Dec/17/2011

Indian is world's shortest living woman

An Indian student measuring just 62.8 centimetres was on Friday confirmed as the world's shortest living woman, the Guinness World Records said.

Jyoti Amge took the title as she celebrated her 18th birthday with family and friends here.

Official adjudicator for the Guinness World Records Rob Molloy told AFP, “She's 62.8 centimetres. She was measured three times over the last 24 hours as height can vary slightly according to the time of day. Doctors measured her in our presence at three different times, both standing up and lying down. We took an average.”

Shortest teenager

Ms. Amge, who is also the world's shortest teenager, wept in joy as she was presented with a certificate, watched by her father, Kisan, 55, and mother, Ranjana, 50.

The teenager, wearing a sari, said: “I'm very happy to get this record.”

Mr. Molloy said he was honoured to witness the record.

“It's such a symbolic record and one of the most popular. I've worked at the Guinness World Records for eight years and I feel quite proud that I was the one to oversee the presentation of the certificate.”

Ms. Amge, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia that has restricted her height to that of an average four-month-old baby girl, has just finished her high school exams.

Bollywood dreams

She has expressed the hope of becoming a Bollywood actor, her father said.

The previous holder of the title was 69.49-centimetre-tall Bridgette Jordan from Illinois, U.S., Mr. Molloy said.

Government mulling over steps to make Lokpal accountable

For the United Progressive Alliance government, a key issue of concern in the proposed Lokpal Bill is about who the proposed ombudsman will be accountable to: it is therefore, contemplating, informed sources said, putting in place a system by which if 100 MPs sign a petition against the chairman of the Lokpal Committee or one of its members, then the case will be referred to the Supreme Court.

Similarly, to ensure that complaints against the Prime Minister are not motivated or frivolous, the government is considering suggesting that at least three fourths of the members of the Lokpal Committee, at a full sitting, are party to it. The enquiry will be conducted in camera and the report sent to Parliament.

In the earlier government draft Bill, it was envisaged that the Prime Minister would be included within its ambit, but only after demitting office. However, under pressure from Team Anna, the government has decided to include the Prime Minister while in office, but felt that simply excluding decisions taken in the arena of national security or external affairs would not be enough. Hence, an additional safeguard.

To ensure the support of the parties espousing the cause of the Backward Classes, such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Lok Jan Shakti Party, the government will recommend that 50 per cent of the members of the Lokpal Committee be drawn from the SCs, the STs, the OBCs, minorities and women.

On Group C employees, the government has recommended that the enquiry and action be taken by the Central Vigilance Commission, and has proposed changes in the CVC Act to ensure that it exercises powers in respect of the lower bureaucracy similar to what the Lokpal will have for dealing with Group A and B employees.

The objections of the Central Bureau of Investigation have apparently been taken on board, and the government is likely to suggest that while the selection of future CBI directors will be done by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, the Lokpal Chairman and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and that the agency will investigate cases sent to it by the Lokpal, it will retain much of the independence it enjoys now.

All these suggestions are likely to be part of a note that will come up for consideration by the Cabinet on Monday. It is also learnt that, with social activist Anna Hazare threatening to go on fast on December 27 if the Lokpal Bill is not passed by then, the government may suggest to the Opposition that after a four-day break for Christmas — December 23 to 26 — Parliament could meet for three days, December 27, 28, and 29.

India, Russia set sights on doubling trade in four years

The 12th consecutive annual India-Russia summit saw the two sides taking more initiatives to boost economic ties, which have been an area of concern compared to the thriving cooperation in the nuclear, defence, science and space fields and international issues, both economic and political.

Although trade has doubled in a few years due to concerted efforts by both governments to involve the private and public sectors, the absolute volume remains low — around $10 billion annually.

In order to double this figure in four years, business delegations from both countries met here on Friday and signalling the importance of this option, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the gathering.

“We would like to know from you what you feel needs to be done to promote the trade and investment aspect of our relationship. Our government is committed to creating a policy environment that is conducive for Russian companies to do business in India, and to invest in India,” Dr. Singh told the industrialists.

Mr. Medvedev responded, drawing attention to the need to “work actively” in promoting bilateral trade and investment because the world economy is in bad shape.

Customs union

In addition, with “90 per cent of the issues resolved” in hammering out a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Russia, India has set its sights on fitting this concept with the customs union Russia has struck with Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian country, and Belarus located in the penumbra of Europe.

“The initiative taken by Russia to launch an extensive economic modernisation and privatisation programme has opened new avenues for Indian companies,” Dr. Singh told Indian businessmen.

Steel project in Orissa

Already, the National Minerals Development Corporation (NMDC) and Russian metallurgical giant Severstal are setting up a large joint venture in Orissa to produce steel, Indian companies are discussing long-term agreements for supply of diamonds from Russia, and the Steel Authority of India and NMDC are interested in procuring coking and thermal coal from Russia. Indian firms are keen on importing copper and nickel, and there have been Russian investments in the telecommunications sector in India, and Indian investments in Russia's oil and gas sector.

But, as Dr. Singh put it, “there are vast unexplored areas that await exploitation. I refer in particular to the areas of pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, financial services, power, health, chemicals and aviation.”

The sincerity of both sides in promoting closer economic ties was reflected in the roll call of corporate chiefs who attended the business meet. From the Russian side, they included CEOs from the diamond monopoly Alrosa, leading software company Abbyy, state nuclear giant Rosatom, telecom and hydrocarbon major Sistema, aircraft building corporation Oak, titanium giant Vsmpo-Avisma, petrochemical major Sibur and two infrastructure firms Stroitransgaz (gas pipeline builders) and Zagranstroi (roads and bridges construction company).

From the Indian side, representatives were in attendance from state majors ONGC, ONGC Videsh, IFFCO, Canara Bank, the State Bank of India, India Potash and NMDC. From the private sector, Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant, the Sun Group's Shiv Khemka, Sudhir Mehta of the Torrent Group, Nandan Unnikrishnan from the Observer Research Foundation and Sreekumar Nair from the Confederation of Indian Industry were at the meet.

CAT silver jubilee fete

The silver jubilee celebrations of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Bench, Hyderabad, will be held here on Saturday.

Chief Justice of High Court, Madan B. Lokur, will be the chief guest and Justice V. K. Bali , chairman of the CAT, New Delhi will also attend the function..

CAT has helped the employees to have quick redress with minimum court fee of Rs. 50. Statistics reveal that nearly 50 percent of cases are disposed off within one year of filing.

Rs.825-crore loan from World Bank

The World Bank has sanctioned a loan of $ 155.3 million (approximately Rs.825 crore) to Kerala for rural water supply and sanitation services that would benefit an estimated 18.4 lakh people.

The loan has been sanctioned for the second stage of the Jalanidhi project, officially known as the Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (KRWSSP), which will be implemented in about 200 grama panchayats in Kasaragod, Kannur, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Idukki, and Kottayam districts. Some 2,90,000 households are likely to directly benefit from the water supply investments and some 6,90,000 households from the sanitation interventions under the project.

Women are expected to be the major beneficiaries of the project and would have a strong voice in the Beneficiary Committees (BCs), which would be responsible for sub-project implementation. The project would also provide targeted assistance to about 65,000 beneficiaries among the tribal population in 22 grama panchayats. The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, has a final maturity of 25 years, including a five-year grace period.

The second stage of the Jalanidhi project follows the successful implementation of the World Bank-financed first stage between 2000 and 2008, which transferred implementation and key decision-making responsibility of water supply and sanitation-related services from government institutions to grama panchayats and to the community, providing rural water services to 1,93,000 households across 112 grama panchayats in the State.

The second stage seeks to scale up and institutionalise this bottom-up, demand-driven approach across the sector in the State.

“The Government of Kerala has successfully improved rural water supply coverage from 58.6 per cent in 2003 to a reported 67.7 per cent by 2010.

However, gaps still remain in terms of rural households without access to adequate water supply. In sanitation, Kerala has achieved impressive coverage with 95 per cent of rural households having access to a toilet facility and 87 per cent of grama panchayats having achieved 100 per cent ‘open defecation-free' status. However, there are emerging sanitation challenges in the State involving ‘second generation' issues, including a growing problem of solid and liquid waste management in urbanising rural areas,” said Venu Rajamony, joint secretary in charge of the World Bank, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

The project has three main components, namely, institution building, technical assistance, and infrastructure development. The project's sector strengthening activities under the first component would be undertaken State-wide and would include funding the preparation of a range of sector development programs and studies, conducting performance assessments of existing schemes, conducting consumer surveys, and integrating and optimising the functions of the multiple sector institutions in the State.

The second component will provide technical support to the implementing agencies — the grama panchayats, beneficiary groups and the Kerala Water Authority — to ensure that investments in infrastructure — the third component of the project — are implemented and the resultant services efficiently provided.

The third component would fund the infrastructure investments for the construction of new schemes by the grama panchayats and beneficiary groups and the rehabilitation and modernisation of multi-panchayat water supply schemes on a pilot basis as well as addressing second generation sanitation issues in the rural areas.