Mashable re-ports that Apple has bought a small company that spe-cializes in designing com-

munications chips that use very little power and work with the Bluetooth Smart standard. Bluetooth Smart devices, such as heart-rate monitors, can connect to smartphones and tablets but consume power at a rate that their batteries can last months or even years

on a single charge. Apple is reported-ly working on smart watch, called the iWatch, and has recently gone so far as to trademark the name in sev-eral countries and plans to enter wearable comput-ing device market after Google’s Glass.

INDIA THIS WEEK August 9, 2013 INDIA THIS WEEK July 5, 2013 Page 33


Deaf And Mute Virender Singh Bags Wrestling Gold At DeaflympicsBy Nishit Nakar Virender Singh, a deaf-mute wres-tler hailing from Delhi, won India’s only gold medal at the Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Saturday. He competed in men’s 74kg freestyle event at the 22nd Summer Deafly-mpics. The 28-year-old Virender defeated Oguz Donder of Turkey to defend his title. The bronze medals went to Hiavorh Adamian and Aleksandr Ochirovich Tsoktoev of Rus-sia. The deaf-mute wrestler, who hails from Delhi, grew up training with Olympics silver medallist Sushil Kumar. This was his third straight medal in the Games. “It is a great victory for Virender,” said Sushil Kumar told Times Of India about the gold medal. “He is a very good wrestler and is even better in the traditional format (Kushti). Even now he practises with us at the Chhatrasal Stadium,” he continued. When Asked about Virender’s chances of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Games, Sushil said: “It will be big challenge, but Virender is capable.” Virender, known popularly as Goonga Pehelwan (mute wrestler in Hindi), has long emerged as the face of all deaf ath-letes in the country after repeatedly proving his mettle on the world stage. After winning India’s first and only gold medal at the 2005 Deaflympics in Mel-bourne, Virender added a silver medal at the World Deaf Wrestling Championships in 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia to his tally too. Virender, who is a clerk with the Haryana Power Corporation, is also profes-sional wrestler who earns more from dangals (fights) where the prize money ranges from Rs. 5,000 to 100,000. “He fights 20-25 dan-gals a year,” said Vivek Chaudhary, a fan of Virender.

Vivek, who is currently working on a documentary ‘Goonga Pehelwan‘ with two of his friends, criticised the sports federa-tion for overlooking him, saying, “He always fought able-bodied men and is the only deaf wrestler there. To be sidelined because of a hearing disability is a cruel irony.” “The national coach rates him as one of India’s best wrestlers but the federation has never allowed him a chance to qualify for the Olympics saying that he can’t hear the referee’s whistle. The International Olympic Committee has clearly said that deaf wrestlers can compete, and the officials should modify the tournament rules so that the referee can communicate the decision to him.” Vivek said they would soon take up the issue with the sports ministry and may file the PIL to ensure that he gets a fair trail to qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Badminton: 2013 BWF World Championships

Ajay Stuns #12 Wong, Kashyap Survives Scare

Shuttler Ajay Jayaram notched up a stunning victory over higher-ranked Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Parupalli Kashy-ap survived a scare in the opening round of the men’s singles competition in the 2013 BWF World Championships in Guangzhou, China. Twenty-five-year-old Ajay, ranked 24th, was good in his attack as well as defence and played a patient game to beat world num-ber 12 Wong 22-20 17-21 21-15 in a 64-min-ute duel. He will next take on Pablo Abian of Spain in the second round. However, world number 13 Kashyap had an unexpectedly tough encounter against 98th ranked Raul Must of Estonia. Raul trou-bled the Indian early in the match but ran out of steam as Kashyap managed a 19-21 21-14 21-9 win in 56 minutes. But it was a bad day in office for In-dia’s doubles and mixed doubles pairs as they failed to cross the first hurdle. While the combinations of Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu lost to Chinese Taipei’s Min Chun Liao and Hsiao Huan Chen 15-21 17-21 in the mixed doubles, Ashwini Pon-nappa and Tarun Kona suffered a 18-21 21-12 19-21 defeat to Japan’s Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda in the opening round. In the women’s doubles, Aparna and Siki Reddy N., too, lost in the opening round, going down to England’s Lauren Smith and Gabrielle White 15-21 17-21 in 34 minutes. In another match, Dane pair of Line Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke ended the campaign of Pradnya Gadre and Ashwini Pon-nappa with a 21-23 21-18 21-17 victory over the Indian pair in the women’s doubles event. The star of the day for India was Ajay who battled fatigue and lapse in concen-tration to get the better of his high-ranked op-ponent. “It was a good match. I knew it

won’t be easy and I had to give everything. I tried to be patient as the shuttles were slow,” Ajay said. The Chennai-born shuttler played a dominating game and did not allow Wong to get near him, racing away to 20-16 lead at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium. However, Wong was not ready to let it go so easily as he clawed back but Ajay had the last laugh. Kashyap, who will next play Petr Koukal of Czech Republic, said irrespective of the ranking his rival in the opening round was not at all a competent shuttler. “He (Raul) isn’t bad because some of these Europeans are very tricky. I wasn’t get-ting a good length in my clears and pushes but was getting better as the match progressed. I could dictate the pace in the second and the third game,” he said.

Chinese Hoopsters Beat India At Asian Basketball Championships

Manila (IANS): Defending champion China defeated India 79-45 to win back-to-back games in Group F at the 27th Asian Men’s Bas-ketball Championship on Tues-day. But the match wasn’t easy for China as they lost two key players. Former NBA player Yi Jianlian strained his thigh muscle before the tournament and only played China’s open-ing match against South Korea and point guard Liu Xiaoyu injured his back in Monday’s match against Kazakhstan. Young players came out to play a key role in China’s second victory at the second stage. Wang Zhelin and Guo

Ailun, both 19, combined 34 points. Guo scored nine of his 16 points in the final quarter while Wang had nine rebounds and three steals despite his match-high 18 points. “We fought for the win and played as we wanted. I only did what the coaches told me to,” said Wang. China outscored In-dia 23-6 in the second quarter to set a lead of 25 points by halftime and enlarged it to 31 before the final period. Veteran Wang Zhizhi had 13 points in his nine minutes and 12 sec-onds playing time. Amjyot Singh led In-dia with 16 points but was the only Indian to score in double

digits. China beat India in all fields except free throw per-centages. India made 10 of their 14 free throw attempts while China missed 11 out of 31. “We’re missing two important players but we con-trolled the situation. We got better after the sixth minute and my players performed with good focus. It’s good for young players,” said Chinese head coach Panagiotis Giannakis. “We want to keep Yi fresh and healthy. Maybe he will play in tomorrow’s match. He needs to go on court before the knockout stage.” China evened its group record at 2-2 while India is still winless at 0-4.

Prem Kumar Sets New Long Jump National Record New Delhi: K. Prem Kumar, 20, who hails from Tamil Nadu, created a new national record in the men’s long jump on Wednesday, with a leap of 8.09m in the on-going Na-tional inter-state athletics meet. He set the record very late in the evening. Just as everyone started vacating the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, a loud cheer came from one cor-ner of the track. A small section of the crowd gath-ered there was cheering the young athlete. Prem broke the meet record of Sanjay Kumar Rai of West Ben-gal, who jumped 7.92m

in 2001. He now joins an elite category of Indians to break the 8m barrier, after Amrit Pal Singh (8.08m), T.C. Yohanan (8.07m) and Sanjay Kumar Rai (8.03m). According to The Hindu, Prem later said: “I don’t know how to express my feelings. I came here with an intention of clear-ing 8m, and I did it. “This is my best ever after the 7.95m I did in the State meet in Madu-rai a few months ago.” “If this jump had come then, I would be leav-ing for the World Champi-onships tonight,” he said with a grin after the event. The 20-year old

from Chennai, already be-ing spoken of as the next best thing in Indian long jump, is not disappointed. “In fact, I jumped 8.12 in a qualifying event in the US two weeks back but because it was wind-aided, it didn’t count. But I knew then that I could do it. I cannot explain the feeling. When I jumped today, I knew I had made it. I was only praying it not to be a foul,” he said. Earlier in the day, Prem struggled in his first five jumps. He began with a 7.58m, followed by jumps of 7.62m, 7.54m, 7.53m and 7.75m. He cre-ated history with his sixth and final jump.

india this week aug 9, 2013

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