the hindu imp. news feb. 7th 2012

8/3/2019 The Hindu Imp. News Feb. 7th 2012

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THE HINDU

Imp. News

Feb.7th

2012

Page-1

Ban order on Nair, three others to stay:

The United Progressive Alliance government, while ruling out withdrawal of its order debarring

four space scientists from holding any government post or being on any official committees for

their role in the Antrix-Devas Multimedia deal, is in no hurry to investigate any possible

illegitimate financial gain by these or any other officials, government sources indicated. despite

the Pratyush Sinha committee, which went into the controversial deal, recommending not only

debarring the four but also investigating whether any of them obtained any pecuniary

advantage. If there is any charge of financial impropriety, as indicated in the Sinha Report, thecase should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation without delay, a senior

Congress source told The Hindu, adding, let's not make the mistake made in the 2G case. It's

nonsense to say someone will be demoralised. If it turns out that there are no benami holdings,

no irregularities, then we will know that it was just an error of judgment.

Home Ministry shoots down pleas to prosecute killer soldiers:

In the past four years alone, the Home Ministry has rejected at least 42 requests to sanction the

prosecution of military personnel found by the police to have engaged in crimes such as

murder, homicide and rape in Kashmir, data obtained by The Hindu reveal. Last week, twoSupreme Court judges said the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) which makes the

Central government's sanction mandatory for prosecution ought not to cover cases in which

crimes such as murder or rape were committed. You go to a place in exercise of AFSPA, you

commit rape, you commit murder, then where is the question of sanction? Justices B.S.

Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said.

Obama orders blocking of Iranian property:

In a move bound to rattle Tehran, U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday issued an executive

order blocking the property of the Iranian government and its financial institutions in America.

In a communiqu to Congress, Mr. Obama said his administration felt that additional sanctionswere needed on Iran in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other

banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties. The President said he determined that

there were deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime.


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EDITORIAL

Syria needs diplomacy, not intervention:

President Bashar al-Assad's government has used brute force to crush a genuine popular

upheaval against his regime. The death toll is nearly 6,000. Human rights have been

systematically violated. But the crucial question is how and what steps can international society

lawfully take to bring an end to the crisis. Libya is not a model for emulation but a warning to

heed; more so, Iraq. Each was a split polity surviving on fragile unity. The Syrian regime,

however unpopular, is supported by a significant section of people. Regime change through

outside intervention wreaks havoc, violates the United Nations Charter, the rules of

international law, and undermines the stability of the world order. These fundamentals must

not be overlooked.

Statements made in the Council as well as their texts establish that Resolution 1441 of

November 8, 2002, did not authorise an attack on Iraq. Nor did Resolution 1973, adopted on

March 17, 2011, authorise the use of force against Libya. However, on February 26, President

Barack Obama delivered a fatwa on Col. Muammar Qadhafi: He should go. Now, on February

4, the very day the UNSC was to vote on the resolution on Syria, he peremptorily declared

apropos President al-Assad: He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed

immediately. Few would believe Hillary Clinton when she said, on January 31, there is no

intention to seek any authority or to pursue any kind of military intervention.

The law was laid down by the International Court of Justice on April 9, 1949, in the Corfu

Channelcase: The Court can only regard the alleged right of intervention as the manifestationof a policy of force, such as has, in the past, given rise to most serious abuses and such as

cannot, whatever the present defects of international organization, find a place in international

law. from the nature of things it would be reserved for the most powerful States; These

words are more relevant now than they were in 1949. This was reaffirmed in the Nicaragua

case in 1986. The Court rejected intervention at a request for assistance made by an

opposition group in another state.

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 opened new vistas of the play of power. In 1986, a British

Foreign Office Policy Paper noted that the overwhelming majority of contemporary legal

opinion comes down against the existence of a right of humanitarian intervention. In 1992, the

Foreign Office held: international law develops to meet new situations; we believe that

international intervention without the invitation of the country concerned can be justified in

cases of extreme humanitarian need. On September 24, 1999, Foreign Ministers of the Group

of 77 rejected the so-called right of humanitarian intervention, which has no basis in the UN

Charter or international law. This represents the opinion of 132 states; 33 Asian, 51 African, 22

Latin American, and 13 Arab states.


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Russia's Foreign Minister said on February 4 that the resolution on Syria was not hopeless and

that we support the call of the Syrian people for change. There was ample room for

compromise. There is still time for that a U.N. Mission comprising members of high

credentials can go to Syria to bring about a settlement which leaves Mr. al-Assad in office but

ensures democratic transition.

India's Permanent Representative to the U.N., Hardip Singh Puri, said the main role of the

international community, including this Council, is to facilitate engagement of the Syrian

government with all sections of Syrian society. Nominating its adversary, the Arab League, to

accomplish tasks set by the Resolution is no way to secure that engagement.

Talk less, text more:

Seven months from now, all mobile phone handsets sold in India, including the imported ones,

will have to meet stringent electromagnetic emission limits. The yet to be notified regulations

will make mobile handsets relatively less harmful to use compared with the ones sold prior to

September 1. The decision to reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR) the amount of radio

frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a phone is a prudent one. India has

taken a leaf out of the United States Federal Communication Commission (FCC) by adopting a

stricter SAR limit of 1.6 watts per kilogram averaged over a volume of 1 gram of tissue for the

head. The SAR value currently in effect is 2 watts per kilogram averaged over a volume of 10

gram of tissue. Another significant aspect is the requirement to compulsorily mention the SAR

value on every handset so that consumers are aware of it. It is a fact that close contact of the

phone with the ear heats up the tissues after prolonged use. This can be eliminated and the risk

greatly minimised by using mobiles only for short calls, using texting options, and relying on

hands-free modes for communication. Needless to say, younger children should be discouraged

from using cellular phones as their skulls are thinner than adults and the cells are likely to bemore sensitive to mobile phone radiation as they are still in a growing state.

OP ED

Hell hath no fury like Britain scorned'-

Last week, on BBC Question Time , regarded as a good indicator of British public opinion, the

question that got the maximum applause was: why should Britain continue to subsidise India

by doling out aid when it could afford to spend billions of pounds to buy French fighter

jets? The question was asked in the context of India's decision, announced a day earlier, to

select a French firm over its British rival for a multi-billion dollar contract to supply fighter

planes to the Indian Air Force, an issue that has generated an unprecedented level of hostility in

Britain towards India. International Development Minister Alan Duncan was shouted down as

he struggled to explain that cutting off aid to India would mean that hundreds of thousands, if

not millions, of people, will die who otherwise could live. So what? asked one woman. If

India chose to spend its growing wealth on defence hardware rather than looking after its poor


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why should the hard-working British taxpayer be made to pay for it? Another lamented that

Britain failed to get the value for money it gave to India.

The fact is that India has been extremely reluctant to take British aid and has made it clear on

more than one occasion that it does not want it. As recently as last year, Union Finance

Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Parliament that we do not require the aid' describing it aspeanuts' in terms of India's massive development efforts. Not only that, according to The

Sunday Telegraph , former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, formally proposed an end to

British aid from April 1, 2011, because of the negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by

DfID (the department for international development). But British ministers insisted that they

had spent political capital justifying the aid to their electorate and it would be highly

embarrassing if the Indian government then pulled the plug. Perhaps it's time for India to go

ahead and pull that plug.

INTERNATIONAL

Palestinian rivals join hands:

The main Palestinian political rivals on Monday took a major step toward healing their bitter

rift, agreeing that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would head an interim unity

government to prepare for general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mr. Abbas and

Khaled Mashaal, head of the Islamist militant Hamas, said they would move forward without

delay, though it appears unlikely elections can be held in May, as initially envisioned.

It remains unclear whether an Abbas-led interim government that is supported by Hamas

would be acceptable to the West, which gives hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the

Palestinians each year. The United States, Europe and Israel consider Hamas a terrororganisation, and said they would shun any government that includes members of an

unreformed Hamas.

Court suspends 28 Pakistani legislators:

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday suspended the membership of 28 legislators,

including three Ministers of the federal government, elected in by-elections held after the

spring of 2010 on the premise that the polls were conducted under the charge of a partly-

constituted Election Commission. The court suspended the memberships on a petition filed by

cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan who sought the apex court's intervention in suspending

a recent notification of the Election Commission for a fresh round of by-elections. According to

Mr. Khan, the notification in the absence of error-free electoral rolls amounted to violation of

the court's January 19 directive to the Election Commission to postpone the by-polls till the

voters' list had been cleansed.


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Threat of civil war looms over Syria:

Violence flared afresh on Monday in Homs, lending greater credence to the opposition's claim

that emboldened by Russia and China's backing at the Security Council, the Syrian regime has

stepped up armed attacks against protesters in the embattled city. A Damascus-based

opposition activist who called himself Ahmed said pro-government vigilante groups are out infull force in Aleppo to keep a lid on possible disturbances.

Vasquez Mota to the fore in Mexican fray:

Mexico's ruling conservative party on Sunday chose Josefina Vazquez Mota, a 51-year-old

economist and former Minister, as its candidate for presidential elections on July 1. The former

lawmaker and ex-minister of both education and social development is seeking to take over

from President Felipe Calderon, who can only serve one six-year term.

Queen celebrates Diamond Jubilee:

Guns boomed as Queen Elizabeth on Monday celebrated the 60th anniversary of her accession

to the British throne kicking off the run-up to the official Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June

billed as the biggest event of the year, up there with the London Olympics. She is the longest-

serving British monarch after her great-great grandmother Victoria and has seen 11 Prime

Ministers come and go. David Cameron is Her Majesty's 12th Prime Minister.

Philippine earthquake kills 44:

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the central Philippines on Monday, killing at

least 44 people and causing widespread panic, officials said. The powerful quake hit in a narrowstrait between the heavily populated island provinces of Negros and Cebu, causing buildings to

collapse, cracking roads and bridges, and shutting down the power supply.

Massive water diversion project nears completion in China:

China's ambitious $80-billion project to divert waters of southern rivers to the arid north is

nearing completion and will begin supplying water next year, officials have said.The project's

eastern and central routes, which will bring waters from the Yangtze river to the Yellow river,

will be fully constructed in the next two years, planners told a review of the project conducted

over the weekend in eastern Shandong province.

BUSINESS

TRAI to rejig tariff policy:

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday began the process to review the

existing policy on telecom tariffs, which includes evolving a mechanism on data usage charges.


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Issuing a consultation paper' on Review of policy of forbearance in telecom tariffs', the TRAI

said as per the existing regulatory framework, tariff for telecommunication services were under

forbearance except for rural fixed line services, national roaming services and leased circuits.

Auction should be only for affected telcos: Telenor:

Norwegian telecom major Telenor on Monday said it would take part in the 2G spectrum

auction following cancellation of its pan-India licence by a Supreme Court order, but did not

rule out the exit option from the Indian market. The company also demanded that the

proposed auction should be only among those operators who got licences in 2008 to ensure a

level-playing field. Mr. Brekke also accused incumbent mobile operators of engaging into

unethical' trade practices by poaching Uninor's subscribers. We have already filed a complaint

about it with the COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India)we will also report to

government authorities. We are also coming out with advertisement for our customers assuring

that we are very much here, he added.

RIL's demand for gas price revision rejected:

Asserting that there is no case for revision in natural gas price, the Petroleum and Natural Gas

Ministry has dismissed the demand by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to seek a revision of gas

price for the KG-DWN-98/3 block on the East Coast of Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that it

(RIL) had agreed for revision of price after five years.

S&P warning to India on negative rating:

Even as there is no immediate threat of downward tweaking, global rating agency Standard &

Poor's (S&P) on Monday cautioned India that its sovereign credit rating could tilt slightlytowards negative' if effective action was not taken to counter the balance of risk factors

emanating from economic uncertainties at home and abroad.

Gokarn pitches for fiscal consolidation:

Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn on Monday pitched for serious measures

aimed at fiscal consolidation as it was an essential step for spurring growth. We can't discount

the importance of fiscal consolidation contributing to growth. It is not that growth first and

then we get fiscal consolidation. They are interrelated, Dr. Gokarn said at an investor

conference here.

Welspun seeks Rs.480-crore grant to run Vizhinjam port:

The only contender left in the fray for assuming the role of the port operator for the Vizhinjam

Port, a consortium led by Welspun Infratech Limited (India), has, in its financial bid, requested a

grant of Rs.479.54 crore spread over 16 years from the State Government to participate in the

project. The grant is in present value terms. Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL), a


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fully-owned company of the State Government set up to facilitate the port project, opened the

financial bid on Monday. The concession period for the bid is 30 years and the revised cost of

this dream project is Rs.4,010 crore. Out of this, the port operator is required to bring in Rs.970

crore. The project is conceived in the landlord model. The State Government is building the

port infrastructure. Building the port superstructure is the responsibility of the port operator,

who will promote the business of the port, handle its operations and enjoy the revenue from itfor a period of 30 years. Fourteen firms/consortiums, including the Shipping Corporation of

India, had initially shown interest in the project, but only a consortium led by Welspun Infratech

and another led by Adani Ports (formerly Mundra Ports) lasted beyond the stage of submission

and evaluation of technical bids. The Union Home Ministry, however, did not give its clearance

for considering the bid of Adani Ports.

the hindu imp. news feb. 7th 2012

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