Be quarantine-aware this Rakhi

Being separated from loved ones during Rakhi can be difficult. A powerful affirmation of family bonds, this is a Hindu festival during which brothers and sisters exchange traditional gifts in celebration of love and togetherness. Sisters tie a sacred thread around the wrists of their brothers as a token of undying love, while brothers in turn promise care and continued friendship (or protection, as in older times).

When siblings live in different cities or in different parts of the world, the sacred thread is sent by post, often accompanied by traditional sweets.

Over the years as the Indian community has grown in Australia, the postal service here has begun to expect increased mail processing during Rakhi. Given the nature of the material they handle at this time, it is not surprising that quarantine issues have surfaced.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) acknowledges the unique bond shared by siblings and loved ones overseas, and the importance of celebrating Rakhi on time. So they urge you to make overseas family and friends quarantine-aware to avoid delays with the arrival of your gifts.

Although Rakhi gifts are sent with love, your family may not realise these gifts can contain plant or animal material which can harbour pests and diseases that can harm Australia’s unique environment and industries.

AQIS claims to be committed to processing international mail in a timely manner to ensure that your special gifts are received in time.

“The lead up to Rakhi has shown that it is common for well meaning overseas family and friends to send not only their prayers, but also quarantine risk items that can be detrimental to the Australian environment. All international mail is assessed, x-rayed or checked by detector dogs, and packages containing risk items are opened and

Program Manager, AQIS International Mail Program.

Quarantine risk items include Rakhi threads made with seeds or flowers; traditional Indian sweets made with milk products such as barfi, mysore pak, gulab jamun, rasgulla, pedas or soan-papdi; grains; and dried fruits.

“To ensure the auspicious occasion of Rakhi is celebrated on time, AQIS endeavours to keep processing delays to a minimum but this is difficult when mail contains risk items as they require further processing which leads to lengthy delays. But you can avoid these delays if you tell friends and family overseas not to send gifts containing quarantine risk items - as gifts with no risk items are processed much faster. So talk to your friends and family overseas and have your gift in time for Rakhi, which will certainly make the day much more enjoyable,” said Ms Martin.

Some suggestions for safe items your family can send are:

* Cotton Rakhi threads with plastic, fabric, gold or silver beads

* Gold or silver coins

* Personalised photo items

* Artificial flowers

Make sure your family correctly lists the contents of all parcels and fills out any postal declarations labels or forms. Declaring items does not automatically mean they will be confiscated – in many cases, most are returned or sent on after inspection. Some products may require treatment to make them safe. Where treatment is not an option, the goods will not be permitted into Australia.

For more information visit the AQIS website www. aqis.gov.au/rakhi; download the brochure ‘What Can’t be Mailed to Australia?’ or call AQIS on 1800 020 504 (free call in Australia and is in English).

Emirates brings the super jumbo to India

Emirates Airline flew in the first Airbus A-380 super jumbo with 517 passengers on a scheduled commercial operation into India on July 15, and was welcomed at the spanking new Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport through arching jets of water in an aviation industry salute.

Twenty-five years after it first flew to Delhi, the UAE-based Emirates became the first international carrier to land at Terminal 3 that signals a major leap in modernisation of aviation infrastructure for India. The terminal was inaugurated with great fanfare by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling UPA coalition chairperson Sonia Gandhi earlier this month.

“We brought the A-380 to Delhi to show the importance we attach to the Indian market. We have had a healthy load factor of around 80-85 percent to India,” said Majid Al Mualla, the airline’s senior vice president for West Asia and Indian Ocean.

“We have also been growing at around 15 percent annually here. This is a very important market and growing,” Al Mualla told IANS on board the special A-380 flight, for which an introductory return fare of Rs.9,990 was offered by the airline with all taxes.

The first time the A-380 landed at the Delhi airport was on the morning of May 6, 2007, as part of a test-cum-promotional visit for Airbus, flying in from its headquarters at Toulouse in France.

The 517-seat aircraft of Emirates, spread over two decks, offered 14 flat-bed first class private suites with electronic doors, 76 fullyflat seats in business class and 427 contoured seats in economy spread across four roomy cabins on the lower deck.

It also extended to its first and business class passengers private suites, shower spas and an onboard lounge with a wide range of drinks and canapés and the space to socialise or simply relax, officials said.

This apart, passengers in all classes can enjoy the in-flight entertainment, that has more than 1,000 channels of on-demand, including 200 movies from around the world, 100 television channels, some 500 audio channels and over 100 video games.

“The experience was something difficult to explain,” said S. Shammy, an architecture based out of Dubai. “I booked a ticket for this expericnce. I must say, it has been a real value for money,” Shammy, busy clicking photos all through the journey, added.

Emirates has the largest fleet of A-380s and currently flies 11 of the aircraft that serve destinations such as London, Toronto, Bangkok, Paris, Jeddah, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland.

Afghanistan allowed to send goods to India via Wagah

Pakistan and Afghanistan have reached an understanding on all major issues relating to transit trade, with Afghanistan being permitted to send its goods to India through the Wagah border but not vice versa.

In return, Pakistan would be able to export its goods to Central Asian countries through Afghanistan.

A broad-based record note on this was signed on July 18 by Pakistan Commerce Minister Amin Fahim and his Afghan counterpart Anwarul Haq in the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Online news agency reported.

This issue of allowing Indian goods to Afghanistan through Wagah would be discussed in bilateral talks with India, sources said.

The note mentions that the Afghan trucks will be allowed to carry Afghan transit export cargo on designated routes to Pakistani seaports and Wagah and hoped that resolution of all outstanding matters relating to the finalisation of Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement would help in the early signing of the agreement, after completion of legal processes from both sides.

The Afghan transport units, on return, shall be permitted to carry goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan under the same expeditious procedures and conditions as Pakistani transport units.

It was also decided that all Afghan transit goods would be exported in containers of international specifications.

According to the note, the drivers and cleaners will be allowed to enter/exit the two countries on permits, identified by biometric devices installed at the entry points.

To tackle the issue of unauthorised trade, it has been agreed that tracking devices on transport units will be installed and a mechanism for custom-to-custom information sharing (IT data and others) will be established.

It has also been agreed that financial guarantees equal to the amount of import levies of Pakistan have to be deposited by authorised brokers and custom clearing agents to check the unauthorised trade and these deposits will be released after the goods exit the country.

In case, the goods do not exit the country within specified time, the guarantees will be encashed by the customs authorities.

D School alumnus named professor at Harvard

Gita Gopinath, a Delhi School of Economics alumnus, has been named professor of economics at Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor in the institution’s history.

Kolkata born Gopinath, 38, is considered an authority on business cycles in emerging markets and on price fluctuations across international borders. She was previously associate professor of economics at Harvard, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2005.

“Professor Gopinath’s research on emerging markets has proven extremely important to our understanding of their business cycles, and her studies of price stickiness have been highly influential among macroeconomists,” said Stephen Kosslyn, dean of social science in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“Here on campus, she has played a central role in the vitality of our program in international economics, and especially in teaching and advising students in this field,” he said.

“Her success placing graduate students in top-tier institutions testifies both to her skill as a mentor and to her colleagues’ broad interest in her research agenda.”

Gopinath’s research on emerging markets has addressed income fluctuations in these economies. Together with Mark

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Aguiar of the University of Rochester, Gopinath has developed a model which has ultimately shown that stochastic elements of productivity are much larger in emerging markets than in developed markets.

Gopinath received a BA in economics from the University of Delhi in 1992; master’s degrees in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington in 1994 and 1996, respectively; and a PhD in economics from Princeton University in 2001.

She was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business from 2001 to 2005, when she joined Harvard as an assistant professor of economics. She was named associate professor at Harvard in 2009.

Gopinath is an associate of the National Bureau for Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the International Growth Centre at the London School of Economics and Oxford University, and Harvard’s Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs.

Earlier this month, IIT alumnus Nitin Nohria took over as the 10th Dean of Harvard Business School (HBS). At HBS itself, Nohria is among some 25 teachers of Indian-origin in a faculty of just over 200.

Indian Rupee gets a new symbol

India has finally got a new symbol to denote its currency, the rupee.

More than a year after the government announced a competition for coming up with a symbol for the rupee, the Union cabinet on July 15 approved the symbol -- an amalgam of the Devnagiri ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem and two parallel lines running at the top. The parallel lines symbolise the equal to sign.

“It denotes the robustness of the Indian economy,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, announcing the cabinet decision.

With the gaining of the symbol, the Indian rupee joins the club of US dollar, British pound, European euro and Japanese yen that currently have their own symbols.

The need for the symbol had become necessary because of the Indian economy’s rapid growth, which has propelled it to become one of the largest economies of the world.

“The symbol for the Rupee would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and robustness of the Indian economy as also a favoured destination for global investments,” said an official statement.

The symbol will distinguish the Indian currency from currencies of other countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia needed identity: Indian scholar D Udaya Kumar, a post-graduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, with his winning design for the Indian symbol, an amalgam of the Devnagiri ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem and two parallel lines running at the top. which also use the word “rupee” or “rupiah” to identify their respective currencies.

However, it might take more than a year for the new symbol to come into use throughout the country and about two years for it to be popular internationally, said Soni.

The new symbol had been designed keeping in mind the ease with which it can be incorporated into the existing software systems.

“The symbol will be included in the “unicode standard” for representation and processing of text, written in major scripts of the world to ensure that the Rupee symbol is easily displayed or printed in the electronic and print media as all the software companies provide support for this standard,” said the statement. The new rupee will also find its way on to keyboards of Indian manufactured computer systems, with suitable amendments being made to the existing list by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The design is the brainchild of Bombay IIT postgraduate D Udaya Kumar, who is with the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati. He will receive a prize of $5,350 (£3,500).

Explaining the significance of the design, he said it is based on the Indian Tricolour.

“My design is based on the Tricolour with two lines at the top and white space in between. I wanted the symbol for the Rupee to represent the Indian flag,” said Kumar.

Indian Army lodges protest with Pakistan on ceasefire violations

The Indian Army has lodged a “strong protest” with Pakistan over the continuous ceasefire violations from across the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We have lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani army during a flag meeting held yesterday,” according to an official.

The meeting, held near the LoC in Poonch sector, comes in the backdrop of July 15 ceasefire violation even as Indian and Pakistan foreign ministers were holding peace talks in Islamabad.

Pakistani troops opened heavy fire at five positions along the LoC and at another place from across the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir in a violation of the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

Pakistani troops started firing from across the International Border in Ranbir Singhpora sector, 30 km west of Jammu, at around 10.30 p.m. on July 15. Within minutes, gun fire also came from across the Krishna Ghati sector in Mendhar area.

There have been at least eight ceasefire violations in the past two weeks.

On July 7, Pakistan Rangers fired at an Indian border post on the international border in Jammu and Kashmir’s Akhnoor sector killing a Border Security Force (BSF) constable.

A day earlier, another BSF trooper was killed at the Chak Sagwali post in Pargwal area in Pakistani firing from across the border.Pakistan Rangers are regularly violating the ceasefire agreement, according to Indian army sources who say that it was being done to divert attention and push infiltrators to this side.

India’s HAL among exhibitors at Farnborough airshow

India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will be among the 1,400 exhibitors participating in the Farnborough airshow, one of the biggest in the aviation calendar, that got underway in Britain on July 19.

Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju is leading the Indian delegation to the show where the who’s who of the aerospace sector is expected to be present. Nearly 120,000 visitors are expected to attend the event.

Defence public sector undertaking HAL is among the 1,393 exhibitors from 40 countries participating in the biennial Farnborough International Airshow, a defence spokesperson said.

Aviation selling and buying will be at the heart of the show, which in 2008 saw a record-breaking business of $88.7 billion being announced, according to the spokesperson.

The week-long event is also an ideal opportunity to showcase the latest star products.

Over 170 aircraft will be displayed through the week and the focus, according to the spokesperson, will be on Space Zone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) this year.

The Space Zone brings together key players from space agencies and industry to highlight the increasing role of space in a rapidly changing world.

Unmanned aircraft systems are participating in the daily flying display at the air show for the first time.

The Boeing’s 787 will be making its international debut at the show and so would be the new A400M military transport plane from Airbus, which was on show in Berlin in June this year.

Secretary Defence Production Raj Kumar

Singh and Commander-in-Chief Southern Air Command Air Marshal S. Mukerji are accompanying Raju to the show.

Flood toll in Punjab, Haryana reaches 51

The flood situation continued to remain grim in some parts of Punjab and Haryana where at least 51 people have so far lost their lives.

According to official figures, 26 people were killed due to flood-related reasons in Haryana while 25 people were killed in Punjab.

“In Haryana, maximum flood-related deaths were reported from Ambala district where 11 people lost their lives. This is followed by 10 in Kurukshetra, four in Fatehabad and one in Sirsa,” a Haryana government spokesperson said here.

The flood situation is still grim in some parts of Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, where the Ghaggar river was flowing above the danger mark.”Several acres of agricultural land has been inundated and many villages are still submerged. Rescue work is on and the overall situation is under control,” the spokesperson said.

“But it will take some more time for the situation to normalise in these two districts,” the official added.

Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts were badly affected by the floods during the past few days.

The state government claimed a loss worth crores of rupees and a team of central government will come here July 19-20 to assess the actual damage.

In the neighbouring state of Punjab, the flood situation is still worrisome in Sardulgarh sub-division of Mansa district.

“Although there has been no fresh breach, the flood situation is grim in some parts of Sardulgarh area. Our relief operation is on and the water level has also marginally receded since Saturday,” Kumar Rahul, deputy commissioner of Mansa, told IANS.

“Nearly 20,000 houses have been damaged in Mansa district and over 9,000 acres of agricultural land has been inundated,” he added.

As per official figures, over 3.25 lakh acres of land has been submerged in the floods, causing a loss of around Rs.480 crore. So far, 25 people have been killed in various floodaffected districts in Punjab.

World class transport facilities in Delhi for Games

With the Metro rail expanding its services in the capital as well as to the neighbouring satellite towns and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) acquiring a fleet of over 3,000 modern, low-floor buses - Delhi is all set to roll out the best transportation services during the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

Over 100,000 foreign visitors are expected to throng the capital during the mega event.

Though the Blueline commuter buses that earned a sobriquet of “killer buses” will not be phased out before October, the city government willl be relying heavily on staterun buses and Delhi Metro.

“The plan is to take the fleet of Delhi transport buses to 6,528 before the Games. At present, there are 5,164 buses, of which 2,747 are the old standard ones. The rest are low-floor buses,” a senior Delhi government official told IANS.

The official said that an order for 3,125 low-floor buses was placed in September 2009, of which only 1,340 are left to be delivered.

A total of 574 dedicated buses will be put into service for ferrying athletes and delegates to the Games venues.

“Besides, 80 buses will be put standby in case of an urgent requirement. All these 654 buses will be fully air-conditioned,” the official added.

Delhi Metro is also set to cover a distance of 190 km before the Games, reaching out to the neighbouring states.

The only Metro projects that remain to be completed before the Games are the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line, the Airport Express Link and the Central SecretariatQutub Minar section of the line to Gurgaon. All three are scheduled to be completed by September.

The Central Secretariat-Badarpur line will ensure easy connectivity to three venues of the Commonwealth Games-Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium near the JLN Stadium Metro station, the National Stadium near the Central Secretariat Metro station and the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range near the Tughlakabad Metro station.

Moreover, 1,667 buses, bothAND 4 nonair-conditioned and air-conditioned, will be deployed as “park and ride” vehicles for spectators and will also carry people from nearest Metro stations to the Games venues. As per the plan, anyone having the Games tickets will be allowed two free rides on either a DTC bus or the Metro.

Keeping the Games in mind, the DTC place3 aND 4d orders for 2,500 buses in September 2008, of which 60 percent were provided by the Tata Motors and the rest by the Ashok Leyland group.

Recently, the government extended the deadline to Tata Motors to supply 625 buses by August 31.

Also, for the tourists coming to the capital during the Games, there will be a “hop-on hop-off” bus service which will be started by the Delhi government by Sep 15.

“The bus service will help tourists roam around the city. It will ply on selected routes divided in three sectors based on the location of historical monuments, markets and eateries,” Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh

Mehta said.

Initially, 15-20 low-floor AC buses will be run on this service and the number will increase based on the response. Also, training classes were held for the drivers and staff of these buses to make them disciplined and teach them how to behave well with the visitors.

Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the installation of about 1,000 bus shelters has started after proper levelling and construction of footpaths for the Games.

Equal monetary relief for accident victims, rules court

The Delhi High Court has set aside the order of the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal granting excessive monetary relief to a foreign woman, ruling the victim’s social status or colour of skin is immaterial while deciding the compensation for injury in a road accident.

“The court cannot award small amounts on account of pain and sufferings to the poor persons and hefty amounts for pain and sufferings for same injury to rich persons. The value of each human life in the eyes of law has to be the same and the monetary value of the pain and suffering also to be same,” Justice S.N. Dhingra observed.

The tribunal had awarded a compensation of more than Rs.50 lakh to a German woman who lost her arm in an accident, out of which Rs.2 lakh was given for pain and sufferings undergone by her. The high court found that the amount was excessive as in many other similar cases, much less amount was given as compensation.

“If the courts award more compensation to foreigners because of the colour of skin or because of their being rich and award less compensation to Indians because they are poor, that amounts to travesty of justice,” Dhingra said.

“The tribunal seems to have been guided more by the fact that the claimant in this case was a foreign national and was having status different from that of an Indian citizen,” he said.

Alternate admission procedure for engineering schools soon:

Sibal

A decision on an alternate examination procedure to reduce the pressure on students aiming to enter the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or other engineering schools will be taken soon, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has said.

“There is a crying need for examination reforms. We will reduce the pressure on our students who have to sit for 20 entrance examinations,” Sibal told mediapersons on the sidelines of the 56th annual convocation of IIT Kharagpur.

A panel of directors, headed by IIT Kharagpur chief Damodar Acharya, was set up by Sibal earlier this year to examine the viability of an alternate examination procedure. “The panel will submit its report by the end of this month. Once we get the report we will act upon it at the earliest,” Sibal said.

The minister said urgent steps were needed to lessen the pressure and reduce the dependence on coaching centres. “Coaching institutes in the country are for the rich and the privileged. The coaching institutes are not the best way to get into best of the institutes like IITs in the country,” said Sibal.

In 2010, about 4.7 lakh students appeared for the IIT examination for admission to 10,000 seats spread over 15 IITs across the country