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idee lOkam !

siri siri gAru .. bAvunnArA ? anarGaLamgA mATlADagaligE mIru .. ikkaDi kAmenTlanu kAmenTlugA chUDakunDA vATilOni nijA nijAlanu gurinchi AlOchistE I dAram andarikI Asaktikaram gA mArutundEmO.. okasAri AlOchinchanDi :)

Posted by: మిగిలేది At: 17, Jul 2006 8:20:59 PM IST

nEnu kooDaa chadavanE chadavanu.

Posted by: లొట్టాస్ At: 17, Jul 2006 0:21:45 AM IST

Intelligence fails: Blame it on him HindustanTimes The blame lies squarely at the door of one man — National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan. However you look at the incidents of terrorism in the past year – Ayodhya (5/7), Delhi (29/10), Bangalore (28/12), Varanasi (7/3) and now Mumbai — they all point to one thing: intelligence failure. And with Narayanan functioning as India’s intelligence czar, the buck stops with him. Additionally: the word is that the Navy war room leak case is going to be one of the issues dominating Parliament’s monsoon session later this month. And not just by the Opposition NDA, but also by the government’s allies, the Left. Club that with the recent cyber-security spy scandal and 11/7, and it’s clear that Narayanan has tough days ahead. The irony is that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first NSA J.N. Dixit passed away in January 2005, many in the intelligence community were glad that their own was chosen over a career diplomat — both Dixit and our first NSA Brajesh Mishra were retired IFS officials. Today it’s a different story. “Maybe a foreign service person should have been chosen,” says a professional who’s known Narayanan for decades. Says another: “Has intelligence been strengthened or weakened the past two years? I’d have to say weakened.” Deteriorating intelligence Intelligence is the key to fighting terrorism for two reasons. Firstly, there is a mantra that professionals swear by: that one response to terrorism should be making it costlier. “If ten bombs go off in Mumbai, then set off 20 in Karachi,” hypothesises a serving official, speaking anonymously. But this can only be the domain of either the Intelligence Bureau (IB) or the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). And for this the agencies presently don’t have a capability, because the Prime Minister isn’t keen. “The moment he gives the green signal, capabilities can be built up in 18 months,” says a government source. “Till then, our hands are tied.” The other aspect is defensive: aggressive intelligence operations to “penetrate” more “modules” (single-mission units). Incidents can be prevented by catching terrorists in action, or by keeping them on the run, at the very least, so that they don’t have the luxury of planning an elaborate strike like 11/7. At the moment, the aggression is missing. This is due to Narayanan’s poor man management that has led to plummeting morale. Favouritism has guided the top appointments at IB and RAW; the chiefs have been forbidden from meeting the PM (the NSA now does the intelligence briefings himself); they are seen as ill-prepared for leading their organisations; and loyalty – not merit – has been the guiding principle in key postings. Everywhere in the world, intelligence chiefs are key advisors to the head of government. “The lack of access here is the intangible that has damaged morale,” says a retired intelligence chief. This has especially hurt the IB – which after Kargil was identified as the nodal agency for counter-intelligence. More than that, it has cramped the grooming of a younger generation of IB officers – the future of India’s domestic intelligence. At the RAW, things aren’t much better; morale is down and the ever-present factionalism is up (ex-Army vs ex-IPS). Two spy scandals in two years haven’t helped. But there’s a more serious problem: Narayanan’s neglect of intelligence mechanisms set up after Kargil (see box). Desirable over vital This is partly due to Narayanan’s style. He’s said to take on too much himself. “How can someone be involved in border talks with China, the Indo-US nuclear deal and also want to know the nuts and bolts of intelligence activities?” says a bureaucrat. This has other consequences: “Papers pile up, and Narayanan loses track of things,” says another bureaucrat. That’s unlike Dixit, who took immediate decisions. And no one gets to remind Narayanan of pending matters; “He’s inaccessible,” says an official, contrasting him with Mishra, who’d give everybody time, even if it was for precisely 15 minutes. A retired intelligence chief talks about the ‘VED analysis’ (Vital, Essential, Desirable): “Mishra and Dixit focused on the Vital, while Narayanan focuses on the Desirable. In doing so, he loses track of the Vital.” And then there’s politics. “As in Rajiv Gandhi’s time (when Narayanan was the IB chief), the NSA makes the IB do a lot of political work,” says an insider. That means a diversion of resources. So countering terrorism has gotten harder. Egg on PM’s face Worse off under Narayanan has been policy, and particularly of matters linked to terrorism: Pakistan and Kashmir. The approach on both has been embarrassing for Manmohan Singh. Take the PM’s Srinagar roundtable conference in May. No homework was done to ensure the participation of the separatist Hurriyat conference. They boycotted, and the PM had egg on his face. This, surprisingly, after an April assessment that there had been no better time to sort out the Kashmir issue. And the NSA seems resigned to continuing without a clear Kashmir policy. “So expect more violence,” says an old Kashmir hand. The Pakistanis, sources say, are hopping mad that no Siachen deal has been reached, as they were given an assurance. The deal fell through due to opposition from various departments in government, which should have been dealt with by the NSA. And if giving the assurance was wrong – that too is the responsibility of the NSA. Either way, the PM is seen as insincere. Narayanan came to the job looking to clean up the intelligence community – which, by all accounts, it needs. All he’s managed to do is make a lot of enemies. Which probably wouldn’t matter so much, if over 200 people hadn’t died on Tuesday.

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 16, Jul 2006 3:18:43 PM IST

Wife : Do you want dinner? Husband : Sure, what are my choices? Wife : Yes and no.

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 14, Jul 2006 11:13:27 AM IST

Bholaji ordered a pizza and the clerk asked if he should cut it in six or twelve pieces. "Six, please. I could never eat twelve pieces."

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 13, Jul 2006 4:53:58 PM IST

nEnaitE asalu chadavanE chadavanu

Posted by: Mr. HAYAGREEVA MURTY Rachuri At: 13, Jul 2006 1:55:54 PM IST

Emi TO I daaram, telugulO unTE tvaragaa chadii vEvaaDinikadaa , inta aanglam ardam kaavaTam lEdu :-(

Posted by: Mr. ■Gumpulo Go!Vindam √ At: 13, Jul 2006 1:33:17 PM IST

Medical Emergency Kounteya Sinha Timesofindia NEW DELHI: India has started to stoop, its broad shoulders feeling the weight of the rising burden of chronic disease. And it's high time that the country's health ministry wakes up. At present, however, health minister Dr A Ramadoss is busy with more pressing issues like forcing out AIIMS director P Venugopal. Meanwhile, India is losing out on the one thing it does not have in abundance — time. Although India accounts for 16.5% of global population, it contributes to a large number of the world's diseases (see graphic above). And a disease never waits. It just becomes more chronic, more resistant and more lethal. While old hazards continue to cripple and kill, new diseases have started to rear their head. Home to around four crore diabetics 19% of the world's diabetic population, India has the dubious distinction of being the diabetic capital of the world. Nearly 12.5% of India's urban population is diabetic. The number is expected to escalate to an alarming eight crore by the year 2030. Among its more chronic complications, diabetic foot is the most devastating result. Over 50,000 leg amputations take place every year due to diabetes in India. Simultaneously, cardio vascular diseases are rising. Nearly 3.8 crore cases were detected in 2005 and experts believe the number will go up to 6.4 crore by 2015. But the health ministry's plan to introduce a national programme on CVD and diabetes is yet to take off. Tuberculosis has become the lar-gest killer among adults. According to Tuberculosis Research Centre, ne-arly 76 lakh people are suffering fr-om TB in India with nearly four la-kh dying of the disease annually. India's TB Control Programme director Dr L S Chauhan says every year, 18 lakh new cases occur in the country of which eight lakh are infectious. Unless treated properly, each infectious pulmonary TB patient can infect 10 to 15 persons a year. Ramadoss admits TB is affecting the country's economy by taking away the productive years of infected people. Despite the DOTS programme, India loses about Rs 13,500 crore annually due to TB. "That's why under the Revised National TB Control Programme Rs 1,150 crore would be spent on the disease during the next five years. DOTS have been extended throughout the country since March and about 54 lakh patients are receiving it. Over 10 lakh lives have been saved during the past five years and death rate due to TB has come down from 29% to below 4%," the minister says. Polio, which has been largely eliminated in most of the world, still exists in Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And this year, it's making a strong comeback. Nearly 60 cases have already been detected in India till June 29 as against the total number of 66 cases detected in the whole of 2005. According to officials of India's polio eradication programme, India was worst affected by polio and accounted for 83% of the world's new cases in 2002 when 1,600 cases were detected, 1,242 in UP alone. The country has consistently missed deadlines to achieve zero polio levels. The latest deadline missed was January 2005. The health ministry blames UP and Bihar and says they aren't doing enough to eliminate polio. Cancer accounts for nearly 3.3% of the disease burden and about 9% of all deaths. Nearly 10 lakh new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed in 2015, compared to about eight lakh in 2004 and nearly 6.70 lakh are expected to die. According to the Indian Cancer Society, every fifth woman with cervical cancer in the world is an Indian woman. The numbers of AIDS cases in India is also frightening. In a country of about 100 crore people, some 52 lakh are infected with HIV/AIDS. A recent UNAIDS survey has, however, pegged the number at 57 lakh.And the anti-retroviral drug has been administered only to 35,000 patients. India's plan to give it to one lakh people by early next year is being looked at by experts as unrealistic. Though India has managed to largely eliminate leprosy, it is one of only eight countries in the world to still have it. Even worse, India actually has 70% of the leprosy patients. On December 31, 2005, there were 1,06,666 leprosy patients under treatment in India. India also has the second largest pool of Hepatitis B carriers in the world 4.3 crore chronic carriers, of which 10% are highly infectious. Ministry records say one in every 20 people in India is a carrier of this deadly virus, which is the cause of 80% of all liver cancer and about 1% of all adult deaths. Even countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal have better indicators. Against India's infant mortality rate of 68 per 1,000 live births, Bangladesh has 66, Nepal 64, and Sri Lanka 8. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also have longer life expectancy at 63 and 71 against India's 62. Japanese encephalitis has also become a problem. The outbreak in UP in 2005 killed more than 1,400, mostly children. Experts say Ramadoss should be concentrating on decreasing the disease burden. The need to provide an effective response to the challenge of chronic diseases in India can no longer be ignored without imperilling India's development. And the sooner the health ministry understands that, the better.

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 13, Jul 2006 12:57:41 PM IST

Black & white: US treads a thin line Timesofindia As the country debates the merits of quotas in education and employment, it might be interesting to look at the experiences of the US which has been practicing affirmative action for quite a few years now. The term 'affirmative action' was used by US president Lyndon Johnson in 1965, when in his speech at Howard University, he gave a national justification for moving the country beyond nondiscrimination to a more sustained effort towards improving the status of black Americans. Later, during the Nixon administration, affirmative action was adopted as a federal mandate — any organisation with 50 or more employees and an aggregate revenue exceeding $50,000 from a federal contract during a twelve-month period needed to have a written affirmative action plan. However, the most prominent form of affirmative action centres on access to education, particularly admission to universities and professional courses. Race, ethnicity, social class, geographical origin, parental attendance of the university in question, and gender are often taken into account when assessing an applicant's grades and test scores. An affirmative action study by Princeton researchers in 2005 attempted to compare the effects of the practice among racial and special groups. According to the study, without affirmative action the acceptance rate for African-American candidates would be likely to fall nearly two-thirds, from 33.7% to 12.2% and could have a long-term adverse impact. The study cites the experience of the University of California where affirmative action was eliminated in 1997. Compared to 1996, the number of minority students admitted to the University of California-Berkeley Law School for fall 1997, dropped 66% from 162 to 55. Only 14 African-American applicants were granted admission compared to 75 in 1997. Many argue that affirmative action has caused reverse discrimination against whites. But the report finds that removing race considerations would increase the acceptance rate of white students by merely 0.5 percentage points. Asian applicants would be the biggest gainers, taking four out of every five places not taken by African-American and Hispanic students. Similarly, a 1995 analysis by US Department of Labor found that most such discrimination claims were found to lack merit. So has affirmative action resulted in benefits at the ground level? Most data suggests it has, though many argue that the same results could have been replicated otherwise also. Between 1960 and 1995, the percentage of blacks aged 25-29, who had graduated from college, rose from 5.4 to 15.4%; in law school, it grew from below 1% to 7.5%, and the percentage of blacks in medical school increased from 2.2% to 8.1%. The share of black students at the graduate level has increased from 6.5% in 1981 to 8.7% in 2001, at the master's level from 5.8% to 7.8%, and at the doctoral level from 3.9% to 5%. While this shows that there has been reasonable progress, considering that the share of black population is 13%, they are far from reaching parity. While the share of white population at different educational levels has declined significantly, most of the gains, particularly at the master's and doctoral level have accrued to international students.

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 13, Jul 2006 12:42:38 PM IST

Espionage files: Indian security’s leaky past : HindustanTimes.com When India tested its nuclear weapons in 1998, the US got a shock of significant magnitude. CIA officials said they did not know about the tests until then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went on television to announce it four hours after the event. Till then, the seismic data, from which the test could have been detected, had apparently not been analysed yet. The fleets of US spy satellites had been fooled; the multi-billion dollar intelligence network of the only superpower on earth had egg on its face. This spurred the US to focus on its intelligence gathering in India. It would appear that the efforts have borne fruit. If the suspicions being expressed by Indian intelligence agents are true, the US may now be in possession of information on India’s war plans for the army, navy and air force. The atomic energy establishment, which no foreign agency is known to have breached significantly in the past, may also have been compromised. Even ISRO data is thought to have leaked to the US spy agencies. Put together, it represents a leak of massive proportions. It happened because of some smart work on the part of the US agents, and the curious ‘chalta-hai’ type of loophole that is so typical of India. The National Security Council Secretariat — the repository of all this information — is not secured anywhere near as well as the individual intelligence agencies and military headquarters are. In fact, even its staff comprises a large number of part-timers on short contracts. Many of them receive meagre salaries in the range of Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 a month. The story so far is that SS Paul, a disgruntled computer analyst with the NSCS, passed on secret data from NSCS computers to Rosanne Minchew, third secretary in the US embassy in Delhi, for $50,000 (Rs 23 lakh). He did this by storing the data on USB drives and taking it out. The operation was on for about a year. Paul eventually got caught because a wing of Delhi Police knew Minchew’s role in the US embassy. They put her mobile under observation and found she was receiving SMS’ from a number that turned out to be Paul’s. He was put under surveillance, and was found to be passing classified information to her. Investigations in the case showed that Paul had been introduced to Minchew by Commander Mukesh Saini of the NSCS. Saini was the man heading the National Information Security Coordination Cell, and was an important part of the Indo-US Cyber Security Forum. In his capacity as National Information Security coordinator, he was in touch with sector cyber security officers and systems administrators in various ministries, departments and security forces. Investigators now believe Paul was not the only one who Saini introduced to US intelligence. At least five others are under suspicion for passing information to Paul, who passed it further to Minchew. The case has prompted the Intelligence Bureau to ban cell phones with advanced features from its premises. It already has software, specially developed for its use, to detect the use of USB drives on its intranet. This software logs the time a USB drive is inserted into a computer and the time it is taken out, gives the ID of the computer and its user, and lists the files accessed. The log report is sent to a designated computer. This software was not deployed at the NSCS. Sensitive ministries and departments also don’t have this software. However the problem is being seen by experts as more human than technical. If the people tasked with cyber security themselves sell out, it can’t be considered a technical failure, they point out. Cyber security expert Subimal Bhattacharjee points out that India does not have a policy on critical infrastructure protection. Moreover, security systems are not properly deployed, he adds, otherwise checks and balances would exist so that a person’s colleagues would get to know if he was taking out data. His views are echoed by J Prasanna of K7 computing, who says system administration and cyber security responsibilities should never be concentrated in one person. Banning cellphones, or USB devices, or keeping computers off the Internet do not ensure security, he adds. Monitoring use is a better option. ***Espionage files: Indian security’s leaky past Shreevatsa Nevatia & Mayank Tiwari Hindustantimes **** DRDO hard drive theft On October 6, 2003, 19 computers belonging to top-secret establishments of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Metcalfe House near ISBT were stolen. A week later, the DRDO pegged number of stolen hard drives at 27. The hard drives were stolen from the offices of the Scientific Analyses Group (SAG) and the Institute for System Studies and Analyses (ISSA) inside the DRDO complex. The SAG is responsible for cryptography. In other words, all codes and cyphers to ensure communication security for the defence forces have an SAG stamp. The ISSA, on the other hand, analyses competing weapons systems for induction into the armed forces. Almost three years after their disappearance, the Delhi Police still has no answer on the whereabouts of the 27 hard drives. Senior officials of the Delhi Police refused to comment on the status of the case. DRDO maintains the hard drives contained no data of any great importance. Rabinder Singh Rabinder Singh came on deputation to RAW from the army in the 1980s. He held the rank of major at that time but did not go back to the army on completion of his deputation. He gave up his lien in the army and chose to be permanently absorbed in RAW as a member of its Research and Analysis Service. It is said there was a question mark over his reliability since the early 1990s when he began an operation for the collection of intelligence about US government activities in South Asia through a sister of his, who was employed in a sensitive US agency with links to the CIA. Singh’s colleagues detected his misdeeds due to the practice of ‘restrictive security’ based on the need-to-know principle. Singh showed undue interest in matters outside his professional ambit. However, the RAW’s inability to decide when to arrest Singh only enabled him to escape from their clutches in 2004. After he came under suspicion of working for US intelligence, Singh was found absconding from his duties for nearly three weeks and is suspected to have fled abroad, most probably to the US via Nepal. Rattan Sehgal In 1996, Rattan Sehgal was a contender for the top job in the IB. Sehgal had served for some years in the ministry of external affairs and was responsible for internal security and counter-intelligence in the MEA. After reverting to the IB at the end of his MEA tenure, he became the head of its counter-intelligence division. It was alleged that without the knowledge of the Director of the IB, Sehgal maintained relationships with foreign intelligence officers, which he had built up in the MEA. The IB's counter-intelligence division reportedly found that a woman CIA officer posted in the US embassy was in contact with government servants and others on a mobile telephone, allegedly registered in the name of their boss, the suspect IB officer. They brought this to the notice of the director, IB. A joint counter-intelligence team of IB and RAW then kept him under surveillance, collected video-recordings of his clandestine meetings with the CIA officer and then confronted him with the evidence. He reportedly admitted his contacts with her. It was stated that during the investigation it was found that apart from facilitating her operational work by hiring a mobile in his name and giving it to her, he had not betrayed any sensitive secrets. He was reportedly sent on premature retirement. KV Unnikrishnan Before his arrest in 1987, KV Unnikrishnan headed the RAW’s operation in Madras and was directly in charge of Indian dealings with Sri Lankan Tamil militants based in Tamil Nadu. Although he was not part of the decision-making apparatus, as field coordinator of Tamil militants he was privy to most of the details of the secret negotiations involving New Delhi, Colombo and the militant Tamil groups. During a tenure in Colombo as the RAW’s representative in 1981, he had become friendly with an unnamed US consular official and, together with him, engaged in several extra-marital affairs with unidentified women. After his return to India, he was briefly stationed in New Delhi before moving to Madras. Sometime in 1985, a woman describing herself as a stewardess with Pan American Airways telephoned him from Bombay to say that his American consular friend had told her to contact him if she felt lonely. Unnikrishnan flew from Madras to Bombay and a liaison developed between the two. During 1985-86, she gave him complimentary air tickets to fly to Singapore. During those jaunts in Singapore, compromising photographs of the stewardess and her lover were taken. These photographs and other documents were recovered by mid ’86 and it was learnt that Unnikrishnan was working for the CIA. He was dismissed under Article 311 (2) of the Constitution and jailed in Tihar for a year. Larkins Brothers At a party in 1978, Major General (retd) FD Larkins met an American who went by the name of Jockey. The retired Larkins would often visit the Army Headquarters to sell them products made by Meakins, his then employer. Jockey promised Larkins suitable rewards if he kept his eyes and ears open when he visited the AHQ. Over the months, Jockey’s demands kept getting more specific and Larkins was forced to rope in Lt Col (retd) Jasbir Singh in 1979 and his brother K H Larkins (a retired Indian Air Force office) in 1981. On March 24, 1983, Group Captain Jasjit Singh, posted at the Air Headquarters (AHQ), had informed his boss, Air Vice Marshal S Raghavendran that a retired officer, K.H. Larkins was inducing him to part with secret IAF manuals. Senior IAF officials were consulted and it was decided that Jasjit Singh should play along with Larkins. During the seven-month long vigil that followed, the authorities managed to establish an incriminating pattern in the clandestine meetings F.D. Larkins had with Bud (a replacement for Jockey) and his trips to the bank to deposit money he received from the US agents. On November 9, 1983, Raghavendran lodged a confidential complaint under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) with the espionage cell of the Delhi Police. The residence of F.D. Larkins was raided and incriminating documents as well as an unlicensed weapon recovered. KH Larkins was arrested in Lucknow and brought to Delhi. The Larkins’ interrogations led to the arrest of Singh and it was found that Jockey and Bud were CIA operatives. The Larkins were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment under the OSA in 1985 but received bail in 1989, which was later cancelled in 2001 by order of the Delhi High Court. Samba Spy Case A gunner in the Indian army, Sarwan Dass first went to Pakistan in February 1971. By 1974, he began working for its army's Field Intelligence Unit at Sialkot on a regular basis. In the June of 1975, Dass was arrested on suspicion of espionage but by then he had persuaded some of his colleagues (including a certain Aya Singh) to become accomplices. Dass jumped off the running train at Jalandhar, while being taken to Pathankot, on July 2, 1975, went over to Pakistan and stayed in Sialkot. On February 10, 1976, he was arrested after his return. The police handed him over to Military Intelligence (MI) on April 10, 1976 and he remained in its custody until July 1978. On the other hand, Aya Singh was arrested by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) while crossing into India in July 1975, only to be reinstated in 1978. He was then discharged from the Army in 1983; arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in February 1985 as he tried to enter India from Pakistan; released on bail in 1986; escaped to Pakistan in January 1987; re-arrested in India on July 2, 1987; sentenced to two years' imprisonment; and shot dead in December 1990 while crossing the border again. On the basis of Dass and Singh’s confessions, the MI implicated and arrested 50-odd persons who had worked in the 168 Infantry Brigade and its subordinate units at Samba (40 km from Jammu). Those arrested were court marshalled and imprisoned. In 1994, Sarwan Dass swore an affidavit and appeared at a press conference to admit that he had falsely implicated the men.

Posted by: Mr. Siri Siri At: 13, Jul 2006 12:38:07 PM IST

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