IFFI 2007 not to showcase Bollywood segment

PANAJI:25 Nov, 2007.

Leaving this year's International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2007 bereft of Bollywood, the organisers have done away with the entire segment showcasing mainstream Indian cinema, which usually dominates Hindi movies.

Except for Chief Guest Shahrukh Khan and a couple of Hindi movies, Bollywood is absent from the festival, which earlier had attracted criticism from regional filmmakers for being too much "Bollywood centric." IFFI 2006, hosted in Goa, had Hindi blockbusters like 'Lage Raho Munnabhai', 'Krish' and 'Rang De Basanti'. Directorate of Film Festival (DFF), which has programmed the ten-day long festival, has scrapped the entire segment.

Though there are no specific reasons mentioned for scrapping the segment, a DFF official, on condition of anonymity, said "unavailability of sub-titles for the films forced the authorities to have a second look."

"We will try and organise the segment next year as this year we were informed about it a little too late," Film Federation of India Secretary Suparn Sen said here. The organisers were not too keen on segregating Indian Cinema into Bollywood and non-Bollywood.

Nor were they keen on tagging Bollywood cinema as mainstream, Sen added. The DFF officials, however, maintained that the films to be screened at the festival need subtitles and very few Bollywood producers were willing to provide them.

Sen said the Indian mainstream cinema segment was thought about because big film makers like Raj Kapoor and others always had a complaint that their films were never shown at big festivals. However, no one seems to have this grouse anymore, Sen said.

By Shamsheer (ET)

Sachin, Sourav push Pakistan to walls

NEW DELHI, November 25:

India were trailing by 31 runs when umpires called for stumps on Day 4 of the first Test against Pakistan here at Feroz Shah Kotla ground on Sunday. Former skippers Sachin Tendulkar (32) and Sourav Ganguly (48) came to the crease almost together as India lost - Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid - in space of six overs. The duo is sharing unbeaten 78-run partnership.

The moment Master Blaster crossed Allan Border's 11,174 runs he became second highest run-getter in the Tests. Now he is only behind Brian Lara's 11953. However, Shoaib Akhtar was the pick of the Pakistan bowler as he cracked all-three wickets - Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid.

The Pakistan ace spearhead had jolted India in the very first over of the innings by scalping Dinesh Karthik, who got a nick off him and was caught behind the stumps by Kamran Akmal when India's score was just 2.

The pacer scalped Wasim Jaffer, who was caught by Salman Butt at square leg in the 28th over of the second innings. That was a very big wicket for Pakistan as Jaffer, who struck his 9th Test fifty, was building a very good partnership with the former India skipper Rahul Dravid.

The duo weathered the early storm and added 82 runs for the second wicket to push India to 84/2. And within the space of six overs, he again struck and breached The Wall for mere 34 runs reducing India to 93/3.

That would have been proved a turning point but Sachin and Sourav put brave face and steer home side away from possible collapse. Live Scorecard Full Coverage Day 3: Match report Moments Players to Watch On Day 3, the visitors managed to get a lead of 167 runs.

They closed the day at 212 with five wickets in hand. If India want to get control over the series opener Test then they must get rid of the remaining Pakistan batsmen within the first session.

After winning the toss on Thursday, Pakistan decided to bat first and put 231 on the board. In their reply, India managed to take slight lead of 45 runs as the hosts were bowled out for 276. In the first innings of the game Misbah-ul-Haq was the only batsman who crossed fifty and went on to made 82 with six fours and a six.

Anil Kumble was the chief destroyer as he grabbed four wickets and gave just 38 runs in 21.2 overs he bowled. VVS Laxman proved the suffix he got before his name - very very special Laxman - as was remained unbeaten at 72 and was responsible of two good partnership - 115-runs with MS Dhoni and 54-run with Anil Kumble - that helped India to take an advantage over their archrivals.

The other two Tests will be played in Kolkata and Bangalore.

By shamsheer (TofI)

New to Firefox 3 Firefox browser

NEW YORK:NOVEMBER 25, 2007

A new version of the Firefox browser, now available for testing mainly by developers, offers improvements on finding frequently visited websites and tools for running Web applications without a live Internet connection.

The Beta 1 version of Firefox 3 released this week still has problems, including the inability to run newer Web-mail programmes from Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, and a final version for consumers isn't expected for several months.

But it offers a window on what's to come. Many of its new features concern bookmarks, an area typically slow to change in the browsing world. One can now add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. And a new “Places” feature lets quickly access sites recently bookmarked or tagged and pages you visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.

There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list -- similar to what's already available on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser. Offline Web support -- for example, letting you compose Web mail while offline to send after you're back online -- is bound to come in handy as more software developers design programmes to be run completely over the Internet, eliminating installation complexities.

But Web developers must add the Firefox offline functionality to their sites, so the usefulness of this feature will be limited at first. Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.

Versions for Windows, Mac and Linux computers were released by Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people collectively develop free products, mostly as volunteers.

By Shamsheer (TofI)

Give online life to desktop documents

Bangalore: Nov 25, 2007.

Live inventors: Sabeer Bhatia (left) with the Instacoll team.

You have a desktop or laptop PC, with a connection to the Internet. You still use earlier versions of Microsoft’s Office tools such as the word processor Word, the presentation tool Powerpoint and the spread sheet Excel. You have not upgraded to the latest — 2007 — versions of MS Office. May be you could no longer afford to do so.

Thirty Indian engineers based in Bangalore have created a suite of online productivity tools that enables such users to enjoy the look, feel and much of the functionality of the newest edition of the three main Microsoft Office tools by downloading for free, a 5-megabyte chunk of software.

What’s more, they can work on their files, from any machine anywhere by accessing them from a 100 megabyte storage space that is provided to them on the Web; they can switch seamlessly from desktop to Web and back; they can share their files from chosen friends or colleagues; they can collaborate on a single document, deciding who can share what, and exchanging comments live through text pop-pops... all this on any platform, Windows, Linux, Unix or whatever.

The application is called Live Documents. It was unveiled a few days ago to a lot of global interest and critical scrutiny. It is the work of the Bangalore-based InstaColl, a wholly Indian Internet-driven company whose Chairman and inspiration is Sabeer Bhatia, the man who co-developed Hotmail, the world’s first Web-based e-mail service, which he subsequently sold to Microsoft.

While the ability to use Live Documents is free for individual users (You can apply for an invitation to join at http://www.live-documents.com/ but due to the huge number of requests in the last few days, the company is having to beef up its infrastructure and it might take 3-4 weeks to receive your authorisation.) Early access

The Hindu received an early access to Live Documents and was able to put it through its paces. In appearance and feel the Powerpoint and Excel screens are identical to Microsoft’s Office 2007, while the Word screen is a halfway house between the 2003 and 2007 versions.

Instacoll’s chief executive Sumanth Raghavendra, who led the Live Documents development says this was done deliberately since so many users are very familiar and comfortable with the earlier version. For the same reason the creators chose to work with the look of the ‘Trishul’ of Microsoft’s Office tools because PC users were used to them.

While the Live Documents application might resemble a few other browser-based office tools such as Google Docs, it goes further by completely blurring the boundary between online and offline, between PC and Web.

“We are very excited to be offering Live Documents. We think this is the way to the future,” said Mr. Bhatia, in a special telephonic briefing for The Hindu, “the ability to collaborate on a document, synchronise it and track it via live chat is something that has not been possible with Office suites before. This is an Office tool for Internet Age.”

While free to lay users, Live Documents is being offered as a Web-desktop collaboration tool for corporates, at a small price per user. This also explains the name of the parent company, InstaColl — an abbreviation of Instant Collaboration.

web Site clik here

http://www.live-documents.com/

By Shamsheer (H)

BSNL, MTNL to sit it out as panel reviews spectrum norms

NEW DELHI: 25 Nov, 2007

State-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL, who rivals have accused of being favoured by the government, have been left out from a committee set up to review the Telecom Engineering Centre's recommendations on spectrum allocation.

The committee, to be headed by Department of Telecom Additional Secretary R Bandhopadyay, will meet tomorrow and on November 30. The meeting would be attended by representatives of GSM and CDMA operators, barring the two PSUs.

The decision to leave them out has not gone down well with senior officials of BSNL and MTNL, who said they are being taken for granted. "Public Service Enterprises have to face many constraints in their operations not the least being aggressive lobby by the competitors to stymie their expansion," Minister of State from Commerce Jairam Ramesh had said recently in a letter Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal on a matter related to spectrum allocation.

PSUs have done far better in meeting social obligations compared to private players, BSNL, in particular, has fulfilled a larger social role much more effectively than all the private companies put together. Leaving them (BSNL and MTNL) out of the purview of the discussion may not serve the purpose, some of the operators said.

The TEC had given its report on spectrum allocation norms earlier this month and had suggested that manifold increase in subscriber numbers should be a condition for being eligible to get additional frequency.

Communications Minister A Raja had accepted the TEC report in-principle, but in view of strong protests from the GSM operators - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - the government had constituted a panel to revisit the recommendations. The committee has been given time until the end of this month to give a report.

BSNL sources said it was very logical for the two PSUs to be a part of the panel, which is going to take a decision on norms for allocating spectrum -- a crucial component for growth in the telecom sector. The PSUs have played a significant role especially in the rural areas but "they are always taken for granted", a source said.

By Shamsheer (ET)

Mumbai archbishop now a cardinal

MUMBAI: 25 Nov 2007,

Archbishop of Mumbai Oswald Gracias got the red cap (biretta) from Pope Benedict XVI, elevating him to the position of Cardinal on Saturday, in a special ceremony at the Vatican.

A statement from the archbishop's house said 23 new cardinals were elevated at the special ceremony in which the Pope placed the biretta on their heads.

Cardinal Gracias joins the ranks of the College of Cardinals, which will have 201 members, of which 120 are electors. Electors are under the age of 80 and can take part in the papal elections.

UPA government draws flak

VIJAYAWADA: Nov 25, 2007

Seeking to put the farmer at the centre-stage of national politics, the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) here on Saturday accused the Centre of pursuing “anti-farmer” policies leading to suicides of more than a lakh farmers. The lot of the ryots would improve only if the UNPA comes to power, the alliance maintained.

The message was sought to be sent loud and clear through ‘Rythu Garjana’, a massive public meeting organised by the TDP here, which was attended by UNPA leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha), Om Prakash Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal) and Brindavan Goswami (Asom Gana Parishad).

The meeting, which was organised at V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College, saw a huge turnout. Its objective was to mount pressure on the Centre to concede the demand for hiking the minimum support price to Rs. 1,000 per quintal for paddy and implementation of Dr. Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.

The recurring theme of the leaders’ speeches was that the UPA regime and its chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “have little knowledge on the issues concerning farmers.”

Mr. Naidu, who liberally invoked NTR’s legacy in his speech, declared to a round of thunderous applause that the struggle launched through the meeting would not stop until all the demands were achieved.

Mr. Mulayam Singh asserted that the UNPA was not an “election-eve alliance” but one that was intended to “save the nation”. It was sure to ascend the throne in Delhi, he expressed confidence.

Mr. Abdullah sprang a surprise by calling NTR’s son Harikrishna and Mr. Naidu for a warm hug, and told the gathering: “You should be proud of this (NTR’s) family.”

By Shamsheer (H)

Sharma’s election is a boost for India

New Delhi, November 25, 2007.

Failing to get Shashi Tharoor elected to the top job at the United Nations, it became a matter of prestige for the Indian government to ensure that Kamalesh Sharma’s candidature for the Commonwealth Secretary General’s post was successful.

A low-key officer highly regarded by his colleagues and peers, Sharma’s unanimous election on Saturday provides a boost to India’s international profile at a time when it is contesting for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

It is the first time an Indian has ever been elected to be what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the “first servant” of the 53-nation Commonwealth. India previously contested for the Commonwealth SG’s post once, in 1979, when former Foreign Secretary Jagat S Mehta lost out to Sridath Ramphal.

The Commonwealth SG is the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the main inter-governmental agency of the Commonwealth, a loose confederation of countries formerly under British colonial rule.

The SG is elected for a four year tenure, which can be repeated. His election comes a day after Pakistan’s suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth. India is set to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Educated in St Stephen's college in Delhi and Cambridge University, Sharma, 66, was a member of the Indian Foreign Service from 1965 to 2001.

As one of their own, the Ministry of External Affairs pulled out all stops to ensure Sharma’s election, even deputing a special officer from New Delhi, Anupam Ray, to the High Commission in London to act as his liaison officer.

Soon after announcing his candidature (in June) Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon called in heads of missions of Commonwealth countries in Delhi to inform them of the government’s decision and to seek their support for Sharma’s candidature.

By the end of October, there were over 30 written endorsements from member countries in Sharma’s favour.

The decision to field Sharma was taken after the SAARC summit in Delhi on April 3 and 4, during which visiting heads of government had proposed that, this being Asia’s turn, the SAARC member countries should field one candidate, an Indian.

Sharma has considerable experience in handling multilateral global affairs, as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations at New York and Geneva.

He was the UN Secretary General’s first Special Representative to independent East Timor. Sharma was spokesperson for developing countries in the UNCTAD during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations and also played a key role in both South-South and North-South relations.

He has, as India’s envoy in Britain, been a member of the Commonwealth Board of Governors, the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Foundation since 2004. The four Commonwealth SGs prior to Sharma have been from Canada, (Arnold Smith between 1965 and 1975), Guyana (Sir Sridath Ramphal (1975 to 1991), Nigeria (Chief Emeka Anyaoku, 1991 to 1999) and New Zealand (Don McKinnon).

By Shamsheer (H)

Taslima wants to return to Kolkata

KOLKATA: 25 Nov 2007

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Sunday night said she missed the love and affection of the people of Kolkata and wished to return "home".

"I am a Bengali and Bengal is my home and feel at home in Kolkata, I know I am loved by the people there," Taslima said over phone from New Delhi.

"What are the people of Kolkata saying? What are the intellectuals saying?" she asked on the demand for cancellation of her visa by certain Muslim groups.

"I am not a political person. I am an ordinary human being who writes for equal rights. I don't write about religion, I write about human rights, women rights and secular humanism,"

she said. She said she wanted to spend the rest of her life at Kolkata among her own people and continue her literary pursuits.

By Shamsheer

Homeopathy treatment for AIDS under attack in UK

NEW DELHI:17 Nov 2007,

One of India's favourite forms of treatment -- the 250-year-old system of homeopathy, has once again come under attack from British doctors. The highly respected medical journal 'Lancet' has also slammed the growing popularity of homeopathy in India.

The fresh protests were sparked by a proposed seminar on homeopathy's role in the treatment of HIV/AIDS which the European Society of Homeopaths is organising in UK on December 1. Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery at the University College London, severely criticized the claim and said, "People say homeopathy can't do any harm but when it is being promoted for HIV, then there is a serious problem.

" Baum and others had sent a letter last May to all primary care trusts in Britain to voice concern about homeopathy treatment through the National Health Service. In response, some trusts also stopped NHS funding to centres using homeopathy. Baum had written, "It is an implausible treatment for which over a dozen systematic reviews have failed to produce convincing evidence of effectiveness. Several studies have shown that the clinical effects of homeopathic remedies are placebo effects." India, which has been using homeopathy to improve the quality of life of HIV patients, is getting ready to hit back at the report.

"We are preparing a strong reply. We can't keep impressing on people about homeopathy's benefits. In our studies in Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, we have found that homeopathy greatly helps HIV patients by improving their nutrition, lowering their anxiety and improving their health. Just because homeopathy is a cheaper alternative to several surgical procedures, surgeons and pharma companies in UK are worried it might cut into their bread and butter," said Dr S P Singh, India's advisor on homeopathy. Dr N K Ganguly, DG (ICMR), also recently said a homoeopathic medicine was found to be effective against HIV/AIDS during screening at National AIDS Research Institute, Pune.

"The homeopathy compound screened in vitro at NARI against HIV has been found to effectively kill the virus," Ganguly said. The new attack comes at a time when over 100 million Indians depend solely on this form of therapy. Even in UK, homoeopathy's 2007 market has been estimated to be worth 38 million pounds and is expected to rise to 46 million pounds in 2012. Union health minister A Ramadoss said, "Homeopathy has very good treatment effect for certain diseases which are not amenable to treatment by conventional medicine. It is effective, safe, affordable and simple to administer.

It is also cost effective. India has hundreds of proved studies confirming that homeopathy works." A recent survey in seven Indian cities revealed that 48% people believed that homeopathy was safe. In Delhi, 55% of people considered homeopathy as a preferred choice of treatment.

By Shamsheer (Tof I)

Myth of the fastest computer

Mumbai November 16, 2007.

India may have launched itself on the world’s map of raw computing power with the Eka supercomputer from the Tata group, but even the world’s fastest supercomputer cannot match the processing speed of your brain.

While your computer, on an average, can execute around 100 megaflops (million of calculations per second), it can barely handle dictation.

For instance, it will take a single PC more than a few days to weeks to calculate a weather map — a task best left to a supercomputer.

Your brain, on the other hand, is able to understand multiple languages, process complex visual images, control your entire body, understand conceptual problems and create new ideas.

Scientists reveal that the brain is made up of about one trillion cells with 100 trillion connections between those cells. Estimates put the brain as capable of handling 10 quadrillion instructions per second.

Now compare that to the processing speed of the world’s fastest supercomputer from IBM at over 475 teraflops (or 475 trillion calculations per second).

What’s more interesting is that the world’s truly fastest supercomputer — RIKEN’s MDGrape-3 — will probably never be officially crowned with that title, simply because it is so specialised that it can’t run the software (the Linpack benchmark) used to officially rank computing speed.

MDGrape-3 is the first machine to break the petaflop barrier — that is 1 quadrillion calculations per second — and is three times faster than the currently-ranked fastest computer in the world, IBM’s BlueGene/L. IBM’s BlueGene/P is soon slated to achieve the petaflop distinction, though, with its machine nicknamed ‘Roadrunner’.

“Getting to the petaflop stage is a Herculean task. It involves increasing the processing speed by over 10 times, besides scaling-up in a non-linear fashion. The efficiency falls as you add central processing units (CPUs). You require to radically upgrade the architecture,” says N Seetha Rama Krishna, project manager of Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons. The Tata supercomputer has been ranked the fourth most powerful in the world.

RIKEN developed the supercomputer along with Intel, and SGI in 2006 to carry out molecular dynamics simulations. In developing drugs, pharmaceutical companies have to analyse thousands of chemical compounds to find out how they will affect the protein-bonding structures in the human body.

What takes most computers hours or days to analyse takes MDGrape-3 a few seconds. The functionality is invaluable in drug research since it can drastically cut research time involved in the development of new cures. A subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Merck has already booked time on the machine.

Construction of supercomputers is an expensive task. To get a machine from the laboratory to the market may take several years.

In Tata’s case, however, it was done in a record six weeks. The most recent development costs of supercomputers varied between $150 and 500 million or more.

However, the Tata supercomputer cost around $30 million while the Riken one was reportedly around just $9 million. That’s partly because MDGrape-3 relies on fewer chips and less circuitry than its competitors.

Besides, Hitachi, Intel, and SGI Japan supplied the hardware and absorbed part of the cost of building the machine. One measure of the MDGrape-3’s ultra-efficient computing muscle is its cost per gigaflop (1 billion floating-point calculations per second), which Riken puts at $15. By comparison, BlueGene/L’s is $140 per gigaflop.

Also, while BlueGene/L contains a whopping 130,000 processors distributed over 65,000 nodes, Riken’s closet-sized machine needs only 4,808 chips to achieve four times its speed for certain applications. The Tata supercomputer used 15,000 processors over 2,000 nodes.

Using a supercomputer is expensive as well. As a user, you are charged according to the time you use the system what is expressed in the number of processor (CPU) seconds your programme runs, says Krishna.

In the recent past, Cray (one of the first supercomputers) time was $1,000 per hour. The use of this “Cray time” was a very common way to express computer costs in time and dollars.

Meanwhile, the next generation of supercomputing — with DNA and Quantum Computing — is already being talked about. Of course, it will take at least another decade before the new technologies will hit the work floor.

Coming soon: Exchange-traded rupee futures

MUMBAI:17 Nov, 2007,

Indians may soon be allowed to participate in exchange-traded currency futures — instruments that allow them to take positions on the future value of the rupee. The Reserve Bank on Friday released a report by an internal panel which has recommended the introduction of currency futures to be traded on dedicated exchanges.

The recommendations could spark off a turf war as it proposes that RBI will retain the right to regulate all aspects of trade even though securities exchanges are the domain of capital market regulator Sebi. A currency futures contract is one where two parties agree to buy and sell the currency at a future date at a pre-determined price.

Exchange-traded currency futures are seen as a stepping stone towards capital account convertibility as they allow individuals to hedge against foreign currency risks. The futures market is sought out primarily by people seeking information on price, speculators and hedgers. The RBI panel has recognised that the requirement of an underlying exposure to trade in a foreign exchange market is difficult to implement.

The panel has recommended that no quantitative restrictions may be imposed on residents intending to trade in currency futures, so that there is greater liquidity and wider participation. For those who have a currency exposure but not access to hedging tools like forwards and options, exchange-traded currency futures will be hugely beneficial. The rupee, which has risen from 44.25 levels to 39.30 levels in a span of six months, has proven to be nightmarish for several sections of the market. Individuals are also exposed to foreign currency risks with RBI allowing individuals to invest up to $1,00,000 abroad in a year.

However, there could now be some respite from the appreciating local currency, given that Indians may now be able to hedge their dollar positions. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) could use currency futures only for hedging purposes and not for speculative reasons. For starters, the panel has recommended that the futures contract be denominated only in the US dollar-rupee terms, with a view to provide market participants with an additional hedging tool. For non-residents, the panel is of the opinion that participation be permitted over a period of time.


The group has suggested that NRIs and FIIs be allowed to participate for hedging purposes, once the robustness of various systems such as surveillance, monitoring, reporting etc. are ascertained. However, the group has called for suitable position limits to be prescribed for such entities. The central bank has fixed the size of a contract at $1,00, with a tenor of up to 12 months, with a view to allow for price discovery and trading.


As far as settlement of contracts are concerned, the RBI panel has said that at least during the initial phase, the transactions should be settled in terms of cash and this would be based upon the spot reference rate declared by RBI. However, the panel recommended that even though the introduction of currency futures could involve the role of different exchanges, which would be regulated by Sebi, the central bank should continue to act as the regulator.


The panel also calls for RBI to have the right to specify participants or even fix position limits for them. The RBI panel has suggested that to ensure a clean regulatory and supervisory structure, it is preferable to have an exchange, which is exclusively dedicated to trading in currency futures. The panel has suggested that existing exchanges which meet the eligibility criteria could take up the initiative to set up such exchanges. The panel has mooted the idea of allowing banks to function as direct members of the exchanges, while brokers meeting the eligibility norms may also be permitted to act as intermediaries.


In a bid to prevent unhealthy competition amongst exchanges, the panel has recommended that in the initial phase, the futures contract must take the form of a standardised product across various exchanges. This would help have a uniform contract size, settlement dates, procedures and tenors of the contracts.

By Shamsheer (ET0

London Mayor coming to boost ties with Delhi

New Delhi : 17-11-2007.

NEW DELHI: From trade to tourism and education to entertainment, the Mayor of London is expected to take up a variety of issues to strengthen the ties with Delhi during his six-day visit to the country beginning Sunday.

Accompanied by a delegation of London “ambassadors”, Mayor Ken Livingstone will take part in a series of meetings, seminars and conferences on “London and India: Partners in Globalisation”.

On the Mayor’s agenda are signing a city-to-city partnership agreement with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, inking an agreement in the tourism sector and hosting a showcase of London and Indian creative industries with superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the special guest.

The visit is part of the strategy to promote London as a pre-eminent global business centre to emerging markets. “India is a rising economic superpower. It has a growth rate of over 9 per cent a year, 1.2 billion people, and it already accounts for the second highest number of inward investment projects into London after the US. Last year, India was one of the three countries accounting for the majority of world economic growth,” Mr. Livingstone explained.

“The Indian community is already the largest minority ethnic community in London and its strength as the most globalised city is helped immensely by its Indian community -- there are 10,000 Indian-owned businesses in the Capital. Cultural interaction between India and London is strong and is going to increase even further,” he added.

Lord Sebastian Coe and Paul Deighton, Chairman and Chief Executive of the London 2012 Organising Committee; Peter Hendy, Commissioner for Transport for London; Michael Charlton, Chief Executive of Think London; James Bidwell, Chief Executive of Visit London; and Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London, will be part of the visiting delegation.

The “ambassadors” who will be part of this delegation comprise people from the fields of business, creative industries, sports, culture, tourism, education and science.

The delegation will meet heads of key Indian businesses including Tatas, ICICI Bank, BCCI and the CII, host education seminars exploring stem cell research and the implications of international flows of financial capital for India’s economy.

An agreement between Film London and the Film and Television Guild of India is also on the itinerary.

The Mayor will be visiting Amritsar to meet the Chief Minister of Punjab and open two offices -- the London India Office, one each in Delhi and Mumbai to promote trade, culture, business and tourism.

By Shamsheer (H)

Indian companies not green enough’

New Delhi, November 16, 2007

For all its roaring success, India Inc has fared poorly in the first-ever green survey in the country. It lagged well behind global standards.

In fact, of the 110 biggest Indian companies, which were sent questionnaires requesting “voluntary disclosure” of their carbon emission levels, 71 did not respond. Only 13 of those who responded said they had targets to reduce their carbon emissions.

The companies were selected based on their market capitalisation, and half were big-ticket names. Indian steel and telecom sectors were found to be managing their greenhouse gas emissions better than others.

“It’s heartening to see that some companies have demonstrated the need to cut emissions, but a lot of ground needs to be covered,” said Sirish Sinha, who heads the climate energy programme of the World Wildlife Fund India, which conducted the survey. The agency works closely with the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body affiliated to the United Nations.

The survey report will be released in Mumbai next week.

Only a small number of companies had some kind of “climate proofing” in place or felt the need to offset emission with green projects because it is not mandatory for them to do so. Offsetting “carbon footprints” means investing in green ventures to compensate for the pollution a company generates.

But 79 per cent of those who responded were aware of commercial risks arising out of climate change.

The survey included banks because they could also leave carbon footprints indirectly by investing in companies that are not environment-friendly. But only eight of the 18 banks contacted responded.

By Shamsheer (HT)

Mobile cos to pay a price for free and fair polls

New Delhi November 17, 2007.

The Election Commission, for the first time, has banned bulk text (SMS) messaging either by candidates standing for an election or by political parties to voters in the 48 hour period before start of voting in Assembly constituencies in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

The two-phase polling in Gujarat is scheduled for December 11 and 16, while the second and last round of polling in Himachal Pradesh is scheduled for December 19.

As this ban is likely to be extended to all future elections, mobile service providers will have to live with the idea of losing what used to be a revenue windfall for them during elections.

The text messages are usually sent through direct marketing companies. These companies, who also call unsuspecting users offering credit cards among other wares, use special software to send the same message to thousands of mobile numbers.

Some firms also use web portals that allow free messaging, a sort of cottage industry.

Bulk messages are cheaper than normal messages and the rate can be as low as 20 paise or as high as 50 paise, depending on the volumes, a mobile phone company executive said, adding that the total business generated during election time was hard to quantify.

“The hit will be taken by direct marketing companies and the service provider both,” he added.

Announcing this decision here today, chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami said mobile service providers had agreed to cooperate with the Commission.

“We had called a meeting of the mobile service providers and discussed the issue with them,’’ he said.

The companies have assured the commission that they would be able to track the origin of an objectionable bulk message in less than 30 minutes.

Gopalaswami said the commission would treat the campaigning through the SMS messages as an offence under the Representation of the Peoples’ Act, and observers appointed by the EC would monitor this too.

The practice of using bulk SMS messages and automatic voice messages to win over the voter in the last few hours before the polling began was started by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last general elections in 2004.

Gopalaswami today said the commission considers SMS messages a “nuisance” as it was meant to bypass the restrictions on mass campaigning 48 hours before the voting.

During this phase, candidates can only launch a door-to-door canvassing and not hold mass rallies and processions.

Gopalaswami agreed that tech-savvy candidates could work on chain messaging through mobiles to circumvent the commission’s ruling. “Innovativeness of human mind is endless,’’ he remarked

By Shamsheer (Bst)

Breasts sag? Don't blame breast-feeding

BEIJING, Nov. 03-2007.

Having a lot of babies might, but breast-feeding them is not what makes a woman's breasts sag, a new study suggests.

"A lot of times, if a woman comes in for a breast lift or a breast augmentation, she'll say 'I want to fix what breast-feeding did to my breasts,'" said University of Kentucky plastic surgeon Brian Rinker. So he decided to study any possible connection.

Rinker and his colleagues interviewed 132 women who came in for breast lifts or augmentation between 1998 and 2006.

The women were 39 years old on average, and 93 percent had been through at least one pregnancy. Among the mothers, 58 percent had breast-fed at least one of their children. The average duration of breast-feeding was nine months.

The researchers evaluated the womens' medical history; body mass index (BMI), pre-pregnancy bra cup size and smoking status.

The results of the study, presented this week at a conference of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, showed no difference in the degree of breast ptosis (or sagging) between women who breast-fed and those who didn't.

The main factors that did affect sagging were age, smoking status and the number of pregnancies a woman has had.

Rinker noted that the smoking connection made sense because "smoking breaks down a protein in the skin called elastin, which gives youthful skin its elastic appearance and supports the breast."

Pregnancy also "has a very strong contribution to breast ptosis (sagging)," Rinker said in an email interview. "In fact, our study showed that those negative effects increase with each pregnancy."

By Shamsheer (Xinhuanet)

TB vaccine sickens HIV-infected children - report

PARIS 2-Nov-2007.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV have merged into a double-barreled epidemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa and threatening global efforts to eradicate both diseases, according to a report released Friday.

Over-burdened health systems are unable to cope with the epidemic and risk collapse, said the report, which calls for urgent measures to curb its spread.

A third of the world's 40 million HIV/AIDS sufferers also have TB, and the death rate for people infected with both is five times higher than that for tuberculosis alone.

The situation is aggravated by surging rates of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB precisely in those areas where the rates of HIV infection are highest.

MDR and XDR tuberculosis are resistant to some or all of the standard drugs used to fight the disease.

"Now the eye of the storm is in sub-Saharan Africa, where half of new TB cases are HIV co-infected," said Veronica Miller, co-author of the report and director of The Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, which issued the study.

"Unlike bird flu, the global threat of HIV/TB is not hypothetical -- it is here now," she said.
One third of the world's population carries the tuberculosis bacterium, but the disease remains latent in nine out of 10.

HIV, however, changes the equation: Of those whose immune systems have been compromised by HIV, 10 percent will develop active tuberculosis each year, according to the report.

"In today's world, a new TB infection occurs every second. When one considers that much of this transmission occurs in areas with high HIV prevalence, the imminent danger of a global co-epidemic is clear," said Diane Havlir, head of the World Health Organisation's TB/HIV working group.

TB control has been severely destabilised in regions with high rates of HIV, the study says.
In one community of 13,000 people outside of Cape Town, South Africa, the TB patient case load increased six-fold between 1996 and 2004, the researchers reported.

"There has been a staggering increase in TB in this community, and this has been replicated right across southern Africa," Stephan Lawn, a medical researcher at the University of Cape Town, said in a statement.

The report called for urgent coordinated action on the part of governments, researchers, drug companies and local communities.

The measures called for include fast diagnostic tests to detect all forms of TB in HIV-infected adults and children; new methods to rapidly map HIV and TB hotspots; new screening tools to identify new cases of drug-resistant TB; and better equipment for field laboratories in the most affected areas.

There are approximately nine million new cases of tuberculosis in the world every year, according to the WHO. In 2005, the disease killed 1.6 million people.

At the same time, an estimated 40 million people are living with HIV, according to the UN and the WHO. There were 4.3 million new infections in 2006 with 2.8 million (65 percent) of these occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses.

In South Africa, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of child mortality and accounts for 40 to 60 percent of all deaths nationwide, according to UNICEF.

By Shamsheer (AFP)

Yahoo! launches Hindi Mail & Web IM for Indian mkt

Along with launching the latest version of its messenger service – Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta, Yahoo Inc has now added six new Asian languages to the service.

While the move enables the users to watch inline video, it has, at the same time, brought 25 international languages under the purview of its messaging services. Now the messenger can be set to support local languages from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Vietnam.

The search engine’s Messenger 9.0 includes an "in-line player" that allows users to send URLs to each other and then watch video and turn over photographs together, while communicating over IM or an Internet phone connection! The new Yahoo Messenger 9 functions on both Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems.

The interface of the version too is friendship-enhancing. Besides these facilities, the "friends list" on the new Yahoo Messenger version has also been created to provide more space making it simpler to see a contact's photo and status as well as to connect with each other through instant messages, voice over IP or text messaging to a mobile phone.

The improved version also provides call forwarding facilities enabling users to send Internet telephony calls to the Messenger to a mobile phone or landline as a voice mail. To top it all, users can henceforth send unrestricted of attachments with file size limits of up to 2 GB. Also, photograph sets from Yahoo's Flickr picture service can be shared in real time.

It is also compatible with YouTube. The new messenger also has an automatic anti-virus scanning protecting it from the threats of virus writers and hackers!Launching the new version, Yahoo Messenger Vice-President Sabrina Ellis said that the company has spiced up Yahoo Messenger to help and keeping in touch with friends and family more fun than before. It may be mentioned here that the company claims to have Yahoo Messenger has 94.3 million users worldwide.

By shamsheer (MC)

Microsoft launches Silverlight 1.0 in India

MUMBAI: 1-Nov-2007.

Today, Microsoft announced the India availability of Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in that promises powerful media experiences across the Web.

Microsoft says the possibilities are endless with Silverlight 1.0, whether it's booking tickets simply by connecting destinations on an online map, or setting-off on a seamless virtual tour of myriad destinations.

Silverlight 1.0 integrates with existing Web technologies, and promises consistent experiences to both Windows and Mac users on a variety of browsers.

"I believe that businesses can use Silverlight 1.0 to create strong differentiators and customer loyalty.

This is particularly important because companies in India are beginning to increasingly adopt online models of business, often in addition to existing off-line ones," said Tarun Gulati, general manager (Developer and Platform Evangelism) of Microsoft India, during the launch.

Some early adapters of the technology including Sify.com and Rediff.com are planning on delivering Silverlight-based experiences to viewers and customers. Bhaskar Saiapparaju, chief executive officer of Sify, said they are looking at ways to redefine user experience by introducing rich interactive elements, vector graphics, animation, and high definition TV experiences.

Manish Agarwal, vice president (Marketing) of Rediff.com, said that with Silverlight 1.0, they would be able to move closer to their challenge -- that of providing a navigable experience for over 43 million users to browse over 2 million books by nearly 4,000 authors.

Microsoft said it is working with Novell to deliver Silverlight for Linux, which will be called 'Moonlight'. Recently, Microsoft launched a complete product suite -- Expression Studio -- for the designer community.

In combination, Silverlight 1.0, Expression Studio, and Visual Studio 08 promise easy and seamless creation of rich user experiences across platforms. Those interested in the new technology can download Silverlight 1.0 for free at: Click here

http://www.silverlight.net/.

By Shamsheer (ET)

World Bank keen to increase lending to India

New Delhi : 03-Nov-2007.

The World Bank on Saturday expressed its keenness to increase lending to India in sectors like infrastructure, environment, agriculture and poverty alleviation.

"If government wants our support, I believe, we can scale up lending across various arms IBRD, International Development Assistance (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC)," World Bank President Robert B Zoellick said after winding up his first visit to India as bank's chief.

Last year, the World Bank gave 3.7-billion-dollar assistance, while IFC extended one billion dollars as debt and equity to private sector companies in the country.

The assistance from International Bank for Reconstruction Development (IBRD) would depend upon the government, he said, adding that "we will definitely scale up IFC lending".

As far as concessional assistance from IDA is concerned, he said "it would depend upon overall amount we get in IDA 15". Zoellick said he was going to persuade donors to be more generous in expanding the IDA corpus.

In the days ahead, the World Bank would focus on states, agriculture and clean energy in addition to infrastructure sector projects, he said.

Currently, the states account for about 60 per cent of the World Bank's portfolio in India, he said, adding that "increasingly more of our efforts will be devoted to the state level."

By Shamsheer (H)

Radio more popular in B'lore than Delhi, Mum

Mumbai: November0 2, 2007.

Bangaloreans, on an average day, are the first to tune-in to radio (as early as 6 AM) when compared with Delhiites and Mumbaikars.

Radio consumption is highest in the 25-34 age group in Delhi, while the listener profile is in the 45-plus age group in Mumbai and Bangalore.

These are some of the findings released by Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) - a new division to track radio listenership launched by Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Media Research in association with Nielsen Media Research and IMRB International.

RAM will release data on a weekly basis from three cities - Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Going forward, it will cover Kolkata and other cities in a phased manner.

According to RAM findings, the average weekly radio reach in Mumbai and Bangalore are almost at par with a threshold of 99.5% and 96.6%, respectively.

Delhi, however, is lower at 96.6%. Bangalore has the highest time spent listening (1,092 minutes/week) when compared with Mumbai and Delhi (845 mins/week & 796 mins/week, respectively).

Time spend on an average weekend in Delhi(117mins/day) is higher than that on an average weekday (108mins/day). The time spent listening to Radio in Mumbai is almost equal during an average weekday (123 mins/day) and an average weekend (122 mins/day).

In Bangalore, the difference is much higher (160 mins/day & 148 mins/day, respectively).

By Shamsheer (B Stan)

Mukesh Ambani on cover of Newsweek

Mumbai:05-Nov-2007.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, says he will trigger a second green revolution in the country -- with synergies between farming and energy -- by involving his group in agriculture in a big way.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, he says his company's involvement with the farm sector "has the potential to change the world" and adds that he views India's billion-plus population not as a problem but as billion-plus customers.

Here are some excerpts from the interview that was printed in the Newsweek edition that hit the stands on Monday:

Q: You say India's competitive advantages are globalisation, democracy, the ability to adapt to technology, and demography. Starting with democracy, doesn't it slow growth?

A: Sure, but increased aspirations are also driving growth. Politicians used to tell me: 'We sell dreams to people that we knew we'd never be able to fulfil'. Today, the mindset of these politicians has changed. They genuinely believe we have an opportunity to substantially alleviate poverty by 2030.

Q: How does technology fit in?

A: We are using new technologies in meaningful ways. To build our new refinery in 60 per cent of the time it took to build our first, we are training 20,000 people in a new generation of welding technology in six months. This is where demographics come in. We have 650 million people who are below their early 30s, while the US and Europe face a shortage of skilled workers.A billion people used to mean lots of problems. Today I see a billion people as a billion potential consumers, an opportunity to generate value for them and to make a return for myself.

Q: How do you motivate poor farmers to join your new farm-to-retail network?

A: We will work with farmers to get them to increase their productivity and produce the right products of the right quality. This also requires a major investment in technology because there are minimum import standards [overseas]. We are also creating something that is totally missing in India: an efficient distribution system, linked to supermarkets across the world. This will generate up to one million new jobs and make us the largest private-sector employer in India.

Q: What drives you?

A: In my father's language: "To create something out of nothing." That possibility exists in India even in old-world sectors like agriculture.

Q: Is this an agrarian revolution?

A: Absolutely. Reliance is involving itself in agriculture in a big way. This will help to create a second green revolution at a time when energy and agro are converging. Oil is now at $70 a barrel, [but it's] a finite asset. We need a fallback position. We are looking for more gas and oil but we are also trying to grow our own energy. We think this has the potential to change the world.

Q: How disruptive and dispiriting was the feud with your brother?

A: Fundamentally we had different approaches. My view is to give everyone the space to grow in his own way. When you see restructuring or separations in a family [firm], value has almost always been destroyed. This is the first case where value has been enhanced. In that way it has been a win-win ending.


By Shamsheer (HT)

Ministry wants only elite foreign universities here

NEW DELHI: 03-Nov-2007.

It Is not just the N-deal that has the UPA government pulling in different directions. A legislation to allow foreign education providers to set up base in India is another.

And the minister for human resource development Arjun Singh took the opportunity given by Higher Education Summit 2007 to reiterate his position for a regulatory framework that would ensure that only universities of repute can operate in India.

“We do not want fly-by-night operators,” Mr Singh said. Mr Singh’s position comes perilously close to that of Left and is quite removed from that of many of his Cabinet colleagues While the minister was open to the idea of top-drawer institutions like Oxford setting up a campus in the country, the fact is that no elite university is keen on setting up a full-fledged campus.

At best, they would be interested in a centre that would allow them to direct research on India. The legislation for foreign providers — Regulation of Foreign University Entry and Operation (Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, 2007 — was not introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament at the behest of the Left.

It will not be introduced in the winter session as well. “The issue of entry of foreign university is pending. There has been no occasion to take a decision on it,” Mr Singh said. The Left wanted the legislation to be reworked, a position the ministry for human resource development is unlikely to be unhappy about, as it had objected to many changes that were introduced by the Group of Ministers debating the bill. The minister clarified that individual universities are free to enter into collaboration with any foreign university.

“Each university has the right to enter into any type of agreement with any foreign university for research and collaborative studies in the mutual interest of both,” Mr Singh said.


The minister said that research has been one of the weak areas that confront higher education.

The lack of trained teachers is another area of concern as it was affecting the quality and expansion of higher education. Poverty is another bottleneck in education sector in the country.

“The reality is that nearly 30% of the people are under poverty line. There should be proper match between the modern ideas and the reality,” Mr Singh said. While acknowledging India’s performance in the largely public funded tertiary education, Oxford University chancellor Lord Chris Patten who also addressed the conference drew attention to “the illiteracy rates among girls and boys.

The drop-out rates from primary schools. The proportion of the population over the age of 15 without any schooling — a figure that has fallen steeply since 1960 but 44% is still very high. The problem of managing the teaching profession so that the children in school get the education for which the government has paid.”

By Shamsheer (E T)

Bollywood star Dutt's bail plea delayed

NEW DELHI: 03-Nov-2007.

It is going to be a black Diwali for actor Sanjay Dutt, with the Supreme Court fixing November 20 as the date for taking up his plea for bail.

The court sought CBI's response to the actor's plea for bail in the Arms Act case in which he has been convicted and sentenced for six years.

The actor has been in jail since October 22. Significantly, Dutt's counsel did not seem excessively anxious to get him out immediately in time for Diwali celebrations as they argued for his bail.

Senior advocate V R Manohar, appearing for Dutt, pleaded that his client is among the only four who were convicted under the Arms Act, whereas the rest 96 were sentenced under the anti-terror law, Tada, for their involvement in the Mumbai bomb blasts case.

He is not involved in the bomb blast case at all and has no serious charges against him, Monohar argued. Appearing for the CBI, additional solicitor-general Gopal Subramaniam said the agency would file its response to Dutt's petition.

The only urgency for early release of the actor on bail was visible when the counsel requested the court to fix hearing of the bail plea immediately after November 12 when the court reopens after the Diwali break. Manohar wanted the case to be heard on November 13, but the court fixed the hearing for November 20.

Neither the ground for suspension of the sentence during the pendency of Dutt's appeal, nor his release under Probation of Offenders Act, was mentioned by a battery of lawyers from Mumbai who were present when the bail application was taken up for urgent hearing.

The petition, filed through counsel Hari Shankar K, argued that Dutt had to undergo a 14-year-long trial, and cited an apex court judgment that had held that "agony of protracted trial itself constitutes a sentence.

" The known facts - that he had been on bail for over 12 years, never violated a single bail condition and that he has already undergone incarceration of 17 months - were mentioned in the petition. In addition, Dutt said he is a permanent resident of Mumbai "with deep roots in society" and that there was no chance of his absconding in the event of apex court granting him bail.

His incarceration is causing a great deal of hardship to himself and his family, said the petition filed through his power-of-attorney holder, Punkaj Kharbanda. Last time, sister Priya Dutt had acted as his pairokar .

By Shamsheer (TofIndia)

India 'regrets' emergency rule in nuclear-armed Pakistan

NEW DELHI:03-Nov-2007.

India said on Saturday it regrets the declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan and hopes normality will soon be restored there.

The reaction came shortly after Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency amid spiralling political turmoil and Islamist violence.

"We regret the difficult times that Pakistan is passing through," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.

"We trust that conditions of normalcy will soon return, permitting Pakistan's transition to stability and democracy to continue," Sarna said.

India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma, meanwhile, said New Delhi wanted democracy to be restored in tension-ridden Pakistan.

"We wish them stability and we look forward to conditions which will facilitate conditions for democracy to be restored in that country," Sharma told reporters.

"India and Pakistan have engaged each other in a meaningful exercise to improve relations and to better understanding and that must improve.

"We want peace and stability in our entire neighbourhood and that's why we were engaging in a constructive dialogue with Pakistan which has shown results," the foreign minister said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meanwhile called Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee for talks to monitor developments in India's neighbour, officials added.

The two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their 1947 independence, launched talks three years ago in a bid to improve ties.

By Shamsheer (DNA)

Hearing of bail petition of Anant Singh adjourned till Nov 7

Patna :03-Sep-2007.

A local court on Saturday adjourned till November 7 the hearing of the bail application of Bihar's JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, arrested in connection with Thursday's attack on journalists, after calling for the case diary and injury report of the two scribes of a private newschannel.

Patna Chief Judicial Magistrate Raghavendra Singh adjourned the hearing of the petition for bail after seeking the two documents in connection with the assault on NDTV reporter Prakash Singh and cameraperson Habib Ali.

The court also issued a warrant for production on the same day of the MLA, at present lodged in Beur jail here, in connection with a case of assault separately lodged by cameraman of TV news agency Ajay Kumar.

Anant Singh had yesterday moved the CJM's court for bail in the two cases.

Anant Singh and four of his henchmen were arrested on Thursday for attacking and confining the journalists, who had gone to seek his comments on alleged rape and murder of a woman in which his involvement was suspected.

The woman named Reshma Khatoon had, in letters to the media, alleged that she was repeatedly raped by the MLA and his associates Mukesh Singh and Bipin Singh and that she feared for her life.

A man claiming to be the brother of Reshma had phoned NDTV saying he was told by the MLA that his sister had been killed and her body dumped by the roadside at a place under Shastri nagar police station.

Though the decomposed body of a woman was indeed found on Wednesday in the locality, the police could not confirm its identity as nobody came forward to claim it.

By Shamsheer (H)

Rupee touches fresh 9-1/2 year high against dollar

Mumbai -1-Nov-2007.

Rupee on Thursday hit a fresh 9-1/2 year high of 39.22/24 against the US dollar after the United States' Federal Reserve slashed interest by 0.25 per cent yesterday, but held steady in late morning deals on intervention by RBI and some dollar short-covering.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened sharply higher at 39.22/24 per dollar, a new 9-1/2 year high breaching the previous record of 39.26 registered on February 25, 1998.

Sharp rally in benchmark Sensex by 366 points in early trade also helped the rupee surge, forex dealers said.

But dollar buying by state-run banks on behalf of the central bank to protect the exporters' competitiveness pulled the rupee down to 39.31/32 a dollar in late morning deals as against yesterday's close of 39.32/33 per dollar.

By Shamsheer (H)

Govt to fix MSP of cotton on basis of quality

New Delhi -1-Nov-2007.

The government on Thursday decided to fix the minimum support price of cotton on the basis of quality with a view to give higher prices for good variety crop to farmers.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs allowed the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to recommend MSP of two classes of cotton with the specified characteristics of 'staple length and micronaire value', according to an official note released after the CCEA meeting.

The CCEA has asked the Textile Ministry for setting up of infrastructure facilities at purchase centre to scientifically assess the micronaire values so that farmers get the benefit.

At present, all cotton varieties are given the same MSP. The decision would give farmers a better price in the market as they would be able to know the support price for good quality cotton, an industry official said.

However, since the market price of cotton is more than the MSP it might not benefit the farmers this year, he added.

As per the CCEA approval, the CACP would decide MSP of 24.5-25.5 mm staple length of cotton having micronaire value of 4.3-5.1. It would also fix a higher price for better micronaire value 3.8-4.2 while lower price for cotton having less than 3.8 and more than 5.1 micronaire value.


Similarly, the CACP would fix MSP for the 29.5-30.5 mm staple length of cotton according to their micronaire value.

Along with the recommendation of MSP for the above two classes of cotton, CACP would specify the varieties of cotton falling in these two classes on year-to-year basis.

The CCEA also decided that for other classes of cotton, the Textile Commissioner would fix the MSP based upon the MSP fixed by CACP.

By Shamsheer (H)

Indian police rescue child workers from factory

NEW DELHI 1- Nov-2007. —

Fourteen children working in a textiles factory have been rescued after media - reports said an Indian clothing supplier to US retailer Gap was employing underage workers, an activist said Tuesday.

Police carried out the raid after alerts by a non-profit organisation which acted on a British newspaper report that Indian children as young as 10 were working for a Gap supplier in New Delhi.

The children who were rescued late Monday worked in the building that houses the Gap supplier, but did not produce clothes for the US label, said the Save the Childhood Foundation, which works to rehabilitate child workers.

"When we went there, we found a room where they had been living and working. Some children were ill and some were not being paid at all," said Bhuwan Ribhu of the group.

The children, aged between nine and 16, came from the eastern state of West Bengal.

"Work timings were from 9 a.m. to midnight. We were given only half an hour off for breakfast and dinner," one of the child workers, 12-year-old Haseebul, told the Indian Express newspaper.

"Since I was a trainee, I was paid only 400 rupees (about 10 dollars) per month," another 15-year-old worker was quoted as saying.

The children will now be presented before a magistrate and given 20,000 rupees for rehabilitation.

"We will ensure they go back to their parents in West Bengal," Ribhu said.

Gap withdrew some garments from sale after Britain's Observer newspaper said an Indian supplier in New Delhi's Shahpur Jat area employed child workers.

But Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said Indian suppliers "have informed us that Gap officials have seen their plants and applauded their manufacturing practices."

He also said he was "seriously concerned" that the allegations could prompt restrictions on India exports, warning of "retaliatory measures" if this happened.

Some 12.6 million Indian children work as domestic helpers, in roadside restaurants and in factories making clothes and other items, according to the government, while activists say the figure could be as high as 60 million.

"It is because of the economics of cheap labour. No one hires the parents, but the children get work after families are tricked into believing the child will have a bright future," Ribhu said.

By Shamsheer (AFP)

Student doctors call for strike

MUMBAI: 1 Nov 2007.

Faced with the threat of not getting a licence to practise despite years of study, student doctors around the state have decided to take on the government.

The 3,500-strong Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has called for a strike in all large public hospitals on Thursday to protest the de-recognition of departments in premier medical colleges among other things.

For patients, however, it's a bad time to be in public hospitals as this is the third doctors' agitation in a span of 10 days. It comes in close succession to last week's protests by medical teachers in government hospitals and resident doctors from suburban hospitals.

The MARD is protesting the de-recognition of departments in medical colleges and opposing the government's compulsory three-year bond for rural service after post-graduation.

"We, as doctors, have to register with the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) to practise. Until recently, MMC was giving registration to PG from government and corporation colleges irrespective of MCI recognition," said Dr Mahadev Bansode, president of MARD, adding that the MMC was now denying registration to candidates whose seats were not recognised creating "serious problems for many doctors".

The MCI has recently de-recognised several departments either for lack of teaching staff or inadequate infrastructure. These included community medicine in KEM, forensic medicine in Nair, pathology in Sion Hospital and psychiatry, radiology and skin in JJ Hospital.

"Around 220 PG medical seats, which is nearly 20% of total seats are de-recognised," said MARD members indicating the pathetic condition of PG medical education in the state. Director of medical education and research, Dr Tayade said, "We are in discussions with the MCI so that they do not de-recognise the degree.

" Another issue MARD has raised is the compulsory rural service bond asked for by the government. The bond does not address their concerns, they said.

They had recommended a one-year bond instead of 5 years and that students should be posted where there is infrastructure for their speciality.

The government has only stated that candidates will have to give a bond of Rs 15 lakh to serve for three years.

By Shamsheer (TofI)