8th January 2009
57th Plenary Meeting of the North Eastern Council was held today which was presided by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region and Chairman, North Eastern Council. Shri. Aiyar welcomed the Members from eight States to the 57th Plenary Meeting of Council. The meeting began with confirmation of the proceeding of the 56th Meeting of the NEC and of the Action Taken Report of that meeting. Thereafter the Governors of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura spoke. This was followed by the Chief Ministers of these States giving their presentation excepting the Chief Minister of Manipur.
The Chief Minister, Dr. Pawan Chamling began his address by inviting one and all those present at the Plenary meeting of the Council to the Sikkim Festival being held on 10th and 11th January 2009 at the Garden of Five Senses, New Delhi. He reminded everyone that Sikkim through the latest entrant was firmly integrated in the NEC fraternity. The State with its socio- cultural diversity possessing rich nature with flora and fauna has much to offer in eco-tourism, adventure tourism, Hydel power generation, floriculture, hospitality service, agro-based industries and eco-friendly clean industrial sectors. Dr. Chamling spoke on the adoption of organic farming by State to become a totally organic state by 2015 and sought for support of NEC in this area as well as in big cardamom, mandarin orange, passion fruit, tea and ginger for marketing support so that the people of Sikkim could get competitive price for their produce. The Chief Minister spoke at length about the effort of the Government in the empowerment of women and that of the village people in the sustainable management of local resources for overall development of the State. Dr. Chamling drew the attention towards the locational disadvantage of the State with hundred percent dependency on the national Highway 31A wherein the support of the NEC for taking up Sikkim’s case for completing the upgradation of this only link with the Country, early completion of Airport at Pakyong and construction of an alternative road to NH 31A as well as upgradation of the road from Gangtok to Nathula vigorously with the Government of India on behalf of Sikkim. Sikkim would well become a model state in the Country with its objectives and targets fulfilled if viable communication links are always assured. Dr. Chamling aptly reflected on the observation of the Hon’ble Prime Minister that the sun must shine and that too shine brightly in the North East for realizing the Vision 2020.
In the area of capacity building, Sikkim had taken the lead not only in the North East but in the entire Country by setting up a Directorate of Capacity Building for sending the educated unemployed youths for pilot training, IT training, training in Mass Communication, in the hospitality sector etc. In fact, by the next year, an Institute on Capacity Building would be set up in the State for developing a highly skilled work forces as these are critical in the development of each Sikkimese individual for the overall success of the Sikkimese society. Unless our youth are skilled and smart, only then they would then be able to fulfill their aspiration in the modern world where there is cut-throat competition. Dr. Chamling made a specific request to the Chairman, NEC for early sanction and release of funds as the time frame of the working period in the Hills is limited. Finally, the Chief Minister thanked Hon’ble Shri Aiyar for his proactive role in developing the North Eastern States. As per report received from Principal Secretary to HCM.
IPR News Service
IPR No 194/IPR/08-09
Saturday, January 10, 2009
LARGE CARDAMOM- MONEY SPINNER
Large Cardamom is as synonymous to Sikkim as Tea is to Darjeeling. It is the main cash crop of the State. Sikkim is one of the major producer and exporter of this crop. Till recent time, Sikkim was the only player in the global production and export of large cardamom. Official figures indicate that the production and export had surpassed a record of five thousand Metric tons of which bulk was exported to Gulf and Central Asian countries and Pakistan. However, the production has declined almost to half, though the areas under cultivation have increased substantially. The guiding factors underlining the decrease has been attributed to outbreak of viral diseases Chirkey and Furkey that destroy the plant.
A member of Zingiberaceae family, large cardamom is generally used as a spice and in several medicinal preparations. The crop is grown under the shade of forest trees in the sub-Himalayan Mountains at an altitude ranging from 1000 to 2000 metres above the sea level with rainfall of 3000 to 3500 mm distributed in about 200 days a year. Cultivars suited to higher altitudes can tolerate lower temperatures also, while deep, well drained soils with loamy texture is best suited. Presently, there are five species or cultivars viz. Ramsey, Sawney, Golsey, Varlangey and Seremna that are grown in Sikkim.
Being the major cash crop of Sikkim, the cardamom cultivation has been incorporated in the component of Technology Mission under the program of the Government of India, which aims at ensuring adequate, appropriate, timely and current attention to all the links and achieve horizontal and vertical integration of these programs. The mission also aims to promote ecologically sustainable intensification, economically desirable diversification to maximize economic and sociological benefits. Apart from this, the mission intends to promote development and dissemination of eco-technologies based on the blending of traditional wisdom and technology with frontier knowledge such as bio-technology, information technology.
Presently there are approximately sixteen thousand growers of large cardamom among which thirty percent are totally dependent on this crop. It covers around 26 thousand hectares of land under cultivation.
The Technology Mission for cardamom in Sikkim focuses on area expansion along with increase in production and productivity of this cash crop. After its initiation, the mission has been successful in establishing over 150 nurseries to provide certified seedlings to the cardamom growers. So far it has achieved an additional increase of nearly five thousand hectares under the area expansion program. Besides providing regular training to the growers for better management of the field, it has also undertaken a task of baseline survey to ascertain the exact area of healthy plants and those destroyed by the disease.
Strategies for improvement of production has been chalked out under the mission and trainings are being imparted to the growers towards better management of the crop along with introduction of high yielding varieties, mass replanting and controlling of disease and pests.
Similarly, improved curing or drying techniques are being made available to the growers with substantial subsidy to ensure better quality and appearance. The Spices Board of India under the Ministry of Commerce which has been working closely with the cardamom growers for past several decades has also been regulating the market and price factors. Growers are being encouraged through remunerative prices for cardamom cured and dried in improved bhatti or drying methods, which has better appearance and oil content than that dried through traditional method.
by: Journalist Shri Khagendra Mani Pradhan
sOURC: pib/nD
A member of Zingiberaceae family, large cardamom is generally used as a spice and in several medicinal preparations. The crop is grown under the shade of forest trees in the sub-Himalayan Mountains at an altitude ranging from 1000 to 2000 metres above the sea level with rainfall of 3000 to 3500 mm distributed in about 200 days a year. Cultivars suited to higher altitudes can tolerate lower temperatures also, while deep, well drained soils with loamy texture is best suited. Presently, there are five species or cultivars viz. Ramsey, Sawney, Golsey, Varlangey and Seremna that are grown in Sikkim.
Being the major cash crop of Sikkim, the cardamom cultivation has been incorporated in the component of Technology Mission under the program of the Government of India, which aims at ensuring adequate, appropriate, timely and current attention to all the links and achieve horizontal and vertical integration of these programs. The mission also aims to promote ecologically sustainable intensification, economically desirable diversification to maximize economic and sociological benefits. Apart from this, the mission intends to promote development and dissemination of eco-technologies based on the blending of traditional wisdom and technology with frontier knowledge such as bio-technology, information technology.
Presently there are approximately sixteen thousand growers of large cardamom among which thirty percent are totally dependent on this crop. It covers around 26 thousand hectares of land under cultivation.
The Technology Mission for cardamom in Sikkim focuses on area expansion along with increase in production and productivity of this cash crop. After its initiation, the mission has been successful in establishing over 150 nurseries to provide certified seedlings to the cardamom growers. So far it has achieved an additional increase of nearly five thousand hectares under the area expansion program. Besides providing regular training to the growers for better management of the field, it has also undertaken a task of baseline survey to ascertain the exact area of healthy plants and those destroyed by the disease.
Strategies for improvement of production has been chalked out under the mission and trainings are being imparted to the growers towards better management of the crop along with introduction of high yielding varieties, mass replanting and controlling of disease and pests.
Similarly, improved curing or drying techniques are being made available to the growers with substantial subsidy to ensure better quality and appearance. The Spices Board of India under the Ministry of Commerce which has been working closely with the cardamom growers for past several decades has also been regulating the market and price factors. Growers are being encouraged through remunerative prices for cardamom cured and dried in improved bhatti or drying methods, which has better appearance and oil content than that dried through traditional method.
by: Journalist Shri Khagendra Mani Pradhan
sOURC: pib/nD
4th J.R.D Tata Memorial to Sikkim
Vice President Presents 4th JRD Tata Memorial Awards for Population & Reproductive Health Programme
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Delhi DT 9.1.2009
The Vice-President of India Mohd. Hamid Ansari presented the 4th J.R.D Tata Memorial Awards at a function organized by Population Foundation of India (PFI) here today. The State of Chhattisgarh has been selected among the category of bigger States and State of Sikkim has been selected among the category smaller states for the awards. The Chief Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Amar Agarwal, Chhattisgarh and the Chief Minister of Sikkim Shri P.K Chamling received the awards on behalf of these states.
The states were selected on the basis of 14 indicators representing reproductive health, gender, fertility, socio-economic development, education and state government’s commitment to the social sector. The indicators have been drawn from various renowned secondary sources (National Family Health Surveys, Census and Sample Registration System). A major criterion for selection of states has been the ‘change factor’ (improvement in indicators over a decade).
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address on the occasion:
“It is my privilege to be the Chief Guest at the presentation ceremony of the 4th JRD Tata Awards for the best performing States on Population and Reproductive Health Programmes.
The Population Foundation and its work stand as a tribute to the vision, initiative and tireless work of J.R.D. Tata to address the population problem of the country and its impact on the prospects of our development and progress.
This distinguished audience today bears testimony to the success of the Foundation in fashioning an alternative paradigm to address of population question, by doing it through the civil society. It is the affirmation of an equitable, decentralised, rights-based and participative approach to human development, one aspect of which is population stabilization. Its concomitants are access to affordable health care, education, sanitation, safe drinking water, and empowerment of women.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Chief Minister of Sikkim and the Health Minister of Chhattisgarh for receiving the 4th JRD Tata Award for Population and Reproductive Health Programmes for the year 2008. Their performance proves that political will, and a determination to bring about change, is as important as resources.
The website of the Foundation displays the population clock. Just before I left for this venue, it read 1,279,906,779. It also indicates that there are 29 births in India every minute. This amounts to 41,760 births a day. Of these 2380 die every day amounting to a mortality rate of 57 per thousand live births.
Such high infant mortality feeds into high wanted fertility, demolishing all efforts at reducing the total fertility rate.
Confronted with these figures, one is propelled to re-visit the National Population Policy 2000 and its layered targets.
The immediate objective of NPP was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel, and provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.
The medium-term objective was to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral operational strategies. The long-term objective was to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
In pursuance of these objectives, a set of seven National Socio-Demographic Goals, to be achieved by 2010, were set out:
>> Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and infrastructure.
>> Make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory, and reduce drop outs at primary and secondary school levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
>> Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
>> Reduce maternal mortality ratio to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
>> Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
>> Achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
>> Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
Available data indicates that almost none of the objectives of the National Population Policy 2000 and the targets for the year 2010 are likely to be achieved.
The total fertility rate is unlikely to reach replacement level before 2015, while some of the laggard and big states would reach that level only after 2021. The infant mortality rate is unlikely to reach the target of 30 per 1000 live births even by 2025. The accompanying legislation for making the right to education the fundamental right is still a work in progress, and more than 50 per cent of our children are yet to be fully immunized. The statistics on maternal healthcare are also not encouraging with over 50 per cent of births not being either institutional deliveries or deliveries by trained persons.
This is not to deny our significant achievements. Since Independence, we have drastically improved overall literacy and female literacy and enhanced life expectancy for our citizens. Our efforts, nevertheless, have fallen short of the targets we set for ourselves.
How is this gap to be covered? As a lay person, I wish to offer two themes for consideration.
First, the demographic map of India is extremely diverse and heterogeneous. There are significant differences between states in the achievement of basic demographic indices, resulting in disparities population size and growth trends. There are wide inter-state, male-female and rural-urban disparities in outcomes and impacts.
Over 10 States and Union Territories have achieved replacement levels of fertility. The growth rates continue to be high in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Here we see a striking confluence of high fertility rates with low literacy and low health indicators and lower levels of socio-economic development. These states accounts for 40 per cent of our population and expected to contribute half of our future population growth.
We thus need to focus on these states with renewed vigour, with full coordination between Central and State governments, and active involvement of civil society institutions.
Secondly, more emphasis should be paid to ‘demographic decentralization’ through devolution of responsibilities and resources to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in formulating and implementing area specific policies and programmes relevant for population stabilization. They need to be involved in micro-planning and monitoring at local level to improve implementation of the programme and ensure effective community participation.
So far service deliveries under Family Welfare Programmes have been administered entirely through official agencies. These have achieved sub-optimal results and necessitate a search for alternative modes of service delivery.
The answer lies in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments that created a meaningful role for local self-governance. The time has come for activating the third tier of government to address the population problem through speedy devolution of financial and human resources and powers.
We live in an era where a nation is judged by the human development level of its people – standards of health care, nutrition and level of education; by the human rights and fundamental freedoms enjoyed by its citizens; by the access to development and progress for all the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of its society.
It is here that we must prove to ourselves that we have succeeded as a nation; and thereafter, prove in the comity of nations that we are a great and a responsible nation.
We need to note that without timely and effective public policy interventions, the demographic asset could turn into an enormous liability. Demographic stabilisation must therefore become a policy imperative and converted into a national movement.
I once again congratulate the Chhattisgarh and Sikkim for their performance and urge other states to emulate them.
I thank the Population Foundation of India for inviting me as the Chief Guest today”.
SK/BS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Delhi DT 9.1.2009
The Vice-President of India Mohd. Hamid Ansari presented the 4th J.R.D Tata Memorial Awards at a function organized by Population Foundation of India (PFI) here today. The State of Chhattisgarh has been selected among the category of bigger States and State of Sikkim has been selected among the category smaller states for the awards. The Chief Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Amar Agarwal, Chhattisgarh and the Chief Minister of Sikkim Shri P.K Chamling received the awards on behalf of these states.
The states were selected on the basis of 14 indicators representing reproductive health, gender, fertility, socio-economic development, education and state government’s commitment to the social sector. The indicators have been drawn from various renowned secondary sources (National Family Health Surveys, Census and Sample Registration System). A major criterion for selection of states has been the ‘change factor’ (improvement in indicators over a decade).
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address on the occasion:
“It is my privilege to be the Chief Guest at the presentation ceremony of the 4th JRD Tata Awards for the best performing States on Population and Reproductive Health Programmes.
The Population Foundation and its work stand as a tribute to the vision, initiative and tireless work of J.R.D. Tata to address the population problem of the country and its impact on the prospects of our development and progress.
This distinguished audience today bears testimony to the success of the Foundation in fashioning an alternative paradigm to address of population question, by doing it through the civil society. It is the affirmation of an equitable, decentralised, rights-based and participative approach to human development, one aspect of which is population stabilization. Its concomitants are access to affordable health care, education, sanitation, safe drinking water, and empowerment of women.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the Chief Minister of Sikkim and the Health Minister of Chhattisgarh for receiving the 4th JRD Tata Award for Population and Reproductive Health Programmes for the year 2008. Their performance proves that political will, and a determination to bring about change, is as important as resources.
The website of the Foundation displays the population clock. Just before I left for this venue, it read 1,279,906,779. It also indicates that there are 29 births in India every minute. This amounts to 41,760 births a day. Of these 2380 die every day amounting to a mortality rate of 57 per thousand live births.
Such high infant mortality feeds into high wanted fertility, demolishing all efforts at reducing the total fertility rate.
Confronted with these figures, one is propelled to re-visit the National Population Policy 2000 and its layered targets.
The immediate objective of NPP was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel, and provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care.
The medium-term objective was to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral operational strategies. The long-term objective was to achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
In pursuance of these objectives, a set of seven National Socio-Demographic Goals, to be achieved by 2010, were set out:
>> Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and infrastructure.
>> Make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory, and reduce drop outs at primary and secondary school levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
>> Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
>> Reduce maternal mortality ratio to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
>> Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
>> Achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
>> Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
Available data indicates that almost none of the objectives of the National Population Policy 2000 and the targets for the year 2010 are likely to be achieved.
The total fertility rate is unlikely to reach replacement level before 2015, while some of the laggard and big states would reach that level only after 2021. The infant mortality rate is unlikely to reach the target of 30 per 1000 live births even by 2025. The accompanying legislation for making the right to education the fundamental right is still a work in progress, and more than 50 per cent of our children are yet to be fully immunized. The statistics on maternal healthcare are also not encouraging with over 50 per cent of births not being either institutional deliveries or deliveries by trained persons.
This is not to deny our significant achievements. Since Independence, we have drastically improved overall literacy and female literacy and enhanced life expectancy for our citizens. Our efforts, nevertheless, have fallen short of the targets we set for ourselves.
How is this gap to be covered? As a lay person, I wish to offer two themes for consideration.
First, the demographic map of India is extremely diverse and heterogeneous. There are significant differences between states in the achievement of basic demographic indices, resulting in disparities population size and growth trends. There are wide inter-state, male-female and rural-urban disparities in outcomes and impacts.
Over 10 States and Union Territories have achieved replacement levels of fertility. The growth rates continue to be high in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Here we see a striking confluence of high fertility rates with low literacy and low health indicators and lower levels of socio-economic development. These states accounts for 40 per cent of our population and expected to contribute half of our future population growth.
We thus need to focus on these states with renewed vigour, with full coordination between Central and State governments, and active involvement of civil society institutions.
Secondly, more emphasis should be paid to ‘demographic decentralization’ through devolution of responsibilities and resources to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in formulating and implementing area specific policies and programmes relevant for population stabilization. They need to be involved in micro-planning and monitoring at local level to improve implementation of the programme and ensure effective community participation.
So far service deliveries under Family Welfare Programmes have been administered entirely through official agencies. These have achieved sub-optimal results and necessitate a search for alternative modes of service delivery.
The answer lies in the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments that created a meaningful role for local self-governance. The time has come for activating the third tier of government to address the population problem through speedy devolution of financial and human resources and powers.
We live in an era where a nation is judged by the human development level of its people – standards of health care, nutrition and level of education; by the human rights and fundamental freedoms enjoyed by its citizens; by the access to development and progress for all the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of its society.
It is here that we must prove to ourselves that we have succeeded as a nation; and thereafter, prove in the comity of nations that we are a great and a responsible nation.
We need to note that without timely and effective public policy interventions, the demographic asset could turn into an enormous liability. Demographic stabilisation must therefore become a policy imperative and converted into a national movement.
I once again congratulate the Chhattisgarh and Sikkim for their performance and urge other states to emulate them.
I thank the Population Foundation of India for inviting me as the Chief Guest today”.
SK/BS
Friday, January 9, 2009
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
News Friday, 09 Jan, 2009
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
Punj Lloyd Ltd announced that it has secured a contract for civil works for approximately INR 264 crore from Airports Authority of India in connection with construction of new airport at Pakyong, Sikkim. The new airport will make a significant contribution to the tourism infrastructure of the state.
Mr Atul Punj chairman of Punj Lloyd Group said that "Punj Lloyd is proud to be building Sikkim's first Greenfield Airport, Building tourism infrastructure is the prime call of Indian tourism industry, especially for a state like Sikkim that is yet unexplored and has the potential to become a preferred tourism destination for families, adventure sports, village and eco tourism. This airport will ensure better connectivity of Sikkim with rest of the country."
Building an airport in the hilly terrain of Sikkim will be an interesting challenge. The airport will be built at a height of 1404 meter above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 meter depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 meter height, stabilized with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall. A large volume of earthwork, 6.5 million m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 meter height will be planted with local species of flora.
Although a challenge, work in the hilly region will not daunt Punj Lloyd, which has a history of executing projects successfully in difficult terrain. From the Caucasian rocky mountains were Punj Lloyd laid sections of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the deserts of Oman. Punj Lloyd is confident of successfully completing this Greenfield airport project.
Punj Lloyd bags Sikkim first Greenfield airport project
Punj Lloyd Ltd announced that it has secured a contract for civil works for approximately INR 264 crore from Airports Authority of India in connection with construction of new airport at Pakyong, Sikkim. The new airport will make a significant contribution to the tourism infrastructure of the state.
Mr Atul Punj chairman of Punj Lloyd Group said that "Punj Lloyd is proud to be building Sikkim's first Greenfield Airport, Building tourism infrastructure is the prime call of Indian tourism industry, especially for a state like Sikkim that is yet unexplored and has the potential to become a preferred tourism destination for families, adventure sports, village and eco tourism. This airport will ensure better connectivity of Sikkim with rest of the country."
Building an airport in the hilly terrain of Sikkim will be an interesting challenge. The airport will be built at a height of 1404 meter above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 meter depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 meter height, stabilized with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall. A large volume of earthwork, 6.5 million m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 meter height will be planted with local species of flora.
Although a challenge, work in the hilly region will not daunt Punj Lloyd, which has a history of executing projects successfully in difficult terrain. From the Caucasian rocky mountains were Punj Lloyd laid sections of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the deserts of Oman. Punj Lloyd is confident of successfully completing this Greenfield airport project.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
PAKYONG AIRPORT UPDATE
Punj Llyod bags Pakyong airport contract
Rs.264 crores project to be completed in 24 months
SE Report
GANGTOK, January 6: Over a decade after the Centre gave a nod for an airport to Sikkim, construction for the State’s first Greenfield airport at Pakyong is expected to commence from the second week of January after Punj Llyod Group was awarded the contract by Airports Authority of India (AAI) today.
Punj Llyod, a diversified engineering, procurement and construction conglomerate, announced the winning of Pakyong airpot project for Rs.264 crore and the project is to be completed in 24 months.
The scope of the project includes construction of 30-m wide runway of 1.7 km length, taxiway, apron drainage system and electrical work for the airport.
According to reports, Punj Lloyd Group said that it is a challenge to build an airport in the hilly terrain. According to the company the airport will have a height of 1404 m above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 m depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 m height, stabilised with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall.
A large volume of earthwork, 65 lac m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 m height will be planted with local species of flora.
A long pending demand of the State government, the air link of a landlocked Sikkim is now finally set in the right direction. Sikkim has only a national highway which is frequently subject to political and natural disturbances as evident in 2008.
The air link is will also give a boost to the tourism potential of Sikkim. More than 5 lakhs tourists visited Sikkim last year and the State is targeting to attract 7 lakhs tourists by the next 3 years.
On October 16 last year, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given its approval for construction of the Greenfield Airport at Pakyong.
“Sikkim has substantial tourism potential due to its scenic and natural beauty. As such, direct air connectivity to Sikkim is essential from socio-economic and strategic considerations. Besides, direct air connectivity would also promote tourism and other economic activities in the State”, the committee had stated while approving the project.
sOURCE: sIKKIM eXPRESS)
Rs.264 crores project to be completed in 24 months
SE Report
GANGTOK, January 6: Over a decade after the Centre gave a nod for an airport to Sikkim, construction for the State’s first Greenfield airport at Pakyong is expected to commence from the second week of January after Punj Llyod Group was awarded the contract by Airports Authority of India (AAI) today.
Punj Llyod, a diversified engineering, procurement and construction conglomerate, announced the winning of Pakyong airpot project for Rs.264 crore and the project is to be completed in 24 months.
The scope of the project includes construction of 30-m wide runway of 1.7 km length, taxiway, apron drainage system and electrical work for the airport.
According to reports, Punj Lloyd Group said that it is a challenge to build an airport in the hilly terrain. According to the company the airport will have a height of 1404 m above mean sea level. The scope of work shall involve excavation of 100 m depth and earth filling of slopes of 80 m height, stabilised with Geogrid Reinforced Retaining Wall.
A large volume of earthwork, 65 lac m3, shall involve blasting in hard rock apart from excavation in soft rock and soil. To protect the environment, excavated slopes of 100 m height will be planted with local species of flora.
A long pending demand of the State government, the air link of a landlocked Sikkim is now finally set in the right direction. Sikkim has only a national highway which is frequently subject to political and natural disturbances as evident in 2008.
The air link is will also give a boost to the tourism potential of Sikkim. More than 5 lakhs tourists visited Sikkim last year and the State is targeting to attract 7 lakhs tourists by the next 3 years.
On October 16 last year, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given its approval for construction of the Greenfield Airport at Pakyong.
“Sikkim has substantial tourism potential due to its scenic and natural beauty. As such, direct air connectivity to Sikkim is essential from socio-economic and strategic considerations. Besides, direct air connectivity would also promote tourism and other economic activities in the State”, the committee had stated while approving the project.
sOURCE: sIKKIM eXPRESS)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Global Political Risk Index
Global Political Risk Index
New Delhi 6 JAN 2009
India’s position in the Global Political Risk Index (GPRI), which measures a country’s ability to absorb political shocks, edged up one point in the past year to 63 and its outlook remains neutral. The late November Mumbai attacks will push India to keep up the pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups, according to Eurasia Group, which compiles the index.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group, a political and economic risk analysis firm, for GPRI, a composite measure of the state of a country’s government, security, society and economy. All indicators are scored on a scale of 0 to 100, and the higher the number, the greater the country’s ability to withstand external or internal political shocks.
The biggest gainers in 2008 were Algeria and Brazil, which saw their scores increase by five points and four points, respectively, while the biggest losers were Nigeria and China, down six points and four points. China, which had been the biggest gainer for 2007, and Nigeria are both battling significant political challenges amid an economic downturn.
“Political risks are on the rise. The ongoing global economic crisis is precipitating a range of policy responses from leaders,” Eurasia Group commented in a report on its findings. “Investors should closely watch country-specific responses to gauge whether these policy efforts are properly targeted.” In India’s immediate neighbourhood, Pakistan’s score remained unchanged at 43, and its outlook neutral. The country faces the risk of domestic political tension centred on the supreme court, according to the report.
Breaking down the index into its components, government-specific scores for the 24 economies covered were relatively stable in 2008, but with significant variation at the country level.
Government stability suffered the biggest declines in Thailand (-8), Nigeria (-7), Argentina (-6), Iran (-6) and Hungary (-5). The Philippines (+6), Algeria (+6) and Brazil (+5) had the most gains.
The global financial crisis contributed to declining economic scores in 2008, although concerns over inflation have passed. This year, the focus is “on the economic slowdown and the risk of deflation—although this is of greater concern in the developed economies that have experienced significant asset inflation in recent years,” Eurasia Group said.
Those countries that relied on exports to power growth may suffer as consumer demand declines.
“China in particular will be at risk, due to its substantial excess productive capacity stemming from extraordinarily high rates of investment in recent years,” according to the report.
Safer investments in 2009 will include emerging markets that are better placed to weather the economic crisis and those with stable governments that will implement “fiscal policies to stabilize their economies”.
Winners from the oil price decline include India, which relies on imports for much of its needs.
India’s national oil companies “now face less risk of getting priced out of competitive international upstream acquisitions”, according to an analysis by Eurasia Group.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group for GPRI and will run this every month. The index is a composite measure of the state of a country's government, society, security and economy. Mint carried last GPRI on 16 December. To view all editions of the index, go to www.livemint.com/gpri Your reactions and comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com
Source:livemint.
New Delhi 6 JAN 2009
India’s position in the Global Political Risk Index (GPRI), which measures a country’s ability to absorb political shocks, edged up one point in the past year to 63 and its outlook remains neutral. The late November Mumbai attacks will push India to keep up the pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups, according to Eurasia Group, which compiles the index.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group, a political and economic risk analysis firm, for GPRI, a composite measure of the state of a country’s government, security, society and economy. All indicators are scored on a scale of 0 to 100, and the higher the number, the greater the country’s ability to withstand external or internal political shocks.
The biggest gainers in 2008 were Algeria and Brazil, which saw their scores increase by five points and four points, respectively, while the biggest losers were Nigeria and China, down six points and four points. China, which had been the biggest gainer for 2007, and Nigeria are both battling significant political challenges amid an economic downturn.
“Political risks are on the rise. The ongoing global economic crisis is precipitating a range of policy responses from leaders,” Eurasia Group commented in a report on its findings. “Investors should closely watch country-specific responses to gauge whether these policy efforts are properly targeted.” In India’s immediate neighbourhood, Pakistan’s score remained unchanged at 43, and its outlook neutral. The country faces the risk of domestic political tension centred on the supreme court, according to the report.
Breaking down the index into its components, government-specific scores for the 24 economies covered were relatively stable in 2008, but with significant variation at the country level.
Government stability suffered the biggest declines in Thailand (-8), Nigeria (-7), Argentina (-6), Iran (-6) and Hungary (-5). The Philippines (+6), Algeria (+6) and Brazil (+5) had the most gains.
The global financial crisis contributed to declining economic scores in 2008, although concerns over inflation have passed. This year, the focus is “on the economic slowdown and the risk of deflation—although this is of greater concern in the developed economies that have experienced significant asset inflation in recent years,” Eurasia Group said.
Those countries that relied on exports to power growth may suffer as consumer demand declines.
“China in particular will be at risk, due to its substantial excess productive capacity stemming from extraordinarily high rates of investment in recent years,” according to the report.
Safer investments in 2009 will include emerging markets that are better placed to weather the economic crisis and those with stable governments that will implement “fiscal policies to stabilize their economies”.
Winners from the oil price decline include India, which relies on imports for much of its needs.
India’s national oil companies “now face less risk of getting priced out of competitive international upstream acquisitions”, according to an analysis by Eurasia Group.
Mint has partnered with Eurasia Group for GPRI and will run this every month. The index is a composite measure of the state of a country's government, society, security and economy. Mint carried last GPRI on 16 December. To view all editions of the index, go to www.livemint.com/gpri Your reactions and comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com
Source:livemint.
Sorry, Corruption puts India on 18 places in innovation index
India falls 18 places in innovation index
Curruption the big culprit
New Delhi 6 Jan 2009
India, a country that sees itself as a key player in the knowledge economy, is not as innovative as Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic.
That’s the finding of the second edition of the Global Innovation Index, or GII, that was released on Tuesday and which ranks India 41 among 130 countries. The index has been created by Soumitra Dutta, a professor at French business school Insead, in association with industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The US has been ranked first, Germany second and Sweden third in the index.
India was ranked 23 in last year’s index but the two editions aren’t strictly comparable because only 107 countries were ranked last year. “Rather than India falling, other smaller countries have made significant improvements. We have included more countries this time around and that has affected India’s overall position,” said Dutta, whose index lists “regulatory hurdles, corruption and labour issues” as factors hindering innovation in India.
While indices such as this one are a good measure of how a country compares with others on a specific parameter (in this case, innovativeness), they are unlikely to significantly influence decisions by companies to invest in research and development. In the past few years, several multinational firms have made substantial investments in research centres in India.
This report comes at a time when India has launched several efforts to push the cause of scientific research and innovation. The government is set to table the National Innovation Bill in Parliament in its next session; the Bill makes it easier for private investment to flow into research and develop ment. The government also plans to launch a $183 million World Bank-funded programme to accelerate innovation.
The report puts China at 37, eight places down from last year but four places ahead of India. Last year, China was ranked 29 and India 23. Also last year, global research and advisory firm Economist Intelligence Unit ranked India 58 on its list of innovative countries, one rank above China.
Indian policymakers and scientists frequently compare their research and innovation output with China’s, which in the past two decades has overtaken India on several indices that measure scientific prowess of countries.
Though most innovation indices rank countries on their research and development criteria, such as research spends as a proportion of the gross domestic product, or GDP, number of scientific publications and their patent output, newer parameters such as the ones employed by Dutta include soundness of banks, ease of doing business and the number of Internet users in a coun try.
According to Dutta, innovation is far more broad based and not necessarily confined to laboratories. “Innovation is a horizontal exercise. (US President-elect) Barack Obama’s innovative use of the Internet in the recent elections must also count in the country’s (US) metrics as it has a significant long-term impact,” he added.
For ranking purposes, each factor is categorized as input or output. Input factors reflect how conducive a country is to innovation and output factors to how effectively a country translates innovation into knowledge, competitiveness and wealth.
“These results are averaged and on the basis of that, global ranks are calculated,” Dutta said.
He added that China came ahead of India thanks to “the strength” of its foreign direct investment, or FDI, inflows; the report also lists China’s ease of accessing credit and the “wide variety of its manufacture imports and exports”.
Dutta said all significant inputs for this report were collected in early 2008. “This was before the financial crisis kicked in and I expect significant changes in the top 10 when we prepare the next report.” An expert said he wouldn’t try to read too much into the rankings.
Sujit Bhattacharya, professor at the school of social sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said: “Innovation is now a very broad term and rankings are extremely relative. It’s more useful to look at the input variables, see how India fares on individual ones, and then implement measures to address them. Giving equal weightage to all variables, and averaging them out doesn’t help much.”
Source: Livemint.com
Curruption the big culprit
New Delhi 6 Jan 2009
India, a country that sees itself as a key player in the knowledge economy, is not as innovative as Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic.
That’s the finding of the second edition of the Global Innovation Index, or GII, that was released on Tuesday and which ranks India 41 among 130 countries. The index has been created by Soumitra Dutta, a professor at French business school Insead, in association with industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The US has been ranked first, Germany second and Sweden third in the index.
India was ranked 23 in last year’s index but the two editions aren’t strictly comparable because only 107 countries were ranked last year. “Rather than India falling, other smaller countries have made significant improvements. We have included more countries this time around and that has affected India’s overall position,” said Dutta, whose index lists “regulatory hurdles, corruption and labour issues” as factors hindering innovation in India.
While indices such as this one are a good measure of how a country compares with others on a specific parameter (in this case, innovativeness), they are unlikely to significantly influence decisions by companies to invest in research and development. In the past few years, several multinational firms have made substantial investments in research centres in India.
This report comes at a time when India has launched several efforts to push the cause of scientific research and innovation. The government is set to table the National Innovation Bill in Parliament in its next session; the Bill makes it easier for private investment to flow into research and develop ment. The government also plans to launch a $183 million World Bank-funded programme to accelerate innovation.
The report puts China at 37, eight places down from last year but four places ahead of India. Last year, China was ranked 29 and India 23. Also last year, global research and advisory firm Economist Intelligence Unit ranked India 58 on its list of innovative countries, one rank above China.
Indian policymakers and scientists frequently compare their research and innovation output with China’s, which in the past two decades has overtaken India on several indices that measure scientific prowess of countries.
Though most innovation indices rank countries on their research and development criteria, such as research spends as a proportion of the gross domestic product, or GDP, number of scientific publications and their patent output, newer parameters such as the ones employed by Dutta include soundness of banks, ease of doing business and the number of Internet users in a coun try.
According to Dutta, innovation is far more broad based and not necessarily confined to laboratories. “Innovation is a horizontal exercise. (US President-elect) Barack Obama’s innovative use of the Internet in the recent elections must also count in the country’s (US) metrics as it has a significant long-term impact,” he added.
For ranking purposes, each factor is categorized as input or output. Input factors reflect how conducive a country is to innovation and output factors to how effectively a country translates innovation into knowledge, competitiveness and wealth.
“These results are averaged and on the basis of that, global ranks are calculated,” Dutta said.
He added that China came ahead of India thanks to “the strength” of its foreign direct investment, or FDI, inflows; the report also lists China’s ease of accessing credit and the “wide variety of its manufacture imports and exports”.
Dutta said all significant inputs for this report were collected in early 2008. “This was before the financial crisis kicked in and I expect significant changes in the top 10 when we prepare the next report.” An expert said he wouldn’t try to read too much into the rankings.
Sujit Bhattacharya, professor at the school of social sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, said: “Innovation is now a very broad term and rankings are extremely relative. It’s more useful to look at the input variables, see how India fares on individual ones, and then implement measures to address them. Giving equal weightage to all variables, and averaging them out doesn’t help much.”
Source: Livemint.com
Monday, January 5, 2009
REASONS TO CHEER 2009
REASONS TO CHEER 2009
BY S NARAYAN
T he year 2008 has been traumatic for the nation and its economy: Some of the scars and bruises will take a long time to heal, and the media has been full of stories of the difficulties the year has brought to various sections of the people, be they employees, exporters, investors or manufacturers. The government is doing its best, and its actions recall what Churchill once said: “Governments will eventually do the right thing, after having first exhausted all other alternatives.”
The new stimulus package announced on Friday is likely to cost the government at least Rs40,000 crore, and provides opportunities for greater liquidity for the manufacturing sector, especially commercial vehicles. I had written several weeks ago about the difficulties faced by non-banking finance companies, and the new special-purpose vehicle mechanism announced is likely to mitigate these to some extent. The reduction in repo rates and the cash reserve ratio is likely to enable banks to provide easier credit and greater liquidity to business. Exporters and small and medium enterprises would have wished for something more, and the anxiety that the available liquidity should find its way into productive businesses will remain for some time, but the steps announced are all welcome ones.
In fact, there are several signs that 2009 will be considerably better than 2008.
First, one has only to visit average shopping centres in the metropolis and the shopping areas in tier II and tier III cities to see that that the consumer is still buying, and indeed, with little let-up. At one end, imported luxury brands are seeing their India sales up over 25%, and at the other end, the Sarojini markets, GK markets and indeed, all the places you and I go to, are fairly full. Off metropolitan cities, middle-class residential housing continues to grow, with little let-up in prices in Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore and most of the “middle-class” cities.
It is true that malls have lower footfalls, that tourist arrivals are lower, that upper-end residences have no takers and commercial space is in oversupply—but these are bubbles of the last four years, and the fundamentals of the average consumer have not changed. FMCG companies continue to grow very well, and the sales of electronic goods have not slackened perceptibly.
There has been a good winter harvest, the paddy procurement is very good and the support prices have been higher than before, thus leaving the farmer with a good disposable surplus. There is also no shortage of savings—banks have had a good receipt of fixed deposits, the new schemes from Nabard and LIC have elicited excellent responses and people, in short, are sitting on cash. It is true that investments have moved out of mutual funds and equity and debt markets, and that investment capital is hard to find.
But it is also true that people are spending more carefully, weighing returns and risks better than they did in the earlier years. In short, the speculative urge has been dampened, but not the entrepreneurship or the drive for self-improvement. Doctors and chartered accountants, hospitals and educational institutions, lawyers and the judicial system, bureaucrats and the government and indeed, all sectors that provide the vaguely defined “public services” continue to do as well as in the previous years, and form the bedrock of basic growth that one would see in 2009.
Second, the anxious people who occupy a lot of English-speaking space are the big corporate houses, the large real estate developers, exporters, automobile manufacturers and, indeed, the large companies that figure in the stock markets.
These are the faces of the country’s integration with the rest of the world. But this is only a part of the Indian economy, and the steps taken by the government are likely to provide relief and opportunity to this group. And the companies are analysing their capex and growth plans more carefully, and investments are getting better focused and monitored.
In the last few years, the heady growth in valuation and leveraging had even the most conservative householder dabbling in risk. Now that he has lost some money, he is back to being what he has been all his life—a prudent spender, saver and investor in himself and his family. In fact, we are back to our core and basic values, at levels of income, consumption and living that is considerably higher than a decade ago, and therefore there is little doubt that the lessons of 2008 will form a springboard for growth.
Of course, this will not happen all at once, nor by itself. The government needs to infuse confidence in the growth story and not in the credit markets alone.
If it is prepared to invest in projects, others will, and yet the list of proposals recently approved by the cabinet, including universal secondary schooling, appears to focus on social rather than economic initiatives. Announcements for some metro rail projects or large power projects including nuclear power, expansion of the rail system and the like, are likely to charge entrepreneurs into participating together with the government. Like Tennyson’s Ulysses, it is the time for the government to “push off, and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows, for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset”.
We can do it.
S. Narayan is a former finance secretary and economic adviser to the prime minister.
BY S NARAYAN
T he year 2008 has been traumatic for the nation and its economy: Some of the scars and bruises will take a long time to heal, and the media has been full of stories of the difficulties the year has brought to various sections of the people, be they employees, exporters, investors or manufacturers. The government is doing its best, and its actions recall what Churchill once said: “Governments will eventually do the right thing, after having first exhausted all other alternatives.”
The new stimulus package announced on Friday is likely to cost the government at least Rs40,000 crore, and provides opportunities for greater liquidity for the manufacturing sector, especially commercial vehicles. I had written several weeks ago about the difficulties faced by non-banking finance companies, and the new special-purpose vehicle mechanism announced is likely to mitigate these to some extent. The reduction in repo rates and the cash reserve ratio is likely to enable banks to provide easier credit and greater liquidity to business. Exporters and small and medium enterprises would have wished for something more, and the anxiety that the available liquidity should find its way into productive businesses will remain for some time, but the steps announced are all welcome ones.
In fact, there are several signs that 2009 will be considerably better than 2008.
First, one has only to visit average shopping centres in the metropolis and the shopping areas in tier II and tier III cities to see that that the consumer is still buying, and indeed, with little let-up. At one end, imported luxury brands are seeing their India sales up over 25%, and at the other end, the Sarojini markets, GK markets and indeed, all the places you and I go to, are fairly full. Off metropolitan cities, middle-class residential housing continues to grow, with little let-up in prices in Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore and most of the “middle-class” cities.
It is true that malls have lower footfalls, that tourist arrivals are lower, that upper-end residences have no takers and commercial space is in oversupply—but these are bubbles of the last four years, and the fundamentals of the average consumer have not changed. FMCG companies continue to grow very well, and the sales of electronic goods have not slackened perceptibly.
There has been a good winter harvest, the paddy procurement is very good and the support prices have been higher than before, thus leaving the farmer with a good disposable surplus. There is also no shortage of savings—banks have had a good receipt of fixed deposits, the new schemes from Nabard and LIC have elicited excellent responses and people, in short, are sitting on cash. It is true that investments have moved out of mutual funds and equity and debt markets, and that investment capital is hard to find.
But it is also true that people are spending more carefully, weighing returns and risks better than they did in the earlier years. In short, the speculative urge has been dampened, but not the entrepreneurship or the drive for self-improvement. Doctors and chartered accountants, hospitals and educational institutions, lawyers and the judicial system, bureaucrats and the government and indeed, all sectors that provide the vaguely defined “public services” continue to do as well as in the previous years, and form the bedrock of basic growth that one would see in 2009.
Second, the anxious people who occupy a lot of English-speaking space are the big corporate houses, the large real estate developers, exporters, automobile manufacturers and, indeed, the large companies that figure in the stock markets.
These are the faces of the country’s integration with the rest of the world. But this is only a part of the Indian economy, and the steps taken by the government are likely to provide relief and opportunity to this group. And the companies are analysing their capex and growth plans more carefully, and investments are getting better focused and monitored.
In the last few years, the heady growth in valuation and leveraging had even the most conservative householder dabbling in risk. Now that he has lost some money, he is back to being what he has been all his life—a prudent spender, saver and investor in himself and his family. In fact, we are back to our core and basic values, at levels of income, consumption and living that is considerably higher than a decade ago, and therefore there is little doubt that the lessons of 2008 will form a springboard for growth.
Of course, this will not happen all at once, nor by itself. The government needs to infuse confidence in the growth story and not in the credit markets alone.
If it is prepared to invest in projects, others will, and yet the list of proposals recently approved by the cabinet, including universal secondary schooling, appears to focus on social rather than economic initiatives. Announcements for some metro rail projects or large power projects including nuclear power, expansion of the rail system and the like, are likely to charge entrepreneurs into participating together with the government. Like Tennyson’s Ulysses, it is the time for the government to “push off, and sitting well in order smite the sounding furrows, for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset”.
We can do it.
S. Narayan is a former finance secretary and economic adviser to the prime minister.
CHINESE IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE FUTURE
Learning to learn Chinese
VR NARAYANASWAMI
Tomorrow belongs to China”, and “Chinese is the language of the future.” These are statements we hear from people returning after business visits to China. Be ready for tomorrow; don’t get left behind. Heeding these recommendations, I decided to go in for lessons in Chinese.
My first shock came when I heard that Chinese is a tonal language. The same word spoken in different tones can have different meanings. The classic example is the common word “ma”, which has four meanings when uttered with a high tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a falling tone. The pitfalls are many. I intend to say, “Your mother is a wonderful lady,” and end up saying “Your horse is a wonderful lady.” In course of time, however, I found that my fears were misplaced. In continuous speech, the tone variations get merged in the flow of speech.
When uttering single words, the tones become prominent.
The several names given to the country and to the language were confusing. In English literature, the country was known as Cathay, a name that survives in Cathay-Pacific. The Chinese name for the country is Zhongguo (sounds like Chung Kuo), and means “middle kingdom”. The name of the language then is Zhongwen, which refers to writing in particular. Another widely used name is Hanyu, the language of the Han people of China. In Taiwan it is called Guoyu, national language. In Singapore and South Asian countries it is Huayu, language of the Chinese. In the mainland, Left-leaning intellectuals wanted to put people at the centre, and preferred the name Putonghua, the speech of the common people. In 1956 the government adopted the term to describe standard Mandarin.
When we learn a new language, we start with the alphabet. Chinese is not an alphabet-based language; you cannot ask someone to spell the word pingguo (apple) in Chinese. Learner’s dictionaries for foreign learners transliterate Chinese words in the Romanized script known as “pinyin” and arrange the words alphabetically. After a short struggle with Chinese characters, I decided to stick to pinyin.
A unique feature of Chinese is the use of what is called measure words. They are words placed between numerals and nouns. In English we say “one book”, and in Chinese we place a measure word between numeral and noun.
The most common measure word is “ge”: We have “san ge pingguo” (three apples); “yi ge didi” (one younger brother).
The measure word is often dependent on the quantity or shape of the referent. For example, we use “zhi” for sticklike things, as in “yi zhi bi”, a pen. For a long narrow shape, we use “tiao”, as in “yi tiao he”, a river. Measure words do not contribute to the meaning of the expression, but learners have to spend some time learning their use.
When we begin learning Chinese, we expect it to have a grammatical structure like that of English, with tense, number, case, gender and other categories. But Chinese grammar is much simpler.
The verb has only one form for present, past and future. A single form, for example, “lai” which means “come”, can be used for simple or continuous, past, present or future, and singular or plural. Word order is also different. “I jog every day” becomes “wo meitian dou paobu” (I every day jog).
“Youju li zher luan bu luan?” (Post office from here distant not distant): “Is the post office far from here?” As in other languages, English words are increasingly being used in Chinese speech.
“Nan-peng-you” and “nupeng-you” are now considered old-fashioned and young Chinese prefer to say BF and GF for boyfriend and girlfriend.
Coca-Cola is “ke kou ke le”; beer is “pijiu”, “pi” as a semitransliteration of “beer” and “jiu” for alcoholic drink.
Names of the days of the week and names of the months in European languages are associated with the history and legend of Greece and Rome. In Chinese they are labelled with numerals: Monday to Saturday are weekdayone, weekday-two, weekdaythree and so on. Similarly, there are numerals with the common noun for month, “yue”. The names are monthone, month-two up to month-twelve. Note that October means the eighth month by etymology; but in Chinese it is called month-ten, or “shi yue”.
The final stage in learning Chinese is getting to know the cultural nuances of language in context. How do you address a married woman and a single woman? Can a foreigner be addressed as “tongzhi” or comrade? The normal way of opening a telephone conversation is to say “Wei”; but the same expression is considered rude in any other context. Besides learning grammatical structures, we have to learn to use the language in a socially acceptable way.
V.R. Narayanaswami, a former professor of English, has written several books and articles on the usage of the language. He looks at the peculiarities of business and popular English usage in his fortnightly column.
Comments can be sent toplainspeaking@livemint.com
VR NARAYANASWAMI
Tomorrow belongs to China”, and “Chinese is the language of the future.” These are statements we hear from people returning after business visits to China. Be ready for tomorrow; don’t get left behind. Heeding these recommendations, I decided to go in for lessons in Chinese.
My first shock came when I heard that Chinese is a tonal language. The same word spoken in different tones can have different meanings. The classic example is the common word “ma”, which has four meanings when uttered with a high tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a falling tone. The pitfalls are many. I intend to say, “Your mother is a wonderful lady,” and end up saying “Your horse is a wonderful lady.” In course of time, however, I found that my fears were misplaced. In continuous speech, the tone variations get merged in the flow of speech.
When uttering single words, the tones become prominent.
The several names given to the country and to the language were confusing. In English literature, the country was known as Cathay, a name that survives in Cathay-Pacific. The Chinese name for the country is Zhongguo (sounds like Chung Kuo), and means “middle kingdom”. The name of the language then is Zhongwen, which refers to writing in particular. Another widely used name is Hanyu, the language of the Han people of China. In Taiwan it is called Guoyu, national language. In Singapore and South Asian countries it is Huayu, language of the Chinese. In the mainland, Left-leaning intellectuals wanted to put people at the centre, and preferred the name Putonghua, the speech of the common people. In 1956 the government adopted the term to describe standard Mandarin.
When we learn a new language, we start with the alphabet. Chinese is not an alphabet-based language; you cannot ask someone to spell the word pingguo (apple) in Chinese. Learner’s dictionaries for foreign learners transliterate Chinese words in the Romanized script known as “pinyin” and arrange the words alphabetically. After a short struggle with Chinese characters, I decided to stick to pinyin.
A unique feature of Chinese is the use of what is called measure words. They are words placed between numerals and nouns. In English we say “one book”, and in Chinese we place a measure word between numeral and noun.
The most common measure word is “ge”: We have “san ge pingguo” (three apples); “yi ge didi” (one younger brother).
The measure word is often dependent on the quantity or shape of the referent. For example, we use “zhi” for sticklike things, as in “yi zhi bi”, a pen. For a long narrow shape, we use “tiao”, as in “yi tiao he”, a river. Measure words do not contribute to the meaning of the expression, but learners have to spend some time learning their use.
When we begin learning Chinese, we expect it to have a grammatical structure like that of English, with tense, number, case, gender and other categories. But Chinese grammar is much simpler.
The verb has only one form for present, past and future. A single form, for example, “lai” which means “come”, can be used for simple or continuous, past, present or future, and singular or plural. Word order is also different. “I jog every day” becomes “wo meitian dou paobu” (I every day jog).
“Youju li zher luan bu luan?” (Post office from here distant not distant): “Is the post office far from here?” As in other languages, English words are increasingly being used in Chinese speech.
“Nan-peng-you” and “nupeng-you” are now considered old-fashioned and young Chinese prefer to say BF and GF for boyfriend and girlfriend.
Coca-Cola is “ke kou ke le”; beer is “pijiu”, “pi” as a semitransliteration of “beer” and “jiu” for alcoholic drink.
Names of the days of the week and names of the months in European languages are associated with the history and legend of Greece and Rome. In Chinese they are labelled with numerals: Monday to Saturday are weekdayone, weekday-two, weekdaythree and so on. Similarly, there are numerals with the common noun for month, “yue”. The names are monthone, month-two up to month-twelve. Note that October means the eighth month by etymology; but in Chinese it is called month-ten, or “shi yue”.
The final stage in learning Chinese is getting to know the cultural nuances of language in context. How do you address a married woman and a single woman? Can a foreigner be addressed as “tongzhi” or comrade? The normal way of opening a telephone conversation is to say “Wei”; but the same expression is considered rude in any other context. Besides learning grammatical structures, we have to learn to use the language in a socially acceptable way.
V.R. Narayanaswami, a former professor of English, has written several books and articles on the usage of the language. He looks at the peculiarities of business and popular English usage in his fortnightly column.
Comments can be sent toplainspeaking@livemint.com
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Smash terror hideouts inside and outside India: Kalam
Smash terror hideouts inside and outside India: Kalam
Agencies
Posted: Jan 03, 2009 at 1852 hrs IST
Hamirpur, HP.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday advocated a three-pronged strategy to combat terror which included raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country.
Firstly, a vigorous national campaign, involving every citizen, should be launched to tackle the terror menace, he said interacting with students in Hamirpur.
Secondly, Kalam advocated carrying out raids to destroy terror hideouts both inside and outside the country.
"Terror can be eliminated by raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country," he said.
Lastly, there was need for speedy trial of cases relating to terrorism to punish perpetrators of such crimes, he said.
The ‘Missile Man’ voiced concern over rising incidents of terror in the country which, he said, were posing a ‘big threat’ to the country.
Agencies
Posted: Jan 03, 2009 at 1852 hrs IST
Hamirpur, HP.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday advocated a three-pronged strategy to combat terror which included raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country.
Firstly, a vigorous national campaign, involving every citizen, should be launched to tackle the terror menace, he said interacting with students in Hamirpur.
Secondly, Kalam advocated carrying out raids to destroy terror hideouts both inside and outside the country.
"Terror can be eliminated by raiding and smashing militant hideouts both inside and outside the country," he said.
Lastly, there was need for speedy trial of cases relating to terrorism to punish perpetrators of such crimes, he said.
The ‘Missile Man’ voiced concern over rising incidents of terror in the country which, he said, were posing a ‘big threat’ to the country.
THE SIKKIM INITIATIVE & NATHU LA
The Sikkim Initiative
By:KP Vasudevan Nair
OVER the past six weeks four international conferences were held on issues directly concerning regionalism and sub-regionalism in the contemporary Asian context.
The first, in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, on how the Asian regions should face the challenges posed by globalisation was indeed the most international of all of these, with high-level participation by ministers and congressmen from several Asian countries, scholars from Europe, Asia and Australia and, adding to its weight and glory, even Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
The second, at the Chinese heritage city of Dali in Yunnan, deliberated on the prospects of socio-economic cooperation between southwest China and eastern India with special focus on West Bengal and Yunnan. It received wide media attention from within China and even Hong Kong and was followed by a high profile visit of a 30-member delegation headed by the governor of Yunnan to Kolkata to work out details of cooperation in various fields.
The third, a low-profile but meaningful exercise, was held at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, with an India-China Interface in the aftermath of opening Nathu-la for border trade that was to have been inaugurated by Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee but he could not attend. Chinese Consul General Mao Siwei was chief guest and there were a number of specialists from Delhi and Canada. A new sub-regional Silk Route from Nathu-la to Namyung was conceived among other things.
The fourth, the immediate reason for this article, concluded on 21 December at Sikkim University, Gangtok. Titled “International Conference on Sub-regionalism Approach to Regional Integration in South Asia”, this was also to have been inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee but again he could not make it under circumstances understandable to Indians. Sikkim governor BP Singh delivered the presidential address. Pranab Mukherjee’s speech was read out and it contained significant messages to Pakistan on the issue of terrorism, reflecting the prevailing mood.
That his message found prominent place in the regular newscast from Delhi made it clear that it was not meant only for those at “Chintan Bhawan” of the University. The need for a peaceful periphery which Mukherjee often emphasises during his speeches is, it seems, not different from “the need for a rise in harmony” that Chinese leaders also seek in their neighbourhood. That the foreign minister dealt with policy aspects of India’s current relations with almost every country in the region indicates his approval of the concept on which the conference was held, the first of its kind in a North-eastern border state.
A quick look at the concept note prepared by vice-chancellor Mahendra Lama with emphasis on the urgent need for a new sub-regional approach, has enormous logic behind it, for no one can dispute that in effect the regional approach in the shape of Saarc has not brought about the expected gains to the region. Boastful claims made at Saarc summits made the region almost a laughing stock in the eyes of even small Asean countries.
Have we forgotten the assurance our leaders gave at the Colombo meet in 1999 that poverty would be totally eradicated from the region within three years? Leaders of the same countries at the last summit in the same city this year sheepishly admitted over 25 per cent of the region still survived on less than a dollar a day! The major share of the responsibility for this pathetic situation rests with the two larger countries, India and Pakistan. India’s literacy rate is lower than that of most of the countries and so is the human development index. More alarming, there is still no serious attempt to correct the situation. No wonder the smaller members do not find Saarc a sustainable mechanism and are resorting to multilateralism, following, interestingly, India and Pakistan!
In the field of tourism, the recent gains look impressive only because of the low base which it rose from. Small Cambodia, with 12 million population, receives two million tourists a year, and India with a population nearly 100 times larger still has not reached five million!
From an Indian perspective, a new sub-regional approach seems necessary since the existing ones, some of them like Mekong Ganga, have been week-kneed reactions to successful initiatives like the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation and the gains, if any, have been negligible. New geographical configuration cannot be avoided when a fresh effort is being made and this justifies the Sikkim Initiative’s inclusion of Bhutan and the whole of southwest China, including Tibet, although there is scepticism among some observers about effectively including Bangladesh and Nepal. This view is endorsed by the fact that official representation was absent at the conference from these two countries, unlike Bhutan which sent an official.
As it happened at the Margherita (Assam) conference three years ago, two important officials, one from the Yunnan Development Research Centre and the other from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, could not attend due to a procedural delay in receiving their visas, but an academic from Sichuan made it to Gangtok, perhaps the first Chinese national to be present at an international conference there.
Among the participants were some who could not help wondering whether this Sikkim Initiative was anything more than “Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Plus Two” — the plus two being Bhutan and Nepal. Having been a participant at the last few BCIM meetings, this writer is not too optimistic of the BCIM, at least in the short term. For instance, a Kunming-Kolkata car rally, which was agreed upon at the 2007 Dhaka meeting, has not yet materialised due to problems now linked to Bangladesh.
Even in its eighth year, the BCIM remains non-institutionalised with a poor progress report. Coming from India as it does, the new Sikkim Initiative will have a freshness of its own and could convert Sikkim with its unique location into a new and commonly acceptable economic and cultural hub. Only those who spend some time in Sikkim and closely interact with its people will know how great its attractions are. Participants from “mainland” India were also astonished at the high intellectual level of the young professors and the cool efficiency of the executives of the university which is not even two years old. One major omission noticed at the seminars was the apparent absence of participants with adequate practical experience, especially in the case of trade and tourism. The involvement of the chambers of commerce may be considered in future deliberations.
Detailed presentations on forests and other bioresources by the Sikkim forest department officials brought to light the immense natural wealth waiting to be exploited. From an academic angle, it may not be out of place to suggest that Sikkim University, with its sub-regional aspirations, joins the trilateral academic projects initiated by the New York-based India-China Institute involving New School University, Yunnan University and Calcutta University, the details of which will soon be finalised in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.
(The author is Director, Asia Centre, and Honorary Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Institute of Asian Studies. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at kpv@asiacentre.org)
By:KP Vasudevan Nair
OVER the past six weeks four international conferences were held on issues directly concerning regionalism and sub-regionalism in the contemporary Asian context.
The first, in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, on how the Asian regions should face the challenges posed by globalisation was indeed the most international of all of these, with high-level participation by ministers and congressmen from several Asian countries, scholars from Europe, Asia and Australia and, adding to its weight and glory, even Lord George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
The second, at the Chinese heritage city of Dali in Yunnan, deliberated on the prospects of socio-economic cooperation between southwest China and eastern India with special focus on West Bengal and Yunnan. It received wide media attention from within China and even Hong Kong and was followed by a high profile visit of a 30-member delegation headed by the governor of Yunnan to Kolkata to work out details of cooperation in various fields.
The third, a low-profile but meaningful exercise, was held at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, with an India-China Interface in the aftermath of opening Nathu-la for border trade that was to have been inaugurated by Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee but he could not attend. Chinese Consul General Mao Siwei was chief guest and there were a number of specialists from Delhi and Canada. A new sub-regional Silk Route from Nathu-la to Namyung was conceived among other things.
The fourth, the immediate reason for this article, concluded on 21 December at Sikkim University, Gangtok. Titled “International Conference on Sub-regionalism Approach to Regional Integration in South Asia”, this was also to have been inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee but again he could not make it under circumstances understandable to Indians. Sikkim governor BP Singh delivered the presidential address. Pranab Mukherjee’s speech was read out and it contained significant messages to Pakistan on the issue of terrorism, reflecting the prevailing mood.
That his message found prominent place in the regular newscast from Delhi made it clear that it was not meant only for those at “Chintan Bhawan” of the University. The need for a peaceful periphery which Mukherjee often emphasises during his speeches is, it seems, not different from “the need for a rise in harmony” that Chinese leaders also seek in their neighbourhood. That the foreign minister dealt with policy aspects of India’s current relations with almost every country in the region indicates his approval of the concept on which the conference was held, the first of its kind in a North-eastern border state.
A quick look at the concept note prepared by vice-chancellor Mahendra Lama with emphasis on the urgent need for a new sub-regional approach, has enormous logic behind it, for no one can dispute that in effect the regional approach in the shape of Saarc has not brought about the expected gains to the region. Boastful claims made at Saarc summits made the region almost a laughing stock in the eyes of even small Asean countries.
Have we forgotten the assurance our leaders gave at the Colombo meet in 1999 that poverty would be totally eradicated from the region within three years? Leaders of the same countries at the last summit in the same city this year sheepishly admitted over 25 per cent of the region still survived on less than a dollar a day! The major share of the responsibility for this pathetic situation rests with the two larger countries, India and Pakistan. India’s literacy rate is lower than that of most of the countries and so is the human development index. More alarming, there is still no serious attempt to correct the situation. No wonder the smaller members do not find Saarc a sustainable mechanism and are resorting to multilateralism, following, interestingly, India and Pakistan!
In the field of tourism, the recent gains look impressive only because of the low base which it rose from. Small Cambodia, with 12 million population, receives two million tourists a year, and India with a population nearly 100 times larger still has not reached five million!
From an Indian perspective, a new sub-regional approach seems necessary since the existing ones, some of them like Mekong Ganga, have been week-kneed reactions to successful initiatives like the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation and the gains, if any, have been negligible. New geographical configuration cannot be avoided when a fresh effort is being made and this justifies the Sikkim Initiative’s inclusion of Bhutan and the whole of southwest China, including Tibet, although there is scepticism among some observers about effectively including Bangladesh and Nepal. This view is endorsed by the fact that official representation was absent at the conference from these two countries, unlike Bhutan which sent an official.
As it happened at the Margherita (Assam) conference three years ago, two important officials, one from the Yunnan Development Research Centre and the other from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, could not attend due to a procedural delay in receiving their visas, but an academic from Sichuan made it to Gangtok, perhaps the first Chinese national to be present at an international conference there.
Among the participants were some who could not help wondering whether this Sikkim Initiative was anything more than “Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Plus Two” — the plus two being Bhutan and Nepal. Having been a participant at the last few BCIM meetings, this writer is not too optimistic of the BCIM, at least in the short term. For instance, a Kunming-Kolkata car rally, which was agreed upon at the 2007 Dhaka meeting, has not yet materialised due to problems now linked to Bangladesh.
Even in its eighth year, the BCIM remains non-institutionalised with a poor progress report. Coming from India as it does, the new Sikkim Initiative will have a freshness of its own and could convert Sikkim with its unique location into a new and commonly acceptable economic and cultural hub. Only those who spend some time in Sikkim and closely interact with its people will know how great its attractions are. Participants from “mainland” India were also astonished at the high intellectual level of the young professors and the cool efficiency of the executives of the university which is not even two years old. One major omission noticed at the seminars was the apparent absence of participants with adequate practical experience, especially in the case of trade and tourism. The involvement of the chambers of commerce may be considered in future deliberations.
Detailed presentations on forests and other bioresources by the Sikkim forest department officials brought to light the immense natural wealth waiting to be exploited. From an academic angle, it may not be out of place to suggest that Sikkim University, with its sub-regional aspirations, joins the trilateral academic projects initiated by the New York-based India-China Institute involving New School University, Yunnan University and Calcutta University, the details of which will soon be finalised in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.
(The author is Director, Asia Centre, and Honorary Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Institute of Asian Studies. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at kpv@asiacentre.org)
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