In Pune, a Defence institute gets a civilian makeover

Winds of change are blowing at the premier DRDO establishment, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), as it opens its doors wide open to civilians and turns into a full-fledged university.

And among the first things on the cards at the Pune-based institute is nomenclature. The masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in Combat Vehicles has been renamed as Automobile Engineering, while another ME Mechanical degree course in Guided Missiles is now called Aerospace Engineering.

“We are trying to change the nomenclature of certain courses that are not linked exclusively with defence and broad base their curriculum so that eventually civilians can avail of admission into these courses,” says DIAT’s Vice-Chancellor Prof L M Patnaik, who assumed charge in March this year. Civilians can gain admission beginning sometime in 2009.

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Delhi girl Tanya, 15, makes history on a Texas golf course

In a sport proud of its “Stay Quiet” placards, there is not much scope for making too much noise. But then Tanya Wadhwa anyway doesn’t quite fit into the outspoken, brash mould of India’s new, young sports stars. It’s the teenager’s strides on the golf course that are making people sit up take notice.

Last week, Tanya trumped a field of professionals, and the pressures of a last-hole playoff-like situation to chalk up the biggest win of her cub career. Tanya sank a last-hole birdie, as playing partner Adrienne McDonald missed hers, to claim the Texas Women’s Open, an event on the Northern Texas PGA, a section of the PGA of America. The 15-year-old is the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

She doesn’t sound much like it though, her talk as much of a pro as her game. “I knew that if I just focus on one shot at a time, and not the outcome, I would be fine. In situations like that you can’t get ahead of yourself. You just have to stay in the moment and give your 100 per cent on every shot,” she says, describing that last hole in an email interview.

But she has always been a child prodigy. Having begun with chasing birdies in the Delhi Golf Club shadows, she won herself a scholarship to sunny stateside at the rather tender age of eight. She started at the David Lead better Academy in Texas, that her father Ravi had just looked up on the internet, her family moving along with her, but has now changed base to Florida.

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Samajwadi Party deals Kalam trump card

To give its political decision of supporting the UPA the stamp of “national-interest” legitimacy, the Samajwadi Party today armed itself with a ringing endorsement of the Indo-US nuclear deal from former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

The SP’s Kalam announcement came hours after it got its allies in the UNPA to climb down from their strident opposition to the deal to saying they were ready for a “national debate.”

While these allies — TDP, INLD, AGP and the Jharkhand Vikas Party — stay opposed to the deal, they watched in awkward silence as SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said: “I can assure you that the UNPA will not take any step that will go against the national interest. The UNPA will also not do anything that will strengthen the communal forces (BJP) in the country.”

All the UNPA members, except the SP, have been associated with the NDA and all supported Kalam for a second term as President as well.

When Kalam had approved the deal, the BJP had distanced itself calling it his “personal opinion.”

“We had gone to seek the advice of former President Abdul Kalam, who is also a respected scientist, on the clarifications to our apprehensions provided by the PMO yesterday,” said Mulayam after his meeting with Kalam.

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To guard public health in emergency, Centre plans to change the Law

The Health Ministry is working on a Bill which, if all goes to plan, will place public health in times of natural disasters, epidemic outbreaks and acts of terror in the Concurrent List before the end of this year, giving the Centre the power to independently promulgate laws and lay down rules. Public health is so far a state subject, exclusively in the domain of state governments.

The recent outbreak of avian flu in West Bengal has convinced the Ministry that more powers need to be vested with the Centre. “During the avian flu outbreak, Panchayat elections were due in West Bengal. So the state government could not take certain steps which were necessary in those circumstances. The Ministry could not intervene as health is a state subject. Though the Health Ministry had for long felt the need to bring health under its control, this incident highlighted the urgency for such an amendment,” a senior Health Ministry official told The Indian Express.

The Bill being drafted by the Ministry will also lay down guidelines to be followed in case of natural disasters and epidemics. The Public Health Bill 2007 aims “to provide, prevent, control and manage epidemics or dangerous epidemic diseases, acts of bio terrorism and threats there of”.

The draft of the proposed Bill has already been examined by a Parliamentary committee and a Cabinet note has also been circulated. The proposed Bill is likely to be discussed in the forthcoming session of the House.

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As loan waiver gets official, little cheer in suicide zone

In the heart of Vidharbha’s suicide country, Sumitra Pandurang Surpam and Asha Lakde have similar stories to tell. Their husbands committed suicide early this year after crops failed and debts mounted. Sumitra is not eligible for the loan waiver while Asha is but it is not making much of a difference to either.

Sumitra, 40, has little idea about the buzz of karjamafi (loan-waiver) that is all around her. The day after the government’s deadline to banks to waive off nearly Rs 71,000 crore loans to small and marginal farmers across India ended, she knows it does not benefit her but she is not bothered.

Luck has hardly been on her side ever since her husband Pandurang consumed poison on April 1, 2008. Sumitra, a Kolam tribal, had no courage to do farming after having seen her husband’s disastrous experience. So, she left her Kochi village to shift to stay in her parents’ house in Wagda village, about 13 km away. “I did not want to stay on in that village any longer, neither did my children. So rather than till my own land, I chose to be a labourer,” she says.

From the three non-irrigated acres they have at Kochi village in Ghatanji tehsil, Pandurang could reap just four quintal of cotton and 50 kg of pulses last year. With an institutional loan of Rs 25,000, taken after the eligibility deadline of March 31, 2007, and a private loan worth about 30,000, he had lost the will and the courage to live.

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Orissa attack shows a major upgrade in Naxalite firepower

Seven of the 39 missing jawans of the Greyhounds, the elite anti-Naxalite force of Andhra Pradesh whose motorboat came under attack from Maoists while crossing a reservoir on the Orissa-Andhra border yesterday, were found safe early this morning in the adjoining forests. The body of Udaynath, a constable from Warangal, was found trapped beneath the capsized motorboat where Navy divers were searching the waters for the others still missing.

The ferocity of the attack in Orissa’s Malkangiri district has stunned teams engaged in anti-Naxal operations with officers pointing to a significant upgrade in the rebel firepower. From their positions atop a hillock surrounding the Balimela reservoir, Maoists opened up on the Greyhounds with grenade launchers, light machine guns and automatic weapons.

Orissa IGP Manmohan Praharaj, in-charge of anti-Naxal operations, said: “The Maoist strength is on the rise. The attacks are becoming more audacious, there is layer formation, more meticulous planning. They have more firepower.”

A senior police officer posted in southern Orissa said the Maoists used grenade launchers. “The rebels had looted grenade launchers and light machine guns during a raid on the Nayagarh armoury in February. It was obvious that they would use these weapons and not limit themselves to landmines. The manner in which the Maoists attacked proves their lethal power is intact,” the official said.

Officers said they were worried that Maoists had graduated from landmines to grenade launchers. Yet they conceded they had seen it coming. “We know for sure the Maoists have very sophisticated weapons. We knew about it at least three months ago. The firepower is almost equal. They have got what we have,” an officer said.

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