All parties pledge to back strong Lokpal Law Likely By Winter Session-End TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi:

India is set to get a tough anti-corruption Lokpal by the end of the year.Faced with a deep crisis of credibility,the political class on Sunday came together to pledge a strong and effective Lokpal bill in the monsoon session beg inning on August 1. While provisions of such a bill,particularly the Lokpals powers to investigate t he prime minister and higher judiciary,are likely to be intensely debated by a s tanding committee,a law to check graft in high places is almost a certainty by t he time the winter session of Parliament concludes in late December. A single-line resolution read out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the end of more than three hours of discussion said,The allparty meeting agreed that gover nment should bring before the next session of Parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Bill following established procedures. Across The Table These people (civil society) have got after you (govt) and tomorrow they may target someone else Farooq Abdullah NC

There is no need for the prime minister to be covered under such a law Lalu Prasad RJD

If a standing committee under Pranab Mukherjee previously recommended inclusion of PM,what has changed Sitaram Yechury CPM

PM,as well as higher judiciary,should be brought under the Lokpal. TR Baalu DMK

Draft Lokpal worse than jokepal: BJP BJP on Sunday tore into the government version of Lokpal draft,saying it propose d to create an institution worse than jokepal and that the PM must be included i n the ambit of the watchdog with the exception of his decisions relating to nati onal security and public order.The present form of draft bill is seriously flawe d on the composition of the appointing panel as well as the appointment process for Lokpal, BJP leader Arun Jaitley told TOI.P 7 Deny ENR tech,lose out on Indian N-reactor market: Rao TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has dropped hints that India may not b uy nuclear reactors from countries which refuse to sell enrichment and reprocess ing (ENR) technology to it.This was even as she said that India already had reaf firmation of support for the 2008 NSG clean waiver to India,as also bilateral ci vil nuclear commitments,from major partners like the US,France and Russia in the

wake of fresh NSG guidelines which ban sale of ENR to non-NPT signatories. We will defend our interests to the hilt, Rao said when asked in a TV interview if India would not buy reactors from any country that refuses to sell ENR techno logy as well.There is a balance of interest,there is a balance of commitments,th ere is mutual reciprocity involved.There are leverages that we can exert from ou r side also, she added. Pak attitude on terror has changed Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao feels Pakistans attitude on terror has changed.Sh e told a TV channel that the prism through which Pakistan viewed terror had chan ged and New Delhi had to take note of it.P 11 NGOs shelters shut after it pointed out UID flaws Nitin Sethi TNN New Delhi: A non-governmental agency has claimed the Delhi government shut its h omeless resource centres because it had pointed out apparently serious security loopholes in the way the unique identification (UID) enrolment of the homeless w as being carried out. The NGO,Indo Global Social Service Society,stopped conducting UID enrolment on b ehalf of the government at the two homeless centres it was running after discove ring major lacunae in the way homeless people in the capital were being register ed for the card. IGSSS said the homeless were being registered at its address and its volunteers were being made to introduce the applicants,with no clarity on what the organiza tions liability would be in case any of the registered persons landed in trouble with the law. Shifting Liability IGSSS,an NGO,stops registering homeless persons for UID cards because of securit y concerns It says homeless were being registered at NGOs address and its worker s were the introducers NGO tells Delhi govt it shouldnt pass on its responsibili ty to civil society Instead of addressing the issue,city govt shuts two homeless centres run by the NGO Temple of boom: 1 lakh cr and counting Sree Padmanabha Swamy Shrine Now Indias Wealthiest Ananthakrishnan G TNN Thiruvananthapuram: Call it the mother of all treasure hunts.The stock-taking by a panel of experts at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple has catapulted the shrin e located here to the countrys richest,with reports claiming that the value of r ecoveries may have touched close to Rs 1 lakh crore,more than Kerala public debt of Rs 70,969 crore. With one more secret vault yet to be opened,the figure will probably rise furthe r.But sources said it wasnt possible to determine the antique value of the preci ous gems and jewellery. These are antique pieces and its not possible to determi ne their prices, said historian and former director of Indian Council of Histori cal Research M G S Narayanan.In other words,the worth of the treasure could be i ntimidatingly higher. The Supreme Court-appointed committee refused to confirm reports about the value of the recoveries,saying its mandate is limited to making an inventory of the a ssets. The wealth belonged to the temple and it will be preserved where it was found.Th ere is religious and historical significance to the findings.The state will ensu re its security, Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said.

GODS OWN TREASURE Around 1,000kg of gold coins,from times of Napoleon and East India Company.Histo rians say it could be from trade in sandalwood,spices & ivory 1 tonne gold in th e form of rice-shaped trinkets,ropes & ornaments Sackful of diamonds from Myanma r & Sri Lanka Rare 3.5ft Vishnu idol studded with diamonds,emeralds & rubies Tem ple known since 9th century when Travancore ruler King Marthanda Varma gave the Padmanabha Swamy deity all his wealth and ruled as the lords agent Home-grown jugaad set for patent cover Sidhartha TNN New Delhi: Indias spirit of jugaad is finally headed for legal backing.Innovator s,who have for long been dismissed as copycats or blamed for piracy,will soon ge t intellectual property rights at par with patents,with the industry department planning a bill. The move to grant petty patents or innovation patents,also called utility models ,follows a near-strong support to a proposal floated by the department of indust rial policy and promotion,at least from domestic players.The idea was to give in tellectual property rights to the small-scale industrys innovations that lead to inventions which do not strictly conform to patent laws. In a discussion paper released in May,the department listed several innovations, including a clay refrigerator that does not use electricity and a gas stove swit ch that goes off after a certain number of pressure cooker whistles. Under the Patents Act,protection is granted if there is novelty,inventive step a nd industrial application.It is denied in case there is a mere discovery of new forms of known substances,rearrangement or duplication of devices and inventions due to traditional knowledge. ONE FOR THE ROAD: A tubewell pumpset is the engine for this schoolride vehicle The Emperors New Clothes The BCCI is undisputed ruler of the cricket world,but is it doing enough to just ify its power Ayaz Memon In 1975,when the first cricket World Cup was played,winners West Indies got 4,00 0.In 2011,36 years later,the winning team India earned $3 million.Even taking in flation into account,that is a staggering increase.Embedded in this is the fasci nating story of how the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)s influence over cricket has substantially changed the game. Indias victory in the 1983 World Cup was a watershed moment in cricket history.I nterest in the game surged,the arrival of colour television gave it further boos t,and from 1991 when the country opened up to economic liberalisation,India went on to become an indomitable force in world cricket. The India Factor is crucial in understanding crickets present and where and how it is headed in the future.With a billionstrong fanatical following spread acros s all continents,India provides almost 70% of the eyeballs for television viewer ship and 75% of the games finances.That is not something to be pooh-poohed.Telec ast rights for Indian cricket (including tournaments like the Indian Premier Lea gue) run into a couple of billion dollars.A vibrant economy coupled with shrewd (some argue Shylockian) sense of business by the BCCI means that Indian cricket is expected to grow bigger and richer. This pronounced skew holds both threat and salvation for the game.Other cricket

establishments even the International Cricket Council (ICC) are often at odds wi th the BCCI on issues major and minor.Yet,there is no gainsaying the fact that w ithout the financial wherewithal provided by Indian cricket,it would be a strugg le for the sport to survive. But is this current dispensation being openly challenged today Is the simmering discontent over Indias money power and clout threatening to reach boiling point At the recently concluded ICC meeting in Hong Kong,even traditional allies like Pakistan took issue with India over the extended term for the ICC chief which BC CI had proposed.The other major ally,Sri Lanka,is palpably upset over the BCCIs decision not to allow Indian players to take part in the proposed Sri Lanka Prem ier League. Stories of bullying by India are getting louder and they are no longer confined to the usual suspects of England and Australia.The BCCI has long been accused of arrogance,but there cannot be any doubt that the Indian cricket board has given cricket a tremendous boost which has benefited everyone. It is all too easily inferred that the BCCI is content to make money and play sp oiler,but history shows otherwise too.Indeed,had India not challenged the status quo in the wake of the 1983 victory,the World Cups may still have been the pres erve of England.The BCCI along with ally Pakistan had to fight tooth and nail to get the tournament to the subcontinent first,and by rotation,everywhere in the cricket world. But with power also comes responsibility,and here it is possible to raise seriou s questions about the BCCIs investment in the future of the game.The Umpire Deci sion Review System (UDRS),which has been cleared in the recent ICC meeting albei t in a watered-down version,affords a test case of the BCCIs stubbornness and pe ttiness. The steadfast refusal to agree to using technology to augment umpiring decisions in spite of all other countries,90% of all players and 90% of Indian players be ing in favour it appears to have been sheer ego,bolstered perhaps by the views o f a few top Indian cricketers.Since the BCCI and its players simultaneously comp lained about umpiring decisions and some particular umpires,the resistance to te chnology was contradictory.My contention is that the issue is not so much techno logy as conformity and consistency. Imagine a school classroom in which every other student adheres to the norms lai d down about uniforms,but one student wont comply because her parents are major donors for the school! To insist on foolproof technology is specious logic,for t echnology is always in a state of imperfection.It is also true that it gets refi ned and become cheaper with time.Indeed,accepting the UDRS should have been a no -brainer while perhaps more discussion was needed on subjects like no runners fo r batsmen or more than two new balls per innings,which are fundamental to the st ructure of the game.These were accepted without ado by the BCCI. To say that the BCCI has provided no virtue to cricket is not only hackneyed but untrue.However,allegations that India is failing to take a leadership role in t he future of the game are partially true.At least in some cases,pique and ego ha ve taken precedence over professional and dispassionate thought. The relationship between politics and sport is hardly new or unusual and the jou rney of the Olympic Games since their revival from ancient Greek times is testam ent to that.Otherwise friendly governments have confronted each other for the ri ght to hold the worlds biggest tournament.Football and the shenanigans of its go verning body provide enough fodder for everyone from the press rooms to Parliame nt. But it is also true that trends and influences are cyclical and there is little to suggest that todays emperor may not be tomorrows flunky.Where cricket is conc erned,England and Australia will testify to this.In which case,it is even more i mperative that the BCCI take its nose out of its money bags and pay greater atte ntion to the legacy it will leave behind. The writer is a sports columnist and commentator

. The three wise men they are not

THE SPEAKING TREE A World Of Second Bests Maulana Wahiduddin Khan According to religious tradition,God created the human being and settled him in paradise.But after some time,man committed a grave error and was sent down to ea rth. In the beginning,God wanted to settle the whole of the human race in paradise,bu t after we sinned,God changed His plan.Thereafter,only selected individuals woul d be allowed to enter paradise.According to this story of creation,we lost our i nitial advantage and since then only the second best has been available to us.Th is story shows us the right direction for our lives. The human being is an idealistic creature by birth.Everyone tries to find his id eal goal,one that is the very best for him.But it is a fact that no one succeeds in doing so.If this is the case,what should we do The only course open for all men and women is to accept the second best as the only available choice.This is the only way to have a tension-free life in this world. If you are not ready to accept the second best and you would prefer to keep stra ining for the ideal,the result could well turn out to be disastrous.For example, a certain lady,who was working in a multinational company,failed to get promoted for some reason.She fell into a state of deep frustration and ultimately commit ted suicide.There are many such cases of people failing to find what they think is optimal,and then they become deeply depressed. This kind of depression is due perhaps to a lack of awareness of the law of natu re.If the lady in question,for instance,had been aware that according to the law of nature,only the second best was attainable for her and that she (or others l ike her) had already achieved that,the realisation would have given her contentm ent and a tension-free life.This principle applies not only to individuals but a lso to nations. The best formula of life is: Try,try by all means to achieve the very best,but w hen you feel that you can only get the second best then accept it gracefully.Bec ause if you remain in denial,and try to achieve the acme of perfection,that will only land you in a worse predicament. The same applies to nations.This is a competitive world and this could be a form idable obstacle to everyone getting the very best in life.In such a situation,th e only safe option is to accept the second best.When you try to have the very be st,then you are compelled to engage in continuous confrontation.The only risk-fr ee option is to accept the second best.So be a realist.If you try to get the ver y best,it means your approach is unrealistic,but if you accept the second best,i t means that you have opted for a realistic approach.And in this world of compet ition only a realistic approach can save you from disaster.In short,the very bes t might be unachievable,while the second best is always within your reach.It is a fact that everyone is an idealist by birth,but you have to rein in your ideali sm and be content with the second best.As a matter of practicality,there is no o ther option for you in this world.This is the story of our lives: We tend to los e whatever is second best on account of just one reason,and that is,our futile p ursuit of the very best.Follow the Maulana on our website.www.speakingtree.in Join the worlds first spiritual networking site to interact directly with master s and seekers.

The Right Menu Private investment can help us beat food crises If we needed further proof of the pernicious social consequences of persisting i nflation,a recent study by Crisil provides it.It says soaring inflation cost Ind ian households an added burden of Rs 5.8 lakh crore over the last three fiscal y ears.And its primarily owing to food inflation that annual private consumption s pending grew to almost 17% during this time from 14% earlier.Spending mainly on eatables,low-income groups with little or no disposable income have been hardest hit by scorching food prices.Yet,theres marked official apathy vis-a-vis the br oader structural problems food inflation highlights. Take the fact that a bumper wheat harvest should normally bring cheer.But courte sy official unpreparedness compounded by export bans,illequipped granaries are s tretched beyond capacity.Foodgrain stocks exceed the manageable amount for wareh ouses countrywide.In some FCI godowns,wheat is being kept out in the open becaus e covered facilities have been full up thanks to non-clearance of grain.And due to faulty,business-unfriendly policies,not enough private capital has flowed tow ards building modern silos and storage.Were in an anomalous situation: a problem of plenty now coexists with a psychology of want linked to high food costs.The case with fruits and vegetables is similar.Courtesy inadequate cold chains,nearl y 40% goes waste annually even as shop prices of onions or apples soar. Given food prices are a major inflationary trigger,supply side issues must be ta ckled urgently.That means embracing agricultural reform in all its aspects: prod uctivity,marketing and distribution.Only then can we access the multifarious ben efits of creating infrastructure,raising output and introducing effective delive ry systems thatll supplement or even replace the PDS from where subsidised foodg rain routinely rots or gets siphoned off.In this context,theres been a reassurin g signal recently that the government plans to liberalise multibrand retail.Grea ter private investment will help build capacity.Plus itll strike a blow against predatory middlemen in the supply chain who eat into farmers incomes while infla ting retail prices. Private funds are critical to farmings overall modernisation,whether for innovat ing with water-efficient irrigation,promoting research in agricultural inputs an d transgenic crops or boosting agri-processing.In view of unviable farm sizes ac ross India,we must incentivise cooperatives and contract farming.Where supply is concerned,lets lift barriers on transport and marketing of commodities.Our ante diluvian mandi system enriches commission agents,not growers who need direct,com petitive access to processors and sellers.Finally,lets move away from corrupt,un wieldy bureaucracies handing distribution towards well-targeted,personalised ins truments like food coupons or cash transfers.Thatll better ensure food gets to t he needy even while giving them a sense of agency and greater choice.

Tarnished Gold Doping problem comes home to roost Amidst the debris of a Commonwealth Games plagued by one scandal after another,t he Indian athletes performances were exhilaratingly redemptive.That is what make s the ongoing doping scandal even more infuriating,with the web of excuses and a ccusations growing more convoluted by the day.Mandeep Kaur,one of the golden qua rtet that won the 4x400 relay,and Juana Murmu blame the Athletics Federation of India for not providing personal doctors.The head of the Indian Olympic Associat ion has slammed the Sports Authority of India and questioned the National Anti-D

oping Agency (NADA)s tardiness.NADA has done plenty of chest-thumping about gett ing more proactive.But this is not an issue any panel set up to probe this parti cular instance of six athletes caught using banned substances can resolve.The ro t runs too deep for that. The refrain from former athletes over the past few days has been that this is no thing new as doping has been rampant at every level since the 1980s.The differen ce now is merely that with the establishment of NADA two years ago,such cases ar e being exposed more often rather than being brushed under the carpet as they we re earlier.And so we have 122 positive cases reported in the previous 11-month p eriod,particularly in weightlifting where it is endemic.Coaches and officials mu st shoulder a large part of the blame;they often act as enablers.The athletes ar e not blameless either.Ignorance is not an excuse that will wash at this level o f competition.The question now is where to from here Perhaps a probe committee t hat investigates not just this incident but the entire decayed edifice of sports governance in India can deliver some results.

Call waiting When phones were out of order or out of reach Jagmohan Chopra Telephone FREE for customers.Getting my car refuelled at a petrol pump in Delhi, i was pleasantly surprised to see this notice dangling over a solitary telephone .What a change from the times we had to beg people to let us use their telephone ! Thanks to the initiative taken by the powers-that-be,we can now talk to who we want,from where we want. In the 1960s,getting a telephone was like winning a lottery like getting an LPG connection or a Fiat car.If you happened to own all three,it was time to announc e your arrival on the urban scene.While getting a telephone was easy for those i n the government and professionals like doctors and lawyers,those in the general category had to wait years before they could lay their hands on this wonderful communications aid. Getting a telephone those days was not easy.It involved standing in a queue to s ubmit your application,keeping the receipt in safe custody,waiting for the telep hone departments letter saying your turn had come,a visit by the linesman to ass ess the technical feasibility of installing the phone,the instruments arrival an d,finally,that all-important call from the telephone department telling you that your phone had been charged. If getting a telephone those days was difficult,managing it was more so,with mos t homes,shops and offices preferring to keep it under lock and key.Some even wen t to the extent of inscribing the words Rs 3 per call or Telephone ki izazat maa ng kar sharminda na karen (Dont embarrass us by asking for permission to use the telephone!) on the box the phone was kept in.This was also the period when the telephone operators importance in offices was at its peak.Everyone sought to kee p her in a good mood,for only she could connect you.Being in insurance,my father was responsible for managing a sales force spread across many cities.He would g et up early and book a number of ordinary,urgent and lightning calls,depending o n how important the matter was.Those days,calls booked early were cheap and the chances of getting them through were better.But,on a good day,only one-third of the calls would materialise,one-third would be interrupted or cut short,while th e rest had to be cancelled because the lines were down.Whats more,international calls could take as many as three days to come through! No sooner did we get a telephone,our neighbours made a beeline for our house to congratulate my father and ask him if hed be kind enough to give them the number .No,no,we dont intend to make calls.We need it only for emergencies, said one ne

ighbour.Two days later,i received a call from a boy not more than six years of a ge.Bunty hai Bunty,kaun Bunty said i.Bunty,he explained in Hindi,Bunty who lived opposite our house and was Billus younger brother and Mr Mehras son.Is it urgen t i asked.Ji,i need to ask him about my homework! It didnt take much time for the telephone to become a bone of contention not onl y between our neighbours and us,but also between my brother and i.He didnt mind and,in fact,encouraged use of the phone by our neighbours daughter for obvious r easons.I didnt like it: it prevented me from chit-chatting with my friends.This cold war went on for some time till i noticed that the phones junction box lay i n another room.So,whenever i saw the damsel walk towards our house,i pulled the wire out of the box,and announced: Phone out of order. It took my brother 15 yea rs to discover what had stopped our pretty neighbour from coming over. LOGGING IN TO THE FUTURE Magnetic PCs to help save energy Silicon Chips Produce A Lot Of Waste Heat Washington: Coming soon: Magnetic computers which may use far less energy,say sc ientists.A team at the University of California,which is developing such compute rs,claims that the future machines will rely on magnetic microprocessors which c onsume the least amount of energy allowed by the laws of physics. Todays silicon-based microprocessor chips rely on electric currents,or moving el ectrons,that generate a lot of waste heat.But microprocessors employing nanomete rsized bar magnets like tiny refrigerator magnets for memory,logic and switching operations theoretically would require no moving electrons,say the scientists. Such chips would dissipate only 18 millielectron volts of energy per operation a t room temperature,the minimum allowed by the second law of thermodynamics and c alled the Landauer limit.Thats one million times less energy per operation than consumed by todays computers. Brian Lambson,who led the team,said: Today,computers run on electricity,by movin g electrons around a circuit,you can process information.A magnetic computer,on the other hand,doesnt involve any moving electrons.You store and process informa tion using magnets,and if you make these magnets really small,you can basically pack them very close together so that they interact with one another.This is how we are able to do computations,have memory and conduct all the functions of a c omputer. Lambson is working with Jeffrey Bokor,UC Berkeley professor of electric al engineering and computer sciences,to develop magnetic computers.PTI

Drop dead gorgeous: Now,hot couture for the departed Sydney: It was when fashion designer Pia Interlandi was preparing her beloved gr andfather for his funeral,complete in his best suit and leather shoes,that she r ealized her calling was in death wear. Doing up his leather shoes... I was just like where is he going to be walking Re ally.He doesnt need shoes, the quietly-spoken,black-clad 26-year-old said.The ex perience helped prompt Interlandi to create her shroud clothing,hemp and silk ga rments designed to wrap the body and head,which she hopes can provide personaliz ed and sympathetic coverings for the dead.People think that when I say I am a de ath wear designer I make fancy suits and people go Oh,I want to be buried in a g old suit.But thats not actually the type of design that I do, she said. Its about what are the considerations and constraints in designing a garment tha t is for the ground.The environmental considerations are huge that we dont want to be polluting the earth with plastics but there is a psychological protection that we,as the living burying the dead,need. And thats covering the body but also making sure the garment is beautiful and ma tches the person that is getting buried. Interlandi,who is also a funeral celebr

ant,says she took a couple of years to find her feet in fashion,a career path sh e chose after brief work experience in occupational therapy introduced her to di fferent kinds of moulding fabrics,such as the plastics used to cover the skin of burns victims.She made her high-school formal dress out of this plastic,an unus ual step similar to her decision several years later as a design student at Melb ournes RMIT University to use animal organs in her work.I actually went to a but cher and got a whole lot of organs and cut them up and photographed them, she sa id.AFP

READY FOR THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT: Fashion designer Pia Interlandi (in black) drapes a model in one of her outfits designed for those going to their grave,in Melbou rne Russia gains edge in space as US shuttle bows out Moscow: As the United States winds down its shuttle programme in a symbolic twis t in a long-running space rivalry,Russia will gain complete control of access to the International Space Station.The Russian space agency plays down any triumph alism,but US astronauts will remain dependent on Russia for access to the ISS at least until 2015 and will have to pay for seats in its Soyuz space capsules. We cannot say that we have won the space race,but simply that we have reached th e end of a certain stage, the deputy head of the Russian space agency,Vitaly Dav ydov,said in an interview.On July 8,four US astronauts will board the Atlantis s huttle for its last flight,wrapping up a three-decadelong programme in which the United States took turns to ferry supplies and crews to the ISS with Russias Pr oton and Soyuz rockets. Henceforth,Washington will have to pay $51 million per seat in Russias space cap sules until a new crew vehicle can be built by private companies,which US space agency Nasa has estimated could be between 2015 and 2020.Davydov of the space ag ency Roskosmos rejected any talk of rivalry,however,emphasizing that the ISS was primarily a story of successful international cooperation. I cannot think today of another international space project that is so effective in its scale,its significance and its results as the ISS, he said.While Russia gains a symbolic victory,it will be a costly one,with the obligation to build mo re space ships to go back and forth to the ISS eating up a budget that could be spent on other projects. Unlike the reusable Nasa shuttles,the Russian Soyuz space capsules are single-us e,except for the section in which spacemen return to Earth. The situation is not very convenient because it lays a heavy burden on Roskosmos s production capacities, space industry expert Igor Marinin said.Roskosmos this year declared its budget as $3 billion,a fraction of Nasas massive $18.5 billion budget.And it has faced embarrassing setbacks,including the failure of several satellite launches that led to the sacking of the long-serving space chief Anato ly Perminov in April. The countrys space industry has also drawn smirks with a clunky experiment simul ating a trip to Mars,in which volunteers are spending more than a year confined at a Moscow research institute and landed in a specially designed sand pit.To re coup its costs,Roskosmos hopes to build a stronger presence in the commercial sp ace market,such as satellite launches,its newly appointed chief Vladimir Popovki n said at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum last month.AFP SET TO ROCKET INTO HISTORY: Atlantis is set to take off for a final time on July 8