Tuesday, March 5, 2013

CAG: Rs 52,000-cr farm debt waiver scheme contentious

Implementation of Rs 52,000-crore farm debt waiver scheme, government auditor CAG on Tuesday said in several cases ineligible farmers were given benefit while deserving ones were left out. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also found instances of tampering of records and pulled up the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the Finance Ministry for deficient monitoring of the multi-crore scheme. “Overall, the Performance Audit revealed that in …(22.32 per cent of cases test checked) there were lapses/errors which raised serious concern about the implementation of the scheme”, said the CAG report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. The report deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008 under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore. The CAG report said in several cases “farmers who had taken loan for non-agricultural purposes or whose loans did not meet eligibility conditions, were given benefits under the scheme.” It said several farmers who were eligible for the benefit under the scheme were not considered for loan waiver by the lending institutions. Besides other observations, the report said the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) were given benefit under the scheme in violation of the debt waiver guidelines. The banks, it said, also claimed undue benefits like penal interest, legal charges, miscellaneous charges from the government. Under the scheme, banks were supposed to bear these charges themselves. Referring to the issue tampering of records, CAG suggested DFS should review such cases and take “stringent action” against erring officials and banks. After extending benefit under the scheme, the banks were required to issue a certificate and obtain an acknowledgement from the farmer for the same. However, the CAG report found that in several cases “the lending institutions had not obtained acknowledgement from the farmer”. Subsequent to the issue of draft audit report to the Finance Ministry and exit conference, the DFS had advised the RBI and NABARD, the nodal agencies for implementation of the scheme, in January requesting them to issue instructions to lending institutions for taking immediate corrective measures in respect of audit observations. The DFS instructed that institutions need to take action like recovery of money paid to ineligible beneficiaries and loans extended to MFIs, action against erring banks, fixing responsibility of bank officials as well as bank auditors. The CAG has recommended that the Ministry, on its own part, may verify high-value claims of re-reimbursement, high-risk areas like inadmissible charges and at least sample claims of lending institutions to ensure that the financial interest of the government is protected. “Follow-up action in response to complaints or inspections should be properly monitored,” the report added. Referring to the monitoring aspects, CAG report said the nodal agencies themselves were relying on certificates and data of lending institutions without conducting independent cross checks. “This raises the issue of conflict of interest, since in effect, the lending institutions were performing a dual role, first implementing and then monitoring their own work,” the report said. The report said the audit observed that DFS and nodal agencies were aware of numerous flaws in the implementation of the scheme “yet they did not take adequate measures to rectify the same in timely manner”. Over the last four financial years, the government has waived more than Rs 52,000 crore debts related to about 3.45 crore farmers.
IAC Negative Voting Junk Brain Most Weird-Corrupt Idea
March04, 2013

Dear countrymen,

In my earlier messages yesterday I had explained ‘Our Problems Are Economic’ and not political. When per capita income of 900m people is less than $365 compared to over $40,000 for developed countries, India is not going to make any progress, few will get super rich. Honestly GOI shall be required to invest all the tax revenue for their Education, Food, Healthcare, Fuel, Water, Sanitation service etc.

Negative Voting Junk Brained Most Weird-Corrupt Idea

We have seen Junk Brained ideas like ‘Recall of Candidates’ hammered over the last decade but not serious effort was made to Project Capable Candidates – as run up to 2009 elections few IITians formed a Political Party Bharat Punarnirman Dal that could secure just 421 Votes in New Delhi Lok Sabha seat – 0.03% votes or not even 10% of IIT Delhi IIT staff.

1. Term Of Elected Offices Reduced to Four Years

It would have been far better if we had insisted on reducing Term Of Offices of Parliament and State Assemblies from 5 years to 4 years or technically compulsory recall after 4 years. ‘This Is Exactly Like Recall of Candidate Option After 4 Years – all Winners to Seek Fresh Mandate from people within 4 years.’

Countrymen Delhi is a City State and all works and services are executed by Chief Minister led ministers and Municipalities, Union Government control Police and DDA, and have Cantonment Area.

In Delhi with this arrangement in 16 years Delhi will get instead of three Elections for Lok Sabha, 8 for Rajya Sabha, 3 each elections for Assembly and Municipal Corporations, 4 Lok Sabha, 12 Plus Rajya Sabha elections, 4 each for Assemble and Municipal Elections.

Negative Voting Most Weird and Politically Immature

It is clear from the message Negative Voting is targeted against ‘Ruling MPs only’ when actually all works are executed by Chief Ministers and to some extent Municipalities and for our poor infrastructure Contractors, Corrupt Engineers, Quality Control Departments are almost entirely responsible.

2. Rajya Sabha MPs should Resign on Ruling Party Losing Assembly Elections.

Recently BJP lost Elections to Himachal and Uttarkhand Elections but Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament from these states had not resigned on moral grounds. When BJP was in majority it was entitled to Two out of Three Seats but had 5 Rajya Sabha MPs, After losing these two states BJP is in minority hence ought have surrendered 3 out of 5 seats it holds post assemble losses.

S.No
Name
Party
State
1
Nadda, Shri Jagat Prakash
BJP
Himachal Pradesh
2
Shanta Kumar, Shri
BJP
Himachal Pradesh
3
Sood, Smt. Bimla Kashyap
BJP
Himachal Pradesh

S.No
Name
Party
State
1
Koshyari, Shri Bhagat Singh
BJP
Uttarakhand
2
Mahra, Shri Mahendra Singh
INC
Uttarakhand
3
Tarun Vijay, Shri
BJP
Uttarakhand

3. Ex. Ministers Barred From Contesting Elections & Parliament Committees

Ken Lay of ENRON was held accountable for frauds not any secretary of the government. Here every thing is blamed on Prime Minister, as pointed out also in following paras Public Accounts Committee and Finance Committee were chaired by MM Joshi and Yashwant Sinha who had direct access to all the documents and they actually created the ‘Loop Holes or Opened Flood Gates for Corrupt Corporate’. So they Connived With Loots Earlier now Guard Public Resources.

Why can’t we have rules implemented through Supreme Court that bar ex Cabinet Ministers from Chairing Parliamentary Committees on losing the Majority in Elections? This alone will make sure ‘Dubious Politicians are Excluded from Parliamentary Committee Chairs.’

But what is not understood here is that main Ruling and Opposition Party jointly run GOI. Public Accounts and Finance Committees are Chaired by MM Joshi and Yashwant Sinha who were earlier in NDA rule were Cabinet Ministers to have allocated 25 Oil & Gas Offshore Blocks to RIL, 2G, WLL, ILD, ISD, DTH, Optic Fiber, Broad Band all IT services, Petroleum Refineries, Pipelines, Petro-chemicals, Power Generation, Distribution, Transmission, Trading, Retail, Textiles, also let RIL and few others families hold over 50% equity while reducing small investor holdings to below 10%, and also allowed Profit Making Companies to declare just 1% of revenue as dividend and 0.1% going in to account of small investors.

4. ‘Restrict Two Terms as Prime Minister/Cabinet Ministers’

LK Advani is in active National Politics for 60 years had contested over 15-20 times for Parliament. On Losing Lok Sabha They Enter Parliament through Rajya Sabha. This clearly abuse of Democracy and Constitution.

Similarly it may be alright for an MP wining an election and then get installed as Chief Minister of some state and contest State Assemble elections.

5.  Cooling Off For Losers in Elections

But it is grossly illegal for a Loser in any election to contest another election for 5 years. Why can’t Election Commission debar candidates who have lost an election losing deposit to contest an election within five years? Cooling off period for other in top three could be 2,3 and 4 years as per rank 2,3 and 4 in election.

6.  ‘Doctrine of No Demotion’

Why can’t there is restriction on contesting elections – I had in the past proposed a ‘Doctrine of No Demotion’

LK Advani & AB Vajpayee were appointed Prime Minister/ Cabinet Minister Four Times and lost Office Four times – Thrice defeated in parliament (Lost Confidence of Majority) and 2004 elections. (1977, 1996, 1998 and 1999)

They were keen to form government Fifth time in 2004 and 2009 Elections as is given in BJP manifestos, on not getting Majority ready to sit in opposition as ordinary MP.

Many others with BJP since that time is in main opposition had been Chairing as Leaders of Opposition and Parliamentary Committee Members.

However a loser in State Assembly Election Be Eligible for Parliamentary Elections subject to Cooling Off Period.

7.  KURSI PAKADS - BIGGEST SOURCE OF CORRUPTION – Financial & Political

Not letting younger and better qualified to lead in politics since 1977 is worst form of Financial & Political Corruption.

Yashwant Sinha and other BJP leaders in 1998-2004 cabinets had never questioned loot of Reliance as an example.

With such over 35 years of Parliamentary Experience BJP had not won majority even once – are presently reduced to 115 seats yet there is no replacement with younger and better qualified leaders.

For Corruptionfree and Progressindia We Need Above Political Reforms.

THESE REFORMS ARE DESIRABLE TO CLEAN UP POLITICS ALONG WITH ECONOMIC REFORMS.

Thank you,

Ravinder Singh*,
Inventor & Consultant
INNOVATIVE TECHNONLOGIES AND PROJECTS
Y-77, Hauz Khas, NewDelhi-110016, India.
Ravinder Singh* is a WIPO awarded inventor specializing in Power, Transportation, Water, Energy Saving, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Technologies and Projects.

IAC Message

--- On Mon, 3/4/13, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

ACTION: This fraud called "elections"

Dear Members,

Many people ask us why IAC has opted to be "APOLITICAL", and also if IAC supports selection of "good" candidates who will supposedly do "good" things in Parliament which will magically make India into "Golden India" or "Shining India" or "Ram Rajya" etc.

Last year in December I had circulated a summary of the 1972's Nobel Prize in Economics winner's research (Kenneth Arrow) accessible here

http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/frec444/444voting.html

In short, Mr Arrow proved that you can't aggregate individual preferences to define a group preference between multiple options.

So straightaway IAC says that the present Indian system of conducting elections (based in turn on the Westminster model) is a complete fraud and eyewash to ensure that either a dominant party or the next dominant party (in India's case the Congress and the BJP respectively) stick on in power without being obliged to represent the electorate.

Now that the public has begun to see through their game, these scamster parties have come up with another device to fool the citizens - the so-called "Right to Reject" or the 49-O option - which is a "none-of-the above" or "ZERO" option. This essentially means that in, say an election with 4 "serious" candidates for eg. Cong, BJP, Lefitist and a powerful rebel, you end up creating a 5th serious candidate who will split the vote further to ensure that the 2 top parties carry on.

IAC, with its thousands of intelligent members who know basic mathematics and logic at their fingertips, is obviously not going to subscribe or support such patent nonsense. IAC's highest deliberative bodies have been considering this issue for many decades now. We have come to the following conclusion

"If  IAC is to support the present system of voting legislated through the Representation of the People's Act 1951, then the PRESCRIBED mode of voting u/s 59 and elsewhere must include a NEGATIVE vote which will allow the voter to REJECT, ie cast a -1 vote against, a candidate he REJECTS".

To clarify, my present MP is Mr. Ajay Maken;  If 10,000 voters feel Mr. Maken has done no work in the past 5 years, they should be allowed to case 10,000 "-1 vote"s against him, instead of wasting their 10,000 votes over candidates most of whom have no chance of winning.

Here is the essential maths

1) Option 1 (present):  +1 Votes cast = +1 Votes counted => Mr. Ajay Maken wins

2) Option 2 (49-O option): +1 Votes cast = only +1 Votes counted => Mr. Ajay Maken wins

3) Option 3 (IAC's -1): +1 Votes and -1 Votes cast = ZERO effective votes counted => Mr. Ajay Maken LOSES and the "good" candidate with no negative,-1 votes wins.

Please take the time to understand this very carefully, all it needs is a change in the RULE. Please also don't be confused with those who will try to equate a -1 REJECT vote with a ZERO vote, they are not at all the same thing, and the ruling parties will be wetting themselves if this comes through.

I shall take up the second question of "good" candidates in detail next. But, its not enough to have good candidates, you also need a -1 vote

Sarbajit

LAUNCH OF SEAGATE WIRELESS PLUS MOBILE DEVICE STORAGE

Image

LAUNCH OF SEAGATE WIRELESS PLUS MOBILE DEVICE STORAGE,

SEAGATE WIRELESS PLUS MOBILE DEVICE STORAGE,
NOW YOU REALLY CAN TAKE IT ALL WITH YOU
Off-the-Grid Streaming Media Solution for Mobile Devices
NEW DELHI – March 5, 2013: Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced the next evolution of the company’s wireless storage category, Seagate® Wireless Plus mobile device storage. Designed to wirelessly stream content for up to eight smartphones or tablets with enough space for up to 500 high-definition movies, this new wireless hard drive, will extend the limits of today’s mobile lifestyle. The new Seagate Wireless Plus now also includes a 10-hour battery life to match that of most tablets and smart phones. With the integrated 1TB drive you’ll have all you need to be entertained anywhere including long road trips or flights – without an Internet connection.
Seagate Wireless Plus mobile device storage is accessed through the mobile Seagate Media app for Apple iOS, Android and Kindle Fire HD devices. The Seagate Media app has been developed for all major mobile devices, including Android, Kindle Fire HD, Apple iOS and will also work with just about any device that can connect to a Wi-Fi network. Additionally, you can use Wireless Plus to enjoy video, photos, music and even documents on the big screen via Apple Airplay, DLNA or an app designed specifically for Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players.
Seagate created this new category of wireless storage devices in 2011 to address consumers’ desire to enjoy more content than tablets and smartphones can hold with their limited storage. A CES 2013 Best of Innovations Award Winner, the new Seagate Wireless Plus includes a new option to save content and files to the drive wirelessly through the new Seagate Media app. For the first time, consumers will be able to enjoy capturing a great HD video on their iPhone and then wirelessly uploading it, in full resolution, to Wireless Plus with its 1TB of storage.
“Smartphones and tablets offer amazing new opportunities for Seagate to provide new consumer storage solutions in an increasingly mobile world,” said Futoshi Niizuma, executive director of sales for Japan, South Asia, ASEAN and ANZ. “Seagate developed the concept of wireless storage to consumers with the freedom to enjoy their documents, movies, photos and music anywhere in the world, especially when they can’t connect to the Internet. Seagate Wireless Plus builds on the success of our first-generation product and takes it even further.”
The new 1TB wireless drive comes with a removable SuperSpeed USB3.0 adapter for quick loading of photos, video, music and even documents. Fill it up and go, for true anywhere access of all your favorite entertainment or much needed work-related files anywhere. Because the Wireless Plus creates its own Wi-Fi network, there is no need to stream or download your content from the Internet or to spend money on a data plan. Everything is with you, where you want it, when you need it with a secure and wireless connection.
“Less than half of U.S. mobile phone users are highly satisfied with the storage of their mobile phone, and almost 20% are dissatisfied with their mobile storage capacity,” said Brett Sappington, Director of Research at Parks Associates. “As consumption of video on smartphones and tablets continues to grow, consumers will seek the best ways to get content to their mobile device without eating up all of the data in their monthly service plan.”
Pricing and Availability:
Seagate Wireless Plus mobile storage is currently available from select retailers and resellers, for an MSRP of INR 16,000 (excluding local taxes).
About CES Innovations Awards:
The prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards are sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the producer of the International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, and have been recognizing achievements in product design and engineering since 1976.
About Seagate
Seagate is a worldwide leader in storage solutions. Learn more at www.Seagate.com
©2013 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Seagate, Seagate Technology, the Wave logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. When referring to drive capacity, one terabyte, or TB, equals one thousand billion bytes. Your computer’s operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and will not be available for data storage. Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors, including file size, file format, features, and application software. Exact battery life subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations. Dispose of batteries properly.

LAUNCH OF SEAGATE CENTRAL SHARED STORAGE

ORGANISE YOUR HOME WITH SEAGATE CENTRAL SHARED STORAGE
New Award-winning, Simplified Network Backup Solution
Easily Brings Access and Sharing to All Your Files
NEW DELHI – March 5, 2013: Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) announced, its next-generation, networked home storage solution, Seagate® Central shared storage, the first storage device to feature a Smart TV app for access to files on the big screen. A CES 2013 Innovations Honoree, Seagate Central delivers automatic backup for the entire home, access to digital movies and music from networked devices, as well as remote access from outside a home network. Seagate has also taken a new step in making Central storage a low-profile horizontal design, which takes cues from home entertainment and looks great in any living room.
Simple, Central – Multi-Computer Backup
Seagate built this product for simplicity. By focusing on the number one need for homes with more than one computer, Seagate designed an easy, centralized backup for each computer in the home, regardless of operating system. Seagate retooled the software and user experience for the Seagate Central shared storage so that it seamlessly provides a backup for each system on a home network, even in a mixed platform environment of Windows OS and Mac OS X computers. In addition to automatic and continuous backup of all the computers in a home, Seagate Central can also backup photos and videos directly from Facebook, a feature first introduced in the award-winning Backup Plus line of external drives.
“This is the ideal backup solution for the family of today, who increasingly have multiple computers, tablets and smart phones,” said Futoshi Niizuma, executive director of sales for Japan, South Asia, ASEAN and ANZ. “We focused on what would make Central easy to use in a home setting. Consumers will find Central storage is easy-to-use as a backup solution with great-looking apps that deliver access to people’s content from the world’s most popular mobile devices, as well as Samsung Smart televisions and Blu-ray players.”
A recent study from Parks Associates found consumers keep content in a wide variety of places including sites like Facebook. The average broadband household has 8% of their music, video, and photo content on social networking sites.
“Consumers are looking for storage solutions that help them consolidate and safeguard the content they’ve got scattered across a growing number of places,” said John Barrett, director of Consumer Analytics at Parks Associates. “Young consumers in particular do not have central repositories of content but rather many places where content naturally ends-up as a result of their media habits.”
Enjoy Your Movies and Music
In addition to its primary role as a total home backup device to organize content in one location, Central storage is also designed for easy media streaming. Once all your files and rich media are safely on the drive, Central storage organizes the content for you according to media type, such as videos, pictures, music and documents. Seagate then makes it easier than ever before to access entertainment and documents by providing free apps for Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, as well as Apple® iOS devices, Amazon Kindle HD and Android mobile devices. Central is DLNA certified and also works with Apple® AirPlay®, which means nearly any network-connected device can connect to it.
New App, New Look,
The newly designed Seagate Media app, available for Android, Kindle Fire HD and Apple iOS, delivers a seamless, user-friendly experience for accessing, downloading or sharing files from Seagate Central shared storage. The experience is the same within the network or connecting to Central storage remotely. Files are easy to enjoy through the visually appealing app interface. Everything is organized by category as well as folder view. The Seagate media app and Seagate Central storage will ensure that you always have access to the files you need when you need them.
Pricing and Availability:
Seagate Central Shared storage will be available in March for the following MSRP(s) of 2TB, INR 10,500; 3TB, INR 14,400; 4TB, INR 17,700 (excluding local taxes).
About CES Innovations Awards:
The prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards are sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the producer of the International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, and have been recognizing achievements in product design and engineering since 1976.
About Seagate
Seagate is a worldwide leader in storage solutions. Learn more at www.Seagate.com
©2013 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. When referring to drive capacity, one terabyte, or TB, equals one thousand billion bytes. Your computer’s operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and will not be available for data storage.


United States has selected the 23-year-oldDelhi gangrape victim 'Nirbhaya' for the International Women of Courage Award, since inception of the award in 2007, the Dept of State has honoured 67 women from 45 different countries.
The award to 'Nirbhaya' would be presented posthumously by the First Lady Michelle Obama and the Secretary of State John Kerry, on 8th March, an official announcement said.

"For millions of Indian women, her personal ordeal, perseverance to fight for justice, and her family's continued bravery is helping to lift the stigma and vulnerability that drive violence against women," the State Department said about her as it announced the awards to be given to 10 women from across the world.

She bravely recorded two police statements while in the hospital, repeatedly called for justice against the six attackers, and stated her will to survive to see justice done, the State Department said.

"Like many Indians inspired by her struggle, she was born into a working class family that invested their hopes and life savings into her dream to pursue medicine. She had just graduated from a physiotherapy program when her life was cut short," said the State Department.

"In the wake of her death just two weeks after the attack,India's civil society began advocating heavily for legislation and social programs to stem gender-based violence in all its forms and to ensure higher rape conviction rates and gender-sensitive law enforcement and justice systems. Thanks to these efforts, the Indian government has begun to take action to follow through on those demands," the State Department said.

The paramedical student 'Nirbhaya' was gangraped, beaten and thrown out of a moving bus along with a male friend inDelhi last December, which generated widespread protests and was condemned by various women groups, both in Indiaand abroad.

The Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award annually recognises women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.

Since inception of the award in 2007, the Department of State has honoured 67 women from 45 different countries.

The other awardees for this year are Malalai Bahaduri, First Sergeant Afghan National Interdiction Unit (Afghanistan); Samira Ibrahim, Coordinator Know Your Rights (Egypt); Julieta Castellanos, Rector National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); Dr Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, President Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria); Elena Milashina journalist, human rights activist (Russia) and Fartuun Adan, Executive Director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre (Somalia).

Three of the awardees -- Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China), Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and Founder, Local Coordination Committees (Syria) and Ta Phong Tan, blogger (Vietnam) would be given the award in absentia.

After the award ceremony, the honorees will travel separately to cities across the United States to engage with the American people through an International Visitor Leadership Program.

They will visit Indianapolis, Jackson Hole, PortlandSan Francisco, and Tampa. The women will reconvene in San Diego to reflect on their visit and discuss ways to work together to improve the lives of women and girls around the world, the State Department added.

Department of Trade & Industry of South Africa conducts seminar



The department of trade and industry of Republic of South Africa organized 4th Investment and Trade initiative to India New  Delhi.Programme Director Mr Stefanus Botes conducted trade and investment seminar at Taj Palace hotel,New Delhi on Monday 4 th March 2013.
Acting High Commissioner , South African High Commission made an opening remark and key note address by H E Ms Elizabeth Thabethe,Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry,Republic of South Africa.
Welcome remarks presented by Mr Vikramjit Singh Sahney,Sr member executive committee, FICCI and Hony Consul for North  India ,Republic of South Africa.
Ms Pumla Ncapayi,Deputy Director-General,Trade and Investment South Africa made impressive presentation on trade and investment opportunities in South Africa to more than hundred Indian trade and industry members present and thereafter Q A session followed.
A media briefing was organized in this context by Deputy Minister Ms Elizabeth .
B2B meeting started at 2 PM continued for four to five hours followed by cultural Programme and dinner.

Competitiveness, climate, security Finn’s priorities Ministry of Finance release Finnish road map of EU presidency. Finland i...