Guwahati molestation: What really happened

A teenaged girl was molested, groped at and beaten up, all in full public view, by a mob in Guwahati, triggering widespread protests in the state.

The protestors hung up the posters of the culprits in city thoroughfares even as an embarrassed police department is now working overtime to hunt down those involved in the crime. So far, four persons have been arrested while at least eight others are still at large.

The 17-year-old girl, who is pursuing studies in fashion designing in the national capital, was attacked when she was returning home after celebrating the birthday of her friend, a teenaged girl, at a bar. The girl was subjected to assault and molestation for nearly half an hour before being rescued by some passers-by.

“At least twelve persons were involved in the incident. We have managed to identify 11 of them of which four have been arrested,” Director General of Police (DGP) JN Choudhury told DNA. He added that a charge sheet would be filed soon in connection with the case.

The kingpin of the mob, one Amarjyoti Kalita, is believed to have gone underground outside the state. Ironically, Kalita had fought crime against women in a TV programme where he played the role of a police officer.

The DGP was confident that the police would be able to arrest the remaining accused persons within a week.

Three young persons had accompanied the two girls on that fateful night. The trouble started after they picked up a quarrel in a drunken state.

“The birthday girl had lost her ATM card and couldn’t settle the bills. So, they were evicted by the bar employees. But soon, she picked up a quarrel with the young men who accompanied her and started beating them up. When the mob started building up, the four fled the place leaving behind the victim,” city senior superintendent of police (SSP) Apurba Jiban Barua told DNA.

Asked about the victim, he said the girl was fine. “She is fine though she is feeling shy now,” he said. The SSP attributed the incident to the city’s rapid growth. “It happens in transition,” he said.

The Assam State Commission for Women has taken suo motu cognisance of the case.

“We strongly condemn this heinous crime,” the Commission chairperson Meera Barooah said. A team of the National Commission for Women is scheduled to visit the state even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi has sought a report on the incident from the Pradesh Mahila Congress.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi admitted that the law and order situation in Guwahati is deteriorating . He instructed the administration and police to monitor the bars, clubs, discos and hotels and raid them as and when required.

SAIL to supply 50,000 tonne steel for CERN-like Neutrino Observatory

The Steel Authority of India, the country's largest steel maker, will supply 50,000 tonne of special steels for building a CERN-like underground detector for the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). 

When the project is completed, INO will house the world's largest magnet, about four times larger than the 12,500-tonne magnet housed in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
About 50,000 tonnes of soft iron plates will be required for fabricating the neutrino detector. INO is being touted as the next frontier to take particle physics beyond the standard model which led to search for the elusive 'God particle' or the Higgs boson. 

For this purpose, a two km underground tunnel is being constructed in Theni between Madurai and Kochi. The expirement is likely to cost $250 million. 

The project is being executed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in association with over two dozen institutes like Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics(SINP) and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) in Kolkata. 

"We will source low carbon plates from SAIL for the project," Prof. Naba Mondal of TIFR and spokesperson for the INO project said. 

The project will study properties of neutrinos and use magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) as detector. 

These value added special steel plates for the INO project will be tailor-made and can command a premium of over 100 per cent in the international market. For instance, if ordinary steel plates cost Rs 40,000 per tonne, these plates can be priced at Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per tonne, an official affiliated to the steel industry said. 

Confirming this, Pankaj Gautam, CEO of SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant said: "It is a project of national importance and we are proud to be associated with it. 

We had many rounds of discussions with the BARC and TIFR team before preparing a detailed protocol. The required chemistry of the slab was finalized and 5-6 plates (about 100 tonnes) were successfully rolled on a trial basis. We hope to soon get commercial orders for these plates." 

While laboratory trials for soft iron plates were carried out at Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS), Ranchi, Bhilai Steel Plant took up the industrial trial. 

"The experiments will involve high end technology on a scale that has not been tried out earlier in India. We will develop and transfer the knowhow for the building blocks to set up what will be the first in a series of such experiments. We hope to start work in 2017. Apart from the tunnel, it will involve setting up an underground lab complex to conduct research in particle physics," said Prof. Mondal.

ET in the classroom: When does government declare drought?

Even though the share of agriculture in the country'sGDP is declining, a year of poor rainfall means acute hardship for farmers which, in turn, has a negative impact on the economy. ET explains when does adrought happen: 

What is a drought year? 

The Indian Meteorological Department defines a drought year as one in which the overall rainfall deficiency is more than 10% of the longperiod average and more than 20% of the agricultural area is affected. 

Are there different categories of droughts? 

Yes. There are three types depending on the impact. 

Meteorological 

This happens when the rainfall in an area is less than 25% of its long-term average. 

Hydrological 

A marked depletion of surface water causing very low stream flow and drying of lakes, rivers and reservoirs. 

Agricultural 

Inadequate soil moisture resulting in a fall in agricultural productivity. 

When is a drought declared? 

Traditionally, in India, district collectors recommend the declaration of a drought after obtaining crop production estimates. Generally areas with less than 50% normal sowing are considered to be affected by a drought. The other markers of drought conditions include rain deficiency, normal difference in vegetation index and moisture content in the soil. 

What happens after the declaration of drought? 

The government initiates planning and implementation of relief measures. States roll out contingency plans, which include measures to provide employment, food, drinking water, and fodder for the livestock. 

How does a drought impact the economy? 

A drought impacts virtually all spheres of economic activity. Farm produce dips, water levels go down and the mortality rate of livestock and wildlife goes up. The economy takes a hit as farm income falls, food prices accelerate, consumption demand plummets and farm loan defaults rise. Its social costs include unemploymentand migration.

Libor rate-fixing scandal: Most banks under investigation by authorities

More than a dozen banks are under investigation by authorities in Europe, Japan and the United States over the suspected rigging of the London interbank offered rate, a key interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars globally.

Some 16 banks contributed to the setting of dollar Libor rates in 2008, the period at the centre of investigations.

So far, British lender Barclays has been the only bank to admit wrongdoing.

Following is what is known about the involvement of the 16 banks.

BANK OF AMERICA

Bank of America is among the banks being investigated, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last year. The bank did not comment in its 2011 annual report.

It is one of 11 banks accused of conspiring to manipulate Libor in two lawsuits filed by discount brokerage and money manager Charles Schwab.

BARCLAYS

The UK bank has been at the centre of a very public storm since US and British authorities fined it more than $450 million last month for its part in manipulating Libor.

The ensuing backlash cost chief executive Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius their jobs. The pair have appeared before a parliamentary committee to testify about what went on at the bank, in a scandal which has drawn in British central bankers and government ministers.

BTMU

The Swiss Competition Commission said in February that Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ was among those it was investigating on suspicion of conspiring to manipulate rates. The Japanese bank did not comment on any probes in its 2011 annual report.

This month, the group suspended two London-based traders as a result of a probe into manipulating interbank lending rates, but the bank said that was not to do with their conduct at BTMU. They had previously worked at Dutch lender Rabobank.

CITI

Citigroup said its subsidiaries had received requests for information and documents as part of investigations in various jurisdictions. The US bank said it was cooperating.

The bank is also subject to a number of private lawsuits filed in the US against banks that served on the Libor panel.

In December, Japan's financial regulator said it would penalise the Japan securities units of Citigroup and UBS after finding that an individual who worked at UBS and then moved to Citi had, along with his boss at Citi, attempted to influence the Tokyo interbank offered rate (Tibor).

CREDIT SUISSE

Credit Suisse is one of 12 banks being investigated by the Swiss Competition Commission about alleged collusive behaviour among traders to influence the bid ask spread for derivatives tied to Libor and Tibor as well as the rates themselves. Credit Suisse said it was cooperating fully.

DEUTSCHE BANK

The German bank said it was cooperating with investigations in the United States and Europe in connection with setting rates between 2005 and 2011.

It has had civil actions filed against it in the United States related to the setting of Libor.

Germany's market regulator has launched a probe into the bank over suspected manipulation of interbank lending rates, sources have said. Results are expected in mid-July.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing no sources, that two Deutsche Bank employees have been suspended after external auditors examined whether staff were involved in manipulating rates.

HBOS

The bank, now a subsidiary of Lloyds, said it was cooperating with investigations. It has also been named in private US lawsuits related to the setting of Libor.

HBOS said it in its 2011 annual report it was not possible to predict the scope, outcome or impact of the investigations and lawsuits.

HSBC

HSBC has said it received demands from regulators for information in connection with Libor investigations and it was cooperating. It has also been named in lawsuits related to Libor in the United States.

HSBC said in its 2011 annual report that it could not predict the outcome of the investigations and lawsuits.

JPMORGAN

JPMorgan said it was cooperating with regulators and government bodies investigating the setting of Libor, Euribor and Tibor rates, mainly in 2007 and 2008.

It has also been named as a defendant in private US lawsuits over Libor.


LLOYDS

Lloyds said it was cooperating with investigations. It has also been named in private lawsuits in the US related to the setting of Libor.

It said it 2011 annual report that it could not predict the ultimate outcome of investigations or lawsuits.

In May, the bank said two derivatives traders had been suspended following an investigation into possible interest rate manipulation.

RABOBANK

Rabobank said it was cooperating with investigations into possible manipulation of Libor rates. It has also been named as a defendant in a number of civil lawsuits in the United States. Rabobank said it was confident the claims would be held unfounded and was conducting its defence as such.

RBC Canada's largest bank did not make any comment in its 2011 annual report on its involvement in regulatory probes into possible manipulation of interbank lending rates.

RBS

Royal Bank of Scotland said it was cooperating with investigators, who had requested information.

RBS said members of its group had been named as defendants in a number of lawsuits in the United States. The bank said it had substantial defences to these claims.

Following a newspaper report last month that it faced a 150 million pound fine, RBS said there could not be any certainty as to the timing or amount of any fine or settlement.

UBS

The Swiss bank said it had been granted leniency or immunity from potential violations by some authorities, including the US Justice Department and Swiss Competition Commission, in return for its cooperation in the Libor manipulation probe. It did not specify what information it was providing.

In December, Japan's financial regulator said it would penalise the Japan securities units of Citigroup and UBS after finding that an individual who worked at UBS and then moved to Citi had attempted to influence Tibor.

It has also been the subject of US lawsuits.

WEST LB

The German bank was among those being investigated, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in March last year.

The bank made no mention of the probes in its 2011 annual report. In July last year it was dropped, at its request, from the panel of banks contributing to daily fixings of Libor for US dollars.

NORINCHUCKIN

The Japanese bank did not mention the investigations into possible Libor manipulation in its 2011 annual report. In April last year it was one of 12 banks sued by Vienna-based asset manager FTC Capital, accused of conspiring to manipulate Libor.

Purulia case: India to scale down diplomatic ties with Denmark

India has decided to scale down its diplomatic ties with Denmark after that country's refusal to appeal in their Supreme Court against a decision of its lower court rejecting the extradition of Purulia arms drop case accused Kim Davy.

Upset over Copenhagen's refusal to act on New Delhi's consistent request to appeal in their apex court to facilitate Davy's extradition to India, government has issued a circular directing all senior officials not to meet or entertain any Danish diplomat posted in India.

"It is against all civilised norms to harbour a terrorist. Despite being a signatory to many UN conventions, Denmark refused to act against the prime accused in the Purulia arms drop case," a senior government official said.

Denmark even did not pay any heed to a special request of external affairs minister S M Krishna who wrote to his Danish counterpart requesting to appeal in their Supreme Court against the lower court order rejecting Davy's extradition.

India has failed to understand the reason behind the stubborn attitude of Denmark despite its promise to put Davy in a special jail if extradited.

Earlier, Copenhagen cited poor living conditions in Indian jails for their reluctance to extradite Davy to India. "It smacks of racism," the official said.

Interestingly, citing Denmark laws, three law firms, hired by India to pursue its case against Davy, have suggested that there are enough provisions to appeal in the Supreme Court against the lower court order.

The Danish authorities have so far not agreed to appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision of the high court despite efforts by Indian agencies to convince them, official sources said.

They said the authorities conveyed that the prosecutor is not under the control of Danish government and his decision is considered final. Initially, Denmark had accepted India's request for extraditing Davy but it was challenged by him in a city court in Copenhagen which rejected the extradition.

The Danish authorities challenged the decision in the high court which also rejected their plea citing poor prison conditions, including overcrowding, alleged torture and human rights record of India.

The Danish legal authorities then decided not to pursue the matter further and refused to file an appeal in the Supreme Court there against the high court decision.

Sources said Indian authorities are not a party to the case and cannot directly intervene. They said the courts were not considering the merits of the alleged crime but on the prison conditions and human rights issues in India.

Infosys promotes 20,000 people; utilization, retention high at TCS

Infosys has promoted another 4,000 people taking the total number of promotions this year to 20,000, effective July 1, 2012. This is about over 13% of the company's total strength of 1,51,151 as on June 30.
 
"We have done the promotions and progressions as we talked last time, we have done 20,000 across the corporations," Infosys CEO S D Shibulal said.

The company had earlier said it would review the wage hike decision depending on the company performance. However, with lower-than-expected earnings and forecast, in dollar term, the company will not lift its freeze on salary hike any time soon.

Infosys and its subsidiaries added 9,236 (gross) people in the first quarter of FY'13, while the net addition during the period stood at 1,157 employees. The rate of attrition during the quarter was marginally higher at 14.9% against 14.7% in the January-March quarter of 2011-12.

"Typically, attrition in the first quarter (of a fiscal) goes up because people tend to go for higher studies. About 30% of our attrition was due to this reason," Shibulal said.

Meanwhile the country's lead tech player Tata Consultancy Services has continued to hire to support business growth. With campus trainees joining the company from the beginning of July-September quarter, lateral hiring accounted for 75% of total hiring in Q1. There was a total gross addition of 13,831 people (net addition of 4,962), taking the total employee strength of 243,545 on a consolidated basis.

The utilization rate (excluding trainees) was at 81.3% and that including trainees was 72.3%. The attrition rate (last twelve months-LTM) was 12.0%.

"We have been able to effectively increase our retention rate in the first quarter to over 88% and increase our utilization rates further. The on-boarding of current year's trainees has begun," said Ajoy Mukherjee, executive vice-president and global head, human resources.

TCS has a target to hire 50,000 people this year while Infosys will hire 35,000 people, which includes 13,000 jobs for its BPO operations.

What BSNL Can Do With CDMA 800MHz Spectrum

State owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd which runs a CDMA network country-wide alongwith much used GSM /3G network is planning to hire a consultant firm to take suggestions on What to do for its CDMA network?

According to industry sources, BSNL is on the way to explore the options to utilize Pan India CDMA network on 800MHz band. But Chairman and Managing Director or BSNL, RK Upadhyaya confirms that the company has no plan to close CDMA services and it will continue with CDMA and EVDO services.

Currently BSNL has only 4.8 million CDMA customers compared to 93 million GSM / 3G customers and running CDMA business with low profile specially in rural and remote area with voice services but EVDO coverage is quite inadequate compared to other CDMA players like MTS India, RCom and TTSL. For private dual technology players like Reliance Communications (Rcom) and Tata Teleservices (TTL) are pushing GSM /3G instead of CDMA and both are intending to use CDMA network for data only in coming days.

Even another state-owned player Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has decided not to invest in its  CDMA network whcih has CDMA spectrum and license with limited mobility in Mumbai and Delhi (MTNL has some license issues to upgrade to EVDO and offer data roaming, but offers Unlimited 1X data usage for Rs. 75/month – cheapest in the industry) MTNL is India’s first 3G mobile service provider and pushing 3G – GSM Mobile services only.

But for BSNL CDMA network is very important, mainly for two reason – their 3G-GSM (UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA) network is quite poor in tems of bandwidth coverage on 2100MHz band. But BSNL EVDO network on 800MHz offers more coverage. Secondly BSNL already plans to return WiMAX spectrum and thus EVDO and 3G will be the only way to provide wireless broadband.

1. Aggressive EVDO coverage expansion with ZTE

Though BSNL has quite good coverage in the metro and urban areas, on sub-urban areas especially tier II and III cities BSNL has less than 20% EVDO coverage, where private players have coverages.

As now BSNL entered into equipment supply agreement with ZTE, which is one of the world’s top CDMA supplier, BSNL should take care of EVDO expansion via ZTE.

2. Investing on EVDO Rev B network

Instead of investing EVDO rev A (3.1 Mbps downlink), BSNL must go for EVDO Rev B technology, preferably Rev B Phase II (supports upto 4.9Mbps per 1.25MHz channel).

3. Starting trials of LTE on 800MHz band on 1.4MHz channels

LTE can be deployed in channel widths as small as 1.4 megahertz, and in low spectrum bandwidth, for example, LTE’s very high spectral efficiency and edge of cell performance means that even in a 1.4 MHz channel LTE provides close to the average sector throughput performance of an HSPA 5 MHz carrier. NTT Docomo has already started some trials on LTE over 1.4MHz channels. BSNL can either do their own trials or wait for global LTE roll out on this way.

4. On voice & text front BSNL can offer all voice and text (in home & roaming to any network in India) rate at flat 30 paisa per minute, similar to MTS’s recent offerings. With such offer and a bit good promotion BSNL can grab some new CDMA voice customers. Also BSNL can tie up with ZTE for bundled CDMA smartphones and tablets.

BSNL currently offers cheapest Unlimited Wireless Broadband over EVDO – Rs. 750/month. With rapid expansion of EVDO network, BSNL can not only compete with 3G/EVDO players but also win the game.