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OCTOBER 2004 |
IN THIS ISSUE |
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Publisher's Note
As we have noted in these pages before, there are vast swathes of India that are virtually untouched by the digital revolution that has put the country on the world map. So our attention was piqued when we heard that government officials in Uttar Pradesh were planning to introduce village kids to computers. Quite honestly, India’s digital divide is widest here, and we couldn’t think of a better place to start. Alas, predictably, the plan ran into difficulties. It is a sorry commentary on the state’s backwardness that at a time when nimble programmers in Bangalore and Pune are matching wits with the best in the world, about 80 percent houses of this sprawling state does not even have access to power. Even those who do have power do not have sustained access. Here’s another lofty goal that’s going to crash in India’s challenging reality, we thought. Well, we had to think again. Plucky government officials came up with the innovative idea of using solar power to ensure village kids got to be introduced to the most potent tool of today’s information revolution. Our cover story has more details. Stanford University, along with the University of California at Berkeley, has played a pivotal role in the digital revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area and helped launch Silicon Valley. Now it’s beginning to take a close look at Asia’s hot spots because that’s where a lot of the action is. Along with Shanghai in China and Singapore, Stanford is looking at Bangalore and Mumbai as well. Six bright young students spent their summers in India and attended a Global Entrepreneurship Conference attended by many of the captains of India’s cutting edge industries. This issue has a report. Now, on to a different subject. Rakesh Sharma’s searing, probing documentary on the Godhra riots and its horrible aftermath in Gujarat, Final Solution, has won a slew of international awards including the Berlin Film Festival. Yet the irony of it all is this: The film cannot be shown in India because the censor board, in its infinite wisdom, feels the film will create misunderstanding among various communities. Talk about shooting the messenger. Community activist Raju Rajagopal, a member of the Bay Area-based Coalition Against Communalism, writes a scathing critique in this issue which takes the government to task for its bizarre sense of priorities. MAIN FEATURE  Solar Computers:Digital Education in U.P. Deepak Goyal Uttar Pradesh officials decided to help some villages cross the digital divide: They handed computers to village primary schools. After handing out 1,000 computers, they realized fully 80 percent of houses in India’s most populous state do not have power. Instead of throwing in the towel, though, officials wondered: How about providing solar panels to power those computers? A pilot project is already set to begin, writes Deepak Goyal. The Uttar Pradesh Education for All Project Board had a great idea last year. It decided to take a big step to bridge the digital divide where the gap was most acute, so it thought it would teach village kids computer skills. It bought 1,000 computers for selected primary schools in all 70 districts. Teachers were given special training for computer-aided education, but it turned out the villages where the schools were selected had no power lines. Another 1,000 computers are to be purchased this year for village schools this year, but most of these will not work because there is no power available. This should not come as a surprise in a state where four out of five houses have no power, and many villages suffer frequent power cuts. Many villagers use kerosene lamps for light and most government-run primary schools have no power at all. So the computers sat idle in the primary schools, essentially unusable show pieces. This Kafkaesque scenario could easily have gone down as another instance where good intentions had come to naught in the harsh realities of rural India. Instead, a government agency has come up with an innovative solution: Why not power the computers with solar power? Uttar Pradesh’s Non-Conventional Energy Development Agency, setup in the year 1983 as a nodal agency for promotion and development of non-conventional energy sources in Uttar Pradesh, has come forward with the idea of providing solar power for computers NEDA director G. Patnaik, who is principal secretary of the state’s non-conventional energy source department, said, “We have developed the idea of solar powered PCs primarily targeting rural academia where power shortage and power cuts are rampant. The solar powered panel would provide four hours of non-stop power supply in a day.” A solar panel costs between Rs.40,000 to 50,000. Two state government departments have joined hands to run computers on solar energy with an aim to empower the rural students in computer education and extend the e-facility even to remote areas, yet to be electrified by the state utility. “NEDA installs the whole system for rural schools in UP where this project has been started as a pilot,” Patnaik said. “This is equally useful for commercial use by corporates as well as home PC users. Thus more and more commercial organizations need to come forward to give the much needed fillip to this idea.”
Encouraged by NEDA’s gesture, the department is now offering training to teachers in computer education through the government-approved information technology institutes. Developed by a leading U.S.-based software giant, the department has borrowed specially-designed software from the Madhya Pradesh government. The software was developed by the M.P. government in accordance with the needs of the primary-level students. Already a year late, the basic education department now hopes to begin computer education in rural schools to fulfill the goals of the Education for All Project. “Once the program begins successfully, we plan to extend e-facility in these schools to empower rural folks on the pattern of Andhra Pradesh,” a senior officer of basic education department said. Parthsarathi Sen Sharma, director for the Education for All project, said funds for the solar panels would be arranged on a 50-50 basis by his department and NEDA, and though initially expensive, the expenditure will be cost effective in the long run. As authorities in the education and alternative energy departments try to arrange funds, some farmers who have solar pumps for irrigation are making finding innovative ways to use this natural and clean energy source for other purposes, the BBC reports. Solar energy is generally used for cooking, heating water, light and running tube wells. But Gyaneshwar Varma, who lives in the village of Tikara Patti nearly 50 km east of the state capital Lucknow, bought a computer 15 years ago, primarily to play card and chess games. A civil engineer by training, he later bought another computer for his school, but it ended up being a show piece because there was no electricity supply. Varma had to take his children into the village to learn about computers, but here, too, the power supply was very erratic and there was no fixed schedule for power. So Varma installed a solar pump in his school campus to irrigate his farms. Now he wants to convert the solar energy into 220-volt AC electricity, and has hired a mechanic from the Kanpur to make a power inverter for $124. “When my solar AC converter is ready it will be very convenient. I will run computers as well as fans in my school,” Varma told the BBC. Although government regulations say solar pumps should be used only for irrigation, farmers and youths are devising all kinds of new uses of solar energy, generating employment and additional income. One villager in Umari, Barabanki district, is charging batteries to run televisions, making $3.50 a day. Sharmail Singh has dug a pond near his solar pump in his farmhouse, which is used for fisheries and drinking water for buffalos. Solar pumps provide light in the night via a battery. “It is almost a power house,” said his son Ranjit Singh. To be sure, solar energy is still a small part of the state’s energy source. Last year, 109 solar pumps were installed in Uttar Pradesh. It’s nothing compared to 2.7 million diesel engine tube wells and 600,000 electric motor tube wells in the state. The government, however, is keen to promote solar energy, and it aims to install 400 solar pumps in 2004. As an incentive to farmers, a heavy government subsidy allows them to only have to pay a fourth of the cost. Banks are also lending farmers the money they need to pay out. If Varma succeeds in developing the technology to run fans and computers from solar pumps, it may encourage other farmers to do the same, giving them a more reliable and cleaner source of power. And kids in remote villages in U.P. won’t have to worry about erratic power supply as they join the computer revolution. - Deepak Goyal is a freelance writer. He lives in Kolkata, India. |TOP|
INFOTECH INDIA  First Test Tube Goat ... Ramanna Dies ... Six Sigma Concept ... Computers for Villages ... Indian Bank’s Online Remittance ... Contracts for Rural Phones ... Calsoft Acquires Kochi Firm ... Tamil Nadu Bullish ... EDUSAT Orbit Raised ... iGATE Growing in Chennai ... Cryogenic Engine Test — Here is the latest on information technology from India First Test Tube Goat The National Dairy Research Institute Sept. 24 claimed in Karnal to have produced a test tube goat for the first time in the country. Nagendra Sharma, director, NDRI, said the work was carried out to develop in-house capabilities in establishing pregnancies in goats using in vitro fertilization through laparoscopy technique. He said a team of scientists comprising Dr. Dhruba Malakar, Dr. S.K. Das and Dr. S.I. Goswami of Animal Biotechnology Centre, NDRI, Karnal, had been working on the project for the last three years and their efforts bore fruits early this year when the first test tube goat was born in the country. Outlining the technique, the team of scientists said the ovaries were collected from slaughter house and oocytes were isolated from them. These oocytes were cultured in the laboratory for 24 hours in suitable media and fertilized using sperm from selected bucks. The embryos were allowed to grow for a few days in the laboratory and transferred to surrogate goats using laparoscopy technique. The scientists said the results have been confirmed through the process of DNA finger printing of the surrogate parents. Ramanna, who played a key role in the country’s first Pokhran nuclear test in 1974, breathed his last at the Bombay Hospital, Dr. B.K. Goyal, dean of the Hospital, said. On Sept., 22 night, Ramanna’s daughter-in-law and his personal assistant Ramakrishna said the scientist had passed away at around 7:30 p.m. However, a little later, Goyal said the scientist was alive but his condition was “very, very critical.” He breathed his last in the wee hours of Sept. 23, Goyal said. Ramanna, who is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son, was admitted to the Hospital Sept. 20 after he complained of giddiness and sweating. A multi-faceted personality, Ramanna was chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center, a former union minister and a member of the Rajya Sabha. A recipient of Padmashri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards, Ramanna was the director emeritus of the Bangalore-based National Institute of Advanced Studies. He had served as scientific adviser to the defense minister. Ramanna was also closely associated with the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and was a lover of music. He was as much at ease playing the piano as he was with discussing nuclear physics. He said many companies around the world had misunderstood the Six Sigma concept. “It has been defined as conglomeration of statistical methods involving a lot of calculations. But it is not so. In simple terms it is defined as elimination or reduction of non-value-added costs and offering high quality products at low prices.” He also said that the best kept secret in the West was that “customers will pay more for quality, service and value.” Federal Express was the first company to offer overnight delivery and changed the mail delivery system into an enjoyable experience, he pointed out. Customers now wanted pleasurable experience and innovation, he said. The low-cost computers would be able to provide standby power for two hours to address the issue of frequent power disruptions in villages, he said, speaking on ‘Connecting the rural India - a legendary vision’. Over 700 million people live in villages in the country and the effort was to give a low-cost computer that can withstand infrastructure shortcomings, Premji said. “Computer penetration is still minimal in Indian villages,” he pointed out. Explaining the initiatives taken by Wipro to connect rural India, Premji said 11 villages in Pondicherry were selected by the company in 1998 to help them in gaining computer skills. A major area that could benefit from the increased IT adoption was e-governance. “E-governance initiatives by various state governments will be a major driver for improving efficiency in government transactions,” he said. Computers can also attract more students to schools in rural areas, Premji added. “IndRemit allows NRIs in the U.S. to send money to their relatives in India from their offices or homes without even visiting their banks in the U.S.,” M.B.N. Rao, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank, told reporters here, after launching the service. The bank, along with Times Online Money, will extend the service to Europe, including the U.K. and other countries in a phased manner, he said. For doing the transaction, NRI customers have to visit the Indian Bank Web site www.indianbank.com and click on “IndRemit,” which allows the user to register for service of his or her bank account in the U.S. and the recipient’s Indian address, Rao said. Indian Bank’s overseas branch in Mumbai converts the foreign currency funds at the U.S. dollar-rupee exchange rate and prepares drafts in favor of the beneficiary. The drafts are couriered by Times Online Money to the beneficiary or to the beneficiaries bank and the entire process will take a maximum of four days. The charges for the service are pegged at three dollars for remittance of $51 to $200, six dollars for transfer of $201 to $500 and nine dollars for remittance of $501 to $5,000. The rural community phones would be provided under the USO fund in 48,310 villages, each with a population of more than 2,000 and with no other public telephone facility. Bids for the remaining 57,000 such villages have also been invited and the agreements are likely to be signed by November this year, the statement said. The two companies signed an accord Sept. 24. Announcing the partnership, Calsoft managing director S. Santosh said this strategic investment will not only facilitate the enterprise division of Calsoft to provide its customers a total solution, but also give it an initial operating base in Kerala. The Middle East market of Calsoft was also growing very fast, which can henceforth be catered from Kerala, he said. TFL managing director S.R. Nair said Calsoft’s participation would provide his company with a vital financial boost, management support and a global reach for its products and services. Refusing to accept that it was a sell-out, Nair described it as a “strategic partnership.” The company, with an authorized capital of Rs. 5 million, was so far confined to only Kerala, and the partnership would allow it to spread its wings, he added. Inaugurating the four-day ICT event Connect 2004, he said, “The strength of Tamil Nadu lies in its varied base of manufacturing, agricultural and industrial sectors that are effectively deploying IT to increase their competitiveness.” The conference-cum-exhibition, an information, communication and technology event, is being organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the state government. “The state government is determined to capture the leadership position in India in the IT sector and we are taking steps to promote places such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli and Hosur as other destinations for IT and ITES services,” Jayakumar said. The state was aiming at getting branded as the “intellectual capital of India,” he said, and highlighted the various steps taken by the government in implementing e-governance. He said a state-wide area network would be set up at a cost of Rs. 100 crore. Speaking on the occasion, state IT secretary Vivek Harinarain said, “Political stability, proactive government policies and infrastructure facilities” were among the key factors that attracted several IT companies to set up their operations in Tamil Nadu. The apogee height, farthest point to the earth, remains at 36,000 km, it said in a statement in Bangalore. The first orbit-raising maneuver was carried out a day earlier. All systems on board the satellite are functioning normally. EDUSAT came within the radio visibility of MCF Sept. 22 morning and all the necessary operations like earth acquisition and gyro calibration were carried out before the second orbit-raising maneuver was started, the statement said. EDUSAT was launched by India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Sept. 20 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. “We have identified the space. The additional space will have a capacity for 350 people. Our Chennai facility currently employs 500 for IT services and we will be hiring over 500 people in the next six-12 months to double our employee base in Chennai,” iGATE Global Solutions chief financial officer N. Ramachandran told a press conference in Chennai. Talking about long-term plan, he said iGATE would have its own building in Chennai. “We have acquired a five-acre space on the IT corridor of Chennai. Though we have not planned anything about the capacity and other facilities, we may commence our construction activities some time during next year,” he added. iGATE is currently in the process of completing its phase 2, 14-acre integrated technology and operations campus in Bangalore. “The phase 2 in Bangalore will have a seating capacity for 1,700 people and we have planned an investment of Rs .450 million for this expansion,” he said. “ISRO has signed agreements with many organizations for the EDUSAT program. Agreements were also signed with IGNOU and AICTE and in another three months 20 more major institutions would sign MoUs with ISRO,” he said. Replying to a question about the advantages of EDUSAT, Nair pointed out that a virtual classroom environment can be created and two-way communication between the teacher and the student can be achieved. Multi-media and multi-cast system with good speed can be provided. Madhavan Nair said India had once again proved that it can undertake satellite projects with “perfection and thoroughness” to meet any global standards. Other officials present at the press meet included T.K. Nair, principal secretary to the government of India, Ravindranath, mission director, GSLV-F-01, and Neelakandan, project director, EDUSAT.
U.S.-INDIA TIES
 Bridging Distances:Stanford and India A Siliconeer Report The Stanford Asia Technology initiative is bringing together bright young Stanford students with cutting-edge work done in India. A Siliconeer report. The Asia Technology Initiative at Stanford University started off as a program to introduce students to business hot spots in Asia. The aim of the organization is to cultivate entrepreneurship through hands-on entrepreneurial experiences and by promoting link ups between the valley and technology clusters throughout Asia. “ATI is a group of highly motivated students and faculty members from Stanford University who are interested in business issues in Asia,” according to the program’s Web site. “The aim of the organization is to cultivate entrepreneurship through hands-on entrepreneurial experiences and by promoting link ups between the valley and technology clusters throughout Asia.” As a part of this program, every June, ATI sends a select few Stanford students to India (Mumbai and Bangalore), China (Shanghai) and Singapore for ten weeks to explore the powerful synergy between technology, industry and entrepreneurship in the Asian context. ATI’s involvement in India in previous years has drawn support from such Indian IT giants program include Infosys mentor Narayana Murthy, Wipro chief Azim Premji and Vice Provost of Stanford, Prof. John Bravman. Six Stanford students were selected be ATI-India Fellows for 2004. The program Web site adds: “ATI-India presents the Fellows with opportunities and experiences they will never forget, including: Project-driven internships with leading host companies in Bangalore and Mumbai; Networking with top-level management at host companies and other budding entrepreneurs in India; Organizing an entrepreneurship conference attended by prominent academic and business leaders from around the world; and an understanding of India’s cultural and social diversity, which is unparalleled in the world.” The students worked with local companies on core projects where they transferred the Silicon Valley culture and also learned about local business settings by interacting closely with entrepreneurs at these sites. During their ten weeks of stay, an annual entrepreneurship conference was organized with the aim of convening industrialists, venture capitalists, academicians, government officials, students and entrepreneurs with similar interests in order to promote the future sharing of intellectual and business resources. The 2004 ATI-India Global Entrepreneurship Conference — “The Rise of the Indian Multinational: Global Business Trends” — was held Aug. 21 in Mumbai and attracted a virtual who’s who in Indian industry. Billed by Stanford as “a dynamic gathering of students, professors, entrepreneurs, industrialists, VCs and government officials,” speakers included NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik, Tata Consultancy Services CEO S. Ramadorai, Jalaj Dani of Asian Paints, Nadir Godrej of Godrej Industries and Nicholas Piramal chairman Ajay Piramal. They were joined by Stanford professors Richard Dasher, director, US-Asia Technology Management Center, Naushad Forbes and Arogyaswami Paulraj. The conference sought “to examine strategies on how Indian firms, both of start-up and established nature, are adapting to compete in the global market.” These issues were explored within the context of two critical technology tracks: information and communication technologies and manufacturing. In addition, the conference had a session on the Indian economy and global competitiveness, providing the context in which such dramatic changes are taking place. BIOTECH NEWS:  In Silico ResearchStrand, MediBic Ties A Siliconeer Report MediBic Alliance, the investment arm of Japan’s MediBic, a leading life sciences and pharmaco-genomics consulting company has taken a minority equity stake in Bangalore’s life sciences informatics company, Strand Genomics. A Siliconeer report. Bangalore-based life sciences informatics company Strand Genomics recently announced that MediBic Alliance, the investment arm of MediBic of Japan, has taken a minority equity stake in Strand. The Series A investment was closed in September 2002 by lead investor WestBridge Capital Partners and UTI Ventures. MediBic and Strand are already in a long-term business partnership to jointly develop and market informatics solutions to pharmaceutical customers in Japan. MediBic will now be represented on the board of directors of Strand Genomics. Strand Genomics is a global life sciences informatics company focused on software for drug discovery and development. Strand has leveraged its core strengths in data mining and analysis, knowledge management and workflow processes to develop its products avadis for microarray data analysis and visualization and truPK for in silico ADME prediction. “The strategic investment from MediBic will enable Strand to further intensify its development of informatics and modeling technologies,” according to a press release. Strand will partner with MediBic towards forming a comprehensive virtual discovery pipeline, the release added. “Strand’s products, technology capabilities and roadmap for in silico drug discovery have attracted interest from a company like MediBic which has had phenomenal success in biopharma informatics consulting in Japan. We welcome their investment in our company and look forward to their active participation on the board,” said Dr. Vijay Chandru, chairman and CEO, Strand Genomics. “The investment in Strand Genomics is indicative of our interest in a long-term business relationship between us while also encouraging our collaborative business partnership to bear fruit in a short period. The investment would also help Strand realize future business opportunities with Japanese industry,” said Dr. Yasuhiro Hashimoto, president and CEO, MediBic. “MediBic’s investment and business alliance is yet another milestone in the progress of Strand Genomics. This mutually beneficial alliance will provide Strand with a strong marketing channel in Japan while giving MediBic an access to Strand’s products and technology capabilities,” said Sandeep Singhal, principal, WestBridge Capital Partners, and director, Strand Genomics. “Medibic investment in Strand Genomics further validates the technology capabilities of Strand and help in effectively addressing the Japanese market,” said K.E.C. RajaKumar, MD and CEO, UTI Venture Fund. Strand is based in Bangalore, India, with a marketing and corporate development office in California. For more information on Strand, interested readers can visit the company’s Web site at www.strandgenomics.com. MediBic is a leading Japanese life sciences and pharmacogenomics consulting company. The company was founded in 2000 with the aim of helping the Japanese pharmaceutical industry to improve its drug development efficiency through strategic integration of technologies. The company has diversified into providing custom informatics solutions and partnering with other technology providers to form an in silico virtual discovery pipeline. The company has been recognized as the fastest growing biotech company in Japan. WestBridge Capital Partners is a Mauritius-based leading U.S.-India focused venture capital fund with approximately $140 million under management. The fund focuses primarily on outsourced services and IT companies across all stages. WestBridge’s investors include leading institutions and entrepreneurs across the globe. WestBridge has offices in Silicon Valley and Bangalore. OPINION  Wrong Priorities:Free Speech v Hate Speech By Raju Rajagopal Instead of going after hatemongers who continue to spew venom, Indian censors are targeting Rakesh Sharma’s award-winning documentary Final Solution, which unmasks their ugly machinations, writes Raju Rajagopal. An immaculately dressed little boy haltingly recollects horrific scenes of women from his family being shamed and maimed by rioters. His previous school had asked his parents to take him away following the violence, he says, purportedly for his own safety. Asked what he would like to do when he grows up, he declares without any hesitation: “Kill the Hindus!” And when the interviewer reveals that he too is a Hindu, the boy dismisses him out of hand, as though a person being so nice to him couldn’t possibly be one. This chilling exchange is from Rakesh Sharma’s thought-provoking documentary, Final Solution, which chronicles the aftermath of the worst pogroms in India’s post-independence history. The film has been hailed by several international festivals for its portrayal of the meticulously choreographed campaigns against the religious minorities in Gujarat. The jury at the Berlin Film Festival, headed by the noted French director Catherine Breillat, observed: “An epic documentary focusing on a culture of hatred and indifference. The directness, clarity and accuracy…enable the viewer to both reflect on the universality of the subject matter and relate this to his or her own human attitudes.” Sadly, India’s film censors, who in recent years have had no problems forgiving graphic violence and sex on the Bollywood screen, have come to a very different conclusion: In a peremptory rejection of the film, they charged that it “promotes communal disharmony… attacks the basic concept of our republic i.e. national integrity and unity… (and) may trigger off unrest and communal violence.” Thanks to appointees by the previous government, the Censor Board seemed particularly intolerant of any perceived criticism of the Sangh Parivar, with Final Solution being only the latest in a series of documentaries that it had banned. Once again, freedom of speech had lost out to those who routinely incite discrimination and violence.
When the censors accuse Final Solution of attacking national integrity and unity, they are clearly — and cynically — trying to blame the messenger (the film) for the message (hate speeches in it). For example, VHP leaders, whose addresses to partisan crowds are replete with anti-minority epithets, and who demand that all Muslims should “go back” to Pakistan, are in violation of Indian Penal Code, Section 153B, which makes it a crime to impute that “any class of persons cannot…bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India.” And the young Bajrang Dal leader, who proudly proclaims that his town has been “cleansed” of Muslims, is afoul of Section 153A, which states that anyone “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc.” could be imprisoned for up to three years. As far as I could see, the objective of Final Solution is to bring to light the awful consequences of such incitement and to make viewers think critically of what they can do to reverse the rising tide of intolerance. Concerned citizens are therefore justified in challenging the censors on VHP’s film, Ramsevak Amar Raho, reportedly being widely circulated in Gujarat, which features the very same leaders and their assaults on the Indian republic. They are equally justified in asking why such anti-secular — and I dare say anti-Hindu — organizations are being given a free rein all over India, while authorities attempt to silence opposing political expressions. For instance, a VHP booklet currently in circulation in Tamil Nadu not only spreads invidious stereotypes of Muslims and Christians, but also calls for a boycott of their businesses and the employment of only Hindus in Hindu businesses. It also divulges the primary mission behind VHP’s one-teacher schools, Ekal Vidyalayas, generously supported by well-meaning overseas Indians: to fight Christian missionaries in the tribal areas. Its slanderous language and gibes against the minorities are reminiscent of anti-Semitic tirades by the Nazis and, more recently, of Hutu leaders of Rwanda who promoted a mindset in which “ethnic hatred was normalized as a political ideology,” resulting in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority (See box). True to script, and as if on cue, foot-soldiers of the Sangh Parivar have been disrupting private screenings of Final Solution. And now, I suppose, the censors will point to these “disturbances” as a justification for their ban order — a predictable outcome when a nation allows worshippers of a demagogic ideology, who have permeated deep into its public institutions, to pass judgment on their own kind. Whether it is banning a movie, or harassing an author, or defamation suits against newspapers, politicians seem to have perfected the art of using laws designed to protect the public interest to protect their self-interest. “Respecting people’s sentiments” has become the battle cry for curtailing freedom of expression, never mind what ordinary people have to say. And, if the system won’t bend to their wills, orchestrated violence will do, thank you. So, where do we go from here? It seems to me that the key to preventing future “Gujarats” lies not in more censorship or more laws, but in a renewed commitment to use existing laws to prosecute those guilty of incitement to discrimination and violence.
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Online remittance service provider Times Online Money is the technology partner of Indian Bank for the Web-based remittance product. 
Firing the liquid apogee motor on board the satellite for 42 minutes, the space scientists raised EDUSAT perigee, closest point to the earth, from 8,000 km to 32,800 km, the Indian Space Research Organization said. 
Addressing reporters after the successful launch of 1,950-kg EDUSAT, the country’s first exclusive satellite for the educational sector, Nair said the cryogenic engine transfer was stopped in 1994 but the development of it was started recently.