Indian Express

Modi, BJP CMs praise Centre's internal security upgrade, `positive response'

2010-02-08T10:01:00.002+05:30

As the Centre pointed to increased infiltration attempts from Pakistan and pledged to overcome threats from “dark forces” through coordinated efforts with states, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and his Ministry came in for praise today from BJP Chief Ministers at a conference on internal security in New Delhi.

It was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who set the tone for the meeting when he said the Home Minister and his Ministry had been “swift and positive” in their response to requests from states. Others, including Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, spoke on similar lines.

Modi, who a day earlier had gone hammer and tongs against the Centre over the issue of price rise,

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Sena's black carpet for Rahul in Mumbai today

2010-02-05T10:30:00.001+05:30

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has directed partymen to show black flags to Rahul Gandhi when he visits Mumbai on Friday in protest against his Mumbai-for-all comment.

The Sena moves have prompted Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to send out a clear warning to “those who try to take the law into their hands”. Making it clear that his government was monitoring every move, he said the police would do whatever is needed to keep the peace.

With the Sena and Congress locked in a war of words over the issue of migrants in Mumbai,

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Free fuel pricing, hike LPG by Rs 100, kerosene by 6: panel

2010-02-04T10:15:00.002+05:30

The Kirit Parikh Committee on petroleum pricing, the third such advisory body appointed by the UPA, today suggested that petrol and diesel pricing be taken out of government control. For kerosene and cooking gas, it prescribed a minimum price hike that was economically rationale.

“Price of PDS kerosene needs to be increased by at least Rs 6 per litre so that the share of expenditure on kerosene in the total consumption expenditure of rural households remains at the same level as in 2002 (the year when its prices were last revised),” the committee stated in its report to Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.

Subsequently, the price of kerosene sold through the public distribution system could be raised every year in proportion to the growth in per capita agricultural gross domestic product at nominal price, it said.

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Theatres buckle to Sena threat, Shah Rukh Khan posters off

2010-02-03T10:40:00.002+05:30

Multiplexes and single-screen theatres in Mumbai have taken off posters and hoardings of Shah Rukh Khan’s My name is Khan following an order by the Shiv Sena. Cinema managements declined to come on record, but their fear of violence by Sainiks was apparent Tuesday, and there appeared to be some doubt over the film’s release, scheduled for February 12.

The Sena is angry with Khan for backing the participation of Pakistani cricketers in the IPL. Sainiks gheraoed SRK’s home in suburban Bandra Sunday, and have been ripping the film’s posters at several places in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

“We can’t release the film and put our audience under threat unless the matter is resolved,” said

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He fired ONGC's ambition, and then achieved it

2010-02-02T10:23:00.004+05:30

Subir Raha, arguably the most influential former chairman of any government-run company, died of cancer today. He was 62.

The word “big” became synonymous with Raha’s style big acquisitions, big investments and big jamborees.

Soon after taking over as chairman of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, he pushed its overseas arm ONGC Videsh to invest what was then India’s biggest overseas investment $670 million in a producing field in strife-torn Sudan when others feared to tread there.

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Now RSS says Mumbai for all Indians, Sena disagrees

2010-02-01T10:22:00.002+05:30

After Sachin Tendulkar and Mukesh Ambani, the RSS has now opposed the Shiv Sena’s and Raj Thackeray’s Mumbai-for-Marathis line. The criticism drew a sharp reaction from the Sena today, giving the impression of war within the Parivar.

Speaking in Guwahati yesterday, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat came out in support of north Indians facing attacks in Mumbai. “Mumbai is for all Indians,” Bhagwat said. “Whole of India is for all Indians and all Indians can earn livelihood anywhere in India.”

“Language, caste, sub-castes, groups, tribes can be different, but all are sons of India,” the RSS chief said, adding that “this is a misconception that employment has decreased at our place (Maharashtra) because of migrants...

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Missing link in probe: Headley's `African associate' in Mumbai

2010-01-29T10:49:00.002+05:30

While the two women who were frequently spotted with David Headley during his nine visits to India a 30-year-old Moroccan and 28-year-old Mumbai hotel employee have since been identified, Indian agencies are still trying to trace an African national who has been described as a “close associate” of the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative.

The identity of the African, sources told The Indian Express, remains a key missing link in the probe which, by now, has involved questioning scores of individuals across the country and scrutiny of hundreds of telephone numbers, call details and emails.

While a mention of the mysterious African associate came after questioning a Headley contact, the link resurfaced once text messages sent by Rahul Bhatt to Headley from the phone left behind in the suitcase were scrutinized.

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Apple's latest, from USD 499 iPad

2010-01-28T09:57:00.002+05:30

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the iPad, a tablet-style computer that resembles the iPhone, but larger.

"It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone," Jobs said Wednesday at the device's highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.

Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple's Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an onscreen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.

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Blogger Judge: ‘Executive corrupting judiciary’

2010-01-27T10:34:00.002+05:30

In a rare outburst, a sitting High Court Judge has alleged that “a vocal and aggressive Executive Government is attempting to regulate and take over Judiciary, even by corrupting the Judiciary.”

This is part of the Republic Day greetings on his blog posted by Karnataka H C Judge D V Shylendra Kumar. He has been in the news ever since he took on the Chief Justice of India on the issue of declaration of assets.

Justice Kumar writes: “Inept and corrupt Judiciary is playing second fiddle to the Executive. It is only the legislature albeit corrupt,

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Outrage makes Chavan backtrack on his Taxi Test: Hindi, too, will do

2010-01-22T11:04:00.002+05:30

A day after it sparked outraged with its decision to make knowledge of Marathi compulsory for taxi drivers seeking new permits, the Congress-led government in Maharashtra did a turnaround, saying Marathi or any local language such as Hindi or Gujarati would also do. But Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s government stuck to reaffirming another old clause that requires drivers seeking permits to be residents of the state for at least 15 years.

Sources in the Congress said top party leaders in New Delhi spoke to Chavan over phone after leaders from the Hindi heartland protested, saying the move was directed at migrants in Mumbai. With Bihar headed for state polls this year and UP two years later, Congress leaders seemed perplexed why Chavan had “unnecessarily” chosen to court controversy.

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Congress Raj: Mumbai cabbies must know Marathi, have 15-year domicile

2010-01-21T11:04:00.001+05:30

Maharashtra’s Congress-NCP government today stoked a new controversy involving identity politics by mandating that all applicants for new taxi permits should know to read and write Marathi, besides reaffirming an existing rule that they also have to be residents of the state for at least 15 years.

Although the decision applies to the entire state, it is seen as mostly relevant to the capital Mumbai where the government has allowed 55,000 taxis to operate in various categories, including the ubiquitous black-and-yellow Premier Padminis or Fiats which have long been icons of the city.

However, of the 55,000 permits, only 31,000 are in use officially.

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Pakistan is The Untouchable for Indian Premier League 3

2010-01-20T10:54:00.002+05:30

The big talking point of the first Indian Premier League (IPL) auction was the bidding war for MS Dhoni. In the second season, it was about Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff emerging costlier than Dhoni. On Tuesday in Mumbai, despite the rumoured record-busting bid for Kieron Pollard in the ‘silent tiebreaker’, the spotlight stayed firmly on the fact that none of the 11 Pakistani players on offer were picked up by any of the eight franchises to play in IPL’s third season.

Shahid Afridi, captain of the world-champion Pakistan Twenty20 side, said it was insulting. “The way I see it, the IPL and India have made fun of us and our country by treating us this way,” Afridi said. “We are the Twenty20 world champions and for me the attitude of the franchises was disappointing. I feel bad for the Indian people who I am sure wanted to see us play in the IPL this year.”

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44 deemed-to-be universities to be shut: Government to Supreme Court

2010-01-19T10:26:00.002+05:30

An institute on Janpath in New Delhi that goes under the name of the National Museum, Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology and claims to have 135 students including 27 researchers, is among 44 deemed-to-be universities across the country that the government plans to close.

The institutes recommended for derecognition have 1,19,363 students at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels in addition to 2,124 pursuing research in M.Phil and Ph.D programmes. An estimated 74,808 pursue distance education programmes.

In an 11-page affidavit filed before the Supreme Court today, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development,

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Farewell, Comrade

2010-01-18T14:17:00.001+05:30

The tallest patriarch of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jyoti Basu, whose extraordinary political career ended up shaping the last three decades of West Bengal, died on Sunday morning.

The 95 year old leader’s end came minutes before noon after a 17-day fight in the last lap of his life during which, as his doctors said, he swayed between life and death, hope and despair.

For over half a century, the sheer force of Basu’s personality in a party with little leeway for image politics came to define the political landscape of West Bengal

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Sania to quit professional tennis after marriage

2010-01-15T10:52:00.002+05:30

Sania Mirza, who got engaged to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in July 2009, has said he will quit playing tennis after er marriage. The Indian, though, id not say when that would be.

"As of now, I don't intend to play professionally after marriage but hat is still some time away," said ania. Before getting engaged to he Indian tennis player, Sohrab ad said that Sania will have comlete freedom in making her career ecisions. "She has my complete upport and backing in whatever he wishes. It is completely her deciion for how long she wishes to lay," Sohrab had said.

When asked if it was purely her ecision to quit the game after marriage, Sania's father Imran Mirza said, "It's her decision for now.

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Blast kills Iran nuclear scientist, Tehran says US, Israel responsible

2010-01-13T10:19:00.002+05:30

A remote-controlled bomb killed a Tehran University nuclear scientist outside his home on Tuesday, state media reported, in an attack which Iran blamed on US and Israeli agents.

The blast which killed professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, 50, occurred at a time of heightened tension in country, seven months after a disputed presidential election plunged it into turmoil.

It also coincided with a sensitive time in Iran’s row with the West over its nuclear ambitions, with major powers expected to meet in New York on Saturday to discuss possible new sanctions on Tehran over its refusal to halt its atomic work.

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Return or face sack, may even pull out of World Cup, HI warns players

2010-01-12T09:40:00.003+05:30

Indian hockey stared at crisis Monday as officials said they would not give in to "blackmail" by players, and might suspend the entire team or even pull out of the World Cup if they continued with their strike.

Hockey's premier world championship begins in New Delhi February 28.

The game's administrators are scheduled to meet the protesting players in Pune Tuesday morning, but said the evening before that there was no way they could concede demands for cash incentives.

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India's labs waking up, surge in global science papers

2010-01-11T10:15:00.002+05:30

Often referred to as a “sleeping giant” in scientific literature, India seems to be waking out of its slumber, says a recent global research report on “Research and Collaboration in the new Geography of Science” by Thomson Reuters.

As per the report, Chemistry and Pharmacology are fast becoming the most “published” disciplines in India, USA remains its largest research partner even as South Korea is racing ahead of China to partner with India. And Japan’s University of Tokyo collaborates most frequently with Indian researchers.

If the current trajectory continues, the study estimates, India’s productivity would well be on par with that of most G-8 nations within eight years and could even overtake them between 2015-2020.

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22 hour stand off ends at dawn, two militants killed

2010-01-08T10:42:00.002+05:30

When the Jammu and Kashmir police finally pulled out the bodies of the two slain fidayeen militants after a 22-hour siege, they were in for a shock. One of the militants was Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, a 24 year old carpenter from a village near Sopore who had fled his home and joined the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) a year and a half ago.

Bhat had never crossed the Line of Control for arms training. Bhat was the second militant to be killed in the five-hour assault this morning after the security forces evacuated civilians trapped in the hotel in which the fidayeens were holed up, and adjacent buildings.

Four assault teams of the J-K Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) barged into the hotel, The Punjab, from the rooftop early Thursday morning

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Fidayeen terror returns to Srinagar after two years

2010-01-07T10:17:00.002+05:30

Fidayeen militants returned to Srinagar after two years on Wednesday when two men carrying AK rifles and grenades appeared in the busy Lal Chowk market and attacked a police vehicle, killing a policeman and injuring eight people, including a cameraman.

At the time of going to press, the militants were holed up in a hotel.

This is the first major militant strike in the city after a consistent decline in violence across Kashmir in the past few years.

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Pakistan Speaker praises women's quota

2010-01-06T10:45:00.001+05:30

In her style and in the way she dresses, Fehmida Mirza bears a marked resemblance to the late Benazir Bhutto. The elegant and articulate first woman Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan is a remarkable woman in other ways too.

She is not, despite her politically-important family's proximity to President Asif Ali Zardari, a rubber stamp of the Pakistan Peoples Party. She has a mind of her own, and does not hesitate to display its working.

Mirza is in India to attend the 20th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth, scheduled between January 4 and 8.

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Telangana gets Naxal twist

2010-01-05T10:54:00.002+05:30

Ahead of the all-party meeting on the Telangana issue tomorrow,the security establishment is learnt to have made it known to the political leadership that smaller states have so far only benefited the Maoists and this should be factored in while taking any such step in Andhra Pradesh.

In discussions at the highest level over the past couple of days, top government sources said the assessment from security agencies is that carving out Telengana would help Maoists regroup in the Andhra region.

"Remnants of the Maoist movement are strongest in Telengana so any break-up of the state (Andhra) will help them," said a source.

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`Cartoonist attacker targeted Hillary'

2010-01-04T10:34:00.000+05:30

The Somali man who attacked an artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a controversial cartoon has previously been arrested in Kenya, Danish media reported on Sunday.

The Danish intelligence agency PET knew that the 28-year-old Somali man was held in Kenya in September for allegedly participating in plotting an attack against US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Politiken newspaper reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed sources, it said he was later released due to lack of evidence.

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Anti-Naxal ground offensive begins

2010-01-02T10:04:00.003+05:30

The first major, concerted ground offensive against Naxalites has started with police forces in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh launching a joint operation.

The initial stage of this offensive kept in abeyance for the end of the Jharkhand elections includes searching for Naxals in the interiors of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra and in Maoist-dominated areas of Chhattisgarh.

It was launched on December 25 as part of what is being termed as Police Week (December 25 to January 1), sources said. It's is for the first time that something like a Police Week is being observed in these areas.

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In New Year gift for India, victims get a voice: the right to appeal judgments

2009-12-31T10:21:00.001+05:30

The New Year will bring a special gift for victims of crime in India. On the second last day of 2009, the government decided to notify a landmark amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), giving victims the right to appeal against a court order acquitting an accused, or convicting the accused of a lesser offence.

Under the amended Sec 372 CrPC, the victim will not need the permission of any law enforcement or prosecuting agency to appeal a court order. Currently, an appeal can be made only if the prosecution so decides.

This and other amendments were cleared by Parliament in December last year, and they subsequently received the assent of the President.

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