Two Japanese, American share chemistry Nobel

American Richard Heck and Japanese researchers Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki won the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry on October 6th for developing a chemical method that has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the award honors their development of palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic systems.

The academy called that one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists October 6th, and one that is used by researchers worldwide and in commercial production of pharmaceuticals and molecules used to make electronics.

Heck, 79, is a professor emeritus at the University of Delaware. Negishi, 75, is a chemistry professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and 80-year-old Suzuki is a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

Professor Negishi told reporters in Stockholm by telephone that he was asleep when the call came.

“I went to bed last night well past midnight so I was sleeping but I am extremely happy to receive the telephone call,” he said.

Officials at Hokkaido University were delighted by the news, said university spokesman Hidetoshi Nakatsuka.

“Professor Suzuki has been mentioned as a candidate in the past few years and we’ve been waiting for this to happen for all these years,” Nakatsuka said. “We were standing by and we are extremely delighted.”

The method has been used to artificially produce discodermolide, a cancer-killing substance first found in marine sponges, the academy said in its citation. It added that no cancer drug based on the substance has been developed yet.

“Only the future will tell if discodermolide turns out to be a life-saving drug,” it said.

The 2010 Nobel Prize announcements began Monday with the medicine award going to 85-year-old British professor Robert Edwards for fertility research that led to the first test tube baby.

Russian-born Andre Geim, 51, and Konstantin Novoselov, 36, of the University of Manchester in England won the physics prize on Tuesday for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, an ultrathin and superstrong material that scientists say should be a versatile building block for faster computers, transparent touch screens and lighter airplanes.

The awards were established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel -- the inventor of dynamite -- and are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of his death in 1896.

Cabinet nod for judicial accountability bill

The Union Cabinet on October 5th approved a bill providing for a mechanism to deal with complaints against judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill sets judicial standards and makes judges accountable for their lapses. It will also mandate the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court to declare their assets and liabilities, including those of their spouses and dependents.

The bill to replace the Judges Inquiry Act retains its basic features, contemplates setting up of a national oversight committee with which the public can lodge complaints against erring judges, including the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justices of the High Courts.

At present, there is no legal mechanism for dealing with complaints against judges, who are governed by ‘Restatement of Values of Judicial Life,' adopted by the judiciary as a code of conduct without any statutory sanction.

The five-member committee will be headed by a retired Chief Justice of India, appointed by the President, and have a serving Judge of the Supreme Court and a serving High Court Judge, both nominated by the Chief Justice of India; the Attorney-General; and an eminent person nominated by the President. This marks a change from the earlier proposal, in which the committee was to be headed by the Vice-President and to have the Chief Justice of India, a High Court judge and two distinguished jurists not involved in regular practice of law.

On receiving a complaint, the committee will forward it to a system of scrutiny panels. In the case of a complaint against a Supreme Court Judge, the scrutiny panel will consist of a former Chief Justice of India and two sitting Supreme Court judges, and in the case of a complaint against a High Court judge, the panel will have a former Chief Justice of the High Court and two of its sitting judges. The members of the Supreme Court panel will be nominated by the Chief Justice of India, and that of the High Court panels by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned.

The scrutiny panels will have the powers of a civil court. For instance, they can call for witnesses and evidences. They will be required to give their report within three months to the oversight committee. In the case of a complaint against a Chief Justice, the oversight committee itself will conduct the scrutiny.

On receiving the report from the scrutiny panels, the oversight committee will set up a committee to further investigate the case. Like the scrutiny panels, the investigation committee will have the powers of a civil court; it will have the power to frame definite charges.

If the charges are not proved, the investigation committee can dismiss the case. Otherwise, it will give a report to the oversight committee, which can issue an advisory or warning if the charges are not too serious. If the charges are serious, the committee can request the judge concerned to resign. If the judge does not do so, the oversight committee will forward the case to the President with an advisory for his removal.

In such an event, copies of all relevant documents will be laid in Parliament and an impeachment motion moved. In the Lok Sabha, not less than 100 members will be required to move the motion, and in the Rajya Sabha not less than 50 members will be needed.

Official sources said that besides declaring their assets, judges would be required to file an annual return of assets and liabilities. All the details would be put up on the websites of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

The bill will also require the judges not to have close association with any member of the Bar, especially those who practise in the same court.

Physics Nobel for groundbreaking work on wonder material

Two scientists in Britain struck it “rich” again at Stockholm on October 5th, when Russian-born Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of Manchester University were named joint winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Physics for their “groundbreaking” work on experiments with graphene, a new form of carbon with immense possibilities.

At 36, Professor Novoselov, a British-Russian citizen, has been the youngest physicist since 1973 to win a Nobel, a committee official said.

Professor Geim (51) is a Dutch citizen. Both started their careers in Russia.

Highlighting the significance of their work, the Prize committee said graphene could be put to a number of practical uses.

“Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene could be used for producing transparent touchscreens, light panels and maybe even solar cells,” it said.

Reacting to the news, an unemotional Professor Geim said he “slept well” and his plans for the day would not change.

“In my opinion, there are several categories of Nobel Prize winners. There are those who, after getting the Nobel Prize, stop doing anything for the rest of their lives, which is a big disservice to their community…There is another type of person who thinks that other people think they won the Nobel Prize by accident. So they start working even harder than before,” he said.

About his plans for the day, Professor Geim said: “My plan for today is to go to work and finish up a paper that I didn't finish this week. I just try to muddle on as before.”

Professor Martin Rees, President of Britain's Royal Society, said there could not be a better example of the value of enabling outstanding individuals to pursue “open-ended” research projects.

“The U.K. must sustain our science at a competitive level in a world where talent is mobile and other countries are advancing fast,” he said.

Nobel Prize for "test tube" baby scientist

Robert Edwards, the British scientist whose pioneering research with his late colleague Patrick Steptoe led to the birth of the world’s first "test tube baby" in 1978, has won this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine.

The Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, which awarded the prize worth ten million Swedish Kronor, described his work as "a milestone of modern medicine".

“His work has made possible the treatment of infertility, a medical condition that affects a large proportion of humanity including more than 10% of couples worldwide," it said in a statement.

The 85-year-old scientist was reported to be too ill to comment, but his wife Ruth and family said they were "thrilled and delighted".

"The success of this research has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide. His dedication and single-minded determination, despite opposition from many quarters, has led to the successful application of his pioneering research," they said.

Professor Basil Tarlatzis, past-president of the International Federation of Fertility Societies, called it "a well- deserved honour" and said IVF had "opened new avenues of hope for millions of couples throughout the world".

But, perhaps, no one was more delighted than Louise Brown who owed her birth to the fertility treatment (in-vitro fertilisation or IVF) devised by Professor Edwards and Steptoe.

"It's fantastic news. Me and mum are so glad that one of the pioneers of IVF has been given the recognition he deserves. We hold Bob in great affection and are delighted to send our personal congratulations to him and his family at this time," said Ms. Brown, now 32.

Her birth on July 25, 1978, prompted headlines around the world. Since then some four million babies have been born using IVF.

For Prof Edwards and his colleagues it was a "eureka" moment when they discovered that they had succeeded in creating a fertilised human embryo in 1968 but it took another ten years before the procedure was sufficiently refined to enable the birth of a baby.

"I'll never forget the day I looked down the microscope and saw something funny in the cultures. I looked down the microscope and what I saw was a human blastocyst gazing up at me. I thought: 'We've done it,'" Prof Edwards recalled in a speech two years ago.

Born in Manchester in 1925, Prof Edwards started his research on human fertilisation at the National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1958, and later moved to Cambridge where, with Steptoe, he founded the Bourn Hall Clinic, the world’s first IVF centre.

Steptoe died in 1988. Despite his significant contribution, he cannot be jointly awarded with Prof Edwards because rules do not permit for the prize to be awarded posthumously.

Long-listed for literary award

Salma had one regret as a writer. Though she arrived on the Tamil literary scene with her poems, powerfully expressing the pain of sufferings of women treated as sexual objects by men, she feels that her debut novel ‘Irandam Jaamangalin Kathai' was “deliberately ignored.”

But, an English translation by Laksmi Holmstrom titled ‘The Hour Past Midnight' did the magic. The novel is now in the long list of the first DSC Prize for South Asian Literature along with the works of well-known writers such as Amit Chaudhuri and Upamanyu Chatterjee. The prize, whose long-list has 14 books, carries a cash award of $50,000.

“I am happy that my novel is getting world-wide attention,” said Salma. The novel narrated hitherto unknown world of Muslim women in a male-dominated society, besides capturing their aspirations in the absence of any link with women outside their world. “It is the politics in the literary world that ensured that the novel did not get its due,” said Salma, who was then the president of a panchayat in Tiruchi. She took a plunge into politics in 2004 by joining the DMK. She was also fielded as the party candidate in Marungapuri Assembly constituency, but failed to win the election. The government later appointed her chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Board.

This is not the first time the novel is in the list of prizes. It was long-listed for Man Asian Literary Prize and Vodafone Crossword Book Award last year. This year, it was shortlisted for Crossword Book Award. “Winning a prize is one aspect of recognition. But, I am happy that my work is getting noticed,” she said, adding that the book was already published in Malayalam. The German version and Galician versions are also expected. It is likely to reach a wider audience in the country through its Hindi translation.

4,000 year old Aryan city discovered in Russia

Russian archaeologists have unearthed some ancient and virtually unknown settlements, which they believe were built by the original Aryan race about 4,000 years ago.

According to the team which has discovered 20 spiral-shaped settlements in remote Russia steppe in southern Siberia bordering Kazakhstan, the buildings date back to the beginning of the Western civilisation in Europe.

The Bronze Age settlements, experts said, could have been built shortly after the Great Pyramid, some 4,000 years ago, by the original Aryan race whose swastika symbol was later adopted by the Nazis in the 1930s.

TV historian Bettany Hughes, who explored the desolate part of the steppe for BBC programme ‘Tracking The Aryans,' said, “Potentially, this could rival ancient Greece in the Age of the Heroes.”

Unknown till now

The remains of the ancient city were explored for the first time around 20 years ago, shortly after the then-Soviet officials relaxed the laws banning non-military aerial photography.

But, as the region is so remote, the incredible cities remained unknown until now, the archaeologists said. The cities are about the same size as several of the city states of ancient Greece and would have housed between 1,000 and 2,00 people.

The Aryan's language has been identified as the precursor to a number of modern European tongues. Many English words such as brother, oxen and guest have all been tracked to the Aryans.

Swasika all over

Items that have been dug up at the sites include make-up equipment, a chariot, and numerous pieces of pottery.

The artefacts were daubed in Swastikas, which were used in ancient times as symbols of the sun and eternal life. The Swastika and Aryan race were later adopted by Hitler and the Nazis as symbols of their so-called master race.

Evidence of ritual horse burials were found at the site, with ancient Aryan texts that describe the animals being sliced up and buried with their masters.

Ms. Hughes, a visiting research fellow at King's College London, said that ancient Indian texts and hymns described sacrifices of horses and burials and the way the meat was cut off and the way the horse was buried with its master.

“If you match this with the way the skeletons and graves are being dug up in Russia, they are a millimetre-perfect match.”

Climate deal unlikely at Cancun

As the last round of negotiations before the year-end Cancun climate conference begins on Monday in Tianjin, a port city near here, Chinese officials played down the chances of a binding climate deal being reached this year, citing persisting differences between developed and developing countries.

China's top climate official Xie Zhenhua said this week developed countries needed “to do more and do better” to take on greater emission cuts, if a binding deal was to be reached. “To push forward negotiations, all countries should take a more flexible attitude on key issues and make some compromises to achieve an outcome which might not satisfy everybody, but can be acceptable for all,” said Mr. Xie, who is also the vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). “That will be our final agreement.”

Commitments to reduce emissions from developed countries — most importantly, from the United States, where climate legislation has been stalled in Congress — is seen by Chinese officials, as well as their Indian counterparts, as one of three main sticking points in the on-going negotiations. Another crucial issue heading into the next round of talks is the question of financial support and aid from developed countries for climate projects in developing countries.

Demands from the West for Measurement, Reporting and Verification of emissions reduction projects in developing countries are another point of difference.

The negotiations in Tianjin would help narrow these differences and “establish the groundwork” ahead of the November 29 Cancun conference, said Mr. Xie. A binding deal at the conference was unlikely, but China remained hopeful of reaching a deal in South Africa in 2011.

“We already have a proposal on the table for long-term cooperative action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” he said. “All countries will try to eliminate divergence as much as possible in Tianjin.”

China, along with India, Brazil and South Africa, will play a key role in this week's talks in representing the interests of developing nations. Negotiators from more than 190 parties will attend the six-day talks in Tianjin. Between October 4 and 9, two working groups will meet to discuss two draft documents — a 70-page negotiating text for Cancun, as well as a draft proposal under the Kyoto Protocol.

India's Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh is scheduled to arrive here on October 10, and will meet with Mr. Xie and other Ministers after the negotiations conclude.

The negotiations in Tianjin mark the first instance of China hosting high-level climate negotiations — an indicator, according to some analysts, of the country's growing influence on the climate debate.

China has committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its emissions, or emissions per unit of GDP, by 40 per cent of 2005 levels by 2020.

But as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, developed nations say China should take on greater commitments.

Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto and the grand finale

A.R. Rahman had the 60,000-strong crowd at the glitzy Common Wealth Games opening ceremony up and dancing here on Sunday with his rendition of the theme song Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto (Live, Rise, Ascend, Win), which had received brickbats when it was first unveiled in August.

The Academy award-winning musician had promised to go beyond Shakira's soccer anthem Waka Waka with the composition and he delivered a powerful performance, backed by a spectacle of dancers.

Amidst a colourful play of fireworks and 500,000 watts of music, the crowd cheered as the aerostat, which cost a whopping Rs. 40 crore, came alive with vivid imagery.

Dressed casually in a white jacket-and-denims combination, the hit-maker was welcomed by loud cheering as he stepped on to the stage to perform the theme song.

Flanked by dancers clad in red and white, Rahman also performed his international hit Jai Ho that won him an Oscar last year.

The theme song, which is based on the motto of the Games, “Come out and play,” was the grand finale to the cultural extravaganza, which was put together by some 7,000 artistes.

Sky lit up

Adding to the special effects were the hundreds of light beams that criss-crossed each other. During the entire song, fire crackers went up in the air illuminating an otherwise dark sky.

The audience included Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

An estimated two billion people around the world watched the ceremony live on television.

The 44-year-old musician had won two coveted Oscar trophies in 2009 for his compositions in the Mumbai based pot-boiler Slumdog Millionaire

INO project headquarters to be set up in Madurai

The headquarters of the Rs.1,200-crore India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project, coming up in the Western Ghats, will be set up in Madurai.

While the country's first-ever underground neutrino observatory will be set up in Theni district, it was decided to have the headquarters in Madurai to provide facilities for scientists, administrative operations and for residential quarters.

A 12-member INO technical committee comprising scientists and engineers from different collaborating institutions is visiting Madurai on October 5 and 6 to finalise the detailed project report for the observatory, according to T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar, chairperson, INO-Madurai Cell.

“The project was earlier estimated to cost Rs.900 crore. But, it is now estimated at Rs.1,200 crore,” he said.

He told The Hindu on Sunday that a request was being made to the State government/district administration to allot suitable land in Madurai for the headquarters.

“We are meeting Madurai District Collector C. Kamaraj soon to make a formal request for land. The technical committee will discuss the matter here and the scientists are also visiting the actual observatory site at Pottipuram [West Bodi Hills] in Theni district,” Dr. Jaikumar said.

The technical committee meeting will be held at American College here. He said the land requirement will be a minimum of 30 acres.

While the Department of Atomic Energy will fund this project, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, along with nearly 25 leading research institutes/universities in the country, is steering the project by involving scientists and engineers.

Naba K. Mondal, Chief Spokesperson of INO Project, and G. Rajasekaran of Institute of Mathematical Sciences are among those attending the meeting here on Tuesday. The next day, the committee members will visit the site in Theni.

The INO Project is an underground facility with a huge detector and two man-made caves amidst a rock mass to study the properties of neutrinos through experiments and understand the various processes in the universe. Once started, this project is expected to take five years for execution.

Steps for getting various mandatory clearances for the proposed project have been taken up.

Commonwealth Games off to a colourful start

India switched on its spotlights on October 3rd evening to display its new vibrant, energetic and progressive avatar providing its guests from the Commonwealth nations a glimpse of its art and culture at the opening ceremony of the Games.

For precisely three hours, all the unsavoury episodes in the days leading to this spectacular event were forgotten and the audience of around 60,000 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here carried home memories of a gala evening that presented a fine mix of the country's glorious past, a dynamic present and a promising future.

Against low expectations and mounting criticism of India's capabilities to hold the Games in keeping with its growing reputation of a developing economy, the show did more than just entertain those present. It left the audience upbeat and restored the country's pride that had been so badly bruised in the weeks gone by.

There were several moments that brought the roars from an enthusiastic Delhi crowd. Among those, the one that stood out — soon after Prince Charles read out a message from the Queen — was when President Pratibha Patil declared the Games open, with the words, “Let the Games begin.”

A little earlier, Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar handed over the much-travelled Queen's Baton to Prince Charles. Boxer Vijender Singh carried the baton into the stadium, passed it to five-time world women's boxing champion Mary Kom before it reached shooter Samaresh Jung and Sushil.

The sombre spirit was lifted with the rising of the aerostat — the much-talked about helium balloon costing over Rs. 40-crore — that spectacularly displayed the magnified images of the happenings on the ground below.

‘Rhythms of India'

The ‘Rhythms of India,' a vibrating five-minute show comprising 800 drummers set the tempo. Thereafter, 1,050 school children from the capital performed choreography of Namaste, an acknowledged sign of welcome and respect to the guests.

The song, Swagatam, smartly incorporated nuances of Hindustani, Carnatic and Qawwali forms of music, with the credit for this fine fusion going to noted singer Hariharan. The customary athletes' parade was headed by Australia, the superpower in Commonwealth sports. India, led by Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra, brought up the rear to thunderous ovation. Never before would an Indian contingent have turned out so smartly for any Games.

Bindra later took the athletes' oath and among various presentations that followed, the “Great Indian Journey” encapsulated 5,000 years of Indian culture, after an eye-catching presentation by the Indian Railways.

The grand finale featuring music composer A.R. Rahman was a fitting one, with his Jai Ho turning out to be more popular than the theme song, Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto.

Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi was booed by a section of the crowd.

Musharraf launches party in London

The former Pakistani President, Parvez Musharraf, on Ovtober 1st made an unprecedented apology to the people of Pakistan admitting for the first time that some of the decisions he took while in power had “negative'' repercussions and led to his downfall.

Emerging from his two-year political exile with the launch of a new political party, All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML), Mr. Musharraf offered to work for peace with India but made it conditional on a settlement of the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of Pakistan.

“We stand for peace and reconciliation but with honour and dignity of Pakistan,'' he said.

On terrorism, he promised a policy of “zero tolerance'' saying his party would “fight it to the finish''.

But most of his remarks were aimed at his domestic audience. Offering his “sincere apology'' to his people, Mr Musharraf said: “I am aware that there were decisions that led to negative political repercussions and made people unhappy. I sincerely apologise for it. I have learnt lessons from my mistakes and will not repeat them.''

Seeking their forgiveness, he said only God was “infallible'' and it was only “human to err''. He also said there were “long stories'' behind each of those decisions and he would “disclose'' them at the “right time''.

Describing the current Pakistani administration as corrupt and inefficient, Mr. Musharraf said his decision to end his political exile was prompted by realisation that Pakistan was in a deep crisis and needed to be “saved''.

His party, he said, would “recreate the vision'' of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

China launches second unmanned lunar probe

As part of its ambitious plans to put a man on the moon, China October 1st launched its second unmanned lunar probe to test soft-landing technologies for another mission slated for 2013, the same year when India plans to launch Chandrayaan-II.

After a text book launch of the probe 'Chang'e II' around 4.30 pm IST on the country's 61st National Day, the rocket successfully placed the lunar orbiter in its intended orbit in 20 minutes, prompting the scientists at the launch centre to break into loud cheers.

The Chinese satellite was launched by a 54.84-metre Long March 3C rocket, weighing about 345 tonnes from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province in a nationally televised event.

The rocket carried Chang'e II, named after Chinese mythical moon goddess, to a trans-lunar orbit, which has an apogee of about 380,000 kilometres from the earth. The satellite is expected to take about 112 hours, or nearly five days, to arrive at its lunar orbit.

Chang'e II was expected to orbit 100 km above the moon, compared with 200 km of its predecessor Chang'e I, the first lunar probe launched by China in 2007. The probe ended its 16-month mission in 2009, when it crashed into the moon's surface.

'Chang'e-II was expected to be faster and reach lunar orbit within five days, compared to 13 days, 14 hours and 19 minutes for Chang'e-1, Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist at the China Lunar Exploration Project, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

China has not been to the moon before the country launched Chang'e-1, so we were very prudent at that time and adjusted its orbit in a very slow manner. We can send Chang'e-II directly to the moon and we have also changed the orbit for it, so it can reach lunar orbit within five days, Ouyang said.

In addition, Chang?e-II will orbit 100 km closer to the moon and carry a higher resolution camera.

Chief designer of the satellite, Huang Jiangchuan, said that unlike Chang'e I, Chang'e II would be directly carried to the lunar orbit by the rocket, so a large amount of fuel would be left after its mission, enabling it to do more work.

The first scenario for it was to stay in the lunar orbit and continue to transfer data back to the earth for further research before eventually landing on the moon as an experiment for future lunar probes.

In the second scenario, Chang'e II would leave the Earth-Moon system, flying into outer space to test China's capability to probe further into space.

The third would be a homecoming, altering its orbit to become an earth orbiter, the designer said, adding that its future would be decided on the basis of its performance in the designated mission and its condition when the mission is completed.

The lunar probe will test key technologies and collect data for future landings of Chang'e III and Chang'e IV and provide high-resolution photographs of the landing area.

According to China's three-phase moon exploration road map, the country will first launch the Chang'e-II lunar orbiter. Then it will land Chang'e-III on the moon in 2013.

The first manned moon mission was expected to be in 2025.

Chang'e-II will test key soft-landing technologies for the Chang'e-III and provide high-resolution photographs of the landing area.

Two hours before the launch, several thousand people who were staying in the surrounding areas were evacuated for safety reasons. Special ships were positioned to track the Chang'e-II.

With Chang'e-II, China is poised to make giant strides into deep space exploration. It recently announced its plans to send first manned mission to moon by 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015, besides setting up its own manned space station.

Ouyang said China's plans to launch an orbital space station by 2020 is achievable, based on aerospace technology development and the success of future manned missions.

China earlier had a headstart by flying a man into space in 2003, thus becoming the third nation only after the US and the then Soviet Union.

India, whose Chandrayan-1 had discovered water on the moon, plans to launch its Chandrayan-II mission in 2012-13.

Rare snake sighted in West Bengal

A rare species of snake, spotted only twice in the past, was discovered at a home in north Bengal's Jalpaiguri town on September 30th.

“This discovery is particularly exciting because this is the first time that a live specimen of the reptile — the Coral Red Kukri snake – has been reported,” said Divisional Forest Officer (Wild Life II) Sumita Ghatak. The snake was orange in colour and 88 cm long. Very little is known about the species or its habitat. It is mildly venomous.

The Oligodon Cheriensis, first discovered in 1936, is named after the place in Uttar Pradesh where it was reportedly sighted for the first time. A sighting was also reported near Mahendranagar in Nepal.

“The discovery took place on September 13 after a house owner contacted us to capture the snake. When we caught it, we realised it was a species we had not seen before.” Experts and NGOs were consulted to identify the specimen, that was kept under observation for about 10 days. It was released into the wild on September 25.

“Tissue samples from the snake have been collected for analysis and we are going to conduct further investigations about the snake. There is no record of the Dooars being a natural habitat for this snake, and its sudden appearance is very interesting. We are now on the lookout for more specimens so that more can be studied about its habitat and behaviour.”

Force of faith trumps law and reason in Ayodhya case

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has made judicial history by deciding a long pending legal dispute over a piece of property in Ayodhya on the basis of an unverified and unsubstantiated reference to the “faith and belief of Hindus.”

The irony is that in doing so, the court has inadvertently provided a shot in the arm for a political movement that cited the very same “faith” and “belief” to justify its open defiance of the law and the Indian Constitution. That defiance reached its apogee in 1992, when a 500-year-old mosque which stood at the disputed site was destroyed. The legal and political system in India stood silent witness to that crime of trespass, vandalism and expropriation. Eighteen years later, the country has compounded that sin by legitimising the “faith” and “belief” of those who took the law into their own hands.

The three learned judges of the Allahabad High Court may have rendered separate judgments on the title suit in the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi case but Justices Sudhir Agarwal, S.U. Khan and Dharam Veer Sharma all seem to agree on one central point: that the Hindu plaintiffs in the case have a claim to the disputed site because “as per [the] faith and belief of the Hindus” the place under the central dome of the Babri Masjid where the idols of Ram Lalla were placed surreptitiously in 1949 is indeed the “birthplace” of Lord Ram.

For every Hindu who believes the spot under the central dome of the Babri Masjid is the precise spot where Lord Ram was born there is another who believes something else. But leaving aside the question of who “the Hindus” referred to by the court really are and how their actual faith and belief was ascertained and measured, it is odd that a court of law should give such weight to theological considerations and constructs rather than legal reasoning and facts. Tulsidas wrote his Ramcharitmanas in 16th century Ayodhya but made no reference to the birthplace of Lord Rama that the court has now identified with such exacting precision five centuries later.

The “faith and belief” that the court speaks about today acquired salience only after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a political campaign in the 1980s to “liberate” the “janmasthan.”

Collectives in India have faith in all sorts of things but “faith” cannot become the arbiter of what is right and wrong in law. Nor can the righting of supposed historical wrongs become the basis for dispensing justice today. In 1993, the Supreme Court wisely refused to answer a Presidential Reference made to it by the Narasimha Rao government seeking its opinion on whether a Hindu temple once existed at the Babri Masjid site. Yet, the High Court saw fit to frame a number of questions that ought to have had absolutely no bearing on the title suit which was before it.

One of the questions the court framed was “whether the building has been constructed on the site of an alleged Hindu temple after demolishing the same.” Pursuant to this question, it asked the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a dig at the site. This was done in 2003, during the time when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government was in power at the Centre. Not surprisingly, the ASI concluded that there was a “massive Hindu religious structure” below, a finding that was disputed by many archaeologists and historians.

The territory of India — as of many countries with a settled civilisation as old as ours — is full of buildings that were constructed after pre-existing structures were demolished to make way for them. Buddhist shrines made way for Hindu temples. Temples have made way for mosques. Mosques have made way for temples. So even if a temple was demolished in the 16th century to make way for the Babri Masjid, what legal relevance can that have in the 21st century? And if such demolition is to serve as the basis for settling property disputes today, where do we draw the line? On the walls of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi can be seen the remnants of a Hindu temple, perhaps even of the original Vishwanath mandir. Certainly many “Hindus” believe the mosque is built on land that is especially sacred to them. The denouement of the Babri case from agitation and demolition to possession might easily serve as a precedent for politicians looking to come to power on the basis of heightening religious tensions.

Even assuming the tainted ASI report is correct in its assessment that a Hindu temple lay below the ruins of the Babri Masjid, neither the ASI nor any other expert has any scientific basis for claiming the architects of the mosque were the ones who did the demolishing. And yet two of the three High Court judges have concluded that the mosque was built after a temple was demolished.

From at least the 19th century, if not earlier, we know that both Hindus and Muslims worshipped within the 2.77 acre site, the latter within the Babri Masjid building and the former at the Ram Chhabutra built within the mosque compound. This practice came to an end in 1949 when politically motivated individuals broke into the mosque and placed idols of Ram Lalla within. After 1949, both communities were denied access though Hindus have been allowed to offer darshan since 1986. In suggesting a three way partition of the site, the High Court has taken a small step towards the restoration of the religious status quo ante which prevailed before politicians got into the act. But its reasoning is flawed and even dangerous. If left unamended by the Supreme Court, the legal, social and political repercussions of the judgment are likely to be extremely damaging.

Mukesh Ambani is India's Richest Person

India's rich continued to expand with 17 more joining the billionaires list topped by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani with a networth of 27 billion US dollars according to trade magazine Forbes India.

Mr Ambani has topped the India Rich list for the third consecutive time. Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, remaind at the second position with a net worth of 26.1 billion US dollar. However both are less well off than they were a year ago.

Moving up to third position this year is IT outsourcer Wipro's Azim Premji. His wealth increased to 17.6 billion US dollar from 14.9 billion US dollar last year amid an improving outlook for the sector.

Also improving on their previous ranking to the fourth in the list were brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia with 15 billion US dollar, more than their last year's net worth of 13.6 billion US dollar. The IPO of their Essar Energy in May, which raised 1.85 billion US dollar, was the largest ever listing in London by an Indian company.

A notable gainer is Ajay Piramal of life sciences firm Piramal Healthcare (No. 37; $1.75 billion). Also a winner this year is 45-year old media mogul Kalanithi Maran. Ranked no. 17 with a net worth of 4 billion US dollar, up by 74 per cent from last year's 2.3 billion dollar, he is the biggest gainer in percentage terms. The owner of Sun TV Network caused a stir this year when he took more than one-third stake in domestic airline SpiceJet.

The top 10 richest in India are:

1. Mukesh Ambani ( 27 billion US dollar)

2. Lakshmi Mittal (26.1 billion US dollar)

3. Azim Premji (17.6 billion dollar)

4. Shashi and Ravi Ruia (15 billion US dollar)

5. Savitri Jindal (14.4 billion US dollar)

6. Anil Ambani (13.3 billion US dollar)

7. Gautam Adani (10.7 billion US dollar)

8. Kushal Pal Singh (9.2 billion US dollar)

9. Sunil Mittal (8.6 billion US dollar)

10. Kumar Birla (8.5 billion dollar US dollar)