Women gradually taking lead in Assam polls

NEW DELHI, Mar 16: The people of Assam seems to be slowly responding to the demand for increased representation of women in the state legislature where their numbers have increased from four in 1985 to 10 in the last Assembly and is expected to go up in the forthcoming elections.

In a 126-member House, 10 might not be a big figure but women empowerment has become the buzzword in political circles and civil societies in this North Eastern state.

"We do believe that women representation in the Assembly should be increased though the trend has not been bad so far. Our party, Congress, has always emphasised for giving proper representation to women in all spheres," former Assam Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Syeda Anowara Taimur told PTI here.

However, all are not convinced with the argument. Jnanapeeth award winning writer Indira Goswami thinks that the number of women legislators in Assam was "depressing".

"The political parties should encourage women to take leadership and give enough tickets to contest elections," Goswami said.

In 1985 elections, out of the 1153 candidates, 29 were women and only four of them got elected to the Assembly.

Two - Amiya Gogoi and Kumari Rabi Das - were from Congress and two - Rekharani Das Boro and Jotshna Sonowal - were from Asom Gana Parishad.

There were altogether 45,82,979 women voters out of the total 98,82,684 electorates. Das Boro became a minister in the first AGP government led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta which assumed power that year.

In 1991, there were 50 women candidates among the 1657 candidates in the polls but only five could enter the Assembly.

They were Syeda Anowara Taimur, Rupam Kurmi, Amiya Gogoi (all Congress), Renupoma Rajkhowa (AGP) and Pramila Rani Brahma (a Bodo group). Taimur became a minister in the late Hiteswar Saikia-led Congress Government which came to power after the polls.

In that election there were 55,20,905 women voters among the total voters of 1,18,92,170.

In 1996, there were 45 candidates in the hustings of whom only seven could win the elections. Those elected members were Amiya Gogoi, Pranati Phukan, Rupam Kurmi, Hemoprava Saikia (all Congress), Rekharani Das Boro, Renupoma Rajkhowa (both AGP) and Pramila Rani Brahma (a Bodo group). Das Boro was a Minister in the Mahanta-led AGP Government which assumed power after the elections.

The total number of candidates in the 1996 polls were 1228. The total number of electorates was 1,21,19,125 of whom 57,30,170 were women.

In the 2001 elections, however, the number was encouraging. Out of the 55 contesting women candidates, 10 could win the elections. They were Hemoprava Saikia, Uttara Kalita, Jonjonali Baruah, Pranati Phukan, Sarifa Begum, Ajanta Neog, Rupam Kurmi (all Congress), Hosenara Islam (NCP) Pramila Rani Brahma, Kamali Basumatary (both from a Bodo group). Saikia, Phukan and Kurmi also became ministers in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress Government.

The number of women voters were 69,28,675 among the total 1,44,39,167 voters in 2001 polls. (PTI)

Of missed calls and mobiles!

NEW DELHI, Mar 16: French turn off their mobiles during meals, Chinese call and hang up after few seconds while Spanish are reluctant to use voicemail. But when it comes to Indians, it is the missed call they are most (in)famous for.

The Indian mobile user seems to have mastered the art of 'missed calls' - and actually to communicate without answering the calls!

While cellphone operators are reluctant to give the exact share of missed calls, according to industry estimates, it is somewhere around 20-25 per cent.

Writes Nick Gray in a moblog (mobile blog) - in India 'Missed Calls' were very popular, as a way to say "I'm thinking about you" or "Call me back." I would often hear someone say, "I'll send you a missed call when we get there - see you soon."

"Even though cellular tariffs are pretty low, people were ingeneously using 'Missed calls' for signalling and saving money.. The call rates are already low but most users want to make it lower by resorting to missed calls," says V Kumar, a cellphone user, who on an average gets around 10-15 missed calls every day.

"It's very irksome to call back someone every half an hour for no work of yours," says Kumar, noting the problem is more in case of office goers as callers think the office is going to pay for call back."

However, Kobita Desai, principal telecom analyst, Gartner, says "users tend to resort to giving missed calls when the message to be conveyed is just to make an announcement of one's presence or somewhat in those lines."

"But there is a natural progression towards wanting to communicate more than just merely indicating one's arrival. That is driven by a real need to communicate and getting habituated to using a medium to do so this is not going to be a major issue in future," says Desai in an e-mail interview to PTI.

"There is also a situation when the other person has to call back. No doubt mobile tariffs are quite low and the price differential with fixed is very narrow. However that is not necessarily the case with prepaid tariffs which is still significantly higher and also the pulse rate is shorter. Mobile calls are billed at 60 secs whereas fxied calls are billed at 180 secs."

"There's still a perception that mobile rates are high and understandably so. With almost 75 per cent of subscribers being prepaid, the impact could be quite significant unless the price differentials narrow down significantly. Also a prepaid user has better visibility of his usage since he has a credit limit dependent on what he has already paid for," says Desai.

But when it comes to 'who loses and who gains on missed calls', Desai says "it would depend on where the call originates from. If more calls originate from the fixed network then the lion's share of the call revenue is retained by fixed network operator. However they would have to give a percentage to the mobile network as an interconnect or termination cost. Or vice versa. Often missed calls happen within mobile networks as well. Here there is loss of revenue on both sides, especially if the called party has caller line identification."

"Missed calls have to originate from some network. So there's always percentage given as interconnect/termination to the network on which the calls terminate. However good interconnect rates are dependent on the volume of traffic generated. In a non monopoly environment like India's mobile industry, it becomes difficult for a carrier to arbitrage on good interconnect rates if they only invite incoming traffic," she says.

"Further not getting threshold revenue (Cost of servicing + margins) from their home subscribers may affect business sustainability in the mid to long term," notes Desai.

But for the customer, it's all about money in this case! Who needs etiquette when it costs you money! (PTI)

Decision on Air India, Indian merger likely next fiscal

NEW DELHI, Mar 16: A decision to merge Air India and Indian is likely to be taken in the next fiscal (2006-07) to turn the combined entity into a mega carrier with about 130 aircraft to take on the major global carriers like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and British Airways.

Keeping in mind the global aviation scenario where such mega mergers have taken place in the recent past, from KLM-Air France and Lufthansa-SwissAir to Jet Airways and Air Sahara in India, "it is an absolutely logical proposal to consolidate and optimise the use of the assets of the two public sector airlines," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told PTI in an interview here.

Maintaining that such a proposal would have to be cleared by the Union Cabinet, he said "this should happen within 2006-07 and added that the two airlines were already attempting to synergise their operations.

Patel said the emergence of Delhi and Mumbai as hubs of their future operations with most modern world class airports would help the combined entity to spread its operations having a fleet of 125-130 aircraft.

Asked whether the decision would be taken after the two carriers issue their Initial Public Offers (IPOs), he said both these decisions could be implemented at the same time.

The Government expects to offload 20-25 per cent equity in these two airlines through the proposed IPOs.

Responding to a series of questions on aviation-related issues, he said major initiatives would be taken to encourage regional air connectivity, apart from improving airport infrastructure at 35 selected non-metros.

The Civil Aviation Ministry was considering a five-year holiday on payment of landing, navigation and parking charges to airlines, which would provide regional feed from a single metro in a state with 60-80 seater planes like turbo-props, Patel said.

Such an offer could also be given to those airlines which would launch operations to a new destination which so far did not have air services, he said.

The Ministry was also contemplating creation of an Essential Air Services Fund (EASF) which could be used to develop those airports which have not developed or those which would require huge investment.

The Fund could also be used to cross-subsidise those operators who flew on economically-unviable but socially-important routes designated Category-II or Category-III.

There was also a proposal to establish the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority to take care of issues like allotting of parking bays, time slots, airport tariffs and other functional and commercial issues.

A Bill to set up the Authority would be placed in Parliament soon, he said.

Patel said all these proposals would form part of the Civil Aviation Policy, which would be placed before the Union Cabinet for final approval.

To questions on Delhi and Mumbai airport modernisation process, he said the two airports would be modernised within 2009-10, while the greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad would be ready by 2007-08.

Asked about the airports and Chennai and Kolkata, he said "we will take a call on these two airports only after the ensuing asembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu".

To a question on whether the selected private partners for Delhi and Mumbai airports could change their partners, the Minister said "after their selection, the consortium has been frozen" in accordance with the laid down rules and conditionalities.

On granting of licenses to Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) to start an airline, he said the prevailing rules allowed only the NRIs to invest and start an airline in the country. "The matter is being considered by some concerned ministries including the Home Ministry", he said.

To questions on allowing domestic carriers to fly abroad, Patel said there was no proposal to relax the conditions of having a 20-aircraft fleet and five years of domestic operations to allow a domestic airline to fly abroad.

These airlines should also adhere to the route dispersal guidelines by operating on Category II and III routes, he said.

Patel also said there was no proposal at present to allow foreign airlines to pick stake in Indian carriers.

He said a Core Committee had been set up to recommend steps to strengthen the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, grant in more autonomy, streamline its functioning and giving it more teeth. The Committee's report was expected in a fortnight, the Minister added. (PTI)

India, China trade set to grow to 20 billion dollars

NEW DELHI, Mar 16: India and China are poised to achieve 20 billion dollar bilateral trade turnover by the year 2007, a year ahead of the target set earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said.

The Minister made the indication in his keynote address at the India-China Joint Business Forum here today where Mr Bo Xilai, Minister of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China, was the Guest of Honour, along with a large business delegation from China.

The two Ministers earlier co-chaired the 7th Meeting of the India-China Joint Economic Group (JEG), which took place after a gap of six years. "That it coincides with the celebration of India-China Friendship Year is of additional significance. I also note that this is the first JEG meeting after Chinas accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)", Mr Kamal Nath observed.

Both Mr Bo and Mr Nath emphasised that trade and economic cooperation held the key to strengthening the overall bilateral relationship. Mr Kamal Nath also underlined the need to decide on an early operationalisation of the border trade across the Nathu La pass.

During the year 2000-01, the bilateral trade volume was barely two billion dollar. This increased to 11.3 billion dollars in 2004-05.

"This year our bilateral trade will be in excess of 15 billion dollar " Mr Kamal Nath said, reflecting rapidly expanding bilateral economic relationship.

At the same time, he stressed the -- both at the JEG Meeting as well as the Joint Business Forum -- that the trade basket continued to be narrow and restricted to a limited range of goods. For instance, Indian exports are dominated by raw materials and products of natural resource based industries, he said.

The JEG discussions focussed on implementation of the recommendations of the Report of the Joint Study Group (JSG) which was constituted in June 2003 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Wen Jiabao to examine the potential complementarities between the two countries.

(UNI)

Kashmir under grip of severe cold following fresh snowfall

SRINAGAR, Mar 16: Even after the 70-day-long three "Chilas", coldest period in the winter, are over, the entire Kashmir valley remained under the grip of severe cold following fresh snowfall on the upper reaches while plains had intermittent rains.

Official sources said about one feet of fresh snowfall was recorded at Kongdori while world famous ski resort of Gulmarg and Khilanmarg experienced about six inches yesterday.

The holy Amarnath cave also experienced about one feet of fresh snowfall while about eight inches to one feet snowfall was recorded at Panjtherni, Sheshnag, Mahaguns and Pissotop.

The other upper reaches in the Kashmir also had fresh snowfall resulting in considerable cold, forcing people to wear warm cloths.

The plains, including Srinagar city, had intermittent rains resulting in further drop in the temperature disrupting normal life.

The three Chilas--Chilai Kalan, Chilai Khurad and Chilai Bacha--, the colest period in the winter were over on March Ist.

The Zojila pass, highest point on the 434-km-long Srinagar- Leh national Highway also recorded fresh snowfall. The highway was closed for six winter months on November 17 due to snowfall. However, the Drass-kargil-Leh highway is through for traffic.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, has already started snow clearance work on the highway.

(UNI)

New points system to speedily handle demand for visas

CHENNAI, Mar 16: Stating that the British Government has launched a new points system to enable the United Kingdom effectively and speedily handle the demand for visas, the British Deputy High Commissioner for South India, Mike Connor today cautioned visa applicants against being exploited by some unscrupulous agents.

Stating that 15 per cent of visa applications were turned down last year for various reasons, including false documents like company certificates, qualification certificates and bank statements, he told a press conference here that visa seekers could go online and have a self appraisal of their standing, vis-a-vis the points system.

Last month, 300 applicants were rejected by the Chennai office for containing forged documents, he said.

The new system, based on objectivity and qualifications and to tackle abuse and identify most talented workers, would reflect aptitude, experience, age and also the level of need in any given sector, he said.

To be implemented in a phased manner, the scheme, launched by the British Home Secretary on March 8 last, would also be complemented with a tougher approach to weed out false applications and place increased obligations on UK business houses and educational institutions, who would be held responsible for those they sponsor.

He said the scheme consolidates over 80 existing work and study routes into five tiers-- highly skilled (scientists and entrepeneurs), skilled workers with job offers, low skilled workers, filling specific temporary shortages, student and youth mobility and temporary workers.

Replying to questions, Connor said that India had three of the top six visa issuing centres in the world, with Chennai placed at number six. Within three days, an applicant for a visa would know the status of the application, he said.

Last year, as many as 1.45 lakh visas were processed at Mumbai, 1.30 lakh at Delhi and 92,000 at Chennai, he said.

Stating that about 18,000 students were in various institutions in the UK, he said students accounted for 23 per cent of visa applications, skilled workers at 50 per cent and 17.8 per cent by those going on training.

The British Government had earmarked 10 million UK pound sterling for Research and Development, scholarships, education and linkages among other things he said and hoped that the country's private sector would provide a matching amount. The British council would administer the scheme, he said.

To another question, he said the July last London blasts had not affected the issue of visas to the UK. The British Government, however, has the responsibility to ensure the safety of its citizens, he added. (PTI)

Zaheera does turnaround, wants to serve jail
term in Gujarat

MUMBAI, Mar 16: In yet another volte-face, Zaheera Shaikh, sentenced to one-year jail for her flip flops in the Best Bakery case and for contempt of court, today informed a sessions court here that she wanted to spend the jail term in Vadodara and therefore may be handed over to Gujarat police.

When Zaheera had surrendered before the court here on March 10 in keeping with the Supreme Court order, she urged for serving sentence in a Maharashtra jail and not in Gujarat prison as she apprehended threat to her life.

As Zaheera did the turnaround today, the court decided to keep her in custody till March 20 because Gujarat police was not present and also because it was awaiting Supreme Court directives on the manner in which the sentence awarded to Zaheera should be executed.

Appearing before Judge Abhay Thipsay, Zaheera broke down and said "they will kill me here.. They are not providing good food and also not allowing me to perform namaz. I want to go to Vadodara".

As Zaheera was in tears, the Judge inquired from the policemen of Bhoiwada lock-up where she is lodged about the facilities provided to her. Zaheera pointed at a woman constable and complained that "madam keeps shouting at me".

The constable then told the court that Zaheera was demanding non-vegetarian food and also a duppatta (scarf) for offering namaz. Zaheera was also demanding that she may be allowed to sit outside the lock up. These facilities could not be provided in the lock up, the constable said.

The Judge explained to Zaheera that she had to undergo sentence because Supreme Court had punished her. He also issued directions to police to allow Zaheera perform namaz and have home food in the lock up.

Zaheera was in the court for nearly 45 minutes and most of the time she was seen wiping her tears.

The court directed Bhoiwada police not to be harsh with Zaheera and allow her better facilities like home food and permission to offer namaz. The police was also told to bear in mind that Zaheera should not be treated like an accused who has to undergo interrogation by cops.

The Judge told Zaheera and her brother Nasibullah, who was also present in the court, to appear on March 20 to answer the charges of perjury mentioned in the show cause notices issued to them and other family members for tendering false evidence in the court during the retrial of Best Bakery case here.

The Judge also asked Zaheera whether she wanted a lawyer to defend her for the perjury charges to which she replied in the negative. She said her lawyers would come to the court on March 20.

Zaheera did not give any reply when the judge inquired her why she had made (jhooti zabani) false statements in the court.

Zaheera had surrendered before the court on March 10, two days after Supreme Court sentenced her to one year jail for contempt of court. She was taken into custody and her lawyers appeared on March 13 saying they would move the apex court on March 20 urging review of its order and reduction of sentence.

The Supreme Court had sentenced Zaheera to one-year jail term and fined her Rs 50,000 for her flip-flops in the Best Bakery trial and for changing her version frequently.

The apex court severely reprimanded Zaheera for turning hostile during the trial and accepted the report of the Supreme Court-appointed high-powered inquiry committee, which had indicted her as a "self-condemned liar."

In the communal flare up in Gujarat following the Sabarmati Express train carnage, Best Bakery was set afire on March one, 2002, by a violent crowd at Hanuman Tekdi at Vadodara, killing 14 persons who had taken refuge in the premises.

Zaheera, who along with her family survived the bakery fire, had moved the apex Court alleging that all the 21 accused in the case had been acquitted by the Gujarat court as she had turned hostile because of threats issued to her.

The apex court, on April 12, 2004, asked a Mumbai court to conduct the retrial so that the accused were given a fair trial outside Gujarat and the witnesses deposed without any fear.

While ordering retrial, the apex court had quashed the lower court order acquitting the 21 persons. Four of them were untraceable and 17 were arrested and brought to Mumbai for retrial.

The Mumbai court in its verdict on February 24 sentenced nine accused to life imprisonment and acquitted eight others due to lack of evidence. The court also issued notices to Zaheera and her family members to show cause why action should not be taken against them for perjury. The matter is pending and would be heard on March 20. (PTI)