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Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

Buying/Selling 1 <br />

Winzone Realty Inc.<br />

Baldev<br />

Singh<br />

Associate<br />

Broker/Notary<br />

Cell : 917-224-7395<br />

Vol. 12 Issue 29 December 18-25, 2014 www.thesouthasianinsider.com Price $ 1 Published Weekly from New York<br />

Story<br />

ON Page<br />

18-22<br />

Rs 9,300 crore black money<br />

changes hands in medical<br />

seat sale every year<br />

(Agencies) New Delhi : The White<br />

Paper on Black Money in India,<br />

published recently, estimated that<br />

deposits by Indians in all Swiss<br />

banks at the end of 2010 amounted<br />

to Rs 9,300 crore or about $1.5<br />

billion. That much money, if not more,<br />

is changing hands in the black<br />

market of medical education in India<br />

every year.<br />

Back-of-the-envelope calculations<br />

show that the 'sale' of MBBS and post<br />

graduate seats in medical colleges<br />

rakes in about Rs 10,000 crore or<br />

more in a year. And that's a<br />

conservative estimate. Here's the<br />

calculation.<br />

There are a total of about 8,100<br />

MBBS seats in the management<br />

quota in private colleges<br />

(approximately 30% of the 27,000<br />

seats in such colleges).<br />

(Contd on page 23)<br />

When Obama was mistaken for waiter and valet<br />

(Agencies) Washington : : President<br />

Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle<br />

Obama say they have been mistaken for<br />

valet and wait staff on their journey to<br />

the White House despite the progress<br />

America has seen in race relations.<br />

The First Couple sat down for a candid<br />

conversation with a popular magazine<br />

on racism in American amid a fervid<br />

debate on the issue after a raft of whiteon-black<br />

killings. “There’s no black male<br />

my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t<br />

come out of a restaurant and is waiting<br />

for their car and somebody didn’t hand<br />

them their car keys,” the President told<br />

the magazine, confirming that he had<br />

experienced being taken for a valet.<br />

The President was joined by the First<br />

Lady for an interview on, “How We Deal<br />

with Our Own Racist Experiences,” that<br />

will hit the stands on Friday. On her part,<br />

Michelle Obama related that even as the<br />

First Lady, during a visit she took to a<br />

Target (Departmental) store, the only<br />

person who came up to her in the store<br />

was a woman who asked her to help take<br />

something off a shelf. “Because she<br />

didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw<br />

me as someone who could help her.<br />

Those kinds of things happen in life. So<br />

it isn’t anything new,” she said.<br />

The interview came amid chatter that<br />

the First Couple were insulated from or<br />

had grown out of the racial discrimination<br />

that black experience every day and that<br />

the President was cold to the suffering<br />

of African-Americans. (Contd on page 23)<br />

New York Magazine says ‘we were duped’ by $72 million teen trader<br />

(Agencies) New York - Magazine issued<br />

an apology to its readers Tuesday morning,<br />

acknowledging the editors were “duped” by<br />

the teen stock trader rumored to have made<br />

$72 million.<br />

“Our fact-checking process was obviously<br />

inadequate; we take full responsibility and<br />

we should have known better. New York<br />

apologizes to our readers,” the note read.<br />

The note was added to the profile of 17-<br />

year-old Mohammed Islam, featured as part<br />

of the magazine’s “Reasons to love New York”<br />

issue. It was the second editor’s note in 24<br />

hours. The first came late Monday night after<br />

the New York Observer ran an interview with<br />

Islam in which he admitted to making the<br />

story up. (Contd on page 23)


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

TRI-STATE/COMMUNITY<br />

2<br />

Health care is a civil right, says Dr Ramanathan Raju<br />

Among Tamils) at a function attended<br />

by leading Indian-Amerition,<br />

in his address said Dr. Raju<br />

Medical College Alumni Associacan<br />

physicians in Hotel Madras has a reputation for helping<br />

Woodlands in New Hyde Park people.<br />

recently.<br />

Dr. Robert D’Esposito<br />

John Joseph, Executive president of Nassau County<br />

Vice President of America Tamil Medical Society who presented<br />

Sangam presided over the meeting.<br />

“I have chosen a profession praised his spirited public service<br />

the Tamil Ratna Award on Dr Raju<br />

which brought me so much joy and a zeal to provide healthcare to<br />

and my work in the last decades the uninsured. He said it's appropriate<br />

that America Tamil Sangam<br />

to eliminate the health care disparities<br />

that exist in our country should honor one of its proud son<br />

has been very fulfilling. The who has become a leader in health<br />

people from Tamil Nadu are always<br />

at the forefront of social the highest ranking Indian-American<br />

care system. Capt Stanley George,<br />

justice issues in this country and officer of NYPD in his remarks<br />

this is because of the rich traditions<br />

we carry in our social fab-<br />

Sangam for honoring one of its illus-<br />

praised the role of America Tamil<br />

(By a staff writer) the health for all is to provide adequate<br />

access not only to Health and Hospitals Corporadent<br />

and CEO of New York City<br />

Healthcare is a fundamental right<br />

ric and greatness we carry in our trious sons of Tamil Nadu. Dr<br />

of every citizen and more of a civil healthcare but also equal opportunities<br />

in education wealth hous-<br />

investiture ceremony of America<br />

tion. Dr Raju was addressing an<br />

service. As we continue our mission<br />

to bring our greatness and break of Ebola could go down in<br />

Raju’s work on preventing an out-<br />

right, a human right and a constitutional<br />

right for all this country.<br />

“ The only way to improve said Dr Ramanathan Raju, Presi-<br />

highest honor Tamil Ratna (Jewel<br />

ing jobs and pursuing happiness,” Tamil Sangam that bestowed its<br />

our service to all New Yorkers organizations<br />

like America Tamil America Tamil Sangam also hon-<br />

the history of New York City.<br />

Sangam have a special place in ored Dr Karthi Ramasamy, a<br />

our minds and hearts,” he said. leading plastic and cosmetic surgeon<br />

in Chennai for his fight<br />

Dr Madan Raj, a leading pain<br />

management physician of Long against obesity especially childhood<br />

obesity in Island and officer of Madurai<br />

schools.<br />

US Senate confirms Vivek<br />

Murthy as surgeon general<br />

(Agencies) Washington : 37-<br />

year-old Indian-American physician<br />

Vivek Hallegere Murthy<br />

has been confirmed as the 19th<br />

surgeon general of America by<br />

US Senate. He is youngest<br />

person and first person of Indian-origin<br />

to hold the post.<br />

The upper house of US<br />

Congress confirmed Murthy's<br />

nomination by 51 votes to 43<br />

more than year after President<br />

Barack Obama had nominated<br />

him to this top administration<br />

post on public health issues in<br />

November 2013 which saw a<br />

strong opposition from the<br />

powerful pro-gun lobby National<br />

Rifle Association (NRA).<br />

The final voting came yesterday<br />

soon after the Senate invoked<br />

cloture — a procedural<br />

hurdle — by same numbers (51<br />

to 43 votes) Pitching strongly for<br />

Murthy's confirmation, Senator<br />

Dick Durbin praised Murthy for his<br />

dedication to fighting obesity, tobacco<br />

related diseases and other<br />

chronic diseases that account for<br />

seven out of the top 10 causes<br />

for death in America and make<br />

up for 84 per cent of America's<br />

health care costs. "I believe<br />

Dr Murthy understands the importance<br />

of the national crises<br />

before him, and feel confident<br />

that his experiences, his training,<br />

and his tenacity have provided<br />

him the qualifications he<br />

needs to tackle these issues,<br />

and the many more he's sure<br />

to face, head-on," Durbin said.<br />

"Not only is Dr Murthy an outstanding<br />

doctor and public<br />

health expert, but he also remains<br />

closely connected to his<br />

community and family," he<br />

said. "There is no question<br />

about the qualification of Dr<br />

Murthy to do his job," said<br />

another Senator Chris Murphy,<br />

adding that Murthy has a really<br />

impressive history of commitment<br />

to international public<br />

health, building two international<br />

organizations, one<br />

that empowers hundreds of<br />

youths in the US and India to<br />

educate over 45,000 students<br />

on HIV prevention.<br />

(Contd on page 23)


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

TRI-STATE/COMMUNITY<br />

3<br />

USA Experiences The First SHIAMAK Winter Funk Show!<br />

(Agencies) (New York )- Enthusiastic students<br />

lined up at the Memorial Auditorium<br />

at Montclair State University for their first<br />

dance performance as a part of the<br />

SHIAMAK Dance Academy on Saturday,<br />

December 6th. Participants, ages four to<br />

eighty four, dressed in colorful costumes<br />

were ready to embody the academy's<br />

motto, Have Feet. Will Dance. Millions<br />

of students across India, Canada, Australia,<br />

the UK and the UAE have learnt at the<br />

world's biggest dance academy, performed<br />

on stage and experienced the joy of being<br />

stars. The movement that has now reached<br />

New York and New Jersey has been the<br />

latest buzz amongst the South Asian community<br />

and the fans of Bollywood dancing.<br />

Founder and Artistic Director of the<br />

academy, Shiamak Davar is the most<br />

sought after choreographer in India and is<br />

referred to as the Guru of Dance. With the<br />

festive season, the show took Santa on a<br />

dance through Bollywood. From the Christmas<br />

inspired decoration in the lobby to a<br />

visit from Santa himself, the audience had<br />

a great time clicking photographs even before<br />

the show started! The show, hosted<br />

by Monty Lokesh Kataria, kept the audience<br />

engaged and entertained throughout.<br />

From current hits to retro, divas of<br />

Bollywood to the biggest heroes, tribute<br />

to stars and covering different eras of Indian<br />

Cinema, the show was a complete<br />

Bollywood cinematic journey. The highlight<br />

of the show were the stars of tomorrow,<br />

kids between ages four to six who had the<br />

audience on their feet. A first time ever<br />

performance by the SHIAMAK Dance<br />

Team- USA gave a glimpse of the training<br />

and expertise of the dance academy's faculty.<br />

'The Winter Funk show was a true<br />

showcase of all that the students have<br />

learnt, cultivated and experienced through<br />

the classes,' said Deeba Patel, Senior<br />

Manager with the SHIAMAK Group. The<br />

Chief Economic Development Officer of<br />

Choose New Jersey, Mr. Michael Chrobak<br />

addressed the audience and commented,<br />

"I believe Shiamak Davar is the biggest<br />

Bollywood choreographer and SHIAMAK<br />

classes are in five countries and more. I'm<br />

glad Shiamak has brought his classes to<br />

New Jersey so the community can come<br />

together to stay connected to this rich<br />

culture of India and Bollywood through<br />

Dance! I wish The SHIAMAK group great<br />

success across the US and congratulations<br />

to all the performers tonight!" Instructors<br />

Bhuvan Sharma and Devashree Pande<br />

trained the students for fifteen classes<br />

enabling them to perform on stage for this<br />

big night. Their energy reflected in each of<br />

the performer that took to the stage. 'You<br />

are making history today by being part of<br />

the very first Winter Funk show here in<br />

the USA', said Bhuvan and received a thunderous<br />

applause from the audience.<br />

Devashree was extremely pleased with the<br />

students and knew that 'all the students<br />

from Jersey City, Edison, Paramus,<br />

Queen, Manhattan will perform like<br />

rock stars on stage!' The show ended<br />

with a high energy performance on<br />

Indiawale, the biggest current hit from<br />

Bollywood. Students are looking forward<br />

to the next batch of classes starting<br />

8th December and another one in<br />

the New Year on 11th January. Phone<br />

registrations are open for new students<br />

and beginners as well.<br />

Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's FOODFOOD Channel Launched<br />

(Agencies) New York :<br />

A star-studded evening was recently<br />

to celebrate the launch<br />

of Master Chef Sanjeev<br />

Kapoor's television channel<br />

FOODFOOD on DISH Network<br />

(channel 713) and<br />

Dishworld.Widely successful in<br />

India, FoodFood is a 24/7 food<br />

lifestyle channeland serves as<br />

a destination for those passionate<br />

about the flavors, art and<br />

lifestyle of Indian cuisine.<br />

Bollywood themed<br />

Dhoom Restaurant in Secaucus,<br />

NJ was a perfect setting for the<br />

event serving decadent, signature<br />

dishes and celebrating Indian cuisine<br />

with style.The high-profile<br />

guest list included Consul General<br />

of India, Mayor of Secaucus,<br />

Fox News anchor Kelly Wright,<br />

channel heads from most major<br />

South Asian TV<br />

channels,celebrity chefs, and top<br />

restaurateurs,. A live cooking<br />

demo performed by Master Chef<br />

Kapoor himself along with Dhoom<br />

owner Vijay Rao and Chef Dhandu<br />

Ram wrapped up the evening. The<br />

event was organized by Varli media.<br />

Chef Sanjeev Kapoor is<br />

the most celebrated and well-recognized<br />

Indian Chef in<br />

theculinaryworldand this new step<br />

forward in Indian TV programming<br />

furthers his growing list of accomplishments.<br />

Showcasing recipes<br />

that are as rich and diverse as the<br />

Indian culture, FoodFood capitalizes<br />

on the growing demand for<br />

Indian food across the world.The<br />

viewers in the U.S. market will<br />

now be able to enjoy all the popular<br />

programs of the channel like<br />

Sanjeev Kapoor's Kitchen, Turban<br />

Tadka, Mummy Ka Magic and<br />

Health Mange More on DISH,<br />

which offers one of the largest<br />

selections of international programming.<br />

Veracity Multimedia<br />

partnered with FoodFood to<br />

launch the channel on Dish<br />

Network in the US earlier this<br />

year. In Canada, FoodFood<br />

caters to almost 70% of the<br />

households through all the major<br />

service providers. It is also<br />

present in UAE & Qatar and is in<br />

negotiation with major platforms<br />

in Singapore and Indonesia.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

OP-ED<br />

4<br />

Nuclear Deal with Russia is No Reason to Celebrate<br />

(By Mani Shankar Aiyar )<br />

On the same day that visiting<br />

Russian President Vladimir<br />

Putin committed himself to supplying<br />

12 nuclear reactors to India,<br />

oil prices slipped below $60<br />

and look set to drop to a band<br />

between $35 and $40. This<br />

makes the nuclear deal less enticing<br />

than it might otherwise have<br />

been. For it underlines the impossibility<br />

of substituting nuclear<br />

power for petroleum in our energy<br />

basket. In present circumstances,<br />

Modi would have been<br />

better advised to ask Putin how<br />

he thought Russia might network<br />

India into an Asian gas and oil<br />

community to meet India's energy<br />

requirements than focus on<br />

nuclear cooperation.<br />

This is not the popular or media<br />

perception and, therefore,<br />

needs to be explained. Even under<br />

the most optimistic assumptions,<br />

nuclear energy, which now<br />

constitutes between 1%-2% of<br />

India's energy consumption,<br />

could not rise above 6% till well<br />

into the middle of the century.<br />

Therefore, our prime requirement<br />

is not nuclear power but fossil<br />

energy.<br />

Second, as Kudankulam has<br />

demonstrated, finding locations<br />

for nuclear plants is always going<br />

to be problematic and will increasingly<br />

be so. For while no<br />

one objects to nuclear energy,<br />

almost everyone objects to locating<br />

nuclear plants in their vicinity.<br />

We have seen this at Jaitapur<br />

in Maharashtra as well as in<br />

West Bengal. Fukushima has<br />

shown that even in a highly developed<br />

country like Japan with<br />

a deeply embedded industrial<br />

culture and a highly disciplined<br />

work-force, nuclear accidents can<br />

happen and leave a trail of destruction<br />

over decades, indeed<br />

over generations, that make the<br />

Bhopal tragedy look like a small<br />

accident.<br />

That is why the Three Mile Island<br />

nuclear accident in the US<br />

in 1979 led to a complete stoppage<br />

of all new nuclear plants in<br />

that country for nearly four decades.<br />

The most intensively industrialized<br />

country in the world,<br />

Germany, which has no fossil fuel<br />

of its own, decided in the wake<br />

of Fukushima that it would phase<br />

out all its existing nuclear power<br />

plants, build no new plants and<br />

move towards one hundred per<br />

cent dependence on fossil fuels<br />

and renewable energy. France<br />

alone continues to rely on nuclear<br />

power but has the safety backup<br />

of ample supplies of gas from<br />

Algeria by pipeline. For India to<br />

be celebrating 12 new Russian<br />

nuclear plants is like dancing the<br />

Dance of Death twelve times over.<br />

Third, while Obama could tick<br />

off BP that the US would not accept<br />

"nickels and dimes" for the<br />

damage done to the country's<br />

environment by the deep sea oil<br />

rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico<br />

(which killed no humans but did<br />

polish off a few seals) and thus<br />

get compensation of 68 billion<br />

dollars, India screwed no more<br />

than $480 million out of Union<br />

Carbide despite the loss of hundreds<br />

of lives and severe injuries<br />

to thousands of others - and still<br />

counting. Yet, our law on liability<br />

for nuclear accidents is considered<br />

too drastic for a single<br />

American nuclear plant manufacturer<br />

to come forward with supplies<br />

to India.<br />

Fourth, the Russian nuclear<br />

deal comes at just the time that<br />

oil prices are plummeting, taking<br />

the sheen off much costlier<br />

nuclear power and pointing to the<br />

restoration of stability in the global<br />

oil and gas market.<br />

As Russia is a leading producer<br />

of oil and gas, what Modi<br />

should have talked to Putin about<br />

(but did not) is the possibility of<br />

India-Russian cooperation in securing<br />

the diversion towards India<br />

of Russia's rich resources of<br />

oil and gas. He should have done<br />

so bearing at least two other factors<br />

in mind. One, that incremental<br />

Russian production is much<br />

more likely to come from its Siberian<br />

fields to the east of the<br />

Urals than from the traditional<br />

fields in western Russia which<br />

are getting increasingly depleted.<br />

What the Russians call Siberia<br />

is what, we should point out to<br />

them, constitutes north Asia.<br />

Moreover, the island of Sakhalin,<br />

where ONGC is partnering BP,<br />

clearly lies in Asian and not European<br />

Russia.<br />

Also, Russia continues to<br />

have tremendous influence, particularly<br />

in the complex petroleum<br />

sector, over its former Central<br />

Asian republics -<br />

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,<br />

Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, who<br />

are flush with oil and gas. It is<br />

from these sources that China<br />

has sourced much of its huge<br />

incremental requirements of oil<br />

and gas. There is still plenty left<br />

over. And we should be much<br />

more actively pursuing oil diplomacy<br />

in Central and North Asia<br />

than has been in evidence recently<br />

to access these resources.<br />

The prospects for this<br />

have significantly increased since<br />

the Ukraine snafu has led to the<br />

West boycotting Russian fuel<br />

supplies. Also, the fall in international<br />

oil prices makes it incumbent<br />

on Russia to look to newer<br />

and more reliable partners - and<br />

there can be no more reliable<br />

partner than "time-tested" India.<br />

It would appear, however, that<br />

oil was not even whispered in<br />

Modi's conversations with Putin.<br />

By focusing almost exclusively<br />

on nuclear reactors, Modi gave<br />

Russia a market to flog their reactors<br />

that few others want but<br />

which will barely contribute to<br />

meeting our growing energy requirements<br />

while subjecting the<br />

country's future to the uttermost<br />

danger of nuclear catastrophe.<br />

What Modi's advisers need to<br />

recognize is the dramatically altering<br />

geo-politics of oil and gas.<br />

Asia is the world's biggest producer<br />

of oil and gas. It is also the<br />

largest growing market for oil and<br />

gas with a huge unsatisfied appetite<br />

for fuel to sustain its growth.<br />

That is why, within an overarching<br />

goal of progressively establishing<br />

an Asian Oil and Gas Community,<br />

attention should be centred<br />

on first putting in place the elements<br />

of an Asian gas grid.<br />

From an Indian perspective,<br />

the first leg of such a grid should<br />

be to link Iran with India either<br />

overland through Pakistan or by<br />

the undersea technology that has<br />

only lately become feasible. Such<br />

a core gas pipeline can then be<br />

extended to Qatar and other Gulf<br />

countries, and beyond to Iraq,<br />

and include a major branch line<br />

to Azerbaijan. Supplementing this<br />

western gas network, we should<br />

be expediting the Turkmenistan-<br />

Afghanistan-Pakistan-India<br />

(TAPI) pipeline that is on the drawing<br />

boards but is still to take-off<br />

for want of the necessary political<br />

will.<br />

(Contd on page 22)<br />

Economy Alert! Worries Ahead for Modi and Jaitley<br />

The uptick in sentiment and confidence<br />

that was reflected after the Modi government<br />

came to power seems to be waning as some<br />

economic indicators clearly challenge the<br />

narrative of a near-term recovery in the<br />

economy.<br />

The one question being raised is why the<br />

rupee is suddenly weakening if global investor<br />

confidence in India is at an all-time high.<br />

The exchange rate last week had flirted with<br />

Rs. 63 to a dollar mark. October and November<br />

have also seen a doubling of gold<br />

imports as compared to previous months.<br />

Such a dramatic rise in gold imports does<br />

not necessarily signify a new fillip for productive<br />

investments.<br />

Particularly worrisome is the latest data<br />

showing a 4.2 per cent negative growth in<br />

industrial production for October. This shows<br />

that ongoing investment projects totalling Rs<br />

6.3 lakh crore, which were already in the pipeline<br />

early this year, are not moving forward<br />

for various reasons. Infrastructure projects,<br />

particularly in the road sector, are not moving<br />

because private companies building them<br />

are either strapped for cash or engaged in<br />

disputes relating to execution with the government.<br />

It is telling that a highway project<br />

in Modi's constituency, Varanasi, has not<br />

progressed at all over the last six months,<br />

in spite of having been launched in 2013.<br />

A report in The Economic Times last week<br />

quoted prominent industrialists who, in an<br />

internal review meeting at the CII (Confederation<br />

of Indian Industry) expressed a lot of<br />

unease about economic recovery, especially<br />

over the current infrastructure bottlenecks.<br />

In the infrastructure sector, the NDA is now<br />

gradually realising, there are intractable issues<br />

that go well beyond the "legacy problems"<br />

which is easily attributed to the previous<br />

government.<br />

Private operators too have to contend<br />

with wrong judgement in assessing their<br />

capacity to manage these projects. The NDA<br />

is now having to deal with the mistakes made<br />

by private operators in judging the risk-reward<br />

equation in infrastructure projects such<br />

as roads and power. I have a suspicion that<br />

even now private operators want to cut their<br />

losses and get out. Some of them did it over<br />

the past two years. This was easy under<br />

the UPA, especially in recent years, when<br />

politically everything could be blamed on an<br />

inefficient and corrupt government. The private<br />

operators didn't have to look within, at<br />

their own mistakes. The NDA regime is now<br />

asking the private operators to walk the talk<br />

while promising to clear all policy and regulatory<br />

hurdles. However, the government cannot<br />

take the responsibility for over leveraged<br />

balance sheets of private operators. This is<br />

what haunts many projects in the infrastructure<br />

space.<br />

In the non-infrastructure sectors there is<br />

a genuine lack of demand, which governments<br />

can do nothing about. ICRA (Investment<br />

Information Credit Rating Agency Ltd)'s<br />

Chief Economist, Madan Sabnavis, has<br />

pointed out that Indian Industry is today<br />

working at just 70 per cent of built-up capacity.<br />

In 2011-12 industry was operating at<br />

77 per cent capacity. This shows there is<br />

overcapacity looming on the horizon. In such<br />

a situation, fresh investment cannot be expected<br />

anytime soon.<br />

So we face one set of problems in the<br />

infrastructure sectors where demand does<br />

exceed supply. In non-infrastructure sectors<br />

we are faced with overcapacity due to demand<br />

contraction. This could get worse in<br />

the coming year because rural demand,<br />

which is critical, could further contract as<br />

global food prices have dropped by 20 to 30<br />

per cent. The farmers' income growth could<br />

therefore decelerate in 2015. Nominal rural<br />

wages grew handsomely by 17 to 19 per cent<br />

for a few years until 2012 end. That was triggering<br />

higher inflation but also helped demand<br />

growth.<br />

From mid-2013 onward real rural wage<br />

growth is at near zero and this will certainly<br />

impact medium-term demand. There is also<br />

some output slowdown being anticipated by<br />

experts in the agriculture sector which consistently<br />

recorded around 3 per cent growth<br />

in recent years. Agriculture production growth<br />

could also slip in 2015. In short, many domestic<br />

challenges for Narendra Modi and<br />

Arun Jaitley. In 2015, Modi may have to shift<br />

focus from foreign to domestic policy.<br />

By MK Venu


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

EDITORIAL<br />

5<br />

200 days on, missing Dr Singh Damning indictment of CIA<br />

HISTORY will judge me, Manmohan Singh said in his last comments as prime<br />

minister. It was 200 days on Thursday since he relinquished office. I am not surprised<br />

how some of his erstwhile critics are already missing him though they may<br />

not regard his party with similar respect.<br />

For all his sins of omission and commission, which include serious financial<br />

scandals, there was something pleasantly dignified about Dr Singh. President Obama<br />

approached him as an intellectual guru. The Japanese emperor honoured him with<br />

the highest civilian award for a foreigner. Dr Singh didn’t tom-tom it. He embodied<br />

India’s cultural sinews in his genteel person, and though a religious man, he didn’t<br />

find it necessary to underscore the heritage by gifting religious scriptures to all and<br />

sundry.There was something wholesome he brought to India’s highest political office<br />

with markedly agreeable atmospherics. I recall reading his wife Gursharan Kaur’s<br />

comments where she spoke generously of Sonia Gandhi. Why Because the Congress<br />

president had remembered that the prime minister’s wife was searching in<br />

vain for Sheila Dhar’s Raag-n-Josh.<br />

The out-of-print book is an anecdotal masterpiece on India’s illustrious musicians,<br />

their quirks and their bad day out. Personal insights about stalwarts like<br />

Begum Akhtar, Bhimsen Joshi, Vilayat Khan, Rais Khan among others are a treat<br />

for Indian music lovers. Sonia Gandhi remembered to find her a copy. What could<br />

be more lovely than prime ministerial spouses exchanging books on music.<br />

And what did Shakespeare say through Julius Caesar about people like Cassius<br />

with no ear for music<br />

“He doesn’t like plays the way you do, Antony. He doesn’t listen to music. He<br />

rarely smiles, and when he does smile, he does so in a self-mocking way, as if he<br />

scorns himself for smiling at all. Men like him will never be comfortable while someone<br />

ranks higher than themselves, and therefore they’re very dangerous.”Though I<br />

have never met them, I feel proud for India that in the not-too-distant past its prime<br />

minister had three very talented and dignified daughters — a writer, a human rights<br />

lawyer who has fought for migrants’ rights in the United States, and a much-respected<br />

professor of Indian history. They never imposed themselves as the prime<br />

minister’s relatives and, I am told, they lead very low-key and intellectually contented<br />

lives.<br />

If quiet dignity marked his personal life, a genial countenance made him an ideal<br />

representative of Gandhi’s and Nehru’s India. In the bigger picture, relations with<br />

Pakistan and China were difficult, sometimes prickly, but they were never allowed<br />

to become cavalier. There was no tu-tu mai-mai, an ugly blame game. Mumbai<br />

terror was a huge setback, in some ways more provocative than the attack on<br />

parliament during his predecessor’s tenure. To Dr Singh’s credit he managed to<br />

deal with the crisis without mobilising the armed forces. He used diplomatic tact<br />

instead, and leaned on global goodwill to put Pakistan under scrutiny as a source of<br />

cross-border trouble to its neighbours.<br />

It wasn’t an easy decision to not send the military to the borders given the moblike<br />

chorus for revenge from an increasingly xenophobic media. Indian voters to their<br />

credit rewarded Dr Singh’s sagacity with a second term. When the Chinese rattled<br />

their sabres, he stared them down. When Pakistan-based militants allegedly beheaded<br />

Indian soldiers, he didn’t say he would get 10 of theirs. He just spoke to<br />

their prime minister as a civilised neighbour would.<br />

There was little or no risk of nuclear suicide during his 10-year rule, compared<br />

with two close calls in the six years headed by his immediate predecessor. Unlike<br />

in recent days there was no public discourse from the highest office or talk of<br />

punitive cross-border strikes. If the powder was kept dry it was not announced from<br />

the pulpit. At home, prospects of large-scale riots or religiously inspired genocide<br />

were mostly unthinkable under Dr Singh’s watch although cynical Congress party<br />

satraps and the communal opposition never stopped trying to create electorally<br />

handy polarisation.<br />

Manmohan Singh knew his economics though he abused it by offering untenable<br />

prescriptions, which mostly militated against his self-proclaimed icon Jawaharlal<br />

Nehru’s equitable vision for India. He allowed himself to be advised by some very<br />

accomplished social and environmental activists in the form of the National Advisory<br />

Council, which was headed by Sonia Gandhi. It was clean, visionary, often ambitious-in-scope<br />

but always secular advice from respected academics and assorted<br />

hands-on social workers. No obscurantist maverick, much less religio-fascist ideologues<br />

of a rapidly multiplying variety were allowed close to the apex situation<br />

room. And yet Manmohan Singh’s legacy carries unacceptable blemishes. He created<br />

hope among the minorities with a diligent report on their hapless living conditions,<br />

but failed to follow up with worthwhile structural reforms to bring them into the<br />

mainstream. This ended up creating room for mistrust between communities without<br />

an iota of good being done to anyone. He declared India’s most deprived, exploited<br />

and economically marginalised tribespeople as the nation’s most serious<br />

internal security challenge. What the tribal communities wanted was so doable:<br />

“Remove the baniya (usurer)-contractor-politician nexus,” they said. Instead of addressing<br />

them even-handedly, Dr Singh chose the militarist path to tackle the selfstyled<br />

Maoists, making it easy for his successors to exploit the potentially rightwing<br />

sentiment he generated.<br />

The report by a Senate committee of the U.S. Congress that said the<br />

Central Intelligence Agency used inhuman and cruel methods on terror<br />

suspects is damning enough, but it would not have served its purpose if<br />

those who carried out the torture and authorised it get away scot-free.<br />

Many of the methods mentioned have been in the public realm. It is well<br />

known that under a programme of ‘rendition’, the CIA was spiriting away<br />

suspects to countries where U.S. laws on interrogation would not apply,<br />

such as Syria, Thailand or Poland, and subjecting them to techniques<br />

such as waterboarding. Yet, the report is shocking in its detail of these<br />

and other “enhanced interrogation techniques”, including one described<br />

as “rectal feeding”. CIA employees who questioned the techniques were<br />

overruled. Torture led to the death of at least one suspect and caused<br />

permanent physical damage to others. At least 26 of those subjected to<br />

the methods had been wrongly detained. Put together by Democrat members<br />

of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the report was released after<br />

five years of work. It concludes that the EITs resulted in no vital intelligence,<br />

and refutes suggestions that they led the CIA to Osama bin Laden.<br />

The White House and the CIA made several efforts to stop the report from<br />

coming out. Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein has said she was<br />

swayed at times by the argument that it might give an upper hand to<br />

forces that were out to destroy America, but that she realised her country<br />

would stand taller for accepting that it had done wrong. Ms. Feinstein<br />

pushed it out just before the Democrats hand over control of the Senate to<br />

the Republicans.<br />

Predictably though, the report has seen a partisan divide, with Republican<br />

members rejecting it. It has also spurred many to come to the CIA’s<br />

defence, including a former head of the agency, and former Vice-President<br />

Dick Cheney, who authorised many of the brutal techniques. He said<br />

last week that he “would do it again in a minute”. President George Bush,<br />

in whose administration these practices came to acquire currency, also<br />

defended them. The U.S. has always been accused of double standards<br />

when it comes to human rights, of preaching from the rule book to other<br />

countries, while proceeding to ignore those rules itself. That accusation<br />

is bound to grow louder. President Barack Obama, who had prohibited<br />

torture by an executive order in 2009, has acknowledged the CIA’s methods<br />

had done “significant damage to America’s standing in the world and<br />

made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners”. It is going<br />

to stay that way as he is unlikely to be able to punish the perpetrators.<br />

President : Bhupinder Kaur Thind<br />

Director : Anupam Nagpal<br />

TV Partner: Ajay Batra (IVS TV)<br />

Web Coordinator : Jatinder Kumar<br />

ISSN No. 1554 06X<br />

Chairman: Karam Singh Thind (Honorary)<br />

Editor in Chief: Sharanjit Singh Thind<br />

Editor: Aruna Singh :(Political Affairs-India)<br />

Associate Editor: Bidisha Roy<br />

Editorial Intern: Max<br />

Special Correspondent :<br />

Gagandeep Singh (INDIA)<br />

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Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

OPINION<br />

6<br />

Friendship With Russia Comforts, Even if it Doesn't Electrify<br />

(By Siddharth Varadarajan)<br />

At the heart of the decadesold<br />

partnership between Russia<br />

and India is a reality that neither<br />

the end of the Cold War nor the<br />

advent of unabashed capitalism<br />

in both countries has so far managed<br />

to change: Moscow will always<br />

be more willing to provide<br />

things that New Delhi may ideally<br />

like to buy from the West but<br />

is not able to because of the<br />

latter's reluctance.<br />

Back in the day, it was steel<br />

plants and giant turbines, military<br />

aircraft and tanks; then it was<br />

nuclear reactors and fuel. Today,<br />

it is nuclear submarines, outer<br />

space and rocketry, and the prospect<br />

of technology transfer in the<br />

civil nuclear energy field.<br />

Of course, this partnership<br />

has never been strictly transactional.<br />

Russia stood by India<br />

whenever it was under pressure<br />

regionally or internationally, while<br />

India too would do what it could<br />

to watch Russia's back. Moscow<br />

was a solid ally through all of<br />

India's wars; and though India<br />

made known its disapproval of the<br />

former Soviet Union's invasions of<br />

Hungary, Czechoslovakia and<br />

even Afghanistan, it refused to<br />

join the West in isolating Moscow.<br />

And the same is true for today.<br />

"India and Russia", the vision<br />

document released by Narendra<br />

Modi and Vladimir Putin at the<br />

end of their summit meeting on<br />

Thursday says bluntly, "oppose<br />

economic sanctions that do not<br />

have the approval of the United<br />

Nations Security Council," a clear<br />

reference to Washington's efforts<br />

to squeeze Moscow over the<br />

latter's intervention in the Ukraine.<br />

The document also speaks of<br />

enhanced cooperation in the<br />

fields of nuclear energy, defence<br />

trade and manufacturing, and the<br />

peaceful use of outer space.<br />

No doubt the passage of time<br />

has grafted new and significant<br />

elements to this bilateral relationship.<br />

And the US has now<br />

emerged as the largest supplier<br />

of military hardware to India. But<br />

broadly speaking, the strategic<br />

logic of Indo-Russian ties in 2014<br />

is not very different from what it<br />

was one, two, four or even five decades<br />

ago.<br />

As Modi noted in his remarks<br />

to the media at the end of the<br />

summit, India today has wider options<br />

in some of those areas, especially<br />

defence. But, he said,<br />

Russia would continue to remain<br />

its most important partner. This<br />

is essentially because Moscow<br />

gives what others don't. Critical<br />

assistance for India's nuclear<br />

submarine programme, for example.<br />

The main statement and a parallel<br />

document outlining the 'strategic<br />

vision' for cooperation in the<br />

civil nuclear energy front reiterate<br />

earlier plans for a total of 12 Russian<br />

reactors to be built at<br />

Kudankulam and another (yet to<br />

be identified) site in India. What<br />

is new, however, is the commitment<br />

to "progressively and significantly<br />

enhance the scope of<br />

orders for materials and equipment<br />

from Indian suppliers and<br />

establish joint ventures, including<br />

by transfer of technology, as<br />

mutually agreed. This will include<br />

manufacturing of both main equipment<br />

and spares, with special<br />

priority for spares, for Russiandesigned<br />

nuclear power units in<br />

Talking with Pakistanis<br />

(By Dr. Shashi Tharoor )<br />

Meeting a visiting delegation<br />

of Pakistani Parliamentarians<br />

this week - brought to India by<br />

the Islamabad-based Pakistan<br />

Institute of Legislative Development<br />

and Transparency (PILDAT)<br />

and hosted at our Parliament library<br />

by Mani Shankar Aiyar -<br />

offered yet another reminder of<br />

the paradoxes of the Indo-Pak relationship.<br />

On the one hand it's so easy<br />

to slip into a comfort zone with<br />

Pakistanis; with language, food,<br />

music, movies, clothes and<br />

many cultural assumptions in<br />

common, they are like familiar<br />

cousins, not hostile strangers.<br />

On the other, they serve in, and<br />

represent, a country that is an<br />

avowed enemy of India's, from<br />

which a seemingly interminable<br />

series of terrorist attacks have<br />

emanated as part of an officiallysupported<br />

campaign to "bleed<br />

India to death by a thousand<br />

cuts".<br />

The success of any Indo-Pak<br />

Track II dialogue of this kind<br />

therefore requires that it be built<br />

on denial. It focuses on making<br />

the visitors feel welcome, emphasizes<br />

the feel-good aspects<br />

of their presence in our midst,<br />

celebrates the many things we<br />

have in common, and tries to<br />

brush the real problems under a<br />

carpet (not a Kashmiri carpet,<br />

since that might provoke disagreeable<br />

thoughts). The Pakistani<br />

export of terrorism to India<br />

is never mentioned. In other<br />

words, Track-II dialogues are a<br />

self-fulfilling exercise in self-vindication.<br />

Their success depends<br />

on denying the very problems<br />

that makes such dialogues necessary<br />

in the first place.<br />

I'm all in favour of Indo-Pak<br />

peace and bonhomie. I've seen<br />

a lot of it in my decades abroad<br />

with the United Nations - where<br />

Indian and Pakistani colleagues<br />

were always the best of friends,<br />

even military officers serving in<br />

the Peacekeeping Department.<br />

Many a Pakistani cab driver in<br />

New York has attempted to decline<br />

my money for the fare, saying<br />

that I was a brother (this of<br />

course always won him a bigger<br />

tip, but the spirit was genuine).<br />

Indians and Pakistanis overseas<br />

are almost always the best of<br />

friends, since being in foreign<br />

lands enhances their consciousness<br />

of what they have in common,<br />

which vastly exceeds what<br />

divides them.<br />

I would love to see a time<br />

when Pakistanis and Indians can<br />

India."<br />

The document also envisions<br />

the export of such components<br />

to third countries. The proposed<br />

Joint Working Group on the<br />

Nuclear Fuel Cycle is likely to<br />

pursue cooperation in areas like<br />

spent fuel management, reprocessing,<br />

etc., areas the US and<br />

French are reluctant to venture.<br />

Never before has a meeting<br />

between India and Russia generated<br />

as much international interest<br />

as this week's summit. Relations<br />

between the West and Moscow<br />

are the lowest they have been<br />

for years, (Contd on page 22)<br />

cross each other's borders with<br />

the casualness of Americans<br />

and Canadians, work in each<br />

other's countries, trade freely<br />

with each other and contribute<br />

equally to each other's films,<br />

music, clothing and creative<br />

lives, just as they did (as one<br />

country) before 1947. I would be<br />

happy if that time came sooner<br />

rather than later. But, sadly, I am<br />

only too aware that it's not now.<br />

In a famous 1947 article in<br />

Foreign Affairs, George F.<br />

Kennan argued that the Soviet<br />

Union's hostility toward the<br />

United States was chronic and<br />

incurable, since it was rooted not<br />

in a classic conflict of interest<br />

between two great powers, but<br />

in deep-seated nationalism and<br />

insecurity on the part of Russia<br />

which the US could do nothing<br />

about. (Contd on page 22)


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

WORLD<br />

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge and the First<br />

Lady of New York City Visit Historic Northside Center in Harlem<br />

(Press Release) New York- Her<br />

Royal Highness The Duchess of<br />

Cambridge, escorted by the First<br />

Lady of New York City Chirlane<br />

McCray, arrived at Northside Center<br />

on December 8, 2014 at 11<br />

am. The historic hour and one half<br />

visit brought much excitement<br />

and heightened media attention<br />

to Northside and the Harlem<br />

community as the motorcades<br />

and scores of security personnel<br />

filled the streets. More than 120<br />

media outlets covered the event.<br />

The Duchess and First Lady met<br />

with Northside's Executive Director<br />

& CEO Dr. Thelma Dye in a<br />

briefing to learn more about<br />

Australian PM says tough new national security laws failed hostages<br />

From left to right: Thelma Dye, Ph.D., Executive Director,<br />

Northside Center for Child Development, Her Royal<br />

Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge, and the First Lady<br />

of New York City Chirlane McCray tour the Northside<br />

Center for Child Development.<br />

President from the Bush family or a second<br />

one from the Clinton family could well be<br />

the dynastic choice facing the 2016 electorate<br />

of the United States, the most talked-up<br />

democracy in the world.<br />

Jeb Bush, the former governor of<br />

Florida, son of the 41st US President George<br />

Bush and brother of the 43rd President<br />

George "Dubya" Bush, announced on Tuesday<br />

that he will "actively explore" the possibility<br />

of running for President of the United<br />

States in 2016.<br />

In a social media posting, Bush<br />

said he had discussed the future of the nation<br />

with his family over "good food and a<br />

whole lot of football" during the holidays, and<br />

"as a result of these conversations and<br />

thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong<br />

leadership I think America needs, I have decided<br />

to actively explore the possibility of<br />

running for President of the United States."<br />

In a preliminary step, he said he<br />

plans to establish a Leadership PAC in January<br />

that will help him "facilitate conversations<br />

with citizens across America to discuss<br />

the most critical challenges facing our<br />

exceptional nation." It now remains to be<br />

seen if Hillary Clinton will follow suit, leading<br />

up to a second Bush vs Clinton election<br />

after Bill Clinton defeated George Bush Sr<br />

in 1992. Clinton has been dithering for<br />

months on whether to run. Not that it is<br />

going to be smooth sailing for either candidate<br />

in the party primaries where they will<br />

have to overcome other aspirants. Bush will<br />

have to get past Mitt Romney, who wants to<br />

take another crack at the White House in<br />

2016. Clinton will have to overcome Senator<br />

Elizabeth Warren, who has emerged as the<br />

darling of the liberal wing of the Democratic<br />

Party. There are a raft of other aspirants.<br />

From the Republican side, notably, governors<br />

Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rick Perry<br />

of Texas, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John<br />

Kasich of Ohio, and senators Rand Paul,<br />

Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio.<br />

From the Democratic side vicepresident<br />

Joe Biden, former governors Martin<br />

O'Malley and Andrew Cuomo among others.<br />

But it is a Bush-Clinton face-off that<br />

most animates political pundits and pollsters,<br />

which is rather astonishing for a country that<br />

boasts of being the world's premier democracy.<br />

7<br />

The Duchess and The First Lady pose with children from<br />

Northside Center for Child Development.<br />

(Photos courtesy of Northside<br />

Center for Child Development)<br />

(Agencies) Sydey : Tough new<br />

national security laws failed to<br />

prevent a deadly hostage crisis<br />

in the heart of Sydney this week,<br />

Australian Prime Minister Tony<br />

Abbott said on Wednesday, raising<br />

questions about the usefulness<br />

of such measures. Three<br />

people were killed, including hostage-taker<br />

Man Haron Monis,<br />

when heavily armed police<br />

stormed a Sydney cafe early on<br />

Tuesday morning and freed terrified<br />

hostages held at gunpoint for<br />

16 hours. Police are investigating<br />

whether the two hostages<br />

were killed by Monis or died in<br />

the crossfire. Monis, a self-styled<br />

sheikh who received political asylum<br />

from Iran in 2001, was well<br />

known to Australian police and<br />

security agencies, having been<br />

charged as an accessory to murder<br />

and with dozens of counts of<br />

sexual and indecent assault. He<br />

had been free on bail.<br />

Australia in October<br />

passed sweeping new security<br />

laws aimed at preventing young<br />

people from becoming radicalised<br />

and going to fight in overseas conflicts<br />

such as those in Iraq and<br />

Syria, where scores of Australians<br />

have joined militant groups.<br />

Despite those new powers,<br />

Abbott said Monis was not<br />

on any security watchlist and<br />

managed to walk undetected into<br />

the Lindt Chocolate Cafe with a<br />

shotgun on a busy workday<br />

morning.<br />

"The system did not adequately<br />

deal with this individual,<br />

there's no doubt about that,"<br />

Abbott said in an interview with<br />

Australian Broadcasting Corporation<br />

radio.<br />

Abbott said authorities<br />

would investigate what had happened<br />

in the lead-up to Monday's<br />

siege, why Monis was not on any<br />

watchlist and how he got a gun.<br />

Under the new security<br />

provisions, exercised for the first<br />

time earlier this month to block<br />

travel to Raqqa Province in Syria,<br />

Australians going to any area<br />

overseas declared off limits can<br />

face up to a decade in prison.<br />

The legislation expanded<br />

both the intelligence services'<br />

ability to access private computer<br />

networks, cracked down on<br />

the leaking of classified informa-<br />

Bush vs Clinton again Jeb Bush may run for US president's post<br />

(Agencies) WASHINGTON: A third<br />

tion and bolstered the cooperation<br />

of the domestic and foreign<br />

intelligence services.<br />

The government is also<br />

introducing controversial data retention<br />

laws, although Abbott<br />

said on Tuesday that it was unclear<br />

whether those laws, aimed<br />

at intercepting communications<br />

between individuals plotting attacks,<br />

would have been useful in<br />

stopping Monis.<br />

Monis, who was found<br />

guilty in 2012 of sending threatening<br />

letters to the families of<br />

eight Australian soldiers killed in<br />

Afghanistan, has been described<br />

by those who knew him as an<br />

outcast even from the radical Islamist<br />

community.<br />

Critics of the security<br />

laws, touted by Abbott's conservative<br />

government as necessary<br />

to prevent attacks such as the<br />

hostage crisis, have seized on<br />

the failure to argue against the<br />

granting of further powers.<br />

"There's no control order regime<br />

to account for this. There's no<br />

metadata inside an apparently<br />

deranged mind," Fairfax News<br />

columnist Waleed Aly wrote. On<br />

Wednesday morning, people<br />

were still laying flowers and signing<br />

condolence books in Martin<br />

Place, a pedestrian strip near the<br />

cafe, which is surrounded by<br />

blacked out fencing and a blue<br />

tent over the entrance door. Office<br />

workers were also queuing<br />

for coffee at a cart just a few yards


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

WORLD<br />

8<br />

Amal Clooney tops Barbara Walters' list of 2014's most fascinating people<br />

Its George Clooney's newly wedded bride<br />

Amal Clooney who is Barbara Walters'<br />

most fascinating person of 2014.<br />

(Agencies) During her show,<br />

Walters introduced the 36-yearold<br />

Oxford-educated UK based<br />

barrister, who had married the<br />

Hollywood mega star in September,<br />

implying that that she definitely<br />

had something "to fascinate<br />

the most fascinating man,"<br />

adding that though they may not<br />

know much about her, her husband<br />

was well known, the media<br />

reported.Back in a 1995 interview,<br />

the actor, 53, had famously told<br />

Walters that "I'm never going to<br />

get married again" and Amal being<br />

able to break that vow was<br />

what got her the "most fascinating"<br />

title.Walters said that the<br />

beauty hadn't been the subject of<br />

jealousy that much, possibly because<br />

it was "impossible to resist<br />

perfection" or maybe people<br />

found it touching that "no matter<br />

how long it may take the perfect<br />

someone is out there for<br />

everyone."Other stars who made<br />

Walter's fascinating people list<br />

were Taylor Swift, Michael<br />

Strahan, Chelsea Handler, Oprah<br />

Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Elon<br />

Musk, Neil Patrick Harris, George<br />

R.R. Martin and David Koch.<br />

Rouble collapse shakes Russian<br />

economy, consumers<br />

(Agencies) MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir<br />

Putin faces a major new challenge after a catastrophic<br />

fall in the value of the rouble, which hit a<br />

new low on<br />

Tuesday despite<br />

the Central<br />

Bank's<br />

desperate efforts<br />

to halt<br />

the selling.<br />

On the<br />

streets of<br />

Moscow, panicky<br />

consumers rushed out to buy home appliances<br />

before they became even more expensive.<br />

Putin's popularity has been based on<br />

oil-driven economic growth that has helped increase<br />

incomes during his 15-year rule. The<br />

rouble's collapse, driven by a combination of<br />

slumping oil prices and Western sanctions, is<br />

denting that pillar of his power. The Kremlin has<br />

tried to shift blame for Russia's economic woes,<br />

accusing the West of inflicting economic pain<br />

on Russia in an attempt to force a regime<br />

change. The rouble hit a record low of 80 to the<br />

dollar — down a catastrophic 24 per cent —<br />

before making a modest improvement to trade<br />

at 72 to the dollar by late Tuesday afternoon.<br />

The market plunge defied a whopping predawn<br />

interest rate hike of 6.5 per centage<br />

points by Russia's Central Bank aimed at<br />

defending the currency. The rouble's collapse<br />

spurred Russians to rush out and buy<br />

imported cars, refrigerators, washing machines,<br />

TV sets and other major appliances in a bid to<br />

spend their roubles before stores put on new<br />

higher price tags. "Now is the exact time to<br />

make all the purchases you've been putting off,<br />

because tomorrow there may already be another<br />

price," said Alexei Malakhov, a 27-year<br />

old IT worker who bought a Google phone for<br />

18,000 roubles ($250) at a Moscow electronics<br />

store.<br />

Peshawar killings: From PM Modi to Malala,<br />

condemnation and shock across the world<br />

(Agencies) The attack by Pakistan-based<br />

terrorist group Tehreek-e-<br />

Taliban on an army school in<br />

Peshawar, which saw over 130 people<br />

including over 100 children getting<br />

killed, has shocked the world.<br />

The Peshawar terror attack, which<br />

began at about 11 am on Tuesday<br />

morning, saw Taliban gunmen enter<br />

the school and shoot dead innocent<br />

children and teachers, some of them<br />

at point blank range. According to reports,<br />

gunmen came through a graveyard<br />

situated behind the school and<br />

began firing indiscriminately at<br />

schoolchildren.<br />

A total of 15 blasts were heard inside<br />

the school campus. While one<br />

of the TTP gunmen blew himself up,<br />

five others were shot dead by the<br />

Pakistan Army. Hospitals swarmed<br />

with those who were severely injured<br />

and distraught parents and family. The<br />

hospitals were not prepared for the<br />

sudden emergency and reports added<br />

that there was a crippling shortage of<br />

blood in the Lady Reading Hospital.<br />

The Nawaz Sharif government also<br />

announced a three-day national<br />

mourning.<br />

World leaders have condemned<br />

the attacks and here's what they said:<br />

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz<br />

Sharif: As newspapers and channels<br />

reported an increase in the death toll,<br />

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz<br />

Sharif in a statement said, "It is a<br />

national tragedy. Those were my kids,<br />

my loss."<br />

"The government together with the<br />

army has started Zarb-e-Azb and it<br />

will continue until the terrorism is<br />

rooted out from our land. We also have<br />

had discussions with Afghanistan that<br />

they and we together fight this terrorism,<br />

and this fight will continue. No<br />

one should have any doubt about it. "<br />

Zarb-e-Azb was the name of the Pakistani<br />

military operation being carried<br />

out in North Waziristan.<br />

India's Prime Minister Narendra<br />

Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi<br />

on Tuesday evening spoke with his<br />

Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif<br />

over phone and offered his deepest<br />

condolences. He said India was ready<br />

to provide all assistance during this<br />

hour of grief."India stands firmly with<br />

Pakistan in fight against terror. Told<br />

PM Sharif we are ready to provide all<br />

assistance during this hour of grief,"<br />

he tweeted. The PM also tweeted<br />

saying that schools across India<br />

should observe 2 minutes of silence<br />

today to mark solidarity with those<br />

killed in Pakistan.Modi said the "savage<br />

killing of innocent children, who<br />

are the epitome of the finest human<br />

values, in a temple of learning was<br />

not only an attack against Pakistan,<br />

but an assault against the entire humanity".<br />

"At a time when the world is getting<br />

disturbingly accustomed to acts<br />

of terror, this terrible tragedy has<br />

shaken the conscience of the world,"<br />

he said. Modi also hoped that the<br />

children who had witnessed the horrific<br />

attack and loss of their friends<br />

would come through this trauma with<br />

counselling.The PM condemned the<br />

attack and said, "It is a senseless<br />

act of unspeakable brutality that has<br />

claimed lives of the most innocent of<br />

human beings - young children in their<br />

school. My heart goes out to everyone<br />

who lost their loved ones today.<br />

We share their pain & offer our deepest<br />

condolences."


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

WORLD<br />

9<br />

Poor live closer to their parents than the rich<br />

(Media Reports) Richer<br />

people live further away from<br />

their parents than those on<br />

modest wages, a new study<br />

shows.<br />

The report found workers<br />

earning less than £25,000<br />

live within 31 miles of their<br />

family, but this distance<br />

grows the wealthier people<br />

become.<br />

Britons who earn £35,000<br />

to £45,000 live 42 miles away<br />

while those earning more<br />

than £55,000 live 47 miles<br />

away.Annuities firm, Partnership,<br />

said this was because<br />

high-earning professionals<br />

were more likely to have moved<br />

away from where they grew up<br />

to secure a lucrative career.<br />

The study also found<br />

people in their 50s live closest<br />

to their ageing parents, but<br />

later move farther away to be<br />

near their own children and<br />

grandchildren.<br />

While people in their 40s<br />

lived 37 miles away, on average,<br />

this reduced to 33 miles<br />

as people reached their early<br />

50s.<br />

Experts said this was because<br />

Britons relocated to be<br />

closer to their elderly parents,<br />

or because their parents<br />

moved closer to them.<br />

However, as people reach<br />

their late 50s and early 60s,<br />

this distance increases<br />

again.<br />

The survey found those<br />

aged 56 to 60 lives 39 miles<br />

apart and by the time they<br />

were 61 to 65, they were 50<br />

miles from their<br />

parents.Thomas Kenny, at<br />

Partnership, said: ‘As<br />

people age and their families<br />

do the same, they initially<br />

move closer to their older<br />

relatives to provide a support<br />

structure.‘However, once they<br />

start to approach retirement<br />

and their own children grow up,<br />

it appears that the younger<br />

generation becomes more of a<br />

focus when it comes to living<br />

arrangements and more likely<br />

to base their location on<br />

them.’<br />

Commenting on the distance<br />

among well-paid workers<br />

and their parents, he added:<br />

‘Many people move to city<br />

centres such as London,<br />

Manchester or Birmingham to<br />

earn a higher salary.<br />

‘These statistics seem to<br />

suggest that when people<br />

move to increase their earning<br />

potential, it takes them further<br />

away from their families –<br />

something that does not<br />

change as they age due to the<br />

social networks they have built<br />

up.’<br />

The survey of 2,000 over-<br />

40s found that most middleaged<br />

people in the UK live<br />

within 50 miles of their immediate<br />

older relatives.<br />

The average person lives 37<br />

miles away from their parents<br />

and 42 miles from their<br />

grandparents.More than<br />

half of over-40s say they<br />

see their older relatives<br />

once a week. People are in<br />

closest contact with their<br />

mothers who they see, on<br />

average, twice a week.<br />

Two-thirds say they speak<br />

to an elderly relative every day<br />

on the phone, 16 per cent do<br />

so by email and 11 per cent<br />

use text messages. However,<br />

one in 10 now have older relatives<br />

outside the UK, with<br />

grandparents the most likely<br />

to live abroad.<br />

Federal judge : Obama immigration actions ‘unconstitutional’<br />

(Media Reports) A federal judge<br />

has found parts of President<br />

Obama’s immigration executive<br />

actions unconstitutional, in an<br />

opinion delivered as part of a<br />

separate immigration case not<br />

directly tied to the policy<br />

changes.<br />

The opinion filed<br />

Tuesday by U.S. District Court<br />

Judge Arthur Schwab, in<br />

Pennsylvania, still marks the first<br />

court opinion to tackle Obama’s<br />

immigration announcement. He<br />

said Obama’s immigration<br />

actions are invalid and effectively<br />

count as “legislation” from the<br />

Executive Branch.<br />

“President Obama’s unilateral<br />

legislative action violates the<br />

separation of powers provided for<br />

in the United States Constitution<br />

as well as the Take Care Clause,<br />

and therefore, is<br />

unconstitutional,” the judge<br />

wrote.<br />

The opinion, though, is unique<br />

in that it did not come in<br />

response to a challenge to<br />

Obama’s immigration policy<br />

announcement. It is unclear what<br />

impact, if any, the opinion might<br />

have other than to rally critics and<br />

fuel momentum behind other<br />

lawsuits.<br />

Rather, Schwab issued<br />

his opinion in response to a<br />

criminal case against Honduran<br />

illegal immigrant Elionardo<br />

Juarez-Escobar, who was<br />

previously deported in 2005 —<br />

and was caught in the U.S. again<br />

earlier this year.<br />

He already has pleaded<br />

guilty to “re-entry of a removed<br />

alien,” but the court<br />

subsequently examined the<br />

impact of Obama’s immigration<br />

actions on the case.<br />

For that review, Schwab<br />

left open whether the actions<br />

might apply to Juarez-Escobar<br />

but determined the executive<br />

actions themselves were<br />

unconstitutional.<br />

He wrote that the action<br />

goes beyond so-called<br />

“prosecutorial discretion” —<br />

which is the “discretion” the<br />

administration cites in<br />

determining whether to pursue<br />

deportation against illegal<br />

immigrants.<br />

Obama’s policy<br />

changes would give a reprieve to<br />

up to 5 million illegal immigrants,<br />

including those whose children<br />

are citizens or legal permanent<br />

residents and who meet other<br />

criteria.<br />

Schwab, a George W.<br />

Bush appointee, wrote that this<br />

“systematic and rigid process”<br />

applies to a “broad range” of<br />

enforcement decisions, as<br />

opposed to dealing with matters<br />

on a “case-by-case basis.”<br />

Further, he wrote that<br />

the action goes beyond deferring<br />

deportation by letting<br />

beneficiaries apply for work<br />

authorization and allowing some<br />

to become “quasi-United States<br />

citizens.”<br />

He also cited Obama’s<br />

argument that he was proceeding<br />

with executive action after<br />

Congress failed to act on<br />

comprehensive immigration<br />

legislation, and countered:<br />

“Congressional inaction does not<br />

endow legislative power with the<br />

Executive.”<br />

The Justice Department<br />

downplayed the significance of<br />

the opinion.<br />

“The decision is<br />

unfounded and the court had no<br />

basis to issue such an order,” a<br />

DOJ spokesperson said in a<br />

statement. “No party in the case<br />

challenged the constitutionality<br />

of the immigration-related<br />

executive actions and the<br />

department’s filing made it clear<br />

that the executive actions did not<br />

apply to the criminal matter<br />

before the court. Moreover, the<br />

court’s analysis of the legality of<br />

the executive actions is flatly<br />

wrong. We will respond to the<br />

court’s decision at the<br />

appropriate time.”<br />

Critics of the<br />

administration’s policy, though,<br />

hailed the opinion.<br />

“The President’s<br />

unilateral executive action<br />

suspending the nation’s<br />

immigration laws for roughly five<br />

million illegal aliens has received<br />

its first judicial test, and it has<br />

failed,” John Eastman, law<br />

professor at Chapman<br />

University, said in a<br />

statement.Other direct legal<br />

challenges to Obama’s<br />

immigration actions, including<br />

one by two-dozen states, remain<br />

pending before the federal courts.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

Rupee Slides to 63.88/Dollar amid Global Turm oil<br />

putting pressure on the rupee. On Tuesday,<br />

FIIs sold cash shares worth Rs 1,247 crore,<br />

extending their selling streak to a sixth consecutive<br />

session. Analysts and policymakers<br />

are not overly worried about the weakness<br />

in the rupee because India's domestic fundamentals<br />

continue to be strong and the<br />

country is widely seen as sturdier in the face<br />

of any sell-off in emerging markets compared<br />

with last year. Foreign investors have purchased<br />

a net $43.4 billion in shares and<br />

bonds this year, allowing India to outperform<br />

most emerging markets.On Tuesday, Trade<br />

Secretary Rajeev Kher said he was not too<br />

(Media Reports) The rupee weakened towards<br />

64 per dollar on Wednesday as it<br />

slipped to 63.88 against Tuesday's close of<br />

63.53 in opening trade. The rupee last traded<br />

above the 64 per dollar mark in September<br />

2013. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at<br />

Care Ratings expects the rupee to hover<br />

between 64 and 65 a dollar in the coming<br />

days. The weakness in the rupee has come<br />

in the wake of a global turmoil in stocks and<br />

currencies. Global risk assets have come under<br />

pressure after Russia's sharp increase<br />

in interest rates reinforced concerns about<br />

the global economy at a time when oil prices<br />

are sliding. Global concerns have led foreign<br />

investors to pull out money from equities,<br />

concerned about the rupee's falls to around<br />

63 to the dollar, while a central bank official<br />

told Reuters "it is still not an alarming situation".<br />

"India is certainly less vulnerable to the<br />

current crisis as compared to other emerging<br />

Asian economies," said Samir Lodha, managing<br />

director at QuantArt Market Solutions, citing<br />

factors such as easing inflation.<br />

Black money: Rs 6 lakh crore illegally taken out of India in 2012<br />

(Media Reports) Nearly $95 billion (Rs 6 lakh<br />

crore) were illegally taken out of India in 2012,<br />

bringing the total illicit outflow of capital from<br />

the country to $440 billion (about Rs 28 lakh<br />

crore) in the preceding decade, according to<br />

the latest study released on Tuesday by Global<br />

Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington<br />

DC-based research and advisory organization.<br />

Not only have taxes not been paid for<br />

these enormous sums, they may be used<br />

for various corrupt or criminal activities once<br />

parked in foreign safe havens. Overall, just<br />

in 2012, nearly a trillion dollars ($991 billion)<br />

in illicit capital flowed out of developing and<br />

emerging economies the study noted. This<br />

is an all-time high. Between 2003 and 2012,<br />

the illicit outflows add up to a monstrous $6.6<br />

trillion, averaging nearly four percent of the<br />

developing world's GDP.<br />

Black money has been a major issue<br />

roiling India in the recent past. The new<br />

Modi government had promised that it would<br />

bring back black money stashed away in<br />

foreign banks within 100 days. While investigations<br />

are inching forward, Opposition parties<br />

have been pressing for more decisive<br />

action. Despite much political noise over<br />

"black money", the outflow of national wealth<br />

seems to be continuing unchecked and growing<br />

with each passing year. The GFI study<br />

says that illicit outflows are growing at an<br />

inflation-adjusted 9.4% per year - roughly<br />

double global GDP growth over the same<br />

period. As if these numbers are not mindboggling<br />

enough, GFI chief economist Dev<br />

Kar stresses that these estimates are "conservative"<br />

since several types of illegal transactions<br />

are not reflected in these figures.<br />

"This means that many forms of abusive<br />

transfer pricing by multinational corporations<br />

as well as much of the proceeds of drug trafficking,<br />

human smuggling, and other criminal<br />

activities, which are often settled in cash,<br />

are not included in these estimates," explained<br />

Kar, who served as a Senior Economist<br />

at the International Monetary Fund before<br />

joining GFI in January 2008.<br />

India ranked third after China and<br />

Russia in the quantum of illicit outflows in<br />

2012. For the whole decade of 2003 to 2012,<br />

India ranks fourth. A total of 151 countries<br />

were studied by Kar and his colleague Joseph<br />

Spanjers at the GFI. "As this report<br />

demonstrates, illicit financial flows are the<br />

most damaging economic problem plaguing<br />

the world's developing and emerging economies,"<br />

said GFI President Raymond Baker<br />

, a longtime authority on financial crime.<br />

"These outflows—already greater than the<br />

combined sum of all Foreign Direct Investment<br />

(FDI) and ODA flowing into these countries—are<br />

sapping roughly a trillion dollars<br />

per year from the world's poor and middleincome<br />

economies."<br />

INDIA<br />

10<br />

7-year-old Beaten to<br />

Death in School, Allegedly<br />

For Not Paying Fees<br />

(Media Reports) BAREILLY:<br />

A seven-year-old boy died on<br />

Tuesday after being beaten<br />

brutally in a school in<br />

Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly<br />

by his teacher. Araj,<br />

a nursery student, was allegedly<br />

thrashed for not doing<br />

his homework and not<br />

paying the school fee. Senior<br />

police officer MP Singh<br />

said at around 11 am, a<br />

teacher allegedly banged<br />

Araj's head against the wall<br />

and he started bleeding from<br />

his nose. The school authorities<br />

allegedly took the<br />

boy to a hospital and called<br />

his parents, asking them to<br />

pick up their son as he was<br />

ill.Araj was unconscious<br />

when his parents arrived and<br />

died soon. A post mortem<br />

report says he died of severe<br />

head injuries. Residents<br />

of Nankara village,<br />

where Araj stayed with his<br />

parents, protested outside a<br />

police station demanding<br />

the school principal's arrest.<br />

An FIR or police complaint<br />

has been filed against the<br />

school's manager but no one<br />

has been arrested yet.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

INDIA<br />

11<br />

India's capacity to<br />

develop advanced<br />

indigenous arms industry<br />

questionable: SIPRI<br />

(Media Reports) CHENNAI: Smriti<br />

Muralishankar, a Class 12 student in<br />

Coimbatore, has spent the last four years<br />

burning the midnight oil to prepare for one<br />

of the toughest exams in the country -<br />

the JEE. Only two weeks ago did she<br />

realise that she was not eligible to write<br />

the test as she was born abroad and didn't<br />

have an Indian citizenship. Shreya<br />

Venkatesh, who has been studying in a<br />

Chennai school for the last 10 years, also<br />

found herself in a similar situation when<br />

she came to know that only Indian citizens<br />

can take the JEE (Main), which<br />

serves as the screening test for JEE (Advanced),<br />

mandatory for entry into IITs.<br />

The IIT dreams of these two and<br />

thousands across the country have been<br />

shattered because they were born<br />

abroad, to Indian parents who went overseas<br />

for higher education and jobs. They<br />

may have been studying in India for years<br />

now, but when it comes to applying for<br />

higher education in central and state institutions<br />

these students find themselves<br />

denied of opportunities open to their peers<br />

born in India.For years now, such students<br />

have been paying a hefty fee (around nine<br />

times of what is paid by Indian students)<br />

to study in a state institution. But, since<br />

IITs out of bounds for<br />

students born abroad<br />

the JEE was split in 2014, they have lost<br />

out on the opportunity to sit for the IIT<br />

entrance test.<br />

Foreign, Overseas Citizenship of India<br />

(OCI) and Person of Indian Origin (PIO)<br />

category students are not eligible for admission<br />

to NITs, IIITs and other centrallyfunded<br />

institutions through JEE (Main).<br />

They can only be admitted through the<br />

Direct Admission to Students Abroad<br />

(DASA) channel using their SAT 2 scores.<br />

But, admission to IITs is only through JEE<br />

(Advanced), which requires the students<br />

to figure among the top 1.5 lakh candidates<br />

in JEE (Main).The students hope<br />

that the officials will take their case into<br />

consideration and make some changes<br />

in the process before December 18, the<br />

last date for submission of applications<br />

for JEE (Main). But, many have<br />

applied for admission to universities<br />

abroad rather than wait for the<br />

changes. Educational consultant D<br />

Nedunchezhiyan of Technocrat India<br />

College Finder said, "The situation is<br />

ironical, and is a loss to our institutions<br />

as well."<br />

He said IITs should at least accept the<br />

SAT 2 scores of these students for admission.<br />

"There are many bright students<br />

who secure good marks in SAT<br />

going to NITs because IITs are out of<br />

bounds for them. A lot of IT professionals<br />

who went abroad during the IT<br />

boom in the 90s are coming back, but<br />

the brain drain may continue to happen<br />

in this generation too as their children<br />

are forced to go overseas to<br />

study," Nedunchezhiyan said.<br />

Till 2014, admissions to NITs and IIITs<br />

were based on AIEEE and entry to IITs<br />

on JEE. But only Indian nationals<br />

could take AIEEE, and others entered<br />

NITs and IIITs through Direct Admission<br />

to Students Abroad<br />

(DASA) channel. No such restriction<br />

for JEE. In 2014, JEE<br />

was split. JEE(Main) replaced<br />

AIEEE, but the bar<br />

on non-Indian citizens remained.<br />

Since JEE(Main)<br />

also served as the screening<br />

test for JEE (Advanced),<br />

which is a must for admission<br />

to IITs, non-Indian students<br />

remained out of the entire<br />

process The split has affected<br />

children born overseas<br />

to Indians who had travelled for<br />

higher education and jobs to<br />

other countries years ago and<br />

have now come back<br />

They can still get into NITs and<br />

IIITs through DASA, but not to<br />

IITs because JEE (Advanced)<br />

is the only gateway<br />

(Media Reports) While acknowledging<br />

that the current government in New<br />

Delhi has made defence exports a central<br />

goal, the world's leading think tank<br />

on the weapons industry has said that<br />

India's arms making capability remains<br />

questionable.<br />

In its latest report on worldwide arms<br />

producing companies, SIPRI (Stockholm<br />

International Peace Research Institute)<br />

has said that successive government in<br />

India have declared an intent to set up a<br />

technologically advanced indigenous<br />

arms industry, reaching the goal remains<br />

dubious.<br />

"(current) Sales are mainly based on<br />

bulk license production of foreign-designed<br />

weapons, while the development<br />

of indigenous systems has been plagued<br />

with problems for decades," the SIPRI<br />

Top 100 Arms Producing and Military<br />

Services Companies, 2013 report says.<br />

While American firms top the list of<br />

global arms producers - Lockheed Martin<br />

at the top followed by Boeing - the<br />

first Indian company to feature is Bangalore<br />

based HAL at number 42 with a<br />

profit of USD 476 million in 2013. However,<br />

most of the profit is only on license<br />

production of mostly Russian platforms.<br />

Incidentally, while there has been a<br />

global decline of 2 percent in arms sales,<br />

which totaled USD 402 billion last year,<br />

sales by Russian arms manufacturers<br />

grew by a rapid 20 percent. The total<br />

estimated sales of the 10 Russian companies<br />

at $31 billion in the SIPRI report.<br />

The SIPRI report has also taken note<br />

of the BJP government's efforts to promote<br />

exports, including formulation of a<br />

strategy for defence exports that also<br />

seeks to use arms sales as a diplomatic<br />

tool. "The Indian industry's role in the<br />

arms export market is also negligible.<br />

Nevertheless, success in the export<br />

market remains a central goal of the<br />

current government, and significant national<br />

resources are dedicated to attaining<br />

it," it says. A recent report by the<br />

defence and aerospace division of Ernst<br />

and Young suggests that India is likely<br />

to spend over USD 260 billion on major<br />

military purchases over the next 12 years<br />

and a saving of USD 50 billion can be<br />

achieved in this time period if the Make<br />

in India model kicks off.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

INDIA<br />

12<br />

WET AND COLD<br />

NORTH INDIA<br />

(Agencies) Delhi's famous<br />

winter has arrived with a vengeance.<br />

Just when people began<br />

to grumble about a markedly<br />

warm December, the cold set in,<br />

with heavy rain and strong winds<br />

intensifying the chill.<br />

A good 7° below normal,<br />

Sunday’s maximum temperature<br />

of 16°C made it the coldest day<br />

this season, with the minimum<br />

settling at 14.2°C.<br />

Winter lovers won't be bothered<br />

by Monday blues as the<br />

weatherman predicted a fall of 3-<br />

5°C in the minimum temperature<br />

over the next three days. “Sunday<br />

witnessed cold day conditions<br />

(when maximum temperature<br />

is lower than or equal to<br />

16°C),” B.P. Yadav, head of India<br />

Meteorological Department’s<br />

North India Shivers as<br />

rain and strong winds<br />

finally usher in winter<br />

(IMD) weather forecasting division,<br />

said.<br />

The relative humidity (maximum)<br />

on Sunday was recorded<br />

at 93 per cent with the Capital<br />

receiving a rainfall of 3.5 mm. The<br />

chill was strengthened as winds<br />

of 21 kilometres per hour lashed<br />

the city. The weatherman attributed<br />

the phenomenon to Western<br />

Disturbance over Jammu and<br />

Kashmir and Pakistan, which induced<br />

an upper air cyclonic circulation<br />

over north-west<br />

Rajasthan and adjoining Haryana.<br />

As a consequence, heavy<br />

rains lashed all of North India,<br />

and Shimla and Manali were covered<br />

by a thick blanket of snow.<br />

According to private weather<br />

forecaster Skymet, Manali recorded<br />

a maximum temperature<br />

of 10.4°C and minimum of<br />

0°C on Sunday morning,<br />

while the maximum and<br />

minimum in Shimla<br />

settled at 6.7°C and<br />

0.4°C, respectively.<br />

Punjab and Haryana<br />

Capital Chandigarh recorded<br />

a day temperature<br />

of 15.2°C, with the<br />

mercury settling at<br />

10.6°C at night.<br />

Amritsar recorded a<br />

maximum temperature<br />

of 19.2°C and<br />

minimum of 8.6°C.<br />

Over the next three days, the<br />

IMD has forecast a 3-5°C fall in<br />

minimum temperatures across<br />

parts of north-west and central India.<br />

Delhi will be blanketed by<br />

dense fog on Monday (today),<br />

which will reduce visibility to 200<br />

metres or below and persist over<br />

the next two days. A similar prediction<br />

has been made for<br />

Punjab, Haryana and Uttar<br />

Pradesh. Monday will see a<br />

cloudy sky in Delhi, with the minimum<br />

temperature likely to hover<br />

around 12°C and the maximum,<br />

18°C. Between Tuesday and Friday,<br />

the minimum and maximum<br />

temperatures shall oscillate between<br />

8-9°C, and 20-21°C, respectively.<br />

According to the IMD,<br />

the Capital will witness clear<br />

skies on Tuesday and Wednesday,<br />

with clouds likely to return<br />

in the subsequent two days. “As<br />

the skies clear up in the<br />

next two days, the minimum<br />

temperature will come down<br />

while the maximum for the day<br />

will go up. Similar weather conditions<br />

will prevail over the<br />

whole of North India,” Yadav<br />

said. “The western disturbances<br />

will persist over Jammu<br />

and Kashmir for 2-3 days. The<br />

minimum temperature will drop<br />

as the Western Disturbance<br />

moves away, while maximum<br />

will maintain its level or rise marginally,”<br />

G.P. Sharma, head of<br />

Skymet’s Meteorology Division<br />

said. Sharma observed that in<br />

a unique occurrence, while the<br />

Western Disturbance has<br />

brought snow to Himachal<br />

Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir<br />

has only seen spells of rain.<br />

“Shimla and Manali got snow<br />

but Srinagar got none at all,” he<br />

added.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

Punjab and Haryana High Court stays<br />

Ashutosh Maharaj's cremation order<br />

INDIA<br />

13<br />

(Agencies) The Punjab and<br />

Haryana High Court on Monday<br />

suspended an earlier order of a<br />

single-bench which had directed<br />

the Punjab government<br />

to perform the last rites of controversial<br />

godman and founder<br />

of Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan<br />

(DJJS), Nurmahal --Ashutosh<br />

Maharaj. The godman has been<br />

lying in a freezer for over 10<br />

months.<br />

A division-bench of the HC<br />

put on hold the single-judge<br />

bench order, given December 1,<br />

which directed the Punjab government<br />

to perform the last rites<br />

of Ashutosh Maharaj within 15<br />

days. The next date of hearing<br />

is Feb 9, 2015.<br />

Ashutosh Maharaj, who<br />

headed the DJJS sect with its<br />

headquarters at Nurmahal in<br />

Jalandhar, was declared "clinically<br />

dead" by doctors January<br />

29 this year.<br />

Speaking to the media, DJJS<br />

counsel Satya Pal Jain said: "The<br />

Punjab government through its<br />

counsel said that the state government<br />

has nothing to do with<br />

the case as it is the matter between<br />

DJJS and Dilip Jha who<br />

claims to be the son of Ashutosh<br />

Maharaj. The government also expressed<br />

the inability to cremate<br />

the baba and said that it is not in<br />

a position to cremate the seer as<br />

the case is related to the faith."<br />

Satya Pal said the single<br />

bench had termed the documents<br />

produced by Dilip Kumar Jha as<br />

'forged' and had failed to prove<br />

that Ashutosh Maharaj was his<br />

father. "All the three parties were<br />

not satisfied with the December<br />

1 ruling. The court said that it will<br />

hear all the pleas," Satya Pal Jail<br />

said.<br />

Jain said that the court cannot<br />

say a particular thing in a<br />

particular way. The court, under<br />

the section 226 of the IPC, has<br />

no right to declare a person dead<br />

or alive. The court also has no<br />

powers to intervene in religious<br />

matters. He also said that asking<br />

someone to cremate the body<br />

is also beyond the jurisdiction of<br />

any court of law.<br />

"We are trying to convince the<br />

court that the judgment, delivered<br />

on December 1, is against the<br />

settled law. The court cannot go<br />

into the question whether someone<br />

is in Samadhi or how he will<br />

be cremated. All issues were<br />

wrongly decided by the single<br />

bench," Satya Pal said.<br />

Citing the Mayank shekhar<br />

case, Dilip's counsel S.K. Sohi<br />

said that his client's demand for<br />

the DNA test is justified and the<br />

only way which can prove that<br />

Ashutosh Maharaj is his biological<br />

father.<br />

"The law says that if a person<br />

offers his DNA he should be<br />

given the chance to prove the<br />

paternity. This is the most scientific<br />

test which has no alternative.<br />

The apex court had<br />

also allowed Mayank shekhar<br />

, N D Tiwari's son to go for the<br />

test.Only the DNA test can prove<br />

him ( Dilip) right or wrong. The<br />

body is there (Ashutosh Maharaj)<br />

and the claimant too," S K Sohi<br />

said.<br />

"Clinical tests are not required<br />

when someone is in<br />

Samadhi.The samadhi comes<br />

to an end when the doctors declared<br />

him dead," Sohi said.<br />

Another petitioner, Puran<br />

Sigh,who had alleged that DJJS<br />

management is eyeing frozen<br />

baba's property has also announced<br />

his support for Dilip<br />

Jha.<br />

We hope that the double<br />

bench will give its decision in<br />

our favour.We are hoping for the<br />

good. We demand that the body<br />

of Ashutosh Maharaj be given<br />

to Dilip Kumar Jha so that he is<br />

able to perform the last rites,"<br />

Puran Singh said. stays-cremation<br />

Windows 10 leaked images show Cortana, Xbox integration<br />

(Agencies) To say that<br />

we're excited for Windows 10<br />

would be an understatement.<br />

With Microsoft accidentally<br />

gimping Windows 7 with a<br />

faulty update this week and<br />

Windows 8.1 continuing to be<br />

a lovable mess, Microsoft's<br />

new operating system can't get<br />

here soon enough.<br />

New images of Windows 10,<br />

part of a pre-consumer build<br />

leaked earlier today, show off<br />

two of the platform's most anticipated<br />

features — Cortana<br />

and Xbox. Earlier this month,<br />

we saw a video from WinBeta<br />

with Cortana in Windows. Although<br />

that video did wonders<br />

showing off how awesome it<br />

will be to have a voice assistant<br />

built right into the operating<br />

system, the actual design<br />

and layout of Cortana was unpolished<br />

and pretty crappy<br />

looking. Build 9901 gives us a<br />

pretty good idea what Cortana<br />

will look like once Windows 10<br />

is ready to ship.<br />

As The Verge's Tom Warren<br />

points out, Cortana on<br />

desktop looks similar to its<br />

Windows Phone orientation,<br />

which makes sense since one<br />

of Windows 10's objectives is<br />

to unify Microsoft across all<br />

platforms. However, in this<br />

build Cortana is only partly<br />

functional.Other sneak<br />

peeks include a first look at<br />

the Xbox app running on<br />

Windows 10 (above) along<br />

with updates to the Windows<br />

Store, according to WinBeta.<br />

Windows expert Paul Thurrott<br />

also breaks down this new<br />

build with a detailed<br />

changelog of everything that<br />

is new.<br />

The focus on the consumer<br />

side of the OS is probably a<br />

preamble to Microsoft's upcoming<br />

Windows 10 event set<br />

for January 21, which was announced<br />

on Thursday.<br />

Titled "The Next Chapter,"<br />

the event is rumored to focus<br />

specifically on the consumer<br />

side of things and have<br />

Microsoft's big wigs on hand,<br />

including Satya Nadella and<br />

Xbox's Phil Spencer. It's also<br />

possible that we'll hear more<br />

on Windows 10 pricing and<br />

when the software will be<br />

ready for launch.<br />

As leaks and excitement<br />

continue to build, January 21<br />

could become a monumental<br />

date in Microsoft history.<br />

Whether for good or bad, we'll find<br />

out in a little more than a month.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

WORLD<br />

14<br />

The Lone Wolf, Self-Styled Sheikh Who Held a Sydney Cafe Hostage<br />

(Agencies) Sydney : Man Haron<br />

Monis, the Sydney hostage-taker<br />

killed in a 16-hour siege, was a<br />

self-styled sheikh with his own<br />

Wikipedia entry who was on bail<br />

when he emerged as a lone wolf<br />

gunman.<br />

Born in Iran, the 50-yearold<br />

was named in reports hours<br />

before being gunned down as the<br />

"cleric" who triggered a security<br />

lockdown in the heart of<br />

Australia's biggest city by unfurling<br />

an Islamic flag and holding<br />

several people captive in a<br />

chocolate cafe.<br />

Arriving in Australia as a<br />

refugee in 1996, Monis was no<br />

stranger to controversy.<br />

Convicted over sending<br />

offensive letters to the families of<br />

dead soldiers, he was on bail on<br />

charges of being an accessory<br />

to the murder of his ex-wife and<br />

for sexual and indecent assault,<br />

multiple Australian outlets reported.<br />

His personal website,<br />

before it was taken down Tuesday,<br />

featured a banner photo with<br />

graphic images of dead Arab children,<br />

with the caption: "This is an<br />

evidence for the terrorism of<br />

America and its allies including<br />

Australia. The result of their<br />

airstrikes."The gunman converted<br />

from Shiism to Sunni Islam, according<br />

to a post on his website.<br />

The Sunni-based Islamic State<br />

and other jihadist groups consider<br />

Shiites heretics, or rejectionists<br />

-- "rafidi" -- of true Islam."I used<br />

to be a rafidi, but not anymore.<br />

Now I am a Muslim, Alhamdu<br />

Lillah," he said.On his website,<br />

self-styled Sheikh Haron, also<br />

known as Man Haron Monis, says<br />

his children have been "taken<br />

away by the Australian government"<br />

and that he is not allowed<br />

to contact them.Monis was on<br />

bail for dozens of charges, including<br />

22 of aggravated sexual assault<br />

and 14 of aggravated indecent<br />

assault, according to the<br />

Australian Associated Press.<br />

Mehdi's Entire Focus Was West<br />

Asia, Say Bangalore Police<br />

(Agencies) The entire focus of<br />

Mehdi Masroor Biswas' Twitter<br />

account was West Asia and<br />

most of his followers are from<br />

there, said the Bangalore police,<br />

who arrested the man three days<br />

ago.<br />

The Bangalore police<br />

also said during questioning,<br />

Mehdi claimed he never spoke to<br />

any fighter of the Islamic State.<br />

He said he also never encouraged<br />

anyone to join the armed<br />

struggle in the middle-east and<br />

nor did he know of anyone joining<br />

the IS because of his tweets,<br />

the police said.Mehdi, who is allegedly<br />

behind the<br />

@shamiwitness - the most-read<br />

Twitter handle of the Islamic State<br />

- is currently in police custody for<br />

questioning. "The conversations,<br />

the tweets that were given, tweets<br />

that were read, the matter that<br />

were discussed, the times zones<br />

- everything was around West<br />

Asia - around Iraq and Syria," said<br />

Bangalore police commissioner<br />

MN Reddi. "It so happens he<br />

could have operated from anywhere<br />

on earth."<br />

The police have issued<br />

a notice to the Twitter Corporation,<br />

asking them to answer a set<br />

of queries. "They have already responded<br />

substantially regarding<br />

various types of information to<br />

provide to us - data etc. It (the<br />

investigation) is still going on," Mr<br />

Reddi said. Mehdi used to translate<br />

Arabic tweets into English<br />

and uploaded data and videos on<br />

the Twitter handle<br />

@shamiwitness, which had over<br />

17,000 followers, police said.<br />

On Monday, Union<br />

Home Minister Rajnath Singh<br />

said over 60% of Mehdi's followers<br />

were non-Muslims from Western<br />

countries. The rest were Muslims,<br />

also from western countries,<br />

particularly the UK. "The interrogation<br />

of Mehdi Biswas has indicated<br />

that his activities were limited<br />

to posting and re-posting of<br />

pro-ISIS material on his Twitter<br />

account and social media sites.<br />

He has denied having recruited<br />

any person for ISIS," the Home<br />

Minister said. Mehdi, Mr Singh<br />

also said, had got interested in<br />

the developments in Syria, Iraq<br />

and Afghanistan during his college<br />

days. Once he got active in<br />

the social media, in 2009, he<br />

started interacting with people in<br />

the social networking sites on<br />

matters related to<br />

"Jihad"."Further investigation is in<br />

progress," he added.<br />

Stemming from his time as a<br />

"spiritual healer", an additional 40<br />

charges were levelled against<br />

him in October and he was also<br />

on bail for being an accessary to<br />

murder. The Sydney Morning Herald<br />

said it was understood that<br />

days before Monday's siege,<br />

Monis had lost a bid to have the<br />

charges over the letters overturned.<br />

Showing a flair for the dramatic,<br />

a photograph said to be<br />

from his Facebook page published<br />

by the Business Insider<br />

showed him in chains with a<br />

poster claiming "I have been tortured<br />

in prison for my political<br />

letters. Monis has said the crimes<br />

he has been accused of in the<br />

past were attempts to smear<br />

him. "These cases are in fact<br />

political cases against this Muslim<br />

activist, not real criminal<br />

cases."He compared himself to<br />

Wikileaks' Julian Assange on his<br />

website, saying both were activists<br />

facing government-backed<br />

smear campaigns.He also<br />

counted astrology, numerology,<br />

meditation and black magic<br />

among his expertise, according<br />

to reports.Before the raid, Monis<br />

had reportedly demanded an Islamic<br />

State flag and a phone call<br />

with Australian Prime Minister<br />

Tony Abbott.But police and<br />

Monis's former lawyer Manny<br />

Conditsis said the public could<br />

be assured that the siege was not<br />

the work of an organised terrorist<br />

group."This is a one-off random<br />

individual," he told the ABC. "It's<br />

not a concerted terrorism event<br />

or act. It's a damaged-goods individual<br />

who's done something<br />

outrageous." The Australian<br />

newspaper called him a "selfstyled<br />

sheikh" who had sent offensive<br />

letters to the families of<br />

dead Australian soldiers and was<br />

on bail on charges of being an<br />

accessory to the murder of his<br />

ex-wife. It said Monis -- shown in<br />

local media in a photo smiling<br />

and sporting a beard and a white<br />

turban -- lived in Sydney's southwest<br />

and was "understood to be<br />

a fringe Islamist".<br />

Volvo to Retail Cars Online<br />

(Agencies) Volvo Car Corp said it will start selling<br />

vehicles online as it rolls out new models to<br />

compete with German luxury rivals such as<br />

BMW. The Swedish carmaker, controlled by<br />

China's Geely, will gradually introduce web sales<br />

and spend more on digital advertising, it said as<br />

it outlined changes to its global marketing strategy<br />

on Monday.<br />

"The plan is to have<br />

all our car lines in all our<br />

markets offered digitally,"<br />

Volvo sales chief Alain<br />

Visser said in an interview.<br />

Few manufacturers<br />

have tried selling directly<br />

online. A notable exception<br />

is Tesla, whose electric car<br />

sales have cut out traditional<br />

dealers, leading to conflict<br />

and effective exclusion from<br />

parts of the United States.<br />

But Volvo has assured its<br />

2,000 global dealerships, half of which are in<br />

Europe, that it has no such plans.<br />

"If you say the word e-commerce, initially<br />

dealers get nervous," Visser said. "We don't<br />

see a car distribution network without dealers in<br />

the foreseeable future," he said, adding that vehicles<br />

sold online "will still pass through the<br />

dealer network" for delivery.<br />

Volvo raised its 2014 sales goal in August<br />

as it launched a revamped XC90 crossover,<br />

the first vehicle developed under Zhejiang Geely<br />

Holding Group ownership. With its flagship SUV<br />

and other models to follow, Volvo is ratcheting<br />

up the gadgetry and glitz to woo Chinese customers<br />

without losing sight of core attributes including<br />

safety and uncluttered Scandinavian design.<br />

The Swedish carmaker plans to withdraw<br />

from all but one motor show per year in<br />

each of three regions - Europe, North America<br />

and Asia - and stage its own global event instead.<br />

Volvo also said it would not follow rivals<br />

into city-centre boutique dealerships of the kind<br />

increasingly used by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and<br />

Audi.<br />

"We're a different brand with limited financial<br />

means," Visser said. "We don't believe<br />

in building these big palaces." Some 80 percent<br />

of Volvo customers already shop online for other<br />

goods, the sales chief added, and research suggests<br />

many will do the same for cars in future.<br />

But some analysts such as Stuart Pearson of<br />

Exane BNP Paribas remain skeptical, citing<br />

weak orders from experimental online sales of<br />

the BMW's i8 hybrid sports car. "BMW has tried<br />

it in Germany, but they really haven't had a huge<br />

amount of volume," Pearson said. "People still<br />

want to go into dealers."


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

WORLD<br />

15<br />

Are POTATOES the ultimate diet food<br />

How a chemical compound found in<br />

spuds is shown to prevent weight gain<br />

(Agencies) Potatoes have<br />

long been considered something<br />

of an anti-diet food, but new research<br />

has found that they may<br />

in fact prevent weight gain.<br />

According to a new paper published<br />

by researchers at McGill<br />

University, high potato consumption<br />

in mice was shown to decrease<br />

body weight gain.<br />

The team believe that the findings<br />

are due to potatoes' high<br />

concentration of polyphenols - a<br />

disease-fighting chemical component<br />

found in fruits and vegetables.<br />

'We were astonished by<br />

the results,' said Professor Luis<br />

Agellon, one of the authors of the<br />

study.<br />

'We thought this can't be right<br />

- in fact, we ran the experiment<br />

again using a different batch of<br />

extract prepared from potatoes<br />

grown in another season, just to<br />

be certain.'<br />

Over a period of ten weeks,<br />

the mice - who started out weighing<br />

25 grams on average - were<br />

each fed an 'obesity-inducing<br />

diet', with some consuming a<br />

polyphenol-rich extract made<br />

from about 30 potatoes.<br />

By the end of the experiment,<br />

the animals who hadn't been fed<br />

the potato extract had gained an<br />

average of 16 grams.<br />

Those who had consumed the<br />

daily dose of polyphenol-rich potato<br />

extract, however, put on only<br />

7 grams.Principal author Stan<br />

Kubow believes that the findings<br />

may well explain the 'French paradox'<br />

- the notion that the French<br />

remain slim despite their seemingly<br />

unhealthy diet, which is high<br />

in saturated fats.<br />

'In the famous French diet,<br />

considered to be very healthy,<br />

potatoes - not red wine - are the<br />

primary source of polyphenols,'<br />

he explained.<br />

'In North America, potatoes<br />

come third as a source of<br />

polyphenols – before the popular<br />

blueberries.' Dr Kubow added that<br />

even though the chemicals in<br />

potatoes may prevent weight<br />

gain, that's not to say that a diet<br />

high in potatoes can necessarily<br />

keep you slim.<br />

'The daily dose of extract<br />

comes from 30 potatoes, but of<br />

course we don't advise anyone to<br />

eat 30 potatoes a day, as that<br />

would be an enormous number<br />

of calories,' he said.<br />

Instead, the researchers are<br />

envisaging making the extract<br />

available as a dietary supplement<br />

or as a cooking ingredient to help<br />

We will free India of Muslims<br />

and Christians by 2021<br />

(Agencies) Even as Opposition<br />

parties up the ante over alleged<br />

incidents of religious reconversion,<br />

the Dharm Jagran Samiti<br />

has declared that it will ensure<br />

India becomes a Hindu Rashtra<br />

by 2021.<br />

Speaking in Agra on Thursday,<br />

a Dharm Jagran Samiti (DJS)<br />

functionary said Muslims and<br />

Christians will have to convert to<br />

Hinduism if they want to stay in<br />

this country. The DJS has been<br />

at the forefront of the reconversion<br />

- or ‘ghar wapsi’ -<br />

programmes in recent times in<br />

which some Muslims have been<br />

reportedly ‘reconverted’ to<br />

Hinduism.However, their action<br />

drew widespread condemnation,<br />

leading to the arrest of one<br />

activist.“Our target is to make<br />

India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021.<br />

The Muslims and Christians don’t<br />

have any right to stay here.<br />

“So they would either be converted<br />

to Hinduism or forced to<br />

run away from here,” Uttar<br />

Pradesh DJS head Rajeshwar<br />

Singh said. He was reacting to<br />

the arrest of Nand Kishore<br />

Valmiki, a DJS activist.<br />

Valmiki was arrested on Tuesday<br />

for his alleged involvement in<br />

forcefully converting over 100<br />

Muslims to Hinduism in Agra.<br />

Singh said although he has<br />

temporarily suspended his ‘ghar<br />

wapsi’ programme in Aligarh and<br />

some other districts of the state<br />

that were supposed to be held on<br />

December 25, it would be restarted<br />

soon.<br />

The DJS leader claimed that<br />

those who have been opposing<br />

‘ghar wapsi’ were fearful of Muslims.<br />

But, he would set India free<br />

from this fear, he added.<br />

“I belong to the Solanki subcaste<br />

within the Rajput caste.<br />

The Thakurs (Rajputs) respect<br />

me. I am their leader and they<br />

follow my orders. “The Muslims<br />

had converted Rajputs to Islam<br />

by force. But the Rajputs are rising<br />

again.<br />

fight obesity.<br />

Potatoes may be popularly<br />

known for their carbohydrate and<br />

starch, but it's not the first time<br />

that a study has shown they<br />

aren't necessarily bad for the<br />

waistline. According to a study<br />

published in October in the Journal<br />

of the American College of Nutrition,<br />

dieters who included potatoes<br />

in their meal plans all lost<br />

weight - as long as they reduced<br />

their overall calorie intake.<br />

The scientists concluded<br />

there is no evidence that potatoes<br />

lead to weight gain if they are prepared<br />

in a healthy manner.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

ENTERTAINMENT<br />

16<br />

Imam Siddique, Neha Dhupia in a fight!<br />

(Agencies) Stylist and reality TV star<br />

Imam Siddique ruffled a few feathers<br />

at the Max Design Awards 2014,<br />

Student Edition, in Mumbai, which<br />

featured celebs such as Ashish<br />

Soni, Gaurav Gupta, Neha Dhupia,<br />

Masaba Gupta and Marc<br />

Robinson. When Neha asked a<br />

student the meaning of Haute<br />

Couture (meaning “made to<br />

measure”), Imam got up, interrupted<br />

and told the judges:<br />

“You guys do not know the<br />

meaning of the term. You<br />

guys are laughing amongst yourselves…”<br />

To this, Neha calmly said, “If you<br />

are done, can I proceed with my job” This<br />

got Imam more agitated and he went on<br />

to explain the term in detail, little realising<br />

that he was doing this in front of the top<br />

four designers of the country. Neha just<br />

said, “In this case you may feel free to<br />

use the door… we have two of them.” Imam<br />

later says, “I always get tangled in controversies…<br />

When I complimented Neha<br />

saying, ‘You look beautiful, whose dress<br />

are you wearing’ She could not name<br />

the designer. Arre kiska dress pehna hai<br />

woh bhi usse malum nahi (she doesn’t<br />

even know whose dress she is wearing).”<br />

The issue that set Imam off initially<br />

was that the students were mispronouncing<br />

“Haute Couture” and the<br />

judges on the dais were giggling at<br />

them. “It was not only me, but another<br />

family in the audience also felt that the<br />

students were being mocked. And,<br />

therefore, I got up and defended the<br />

students.” Neha Dhupia, on the other<br />

hand, refused to comment. She said,<br />

“I have said what I had to… I do not<br />

want to say anything more.”<br />

I didn’t leave<br />

‘Bombairiya’<br />

in lurch, says<br />

Richa Chadda<br />

More than<br />

heroes, it’s<br />

the heroines<br />

who are<br />

curious<br />

about Sunny<br />

Leone<br />

(Agencies) It has been<br />

over two years since<br />

Sunny Leone started<br />

her career in<br />

Bollywood. While it is<br />

obvious why the industry<br />

men find her interesting<br />

(ahem!), it is<br />

the curiosity that the<br />

heroines have about<br />

the adult star that is<br />

baffling.<br />

(Agencies) Commenting on reports of her<br />

walking out of British film “Bombairiya” in the<br />

middle, actress Richa Chadda says constant<br />

procrastination of the project, which led to<br />

clash with her other commitments forced her<br />

to opt out of the movie.<br />

Directed by debutant Pia Sukanya, the<br />

film is an ode to Mumbai and is being produced<br />

by India-born British producer Michael<br />

Ward. It was slated to go on floors in December.<br />

“I was approached by Beautiful Bay productions<br />

in August 2013 to play the lead in<br />

their next film. I agreed because they had a<br />

phenomenal script. I stood by them as they<br />

found producers and line producers.<br />

“The shoot was initially to start in January<br />

2014 , then April, then July. Finally in<br />

August Michael Ward mentioned that he<br />

needed more prep time and I told him I had<br />

prior commitments till December. After some<br />

adjustments on both our parts we were ready<br />

to roll in December. They paid me a token<br />

to say we intend to make the film.<br />

“While I was away shooting for ‘Masaan’,<br />

Michael demanded a change in the schedule<br />

yet again. At this point it began to clash<br />

with a prior commitment in January, which<br />

he was aware of,” read an official statement<br />

from the actress. There were reports that<br />

Richa left the filmmakers in lurch because<br />

of some other film accusing her of<br />

unprofessionalism. The “Fukrey” actress was<br />

equally shocked by the claims.<br />

“We tried to work this out… I have waited<br />

for the film to take off for more than a year<br />

and a half so its a tad unfair to expect me to<br />

not honour other film commitments,” the<br />

actress said. The film also stars Akshay<br />

Oberoi and Siddhanth Kapoor.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

ADVERTISEMENT<br />

17


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

SPECIAL FEATURE<br />

18<br />

(Agencies) Posing proudly in front of<br />

a Taliban banner declaring ‘There is no<br />

God but Allah’, this is the hand-picked<br />

suicide cell responsible for the coldblooded<br />

slaughter of 132 schoolchildren.<br />

Clutching an array of rocket launchers<br />

and machine guns, the crazed gunmen<br />

are shown both in traditional clothing<br />

of Taliban fighters and the Pakistan<br />

military uniforms they wore to avoid suspicion<br />

immediately before storming the<br />

Army School in Peshawar.<br />

The pictures – apparently taken in the<br />

hours before Tuesday’s attack – were released<br />

yesterday by the Taliban, together<br />

with a threat to carry out similar attacks<br />

despite the outrage at the horrific, carefully<br />

planned massacre in which 132 children<br />

and more than a dozen teachers were<br />

killed.<br />

In an email released this morning,<br />

Khurasani attempted to justify the attack<br />

by claiming that the Pakistani army has<br />

long killed the innocent children and families<br />

of Taliban fighters.<br />

But he vowed more such militant attacks<br />

and told Pakistani civilians to detach<br />

themselves from all military institution,<br />

adding: 'We are still able to carry<br />

out major attacks. This was just the<br />

trailer.' In the email, the terror group<br />

warned Muslims to avoid places with military<br />

ties, saying it attacked the school to<br />

avenge the deaths of children allegedly<br />

killed by soldiers in tribal areas.<br />

It accused the students at the army<br />

school of 'following the path of their fathers<br />

and brothers to take part in the fight<br />

against the tribesmen' nationwide.<br />

The warning came as the Prince of<br />

Wales joined the international condemnation<br />

of the attack, describing it as ‘sickening’<br />

and a ‘horrific reminder that Muslims<br />

themselves are the victims of the violent<br />

intolerance of the extremists’.<br />

Speaking at the Syrian Orthodox<br />

Church in London, Prince Charles added:<br />

‘The many, many families in Pakistan who<br />

have lost children, other relatives, friends<br />

and colleagues in the massacre are in<br />

my prayers.’<br />

The Peshawar atrocity is said to have<br />

been ordered by Maulana Fazlullah, head<br />

of the Taliban in Pakistan and the man<br />

who ordered the shooting of teenage education<br />

campaigner Malala Yousafzai, this<br />

year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.<br />

Fazlullah is understood to have demanded<br />

that his lieutenant Umar Naray<br />

managed the operation, and communicated<br />

with the gunmen directly from his<br />

base over the border in Afghanistan.<br />

Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Raheel<br />

Sharif, flew to Kabul to seek help in tracking<br />

him down.<br />

'His communications have been intercepted<br />

as well which helped security<br />

agencies in tracing his location and<br />

whereabouts which was urgently shared<br />

not only with the Afghan army but also<br />

with Nato forces,' a security source was<br />

quoted as telling Peshawar's Dawn newspaper.<br />

The firebrand militant, whose thick<br />

black beard reaches halfway down his<br />

chest, took control of the Pakistani<br />

Taliban 13 months ago. It is thought the<br />

massacre may have been his barbaric<br />

revenge for Malala, 17, being award the<br />

Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.<br />

Whatever his twisted motive, Fazlullah<br />

has succeeded in uniting the world in revulsion<br />

once again. In a society usually<br />

reluctant to criticise the Taliban, there<br />

was an outpouring of anger across Pakistan<br />

yesterday.<br />

At a vigil in the capital Islamabad,<br />

Fatimah Khan, 38, said: ‘I don’t have<br />

words for my pain and anger. They slaughtered<br />

those children like animals.’<br />

Naba Mehdi, 16, had a message of<br />

defiance for the Taliban.<br />

‘We’re not scared of you,’ she said.<br />

‘We will still study and fight for our freedom.<br />

This is our war.’<br />

As the photographs of the murders<br />

were released by the Pakistani Taliban,<br />

all six men were named on Twitter. But<br />

their personal details have not yet been<br />

independently verified.<br />

The government in Islamabad immediately<br />

responded by instructing schools<br />

across the country to increase their security<br />

and to rehearse escape routines.<br />

It came as mass funerals took place<br />

across Peshawar on the first of three days<br />

of national mourning and as Pakistan’s<br />

prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ordered a


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

SPECIAL FEATURE<br />

19<br />

moratorium on the death penalty to be lifted<br />

for terror-related cases.<br />

Government spokesman Mohiuddin Wan<br />

said: 'It was decided that this moratorium<br />

should be lifted. The prime minister approved...<br />

Black warrants [execution orders] will<br />

be issued within a day or two.'<br />

The moratorium on civilian executions had<br />

been in place since 2008. Only one execution<br />

has taken place since then.<br />

Amid harrowing scenes, dozens of small<br />

wooden coffins were carried for burial together<br />

with those of their teachers. Rows of children<br />

and fellow pupils stood in silence, some weeping,<br />

their hands clasped in front of them beside<br />

the lines of caskets draped in blankets.<br />

People across the country lit candles and<br />

held vigils for the 148 who were killed – seven<br />

more of the critically injured died in hospital<br />

yesterday.<br />

‘They finished in minutes what I had lived<br />

my whole life for – my son,’ said labourer<br />

Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face<br />

as he buried 14-year-old Fahad.<br />

He said he had worked for years in Dubai<br />

to earn a livelihood for his children, adding:<br />

‘That innocent one is now gone in the grave,<br />

and I can’t wait to join him, I can’t live any<br />

more.’<br />

Among the best attended of the funerals<br />

was that of teacher Afsha Ahmed, 24, who<br />

confronted the gunmen when they burst into<br />

her classroom and told them: ‘You can only<br />

kill my students over my dead body.’<br />

She was burned alive as she stood in front<br />

of her pupils. The family of another teacher<br />

torched alive in front of her class gathered to<br />

say funeral prayers.<br />

Tahira Kazi, the principal of the Army Public<br />

School and College in Peshawar, was set<br />

on fire by jihadists who slaughtered so many.<br />

It is believed she was targeted because<br />

she is married to a retired army colonel, Kazi<br />

Zafrullah. The picture obtained by MailOnline<br />

shows her standing proudly next to a student<br />

believed to be her son.<br />

Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan stood<br />

united to ensure the deaths of the children<br />

were not wasted, after a meeting of all party<br />

leaders in Peshawar. He promised that in military<br />

action, there would be no distinction between<br />

‘good and bad’ Taliban.We have resolved<br />

to continue the war against terrorism<br />

till the last terrorist is eliminated,’ Mr Sharif<br />

said. ‘We must not forget these scenes. The<br />

way they left bullet holes in the bodies of innocent<br />

kids, the way they tore apart their<br />

faces with bullets.’<br />

He said he spoke to Afghan President<br />

Ashraf Ghani to discuss how both countries<br />

could do more to fight terrorism. Significantly,<br />

the two agreed to launch operations on their<br />

respective sides of the border, and pledged to<br />

‘clean this region from terrorism’.<br />

Yesterday, the first devastating images<br />

also emerged of the blood-soaked classrooms<br />

where 132 innocent children and nine teachers<br />

were massacred by the Taliban.<br />

Horrifying pictures revealed the carnage<br />

wrought by seven extremist gunmen who<br />

sprayed children with bullets as they sat receiving<br />

first aid tuition and exploded suicide<br />

bombs in a room of 60 pupils.<br />

Pictures of a blood splattered doorway leading<br />

to an auditorium and the scene of the final<br />

gun battle also emerged.<br />

In a grim tour of the building photographers<br />

were shown inside the auditorium.<br />

The floor is caked in blood in places and<br />

dozens of chairs lie in disarray, knocked over<br />

by children running for cover as the terrorists<br />

hosed them with bullets.<br />

The lucky ones, it transpired, survived by<br />

playing dead under these chairs as the gunmen<br />

stalked the room, searching for children<br />

they'd missed.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

SPECIAL FEATURE<br />

20<br />

(Agencies) A teenage survivor<br />

who was shot in both legs during<br />

today's Taliban attack on a Pakistani<br />

school has described how<br />

he shoved a tie in his mouth to<br />

stop him from screaming in fear<br />

as gunmen hunted for children to<br />

kill.<br />

Shahrukh Khan, 16, was sitting<br />

with his classmates during<br />

a careers guidance session at the<br />

Army Public School in Peshawar<br />

when gunmen wearing paramilitary<br />

uniforms burst in and opened<br />

fire.<br />

The schoolboy described how<br />

he cowered under a bench and<br />

played dead while gunmen<br />

'pumped bullets' in fellow students'<br />

bodies.<br />

Fearing he was about to be<br />

killed, the young boy then managed<br />

to crawl to shelter behind a<br />

door in a nearby classroom, despite<br />

sustaining gunshot wounds<br />

to both his legs. Today's attack<br />

in the north-western Pakistani<br />

city of Peshawar today left at<br />

least 132 children dead and is<br />

believed to be the bloodiest ever<br />

attacks in the nation's history.<br />

The horror at the Pakistan<br />

Army Public School in Peshawar<br />

came on the day when the military<br />

was scheduled to provide a<br />

display of first-aid and drills.<br />

At first, the children thought<br />

it was just a drill. Then the<br />

screaming began. As the pupils<br />

poring over their books realised<br />

the bangs they could hear were<br />

the sounds of guns fired in anger,<br />

panic spread.<br />

In minutes the school resembled<br />

a battleground with terrified<br />

pupils running for their lives,<br />

hiding or pretending to be dead.<br />

Speaking from his bed in the<br />

trauma ward of the Lady Reading<br />

Hospital, Shahrukh described<br />

how the gunmen shouted 'Allaho-Akbar'<br />

before opening fire.<br />

He said: 'Someone screamed<br />

at us to get down and hide below<br />

the desks. Then one of them<br />

shouted: "There are so many<br />

children beneath the benches, go<br />

and get them."<br />

'I saw a pair of big black boots<br />

coming towards me, this guy was<br />

probably hunting for students hiding<br />

beneath the benches.'<br />

Khan said he felt searing pain<br />

as he was shot in both his legs<br />

just below the knee. He decided<br />

to play dead, adding: 'I folded my<br />

tie and pushed it into my mouth<br />

so that I wouldn't scream. The<br />

man with big boots kept on looking<br />

for students and pumping<br />

bullets into their bodies.<br />

'I lay as still as I could and<br />

closed my eyes, waiting to get<br />

shot again. My body was shivering.<br />

'I saw death so close and I will<br />

never forget the black boots approaching<br />

me—I felt as though it<br />

was death that was approaching<br />

me.' The attack started with nine<br />

gunmen entering the 500-pupil<br />

school - which has students aged<br />

10 to 18 - in the early hours.<br />

The jihadists shot their way<br />

into the building and went from<br />

classroom to classroom, shooting<br />

at random and picking off students<br />

one by one.<br />

Eye-witnesses described how<br />

students cowered under desks as<br />

dead bodies were strewn along<br />

corridors.<br />

News images of the aftermath<br />

of the attack showed boys in<br />

blood-soaked school uniforms<br />

with green blazers being carried<br />

from the scene.<br />

By 10.15, at least 60 pupils<br />

were already dead as hundreds<br />

of Pakistani soldiers poured from<br />

lorries to seal off the area and<br />

take the battle to the Taliban fighters,<br />

all of whom were wearing<br />

suicide vests.Two helicopters,<br />

including a gunship, hovered over<br />

the school’s grounds ‘spotting’ for<br />

Special Forces as they hunted<br />

down the gunmen, who were<br />

seemingly more intent on killing<br />

as many children as possible<br />

than taking hostages.<br />

As the gunfight intensified, at<br />

least three of the militants blew<br />

themselves up, leaving behind<br />

several charred bodies of bombers<br />

and victims.<br />

Taliban later accepted responsibility<br />

for the attack, claiming it<br />

'was just a trailer'.<br />

As his father, a shopkeeper,<br />

comforted him in his bloodsoaked<br />

bed, Shahrukh recalled:<br />

'The men left after some time and<br />

I stayed there for a few minutes.<br />

'Then I tried to get up but fell<br />

to the ground because of my<br />

wounds. When I crawled to the<br />

next room, it was horrible. I saw<br />

the dead body of our office assistant<br />

on fire.<br />

'She was sitting on the chair<br />

with blood dripping from her body<br />

as she burned.'<br />

It was not immediately clear<br />

how the woman's body caught<br />

fire, though local media has reported<br />

that some of the Taliban<br />

militants set her alight because<br />

she was trying to protect her students.<br />

Khan, who said he also saw<br />

the body of a soldier who worked<br />

at the school, crawled behind a<br />

door to hide and then lost consciousness,<br />

later waking up in<br />

hospital.<br />

A 10-year-old boy caught up<br />

in the massacre also spoke of his<br />

dramatic escape from Taliban<br />

gunmen as bullets whizzed past


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

SPECIAL FEATURE<br />

21<br />

his head - having seen two of his<br />

classmates shot dead in front of him.<br />

Irfan Shah told how he was sitting in<br />

his class at 10:30 when he heard the<br />

sound of firing outside.<br />

Shah told MailOnline: 'It was our<br />

social studies period. Our teacher first<br />

told us that some kind of drill was<br />

going on and that we do not need to<br />

worry. It was very intense firing. Then<br />

the sound came closer. Then we<br />

heard cries. One of our friends open<br />

the window of the class.<br />

'He started weeping as there were<br />

several school fellows lying on the<br />

ground outside the class.<br />

'Everybody was in panic. Two of<br />

our class fellows ran outside class in<br />

panic. They were shot in front of us.'<br />

He said that the teacher asked<br />

the children, part of a class of 33, to<br />

run towards the back gate of the<br />

school.<br />

He continued: 'The back gate is<br />

around 200 meters from our class<br />

room. I tightly held the hand of my<br />

friend Daniyal and we both ran towards<br />

the back gate. We were weeping.<br />

I felt bullets passing by my head<br />

twice. It was so terrible. 'All the children<br />

had bullet wounds. All the children<br />

were bleeding,' he added.<br />

Akhtar Ali, who works out for the<br />

UN, was weeping outside the school.<br />

He told MailOnline: 'My 14-yearold<br />

niece Afaq is inside the school. I<br />

don't know if she is alive or dead. I<br />

am desperate. I am just waiting in<br />

hope. It is agony. '<br />

'My son was in uniform in the<br />

morning. He is in a casket now,'<br />

wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he<br />

came to the hospital to collect the body<br />

of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah.<br />

'My son was my dream. My dream<br />

has been killed.' media spoke to<br />

Naveed Ahmed, who works at the irrigation<br />

department. He said: 'My son<br />

Hasid Asmad is 16-years-old, is still<br />

inside the school., He took a mobile<br />

and called me while I was in the<br />

mosque, he was praying down the<br />

phone. I have been waiting so many<br />

hours for news. My son told that he<br />

was being kept safe by the Pakistan<br />

army inside. They are taking a picture<br />

of them to prove they are safe. 'They<br />

have told me that the children are safe<br />

in the custody of the army.' Mrs<br />

Humayun Khan, one of the mothers of<br />

a student, said with tears in her eyes:<br />

'No body is telling me about my son's<br />

whereabouts... I have checked the hospital<br />

and he is not there. I am really<br />

losing my heart. God forbid may he's<br />

not among the students still under<br />

custody of terrorists.' A student who<br />

survived the attack said soldiers came<br />

to rescue students during a lull in the<br />

firing. 'When we were coming out of<br />

the class we saw dead bodies of our<br />

friends lying in the corridors. They were<br />

bleeding. Some were shot three times,<br />

some four times,' the student said.<br />

'The men entered the rooms one<br />

by one and started indiscriminate firing<br />

at the staff and students.' Zakir<br />

Ahmad, who runs an electronics store<br />

in Peshawar, has lost his 16-year-old<br />

Abdullah and is frantically searching<br />

for 12-year-old Hassnain, who is still<br />

missing hours after the atrocity. Crying<br />

and barely able to speak, he told<br />

MailOnline: 'When I heard there was<br />

an attack I ran to the school. I heard<br />

firing. I sent my cousins and staff to<br />

search the hospitals while I stayed<br />

praying at school. Then after an hour I<br />

got the call, he just said Abdullah is<br />

dead. I have found him in the hospital.<br />

I still don't know anything about my<br />

boy Hasnain.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

CONTD.<br />

22<br />

Talking with Pakistanis<br />

much of a policy. Pakistan can tus quo power that would like to<br />

deny our shared history but India be left alone to concentrate on its<br />

cannot change its geography. Pakistan<br />

economic development; Indians<br />

(Contd from page 6) Something<br />

similar could be said about India<br />

and Pakistan. Straightforward disagreements<br />

between two states<br />

can be resolved through dialogue<br />

and compromise. But how can that<br />

work when Pakistan's abiding hostility<br />

towards India is rooted in fundamental<br />

insecurity about its national<br />

identity as the "not-India" for<br />

the sub-continent's Muslims, and<br />

even worse, driven by the self-interest<br />

of a rapacious military which<br />

commands a greater share of the<br />

national GDP than the military of<br />

any other country in the world, and<br />

needs this hostility to justify its<br />

power and privileges<br />

The visit of the Pakistani MNAs<br />

(as their Members of Parliament<br />

are called) did not meet with universal<br />

approbation among those<br />

who became aware of their presence<br />

in New Delhi. For there are<br />

not many takers in the Indian political<br />

space right now for pursuing<br />

dialogue with a country whose military<br />

intelligence (or elements<br />

thereof) almost certainly have had<br />

a hand in every terror attack on Indian<br />

begun to take on the challenge of<br />

fighting some terrorist groups - not<br />

the ones lovingly nurtured by the<br />

ISI to assault India, but the ones<br />

who have escaped GHQ<br />

Rawalpindi's control and turned on<br />

Pakistan's own military institutions.<br />

But the unpalatable fact remains<br />

that what Pakistan is suffering from<br />

today is the direct result of a deliberate<br />

policy of inciting, financing,<br />

training, equipping militants and<br />

jihadis over 20 years as an instrument<br />

of state policy. As Dr. Frankenstein<br />

discovered when he built<br />

his monster, it is impossible to<br />

control the monster once you've<br />

created it.<br />

Attempts by glibly sophisticated<br />

Pakistani spokesmen to<br />

portray themselves as fellow victims<br />

of terror - indeed, to go so far<br />

as to compare the number of<br />

deaths suffered by Pakistan in its<br />

war against terrorism on its own<br />

soil with those inflicted upon India<br />

- seek to obscure the fundamental<br />

difference between the two situations.<br />

Pakistanis are not suffering<br />

death and destruction from terror-<br />

The moment the Pakistani establishment<br />

genuinely disavows<br />

the nurturing and deployment of<br />

terror as an instrument of state<br />

policy, and concludes that it faces<br />

the same enemy as India and<br />

should make common cause with<br />

it to stamp out the scourge, is the<br />

moment that a genuine prospect<br />

of peace will dawn on the subcontinent.<br />

Such a sentiment is, alas,<br />

far from even glimmering on the<br />

horizon.<br />

So should New Delhi resume<br />

talks with the government in<br />

Islamabad Track-II is all very well,<br />

but the days of sari-shawl exchanges<br />

have been supplanted by<br />

a frigid silence. Talking again before<br />

there has been any significant<br />

progress in Pakistan bringing the<br />

perpetrators of 26/11 to book,<br />

many Indians feel, would mean<br />

surrendering to Pakistani intransigence.<br />

Is there any point talking<br />

to people whose territory and institutions<br />

are being used to attack<br />

and kill Indians<br />

And yet it is also clear that "not<br />

talking" to any Pakistanis is not<br />

is next door and can no<br />

more be ignored than a thorn<br />

pierced into India's side.<br />

India's refusal to talk after 26/<br />

11 worked for a while as a source<br />

of pressure on Pakistan. It contributed,<br />

together with Western (especially<br />

American) diplomatic<br />

efforts, to some of Islamabad's<br />

initial co-operation, including<br />

the arrest of Lashkar-e-Toiba operative<br />

Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi<br />

and six of his co-conspirators.<br />

But it has long passed its useby<br />

date. The refusal to resume<br />

dialogue has not just stopped producing<br />

any fresh results; the only<br />

argument that justifies it - that it is<br />

a source of leverage - gives some<br />

in India the illusion of influence over<br />

events that New Delhi does not in<br />

fact possess.<br />

Instead, it's ironically India - the<br />

victims of 26/11 and other examples<br />

of Pakistani malfeasance<br />

- who have come to seem intransigent<br />

and unaccommodating. The<br />

transcendent reality of life on the<br />

subcontinent is that it has always<br />

been India that wishes to live in<br />

peace. India is, at bottom, a sta-<br />

see Pakistan as the troublemaker,<br />

needling and bleeding its neighbour<br />

in an effort to change the power<br />

balance and wrest control of a part<br />

of Indian territory (Kashmir). Refusing<br />

to talk doesn't change any of<br />

that, but it brought India no rewards<br />

and in fact imposed a cost. When<br />

Pakistan was allowed to sound reasonable<br />

and conciliatory while India<br />

seemed truculent and unreasonable,<br />

New Delhi's international<br />

image as a constructive force for<br />

peace took a beating.<br />

To say that we will not talk<br />

as long as there is terror is essentially<br />

to give the terrorists a<br />

veto over our own diplomatic<br />

choices. For talking can achieve<br />

constructive results. It can identify<br />

and narrow the differences<br />

between our two countries on<br />

those issues that can be dealt<br />

with, while keeping the spirit of<br />

dialogue (and implicitly of compromise)<br />

alive.<br />

So yes, by all means, let us<br />

talk to Pakistan and Pakistanis on<br />

every "Track" available. It is what<br />

we say when we talk that will make<br />

all the difference.<br />

soil, even while its government ists trained in India. No one trav-<br />

professes peace. Few in the government<br />

eled from India to attack the Marriott Friendship With Russia Comforts, Even if it Doesn't Electrify<br />

are prepared to accept Hotel in Islamabad or the<br />

(Contd from page 6) thanks to ence in Ukraine is certainly a ness-to-business ties are a fragile<br />

link in the bilateral relationship,<br />

that we are obliged to pursue normal<br />

relations with a Pakistan that stanis sailed to Mumbai to wreak<br />

base at Mehran, whereas Paki-<br />

Western sanctions. India, on the cause for concern here, as is the<br />

other hand, is a country everyone<br />

seems anxious to embrace, ments in Kiev, strategic chal-<br />

weakest.<br />

intransigence of hardline ele-<br />

and people-to people relations the<br />

incubates terror while the country's mayhem on 26/11 and crossed the<br />

civilian government remains either border to attack Uri last month.<br />

especially given the excitement lenges in South Asia, West Asia, Unless Moscow and New<br />

unable or unwilling to curb the socalled<br />

non-state actors who roam cer in its own midst, but a cancer<br />

Pakistan has to cauterize a can-<br />

Modi has triggered among international<br />

investors.<br />

reinforced the importance of Rus-<br />

ways of marrying India's human<br />

the wider Asia-Pacific region have Delhi are able to find innovative<br />

freely preaching hatred. Hafiz that was implanted by itself and<br />

What was left unsaid in the sia for India.<br />

capital endowments with Russia's<br />

Saeed's recent rally where he its own institutions. And this will<br />

run-up to Thursday's meeting was India and Russia will continue comparative advantage in the<br />

preached jihad against India to 5 only happen if our neighbours eliminate<br />

the warped thinking, amongst<br />

the Western hope that India to provide political comfort to one fields of mathematics, science<br />

lakh deliriously bloodthirsty fanatics<br />

could not have taken place with-<br />

powerful elements in Islamabad,<br />

would try and put some strategic another on major global issues and engineering, the West will<br />

distance between itself and Russia.<br />

The Indian government may excitement in the economic pensive -- source of technology.<br />

but is there scope for genuine remain a more exciting -- if exout<br />

government support. And we that a terrorist who sets off a bomb<br />

are supposed to be nice to such a at the Marriott in Islamabad is a<br />

have had misgivings over Crimea's sphere Modi and Putin are trying<br />

to push cooperation in the field operation remain, but these will<br />

Defence, nuclear and space co-<br />

government, some Indians ask incredulously.<br />

off a bomb at the Taj in Mumbai is<br />

bad terrorist whereas one who sets<br />

secession from Ukraine but has<br />

baulked from airing these publicly.<br />

but Russia is too far for there to sian technologies in these fields<br />

of diamonds and hydrocarbons only be relevant so long as Rus-<br />

It is true that the Pakistani a good one.<br />

Army, however, selectively, has<br />

And while Moscow's interfer-<br />

be any viable pipeline link. Busi-<br />

are.<br />

Nuclear Deal with Russia is No Reason to Celebrate<br />

naval<br />

(Contd from page 4) Tapping all these<br />

sources might provide such huge surpluses<br />

over and above India's immediate<br />

needs as to make it possible to extend<br />

the pipeline right across India to southwest<br />

China through Myanmar. We would<br />

earn far higher transit fees from any such<br />

arrangements than we might have to pay<br />

out to get west Asian and central Asian<br />

gas into India.<br />

To promote this as a pan-Asian<br />

project, we should extend TAPI to send<br />

out tentacles to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan<br />

and Russia itself - for the Caspian petroleum-rich<br />

port town of Astrakhan lies in<br />

the Russian Federation. If Astrakhan were<br />

to be a key hub of the proposed Asian<br />

Gas Grid, the other Central Asian Republics<br />

might have the greater confidence to<br />

become part of this revolutionary new network.<br />

As far as north Asia is concerned,<br />

while a pipeline all the way from Siberia<br />

or Sakhalin to India might not at present<br />

be technically feasible, swap arrangements<br />

might be possible between India<br />

and Korea, as well as India and Japan, to<br />

supply them gas from our contracted lots<br />

in north Asia (particularly Sakhalin) in<br />

exchange for our getting the LNG they<br />

have contracted from Indonesia and possibly<br />

Australia. To do all this requires,<br />

however, a revival of the Nehruvian vision<br />

that led to India convening the Asian Relations<br />

Conference under Jawaharlal<br />

Nehru in March 1947 even before we were<br />

wholly independent. Asia is the continent<br />

that led the world in the progress of human<br />

civilization from the earliest recorded<br />

times till the onset of European colonialism<br />

some 300 years ago. But Asia remains<br />

the most divided continent despite<br />

the Nehruvian initiative of 1947. That is<br />

because, in spite of progressively shaking<br />

off the colonial yoke, Asia has been<br />

the playground of Great Power rivalry in<br />

the second half of the 20th century and<br />

into the 21st.<br />

This must change. We should take<br />

note from the European experience of<br />

having first set up the European Coal and<br />

Steel Community before moving to the<br />

European Common Market, the European<br />

Community and now the European Union.<br />

An Asian Union might be a century or more<br />

away but we can move towards that goal<br />

by establishing an Asian Gas Grid as the<br />

first step towards an Asian Oil and Gas<br />

Community that might over time then<br />

evolve into an Asian Union. But how can<br />

an India narrowly wedded to Hindutva and<br />

a Hindu Rashtra, and controlled by the<br />

likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi<br />

Jyoti, even begin to have the all-encompassing<br />

vision that guided the<br />

Father of our Foreign Policy No wonder<br />

Modi prefers to limit himself to buying<br />

nuclear reactors that no one else wants.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

US Senate confirms Vivek Murthy as surgeon general<br />

(Contd from page 2)<br />

Senator Richard<br />

Blumenthal said Murthy has addressed<br />

some of the nation's<br />

most pressing health problems<br />

over the times. "Dr Murthy's credentials<br />

are without question.<br />

They are impeccable, unquestionable<br />

and indisputable".<br />

Coming out in support of<br />

Murthy, senator Daniel Markey<br />

said he has developed a skill set<br />

which is much needed for the 21st<br />

century and in an era where disease<br />

cross international boundaries.<br />

"It is an opportunity to put<br />

a real leader in this position," he<br />

said. Senator Mazie Hirono said<br />

Murthy would make an effective<br />

surgeon general. On the one<br />

hand, when several senators have<br />

lauded Murthy's nomination there<br />

were others who continued to<br />

oppose his confirmation.<br />

"The American people<br />

deserve a surgeon general who<br />

has proven, throughout his or her<br />

career that their main focus is a<br />

commitment to patients, not a<br />

commitment to politics.<br />

When Obama was mistaken for waiter and valet<br />

(Contd from page 1) The First<br />

Lady contested that. “I think<br />

people forget that we’ve lived in<br />

the White House for six years,”<br />

she said. “Before that, Barack<br />

Obama was a black man that<br />

lived on the South Side of Chicago,<br />

who had his share of<br />

troubles catching cabs.”<br />

She also recalled another incident<br />

when Obama was wearing<br />

a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner,<br />

and somebody asked him to<br />

get coffee.<br />

There was have other eyewitness<br />

accounts of how Obama<br />

was subjected to prejudice even<br />

after he entered elite circles. A<br />

Wall Street Journal reporter once<br />

wrote about how she witnessed<br />

Obama get the rough end of the<br />

stereotype at a New York City<br />

book party hosted by Tina Brown<br />

in 2003.<br />

The reporter had been chatting<br />

with Obama at the party and<br />

when they finished their conversation,<br />

another guest walked up<br />

to her and inquired after the<br />

man’s identity, admitting that he<br />

had mistaken him for the wait<br />

staff.<br />

The man, an established author,<br />

“sheepishly he told me he<br />

didn’t know that Obama was a<br />

guest at the party, and had asked<br />

him to fetch him a drink. In less<br />

than six years, Obama has gone<br />

Rs 9,300cr black money changes<br />

hands in medical seat sale every year<br />

(Contd from page 1) The price of<br />

each seat varies from about Rs 55 lakh<br />

in Kerala and some not-so-wellestablished<br />

colleges in Tamil Nadu and<br />

UP to over Rs 75 lakh in colleges in<br />

Maharashtra, Andhra and Gujarat. At<br />

a conservative average of Rs 60 lakh<br />

per seat, the money generated is Rs<br />

4,860 crore.<br />

Here's why this could be an<br />

underestimation. Scams exposed<br />

almost every year show that<br />

although the management and NRI<br />

quota is said to be 30%, in reality<br />

the number of seats sold is much<br />

higher. In many states, the<br />

permitted management quota is<br />

higher — in Madhya Pradesh, for<br />

instance, private medical colleges<br />

are allowed to keep 15% of seats<br />

for NRI quota and 44% for<br />

management, bringing the total<br />

saleable seats to nearly 60%.<br />

In the Vyapam scandal in MP, 220<br />

of 378 seats in the state quota or about<br />

60% of the state seats were sold to<br />

ineligible students last year. "The state<br />

quota seats are filled by scorers hired<br />

by admission rackets. The scorers are<br />

later paid to vacate the seats, which<br />

are filled after the first counselling<br />

session for premium rates," explained<br />

Dr Anand Rai, the whistleblower in this<br />

scam, which exposed the involvement<br />

of senior politicians and bureaucrats in<br />

the medical admission racket. Similar<br />

rackets have been exposed in<br />

Karnataka and other states too, where<br />

the bulk of seats in private medical<br />

colleges were sold.<br />

The sale of PG seats is at an even<br />

higher rate. Seats in coveted fields like<br />

radiology are said to touch Rs 3 crore,<br />

while seats in gynaecology and<br />

dermatology could be available for Rs<br />

1.5-2 crore. In most places, seats are<br />

sold even before the results for the All<br />

India Common Entrance Test were<br />

declared. In some states with no<br />

regulation, almost all PG seats in the<br />

private sector are sold.<br />

Similar calculations for MD and<br />

MS seats as for MBBS seats show<br />

that these would fetch another<br />

nearly Rs 2,500 crore. Thus, the<br />

'market' for medical seats as a<br />

whole is in excess of Rs 7,300 crore<br />

even by the most conservative<br />

estimate.<br />

There are other factors to take<br />

into account — for instance, in<br />

minority institutions almost 80%<br />

seats are management quota; in<br />

some states this quota is 40%; in<br />

most states there is little or no<br />

regulation of PG seats, so almost<br />

the entire lot gets sold off; in many<br />

states, the so-called state quota is<br />

diverted through various kinds of<br />

fraud and sold off. Factor all of this<br />

in, and the size of the market is<br />

actually probably over Rs 10,000<br />

crore or $1.5 billion-plus, all of it in<br />

black money.<br />

from being mistaken for a waiter<br />

among the New York media elite,<br />

to the president-elect,” the journalist,<br />

Katie Rosman, had written.<br />

However, the president said in<br />

the People interview that the<br />

small irritations or indignities that<br />

he and his wife experienced are<br />

nothing compared to what a previous<br />

generation experienced.<br />

“It’s one thing for me to be mistaken<br />

for a waiter at a gala. It’s<br />

another thing for my son to be<br />

mistaken for a robber and to be<br />

handcuffed, or worse, if he happens<br />

to be walking down the<br />

street and is dressed the way<br />

teenagers dress,” Obama said.<br />

CONTD.<br />

23<br />

New York Magzine says ‘we were<br />

duped’ by $72 million teen trader<br />

(Contd from page1) The initial<br />

story of Islam made immediate<br />

waves. The New York Post<br />

featured it on its front page on<br />

Sunday and it was shared widely<br />

on Facebook.<br />

Commentators quickly<br />

questioned whether Islam could<br />

have truly made $72 million.<br />

The writer of the story,<br />

Jessica Pressler, told<br />

CNNMoney that Islam’s net worth<br />

had been fact-checked, and the<br />

story said that Islam had<br />

confirmed his net worth to be in<br />

the “high eight figures.” Pressler<br />

told CNNMoney that the teen<br />

appeared to have “an obscene<br />

amount of money in his account.”<br />

The Washington Post<br />

reported the flaws in that factchecking<br />

process. It cited an<br />

anonymous “source close to<br />

the Islam family” who said that<br />

the 17-year-old “created some<br />

bullsh*t thing on the computer<br />

with blacked out numbers. He<br />

said she could look at it for 10<br />

seconds, and pulled it away.”<br />

Pressler, who is heading to<br />

Bloomberg News in the new<br />

year to cover the “culture of<br />

wealth and money,” told<br />

CNNMoney that her piece was<br />

“skeptical enough.”<br />

Bloomberg declined to<br />

comment on the matter.<br />

Pressler faulted the original<br />

headline: “A Stuyvesant senior<br />

made $72 million trading stocks<br />

on his lunch break.” She told<br />

CNNMoney she didn’t write it and<br />

said it was “glib.”<br />

Islam took issue with New<br />

York Magazine in an interview<br />

with CNBC. “The way we were<br />

portrayed is not who we are,” he<br />

said.<br />

New York Magazine originally<br />

defended the piece. It noted that<br />

the “story itself does not specify<br />

an amount.”<br />

The revised headline, which<br />

says that Islam “made millions<br />

picking stocks,” is still<br />

inaccurate.<br />

The story was still featured<br />

prominently on New York<br />

Magazine’s website late Monday,<br />

hours after the Observer interview<br />

was published. A spokeswoman<br />

for New York Magazine did not<br />

say whether the story will be<br />

retracted completely.<br />

'Sons of Guns' star William Hayden<br />

indicted on more child rape charges<br />

(Agencies) An East Baton Rouge Parish<br />

grand jury has indicted former reality TV<br />

star Will Hayden on three counts of rape<br />

involving two victims.<br />

The Advocate reports the 49-year-old<br />

Hayden, who once starred in the 'Sons of<br />

Guns' TV show based out of<br />

his Baton Rouge gun shop,<br />

was charged Wednesday<br />

with two counts of aggravated<br />

rape and one count of forcible<br />

rape.<br />

Hayden is accused of<br />

raping a young girl multiple<br />

times between March 2013<br />

and August According to the<br />

indictment, the assaults<br />

allegedly began a few days<br />

after the girl's 11th birthday.<br />

He's also accused of<br />

raping a woman in the early<br />

1990s and was charged with<br />

forcible rape in that incident.<br />

Hayden's attorney, Frank<br />

Holthaus, could not confirm the indictment,<br />

saying he had yet to see it.<br />

Hayden was arrested August 27. After<br />

the arrest, The Discovery Channel canceled<br />

the show, citing 'the serious and horrific<br />

nature of the charges' against the star.<br />

He was arrested on aggravated rape<br />

charges involving a child and had already<br />

faced child molestation and aggravated<br />

crime against nature charges stemming<br />

from an arrest August 9.Hayden began<br />

having sex with the child, then 11 years<br />

old, in 2013, according to allegations in an<br />

affidavit filed by sheriff's deputies. The latest<br />

rape, the report said, happened in July.<br />

A guardian of the victim contacted<br />

deputies Aug. 16. The victim confided to<br />

the guardian after Hayden's Aug. 9 arrest,<br />

according to the report.Deputies said they<br />

met with the child and guardian and took a<br />

statement.<br />

According to the affidavit, the child told<br />

deputies Hayden took her virginity when she<br />

was 11 years old and that sex acts<br />

happened almost daily thereafter.<br />

The report says Hayden coerced the<br />

victim into silence with threats of physical<br />

abuse.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

BUSINESS<br />

24<br />

Sony urges media groups to delete hacked data<br />

(Agencies) washington : Sony<br />

Entertainment pressed media<br />

outlets on Sunday against using<br />

data that hackers may have<br />

leaked about the studio.<br />

In the letter sent to<br />

groups including The New York<br />

Times and The Hollywood Reporter,<br />

lawyer David Boies said<br />

the "stolen information" must be<br />

destroyed and should not make<br />

it to publication.<br />

The studio "does not<br />

consent to your possession, review,<br />

copying, dissemination,<br />

publication, uploading, downloading<br />

or making any use of the<br />

stolen information, and to request<br />

your cooperation in destroying<br />

the stolen information,"<br />

Boies wrote in the three-page<br />

letter.<br />

The demand comes<br />

amid a series of damaging leaks<br />

about salaries, employee health<br />

records, unpublished scripts and<br />

email exchanges about movie<br />

stars and filmmakers. The information<br />

has been published by<br />

websites including gawker.com.<br />

The FBI has launched<br />

an investigation. The unflattering<br />

leaks -- including a producer labeling<br />

Angelina Jolie a "minimally<br />

talented spoiled brat" -- have<br />

thrown Sony into damage control<br />

mode, amid few signs they are<br />

going to stop any time soon.<br />

Sony co-chair Amy Pascal<br />

was also shown to have made<br />

racially insensitive remarks about<br />

president Barack Obama -- the<br />

first black president of the United<br />

States -- in company emails.<br />

A group that claims to<br />

have hacked Sony's servers has<br />

demanded its movie studio pull a<br />

soon-to-be-released comedy depicting<br />

a fictional CIA plot to kill<br />

North Korea's leader. Sony is trying<br />

to determine whether North<br />

Korean hackers are the source<br />

of the leaks, according to tech<br />

website Re/code. North Korea,<br />

however, has denied involvement<br />

in the brazen cyber attack on<br />

Sony Pictures, but praised it as<br />

a "righteous deed" potentially orchestrated<br />

by supporters furious<br />

over the movie "The Interview,"<br />

due out on Christmas Day.<br />

RBI allows banks to<br />

recast large project loans<br />

MUMBAI: Hundreds of road,<br />

power, steel and other large<br />

projects that are stuck because<br />

of their inability to generate cash<br />

flows required to repay loans are<br />

likely to go on-stream with the<br />

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowing<br />

lenders to extend the repayment<br />

period for these<br />

projects. With the RBI allowing<br />

restructuring of even those loans<br />

that have been declared in default,<br />

there is hope that a large chunk<br />

of bad loans will be eventually<br />

upgraded.<br />

"Until now, banks were<br />

focused on a 'fault finding' mission<br />

after a default. Now they will<br />

go in search of profits," said<br />

Nirmal Gangwal, founder and MD,<br />

Brescon Corporate Advisors, a<br />

firm that advises banks on bad<br />

loans. Gangwal said that banks<br />

have enough powers to use as a<br />

stick against borrowers, including<br />

laws to attach assets and the<br />

power to convert debt to equity.<br />

The new guidelines give them the<br />

incentive to work in a constructive<br />

way with the borrower.<br />

The RBI typically does<br />

not encourage giving borrowers<br />

more time or more liquidity<br />

merely to avoid a default. However,<br />

in the case of large<br />

projects it has made an exception<br />

since it is only in India<br />

there was a restriction on the<br />

tenure of the project loan."The<br />

biggest beneficiary would be<br />

road assets and projects in<br />

the power and steel sector.<br />

Those sectors associated with<br />

these industries —telecom,<br />

cement, fertilizer, textiles —<br />

will also benefit. The only unfortunate<br />

part is that this relaxation<br />

has been restricted to<br />

only Rs 500-crore projects,"<br />

said Gangwal.<br />

"Banks have represented<br />

that flexible structuring<br />

of project loans with the option<br />

of periodic refinancing may<br />

also be allowed to existing<br />

loans to infrastructure projects<br />

and core industries projects, as<br />

it would ensure long-term viability<br />

of existing infrastructure/core<br />

industries sector projects by<br />

aligning the debt repayment obligations<br />

with cash flows generated<br />

during their economic life,"<br />

RBI circular said .


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

BUSINESS<br />

25<br />

SpiceJet gets 10 days to raise funds or face end<br />

(Agencies) New Delhi :<br />

The Centre has given a final<br />

chance to cash-strapped<br />

SpiceJet to survive, asking the<br />

low cost carrier to raise funds<br />

within the next 10 days, possibly<br />

from promoter Sun Group<br />

chief Kalanithi Maran, or face<br />

closure. The respite came on<br />

Monday after the SpiceJet management,<br />

led by COO Sanjiv<br />

Kapoor and Sun Group CFO S<br />

L Narayanan, reportedly told<br />

aviation authorities it would shut<br />

"tonight or in 30 days" unless<br />

the Centre saved it fr-om payment<br />

demands of oil firms and<br />

airport operators.<br />

SpiceJet told minister of<br />

state Mahesh Sharma that its<br />

immediate cash requirement<br />

was Rs 1,400 crore and the overall<br />

requirement (including long<br />

term) Rs 2,000 crore. They have<br />

requested for some relief. We'll<br />

discuss that with seniors in the<br />

government, other ministries like<br />

finance and oil and take the issue<br />

up to the PMO. However,<br />

we have given no assurance to<br />

SpiceJet. We will take a final decision<br />

keeping wider interest of<br />

passengers in mind," Mahesh<br />

Sharma said.<br />

Sources say the NDA<br />

government is reportedly working<br />

out a "revival package" for<br />

SpiceJet as it fears shut down of<br />

yet another big airline after Kingfisher<br />

— both poor companies of<br />

rich promoters — "will send a bad<br />

signal globally". The package,<br />

however, may be pegged to the<br />

airline raising funds in the next 10<br />

days.<br />

SpiceJet has also seen<br />

leasors taking back planes, leaving<br />

it with a smaller fleet due to<br />

which daily flights are down from<br />

332 to 239. The airline owes<br />

money to airports, oil companies,<br />

employees and even statutory<br />

dues — exactly like Vijay<br />

Mallya's Kingfisher which shut<br />

down in October 2012.<br />

The low cost carrier<br />

(LCC) disclosed its dire financial<br />

state in a series of meetings on<br />

Monday with director general of<br />

civil aviation (DGCA) chief<br />

Prabhat Kumar and ministry top<br />

brass, including the minister.<br />

Kumar had asked SpiceJet to<br />

clear November salary dues and<br />

give a 'convincing' roadmap for<br />

clearing Rs 1,600-crore dues by<br />

Monday. The airline, however,<br />

failed to meet these regulatory<br />

conditions and told the government<br />

that it could shut down anytime<br />

without its intervention.<br />

The Airports Authority of<br />

India (AAI) was to put the LCC<br />

on cash-and-carry from Tuesday<br />

as it has dues of Rs 194 crore.<br />

Oil companies have of late been<br />

playing tough with the airline in<br />

giving jet fuel because of its dues.<br />

The LCC started building pressure<br />

on the government to come<br />

to its rescue right from Monday<br />

morning.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

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Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

TRAVEL<br />

27<br />

Acrobatic dinners, wavy rooms and a frozen bar on a four-day cruise<br />

We always tell children<br />

it's rude to play with your food.<br />

But when circus performers<br />

hang upsidedown while you're<br />

eating, chefs juggle knives by<br />

your table and waiters only<br />

stop bringing you food when<br />

you show them a red card, it's<br />

hard not to join in the fun.<br />

Dining has always been<br />

an important part of any cruise<br />

holiday but on Norwegian<br />

Epic, food as theatre has been<br />

taken to whole new heights.<br />

During Cirque Dream And<br />

Dinner, the incredible acrobats<br />

performed mind-boggling feats<br />

above us and we had to remind<br />

ourselves to eat the three<br />

courses that had been served<br />

in the Spiegeltent big-top restaurant.<br />

With 20 eating establishments<br />

on board Norwegian<br />

Epic, our four-night mini cruise<br />

around the Mediterranean gave<br />

me only enough time to get a<br />

taste of the options available.<br />

Launched in 2010, the<br />

4,100 passenger Epic dwarfs<br />

most other big cruise ships,<br />

but despite its hulking size, the<br />

ship has a pleasant flow and<br />

well-thought-out design inside.<br />

Eschewing the glitzier, brash<br />

décor that many large ships<br />

favour, Epic attracts a young<br />

mixed European crowd of<br />

couples and families who<br />

come for the less stuffy<br />

'freestyle cruising'.<br />

Studio single cabins are<br />

a genius idea; these cool inside-facing<br />

pods, with mood<br />

lights and a communal lounge<br />

area, are perfect for solo passengers<br />

who don't want to pay<br />

a single supplement.<br />

Elsewhere, balcony cabins<br />

have a 'wavy' design, with<br />

an unusual bathroom arrangement,<br />

but use their available<br />

space excellently. There are<br />

also interconnecting staterooms.<br />

Taking the tots along<br />

doesn't mean having to sacrifice<br />

on style when it comes to<br />

staterooms. Some of the most<br />

luxurious suites, such as the<br />

Haven two-bedroom balcony<br />

villas, are perfect for a family<br />

of four. This luxurious shipwithin-a-ship<br />

area called the<br />

Haven is an exclusive place for<br />

Haven villa and suite guests.<br />

With its own plush lounge, dining<br />

room, pool, spa and gym<br />

area, there's no need to venture<br />

out into the ship.<br />

It would be a shame not<br />

to, though, as there is so much<br />

going on. Kids big and small<br />

can enjoy a ride on one of the<br />

three water slides in the Aqua<br />

Park. Teens and adults can indulge<br />

in treatments in<br />

Mandara, the largest spa at<br />

sea. There's also the Posh<br />

Beach Club – an adults-only<br />

area of day beds. NCL Epic<br />

is a fun place for a holiday with<br />

friends and couples, but she<br />

is also an ideal place for families<br />

to enjoy a quick getaway.<br />

Norwegian Cruise Line has a<br />

partnership with TV channel<br />

Nickelodeon and so children<br />

can enjoy a Dora's dance<br />

party, breakfast with<br />

SpongeBob SquarePants or<br />

take part in messy 'splash<br />

mobs' with Team Nick. Epic's<br />

free children's clubs have had<br />

a makeover with the addition<br />

of the Splash Academy for children<br />

aged six months to 12<br />

years old and the Entourage<br />

programme for 13- to 17-yearolds.<br />

On 2012 Epic sailings<br />

there is a 'Little Norwegians<br />

Explore for Free' programme<br />

of free shore excursions for<br />

children. Ports of call often<br />

take a back seat to the wow<br />

factor of the ship itself, but with<br />

stops at Marseilles, Palma,<br />

and a day at sea, the fournight<br />

cruise to and from<br />

Barcelona packs in some<br />

Mediterranean highlights.<br />

In Majorca's attractive<br />

capital Palma, Epic's berth<br />

overshadows even the poshest<br />

mega yacht in the marina, and<br />

it's a pleasant walk to the old<br />

town's cathedral and winding<br />

back streets. On board, there's<br />

entertainment throughout the day,<br />

but the evening is when the fun<br />

and freestyling really begins with<br />

the huge range of restaurants to<br />

choose from. Epic is big on Asian<br />

food; from the swish Wasabi<br />

sushi bar to the Japanesestyle<br />

Teppanyaki, where our jubilant<br />

chef expertly sliced open a raw<br />

egg and showed off his knife<br />

skills as he cooked dinner in<br />

front of our table.<br />

Moderno Churrascaria is<br />

based on Brazil's famous meat<br />

meccas. Waiters come<br />

around brandishing meat<br />

skewers, carving some off for<br />

you until you turn over a card<br />

on your table to say you've<br />

had enough.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

Now for some more fruity photos of Kim!<br />

Jokers share pictures of food that looks<br />

like famous shot of Kardashian's bottom<br />

ENTERTAINMENT<br />

28<br />

Nothing can add to your style quotient more<br />

than a sexy pair of high heels. And if you want them<br />

to be sexier, just opt for the tie-up or lace-up ones!<br />

These trendy shoes have a typical girly feel to them,<br />

thanks to the delicate ribbons and strings that makes<br />

lace-ups and tie-ups a hot and sexy choice. Shoe<br />

and accessory designer Pushpita Gaur says, “Tieup<br />

heels are definitely in trend internationally. It began<br />

last season but has transformed from just delicate<br />

and feminine to more bold and aggressive in terms of<br />

styling and colours.” You can go ahead and<br />

complement your wardrobe with the various designs<br />

and styles available. Whether it is the rope, the<br />

knotted, the stripe or the scarf. Kapil Mahtani, CEO<br />

of a popular shoe store says, “Though this style has<br />

been around since the last season, it is picking up<br />

only now, and we have seen a demand in the market<br />

for these.” The fact that these shoes work not only for<br />

high-fashion dressed-up occasions but can also be<br />

worn as casuals, he asserts. Almas Nanda, shoe<br />

designer, states that block colours like shocking pink,<br />

electric blue, orange and nude are really hot this<br />

season for tie-ups. “Of course black is an all-time<br />

favourite. And these shoes usually look good with most<br />

outfits,” she says.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

Bollywood<br />

29


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

SHOWBIZ<br />

30<br />

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan felicitated at Miss World 2014<br />

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was<br />

Sunday felicitated by the Miss<br />

World Organisation at the 64th<br />

edition of the international<br />

beauty pageant for her commitment<br />

to "beauty with a purpose"<br />

since winning the crown two<br />

decades ago. Described as embodiment<br />

of beauty with purpose,<br />

Aishwarya is also seen as the<br />

most successful Miss World so<br />

far, a title that she won in 1994.I<br />

stand here overwhelmed by this<br />

honour. I thank Miss World Organization<br />

for such an incredible<br />

one time to go out there and<br />

experience beauty with a purpose...,"<br />

said the actress looking<br />

gorgeous in shimmery gown.<br />

The 41-year-old was accompanied<br />

by her mother<br />

Vrinda, husband and actor<br />

Abhishek Bachchan and threeyear-old<br />

daughter Aaradhya on<br />

the stage.<br />

Having starred in movies<br />

like Devdas and Hum Dil De<br />

Chuke Sanam, she is now a<br />

regular at the prestigious<br />

Cannes film festival.<br />

honour that I have received..."<br />

Meanwhile, Koyal<br />

she said in her acceptance<br />

speech. "To have the opportunity<br />

to hold the title, to wear the<br />

crown with pride... that was my<br />

Rana, India's representative at<br />

the Miss World this year, could<br />

only make it to the top 10. The<br />

crown went to Miss South Africa.<br />

The Hobbit...' tops foreign charts, mints $117.6 million<br />

The final instalment in Peter Jackson's<br />

six-film Middle Earth series debuted in<br />

38 foreign territories, including major markets<br />

like Japan, Russia and Mexico. It<br />

opens in the US Wednesday, reports<br />

variety.com.<br />

Imax screenings accounted for $6.4<br />

million of the film's opening. Among the<br />

notable territories, Germany accounted<br />

for $19.5 million, Britain contributed $15.2<br />

million, France added $14.5 million, and<br />

Russia amassed $13.4 million, making<br />

it to be the biggest Warner Bros opening<br />

ever. liding in at number two on the foreign<br />

charts, "Exodus: Gods and Kings"<br />

earned $18.8 million from 6,096 screens<br />

in 27 markets. the Hunger Games:<br />

Mockingjay - Part 1" and "Penguins of<br />

Madagascar" were the third and fourth<br />

highest-grossing films overseas, picking<br />

up $16 million and $14.7 million, respectively.<br />

The "Hunger Games" sequel<br />

has earned $611.4 million worldwide,<br />

while the "Madagascar" spin-off<br />

has picked up $175.5 million. Fifth<br />

place finisher "Interstellar" blasted<br />

past $600 million globally last week.<br />

The space adventure earned $11.4 million<br />

overseas, pushing its worldwide total<br />

to $621.8 million. Chinese audiences<br />

were a boon to "Interstellar," delivering<br />

$122.9 million in ticket sales.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

ENTERTAINMENT<br />

31<br />

Bipasha Basu’s hot and spooky ‘Alone’<br />

trailer crosses 3 mn views on YouTube<br />

Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover starrer ‘Alone’ seems to be raving towards its<br />

success. The trailer of the film, that recently got released on Tuesday, December 9<br />

has gone over 3 million views on popular video sharing site, YouTube.<br />

Alone, which happens to be a horror-thriller film with Bipasha Basu in double role<br />

garnered many eye balls with the release of its first trailer. Bipasha and the others<br />

associated with the film also cherished upon several acknowledgements and appreciations<br />

from the member of the film industry including stars like SRK, Hrithik and<br />

Priyanka. The trailer has crossed whooping 3 million views within its 6 days of<br />

release.<br />

Digging<br />

into fears<br />

a n d<br />

threats,<br />

Alone definitely<br />

chills<br />

out your<br />

spine and<br />

challenges<br />

you to watch<br />

it alone.<br />

While the<br />

actress<br />

is all<br />

confident<br />

and cheery for the release of the film, what has also come out as<br />

something tremendously intriguing is Bipasha’s too-intimate-to-handle<br />

chemistry with actor Karan Singh Grover. Where the entire industry is<br />

going gaga over praising how smashing Bipasha is looking in the trailer,<br />

the film also promises several distinctively sensuous scenes. Bipasha is<br />

playing both Anjana and Sanjana in the film, conjoined twins who are drift<br />

apart by the destiny. Looking as sassy as always, the actress is sure to<br />

leave her footprints in your heart with her sultry appearance in the film.<br />

Karan Singh Grover, who is already considered as the man of great looks<br />

on the small screen is accompanying the lady perfectly in ‘Alone.’Thus,<br />

apart from the entire spookiness and horror that the film has deemed to<br />

be providing, you can surely expect an intensely carved romance on<br />

screen between Bipasha and Karan<br />

The film which is directed by Bhushan Patel is releasing on January 16,<br />

next year. The music which is composed by Mithoon, Ankit Tiwri and<br />

Jeet Ganguly is soon to hit the charts.<br />

Jacqueline Fernandez<br />

to replace Sayessha<br />

Trade reports suggest that since Sayessha had<br />

to choose between Ajay Devgn's 'Shivaay' and<br />

Tiger Shroff's next being produced by Ekta Kapoor<br />

to avoid a date clash, Jacqueline Fernandez, who<br />

is currently on a roll, is tipped to be the girl paired<br />

opposite Tiger.<br />

Hrithik Roshan Denies<br />

Dating Kangana Ranaut<br />

An Indian daily today ran a story about how<br />

Hrithik Roshan is the mystery man that<br />

Kangana Ranaut is in love with. The news item<br />

said that Hrithik and Kangana were in a serious<br />

relationship, but weren't prepared to talk about<br />

it yet. Ever since Hrithik has become single<br />

again there have been stories about his closeness<br />

to various actresses, though Hrithik has<br />

denied them. Hrithik took to a social networking<br />

site to dismiss the newspaper report linking<br />

him up with Kangana. "Cover story. Lovely. This<br />

is so absurd it doesn't even get me angry. Are<br />

these papers and writers just plain delusional<br />

". Price of being single I guess.But I'm not<br />

paying.Unless it's for the shrink who I think these<br />

journos need. :) u guys have a wonderful day,"<br />

tweeted Hrithik.


Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014<br />

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