Nitin Gadkari hints Maharashtra govt may bring new law to give preference to locals in jobs

 

By -- Sanjay Patil---

Nagpur: Union minister Nitin Gadkari Wednesday said locals should get preference in jobs, adding a strong legislation will be enacted for this purpose if needed. He was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Nagpur. "Bhumiputras (sons of soil) should get employment in the projects here at MIHAN (Multi-modal International Hub Airport)," the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping said.

Gadkari said at least 1.25 lakh jobs will be created through the development of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) near Mumbai in the next few years. "I have given directions (to authorities) to ensure  that at least 80 percent of these jobs in the JNPT be given to locals from the coastal Konkan region," he said. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, speaking at the event, said during the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government, projects used to commence 10 years after their announcement.

Fadnavis said the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd under which MIHAN falls, has done an important job for the project-affected persons. "Many a time, people whose land we acquire are left out of the development process. This is not the case here (in MIHAN) and all development is being done by taking along sons of the soil. "This is our model of inclusive growth in which the last man standing is the part of development," he said.

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"chowkidaar chor hai" ----govt's Rafale deal €246.11 mn costlier than UPA's due to lack of bank guarantees from France

By Sanjay Patil -Nagpur-06-03-2019

The Congress on Wednesday wasted no time in reiterating its "chowkidaar chor hai" chant after The Hindupublished another report saying that the NDA Rafale deal was €246.11 million more expensive than the deal which UPA-I had struck due to lack of bank guarantees.

"No bank guarantees needed because AA se dosti nibhani padegi. So what if we Indians have to pay more to Dassault to acquire Rafale jets. #ChowkidarHiChorHai," Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted early on Wednesday, referring to the offset contract in the deal being granted to Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence.

the lack of bank guarantees from France made the cost of the Rafale deal negotiated by the BJP-led NDA government more expensive by €246.11 million (around Rs 1,962 crore). The article said that the seven-member Indian Negotiating Team (INT), in its final report submitted to the Defence Ministry on 21 July, 2016, had estimated the cost of loading bank guarantees, "which the French commercial suppliers with backing from the French government refused to do", as €574 million (approximately Rs 4,574 crore), making the €7.87-billion (around Rs 62,712, crore) deal signed on 23 September, 2016, for the aircraft and weapons packages significantly more expensive than what the UPA government had negotiated.

The Hindu report quoted the INT explaining how it arrived at the €574 million figure: "The computations were done on an annual bank commission rate of 2 percent, including confirmation charges by an Indian bank, as communicated by SBI on 2 March, 2016." The total commercial impact of bank guarantees was worked out to a substantial 7.28 percent of the contract value, The Hindu report said.

A bank guarantee is essentially a financial security net for the consumer nation in case the supplier nation fails to stick to the terms of the contract. If India had managed to procure a bank guarantee from France, the defence ministry could have reserved the right to cash it in if it felt that some conditions in the contract were not met in the quantum promised.

According to the INT report, the Indian negotiators had repeatedly pushed the French to provide bank guarantees, with even the Ministry of Law and Justice advising, in December 2015, that India should procure government or sovereign guarantees as a legal safeguard from France "in view of the contract involving huge pay-outs value of procurement price before actual delivery of supplies and services, which de facto meant advance payment".

The question of bank guarantees is important as India was to make 60 percent of the payments in advance within 18 months of signing the deal, that is, by March 2018, even though the first Rafale fighter jet would not arrive in India before September 2019.

Parallel negotiations

The Hindu report then goes into the alleged parallel negotiations carried out the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the National Security Adviser on the Rafale deal, not known to the INT. It referred to a "dissent note" dated 24 November, 2015, which had protested against such parallel discussions by the PMO that had "weakened the negotiating position of MoD and Indian Negotiating Team".

Significantly, the latest report in The Hindu notes that the French government "only had to rely on what had been agreed on along the parallel track with officials of the PMO and the National Security Adviser or cite the draft IGA (inter-governmental agreement) or the Memorandum of Understanding, signed on 25 January, 2016, as the effective closure of the deal".

After the French side refused to give a sovereign or government guarantee, which the INT report said had a "substantial material bearing" on the pricing of the new Rafale deal, the Cabinet Committee on Security waived the requirement and settled for a legally non-binding 'Letter of Comfort' from the Prime Minister of France. A letter of comfort is merely a moral obligation, something an unfriendly government in future can entirely sideline.

In contrast, when firms were submitting bids for the MMRCA tender to the UPA government, all of them, including Rafale-manufacturer Dassault Aviation, had submitted bank guarantees.

Manufactured by Dassault Aviation, Rafale is a twin-engine medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). These 'omni-role' aircraft are capable of performing a wide range of combat roles, such as air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence.

This the third report by The Hindu on the Rafale deal. The earlier two reports (read here and here) sparked a fresh debate over the Rafale deal as the report quoted a 2014 note written by the Ministry of Defence which raised strong objections to 'parallel negotiations' conducted by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) with the French side. Stating that it was clear that such parallel discussions by the PMO had "weakened the negotiating position of MoD and Indian Negotiating Team," the note, dated 24 November, 2015 brought this to the attention of the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Hindu quoted the defence ministry's note and reported: "We may advise PMO that any Officers who are not part of Indian Negotiating Team may refrain from having parallel parlays [parleys] with the officers of French Government,” it suggested that “in case the PMO is not confident about the outcome of negotiations being carried out by the MoD, a revised modality of negotiations to be led by PMO at appropriate level may be adopted in the case."

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Why MGNREGS workers sought police complaints against the PM

By Sanjay Patil---

Workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rurla Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) across India gathered at their nearest police stations to lodge complaints against the Prime Minister of India  for irregularities and violations of MGNREGA on February 28, 2019. Accusing the PM as the principal violator, they demanded adequate allocation and timely payments for the rural job scheme.

The original allocation for 2018-19 was Rs 55,000 crore. This proved inadequate as 99 per cent of the funds dried up by December, with three months to go in the current financial year. As a result, in the peak working season and despite huge demand, workers were denied work under MGNREGS.

Non-payment of dues, insufficient funds cause for concern

No fund transfer orders (FTO) were processed between October 2018 and February 1, 2019 in many states due to the fund shortage, forcing the workers to wait for their rightful wages for months. The Act stipulates that wages have to be paid within 15 days of work; any delay needs to be compensated by the official at fault.

The central government, however, does not obey this rule despite orders by the Supreme Court, which has made it mandatory to compensate workers even if the delay is due to the Centre. Thousands of workers across the country do not receive their wages on time because of this and are even denied compensation.

MGNREGS workers from nine states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Odisha) demonstrated against this blatant violation by the Union government. They protested in about 50 districts and tried to file first information reports (FIR) against the Centre in 150 police stations.  FIRs were registered under Sections 116 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, alleging the workers were cheated of wages and the Centre made false promises while making them work under MGNREGS.

The protestors demanded the government ensure all needy workers get work on time against job demands and wages be paid on time. Their outrage is a result of the government’s negligence in implementation of MGNREGS despite repeated alerts by civil society organisations.

The government’s false claims, through the flawed Management Information System (MIS),  that payments are on time further alienated and angered workers, who have been facing difficulties in getting wages even after FTOs were signed on time by local signatories.

The delays in release of funds by the Centre are not shown on the official website, which hints towards ill intentions.

In January, after mass demands by workers, civil society organisations and members of Parliament from Opposition parties, allocated a supplementary budget of Rs 6,084 crore. This was too little to meet the  demand.

Of the amount, Rs 5,745 crore was for clearing pending liabilities according to the government data at that time (Report 7.1.1, NREGA MIS). This leaves hardly any fund to fulfill new demands in the peak January-March period.

The current allocation of Rs 61,084 crore is not even adequate to provide 50 days of employment to all the active job card-holding families. The Centre has reduced the allocation to 60,000 crore for 2019-20. This effectively means that the bulk of funds would be exhausted in the first few months and the story of reduction in works in peak seasons and delay in wage payments would continue.

Also, the allocation for a given year includes pending liabilities of previous years. The central government conveniently ignored inflation adjustments and the increase in number of job cards every year too while allocating funds.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a collective of organisations working MGNREGA-related issues, has repeatedly claimed that fulfilling current work demand would require Rs 88,000 crore.

The Centre is now left with a little over Rs 2,500 crore for the  programme while transactions pending for response from the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) already adds up to Rs 7,449 crore for 2018-19 alone.

Considering the current approval of 253.16 crore person-days the benchmark for this financial year and  Rs 261.65 the average cost per person per day (as in the government website), nearly Rs 5,000 crore more is needed in the next one month.

With little more than Rs 2,500 crore left and huge pending liabilities, how will the government meet new job demands? It is evident  that the Centre is deliberately pushing workers to work without a proper allocation for timely payments.

It is ironic that a government that seems to have plenty of money to fund bullet trains and statues has no money to pay workers who have done their fair share of work and are now awaiting wages.

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What if we could know what's going on in your brain without splicing it open

By  Sanjay Patil

Plenty of legitimate science – plus a whole lot of science fiction – discusses ways to “hack the brain.” What that really means, most of the time – even in the fictional examples – involves surgery, opening the skull to implant wires or devices physically into the brain.

But that’s difficult, dangerous and potentially deadly. It would be smarter to work with the brain without needing to open patients’ skulls. Neurological disorders are common, affecting more than a billion people worldwide, of all ages, genders, and educational and income levels. My neural engineering team’s research, as part of a wider effort across the bioengineering discipline, is working toward understanding and easing various neurological dysfunctions, such as multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.

Identifying and influencing brain activity from outside the skull could eventually permit doctors to diagnose and treat a wide range of debilitating nervous system diseases and mental disorders without invasive surgery.

Wireless connections within the brain

My group believes we are the first to have discovered a new way nerve cells communicate with each other. Nerves are well known to connect through physical links – or what might be called “wired” connections – in which the axons of one nerve cell send electrical and chemical signals to the dendrites of a neighboring cell.

Our research has found that nerve cells also communicate wirelessly, by using the wired activity to create tiny electric fields of their own, and sensing the fields neighboring cells create. This creates the possibility of many more neural pathways and can help explain why different parts of the brain connect so quickly during the execution of complicated tasks.

We have been able to monitor these electric fields from outside the skull, effectively listening in on nerve communications. We hope that will help us find alternate, healthy connections for nerves damaged by multiple sclerosis, or rebalance nerve activity due to autism spectrum disorder, or prime neurons to fire together in specific patterns and restore long-term memories lost as a result of Alzheimer’s disease.

Specifically, we have found when an insulated, or myelinated, nerve fiber in the brain is active and sending signals along its length known as action potentials, special regions along its length generate a very small electric field. The cellular regions where this happens, called nodes of Ranvier, act like small antennas that can transmit and receive electrical signals.

A nerve cell diagram. Dhp1080/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Any disruption of the two highly specialized structures – the myelin sheath or the node of Ranvier – not only results in neurological dysfunction, but the surrounding electric field changes too.

Listening to nerves

The technological challenge involves precisely targeting specific parts of the brain to listen in on. The device must receive signals from areas roughly the diameter of a human hair, several centimeters deep within the brain.

Patch antennas on the skull could listen in on nerve communications at a specific location within the brain. Salvatore Morgera, CC BY-ND

One way is to place a small number of flexible antenna patches on the skull to create what we call a “brain lens.” Comparing readings from several patches lets us electronically target exactly the nerves to listen in on. We are designing and experimenting with metamaterials – materials engineered at the molecular level – that are especially good at serving as high-accuracy antennas that can be tuned to receive signals from very specific locations.

No pain, but potentially great gain

By listening in on wireless communications between nerves, we can identify areas of the brain where the electric fields indicate there are problems. The detailed characteristics of a nerve’s activity – or lack of activity – can offer clues about what specific problem is occurring in the brain. These findings could help diagnose potential medical conditions far more easily than current methods.

Look, for instance, at the actual case of one patient, a 38-year-old woman we’ll call “Bianca,” who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the brain and spinal cord that has no known cure. Multiple sclerosis patients’ immune systems damage the myelin sheath between the nodes of Ranvier, causing communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body. This damage radically alters the activity in the affected nerves.

Multiple sclerosis damages the myelin around nerve cells, disrupting communications and changing a nerve’s electric field.Designua/Shutterstock.com

To monitor the progress of her disease, Bianca has had spinal taps to see if her spinal fluid has high levels of particular antibodies associated with MS. She has also had MRI scans to reveal the areas of her brain where the myelin is damaged, and will face additional testing to determine how fast information flows through her nervous system.

Using a brain lens device would let doctors monitor Bianca’s brain without painful spinal taps and uncomfortable and time-consuming MRIs and CT scans. It may some day allow Bianca to monitor her own brain and send the data to her specialist for evaluation.

Therapeutic treatment without drugs and surgery

In addition, we’re hoping that our approach can lead to new therapies that are also easier on patients. At the moment, Bianca is taking several drugs that carry significant health risks and often make her feel nauseated and fatigued. She is one of many, who want to try a different therapy option.

This work plans to go beyond identifying the regions of her brain where the electric fields indicate unhealthy conditions. Inspired by computer network management and advanced digital networks, which route signals around areas that are damaged or interrupted, we are developing a method by which our scalp patch system could send messages into the brainas well.

Each damaged nerve fiber is generally one of thousands packed together into a tract of nerve fibers where neighboring nerve fibers are typically healthy. Our device could help identify sites with myelin damage and follow those nerve fibers back before the point of damage, to pick up their undisturbed signals. Then we would use the brain lens to transmit complementary electric fields into the brain, sending those healthy signals to the areas around the myelin damage, to encourage neighboring nerve fibers to carry the messages the damaged fiber can’t.

So far, we have been able to simulate this approach in a super-computing environment where brain nerve parameters have been provided by clinical research laboratories. In the coming months, we will build and test a brain lens prototype. Listening in to the brain and communicating with it offers a fascinating new set of possibilities for medical diagnosis and treatment without surgery.

Salvatore Domenic Morgera, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, University of South Florida

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Trump says India looking at something ‘very strong’ after Pulwama attack

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with China's Vice Premier Liu He in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., on Friday.   | Photo Credit: Reuters

By Sanjay Patil

The international community led by the US pressed Pakistan to deny safe haven to terror groups operating form its soil and bring the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack to justice.Asserting that there is a lot of problems between India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump has said New Delhi is looking at something “very strong” in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on February 14 in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) rammed a vehicle carrying a huge quantity of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.

India launched a major diplomatic offensive against Islamabad after the attack and highlighted Pakistan’s role in using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

The international community led by the US pressed Pakistan to deny safe haven to terror groups operating form its soil and bring the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack to justice.

Mr. Trump, after his meeting with a visiting Chinese trade delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He, told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday that “in Kashmir, it’s very dangerous”.

The President referred to the possibility of a strong response from India in the wake of the terrorist attack.

“India is looking at something very strong. And I mean, India just lost almost 50 people with an attack. So, I could understand that also,” he said when asked about India’s right to self-defence.

Responding to questions on the tense situation between the two South Asian neighbours, Mr. Trump said the US is talking so does some other nations, without mentioning them.

“We are talking and a lot of people are talking. But, it is a very, very delicate balance going on right now. There’s a lot of problems between India and Pakistan because of what just happened,” said the US President.

“We’re very much involved in that, if that’s what you’re referring to,” he said.

Mr. Trump described the current situation between India and Pakistan as very dangerous.

“It’s a terrible thing going on right now between Pakistan and India... it is a very, very bad situation and it’s a very dangerous situation between the two countries. We would like to see it stopped. A lot of people were just killed and we want to see it stopped,” he said.

Mr. Trump claimed that his administration has developed a much better relationship with Pakistan, even after he stopped $1.3 billion in financial aid to Islamabad.

“I stopped Pakistan, the $1.3 billion that we were paying them. In the meantime, we may set up some meetings with Pakistan.

“Pakistan was taking very strong advantage of the United States under other presidents and we were paying Pakistan 1.3 billion a year. I ended that payment to Pakistan because they weren’t helping us in a way that they should have. And honestly, we’ve developed a much better relationship with Pakistan over the last short period of time than we had,” Mr. Trump said.

In the wake of the Pulwama attack, US National Security Adviser John Bolton told his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval last week that America supports India’s right to self-defence as both sides vowed to work together to ensure that Pakistan ceases to be a safe haven for JeM and other terror groups.

India has asked Pakistan to take immediate and verifiable action against terrorists and terror groups operating from territories under its control.

New Delhi also announced the withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation status for Pakistan and hiked the customs duty by 200 per cent on goods originating from Pakistan.

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In Balakot air strike, BJP has found electoral agenda to slam Opposition, reconnect voters with Brand Modi

File image of Prime image o

me

CNN-PTI---BY Sanjay Patil---

With its new pre-poll catchphrase “Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai”, the ruling BJP would be hoping to turn its “Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar” slogan into a reality. An improvement on the earlier catchphrase, "Namumkin ab Mumkin", the key decision makers in the BJP have decided to introduce the new catchphrase following the post-Pulwama attack surgical strikes 2 when Indian Air Force jets went deep inside Pakistani territory to destroy Jaish-e-Mohammed training camps in Balakot.

The new catchphrase aims to convey the strength and decisiveness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The focus is to connect the electorate with the way Modi gave a free hand to the armed forces to cross the Line of Control and the International Border and hit intended targets in Pakistan, as well as, convey, a multitude of messages on the speed and scale of developmental projects and anti-corruption measures..

The two public rallies held by Modi on Sunday, first in Patna where he shared the dais with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as an ally after a decade and second in Congress president Rahul Gandhi's home turf Amethi, was high on nationalist fervour. In both the places, all leaders who spoke from the podium talked about the Pulwama attack and the decisiveness of Modi’s leadership.

Based on the manner in which the speakers addressed the crowd and the crowd's response at both these places, it is clear that BJP would be going to the polls with two broad topics: first, the strong leadership of Modi, and how it would make everything possible, and second, the post-Pulwama response by Indian armed forces. Both these topics are being pitched in a manner that they emotively polarise the voters in favour of the BJP.

The two public rallies held by Modi on Sunday, first in Patna where he shared the dais with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar as an ally after a decade and second in Congress president Rahul Gandhi's home turf Amethi, was high on nationalist fervour. In both the places, all leaders who spoke from the podium talked about the Pulwama attack and the decisiveness of Modi’s leadership.

The clamour for "proof" by senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh for the Indian air strike at Balakot and the barrage of questions raised by Opposition leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Kapil Sibal, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Mehbooba Mufti, Salman Khursheed and others, seem to have only helped the BJP in shaping its response and giving a nationalist and pro-forces twist to the February crisis.

Modi began his speech in Patna and in Amethi — telling the crowd and those on the podium to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai thrice with their full vocal strength. And each time, the slogan was dedicated to a particular theme converging into a patriotic fervour: “Parakrmi Bharat Ke Liye Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vijayi Bharat Ke Liye Bharat Mata ki Jai and Veer Jawano Ke Liye Bharat Mata ki Jai".

Modi then lashed out at the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, in particular, saying they were indulging in competition to abuse the "chowkidar (Modi)", but, he added, the "Chowkidar chaukanna hai, surakhsha chahe garib ki ho ya desh ki... Jitne bade faisle hain who danke ki chot par liye jaa rahe hain who aage bhi liye jayenge (Chowkidar is awake and alert, whether for the poor or for the country. Big and bold decisions that are being taken now with the beat of a drum and will be taken in the future as well)".

The fact that the statements made by Arvind Kejriwal, and Rahul Gandhi reading out a joint statement of 21 parties in which the Opposition parties expressed anguish over the politicisation of the Pulwama attack by the BJP, became headlines in the Pakistan media, gave Modi the ammunition to target the Opposition leaders, albeit without naming them. The prime minister criticised his political adversaries by saying, "Pakistan me unke liye taaliyan baj rahi hai (They are clapping for them in Pakistan)."

In the current heat, when a lot is being talked about India’s capabilities — the bombing of JeM camps in Balakot by aged aircraft like Sukhoi Su-30 MKI and Mirage 2000 jets and later another ageing jet Indian MiG 21 Bison shooting down a Pakistani F-16, Modi has talked twice about Rafale in the last two days. Each time, the prime minister highlighted the difference the Rafale jets would have made if they were part of the Indian Air Force. He first spoke about it at the media conclave on Sunday and again on Monday at a public function in Jamnagar. Modi didn’t elaborate about the deal but him making a brief mention about the sixth generation fighter aircraft which would be inducted in September appeared to have punctured all the charges made by Gandhi against him and the Rafale deal.

Given the current mood of the nation, the politics over Rafale appears to have taken a whole new turn. It's advantage Modi and BJP. In any case, India has not acquired any advanced fighter jets for decades.

The Modi government has also made a big change in India’s policy that was prevalent since the India-Pakistan 1971 War that it would not cross the LoC or the International Border with Pakistan no matter what the provocation — 1999 Kargil War, 2001 Indian Parliament Attack, 26/11 Mumbai Attack and so on — to defend its sovereign rights. In the past two and half years, Indian armed forces have crossed the LoC and the International Border twice for surgical strikes.

The BJP's new catchphrase, therefore, appears to have set the defining electoral agenda and possibly the electoral outcome as well.

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Action against 4 Air India employees for "Stealing" food: Report

By Sanjay Patil----

New Delhi, Mar 3(Agency ): Air India has taken disciplinary action against its four employees for allegedly "stealing" unserved food and dry ration from its planes, senior officials of the national carrier have said.

In August 2017, Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had issued an internal communication saying that ground staff and officers often take out unserved food and dry ration "for their personal consumption" on arrival of the aircraft.

"Officials found indulging in such practice should be summarily placed under suspension," the circular read.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior official of the national carrier told , "Since the August 2017 circular, the airline has taken action against two employees of the catering department and two cabin crew employees, who were found to be stealing surplus food and rations from planes."

The official said that an assistant manager and a senior assistant in the catering department were suspended for 63 days and three days respectively after they were found indulging in the practice, the official said.

Also, in March last year, two cabin crew members of a New Delhi-Sydney flight were warned and put on domestic flights only, the officials added.

Asked as to how many inspections were carried out by the national carrier post the August 2017 circular, the official said, "The catering division carries out spot and hygiene checks on flights and at caterer's premises on random basis which pertain only to enforcing quality parameters for the in-flight food."

An Air India spokesperson did not respond to specific queries on the matter.

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