KICK OFF: Mahajan at the NYSE

On Friday, April 5, there was a fresh buzz on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan kicked off the day's proceedings on the bourse when he rang the bell. Besides "realising a childhood dream", Mahajan hoped the moment would also give second wind to the flagging Indian tech initiative in the US.

After the dotcom bust, the Indian software industry has begun to explore the growing options of outsourcing by US companies to India-based firms. As part of this effort, the minister led a team of Indian software professionals under the aegis of NASSCOM to the US. The team held road shows for the NYSE as well as Nasdaq, the tech-specific bourse. If the day-long seminar on outsourcing hosted by the NYSE was any indication, then India is set to rake in the moolah once again.

And the minister must have happily noted that the sales pitch for Indian it this time was made by US companies led by General Electric and AIG. Presumably, Yankeespeak will help generate an Indian summer once again.

-Anil Padmanabhan

Body Blow

FRAGILE STATE: Old Hyderabad

The name Quli Qutb Shah Urban Development Authority (QQSUDA) may read a tad too long, but its achievements don't. The body that takes its name from a ruling dynasty of Hyderabad misused funds for the Nandavanam project to clean up the Musi river dividing the old city from the new. In 1999, the Government stopped allocating funds and work to the QQSUDA and now plans to disband it.

However, the Opposition parties, including the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and the Congress beg to differ. They want the entire urban development work of the old city to be assigned to the QQSUDA. The issue is likely to kick up a political storm if the Government goes ahead with its plan to allow the QQSUDA to die.

-Amarnath K. Menon

Act in Action

The disabled in Delhi have something to cheer about. Seven years after the Disability Act was passed, the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation has issued an amendments notice for the capital's building plans. It's now mandatory for all new structures to have disabled-friendly facilities. "No building plan should be approved or be given a completion certificate till the norms for making it disabled-friendly are met with," says Anuradha Mohit, special rapporteur, Disabilities, National Human Rights Commission.

Earlier, despite the Act, new and "happening" shopping malls, multiplex cinema halls and office buildings in Delhi were not made barrier free. The guilty include the government-owned Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath which has a disabled-friendly entry ramp but no elevators or ramps inside. However, the Delhi Metro Rail project has all its disabled-friendly features in place. That should serve as inspiration for defaulters to be on the right track.

Shefalee Vasudev

ONE DAY IN BIHAR
Rambunctious Minister

HIT MAN: Ram by name, Ravan by fame

Purnamasi Ram's name denotes the full moon, his behaviour its dark side. The last time Bihar's minister for food and civil supplies was in the news was December 2001. That's when he deprived his daughter and son-in-law of their home in Bagaha, a town on the India-Nepal border, forcing them to spend wintry nights in a roadside tent. The unusual land grab operation was triggered by a desire to build a shopping complex where the daughter's house stood. The police treated it as a "family dispute" and hurriedly closed the case.

This time Ram and his cronies forced themselves into the residence of Dayanand Dwivedi, a CPI (ML)-Liberation leader of Bagaha. The hapless Dwivedi was bundled into a jeep, taken to the local Inspection Bungalow and tortured till he fell unconscious.

His crime? Highlighting irregularities in the Red Card scheme- a ration card meant for people below the poverty line-in Bagaha. The scandal is small beer by Bihar standards, worth only Rs 61 crore. So maybe Ram thought he'd get away with it till Dwivedi moved the courts.

Soon after the assault, there were mass protests in Bagaha. The local Gabbar Singh remained unfazed. In the dystopia of Bihar, this must be what they call Ram rajya.

-Farzand Ahmed