At the crux of this entire political conundrum, the core issue, which lays quite forlorn and forgotten is the nuclear issue. Today the politicians might have turned it into an opportunity to topple the UPA Govt but few remember that it all started with the nuclear deal.
   
Surely few of these politicians would have actually taken the effort to read the 82-page nuclear deal and tried to understand what it is all about. Somehow that does not come as a surprise at all! So without getting into the “political” angle of it, let us take a look at what exactly is this nuclear issue. What would India gain if UPA wins the vote and what we stand to lose if the deal gets cancelled?
   
What exactly is nuclear power?
Nuclear power is generated using Uranium, which is a metal mined in various parts of the world. It produces around 11% of the world’s energy needs, and produces huge amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel, without the pollution that you’d get from burning fossil fuels.  
   
Where does India currently stand on nuclear power?
In India, nuclear power is being produced under the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. Seventeen reactors are under operation and five reactors are under construction. These power projects are highly capital intensive and currently, takes care of 2.8% of the power needs of the country. Amongst the 30 countries in the world that use nuclear power, India’s rank at 27 is one of the lowest.
   
Why nuclear power?
To take India’s economic growth rate to greater heights, there is no doubt that power would be required as the main fuel for this growth. Though coal, thermal and hydro fuel would remain India’s dominant energy mix, it cannot continue to depend on coal alone. Global warming considerations and the immediate availability of clean coal technologies may constrain the coal route at least in the short term. Hydropower may also face constraints that arise from changes in the hydrological cycle triggered by long term climatic change. Hence having nuclear power in India’s energy portfolio is crucial for preserving India’s energy security  
   
What does 123 agreement mean?
The 123 Agreement is the terms of engagement which operationalizes the treaty agreement between India and USA for transfer of civil nuclear technology. India’s right to test nuclear weapons, guarantees of lifetime fuel supply and India’s right to reprocess the spent fuel have all been covered in this agreement.
   
What is the Hyde Act?  
The Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, it is known as the Hyde Act. It is the legal framework for this deal and provides the legal basis for the 123 Agreement with India.
   
What would the deal with USA mean for India?
The Govt has chalked out a roadmap wherein over the next 25 years, through the deal, it has set a target of generating 20,000 MWe  (unit of nuclear power) as against the current 3,900 MWe.  
   
The biggest advantage, which the UPA Govt is actually seeking is projecting to the world that it an ally of USA, which is a superpower in the world of today. The deal would provide India with access to American civilian nuclear technology. It would finally open up the door to US military technology, especially the fascinating US missile defense system.
   
Once the new reactors are set up, and they go critical without any time overrun, the nuclear power generation would take care of 8% of India’s total power requirement. More than 80% of the power generated in India comes from coal and thermal. And that will continue but just as oil has become critical today, coal will also one day reach such a stage. And unless we have backups ready, our entire country could get unplugged. Having nuclear power could help India, over the long run, offset the rising cost of coal.
   
Yes, price of uranium is also mounting. Between 2005 (when the India-US nuclear deal was first proposed) and 2007 (when the 123 Agreement was finalised), since then, the spot price of uranium has quadrupled. According to a June 2008 market assessment, a further 58 per cent increase is expected. But remember unlike oil, we are dealing with more mature economies here who will supply uranium and hopefully, they will prevent the present cartelization which we see in oil.
   
What is the cost of nuclear power?
At present, power from existing nuclear reactors costs, after huge subsidies, between Rs 2.70 and Rs 2.80 per kWh. The coal-fired Sasan mega power project in Madhya Pradesh will be supplying power at Rs 1.196 per unit. The real cost of power from existing nuclear reactors is around Rs 4 per unit; the cost of power produced by new reactors will be around Rs 5.50 per unit. But the economies of scale would soon start giving the advantages. Plus, these costs are today at the present levels of coal price, so when price of coal escalates further, cost would only go up.
   
What would the deal mean to Indian companies?
India  has plans to set up 15 plants over the next 20 years. Business worth $100 billion is expected to be generated from this nuclear deal over the next 20 years. Apart from USA and France, which would benefit immensely, Indian companies too will get a part of this juicy pie. Over 400 Indian companies are expected to benefit, mainly for those involved in making equipment for nuclear power plants.  
   
Why did the Left withdraw support?  
The Left alleged that the deal would undermine the sovereignty of India’s foreign policy. It has also stated that the Indian government was hiding certain clauses of the deal, which would harm India’s indigenous nuclear program.

When it comes to roles, it seems like the junior Bachchan has taken some ‘serious’ cues from the senior Bachchan. Amitabh portrayed the ‘angry young man’ image in most of his flicks and now it’s Abhishek redefining the ‘no-nonsense’ youth of today. We have seen many actresses play magic with their eyes, but here we have an actor, who says it all when he says nothing at all.

Here is one actor who speaks with his eyes. Just one look at him will unveil the gamut of thoughts racing through his mind, his concerns, his reservations, his fears. He appears as if he is analyzing and calculating to carve out a master plan. No wonder then that directors find him apt for playing intense roles and roles that portray a thinking actor. Here’s looking at Abhi’s most intense characters.

Rowdy fella

Playing a criminal goon from Uttar Pradesh in Yuva, Abhishek very convincingly got into the shoes of the typical Bihari bunda and floored one and all with his super performance. In a movie that had the likes of Ajay Devgan and Viveik Oberoi, Abhishek left a mark as Lallan Singh.

He very well depicted the bindaas attitude of the yuva generation and made people look up and notice him for his acting abilities. Mani Ratnam brought the best out of Abhishek Bachchan. Yuva was undoubtedly one defining moment in Abhi’s acting career.

Taking charge
Sarkar was talked about for presenting the Bachchan’s as father-son for the first time ever. Abhishek plays Shankar who returns from the US after completing his education and finds his father become a victim of a dirty political game. Here, Abhishek portrays a wise youth who knows his strengths and weaknesses.

As Shankar, Abhi comes across the youth of today who knows opportunity when he sees it and knows how and when to play his cards. He takes over the responsibilities in his father’s absence and we have a new Sarkar in the making.

Set to conquer

A young man from a humble background dreaming to make it big one day, to be rich and famous! This defined Abhi’s character in Guru. His demeanor was confidence personified and he believed in writing his own destiny.

The scenes where he comes face to face with the Contractors and during the time where he has to address the grumbling and unhappy shareholders of his company show Abhi handling the situation with utmost sagacity. Abhishek’s ruthlessly ambitious character was intense to the core and was counted amongst one of his best performances ever.

Power and People

Abhishek has tried his hands at comedy. Bunty Aur Babli and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom to name a few, but it is the intense roles, playing characters that are in power, that bring out the best out of him. The recent Sarkar Raj is one such example.

While Sarkar showed Abhi sharing responsibilities with ‘Sarkar’, Sarkar Raj saw him taking over the reigns and become the new ‘Sarkar’. This time around, Abhishek represented a youth who is trying to find his way out of the political maze. He tries hard and applies the ‘eye for an eye’ mantra for all those who come in his way, but at last succumbs to the filthy game.

Super Hero

Now with all those power packed performances that Abhi is known for, he is set to go a step ahead and play a super hero in his forthcoming flick Drona.

In the ‘good and evil clash’ contemporary fantasy fable, Abhishek will play the role of a guy who undergoes a journey and comes out a changed individual, who now has a task in hand of saving the world.

Strangely, the reel Abhishek who appears as serious on screen is poles apart from the real Abhishek. People close to the junior Bachchan swear by his witty sense of humour. And the actor, known to pull off intense roles with brilliance, turns into a naughty prankster everytime he gets on the set.

Kismat Konnection falls under the league of those feel-good NRI love stories having a customary Indian narration in some foreign location. The kinds where every person the hero even randomly stumbles upon speaks to him in Hindi. The kinds where the hero is still named as Raj Malhotra. Where’s the story you ask? Left to chance… fate, destiny, luck or Kismat as you may call it.
Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is the university topper but somehow luck isn’t favouring him. Five years post graduation he is still jobless and waiting for his first assignment as an architect. Kismet connects as he comes across Priya (Vidya Balan) who happens to be his lucky charm. In her presence even the impossible turns achievable for Raj. Raj desperately seeks her company in all his endeavours from employment to affection.

Just when you start liking the breezy premise, the director decides to add (rotten) meat to the story by adding a hackneyed love triangle to stretch the screenplay by a few more clichéd scenes. Priya is already engaged with another guy but we are familiar with the fact that the heroine will ultimately end up with the hero. And since the third angle just happens to be some side-hero, he’s also given a bad conduct certificate of two-timing to make his exit easier.

On a parallel note Raj gets the contract to design a shopping mall which incidentally happens to be on the same land where Priya supports a community center. Surprisingly the film derives the plot on the same grounds of the old age home premise in Lagey Raho Munnabhai and more shockingly Vidya Balan ends up playing the same character as in the earlier film. Either director Aziz Mirza should have derived from some other source or if the inspiration was so compelling, he should have cast some other actress. This is déjà vu on the face.

Finally Raj wins both, Priya and the project by delivering a sentimental speech in the climax where he talks about everything from global warming to US superpower but for the practicality of the project. Was there a cross connection here? And the film opts for such a convenient conclusion that you wonder if there was any problem at the first place.

Kismat Konnection starts on a promising note but soon resorts to conventional formula. The second half drags with Raj’s repeated attempts to win the construction contract. The love triangle is clearly off-track and is simply enforced to manipulate that mandatory sangeet song sequence to appease the family and NRI audiences. Thankfully the script steers away from sermonizing on bhartiya sanskriti et al, an avid tendency with such genres. On the upside Binod Pradhan’s cinematography is eye-pleasing and Pritam’s music is soothing to the ears.

This time around Shahid Kapoor displays a hangover of… no not Shah Rukh but Amitabh Bachchan in the initial reels and also does a complete take on his extended Namak Halaal dialogue. Nevertheless he soon comes to his usual self and gives a sincere performance. And those Ahmed Khan choreographed gyrations can never go wrong. As against the notion, Vidya Balan carries a graceful charm and is natural as ever. Om Puri is effective in his imposing character with a Punjabi accent. Vishal Malhotra repeats his friendly act for the nth time. Age has caught up with Juhi Chawla and it shows onscreen.

Concisely the film only connects with the viewer intermittently and a lot has been left to Kismat.

Pray for Aarushi

Lets come together to pray for our beloved Aarushi…

May Her Soul rest in peace…

God of power and mercy, you have made death itself the gateway to eternal life. Look with love on our dying sister, and make her one with Your Son in His suffering and death, that, sealed with the blood of Christ, she may come before you free from sin. —Amen—

Set to taken over by

LONDON: In a bid to pose competition to the Indian Premier League, England may “effectively abolish” its traditional county cricket structure and stage a 50 million pound Twenty20 tournament from June 2010.

“A blueprint has been prepared for a 50 million pound Twenty20 tournament to be staged in England which will rival the Indian Premier League. The radical proposal would see the county structure replaced by nine franchises based on the grounds that already stage Tests and One-day games,” the ‘ BBC Sport ‘ reported.

“They have said the event would be scheduled for June and July from 2010. The document of proposals for the 25-day spectacle will be put forward for discussion by the England and Wales Cricket Board this month,” it added.

It is also suggested that each squad would consist of 12 home-grown players, of which three must be under-23, with a salary cap of 1.5 million pounds.

The England and Wales Cricket Board, however, made its stance clear, saying “We don’t know anything about (the proposals). Nothing’s been presented to the Board yet and it’s not on the agenda for our next board meeting.”

But BBC Radio 5 Live cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew believes “This tournament would effectively abolish the long-established county structure.

“The smaller counties will see this as the beginning of the end… But the most controversial aspect is that the event is not going to be owned by the ECB, it will be a new company in which the ECB would be merely a stakeholder. It’s a radical suggestion - but it’s purely that at the moment,” it said.

The 57-match tournament is said to have the backing of MCC, Lancashire, Hampshire and Surrey. An MCC, however, spokeswoman declined to comment.

It can be seen as IPL the “Manoranjan ka Baap” has adopted English Cricket too.

Aarushi Talwar

Noida: Following a clean chit by the CBI stating that there was no substantial evidence against dentist Rajesh Talwar, the court granted him bail on Friday.

Designated judge Sapna Mishra granted bail to Talwar asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs five lakh and two sureties of the same amount.
The court has remanded Rajesh Talwar’s compounder Krishna and Durranis’ domestic help Rajkumar to 14 days judicial custody.

Earlier, the CBI said there is no substantial evidence against Dr Rajesh Talwar, who has been in the judicial custody for more than one month, after being named a prime accused in the May 16 murder of his teenaged daughter Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon at the CBI headquarters, the bureau’s Joint Director, Arun Kumar, said there was no certainty about the turn the probe might take.

Kumar said the CBI had asked the special court in Ghaziabad – before which Talwar, his compounder Krishna and Rajkumar, the domestic help of the Talwars’ family friends, the Durranis, are being produced – to take this into account before deciding on the three suspects.

Talwar was arrested by Noida police soon after the twin murders of Aarushi and Hemraj, but when the CBI took over the case a fortnight later, Krishna was taken into custody as well. A few days later Rajkumar was also arrested.

CBI joint director Arun Kumar said Talwar’s wife, Dr Nupur Talwar, had been subjected to polygraph and narco-analysis tests but the investigating agency found no conclusive evidence. He said Nupur Talwar was subjected to a second lie-detector test because the first one was inconclusive. The joint director added that no deception was recorded in either Nupur or Rajesh Talwar’s polygraph test.

Kumar clarified that this was the reason Talwar was not subjected to a narco-analysis test. The Talwar couple was also subjected to a psycho-analytical test at AIIMS in Delhi but these tests were also clear.

The Joint Director said Krishna initially misled investigators but later confessed to the crime. Reconstructing the sequence of events on the night of May 16, Kumar said Krishna, Rajkumar and another domestic servant Vijay Mandal met up over drinks in Hemraj’s quarters. Krishna was angry with Talwar for having pulled him up for a mistake at his clinic two days ago. Soon Aarushi’s name came up for discussion and the servants entered her room, probably with a view to sexually assault her.

Aarushi, who Kumar said, had a sore throat raised an alarm but was hit by a blunt object. Her parents, who were in their room did not hear anything because their door was closed and air-conditioners were on in their room as well as Aarushi’s.

The servants then went to the roof where they scuffled with Hermaj and killed him. They later came downstairs to Aarushi’s room and slit her throat.

Mayawati Memsaab

Lucknow: From Rs 1.35 crore to Rs 52 crore in just four years. The dramatic jump in Mayawati’s assets - with little to show how it was acquired - is the mainstay of the affidavit CBI filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday to justify its decision to chargesheet her in a disproportionate assets case. ( Watch )

The charge listed in detail has been backed by documents running into over 100 pages, which can help CBI counter the allegation of frame-up the UP chief minister has levelled against the agency for insisting on prosecuting her. ( See Ninan’s cartoon )

The affidavit, which CBI sees as strong enough to help it secure a go-ahead from the SC, also includes her own accounts of the wealth.

It says that in April 2004, Mayawati in her affidavit before the returning officer for Akbarpur LS constituency put her assets at Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, Rs 9.78 lakh in bank deposits and properties worth Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi.

The CBI affidavit on Mayawati’s assets also takes note of UP CM’s submission before the returning officer for Akbarpur LS constituency.

In her affidavit in April 2004, Maya had put her assets at Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, Rs 9.78 lakh in bank deposits and properties worth Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi.

Just three years later, however, in the nomination papers filed during last year’s assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, she put the value of her total assets at an enviable Rs 52 crore. No explanation was provided for the sudden jump, said the CBI affidavit.

When questioned by CBI, Mayawati came up with the ingenious explanation - first reported in TOI - that she owed the remarkable rise in her fortunes to the contributions ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 10 she had received from her lakhs of supporters who appreciated her commitment to the uplift of Dalits and backward class people.

CBI, however, said the explanation was not backed up by evidence.

The agency also took extra care to draw a bold line between the Taj Heritage Corridor scam and the DA case and said both the cases were being investigated separately.

Closure of the Taj corridor case because of refusal of sanction for her prosecution did not create any legal bar against CBI to take the probe into the DA case to the logical conclusion, CBI said in its affidavit. CBI said it did a professional job and thoroughly investigated each and every aspect of the DA case, painstakingly gathered evidence and came to a conclusion that it was a fit case for the agency to file final report (chargesheet) against her as mandated under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The affidavit was in response to Mayawati’s petition accusing CBI of harassing her by keeping alive the DA case, which she said was only an offshoot of the Taj corridor scam. With the closure of the Taj corridor case, the DA case should also have been closed, she had said.

Citing her differences with the Congress-led UPA government, Mayawati had told the apex court that the investigation into the DA case was being used by the Centre to harass her politically.

No buddhaas for Mallika!

Love her or hate her but you can’t ignore her. Reportedly, none of the mentors of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa wanted to interact with Mallika Sherawat when she was invited as a guest on the show for the promotion of her new film Ugly Aur Pagli.
A unit member from the sets of the show said, “None of the mentors – Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam, Shankar and Aadesh Srivastava – wanted to sit
with Mallika. They couldn’t ask her to sit next to Asha Bhosle who is the mahaguru in the show. Eventually, they had to make the feisty actress sit with the participants. While all the mentors chose to behave formally with her, Himesh Reshammiya passed a lot of comments against the actress.”
But Mallika Sherawat being her in-your-face self, walked to the sets and the first thing she told Himesh was, ‘Should I expose you in front of the people?’
According to our source, Himesh looked nervous and was silent for some time after Mallika’s comment. The two have worked together in the song Mehbooba in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. But Himesh eventually took revenge by stopping a participant of his gharana from singing one of Mallika Sherawat’s songs.
The insider said, “But Sukhvinder refused to listen to Himesh and sang the song. Sukhvinder also told Mallika, ‘My parents were against my singing Bheege Honth Tere. Now, after meeting you I know why they did not want me to sing the song.’ Mallika burst out laughing.”
According to the insider, Mallika had also given hair bands to some participants, which she has used in the film. Some of the participants were even made to wear the hair accessory but whenever they went to sing on the stage, Asha Bhosle told them, ‘Hair band nikaal ke gao’.
While the insider from the show said that the mentors had a problem with Mallika, our source from the channel had another story to tell. “Mallika had called the channel and informed them well in advance that she won’t be sitting with the mentors and said that she was not keen on sitting with the ‘buddhaas’.” To add to the entertainment, Mallika even carried a horn to the sets. “In fact, she came with a horn and asked where she could sit. Then she herself said that she would sit with the audience,” adds the source. According to the channel source, Mallika had a lot of fun on the sets and kept teasing the contestants.

Snaps:

Even before it’s finished filming, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion has been in the news time and again. The film, which has Kangna Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra in key roles, is apparently an expose on the fashion industry, and is in the news again. This time for a role offered to someone from the fash frat itself – choreographer Achla Sachdev – which was accepted, and it has raised the hackles of the fash frat, who see her as not doing the “right thing”.