VOL. 14 ISSUE 12 PAGES 52 JULY 2013 JYESHTA /AASHAADHA PRICE 20/-
Why Heroines Kill Themselves? The Great Ambush The rupee is falling, falling‌ Return of the Mentor Game most foul!
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Muzzling the media? Many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent functioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By scaling down their advertisement revenue, the government is looking to stifle their functioning and make them more submissive, many feel.
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The Great Ambush Maoists asked the Congress leaders to line up and then told them to identify themselves. When Mahendra Karma came forward and identified himself, they singled him out and took him away from the crowd.
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Caught in the Act Many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online. This may be a surprise to many. At least 12 of the 30 groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups have their own Websites.
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Scholars’ noble effort The ancient Nalanda University had taken various pioneering initiatives. It was one of the world’s first residential universities and had dormitories to accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.
Transcending Boundaries Volume 14 Issue 12 Jyeshta-Aashaadha July 2013 Editor Narayana Sevire Editorial Team Narayan A. Sridharan.M.K CP Nambiar Raju Shanbhag
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IN THIS ISSUE
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Missile shield Development of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much progress in this technology that it is planning to develop a laser-based weapon system for defensive purpose.
The rupee is falling, falling… The rupee has been falling owing to brisk demand for dollar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to another record low of 58.40.
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Third (Class) Front IT Industry Reaches a Deadend A career in IT industry will never be as lucrative as it was until few months ago. Today, IT professionals are working late into the night just to cling on to their job. Cloud Service appears to have dealt a heavy blow to India’s IT outsourcing industry. Today, the task of maintaining software has almost been automatized in the Cloud.
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Return of the Mentor Worried Infosys Recalls Narayan Murthy
Stinging Politics Will RTI Ever Expose the Party Funds?
Communal Politics When JDU and Others are After Muslim Votes
The Islamist War Where’s the Syrian War Heading for?
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Game most foul! IPL fiasco shame unabated
Muzzling the media? TRAI to the Rescue of Ad-weary TV Viewers • Raju Shanbhag Many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent functioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By scaling down their advertisement revenue, the government is looking to stifle their functioning and make them more submissive, many feel. As the general elections are looming, they believe that this is an effort by the government to influence the independent functioning of the media.
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ired of advertisements eating up your TV entertainment time? Well, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is here to help you. According to a new directive by TRAI, no TV channel can show more than 12 minutes of advertisement per hour from October 1.
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Although this directive by TRAI has put a smile on many TV viewers’ faces, broadcasters are clearly not amused. The current advertising time per hour on TV is anywhere between 20 and 22 minutes and this period goes up at the
time of popular events such as cricket matches or a popular film. Now, the TRAI directive puts an end to all that and restricts advertisement time to 12 minutes per hour. Most of the Indian television
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channels depend largely on advertisements for their survival. Driven mainly by TRPs, these channels have to fight it out among themselves to get more eyeballs and consequently, more advertisements. Even then, many news and entertainment channels complain that they can hardly make ends meet. One of the major reasons for the over dependency of Indian television channels on advertisements could be the model at these channels operate. Unlike in the West, where most of the channels earn their profit by subscriber fees and run ad free, channels in India are mostly free or have only nominal costs as subscription. A case in point is that during the cricket World Cup last year, a hugely popular event in the sub-continent, ESPN Star, which was broadcasting the event in high definition, tried to extract some hefty sum from the HD viewers for ad-free broadcast of the event. The effort fell flat on its face as DTH players bluntly refused the idea and finally, ESPN Star had to beam its HD channels at a nominal cost, sans the advertisements. With the unwillingness of Indian customers and service providers to shift to a sustainable subscriberbased model, the dependence of channels on advertisements remains disturbingly high. Agencies like the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and News Broadcasters Association (NBA) state that more than 90% of their revenues come from advertisements. The new TRAI directive cuts their revenues by 40% by decreasing the advertising time by about 40%. Although the viewing public might welcome this directive, the channels have a plethora of problems knocking on their doors. To start with, a onehour program has to produce about 10 minutes of more content now as the advertisements that filled this spot will be taken off. This means, channels and the program producers will be faced with increased program budgets and less profits. The TRAI ruling would effectively push out small-time advertisers from
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Television Advertisement – A Costly Affair Even though television channels claim that they hardly get any profits, advertising on popular TV channels leaves a deep hole in the advertisers’ pocket. In the Indian television scenario, cost values are decided per 10-second advertisement show on TV. The cost of advertising is influenced by various factors such as time and channel. Usually, advertisers will have to shell out Rs.75,000-80,000 on primetime for a general entertainment channel. On special occasions or seasons, advertisers shell out almost around Rs.1.2 lakh for the same spot.
the scene. Already the costs of advertisements on TV channels are staggeringly high. Less time for advertisements would mean more competition for available space and a definite increase in rates. This would put TV advertisements out of reach of small time advertisers. Meanwhile, for broadcasters, who have already doled out large amounts to acquire blockbuster movie rights, the scenario is worse as they would find it difficult to recover costs. However, this new move by TRAI also has its supporters. Many say TRAI’s decision is linked directly with the digitization drive. TRAI expects broadcasters to make more money than they did before from subscription and, therefore, it’s time to improve consumer experience, feel these analysts. But many in the industry believe that it’s an effort by the government to cut down the independent functioning of channels, mainly the news channels. By cutting down their advertisement revenue, the government
is looking to stifle the functioning of these channels and make them more submissive, many feel. As the general elections are looming around, many believe that this is an effort by the government influence the independent functioning of the media. The NBA also states that in the milieu of “regulation of advertisements”, TRAI has imposed restrictions that amount to “control of content”. “The advertisement regulations are in violation of Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution of India, which entitles a citizen to, inter-alia, carry on any trade or business,” it says. Interestingly, this is not a new law. The law has been in existence for almost eight years (Advertising Code of the Cable Television Act). It never got enforced as the government felt a new industry should have time to take roots before such a law can be implemented. Now, TRAI feels the roots have grown well and it is time to enforce the law.
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The Great Ambush
.....When firing began in the middle of a jungle road
• Narayan Ammachchi
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Almost the entire Congress leadership of Chhattisgarh has been wiped out,” cried Minister of State for Home RPN Singh, on hearing the deadly Maoist attack on a convoy of Congress Party workers on May 25. It certainly seemed so when even Vidya Charan Shukla, who was hospitalized having suffered four bullet wounds, died a week after the attack. All in all, 27 Congress leaders were killed in the ambush, but the Maoists stated two days after the attack that all they wanted to kill was Mahendra Karma, who founded an anti-Naxal tribal militia called “Salwa Judum”. How the attack came about is a heartwrenching story. On that fateful day, a convoy of vehicles carrying a team of prominent Congress leaders came to a halt on
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an isolated jungle road in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The place is the thickly-forested Dharba Valley, just a mile off the Jagdalpur-Sukuma Highway. They were returning from a rally organized as part of ‘Parivartan Yatra’, a programme designed to win power in the oncoming election. As they were moving along, they saw logs of trees blocking the road. When a few of them got out of their vehicles to remove the logs and clear
the way, firing began. To their horror, they realized that it was a Maoist ambush and that they had been caught. The attackers, who also included young women militants, had mounted the nearby hill slopes on both sides with their guns aimed at the vehicles on the road below. Seconds later, a land mine went off underneath a vehicle, leaving a huge crater on the road. One of the cars caught fire. As the frightened Congress workers started to run for cover, their vehicles collided with each other since the panic-stricken drivers were looking for ways to escape death. The landmine was planted by the rebels hours before the convoy arrived. As the firing began, the security personnel of the Congress leaders took up positions and tried to defend their bosses. The 90-minute gun battle was more a game with death
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for the Congress leaders. The Maoists waited for the security men to run out of ammunition. When the guns fell silent, they came out from behind the trees and asked everyone to hand over their mobile phones. A few of the Maoists were asking for Mahendra Karma. As they did not know who he was, they asked the leaders to identify themselves. By then, a dozen of Congress leaders had already been killed. Now Mahendra Karma’s guards started firing at militants. But they too ran out of ammunition. It was then Mahendra Karma surrendered along with seven Congress leaders. Those who survived the attack say the Maoists seemed “hungry for Mahendra Karma.” The militants asked the leaders to line up and identify Mahendra Karma. Karma came forward and identified himself. The Maoists then took him away and beat him up black and blue. They then stuck bayonets through his head, sprayed him with bullets and then beat him again on the head with the rifle butts. They also raised the slogan Mahendra Karma Murdabad. The post-mortem report revealed that Karma had suffered 78 stab wounds. Eye witnesses say he was stabbed to death by two female Maoists. MLA Uday Mudaliyar and Gopal Madhavan were among the others killed in the gunfire. Vidya Charan Shukla, who sustained four bullet wounds, could be taken to the hospital only a day later. But he succumbed to injuries later. State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh Patel, who jumped out of the car, were abducted by the militants. Both were found dead a day after the horrible incident. The autopsy revealed that Dinesh Patel had an axe injury in his head and Patel was stabbed several times. At least ten personal security officers of the Congress leaders were also gunned down. Vidya Chanran Shukla’s personal security officer Prafulla Shukla killed himself with the last bullet he was left with, apologizing and regretting that he could not protect his boss.
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Maoists asked the Congress leaders to line up and then told them to identify themselves. When Mahendra Karma came forward and identified himself, they singled him out and took him away from the crowd. Behind a large tree and away from the helpless other leaders, two female Maoists stabbed Karma for more than 78 times.
Also killed in the ambush was Yogendra Sharma, one of the popular politicians of Dharsiva. Interestingly, the Naxalites let free Kawasi Lakhma, a local Congress MLA. Another lucky survivor was ex-chief minister Ajit Jogi who had got into a helicopter soon after the rally, leaving his colleagues to go by the road. Some of the survivors walked in shock to Darbha town, 12 km away. What surprised everyone was that the Maoists were using wireless instruments and were often found talking to someone during the course of the attack. Darbha police station is 10 km
The body of the Congress leader Nanda Kumar lying on the forest floor. away and a major CRPF camp was also nearby. However, their way was blocked by the trees that the Naxalites had felled. It took security reinforcements several hours to reach the spot as they had to walk for fear that land mines might have been planted on the road leading to the area. This is because in the past it was seen that the Maoists used to plant mines in and around such spots of attacks to target the security forces rushing for rescue and relief operations.
Vidya Chanran Shukla
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Why Were They Baying for Karma’s Blood? As days went by, the Judum became violent and, at some point of time, appeared to be out of control. More than three lakh villagers fled their homes for fear of the Judum militia. Over the course of months, the government was accused of using the militia to displace the villagers to make way for the mining companies.
Mahendra Karma, who lived under tight security.
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ahendra Karma, whom the Maoists chased and killed like a dog, is the founder of “Salwa Judum”, a sort of civilian militia tasked with countering Naxalites in the tribal region of Chhattisgarh. It means “Peace March” or “Purification Hunt” in the tribal people’s Gondi language. The Judum was made of tribal youths who received military training from the Chhattisgarh Government. In the first year of its launch, the Judum proved so successful that several states – including Karnataka, Andhra, Manipur and Jharkhand – talked of replicating its model. But a few cases of atrocities and criminal activities tarnished its image and one
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day brought about its end. Whatever the allegation, the Judum created a kind of fear among the leftwing terrorists who have long been trying to capitalize on the poverty, ignorance and innocence of the indigenous people. The Judum militia was so strong that it looked like an army with as many as 50,000 trained youths. It was 2009 and Chhattisgarh accounted for 65 percent of Maoist activities. The trained Judum activists were called Koya commandos and were known for their fearlessness and ferocity. Bastar, the forest region of Chhattisgarh where the Maoists killed 27 Congress party leaders on May 25, is a sparsely populated re-
gion. The terrorists have long been using it as the base, overseeing their operations in several neighbouring states, including Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. Prior to the formation of the Judum, there was a movement called “Jan Jagran Abhiyan” to counter the Naxalites. That too was founded by Mahendra Karma. This was, however, led by local traders and businessmen. The tribals never really endorsed the Abhiyan. As a result, it collapsed and its members sought police protection. Though Bastar is thickly forested, it has huge deposits of iron ore and copper. The need for launching the Judum gained importance when the State Government wrapped up deals with the Tatas and Essar Group for mining in the area. Mahendra Karma, who was then an MLA, came forward and started negotiating with the tribal chieftains. Thus came into being the “Salwa Judum” in 2005. Soon, the Judum militia began to herd the villagers and tribals into makeshift camps and stood guard against Maoist attacks. As days went by, the Judum became violent and, at some point of time, appeared be to out of control. More than three lakh villagers fled their homes for fear of the Judum militia. Over the course of months, the government was accused of using the militia to displace the villagers to make way for the min-
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The scattered cars on the jungle road. ing companies. Violence spread like wild fire over the course of days and months. More and more villages were deserted, with the residents fleeing to camps south of Chhattisgarh. Angry crowds began to burn the villages, creating an atmosphere of fear in the entire area. The Judum members were accused of raping women and burning villages. A report from Human Rights Watch in 2008 claimed that 1,50,000
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tribals had been displaced. The Judum, however, fought daily battles with the Maoist rebels. In four years -- between 2005 and 2008 -- as many as 98 Judum members were killed by Maoists. But that was relatively a small number, because they have killed 300 security personnel and 800 villagers in Bastar so far. In 2006 alone, they gunned down as many as 66 Judum members. Bands of Maoists hunting for Judum mem-
bers and killing them in ambush were often reported in the local media. The militants pasted posters and distributed pamphlets across Dantewada and Bijapur districts, issuing death threats to Judum members. As days went by, the number of Judum members dwindled. Several senior leaders of the militia went into hiding. Following the Supreme Court’s order of 2008, Mahendra Karma announced that Salwa Judum had ceased to exist. The Supreme Court, in fact, outlawed the organization, ruling that private armies are illegal. Mahendra Karma seems to have spent his whole life curbing the growing dominance of leftwing activists in his state. In the 90s, he launched an awareness campaign against Maoists in his own village of Faraspal. Soon, the campaign spread to neighboring villages before engulfing the entire state. Karma hated leftwing terrorists, because they were pitting his community against the landless tribal people. Losing control over his own private army was the biggest defeat for Karma. The Maoists bayed for his blood and waited for the day to avenge their defeat. And finally they succeeded.
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B
ig brother is watching you. Every make you make in the big bad world of internet, every innocuous comment you make, every picture you post, is being gathered and sent across to secret places. A piece from a cheap thriller? Not really! American citizens and citizens in other parts of the world have been handed down a rude shock by the American Government and its allies in the private sector. Recently, it was revealed that the National Security Agency and the FBI are looking directly into the central servers of various major US Internet companies. What does the government do with these data? Well, they extract audio and video chats, e-mails, photographs, connection logs and documents that enable analysts to track foreign targets. The internet service providers who have joined hands with the American Government in this program, codenamed PRISM, include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Apart from these, GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA, has also been gathering intelligence from the same internet companies through an operation set up by the NSA. This secret program by the American Government has a tiny history. The idea of snooping on the citizen’s online activities was germinated at the time of President George W. Bush, who had started a secret program which gave the power to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007. Since then, the American Government has been using every means it had (and obviously, it has LOTS of means) to extract details about its citizens’ online activities. But why does the US Government do it? According to President Barrack Obama, who strongly defended this program when it was revealed, it’s a lot of noise over nothing. The government wants to see if anti-patriotic elements such as terrorists are connecting with each other online. So it will go through all the internet data, social media records and chats and
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Caught in the Act US Govt. Spying on Its Own Citizens • Raju Shanbhag
see if something suspicious is cooking on the net. This begs another important question; how many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online? The answer is, surprisingly, many. It’s surprising to know that at least 12 of the 30 groups
on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups have Websites on the Internet. According to US officials, some terrorists use encrypted E-mail to plan acts of terrorism and most groups use the Internet to spread their propaganda. Islamic militant groups also make use of the Internet to spread their anti-Western, anti-Israel propaganda. For example, various Internet sites created by Hamas supporters contain the organization’s charter and its political and military ideas. Needless to say, the knowledge of existence of such program has been a needle in the internet balloon for many advocates of privacy. Many among them claim that the US Government is overreacting to the terrorist threat and many others claim that the government cannot succeed in its motive even with this program.
The critics might have had a point here. These types of secret data gathering programs have been in place for nearly a decade now and even then the American Government was clueless when the 9/11 attacks happened. In 2004 a whistleblower revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA)
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Many terrorist groups actually advertise their intentions and activities online. This may be a surprise to many. At least 12 of the 30 groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups have their own Websites. According to US officials, some terrorists use encrypted E-mail to plan acts of terrorism and most groups use the Internet to spread their propaganda.
was violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as the agency ignored the FISA court and spied on Americans without obtaining the necessary warrants. But the story was never published for one year until George W. Bush was safely re-elected. But the proponents of this program, mostly in the government sector, say that you cannot have 100% security and 100% safety in this age of infor-
mation superhighway. One such man is the Director of the National Security Agency Keith Alexander, who claims that these types of programs have prevented ‘dozens’ of terrorist attacks on US According to him, a federal data mining seems to have played an important role in preventing a recent plot to attack the New York subway system. The Obama administration has also claimed that more than 50 po-
tential terrorist plots in 20 countries, which also include India, have been busted worldwide since 9/11 because of NSA’s electronic surveillance. An agency repot says that “the time frame of at least one such Indiarelated plot indicates it was around the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. But some are holding on to the idea of absolute privacy of the users. Twitter, a company known for steadfastly protecting its users’ privacy, is conspicuous in its absence from the list of Internet firms involved in the datamining program. Even those companies providing the data to government seem to have guilt about doing so. Google has issued a statement, which reads, ‘It cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully.” In spite of strong protests by the advocates of privacy, these types of programs cannot be stopped. This is especially true in the light of increasing terrorist threats to the developed nations like U.K and the US The modern internet user will have to live with the fact that there is no such thing as complete privacy on the internet.
NSA – Official US Spy on the Net The National Security Agency (NSA) is the eyes and ears of America across the world as it intercepts 1.7 billion e-mails and phone calls a day. It collects all forms of foreign communications to prevent attacks on the US. The agency has a state-of-the-art data centre in the Utah desert. It is codenamed Bumblehive and it looks to enhance online security efforts. But former employees claim it could be utilized to monitor people’s private e-mails. The NSA said these allegations were ‘unfounded’, and stated that it remained ‘unwavering’ in its respect for US laws and the American citizens’ civil liberties. The agency also said that it was subject to broad oversight by all three branches of the government.
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Scholars’ noble effort
Nalanda University being revived
The ancient Nalanda University had taken various pioneering initiatives. It was one of the world’s first residential universities and had dormitories to accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered by many as an architectural masterpiece as one could see a lofty wall and one gate at the entrance.
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t’s an effort reinvigorate the past glory of our country in the field of education. A group of statesmen and scholars, led by the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, is putting in efforts to revive the Nalanda University as an international centre of learning. The revived university will have active cooperation with Yale’s School of Forestry Studies, Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University’s department of history, Seoul University in South Korea and Peking University in China. The group is focusing on establishing a new world-class residential university with top students and researchers from around the world. Expectedly, the new university will come up on a site close to the ruins of the an-
cient Buddhist institution in Bihar. Obviously, the course taught at the new university will change with time. While the old Nalanda University taught almost every field of learning with a religious bent, the new Nalanda International University will focus on humanities, economics and management, Asian integration, sustainable development and Oriental languages. While the idea of reviving the once world-famous university and putting it back to its former glory looks patriotically attractive; there are practical issues to be considered for Amartya Sen and his team. In the past, Nalanda attained fame because of its unique focus on infusing education with religious practices. Nalanda University’s insistence on religious curriculum can be gauged by the fact that the old university had ten temples in its premises, along with many other meditation halls.
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In fact, the ancient Nalanda University had taken various initiatives that were considered as pioneering steps at that time. It was one of the world’s first residential universities and had dormitories to accommodate more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered by many as an architectural masterpiece. The university had lakes and parks and its library was one of the best in the world at that time. It was located in a nine-storyed building and reams of important texts were produced there. The subjects taught at Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. During the period of Harsha, the monastery is reported to have owned 200 villages given as grants. Times have changed, and so has the education system in our country. Now, education is just a means for getting a good job. Gone are the days of the sacred relationships between the teacher and the pupil as the commercialized system of education has seeped deep into our educational system. In such an atmosphere, the old school thinking will definitely not work. And the idea of reviving Nalanda is proving to be harder every time it is attempted. In 2006, India, China, Singapore, Japan and Thailand came together to announce the plan to revive the university based on the vision of the old Nalanda. The plan was backed by the East Asia Summit which consisted of South East Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US. So, how successful will this effort be? And where will the revived Nalanda University fit in the modern day education system? The new university, to be built in Rajgir, Bihar, and the postgraduate university have already published invitations to research fellows and scholars from around the world. The first two faculties will be history and ecology and the environment with the first intake of students
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Takshashila University Taxila or Takshashila University was located some 20 miles northwest of modern day Rawalpindi, which was part of ancient India. Takshashila University existed sometime in the 5th century and was a very important Hindu and Buddhist centre. The university attracted students from all corners of Greater India, to get trained under renowned scholars. The learning courses offered included agriculture, Vedas, grammar, commerce, archery, politics, Ayurveda, music and dance, among others. Great scholars like Chanakya or Kautilya, the author of “Artha Shastra”, taught here. Another very famous face from the university was Panini, an expert in language and grammar, who authored the famous work on grammar called “Ashtadhyayi”.
due next year. Obviously, Amartya Sen and his team are making every effort to make the revived university stand apart from the crowd. It is inviting only scholars and research fellows, trying to ensure the sanctity of education and the reputation the old university. By reviving this university and with the kind of courses it offers, the team is looking to improve the image of
higher education in India. The next two faculties will be information technology and management and economics which will help develop job opportunities. Amartya Sen believes that this will facilitate Bihar to catch up with the rest of India in terms of education and job scenario. Apart from imparting higher education, the university will look to develop the region in which it is established. It will work with some 60 surrounding villages to enrich livelihoods in agriculture and tourism. The effort to revive Nalanda University is a welcome step. But it is yet to be seen how this effort will hold up in the modern day education system.
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Development of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much progress in this technology that it is planning to develop a laser-based weapon system for defensive purpose. Considering the fact that very few countries in the world have the missile interceptor technology, DRDO’s achievement is laudable. About 40 public and private companies are closely involved in developing the “missile shield”.
Missile shield
A feather in DRDO’s cap
• Raju Shanbhag
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n this modern day volatile world, peace always comes at a heavy cost. Even for a traditionally peace loving country like India, self-defense is imperative, because the country is surrounded by belligerent neighbours. On the one side, India has Pakistan, which aggressively builds up its defensive capabilities in spite of its poor economic conditions. On the other side is China, which constantly works on testing India’s patience with its untimely misadventures. So, when DRDO announced the completion of Phase I of its Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, Indian security analysts had a reason to rejoice. This is an important step in India’s self defense, which is constantly
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threatened by external and internal sources. In effect, BMD is the amalgamation of radars, anti-ballistic missiles and a command and control system. This system can detect missiles launched from a range of 5000 kilometres and destroy them. Simply put, when this technology is fully implemented, major Indian cities will be protected against any missile attacks, nuclear or non-nuclear, from countries like Pakistan or China. Phase one of the BMD programme provides the capacity to destroy an incoming ballistic missile with a range of up to 2,000 kms. This includes Pakistan’s Ghauri and Shaheen missiles. The first phase of the BMD programme will reportedly cover Delhi and Mumbai and, thereafter, this protection is likely to be extended to other major cities in the country. Political tension between Pakistan and India has forced both the countries to spend a large part of their invaluable monetary resources on defense. After being elected Prime Minister, one of the very instant decisions taken by Nawaz Sharif was to increase the country’s defense budget by a hefty 15%, amounting to a
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total of Rs 627 billion. On the other hand, China has announced its latest official defense budget as approximately Rs.6,783 billion, a 10.7% nominal increase over the previous year. When it comes to missile technology, China is believed to have around 240 warheads. Of these, 175 are active, whereas India has only around 100 warheads which are active. According to defense analysts, Phase II of the missile defense shield defends India from China’s arsenal of ICBMs. China is the only Asian country which has an ICBM arsenal, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles. A missile defense system for India is almost inevitable considering the near-war situations the country had against Pakistan in the past. A key development in nuclear warfare in recent years is the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the developing world. India and Pakistan have publicly tested numerous nuclear devices and North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9, 2006. Reports suggest that during the Kargil conflict in 1999, Pakistan al-
most decided to use its nuclear weapons when its conventional military situation underwent further deterioration. The 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff again gave rise to the fears of nuclear war between the two countries. Along with threats from other nations, nuclear warfare by terrorists and other individuals cannot be ruled out. The collapse of the Soviet Union has given rise to the possibility that former Soviet nuclear weapons might become available on the black market. While there are no reports of warheads being mislaid, analysts believe that at least some very small or suitcase-size bombs might be unaccounted for. Development of the anti-ballistic missile system began in 1999. Now, the country has made so much progress in this technology that it is planning to develop a laser-based weapon system as part of its defense. This defense system will have the ability to intercept and destroy missiles right after they are fired towards the country. According to DRDO, it’s good to destroy a ballistic missile carrying nuclear or traditional warheads in its boost phase. Many analysts couldn’t
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The gun or butter dilemma We spend too much to fight against each other and then, we spend even more to defend against each other. Every day, more than 20,000 infants die all over the world because of lack of food, and almost all the countries in the world are busy building their arsenal to their teeth. Here is a list of countries that spend considerable part of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on military expenditure:
10
Country and % of GDP Spent
9
on Military Expenditures
8 6 5
9.8
7
4
agree more. DRDO’s deployment of the first phase of BMD technology not only boosts its defense system against its troublesome neighbors, but it also stands testimony to India’s evolving capabilities in defense technology. Missile interception technology is an integral part of a nation’s defense strategy, but not every country has it. China does not have a strategic missile defense system that can intercept a Medium/Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM/MRBM) or an InterContinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Italy and France have developed a missile family called Aster (Aster 15
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and Aster 30) which can defend these countries against ballistic missiles. Israel has a national missile defense against short and mediumrange missiles and the country makes use of its Arrow missile system for this purpose. The Russian A-135 antiballistic missile system currently only protects Moscow, the national capital, and is being developed to protect major cities in Russia. In the US Pentagon recently deployed 14 missile interceptors in Guam in response to threat from North Korea. Considering that very few countries in the world have the missile interceptor technology, DRDO’s achieve-
1.4
1.0
0
1.7
2.0
2.3
2.5
1
2.5
4.4
2
4.4
3
ment in this regard becomes even more laudable. About 40 public and private companies all over the country are closely involved in developing the indigenous ballistic missile interceptors. They include Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Astra Microwave, ASL, VemTech and KelTech. LRDE is an important player in this Rs2,000-crore programme. The company has developed two prominent radars — the long-range tracking radar and the multi-function fire control radar. The company has tied up with Israel’s IAI and French defense company Thales for this.
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The rupee is falling, falling‌ Industrial production data also disappointing
May 24, 2013
The rupee has been falling owing to brisk demand for dollar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who have pulled out more than Rs.7,600 crore from the Indian debt market in the first week of this month owing to weakness in the rupee which hit a nine-month low of 56.01 on May 24, 2013. On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to another record low of 58.40.
• CP Nambiar
JULY 20 13
21
T
he GDP has shown a distressingly low growth during fiscal 2012-13 at 5 percent; so has the other parameters like the current account deficit, inflation and industrial growth. The fiscal deficit is better than the estimate to some extent, but there is still room for worry to the Finance Minister who is at pains to explain away the negative factors due to global recession and woes of some of the developed nations in Europe. But the biggest – and the latest – worry is the low index of industrial production (IIP) of 2.3% percent during April and the free fall of the rupee. The revised data released by the Central Statistics Office on Thursday, June 13, showed the industrial production grew by 2.3% in April (as against 2% it stated on Wednesday), but it is still slower than the upwardly revised 3.4% in the previous month though slightly higher than 1.3% in April 2012. That is small consolation for both the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank. The economy as a whole slowed to a 10-year low in 2012-13, going by the CSO numbers which have, however, been questioned by Finance Minister
Chidambaram and his chief economic adviser Raghuram Rajan saying that they were based on “dated data”. However, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia seemed to have grudgingly accepted the CSO data stating the April figures were disappointing. He said, “There is evidence that the economy has bottomed out. But we still don’t have evidence of a strong recovery. It is challenging to get to 6% growth …” The mining sector continues to be sluggish, the growth declining by 3% against a fall of 2.8% owing to delayed approvals and lack of clear policy directives. According to rating agency Crisil, “Fuel shortages, ongoing mining ban in some states, delays in commissioning of large projects and slack demand continue to plague India’s industrial sector.” The 2.3% IIP has sent shivers down the spine of the corporate sector which has stepped up call for interest rate cut by the RBI. But whether the central bank will fall in line is a moot question. For one thing, it has to reckon with the stubborn inflation especially since the rupee is falling
at a rapid rate. A rate cut will make it cheaper for the traders to speculate on the dollar causing further depreciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar.
ALARMING FALL The rupee has been falling inexorably owing to demand for dollar from the importers and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) who have pulled out more than Rs.7,600 crore ($1.35 billion) from the Indian debt market in the first week of this month owing to weakness in the rupee which hit a nine-month low of 56.01 on May 24, 2013.On May 30, it was quoted at 56.76, which was an 11-month low. On June 6, it dived to a record low of 58.14 and June 11 to another record low of 58.40. However, RBI intervention pulled back the currency from levels close 59 against the dollar. But the question is how far RBI can act to stem the tide. RBI also ordered all exporters in Special Economic Zones to repatriate full value of exports within 12 months from the date of export. There was no such time limit for repatriation earlier. According to economists, RBI can act to
Rupee’s Sudden Fall 58.5 58 57.5 57 56.5
54.5
22
May 24
May 30
June 6
58.14
58.14
55
56.76
55.5
56.01
56
June 11
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support the rupee by floating $10billion global bond issue, ask exporters to bring back funds and hike interest rates (which of course will be strongly opposed by the corporate sector) and sell dollars. One of the reasons for the slump in the rupee has been attributed to the sell-off in the bond market which raised fears that the RBI may hike interest rates in the mid-quarter review on June 17. The Finance Ministry also moved in to defend the rupee on Wednesday, June 13, by announcing a hike in the foreign investment limits in government debt by $5 billion. The measure aims at reversing the outflow of FII funds from debt instruments, one of the reasons for the depreciation in the rupee. Currently, the government debt limit stands at $25 billion, of which 75 percent is estimated to have been used up so far. The move comes a day after the Chief Economic Advisor to the finance ministry Raghuram Rajan had said the government will be announcing measures to ensure that portfolio investor inflows are enabled and encouraged. The SEBI, in a circular issued on June 13, said that the enhanced limit of $5 billion shall be available for investments only to those FIIs that are registered with the market regulator under the categories of sovereign wealth funds, multilateral agencies, endowment funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks.
Fitch upgrades rating to ‘stable’ The fiscal performance has, however, improved with the squeeze applied by the Finance Minister on government expenditure. The fiscal deficit is expected to be lower at 4.9% against the budgeted deficit of 5.2% of GDP mainly due to the fact that at the end of March, expenses, estimated at Rs.14.1 lakh crore, were 98.5% of the revised estimate of Rs.143 lakh crore.
No cut in interest rates In view of the inflationary pressure, falling rupee and record current account deficit (5.4% of GDP) attributed mainly to a 90 percent annual jump in gold and silver imports, the RBI has kept interest rates unchanged. The RBI, in its monetary review on Monday, June 17, said food prices and the falling currency pose inflationary risks, and also called for vigilance over global economic uncertainty, citing the risks of a reversal of capital flows like the one that has roiled emerging markets in recent weeks. RBI left the repo rate unchanged at 7.25 percent and kept the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or the share of deposits banks must keep with the central bank, steady at 4.00 percent. “It is only a durable receding of inflation that will open up the space for monetary policy to continue to address risks to growth,” the RBI said in a statement.
India GDP Annual Growth Rate
2011
7.8 In early
2012
6.9 by the end
6.1 In early
2013
5.3 by the end
4.7
Receipts, on the other hand, including tax and non-tax revenues, were of the order of Rs.9.2 lakh crore, which was 101% of the revised estimate of Rs.9.1 lakh crore. Endorsing the government’s efforts to tame fiscal deficit, Fitch on Wednesday revised the country’s sovereign credit rating outlook to “stable” from “negative” that brought cheer to the government battling slowdown. “The revision of the outlook to stable reflects the measures taken by the government to contain the budget deficit, including the commitments made in the FY’14 budget, as well as some, albeit limited, progress in addressing some of the structural impediments to investment and economic growth,” Fitch said in a statement. The revision by Fitch comes within weeks of global agency Standard and Poor’s retaining the negative outlook on India. Last year, both Fitch and S&P had threatened to downgrade India’s rating to junk grade in absence of steps by government to contain deficits and promote investment. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said revision by Fitch reflects strengthening of basic fundamentals of economy. “Basic fundamentals have improved and to that extend, the rating agency’s shift in the outlook reflects that. I would like to believe that in the coming months you see a significant improvement in the performance and that should ultimately be reflected in the grading,” he said. Fitch further said it expects the economy to recover after real GDP grew just 5 percent in 2012-13 versus 6.2 percent in the year ago period. “As a result, Fitch is forecasting only a modest recovery with real GDP expected to expand 5.7 percent and 6.5 percent in FY’14 and FY’15 respectively,” Fitch said. India’s economic recovery, however, is likely to remain slow until a healthier investment climate is created, which helps lift potential growth again, it said.
(numbers in percent)
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23
Third (Class) Front The threat of the Third Front • Narayan Ammachchi
S
plintered political groups, such as JDU and Trinamul Congress, are discussing plans to cobble together a Third Front to rival national political parties. Third Front has a history of failure. It is interesting that the founders of this political alliance are well aware that they cannot form a government without support from either BJP or Congress, yet they try to carry on with their plan! The new alliance will not be named
24
as Third Front, JDU wants to call it a ‘Federal Front.’ Whichever the name, Third Front will only polarize the national political landscape rather than give people a better choice. Those trying to form the Third Front were with either Congress or BJP and their ideology never differed from the major political parties. Worse still, as their political agenda feeds on a range of regional issues, they cannot run a government that has to care for the interest of the whole nation. Third Front formed the government
–– once led by Deve Gowda and then IK Gujral – with the support of Congress Party, the party which they had fought tooth and nail to defeat in the election. Congress toppled the government, complaining that intelligence agency was spying on its president Seetaram Kesari. Gujral’s government lasted barely a few months, but by which time the country’s economy had been destructed, stock market had collapsed and investors had fled. It took years for the successive gov-
JULY 2013
ernments to put the economy back on track. That was the destructive nature of the Third Front. And that’s precisely why people hate them. Congress has a history of such betrayals. Remember, it had propped up Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar and then unceremoniously brought them down. Those talking of forming the Third Front need to know that they cannot form the government on their own, because their popularity and the support base is limited to a few patches of the country. This time JDU and the Trinmul Congress are ‘threatening’ to form the Third Front – both were with the BJP or Congress until few months ago. How their ideology can change overnight and how can they promise a good a government? Political parties need to know that the very concept of a Third Front or a Federal Front has inherent flaws that have resulted in disasters in the past. The glaring flaw is in its basic structure – members of the Front pursue different ideologies and agendas that are designed to deal with their regional problems. So disparate is their agenda that they are less likely to approach the voters together, let alone forming the government. When forming the Front, these members invite parties that are not identified with either Congress or BJP. The irony is they cannot form the government without the support of either the one national party. They assume that they can garner a large support nationwide with the help few individuals, who have their own support base in their home states. Lalu Yadav is an example. The belief that they get a large mandate to govern is a fiction and illusion. What they do not realize is that the same advantage harms their unity when they form the government and run the government. A mere railway budget can break the parties apart and lead the government crashing down. Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, is going to be the architect of the Third Front. Anyone track-
JULY 20 13
Once again, there is a talk about forming of the Third Front. Historically, Third Front has proved to be a failure. Worse still, Third Front has become a symbol of political instability, something that economy hates. Thanks to Third Front, we have seen Deve Gowda, Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar all become prime ministers. But the common man turned out to be the loser. Economy crumbled, investors fled and the living standard got degraded…
ing her political career will predict that she will pull out of the coalition citing some or the other reason, however silly that is. She broke out of the UPA after the government insisted that it should raise the railway fare. Let us take the case of JDU. This political outfit ditched the NDA after BJP elevated Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi to the post of the party’s campaign committee. If such things can make them to think of getting out, how the coalition made up of parties
of this kind can expect to survive? The biggest flaw with the Third Front is that it will have too many bosses who have no control whatsoever on their own tongues. As they comment and tease the leaders of their allies, the coalition weakens and falls apart in due course of time. Some analysts say the talk of forming the Third Front will die away in the coming days, as the parties realize that they rely largely on regional issues than national ones.
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JULY 2013
• Raju Shanbhag
T
wenty five years is not the age to die. Especially when you have tasted success and a promising future beckons you. Yet Zia Khan, the talented Bollywood starlet, chose to end her life at her prime age when most youngsters would have been looking to settle down in their career. Success came early to Zia Khan and so did failure. She made a debut in Ram Gopal Verma’s Nishabd in 2007 when she was just 19. Nishabd was by no means a box office success; but her acting in the film was noticed and appreciated. She held her own against stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan and Revathi in a film that depicted the complex romantic relationship of a man with a girl fit be his daughter.
JULY 20 13
27
Zia Khan the latest victim of early success In fact, Zia Khan would have tested the Bollywood way of functioning much earlier at the age of 16. She was almost selected as the leading lady in Mukesh Bhatt’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha. But she was too young at that time and the director felt that he needed a relatively mature actress for that role. Later she was replaced by Dia Mirza. Maybe Zia Khan witnessed the glittering world of Bollywood too early. At the age 19, she had acted with one of finest superstars of India, worked with Gopal Verma, a maverick director who has launched innumerable actors from his ‘factory’. Later she starred with Aamir Khan in Ghajini in 2008. She was not the leading lady, but once again, she was acting with a superstar in her second film. There are reasons to believe that early success and the kind of work she got in her first two films raised her expectations skyhigh in the coming films. But Bollywood does not care for your aspirations; it only rides your success. Zia Khan’s Nishabd was a box office disaster, and no trade pundits gave even an iota of credit to Zia for the success of Ghajini. Two years down the line, Zia did an unimportant role in Sajid Khan’s Housefull opposite Akshay Ku-
mar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta in 2010. Housefull was her second highest grossing Bollywood film, but again the success was not credited to Zia as she had a very small role in the film. Zia Khan was born on 20 February, 1988, into a Muslim family in New York City. She was the daughter of Ali Rizvi Khan, an Indian American and Rabiya Amin, a Hindi film actress in the 1980s, from Agra. Zia grew up in London and moved to Mumbai to test her luck in Bollywood. In spite of her landing in good projects at the early phase of her career, her Bollywood career didn’t take off as expected. Meanwhile, Zia Khan suffered another setback as she was ousted from Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance opposite Shahid Kapoor. Prior to this, Zia had shot for a considerable portion of the film, but was replaced by Genelia
It’s high time that we teach our youngsters the fine art of managing success, and failure. The inability to manage either will result in unwanted results; and we will be collectively responsible as a society when precious lives are lost.
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JULY 2013
D’souza. The production house UTV insisted that “the reason for her withdrawal from the film was due to her not suiting the character.” Media reports suggest that Zia Khan took her life because she couldn’t cope with the failure at her professional and personal lives. On the one hand, her film offers had almost dried up; she hadn’t done a single movie for three years and Bollywood waits for no one. Many younger actresses had invaded the screens and chances of Zia making a successful career in the film industry were looking bleak. In fact, Zia herself wanted to focus on interior designing as she thought her career in Bollywood was not evolving as she expected. And then, there were rumours that this young actress didn’t have it easy in her personal life either. Her relationship with Sooraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi, was in the doldrums. In fact, Zia’s mother Rabiya Amin alleged that Sooraj Pancholi raped her daughter and later forced her to abort her child. Based on these allegations and a reported death note that alleged about Sorraj’s brutality towards her, the Mumbai police have arrested Sooraj Pancholi, and the investigation is still on. All this happened to Zia at the young age of 25 and understandably, it was too much to for her. This is not the first time the glittering world of Bollywood has revealed its dark side and the star struck victims have fallen prey. Madhubala, an actress hailed by many as the most beautiful woman of the Hindi films, died at the age of 36. She had suffered various failed relationships and probably died in her quest for love. Guru Dutt, the master filmmaker from the black and white era, died at the age of 39. While his death was reported to be an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, there was no denying that the man had a troubled relationship with the women in his life and had attempted suicide twice before. Parveen Babi is another example of how fame and fortune can some to
JULY 20 13
a torturous end. In her time, Parveen Babi was among the top heroines of the country and worked with almost all the leading male stars of Bollywood. In fact, many believe she was the first female superstar in India. But when she died, it took 72 hours to discover that she was dead in her Mumbai home. She was suffering from chronic schizophrenia and she lived like a loner, away from glamour and glitterati. It was reported that she had starved herself to death. Divya Bharati is another actress who died in mysterious circumstances at the age of 19. She was a popular film star at a very young age; her films were running successfully and she was married to Sajid Nadiadwala, a very famous Bollywood producer. Reports of death centered around murder and suicide. Fingers were pointed at her husband Sajid Nadiadwala. Her death still remains one of the most mysterious ones in Bollywood.
Nafisa Joseph, a former Miss Universe, committed suicide at the age of 26. She apparently ended her life because her marriage was called off. Fiance Gautam Khanduja reportedly lied about his marital status and he was tried on charges of abetment to suicide. Earlier, Joseph’s engagements with Sameer Malhotra and Samir Soni had also ended. Silk Smitha, the quintessential sex symbol of the Southern film industry, died at the age of 36. It was rumoured that she committed suicide due to financial problems, disillusionment with the film industry, failed love and alcohol dependency tht led to depression. Most of the above mentioned actresses were successful, and it was success at an early age that drove them to suicide. Bollywood can give you success, but it will never teach you to manage that success. Not only in the film industry, but many youngsters who have achieved glory at a very young age have fallen by the wayside in later years, mainly because they were unable to handle the success that came their way. It’s high time that we teach our youngsters the fine art of managing success, and failure. The inability to manage either will result in unwanted results; and we will be collectively responsible as a society when precious lives are lost.
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A career in IT industry will never be as lucrative as it was until few months ago. Today, IT professionals are working late into the night just to cling on to their job. Cloud Service appears to have dealt a heavy blow to India’s IT outsourcing industry. Today, the task of maintaining software has almost been automatized in the Cloud. Believe it or not, more than half the contracts handled by companies like Infosys are related to maintaining software of their clients. Interestingly, the same Indian software professionals worked to push this maintenance work to the Cloud. Now they are paying the price. Alas, it is deadly!
IT Industry Reaches a Deadend
Struggles Within Indian IT Industry
T
he sun is not shining on the Indian IT industry as it did a few years ago. The information technology industry, or the IT-BPO sector, as NASSCOM calls it, is struggling with various issues. Although bright predictions have been made about the future of this industry in India, the stalwarts of the industry agree that drastic measures have to be taken to revive it. The latter part of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 have brought some uncertain times for the industry. Experts say that as IT relies heavily on globalization and international trade, it will register a slow growth in the
30
coming years. Just one year ago, the growth prediction in the Indian industry was 16% p.a. Owing to the global economic crisis and cost cutting by major IT spenders in the US and Europe, this forecast has been reduced to 11% for the financial year 2013. Under such as situation, NASSCOM has stated that the growth of Indian IT-ITeS companies will rely on the worldwide economic scenario as well as information technology spending in North America and Europe this year. And this has directly affected the job market in the Indian sec-
tor. Although becoming a software engineer is the ongoing fad for the educated Indian middle class, the opportunities are not as rosy as they were a few years ago. The starting salaries for fresh engineering graduates have come down drastically and even the senior pros are witnessing many of their facilities being taken off. Although we see an abundance of IT manpower in big cities, only 25% of the engineers, who pass through these institutions are employable, state industry reports. The dearth of qualified IT talent in India can be gauged by the fact that only 3 out of 100 applicants ever get hired for a
JULY 2013
fast and new competitors from other Asian countries were emerging. The hardworking Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean IT industries were driving a wedge in the Indian industry. Indian IT companies, which were already working on a small profit margin and relying on large volumes of projects, were not in a position to compete with these emerging challenges. Coupled with this is the protection being given to IT companies
40.69
IT Product
17.45 36.57
and employees in countries like the US. The Obama administration has designed polices that discourage outsourcing and encourage insourcing. The Indian ITBPO industry now stands at the crossroads. While the days of glitz and glamour in the industry look to be over, it can still look ahead for a period of solid growth. The cost advantage of India may have been wearing off; but India is still an attractive option for the outsourcers, thanks to its high number of English speaking population and encouragement by the government for the development of IT. The IT industry can start by having a reality check about its future prospects. Also, experts are urging the Indian IT leaders to focus more on actual software development rather than mere providing backend support. This time, the growth may be slow, but if it is done with planning, it will be permanent this time around.
IT Services
9.22
Knowledge Process Outsourcing
2.68
Employability of Engineering Graduates in Different Sectors
job. For a large part of its history, the Indian IT sector has been a backend support for the major jobs that happen in the developed countries. This means the fate of Indian IT industry is heavily dependent on their counterparts in the US. and Europe who do more ‘meaningful’ work. The US and the developed countries in Europe outsource their work to India because a few years ago they found the costs attractive in India. But as the industry grew, the companies started competing with each other to employ a minuscule number of employable IT workers, resulting in increase in salaries. These high salaries created a wide rift between the IT employees and other sections of the Indian society. Prices of essential commodities skyrocketed in metros and ‘special’ services, such as malls and multiplexes, which focused mainly on the affluent Indian ‘IT Class,’ came to the fore. The Indian middle class still suffers from the IT mania, which has reduced the number of students who apply for other educational streams. In the marriage market, IT guys undoubtedly have an edge over other potential grooms and they are married off easily. While the increasing salaries in the Indian IT sector made them the new blue-eyed boys and girls of the Indian middle class society for years, the outsourcers in US and Europe were not amused. India’s price advantage in the global IT market was thinning
Hardware Networking Business Process Outsourcing
Return of the Mentor Worried Infosys Recalls Narayan Murthy • Raju Shanbhag
I
t looks like India’s IT industry is losing its sheen. Projects are drying up and jobs too are dying. As the world economy struggles to get back to its feet after a sluggish phase, major Indian companies, especially in the IT sector, are feeling the heat. One such company in this group more than anyone else is Infosys. Since the retirement of its founder Narayana Murthy, this Indian IT bellwether has seen an alarming decline in its performance. Over the last few quarters Infosys has performed much below the market expectations. Drastic situations require drastic
32
steps. So, in order to revive its sagging growth, Infosys has recalled its co-founder Narayana Murthy. The return of Murthy has revived the hopes of Infosys as he was instrumental in bringing this company to where it is today, or where it was a few quarters ago. Narayana Murthy retired from Infosys two years ago. Although he was still involved with the company as a mentor, veteran banker K.V.Kamath had taken over as the CEO of the company. Infosys, for years an investor favourite for exceeding its earnings targets, has been struggling for the past two years to even meet the market
predictions. One of the reasons cited for this is the fact that large customers in the United States and Europe are looking to cut costs and rival companies in India, such as Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies Ltd are performing better than Infosys. Recently, even Cognizant, a company established much after Infosys, superseded Infosys to become the second-largest offshore-centric IT services company. In April 2013, Infosys forecast fullyear sales growth that was below analysts’ expectations by a margin of up to 50 percent. This resulted in shares falling to their lowest level in a decade. One of the major reasons
JULY 2013
for the company’s poor performance has been its insistence on premier pricing. While other companies constantly look to cut costs and offer their products at a lower rate to their customers, Infosys still commands a premium pricing. Although Murthy, 66, said his recall was “sudden, unexpected and most unusual,” the writing was on the wall for Infosys. In the last few months, Murthy was spending more time with the Infosys top leadership, expressing concerns over its dismal performance. He also attended the Infosys annual strategy meet called STRAP. Even before Narayana Murthy’s recall, he was actively involved in formulating the company’s strategy on the US Immigration issue. Under the newly formed leadership, Current Executive Co-chairman S Gopalakrishnan will now be the executive vice-chairman and managing director and chief executive officer S D Shibulal would hold his post. Of course, all these decisions have to be approved by the stakeholders to come into effect. The board is meeting on June 15 to arrive at a decision for convening an extraordinary general meeting to seek approval from shareholders. According to industry insiders, Narayana Murthy is one man who is not afraid of making changes. Back at the helm, Murthy has already started confidence building measures in the company. As a first step in this regard, Infosys has announced salary hikes for its local employees effective July 1, 2013. While employees in India will get an average increase of 8 per cent, offshore employees will get an average increase of 3 per cent. Offshore employees were not covered by salary increments announced in February 2013. While almost all Infosys employees will get salary raise, Narayana Murthy himself will work on a token salary of Re 1 per year. His recall and subsequent appointment as the executive chairman of Infosys will be for five years. But many in industry believe that
JULY 20 13
Some Murmurs and Grumbles A
lthough a major portion of the industry has welcomed Narayana Murthy’s return to Infosys, there are some who have opposed this move as well. One of the major complaints is the appointment of his son Rohan Murthy as Murthy’s executive assistant. They say this violates the company’s principle that founder children do not take up executive roles. But Murthy has defended his son’s appointment by stating that he will have no executive authorities. It is alleged that the retirement age for executives and non-executives, which is fixed at 60 at Infosys, has been flaunted with Murthy’s return. It is also complained that Murthy’s return has brought back the post of the Executive Chairman, which had been done
away with after Murthy’s retirement. The sudden manner in which Murthy was reappointed through a board meeting too has raised some eyebrows. Even market regulator SEBI has sought details from Infosys about a board meeting held on the day founder Narayana Murthy was re-appointed to an executive role in the company. Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS), an investor advisory firm, has also raised issues about the re-appointment of two independent directors – Omkar Goswami and DM Satwalekar. Goswami has been on the Infosys board for 13 years, while Satwalekar has been there for 16 years. This period is more than the maximum nine years allowed by the company.
Murthy looks too old to deal with the new problem Infosys’ days of glory are over unless the company does something radical to get back in the hunt. While other companies like Cognizant and TCS have adapted to the changing market conditions, Infosys is still clutching to its old policies. The company still refuses to work on small contracts and
insists on getting premium pricing for its products. At a time when companies all over the US and Europe are looking to cut costs, this way of doing business for Infosys could be damaging to the company’s prospects. Even with Narayana Murthy at the helm of its affairs.
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• Narayan Ammachchi
P
oliticians may have to find a new way to bring in black money into politics. But now the question is whether they can do so with the Central Information Commission bringing the major political parties under the purview of the Right to Information Act. In brief, can RTI really sting the parties and politicians? A far more important question is how the political parties have so far managed to stay from the RTI Act jurisdiction. You can invoke RTI provisions to access any public document, and every document that the government employees process is a public document. The government has long processed and overseen the accounts of political parties, at least at the time of elections. But how did the parties dodge questions about their funding? Asked why it believes that the political parties should be brought under
JULY 20 13
Stinging Politics Will RTI Ever Expose the Party Funds? Mutts and trusts have become the safe haven for politicians to hide their illicit wealth. Almost every major politician has a trust whose business runs into crores of rupees. According to conservative estimates, private trusts in the country have almost half the money the banks have. And they never disclose their source of income, nor are they accountable.
35
the RTI Act, the CIC stated: “… corporate companies can save money in taxes by donating to parties.” This was not something many people were aware of. More interesting still, CIC said parties are given free air-time to make their announcements on staterun All India Radio and Doordarshan. Not all parties are answerable to RTI queries. The Commission has named only six national parties: The Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP. Is it because other political parties are not accepting corporate donations? “Maybe so,” said one of the officials this reporter spoke to. That means, today the only option left for the parties to escape RTI is to give back everything they received from the government or the corporate companies. But they cannot do so unless they stop receiving money from private firms. The CIC has set a sixmonth deadline for parties to name a public information officer to answer the questions asked under the RTI Act. Interestingly, nobody knows how much money corporate companies paid to political parties as they have not disclosed this information, except the Aam Aadmi Party founded by Arvind Kejriwal. There is no doubt that RTI has immense powers, it being of the most powerful laws ever brought out in independent India. But how people will use this weapon to expose corruption inside political parties
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is not yet clear. Be it the coal scandal or 2G, RTI played a crucial role in digging out many secrets and underhand dealings in almost every scam in the past few years. Of course, those accused of masterminding these scams are yet to be convicted, but what is clear is that RTI did supply enough evidence to nail them all. The reason why RTI is so powerful is that it sets a time limit on providing the information sought and every document handed in by the government is
counted wealth that may well run into crores. Yet, even a little piece of information that can be gleaned through RTI may give the citizens a hint at the way the parties are piling up funds and who the donors are. All those who donate will have a motive to get high returns and they do so only after obtaining firm assurances to this effect from the parties concerned. The political parties had contended that exemptions from disclosing the source of income are rou-
When RTI activist Masood was killed something the courts can act upon. Nevertheless, RTI is less likely to succeed in blowing the lid off the “donation scam” of the political parties. For one thing, they use only a tiny fraction of white money and as of now they are not required to explain the source of their unac-
tinely extended to many charitable and non-profit, non-governmental organisations across the country, but they are not considered public authorities. This point was rejected by the CIC which said there is a great difference between the tax exemption given to charitable and non-profit,
non-governmental organisations and that given to political parties.
What about Mutts and trusts? “Parties are answerable because the money donated to them (Mutts and Trusts) gets tax benefits.” This very sentence of the CIC appears to have opened up a Pandora’s Box. Everybody knows that Mutts and trusts have become the safe haven for politicians to hide their illicit wealth. Almost every major politician has a trust whose business runs into crores of rupees. Can people seek to know the source of income of these trusts? According to conservative estimates, private trusts in the country have almost half the money the banks have. And they never disclose their source of income, nor are they accountable. Believe or not, some of these trusts fund the expenses of politicians and they generously lend money to the foreign trips of several leaders. Almost every wealthy educational institution is run by trusts and they pay no tax though they collect huge sums of money as tuition fees. Analysts say that if the CIC has correctly defined the law it is referring to, then a day will come for people to insist that trusts and mutts be brought under the purview of the RTI Act. That means RTI will one day turn out to be the biggest weapon to deal with the corrupts and corruption in independent India.
JULY 2013
Communal Politics
When JDU and Others are After Muslim Votes • Narayan Ammachchi
C
hoosing to snap ties with the BJP in Bihar, the Janata Dal (U) has underscored how important it regards the votes of Muslims who make up 17 percent of the population in this northern state. But this decision of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appears to be worse than that of JDS leader Kumaraswamy who refused to back the BJP government after enjoying power with its support for more than two years in Karnataka. Predictably, angry voters taught him a lesson by voting the BJP to power in the 2008 Assembly elections. Will Nitish face a similar fate? In Bihar, the JDU and the BJP had
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By ending its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP, the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar has revealed its true intention, which is to woo Muslim votes to stay in power. This underlines the growing clout of Muslim votes in Indian politics and the political parties’ endless battles to win over the hearts and minds of the minority community. fought elections together, and they knew too well that the mandate was for them to rule together. Now, having ditched the BJP, Nitish is all set to go it alone. He knows he can, because all that the JDU needs is the support of just four legislators to prove his majority in the lower House. There are six independent legislators and four MLAs from the Congress in the Bihar Assembly. Already, Con-
gress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has expressed an interest in joining hands with the JDU. BJP’s state unit has repeatedly demanded that the JDU must seek fresh mandate from the electorate, because the national party backed the JDU candidates wherever it did not field its own candidate. “Nitish Kumar should resign as Chief Minister, because the people
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of the state gave the mandate to the NDA (National Democratic Alliance),” stated the BJP’s state unit. But the JDU is determined to leave the NDA and is currently talking with Mamata Banarjee and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik to form a Third Front before the parliamentary elections. Forming a Third Front is an old idea and such an adventure had failed historically in Indian politics, but the regional parties in the country often found it hard to resist that temptation. In fact, the Third Front will go in favour of the BJP as it will eat into the traditional vote bank of the Congress –– the minority and the backward class communities. JDU’s ties with the BJP lasted over a decade and it had proved successful. The biggest benefactor of the alliance was none other than Nitish Kumar himself, who was the Minister of Railways under the Vajpayee government. The JDU has not made it clear why it was parting ways with the BJP; analysts say it is upset by the growing clout of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP. But Nitish Kumar himself had praised Narendra Modi’s administration on his visit to Gujarat when he was the Railway Minister in 2003. Terming the communal riots in Gujarat as “unfortunate” he went on to say that the country must also look into the spectacular developmental works Modi had carried out in his state. The same Nitish has now put communal issues above the developmental programmes. Gujarat has not seen communal violence since then, but it has become a common occurrence in UP under SP’s rule. The BJP knows that the people of Bihar will sympathise with it and help bolster its position in the next election. However, the party is currently focusing not on the state election but on next year’s parliamentary election. JDU’s departure has shrunk NDA further. Today, there are only three parties in it – the BJP, Shiva Sena and the Akali Dal.
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Analysts are wondering why the JDU assumed that Modi will be the Prime Ministerial candidate. Neither the BJP nor Modi has ever stated so. The JDU is now counting on Muslim
votes to stave of defeat. The break with the BJP will, however, split Muslim votes and that will go in favour of the BJP. Nitish is also hoping to woo the backward class, but there are many other political outfits also in Bihar soliciting their votes. Yadavs and Paswans are the dominant communities in Bihar, but their votes are shared by several political parties. Remember, Ramvilas Paswan too has his own party. Thus, JDU’s departure cannot be viewed as a loss to the BJP. The biggest loser, it seems, is the JDU itself, because this so-called secular party will now have to fight for Muslim votes with a dozen like-minded political outfits.
JULY 2013
The Islamist War
Where’s the Syrian War Heading for?
• Narayan Ammachchi Syria is the last remaining Arab country, where the Western forces are trying behind cover to remove an authoritarian regime and enforce democracy. But the war here is increasingly turning out to be a clash between different Islamist groups. As in the case of Pakistan and Iraq, revenge killings between different militant groups are becoming the order of the day.
T
he United States and its allies, like Britain, are likely to arm the Syrian rebels fighting the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia, which is doing all it can to prevent the Western forces’ involvement in the Syrian conflict, is struggling to convince them why Assad should be left alone to deal with the crisis even as the latter are citing human rights violations and the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. Syria is the last remaining battle ground in the Arab world where authoritarian regimes were swept away by the democratic uprising, which began for the first time in Tunisia. From there, the “Arab Spring”, as the movement was called, spread to neighbouring Libya and it has now engulfed Syria. The conflict began on March 15,
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2011, with popular demonstrations that soon spread nationwide by April 2011. The protesters demanded the resignation of President Assad, whose family has held the presidency in Syria since 1971. Reports say that the Hezbollah fighters, the Islamists opposed to Israel and the United States, are fighting alongside the Syrian army and Russia has supplied them with a huge cache of arms and ammunitions. NATO forces would have long attacked Syria and removed Assad from power had Russia not vetoed a resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council. But now the question is how long Russia will protect Assad. Tens of thousands of people have already been killed in the battle and millions have fled to neighboring countries. One of the cities has
already been destroyed completely. The war is raging so fast that it appears to be tearing the country apart. The United States seems to be arming the rebels, while Russia made huge money selling weapons to the authoritarian regime. America, however, did not give heavy and sophisticated arms, because it fears the weapons might later be acquired by the terrorists. When the Russians occupied Afghanistan three decades ago during the Cold War period, the United States had taken the help of Pakistan to arm the Islamic rebels. Later, the rebels gave shelter to Osama bin-Laden, leading the United States’ attack on Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. America has now learnt the lesson and has already spent billions to eliminate the rebels it groomed to fight against the
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erstwhile Soviet Union. In Syria, the battle is turning out to be a sectarian one. UN investigators say many ethnic and religious minority groups have taken part in the conflict, raising the possibility of reprisal killings and prolonged violence that could last for years after the government falls. Forcing the Arab nations to embrace democracy is America’s new strategy to curb Islamic terrorism. That’s precisely the reason why it wants to enforce democracy in Syria. A BBC report says that in rebel-held areas clerics and lawyers are enforcing the Islam’s Sharia law. Another report in The New York Times says there is no democracy in the rebelcontrolled areas of Syria. The Turkish Government has accused the Syrian Government of ethnic cleansing, cit-
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ing the killings of Sunnis in Baniyas, a minority Muslim community. In May 2013, the United Nations released an estimate that the death toll in the Syrian conflict had exceeded 80,000. Various opposition activist groups have put the death toll between 72,960 and 96,430. According to the UN, about 4 million Syrians have been displaced. The involvement of Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, appears to have played a major role in turning the conflict into a sectarian one. Hezbollah had joined battle with government forces fighting to regain control of the strategic western town of Qusair, which lies on vital supply routes for both the rebels and the government. It is also feared that the Syrian government is deliberately pitting com-
munities against each other in an attempt to save its skin. In Pakistan, it is no longer a political crisis but a societal crisis. There the Sunnis and Shia groups have killed several hundreds of people so far. Such revenge killings are becoming common in Iraq as well. Each one is an act of revenge for an offence committed by another member of the victim’s religious community. “Women are being raped because they are Sunni or Alawite and their men are assumed to be involved in the fighting,” says a recent BBC report. “Christian women are being hauled off buses and attacked by Salafist fighters for not covering their hair,” the report goes on.
JULY 2013
Sreesanth and two other RR Players arrested
May-16
Rajasthan Royals Orders Internal Probe
BCCI orders probe, RR files FIR against the arrested players
Rajasthan Royals suspend contracts of all 3 accused players
May-17
May-19
May-20
SC seeks BCCI report on spot-fixing in 2 weeks
May-21
Game most foul!
IPL fiasco shame unabated
• Raju Shanbhag
I
t’s threatening to be the biggest controversy in cricket ever. As the police dig deep into the murky world behind the glittering IPL circus, more skeletons are tumbling out of the BCCI closet, and it’s not a pretty sight. Since the day three cricketers from Rajasthan Royals were arrested on match fixing charges, too much has been exposed in IPL. BCCI’s President and Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan, who was highly vocal about punishing the tainted cricketers, came under the scanner himself. Along with him, many other owners and other small time celebrities were questioned by the police. The IPL scandal is a fine example of how BCCI and its sister concerns have grown out of anybody’s control. The arrangement works fine for BCCI, as its bosses are some of the most powerful politicians of the country. May be that’s the reason why the government is still shying away from making BCCI’s administration more transparent. Remember, BCCI does not even come under the RTI Act as it’s an ‘autonomous body.’
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Action brooks no delay Apart from the accidental discovery of widespread match fixing in IPL, the government has been doing precious little to take the bull by the horn. The talks of bringing in tougher anti-fixing laws will only be effective if the government shows some real intent in making BCCI more answerable to the people of the country.
But the investigations have revealed ugly truths that have sent the BCCI ducking for cover. Bookies allegedly used the name of the underworld D-company to intimidate players. It was reported that Dawood’s right hand Tiger Memon looked after the betting operations. The other key names that have surfaced are that of Sunil Dubai and Manoj Metro. When cricket and underworld form an unholy nexus, how can Bollywood be left behind? Police first arrested
JULY 2013
Gurunath Meiyappan arrested by Mumbai Police after questioning I have no reason to resign, says BCCI chief N Srinivasan
May-25
May-27
Vindoo Dara Singh, son of Late Dara Singh and winner of reality television show Bigg Boss season 3, on charges of betting and abetting the bookies. Later, former betting king Dinesh Kalgi added fuel to the fire when he stated that no cricketer in the Indian team is honest. He went on to say that even the cricket administrators were part of this racket. He also said that players from all countries were involved and fixing was a common phenomenon in other global sports like tennis and football. But the drama has just begun, and big players were waiting in the wings. On May 22, 2013, a special team of Mumbai police left for Chennai to in-
terrogate Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of BCCI chief and Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan. This step was taken after Vindoo Dara Singh claimed he was betting on behalf of various Bollywood personalities and also Gurunath Meiyappan. Although Meiyappan sought time to appear before the police, he was finally arrested on the midnight May 25 by the Mumbai police. Later, Mumbai police stated that Meiyappan was involved in large-
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Two top BCCI officials quit and Rajeev Shukla resigns as Indian Premier League chairman
June-1
scale betting since 2011. Apparently he placed bets even on other teams and made considerable amount of money. The situation was tricky for Chennai head honcho N. Srinivasan, as he faced the wrath of the government and his team Chennai Super King’s future was in the doldrums. This is because, according to Rule 11.3, Clause C of the BCCI-IPL constitution, a franchise can be terminated with immediate effect by a written notice if “the Franchisee, any Franchisee Group Company and/or any Owner acts in any way which has a material adverse effect upon the reputation or standing of the League, BCCI-IPL, BCCI, the Franchisee, the Team (or any other team in the League) and/ or the game of cricket.” What happened later was a sad commentary on how the corporate sector works in our country. India Cements, the owner of the Chennai Super Kings, issued a statement to media stating that Gurunath Meiyappan was neither the owner nor the CEO
Srinivasan ‘steps aside’, Dalmiya named interim BCCI boss
June-2 of CSK, all this while Meiyappan’s ID card was promptly being flashed on the TV screen where it was written in big letters that he was the OWNER of CSK! Even the Chennai Super Kings website was quick to remove all mention of Gurunath Meiyappan from its website, as if merely removing the name of a personality would wipe out his past connections with the team. As the investigation progressed, the details only got dirtier. Part owner of Rajasthan Royals, Raj Kundra was summoned by the police and he reportedly confessed to betting. Although he was quick to deny any wrongdoing and lash out at media for wrongly projecting him, police claim that he confessed various things. Apart from the accidental discovery of widespread match fixing in IPL, the government has been doing precious little to take the bull by the horn. The talks of bringing in tougher anti-fixing laws will only be effective if the gov-
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Ankeet Chavan marries Neha Sambri in a low key wedding
June-3 ernment shows some real intent in making BCCI more answerable to the people of the country. BCCI may be an autonomous body, but it runs on public money and the affection this country showers on this wonderful game. The government can start by bringing BCCI under the RTI act. Further, it can take more steps to make the functioning of BCCI more transparent. But this is easier said than done, as high stakes are involved in keeping BCCI working as it is now.
Delhi Police questions Rajasthan Royals’ owner Raj Kundra; Internal probe report submitted to BCCI
June-5
Raj Kundra’s passport confiscated by Delhi Police
June-6
Delhi Police seek open NBWs for Dawood, Chhota Shakeel
June-8
Foul Play Award Every year in IPL, the organizers give out a fair play award to teams that have allegedly played the game in the true spirit. This year, the top three included Chennai Super Kings stuck in a serious controversy involving its CEO and team principal, and Rajasthan Royals, who had three players arrested on allegations of spotfixing. The organizers did what their bosses were doing. They simply removed the names of these two teams from their official website and pretended everything was beautiful. As an icing on the cake, Chennai Super Kings won the fair play award!
River Yamuna has hope I
nterestingly, the destructive flood, which has brought death and destruction along the banks of the Yamuna, is also silently benefiting the ecology of the Capital. The flood has been able to provide a fresh lease of life to the dying river. The gushing flood waters will clean the Yamuna by pushing away the filth in it, and will also enable replenishing the depleted ground water levels in Delhi. For years, the aquatic life in the Yamuna was polluted with froth and hazardous materials. The floods might now fill the river with fresh water. Experts believe that this will also
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help in making the soil more fertile. This is important as the flood also facilitates the growth of vegetation as it adds moisture to the soil. The flood waters originate from the mountains that contain a high amount of silt. The silt that is deposited along the river bed is very conducive to crops and it increases the fertility of the soil. It is also believed that an overflowing river assists in recreating water bodies in the nearby areas. The flood also contributes in the moderation of the micro-climate in the city where it occurs. Water forms a significant part of the climate and an increase in the water content of a
river will definitely benefit the ecosystem. The dissolved oxygen level was zero. Biotic animals and plants are dependent on the dissolved oxygen in water. Since the flood, the scenario is in terms of the quality of water in the river. It is now the duty of the Government to restrict any more construction activities on the flood plains. Also, there needs to be a restriction on the sewage flowing into the Yamuna. The water emanating from drains should be treated and diverted to agricultural land or for other use. Then we will not require to spend crores on cleaning the river.
JULY 2013
Child Marriages: Where are they?
T
he Ministry of Woman and Child Development has stated that it is planning to put officers in place to check and prevent the unabated cases of child marriages in the country. The Ministry has drafted a ‘National Strategy on Prevention of Child Marriage’ for this purpose and has decided to appoint and train child marriage prohibition officers (CMPOs). There are no registrations when child marriages happen and hence the exact data on child marriages are unavailable. But, according to the District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3), 43 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 get married before 18. UNICEF states that there are 23 million child brides in India. This is approximately 40 per cent of all child brides worldwide. The Ministry is looking for methods to improve the enforcement of laws against child marriages in states. Apart from putting gatekeepers in place in states to check child marriage, the Centre will soon be writing to state governments which do not have rules to check the practice. It will also provide them a time frame to have their rules and actions in place. The government expects the state authorities to ensure that rules define the roles and responsibilities of CMPOs and local institutions such as panchayats. They should also have the powers and responsibili-
ties to enforce such laws, the government feels. The Ministry is looking to devise ways to link this prevention of child marriages with the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) structures and also statutory bodies. This will help in ensuring detection and referral of cases that need care and protection. The Ministry is also looking to increase awareness and capacity building at all levels. This includes improving awareness and information on other relevant legislations such as the Juvenile Justice Act and Dowry Prohibition Act. It will also have workshops for lower judiciary on the Child Marriage Prevention Act, besides engaging the police to check illegal child marriages.
An SMS is Enough to Clean Up Railway?
T
he Railways will be introducing an SMSbased service to secure immediate response to passengers’ complaints about housekeeping service in coaches. The service will initially be launched on a few select trains to enable commuters to contact onboard staff with SMS or phone call for complaints related to cleanliness in coaches and toilets and other problems faced during the journey. As planned in the Railway Budget 2013-14, an Onsite Passenger Complaint Redressal System (OPCRS) is being developed. The service may be launched either in Mumbai Rajdhani or Bangalore Rajdhani as a pilot project in the near future.
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The system allows a passenger to send SMS for any issue about housekeeping such as dirty toilets, compartment or absence of liquid soap. The Railways have requested for a three-digit number from the Department of Telecommunications for this purpose. Once the SMS is sent, the information is registered on OPCRS that is connected with GSM network. Then it will be immediately sent to a GSM hand-held unit (mobile phone) available with the housekeeping supervisor on the train. At the same time, an acknowledgement will be sent on the mobile phone of the complainant along with a complaint ID and instruction to reveal the ID to the housekeeping supervisor after he attends to the
Now you Cannot Send Telegram
T
he modern communication systems such as smartphones, emails and SMS have finally been successful in pushing the old telegram service out of the race. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced that it has decided to discontinue the 160-year-old telegraph service from July 15.
Old timers fondly remember the urgent communications they received through telegram services. In the absence any of the modern day communications systems, telegrams were the main source of rapid and urgent communication. The service offered both
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problem to his satisfaction. On receipt of passenger information, the housekeeping supervisor would locate him, get briefing of his needs and attend to the problem besides offering him feedback. After the completion of the job, the housekeeping supervisor will request for complaint ID from the passenger and will send it through SMS from the handheld unit back to OPCRS. It will then send the feedback to the complainant for closure of his complaint. The Railways are looking to make the OPCRS a system that enables the communication between the user requesting the service and actual service provider available on board.
happy and sad news to recipients all over the country. But, with the advent of new technology and newer means of communication, the telegram was slowly seen losing its sheen. A circular issued by Shameem Akhtar, Senior General Manager (Telegraph services) (BSNL), New Delhi, to various telecom district and circle offices states that all telegraph offices under the management of BSNL will stop booking telegrams from July 15. The circular has also asked the telecom offices to have log books, service messages and delivery slips only for six months from the date of bookings. But press reports, complaints and other messages from the consumer forum can be kept for one year. According to reports, BSNL, Delhi, had asked the government to support the service as it was not commercially viable. But the government refused to step in and said the BSNL board should decide on it. So, BSNL decided to close the service after consulting with the Department of Posts. They also opined that there are better options available to the users. BSNL has asked that surplus telegraph staff members should be employed at mobile services, broadband services, landline and telephony. It has also stated that shifting could take place within the next three months. The government had in May 2011 revised the telegram charges after a gap of 60 years as it was facing declining revenues.
JULY 2013
India Ranks 141 on Peace Index
A
t this year’s Global Peace Index (GPI) that measured peace in 162 countries, India ranks low at 141. India scored low because of militarization, domestic and international conflicts, and corruption. But at the same time, the country has taken positive steps in achieving high level of peace after reductions in deaths from internal conflict and the level of perceived criminality in society. Even Sri Lanka is one place above India and Bhutan is ranked the most peaceful country among the Southeast Asian countries. It is followed by Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in that order. Europe is still the most peaceful region, which includes 13 of the top 20 countries, including Iceland, which continues to rank first. But numerous high
Dalit Priests in Uttarkhand
T
he northern state of Uttrakhand is undergoing an important social change as Dalits, once considered untouchables, and are taking on a role, which has been traditionally performed by upper-caste Brahmins. Dalits are now training priests from their own community because Brahmins usually refuse to perform rituals for them. As a result, they are feeling happy and more free than ever. Known as Vritti or Panditji in the community, these priests perform all rituals, from marriage to homas. As Brahmins, they too have started giving deeksha their disciples to make sure that the tradition follows into the next generation.
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debt countries including Spain, Greece, France and Portugal had less peaceful conditions amid problematic economic circumstances during the last year. In contrast, a few slight improvements were seen last year on the indicators of the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the Political Terror Scale, a measure of State-sponsored terror, with improvements in countries such as Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Zambia and Tunisia. Syria’s descent into civil war got the country the greatest score deterioration in the history of the Index. Also, many Middle Eastern and North African countries are still affected by the fallout from the Arab Spring as they are prone to violent demonstrations and increasing political instability. The data also showed evidence of countries being able to make considerable gains in peace. Libya experienced the highest rise in peace as its newly elected government and recovering institutions were established after the turmoil of the recent revolution and civil war. North Africa also had reasons to rejoice as Sudan and Chad experienced the second and third most considerable gains as their respective conflicts eased. This also reflects the six-year trend data, which shows that countries that suffer from recession decrease in peace at a greater rate than the rest of the world.
Many of these priests have studied Sanskrit in the country’s prestigious universities. Take the example of the person the paper spoke to: Pratap Ram Arya, This 37-year-old boy has obtained Sanskrit Diksha from Haridwar. “My thread ceremony was performed by Pandit Joga Ramji of Sani Ujar village. He was the first Dalit priest from this area,” the paper quoted him as saying. Given the article, Arya charges Rs 3,000 for performing a marriage ritual. ‘He looks like a Brahmin priest, complete with a kanthi mala, tilak and choti,’ says Express. “The demand for Dalit priests is very high; I have also started sending my son Shankar to perform religious rituals,” he added. Shankar is an intermediate student at a Sanskrit school.
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Arya, according to he paper, has become popular in nearby villages including Jhakra, Jakhni, Malsona, Sehri and Jarti. Joga Ram’s sons, Bhopal Ram and Mohan Ram, are also priests like their father. “Our father was a carpenter. He became a priest in 1960 having been trained by his friend Bhola Dutt Pant,” said Bhopal. The priests say they will give Deeksha to anyone interested boy in their community. Bhagat Prasad Arya is reportedly working as priest for the past three decades and he has recently introduced his son to he profession.
“My father wanted me to become a priest. We had no agriculture land. Brahmins were reluctant to perform rituals for us. So, I thought I should become a priest,” he said. He wears dhoti, kurta and topi for performing rituals. According to the paper, these priests are invited only by Dalits. Prominent Dalit priests include Kishan Ram of Maudiyar, Ram Prasad of Bajura Nakuri and Keshar Ram of Kulgara.
No-go Zones in Western Ghats
T
he Environment Ministry is set to mark the boundaries of no-go zones in the Western Ghats.The Ministry is also planning to ban establishment of polluting industries including mining and thermal power plants in a 60,000 square kilometers area spread across six states. This was what Kasturirangan Panel has recommended in its report on the safety of the Western Ghats. The Ministry, according to Times of India, has collected comments and opinions from both the state governments and public.
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Government set up the panel after a committee headed by veteran environmentalist Madhav Gadgil suggested the government that it prohibit industries in most part of the Western Ghats, which is home a wide verity of plants and animal species. The Committee had asked the government to set up Western Ghats Authority and ban polluting industries including mining. What this Kasturirangan Panel did was that it reduced the size of these no-go zones. Government, however, appears to have trashed the Gadgil report
JULY 2013
which suggested it that it set up a powerful federal and autonomous authority to oversee the Ghats. But the Union Government is not setting up such bodies as that weakens the sovereignty of states. Kasturirangan Panel had also recommended that the autonomous body supervise over farmlands, plantations and habitations in the region. There are about 4,156 villages in the forested areas which the government planning to make ‘no-go zones’. Though Kasturirangan panel was more diplomatic than the Gadgil committee in terms of the harshness of the report’s content, the government took a long time to make up its mind. The report does not call for banning hydel power plants, but asks the government to enact strict laws for assessing such projects.
within the last two years at the Lovely Professional University in Punjab state. According to the police, the group was arrested after a fight broke out between several Congolese students and an Indian at a bus stop in Jalandhar. Jalandhar deputy police commissioner Jaspreet Singh to the media that the Congolese then stole the bag of the victim. Police and Congolese students are blaming each other.
Congolese Carry out Revenge Attacks against Indians
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eople attacking shops and businesses owned by Indians in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in revenge against the arrest of a Congolese student in Punjab. Reports say a kind of riots have broken out in Kinshasha following the arrest of 21 students in Jalandhar. It is not clear why the police arrested so many numbers of foreigners. Congolese are arguing that their fellow nationals are being mistreated by police in the lockups. Indian government has dismissed reports that police beat up the detainees in the lock-ups, but it said that there was an exchange of violence at the time of the arrest. The students were released soon afterwards. DR Congo’s deputy foreign affairs minister had requested that the students be immediately freed. The Congolese authorities also demanded that the students be given a medical examination following the allegations of abuse. Earlier, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported that one of the detainees had attempted to commit suicide. Most of the students who were detained came from Kinshasa to study commerce or engineering
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Setback for Dalits in Britain
B
ritain’s parliament has voted against a bill designed to give Dalits legal safeguard against caste-based discrimination. The House of Lords had voted last month by a majority of 103 in favor of such a law, but the House of Commons, the powerful lower house, dismissed the draft bill. Britain’s Equalities minister Jo Swinson told the media that the legislation could increase the stigma rather than ease the problem. “This is more an issue for India rather than for UK. I haven’t come across a single case of caste-based discrimination in UK. We are against such discrimination. The government needs to take a decision after a proper understanding of the issue and all-party dialogue,” Keith Vaz, MP, said. Dalits demanding that the government include them into that powerful anti-racial law. The Act in question currently prohibits race discrimination, harassment and victimization at workplace. The definition of “race” within the Act includes colour,
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nationality, ethnic or national origin but does not specifically refer to caste. There are about 8 lakh Indians living in the UK, but they appeared divided over enacting such a law.. While ‘Caste Watch’ rallied behind the amendment, the Hindu Alliance, representing over one million Hindus, opposed the proposed law. There is no caste system present in UK and so there will be no need for anyone to identify himself by naming his caste. “The issue of the caste system is one that the Hindu community would very much like to move beyond. We strongly believe that modern Hindus do not care about caste. This legislation would take us back to the past,” Alliance’s Arjan Vakaria said in a press release. The Alliance of Hindu Organisations UK fears that this will label the community as being institutionally discriminatory and will result in individuals applying for work or places to study having to identify themselves by caste for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.
Mittal’s house on sale
O
ne of the oldest and expensive houses of Indian business tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is up for sale in London. The house in question is on Billionaire's Boulevard, which is the richest lane of London. According to news reports, the house is now worth
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110 million pounds or approximately Rs 93 billion. Mittal is said to be selling the house to avoid a huge sum he is spending as house tax. There is a huge tax levied on big and palatial houses in Britain. Given a report in Times of India, decreasing demand for steel in China has hit his business hard. The house is adjacent to Israeli Embassy, and Mittal had bought the house for his son Aditya from Israeli-American financier Noam Gottesman. Aditya is the chief financial officer of the steel firm, Arcelor Mittal. Reports say he is selling the house at a price that is far less than the price he paid to buy. The 12-bedroom palatial house in Central London, Kensington area, was often described as the beautiful bungalow. A few blocks away is a house where Diana, Princess of Wales, lived. Maybe that was the reason why people called the road “the most prestigious address in London.” In fact, Aditya never moved into the new mansion, though his father had bought it in 2008. The four-floor house with at least five luxurious suite bedrooms was built in the 1920s. It was sold along with expensive artifacts. The entire first floor of the palatial building is Mittal’s master bedroom, reports Times.
JULY 2013
RNI KARENG/2000/2368 Aseema English Monthly. Postal Reg. MNG/504/2012-2014 Posting Date: First of every month @ Konchady Post Office