Dutt bailed out for 7 days, TADA court next stop

The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim bail to actor Sanjay Dutt, who is serving a six-year prison term in Pune’s Yerawada jail.

A special TADA court in Mumbai had on July 31 sentenced Dutt to prison for illegal possession of weapons during the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

Yerawada jail officials will either release Dutt on Monday evening or on Tuesday depending on when they get a copy of the Supreme Court’s order. The bail is valid till the time the TADA court gives him a copy of its judgment.

The TADA court is expected to give a copy of its judgment by August 27—which will allow Dutt to spend seven days outside jail.

Dutt, after getting a copy of the TADA court’s judgment, will have to surrender before police. While on bail he has to appear once a week before a police station and cannot leave the country without the TADA court’s permission.

After getting a copy of the TADA court’s judgment, he will have to surrender before the same court for consideration of regular bail.

Dutt’s passport will remain with the TADA court. A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan granted Dutt relief considering the fact that he was on bail from October 16, 1995 to July 31, 2007.

The Supreme Court ruled that all convicts in 1993 Mumbai blasts case who have not been given copies of the TADA’s court’s judgment must get bail. This applies to both those convicted under the TADA and Arms Act.

The court also granted interim bail to five other convicts: Sameer Hingora, Aziz Ahmed Mohammad Ahmed Sheikh, Ibrahim Musa Chauhan alias Baba Chauhan, Yusuf Mohsin Nulwalla and Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi.

The court granted them bail while laying down the same conditions as put forth to Dutt.

Dutt’s lawyers had filed an appeal before the apex court challenging his conviction under the Arms Act on the ground that the gun, pistol and ammunition which he allegedly got from gangsters involved in the blasts were not recovered from him

Sanjay's Judgment Day

Pompous Turns Pensive

Sanjay Dutt was awarded six years rigorous imprisonment for illegal possession of weapons, including an AK-56 rifle, in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts by a special court in Mumbai on Tuesday

Bond With the Best

Sanjay Dutt hugs his sisters Namrata (right back facing camera) and Priya (centre left) before leaving his residence for the Tada court on July 31, 2007

Jadoo Ki Jhappi

Sanjay Dutt hugs sister Namrata as Priya (left) looks on before leaving his residence for court

Armed version of Dhruv chopper makes first flight

An armed version of the home-grown Dhruv helicopter fitted with rockets and a 20mm gun and another version with a more powerful engine made their maiden flights here on Thursday.

The "weaponised" version of the Dhruv, built by state-run aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is equipped with "fire and forget" air-to-air missiles, 70 mm rockets that can be fired in direct and indirect mode and a 20 mm gun turret.

The other Dhruv flew with the high-power Shakti engine that was jointly designed by HAL and France's Turbomeca. The Dhruv helicopters are currently powered by Turbomeca's TM 333-2B2 engines.

HAL officials said the Dhruv would also be equipped with "fire and forget" anti-tank guided missiles in the future. The military version of Dhruv would be capable of operating in day and night as well as in adverse weather conditions.

The Shakti engine was designed to meet the power requirements of the armed version of Dhruv at high altitudes. The new engine develops around 30 per cent more power than the 333-2B2 engine, which translates to a more than 150 per cent increase in payload capability.

Certification flight tests for the Dhruv powered by the Shakti engine would include tests in Bangalore, at sea level and at high altitudes. There will also be cold and hot weather and desert trials.

"The delivery of the first Dhruv with a Shakti engine should be made in the middle of 2009," HAL Chairman Ashok K Baweja told a press conference.

BMC mulls to ban all hoardings in Mumbai

By March 2008, Mumbai's skyline will be more beautified with the municipal corporation planning to ban all hoardings in south Mumbai and regulating those in the suburbs, much on the lines of Singapore and New York.

The gigantic hoardings in Mumbai suburbs could soon be a thing of the past if the Mumbai municipal corporation's proposed ban on all hoardings in south Mumbai, from Colaba to Byculla, is cleared.

This buzzing metropolis known for its colourful skyline dotted with numerous hoardings may become hoarding-free from March 2008 and the civic body's logic for this regulation.

Additional Municipal Commissioner R A Rajeev said, "These areas are congested and have heritage buildings so we need to make it clutter-free."

In its effort to give the city's landscape an aesthetic look, the revised policy will not allow hoardings on municipal properties and existing ones will be pulled-down by March 2008, top-floor occupants of residential societies can veto large hoardings on their terraces and only one hoarding will be permitted on each building.

But officials are not too clear about what happens to the scores of political banners and hoardings that often seem to flout rules?

Municipal authorities also want to ensure that hoardings in suburbs are regulated as per standard sizes. Owners are clearly not pleased with this move.

Hoarding owners association joint secretary Mangesh Borse said, "Its a biased, conniving way. We are not involved in the process."

While advertisers and hoardings owners feel the civic body is hoarding trouble, Mumbaikars rooting for a beautified skyline will have to wait and see which way this debate turns.

Dalal Street loses Rs 1.7 trillion in market cras

Stock market investors on Thursday saw a whopping Rs 1,70,000 crore being wiped off their portfolios, taking the total loss since the US subprime crisis first hit domestic bourses late last month to nearly Rs 3,30,000 crore.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share benchmark index Sensex plunged by 642.70 points, its second biggest one-day fall in absolute value terms.

The crash saw the cumulative market capitalisation of all the listed companies dropping to around Rs 42,77,000 crore, as against Rs 44,44,000 crore after the market close on August 14.

The total invested wealth in the stock market has seen a sharp erosion since July 27, when the crisis in the US subprime credit segment first reached the Indian market. Since then, the total market capitalisation on the Indian bourses has gone down by close to Rs 3,30,000 crore from more than Rs 46,00,000 crore on July 26.

The combined market value of the 30 blue chip firms on the benchmark BSE Sensex has fallen close to Rs 2,25,000 crore since July 27, including about Rs 90,000 crore on Thursday itself.

Among the Sensex blue chips, the country's most-valued firm Reliance Industries lost Rs 12,910 crore on Thursday, while the second-biggest firm in terms of market cap, ONGC, saw an erosion of Rs 7,518 crore. Both RIL and ONGC have lost close to Rs 28,000 crore each since July 27.

However, the biggest market cap loss in absolute value terms has been registered by state-run power equipments major BHEL, which has seen an erosion of more than Rs 37,000 crore since July 27.

Among other major losers, ICICI Bank and Reliance Communications have lost more than Rs 15,000 crore each, while Bharti Airtel has seen a loss of close to Rs 24,000 crore since July 27.

Infosys, TCS, Wipro, L&T, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Tata Steel have lost between Rs 5,000-10,000 crore, while NTPC and Ambuja Cement are the only two Sensex stocks that have actually registered an increase in their market value after July 26.

Besides, DLF, which is not present on the Sensex, but figures among the top ten most valued firms, has lost more than Rs 8,000 crore in the recent crash.

Budhia can't outrun poverty, returns to slum

Child prodigy Budhia Singh became a marathon runner to escape from poverty but he couldn’t outrun destiny.

Budhia, 5, has returned to the slum where he was born and where his mother sold him to a coach for Rs 800. Budhia made international headlines when two years ago he began running record distances but now once again he is just another kid in the slums.

His mother, Sukanti Singh, washes utensils for a living and can barely feed Budhia and his siblings. “Where will Budhia stay? Where will he study and practise? The government needs to give Budhia a house and coach for him to become a champion. Budhia isn’t just mine, he's everybody’s child,” says Sukanti.

The Orissa State Judo Centre, where Budhia used to practise, has been deserted for the last week and Budhia's coach Biranchi Das is in jail for allegedly torturing him.

Fame had changed Budhia’s life: he got a regular and balanced diet, training and even massages in the morning. All that has changed now: the boy once touted as India’s Olympic hope does now plays with other children in the slum. But for all that, his dreams are still very much alive.

“I can't go to school because it's too far. If I get a new coach I will start running again,” he says. The Orissa government has promised to take over Budhia's education and training.

“The government is ready to take full responsibility for Budhia's studies and sports. We want to see him become a champion," says Pramilla Mallick, Minister for Women and Child Welfare.

Budhia has yet to see those promises fulfilled though and all he can hope for is that once again he will run

Landmarks of 60 yrs: Wow WWW | What is mobile number?

A fly-over here, a Metro line there, farmlands to skyscrapers, farmers to millionaires, small cars to SUVs in multicolours… the face of India changes each time you blink your eyes. And slowly, over the 60 years since we gained Independence, the pace has been increasing.

What does ‘Independence’ mean to a generation – a majority of those logged in reading this – who were perhaps born in a free country?

It means in some ways,the freedom to choose which way that country wants to grow. We’ve had many invasions – cultural and technological – but we have always managed to take what we have wanted and discarded the rest. In the 60 years of us seeking, taking, learning, growing… here is a pick of the 10 things we chose to make our own and which in some way or the other, mark the birth and growth of a country with her own individuality.

The Landmarks of a Shining India

The Internet, since its first tentative steps in India, has become one of the country’s biggest employment exchanges and is rapidly recruiting even as I type. Well, for one, I have my job because of the Internet and you’re reading this thanks to the Net too.

In the 60 years of our Independence, it’s been a mere 15-odd years since the cyberspace began claiming Indian mind space. And to think it all started with excitement over e-mail and how easy it was to correspond globally, instantly. Today, the Internet is synonymous with convenience and even a separate lifestyle.

June 2002, I was doing a story on children being beaten in Delhi municipal schools and was talking to kids and parents in Govindpuri, one of South Delhi’s slum areas. The kids were dirty, underfed and hated school because they were beaten up there. Till an NGO called Project Why decided to help those children and take up the case of corporal punishment with the Delhi government.

Beyond tackling the child-beating, Project Why also set out to educate the children; and one of the tools they used was to install two computers in the one-room ‘school’ that the NGO set up. Where books had not helped, the kids - who had never seen a computer before - took to the instruments like play things. They learnt how to operate the computers; but the change was deeper. Today, the kids are confident, they are not shy of speaking to anyone or speaking out and they will even greet you in clear English.

One of the country’s major players in IT training, NIIT was instrumental in setting up in the regional language computer literacy programmes across India, to teach more people about computers. The idea being that more and more Indian should benefit from the technology…

Train ticket bookings, passport application, applications for LPG connections, bank transactions, email, billing at your local retail store, generation of your PAN number… the Internet and computers are the way ahead… for all of India.

Ask Suresh K* (name changed on request) from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, studying at one of India’s premiere MBA institutes in the capital today… He would perhaps be handling his father’s shop had he not been able to prepare for his entrance exams from online tutorials. He would have perhaps missed his seat — insurgent threats made it impossible for him to come down to Delhi — had he not been able to log on and check his results.

From dial-ups and waiting for the dial tone, to data cards for anywhere-anytime connectivity to broadband and Wi-fi… the road lies ahead and Indians — across the span of the country and economic divide — are logging on to the benefits.