statesman news service
KOLKATA, 1 JUNE: Telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks will close its factory manufacturing fixed line equipment at Salt Lake Electronics Complex, with effect from 31 July.
The company took this decision following decline in demand, refocus of company strategy on mobile broadband and unprofitability of fixed line telephony products.
Official communication to 48 factory employees out of 65, who had not opted for voluntary retirement scheme, was sent yesterday, which includes details of the closure notice.
Nokia Siemens Networks remains committed to West Bengal with current employee strength of around 700 and managing mobile telecom networks that carry over 26.5 million subscribers in the state, said a company statement.
"We would like to share with you that the management of Nokia Siemens Networks, after evaluating all possible alternatives, have taken a final decision to close the Kolkata factory at Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Sector V, with effect from 31 July 2013," the statement said.
The 48 factory employees are to receive closure compensation. Out of the total 65, six employees took transfers within the organisation and 11 had accepted voluntary separation scheme last year.
The Kolkata factory with its focus on fixed line telephony products and serving operators in India with legacy fixed line operations has not been profitable. Changing consumption trend from fixed line telephony to mobile telephony in India in the last few years has influenced the decision of the company.
Besides, Nokia Siemens Networks embarked on a substantial, two-year restructuring and transformation programme in November 2011 which involved focusing its business on mobile broadband and services. There have been several initiatives in support of this shift in strategy and the decision to close the Kolkata factory is one of such initiatives to support the company&’s focused business portfolio and restructuring programmes, the company said.
The company said that the state authorities have offered all possible support and we are thankful to them, adding, Nokia Siemens Networks will continue its commitment in West Bengal.
"We understand separation is never easy and thus have endeavoured to approach this with responsibility and consideration for the future of the employees. All options of alternate employment within Nokia Siemens Networks were considered, offering opportunities within the organisation in Bengal and other locations of Nokia Siemens Networks’ business in India," the company statement said.

alok kumar 
NEW DELHI, 11 JUNE: With the incumbent Railway Board chairman, Mr Vinay Mittal, scheduled to demit office on 30 June, the race for his successor is gaining momentum against the backdrop of the cash-for-promotion scam which cost the former railway minister, Mr P K Bansal, his job. 
Though there are three more contenders for this coveted post, Mr Kulbhushan, member electrical, Railway Board, is way ahead of his rivals and is likely to succeed Mr Mittal.
The other three potential candidates for this post are Mr R S Virdi, Mr V K Gupta and Mr A K Mittal, general managers of North Frontier, Northern and South Western zones
respectively. 
A highly places source in Rail Bhavan told The Statesman that since 2003, when for the first time the 1987 resolution detailing the appointment of the chairman Railway Board and members was enforced, the post of CRB has always been going to the  person who fits the laid down criteria. 
The 1987 resolution   prescribes tenure linked norms for filling up the posts of members of the Railway Board, financial commissioner, Railways, and chairman Railway Board.
These norms were laid down to avoid appointments  made for very short periods to the post of CRB and members. 
Emphasising that there has not been any aberration in adhering to these norms, the source said this time around the Cabinet Committee for Appointments (ACC) would be extra cautious in not allowing even the slightest deviation from the norms against the backdrop of the ‘Railgate’ scam. Norms that govern the filling up the post of CRB  explicitly mention that the candidate should normally have a remaining tenure of two years or more and should have worked for a period of one year in the grade preceding that of member, Railway Board. 
The  preceding grade mentioned in the resolution is that of general manager (open lines) and it is on this  specific point that Mr Kulbhushan may lose out as he served in ‘open lines’ a month less than a year.
But this interpretation conveniently overlooks that this one-year open-line service condition is applicable for only those  candidates seeking to become CRB directly from the post of general manager of a zone. 
A person who has already been appointed  member, Railway Board, does not require to meet this  criterion which is any way is not mandatory as the qualifying word for this norm is  “normally”. 
Mr Kulbhushan  belongs to the 1974 batch while Mr Virdi, who is  second to him in seniority belongs to the 1976 batch. Mr Kulbhushan is also senior-most among the four candidates who first reached  the rank of general manager. Here too, he is followed by Mr Virdi. 
However, on the yardstick of honesty, integrity  and efficiency, all the four contenders measure up quite well, said sources in Rail Bhavan,  conceding that the cash-for-promotion scam is a blessing in disguise for Mr Kulbhushan as the ACC will think twice in deviating from  the norms for appointment.

press trust of india
NEW DELHI, 1 JUNE: Both precious metals, gold and silver tumbled on the bullion market today on stockists selling in the face of sluggish demand at higher levels amid a weakening global trend.
While gold plunged by Rs 440 to Rs 27,350 per 10 gm, silver dropped by Rs 980 to Rs 44,120 per kg on lack of buying by industrial units and coin makers.
Marketmen said stockists indulged in reducing their holdings driven by a weak global trend while demand from retailers declined at higher levels following three days of gains.
Gold in overseas markets slumped the most in two weeks as US consumer confidence climbed in May to the highest in almost six years, stoking concern that the Federal Reserve may scale back monetary stimulus. Gold in New York, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, dropped by $25.40 to $1,388.30 an ounce, while silver declined by 2.24 per cent to $22.27 an ounce.
On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity plunged by Rs 440 each to Rs 27,350 and Rs 27,150 per 10 gm, respectively. Sovereigns rose by Rs 100 to Rs 24,000 per piece of eight gm.

statesman news service
BHUBANESWAR, 1 JUNE: ‘A great escape, unprecedented…’ is all the stunned wildlife officials could mutter as they realised that a wild Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) which had strayed in to the Nandankanan zoo a month ago, had managed to escape from its enclosure.
The RBT proved it was more intelligent than humans. Perhaps it also wanted to teach a lesson as the wildlife officials were engaged in a month-long debate on whether to release it in the wild or retain it in the zoo. The debate would have gone on for months as tiger experts insisted that unless they establish its original habitat they cannot release it in any nearby forest.
A month ago, the wild full grown RBT had strayed into the lion safari of the zoo much to the delight of wildlife enthusiasts. Speculation was that it had come from the Satkosia tiger reserve.
CCTV footage showed how it had walked into the lion safari. Recently, the zoo authorities had shifted it from the safari to another enclosure which had a 18-ft high fencing.
The intelligence of the majestic striped animal was proven when a couple of days ago it damaged the CCTV camera in the enclosure. The zoo authorities felt the camera was installed at a low level and hence they installed a camera at a greater height in the enclosure.
Last night the RBT scaled the 18-ft high fencing, damaged the camera and escaped, leaving no footage of its escape for wildlife officials to follow its trail!
World over no tiger has ever scaled such heights! remarked a senior forest official of the zoo. It had come from the wild and it returned to the wild, leaving authorities flabbergasted.
Villages in the vicinity of the zoo were scared as the news of the great escape spread in the area. Forest officials said they had spotted pug marks which led them to a water body where the RBT had taken a plunge. It is in the forests near the zoo, they said.

sns & pti
NEW DELHI, 11 JUNE: The Union Home Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde (file photo), today said that the Centre will provide the required paramilitary forces for security during panchayat polls in West Bengal.
“It (forces) will be given to them. I have spoken to the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) and asked her that she should give a proposal to the chief secretary and the chief secretary will talk to the home secretary. I have already spoken to the home secretary asking him to give paramilitary forces (to West Bengal),” he added.
Meanwhile, facing stiff opposition to the NCTC from non-Congress chief ministers, Mr Shinde said both the Centre and the states need to work together for setting up the proposed counter-terrorism body and sought consensus from all stakeholders.
“When such opposition is there, we will think over it and then decide. We need to take consensus on it. I have said it many a time that both the Centre and the states need to work together. We cannot do it alone,” Mr Shinde told reporters here when asked about the government’s strategy on setting up the NCTC.
He said the government has already accepted the demands of some chief ministers opposed to the proposed body.
“First, their (chief ministers) objection that it should not be under Intelligence Bureau, we took it out. They also said its operationalisation should not be under IB, that also we did.
“I will only say that we tried to have a Central intelligence agency but they said Multi-Agency Centre is there. To which, they have accepted which is also a Central agency,” Mr Shinde said apparently suggesting that the opposing states should agree to the NCTC.
Mr Shinde today rejected Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s demand for a ‘white paper’ on internal security and said the government was following a two-pronged strategy of development and offensive action to tackle Maoists.

statesman news service
NEW DELHI, 1 JUNE: Dr Avinash Chander, who has taken over as scientific advisor to the Defence minister and director general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), today said he is determined to enhance the level of self-reliance in the Defence sector. “We are looking forward to further growth in indigenous capabilities and to achieve a goal of 75 per cent self-reliance. DRDO has tremendous potential and the right critical mass to deliver. Today the ambience is right, with the maturity of Indian industry and our own R&D capabilities,” Dr Chander said.
“We have taken major programmes in multiple areas. Our focus is on performance and timely deliveries of critical programmes like LCA, artillery guns and surface-to-air missiles systems. Simultaneously, we want to make sure DRDO becomes a leading technology agency in the world. While we set our eyes on this process, we need to involve academia in a very close interaction to create frontline centres of excellence in R&D,” he said.
Dr Chander has been appointed for a period of three years.

statesman news service 
KOLKATA, 11 JUNE: As many as 4,519 candidates for gram panchayat seats of a total of a little over 30,000 seats going to the poll in the first phase on 2 July have won uncontested and going by the trends the figure may even go up to 5,250 ~ over 15 per cent of the total, a state election commission official today said after the last date of withdrawal of nomination expired yesterday.
In all 94,350 candidates for the three tiers of gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad are in the fray. In the first phase election will be held in  5,792  panchayat samiti and 514 zilla parishad seats.
In the second phase the contest will be in 11,999 GP,  2,183 PS and 197 ZP seats and the figures for the third phase are 6,943 (GP), 1,265 (PS) and 114 (ZP). 
As per the break-up given by the SEC 732 panchayat samiti seats of a total of 5,792  and eight of 514 zilla parishad seats have been won uncontested. 
The commission’s secretary Tapas Ray admitted the staggering number of seats going uncontested was “indeed a matter of concern for the SEC.” The SEC, he said, had taken cognizance of the matter and would look into the reasons, including alleged intimidation and terror tactic by the ruling party.
The districts most affected by the “disconcerting trend” are Hooghly, East and West Midnapore, Burdhwan and Bankura. 
Mr Ray conceded one reason for the incidence of uncontested seats could be that the political parties cutting across ideologies found it difficult to get women candidates.
Sources in the commission said fears of violence during the polls cannot be ruled out judging the trend of the first phase.
“In the panchayat polls of 2003, around 6,800 seats in all the phases were won uncontested,” he added.
A Left Front delegation urged state home secretary Basudeb Banerjee to take action against the abduction of its candidates for the panchayat poll by alleged Trinamul Congress-backed goons in several areas when they were going to BDO offices to file nominations. 
Mr Anisur Rahaman of the CPI-M, who submitted a memorandum to the home secretary complained the police hadn’t taken action even after FIRs were lodged. “We are afraid that more such incidents would take place in next two phases of filing nomination papers also,” Mr Rahaman said. 
“Trinamul leaders, who instigated their supporters for abducting Left Front candidates, are now being guarded by security personnel as reward from the party,” said Mr Rahaman. On the other hand, he alleged, the Leader of the Opposition Dr Suryakanta Misra hadn’t got police escort and taken high risk a few days ago when he went to meet the wife of a slain Trinamul leader in Howrah to express sympathy. 
He said Trinamul won about 5,000 seats uncontested, which is over 15 per cent of the total gram panchayat seats where election will be held in the first phase. This is an ominous sign for democracy,” he said.
The LF would launch a bigger movement if this situation continues, he threatened.
Earlier, during the day, Congress leader Dr Manas Bhuniya met SEC officials and complained that his party candidates had been threatened to withdraw their nominations for the first phase.
The commission had registered a case against the Trinamul Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal for asking his party activists not to allow rival candidates to file their nomination. A separate case has also been initiated against West Midnapore’s Pingla Officer-in-Charge Pankaj Mistry for alleged police inaction during an attack on CPI activists on 26 May.
However,  state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said during the day the state government was desperately trying to bring Central forces for the panchayat poll. He sought to allay fears and assured the state government would ensure free and peaceful poll. He was speaking on the sidelines of a community police programme.
“An unwarranted situation in which we would have to confront criminals enjoying the patronage of the ruling party appears to be on the cards and the state government would be responsible for it” Leader of the Opposition, Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra told the media at the CPI-M party office at Alimuddin Street.
"The state government cannot shirk its responsibilities and it should keep in mind that its power is much less than the semi-Fascist forces and the Emergency  we had stood up to and combatted" he added.
“Criminals enjoying the patronage of the ruling party are preventing our candidates from filing nominations and later pressurising them to withdraw though in 2008 rural polls half the seats were won by the then Opposition “ the Leader of the Opposition alleged. “Things have come to such a pass that a minister is trying to pass off  the recent  killing  of CPI-M leader in Burnpur, Dilip Sarkar as an intra-party feud and making statements tarnishing his image though the investigation is not yet over ,” Dr Mishra said.
“Trinamul Congress itself is a party plagued by factional feud and killings after which several next of kin of the deceased person had moved the court and got a direction for a CBI probe. It is regrettable that the state government is not taking steps following the directions of the court and the state election commission” he added.
“Law and order situation in the state is about to collapse and the actions of the state government are leading to anarchy” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said earlier. “The state government’s actions are stifling participatory democracy as the Opposition candidates are increasingly being prevented from filing nominations all over the state.” he added. 

manash ghosh
KOLKATA, 1 JUNE: External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid has said the Union government made constant efforts, over a long period, to secure Sarabjit Singh&’s release from Pakistani jail but regrettably those efforts proved fruitless.
In a letter to Mr Saugata Roy, Mr Khurshid has said India repeatedly emphasised to Pakistan the need to take steps to ensure such incidents do not occur again. He reassured Mr Roy and said: “We will continue to do so through official discussions and through the mechanism of India-Pakistan Judicial committee. We have demanded Pakistan conduct a thorough investigation to identify those responsible for his (Sarabjit’s) killing and they be punished.”
Mr Khurshid&’s letter was in response to Mr Roy raising the issue of Sarabjit Singh&’s death in a Lahore jail as a matter of urgent public importance in Lok Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament.
Appreciating Mr Roy&’s concern, Mr Khurshid said the Indian government took a number of steps from the time Sarabjit was attacked on 26 April last. His government reiterated its request to the Pakistan government to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view in Sarabjit’ case and immediately release him so he could be treated in India.
Alternatively it was suggested that Sarabjit be sent to a third country for proper medical treatment. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad immediately requested for consular access to Sarabjit which was granted at 2 a.m. the next day. The Indian High Commissioner also raised the issue strongly during his talks with the Pakistan foreign secretary on 30 April. The India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on prisoners which was in Pakistan in April visited Sarabjit in Jinnah Hospital.
The external affairs minister said the Indian government had been consistently working for his release and also to ensure his security and safety. In September last year, following reports about his alleged poisoning and mental torture, the Indian High Commission sought consular access to Sarabjit which was subsequently provided by Islamabad.
During the consular access it was observed Sarabjit was in good physical health. Request was made to the jail authorities to arrange for his complete medical check up. Sarabjit’s lawyer, on 16 October, sent a medical report of the Punjab government’s Home Department, which said his physical health was satisfactory and all vital functions were normal.
Mr Khurshid said on several occasions the Indian government had asked the Pakistan government to take a humanitarian view of the Sarabjit case. Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured him in New York in 2005 on the side lines of the UN General Assembly that he would consider granting clemency to Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds. The then external affairs minister, Mr Natwar Singh, took up the matter with the Pakistani High Commissioner in Delhi and also with President Musharraf during his visit to Islamabad in October 2005. Subsequently in March 2006, MEA had formally requested the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi to treat Sarabjit&’s case sympathetically  and with compassion. Again the issue of his release was taken up during India-Pakistan home secretary-level talks held in Islamabad on 24 and 25 May last year. The matter was once more raised during foreign secretary level talks held in Delhi on 4 and 5 July last.
The former external affairs minister, Mr S M Krishna, during his meeting with Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari raised the issue of Sarabjit&’s release.  Mr Zardari had assured Sarabjit&’s case would be considered sympathetically. Later, the new Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar during her meeting with Mr Krishna on 8 September last year had assured the Indian request would be “positively considered” by the authorities concerned.
The matter was again taken up with Pakistan during the meeting between the Indian home minister and the visiting Pakistan interior minister Mr Rahman Malik in Delhi in December last year. That all these assurances were only false hopes, India realised after Sarabjit&’s death.

NEWS ITEMS

A MARRIAGE PARTY LOOTED
Dacoits Dressed In Khaki
(From Our Correspondent)
Lahore, June 11
A daring dacoity is reported from Jullundur Cantonment. A local marriage party returned from Sialkot, but could not proceed at once from want of conveyances. The bridegroom&’s brother was sent in the only carriage available, in charge of ornaments and cash, accompanied by two or more persons. About five hundred paces from the railway station, the carriage, it is stated, was stopped by some men in khaki, who seized all ornaments and property, and mercilessly belaboured the occupants of the carriage. The bridegroom&’s brother is lying in a precarious condition.

The following interesting statement regarding the progress of work on the Lower Ganges bridge near Saraghat appears in the Railway Administration Report issued last week: “More than two-thirds of the total quantity of earthwork required for the approaches has been completed; also the pair of stone pitched guide banks flanking the bridge, and three-quarters of the Raita Ghat guide bank. The five well foundations started in 1911 were completed in the same working season and two piers built. Of the six other well foundations which have been started, two are nearing completion. Work was delayed in 1912 on account of the late arrival of materials from England due to the strikes.” The formal sanction of the Secretary of State has just been received for an estimate of four and three quarter crores for the bridge and it immediate approaches.
12 June, 1913

statesman news service
GUWAHATI, 1 JUNE: National Union of Journalists (India) has expressed grave concern over delay in police action against the goons who stabbed to death three newspaper employees in Agartala on 19 May. In a statement issued from New Delhi today the NUJ strongly condemned the killings of Ranjit Chaudhary (manager), Sujit Bhattcharjee (proof reader) and Balaram Ghosh (driver) who used to work for Dainik Ganadoot, a Bengali newspaper published from Tripura. NUJ secretary general Ras Bihari categorically pointed out that the state police have not shown any initiative to arrest the culprits even after 12 days of the gory incident. He also urged Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to order a high level probe into the incident and compensate the victims’ families. Unidentified assailants had stormed into the Ganadoot office, located in the heart of Agartala and stabbed all three workers to death. All the injured persons were taken to a nearby hospital, but attending doctors had declared them brought dead. The owner and editor of Dainik Ganadoot, Mr Sushil Chaudhary, later, claimed he had been the target of the assailants. Agartala Press Club first condemned the incident and it was followed by many local journalist bodies, including Journalist Forum Assam (JFA), All Meghalaya Journalists’ Union,  Shillong Press Club, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists and Arunachal Press Club, which urged the Tripura government to book the killers at the earliest. The JFA even organised a protest at Guwahati Press Club on 21 May and urged the Communist party-ruled government to probe and compensate the bereaved families. Other important organisations, including Editor&’s Guild of India, Reporters Without Borders, International Federation of Journalists and Committee to Protect Journalists, also expressed serious concern over the incident and asked Mr Sarkar, who also holds the Home portfolio, to take all possible steps to punish the perpetrators.

agence france-presse
ISTANBUL, 11 JUNE: Riot police re-entered Istanbul’s protest square today, sending demonstrators scrambling with teargas and water cannon in a fresh escalation of unrest after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would meet with protest leaders.
Hundreds of police officers backed by armoured cars moved in on Taksim Square in the early morning in their first return to the site after pulling out on 1 June, saying they wanted to remove makeshift barricades erected by protesters and clear the area of flags and banners.
The police action surprised protesters, hundreds of whom have been camping out in the adjoining Gezi Park, and came just hours after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Mr Erdogan would meet with protest leaders tomorrow, in his first major concession since the deadly unrest began nearly two weeks ago.
Despite the Premier’s conciliatory gesture, the deputy warned: “Illegal demonstrations will not be allowed anymore in Turkey.”
Smoke filled the square as riot police fired tear gas and urged protesters to stay calm and return to Gezi Park, with some protesters throwing stones and incendiary devices in response.
Overnight thousands again took to the streets of Istanbul and the capital Ankara, defying Mr Erdogan’s threat that they would “pay a price” for the unrelenting unrest, the biggest challenge yet to his Islamic-rooted government’s decade-long rule.  Riot police fired teargas in the centre of Ankara to disperse hundreds of protesters, sending them scrambling, though protest crowds were smaller than at the weekend.
The nationwide unrest first erupted after police cracked down heavily on a campaign to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, from demolition on 31 May.
The trouble spiralled into mass displays of anger against Mr Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), seen as increasingly authoritarian.
Nearly 5,000 demonstrators, scores of whom are young and middle-class, have been injured and three people have died, tarnishing Turkey’s image as a model of Islamic democracy. “Our intention is to remove the signs and banners at the site. We have no other goal,” said Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu on Twitter. “We will not touch Gezi Park and Taksim, we will absolutely not touch you,” he added, urging demonstrators to stay away from troublemakers.

LONDON, 31 MAY: High doses of two common painkillers, used by millions of Indians, taken over a long period of time may increase the risk of heart attack, Oxford researchers have warned.
The study on more than 350,000 patients taking prescription doses of such medications found the chance of a heart attack or stroke rose by almost 40 per cent. The study found the increased risk of cardiac side-effects from ibuprofen was similar to those of another arthritis drug, Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market almost a decade ago when research had suggested it might double the risk of heart attacks, The Telegraph reported.
The University of Oxford study findings suggest prolonged use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and taken by millions of arthritis sufferers medicines was “risky” ~ but said patients needed to weigh up the benefits of drugs which allowed them to function against the potential dangers.
The research, published in The Lancet, found that for every 1,000 people with a moderate risk of heart disease, around eight would normally have a heart attack or stroke each year.
When similar patients were given one year of treatment with a high dose of ibuprofen (2400mg daily) or diclofenac (150mg daily) that risk rose, with 11 patients suffering the major cardiac events. The study found one in three of the extra heart attacks were fatal.
The same dosage ~ which is the maximum normally prescribed, and twice the amount which is allowed over the counter ~ doubled the risk of heart failure, from 3 to 7 cases in 1,000, and more than doubled the risks of complications such as bleeding ulcers, the study found.
However, the findings, from an analysis of 639 randomised trials, found that a third drug, called naproxen, did not increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes, when a high dose of 1000 mg a day was taken. pti

There is more than one way for things to fade from view, says s ananthanarayan

THE Cloak of Darkness, which makes its wearer invisible, is a common fairy tale motif. But it has now become reality through the use of materials that do complex things to light and make light go around an object, instead of being blocked or reflected. Moti Fridman, Alessandro Farsi, Yoshitomo Okawachi and Alexander L Gaeta from Cornell University, USA, report in the journal Nature another method of effectively achieving the same thing — by getting light to slow down, and then rushed to catch up, during an instant, to miss an event that takes place during that instant.
One way for an object to avoid being seen is to let light just pass through. But objects in general are not transparent and would interact with light that falls on them. Even if there were a transparent coat on the object, light that falls on the coat would get bent towards the object, which would then interact, generally by reflecting the light. Persons in front of the object would then see the object and persons behind would see a shadow. But if the light falling on the transparent coat could be made to turn not towards the object but away, then the light could be guided, through the coat, around the object and sent on its way from the other side of the object.  If this happens, then persons in front of the object would see no reflected light and persons on the other side would see no shadow. The object would disappear!
The reason that light that enters a transparent medium is turned “inward”, or towards the direction along which it came to the medium, is the refraction of light. This is usually explained as because light travels slower in the medium than in air, and this causes a beam of light to bend inwards. But the change in direction of light is in fact concerned with the electric and magnetic properties of materials and the fact that light is a wave that consists of electrical and magnetic fluctuations. The interplay of the electric and magnetic properties of the material affect the electric and magnetic components of the light wave in such a way that for all natural materials the direction of propagation changes within the medium, and away from the surface of the medium. In theory, the nature of electric and magnetic interactions can be such as to result in the beam bending the other way, but this does not happen for natural materials.

Metamaterials
But artificial materials can be created that do affect light in this way. The world of metamaterials consists of compositions of materials designed to have more properties than the components. The components are microscopic in form and the structure has features that are of the dimensions of or lesser than the wavelength of light. Materials like this can have electric and magnetic properties, known as susceptibility and permeability, which allow for light entering the material to bend in the opposite way. A cylinder made of such material can be designed so that light falling on one side turns along the surface of the cylinder and goes all the way round, till it is allowed to escape and continue along it original path. The beam of light would then be quite unaffected by an object that is placed within the cylinder and that object, in effect, would be invisible!
Metamaterial invisible cloaks have been implemented only for specific bands of light in the microwave region and are far from perfect. The dimensions of the objects that can be cloaked are also very small. Recent reports are of cloaks made not of bulk metamaterial but an “ultrathin” cloak, which works by creating waves that interfere with reflected waves and prevent reflection from emerging from the object. This cloak is able to conceal larger objects, again in the microwave region. Professor John Pendry of the Imperial College, London, who pioneered the work, however, cautions that a practical invisible cloak is still a far cry. It works with objects a few centimetres across but it is not a cloak you can drape on anything, he says.

Hole in time
These methods of turning a light beam to flow around an abject use ways of dealing with spatial properties of light waves to create, as it were, a hole in space, where an object can hide without being seen. But the mathematical equations that deal with the way electromagnetic waves behave allow nearly the same manipulation that is possible with space to be carried out with the time dimension. A wave on the water, for instance, has the form of a snake, to show the height of the water along a line in space, at any moment. But if we consider a single point on the surface of the water, the water level at that point also rises and falls, as time goes on, in the same way as it does along a line on the surface, at a given instant.
Using this parallel, another approach to invisibility is to slow light down for an instant, and then to speed it up again to catch up with the time that has passed, so that there is a gap in the time for which the wave has been there. An event that occurred during that instant would then have avoided being detected by the light wave. The method makes use of the idea of a “time lens”, which could expand and magnify a short pulse of time to become detectable, just like a glass lens can magnify fine print. This concept was first developed to help detect electrical pulses that were very close together, in time.
The way it works is that an external light wave, with a varying frequency, is added to the first light waveform. The external wave creates combined waves with the original wave. If there are two closely placed peaks in the original wave, there are two different combined frequencies created, as the external wave interacts with each peak at a different time. These waves of different frequencies can then be separated and the two peaks get prised apart.
The same idea is implemented with a light wave, again in the microwave region. A pair of time lenses splits the light wave into a higher and a lower frequency component. Now, a prism is able to split light into the colours of the rainbow because different frequencies travel at different speeds and hence bend in different ways in the prism. In the same way, the light beam that is passed through the pair of time lenses splits into a “fast” component and a “slow” component and they separate.
The two components then reach another, complementary pair of time lenses, which reverse the speed changes to restore the light wave to the way it was at the start. But in the gap between the two sets of time lenses, there was a part of the beam that was “fast” and a part that was “slow”, with a gap in between. If an event that affects the light beam occurs in the “time gap”, it would have no effect on the beam.
Artworks in museums are sometimes protected by laser beams. If a burglar could create a time gap, he could slip in undetected. This was tried out by the Cornel University team, using three different lasers for the main beam, the varying frequency addition and the “event”. The “event” beam became undetectable every time the lime lens was switched on, but the time gap they created was very brief, just 40 trillionths of a second. That burglar would have to be quick!

The writer can be contacted at
simplescience@gmail.com

A profound loss to cinema
SIR, ~ The untimely death of Rituparno Ghosh, the renowned film-maker and actor, is a profound loss to the world of cinema. He was indeed a pioneer of the post-Satyajit Ray new wave that marked the Nineties. He had enthralled the audience with his celluloid gems and gave Bengali cinema a new dimension. He was only 49. His death will be mourned both in Tollywood and Bollywood.
Rituparno was an acclaimed film-maker, known for his stellar and innovative styles in a career that spanned two decades. He was initially a script writer in an advertising agency and switched over to cinema with his debut  children&’s film, Hirer Angti (Diamond Ring) in 1994. Unishe April won the national award in 1995. Altogether he won 12 national and some international awards, including the national prize for best director  (Abohoman).
He can be credited with films not only in Bengali, but in Hindi and in English as well, featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Rakhee, Ajay Devgun to name but a few artistes. Chokher Bali was his blockbuster film in which Aishwarya Rai Bachchan played the most acclaimed role. His films dwelt on the dilemmas of  India&’s urban middle class. 
Rituparno Ghosh died too young but will always be remembered as one of the most talented and versatile  film directors of the country. His contribution to cinema will  inspire young and talented film-makers.
yours, etc., ramesh g jethwani, bangalore,  31 may.
A trailblazer
SIR, ~ Rituparno Ghosh was a trailblazer in Bengali cinema. His death, at a relatively young age,  is a great loss to Indian cinema. The void will not be easy to fill. With a bevy of national and international awards, his films glorified women, their inner feelings, passion and sufferings. Through these columns, I offer my condolence to the bereaved family.
yours, etc., s s paul, chakdaha (nadia), 30 may.
Populist cinema
SIR, ~ Rituparno Ghosh was indeed a talented director and his premature demise is terribly unfortunate. But to describe him as a worthy inheritor of the Satyajit Ray mantle may be a little difficult to digest. He did make a number of  thought-provoking films, notably Unishe April, Dahan, Asukh, Utsav during the initial phase of his career. Post-2003, however, he started playing to the gallery by corrupting his films with lurid sequences.
 He did succumb to the glamour of Bollywood and often incorporated populist, if not crass, ideas into Bengali cinema. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Tapan Sinha worked on a vast canvas, but Rituparno largely confined his films to the extra-marital and/or same-sex paradigm. By addressing the lowest common denominator, he might had made his films commercially successful, but this was a severe assault on the cerebral qualities of Bengali cinema.
yours, etc., kajal chatterjee, sodepur, 31 may.
The poorer without
SIR, ~ The sudden demise of Rituparno Ghosh at the age of 49 is shocking. As a film-maker, he added value to Bengali cinema. In a span of 20 years ~ from Hirer Angti in 1994 to Chitrangada last year ~ Rituparno had directed 19 films, notably Unishe April, Dahan, Asukh, Chokher Bali, Raincoat, Bariwali, Antarmahal and Noukadubi. He won 12 national awards. After the golden era of Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, Asit Sen, Mrinal Sen and Ritwick Ghatak, the name of Rituparno can be added to Bengal&’s list of legendary film-makers.
Commercial cinema will be the poorer without his art films. May his soul rest in peace.
yours, etc., bidyut kumar chatterjee, faridabad, 30 may.
Panchayat gameplan
SIR, ~ The gameplan of the West Bengal government was clear from the moment it appealed to the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court against the Single Bench verdict. The intention was to delay the panchayat election and thwart the State Election Commission&’s plan  to deploy central paramilitary forces to ensure a free and fair election.
  The government has now belatedly realised that it will be extremely difficult to conduct the first phase in nine districts with its own security devices. It has been compelled to agree to 300 companies of central forces.  Even then, there might be a shortfall.
yours, etc., anil kumar choudhury, kalyani, 30 may.
Politicians and sport
SIR, ~ India needs a piece of legislation that will bar interference by politicians, not merely in the affairs of BCCI but sport in general. By setting up an inquiry commission to probe the spot-fixing scam, the authorities are playing to the gallery. The BCCI, led by N. Srinivasan, is as corrupt as the United Progressive Alliance government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Corrupt and greedy politicians have ruined the BCCI ever since its inception.
Srinivasan kept the board members in good humour by providing  them with freebies at the cost of BCCI. It might not be an exaggeration to submit that IPL matches have always been fixed. Players, commentators, anchors and TV channel owners are uniformly corrupt. The anti-betting and anti-gambling propaganda by a few interested television channels is only a diversionary technique. Both gambling and betting should be legalized sooner rather than later.
What is the definition of the expression, “conflict of interest” ? How could Srinivasan become the BCCI chief and at the same time control the ownership of CSK?  The investigation will not be fair unless both Srinivasan and his son-in-law are jailed and the ministers allegedly involved dismissed.
yours, etc., tusar kanti kar, howrah, 30 may.
At bookies’ request?
SIR, ~ Two facts have been overlooked amidst the controversy over the IPL spot-fixing scam. First, in the Rajasthan Royals versus Mumbai Indians match played on 15 May, Ankeet Chavan gave away 15 runs in one over…. as requested by the bookies. Mumbai Indians won the match by 14 runs and gathered certain match-points.
  Technically, the result should either have been scrapped or the whole match should have been replayed in all fairness Quite  apart from the vested interests involved, the probability of that particular over yielding no runs at all is exactly half. If that happened, Rajasthan Royals may have even won the match.
I do not have statistics for the other matches where such spot-fixing was indulged in by the errant bowlers, but the results need to be reviewed. The findings could well result in the entire playoffs proving to be a comedy of errors.
The other issue is that Thisara Pereira gave away 29 runs in one over when bowling to Pollard. This match was also won by Mumbai Indians. If you view the video of that over, you will notice that all the balls were delivered at waist-height, and Pollard repeatedly hit the balls for boundaries and over-boundaries.
No effort was made to bowl yorkers to control the runs and the batsman. Once the fixing scandal broke, Pereira advisedly did not concede 29 runs in any match even in his full complement of four overs. Don’t you think his possible involvement should also be investigated?
These shenanigans would suggest that the Mumbai Indians won in the IPL by default and not  by virtue of its distinctive superiority. The sooner the Ambanis and their players realise this fact, the better.
yours, etc., v k tankha, kolkata, 30 may.
 

david phelan sums up the high points of the Apple World Wide Developers Conference

IN one of the longest keynotes from Apple for years — two full hours — Tim Cook and colleagues tried to fight back after a tough year. Would this be enough to put the gloss back on Apple? Apple needed to show it could innovate, have fresh and appealing ideas — and lots of them. The key to the show was the iOS reveal, the new, flatter design of iPhone and iPad software created by Jony Ive. Sir Jonathan Ive is the Brit behind the iconic designs for the iPhone, iPod and more. But could he change the existing software into something classier?
The problem with iPhone and Apple Mac software is that it pretended to be something else. So the calendar has a border designed to look like stitched leather, a corner of torn paper visible where last month&’s calendar had been torn off. This is what&’s known as skeuomorphism, where one thing is made to look like another.
The new software gets rid of all these. Time and again at the keynote, presenters went out of their way to decry the current styling – “No virtual cows were killed in the making of this software” was followed by “Even thought there&’s no stitching on the calendar, it still stays in place”.
And the results for the Mac software looked good. This will be released in the autumn and be called OSX Mavericks in a move away from names of big cats and towards Californian locations. But the transformation of iOS was stunning. There were eye-popping effects that made the background images seem to sit behind the app icons, so that when you tip the phone, the two move separately. The redesign is absolutely from the ground up and looks as fresh as paint. It may not mean that the Apple system is far ahead of its rivals but it&’s definitely better looking.
This is all it needed to be. Windows Phone and BlackBerry offer radically more modern interfaces but nobody is buying into them because they have smaller, less comprehensive app stores. If Apple users looked longingly at other operating systems, they won’t any more. In a few months they will have the familiarity of their current phones with gorgeous new effects.
Style over substance? Maybe so, but with this much style, who cares? And there will be plenty of innovations when the software launches, including features from the Mac moving to the iPhone and vice-versa.
There was lots more announced, from the sneak peek at the professional quality hardware, the Mac Pro to new versions of the MacBook Air with exceptional battery life. But the biggest cheers of the show and the most eye-catching looks were the iOS redesigns from Jony Ive, Craig Federighi and their teams. These will be enough to keep Apple iPhone users loyal when the next handset is released later in the year.
the independent

statesman news service
DIAMOND HARBOUR/MIDNAPORE, 31 MAY: Trinamul Congress activities allegedly pushed a pregnant woman and kicked her belly after she fell down on the ground following a scuffle over a dispute on between two families.  
The injured woman was admitted to hospital with serious injuries and was kept under observation for four days after abortion. She was released today afternoon.
Two families were fighting over a pipeline in ward number 6 under Diamond Harbour Municipality. Meanwhile Trinamul activists reached the the spot and tried to break the pipeline.  
During the altercation Mrs Supriya Halder started arguing with the TMC supporters. Mrs Halder said: “I told them they couldn’t break it and suddenly the TMC activists pushed me and I fell down. They kicked my belly repeatedly while my family and I tried to warn them about my pregnancy.
“The former Trinamul councillor, Mr Debu Mallik, was there and led the team of Trinamul activists,” she said.
Mr Mallik, however, denied his involvement.
The victim’s husband lodged a complaint against four of the accused. Two of the accused were arrested while the other two are absconding. The arrested men were released on bail.
Mr Anwar Hossain, superintendent of Diamond Harbour sub-division hospital, said Mrs Halder is now well and had to undergo an abortion because of the lack of accurate formation of ovum and not for her injury.
However, the woman said the Trinamul activists were responsible for her condition.  

TMC leader in police custody
A Trinamul Congress leader, who was arrested by the Jhargram police yesterday on charges of attempting to burn alive an aged woman, was remanded in police custody for 10 days today.
The accused leader, Mr Gouranga Pradhan, was produced before Jhargram additional chief judicial magistrate court today where the magistrate, on hearing pleas, remanded him in police custody.
Police said the accused and his associates had recently solved a land-related dispute of Sabitri Sarkar (65) who lives in Benageria in Jhargram. But within a few days, the accused had threatened the woman of dire consequences if she failed to give five cottah land to him for constructing the Trinamul Congress party office.
When the woman refused to comply he and his associates barged into her house and attempted to burn her alive by pouring kerosene on her. The woman was immediately taken to Jhargram district hospital where she is in a serious condition. 
A complaint was lodged against seven persons with the Jhargram police and the police yesterday arrested the accused Trinamul Congress leader from his hideout.

SERAMPORE,  31 MAY:  Three members of two very active notorious gangs of the Hooghly industrial belt fell in the trap of Serampore police. The trio- Sanjay Ganguly , Chotka Mitra and Ratan Das, all residents of Rabindranagar, Chinsurah were arrested on Thursday midnight with arms and ammunition. Well known for forcible extortion and killing, the two gangs ~ one led by Ramesh Mahato and Nepu Giri and the other by Sanjib and Toton of Rabindranagar, Chinsurah, have even developed a well-set network from Howrah to Bandel, roping in other anti-socials of the entire Hooghly Industrial belt. The gangs had turned rivals after intruding into each other’s self-defined areas. In the course of their rivalry, they were getting engaged in violent activities quite often, disturbing the peaceful life of innocent people. The murder of Kamal Pal of Rabindranagar and an attempt to kill Bacchu, the main witness in the case of Ramesh Mahato, was followed by a pitched battle between the Serampore police and the gang members of Ramesh Mahato and Nepu Giri in which five notorious criminals were arrested. Chinsurah police were in the lookout for these absconding criminals who were at last arrested by the Serampore police from their new secret hide out at a mango grove in Padavati colony, Baidyabati. The trio are accused and charged under various serious criminal cases. sns