1. Economics Nobel shared by Americans Sims, Sargent
2. SC reserves order on Swamy's probe PC plea
3. Setback for Modi as HC backs Lokayukta appointment
4. We have nothing to do with political parties: Anna
5. SC stays 26/11 Pak terrorist Kasab's execution
6. PAC summons 2G auditor to explain loss figure
7. TN opposes plea to shift Rajiv's assassins' appeal
8. LK Advani begins rath yatra tomorrow from Bihar
9. Paul McCartney weeps as his weds heiress
10. Tata-Starbucks deal likely this month

Blog on the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, on Jagjit Singh's death.

On hearing the news of Jagjit Singh's death, the first thing that instantly came to mind was my father and our 'Five o'clock Tea'. I enjoyed my father's insistence to listen to music during that time, only to avoid the relentless interrogation about my grades and the resolute and recurring emphasis on the power of social influence and choosing the "right' friends in school.

Read

Thomas John Sargent (born July 19, 1943) is an American economist specialising in the fields of macroeconomics, monetary economics and time series econometrics. He is known as "one of the leaders of the rational expectations revolution" and the author of numerous path-breaking papers. Currently Sargent is the Berkley Professor of Economics and Business at New York University.  

Christopher Albert Sims (born October 21, 1942) is an econometrician and macroeconomist. He is currently the Harold B. Helms Professor of Economics and Banking at Princeton University.  

Bloomberg says that the award's official name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The money, 10 million kronor ($1.48 million), a gold medal and a diploma, will be handed out to the laureates at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

So, Indian-American Avinash Dixit missed out on the Nobel, which went to the two Americans. In fact, the list of economics laureates has in recent years been dominated by American men -- since 2000 there have been only two exceptions. Read more

Sargent and Sims developed methods for identifying and qualifying the effects of changes in policy. Sims gets it for temporary and unexpected changes (changes in interest rate, government deficit), while Sargent gets it for structural changes (change in inflation target, budget rules).

Veteran British war correspondent Clare Hollingworth, who broke the story that the Second World War had started, turned 100 in Hong Kong on Monday as a memoir of her is near completion.

The centenarian was set to celebrate the occasion with journalists and friends at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC), where she has been a regular in the past three decades since moving to the city in 1981. Read it in the New Age.

In other news:

The 17 men reprieved last month from death row, where they had been sent for the killing of a man in a brawl over bootlegging, were back in a Dubai court yesterday. Two Pakistani men who claimed to have been injured in the same fight have filed a compensation claim against the Indian men, which was yesterday heard in the Sharjah reconciliation committee.  Read it in the National 

More reports on Narendra Modi vs Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal on rediff.com.

Cong trying to run parallel govt through governor's office: Modi

Recall governor, writes Modi to PM

Analysis: Why Narendra Modi is on the defensive

In the Pakistani newspaper Dawn: The arrest of US-radio journalist David Barsamian at the New Delhi airport in late September 2011 had a chilling effect on me. Like Barsamian, I reported -- though for a brief period -- on Kashmir. My stories included war widows, mourning mothers, and political party members (read former militants). The only way I could understand the truth or varied aspects of it was to write. And that's what I did. Read

Also read: Arundhati Roy: The dead begin to speak up in India

While the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Maharashtra government on Kasab's plea, the death sentence has been stayed till amicus curae Raju Ramchandran's report is heard.

The SC began the hearing on Kasab's plea to stay the death sentence today, but the trial will be heard on a day-to-day basis from January 25. The court has said the trial will be heard expeditiously, though it observed that the ":man [Kasab] does not deserve an appeal." The stay on execution, says the court, is procedural.

Just in: The Supreme Court stays the execution of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab. Kasab is the lone surviving terrorist arrested for the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people on November 26, 2008. His application for stay of execution of the death sentence was put before the the apex court even though the Bombay High Court had upheld the trial courts award of death sentence in February.

Tragedy has been a constant companion of Chitra Singh, who with her husband Jagjit pulled the ghazal genre out of the drawing room of the elite and brought it to the masses. "I can imagine her plight and how lonely she must be feeling," singer Asha Bhosle said, reacting to Jagjit Singh's death this morning after a massive stroke. 

In 2009, Monica Chaudhry, the 49-year-old daughter of Chitra Singh from her  first marriage, committed suicide at her residence at Bandra, Mumbai.

In 1990, Jagjit and Chitra's son Vivek died in a car crash here which left the couple devastated. Jagjit went silent for six months only to emerge stronger but Chitra lost her voice after the tragedy.

And now, of course, Jagjit Singh passes away.

Hate gruel, euphemistically called porridge...? 

Apparently, there's competition for the best porridge and a Gaelic singer from Edinburgh has won what is known as the coveted Golden Spurtle Award at the World Porridge Making Championships.  Read

Just in: 2G auditor Vinod Rai and his deputy Rekha Gupta has been summoned to explain how they arrived at the Rs 2,645 crore loss figure. Rai had written to the PAC saying they could explain the figure.

However, here's the rider. The list of economics laureates has in recent years been dominated by American men -- since 2000 there have been only two exceptions. Read more

Our colleague Arthur J Pais in New York alerts us to this: According to the Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri, possible winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics include Indian-American micro-economist Avinash Dixit.

Also the read the blog Mostly Economics for other probables

The Dawn, Pakistan, pays tribute to Jagjit Singh.

And in The News, Pakistan.

Ahead of his rath yatra tomorrow, LK Advani said the yatra will press for good and clean governance and highlight issues of corruption in government, black money stashed away in tax havens.

The senior BJP leader said a lack of leadership in the UPA is main reason behind people's anger against the government and lauded civil society for taking up issues of corruption. he stressed that the health of democracy depended on political parties.

Reactions to Jagjit Singh's death.

Lata Mangeshkar: I knew him well. I hoped he would come out of the coma. But the God willed otherwise. Listening to him, people got intoxicated.

Asha Bhosale: I feel sad for his wife Chitra. She lost a son earlier, and now husband. She is very lonely now

Javed Akhtar: Jagjit Singh's death has caused an irreparable loss to the Hindi film and music industry.

Shubha Mudgal: He was an icon. There is nothing I can say to console his wife (Chitra). All I can say is that he will never be forgotten. I pray to god to give her the strength to recover from the loss. 

Usha Uttup: I can't believe it. It was because of him that ordinary men could enjoy good ghazals. He is the person who introduced the 12 string guitar and the bass guitar in ghazal singing, in a way no one could.

Tributes for Jagjit Singh who passed away at 8.10 am today.

Akshay Kumar: Saddened to know 'The Ghazal King', Jagjit Singh is no more. Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, this song makes me misty-e...

Karan Johar:  I grew up listening to the brilliance of Jagjit Singh..my mother was a big fan and then made me one...RIP sir!!! Loss of a true legend

Neil Nitin Mukesh:  Heard the sad news of Jagjit singh ji. Truly a legend. My fav song of his. "Hosh waalon ko khabar kya ..bekhudi kya cheez hai" RIP

If you don't believe in ageing gracefully anti-ageing creams and potions is your thing, read this.

The latest weapon for women against aging is a new wonder balm that claims to hide wrinkles and pigmentations making them look younger in just 40 seconds.   Nanoblur balm, which arrived in the UK last week, has already reached to the top of the sales charts in 22 countries.  

Nanoblur is a cream full of minute high-tech particles that scatter light, making skin look miraculously better 'clearer, fresher and younger' in seconds, by blurring wrinkles and pigmentation, claims the manufacturer.  

The idea of using optical diffusing elements to confuse the eye and minimise the appearance of wrinkles is hardly new, and has, for years, been employed by cosmetics companies in face-flattering products.

In the stock market today, the Maran family-owned broadcasting firm Sun TV tumbled by as much as 16 per cent in early trade on the bourses today after CBI conducted raids on the premises of owner Kalanithi Maran and his brother, former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

CBI today conducted raids on the premises of the Maran brothers in Delhi and Chennai after registering a case against the former Telecom Minister in connection with the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal.

The agency has also booked Kalanithi Maran, Maxis owner T Ananda Krishnan, senior executive Ralph Marshall and three companies -- Aspro, Maxis and Sun TV -- in the case on charges of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

For all those waiting for a sip of Starbucks coffee, news is that Tata Coffee Ltd. and Starbucks Corp. could announce their alliance this month to open the US-based company's outlets in India. Read the report in the Wall Street Journal.

And from the New York Times, read this as an exempler of the phrase dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka, na ghat ka...

At India-Bangladesh Border, Living in Both, and Neither

Happens every other day, unfortunately, but shows how restive the region remains despite 10-years of US presence in Afghanistan and much of the region.

A soldier and 15 militants were killed in a clash that erupted between security forces and Taliban fighters who carried out a cross-border attack in
northwest Pakistan, according to media reports today. The attack was the latest in a string of assaults blamed on Pakistani Taliban based in Afghanistan.

While on Pakistan, read MK Bhadrakumar's blog. Here's an extract.

Reading Peter Treston in The Guardian took me back to the early 1990s when while living and working as an Indian diplomat in Islamabad one saw the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif liberating his country's entrepreneurial skills and latent talents through an ambitious reform programme and Pakistan's economy surging. (In 1991, India had foreign exchange reserves sufficient for meeting import needs for 6 weeks and had pawned its bullion in London to raise money to add to the IMF loan, just to stay afloat.

Pakistan Foreign Office has again said that drone attacks are against the sovereignty of the country, and will not be acceptable at any cost.

The Dawn quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua as saying that there is no change in Pakistan's stance on drone attacks.

Without directly pointing a finger at the United States, she said that Islamabad will never retreat to its principally adopted stand on drone attacks and that the attacks are unacceptable to Pakistan.

Shabana Azmi pays tribute on Twitter: Kisi ki nazar lag gayi hai kala ki duniya ko... Jagjit Singh no more. His contribution to the ghazal in India is unparallelled. Big loss

Jagjit Singh sang the haunting Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gam hai jisko chhupa rahe ho... for the Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil film, Arth.

Reactions to Jagjit Singh's death:

Actor Anupam Kher says it's a personal loss. The news is sad and shocking.

Actress Celina Jaitly: Shocked to hear the golden voiced Jagjit Singhji passed away, we have lost our magnificent ghazal maestro & a wonderful human. 

BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj: His songs were part of our lives. It is a terrible loss.

Singer Pankaj Udhas: Big loss for music.

Jagjit Singh was admitted to the ICU due to a brain hemorrhage and he underwent an emergency neurosurgery on admission.

He is survived by wife Chitra Singh, with whom he had produced several record breaking albums. Their only son Vivek Singh had died in a road accident in 1990.

Born on February 8, 1941, Jagjit Singh was a singer, composer, activist and entrepreneur. He has sung in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali.

Unlike other ghazal singers, Singh did not hesitate in lending his voice for films. His voice ruled during early 80''s in films like Prem Geet, Saath Saath and Arth. However, his major work is spread over more than 60 filmy and non filmy albums.

Jagjit Singh was the first Indian music director to use the technique of multi-track recording for his album Beyond Time.