Bharat Ratna for batting maestro?

The Maharashtra government has recommend Sachin Tendulkar for the country’s highest recognition — Bharat Ratna.

Not only politicians of various hues but former cricketers have also rooted for Tendulkar.

Calls for the award have become louder after Tendulkar achieved the rare feat of a double century in the one-day format.

In the event Tendulkar does get this honour, he will be the first sportsman and the youngest person to be so felicitated.

But the question may be arise why should he awarded the highest national honour?

Tendulkar’s greatness in various formats of the game is acknowledged by his peers, seniors, spectators and statisticians alike.

One argument against conferring the award is that he is too young — keeping in mind that the award in many cases has been given posthumously.

But while a politician can be active in politics till death and an artiste can keep performing till the very end, a sportsperson’s achievements are telescoped in terms of the years he is active.

It may be safely said that Tendulkar is nearer the end of his career than the beginning. And the time is ripe for a stocktaking of his contributions to the game and the country.

The fact that the award so far has only gone to politicians, artistes (the last three recipients) or scientists/academicians seems more an argument for extending its ambit.

A Twitter comment read: “Bharat Ratna to Sachin Tendulkar? Bharat Ratna has lost its value. Invent a new award.”

If it is so felt, can there be a better opportunity to rehabilitate the award itself by giving it to someone with impeccable credentials and popularity?

The only catch is that the Bharat Ratna is “ given for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of Public Service of the highest order”.

So an award for Tendulkar has to be justified in terms of public service.

Think JRD Tata, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa — all past awardees.

So the only question may be arise does that qualify as “public service of the highest order”?

Yes, of course as Tendulkar has entertained and embodied the hopes of a billion-plus population for two decades & proud the country by his great achievements.

If anyone has to be given Bharat Ratna it is Sachin Tendulkar since it is he who deserves it the most.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, who made his international Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989 at a tender age of 16 is no stranger to awards and is a recipient of several honours.

Tendulkar is a recipient of Arjuna Award given for accomplished sportsmen(1994) and Padma Shri in 1999. He was given the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honour, in 1998. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997 while Time magazine named him in November 2006 as one of the Asian heroes. He has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award, India's second highest civilian award in 2008.

According to milestone man Sachin Tendulkar he would like to be on the list of 'Bharat Ratna' awardees but he is not thinking about the highest civilian honour as of now and would leave it on destiny.

Former cricketers Ajit Wadekar, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar after Tendulkar's record breaking double hundred had said that he deserves the honour.

After his historic knock of unbeaten 200 at Gwalior, a host of current and former cricketers had said Tendulkar was greater than legendary Australian Sir Don Bradman but the Indian batting ace refused to be drawn into comparisons.

Betray with Orissa, but still silent

IN CASE OF POSCO


In yet another setback to South Korean steel maker Posco’s Rs54,000 crore plant in Orissa, the environment ministry asked the state government to stop the land acquisition process for the project.

“The government of Orissa shall take all necessary measures and ensure that work, if any, being undertaken on the said land, for the said project, including handing over of the forest and non-forest land to the said project, shall be stopped forthwith,” the ministry said in its directive.

Posco, the world’s fourth largest steel producer, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to build a plant near Paradip port in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur by 2016. The project has already been delayed for at least two years due to local protests.

On 4 August, a panel set up by the ministries of environment and tribal affairs submitted a report on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA), for acquisition of land for the project.

The committee found that “any work related to the project in this area, such as what has been reportedly started on 27 July 2010, is a violation of the FRA.” The environment ministry had approved of the project on condition that forest rights of inhabitants are ensured before land was acquired for the project.

FRA gives rights of forest resources to tribals and other forest dwellers residing in India’s forests. Any project requiring such land also needs the consent of the local village councils.

The joint committee also said forest clearance given by the environment ministry in December should be revoked. Order said it appeared the district administration was proceeding with acquiring forest land where the locals cultivate betel leaves.



BUT, IN CASE OF POLAVARAM

The central environment and forests ministry gave the final clearance for diversion of 3,731.07 hectares of forest land last month for the Polavaram project .

While granting the approval, the ministry has totally ignored the interest of Orissa.

Orissa government moved the Supreme Court after the ministry first granted interim approval to the project in 2008. When the case is still pending in the court, it is surprising how the ministry granted final approval.

It is also surprising the way the clearance was given without consulting the people in Orissa and Chhattisgarh who would be affected by the project.

Polavaram is Rs.10,150-crore project will produce 960 MW of power and give industry 23,500 million cubic feet of water for Andra Pradesh only.

Chhattisgarh and Orissa fear that after completion of the project, in case of floods, the back water of the Godavari will flow to its tributaries Saberi and Sileru in Orissa and Chhattisgarh and submerge dozens of bordering villages.

Google to introduce 'Street View' in Germany

Google will introduce its ``Street View'' mapping feature for 20 of Germany's largest cities before the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday, launching a new debate over privacy in Germany.



German officials have been one of the harshest critics of the ``Street View'' program, which provides detailed photographs of neighborhoods taken by Google cameras.



At the insistence of authorities, the faces of individuals and licenses plates will be blurred and people can also ask to have images of their homes removed from the database starting next week a move aimed at dispelling privacy fears.



``The tool available before the launch of the service is unique to Germany,'' Google Inc. spokeswoman Lena Wagner said Tuesday, adding the company hopes to launch maps of the 20 cities in November, then expand the service.



The cities will include Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne, among others. But privacy watchdogs remain critical as the announcement comes on short notice, in the middle of summer holidays, with residents only able to ask for their house to be removed for a four-week window.



Johannes Caspar, head of the Hamburg office for data protection, also criticized Google for refusing to set up a hot line to answer questions. He said has also urged Google be more transparent about how it plans to handle the data of those who object to the mapping program. ``Google is missing an opportunity to restore trust,'' he said in a statement.



Wagner insists the company is doing more than legally required to protect people's privacy. ``Street View'' has been controversial in Germany and other countries amid fears that people, filmed without their consent, could be seen on the panoramic footage doing things they didn't want to be seen doing or in places where they didn't want to be seen.



The US Internet giant lost the trust of many in Europe this spring when it had to acknowledge that the technology used by its ``Street View'' cars had also vacuumed up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public hi-fi networks for the past four years.

Several thousand Germans already use ``Street View'' every week to plan holidays or to look up an area in one of the 23 countries covered so far, Wagner said. ``Talks with data protection officials are always controversial, but the users like 'Street View,''' she said.

Indian-origin Kamla is Trinidad and Tobago’s first woman PM

Indian-origin Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been elected the first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago after the political coalition led by her won a thumping majority and ended the ruling party’s 43 years in power.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s People’s Partnership won 29 out of the 41 parliamentary seats in the elections held on Monday. She is expected to be sworn in as Prime Minister on Tuesday evening by President George Maxwell Richards.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar, a grandmother of two and a devout Hindu, said: “I am grateful for the immense support from women and women’s groups across the country and to the extent that this helps to break the barriers so many competent women face.

“I celebrate this victory on their behalf. But, the picture is much larger than any single group and those very women would be the first to acknowledge that.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Patrick Manning conceded defeat after being in power since 2002.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar was a topper in law school and she did her masters in business administration and diploma in education from the University of the West Indies. She was the first woman attorney general and also served as minister of legal affairs as well as minister of education.

Her forefather was amongst the 148,000 Indian labourers who were brought here between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar and cocoa plantations. The Indian diaspora comprises 44 per cent of the population of 1.3 million people.

Ms. Persad-Bissessar, who has represented her Siparia constituency for 15 years, had held the reins of power during the absence of then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.

She has become the first woman to lead any political party in oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago. Her meteoric rise began January 24 last year when she successfully challenged her mentor, Basdeo Panday, for the leadership of the United National Congress which he had founded 20 years ago.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning broke with tradition and dissolved the 41-seat parliament April and called for general elections May 24, some 30 months before it was due constitutionally.

For the first time since independence in August 1962, a coalition of four other parties joined to confront the ruling People’s National Movement which has been in power for 43 years.

The five parties are Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress, Congress of the People (COP), the National Joint Action Committee, Tobago Organisation of Peoples, and the Movement for Social Change.

These parties came under the banner of the “People’s Partnership”, with each party maintaining its own symbol on the ballot paper.

The election was fought on several issues including massive corruption in all sectors of the national economy, the lack of medical facilities, a total breakdown in the infrastructural capacity and the mismanagement of the nation. Rising crime with over 3,000 people being murdered over the last eight years was also an issue.

Malware threat at a new high

Production of software code known as malware, which can harm computers and steal user passwords, reached a new high in the first six months of 2010.



Total malware production continued to soar and 10 million new pieces of malicious code were catalogued.The users of Apple's Mac computers, considered relatively safe from virus attacks, that they may also be subjected to malware attacks in the future. "For a variety of reasons, malware has rarely been a problem for Mac users. But those days might end soon.



"Our latest threat report depicts that malware has been on a steady incline in the first half of 2010," Mike Gallagher, chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee Inc, the No. 2 security software maker, said in the report that was obtained by Reuters.



In April, McAfee Labs detected the Mac-based Trojan known as "OSX/HellRTS," which reads or modifies the contents of the clipboard or plays tricks on the user like opening and closing the CD drive. "We do not want to overstate this threat. But it serves as a reminder that in this age of cybercrime, data theft and identity theft users of all operating systems and devices must take precautions," McAfee said.



After reaching a high point last year, the spread of spam messages has plateaued in the second quarter. Computer attackers bank on major events such as the football World Cup to poison Internet searches and lure web users to click on infected links.

Commonwealth Games 2010 Medals Unveiled

Commonwealth Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi has unveiled the medals for the Games in New Delhi on Friday.



Meanwhile, he hoped that India will win more medals at home and will improve its standings this year. India finished with fourth place at the last Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.



On the prospects of winning medals this time, Kalmadi said, “Last time around the Indian team got 50 medals and came fourth in the games. This time we expect to come third. We can come second as well. We hope 70 of these wonderful medals will be won by Indian athletes. India finished fourth in the medal tally at Melbourne. We are hopeful of moving to the third place this time.”



"There will be 271 gold medals, 271 silver medals and 282 bronze medals. The front of the medal has the Delhi logo. The back of the medal has the emblem of Commonwealth Games. The manufacturing of the medals is in full swing. There will 1,408 medals awarded in the CWG, including the multiple medals in the team events. The cost of each gold medal is Rs.5,539, silver is Rs.4,818 and the bronze cost Rs.4,529 each. The total cost of the medals is Rs.81.08 lakh," he said after unveiling the medals.



"The Prime Minister has given us Rs.700 crore ($7 billion) for training of athletes. I am confident that will reflect in India’s medal tally," Kalmadi said at the OC headquarters in the capital.



Lalit Bhanot, secretary general, Commonwealth Games Organising Committee was also present on the occasion.



According to the OC chairman, the medal design is simple and the highlight of the medal is its rising upward spiral that starts taking shape from the plain textured base.



In the front of the medal, there is the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi logo and dates and in the back, the emblem of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has been imprinted.



The medal is 6 mm thick with a diameter of 63.5 mm.



The lanyard of the medal carries all six Games colours like pink, purple, green, red, yellow and blue blending into each other. It is created with Delhi 2010 brand and design elements.



The medal case is clean and simple with black background enhancing the logo embossed on top in Gold, Silver or Bronze - matching the medal inside. The color and simplicity of the box is keeping with the significance of the product it carries. The black base provides an appropriate background to the multi-hued lanyard and the medal itself.



The CWG medal has been designed and developed by the India Government Mint, Kolkata. The Games starts from Oct 3.

Regards,

Nisit Kumar Parida

Sachin Tendulkar's all-round greatness means he will not be surpassed.

As the Indian icon plays in a historic 169th Test match, it should be remembered that he has excelled not just with the bat but also in ball.






Sachin Tendulkar is playing in a historic 169th Test match for India having made his debut in November 1989.

To understand what Sachin Tendulkar has meant to Indian cricket, it's necessary to look beyond his record-breaking 169th Test appearance, achieved yesterday in the series against Sri Lanka, and his batting heroics. Think instead of a man who has 198 wickets, 154 of them in one-day internationals, an individual who has never been less than fully involved out on the field despite having been around since the days when Mike Gatting was leading a rebel tour of South Africa.

Think back to a World Series game in Australia in December 1991. The West Indies were waning as a limited-overs force, but when they skittled India for 126 in Perth, few gave Mohammad Azharuddin's side a chance of salvaging anything from the game. But West Indies then fell apart themselves and it was left to Curtly Ambrose and Anderson Cummins to get them within range. Ambrose was run out, and Cummins and Patrick Patterson then levelled the scores with Azhar having turned to Tendulkar's medium pace as a last resort.

With the last ball of his only over, Tendulkar tempted Cummins to flash outside off stump. Azhar took a fine catch in the slips, and the game was tied. Two years later, the boy with the golden arm was at it again, this time in the Hero Cup semi-final against South Africa, a team who were coming into their own as a one-day powerhouse. Again it was Tendulkar that Azhar turned to, with six needed from the final over. He gave up just three, and went on to sneak one through Brian Lara's defence in a final where West Indies were routed.

In Tests, Tendulkar's partnership-breaking ability came to the fore in matches where he didn't contribute as heavily with the bat. In India's most cherished victory of all, at Eden Gardens in 2001, he made 10 in both innings. But facing a race against the clock to bowl Australia out on the final afternoon, it was his intervention after tea that effectively killed off Steve Waugh's hopes of clinging on to a series lead.

On a worn pitch and with the capacity crowd bellowing approval, he ripped the ball at near-right angles to supplement Harbhajan Singh's heroics at the other end. Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Shane Warne all fell leg-before, unable to fathom the extent of turn as Tendulkar tossed up leg breaks, googlies and the odd quicker one.

More than two years later, at Adelaide, he made 1 in the first innings of a game made memorable by the batting of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, and some rare Ajit Agarkar moments in the Test-match sun. With Australia setting India a target on a surface where chasing has never been easy, Tendulkar made his mark when it mattered most, with Australia 142 ahead and having seven wickets in hand. Damien Martyn and Steve Waugh were undone in successive overs, both by prodigious turn and edges to Dravid at slip.

In Multan the following spring, he produced another Warne-like special to bowl Moin Khan through his legs to ruin Pakistan's hopes of saving the follow-on. India went on to win by an innings and 52 runs, and the dismissal buried some ghosts from the recent past. At Eden Gardens in 1999, Moin's gritty 70 had been pivotal as Pakistan recovered from 26 for six to win a Test match.

His last Test wicket came at Wellington in April 2009, and you have to go back a further 18 months and a game against Pakistan in Guwahati for his last ODI wickets. A shoulder that required surgery has been keenly felt on Asian pitches, where his spin and ability to wobble the ball off the seam gave his captains an option well worth checking out.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the current India captain, will console himself with the thought that the bowling decline has gone hand-in-hand with a batting resurgence. In seven Tests this year, Tendulkar averages more than 96, and has five centuries. Overall he is averaging 56.25 in Tests.

Back when he started playing, 20 Test centuries and 10 more in the one-day arena marked you out as one of the all-time greats. The benchmarks he has gone on to set in both forms of the game make a mockery of everyone else who has played in this era.

Consider this to put things into perspective – Andrew Flintoff is five years younger and his peak lasted six years, from the hundred against South Africa at Lord's in 2003 to the Ashes-winning encore of last summer. Tendulkar was scoring match-saving Test hundreds at Old Trafford when Flintoff was 12, and he'll play his sixth World Cup next spring, while Fred watches from the sidelines.

As Sharda Ugra, who has seen Tendulkar progress from prodigy to old hand, asked in Cricinfo: "Stretch the imagination 22 years ahead and see if you can pick any fresh Test stripling of today – Umar Akmal, Eoin Morgan, Steve Smith, Adrian Barath – to go past 170 Tests." You can't, can you? Few records in sport are safe, not Bob Beamon's, not Hank Aaron's and not even Jack Nicklaus's of 18 majors. But Tendulkar, like Bradman and his 99.94, will endure. No one else will even get close.


Regards,
Nisit Kumar Parida