02.05.2007

• What is the Indo-US nuclear about?
• In a very interesting article in today’s Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan has pointed out that the deal is nothing to do with securing energy; it is all about making India a strategic partner with the US for furthering the latter’s strategic goals. Take a look at the full article here.
• He says that the deal is about securing the following strategic goals for the US:
• Opening up of the gigantic energy market for American companies.
• Defence sales. Especially the US is targeting the 126 defence aircraft requirement of India.
• Joint military exercises with a view to contain China. US would like to see the post-tsunami quadrilateral naval operation by the US, Australia, Japan and India as a kind of permanent grouping.
• More active Indian involvement in the US led ‘multilateral’ military operations – like Iraq, Somalia etc.
• India to help US price Central Asia away from the Russian and Chinese influence.
• Isolating Iran over the nuclear issue.
• About narcoanalysis and other forensic tests
• In India sodium pentothal narcoanalysis is widely used. It is used when investigators need oral elicitations from a suspect. Three other tests used by forensic experts include:
• Psychological profiling:
• Polygraph test: Otherwise called lie-detector test. In this the suspect either passes or fails. This is used for screening and confirmation purposes only.
• Brain mapping: It indicates whether a subject’s brain stores experiential knowledge about a certain object.
• Statements made under narcoanalysis are not admissible as evidence. However, recoveries resulting from such drugged interviews are admissible as corroborative evidence.
• It is considered as a round-about way of subverting the right to remain silent.
• 116^th Assembly of IPU
• Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 116^th Assembly is going on in Bali, Indonesia.
• India is represented by Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal.
• Venezeula quitting World Bank and IMF
• Accusing the two institutions of exploiting small countries, Venezeula’s President has announced the quitting decision.
• Chess Grandmaster
• S. Vijayalakshmi, India’s first Woman Grandmaster is reported to have attained the final Grandmaster (GM) norm.
• When or how can one attain this GM norm in chess? Take a look at what Wikipedia says:
• The title Grandmaster is awarded to world-class chess masters by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from "World Champion", Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain.
• The requirements for becoming a Grandmaster are somewhat complex. A player must have an ELO chess rating of at least 2500 at one time (although they need not maintain this level to keep the title). A rating of 2400 or higher is required to become an International Master. In addition, two favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's, are usually required before FIDE will confer the title on a player. There are other milestones a player can achieve to get the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship.
• World’s oldest fossil
• A lobster fossil found in the southern state of Chiapas is about 110 mn years old.
• It was found in Mexico on the border with Gautemala.
• PoA based property sales may go
• PoA = Power of Attorney.
• It is a popular instrument for property transactions whereby the ownership changes without payment of any stamp duty to the state government. As against this, in cases where a purchaser buys a freehold property, he is required to pay a stamp duty based on the notified rate to the state government.