PM-appointed team completes probe on Antrix-Devas deal
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A high-level committee, appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has completed its probe into alleged irregularities in the controversial S-Band spectrum deal between Devas Multimedia and Indian Space Research Organisation’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation.
The Prime Minister had on May 31, this year constituted a five-member high-level team (HLT) under the chairmanship of former Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha to examine various aspects of the controversial agreement between Antrix Pvt Ltd and Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd.
The HLT was also asked to identify the acts of “omission and commission” by government officials in signing the deal.
“The committee has completed its work,” ISRO said in a reply to an RTI query filed by PTI, adding that investigations were being carried out on the basis of the committee’s report.
The HLT was formed following the findings of a two-member high powered review committee (HPRC), constituted by the PMO on February 10, 2011, to review the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the S-Band deal.
The HPRC comprising B.K. Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, who is a former Cabinet Secretary, and Prof Roddam Narasimha, Member, Space Commission, had submitted its report on March 12 this year.
However, ISRO declined to provide copies of the reports by HLT and HPRC, citing exemption clause of the transparency law.
“Since the investigations/proceedings based on the reports of the committees are still in progress as such the information sought is exempted from disclosure under Section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act,” it said.
The section bars disclosure of “information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.”
The space agency had earlier said that “no competitive bidding” was followed for the deal signed in January 2005.
As per the deal, Antrix was to provide the crucial S-Band wavelength, which is primarily kept for strategic interests of the country, to Devas for running its digital multimedia service by leasing 90 per cent transponders on two satellites — GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A.
The company had to pay Antrix a total of USD 300 million (about Rs 1,500 crore) over a period of 12 years.
Antrix had signed the contract and got the sanction of the Space Commission and the Union Cabinet for the two satellites at the cost of nearly Rs 400 crore without informing them that bulk capacity would be leased to Devas.
In December 2009, ISRO ordered a review of the deal and, subsequently, the Space Commission recommended its annulment on July 2, last year.
According to the Terms of References, the HLT was asked to look into decision-making process relating to the deal and identify the role of persons for various acts of omission and commission besides suggesting future course of action.
The HLT members included secretaries of Department of Space, Telecommunications, Expenditure and Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Department of Space.
UIDAI to start informing Aadhar numbers through e-mails, SMSes
The long-wait for the unique identity number would soon be over with the UIDAI, which issues Aadhar cards, deciding to inform residents about their numbers through e-mails and SMSes, before sending it by post.
“We are going to introduce a system next month through which all unique identity numbers would be communicated through SMS and e-mail to the concerned persons before they get their Aadhar cards by post,” Deputy Director General of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Kumar Alok told PTI.
At present, it takes months before the unique Aadhar number is received by the concerned person by post. The delay, according to officials, is mainly on account of the inability of the India Post to print and dispatch the UIDAI cards.
Admitting that the printing capacity constraint has created a big backlog, Mr. Alok said that as many as 4 crore Aadhar numbers, which were generated under the UIDAI scheme could not be printed and distributed.
At present, India Post prints about 1.5 lakh Aadhar cards a day whereas the UIDAI enrolls over 10 lakh residents daily, Mr. Alok said adding that the authority has so far issued 2.5 crore Aadhar cards to the residents.
In order to the speed up the dispatches, the authority has tied up with state-run Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) to print Aadhar cards to increase and expedite their distribution.
TCIL, on last Friday, has made operational a facility at Mumbai which would ultimately print 5 lakh Aadhar cards.
Besides the firm will also set up two more facilities with same capacity at other locations by the end of next month.
Aadhar numbers are expected to used as the ‘know you customer’ (KYC) norm by various service providers like banks, telecom firms and government in the due course of time for providing subsidies to beneficiaries of various social sector schemes.
in October---
Two crore Aadhaar numbers issued in October
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is speeding up the process of issuing unique identity documents and numbers to Indian citizens, with two crore numbers generated in October alone.
“Aadhaar numbers are now generated on a large scale. While in 2010 it took three months to cross 10 lakh numbers, we have the capability to generate 10 lakh numbers a day now,” said a statement from UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani.
“We have been able to achieve this speed and scale due to our multiple registrar models as well as a scalable technical architecture.” Registrars and other stakehold-ers have an “incentive-align-ed operating model of payment”.
A little over a year since the first Aadhaar number was distributed in a tribal region of Maharashtra, 5.96 crore numbers have been issued. About 20,000 enrolment stations are being run by about 50 registrars across the country.
With the increase in generation of numbers, the stage is set for rolling out various Aadhaar-based applications for improved services. , the statement said.v
64th Nirankari Samagam begins
The 64th Annual Nirankari Sant Samagam was inaugurated by Baba Hardev Singh near Burari here on Saturday. A vast “township” of tents and shamianas spread over 400 acres of land along the Burari Road is playing host to the three-day Samagam, which is being attended by devotees of the Nirankari Mission and others.
U.S.-China tensions colour APEC meet
This week even the stunning sunset-and-white-sands setting of Hawaii was not enough to take the edge off sharp divisions between United States and Chinese delegates in Honolulu for a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organisation.
Two distinct areas of disagreement between the two nations were in the spotlight — trade policy and human rights in Tibet.
On human rights, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw down the gauntlet to her Chinese interlocutors when she said at an event at Honolulu's East-West Centre that the U.S. had “made very clear our serious concerns about China's record on human rights.” “We are alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng,” she said.
On the trade policy front, the APEC summit saw U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Chinese Assistant Commerce Minister Yu Jianhua go head to head over the question of membership in the evolving Trans-Pacific Partnership, a initiative to create a free-trade zone in the APEC region.
Reports quoted Mr. Yu Jianhua saying bluntly that Beijing had not been asked to join the discussion on the TPP but “if one day we receive such an invitation, we will seriously study the invitation.”
However Mr. Kirk immediately hit back, arguing that the TPP was not a “closed clubhouse, [and] all are welcome.” He went on to add that the TPP was however “not one where you should wait for an invitation.”
Ms. Clinton also alluded to the high-tension area of bilateral economic ties, in particular focusing her remarks on the currency manipulation question. She said, “China needs to take steps to reform... China must allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly and end the measures that disadvantage or pirate foreign intellectual property.”
The Baba in his message urged people to shed narrow and divisive thoughts adding that “these evil tendencies flourish because man is concentrated on body and the comforts it needs. Once he identifies himself with the soul and recognises its source – God -- man establishes himself in the domain of truth and lives life illuminated by it.”
The spiritual leader of the Nirankari Mission said, “Man is distanced from man due to “various factors like religion, caste, creed and colour, region, culture, and nationality. This is keeping mankind afflicted by jealousy, hatred and violence. Man's ego and selfishness are shattering families and causing conflicts at social, religious, and cultural levels. He does not hesitate from harming even his own kith and kin for petty worldly gains.”
New found bacteria get Indian nomenclatures
CCMB researchers discovered the bacteria over the past decade from diverse habitats
Indibacter Alkaliphilus, Pedobacter Himalayensis, Bacillus Aryabhattai,Sphingobacterium Antarcticus — don't get intimidated by the high-sounding scientific names. If you notice closely, many of them are associated with India.
Named in honour of the country, the imposing Himalayas, Aryabhatta and the icy continent of Antarctica, these are among the 70 bacteria discovered from diverse habitats ranging from the cold regions of Antarctica, Arctic, stratosphere and ancient Lonar lake (in Maharashtra) that was formed when a meteorite hit the earth millions of years ago and the deep sea.
Led by Dr. S. Shivaji, Director-grade scientist from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), the researchers have discovered these bacteria over the past decade, including five this year.
The majority of the microbes, however, were from the cold habitats and are considered unique because of their ability to survive at temperatures below the freezing point of water.
EXCELLENT MODEL SYSTEMS
With their ability to survive, grow and divide in freezing climes, these psychrophilic or cold-loving bacteria serve as excellent model systems to understand molecular basis for cold adaptation.
They could be used to generate as enzymes or bio-molecules with application in biotech industry, medicine and agriculture. For instance, in the pharma industry such enzymes could help in cost-cutting, and in agriculture, the low-temperature growing bacteria, when added to soil, have shown improved yields of plants growing in cold regions.
Dr. Shivaji told The Hindu here on Saturday that through genomic studies, scientists at CCMB have identified two genes unique to these cold-loving bacteria.
The genes involved in protein synthesis and amino acid metabolism were found to be essential for the survival of the micro-organisms at temperatures below 10 degree Centigrade.
However, the absence of the genes had no impact on their survival at temperatures above 10 degree.C.
COLD-LOVING BACTERIA
Bacillus Isronensis, one of the seven bacteria isolated from stratosphere (10-50 km altitude) was named in honour of ISRO, which funded that part of the project, while another microbe from a Himalayan glacier was named after CCMB (Bacillus Cecembensis).
Another microbe from Antarctica was christened as Arthrobacter Gangotriensis in memory of Dakshin Gangotri, the first Indian research station set up on the icy continent.
THIS FOR BHARGAVA
One of the microbes found in Indian Ocean was named in honour of the founder-director of CCMB, P.M. Bhargava (Bhargavaea Cecembensis).
Dr. Shivaji said the bacteria, which were isolated from stratosphere, were found to be highly resistant to ultra-violet rays when compared to normal bacteria.
Their their membrane structure, too, was quite different from the terrestrial microbes.
Such studies on microbes from extreme habitats would eventually become a bio-resource for the country to generate enzymes and bio-molecules.
World’s first drug ‘that could stop cataract blindness’
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