Anna Hazare Fasts Unto Death Starting 5th April 2011

Anna Hazare is demanding enactment of a strong anti-corruption law - Jan Lokpal Bill - to ensure swiftness and certainty of punishment to the corrupt.

Will his fast have any impact on the deaf Government of India?

Yes, it certainly would. Because, last time when Anna sat on fast -

• 6 corrupt ministers in Maharashtra had to resign

• 400 corrupt officers were dismissed from job

• 2002 - Maharashtra RTI Act was passed

• 2006 - Central Government withdrew its proposal to amend Central RTI Act

Now Anna is fasting to demand Jan Lokpal Bill.

JAN LOKPAL BILL will act as deterrent and instill fear in the minds of corrupt people.

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, this Bill has been refined on the basis of feedback received from public on website and after series of public consultations. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, J M Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare etc. It was sent to the PM and all CMs on 1st December.

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in amonth’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through acompletely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

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Schools And Colleges To Check Tobacco Sale

Tobacco usage by students not only creates health hazards but also develops criminal instincts in them. The Delhi high court said this on Wednesday, asking all educational institutions in the capital to check the sale of tobacco in their vicinity.

The division bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said passive smoking is as dangerous as active smoking and can cause serious health hazards among children. The court also asked Delhi University to issue directions to its colleges to appoint nodal officers to ensure no tobacco outlet is found within a 100-yard radius of the campuses. HC made it clear that the order extends to professional colleges, too.

The court directed the commissioner of police to comply with its earlier order to initiate a departmental inquiry against officers concerned if any shop was found selling tobacco products near any school or college.

"The nodal officer may intimate area SHOs and concerned DCPs if anyone sells tobacco in violation of the Control of Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and the police to take action," said the bench.

"We would like the commissioner of police to take action in compliance with the provisions of the Act in larger public interest. The commissioner shall collect action taken report from the task force once a week and may depute an officer to analyze the reports. If required, more task forces may be constituted," the bench said.

To create awareness among sellers about the law, and to educate students about the diseases caused by tobacco consumption, the court directed the chief secretary of Delhi, in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare to give wider publicity in print and electronic media.

The HC directions came after an NGO, World Lung Foundation, petitioned the court, alleging that COTPA was not implemented in true spirit. It told the bench that it had recently conducted a survey in 1,023 of 5,106 schools and 28 of 323 colleges under the Delhi University and found outlets selling tobacco near them.

The Act covers prohibition of advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution of tobacco products, the NGO said.

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Glenmark Discovers Cancer Drug, Gains To Reflect Long Term

Shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rose nearly 2.5% on Thursday after the pharma giant announced discovery of a blood cancer drug GBR 401, which falls under biologic category of medicines. Athough discovery of the drug is a positive development, its impact on the company’s financials is a long term story, analysts said.

Biologics include a wide range of medicinal products such as vaccines, blood and blood components created by biological processes.

“It is a positive development for the company,” said Deepika Jain, senior analyst at KR Choksey. “We need to see when the company goes for out-licensing the product and file further trials of the drugs, which is currently under processing mode. The company has total of 10 molecules in pipeline out of which two are in-licensed and one-out-licensed. It's progressing well and the launch is expected in Q4FY12 and post FY15, respectively. All these discoveries hold future potentials.”

Good amount of funding is required in carrying out research to discover drugs. Hence, companies out-license the product to other companies, who also enjoy rights to the medicine. In turn, the former gets an upfront payment from the latter. KR Choksey has given a buy call on the stocks with a target price of Rs 379 while FirstCall set a target price of Rs 400. The stock is trading at a price to book value of 4.38x, which looks attractive. It has generated a positive return of over 14% in the last one month.

“Glenmark Pharmaceuticals S.A. (GPSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited India (GPL), announces the discovery and initiation of IND enabling studies of a Novel Biological Entity (NBE) lead candidate, GBR 401, an anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody. GBR 401 is developed completely in-house by Glenmark’s Biologics Research Centre located in Switzerland,” reads the press release sent by the company.

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What A Way To Run Health Care 'Reform'

A complex series of mandates goes in search of the relevant facts

As West Virginia state government tries to follow the federal mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - the old adage looks truer and truer.

Haste makes waste.

A year after Democrats passed the law, state officials still have basic questions as they try to comply with the mandates of the more than 2,000-page measure.

At issue is a Health Insurance Exchange, under which, starting in 2014, the state would regulate the benefit packages insurance companies can offer, and private health insurers would offer plans.

No one seems to know how many uninsured people would use such an exchange to buy their mandated health insurance.

Officials face a number of options, all of them dizzying.

Medicaid would cover families with annual incomes of as much as 133 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that figure would be $29,300.

But some people will make too much for that. So West Virginia could create a whole new basic state-run program to cover people whose income is 133 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That would cover families of four whose annual household income is between $29,300 and $44,100.

[Source]

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Now, SSIs Can Bank On Life Cover

Now a small-scale industrialist can avail of a bank loan on the strength of a term insurance plan. Farmers can now bank on a social security net, provided they have a Kissan credit card.

Not only can a farmer provide for his retirement but can also look after his family interests in the unlikelihood of his demise. All this follows SBI Life Insurance Company’s launch of SBI Life Swadhan and SBI Lifelong pensions-group Kisan credit card (KCC) holders’ scheme today.

The former is a term insurance cover, which offers the benefit of a refund of premium facility.

Under the KCC insurance product, farmers have the option of earmarking a regular amount for their old age requirement in addition to enjoying life insurance cover till the age of 60.

“We have customised the international bancassurance model to suit the local environment as India is unique and needs to offer tailor-made solutions to the masses,” said SBI Life managing director and CEO R Krishnamurthy.

Today, the banking sector is adverse to give credit to SSIs due to the lack of collateral. “We hope that having capped the maximum coverage under the Swadhan product at Rs 1 crore, banks will be more open to offer loans to SSI units,” said Krishnamurthy.

He however, dismissed the argument that the product would act as an aid for banks to bring down their non-performing assets. “It is not aimed at NPA orientation, but rather helps improve credit perspective as a small industrialist can take a loan and the term insurance cover can act as a collateral for the bank,” said Krishnamurthy.

The KCC scheme targeted to offer a social security net to farmers, will initially be rolled out in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where State Bank of India (SBI) has issued maximum gold Kisan cards. It will then be extended across the country by the year end.

Within four years of launch, there are 24 million Kisan cards today, of which 30 per cent have been issued by commercial banks. SBI alone has issued over 1.9 million cards to date and the numbers are increasing monthly.

In addition to pension saving, the Kisan cardholder could choose to take life insurance protection by paying a nominal amount as premium, said Krishnamurthy.

SBI Life has emerged a leader in the group life insurance business with a 30 per cent market share of the aggregate premium income of Rs 35 crore private sector players generated through the sale of group products, said Krishnamurthy.

SBI Life posted a 391.55 per cent rise in premium income at Rs 72.75 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003, compared with Rs 14.8 crore last year.

The total business undertaken has crossed Rs 4,000 crore while the total number of lives covered have exceeded five lakh, said Krishnamurthy.

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India-Pakistan - Cricket Not Always A Winner

Cricket can bond both India and Pakistan together. But, going by the past, using cricket diplomacy to cement the ties between the two countries has not gone too far. But a high-level India-Pakistan meeting with cricket as the primary context has a saving grace, reckons many — the expectations that ride high on formal summit-level meetings can be brought down, and leaders get an informal environment to understand each other’s mind.

So, will Manmohan Singh become luckier in his second stint with cricket diplomacy?

Also, for the first time, a democratically elected prime minister from Pakistan is being part of the cricket diplomacy, though many in the Indian system doubt the power of the present-day government in Islamabad to push ahead the dialogue process with India.

"I think, Manmohan Singh is very serious and has the intentions to take the peace process forward. The meet coincides with the resumption of the dialogue process," says former foreign secretary Salman Haidar, who helped in the dialogue process between the two countries that had been abandoned after the 26/11 attack.

Though there is always an opportunity to begin afresh, the cricket diplomacy of the past has not been so inspiring.

Past imperfect
When he had come to Jaipur in February 1987 to watch the second day’s proceedings of an India-Pakistan test match, President Zia-ul-Haq had drummed up the visit as part of his "cricket initiative"and his trip came after many years of suspended cricketing ties.

But by 1989, things had gone terribly wrong with Kashmir situation going from bad to worse.

Musharraf magic
In March 2004, when India toured Pakistan, ties were on an upswing.

In January that year, President Musharraf reassured the then PM Vajpayee that Pakistan will not permit any territory under it's control to be used for terrorism in any manner against India, laying the ground for composite dialogue.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi watched a match in Karachi and then national security advisor Brajesh Mishra was seen during a match in Lahore.

In 2005, Manmohan Singh invited Musharraf to watch an India-Pakistan one-day match in New Delhi, which again created the right atmospherics and statements, including the resolve the terrorism should not have hamper the peace process.

"If some thing goes wrong, the peace process can go wrong, too. It doesn't mean India and Pakistan shouldn’t engage each other,"

[Source]

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Different Ways To Quit Smoking Naturally

Many people would like to learn how you can of course smoking to stop. There are actually many different tips with the smoking to stop and that includes the use of herbs and other forms of alternative medicine. To learn how should stop smoking with the course one the effects be aware, smoking on the life of smokers and non-smoking.

The need to stop smoking course

There is a reason, why should it naturally without the aid of drugs and other synthetic drugs smoking. The main reason is to avoid any dangerous side effects, which can be fatal by the user. When you stop smoking course, is there a certain security in the fact that the most natural herbs that help to give up smoking at all little or even no dangerous side-effects have. Most of the herbs that help, stop smoking naturally are also mild and smoking can be cheaper than most drugs to inhibit.

Forms of herbs in how to quit smoking naturally

The use of herbs stop smoking is somewhat controversial, since many of the herbs also technically \”\” smoked will give smoking up to you to get. Other forms of herbs are in tea form or other forms of drinks. Most of these herbs have a calming effect, which can facilitate the separation anxiety, the you in the resolve of not to more smoke can have.

Other herbs are chewed to stop the tension and increase the nervousness that one can believe if you try, ways to learn, to help in the form of chewing gum, ease. Most people use the nausea and the nervousness to facilitate you sometimes feel smoking. An another habit can be if not as bad as smoking, such as chewing gum, an alternative to smoking.

Some herbs are used also in the form of tea to suppress the nervousness, which sometimes requires a cigarette to help. This naturally smoking stop can be really beneficial as many herbal substances, which not only help to suppress the need for cigarettes, but also other beneficial substances and have to be loaded.

Acupuncture is also another form of alternative medicine, which can be counted as one of the many natural ways to quit smoking. There are certain nerves and spots in the body, actually to demand, if made exactly can stop. There are certain points that can help to reduce, nervousness and other tics, the, where appropriate, the reassurance of a cigarette. These methods are almost certain to stop smoking naturally to help.

To have an effective way to stop should accompany also the determination to do with the support of your family and friends. This allows your family and friends to take part at watches over you and support you in your weak moments.

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Do You Drink Too Much Alcohol

I hate to say, but if you drink your habits and patterns in question provide, more than likely have a drinking problem. Comment if people in your environment to your drink are can then you to hear. If alcohol is negative impact on your life and you continue to drink, then you have a drinking problem.

While it can be can seem to be no silver lining in this cloud I say with authority that it is a silver lining – the majority of people, stop drinking you want nothing more than willpower. It is not uncommon that many people who regularly reach where you simply decide to stop, to a point, is it from medical or social, drink.

Unfortunately, many have to not the willpower quit cold Turkey and find to achieve for a drink. In this case is the problem of one of dependency and even abuse. It is, if this behavior is not normal that reached the point of alcoholism.

If you and your family are affected by your drinking habits is help available. Their first port of call should be your doctor, who can advise you on whether drugs will be necessary as well as you care centers in end can help. Alcoholics Anonymous is another option for those who looking for group and one on a support.

The Internet is another resource, who need the help, you, you to live a life free of dependence on alcohol. Able to speak, to understand your situation are important for the success of your effort.

You will discover how easy it is drinking of alcohol by the support of people, that it, been to stop and understand the real hardships involved in.

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Hair Loss Surgery-important Information To Know

Search for a solution to this problem is very important for you, if you use hair loss of life. Hair loss surgery is an option to learn more.

Now, this operation is not right for everyone. Before you need to decide whether it for you or not is the right thing, you know some important information about you. This will help you to make a more informed decision.

Choose not always this surgery until you know that it will be right for you, because it is very expensive to have done it. Is the first thing you need to find out if you can afford.

Most people use this only as a last effort to prevent their hair loss because this surgery can run anywhere from $4,000 to $15,000.

It is very important for you to understand what exactly this operation. What, in fact, surgeon is used your hair and skin, and then it planted in all environments, missing hair. This can be a lengthy process.

The expected result is that after the operation, the scalp look is, as there were no hair are removed and the surgery replaced you look all the hair, are missing, as you a full head of hair.

This surgery for hair loss can be a useful tool for many people, but it is not for everyone and that is, time, take why you have to speak a professional before you make your decision. For this type of operation you have also to you about the side effects learn speak.

Most people are people in the advanced stages of hair loss or are of an age where you not be able, will improve your hair loss in the course of time to use this treatment for hair loss.

Now, that you know about this important information, you are a more informed decision about whether this operation is right for you in the position.

Simply, do you like yourself one and talk to a professional about hair loss surgery before you make your final decision. This could prevent your best choice for the loss of more of your hair, but you will not know if you don\’t have the time to explore this option in conjunction with others.

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Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa Declare Assets

Chennai, Mar 25 (IBNS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his rival J Jayalalithaa are worth a little less than Rs 100 crore if their declared assets are clubbed together.

While Karunanidhi has declared assets worth Rs 41 crore, Jayalalithaa has come out with assets of Rs 51 crore.

Both the leaders have made their assets public as per the Election Commission guidelines ahead of next month’s state Assembly polls.

Karunanidhi’s assets include the property of his two wives Dayalu and Rajathi.

His own assets amount to Rs 4.92 crore.

Dayalu, mother of Union minister MK Alagiri and state deputy CM Stalin, owns immovable properties worth Rs 15.4 crore.

She also has a car worth Rs 16 lakhs and 60 per cent stake in Kalaignar TV, valued at Rs 6 crore.

Besides, Dayalu owns gold jewellery worth Rs 10.96 lakhs and other jewellery worth Rs 1.6 lakhs and a house in Tiruvarur worth Rs.5.51 lakhs.

Rajathi, mother of MP Kanimozhi, has immovable property worth Rs 20.6 crore.

She also has 25 lakh shares worth Rs 2.5 crore in Westgate Logistics firm and gold jewellery worth Rs 9.85 lakhs.

Rajathi also owns a house in Chennai valued at Rs 3.14 crore.

Jayalalithaa, a former Tamil Nadu chief minister herself, has declared assets worth Rs 51.40 crore.

The assets include Rs 25,000 cash in hand and bank balance of Rs 4.5 lakhs and five cars worth Rs 8.35 lakhs.

She also has agricultural land worth Rs 11.3 crore and owns four commercial buildings in Chennai and Hyderabad valued at Rs 6 crore 39 lakhs.

Jayalalithaa also revealed that bank deposits amounting to Rs 2 crore and investment in shares worth Rs.50,000 have been seized by the police and given to the custody of the court.

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