India’s Business Most Foul | GroundReport

India’s Business Most Foul | GroundReport:

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All those who are taking keen interest in anti corruption campaign in India must watch out the two high profile cases relating to Maran brothers; Kalanithi Maran and Dayanidhi Maran, sons for late Murosoli Maran, leader of the DMK party and nephew of DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi.


While Kalanithi Maran runs the Sun TV, one of the largest media outlets in south India, his younger brother Daynanidhi Maran is into politics. He stepped into politics following the death of his father and was Union minister in the successive UPA government.


Daynanidhi Maran who held the telecom portfolio had to resign for his involvement in 2 G spectrum scam in which his successor A. Raja, is now behind bars for a considerable period of time.


Raja, who had succeeded Maran as the Union minister, is said to have favored Swan Telecom and the latter’s promoters had in turn given Rs 200 crore to DMK-controlled Kalaignar TV.


The same case has led to the arrest of Ms Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK patriarch, M Karunandhi, as headed the Kalaignar TV. The case is sub judice and trial is going on in the court of law.


Coming back to Maran brothers who have amassed huge fortune in just twenty years, their crime and corruption cases are a potboiler. The first case pertains to acquiring investments in the family business using political clout as a telecom minister 2005-06.


Mr. Dayanidhi Maran during his tenure as a minister ‘deliberately delayed' to provide letter of intent to telecom operator Aircel. In turn, he favored the takeover of the Aircel Company by the Maxis Communication, a Malaysian firm by clearing seven license and spectrum deals with the Maxis Communication.


It’s alleged that as a part of the deal, the Maxis Communication through its sister concern, Astro Network, made an investments of 550 core into Sun TV, owned by the Maran family. A FIR is registered by the CBI in this case and the matter is sub-judice.


Now its tussle between a business house having political clout and law enforcement agencies. The arguments and the counter arguments are being made in the court of law and one has to keep a watch on this story how it will play itself out.


The second case is much more interesting, where political clout was used to dupe the government’s exchequer to the tune of crore of rupees. Lo and behold Mr. Dayanidhi Maran after becoming the telecom minister, created a ‘virtual’ telephone exchange at his residence installing 323 residential lines at his home.


These telephone lines were taken in the name of BSNL General Manager and were connected from the minister’s residence to the office of Sun TV, owned by his brother Mr. Kalanithi Maran.


The connection was made through a dedicated underground cable for facilitating SUN TV’s special needs such as video conferencing and transfer of huge volume of digital data to other ports outside the country.


In the normal course, such services may have come for a heavy price, that has to be paid by the consumer to the government owned service provider, but it was almost free for Sun TV, because the lines were operated from the residence of the telecom minister.


Again, an FIR is registered in this case and the matter is sub judice. One has to keep a watch which on this story as arguments and the counter arguments is being made in the court. The two cases are well laid out, and it remains to be seen will it result into conviction of the accused.


There is much to dig into the business deal of the high profile political business house of South India. One of the most noticeable development was the acquisition of the Spice Jet, public carrier by the SUN TV. This happened so after Mr. Dayanidhi Maran became the telecom minister of India.


The allegation is that the huge money that was made to promote the idea of the license permit raj, was ploughed into the purchase of the aviation company and diversifying the business of the media outlet.


It’s obvious that the ledger books will tell the story of clean business operation, but those watching the developments from the close quarters do not rule out a possible scam.


Then the SUN network off late has also entered into the business of production and distribution of Tamil films. The business was run with the help of political clout and it was made a case of survival of the mightiest and all those into this business before had to vacate the scene because of such dirty business practices.


After the change of the government in Tamil Nadu, things are now looking up for better. The new regime has taken cognizance of the high handedness of the SUN TV, and cases are slapped on operational head running this business.


This business model of the Sun TV extended to having monopoly over cable business in Chennai. In order to have the monopoly, the cable business of the SUN TV used its political clout to subdue all the competitors.


Previously, the Rahija group controlled a part of the cable business in Chennai, but it had to give up, because SUN TV used all foul means, literally fighting a turf war to control this business.


After having the monopoly the SUN TV cable operator charged very exorbitant amount of money for airing new TV channels, discouraging them from doing from doing business.


After the new government has come to power, the situation is now changing on the cable scene. A It state run cable operation system is brought in to break the monopolist situation, but its having a tough time because Sun TV refuses to be part of this cable network.


This story may remain incomplete without the mention of Kalagnar TV, that was launched in the wake o of tussle between Maran family and M. Karunanidhi family.


The tussle broke out on the issue of the prices of the shares of Sun TV to the Karunanidhi family. The Maran bothers offered a very low price for the shares to Karunanidhi family who had substantial stakes in the Sun TV.


This led to the antagonism and a complete breakup between the two families. This led to the formation of Kalagnar TV, which is owned by Karunanidhi.


Even this was not tolerated by the SUN TV. Mr. Sharat Kumar who owned Gemini TV, a Tlegue channel, in partnership with SUN TV, was hired to head the Kalagnar TV, was physically assaulted allegedly by the Sun TV goons.


A case is registered and is pending the courts and it’s another story that instead of Maran bothers, Mr. Sharat Kumar is behind the bars in the 2 G spectrum case.


The other side light into Maran’s tale is the DTH service operation in India. The TATA sky had already git the license to do DTH business, but the telecom minister, Mr. Dyanidhi Maran opposed becoming a TATA’s a player in the DTH business.


A war of words broke out between them and it was reported in the media. Since, TATA’s had bigger financial clout and all India operation to run, the ambition of the regional player had to eat a humble pie.


Even though the acrimony faded into oblivion, it did led to the formation of another business the SUN DTH.


There is much to dig into the business operations of Maran brothers as they have many other hidden businesses not known to the public but it would suffice to say that this is not an isolated business model in India.


There are many business conglomerates who have charted out similar course of action to become and become rich, richer and richest.


For the theoreticians of business practices in India, there are two business models operational in this country.


One is to acquire business interest by fair and foul means and then acquire political power to protect the business and make it grow. The other model is first gain political clout and then become a corporate entity and flourishes under the political umbrella.


The two models are simultaneously at work in India. This is reflected in the ever growing number of Crorepatis MPs in the Indian Parliament. A cursory look at their profiles suggests that either they have taken the political route or the business route to amass such huge wealth.


Geared by Marxian ideology, to travel the distance in phases to achieve the goal of a utilitarian state, the politician after crossing the stage of acquiring political power get into the domain of building huge economic wealth. Similarly, businessmen after accumulating substantial wealth, get into the domain of accruing political clout. In this way they can get away with all their gory deeds and keep their business operation afloat.


However, the rule of the game is quite different. The businessmen normally take the protection of the political bosses by funding them and flourish in their businesses.


The political bosses on the other hand keep away from business activity because they have easy flow of cash. This arrangement seems to be working fine but is now becoming a slightly outdated for business practices in this country.


With change in business practices, the changing character of the Indian democracy is quite glaring. This development stare us on our face as we see the other side of India that lives on less than a dollar a day.


The conclusion drawn out of this discussion is the gap between rich and poor is becoming unbridgeable in this country.


---


Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Source - http://www.groundreport.com/Business/India-s-Business-Most-Foul/2942718

Reading habit

Gandhiji, during his days in England for his bar-at-law course, meets a person called Fredrick Pincutt. This meeting is sought by Gandhiji himself to ascertain his readiness for practising law. In Pincutt's evaluation, Gandhiji's general reading was very meagre. He says every Indian should know Indian history in detail. He also tells Gandhiji that although this has no connection with the practice of law, he ought to know this because knowledge of the world is a sine qua nonfor a lawyer. This will help him read a man's character from his face. Pincutt was also surprised that Gandhiji had not read about the First War of Indian Independence. Gandhiji immediately realises the importance of what Pincutt said and humbly accepts that he has not had much supplementary reading.

When I acquainted him with my little stock of reading, he was, as I could see, rather disappointed. But it was only for a moment. Soon his face beamed with a pleasing smile and he said, 'I understand your trouble. Your general reading is meagre. You have no knowledge of the world, a sine qua non for a vakil. You have not even read the history of India. A vakil should know human nature. He should be able to read a man's character from his face. And every Indian ought to know Indian history. This has no connection with the practice of law, but you ought to have that knowledge. I see that you have not even read kaye and Malleson's history of the Mutiny of 1857. Get hold of that at once and also read two more books to understand human nature.' These were Lavator's and Shemmelpennick's books on physiognomy. Link

The reason for highlighting this incident from the Mahatma's autobiography is to emphasise the importance of cultivating the reading habit at a very young age to be successful in life.

Murali Pasupathy  - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article2622218.ece

Public Law Symposium at NLSIU, Bangalore

The National Law School of India Review, the flagship journal of National Law School of India University, Bangalore is pleased to present the first NLSIR Public Law Symposium to be held on 10 December, 2011 at the National Law School campus. The theme of the symposium is "Adjudication of Socio-Economic Rights by the Indian Supreme Court", an issue which has seen significant legal developments in the recent past. The symposium will be attended by renowned legal luminaries including Justice Muralidhar, Mr. T. R. Andhyarujina, Mr. Shyam Diwan and Mr. Arun Kumar Thiruvengadam, amongst others.

The discussion will be divided into two sessions. In the first session (scheduled between 10.30 A.M.-12.30 P.M.) the panel will discuss the substantive adjudication of socio-economic rights undertaken by the Supreme Court concerning questions of the ever-widening ambit of Article 21 and the content of the new rights so evolved. The changing nature of the relationship between Part III and Part IV of the Constitution due to such expansion will form an important part of the session. The second session (scheduled between 1.30 P.M.-3.30 P.M.) will focus on the manner in which the Supreme Court has enforced these rights and consider the variety of procedural innovations employed for the same, including PILs and continuing mandamus.

The registration fee for the symposium is Rs. 500 for professionals. There is no registration fee for students. All those interested are requested to register their attendance at the following link: <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdkRTJua21BY2R5Snh1UWl1QXRCREE6MQ>.

For any further details regarding the symposium, please contact Krishnaprasad K.V. (Chief Editor, NLSIR) at +91-9916589670 or Ashwita Ambast (Deputy Chief Editor, NLSIR) at +91-9986478265 or email us at mail.nlsir@gmail.com.

Googling Kent Walker By Martin Kuz

Life as Google’s top lawyer is a crucible filled with extraordinary demands. He couldn’t be happier

Learning of Kent Walker’s duties as general counsel of Google requires little effort. Just Google “Google,” click the News tab and scan the headlines:

“China renews Google license amid censorship row”

“Google defeats Viacom in landmark copyright case”

“EU examines Google antitrust complaints ‘very carefully’”

“Google Faces Probe By States For WiFi Breaches”

The reports appeared over a three-week period in early summer and pertained to only a fraction of the company’s legal affairs, many more of which drew coverage in countless other articles. Few mentioned Walker. Yet while his name seldom surfaces in the news, he is one of the executives charged with upholding Google’s guiding principle: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” As he tells it, there’s nowhere he would rather ply his trade, largely because to work for Google is, in effect, to work everywhere.

“I find this a fascinating place to be,” says the 49-year-old Walker, who arrived at the company’s Mountain Viewheadquarters in 2006 after a three-year stint as eBay’s deputy general counsel. “We’re dealing with important issues with smart people in a way that we can have impact. That’s my definition of heaven. That doesn’t mean things are always calm and peaceful, but Google is in the middle of a really important and interesting discussion. It’s like the most interesting law exam you’ve ever taken—every day.”

His daily exam covers myriad practice areas: copyright, trademark, patent; privacy, defamation, obscenity; antitrust, competition, contract. The list goes on and wraps around the planet as Google confronts legal quandaries in countries from Australia to Austria, China to Chile, Turkey to Thailand. The company’s ever-widening presence obliges Walker and his legal team to deal with foreign regulators and courts, attempting to locate common ground between Google and governments in the digital frontier.

“There’s one Internet and 200-plus countries, each of which has its own rules,” he says. “We’ve been fairly strong [in asserting] that while a country may wish to impose some rules on content that’s provided locally, no country should be able to dictate the content of the global Internet. And this has been a point of friction with some countries that have been concerned that content they find objectionable is available anywhere on the Net. So that’s something we’re constantly trying to work through.”

No more so than in China, whose tense relationship with Google has attracted considerable media attention. In March, to bypass the government’s censorship of search results, the company began automatically rerouting users of its China-based site to its unrestricted site in Hong Kong. Chinese officials disapproved, and by late June, as Google awaited the Chinese decision on renewing its Internet content provider license, speculation simmered about who would acquiesce. The New York Times weighed in with an editorial, arguing that to allow censored search results “would make Google into an accomplice of China’s repressive government.”

In the end, the sides compromised. The company had its license renewed after changing the China-based site—its services are limited to music and product searches and text translation—so that users need to click a link to go to theHong Kong page. The truce enables Google to stay in China, the world’s largest online market with almost 400 million Internet users and counting, while still offering a portal to unfiltered searches through the Hong Kong site.

“People think of it as a China issue but it’s really a global issue,” says Walker, who describes Google’s approach to data availability as a three-way balancing act. “We’re trying to do the best we can to triangulate between making information universally accessible and allowing people to have free access to the Internet, the need to comply with local laws, and the need to keep our people safe and out of jail.”

So far, at least, the company’s employees have avoided incarceration, though some have endured questioning abroad, and in February, a judge in Italy convicted three of its workers of privacy violations, imposing six-month suspended sentences. (Google has appealed.) Italian authorities faulted the company for waiting too long to remove a video clip that showed a group of teens taunting an autistic boy even though Google took it down after receiving notice from law enforcement. Elsewhere, regulators preemptively blocked access to Google and its various sites, including YouTube, when they deemed certain content offensive. In the past few years, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Syria and Thailand, among others, briefly suspended Google’s services. Iran, Libya and Turkey belong to a small list of nations with active bans.

Overseeing the attorneys who protect Google’s interests across every time zone makes for an around-the-clock job. “You turn off the laptop at midnight and turn it back on at 7 in the morning and you’ve got a full inbox again,” Walkersays. He extols the company’s free-thinking, “bottom-up spirit” instilled by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with whom he has frequent contact on all manner of legal matters. “I’ve seen engineers in their early 20s come into a senior management meeting and turn around the direction of the meeting because they had the right side of the argument or had an insight that no one else in the room had,” Walker says. “That’s a really exciting environment to work in.”

The ubiquity and deepening cultural influence of Google can obscure the fact that Brin and Page launched it only 12 years ago at Stanford University; true to the Silicon Valley startup mythos, their enterprise took root in a residential garage before expanding to offices. The company has since grown to 22,000 employees worldwide; one-third of them work at the so-called Googleplex in Mountain View. The Times once likened the expansive office park to “a bucolic and extraordinarily well-financed theme camp”—an effect enhanced by the prevalence of young engineers in T-shirts, jeans and assorted open-toed footwear.

A Palo Alto native who lives there today with his wife, Diana Walsh, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, and their three children, Walker grew up reading the science fiction novels of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. The books appealed to him “not so much for the gee-whiz [factor] of things blowing up or action chases in space,” he says, “but because of the visions of how technology was creating interesting societies.”

He graduated from Harvard in 1983 and headed back West to attend Stanford Law School, where he co-founded the Stanford Law and Technology Association. The group’s initial purpose, Walker explains, was to delve into a question whose answer remains somewhat murky more than two decades later: “Is there such a thing as technology law?” After earning his J.D., he helped run the successful state Assembly campaign of Ted Lempert, a San Mateo Democrat, and clerked at the Howard Rice firm in San Francisco before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office there in 1990. During his five years as a federal prosecutor, he co-founded the office’s high-tech crime unit and handled scores of cybercrime cases, winning the conviction of notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick, whose illegal exploits inspired the 2000 film Takedown. In 1995, as the early strains of Internet fever spread through the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, Walker jumped to the legal staff of AirTouch Communications, a cell phone firm. His tech buzz intensified after he signed on as Netscape’s deputy general counsel two years later. “There was a sense of mission, excitement, newness that was intoxicating,” Walkersays of the company he remembers as “a magical place.” He stayed until 2001, when he joined Liberate Technologies, which had begun as joint venture between Netscape and Oracle to bring TV to the Internet which he wryly calls “a great idea—about five or 10 years too soon.” In 2004, following Liberate’s demise, he went to eBay, to a position that prepared him for the global legal practice he now manages at Google. (He declined to talk about ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s bid for governor.)

If Walker’s lean, clean-cut appearance and polite manner lend him aspects of a Boy Scout leader, in conversation he comes across as a polymath. He cites Henry Ford and former President Theodore Roosevelt while talking about business innovation, discusses the theories of German sociologist Max Weber and Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, and offers his thoughts on The Rational Optimist, the recent book by Matt Ridley, a former editor with The Economist. He shows a similar far-ranging interest in sundry areas of the law.

“Kent gets excited by the complexities and nuances of issues,” says Donald Harrison, Google’s deputy general counsel in charge of its corporate and competition groups. “He would dive into every issue if he could, and I think sometimes it tears at him that he can’t. But he does a good job of finding the balance between giving people the tools they need to succeed and giving them the space they need to work.”

A business with an annual revenue of $25 billion tends to keep its legal counsel occupied. As Google brokered détente with China in early summer, authorities in the U.S., Europe and Australia began probing whether the company violated privacy laws by gleaning personal data from wireless networks while its Street View vehicles mapped roadways. (Google has stopped collecting Wi-Fi data and pledged to cooperate with investigators.) The company received better news when a federal judge in New York ruled in its favor in a $1 billion copyright suit brought by Viacom over the posting of clips from TV shows on YouTube. The judge agreed that Google complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by promptly deleting the videos when notified by Viacom. Walker believes the decision, which Viacom has appealed, reinforces the protection of free expression online.

“If the ruling had come out the other way ... it would be like saying that the phone company was responsible for communication that went across its lines,” he says. “You would have created a regime in which companies had to vet and preview content before it was allowed up in a manual way”—a potentially crippling burden for YouTube, given that users upload in excess of 20 hours of content to the site every minute.

Facebook, eBay and Yahoo led an amicus brief on Google’s behalf in the case. Michael Callahan, Yahoo’s general counsel, has known Walker since his days at Liberate, and on occasion, as in the Viacom litigation, their respective employers find common cause. Yet even when opposing one another—Yahoo has objected to its rival’s efforts to establish a global digital library with its ongoing Google Books project—Callahan has appreciated his counterpart’s work. “What he brings to the table is raw intelligence, experience in a lot of different areas, and a very low-key, level-headed approach,” Callahan says.

The two attorneys were on the same side in 2008 as Google and Yahoo negotiated a limited search-advertising partnership. Pressure from U.S. Department of Justice regulators who saw the proposed deal as a step toward a monopoly compelled the companies to scrap it. Since then, as the company has expanded through its acquisition of mobile advertising firms, social search engines, online databases and other services (and in light of its proposed Net neutrality deal with Verizon), industry and government scrutiny of its business practices has intensified. Some competitors, notably Microsoft and AT&T, suggest Google has skirted antitrust laws. Earlier this year, the European Union opened an inquiry in response to allegations that the company, seeking to harm its rivals, lowers their rank in search results to deter online users from visiting their sites.

The criticism of Google runs counter to its mostly shiny public image and unofficial motto: “Don’t be evil.” Walkerregards the flak as a natural result of growth, and he characterizes the company’s contact with regulators in the U.S.and overseas as “very positive.” As for the complex algorithms that govern Google’s search rankings, he adds, “There’s never been any evidence that we let advertising results influence search results. ... If you want to rank high on Google, have higher quality content.”

Stanford economist Gregory Rosston, who specializes in antitrust and competition issues, credits Google with recognizing that with size comes skepticism from competitors and government officials. “They seem to be doing things in an open way,” he says. The strategy contrasts with that of Microsoft, perhaps Google’s most persistent detractor, which sought to impede regulators in the 1990s when they investigated the Seattle-based company for anticompetitive tactics. “Google seems to realize that the government isn’t just going to go away,” Rosston says.

Walker knows as much from his years as a federal prosecutor, and he exudes earnestness when he says, “I’m really committed that we’re doing the right thing here and helping people create, share and access new forms of information, entertainment and knowledge.” At the same time, while conceding Google commits mistakes, and despite those who doubt its motives, he considers it a force for global good. “The north star of what we do is to try to make things better for society,” he says. Or as one of his heroes, Theodore Roosevelt, said of those who cast aspersions: “It is not the critic who counts. ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”

Source - http://www.superlawyers.com/california-northern/article/Googling-Kent-Walker/a0fa051d-d7cf-40da-a063-25e015f9afd7.html

Draft Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2011 and Central Legislation for Street Vendors - Others News - Law, Lawyers, Advocates, Law Firms,Legal Help, Legal Experts,Judgements,Law Help, Indian Lawyers

Draft Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2011 and Central Legislation for Street Vendors - Others News - Law, Lawyers, Advocates, Law Firms,Legal Help, Legal Experts,Judgements,Law Help, Indian Lawyers

Draft Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2011

The Ministry of HUPA proposed the strengthening of its Slum redevelopment strategy by working towards a slum free India, and assigning property rights to Slum Dwellers, under the Rajiv Awas Yojana(RAY). RAY proposes decisive action for inclusive urban development that acknowledges the presence of the poor in cities, recognizes their contribution as essential to the city's functioning, and redresses the fundamental reasons for inequity that ties them down to poverty.

The conferment of property title is a new direction for national policy that aligns national approach to the global practice. It sees ownership of property as the best investment in democracy, by creating for the household due space within the formal system, and thereby a vested interest in peace and legal order.

The Model law is aimed at bringing within the formal system, those who are forced to live in extra-formal spaces and in denial of right to services and amenities available to those with legal title to city spaces, and at correcting the deficiencies of the formal system of urban development and town planning that have failed to create conditions of inclusiveness and equity, so that, henceforth, new urban families, whether by way of migration or natural growth of population, have recourse to housing with civic amenities, and are not forced from lack of options to create encroachments and slums and live extralegal lives in conditions of deprivation of rights and amenities.

The Model law intends to enable the household to access the formal channels of credit; it draws the entire extralegal economy of slums out of the informal market; it enriches the slum dweller by giving him access to mortgageable rights for housing construction, and the formal economy by enabling a quarter of its population to participate in its growth. The importance that Central Government gives to this measure for inclusion and equity may be gauged from the decision to link central support for slum redevelopment with the empowering of the slum household with property rights.

The salient features of the Draft Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2011 are:

¨ Facilitation of inclusive growth and slum-free cities, to provide assured security of tenure, basic amenities and affordable housing to the slum-dwellers.

¨ Every landless person living in a slum area in any city or urban area on 4th June, 2009 shall be entitled to a dwelling space at an affordable cost.

¨ Every Slum dweller or the Collective of the Slum Dwellers shall be given a legal entitlement, which shall be in the name of the female head of the household or in the joint name of the male head of the household and his wife.

¨ Every slum dweller eligible shall be provided with basic civic services until the site for the dwelling space has been developed.

¨ The dwelling space so provided shall not be transferable but allowed to be mortgageable for raising housing loan, or in need to sell- but only to the Government or the Collective as the case may be.

¨ The dwelling space may be provided in-situ as far as possible, provided in cases on public interest they shall be resettled elsewhere.

¨ Constitution of a Grievance Redressal Committee for the purposes of resolving disputes in relation to matters about identification of slum dwellers.

¨ State Government shall prescribe and notify participative and transparent procedures for identification and periodic survey of slum dwellers for purpose of granting legal entitlement to slum dwellers.

¨ Establishment of City / Urban Area Slum Redevelopment Committee for implementing the provisions of the Act namely- to survey and make a list of slum dwellers, make an inventory of existing position regarding slum areas, formulate schemes for slum redevelopment/up-gradation/resettlement and for rental housing (including dormitories and night shelters) for the urban poor and slum-dwellers in-eligible etc.

¨ Establishment of a State Slum Redevelopment Authority (to be headed by the Chief Minister) to continuously monitor implementation of the Act and to recommend corrective measures wherever necessary.

¨ Emphasis on Community Participation by providing for establishment of Slum Development Committee for each slum area comprising of members for plan preparation, implementation, monitoring & evaluation, and post project maintenance.

¨ Power to acquire land for redevelopment/up-gradation and for resettlement under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 as amended from time to time.

¨ Responsibility of the Government to prevent encroachment or of construction of illegal structures towards which necessary amendment to the Municipal and other Acts need to be undertaken.

¨ Civil courts not to have jurisdiction on matters for which the City/Urban Area Slum Redevelopment Committee, State Slum Redevelopment Committee, Grievance Redressal Committee, or the Tribunal is empowered.

¨ Power of the State Government to make rules on matters specified in the Act.

Credit Risk Guarantee Fund

To address the issue of credit enablement of EWS and LIG households, the Ministry proposes to create a Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Scheme (CGFS) under Rajiv Awas Yojana. The salient features of the proposed fund are as follows:

1. Under the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme (CGFS) the Government of India will provide credit guarantee support to collateral-free / third-party-guarantee-free housing loans up to Rs.5 lakhextended by lending institutions for Low Income Housing.

2. The CGFS will cover the housing loans to EWS/ LIG borrowers for the purposes of repairs, home improvement, construction, acquisition, and purchase of new or second hand dwelling units, involving an amount not exceeding Rs. 5 lakh per loan.

3. The guarantee cover available under the scheme is proposed to be to the extent of 90% of the sanctioned housing loan amount for a loan amount of upto Rs. 2 lakh. And 85% for loan amounts above Rs. 2 lakh and upto Rs. 5 lakh.

4. To administer and oversee the operations of the Scheme, provision has been made for establishment of a Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust for low income housing (CGFT).

5. Rs. 1000 crores has been earmarked as an initial Corpus for CGFS.

Central Legislation for Street Vendors

The Ministry of Housing & urban Poverty Alleviation had come up with a new National Policy on Urban Street Vendors in 2009 after a comprehensive review of the previous policy.

The Policy underscores the need for a legislative framework to enable street vendors to pursue an honest living without harassment from any quarter. We had drafted a Model Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2009 and circulated to all States/UTs, requesting them to take a cue while legislating on the subject.

The progress on state legislation has not been encouraging. We are receiving continuous representations from the individual street vendors and their organisations to bring a central legislation which would be uniformly and mandatorily applicable to all the states and UTs. We are working to evolve and effective and practical central legislation for protection of livelihood rights and social security of street vendors in consultation with all concerned stakeholders including State Govts.

The bill would be based on the following basic principles.

· Legitimate street vendors are protected from harassment by police and civic authorities.

· Vending zones/spaces are demarcated for the street vendors. While demarcating the concept of traditional natural markets to be kept in mind.

· Adequate representation to street vendors and women in particular, is provided in the institutional structures created for ensuring proper implementation of the proposed law.

· A robust, effective and quick grievance redressal and dispute resolution mechanism is established.

Lessons from Maruti - from - Business-Standard.com

Lessons from Maruti:

'via Blog this'

The recurring labour unrest at the country’s largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki clearly shows effective dispute resolution should be a strategic priority for Indian corporations, say analysts. Four leaders present their views.

Engage the workforce

Rajeev Dubey
President, group HR & aftermarket sector, M&M

The main question is: How aware we are of the aspirations of the people who work for us. We have to listen to our own people. The issues of operational efficiencies and cost competitiveness will have to be married to issues of equity among employees.

The most important way to do this is through dialogue. Companies should review if they listen enough to their people and whether they consider the latter’s points of view or not. For a manufacturing company, there has to be the right amount of productivity to stay competitive, but it can’t ignore the task of keeping the workforce engaged and motivated with a sense of ownership in the company. Ownership among employees prevents them from damaging the company in any way because they feel they are as much a part of its well-being as the top management.

That will come only when they believe they are being heard by their employer.

However, there is no magic wand for it. The main lesson that one can draw from a workforce-company face-off is that there needs to be more dialogue than what existed.

But a crisis such as a strike tends to underline the fact that opening a dialogue overnight does not help. It has to be done over time, as an exercise. Investing time in dialogue with employees, including blue-collar workers, makes it easy to build a critical factor in employer-employee relationships — and that is trust. A sustained two-way communication is a genuine way of understanding each other. Do that over a period of time, and mistrust and misunderstandings will be taken care of.

The best way to build that trust through dialogue is by sharing the business plans with the employee on the factory shop-floor or at the sales front-end. The yearly business plan, once created by the leaders, will have to be translated into a cascading, but two-way communication, so that even the blue-collar workforce in the factory understands what levels of productivity and innovation are needed of them to achieve the targets and why. They would want to work towards it — after all, it will improve their livelihood as well.

But it is critical to leave a channel for them to contribute their ideas as well. It will give them the power to co-create and feel a greater sense of ownership in the company’s future. This will depend on who conveys the business plan to the workers. The shop-floor supervisor, for example, will have to be sensitised to listening well. Otherwise, how will the employees feel their voices are being heard? I have witnessed some of the best operational and even strategic ideas coming from blue-collar employees because they are closest to the scene of production.

A company can anticipate a workforce crisis if it keeps its ears and eyes open. There have to be mechanisms such as listening posts within. Dialogue methods and listening posts should include a two-way feedback system, training for the employees, and, of course, sharing the company’s business plans.

The channels ensure that the employer does not come across as insensitive and, at the same time, give the employer ways to understand what could be ailing the employees. By conveying what is critical in the company’s periodical business plans, the employees are made to feel a sense of responsibility for the well-being of the place they work in. Emails and memos are tools towards this end but the most vital tool is one-to-one conversation.

The problems of disconnect and mistrust can take certain forms for some companies, but they are issues that riddle all companies today. Constant dialogue to work together to create a successful future is a sure-shot way of avoiding untoward distress.

Build psychological connect

Debi S Saini
Professor & chairperson, HRM Area, MDI, Gurgaon

The stock owners of Maruti Suzuki, its management, as well as those concerned with higher economic growth for India must have heaved a sigh of relief to see an end to the workers’ strike. The key issue was registration of trade union by workers of the Manesar plant. Such attempts in the private sector in India have almost always involved some acts of indiscipline on the part of workers concerned. Eventually, the centre of attention in this case as well shifted from the core issue of union registration to negotiating for having the dismissed workers back.

No doubt, violence of any kind cannot be accepted in a civil society, though often dispute resolution processes in such cases take a more reasonable view of such happenings in the interest of industrial peace, and thus condone such acts of indiscipline. A viable solution to the Maruti Suzuki story needs a holistic analysis in view of what is happening to the union movement globally as well as in India in the post-globalisation era. Over the last two decades or so, the union density and reach have substantially declined globally. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), the sole international custodian of workers’ rights, has shifted its focus from ‘adversarial collective bargaining’ to ‘provision of decent work to men and women’ everywhere, as its main raison d’être.

The post-globalisation economies are struggling with chaotic competition at the global level. Enlightened employers are competing with unions in wooing the individual worker to see that situations do not arise whereby s/he is compelled to go to the union for help. Rather, they want that the worker falls in love with the employee development agenda developed by the corporations themselves.

Despite the current peace at Maruti, there is no guarantee that the flare-up would not happen again. There are many reasons to support this thesis and therefore the management needs to prepare itself against such happenings. First, the Maruti management needs to become more aware of the writing on the wall, and not sit on its past laurels — the present victory and the year 2000 victory at the Gurgaon plant that had led to the present compliant union there. Most workers at the Gurgaon plant are older unlike the young Gen Y Manesar workers, who are less tolerant if challenged.

Second, the Indian democracy and Constitution guarantee to its citizens the freedom to form associations and unions. This right cannot be taken away from the Indian legal system, despite the exigencies of faster growth, and younger workers do not fear being sacked for making such attempts again. This happened in the case of Honda workers in July 2005 in the same region; their union has been openly supporting the Maruti workers in the Manesar plant. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that the repeated unionisation attempt of the Maruti workers is inspired by the Honda workers’ success.

Third, there are strategic shifts in managements’ approaches to handling industrial relations as they march towards a no-union or cooperative union model. I believe that an employer has the right to pursue a no-union model provided it successfully makes employees’ worklife exciting, dignified and fulfilling, as is being done by several leading companies today. Even some small Indian companies, like Classic Stripes in Mumbai with just 300 core workers, are successfully following a no-union model not only with amazing success but also with exemplary respect from the workers. This company came sixth in the recent best employer company survey in India, beating most multinational companies working in India.

For lasting cooperation, Maruti needs to train its line managers not just in grievance redressal but in caring for and communicating with each worker from their heart so as to develop among them a sense of ownership. That would help strengthen a workplace culture that restores the workers’ pride and dignity. This task cannot be just episodic and left to the HR department alone. The company needs to build a psychological connect with each employee, and internalise a great deal of passion in its employee care programme so as to move away from any symbolism or neglect. It must have a comprehensive communication and human relations agenda touching most aspects of the workers’ lives and their families so as to bring the alienated workers back into the mainstream and on a path of commonality of objectives as a way of life.

It will take a while to build that culture and will necessitate a long-term focus on training line managers in soft skills development. This role of the line managers should be written in the managers’ key result areas for the purpose of assessing their performance. Let the workers feel from within, and not due to fear, that they believe in the company’s vision for their own benefit as much as for the company’s.

Learn to trust

Abdul Majeed
Auto practice leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers India

Companies today increasingly focus on market suppliers and financials while perhaps not investing much in labour relations. On top of that, the labour laws are not fair and not balanced. They tend to favour only one of the parties — the labour force. Once a manufacturing company employs a permanent staff numbering more than a 100 people, they become bound by the inflexible labour laws. The employers cannot fire at will.

Before liberalisation, the bulk of the labour force was made up of permanent workers and a small fraction was contract workers. But post-liberalisation, most manufacturers have opted for contract workers to work around unfavourable labour laws. Now, almost 50-60 per cent of the labour force comprises contracted and temporary workers for manufacturers, hired through contracting agencies.

These workers get only those benefits that the agencies think is fit to provide.

As a result, two classes within the workforce are being created. The companies end up creating a complex supply chain of labour. It becomes the company’s prerogative to offer similar benefits to both sets of their workers so that they don’t feel alienated. Handling the two groups of employees becomes a veritable challenge.

One of the ways to handle such a scenario is to invest in adding skills to the workforce, contract or permanent. Indian universities don’t impart the required practical skill-sets, as a result most original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the automotive industry train them for a few months after employing them.

There is no evidence to suggest that Maruti has given anything but best-in-class benefits to both the classes of workers. And their stand on not tolerating indiscipline is justified. But the problem was mainly due to each concerned party losing confidence in the other. With trust, an employer can make its employee understand the reasons behind a code of conduct and the employees would sign it voluntarily. The DNA of the company through its governance code has to be made clear.

Communicating well with the labour-force is a sure-shot way of getting out of such face-offs. Because at the end of the day there are no winners; the company loses, the employee loses and the government loses. Whatever is the issue, the confidence of the workers in the employer should not waver. Interventions from third parties could shake the confidence levels of blue-collar workers, however. This was seen in the Maruti crisis. Blue-collar workers tend to get more emotional in their dealings with their employer. They need to be addressed accordingly. They have to be coaxed to step into the management’s shoes and see their point of view. At the same time, the management too should be able to empathise with them.

Most auto OEMs and component makers operate on reed-thin margins of 2-3 per cent. And, when there is a liquidity crunch, say after interest rate hikes, then sales take a beating. The blue-collar workers have to be briefed and made to understand the industry issues. Regular sessions with them to explain the broader business environment and hence, the limitations because of them, would inspire confidence and keep everyone on the same plane of reference.

At the same time, auto manufacturers ought to be wary of repeating the crisis in Detroit. That is, companies can't give away more than what they get. Hence, if the times are good, they can afford bonuses etc. But if the times are bad then they would need to scrimp. Their workforces would have to be sensitised to such predicaments.

Another proactive step could be auto manufacturers telling their contract workforce: “We will pay you more or increase benefits if you can improve your skills,” and create ways for them to do that, say, through training. However, nothing can replace the mantra of ‘communicate, communicate and communicate’.

The labour laws together make for a time bomb. Crises such as the one at Maruti get more difficult with political intervention by groups who are none of the immediate parties concerned. Manufacturers are still intent on setting shop in India because our market is too large to ignore. However, the unstinting labour laws could eventually see companies setting up factories in nearby countries to feed the Indian demand.

Be proactive, not reactive

Michael Dias
Secretary, The Employers Association, Delhi

Recent newspaper reports indicate that Maruti Suzuki India has finalised a deal with the Gujarat government to set up a manufacturing plant in the Mehsana district. Whatever may be the provocation for the shift in the manufacturing base from the state of Haryana to that of Gujarat, it should be clearly understood that the Indian worker working in any part of the country shares a common psyche and, of course, is governed by a common law, even though labour laws fall in the domain of the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India.

That being so, the moot question is why did the strike take place in the first instance, given that the company had experienced labour strife at their Gurgaon plant just a couple of years ago. An analysis of the current problem takes us to December 2010 when, according to a management release, “A handful of Manesar plant workers started a negative and secret effort to de-stabilise the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU). They joined hands with external elements to form a separate union at the Manesar plant, thereby negatively impacting the environment at Manesar Plant. The young and inexperienced workmen population became easy prey to these negative workmen.”

Going by this version, is it the contention of the management that it was unable to effectively deal with ‘a handful’ of workers at the Manesar plant? Also, what makes the Maruti management believe that the MUKU alone can articulate the needs of the Manesar plant workers? This approach is flawed as it goes against the fundamental principle of freedom of association. The Trade Union Act, 1926, clearly reflects that there is no legal prohibition with regard to the number of trade unions that may be formed or may exist in an establishment.

The first flash strike by workmen began on June 4, 2011. The contention of the management was that it was without any valid labour issue or demand charter. There would obviously be none because the strike was not for higher wages or better working conditions per se. Workers struck work at Manesar demanding that the company recognise a separate independent union besides reinstating the workmen dismissed on alleged disciplinary grounds.

The matter has been concluded through a settlement dated October 19, 2011. A key provision in the settlement is the constitution of a Workers’ Welfare Committee in the company. Clause 5 of the said agreement provides for a Grievance Redressal Committee under Section 9-C of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Section mandatorily provides for the setting up of a Grievance Settlement Authority in an establishment. Had this legal provision been complied with, the contention of the management that “the young and inexperienced workmen population became easy prey to these negative workmen” would have been adequately dealt with.

Before concluding, it is important to discuss the role of the labour officials who play a pivotal role in ensuring harmonious employer-employee relations in the industrial estate. Gurgaon, for instance, has just six-seven labour inspectors. As things turned out, the assistant labour commissioner of Gurgaon is, in fact, a top official with HUDA and is kept busy with HUDA issues.

The issue of contract labour, unfortunately, has not been adequately addressed in this entire episode. It needs to be understood that contract labour, in the Indian context, is not cheap labour. It is here to stay, provided that contract labour, as the ILO urges, is provided “decent work”. The decent work agenda of the ILO, which the Indian government professes, appears to have faltered in the engagement of contract labour at the ground level. This is an important issue that needs to be addressed as a national agenda since the existing statute on the subject, namely, Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, is woefully inadequate to meet the challenges of production in the 21st century in order to make India the world’s manufacturing hub, even ahead of China.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment needs to diligently address this issue. Regrettably, the Standing Labour Conference held at New Delhi on October 17, 2011, where the agenda for the Indian Labour Conference to be held early next year was finalised, did not have contract labour on its agenda. Does it mean that the ghost of the Maruti agitation will continue to haunt other industrial hubs across the country?

Nigerian 'baby farm' raided – 32 pregnant girls rescued | Law | The Guardian

On the occasion of Children's Day, when we are engaged in extolling the virtues of our 'Leader' who brought Children's Day in Fashion, Nigerian 'baby farm' raided – 32 pregnant girls rescued | Law | The Guardian:

'via Blog this'

Nigerian police have raided an alleged "baby farm" where teenage mothers were forced to give up their newborns for sale to human traffickers.

Thirty-two pregnant girls were rescued from a maternity home run by a trafficking ring in the southern city of Aba, police said.

The girls, mostly of school age, were allegedly locked up at the Cross Foundation clinic so they could produce babies to be sold for illegal adoption or for use in ritual witchcraft.

Bala Hassan, the Abia state police commissioner, said: "We stormed the premises of the Cross Foundation in Aba three days ago following a report that pregnant girls aged between 15 and 17 are being made to make babies for the proprietor.

"We rescued 32 pregnant girls and arrested the proprietor, who is undergoing interrogation over allegations that he normally sells the babies to people who may use them for rituals or other purposes."

Hassan added that four babies, already sold in an alleged deal but not yet collected, were also recovered in the raid.

Estimates of the girls' ages varied. Geoffrey Ogbonna, another police spokesman, was quoted by CNN: "There are about 30 pregnant young ladies; the eldest was 20 years old. Some belong in secondary, even in primary school."

A doctor arrested at the clinic said the babies had been handed over to social welfare for adoption.

Some of the rescued girls told police that the hospital owner gave them $192 (£118) for newborn boys and $161 for newborn girls after they were sold.

Dr Hyacinth Orikara, proprietor of the Cross Foundation, is likely to face charges of child abuse and human trafficking, police said. Buying or selling babies can carry a 14-year jail sentence.

Orikara, reportedly a university graduate and employee of the Abia state health management board, denied the allegations, claiming the home was a foundation to help teenagers with unwanted pregnancies.

Human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime in Nigeria - after financial fraud and drug trafficking - according to Unesco's report on human trafficking in Nigeria. At least 10 children are sold every day across the country, according to the UN. Traffickers are seldom caught.

Babies are sold for up to $6,400 each, depending on the sex, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons says. Teenagers with unplanned pregnancies are sometimes lured to clinics and then forced to hand over their babies.

The children are often put up for illegal adoption or, in some parts of the country, killed as part of witchcraft rituals because they are thought to make charms more powerful.

The police carried out similar raids on such clinics in neighbouring Enugu state in 2008.

A Nigerian woman was jailed in Britain three years ago for trying to smuggle a baby into the country in order to get on the list for a council flat.

• This article was amended on 3 June 2011 to include a reference to the Unesco report on human trafficking in Nigeria.

News Article by / in –

·         David Smith in Johannesburg

·         guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 June 2011 16.12 BST

2G telecom trial begins - A National Spectacle

2G telecom trial begins - the Hindu


The day one of trial in 2G spectrum allocation case on Friday witnessed unprecedented crowd of lawyers, kin of the accused and scribes in the courtroom, which irked the judge after defence counsel protested the holding of the proceedings in the cramped courtroom.

“I had already repeatedly requested you (counsel) all not to create such a crowd in the court room. But you are still not adhering to my suggestions,” Special CBI Judge O. P. Saini said.

The judge, however, said he does not want to blame anyone for the crowd and asked everybody not to come near the dais as it would create problems in smooth conduct of the proceedings.

The court’s remarks came after defence counsel Majeed Memon, advocate Ramesh Gupta and others complained they are unable to hear the proceedings and deposition of witnesses due to the presence of a large number of people inside the courtroom.

“In this mess, the trial cannot proceed. We are not able to hear what witnesses are saying in the court. If we are not accommodated properly in the tiny courtroom, how can we proceed with the trial?” Mr. Memon told the judge.

Other defence cousnel too joined the chorus and said it was not possible to hold the trial in the packed courtroom and complained of extreme humidity and power cuts.

The judge, however, told everyone present in the court room to make space for the counsel near the dais so that they could proceed with the trial.

The accused sought to shift the entire blame for overcrowding on mediapersons but the judge said he could see more lawyers in the courtroom.

“I can see only lawyers near the dais. I cannot identify any mediaperson,” he said.

Also from First Post.com :-

Dressed in a pale-yellow shirt, the be-spectacled 40-year-old assistant vice-president of Reliance Capital, Anand Subramaniam, the first prosecution witness to depose in the highly anticipated trial of the 2G case, said in the court today that—”He had never got an occasion to work”—with the three Reliance ADAG executives — Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara and Gautam Doshi. The three are accused in the 2G case.

However, his statement to the CBI, quotes him saying that he had given a letter on 1 March 2007, to HDFC bank, Fort Branch, Mumbai on “telephonic instructions of Sh. Hari Nair, the Company Secretary of M/S Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd”.

Subramaniam’s statement to the CBI was recorded under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code and he is not legally bound by it.

The 1 March 2007 document that was shown to Subramaniam by the CBI counsel in court was a covering letter to the account opening form, which is of M/s Swan Telecom (P) limited, in HDFC Bank, Fort Branch, Mumbai.

Subramaniam is one of the three signatories to that account opening form and also to the covering letter that was addressed to HDFC bank.

In a departure from the CBI’s recorded statement, he said that he “did not recollect as to under whose instructions I signed this letter”.

“I signed documents Ex PW1/A and 1/B (referring to the account opening form and the covering letter, respectively) as there was a board resolution in our favour including myself.”

Subramaniam remained expressionless through out what must have been a back-breaking day as he stood through five hours of questioning, first by the CBI counsel and then the cross-examination by the defence lawyers.

When asked by the CBI counsel to identify a bank account number on the 1 March 2007 letter, he said, “I am unable to tell as to which company this account number belongs to, but the last four digits ’1874′ are similar to an account of Reliance Communication Ltd.”

Subramaniam during his cross-examination by defence lawyer of RK Chandolia, the private secretary to former telecom minister A Raja, stated that he was contacted by CBI in early March 2011 and that he received notice in early March.

“My statement was recorded within a week of the receipt of that notice. My statement was recorded in one sitting alone. The statement which was signed by me, copy thereof was not given to me by the CBI. I did not sign any statement.”

Former telecom minister and accused number one in the 2G case, A Raja, caused a minor commotion in the courtroom by filing an application refusing to participate in the trial, given, his lawyer said, that the investigations were ongoing.

His lawyer refused to cross-examine the prosecution witness Anand Subramaniam, while asking for reserving the right to recall the witness for cross-examination at a later stage. The judge duly rejected the application.

The defence lawyers called Raja’s application ‘ridiculous’, stating that Raja, was the first accused and that all charges emanated from him.

Special CBI judge OP Saini called on Raja before the witness stepped down asking him whether he would like to cross-examine the witness or whether he stood by his advocate. “I stand by my advocate,” stated Raja, who was spotted on more than one occasion dozing off, during the court proceedings.
The sight of Raja taking a nap in court led one the counsels for the CBI to quip that “this was the first time he had seen Raja doze off in court. He must be really tired.”

The lack of air-conditioning due to a power cut in the over-crowded courtroom also caused a stir with some lawyers complaining to the judge about the poor conditions in court. Some lawyers also appealed to the media to raise the issue.

There was a futile request by lawyers to shift the trial to a bigger courtroom.

By the time the next prosecution witness, Reliance ADAG president AN Sethuraman took to the witness stand it was late afternoon. He described his role in the ADAG as “looking after relations of entire ADA group with the Central government”.

He said he knew the three accused Reliance ADAG executives. The 59-year-old, dressed in a white striped shirt, stood with folded hands, as the CBI counsel questioned him for more than an hour.

The defence lawyer for Hari Nair objected Sethuraman being questioned about a document (a forwarding letter dated Januray 23/25, 2007, addressed to Department of Telecommunications which was application for the UAS licence for Jammu and Kashmir Service Area) as it was before the ‘period of conspiracy’ which according to the charge was between August/September 2007 and August/September 2009.

The judge, however, kept the objection open to be decided at a later stage, allowing the CBI counsel to carry on with his line of questioning.

The hearing was deferred as court time was over at 4 pm. Vinod Kumar Budhiraja, chief regulatory officer of Etisalat DB Telecom official, was the third prosecution witness who was summoned today.

The court was adjourned till Monday (14 November).