24TH JANUARY 2013

CURRENT AFFAIR

• 24th January 2013

1. International News

   1. ‘Silent’ Israeli middle class asserts itself
   

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     AP Yair Lapid gestures as he delivers a speech at his Yesh Atid party in Tel Aviv, early Wednesday. Formed just over a year ago, the party outdid forecasts by far and emerged as second largest in the Knesset.
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   Results push Prime Minister Netanyahu on the defensive

   Israel’s young middle class voters have asserted themselves by positioning to advantage a centrist party and a charismatic leader, who is set to shape the national agenda — earlier dominated by aging politicians from the Right and the Left.

   Contrary to predictions by pollsters, ahead of Tuesday’s vigorously contested elections, the centrist Yesh Atid (There is a future) party, led by former television presenter, Yair Lapid, won 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament). In the convoluted arithmetic of government formation, where the mandate has been divided among several parties that range from the Left and the ultra-Right, Yesh Atid’s tally is impressive. With 99 per cent of the ballots counted, the religious Right and the Centre-Left have each managed 60 seats, firmly pitching Mr. Lapid as the preeminent king- maker.

   The astonishing results, which many had earlier predicted would strongly go the right-wing’s way, have pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud- Yisrael Beitenu alliance, on the defensive. From 42 in the outgoing Knesset, Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition has garnered 31 seats — a precipitous drop, with far-reaching implications. Analysts still see him as Israel’s Prime Minister for a third term, but most agree that forced into dependence on parties pulling in different directions that belong to the Centre and the ultra-Right, he risks leading an inherently dysfunctional government. Israel’s punditry is already predicting another election not very far down the road.

   Middle-class discontent

   Mr. Lapid appears to have made skilful political capital out of seething middle class discontent, which had tellingly exploded in the past. In 2011, young educated middle class Israelis — burdened by rising house rents, inflation and decline in living standards — had in cascading protests thronged Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. Occupants of the tented city that had emerged in Israel’s commercial capital were demanding the reworking of their social contract with a government that still boasted of high growth rates and a booming economy, but, which seemed to have lost touch with most ordinary Israelis.

   As results began to pour in, Yesh Atid’s supporters remained firmly riveted to the concerns of the perceptively pained middle class. Yifat Kariv of the party told YNet News: “There is a feeling that the country has returned to our hands — to the hands of the silent majority of the middle class.”

   In his lively address late into the night, Mr. Lapid, to thunderous applause, called for the formation of a new governing coalition in Israel — with moderates from the Right and the Left joining a centrist nucleus. “I urge the senior members of the political system to form as broad a government as possible that would unite the moderate forces from the Left and Right, so that we will be able to bring about real change in the State of Israel,” said Mr. Lapid.

   The telegenic former presenter has also been the star advocate for reforming a law that allows ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students to defer their participation in military service — a call that resonated well with his young liberal supporters who demand a fairer distribution of responsibility.

   Well aware that they are playing with a weaker hand, leaders of the Likud-Beitenu are already responding to Mr. Lapid’s agenda setting platform. “The young public did not vote for us at all,” observed Likud’s Silvan Shalom in a conversation with Army Radio.

   In a message posted on his Facebook page, Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, an established hawk, not well-known for deeper introspection, nevertheless conceded that elections “force the next government to focus on internal matters, and mainly equal share of the burden, changing the form of government and affordable housing”.

   His dovish call that “if the Palestinians show they are willing to meet and restart negotiations we would be happy to meet with them, with no preconditions” has also raised plenty of eyebrows.

   Left’s response

   In view of Yesh Atid’s spectacular success, the response of the Centre-Left parties has been varied and nuanced. As he gazed into his crystal ball, Zahava Gal-On of the leftist Meretz party saw in Mr. Lapid’s “wonderful achievement”, an opportunity “to give a promise to the public in Israel that the extreme right-wing government will be replaced”. On the contrary, the Labour party, reduced to third position with 15 seats, had turned inwards, pointing at the Yesh Atid for the shrinkage in its political space. “[Mr.] Yair Lapid took the whole kitty, not only from the Labour Party but also from all the parties.

   His votes, after all, did not fall out of the sky,” said Labour Party law maker, Eitan Cabel, in an interview with Army Radio.

   The churning within Israel, marked by a centrist-moderate riposte during elections, seemed to have undermined the ultra-nationalist Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) party, which has won 11 seats, but was expected to do much better ahead of the polls.

   2. U.S. calls for due process in 1971 war trial Haroon Habib 

   The U.S. has extended support to the trial of the people who committed crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

   Washington, however, stressed the need for holding the trial in a free and fair way. Victoria Nuland, spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, spoke at a press briefing in Washington DC on January 22, a day after Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal passed its maiden verdict orderinggiving death sentence to an Islamist leader, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, on charges of genocide, killing, rape and arson as the local cohorts of the Pakistani army during the war. The press statement was posted on its website.

   “As Bangladesh addresses the legacy of atrocities committed during the Liberation War and as we await further verdicts by the International Crimes Tribunal, the U.S. urges the government of Bangladesh to adhere to the due process standards that are part of its treaty obligations, and to fully respect the rule of law,” the statement said. “However, we believe that any such trials must be free, fair, and transparent, and in accordance with domestic standards and international standards Bangladesh has agreed to uphold through its ratification of international agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.

   Meanwhile the western media have widely covered the maiden verdict of the tribunal. While providing historical and political perspective, most major newspapers and other media outlets ran reports on the verdict. Some of the reports, however, termed the tribunal “controversial” and identified convicted Azad as a “well-known Muslim cleric”. They also reported the sharp division between the ruling Awami League and opposition combine led by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami over the trial.

   U.K., Germany and France also reacted to the trial. U.K. supported it but highlighted its stand against death sentence. Germany also said Bangladesh has the right to trace its past. France said the trial is absolutely a Bangladesh matter. Major Pakistani newspapers and TV channels also covered the conviction of the Maulana Azad who, according to Bangladesh police sources, has fled to Pakistan to avoid arrest. 

   3. ‘Reset’ has run its course: Lavrov

   Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced an end to ‘reset’ in Russian-American relations, while also acknowledging its positive impact and adding that Russia wanted constructive interaction with the U.S.

   Mr. Lavrov said the ‘reset’ in relations between Russia and the United States, launched four years ago, cannot continue forever, otherwise it is just a “system error”.

   “If you use this computer term, everyone should realise that an ongoing ‘reset’ means failure of the system, the system does not responds,” the Russian Foreign Minister said addressing an annual press conference on Wednesday.

   The ‘reset’ has improved the “atmosphere” between the two countries, he said, noting such achievements as a new nuclear arms control treaty; a 1-2-3 agreement on civil nuclear cooperation; and simplified visa rules.

   However, Russian-American relations today “are not in their best shape” today, Mr. Lavrov conceded. The two countries are still at odds over the U.S. missile defence plans, which remain the main stumbling block in their relations.

   While paying lip service to dialogue, the Americans keep building up a global missile shield “without paying any consideration” for Russian objections, he said.

   Russia is also at odds with the U.S. over the conflict in Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme. The West is “encouraging” the Syrian opposition to continue the fighting and “providing them with everything that is needed for the fight”.

   In addition, new “irritants” have emerged, such as the “odious” U.S. Magnitsky Act adopted in December, which blacklists Russian officials accused of human rights violations.

   Russia hit back imposing similar sanctions on American rights abusers and banning adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans.

   National interests

   “We will retaliate for unfriendly acts” in future as well, asserted Mr. Lavrov, who has won a reputation for firmly standing up to Russia’s national interests during his eight years at the helm of the Foreign Ministry.

   At the same time, Mr. Lavrov offered an olive branch to the U.S. welcoming Mr Obama’s declaration in the January 21 inauguration speech that “a decade of war is now ending”, but adding a caveat: “if these words signal a real end to the use of force in resolving international disputes”.

   “We are interested in constructive dialogue and the development of stable, mutually beneficial cooperation”, with the U.S., the Russian Foreign Minister said.

   4. North Korea plans nuclear test

   North Korea plans a third nuclear test and long-range rocket launches that “will target our sworn enemy, the United States,” its National Defence Commission said on Thursday.

   “In the new phase of our century-long struggle against the United States, we do not hide the fact that various satellites, long-range missiles that we will continue to launch and a high-level nuclear test we will conduct will target our sworn enemy, the United States,” the commission said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

   The statement was issued after the U.N. Security Council Tuesday voted unanimously to impose additional sanctions on one of the world’s most highly sanctioned countries for a successful launch last month of a long-range rocket.

   Countries that included the United States charged North Korea was using the launch to develop ballistic missile technology. North Korea insisted it was peaceful and aimed at putting a satellite into orbit.

   A series of sanctions have been imposed on Pyongyang for its first nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and its rocket launches. They have failed to put a stop to them.

   The Defence Commission called all the UN sanctions against North Korea unlawful and illegitimate and said they were led by the US and Washington’s anti-North Korea policy.

   “Our peaceful satellites will continue to rise up without any disruption amid our national struggle to defend our right to self-defence,” said the commission, which is the top decision-making body in a communist country that has one of the world’s largest militaries and is one of the globe’s poorest nations.

   Intelligence, including satellite photos, has indicated for months that North Korea was making preparations at its nuclear test site.

   Seoul said it could now carry out another nuclear test at any time.

   “It is our understanding that if the leadership gives consent, the North can detonate a nuclear device whenever it wants to,” a spokesman for South Korea’s Defence Ministry told the Yonhap News Agency.

   The North’s statement about a third nuclear test came a day after North Korea vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal and said it would no longer participate in talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula because of Washington’s “worsening policy of hostility towards North Korea.” “We will undertake measures to strengthen our defensive military capacity, including our nuclear deterrent,” the Foreign Ministry said.

   If a third nuclear test is carried out, it would be the first under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took over the rule of North Korea in December 2011 as the third member of the Kim dynasty to do so.

   The United States sided with South Korea against the North in the 1950-53 Korean War, and Washington’s and Pyongyang’s relations have been marked by antagonism ever since. They have never established formal diplomatic ties.

   National News

                   1. The Justice J.S. Verma Committee, set up to suggest amendments to laws relating to crimes against women, has recommended review of the continuance of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in the context of extending legal protection to women in conflict areas.

   “There is an imminent need to review the continuance of the AFSPA and AFSPA-like legal protocols in internal conflict areas as soon as possible,” it said. “This is necessary for determining the propriety of resorting to this legislation in the area(s) concerned.”

              “Personnel guilty of sexual offences in conflict areas should be tried under ordinary criminal law”  The Justice J.S. Verma Committee, set up to suggest amendments to laws relating to crimes against women, has recommended review of the continuance of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in the context of extending legal protection to women in conflict areas.

   “There is an imminent need to review the continuance of the AFSPA and AFSPA-like legal protocols in internal conflict areas as soon as possible,” it said. “This is necessary for determining the propriety of resorting to this legislation in the area(s) concerned.”

               In its report submitted to the Union Home Ministry on Wednesday, committee member Gopal Subramaniam said going by the testimonies of the people from Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and the North-East, it was evident that there was a pressing need to try armed forces personnel guilty of sexual offences in conflict areas under the ordinary criminal law.

   Taking cognisance of the complaints and reports of sexual assaults on women by men in uniform and the civil society’s demand for repeal of the AFSPA, the committee recommend an immediate resolution of “jurisdictional issues.” Simple procedural protocols must be put in place to avoid situations where the police refuse to register cases against paramilitary personnel.

              It cited the Supreme Court’s recent observation that security forces should not be able to take cover under the AFSPA in cases of rape and sexual assault. “Systematic or isolated sexual violence, in the process of Internal Security duties, is being legitimised by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which is in force in large parts of our country,” the committee said.

   Stressing that women in conflict areas were entitled to all the security and dignity that was afforded to citizens in any other part of the country, the committee recommended bringing sexual violence against women by members of the armed forces or uniformed personnel under the purview of ordinary criminal law; taking special care to ensure the safety of women who are complainants and witnesses in cases of sexual assault by the armed forced; and setting up special commissioners for women’s safety and security in all areas of conflict in the country.

             The commissioners must be vested with adequate powers to monitor and initiate action and initiate criminal prosecution. Care must be taken to ensure the safety and security of women detainees in police stations, and women at army or paramilitary check points. “This should be a subject under the regular monitoring of the special commissioners mentioned earlier,” the committee said.

             It also recommended strict adherence to laws related to detention of women during specified hours of the day. It said measures to ensure their security and dignity would not only go a long way in providing women in conflict areas their rightful entitlements, but also restore their confidence in the administration.

    
   

            2. The Justice J.S. Verma Committee stands firmly against lowering of the age criteria for juveniles accused of heinous crimes including rape Standing firmly against lowering of the age criteria for juveniles accused of heinous crimes including rape, the Justice J.S. Verma Committee report on ‘Amendments to Criminal Law’ has noted that “the Juvenile Justice Act has failed miserably to protect the children in the country. We cannot hold the child responsible for a crime before first providing to him/her the basic rights given to him by the Indian Constitution.’’

   The report recommended the creation of a new constitutional authority akin to the Comptroller and Auditor-General for education and non-discrimination in respect of women and children.

              Committee member Gopal Subramanium told a press conference that “the issue has to be looked into in its totality. The juvenile homes are unable to provide for the children what is their Constitutional rights and these children without proper and adequate fulfilment of their nutritional, emotional, physical and mental requirements are often not able to contribute productively to the society.”

             “We have in our report looked extensively at the condition of homes for children and found them lacking in basic infrastructure and facilities. In these homes children are forced to grow up in the most unhealthy circumstances and are prey to all kinds of sexual offence,” he added.

   Stating that the manner in which the Juvenile Justice Act has been implemented showed a complete failure of the State, Justice Verma noted: “It shows apathy but perhaps more importantly it shows vested interests. This is a matter of serious concern. We are informed that the principal magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, has actually passed orders to segregate juveniles on the basis of age to ensure that younger juveniles with tender and impressionable minds are not mistreated and are kept away from elder juveniles.

               “We are also given to understand that no constructive occupational training or schedule has been formulated or are being followed.”

   Missing children

              Highlighting the ‘shocking’ number of children who go missing in the country everyday, the report said that “if children can be trafficked it sets the climate for rape culture.”

   “Trafficking of women and children is a failure of governance,” Justice Verma said. 

   2. One-year moratorium on loan recovery

               Rs.92 crore for building check-dams and digging borewells The State Cabinet on Wednesday decided to impose a one-year moratorium on recovery of agriculture loans and waive interest for one year as part of drought-relief measures.

               The Cabinet sanctioned Rs.92 crore for building check-dams and digging borewells and Rs.498 crore for replacing defunct and leaking pipes across the State.

   The Cabinet met in the evening specially to discuss drought relief and price rise.

   Briefing the media on the Cabinet decisions, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the decision on moratorium and waiver of interest would apply to cooperatives.

                Scheduled banks would be requested to provide the concessions since the State had been declared drought-hit.

                The State Level Bankers’ Committee would meet on February 5 to discuss the matter. Mr. Chandy, Finance Minister K.M. Mani, and Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash would attend the meeting.

                The Chief Minister said that all revenue recovery proceedings on agriculture loans would be stopped as part of the moratorium. The banks would be told to reschedule the loans after one year.

   Mr. Chandy said that Rs.85 crore would be released to districts by the Revenue Department for drought relief. A Minister would be in charge of each district and would decide on use of the funds.

   The City Corporations, municipalities, and panchayats would be granted Rs.25 lakh, Rs.10 lakh, and Rs.5 lakh, respectively.

                They would be given sanction to take up drought-relief works. Measures would be initiated to harvest water by digging sand formations and deepening of rivers and by making barrages using sandbags across rivers and streams.

                Of the Rs.92 crore sanctioned, Rs.79 crore would be spent for building check-dams and the balance for digging borewells. These funds would be found from the Budget. Additional funds would be sanctioned where necessary.

                A committee headed by Chief Secretary K. Jose Cyriac had been asked to identify the source of funds. The committee had also been told to find the funds for the replacement of defunct pipes.

   A sum of Rs.52 crore would be allocated to the Kerala Water Authority for repair of pipelines. The Chief Minister said the Cabinet had discussed the drought situation in each district.

   The discussion on price rise was inconclusive. The Cabinet would meet on Monday to continue the discussions and take decisions to control the prices.

   4. Will Jayamkondam project see the light of the day?

                It is steeped in complexities of policy, administrative and legal tangles

                Here is the tale of a 20-year-old power sector project which, if implemented, would not only have provided a major relief to the power-starved Tamil Nadu but also helped transform one of the industrially and economically backward regions of the State.

                But, the project – Jayamkondam integrated lignite mining and power generation – is steeped in complexities of policy, administrative and legal tangles.

   A recent public statement by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has confirmed the position.

   Conceived over 20 years ago, the project is to come up in Jayamkondam of Ariyalur district in the central region of the State. Rich in lignite reserves, the area is also known for oil and gas reserves.

   Even though lignite is generally considered to be less efficient compared to coal, the calorific value of Jayamkondam lignite is around 2,700 Kcal/kg whereas the value of Indian coal is in the range of 2,700 to 4,400 Kcal/kg.

                During the first Jayalalithaa regime (1991-1996), the nod was given for an integrated project of lignite mining and power generation. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and the Jayamkondam Lignite Power Corporation (JLPC), a special purpose vehicle, in August 1993, to take up the 1500-megawatt project. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), an enterprise of the State government, was one of equity partners of the JLPC. By the time preliminary work was completed, there was a regime change.

                 The successor Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, led by M. Karunanidhi, scrapped the project and directed TIDCO in 1997 to execute it through global bids. A consortium led by Reliance Industries was chosen. Even as land acquisition was under way, the consortium developed second thoughts about the viability of the project and it quietly withdrew from the scene. In three years, about 3,400 hectares were acquired by the revenue authorities. TIDCO and NLC officials say even after acquisition, original land owners have not been evicted.

   According to TIDCO, the acquired lands have not yet been given to the NLC, which is not ready to accept liabilities. An official spokesperson of the NLC says his organisation’s decision is based on the assessment that capital cost of the project would go up steeply otherwise. A study in 2000 put the unit cost of electricity at Rs. 3.22 per unit.

                  A senior policy maker recalls that 12 or 13 years ago, no one told the government that the project was in need of more lands. Predictably, land acquisition became one of the major bottlenecks for the project.

                  In Ms. Jayalalithaa’s second spell (2001-2006), yet another round of efforts was made to get the project launched. The government held negotiations with the NLC.

   In March 2005, it announced that the project was to be implemented as a joint venture, involving the NLC and the TNEB. A few months later, the NLC told the State government that it would like to carry out the project on its own.

                  In July 2006, the government, headed by Mr Karunanidhi, issued an order accepting the NLC’s proposal, which was to have a lignite mine of 13.5 million tonnes per annum and two units of 800 MW each at a total cost of Rs. 18,184 crore.

                  When it looked that the project was about to take off and then Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami even told the Assembly in April 2007 that foundation stone laying function would take place in January 2008, the NLC came up with a request for additional lands – nearly 8,980 hectares. This involved acquisition of most parts of the Jayamkondam town.

                   As the land acquisition continued, litigation too followed. Two sub-courts were inaugurated in February 2008 for settling disputes over compensation and other issues. The NLC had carried out preparatory works including geological exploration, soil investigation and contour survey.

                  Then came the policy stipulation from the Centre in April 2010 that all procurement of power should be only through competitive bidding route, which has, for practical purposes, killed projects such as Jayamkondam. Subsequently, the Corporation’s Board of Directors decided to keep the project in abeyance.

                  Broadly, two issues – desirability of the project in view of the scale and nature of land acquisition and exemption from the purview of the 2010 policy prescription – have to be thrashed out.

                   A senior policymaker adds that a fresh study has to be made whether the project can be revived, given the amount of land acquired. It should be possible to ensure the revival, considering technological developments in the last 10 years, he adds. 

   5. Manmohan Singh’s abject surrender

   

            It was the hysterical campaign by the electronic media that led the Prime Minister to change course on the India-Pakistan dialogue after the LoC hostilities

            “We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.” Macaulay’s words aptly describe the fits of chauvinism that seize Indians. But this time it has exacted a toll of consequence, the result of a pathetic surrender by a man of vision.

              On January 6, a Pakistani soldier was killed and another critically injured, across the Line of Control in Kashmir. Two days later, two Indian soldiers were killed across the LoC; one was beheaded, the other’s body was mutilated. On January 9, “a senior intelligence official” told DNA, “we believe that this was a local action purely in retaliation of (sic) what the raid out troops carried out in the Uri Sector.” The next day came Praveen Swami’s revealing exposé in this paper, followed by disclosures of beheadings by Indian troops in the past.

   The 12 days

             By its very nature, that crime is a product of local rage. It should have been settled at the level of brigadiers. As Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said on January 16: “It’s something that is within the domain of the armed forces of both sides … If it is contained at their own level, then it doesn’t create a larger political issue at the higher level.” The Directors-General of Military Operations were not asked to contain the crisis when they met on January 9. Each said his piece. On January 18, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “We want [a] good relationship with Pakistan but not at the cost of our national honour and our national interest.”

               Whatever happened during those 12 days to prompt this astounding assertion by a level-headed PM? On January 9, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar made a fair proposal. Both countries should investigate the incidents and assist each other, if necessary. This implied parity in sin and parity is anathema to us. Her suggestion of a probe by U.N. observers was a non-starter. But unilateral probes by each side, followed by a joint discussion, would have eased the tension. In Paris, as late as January 12, Salman Khurshid told The Hindu “We think this will pass.” But New Delhi had other ideas. The IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne said the same day “we may have to look at some other options for compliance.” Two days later, Army Chief General Bikram Singh declared that India “reserves the right to retaliate at the time and place of its choice” and “I expect all my commanders to be aggressive and offensive to any situation” — bad advice in a tense situation. Such threats are proper only if the killing was deliberate and was ordered at a governmental level. This was the gloss India chose to put on a local incident to which both sides surely contributed.

   The decision to up the ante was taken on January 14 at a hurriedly called meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security. The BJP made the most of it. Sushma Swaraj asked for 10 heads against one. Yashwant Sinha said “you cannot have peace with Pakistan.”

                  The Prime Minister fell in line on January 15. “After this barbaric act, there cannot be business as usual [with Pakistan].” The same day, the visa-on-arrival facility was put on hold and Pakistan’s hockey stars were sent home.

                  The BJP was not appeased. To Ms Swaraj, the PM’s remarks were an “echo of the tough measures we have demanded.” Arun Jaitley said on January 15: “The fact that it has taken so long for the PM to react makes me wonder if today’s reaction is out of conviction or out of compulsion. I hope this marks the burial of the Sharm-el-Shaikh line” — that the peace process should not be held hostage to the issue of terrorism.

                 Having drawn blood, the BJP will move for the final kill of the peace process. From 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani kept attacking Dr. Singh for every conciliatory move while asking Pakistan privately not to settle with the UPA. The BJP had better offers. India now offered surrender terms: end the “brazen denial” and “bring the perpetrators to book.” This renders retreat very difficult, though its signs have appeared. The BJP will surely call it a surrender.

   Ms Khar’s offer of talks, on January 16, would, as Mr. Khurshid had envisaged, raise the dialogue to the political level in view of the impasse in the DGMO talks — “discuss all concerns related to LoC with a view to reinforcing respect for the ceasefire.” The offer was not accepted.

                   It is sad that the Prime Minister should have allowed himself to be blown off course in these last few months. He had a noble vision. The four-point formula on Kashmir he had crafted with Pervez Musharraf satisfied the interests of all sides — no secession, no permanence to the LoC and self-rule to Kashmiris without any violation of territorial integrity. All this has been foiled; not least by his own hesitations and failure to talk to the people and explain his vision. He abandoned a course that might have brought peace to this sub-continent by a settlement of Kashmir. Now it is a tragic legacy of failure, caused wantonly by self-inflicted wounds that this man of vision will bequeath in 2014.

                    No leader should permit incidents to deflect him from his course. At 2.45 a.m. on October 12, 1984, a bomb went off which wrecked most of Brighton’s Grand Hotel where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was staying for the Conservative Party Conference. Dozens, including a Minister, were injured. An MP and four others were killed. The IRA warned her, “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once.” She did not stop the MI5 from continuing the talks with the IRA.

                    However, it was not to the BJP that the Prime Minister surrendered. He did so to the clamour whipped up by the electronic media. The BJP wrode piggy-back on that clamour. The resume of events from January 6 to 18 should be read in the light of the venom poured by television news anchors night after night. This raises in an acute form the issue of media influence on diplomacy. A former British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, noted: “Like it or not, television images are what force foreign policymakers to give one of the current 25 crises in the world greater priority.” William Pfaff, a thoughtful commentator, agrees: “Foreign policy now is made chiefly in terms of its reception by television and the press.” But “the only useful debates are those that start out with a clear agreement on what the argument is about” — the precise issues — “and in which the opponent’s arguments and persons are paid respect.” This is altogether absent in “the debates” on our channels.

   Ignorant anchors

                    The anchors themselves enter the fray, ridicule those with whom they disagree, show deference to retirees from the IB, RAW and the army, and treat Pakistanis with scant courtesy. They themselves are none too competent. An anchor of a leading channel said in Ladakh, “behind me lies the McMahon Line.” Another goes to the university in Srinagar and polls students on camera. When almost all said they were for azadi, he replied: “That is a subjective view”. His ignorance of the feelings there exposed.

                     Eric Louw remarks in his book The Media and Political Press that “most journalists are ill-equipped to read foreign contexts and so can be easily led by both overseas spin-doctors and domestic foreign policy bureaucrats and experts” — and TRPs.

   Public opinion can veto policy, fanned by TV it can ruin it. Lippmann remarked, mass opinion “has shown itself to be a dangerous master of decisions when the stakes are life and death.” He lamented that “the work of reporters has become confused with the work of preachers, revivalists, prophets and agitators … jingoism became a criterion for [the] presentation of news.” He touched the core of the problem when he wrote “in an exact sense the present crisis of western democracy is a crisis of journalism”.

                     The task of the leader is to educate people about the facts of political life. He cannot shirk his duty. Abba Eban struck a fair balance. “It is unrealistic to expect political leaders to ignore public opinion. But a statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of moment.”

   (A.G. Noorani is a lawyer, author and commentator. His latest book, Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.)

   BUSINESS

   1. Fiat hopes to tie up with Tatas for vehicle finance

   
   

   PTI Enrico Atanasio, Managing Director, Fiat India and D. Chandrasekhar, Chairman, RDC Motors, at the launch of the company's exclusive outlet in Chennai on Wednesday.

             

               The Fiat Group is looking at the possibility of partnering Tata Finance or Tata Capital for vehicle finance in India, even as the Italian car major seeks to aggressively double its market share and become “an important reality here in India”.

                The possible tie-up comes at a time, however, when the company is terminating most of the dealers under the Fiat-Tata joint venture, planning to wind almost all of them by March-end, and start the rollout of its own dealer network.

                “We will still be associated with the Tatas, and hope to have an arrangement with them in terms of vehicle finance by April. It will mainly be a reciprocal arrangement as Fiat Capital provides vehicle finance for Tata’s Jaguar and Rover in Europe. In India, it should be the reverse,” said Enrico Atanasio, Managing Director, Fiat India.

                 He was addressing reporters at the inauguration of the company’s exclusive dealership here.

   “There are over 150 dealers in the Fiat-Tata joint venture which should be closed by March. While in some smaller cities and towns there will still be a few open to provide after-sales service, which the Tatas will continue to do for us. However, by the end of March we hope to have 65 of our own dealers open and 120 by the end of the year,” Mr. Atanasio added.

   The company also hopes to double its market share to 1 per cent — a commitment that is underscored by its decisions to have nine new products out in the next three years.

   “With our own dealers we will be able to remove one layer (the Tatas), by dealing directly with the consumer which should improve our support service,” he said.

   2. Premji says son will not be CEO of Wipro

   

   • 
     
     The Hindu Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro with his son Rishad Premji. File photo: G.R.N. Somashekar
   • 
     The Hindu Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited (right) at a press conference in Wipro campus, Bangalore on Friday. Photo: G.R.N. Somashekar

   IT czar Azim Premji has said his son Rishad will never be the Chief Executive of his company Wipro, but will represent promoter ownership on the company’s board.

   Mr. Rishad, 35, joined Wipro in 2007 as Business Head for Special Projects in the banking and financial services vertical and rose to become Chief Strategy Officer three years later.

   Mr. Premji, who founded Wipro, said becoming CEO was not the career path for the eldest of his two sons.

   “He (Rishad) is not going to be the chief executive officer, that’s not the career plan for him but, he would be representing ownership obviously,” the Chairman of Wipro, said in television interviews on sidelines of World Economic Forum in Davos.

   Azim Premji directly owns 3.7 per cent in the company, while entities related to him own over another 74 per cent.

   Mr. Rishad has a direct ownership of 0.03 per cent shares in Wipro. He has for long been speculated to be a natural choice for taking over the company’s operations.

   Prior to joining Wipro, Mr. Rishad, a management graduate from Harvard Business School, worked with Bain & Co, working across segments like consumer products, automobiles, telecom and insurance.

   There have been speculations of him being appointed as the CEO of the now demerged entity of Wipro, which will include the non-IT business.

   The non-IT businesses of Wipro, which includes lighting, furniture, consumer care products and infrastructure engineering services, was hived off last year to focus on the core information technology business. It contributes about 10 per cent of the company’s revenues.

   There have also been discussions around succession plans at Wipro after the retirement of Azim Premji, who is 67 now.

   Asked about succession plans, Mr. Premji said, “We are always working with succession planning. It was right from the top to senior management level and that is the key responsibility of the board.”

   Hinting at a bigger role for CEO T.K. Kurien, Mr. Premji said Mr. Kurien “certainly” could become the Managing Director.

   “We have T.K. Kurien now in charge. So, very obviously he has taken over from me the mantel of the chief executive officer’s role... He certainly stands a chance of becoming the managing director. Our restructuring is going to make some changes,” he said.

   SCIENCE AND TECH
   
   

   A different kind of experiment at CERN

   

   A view of the ALPHA experiment at CERN to study antimatter. 

   
   

   CERN doesn't only house the world's most energetic particle collider but also the unique experiments necessary to study antiparticles. By summer 2014, one such experiment will attempt to produce a beam of anti-hydrogen for study.
   

   At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, experiments are conducted by many scientists who don’t quite know what they will see, but know how to conduct the experiments that will yield answers to their questions. They accelerate beams of particles called protons to smash into each other, and study the fallout.

   There are some other scientists at CERN who know approximately what they will see in experiments, but don’t know how to do the experiment itself. These scientists work with beams of antiparticles. According to the Standard Model, the dominant theoretical framework in particle physics, every particle has a corresponding particle with the same mass and opposite charge, called an anti-particle.

   In fact, at the little-known AEgIS experiment, physicists will attempt to produce an entire beam composed of not just anti-particles but anti-atoms by mid-2014.

   AEgIS is one of six antimatter experiments at CERN that create antiparticles and anti-atoms in the lab and then study their properties using special techniques. The hope, as Dr. Jeffrey Hangst, the spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment, stated in an email, is “to find out the truth: Do matter and antimatter obey the same laws of physics?”

   Spectroscopic and gravitational techniques will be used to make these measurements. They will improve upon, “precision measurements of antiprotons and anti-electrons” that “have been carried out in the past without seeing any difference between the particles and their antiparticles at very high sensitivity,” as Dr. Michael Doser, AEgIS spokesperson, told this Correspondent via email.

   The ALPHA and ATRAP experiments will achieve this by trapping anti-atoms and studying them, while the ASACUSA and AEgIS will form an atomic beam of anti-atoms. All of them, anyway, will continue testing and upgrading through 2013.

   Working principle

   Precisely, AEgIS will attempt to measure the interaction between gravity and antimatter by shooting an anti-hydrogen beam horizontally through a vacuum tube and then measuring how it much sags due to the gravitational pull of the Earth to a precision of 1 per cent.

   The experiment is not so simple because preparing anti-hydrogen atoms is difficult. As Dr. Doser explained, “The experiments concentrate on anti-hydrogen because that should be the most sensitive system, as it is not much affected by magnetic or electric fields, contrary to charged anti-particles.”

   First, antiprotons are derived from the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), a particle storage ring which “manufactures” the antiparticles at a low energy. At another location, a nanoporous plate is bombarded with anti-electrons, resulting in a highly unstable mixture of both electrons and anti-electrons called positronium (Ps).

   The Ps is then excited to a specific energy state by exposure to a 205-nanometre laser and then an even higher energy state called a Rydberg level using a 1,670-nanometre laser. Last, the excited Ps traverses a special chamber called a recombination trap, when it mixes with antiprotons that are controlled by precisely tuned magnetic fields. With some probability, an antiproton will “trap” an anti-electron to form an anti-hydrogen atom.

   Applications

   Before a beam of such anti-hydrogen atoms is generated, however, there are problems to be solved. They involve large electric and magnetic fields to control the speed of and collimate the beams, respectively, and powerful cryogenic systems and ultra-cold vacuums. Thus, Dr. Doser and his colleagues will spend many months making careful changes to the apparatus to ensure these requirements work in tandem by 2014.

   While antiparticles were first discovered in 1959, “until recently, it was impossible to measure anything about anti-hydrogen,” Dr. Hangst wrote. Thus, the ALPHA and AEgIS experiments at CERN provide a seminal setting for exploring the world of antimatter.

   Anti-particles have been used effectively in many diagnostic devices such as PET scanners. Consequently, improvements in our understanding of them feed immediately into medicine. To name an application: Antiprotons hold out the potential of treating tumors more effectively.

   In fact, the feasibility of this application is being investigated by the ACE experiment at CERN.In the words of Dr. Doser: “Without the motivation of attempting this experiment, the experts in the corresponding fields would most likely never have collaborated and might well never have been pushed to solve the related interdisciplinary problems.”

16th January 2013

Indian Army chief's statements "very hostile", says Pak foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar

The Indian leadership had to "catch up" with Pakistan in the matter of striving for peace with, Khar gratuitously told the Charlie Rose show, while presenting her country’s version of what transpired at the LoC and denying the Indian account the soldier’s beheading.
WASHINGTON: The disconnect between Pakistan's adrift and enfeebled civilian government and its out-of-control military was on show in the US last night when the country's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar insisted Islamabad wanted to resolve issues through dialogue rather than military actions despite the alleged depredations of its army resulting in the beheading of an Indian soldier.

The Indian leadership had to "catch up" with Pakistan in the matter of striving for peace with, Khar gratuitously told the Charlie Rose show, while presenting her country's version of what transpired at the LoC and denying the Indian account the soldier's beheading.

Khar arrived in the US to attend a special session of the UN Security Council of which Pakistan is the Chairman for the month of January even as her toxic country was imploding from a shadowy confrontation involving the judiciary, military, and clerical-political forces. But she presented the voice of sweet reason before American TV audience, maintaining that Islamabad was striving for peace and describing the Indian Army Chief's warning to Pakistan as "very hostile."

"After the comments by the army chief I am taken back by 20 years," Khar said on show aired on PBS.

Charlie Rose: What did he say?

Khar: Just very hostile comments.

The Indian Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh had warned Pakistan that India reserves the right to retaliate at the "time and place" of its choosing, suggesting that the border spat is not going to be buried anytime soon. India's political leadership too appeared to be responding with spine after initial timidity, following popular anger and media outcry.

Khar said Pakistan was "not very pleasantly surprised" by the comments it heard from India and gratuitously added "I think this is what has changed in Pakistan where India needs to catch up." Pakistan, she said, today presents a country "which is very clear in its head as to how it wants to operate with its neighbors."

"And the way we want to operate with our neighbors is to try and build on the trust to take care of and then build that trust enough to be able to build an environment in which we can take care of the disputes that we have on the dialogue table rather than through military statements and through military actions," she added.

While the Pakistan foreign minister's statements were mainly meant for western consumption, it is no great secret among analysts here that the country's civilian government has little control or leverage over the military, which plays by its own jihadi rule book both in its eastern and western front. There has been speculation in expert circles that the Pakistani military or sections of it could be turning up the heat on its eastern front with India to rein in and redirect some of the jihadi forces which are attacking the military.

On Tuesday, the regionalists were also riveted to the new power struggle in Islamabad with little attention paid to India's fulminations on the border incident.

In Khar's version of the border incident, it was Indian forces which came 400 meters inside Pakistani territory for an attack which resulted in the death of a Pakistani soldier. "Now just two days after that or three days after that, we had an allegation which was made that two Indian soldiers were killed by Pakistani fighting which we looked into and we could find no evidence that Pakistani troops had done that. And then of course, there were extremely conflicting statements that the heads were decapitated," Khar narrated, capitalizing on the initial mixed messages that came from India.

"The northern commander spokesperson who is the person on the ground said they weren't (beheaded). Others said they were," she added, suggesting that the issue had become embroiled in domestic politics

China should strengthen force on Indian border, researcher says

“China should strengthen its supervision and control over the border area with India," Fu Xiaoqiang, researcher from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said.
BEIJING: A Chinese expert has advised the government to increase supervision on its border with India after New Delhi's decision to form a new mountain strike corps for the 3,380km-long border that the two countries share in total.

Reacting to a news report in The Times of India, Fu Xiaoqiang, researcher from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said, "China should strengthen its supervision and control over the border area with India."

The formation of a new corps shows India sees China as its military competitor, Fu was quoted by Beijing-based newspaper the Global Times.

The TOI report said that the new corps, having around 40,000 soldiers, will be formed during India's 12th Five-Year Plan from 2012 to 2017, at an estimated cost of 810 billion rupees ($14.9 billion). The idea is to build the capability of launching counter-offensives into the Tibet Autonomous Region against potential "Chinese attacks."

However, Fu felt the Indian proposal has little relation to a military exercise carried out by the Chinese air force over the Tibet Autonomous Region in December. It is part of India's overall plan to strengthen its military power along its border with China, he said.

India’s troubled borders
Of all the legacies the British Empire left behind in South Asia nothing may have such a lasting impact as the arbitrary borders they drew on maps during their two centuries of colonisation. These troubled borders have divided communities, united disparate groups, and forever spelt trouble for all the countries in the region. India seems to be carrying the heaviest burden of the white man's whims in South Asia, the brutal killing of two of its soldiers along the Line of Control being the latest example of it.

Not just Pakistan, those strokes across maps have been a key factor for wars or tension between India and China, Bangladesh and India, Pakistan and Afghanistan etc. Along the India-China border world's biggest conventional military build-up is quietly happening, while the Pakistan-India borders remain perpetually tense, and occasionally turn into conflict zones.



Between Afghanistan and Pakistan the unifying aspects of a single religion pale before the troubles brought about by Durand Line, the 2,640-km border between the two countries that cuts through Pashtun land. Named after the then foreign secretary of undivided India Henry Mortimer Durand , the boundary was the product of negotiations between British Empire and the Afghan ruler Amir Abdul Rahman Khan, with scant regard for the fact that they were cutting through Pashtun territories and splitting tribes. In the Amir's defence, some say the single-page agreement that he signed was in English, a language he could neither read nor write. The process of physically transferring the frontier line on the ground was quite complex and very brutal, given the fact that one line can translate into a four-mile stretch on the ground. And with its many topographical errors, it is a challenge that continues to haunt the region. Pashtun people remain divided, and Pakistan and Afghanistan remain locked in the dispute.

India's security fortunes are intrinsically linked to the fate of the porous Durand Line since the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have had a dramatic impact on India for decades. At the height of the Cold War this porous border was exploited by the US and Pakistan to supply arms to the mujahideen ag ainst Soviets, it created the template for the armed Kashmir insurgency that would begin in the late 80s. In the 90s, this porous border helped Pakistan to create Taliban , effectively ending India's influence in Kabul.

Many fronts

The latest round of ceasefire violations, the beheading of Indian soldier and the resultant escalation of tension between the two sides is only the latest in a series of angry stand-offs between India and Pakistan that draw its genesis mostly on the haphazard way the British drew up boundaries of the two nations.

Though the Line of Control itself is not a British product, its boundaries of Kashmir have hugely contributed to the tension over the region between India, Pakistan and China. While China occupies Aksai Chin, India stakes claim to it. Both have different maps prepared by British to validate their claims. China also occupies the trans-Karakoram tract, gifted to it by Pakistan in 1963. By Indian claims that too is part of undivided Jammu and Kashmir which belongs to India.

The story is not very different in the northeast, where most of the 4,057-kilometer Line of Actual Control exists. The McMahon Line — named after Henry McMahon, yet another foreign secretary of the government of India whose name has been given to a boundary — was drawn up in 1914 between the British Empire and Tibet. China, which was not represented at the Simla conference, doesn't recognise this boundary officially, though most parts of it are now the de facto Line of Actual Control.

Along the Line of Actual Control, as two of the world's fastest economies grow in a quick pace their military preparedness is also scaling up. Today, this border is witnessing an unusual military build-up , which is visible nowhere else in the world. The temporary peace of the border is not a guarantee of perpetual peace for the future.

The curse of the British-drawn boundaries is most visible in the continuing bitterness between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Most of their borders were drawn in a matter of few weeks by a man who had never been to the region until then. Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired the border commissions that drew lines over maps hastily to create India and Pakistan, which later also gave birth to Bangladesh, and decided destinies of their people. These boundaries , in many instances, were haphazard and occasionally cut through villages , and all three countries continue to live through the complications thrown up by Radcliffe's lines.

Burying the past

The latest round of tension along the LoC between India and Pakistan raises a very troubling question. Do the south Asian countries have the political willpower to free themselves from the tyrannies of British boundaries to create a more peaceful future? How much more time and how many more lives will be necessary to create a political consensus across the region to readjust boundaries, make compromises and divert their energies away from the continuing militarisation of their boundaries.

5 ceasefire violations by Pak after flag meet

The fresh ceasefire violations since Monday afternoon were reported from the Mendhar, Balnoi and Uri sectors, which are also traditional infiltration routes.
JAMMU/NEW DELHI: The meandering 778-km Line of Control (LoC) remains red-hot, with Pakistan violating the ceasefire at least five times after the Brigadier-level flag meeting was held at the Chakkan-Da-Bagh crossing point in Poonch district on Monday afternoon.

"Pakistan came to the flag meeting with a prepared script...He (the Pakistani brigadier) read out from a prepared text and denied everything. Even after the flag meeting, there were three ceasefire violations. They fired from small arms as well as mortars," said Lt-General K T Parnaik, who as the Northern Army Command chief is responsible for the LoC as well as J&K.

The senior officer said Pakistan chose to remain in "denial mode" during the flag meeting despite all evidence that Pakistani Army's SSG commandos had intruded well into Indian territory in the Mendhar sector and beheaded Lance-Naik Hemraj of the 13 Rajputana Rifles, apart from mutilating the body of Lance-Naik Sudhakar Singh, on January 8.

This comes a day after Army chief General Bikram Singh said he had instructed all battalion commanders on the LoC to retaliate "aggressively and offensively" if the Pakistani Army provokes them by violating the ceasefire or pushing militants into J&K.

The fresh ceasefire violations since Monday afternoon were reported from the Mendhar, Balnoi and Uri sectors, which are also traditional infiltration routes. "We did not respond because they were not effective...we do not believe in reacting in haste and anger...We have lot of options and plans. We will react in time," said Lt-Gen Parnaik.

"We accused them (at the flag meeting) of carrying out the barbaric act...we insisted that the head (of Lance-Naik Hemraj) be returned. We also drew their attention to the frequent firing in the area," he added.

Apart from registering a strong protest about the "dastardly act", the Indian delegation at the flag meeting also presented a file with photographs to show landmines planted by Pakistani troops in forward areas inside Indian territory. Pakistan, however, rejected all the evidence, and instead accused India of cross-border raids and escalation in ceasefire violations.

Lt-Gen Parnaik said the infrastructure of terrorism was still "very much intact" across the border, with over 2,500 militants in 43 terror-training camps. Moreover, around 450 terrorists are present on "border launch pads" waiting for an opportunity to sneak into India, with militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) working in close conjunction with the Pakistani Army to launch attacks on India.
China readying for war with Japan?
BEIJING: China's armed forces have been instructed to raise their fighting ability in 2013, state media reported on Tuesday, amid heightened tensions with Japan over disputed islands. In 2013, "the PLA and the Chinese People's Armed Police Force should focus on the objective of being able to fight and win battle," according to a report in the overseas edition of the People's Daily newspaper, the Communist Party organ.

The directive came in a document released at the beginning of the year by the PLA general staff on military training in 2013, said the report, republished from a website linked to a PLA newspaper. To prepare for combat, the armed forces must also "vigorously strengthen real-combat-like military training" and intensify efforts to cultivate high-calibre military personnel, the report said.

US House approves $50.7 billion in superstorm Sandy aid

Sandy roared through several states in late October and has been blamed for 140 deaths and billions of dollars in residential and business property damage, much of it in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved $50.7 billion in emergency relief for Superstorm Sandy victims on Tuesday night, ending an episode that exposed painful party divisions more than 10 weeks after the storm brutalized parts of the heavily populated Northeast.

The vote was 241-180, and officials said the Senate was likely to accept the measure early next week and send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. Democrats supported the aid in large numbers, but there was substantial Republican backing, too, in the Republican-controlled House.

"We are not crying wolf here," said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, one of a group of Northeastern lawmakers from both parties who sought House passage of legislation roughly in line with what the Obama administration and governors of the affected states have sought.

Sandy roared through several states in late October and has been blamed for 140 deaths and billions of dollars in residential and business property damage, much of it in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It led to power outages and interruptions to public transportation that made life miserable for millions, and the clamor for federal relief began almost immediately.

Democrats were more politically pointed as they brushed back Southern conservatives who sought either to reduce the measure or offset part of its cost through spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

"I just plead with my colleagues not to have a double standard," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York. "Not to vote tornado relief to Alabama, to Louisiana, to Mississippi, Missouri, to — with Ike, Gustav, Katrina, Rita — but when it comes to the Northeast, with the second-worst storm in the history of our country, to delay, delay, delay."

One key bipartisan vote came on a successful attempt by Republican Rep. Rodney Freylinghuysen of New Jersey to add $33.7 billion to an original allotment of $17 billion in aid.

Earlier, conservatives failed in an attempt to offset a part of the bill's cost with across-the-board federal budget cuts. The vote was 258-162.

Republican Rep. Mark Mulvaney, arguing for the reduction, said he wasn't trying to torpedo the aid package, only to pay for it.

Critics said the proposed spending cuts would crimp defense spending as well as domestic programs and said the storm aid should be approved without reductions elsewhere.

The emerging House measure includes about $16 billion to repair transit systems in New York and New Jersey and a similar amount for housing and other needs in the affected area. An additional $5.4 billion would go to the Federal Emergency and Management Agency for disaster relief, and $2 billion is ticketed for restoration of highways damaged or destroyed in the storm.

The Senate approved a $60 billion measure in the final days of the Congress that expired on January 3, and a House vote had been expected quickly.

But House Speaker John Boehner unexpectedly postponed the vote in the final hours of the expiring Congress as he struggled to calm conservatives unhappy that the House had just approved a separate measure to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff — across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts — by raising tax rates on the wealthy.

The delay drew a torrent of criticism, much of it from other Republicans.

"There's only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims, the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on the day after the delay was announced. Rep. Pete King of New York added that campaign donors in the Northeast who give to Republicans "should have their head examined."

Less than two weeks later, the leadership brought legislation to the floor under ground rules designed to satisfy as many Republicans as possible while retaining support from Democrats eager to approve as much in disaster aid as possible.

Across the capitol, majority Democrats indicated they would probably not seek changes.

"While the House bill is not quite as good as the Senate bill, it is certainly close enough," Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said. "We will be urging the Senate to speedily pass the House bill and send it to the president's desk."

Congress has already approved a $9.7 billion increase in a fund to pay federal flood insurance claims, much of it expected to benefit victims of Sandy.

In the weeks since the storm hit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent about $3.1 billion for construction of shelters, restoration of power and other immediate needs after the late-October storm pounded the Atlantic Coast with hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding.

Officials say Sandy is the most costly natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm damaged or destroyed 305,000 housing units in New York, and more than 265,000 businesses were disrupted there, officials have said. In New Jersey, more than 346,000 households were destroyed or damaged, and more than 40,000 families remain living out of their homes, according to officials.

China to survey islands disputed with Japan: Xinhua

China is to carry out a geographical survey of islands in the East China Sea at the centre of a bitter dispute with Japan.
BEIJING: Beijing is to carry out a geographical survey of islands in the East China Sea, state media said on Tuesday, the latest salvo in an increasingly tense dispute with Tokyo over the uninhabited territory.
The announcement came as Japanese fighter jets were scrambled in response to a Chinese state-owned Y-12 plane flying close to -- but not inside -- the islands' airspace, according to Tokyo's defence ministry.
Separately, official Chinese media reported that Beijing's armed forces have been instructed this year to train for battle, while a Tokyo official said US and Japanese fighter jets carried out joint air exercises.
This week's tensions come after Japan's hawkish Shinzo Abe won a landslide election victory following campaign promises to re-invigorate Tokyo's security alliance with Washington and take a more robust line against Beijing.
The dispute over the islands, known as Diaoyu in Beijing and Senkaku by Tokyo, which controls them, has simmered on and off for years but intensified in 2012 when Japan nationalised those it did not already own, triggering anger and demonstrations in China.
The protests were allowed to take place by the Communist authorities in Beijing, who use nationalism to bolster their claims to legitimacy, particularly regarding Japan, which occupied parts of China in the 20th century.
China has repeatedly sent maritime surveillance ships to the area and carried out naval exercises, and both Tokyo and Beijing have scrambled fighter jets to the area in recent weeks in a further escalation.
Commentators say Beijing wants to prove that Japan does not have effective control over the chain to draw Tokyo into concessions.
The cartographic survey was part of a programme to map China's "territorial islands and reefs" and safeguard its "maritime rights and interests", the official Xinhua news agency said, without saying when it would take place.
It did not make clear whether it would involve activities on land or be purely sea-based, but quoted Zhang Huifeng, of China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, acknowledging there could be "difficulties".
"There are some difficulties in landing on some islands to survey, and in surveying and mapping the surrounding sea area of the islands, because some countries infringed and occupied these islands of China," he said.
Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Northeast Asia director at the International Crisis Group, said in an e-mail: "Beijing's goal is to establish as much presence -- if not more than -- Japan in the area to demonstrate its sovereignty.
"A geological survey is another step in this direction. China has made it clear that there is no going back to the status quo in which Japan largely administered the disputed islands on its own."
In September Beijing announced the "base points and baselines of the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands", filing details with the United Nations as part of the diplomatic sparring over the issue.
China's State Oceanic Administration also released geographic information including "location maps, three-dimension effect graphs and sketch maps for the Diaoyu Islands", Xinhua added.
While there have been no actual clashes between the two countries' forces in the area, Chinese state media said Beijing's military had been instructed to raise their fighting ability in 2013 and "should focus closely on the objective of being able to fight and win a battle".
Off Japan, six US FA-18 fighters and around 90 American personnel, with four Japanese F-4 jets and an unspecified number of people, carried out joint training exercises in the Pacific, an official said.
The five-day drill followed the nation's first military exercise designed to recapture "a remote island invaded by an enemy force" on Sunday.
In October Japan and the US dropped plans for a joint drill to simulate the retaking of a remote island, reportedly because Tokyo did not wish to provoke Beijing further.
Halimah Yacob (58) became the first woman and the 9th Speaker of the Singapore Parliament on 14 January 2013. She replaced Michael Palmer, the former People's Action Party MP. Palmer got down from the post of Speaker of the Parliament and as an MP on 12 December 2012. Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong nominated her for the designation of speaker.

Halimah Yacob came down from her post of Minister of State (Social and Family Development) and was elected as the Speaker by Members of Parliament. In her role, she is expected to play an independent role during all the parliamentary debates, but she stressed the fact that she would remain ahead for the Singaporeans' concerns and would also share the views on various policies.

Various MPs stood up in favour of the appointment of Halimah Yacob in the Parliament, which also highlighted the importance to women as well as the Malay-Muslim community.

About Halimah Yacob

Halimah Yacob, 58, is an Indian-origin woman born in Singapore. She belongs to the People's Action Party. She has remained the Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports from 21 May 2011 to 31 October 2012. She has also held office as the Minister of State, Ministry of Social and Family Development from 1 November 2012 to 13 January 2013.
NEW APPOINTMENTS

1.    Kapil Chopra has been appointed as President, The Oberoi Group. Mr. Chopra will be responsible for all The Oberoi and Trident Hotels in India.
Mr. Chopra was the Executive Vice-President of the Group, and was instrumental in opening the two flagship properties -The Oberoi and Trident in Gurgaon, according to a company release.
He will report to Chief Operating Officer and Joint Managing director Vikram Oberoi.
2.    Eicher Motors, on Tuesday, said its two-wheelers division Royal Enfield had made top-level changes with its Chief Executive Officer Venki Padmanabhan taking over as the Head of New Initiatives for Eicher Motors.
Following this, the company had announced B. Govindarajan as the new Chief Operating Officer of Royal Enfield.
3.    Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday, said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO (India and South Asia), had resigned from the company and Gopal Vittal would take over as the head of its Indian operations with effect from March 1.
“After almost 15 years of illustrious innings at Bharti Group, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, has decided to pursue his future aspirations outside of Bharti,” the company said in a statement, announcing some top level changes. Mr. Kapoor would, however, continue to be on the Board of Indus Towers and Bharti Global, the statement said.
Mr. Gopal will be responsible for defining and delivering the business strategy and providing overall leadership for Airtel’s India operations.
4.    Halimah Yacob (58) became the first woman and the 9th Speaker of the Singapore Parliament on 14 January 2013. She replaced Michael Palmer, the former People's Action Party MP. Palmer got down from the post of Speaker of the Parliament and as an MP on 12 December 2012. Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong nominated her for the designation of speaker.

Halimah Yacob came down from her post of Minister of State (Social and Family Development) and was elected as the Speaker by Members of Parliament. In her role, she is expected to play an independent role during all the parliamentary debates, but she stressed the fact that she would remain ahead for the Singaporeans' concerns and would also share the views on various policies.

Various MPs stood up in favour of the appointment of Halimah Yacob in the Parliament, which also highlighted the importance to women as well as the Malay-Muslim community.

About Halimah Yacob

Halimah Yacob, 58, is an Indian-origin woman born in Singapore. She belongs to the People's Action Party. She has remained the Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports from 21 May 2011 to 31 October 2012. She has also held office as the Minister of State, Ministry of Social and Family Development from 1 November 2012 to 13 January 2013.

1.    India Meteorology Department (IMD) is all set to enter a new field of activity. On Tuesday, the apex weather agency will launch a mobile application through which current weather observations and four-day forecasts for weather stations in the four metros — Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai can be accessed on near real time basis through mobile phones..
A team of experts at IMD have developed an application called “Indian-weather” that can be downloaded free of cost from Google Play, available on android-based smart phones and tablets.
Once downloaded, the application will enable the user to access the current weather observations along with four-day forecasts from meteorological stations in the four metros.
Speaking to The Hindu, IMD Director General, L.S. Rathore, said more value added services like weather bulletins, alerts, and agro-meteorological advisories would be added over the coming months based on feedback from users.
Noting that location-specific weather information and forecast were already available on IMD’s website, he said the new application has been thought of to help reach a larger number of people considering there are a lot more people who have access to smart phones than to computers.
Over the next eight to 10 months, the IMD would try to not only expand the repertoire of services but also strive to cover all types of phones apart from android based smart phones, he added.
The new application will be launched by Union Minister for Science and Technology, Jaipal Reddy, on the occasion of IMD’s 138th foundation day.

1.    Hindustan National Glass & Industries (HNGIL) has decided to sell 42.6 per cent stake in group company HNG Floatglass Ltd (HNGFL) to a Turkish firm for an undisclosed amount.
The Somany family, the promoters of HNGIL, together with others will thus see a paring of their present 87.6 per cent share in HNGFL to around 45 per cent.
The Somany family holds about 40.2 per cent in HNGFL, HNGIL holds 47.4 per cent and IFC, Washington, around 12.4 per cent. All three continue to remain equity shareholders but with lesser portions.
2.    Austrian firm RHI AG, a leading global refractories maker, on Tuesday, entered into an agreement to buy 43.6 per cent of the promoters’ stake in Orient Refractories Ltd. (ORL) for nearly Rs.230 crore.
“Orient Abrasives, S. G. Rajgarhia along with other promoters of ORL have entered into a share purchase agreement today [Tuesday] with Dutch US Holding, the Netherlands, an entity owned by RHI AG, Austria, for sale of 5.24 crore shares held by them in the company (aggregating 43.62 per cent) at a price of Rs.43 per share,” ORL said in a BSE filing.
ORL produces refractories and monolithics for use in iron and steel industry. Listed on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company had clocked Rs.300 crore sales in the last fiscal.
ORL’s manufacturing and R&D facility is based in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.
RHI would make an open offer to the public shareholders for up to an additional 26 per cent of the shares of ORL at Rs.43 per share, it added.
“S. G. Rajgarhia will carry on as a member of the future board of directors of ORL as he will continue to own below 5 per cent of the shares,” RHI AG said.
ORL’s shares on Tuesday settled at Rs.36.95 apiece, down 6.10 per cent on the BSE over the previous closing.
3.    Welspun Energy, on Tuesday, announced its plans to set up a research laboratory in Gujarat for advancement of solar technology in partnership with Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI).
In a statement here, the company said the proposed laboratory would study different solar technologies for their performance in Indian terrain and climatic conditions. A MoU has been signed with Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) in this connection recently. “Welspun Energy has been stressing the need to develop indigenous solar energy research and study facilities. Results of these studies can greatly help independent power producers (IPPs) such as Welspun Energy in improving performance of their solar power projects,” the statement said.
The organisation will also be working closely with students. Welspun Energy will be designing and offering internship programmes to students of University’s Solar Programme. Welspun Co-Founder and Managing Director Vineet Mittal said solar energy industry in India was still young, with some amount of research carried out in India for standardisation and technology selection. A student exchange programme had also been initiated by Welspun Energy with the Singapore Management University, he added.

PMO bounty helps cut environmental redtape for 15 Coal India projects

This will enable these projects to ramp up production by 25 per cent

Coal India Ltd. (CIL), which produces over 80 per cent of the country’s coal, received a Christmas gift from the Centre last week. A bounty that would help the world’s single-largest coalminer to start work on about 15 coal projects slicing through some of the time-consuming environmental procedures.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which is now playing a proactive role to help increase coal supplies, has asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to make necessary changes in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006 so that public hearings are done away with and environment clearances come fast. This would enable these projects to ramp up production by 25 per cent, adding about 45 million tonnes annually and about 160 million tonnes within this Plan period, which mandates CIL to add 180 million tonnes additionally. It was learnt that CIL was petitioning the MoEF for long for this relaxation given the fact that due diligence had already been done on these projects.

In a way, this symbolises the proactive role played by the PMO through the year. At times, nudging the country’s monopoly producer to give its best, at times, creating a more enabling atmosphere for the giant to perform.

It started with the issue of fuel supply agreements (FSAs), which CIL’s independent directors found to be an imposition, but the fact remains that in doing so, the PMO has taken the consumers’ sentiment in its reckoning too. “The power sector’s mood is now better,” said an analyst. In the case of price-pool issue too, the PMO tried its level best to talk out issues as the demand-supply scenario made it clear that import of coal would be inevitable.

However, it is not only on sensitive issues such as price-pooling , FSAs or environmental clearances — the PMO has taken a lead role in almost all issues, including some apparently routine and less contentious ones such as mechanism for detailed exploration by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute of India (CIL subsidiary) and introduction of new technology. It has also taken meetings on the issue of constituting an empowered group like the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for single-window mechanism for clearing coal projects given the fact that some projects are pending for seven to eight years.

Coal sector experts say and CIL senior management concur that the role played by the PMO has put CIL back on the growth track even as it put matters in perspective while sensitising all about the obstacles faced by CIL in its task.

And arguably, the PMO’s intervention has come in at the right time. At a recent talk here, C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, had flagged sectoral constraints such as availability of coal and shortage of electric power as two areas of concern saying that these needed to be tackled.