News

The Centre has constituted a high-level committee, led by the former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, to draw a road map to make India a global arbitration hub. The committee would comprise another former SC judge, R.V. Raveendran, Delhi High Court judge S. Ravindra Bhat, senior advocates K.K. Venugopal and Indu Malhotra, Additional Solicitor-General P.S. Narasimha, Director of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Araghya Sengupta, representatives of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry. A statement said the terms of reference included analysing the effectiveness of the arbitration mechanism, identification of amendments in other laws that need to encourage International Commercial Arbitration and devise an action plan for implementation of the law to ensure speedier arbitrations.

By the end of this year, 50 young men had been arrested by various investigating agencies for their alleged links to the Syria-Iraq-based terrorist outfit, the Islamic State (IS). In another instance, a group of 21 persons, which includes women and children, quietly left the country to live in Afghanistan, where the terrorist outfit is said to have gained a foothold. Investigators insist the number of Indians leaning towards the terrorist group is miniscule in proportion to the Muslim population and much less when compared with countries such as France, the U.K, Russia and even China. “Most of them were caught before they could execute their plan. Almost all of them told us that they were asked to target vital installations, religious places around them as travelling to the IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq had become difficult,” said a senior NIA official. Recently, during a presentation at the annual Directors-General of Police conference in Hyderabad, the Intellige...

‘Chief Minister had constituted 21-member committee headed by KDA chairman’ S.G. Siddaramaiah, Chairman, Kannada Development Authority, has said that the process of revising the Dr. Sarojini Mahishi Committee recommendations on providing jobs to Kannadigas has almost been completed and that it would be submitted to the State government in about a fortnight. Responding to questions from presspersons on Thursday at Goolyam, a Kannada-speaking border village in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the State government had constituted a 21-member committee, headed by the chairman of the authority, to revise the 32-year-old recommendations to suit the present day needs of providing employment to Kannadigas. “The committee, after a lot of discussion, had changed certain terminologies, so as to avoid legal hurdles, and was giving the final touches to the report. We will submit the report in about a fortnight with an appeal to the government to implement it as ...

Researchers found wood fibres in a 1.2-million-year-old tooth found in Europe Bits of wood recovered from a 1.2-million-year-old tooth found at an excavation site in northern Spain indicate that the early ancestors of humans may have use a kind of toothpick, scientists say. Toothbrushes were not around yet, if the amount of hardened tartar build-up is anything to go by, according to the study. An analysis of the tartar has yielded information about what these early men ate and the quality of their diet. Study leader Karen Hardy of the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain says the study found they ate food raw, and that 1.2 million years ago, hominins did not use fire to prepare food. The teeth investigated by Ms. Hardy’s team come from one of the two oldest hominin remains in Europe. The piece of jawbone found in 2007 at the Sima del Elefante excavation site in Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains is between...

Colombia’s government now knows only too well that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. In October, a referendum to ratify a painstakingly negotiated peace deal it had signed with the long-time insurgent organisation, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was narrowly defeated. A more piecemeal, less ambitious and sequenced process since then has helped Bogota notch its first significant victory in effecting the peace deal with the rebels. Now, Colombia’s Congress has unanimously approved an amnesty law granting immunity to FARC fighters from prosecution for committing minor crimes, clearing a major hurdle in effecting the revised peace accord. Those accused of major crimes will be tried by a special tribunal. The main difficulty in passing this measure was the intransigence of the leading opposition, the right-wing Centro Democratico led by former President Alvaro Uribe, who had led a vigorous campaign first against talks between the government and the rebel...

That V.K. Sasikala was nominated general secretary of the AIADMK by its general council is no surprise. Her elevation from party worker to party head has followed days of demands and entreaties from senior AIADMK leaders that she take up the job. Two things counted in her favour. She was the closest friend of Jayalalithaa, something that means a lot in the personality cult-based structure of the AIADMK. As importantly, any other choice would have divided the party into fractious factions. Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, the only other possible contender, himself backed Ms. Sasikala. As did most other party leaders, including prominent ministers, who rely on their caste bases for popular support. However, it is doubtful whether the AIADMK rank and file is really enthused by the choice — a fact that will have a bearing on the future of the party. It is not surprising that Ms. Sasikala lacks popular appeal. Over the last two decades, her influence over the party and State politics has b...

The UN resolution condemning settlement activity in the occupied territories is not what Israel fears. What troubles it is that the resolution opens the door to a full criminal investigation into Israeli excesses On December 23, the United States Ambassador to the UN abstained on UN Security Council resolution 2334, which condemned Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The language is tentative. It does not call the settlements illegal, but only having no “legal validity”. In the world of international law, the difference might not be significant. Israel pressured Egypt to withdraw the resolution, which it did, and it pressured the U.S. to veto it, which it did not. Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela and Senegal sponsored the resolution, which passed with 14 votes in favour and one abstention (the U.S.). Ambassadors around the table hoped that the vote would push towards the two-state solution, the “common aspiration of the interna...

nspicuous gestures of reconciliation between nations to heal the deep emotional wounds of wars will have connotations that go beyond the symbolic. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, through his visit to Pearl Harbour this week, and U.S. President Barack Obama, with his homage at the peace memorial at Hiroshima earlier in May, have undertaken this bold and difficult journey on behalf of their peoples more than 70 years after atrocities were committed against each other during World War II. That so much time should have been lost in both instances to put the painful past behind them only speaks to the powerful presence of nationalist sensibilities that invariably distort the moral force of reconciliation. That this should have occurred only now, despite the enduring economic engagement of several decades between Washington and Tokyo, merely underscores their ticklish nature and the strong political overtones involved. In the case of Japan, the conservatives have long regarded any attem...

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party was voted to power with a majority of its own in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Opposition parties have been trying to find an issue that would resonate with the people, identify a rallying point that would put the Narendra Modi government at the Centre on the defensive. But when such an issue did crop up after Mr. Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value notes on November 8, opponents of the BJP found themselves unprepared and unable to tap into the public resentment at the seemingly unnecessary pain caused by the shortage of cash. The demonetisation exercise did far more than divide the Opposition parties: it left them confused on the approach to be taken against the government. They were unable to fault the stated aims of the move: to curb black money, flush out counterfeit notes from the economy, and thereby curb terror funding. And when Mr. Modi sought 50 days to ease the cash flow, his opponents had no choice but to wait it out. Other t...

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, is nothing more than a tool to keep ‘errant’ civil society organisations on a tight leash. An autonomous, self-regulatory agency for NGOs is the need of the hour In early November, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs rejected the licence renewal applications, under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA), of 25 non-governmental organisations (NGO). That means these NGOs can no longer receive funds from foreign donors. Many of the affected organisations were rights-based advocacy groups, with some involved in human rights work. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has defended its action by claiming that these organisations had violated FCRA norms by engaging in activities detrimental to public interest. But its decision has drawn criticism from different quarters. Civil society members have issued statements condemning the move, charging the government with “abuse of legal procedures”. Opposition MPs fro...

The century-old Scherzer’s span, designed and installed at Pamban rail bridge by a German engineer to allow vessels to pass through the channel, would be replaced by an ultra modern vertically lifting single-truss span, to be designed and fabricated by an international firm, M. Suyambulingam, Chief Engineer (Bridges), Southern Railway, said. Unveiling the likely model of the span, presently used in a bridge connecting a road and a canal in France, after inspecting the bridge here on Tuesday, he said Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), chosen by Indian Railways to execute the project, floated global tenders a few months ago and it was likely to finalise a firm by the month-end. Six international firms had expressed interest to design and install the span at a cost of Rs. 40 crore, he said, adding the new span could be operated by remote control by the staff sitting in the bridge office at Pamban. Though the railways initially contemplated making the span using aluminium alloy, it had ...

The Department of Pre-University Education on Tuesday announced the final timetable of the second pre-university exam. The 2017 exam will be held from March 9 to 27. The department has made some changes in the timetable after considering objections raised by the public. The exam will be held from 10.15 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.

Given his limited choices in stabilising Afghanistan, which include supporting a national election, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will find India to be a reliable and trusted partner in this process On January 20, next year, Donald Trump will take over as the 45th President of the United States of America, at a time when the U.S. remains engaged in the longest war in its history — the war in Afghanistan. He will be the third President to deal with the war launched in 2001 by U.S. President George Bush and sought to be brought to a conclusion by his successor U.S. President Barack Obama. Even though ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ ended on December 28, 2014 implying an end to formal combat operations by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces, the U.S. still maintains approximately 9,800 troops as part of the international troop presence numbering over 12,000 under ‘Operation Resolute Support’. Primary responsibility for fighting the insurgency was transferred to...

Days after a senior Pakistani General suggested that India should shun its “enmity” with Pakistan and join the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, the Chinese foreign ministry has called the offer a “goodwill gesture”, exhorting India to take it up. At face value, the suggestion is odd. India has no dialogue with Pakistan at present, and has opposed the project, bilaterally with China “at the highest level” as well as at the UN. Relations with China have deteriorated considerably since President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan to announce the project in April 2015. Initially, New Delhi sought to play down its significance, as it was made just weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to China, and the government would have hoped to dissuade Beijing from pushing the more objectionable projects that run through disputed territory. However, not only has the corridor taken shape rapidly, China and Pakistan have been drawn into a closer embrace, with Pakistan inv...

The progressive changes introduced by the Centre to the rules governing grant of passports were long overdue. They simplify, in great measure, the paperwork needed for an Indian citizen to get the document. In order to screen applications to prevent impersonation, some of the earlier rules may have made sense at some point of time, but over the years the bureaucratic impediments that the cumbersome requirements posed to genuine applicants were so severe that many had to knock on the doors of high courts for remedy. Some rules were targeted at women. The most specious form of harassment of women passport applicants related to those who were either separated or divorced. Even something as routine as renewing a passport without any change of name or detail or getting a passport in the name of a child was a laborious process, as passport officials insisted on either the father’s consent or demanded a divorce decree. Following the recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee comprisin...