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Take QuoteDear Readers,The spirit of survival and sustenance drives all species and creatures acrossbiological hierarchies. Those at the top would not like to be toppled. They would bedevising ways and maneouvring moves in order to ensure their safety and security.The incumbent UPA II is also smitten by the urge to stay in power, and keepscoming out with schemes and measures to win the confidence of the electorate andensure its continuance in the forthcoming General Elections of 2014. The Aadharbaseddirect cash transfer scheme is the latest one to roll out of its largesse.Launched on the first of January 2013, the scheme is underway, with 51 districts tobe covered initially, only to reach out to the entire masses covered under thetargeted group, within a year, thereby implementing 'financial inclusion', in letterand spirit. This is the Cover Story of this edition. Alongside is a piece on JusticeVerma's report as regards issues of rape and safety of women in India. With thegovernment showing its willingness to incorporate some of its suggestions inframing an Ordinance that would see the light of the day soon, women activistshave, however, resented the recommendations, as they are silent on the deathpenalty to be given to rapists, so as to serve as a strong deterrent, which has beentheir demand.On the cheerful front, several path-breaking researches and significantbreakthroughs have given the desired fillip to the endeavours and pursuits relatingto medicine, hygiene, health and healthcare.However, what is of paramount importance to each one of you is this spirit ofsurvival and the drive to stay fit and fine, amidst all odds. Many of you would be inthe crucial and the decisive phase of the selection to the IIMs and other B-Schools,where a notch or two, here and there, could become the decider. Be stable when intop gear, yet have that extra vigour to run the extra mile in order to give the bestshot, and get past the winning post.Run, then, with your stamina intact, eyes set, mind alertand the heart pumping in and out the beats of Kar KeDikhayenge, rhythmically.Godspeed,Sandeep Manudhane“Before anything else, preparationis the key to success.”- Alexander Graham Bell“Thought is the original source ofall wealth, all success, all materialgain, all great discoveries andinventions, and of all achievements”- Claude M. Bristol“When we look for differencesinstead of similarities, we createbarriers for trust.”- Garrison Wynn“Give yourself an even greaterchallenge than the one you aretrying to master and you will developthe powers necessary to overcomethe original difficulty.”- William J. Bennett“Keep not standing fixed androoted. Briskly venture, brisklyroam.- Goethe“Somewhere there is somethingincredible waiting to be known.”- Carl Sagan“Keep steadily before you the factthat all true success depends at lastupon yourself.”- Theodore T. Munger“It is not because things are difficultthat we do not dare to attempt them,but they are difficult because we donot dare to say so.”- SenecaPT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 03

ContentsSimplifying knowledge disseminationManaging EditorSandeep ManudhaneMarketing and Sales :Amit Garg - 97555-99510Volume 11. Edition 06. Dec 2012 - Jan 2013Cover Story: ‘Aam Aadmi’ served, government preserved.............................Current Events05Editorial OfficePT education Headquarters,Yeshwant Plaza,Opp. Railway Station Indore - 452001Ph : 0731-307 00 00Fax : 0731-3070099E-mail : pthq@PTeducation.com India ....................................................................................... 13 World ...................................................................................... 23 Business and Economy ......................................................... 33Regulars© 2008 All rights reserved.Reproduction or translation in any language in whole or inparts without permission is prohibited.Articles and contributions – courier or emails – should beaddressed toPREP-TALK DEPT., c/o Mr. B. S. Supekar.Unaccepted articles may not be returned.Published by Manish Saraf on behalf of PTETSL,Yeshwant Plaza, Opp. Railway Station,Indore 452001.Disclaimer :The information given in this magazine is true to the best ofour knowledge. However, PT or any of its associates will notbe responsible in any manner for inadvertent errors that mayhave crept into this publication. PT does not takeresponsibility for returning unsolicited publication material.“ To be a world class training and education organisationshaping careers through innovative products andservices & the use of human technologies. ”Indian scientists devise 16 disaster management drugs ... 10Donors pledge aid to war-struck Syrians............................. 12Snippets from the happenings in science,environment and technology................................................. 22Timbuktu revels in new freedom but fears linger .............. 30Vishwaroopam: A riveting spy thriller .................................. 32The trial and verdict ofDavid Coleman Headley in the US ...................................... 40South Korea joins global space club with satellite launch....... 42Retired Pak general spills the beans..................................... 44Daily brisk stroll can help stave off Alzheimer.................... 45Issues with which India's middle class is concerned ......... 50The iconic London Tube celebrates 150 years ................... 53Women Safety: Justice Verma's Report ................................ 55DNA as an information storage device ................................ 57Film Review ‘Madhavidai’ ..................................................... 59Jaipur Literature Festival ...................................................... 61Long live your liver ................................................................ 63

‘Aam Aadmi’ served,government preservedCover StoryIn what is being seen as UPA-II's NREGA moment, in ablend of good economics andgood politics, the Prime Ministerformally announced the launchingof direct cash transfers tobeneficiaries of subsidies in food,fuel and fertilisers. NREGA, therural employment guaranteescheme, is widely acknowledged tohave been one of the main reasonsfor its return to power for the UPA,for the second time in 2009.The government has planned to roll out the cash transferscheme in 51 districts from January 1. It would be extended to 18states from April and the rest of the country later in 2013. Thegovernment aims to cover the entire country by the end of nextyear, ahead of the 2014 elections.The direct cash transfer scheme will send money straight to thebank accounts of beneficiaries, almost of all of them from thepoorest sections, instead of them getting subsidised food grains,kerosene and fertiliser. This is meant to not only plug leakagesand wastage in the system but also cut down on corruption.IS THE CASH TRANSFER SCHEME BEING PUSHEDTHROUGH IN A HURRY?Announcing the scheme, the PM said, "The funds that areprovisioned for direct benefits like pensions, scholarships andhealth-care benefits must reach the intended beneficiarieswithout delays and leakages. Apart from these direct benefits,the government also provides an amount of over Rs.3 lakh crorein subsidies, which too must reach the right people."The government will disburse Rs.3 lakh crore every year,with each BPL (below poverty line) family getting betweenRs.3,000 and Rs.4,000 a month in a designated bank account.Each family will get its cashtransfer on the basis of its Aadharor National Unique Identification(UIDAI) card.The scheme has already beenpiloted for kerosene in parts ofRajathan, as well as cooking gas inKarnataka. The scheme forcooking gas subsidies will alsocover eligible APL or above povertyline families.Given that the success of the scheme will depend on thedistribution of Aadhar cards, the PM also said that he "wouldexpect the Finance Ministry and the Unique IdentificationAuthority to work in close coordination to achieve a collectivegoal".He also stressed on the need for integrating banking systemwith the post office network, especially in the rural parts of thecountry to move closer towards the goal of financial inclusion.Besides, he asked the UIDAI to ensure that the coverage ofAadhaar is adequate as per the roll out plan and no one is left out,and Aadhaar number should be available on demand ifbeneficiaries are getting left out.EPFO TO USE AADHAAR-BASED CASH TRANSFERS IN 43DISTRICTS BY DECEMBER 31If you thought getting an Aadhaar or unique identification(UID) number is critical only for poor households that needgovernment sops, think again. Middle class as well as highincomeIndians with salaried jobs and pensioners may need aUID number to tap their retirement savings from 2013.In a directive issued on December 20, 2912, the labourministry has told the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) to "embed" the Aadhaar number in bank accounts ofbeneficiaries in 43 districts by December 31.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 05

"There is an urgent need to seed (or embed) Aadhaarnumbers in the (bank) accounts of beneficiaries who receivebenefits under the various schemes of EPFO," says thecommunication from the union labour ministry."The ministry has decided that seeding of Aadhaar numbersof beneficiaries be completed by December 31, 2012, for 43districts, and for beneficiaries in other districts as early aspossible," it added. The schemes administered by EPFOinclude provident fund and pension.The directive has sent EPFO officials across the country intoa tizzy, as it already pays benefits directly into bank accounts ofemployees. Almost 85% of EPFO payments are made via theNational Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) programme.PF offices have been asked to give "utmost priority" toobtaining Aadhaar numbers and savings bank account details ofevery employee in the 43 districts, which include Mumbai,Hyderabad, Pune, Mysore and parts of Delhi, by December 31.But it is unclear from the wording of the circular as to whatwould happen if an employee does not possess an Aadhaarnumber. There is also no mention of what PF officials must do ifemployees have no Aadhaar numbers.The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued22 crore Aadhaar numbers so far."EPFO has neither informed employers nor has it discussedthis move with its board of trustees," said Sharad Patil, SecretaryGeneral of the Employers' Federation of India. "I thought thatthe government's focus for Aadhar-based payments was forpaying subsidies to the poor, but EPF members are mostly abovethe poverty line by virtue of their salaried incomes," said Patil,who questioned the inclusion of EPFO schemes in the cashtransfer system.EPFO officials also questioned the rationale of includingthese schemes, largely meant for the salaried, under the ambit ofAadhar."It is not clear what leakages will be curbed by the use ofAadhaar numbers in our schemes, as they already involve directtransfer of benefits into members' bank accounts," said aregional PF commissioner in charge of one of the 43 districts,where the government has implanted direct cash transfers fromJanuary 1, 2013.Officials pointed out that EPFO's pension scheme, where8.33% of an employees' monthly pay is invested, is the only onethat involves a government subsidy (of 1.16% of salary). Thissubsidy is directly paid to EPFO by the government annually,without any interface with pensioners whose monthly pension isremitted to their bank accounts.Though the government has acknowledged that EPFOpayments are already made through banks, it has asked officialsto ensure that Aadhaar numbers of all its 8.15 crore members areadded to their bank account details for settling claims."All the possible sources like employers, banks andindividual pensioners are to be tapped to collect the above," theministry directive sent to PF offices on December 20, 2012 said,adding that special camps may be held in sync with districtauthorities to collect workers' Aadhaar data.The employer body, which plans to question the basis of thedecision at EPFO's upcoming board meeting of January 15,pointed out that earlier talks between EPFO and UIDAI (theorganisation implementing the UID scheme) to use Aadhaar asa permanent account number for EPF members had fallenthrough, as the PF office had expressed doubts about theinfallibility of the unique ID scheme.Another board member had a huge concern about collectingAadhaar numbers from employees.LEGISLATIVE NOD FOR AADHAR NUMBER"The Aadhaar number itself is yet to get legislative backing,as the parliamentary committee examining the relevant law hadrejected it. The government needs to make amendments to theEPF law and get parliamentary approval for recognisingAadhaar, before forcing PF beneficiaries to get these uniquenumbers," said AD Nagpal, General Secretary of the HindMazdoor Sabha."Most EPFO members have multiple PF accounts createdafter each job change. To curb this problem, we have been tryingto give a unique ID number to employees since 2001, but ithasn't worked," Patil said. "But the ministry's directive is focusedonly on linking payments to Aadhaar numbers," he said.06 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

AADHAR-BASED DIRECT CASH TRANSFER IS A GAME-CHANGERThe ambitious direct cash transfer scheme, launched fromJanuary 1, 2013, will cover 29 welfare schemes initially, thegovernment described it as a "game-changer" but dismissedsuggestions that the roll-out hinted at mid-term polls.A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reviewed theprogress of the scheme under which beneficiaries would getcash through banks, Finance Minister P Chidambaram andRural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said that the newflagship programme was a "path breaking reform", aimed atplugging leakages and to ensure efficient delivery of benefits.Chidambaram said that about 29 schemes are ready to startfrom January 1 2013, in 51 districts spread across 16 states. Theelectronic cash transfers will be based on Aadhar (UniqueIdentification Number) platform. The entire country is targetedto be covered by the end of next year.Rejecting the opposition charge that the scheme amountedto offering bribe to people as there could be mid-term polls,Chidambaram said, "It is an absurd argument. I cannot find astronger word. People should choose their words carefully.People should not hurl their accusations but show a sense ofresponsibility."Insisting that the programme has "nothing to do withelections", he said, "Elections will come and elections will go.Governments will come and governments will go. Parties willcome and parties will go."He said that the scheme will be a "game-changer from thepoint of view of ordinary citizens of India" and its benefits will belong-lasting."Ramesh added that it was an election promise of Congress in2009, which was being fulfilled."Congress is a political party, not an NGO. We had promisedcash transfer of benefits and subsidies in our election manifestoof 2009," Ramesh said, asking "Where is the talk of elections?"Ramesh, while addressing the joint press conference withChidambaram, said that the programme was "not transfer ofcash but 'haq' (the right) of the people" and coined a slogan"aapka paisa, aapke hath (your money in your hand)."He said that the Congress will soon call a meeting ofpresidents of its 51 district units to be covered in the first phasewhich will be addressed by Rahul Gandhi and Chidambaram.The district presidents would be sensitised about thescheme, as will be the District Collectors, Chidambaram said,expressing the hope that those officials would continue to beposted there for at least a year to allow the smooth rollout.Ramesh conceded that there have been "several lacunae" inthe system because of which the benefits don't reach theintended people and these are to be addressed through suchprogrammes.In this context, he referred to the famous comments of thethen Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1980s that only 15 paise perrupee reaches the intended beneficiaries because of leakages."It is not bribe. It is the 'haq' of people," he said.Explaining the benefits of the programme which hedescribed as "flagship", Chidambaram said that there will be"practically no case of falsification or duplication. No one canfalsify. Efficiency gains are incalculable.... This is a gamechanger.We think people will appreciate. We look forward tosuccessful launch and roll-out of the scheme."He said that the government expects "considerable savings"from the scheme but refused to speculate the amount.The districts to be covered in the first phase include fiveeach in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, four each inHimachal Pradesh and Jharkhand, three each in Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura, and two each inHaryana, Kerala and Sikkim.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 07

The criteria for selecting these districts are 80 percentcoverage of Aadhar scheme, which will be the mainstay ofidentification of the beneficiaries in order to enable them toopen bank accounts.The schemes to be brought under its purview are 14scholarships of Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, six ofHRD Ministry, three of Minority Affairs Ministry, two Womenand Child Development, one in Health and Family Welfare andfive of Labour and Employment Ministry.The scope of schemes to be covered under the programmewill be expanded later, Chidambaram said, while addressing thepress conference at AICC headquarters.He said that the government has identified "the smallernumber of schemes", which are "amenable to transfer to bankaccounts".On bringing beneficiaries of food and fertiliser subsidyunder the ambit of this programme, he said that these involved"complex and difficult" issues which needed to be addressed.He said that the government was deliberately not rolling outthe programme in a whole hog manner but with "caution andprudence" so that it does not "stumble and fall".For the roll-out, the data base of the beneficiaries will bedigitised by the respective ministries and money will be reachthe targeted people through "business correspondents", whowill include women self-help groups, panchayats or evenindividuals like a school teacher."It is possible that one or two schemes may start a few days ora couple of weeks late. But ultimately, we want to load all theseschemes on the system. Out of the 42, we think about 29, give ortake one or two, will be ready," Chidambaram said.At present, government operates about 42 schemes, of which29 would be covered by the cash transfer scheme that has beenlaunched from January 1, 2013. The second roll-out to covermore districts would be launched in April 2013.The Prime Minister directed all the ministries concerned towork in close coordination to ensure success of the scheme.Chidambaram said that in the later phase, the benefits of thedirect cash transfer would be made available for subsidies whichare given for food, fertiliser and petroleum products.The cash subsidy, he said, would be given to thebeneficiaries having Aadhaar-enabled account number throughthe bank branches or banking correspondents.Aadhaar, a 12-digit number, serves as a proof of identity andaddress anywhere in the country. The UIDAI has already issued21 crore Aadhaar cards."To start with, there will be Banking Correspondents withminiature ATMs. They will act as the bank account operatorwith a handheld ATM to enable the beneficiary to withdraw thecash benefit."But in course of time other distributors can also join thesystem. Self Help Groups, Primary Cooperative Society, anyother body which can operate a hand-held ATM can be adistributor. We expect multiple distributors to open as manydistribution points as possible over a period of time," he added.Chidambaram said that he expects that in the 51 districts,Aadhar penetration would be 80 percent and the list of digitisedbeneficiaries for the schemes would be loaded on to the system."If the Aadhaar penetration is 80 percent and more, then it isa fair assumption that the beneficiary penetration of Aadhaarwill be close to 95 percent. We hope to be able to do that byDecember 31. The infrastructure is in place," he said.SETBACKS EXPERIENCED DURING THE INITIAL PHASEHowever, the launch is not without some setbacks. InMaharashtra, with low penetration of Aadhaar cards, direct cashtransfer hasr got a slow startThe ambitious game changer of the UPA-II, the Aadhaarlinked direct cash transfer has had a very slow start inMaharasthra, owing to the low penetration of the Aadhaar carditself in the state. Officials in the state feel that the start of directcash transfer is ensuring that more beneficiaries andbureaucrats get serious about completing formalities of linkingbanks to Aadhaar cards.10-year-old Rehan works in the family's cattle-rearingbusiness in Amravati. School was a distant dream until theNational Child Labour project identified him. But it was only inJanuary 2013 that Rehan's continued education became acertainty. As one of the first beneficiaries of the Aadhaar linkeddirect cash transfer, Rehan will now receive a monthly stipend inhis very own bank account.08 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

But Rehan is only one ofthe five children out of 1,000eligible ones who could availthis benefit. Figures for otherscheme beneficiaries are alsolow.Only 85 people in theentire Amravati district havegot the benefit of direct cashtransfer. The total number of beneficiaries of Aadhaar-approvedschemes in the district is 1 lakh. But of these only 20,000 haveAadhaar cards. In the other two districts in Maharashtra wherethe scheme has been implemented, Wardha topped with 1259cash transfers whereas Pune could only manage five.Officials say that pilot districts were selected based on totalAadhaar enrollments and not based on enrollment of actualbeneficiaries, which has led to low cash transfers. Only 30 percent beneficiaries have Aadhaar cards, which is why instead oflining up outside banks to claim benefits, villagers in theChandurbazaar tehsil in Amravati are lining up outside the soleAadhaar enrollment centre. Some came back because theirAadhaar card had spelling errors and banks refused to acceptthem.Agents seated under trees outside government offices helpvillagers interpret the bureaucratic procedure. Theadministration admitted that it might take another four monthsto complete all procedures. As officials work overtime to collatedata of beneficiaries in the distant Sirajgaon village, 70-year-oldSumitrabai, armed with an Aadhaar card and bank account,waits for the government to include her in the direct cashtransfer.In Ajmer, direct cash transfer scheme has left peopleconfused, dissatisfiedPrime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA ChairpersonSonia Gandhi launched the Aadhaar-based direct benefitstransfer scheme in Ajmer sometime back. Over a month sinceits implementation, the supposed game changer of the UPA-IIhas little to boast about.College student Ajay Kumar, who scored 68 per cent marksin class 12, is yet to receive his scholarship even after muchrunning around to get his Aadhaar enrolment slip in time. "Itshould have come by January 1. I'd filled up the form in August.But it has not come. I've heard that in some other district,scholarships have been transferred into accounts," Ajay said.Aadhaar card applicants are faced not just with long queues,but technical issues. Those who do manual work find it difficultto get biometric impressions, a must for the card. Tiloniasarpanch Kamla has been rejected five times. "Earlier when wewent to post offices to get accounts opened, we did not needAadhaar cards. Now they say we will, this is complicating theprocess. They tell us get the card, where do we get it from,"Kamla asked.On January 1, the Rajasthan government carried out a scaleddown rollout, with just eight schemes, covering about 20,000target beneficiaries in Ajmer.But the truly telling number is that of those who've got theirbenefits transferred to their Aadhaar seeded bank accounts,which is how the scheme is ultimately set to function and thatnumber is 60 against 25 lakh, the final target in Ajmer, theproverbial drop in the ocean.Beneficiaries who have been getting handouts by chequesdon't understand how this scheme is any different. The onlydifference is that these are account payee cheques rather thanbearer cheques. A student in Ajmer, Mamta, said, "Earlier alsowe got the money into the account, now also. There's nodifference."Activists feel that in rushing the scheme's implementation,the government could well be losing the plot. "When you have anunworkable system and scheme, then the core idea itself isbeing questioned. You're imposing a system that is showingitself to be unworkable," social activist Nikhil Dey said.If with the current lack of preparedness, PDS and MNREGAare linked to it, it'll end up leading to large scale exclusion ofpeople instead of directly dishing out benefits.Ironically in Ajmer where Manmohan Singh and SoniaGandhi announced the launch of Aadhaar-based direct benefitstransfer scheme, it's a story of confusion, implementation at asnail's pace and precious little difference on the ground.The government has begun well. All that is needed is theproper implementation. The enterprise is not that easy. Thereare complex issues with typical complications that arecharacteristic of such a vast and diverse country as India. If theAadhar-based direct cash transfer scheme were to besuccessful, the UPA II would have a lot to show and strengthenits hold in the 2014 General Elections. Till then, it is just waitand watch.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 09

Indian scientists devise16 disaster management drugsPreparing to deal with any futurechemical, biological, radiologicaland nuclear (CBRN) incidents,Indian scientists have devised 16 drugs thatcan be used for disaster management.These include an anti-cyanide drug, ananti-nerve gas drug and an anti-toxic gasdrug.Several radioactive decorporation agents and drugs for anticyanide,anti-nerve gas and toxic gas injuries have beenapproved by the Drug Controller General of India as trial drugs.Developed by scientists at the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) Institute of NuclearMedicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), the drugs have passedthe efficacy test and will be cheaper than those currentlyavailable in the market.“Sixteen new drugs have been approved by the DrugController General of India (DGCI) as trial drugs for disastermanagement. These include an anti-cyanide drug, an antinervegas drug, an anti-toxic gas drug and several radioactivedecorporation agents,” Aseem Bhatnagar, in charge of theproject at INMAS, said.These will be used as samples for the users, including thearmed forces, the paramilitary, the National DisasterManagement Authority (NDMA), the Department of AtomicEnergy (DAE) and the Ministry of Health.“Batch production of these drugs is being undertaken incollaboration with the pharmaceuticals industry throughcontract manufacturing. About 50,000-200,000 doses (licensedfor human use) are expected to be manufactured by March2013,” Bhatnagar said.The DGCI approvals cover all-India use for 15 years for anynumber of victims.Since there cannot be proper phase two trials of drugs usefulin disasters, their use in any future incident has been approvedas trial drugs due to legality.10 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013“These shall also be used forcontinuing clinical trials and forstockpiling. This is necessary to effectivelyplan stockpiling cost and perpetually (it isenvisaged to provide the drug at cost priceto the users). The average cost price isexpected to be less than 15 percent ofmarket price in all cases,” Bhatnagar said.Several of these drugs have been patented by the defenceministry.“The contract has been given to pharmaceutical companiesto ensure that quality checks and pricing remains theprerogative of the defence ministry. Besides, adequate stockscan be retained in a cost-effective way and companies caninitiate mass production in case of a disaster without any timewastage,” Bhatnagar said.INMAS previously made and supplied drugs against nuclear,biological and chemical (NBC) incidents during the 2010Commonwealth Games and to meet an emergency requirementof the Indian Navy.“We also plan to keep some with the Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) for usage during any disaster,” Bhatnagarsaid.Scientists say that research and development andcoordination will enhance the shelf life of NBC drugs by 60-100percent and this project is planned in coordination with othergovernment agencies.“A mission mode project is planned to establish nuclearsecurity in the national capital region by way of drugs,equipment and training to six echelons of medical servicesaround Delhi under a project for seven years,” Bhatnagar added.INMAS had developed a skin radioactivity decontamination kit(shudhika) that was given for production to a company in Pune.“Its market cost is more than Rs.12,000 and we aredeveloping it for just Rs. 1,000 (less than $2). Five hundred suchkits will be made available to users, including the services, assamples by March,” Bhatnagar said.

Donors pledge aid to war-struck SyriansInternational donors at a Kuwaitconference pledged almost $1 billion inaid for stricken Syrians, as UN chief BanKi-moon warned of a "catastrophic" situationin their war-torn country."Total pledges so far are around $1billion," a Gulf official said requestinganonymity, adding that "Saudi Arabia has pledged $300 million,"after Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates each pledged asimilar amount.Addressing the so-named International HumanitarianPledging Conference for Syria in Kuwait City, Ban called forurgent financial aid, warning that if funds were not forthcoming"more Syrians will die"."The situation in Syria is catastrophic," the UN chief said ashe urged all parties to the conflict to "stop the killings".Ban said that based on UN reports, half of Syria's hospitalsand a quarter of its schools had been destroyed while other vitalinfrastructure had been badly affected. He stressed thathumanitarian assistance would not resolve the crisis, which hesaid required a political solution.Host Kuwait was first to make a pledge, offering $300million, followed soon after by the UAE, another oil-rich Gulfcountry, which, according to the official WAM news agency,pledged a further $300 million."Due to the great sufferings of the Syrian people and to helpensure the success of the conference, I announce the Kuwaitidonation of $300 million for the Syrian people," Kuwait EmirSheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said as he opened the one-dayconference.Sheikh Sabah said that "horrifying reports" from Syria are a"cause for concern over the security of Syria, its future ... andover the security and future of the region."He held the Syrian regime responsible for the tragicsituation, which he said resulted from its "rejection of the justpopular demands and of Arab and international initiatives."Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa saidthat the tiny Gulf kingdom would offer $20 million, while theGerman foreign ministry pledged in astatement around 10 million euros ($13.5million).UN humanitarian aid Chief Valerie Amossaid that three million Syrians have fled theirhomes inside the country and that at least 2.3million need basic help.She said that $519 million of the funds to be raised areneeded to assist those most affected by the conflict.King Abdullah II of Jordan and Lebanese President MichelSleiman both called at the conference for more aid to cope withincreasing numbers of Syrian refugees in their respectivecountries.The United States promised another $155 million to aidrefugees fleeing the deadly conflict. Non-governmental charityorganisations, meeting in Kuwait ahead of the conference,pledged $182 million for Syrian civilians affected by the deadlyconflict.The UN refugee agency said that there has been a steep risein the number of Syrian refugees during the past few weeks andtheir number has surpassed 700,000.UN humanitarian operations director John Ging warnedahead of the conference that the United Nations will be forced tocut the already-reduced food rations to hundreds of thousandsof Syrians unless a huge cash injection is found.UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that Syria's war had reached"unprecedented levels of horror", after dozens of men werefound slaughtered in the northern city of Aleppo.Brahimi told the divided UN Security Council that it had toact now to halt the carnage epitomized by at least 78 young men,each killed with a single bullet and dumped in a river in thebattlefront city of Aleppo.The United Nations said that more than 60,000 people werekilled in Syria's 22-month conflict, which erupted in March 2011with peaceful protests but morphed into an armed insurgencyafter a harsh regime crackdown.12 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Current EventsIndiaAT KUMBH, 'SANGAM' OF POLITICOSALL EYEING LS 2014With politicianscutting across party linestaking a plunge in theGanga, the ongoingMaha Kumbh atAllahabad is fast turninginto a preparatoryground for politicalparties, primarily theCongress and Bharatiya Janata Party, in view of the 2014 LokSabha election.While the politicians don't want to miss the opportunity oftaking a dip in the holy river on the auspicious occasion, what ismaking them stand out of the masses is their endeavour to seekblessings from seers and saints who have been camping at theKumbh city.Among others is news of Gujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi, who will reach Allahabad on February 12 to take a holy dip.Amidst speculation doing rounds that Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi might get endorsed by seers and saints asBharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, the margdarshan mandal meeting being organised by the Vishwa HinduParishad held on February 6 passed a resolution on the Ayodhyadispute.The conglomeration of around 300 seers and saints fromacross the country will also discuss the issue of Ganga pollutionand cow slaughter.Reliable sources said that the 'sant samaj' might supportModi. In such a scenario, pressure will mount on the BJP'scentral leadership, as several prominent leaders are alreadypromoting Modi's name.In fact, there had been difference of opinion among seersand saints on party lines in general and Modi in particular. Asection of seers and saints supported by a Shankaracharya haveeven claimed that those advocating the name of Modi as primeministerial candidate are fake seers and saints. Amidst all this,Maha Kumbh has turned into a preparatory ground for draftinga blueprint of political strategies for political parties in generaland BJP in particular, keeping in mind the 2014 Lok Sabhaelection.Earlier, there were reports that Modi might visit Kumbh onFebruary 7, a day after BJP national chief Rajnath Singh will be atthe Kumbh.The national BJP chief was to visit Lucknow for the first timeafter becoming national party chief but the visit was cancelled atthe eleventh hour due to incessant rains that lashed most partsof the state. He visited Kumbh on February 6, as per his earlierprogramme. Singh will be accompanied by state BJP chiefLaxmikant Bajpayi in Allahabad, where he is likely to be joinedby veteran BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, who will also bein Allahabad. Earlier, national vice-presidents of BJP MukhtarAbbas Naqvi and Kalraj Misra had gone to attend Kumbh Mela.The beeline of politicians to Kumbh is not confined to theBharatiya Janata Party. Several leaders from other parties toohave visited the Kumbh. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav visitedSangam twice since the mela began. Senior MaharashtraCongress leader Kripa Shanker Singh visited Kumbh and took aholy dip in Ganga, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.There are reports that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi andparty's newly appointed vice-president Rahul Gandhi will alsovisit Kumbh sooner than later. Similarly, leader of Opposition inLok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is also expected to attend the Mela toseek the blessings of seers and saints.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 13

RIL STALLS CAG AUDIT YET AGAINIt has been insisting that theaudit of KG-DWN-98/3 blockbe not made publicEmboldened by thestagnation in the arbitrationproceedings, the MukeshAmbani-owned RelianceIndustries Limited (RIL) hasonce again stalled the audit of KG-DWN-98/3 block byComptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by refusing to furnishrecords, financial accounts and SAP access for the KG D6 blockfor the 2008-12 period, on frivolous grounds.It is learnt that RIL has also shot off a letter to the Petroleumand Natural Gas Ministry, seeking its intervention in the matter,in a bid to wriggle itself out of the audit. RIL has been insistingthat the audit should not be made public and must not be placedbefore Parliament, a demand that has been outrightly rejected byCAG.RIL not cooperatingPrincipal Director of Audit (Economic and ServiceMinistries) A.M. Bajaj has written to the Joint Secretary(Exploration) A. Giridhar that RIL had not been cooperating inthe audit exercise and had withheld records and financialstatements sought by the CAG audit team that held a conferencewith RIL representatives in Navi Mumbai, on January 9. “We hadintimated to the Petroleum Ministry about the status of the auditof Block KG-DWN-98/3 and the fact that the operator (RIL) hadraised certain issues regarding the scope, extent and manner ofaudit,” the January 28 letter states.Further, CAG has stated that the office of Principal Directorof Audit had clarified these issues to RIL through on January 17and requested them to provide the audit team with documents.“The operator has, however, stated through another letter onJanuary 24 that they have raised these issues with the Petroleumand Natural Gas Ministry. They also stated that till such issuesare resolved, they would hold back on responding to the auditrequisitions,” it stated.At the meeting with RIL representatives on January 9 —minutes of which were accessed— CAG had stated that thisaudit would not be a performance audit on the contractor (RIL).It, however, pointed out that there is a difference between aperformance and a proprietary audit as a proprietary audit was aduty of the auditor. CAG said that it understood Section 1.9.3 toinvolve contracts relating to procurement and the procurementprocedures and clarified that it would not be requesting for anydecision taken in the technical realm but would be concernedonly with the financial parts of such contracts.“The main aim of the audit is to verify that there has not beenany adverse effect on the cost recovery factor and the investmentmultiple, arising out of any specific non-compliance of PSC.CAG maintains that while it carries out the audit of thecontractor under Section 1.9 of the Accounting Procedure, aperformance audit of the Ministry of Petroleum will also beconducted simultaneously,'' the CAG audit team stated.Similarly, in a separate communication to RIL's presidentand COO (Business), B. Ganguly, CAG had stated that asregards the matter relating to CAG being appointed arepresentative of the Central government under Section 1.9.2 ofthe Accounting Procedure to the production sharing contract(PSC) and whether CAG would treat RIL as its auditee, it wasexplained on January 9 and “we reiterate that the audit would beconducted under the PSC provisions, including Section 1.9 ofthe Accounting Procedures of the PSC.”“Regarding the re-audit of the previous years, the audit willbe only for the years 2008-09 to 2011-12 and the request for therecords of previous years will be for reference purpose and willnot be meant for re-audit,” the January 17 letter states.An e-mail sent to RIL seeking the comments of thecompany on the issue remained unanswered.'INDIA SHOULD GET ITS ACT TOGETHER'Germany voiced concern overlack of stable policies and hightariffs that could dampen the nextwave of investments from EuropeGermany is voicing its concernover lack of stable policies and hightariffs in India that could dampenthe next wave of investments from Europe.Most big companies are already present in India. But thenext, and for the Indian economy's healthy growth, the more14 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

important influx of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)might not be as large as anticipated unless India gets its acttogether, say officials of IHK, the chamber of business andindustry of Munich and Upper Bavaria, one of the six leadingregional industrial engines of Europe.Terming Asia Pacific as the most important powerhouse overthe next couple of decades, IHK's Johannes Huber points toemerging competition from Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar andRussia, which could draw away investments meant for India.Mr. Huber feels that there is still time for India to get its acttogether because of drawbacks in each of these countries. Butindependent analyst Alexander Struve refers to certainadvantages these countries have that could offset thedisadvantages.Lack of skillsThe first issue is the lack of highly-skilled workers in India.Traditional powerhouses like Siemens, Audi and BMW — allincidentally based in Munich — have got around the problem byramping up in-house training programmes.For SMEs, that is not an option because of limitations of sizeand resources.A delegation will be visiting India in the middle of Februaryto size up the issue, including efforts by the two governments tokick-start an ambitious vocational training programme. Thenthere is the issue of a 'lot of bureaucracy'. German SMEscomplain of applications being rejected and permissionsdelayed because they filled the wrong form or didn't know thatyet another form — among the hundreds they have to complete— had to be submitted.“We have seen growth in China. But development in India isnot as fast as in China. I am not being positive or negative.“In China, everything happens fast because it is not ademocracy. This is not possible in India just as it is not possiblein Germany because both are democracies. The difference isthat SMEs are already present in China whereas they are notthere in India,'' he reasoned.Of the potential competitors, Myanmar is not yet on the mapbecause at present, it is the target for big players.The same is the case with Vietnam, which is extremelyattractive for the big players but not for SMEs, due to theabsence of local supply chains. Indonesia too is in a similarsituation.Russia too is making massive investments in infrastructureand education but remains cold to SMEs. But all this couldchange if the Indian economy remains opaque especially forSMEs, which don't have deep pockets.“It is very important for India to make investmentregulations easier and faster. This will make India a little bitmore attractive,” says Mr. Huber.GUJARAT'S GOOD SHOW IN URBAN PROJECTSPUTS UPA IN A SPOTGujarat's high rating inurban infrastructuredevelopment projects underthe Centre's flagshipJNNURM scheme seems tohave become a new headachefor the government at a timewhen UPA-2 would like tohighlight its achievements before the next national polls.So far, a majority of models suggested by the Union urbandevelopment (UD) ministry to state governments are fromGujarat, whether it's self-financing of a road project orintelligent traffic system for safe public transport.While another 'best model' in public transport system hasbecome a reality in BJP-ruled Karnataka, only one Congressruledstate has followed suit — Rajasthan with 'Alwar Vahini'.In recent months, the UD ministry has issued four circularson successful transport models which it recommended to stategovernments to adopt/emulate. The latest one was the Centrepushing the Surat model of developing an outer ring roadwithout any government investment. Under this model, theproject would generate about Rs.11,960 crore over five yearsagainst an investment of Rs.5,796 crore.Earlier, the ministry had asked the states to follow the G-Auto model of Ahmedabad where a cluster of auto rickshaws ismanaged through a common control room. The advisory forstates had come after the Nirbhaya gang rape incident. "There isPT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 15

no doubt that Gujarat has the best performance when it comesto urban infrastructure development and this cannot be ignoredby anyone. So, there is nothing wrong if the Centre has askedothers to learn and set such examples," said a ministry official.However, for the Congress-led UPA, this is a sour pill toswallow and allow Narendra Modi's government to take thecredit of successfully demonstrating best models of urbandevelopment.In fact, now with the Cabinet allowing the UD ministry tosanction new projects and capacity building of cities andmunicipal bodies till March 2014 totaling an investment ofRs.15,000 crore, the ministry is likely to take a decision on thecriteria of sanctioning projects — success rate or population.On January 31, the ministry issued an office memorandum,stating that projects to be sanctioned are under the sub-missionof JNNURM relating to Urban Infrastructure and Governance(UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development for Small andMedium Towns (UIDSSMT).This should bring some relief to the UPA. The latest data oncompletion of UIG and UIDSSMT till December end,publicized by the ministry, shows that Arunachal Pradesh had75% completion in both the categories, which is the highest.AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu ranked second, with 68%completion, and Andhra Pradesh came third, with 57%. Gujaratranked fourth in this category, with 54% of projects gettingcompleted.DEATH FOR RAPISTS LIKELY IN RAREST OF RARE CASESOrdinance provides for death penalty, life term till death inrarest of rare casesThree weeks ahead of the budget session of Parliament, theUnion Cabinet, at a special meeting, cleared an ordinance toensure that those who commit crimes against women face fartougher sentences than those currently on the statute book.The ordinance will become law once the President signs it,after which it will be promulgated. However, the ordinance willhave to be passed by Parliament within six months.The new law, government sources said, is likely to includethe death penalty — or imprisonment for the rest of theperpetrator's natural life — in the rarest of rare cases, enhancesthe seven-year sentence for those convicted of rape to 20 years,criminalises public sexual harassment ranging from cat calls togroping, and provides more stringent punishment in specificcases of stalking and acid attacks. The word “rape” has beenreplaced by the expression “sexual assault”.The Union government's decision comes in the wake of thehorrific sexual assault of a 23-year-old paramedical student thatculminated in her death last month, and the nationwide outragethat followed it.It also comes nine days after the Justice Verma committee,which had been asked to suggest how to tighten the law forcrimes against women, submitted its report. The ordinanceincorporates some of the panel's suggestions.Within the government, there had been a debate on whetherto issue an ordinance or wait for Parliament, and then send thepending anti-rape bill, incorporating the Verma panel'srecommendations, to a Standing Committee for a more detailedexamination. But, in the end, the government, sources said,decided that it wanted to send a message that it was committednot just to acting on its promise to strengthen the anti-rape law,but also to do it swiftly to demonstrate its sincerity in enhancingsecurity for women. Indeed, at the Congress's recent chintanshivir in Jaipur, one of the five subjects that were discussed indetail was on how to create an environment in which women feltsecure.The sense of urgency, one minister said, was also bolsteredby the fact that the Verma panel had submitted its report within arecord 29 days. Barring the Union Home Minister and the lawminister, other cabinet ministers saw the ordinance in too shorta time.The cabinet meeting was preceded by a meeting of theCongress Core Group, which includes party president SoniaGandhi, at which the Verma panel's recommendations, too, werediscussed.16 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

The Verma panel did not recommend the death penalty evenin the rarest of rare cases, largely because women's groupsopposed it, saying that it might encourage rapists to kill theirvictims. But though the committee had wanted marital rape tobe recognized as a crime, and had suggested that sexual crimesby members of the armed forces should be tried under ordinarycriminal law (i.e., a review of the Armed Forces Special PowersAct), neither finds a place in the ordinance.CABINET CLEARS LOKPAL BILL WITH AMENDMENTS,KEEPS PARTIES OUT OF ITS AMBITThe LokpalBill cleared by theCabinet excludespolitical partiesfrom itsjurisdiction andalso rejects theproposal for theappointment of theCentral Bureau of Investigation chief by a collegium comprisingthe PM, leader of opposition and the Chief Justice of India.Minister of state for PMO V Narayanasamy informed theCabinet that political parties were being kept outside thepurview of the anti-graft ombudsman, as their functioning wascovered by the Representation of People's Act.The explanation is unlikely to convince activist groups led byAnna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal who feel that the bill falls wellshort of their concept of a strong and independent Lokpal.The main opposition BJP is insistent on a collegiumdeciding the appointment of the CBI chief rather than theconsultative process, as set out in the bill that was examined by aselect committee of Parliament.Explaining the provision on the appointment of CBI chief,Narayanasamy claimed that a clause already existed in theLokpal Bill passed by Lok Sabha. Asked why the selectcommittee made a recommendation which was already part ofthe bill, he said, "Maybe the committee wanted to reaffirm itsstand on the issue." However, the Lok Sabha version does notenvisage a collegium.Bill may pass House testOfficial sources said that the government is hopeful of thebill's passage in the forthcoming budget session, as thelegislation will need a simple majority that the ruling coalitionthinks it can drum up, now that a controversial prescription forstate lokayuktas has been dropped.In the face of a strong public sentiment in favor ofaccountability and opposition parties looking to put UPA-2 inthe dock over corruption cases, the government has travelled aconsiderable distance on the Lokpal Bill, conceding much morethan it was earlier willing to.The select committee's recommendation to do away withmandatory sanctions required to proceed against senior officialshas been accepted, with the caveat that the organization orindividual against whom an investigation report is filed will begiven an opportunity to present his case before a lokpal bench.This is a major concession, as the bureaucracy hasvociferously argued that this will strip officials of protectionagainst motivated complaints. However, the sanction processhas been used to delay prosecution, helping tainted officialsevade criminal proceedings, as witnesses are influenced andevidence erased.The ombudsman will have a prosecution wing of its own butwill not have a say in the transfer of officials investigating a casetaken up by it. The CBI will report to the Lokpal with regard tocases under Lokpal scrutiny and the body will be able to ask anyrelevant agency to take up an investigation.In all, the government accepted 14 of 16 recommendations ofthe select committee.On the committee's view on Lokpal approval for transfer ofCBI officers investigating cases referred by the anti-graft body,the government felt that this would affect smooth functioning ofthe investigating agency. The move is, however, seen as anattempt to keep a hold over officers of the agency.The bill excludes people "affiliated" with any political partyfrom becoming member of Lokpal and keeps religious andcharitable organizations out of the purview of the anti-graftbody.Trusts like the one under yoga guru Baba Ramdev will,however, come under the purview of Lokpal. Narayanasamysaid, "Ramdev's trust is not a religious trust and therefore it willdefinitely be under the Lokpal."PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 17

The Rajya Sabha panel had recommended exclusion ofbodies and institutions receiving donations from the publicfrom the purview of Lokpal. Since bodies receiving donationsfrom the public were also covered in the original Lokpal Bill, thegovernment did not accept the recommendation.However, at the same time, it decided to exempt bodies orauthorities established under a central or state Act providing foradministration of public, religious or charitable trustsregistered under the Societies Registration Act.The approval of the official amendments now paves the wayfor consideration of the bill afresh by the Rajya Sabha during thebudget session which is expected to begin towards the end ofFebruary.After getting a nod from the Upper House, the bill withamendments will go back for fresh approval to Lok Sabha, whereit has already been passed.The government accepted the recommendation of thecommittee that the power to grant sanction for prosecution ofpublic servants could be shifted to Lokpal in place of thegovernment. It also agreed with the recommendation thatLokpal may be required to seek comments of the competentauthority and the public servant before taking such a decision.ANNA LAUNCHES 'JANTANTRA MORCHA',AIMS TO CHANGE SYSTEMAnna Hazarelaunched a newoutfit " JantantraMorcha" at a rally inPatna."Now a change inthe system is ouraim. The change canbe brought about bypassing the Jan lokpal Bill and decentralizing power to gramsabhas and ward sabhas," he told a public meeting.The social activist said that the new outfit would not joinelectoral politics and the occasion marked the beginning of the"second freedom struggle". He said that now he plans to tour theentire country to awaken people. "I wish to awaken only six croreof the country's 120 crore people. If six crore people are with me,government "ki naak dabaunga, munh khulegi" (governmentwill be forced to talk)," he said. He said that the governmentwould be forced to give Jan Lokpal to the country.In his 45-minute speech, Anna did not refer to ArvindKejriwal at all. Alleging the Congress-led government did notintend to bring the Jan Lokpal because 15 of its ministers wouldbe behind bars and that 163 of the MPs were tainted, he said thatafter the demand of Jan Lokpal was fulfilled, they would forceParliament to empower people with the "right to reject" and"right to recall" their candidates if they were unworthy."None of the rejected candidates should be allowed tocontest election," he said and added that parties would be forcedto give tickets to clean candidates.Hazare said that he chose Bihar as the venue for his first'Jantantra Rally' because the "pious land" was the "tapobhoomi"of JP and Mahatma Gandhi. "We have to realize the dreams of JPthat have remained unfulfilled," said Anna, in a bid to strike achord with the crowd responding with an applause every time heused adjectives like "goonda", "lootera" and "ghotalebaaz" for thepeople in power.Former army chief Gen VK Singh and former IPS officerKiran Bedi were present at the rally as well.LOCKED IN U.N. FILES, 15 YEARS OFBLOODLETTING AT LOCComplaints by Pakistan ofexecutions, beheadings insecret cross-border raids byIndian forcesIn classified protests to aUnited Nations watchdog thathave never been disclosed tillnow, Pakistan has accusedIndian soldiers of involvementin the torture and decapitationof at least 12 Pakistani soldiersin cross-Line of Control raidssince 1998, as well as themassacre of 29 civilians.The allegations, laid out inconfidential Pakistani complaints to the United Nations MilitaryObserver Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), suggest18 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

that Indian and Pakistani troops stationed on the Line of Controlremain locked in a pattern of murderous violence, despite theceasefire both armies entered into in November 2003. Earlierthis month, bilateral relations were severely damaged after aseries of LoC skirmishes, which culminated in the beheadingand mutilation of two Indian soldiers Lance-Naik Hemraj Singhand Lance-Naik Sudhakar Singh.The Ministry of Defence did not respond to an e-mail,seeking comment on the alleged decapitation of Pakistanicivilians and troops reported to UNMOGIP. However, a militaryspokesperson said that the issue had “not been raised byPakistan in communications between the two Directors-General of Military Operations.”The Ministry of External Affairs also said that theUNMOGIP complaints had not been raised in diplomaticexchanges between the two countries.“Ever since 9/11,” a senior Pakistan army officer said, “wehave sought to downplay these incidents, aware that a publicbacklash [could] push us into a situation which we cannot affordon the LoC, given that much of our army is now committed toour western borders. Each of these incidents has been protestedby us on both military and UNMOGIP channels.”UNMOGIP, set up after the India-Pakistan war of 1947-1948, to monitor ceasefire violations, does not conduct criminalinvestigations, or assign responsibility for incidents. Thereports of its ceasefire monitors are sent to the organisation'sheadquarters in New York, and forwarded to the Ministry ofDefence in New Delhi.Ever since 1972, India has responded to UNMOGIP querieswith a standard-form letter, saying that it believes that theorganisation has lost its relevance, following the demarcation ofthe LoC. Earlier this month, India had argued in the UnitedNations that the organisation ought to be wound-up.Massacre for massacreThe most savage cross-LoC violence that Indian forces arealleged to have participated in was the killing of 22 civilians at thevillage of Bandala, in the Chhamb sector, on the night ofNovember 26-27, 1998. The bodies of two civilians, according toPakistan's complaint to UNMOGIP, were decapitated; the eyesof several others were allegedly gouged out by the attackers. ThePakistani military claimed to have recovered an Indian-madewatch from the scene of the carnage, along with a hand-writtennote which asked, “How does your own blood feel”?The Bandala massacre is alleged to have been carried out byirregulars backed by Indian special forces, in retaliation for themassacre of 29 Hindu villagers at Prankote, in Jammu andKashmir, by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The LeT attackers slit thethroats of their victims, which included women and children.No Indian investigation of the Bandala killings has ever beencarried out. However, an officer serving in the NorthernCommand at the time said that the massacre was “intended tosignal that communal massacres by jihadists, who were after alltrained and equipped by Pakistan's military, were a red line thatcould not be crossed with impunity.”The Lashkar, however, continued to target Hindu villagersin the Jammu region; 10 were killed at Deesa and Surankote justdays later, on May 6, 1998. In 2001, 108 people were gunneddown in 11 communal massacres, and 83 people were killed infive incidents in 2002 — a grim toll that only died out after the2003 ceasefire.Brutal retaliationEven though the large-scale killings of civilians did not takeplace again, Pakistan continued to report cross-border attacks,involving mutilations, to UNMOGIP.Six months after the Kargil war, on the night of January 21-22, 2000, seven Pakistani soldiers were alleged to have beencaptured in a raid on a post in the Nadala enclave, across theNeelam River. The seven soldiers, wounded in fire, wereallegedly tied up and dragged across a ravine running across theLoC. The bodies were returned, according to Pakistan'scomplaint, bearing signs of brutal torture.“Pakistan chose to underplay the Nadala incident,” a seniorPakistani military officer involved with its Military OperationsDirectorate said, “as General Pervez Musharraf had onlyrecently staged his coup, and did not want a public outcry thatwould spark a crisis with India.”Indian military sources said that the raid, conducted by aspecial forces unit, was intended to avenge the killing of CaptainSaurabh Kalia, and five soldiers — sepoys Bhanwar Lal Bagaria,Arjun Ram, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh — of the 4PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 19

Jat Regiment. The patrol had been captured on May 15, 1999, inthe Kaksar sector of Kargil. Post mortem revealed that the men'sbodies had been burned with cigarette-ends and their genitalsmutilated.Less detail is available on the retaliatory cycles involved inincidents that have taken place since the ceasefire went intoplace along the LoC in 2003 — but Pakistan's complaints toUNMOGIP suggest that there has been steady, but largelyunreported, cross-border violence, involving beheadings andmutilations.Indian troops, Pakistan alleged, killed a JCO, or juniorcommissioned officer, and three soldiers in a raid on a post in theBaroh sector, near Bhimber Gali in Poonch, on September 18,2003. The raiders, it told UNMOGIP, decapitated one soldierand carried his head off as a trophy.Near-identical incidents have taken place on at least twooccasions since 2008, when hostilities on the LoC began toescalate again. Indian troops, Pakistan's complaints record,beheaded a soldier and carried his head across on June 19, 2008,in the Bhattal sector in Poonch. Four Pakistani soldiers,UNMOGIP was told, died in the raid.The killings came soon after a June 5, 2008 attack on theKranti border observation post near Salhotri village in Poonch,which claimed the life of 2-8 Gurkha Regiment soldierJawashwar Chhame.Finally, on August 30, 2011, Pakistan complained that threesoldiers, including a JCO, were beheaded in an Indian raid on apost in the Sharda sector, across the Neelam river valley in Kel.The incident was reported, based on testimony from Indianmilitary sources, who said that two Pakistani soldiers had beenbeheaded, following the decapitation of two Indian soldiers nearKarnah. The raid on the Indian forward position, a highlyplacedmilitary source said, was carried out by Pakistani specialforces, who used rafts to penetrate India's defences along theLoC.Fragile ceasefirePart of the reason why the November 2003 ceasefire failed toend such savagery, government sources in both India andPakistan said, is the absence of an agreed mechanism to regulate20 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013conflicts along the LoC. Though both sides have occasionalbrigade-level flag meetings, and local post commandersexchange communications, disputes are rarely reported tohigher authorities until tensions reach boiling point. Foreignoffices in both countries, diplomats admitted, are almost neverbriefed on crises brewing on the LoC.In October last year, highly placed military sources said,Pakistan's Director-General of Military Operations complainedabout Indian construction work around Charunda, in Uri. HisIndian counterpart, Lieutenant-General Vinod Bhatia, however,responded that India's works were purely intended to preventillegal border crossings. The unresolved dispute led toexchanges of fire, which eventually escalated into shelling andthe killings of soldiers on both sides.The November 2003 ceasefire, Indian diplomatic sourcessay, was based on an unwritten “agreement,” which, in essence,stipulated that neither side would reinforce its fortificationsalong the LoC — a measure first agreed to after the 1971 war. In2006, the two sides exchanged drafts for a formal agreement.Since then, the sources said, negotiations have stalled overdiffering ideas on what kind of construction is permissible. “Inessence,” a senior government official said, “we accept thatthere should be no new construction, but want to be allowed toexpand counter-infiltration measures and expand existinginfrastructure.”India insists that it needs to expand counter-infiltrationinfrastructure because of escalating operations by jihadistgroups across the LoC. Pakistan argues that India's own figuresshow a sharp decline in operations by jihadists in Jammu andKashmir. Last year, according to the Indian government, 72terrorists, 24 civilians and 15 security personnel, includingpolice, were killed in terrorist violence in the State — lower, intotal, than the 521 murders recorded in Delhi alone. In 2011, thefigures were, respectively, 100, 40 and 33; in 2010, 232, 164 and69.“You can't say that you need more border defences to fight offjihadists when you yourself say there is less and less jihadistviolence,” a Pakistani military official said. “The only reasonthere are less jihadists,” an Indian military officer responded,“is because we've enhanced our defences.”Indian and Pakistani diplomats last met on December 27 2012to discuss the draft agreement, but could make no headway.

Snippets from the happenings inscience, environment and technology3-D IMAGING SURGERY CAN CURE SKULLDISORDERSCraniosynostosis, a rare skull disorder innewborns in India, can now be successfully treatedwith surgery, based on 3-D imaging, doctors havesaid."With one in 2,000 to 2,500 infants beingdiagnosed with craniosynostosis in India, which haslife altering complications, such advanced surgeriesbased on 3-D imaging are the best options availablein the country," said Richa S Debgupta, facilitydirector of Fortis Hospitals, Kolkata that recentlyperformed such a surgery on a six-month-oldinfant.Craniosynostosisis is a birth defect that causesone or more sutures on a baby's skull to close earlierthan normal. This results in increased pressureinside the brain, which leads to facial deformitiesand blindness, if not treated properly."Due to increasing intracranial pressure, theforehead does not grow fully. The skull would bedefective and distorted and loss of vision wouldresult eventually. Eyeballs would also protrudeabnormally," said Dr Amitabha Chanda, consultantneurosurgeon at Fortis Hospitals, who was part ofthe team that performed the surgery."Usually the method used to treat this is torelieve the intracranial pressure through surgery.However, this does not eliminate facial distortion orblindness," Dr. Chanda said.According to him, a surgical procedure based ona 3-D map of the skull can take care of suchcomplications."This type of surgery is a unique cranio-facialapproach to such a problem. It helps the child lead anormal life," said Dr Srijon Mukherjee, consultantmaxillofacial surgeon at Fortis Hospital.22 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013INDIA, US JOIN HANDS TO TACKLEILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADEIndia and the US have decided tojoin hands to tackle illegal wildlifetrade, which involves billions ofdollars annually.US and Indian governmentofficials, representatives of NGOs,wildlife lawyers and enforcement officials discussed some of their challengesand successes in combating wildlife trafficking in the roundtable organisedby the US Embassy and WWF/TRAFFIC India — two global organisationsengaged in wildlife related issues.."The United States and India have worked together on wildlifeconservation for over 25 years. We will continue to work together to combatpoaching, manage our wildlife resources, improve enforcement capacity, andreduce consumer demand for illegal wildlife products," said a joint statementissued after the meeting.Co-chairing a panel discussion on Illegal Trade in Wildlife with WWF-India CEO and secretary general Ravi Singh, US under secretary of state foreconomic growth, energy, and environment, Robert D Hormats, emphasisedthe need for high-level political will, public outreach, and greaterinternational coordination and cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking.He was also of the opinion that regional enforcement networks such asthe South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) should bestrengthened to deal with the problem.Singh noted that the intimate link between the decline of India's wildlifespecies, and alarming trends in illegal wildlife trafficking."It is imperative that issues of illegal wildlife trade should be taken up in astrategic manner, linking national agencies and senior governmentexecutives. Here, the US government can be an important partner on globalwildlife intelligence, networking and sharing of best practices inenforcement," he said.According to the WWF-India, illegal wildlife trade is estimated at USD10-20 billion annually, and is among the largest sources of illegal trade.

Current EventsWorldDO NOT MISJUDGE OUR MILITARY POWER,CHINA WARNS NEIGHBOURScore national interests.Amidst military tensions withits neighbours, a top Chinesegeneral has warned countries inconflict with China not tounderestimate its will to safeguardits sovereignty or its "military'sstaunch power" to protect Beijing'sSpeaking at a discussion to strengthen maritime struggleand maritime security cooperation conducted by People'sLiberation Army (PLA), Gen Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of generalstaff, said that no country should underestimate China'sdetermination to safeguard territorial integrity."He stressed in his speech that countries cannotunderestimate the Chinese nation's strong will of safeguardingits state sovereignty, cannot underestimate Chinesegovernment's firm determination of safeguarding its territorialintegrity and cannot underestimate Chinese military's staunchpower of safeguarding the core national interests", a brief reportin state run People's Daily online said.His comments followed growing military tensions betweenChina and a host of its neighbours, specially Japan and SouthEast Asian countries, over maritime disputes.China is also exercised by US new defence doctrine, shiftingmajority of its military assets to Asia Pacific.Gen Qi, who was elevated to the deputy chief rank in therecent shuffle after a once-in-a-decade leadership change of theruling Communist Party of China (CPC), evinced interest inimproving defence ties with India during his talks with theIndian defence team, headed by defence secretary Shashi KantSharma.The 2.3 million strong PLA is now headed by new CPCleader Xi Jinping who would be taking over as president nextmonth, following the retirement of Hu Jintao.With him, a new political administration formally takes overpower, replacing the decade-old structure headed by Hu.US GOVT SUES S&P OVER MORTGAGE BONDSASSESSMENT AND RATINGSThe US government has launched a civil lawsuit againstStandard & Poor's and parent The McGraw-Hill Companies Incover mortgage bond ratings, the first federal enforcement actionagainst a credit rating agency, over alleged illegal behavior tied tothe recent financial crisis.The government said in a court filing that it was seeking civilmoney penalties from S&P and McGraw Hill."Considerations regarding fees, market share, profits, andrelationships with issuers improperly influenced S&P's ratingcriteria and models," the government said.Shares of McGraw-Hill plunged 13.8 percent after thecompany said that it was expecting the lawsuit, marking theirbiggest one-day percentage decline since the 1987 stock marketcrash, according to Reuters data.The news also caused shares of Moody's Corp, whoseMoody's Investors Service unit is S&P's main rival, to slide 10.7per cent.It is unclear why regulators may now be focusing on S&Prather than Moody's or Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings.S&P, Moody's and Fitch have long faced criticism frominvestors, politicians and regulators for assigning high ratings tothousands of sub-prime and other mortgage securities thatquickly turned sour.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 23

spokesman Daniel Noonan said: "We are unable to comment onthe S&P matter, as it does not involve us, other than to say wehave no reason to believe Fitch is a target of any such action.""Several state attorneys general led by Connecticut's GeorgeJepsen are expected to join the case, said the person familiarwith the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly.""This lawsuit is significant because it could augur futuregovernment action or, even worse for the agencies, morelitigation by investors," said Jeffrey Manns, a law professor atGeorge Washington University in Washington, D.C.A civil case involves a lower burden of proof than a criminalcase would, and could make it easier for investigators to uncoverpotential "smoking guns" through subpoenas, he added.The New York Times reported that talks between the JusticeDepartment and S&P broke down last week after thegovernment sought a settlement of more than $1 billion.No merit to lawsuit, S&P saysS&P said that the expected Justice Department lawsuitfocuses on its ratings in 2007 of various US collateralized debtobligations.The rating agency had previously disclosed a probe by theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into its ratings for a$1.6 billion CDO, known as DelphinusCDO 2007-1. It was notimmediately clear whether that CDO is a focus of the case."A DOJ lawsuit would be entirely without factual or legalmerit," S&P said in a statement. "The DOJ would be wrong incontending that S&P ratings were motivated by commercialconsiderations and not issued in good faith."In a variety of lawsuits brought by investors, S&P hasmaintained that its ratings constitute opinions protected by thefree speech clause of the US Constitution.Justice Department spokeswoman Adora Andy and Moody'sspokesman Michael Adler declined to comment. FitchPrevious lawsuits from Connecticut and Illinois accusedS&P of violating consumer fraud laws by stating its ratings wereobjective, even though it ignored increasing risks of thesecurities in order to cater to the investment banks that providedthe firm with revenue.A spokeswoman for Jepsen declined to comment. The WallStreet Journal first reported the pending charges.The attorney general in New York is continuing a separateprobe of the rating firm, a person familiar with that inquiry said.In the trading on the New York Stock Exchange, McGraw-Hill shares closed down $8.04 at $50.30, and Moody's sharesdropped $5.90 to $49.45.One potential winner in the news of the pending lawsuit isDavid Einhorn, who runs the $8 billion hedge fund GreenlightCapital. Einhorn told Reuters in 2010 that he began shortingMcGraw-Hill and Moody's in 2007, and had no aversionmaintaining those bearish positions in the years to come.Greenlight declined to comment.'Key enablers' of meltdownThe ratings agencies have long been scrutinized, in part,because they are paid by issuers for ratings, a standard industrypractice that has nonetheless raised concern about potentialconflicts of interest.In January 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commissioncalled the agencies "essential cogs in the wheel of financialdestruction" and "key enablers of the financial meltdown."McGraw-Hill had acknowledged last July that the JusticeDepartment and SEC were probing potential violations by S&Ptied to its ratings of structured products, and that it was in talksto try to avert a lawsuit.24 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Last July, Mizuho Financial Group Inc agreed to a $127.5million settlement to resolve SEC allegations that a U.S. unitobtained false credit ratings for the Delphinus CDO.The following month, a Manhattan federal judge refused todismiss a lawsuit brought by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, KingCounty in Washington state, and other investors against S&P,Moody's and Morgan Stanley, over losses in Cheyne, a structuredinvestment vehicle.Cheyne went bankrupt in August 2007. A trial is scheduled tobegin on May 6, court records show.In its statement, S&P said that it "deeply regrets" how itsCDO ratings failed to anticipate the fast-deteriorating mortgagemarket conditions, and that it has since spent $400 million tohelp bolster the quality of its ratings."The lawsuit itself may prove less significant than themessage it sends," said Manns, the law professor. "Filing a highprofilelawsuit against S&P tells the rating industry at large thatthe government is serious about holding rating agenciesresponsible, and that they must be much more careful."RAJAPAKSA RULES OUT TAMIL AUTONOMYSays it will be 'equalrights to all communities'The solution that SriLankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa has inmind for the Tamil questfor a greater say in theirown fate — which he said soon after the war in 2009 that he willreveal at an appropriate time — involves “equal rights to allcommunities”.Ruling out granting minority Tamils of the North anypolitical autonomy as a solution to the three-decades-longethnic conflict, he said that when people lived together in unity,there should be no racial or religious differentiation. “It is notpractical for this country to have different administrations basedon ethnicity. The solution is to live together in this country withequal rights for all communities,” he said.In his address to the nation on the occasion of the Sri LankanIndependence Day from the eastern port town of Trincomalee,Mr. Rajapaksa claimed that though nearly four years had passedsince the Tamil Tigers were routed, Sri Lanka “had to facecontinued challenges to protect the freedom and independenceof our motherland. For this very reason, we have now come to avery strong situation. Similarly, facing up to these challengeshave increased our desire to be committed to our freedom”.Mr. Rajapaksa's announcements come in the same month asthe sitting of the United Nations Human Rights Council beginsin Geneva.The UNHRC's Universal Periodic Review will take stock ofprogress since the last session, and to what extent Sri Lanka hasshown progress on issues related to reconciliation.The United States has announced that it would bring aprocedural resolution in the 2013 UNHRC session — which willmerely be an extension of the resolution against Sri Lanka lastyear — and expects all countries that supported the resolutionthe last time to support it. India had supported the U.S. movelast year.The U.S. move has clearly stumped India. This time around,India is under pressure from Sri Lanka to help it during thesession. India had successfully negotiated the 2009 session ofthe UNHRC on behalf of Sri Lanka. India has maintained thatthe 2012 anti-Sri Lanka vote was because Sri Lanka did notdeliver on most of the commitments that it made in 2009. SriLankan leadership saw the Indian vote against it as an act ofbetrayal.Canada, Great Britain and U.S. lead the international groupfor devolving power to the Tamil minority as a way to achievereconciliation. Sri Lankan leaders have accused leaders in thesecountries of applying pressure in order to garner Tamil votes intheir countriesUK TAKES STEPS TO PULL UP UNFIT COPSPot bellied police officers in the United Kingdom may soonlose 8% of their basic pay or even get removed from the force, iffound unfit.Sweeping reforms being brought about by UK's HomeOffice is all set to make it mandatory for all police officers to passPT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 25

an annual fitness test to ensure that they are healthy enough toprotect themselves and can be deployed to the frontlinewhenever required. An officer who fails three consecutive testswill lose his "X-factor pay" and will be put through theunsatisfactory performance procedures.X-factor, as defined by the Home Office, is "a more robustand equitable process for managing officers on restricted dutiesis needed. Officers in roles that do not utilize the skills or powersof a police officer, or those who cannot be redeployed into publicfacing roles, should lose 8% of their basic pay (up to a maximumof £2,922) after one year on restricted duties . After a secondyear, they should be removed from the force, and offered theopportunity to apply for a police staff job if one is available".UK has got the ball rolling on bringing in radical changes toits police force.EGYPTIANS MARCH IN FRESH PROTESTS NATIONWIDEThousands of Egyptiansmarched across the country,chanting against the rule ofthe Islamist PresidentMohamed Morsi, in a freshwave of protests, even ascracks appeared in theranks of the opposition afterits political leaders met for the first time with the rival MuslimBrotherhood.The protests continue a week of political rioting thatengulfed the country and left up to 60 people dead. The violenceprompted Morsi to declare a state of emergency in three restiveSuez Canal cities, impose a curfew that thousands of the cities'angry residents defied in night rallies, and left him with erodingpopularity in the street.Thousands of protesters in the Mediterranean city of PortSaid at the northern tip of Suez Canal, which witnessed theworst clashes and biggest number of causalities during the pastdays, pumped their fists in the air while chanting, “Leave, leave,Morsi.” They threatened to escalate pressure with civildisobedience and a work stoppage at the vital Suez Canalauthority if their demand for punishment of those responsiblefor protester death was not met.“The people want the Republic of Port Said,” protesterschanted, voicing a wide sentiment among residents that they arefed up of negligence and mistreatment by central governmentand that they want to virtual independence.“Your policy is- I don't hear, I don't talk and I don't see,” reada flyer distributed by protesters.Buses carrying protesters from two other Suez Canal citiesof Suez and Ismailia carried more protesters to the Port Saidrallies.The recent violence first erupted on the eve of the secondanniversary of 2011 uprising that toppled down long-timeauthoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak's regime. It accelerated a daylater when security forces fired at protesters, killing at least 11,most of them in the city of Suez.The next day, riots exploded in Port Said after a courtconvicted and sentenced to death 21 defendants mostly localsfor a mass soccer riot in the city's main stadium a year ago.Residents saw the verdict as politicized. Over the next few days,around 40 people were killed in the city in unrest that sawsecurity forces firing on a funeral.February 1 marks the first anniversary of the mass soccerriot in Port Said that left 74 people dead, mostly fans of Al—Ahly,Egypt's most popular soccer team.Egypt's main opposition political grouping, the NationalSalvation Front, called for protests in Cairo, demanding thatMorsi form a national unity government and amend theconstitution, moves which they say would prevent the Islamistfrom governing solely in the interest of his Muslim Brotherhoodgroup.“The policies of the president and the Muslim Brotherhoodare pushing the country to the brink, but they are adopting thesame language of the old regime and accusing their oppositionof betrayal,” the opposition said in a statement. “Instead ofresponding to the street demands, and working with the rest ofthe national forces that contributed in the revolution to rescuethe nation, they are pointing their arrows to media in order tostifle freedom,” it added26 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

U.S. ECONOMY SHRINKS TO 0.1 %The U.S. economyunexpectedly shrank fromOctober throughDecember for the firsttime since 2009, hurt by thebiggest cut in defencespending in 40 years, fewerexports and sluggishgrowth in companystockpiles. The drop occurred despite stronger consumerspending and business investment.The Commerce Department said that the economycontracted at an annual rate of 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter.That was a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 per cent growth rate inthe July-September quarter.Economists said that the drop in gross domestic product wasnot as bleak as it looked. The weakness was mainly the result ofone-time factors. Government spending cuts and slowerinventory growth, which can be volatile, subtracted a total of 2.6percentage points from GDP.TIMBUKTU REVELS IN NEWFREEDOM BUT FEARS LINGERA leaflet listing the regulations for women under Islamistrule now lies in dirt at the tribunal in Timbuktu. Rule No. 1: Theveil should cover the entire body. Rule No. 4: The veil cannot becolored. And Rule No. 8: The woman should not perfumeherself after putting on the all-enveloping fabric.Several days after French special forces parachuted in andliberated this storied city, there is a growing sense of freedom.However, in the houses immediately facing the Islamic tribunal,many of the 8- and 9-year-old girls are still wearing the headcovering."It is out of fear of the Islamists that they still wear this, saysDiahara Adjanga, the mother of one girl. "They hit everyone -even children."The Islamists seized control of Timbuktu and the othernorthern provincial capitals of Gao and Kidal last April. Duringthe nearly 10 months of theirrule, the al-Qaida-linkedextremists imposed harshregulations for women andpublicly whipped those whowent in public without veils.Across northern Mali,the Islamists stoned to death a couple accused of adultery, andamputated the hands of suspected thieves, in actionsreminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan.The French military launched an intervention to oust theIslamists from power in northern Mali on January 11 and rapidlyforced their retreats from the major towns in less than threeweeks' time.Fatouma Traore, 21, said that there was one commander whowas especially brutal to the women in Timbuktu."We don't want the army to catch him. It's the women whowant to arrest him so that we can kill him ourselves. . Even ifyou're talking to your own blood brother on the stoop of yourhouse, they hit you. Even if you are wearing the veil, and ithappens to slip off, they hit you. This man, Ahmed Moussa, hemade life miserable for women. Even an old grandmother ifshe's not covered up, he would hit her."She picks up her 1-year-old niece and hoists her on one hip,saying: "We even bought a veil for this baby."Timbuktu still looks mostly deserted, four days after it wasliberated from Islamist rule.The electricity and the phone networks remain cut. At night,the only illumination is the light given off by people's cell phonesand the flashlights they have inside shops and hotels.At the entrance to the town, there is a single checkpointmanned by a few Malian soldiers who flag down entering cars.Each car that is allowed to enter the city at night is signaled by awarning shot fired into the air.A French armored personnel carrier stood sentinel in themiddle of the city. In the market, over a dozen shops owned bythe city's Arab population have been gutted, pillaged by thepopulation because the town's Arab citizens were suspected ofhaving been allied with the Islamists.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 27

Some fear that the Islamists will try to stage new attacks asthe French leave. The Malian military said that four soldierswere killed and five others wounded by a land mine on the road toGao, fueling such fears.Modibo Traore said that the deaths took place in Gossi, a citythat had been under the control of Islamists until recently.However, Moussa Traore, a 26-year-old teacher inTimbuktu, said that the sense of freedom already isoverwhelming despite the uncertainty."We were totally deprived of our liberty. We couldn't listen tomusic, we couldn't play soccer. We couldn't wear the clothes wewanted. We couldn't hang out with the girls we liked," he said."Now we can do everything - we can listen to music, we can kick aball, we can flirt. All I can do is say: Thank you God."STATES' VETO POWER WORRIES WAL-MARTWal-Mart and the US government have conveyed theirconcern over the Indian government's move to let Indian statesdecide on the entry of global supermarkets, in what is being seenas an indication of the world's largest supermarket chain'sreluctance to enter the Indian market immediately.The development would come as blow to UPA, whichallowed 51% foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail andcited the veto power with states as major policy flexibility. So far,10 states and Union Territories have agreed to allow foreignretailers to set up shop, with a majority, including Uttar Pradesh,West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, blocking the entry of globalretailers. The fear of a policy reversal along with a change ofgovernment in the state is prompting retailers to go slow on theirIndian plans.Apart from the state-led approach, sources said that theretail giant also has concerns over the clause mandating 30%sourcing from micro, small and medium enterprises —something that even IKEA had problems with and got thegovernment to change the rules for the single-brand business. Ithad also sought a clarification from the Centre whether it couldsource goods from states that did not allow retailers to openstores to meet the 30% stipulation. Commerce & IndustryMinister Anand Sharma had clarified that there were norestrictions on purchasing goods from these states.Further, US authorities have told the government that therules mandating a minimum $100 million investment in backendinfrastructure were unclear and have sought clarifications.For instance, they had asked Indian authorities to explain ifamount invested in buying real estate would be included in theback-end investment calculations.In recent weeks, Wal-Mart executives and US officials havemet Sharma and his officials and discussed issues related to therules for entry of retailers.Wal-Mart did not comment on specific queries. In responseto a questionnaire, a Bharti Wal-Mart spokesperson said, "Weremain excited about the opportunity to grow our business inone of the world's most brilliant economies, expandopportunities for farmers and help lower the cost of living forfamilies in India. Since the government of India announced thenew FDI rule in mid-September of last year, we have continuedto study the requirements placed on FDI in multi-brand retail inorder to better understand how our business would operate in acomplex environment."Wal-Mart was expected to be among the first set of players toenter the Indian market with multi-brand stores since it alreadyhas a 50:50 joint venture with the Bharti group for wholesalecash-and-carry stores, apart from developing infrastructure.However, four months after the government allowed FDI inretail, none of the retailers, including Wal-Mart, have so farfirmed up their plans.INTERNATIONAL COURT ASKS UK TO EXPLAIN1965 ACQUISITION OF DIEGO GARCIAIn a blow to the Britishgovernment, the InternationalCourt of Justice in The Haguehas asked Britain to explain itsdecision to acquire the ChagosIslands in the Indian Oceanfrom Mauritius in 1965 andsub-lease its biggest islandDiego Garcia to the UnitedStates, much to India'sdiscomfort, especially duringthe 1971 Indo-Pak war, whenWashington tilted in favour of Islamabad.28 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

The ICJ rejected the UK's challenge to the court'sjurisdiction and would now be compelled to disclose its rationalefor its secretive move to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius,of which Diego Garcia was turned into a military base by theUnited States. The hearing will be on the basis of the UN law ofthe sea; and the final verdict will be binding on Britain.Legal experts say that fundamental questions like who hassovereignty over the Chagos Islands will arise in the arguments.The Mauritian government officials told the UK's Guardiannewspaper that Britain's disputed claim will unravel and theterritory will return to Mauritius.Classified British government files made public last yearrevealed that the British government apparently hoodwinked itsparliament and public to provide a strategic location for a USmilitary base in Diego Garcia.In a memorandum marked 'Secret and Guard' and datedSeptember 1966, a British official noted that the object ofacquiring and controlling the island was to build "defencefacilities... without hindrance and political agitation".Then PM Edward Heath told aides, "Any discussionbetween the United States and ourselves must remainconfidential." US military presence in the Indian Ocean causedconsiderable concern to India during the Cold War; and formany years, New Delhi opposed American armed forces atDiego Garcia.After purchasing the Chagos archipelago, of which DiegoGarcia is a part, Britain forcibly evicted around 1,500 islanders -deporting them to Mauritius and Seychelles - to pave the way forthe US base.The deportation of Chagos islanders is a matter of allegedhuman rights violation and legal battles in British courts. Adefeat for Britain at the ICJ could result in a return of theislanders to their original habitat.Diego Garcia is used by long range bombers belonging to theUS Air Force and a staging post for missions in Iraq andAfghanistan. It is widely believed that in the event the USembarks on a campaign to eliminate Iran's nuclear plants, DiegoGarcia will certainly be utilized.BOEING 787'S PROBE SHIFTS TO THEMAKER OF THE MONITORING SYSTEMThe joint US-Japanese team, which is investigating into theBoeing Dreamliner's battery problems, has shifted from thebattery-maker to the manufacturer of a monitoring system.Japan Transport Ministryofficial Shigeru Takano saidthat the probe into batterymakerGS Yuasa was over fornow, as no evidence was foundrelating to the source of theproblems.Ministry officials said thatas part of the ongoing investigation, they will be inspectingKanto Aircraft Instrument Co. that makes a system thatmonitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ionbatteries.All 50 of the Boeing 787s in use around the world have beengrounded after one of the jets operated by All Nippon Airwaysmade an emergency landing in Japan earlier this month due tooverheating of the main battery.Earlier in January, a battery of ANA's 787 Dreamliner caughtfire while parked at Boston's Logan International Airport.Share appreciatesGS Yuasa shares jumped after news of shifting of the probeto the system maker, gaining nearly 5 per cent in Tokyo trading.The scrip had plunged 12 per cent after the battery problemssurfaced in Japan.Ministry officials stopped short of saying that Kanto'smonitoring system was under any special scrutiny, saying that itwas part of an ongoing investigation.“We are looking into affiliated parts makers,” Takano said.Kyoto-based GS Yuasa declined to comment, noting that theinvestigation was still underway.The Boeing 787 is the first jet to make wide use of lithiumionbatteries, the kind usually found in laptops and othergadgets. They are prone to overheating and require additionalsystems to avoid fires.Investigators have been looking at the remnants of the ANAflight's charred battery, but it is unclear whether the battery or arelated part was behind its overheating.Deliveries of the Dreamliner were three years behindschedule because of manufacturing delays. Much of the aircraftis made by outside manufacturers, many of them major Japanesecompanies, who make about 35 per cent of the plane.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 29

Timbuktu revels in newfreedom but fears lingerAleaflet listing the regulations forwomen under Islamist rule nowlies in dirt here at the tribunal inTimbuktu. Rule No. 1: The veil shouldcover the entire body. Rule No. 4: The veilcannot be colored. And Rule No. 8: Thewoman should not perfume herself afterputting on the all-enveloping fabric.Several days after French special forcesparachuted in and liberated this storiedcity, there is a growing sense of freedom. Though in the housesimmediately facing the Islamic tribunal, many of the 8- and 9-year-old girls are still wearing the head covering."It is out of fear of the Islamists that they still wear this, saysDiahara Adjanga, the mother of one girl. "They hit everyone -even children."The Islamists seized control of Timbuktu and the othernorthern provincial capitals of Gao and Kidal last April. Duringthe nearly 10 months of their rule, the al-Qaida-linkedextremists imposed harsh regulations for women and publiclywhipped those who went in public without veils.Across northern Mali, the Islamists stoned to death a coupleaccused of adultery, and amputated the hands of suspectedthieves in actions reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan.The French military launched an intervention to oust theIslamists from power in northern Mali on Jan. 11 and rapidlyforced their retreats from the major towns in less than threeweeks' time.Fatouma Traore, 21, said that there was one commander whowas especially brutal to the women in Timbuktu."We don't want the army to catch him. It's the women whowant to arrest him so that we can kill him ourselves. . Even ifyou're talking to your own blood brother on the stoop of yourhouse, they hit you. Even if you are wearing the veil, and ithappens to slip off, they hit you. This man, Ahmed Moussa, hemade life miserable for women. Even anold grandmother if she's not covered up, hewould hit her."She picks up her 1-year-old niece andhoists her on one hip, saying: "We evenbought a veil for this baby."Timbuktu still looks mostly deserted,four days after it was liberated fromIslamist rule.The electricity and the phone networks remain cut. At night,the only illumination is the light given off by people's cell phonesand the flashlights they have inside shops and hotels.At the entrance to the town, there is a single checkpointmanned by a few Malian soldiers who flag down entering cars.Each car that is allowed to enter the city at night is signaled by awarning shot fired into the air.A French armored personnel carrier on Thursday stoodsentinel in the middle of the city. In the market, over a dozenshops owned by the city's Arab population have been gutted,pillaged by the population because the town's Arab citizens weresuspected of having been allied with the Islamists.Some fear the Islamists will try to stage new attacks as theFrench leave. On Thursday, the Malian military said foursoldiers were killed and five others wounded by a land mine onthe road to Gao, fueling such fears.Modibo Traore said the deaths took place in Gossi, a city thathad been under the control of Islamists until recently.However, Moussa Traore, a 26-year-old teacher inTimbuktu, said the sense of freedom already is overwhelmingdespite the uncertainty.“We were totally deprived of our liberty. We couldn't listen tomusic, we couldn't play soccer. We couldn't wear the clothes wewanted. We couldn't hang out with the girls we liked," he said."Now we can do everything - we can listen to music, we can kick aball, we can flirt. All I can do is say: Thank you God."30 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Vishwaroopam: A riveting spy thrillerIn content and technical finesse, thefilm Vishwaroopam breaks new groundfor regional cinema. In these troubledtimes, it must be emphasised that the filmdoes not hurt sentiments of anycommunity.Everyone here has a double role to play,Andrea Jeremiah tells Pooja Kumar at acrucial juncture in the film. KamalHaasan's Vishwaroopam is a technically brilliant, ambitious filmwhere most characters are not what they seem. The actordirectordeals with an international espionage drama through alayered screenplay, trusting the intelligence of his audience toconnect the different threads of the story.Vishwanath (Kamal Haasan) is a Kathak teacher who liveswith his wife Nirupama (Pooja Kumar), a nuclear oncologist, inNew York. Nirupama confides that it's a marriage of conveniencethat provided her a safe shelter while she pursued her Ph.D inthe U.S. The age gap between them notwithstanding, she is putoff by Vishwanath's effeminate traits. She smells somethingfishy about her husband and hires a private investigator to trailhis every move.In a sudden turn of events, the investigator gets killed by amember of a terrorist outfit. A visiting card on his purse givesaway the names of Vishwanath and Nirupama and the terrorgroup nabs the couple. The outfit operates from a warehouseand is headed by Omar (Rahul Bose), severely injured from thepast.Omar and Vishwanath have a past, one that takes the storyback by almost a decade, to the Al Qaeda training camps inAfghanistan. What follows is a maze of events that go back andforth in time, unravelling an international spy thriller that keepsyou guessing for most parts.Nirupama is stunned to discover the true identity of herhusband, his uncle (a cameo by Shekar Kapur) and the youngdancer (Andrea Jeremiah) at her husband'sdance school. Together, they try to counterthe plans of Omar and his group that coulddestroy New York.Vishwaroopam is engaging, keeps youengrossed and as you try to make asemblance of the puzzle, several questionsarise. Kamal Haasan sets up an interestingpremise for part 2.Sanu Varghese's spectacular cinematography becomes asimportant as the actors in this thriller. The camera takes us intothe dangerous alleys of New York and the muddy, rugged terrainof Afghanistan. In the opening sequence involving pigeons,Varghese captures the mood of the birds giving us a hint of anominous force at work.The songs composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy gel withthe narrative of the film and the trio experiments with differentgenres to offset the mood in Afghanistan.Pooja Kumar is expressive and convincing as a young womancoming to terms with her husband's identity all of a sudden.Andrea Jeramiah has a smaller role and according to the makers,she has a crucial role in Vishwaroopam 2. Rahul Bose ismenacing, with his tarnished look and damaged voice makinghim appear more evil.Kamal Haasan morphs from one identity to the other withease, like he's done several times in the past. He draws chuckleswith his effeminate gestures and delivers an understatedperformance in the Afghan segment.It's a film that needs to be watched closely to follow thedifferent aspects of the story. The graphic violence in somesequences make it unfit for viewing by children.Vishwaroopam is a good watch for a discerning movie lover.32 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Current EventsBusiness and economyBANKS MAY HAVE TO REISSUE LAKHS OF CREDIT CARDSThere is, however, hope forconsumers who feel that theyhave been cheated. Bankingsources say that where it isestablished that the consumeris not at fault, they don't have tobear the loss. However, there issubstantial inconvenience tothe consumer, as the amount is kept pending until investigationsare complete.Banks on the other hand may have to reissue lakhs of cardswhich have been compromised and replace existing cards muchahead of their expiry date.In some cases, the card issuing banks are protected byinsurance if the fraud amount crosses a certain level if they havepurchased covers. The bank's contracts with the credit cardpayment companies Visa and MasterCard also provides forreversal of charges if the merchant has not taken precautions.All top credit card issuers-ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank,Citibank, SBI Cards and Axis Bank-have been affected by thesefrauds. "ICICI Bank has noticed that certain fraudulenttransactions have taken place in the last few weeks across someoverseas merchant terminals on credit cards that have beenskimmed. This is not specific to ICICI Bank; it's across thecredit card industry. ICICI Bank has taken measures to protectits customers whose credit cards might have beencompromised, by issuing new cards to them," ICICI Bank said ina statement.Although RBI does not investigate the frauds, it doesprescribe standards for the card industry. To enhance securityfeatures, the central bank has asked banks to move to chip-basedcards by June 2013, for those who use cards in internationaltransactions. RBI has also said that it will decide whether tomake chip-based cards mandatory, depending on the progress ofAadhaar, which, if successfully rolled out, would provide anotherlevel of security through biometric identification.Bankers said that it was not possible to classify all thecontested transactions as fraudulent. "We have had cases wherethe cardholder could not identify the name of the company in hisbilling statement. But that customer apologized later when herecalled the transaction," said a bank official. They said that thetrue extent of fraud could be known only after each of the cases isinvestigated.Citi, another large issuer which has also been hit by suchfrauds, did not comment on the magnitude of such cases."Citibank is committed to providing enhanced security forcustomer transactions across all channels, including credit anddebit cards, at all times. In keeping with this objective, Citibankis amongst the first banks to issue Chip + PIN credit cards inthe country for higher security. The bank has also invested inrobust controls including advanced transaction monitoringsystem (with real-time monitoring capability), process of callback to customers for high-risk transactions, proactive reissuanceof cards at risk as well as conducting regular customerand merchant education programmes," Citi said.IndusInd Bank, meanwhile, has experienced a fraud on itspre-paid card. The fraud was a result of hacking done on theECS network of systems, using a malware. The bank believesthe hacking to have been the work of an international fraudsyndicate."There is no impact to any of our customers. The malwarehas been identified and removed. External consultants havebeen hired to investigate this incident and steps taken to securetheir systems basis advice from them. Monitoring controls havebeen enhanced including using the fraud prevention systems ofthe Associations" a spokesperson said.According to SBI Cards, the company immediately blocks acard when it gets information on a fraud."We analyze and try to identify a common fraud and tend tonarrow down on the possible compromise point andsubsequently block the suspected merchant to pre-empt anyfurther misuse or fraudulent activity," it said. It added that it alsoinforms the payment network (Visa and MasterCard).PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 33

TAXES WILL BE COLLECTED IN JUST ANDFAIR MANNER: FINANCE MINISTRYFinance Ministry assured taxpayers that efforts would bemade to end hostile relationships between officials andassessees and collect revenue in a "just and fair manner"."Once the tax payer is confident that the relationshipbetween a tax payer and officer is not a hostile relationship, you(tax officers) will find that more and more people have becomecompliant to tax laws," Finance Minister P Chidambaram saidwhile addressing officials of Central Board of Excise andCustoms.Chidambaram has been insisting that government needed tofollow a non-adversarial tax administration to avoid litigations."We will stick to the fiscal targets that the government has fixedfor us. We will collect revenues, but again in a just and fairmanner," Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose said.The Finance Ministry is under pressure to improve revenuecollection to contain fiscal deficit to 5.3% of GDP in the currentfinancial year.IS CHINA CHANGING?While still at the top of the GPgrowth table, the Chinese economyseems to be on a long-term traversefrom a trajectory with extremelyhigh growth rates to one wheregrowth is more moderate.According to the National Bureauof Statistics (NBS), Chinese GDPgrowth, year-on-year, which hadfallen from 8.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, to 7.6 per centin the second and 7.4 per cent in the third quarter, had bouncedback to 7.9 per cent in the last quarter of that year. But the goodnews may not be this sign of revival, but rather that GDP growthrates in China seem to be in long-term decline. Growth hadspiked in China when the government launched a $585 billionstimulus package in response to the 2008 crisis, which drove theyear-on-year quarterly growth rate from 6.6 per cent in the firstquarter of 2009 to 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2010. Animportant source of that acceleration in GDP growth was a spikein debt-financed construction activity at the provincial level,facilitated by an easy credit policy encouraged by thegovernment.The deceleration in growth began when the governmentdecided that the rise in growth rates had gone too far. In a twostep process starting in the second quarter of 2010, year-on-yearquarterly growth rates have fallen from 12.1 per cent in the firstquarter of 2012 to below 10 per cent between quarters endingSeptember 2010 and September 2011, below 9 per cent in thesubsequent two quarters and below 8 per cent in the last threequarters of 2012. China's annual rate of GDP growth of 7.8 percent in 2012 was also among the lowest that it had registered in13 years.One reason why slowing growth seems positive in China'scase is because high rates of growth were seen as beingassociated with overheating, reflected in a combination of boutsof consumer price inflation and a housing price bubble.Periodically, the government had to rein in demand throughadministrative measures that curbed bank lending andinvestment expenditures by public sector corporations.However, the problem being structural and linked to investmentdecision-making and financing in China, recurred once centralgovernment surveillance was relaxed, necessitating anotherround of administrative intervention. The long-term slow downmay be indicative of the beginnings of successful structuraladjustment to address the problem.An indication that this transformation is underway is partlyprovided by data showing that the importance of investment indriving GDP growth has been declining while the role ofconsumption has been increasing. With investmentcontributing more than 50 per cent of GDP in recent times,China had emerged as the classic instance of an economy withexcess investment, where investment was induced by perceivedmarket demand and not demand constrained to the same degreeas in a conventional capitalist economy. According to theFinancial Times, "The ghost cities, empty apartment buildingsand unused convention centres that dot the country are thephysical manifestations of this excessive investment, andinvestors remain concerned that much of it will translate intobad debts for the banking sector."Now there is evidence of a shift from investment toconsumption. Data from the NBS indicate that during 2011 and2012, consumption expenditure contributed 56 per cent and 52per cent of growth respectively, while investment contributed 49and 50 per cent. The global recession had resulted in a negativecontribution of 4 and 3 per cent from net exports. These figurescompare with an 88 per cent contribution of investment, 50 percent of consumption and a negative 37 per cent from net exportsin 2009. The Chinese government that has been making a strongcase for “rebalancing” growth welcomes this shift toconsumption as the principal stimulus to growth.Evidence suggesting that this trajectory was unsustainablewas also coming from the financial sector, with incomplete datapointing to a major role for credit from China's version of the34 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

"shadow banking" sector in financing a investment, housing andconstruction boom. Shadow finance varies from credit from loansharks to small and medium businesses to investments in realestate and "prestige projects" of provincial governments, withfunds mobilized through financial trusts and wealthmanagement products marketed by banks to rich investors.Since these investments promise high returns, the projectsinvolved are risky and unlikely to yield promised returns. Theresulting instances of financial failure are forcing thegovernment to rein in this activity as well, since estimates of thevolume of investments made with “shadow finance” vary from25 to 50 per cent of GDP. With regulation turning stricter, aslowdown of investment and growth is inevitable.The reversal of the trajectory of high growth driven by excessinvestment has another positive side to it. According to figureson inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient which variesfrom 0, reflecting a situation of complete equality, and 1, orextreme inequality, with just one person in the populationhaving all the income) released by the Chinese government forthe first time, inequality rose when growth was high and fellwhen it slowed. This may be because measures to reduceinequality divert resources away from investment or becausereduced inequality favours consumption over investment. Ineither case, the outcome implies significant welfare gains.According to an article in the online edition of the People'sDaily, “China's first release of the Gini coefficient for the pastdecade demonstrated the government's resolve to bridge the gapbetween the rich and poor.” Though, the Gini has been falling, itis at 0.474, well above the red line of 0.4 set by the UnitedNations. According to Ma Jiantang, director of the NBS, "Thestatistics highlighted the urgency for our country to speed upthe income distribution reforms to narrow the wealth gap." Ifthat happens, consumption may rise and growth slow further.But China's new leadership seems to think that is the way to go.Slower growth may be upsetting the Indian government, but itseems to be a sign of achievement in China.COAL INDIA PACT WITH 11 COMPANIES UNDERVIGILANCE LENSCoal India Ltd (CIL) hasgone out of its way to sign fuelsupply pacts with 11companies, including allegedCoalgate beneficiaries, evenbefore these firms reachedthe qualifying milestones such as acquiring land, the state-runmonopoly's internal anti-corruption watchdog has said.In a report to the coal ministry, CIL's CVO (chief vigilanceofficer) Manoj Kumar said that supply pacts for 5,935 mw — orone-and-a-half times of the national capital's daily requirement— have either been inked or cleared for signing in spite of"deficiencies in documents".A fuel supply agreement (FSA) holds the key to disbursal ofinstitutional funding for power projects. Lenders do not releasemoney till a project arranges assured fuel supply. That's whyCoal India's LoA (letter of assurance) to promoters lays downclear milestones to check fly-by-night operators or diversion offunds.Coming at a time when the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) and the Supreme Court are looking at the comptrollerand auditor general's ( CAG) report on coal block allotment —which has come to be known as the Coalgate report — thevigilance report indicates how CIL has failed to get the messageagainst giving undue benefit to corporate houses.The vigilance report found three broad categories whereterms of signing FSAs have fallen short. One, where the projectis yet to acquire land or complete the transfer. Two, wherepromoters are yet to arrange financing for the project or achievefinancial closure; and three, where a case has been referred backto CIL over commitment guarantee.Eight private sector projects figure in the vigilance report.Three of them — the Adhunik, Tata and SKS groups — alsofigure in the Coalgate report's list of coal block allottees.Reliance Power's Rosa power plant too is among the 11 FSAsunder vigilance lens.The federal auditor's report on the Sasan ultra-mega powerproject — being built by Reliance Power in public partnership —had said that the company benefited from the government'sdecision to allow diversion of surplus captive coal.There are three projects that are being promoted by centralgeneration utility NTPC, DVC (formerly Damodar ValleyCorporation) and UP Power Corporation Ltd.Report just 'nitpicking'Executives of CIL and some of the identified companiesdismissed the vigilance report as "nitpicking". "You know howvigilance works. There are public sector companies also in thelist. But, of course, we are looking at the report," a senior CILexecutive said on condition of anonymity.Other CIL executives said that the discrepancies pointedout in the vigilance report were "procedural" matters. "In some ofPT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 35

these cases, promoters have given provisional letters fromlenders and such like. These are ongoing processes," anothersenior CIL executive said.The executives clarified that about half of these pacts weresigned before the initiative taken by the Prime Minister's Office(PMO) to resolve issues regarding fuel supplies to the powersector. The LoA route introduced in the new coal distributionpolicy of 2007 provides for assured supply of coal to developers,provided they meet stipulated milestones.JET-ETIHAD DEAL ENTERS FINAL PHASEThe Jet-Etihad dealentered its final phase whenthe managements of boththese prospective partnersmet aviation and commerceministers and are now slatedto meet finance minister PChidambaram. Aviation minister Ajit Singh said after meetingJet founder NareshGoyal and Etihad CEO James Hogan that hedid not see any problems in the deal as long as it met allregulatory requirements."The government's role is to make sure that whateveragreement they come to is within the regulatory framework.Unless the deal is signed and approved, we can't say the deal isdone. But I don't see any problems... This is a very good move...that Jet and Etihad are talking about a deal. Our concern is thatthe aviation sector in India should grow and that the competitionshould also grow," Ajit Singh said.The main issue that needs to be resolved is that Jet is 80%owned by Naresh Goyal's OCB and the government has allowedFDI in airlines to the extent of 49%. So the ownership pattern,post Etihad investment, will need to fulfil the norms.Like all Indian carriers, Etihad - which is reported to beeying an investment of close to $330 million in picking up a 24%stake in Jet in the first round of investment - also spoke of highoperating cost for airlines with the aviation ministry. Aviationconsulting firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) expectsthe airline to raise its stake to 49% at a later stage."Any foreign airline investing money has many concerns. Onthe policy, what's the cost structure, because they are going toput in money to make money out of it (investment). They havebeen discussing this deal for over a month," Ajit Singh said.While the indicative deal price values Jet at $1.4 billion, a35% premium from its current market capitalization, CAPAestimates that Etihad is getting a long-term strategic asset at avery attractive level. Jet is a "highly valuable medium" to gainentry into one of he fastest growing markets of the world."Etihad is expected to secure a seat on the board of Jet. As aresult, Naresh Goyal will for the first time relinquish completecontrol and influence over the airline and move to a sharedmanagement structure. This will bring a new set of skills to thebusiness, a positive development for Jet, as it prepares for itsnext phase of growth," the CAPA paper said.Forward Markets Commission lays down stringentnorms for algorithm tradesHigh frequency trades have at timesresulted in choppy trades in the capitalmarkets, but what perhaps wentunnoticed was the spread of algorithmsto the commodity futures market, wheretrades by virtue of higher leverage tend tobe riskier than those in stocks.Now, for the first time, the commodity futures marketregulator- Forward Markets Commission (FMC) - is layingdown the rules of the game for algo trading in gold, silver and ahost of agri futures commodities.Some of these norms, like penalising brokers using algos forflooding the market with orders which do not result into trades,are common to capital markets while others, such as debarringbrokers from setting up servers alongside exchange servers oreven in close proximity, are unique to the commodity markets."The broad norms will apply from April 1 this year," RameshAbhishek, chairman, FMC, said. The broad algo norms, headded, have been introduced to prevent manipulative tradingand to ensure liquidity and that genuine market participants arenot "sucked out" of the markets.The uniform norms become all the more important in thecontext of the 70,000-80,000 crore average daily volumes on thecommodity futures market, which comprise five national leveland 15 regional bourses. For instance, said Abhishek, around afifth of volumes on metals and energy bourse MCX - which hasan 85% market share - and close to a tenth of volumes on agribourse NCDEX - which has an around 10% market share - aregenerated by algos.FMC's most important directive to exchanges is todisapprove any programme which sucks out liquidity from themarket. Liquidity can be sucked out by algos generating a large36 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

number of orders, which do not translate into trades, or bybrokers flooding the system with orders which don't getconverted into trades."Sometimes huge orders at fast speeds are placed withoutgetting converted to trades to only influence market behaviour.The strategy could be, say, to manipulate prices with a view toselling a commodity after prices have risen. That is absolutely ano-go, we have told bourses," Abhishek said.To prevent these practices, exchanges have been asked topenalise brokers who place huge orders not resulting intotrades. These fines will be over and above the transaction coststhat exchanges collect from brokers. For instance, a fine of 1paise an order will be imposed on every order between 50 andless than 250 orders which do not get converted into a trade. A 5-paise fine per order will be levied between 250 and less than 500orders. In case 500 or more orders are placed without conversioninto trades, the concerned broker will not be allowed to place anyorder for the first 15 minutes on the next trading day.Brokers will not be able to place more than 20 orders persecond. The FMC has left it to exchanges to give disincentives tobrokers against exceeding the limit.Brokers in the capital market are allowed to place theirservers on racks next to the exchange servers for substantialpayment. The practice, called co-location, allows few membersfaster access to the exchange server than participants who donot co-locate servers, which can benefit, say, arbitrageurs whoexploit price difference between same assets traded on differentmarkets much quicker. FMC has said no to such a practice,which puts some members at a disadvantage to others.An order once placed will not be cancelled immediately andall algo orders will have to be routed through member serverslocated in India through a computer-to-computer link fromwhere they will be uploaded on the exchange server. What thismeans is that no client order can be directly routed to theexchange server unless it passes through the broker's mainserver connected to the exchange.LENDERS CAUTIOUS IN CUTTING INTEREST RATESLenders made some guarded cuts in interest rates a day afterbank chiefs promised Reserve Bank of India governor DSubbarao that they will pass on the benefits of reduction inpolicy rates to borrowers. While HDFC Bank and Federal Bankhave brought down auto loan rates, State Bank of India cut itsBase Rate by 5 basis points. Union Bank of India announced thatit has extended till March 2013 its festival offer of waivingprocessing fees on auto and home loans.HDFC Bank broughtdown interest rates onauto loans from 10.75% to10.5% and on commercialvehicles from 11.25% to11%. Kerala-basedFederal Bank alsoannounced a sharpreduction in its auto loansfrom 11.7% earlier to10.45%. State Bank of India's slicing off 5 basis points from itsBase Rate will have a tiny impact on most individual borrowers.However, with this reduction, SBI's Base Rate is now on a parwith HDFC Bank, which has been vying with SBI for the numberone position in market capitalization and is the most valuableprivate bank."We have a Rs.10 lakh crore balance sheet and we wanted topass on the benefit uniformly across all borrowers — old andnew — so that there is no heartburn," said SBI chairman PratipChaudhuri. "After this rate cut, interest rate for borrowers withloans up to Rs.30 lakh will be 9.95%, back in single digits after avery long time." According to Chaudhuri, rates are unlikely to fallfurther. "Some banks are raising deposit rates."Chaudhuri had said that the bank would pass on the benefitof the reduction in cash reserve ratio and the repo rate to itsborrowers. Chaudhuri had said that the benefit was to the extentof Rs.300 crore and the bank had that much headroom to bringdown borrowing costs.SBI has gross advances of Rs.9,56,000 crore and a reductionin Base Rate will bring down the return on a large chunk of theseloans.Besides the difficulty in bringing down lending rates withouta corresponding reduction in deposit rates, the asset-liabilitycommittee also took into account that the bank would have to setaside a large chunk of its earnings for provisions towardsrestructured loans, bad loans and for a likely increase in salaries.All these pressures would put pressure on the bank's net interestmargins.Following the RBI announcement of a 25 basis pointreduction in both the repo rate and the cash reserve ratio, twolenders — IDBI Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland — broughtdown their Base Rates. While IDBI Bank cut its base rate by 25basis points to 10.25%, RBS brought lowered its benchmark rateto 9% from 9.75%.Other lenders such as Central Bank of India will take a call oninterest rates soon when the bank's asset-liability managementcommittee meets to review lending rates.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 37

RBI REITERATES DEMAND FOR STRONG ANDEFFECTIVE SUPPLY SIDE RESPONSEAsks banks to be discerning in their loan decisions andensure adequate credit flow to productive sectors of theeconomyTOYOTA TO RECALL 1.1 MILLION CARSGLOBALLY FOR DEFECTSToyota Motor Corp will recall 1.1 million cars globally fordefects, including 752,000 Corolla and Corolla Matrix vehicles,in the United States to fix airbags that could be deployedinadvertently, the automaker said.The airbag problems have caused minor injuries such asabrasions in 18 cases that have been reported, Toyota spokesmanNaoto Fuse said. Two accidents have been reported bycustomers outside Japan, although Toyota has not been able toconfirm them, he said.An IC chip in the airbag control unit can malfunction when itreceives electrical interference from other parts in the car,causing the airbags to deploy when it is not necessary, Fuse said.Toyota will add an electrical signal filter to the airbag controlmodule to the recalled vehicles -- repairs expected to take anhour to hour-and-a-half, he said.The spokesman declined to disclose the costs involved.Separately, Toyota will also recall 385,000 Lexus IS and itsseries, including 270,000 Lexus IS vehicles, in the United Statesover wiper problems, Fuse said.The wiper arm nut of the front wiper in these vehicles maynot be tight enough and the wiper may not work under certainweather occasions, including in snow.Toyota will exchange the nut in repairs that will take about 30minutes, Fuse said.Even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) addressed the risinggrowth concerns by reducing the key rates, it yet again reiteratedits often-articulated demand for a “strong and effective supplyside response” to bridge the gaps in the infrastructure area, andcorrect structural imbalances in the economy, especially in keyfood articles.Asserting that a “credible and comprehensive” fiscaladjustment by the government was critical in this regard, theapex bank reinforced its call for structural reforms. Theapproval process had to be hastened, and the governanceimproved to inspire trust among investors.“The RBI, on its part, will have to calibrate monetary policyto the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, and the managementof the twin-deficit risks,” D. Subbarao, Governor of the ReserveBank, said while releasing the Third Quarter Review ofMonetary Policy 2012-13. In this context, the Governor made itclear that the economy needed new investment 'most urgently'.The Governor also listed a number of major risks to themanagement of the economy. He was particularly worried thatthe widening current account deficit (CAD), read in tandemwith the huge fiscal deficit, could expose the economy to “twindeficit risks”. While financing CAD with risky flows could pushthe economy into further vulnerable zone, the fiscal deficit couldcrowd out private investment and “stunt growth impulses,” theRBI felt. The apex bank said that the global risks remained'elevated'. These had the potential to spill over to the Indianeconomy, it warned. It underscored the urgency in removingsupply constraints, and clearing the negative investmentclimate.The RBI admitted that the “risk aversion in the bankingsystem stemming from concerns relating to growing nonperformingassets is constraining credit flow”. It, however,asked banks to be discerning in their loan decisions and ensureadequate credit flow to productive sectors of the economy.38 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

The trial and verdict ofDavid Coleman Headley in the USA FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE COURT PROCEEDINGSIt happened the instant I took my seat in the large, well-litcourtroom of District Judge Harry Leinenweber. Until thatpoint I had been too busy with logistics, dealing withChicago's icy flurries and simply focused on ensuring that I got achance to witness the remarkable proceedings that were aboutto unfold before me.But the moment I finally sat down in that room and a tall,well-built man in grey track pants and sweatshirt walked in, I wasleft with little doubt about how momentous the next 90 minuteswere going to be. Standing ramrod straight with legs slightlyapart and hands behind his back, military-style, was none otherthan Daood Gilani, aka David Coleman Headley.In 90 minutes from that point, he would be handed asentence of 35 years, as recommended by the U.S. Departmentof Justice. In 90 minutes from that point, the broken families andfriends of 166 victims of his terror in Mumbai would have to findsome way to cope with that reality. But beyond those 90 minutes,would India be able to come to terms with a sentence mostIndians regard as lenient?One thing is for sure — the intensity of emotion surroundingthis case from its early days has been unprecedented. Ever sincethe web of deceit that Headley wove masterfully around multipleagencies across the world came unravelled, difficult questionswere raised about why the U.S. permitted Headley to travel toIndia even after his family and associates warned authoritiesabout his terror links.Indian law enforcement also found itself in a frustratingmorass of dead ends over fervent appeals to have Headleyextradited under existing treaties that New Delhi has withWashington. Although India's National Investigative Agency waspermitted seven days' access to the terror mastermind in earlyJune 2010, the plea bargain that the U.S. Department of Justicestruck with Headley precluded any prospect of continuing hisinterrogation on Indian soil.Kicking off the proceedings, U.S. Attorneys Daniel Collinsand Sarah Streicker argued that they concurred that a crime thathad various been called “despicable,” “shocking,” “deplorable,”and so forth required a punishment of appropriate magnitude.Yet under what is known as Guideline 5K1.1 of the FederalSentencing Guidelines Manual, the prosecution noted that thecourt may allow “downward departure” from guidelines thatrequire, for example, life imprisonment, when the defendanthas “provided substantial assistance in the investigation orprosecution of another person who has committed an offence.”Thus it was that both the U.S. Attorneys argued for 35 years.A footnote that appeared to escape the notice of many was theU.S. Department of Justice's press release on the sentence,according to which “Defendants must serve at least 85 per cent40 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

of their sentence.” Lead prosecutor Gary Shapiro also said in apost-sentencing media briefing that Headley, now 52 years ofage, may be in his 70s when released, suggesting that he mightescape with even less time in jail than 35 years.But Headley's defence lawyers took it one step further. Theyargued that given that Headley was 52 years of age and a 35-yearsentence would in effect be a life sentence, a lower sentencewould send the correct signal to future defendants in terrorcases who were considering whether to cooperate with lawenforcement rather than plead not guilty and go to trial.Judge Leinenweber wasted little time in pushing past thedefence's arguments, noting that Headley continued to pose adanger to society as evidenced by his view, shared with hisLashkar-i-Taiba comrade Sajid Mir, that “all Danes” wereresponsible for the offending cartoons in Danish magazineJyllands-Posten and hence were legitimate targets. Reflecting onthe parallel in the Mumbai attacks, Headley had said that “allIndians” were responsible for the death of Pakistanis inKashmir.However, when the judge suggested that the “downwarddeparture” that was being requested for Headley would not keepsociety at large safe from any future actions of the man,Headley's defence lawyers Robert Seeder and John Thomasargued that this was still too harsh, from the point of view of codefendantTahawwur Rana receiving 14 years in prison despitenot entering into a plea bargain with the U.S. government asHeadley did.Defence arguments also sought mitigation based on thepurported remorse that Headley felt after the incident, theinterest he had expressed in “American values and the Americanway of life,” and the fact that he confessed to his role in theMumbai attacks even before authorities realised that the manthat they had arrested in 2009 in connection to the Danish plotwas also behind the Indian tragedy.Their arguments were met with what appeared to bescepticism by the judge, who reminded the defence that Headleyexpressed profound remorse after being arrested for heroinpossession in 1988 and then again for a similar crime 11 yearslater. His request for clemency in a letter petitioning JudgeLeinenweber was not being taken seriously, it was obvious.Then came the most poignant moment of the entireproceeding when Linda Ragsdale, a survivor of the attack on theOberoi hotel in Mumbai, described the cold horror of being shotin the back, even as her friends lay bleeding around her, afterbeing hit with “a barrage of bullets so intense that waves of heatclouded” her vision.The bullet that hit her missed her heart by a quarter of aninch but travelled all the way through her body and exited at thetop of her thigh, she said, describing the sheer heroism of thecooks in the restaurant who braved the bullets to drag her outthrough a backdoor.Speaking of the killing of 13-year-old Naomi and her fatherAlan by her side, Ms. Ragsdale said, “I know what a bullet coulddo to every part of the human body... I know the sound of lifeleaving a 13-year-old child. These are things I never needed toknow, never needed to experience.” Headley did not flinchthroughout the entire reading of multiple victim accounts from atearful Ms. Ragsdale.Hearing the victim accounts, however, what came to mymind were the faces of the many hundreds of our own that wouldnever been seen here in Chicago, the voices that would never beheard in this courtroom, the lives forever ripped apart by whatcan only be described as a calculated brutality.In the face of the continued suffering of victim families inIndia, pressure is building on the Government of India to notpassively accept the outcome of the Headley case that has beenthrust upon it.Although the U.S. government's plea bargain with Headleyhas effectively slammed the door shut on New Delhi's face, theremay be legal and diplomatic means to gradually re-open thatdoor. Mr. Shapiro said after the sentencing that the plea bargainwould be voided if Headley was considered to be not fullycooperating — a potential loophole to exploit to put theextradition option back on the table.Also questions about undisclosed reasons why the U.S. hassought to so indefatigably protect its adopted citizen from facinga more honest justice in India are likely to be asked again. Afterall, Headley's intimate embroilment as an informant to the U.S.Drug Enforcement Agency must have left him with powerfulinfluence within the machinery of the administration.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 41

South Korea joins global spaceclub with satellite launchSouth Korea succeeded in its thirdattempt to put a satellite into orbit, ina high-stakes test of national pride,after arch-rival North Korea got there firstwith a rocket launch last month.The 140-tonne Korea Space LaunchVehicle (KSLV-I) blasted off at 4:00 pm(0700 GMT) from the Naro Space Centeron the south coast, reaching its target altitude nine minutes laterand deploying its payload satellite.A positive outcome after successive failures in 2009 and 2010was critical to ensuring the future of South Korea's launchprogramme and realising its ambition of joining an elite globalspace club.Scientists and officials at the space centre cheered,applauded and hugged each other as the satellite was released.In the capital, hundreds gathered in front of a giant televisionscreen in the main train station cheered as the rocket blasted off,and again when the satellite deployment was confirmed.“After analysing various data, the Naro rocket successfullyput the science satellite into designated orbit," Science MinisterLee Ju-Ho told reporters at the space centre. "This is thesuccess of all our people," Lee said.Initially scheduled for October 26, the launch had been twicepostponed for technical reasons. The delay meant that rivalNorth Korea was able to claim a rare technological victory overthe South by launching a satellite into orbit on a three-stagerocket on December 12.South Korea was a late entrant to the high-cost world ofspace technology and exploration, and repeated failures hadraised questions over the viability of the launch programme."This success has put the country's entire rocketryprogramme back on track," said independent space analystMorris Jones."They were under enormous pressure, given the earlierfailures and the North's success last month, and this will givethem confidence and, of course, securecritical political and financial support forthe future," Jones said.But South and North Korea remain waybehind Asian powers with a proven trackrecord of multiple launches -- China, Japanand India.The North's launch was condemned bythe international community as a disguised ballistic missile test,resulting in tightened UN sanctions that in turn triggered athreat by Pyongyang to carry out a nuclear test.The mission was the last under the South's currentagreement with Russia, which agreed to provide the first stagefor a maximum of three rockets.Seoul's space ambitions were restricted for many years by itsmain military ally the United States, which feared that a robustmissile or rocket programme would accelerate a regional armsrace, especially with North Korea.After joining the Missile Technology Control Regime in2001, South Korea made Russia its go-to space partner, but therelationship has not been an easy one.In 2009, faulty release mechanisms on the rocket's secondstage prevented proper deployment of the satellite. The secondeffort in 2010 saw the rocket explode two minutes into its flight,with both Russia and South Korea blaming each other.South Korea has committed itself to developing a totallyindigenous three-stage, liquid-fuelled rocket capable ofcarrying a 1.5-tonne payload into orbit.Following the launch, Kim Seung-Jo, president of the KoreaAerospace Research Institute, said that it could have anoperating prototype as early as 2018. It is still unclear if SouthKorea intends to commercialise its launch vehicles once anindigenous carrier is developed."That would take at least seven years, developing a prototypeand then building up a launch track record to attract commercialclients," Jones said.42 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Retired Pak general spills the beansThe operation by Pakistani soldiers tocapture strategic heights in Kargilsector in 1999 was a "four-man show"orchestrated by former army chief Gen PervezMusharraf though the then premier NawazSharif was "not" kept totally in the dark, a retiredgeneral has said.Lt Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz, who recentlycreated ripples by acknowledging in an articlethat regular troops were involved in the Kargiloperation, said that the "misadventure" was a"four-man show" and details were initially hidden from the restof the military commanders.When the operation began in the spring of 1999, it was knownonly to Musharraf, Chief of General Staff Lt Gen MohammadAziz, Force Command Northern Areas Chief Lt Gen JavedHassan and 10 Corps commander Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad,Aziz told the Dawn newspaper.Though former premier Nawaz Sharif has for long claimedthat he had no information about the Kargil operation, Aziz saidthat information he had gathered suggested that Sharif was notkept "completely in the dark".Aziz said that he was personally not aware of whatinformation had been shared with Sharif but recalled thatanother general had told him that Sharif had once asked duringan informal discussion: "When are you giving us Kashmir?" Thissuggested that Sharif was not completely in the dark, Aziz said.The former general's remarks are the first time thatsomeone from the senior military hierarchy has spoken in detailand with frankness about the Kargil conflict, the report said.Aziz said that the operation was a "failure" and the actual figurefor Pakistani casualties was still not known."It was a failure because we had to hide its objectives andresults from our own people and the nation. It had no purpose,no planning and nobody knows even today how many soldierslost their lives," he said.44 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013A majority of corps commanders andprincipal staff officers were kept in the dark andeven then Director General of MilitaryOperations Lt Gen Tauqir Zia learnt about theoperation after it had begun, said Aziz, who wasthe head of the analysis wing of the ISI in 1999.Musharraf worked on a policy of "need toknow" throughout his tenure as army chief andlater President, Aziz said. Musharraf wouldissue orders to only those who were required toimplement them instead of first consultingcorps commanders and other officers."The Pakistan army did not plan the operation because GenMusharraf never saw Kargil as a major operation. Only theFCNA was involved in it and perhaps a section of 10 Corps," saidAziz.He claimed that the operation reflected a "major intelligencefailure for India". "It was a miscalculated move", he said, addingthat "its objectives were not clear and its ramifications were notproperly evaluated".Aziz said that he first discovered that something was up inKargil when he came across wireless communication interceptsthat showed that something was making "Indian forces panic".He added: "The intercepts worried me as I thought we werenot aware of whatever was unsettling the Indians. I deputed twoofficers to figure out what was happening".The next day's intercepts were clear enough for Aziz torealise that the Indians' anxiety stemmed from the fact thatsomeone from Pakistan had captured some areas in Kargil-Drass sector but it was not clear if they were mujahideen orregular troops."I took these intercepts to the then ISI Director General Lt GenZiauddin Butt and asked what was happening. It was then that AzizwastoldbyButtthatthearmyhadcapturedsomeareasinKargil".Aziz said that this was not right. "In his opinion, he should havebeen told about the proposed operation in advance so that he couldhave provided his analysis in advance," the report said.

Daily brisk stroll can helpstave off Alzheimer's symptomsTaking a brisk stroll daily can help lower your chances ofgetting Alzheimer's disease, say scientists.A team at the University of Nottingham has found that astress hormone produced during a brisk stroll can protect thebrain from memory loss, the Mirror reported.The finding, published in the Journal of Alzheimer'sDisease, may also explain why people vulnerable to stress are atmore risk of dementia.Experts have been mystified why higher physical and mentalactivity can lower your chances of getting Alzheimer's.But the Nottingham University team has suggested that thekey might be found in balancing the body's level of the hormoneCRF.People with Alzheimer's have a reduced level. But normallevels of CRF help the brain, keeping the mental faculties sharp.The new research look into the effects of CRF in mice andfound that when its production was blocked, the mice displayedstress and abnormal behaviour.Dr. Marie-Christine Pardon and her team found thatreleasing CRF can maintain a connection between nerve cells,which is thought to break down in the Alzheimer's patients andcause early memory loss.Other symptoms include mood changes and problems withcommunicating and reasoning.This is the first time that researchers have been able toidentify a brain process directly responsible for the beneficialeffects of exercise in slowing down the progression of the earlymemory decline of Alzheimer's, Dr. Pardon said. Further, theresearch suggests that a healthy lifestyle involving exercise slowsdown Alzheimer's risk, she added.RASPBERRY SUPPLEMENT MAY HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHTRaspberry ketones can help you lose weight and boost levelsof a metabolism-regulating hormone, a report has claimed.Raspberry ketones are fragrant compounds that occurnaturally in raspberries and other fruits. The compounds canboost levels of adiponectin hormone, which regulatesmetabolism. Higher levels of this hormone are associated withfewer fat stores, the Daily Mail reported.The ketones are normally used to give a fruity smell tocosmetics and foodstuffs but, because you only get between oneand four milligram from every kilo of fresh fruit, a syntheticversion is often used to get the same result.And now these ketones are being sold online, in supplementform, as a slimming aid, the report said.Millions of Americans have become convinced of powers ofraspberry ketones to 'melt' away fat after they wererecommended by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeonfeatured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 45

He said that raspberry ketones are 'the number-one miraclein a bottle to burn your fat'.However, Ann Ashworth, a spokeswoman for the BritishDietetic Association, urges caution, pointing out that the onlypublished research into the effects of raspberry ketones onweight loss is small studies on mice.“Although this sounds very exciting, this evidence cannot betransferred to humans without further clinical trials,” she said.NEW DRUG TARGET FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITISIDENTIFIEDResearchers at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York Cityhave identified a protein, known as IRHOM2, as the potentialnew target for drugs to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA).The finding could provide an effective and potentially lesstoxic alternative therapy to tumor necrosis factor-alpha blockers(TNF-blockers), the mainstay of treatment for rheumatoidarthritis, and could help patients who do not respond to thistreatment. Efforts to develop drugs that hone in on this newtarget are underway.“This study is an elegant example of the capacity of basicscience cell biologists to work with translationalrheumatologists to address a clinically relevant question at abasic level. We have identified a clinically relevant target that canbe applied to patients in the near term,” said Jane Salmon, M.D.,Collette Kean Research Chair and co-director, Mary KirklandCenter for Lupus Research at Hospital for Special Surgery(HSS), and an author of the study.Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, is triggered,in large part, by TNF-alpha, a small signalling protein, usuallyinvolved in launching protective systemic inflammatoryresponses. With excessive TNF production, however, immunecells can become activated inappropriately and cause tissueinflammation. This produces a number of diseases, includingRA. While TNF-blockers help many RA patients, thesetreatments are very expensive, and some patients do notrespond. For this reason, researchers have been searching foralternative targets in patients with inflammatory diseasesagainst which drugs can be directed.“TNF can be thought of as a balloon tethered to the surfaceof cells. To work, it must be cut loose by signaling scissors calledTACE (TNF-alpha converting enzyme),” said Carl Blobel,M.D., Ph.D., program director of the Arthritis and TissueDegeneration Program at HSS. While blocking TACE could beanother way to treat rheumatoid arthritis, researchers know thatthis strategy would likely have side effects, since patients lackingTACE are prone to skin infections and intestinal lesions.Earlier this year, HSS investigators demonstrated that theTACE scissors are regulated by molecules called IRHOM1 andIRHOM2, which are thought to wrap around TACE and help itmature into functional scissors. They also demonstrated thatmice that are genetically engineered to lack IRHOM2 lackfunctional TACE on the surface of their immune cells and don'trelease TNF. Surprisingly, these mice are healthy, and do notdevelop skin or intestinal defects.In the current study, HSS researchers set out to investigatewhy this paradox exists. After examining tissues of IRHOM2-deficient mice, they found that IRHOM2 regulates TACE onimmune cells, whereas IRHOM1 is responsible for helpingTACE mature elsewhere in the body, such as in brain, heart,kidney, liver, lung and spleen cells. The researchers then set outto determine whether blocking IRHOM2 could be a strategy totreat RA. They used a mouse model that mimics humanrheumatoid arthritis in mice genetically engineered to bedeficient in IRHOM2. They found that these rodents did notdevelop inflammatory arthritis and were otherwise healthy.“When we tested mice that don't have IRHOM2 in a modelfor inflammatory arthritis, we found that they were protected as46 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

well as mice that didn't have any TNF,” said Dr. Blobel. Usingdrugs that inactivate IRHOM2 in humans, clinicians will be ableto block the function of TACE only in immune cells. “We canprevent the deleterious contribution of TACE to rheumatoidarthritis patients and preserve its protective function in skin andintestines. With IRHOM2, we have a unique and unprecedentedopportunity to inactive TACE only in certain cell types, and notin others, and there is currently no other effective way of doingthat,” said Dr. Blobel. The researchers say that the next step is toidentify antibodies or pharmacological compounds that can beused to block the function of IRHOM2 and are safe in patients.The study will appear online in the Journal of ClinicalInvestigation and in the February 2013 print issue.BLEND COOKING OILS TO STAY AWAY FROM HEARTDISEASESAvoid reheating oil; use combination of oils and read foodlabels to ensure that transfats do not creep into your dietWhile plans were afoot to welcome the New Year with healthconscious resolutions, one vital culinary component that islinked to non-communicable diseases is often neglected –cooking oils. While the debate on the healthiest oil continuesthrough various studies and reports, most of them clearly frownupon sticking to one type of oil for cooking. The reiteratedthumb rule is to use a combination of cooking oils to derive themaximum benefits from fatty acids contained in these oils. “Usea combination of two or three types of oil regularly or rotate typesof oil for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” says M.V.Alli, assistantprofessor, department of nutrition and dietetics, SeethalakshmiRamaswami College.Transfats are found in hydrogenated oils or vanaspati orvegetable shortening, which are present in pastry products,pizzas, burgers. In his book, 'How to protect your heart' Dr.Senthilkumar recommends avoiding transfats, minimal use ofsaturated fats, and striking a balance between monounsaturatedand polyunsaturated fats, which are present in mustard oil,groundnut oil, olive, gingelly, sunflower, safflower and canola, toname a few. “We do not recommend the use of saturated oils likecoconut oil or ghee, particularly for persons with cardiovasculardisease, diabetes or obese people,” says Dr. Alli.REHEATING OILAt a health meet, cancer specialist, V.Shanta, Chairperson,Adyar Cancer Institute, said that reusing of oil was a cause forworry as reheating oil has been linked with cancer. The practiceis prevalent due to rise in prices of essential commodities like oiland cap on subsidised gas cylinders. Reheating oil multipletimes is the primary reason why doctors and dieticians frownupon eating out in restaurants and buying deep-fried snacks atroadside eateries.Apart from refraining from reheating oil used for deepfrying, baking, boiling, using non-stick pans are optionsrecommended to achieve optimum oil usage. Read food labels toensure that transfats do not creep into your diet, Dr.Senthilkumar suggests.PARTY, BUT DO NOT OVERINDULGE: NUTRITIONISTSA determined effort to follow a healthier lifestyle is a mustIt is that time of the year again when dieticians andnutritionists are busy assisting people make a healthy start in theNew Year.RISK OF HEART DISEASEThe choice of cooking oil is important, as the risk of heartdisease is linked to the usage of oil, says N.Senthilkumar,interventional cardiologist, Kauvery Hospitals. Cooking oilscontaining saturated fats can elevate bad cholesterol or LDLcholesterol levels which block arteries and increases risk ofheart disease, insulin resistance, and obesity.Cooking oils are of various types: saturated like ghee andcoconut oil, and unsaturated oils are further classified intomonounsaturated and polyunsaturated oil, apart from transfats.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 47

People who get busy with festivities right from Dasara-Deepavali season up to the end of the year suddenly sit up tomake health resolutions only when the New Year comesknocking. But it is important to follow a healthier lifestyle allthrough the year. A determined effort to do so is important, saydieticians.Asserting that people can have a little fun and party duringNew Year, dietician H.S. Prema says that it is important thatpeople should not overindulge in fried, junk and calorie-richfood stuff. “Eating is a part of fun and we cannot ask people tomiss that fun. But such fun should be occasional, controlled andplanned. It is essential that they eat healthy food even as theyparty,” she says.Advising people to try fruit cakes or plum cakes instead ofpastries and regular cakes with a coating of artificial sweeteners,Ms. Prema says: “Ice-creams can be had with fruit salad andfried junk stuff can be replaced with Indian chats such assamosas, vadas and kachoris. But all this is allowed onlyoccasionally.”Nutrition and wellness consultant Sheela Krishnaswamysays that the best way to stay healthy is to eat right, exerciseregularly, get adequate sleep, avoid smoking and manage stress.Advising people to maintain a level of physical activity thatmatches the calories consumed, Ms. Krishnaswamy says: “Thecommon grouse of most people who come for consultation isthat they do not have time to exercise. But it is essential thatpeople make time for themselves — either to exercise or involvein some recreation or hobby.”She advises people to choose the right food and avoid readyto-eatand packaged food. “It is always better to eat fresh, naturaland locally grown food.”Both experts advise people to eat a variety of fruits andvegetables, at least five servings a day. “Your meal shouldcomprise a variety of grains,” they say.EXERCISE A MUSTAsserting on the importance of exercise, the experts say thatregular workout will help reduce the risk of developing obesity,diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and maintaining lipidlevels. Keeping off smoking is also a must, they advise.Ms. Krishnaswamy says that people can choose a convenienttime to exercise and stick to it.“Coffee breaks, lunch time, evening, or pre-dinner time canbe used for exercising or walking for short periods. Otheractivities like stair-climbing instead of using the elevator orpacing while talking on the phone can help burn a few extracalories,” she explains.INDIAN SCIENTISTS DEVISE 16 DISASTER MANAGEMENTDRUGSPreparing to deal with any future chemical, biological,radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents, Indian scientistshave devised 16 drugs that can be used for disaster management.These include an anti-cyanide drug, an anti-nerve gas drug andan anti-toxic gas drug.Several radioactive decorporation agents and drugs for anticyanide,anti-nerve gas and toxic gas injuries have beenapproved by the Drug Controller General of India as trial drugs.Developed by scientists at the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) Institute of NuclearMedicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), the drugs have passedthe efficacy test and will be cheaper than those currentlyavailable in the market.“Sixteen new drugs have been approved by the DrugController General of India (DGCI) as trial drugs for disastermanagement. These include an anti-cyanide drug, an antinervegas drug, an anti-toxic gas drug and several radioactivedecorporation agents,” Aseem Bhatnagar, in charge of theproject at INMAS satd.These will be used as samples for the users, including thearmed forces, the paramilitary, the National DisasterManagement Authority (NDMA), the Department of AtomicEnergy (DAE) and the Ministry of Health.“Batch production of these drugs is being undertaken incollaboration with the pharmaceuticals industry through48 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

contract manufacturing. About 50,000-200,000 doses(licensed for human use) are expected to be manufactured byMarch 2013,” Bhatnagar said.The DGCI approvals cover all-India use for 15 years forany number of victims.Since there cannot be proper phase two trials of drugsuseful in disasters, their use in any future incident has beenapproved as trial drugs due to a legality.“These shall also be used for continuing clinical trials andfor stockpiling. This is necessary to effectively planstockpiling cost and perpetually (it is envisaged to provide thedrug at cost price to the users). The average cost price isexpected to be less than 15 percent of market price in allcases,” Bhatnagar said.Several of these drugs have been patented by the defenceministry.“The contract has been given to pharmaceuticalcompanies to ensure that quality checks and pricing remainsthe prerogative of the defence ministry. Besides, adequatestocks can be retained in a cost-effective way and companiescan initiate mass production in case of a disaster without anytime wastage,” Bhatnagar said.INMAS previously made and supplied drugs againstnuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) incidents during the2010 Commonwealth Games and to meet an emergencyrequirement of the Indian Navy.“We also plan to keep some with the Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) for usage during any disaster,”Bhatnagar said.Scientists say that research and development andcoordination will enhance the shelf life of NBC drugs by 60-100 percent and this project is planned in coordination withother government agencies.“A mission mode project is planned to establish nuclearsecurity in the national capital region by way of drugs,equipment and training to six echelons of medical servicesaround Delhi, under a project for seven years,” Bhatnagaradded.INMAS had developed a skin radioactivitydecontamination kit (shudhika) that was given for productionto a company in Pune.“Its market cost is more than Rs.12, 000 and we aredeveloping it for just Rs.1,000 (less than $2). Five hundredsuch kits will be made available to users, including theservices, as samples by March,” Bhatnagar said.SOFTWARE FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF DENGUEIt has been developed and validated by scientists of theCSIR-IICTA software tool that can rapidly diagnose dengue fever,based on symptoms and clinical parameters, has beendeveloped and validated by scientists of the CSIR-IndianInstitute of Chemical Technology (IICT).Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease and causedby the dengue virus. It is estimated that the mosquito-bornepathogen infects approximately 50-100 million people everyyear.The Dengue Decision Support System (DDSS) has beendeveloped by U.S N. Murty, Chief Scientist and Head ofBiology Division, and his group. Describing it as a simple andaccurate tool, Dr. Murty said that it was tested and validated ina few hundred cases at the Sir Ronald Ross Institute ofTropical Diseases and was now ready for release. It would behanded over to the State Government soon, he added.He said that the DDSS would help health authorities infinding out the disease within 10-15 minutes, which was vitalin saving the life of the patient.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 49

Issues with which India'smiddle class is concernedOne of the mostprominent features ofIndia's middle-classdrivenpublic culture has beenan obsession about our GDPgrowth rate, and a facileequation of that number with asense of national achievementor impending arrival intoaffluence. In media headlines,political speeches, andeveryday conversations, theGDP growth rate number —whether it is five per cent or eight per cent or whatever — hasbecome a staple of our evaluations of the state of national wellbeingand future trajectory. Ever since Goldman Sachs (aninvestment banking firm headquartered in New York city)released a report in 2003 (“Dreaming with BRICs: the path to2050”) touting Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as theharbingers of a new wave of global accumulation, we Indianshave been afflicted by an optimism disease with little empiricaltraction. Since then, the GDP number's implications for India'sdevelopment, her attractiveness as an investment site, ourstanding relative to China, and our competitiveness in the gamesthat nations play have become an inescapable part of our sociallives. As the former CEO of Infosys and leading publicintellectual Nandan Nilekani notes in his book Imagining India,“Wherever I go, I find that Indians know our growth numbersbackward and forward, and there is a strong, common feelingamong us that our country has finally come of age.”FAST GROWTH, LIMITED RESULTSYet, in a recent essay, the eminent economists Amartya Senand Jean Drèze pointed to an important problem with equatingIndia's economic performance with its GDP growth rate. Theynoted: “There is probably no other example in the history ofworld development of an economy growing so fast for so longwith such limited results in terms of broad-based socialprogress.” Sen and Drèze were referring to the fact that forabout 32 years now (since 1980), India has averaged annual GDPgrowth rates of approximately six per cent — whereas, thenation's ranking in terms of the Human Development Index hasremained unchanged over that period: we were ranked anabysmal 134 in 1980, we were ranked exactly that in 2011. In1980, about 80 per cent of ourpopulation subsisted on lessthan two dollars a day, and thatpercentage has declined by aslittle as five per cent since then.Comparable growth ratessustained over similar lengthsof time have utterlytransformed societies in the20th century: South Korea,Taiwan, Singapore, and largeparts of China, to mention themost prominent ones. They have gone from largely poor,illiterate and agrarian societies to middle class, literate,urbanised and industrial societies, with standards of living vastlysuperior to ours. Whatever may be said about India, it is obviousthat no structural transformation of our largely poverty-strickeneconomy has occurred and what is more, none seems very likelyin the immediate future.Not only have three decades of high GDP growth goneunaccompanied by a societal transformation, we seem to haveregressed on certain fronts. For instance, while India rankedeither first or second in 1980 within South Asia (defined here ascomprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, andBhutan) on most yardsticks such as life expectancy, femaleliteracy, infant mortality, maternal mortality ratio, improvedsanitation, child immunisation, and mean years of schooling,today we are ranked either fifth or last among the South Asiannations on these same yardsticks. Ironically, the only indicator inwhich we have done well is in the rate of GDP growth per annum.A country like Bangladesh, whose annual GDP growth rate hasaveraged about half that of India's over these years, has donevastly better in terms of translating that growth to the quality oflife for its poor, its young, and its females. On most yardsticksthat matter, Bangladesh now outperforms India. That 30 years ofmore than twice the much-disparaged “Hindu” rate of growthhas left us at the absolute rock-bottom of the world tables interms of malnourished children (44 per cent at the last count —significantly more than that anchor of all things sorry and sadabout this world, sub-Saharan Africa, whose percent ofunderweight children is 25 per cent) should tell us that there issomething seriously amiss about looking at the annual growthrate of the GDP to measure the well-being of a society.50 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

On demographic dividendThe Goldman Sachs report argued that bythe year 2050, if Brazil, Russia, India andChina grew at a certain rate per annum, theywould be among the world's six largesteconomies in terms of overall size. This doesnot tell us anything about either per capitaincomes (in terms of which these countries would remain wellbehind the more affluent nations) or the quality of life of themajority of people therein. The report based its projectionsmainly on something called the “demographic dividend.” Insimple terms, “young” societies like India and China have adisproportionately large percentage of people in the workforcerelative to those outside it. The size of the working-age cohort iscentral to the overall attractiveness of an economy from theperspective of an investment bank like Goldman Sachs becauseit is likely to be in the market for all sorts of goods — homes,automobiles, appliances, electronics, cosmetics, fast-food, etc.The working-age cohorts' employment earnings, moreover, cansupport a social security net for those who have retired and nowhave to subsist on pensions and savings. On a comparativeyardstick, India's demographic profile was seen by the BRICreport as most favourable because this ratio of working to nonworkingpopulations would remain in favour of the former wellinto the 21st century in our case.In the euphoria over the BRIC report (it was the basis for thedisastrous “India Shining” campaign of the Bharatiya JanataParty; the same projections were echoed in speeches by PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh, Union Finance MinisterChidambaram, Deputy Chairman of the Central PlanningCommission Montek Ahluwalia; and they were quoted adnauseam in the mainstream media) certain basic facts wereglossed over.Firstly, the GDP is a statistic from within the field of NationalAccounts whose very definition indicates its limited ambit: it isthe total market value of all final goods and services produced ina country, in a given year. In other words, it is a statistic thatmeasures the quantity, not the quality or content, of economicactivity in a society. When a country liberalises — eitherdomestically, as India began to do in 1980, or across itsinternational borders, as we began after 1991 — the increasedvolume of production, investment, trade and market exchangeswill inevitably result in an increase in the GDP. To infer from thegrowth in GDP any consequences for societal welfare is notlogical. The GDP's precursor was devised during theDepression of the 1930s as western governments (in Britain andthe United States most prominently) tried to get a handle on thebasic statistics of the different sectors of their economies, inorder to plan state policies to get them out of recession and on togrowth. Simon Kuznets and John Maynard Keynes, bothpioneers in its creation and measurement, warned againstconfusing GDP with anything other than ameasure of the sum of economic activity of asociety, and especially against confounding itwith societal welfare. Something like theExxon Valdez disaster in Alaska will inevitablyincrease the GDP, as the massive clean-upmeans billions of dollars will be spent,whereas the environmental impact of thatdisaster did nothing to diminish the GDP of the U.S., as damageto nature is rendered an externality. On the other hand, thepositive impact of people in a community bartering orexchanging services (“I'll baby sit for you this week while you fixthe leak in my roof”) goes unregistered on the GDP metric.Secondly, the BRIC report emerged not from an academicbody or a policy think-tank. It came from an investment bankthat was interested in getting people to put their money into anewly created “Emerging Market” fund. Creating a buzz aboutthese economies, and finding some hard nugget or fact thatseemed to suggest their fortunes were on the rise, is aninevitable part of the marketing of such funds. The“demographic dividend” argument offered a perfect empirical“fact” of just this sort. The extrapolations into the future(projections were made as far as 2030 and even 2050) by a firmthat could not foresee (and was in fact a substantial culprit in)the financial crisis that engulfed the world economy barely fouryears later were essentially meaningless. It was moreover atautological argument in the sense that given the overall size ofthe BRIC economies, it was inevitable that their GDPs wouldover time end up being among the largest in the world. Thegreater the buzz that Goldman Sachs could create about theBRIC economies, the likelier the “success” of their EmergingMarket funds in the short run, which added to their profits, asthe firm made money off every transaction therein. TheGoldman Sachs report should have been assessed as advertisingcopy rather than as unbiased prognostication about the future ofthe world economy. (By the late 2000s, as the BRIC economieswith the exception of China failed to perform to expectations,Goldman Sachs had already lost interest in them and had startedpromoting MIST, another emerging market fund based onMexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. The analogy toadvertising sloganeering rather than economic analysis shouldbe obvious to anyone here.)Thirdly, for India (or any society) to realise its demographicdividend, at least three factors are critical: its youth need (a)quality education, (b) good health, and (c) jobs that pay a decentwage and enhance their intellectual and other skills. The story ofIndia's post-independence development has been one of failureacross all three of these sectors, and the picture has notimproved post the economic liberalisation initiated in 1991.Recent studies have confirmed what every Indian already knows:the quality of public education at the primary and secondarylevels has been abysmal. In large part, this is because since 1947,PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 51

we have emphasised tertiary education for a narrow middleclassand elite, and underinvested in primary and secondaryeducation for the masses. We have already seen that with thehighest rate of malnourishment of children below the age of sixin the entire world, and a public health infrastructure that existsmore on paper than on the ground, especially outside the cities,large segments of our populace are not in good health. Thedifficulty of getting clean water, the unavailability of toilets, anddecrepit or non-existent sewage systems, have also meant highincidence of preventable diseases like cholera, typhoid, anddysentery. And when it comes to jobs, recent decades of highgrowth, especially since 2000, have been accompanied by eitherstagnation or even decline in the absolute numbers of thoseemployed in the organised sector of the economy. Unlike Koreaor Taiwan or China (all three of whom also had a thoroughgoingland reform that eliminated landlordism and other feudalholdovers) whose growth was concentrated initially in relativelylabour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, ours has beenskewed heavily towards skill- and education-intensive sectorslike Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, and businessprocess outsourcing. The performance in these sectors hasbeen stellar in terms of exports and their contribution to theGDP, but not in terms of their ability to generate large numbersof jobs. Twenty years after the onset of the phenomenal IT boom,even with the most expansive definition of its ambit, this sectoronly employs about nine million Indians, while India producesabout 13 million new entrants into the job market every year.What all this adds up to is this: given its history of inadequateinvestment in human capital and the present patterns andtrajectory of its economy, India seems unlikely to reap thedemographic dividend that other societies seem to have cashedin on.There is nothing inherent in demographic patterns thatguarantees economic success: whether a certain set ofpreconditions eventuates in socially widespread and meaningfulgrowth depends, as always, on state policies that prioritisehuman capital (the health and education of its citizenry); onefficient state and political party institutions to deliver theseprogrammes to the people; and on the ability to insulate theseprogrammes from being hijacked by elites and middlemen.MIDDLE CLASS FOCUSHow then can one explain the Indian middle class' obsessionwith the GDP growth number, and the extent to which many ofus have equated high growth rates of recent years as a sign of ouremergence as a global power? One has to step outside thedomain of the empirical and the economic, and into the socialand the psychological to understand this obsession with anumber, this fetish we have developed for the GDP.The Indian middle class is not conventional in the sense ofbeing sandwiched between rich, conservative elites and the52 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013lowest third of a society that is poor and potentially revolutionary.In that ideal type, the middle class was the vanguard in theemergence and consolidation of liberal democracy, individualfreedoms, capitalist development, and a politics of moderationand civil society. There was a convergence between the materialand ideological needs of this middle class that made it thechampion of liberal democracy and market capitalism. Or as thecomparative historian Barrington Moore Jr. put it in a pithyformulation: “no bourgeois, no democracy.” In India, the middleclass is folded into the apex and is the dominant component ofthe top 20 per cent of society in terms of income and wealth, aswell as in terms of cultural and symbolic capital, as reflected inits education, caste-status and westernisation. It isoverwhelmingly upper caste and its substantive, as distinct fromrhetorical, commitment to egalitarianism and democracyoutside its own narrow ambit, and often even within it, is shallow.This class' self-image is that of a meritocratic group that hasadvanced through education, discipline, and deferredenjoyment. However, both the colonial period and the decadesafter independence show this “merit” to be based more onprivileged and restricted access to western education andprofessions that emerged in the wake of modernisation ratherthan by rising to the top in a context marked by widespreadequality of opportunity.Even if its commitment to the idea of inclusive economicdevelopment that makes a significant impact on the daily lives ofthe vast majority of its fellow citizens was sincere, we haveneither the political institutions — state bureaucracy or partycadres — nor the political commitment to act in ways that will, atleast in the short-run, go against this middle class' own materialinterests. This disjuncture between a set of ideological orrhetorical commitments to development, on the one hand, and,on the other, the absence of the institutional means to achievethem, as well as the fact that their very achievement mightjeopardise our own status as an elite, makes the Indian middleclass peculiarly susceptible to technocratic quick-fixes. Ourdesire to be seen by our peers in the rest of the world as anemerging economy, or a successful nation, seems to oftenoverwhelm our ability to regard the economic and social realitythat surrounds us with a clear eye. The GDP growth ratenumber, and its neat extrapolation into the future by reports likethe one by Goldman Sachs that seem to literally leapfrog over thedifficult, messy and forbidding social and political tasks that arethe inevitable prerequisite of successful economic development,thus capture our imaginations in ways that are obsessive.A fetish is an inanimate object imbued by humans withmagical powers and believed to bring good luck or fortune. Wehave fetishised the GDP number and read all our hopes anddreams into a statistic that was never designed to bear the weightthat it has come to carry. The reverence and faith with which wehave treated the GDP number says more about the socialpsychologyof our middle class and our desire to be seen as asuccessful and emerging economy than it does about the actualstate of life for the vast majority of our fellow Indians.

The iconic London Tubecelebrates 150 yearsOn January 10, 1863, theworld's first undergroundtrain chugged betweenPaddington and Farringdon inLondon. As the iconic London Tubecelebrates 150 years, we take anostalgic rideAt Bank Station in the LondonUnderground, I was half way down theescalator and could see a speck of platform when I heard thetrain rumbling in. A draft of wind shoved by the incoming trainscurried up the shaft and I felt it on my face, cold and damp.Would I be able to get into the train before the door closed? Theescalator moved down at its own stoic pace. Suddenly, I was in arace against Gwyneth Paltrow. Was it she who just elbowed me toget past? Remember the movie Sliding Doors? It was here, atBank station, that the scene was shot. If Helen (played byPaltrow) could slip through the closing doors of the train, shewould reach home in time to catch her boyfriend cheating onher.I missed my train. Did Helen make it? I stood alone on thesuddenly-emptied platform vacuum-cleaned of people, suckedup by the caterpillar of the train whose taillights mocked me asthey receded into the depths of the tunnel. Next train toWoodford in 4 minutes, the board said, and the platform wasalready warming up with people, like ants descending fromnowhere on spilled sugar syrup just moments after a clean-up.Gwyneth Paltrow still pecking at my brain, I gave up Woodford.Instead, I decided to alight at the very next station, LiverpoolStreet. Why? It was raining up there on the streets of Londonand it would be dark too, I reasoned. And chances were, atLiverpool Street, I might bump into a rain-drenched TomCruise wandering stealthily on his Mission Impossible.The London Underground or the Tube, as it is dotinglycalled, has been a darling of the literary and movie world. And if Icould walk backward enough in time, I would even catch aglimpse of my childhood hero on an underground platform, hisdeerstalker hat and flapping cloakclearly glimpsed through the grey andwhite smoke that the engines of thosedays belched.The train arrived and I stepped in.I stood leaning against a handle barand had just about enough space tohold up the Underground Map eightinches from my nose. Two hulkingovercoats blocked my vision and through a merciful slit betweenthem, all I could see across the aisle were a pair of dark shapelyleggings, a dark chequered skirt above them, a beige blouse witha dark jacket that matched the skirt, and a luxuriant cloud ofblond hair haloed around an open Stephen King. I returned tomy map, thanking Stephen King, as Tube etiquette demandszero eye contact with fellow passengers.The train entered the next station with a low, intermittentscreech that stretched the entire length of the platform. As thedoors opened, the voice boomed 'Mind the Gap'.Next day, I popped up from Covent Garden Undergroundand walked up to London Transport Museum. Here, stories ofthe Tube are narrated in words, pictures and artefacts.Fascinating among them is the story of the making of theUnderground Map, a classic in design which, like the Beg Benand Westminster, has assumed iconic status as a symbol ofLondon.Most of London's 'would-love-to-visit' are tagged with anUnderground station. Harrods with Knightsbridge, Tower ofLondon with Tower Hill, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben withWestminster. They connect not only places but people too. 'Let'smeet up at the Kingsway exit of Holborn Underground' is acommon refrain. And the Tube stations themselves are alabyrinth of tunnels laced with hope, contemplation and asmattering of music. While changing over from District toHammersmith and City line at Paddington Underground, Istepped back from the whooshing crowd and listened to a darkPT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 53

urly man playing on his saxophone while his equally largeGerman Shepherd squatted beside him, looking as if it werecounting the coins thrown into the open case. The pensive strainof the sax reverberated in the natural acoustics of the burrows,recounting its own story of despair and faith.In the social milieu of London, the Tube is not just a matterof convenience, but a mate, a companion, sometimes even a coconspirator;a constant in the dubiously unpredictable realismof London's weather, tied to the denizens of this larger-than-lifecity with a translucent umbilical bond, being always there.THE MAP ANECDOTEIt was 1931. Life was dull for Harry Beck, the 29-year-olddraughtsman of the Underground Railways. One day, he wasidling over the Tube map. Geographically precise but thecomplex spaghetti lines were difficult to fathom even for adraughtsman. Lightning struck his brain. Years later, Beckwrote, “It occurred to me that it might be possible to tidy up themap by straightening the lines, even out the distance betweenstations. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it wasworth trying”.He restricted his map to only horizontal and vertical lines forthe tracks and resorted to diagonals only as exceptions. Anddeleted all over-ground features excepting one, the ThamesRiver. With trepidation, he submitted his map to the publicitydepartment. It was rejected as “too revolutionary”.Harry stuck to it and kept fine-tuning it, submitting it againthe next year. “You'd better sit down”, said the Head, “I am goingto give you a shock. We are going to print it.”The management was cautious. They called the title: 'A newdesign for an old map. We would welcome your comments'.Within a month, the map went to reprint. Harry Beck'sdesign became a hit. Harry received 10 guineas for design andartwork. For a map that's voted among the top 10 designs of the20th century by Audi Design Foundation.The Industrial horror of 1984-the Bhopal Gas TragedyThe Bhopal disaster or the Bhopal gas leak tragedy is considered one of the world’sworst industrial disasters. It took place in the early morning of December 3, 1984. It wasdue to the release of 27 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from Union Carbide IndiaLimited (UCIL) pesticide plant, which is owned by Union Carbide. It affected over500,000 individuals after its occurrence.The reasons of the gas leak mainly included problems such as storing MIC in largetanks and filling beyond recommended levels, poor maintenance after the plant ceased MIC production at the end of 1984,failure of several safety systems due to poor maintenance, and lack of safety measures to save money. Other factorsincluded: use of a more dangerous pesticide manufacturing method, large-scale MIC storage, plant location close to adensely populated area, undersized safety devices, and the dependence on manual operations.The death toll in Bhopal Disaster reached a great height and till date, many still suffer from illness caused due to thedisaster. The majority of deaths and serious injuries were due to pulmonary edema. Signs and symptoms of such exposurenormally include cough, chest pain, lacrimation, eyelid edema, and unconsciousness. These over the next 24 to 72 hoursmay cause acute lung injury, cardiac arrest, and death.Bhopal Disaster is one of the worst industrial accidents that the history has ever recorded. It is the result of adisgusting desire to maximize profit at the expense of the local population.Those who could survive the immediate death have become the prey to long lingering effects, which are even moreintolerable. The incident should be a lesson to town planners and industrialists.54 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Women Safety: Justice Verma's Report“Women empowerment should startfrom home”, mothers should teach theboys of their family to respect women andinculcate some good moral values.It is seldom that the Indian governmentbows before the people's demandbecause its sense of righteousness is sostrong that it does not like anyone to pickholes in governance. The gang rape of a23-year-old girl in Delhi broughtthousands of students on to the streets of India's capital.Their anger was so relentless that the Union HomeMinistry had no option except to appoint a former ChiefJustice of India, J C Verma, to probe the matter and suggestmeasures to strengthen the existing laws concerningwomen's safety.Justice Verma Committee comprising Retired Justice J.S.Verma, Retired Justice Leila Seth and Solicitor GeneralGopal Subramanium, was constituted on December 23,2012, to look into the possible amendments in the criminallaws related to sexual violence against women.Justice Verma has said likewise: "I was shocked to see theHome Secretary patting the back of the PoliceCommissioner. The least that could have been done was toseek an apology from the people for the city being unsafe."No wonder, none from the police bothered to appear beforethe Verma committee. The ministry, too, did not send anyrecommendation, while the committee received 80,000recommendations from people.This explains what is called a nexus between politiciansand the police. Both are part of the establishment whichwants more and more power with less and lessaccountability. Both are really responsible for the misgovernanceor non-governance. That civil society isincreasingly insensitive to what happens to the commonman has been underlined by Justice Verma."Equally shocking," he said, "was the large number ofpeople who passed by when the victim and her companionneeded help. There was total apathy of everyone who had aduty to perform.”Justice VermaPerhaps, Justice Verma does not realisethat most people would want to help thevictims, carry him or her to the hospitaland even inform the authorities. But theharassment they face at the hands ofpolice, in a thana is too humiliating forpeople. In a law court also, the helper iscross-examined as if he or she is in thedock. Still, Justice Verma has a point thatthe apathy of people on the scene isunpardonable, whatever the difficulties.When the Supreme Court has proposed a death penalty forthe rarest of rare cases, why has Justice Verma felt shy ofrecommending death penalty for a rapist? In a democracy,public outcry is the only way to assess anger. Were there tobe a referendum, Justice Verma's committee, which hasopposed the death penalty, will come a cropper. Thegovernment should rectify the mistake and lay downcategorically that a rapist should be hanged.Justice Verma's report reflects pattern of violence onwomen: "The report points out that this case studyassumes importance because it is reflective of a pattern ofviolence upon women, which the state refuses to accept andsee.These stories further confirm our belief that missingchildren who are further trafficked for various purposesbelong to an extremely unfortunate lot and withoutpreventing sexual and other kinds of abuse committed onthese children, the task remains unfinished," observes thereport.One of the biggest areas of concern in our country pertainsto offences committed silently and under the cloak ofdarkness on lakhs of poor children and women who areuprooted illegally from their recorded geographic coordinatesand whisked away into anonymity; into a world ofmirth and darkness, says the report.Even though there is a strong public demand for the deathpenalty for rapists, chemical castration and changes in theJuvenile Justice Act, the panel has not suggested thesechanges but yet has made a strong case for extending thelegal framework of what constitutes an 'attack' on women.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 55

It has sought full life term in prison for rapists and has alsobrought other issues like stalking, marital rape, intentionaltouching without consent and the use of obscene words into the offences list. If these recommendations are acceptedby the government, it will be a huge step forward, sincemany attacks against women go unreported.In other words, the Justice Verma panel has made animportant point: no attack on women, be it verbal orphysical, big or small, should go unpunished. Suchdeterrents are necessary to ensure that horrifying caseslike the December 16, 2012 gang rape don't happen again.The panel has also talked of the need to review the ArmedForces (Special Powers) Act to ensure the safety of womenin states where the law is applicable and the need to checkextra-constitutional authorities like the khaps, whichunfortunately have the endorsement of many of ourpolitical leaders.NEW ACTION PLAN TO COMBAT CRIME AGAINST WOMENAfter having made rape laws more stringent, the Centre hasnow come out with a time-bound action plan to combatcrimes against women. It proposes : Allowing registration of FIR at any police station. Introducing a nationwide three-digit emergencyresponse number. Making the identity of those convicted for crimeagainst women public. Promoting women to drive public transport vehiclesto ensure safer journey for women.Conceding the longstanding demand of social activists,women's rights groups and civil society, the Governmenthas decided to facilitate registration of an FIR at any policestation, irrespective of the jurisdiction or area of the crimeand the FIR may thereafter be transferred to the policestation concerned for investigation.Similarly one of the steps approved by the Government isthe 'name and shame' policy, where the National CrimeRecords Bureau (NCRB), under the Union Ministry ofHome Affairs, will compile a data base of persons convictedof criminal offences and all details of criminals convicted ofcrimes against women will be displayed on the NCRBwebsite.The Government has also began working on providing acountrywide three-digit number, like 911 in the U.S., torespond to all emergency situations, be it related to police,fire, medical emergency or natural disaster. The newservice would be available to subscribers of all telecomservice providers so that one point of contact is available toa person in distress of any kind.“Under the new system, a call would be seamlesslytransferred from the single point of contact to theappropriate distress line such as police, fire or ambulanceservice. Very soon, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), incoordination with the Telecom Department, will come upwith a basic concept note on how the system would beestablished and operate. Apart from the general emergencyresponse helpline, there would also be another three-digitnationwide helpline dedicated to responding to women indistress.Similarly, after making motor vehicle regulations morestringent in ordeer to rein in errant bus-owners andstreamline public transport in the country, the governmenthas also decided to promote 'women only' service toencourage more women-driven buses and taxis. The RoadTransport Ministry will talk to the auto industry for apossible ban on factory-fitted tinted glass on vehicles,while complete verification of crew members of publictransport vehicles will be made mandatory.The Centre has also decided to carry out major policereforms where citizens, who come forward to assist womenin distress, would not face any police harassment, whilepolice officers and other personnel would be speciallytrained for gender sensitivity and strict action would betaken against police personnel and officers found to beeither displaying bias against women or neglecting theirsupervisory responsibilities.WOMEN'S BOARD SLAMS JUSTICE VERMA PANELREPORT, WANTS CHANGEThe report submitted by Justice Verma committee tosuggest tougher laws for crimes against women has comeunder scanner of women's rights activists.Karnataka State Women Commission Chairperson CManjula said that there was nothing new in Justice JSVerma Committee's report on amendment to anti-rapelaws.The report is more academic. The report submitted bythree-member Justice Verma committee to Ministry ofHome Affairs (MHA) on January 23, 2013 suggested lifeimprisonment for gang-rape but no death penalty."Justice Verma's recommendations took a 360-degree viewof the issue. The ordinance has cherry pickedrecommendations. Very well, it's a beginning made but it'sstill a long way to go," Kiran Bedi, a former IPS officer and aleading activist, said.56 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

DNA as an information storage deviceSCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO STORE 2.2 PETABYTESIN ONE GRAM OF DNASince time immemorial, mankind has wanted to share anduse information for later use. First, it was through the cavemanpaintings and symbols. Then we invented the alphabets,ideograms, numbers and other symbols. Using these, bookswere written and stored for future generations, in palm leaves,papyrus sheets or paper. The invention of printing brought theGutenberg revolution, making multiple copies easily andspreading education to millions of people.Printed books occupy space. Libraries and archives arebursting at the seams. Enter the computer age and digitizationusing the binary code of combining zeros and ones (0,1) foralphabets and other such symbols, and reading them using theon-off electrical signals, which has made electronic storagepossible, cutting down the size and space for 'hard copies'.Integrated circuits, processors and related electronic wizardryhave shrunk the size of computers and storage devices fromroom-size to finger nail size.But even so, the amount of information storable in a given'hard drive' (from a printed book to an Amazon or Kindle e-book,or the Encyclopaedia Britannica to Google) is growingexponentially. “That means the cost of storage is rising but ourbudgets are not”, as Dr. Nick Goldman of the EuropeanBioinformatics Institute at Hinxton, UK told The Economist (inits January 26, 2013 issue). Goldman (together with 4 colleaguesat Hinxton and 2 from Agilent Technologies, California, U.S.)decided to use DNA (yes, the molecule which stores the code tomake life possible) as the information storage device, ratherthan electronics. Their paper titled “Towards practical, highcapacity,low maintenance information storage in synthesizedDNA” has just been published in the journal Nature in January2013.Why DNA? Indeed the question should be 'why not DNA”. Itis a long chain, consisting of 4 alphabets (chemical units calledbases and referred to as A, G, C and T) put together in a string ofsequence — similar to what the English language does with its26 alphabets and punctuation marks, or digital computers withthe combination of zeros and ones in chosen sequences. DNAhas been used since life was born over 2 billion years ago, to storeand transfer information right through evolution. It is small insize — the entire information content of a human is stored in a 3billion long sequence of A, G, C and T, and packed into thenucleus of a cell smaller than a micron (thousandth of amillimetre). It is stable and has an admirable shelf life. Peoplehave isolated DNA from the bones of dinosaurs dead about 65millions ago, read the sequence of bases in it and understoodmuch information about the animal. The animal (shall we saythe 'host' of the DNA) is long since dead but the informationlives on.DNA is thus a long-lived, stable and easily synthesizedstorage hard drive. While the current electronic storage devicesrequire active and continued maintenance and regulartransferring between storage media (punched cards to magnetictapes to floppy disks to CD...), DNA based storage needs noactive maintenance. Just store in a cool, dark and dry place!The Goldman group is not the first one to think of DNA as astorage device. Dr E.B. Baum tried building an associativememory vastly larger than the brain in 1995, Dr C.T. Clellandand others 'hid' messages in DNA microdots in 1999, JPL Coxwrote in 2001 on long-term data storage in DNA, Allenberg andRotstein came up with a coding method for archiving text,PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 57

images and music characters in DNA, and in 2012, Church, Gaoand Kosuri have discussed the next-generation digitalinformation storage in DNA.What is novel in the Hinxton method is that they moved awayfrom the conventional binary (0 and 1) code and used a ternarycode system (three numerals 0, 1 and 2 using combinations ofthe bases A, G, C and T) and encode the information into DNA.This novelty avoids any reading errors, particularly whenencountering repetitive base sequences. Also, rather thansynthesize one long string of DNA to code for an entire item ofinformation, they broke the file down to smaller chunks, so thatno errors occur during synthesis or read-out. These chunks arethen read in an appropriate manner or protocol, providing for100 per cent accuracy.How much information can be stored in DNA? Goldman andcompany have been able to store 2.2 petabytes (a peta is a millionbillion or 10 raised to power 15) in one gram of DNA (and as TheEconomist says “enough, in other words, to fit all of the world'sdigital information into the back of a lorry”). What about thespeed? And how does one read the files?Today, the speed is slow and the reading using DNAsequencers is expensive, but in time, both the speed willimprove and the cost come down considerably. Recall that it took$3 billion to read out the entire human genome a decade ago, andmonths to do so. Today, the speed has improved, and it ispredicted that in a couple of years, the human genome can beread for $1000. But even today, DNA–based information storageis a realistic option to archive long-term, infrequently accessedmaterial.What did Goldman and group store in DNA? For starters,they stored all 154 sonnets of Shakespeare (in ASCII text), the1953 Watson-Crick paper on the DNA double helix (in PDFformat), a colour photograph of Hinxton (in JPEG) and a clipfrom the “I have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King (inMP3 format).Natural selection and evolution have used DNA to store andread out to make our bodies. And we are now using DNA to storeand archive the products of our brains. What a twist!Zebrafish stem cells could heal human retinasThe wonders of nature never seem to cease. On every second day, as it were,scientists stumble upon something or unveil some secrets of nature that causes man tomarvel and wonder about natures all around him.Stem cells from zebrafish, the staple of genetic research, could regeneratedamaged cones in retinas and restore eyesight to people.Rods and cones in the eyes are the most important photoreceptors. In humans,rods provide night vision, while cones offer a full-colour look at the world during the day.It was not known, says University of Alberta researcher Ted Allison, whether stem cells could be instructed to onlyreplace the cones in its retina. This could have important implications for human eyesight, the journal Public Library ofScience ONE reports. Almost all success in regenerating photoreceptor cells to date had been limited to rods, not cones.Most previous experiments were conducted on nocturnal rodents, animals that require good night vision and have farmore rods than cones, according to an Alberta statement.“This is the first time in an animal research model that stem cells have only repaired damaged cones,” said Allison.“For people with damaged eyesight, repairing the cones is most important because it would restore day-time colour vision.Researchers say that this shows some hope for stem cell therapy that could regenerate damaged cones in people,especially in the cone-rich regions of the retina that provide daytime/colour vision. Allison says that the next step for histeam is to identify the particular gene in zebrafish that activates repair of damaged cones.58 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Film Review 'Madhavidai’WHY IS 'MENSES' THE 'DIRTY' WORD?'Madhavidai' thoughtfully essays the uneasy attitudes towardmenstruation that are still prevalent in our culture.A woman bleeds every month, it's her own blood. Let usunderstand a woman's body. Let us understand the uterus -- theorgan which nurtures lives, creates a child from a single cell.How can it be defilement? “Celebrate menses like mother'smilk,” declares Geeta Ilangovan, the director of a 40-minute,self-explanatory documentary titled Madhavidai, or Menses.The message is simple and so is the story line. But filming it wasa challenge.The all-woman crew shared their own experiences withyoung girls and new mothers, working women and physicallychallengedwomen, in order to convince them how important itwas to collectively educate both men and women about what islargely perceived as a “ladies' matter”.CANDIDThe interviewees shed their inhibitions to talk on cameraabout the fundamental and biological experience that occurredin their lives and occurs in every woman's life. Some of them toldtheir stories with candour and humour that has been poignantlycaptured – from the emotions of a 14-year-old student to thefeelings of a 50-year-old lady about womanhood, the familydynamics and society's complicated attitude towardmenstruation.Young school girls point out that neither their mothers northeir teachers ever told them anything about puberty or whatthey were supposed to do. “We are only restricted from applyingkumkum, offering puja, entering the kitchen,” says Banupriya.“We are not allowed during festivals and don't read the namaz,”says Anees Fatima. None of them looks at it as a happyexperience. “There is always some uneasiness, irritation, somekind of guilt,” says another girl.“The guilt arises due to the misconception about genitals,”says Dr. Shantha Margaret. Laws don't keep women fromworshipping or attending social and religious gatherings, shepoints out. It is the people who perpetuate such beliefs.Geeta wonders why a packet of sanitary napkins is firstwrapped in a newspaper and then handed over the counter in ablack plastic cover. Such meaningless acts keep alive the mythsabout “the curse”.HAZARDSFor the physically challenged, the hazards arise frominaccessible and unclean toilets. For a travelling woman or aprofessional visiting a public institution, water shortage andinadequate disposal facility are major setbacks. Doctors havefrequently warned that poor hygiene can lead to pelvic andurinary tract infections.Ritamma David, who runs a centre for autistic girls, takes thedebate to another level. “Periods are a hard experience forintellectually challenged children,” she says. If the mother orany other person taking care of special individuals does notthemselves understand the natural process which their ownbodies undergo, how will they help others? As a result, she says,many such women have their uterus removed.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 59

The well-edited film shows the pain that young girlsexperience trying to negotiate their bodies and their culture.Since the subject is not broached in homes, they learn to hidethemselves during those days and remove the evidence.Interspersed are educational clippings about the femalereproductive system.Says Geeta , “Women watching this film will discover theirconnectedness to others. Mothers are provided with a choicethat they may not have realized they had about how to aid theirdaughters in this important and often neglected life transition.”By shying away from explaining a natural body process andrefusing to shift from taboo to acceptance, they only continue toembarrass the females and confuse the males.'Menses' is a film by women for men that tries to dispel themyths and misconceptions, superstitions and stigma attached tomenstruation. The crew travelled through villages across theState to film the various practices that women follow duringtheir periods. With gut-wrenching shots of unbelievably dirtytoilets and uncleared piles of used sanitary napkins, thedocumentary urges the need to spread awareness regardingissues connected with menses. It calls for drastic change inpolicies on women's health and for male decision makers to playa significant role in providing necessary infrastructure.Though the film was researched over two years, it was shot inten days last April. Many of the shots happened spontaneously.When Geeta was travelling with her crew to a village calledKoovalapuram near T.Kallupatti, they saw four young girlssitting by the roadside. “We chatted them up and they told usabout a “muttuveedu”, the hut where a woman is kept duringthose five days of the month. The state of the muttuveedu wasappalling, with no light, water or toilet,” says Geeta. Segregationof women has different patterns and Muttuveedu iscontinuation of one such misconception.There is a need to ignite a debate on this subject. Women donot purposefully pollute the environment. They need to lead ahealthy life and their basic needs have to be understood andtaken care of. The film succeeds. The people should succeed!10 new species of freshwater earthworms discovered in ThailandScientists have discovered an astonishing 10 new species of semi-aquatic freshwaterearthworms in river systems in Thailand.According to a report published in the journal ZooKeys, the earthworms in the genusGlyphidrilus occur in a wide range of natural freshwater habitats, including rice fields, wherethey might play an important role in the development of organic farming.The newly-discovered worms have a rounded body tip, while the end is square shaped.When twisted, the posterior end, which is normally above the soil surface, forms U-shapedchannels. These are used to allow water circulation down the burrow.This is probably an evolutionary adjustment that ensures oxygen transport to the deeper surface of the worms, while theirbodies remain in the burrows.Another peculiar feature are the so-called “wings”, or the expanded part of epidermis near the body tip. The function of thewings is still unknown to scientists, but it has been suggested that they evolved to assist breathing in such aquatic habitats.Since the wings will be located deep in the burrow at a low oxygen supply and are absent in sexually immature juveniles, amore conventional explanation might be that they are used to aid copulation rather than respiration.The worms turn out to play an important role in the development of rice farming, being a facilitator in the decomposition oforganic matter to be a natural fertiliser, as well as improving the soil properties for better rice root system.The species also assist the release of essential minerals in some chemical fertilisers, though not in pesticides, which proveto be lethal to the worms.60 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Jaipur Literature FestivalThe most scintillating,thought provoking andinteresting session of theJaipur Literature Festival was theopening session held in a packed frontlawn. The session was entitled 'TheWriter and the State' and boasted astellar cast including moderatorTimothy Garton-Ash, an unparalleledauthority on the Balkans and theemergence of Eastern Europe, authorof nine books and a Fellow at StAnthony's College, Oxford.Garton-Ash had formidable speaker line-up and a difficultsubject: what is the role of a writer in a totalitarian state even in ademocratic state? Must a writer, because he is some kind ofconscience-keeper, necessarily be anti-corruption, antitotalitarian,uphold the norms of decency? Where is the place formischief, irony, humour, paradox when a writer faces the wrathand the power of the state?The other panelists included Ariel Dorfman who fled Chileafter the arrival of Pinochet in the aftermath of the killing ofSalvatore Allende, the then Chile's President. Playwright,author of both fiction and non-fiction, Dorfman is one of themost respected “resistance” figures in the world of writingtoday.Frank Dikotter lives in Hong Kong and writes about PRCChinese (People's Republic of China), and has written aboutMao's great famine that cost millions of lives, the Great LeapForward with a degree of documentation that remainsastonishing because he continues to live in Hong Kong.Ian Buruma is a specialist in Chinese history and Japanesecinema and is a regular contributor to the New York Review ofBooks.The only woman on the panel was Selma Debbagh, aPalestinian writer living in London who has been identified bythe magazine Granta as one of the most interesting youngauthors of this decade.The only Indian on the panel butone who brilliantly defended his turf,at one point decrying (an Oxfordtrained Indian economist) which hewas probably referring to MontekSingh Ahluwalia or even ManmohanSingh, was Sudeep Chakravarti, theauthor of two critically acclaimedworks of narrative non fiction – RedSun: Travels in the Naxalite Countryand Highway 39: Travels through afractured land.The debate started off with Dorfman who said that Allendewas a person whom he respected but that did not mean thathuman rights abuses did not take place under his regime. “Butthen, you get a person like Pinochet and then we had 17 years ofdictatorship, exile, oppression, torture under an oppressiveregime such as Pinochet's, where the beatings are bad but thesoul occupies a moral high ground. Once having fled the countryhow does the author deal with ambiguous “disloyal” truths inorder to help the opposition; transitions to democracy such asthe Arab Spring are amongst the most difficult situations for anauthor to understand, given that the liberators can turn out to befundamentalists or closet dictators. Also what happens when thestate is a democracy but the state has an axe to grind against thewriter? So there are different situations. So it's a very complexsituation, that relationship between writers and centers ofpower.”Garton Ash said that occasionally it was easier for a writerliving outside the country than for one trapped inside. He askedFrank Dikotter how he was able to criticise Mao from outsideChina.“I write on the PRC but I live in Hong Kong and I have aDutch passport. The people whom I admire are historians whotook extraordinary risks for writing on the Korean War. Andthose in my view are the real heroes. There are others who don'tgo that far and I understand why they have to do that in order towrite. I can even vaguely understand certainly would like tobecome part of the China Writers Association. I do occasionallyhave a plea for some of my friends from across Hong Kong.” HePT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 61

was of course referring to the recent Nobel Prize winner Mo Yanwho, according to certain critics, failed “adequately” to criticisethe Chinese regime.Ian Buruma said, “True state of freedom is to be able tochoose how far one wished to be a resistant and that a writershould be free to decide whether he wished to oppose regimes,opt for politics or keep out of it altogether.”Selma Dabbagh, the only woman on the panel said that shefound it hard to go back and forth between the nationalnarratives and to reconcile it with her own life in London.Although, she said that the notion of Israeli occupation wasnever out of her mind and the differences between Fatah andHamas, the Palestinian factions made the situation far morecomplicated. “I have this mixed background in which my fatherwas dispossessed in 1948 – the normal narrative and yet I havenot lived through the occupation. People are very possessiveabout their narratives and for an outsider like me, it is verydifficult which one to choose.”Some of the most telling remarks from Sudeep Chakravartisaid that despite the fact that India was such a vibrantdemocracy, the lines were being blurred. That business and thestate were in a way getting morphed, which was cutting out theordinary citizen. “That is very, very dangerous and therefore, weneed all the freedom of speech we have and we need to use itwell,” he concluded.Researchers stumble upon new genewith Delhi hospital’s inputThird major gene-of-effect in hyperekplexia, GLRB, discoveredQuick to realise that a two-year-old girl admitted with them for problem of seizures and forgetting started on touch was suffering from hyperekplexia and not epilepsy, the doctors at SirGanga Ram Hospital sent her samples for further study abroad and these have now becomepart of a path-breaking research that has led to the discovery of a new gene.The events that led to itAs per senior consultant in the Department of Genetics at SGRH, Dr. Ratna Dua Puri,when the child was brought in, the clinical diagnosis had led them to confirm hyperekplexia.“The genetics of this disorder is known and can be inherited. We sent her samples, along withour findings, for a molecular analysis to a research group which was working on the genetics ofthis disease. “At that time four years ago, there were only two known genes for it and we did not have mutation in the knowngenes. However, as it turned out, this child had a unique disorder and similarly around nine other patients across the world hadsimilar mutations, which led the research group to identify a change and the new gene is now called GLRB,” says Dr. Puri.Rare disorderStating that this was a rare disorder in which the child used to get startled at even a small touch, Dr. Puri said that it can runin families and can occur again. So, she said, the discovery of the new gene offers greater hope of better treatment to suchpatients. The patient, who is now six, was prescribed medication and her condition has improved with it. “But she still hasepisode trips and we are confident that our work would lead to better understanding of her disorder and its treatment,” Dr.Puri adds.Research on in premier institutesAs per the research, GLRB is the third major gene-of-effect in hyperekplexia. The main research in the subject has beendone by a group of premier medical institutes while the “corresponding author” is Dr. Seo-Kyung Chung of Institute of LifeSciences College of Medicine, Swansea University, United Kingdom.Hyperekplexia is a severe paroxysmal neuromotor disorder that typically presents soon after birth or in the first week of life.62 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013

Long live your liverAs the largest single organ inour bodies and one of themost complex, the liver isvery difficult to replace or replicateartificially. And while diseases thataffect the liver can be treated, theycan hardly be cured. So never makethe mistake of ignoring this lifesustainingorgan until it is too late.It's as soft as a rose petal anddoctors refer to it as the chemicalfactory ofour bodies. But while the heart gets star billing, many of us tendto completely ignore the life-sustaining liver, mostly becausewe're not aware of how it tirelessly strives to ensure our goodhealth. "The liver has a multitude of functions," says Dr A.RNitin Rao, consultant gastroenterologist and a specialist inhepatopancreatobiliary surgery (treating diseases associatedwith the liver, pancreas and bile) at MS Ramiah MemorialHospital, Bangalore. "It produces bile (and other enzymes)which help in digestion of food; it also aids in the storage of fats,eliminates poisonous substances from our bodies and providesus with better immunity. It is important that we take somesimple steps on a daily basis to care for this organ better."Don't overdose: There are many ways in which weunknowingly abuse our liver but drinking excessive alcohol isjust one of these. Ensuring that your alcohol intake is regulatedin small doses should be the first step to maintaining a healthyliver. Also, never overdose on any medication, especially overthe-counterdrugs. Many of us tend to get careless about dosage,but if you take medication often for chronic ailments, then this issomething you need to approach with caution. "Every medicineyou ingest is full of chemicals that are finally processed in theliver," says Dr Nitin Rao. Too many chemicals can cause the liverto harden and can result in permanent damage. "Paracetamol(the most commonly prescribed fever medication), in particular,can be very damaging to your liver if taken in excessive amounts."So use medication judiciously and the next time you're temptedto pop pills for a mild head or body ache, spare a thought for thehealth of your liver.Beware of a fatty liver: When youeat a diet that is rich in calories, yourliver will work over-time to processall that extra fat. "While someamount of fat in the liver is normal,when it makes up more, that 5-10%of the weight of the liver, it could lead toserious complications."An overload of iron inthe diet, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption--allthis can cause a fatty liver. A fatty liver is undesirable becauseit produces a thicker bile solution," explains Dr Prof. N.Rangabashyam, a pioneer in pancreatic hepatobiliary surgery inIndia and former Head of the Department of SurgicalGastroenterology and Proctology, Madras Medical College andGovernment General Hospital, Chennai. "This can cause stonesto form in the gall bladder, which require surgical interventionto remove."Avoid food traps and go green: Your diet plays an importantrole in keeping your liver sound, but what you don't eat is asimportant as what you do. "There is a species of wild mushroomthat can cause liver failure immediately upon consumption,"warns Dr. Rao. "While button mushrooms and most otherspecies are harmless, one must avoid mushrooms grown in thewild, because the poisonous variety can be sold unknowingly inrural areas.""Many vegetarians don't consume enough protein," says DrRangabashyam. "A chronic protein deficiency can causehardening and sclerosis of the liver, resulting in permanentdamage. For instance, we tend to eat more carbohydrate richfood like idli-dosa for breakfast, accompanied by a sambhar thatis devoid of vegetables. To ensure adequate protein intake, makechick-peas (sundal), dhal, and soybean a regular feature in yourmenu. A vegetable dish with breakfast (for instance, spinach,drumstick or ladies finger) is a must, as it adds more fibre, aidsdigestion and prevents other complications such as constipationand piles." Traditional herbs like keezhanelli have long sincebeen used to treat a malfunctioning liver. "These herbs areeffective in enhancing liver function and can be used as apreventive aid, but studies are yet to prove that they can cure liverdiseases," says Dr Rao.PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013 63

STOCK UP ON ANTIOXIDANTSFoods that are rich in antioxidants are especially good for theliver. "The paan leaf (vethilai) taken plain without the supari isan excellent source of antioxidants and has a protective effect.The curry leaf is good source as well, but though it is used incooking, it is unfortunately discarded when we consume thefood. Garlic and turmeric also help enhance liver function," saysDr Rao.STAY AWAY FROM PLASTICDrinking a water bottle that lies in the sun, placing food in aflimsy plastic take-away carton and reheating it at home-- plasticare a part of our daily lives. "But cheap plastic has several layersand when this melts and is consumed, it can pose a serious hazardto the health of our liver, even causing liver cancer," says Dr Rao.REGULAR CHECK-UPS AND VACCINATIONSToday, vaccinations are available to prevent two of the mostdreaded liver diseases--Hepatitis A and B. These viralinfections, when unchecked, can lead to severe jaundice andhave the potential to destroy the liver. However, there is novaccine to provide protection against Hepatitis C, thoughresearch is ongoing. Every year, after the age of 35, doctorsrecommend that you take a liver function test that can helpascertain whether the liver is functioning normally. Anultrasound is also essential. "The liver has the remarkable powerto regenerate itself, so no matter what abuse you have subjectedit to, there exists a miraculous power of healing and restoration,"says Dr Rangabashyam.As glaciers melt in Himalayas, new lakes crop upGlacier melting over a 47-year period has led to formation of seven new glacial lakes inChandra-Bagha Basin of western HimalayasIndicating the impact of global warming, glacier melting over a 47-year period has led toformation of seven new glacial lakes in Chandra-Bagha Basin of western Himalayas.Preliminary findings of an ongoing study by researchers from IIT, Bombay, showed thatglacier lakes underwent continuous changes between 1963 and 2010. Geographical InformationSystem (GIS) tools and high resolution remote sensing technology were used to delineate glacier lakes situated ininaccessible Himalayan terrain. In all, 15 large glacier lakes situated at an elevation between 4069 meters to 5252 meters werechosen for monitoring the changes that occurred.Continuous ice-melting due to glacier recession (loss of ice due to excess melting) caused the formation of seven newlakes near the mouth of the glaciers. These were formed as moraine-dammed lakes and the glacier-lake area was estimated tohave increased approximately by 2591 sq.meters during the 47-year period. Moraine is a depositional feature of glacier. As theglacier starts moving, it accumulates small rocks, debris, ice fragments and soil.There was no significant change in the area of eight other glacier lakes which were situated at a higher altitude and notcreated by melting. According to Farjana Sikandar Birajdar, lead author of the study, the melting of glaciers would reduce theice mass balance even as it resulted in formation of new lakes with loose moraine. This, in turn, could lead to a sudden breachof the unstable moraine dams and the phenomenon of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), posing a serious hazard tosettlements downstream. She said that many previous studies in the Himayalan region revealed that the rate of melting wasincreasing. If the same trend continued, glaciers would vanish in the long-term, adversely impacting the storage of freshwaterresources, as also hydro-power generation.In a bid to overcome any future problem, she suggested that foundations of such moraine-dammed lakes should bestrengthened. Besides, by studying the rate of glacier melting, it could be predicted when a lake would burst and the peopleliving downstream could be forewarned, she added.64 PT's PrepTalk – Dec 2012 - Jan 2013