They snigger at my son, says kidney kingpin's former wife

WHILE the police are on the lookout for Dr Santosh Raut alias Dr Amit Kumar (51), the alleged kingpin of the kidney racket uncovered by the UP and Haryana police in Gurgaon last Thursday, his first wife and her son in Mumbai struggle to put their past behind them.

Speaking to The Indian Express about her former husband, Raut's first wife Sunita Raut (45) said she had learnt of his illegal operations before his arrest and had tried to persuade him to give up such activities.

"I was married to Santosh, and we got divorced in 1994. My son and I have no association with him now and are trying to move on with our lives. Being his wife at that time, I came to know about his illegal operations even before he was first arrested. I constantly urged him to give it up. But he refused to do so, which is the only reason why we got divorced. His family always supported his activities, none of them stood by me," said Sunita, a resident of Juhu. She has a medical practice and works for a charitable trust.

Raut was arrested by the Mumbai Police in 1994 along with 11 others, including two nephrologists, for conducting illegal kidney transplant operations at Kaushalya Nursing Home. Released on bail at the end of the year, he jumped bail and shifted his operations to Jaipur.

"I have not heard from him in a long time, we have parted ways. He married another woman after we split. I used to tell him that even Dawood (Ibrahim) earns lots of money but he has earned nobody's

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15 champion judokas in one UP village

UP Olympic Association Secretary General and international judo referee Munawar Anzar points out that the state now has three international judokas: Garima Chaudhary from Meerut, Arjuna Award recipient Akram Shah from Saharanpur and Ram Asrey.

"Both Garima and Ram Asrey have won gold for India in Mauritius, where the country has already won 12 junior and senior gold medals in the judo championship," Anzar said.

But Ram Asrey isn't the only one doing Bhatti proud.

His coach Lal Kumar says the list of the village's judo champions also includes his elder brother German Yadav, now a CRPF employee based in Delhi. Between them, the two brothers have over 30 judo medals, won at state, national and international levels.

Bhatti's other promising judokas - who have ended up on the victory podium in national school games, sub junior, junior and senior championships - include Brijesh, just 10, to Bechu, 18.

Also on the list are Subhash Yadav, Rahul Rai, Kanhaiya Yadav, Manoj Pal, Ganesh Yadav, Shiv Kumar, Radhey Pal, Avdhesh Kumar and Shambhu Pal who is now employed with the Sashastra Seema Bal...

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Article taken from the issue: 28 Jan 2008

Sikhs get a separate marriage law in Pakistan

DESPITE being a microscopic minority, the Sikhs of Pakistan can now boast of something which has eluded their Indian counterparts since 1980 - a separate law for registering Sikh marriages. On Tuesday, the Pakistani Cabinet approved an ordinance recommending Constitutional status for a Sikh marriage.

On the other hand, in India, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Man agement Committee wondered why the Indian Government is still silent about a similar request. "We put the request of the Anand Marriage Act before the Indian Government for the first time in 1980. Till today, it has fallen on deaf ears. When India got its first Sikh Prime Minister in Manmohan Singh, our hopes surged, only to be disappointed. Recently, the Supreme Court ordered that all marriages be legally registered.

In the wake of this ruling, Sikhs demand a separate identity from Hindus, especially in matters of marriage, adoption and divorce. We have requested the Government again after Pakistan took the lead. Let's hope something positive comes out of this," said Paramjit Singh Saran, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

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Article taken from the issue: 25 Jan 2008

Plan to modernise PF may get burial today

Originally to be completed in 22 months in six pilot locations, the project is more than 66 months behind schedule, largely due to bureaucratic bungling, ministerial neglect and sabotage by the department's insiders wary of losing their fiefdoms. While it was slightly behind schedule by May 2004, under the UPA, the project has been completely derailed.

In the project's chequered history, this is not the first time a committee was set up to monitor progress. Earlier panels included then Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik, NIIT chairman P Rajendran, former CVC N Vittal and Gulshan Rai. After the Gupta sub-committee assessed problems on both the software front as well as on EPFO's front, the Director General of NIC held discussions with EPFO and SISL for finding ways to push the project forward.

SISL had to make some changes in software design, EPFO had to pay for the changes and fix practical deadlines for delivering the required data from its end. In October 2007, SISL said another Rs 6 crore would be needed to make the system work and the original contract was to be modified. Last month, when SISL sent EPFO its draft modifications to the contract with redefined milestones,..

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Article taken from the issue: 24 Jan 2008

Uncertainty theme in Davos icy chill, India story is the warmth

This is Europe's highest ski resort, and every Januaryend, in its coldest winter, a man called Klaus Schwab manages to assemble the world's political, business and intellectual elite for five days of discussions. As always, when the World Economic Forum opens tomorrow, participants will have the chance to drop in on talks on "solving the mysteries of the human mind" and how much of happiness one can take. But this year, the gathering fears of a recession in the United States and the immediate backdrop of markets crashing worldwide will concentrate their minds away from eclectic meditations.

The distractions will be there, once US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes the opening address on terrorism, with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf among those in the audience. But the star debates will be on subjects like economic vulnerability, problems of equity, water resources, the rise of sovereign-wealth funds, and the interplay of faith and modernization.

From the Middle East, including Iran and Israel, are present substantial teams, to contest ideas on shifting political realignments, including the post-Annapolis Palestine-Israel situation, Iran's ambitions and the Gulf oil states' economic opportunities.

India is there as a story, too, this WEF, and the Indian delegation reckons that not only is it larger in size than other BRIC groups, it may even be bringing more persons from the country than most G8 members. The India and China stories, however, are sparkle-coated with optimism. Some of the sessions participants may choose to attend, most of them bound by Chatham House Rules: "Innovative India" and "India's International Agenda", with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath participating in many discussions.

Says CII President Sunil Mittal: "CII's projection for GDP growth for 2007-8 is 9.2 per cent. We feel this quite achievable, even in the light of developments in the US and other parts of the world, where signs of slowdown are apparent. India's growth is primarily investment-driven and the current fundamentals of the Indian economy suggest that investments should be as per expectations."

In Davos, India is a story nobody wants to miss out on, the way some of them did

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Yakub's story: In the background, silent, always standing by his wife

BEING out of the house for days together was quite the norm for Yakub Rasul Patel, a cattle trader. But for the last six years, 28-year old Yakub hasn't left his wife and children for even one night.

Instead of travelling to cattle haatsacross Gujarat, he has been a constant companion to his 25-year-old wife, Bilkis Bano, as she battled for justice. "It was our family trade and we used to travel across the state trying to buy and sell in cattle haatsin different villages. But now, being away from my family for even half a day is a terrible thought," says Yakub, Bilkis's husband of 11 years.

After his wife's gang rape and the massacre of 13 members of her family, Yakub has become her whole world.

After six years of dodging threats, Yakub says he now has a constant urge to be around his three children.

And though survival has been a struggle, he cannot think of a full-time job. "We have been on the move ever since the case came up for investigation. So getting a full-time job was not possible. Also, I cannot stay away from the family for too long because there is this con stant fear lurking at the back of our minds," he says. They have survived with help from relatives and money Yakub earned from odd jobs.

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Article taken from the issue: 22 Jan 2008

Enemy No. 1 is BJP, Left working on third front: CPM

"It has gone to the IAEA. It will come back to the (UPALeft) committee which we have set up. When that comes we will see. It is not going forward anywhere," he said.

The draft political resolution, which provides CPM the larger direction framework for the next three years, states "the party differentiates between the BJP and Congress, considering the latter as a bourgeois party, though it often vacillates when communal forces take the offensive.

The party will continue to adopt tactics for isolating and defeating BJP. It will not enter into any alliance or united front with the Congress."

Karat said the party will maintain relations with all "non-Congress secular par ties" for a united struggle and joint action on common issues.

"We still want a secular government at the Centre.

But we also want a government which does not follow such economic policies. How we can achieve that, we will have to wait and see," he said when he was asked about CPM plans for the next Lok Sabha elections.

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Article taken from the issue: 21 Jan 2008

Secrets Act to be made a little less secretive

Prior sanction for prosecution, law to be in tune with RTI: proposed changes

A N inter-ministerial group has proposed that the 1923 Official Se crets Act (OSA) be amended to not only bring it in conformity with the transparency regime ushered in by the Right to Information Act but also ensure that "prior sanction" is obtained from the Home Ministry before prosecution of an OSA accused.

These amendments are being finalised after consultations of an Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) set up by the Home Ministry which includes members from the Law Ministry, the Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation and Delhi Police.

The group is understood to have unanimously decided against repealing the OSA and instead making significant amendments, including to Section 5 of the Act which contains sweeping generalities on what may comprise an "official secret."

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Article taken from the issue: 18 Jan 2008

On the table today: fuel price hike, cuts in ration subsidies

TOMORROW is a crucial day for the UPA government as a Group of Ministers has to recommend between annoying either the middle income group through an increase in fuel prices or those living above the poverty line (APL) by keeping them out of ration shops.

With the subsidy bill touching Rs 1 lakh crore, the Cabinet mandated a GoM headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to consider an increase in the central issue price of foodgrain sold through the public distribution system. It also asked the same group to consider increasing prices of petroleum products.

That meeting is fixed for tomorrow with the Food Ministry proposing that food subsidy be prevented from crossing Rs 26,000 crore by weeding out APL families from PDS or cutting their ration quantity to 10 kg per month from present 35 kg.

The other option offered by the ministry is to raise the issue price for APL families to 70 percent of the economic cost that would include minimum support price and bonus paid to farmers, transportation and bagging cost. This, the ministry says, should not be done in one go but through an increase of Rs 1 per kg every year.

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Article taken from the issue: 17 Jan 2008

RTI means Govt has to disclose info on corruption in even pvt firms: CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has held that the Government or a public authority, under the Right to Information Act, has to provide information it has on any company, public or private, despite the company's refusal to part with such information.

Information commissioner M M Ansari said that a public authority cannot take refuge to "third party exemption" under the RTI Act to deny information merely because the company concerned has not concurred with such disclosure.

"A major concern of the RTI Act is to contain corruption. The disclosure of information relating to corrupt practices of public/private companies is, therefore, largely in public interest" the CIC observed.

The CIC's order came on an appeal filed by Anil Kumar Sharma of Jabalpur who sought certain information from Registrar of Companies (Ministry of Company Affairs) regarding a company of which he is a shareholder. In his application, he alleged the company had been conducting its business activities in an "illegal manner" and has thus earned profit through corrupt practices. The requisite information was denied on the grounds that the company concerned did not permit the disclosure of information asked for by the appellant and hence cannot be divulged without express concurrence of the company.

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Article taken from the issue: 10 Jan 2008

Incentives announced for solar power generation

INDIA is fast becoming a solar panel manufacturing hub, with some of the major manufacturers feeding solar power generation markets in Europe.

And now, in view of its vast untapped solar energy potential, the Centre has announced an incentive scheme for solar power generation in India.

At present, renewable energy accounts for about 7.5 per cent of India's installed generation capacity of 127,673 MW.

Much of this capacity is windbased, with the share of solar power being only 20 MW.

The new scheme is also an experiment in the way the incentives are structured. For the first time, a generation-linked incentive is being provided.

The power company can claim the subsidy calculated on the megawatts it supplies to the state power grid. So far, all incentives for green power have been capital funding or viability gap funding, which may or may not lead to actual power generation.

"My ministry will provide financial assistance of Rs 12 per kilowatt hour in case of solar photo voltaic and Rs 10 per kilowatt hour in case of solar thermal power fed to the electricity grid," said the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Vilas Muttemwar.

The private sector is expected to invest about Rs 10 billion in solar plants eligible for aid under the scheme in the next five years. Project developers can avail of the incentive at a fixed rate for ten years. The Centre hopes that this will result in the volumes going up, bringing down the prohibitive costs. Solar power is four times more expensive than producing thermal or hydro energy.

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Article taken from the issue: 3 Jan 2008