Sarkozy visit to India

Aparna Jha

The recent visit of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to India came with some good results, strengthening the bilateral ties in the different sectors including the IT, education, defence or the culture. Sarkozy has promised to double the bilateral business to 1200 million Euro till 2012.

The French president came on a four day visit to India with his wife Carla Bruni on December 4-7. Contrary to the US president, Barack Obama who landed at the financial capital of the country, he landed at the IT capital of India Bangalore.

India and France have enjoyed a good bilateral relation since long, especially in the sector of defense and military cooperation between India and France. In fact when India desired to diversify its military relation in the early 1990s, France was the first to respond. It all started with the supply of French omnipotent flying machines mirage-2000. Over the years, these air crafts have had Indian air force fly high in the skies.

Later in the 1998, India and France took this bilateral relation to a strategic level since the time a high level defense committee has been meeting and the countries entered into a lot of agreements. There is a (JWG) Joint working group on terrorism to aid co-operation in ‘fight against the terrorism’.

The French president signed a total of seven deals with the India. A deal on general framework for the implementation of EPR N-power plants at Jittapur between NPCIL and the French company AREVA was signed which would produce 1650mw nuclear energy. Prior to this, in the area of the nuclear cooperation India had signed a deal with the France in the September 2008, which was a land mark agreement on civil nuclear co-operation between India and France during the PM’s visit to France. Thereafter a MoU was signed between NPCIL and the French firm AREVA, some time in February 2009, for setting up two European pressurized reactors in India.

Among the other deals are confidentiality of technical data, information on Nuclear cooperation including nano-technology, bio-technology, weather prediction, aerospace engineering etc. an IPR was also signed on the peaceful use of energy, cooperation Between ISRO and French space agency over earth system science and climate.

In a bid to strengthen the cultural relation the two countries signed a deal on December 6, 2010 to co-produce the film. It will enhance the cultural interaction and will strengthen the cultural ties. Now an Indian producer a can produce a movie with a French production house by paying 10 percent of the total budget. A movie produced in India can be treated as a national film in France and the third countries. The pact will also allow French production houses to shoot in India through tax rebates and relaxed visa norms.

There have been some good deals in the area of education, providing room to the Indian students to get education or research in the France and also providing a chance to work together with the students there. A deal has been signed in the field of Research and technology, with a thought of establishing a joint laboratory for research and partnership of IIT and IIS with French university and research centers for Deal between IIT and ‘Paris tech’ for the institutional and the student exchange and joint research and education programme. The number of Indian students in France was 1500 till 2007 which the French president assured to triple till 2012.

the visit overall was not that much hyped as of the USA president, but in the terms of business it did more than the prior one.

Hazar Chaurasivein ki Maa: Mahashweta Devi

Aparna Jha

Today, I completed the widely famous novel, Hazar Chaurasivein Ki Maa, written by the well known writer Mahashweta Devi. It was very long ago when I read my last novel. Don’t know why but while reading the book I felt as if I have lost the habit of reading. I used to read novels in continuation or say I was addict of it. Even if I started reading a novel during my exams I used to complete in that duration, be it any way, keeping these novels inside my textbooks or read at some place so that the family members could not get me, otherwise I would have been scolded.

THE BOOK

The book is all about a mother, struggling with her own family to keep her son in her memories, despite the disagreement of her husband, son and daughters. Her son dies in an Andolan sort of thing, which she was unaware of, her family takes, him as a stigma on the name of the family. The Mother, Sujata is always sad that she herself loved her son so much then how it went that she could not know what way he was moving on.Her fourth and the youngest son, Vrati dies in mutiny, her husband take his death a blot on the name of his family and forces her also not to think of him, but does not do this for consoling her but to remove his name from the family, to maintain his staure in the so called higher society.

The story is based on a family of higher society, where the husband treats his wife as a source to his entertainment and physical pleasure. It also narrates how the circumstances make the lady a rebel, who had buried her wishes and ego against the desire of her family and the husband especially. A sentence "zindagi mein jo cheezein ham apni ichcha k viruddha karte hain wohi kartavya hai" really it stopped me and i was compelled to think over this. The story is really a pathetic one, and describes how a mother chained in the responsibility of the family and maintaining the status of the family in the higher society does not get a chance to mourn even on her son’s death. The story is of just one day from the morning to night.

The name, Hazar Chauraseevein ki Maa refers to the number of his son who was nowhere registered in the crime list neither a list. She is not even allowed to think about him and neither can she cry like a lady who has lost her son in a similar sort of mutiny.

Sarcozy visit to India

 

Aparna Jha
The recent visit of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy to India came with some
good results, strengthening the bilateral ties in the different sectors including
the IT, education, defence or the culture. Sarkozy has promised to double the
bilateral business to 1200 million Euro till 2012.

The French president came on a four day visit to India with his wife Carla Bruni
on December 4-7. Contrary to the US president, Barack Obama who landed at
the financial capital of the country, he landed at the IT capital of India Bangalore.

India and France have enjoyed a good bilateral relation since long, especially
in the sector of defense and military cooperation between India and France. In
fact when India desired to diversify its military relation in the early 1990s, France
was the first to respond. It all started with the supply of French omnipotent flying
machines mirage-2000. Over the years, these air crafts have had Indian air force
fly high in the skies.

Later in the 1998, India and France took this bilateral relation to a strategic
level since the time a high level defense committee has been meeting and the
countries entered into a lot of agreements. There is a (JWG) Joint working group
on terrorism to aid co-operation in ‘fight against the terrorism’.

The French president signed a total of seven deals with the India. A deal on
general framework for the implementation of EPR N-power plants at Jittapur
between NPCIL and the French company AREVA was signed which would
produce 1650mw nuclear energy. Prior to this, in the area of the nuclear
cooperation India had signed a deal with the France in the September 2008,
which was a land mark agreement on civil nuclear co-operation between India
and France during the PM’s visit to France. Thereafter a MoU was signed
between NPCIL and the French firm AREVA, some time in February 2009, for
setting up two European pressurized reactors in India.

Among the other deals are confidentiality of technical data, information on
Nuclear cooperation including nano-technology, bio-technology, weather
prediction, aerospace engineering etc. an IPR was also signed on the peaceful
use of energy, cooperation Between ISRO and French space agency over earth
system science and climate.

In a bid to strengthen the cultural relation the two countries signed a deal on
December 6, 2010 to co-produce the film. It will enhance the cultural interaction

and will strengthen the cultural ties. Now an Indian producer a can produce a
movie with a French production house by paying 10 percent of the total budget. A
movie produced in India can be treated as a national film in France and the third
countries. The pact will also allow French production houses to shoot in India
through tax rebates and relaxed visa norms.

There have been some good deals in the area of education, providing room to
the Indian students to get education or research in the France and also providing
a chance to work together with the students there. A deal has been signed in the
field of Research and technology, with a thought of establishing a joint laboratory
for research and partnership of IIT and IIS with French university and research
centers for Deal between IIT and ‘Paris tech’ for the institutional and the student
exchange and joint research and education programme. The number of Indian
students in France was 1500 till 2007 which the French president assured to
triple till 2012.

Palmolien import may cost dearer to CVC

Aparna Jha

The chief vigilance commissioner of India came into light after being accused in the illegal import of palmolein oil from Malaysia. He imported this oil from Malaysia during his tenure as the Kerala civil supplies secretary in 1991-92. The case is still pending in the court of enquiry commissioner and special judge (vigilance) in Tiruvananthpuram. Thomas is the eighth accused in the case of illegal export of the said oil.

The controversial import of 15,000tonnes of pamolein from Malaysia took place in october1991 to April 1992 in the tenure of the then CM of Kerala, K Karunakaran. The deal was signed without any sanction of the center i.e. any import deal can be done after the intervention or dsy the approval of the center but this rule was also violated. The conspiracy done by the Chennai based mala trading company, and the Malaysian firm, PEL caused a total loss of Rs2.84 crore to the state exchequer.

In the year 1992, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found some fault with the import of the palmolein oil done in the year 1991-92. The Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) started a probe in the year 1996 and filed charge sheet against Thomas, Karunakaran and the six other in the year of 1999. But the accused appeared in the court and got a bail on April 3 and 9, 2003. The congress government moved to Supreme Court to withdraw the case in the year 2005, but couludnt do so. The then CM K Karunakaran went to the Supreme Court to get stay and got the stay from the SC in the year 2007 and is on stay till now.

PJ Thomas was appointed as the CVC by a committee constituting of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and the home minister P Chidambaram in September 2010. Though the leader opposition was in the committee and the CVC was selected with her consent only but the opposition party BJP boycotted the oath ceremony, giving the plea that the opposition leader supported the appointment expecting the president will intervene. CVC was established in the year 1964 after the recommendations of the Shantaram committee.

About PJ Thomas

PJ Thomas- Polayil Joseph Thomas, assumed the post of the CVC on September, 2010 as the 14th CVC of India as the successor to the Pratyush Sinha, a 1969 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who took over as the CVC in the year 2006. Thomas hails from Alappuza and is a 1973 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre. His brother, Johney Joseph is also an IAS of 1972 batch.

He (PJ Thomas) started his career as sub collector at fort Kochi. He has enjoyed several prestigious government posts like, finance secretary, chief electoral officer etc. He was the founder and also the director of ‘IIM Kozhikode’ for six months. He became the chief secretary of Kerala in the year 2007 and moved to central government in January 2009 as the secretary in the ministry of the parliamentary affairs. Also he was the secretary, when the 3G spectrums were being sold.