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- Indian Navy to commission a new Budget Control System
- Every accused has the right to get Legal Rights rules Supreme Court
- Oak Creek Killer’s Accomplice if any wont be spared
- Kudankulam Nuclear Plant getting ready to be Fuelled
- Pinki Pramanik gets her Railway Job back
- Baba Ramdev hits directly at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
- The Disastrous Condition of Hindus in Pakistan
- Subhash Ghai to setup Film Training School in Nigeria
- Police recovers Scorpio used by Anuradha Bali
- Perseid Meteor Shower to lit up Crackers in Sky this Sunday
| Indian Navy to commission a new Budget Control System Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:30 PM PDT In a revolutionary step to speed up its budgetary processes and macro-manage public funds, the Indian Navy will Saturday launch its force-wide automated Financial Information System (FIS) that is expected to simplify decision-making and enhance transparency in its monetary dealings. Defence Minister A.K. Antony will launch the FIS at an event in the presence of Indian Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma. For starters, FIS will help manage the $13 billion the Indian Navy has been been allocated in the budget for 2012-13. Developed over a two-year period with help from information technology major Wipro Infotech, the FIS cost the navy about $6 million to create. “The FIS is a pioneering initiative of the Indian Navy for effective management of its budget, both capital and revenue. The FIS provides a unified platform to bring together all departments involved in budgetary estimation, allocation and public expenditure,” a naval officer said. “The system will deal only with public funds and would simplify fund allocation, expenditure and monitoring and reduce timelines in the procurement process,” the officer added. The FIS will replace the legacy system of budget management that happened predominantly manually and took nearly 45 days of every year in preparing for the processes of allocation and utilisation. With the Indian Navy buying new equipment – for which nearly $5 billion was allocated this year – annually, the FIS is expected to not only help allocate funds, but also monitor the payment schedule to the sellers. To be hosted on 36 physical servers that translate into 54 virtual servers in the national capital, the FIS will be based on the navy’s intranet and hence would be free of the threat of cyber attacks. “The system has been designed to comply with existing financial regulations, thereby automatically ensuring compliance by all users,” the officer said. Interestingly, the navy has over 700 units, including warships, that utilise funds from the annual budget under over 650 heads. The Indian Navy, being entrusted with the responsibility of securing Indian maritime interests and safeguarding a 7,500-km coastline and the exclusive economic zone, has to maintain a large fleet and supporting units, apart from modernising and upgrading its platforms and equipment. All of these processes are facilitated by the naval budget, which is managed and utilised by the directorate of naval plans at the headquarters. |
| Every accused has the right to get Legal Rights rules Supreme Court Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:30 PM PDT The Supreme Court has said that an accused getting free legal aid was a matter of right and no distinction could be made in upholding this right irrespective of whether the legal aid sought was for the trial or an appeal against an adverse verdict. “We are of the opinion that neither the Constitution nor the Legal Services Authorities Act makes any distinction between a trial and an appeal for the purposes of providing free legal aid to an accused or a person in custody,” said a bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Madan B. Lokur in their judgment Thursday, but made available Friday. Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Lokur said that the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, provides, inter alia, that “every person who has to file or defend a case shall be entitled to legal services, if he or she is in custody”. Section 13 of the act provides that persons meeting the criteria laid down in Section 12 will be entitled to legal services provided the concerned authority is satisfied that such person has a prima facie case to prosecute or defend, the judgment noted. The judgment came as the court set aside a Sep 5, 2006 judgment and order of Madhya Pradesh High Court and sent back the case to it for rehearing of the appeal as one of the accused, Rajoo, was not represented by a lawyer. While saying so, the apex court relied on its earlier judgments wherein it was said that the right to be represented by a lawyer was a constitutional right of every accused person who is unable to engage a lawyer on account of poverty, indigence or incommunicado situation and the state was mandated to provide a lawyer to such an accused. The court also expressed its disagreement with observation in one of its earlier judgments wherein it sought to deny the free legal aid to the accused in cases of economic offences or offences against law prohibiting prostitution or child abuse and so on. “We have some reservations whether such exceptions can be carved out particularly keeping in mind the constitutional mandate and the universally accepted principle that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” it said. “If such exceptions are accepted, there may be a tendency to add some more, such as in cases of terrorism thereby diluting the constitutional mandate and the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” it cautioned. The judgment said that apex court had taken a “rather pro-active role in the matter of providing free legal assistance to persons accused of an offence or convicted of an offence.” The court referred to the recent verdict of New Zealand’s Court of Appeal where in it said that “the right of a fair trial is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights Act and it is an absolute right. A fundamental feature of a fair trial is a right to legal representation under the Bill of Rights Act.” Asking the Madhya Pradesh High Court to rehear the matter, the apex court said: “We are also of the view that the high court was under an obligation to enquire from Rajoo whether he required legal assistance and if he did, it should have been provided to him at state expense.” Since the record of the case does not indicate any such endeavour having been made by the high court, this case ought to be re-heard by it after providing Rajoo an opportunity of obtaining legal representation, ruled the apex court. |
| Oak Creek Killer’s Accomplice if any wont be spared Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:30 PM PDT US Ambassador Nancy Powell has said that if the gunman who killed six people at a gurdwara at Winconsin had an accomplice, he or she will be punished. “Though news suggests this was the act of one individual, if anyone else is involved, they will be brought to justice and charged under appropriate laws,” Powell said in a letter to BJP leader Vijay Jolly here. The envoy pointed out Thursday that she had visited the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara here Monday to convey to the Sikh community her “profound sadness and disappointment about this terrible event”. “The president, secretary of state and I have all conveyed to the Sikh community and Indian government that the US abhors acts of religious violence,” she said. Powell’s letter follows one from Jolly in which he pointed out that the murder of six Sikhs by a white gunman at the gurdwara Aug 5 “is unpardonable and terrorism against humanity”. Jolly asked the US administration to provide medical facilities to the injured and compensation to the families of the dead. |
| Kudankulam Nuclear Plant getting ready to be Fuelled Posted: 10 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT
The Kudankulam plant in Tirunelveli district is being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). The project will start generating power from September. “It will take us around 10-15 days to load the fuel. We have to intimate the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) about the fuel loading,” S.A. Bhardwaj, director (technical) at NPCIL, told IANS from Mumbai over phone. AERB chairman S.S. Bajaj told IANS from Mumbai: “The sanction is always subject to certain stipulations, like flushing of the reactor and other primary systems with borated water. It will take a week for NPCIL to complete our conditions so that they can load the fuel.” He said the AERB’s advisory committee reviewed the reports submitted by NPCIL about KNPP Thursday and the sanction order was issued Friday. As KNPP falls under the safeguard agreement signed by India with the IAEA, the latter has to be informed about fuel loading. According to Bhardwaj, some components have to be loaded into the reactor before the fuel. He said NPCIL is not working towards any specific date to load the 163 fuel assemblies into the 1,000 MW light water reactor (LWR) supplied by Russia. NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW reactors in Kudankulam, around 650 km from here. Work at the project had come to a standstill in August last year after local villagers, fearing for their lives in case of a nuclear accident, mounted an intensive protest under People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy banner. S.P. Udayakumar, coordinator of PMANE, told IANS: “Madras High Court is hearing a case against the Kudankulam project. As the country is waiting for the judgment, the sanction to load the fuel is authoritarian and undemocratic.” The Tamil Nadu government had last year passed a resolution asking the central government to halt work at the plant and to allay the fears of the locals. To resolve the issue, the central and state governments set up two committees. The central panel submitted its final report on January 31. Another expert committee set up by the Tamil Nadu government also favoured the project. In March this year, the state government gave the go-ahead to the project and announced Rs.500 crore for local area and infrastructural development. Following that, work at KNPP was restarted with police protection. |
| Pinki Pramanik gets her Railway Job back Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT Kolkata- “Yes, it is true that Pinki Pramanik has joined back the duty from yesterday (Thursday),” said an Eastern Railway spokesman. Pramanik, who worked with Eastern Railway as ticket collector, was placed under suspension after her arrest. But after the submission of a copy of the bail order, the railways decided to revoke the decision to suspend her. Pramanik was released July 11 after 26 days in a West Bengal jail in judicial custody. She was granted bail by the district and sessions judge of North 24-Parganas. Pinki’s live-in partner, a mother of one, accused her of being a male and raping her over a period, leading to her arrest. |
| Baba Ramdev hits directly at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT  All is not well between Team Anna and Baba Ramdev Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to demonstrate his “political honesty and will” and act on getting back black money stashed abroad. Addressing thousands of supporters at the Ramlila Maidan here on the penultimate day of his three-day fast against corruption, the yoga guru said, “India could have won gold if there was a competition for corruption in the Olympics”, to loud cheers and clapping by his supporters. Ramdev then told his supporters: “This is not a matter to applaud” and asked all Indians to support his agitation against black money and graft. Directing his demand to the prime minister, Ramdev said: “Why is the prime minister not acting on the issue of black money? The government should reveal the names of those who have black money stashed abroad… Stop making excuses.” “The prime minister should demonstrate political honesty and will on black money,” he added. Ramdev said the government should at least inform the people by when they would get the black money back. “If black money is brought back to the country, the issue of price rise will be solved and high taxes will reduce… The Naxal and Maoist problem will also be solved,” he said adding that every Indian pays around 30 different types of taxes. “We will wait till Saturday and then announce our future course of action,” Ramdev said, reiterating his statement Thursday that he would give the government three days to act and then decide on the next course of action. The crowds swelled as the day progressed on day two of the agitation. Ramdev went to sleep at around 10 p.m. Thursday on the stage itself and woke up at 4 a.m. After freshening up in a makeshift washroom behind the dais, he meditated for an hour, a close aide said. The aide told IANS “no special arrangements” have been made for the yoga guru. Ramdev began the day Friday with a yoga camp for his supporters, before addressing them. The yoga guru has demanded that the government get back black money stashed abroad, as well as a stringent Lokpal bill, an independent Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a citizen’s charter – which are also the demands of the now disbanded Team Anna. Most men and women at the sprawling ground seemed to be long time followers of Ramdev. The ground was swarming with thousands of mostly middle aged people, the front rows filled by women, as early as 7 a.m. Many had spent the night at the ground, having reached it even before Ramdev started his three-day fast Thursday, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Quit India movement. “Yoga can be learnt even on television. We are here only for the revolution,” said Dheer Singh, an Arya Samaj leader from Uttarakhand. “I am a follower of Baba Ramdev and his yoga but it is his movement that brings me here,” said Surendra Agarwal, a 63-year-old resident of Sadar Bazar in Delhi. A police officer Thursday put the crowds at 50-60,000 – who have come from states around Delhi as well as afar. And they plan to stay put as long as Ramdev wants them to. On Friday, Ramdev asked the crowds: “How many of you are willing to be in the agitation for three years?” Thousands of hands went up in response. The organisers have arranged for vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner, given gratis to the protesters. Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel, including the Rapid Action Force, have been deployed at the ground in the heart of the capital. Meanwhile, Indian Government has outlined a series of measures to tackle Black Money and Corruption. As part of its efforts, the Indian government has a “huge network of amended” Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with 84 countries and Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with nine tax havens The government has obtained “more than 12,500 pieces of information regarding details of asset and payments received by Indian citizen in several countries which are now under different stages of processing and investigation,” a statement said Friday. The authorities have also received “30,765 pieces of domestic information about suspicious transactions by the Financial Intelligence Unit which are under investigation”. “The Directorate of Transfer Pricing has detected mispricing of Rs.67,768 crore in last financial year and in the current financial year (Rs 43,531 crore in F.Y. 2011-12). This has prevented shifting of equivalent profit out of the country. “Directorate of International Taxation has collected taxes of Rs. 48,951 crore from cross broader transactions in last two financial years. “Investigation wing of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has detected concealed income of Rs.19,938 crore in last two financial years. Focused searches have been conducted in a number of cases in the current year on the basis of information received from foreign jurisdictions under the provisions of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements”, it said. As part of the DTAA with France, India has received information regarding Indians having bank accounts. “In 219 cases, the department has detected undisclosed income totalling Rs 565 crore and taxes amounting to Rs 181 crore has already been realized so far.” As part of amendments made through the Finance Act, 2012 to deal with the menace of black money, and to deter the generation and use of unaccounted money, the General Anti Avoidance Rules to counter Aggressive Tax Avoidance Schemes was introduced, as well as the compulsory reporting of assets held abroad. The amendment has also resulted in “Increasing the onus of proof on closely held companies for funds received from shareholders as well as taxing share premium in excess of fair market value; taxation of unexplained money, credits, investments, expenditures etc., at the highest rate of 30 per cent irrespective of the slab of income. Another initiative was “Introduction of a reporting mechanism for assets and bank accounts in a foreign country,” the statement said. The government has also commissioned a study on unaccounted income which is being conducted by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), National Institute of Public Finance & Policy (NIPFP) and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), with inputs from various ministries/departments. The study will be completed by the end of 2012. In order to strengthen the existing laws, the government set up a panel under the Chairman, CBDT to examine the measures to strengthen the existing legal and administrative framework to deal with the menace of generation of black money. The measures include, declaring wealth generated illegally as a national asset, enacting / amending laws to confiscate and recover such assets; and providing for exemplary punishment against its perpetrators. The panel submitted its report to the government on March 29, 2012. The report has been sent to different Ministries / Organisations and state governments for necessary action, the statement said. |
| The Disastrous Condition of Hindus in Pakistan Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT Hindus are fleeing Pakistan after their shops were looted, houses raided and women were converted to Islam, a media report said. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, however, said that visas being issued to 250 Hindu families by the Indian high commission here was a conspiracy, reported the daily Dawn. Malik was responding to a query on migration of Hindu families to India from Sindh and Balochistan after they complained that their shops had been looted, houses raided and women forced to embrace Islam. The minister said in Lahore that the government had stopped the Hindus of Jacobabad from leaving for India, but they will now be allowed after their immigration process is complete. About 100 Hindus had protested at the Wagah border with India earlier this week after they were stopped, the Online news agency reported. “The Indian high commission should say why it has issued visas to them,” Malik was quoted as saying. The government has decided to beef up security for religious minorities following large-scale migration of Hindu families to India. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed provincial excise minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla to inquire into the matter and submit a report, the Online said. Seven Hindu families comprising 90 men, women and children from Jacobabad left for India Wednesday night, citing lack of safety and security in Sindh. They left by train and were seen off by relatives and a large number of people of the community at the Jacobabad railway station. After reaching Lahore, they intended to enter India from the Wagah border checkpost. The move comes just six months after 52 Hindu families from the same area migrated to India. Jacobabad police official Muhammad Younus Chandio maintained that complete security was being provided to the community and said the families were not migrating but were going to India to perform religious rites and would return soon. |
| Subhash Ghai to setup Film Training School in Nigeria Posted: 10 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT Noted Filmmaker Subhash Ghai would setup Film Trianing Institute in Nigeria. His Whistling Woods International (WWI), Mumbai, will set up Africa’s first world-class film and media training institute in Nigeria, a company official said here Friday. It will come up in collaboration with Trend Media City Ltd (TMC), a Nigerian development company, for setting up Whistling Woods International Nigeria (WWIN), said WWI President, Meghna Ghai Puri. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding announcing the partnership and setting up of WWIN. It also details how investments, capital, resources and knowledge would go to develop the new film and media institute in the thriving entertainment hub of Nigeria. In addition, WWI (Mumbai) will be supervising the operations of the proposed film institute and the studios at WWIN for a minimum period of 10 years. “WWI strongly encourages cross cultural exchange between film professionals across the globe. We have been aggressively exploring opportunities to expand globally over the past one year so, and in the proposed Trend Filmcity by TMC in Nigeria, we found a perfect partner,” said Meghna Ghai Puri. Uzo Udemba, Chairman of TUG, which owns TrendTV and TMC, said there is lot of raw talent inherent in Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, and explained how it is a major source of film and television entertainment content to Africa and the world. “However, WWIN will become the training ground to train, harness and refine the professionals and technicians who will take the industry to its next level and unlock its enormous economic potential,” Udemba said. Over the past six years or so, WWI, Mumbai, has sustained international relations with several countries including Australia, Argentina, Bermuda, Dubai, Spain and UK. In 2009, it was invited by Spain to set up a campus in Alicante within the Spanish Film Industry, followed by WWIN in Nigeria. WWI is based in the Film City, Goregaon in north-west Mumbai, the country’s entertainment and glamour capital. |
| Police recovers Scorpio used by Anuradha Bali Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:32 PM PDT
It did not have a number plate in the front or rear, its head lights were broken and the rear tyre was punctured, they said. A slip with Anuradha written on it was also recovered from the car. It is still unclear who left the vehicle on Jarot road, SHO Baldev Nagar Pawan Kumar said adding the car belonged to an advocate of Punjab and Haryana High Court. The advocate visited Baldev Nagar police station and informed the SHO that he had given the car to Anuradha Bali for some months but it was not returned. The advocate claimed that he had filed a complaint in this regard with Chandigarh police. Ambala police has informed their Mohali counterparts, who are investigating the case, about the developments. Anuradha Bali (39), the estranged wife of former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chandermohan, was found dead at her residence in Mohali near here on August 6. |
| Perseid Meteor Shower to lit up Crackers in Sky this Sunday Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT Sky gazers can look forward to an exhibition of celestial fireworks as the night sky will be lit up by Perseids meteor showers that are expected to peak Sunday. At its peak, one can see as many as 60 meteors streak across the skies in an hour. An outstanding view of Perseids meteor shower is on the cards this weekend on the nights from Aug 12-14. The Perseids are the most famous of all meteor showers and never fail to provide an impressive display. The 2012 Perseids meteor shower will be excellently seen from the entire northern hemisphere. “Sky gazers will be able to see the fire from the skies. One can see trails of shooting stars coming from a particular area in the sky at an astonishing rate,” said Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) director C.B. Devgun. SPACE is a private organisation working for popularising science among people. “Light pollution can hamper the observations and maybe the city can’t witness too many meteors because of too much of light pollution around. Also, the rains and cloudy skies are expected to rob the charm of this celestial show,” Devgun said. As comets move about their orbits, they leave a trail of dusty and rocky debris, which gets attracted when the earth crosses their orbits. The showers are seen as the debris light up on entry into the earth’s atmosphere. Records of Perseids activity date back to 36 AD. In 1839, German astronomer Eduard Heis was the first to take a meteor count and discovered that Perseids had a maximum rate of around 60 meteors per hour. |
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