UIDAI: A Magnet For IT Honchos

Bangalore/New Delhi: Salarpuria Touchstone on the Marathalli-Sarajapur Outer Ring Road is no different from the thousands of commercial premises in Bangalore, with many of them occupied by technology firms, both Indian and global. But the first floor of the same building houses something special.

This is where Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), stashes away his top secret resources: the brains architecting the UID project. And the importance of the technology centre is evident from the security.

Silently, resolutely, 'Aadhaar' -- as the UID project has now been christened -- and Nilekani have succeeded in attracting some of the best and brightest that the IT world can offer, both from within India and from overseas.

They include many who were once instrumental in incubating successful technology ventures or were part of large entities like IBM, HP or Intel. They have now joined UIDAI as volunteers.

Some of those said to be working in the building include Bala Parthasarathy, co-founder of online photo service company Snapfish (later acquired by HP); Sanjay Swamy, who until very recently was CEO of mobile-based payment service firm mChek; and Pramod Varma, formerly VP-Research & Chief Technology Architect of B2B service provider Sterling Commerce (now a part of IBM).

At the helm of UIDAI's technology initiative is Srikanth Nadhamuni, a key member of the team that built Intel's Pentium processor and later spent over 14 years in California's Silicon Valley with the likes of Sun Microsystems, Intel, Silicon Graphics, Healtheon WebMD and startup GlobeTrades Inc that he founded.

"The IT folks, who have joined us, are very committed and consider this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It has given them a chance to give back to their homeland by participating in a nation-building activity," said Nadhamuni.

Nadhamuni, who heads UIDAI's technical development and technology centre in Bangalore, is known for his bent towards social initiatives. A graduate from National Institute of Engineering in Mysore (the alumnus includes Infosys co-founder and chairman N R Narayana Murthy) and a master's in electrical engineering and computer sciences from Louisiana University, Nadhamuni quit a couple of years ago to join eGovernments Foundation, a non-profit trust that offered free software to manage municipalities. Nilekani was also the brainchild behind that initiative and had provided it with initial funding.

Balaji 'Bala' Parthasarathy, who has a successful track record of incubating four start-up companies, is no less excited. "I am really enjoying myself," said the person whose last technology venture, Snapfish (which he co-founded) was acquired by HP in 2005.
Before joining UIDAI as a volunteer to help in its strategic advisory, Parthasarathy -- a product of IIT-Madras and University of California -- was MD - APAC of Snapfish, Hewlett-Packard and VP of HP's Online Imaging business.

For Sanjay Swamy, who successfully bailed out Nexus Venture Partners and funded mChek (which provides mobile banking and payments services), the stint at UIDAI is a learning experience.

"What we are doing here is very interesting and very challenging. It has really provided me with the opportunity to learn and enhance domain knowledge," says Swamy, who stepped down from mChek in February.

According to sources familiar with the UIDAI's operation, at least 40 technology honchos, most of whom were settled in the US with high-paying salaries, have joined Nilekani. While a few of them joined the technology wing as sabbatical resources, most of the senior people are volunteers.

UIDAI's technology centre in Bangalore now houses around 70 people, while a team of software professionals at MindTree, which is building the software application for the project, are also stationed here.

PM to launch UID scheme on Sept 29

The ambitious scheme on providing a unique identity number to the citizens of the country will get off on September 29 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presents the first such number at a function in a tribal district of Maharashtra.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will also attend the function to roll out the 'Aadhaar' scheme at Shahada in Nandurbar district in North Maharashtra, sources said here today.

Under the scheme, a 12-digit unique number will be provided to every citizen of the country. As per the plan, the number will be given to 100 million people by the end of the current financial year and cover around 600 million Indians by 2014.

The number is aimed at ensuring that the citizens get more efficient access to national schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the public distribution system and a range of other services including banking for the poor.

The programme is being overseen by the Unique Identity Development Authority of India (UIDAI), which was set up in June 2009 and is headed by Infosys Technologies Ltd co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

Source: Business Standard & Agencies

US Counter-Terror Chief: CWG is an Appealing Lashkar Target

New Delhi, Sep 24 : With the security alert for the Commonwealth Games heightened after the September 19 firing near Jama Masjid, the chief of the US National Counterterrorism Centre said today that the mega-event will be an “appealing target” for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba.

National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Nine Years after 9/11: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland, US National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC) Director Michael Leiter said: "We also are concerned that next month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be an appealing target for LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) due to their political and economic significance for India, as well as the heightened media exposure that will accompany the event."

Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, FBI Director Mueller and National Counterterrorism Center Director Leiter testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington

Set up in the aftermath of 9/11, NCTC is the nodal point for joint intelligence and joint operational planning of the United States security agencies. Stating that the "Pakistan-based Sunni extremist group" Lashkar posed a threat to a range of interests in South Asia, Leiter said: "Its attacks in Kashmir and India have had a destabilizing effect on the region, increasing tensions and brinkmanship between New Delhi and Islamabad. The group's attack two years ago in Mumbai resulted in US and Western casualties, and the group continues to plan attacks in India that could harm US citizens and damage US interests."

Leiter said that the Lashkar posed a threat to the US as well. "Although LeT has not previously conducted attacks in the West, LeT -- or LeT-trained individuals -- could pose a direct threat to the Homeland and Europe, especially should they collude with Al-Qaeda operatives," he said.

Leiter said that the Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) had collaborated with Al Qaeda on attacks and training for HUJI members. "In January 2009, a federal grand jury indicted HUJI commander Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri in absentia for a disrupted terrorist plot against a newspaper in Denmark. The group also has been involved in multiple, high-casualty attacks, including an operation against a mosque in Hyderabad, India in May 2007 that killed 16, and an attack against Pakistani intelligence and police facilities in Lahore in 2009 that killed 23," he said. The NCTC chief said that Al-Qaeda in Pakistan was weaker today than at any time since the late 2001 onset of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Now Jats threaten Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games starting Oct 3 now faces a new threat: Jats from Haryana. Upset that the Haryana government is not promising them quotas in jobs and educational institutions, a Jat leader Thursday threatened to block Delhi's borders Oct 3 when the Games begin.

The Jats are seeking reservation in government jobs and educational institutions and also a status as other backward class (OBC).

"So far we have not got any satisfactory reply from the Haryana government. We have decided to intensify our peaceful campaign. We will seal Delhi's borders Oct 3," Yash Pal Malik, president of the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti, said here.

Malik said they can also march towards Delhi. On Sep 13 and 14, Hisar district in Haryana saw widespread violence by Jats over the same demand.

"We will not allow any commodity of daily use to reach Delhi. Only then the central government will start paying heed to our demands. From today, we have started 'guerilla action' under which we will suddenly stop any train and block any road without prior intimation," stated Malik.

He added: "On Sep 27, when the Queen's Baton Relay enters Haryana, we will show black flags. But we will make sure that nobody indulges in any violence."

Source: The Indian Express
Images - Reuters/PTI/AP

Kashmir: Three is a Crowd

By Shashank Joshi

Mention Kashmir, and the two states that come naturally to mind are India and Pakistan. But for nearly a half-century, this territorial wrangle has been a threesome. The interloper is China, which recently shocked India by refusing a visa for a senior Indian general as part of a military exchange, saying his responsibilities included the restive Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. But behind this apparently trivial dispute are much bigger geopolitical issues for China, India and the United States.

China is no latecomer to the Kashmir party. It captured huge tracts of the uninhabited Aksai Chin, at the northwest of the Tibetan plateau, during the 1962 war with India. A second humiliation for Delhi came a year later, when Pakistan ceded to China the Trans-Karakoram Tract, just over two thousand square miles of territory along the Shaksgam River. India claims both of these as part of Jammu and Kashmir, which has once more erupted in a familiar cycle of sporadic protests and bloody crackdowns.

In total, China and India dispute territory amounting to more than three and a half times the size of Taiwan. The other major disputed section lies in the east, where China claims the entire Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls South Tibet.

The Sino-Indian relationship has been thawing for thirty years. The two countries resumed diplomatic relations in 1976, and began cautious talks in the 1980s. In 1988, India's then-Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, made a landmark visit to Beijing, after which a Joint Working Group was established to find a potential settlement. Following a couple of confidence building measures in 1993 and 1996, the major breakthrough was a 2005 joint declaration during a visit to India by the Premier of the State Council, Wen Jiabao in which the two sides at least promised to map out the line of actual control.

Not ready for concessions

The dispute is at an impasse. China will not cede Aksai Chin, which hosts China National Highway 219 connecting Xinjiang to Tibet, both troubled and supposedly 'autonomous' regions which suffered riots in 2009 and 2008 respectively.

For India, control of Arunachal Pradesh ensures the safety of the plains to the south, as unlikely as a repeat invasion may be. Giving up even a part of the state would produce an even greater latent military advantage than at present by placing Chinese advanced positions forward of the toughest terrain.

A swap of claims - China's in the west for India's in the east; in other words, acceptance of the status quo - was proposed by China in the 1950s and again in the early 1980s. This is the most plausible outcome, though public opinion in India is certainly unready for the concessions. A 1962 parliamentary resolution commits the government to recovering every inch of claimed soil.

More importantly, the dispute flickered back to life from 2006, when the Chinese ambassador to India insisted that 'the whole of what you call the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory and the key town of Tawang is only one place in it and we are claiming all of that'. Tawang is of great importance to Tibetan Buddhism; it is where the Dalai Lama crossed into India after his flight sixty years ago. The ambassador's statement could be an opening negotiating position, although it seems to violate earlier understandings that settled areas would not be uprooted.

The Indian media - often with wild hyperbole - documented rising border incursions by Chinese patrols, and last year the dispute shifted up a gear. China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank, partly destined for Arunachal Pradesh, and complained vehemently about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's election campaigning there. Despite the best efforts of Delhi to insist that all was well, the change in rhetoric and posturing was unmistakeable.

Hostile and ominous

India accelerated plans to upgrade its Sino-centric infrastructure including landing strips, and said it would deploy two mountain divisions and a squadron of fighters to the northeast.

Meanwhile, China consolidated its influence around India's periphery, in states such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Burma or Myanmar, in ways that many in Delhi thought hostile and ominous.

Strangely, China's Kashmir policy has acquired more and more balance over the decades, from favouring Pakistan in the 1965 war to relative neutrality in the 1999 Kargil war. China remains Pakistan's single most important ally but, petrified of encouraging separatism in its own unstable periphery, and increasingly wary of Islamic extremism in its west, China has refrained from writing Islamabad a blank cheque or, even worse, setting unwelcome precedents around 'self-determination'.

The visa refusal was therefore a strange move. Generals in charge of the same and more sensitive areas have been granted visas before, and no notable Indian provocation seems to have preceded the Chinese shift; though the Chinese Consul General in Kolkata had been prevented from delivering a speech in Manipur, a state wracked by multiple insurgencies.

For nearly a year, China has been refusing to issue ordinary visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir. One explanation is that, since India and the United States agreed a civil-nuclear cooperation agreement in 2005, which came to fruition only last month, China has tried to deter India from entering into any hostile balancing coalition with Washington.

Many Indians see Beijing's behaviour in even more general terms, interpreting the package of Chinese actions in Kashmir, the northeast, and the Indian Ocean as part of a calibrated containment of a rising India.

The situation is likely to be more complicated. Much of China's diplomacy is focused on ensuring its future energy security; this is central to its activities in Pakistan and Burma, for instance. The People's Liberation Army's furious pace of modernisation is mainly directed at frustrating an American defense of Taiwan. Yet both its diplomacy and modernisation cannot but reduce India's security, and Beijing must be aware of the hostile signals it has been sending over the past five years.

More importantly, it is the border dispute that remains the open sore. India will never recover its lost territories, and although the government has worked hard to play down disagreements, it has done nothing to prepare public opinion for the inevitable mutual concessions in any territorial settlement.

One more grievance

China, whose grand strategy depends on reassuring Southeast Asian states of the peaceful nature of its rise, does its image no favours by renewing claims that had been put aside for decades. It is a fact that Kashmir is disputed, and that China is a party to that dispute. But in broadcasting this, China sends a signal which bucks the conciliatory and cautious trend.

In denying the General a visa, it has added one more grievance and, ironically enough, prevented the sort of military-to-military contacts that are the best guard against misunderstandings becoming crises.

Most worryingly, these pointless gestures simply inflame Indian public opinion and lend unfortunate credence to the view that China would prefer to keep its rising neighbour off-balance than vindicate those who favour engagement.

China, far wealthier and better armed than India, can afford to arm the hardliners, but whether this is a wise and far-sighted policy is another matter entirely.

via The World Today, Volume 66, Number 10

President Calls For Intensive Research on Bamboo Flowering

Aizawl, Sep 24 : President Pratibha Patil Thursday called for intensive research into measures to deal with the bamboo flowering cycle, which usually heralds a growth in pests and loss of crops, leading to famine.

'Research should be undertaken to deal with 'Mautam' (famine), so that the next bamboo flowering cycle can be dealt with effectively. This would also help in bamboo cultivation and industry being developed on a sound basis,' Patil said at a civic reception programme here.

Mautam broke out in 1959 after the mountainous northeastern state of Mizoram witnessed the rare phenomenon of bamboo flowering and subsequent increase in rodent population that started emptying granaries and destroying paddy fields.

The famine in 1959 ultimately triggered the infamous terrorism by the militant outfit-turned political party Mizo National Front (MNF).

'The Peace Accord signed in 1986 between the centre and the MNF brought peace in the state. It was a historic moment when the new state was inaugurated on Feb 20, 1987 and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi participated in,' she said.

'I must congratulate the Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla for making a sacrifice which has enabled the peace accord to become a reality,' she added.

Earlier, a rousing ceremonial welcome was accorded to Patil after her arrival at the Lengpui airport near Aizawl. Governor Lt. Gen. (Rtd) M.M. Lakhera, Lal Thanhawla and Chief Secretary Van Hela Pachuau received the president at the airport.

The president would attend the sixth convocation of the Mizoram University as chief guest Friday.

Assam Takes The Spice Route

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Assam has drawn up an ambitious plan to step up its production of spices in the current financial year. While the state has been traditionally growing spices in an estimated area of 92,000 hectares, an action plan approved by the Central government for 2010-11 has set a target of increasing spices cultivation area by 2,300 hectares.

“Our farmers have been growing a variety of spices, among which ginger, turmeric, coriander and chilli have been the most common ones. But, going by the market trends, our department has decided to focus on four crops — black pepper, turmeric, ginger, chilli — during the current year,” said Pramila Rani Brahma, Agriculture Minister.

With the state agriculture department swinging into action, the target is to cover an additional 1,000 hectares for turmeric, 500 hectares each for black pepper and ginger, and 300 hectares for chilli. Last year, the state had produced 1.03 metric tonnes of ginger in 15,210 hectares, while the turmeric output was roughly 10,500 metric tonnes in an estimated area of 14,500 hectares. The output of black pepper, which is yet to pick up as an attractive cash crop among farmers, was a little over 5,000 tonnes in an area of 3,400 hectares.

“The government has announced an attractive incentive for farmers who would take up cultivation of these four crops under Mini Mission II of the Horticulture Technology Mission. Accordingly, those who grow black pepper as a new crop will now get a cash assistance of Rs 30,000 per hectare, while those taking up cultivation of chilli, turmeric and ginger will get Rs 18,750 per hectare,” said Harsha Jyoti Baruah, OSD, agriculture department.

The state agriculture department has also identified certain districts where additional cultivation of these four crops is being taken up. While Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Karimganj have been identified for black pepper, Dhubri, Chirang, Golaghat, Lakhimpur and Karbi Anglong are the districts where 500 hectares have been identified for fresh cultivation of ginger. Ten districts have been identified for taking up turmeric cultivation in 1,000 additional hectares, Baruah informed.

Baruah said a couple of villages in Jorhat and Lakhimpur districts have been identified as “black pepper village” in view of the enthusiasm shown by the farmers. “Almost every family has started growing black pepper in these two districts. While traditionally Assamese families were using betel nut trees for the pepper vines, people have now started planting pepper beside jackfruit and other trees that have branches,” he said.

The state agriculture department has also eyed the 66,000-hectare area currently under betel nut plantation for extending black pepper cultivation in the years to come. “Right now about 50 per cent of the betel palms already have betel leaf vines on them. But even if we can get half of the remaining 50 per cent for black pepper in the next five or 10 years, spices production in Assam will take a huge leap forward,” said Baruah.

Interestingly, a number of tea estates have also taken up black pepper as an additional crop. “These are outside the purview of the state agriculture department. But while tea estates are utilising shade trees in the tea gardens for black pepper as a bonus crop, the state spices output has also received an extra boost,” he pointed out.

While it was the erstwhile Tata Tea Ltd that took the lead in this respect, more and more tea companies are looking at black pepper as an additional crop.

Though Assam is not known to be a major spices producing state, the productivity of spices here is much above the national average. While the present all-India average is 1,617 kg per hectare, in Assam it is 2,490 kg. Haryana tops the list with an average productivity of 6,300 kg per hectare. When it comes to ginger, Assam’s productivity at 6.8 tonnes per hectare is almost double that of the national average of 3.5 tonnes.

Naga Students on Good Terms With AASU

Student Unions to meet today

Kohima, Sep 24 : The Naga Students’ Federation which is mediating with AASU said the Assam students’ union had given positive indication to end the indefinite economic blockade on Nagaland which entered its sixth day today.

“We have received a positive response from AASU. I hope they will end the blockade soon,” the president of the NSF, Mutsikoyo Chakhesang, said, adding they were in constant touch with AASU leaders over phone.

A team led by Chakhesang will arrive in Assam late tonight or tomorrow to meet AASU members.

“We will meet AASU officials either in Guwahati or somewhere in Golaghat,” the NSF president said.

The state government and the Naga Hoho said they had entrusted the NSF to act as a go-between AASU and the Nagaland government.

“If we meet and discuss the matter, they would definitely lift the blockade,” Chakhesang said.

The Nagaland government has already announced Rs 5 lakh as financial assistance and relief to the 42 student volunteers of AASU who suffered various degrees of injuries at the hands of 12 IRB Battalion on September 15 in Golaghat.

The money will be handed over to the deputy commissioner Golaghat by his Dimapur counterpart.

The Nagaland government today suspended assistant commandant of B company of India Reserve Battalion with immediate effect. Inspector-general of police, S.T. Sangtam, the public relations officer of police headquarters, said I. Kakuto Sumi, had been suspended as he was unable to control his unruly personnel on September 15 and also to facilitate impartial investigation.

According to Sangtam, AASU is expected to lift the economic blockade.

He said the suspension letter had been handed over to NSF officials for tomorrow’s meeting.

Chief minister Neiphiu Rio and home minister Imk-ong L. Imchen have requested the NSF which has a cordial relationship with AASU to intervene and talk to its leadership directly and pursue it to lift the blockade.

Yesterday, a goodwill team of top Nagaland officials met members of AASU and requested them to lift the blockade.

Prices of essentials are slowly rising here though the district administration said there was nothing to panic and warned the traders against creating artificial scarcity of essential commodities.

Tomato which was Rs 40 a kg is now being sold at Rs 60. Potato is selling at Rs 20 a kg and onion Rs 35 a kg.

Kohima has run out of stock of pork, poultry, mutton and fish.

Taking advantage of the economic blockade, local vendors are selling chicken, fish and pork, whatever little is available, at exorbitant rates.

Mizo Dance Leaves President Pratibha Patil Mesmerised

Aizawl, Sep 23 : Rhythmic thumping of drums, synchronized feet movement and swift agile steps of traditional dancers in colorful dresses left President Pratibha Patil, on a visit to Mizoram, captivated today.

The President who arrived on this northeastern state sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh, was given a brief window of the rich and vibrant culture of the state known for its pristine beauty.

With an overcast sky and audience in the circular lawns of the Raj Bhavan praying for a delay in downpour, a team of about 70 dancers brought the focus on them.

Dressed in bright color traditional attires, these dancers started with a war dance 'Solakia' and wrapped up the event with the 'Cheraw', popularly known as bamboo dance.

India's 1st Super Hercules Plane Readies For Maiden Flight

Washington, Sep 23 : The first of India's six C-130J Super Hercules airlifters, considered the world's most advanced transport aircraft, is being prepared for its maiden flight early next month.

The first C-130J that donned Indian Air Force (IAF) colours in June ran its engines for the first time Tuesday, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin said, releasing an image of the plane at its Marietta plant in Georgia.

Purchased from the US in a $1 billion deal, India's six stretched-fuselage C-130J-30s would provide the Indian Army and Indian Air Force "new special operations capabilities using the world's most advanced airlifter", according to Lockheed.

Equipped with India-unique operational equipment, including an infrared detection set (IDS), the aircraft for the first time will provide the IAF an ability to conduct precision low-level flying operations, airdrops and landings in blackout conditions.

To ensure 80 percent availability of the aircraft at any given time, Lockheed Martin has offered a long-term maintenance contract to the IAF on the lines of the ones it has with the US Air Force and the air forces of Australia, Britain and Canada.

The C-130J primarily performs the tactical portion of an airlift mission. The aircraft is capable of operating from rough, dirt strips and is the prime transport for air dropping troops and equipment into hostile areas.

The flexible design of the Super Hercules enables it to be configured for many different missions, allowing for one aircraft to perform the role of many. Much of the special mission equipment added to the Super Hercules is removable, allowing the aircraft to quickly switch between roles.

The C-130J Super Hercules, a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, is a comprehensive update of the venerable Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems.

The aircraft can also be configured with the "enhanced cargo handling system". The system consists of a computerised loadmaster's station from where the user can remotely control the under floor winch.

The cargo compartment is approximately 41 feet long, 9 feet high, and 10 feet wide, and loading is from the rear of the fuselage. Initially developed for the USAF, this system enables rapid role changes to be carried out and so extends the C-130J's time available to complete tasks.

These combined changes have improved performance over its C-130E/H siblings, such as 40 percent greater range, 21 percent higher maximum speed, and 41 percent shorter take-off distance.

ABOUT THE HERCULES C-130J

With Rolls-Royce AE2100D3 engines and Dowty R391 six-bladed composite propellers, the Super Hercules operates in hot climates, handling short, high-elevation airstrips with maximum payload.

The Super Hercules transports 33 percent more payload, using half the crew, while burning less fuel and flying faster, farther and higher than its predecessors.

Faster: The C-130J is faster and climbs more quickly, offers 21% more speed. Time-to-climb is slashed by 50% over earlier model C-130s.

Higher: The C-130J flies higher, climbs over the weather and has a 40% greater cruising altitude than the C-130H.

Farther: The C-130J flies much farther with less fuel, provides up to 40% greater range than the C-130H.

In the United States, the U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Marine Corps and Coast Guard rely on the C-130J. International C-130J operators include the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy and Denmark with Norway and Canada. Now, India has also joined their ranks.

The C-130J Super Hercules can be flown with a flight crew of two and one loadmaster. There are four variants of the Super Hercules. They are: HC-130J Super Hercules, KC-130J Super Hercules, MC-130J Super Hercules and WC-130J Super Hercules.

Source: IANS and Lockheed Martin Website