Heady times for scribes?
Keeping scribes in high spirits? There is nothing unusual in the government changing laws and rules from time to time. Archaic rules are indeed needed to be given quiet burial in the interest of efficient governance. 

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has recently updated one such archaic norm and that curiously involves the scribes. In a recent order, the ministry has hiked budgetary allocation norms to entertain journalists.
It has enhanced the quantity of wine that can be served to them on rare occasions – doubling the existing quantity. Not just that. Journalists can also expect to get premium quality spirit as the per-head monetary provision too has been hiked. 

Ministry insiders explain that the old norms were evolved long time ago when there were only a few brands available in the market. But economic reforms have changed that situation and now the market is flooded new brands. A sign of changing times?
Ajith Athrady

Self-doubt  assails UPA  constituents
Are the UPA constituents not too sure of returning to power in 2009 when the Lok Sabha elections are slated to be held ?

It looks so going by a remark made by Praful Patel, civil aviation minister and leader of NCP, a partner in the coalition.

Addressing a conference to announce his ministry’s plans to have an exclusive air show for the sector in the country for the first – to start in Hyderabad in October this year, Patel, talking passionately over the various initiatives launched by his ministry over the last three years, urged the stake holders in the industry to push hard to realise these initiatives.

“I wish most of our initiatives will be achieved before the end of 2008. Don’t extend it to 2009 , I am not sure whether I will be in the same seat,” the articulate politician told the gathering referring to his ministerial position.
Interestingly, the remark comes shortly after the Congress — the main constituent of UPA — lost Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections and will have to face polls in as many as eight states in 2008.

B S Arun

Doc thrives in controversies
Dr Dhani Ram Baruah, who had hit the headlines and faced legal troubles over claims of implanting a pig heart in a human being, is seeking to return to limelight after lying low all these years.

The controversial Assamese doctor recently held a press conference in the capital, claiming he had applied “genetic engineering” on humans for the first time. The “cardio-pulmonary xenotransplant surgeon” says his treatment has been used to cure the “rarest of the rare diseases” like myeloid dysplastic syndrome, systemic lupus erythromatosus, Takayasu, cerebral palsy, adrenoleucodystrophy and muscular dystrophy along with “incurable diseases” like heart diseases, cancer, kidney, etc.  The doctor, whose claims on pig heart transplantation were rejected by the medical fraternity says conventional cardiac surgeries can cure only 10 per cent of the patients. He also claims that bypass surgery is a “mismatch surgical procedure, injurious to heart and heath, leaves the patient with uncertain future”.  In a challenging tone, he says “when I made this statement in Glasgow in 1982, it caused lot of indigestion, though the fact remains that this till today remains undebatable and unquestionable and will remain so in future”.

Quite interestingly, Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, recently felicitated him with a special award at a function preceding the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas for his “contribution towards the awareness and eradication of coronary artery diseases and for his effort in Applied Human Genetic Engineering to cure the rarest of the rare diseases”. Time for more controversies for the doctor?

Utpal Borpujari