Is It Anyway? A bunch of algorithms seem to be in control of your persona and clout on the social web. But you could take charge and make it work for youOn the social web, everyone is not born equal. And indeed what would be the whole point if they were? Right from the start of the social networks, it has been clear that some people have social influence, while most others just have a presence, sometimes a rather noisy one. But what constitutes influence online is still a question that is being fought over fiercely today. On one side you have those who create social measurement tools; clever applications that track your activity on social networks and the response of people in your social communities, presenting you with wonderful looking graphs and scores that look as if you can’t argue with them. On the other hand there are regular “peeps” or people like you and I, who are getting uncomfortable with their influence being whittled down to a number by a bunch of algorithms.Dozens of web-based applications measure your social influence. But the big daddy of the lot is perhaps Klout, which defines itself as the standard in influence. Head to klout.com and sign in with your Twitter account. If you’re at all active, you’ll see your K-score. Think of it as a percentile, with 100 being the maximum level of influence possible. Check other peoples’ K-scores using their Twitter handles and you’ll see the differences and it will start to make sense. Graphs will help you make detailed comparisons of your influence style. The day-today progression of your score helps you spot when you were most active and engaged. An analysis of your score quantifies your reach and potential on your networks — you can add Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Your Klout dashboard, profile, friends and lists give you additional information you can act on right from within the Klout interface. For instance, you can see who influences you and who you influence. The topics that are most discussed are also presented and you can choose to continue the conversation, leveraging their popularity. Also, rather useful is the set of suggestions on who is influential in your network. You can use this to start up conversations with them, because, after all, engaging with influential people adds to your own clout. The graphs are pretty and the logic seductive. My score of 58, which I suspect is trying to keep pace with my body weight, is not bad. But on closer examination I find that it seems to be influential about politics; a remote possibility since I tend to ignore politics and hope it will just go away. A few random tweets on something that may have made me indignant obviously resonated with a large number of people and went viral. That doesn’t mean I am politically influential. Another spike, with a lasting impact on my Klout analysis, happened when I made an unfortunate spelling mistake in one of my tweets. It obviously amused my networks, but surely that does not make me the gold standard in typos? It’s easy enough to ‘game’ the system. A Hollis Tibbetts set up a fake Twitter account, following and unfollowing people randomly and retweeting wholly uninteresting updates. It was a deliberate attempt to have zero clout. Imagine his surprise when he looked in after a few weeks of this, and found he had a healthy K-score of 37 points. Because of Klout’s steadily increasing clout, the K-score has begun to be taken seriously. Recently, they added a perks section where people with high scores get freebies, discounts and privileges of all kinds. Even the chance to pick up equity in startups. Imagine, however, getting an upgrade to business class on an airline based on your K-score, which in turn may be based on a spelling error. Surely, this is influence gone all wrong. You can notch up scores at many other social analytics services — and get an ego boost in the bargain. But true influence will come about when you are in charge of it; when you can take the very same tools and work them with your own understanding of who you are and what you want to achieve via your social networks. Months ago, I found myself unsettled by the description of my style online. Apparently I was an activist. That didn’t come out of the blue but from the fact that I may have tended to tweet more about things that made me indignant and less about my interpretation of happenings in my sphere of knowledge and expertise. Carefully, and over time, I steered the engagement in the desired direction and not only increased my K-score but moved from activist to specialist. So the same system that can be gamed to churn out garbage can also be used intelligently to let you decide the dimensions of your own influence.
A young man from a well-off Parsi family acquired his Bachelor's degree in Economics, but instead of a sense of achievement, he felt only dissatisfaction. In retrospect, he would have preferred to study literature or philosophy. The 20 year old had lost his father the year before, and he found himself alone at the crossroads as he thought about what to do with the rest of his life. Perhaps it is a fitting co-incidence, then, that Soli Jehangeer Sorabjee chose to enter the profession of law in the same year that the Constitution of India first came into effect. Sorbajee's relationship with the law was destined to be a life-long affair and bring him many laurels. The man who didn't quite like the ways of commerce and business and rejected the services because there was no scope for individuality, found an immediate affinity with the legal profession. The first lawyer in the family, he says he had no Godfather in the profession though many people advised him along the way. Soli Sorabjee was admitted to the Bar in 1953 and from the very beginning, he found himself absorbed in questions of human rights. As he says, "The constitution was being drafted at the time and we had a chapter on fundamental rights. And they were not just words on a paper, because you could actually go to court and ask for vindication of fundamental rights for the people when they were infringed. That definitely influenced me." It was an exciting time to be a lawyer, as many of the greatest minds in the country —Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar (to name a few) — had their roots in the profession. Like many students at the time, it was unlikely that Sorabjee would be untouched by current events. However, he shrugs off his involvement in his characteristic understated manner. "My only contribution was when Gandhiji was having a meeting at the time of the Quit India movement. The police came and broke up the meeting. I didn't go to jail or anything; just got a baton on my shoulder and went running away." Sorabjee's battles would be fought in a different arena — the court rooms.
It was an era when names like Nanabhoy 'Nani' Palkhiwala, Homi Bhabha and Bhulabhai Desai commanded respect and recognition. He joined the chambers of respected lawyer Sir Jamshedji Kanga and counted Palkhiwala and Bhabha among his seniors. A gold medallist in college, he did not have quite the dream start to his career that he had hoped for. "I was supposed to ask for an adjournment on my first case. It was a simple matter — and the court didn't give it! It wasn't really of great material impact and no harm came of it, but I was most downcast," he laughs as he remembers that day. True to form, though, the incident only spurred him on to strive harder and "never get too disappointed." That was a lesson well learnt and Sorabjee had little to be disappointed about as he went on to become one of the finest legal brains in the country. A little over 20 years after he first started, he was appointed Solicitor General of India. In 1998, he became the Attorney General of the country, a post he would hold till 2004. He was presented with the Padma Vibhushan in 2002 for his defence of the freedom of expression and protection of human rights. Over almost 60 years of representing the State and in private practice, Soli Sorabjee has left an indelible mark on Indian jurisprudence. As Attorney General during the government of Prime Minister VP Singh, he tackled Union Carbide after the Bhopal gas tragedy. The government of India sued the company and agreed to a settlement for the victims (who numbered in the tens of thousands). However, one of the clauses gave Union Carbide officials immunity from prosecution for actions of the past and the future. Sorabjee successfully overturned these "absurd" clauses which "could not be sustained constitutionally". In private practice, too, he kept the banner of the "rule of law" flying high. A case he remembers with relish is the now famous S.R. Bommai vs Union of India in 1989, which dealt with the imposition of President's rule (under Article 356 of the constitution) in an Indian state. Sorabjee successfully defended Bommai and the case set the benchmark for all future dealings between the Centre and states regarding the imposition of President's rule. In another instance — and one for which all international travellers can thank Sorabjee — he successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to hold that in a matter concerning the fundamental right of a person to travel abroad, the total absence of any law would result in arbitrariness and would violate the principle of the Rule of Law. After the judgement, the Passport Act 1967 was enacted to regulate the grant and refusal of passports. Even today, he justifiably considers this case to be a feather in his cap.
These are just glimpses at a list of achievements that would fill the pages of a rather thick book. No matter at what post and which case he worked on, Sorabjee's belief in equality before the law shines through. So what happened in instances where his personal beliefs clashed with his brief, especially when he was Attorney General? "I would have returned the brief. If the case involved arguing against those principles that I believed in and which would go against the constitution, then I wouldn't do it. Even when asked to be amicus curiae (someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information to assist a court in deciding a matter) by the Supreme Court, it's not that I would take an anti government stand or pro-government stand. I would simply tell the court what the correct position in law is, according to my understanding." The victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 also found a champion in the diminutive lawyer, who was part of the Citizens Justice Committee that voluntarily represented many of them free of charge. For Soli Sorabjee his involvement with the cause boils down to one simple fact – his sense of injustice. "What really motivated us all was the fact that we didn't like the persecution of any minority group and in that case it happened to be the Sikhs," says the man who rues the fact that poor police investigations and insufficient evidence resulted in many of the cases dragging on for years.
Apart from his spirited defense of civil liberties and human rights, Soli Sorbajee's has also been the strongest voice raised against censorship and for the freedom of the press. The roots of his conviction perhaps lie in the imposition of the Indian Emergency in June 1975, which lasted for 21 months. During this period, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi time effectively had the power to suspend elections and civil liberties. The media felt the impact as well, as the press became almost completely muzzled. The very notion of the Emergency went against the grain for the libertarian Sorabjee, and he immersed himself in the representation of detainees and journalists. Many times, this was work done free of charge. He also used his legal mind to good effect and brought ingenuity into play when his path was blocked. In those years even judgements that went against the government were not allowed to be published. He got around the problem by writing a book called The Law of Censorship. It was a sort of treatise on the law — what it was during British times, principles of censorship, etc. — and in the process, he referred to all the judgements that were not allowed to be published, thereby documenting them for posterity. Of course, there were social consequences to his actions at a time when even most newspapers lived in fear of reprisals. Even though he chooses to downplay the effects of his work, he does admit that those were difficult times. "I was really looked upon as someone not to be closely associated with. Because I was an opponent of emergency, tracking cases, getting orders struck down, etc., I was not exactly ostracised, but very clearly avoided." To this date, Sorabjee has strong views on interfering with the press, the banning of books and movies and in fact, censorship in all forms. The recent verdict against a major news channel for erroneous identification of a public personality and awarding of damages of `100 crore, offends his sense of what is right. "It is, to my mind, settled law that excessive damages chills freedom of the press, freedom of expression and offends the doctrine of proportionality and so cannot be sustained in law," are his final words on the subject. With his long history of defending journalists, he has a predictable response to the current raging debate to bring in laws to monitor the conduct of the press. "I don't like media being policed. And I don't like the chairman of the Press Council coming out with all sorts of statements, one of them being that 'media should not say anything about astrology because that is superstition.' Now I don't believe in astrology, but other people do and what's wrong with that? The other thing that I was astonished about was his saying that there was excessive attention to cricket! Arre baba, cricket is a national passion. So I don't want anyone's subjective opinions coming in to censoring the media on the grounds of what should or should not be done. Whatever cannot be done is in the Constitution."
As you spend time with the man who has been a role model to many lawyers, you find it a refreshing change to speak to someone who actually believes in the causes he represents. Words like 'rule of law', 'justice' and 'equality' hold genuine meaning for the man who has been on an unending quest to defend them. For him, the only alternative being governed by the law is the descent into becoming "a police raj". Though soft-spoken and blessed with the lawyer's ability to turn a phrase, the passion seeps into his voice as Soli Sorabjee speaks forcefully about the profession he has dedicated his life to "What is forgotten is that law is essentially a service oriented profession. I always tell people that if they want to make money in a really short time, there's nothing wrong with that, but then don't come into the profession of law. Real estate business karo, import-export business karo, law me nahi aana. Lawyers also don't live on love and fresh air, but if the idea is to make a mini fortune in a short time, then that is a wrong mind-set with which to enter the profession." He believes that senior lawyers should be asked to attend at least one matter free of charge every month and applauds those who do. He admits sadly that lawyers do not command the respect that they used to and abhors the practice of overcharging clients. He sees this current commercial trend in almost every profession and refers to it as the "Kaun Banega Crorepati" factor, rueing the fact that nobody seems to be asking "Kaun Banega Desh Ka Sewak". When asked about corruption in the judicial system, he believes in accountability and a strong regulatory body, but asserts that "the higher judiciary cannot be brought under the Lokpal. Lay people and others can't judge them. Accountability is important, but judicial independence is equally important and can't be compromised." Even if the Lokpal Bill was to bring High Court and Supreme Court judges under its ambit, Sorabjee believes that the provision could be challenged. It goes without saying that along with the rest of the nation, he will be tracking the progress of the Lokpal Bill very keenly. he law can be a hard taskmaster and one would imagine that a man who lives his profession would have little time left over to spend with family. Indeed, Sorabjee admits that he did not go on picnics or interact with his children as much as he would have wished to. His career also necessitated the move away from his family from Mumbai to Delhi, where he lives today. However, some of his ideals and zest for living did filter down to the next generation. Of his three children, his elder son chose medicine "and he is not a mercenary doctor at all", while the younger son is editor of a magazine on autocars, a passion that his father doesn't share, "except to ask him which car to buy". But his daughter, Zia Mody, followed in her father's footsteps and is now a partner at AZB and Partners, a leading law firm. Though she initially did litigation and went to court every day like her father, she admits that he was "very upset" when she decided to switch to corporate law. Today, the father-daughter duo agrees to disagree on the issue. Reading about Soli Sorabjee, you might visualise an old man, surrounded by tomes and legal treatises, with little desire to think beyond the law. But you would be wrong. Enter his office and, while you will find books lining the walls from floor to ceiling, you will also find stacks of old records on the shelves. Names like Archie Shaw and John Coltrane leap out at the visitor. Ask him about his collection and a gleam enters his eye as a smile of pure joy lights up his face — you know that you are in the presence of an avid Jazz fan. As a young man in college, he had the distinction of forming the SS Quartet (no prizes for guessing what the SS stood for!), an instrumental jazz band. With Sorabjee on the clarinet, the foursome even got some time on the airwaves at All India Radio. As he blows the dust off the jacket and lovingly slides out a prize LP, he remembers some of the Jazz greats that he counted as friends, foremost among them being Benny Goodman. "He got me a clarinet at a discount with the promise that I would rehearse and practice regularly. I told him 'Benny baba maaf karo. You don't know the legal profession here in India — I can't do it.' So he gave it to my grandson." Small wonder, then, that his grandchildren recall a time when the strains of Jazz would come pouring out of his house in Mumbai. Sorabjee has been a supporter and patron of the cause in India, helping to organise the annual Jazz Yatra to this day. He has had occasion to mix with some of the brightest stars in the Jazz firmament and still remembers a visit that the famous Dizzy Gillespie made to his house decades ago. When it was time for dinner, he offered the singer- composer and trumpet player dhansak (a traditional Parsi dish), which Gillespie ate in copious quantities. Sorabjee still remembers thinking, "I hope nothing happens to him because he won't be able to perform and those fellows will be after me." Gillespie went on to perform the next day, but the incident still elicits a chuckle from the man who hosted the dinner. For most of us, music is a form of relaxation and food for the soul. For Sorabjee, Jazz is also a source of inspiration. As he explains it, "Actual rehearsals of Jazz are improvisations. And that's one of the reasons I like it and it affects my legal practice. I don't make solid notes going into 30 pages. I just go with two to three pages and then improvise. You think you have a good point and then you realise it's not making any headway. So then you improvise." We leave Soli Sorabjee at the door to his residencecum- chambers, still holding a record in his hands, with a stack of books at his elbow. With impeccable manners, he shakes hands with one person and pats another on the head. As he shuffles back to his desk, we know that though age has slowed his gait, time has not dimmed his ardour for the task at hand. The passionate 20 year old who started this journey still lives on in the older man's body. The cause of justice is still being served by its strongest defender.
I went to the United States of America in early 2000 to pursue a super-specialisation in Neonatology, a branch of medicine which was not as advanced in India at that time. Settling in to a new environment was certainly difficult. But I wouldn’t say I got a culture shock. It was more about adapting to new norms of living. In several ways it was a welcome change. I admired the fact that the US government had put systems into place for most things, and that they were usually adhered to; people usually abided by the governing laws. Eventually, I got comfortable with this lifestyle. There were times I would compare India unfavourably to the systems here. I would often wish that things were this organised back home. Though I was happy with my life here and was doing well professionally, I always felt the tug in my heart: to give something back to my community and country. This desire grew stronger every day. But how could I execute it all? As the question became a dilemma, I concluded that simply criticising my country for its quality of life, systems of healthcare and hygiene, would get me nowhere. I thought, “Instead of complaining, why not try to change things for the better?” And that is why I started the Mission India Foundation (MIF). The first step to get closer to my goal was sharing my thoughts with others. So, I spoke to a few friends. It felt good to see that I had likeminded people around me, who shared my enthusiasm to change the status quo. We started working on the practicalities and began mapping out an agenda. To begin with, we were not particularly sure of what we wanted to do. I have always believed that one should do something in which one has a certain expertise. Because my background was in paediatrics, child and maternal healthcare came naturally to me, so that is what we looked at. Once the decision was taken, my friends and I began the paperwork. That took months. In the meantime, we formed a board to monitor the foundation. I knew a few doctors of Indian origin who were working here — we met a couple of times and when I elaborated on my plans, they agreed to help put the idea into action. The next step was to establish ourselves at the right place, and take the programme forward from there. After going back and forth between us a few times, we decided on Narnaul, Haryana. Being a native, I had friends living there and I also knew a few doctors, which would make handling the logistics a whole lot easier. There we were — we had an organisation, a board and a plan — and were all set to pack our medical kits and send them to Narnaul. But the crucial question still remained — we still hadn’t decided what we wanted to send to the village. a lot of research and brainstorming later, we decided to work in the vaccination sector. India makes for a very peculiar case when it comes to vaccination. If you look at the immunisation practices in India, the government launched vaccination programmes in 1978 with vaccines against six diseases — tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, typhoid and polio. In 1985, it revamped its processes and launched the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). But not a single vaccine was added to the list. At one end was India with just six vaccines for its kids and on the other side was the US, which had 13 vaccines; and the kids here were benefiting from them. Therefore, we thought that rather than duplicating the government model, we would focus on the vaccines recommended by the World Health Organsiation’s Indian Academy of Paediatrics. We started working on setting up vaccination centres, which we wanted to run in collaboration with private doctors. We approached them and introduced them to MIF, its ideology, and then asked them to become our partners. One of the doctors in Narnaul gave us space in his clinic without charging us rent and we were ready. We sent our team of nurses, programme managers and officers there and the doctor was available for us on a pro bono basis. Immunisation is just one side of it; we also want to create awareness — the whole initiative means nothing without people becoming aware about basic healthcare. Soon, We began a community outreach programme, which today has become an essential part of our system. Our team goes to designated villages everyday and distributes pamphlets. We talk to people and advise mothers to bring their children to the vaccination centre. And I feel immensely happy when I say that awareness has come. The villagers have been incredibly receptive to our ideas. They understand that it is something that will benefit them. So, they act on it. This is why the vaccination rate in these areas has gone up. So far, we have covered 17 villages in Narnaul, Haryana, and have immunised 10,000 children there; and we don’t plan to stop any time soon. I do not mean that we will immunise every kid in the country. However, we will keep on spreading awareness, so that every child is at least taken to a hospital to get vaccinated and as many times as needed. The Indian government began a “Measles Catch-up Campaign” in 2010. It provides vaccines in 14 states. We come from a school of thought which believes that measles as a disease requires two shots of a vaccine. In India, only a single shot is given at present. So, we provide the second dose. We might have vaccinated over 10,000 children, but given the country’s population, it is not a huge number. So we will continue our efforts and eventually expand to other states. We are planning the next centre in Rajasthan and then move on to neighbouring states. The question to ask here is, “Is that enough?” If the answer is a no, then we need to ask ourselves what more we can do. I think that India has a huge under-utilised resource in the form of the private sector. And a vaccination programme definitely needs private initiative. Only 44 per cent of the children in the country are immunised, which is a very small number. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala the rate is higher. But in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh the condition is abysmal. Around 90 per cent of the vaccination industry is in hands of the government. Only 10 per cent is with the private sector. But the private medical sector in India is humongous. Why not exploit available resources to achieve the best possible results? The government needs to think seriously in this direction, because it has become increasingly difficult to get things done back home. There are always bureaucratic hurdles that pop up. In the US, the government makes efforts to enhance the non-profit’s profit; it’s a non-profit business here. But in India the attitude is, “Why are they setting up these centres? What are they going to get out of this and, more importantly, how we are benefiting from this?” These are initial challenges but we don’t let these things affect us. So, despite the non-cooperation of the local governing health authorities, we have been cruising along and have been able to find private partners. Then there is the big question of funding, which is always a problem initially. Since we have only been active for about 20 months, people don’t know much about us, and that is an additional hurdle. But we are trying to raise money through charity events. For example, the “Shots for Shots” fund raiser, which was suggested by one of our volunteers, Neerav Patel. We booked a bar and for each dollar that was contributed, Neerav multiplied it by four. He linked this event with his birthday party, so we invited people who bought tickets and we raised money through that. For Another event, we invited the popular band, Indian Ocean. They came for the fund raiser, people enjoyed the event and that fetched us some money. Other than that, we make use of social media and we do have regular contributors as well, many of whom are on our board. The one aspect that might help speed up the process is if we get more volunteers. They are required to handle the various facets of the organisation — whether it is fund-raising, networking or spreading awareness. In the States we have quite a few people working for us and it’s not only the Indian population which is active, but also the locals. We have medical students of American origin who help with the work and we have an American national called Stephen A. Morales on our board, who is just as committed as the others. In the end, all I can say is that it’s a cause that needs major attention from the people back home. And each person there should try and contribute towards it in whatever way he or she can. (As told to Manjiri Indurkar)
Calls For Re-electuionThousands of Russians flocked to the streets of Moscow and approximately 95 Russian cities allegedly demanding an end to the 12-year-old “autocratic rule” of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after he registered himself as an presidential candidate. Around 50,000 protestors sloganeering that “rats should go!” or “swindlers and thieves, give us our elections back!” or “Putin is a thief!” took to the streets in Moscow alone forcing the administration to station the riot police. Also the Opposition — Communist Party — also brought out 3,000-plus supporters for a rally in Moscow’s capital on December 18, 2011, a day after Indian PM Manmohan Singh left Moscow after a successful bilateral meeting with Putin. Candidates who may challenge Putin are Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party; Grigory Yavlinsky, a liberal candidate from the Yabloko Party; Sergei Mironov of A Just Russia; and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist LDPR. But the star of the show may just be third-richest man in Russia and the country’s most eligible bachelor, NBA owner Mikhail Prokhorov, 46, who announced that he would run as an Independent candidate.
Approximately 93 people, mostly patients, lost their lives to a fire that started in the basement of the privately-owned AMRI Hospital, Kolkata. Though the reason behind the blaze is yet to be ascertained, the fire reportedly started in the basement and swiftly spread up the floors. Most patients in the Intensive Care Unit were choked to death. After the incident, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed that six members of the AMRI Board, including industrialist S.K. Modi, had been arrested. The members were later produced in the Alipore Court and were remanded to 10-day police custody. Banerjee also ordered a probe into the fire after cancelling the hospital’s licence, which led to staff protests. For now, the hospital has been sealed off by the authorities. The state government has announced a `3-lakh compensation for the victims’ families or employment to the next of kin. The AMRI authorities also announced a compensation of `5 lakh for the families and promised to treat the injured for free. Allegedly, the fire was first detected at 1:00am by the people in the neighbourhood. When they tried to warn the hospital authorities, they were driven away by the staff and security, who later fled as the fire spread. Reports state that after spotting smoke pouring out of the windows, the local people forced their way in to the hospital to start an impromptu rescue operation, which led to several lives being saved. Some of these samaritans also called the police and the fire brigade. After the fire, reports of the hospital flouting several fire safety rules poured in. Allegedly, the authorities used the basement to set up an oncology department, a medicine shop, a car park and a waste dumping area when they had an NOC to use it as a car park. Also, one of the hospital structures was reportedly an unauthorised building, lacking fire-fighting equipment. However, the hospital authorities have rubbished all claims and have stated that safety equipment was in place, while regular fire drills were also held. The basement was later checked for radiation, but no leakage was found. So far, the government has ordered an official investigation, led by the state Joint Commissioner Damayanti Sen, and a judicial inquiry, headed by retired Calcutta High Court Judge Tapan Mukherjee. Their investigation has allegedly revealed that the centrally airconditioned building did not have a vertical fire stop which could have prevented smoke from the basement reaching the upper floors. In all centrally air-conditioned buildings, the maintenance shaft at every alternate floor is sealed off by the vertical fire stop that allows only cables carrying electric wires and the air-conditioning duct, which regulates the movement of smoke and air.
Tata Sons appointed Cyrus P. Mistry as its Deputy Chairman. Mistry will take over from Chairperson Ratan Tata after his retirement in December 2012. He was inducted into the Board in September 2006 and his family has 16.5 per cent stake in Tata Sons.
CRPF-Maoist encounter in West Bengal brings the end of an eraWith the death of top Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishenji, the third wave of the Naxalite Movement has reportedly come to an end. He was killed in an encounter with Central Reserve Police Force jawans in Jhargram forest in West Midnapore, West Bengal. According to police sources, a tip-off regarding Kishenji’s presence in the area came from the local people. The Naxalite leader had allegedly convened a meeting of staff committee members there. Several Maoists sympathisers, including poet Varavara Rao, have alleged that Kishenji was killed in a fake encounter like Azad, another Maoist leader. Rao has demanded a judicial probe into the matter. After Kishenji’s death, a group of 100 Maoists gathered in Latehar and avowed to avenge their leader’s death. Following which 10 persons, including eight policemen, were killed in Latehar, when the party members attacked the convoy of MP and former Jharkhand Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari, who escaped unhurt. The Maoist top gun’s death may have dealt a body blow to the rebel leadership in West Bengal, but they still have the men and firepower for retaliatory strikes, believes the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau — a central intelligence agency. Their report details the status of squads active in Jangalmahal (forest areas of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia).
Virender Sehwag became the second batsman to hit a double century in One Day International cricket after scoring a fast and furious 219 off 149 balls against West Indies. He reached this milestone at the Holkar Stadium, Indore, on December 8, 2011. The dashing Indian opener raced to the elusive mark in 140 balls when he square-cut Andre Russell for a boundary in the 44th over of the Indian innings, thus eclipsing Sachin Tendulkar who had taken 147 balls to reach there. In the process, Virender Sehwag also became the highest individual scorer in ODI cricket — Tendulkar had scored exactly 200 off 147 balls against South Africa at Gwalior in February 2010. It was a typical Sehwag innings which included 23 boundaries and seven sixes. Sehwag lost his wicket in the 47th over miscuing a shot off Kieron Pollard’s bowling. He was caught by the substitute fielder Anthony Martins. However, by that time India were comfortably placed for a total of over 400 runs.
The Centre’s decision to allow 51 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the multi-brand retail sector met with protests in Parliament in November. The Centre had also decided to remove the cap on the single brand format which could pave the way for global chains such as WalMart, Carrefour and Tesco to open mega stores in the country. The decision, which was hailed by the corporate sector, managed to create a deadlock in Parliament. The biggest blow came from within the United Progressive Alliance, with allies Trinamool Congress and DMK raising their voices against the issue. Financial experts predict that the entry of FDI in India will help generate employment. With global chains entering the retail market, 80 lakh new jobs will be created. However, due to the impasse in Parliament, the Centre has now decided to put the issue on hold. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, is hopeful of implementing the policy by March 2012 after the completion of Assembly Polls in five states. Congress scion Rahul Gandhi has come out in full support of the decision, stating that his party will remain firm on the decision. He also slammed the Opposition for trying to “sabotage” a move which will reportedly grant the Indian farmers a high return on their produce.