Libya,Govt.Bungalows,rulings&AAP

Dear all,
Welcome.

Libya:Army led by Gen.Khalifa Haftar had fought with terrorists thereby killing 36 people. Libya Crescent society voluteers had got five bodies besides 21 in conflict areas. At 100 kms away, 15 troops bodies were brought to a hospital. The conflict started since mid October had caused death of 254 people. The Special force and thunderbolt battalion had staed that Army had moved towards South East region. During July, international airport was taken control by Islamic fundamentalists. A special troops had reached there at Camp.

 

Govt. bungalows: Govt. had stated before Supreme Court that RJD chief's bungalow allotment was cancelled since Nov.1 but was allowed to retain with Special license fee for one year. It had also expired on Oct.31.
Buta Singh was alloted Teen murti road flat which was to be evacuated on June 24. Besides, Sangma had asked for allotmen of his flat to his father who is Lok Sabha member. It is under consideration.
Bansal, Maran, SM Krishna, Vasnik & Joshi had vacated the bungalows.Ex-PM, Rao's son had to vacate bungalow on January 3. The govt. had stated that bungalows are allocated as per directions and along with Cabinet committee approval. Since April 2012 rules, type 7/8 bungalow had been allocated depending upon sensitivity, requirement etc. There are 61,466 govt. houses out of which type 7/8 are 126/185 respectively.

 

Court rulings:
Delhi High Court had ruled that Police should take action as per its order dated Nov.12.
Kouton's co. MD could be presented before CJM, who is accused of taking Bank loans after showin fake documents. Delhi High court had declared them as absconders and put a price on them worth 10,000 INR. Indian Overseas Bank had got balance of 3,000 crore INR on the said co. After the property shown against Bank loan was auctioned, it was found that it is of nominal market rate. Bank had registered a case against Chairman & MD. Police had asked for confiscation of property.

 

Sahara group: ED had recently registered a case of Hawala against Sahara group following which Income Tax dept. had sent few teams. They had found around 125 crore INR incash at Delhi located Offices.

Insurance bill: The Standing Committee on Insurance is vacant for which govt. would be presenting proposal in Rajya Sabha. The FDI limit is to be increased from existing 26% to 49% for which various meetings had been held by the Committee. During past session, bill was sent back to Standing Committee following opposition. As per parliamentary affairs minister, it is in final stage.
With regards,

 

M.K.Pachraiya
Original_app_mssg(1) AAP
The Aam Aadmi Party is trying to recover its lost base, particularly among the urban electorate, through Delhi Dialogue. For a change, the party appears more sober, humble and mature in its approach. Conspicuously missing are the holier-than-thou attitude, the ‘my way or the high way’ approach and the street-fighting ways and there’s a constructive agenda visible. This may not be enough to undo the damage the party has inflicted upon itself in the last one year, but it’s a good sign nevertheless.

The AAP should come to power in Delhi again. It not for the reason that the BJP or the Congress ought to be taught a lesson for their hubris, but for the simple reason that it is a fresh experiment that needs some space to play out. The verdict on the 49-day rule of the party is mixed. However, it’s too small a period to judge anything. The party deserves a second chance to prove itself.

If this piece already sounds like part of a ‘Vote for AAP’ campaign, hold on. It actually comes from the middle class dilemma over the party. What appealed most about AAP in the initial days was its middle class-ness. Its leaders could be related with, their anger against the politicians made sense and their rant against the system appeared justified. They promised change but were wholly impractical about it. They hated politicians but wanted to be in politics. They wanted to do too many things with no clue how to go about it. They looked foolish but it didn’t matter.

Everyone loved them. Weren’t they, after all, one of us. We, the middle class, crib too much about the world around us, we hate people above us in the economic ladder, we hate politicians, we blame everyone else but ourselves for the state we are in and we believe changes – quick and drastic – are possible. The AAP, through the personality of its leaders and the ideals it laid out, represented all that. Twenty-eight assembly seats on debut is no joke. The middle class made it possible. It wanted to be up there and throw a challenge to the entrenched interests.

The experiment did not go far. The AAP won power but it got distracted by other developments and lost focus in Delhi. Some of the AAP legislators were a big let down in their public conduct and the leaders found no conflict in being in power and continuing with their agitationist ways. Soon, they were antagonizing all. The media, carrier of middle class sensibilities, found them a nuisance. The upper middle class found solace in Narendra Modi. The punishment came in the parliamentary elections. The party, flying high only a few months earlier, failed to win a single seat.

The party believes now that it has been punished enough and people cannot hold their missteps, including quitting power in 49 days, against it for long. It can make a fresh beginning and retrieve the lost ground. The change in approach to issues and attitude reflects some introspection. Delhi Dialogue is aimed at the electorate in 25 urban middle class constituencies of Delhi. The population here comprises among others salaried employees and students. The party has been active in jhuggi-jhopdis too where the voters remain equally confused about the party.

The BJP has captured the space ceded by the AAP. Will the latter be able to wrest it back? Right now there are no clear answers. Not many gave the party more than 10 seats before the assembly elections last year. It surprised all by capturing 28. It might shrink from 28 to 10 too. But one hopes it makes a comeback.

The experiment of the middle class with power is only half-done. It needs one more chance.

M.K.Pachraiya

Sterilization_deaths&Media

Dear all,

Welcome.

The recent sterilization tragedy in Chhattisgarh that left scores of women dead has brought Indian drug industry under Western media's scanner again. Leading publications such as Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have weighed in on the lack of proper norms to curb India's drugmakers, many of whom have established a global presence for manufacturing cheaper generic drugs.

Quoting Indian drug industry executives, a Financial Times report on Wednesday said that the deaths highlights the urgent need for tougher regulation of India’s domestic pharmaceutical industry.

"In particular, they say, India urgently needs to crack down on thousands of small, fly-by-night drugmakers that typically supply government hospitals, and overhaul its official procurement process to ensure distribution of high-calibre medicine to the poor," FT said.

“India has a generic drug industry that makes the best quality medicine and exports it to the rest of the world, but then those medicines are not reaching Indian patients,” it quoted an official with an international health organisation as saying.

At one small operation in northern India, industry executives had watched as seven employees, sitting on the floor, filled gelatin capsules with a powder with their bare hands, the report said.

"On paper, India has an elaborate regulatory system. As well as a national drug regulator there are state-level regulators that are supposed to license and monitor drugmakers in their states. But in reality the national regulator is severely understaffed and lacking in modern equipment and resources," the strongly-worded article said.

Criticizing state level drug regulators, the report said that they lack not just the expertise, but are also susceptible to accepting hush money to avoid reporting infractions.

India is the largest supplier of generic drugs -- which are copycat versions of patented ones, typically with only minor differences in process -- to the the US in terms of volume. it also has the largest number of drug manufacturing plants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outside that country. However, Indian companies have been under the scanner of the FDA in last couple of years due to violations of manufacturing norms, the most famous of which has been Ranbaxy Labs. Import alerts (which bans import of drugs into the US) issued against Indian plants in 2013 accounted for 49%, or almost half of the total of 43 such alerts issued by US FDA worldwide.

A WSJ article, headlined "Deaths Put Spotlight on India’s Sterilization ‘Camps’", slammed the Indian government’s family-planning program through surgical sterilization of women.

The article, published last Thursday, says that the medicines in such procedures used are Indian-made brands of ciprofloxacin, a commonly used antibiotic (also known as ciproxin and ciprocin), and ibuprofen, a painkiller, as well as the anesthetic lignocaine.

While the cause of the deaths has not been conclusively determined, a preliminary investigation found traces of rat poison in the antibiotic supplied by Mahawar Pharmaceuticals, a local drugmaker that has earlier faced a ban for making sub-standard medicines. The company has termed the latest allegations ‘baseless’ even as its promoters have been taken into custody.

India’s government, seeking to curb population growth in the country of 1.2 billion, offers cash incentives to women, physicians and health workers participating in such surgeries. Around 4.5 million women were sterilised in the year ended March 31, 2013, the Journal says.

"A visit Thursday to the site of Saturday’s surgeries discovered a hospital with windows missing glass and floors covered with animal feces," it said.

A report by Arab News this Tuesday also criticised the programme, saying Indian officials need to revisit their population control policies and methods.

"The policy of offering incentives to health workers for promoting sterilization needs to be reviewed, as apparently it has changed the overall nature of this program,” it said. “The authorities must ensure that incentives should not make health workers insensitive to the plight of the poor and uneducated masses in the rural areas.”

A blog in the Washington Post on Friday recalled Sanjay Gandhi’s infamous sterilisation programme for men in the Seventies. "A policy that targeted men with coercion and sometimes force during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s "emergency rule" from 1975 to 1977 caused a lasting backlash. However, policies that targeted women have endured," the Post noted.

According to recent United Nations data, more than 35% of Indian women who were married or in a relationship have undergone sterilisation. Only Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador ranked higher than India.

With regards,

 

M.K.Pachraiya

Elections,Porn_websites,Court_rulings&Sterilization deaths

Dear all,

Welcome.

Elections: The union home ministry has asked the Jharkhand government to maintain high level of alertness till end of December as both Indian Mujahideen (IM) and the CPI (Maoist) could carry out attacks and blasts during five phase assembly polls beginning November 25.
Inputs from intelligence agencies indicate that remnant modules of IM could target politicians and public places to avenge successful operations by the security agencies that has caught several of its key men at the top and make their presence felt. The CPI (Maoist) could also target politicians and security forces to show that they are not down and out in the area that is known as their stronghold.
"The Maoists have taken severe beating by the security forces in last one year and their movement has also suffered a blow due to rampant surrenders of their cadre, including from the middle level leadership. They are hard pressed to show their presence to keep maintaining their domination among tribal that is threatening to erode now. This calls for high level of alertness and preparedness on our part which we are maintaining," said a senior officer of the central reserve police force (CRPF).
To keep the Maoist threat at bay during elections, four Israeli Herons (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are being pressed into operations in Jharkhand.
Sources said these Herons would especially keep an eye on movement of Maoists guerrillas on interstate borders with Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Bihar as Maoists are known to apply hit and run tactics during elections.Besides, the CRPF will also make extensive use of Netra, smaller size UAVs, to keep check on Maoist movement in dense jungles where Herons are incapable of penetrating. To aid existing 40,000 central armed police forces, Centre has rushed 14,000 additional CAPF jawans to Jharkhand.

 

Porn websites: Porn websites are stated to have many users on the internet. Indian govt. is stated to be in favour of full closure of such sites. As per English daily, the list is being prepared which have such contents like porn video or porn picture.
The Internet Service Providers are also showcasing child porn websites, which are needed to be closed. The internet speed is not reduced if such sites are being blocked

 

Court rulings:
1. Vodafone: The signing of unified license for telecom. co., Vodafone, had made it petition before Delhi High Court in regard to pressurizing for license agreement. It is stated to be unconditional acceptance of terms for vodafone to sign.
The company had stated in petition that UAL copy was shown only on Nov.3 and it had opposed it by writing a letter, which prohibits it from Inter circle roaming. The telecom. dept. had sent it at last moment to sign unconditional terms.
2. SAT: The hearing against prevention of DLF and other six officials in trading in capital market had been scheduled for Dec.10. SEBI had during 2007 put stay thereby preventing them for three years trading in capital market. SAT had attached other petitions of DLF promoter & four others on Oct.22 along with main petition.  SEBI's order dated Oct.10 was challenged. The petitioners had to reply by Dec.6 whereas SEBI had to file reply too. It is to note that SAT had permitted DLF to withdraw 1806 crore INR for investment in Mutual funds.

With regards,

 

M.K.Pachraiya

Original_app_mssg(1) Sterilization deaths

(Reuters) - Ten women died and 14 were in a serious condition after botched operations at a government mass sterilization "camp" in Chhattisgarh, officials said on Tuesday.

The women fell ill on Monday, two days after surgery at a so-called family planning camp at a village. Such camps are held regularly in Chhattisgarh and other states as part of a long-running effort to control India's booming population.

"It was a serious matter of negligence. It was unfortunate," the chief minister of the state, Raman Singh, told reporters. Four officials have been suspended and an investigation will be held, he said.

The cause of the deaths was not yet clear, but officials said they were looking into several possibilities, including whether the surgical equipment was infected.

Some 83 women had laparoscopic tubectomy surgery at the camp, receiving incentive payments of 1,400 rupees ($23), said R.K. Bhange, Bilaspur's chief medical officer. Health workers got 200 rupees ($3.25) for each woman they brought to the camp.

The incident will be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has vowed to reform India's health system. Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party rules in Chhattisgarh, expressed concern over the tragedy on Tuesday.

Workers of the Congress party, the main opposition party in the state, demanded resignation of the state's health minister and chief minister.

Deaths due to sterilization are not a new problem in India, where more than four million sterilizations were performed in 2013-14, according to the government.

Between 2009 and 2012, the government paid compensation for 568 deaths resulting from sterilization, the health ministry said in an answer to a question in parliament two years ago.

Health advocates worry that paying women to undergo sterilization is dangerous on a number of levels.

"The payment is a form of coercion, especially when you are dealing with marginalized communities," said Kerry McBroom, director of the Reproductive Rights Initiative at the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi.

She said care at the family planning camps was often inadequate, with surgery rushed through in unhygienic conditions.

Pratap Singh, commissioner of Chhattisgarh's Department of Health and Family Welfare, told Reuters that the state's sterilization program was entirely voluntary.

The United Nations expressed concern.

"If the facts are confirmed, then a grave human tragedy has occurred," said Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the U.N. Population Fund. "Where there is deviation from clinical standards, there must be consequences."

 

M.K.Pachraiya

OECD

Dear all,
Welcome & pl. read on app. mssg.
With regards,

 

M.K.Pachraiya
Original_app_mssg(1)

In yet another endorsement of the new government's policies aimed at reviving the economy, the OECD has bumped up India's growth forecast for next year citing a pickup in investment because of the improved political situation that stems from the Narendra Modi-led BJP having come to power with a substantial majority that will enable it to undertake reforms.

The country could be within striking distance of China by 2016 in terms of the pace of growth, with that country forecast to slow in the years ahead, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). But that doesn't mean the central bank can relent in the fight against inflation, it said. This runs counter to the demand for interest rate cuts from companies and some government quarters. OECD expects the Indian economy to expand 6.4% next year compared with 5.9% estimated less than two months back in its September '14 interim outlook.

 OECD outlook projects inflation to head lower

 "GDP will slow in China, but pick up in India and remain sluggish in Brazil and Russia," the Paris-based grouping said in the OECD Economic Outlook released on Thursday that lowered growth targets for the global economy.

 Since taking charge, the Modi government has unveiled several policy changes such as deregulating diesel prices, linking gas prices to global benchmarks, amendments to labour policies, steps to end the 'inspector raj' and cutting red tape for businesses. It's expected to unveil further reform measures in the months ahead. Stock markets have boomed, with the key indices rising to records on Wednesday. Thursday was a market holiday.

 "Improved business sentiment resulting from reduced political uncertainty, deregulation, and the government commitment to cut red tape should boost growth," OECD said, releasing the forecast ahead of the November15-16 G-20 summit in Brisbane that PM Modi will attend. A detailed forecast will be released on November 25.

 "Investment will be the main growth engine, after several quarters of subdued growth," it said, adding that the pace of reforms has picked up in India. Growth is projected to rise to 6.6% in 2016 while China will slow to 6.9% by that year. However, for the current year, India's growth forecast has been cut to 5.4% from 5.7% estimated initially. These numbers are not strictly comparable with India's national headline statistics that are compiled on basis of factor cost and follow a April-March fiscal.

 "In India, pickup in growth after the sharp slowdown in 2012-13 will continue despite the tight monetary and fiscal stance," the OECD statement said. The outlook also projects inflation to head lower, but it hasn't backed India Inc's demand for lower interest rates. "The output gap is projected to remain negative, and inflation is expected to continue to drift down as inflations expectations anchor lower," OECD said. "In India, still-high inflation expectations call for a continuation of tight monetary policy stance," it said separately in its policy prescription.

OECD also called for subsidy reforms. "India needs to continue fiscal consolidation, but should also improve its quality, rebalancing expenditures away from subsidies and toward public investment," it said. The organisation projects the global economy will expand 3.3% in 2014 and recover gradually to 3.7% in 2015 and 3.9% in 2016. "We have yet to achieve a broad-based, sustained global expansion, as investment, credit and international trade remain hesitant," OECD secretarygeneral Angel Gurria said.