Rs.10 mn fine for denying sports feeds to Doordarshan

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) A government ordinance that compels private broadcasters to share live feeds of exclusive national sports events with Prasar Bharati provides for a penalty up to Rs One crore (Rs 10 million) by defaulting media channels.

The ordinance favouring Doordarshan and All India Radio also empowers the government to suspend or revoke the private broadcaster's license for operating in India and its registration here.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Ordinance, 2007 was approved by the union cabinet Thursday and accorded President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's nod late Friday. The government notified it Saturday.

The government has promulgated the ordinance from retrospective affect, dating back to Nov 11, 2005.

The date is significant. It was on this date that the government had issued its guidelines for downlinking of TV channels. And a few weeks later, on Dec 12, 2005, it had issued guidelines for up linking of channels from India.

Both guidelines would be deemed as issued under this ordinance. In simple terms, it implies that these two guidelines, which were merely an executive order till last week, will now have the force of the law from retrospective effect.

Both executive orders stand challenged before the Delhi High Court by Nimbus Communication Ltd, which had approached the court, apprehending that the government may resort to some coercive methods under provisions of these guidelines to force them to share their exclusive feeds on the Indo-West Indies four match one-day series lasting Feb 1.

But the ordinance, after according the two old executive guidelines the force of the law, has stipulated that no action of the government, based on these guidelines, would be challenged in any court of law.

The ordinance, promulgated from a retrospective date, however, does not contemplate any pecuniary fine on past defaulters, who refused to share their exclusive audio or video feeds with the public broadcaster.

The ordinance also provides for a revenue sharing formula between private and public broadcasters. Advertisement sharing between private and the public broadcasters would be in the ratio of 75:25 in case of TV coverage and 50:50 in case of radio coverage.

Salem may not be brought to Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) The plans of Delhi Police to bring extradited mobster Abu Salem to the capital Thursday in connection with two cases of extortion may not materialise immediately, senior officials said Wednesday.

Police said Salem was trying to avoid being brought to Delhi on certain health pretexts.

"We are in touch with Mumbai Police and are waiting for information from their side but it looks like we might not be able to bring Salem here tomorrow," said a senior special cell official on conditions of anonymity.

Salem was scheduled to be produced in the court of Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini Thursday for two cases of extortion registered against him in 2002.

One of the cases dates back to July 2002 in which Salem has been accused of demanding Rs.10 million as protection money from Rajat Nagrath, owner of Allied Communication in East of Kailash, south Delhi.

The other pertains to his alleged role in an extortion call to Ashok Gupta, a Greater Kailash I-based businessman, in which Rs.50 million was demanded from him as protection money in April 2002.

Saudi King receives Palestinian political leaders before Mecca meeting

RIYADH, Feb 7 (NNN-KUNA) -- Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz said that concord among the Palestinian leaders could be realised easily if the parties' intentions were sincere and truth prevailed.

He was speaking during his reception of the Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khalid Mishaal and Palestinian Premier Ismael Haneyah and their accompanying delegations who arrived earlier Tuesday in the kingdom in response to a Saudi invitation to hold an urgent meeting in Mecca to discuss their differences in total neutrality and with no interference from any party.

"Palestine is a cause that is at the heart of all Arabs and Muslims. The whole nation is awaiting the Palestinian brothers to find the way to their unity," King Abdullah said at the meeting.

The King hoped the meeting of the leaders of the Palestinian people in Mecca would realise the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people and all Islamic and Arab peoples.

He pointed out that the continuation of disagreement among the Palestinians would deplete resources and destroy all achievements of the Palestinian struggle.

-- NNN-KUNA

Say no to 'Dubaisation' of Indian cities, say experts

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) A growing number of buildings with glass-panelled outdoors in India's metros consume 50 percent more energy for its maintenance and are not environmentally sustainable, according to British and Indian experts.

"'Dubaisation' of Indian cities will soon have its impact on the country. The number of glass structures, especially in metro cities, is a matter of great concern as they consume more energy and increase carbon in the environment," Susan Roaf, a leading 'sustainable architect' of Britain, said here Wednesday.

Roaf, who is also the director of Low Carbon Cities Initiative of Britain, said India must take note of the recent climate change report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"The Indian cities having a population of more than 8 million are going to face the impact of climate change in a major way," Roaf told the UK-India Symposium on Greening Events and Energy Efficient Cities for a Lasting Legacy.

"India should rely on its conventional architecture and move towards using solar energy in a major way. The number of glossy glass buildings need to be discouraged," she said.

While warning against the increasingly popular glass and granite structures in Indian cities, David Vincent, technology director of Carbon Trust, London said, India needs to rely more on solar energies.

"There is a 30 percent growth in the use of solar energy in China and India must learn from it. The country must use low carbon and renewable energy technologies while building structures.

"Nearly 75 to 80 percent of the global energy is used in cities and India is no different. We need a code for sustainable houses and make punishment mandatory for violators," Vincent said.

"Unless we start now to make the transition to a low carbon economy, dangers of climate change would be inevitable," he added.

Dinesh Mehta, advisor of the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahemedabad, said: "Since we get enough sunlight, there is no point turning to glass houses. They consume 50 percent more energy."

"There is no point spending money on expensive glass boxes and offsetting the heat generated by them using air-conditioners and then running up huge energy bills. The energy we consume to cool these buildings is a matter of concern," he told IANS.

K.T. Ravindran, dean of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, said India can afford to have an open-to-sky kind of architecture instead of aping the west and building glass houses blindly.

"Do we need glasshouses? Our emphasis should be on cost-effective, environment-friendly structures. We need structures those will do more human-good and yield long term benefit," he said.

Scientist find earth's oldest animal in China

BEIJING, Feb 7 (NNN-PTI) Scientists have moved a step closer to decipher the development biology of the oldest animals on earth after researching on 600 million years old embryos fossils found in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

The study by US and Chinese scientists has revealed how the ancient animal embryos developed into mature adult forms, the scientists said in the latest issue of Geology, the journal of the Geological Society of America.

The scientists studied on some 80 pieces of fossilised embryos, which were formed almost 600 million years ago and showed the embryos in the act of cleaving, Yuan Xunlai, a member of the Sino-US embryos research team that carried out the study, said.

Yuan, from Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that each embryo is about the size of a grain of sand, and is composed of two to nearly 1,000 cells.

The embryos cloaked themselves inside an envelope with tiny holes in a pattern similar to stitches on a baseball that they use to transport, store or metabolise molecules, he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Scientists used X-ray computed tomography and other scanning equipments to peel off the envelope and discovered that the embryo cells are dividing and unfurling.

"Previously we discovered that some cells were clustered together, but they showed no signs of dividing," he said.

Sharmila blames Gujarat police for 'Parzania' no-show

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore has blamed police authorities after "Parzania", a film about communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, could not be released in the state.

"The police have to provide security. They have to take responsibility. It is the responsibility of the police to enforce law and order," she told TV channel NDTV24x7 in an interview.

"Gujarat is an extreme case but even in other parts of India, the police have not provided security. It's only a few people who are intent on creating trouble and they know them," she said.

The multiplex owners in Gujarat have refused to screen Los Angeles-based Indian filmmaker Rahul Dholakia's film fearing vandalism from Hindu rightwing activists.

The film is the real-life story of an Ahmedabad-based Parsi couple who lost their son in the communal violence. The film, which was completed in 2004, was released Jan 27 throughout the country except in Gujarat.

Tagore feels that that government had been too soft on those who threatened to disrupt the screenings of "Parzania".

"They have a lackadaisical attitude," she said.

The veteran actress also spoke at length about other issues like the controversy over the release of Hollywood flick "Da Vinci Code" last year and the ban on smoking in films.

Tagore said Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's action over "Da Vinci Code" had made the Censor Board "seem a little redundant".

On Dasmunsi's decision to see "Da Vinci Code" before giving it a green signal, she said it was an "avoidable lack of communication" and the minister did not even involve her in the screening he held for Christian groups or in the decision he reached.

Calling Dasmunsi a "super censor", she said he should realise "that there is an organisation like us under him that is doing the job and that is why we are there."

Tagore said she was worried about the precedent that Dasmunsi had set.

"Now if a film is supposed to have hurt Muslim sentiments or Hindu sentiments, they will also come to him and he will find it very difficult to say no to them."

On the controversial issue of banning smoking scenes in films, Tagore said she could "understand where the demand is coming from because smoking is linked to ill-health".

She, however, said no blanket ban was possible because "it is a slippery slope. Next they will say coffee is bad for you."

Tagore said she would oppose any move to interfere with creativity in cinema and declared that she would not agree to censor all smoking scenes.

Sharmila blames Gujarat police for 'Parzania' no-show

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore has blamed police authorities after "Parzania", a film about communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, could not be released in the state.

"The police have to provide security. They have to take responsibility. It is the responsibility of the police to enforce law and order," she told TV channel NDTV24x7 in an interview.

"Gujarat is an extreme case but even in other parts of India, the police have not provided security. It's only a few people who are intent on creating trouble and they know them," she said.

The multiplex owners in Gujarat have refused to screen Los Angeles-based Indian filmmaker Rahul Dholakia's film fearing vandalism from Hindu rightwing activists.

The film is the real-life story of an Ahmedabad-based Parsi couple who lost their son in the communal violence. The film, which was completed in 2004, was released Jan 27 throughout the country except in Gujarat.

Tagore feels that that government had been too soft on those who threatened to disrupt the screenings of "Parzania".

"They have a lackadaisical attitude," she said.

The veteran actress also spoke at length about other issues like the controversy over the release of Hollywood flick "Da Vinci Code" last year and the ban on smoking in films.

Tagore said Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's action over "Da Vinci Code" had made the Censor Board "seem a little redundant".

On Dasmunsi's decision to see "Da Vinci Code" before giving it a green signal, she said it was an "avoidable lack of communication" and the minister did not even involve her in the screening he held for Christian groups or in the decision he reached.

Calling Dasmunsi a "super censor", she said he should realise "that there is an organisation like us under him that is doing the job and that is why we are there."

Tagore said she was worried about the precedent that Dasmunsi had set.