19/11/2011

Narinder Singh elected to International Law Commission for 5 years

IANS Nov 18, 2011, 10.16am IST

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UN General Assembly|Narinder Singh

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly has re-elected Narinder Singh of India as a member of theInternational Law Commission (ILC) for a five-year term beginning Jan 1, 2012.

The other candidates elected from the Asia-Pacific Group belong to Japan, China, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Qatar, and Thailand.

Singh has been a member of the ILC since 2007 and has contributed extensively to its work. He is currently the legal adviser and head of the Legal & Treaties Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, a position he has held since 2003.

Huawei launches global network operations centre in Bangalore

Partnering Bharti Telecom on a pilot project for 4G in Karnataka

Telecom network solutions major Huawei on Friday launched the global network operations centre (GNOC), its first outside China, here.

Huawei Telecommunications India Co. Pvt. Ltd. Vice President Rajiv Weimin Yao said the company planned to establish similar centres in Romania and Mexico. The Bangalore centre, which has the capability to operate multiple networks of telecom operators, including across countries in the region, “will be open, transparent and fully compliant with Indian regulators,'' Mr. Yao said.

Mr. Yao said the company was investing about $200 million for a ‘brand new' R&D facility in Bangalore, which would become operational in three years. The number of employees working in R&D operations would increase from the current 2,200 to 4,000-5,000 in three years. “The significance of India lies in the fact that software has become increasingly important in the telecom business. Huawei is a relatively young company, but is now the second biggest telecom equipment solutions provider in the world,” he said. The company already employed about 6,000 persons in the country, 90 per cent of whom were locals. The company's Indian R&D operations were one of the biggest, he said. “The initiatives we have taken in the last few years are aimed at making India a global resource hub,” he added.

Leroy G. Blimeggar Jr., Senior Vice-President, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., said that the company sees ‘great potential' in the managed services business. “Telecom operators, who have bought equipment from multiple vendors, want seamless operations. The growing complexity of the networks has made the managed services business very important,” he observed. The Bangalore centre will enable economies of scale for telecom operators seeking cost reduction in a competitive environment.

Sarvdeep Garg, Executive Director and Head (Delivery and Services), said Huawei established a regional network operations centre in Gurgaon, catering to the needs of Indian operators. “The GNOC in Bangalore will function as a disaster recovery centre if services at the Gurgaon facility are disrupted,” he said. The company was servicing the needs of more than 55,000 base stations across the country. Huawei is partnering Bharti Telecom on a pilot project for a 4G in Karnataka. The project would commence in a few months, he said.

Wikipedia does not take sides: Jimmy Wales

Jimmy wales

BJP protests over “wrong” Indian map at Wiki conference

Wikipedia does not take a stand on controversial issues, but presents both sides to educate people. “We must study what the opponents believe too,” Jimmy Wales, founder of the free online encyclopaedia, said on Friday. He was speaking on the opening day of the three-day Wiki conference being held in the city.

Mr. Wales' remarks came in the context of a brief demonstration staged by the BJP youth wing outside the venue. A group of supporters raised slogans that Kashmir was an integral part of India. Ameet Satam, Mumbai president, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha toldThe Hinduon the phone, “In the [Wikipedia] map of India, Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh were shown in a different colour. This signifies that they are not a part of India. That map has been there for a long time. Earlier, objections were raised, but the head of the India chapter said it had no control over the content in Wikipedia. So we protested today.”The protest took place at 10 a.m. after Mr. Wales had left the venue. Mr. Satam said around 35 protesters were arrested and later released on a bond.

Arguing for a “neutral” approach, Mr. Wales said, “If Wikipedia has a one-sided map that is a mistake.”

“We should be neutral. We are not here to push an agenda. Writing about the world in a neutral way is a fundamental right. It is important to understand our opponents.”

The purpose of his collaborative venture was to “educate people without taking sides”. “You have to explain controversies to people,” he said. In Germany, for instance, advocacy of the swastika is “illegal,” but an academic discussion on the Nazi symbol was not. “In India, there is no filtering on these kind of issues. It is important to understand the map debate before saying the Government of India map is correct,” he said.

He cautioned Wikipedians not to violate national laws, but at the same time maintained that unjust censorship laws needed to be changed. “Many countries have newer filtering regimes. “China filtered pages on Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.”

Mr. Wales said the thrust of Wikipedia was on fostering the growth of content in other languages. Currently, English was the largest language in Wikipedia. With a view to encouraging local language speakers and communities to contribute to the portal's database, a Global Wikipedian of the Year award was in the offing.

To facilitate entries in smaller languages, Mr. Wales called for “simplification” of rules and procedures. “There are over three million entries in English. A large community needs a lot of rules. But we don't need to copy these for a small group.” Hindi contributors stabilised with 50 editors, he said.

Professor Krishna Kumar, working on Indian languages in the U.K., said the future of Wikipedia and Wikimedia was bright. “It has done in a decade what the Alexandria library could not do in 2,000 years. Wikipedia will do a service to India where language problems have multiplied.”

Visually impaired persons spoke about the use of software to access Wikipedia. “Every word you type in Wikipedia is a helping hand for the visually impaired,” said Sathyasheelan, a government school teacher from Kerala who has been experimenting with software.

Anirudh Kumar, a Delhi professor, said most visually impaired persons only read the content on the portal but did not contribute to it.