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Saturday, March 5, 2011

PJ Thomas nearly quit in Dec, but chose to hang on

NEW DELHI: PJ Thomas could have escaped the ignominy of being sacked by the Supreme Court and spared the government a huge political embarrassment if he had heeded advice to quit.

Months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram rode roughshod over Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj's resistance to put Thomas in the lead role at the anti-corruption watchdog, Congress leadership recognised that the CVC had turned into a political liability.

Unfortunately for the government, the mild-mannered CVC suddenly became unyielding after initial indications that he would put in his papers. Negotiations with Thomas had progressed to the extent that his well-wishers had even sought advice on how to draft his resignation letter. He was to announce his resignation in the first week of December when the heat on UPA over corruption was growing.

But all that was rendered irrelevant by Thomas's sudden refusal to go. He conveyed his resolve to the negotiators on December 4. Soon followed a defiant declaration that he was not going to follow the script written for him.

Two theories have been put forward for the turnaround. According to one, Thomas changed his mind after a senior minister egged him on to stay put. The minister was concerned about loss of face.

According to another theory, the about-turn was at the instance of Thomas's family members and close friends who warned him that quitting would taint him forever. A close relative is learnt to have told him that it could not be just his call as the matter concerned the reputation of the entire family.

The episode is seen as yet another instance of the failure of the top babus in the regime. The set was supposed to have a leverage with Thomas — one of the reasons why Congress managers thought that they would be able to shake off what had become an albatross. But the estimate was belied, adding to the growing sense of resentment against the babus.

Gaddafi likens his crackdown to India’s action in Kashmir

NEW DELHI: Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi told PM Manmohan Singh last week that his actions against his people in Libya were akin to India's actions against Kashmiris.

On the eve of the UN Security Council debate and vote against Libya on February 26, Gaddafi, in a missive to Singh, asked for India's support for his actions as civil war broke out in Libya.

The request for support came even as African and European countries, including Libya's UN envoy who defected to the rebels, made an impassioned plea in the Security Council to refer Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court. India voted for the UNSC resolution, which was passed unanimously.

Gaddafi has reportedly used airplanes to strafe his own people who are fighting to take Libya out of Gaddafi's control. According to some estimates, over 6,000 people have died in the fighting, which continues even after 10 days.

Gaddafi's mercurial character, though, was on full display on Libya's national day, which he celebrated earlier this week. In a five-hour address in Tripoli, he mentioned India at least five times, including saying that he would give future commercial contracts to Indian and Chinese companies and that he was very pleased with India's vote in the UN Security Council.

Gaddafi has rarely been a person India has been comfortable with. In September 2009, Gaddafi, in a 100-minute speech at the UN General Assembly, railed against India and Kashmir as well. "Kashmir should be an independent state, not Indian, not Pakistani. We should end this conflict. It should be a Ba'athist state between India andPakistan," he said.

Friday, March 4, 2011

CWG scam: CBI raids houses, offices of suspended Prasar Bharti CEO

NEW DELHI: The CBI Friday raided the offices and residences of suspended Prasar Bharati chief executive officer (CEO) B.S. Lalli and Waseem Ahmed Dehlvi of Zoom Communications here for their alleged involvement in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) broadcasting scam.

The raids started at 8 am and were simultaneously conducted at four places, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Vineeta Thakur said.

The places where the raids were conducted include Lalli's Pandara Road residence, his Mandi House office and Dehlvi's Greater Kailash-1 residence and Kalkaji office, CBI official R.K. Gaur said.

CBI registered an FIR against Lalli on Thursday night.

Lalli, who is facing corruption charges, was placed under suspension Dec 21, 2010. He is an IAS officer of the 1971 batch belonging to the Uttar Pradesh cadre.

The V.K. Shunglu Committee, appointed by the government to probe allegations of corruption surrounding the Commonwealth Games in October 2010, noted that the Prasar Bharati had sanctioned highly inflated bills in connection with the broadcast of the event.

The committee said in its first report Feb 1 that CWG contracts were awarded by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati arbitrarily "without ensuring reasonable rates and overruling suggestions".

CVC case: CJI Kapadia's court revives activism, rattles power elite

NEW DELHI: The unseating of central vigilance commissioner PJ Thomas is the latest breakthrough made by the Supreme Court in the course of a resurgent judicial activism under the leadership of Chief Justice SH Kapadia.

The ouster of Thomas, who was earlier telecom secretary, comes close on the heels of resignation of his minister A Raja, again on the Supreme Court's prodding through a public interest litigation (PIL) related to the 2G scam.

The vigorous manner in which the SC has pursued a range of PIL cases in recent months has marked a new phase and a sharp contrast to the earlier phase when KG Balakrishnan was the chief justice. Many government leaders consider the court now a thorn in their flesh, while to the common man, the judiciary is once again seen as a source of hope — the sole institution that has the gumption to stand up to the high and mighty.

Legal experts say under Kapadia the court's credibility has been restored after the damage it had suffered during the three-year tenure of Balakrishnan, whose kin are now under the scanner for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The renewed efforts to hold the influential to account have helped the institution put behind the unsavory controversies of the earlier regime — such as the reluctance to disclose the assets of judges and the abortive move to elevate a judge allegedly with disproportionate assets.

The display of such extraordinary commitment to probity in public life was, in fact, consistent with a statement made by Kapadia at the time of his appointment as CJI in May 2010. "I come from a poor family. I started my career as a Class IV employee and the only asset I possess is integrity."

But as regards the idea of PILs, Kapadia seems to have had a rethink while in office. For, on his very first day as CJI, Kapadia, far from extolling the virtues of PIL cases, struck a note of warning by declaring that those filing frivolous PILs would be charged huge penalties. He also said the procedures for PILs would be tightened.

But as it has turned out, for PILs with merit, there hasn't been a more sympathetic court than the one headed by Kapadia. The petition against Balakrishnan, for instance, was entertained despite Kapadia's own acknowledgement that there were deficiencies in it.

He made several administrative reforms to ensure that PILs received due attention. Among other things, he broke from the past practice of the CJI's bench monopolising PIL cases. Kapadia shared major PIL cases with other benches, including one headed by a judge who is 11th in the order of seniority, Justice G S Singhvi. It is the bench consisting of Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly that has been relentlessly pushing the CBI to probe all the culprits in the 2G scam, from among politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists.

Since the Radia tapes were connected with the 2G scam, Kapadia's administration ensured that Ratan Tata's petition raising concerns of privacy and other such related matters were all placed before the already charged-up Singhvi bench. In much the same spirit of optimizing judicial resources, Kapadia transferred to Singhvi's bench a long-pending petition of Amar Singh because of the phone tapping link.

It is not just the freshly-filed PIL cases that have been taken up aggressively. The Kapadia bench, for instance, revived the police reforms case which had seen little action during the Balakrishnan years. In a bid to implement the radical verdict delivered five years ago by the then CJI Y K Sabharwal, the current bench for the first time fixed a time frame for states to report compliance of the reforms aimed at reducing political abuse of the police forces.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Steve Jobs launches Apple's iPad 2

Belying all rumours of him being extremely ill, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs CEO on Wednesday night launched second generation iPad 2. ( iPad 2 launch: Apple's shares climb 1.4% )

Jobs made his presentation after he was given a standing ovation by a hall full of journalists and analysts from across the world who were probably happier seeing him on stage than iPad2.

But the new iPad almost stole Jobs' thunder. With price tags beginning at $499 for the 16 GB model, it runs on a new processor A5 which will double the speed and graphic display by nine times. At $899, the highest priced is the 64 GB model with WiFi and 3G.

Jobs pointed out iPad 2 will have as many as five models that are priced below $799 tag that its just launched rival Xoom from Motorola bears.

Almost as if inspired by Jobs who is said to be battling severe illness and has shed a lot of weight off late, iPad 2 is a lot thinner than the current iPad (one third), even thinner than the iPhone 4.

It bears two cameras at back and front for video conferencing; a HDMI port; a smart microfiber case cum stand that is also used to clean it; and will come in both black and white variants.

iPad 2 will start shipping from March 11 across 26 countries that doesn't include India. In US, both AT&T and Verizon will retail it with bundled data plans.

Jobs took potshots at all rivals who he said were flummoxed by the success of iPad and could only try to follow what has come to be "best-selling gadget ever".

"A lot of people have tried to copy this, said Jobs while making reference to sales figures of rivals such as Samsung which claims to have put out more advanced tablets in the market following iPad's launch a year ago.

"Many have said this is the most successful consumer product ever launched. Over 90% market share... our competitors were flummoxed," quipped Jobs.

Pooh pooing another rival Google Android's Honeycomb operating system, Jobs said they had only 100 apps to show on it. In contrast, Apple iPad had 65,000 apps just for photography alone.

"We recently paid out over $2 billion to developers in total. They have earned over $2 billion from selling their apps on the App Store," said Jobs.

Apple also shipped out 100 millionth iPhone recently.

The presentation was attended among others by Apple's COO Tim Cook and design head and Jobs' friend Jony Ive who according to unconfirmed reports is believed to be having a

tussle with the company's board regarding his impending relocation to London.

Times of India had earlier reported that the much-hyped tablet was accidentally listed on Amazon hours ahead of its official launch before being pulled down.

Interestingly, while Apple usually gives a makeover to each of its products in a year's time, there is buzz that the company might actually upgrade the just-launched iPad 2 with a far more advanced third generation tablet by the Fall this year itself.

According to The Economist, however, iPad could see a dent in its market share this year despite projections that Apple could sell 40 million units in 2011 as against 15 million it sold in nine months of 2010.

Other tablet manufacturers, especially those based on Google's Android operating system, are expected to erode Apple iPad's market share which stood at 90% of total tablet sales last year. Here are 10 most expected tablets to watch out for in 2011 .

What may be worrisome for Apple is the speculation that by 2015 the company's market share could fall below 40%, said the magazine.

This year is likely to see a huge number of Android-based tablet PCs flooding the market, with almost every mobile and PC maker jumping in the fray with their alternatives.

Industry watchers claim that of these, the ones that are most likely to pose a challenge to iPad will be RIM's Playbook and Motorola's Xoom which has just been launched in the market.

IAF aircraft to join evacuation operations from Libya

NEW DELHI: As Libya swiftly descended into civil war, India decided to use an Il-76 transport aircraft of the IAF to ferry stranded citizens. From Thursday, the "Gajraj" aircraft will ferry people between Sirde in Libya and Cairo.

A wide-bodied aircraft has also been requisitioned by Air India to ferry people out of Sebha, sources said.

Sirde and Sebha are two towns with 2,000-strong concentrations of Indians each.

Officials acknowledged that India had been slow to start evacuation, but was currently taking out about 1,000 people every day and promised to complete the process by next week.

Even as China seemed on the verge of completing evacuation operations in Libya, having already pulled out over 32,000 of its nationals from the country, India only had a little over 6,000 evacuees to show for its efforts till Wednesday evening. The Chinese figure of 32,000 evacuees, mostly being doled out by official news agencies, however, seemed to have stirred a debate with foreign secretary Nirupama Rao herself saying that there was "no clarity'' over the number of Chinese evacuees.

"Incidentally, no real clarity about nos. of Chinese evacuees so far,'' said Rao in a tweet on Wednesday evening. Earlier in the day, she tweeted, "India has chartered ships and aircraft. Please believe me when I say this. I will not comment on the Chinese statistics.''

Close to 12,000 Indians though are still stranded in the country, many of them in the interiors who are finding it increasingly difficult to reach Tripoli from where evacuation flights are operating.

A ship, MV Scotia Prince, carrying 1,188 Indians docked in Alexandria on Wednesday night. After their papers are processed, they will travel back to India on EgyptAir flights. The ship will turn around to go back to Benghazi, reaching on March 5 to pick up another 1,100 Indians.

A second ship may be put into service in a more sensitive part of Libya where some Indians are stuck.

Officials said Indian companies were actually sending their managers back into Libya to help bring back their employees. This is very different from companies from other countries who are leaving their Asian employees behind.

Three flights -- two Boeing 747s and one Airbus-330 -- brought back 1,045 Indians from Tripoli early Wednesday. Another three flights have left for Tripoli and are expected to ferry back 1,002 people. Three daily flights to Tripoli will continue over the coming days and these may be stepped up, said the foreign ministry.

Separately, a chartered flight carrying 78 Indians from Sirde (Libya) reached Larnaca ( Cyprus) on Tuesday evening. These people will be booked on commercial flights to India.

So far 126 Indians have left Libya in small numbers on their own, in coordination with Indian missions in and around Libya, the MEA said. As many as 267 Indians have, by now, crossed over to Salloum ( Egypt) by the land route and the Indian embassy in Cairo has already facilitated the return of some 180 of them in batches, to Mumbai by regular Gulf Air flights, it said.

Also, close to 1,400 people persons have reached Djerba in Algeria, where the Indian embassy staff from Tunis have put them up in hotels.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Survey calls for major reforms in power sector

Calling for bold reforms in the power sector, the Economic Survey today asked the

Allow phased FDI in retail

Call for education sector reforms

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Mkts find no surprise in Survey, Rly budget

'Opaque MFI contracts can lead to sort of sub-prime crisis'

states to reduce subsidies and cross-subsidies on electricity and hike tariffs.

The Survey tabled in Parliament today pointed out that India currently has one of the lowest and most uneconomical average electricity tariffs in the world -- 8 cents per unit at the retail level, compared to about 12-15 cents in countries endowed with more coal or gas and 19-10 cents per unit elsewhere.

It also suggested reducing the monopoly of state electricity boards (SEBs) in power distribution by encouraging open sales of the bulk of power supply in the market, which would increase competition.

It pointed out that the transmission and distribution losses in the power sector, at 35 per cent, were among the highest in the world.

"This (loss) is draining public revenues, forcing larger price increase requirements and causing massive losses to the state electricity boards, which is about 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product," it said.

It stressed on the strong role of independent regulators to ensure adequate competition and act on uncompetitive behaviour in wholesale trade (of electricity), including capping wholesale tariffs and investigating competition.

In view of the monopoly of SEBs in power distribution, with mounting losses and poor services, the survey suggested three different ways to encourage open access or putting the bulk of power supply for sale in the market.

Firstly, there could be a public-private partnership mode with open access, where long-term concessions were granted to private distribution companies. These firms would be required to make high investments and adhere to performance benchmarks.

Under this mode, which is very similar to what is being followed in the telecom sector, the tariff would be regulated and bulk consumers would be permitted to access the network. This would involve the bulk of power supply being put on sale in the market.

The second option was a distribution franchisee model where operators are selected through competitive bidding and ownership of the assets remains with the state power distribution company. This mode is being adopted in Delhi.

In the third mode suggested by the survey, there could be a performance-based state distribution company where open access is allowed.

Source:-http://www.mydigitalfc.com/power/survey-calls-major-reforms-power-sector-427

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Fresh ultimatum from Somali pirates

AMRITSAR: Somali pirates who had hijacked MV Suez, a ship of Red Sea Navigation , in the Gulf of Aden have given five days ultimatum for the life of six Indians and four Pakistani if they didn't get $ 2.3 million, informed United Nations Expert Advisor on Human Rights, Ansar Burney who claims to be in touch with the pirates for the release of the hostages.

While talking to TOI over phone from Karachi on Tuesday, Burney said that he was negotiating with the Somali pirates on humanitarian grounds for the greater interest of human dignity and to save the lives of six Indians and 4 Pakistanis. The pirates had earlier demanded $5 million for the release of hostages, he added.

MV Suez with the flag of Panama was hijacked by the Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on August 2, 2010, with 6 Indians, 4 Pakistani, 4 Lankans and 11 Egyptians on board, said Burney.

Pakistan's former Federal Minister for Human Rights and Chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust International, Burney, said that the condition of the hostages was critical as they had been sailing in the Somali sea for past nearly eight months ."They were being given some boiled rice and fish by their captors", he said.

"They established contact with me on Tuesday and gave ultimatum for the hostages life if their demand was not met" said Burney, adding that earlier he had contacted them on Saturday for the release of crew members.

Latest Happenings All Around the World