LeT wanted to kill Thackeray: Headley

MUMBAI: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

A Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative tasked to assassinate Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray was arrested by the police but managed to escape, David Coleman Headley–one of the masterminds of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks–told a court on Thursday.

The Mumbai Police, however, could not immediately link the statement of the 56-year-old with the crime records.

Deposing before additional sessions judge G A Sanap, who presides over anti-terror cases, Headley confirmed for the second time that Thackeray was indeed a LeT target.

During his cross-examination by advocate Abdul Wahid Khan on his visits to the Shiv Sena Bhawan at Dadar and the purpose, Headley said, “Twice...the Lashkar wanted to target the chief of Shiv Sena.”

Khan is the defence lawyer of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, the Indian accused who is facing trial.  When asked to give the name, Headley said, “Mr Bal Thackeray.” For a supplementary on when they wanted to execute the plan, he said, whenever the chance arose.

Asked who instructed him to visit the Sena headquarters, he gave the name of his Lashkar handler Sajid Mir. ­Specifically asked whether there was any attempt on Thackeray's life, he said he does not have first hand knowledge but there was an attempt.

Asked which year that was, Headley said: “I don't remember...I think the person was arrested but escaped from police custody.”

Last month, during his examination-in-chief by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, he admitted the Sena chief was a target and that he had visited Shiv Sena Bhawan twice and even befriended Rajaram Rege, who claimed to be the PRO of Uddhav Thackeray. Asked which other leader was being targeted, Headley said: “I don’t know who else, I know only what I was tasked.”

Supervised release
Headley also told the court that in the 26/11 case, in which he has been awarded a 35 years sentence by the US court, supervised release is also part of his sentence like in case of the drug-related offences. 

“As per the US law, I have to compulsorily undergo 85 % of my sentence and I don’t know if my sentence can be terminated before completion of 85 per cent sentence.” 

He also told the court that within half an hour of his arrest by FBI he had started cooperating with them and gave them all information. 

Headley also said that he was also interrogated by a team of NIA officials from India and he had cooperated with them too.

ISI paid for Mumbai trips

Mrityunjay Bose MUMBAI, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Pakistani-American agent David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani on Thursday said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) paid for his reconnaissance missions in Mumbai.

This revelation comes as yet another affirmation that the Pakistani spy agency was hand-in-gloves with the Lashkar-e-Toiba in engineering the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. 

The 56-year-old Headley, a terrorist-turned-approver, also said that post 26/11 terror attacks, the expenses of his trip were borne by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

“Ilyas Kashmiri did,” he said to a specific question during cross-examination by  advocate Abdul Wahab Khan, the defence counsel for Sayed Zaibuddiun Ansari, the Indian facing trial. 

Asked about details of expenses, he said: “For my March 2009 trip, the expenses was less than a lakh Pakistani rupees.” He, however, said that he was not aware of the total expenses incurred in planning and executing the fidayeen attacks in Mumbai. “I am not sure, I am not aware of it,” he told Additional Sessions Judge G A Sanap, before whom he is appearing through video-conferencing from an undisclosed location in the United States. 

When asked about the total expenses incurred in his stay, travel, reconnaissance missions in Mumbai ahead of the blasts, he said: "It was a lot...many lakh rupees." Asked whether it was nearly Rs 30 to 4 lakh, he said: “Not that, much much less.” When Headley was asked a specific question on whether ISI funded the trips before the terror attacks, he said: “Yes”.

India-EU summit to boost counter-terror cooperation

Anirban Bhaumik NEW DELHI, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

India and the European Union (EU) will seek to step up bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet EU leaders in Brussels.

The 13th India-EU summit in Brussels is scheduled on March 30, just days after terror attacks rocked Belgium. It is set to see both sides emphasising on institutionalising judicial cooperation and coordination among intelligence organisations. Modi’s meeting with EU President Donald Tusk and European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels will also focus on stepping up cyber-security and counter-piracy cooperation.

The summit is taking place at a time when emergence of Islamic State with several terrorists from the EU nations in its ranks and recent terror strikes in Paris and Brussels renewed the focus on counter-terrorism cooperation in and beyond Europe.

The Eurojust, an EU agency set up in The Hague for dealing with judicial cooperation in criminal matters, is keen to step up cooperation with the Ministry of Home Affairs of the government of India, sources told Deccan Herald in New Delhi.  

EU officials are understood to have conveyed to New Delhi that cooperation between Eurojust and the judicial authorities of non-EU countries must be stepped up in order to combat global menaces such as cyber-crimes and attacks planned, coordinated and carried out by “foreign fighters” owing allegiance to IS and other terrorist organisations as well as the “lone wolves”.

JNU activists to move NHRC for protection of HCU students

NEW DELHI, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

JNU students will move the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday, pleading for protection of the Hyderabad University (HCU) teachers and students.

Led by the JNU students union, a “mass delegation” will seek the NHRC to protect HCU staff and students from the “inhuman treatment” by the “Telangana government”.

Announcing this, the JNUSU also gave an “urgent call” to the people of Delhi to join its “mass delegation” in support of the students and teachers of the Hyderabad University. This comes at a time when the HCU’s Joint Action Committee for Social Justice has already begun a “postcard campaign” on various social media platform with support from students and teachers across the country, appealing people to write to the NHRC about latest police crackdown on the students and teachers.

“On Monday, March 28, join a Mass Delegation, to the NHRC at 2 pm. All civil society organisations, student groups, teachers’ collectives, lawyers’ collectives and human rights groups are requested to support this call,” JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora said.

Right-wing activist throws shoe at Kanhaiya

HYDERABAD, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

An activist belonging to a Sangh-affiliate hurled a shoe at Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar at a meeting here on Thursday.

Kanhaiya was speaking at a meet on constitutional Rights, organised by the All India Students Federation (AISF) and other Left-wing groups. While the shoe fell midway, AISF activists thrashed the attacker and handed him over to the police.

One of the two Goraksha Dal activists, Pawan Kumar Reddy and Naresh Kumar who were sitting among the audience, threw the shoe minutes after Kanhaiya began his speech. Pawan continued shouting “Jai Bharat Mata Ki” and “Desh Drohi Kanhaiya,” while AISF leaders were guarding Kanhaiya.

Kanhaiya urged AISF activists to not react. “They can’t intimidate me. I am not afraid of such acts. The RSS people would go to any extent to get coverage. One day they will realise that they were throwing chappal at themselves,” he said, while continuing his speech. 

The police have arrested Pawan and Naresh. Earlier, while addressing a press conference, Kanhaiya said universities in the country are under a serious attack. “Why FTII, Aligarh Muslim University, Jadhavpur university, HCU and JNU, one after the other the campuses are becoming war zones?” he said.

The JNU students union leader said some student unions are acting as informers and mercenaries to the government which is trying to brand people who fight for social justice as anti-nationals. 

“Efforts are being made to wipe out the line between anti-government acts as anti-national. Desh Bhakthi and Modi Bhakti are two different things,” Kanhaiya added. Later in the afternoon, Kanhaiya addressed a seminar on Rights of Students, organised by the Joint Action Committee of Left Students Unions in Vijayawada. 

He was accorded a grand welcome at the Gannavaram airport and was taken to the venue in a rally amid threats by the BJP, RSS, ABVP and right-wing activists. 

Several BJP, BJP Mahila Morcha and ABVP activists were taken into custody by the police after they raised slogans against Kanhaiya and jostled with AISF activists.

BJP to likely to field TV personality

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

The BJP in Kerala is planning to field activist and television personality Rahul Easwar in a key constituency in the May 16 Assembly election in the state. 

The candidature of Rahul, a regular “right-of-centre” panelist on national television, is likely to be formalised in the party’s second list of probable candidates expected to be released on Saturday.

Rahul on Thursday confirmed that there has been “an offer” from the BJP. “I’ve been offered one of the constituencies among Thiruvananthapuram Central, Kanjirapally and Guruvayur. The final word on the matter could be out by tomorrow (Friday),” Rahul told Deccan Herald. Thiruvananthapuram Central is a key constituency for the BJP; the party had earlier considered actor Suresh Gopi, but he is supposed to have declined the offer.

The BJP is also considering cricketer S Sreesanth as a candidate for the poll which has already seen at least three popular actors and other celebrities lining up for the two major coalitions led by the CPM and the Congress party. Sreesanth has shown interest in contesting from his hometown Tripunithura in Ernakulam district, but the party is yet to make a decision on the matter. The BJP has already roped in actor Bheeman Raghu and director Rajasenan as candidates. The party has joined hands with new political outfit BDJS for the election; a first-of-its kind electoral alliance for the party in the State.

PM tells officials to address public grievances in 60 days

New Delhi: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Department heads must put a system in place to ensure public grievances are addressed in 60 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged. 

Interacting with Secretaries and Chief Secretaries over video-conferencing under the PRAGATI initiative on Wednesday, Modi said the government gives top priority to address grievances of women and widows. 

Noting that redressal mechanisms are a major aspect of a democracy, Modi asked for focused action in a month to ensure most of the public grievances are disposed of in 60 days. “PM reiterated his directive for top officers to intervene in this matter,“ a statement said.

Following the Prime Minister’s directive, departments have been busy monitoring grievances for the past fortnight, with those like Highways even working on an app to receive and track complaints. 

Reviewing ease of doing business, Modi said states have achieved healthy progress towards luring investment. He called for further efforts to build on the momentum and create positive perception. 

On digitisation of land records, the PM asked officials to soon integrate land records with Aadhaar. He also asked them to  monitor the successful implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. He also called for a district-wise review to know the number of services actually delivered online. 

Jet Airways flies stranded passengers to Mumbai

NEW DELHI, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Jet Airways on Thursday flew a group of passengers stranded in Brussels from Amsterdam to Mumbai.

The airline started pulling out its planes grounded in the Belgian airport following the terror attack. The airline shifted its passengers to Amsterdam using its two flights that were stranded in Brussels Airport. 

On Thursday late evening, its Amsterdam-Mumbai flight (9W 1227) took off from capital of Netherlands for the Western Indian metropolis. 

The airline also plans to operate two other flights from Amsterdam to Delhi and Toronto in Canada Earlier on Thursday, the airline had announced that it would operate three recovery flights to fly the stranded passengers. “Jet Airways has started the process of flying its aircraft out of Brussels as part of the recovery operations. The first aircraft landed in Amsterdam at 12:00 hours (local time) from Brussels as a ferry flight,” a Jet Airways spokesperson said.

Four Jet Airways planes were grounded at the Brussels airport after the authorities decided to shut the operations in the wake of the blasts. 

Govt spent Rs 1,537 cr on foreign travel

NEW DELHI,March 25, 2016, DHNS:

The government has spent Rs 1,537.95 crore in the last three fiscals on foreign travel expenses for senior bureaucrats with the Ministry of Personnel topping the list with Rs 1,095.52 crore.

According to government statistics placed in Lok Sabha last week, the highest expense of Rs 593.09 crore was incurred in 2012-13 when the UPA was in power, while it came down to Rs 434.94 crore in the next fiscal. It again rose to Rs 509.91 crore in 2014-15 during NDA regime, but did not touch the level of 2012-13.

Among the 62 ministries and departments in all the three fiscals, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions topped the list in all the three fiscals. The Ministry of Personnel has spent Rs 453.95 crore in 2012-13 followed by Rs 289.92 crore and Rs 351.65 crore in the next two fiscals.

The Ministry of Personnel usually sends a number of bureaucrats on training abroad and many a times, state officials are also tagged along with them, a senior official said.

Another big spender was Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) but was way behind the Ministry of Personnel in this count.

The MHA send officers and police personnel for training and attending conferences spending Rs 11.86 crore in 2012-13, Rs 14.13 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 30.24 crore in 2014-15.

Sonia, Rahul celebrate Holi at party office

New Delhi: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul on Thursday stepped on to the AICC lawns to celebrate Holi with party office bearers, the first such instance in recent times.

With senior leaders Motilal Vora, Sheila Dikshit, Ajay Maken, Randeep Singh Surjewala in tow, Sonia and Rahul spent about 15 minutes with AICC officials playing colours before a phalanx of mediapersons.

Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza was seen smearing colours on Sonia while Rahul mingled with senior leaders and party officials.

“My message is of peace and brotherhood. Everyone should live with love in their hearts,” a colour-smeared Rahul said in brief remarks to the waiting mediapersons.

“Yes, my greetings are for everyone,” he quipped when asked whether he would extend greetings to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Holi was also celebrated with gusto at the residences of BJP President Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi among others.

Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev joined the celebrations at Naidu’s residence. Battling charges of being inaccessible, Rahul, off late, has been projecting himself as person of the masses by participating in such informal gatherings at regular intervals.

He has also been a regular visitor at various temples across the country – trips that have been adequately publicised by the party in an apparent bid to shed the pro-minority tag the Congress had earned in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Azhagiri likely to return to DMK

Chennai: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

The opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Thursday initiated patching up work with party chief M Karunanidhi's elder son M K Azhagiri, who was removed from the party two years ago.

The move comes barely a day after Vijayakanth’s DMDK joined People's Welfare Front (PWF) to fight the May 16 elections. A meeting was held between the expelled leader and former union minister Azhagiri and Karunanidhi in this regard. Though DMK party sources said Azhagiri met his father to enquire about his health, the meeting fuelled speculations of his possible re-entry into the DMK ahead of the May 16 Assembly polls.

However, his younger brother and DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, who was tipped to be the heir apparent to Karunanidhi, was not present in the house when the meeting took place. Karunanidhi had once openly stated that if he gets a chance to name his successor, he would propose the name of Stalin for the post.

This had triggered an angry reaction from Azhagiri who said that he would not accept anyone other than Karunanidhi as the leader and would not hesitate to throw the hat into the ring if there was a contest for the party president's post.

Azhagiri had been avoiding any meeting with Karunanidhi ever since he was expelled from the party on March 25, 2014 in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls for openly opposing an alliance with the DMDK led by actor politician Vijayakanth.  

Azhagiri, who was the DMK south zone secretary and wielded considerable image in the southern districts, was dismissed form the party for his persistent slanderous attacks on party seniors and anti-party activities, that took the sibling rivalry in the DMK’s first family to a point of no return. His expulsion dealt a severe blow to the party, which went alone and drew a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. 

But his meeting, a day after DMK's hope was shattered by Vijayakanth's decision to align with the PWF for the ensuing Assembly polls, drew speculations about a possible come back in the party. Reacting to the meeting, Stalin did not attach any political significance to it. 

Sonowal uses militants to kill rivals, says ULFA faction

Guwahati, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal and its poll strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma are ‘politically oriented killers’ who used ULFA cadres to kill rivals during their student days, a faction of the militant outfit has claimed. 

Arunodoi Asom, publicity secretary for the Paresh Baruah-led anti-talk faction ULFA (I), claimed in a statement that Sonowal had links with ULFA cadres when prominent student leader Sourav Bora was killed on May 27, 1986.

Under attack
“Sonowal was also helped by the ULFA in getting elected as president of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). The truth remains that these opportunist students’ leaders and proponents of regionalism had once used our colleagues to fulfil their interests,” the statement added.

ULFA (I) has also criticised Sonowal for his presence in the political rally of surrendered ULFA militant Bhaskar Sarma, the BJP candidate in Margaretha constituency against congress’ former industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi, who is said to have links with episodes of secret killings during the AGP regime where family members and sympathizers were killed under mysterious circumstances.  

Similar accusations
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and family members of the slain leader have also made similar accusations about a week back. ULFA(I)’s claims could impact the BJP on the first phase of polling on April 4.

Regional leaders to be face of poll campaigns

New Delhi, March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign has been scaled down in the upcoming Assembly elections, top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, too, are expected to limit their rallies.

It will be the regional leaders—Tarun Gogoi in Assam and Oommen Chandy in Kerala—who will be face of the campaign for the Assembly elections in their respective states.

Even in West Bengal, where the Congress is playing second fiddle to the Left Front, regional leaders such as state unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Deepa Dasmunsi among others would spearhead the campaign targeting in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Congress is battling anti-incumbency in Assam and Kerala and hopes to benefit if the polls throw up a hung verdict. In West Bengal, it hopes to benefit from the informal alliance the Congress has entered into with the Left Front. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress has struck an alliance with the DMK and is keen to shed the “5% party’ tag it has earned by watching the Dravidian parties power play from the fringes.

“The Congress president and vice-president will campaign, but we also have strong regional leaders in some states,” a senior leader said.

Besides Assam, the BJP has little hopes of making any significant gains in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Though Modi is expected to reserve his energies for Assam, the BJP has already declared Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal as the chief ministerial candidate. 

BJP planners have already conceded that its campaign in the poll-bound states would be muted in comparison with the one Bihar, where the prime minister had become the face of the poll blitz. In Assam, the recent debate over “nationalism” and the incidents at universities in Hyderabad and Delhi are expected to dominate the campaign.

Mehbooba set to be first woman CM of Jammu & Kashmir

Zulfikar Majid Srinagar: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

PDP chief unanimously elected leader

Decks have been cleared for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti to become the first woman chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir.

Mehbooba was unanimously elected legislature party leader of the PDP during a meeting of legislators and senior leaders at her residence here on Thursday.

“Thank you for choosing me as the leader of PDP legislature party. You are my strength,” Mehbooba told legislators after the meeting.

Senior PDP leader and MP Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who briefed the media after the meeting, announced that Mehbooba will be the next chief minister of the state.

“The new government will be formed very soon. The party (PDP and BJP) heads are going to meet Governor N N Vohra and the oath taking date will be decided in the meeting,” he said.

Asked whether the BJP had agreed to the conditions put forth by the PDP for government formation, he said: “No new condition was set by the PDP. ‘Agenda of Alliance’ is most comprehensive and there is no need to put any new conditions.”

Beigh said BJP general-secretary Ram Madhav was right when he said no new condition has been set by the PDP.

Mehbooba, who represents south Kashmir’s Anantnag Parliamentary constituency, will now have to get elected to either House of the state’s bicameral legislature. She will also resign from her Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier, 57-year-old Mehbooba prayed at her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s grave in the ancestral hometown of Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

The previous BJP-PDP alliance that was ruling the state collapsed after Mufti’s death on January 7. The state has since been under Governor’s rule.

States told to impose fine to curb littering

Ajith Athrady NEW DELHI: March 25, 2016, DHNS:

Littering in public places may soon attract on-the-spot fine with the Centre asking states to emulate Rajasthan in enacting laws to maintain cleanliness in public places.

The Urban Development Ministry’s March 17 letter to states emphasised that Clean India “is a time-bound” mission and its success depends to a large extent on behaviour change among citizens.

The Rajasthan Assembly has passed a law with provisions to impose fines for urinating, spitting and throwing garbage in public places, drawing graffiti on public walls without permission, polluting water bodies, including rivers and lakes by dumping wastes.

Urban local bodies in some states have been imposing fines as cleanliness is part of Municipal Act. However, the law is not applicable to gram panchayat areas. The law cleared by Rajasthan is applicable for both urban and rural. 

“The Rajasthan law will empower both urban local bodies and panchayats to impose fine against those guilty,” said an official.

Last year, the Centre tried to bring in a Central legislation on this issue, but it dropped the idea as framing such laws are under states’ domain.

Women are worst hit by farm crisis

Soutik Biswas, March 25, 2016, INYT

Widows of 1,818 of 3,228 victims were paid compensation of Rs 1 lakh each; the rest were deemed ineligible

He tried to take his life for the first time in 2009. Mukunda Wagh, a farmer, consumed pesticide in the cow shed at his village home in Maharashtra’s Washim district. Then he collapsed, frothing at the mouth, and lay unconscious until his wife, Babi, found him. She rushed him to a hospital, where doctors washed his stomach and saved him. 

Three years later, in May 2012, Wagh’s luck ran out. The soybean crop on his two-acre farm had failed and he was drowning in a debt of Rs 60,000, borrowed from friends and relatives. Villagers found his lifeless body outside a local gas plant. He was 38. 

“Some say he drank himself to death, others say he was electrocuted. His body had turned black. I was at my parents’ place when this happened. My children said, if I had stayed at home, their father wouldn’t have taken his life,” says his wife, 38. 

Over four years, Mrs Wagh has rebuilt her family – she has worked long hours, tilling the family plot and working on other people’s farms; sent her son and daughter to polytechnic; bought livestock, repaid most of her husband’s loan. Low interest loans from self-help groups have been a lifeline. 

“I am lucky. Other widows are not so fortunate,” she says, sitting in her tin-roofed home in Malegaon village. 

One of them is Archana Burare, a 22-year-old widow, who now lives with her ageing parents and her baby boy in a village in Washim. When her husband took his life after consuming pesticide in 2014, her in-laws abandoned her and locked up their home, forcing her to return to her landless father and homemaker mother. 

Mrs Burare was 19 when she got married. Her husband had taken a 12-acre farm on rent after borrowing Rs 50,000, and begun growing rice, groundnut and soybean. The crop was good the first year, and she also worked at another farm, and things were going fine. “Then the rains stopped and the land dried up. The well ran out of water and the crops failed.” 

The family went into a downward spiral. Her husband, she says, began drinking and beating her up. Then he broke his leg in a road accident, and could not afford an expensive private surgery to set it right. Meanwhile, the debts kept mounting: Rs 25,000 for her sister’s marriage; another Rs 20,000 for the failing farm. 

“I had gone to my parents’ place for a break. He was alone at home when he drank pesticide and killed himself,” says Mrs Burare. “I did not get any compensation [from the government] because the land did not belong to my husband. My in-laws do not keep in touch.” 

Mrs Burare works as a cook at a government childcare centre for a salary of Rs 850 a month, but she hasn’t been paid for the past eight months. Her widow pension is still stuck in the bureaucracy. She struggles to feed her extended family by working on other people’s farms. 

“I am trying to secure my family a bit, buying a few goats and a buffalo after taking some loans from self-help groups. My three-year-old son had an accident, and every check up at the private hospital is expensive. Government hospitals are crowded, it takes three days to get a scan.” 

According to one estimate, more than 3,000 farmers in Maharashtra have taken their lives every year between 2004 and 2103. Last year, as many as 3,228 farmers took their lives, the highest in the last 14 years, a government minister informed parliament recently. Widows of 1,818 victims were paid compensation of Rs 1,00,000 each; the rest were found to be ineligible. 

The vast, rain-fed farms of Vidarbha region spread over 11 districts in Maharashtra are the worst affected. Cash crops are expensive to grow and a global commodities downturn has meant a drop in demand and declining farm incomes. 

Access to formal credit is scanty, so farmers are forced to borrow at usurious rates from private lenders to buy seeds, fertilisers, water pumps, and pay for a marriage in the family. Two successive poor monsoons have led to some nine million farmers in the region facing near-drought conditions and crop failures. 

That’s not all. It is not easy for the widows to be eligible for compensation: tangled land deeds mean ownerships of plots are often disputed – there are some 80 cases related to property disputes after farm suicides in four districts – and payment is denied if alcohol is found in the viscera of a dead farmer. The paltry widow pension can take ages to process. 

“The widows are the worst affected. Single women face discrimination in patriarchal village households anyway. If they are widowed, they are often thrown out, deprived of their land, and their children’s future is jeopardised,” says Kishore Tiwari, a prominent farm activist heading a government panel to curb suicides. 

No compensation

Tiwari reckons 60% of some 10,000 farm widows in the Vidarbha region have received no compensation. What’s keeping them going are dozens of non-profit and self-help groups networked to NGOs like Kisan Mitra (Farmer’s Friend) which are counselling the widows, offering soft loans, making them aware of their property and legal rights and protecting them from sexual harassment. 

The suicides mirror the state of India’s ailing farms, which account for 14% of India’s GDP, but on which more than half of its more than a billion people depend on for an uncertain living. Many farmers are simply not earning enough. After the soybean and cotton crop on his three-acre plot failed, Mandha Alone’s husband, Sharad, borrowed money to buy an auto-rickshaw, while she worked on the parched farm in Wardha district. 

But, in 2011, he was injured seriously in a road accident, and had to sell his wife’s jewellery and some of his land and take a loan of Rs 2,00,000 for a series of surgeries. He began defaulting. “That completely broke him. He drank heavily, beat me up. Then on the day of Holi (festival of colours) in 2013, he simply walked into a river near our village and drowned.” 

Mandha says she went into a depression for a year. She was not eligible for compensation because the autopsy found liquor in Sharad’s body. Then a self-help group arrived at her door and gave her a small loan to buy a sewing machine. Now she stitches clothes, works on other people’s farms, and rents out the family plot. Life continues to be hard, and her husband’s debts remain unpaid. 

“I have told the bank and the debtors that I cannot pay anymore. I tell them, take the responsibility of my children and do what you want to do,” says Mandha. “There’s no future in farming anymore. In the villages, farmers are driving auto-rickshaws, working in brick kilns. Their daughters are sitting at home because they don’t get good grooms. “If you come here in 10 years time,” she says, “you will see many, many more widows.”  

International New York Times

Students flock to study Indian languages, culture in US

M J Warsi , March 25, 2016, DHNS

As India takes a more central position on the global stage, the study of India and the importance of Indian Studies have never been as prominent. As relationships between the United States and India are explored more and greater opportunities in law, business, technology, and engineering develop in South East Asia, an understanding of South Asian Culture is paramount. By better understanding linguistics, religions and other customs of South Asia, people will be able to succeed by better empathising with those in other parts of the world.

Just as those in the East have adopted many western traditions and customs, such as even speaking English as a primary language of business, it is important in this era that students in the United Sates grow with the times and begin adopting eastern traditions and understanding of eastern culture. In the past decades, more and more Indian students have come to American universities, although the amount of American students attending Indian Universities will only increase as well.

“As simplistic as it may sound, my obsession with Slumdog Millionaire led me to watch City of Joy, which compelled me to watch Marigold, which interested me in a documentary narrated by Chris Rock that explained that India’s largest export is human hair! Imagine that! All of these “exposures” to Indian culture made us want to learn more, that is, what makes India so uniquely transcendent? My fascination with Indian culture leads me to language class.  From my layperson’s perspective, India’s culture is magnificent, yet it is somewhat disparaged by the fact that almost half of its population lives in abject poverty,”said Christopher Farkouh, a first year student.

“India’s people are beautiful and inherently brilliant, yet many cannot afford a college education. India is home to the most polluted city in the world, New Delhi, and more than half the homes in India don’t have toilets. Yet, when I call for technical assistance for my computer, or if my parents call to make a payment on their mortgage, the call is re-routed half way around the world to India,” he added“Last but not least, despite all the enlightenment that’s come from the scholarly minds of India, the country has the largest modern slavery population in the world. How is that possible in this technological age? Taking language and culture class seemed the best way for me to satisfy my curiosity, my fascination. I want to learn India’s language(s), as so many people of India have learned mine and something of the culture as well,” Farkouh said.  

Exploring India

“I am taking language because I want to be able to explore India and the Indian culture when I’m out of college. I have dreamt of travelling there since I was young, but I want to be a competent and knowledgeable traveller when I do go. 

“I want to be able to communicate with others and read signs and such, especially because I have no Indian family members that would be able to teach me or guide me when I’m there. I love Indian movies, Indian food, and a lot of Indian people! I generally find the culture and languages to be really interesting, so I’m happy to be able to learn more about it,” said Katie Marcus.

By having a basic understanding of language, individuals can better assimilate into a culture, and have a deeper and more meaningful experience with people of that culture. Aditya Gaddipati, another first year student said, “The reason I decided to take a language is because I wanted to become culturally and linguistically more proficient. I feel that learning a language in general helps individuals become more worldly, and it also allows them to resonate with a particular culture. I am taking Hindi because I wanted to become closer to my Indian heritage and take on a more active role in the Indian community.”

“I chose to take Hindi because I have always found Hindi to be such a beautiful language because of its elegance in both sound and writing. In addition, I have always thought that the songs were very melodic and beautiful, unlike some of the very fast-paced American songs that I do not enjoy as much. These are my reasons for wanting to learn how to speak and write in Hindi,” said Rachana Vemireddy, another student.

The world is such a big place and people are so different around the world, yet so similar. “I want to study language and culture because I want exposure to different ways of life than my own”, said Divya Velury. “I enjoy taking language and culture courses because my view of the world changes every time I sit in a lecture. I want to learn more about these similarities and differences. I also am really interested in travelling and want to visit all the continents.

“By studying culture and language, one can understand other people around the world better, which is important while travelling. I am fascinated with all sides of India and I want to be immersed in it as fully as possible,” said Maddie Helm, who had no exposure in language and culture before coming to this class.

Knowing language and culture always help people to understand more than direct translation and give a deeper sense of popular phrases, underlying sentiments, and colloquialisms to establish true understanding between people speaking different languages. The language itself reveals patterns of understanding and cultural perspective, which is socially and historically constructed. Overall, this is an interesting and great trend to see as the spread of culture helps open people’s minds and broadens perspectives.  

(The author is a linguist and teaches at the Washington University in St Louis, USA)

India to be key in cloud services strategy: Google

San Francisco, Mar 24, 2016 (PTI)

 With a vibrant startup ecosystem and lesser legacy systems, India will play a key role in Google's strategy as it looks to take on Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure in the global enterprise cloud services space.

"India is a pretty exciting place because there are so many companies growing so quickly over there and the fact that these companies do not have legacies (systems) is pretty exciting.

"And they can just start in the cloud. You have seen Sundar take a deep interest in India and so, Google overall is very interested in India," Google cloud chief Diane Greene told PTI.

She added that there is a pool of talented manpower as well and overall, "its vibrant and it's important to be there (India)".

Google is investing heavily in creating business tools and products, driven by open source technology and machine learning to help companies use computing in an affordable and faster manner.

"As a primary thing, we have sealed up the infrastructure, and now we are opening it up so that every business across the world can use it," Pichai, the India-born CEO of Google said at the Google Cloud Products (GCP) Next 2016 conference here.

He cited the example of an animation studio in Mumbai which is using the services to produce a movie, underlying the importance of emerging markets like India.

Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who was also present at the event, said the use of crowd sourcing, machine intelligence and rapid evaluation will create huge new platforms for companies, IPOs, wealth and "great new things in the future. Its a great time to be in cloud."

Google, which has customers like Spotify and Disney, said it is also focussing on ensuring compliance, support and integration with existing IT investments to help clients use public cloud services to accelerate their business.

"We're combining the 15-plus years of ground-breaking, applied computer science in distributed computing, data management and machine learning that powers Google with the capabilities businesses need to safely adopt cloud today," she said.

The VMWare co-founder said Google will use machine learning and big data analytics to help customers.

"We are doing a lot of work on our roadmaps. We have roadmaps for engineering, customers and partner enablement marketing and communicating with the world.

"We often get asked if Google is serious about enterprise and our answer is we are totally committed to this, we have invested billions of dollars on this to bring our innovation and technology to companies," Greene said.

Asked how Google plans to catch up with players like AWS and Microsoft as it was a "follower", Greene said the company will use differentiating factors like deep learning and open source innovation.

"We are not a follower. We were in the cloud 16 years ago. We got into enterprise after a few of these other companies decided to.

"But in terms of our product differentiation and strategy, we are not a follower. We have machine learning, open source, so we are a very different cloud with a lot of differentiation," she said.

Amazon, Microsoft and IBM have a sizable presence in the cloud infrastructure market, capturing billions of dollars that businesses are spending to outsource their computing and storage needs.

"For our customers, cloud means no longer having to think about data centres, servers, storage and networking. Instead, they're able to focus on creating amazing applications, products and services for their customers knowing that Google is taking care of the infrastructure powering their business," Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, said.

He added that the company has announced two new locations in Oregon, US and Tokyo, Japan and both will get operational later this year.

"These are the first two of more than 10 additional GCP regions we'll be adding to our network through 2017," he said but declined to comment on whether it would include India.

Middle East to lead oil imports into India: IEA

Singapore: March 25, 2016, PTI

The Middle East will continue to be a big source of crude oil imports for India with the US being another potential source as country’s oil demand is set to increase to five million barrels per day by 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

“India is most definitely a growth hotspot country in the period (through to 2021). We are looking at an extra million barrel to be added by 2021 on the back of a very strong economic growth,” Neil Atkinson, Head, Oil Industry and Markets Division at IEA, said here on Wednesday.

India used almost four million barrels per day of oil in 2015, backed by the strong fuel demand from the transportation sector, especially the ever increasing number of vehicles and trucks.   

“The transport sector with increasing number of vehicles and trucks will lead the increase in consumption of gasoline and diesel,” said Atkinson in a keynote address at a forum promoting Singapore International Energy Week to be held 24-28 October this year.

He pointed to the many projections on Indian economic growth of 8% per annum in 2021, up from the average of 7% over the past five years or so.

“Obviously, with India’s oil product demand growing very strongly and given the fact that the country has a big refining industry, there is going to be a big increase in crude imports,” he said, highlighting the competition by crude oil exporters to gain a share of the Indian market. He added that the Middle East will continue to be the main source of crude imports for India. Atkinson also saw the US being another potential source of crude oil supplies to India over the long-term, albeit the volume may not be significant.

Impact of US
The US could be another source of crude oil supply which could benefit India in the years ahead, he said.

“We could also see in that time, not immediately, may be exports from, for example, the United States,” he said.

He also see the possibility of India stockpiling oil, like being done by China for security against any disruption given the instabilities in major hydrocarbons producing regions.