Friday 28 February 2014

Go online, change name in a day

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 


Mumbai: The state government will launch an online facility from March 15 for those who want to change their name. It promises the switch in a day. 
    Today it takes a minimum of three months for the name change to be gazetted. 
People are forced to make numerous trips to the Charni Road government press. 
    “Now it will be done within a day,” said IT secretary Rajesh Agarwal. 
    The state government will launch a scheme within a week for online filing of complaints against errant autorickshaw and taxi driv
ers. People will be able to lodge their complaints online by dialling *166# on their mobile phones. 
    Virendra Singh, director, IT, said it was the Centre’s scheme and every state could launch various schemes on the platform. The state also introduced a scheme to verify certificates.



Source :::: The Times  of India, p.8,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/28&PageLabel=8&EntityId=Ar00802&ViewMode=HTML

‘Can a woman outrage modesty of another?’ 
Court Seeks To Know Legal Provision

Rosy Sequeira TNN 


Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday questioned if a woman can be accused of outraging the modesty of another woman and sought the legal provisions for it. 
    A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice V L Achliya on Thursday heard a petition by a family of six from a Borivli housing society, including the 78-year-old matriarch Sarlaben Shah, seeking to quash an FIR filed against them by neighbour Preeta Jain (55). 
    It started with a dispute over grilles that the Shahs fitted outside their ground-floor flat, which was opposed by their neighbours, including the Jain family. During an argument, Sarlaben’s granddaughter was allegedly assaulted and manhandled. On October 23, 2009, she lodged a complaint of molestation against Jain’s son and husband and an FIR was registered. 
    A few months later, on February 27, 2010, the Jains also got an FIR registered against the Shahs and the charges included molestation. 
    In the court, Shah’s advo
cate Pradeep Havnur questioned how two FIRs could be registered for the same incident. “It is absurd that a 78-year-old woman can be accused of molesting another woman,” he exclaimed. At that, the judges questioned if a woman could indeed molest another woman and what was the legal position. “This is a serious question. Can a woman molest another woman? Even scientifically? Because there are the allegations,” said Justice Patil. “Go through the law. If a woman does commit such an act, can she be tried under the available law for molesting a woman?” 
    On going through section 354 of the IPC, the judges noted 
that while the section began with the word “whoever”, it later went on to refer to the accused as a “he” and the victim a “she”. “Can a woman be accused of outraging the modesty of another woman under section 354? Get the legal position,” said Justice Patil to Havnur. The judges pointed out that even the amended section 354 A referred to an act committed by a man on a woman. While parting with the matter, the judges said housing societies must intervene and sort out such problems instead of parties filing cross-complaints and coming to court.     (Names of disputing parties changed) 

SPAT AT BORIVLI SOCIETY 
In 2009, the Shah family in Borivli fitted grilles outside their groundfloor flat, which was apparently opposed by some of their neighbours, including Preeta Jain’s family. During an argument, the Shah family matriarch’s granddaughter was allegedly 
assaulted and manhandled. They lodged a complaint of molestation against Jain’s son and husband on Oct 23, 2009. On Feb 27, 2010, the Jains lodged a counter-complaint, against the Shahs, one of the charges being molestation 

Section 354 of Indian Penal Code 
Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty. Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.




Source :::: The Times  of India, p.5,    http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/28&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00500&ViewMode=HTML

State NGOs get over 3,000cr from abroad

Prafulla Marpakwar TNN 


Mumbai: Non-governmental and voluntary organizations based in Maharashtra have mobilized a whopping Rs 3,056 crore from foreign agencies during the last three years. 
    When the issue of foreign funding of NGOs and voluntary organizations was raised in Parliament, Union minister of state for home Mullappally Ramchandran disclosed that 2,103 organizations had received Rs 915.4 crore in 2011, 2,059 of them got Rs 1,107.39 crore in 2012 and 1.443 obtained nearly Rs 1,034 crore last year. 
    Some MPs had asked for specific details of foreign funds received by NGOs and voluntary organizations; whether these funds are misused owing to poor monitoring; whether these outfits were filing annual returns and if there was a ceiling on receiving donations from abroad. 
    At the national level, the minister disclosed that 23,063 organizations had
received Rs 10,354 crore in 2011, 22,710 managed Rs 11,550 crore in 2012 and 16,557 of them got Rs 10,821 crore in 2013. 
    The minister said the government has been monitoring the receipt and utilization of foreign contribution received by Indian entities, including individuals and NGOs, under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Further, the government undertakes random scrutiny of returns furnished by NGOs and VOs which have been granted permission to receive foreign contributions. 

352 NGOs in state delicensed for not filing returns 
Mumbai: Apart from routine monitoring of NGOs and voluntary organizations, inputs from field agencies or complaints against associations too are thoroughly probed. “Wherever required, inspection of accounts and records of such associations is undertaken,’’ Union minister of state for home Mullappally Ramchan
dran informed Parliament. 
    So far, at the national level, 24 cases of violation have been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation and 10 cases have been referred to the state police for investigation and prosecution. As per procedure, a show-cause notice is issued to those associations that don’t file annual returns in the prescribed format. “After a stipulated time, such associations 
have to pay a compounded penalty. If violation of laws is confirmed, process of cancellation of registration is initiated. Registration of 4,138 organizations, including 352 from Maharashtra, has been cancelled due to non-submission of annual returns,’’ he said. 
    The minister admitted that there is no upper limit for receipt of foreign contribution by associations. “There is no such 
provision in the rules,’’ he said. 
    As per the report tabled in Parliament, two cases from Maharashtra were referred to the CBI for investigation. In the first instance, a chargesheet was filed on May 22, 1989 and the case is at the pre-charge stage. In the second, a chargesheet was filed on December 12, 1996 and the case is listed for crossexamination of witnesses after framing of charges.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Weddings in party offices invalid: HC


Kochi: Kerala high court has held as invalid marriages conducted at the offices of CPM and other political parties. The ruling in this regard was passed on Monday by a division bench comprising justices Antony Dominic and Anil K Narendran on apetition filed by the father of a young woman seeking custody of his daughter, who went missing on February 10. 
    The police produced the woman and informed the court that she had got married on February 19 at the CPM local committee office at Nedumudi in Kuttanad. The bench then held that the marriage was not legally valid as it should either be solemnized before a marriage officer appointed under statutory provisions or as per religious rites. AGENCIES



Source::: The Times of India, 26-02-2014, p.9,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/26&PageLabel=9&EntityId=Ar00905&ViewMode=HTML

Courses from 3 IITs, IISc are in global top 50

IIT-B Best All-Rounder With 4 On List

Hemali Chhapia TNN 


Mumbai: Four Indian universities, including the IITs at Delhi and Mumbai, are among the global top 50 in at least one of the 30 disciplines covered under the QS World University Rankings by Subject. 
    IIT-Delhi achieved the country’s highest position, ranking 42nd in electrical engineering. IIT-Bombay was 49th in electrical engineering and 50th in civil engineering, IIT-Madras 49th in civil engineering and the Indian Insti
tute of Science 46th in materials science. 
    No course from Indian universities figure in areas such as arts, humanities and social sciences. IIT-Bombay is the only one in the top 200 in any of the five arts and humanities disciplines, ranking in the 151-200 grouping for linguistics (see box). 
    The five life sciences disciplines feature only two Indian institutions, while India draws a blank in six of the eight social sciences disciplines. The exceptions are sta
tistics, in which five Indian entities — IIT-D, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, Indian Statistical Institute and IIT-B — feature, and politics, in which Jawaharlal Nehru University appears in the 101-150 grouping. 
    All round, IIT-B emerges as 
the top institution with four of its courses making it to the rankings. 
    “The IITs continue to perform well in their specialist areas and the inclusion of three of them in the global top 50 in the engineering disciplines shows they are starting to achieve genuine international renown,” said QS head of research Ben Sowter. 
    On the other hand, the lack of world-renowned Indian programmes in arts, humanities and social sciences continues to be a concern, Sowter said. “The absence of Indian universities from the top 200 in 
subjects such as medicine, law, accounting and finance underlines the difficulty India faces in reversing the tide of talented students leaving the country to study abroad,” he added. 
    “The latest QS rankings highlight the excellence of the specialist Indian institutions in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) area and identifies the need to improve the global competitiveness of our universities, in particular the large and comprehensive institutions,” said Mohandas Pai, chairman, ICAA — Indian Centre for Assessment & Accreditation.







Monday 24 February 2014

‘No maintenance for wife who earns from investments’

Shibu Thomas TNN 


Mumbai: Only a wife with no sufficient source of permanent income can claim maintenance from her husband, the Bombay high court has ruled. A division bench of Justice Vijaya Kapse-Tahilramani and Justice P N Deshmukh rejected an application by an Andheri resident, Sheela Sharma (61), who had sought Rs 15,000 as monthly maintenance from her husband, Nitin Sharma, who is based in Australia. 
    “It is a well-settled law that only a wife who has no sufficient permanent source of income can claim and get maintenance from her husband who has sufficient means,” said the judges. The Sharmas have a son and daughter who are married and settled abroad. The couple has been living separately since 2007. 
    The court pointed out that it had come in evidence that Sheela had invested Rs 50 lakh in fixed deposits and also made investments in mutual funds. 
She has also invested another Rs 2 lakh that she got from Nitin in a fixed deposit. She resides in a flat that she had bought with Nitin, who said she had exclusive possession of the house. This meant there was no rent to be paid. “It is seen that the wife is gettingover Rs 37,500 per month as interest. She has over Rs 50 lakh in the bank. In addition, (her) son is providing money for her maintenance and other expenses. No one is dependent,” said the judges. 
    Nitin had moved the court for divorce on the grounds of cruelty, which was dismissed by a family court. Meanwhile, Sheela too moved the court. The family court allowed her plea and granted the couple judicial separation and asked Nitin to pay Rs 25,000 as monthly maintenance. Nitin challenged the maintenance order and a single bench of the HC set it aside. Sheela then challenged the order and sought Rs 15,000 as maintenance. 
    (Names of the couple changed to protect identities)



Source::: The Times of India, 24-02-2014, p.5,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/24&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00501&ViewMode=HTML

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Dear Reader's

We are immensely pleased to bring to your kind notice that "India Rural Development Report 2012/13" published by IDFC in coordination with Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India, is arrived in the library and available for reference. Those who are interested may refer the same.

Deputy Librarian

Restructuring of Indian universities

At the recent Central Universities Vice Chancellors’ Conference invited by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan on February 6 and 7, the main agenda veered around three themes, viz.: academic-industry interaction; technology for quality, access, and equity; and, improving global rankings. Ironically, these were broadly the discussion points at another Central Vice Chancellors Conference we organised almost a decade ago at our institute. In effect, not much has changed since then and the policy concerns remained more or less the same. However, the context from then and at present has changed dramatically.

Chinese universities have arisen and disruptive technologies are all over us that carry transformational possibilities. We are in a position to bridge the huge literacy and digital divides in our country through use of low-cost and open-source technologies. Remarkably, during my presentation on ‘technology accelerators in higher education’, it appeared that the chasm between enthusiastic and reluctant vice chancellors on using modern technology for major productivity improvements was huge.

Most of our universities suffer from the paradox of success — almost unlimited demand from a burgeoning population (reflected in astronomical cut-offs for admission in many universities and colleges), low level of academic and performance accountability at almost levels of employees, and non-demanding customers. The resultant has been structural and cultural inertia and a strong unwillingness to change.

This situation can be remedied only through a major restructuring effort. The twin challenges of managing academic excellence, and increasing gross enrolment ratio requires that our universities must function on the principle of ‘growth factories’. Effectively, the challenge is to bring in the creativity of Einstein and Edison, and simultaneously the mass assembly line system pioneered by Henry Ford into the universities! In other words, the universities sh­ould be geared to manage continuity (maintenance engineering), and yet be able to create and manage chaos to proactively ride the next curve of technological discontinuities. But this is not possible in the existing set-up. The university colleges and departments must act as autonomous and heavyweight (empowered) entities entrusted with measurable metrics on performance including ‘breakthrough’ research, attracting funding, developing cutting-edge courses and disciplines.

One of the ways is to release the existing load on the vice chancellors by separating certain administrative, academic and research responsibilities from his or her shoulders. This kind of re-allocation is happening all over the world. For instance, LSU Health Sciences Centre in Louisiana (US) has created a post of vice chancellor for research (VC-R) for providing executive leadership for research administration and planning, and devises programmes with other board members to strengthen campus research enterprise for promoting innovative and multi-disciplinary research programme across north Louisiana. The VC-R leads the university in all aspects of research and represents it while dealing with federal agencies, developing joint collaborations with other institutions and local stakeholders.

The VC-R would be responsible for maintaining the expected standards of research across various colleges in the university including the PhD programmes. This kind of re-structuring can transform our universities where teaching excellence can co-exist with research excellence leading to superior (employable) students and better industry-academic relationships. The VC-R can be expected (or trained) on important dimensions such as intellectual property, technology transfer and commercialisation within the university settings. This is just one example of combining the super-specialty with the general administration.

Our experience of research evaluation at university level, much of the so-called scientific PhD work is mostly explorative and the results are non-reproducible. Even basic mistakes at the level of research design are made, such as basing the findings on ‘high significance levels’ achieved from small-size samples. Most of the primary data is non-transparent even in published manuscripts.
On the other hand, as the President remarked, our universities are losing good scholars to foreign institutions due to lack of facilities and absence of a supportive ecosystem. To start with, our universities can create something like an online forum called PubMed Commons lau­nched by the National Institute of Health in the US for open discourse on published articles. Authors and scholars can join, rate or contribute comments.

The job of the VC combines leadership in governance and execution. Generally, a vice chancellor is a gentleman who has spent life in a small office with never seeing either a court of law or a police station. One VC mentioned in confidence that he had never expected to deal with so many legal, police, and regulatory (including MHRD, UGC, minorities commission, parliamentary committees, CVC, CAG) agencies. It was indeed a shock and a sharp learning curve for the newly-appointed VC! Thus, training of vice chancellors on governance, strategic direction, collaborative mindsets, managing interdisciplinary breakthrough research teams, and managing multiple stakeholders is crucial.

The job of the new-age VC is to create a certain amount of turbulence so that the administrative and academic community wakes up from the Kumbhkaran-style slumber. Only then can we hope to reap the demographic dividends.

Source | http://www.mydigitalfc.com

Monday 10 February 2014

Online buyer can lodge complaint at the place where transaction was done

Jehangir B Gai TNN 


    For online purchases, a consumer can file complaint at the place where he made the transaction. 
    Background: A complaint has to be filed either where the cause of action arises or where the trader or service provider conducts business. Where the consumer resides is irrelevant. For online transactions, the Meghalaya state commission has given a path-breaking ruling. 
    Case Study: Ram Gopal Agarwal and his wife had to travel from Delhi to Jaipur. Sitting in his office at Shillong in Meghalaya, on March 24, 2006, Agarwal made internet bookings for two tickets on Air Deccan’s flight departing on April 4, 2006. The payment was made through credit card. 

    Prior to boarding the flight in Delhi, the Agarwals checked in two bags for which they were given baggage tags. When they alighted at Jaipur, their baggage was missing. They contacted the ground crew, who displayed an unconcerned attitude, despite the Agarwals being elderly. The Agarwals then lodged an FIR at Jaipur’s Sanganer Airport police station. It was only then that the airline staff issued a missing baggage letter. The Agarwals had to 
spend Rs 25,000 on new clothes and other necessities. Their schedule too was upset as they were busy registering grievance. 
    On April 24, 2006, part of the baggage was traced at Guwahati, while the rest was found after two moths, on June 3, 2006, at Guwahati. Agarwal requested the airline to deliver the baggage to him in Shillong, but it refused to do so, forcing him to travel to Guwahati at his own expense and waste two days to claim the baggage, which was damaged and weighed 13 kg less than when it was checked in. 
    Aggrieved, he lodged a complaint before the Shillong district forum. The airline challenged the jurisdiction of the forum to adjudicate a dispute for travel on the Delhi-Jaipur sector. On merits, it contended there was no deficiency in ser
vice as an all-India tracer had been promptly sent to all airports to find the baggage, and it had been handed over at Guwahati as soon as it was traced. 
    The forum overruled the airline’s objection and concluded there was deficiency. It awarded the Agarwals Rs 71,558 towards purchase of new clothes and necessities, cost of travelling to Guwahati for baggage, loss due to shortfall in baggage weight, mental agony compensation, legal fees and costs. Interest on this amount at 12% from the date of the complaint was also awarded. 
    The airline appealed to the Meghalaya state commission. The main plank of argument was challenge to the territorial jurisdiction of the forum since the airline didn’t have an office in Shillong. It contended that the complaint could be filed at Delhi or Jaipur or Guwahati, where the baggage was traced. 

    In the December 7, 2013 order, delivered by member Ramesh Bawri for the bench along with Justice P K Musahary, the commission observed that there was no controversy about the baggage having been found in damage condition after two months, which clearly established deficiency in service. The compensation awarded by the district forum under various heads 
was reasonable and justified. 
    The commission noted that the main controversy was in respect of territorial jurisdiction, which requires in-depth consideration as the booking was done via internet. 
    Considering the provisions of the Contract Act and the Information Technology Act, when an air ticket is booked through internet, the ticket is sent by e-mail. The booking request would be an offer, the emailing would be acceptance. So, the contract for purchase of the air ticket would be taken to be have been made at the consumer’s place of residence, where the acceptance of the contract is communicated. 

    The Agarwals reside in Shillong from where they had done their booking via internet. The tickets were despatched by e-mail and the acceptance was communicated in Shillong. The commission, accordingly, concluded that part of the cause of action had arisen in Shillong and the complaint could be filed there. 
    Impact: This judgment empowers the consumer is the digital age of e-commerce.
    (The author is a consumer activist andhas won theGovt.of India's National Youth Award for Consumer Protection. His e mail is jehangir.gai.articles@hotmail.com)



Source::: The Times of India, 10-02-2014, p.10,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/02/10&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01001&ViewMode=HTML