Week That Was July 05 : Parveez Rasool - first player from J&K in Team India

CBI autonomy: Three-member collegium to appoint agency chief

The government this week filed an affidavit on the autonomy of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Supreme Court.

As per the government’s affidavit, the CBI director will be appointed by a collegium comprising Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

The CBI director can be removed only after the orders of the President, it said.

An Accountability Commission will be set up by the government to entertain queries and complaints and enquire into allegations of corruption involving the CBI director.

The CBI director will have a term of not less than two years.

The proposed collegium shall recommend an IPS officer for the post of the CBI director on the basis of seniority, integrity and experience in the investigation of anti-corruption and criminal cases.

The affidavit that was submitted by the government was earlier cleared by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The GoM was constituted following the orders of the apex court. The Centre was given time till July 3 to work on giving greater autonomy to the CBI.

Cabinet clears Ordinance to implement Food Security Bill

Brushing aside political opposition, the Union Cabinet this wek approved an ordinance to give nation`s two-third population the right to get 5 kgs of foodgrains every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg.

The Food Security programme when implemented will be the biggest in the world with the government spending estimated at Rs 125,000 crore annually on supply of about 62 million tonnes of rice, wheat and coarse cereals to 67 per cent of the population.

The Cabinet, which had last month deferred a decision on the issue following differences within, approved promulgation of an ordinance to implement the Food Security Bill.

The Food Security Ordinance, after it was unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet was sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for President Pranab Mukherjee’s ratification. The Ordinance will have to be approved by both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha within six months of promulgation.

Ishrat Jahan was illegally confined, killed in cold blood: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this week filed the chargesheet in the high-profile Ishrat Jahan encounter case in the Ahemdabad court and said that the 19-year-old college student was killed in a `fake` encounter in 2004 in a joint operation by Gujarat police and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau.

The CBI also said that three others - Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - were killed along with Ishrat.

The three were identified as terror suspects by the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

The CBI made it clear that they found no evidence that they had come to Gujarat to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The CBI told the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate HS Khutwad that Ishrat along with three others were kept in illegal confinement before they were killed.

The CBI also told the court that offence has been established against ADGP PP Pandey, and suspended police officers DG Vanzara, GL Singhal, Tarun Barot, NK Amin, JG Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary.

The conspiracy, the chargesheet says, was hatched by Pandey, DIG Vanzara and Rajinder Kumar, who was then posted as Joint Director of the SIB in Gujarat.

It said that crime branch officer Amin and Barot had taken Ishrat and Javed Sheikh into their custody on June 12 from a toll booth at Vasad in Anand district with the help of MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede of the IB.

In an important turn of events the probe agency remained silent on whether Ishrat and those accompanying her were terrorists or not. The CBI also did not name IB officer Rajinder Kumar as accused in the case, as it did not have enough evidence against him for now.

Uttarakhand evacuation ends, relief work continues

Nearly 17 days after Uttarakhand was hit by flash floods and landslides on June 16, multiple central and state agencies involved in the relief and rescue work wrapped up their mission by evacuating all those stranded across the state this week.

The Indian Air Force (IAF), which played a pivotal role in the rescue mission here, evacuated the last pilgrim stranded at Badrinath on Tuesday. However, over 3,000 are still missing and the various NGOs, including the United Nations, fear the figure could well be 10,000.

State government officials claimed around 1.1 lakh people stranded by flash floods and landslides were evacuated by personnel of the army, IAF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

The state government later clamped a blanket ban on construction of houses and commercial establishments along river banks and announced setting up of a statutory body for development of flood-hit areas.

After a preliminary assessment of the extent of the colossal tragedy, the Uttarakhand government decided to revise the norms for relief and rehabilitation by widening the ambit of beneficiaries ranging from small kiosks to `dhabas` to big hotels.

The CM Vijay Bahuguna said that higher rate of compensation will be given for sugarcane farmers, adding, “Rs 500 each will be given to students in the affected families and free ration will be given to villages where connectivity has not been restored yet.

The state government also waive off power bills for affected families.

Railway bribery case: CBI chargesheet filed, Bansal given clean chit

The CBI this week filed chargesheet against ten accused in the Railway bribery case, naming former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal`s nephew Vijay Singla in the case.

Interestingly, the CBI gave a clean chit to Pawan Kumar Bansal.

CBI, as per reports, concluded this case as it did not find "prosecutable evidence" against Bansal.

Bansal had to quit after it came to light that his nephew Vijay Singla had allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs 90 lakhs from a Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar for being appointed to the post of member (electrical).

The sources, however, added that role of Bansal was still under the scanner in a separate inquiry relating to alleged favours given in promotions and postings in the ministry during his tenure. Bansal`s PA Rahul Bhandari has been named as suspect in the inquiry.

In its chargesheet filed before Special CBI Judge Swarna Kanta Mishra here, CBI has alleged that Singla had demanded Rs 10 crore from Kumar, who was recently elevated as Member (Staff) of Railway Board, for shifting him to his choice post of Member (Electrical), the sources said.

France operates PRISM-like spy network: Report

A leading French newspaper claimed France`s intelligence services have put in place a giant electronic surveillance gathering network.

Citing no sources, the Le Monde daily says France`s Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, the country`s foreign intelligence agency, systematically collects information about all electronic data sent by computers and telephones in France, as well as communications between France and abroad.

According to Le Monde, data on "all emails, SMSs, telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter posts" are collected and stored in a massive three-floor underground bunker at the DGSE`s headquarters in Paris.

The paper specified that it is the communications` metadata such as when was call was made and where an author was when she sent an email that is being archived, not their content.

Officials at the DGSE did not answer phone calls or emails seeking comment today.

The vast archive, which Le Monde says amounts to tens of millions of gigabytes, is accessible to France`s other spy agencies, including military intelligence, domestic intelligence, Paris police and a special financial crimes task force.

Le Monde compared the French digital dragnet to PRISM, the US National Security Agency program which has most caught the imagination of Internet users.

But PRISM appears aimed at allowing US spies to peel data off the servers of Silicon Valley firms whereas the program described in Le Monde appears to be fed through the mass interception of electronic data bouncing across the world.

Snowden issue: Bolivian President`s jet diverted under US pressure

Bolivian President Evo Morales angrily denied any wrongdoing after his plane was diverted to Vienna over suspicion that fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was on board.

"I`m not a criminal," the Austria Press Agency quoted Morales as saying at Vienna airport, after France, Italy, Spain and Portugal denied his plane entry into their airspace overnight.

Bolivian and Austrian officials said Snowden was not aboard the plane which arrived from Moscow late yesterday, though no search of the jet has been carried out.

The Russian capital is also where Snowden has been holed up in an airport transit area since June 23. He is seeking to avoid US espionage charges for revealing a vast surveillance program to collect phone and Internet data.

Morales told reporters that Madrid had asked to inspect his plane before giving it permission to enter its airspace, a request he said he denied because it would violate international law.

Spain has since granted Bolivia permission to fly over its territory, the foreign ministry in Madrid said.

Egypt`s Morsi ousted, Justice Mansour sworn in as interim prez

An army-backed top jurist was on Thursday sworn in as Egypt`s interim head of state, a day after the powerful military deposed and detained the Arab nation`s first democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi amidst high drama.

As an uncertain new political order began to take shape in Egypt following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood leader Morsi, Justice Adly Mahmoud Mansour - head of High Constitutional Court - took the presidential oath of office.

Mansour`s appointment came after the military last night removed Morsi from power, a little more than a year after the 61-year-old Islamist leader assumed office, following massive protests against his style of functioning.

In the run-up to the showdown, the powerful army generals and Morsi both pledged to sacrifice their lives to defend the country.

On Tuesday, the army had given a 48-hour ultimatum to Morsi to resolve the political crisis in the wake of massive protests against him that began on the June 30 anniversary of his first year in office.

Earlier security forces had imposed a travel ban on Morsi and other leading figures in the Muslim Brotherhood. The head of Egypt`s armed forces ousted Morsi just one year after he was elected as the country`s first democratically elected president in 2012 after nearly three-decades authoritarian rule of strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian army commander Gen Abdel Fattah Sisi on state television issued a declaration suspending the Constitution and appointing Mansour as interim head of state and called for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Egypt`s iconic Tahrir Square, the hub of the anti-Morsi protesters -- erupted into ecstasy as the military announced his outer.

Jet-Etihad deal under scrutiny, says Govt

Amid a raging controversy over the Rs 2,058 crore deal between Jet Airways and Etihad, Government Tuesday said the equity stake sale matter is still under examination and asserted that there were no differences between Ministries over the air services agreement between India and Abu Dhabi.

The Prime Minister`s Office (PMO) came out with a statement rebutting reports about objections to the deal raised by senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, CPI`s Gurudas Dasgupta, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, each of whom had shot off separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Reports of rift within the Government on the India-UAE (Abu Dhabi) Bilateral Air Services Agreement and the Jet-Etihad equity proposal are "factually incorrect and baseless", the PMO said.

"There is absolutely no disagreement within the government or between the Ministers and the Prime Minister on the matter," it said.

"The Prime Minister is neither washing his hands off the Bilateral Air Services Agreement nor is the PMO trying to do a U-turn on the issue now."

Tata, Ambani, Birla among 26 in race for bank licence

Tata Sons, India`s biggest business group, and firms controlled by billionaires Anil Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla are among the 26 companies that have applied for a licence to open banks.

Ambani`s Reliance Capital has applied for a banking licence along with Japan`s biggest life insurer Nippon Life Insurance Co and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Former Citigroup Inc chief executive Vikram Pandit has teamed up with JM Financial Ltd.

Among public sector entities, India Post and IFCI also submitted applications for bank licence while micro finance institutions like Bandhan Financial Services, Janalakshmi Financial Services too expressed their intention to set up a bank.

"The Reserve Bank of India in all received 26 applications," the central bank said after the deadline for applying for a bank licence expired on Tuesday.

Unlimited roaming on mobile; rail ticket on SMS comes into effect

Free mobile roaming on payment of a fixed fee and booking of rail tickets through SMS, both the decisions taken last week by the government, has been implemented from Monday.

The most awaited decision of the telecom regulator TRAI to allow free mobile roaming on payment of a fixed fee, which got a green signal last week, begins Monday. The decision also said to reduce national roaming charges for others by up to 57 percent.

TRAI, however, said making national roaming completely free of charges is not practical as of now.

Meanwhile, Indian railways launched SMS-based ticketing with two dedicated numbers - 139 and 5676714 - for the service on Friday. The service officially begins Monday.

Ticket booking through non-internet based mobile, launched as a pilot project by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), will also help Railways overcome the menace of touts who fleece unsuspecting people, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had said.

Telecom Commission approves 100% FDI in telecom sector

Inter-ministerial body Telecom Commission on Tuesday gave its nod for raising foreign direct investment limit in the sector from 74 percent to 100 percent subject to Cabinet approval.

"TC has approved raising of FDI limit to 100 percent from 74 percent at present where 49 percent of investment in an entity can be done through automatic route and FIPB approval will be required for raising further stake. The decision will come in force only after cabinet approves it," a senior government official said here.

The official said that Department of Telecom will send a detailed note to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion which would take it forward for inter-ministerial consultations before moving it to the Cabinet.

At present, FDI limit in the sector is at 74 percent where 49 percent is done through automatic route and rest requiring nod from Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

Marathi actor Satish Tare passes away

Marathi actor-comedian Satish Tare breathed his last on July 3rd. He was admitted to Sujay Hospital in Juhu, Mumbai, the previous day.

Tare had undergone a leg operation recently. His liver was also severely damaged.

He had acted in a number of plays, TV serials and films. He was known for his impeccable comic timing.

Why Hrithik Roshan thanked Shah Rukh Khan?

Hrithik Roshan has finally taken some time out – not for his film promotion or endorsements, but to thank his colleague Shah Rukh Khan. Yes, the 39-year-old actor has revealed that had it not been for Khan’s production house Red Chillies, the kind of special effects he wanted for his upcoming movie ‘Krrish 3’ would have just remained a dream.

According to a daily, Roshan eulogised the Bollywood Badshah for managing the special effects for his upcoming flick – which is being directed and produced by his father, Rakesh Roshan.

“Without Shah Rukh and his vision, Red Chillies (the production house) wouldn’t have existed. And as a result, we wouldn’t have achieved the kind of content (special effects for ‘Krrish 3’) we have right now. Clearly, it has all happened due to his foresight for the need of VFX studios,” said Hrithik.

Roshan has been busy working for the film which will hit the screens on November 4.

`Raanjhanaa` too controversial for Pakistan?

‘Raanjhanaa’ – which is still doing well at the Box Office after almost three weeks of its release – has been banned by the Pakistan Film Censor Board because of its alleged “controversial theme”.

According to a daily, the Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan has banned the Sonam Kapoor – Dhanush starrer shortly before its scheduled release in the country, Chief Executive Officer of IMGC Global Entertainment Amjad Rasheed, the importer of the film, said.

Rasheed said that he received a letter from CBFC with directives to put the film`s release on hold.

“The letter from CBFC states that the film portrays an inapt image of a Muslim girl (played by Sonam Kapoor) falling in love with a Hindu man and having an affair with him,” Rasheed said.

2013 Confederations Cup: Fred, Neymar help Brazil beat Spain 3-0 to clinch title

Two goals from Fred and a stunning Neymar finish saw Brazil claim their third straight Confederations Cup title in emphatic fashion, as they brushed Spain aside 3-0 in the final on Sunday.

The tournament hosts were in supreme form inside a raucous Maracana, ripping the reigning world and European champions to shreds to end their 29-match unbeaten run, and claim the trophy for the fourth time, alongside their triumphs of 2009, 2005 and 1997.

Fred needed only 90 seconds to open the scoring, before a thumping second from Neymar moments before the break rounded off an excellent first half for Brazil.

Lisicki ends Serena`s reign as Wimbledon champion

Sabine Lisicki ended Serena Williams` reign as Wimbledon champion as the German 23rd seed clinched a stunning 6-2 1-6 6-4 victory over the world number one in the fourth round here on Monday.

Lisicki, who plays Estonia`s Kaia Kanepi for a place in the last four, has an impressive Wimbledon record, reaching the quarter-finals three times and the last four in 2011, but this incredible upset on Centre Court was by far her greatest achievement at the All England Club.

The 23-year-old has failed to make it past the fourth round in 16 Grand Slam appearances outside Wimbledon, but she comes alive on the grass-courts and has now beaten the reigning French Open champion in each of her last four visits to south-west London.

Parveez Rasool - first player from J&K in Team India

After missing the tri-nation series being played in West Indies due to hamstring injury, India skipper MS Dhoni was also rested for the upcoming Zimbabwe series.

While Virat Kohli will lead the side, spinner Parveez Rasool has been included in the squad. Rasool is the first player from Jammu and Kashmir to get a place in Team India.

Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have also been rested for the series.