People's Democracy

on file

THE security at the Mazagaon court has been beefed up following threat e-mails received by special judge A M Thipsay, who is conducting the retrial of the Best Bakery case. Mr Thipsay has received over 100 e-mails, most of which threatened him with “dire consequences if the judgement goes against the accused,” highly placed sources claimed on Monday (December 13)…….

It has been reported that the e-mails sent to the judge also threaten his family members with similar consequences “if the judgement is misplaced.” Sources said that the judge had received similar e-mails even before the trial started…….

Sources said while some of the e-mails were communal in nature, others pointed out discrepancies in media reports regarding the proceedings of the trial. “Some mails claimed that judge Thipsay should remember that he was a Hindu and should take a lenient view of the accused. Others talked about social activist Teesta Setalvad’s role in getting the case reopened,” the sources added.

--- The Asian Age, December 14

IRAQ’S plan to push ahead with early trials of Saddam Hussein’s deputies risks launching an unfair process that is flawed and discredited in the eyes of the world, a leading human rights group said on Friday.

New York- based Human Rights Watch on described the Iraqi Special Tribunal, set up to gather evidence against and try Saddam and his top lieutenants, as having “serious human rights shortcomings” and lacking “fair-trial protections.”……

That apart, Human Rights Watch said provisions so far put in place, including for preliminary hearings, were insufficient. Judges have not been properly trained, it said, and defendants have not had full access to lawyers……

The Iraqi Special Tribunal was set up in December last year by the US, Coalition Provisional Authority, the body that ran Iraq after Saddam’s overthrow until June this year.

In recent months, groups of Iraqi prosecutors and judges have attended training courses in London on international law, but have admitted themselves that they are unfamiliar with the intricacies of prosecuting war crimes trails.

--- National Herald, December 18      

TWO private, unknown companies belonging to Reliance Industries Ltd chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani invested Rs 1,600 crore (18 per cent of the total issue) in the ONGC initial public offering.

The two companies are Smart Entrepreneur Solutions Pvt Ltd and Smart Infosolutions Pvt Ltd. They were the two largest subscribers to the IPO and were followed by big names like HSBC Global Investment Fund, LIC, Templeton Mutual Fund and Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd.

They also invested Rs 1,500 crore in the Tata Consultancy Services IPO. This appears to be yet another case of Mr Mukesh Ambani putting the creation of personal wealth above Reliance Industries Limited though he is CMD of both RIL and Reliance Infocomm. A paper trail shows that money was diverted from Infocomm to these two companies, both of which invested in the high net worth category……

There is a huge question mark over where these unknown companies got Rs 800 crore each to subscribe to the IPO.

According to knowledgeable sources, Reliance Infocomm had raised substantial amounts of money from Reliance Industries as well as banks. Reliance has invested Rs 12,137 crore in Infocomm till March 31, 2004 and got a return of barely seven per cent. Infocomm’s balance sheet as on March 31, 2004 shows that advances of over Rs 2,500 crore were given to unidentified persons.

It is now clear that these were the two companies to which money had been siphoned out directly or indirectly.

--- The Asian Age, December 13

SOME 1.4 billion people, or in effect, 50 per cent of the global workforce, are trapped in abject poverty, unable to earn enough to lift themselves and the families above the 2 dollars a day (Rs 88 a day) poverty line.

The silver lining, however, is that this figure could be reduced if policies zero in on improving labour productivity and creating jobs, says a new study by the International Labour Office (ILO).

The ILO World Employment Report 2004-05, to be released here on Thursday (December 9), states that focusing economic policies on creating decent and productive employment opportunities is vital for reducing global poverty, as called for in the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs).

According to the ILO director general, Mr Juan Somavia, women and men all over the world expect to get a fair chance at a decent job and, therefore, “generating more and better jobs must become the central plank of the global drive to reduce poverty,” he says.

The report also reveals that the 185.9 million people in the world who were unemployed in 2003 represent the “tip of the iceberg” of the decent work deficit, since more than seven times that number of people are employed but still live in poverty.

According to the report, some 2.8 billion people were employed globally in 2003, more than ever before. However, of these, nearly 1.4 billion --- the highest number ever --- are living on less than the equivalent of 2 dollars a day and some 550 million are living below the 1dollar a day (Rs 44 a day) poverty line.

--- Business Line, December 9

  BRITAIN has almost half a million homeless people, two non-governmental organisations have said, describing the official number of 1,00,000 given by the government as the tip of the iceberg.

“These new figures are shocking but they are only the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Shaks Gosh, the executive director of the NGO, Crisis, said yesterday (December 12), on the eve of the publication of the last official homeless figures by the Labour government of prime minister Mr Tony Blair.

“When you add in the 3,80,000 “hidden homeless” – those living in hostels, squats and other places – there are nearly half a million homeless people in the UK today,” he said. The last statistics in September showed 99,380 people without fixed abode in Britain. Once the figure tops the 1,00,000 mark, it will represent around 135 per cent worsening of the situation since the Labour government came to power in 1997.

--- The Statesman, December 14