Jan 29,  9:3 PM
World number one, Novak Djokovic has won his third Australian Open title, defeating Spain ‘s Rafa Nadal, 5-7,6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5, in an epic five hour, 53 minute match.

Djokovic, who won the title at Melbourne Park in 2008 and 2011, has now won five Grand slam titles in total and continues his recent domination over the Spaniard, having beaten him in their last seven meetings, all in finals.

The Pioneer’s special correspondent J Gopikrishnan won yet another laurel when he received the Ramnath Goenka Journalist of the Year Award in print category here on Monday.

CNBC managing editor Udayan Mukherjee was adjudged best journalist of the year. Both of these prestigious awards were for the year 2009. Both of these prestigious awards were for the year 2009.

The two awards, introduced by The Indian Express Group in 2006, carried a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakh each. The awards were bestowed by Vice-President Hamid Ansari. The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta presided over the well-attended function at Taj Hotel here. Thirty nine other winners in 17 other categories received a prize of `1 lakh each.

Popular as Gopi among his colleagues, Gopikrishnan had also won the last year’s CNN-IBN special achievement award and several other felicitations for his remarkable series of stories on the 2G spectrum scam, which shook the UPA Government and led to the arrest of several political biggies and bureaucrats. Dedicating his award to The Pioneer, his colleagues, and Editor-in-Chief Chandan Mitra, Gopi said, “I wanted to name several other people who helped in my pursuit, but since the trial is on, I could not reveal their identities.”

Congratulating Gopi, Chandan Mitra said he rarely met a journalist who achieved so much and yet remained so humble. “He has put on no airs despite the accolades he has received and the many awards he has won. He remains committed to his profession, and profession alone,” Mitra said, adding, “The Pioneer is proud to have such a journalist in our team.”

Gopi first brought the nation’s attention to the massive irregularities in the award of spectrum in early 2008 when a few had heard of the well-crafted conspiracy to plunder the nation’s resources and shortchange the exchequer to tune of Rs 1.79 lakh crore by an unholy nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and corporates. Unmindful of the fact that a few newspapers or TV channels cared to follow up his stories, Gopi persisted with his hard work. While he focuses on specifics, he always came out with additional materials to spice up his stories.

In a scam of this magnitude many of the juicy side stories that he shared in the news room could not be published for want of evidence, but they showed his remarkable grasp of the subject and the vast network of his contacts. From personal life of the accused persons to their professional indiscretions, Gopi knew it all. His approach was so professional and meticulous that a few could ever contradict his stories — or accuse him of bias.

Needless to say that in the scam of this proportion, he faced pulls and pressure from different quarters, which he withstood like a true professional, never blinking, never compromising. For someone who started his foray in Delhi journalism four years ago as a little known Kerala stringer, Gopi’s career is not limited to exposing the 2G scam. Consistency has been the hallmark of Gopi, who has regularly come out with front page stories on a diverse range of issues.

The high-point of his 2G scam reporting was the expose of Nira Radia tape that created a sensation and forced the media to take note of the scam. When the CAG report on 2G scam, endorsed nearly every aspect of the scandal so vividly captured by Gopi in his write-ups, the political establishment was forced to act. The then Telecom Minister A Raja had to be ousted from the Union Cabinet, and the Centre had to order CBI probe in the scam.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice-President Ansari said that in a changed and changing world, it would be useful to remember that vibrant journalism in a democracy is watchdog journalism. “It monitors the exercise of power and influence in society and stands for the rights and freedoms of citizens. It informs and empowers citizens rather than entertains and titillates them,” he said.

He added, “Our media, and democracy, are fortunate that we have shining examples of journalists who not only embody the ethical dimension, but sadly, also laid down their life for the same.”

news courtesy : pioneer

10th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas kicks off today

The 10th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas conference began in Jaipur today. Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Ms. Kamla Prasad Bissessar is the Chief Guest of this three-day event.

The theme of this year’s Pravasi Bhartiya Divas is Global Indian-Inclusive Growth.

Three pre-conference seminars are being held today on different subjects.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will formally inaugurate the event on Sunday. President Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil will deliver the valedictory address on Monday and confer the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman Awards.

AIR correspondent reports that about 1,500 delegates from 54 countries are participating in the event.

Transtromer has been a perennial favorite for the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award, and in recent years Swedish journalists have waited outside his apartment in Stockholm on the day the literature prize was announced.

Transtromer’s most famous works include the 1966 “Windows and Stones,” in which he depicts themes from his many travels and “Baltics” from 1974.

His works have been translated into more than 50 languages and influenced poets around the globe, particularly in North America.

Three U.S.-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace, a stunning revelation that suggests the cosmos will eventually freeze to ice.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said American Saul Perlmutter would share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with U.S.-Australian Brian Schmidt and U.S. scientist Adam Riess. Working in two separate research teams during the 1990s — Perlmutter in one and Schmidt and Riess in the other — the scientists raced to map the universe’s expansion by analyzing a particular type of supernovas, or exploding stars.

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer, the environmental organisation she founded said today. She was 71.

One of Kenya’s most recognizable women, Maathai won the Nobel in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism and Indira Gandhi Peace Prize in 2006. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, where over 30 years she mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees.

Edward Wageni, that group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai had been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.

In recognising Maathai, the Nobel committee said that she had stood up to a former oppressive regime in Kenya and that her “unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression.”

Maathai said during her 2004 acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya, where she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.

Although the Green Belt Movement’s tree-planting campaign did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, she said it become clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy.

Rajiv Shukla to Be New IPL Commissioner

The IPL Governing Council is to be reconstituted by the general body which is expected to choose current vice-president from central zone and union minister Rajiv Shukla to be its new head following the decision of Chirayu Amin to step down.

Another prominent agenda is appointment of new senior selection panel to replace the one currently headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

While Srikkanth is likely to get an extension for one year, with Srinivasan at the helm of affairs, his 1983 World Cup teammate Yashpal Sharma is expected to be replaced after having completed four years as a national selector.

While there could be pressure on Maharashtra’s Surendra Bhave to make way for another former player from West Zone, East’s representative Raja Venkat and Central’s Narendra Hirwani are expected to retain their places, according to sources

Portraying a gloomy outlook for the global economy, International Monetary Fund (IMF) today said that it is in a dangerous phase as business activity has weakened and confidence has fallen sharply.

Global growth will moderate to about 4 per cent through 2012, from over 5 per cent in 2010, IMF said in the World Economic Outlook report released today.

“The global economy is in a dangerous new phase. Global activity has weakened and become more uneven, confidence has fallen sharply recently, and downside risks are growing,” the IMF said ahead of its annual meeting here this week.

It noted that the structural problems facing crisis-hit advanced economies have proven even more intractable than expected, and the process of devising and implementing reforms even more complicated.

The report said the outlook for these economies is, thus, for a continuing, but weak and bumpy expansion.

“Prospects for emerging market economies have become more uncertain again, although growth is expected to remain fairly robust, especially in economies that can counter the effect on output of weaker foreign demand with less policy tightening,” it said.

Real GDP in the advanced economies is projected to expand at an anaemic pace of about 1.5 per cent in 2011 and 2 per cent in 2012, helped by a gradual unwinding of the temporary forces that have held back activity during much of the second quarter of 2011, IMF said.

However, IMF added, this assumes that Europe will contain the crisis in the euro zone, that US policymakers will strike a judicious balance between support for the economy and medium-term fiscal consolidation, and that the volatility in global financial markets does not escalate.

Moreover, the removal of monetary accommodation in advanced economies is now expected to pause.

“Under such a scenario, emerging capacity constraints and policy tightening, much of which has already happened, would lower growth rates in emerging and developing economies to a still very solid pace of about 6 per cent in 2012,” it said.

IMF observed that the crisis in the euro zone runs beyond the control of policymakers, notwithstanding the strong policy response agreed at the July 21 EU summit.

It added that they must swiftly ratify the commitments made at the summit, and in the meantime, the European Central Bank (ECB) must continue to intervene strongly to maintain orderly conditions in sovereign debt markets.

IMF said the business activity in the US, already softening, might suffer further blows -— a political impasse over fiscal consolidation, a weak housing market, rapid increases in household saving rates, and/or deteriorating financial conditions.

“Deep political divisions leave the course of US policy highly uncertain. There is a serious risk that hasty fiscal cutbacks will further weaken the outlook without providing the long-term reforms required to reduce debt to more sustainable levels,” it added.