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Business
and Economy
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State-owned
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL),
the largest phone company in
India has issued a contract
seeking bids for the supply
of 45.5 million GSM lines in
the next 3 years. Another
14.5 million lines will be
delivered by public sector
ITI in collaboration with
French company Alcatel. The
deployment will happen in 3
phases with BSNL insisting
that the successful vendors
will have manufacturing
units in India for the 2nd
and 3rd phases.
The company has said that it
will allow Chinese vendors
to bid for projects,
including Huwawei
Technologies, which has
defaulted on the CDMA
offering and also
blacklisted by Indian
intelligence agencies as a
company that may compromise
national security because of
its links with the Chinese
army.
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A
national study commissioned
by NASSCOM suggested that
the domestic spend on
Information Technology is
expected to cross USD 1.5
billion mostly on salaries,
training, and overheads.
Outsourced expenditure
accounted for 45% of total
spend. The major concerns of
the customers were price of
service, quality of service,
and the availability of
quality labor. However, most
customers seem to think that
though the price is high,
the nature of the job
demands such price.
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Energy
Deficit India Sparks Mega
Projects
Energy deficiency in India
is seeing large investments
in mega projects in
refinery, pipeline
installations, new power
generation projects, power
line grid deployment, and
even private sector nuclear
plants.<More>
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Democracy,
Politics and Judiciary
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Law
Ministry said that despite
approved positions for High
Court judges, there is a 15%
shortfall in the number of
judges in higher courts
leading to delays in
hearings even in high
profile cases that sometimes
extend beyond 7 years.
Population increases, rise
in income levels, and
accessibility of courts to
the common man have
essentially worsened the
situation with the number of
cases rising by 50% before
Supreme Court and by 30% in
High Courts. After the
shameful exist of Justice
Ramaswamy from the Supreme
Court, the judiciary is very
careful to ensure that
corrupt judges or those
sympathetic to political
parties do not occupy
positions of power.
Furthermore, the increased
tensions with the
legislative accentuated by
current Speaker Somnath
Chatterjee have increased
fears of a broader agenda by
the Legislative to subvert
the judicial process for
political gain. What India
needs is an independent
judicial council, separated
from the legislature and do
not consume the time of
serving judges, which can
perform backend
investigative and screening
processes and recommend or
reject names that can be
considered by the normal
review process.
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Environment,
Health and Education
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Health
Minister Anbumani Ramdoss
announced that India would achieve
its United Nations set targets for
the control of Tuberculosis (TB)
by April 2006.
The UN required India to be
able to identify 70% of the TB
cases and treat 85% of such cases
by the end of 2005. He also said
that country wills double its
budget to USD 260 million (up by
56% from last year) to fight this
disease. India has the largest
number of TB patients amounting to
20% of the world’s total. The
Government’s Observed Treatment
Services program launched to cover
1 billion people is the largest
health care program in the world
and has brought the number of
infected from 2 million to 1.7
million and the death rate from
425,000 to 400,000 annually.
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The
UN Environment Program (UNEP) says
that the avian flu may affect over
80% of known bird species and 54
threatened species like fish
eagles, rabbits, otters, etc. and
be a larger risk than imagined.
Since the only way to eradicate
this virus from domestic poultry
is widespread culling, protein
starved societies may turn to
“bush meat” and thereby
increase the “unacceptable”
pressure on wild pigs,
chimpanzees, and apes. Predators
losing their natural prey to human
exploitation may resort to eating
infected meat and the disease
spread to rats and mice. When rats
carry the disease, it could easy
mutate with Leptospirosis and
cause widespread havoc among
humans. UNEP experts say that the
highly evolved olfactory systems
in some of these mammals may make
them more susceptible to the H5N1
virus.
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Terrorism,
Defense, Security and Science &
Technology
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Naxal
terrorists set off several
blasts at the National Mineral
Development Corporation
installation in Dantewada
district badly affecting the
transportation of iron ore in
Andhra Pradesh. They destroyed
mining equipment, conveyor
belts, and looted arms and
explosives from these
facilities. In similar but
separate incidents, 300 armed
terrorists attacked two
contractors near Kirandul, about
450 kilometers from Raipur and
took the employees hostage after
looting mining explosives and
burning down three tractors.
They also took many employees
hostage to terrorize them and to
extort money from the
Government. Andhra Pradesh
slipped back into chaos after
Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy
started negotiations with
terrorists without expecting
them to disarm. The Peoples War
Group as it was called then,
reorganized itself, redeployed
cadres, and expanded operations
during negotiations. Since Reddy
had move most of the policemen
with intimate knowledge of the
area from their posts, newer
police officials are still
learning the terrain and setting
up the intelligence network.
Clearly, this is one more
instance that bolsters the case
of moving police out of the
ambit of politicians seeking
narrow gain for themselves.
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War
on the People
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Researchers
at Exeter University have
isolated a gene in a deadly
fungus in rice that has a
debilitating effect on rice
plants and production. More than
50% of the world’s population
depends on rice and many
varieties are incapable of
fighting this fungus. The
researchers found that rice
blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea,
destroys plants by puncturing
holes in leaves and inject
proteins slowly breaking down
plant tissues. This fungus
prevalent in 85 countries is
resistant to known fungicide but
is reliant on one gene, MgAPT2
to do the dirty work.
Researchers are now developing
fungicide that will target this
gene. The study published in The
Nature said that future studies
would focus on molecules that
this fungus injects into rice
plants. Last year, an
international team decoded the
entire genome of the fungus
hoping that this will invite
more research to reveal weakness
of the fungus that can be
exploited to protect rice.
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Neighbors
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The
United States has informally asked
Japan to not help build Iran’s
refinery capability and to reduce
oil imports from it. Japan’s
Nippon Corp announced earlier that
would reduce oil imports from Iran
as the risk of supply from the
country is becoming more risky.
This is the first sign that
Iran’s nuclear program is
actually affecting its oil export
capability and undoubtedly its
economy. Iran’s economy is
struggling to stay above ground
even as it becomes increasingly
isolated from many world powers.
It has introduced a new Euro-based
system of mercantile banking
foregoing the US Dollar based and
the British Pound based regimes
operating out of New York and
London respectively. Several
members of the Other Oil and
Petrol Exporting Countries (OPEC)
organization are expected to
participate in this new system. It
is not clear if they will forego
the other systems. Iran is the
world’s 3rd largest
oil producing nation and has the
largest known natural gas
reserves.
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Editorial:
Iran's
Nuclear Program
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Editorial:
The
Nepal Stalemate
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World
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Australian
warplanes sank an impounded North
Korean (NK) ship at an undisclosed
target practice location to send a
strong message to the despot
regime against drug running. The
Australian Navy for 1,100
kilometers chased down the ship
before being captured with 150
kilograms of heroin with a street
value of USD 115 million. Four
members of the crew were sentenced
to 22-25 years in jail for gun
running. The ship captain and some
crew were extradited to NK, as
they were found innocent of
smuggling drugs. Australia accuses
NK of smuggling drugs to bolster
its failing economy.
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Editorial:
Hamas's
victory in Palestinian Territories
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Hot
Topics
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Featured
Analyses
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National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
:
Making
Panchayat Raj Institutions Effective |
|
The
Bill on National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme seeks to provide
guaranteed employment to one
member of every rural household
for at least 100 days a year for a
minimum wage of Rs.60 per day.
Out of 260 million poor people in
the country, about 200 million
poor people are in rural areas.
People in 45% rural India do not
get work for six months in a year.
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The
Saga of the Jemaah Islamiah |
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Will
Kashmir go the way of Aceh? |
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A
Cry for Help |
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Watch
the Dragon |
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Cage
This "Tiger" |
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Dalits
in India |
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Was
Jinnah a Secularist? |
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Burying
the Howitzer? |
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Smoking
Out Smoking |
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Featured
Edits
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From India now, `out of the box' ideas
on Kashmir |
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In praise of
the jal bhagirathi
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From road to road map |
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Cosmetic
concern |
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Abusing freedom, falsifying gods |
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Looking at Lahore |
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End this farce |
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`PM
flags off peace offer |
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`Sonia's
Moment |
| Inscription |
| South
Indian Inscriptions |
|
Ancient
Indian dynasties documented their
administration, significant
developments, grants, and
milestones as inscriptions in
temples. The Archaeological Survey
of India (ASI) has documented
these inscriptions from 1886.
These pages
contain inscriptions from Pallava,
Chola, Pandya, Western Chalukya,
Eastern Chalukya, Rashtrakuta,
Hoyasala, Vijayanagara,
Vishnukundin, Kakatiya, Reddi,
Vaidumba, Chinda, Eastern Ganga,
Gajapathi, Kalchurya, Qutb-Shahi
of Golkonda, and Moghul,
dynasties.
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