BPSC to Reply Patna High Court over PT Result on Sept.6

Bihar Public Service commission again trapped into the High Court in 52 -55 State Civil Services examination as court had said the commission to clear their position over wrong question in recently concluded 52 -55 PT examination.

The commission had released the result of PT by reducing the 8 wrong questions but dissatisfied candidates filed a case against BPSC in Patna High Court against the PT result, earlier on 16th of Aug BPSC replied to court and ask some more time to file proper reply.

In the mean time BPSC said to Court that they won’t take mains examination until the case is in the court.
The court had asked the BPSC on the allegation made by the petitioners to clear his position on Sept 6.

The petition claims there are 15 faults in the question and commission had deleted the right question as well while considering the result.

Hewlett-Packard 's takeover of Autonomy Sparks fears for UK business

New York,Shares in Hewlett-Packard down by more than a fifth to a six-year low early Aug-19, a day after the world's biggest PC maker HP indicated a major shake-up in its business and cut its annual forecast.The decline redued some $14.5 billion off the company's market capitalization.

Shares of HP fell to $22.76 in heavy early morning trading on friday, making it the top loser on the New York Stock Exchange. The broader S&P 500 Index fell nearly 1 % amid global fear.

With a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 5.6, the company is trailing its peers, including Apple Dell, and IBM as per  to Starmine SmartEstimate.

Excluding losses on Thursday and Friday, HP's stock has lost nearly a fifth of its value since the world's largest PC maker reported second-quarter results on May 17.

"HP is undergoing a sound strategy transformation by focusing on high-growth, high-margin opportunities in the enterprise/commercial markets," Gleacher and Co wrote in a note and cut its price target to $39 from $50.

"However, we materially underestimated the magnitude and timing of this metamorphosis, i.e. IT service margin decline, challenged storage growth."

HP has stopped the manufacturing of its WebOS-based devices like its TouchPad tablet, which failed to score with consumers.

"Last night HP may have eroded what remained of Wall Street's confidence in the company and its strategy," Needham & Co said in a research note.

Brokerage Robert W. Baird said HP is no longer a "safe haven" stock and expects it to lose market share.

HP's decision to spin off the PC business reflects commoditization, as consumers change the use of computers, and this may hurt Intel, the world's largest supplier of PC chips, brokerage Nomura said in a note.

"A reversal in average selling prices would remove a key revenue driver over the last six quarters (for Intel)."

Reading about the murders: West Memphis Three

With a strong potential deal in the acts for the West Memphis Three, as per  the NYTimes, this may be a time to rewinness the gory 1993 triple-murder in greater detail through books about the case.

In May 1993, the dead bodies of three boys were found in the woods of West Memphis, Ark., and their mutilation sparked fears of Satanic worship and sparked a frenzy among townspeople. After the incident several people believed the three men convicted of the crimes were victims, literally, of a witch-hunt -- a theory promoted in the award-winning documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills."

For more about the case, check out "Devil's Knot" by Mara Leveritt. Here's an excerpt, courtesy of Simon and Schuster:

"At 7:41 P.M. on May 5, 1993, a full moon rose behind the Memphis skyline. Its light glinted across the Mississippi River and fell onto the midsized Arkansas town aspiringly named West Memphis. Sometime between the rising of that moon and its setting the next morning, something diabolical would happen in West Memphis. Three eight-year-old boys would vanish, plucked off the streets of their neighborhood by an unseen, murderous hand. Under the glare of the next day's sun, police would discover three young bodies. They would be pulled -- naked, pale, bound, and beaten -- from a watery ditch in a patch of woods alongside two of America's busiest highways. But the investigation would unfold in shadow. Why had one of the boys been castrated? How to account for the absence of blood? Why did the banks of the stream look swept clean? The police would stumble for weeks without clues -- until the moon itself became one."

West Bengal Renamed as Pashchim Banga

West Bengal a historical state of India, born in the wake of India's independence following the seperation of Bengal, has been renamed as Pashchim Banga, Industries by the Mamta banerjee  Minister Partha Chatterjee announced regarding the development.

The decision was unanimously taken by the government and opposition parties as well, Chatterjee said.

"It has been unanimously decided ... from now on West Bengal will be called Paschim Banga. In English also, the name will be written as Paschim Banga," Chatterjee told a media conference.

"We have agreed with the government regarding the renaming of West Bengal," opposition leader Surya Kanta Mishra of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPi-M) said.

"We considered all aspects including administrative, historical and social while deciding the name," said Chatterjee.

The Jan Lokpal Bill

The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year. 

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and former Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist), the draft Bill envisages a system where a corrupt person found guilty would go to jail within two years of the complaint being made and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission. 

Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi and other known people like Swami Agnivesh, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Anna Hazare and Mallika Sarabhai are also part of the movement, called India Against Corruption. Its website describes the movement as "an expression of collective anger of people of India against corruption. We have all come together to force/request/persuade/pressurize the Government to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. We feel that if this Bill were enacted it would create an effective deterrence against corruption."

Anna Hazare, anti-corruption crusader, went on a fast-unto-death in April, demanding that this Bill, drafted by the civil society, be adopted. Four days into his fast, the government agreed to set up a joint committee with an equal number of members from the government and civil society side to draft the Lokpal Bill together. The two sides met several times but could not agree on fundamental elements like including the PM under the purview of the Lokpal. Eventually, both sides drafted their own version of the Bill.

The government has introduced its version in Parliament in this session. Team Anna is up in arms and calls the government version the "Joke Pal Bill." Anna Hazare declared that he would begin another fast in Delhi on August 16. Hours before he was to begin his hunger strike, the Delhi Police detained and later arrested him. There are widespread protests all over the country against his arrest.         

The website of the India Against Corruption movement calls the Lokpal Bill of the government an "eyewash" and has on it a critique of that government Bill. 

A look at the salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill:

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up 

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction. 

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month's time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won't the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won't be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process. 

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician. 

10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.