Political parties come under RTI Act, rules CIC

New Delhi: In a landmark ruling to ensure transparency in the functioning of political parties, the Central Information Commission on Monday held that the parties are public authorities and answerable to citizens under RTI Act.

The Commission, a quasi-judicial body, has said six national parties Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP have been substantially funded indirectly by the central government and they have the character of public authority under the RTI Act as they perform public functions.

After the order of the full bench of CIC, the parties will be answerable to the citizens regarding their source of funding, how they spend money and choice of candidates for elections, among other issues.

The CIC has directed the parties to appoint Public Information Officers within six weeks to respond to RTI queries and adhere to all the legal provisions.

"In view of the nature of public functions performed by political parties...We conclude that political parties in question are public authorities under section 2(h) of the RTI Act," the Bench, comprising Chief Information Commissioner Satyanand Mishra and Information Commissioners Annapurna Dixit and M L Sharma, said.

The Commission held that political parties have the character as public authorities and "we hold that INC, BJP, CPIM, CPI, NCP and BSP have been substantially financed by the central government under section 2(h)(ii) of the RTI Act".

The Bench held the income tax exemptions granted to the parties and free air time given by All India Radio and Doordarshan at the time of elections also substantially contribute to indirect financing from the government.

"We have no hesitation in concluding that INC/AICC, BJP, CPI-M, CPI, NCP and BSP have been substantially financed by the central government and therefore they are held to be public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act," the Bench ordered.

On the performing of public duty point raised by Bairwal, the CIC held that political parties "affect the lives of the citizens, directly or indirectly in every conceivable way and are continuously engaged in performing public duty. It is, therefore, important that they become accountable to public".

"We are of the opinion that bringing the political parties in the ambit of RTI Act is likely to usher an era of transparency in their functioning. Besides, it would result in strengthening of democracy and democratice institutions in the country," the Commission said.

Activist Anil Bairwal of Association of Democratic Reforms and Subhash Agrawal had directed their RTI applications to these parties which were made parties by CIC when the matter reached the panel.

While Agrawal had sought information from Congress and BJP, Bairwal had sought details of funding and donors from the six major parties.

Not getting any response, they had approached the CIC seeking declaration of political parties as public authorities under the Right to Information Act after which citizens can seek information from them by paying Rs 10 as the fee.

After detailed hearings where representatives of these parties opposed bringing them under the RTI Act, the CIC full bench held in a 54-page order that they fulfill the criteria of being public authorities under the Act.


The Commission based its decision on three impotant points raised by complainants -- substantial funding received by the parties from government, performance of public duty by them and legal provisions vesting them with rights and liabilities.

The Commission said since no income tax was paid by the parties, the exact quantum of rebate could not be quantified since income of all these political parties would place them in the highest slab of income tax, at least 30 per cent of their total income would have been collected as income tax but for the total exemption given to them by law.

"No one can dispute that this is substantial financing, though indirectly," it said.

The political parties had contended such exemptions are routinely extended to many charitable and non-profit non-governmental organisations across the country but they are not considered public authorities.

This point was rejected by the CIC which said there is a great difference between the tax exemption given to charitable and non-profit non-governmental organisations and that given to political parties.

Outlining the difference in the two cases, the CIC said exemptions to non-profit non-governmental organisations are strictly conditional and withdrawn if they do not fulfil their objectives whereas the tax exemption given to the political parties is unfettered.

"The only condition being that they must report to the Election Commission of India, every year, the details of all the contributors who contribute Rs 20,000 or more to the political party concerned. Thus, the political parties enjoy an almost unfettered exemption from payment of income tax, a benefit not enjoyed by any other charitable or non-profit non-governmental organisations," it said.

The bench said "no democracy can exist today without political parties. An ordinary citizen does not have direct access to the government except through his elected representative and cannot hope to be part of the government without being a member of a Political Party. It is, thus, through the political parties that the citizens of a democracy operationalise the democratic state."

The CIC said political parties come into existence only after registering with the Election Commission which awards symbols under given legal provisions.

"ECI is vested with the superintendence, direction and control of elections under Article 324 of the Constitution. ECI is also vested with the authorities to suspend or withdraw recognition of political parties in certain contingencies," the CIC said.

It said political parties can recommend disqualification of Members of the House in certain contingencies under the Tenth Schedule.

"The contention is that the aforesaid constitution/statutory powers of political parties bring them in the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. We find the above submission quite compelling and unerringly pointing towards their character as public authority," it said.

It said INC, BJP, CPIM, CPI, NCP and BSP have been been substantially financed by Central Government under section 2(h)(ii) of the RTI Act.

"The criticality of the role being played by these political parties in our democratic set up and the nature of duties performed by them also point towards their public character, bringing them under the ambit of Section 2(h). The Constitutional and legal provisions discussed herein above also point towards their character in public authorities," it said.

PTI 

Abducted British couple rescued, 9 arrested in TN

Chennai: An abducted British couple was rescued and nine persons, including two Sri Lankans, were arrested for allegedly committing the crime and demanding Rs 2.58 crore as ransom. 

Chennai Police coordinated with Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), London, and Serious Organised Crime Agency, United Kingdom, state and central intelligence agencies and rescued the couple from an SUV bound for a house at Mandarakuppam in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu last night. 

"A gang of people operated from London as well as in the state to coordinate this abduction. It was a peculiar and complex case, as it involved two different cities in two countries," Chennai Police Commissioner S George told reporters here today.

Based on a complaint on May 29 that British nationals Thavaraja (59) and his wife Salaja (55), who landed at the airport here from Colombo, were missing, a case was registered. They were originally from Sri Lanka and had settled down in the UK and obtained citizenship. 

The couple had arrived here to proceed to Tiruchirapalli, where they planned to join a tour operator and visit temples in the state for nine days. 

Investigations revealed that the couple's daughter Dharshini, residing in London, received calls from unidentified men who claimed to have abducted her parents and demanded a ransom of Rs 2.58 crore (300,000 pounds).

Chennai Police coordinated with Dharshini, as she sent them clippings of her conversation with the abductors and sought more time to raise the ransom money, as was advised by police. 

"The only source of information was Dharshini's clippings as we did not know who were the kidnappers and where they were keeping the couple," George said. 

PTI

Preliminary trials of anti-collision system successful: Mittal

Jammu: Preliminary field trials of Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in South Central Railways have been successful, Chairman Railway Board Vinnay Mittal said on Monday.

"We are experimenting with TCAS in South Central Railways. Preliminary field trials in South Central Railways have been successful," he told reporters after reviewing work on under-construction railway infrastructure in Katra, the base camp of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.

Mittal said, "it is GPS based system...We are trying to spread the trials to a distance from 150 to 200 km and cover many more locomotives and establish its efficiency."

"We are also looking into protective warning system which is an European based system," he said, adding it is a cheaper technology.

He was replying to a volley of questions about the collision of trains and accidents and safety measures taken by the railways in this regard.

A safety device designed to prevent train accidents, TCAS is based on a combination of railway signalling data with radio communications, global position, radio frequency identification devices, software and logic.

Field trials were conducted last month in real time on a track near Tandur station. Two TCAS-equipped locomotives operated a series of test runs, simulating scenarios including head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, and SPAD (Signal Passed at Danger).

PTI 

Decoding 'orphan crop' genomes could save millions of lives in Africa

Howard-Yana Shapiro, a scientist with the Mars confectionery company, will make the information free to boost harvests

The future wellbeing of millions of Africans may rest in the unlikely hands of a vegan hippy scientist working for a sweet company who plans to map and then give away the genetic data of 100 traditional crops.
Howard-Yana Shapiro, the agriculture director of the $36bn US confectionery corporation Mars, led a partnership that sequenced and then published in 2010 the complete genome of the cacao tree from which chocolate is derived. He plans to work with American and Chinese scientists to sequence and make publicly available the genetic makeup of a host of crops such as yam, finger millet, tef, groundnut, cassava and sweet potato.
Dubbed "orphan crops" because they have been ignored by scientists, seed companies and governments, they are staples for up to 250 million smallholder African farmers who depend on them for food security, nutrition and income. However, they are considered of little economic interest to large seed and chemical companies such as Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta, which concentrate on global crops such as maize, rice and soya.
According to Shapiro, there is huge potential to develop more resilient and higher-yielding varieties of most orphan crops by combining traditional plant breeding methods with new biotech tools such as "genetic marking". This does not involve the altering or insertion of genes that takes place with controversial genetic modification.
"The genetic information will be put on the web and offered free to plant breeders, seed companies and farmers on condition it is not patented. A new African plant-breeding academy will also be set up in Nairobi, Kenya," he said."It's not charity. It's a gift. Its an improvement of African agriculture. These crops will never be worked on by the big five [seed] companies. They don't see them as competition."
Shapiro, a leading plant scientist who founded organic seed company Seeds of Change but sold it to Mars in 1997, now cuts an idiosyncratic figure in the corporate food world, sporting a long beard and listing motorcycles as a favourite pastime. But he said that the culture of the family-owned corporation had advantages. "It took less than a nanosecond to decide not to patent. Ownership was not an issue," he said.
Shapiro is angered by the stunting caused by malnutrition that affects 30% of African children. By improving the crops, he said, the African orphan crop consortium, which includes corporations such as Life Technologies and the conservation group WWF, could eradicate a "plague" that costs Africa $125bn a year. "We will start with genomics, go to analysis, then to plant breeders, then to the field, then the seed companies, and then to the farms," he said.
Open-access publication of the cacao genome in 2010 is now bearing fruit. The genes that determine resistance to fungal infections and yield have been found and a new generation of cacao trees is being grown which should eventually quadruple production. "We haven't changed a single gene. It's inheritability. It's all done with grafting."
But the "improved" seeds expected to come out of the $40m orphan programme could change Africa in unexpected ways. Nearly 80% of all seed used in Africa is selected, saved and exchanged by farmers without money changing hands. The result has been an immense diversity of crops suited to particular localities and cultures. The new, "improved" seeds of the orphan crops may increase yields or disease resistance but could be unaffordable and might oust traditional varieties. It is also possible that the genetic decoding could open the door to genetic modification.

Yam harvests could increase significantly as hardier varieties are developed.
"Anything that keeps the [genetic] information out of proprietary hands is a good thing. But it's important to maintain the traditional varieties that have not been 'improved' and to keep a non-monetised path for the farming economy," said Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. "It's important to recognize improvements in crops are not just about genetics. How plants are managed is equally important."Agricultural investment in Africa will be a key point at the G8 hunger summit in Northern Ireland next weekend. Governments and 45 of the largest agribusiness corporations are expected to unveil initiatives to boost African farming.
West and east African small farmers' groups have joined British charities to say that small-scale family farmers were being excluded from the talks even though they feed 80% of Africans. "It's very important that governments prioritise investment to support family farmers and their more ecological food production," said Patrick Mulvany, chair of the UK Food group.
"Technological advances in food production can be part of the solution to increase yields. But the world already grows enough food yet one in eight people go hungry every day. G8 leaders can begin to tackle the scandal of global hunger by closing the tax loopholes, improving land rights and increasing public investment in developing country agriculture," said Lucy Brinicombe, spokesperson for the If coalition of 200 groups which includes Oxfam and ActionAid.

Tata Power to add 200-250 MW of solar, wind energy

BANGALORE, INDIA: Tata Power, India's largest integrated power utility company has announced that the company has plans to add 30-50 MW of solar power and 150-200 MW of wind energy in India every year as part of its sustainability initiative.
The total generation from the solar has touched 49.83 MUs and from wind projects has touched 796 MU's till 31st March 2013 said Tata Power in a press release and further added Tata Power's generation through clean sources in India such as hydro, wind and solar today stands at 873 MW.

The release further added that the company total investment in solar and wind energy so far is Rs. 2393 crore and is committed to generating 20-25 percent of its total generation capacity from clean energy sources.
Speaking on Tata Power's commitment to clean and green energy, Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Power said, "Our solar and wind energy assets are performing well and we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint through "clean and renewable energy" generation. Our aim is to have 20-25% of our generation portfolio from clean energy."
The company also announced that through its 100 percent subsidiary, 'Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited' has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited for Mithapur project.
The company claims that it is also one of the largest wind energy generators in the country with an installed capacity of 397 MW spread across five states viz. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
The Company has recently commissioned 21 MW wind project in Rajasthan.

Source : CIOL

New camera sensor may do away with flash someday soon

Singapore : The camera flash may soon be a thing of the past. A newly developed imaging sensor promises to produce clear and sharp photos even in dim lighting.

 

The sensor made by researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore is 1,000 times more sensitive to light than imaging sensors in most modern cameras.

 

"We expect our innovation will have great impact not only on the consumer imaging industry, but also in satellite imaging and communication industries, as well as the mid-infrared applications," tech site Mashable quoted the sensor's inventor Wang Qijie as saying.

 

Wang is an assistant professor at NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

 

He said this is the first time that a broad-spectrum, high photosensitive sensor has been made using pure graphene.

 

Wang said manufacturers will not have problems switching to graphene, saying the camera industry need not change its manufacturing processes - all it has to do is switch the base materials for graphene.

 

If the industry adopts his design, he said we could soon see cheaper, lighter cameras with longer battery lives.

 

For its part, Mashable said the new sensor may have applications not only in point-and-shoot cameras, but also in surveillance and satellite cameras.

 

The new sensor uses "light-trapping" nanostructures that use graphene as a base. The nanostructures hold onto light-generated electron particles much longer than current sensors.

 

"We have shown that it is now possible to create cheap, sensitive and flexile sensors from graphene alone," Wang said.

 

Graphene

 

Graphene, a one atom-thick layer of the mineral graphite, is a strong carbon compound with a honeycomb structure.

 

The structure makes it "as flexible as rubber, more conductive than silicon and which resists heat better than a diamond," Mashable said.

 

With such properties, graphene has been touted as the building material of the future, winning Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for their work with it.

 

Graphene's properties make for stronger electric signals, which can be processed into an image, compared to the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor used by present cameras. 

Source : gmanetwork

Nicobar islands declared a world biosphere reserve by Unesco

LONDON: The highly threatened Nicobar islands of India - home to 1,800 animal species and some of the world's most endangered tribes, has now been designated as a world biosphere reserve.

The island is home to the indigenous Shompen people, semi-nomadic hunters living inland and the Nicobarese, who are coastal dwellers dependent on fishing and horticulture.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are an archipelago of approximately 527 islands, islets and rocks. This underwater mountain range manifests itself above water as a chain of emerald islands of exceptional beauty and conservational importance. The islands’ immense biological diversity is a result of ocean boundaries enclosing a wide range of ecosystems - open oceans, shallow seas and reefs, sandy beaches, rocky shores and sea caves, mangroves and wetlands, littoral forests, giant lowland evergreens and hill top forests on this 6000sq km land.

Source : TOI