Science
News This Week:
1)
Earliest ancestor of land herbivores discovered:
New
research from the University of Toronto Mississauga demonstrates how carnivores
transitioned into herbivores for the first time on land. "The evolution of
herbivory was revolutionary to life on land because it meant terrestrial
vertebrates could directly access the vast resources provided by terrestrial
plants," says paleontologist Robert Reisz, a professor in the Department
of Biology. "These herbivores in turn became a major food resource for
large land predators."
Previously
unknown, the 300-million-year old fossilized juvenile skeleton of Eocasea
martini is less than 20 cm long. Found in Kansas, it consists of a partial
skull, most of the vertebral column, the pelvis and a hind limb.By comparing
the skeletal anatomy of related animals, Reisz and colleague Jörg Fröbisch of
the Museum für Naturkunde and Humboldt-University in Berlin, discovered that
Eocasea martini belonged to the caseid branch of the group Synapsid. This
group, which includes early terrestrial herbivores and large top predators,
ultimately evolved into modern living mammals.Eocasea lived nearly 80 million
years before the age of dinosaurs. "Eocasea is one of the oldest relatives
of modern mammals and closes a gap of about 20 million years to the next
youngest members of the caseid family," says Fröbisch. "This shows
that caseid synapsids were much more ancient than previously documented in the
fossil record."It's also the most primitive member and was carnivorous,
feeding on insects and other small animals. Younger members were herbivorous,
says Reisz, clear evidence that large terrestrial herbivores evolved from the
group's small, non-herbivorous members, such as Eocasea.
"Eocasea
is the first animal to start the process that has resulted in a terrestrial
ecosystem with many plant eaters supporting fewer and fewer top
predators," he says.Interestingly, Reisz and Fröbisch also found that
herbivory, the ability to digest and process high-fibre plant material such as
leaves and shoots, was established not just in the lineage that includes
Eocasea. It arose independently at least five times, including twice in
reptiles."When the ability to feed on plants occurred after Eocasea, it
seems as though a threshold was passed," says Reisz. "Multiple groups
kept re-evolving the same herbivorous traits."The five groups developed
the novel ability to live off plants in staggered bursts with synapsids such as
Eocasea preceding reptiles by nearly 30 million years. This shows that
herbivory as a feeding strategy evolved first among distant relatives of
mammals, instead of ancient reptiles -- the branch that eventually gave rise to
dinosaurs, birds, and modern reptiles.
The
adoption of plant-eating also caused dramatic shifts in the size of early
herbivores. When the team mapped the animals on an evolutionary tree, they
found that four of the groups showed a tremendous increase in size during the
Permian Period, at the end of the Paleozoic Era.Caseids were the most extreme
example of this size increase, says Reisz. The oldest member of the group,
Eocasea, was very small, less than 2 kilograms as an adult, while the youngest,
last member exceeded 500 kilograms.Reisz says that the discovery of Eocasea
creates questions even as it answers them. "One of the great mysteries to
my mind is: why did herbivory not happen before and why did it happen
independently in several lineages? That's what's fascinating about this event.
It's the first such occurrence, and it resulted in a colossal change in our
terrestrial ecosystem."
2)
Triclosan aids nasal invasions by staph:
The
antimicrobial compound found in soaps and toothpaste may help infectious
bacteria stick around . Sneezing out antimicrobial snot may sound like a superpower,
but it actually could be a handicap.
Triclosan,
an omnipresent antimicrobial compound found in products ranging from soaps and
toothpaste to medical equipment, is already known to show up in people’s urine,
serum and breast milk. It seeps in through ingestion or skin exposure. Now,
researchers have found that it gets into snot, too. And in the schnoz,
triclosan seems to help the disease-causing bacteria Staphylococcus aureus
instead of killing the microbes.Microbiologist Blaise Boles, of the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues swabbed the noses of 90 adults and
found that having triclosan-containing snot could double a person’s likelihood
of carrying staph. The microbes may have adapted to triclosan, allowing them to
remain steadfast in the nose. The results appeared April 8 in mBio.Because
triclosan usually kills bacteria, the finding was a surprise, says Boles, who
works to understand why only some people harbor staph. A person carrying the
microbe in his or her nose, he says, has a much higher risk of a staph
infection, which can occur in the skin and blood and cause pneumonia and
produce toxic shock syndrome.
In the
study, 37 people, or 41 percent, had detectable levels of triclosan in their
nasal secretions. Of the people that had very little or no antimicrobial
compound in their snot, 27 to 32 percent had staph in their nostrils. This
fraction fits with previous studies, which have found that staphcolonizes about
30 percent of the general population. But of the people with higher levels of
triclosan, 64 percent carried staph.The researchers found a similar link in rat
experiments. They used a breed of rat known to take about a week to shake off a
mild nasal invasion by staph. When the researchers gave the rats
triclosan-laced food and stuck a small batch of staph in the rodents’ noses,
the rats could not get rid of the microbes.
In the
lab, the researchers found that staph grown with nonlethal doses of triclosan
were more “sticky,” attaching better to human proteins, as well as to glass and
plastic surfaces. Nonlethal doses of triclosan in snot could help staph hunker
down in the nose, giving it an advantage over other nose-dwelling microbes,
Boles says.Microbiologist Hanne Ingmer of the University of Copenhagen says the
finding has troubling implications for public health. Triclosan, she adds,
could provide footholds for the most worrisome forms of staph, such as
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.
While
health experts have focused on the misuse of antibiotics, which can spur
microbes to become drug resistant, the uses of triclosan and similar compounds
in personal care products “are almost an uncontrolled area,” she says.And
unlike with antibiotics, Boles adds, using triclosan to kill off microbes may
not even work well. “There’s no indication that it’s doing a better job than
soap and water,” he says.The Food and Drug Administration has asked companies
to provide evidence that adding triclosan to soaps is safe and effective.
3)
Possible measles drug tests well in animals:
Compound
saves ferrets from related virus by blocking key enzyme. There’s no treatment
for measles, but an experimental compound might do the trick by bogging down a
key viral enzyme, a study of ferrets finds. When given to animals infected by a
virus similar to the one that causes measles, the compound prevented illness.
“This is
still a ways away from human testing,” says Alan Hinman, a public health
physician at the Task Force for Global Health, a nonprofit organization in
Decatur, Ga. “But it’s exciting to see this. I think it has potential to be
really useful.”
4) Turkana
Boy sparks row over Homo erectus height:
Studies
differ on whether 8-year-old would have reached modern human stature. A Stone
Age boy stands at the center of a controversy over when members of the human
evolutionary family first reached heights and weights comparable to those of
modern human adults.
All that
remains of the ancient, approximately 8-year-old Homo erectus boy today is his
nearly complete roughly 1.5-million-year-old skeleton. Excavations in 1984 near
Kenya’s Lake Turkana yielded the find, often called Turkana Boy. At the time of
the skeleton’s excavation, little was known about adult sizes and growth
patterns of H. erectus.
5) New
MRSA superbug emerges in Brazil:
A new
superbug that caused a bloodstream infection in a Brazilian patient has been
identified by an international research team. The new superbug is part of a
class of highly-resistant bacteria known as methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, which is a major cause of hospital and
community-associated infections. The superbug has also acquired high levels of
resistance to vancomycin, the most common and least expensive antibiotic used
to treat severe MRSA infections worldwide.
An
international research team led by Cesar A. Arias, M.D., Ph.D., at The
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has identified
a new superbug that caused a bloodstream infection in a Brazilian patient. The
report appeared in the April 17 issue of The New England Journal of
Medicine.The new superbug is part of a class of highly-resistant bacteria known
as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, which is a major cause
of hospital and community-associated infections. The superbug has also acquired
high levels of resistance to vancomycin, the most common and least expensive
antibiotic used to treat severe MRSA infections worldwide.Most worrisome is
that genomic analyses indicated that this novel vancomycin-resistant MRSA superbug
belongs to a genetic lineage that is commonly found outside hospitals
(designated community-associated MRSA), said Arias, the report's senior author
and an associate professor of medicine, microbiology and molecular genetics at
the UTHealth Medical School.Previous research has suggested that
community-associated MRSA can disseminate rapidly among people and is
responsible for the majority of skin and soft tissue infections (sores) in
patients of all ages. Some of these infections can become serious and even
fatal.
Since
community-associated MRSA is thought to be transmitted mainly by skin contact,
the new superbug may affect not only sick people or those with a weakened
immune system but also healthy individuals, according to Arias. Apart from
causing localized skin infections, the MRSA superbug has the ability to invade
the bloodstream and may become a serious threat.
"This
is the first-ever reported bloodstream infection caused by a highly
vancomycin-resistant MRSA bacteria," Arias said. "If we lose
vancomycin, it would make it very difficult and expensive to treat these
infections," he said.
Arias and
his colleagues conducted microbiological and genetic analyses of an MRSA
superbug recovered from the blood of a 35-year-old Brazilian man and identified
a novel transferable genetic element (plasmid) that carries the genes necessary
for vancomycin resistance (vanA gene cluster)."The presence and
dissemination of community-associated MRSA containing vanA could become a
serious public health concern," report the authors in the paper.However,
since this is the only documented case of this type of infection, Arias said,
it is too early to tell if this specific superbug will lead to a bigger
threat.Barbara E. Murray, M.D., report co-author and director of the Division
of Infectious Diseases at the UTHealth Medical School, said, "The worst
resistance possible has now appeared in the community-associated MRSA
clone."What is the next step?"There will have to be increased
surveillance in South America and worldwide in the future," said Murray,
who is the holder of the J. Ralph Meadows Professorship in Internal Medicine at
the UTHealth Medical School and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of
America.
Movie
Release This Week:
Dr. Will
Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial
Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective
intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions.
His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also
made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it
takes to stop him.
However,
in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for
him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife
Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow
researchers, the question is not if they can…but if they should.
Their
worst fears are realized as Will’s thirst for knowledge evolves into a
seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing
that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.
Based on
the #1 New York Times best-selling book of the same name, Heaven is for Real
brings to the screen the true story of a small-town father who must find the
courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing
experience with the world. The film stars Academy Award® nominee and Emmy®
award winning actor Greg Kinnear as Todd Burpo and co-stars Kelly Reilly as
Sonja Burpo, the real-life couple whose son Colton (newcomer Connor Corum)
claims to have visited Heaven during a near death experience. Colton recounts
the details of his amazing journey with childlike innocence and speaks
matter-of-factly about things that happened before his birth ... things he
couldn't possibly know. Todd and his family are then challenged to examine the
meaning from this remarkable event.
A small,
secluded island off the coast of Belize suddenly finds itself terrorized by a
deadly predator from the planet’s distant past, when deep-sea divers
accidentally awaken an ancient evil. Jackson Slate and his team of underwater
cave explorers unearth much more than long-lost Mayan treasure while plumbing
the depths of a world famous blue hole. They disturb a creature that’s been
hibernating for over 60,000 years - a rampaging behemoth of death and destruction
not only at sea but also on land.
Fioravante
decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his
cash-strapped friend, Murray. With Murray acting as his "manager",
the duo quickly finds themselves caught up in the crosscurrents of love and
money.
12-year-old
Pelle accidentally gets bitten by an ant and develops unimaginable superpowers.
With help from his friend, comic book nerd Wilhelm, Pelle creates a secret
identity as the superhero Antboy. Slowly things start to happen in the
surburban community, and when a scary and crazy supervillain, Flea, enters the
scene, Antboy must step up to the challenge. The first Danish superhero-movie.
Based on the books by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen.
Political news
of this week:
1)
Moderate to high turnout in 5th phase of LS polls:
Moderate
to high turnout on Thursday marked the polling in the fifth and biggest round
of Lok Sabha elections covering 121 seats across 12 states amidst Maoist
violence in Jharkhand where rebels injured four CRPF jawans, blew up a railway
track and exploded bombs.
The
highest turnout of 78.89 per cent was in the four constituencies in West
Bengal, which has a total of 39 seats, while the lowest was recorded in Madhya
Pradesh at 54 per cent. In the key battleground state of Karnataka, where
polling was held in the all the 28 seats on Thursday, the voting percentage was
66 per cent and in the 11 seats of Uttar Pradesh, electorally the most
important state, the turnout was 62.52 per cent.
A good
show for Congress in Karnataka could help it to check BJP's perceived surge
nationally. In the previous Lok Sabha poll in the state, BJP had won 18 seats
in the state but is struggling this time. Congress had defeated BJP in last
year’s state assembly polls, bringing to an end the saffron party’s only power
centre in southern India.
Bangalore
watched one of the keenly contested seats in the state where Congress party
candidate Nandan Nilekani is pitted against BJP veteran Ananth Kumar. Polling
in another important, Maharashtra, which has a total of 48 seats, 19
constituencies which went to poll on Thursday saw a turnout of 61.7 per cent.
Thursday's
polling decided the fate of 358 candidates, including Union Minister
Sushilkumar Shinde and former chief minister Ashok Chavan (both Congress) and
senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde in Maharashtra. The fifth phase of polling was
the largest single-day in the nine-phased election exercise and electoral fates
of 1,769 candidates, including Nandan Nilekani (Cong), Maneka Gandhi, former
Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), Union Ministers Veerappa Moily (Cong) and
Srikant Jena, Supriya Sule and Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti, were
decided. Viewed as a high stakes day by both BJP and its allies, which hold 46
seats and Congress and its partners having 43 seats, today's polling may decide
which party will lead the race to form the next government.Polling in Uttar
Pradesh decided the fate of 150 candidates, including Maneka Gandhi, Santosh
Gangwar, Saleem Sherwani and Begum Noor Bano. West Bengal holds the key to
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's bid to position herself as a key
player in government-formation at the Centre in the event of a fractured
mandate. Over 54 per cent polling was registered in seven Lok Sabha seats in
Bihar, another electorally key state, today while 62 percent turnout was
reported in six constituencies in adjacent Jharkhand despite Maoists' boycott
call.With completion of polling in the fifth phase, the exercise crossed the
half way mark in the nine-phased elections to 543-member Lok Sabha.
Around 65
per cent voter turnout was recorded in
three Naxal-hit Lok Sabha constituencies of Chhattisgarh where Maoists targeted
a polling team but there was no casualty.
Barring
the one Naxal-related incident, polling was by and large peaceful in the State
which completed the second phase of voting that decided the fate of Congress
leader Ajit Jogi and CM Raman Singh's son Abhishek (BJP) among others.
2) As ties
sour with TDP, BJP eyes YSR Congress in Andhra:
With its
alliance with the Telugu Desam Party running into troubled waters, the
Bharatiya Janata Party is keeping its options open in the Seema-Andhra region
and even considering seeking support from the YSR Congress post polls.
A senior
BJP leader told Rediff.com that the alliance would be on the similar lines of
that in Uttar Pradesh where both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj
Party extended support to the United Progressive Alliance.
The issue
arose after TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu told his party workers through a
tele-conference that the BJP had fielded bad candidates in the Seema-Andhra
assembly segment. “They are not even capable of winning a ward election,” Naidu
is believed to have said adding that the alliance was proving to be a mistake.
However,
the BJP says the problems could be sorted out in a day’s time. “He had the
upper hand in the seat-sharing formula and gave us seats where he could not
have won anyway,” said a BJP leader on the condition of anonymity. “It is up to
him. If not him, there are other options available,” the BJP leader added.
But some
sources in the BJP added that if the alliance did break and if they needed the
numbers, they could rely on Jaganmohan Reddy, as the latter would want to have
a share in the power pie.
However,
for now the BJP is hoping to iron out the differences with the TDP, as they
still viewed TDP as a valuable ally.
3) Lalu,
Nitish most worried about their 'prestige seats':
Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United and his bete noire
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are not contesting the Lok Sabha
polls, which has put their ‘prestige constituencies’ of Nalanda and Patliputra
at stake.
Polling
in both these constituencies is underway on Thursday along with 5 other
seats.Both Nitish and Lalu are taking personal interest to closely monitor the
voting in the 2 constituencies.For Lalu, the Patliputra seat is crucial because
his elder daughter Misa Bharti is in the fray from this seat. Lalu has taken
extra care to personally campaign in Patliputra and has worked hard as his personal
stake is high.
According
to RJD leaders, Lalu has deployed his trusted party leaders, including
legislators in Patliputra to manage his daughter's election.The BJP has fielded
Ram Kirpal Yadav, who was known as ‘Hanuman of Lalu’ till February. But he
revolted and left the RJD after being denied a ticket.The ruling JD-U candidate
and sitting MP Ranjan Prasad Yadav, who was described as ‘Chanakya’ in the mid
90s also deserted Lalu over a decade ago due to differences.Misa publicly admitted
that she is fighting against her two chachas (uncles).
With 3
formidable Yadavs in the fray in Patliputra, the vote share is bound to get
divided. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Lalu was defeated from Patliputra due to
division of Yadav votes.But the situation was different then. The JD-U and the
BJP were in an alliance and Ranjan was supported by the upper caste --
Bhumihar, Rajputs, Other Backward Castes, Extreme Backward Castes, Mahadalits
and Muslims.This time Ram Kirpal is supported by the upper caste and others
including a section of his castemen, Yadavs and Other Backward Castes. The JD-U
is hopeful of getting a major chunk of Kurmi votes (Nitish Kumar’s caste), who
have a strong presence after the delimitation of the constituency -- along with
a major chunk of EBCs and Mahadalits.
Nalanda
is Nitish’s home district and a stronghold of the party. It was considered a
safe seat till a few months ago but not any more. Congress has fielded former
Bihar police chief Ashsish Kumar Ranjan, a Kurmi, from Nalanda. Sinha is
considered close to Lalu, who has joined hands with the Congress for the
polls.Sinha is heavily banking on the support of his castemen, Lalu’s support
base of Yadav-Muslims and Congress’s support base among different social
groups.Sensing a tough contest, Nitish Kumar campaigned for two days and
addressed over half a dozen public meetings. He also visited several places to
reach out to people seeking support for JD-U candidate and sitting MP
Kaushalendra Kumar.LJP candidate Satyanand Sharma, a Bhumihar, is eyeing the
support of his castemen, other upper castes and his party chief Ram Vilas
Paswan’s castemen –Dusadh, the only Dalit caste in Bihar.
4) Modi
alleges distribution of watches with Chidambaram's photos:
Sharpening
his attack on Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Bharatiya Janata Party leader
Narendra Modi on Thursday alleged wrist watches with photos of the finance
minister were being distributed to voters and demanded a probe by the Election
Commission."In Tamil Nadu, there is a Congress leader -- recounting
Minister -- he is so afraid that he ran away from elections,” Modi said,
without taking Chidambaram's name while addressing an election rally in this
town, bordering the union minister's native Sivaganga district.On a whirlwind
two-day electioneering in Tamil Nadu to canvass for NDA candidates, the BJP's
prime ministerial candidate continued to describe Chidambaram as
"recounting minister", a reference to his controversial win from
Sivaganga constituency in 2009."Some people on this dais showed me a
watch. It has the recounting minister's photo and his symbol. I was told that
these watches are being given to every household. EC should take it very
seriously. There should be a probe against the recounting minister and
Congress," he said.After Chidambaram opted out of the April 24 Lok Sabha
polls, his son Karti Chidambaram has been given the Sivaganga seat.Seeking to
strike a chord with the locals, Modi raked up the problems of the firecracker
industry in nearby Sivakasi, employing lakhs of workers, and slammed the
licence fee hike and blamed it on the faulty UPA policies.He promised to take
all steps for the welfare of the firecracker industry.Reiterating BJP's
commitment to interlinking of national rivers, Modi said if voted to power, the
NDA Government will link "Cauvery and Ganga," thus addressing the
drinking water problems and irrigation challenges of Tamil Nadu.
With an
eye on the large Muslim population in this coastal district, Modi said Congress
Government's 15-Point Programme that promises employment to Muslim youth among
others has not achieved the desired result.Many years and crores of rupees had
been spent on the scheme, but what has it delivered, he asked, adding the Kundu
Committee which was set up by the government had also found "after
detailed study, that there has been no change in the condition of
Muslims."Congress was only trying to 'hoodwink' Muslims, he charged,
adding the Central government could achieve only 56 per cent of its goal
between 2006-12.While the achievement rate was 26 per cent in Tamil Nadu, it
was 54 per cent in his state, he added.Heaping praise on former President Abdul
Kalam, who was born in this town, Modi described him as a "great son of
India" and lauded his contribution to space science."He was not a
just great scientist but also a visionary. I am proud that it was (former prime
minister A B ) Vajpayee who recognised this gem of India; together they did
wonders," he said.
Continuing
his tirade against Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, whom he once again
described as 'Shehzada' (the Prince), Modi questioned the former's notion of
poverty, saying he was 'born with a golden spoon,' and claimed that he hailed
from a 'poor, backward family.'Making good use of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's
'tea-boy' jibe, Modi said he had risen to his present day stature selling tea
in his young days.Seeking to address the concerns of fisherfolk, especially
those from Rameswaram in the district, he blamed the 'weak' Central Government
for the harassment of fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat by navies of Sri
Lanka and Pakistan respectively.
He also
promised steps for promoting tourism in this district besides modernising the
fishing industry among others by providing technology-driven information on fish
wealth which would help them return home quickly like their Gujarat
counterparts.He said BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu had emerged as an "able,
reliable front" to DMK and AIADMK, which he alleged were keen on settling
personal scores only.Earlier, addressing a rally in Erode, he took a dig at
former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan and without naming her,
said a woman Congress leader from the state was responsible for delaying many
infrastructural projects in the country including in Tamil Nadu.To boost the
turmeric industry in Erode, he pledged BJP's efforts to set up Research and
Development Centre for the same and make turmeric a value-added product.
5) Saradha
scam: ED arrests Sudipta Sen's absconding wife, son:
Enforcement
Directorate on Wednesday night arrested the wife and son of the alleged kingpin
of the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen in a money
laundering case.
The duo,
wife Piyali Sen and son Shubhojit, were arrested by the sleuths of the central
probe agency after they were questioned for close to two hours with regard to
the alleged dubious transactions that led to the Ponzi scam which has duped
hundreds of investors across West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. "Both the
people have been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and they
will be produced in a court tomorrow. ED brought them to Kolkata from a
location and they had been absconding for long," sources privy to the
development told PTI.The agency, sources said, arrested both as they want to confront
them with some incriminating documents that the agency has obtained after raids
at some locations of the Kolkata-based firms.
The
agency has recently issued summons to numerous entities involved in the case
even as it attached assets worth Rs 140 crore of individuals and firms on money
laundering charges.The ED has also issued a notice asking general public
"to furnish information and particulars of properties, both movable and
immovable as well as bank accounts, in West Bengal and other places, if any,
related to Saradha group known to them, with specific details" to it.
Recently,
ED's zonal office in Kolkata issued summons to about 15 people involved in the
funds transactions of the scam that came to the fore early last year after
duped investors raised their voice of grievance.The notices come in the
backdrop of ED attaching Rs 105.62 crore assets of various entities involved in
the case including Saradha Director Sudipta Sen and Piyali.It had attached Rs
34 crore worth of assets earlier in the same probe.The agency is jointly
probing the case taking cognisance of the FIRs filed by the three state police
departments.The agency has till now issued attachment orders on all equity
shares of all 224 companies of the Saradha group, insurance policies in the
name of Sen and his wife, numerous land properties and plots, 390 bank accounts
and equity shares of a TV channel run by the beleaguered group.The agency has
also issued an advisory that no one should "transact" in these
attached assets without seeking permission of the agency.
6) 292
missing in South Korean ferry disaster:
A
multi-storey ferry carrying 459 people, mostly high school students on an
overnight trip to a tourist island, sank off South Korea's southern coast
today, leaving nearly 300 people missing despite a frantic, hours-long rescue
by ships and helicopters.
At least
three people were confirmed dead and 55 injured.
The high
number of people unaccounted for likely trapped in the ship or floating in the
ocean raised fears that the death toll could rise drastically, making it one of
South Korea's biggest ferry mishaps since 1993 when 292 people died.
7) Why
corruption is even worse than communalism:
While
corruption destroys the moral fibre of a nation, its society and people,
secularism as espoused in this country is cynical secularism, a sham
perpetrated during election time and communalism is a spectre, a bogey raised
by these great champions of Indian secularism to secure and perpetuate their
vote bank, says Maneck Davar.The statement of a minority community leader that
corruption was preferable to communalism is shocking, but not surprising. In
the present electoral debate while charges of divisiveness in the basis of
religion, class and caste are shrill, there is not much focus on the huge scams
which have emasculated our economy and diverted the nation's wealth to shady
bank accounts in tax havens.
In a
previous column, I had argued why the minorities need not fear a Narendra Modi
dispensation as communal trouble would derail his programme of economic and
infrastructure development, make him a whipping boy of domestic and
international sentiment and deny him a place in history as a harbinger of
change, which he aims for.Modi is astute enough to have learnt the lessons of
Godhra well, for all his re-election rhetoric in the subsequent elections he
has won in Gujarat have been on the development plank. There has been no
communal outburst in Gujarat for the last 12 years, creditable in a state where
communal strife was endemic.It does not take great economic knowledge to
realise how corruption beggars a country's economy. At the apex of the pyramid
it is the loot of the national exchequer by rent-seekers who hugely profit by
under valuing the nation's resources, may it be under the ground like coal, oil
and mineral ore or above the ground like spectrum and sharing the spoils with
their political partners.
At the
base are all those who occupy petty positions in government bureaucracy who
prey on the helpless and ignorant, denying them even their sustenance in
government schemes.Corruption diverts the State's scarce capital resources to
private pockets, denying crucial and fragile social areas like health and
education much needed funding, leaving schools without teachers and teaching
aids and hospitals without doctors, medicines and diagnostic equipment.More
important, it destroys the moral fibre of a nation, its society and people,
making them insensitive to the intense suffering caused to those deprived of
their basic right to a decent quality of life because of the base instincts of
those in power who illegally enrich themselves.Secularism as is espoused in
this country is cynical secularism, a sham perpetrated during election time and
communalism is a spectre, a bogey raised by these great champions of Indian
secularism to secure and perpetuate their vote bank.
While at
Independence, the promotion of a secular, multi-cultural nation was an
imperative to assuage the fears of a community after Partition, over the years
it has degenerated into an empty slogan, worse a promise unfulfilled.Even
constituencies were redrawn to ensure that in its composition at least 15 to 20
per cent comprised members of the minority community who would vote en bloc for
the Congress.True secularism is not ring-fencing minorities in ghettos, both
real and in mentality, and creating unjustified fears, but in seeking and
working for their emancipation, their economic and social progress and their
assimilation as equals in society. This has not happened in 67 years of
Independence of which the Congress has enjoyed six decades of power.What does a
child dying of hunger malnutrition or lack of medical care know or care about
secularism?What is the religion of a child begging at traffic signals when s/he
should be in school?What do the huddled masses on pavements and slums in the
city or in mud huts in the villages without water, sanitation or electricity
worry about communalism when they are reduced to mere husks of humanity?It is
when you make a serious effort to eradicate corruption and redirect the hundred
of thousands of billions of rupees of illicit gains back in the economy and the
building of concrete and social infrastructure, when you get the nation's
wealth secreted in offshore banks back into the system, when you allow
entrepreneurship to flourish by eliminating greasy palms and when these
benefits percolate to the lowest level as they must and they will, then your
slogan of secularism will be one of substance.
But here
is the paradox and the reason why it is in the interests of the 'secularists'
to keep a vast section of the populace poor. As an extreme analogy you don't
find the denizens of Lutyens' Delhi, Malabar Hill in Mumbai or Banjara Hills in
Hyderabad rioting and destroying each other's property. It is largely the poor,
the dispossessed who suffer.Almost all of sectoral violence -- religion or
caste-based -- is due to social tension engendered by poverty, lack of
education and employment and deprivation of basic amenities like water,
sanitation and electricity.Finally, not only have these 'secularists' who have
been in power so long done anything to address the woes of the common man, but
have perpetuated his misery by corrupting the system and reveling in the
country permanently residing in the bottom ten per cent of global development
and corruption indices.For it is only an economically disenfranchised people,
hobbled by corruption, that can be frightened by the 'threat' of communalism.
8)
Bangalore-bound AC bus catches fire; 6 dead:
Six
persons were charred to death and 12 others injured, five of them seriously,
when a Bangalore-bound bus caught fire at Metikurke, 25 km from Chitradurga, on
Wednesday.
Three
critically injured passengers have been hospitalised at Davangere while two of
them were admitted to a hospital in Chitradurga, police said.
The bus
was carrying about 30 passengers from Davangere when the tragedy struck in the
early hours,
9) Assam:
Kamakhya-Dimapur BG Express derails, over 50 hurt:
Over 50
passengers were injured, 19 of them seriously, when the engine and 10 coaches
of the Dimapur-Kamakhya BG Express derailed at Teghiria in central Assam in the
wee hours of Wednesday.
The
derailment damaged 100 meters of railway line leading to cancellation of eight
trains on the route. The Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express has also been
detained at Lumbing, railway officials said.
They said
the engine and 10 coaches of the train derailed near Jagiroad in Morigaon
district at around 2 am.Nineteen passengers were seriously injured and have
been admitted to various hospitals including GauhatiMedicalCollegeHospital,
police said.Many passengers were discharged after receiving first aid in
MorigaonCivilHospital.The cause of the derailment is being investigated,
railway officials said.Senior railway officials have rushed to the site and
rescue operations are on.
Sports News
This Week:
1) Why the
IPL is a waste of time:
This
article isn’t for IPL fans. Go back to cleaning your vuvuzela or shouting at your
launderer for shrinking your Chennai Canaries jersey if you’re one‘Talk about
things and nobody cares.’
Not
Steven Tyler’s best work. It’s definitely nothing as profound as ‘dude looks
like a lady’. It does remind me of the IPL though. In fact, it was a close
second to ‘Oh no, not again’ when I realized that 6 weeks of grotesque jerseys,
the Punjab Paupers, the Mumbai Foreigners, and a whole lot of pretentiously
named teams was upon us again.
The IPL
is quite simply put, a gigantic waste of time. It’s overhyped and underwhelming
at best. The organizers are a bit like overzealous mothers, shoving 6 weeks of
what they’re passing off as cricket down our throats, except they don’t want us
to grow big and strong.
I
wouldn’t object to the IPL if it wasn’t so damn crass and in your face. There
are other idiotic T20 leagues floating around, but we don’t have to hear about
the SPL every day.One would think that having survived the IPL, you would be
grateful and move on. But people go back for seconds. And sevenths.Now, there
are many things you could do instead of watching the IPL, provided you are
willing to make some sacrifices, the big one being you don’t get to hear how
Chris Gayle is better than Vivian Richards.
I realize
there’s a whole lot of different reasons to watch the IPL, about 3 less than
the number of caps they have floating around.
Let’s
start with those who watch the IPL because they enjoy torturing themselves.You
could poke your eye with a sharp object, wrestle a Doberman for no apparent
reason or listen to Arnab Goswami telling us all what it is that we want to
know. On second thoughts, the last one is too extremeIf you’re the delusional
type who thinks that the IPL is the greatest tournament in the world, your time
would be better spent finding a cure for cancer. Or rewriting the ‘How I Met
Your Mother’ ending for about the fiftieth time.If you’re only watching it
because you’re bored, you could dabble in horticulture and watch the grass grow
instead.
If you’re
watching it for the cheerleaders, is it really worth it with team owners
popping up everywhere? You would be better served watching women’s tennis.If
you watch it because of the bad commentary, I’m sorry I have no alternatives
for you. They are doing great things with psychiatric help these days, I’d
check that out (don’t forget to wear your Russel is Benaud t-shirt).
Some
people tell me that the IPL is entertaining. Personally, I don’t see what’s
entertaining about international superstars and domestic wannabes playing
Mitchell Johnson meets the England Cricket Team, but there you have it.
However, if entertainment is what you’re after, why not catch up on the latest
episode of CID? They’re breaking down the doors of conventional detective shows
these days.Other than that, you could spend your time trying to understand
Duckworth-Lewis, drawing a square circle and trying to find out what exactly
the fox said.The world is your oyster.And if you’re a Kevin Pietersen fan, you
can curse the ECB, switch on the TV, mute it before you start feeling not
unlike dogs when they hear a high pitched sound, and watch the Delhi
Dodderers.I know I will.Dude looks like a lady? More like the ECB is crazy.Into
all life, some rain must fall.
2) IPL
2014 – Match 1: Was it a blip, or a sign of things to come for the Mumbai
Indians?:
Lots to
ponder for the defending IPL championsThe defending IPL champions, Mumbai
Indians (MI), got off to the worst possible start to their title defence with a
colossal 41-run morale-sapping defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Having
lost the toss and forced to field, the first half of the KKR innings went
according to plan for Rohit Sharma and Co., and it wasn’t until the 15th over
when the veteran from South Africa, Jacques Kallis, decided to take matter into
his own hands and carted Pragyan Ojha for 20 runs, thereby triggering a shift
in the momentum of the KKR innings.
In the
end, it would prove to be a masterstroke, though, for KKR and Gambhir to
persist with Kallis opening the batting, and letting him set the tempo of the
innings.
Continues
to garner runs, and was a solid man-of-the-match displayThe Kolkata Knight
Riders’ bowling efforts were a peach of their own, and Gambhir played around
with his spin trio of Shakib Al-Hassan, Sunil Narine, and Piyush Chawla, all
three making sure that Mumbai Indians were starved for lack of pace to conjure
up something. With KKR inflicting such a massive defeat in terms of runs and
performance, it has put forward a serious question to the Mumbai Indians’
outfit – was it a minor blip, or is it a sign of things to come for the
defending IPL champions?Mumbai Indians, having made a few changes to the
dynamics of their squad in the past IPL auctions, looked like they had a
selection conundrum ahead of their 1st game against KKR. Termed by many a
cricket pundit as a squad that is lacking in depth, Mumbai Indians vindicated
all of those allegations by coming up with an insipid display, which could well
be an indication of what this side might offer going forward.
3)
Forensic expert faulted at Pistorius trial:
The
prosecution in Oscar Pistorius' murder trial on Thursday challenged the
credibility of an expert witness for the defense, which was trying to show that
the athlete killed his girlfriend by mistake.Roger Dixon was called by the
defense to give evidence to support Pistorius' story that he killed girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp by accident thinking she was an intruder behind the toilet door
in his home and about to attack him.Pistorius is charged with premeditated
murder for shooting Steenkamp multiple times on Feb. 14, 2013. Prosecutors say
that he killed Steenkamp after a fight.The trial has been adjourned until May
5.
Continuing
his cross-examination, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Dixon, the third witness to
be called by Pistorius' defense, had no expertise in some areas where he was
testifying and also had not been thorough in some of his examinations.
In one,
the prosecutor criticized Dixon, a geologist, for not using the exact height of
double-amputee athlete Pistorius when standing on his stumps."It is
something I omitted. I overlooked it at the time," Dixon replied when
questioned why his measurements were around 20 centimeters (8 inches) off in a
test to see if Pistorius' head and body would have been high enough to be seen
by neighbors through a bathroom window. He said he was not trying to
"mislead" the court.
Dixon is
a former policeman and an expert in the analysis of materials at crime scenes.
His testimony touched on ballistics, gunshot wounds, pathology and blood
spatter, and he also said he was involved in audio and visual tests. He
conceded he is not an expert in any of those areas.
The
bearded university researcher was subjected to tough questioning by Nel and has
been ridiculed on social media and in the South African media for trying to be
an expert in areas where he was not qualified.Judge Thokozile Masipa will
ultimately deliver a verdict. Pistorius faces 25 years to life in prison if
convicted on the premeditated murder charge.
4) Real
Madrid wins 19th Copa del Rey title:
Gareth Bale raced down the field, avoided a
defender and rolled the ball under goalkeeper Jose Pinto in the 90th minute,
giving Real Madrid a 2-1 win over Barcelona on Wednesday night and its 19th
Copa del Rey title.Angel Di Maria put Real Madrid ahead from a counterattack in
the 11th minute, but defender Mark Bartra scored on a header off a corner kick
in the 67th, the first time Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas allowed a goal in
this season's tournament.Neymar hit a post in the 90th for Barcelona, which was
eliminated from the Champions League last week and lost at Granada last
weekend, making a league title unlikely.
"Obviously
this is not a good moment. It has been a hard week on all fronts,"
Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino said.
5) Nadal,
Federer and Djokovic all breeze into last eight with comfortable wins:
Rafa
Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic demonstrated their superior class on
clay as they eased into the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters on
Thursday.Claycourt wizard Nadal barely broke a sweat in his 6-1 6-3 thrashing
of Italy's Andreas Seppi while fourth seed Federer recovered from a break in
the first set to beat Czech Lukas Rosol 6-4 6-1.Champion Djokovic dropped just
one game as he demolished Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0 6-1 to continue his
title defence in the principality. Spaniard Nadal, whose eight-year reign as
champion was ended by Djokovic in the final last year, extended his proud
record in Monte Carlo to 50-2 with the win on centre court.The world number one
will next meet compatriot and sixth seed David Ferrer in the final eight, who
made easy work of Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov by winning 6-4 6-2.
"That
is going to be a very tough match," the eight-times French Open champion
told a news conference about the all-Spanish duel with Ferrer."David is a
tough, tough player on any surface but here on clay, (he is) always a big
challenge. I play a lot of matches against him, very tough ones."Federer,
who has a record 17 grand slam titles, will face local favourite Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga in a mouth-watering quarter-final after the French ninth seed shook off
a mediocre start to celebrate his 29th birthday with a 5-7 6-3 6-0 victory over
Italy's Fabio Fognini."I think Jo played the semis here last year, so he's
played here well in the past," Federer told a news conference.
"I've
seen Jo play different kinds of quality matches lately so I'm not quite sure
how he's going to play, how aggressive, how passive."I have to make sure I
play aggressive myself and not become too passive just because we're on
clay."Djokovic, seeded second, will face either fifth seed Czech Thomas
Berdych or Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and he can look forward to a titanic
semi-final showdown with Federer should they both get past their next
opponents.Swiss third seed Stanislas Wawrinka reached the quarter-finals
without hitting a ball on Thursday after his third-round opponent Nicolas
Almagro withdrew injured."I woke up this morning with a severe pain in my
left foot that prevented me from even walking normally," Almagro
said."After consulting with the doctor for a long time this morning, we
decided together that it was better for me not to play today."Australian
Open champion Wawrinka advances to meet eighth seed Milos Raonic after the Canadian
beat 11th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-3.
6) Court
keeps Srinivasan out of BCCI:
The
Supreme Court has turned down N Srinivasan's reinstatement request, and has
revealed that he is one of the 13 named in the sealed envelope submitted to it
by the Justice Mudgal committee. In response to the BCCI counsel CA Sundaram's
argument that the court was responding only to prima facie evidence and not
secondary evidence, Justice AK Patnaik for the first time revealed details
about the sealed envelope. He said that there were 13 names of "very
important personalities in cricket" in the sealed envelope, with
Srinivasan's name being the 13th. There were 12 allegations against Srinivasan
with annexures to each of them. "It seems that Mr Srinivasan has not taken
the allegations seriously," he said.Patnaik said Srinivasan "could
not come back as BCCI president as long as the probe is on." A day before
the court hearing on Wednesday, Srinivasan had filed an affidavit, asking the
court to reconsider its interim order that removed him as the BCCI president
while the probe into the alleged corruption in the IPL was on. The court,
though, reiterated that a fair probe would not be possible with him discharging
any duties inside the BCCI.
It
further asked the BCCI to come back to the next hearing, on April 22, with
constructive corrective measures with regard to how it can ensure a free and
fair probe into the IPL corruption scandal. The measures could involve a
Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe or selecting its own other independent
investigators, but it stipulated that the probe had to be conducted by a
credible team. If the BCCI was to be given the power to investigate the matter,
it had to be done without prejudice and the mandatory condition that "Srinivasan
cannot come back."The court said that "we cannot close our
eyes," but did not impose an independent probe in the matter. "We are
not considering a SIT because we don't want the CBI or the police or the media
to throw mud on cricketers," Patnaik said. "Reputations of cricketers
and great names are at stake. What happens to the reputation of the players who
are representing the country and Indian cricketers of the future. Cricket has
to be clean but institutional autonomy has to be maintained."There was some
relief for the BCCI. Sundar Raman, the chief operating officer (COO) of the
IPL, whose future was to be decided by acting BCCI president Sunil Gavaskar,
was allowed to continue in his role. Gavaskar stated that he was not in a
position to take a decision on Sundar as he knew him in a personal capacity and
was unaware of the details of the information that investigating agencies had
against Sundar.
The
hearing on April 22 will also look into several matters related to the many
ramifications of the IPL corruption scandal. Patnaik said the court will look
into the amended clause in the BCCI constitution that allowed Srinivasan to own
a team in the IPL as well as him being sent as a board nominee to ICC meetings.
There is also a possibility that G Sampath Kumar, the Chennai police officer
whose deposition formed part of the Mudgal committee's report, will be asked to
depose before the court on April 22. The details of his deposition were found
in Mudgal committee member Nilay Dutta's additional comments to the main
report. Dutta is a member of the Assam Cricket Association. Deccan Chargers may
also be introduced as part of the arbitration pertaining to the matter of their
resurrection.
The court
will also appoint an amicus curae, a lawyer who is not part of the case, to
report to them about the existence or otherwise of transcripts and recordings
of the depositions to the Mudgal committee. So far it is understood that the
court has been provided with minutes of the 52 interviews conducted by the
panel in the course of its investigation. The BCCI's counsel had previously
contested the Mudgal committee's findings and had requested for the tapes the
findings were based on.
The case
dates back to June 2013 when the Cricket Association of Bihar secretary Aditya
Verma raised charges of conflict of interest in the formation of BCCI's
two-member inquiry panel into the IPL corruption issue. A Bombay High Court
ruling later termed the probe panel "illegal". The BCCI and the CAB
filed petitions in the Supreme Court against this order, with the CAB
contending that the Bombay High Court could have suggested a fresh mechanism to
look into the corruption allegations.The Supreme Court then appointed a
three-member committee, headed by former High Court judge Mukul Mudgal and
comprising additional solicitor general L Nageswara Rao and Dutta, in October
2013, to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations of corruption
against Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements, and
Rajasthan Royals team owner Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd, as well as with the
larger mandate of allegations around betting and spot-fixing in IPL matches and
the involvement of players. The committee had submitted its findings to the
court on February 10.
Books Of
This Week:
Sanjaya
Baru is
an Indian political commentator and policy analyst, currently serving as
Director for Geo-Economics and Strategy at the International Institute of
Strategic Studies. Previously he had served as associate editor at The Economic
Times and The Times of India, and then chief editor at The Financial Express.
He quit the Express to become Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's media advisor and
chief spokesperson, a role in which he served from May 2004 until August 2008.
In April 2014, Penguin India published The
Accidental Prime Minister, Baru's tell-all memoir about his time at
the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). In it, Baru alleges that the prime minister
was completely subservient to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who wielded
significant influence in the running of the Singh administration, including the
PMO itself. The book has sparked off a controversy, with the PMO officially
denouncing it as "fiction". Baru, however, has said that he set out
to show an empathetic portrait of the prime minister.
Baru sums up Singh's
predicament acerbically. The former media adviser says Singh made the
"cardinal mistake of imagining the (2009 election) victory was his. Bit by
bit, in the space of a few weeks, he was defanged. He thought he could induct
the ministers he wanted. Sonia nipped that hope in the bud by offering the
finance portfolio to Pranab Mukherjee, without even consulting him."
Book
1 : The Accidental Prime Minister : By
Sanjaya Baru :
'PULOK
SOUGHT SONIA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON FILES TO BE CLEARED BY PM'
Baru says that Sonia
exerted an upper hand on the PM through Pulok Chatterjee, "who was
appointed into the office at her behest". Through Chatterjee, she even had
privy to the files to be cleared by the PM. Says Baru: Pulok Chatterjee
"had regular, almost daily meetings with Sonia at which he was said to
brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on the
important files to be cleared by the PM".Baru says Singh was in office,
but not in power. The PM, says Baru, had a difficult time making his cabinet
ministers fall in line. He did not allocate portfolios, he did not intervene
much in cabinet meetings and the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs lost
its edge. Instead, power vested with a Congress "core group" - Arjun
Singh, AK Antony, Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel.
While Singh found
allies in the leaders of coalition parties, he had to face severe criticism
from old-timers in the Congress, says the book. Sharad Pawar, with whom Sonia
Gandhi did not have the best of equations, was Singh's ally, says Baru. So was
RJD leader Lalu Prasad, to some extent. But Vayalar Ravi, Antony and Arjun
Singh were the PM's critics in the cabinet. Antony might have been quiet in
public but was a "tough customer" in private, critical of economic
and foreign policies, says Baru.Then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, Baru
says, did not brief the PM even three days after returning from a trip to Washington,
DC. When the Left turned against Singh over the civil nuclear energy deal with
the US and there were rumours that Pranab Mukherjee or Sushil Kumar Shinde
might be considered as a replacement, it was Nationalist Congress Party's
Praful Patel who assured Baru that they will not support anyone but
"Doctor Saheb".
"I DO
NOT WANT ANY CREDIT FOR MYSELF"
Baru says the
creation of the NAC was the first sign that "Sonia Gandhi's renunciation
of power was more of a political tactic than a response to a higher
calling". He says that Singh too realised that the buck stopped with
Sonia. Baru says that there was an eagerness to claim all social development
programmes as the National Advisory Council's initiatives, even though, he
says, the Bharat Nirman programme came out of the PMO - drafted by the late R
Gopalakrishnan, who was joint secretary. When it came to NREGA, the claims
became more insistent. Baru recalls that on September 26, 2007 - Manmohan
Singh's 75th birthday - Rahul Gandhi led a delegation of general secretaries to
7 RCR to wish him. Rahul wanted to extend NREGA to all 500 rural districts in
the country. Ahmed Patel handed over a statement about the meeting to Baru to
be released to the Press. Baru put a spin on it, eager to apportion some credit
to the PM.
Baru says, anyway,
Manmohan Singh himself had made a commitment about it on his Independence Day
speech. So Baru sent a text message to journalists that this was the PM's
birthday gift to the country. The blowback was swift. The PM soon summoned Baru.
Baru told PM that the party wanted to give the entire credit to Rahul, but
"you and Raghuvansh Prasad [who was then minister for rural development]
deserve as much credit". The PM snapped: "I do not want any credit
for myself."A few minutes later he again said, "Let them take all the
credit. I don't need it. I am only doing my work."
PC Parakh:
A Spotless Record:
Bureaucrats
who know him, all call him an upright officer. The Comproller and Auditor
General characterised him as a whistleblower in its report on the coal scam.
But now he is under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on
charges of alleged criminal conspiracy.
Prakash
Chandra Parakh, 68, born at Jodhpur, Rajasthan studied at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Roorkee and later at the University of Bath in the United
Kingdom. He worked as a mining geologist with the National Mineral Development
Corporation and Hindustan Copper Ltd before joining the Indian Administrative
Service in 1969 and being allotted to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. During his long
career in the IAS, he has handled the departments of civil supplies, land
reforms and commercial taxes in the Andhra Pradesh government at Hyderabad,
before moving to Delhi as Director in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural in
1983. Later, he returned to the state government and was posted in the
industries department. He has been commissioner, secretary and principal
secretary in the Department of Industries.
In March
2004, Parakh returned to the Centre as secretary in the Ministry of Coal. He
retired in December 2005 and is currently working with two NGOs which support
physically challenged persons and kidney patients.
Coal
allocation scam or Coalgate, as referred by the media, is a
political scandal concerning the Indian government's allocation of the nation's
coal deposits to public sector entities (PSEs) and private companies by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh. In a draft report issued in March 2012, the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of
India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period
2004–2009. Over the Summer of 2012, the opposition BJP lodged a complaint
resulting in a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into whether the
allocation of the coal blocks was in fact influenced by corruption.
The
essence of the CAG's argument is that the Government had the authority to
allocate coal blocks by a process of competitive bidding, but chose not to. As
a result both public sector enterprises (PSEs) and private firms paid less than
they might have otherwise. In its draft report in March the CAG estimated that
the "windfall gain" to the allocatees was INR1067303 crore (US$180 billion).The
CAG Final Report tabled in Parliament put the figure at INR185591 crore (US$31
billion)[4] On 27 August 2012 Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh read a
statement in Parliament rebutting the CAG's report both in its reading of the
law and the alleged cost of the government's policies.
While the
initial CAG report suggested that coal blocks could have been allocated more
efficiently, resulting in more revenue to the government, at no point did it
suggest that corruption was involved in the allocation of coal. Over the course
of 2012, however, the question of corruption has come to dominate the
discussion. In response to a complaint by the BJP, the Central Vigilance
Commission (CVC) directed the CBI to investigate the matter. The CBI has named
a dozen Indian firms in a First Information Report (FIR), the first step in a
criminal investigation. These FIRs accuse them of overstating their net worth,
failing to disclose prior coal allocations, and hoarding rather than developing
coal allocations. The CBI officials investigating the case have speculated that
bribery may be involved.
The issue
has received massive media reaction and public outrage. During the monsoon
session of the Parliament, the BJP protested the Government's handling of the
issue demanding the resignation of the prime minister and refused to have a
debate in the Parliament. The deadlock resulted in Parliament functioning only
seven of the twenty days of the session. The Parliamentary Standing Committee
report on Coal and Steel states that all coal blocks distributed between 1993
and 2008 were done in an unauthorized manner and allotment of all mines where
production is yet to start should be cancelled
Book 2 :
‘Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths':By PC Parakh:
Former
Coal Secretary PC Parakh on Monday released his book 'Crusader or Conspirator?
Coalgate and Other Truths', and said that the book is essentially about the
degradation in the political system of the nation. He also said that India has
reached to a situation where even Chief Secretaries are forced to become
servants of political masters. He further said that his suggestion on coal
auction was not considered and that the prime minister failed to control his
ministers. Parakh also said that the book is also to inspire and motivate
people to work with honesty and dignity.
Former
Coal Secretary P C Parakh on Monday claimed that the multi-crore coal block
allocation scam could have been avoided if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had
asserted in pushing reforms including open bidding of coal blocks. Auction of
coal blocks in open market and e-marketing of coal, as proposed, would have
ensured that there was no scam.
On
undermining the authority of the Prime Minister, Mr. Parakh said besides
Ministers including Shibu Soren and D S Rao, MPs cutting across the party lines
were responsible for scuttling the reforms in the Coal Ministry.In his book,
Parakh has wondered why CBI director Sinha chose not to mention Manmohan Singh
in the Hindalco allocation because he had taken the decision in the matter. The
former coal secretary, PC Parakh, has now demanded that the Prime Minister's
role be probed by the CBI. He claimed that the PM's authority was undermined
and he allowed it to happen.
In his
tell-all book 'Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths', to be
released on Tuesday, Parakh said that two ministers, Shibu Soren and (Dasari
Narayana) Rao, "did not want transparent allocation of coal blocks and the
PM did nothing to stop it. Many MPs had even written to the PM to stall transparent
allocations and Naveen Jindal was one of them."PC Parakh says Naveen
Jindal's Flagship company Jindal steel and Iron market cap jumped 10 times from
3K cr to 31K cr in 2 yrs from 2005-07
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